digious cold that must be occafioned on the Earth, by the total abfence of the Sun for one half year together, I think that it would be fo exceffively great, as that 'twould have been impoffible to be endured by Creatures made of Flesh and Blood. We are extreamly fenfible of the great cold we fuftain by having our Night in the Winter fixteen hours long, but yet it is nothing to what it would be, were the Sun for half a year together absent from us: how cold and uncomfortable a darkness muft that have been in which our firft Parents paffed the one half of their Paradifaical life, when in the other half they must have been fcorched and roafted with the immense heat of the Sun, which fhined on them continually for as long a time, as they were before in the dark. This heat in my opinion, would have quite withered the Herbs and Plants which were then defigned to be the food of Mankind; it would have forced our first Parents to feek for fhelter in Dens and Caves, which would have been, in fuch a ftate, more convenient than the Garden of Eden; and it would have been altogether as unfupportable as the former cold. It is evident that fuch a state would be fo far from being agreeable with that happy and pleasant Paradifaical life which our firft Parents are faid to have lead in their ftate of Innocency, that the Legend-makers and Poets, thought it a fitter reprefentation of Hell and its Torments, than of that ftate of happiness;

happiness; fome of them having feign'd that there were Ghosts brought from Hell on purpofe to inform us that a great part of the miseries of the damn'd confifted in their being driven from extreme hot places to extreme cold ones.

There is one very convincing Argument against this fuppofition arifing from the confideration of the nature of Animals, whofe Blood and other liquors that run in their Bodies are not able to endure two fuch oppofites as the extreme heat caused by the Sun while it fhined for one half year without intermiffion on the fame place; and the extreme cold that must arise through his abfence for the fame time. For if we fhould fuppofe that thefe animal liquors were of fuch a a conftitution and internal heat as not to be frozen by an extreme cold, yet it is certain that they must evaporate and be exhaled by the extreme heat that came after it in the day time: or if they were able to fuftain fuch an extreme heat without evaporation; then without doubt they could not preferve themfelves from freezing in an extreme cold which they must have fuffered in fuch a Winter or half a years night.

I know there are Animals which live near the fire, and are able to endure an extraordi→ nary heat; as there are others that live near the Pole and in very cold Climates: but it is not imaginable there can be any fuch that

can

can live both in exceffive heat and exceffive cold; it being impoffible that ever they can endure two fuch oppofite extremes. Tho' this feems to be a very preffing difficulty against fuch an Hypothefis, yet there is another that I think as infolvable, arifing from the confideration of the nature of Plants.

We know that there is a certain determinate degree of heat neceffary for the production and vegetation of moft Herbs, and for the ripening of their Seed fo that a lefs degree of heat would never bring the Plant to perfection, and a greater would quite wither it before its Seed could be ripened and fit for the production of a new Plant of the fame fpecies. It is eafily obfervable how great difficulty there is, and how much pains must be taken, by hot beds, and other artificial helps to raise Plants in this Climate, which are tranfplanted hither from the Torrid Zone: but this difficulty proceeds no doubt, from the want of fuch a due influence of the Sun as was neceflary for the production of thefe Plants; fo that by reafon of the great difference between the heat which they had in their own proper Soil, and that which they participate of here, it is hard to bring them to perfection: but if we fhould fuppofe this alteration to be fome hundred of times greater than it is, without doubt we fhould conclude it impoffible for any fuch Plants to grow with fo little a degree of heat. But

6

this must have been the true cafe of the Plants in the Primitive Earth: At first before the diurnal rotation of the Earth began, they fuftained a degree of heat fome hundreds of times greater, than the greatest heat we have in Summer; but after the Earth began to turn round its Axis, the heat and action of the Sun on them came to be of the fame force and tenour that it is of at prefent; but I have obferved before, that all plants and Herbs require a certain determinate degree of heat and influence from the Sun; and as a much greater heat will wither them, fo lefs will never bring them to perfection: on which account it feems to be naturally impoffible, that ever any of thefe Plants, whofe nature and constitution was fitted for the heat of the Sun, before the commencement of the Earths diurnal rotation, could ever be brought to perfection after it began to turn round its Axis in the space of twenty four hours, by which the action of the Sun would be very much less than before. If therefore the Earth had no diurnal rotation till after the fall; and if then only it began to turn round its own Axis, there must have been fuch great and extraordinary changes and alterations of heat and cold introduced by this new rotation, as would neceffarily require new Species of Plants and Vegetables of different natures from the former ones, which. would better agree with the new rotation and conftitution

of

of the Earth, and the action of the Sun. That is, God Almighty must have created new and different fets of Plants, or at least have quite altered and changed the natures of the old ones, which we can hardly imagin to be done.

It is on the account of these reasons that I cannot be induced to believe Mr. Whifton's Hypothefis, that the Earth had no diurnal rotation before the fall, to be probable; it feerning to be far more agreeable to the Laws of Nature and Philofophy, that the Earth received both its annual and diurnal motions at the fame time, viz. when it was firft Created.

These are the chief and principal Remarks that I have made on the Original State and Formation of the Earth; I will now briefly confider his Theory of the Deluge which is in fhort thus.

He supposes that a Comet at the time of the Deluge came very near and pafled by the Earth; that the Comet, when it came below the Moon, would raise a vast aud strong Tide, both in the Seas that were then on the Surface, and in the Abyss, which was under the upper Cruft of the Earth, after the fame manner as the Moon doth at prefent in the Ocean; that this Tide would begin to rife and encrease all the time of the approach of the Comet; and would be at its greatest height, when the Comet was at its leaft

distance