SO much for the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss; which as they aptly correspond to one another, so you see, our Theory answers and is adjusted to both; and, I think, so fitly, that we have no reason hitherto to be
And this breaking up of the Earth at that time, is elegantly exprest in Job, by the bursting of the Womb of Nature, when the Sea was first brought to light; when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body, Nature was deliver’d of a burthen which she had born in her Womb Sixteen Hundred Years.
These three places I take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the Earth, or of the Abyss, at the universal Deluge. And to these we may add more out of the Prophets, Job, and the Psalms, by way of allusion (commonly) to the state of Nature at that time. The Prophet Isaiah in describing the future destruction of the World, chap. 24. 18, 19. seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the Deluge; as appears by that leading expression, the windows from on high are open, ;אֲ;רֻבות סִמָּרוֹס נִפְתָה, θυρίδες ὀκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἠνεώχθησαν taken manifestly from Gen. 7. 11. Then see how the description goes on, the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the Earth do shake. The Earth is utterly broken down, the Earth is quite dissolv’d, the Earth is exceedingly moved. Here are Concussions, and Fractions, and Dissolutions, as there were in the Mundane Earthquake and Deluge; which we had exprest before only by breaking open the Abyss. By the Foundations of the Earth here
There are several other places that refer to the dissolution and subversion of the Earth at the Deluge: Amos 9. 5, 6. The Lord of Hosts is he that toucheth the Earth, and it shall melt, or be dissolv'd. . . . . and it shall rise up wholly like a Flood, and shall be drowned as by the Flood of Ægypt. By this and by the next Verse the Prophet seems to allude to the Deluge, and to the dissolution of the Earth that was then. This in Job seems to be call’d breaking down the Earth, and overturning the Earth, Chap. 12. 14, 15. Behold he breaketh down and it cannot be built again, He shutteth upon man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the Earth: Which place you may see paraphras’d, Theor. Book 1. pp. 91, 92. We have already cited, and shall hereafter cite, other places out of Job; And as that Ancient Author (who is thought to have liv’d before the Judaical Oeconomy, and nearer to Noah than Moses) seems to have had the Præcepta Noachidarum, so also he seems to have had the Dogmata Noachidarum; which were deliver’d by Noah to his Children and Posterity, concerning the mysteries of natural Providence, the origine and fate of the World, the Deluge and Ante-diluvian state, &c. and accordingly we find many strictures of these doctrines in the Book of Job. Lastly, in the Psalms there are Texts that mention the shaking of the Earth, and the foundations of the World, in reference to the Flood, if we judge aright; whereof we will speak under the next Head, concerning the raging of the Waters in the Deluge.
These places of Scripture may be noted, as left us to be remembrancers of that general ruine and disruption of the Earth at the time of the Deluge. But I know it will be said of them, that they are not strict proofs, but allusions onely. Be it so; yet what is the ground of those allusions? something must be alluded to, and something that hath past in nature, and that is recorded in Sacred History; And what is that, unless it be the universal Deluge, and that change and disturbance that was then in all nature. If others say, that these and such like places are to be understood morally and allegorically, I do not envy them their interpretation; but when nature and reason will bear a literal sence, the rule is, that we should not recede from the letter. But I leave these things to every one's thoughts; which the more calm they are, and the more impartial, the more easily they will
This I think is a rough 2 draught of the face of the Heavens and the Earth at the Deluge, as the last Verses do intimate; and ’tis apply’d to express the dangers and deliverances of the Church: The Expressions are far too high to be apply'd
But I am afraid, we have stayed too long upon this particular, the form of the Deluge; seeing ’tis but a Corollary from the precedent article about the dissolution of the Earth. However time is not ill spent about any thing that relates to natural Providence, whereof the two most signal instances in our Sacred Writings, are, the Deluge and the Conflagration. And seeing Job and David do often reflect upon the works of God in the external creation, and upon the administrations of Providence, it cannot be imagin’d that they should never reflect upon the Deluge; the most remarkable change of Nature that ever hath been, and the most remarkable judgment upon mankind. And if they have reflected upon it any where, ’tis, I think, in those places and those instances which I have noted; and if those places do relate to the Deluge, they are not capable, in my judgment, of any fairer or more natural interpretation than that which we have given them; which, you see, how much it favours and confirms our Theory.
I have now finisht the heads I undertook to prove, that I might shew our Theory to agree with Scripture in these three principal points; first, in that it supposeth a diversity and difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth, and the present Heavens and Earth. Secondly, in assigning the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss. Thirdly, in explaining the Deluge by a dissolution of that Earth, and an eruption of the Abyss. How far I have succeeded in this attempt, as to others, I cannot tell; but I am sure I have convinc’d my self, and am satisfied that my thoughts, in that Theory, have run in the same tract with the holy writings: with the true intent and spirit of them. There are some persons that are wilfully ignorant in certain things, and others that are willing to be ignorant as the Apostle phraseth it; speaking of those Eternalists that denyed the doctrine of the change and revolutions of the Natural World: And ’tis not to be expected but there are many still of the same humour; and therefore may be called willingly ignorant, that is, they will not use that pains and attention that is necessary for the examination of such a doctrine, nor impartiality in judging after examination; they greedily lay hold on all evidence on one side, and willingly forget, or slightly pass over, all evidence for the other; this I think is the character of those that are willingly ignorant; for I do not take it to be so deep as a down-right wilful ignorance, where they are plainly conscious to themselves of that wilfulness; but where an insensible mixture of humane passions inclines them one way, and makes them averse to the other; and in that method draws on all the consequences of a willing ignorance.
402:1 נבקעו ἐῤῤάγησάν c. 38. 404:1 מַֹיִֹמ רַבּיִמ 404:2 See Philo Judæus his description of the Deluge, both as to the commotions of the Heavens, and the fractions of the Earth. In his first Treatise de Abrahamo, mihi pa. 279. 405:1 Uti comparatio præcedens || de ortu Telluris, sumitur ab ædificio, ita bæc altera de ortu maris, sumitur à partu; & exhibetur Oceanus, primùm, ut fœtus inclusus in utero, dein ut erumpens & prodeuns, denique ut fasciis & primis suis pannis involutus. Atque ex aperto Terræ utero prorupit aquarum moles, ut proluvies illa, quam simul cum fœtu profundere solet puerpera. || Ver. 4, 5, 6.
