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Now I have already Calculated, that twenty fix Po's will pour into the Sea one Cubical mile of water in a day; and confequently in 365 days, or in the space of a year they will pour into the Sea 365 Cubical miles of water: hence it follows, that if 26 Rivers as big as the Po, pour into the Sea 365 miles of water, in the space of a year, from 1874 Rivers as big as the Po, there will be brought into the Sea in the fame time 26308 Cubical miles of water; and therefore by the rule of proportionals, in the fpace of 812 years, the Rivers will bring into the Sea 21372626 Cubical miles of water, which is a quantity of water as great as the Ocean: and therefore in that time they would fill the great Channel of the Ocean if it were empty, and their course the fame, both for quantity of water, and swiftnefs that it is now: And fince the Sea furnishes the Rivers with all the water that runs through them, it is plain that the Sea would empty it felf in the space of 812. years if none of the Rivers ran into it again.

Since therefore according to the Theorift, the Abyss was the ftore-house which furnished the Rivers of the Antediluvian Earth with water, and none of them, according to him, ran into it again, and because all the waters which were antiently in the Abyss, are now in the Ocean, it must needs follow, that in the space of 812 years it would be quite empty, upon fuppofition that there were as

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many Rivers in the primitive Earth as there are now in ours; but because there was then twice as much Land to be furnished with Rivers (there being then no Seas as the Theorift fays) we must in proportion allow twice as many Rivers to water the double quantity of dry Land, and therefore by fuch a double quantity of Rivers, the Abyss would be emptied in half that time.

Perhaps the Theorift will fay, that the Rivers were not altogether furnished by Vapours drawn from the Abyfs, but by those also that were exhaled from the furface of the Earth, and that after the water in the Rivers had run towards the Æquator and middle parts of the Earth, the water was again raised into Vapours by the great heat of the Sun, and carried back towards the Poles in order to fupply the Rivers again. But this is no objection to our prefent Argument, for tho' the Vapours drawn from the furface of the Earth, would no doubt encrease the quantity of water, in the Rivers, yet ftill there would be drawn from the Abyss, the fame quantity of Vapour as was before; the fame cause still continuing to act, would ftill produce the fame effect, and the Abyss having at firft furnished the Rivers with a fufficient quantity of water, would ftill continue to do the fame, and in the fame quantity; and therefore it fignifies nothing against the former Calculation, how much Vapour was

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drawn from the furface of the Earth, or how much the Rivers were encreased by it.

Since then I have fufficiently proved on the fuppofition of his Principles, that all the water, in the Abyss was long before the time of the Deluge, drawn out of the Abyss, and placed on the furface of the Earth; Í would fain know how in that cafe the Theorift can explain an Univerfal Deluge by the fall of the outward Cruft of the Earth upon the Abyfs: for in my Opinion, this fall would have been fo far from being the cause of a Deluge, that it would have proved the true way to deliver the Earth from a Deluge of waters which was then on it. For all the water which was in the Abyss, being drawn up on the furface of the Land, and the Earth being of a Spheroidical and Oval shape, without Hills and Mountains, upper and lower Grounds, but exactly of the fame Figure which its gravity and centrifugal force formed it into, when it was fluid; the great Mafs of water which was then upon the Earth must have fettled it felf alfo in the fame Figure, it having no banks to retain it within its Channel, or Mountains to keep it within bounds; and the true effect of the fall of the Cruft, must have been to have discovered the Land, and the waters would have run from the furface of the Earth into the Abyss, and there would have formed a Sea, and made that Land appear which before was covered with waters.

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Notwithstanding what I have already proved, I will now fuppofe, that all the water which is now in the Ocean, was in the Abyss at the time of the Deluge, and that the Cruft of the Earth was broken and crackt, and fell down on the furface of the Abyss; yet ftill I cannot understand how this fall could produce an Univerfal Deluge, and make the waters fwell above the tops of the highest Mountains. For the Theorift has Calculated, that it would at least require eight Oceans of water to cover the face of the whole Earth, and raise the waters to a height that would be requifite for drowning of the world. Now there being but one Ocean of water in the Abyss, how is it poffible that any however violent agitation and force by which the waters were driven upwards, fhould multiply this one Ocean of waters into eight Oceans? this I am fure is a thing as impoffible for him to explain as it is for me to believe: it is plain indeed that the fall of the Cruft efpecially if there were any confiderable diftance between the Abyss and it, would raise the waters to the tops of the highest Mountains, and would in fome places produce a partial Deluge; but it is evident, that it is impoffible in nature, let the motion be never fo violent, that one Ocean fhould be fufficient to cover the whole Earth, and that above the tops of the highest Mountains, when eight Oceans are the leaft that can be

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required to perform fuch an effect. The waters indeed at different times, might have covered the whole Earth fucceffively; first by making a Deluge in one place and then in another, but this could never have been brought to pafs by the fall of the Cruft at once. Befides the Scriptures inform us that the whole Earth was under water at the fame time, and that all the high Hills, that were under the whole Heaven, were covered: now it is as impoffible that one Ocean fhould fuffice to drown the whole Earth, and cover the tops of the highest Hills, tho' for the space of one moment, as it is to make one pint of pure water fill a veffel which holds a Gallon. This Argument which I have now used is the Theorifts own, which he has alledged in his 2d and 3d Chapters against all other ways of deftroying the Earth by a Deluge; but he did not then obferve, that it concluded as ftrongly against his own Theory, as it did against any other which pretends to explain the Deluge without the fuppofition of more water than what was Lodged in the Ocean or the Clouds.

But tho' I fhould fuppofe that there was fufficient water in the Abyss to cover the face of the whole Earth at once, yet I cannot conceive how fuch a flood of waters that was raised by the fall of the Cruft, could laft for fo long a time, as the Scriptures inform us Noah's flood did, which was an hundred and fifty

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