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do it in fuch a quantity as would be fufficient to furnish the Earth with waters. And now the Theorist will tell us, what can be more fufficient than the whole orb of water, fure this would do or elfe nothing could, this he will fay is an inexhaustible treasure that the rivers could never drain, and therefore there was no fear of want of waters from thence. Yes there was reafon to fear it very much, for fuppofing that there was enough in the abyfs, yet perhaps the action of the Sun would not raife fo much as would be fufficient to water the Earth, fo there may be enough of Gold in the bowels of the earth, but if we cannot come at it we fhall never be the richer for it.

That I may examine this, I will fuppofe the mouths of thefe cracks which the Sun is faid to have made by its heat to be a To part of the furface of the earth, this will exceed 2600 fquare miles which I think is as much as the Theorift can reasonably allow them, for if it were but one continued crack round the equator of a miles breadth it would not exceed 2500 miles.

adly. I will fuppofe with the Theorist that one half of the furface of the present earth is Land and the other is Sea, and by confequence the mouths of thofe pits or cracks muft be one five thoufandth part of the whole of the now Ocean. Now it is evident that vapours drawn by a determinate heat from

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any quantity of water in a determinate time. are always proportionable to the furface of that water: for from a double furface there will be exhaled a double quantity of vapour, from a triple furface a triple quantity of va pour, and fo on. Therefore the furface of the Sea being 5000 times bigger than the mouths of these cracks, there will be exhaled from it 5000 times more water than what in that cafe could be drawn from the abyss. And therefore if the whole cruft of the Ántediluvian earth were but of the fame bigness with our now dry land, it would have but one five thousandth part of the water to furnish it, that our prefent earth has; but becaufe according to the Theorift, the furface of the dry land was then twice as big as it is now, there being at that time no Ocean which takes up one half of the furface; therefore it is plain that any particular Country in that cafe would have ten thousand times lefs water than it now has, there being five thousand times fewer vapours to water a double furface of Land; that is, in a Country, as big as the Iland of Britain, there would not be fo much as one River, nor fo much rain in a year as does now fall in one day.

We fee therefore how well the Theorist has watered his Antediluvian earth from the inexhaustible treasure of the abyss as he calls it. For however immenfe that great ftore

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houfe was, yet ftill there would be a great fcarcity of water on the furface of the earth.

Not. Except we will fuppofe the heat of the Sun in the primitive world confiderably greater than it is in our earth, there must be lefs water drawn from the abyss than what I thewed from the former Calculation, and that because the Sun could not fhine fo long upon the furface of the abyss thorow the cracks as it does now upon the Sea, by reafon the cruft of the earth would intercept all the rays of the Sun till it came to be of a confiderable height as is plain by the Figure, [Fig. 1. Plate I. Where if S reprefent the Sun in the equator, and PQ the fenfible Horizon, mn the furface of the abyfs opened by the pit P nm R, the Sun must be at the height HS above the Horizon before its heat can reach the furface of the waters. The heat also upon the furface n m would not be fo great by reafon of the cold orb of earth which did incircle it. And upon these and fome other accounts the Sun would not raise fo much water from the abyfs as it does now from the fame quantity of furface in the Sea, but I will not take any advantage of these confiderations leaving them to be a recompence for the greater influence of the Sun which the Theorift fays it had upon the Antediluvian earth.

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From hence we may fully answer an objection of the Atheists against a providence, for fay they, where is the wifdom of the Creator in having fo much useless Sea to no purpose and fo little dry Land, for which men are every day fighting, might not the half of the Sea have been dry Land, which might have been serviceable to mankind? But this as most of their other arguments against providence proceeds from a deep ignorance of Natural Philofophy. For if there were but half the Sea that now is, there would be also but half the quantity of vapours, and confequently we could have but half fo many Rivers as now there are, to fupply all the dry Land we have at prefent and half as much more, The wife Creator therefore, did fo prudently order it, that the Sea fhould be large enough to fupply vapours for all the Land, which it would not do if it were less than it now is.

But I will fuppofe with the Theorist that there was a quantity of vapours exhaled by the heat of the Sun from the abyfs fufficient to furnish plentifully the whole earth. Yet ftill there is a great doubt how Rivers could be formed: for what ways could the vapours take their courfe to be condenfed and form Springs if there were no winds to carry them, certainly they would ftagnate near the mouths of the cracks and leave the reft of the earth never a whit the better for them, and

every one that wanted water must go as far as the equator to fetch it. No fays the Theorift there was no need for that, the vapours being very much agitated and rarified by the heat of the Sun, and being once in the open air, their courfe would be that way where they found the leaft refiftance to their motion, and that would certainly be towards the Poles and colder regions of the earth, for East and Weft they would meet with as warm an air, and vapours as much agitated as themfelves which therefore would not yield to their progress that way: But towards North and South they would find a more easy paffage, the cold of thefe parts attracting them as we call it, that is, making way to their motion and dilatation without much refiftance, as mountains and cold places ufually draw vapours from the warmer.

Here is a new use or employment the Theorift has found for the Mountains and Cold to be Gentlemen-ufhers, for the vapours, and make way for their motion. He had told us before that the Cold and Hills attracted vapours, but because that word was not Philofophical, (being exploded and ridiculed by thofe who call themselves new Philofophers) he explains himself and tells us by attraction he meant the making way for their motion and dilatation; but how a Mountain can make way to the dilatation and motion of vapours is far beyond my pitch of understanding, to me

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