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of these, or from other places best known to the Divine wifdom, fome of this water was brought upon the earth, and afterwards remov'd by the Omnipotent hand of God who only worketh great wonders. Is not this a much easier and fhorter account of the deluge than the Theorist's, which is built upon falfe and precarious principles, and inconfequential conclufions, which after all will not be fufficient to produce the defired effect?

But it feems the Theorift is not very willing to acknowledge that God Almighty had any hand in that great Catastrophe of the world, tho' it be plainly told us in Scripture that he was the immediate Author thereof, Gen. 6. 17. Behold, (faith God) I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth. Nor do I fee any reason why he ought not to acknowledge the univerfal deluge of the world to be Miraculous, as well as the deftruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was by raining of Fire and Brimstone'; fince they were both fent as pu nifhments for the fins of men: neither of which, without doubt, had ever happened if man had continued in the ftate of Inno

-cence.

The Scriptures give us an account of feveral Miracles wrought by the hand of Omnipotence upon occafions, which did not fa neceffarily require them. Why ought we then to deny this univerfal deftruction of the earth to be miraculous? Miracles are the great

and

and wonderful works of God, by which he fheweth his Dominion and Power, and that his Kingdom reacheth over all, even Nature her felf, and that he does not confine himfelf to the ordinary methods of acting, but can alter them according to his pleasure. Were not they given us to convince us of the facred truths contained in holy Scripture? Was it not by the dernonftrative force of Miracles that Mofes and the Apoftles proved their divine Miffion, beyond all that other Framers of Religions could pretend to? And tho' our holy Faith ftands fo well confirmed by real miracles, that we are neither to make nor admit of any falfe ones, yet certainly we are not to detract from the value of the true ones, by pretending to deduce them from Natural and Mechanical causes, when they are no ways explicable by them. It is therefore both the eafieft and safest way, to refer the wonderful deftruction of the old world to the Omnipotent hand of God, who can do whatsoever he pleases.

CHAP.

CHA P. II.

Of the Chaos.

HAT the Earth was formed from a Chaos, must be unquestionably own'd by all, who acknowledge the Holy Scriptures, for they tell us, that in the beginning the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep which is a most excellent defcription of that Chaos, from which the world arofe. From it therefore the Theorift begins to frame his Antediluvian earth by the fole help of Natural and Mechanical causes. He fuppofes the Chaos to be the matter of the earth and heavens, without form or regularity, reduc'd into a fluid Maffe, wherein are the materials and ingredients of all Bodies mingled in confufion one with another, without any order of higher or lower, heavier or lighter, folid or volatile. The first change he imagines that did happen to this Mafie, was, that the heaviest and groffeft parts funk down towards the middle of it (for there he fuppofes the Center of its gravity) and conftituted the hard and fo

lid

lid interior part of the earth. The reft of the Maffe which fwam above, was alfo divided by the fame principle of gravity into two orders of bodies, the one liquid like water, the other volatile like air. For the fine and active parts difintangling themselves by degrees from the reft, did mount above them, and having motion enough to keep themselves upon the wing, did play in thefe open places, where they were to conftitute that body we call Air: the other parts being groffer than these settled in a Maffe together under the air, upon the body of the earth, compofing not only water ftrictly fo called, but the whole Maffe of liquors and liquid bodies belonging to the earth; of which there were two kinds, one of which is fat, oily and light, and the other lean and more earthy, like common water. Now it being well known that these two liquors mixed together, if left to themselves and the general action of nature, separate one from another, as in Cream and thin Milk, Oil and water, and fuch like: So we cannot doubt but that the fame effect would follow here, and the more oily and light parts of this Maffe would get above the other and fwim upon it. Thus would the whole Maffe of liquids be divided into two lefler Maffes.

Now if we look over again these two great Maffes of Air and Water, we cannot but imagine, that they were both at first very muddy

and

and impure for the air was yet thick, groffe and dark, there being abundance of terrestrial particles fwiming in it ftill after the

groffeft were funk down, and the leffer and lighter, which remain'd in the Air, did fink too, but more flowly. So that in their defcent they did meet with the oily liquor upon the face of the deep, which did intangle and stop them from paffing any farther, fo as mixing there with that unctuous fubftance, they did compofe a certain flime, or fat, foft earth, fpread upon the face of the waters. And this thin and tender Orb encreafed more and more as the little earthy particles detain'd in the air could make their way to it; and mingled with that oily liquor, till at length they fuck'd it all up, and were wholly incorporated together: which was the firft concretion and firm confiftent fubftance upon the face of the Chaos.

After this fashion has the Theorist formed his Antediluvian habitable world, which doth not much differ from the Cartefian method of making the earth, only Des Cartes being fomewhat wiser than the Theorift, would not allow the outward cruft, within whofe bowels the waters were fhut up, to be a habitable earth, knowing well that neither man nor beaft could live long without water. But he made the cruft first broken, and the waters flow out, before he plac'd any inhabitants on it. Another fmall difference betwixt the two hypotheses,

is,

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