He tells us farther, that the Laws, Properties, and Operations of Bodies, which we find established here on Earth, do not univerfally obtain in the Atmospheres of Comets. This I own to be an Answer, not only to this one Argument, but to all that can be faid against his Theory. But may not any other Theory be defended at the fame rate? Might not Dr. Burnet have maintained his Theory this way? And when it was objected against it, that heavy Bodies, fuch as Earth, Clay and Stones, could not fwim upon Oil or Water, would it not have been eafy for him to have faid, that Bodies had then other Laws, Properties, and Operations, than they have now, and that it was at that time the Law of Nature, that the heaviest Bodies fhould fwim uppermost, and the lighteft fall to the bottom? Tho' one would think, that it were as impoffible that there fhould be fuch a Law of motion, as that a Propofition in Euclid fhould be falfe. If the Laws of motion were arbitrary and changeable, why should the Mathematicians pretend to demonftrate them as neceffary confequences from their principles? Let us fuppofe a Vectis in one of Mr. Whifton's Comets, and two powers apply'd to its Brachia, upon which they act perpendicularly, fo that the powers be to one another in a proportion reciprocal to the length of their Brachia. It is actually impoffible but these two powers must act equally

qually, the one against the other, or that one of them unaffifted by any other caufe, fhould be able to move the other against its direction: Since effects must be always proportional to their adequate caufes. And yet, according to Mr. Whifton's pofition, this Law of Nature perhaps is only true in our Earth, and not in any Planet or Comet whatsoever.

By this Anfwer Mr. Whifton has granted me all that I defigned to prove, viz. That the Earth was not form'd according to the known Laws of Mechanifm, but by the efficacy of the Divine Spirit which mov'd upon the face of the Waters.

It was faid in the Remarks, that there is no need of a hot Central folid, to folve the origin of Springs, and fuch other Phanomena of nature; they being better accounted for by other means. To this it is answered, that the reality of an internal heat within the bowels of the Earth, is a matter of fact, and must be accounted for whatever becomes of Springs. I always allowed an internal heat, but thought it might be accounted for without a hot internal folid; and I refer him to what has been faid upon this fubject, in the Examination of the Reflections on the Theory.

Mr. Whifton thinks, that the account I refer to for the origination of Fountains is not fo univerfal, as to stand in no need of fubterraneous vapours; But fince he has given us Y

no

no reason for this thought of his, I need fay no more to it, but that I think otherwife; I am fure it is evident by Calculation, that the Vapours raised by the heat of the Sun from the Sea, are alone fufficient to serve all our Rivers and Fountains with Water. And nature never makes ufe of two distinct causes where one would do; for then the effect would be greater than it ought to be.

I told him, that he receded without neceffity from the literal fenfe, in fuppofing, that the formation of the Sun, Moon and Stars, mention'd in the first of Genefis, is to be only understood of their being made vifible, and of their appearing to an eye placed in the Earth. But fince he defires to know my reafons for this opinion, I must tell him, that his interpretation feems to be extreamly forced, and no way agreeable with the defign of the facred Pen-men. Mofes's narration is plain and fimple, and throughout the whole, he does not affect to speak either Metaphorically or Allegorically; but he delivers it as certain matter of fact, which we are firmly to believe. He plainly mentions the Creation of the Sun, Moon and Stars, and makes the production of them a diftinét days work by its felf; In expreffing their formation, the fame word (and he made) is used, that is found afterwards in the 25th verfe, where there is an account given of the production of beafts; and therefore Mofes feems to have defign'd

fign'd that the word fhould be taken in both places in the fame fenfe. Befides all this, it is certain, that Mofes did not speak of things as they appeared, or would have appeared to an Eye placed in a muddy fluid, fince there was no one then in being to whom they could have appeared.

From all these confiderations, I think it evident, that it was Mofes's intention to be understood in a real and literal meaning. I defire Mr. Whifton to confider what is faid more at large upon this fubject in the Examination of the Reflections on the Theory.

But after all, I do not fee that Mr. Whifton's reafons prove any impoffibility in Mofes's account of the Creation; all that I think he proves in his long difcourfe is, that the plain and fimple account that Mofes gives us, is not agreeable to his Theory, to his way of thinking, or to the method by which he would have the World produced.

His Theory fuppofes, that the Sun upon the second day before it became visible, raised as many Vapours from the Earth, as were fufficient to fill all the Seas, Lakes, and Rivers that were in the Primitive Earth. Here, I thought he affign'd a cause no ways proportional to the effect. For fince the Sun even when it fhines very strongly and directly upon our Ocean, does in a whole year raife but the thoufandth part of our present Ocean into Vapour, how can it be supposed, that it could raise as much Vapour

Y 2

Vindic pag. 9.

Vapour in that time, as would fill the Seas, Lakes, and Rivers, of our Primitive Earth, when all the while it was not vifible, but obfcured by a dark and thick Atmosphere, by which the power of its beams must be extreamly weakned. In answer to this, he tells us, That he does not fuppofe that all the Water that was in the Seas, Lakes and Rivers, of the first Earth, made above the thousandth part of our prefent Ocean, which he thinks might have been easily exhaled by the Sun in one half year.

Now I would have him to confider this Objection a little further, and he will find that it is not fo light as he imagines it is: he knows that there must be a certain proportion betwixt Land and Sea, that the ground may be fufficiently furnished with rains and dews: for the quantity of Vapour that is raised from Water, all other things being alike, is always in proportion to the furface of the Water, and if the furface of our Sea were, for example, but the thoufandth part of what it is now, there would in that cafe be raised but the thousandth part of the Vapour from it, that is at prefent raised from thence; and becaufe the dry Land by fuch a fuppofition would be near double of what it is now, it follows from thence, that any particular piece of ground would not have much above one part of two thousand of the rains and dews it has at prefent. So that if this had been the cafe

of