_A general Account of NOAH’s Flood; a Computation what Quantity of
Water would be necessary for the making of it; that the common
Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible._
’TIS now more than five Thousand Years since our World was made, and
tho’ it would be a great Pleasure to the Mind, to recollect and view at
this Distance those first Scenes of Nature; what the Face of the Earth
was, when fresh and new, and how Things differ’d from the State we now
find them in, the Speculation is so remote, that it seems to be
hopeless, and beyond the reach of human Wit. We are almost the last
Posterity of the first Men, and fallen into the dying Age of the Worlds;
by what Footsteps, or by what Guide can we trace back our Way to those
first Ages, and the first Order of Things? And yet, methinks, it is
reasonable to believe, that Divine Providence, which sees at once
throughout all the Ages and Orders of the World, should not be willing
to keep Mankind finally and fatally ignorant of that part of Nature, and
of the Universe, which is properly their Task and Province to manage and
understand. We are the Inhabitants of the Earth, the Lords and Masters
of it; and we are endow’d with Reason and Understanding; doth it not
then properly belong to us to examine and unfold the Works of God in
this part of the Universe, which is fallen to our Lot, which is our
Heritage and Habitation? And it will be found, it may be, upon a
stricter Enquiry, that in the present Form and Constitution of the
Earth, there are certain Marks and Indications of its first State; with
which if we compare those Things that are recorded in Sacred History,
concerning the first Chaos, Paradise, and an Universal Deluge, we may
discover, by the help of those Lights, what the Earth was in its first
Original, and what Changes have since succeeded in it.
AND tho’ we shall give a full Account of the Origin of the Earth in this
Treatise, yet that which we have propos’d particularly for the Title and
Subject of it, is to give an Account of the primæval _Paradise_, and of
the Universal _Deluge_, those being the two most important things that
are explained by the Theory we propose. And I must beg leave in treating
of these two, to change the Order, and treat first of the _Deluge_, and
then of _Paradise:_ For though the State of Paradise doth precede that
of the Flood in Sacred History, and in the Nature of the Thing, yet the
Explication of both will be more sensible and more effectual, if we
begin with the Deluge; there being more Observations and Effects, and
those better known to us that may be referr’d to this, than to the
other; and the Deluge being once truly explain’d, we shall from thence
know the Form and Quality of the Ante-diluvian Earth. Let us then
proceed to the Explication of that great and fatal Inundation, whose
History is well known; and according to _Moses_, the best of Historians,
in a few Words is this——
SIXTEEN Hundred and odd Years after the Earth was made, and inhabited,
it was over-flowed and destroyed in a Deluge of Water. Not a Deluge that
was National only, or over-run some particular Country or Region, as
_Judea_ or _Greece_, or any other, but it over-spread the Face of the
Whole Earth, from Pole to Pole, and from _East_ to _West_, and that in
such Excess, that the Floods over-reacht the tops of the highest
Mountains; the Rains descending after an unusual Manner, and the
Fountains of the _Great Deep_ being broke open; so as a general
Destruction and Devastation was brought upon the Earth, and all Things
in it, Mankind and other living Creatures; excepting only _Noah_ and his
Family, who by a special Providence of God was preserved in a certain
Ark, or Vessel made like a Ship, and such kinds of living Creatures as
he took in to him. After these Waters had rag’d for some time on the
Earth, they began to lessen and shrink, and the great Waves and
Fluctuations of this _Deep_ or _Abyss_ being quieted by degrees, the
Waters retir’d into their Channels and Caverns within the Earth; and the
Mountains and Fields began to appear, and the whole habitable Earth in
that Form and Shape wherein we now see it. Then the World began again,
and from that little Remnant preserv’d in the Ark, the present Race of
Mankind, and of Animals, in the known Parts of the Earth, were
propagated. Thus perish’d the Old World, and the present arose from the
Ruins and Remains of it.
THIS is a short Story of the greatest Thing that ever yet hap’ned in the
World, the greatest Revolution and the greatest Change in Nature; and if
we come to reflect seriously upon it, we shall find it extreamly
difficult, if not impossible, to give an Account of the Waters that
compos’d this Deluge, whence they came, or whither they went. If it had
been only the Inundation of a Country, or of a Province, or of the
greatest part of a Continent, some proportionable Causes perhaps might
have been found out; but a Deluge overflowing the whole Earth, the whole
Circuit and whole Extent of it, burying all in Water, even the greatest
Mountains in any known Parts of the Universe, to find Water sufficient
for this Effect, as it is generally explained and understood, I think is
impossible. And that we may the better judge of the whole matter, let us
first compute, how much Water would be requisite for such a Deluge; or
to lay the Earth, consider’d in its present Form, and the highest
Mountains, under Water. Then let us consider whether such a Quantity of
Water can be had out of all the Stores that we know in Nature: And from
these two, we will take our Ground and Rise, and begin to reflect,
whether the World hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common Opinion
and Explication of the general Deluge.
TO discover how much Water would be requisite to make this Deluge, we
must first suppose enough to cover the plain Surface of the Earth, the
Fields and lower Grounds; then we must heap up so much more upon this,
as will reach above the tops of the highest Mountains; so as drawing a
Circle over the tops of the highest Mountains quite round the Earth,
suppose from Pole to Pole, and another to meet it round the middle of
the Earth, all that Space, or Capacity, contain’d within these Circles,
is to be fill’d up with Water. This I confess will make a prodigious
Mass of Water, and it looks frightfully to the Imagination; ’tis huge
and great, but ’tis extravagantly so, as a great Monster: It doth not
look like the Work of God or Nature: However let’s compute a little more
particularly how much this will amount to, or how many Oceans of Water
would be necessary to compose this great Ocean rowling in the Air,
without Bounds or Banks.
IF all the Mountains were pared off the Earth, and so the Surface of it
lay even, or in an equal Convexity every where, with the Surface of the
Sea, from this Surface of the Sea, let us suppose that the height of the
Mountains may be a Mile and a half; or that we may not seem at all to
favour our own Opinion or Calculation, let us take a Mile only for the
perpendicular height of the Mountains. Let us on the other side suppose
the Sea to cover half the Earth, as ’tis generally believ’d to do; and
the common Depth of it, taking one Place with another, to be about a
quarter of a Mile, or 250 Paces. I say, taking one Place with another,
for though the middle Channel of the great Ocean be far deeper, we may
observe, that there is commonly a Descent or Declivity from the Shore to
the middle Part of the Channel, so that one comes by Degrees into the
Depth of it; and those shory Parts are generally but some Fathoms deep.
Besides, in Arms of the Sea, in Straits and among Islands, there is
commonly no great Depth, and some Places are plain Shallows. So as upon
a moderate Computation, one Place compar’d with another, we may take a
quarter of a Mile, or about an hundred Fathoms, for the common Measure
of the Depth of the Sea, if we were cast into a Channel of an equal
Depth every where. This being suppos’d, there would need four Oceans to
lie upon this Ocean, to raise it up to the top of the Mountains, or so
high as the Waters of the Deluge rise; then four Oceans more to lie upon
the Land, that the Water there might swell to the same height; which
together make eight Oceans for the Proportion of the Water requir’d in
the Deluge.
’TIS true, there would not be altogether so much Water required for the
Land as for the Sea, to raise them to an equal height; because Mountains
and Hills would fill up part of that Space upon the Land, and so make
less Water requisite. But to compensate this, and confirm our
Computation, we must consider in the first Place, that we have taken a
much less height of the Mountains than is requisite, if we respect the
Mediterraneous Mountains, or those that are at a great distance from the
Sea; for their Height above the Surface of the Sea, computing the
Declivity of the Land all along from the Mountains to the Sea-side (and
that there is such a Declivity is manifest from the Course and Descent
of the Rivers) is far greater than the Proportion we have taken: The
height of Mountains is usually taken from the Foot of them, or from the
next Plain, which if it be far from the Sea, we may reasonably allow as
much for the Declension of the Land from that place to the Sea, as for
the immediate Height of the Mountain: So, for Instance, the Mountains of
the Moon in _Africa_, whence the _Nile_ flows, and after a long Course
falls into the Mediterranean Sea by _Egypt_, are so much higher than the
Surface of that Sea, first, as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to
the Foot of the Mountains, and then as the Height of the Mountains is
from the bottom to the top: For both these are to be computed when you
measure the Height of a Mountain, or of a mountainous Land, in respect
of the Sea: And the Height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed,
there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as
high as the highest Inland Mountains: And this is more than enough to
compensate the less Quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the
Land. Besides, we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be
more capacious than a Region of the same Thickness in or near the Earth,
so as if an Ocean pour’d upon the Surface of the dry Land, supposing it
were all smooth, would rise to the Height of half a quarter of a Mile
every where; the like Quantity of Water pour’d again at the Height of
the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect, or would not
there raise the Mass half a quarter of a Mile higher; for the Surfaces
of a Globe, the farther they are from their Center, are the greater; and
so accordingly the Regions that belong to them. And, lastly, we must
consider, that there are some Countries or Valleys very low, and also
many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth, all which in this Case were
to be first fill’d with Water. These Things being compar’d and
estimated, we shall find, that notwithstanding the Room that Hills and
Mountains take up on the dry Land, there would be at least eight Oceans
required, or a Quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean, to
bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth, as that Deluge is ordinarily
understood and explained.
THE Proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated, the next thing
to be done, is to enquire where this Water is to be found; if any part
of the Sublunary World will afford us so much: Eight Oceans floating in
the Air make a great Bulk of Water, I do not know what possible Sources
to draw it from. There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below, and in
the Bowels of the Earth; and these are all the Stores we have for Water;
and _Moses_ directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge. _The
Fountains (he saith) of the great Abyss were broken up, or burst
asunder_, and the Rain descended for Forty Days, the _Cataracts_, or
_Floodgates_ of Heaven being opened. And in these two, no doubt, are
contain’d the Causes of the great Deluge, as according to _Moses_, so
also according to Reason and Necessity; for our World affords no other
Treasures of Water. Let us therefore consider, how much this Rain of
Forty Days might amount to, and how much might flow out of the Abyss,
that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the
eight Oceans which we want.
AS for the Rains, they would not afford us one Ocean, nor half an Ocean,
nor the tenth part of an Ocean, if we may trust to the Observations made
by others concerning the Quantity of Water that falls in Rain.
_Mersennus_ gives us this Account of it, _Cog. Phys. Mech._ p. 221. “It
appears by our Observations, that a Cubical Vessel of Brass, whereof we
made use, is fill’d an Inch and an half in half an Hour’s Time; but
because that sucks up nothing of the Moisture as the Earth doth, let us
take an Inch for half an Hour’s Rain; whence it follows, that in the
Space of Forty Days and Nights Rain, the Waters in the Deluge wou’d
rise, at four Feet in 24 Hours, 160 Feet, if the Rains were constant and
equal to ours, and that it rain’d at once throughout the Face of the
whole Earth.” But the Rain of the Deluge, saith he, should have been 90
times greater than this, to cover, for Instance, the Mountains of
_Armenia_, or to reach 15 Cubits above them. So that according to his
Computation, the Forty Days Rain would supply little more than the
hundredth Part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge. ’Tis true, he
makes the Height of the Mountains higher than we do; but, however, if
you temper the Calculation on all Sides as much as you please, the Water
that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was
necessary for a Deluge. If it rain’d Forty Days and Forty Nights
throughout the Face of the whole Earth, in the Northern and Southern
Hemisphere all at once, it might be sufficient to lay all the lower
Grounds under Water, but it would signify very little as to the
overflowing of the Mountains. Whence another Author upon the same
Occasion hath this Passage, _Auct. cat. in_ Gen. 7. 4. “If the Deluge
had been made by Rains only, there would not have needed Forty Days, but
Forty Years Rain to have brought it to pass.” And if we should suppose
the whole middle Region condens’d into Water, it would not at all have
been sufficient for this Effect, according to that Proportion some make
betwixt Air and Water; for they say, Air turn’d into Water takes up a
hundred times less Room than it did before. The Truth is, we may
reasonably suppose, that all the Vapours of the middle Region were
turn’d into Water in this Forty Days and Forty Nights Rain, if we admit,
that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once, in either
Hemisphere, in every Zone, in every Climate, in every Country, in every
Province, in every Field; and yet we see what a small Proportion all
this would amount to.
HAVING done then with these superior Regions, we are next to examine the
inferior, and the Treasures of Water that may be had there. _Moses_
tells us, that the Fountains of the great Abyss were broke open, or
_clove asunder_, as the Word there us’d doth imply; and no doubt in this
lay the great Mystery of the Deluge, as will appear when it comes to be
rightly understood and explained; but we are here to consider what is
generally understood by the great _Abyss_, in the common Explication of
the Deluge; and ’tis commonly interpreted either to be the Sea, or
subterraneous Waters hid in the Bowels of the Earth: These, they say,
broke forth and rais’d the Waters, caus’d by the Rain, to such an
Height, that together they over-flowed the highest Mountains. But
whether, or how this could be deserves to be a little examined.
AND in the first Place, the Sea is not higher than the Land, as some
have formerly imagin’d, fancying the Sea stood, as it were, upon a heap,
higher than the Shore; and at the Deluge a Relaxation being made, it
overflow’d the Land. But this Conceit is so gross, and so much against
Reason and Experience, that none I think of late have ventured to make
use of it. And yet on the other Hand, if the Sea lie in an equal
Convexity with the Land, or lower generally than the Shore, and much
more than the Midland, as it is certainly known to do, what could the
Sea contribute to the Deluge? It would keep its Channel, as it doth now,
and take up the same Place: And so also the subterraneous Waters would
lie quiet in their Cells. Whatsoever Fountains or Passages you suppose,
these would not issue out upon the Earth, for Water doth not ascend,
unless by Force. But let’s imagine then that Force us’d and apply’d, and
the Waters both of the Sea and Caverns under Ground drawn out upon the
Surface of the Earth, we shall not be any whit the nearer for this; for
if you take these Waters out of their Places, those Places must be
fill’d again with other Waters in the Deluge; so as this turns to no
Account upon the whole. If you have two Vessels to fill, and you empty
one to fill the other, you gain nothing by that, there still remains one
Vessel empty, you cannot have these Waters both in the Sea and on the
Land, both above Ground and under; nor can you suppose the Channel of
the Sea would stand gaping without Water, when all the Earth was
overflow’d, and the tops of the Mountains cover’d. And so for
subterraneous Cavities, if you suppose the Water pumpt out, they would
suck it in again when the Earth came to be laid under Water; so that
upon the whole, if you thus understand the _Abyss_, or _great Deep_, and
the breaking open its _Fountains_ in this manner, it doth us no Service
as to the Deluge, and where we expected greatest Supply, there we find
none at all.
WHAT shall we do then? Whither shall we go to find more than seven
Oceans of Water that we still want? We have been above and below; we
have drained the whole middle Region, and we have examined the Deeps of
the Earth; they must want for themselves, they say, if they give us any;
and, besides, if the Earth should disgorge all the Water that it hath in
its Bowels, it would not amount to above half an Ocean, which would not
at all answer our Occasions. Must we not then conclude, that the common
Explication of the Deluge makes it impossible? There being no such
Quantity of Water in Nature as they make requisite for an universal
Deluge. Yet to give them all fair Play, having examined the Waters above
the Earth or in the Air, the Waters upon the Earth, and the Waters under
the Earth; let us also consider if there be not Waters above the
Heavens, and if those might not be drawn down for the Deluge. _Moses_
speaks of Waters _above the Firmament_, which though it be generally
understood of the middle Region of the Air, yet some have thought those
to be Waters plac’d above the highest Heavens, or _Super-celestial_
Waters; and have been willing to make use of them for a Supply, when
they could not find Materials enough under the Heavens to make up the
great Mass of the Deluge. But the Heavens, above, where these Waters
lay, are either solid or fluid; if solid, as Glass or Crystal, how could
the Waters get through them to descend upon the Earth? If fluid, as the
Air or Æther, how could the Waters rest upon them, for Water is heavier
than Air or Æther? So that I am afraid, those pure Regions will prove no
fit Place for that Element, upon any Account. But supposing these Waters
there, how imaginary soever, and that they were brought down to drown
the World in that vast Quantity that would be necessary, what became of
them, when the Deluge ceased? Seven or eight Oceans of Water, with the
Earth wrapt up in the middle of them, how did it ever get quit of them?
How could they be dispos’d of when the Earth was to be dry’d, and the
World renew’d? It would be a hard Task to lift them up again among the
Spheres, and we have no Room for them here below. The Truth is, I
mention this Opinion of the Heavenly Waters, because I would omit none
that had ever been made use of, to make good the common Explication of
the Deluge; but otherwise, I think, since the System of the World hath
been better known, and the Nature of the Heavens, there are none that
would seriously assert these _Super-celestial_ Waters, or, at least,
make use of them so extravagantly, as to bring them down hither for
Causes of the Deluge.
WE have now employ’d our last and utmost Endeavours to find out Waters
for the vulgar Deluge, or for the Deluge as commonly understood; and you
see with how little Success; we have left no Corner unsought, where
there was any Appearance or Report of Water to be found, and yet we have
not been able to collect the eighth part of what was necessary upon a
moderate Account. May we not then with Assurance conclude, that the
World hath taken wrong Measures hitherto, in their Notion and
Explication of the general Deluge? They make it impossible and
unintelligible upon a double Account, both in requiring more Water than
can be found, and more than can be dispos’d of if it was found; or could
any way be withdrawn from the Earth when the Deluge should cease. For if
the Earth was encompass’d with eight Oceans of Water heapt one upon
another, how these should retire into any Channels, or be drain’d off,
or the Earth any way disengag’d from them, is not intelligible; and that
in so short a time as some Months: For the Violence of the Deluge lasted
but four or five Months, and in as many Months after the Earth was dry
and habitable. So as upon the whole Enquiry, we can neither find Source
nor Issue, Beginning nor Ending, for such an excessive Mass of Waters as
the vulgar Deluge required; neither where to have them, nor if we had
them, how to get quit of them. And I think Men cannot do a greater
Injury or Injustice to Sacred History, than to give such Representations
of things recorded there, as make them unintelligible and incredible;
and on the other Hand, we cannot deserve better of Religion and
Providence, than by giving such fair Accounts of all things proposed by
them, or belonging to them, as may silence the Cavils of Atheists,
satisfy the Inquisitive, and recommend them to the Belief and Acceptance
of all reasonable Persons.