of the Primitive Earth, it must have been abfolutely barren and unfruitful: But if that cannot be allow'd, it is evident, that there must have been a much greater Sea there to make it habitable, than what Mr. Whiston fupposes.

But if after all the Antediluvian Sea had been form'd only by the raifing of Vapours by the Suns heat for one half year, I do not fee how it could have amounted to the ten thoufandth part of our prefent Ocean. For it is known, that a few Clouds will inore obfcure the light of the Sun, and by confequence diminish its heat in the fame proportion, than if nine in ten parts of its Disk were obfcur'd by an Eclipfe: however, I will only fuppofe, that its heat was but just as much diminished by the thick Atmosphere Mr. Whifton fpeaks of, (which had perfectly darkned and obfcured his body for more than two years) as it would be in an Eclipfe, where nine ten parts of its Disk were ob fcur'd; and then the number of Rays producing heat in any part, being but a tenth part of what they are now upon us, they would not raise above a tenth part of the Vapour that could be raised by the free and open action of the Sun. But the Sun when it now acts upon us freely, raises not much above one thoufandth part of the prefent Ocean into Vapours; therefore it is evident, that in the other

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other cafe it could not raife much above the ten thousandth part of the prefent Ocean, and a Sea only formed from thofe Vapours, would be little better than none at all.

But allowing it poffible in the manner Mr. Whiston contends for, allowing him too, that this fmall ftock of Waters was fufficient for the neceffities of the Earth; yet after all this way of forming the Primitive Sea is by no means agreeable to the account given us by Mofes, Where we are told, that God divided the waters which were under the Firmament from the waters which were above the Firmament, and the waters under the heavens he gathered together into one place, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas. But Mr. Whiston tells us, the Sea was made by those Waters that were raised into Vapour by the heat of the Sun, that is according to his interpretation, by the Waters above the Firmament, which is directly contrary to Mofes's account, who fays, it was made by the gathering together of the Waters under the Firmament. must be ftrange turning and wrefting of words, that will bring both these ways to agree.

It

Befides, if the Sea were formed as the New Theory fays it was, the dry Land muft have appeared immediately upon the raifing of the Vapours, whereas, according to Mofes, it did not appear till after the formation of

the

the Sea. It is plain then, that this Theory of the Sea given us by Mr. Whifton, is in every circumstance as inconfiftent with the holy History, as 'tis with Reason and Philofophy.

Mr. Whifton acknowledges, that my reafoning against his third Hypothefis of an only annual motion of the Earth before the Fall, is ftrong and forcible, and therefore he has been pleased here to invent another Hypothefis to fupport the former, by which he hopes to remove all the difficulties that were railed against it; viz. That the Earth did not revolve in a Circular Orbit till after the Fall, but in a moderate Ellipfe. I fhall not trouble my self with new anfwers as often as he thinks fit to contrive new Hypothefes, and therefore will only give this reply at present, that it will fcarcely be allowed, that but one half of the Primitive Earth was habitable before the Fall, as it must be by fuch a fuppofition. We know, the more Hypothefes any Theory is clogg'd with, the more precarious it looks; fuch of them efpecially as do not naturally refult from the whole Theory, but are only introduced to remove fome urgent difficulty, are generally thought least of all to deferve any credit. One of the great Beauties of the Theory was, That affoon as the Comet was turned into a Planet, it had a Circle for its Orbit, and tho' this beauty is not perfectly spoiled, yet its luftre feems to

be confiderably diminished by the new fuppofition of his new fort of Figure call'd a moderate Ellipfe.

Mr. Whiston is pleased to take notice of a fuppofed miftake, he imagines I have committed, about the quantity of heat in the Primitive Earth, which I reckoned from his principles, muft have been fome hundreds of times greater than what is in the prefent. This he fays, he is fure is a plain error, who ever it was that made him fo fure of it, I am certain they have mightily deceived him. If he had taken the pains to confider, that the heat of the Sun for any fmall portion of time is always as a Rectangle, contained betwixt the Sine of the Angle of incidence of the Ray producing heat, and that time, and had troubled himself a little further to calculate the proportion of the quantity of heat that was in the Primitive Earth upon his Hypothefis, to that which is in our prefent Earth, he would have found the mistake was not. on my fide by his own. Every body knows, that the longer any thing is exposed to the heat of the Sun, the hotter it must be ; and this is fo manifeft, that a great part of our heat in the Summer arifes only thro' the length of time the Sun fhines upon us. For if our Summer and Winter days were each of them twelve hours long, the heat in Summer would be to that in Winter, in proportion little more than three to one, (their difference

in that cafe arifing only from the more direct action of the Sun in Summer than in Winter) whereas, in the prefent cafe, our Summers heat is to our Winters heat in a greater proportion than that of feven to one.

It was objected against the New Theory, that a Comet coming near the Earth could not produce any tide in the Abyss below the Water, because it was closely fhut up by a thick and folid Cruft, that preffed fo clofe upon it as to leave no fpace, at least, not fuch a confiderable one, as would make room for any confiderable commotion of the Waters. In answer to this, he tells us, That he wonders how I come to imagine the Orb of Earth to be fo compact and folid a Sphere, as to be able to overcome the great impulfe the Abyss would make upon it, at the approach of the Comet. We may easily conceive this to be no Argument, if we confider, that a tide is nothing elfe but a great agitation or commotion of the Waters, arifing from the attraction of fome great body placed near it; and because the velocity of the Waters produced by this attraction, is at first infinitely fmall, their force upon any other body must likewife be infinitely small in comparison of what it will be after the Waters have acquir'd a certain determinate velocity. For as in a heavy body its velocity or force by which it endeavours to defcend, is at first infinitely small in proportion to that which it acquires