Ex Librii C. K. OGDEN ^ 4 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE; DIALOGUE. I N The Manner of the Right Honourable ***-*»**, Author of Dialogues of the Dead. By SAMUEL P Y E, M. D. LONDON: Printed for William S a n d b v, in Fleet-ftreet. MDCCLXV. I r I r 1 •3L U x> . -f.-r-. i .M A ..'j^. ■ fll ,Yi 0;/>- INTRODUCTION. F Mofes was not an vjfpired writer, lie muft have been an Impoflor Horn lo7ig JJjall we halt between two opinions ! If he was really fent with a mefTage from heaven, it mufl: have been of the higheft con- fequence to mankind : Let us then receive him. But if, like " other legillators, he has impofed a re- velation he knew to be falfe%" — let us, in the name of God, rejed: him. Once more, then, let his pretenfions be examined ; but examined thoroughly. Let his credentials be in- * " Zoroafter, Zamolxis, Minos, Charondas, Numa, and Pythagoras, " 1 need mention no more, for I will not offend by adding Mofes *' to the catalogue ; Thefe men impofed revelations they knew to be - Bolingbroke's Pofthumous Works, Vol. I. p. 307. " falfe." - 8vo Edit. A 2 fpe(fled, IV INTRODUCTION. fpe£led, but more narrowly than ever: for if he was, indeed, the amaiiuenfis of the Creator, when he writ the Book of Genefis, or, at leaft, the firft chapters of it'', the Divine Author muft have ftamped thofe firft chapters, at leaft, with fignatures, of fuch fublimity and majefty, as may be fufficient to fatisfy us^ of their authenticity, who know nothing ot the ineehiefs^ or the miracles., of the writer, but from his own pen : He was no cotemporary author" " His pre- " tenfions have been examined, and re-examined, " times without number : and his credentials, for " want of proper and explicit proofs of their au- " thenticity, have been as often rejedied." It is natural to afk, Can nothing be done to remove this fcandal, by putting an end to this perpetuated,^ and fruitlefs, conteft? 1 will prefume to anfwer, '' " It will be afked, what materials Mofes could have before him when. " he writ the Book of Genefis, — or, at leaft, the firft chapters of ir, *' wherein he relates moft circumftantially, the creation of the world, and " the whole progrefs of that great event. Bolin. VoL V. p. 335. ' " To conftitute the authenticity of any hiftory — it muft be writ by *' a cotemporary author, or by one who had cotemporary materials in his " hands. Bolin. Vol. V. p. in. Nothing ; INTRODUCTION. v Nothing ', unlefs the Mofaic account of creation could be made intelligible ; unlefs it could be rendered worthy of Mofes — worthy of God. Nor can this be effected, but by Mofes himfelf. For, though a Se- cond Book of Genefis, fhould be publifhed to the world, in vindication of the honour of Him, who made the heavens and the earth of Mofes, it would meet with no more credit, in this refined age, than the Firfl ; nor would he be believed, though Mofes Pdould rife from the dead. '* Let us take things then as we find them, morer *' curious to know what is, than to imagine what " may be''." " Shall we take things then as we *' find them, in the Book of Genefis ; and leave Mofes, " to be judge in his awiicaufe?" 'Tis not the caufe of Mofes, but of God. The teftimony of Mofes,, in fo-long-dcpending a caufe, is all we want " The teftimony of one accufed of Impofture, will " not eafily be admitted in any caufe." Be it fo ; — but let not Britons, be lefs generous than Ro- * Bolingbroke, Vol. IV. p. i.. 2. mans ; i INTRODUCTION. Vi mans ; " They never condemned a man, before he that was accufed, had the accufers face to face, and -had licence to anfwer for himfelf, concerning the crime laid againft him %" Before, therefore, Mofes is pro- fcribed as an impollor, let him be heard And, to do his accufers juftice, let them have equal liberty : let ^/jem — let the late admired Lord Bolingbroke, in their name, have free liberty to " fpeak out, and to *' pufli the inftances and arguments they bring, as far " as they can be carried 3 Let him employ all his " flrength^" For, fince eminent writers, though dead, yet live, in their works ; (Mofes, in /jis Pentateuch, and Bo- lingbroke, in /j!Sj will live for ever,) there will be no difficulty in bringing thefe remarkable perfonages toge- ther, and giving them a fair hearing. Let their works " Ads XXV. 1 6. ' " Another caution is,^that they [our divines] Ihould make war ra- " ther defenfively than offenfively ; that they fliould take the only true " advantage of the difcretion of their adverfaries, which would be to re- " turn it with difcretion: for their adverfaries feldom fpeak out, nor " pufli the inftances and arguments they bring, as far as they might be " carried. Inftead of which thefe orthodox bullies affefl to triumph over " men who employ but a part of their ftrength." Bolingbroke, Vol. V. P- 335- 2 then. INTRODUCTION. vri then, fupply the place of the authors ; and if their fentiments are taken from their refpedlive writings, it will be as eafy to prefent their true charadlers, to the public, as it would be to produce their perfons, in open court, if they were living, and cotemporary writers Mofes will fpeak for himfelf. Boling- broke needs no commentator. As his Lord£hip (for prudential reafons, no doubt,) had referved to himfelf the liberty of " fpeaking out, " and employing his whole ftrength," till he £hould be laid in the filent grave ; may not his pofthumous enmity, to the Lawgiver of the Jews, with the greater propriety, be reprefented in a Dialogue of the Dead ? But, be that as it may, iince no two charadlcrs, ever^ perhaps, have appeared, that could be better oppofed to each other, or more feafonably exhibited to the Chriftian world ; if what is attempted in the following free converfation ^, formed on the plan of the Right 8 " The manner in which they [the antients] treated the graved fub- *' jefts, was fomewhat different from that of our days. Their treatifes *' were generally in a free and familiar ftyle. They chofe to give us the " reprefcntacion of real difcourfe and converfe, by treating their fubjedts " in the way of Dialogue and free debate." Characfleriftics, Vol. I. p. 73. Edit. 4. Horiou- vni INTRODUCTION. Honourable Lord *******'', fhould meet with his Lordfhip's approbation, the writer, (who has not copied, but drawn from the life,) will think himfelf happy in the great obligation he is under, to the noble Author of Dialogues of the Dead^ for point- ing out to him, fo *' agreeable a method, of convey- " ing to the mind fome of thofe critical obfervations," that he has learned, by converfing more with the deadt (many of whofe valuable fentiments feem to have been buried with them,) than with the liviJtg^ who are generally too fond of notions and opinions, that have the ftamp of antiquity alone, to recommend them. ^ " The plan I have followed — brings before us the hiftory of all " times and all nations, prefents to the choice of the writer all charaflers " of remarkable perfons, which may beft be oppofed to, or compared *' with each other ; and is, perhaps, one of the moft agreeable methods, " that can be employed, of conveying to the mind any critical, moral, or " political obfervations-, becaufe the Dramatic Spirit, which may be " thrown into them, gives them more life, than they could have in difler- *' rations, however well written." Preface to Dialogues of the Dead. MOSES. Moses and Bolingbroke; DIALOGUE. ■*^4'*4^*4^**4'**++^-+4H''J'*+44>*+'}*+**44' MOSES. ^^b*^*ife^"«^ O U owed me a great obligation. My Lord, in the ^X ■ "" xC other world; is it pofTible that in this you fliould ^X jC X^ afFeft not to know me ! Why would you have LsEXXXX'^^ avoided the man, who fo amply furnilhed your %?^%« Lordfliip with materials, for raifing to your great genius one of the monuments you have confecrated " to pofte- rity j" of which a friend of your Lordfliip has faid, " though " now you are no more, thefe will lafl for ever''? " LORD BOLINGBROKE. You do me honour. Sir ; but as the authors that furnifhed mc with the bed materials, and gave me frequent opportunities of difplaying my uncommon talents as a writer, had left the world ages before I had a being ; and as I had not the leafl notion of a feparate flate of exiftence, becaufe I could not difcover any » Biographia Britannica, Art. St. John. B traces 2 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, traces of fuch a ftate, in the conflitution of the Solar Syftem, I am an abfohite ftranger here; you will, I hope, excufe my not paying you. Sir, the compliments that your prefent appearance, and the obligation I owe you, may demand. MOSES. No evafions. Lord Bolingbroke — there are no Grangers here. ' In this feparate flate. My Lord, we know one another by intuition : our names are written, as it were, in our foreheads ; and as *' our works ever follow us," our real characters are as legible as our names ; how, otherwife, fhould I have known the fl:iade of Henry St. John, Lord Vifcount Bolingbroke ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. I did indeed imagine it was you, Mofes, by that magical wand '' in your hand ; — the rod, I fuppofe, that they fay you did fo many wonders with, in Egypt, and at the Red Sea. MOSES. " Where the tree falleth, there it fhall be^" Our fentiments, I perceive, as well as our works, follow us from one world to another. My rod was always a great offence to your Lord/hip. If it was a magical wand in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, furc it muft be one here.. But have you forgot. My Lord, that the rod of God that was in my hand, fwallowed up all the magical wands in Egypt ■" ; there was not one of them left : And I affure your Lordfliip, there are none here. This is no Fairy-land, My Lord ; there is nothing done here, by magic and enchant- ment. — What we fee, or hear, or feel, — is all reality. b «c When I fit down to read this hiftory [of the Old Teftament], I am ready to " think myfelf tranfported into a kind of Fairy-land, where every thing is done by " magic and enchantment ; where a fyftem of nature, very dilTerent from ours, pre- " vails ; and all I meet with is repugnant to my experience, and to the clcareft and «' moft diftinct ideas I have." Bolin. Vol. V. p. 344.. * Ecckfiaft. xi. 3. «> Exod. vii. 12. LORD ADIALOGUE. 3 LORD BOLINGBROKE. To tell you the plain truth, Mofes, I would fain have avoided you. — When firfl: I arrived here, I wifhed — but I wifhed in vain — that if ever I fliould be fo unhappy as to meet you, I Hiould fee you with a veil over your face ; — a veil, as thick as, in the opi- nion of an anonymous writer, your critics and commentators have univerfally thrown over your works ; " and to this day remaineth the fame veil untaken away, in the reading your Hiftory of the Creation and Fall";" then, perhaps, you would not have feen the man, that is now too confcious of having treated your venerable charadler with an unufual freedom ; and indeed it is become fo extremely habitual to me, that, as you have hinted, I cannot forbear — even /jere. MOSES. Yes, My Lord, with fuch freedom, as Celfus or Porphyry would have been afhamed, — would even have bluflied to take, if they had been cotemporary with Lord Bolingbroke. But give me leave. My Lord, to exprefs my ailonifliment, that a writer of your Lordihip's fine underflanding, education, and politenefs, — that an Englilh Nobleman, — fliould, in perfonal abufe and black fcandal, " fink among the rabble of authors, when you ** ventured to give your opinion freely of the divine original of " the facred books '," particularly of the book of Genefis. LORD BOLINGBROKE. *' As no Man living had higher notions of the Divine Omni- *' potence, nor carried them farther than I did ^;" as " I con- ** fidered the Supreme Being — as a Firfi; Intelligent Caufe, and as *• the Creator of the Univerfe \" it was impoflible for me to for- bear expreffing myfelf with fome warmth againft " poets, philo- " 2 Cor. iii. 14. ' Biographia Britannica. * Vol. I. p. 235. " Bolin. Vol. V. p. 226. B 2 fophers. ^ MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, " fophers, and leglflators," for what ** they had advanced con- " cerning the firft principles and beginning of things, and the ** operations of a Divine Wifdom and Power in the produftion " of them, as if they had been cotemporary hiftorians, and •' fpeftators, of what they related nioft affirmatively and moft " circumftantially '." MOSES. You are a man of honour. My Lord, and therefore, how gene- ral foever thefe fevere refledlions may appear, your Lordlliip will not dare to fay, that they were not pointed at the Lawgiver of the Jews, and at him alone : They are envenomed arrows, (and your Lordfliip's quiver is full of them) /hot at the author of the Book, of Genefis : For where has your Lordfhip ever given poets or philofophers, or any other legillator, except myfelf, this ridi- cule ^ ? Did ever any of them fo much as pretend, to advance any thing concerning the operations of a Divine Wifdom and Power in the firlt production of things ? — No, My Lord : It was not He^ fiod ; not Ariftophanes j not Sanchoniatho ; not Plato ; it was Mofes, the writer of the Book of Genefis, " againfl: whom your " Lordfhip has expreffed fuch indignation, for attempting to impofe " fo many fidlions upon mankind, and for prefuming to account " for the proceedings of Infinite Wifdom and Power, by the whim- ♦' fies of his own imagination '." — What ! My Lord ; becaufe fome philofophers and poets, on the foundation of ancient tradition alone, have wantonly indulged their imaginations, in framing ri- diculous and abfurd cofmogonies ; does it follow, that an hiftori- cal relation of fa<5ts, or a plain narration of the proceedings of Infinite Wifdom and Power in the firft produdlion of things, prior to any pofTible tradition (for tradition has always a manifefl: rela- tion to fome preceding faft) on which their cofmogonies could be framed j does it follow, I fay, that fuch a hiftory of fiidls, that i Vol. V. p. 226. " Id. ibid. » Id. ibid. Z gradually ADIALOGUE. 5 gradually unfold in the produftion of a world — of a fyftem of worlds, is an impofition upon mankind, like thofe philofophical or poetical fidtions ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. It is very notorious. Sir, that I have not fpared other le- giflators ; they " had " their *' revelations " as well as your- felf; " Zoroafter and Zamolxis, one among the Baftrians, and " the other among the Scythians, had revelations from Vefla. *' Minos had them from Jupiter himfelf, and Charondas from '* Saturn. Numa converfed familiarly with JEgerh, and Pytha- ** goras with Minerva""." MOSES. Oh fhame to human reafon ! Is there no difference. My Lord, between the Supreme Being ! the Firfl Intelligent Caufe ! the Creator of the Univerfe ! — and thefe imaginary deities ! 1& it decent. My Lord, to compare the mere poffibility of a revela- tion from the God of Truth, — from God, the Supreme Truth and Reafon, — with the ridiculous and abfurd impoflures of crafty and defigning men ! " Men who impofed revelations they knev/ " to be falfe "." Why, My Lord, fliould it be thought a thing incredible with you, that he who created the heavens and the eartli,. even all the hoft of them, fliould communicate to mankind the hiflory of the beginning and progrefs of that great event ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. Why ?— — Becaufe the revelation you pretend to have given us is no revelation. Who can — who ever did, underftand your account of the beginning of things ? " St. Aullin and others, " — as divines, — content themfelves to take the hiflory of crea- ** tion according to the literal and obvious fenfe, as they find it » Vol. I. p. 307. « IJ. ibid. " related 6 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, " related in the Book of Genefis, and as they. would take any " other journal or hiftorical relation. They who have done *' otherwife, and have found upon trial that this relation, thus " underjdood, could not be reconciled to nature, reafon, philo- " fophy, nor natural theology, (for natural theology teaches us " to think of God, in a manner very oppofite to the idea you give " of the Supreme Being, and of his operations) have made ufe " of two expedients little favourable to the Mofaic hiftory : For " fome have allumed it to be in this part wholly mythological; " and others unable to wreft natural philofophy into an agree- " ment with it, have fo wrefted the text into a feeming agree- " ment with their philofophical theories, as to make it plain, that *' this text may be applied to any hypothefis, with fome inge- *• nuity, a ikill in languages, and a knowledge of antiquity"." MOSES. I fpeak. Lord Bolingbroke, of the hiftory of the beginning of things, as I writ it ; not as it is now underftood, or has been underflood by St. Auftin or others : But how ignorant foever St. Auftin and others, as divines, might have been of its true mean- in?, they were certainly in the right when they contented them- felves to take it according to th-e literal and obvious fenfe, as they found it in the Book of Genefis, and as they would take any other journal or hiftorical relation; and that for this plain reafon. My Lord, becaufe it is itfelf an hirtorical relation, — it is in the li- teral and obvious fenfe of the word a journal of the creation. Your Lordfhip, who has writ on the fludy and ufe of hiftory, needs not to be told, that a hiftory is a recital, or a defcription of things, as they are, or have been, in a continued, orderly nar- ration of the principal fadls and circumftances thereof. Such is the Hiftory of Creation, My Lord ; it is a recital or a defcrip- tion of the fadls and circumftances of the beginning of things, • Vol. II. p. 151. •5 in ADIALOGUE. 7 In a continued, orderly narration of the firfl produdlon of them j for the work of every day is particularly fpecified. LORD BOLINGBROKE. •' The modern philofophers, Mofes, though very good chrif- " tians, communicate the wonderful difcoveries that have been " made in corporeal nature, and concerning the true fyflem of " the univerfe, without any regard to their repugnancy to the •* Mofaic hiftory of the creation. St. Auftin and others paid, ** as divines, no regard to cofmography, and flatly denied the " antipodes. The inquilitors at Rome denied that Galilei faw ** what he faid he faw, and punifhed him very confequentially *' for faying he faw it ''." Thefe are fome of the goodly effedts of taking your Hiftory of the Creation in the literal and obvious fenfe. MOSES. No, My Lord ; thefe could not be the efFecfls of their taking my Kiftofy of Creation in the literal and obvious fenfe, becaufe that is the only fenfe in which it can be taken, to make it intel- ligible, — to make it worthy of Him, from whom I received it ; but the effedis of their ignorance of the text itfelf. LORD BOLINGBROKE. In fliort, Mofes, " I " muft " fay, agreeably to the moll: clear ** and diilinCt ideas I can frame, that as God, the Supreme Truth *• and Rcafon, can neither pronounce nor imply any thing that is ** falfe, or abfurd, in condefcenfion to oiu" capacities ; fo he will, " in condefcenfion to thefe capacities, make no revelation to us " by his word, which fhall be even in appearance, and to hu- " man apprehenfion, inconfifVent with what he has revealed of " himfeif and of his will by his works ''." X > Vol. 11. p. 150, 1 Vol. V. p. 191. MOSES. "8 MOSES AKD BO Ling BROKE, MOSES. This is mere* trifling. My Lord ; for who, that can frame any ideas at all of the Supreme Being, does not think with your Lordfhip, that God can neither pronounce nor imply any thing that is falfe, or abfurd, in any cafe whatfoever ? The quefbion here. My Lord, is, whether God has made any revelation to us by his word J if he has, it muft be perfedlly confiftent with what he has difcovered, or (as your Lordlliip is fond of the word) reveal- ed of himfelf by his works. As to my own particular, if there is any one thing, in my account of creation, that your Lordfliip can prove to be falfe or abfurd, — I will forgive your Lordfhip all that is pafl: — let me for ever be deemed an impollor But why. My Lord, mufl the perfon, as well as the writings of the Jew- ifli Lawgiver, be made the fubjett of low ridicule ? It is true. My Lord, I was an expofed — but not a deferted child — not a foundling % My Lord. But be it fo — was that any reproach to me ? Your Lordfliip knows the whole ftory of my ark, or clum- fey chefl' of bulrufiies, daubed over with llime and pitch, laid in the flags by the river's brink '. Now, though your Lordfhip is ofl!"ended at the fcheme of particular providences ", yet. My Lord, were not the circumflances that attended this very expofure moft particular? Did not thefe circumflances, thefe providences, ( for providentia ejl per qiiam aliqidd videtiir ante evcnitj " pave the way for introducing the infant-lawgiver into the politefl court in the then-known world, after he had been educated in a princely ' " Other Mercuries — completed that wifdom of the Egyptians, wherein Mofes " v/as inftruiSted ; for no man, except a Jew, will believe that the daughter of " Pharaoh fent into Greece to procure preceptors for her foundling." Vol. IV. p. 62. » " The God of Mofes orders Noah to build an ark or clumfy cheft." Vol. V, P- 373- ' Exod. ii. 3. » Vol. I. p. 6g. Vol. V. p. 89. " Cicero, de Inventione. manner, ADIALOGUE. 9 manner, and inftrudled in all the wifdom and learning of the Egyptians ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. I muft confefs. Sir, there was fomething fingular in your being- railed from the flags in the river Nile, to a probability of one day afcending the throne of Egypt : And if your providential fcheme had raifed you to that throne, what would have become of the lawgiver of the Jews, when the name of Mofes would have been loft in that of Pharaoh ? But your precipitate flight from Egypt to Midian — from a crown to a defart, left you nothing to boaft of, in this fcheme of particular providences, except your princely education : and I muft fay, no man could ever have made a better ufe of fuch an education, than yourfelf j for if it had not been for the wifdom and learning of the Egyptians, we (hould never have heard of your book of the generations of the heavens and the earth. But flnce you talk of the very parti- cular circumftances, or (if you pleafe) providences, that paved the way to your reception at the Egyptian court ; give me leave to put you in mind of other, as particular, circumftances, that fucceeded your advancement to the favour of a princefs ; what I mean is, the feveral circumftances that immediately preceded your flight from Egypt, to avoid the juft refentment of Pharaoh ; and paved the way for that diftrefs and poverty, to which you had reduced yourfelf, when you were forced to feed a few flieep, for bread, in the land of Midian. MOSES. Why, My Lord, thefe were circumftances that feemed. In the providential fcheme, if not neceflary, yet very conducive, to my future greatnefs. I know it will appear ftrange, to a man of your Lordlhip's education, fortune, and manner of thinking -, but C it lo MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE. it is certainly true, and conformable to the experience and obfer- vation of mankind, " That affliftion is fometimes the road to *' advancement : that dillrefs, poverty, and even a prifon, may " be the way to a crown, or to power equal to royalty," LORD BOLINGBROKE. And will you, — dare you, call the occafion of this diilrefs and poverty of yours a particular providence too ? Was the murder of a poor Egyptian to be the firft ftep to your future greatnefs? Was fuch a horrid aft necelTary, in the providential fcheme, to this greatnefs ? We have, indeed, feen many a man climb up to fove- reign power, by a ladder, whofe every round was all befmeared with blood. But who would have thought this of the man Mofes, ** who was very meek, above all the men which were upon the " face of the earth " ^ " MOSES. Is there no difference. My Lord, between murder, and the taking away the life of an enemy .-' — an oppreflive, cruel, tyran- nical enemy? — an enemy to fix hundred thoufand men, befides cliildren ", and all of them my own enflaved countrymen ? If my name had not been Mofes, your Lordfhip would have thought this a noble and an heroic a<5l. If inftead of being one of " the wandering family of Abraham, that had hovered long " about Egypt, and had gone thither often for bread %" Mofes had been a Lacedemonian ; your Lordfhip would, like " the " Grecians, have been ftruck with admiration and efleem for him, " on account of his regard to juftice and honour, his love of li- " berty, and implacable hatred of tyranny'." LORD BOLINGBROKE. You give a very different account of this noble and heroic adV, if you writ the book of Exodus. You there inform the reader. » Numb. xii. 3. ^ Exod. xii. 37. "^ Vol. IV. p. 85. •• Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. VI p. 246. 8vo Edit. that A DIALOGUE.. ir " that upon a vifit to your brethren, you efpied an Egyptian fmit- ing an Hebrew, one of your brethren ; and you looked this way and that way, and when you faw that there was no man, you flew the Egyptian, and hid him in the fand\" And I remember St. Stephen, who cites this paflage % fcruples not to fay, that the motive to this noble and heroic ad: was revenge.—— You aveng- ed the Hebrew, and fmote the Egyptian. MOSES. I thought. Lord Bolingbroke, as our converfatlon has hitherto turned on the hillory of creation, to have confined myfelf to that argument j but your Lordfliip's ftrange digreffion from creation to murder, renders it neceflary for me to follow your Lordlhip ; give me leave therefore, to be a little more particular in the vin- dication of my charadler, in fo very tender a point. - 'It is very evident. My Lord, from my own relation of this affair, (for I did write the book of Exodus) that the children of Ifrael, at this very time, looked upon me as a perfon come to them, with fome real, or pretended power and authority ; for when I paid them the fecond vifit, they afked me by what authority I inter- meddled with their quarrels.——" Who made thee a prince and " a judge over us**?" Your Lordfhip knows, that when I was afterwards inverted with this power, it was very much againfl my inclination. I objefted, to the Divine Being, my utter inca- pacity for fo important an office. When my repeated excufes prevailed not, I was forced to fubmit to the invidious and un- grateful tafk. Can any man now of common fenfe, think, that I would have forced myfelf a prince and a judge over fuch a number of abjedl flaves ? No, My Lord ; if I had not been Jef7t to vifit my brethren, and to look on their burdens, I had never left the Egyptian court, to view the heart-rending diflrelles of my brethren ; and then I lliould not have been reproached with the murder of one of their implacable enemies. ■> Exod. ii, II, 12. ' A6ls vii. 24. <» Exod. ii. 14. C 2 LORD 12 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, LORD BOLINGBROKE. Suppofe I fhould admit, that you were really fe7it with a fpe- cial meffage to vifit your oppreffed brethren, with what face can you fay, you were fent to kill the Egyptian, and to judge be- tween your quarrelling relations ? MOSES, St. Stephen, My Lord, to whom you appeal againft me, will fupply what is wanting in my own account ; and he gave his dy- ing teftimony to the truth of what he faid on this very fubjeft. — " When Mofes was full forty years old, it came into his heart to " vifit his brethren the children of Ifrael. And feeing one of " them fufFer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that «' was oppreffed, and fmote the Egyptian : for he fuppofed his " brethren would have underflood, that God by his hand would " deliver them, but they underflood not '," This, then, was ■ the true reafon of my killing the opprefhng Egyptian -, revenge was not the motive. LORD BOLINGBROKE. You fuppofed — enthufiafm! — rank enthufiafm ! Pray, Sir,. give me leave to afk, what pofTible foundation could you have for this wild, extravagant, and fenfelefs fu-ppofition ? MOSES. St. Stephen, My Lord, has, in very emphatical terms, ex- prefTed the occafion of this vifit of mine, and the reafon I had to fuppofe my brethren would take my kilhng the opprefiing Egyp- tian as a token that I was fent by God, to be their deliverer, when he fays, " It came into my heart to vifit," 6cc. Now, My Lord, it was impofiible for me rationally to fuppofe, that my brethren would, by this adion of mine, underftand, that I was to be their deliverer, unlefs I had niyfelf been abfolutely « Ads vii. 23 — 25. 2 certain. A DIALOGUE. 13 certain, that I was appointed to this important fervice. if there- fore it came into my heart to vifit them, when I was in the prime of life, contrary to all the rules of human prudence and policy, confidering my exalted ftation in the Egyptian court ; and con- trary to the natural meeknefs of my temper, and to my humane fentiments, confidering my near relation to the cruelly-opprefled ; it muft have come into my heart, or mind, in fome very extra- ordinary manner : and the event. My Lord, was a demonllration, that it was God alone that mediately, or immediately, put it in- to my heart. LORD BOLINGBROKE. So then this inclination of yours to leave the Egyptian court; to forego all its honours and pleafures ; nay to renounce even the profped: of a crown, in order to vifit your enflaved brethren — this ftrange inclination was S/oivn into your mind or heart. You were injpired, I fuppofe : for *• the word Injpiration is de- *• rived from a Latin verb that fignifies to blow in; " and it ha? been faid, that " the image might be borrowed to denote an " adtion of God in an extraordinary manner, influencing, exciting, " and enlightening the mind of a prophet, or apoflle. How " many afiiimptions are here in one fhort fentence ? and how " impofilble mufl it be to come at any thing on which a reafon- *' able mind can reft, whilft figures are explained by other figures, " that want explanation as much ? Influencing is a vague term, *' and may be applied feveral ways with equal propriety. But " exciting and enlightening denote difl^erent kinds of aftion, and " neither of them has any relation to infpiration, or blowing in. " Here then is metaphor heaped on metaphor, without any true " application to an intelledlual idea ; and we know as little what " is meant by infpiration as we did before ^ The term of infpi- " ration is a figure that gives no intelleftual idea, becaale it i? " not really the image of any ^" ' Vol. I. p. 140. s Id. p. 141, MOSES. 14 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, MOSES. Figures, My Lord, are neceflary to language, the metaphor in particular. *' We muft ceafe to fpeak," (they are your Lord- Ihip's own words) *' if we lay figurative fpeech wholly afide. *' Figures are fo neceflary in the communication, at leaft, of our *' thoughts, that they are wove into the very conftitution of lan- *< guage. If we did not chufe, we fliould be forced to employ " them often in common converfation about common objects, " and the ordinary affairs of life ; and they are ftill more ne- " ceflary, when fubjedls more abftrufe and more abftrafted from " fenfible objedls are concerned \" The Reafon, My Lord, is evident : for the conftitution of the human frame is fuch, that all our ideas have their origin in the imprefTions that material ob- jects make on the organs of fenfe ; and, therefore, unlefs we had other means of arriving at knowledge, than by our fenfes, it is impofTible that we fhould frame any intelledlual idea, any idea of what is not material, but from fome relation that idea bears to matter, or to the affedlions and properties of matter. For this reafon, though God is a Being, infinitely removed from matter, nor can he poflibly have any of the affeftions or properties of matter afcribed to him ; yet it is impofiible for us to frame any idea of him, but by allufion to the ideas we have of material objecfls, or the affedlions and properties of mat- ter. Hence the neceflity of afcribing to God, thofe bodily parts which are to us the inftruments of corporeal adlion '. And, for the ^ Vol. I. p. 128, 129. ^ Lord Bolingbroke feems greatly offended that " the Jewifli fcriptures afcribe *' to God not only corporeal appearance, but corporeal a(£lion, and all the inftru- *' ments of it ; eyes to fee, ears to hear, mouth and tongue to articulate, hands to " handle, and feet to walk. Divines tell us, indeed, that we are not to underftand " all this according to the literal fignification. The meaning is, they fay, that God " has a power to execute all thofe ads, to the efFeding of which thefe parts in us are *' inftrumental. The literal fignification is indeed abominable : and the flimfy analo- <' gical veil thrown over it is ftolen from the wardrobe of Epicurus ; for he taught " that the gods had not literally bodies, but fomcthing like to bodies, quafi corpus ; not " blood, A D I A L O G U E. 15 the fame reafon, we can frame no ideas of the affedlions and operations of our own minds, but by allufions to the affeflion? and operations of our bodily organs ^ LORD BOLINGBROKE. *' We have," indeed, " clear and determinate ideas of what " we call Body, by fenflition ; and of what we call Spirit, by *' reflexion : or, to avoid cavil as much as may be, without giv- *' ing up common fenfe, we have fuch ideas by fenfation, as the ** various powers of that fubftance, called Body, are ordained to " produce in us ; and we have fuch ideas by reflexion, as the in- *' ward operations of that which we call Spirit, be it fubitance, ** or faculty, excite in us." But " we are able to contemplate " thefe ideas naked, if I may fay fo, and ftripped of the drefs « of words '." MOSES. I think it is impoflible your Lordfhip could have clear and de- terminate ideas of the terms of this wonderful propofition — — '* fVe are able to contemplate intelleSliial ideas naked, and Jirip- " blood, but fomething like to blood, quafi fanguinem. Vol, V. p. 159^. But who is " there, philofopher, or poet, except Jewifli and Chriftian rabbins, that can employ ♦' in good earned images taken from corporeal fubftance, from corporeal ailion, " and from the inftruments of it, to give us notions, in any degree, proper of God's " manner of being, and of that divine inconceivable energy in which the aiSion of " God confifts, and by which the natural and moral worlds were produced, and " are preferved and governed ? " Vol. V. p. 160. Lord Bolingbroke, notwith- ftanding, confelTes the neccffity of following Jewifli and Chriftian rabbins, in em- ploying in good earneft images taken from corporeal adtion, to help his conceptions of God, " We are forced to help our conceptions of the Divine Nature, by ima- " ges taken from the human nature, and the imperfeilions of this nature arc our " excufe." \'ol. II. p. 59. fc " We are forced very often to employ corporeal images, when we fpeak of the " operations of our own minds." Vol.1, p. 11. ' Vol. I. p. 226, 2 " ped i6 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, ** ped of the drefs of words." Have you forgot. My Lord, the life of names ? " Names — are given to fjgnify all our ideas, ** and all our notions to ourfelves, and to others ; and to help " the memory in meditation, as well as in difcourfe ""." Lan- guage, My Lord, is certainly neceflary to fignify all our ideas, and all our notions to others ; becaufe, unlefs they are clothed with words, they muft neceflarily be invifible, if I may fay fo. But, perhaps, it may be equally impoffible for us to contemplate any ideas whatfoever, when ilripped of the drefs of words. For, as your Lordfliip juftly obferves, " Names are given us to *' fignify all our ideas, and all our notions to ourfelves," as well as to others : And, indeed, it is impoffible to conceive how we can meditate, how we can think at all, when united to body, without names to all our ideas. That we cannot, I think your Lordfliip has proved for me, fmce you have faid, " They ** who meditate, (for every man, and probably every animal, " thinks) muft have obferved, that the mind employs all its *' forces, and memory and imagination among the reft, not *' only to form opinions, or to arrive at knowledge, but to fet the *' objects of opinion, or knowledge, in the fulleft and cleareft ** light, for its own fatisfad:ion, and for the eafe of communicat- " ing thefe thoughts to other minds, in the fame order, and with *• the lame energy, as they are contemplated by it "." Now, My Lord, if the drefs of words is neceffary to fignify our thoughts to others ; and if the mind employs all its forces, and memory and imagination among the reft, to enable it with eafe to com- municate our thoughts to other minds, in the fame order, and with the fame energy, as they are contemplated by our own ; the drefs of words is as neceifary to fignify our thoughts to our- felves., as it is to communicate the fame thoughts to others : And therefore, names to our ideas are as neceflary in meditation as in difcourfe : and if your Lordfliip would recoUeft what has pafl"ed ■" Bolin. Vol. I. p. 92. " Vol, I. p. 126. in A DIALOGUE. ^ '%y in your own mind, or what the names were, by which you fig- nified your thoughts, to yourfelf, in meditation on any particu- lar fubjetft J you would find that you always made ufe of the fame names in thinking, or, in othisr words, you always thought in the fame language, in which you expreffcd thofe thoughts in fpeaking, or writing, on that particular fubjedt. If this, then, "be the cafe, that by the conftitution of our frame, we are obli- ged to material objedls, their afFcftions and properties, for names, to fignify all our ideas, and all our notions ; and if He who made, can, in an extraordinary manner, adt upon the human mind, fo as to communicate to it, the knowledge of fuch things, as it is impoffible for us, in the common method of our acquiring know- ledge, to frame any idea of; how is it poflible to reprefent fuch an extraordinary adlion to the human mind, but by fome image, or images, taken from human adlion ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. I confefs " that an extraordinary adlion of God on the human *• mind, which the word Infpiration is now ufed to denote, is *' not more inconceivable, than the ordinary adlion of mind on '• body, and of body on mind. But yet the cafes are fo widely <* different, that no argument can be drawn from one in favour " of the other. It is impoffible to doubt of an adlion which is ** an objedt of intuitive knowledge, and whereof we are con- " fcious every moment ; and it h impertinent to deny the exifl- " ence of any phenomenon merely becaufe we cannot account " for it : but then this Phasnomenon mufl be apparent, and the *« proof that it exifts, or has exifted, mufl be fuch as no reafon- " able man can refufe to admit, otherwife we fliall be expofed " to make frequently the ridiculous figure that philofophers " have fometimes made, when it has been difcovered, af- «« ter they had reafoned long about a thing, that there was no « fuch thing °." » Vol. I. p. 154. D MOSES. i8 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, MOSES. How inconceivable foever an extraordinary adtion of God ore the human mind may be, your Lordfhip cannot deny, that he who made, can in an extraordinary manner adl upon, the human mind ; that he can enlighten, or communicate the knowledge of notions, or fads, or future events, to the mind of a prophet or apoftle ; and that he can influence, or excite, or in other words move or incline, the mind thus enlightened, to write or to fpeak what had been communicated to it in this extraordinary manner ; and if ever He did, the pha^nomenon muft have been apparent to the mind, thus adled upon -, becaufe the Diviae Agent cannot poffibly be fuppofed to ad:, in any manner, without producing the effed he defigned to produce by that ad. And therefore this mind mufl have been as confcious of fuch an extraordinary adion, by its effeds, as it could be of any the moft ordinary adion of it- felf, on its own body. And whereas your Lordfhip has faid^ '* It is impoffible to doubt of an ordinary adion, which is the " objed of intuitive knowledge, and whereof we are confcious *♦ every moment -, " it is equally impoffible to doubt of an extra- ordinary adion, which is the objed of dedudive knowledge, and whereof the mind thus aded upon, is confcious, every mo- ment it refleds upon the knowledge thus acquired ; becaufe, by fuppofition, this knowledge was acquired in an extraordinary man- ner ; and therefore it could not poflibly be attained by the ordi- nary adion of the moft exalted human mind, from its total and unavoidable ignorance of the objeds of this extraordinary know- ledge. But as your Lordfliip has attempted to render the term of infpiration ridiculous, give me leave to obferve, that be- fore others can judge of the exiilence, or non-exiftence, of fuch an extraordinary Ph-jenomenon, as this abufed word is now ufed to denote, it is neceffary that this extraordinary adion of God on the human mind fhould have fome name, to fignify the idea, the determinate idea, that fuch a phenomenon would raife in their ADIALOGUE. ij their minds, to diftinguidi it from an ordinary adion of any other Being : whatever, therefore, the name may be, if it is expreflive of the thing, that is all that a reafonable man can require to- wards the forming of that intelledlual idea, which the name is defigned to convey to the mind. If " it has been faid, that the ** image " (under which infpiration is rcprefented) ** might be '* borrowed to denote an aftion of God in an extraordinary " manner, influencing, exciting, and enlightening the mind of a ** prophet or apoflle*";" it has been erroneoufly faid, becaufe thefe different images are borrowed from, and as your Lordfhip obferves, they denote different kinds of adlion. The mind may be influ- enced, moved, excited or impelled, (which denote the fame kind of ad:ion) to write, or to utter, what a prophet or apoflle could never have uttered or written, without an extraordinary adlion of God, thus influencing, moving, exciting, or impelling : But then, as the mind muft be dark with refpedt to the knowledge of future events, or of notions, or fadls, which could not pof- fibly be known, but in an extraordinary and fupernatural man- ner ; the mind muft be enlightened, either at the time of, or previous to, its being influenced, excited, moved, or impelled, to fpeak, or to write; this adlion, therefore, of the Divine Be- ing, communicating knowledge that could not be acquired in the ordinary way of arriving at knowledge, is beautifully reprefented under the image of light. But as none of thefe images come up to the primary and original notion, (though they very aptly ex- prefs fome of the effedls) of infpiration ; give me leave, My Lord, to fhew you the extreme propriety of this term, by tracing it up to the original, literal, image, from which fo uncommon a me- taphor is taken ; and which has been preferved in the derivation of the word in every language. Let me, therefore, obferve; that the firfl of men was formed of the duft of the ground ; but he was firfl formed, before the wonderful machine was put in f See p. 13. ■5 D 2 motion; 2®. MOSES AND B O LIN QBR.O KE, motion ; before it was put into a condition to live, and move, and have the being of a man. Now, as when a man ceafes to breathe, he is no more than the figure of a man j a lifelefs lump of clay j and, as the firft of men began to live by breathing ; no words in the whole compafs of language, could, with fo great propriety, exprefs this adlion of the Creator in giving life to Adam, as " breathing into his noftrils the breath of life :" that is, of communicating breath, to thofe organs, which his infinite wifdom had prepared for the receiving of this breath, this air, this fpirit, which gives life and motion to the man. Hence the lofmg of this breath, or the being deprived of the power of breathing, is with the fame propriety called expiring, or dying. Now, My Lord, as we muft necefTarily malie ufe of natural images from ^ material objedls, or their properties and affeftions, to exprefs intelledlual ideas, no image could poflibly be borrowed to denote an adion of God, in an extraordinary manner communicating fupernatural knoAvledge to the human mind, fo proper as is this, that is borrowed from the manner of God's communicating life to the firft of men. And this image is the more ftriking, in that it requires the fame Almighty energy, to communicate the know- ledge of fuch things, as cannot poffibly be known any other way, as it does to communicate the breath of life to a figure of lifelefs clay. LORD BOLINGBROKE. And will you fay, that God adled upon your mind in fuch aft extraordinary manner, to communicate to the author of the Book of Genefis what every one knows without infpiration ? Every one knows that man is made of clay, becaufe, when re- folved into his firft principles, he returns to clay ; and becaufe when he ceafes to breathe, he is no more than a figure of clay, God muft have made the firft man to live, by caufing him to breathe. MOSES. DIALOGUE. MOSES. 21 It Is no good confequence. My Lord, that, becaufe, when man ceafes to breathe, he is no more than a figure of clay, there- fore God made the firft man to Hve, by caufmg him to breathe ; becaufe, ever iince the formation of the firft human pair, every man has been made to Hve, before it was poflible for him to breathe ; and therefore, fmce it is impoflible, without a revela- tion, to know that the body of the firft man was not formed un- der fome general cover, as the fecundine envelopes the foetus, in which it lives, without a poffibility of breathing ; and if taken out of the womb, enclofed in that membrane, will continue to live ; and the blood, which is the life, will continue to circu- late ; I fay, fince it is poflible this might have been the cafe with the firft man, it could not be known, but by revelation, that he was made a living foul by God's " breathing into his noftrils the breath of life." LORD BOLINGBROKE. *' Whilft ignorance and fuperftition reigned triumphantly, and " the fantaftical ideas and notions which they communicate, and " which authority, education, and habit, do in fome fort realize " in the mind, fpread and prevailed ; men might be eafily per- *« fuaded," (from this palTage in Genefis) " that the fpirit or " breath of God, which blew into the face of the firft of men, " and made him a living creature % might blow likewife on ex- " traordinary occafions, and in an extraordinary manner, into " the faces of fome of his pofterity, as into chofen veflels '." But this reign was over, long before I left the world; and mankind muft now have their minds adbed upon in a very extraordinary "J " Infpirav'it in fad em ejus fpiraculum vita, (jf faHus eji homo in animam viventeniy *' are the words of Mofes." Vol. I. p, 151. ' lo'. ibid. manner. 2C MOSES AND BOLINOBROKE. manner, before they can have faith to believe any pretenfions of yours, or of any other mortal, to fuch communications with the Deity. MOSES. Ignorance^ My Lord, and fuperflition, are out of the queftion, concerning the original of the notion of Infpiration, and the ex- treme propriety of the uncommon image under which it is repre- fented. I have infifted, and your Lordfhip, I am perfuaded, will not deny, " that God can act upon the human mind, in as ex- traordinary a manner, as He adied upon the body of the firil man, when he made him a living foul ; and if ever he did, that the mind thus adled upon muft have been as confcious of that extraordinary adlion, as it could be of any ordinary adlion." . But the proof of fuch an extraordinary adlion on any particular human mind, is another confideration. LORD BOLINGBROKE. I hav£ already told you, Mofes, " That no man living had *' higher notions of the Divine Omnipotence, nor carried them *' further than I did ' ;" and therefore I dare not deny that God can, if he pleafes, adl in an extraordinary manner, on the human mind ; yet, to be plain with you, I muft for ever deny that this was jour cafe, when you writ the firft chapters of Genefis. MOSES. 5ince then, your Lordfhip cannot deny the poflibility of fuch an extraordinary phaenomenon, give me leave to fuppofe that this was my cafe, till I ihall make it apparent, and produce fuch proofs that my mind was thus adted upon, when I writ the Hif- tory of the Creation, as no reafonable man can refufe to ad- mit'."— —Let us therefore return, from whence we have fo long • See p. 3. ' See p. 17. digreffed. DIALOGUE. 23 digrefTed, to my Egyptian Education -, of which I well remember your Lordfliip faid, " No man could ever have made a better ** ufe than myfelf ; for if it had not been for the wifdom and ** learning of the Egyptians, we fhould never have had — the •* Book of the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth "." Now, My Lord, I muft infift, that no man can fay, that ever I availed myfelf of any of their wifdom, or learning, in my writ- ings. LORD BOLINGBROKE. What! — were not the feveral pafTages in your " firft of Ge- *' nefis, about the creation of the world, taken from Egyptian " traditions"?" MOSES. No, Lord Bolingbroke : all the wifdom and learning of Egypt were ufelefs to me, when I was writing a Hiflory of the Crea- tion of the World. The Egyptians, with all their wifdom, were as ignorant of creation, as any the mofl barbarous nation upon earth. They indeed, in your Lordfhip's ftile, builded a world, and received their materials from tradition ; but as the Genefis of their world is as different from that of mine, as Darknefs is from Light, they muff have had as different originals. LORD BOLINGBROKE. Have you then forgot, Mofes, that the very foundation of your Genefis is laid in a Fluid Chaos ?-*i Have you forgot the only intelligible pafTage in your firft chapter of Genefis ? *• The Earth ** was without form and void ; and darknefs was upon tlie face " of the deep \" Is not this a perfed defcription of a Fluid Chaos ? Now, " This notion of a Fluid Chaos, which we know " to have been very general, by Plutarch and other authorities, * See p. 9. " Vol. II. p. 171. » Gen. i. 2. " was 24 M O S E S A N D B O LI N'G B R O K E, " was very Mofaical too, and points up to an Egyptian orli « ginal "." MOSES. You do me peculiar honour. My Lord, in thus frankly con- fefling, that any one paffage, in my aceouflt of Creation, efpe- cially fo effential a part of it, is intelligible. But, this notion of a Fluid Chaos, may, perhaps, prove too Mofaical for your Lord- Ihip, if at lafl, it fhould be found to point up to a much higher, than an Egyptian original. Let me explain to your Lordfhip what I mean. As general notions are generally founded in fa(5t, let us fuppofe, My Lord, that this notion of a Fluid Chaos was thus founded j that PVater or a Fluid Chaos was really and infaS; the firft principle of things "■. On this fuppofition, let me afk your Lordfhip, whether this notion could poffibly be difcovered from the conftitution of the univerfe ? (for the fluid chaos of both philofophers and poets, was as boundldfs as the univerfe) or, on the fuppofition of its being the firfl principle or beginning of the folar, or planetary fyflem, whether it could poffibly be difcovered from the conftitution of the fyftem, or from any of the phenomena in nature? Your Lordfliip is too well ac- quainted with the phenomena, to think that even the immortal Newton could ever have made them fubfervient to fuch a difco- very : fmce then there is nothing in nature that could lead man- kind into this notion ; nothing that could lead the Egyptians, or any of the ancient philofophers or poets, to make Water ' rather than y Vol. II. p. 171. » Aquam dixit Thales ejfe initium rerum { faith Cicero, De Natur. Deorum, Deum autem mentem, qua ex aqua cunda fingeret. Thales faid, that water was the firft principle of all corporeal things, but that God was that mind, which formed all things out of water. Zeno tells us, that Hefiod's Chaos was water. Cudworth's Intellea. Syft. Vol. I. p. 21. Edit. 2. » As the Chaos of the ancient philofophers and poets was, by fuppofition, prior to the fun, and all the heavenly bodies, ( for from this chaos they are all faid to be A DIALOGUE. 25 than FirCt the firft principle, or beginning of things, the notion, if it is founded in fadt, muft have been originally derived from Revelation. LORD BOLINGBROKE. " The religion," Mofes, " as well as the government of the " Egyptians, was more ancient than yours ; you was learned in '* both ; you borrowed from both ; and no man of common " fenfe can believe it more probable, whatever he may pretend, *• that the flaves inflrufted their maflers, than that the maflcrs " inflrufted their naves'"." But to be more particular. That you borrowed your Fluid Chaos from the Egyptians, may be de- monftrated from that ancient piece of Egyptian wifdom, the fa- mous doclrine of the Mundane Egg. " Orpheus, among other *' Eaflern learning, feems to have introduced among the Greeks, " this docftrine, which in all probability he learned from the *' Egyptians, who rcprefented the world by this fymbol, as many " other ancient nations did '." " Sanchoniatho," the Phoeni- cian Hiftorian, " affirms, that the principle of the univerfe was a " dark and windy air, or a wind made of dark air, and a tur- be generated,) it was equally abfurd in thefe poets and philofophers, to make Water the firft principle of things, as it would have been to have afcribed the beginnin;; of things to Fire ; bccaufe, as the one is deftructive of the other, water could have been no more the parent, (if I may be allowed the expreffion) of fire, than fire could have produced water. But, (to go no further than the folar fyftem) as the fun is a globe of fire, the ftrongcft evidence of the extreme abfurdity of its genera- tion from JVater or a Fluid Chaos is, the vaftnefs of the body of the fun, in propor- tion to the other bodies in his fyftem. For, on a comparifon of its diameter with the aggregate of the diameters of all the primary planets, that roll about him, it will ap- pear, that the diameter of the Sun is, by computation, 822,148 miles ; whereas the fum of their diameters is no more than 233,784 miles : fothat the quantity of vifible Fire (whatever portions of that element may be diffeminated throughout the bodies cf the planets themfelves,) is more than treble the quantity of JVater and Earth, (or matter fimilar to Earth) in the whole planetary fyftem. •> Vol. III. p. 122. ' Uiiivejfal Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 34. 8vo Edit, E " bulent 26 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, " bulent evening chaos ; and that thefe things were boundlefs, " and for a long time had no bound or figure. But when this *• wind fell in love with his own principles, and a mixture was " made, that mixture was called delire, or Cupid [lIoGos.] This ** mixture completed, was the beginning of the [jcT/o-gws] making ** of all things. But that wind did not know its own produc- " tion ; and of this, with that wind, was begotten Mot, which " fome call Mud, others the putrefadion of a watery mixture. ** And of this came all the feed of this building, and the gene- ** ration of the univerfe." " But there were certain animals, which were called Zophefe- " min } that is, the fpies or overfeers of heaven, and were form- " ed alike in the fliape of an Egg: thus Hione out Mof^, the " fun and the moon, and the lefs and greater fl:ars^" " Thefe " things are written in the cofmogony of Taautus^ And this " Taautus, Thoth, or Thot, being the firil Mercury, taught the " Egyptians the ufe of letters, inftrufted them in the fciences, " and completed that wifdom, wherein you, Mofes, was in- " flrufted^" ** But there is a much more methodical and complete defcrip- " tion of this ancient cofmogony given by Ariftophanes. He ** writes, that firfl were Chaos, black Erebus, and wide Tarta- " rus, but neither earth nor air, nor heaven : that night, with ** fable wings, laid the firft egg of wind in the vaft bofom of " Erebus ; from whence, in procefs of time, iffued amiable ** Love, fhining with wings of gold, like to impetuous whirl- " winds : that Love, coupling with the obfcure Chaos, engen- ** dered animals and men ; but that there were no gods before ■• By Mot Dr. Cumberland underftands our earth. Remarks on Sanchoniatho, p. 18. * Dr. Cumberland's Sanchoniatho's Phoenician Hiftory, p. i, 2. f Id. ibid. E Vol. IV. p. 61, 62. I *' Love A D I A L O G U E. -a; *< Love mingled all things, from which mixture of things, one " with another, the heaven and the earth were generated, and ** the whole race of immortal gods ''." Now, as " the cofmogony of the poets was the fame with ** their theogony, or generation of the gods '," and as from thefe ample teftimonials, it is evident, that the Genefis of their gods, that is, their fun, moon, and ftars, and their earth, was from the fame chaotic materials, with your heavens, and your earth, though the materials are differently difpofed; it is as evident, that on this moft ancient docftrine of the Mundane Egg, you have founded your famous dodlrine of Incubation ; though, to conceal your having borrowed the image from Egypt, you have artfully fuppreffed the name, as if you had never been acquainted with the dodlrine of the Egg. MOSES. My dodrine of Incubation ! You amaze me. My Lord ! • What poffible connexion can the notion of Licubation have with anyone paffage, — with any lingle word, in the whole Book of Genefis ? LORD BOL IN G BROKE. You cannot but remember, Mofes, that whilfl " the earth ■" was without form and void, and darknefs was upon the face " of the deep ^" you introduce the air, or wind, of God, — (a great and mighty wind, according to your Hebrew manner of fpeaking ', " hovering over the watery dark abyfs, to cherifli and " vivify * Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 36. ' Id. p. 31. ^ Gen. i. 2. * *' And the fpirit or air of God moved upon the face of the waters ; the ori- " ginal word, which in our tranflation we render Spirit, equally signifying either " fpirit, or air, or wind, or breath ; in which fenfes it is frequently made ufe of in " ntimberlefs places of Holy Writ. And as for this Atmofphere being called the.^;V E 2 "of ■28 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, *' vivify the yet-unformed matter, and prepare it for tlie pro- ** duftion of things "." Now it is impofTible, that you could have borrowed this image, but from what is neceflarily prior to incubation : How could you have thought of brooding over, or hatching a world, if an Egg — a Mundane Egg, had not been laid, to your hands, in the vaft, unbounded, chaos? Since, there- fore, from this prolific Egyptian, and Graecian egg, their gods, the fun, the moon, and ftars, and (as Sanchoniatho fays) our earth, were generated ; and from your incubation, by this mighty wind (the impetuous whirlwinds of Arlftophanes, coupling with the obfcure chaos,) you have deduced the generations (the very ex- preffion of the Poet) of your heavens, even all the hoft of them, and your earth : lince, I fay, the beginning of things is the fame in thefe ancient cofmogonies, and in yours ; yours muft be the copy, the original is theirs. MOSES. Is it poflible your Lordlhip fhould think me capable of fo glaring an abfurdity, as to Introduce the Air, or JVitid, of God — a great and mighty Wind, hovering over the watery, dark abyfs -, when there was no fuch thing as Air, or Wind, in being ? Avhen It was impoffible there could have been any wind ? Wind, your Lordfliip knows, is nothing elfe but air in motion : now the air, (in my account of creation) or atmofphere, was not niade, was not feparated from the chaos, till the earth was per- *' of God, it is a method of fpeaking common to the Hebrews." Dr. Clayton's Vindication, Part II. p. 47. " This kind of motion is attributed to the Spirit of God, by Bochart, Poole, Bp. " Patrick, &c. The word we here tranflate moved" (fays the learned Bifhop) " fignifies literally brooded upon the waters, as a hen doth upon her eggs. Now " the Spirit of God thus moved upon the waters, that by its incubation (as we " may call it) it might not only feparate — thofe parts which were jumbled toge- " ther; but givea vivific virtue to them, to produce what was contained in them," Patrick in Locum. forming A DIALOGUE.. -29 forming the fecond revolution about her axis -, whereas the mo- tion, of which I fpeak (whatever idea critics and commentators may have affixed to the word) was effedted on the firft day. If, therefore, the air was not feparated from the chaos, till the fe- cond day, it was abfolutely impoffible that there fliould have been air in motion, on the firft. No, Lord Bolingbroke, I intro- duce the Spirit of God himfelf, the God that created the chaotic earth, moving, (and who but He who made, could move its vaftnefs ! ) imprefling a violent motion upon the face of the v/a- ters — upon the furface of the fluid chaos of the earth: and if the furface alone was now imprefled with this motion, the axis muft necclfarily have remained at reft. Is there any thing here. My Lord, like the dodlrine of Incubation'? Can the prefent improved ftate of philofophy, furnilh a man of common fenfe, with a more plain, fimple, yet juft defcription, of the di- urnal motion of the earth ? If it cannot, I am apt to think, that the notion of a Fluid Chaos (as I have before hinted " ) will prove too Mofaical for your Lordfliip : for. My Lord, this infti- tution of a diurnal motion, carries us back to the beginning of motion on the earth, as well as to the firft mover. And becaufe this beginning of motion took place, whilft the earth was in a chaotic ftate, and its whole furface was water, it neceflarily leads us up to the original of the very notion of a Fluid Chaos. A moment's reflexion. My Lord, on what I have advanced on this article, will convince any man, that is capable of convic- tion, that it was impoftible I could borrow fo plain, fo fimple, and fo rational an account of the original ftate of our earth, whilft it was a mafs of unformed matter, before any feparation had been made of it's earthy and watery particles ; that it was impoflible, I fay, for me to have borrowed this account from wild, extravagant, and unintelligible fables, of the chaotic ftate • See p. 24. of 30 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, of the whole univerfe : or that I could have borrowed the notion of the Spirit of God, impreffing a violent, though a regular, uni- form, and conflant motion, on the furface of a chaotic planet, from the imaginary agency of wind, falling in love with his own principles"; or the unintelligible agency of night and darknefs, (mere negations of Being) brooding over a chaotic mafs of matter, immenfe as the univerfe. But, My Lord, as there is fomething fo very fmgular in the ancient dodlrine of the Mundane Egg, I cannot take leave of this fubjedt, till I ihall have informed your Lordfhip of the lingular ufe I fliall make of this piece of Eaflern learning. " Plutarch " bbferves. That the queftion, which was the elder, the Egg or «* the Hen? was not a trivial inquiry'; but, according to the " Orphic dodtrine, comprehended the ancient generation of all *' things : and the author of the hymns attributed to Orpheus, <' makes the firft-born god, named by the Greeks, Phanes, to be " produced from an egg. This was the firll-begotten god, men- " tioned by Athenagoras, to have been hatched from an tgg, as " the followers of Orpheus taught." How this queftion was, or whether it was ever refolved, does not appear : let us, how- ever, fee whether your Lordfhip has not thrown fome confider- able light, on this very dark fubjedt. For, from your Lord- fliip's account of the cofmogonies of Sanchoniatho and Ariftopha- nes, it very plainly appears, that the dodlrine of the Mundane Egg is of equal antiquity with the tradition of a Fluid Chaos ; and indeed they are, in thefe accounts, fo clofely connedled, that they are infeparable, one from the other; notwithftanding, the priority of the latter may, perhaps, be eafily afcertained. I have already obferved to your Lordfliip, " That Tradition has always a manifeft relation to fome preceding fadt ^" If there never had been a Fluid Chaos, how is it poflible that fuch a no- * See p. 26. ' Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 34. « Sec p. 4. tion A DIALOGUE. 31 tion flaould have been handed down to us ? How was It pof- fible, that a notion of what, by fuppofition, never exifled, fhould have fo generally prevailed in the world ? if there ever was a Fluid Chaos, where is the fadl preferved, on which the tradition muft have been founded ? Now, if fuch a fadt has been preferved in any very ancient writer, who deduces the beginning of things, either from one fluid chaos, or from more chaotic maffes of matter, of the fame kind ; and if that writer is abfolutely filent concern- ing this dodlrine of the Mundane Egg ; his filence on this fingle article, will alone demonllrate the fuperior antiquity of the wri- ter, to all others ; and at the fame time, will prove, beyond all pofTibility of doubt, the priority of the notion of a Fluid Chaos, to the dodtrine of the Mundane Egg: and confequently, that the notion of a Fluid Chaos was originally derived from this wri- ter. Will your Lordfliip, on fo interefling an Occafion, give me leave to name the Book of Genefis. Your Lordfhip has admit- ted the juftnefs and propriety of my defcription of a Fluid Chaos' ; and I have proved to your Lordfliip, that I was an abfolute ftranger to the idle dodlrine of the Mundane Egg, and to the ri- diculous notion of Incubation. Now, if the only fadl on which the tradition of a Fluid Chaos could be founded, is preferved in the Book of Genefis alone, this dodlrine of the Mundane Egg will demonflrate, that the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and other ancient nations, that reprcfented the world by this fymbol, bor- rowed the notion of a Fluid Chaos from the frjl chapter of Ge?ie- Jis ', for the dodlrine of Incubation was manifeftly founded on the blunders and abfurdities committed by the moft ancient of my in- terpreters; and the dodrine of the Egg naturally flows from that of Incubation. ' See p. 23. But 32 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, But to demonftrate to your Lordfliip, that the general notion of of a Fluid Chaos was founded in fatl ; that Water, or a Fluid C/jaos, was really the firft principle or beginning of things ' ; and that this fadl is preferved in the Book of Genefis alone, I appeal — be not furprized. My Lord, — I appeal to one fingle pheno- menon, in the prefent conftitution of things ; — to the figure of the Earth. Your Lordlhip has informed me from the Hiftory of Sanchoniatho, " That the fun and the moon, the lefs and " the greater ftars, were formed alike in the fhape of an egg '.'* " And that Mot (that is, our earth) fhone out like them"," in the fhape of an egg, I fuppofe. Now, pray. My Lord, what is the true figure of the earth ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. The true figure of the earth is demonflrated to be that of an oblate fpheroid, fwelling out at the equatorial parts, and flatted at the poles ; the necellary effed: of its diurnal motion. MOSES. The modern philofophers, have, indeed, demonftrated, that this is the true figure of the Earth ; but how does your Lordfliip know, that this figure was at all produced by its diurnal motion ? might not the earth have been originally formed in this fliape, before any motion about its axis was communicated to its fur^ face ? LORD BOLINGBROKE. From the uniformity of that great principle of Attradlon, which the Creator has impreffed on the particles of matter, it is not eafy to conceive, that the earth could have been of any other form, when the Almighty willed it to exifl, than that of a Spe p. 24. ' See p. 26. " See Note, p. ibid. globe ,H >L O Aa ;D/IL AvL. O G U E. 33 globe or perfcd fphere." On this fuppofition, it is imjpofliblc that its figure could be changed into an oblate fpheroid, but by jits amazingly-fw,ift rotation about its axis. And this change would be the neceflary effedl of fuch a motion j becaufe the pat- ticles of matter in the earth, would endeavour to recede from the ^centres of the circles, in which they move; and that with the , greater force, as the periplleries of the circles are greater. Hence, •the equator being the greateft circle, and the reft, towards the poles, continually decreafing, thfc ^original, perfe<3:, fpherical fi- ,gure, muft have beert changed into that of an oblate fplie- M 6 "S £ S. .r I readiJy -adniit. My Lord, that the earth, when it was crea- .ted, was a globe, or a perfedi fphere; that its prefent form is .that of. an oblate fpheroid; and that this change was the necef- fary effed: of its amazingly-fwift rotation about its axis : but in ,,wh3t circumftances. My Lord, mufl the earth have been, to be ^iufceptible ojf this change?, , to. be capable of putting on a form, the very reverfe of that ancient fymbol, . by which the Egyptians, and other ancient nations, reprefented the world? If the ..earth had not been without form and void, when the Spirit of God impreffed its watery furface with this motion; if if had not been a F/md C6aos, when tliis motion began, (and this was the ftate of the earth, for a whole natural day,) the particles of Matter in the earth, could not pofiibly have receded from the cen- ^tres of the circles, in which they moved, to have produced this extraordinary phsenomenon. But the earth was without form and void ; it was a mere F/uiJ Chaos, before this motion was imprefled ; and therefore this motion round its axis, did caufe the yielding particles of matter, for a confiderable depth from the furface, to recede from the centres of the circles, in which they 34 M O S E S A N D B O L IN G B R O K E, moved. Thus, the centrifugal, overcoming the centripetal, force of the particles of matter, at the equatorial parts, for one whole day, till the atmofphere was formed, the earth obtained its prefent demonftrated figure. For, if the earth had been, as in its prefent condition, fur- rounded with an atmofphere, before it had been imprefled with this motion; it is impoffible, that a rotation about its axis, tho' continued ta this day, could have given it the prefent figure j becaufe, as the atmofphere partakes of the fame motion, though the earth, by computation, moves at the rate of a thoufand miles in an hour, yet every thing on it& furface remains in its place, as if the earth were abfolutely at reft. Now, My Lord, fmce the original figure of our earth was perfedlly fpherical, but now is demonftrated to be higher under the equator, than about the poles ; fince this change was the neceiTary effedt of it's amazingly-fwift rotation about its axis, when it was in z fuid Jiate, when it was a mere chaos ; fmce not the leafl traces of a diurnal motion are to be met with, in any of the ancient cofmogonies, though all of them are founded on the notion of a F/ui'd Chaos j and laft- ly, lince this cbaos is defcribed, and the motion communicated to its chaotic furface, which produced the prefent figure of the earth, is found, in the Book of Genejis ; it is evident to a demon- ftration, that there, and there alone, the original fail is preferv- ed, to which the tradition of a Fluid Chaos can be referred : and, confequently, that the notion itfelf was derived from that chaotic ftate of the earth, there defcribed, as a rational foundation of a rifxng world. LORD BOLINGBROKE. Well, Mofes, I will not contend with you, *♦ whether was the elder, the Hen or the E^^;" but though I fhould admit the pri- ority of the notion of a Fluid Chaos, you muft excufe me if I re- 2 peatj A D I A L O G U E. 35 peat, what I have before infifted on, that you borrowed your notion of a chaos from the Egyptians ; and this you have your- felf demonflrated, by your manifeft imitation of them, in the boundlefs extent of their chaos ; for had you not borrowed your cbaos, from one that had no bounds ^, you could never have pre- tended to give us an account, of a boundlefs creation — of the creation of the univerfe ''. But it is high time, to leave this dark and obfcure fubjeft, to the darker ages of antiquity : let us come into the light of later times, times of real and demonftrative knowledge. Truth is one ; and if it be on your fide, it will moil certainly appear, by comparing your Hiflory of Creation, with the prefent demonftrated fyilem of the univerfe. , ''•** They fay, Mofes, you was divinely infplred, and yet you ** was as ignorant of the true fyflem of the univerfe, as any of ** the people of your age. To evade the objedion, we are told, *' that you conformed yourfelf to that of the people. You did ** not write to inflrud the Ifraelites in natural philofophy, but *' to imprint ftrongly in their minds, a belief of One God, the ** Creator of all things. Was it neceflary to that purpofe, that *' you fhould explain to them the Copernican fyftem ? No, moft " certainly. But it was not necelTary to this purpofe neither, " that you (hould give them an abfurd one, of the creation of ** our phyfical, and, I may fay, of our moral fyftem. It was not *' neceflary you fhould tell them, for inftance, that light was *' created, and the diftindion of night and day, of evening and * " Sanchoniatho affirms, that the principle of the univerfe was a dark and win- ** Ay air, or a wind of dark air, and a turbulent evening chaos ; and that thefc *' things were without bounds." Cumberland's Sanchoniatho, p. i. I' " Viddur quidem fupponere hexaemeron hoc chaos tmpleffe i^ occufnjje Mum univerfum " quantum quantum : Caelos omnes ts" regiones tetbereas quaquaverfum dijfufas, ^inctit-m^ <' lucidij/imas Jiellas ex hoc materia chaotica compof.las ejfe, neque extitijji ulist ante crtum " i^ natdlcs telluris nojlra," Burnet. Archaeolog. p. 405. Edit. 2'". F 2 " morn- 3$ MOSIJS AKD BQI^INOBBOKE, ** morning, were made before the fan, and the moon, and the ♦♦ ftars, which were ' fet in the firmament of heaven to divide V- the day from the night, and to be for figns and for feafons, and ■«,*. for days and for years.' It was not necef&ry, that you fhould' •*• tell them, how this moral fyftem was deftroyed, by the wiles of *.* a ferpent, and by eating of an apple, almoi3: as foon as it be- *•?) g^n,, againil the intention, as well as command, of tlie Crea- MOSES. ** Mofes was as ignorant of the true fyftem of the univerie, *' as any of the people of his age ; therefore Mofes was not di- " vinely infpired." This is the fum of your Lordfliip's argu- ment. But is, this reafoning. My Lord? It has been faid, that *' a peculiar fubtlety of thinking and reafoning were fome " of the extraordinary endowments of which your Lordihip was M poffefled^ j" but fure I am, though this may be called fubtlety, and deep penetration, it deferves not the name of reafoning.— ~— Suppofe, My Lord, I had been acquainted with the true fyftem of the univerfe, and in confequence of that knowledge, had pre- tended to inftrudl the ignorant Ifraelites in natural philofophy, and to have explained to them that part of it, which is called the Copernican Syftem : or. My Lord, if it had been poHible for me, graphically to have defcribed the true fyftem in the language of modern aftronomersj on either of thefe fuppofitions your Lord- fhip would have had a moft unanfwerable objedlion, to any pre- tenfions of mine, to infpiration ; becaufe this true fyflem of the univerfe, was difcoverable, and has been difcovered by philofophi- cal reafonings on the phaenomena ; and therefore was no fubjedt for revelation. But, Lord Bolingbroke, I confefs, — I was really ignorant of the true fyllem of the univerfe, as ignorant as any of the people of my age; — as ignorant as your Lordfhip is, * Bolingbroke, Vol. V. p. 370, ' Biographla Britannica. of DIALOGUE. 37 of that fyflem which is called by my name : does it therefore follow, that I did not receive my account of creatmi from Him that created the univerfe ? Copernicus, My Lord, was not ac- quainted with the true fyflem of the univerfe, for he placed the firmament, or region of the ftars, at equal diflances from their centre, our fun : does it follow. My Lord, that Copernicus has not given us a juft account of that part of the whole, which is called the folar or planetary fyftem ? But to come nearer to the point j fuppofe — nay. My Lord, I ingenuoufly confefs, I was not only ignorant of the true fyftem of the univerfe, but un- acquainted even with the Mofaic : I was not acquainted with all the bodies of which it conlifts, and which I fay, God in the be- ginning created. — — . But, My Lord, was Copernicus acquaint- ed with all the bodies in the folar fyftem ? could he poffibly have had any knowledge of the fatellites of Saturn, and his ring ? or of Jupiter's moons and belts, before the invention of telefcopes ? In the fame manner, My Lord, was I a ftranger, to the full extent of that fyftem, the creation of which I have given your Lord- ihip the hiftory: for, as I have hinted, " what was difcoverable by experiment and obfervation on the plisenomena, was no fubjedl for revelation : " and, therefore, I mufl: neceflarily have been ig- norant of every thing of this kind, when I writ the y/r/? chapters of Genefis. LORD BOLINGBROKE. I mufl be very free with you, Mofes, on this article j—fo free as to fay, if your account of creation had been, in facft, CQnx=- . muni<:ated to you by Him that made the heavens and the earth j the flamp of divinity would have been viilble to every eye ; the wifdom of the Creator, would have beer\. as apparent ija the de- fcription of the creation and formation of the fyflem, as it is ma- nifeft in the fyflem itfelf. But as I ever thought, " it is impof- •' fible to excufe all -the puerile, romantic> and abfurd circuni- " fiances 38 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE. *' fiances in your narration, which nothing could proc^uce but the " Habit of deahng in trifling traditions, and a moft profound ig- *' norance'j" fo " I cannot admit your teftimony for divine, " without abfurdity and blafphemy'." MOSES. 0/6 monjlrous / ivhat reproachful words are thefe ■* / without abfurdity! znd -w'lthoui hlafphemy ! Well, My Lord; fince it was impoflible for you to have added to the ma- lignant feverity of this laft exprefhon, of your rage, againfl the author of the Book of Genefis -, I cannot but take notice of your Lordfhip's prudence, as a writer, in contriving to finilh your five pompous volumes, againfl both natural and revealed religion, with the fame never-to-be-forgotten period. But what if. My Lord, — for it is not impoffible, — what if my defpifed teflimony fhould prove, at the lafl, to be divine ? What if I fhould make it appear, even to your Lordfhip, that the account I have given of the creation, is •worthy of God I — that He alone could furnifh me with the feveral circumflances in my narration, and therefore that this account could not pofTibly be 7ninet but Hist who commif- fioned me, to record the beginning, and the progrefs, of this great event, for the ufe — even of Lord Bolingbroke ! What, I fay, if my teflimony fhould prove divine ? at whofe door will this horrible, this tremendous, charge of abfurdity and blafphemy lie? But, before I fhew your Lordfhip, that " I have yet to fpeak on God's behalf;" let me afk your Lordfhip one queflion : To which of the clafles, into which you have diflinguifhed the feveral circumflances, in my narration, the puerile, the ro- mantic, or the abfurd, does your Lordfhip refer, " that noble *' pafiage of the Book of Genefis, — Let there be light i and there ivas light ' ? " k Bolingbroke, Vol. V. p. -284. ' Ibid, p, 379. ** Shakefpear. • Job xxxvi. 2. ^ Vol, III. p. 9. LORD ADIALOGUE. 39 LORD BOLINGBROKE. There is— and I cannot forbear confefling it, even to the writer of the Book of Genefis ; — there is, in that inimitable paflage, a certain beautiful fimplicity, — fuch a glaring majefty — fo flrik- ing, and fo irrefiftible, that forced from my unwilling pen, the epithet noble: though that falls vaftly fhort of the grandeur, and the fublimity, of the godlike diftion. Notwithflanding, if Lon- glnus had not cited the pafTage, as a remarkable inftance of the true fublifne, my ftrong prejudices againft your Book of Genefis, would hardly have fuffered me to have made you this com- pliment. MOSES. What pity it is, that in your praifes, as well as in your preju- dices, your Lordfhip rtiould be guided by the prejudices, and the praifes of others. How fevere, and yet how juft, are the re- flexions of a late noble writer, on fuch an unhappy condudt ! " All men are apt to have an high conceit of their own under- *' {landings, and to be tenacious of the opinions they profefs : ** and yet all men are guided by the understandings of others, *' not by their own ; and may be faid more truly to adopt, than *' to beget, their opinions. We are taught to think what " others think, not how to think for ourfelves : And whilft the *• memory is loaded, the underftanding remains unexercifed, or *' exercifed in fuch trammels, as conftrain its motions, and diredl " its pace, till that which was artificial becomes in fome fort ** natural, and the mind can go in no other ^'* LORD BOLINGBROKE. t( < It is a very true obfervation," Mofes, " and a very common ' one, that our affedions and paflions put frequently a biafs, fo « Bolingbroke, Vol. II. p. 241, 242. " fccret. 40 M O S £ S A N D B O L I N G B R O K E, " fecret, and yet fo ftrong, on our judgments, as to make them " Iwerve from the direction of right reafon. ■ Authority " comes foon to ftand in the place of reafon \" It is tlierefore poffible, that I may have trufted too much, to what your avow- ed enemies, ancient and modern, have faid of you and your writings : you may imagine, that I have been taught to think, as Celfus, and others have thought, and not to think for myfelf ; be that, however, as it may, my prejudices againfl: you, and your fyflems, both phyfical and moral, have been ever great ; but I mufl fay, they have been greatly llrengthened, and my notions have been abundantly confirmed, nay immoveably riveted — by the moft pitiful, lame, and abfurd excufes, that your very beft friends, Jews or Chriftians, ancient or modern, have made for you : And, let me tell you, Mofes, with the fame freedom, that when I left the world, (whatever new commentaries may have appeared on the Book of Genefis, fince I arrived in tliefe regions,) I left not a fingle Divine behind me, that could reconcile your account of the creation, or of the fall, to found reafon, — or in- deed to common fenfe. MOSES. This is no news to me. My Lord ; nor will It furprize you, when I fliall have told your Lordihip a very ferious truth. I have. Lord Bolingbroke, ever been, and to this very day, I am mifunderftood, and grofsly mifreprefented by the learned. The Book of Genefis, in particular, has been metaphrafed, parapbrafed, explained, obfcured, allegorized, Jpiritualized, — accor- ding to the different capacities, and the various whimfies of annotators, commentators, and critics j till this beginning of a re- velation to the inhabitants of this globe, ftands in need of being revealed again. My cofmogony has been extended by your ' Bolingbroke, Vol. II. p. 91, 92. - Lord- DIALOGUE. 41 Lordrtiip, and many others, fo far, as to take in the whole com- pafs of the univerfe'j and every creature in the univerfe''. It has been contradted by fome, to the narrow Hmits of the earth, and its atmofphere ' ; to the earth, its atmofpherc, and, perhaps, the moon "". About creation itfelf, mens opinions have been vari- ous. The generahty, indeed, of my commentators have been fo very complaifant to me, as to admit, that God made the world ; that he did create the heavens and the earth : but there are others, and good Chriftians too, who infifl, that God created, only the matter, the materials, of which the heavens and the earth were made ; but that thefc materials, this matter, in various forms, and endowed with certain mighty powers, made the earth and the heavens ". Of this fort of fpcculative archi- tefts, your LordHiip has with great juftnefs remarked, that " As ** foon as a chaos is fuppofed, injiant ardentes tyrii, they all go to *' work. Every one feparates and difpofes thefe materials in " his own way ; the laws of rriechanifm " (before any fuch laws were eftabliflied) " are employed, according to the different •* plans of thefe architedts, and a world is foon made"." > Can your Lordfliip now wonder, that, when you left the world, my account of creation had not been reconciled to found reafon, or indeed to common fenfe ? Nay, I mud tell your Lordfliip, that the Book of Genefis, is as you left it. For fo far has your Lorddiip's opinion, if not authority, prevailed, that a learned " commentator, now in the prefs, tells the world, that the firft " chapter of Genefis contains an account of the creation of the *' univerfe, and all things in it." Is it not high time then. My Lord, to vindicate my own cha- racter, as a writer .? Is it not high time, that I fliould become » Burnet, &c. &c. &c. " Poole. ' Whifton, Dr. Clayton. » Dr. Jennings. " Hutchinfon. • Vol. V. p. 288. G my 42 MOSES andBOLINGBROKE, my own interpreter ? Give me leave then, to lead your Lordfliip into fomewhat of the fpirit, and defign, of the author of the Book of Genefis, as far as it relates to the creation : As for our moral, that will ftand or fall, with the interpretation of our phyfical, fyftem : For, if in the beginning God did not create the heavens and the earth, in the manner I have related, the fubfe- quent ftory of the ferpent and the apple, is no more than an old woman's tale, or an Egyptian fable, as your friends, Celfus and Simplicius, have gravely told your Lordfliip''. LORD BOLINGBROKE. Every man's charadler is certainly moft dear to him; and every author has an undoubted right to be his own interpreter ; becaufe he himfelf fliould beft know his ov/n meaning, — ifhs has any meaning. " He who has clear and diftindl ideas ia ** his mind, will write clearly and diftindlly : and the author " who puzzles an attentive reader, is firfl puzzled himfelf""." You feem, Mofes, to be in this latter cafe ; fince, by your own account of the fate of your book of the generations of the hea- vens and the earth, you have, in every age, and in every country, puzzled every reader. Before, therefore, you attempt to lead me into fomewhat of the fpirit, and delign, of the author of the Book of Genefis ; give me leave, hkewife, to aflc you a very plain, but in jny opinion, a very material queftion. How is it pofiible, Mofes, that you fliould, with any gravity, pretend to interpret, what you do not underftand ? Have you not frankly confef- fed to me, that you were not acquainted with the fyPcem, which you, modeftly enough fay, is called by your name ' ? f Burnet. Archaeolog. p. 441. Edit. 2da. ^ Bolingbrokc, Vol.11, p. 350. ' See p. 2.7, M O S E S. DIALOGUE. MOSES. 43 " I am proud to have Lord Bolingbrokc on my fide '," and therefore your Lordfliip fliall anfwer this very plain, this very material queftion for me. You, My Lord, have faid j and it deferves to be written in letters of gold ; The Hijlory of the Bible mujl Jland on the bottotn of its oivn authority, independently of all other'. The Book of Genefis your Lordfliip acknowledges to be a Hiftory ; " The author of the Book of Genefis begins his " Hiftory, by building a world "." If, therefore, this Hiftory of the Creation muft ftand on the bottom of its own authority, in- dependently of all other; then, whether the author of the Book of Genefis underftood his own account of the creation, or not ; it can no more affedl the truth of what he has advanced, than the afcertaining, or the not afcertaining, of its author, would af- feifl the truth of the fame hiftory. For, as your Lordfliip, with great juftnefs, has obferved, " To eftablifh the credit of other *' hiftories, for I confider the Bible here, only as a hiftory, it is " not indeed fufiicient to afcertain the authors of them ; becaufe " thefe authors, being men, may have been deceived, or may ** have defigned to deceive. For this reafon their internal, as " well as external, proofs of authenticity, are examined ; and " they are received or rejedled, as they appear confiftent or *' inconfiftent, conformable or repugnant, to the obfervation " and experience of mankind "." — — Now, My Lord, fup- pofe me to have been the author of this Hiftory of Creation ; and that when I writ, I was unacquainted with the full and comprehenfive meaning of feveral pafTages in it ; it was abfo- lutely impofTible, My Lord, that in thofe pafTages, I fhould have deceived, or have defigned to deceive : My ignorance, therefore, of thofe pafTages is entirely out of the queftion ; for, the Hijiory » See Bolingbroke, Vol. II. p. 282. ' Vol. Id. p. 211. " Vol. V. p. 284. * Vol. II. p. 212. G 2 rmijl 44. MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, mujl Jland on the bottom of its own authority, independently of my knowledge, of any thing, except the plain narration of fuch and fuch fadls, as are there recorded to have been efFedled by the Creator ; and of the different times, in which any one, or more, of thofe effeds of the Divine Wifdom and Power were pro- duced : and though I had, myfelf, been deceived in thofe palTa- ges, my ignorance would flill have left the Hiflory, to ftand on the bottom of its own authority, independently of the confideration of my having been deceived. Here then, on your own principles. Lord Bolingbroke, is an internal proof of authenticity : let it be thoroughly examined ; and when I fliall have further explained myfelf to your Lordfhip, your Lordfhip fliall judge, whether what the " Legiflator of the Jews has advanced, concerning the firft principles, or beginning of things ; and the operation of a Divine Wifdom and Power in the production of them, is con- fiftent or inconfiftent, conformable or repugnant, to the obferva- tion and experience of mankind:" For, My Lord, I defire no more, than the application of the experience and obfervation of mankind, in the prefent improved ftate of philofophy, to my own interpretation of the Hiftory of the Creation of the heavens and the earth. LORD BOLINGBROKE. It is, perhaps, poffible, Mofes, that I may have been mif- taken with regard to your fyftem of creation ; though, if I have erred, I have erred with every ancient, and every modern, with- out exception. But fince you begin to talk like a philofopher, and fo confidently to affert, what no living writer ever dreamed of; keep me no longer in fufpenfe ; — tell me plainly, — what is this ftrange, this unknown fyftem of yours ? Strip your account of the firft principles and beginning of things, of all that is myfterious ; — of every thing that is dark and confufed, as your Fluid Chaos; where a man can find no place ADIALOGUE. 45 place to fet his foot, without finking into an Abyfs of abfurdi- ties;— Let there be lig&t i—znd if, out of this, equal-to pri- maeval darknefs, you produce light, — I will be dumb, and open my mouth no more, for ever. MOSES. My fyflem then. Lord Bolingbroke, or rather the fyftem of the Creator, how oddly foever it may found to moft ears, is the fame, that your Lordfhip embraced, in the other world ; as far as it relates to our fun, and its planets, &c. that is, " It is an ac- ** count, of the creation of the folar or planetary fyftem ; exclu- " five of every other being, or fyftem of beings, in the univerfe ;" — of that fyftem. My Lord, that " after having been loft, was ** renewed in the fixteenth century by Copernicus, confirmed ** and improved by Galilei and Keplar, and fince demonftrated •* by Newton"."— —As an hiftorian, I have given Mankind, the genefis, the generation, the origin, of the fun and its planets, &c. which compofe the fyftem ; with the original of their motions,. diurnal and annual. As philofophers, Copernicus, Galilei^ Keplar and Newton have given us, their diftances, magnitudes, motions, &c. and the Laws, which in the beginning were eftab- liftied by the Almighty Creator, for the continuation of thofe motions, and the confervation of the fyftem. LORD BOLINGBROKE. Impoflible ! — abfolutely impoffible ! MOSES. Don't be too pofitive. Lord Bolingbroke. You have read the Book of Genefis ; at leaft the firft chapters of it. Readers, My Lord, as well as Authors, being men, may have been de- ' Bolingbroke, Vol. V. p. 285. ceived. 46 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, ceived. Will Your Lordfhip grant me thefe two poflulates ? " That the world had a beginning ; and that God made the world. LORD BOLINGBROKE. »' That the world had a beginning, is fufficiently proved, by the ** univerfality of tradition ''." And if by God's making the world, you mean, " God willed it to exift, and it exifled %" it is ad- mitted. MOSES. Has your Lordfliip any objedlion to my calling the heavens and the earth, the world .'' LORD BOLINGBROKE. Not any. MOSES. Thus far, then, your Lordfliip and I are agreed ; that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; or God willed the heavens and the earth to exift, and they exifted. For as we cannot poffibly conceive any difference between the wi//, and the ^^, of the Divine Being, God willed the world to exift, and it exifted God faid. Let it exift, and it exifted, — or, fimply, God made the world, — are fynonymous expreftions. LORD BOLINGBROKE. And, what is all this to the creation of the folar, or planetary fyftem ? I have, indeed, admitted, that in the beginning God willed the heavens and the earth to exift, and they exifted : are y Bolingbroke, Vol. V. 379. » Vol. II. p. 59. we DIALOGUE. 47 we then fo foon agreed? in what? Why, that in the be- ginning God willed the earth and the circumambient air, or at- mofphere, or firmament, to exift ; and they exifled '. For you fay exprefsly, " that God called the firmament heaven ""j" and what higher authority can we have, fior the interpretation of the word heaven, than that of Him, who made it, and afiixed this de- terminate idea to the word? MOSES. I have already told your Lorddiip, that reader?, as well as au- thors, may have been deceived : here the critics and commen- tators have moil egregioufly deceived your Lordihip, and every reader, that implicitly follows in the track in which they have led you : for the firmament, or atmofphere, or circumambient air, (as I have before mentioned in this converfation) that God called heaven, was not made till the fecond day". Whereas I fpeak of the heaven, or rather the heavens, (for the Hebrew knows no fingular) that with the earth, were created, before there could poffibly be an evening and a morning, to confcitutc a. day. » " In-the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. That is," (fays tire learned Dr. Clayton) " In the beginning of the creation of this world, God cre- " ated the materials of which this terraqueous globe, together with its incumbent " atmofphere, were compofed. For, as I take it for granted, that by the word " Earth, Mofes meaneth this terraqueous globe, wliich we inhabit, ^o by the word " Heaven, I fuppofe he means only that atmofphere or firmament of air, which fur- " roundeth this globe of earth, and which dividing the waters that arc under the " firmament, from the waters that arc in the clouds above the firmament,. God, as " Mofes in another place exprefieth it, called Heaven ; it being the fame word in " the original, that is ufed in both thefc places." Vindication of the Hill, of the Old and New Teftament, Part II. p. 43. '' Gen. i. 8. ' Id. ibid. 2 LORD 48 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, LORD BOLINGBROKE. I fuppofe then, as the Hebrew has no fingular, you mean the three heavens of that " learned divine Matthew Poole," the aereal ; the place of birds, clouds, and meteors : the flarry j the region of the fun, the moon, and liars : and the higheft, or third hea- vens ; the dwelling of the blefled angels ■*. MOSES. No, My Lord ; the heavens, that in the beginning were cre- ated with the earth, are X.\\q heavenly bodies ; — the bodies of the fun, the moon, and the planets, &c. that are placed in the hea- ven, or firmament : and thefe, together with our earth, confti- tute the fyfhem of the creator. Now, My Lord, the fame- nefs of this, with the folar or planetary fyftem, will appear ex- tremely evident to a plain, and unlettered man, if he compares the two following paffages together. " Li the beginning God created the heaven, or heavens, and the earth':" and, " thus the heavens and the earth "were JiniJIjed, and, [even] all the hojl of them\" For, in whatever fenfe the word heaven, or hea- vens, is to be underftood in the one paffage, the plain man will, without the help of a critic, or commentator, naturally con- clude, it mufl have the fame meaning in the other. Now, if there be any clear and diflindl ideas contained in thefe two pafla- oes, your Lord(hip may find them clearly and diflindly expref- fed in the following paraphrafe. " In the beginning of time, as time is meafured to the inha- « bitants of the earth, and of every Planet in the fyftem, God " created the heavenly bodies; the fun, the moon, and the " other plahets, &c. and the earth. That is, " Out of nothing, " or from a ftate of non-exiftence, God willed, or commanded *■ Poole's Annotations. ' Gen. i. i. ^ Gen. II. i. 2 *' into A DIALOGUE, 49 " into being, the feveral diftind: mafles of matter, of which the ** fun, the moon, and the planets, &c. and our earth, do confift." " — — « Thus (in the manner defcribcd in the firfl: chapter) ** the heavens, the heavenly bodies, the fun, the moon, and *' the other planets, even all the hoft of them, &c. and the *' earth, were finillied."— — For, My Lord, though the ftyle of the Sacred Books, and that of modern philofophers differ, that difference cannot alter the nature of things : in the language of modern philofophers, the fun, the nvDon, and the other planets, 6cc. with the earth, are called the Solar, or Planetary Sj'ftem : in the language of the facred writers, the fame fun, the fame moon, and the fame planets, are called the Hofl of Heaven ; thefe, with our earth, which alio is a planet, conllitute the fame fyflem. Now, fmce your Lordfliip cannot be ignorant of the frequent apoflafies of the Ifraelites from the true God, and his worfhip, to idolatry ^ : and fmce it is evident, from the whole hiflory of this people, that the only objedls of their idolatrous worfliip were, all the hoft of heaven *" ; (for they were never once accufed, by their prophets, of worfliipping any other gods, than the Sun, and the Moon, and the Planets) -, your Lordfliip mufl admit, that the Heavens, the heavenly bodies, even all the hofl ■of them, that, in the beginning God created, with our earth; s — " A people fo flrongly addicE^ed, as the Ifraelites were, to the worftip of ** many gods." Vol. III. p. 122. •" Left thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when thou feeft the fun, and the ijnoon, and the ftars, even all the hoft them, (houldeft be driven to v/orlTiip them, and ferve than, which the Lord thy God haxh dividui [Heb. imparted] to all the jiatlons under heaven. Deut iv. ig. The moon and the ftars here, are evidently the planets in our Allem ; becaulc no other ftars in the firmament are divided, or imparted, to all the nations under heaven. And this notion is confirmed even by Lord Bolingbroke. " There is no " part of the world, from whence me may not admire thofe planets which roll, like " ours, in different orbits, round the fame central fun."' Letter? on the Study of " Hiftory. Vol. II. p. 24. II . that so MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, that thefe bodies, I fay, were no other, than the fun, the moon, and the planets, which conftitute the folar, or planetary fvilem. LORD B.OLINGBROKE. Is it pofTible, Mofes, that any man of common fenfe, who has ever heard of the folar fyftem, can be convinced of the fame- nefs of the two fyftems, by fiich arguments as thefe? Sup- pofe I ihould admit, that the fcriptural account of the hoft of heaven does fonietinies, (for it does not always) determine it to the fun, and the moon, and the other planets ; and that, with a little ftraining of the text, your heavens, may poffibly fignify the heavenly bodies, the fun, the moon, and the other planets ; yet thefe are but a few of thofe bodies, that compofe the folar, or planetary fyftem. What do you fay of the Satellites of Ju- piter, and of Saturn ? what can you fay of thofe immenfe, and amazing bodies, the Comets of our fyftem ? They rife and fet, in the fame manner as the fun and ftars j pafs through the re- gion of the planets j are evidently within the fphere of the fun's adion j and therefore muft necefTarily move about the fun, as the planets do. When were thefe numerous bodies created ? Will you gravely tell me, that they are air of them included in your account of the beginning of things ? MOSES. I have faid, and think I have proved to your Lordfhip, that my account is a hiflory of " the creation of the folar, or plane- " tary fyftem,, exclufive of every other being, or fyflem of be- ** ings in the univerfe:" and if your Lordfliip's prejudices could ** have fuffcred you to have attended to the plain proof of this propofition, your Lordfl^ip would not have afked me fuch a quef- tion. It is neccllary, therefore, that I fhould be a little more explicit A DIALOGUE. 5; explicit on this head. If the SatelHtes of Jupiter and Saturn, My Lord, and if the comets of our fyftem, are heavenly bodies, they muft every one of them be included in my account of crea- tion. That the Satellites of thefe planets (and of every other, that may, in a funilar manner, be attended) are of this fort, is evident from their landing in the fame relation to their refpeiftive primaries, as the moon flands in to our earth ; and bccaufe they are in the fame manner. Jet in the firmament of the heaven, as fhe is. And the comets, (whatever their number, or how different foever their paths may be,) that your Lordlhip admits, are within the fphereof the fun's a> Ifa. xlv. 18. ' " Shall we not be perfuaded — that as there is a gradation of fenfe and intel- " ligence here from animal beings imperceptible to us, for their minutenefs, with- " o\it the help of microfcopes, and even with them, up to man, in whom, though " this be their higheft ftage, fenfe and intelligence flop fliort, and remain very im- " perfect ; fo there is a gradation from man, through various forms of fenfe, in- " tclligence, and reafon, up to beings who cannot be known by us, becaufe of their diftance from us, and whofe rank in the intelletSual fyftem is even above our conception?" Vol. IV. p. 320. ?l them DIALOGUE. 59 them in a fimilar manner, and by the fame means ; that Is, by a fuccinft account of the creation of the fame fyftem, and the par- ticulars of the formation of their refpedive planets. The fum. My Lord, is this If the fyftem, the genefis of which I have given, is one ; if the ftate of all the bodies of which it confifts, was, at the time of their creation, one ; if the manner, and the time of the formation, of all the primary pla- nets, and their moons, were one j and lallly, if the foundation of the fubjediion of all their inhabitants, to the moral govern- ment of the fovereign Lord of the Univerfe, was one j thefe confiderations will lead, and even conftrain us, no more to doubt that thefe feveral worlds have had their refpedlive revelations, than your Lordlhip doubts of their being inhabited, like ours. Nay, My Lord, I am well perfuaded, that if your LordHiip could now be permitted to make the grand tour of the planets, that re- volve about every fixed flar in the boundlefs univerfe ; your Lord- fhip would return with a more favourable opinion of the writer of the Book of Genefis, upon your finding in each of them — a book of the generations of the heavens, and of the planet ; that is, of the planet, and the fyjlem to which it belongs. But let us at prefent keep to our own fyflem ; and, Mj'^ Lord, (to convince you that I was no flatterer of my fpecles,) if your Lordfhip will hear me patiently, I fliall confider the Earth as a heavenly body, and fnaii as an ideal creature^ ;" for your Lordihip thinks, that '* our planet might have been, even uninhabited, " very fit for all the mechanical purpofes of it in the material fyftem':" and I beg your Lordfliip to confider the writer of the Book of Genefis, as an inhabitant of the planet Jupiter, to whom an account of the creation of that world, and the fyfiiem * 5ee p. 54. J Bolingbroke, Vol. IV. p. 330. I 2 to 6o MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, to wliich it belongs, had been communicated by the Creator, a« a moil rational foundation of the allegiance of its numerous in- habitants to Iiir>!) that made the Heavens and y/z/'/^t'r. -— — Hear then. Lord Bolingbroke, *' an account of the iirft principles and " beginning of things, and the operations of a Divine Wifdom " and Power, in the produftion of them," from a neighbour-pla" net ; as far as it relates to the creation and formation of the fyf- fem, and of that planet, as a planet : for, as to thofe particu- ]ars, in which Jupiter differs from our earth, in its apparatus, or in its various kinds of inhabitants, your Lorddiip muft excufe me, fince they belong to a particular revelation, made to that pla- net alone. GENESIS. Chap. I. 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and Jupiter. 2 And Jupiter was without form and void, and darknefs was upon the face of the deepj and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ^ And God faid. Let there be light : and there was light. 4 And God faw the light, that it was good : and God divided the light from the darknefs. 5 And God called the light day, and the darknefs he called night : and the evening and the morning were the firft day. And God faid. Let # «^ * « # # # and the evening and the morning were the fecond day. And God faid. Let #»####» and the evening and the morning were the third day. 6 And God faid. Let there be a firmament in the midfl of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was fo. .1 '8 And ADIALOGUE. 6r 8 And God called the firmament heaven : and the evening and the morning v\'ere the fourth day. And God faid, Let ##*#«»* and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God faid. Let ######« and the evening and the morning were the fixth day. 9 And God faid. Let the waters under the heaven be gather- ed together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was fo. 10 And God called the dryland Jupiter; and the gathering together of the waters called he feas : and God faw that it was good, 1 1 And God faid. Let Jupiter bring forth # » # 4^ # # « and it was fo. 1 2 And Jupiter brought forth ^%%%%%% and God faw that it was good. 1 3 And the evening and the morning were the feventh day. And God faid. Let ##*##*# and the evening and the morning were the eighth day. 14 And God faid. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night : and let them be for figns, and for feafons, and for days, and years. 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon Jupiter : and it was fo. 16 And God made five great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the leffer lights to rule the night : the f^ars alfo. 1 7 And God fet them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon Jupiter, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to di- vide the light from the darknefs : and God faw that it was good. J9 And 62 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, 19 And the evening and the morning were the ninth day. And God faid, Let *###### and the evening and the morning were the tenth day. And God faid, Let ####### and the evening and the morning were the eleventh day. 20 And God faid. Let the waters bring forth abundantly •jLl ^- jfc. 4^ ^ ^ ^k. ^ ^ W W^ ^ ^ w 21 And God created ####### and God faw that it was good. 22 And God bleffed them ##*»*#* 23 And the evening and the morning were the twelfth day. And God faid. Let ####*## and the evening and the morning were the thirteenth day. 24 And God faid, Let Jupiter bring forth the living creature ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^w ^If ■^ w "^ ^fp "^ 25 And God made **#*##* and God faw diat it was good. 26 And God faid, let us make #####*# and let him have dominion over ####### 27 So God created ####### 28 And God bleffed them #»#»### 29 And God faid. Behold I have given you ******* 30 And to every ******* and it was fo. 31 And God faw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the fourteenth day. C H A P. IL \ Thus the Heavens and Jupiter were finiflied, and [even] all the hoft of thena, - 2 And A D I A L O G U E. 63 2 And on the fifteenth day God ended his work which he had made : and he refted on the fifteenth day from all his work, which he had made. 3 And God blefled the fifteenth day, and fanftified it ; becaufe that in it he had refted from all his work, which God created to make. 4 Thefe are the generations of the Heavens and of Jupiter, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made Jupiter and the Heavens ; 5 And every plant of the field, before it was in Jupiter, and every herb of the field, before it grew :************ And now. Lord Bolingbroke, fince we have taken a general view of the creation of the folar fyftem, from this truly magni- ficent planet ; let me fuppofe your Lordfliip to have been born, (or perhaps you might have come into being, in a very different manner,) in the planet Jupiter : /?y the book of the generations of the Heavens and of Jupiter, you would find, that the author, in de- fcribing the feveral changes wrought on the chaos of that planet, muft have been much more minute, than I have been with re- gard to ours, without fo much as mentioning our Earth, or any other primary planet in the fyfiem : can your Lordfliip now think of no better a reafon, for fo particular a defcription of the forma- tion of his planet, than that the author defigned to fatter his ffecies, as if they were the final caife of the fyftem ? Would it not be fufficient to conclude, that he had been fo very minute, in de- fcribing the feveral changes wrought on the chaos of Jupiter, with- out mentioning any other primary, becaufe Jupiter was their home? becaufe it was the habitation, that the Creator had defigned, and builded, for thefn ? For, My Lord, I muft take the liberty to fay, there can be no better (if there can be any other) reafon afligned, for building an habitation of any kind, than that it ihould be inhabited. The final caufe of a houfe is the man, or the 64 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, the family, that is particularly defigned to live in it. Since, therefore, " your Lordfliip is led, and even conftrained to fup- *' pofe all the planetary inhabitants'"," it will neceffary follow, from your own principles, contrary to your Lordfliip's repeated infinuations ", " that the planets, which revolve about every fix- " ed ftar in the univerfe, were made for their refpedtive inhabi- " tants, and not they, for the planets." By this time your Lordfliip mufl fee, that " the WJlory of the *' Creation Jlands on the bottom of its ow7i authority, independently ■" of all other ° :" and, I think, I may now prefume to fay, that here is fuch a demonftration, of the juftnefs and propriety of what I have advanced, concerning the firft principles and beginning of things, as far as relates to the folar fyflem j that nothing is want- ing to confirm, and for ever to fix, the literal interpretation of the firft chapters of Genefis, except the application of the fame doc- trine, to every other ^r/)«^ry ^/2«f/. And, My Lord, fuch is the amazing confiftency, and conformity, of the fevcral parts of the narration, that if ever there was, or ever can be, any internal proof of the authenticity of any ancient writings, here it is to be found : and certain I am, that as he alone, that could W// the immenfe materials into exiftence, and difpofe the feveral bodies into a fyftem, could tell mankind, that he commanded every part of the amazing whole to be, what it is ; io he alone could defcribe the beginning, and the progrefs of this great event, in words iofew, yet iofull, and comprehenfive, as to fuit every planet in the fyflem ; infomuch, that on the fuppofition, that the other planets have had their revelations, they can have had no other account of the creation and formation of the fyftcm, than what I have given mankind ; nor of their own planet, except in thofe par- ticulars, in which they differ from ours. " See p. 54, * See p. 54. • See p. 43. On ADIALOGUE. 65 On this article, I have already explained myfclf to your Lord- fliip, by an example of one of the mofl remarkable particulars, in which the planet 'Jupiter and our Earth differ; which differ- ence naturally flows, from the very different periods of their re- volution about their refpeftive axes ; and confequently, from the difference of the days on the Earth, and on "Jupiter, on which the feveral afts of the Divine Power were exerted in their for- mation. On this difference, My Lord, is founded the difference of the will of God, concerning a day of rcji, to the inhabitants of the feveral planets in our fyflem. This brings to my mind, what your Lordfliip has boldly advanced, viz. " That God's " will, relatively to his human creatures, is revealed to them in ** the conftitution of their fyffem ''." If this obfervation were a jufl one, your Lordfliip muff: admit, that God's will relatively to the feveral orders of his intelligent creatures, the inhabitants of every other planet, is likewife revealed to them, in the con- ftitution of their fyftem : but their fyflcm is the fame with oursj w^ill it not therefore neceffarily follow, that God's will, rela- tively to his rational creatures, in every planet in the folar fyflem, is the fame ; for the fyflem is one : and will it not likewife fol- low, that the inhabitants of every planet are human creatures ? or, if they be of different natures, yet God's will, relatively to them, is the fame, as it is to us ; becaufe it is revealed to us, and to them, in the conftitution of one, even the fame fyffem ? But, My Lord, with refpedl to mankind, the obfervation is by no means a juff one ; it is falfe in fadl. Your^Lordflnp's princi- ples have manifeftly led you, to apply to the J'o/nr, what is only applicable to the human, fyjlem, when you pufli this obfervation of yours as far as you can carry it, by faying, " When — we have ** reafoned a pojieriori from the works to the will of God, from " the conflitution of the fyftem wherein we are placed by him, f Bolingbroke, Vol. V, p. 310. K " to 66 MOSES AND B O L I N G B R O K E, " to our interefl: and duty in it, we fliall have laid the founda- " tion of morality on a rock''." For what morality. My Lord, is there, or can there be, in the folar Jyjlem ? or what is our in- terefl and duty in it, that can poffibly be deduced from the con- jlitiition of a planetary JyJlcm ? No, My Lord ; the faSi is quite otherwife : " The will of God, relatively to his human crea- " tures, was originally revealed to them, in the conftitution " — not of the folar, but of the human, fyftem. The will, the law, of God, was, at their creation, writ in the heart of the firft .man, and of the firft woman, who were produced in full ftrength 'and vigour of body and mind "■. It was wrought, as I may fay, into the conftitution of the human fyftem ; and, My Lord, if that fyftem. had continued to this day, as perfedt in its kind, as the folar has done, man would have ftood in need of no other revelation, to inform him of his intereft and duty, as a moral agent': for in all his thoughts, words, and adtions, he would, as naturally, have conformed himfelf to this will of God, thus revealed in the conftitution of the human fyftem j as the fun, and. all the planets, and comets, conform themfelves to the laws of their fyftem, which from the beginning were eft^bliftied by the Creator. But this confideration. My Lord, belongs to our moral fyftem, with which I had determined not to have troubled your Lord- •i Bolingbroke, Vol. III. 384. ' " If we are perfuaded — that this world and the inhabitants of it, had a be- " ginning in time, we muft of neceflity affume, that the firfl men, and the firft " women, or that one man and one woman, at leaft, were produced in full ftrength «' of body and mind." Bolingbroke, Vol. IV. p. 43. ' " All the inhabitants of fome other planet, may have been, perhaps, from «« their creation, united in one great fociety, fpeaking the fame language, and liv- " in" under the fame government ; or too perfect iy their natun, to need the rcjiralnt <■<• of any" Bolingbroke, Vol. IV. p. 45. fllipi ADIALOGUE. 67 (hip ; nor Indeed fhould I have taken any notice of this founda- tion of our knowledge of the will of God, that was originally laid in the conftitution of the human fyftem, but to Hiew the fallacy of your Lordfhip's reafoning on this head ; and, in my turn, to obferve to your Lordfhip, " That a fabbath, or day of refl, is the only part of the will of God, relatively to his human crea- tures, 'that has any, even the leafl connexion, with the folar fyf- tem:" but then this connexion has nothing to do with the conftitution of the fyftem, or any of the bodies of which it confifts, but with the creation of the fyftem, and the for- mation of the fun and the planets, &c. It is the will of God, difcovcred to us in a pofitive inftitution, deduced by the Creator himfelf, from the number of the earth's revolutions about her axis, till the whole fyftem was finifl^ed. yet further, My Lord, as there was the fame reafon for the feparation of a day of reft to the inhabitants of one planet, as another, I fcruple not to affert, that it is more than probable, in the higheft degree, that a fimilar pofitive inftitution of a folemn day of reft, took place, at the creation, in every planet of our fyftem : but as the revolution of the feveral planets about their axes, produced days of diff'erent duration from ours ; and as it was on our fixth day that the fyftem was finiflied, their fabbaths muft have begun, on that day, on their refpedlive planets, that coincided with the beginning of our feventh day. There are yet, IVIy Lord, two very matei^al articles wanting, to complete my account of the creation ; the formation of light, and the inftitution of the annual motion of the earth and the other planets about the fun : articles, that your Lordfliip would little expedl to find fettled — in the Book of Genefis ; efpecially in thofe very paflages which your Lordftiip has produced in your heavy charge of abfurdity in my phyfical fyftem. " It was not K li " neceflary," 68 MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE, •' neceflary," (it feems) " I fhould tell the Ifraelites, that light •* was created, and the diftindtion of night and day, of evening and " morning, were made before the fun, the moon, and the ftars, " which were fet in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day *♦ from the night, and to be for figns, and for feafons, and for days, " and for years'." On the contrary. My Lord, my dodtrine is. plainly this ; — That the bodies of the fun, the moon, and every planet and comet, in the fyftem, were created before light was formed. For it was in the beginning of time, on the beginning of the ftrli day, that they with the earth, came out of the hands of the Creator, mere mafles of matter, each of them a diftinft fluid chaos ; without form, and void of motion, light, and heat.. That the firfl acfl of the Divine Being, in the formation of thefe bodies, was, his communicating to them a violent motion, round their refpedlive axes : The fecond, which was effedled the fame moment of time, was the formation of light, when God faid, — Let there be light , and there v/as light. This is the pafTage on which your Lordfliip has lavifhed your praifes, for its gran- deur and fublimity ". Strange ! that fublimity fliould be the pa- rent of abfurdity ! that the fame pafTage fhould be greatly fublime, and fublimely abfurd ! -But, pray. My Lord, in what does the fublimity of this noble pafTage " confift ? — not in the didlion; (for the words are fo fimple and plain, that no words, in any language, can be more plain and fimple,) but in the fentiment;, in the fenfe of the pafTiige, confidered difl:indlly from the lan- guage. If I had told the Ifraelites, that God laid. Let there, be; light, and there was light, before the fun, the moon, and the ftars, were created; inilead of, befc in the fir- maments of their refpedtive heavens, to give light upon the earth, [and upon every primary planet] and to rule over their days, and their nights', and to divide the light of every day, from the dark- nefs of every night, on each of them. And God faw that it wa& good — He faw, that the divifions of time, the difference of fea- fons, the variety of days, on every planet, were effefted, by fet- ting thefe lights in the firmaments of their refpedive heavens. • And the evening and tlie morning, (on our earth) were the fourth day. Now, My Lord, if the divifions of time, the difference .of feafons, the variety of days and nights, on every planet in the fyllem, are effected by, and ablblutely depend upon, the annual motion of the planets, in their refpedive orbits, about one, even the fame great light, the fun ; then God's fetting thefe lights in tlieir firmaments, and his impreffing the planets, &c. with that compound motion, which carries them round the fun, are but diffe- rent defcriptions of one, even the fame adl, of the Divine Power, when God laid the corner ftone of the folar, or planetary fyflem. Thus have I told your LordHiip what my fyflem is, 1 have, at your requeft, ffripped my account of the firft principles and beginning of things, of all that critics and commentators have rendered myfterious ; of every thing that they, and they alone,. have made dark and confufed, as the chaos itfelf. Sure,. Lord Bolingbroke, I may " now be confidered as appointed •> "ZufialA S'iivTuv'iKA^uv [rtiK nAaraTftif] momatti h Qio<, E0HKFN in t«< t-:- piipfifu<, a.( « 9aT«p» Tif,ioJ''Q- nil, i'yria, tvaat, hvja. i^?*- Ipjarum ergo planetanim cor- pora ita fabrefaaa isf comfofita, collocavit Deus ad motus et circuitus quas aherius motus deducit, fepUni quidem llios, quum lit ipfi planetee fmt Jeptcnu Plato in Ti- m.-co, Tom. III. p. 38. 4 " and jz MOSES AND BOLINGBROKE. ** and infpired by God to write, not only for my own age, but ** for all future ages, for the mofl enlightened,, as well as for the " mofl ignorant": What can you now fay. My Lord, to my phyfical fyftem?. Only apply, to every primary planet, what I have faid of Jupiter, and your Lordfliip will be able to form as many demonftrations, of the truth of my Hiflory of Creation, and of the juftnefs of my own interpretation, of the firfl chapters of Genefis, as there are primary planets in the fyflem. LORD BOLINGBROKE. MOSES. I fay, My Lord, If you will but apply to Saturn, Mars, -Ve- nus, and Mercury, what I have faid of Jupiter, your Lordfhip will be furprized, with as many clear evidences, and fenfible de- monftrations, of the truth of my hiftory, as there are primary planets in the folar fyftem. LORD BOLINGBROKE. ' " Mofes mud be confidered as appointed and infpired by God, to write, not " only for his own age, but for all future ages ; for the moft enlightened, as well " as for the mofl: ignorant : in which cafe, that his hiftory might anfwer the defigns " of Eternal Wifdom, it fliould have been proportioned to the ignorance of the If- *' raelites, as little able to underftand one fyftem of philofophy, as another; without " giving fo much reafon to people, better informed, to believe him as ignorant as " any uninfpired writer could be." Bolin. Vol. V. p. 370, 371. A. MOSES. ADIALOGUE. 73 MOSES. You give me no anfwer, My Lord! Well, Lord Boling- broke, I find you are as good as your word : your filence, there- fore, obliges me to put an end to a converfation, that I perceive is become not a little difagreeable to your LordHiip : yet fuiter me to take my leave, with one ihort expoftulation. Why did your Lordfhip pay no regard to the prophecy of your friend Pope? Was it, becaufe it was equivocal, or ob- fcure""? " If ever Lord Bolingbroke trifles, it mujl be when " he turns Divine'." Revelation, My Lord, is the very bafis of divinity. Why did not Lord Bolingbroke " fear to go out " of his depth, in founding" [thefe] " imaginary fords, that " are real gulphs, and wherein many of the talleft philofophers ** have been drowned, whilft none of them ever got over to the ** fcience they had in view*^?" LORD BOLINGBROKE. Alas ! Mofes Though your account of the beginning of things had been no other, than of the creation of our fyflem — filence, fliame, and confufion, would befl become me, for my fet- tled and inveterate hatred of your very name ; and for the unjufl cenfure, and rude reproach, with which, in the wantonnefs of contempt, I have fo often wounded your venerable charafter. ■ But — ten thoufand daggers pierce my foul, at the thoughts of your moral {y Htm. 1 want no interpretation; no proof of "^ " The meaning of them [prophecies] is always equivocal and obfcure." Bolin. Vol. IV. p. 283. ' " Lord Bolingbroke never trifles, when he writes of any thing in this world, *' he is more than mortal. If ever he trifles, it muft be when he turns Divine." Letter to Dr. Swift, Decemb. loth, 1725. in Biographia Britannica. ' Bolin. Vol. V. p. 106. L that. 74 MOSES A WD BOLINGBROKE. that. I too plainly fee the connexion between your Hiftory of the Creation, and of the Fall — hxit I feel t\ic truth of the latter, in every nerve. Oh Adam f dare I fay f No Oh Bo- lingbroke ! Is this thy gi-atitude to " the Author of Nature, " who was gracioufly pleafed to beflow on thee a larger portion of " the ethereal fpirit, than is given in the ordinary courfe of his pro- " vidence, to the fons of men^?" Why! Oh — why was I ** one of thofe few, and but a few, who engrolTed almoft the whole " reafon of the fpecies ! who were born ta inftrudl, to. guide, and ■** to preferve ! who were defigned to be tutors, and the guardi- *' ans of mankind'' ! " Oh ! that I had been a defpifed ancho- rite, or a blind enthufiaft, rather than ^' to have apj^lied my ta- ^' lents to other purpofes'!" Have not I, by this mifappll- cation, *' committed a moil facrilegious breach of truil:''.?" Have not I " perverted the means; defeated, as far as lay in *' me, the defigns of providence ; and dillurbed, in fome fort, " the fyflem of Infinite Wifdom ' ? " *' To mifapply thefe talents, " is the mofl diffufed, and therefore, the greateft of crimes, in "** its nature and confequences"."' Oh! L n! how fe- verely, yet with what juftnefs and propriety, hafl thou oppofed thy own amiable and godlike character to mine! How artfully hafl thou contrived, to make my once-valued, my too-prophetic, friend, to form the contraft, by putting into his mouth thofe heart-rending words : " Witty writings, diredled to ferve the ** good ends of religion and virtue, are like the lights hung out ** in a pharos, to guide the mariners fafe through dangerous feas : *' but the brightnefs of thofe that are impious or immoral, fhines ■^' only to betray, and lead men to deftrudion "." * Letters on the Spirit of Patriotifm, p. lo. » Id. ibid. i Id. ibid. ^ Id. ibid. ■' Id. p. II. •» Id. ibid. ^ Dialogues of the Dead, p. 151. 4th Ed. ADDENDA { 75 ] Addenda & Corrigenda. PAGE I ^. At the end of the note ij) the followmg ought ta have been infer t ed : " Dicitur autem Deus per Allegoriani *• videre, audire, loqui, ridere, amare, odio habere, cupere, " dare, accipere, gaudere, irafci, pugnare, fabricare, condere, ** conftruere. Nam Sermo omnis de Deo e rebus humanis per *' Similitudinem aliquam defumitur, non perfetlam quidam, led- *' aliqualem tamen." Newtoni Princip. Scholium generale. Page 20. Line 5. from the bottom. To the word Clay, the^ following Jiote JJjould have been added: " Hominem ex luto forma- *' turn [docuit] Hefiodus, Operibus ac Diebus. Homerus, Ilia- " dos H. Callimachus, cui in Scazonte Homo n>jAo5 6 IIpo/ujjGoos, " Lutum Protnetheiwi. Hujus Luti mentio & apud Juvenalem " & apud Martialem. Adde Cenforini Locum : Democrito vero " Abderitce ex aqua limoque primum vifum eft Homines procrea-» " tos, nee longe fecus EpicurKS." Grotius de Verit. Rel. Chrifti p. 40. Page 33. Line I. To fphere JI:oiild have been added m the text, the folloiving paragraph : " The mutual attradlion of their " Parts caufes the drops of every fluid body to take upca •* them a fpherical figure ; in the fame manner as the earth and " the feas are formed into a perfedl fphere, by the mutual At- " traction of their parts, which is gravity. L z Jnd 76 ADDENDA & CORRIGENDA. And in the tnargin, as a note to gravity, the following lines: *' Guttae Corporis cujufque fluidi, ut figuram globofam inducere *' conentur, facit mutua partium fuarum Attradlio j eodem modo ♦' quo Terra Mariaque in rotunditatem undique conglobantur, ** Partium fuarum Attraftione mutua, qua; eft Gravitas." New- •' ton. Opt. p. 338. Page 53. Line lafl:, The note fioiild have been added in the ori^ ginal: " Vidimus Solem denfis maculis quandoque faciem ob- •" dudlum : Legimufque per aliquot Dies pallidum, obfcurum, & " quafi extrema jam in Morte luftantem ; is autem qui aegrotat, " potefl: mori : & quod uni accidit, aliis ejufdem generis (conge- " neres autem funt omnes fixa;) accidere poteft. Fixas igitur ** funt extinguibiles : Extinguitur autem Fixa, cum, crafTo Ma- " cularum cortice, quem perrumpere non poteft, obtefta, in cor- " pus obfcurum & opacum degenerat 3 quale quiddam eft Pla- *' neta." Burnet. Arch. p. 413. Edit. ada. Page 69. Line 10. After philofophy, /Zwc/c/ have bee7i added, [which perfedlly coincides with the opinion of the ancients *.] with the following note: " * Solem non elTe Lucem primigeniam, ** fed Lucis Receptaculum, S'oyjiy.ct xai o;^;;>^,wa. to ttuoos, ut & " veterum Chriftianorum quidam loquitur, agnovit & Empedocles,. ** de quo Lmrttus, tov ■nXiov n(ri Tvpoi ct9poio-/Aa. fjisya,. Solem " dicebat magnum efie acervum ignis." Grotius, ut fupra. p. 36. " Anaxagoras, Democritus, Metrodorus, folem maflam quan- " dam ignitam dicebant. Id. ibid." i ERRATA. ERRATA. T) AGE 5. Line 18. for . put ! ■*- P. lo. L. 25. 2ihQV hafredt dele of, and infer t againji op" prejjion and P. 26. L. ult. in the note, before Vol. infert Bolingbroke, P. 46. L. 2. after begmning, and L. 3 before that^ and after •world, place inverted commas. P. 56. L. lafl but one, after ambiguous^ infert and obf cure. I N D E X. ABSURDITY of the poetical generation of the fun, from water, or a fluid chaos, — — ■ " ■ Page 25 Aftion, extraordinary of God, on the human mind, not more inconceiv- able, than the ordinary acStion of mind, on body, and of body, on mind. ' ' ■ ■ ■ 17 Account of the creation, no oiher than the IMofaic, can be given to any other planet. ' • 64 Authenticity of the Mofaic creation, - ■ — — ibid. Bible, its hiftory (lands on the bottom of its own authority, independent- ly of all other, ■ 43 Book of the generations of the heavens and Jupiter. 60 — 63 Breath of life, its communication to the firft man, not to be known, but by revelation. ' « — — . 2> Chaos, the notion of a fluid, not to be deduced from any of the phas- nomena, in nature. ■ ■ • — ■•- 24 Chaos, fluid, the notion prior to the doftrine of the mundane egg. 30. 3« • derived from Mofes. 3 t Comets, of our fyftem, included in the MoQic account of creation 51 Cofmogony, of Ariftophanes. 26 . — of Sanchoniatho. > ■ — 25 Dcifls, confirmed in their oppofition to Mofes, by the friends of Mofes, 40 Earth, its original figure, a perfect fphere, • 32, ^^ ■ • its prelent figure, an oblate fpheroid. ■ • 33, 34 . its diurnal motion communicated. 39 ■ its annual motion communicated. ~ • 71 Egg mundane, the doftrine of. — ■- 30 n the fins;ular ufe of this dodtrine. r- ibjtJ, Egyptians, their wifdom and learning of no ufe to Mofes, in writing of creation. 23 Figures, necefliary to language. 1 ■ j^ Gencfis, the firfl: chapter of, a journal of the creation. • 6 Heavens, of Moles, the heavenly bodies. - ■ 48 X Iloft I N D E X, Hoft of heaven, the fun, the moon, and the planets. — — 45 Ideas, intellectual ; not to be franncd, but from the relation they bear to material objecfts. ~ — - . j^ intelledual, not to be contemplated naked, without the drefs of words. ic Images, taken from the human, neceflary to our conceptions of the Di- vine, nature. — — 14^ ic Incubation, the doflrine of, fathered on Mofes. • 27 — — — — — founded on the blunders of his interpreters, 31 "Infpiration, the original image from whence the metaphor was taken, ig • an extraordinary adtion of God, on the human mind. 17 ■ extreme propriety af the term. ■ ip, 20 Language, neceflTary to fignify our ideas, even to ourfelves. 16, 17 Light, its formation. ' ■ go let there be, and there was light ; wherein the fublimity of this pafTage confifts. ■ _____ 63 -Moon and ftars, the planets of our fyftem. . — — 40 Mofes, his mifTion to his brethren proved to be divine. 11, 12, 12 his fyftem, and Lord Bolingbrokc's the fame. 45 — ■ ' ignorant of his own fyllem. ■ _^— oy • mifunderftood, and grofsly mifreprefented by the learned. 40, 41 Origin of the earth, according to Dr. Halley. . r2 •■ Mr. Whifton, ibid. Mr. Leibnitz. ■ -. ibid. of the planets, according to Dr. Burnet. ■ ■ ^o of the planetary fyftem, according to Mr. BufFon. ^— - 52 Planetary inhabitants, the final caufeofthe fyftem. ■ 6j Proof, internal, of the authenticity of the Mofaic creation. — — 64 Revelation, runs parallel with creation. • 57 Sabbaths, or days of reft, appointed to every primary planet in the fyf- ftem. ■ — — _— . ^_ -67 Satellites of Jupiter, included in the Mofaic creation, — — 51 ■'Will of God, revealed to the firft human pair, in the conftitution of the human fyftem. •■ ■- > ■■ 65 THE END. THE MOSAIC THEORY OF THE SOLAR, OR PLANETARY, SYSTEM. Veritas eft temporis filia quam parit aliquando unico nixu, aliquando diutius in partu laborat. Nova et infolita fxpe difplicent primo afpedtu, quae tamen fecundae cogita- tiones, vel aetas poftera, ubi deferbuerint animi, rata habent, et ration! confen- tanea. Hoc in nonnuUis dogmatis expert! fumus, in aliis, opinor, experturi. Burnet. Archaohg. />. 524. Ed, %d(h By SAMUEL P Y E, M. D. Author of Moses and Bolingbroke. LONDON: Printed for W. S a n d b y, in Fleet-flreet. M.DCC.LXVI. PREFACE. ENcouragcd by the very favourable reception of a late Dialogue, in defence of the chara6ler and writings of Moses, the Author propofes to re- fume the argument, by purfuing his original plan ; which was, critically to examine the History of Creation, as contained in the firft chapters of GcTiefis ; and by com- paring the feveral paiTages in that hiftory, with the late improvements in natural philofophy, to offer to the Public a New Theory, not of the Earth alone, but of the Solar, or Planetary System, on M(?/2j:/c prin- ciples. For, as the Earth is but a fmall part of that affem- blage of globes, which conftitute the planetary fyftem, and is itfelf a planet, it is natural to fuppofe, that the Earth is coeval with the other bodies of the fame fyftem. And as we cannot pofUbly conceive of a planet, without a fun ; or of the ufe of a fun, but for the fake of one, at leaft, or more planets, to roll about him ; it is equally natural to fuppofe, that all the bodies, in one and the fame fyftem, were made at one and the fame time. A 2 If, 4 PREFACE. If, therefore, from the Mofaic hiftory of creation, it can be made to appear, that this was the cafe in his fyftem, iince the Earth ftands in fo clofe a connexion with the other bodies, it cannot eafily be conceived, that a rational and philofophical theory can be formed of the Earth, imlefs we can frame a rational, confiftent, and philofophical theory of the System to which it belongs. But as in this new argument Moses is to be com- pared with Copernicus, and many of the readers of the £rfl: chapters oi Ge?2ejis are not acquainted with his doc- trine, it will be neceflary, for the ufe of fuch perfons, to premife a brief defcription of the planetary fyftem. This fyflem (in the words of Dr. Pefnberton) is " dif- pofed in the following manner. In the middle is placed the Sun. About him fix globes continually roll. Thefe are the primary planets; that which is neareft to the fun is called Mercury, the next Venus, next to this our Earth, the next beyond is Mars, after him Jupiter, and the outermoft of all Saturn. Be- sides thefc, there are difcovered in this fyftem, ten other bodies, which move about fome of thefe pri- mary planets, in the fame manner as they move round the Sun. Thefe are called fecondary planets. The moft confpicuous of them is the Moon, which moves round our Earth ; four bodies move in like manner 4 ** round PREFACE. 5 << round Jupiter, and five round Saturn. Thofe which move about Jupiter and Saturn are ufually called Sa- tellites, and cannot be feen without a telefcopc. It *' is not impofllble, but there may be more fecondary planets befides thefe, though our inftrumcnts have not yet difcovered them." (C (( Now on the face of the Mofaic account of creation, there manifeftly appear three principal parts of a plane- tary fyftem ; the Earth is expreffed by name, and the two great lights of Moses, can be no other than the Sun, and the Moon. Here then is a fun, one primary, and- one fecondary planet. If, therefore, thefe three bodies can- not be conceived to be any parts of a planetary fyftem, but on the principles of Copernicus^ thoi'e principles (if Mofcs be a confiftent writer) muft be, either exprefled in, or manifeftly deducible from, the hiftory of the creation,, and formation of thefc bodies. For, if the fyftem of Copernicus ever had a beginning, (and Mofes has given an account of the beginning of fuch a fyftem,) the principles of the fyftem of Copernicus muft have been the fame, on which the Mofaic was formed : or, in other words, the principles by which the Copernican fubfifts, are the fame, on which the Mofaic was founded. There 6 PREFACE. There is a noble paflage in the pofthumous works of Lord BoLiNGBROKE% " The hijlory of the Bible muji " Jlmid on the bottom of its own authority, independently *' of all other.'" If this proportion be ftricftly and li- terally true, (as has been elfewhere demonftrated *•, let us apply it to the hiftory of the creation, as contained in the iirft chapter of Genefis, and it will run thus, " The hiftory of creation muft ftand on the bottom of " its own authority, independently of all other," — in- dependently of the authority of all critics, all commen- tators, yewijh and ChrifHait, ancie7it and modern. — Let the hiftory then fpeak for itfelf. ' Bolingbroke, Vol. 11. p. 2ri. " See Mofes and Bolingbroke, p. 43, 44. THE THE MOSAIC THEORY OF THE SOLAR, or PLANETARY, SYSTEM. CHAPTER I. Genesis, Chap. I. Ver. 1. TN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2. W And the earth was without form, and void ; and -*" darknefs was upon the face of the deep j and the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the waters. 3. And God faid. Let there be light ; and there was light. 4. And God faw the light, that it was good : and God divided the light from the darknefs. 5. And God called the light, Day, and the darknefs he called Night ; And the evening and the morning were the firft day. 6. And God faid. Let there be a firmament in the midft of the waters ; and let it divide the waters from the waters. y. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was fo. 8. And God called the firmament heaven : and the evening and the morning were the fecond day. 9. And God faid. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was fo. 4 10. And 8 rhe MOSAIC T H E O R Y o/" Vcr. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas : and God faw that it was good. i-^. And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14. x\nd God faid. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night : and let them be for figns, and for feafons, and for days, and years. 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth : and it was fo. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the Day, and the lelTer light to rule the night : the ftars alio. 17. And God fet them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, 18. And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkuefs.:, and God faw that it was good. >■»-> : —r"^ r''t r":;rf •'•'.',•""}■ 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 31. And God faw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the fixth day. Chap. II. I. Thus the heavens and the earth were finifhed, and all the ^ hoft of them. 4. Thefe are the generations of the heavens, and of the earth» when they were created ; in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. From thefe words of Mofes the following Propofitions may be fairly deduced. P JR O p. I. That the Mofaic creation is an hiflorical account of the crea- tion, and formation, of the Solar, or Planetary Syftem, exclufive of every other Being, or Syflem of Beings, in the univerfe. Prop». the Solar, of Planetary, System. 9 Prop. II. That by the heaven, or heavens, [chap, i, i. and ii. i.] Mofes manifeftly means the heavenly bodies ; which together with our Earth, compofe the Solar Syftem. Prop. III. That when Mofes fays, in the beginning God created the hea- ven and the earth, he is to be underftood to mean, that God, out of nothing made, or commanded into exiftence the feveral mafles of matter, of which thofe heavenly bodies and this earth do confift.-. Prop. IV. That thefe feveral mafles of matter were, at their creation, in a chaotic ftate ; each of them a diflindl fluid chaos ; without any form, except v/hat arofe from that particular gravity, or tendency of their feveral particles to the centres of their refpedlive mafl*es, which the Creator feems to have imprefled on them, at the be- ginning. Prop. V. That the face of the deep, and the face of the waters, are fyno- nymous expreflions for the fluid furfaces of thefe chaotic mafles. Prop. VI. That as the immenfe mafs of matter, of which the body of the fun confiflis, was, (by Prop, iv.) in a chaotic fl;ate, void of motion, light, and heat -, darknefs mufl: necelTarily have been upon its fluid furface; and confequently, upon the fluid furfaces of every body in the fyftem. Prop. VII. That the motion, imprefled on thefe bodies, by the Spirit of God, was of their fluid furfaces alone; whilfl: their refpeCtive axes remained' at refl:. Prop. VIII. That the moment thefe bodies were imprefl'ed with this motion, that carried them about their refpective axes, the fun became a a globe of fire : and there was light. , B Prop. XI. 10 The MOSAIC THEORY of Prop. IX. That general, or univerfal gravity, did not take place in our fyftem, till the fourth day. Prop. X. That eveiy planet, that rolls about our fun, was formed, in the fame manner, as the earth was formed. Thefe propofitions contain the true principles of Mofes ; or the general principles on which the Mofaic doftrine of creation is founded. For if Mofes be permitted to be his own interpreter, (and every writer may juftly demand this liberty) they naturally flow, from the Mofaic itnie and ufe of the words in his narration. Not that Mcfes was acquainted with thefe principles ; or that he had any more knowledge of his own dodlrine, than himfelf, or any other eminent prophets, had, of their own prophecies (i). It was fufficient for them to write, whether in the prophetic, or the hifloric, ftyle, what they had in commiflion to write. The words, therefore, by which Mofes defcribes the beginning and the pro- grefs of the creation, are by no means to be confidered as the words of the writer, but of him, who appointed and infpired him to write the book of, the Genefs, or the generations, of the heavens and the earth. By the Mofaic fenfe, then, and ufe of words, we muft be underftood to mean, that fenfe, which dif- covers itfelf in the writings of Mofes y which can be no other tljan the original, literal fenfe, affixed to them by the Crea- tor. For if on thefe general principles, of which Mofes, by fup- pofition was ignorant ; or if from the above paffages in Genejis, the meaning of which the writer could not poflibly underftand, an eafy, natural, and confiftent, fcheme can be formed^ of the creation of a planetary fyflem ; we fhall have the highefl: demon- ftrative evidence, that Moses was an infpired writer; and, con- (i) I Pet. i. 10. 12, 4 fequently. the Solar or P l a n e t a r y. System. i i fequently, that what we call the fyftem of Moses, is in reality the fyftem of the Creator, (i) This will appear in the follow- ing paraphrafe, in which the candid Reader will have a fummai-)- view of the Mofaic dodlrine of creation, and its application to every body in the fyftem. TEXT, Gen. I. r. In the beginning God created the heaven and the eartk. 2. And the earth was without form, and void ; and darknels was upon the face of the deep : and the Spirit of God moved up- on the face of the waters. PARAPHRASE. Gen.. I. r. In the beginning of time, as time is meafured to the inhabitants of this earth, and of every planet in the fyftem, God created, or, from a ftate of non-exiftence commanded into being, the heaven, the heavenly bodies, the fun, the moon, with the other planets, &c. and the earth. 2. Andm the earth, fo every one of thefe hea- venly bodies, nvas without form and void; mere mafles of matter ; each of them a dif1:in(ft, confufed, fluid, chaos; and, as the immenfe mafs of matter, of which the body of the fun confifls, was in a chaotic ftate, void of motion, light, and heat, darknefs was necefl'arily upon the face of (i) The true notion of a System, or the whole of the do£trine, of Creation, is to be learned from the material fyftem, to which we belong. Here, the fun, with the earth, and every other body within the fphereofthe fun's adion, having; (agree- ably to the reafon of its expreflive name) a mutual and regular dependence on each other, form one complete Whole. Now, as it was the Creator aJonc, who could caufe the feveral parts of this mighty Whole, to consist ; or, in the language of a prophet, as it was " He, who laid the foundations of the earth, and whofe right hand fpanned [ftretched out] the heavens ; that made them, when he called unto them, to STAND UP TOGETHER." (Ifai. xlviii. 13.) If the feveral parts of the Mofaic ioc- trine of creation, fliall appear to have a mutual and regular dependance on each other ; and as truly to consist, and to form as complete and perfect a fcheme of creation, as the material fyftem is perfect and complete; it muft neceflarily have been the Creator alone, who could teach Mofis this doftrinc of the generations of the heavens and of the earth, B 2 of 12 The MOSAIC THEORY of PARAPHRASE. the deep ; on the fluid lurface, not only of the earth, but of every other phmet, &c. ajid of the fun itfelf : and the Spirit x)f God moved, imprefled a violent motion, upon the Jurface of the waters; the fluid furfaces of the earth, of every planet, and of the fun itfelf. 3. And, whilfl: the Spirit of God was imprefling this violent motion, upon the furfaces of the earth, and of the heaven- ly bodies, God faid, Let there be light : • and the immenfe body of the fun, infl:an- taneoufly became a globe of fire : a?id there was light. 4 And Godfawthe light that it was good: that this globe of fire darted forth its rays of light, from every point of its ftu- pendous furface; minifl:ring light and heat to every planet in the fyfl:em : and, by the motion of the earth, and every planet, about their refpedlive axes, God divided, or, had divided, the light from the darknefs, on each of them. 5. And God called the light, the time of the continuance of the light, on every poflTible hemifphere of the earth, and of every other planet, T)ay ; and the dark- tiefs, the time of the fun's abfence from thofe hemifpheres, he called. Night, And the evening and the morning were the firjl day, to every primary planet in the fyfl:em. 6. And God faid. Let there he a firmament, an expanfe, an atmofphere, in the midji of a. the TEXT, 3. And God faid, Let there be light ; and there was light. 4. And God faw the light that it was good -, and and God divided the from the dacknefs. ight 5. And God called the light. Day -, and the dark- nefs, he called Night : and the evening and the morn- ing were the firft day. 6. And God faid, Let there be a firmament in the the S o T, A R, or Planetary, S v s t e m. TEXT. the midil of tlic waters -, and 1ft it (.liviiie the waters from the waters. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were un- der the firmament, from the waters which were ^- bove the firmament : and it was fo. ^3 PARAPHRASE. the waters, that are upon the furface of the earth, and of every primary planet, and the waters, that by means of thefe atmofpheres, will be raifed and fufpend- ed above the waters, on their furfaces ; atid let it, on each of them, divide the •waters from the waters. 7. And God made a firmament, an ex- panfe, an atmofphere, to the earth, to every other planet, and comet ; and, (as exhalations proceed from the furface of its body) to the fun itfelf ; and divided the waters, (or fluid matter) which were under the firmament, from the waters or fluid matter, which were- above the firma- ment, on each of them : and it wasfo. 8. And God called the firmament, the expanfe, the atmofphere, of the earth, and of every primary planet, heaven: and the evening and the morning, on the earth, were the fecond day, 9. And God faid. Let 9. And, the earth being covered with, t b? gX?ed »:«£ *^ ^P - -* ^ g-™»'. -<' *e wa- unto one place, and let the ^^^^ itanding above the mountains, (i) dry land appear: and it the mountains mufl have been formed ^■^^ ^°- under the waters (2); God faid. Let the waters imder the heaven, on the furface of the earth, and every primary planet, and the fluid matter, on the furface of the fun, be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it wasfo. : -- ' At thy rebuke, thy command, they fled: (i) Pfal. civ. 6. (2] Jobxxvi. 5. 8. And God called the firmament heaven : and the evening and the morn- ing were the fecond day. TEXT. 14. 77j^ M O S A I C T H E O R R Y ^ PARAPHRASE. at the voice of thy thunder, thy thunder- ing, thy commanding, voice, they hailed away. The mountains afcend, and make room for the waters, to occupy the places deferted by the rifing earth ; the vallies defcend unto the place, the one placet which thou haft founded for them (i). I o. Ajid God called the dry land, on our globe, "Earth ; and the gathering together, the colledtion, of the waters, that remained on the furface, after their feparation from the dry land, called he Seas. And God/aw that it was good. 10. And God called the dry land, Earth ; and the gathering together of tlie waters, called he Seas : and God law that it was good. 13. Afid, on esLTth, the evening and the morning ivere the third day. 14. And God /aid. Let there be lights, fet, placed, i?i the Jirtnament of the heaven, of the earth, and of every primary planet, in fuch a manner, as to divide the day from the night, of every poflible hemifphere, of the earth, and of every planet ; and let them be for figiis, and for diftinguifli- ing the \2iv\.o\xsfeafons, and for days, and years. 1 5 . And let them be for lights in the frmajnent of the heaven, of the earth, and of every primary planet, to give light up- on the earth, upon Jupiter, Saturn, &c. And it was fo. 16. And God had zXrtzdy made, for the earth, two, for Jupiter, five, for Saturn, fix. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14. And God faid, Let there be lights in the firma- ment of the heaven, to di- vide the day from the night ; and let them be for figns, and for leafons, and for days, and years. 1 5. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was fo. 16. AndGodmadetwo great lights ; the greater light at (0 Pfal. civ. 7,8. the Solar, or Planetary, System. ij TEXT. light to rule the day^, and the lefler light to rule the night : the ftars to rule the night alfo. 17. And God fct them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light up- on the earth. 1 8 . And to rule over the day, and over the night ; and to divide the light from the darknefs: and God faw that it was good. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 31. And God faw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the fuah day. Chap. II. r. Thus the heavens and the earth were finifhcd, and all the hoft of them. PARAPHRASE, fix, great lights; the greater light, the fun, to rule, diredl, and govern the day; the leJJ'er lights, the moons, and the Jlars, to rule, dired:, and govern the night *, on each of them refpedlively. 17. And God Jet, placed, them, the two great-, lights, in thejirtnament of the heavcHy to give light upon the earth ; fix great lights in the firmament of the heaven of Saturn, and five in that of Ju- piter, to give light upon thofe planets ; 18. And to rule over, to diredl and govern, the day, and over the night ; and to divide the various light of every day in- the y&zv, from the darknefs of every night, on every planet in the fyflem. And God faw that it was good. 19. Andy on the earth, on Venus, and Mars, the evening and the morning were the fourth, on Jupiter, and Saturn, the ninth, day. 3 1 . And God faw every thing that he hadt?iade, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning, on the earth, on Venus, and Mars, were thefixth, on- Jupiter, and Saturn, the fourteenth, day. Chap. II. I. 'thus, in the manner above related, and in the times fpecified, the heavens, the heavenly bodies, even all the hofl of them; * To him that made great lights — the fun to rule by day — the moon and flars to rule by night, Pfal. cxxxvi. 7, 8, 9. the i6 "The MOSAIC THEORY of PARAPHRASE, the fun, the moon, and the other planets, with the comets of our fyftem, and the earth, were finip^ed. The body of the fun, from a dark confufed watery chaos, . became a globe of fire ; and from a fimllar chaotic flate, the planets were gradually reduced into order, as the earth was, and formed into habitable worlds. 2. And on the feventh day, of our earth, and of the planets Venus, and Mars ; on the fifteenth of Jupiter, and Saturn, God had ended his work ivhicb he had made : and he rejled, ceafed, on the feventh, the fifteenth, day, from all his work which he had made. 3 . And God hbJJ'ed the feventh, the fif- teen th, day, andfan^ified it [them] to the rcfpeBive inhabitants of the fcveral planets % becaufe that in it [them] on thofe days, he had refcd, ceafed, from all his work , which God, out of nothing had created, to . make, to form, into a fyftem of worlds, in the fix preceding days. 4 . Thefe are the generations of the hea- vens, the heavenly bodies, the fun, the moon, and the other planets, with the comets of our fyftem, ayid of the earth, in the day that, at the time when, the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, the heavenly bodies, the fun, the moon, and every other planet, and comet in the fyftem. TEXT. 2. And on the feventh day, God ended his work which he had made : and he refted on the feventh day from all his work which he had made. 3. And God bleflcd the feventh day, and fandtified it : becaufe that in it he had refted from all his work which God created r.hd made. 4. Thefe are the gene- rations of the heavens and of the earth, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. CHAP. the Solar, or Planetarv, System. 17 CHAP II. Of the Creation of the fever al Bodies^ that conflitute the Solar, or Planetary, Sjjlem. ." Id non male mihi didum videtur, Philofopbtam' ejfe Scriptura interpret em in rebus " naturalibus : Sed Philofophiam intelligo, non aridam et jejunam, otiofi Cere- " bri figmentum; fed qux naturae Phxnomenis, repetitis expcrimentis, folidifquc " Rationibus, refpondet." Burnet. Archaol. p. 437. HAVING given a general view of the doftrine of the crea- tion, and formation, of the fyftem, in the paraphrafe, agree- able to the propofitions laid down above i we proceed to the proof of the propofitions, beginning with thofe that relate chiefly to creation ; the connexion of which is evident. Prop. I. That the Mofatc creation, is an hiflrorical account of the creation, (and formation) of the Solar, or Planetary, Syftemi exclufive of evejy other being, or fyftem of beings, in the univerfe. Prop. IT. For, by the heaven, or heavens, \Gen. I. i. and II. i.] Mofes manifeftly means, the heavenly bodies ; which, together with the earth, compofe the Solar Syftem. Prop. III. "When, therefore, Mofes fays, God created the heaven and the earth, he is to be underftood to mean. That God, out of nothing, made, or commanded into exiftence, the feveral mafles of matter, of which thefe heavenly bodies, and this earth, do confift. Now that thefe three propofitions contain the true Mofatc doc- trine of creation, will appear, from the explication of the terms, made ufe of by Mofes, in his firft propofition. C Gen. f% . T'ht MOSAIC THEORY e/- Gen I. I. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.. In the Beginning — ■ Myriads of ages may have elapfed,, fince numberlefs worlds, fince fyflems of worlds without number, were created. For that every fixed flar is a fun, and the centre of a particular fyflem, furrounded with a number of planets, and perhaps, comets, which at different diftances, and in different pe- riods, perform their courfes round their refpedtive centres, is now univerfally admitted by thofe, who embrace the fyflem oiCoperni- 'cus, as far as that relates to our fun, and its planets. Now as the earth, with the two great lights, the fun and the moon, which are parts of a planetary fyftem, had a beginning, (as Mojes fays they had,) the othet bodies in our fyftem muft have had a beginning : and, for the fame reafon, every fyftem in the univerfe, muft like- wife have had a beginning of its exiftence j and if they were all created, when the heavens and the earth of Mofes ^vere created,, they muft all be included in the term heaven, or heavens. On this fuppofition. In the beginning, muft manifefUy refer to, and can mean nothing more, or lefs, than the beginning of the exiftencc, of every body, at leaft, and every fyftem of bodies, in the wide ex- tended univerfe : for it is evident, that whatever may be the pre- cife and determinate meaning of the term, heaven, or heavens, in this connediion, this heaven, or thefe heavens, with our earth, are the fole fubjed: of the Mofaic creation : but if it fhould appear, that the term is applied by Mofes, to any certain and determinate num- ber of bodies ; then thofe bodies, and thofe alone, together with the body of our earth, exclufive of every other being, or fyftem of beings, in the univerfe, are the bodies which in the beginning God created. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth: And when the work of creation was completed he ends as he begins, with the heavens and the earth — T^hiis the heavens and the enrth, even all the hoji of them, ivere finified. In the beginning, therefore, muft mean, in the beginning of the exiftence of thefe heavens the Solar, m- Planetary, System. 19 heavens, and of this earth -, that is, in the beginning of time, as time to us, and to every other planet, in our Syftem, depends upon, and is meafured by, the motions of thefe heavens, and this earth. God created. Now if time, as time is meafured to us, and to every planet, in our fyftem, began with the exiftence of thefe heavens and this earth ; that is, if they had no exiftence, before God created them -, Creation muft in this palTage, fignify, a pro- dudion out of nothing j agreeably to our third propofition, viz. " That God, out of nothing, made, or commanded into exiftence, " the feveral mafles of matter, of which thefe heavenly bodies, " and this earth do confift," But this muft be determined by Mofcs alone. To create^ and to make, are evidently diftinguifhed by Mojes, throughout his whole narration ; it is therefore, neceffary, care- fully to attend, to fo material a diftindlion, without which, it is impoffible to underftand, what were the feparate and diftincfl adls, of the divine Wifdom, and Power, in the original Creation, and in the fubfequent Formation, of the heavens and the earth, or of any thing that relates, either to the one, or to the other, >»nn Bara, in its primary, and original fenfe, (and it is natural to fuppofe, that the primary fenfe of any word, is to be found in the firft ufe of that word) is, to create, to bring into exiftence what before, had no exiftence. In this fenfe, the word is ftridlyufed, and with Angular propriety applied, by Mofcs, to the bringing into being, the matter, the materials, out of which the heavens, and the earth, were afterwards formed: but when the matter of the heavens, and the earth, were once produced, out of a ftate of non-exiftence, the word is no mwe to be found in this orisinal fenfe, throughout the whole Bible; except in thofe paflages where the Writer manifeftly fpeaks, of this original produdion ; and, C 2 therefore. 20 ^Ibi MOSAIC T 11 E O R Y of therefore, Avherever clfe wc meet with the word Bara, it is to be underrtood in a fecondary, or allufive, it'[\{Q : thus God created great whales, (i) — created man, (2) — male and female created he them (;). So cliap. II, 3, 4. and V. r, 2. To hint tons, that the formation of the hugefl of the watery tribe, and the inhabitants of the more fluid air, even of the fmallefl; wing, from pre-ex- illent matter, and the formation of man, from the duft of the ground, required the i^ime Almighty Power, as it did to com- mand into being, the feveral mafles of matter, of which the hea- vens and the earth were formed. And here let it be obferved, that this fecondary, or allufive, fenfe of the word Bara, as applied to man, is confirmed by the hiflorian, who fpeaking of the mat- ter, of which man was made, ufes the word "ii:"' Jatzar, to form to fafliion, or to fhape, as the potter forms the clay : And the Lord God formed man of the duji of the ground (4) . T\VV Najha, fignifies to do, to adl, to make, to form, or fhape. Thus the matter of which the heavens and the earth confift, hav- ing been, in the original and proper fenfe of the word Bara, created j when the different portions of this matter were formed, or fafliioned, to anfwer the different purpofes of the Creator, he is faid, (except as before excepted) not to create, but to make. Thus, God made the firmament ; (5) — made two great lights ; (6) — every thing that he had made ; (7) — his work which he had made ; (8). And to eltablifh and confirm the juflnefs of this Mofaic diftindiion, when the heavens and the earth, even all the hofl of them were flnifhed, both thefe words are mofl ligniiicant- ly, and with the greateft propriety applied; Bara, to the original produdion of the matter -, and Nafia, to the fubfequent forma- tion, or fafhioning of that matter. And God blefled the feventh day, and fand:ified it, becaufe that in it, he had refled from all his work, (1) Gen. I. 21. (2) Ver. 27. (3) Id. ibid. (4) Gen. II. 7. (5) Gen. I. 7. (6) Ver. 16. (7) Ver. 31. (8) II. 2. 4 "which fhe Solar, or P l a n e x a r v, S v s t l m . Zi wiiich God created and made. [Hcb.'] created to make; (i) tliat is, which God at firfl, in the beginning of the firll day, had created, in order to make, form, or fajlmn, in the fix. For the earth was without form, when it was created ; if therefore, it was created without form, the making of the earth, or its forma- tion, muft: neceffarily have been very different from its creation. The learned Dr. Buriiet has, indeed, laboured to prove. That the creation of the heaven and the earth, was no more, tlian the formation of, or dilpofmg, confufed matter, into a habitable world, and not a produdion of things out of nothing, when he fays-, " The word Barn, in the Hebrew, Ktizein, in the Greek, and " Creare, in the Roman tongue, have no fuch meaning. Nor " indeed, (fays he) in any language that I am acquainted \\ith, ** is the produvflion of things from nothing, ever exprefled bv " one finglc word. The meaning and ufe of thefe words in the "■ three languages, are fufliciently known : and as to the Hrbreix: " word Bara, in particular, and its ufe in the ficred writings, '* that it is applied to other actions and effecT:s, t'nan the produc- ** tion of things from nothing, is admitted by all. From this *' word, therefore, nothing can be proved (2)." But how fjjecious fbever this reafonfng may appear, if what has been faid above, be not fufficient to eftablifli the juftnefs of Co material a diftincflion, between the words, to create, and to make, give me leave to add, that whatever ma\' be the fenfc, or (i)Gen. II. 3. (2) " Vox fs{l3 apud ILlirtro!, K^i^tty., apiid Graces, Crw.-n; .ipuJ Lati/iji, \iin " ift.im (produftionis rerum ex nihilo) non habent. Nee in quacunque lingua, quod " fciam, produflio rerum ex nihilo, unica voce comprehenditur. Vis et ufus dic- •' tarum vocum in tribus iftis linguis, fatis nota funt j et quoad Hebraicom fpcW.!- " tiin, ufumque in facris Uteris, vocem NJ^^ aliis actionibiij elTciSilque applicar;, *' quam primx rerum produdioni, apud omnes in contcfTo ffl> Ab irtoc igitur vo- ** cabulo nihil probari poteft." Arcbaol. p. 47-, ufe,. 22 The MOSAIC THEORY of ufe, of the word createt In any, or in all the languages in the world, except the Hebrew ; the true, the original fenfe, and ufe, of the word, muH: be learned from the Hebrew, becaufe that was the language, in which the word firfl appeared; and in whick ;ilone, the produdion of things out of nothing was firfl: difcovered to mankind. And here let it be obferved, that this original {cx\£c and meaning of the word, being unknown, or loll, to all the na- tions upon earth, the fecondary fenfe is the only one, that could poffibly be received, without a revelation from him, that pro- duced all things out of nothing ; becaufe it was ever thought, by Philofophers, repugnant to reafon, that any one thing could be produced from nothing; according to the trite proverb — Ex nibib nihil Jit. The Heaven, or the Heavens The juftnefs, and the great importance, of this diilindlion between creating, and making, will abundantly appear, if it fhould lead us dire upon the furface of the watery chaos, has, from fo remote antiquity, been thought to allude, and refer, to Incubation, and if Incubation be the adion of a hen, or any other bird, brooding up- on her eggs, can we be at a lofs to difcover, whence Arijlophanes had his Cofmogony, when we find the traces, of fuch a grofs inter- pretation, preferved in a Pagan Poet ? Does not the dodtrine of the Mundane Egg, naturally flow, from this fuppofed dodtrine of In- cubation f To juflify this fentiment, let us compare the defcription of the antient Cofmogo?iy given by Arijlophanes, with this dodlrine of In- cubation, as it is taught by the interpreters of Mofes. In order to this we muft take the liberty of giving the defcription in the original. E| a irtgniXKofjLeva.ii u^ais e(2?\.a.ef£v 'Epws TroOftf©^" OoT©» S"i "XJ^^ iriepoei'Tt fjnyea vu^ico^ xacfcc "Tapfapoy iupvv, RviorJevae ytv^ VfJiSrepov^ >^ ttoooIgv a.i-flya.y€v ii fooi, Tl^ole^ov cT'oujc hV yiv<^ a'9a;'aTwr> Trptv 'Epus avyefxi^ev ccttxvIx, Now as ** this paflage, which is conceived, not without reafon, •* to have been a piece of the old atheillic fyftem, is ludicroufly *' introduced in a comedy (i);" the Poet could not, in all na- ture, have furniflied himfclf with fuch a foundation for his fable, as this metaphor from Incubation, afforded him : and what bounds could be fet to a fruitful imagination, where his fubjedl had no bounds ? Here was a chaos, and darknefs, i?i/inite, coeval, and (i) Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 37. F prior ^8 The MOSAIC THEORY cf prior to any other being, gods or men ; the Poet, therefore, had nothing more to do, than to follow the tradition, from the earlieft antiquity, concerning this mighty Wind, fitting and brooding over the infinite, dark, abyss, and to carry on the prolific metaphor. Accordingly, Darkness, or in the poetic ftyle. Night, is introduced, in the only characfter in nature, proper to Incubation^ as a birdj Nu^ jxiXavoii^i^^, her wings are black, as darknefs it- felf ; and as Incubation neceffarily fuppofes one -E^^, at leaft ; this bird lays a moft wonderful one; v7rm'iu.'iov coov' not an Egg of Wind, according to the {tnfe of this paflage given above (i), for with- great defererrce to thofe learned Gentlemen, it cannot eafily be imagined, that the Poet would ufe the word vTrwifMov, in a fenfe, that was abfolutely inconfiftent with the defign of his fable : if Night was to lay this firfl Egg, is it pofiible, that it fhould be an Egg of Wind, when he makes it a moft prolific one? It is true, virrivifjiia, cJa, are Ova ventofa, irrita, addle Eggs j thus Ari^ flophanes himfelf, in his T)ccdaliis, TraXXal ruv ctM-^^uovuv (2ix vimvi' fjLicc TiKlaiTiv oJo. iroXXoixii' but here, the Poet, in the ufe of the word, keeping in his view, the antient tradition, of a mighty and im- petuous wind, hovering over an infinite dark abyfs, feems to have preferved the original, and literal fenfe ; uVwrg/xwr oVo tov are/jLov' Suidas : to which the editor adds, the following note : vTwffJuoi,, fcribe, uViirgftor Sophocles, Antigone, 1. 417. Confedimus locis in Jiimmis fiib ventum. SchoHaJles. vTrnvefxal' olvli m vtto rov dvi/xov' ax. giaiTioi' t8 «'»'£,«.»■•' Now this original, literal, fenfe of the word vTrwifJuov, under THE Wind, fets the palBge, obfcure as it is, in a very different (j) Page 37. point the Solar, or Planetary, S y s t e m. 4-5 point of view, and renders it exprelTivc of that part of the antient tradition, which teaches, that it was a rnigbty Wind, that moved upon, and hovered ever, the dark watery chaos — Night nvith fable wings, laid the Jirjl Egg under the JVind, in the vajl bofom o/" Erebus. But, to proceed ; as this Egg was, by fuppofition, prior to eve- ry other Being, one might have expected that it lliould have con- tained, in its infinite fhell, every thing that was to have exifted ; but as it was an abfurdity too great, for atheifm itfelf, to have fuppofed, that every thing in nature could proceed from nothing ; (for night and darknefs are mere negations of being ;) from this wonderful -E^^, the Poet fays, in procefs of tune, Trgg^rgAAo^wgrais upocis' Sell, agxii 'E7ruaa-y.y, at the end of the time of Incubation, pro- ceeded an adlive principle, (for that muft have been an acftive principle, from which every thing in nature was to derive its be- ing,) by the name of, 'E^m TriGacos, amiable Love, which by its all-powerful influence on the dark, unbounded abyfs, gave being both to gods and men. And now the Poet's imagination begins to glow, with the fire ftolen from off the altar of Mofes. The Spirit of God, (foys Mofcs) vioved, impreffed a violent motion, iipon the fu?-Jace of the icaters, that were immerfed in darknefs : inflead of this adtive principle, this almighty agent ^ his interpreters, and from them, the mofl antient tradition, have introduced a 7uighty, and impetuous IVind, moving upon, and hovering over the dark abyfs, to quicken and vivifv the watery chaos, for the production of things. And here the aftive principle of the Poet appears, «>c(wj oiyey.c>)x,x53f ctl'l)4«^■ Dcus ipfe folem, quafi lumen accendit. In Tlmao. Tom. III. p. 29. edit, fsrrani. O thou ! whofe word from folid darknefs ftruck That fpark, the Sun ■ ■ ■■... ■ Night Thoughts. To reftore the credit and reputation of Mofcs, and to vindicate the honour of the Creator, in this fo-much-miftaken paftage ; let the candid Reader compare our plain, fimple, and rational account, of the formation of light, with the following opinions of the learned. " Let there be light, and there was light. This was fome bright and lucid body, " peradventure like the fiery cloud in the v/ildernefs, giving.a fmall and imperfect " light, fucceffively moving over the feveral parts of the earth; and afterwards con- " denfcd, increafed, perfeded, and gathered together in the fun." Poole's Annot. , > '*ilt feems to me moft rational by this light, to underftand ihofe particles of mat- , <*\ter which we call fire, (whofe two properties, every one knows, arc light and heat) " which the Solar, or Planetary, System. c^-j till God had fald, het there be light, is evident, becaufe God faid. Let there be light ; and inftantaneoufly, there was light. Ver. ** which the Almighty Spirit that formed all things, produced as the great inftrument, " for the preparation and digeftion of the reft of the matter, which was ftill more vi- " goroudy moved and agitated, from the top to the bottom, by this reftlefs element, " till the purer and more (hining parts of it, being feparated from the grofTer, and *' united in a body fit to retain them, became light." " yind Godfaw the light, that it was good i^ — ^agreeable to his defign ; which for " the prefent was (we may conceive) to influence the upper parts of the Chaos, " and to be the inftrument of rarefaction, feparation, and all the reft of the opc- '* rations, which were neceffary to mold it into fuch creatures, as were afterwards " made out of it." Lord Bijhop of Ely s Commentary. « The Spirit of God moved upon the fluid matter, and feparated the parts it con- " fifted of from one another ; fome of them fhined like the light of the day, others " were opaque, lilce the darknefs of the night ; God feparated them one from the " other ; and this was the firft ftep taken in the formation of the world." Sbuckford's Connexion, Preface to Vol. I. p. 38. " Let there be light ; this feems not to be a command here, but a permiflion ; as *' much as to fay. Let light be, if it will, or if it can, or if it chance, or ifanyageiit can *' produce it. But to difcover what this fpeech means ; where was this light to " be ? 'tis afterwards defcribcd to be upon the furface of the waters : and what was " it formed of ? That which was there, that which is juft before it called the Spirit *' of God, the airs in motion, which prefently after are alternately changed, and as *' the motion was afling in one part, was called light, and as it was intenupted in *' another part, was called darknefs. And fince there was motion or adlion in the " airs, and confequently a fecond caufe, it muft mean, let the motion, which I, *' by my Power have produced, and by difpofition of matter continued among the *' airs, and ftiled my Spirit, arife to that degree, or put them into that condition I " call light. Let there be light.] " The other inftrument made ufe of to polifh the *« earth, initfelfrude and unformed, and the very darknefs, and the yet turbid vva- *' ter, was the light ; 'the embellifhcr of things, and which gives them their *' forms. But light which was created the firft day, rude and imperfedl, began on •' the fourth day, to be brought to its pcrfe£lion and clearnefs. And there iva^ " light. The means produced the intended efFedt, made part of the darknefs light." Hutchinfon's Works. Vol. I. p. 21, 22. If the light THAT is IN THEE, be DARKNESS, HOW GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS ! H (l) Sir 58 r^^ MOSAIC THEORYg/' Ver. 4. And God/aw the tight that it was good : [that this globe of fire, with a velocity, almofl incredible (i), darted forth its rays from every point of its ftupendous furface j] and, [by the mo- tion of the earth, and every other planet, about their refpedlive axes,] God divided, [had divided] the tight from [or between the light and] the darknefs. Ver. 5. And God called the tight, [the continuation of the light, on every poflible hemifphere, of the earth, and of every other planet,] day ; and the darknefs, [the time of the fun's abfence from thofe hemifpheres,] he called, night. And the evening and the mornings were the firjt day (2), to every planet in the Syflem. Though it (i) Sir Ifaac Neivton has fhewn, paft all contradidion, that the light of the fun is near feven minutes in its paflage to the earth, which is computed to be 70,000,000 miles. (2) " And the evening andthe mormng were the firjl day. And here (fays the learned " Dr. Clayton, Lord Bifhop of Clogher) I cannot but take notice of a very vulgar " error, which the bulk of mankind have run into, from a wrong interpretation " of this text, in beginning to count their day from the evening. Whereas it is " plain from the words of this text, that Mofes began to reckon his firft day from " the morning." Vindication, Part II. p. 53. It is a misfortune that fometimes attends learned men,thatthe vulgar are in the rights when critics and commentators run into error. If Mofes had faid, and the morning and the evening were the firft day, it would have been plain from the words of fuch a text, that he began to reckon his firft day from the morning, and not from the even- ing. But the words o^ Mofes are fo very plain, and exprefs to the contrary, that they cannot poflibly be mifinterpreted, though they may be mifunderftood, even by the learned. That Alofes is right in beginning to reckon his firft day from the evening, is evident, not onJy from his reckoning the other five days of creation from the f.ime portion of time, but becaufe the Jews, univerfally, began the feventh day, or the Sabbath, from the evening : and he that infpired Mofes, begins the Sabbath from the evening. // (the tenth d.-iy of the feventh month) fjcill be unto you a fabbath of refi ; and ye Jhall affliSl your fouls in the ninth day of the month at even : from even to even Jhall ye celebrate your fabbath. (Levit. XXIII. 32, compare Exod. XII. 6, 18. Lev. XXIV. 3. Numb. IX. II, 21.) 3 Now the Solar, or Planetary, System. 59 it pleafed the Creator, injix days to make the heaven and the earth; yet if he could not have finifhed his work in lix moments, he could Now, if fo many years after its original inftitution, the fabbath was commanJed to be celebrated, from even to even ; and the celebration of the tenth day was ex- prefly to begin on the evening of the ninth ; the firft fabbath, or the feventh day from the beginning of the creation, mud have been reckoned from the evening, that fucceedcd the morning of the fixth day. If, therefore, the firft feventh day was reckoned from the evening, that fucceeded the morning of the fixth, it is impoiTible, that Mo[es could begin to reckon his firft day from the morning. But his Lordfliip attempts to prove his aflertion, by adding, " For, fince at the " creation, darknefs was upon the face of the deep, as foon as the fun began to " fhine, then began the day, and continued twelve hours, until the evening clofed " the day, at which time the night having commenced, continued alfo twelve hours " more, until the fucceeding morning clofed the night ; and thus it was that the <' evening and the morning formed and compofed, or finiflied and completed, the " firft natural day, of twenty four hours, by one revolution of the earth round its " axis." (Id. ibid.) With great fubmifllon to his Lordlhip, the fad was quite otherwife : as God him- felf called the light, day; the day indeed, both natural and artificial, began as foon as the fun began to fhine ; but as the queftion here is, when did the firft natural day begin ? In the evening or in the morning ? let us fee how Nature, or the efta- blilhed order, which the Creator appointed concerning days and nights, evenings and mornings, will determine this point. Since the revolution of the earth about its axis, (the fame is to be underftood of the other planets,) and the light of the fun, are both of them necelTary to the forma- tion of a day, now ; they muft have been equally neceftary to the formation of the firft day ; and, therefore, the imprefllon of that motion that carries the earth about her axis, and the lighting up of the fun, muft have been effects of the divine Power, produced at one and the fame moment of time ; becaufe time could not begin on the earth, or on any other planet in the Syftem, unlefs their diurnal motion had commenced, the moment the fun firft began to ftiine. Now as the earth is a globe (and fo of every planet) but one half of her furface could be illumi- nated at a time; the moment, therefore, the fun began to fhine upon that hemifphere, which at the creation, was objedted to the body of the fun, before it became a globe of fire, that very moment the day, both natural and artificial began; (for God called the light, day;) but then, as the whole hemifphere was illuminated, it muft have been noon-day. And as a natural day cannot be H 2 com- 6o The MOSAIC THEORY of could not have been the Almighty. We, indeed, are accuftom- ed to call the Mojak creation, the bexaemeron, the Jix days work ; but completed but by one entire revolution of the earth about its axis, the beginning of this firft day muft be fixed to fome moment of time, when the fun was in fome dif- tinguifhable part of the heavens, when he firft began to fhine ; in the horizon, for inftance, or in the tneridian : but, as by fuppofition, this was the firft day, the ho- rizon is out of the queftion ; for when the fun firft fhone upon the earth, and indeed upon every planet in the Syftem, it muft neceffarily have appeared in its meridian glory. The beginning, therefore, of this firft day muft neceffarily be fixed to that moment of time, when the fun was in the meridian of thofe firft enlightened hemi- fpheres, of the earth, and every other planet : it was, therefore, impoffible in na- ture that there fhould have been any morning, to thofe firft enlightened hemifpheres, till the planets fliould have performed fo much of their firft revolutions, about their refpeclive axes, as would bring the fun to appear in, or near, the horizon of thofe hemifpheres that were firft illuminated. Now as the diurnal motion of the planets is from weft, to eaft, as foon as ever the fun had pafied to the weftward of thefe firft meridians ; that is, the moment the fun began to decline, the evening, on each of them commenced, which was fucceeded by the night, and that followed by the morning, on every planet, when the fun would firft appear in, or near, the ho- rizon of their firft enlightened hemifpheres. Since, therefore, the firft natural day is to be reckoned, from the appearance of the fun in the meridians of the firft-enlightened hemifpheres of the earth, and every planet ; and fince God called the darknefs, or the abfence of the fun, night ; when the fun ftiould be in the meridians of their oppofite hemifpheres, it would be mid- night, to the firft enlightened ; we have two principal points of time afcertained ; viz. the true aftronomical evening and morning : for ajironomers, as well as Mofcs,. reckon their morning, from the time of midnight, to that of noon or mid-day ; their evening, ot poji meridiem, therefore, muft be, like the evening oi Mofcs, from noon,, or mid-day, to midnight. Corollary. Hence the extreme propriety of the Mofaic account of the beginning and fucceffioa of time. And fince at the inftant of creation, the fun was in the meridian, of the firft enlightened hemifpheres, of the fecondary as well as the primary planets, our moon muft have been at the full ; are v/e not indebted to the writings oi Mofa, for fixing the true foundation of all chronology, even to the moment when time began, to ttiis earth, and to every planet in the Syftem ? N.B. the Solar, or Planetary, System. 6 i but we forget the Worker, when, with the learned mafter of the Charter-houfe, we weakly compare the work of one day, with that of another (i) : for whoever will attend to the plain, fim- ple, hiftorical, relation, of the feveral ads of the divine Power, from day to day, may be convinced, that each of them was effec- ted in a moment, Let there be light — and there was light. Let there be a firmament — and it -was fo. Nothing can be a greater demonftration of this truth, than the Avork of this firfl day : for though there be feveral diftinft, and very different proportions contained in the firfl five verfes, yet fuch is their clofe connexion with, and dependance on, each other, that to form as juft conceptions as we can, of thofe adts of the divine Wifdom, as well as Power ; we mufl by no means confi- der thefe propofitions, as feparate, and detached fentences, but as one N. B. If on thefe two certain and infallible data, tht firjl mertdjan, and the fir fi JuUmoon^ (both of them recorded hy Mofes,) the Rev'' Mr. Kennedy had founded his- laboured Syftem of Astronomical Chronology, he never could haveaflerted, in contradidlion to the moft exprefs words of Mofis, and in diredl oppofition to common fenfe — " That time commenced at the autumnal equinox, in coincidence " with a full moon, On the fourth day cf the firjl week, at noon" p. 158. (i) " Very unequal arc the tafks of thefe days : the firfl: day's work was done in *' the twinkling of an eye; and fo I think was the fecond. But that of the third *' day, would be a great and tedious undertaking. Firft, to fcoop out fuch a hol- *' low, large and deep, as is the channel of the fea ; then to derive, or rather to *' force down into that ditch, the whole body of waters, that covered the furface. " The work of the fourth day feems to be equally laborious : the fun, the moon,. " the {tars : Good God ! how immenfe were the bodies, that one fingle day brought *' forth in perfe(3:ion." *' Admedum imtqualia ftmt horum dierum penfa .• primi diet opus iSlu oculi peranum. *' futffet : atque ita opinor, feciindi. Sed diet tertii magnum effet moUmen et diuittrniim. *' Prima exca-oarefofjam tantam, quanta ejl ilia alvei marini ; dein aquas omnes qua [uper- *' ficiem terns operitbant, dcrivare, vel potius detrudere, in illam fojjam — quarti did pen- •* fum videlur non minus operofum : folem, lunam, ftdera : Dcus bone, quot et quanta ccr- •* pora^ una dies parturiit et per fecit" Burnet. Archaol. p. 42J, 422. 62 t;:^^ M O S A I C THEORY^ ■one grand period, compofed of fo many different members, which conflitute that period : for inftance,— — In the beginning God created the heaven, the heavenly bodies, • P l a n e t a r y, System. 65 them, muft be comprehended in the fix days work : thefe bodies, therefore, were created on the firft day. But as the firfl: day could not poflibly begin, on any planet, till it had been impreffed with a diurnal motion, and till the fun was made a globe of fire ; the heavenly bodies, and the body of the earth, that is, the maflcs of matter, of which they were formed, muft have been created muft have been impreffed with a motion about their axes,— and the body of the fun, muft have been made a globe of fire, in one and the fame moment of time ; even the firft moment of the firft day, on every planet in the Syftem. — Infinite God ! was this the work. of a day ! Moments and days are both alike to Thee ! C II A 1\ 64 Tk MOSAIC THEORY of CHAP. V. Of the Formation of the Atmofphere, Tertio, memorat Mofes in fuo hexaemero celebre phoenomenon, quod nuUibi rerum comparet. Aquas intdiigo fup^rcafUJIes : quibus condendis, aut fuis fedibus difponendis, Deus impendiffe dicitur integrum diem. Burnet Archaol. p. 415. Truth ftill is one, truth is divinely bright. No cloudy doubts obfcure her native light ; While in your thoughts you find the leaji debate^ You may confound, but never can tranflate. Your ftile will this through all difguifes {how. For none explain more clearly than they know. He only proves he underjlands a text, Whofe expofition leaves it unperplext. Roscommon. The Second Day, Gen. I. 6. y/A^-D God /aid. Let there be a firmament y [an ex- "^^ panfe, an expanded fpherical body of air (i) an atmofphere] in the midji of the waters [that are on the furfaces of the earth, and every other planet and comet ; and the fluid mat- ter that furrounds the body of the fun,] and the waters [and the fluid matter, which by the means of thefe atmofpheres (2) will be (i) Air is a coalition of particles of various kinds, firft feparated from the chaotic mafs, which together conftitute one fluid body : the whole afTemblage of thefe particles makes what we call the Atmofphere. (2) As vapours are thin veficles of water, or any other humid matter, inflated with air; and by the adlion of heat, being rarefied to a certain degree, are raifed from the furface, and fufpended in the atmofphere, in the form of clouds j it was impoflible that there {hould have been any waters, except on, or under the fur- faces of the earth, or any other planet, on the firft day j becaufe there was no air, e wherewith the Solar, or Planetary, System. 6 ^ be raifed, and fufpended above their lurfaces] and let it [this at- mofphere, and the atmofpheres of the other planets, &c.] dhuie the waters [the fluid matter] from the waters [and the fluid mat- ter on each of them refpedively.] Ver. y. And God made a firmament^ [an expanfe, an expand- ed fpherical body of air, an atmofphere, to the earth and every planet, and comet, and to the fun itfelf,] and divided the waters [and the fluid matter of the fun] which were under t/oe Jir- mament, from the waters and jiuid matter which were above the fr~ ?namcnt [on each of them] and it was fo (i). wherewith thcfe veficks of water could be inflated, and thereby rendered fpeci- fically lighter than the waters on the furfaces; no atmofphere, in which they could be fufpended, till the fecond day. As, therefore, the air alone, in the prefent conftitution of things, (and in the beginning it was fo,) can furnifti the means of raifing water above the fluid furfaces of bodies, it is with the greateft philofophical propriety faid, — Let there be a firmament, or atmofphere, in the m'ldjl of the tvaters, and lei it divide the zvaters from the ivaters. — Not thofc imaginary waters which ex- treme ignorance has placed above all the vifible heavens, or the region of the ftars ; but as wc have faid, — Let it divide, or fcparate, or raife the waters, in the form of vapours, or clouds, from the waters, that now cover the furfaces of the earth, and every other planet, &c. To inftance in the waters on our earth : as every point of the globe, excepting- near the poles, would in the fpace of twenty-fours, be objected to the fun, the quantity of water raifed above the furface would be immenfe. For, if the quanti- ty of vapour exhaled in one fummer's day, from the furface of the Mediterranean alone, according to the calculation of Dr. Halley, (Philofoph. Tranfact. abridged by Loivthorp, Vol. II. p. 109. Ed. 4.) (.ibflradting from any confideration of the winds, whereby the furface of the water is licked up, fomewhat falter than it is exhaled by the heat of the fun,) was, 5,280,000,000 tuns ; how immenfe mud be the quantity exhaled from the furface of the whole globe, (for the dry land did not yet appear,) whofe diameter is computed to be 6880 geographical miles. ( I ) jind it was fo. That there might be no pofTible foundation for a doubt, con- cerning the true literal and obvious fenfe of the facrcd text, thefe words occur no lefs than fix times ; as if the Spirit of God had defigned to guard againft a method of interpretation, fo deftruiStive of common fenfe, as is that of allegorizing, or cloathing the plaincft truths with the thickeft veil of obfcurity. I Ver. 66 "The MOSAIC THEORY of Ver. 8. And God called the firmament [the expanfe, the ex- panded air, the atmofphere, on each of them] Heaven (i) : and the evening and the morning were [to the earth] the fi'cond day. [to the other planets, the day that correfponded in the whole, or in part with our fecond]. That the fun, with every planet and comet in our Syftem, are furnifhed with atmofpheres, is demonftrable : but if, (as has been argued (2) above) they were all created together ; were each of them a fluid chaos, immerfed in darknefs -, and if, whilft they were in this fluid ftate, they were imprcfled with fuch a violent motion, that caufed them to revolve about their axes, they muft have had this motion communicated to them, by the fame almighty mover, when he impreffed the earth with her diurnal motion. By the fame manner of reafoning, when God faid. Let there be a firmament. Sec. to divide the ivatersy Sec. the almighty efficacy of thzt fiat, muft have extended to every one of the hea- venly bodies, as well as to the earth. A ftanding proof of the truth of this propofition, is, the oblate fpheroidical form of the fun, and all the planets ; for fuch a figure is the neceflary effect of that violent motion, which the Spirit of God, communicated to thefe bodies, whilft in a chaotic and fluid ftate (3). But (i) For the fun, the earth, and the other planets, by being fet in the firma- ments of Saturn, Jupiter, &c. would be heavenly bodies to them, as they are heavenly bodies to the earth. See p. 25. (2) P. 54. (3) See Mofes and Bclingbroie, p. 33, 34. " One effe£t (fays the Ld. Bifliop of Clogher) which would arife from the *' motion of the earth round its axis would be, that the waters, which before " were equally difperfed over the whole earth, would immediately begin to quit " the poles, and would all run towards the equator on the middle of the earth. " (Vindication, ut fupra, p. 64) — And by gathering themfelves in that one place, as " it were in a heap, the earth, all the way from the poles to the edge of the " waters under the equator, would begin to appear, and at length become firm " and dry ground. By which means, this terraqueous globe would be divided; 3 " lata the Solar, or Planetary, System. 67 But befides this primary defign of making firmaments to feparate the "waters from the waters, there was one grand and mechanical purpofe it was to ferve, to which the prophet leems evidently to ** allude, God himfelf, that formed the earth and tnade it : HZ "E^TA- ** BLISHED IT : he created it not in vain; he formed it to be *' inhabited (i)." Becaufe it was to be inhabited, he ejlablijl:ed it, — fixed it firm and stable, as if it had been abfolutely at reft : and fince, from the great fimilarity of the other planets, with the earth, there can be no reafon in the world to imagine, that God created them in vain ; we may fairly conclude, that he formed them alfo to be inhabited ; and as a proof that the crea- tor defigned them for the habitations of fome intelligent creatures, he hath eJlabUfl:ed them in the fame manner, as he ejlablijl:ed our earth, by furnifliing each of them with a firmament. As to the name. Firmament, though the word, in the original, properly fignifies an expanfe, any thing expanded, or ftretched out (2), yet, becaufe fuch an expanded body of air, or atmo- fphere, is, by the power of attradlion, firmly fixed to the globe, to which it is an appendage, may not the (r£^£w//,a of the Septu- agint, and the firmament, of our tranflators, be very expref- five of the true philofophical reafon of the name ; and at the *' into three parts, two of which would be earth, and would be feparated from •' one another by a belt of waters under the equator." (p. 65.) But if the firmament, which God called heaven, be, as his Lordfhip fuppofes, " that atmofphere or firmament of air, which furroundeth this globe of earth," was created the firft day; and if on the firft day, the motion of the earth round its axis was inftituted ; though that motion had continued from the creation to this day, whilft the earth was furrounded with an atmofphere of air, it could not poflibiy have produced any alteration in the figure of the earth. The prcfcnt figure, therefore, of all the bodies in the Syftcm, is an inconteftable proof, that firmaments or atmofpheres were made to them all, after the inlHtution of their diurnal motions, and therefore they were made on our fecond dav, and confe- quently by one and the fume almighty Fiat. — Let there he a Jirmament. (l) Ifa. XLV. 18. (2) L'Eftendue— Efpandidura. I 2 fame 68 The MOSAIC THEORY of fame time confirm our explanation of the prophets term, ejlablijl:ed. For though the planets revolve about their axes, with a velocity hardly to be conceived, the Earth, at the rate of a thoufand, and 'Jupiter thirty eight thoufand one hundred and fifty nine miles, in the fpace of an hour; yet becaufe their atmofpheres are thus firmly fixed, neither the extremely rapid diurnal, nor the aftoniili- ing velocity of their annual motion, can poflibly be perceived by their inhabitants : And indeed, without fuch a fixture, as an at- mofphere may be termed, the earth would have been abfolutely uninhabitable to creatures like us, whofe breath is in our noftrils. Now, as the air, by the amazing contrivance of him, who form- ed our atmofphere, was to be the neceffary means of life, health, and vigor, to every plant, and every animal, that was to be formed out of the earth, or the waters (i), if the other planets are furnifhed with animals and plants, formed out of their fubftances ; may not their refpedlive atmofpheres be equally ne- ceffary to the fame purpofes of life and vegetation, as they are to the rendering thofe planets habitable worlds ? Concerning any pofllble ufe of an atmofphere encompaffmg that immenfe globe of fire in the centre of our Syftem, it be- comes us to be abfolutely filent, though " We cannot deem it '** impollible, that Beings may have been made, fit to refide, to " aft, and to think, in the very centre, as well as on the furface " of the fun (2)." (i) " The air-pump, experiments made therein, and others to which thefe gave *' rife, have dilcovered many properties of the air, heretofore unknown, which " fhew the admirable fagacity of that Being, by whofe aftonifliing contrivance, that " fluid is fo adjuftedand tempered, as in efteiEi to fupport the animal as well as the " vegetable world, and to maintain this part of the creation, in the condition in " which it is." Refiedions on Incredulity, p. 35. 2d. Edit. (2) Id. p. 2. 3 CHAP. the Solar, ci- Planetary, System. 69 CHAP. VI. TaxXui^eif aTTcoXsTo. 2 Pet. III. 5, 6. Ver. 9. /I N D God /aid. Let the waters under the heaven [on the furface of the earth, and on the furfaces of every planet] be gathered together iinto one place (i), [on the earth, and on each of the planets,] and let the dry land appear. And it was fo. We have feen the bodies of the fun, the earth, and every planet in the fyflem, whilft in their chaotic ftate, revolving about their refpedlive axes ; whereby, not only the vi^aters that covered their furfaces, but the yielding particles of the bodies themfelves, muft have receded from the centres of the circles in which they (i) Here are no fuperfluous, no unmeaning words. Unto onz place, feems evi- dently to intimate to us, that in the original conftitution of the earth, there was but one coutincnt, or continued trail of land ; and but one colleiiion of waters : for though the gathering together of thofe waters that remained on the furface, after their fepara- tion from thofe of the abyfs, were, by him that feparated them, called feas ; it was but one gathering together, of many waters ; and thefe waters were called y^w, from the different parts of the globe which they covered, and from the various (bores they wafhed. If this interpretation be admitted, the very being of ifiands, and the feparation of the continents, (if they be really feparated) are owing ro the delufre. moved. o 7© 77'f M O S A I C T H E O R Y (?/ moved, and that with the greater force, as the peripheries of ths circles are greater. Hence, the equator, on each of them, being the greateft circle, and the reft towards the poles continually decreafing, this violent motion, though continued but for one revolution about their axes, before their atmofpheres were formed, would neceflarily change their original forms (i), from fpheres (2) to oblate fpheroids (3)5 and a fpheroid is the demon- ftrated figure of every planet, and of the fun itfelf. Since, therefore, the prefent figures of thefe bodies are the fame, as that of the earth, before the feparation of the waters from the dry land, they muft, like our earth, have been formed under the waters (4) s that is, the figure of thefe bodies was fix- ed 3. (1) Original Forms ; according to our IVth Prop. " That the feveral mafles of *' matter (of which the heavenly bodies and the earth do confift) were at their •« creation, each of them a diftindl chaos, without any form, except what arofe •' from that particular gravity, or tendency of their feveral particfes, to the centres " of their refpedtive maiTes, which the creator feems to have impreffed, on every ♦* particle of matter, at the beginning." (2) This is that fpecies of gravity of which the great Sir Ifaac Newton fpeaks — " Gutta corporis cujufque fluidi, ut figuram globofani inducere conentur, facit *' mutua particularum fuarum attraftio, eodem modo quo terra mariaque in rotun- " ditatem undique conglobantur, partium fuarum attradlione mutua, quae efl: gra- " vitas." Optic, p. 338. " The mutual attradtion of their parts, caufes the dropy •' of every fluid body to take upon them a fpherical figure, in the fame manner " as the earth, and the feas, are formed into a perfe£i fphere, by the mutual " attradion of their parts, which is gravity" (3) See Mofes and Bolingliroke. p. 33. (4) The earth was formed, but in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon, immature involv'd. Appeared not. Parad. Loji, B. VII. 276. The author of the book of Job, has a very remarkable j r.fTage to this purpofc, chap. XXVI. 5, 6, 7. Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the in- hatltants thereof That the author is here fpeaking of the wifdom and power of 4 God, the Solar, did not ceafe to fioWy till all the high hills, and ail the mountains were covered (2) ; the earth muft have been, at that time, in the fame, or in funilar circumflances, with thofe, in which fhe was at the beginning, before the fepa- ration of the waters from the dry land. Since, therefore, the high hills and the mountains were, at the beginning, covered with the waters of the whole earth j (for the earth was formed under the waters j (fee p. 71.) and when the flood was at the higheft, the hills and the mountains were covered with the fame waters, even the waters of the whole earth ; viz. the waters which had flowed from all the fountains of the great deep -, and thofe, which, after the original feparation from the dry land, had formed the feas ; fince, I fay, thefe were the circumflances of the earth, at thefe two periods, the place of this great j>EKP, inuft have been a grand chasm, opened by the creator in the body of the folid earth, even to its centre. (i) QcQ. VII. II. (2) Ibid. V. 19, 20. If the Solar (7r P l a n e t a r v, S y s t e ]^. 'f^ If it be iaid, that God called for the •wafers of the Jen, and poured them out upon the earth ( i ) j be it fo j yet aa the waters of the fea could not have been poured out upon the earth, unlefs; thofe from, the great deep, had been caqfed to flow into the fea, and thereby raife it above the earth ; the waters of the fea muft have communicated with thofe of the great deep (2) ; and therefore, as the waters that originally covered the earth, were but otie body ; and now, that they were to be feparated from the dry land, they would ftill be but one body ; the capacious deep,' and the channels for the feas, muft have eonftituted that one PLACE, unto which, the waters of" the whole earth were to be gathered together (3). And here, as in every aft of the divine Being, his moft con- fummate wifdom runs parallel with his almighty power. For fince God is reprefented as doing every thing by weight and mea- (i) Amos. V. 8. IX. 6. (2) " By the great deep, in this place, (fays Af^: Ray,) I fuppofe is to be un- •' derftood, the fubterraneous waters, which do, ar>d muft necefTarily communicate *' with the fea. For we fee, the Cafpian, and fome other feas, receive into them- •' felves many great rivers, and yet have no vifible outlets ; and therefore, by *' fubterraneous paflages, muft needs difcharge their waters into the abyfs of " waters under the earth, and by its intervention into the ocean again. " That the Alediten-anean fea doth not (as I fometimes thought) communicate " with the ocean by any fubterraneous paflages, nor thereby impart any water to ♦' it, or receive any from it, may hence be demonftrated, that the fuperficies " of it, is lower than the fuperficies of the ocean, as appears from the waters *' running in at the ftreights of Gibraltar," Rays Difcourfes^ p. 75, 4th Edit. (3) " Say, why {hould the colleiled main " Itfelf within itfelf contain } " Why to its caverns fhould it fometimes creep, '^ *' And with delighted filence fleep, V" '* On the lov'd bofom of its parent deep ? Prhrt J K 2 fur« 76 "The MOSAIC THEORY/ fure (i); when he created the chaotic mafs of matter, of which the body of the earth confifted, he mufl: have adjufled the fohd earth, and the water, in fuch an exadl proportion to each other, that when the abyfs could not contain the whole body of waters, that covered the earth, thofe that remained, fliould fill the channels of the feas. From this peculiar mechanifm, or conftrudlion, of the parts of this terraqueous globe, and their dependence on each other, we may plainly difcern the beauty and fublimity of the follow- ing paffages, — T^he earth is the Lord's, and the fuhiejs thereof— for he hath founded it upon the feas, and ejlablified it upon the foods (2); upon the waters that foived into this grand abyfs. Upon thefe waters ivere the foundations thereof fafened ; and with the fame materials, did he lay the corner Jl one thereof (3), even with the waters that remained on the furface, and filled the channels of the feas. For as thefe communicated with thofe of the great deep; (fee p. y^.) the immenfe prefTure (4) of fo huge a body of waters, in the Southern or Pacific ocean, the Atlantic, the North fea, the Ethiopian and the Indian oceans, exerted every way, on the waters of the great deep, would fix the foundations of the earth firm and stable, as if it had been founded on a ROCK. Hence the great, the philofophical propriety of St. Peters at- tributing the deflrudion of the old world by water, to the origi- nal (i) Ifai. XL. J2. (2) Pfal. XXIV. i, 2. (3) Job. XXXVIII. 6. (4) The immenfe preffure.'] By a fixed and eftablifhed law of hydroftatics, (which feems to have been now firft exemplified by the creator) " all fluids gravitate, " or weigh, in proportion to their quantity of matter ; and weigh the fame, com- •' municating with a quantity of that fluid, as in vacuo. And if" (as by ano- ther law) *' from the gravity of fluids arifes their preflure, which is always pro- " portional the Solar, or P l a N e t a u v, S y s t e M. 77 nal conftrudlion of the body of the earth (i). For this they arc •willingly ignorant of, that the heavens [the heavenly bodies] and the earth were of old, [in the beginning created] and [that] the earth, by the word [the command] of God [when he faid. Let the waters, &c. be gathered together unto one place, that the dry land may appear,] confjled [was made to fland] out of the water, of the great deep] and [fixed on its watery foundations] by water [by the prefTure of the waters of the grand ocean on thofe of the great deep] whereby [by which peculiar conftrudlion of the terraqueous globe] the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perijhed. For fince the earth was founded upon the feas, and eftabliflied upon the floods -, fince on thefe the foundations thereof were faflened, even by the prelTure of the grand ocean on the fubterraneous waters ; if by any means this preifure could be taken off, (and that it was taken off, is evident from the hi- flory of tlie flood, which particularly afcribes the deftrudlion of the old world, to the breaking up of all the fountains of the great deep, which, as long as that immenfe prefifure had continued,. could not pofTibly have been broken up) -, if, I fay, by any means this prefTure could be taken off, whereby the foundations of the earth would be fapped, the fubterraneous waters would be too weak to fuflain the fuperincumbent earth : the folid earth, there- fore, by its greater fpecific gravity, would necefi"arily fink into the waters of the abyfs. And fmce the folid earth, and the waters mufl have been in the fame proportion to each other, as at tlie beginning, the fallen earth would as neceflarily force up tlie waters from the deep, and thereby elevate the waters of the grand ocean, above the dry land, to the fame perpendicular " portional thereto," the waters of the great deep, muft have fuftained a weight, equal to the abfolute weight, of all the waters of the grand ocean, and of all the livers and lakes, that covered the face of the whole earth. (0 2 Pet. III. 5. 3 height 78 The MOSAIC THEORY gf heioht as at the beginning. Hence it will evidently appear, that fiace the waters that overwhelmed the earth at the flood, were the fame that covered the earth before the dry land appeared ; the high hills and the mountains that were covered at the flood, mufl have been the original high hills and mountains, that were formed under the waters, before their Reparation from the dry land. Thus the flood appears to have been the very reverfe of the work of the third day. For as the waters covered the whole earth till the beginning of that day, when God commanded them unto one place, viz. the great deep and the channels of the feas j and as, at the flood, he (i) brought them back again to cover the earth (for he called for the waters of the fea, which commu- nicated with thofe of the great deep, and poured them out upon the face of the earth, we might conceive of this extraordinary a(5t of the divine being, as if God had faid, when he had deter- mined to deftroy the earth — Let the waters that were gathered to- gether unto one place-— Let thofe very waters return, and cover the face of the whole earth as at the beginnings But though this was the fadt, it was the work of providencey and not of creation ; the laws of nature, and of motion, (if in effed: they be not the fame) were in the beginning eftablifhed by the creator (2) ; and by thefe laws, under the direftion of him, who did whatfoever he pleafed, in heaven and in earth, in the feas and all deep places, the greatefl: revolution, and the greatefl: change in nature, was effedled ; as we hope to demonftrate in the following chapter. ( i) And behold /, even I do bring a fiood of waters upon the earth, to defray all fiejh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven, . and every thing that is in ih( earth JhaU die. Gen. VI. 7. (2) See in chap. IX. Of the laws of motion. CHAP. the Solar, or Planetary, Systkm. 79 CHAP. VII. An Appendix to the Werk of the Third Day; BEING An Efiquiry info the natural Caufes of the Flood. A comet defcending in the plane of the ecliptic towards its ferihelim, on the firft day of the deluge, paft juft before the body of the earth. Whiston. AS in the courfe of this inquiry, we fiaall make a very dif- ferent life of the furprizing difcovery of the learned and ingenious Mr. Whijlon, of the Comet that on the firft day of the deluge, paffed juft before the body of the earth ; on which phaenomejaon he has founded his new theory of the earth; it is neceflary, before we attempt to eftabhili another theory of the deluge, on more rational and philofophical principles, to demonilrate tlie great aftronomical abfurdity of this, of Mr, Whifton, It is effential to the very being of a Planetary Syftem, that the fun, and every planet that rolls about him, fliould confift of a determinate quantity of matter j that thefe planets, at the be- ginning of their exiftence, Ihould have been placed at proper and determinate diftances from the central body, and that the quan- tity of motion impreffed on each of them, according to the tan- gents of their refpedive orbs, fhould be in fuch proportion, to the power of gravity in the fun, and in thofe planets, as to retain^ them in their feveral orbits. 3 Now, 8o "The. MOSAIC THEORY of Now, if by the power of gravitation, the planets of our fy- ftem have been, from the beginning of their motion, retained in their orbits, their quantity of matter, and motion, as well as their diflances from the fun, and from each other, muft have been, from the beginning of the Syflem, fo nicely adjufted, that the leaft diminutwi of, or addition to, the quantity of matter, in any one of the planets, would deftroy the equilibrium between the centripetal and centrifugal force of fuch planet, and thereby dilturb the whole fyftem. For this reafon it is probable, in the higheft degree, that there has been no dimtinition of the quantity of mattfer in the body of the earth, or in its atmofphere, from the beginning of its exiftence : for all the changes, and alter- ations produced from time to time, on the earth, in the feas, or in the atmofphere, are only changes, and alterations in the form, without the lofs of one particle of matter, that firft entered into the compofition of this terraqueous globe (i). On the other hand, fi) As the atmofphere is, by the power of gravity, fixed to the body of the terraqueous globe (fee p. 66.) not a fingle particle of matter could fly oft' from the earth : for fluids muft be raifed in vapour ; but beyond the limits of the at- mofphere, or expanded body of air, by the means of which alone, vapour can be raifed, no particles of fluid fubftances can poflibly be elevated. And the panicles of folid bodies could be diminiflied by no other means, that can poflibly be con- ceived, except by annihilation. But Annihilation, and Exnihilation, (if the term may be admitted) are words, which can never convey any idea to the mind, but that of omnipotence, or the bare poflibility of a fubftance being re- duced to, or produced from, nothing : nor indeed can we poflibly be afl'ured, without a revelation, that the omnipotent has ever exerted his power, in depriving any one fubftance, or indeed any fingle particle of matter, of its exiftence ; any more than without a revelation, we could ever have known, that from nothing, from a ftate of non-exijhnce, he gave being to every thing that does exift. Very remarkable to this purpofe, are the words of the Preacher, the Son of David, &c. 1 know that vjhatfoever God doth, it Jhall be for evtr [as long as the Syftem Ihall laft :] nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it ; and God doth it, that men /hould fear before him. Ecclef. III. 14. On //5(» Solar, (?>* Planetary, System. 8i hand ; the leaft addition to the quantity of matter, in any planet, would necefl'arily increafe the power of gravitation to- wards the fun ; and this increafe of the power of gravitation would likewife deftroy the equilibrium of the two forces, and difturb the whole Syftem. If this then was the cafe, with refpedl to fo immenfe a body as the fun, and our little planet, before the near approach of Mr. WhiJlon% comet ; what muft have been the confequence of fo prodigious a quantity of new and foreign matter derived from its atmofphere to the earth (i)? (if it were poflible, for the atmofphere of a comet to produce water, impregnated with earthy and ftony particles,) what, I fay, muft have been the con- fequence of fuch a prodigious addition to the quantity of matter in the earth, but the precipitating the earth, and her moon with her, into the centre, to the abfolute deftruftion of the Syftem ? And as " comets agree with planets in a regular mo- " tion about the fun, the common centre or focus of our *' fyftem (2)," the lofs of fo great a quantity of matter, as the atmofphere of this comet is fuppofed to have depofited on the earth, muft neceflarily have deilroyed the regular motion of the comet, if it had been poflible for the earth to have been retained On this fubjeia of annihilation, give me leave to obferve, that Cnce the notion is manifeftly borrowed from that of creation, or the giving being to what before had no exiftence, it is extremely abfurd in thofc, who talk fo much of, and wifli for, annihilation, to deny that the Being, whom they muft confefs to be almighty, ever did produce any fubftance from nothing, (i) " The diluvian matter from the comet's atmofphere, contained in it a great *« quantity of earthy and ftony particles, which made a fediment upon the face of " the antediluvian earth, and buried all the old world under it." JVlAJlorCi Tlmry^ p. 187. 2d. Edit. " The waters might cover the earth in general, about fifty " miles deep, one place with another." Id. p. 205. {2) IFtiiJion, Lemma LX. L in Bt r/je M O S A I C T n E O R Y of in her orbit j but if the earth, and her moon, would have been (as we have faid) drawn into the fun, the increafed power of attraction in the central body, by fo great an addition of matter, would neceffarily involve the comet in the fame fate. But to return to the earth, with this prodigious quantity of additional matter depofited on it, by the comet. Since the diameter of the fun is, by computation, 822,148, and that of the earth 7967 miles; let us fuppofe the quantity of matter in each of .thefe bodies, to be proportional to their diameters, which, in round numbers, let us fuppofe to be, in the fun, 800,000 parts j and in the earth, 8000 : now, whatever was the momentum, or quantity of motion impreffed on the earth, at the beginning, it muft have been in fuch proportion to the power of attraftion in the fun, as by that power to be retained in her orbit, fo long as the centrifugal and centripetal forces fhould continue the fame j but whenever any foreign matter {hould be added to the earth, for inftance, if to the 8000 parts fuppofed to be contained in her, we add 1000, the centripetal force would be increafed to fuch a degree, that the earth would neceffarily fall into the fun : and by fo great an addition to the quantity of matter in the body of the fun, its greater power of attradiion, would as neceffarily in- creafe the centripetal force of every planet, and every comet in the Syflem, (unlefs at the fame time, their centrifugal forces fhould have been increafed) and thus would every one of them have been abforbed into, and vitrified by, the fun. It is pleafant to fee this wild, extravagant, and unphilofophical hypothefis expofed, by two or three fhort queflions, with which the prophet I/aia/b (i), in all the fublimity of fentiment, and energy of language, fets forth the geometrical exadnefs of the (1) Ifa. XL. 12. creator. the Solar, or Pla'netary, System. 83 creator, in his creation and formation of the Syftem in general, and of the earth in particular. " Who hath meafured the waters *' in the hollow of his hand ? and meted out the heavens [the hea- " venly bodies] nvith the /pan, and comprehended the dujl of the " earth in a meafure, and iveighed the mountains in fcales, and the " hills in a balance f The authors of the Vniveifal Hijlory, juftly difatisfied with this unphilofophical hypothecs of Mr. Whijlon, and the truly philo- fophical romance of Dr. Burnet, are of opinion, " That the di- vine afliftance muft be called in on this occafion. For though the waters which covered the earth at the creation, might have been fufficient to cover it again ; yet how this fliould be effedled by mere natural means, (they think) cannot be con- ceived. The waters which were fufpended in the clouds, might, indeed, defcend upon the earth, and that in catarads, or fpouts of water (as the Septiiagint interpret the luindows of hea^ -uen), like thofe in the Indies, where the clouds frequently, in- ftead of dropping, fall, with a terrible violence, in a kind of torrent ; and this alone might caufe a great inundation in the lower grounds : but as the clouds could pour down no more water than they had, which would foon be exhaufted at this rate, it feems from the length of the rains continuance, that the fhowers were rather moderate, and gradual. The fubter- raneous flores would afford a more plentiful fupply to com- plete the deluge, and probably contain more water than enough to drown the world, to a greater height than Mo/es re- lates : the only difficulty is, to draw it out of the abyfs on the furface of the earth. And here, fmce we can afllgn no na- tural caufe, we apprehend we may, not unphilofophically, re- folve it into the divine power, which might, on this occafion, fo far controul (no greater a miracle than that of continuing) the ufual courfe of nature, as to effed its purpofc. And, indeed, L 2 the 84 27j^ M O S A I C T H E O R Y e/^ ** the event was fo extraordinary, and the confequences thereof " fo confiderable, that it is very reafonable to beheve God did, in " an efpecial manner, interpofe therein (i)." Of the fame opinion is the learned Mr. Keil, " who thinks ** it impolTible to give a true and mechanical account, of that " great deluge of waters which once overwhelmed the face of •' the whole earth, it being a work not to be performed without ♦' the extraordinary contrivance of the divine power (2)." " The " deluge was the immediate work of the divine power, and — no " fecondary caufes without the interpofition of omnipotence, " could have brought fuch an efFedl to pafs (3)." But with great deference to the judgment of thefe learned writers, though it is evident from the hiftory, that God did in an efpecial manner interpofe in this matter, (for he himfelf fays. Behold I, even I, do bring a JJood of waters upon the earth — eh. VT. 17.) yet we cannot but think, we have already laid the founda- tion of a true and mechanical account of the deluge, in the pecu- liar mechanifm and conftrudliou of the earth, as explained in the preceding chapter. For, from fo particular a difpolition of the feve- ral parts of the terraqueous globe, it is evident, that notwithftand- ing its foundations were laid on fo weak and unliable a thing as water, yet, if all the fountains of the great deep had not been broken up, (for to this, as to the principal caufe, the deluge is afcribed by MofesJ, the earth might have lafted as long as the fyftem -, for fb long as the power of gravitation had continued in force, the im- inenfe preffure of the waters of the ocean, on thofe of the great deep, would for ever have fecured them within the bounds ap- (i) Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 217, 218. (2) KeWi Remarks on Mr, JV)nJloti% Theory of the Earth, p. 140. (3) Id. p. 141. pointed the Solar, or Planetary, S v s t e m, 85 pointed for them, and thereby have prevented the earth's beJn» deftroyed by water (i). Now if thefe were the circumftances of the cartli, before tlie deluge, nothing more was wanting to complete this dertrudioii, than to break, up all the fountains of the great deep, that is, to take off the immenfe prefliire of the grand ocean, from the fub- terraneous waters, by fome powerfully attradling body, by which means thofe waters would naturally flow, as from fo many foun- tains, into the feas ; and fo long as fuch body fhould exert its influence in elevating the waters of the feas, thofe of the abyfs could not ceafe to flow^ till they had covered the face of the whole earth. For, lince the law of univerfal gravity extends to every b:dy in the Syftem, (and we have elfe where (2) proved, that the co- mets of our fyfl:em being heavenly bodies, are included in the Mofaic account of creation,) if any one of thefe heavenly bodies be placed near a planet, die waters of the feas of fuch planet, would necefl'arily be raifed above their furface, in proportion to the quantity of matter in that body, and its nearnefs to the planet (3). Now that the fountains of the great deep, (in the (l) P. 76. (2) Majei and Bolingbroie, p. 51. (3) " If any of the heavenly bodies be placed near a planet, by the incquaHt}- ♦♦ of its attradlion of the parts at unequal diftances from it, a double tide, or elcva- " tion of the fluids thereto belonging, whether they be inclofcd within an orb of " earth, or whether they be on its furface above, muft certainly arife ; and the di- " urnal motion of fuch planet being fuppofed, muft caufe fuch a fucceflive flux, «« and reflux of the faid fluids, as cur ocean is now agitated by." H'hijlon, Lemma LXXXII. p. 66. But here it muft be remembered, that as the waters of the abyfs were not inclof- cd within an orb of earth, but had a free communication with thofe on the fur- face inftead of a double tide, or a fucceflive flux and reflux of the fluids on the furface, the diurnal motion of the earth would neceflarily caufe a conftant eleva- tion of the waters,, till they would have been all drawn out of the abyfs. Mofaic 86 ' The MOSAIC T H E a R Y of Mofaic ftyle,) were broken up ; that is, that the immenfe prefTurc of the waters of the grand ocean (in the language of philofo- phers,) was taken off, from thofe of the abyfs, by the near ap- proach of a Comet, at the very time when the deluge began, the great Mr. JVhiJlon, to the abfolute confutation of his own theory, has abundantly demonftrated. " A comet, defcending in the plane of the ecliptic towards its *^ perihelion, on the firft day of the deluge. paft juft before the «' body of the earth (i)." This propofition the author firft only propofed as a pofiible cafe; that is, he only fuppofed fuch a comet, merely as he thought it would account well and phiiofo- phically, for the phaenomena of the deluge; without any affur- ance, that there really was any comet fo near the earth at that time ; " but proceeding, as he fays, (2) in fome further thoughts " and calculations on the faid hypothefis, he faw abundant rea- " fon to reft fatisfied of the reality, as well as probability of " what he before had barely fuppofed." We fliall not enter up- on his reafoning, or calculations, but content ourfelves with a very extraordinary citation, from the author of remarks on this famous theory ; who, though he has made it evident by many confiderations, that a comet could never have produced thofe va- rious effefts that Mr. Whifion has attributed to it ; yet is forced to bear this honourable teftimony, not only to the probability, but to the reality, of fo very remarkable a phaenomenon. " Tho' I think it impofiible (fays Mr. Keif) to give a true " and mechanical account, of that great deluge of waters which ** once overflowed the face of the whole earth, it being a work " not to be performed without the extraordinary contrivance of *' the divine power; yet I cannot but acknowledge, that Mr. (j) New Theory, p. 181. (2) Id. p. 182. " IVhiJloriy the Solar, or Planetary, System. 87 " Whifton, the ingenious author of tJiis New T/jeory of the Earth, " has made greater difcoveries, and proceeded on more philolb- *' phical principles, than all the theories before him have done. " In his theory there are fome very ftrange coincidents, which " make it indeed probable, that a comet at the time of the de- ** luge pafTed by the earth. It is furprizing to obferve the exadt " correfpondence between the lunar and the folar year, upon the " fuppofition of a circular orbit, in which the earth moved be- •' fore the deluge. It cannot but raife admiration in us, whei> " we confider, that the earth at the time of the deluge, was in " its perihelion, which would be the neceflary efFed: of a comet " that palled by at that time, in drawing it from a circular to an " elliptical orbit. This together with the confideration tliat the " moon was exadtly in fuch a place of its orbit at that time, as " equally attracted with the earth, when the comet palfed by, " feems to be a very convincing argument, that a comet really " came very near, and palTed by the earth, on the day the de- ** luge began (i)." To apply this amazing difcovery to the Mofaic account of the deluge, little more is necellary, than briefly to recapitulate, what has been already advanced on the peculiar conftrudlion of our terraqueous globe : the fum is this — The whole body of waters that in the beginning covered the whole furface of the earth, was commanded unto one place j this one place was, as we have prov- ed (2), the great abyls under the earth, together with the channels prepared for the fcas. Thefe waters, therefore, under the earth, and in the feas, communicated with each other, by as maiiy fub- marinepallages, or outlets, from the abyfs, as there were feas, over (i) Keil\ Examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth, and Remarics on Mr. JVliiJIons Theorj'. (2) P. 74. 75- 4 the 8S r.Se^ M O S A I C T H E O R Y c/ the hice of the whole earth ; for which reafon, thefe outlets are with great propriety fliled the fountains of the great deep. Now this communication, (which by the way is manifeftly implied in that, otherwife unintelligible expreffion, one place,) is fo abfolutely ne- ccflary to a rational and mechanical account of the breaking up of thofe fountains, that is, of the effeft produced on the waters of the whole earth, by the near approach of this comet, that though the vicinity of fuch a body would raife a very ftrong tide, in any oi the fea:. obje'lled to it, and caufe a partial and temporary inundation, yet, if there had been no fuch communication, if the abyfs had been, as Mr. Whifton fuppofes it, a denfe and heavy fluid, encompaffed on all fides with a thick cruft of earth, lying clofe upon it ; it would have been abfolutely impoflible, in fuch •a cafe, that the waters could have been drawn out of the abyfs, upon the furface, by the near approach of the greatefl comet in the Syftem. But as the waters in the feas, were but a continuation of thofe in the abyfs, (for fince at the creation, the waters of the whole earth were but one body ; and at their feparation from the dry land, as the abyfs mufl have been full, before the waters that re- mained on the furface could be called feas, they were flill but one body) the very ftrong and prodigious tide, that would be raifed in the feas, that from the diurnal motion of the earth, would fucceifively be objeded to the comet, would neceflarily continue to flow, as long as the feas could be fupplied with water, from the feveral fountains of the great deep ; and, unlefs the laws of nature were miraculoufly fufpended, the waters thus raifed out of the abyfs, would natu- rally diftufe themfelves over the whole furface, till, the founda- tions being removed, the fuperincumbent earth would necelTarily fmk into the abyfs, and by its fall, would as neceflarily force up the remaining waters towards the furface, and thereby complete the univerfal deftrudtion. 3 ' If the Solar, , but in the bowels of the earth, which opened in many places, and " fwallowed up numbers of people with their habitations," Id. p. 435. 5 laying 94 77^^ M O S A I C T H E O R Y e/~ laying the foundations of the earth, on the waters of the great abyfs i and eftablifliing thofe foundations by water, viz. by the vafl and prodigious preiTure of the fuperincun:ibent water of all the feas on the face of the whole globe. Wifdom — in preparing one of the bodies of the Syflem, and adjufling it? allonifhing motion, in fo exad a manner, that when the creator called for the waters of the fea, to pour them out upon the earth, the obedient comet was at hand, to execute the threatened ven- geance. CHAP. tbe Solar, or Planetary, System. ^5 CHAP. VIII. 'Zuf/.a.Ta. S-i duruv ha That general g^cavity^ did not take place in our Syftem, till the fourth Day. (3) To this original cftablifhment of the laws of nature, the prophet Jeremiah rraniftftly refers, ch. XXXI. 35. Thus faith the Lord, which givcth the fun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon,- end of the fars, for a light by night.— ~ And the S o t A R, or Planetary, System. i o i We have already obfcrved, that among the various references and allufions to the work of the different days of the creation, fcattered up and down in the facred writings, the author of the epiftle to the Hebrews^ fpeaking of the creation, has given a flriking teftimony to our interpretation of the very firft words of Mofes (i). But iince we have gone through the proof of thofe propolitions, which feem to us to contain, the true principles on which the Mojhlc dodlrine of creation is founded, and which ap- pear to be the fame with thofe, by which the Coperniean Syftem fubfifls j give me leave to confirm and eftablifli what we have ad- vanced on this fubjeft, by producing a palTage in the writings of another infpired writer, in which the creation of the Solar, or Planetary Syftem, is graphically defcribed. Psalm XIX. ver. i — 6. 1. T^he heavens the heavenly bodies, the fun, the moon,, arrd the other planets, which in the beginning God created with the earth, declare the glory, the infinite power, and incomprehenfi- ble wifdom, cf God: and the firmament y in which he fet them, to give light upon the earth, and upon 'Jupiter, Saturn, 6cc. and to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darknefs, on each of them ; and to be for figns,, and for feafons, and for days and years ; the firmament y7;fu.r//6 his handy work. * 2. Day unto day iittereth fpecch, and night unto night pciveth knov:- tedge. And becaufe God hath divided, imparted, them unto all 3. nations under heaven (2), there is no Jpcech nor language u'hc?-c- their voice is not heard. And that this eftabliftiment was to laft as long as the Syflem, he adds, ver. 36. If thofe oidinaiKfs (Lpart fom bifre me, faith thi Lord, then i. c. tl^ey f>a!'. never depart. (l) See p. 265 27. (2} Deut. IV. 19. A.. Tbci-r 102 The MOSAIC THEORY of 4. T^heir line their regular motions, in tlieir refpeftive orbits, is gone out, is difcovered, through all the earth, and their nvords 1 proclaim the almighty mover, to the etid, to the utmoft parts, of the world : in them, in the midfl: of them, in the centre, hath he fet, placed, a tabernacle, a place of refidence, for the fun. 5. Which, glorious in his apparel, is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, of the Eaft ; and, travelling in the greatnefs of his ftrength, rejoiceth as a Jlrong man to run a race. 6. His going forth, to run his daily courfe, is from the end of hea- "cen, from that point of the heaven, that terminates our fight in the eafl, and his circuit unto the ends of it, in the weftern ho- rizon : and there is nothing, no body in the Syftem, hid from, or deprived of, the light, or, the heat thereof. CHAP. the Solar, or Planetary, System. 103 CHAP. IX. Of G R AVI T v. GR AV I T Y is that principle or law of nature, whereby all bodies, and all the particles of bodies, gravitate towards each other. The immortal Newton confiders the tendency itfelf, to whatever caufe fuch effedl may be owing> whether to a power inherent in the bodies themfelves, or to the impulfe of an external agent ; yet he no where aflerts this property to be efTential to matter : and indeed, if motion, in general, be not, how is it poffible that gravity, which is a fpecies of motion, fhould be eflential to matter ? But though fo fenfible a pha^nomenon cannot be accounted for, on philofophical principles, fome light may, perhaps, be thrown on this intricate fubjedl, by Mofes. For, from what has been advanced, in our explication of his dodlrine of the creation, may not the two following corollaries be admited ? Corollary L " That partictdar gravity, whereby the particles of all bodies *< mutually tend to each other, and to the centres of their re- ♦< fpetSlive maffes, is coeval with the creation of thofe bodies, or " of the maflcs of matter of which, at their creation, they " confiiled." C o R o L- lo-f The MOSAIC THEORY &f Corollary II. II. But " That the principle or law of univerfal gravity was *' imprelled, by the creator, on all the bodies of the Solar Sy- " ftem, on our fourth day." That all the bodies in the Solar Syftem were created, with a particular tendency of their particles to each other, and to the centres of their refpective mafles ; or, that immediately upon their creation, this particular tendency was fuperadded by their creator, is evident, from their having been created diftind bodies, different and diftindt maffes of matter, in a fluid chaotic ftate : and that they were, at their creation, fpheres, the confequence of this particular tendency, is evident, from the prefent demon- ftrated figure of each of them, the neceffary effeft of their rota- tion about their refpeftive axes, whilfl: they were in a fluid ftate ; for no bodies, except fpheres, by a rotation about their axes, could poffiby acquire the form of oblate fpheroids (i). The fphericity of the earth, which depends upon, as it is the effedt of this particular gravity, is beautifully reprefented by a moil antient infpired writer, when, fpeaking of creation, he fays,— (2) He hangeth the earth upon nothing — upon its centre, a mere imaginary point, which is nothing ; and as the other bodies of the'Svftem, were at their creation, in fimilar circumftances, it is natural to conclude, that the creator hangeth them all upon' nothing. JB at though the particles of thefe feparate and diflinft malTes of matter, had from the beginning a tendency to their refpedlive centres ; yet the bodies themfelves had no fuch tendency to each (i) See Mofes and BoVmghoke, p. 33, 34. (2) Job. XXVI. 7. He JlreUheth out the north ever the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nutbing. "'' ' ■ ^ other, /i^ S O L A R, (jr P L A N E T A R Y, S Y S T E M. 1 05 Other, for that the planets, &c. did not from the beginning, gra- vitate towards the fun, nor the fun towards the planets, &c. for the fpace of three of our days, is very evident, from this lingle confideration ; that though they revolved about their refpective axes, the bodies themfelves remained, otherwife, at reft, in thofe portions of fpace, which they poffeffed at their creation, till onr fourth day (i). For Moses is exprefs, that thrct' even- ings, and three mornings had been completed on our earth, be- fore God SET, or PLACED, the great lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light, their various light, upon the earth, and to be for figns and for feafons, and for days and years : Now, as thefe mighty effeds have been conftantly and invariably produced, by the annual motion of the primary planets, about the fun, and the periodical and fynodical motions of the moons, about their primaries; God's setting the great lights in the fir- mament of the heavens of every primary, can have no other poili- ble meaning, than his imprefling thefe bodies with fuch motions, as would produce the above-mentioned effedls.. It is evident, that the primary planets are carried about the fun, and the moons about their primaries, by a motion com- pounded of a proje<5lile force, according to the tangents of their erbs, and the power of gravity. Now, fince no other motion, had hitherto been communicated, to any body in the Syflem, ex- cept that which caufed them to revolve about their rcfpeiflive axes ; and fince Gravity is not innate, inherent, and eflential to matter (2) ; the bodies themfelves muft have bt;cn, (as we have before (i) Seep. 54, 55. .(2) " That Gravity," (fays Sir Jfaac Nciuton) " (bould be innate, inhcren% and " eflential to matter, fo that one body may act upon another at a dift.mce tlir. u^h " a vacuum, without the mediation of any thing elfe, by and through v/hith ih.ir *' adion and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me fo gr. nt an O. " abfjidiiy. tio6 T:be MOSAIC THEORY of before obferved,) at reft. But as the primary planets move about the lun, and the moons about their primaries, by means of this compound motion, the projedlile force muft, not only have been imprelTed on them, in their original places of reft, but, btcaufe this force was imprefled, according to the tangents of their feveral orbs, they muft, at their creation, have been placed, at the fame precife diftances from the fun, and the moons at the fame diftances from their primaries, as are their prefent mean diftances. Since, therefore, the planets, &c. were originally placed within the fphere of the fun's adion, before the impref- fion of a projedlile force, if Gravity had been innate, inherent, and eflential to matter, the planets, with the comets, would all have gravitated to, and have been abforpt in, the fun : and if the projeiftile force had been imprefled before the power of Gra- vity had taken place, " they would" (by the firft law of motion) *' have perfevered in that direcftion, not ftopping, or remitting their " courfe, till interrupted or otherwife difturbed by fome new power *' imprefled ;" but they were projected in ftrait lines, and yet by the power of Gravity, are to this day preferved in their refpedive orbs; both thefe forces, therefore, muft have been imprefl'ed at one, and the fame moment of time. Now, flnce the great lights were not fet, placed, in the firmament of the heaven, till the fourth day; and they could not have been fet there, for the pur- pofes they were to ferve, and do, to this day, continue to ferve, but by the Creator's imprefling the planets, &;c. according to the tangents of their orbs, and at the fame time fixing and eftablifli- ing the law of univerfal Gravity, thefe two powers muft have been " abfurdity, that I believe no man who has, in philofophical matters, a compe- " tent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into. Gravity nruft be caufed by an " awent adling conftantly, according to certain laws ; but whether this agent be " material or immaterial, I leave to the confideration of my readers." Four Let- ten to Dr. Benthy, commu- the Solar, or P l a n e t a r v, System, loj Gommunicated to the kveral bodies in the Syftem on this fourth day. If, therefore, the principles, on which the Syfteni of xMoses is formed, be the fame with thofe, by which the Solar or Plane- tary Syftem is governed; and if " Gravity is caufed by an agent " adting conftantly according to ftated laws (i);" thcfe laws muft have been coeval with the Syftem ; for which reafon they are with the greateft propriety called, the Laws of Nature ; that is, the laws which the Almighty agent impofed on the mo- tions, impreflcd by him, when he formed the Syftem. The laws of nature, therefore, and the general laws of motion, as far as they relate to the Syftem, and every body in the Syftem, are the fame. But if, on the Jirjl day, the Creator did communicate to the feveral bodies in the Syftem, a motion round their axes; and on the fourth, did imprefs the planets with their annual motion round the fun, it will be expedled, that fome manifeft traces of the general laws of motion, fliould appear in the Mofaic account of the formation of his Syftem. Let us then fee, how the general laws of motion may be ap- plied to, or coincide with, the Mofaic dodrine of motion and reft. The L.a'vos of Motion. The firftilaw is, " That all bodies have fuch an indifference to " reft, or motion, that if once at reft, they remain fo, till difturb- " ed by fome power a^fling upon them : but if once put in mo- " tion, they perfift in it ; continuing to move right forwards per- " petually, after the power, which gave the motion, is removed ;. " and alfo preferving the fame degree of velocity or quicknefs, as (i) See the preceding note, O 2 was io8 The MOSAIC THEORY of " was firft communicated, not {topping, or remitting their courfe " till interrupted or othervvife dillurbed by fome new power *• impreffed." The fecond law is, " That the alteration of the flate of any " body, whether from reft to motion, or from motion to reft, or ** from one degree of motion to another, is always proportional *' to the force impreffed. " The tlaird law is, " That when any body a(5ls upon another, the ** aftion of that body upon the other, is equalled by the contrary " readlion of that other body upon the iirft." Thefe laws are found fo univerfally to belong to bodies, that there is no motion known, which is not regulated by them. And here it is worthy of a peculiar remark, that the firft of thefe general laws of motion, is founded on the fuppofition, that reft is, both in nature and reafon, prior to motion. " All bodies ♦' have fuch an indifference to reft and motion, that if once at reft (and fmce motion is not effential to matter, all bodies are at reft till they are once put in motion) " they remain fo, till difturbed *' by fome power ading upon them." This is perfecftly agree- able to the dodlrine of Moses ; for the fun, and every planet in the Syftem, were at reft, till they were difturbed by the power, that, aifting upon their feveral furfaces, caufed them to move about their refpediive axes ; and this motion, (by the fame law) they " perfifted in," for three days, " continuing to move in " the fame direction, and with the fame velocity, as was firft " communicated," (for thefe days were equal). And as this motion was about their axes only, their centres muft have re- mained at reft ; the bodies themfelves, therefore, muft have been abfolutely at reft ; that is, they muft have remained in the fame portions of abfolute, and immoveable fpace, which they pofleffed at the Solar, or P l a n £ t a r v, S v s t e m. 1 09 at their creation. Here, likewife, (by the fame law) " the fun, " and every planet and comet, would have remained, continu- " ing to revolve about their axes, till interrupted, or otherwife *' difturbed by fome new power imprerted," which fhould re- move them from their original places of reft. Now, if no new power had been impreffed, there could have been no other poOible diflinftion, than of evenings and mornings, days and nights ; and as the days would have been equal to the nights, on every planet, there could have been no figns, nor dif- ference of feafons, or of days, or years, to any planet in the Sy- ftem. But new powers were, on this fourth day, impreffed ; the planets and comets, were projefted in ftreight lines, accord- ing to the tangents of their orbs, or their trajedories j and at the fame time, with a power of gravitating towards the fun : hence, (according to the fecond law of motion, whereby, " if " the new power be impreffed obliquely, there will arife an ob- " lique motion, differing more or lefs from the former direction , " according as the new impreffion is greater or lefs,") hence, I fay, there would neceffarily arife an oblique motion, compounded of the two differently-diredled forces, which would carry the pri- mary planets and comets about the fun, and the moons about their primaries. But the body of the fun was, at the fame moment of time, impreffed with the power of attracting, or gravitating towards the planets, &c. and this power of attradtion, or gravitation, being now mutual, they mult have been caufcd mutually to at- tract, or gravitate towards each other from the beginning, ac- cording to the third general law of motion, viz. " That adlion and " readlion are equal." For as the fun a(5ls upon the planets, &c. the adlion of the fun upon them, is equalled by the adlion of the planets, &c. upon the fun. 3 Hence, no The MOSAIC THEORY of Hence, it evidently appears, that these genekal laws op MOTION, were fixed and eftablillied, as the laws of nature, by the creator, when he, on th.e, Jirfi day, imprefled a violent mo- tion on the furfaces of the earth, and all the heavenly bodies, which caufed them to move about their axes ; and on the fourth day, when he set the fun, and the moons, in the firmaments of the heavens of the feveral primary planets in the Syftem, in fuch a manner, as to produce thofe efFedls on each of them, as would be the neceffary confequences of thofe compound motions, by which alone, they could have been set in the heavens, to be for SIGNS, and for seasons, AND FOR DAYS AND YEARS. CHAP. the Solar, or Planetary, System. Ill CHAP. X. A General Scholium. Be Moses' works your ftudy and delight ; Read them by day, and meditate by night j Thence form your judgments, thence your notions brin». And trace Religion upwards to its fpring. Genesis, C h a p. I. Ver. 31. A N D God faw every thing that he had made, and be- jTjl. hold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the fixth day. Chap. II. 1. Thus the heavens, [the heavenly bodies,] and the earth, were finiflied, even all the hoft of them. 2. And on the fevcnth day God ended his work which he had made : And he refted on the feventh day from all his work, which he had made. 3. And God blefled the feventh day, and fandlified it : becaufe, that in it he had refted from all his work, which God created to make. As the inftitution of a fabbath, or day of reft, in confequence of God's refting, or ceafing, from the work of creation, ab- folutely depends upon, and is a necelTary part of, the Mofaic crea- tion ; and, as that is a hiftory of the creation and formation of 3 the 112 The M OSAIC THEORY of the Solar or Planetary Syftem ; may not the following propofition be admitted as a Generai. Scholium, naturally flowing from his dodlrine of creation ? To wit ; " That when God had creat- <' ed the Svilem, he became the fovereign Lord of the fame, " and inftantly claimed his right of dominion, over the rational " and intelligent part of the creation, by inftituting a fabbath, *' or day of holy reft, to the inhabitants of every primary planet " in the Syftem." The authors of the Vniverjhl Hijlory, fay, " Whether the ob- " fervation of the fabbath, or feventh day, be as old as the crea- " tion, as fome authors, both Jews and Chriflians, will have it; " from Gen. II. 3. or whether that text means no more, than " that God fet apart that day to be afterwards obferved by the " Ifraelites, as the far greater part of the fathers and chriftian " commentators underlland it ; is a queflion — more curious than " important (i)." But, as there is not, perhaps, any duty, except the worfhip of the one true God, more ftrongly inlillied on, or more frequently inculcated, in the Old Teflament, than the obfervation of the fabbath, or feventh day; and, as the punifliment of the idolater, nay, the enticer to idolatry, and of the profaner of the fabbath, was the fame (2) ; it fiiould feem that, in the eftimation of the lawgiver, the profanation of the fabbath, was a crime equal to idolatry : And, indeed, if he that made the heavens and the earth, even all the hoft of them, (for hereby is the true God diflinguifhed from idols) (3) did really fandlify the feventh day; the denying him the fervice of his own day, has a natural ten- (1) Vm-verj, WJi. Vol. III. p. 15. Ed. 8vo. (2) Deut. XIII. 10. XVII. 5. Numb. XV. 35. (3) Pfttl. XCVI. 4, 5. dency. the Solar, or P l a n e t a r v. System. 113 dency, to alienate the mind from all religion \ which is, if pof- blc, worfe than idolatry. It is not at all furprizing, tiiat in their endeavouring to trace up planetary worfliip as near as pofllbic to its fource, thcfe learned gentlemen fliould detetmine for the curious, rather than the important fide, of the above queftion, when they have fug- gefled a reafon for the fuperior antiquity of t\\Qfa/jbat/j, or /event b day, of fo very curious a nature, that whoever admits it, may ftrike the fourth commandment out of the decalogue. They fay, " God " created the world, or this Syftem, in fix days, and refted the " feventh. This was the foundation of the Antediluvian, as well '* as the Hebrew week ; and feems to be the reafon, that the " n\xn\hcvfeven, was fo remarkable both amongfl the Antediluvians, " and the Hebrews." *' Now it is obfervable, that there is " a furprifing analogy, betwixt the days of the original week, ** and the Syflem then created. The fix primary planets (for •• the moon is the fatellite of the -earth) move round the fun, ** which is fixed, or at reft, and together they are in number, *' /even. This anfwers exadily to the fix days of work or mo- *' tion, and one of reft, in all fcven, of which the original " week did confift. Thus the Mofaic account of the creation, 1% ** a fymbolical defcription of the world, or Syft<;m created. And *• fuch defcriptions as thefe were perfe<5lly agreeable to the " genius of tfoe -O-rieiitals, efpecially the Egyptians, m the firll ♦' ages, and particularly in that wherein Moji's lived (i)." *< As infinite power cannot be confined in its produdlions, to any " particular part of duration, and as the manner of every one of " the divine operations muft be calculated to ferve fome wife ■" end ; we may prefumc, that there was fome final caufe, why " the world, or this Syftem, was created in precij'ely \\^ days, (l) Unlvcrf. Hljl. Vol. XVII. p. 269. P " which. 114 "^''^ MOSAIC T H E O R Y of " whicli, in conjunftion with a feventb, formed tlie £ift period " of time. Nov/ it will not be eafy to allign a more rational " one, than we have hinted above, to wit, that this was done *' with a defign, to point out to the firft inhabitants of the earth, " the principal parts of which the Syilem then created, did confift : " as likewife to remind them in a particular manner, every '■'■ Jevcnth day, that thefe yJif^/e heavenly bodies were created by ** God, intirely dependent upon him, and therefore, ought not to •> be efteemed as objefts of. adoration. The great propenfity of ♦* mankind in after ages, particularly the Hebre^ivs, God's own " people,, to this fpecies of falfe w^orlhip, adds no fmall weight. " to our hypothelis (i)-" It is true, that " God created the world, or this Syftem, in " fix days, and refted the feventh." *' And this was the foun- " dation of the Antedihivian, as well as the Hebrew week." Now if the days had been the fame, on every planet in the Sy- ftem, as on the earth, there might, perhaps, have been fome- plaufible pretence, for \.h\s furprifmg analogy, between the days of the original week, and the Syftem then created : but fince the. earth is but one of the planets that God created in fix days,, which in conjundlion with the feventh, formed the firft period of time to us ; if the analogy does not hold betwixt the days that formed the firft period of time, on the planet 'Jupitery^iSL.xxA. the^ Syftem created, (for yupiter is a planet of the fame Syflem,) the fancied analogy is loft. For inftancc, " God created the world, " or this Syftem, in fourteen days, as days are meafured to the " inhabitants of that planet, and refted the fifteenth :" This would have been the foundation of the firft period of time, on Jupiter, or the firft Jovial week i and, confequently, the number ifteen, would have been as remarkable amongft the inhabitants of (i) Vnlverf. Hljl. Vol. XVII. p. 272. Jupiter, the Solar, or Planetary, System. uj JupitC7\ as the number /even has been with us. Since, there- fore, Jupiter is a phinet of the fame Syftem, and was created with the earth; it is very evident, that there can be no pofTiblc analogy, betwixt the days of the firft period of time on Jupiter^ or the firft Jovial week, and the Syftem then created -, and, con- fequently, the Mofaic account of creation, cannot poflibly be, a Jymbolical defcription of t/j£ world, or Syftem created. But let us now change the queftion, with the planet, and aflc, (as an inhabitant of Jupiter might afk) " why God created the " world, or their Syftem, in precifely fourteen days, and refted " the fifteenth ?" and we (hall difcover a very remarkable, and furprifing analogy, betwixt the days of our original week, and the days of the firft period of time, on Jupiter, and, indeed, on every planet in the Syftem ; for the Syftem was finiflied on our Jixth day ; on ihcfmh of Venus, and Mars ; and on thQ fourteenth of Jupiter, and Saturn ( i ). Now it was fit and re:ifonabIe, in the nature of tilings, worthv of the Lord and Governor of the Syftem, to appoint to his ra- tional and intelligent creatures, fome fixed and ftated portion of time, for the celebration of his infinite perfedlions, fo par- ticularly difcovered to them, in the crea-tion and formation of .their Syftem. Here then, we may plainly dilcern the true final CaItse, why the world, or this Syftem, was created in precifely fix days, as days are 4i"iearurcd to us; to wit, to introduce the Jevent/j, as a day of holy reft. It is true, " Infinite power cannot be con- ■" fined in its produdions, to any particular part of duration ;" but if, from the narrownefs of our conceptions of the divine be- (i) See the annexed Tables. P 2 ing, n6 The MOSAIC THEORY of ing, and his operations, we extend the feveral ads of creation to any part of duration, beyond what the creator himfelf has re- vealed to us, we Ihall greatly err. We have authority from him, who made the world, or this Syftem, to fay, — Li Jix days ths Lord made heaven and earth ( i) j but we have no authority to fay, — God was employed fix days in making the heaven and the earth : whereas, in the hiftory of the creation, notwithftanding the fpecification of the days of God's working, he is reprefented in all the majefty of omnipotence, as fiiiifliing the different parts of his work, in six moments, — He /pake, and it was {z) — Let there be light — and there ivas light (3) -- Let thcrtbo a: firmament — and it nvas fo (4). It is very evident, therefore, that thefe mo- ments are, with divine propriety, called (lor God himfelf named them) Days j bec.aufe no other adi, or adls, of the divine wifdom and power were effected, between the evenings of any two days, except what are recorded in the hiftory, to have been effefted, in thofe particular parts of duration. Now, it will net be eafy to aflign, (we do not fay a more rational, but) any other reafon, than what we have given above ; for the fpecification of the days of tlie creation, muft, necellurily argue fome defigi>, worthy of infinite wifdom j. becaufe, a bare relation of the fads, in the fame order, in which they he, in the facred text, would have been, to a tittle, the fame, if tlie days. had not been num- bered ; and a relation of the fame fads, or the feveral particulars of the creation and formation of the heavens, the heavenly bodies,, and yupiter, as a planet, would have been the fame account of the creation and formation of the world,, or Syftem then created. Since, therefore, notwithftanding that the work of creation was performjed, in six moments, and yet was not finiftied till (I) Exod. XX. u. (2) Pfal. XXXIII. 9. (3^) Gen. I. 3. {4) V.cr. 6, 7. our //6f S O L A R, or P L A N E T A R Y, SYSTEM. II J our fixth day ; what conclufion can be more natural, than " that " the true final caufe, why the world, or this Syftem, was " Created, in precifely six of our days, was to introduce a ** SEVENTH, as a Sabbath, or day of holy reft, to tiie inhabi- " tants of this earth ?" But the force, and propriety of this final caufe increafes, in proportion to the number of the primary planets in the Solar Sylliem. For, as we have elfe where demon ftrated (i), *• that " the feveral changes produced on tlie chaos of the earth, may, *' with the fame hiftorical truth, be applied, tnutatis mutandisy. ** to the chaos of 'Jupiter and the other primary planets ;" fo tlie inftitution of a fabbath, or day of holy refl, is equally applica- ble to the inhabitants of yupiter, Saturriy See. thus — ^/jj the euening and the morning "were the day. 'Thus the heavens, the heavenly bodies, and — — luere Jinijljedy even all the hojl of them. And on the day God ended his work 'which he had }nade : And he rejled on the day, from all his ivork which he had made. And God blejj'ed the day, and fanclifed it ; becaufe that in it he had rejled from all his work, which God created and made. As this has been already (2) exemplified in fubflituting tiie planet Jupiter, in the room of the Earth, give me leave further to confirm the truth of our general Scholium, by the annexed tables, which contain the different days, on Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and their coincidence with the correfponding days, or parts of days, on our planet; whereby we fl^all plainly fee, that as our fabbath, or day of reft, was the day, that immedi- ately fucceeded the lafl day of the creation of the earth ; fo the libbaths appointed to the inhabitants of the other planets, were (.1) See Mofes and Bollngbroke, p. 56. (2) Ibid, p. 59 — S5. 5. the ii8 The MOSAIC THEORY (f the days that immediately fucceeded the laft day of the creatioa of their xefpedtive planets. That in thefe tables, wfe have juftly fixed the beginning of the firft: day, will evidently appear, from what has been already demonflrated (i) ; to wit, " That when the fun firft fhone upon " the earth, and indeed, upon every planet in the Syftem, it muft ne- " cefTarily have appeared in its meridian glory. The beginning, " therefore, of the firll day, muft neceflarily be fixed to that mo- " ment of time, when the fun was in the meridians of the firfl-en- " lightened hemifpheres, of the earth, and every planet. — Now, as " the diurnal motion of the planets is from Weft to Eaft ; as foon *' as ever the fun had pafted to the weftward of thofe firft meridi- " ans ; that is, the moment the fun began to decline, the evening on *' each of them commenced. Since, therefore, the firft natural day " is to be reckoned from the appearance of the fun, in the meridians " of the earth and every planet; and fince God called the dark- *« nefs, or the abfence of the fun, night ; when the fun fhould " be in the meridians of the oppofite hemifpheres, it would be " midnight to the firft-enlightened, we have two principal parts " of time afcertained ; to wit, the true ojlronomical eveiiing and *' morning; for as aftronomers as well as Mofes reckon their " morning, from the time of midnight, to that of noon, or " mid-day i their evening, or pojl meridiem, muft be, like the ♦' evening of Mofes, from noon, or mid-day, to mid-night. Now, as Vejtiis revolves about her axis, once in twenty-three hours, her days would correfpond with ours, according to die fullowing table : (i) Seep, 59, Co. Venus. /i. w. fecond — ended - - -- - Tuefday, - j 20' /. ;;/. third — ended - - - - Wednefday, 2 p. m. fourth — ended - - - - Thurfday, 2 40'/. m. fifth — ended - - - - Friday - 3 20' p. m. fixth — ended - - - - Saturday - 4 p. m. feventh — ■ ended - - - - Sunday - 4 40'^. m. Though the diurnal motion of Mercury, from its nearnefs to, and of Saturn, from its great diflance from the Sun, have not yet been obferved j it is mofl reafonable to conclude they revolve, each of them, about their axes. But Mr. Hugens is of opinion, " that all the primary planets revolve about their axes, and •♦- thereby their whole furfaces would by turns enjoy the " light of the fun (1)." And fpeaking of the inhabitants of Saturn, he fiys, " What the length of their days is, cannot " certainly be known ; but from the diftance, and the period of « the inncrmofl of Jupiter's, it is likely that they are not longer (1) Hugens's Opera, Tom. II. p. 564. 5 *' tlia aa lEo r^^' M O S A I C rUEORYof, &c. ** than the days of Jupiter (i) ; which are equal to five of our *' hours, and the nights of the fame length (2)." It is faid, indeed, that Saturn has not his equatorial, greater than his polar diameter ; however, on the authority of Mojes, we fcruple not to fay, that every planet in the Syftem was imprefTed with a violent motion, which carried them about their axes, whilll in a fluid flate, and before their atmofpheres were form- ed (3) ; and therefore, they niuft all of them have their e^ua- torial, greater than their polar diameters. The days of "Jupiter, therefore, the fame of Saturn) being equal Jupiter z?;/^ Saturn. Their firft Day began - — ended - fecond — ended - third ended - fourth -— ended - fifth ended - fixth -' — ended feventh — ended - eighth — ended ninth — ended tenth — ended - eleventh ended - twelfth — ended thirteenth ended - fourteenth ended - fifteenth ended - (1) Httgens% Opera, Tom. II. p. 702. BaVinghroke, p. 33, 34. (and with Hugens, we fuppofe to ten of our hoars ; The Earth. - on Sunday, at 12 at noon. - Sunday, - 10 p. m. - Monday, - 8 a. in. - Monday, - 6 p. m. - Tuefday, - \ a. m. - Tuefday, ~ 1 p. m. - Tuefday, - it. p. m. - Wednefday, 10 ^. ;;;. - Wednefday, 8 p. m. - Thurfday, - t a. m. - Thurfday, - j\. p. m. - Friday, - 1 a. m. - Friday, - 1 2 at noon. - Friday, - lo p. m. - Saturday, ~ Z a. m. - Saturday, - 6 p. m. (2) Ibid, p, 700. (3) See Mofes and ADDENDA. [ 121 ] Addenda, et Corrigenda. yfT page 60. Ime j. after queftion, Jhould have been infertcd — "^^ For if the fun had firft appeared in the horizon, it mufl have appeared either rifing, or fetting ; if rifing, it could not have been noon-day, till after having flione for fome hours, it fliould have reached the meridian ; hence it would follow, that the whole heuiifphere was not enlightened when the fun firft ihone upon that hemifphere ; which is abfurd. If the fun had firft appeared fetting, it muft have pafTed the meridian for fome hours J which is abfurd. But the fadl was plainly and evidently this j when the fun firft fhone upon the earth, ^c. To he added to the Note page 93. In the dreadful earthquake, by which twelve cities in Afia were overturned, " ft " is reported (fays Tacitus) that huge mountains funk into the earth ; that plains " were raifed up into high hills ; and that dreadful flafhes and eruptions of fire " were feen among the ruins." Umverfcil Hiji. Vol. XIV. p. 130. '' Sicily^ which formerly made one continent with Naples, in tlie year 1693, " by one fingle earthquake loft 49 towns and vilLges, 922 churches, colleges, " and convents, with 93,000 perfons buried in the ruijis." KciJIer's Travelsy Vol. II. p. 365. To page 94. to execute the threatened vengeance, add the following Note. As the high hills and the mountains, that were covered at the flood, were the orif'inal mountains and hills that were formed under the waters, before the dry land appeared ; fo the poftdiluvian mountains were formed under the wa- ters before the flood was at the higheft ; for the ark refted on the mountains of Ararat. And here we cannot omit to obferve, that as this threatened ven- Q_ geancc [ 122 ] geancc was brought upon the earth, by natural means ; fo the promife of God to Noah, that the waters Jhoidd no more become a Jiood to dejiroy all Jlejh, was fecured, by natural means; to wit, by the peculiar conftruftion of the new earth, whofe mountains, that bear no proportion to the antediluvian, owed their original to that fubterraneous wind, which God made to pafs through the body of the then-im- merfed earth : not that plains were raifed up into mountains, but that the circum- jacent ground, at the foot of every high mountain, funk into the abyfs, and thereby left thefe amazing monuments of the certainty, and univerfality, of the 3eluo;e. ERRATA. Page 1 5. in the Text, I. 4, 5. ^ele to rule the night. 16. /. 23. dekCix. 25. I. 4. from the bottom, after fee, put ) — and l. 3. dele ) 27. /. 4. for aicjovar, read diwa;. 35. /. penult, dele ( 39. /. 7. before and after {otm^ put *' " 43. /. 22. for i put, 47. /. tilt, dele as. 6^. I. 14. from the bottom, for tvfenty-fomSt read twenty-four hours. €6. I. ^. from the bottom, for on, read or. 6y. I. Z.from the bottom, before was, put and. 78. /. 14. after Earth, put ) 80. /. 2. in the Note, for 66, read 6"/. gt^. I. 5. after ipfi, add planetse. 105. /. I. after other, put : INDEX. I N D E X. A Iwvar, the worlds. — — Page ij — — ^ the reafon of the name. ibid. Amonions^ Mr. his opinion of the caufe of earthquakes. 92 And it was fo, why fo often repeated in Gen. I. b^ And the evening and the morning were the firfl: day, 58 — 60 Animadverfions, on ihe Aitbors of the Univerfal Hijlory. 48, 84, 112 — 117 ii ■ Dr. Btirfiet. 21,62" ■ ■ Buxtorf. . 52 ■ Dr. Clayton. ___ 48, 5S — (o •— Mr. Hutchinfon. 50, sy — Dr. Jennings. • 48 ' • Mr. Kennedy. • 6'i — — ■ Dr. Patrick. • 55, 57 ^ Mr.-Pod. . ss,5^ . ■ Mr. Whifton. 48 Annihilation and Exnihilation convey no idea but of omnipotence. ^o jlrijtophanes, his chaos critically examined. ■■ 41 Aftronomical abfurdity of Mr. WbiJ}o?i's Theory. 79 — 82 Atmofpheres, one grand mechanical ufe of. ' 67, 63 Beginning, the Mt/^/V fenfe of the word. 18 Bolingbroke, not to be trufted in his citations. • 33 Caufe, final, of the creation in fix days. — — — — 117 • mechanical, of the deluge. ■■ 79 — 94 Chaos, fluid, origin of the general notion of. • 31 — 39 Comets, included in the Mofaic Creation. 26 CoUedion of waters, originally but one. 6j Continent, or continued trafl: of land, at the creation, but one. 6^, 73 Deep, propriety of the word. • 73, 74 , the great. • ■ 75 Deluge, a new theory of the. ■ S4 — 94 Q_ 2 Didi.nftion, INDEX. Diftindion, Mofaic, between creating and making. — ^^ Page 19 — 22 Earth, a heavenly body to the other planets. — 25 Etcrn'ny, ^ parie pojl, illuftrated. ■ 28 Evening and morning, aftronomical, afcertained by Mofes. ■ ■ ■ 60 Extent of the Mofaic creation. - ^6 Firft meridian, and firft full moon, on the firft day of the creation. 60 Flood, natural caufe of carrying off the waters of the. — 89 — 93 Forms, original, of the bodies of the fun and planets. - - 70 Fountains of the great deep, how broken up. ■ 87 Gravity, particular, coeval with the creation. ■ 103 . , general, communicated the fourth day. 104 — 107 Heaven, the heavenly bodies. < ■ ■ 22 — 26 , hoft of. ' 24—26 Keih his atteftation to Mr. Whifion's comet. 86, 87 Light, let there be, explained. S5 . illuftrated, by Plato. 56 ■ ■ Dr. Toung. ibid. . obfcured, by Hutchinfon. • ■ - — — 57 .. ■ Patrick. I ibid. Pool. 56 ■ Shuckford. - 57 Mofes, ignorant of his own dodrine. ■ • - 10 Motion, diurnal, of the bodies of the fyftem. 54, 55 ' — — — , annual, of the planets. ■ — ■ S7 — — , general laws of. __— — • ■ 107 Sabbaths, inftitution of, to every primary planet. 115 — 117 Syftem, the true notion of, whence. i ' the folar, graphically defcribed in Pfalm XIX. ■ loj THE END. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hllgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. D 000 008 579 5 Univ( So h