still there remains the final cause to be inquired into which will do as well for our purpose For if I prove them to be as useful to the inhabitants of the primitive earth as they are now to us and that in our present state they are absolutely necessary not only for our well being but also for our bare subsistance I think from thence it will demonstratively follow that they were in the primitive earth as well as in ours And therefore the groundless assertion of the Theorist that the face of the Antediluvian earth was smooth regular and uniform is as false as 't is bold and daring I know there is a sort of men in this age who have excluded all final causes from the consideration of a Philosopher as being unworthy of his enquiry supposing his business is only to find out the true formal and efficient causes of all things and not to concern himself with the design of nature or the great end for which the God of Nature made any thing But indeed these men have been so unhappy in their searches that I dare boldly say they have not so much as discovered the true real and efficient cause of any one of the Phaenomena which was not known and better explain'd before tho' they have pretended to lay open the essences and formal causes of all things and to shew the manner how the Universe was formed from the principles of Matter and Motion But whatever they pretend certain it is that final causes are worthy of the consideration of all men and much more of a Philosopher By them we are led into the admiration of the wisdom of God and discover his care and providence over the world By them we demonstrate that the World could never be made by chance but it must be a being of Infinite wisdom that form'd it for such various uses as are to be seen in it And therefore by all wise and considering men they are much more to be valued than efficient causes if they could be discovered which only tell us how the thing was perform'd and not the use for which it was design'd 'T is true indeed it is not easy to discover the use of every thing in the Universe but from the admirable contrivance of those things the uses of which we do know and from the infinite wisdome of God it may be easily concluded that every thing in nature has its use and is in some manner serviceable to the good of the whole They who desire to see more concerning the usefulness of final causes may consult Mr. Boyle of final causes Mr. Ray's wisdome of God in the works of the Creation and some late ingenious essays upon the nature and evidence of faith by Dr. Cockburn I must confess I cannot but think it a strange and presuming boldness in the Theorist to assert that Mountains are plac'd in no order one with another that can either respect use or beauty and that if they are singly consider'd they do not consist of any proportion of parts that is referable to any design or hath the least footsteps of art or counsel Notwithstanding this strange assertion I am sure if we were without these shapeless and ill figur'd old Rocks and Mountains as he calls them we should soon find the want of them It being impossible to subsist or live without them For setting aside the use they may have in the production of various Plants and Metals which are usefull to mankind and make a part of the compleat whole and the Food which they yield to several Animals which are design'd by Nature to live upon them The high Hills being a refuge for the wild Goats and the Rocks for the Conies and not to mention the end they serve for in directing the Inland winds and altering the weather in fencing and bounding Empires and Countries in all which without doubt they do us very considerable service there is moreover one great and Universal use which makes them absolutely necessary for the subsistance of Mankind For without them it is certain we should have no Rivers nor fresh currents of waters and consequently we should want one of the greatest supports of Life This the Learned and Ingenious Mathematician and Philosopher Mr. Edmund Halley has effectually proved in the Philosophical Transactions where he gives us an account of the rise of Springs and Rivers from Vapours That are raised copiously in the Sea and by the winds are carried over the low Land to the high ridges of Mountains where they are compelled by the stream of the air to mount up with it to the tops of the Mountains where they presently precipitate gleeting down by the cranies of the stones and part of the Vapour entring into the Caverns of those Hills the waters thereof gather as in an Alembick into the basons of stone it finds which being once filled all the overplus of water that comes thither runs over by the lowest place and breaking out by the sides of the Hills forms single Springs many of these running down by the valleys or gutts between the ridges of the hills and coming to unite form little rivulets or brooks many of these again meeting in one common valley and gaining the plain ground being grown less rapid become a River and many of these being united in one common channel make such streames as the Rhine the Rhone and the Danube which last one would hardly think the collection of waters condensed out of vapours unless we consider how vast a tract of ground that River drains and that it is the summ of all those springs which break out upon the South side of the Carpathian Mountains on the North side of the immense ridge of the Alpes which is one continued chain of Mountains from Switzerland to the black Sea so that it may almost pass for a rule that the magnitude of a River or the quantity of water which it evacuates is proportional to the length and height of the ridges from whence its fountain arises All this I take to be undeniably evident For that vapours are raised by the heat of the Sun from the Sea in such vast quantities as will be sufficient to serve all the Rivers the same ingenious Mr. Halley has demonstrated by Calculations But it is also demonstrable that these vapours being of the same specifick gravity with the air in which they swim must follow its motion that is they must be carried by the winds over land untill they meet with such an obstacle as a hill in their way which resists their motion where they must precipitate and gleet down by its side and so form Rivers and Springs All this is not only clear from reason but is also confirmed by the experience of the same Mr. Halley while he was at St. Helena as he tells you in the Philosophical Transactions And now methinks 't is plain that hills are so very far from being placed in the earth without any art or
that now in this Learned and Inquisitive Age they have at last found out the true and solid Philosophy They do now perceive the intimate essence of all things and have discovered Nature in all her works and can tell you the true cause of every effect from the sole principles of matter and motion If you will believe them they can inform you exactly how God made the World for they do now comprehend the greatest mysteries in nature and understand and Oeconomy of living Bodies Nay they understand also very exactly the Theory of the Soul how it thinks and by what methods it operates on the Body and the Body on it These indeed are great discoveries and might well demand our esteem and admiration if they were real But that we may see how well they deserve such a Character I will here set down some of their sentiments both as to the Intellectual and Natural System Spinosa pretends to demonstrate that there is but one individual Substance in the Universe and that all particular beings are different modifications of the same substance Another Philosopher viz. Dr. More will have Souls besides the three dimensions which belong to Bodies to have a fourth which he calls the Souls essential spissitude by which it can contract or dilate it self when it pleases Mr. Hobbs thinks Incorporeal Substances a flat contradiction and that therefore it is altogether impossible there should be any such But a new Philosopher has much out-done any I have yet mentioned in a Book lately Printed concerning Reason there he assures us that there is but one universal Soul in the World which is omnipresent and acts upon all particular organized Bodies and makes them produce actions more or less perfect in proportion to the good disposition of their Organs so that in Beasts that Soul is the principle of the sensitive and vital functions in Men it does not only perform these but also all other rational actions just as if you would suppose a hand of a vast extension and a prodigious number of fingers playing upon all the Organ pipes in the world and making every one sound a particular note according to the disposition and frame of the pipe so this Universal Soul acting upon all Bodies makes every one produce various actions according to the different disposition and frame of their Organs This opinion he as confidently asserts to be true as other men believe that it is false tho it is impossible he should any other way be sure of it but by Revelation and I believe he will find but few that will take it upon his word Mons. Malbranch the famous inquirer after Truth having made a long and deep search how the Soul comes to have its Ideas has found out at last that we perceive not the things themselves but only their Ideas which the Soul sees in God For says he the Soul is united to God in a much stricter and more essential manner than she is united to the Body and this union is by his presence so that it may be said that God is the place of Spirits as space is the place of Bodies He tells us also that since God has the Ideas of all beings in himself the Soul must needs see what there is in God which represents created beings for Bodies are not visible of themselves they not being able to act upon our mind nor represent themselves to it therefore they being unintelligible in their own Natures there is no possibility of seeing them except in that being which contains them after an intelligible manner Bodies therefore and their properties are seen in God so that a man who reads this Book does not really see the Book it self but only the Idea of it which is in God Is not a man now much the wiser for this unintelligible jargon I would fain know what the Author meant by his seeing every thing in God by its Idea for I must confess that the oftner I read his long Illustration on this point I understand it the less and I know as little how I have my Ideas as I did before If he had told me that the Soul saw its Ideas under the Concave of the Moons Orb where they say Plato placed them I could have had some sort of confused notion of that manner of seeing but this manner of seeing Ideas is far beyond my imagination I am sure that I can neither see the Idea of it in God or any where else The truth is I have not so couragiously resisted my senses as that Philosopher advises as to be able to penetrate such a solid piece of nonsense The same Philosopher affirmes that Bodies of their own nature are neither heard seen smelt nor tasted and when for example we tast any thing the Body tasted cannot produce any savour in us but God Almighty takes that occasion to stir up that sensation in us to which the body does not really concur Nay according to him it is impossible for any man to move his own Arm but when he is willing to move it God takes it and moves it up and down as the man whose Arm it is wills If a Rebellious Son or Subject murther his Father or his Prince by stabbing him the Man himself does not thrust the Poiniard into his Fathers or Princes Breast but God Almighty does it without any other concurrence of the Man but his will These indeed are strange and unaccountable fancies But he proceeds still further and affirmes that no second causes act so that no Body tho moved with never so great a velocity against another can be able to drive that other before it or move it in the least but God takes that occasion to put it in motion At this rate one need not fear his headpiece tho a Bomb were falling upon it with all the force that Powder can give it for it could not so much as break his Skull or singe his hair if God did not take that occasion to do it The most natural agents with him are not so much as instruments but only occasions of what is produced by them so that a man might freely pass thorow the fire or jump down a precipice without any harm if God Almighty did not take that occasion to burn him or dash out his brains To prove that our moderns are as wild extravagant and presumptuous as any of the Ancients either Poets or Philosophers I may instance in Dr Conner whose imagination has taken a flight beyond the spheres of sense and reason Other Philosophers were only ambitious to explicate nature and the common effects of it but no less a subject can satisfy him than the Omnipotent Author of nature and his extraordinary and miraculous acts which he pretends to explain for he thinks he understands them as well as he does the common Phaenomena of Nature This I believe will be granted him without much difficulty for there is very good reason to believe that the works of Nature
as happened from pure Mechanical principles and causes and the true reason why there remain no records or traditions of facts done in the time beyond four or five thousand years is because there has happened a Deluge the memory of which is still preserved and this Deluge being the necessary consequence of natural causes did sweep away all mankind and with them the memorials of all former ages only a couple of ignorant country people some way or other saved themselves from the universal Catastrophe and from their ofspring the earth was again replenished and arts and sciences invented which our forefathers before that deluge understood more perfectly than we do now This they will tell you is their hypothesis and they will not be beaten easily from it since it may be defended as well as any other Philosophical Theory which pretends to give an account of the origination of the World and is as precarious as their own system of principles which they pretend is very possible since several Philosophers have shew'd various ways how there might have happened so universal a deluge from Mechanical principles and the necessary laws of motion Thus we see how these flood-makers have given the Atheists an argument to uphold their cause which I think can only be truely answer'd by proving an universal Deluge from Mechanical causes altogether impossible And therefore I design to shew that the most ingenious Theories fram'd upon that account come far short of the design of the Framers and that the great and wonderful effects which they indeavour to explain could never have risen from the causes they assign This I intend to do by shewing that their Theories are neither consonant to the established laws of motion nor to the acknowledged principles of natural Philosophy of that Philosophy I mean which is founded upon observations and calculations both which are undoubtedly the most certain principles that a Philosopher can build upon It is in vain to think that a system of Natural Philosophy can be framed without the assistance of both for without observations we can never know the appearances and force of nature and without Geometry Arithmetick we can never discover whether the causes we assign are proportional to the effects we pretend to explain This the various systems of the Philosophers do evidently shew which are by far more distant from the truth than they are from one another And I hope it will appear yet plainer by the following examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth Which tho it has been published many years and has been animadverted upon by several yet it has not been so fully refuted as it might have been nor has any one shew'd the greatest mistakes in it Nay Mr. Erasmus Warren who has wrote the greatest Volum against it in my opinion has spoken the least sense about it He begins his discourse with a saying of an old Heathen that Philosophy is the greatest gift that ever God bestowed on man Which I will not deny since he has been at so much pains to make a Panegyrick on the usefulness of it But it is plain to any who will be at the pains to read his Book that God has thought fit to bestow but very little of that great gift upon him And that the world may not think that this is said out of ill nature and without grounds I will give them a tast of his Philosophy Geometry or Geography call it which you please He designs to calculate how much colder the Poles would be if the earth were of an Oval figure than if it were perfectly Spherical To do which he supposes that a Circle formed into a moderate Oval will have its Poles at least a fortieth part farther distant from the aequator than if it were perfecty spherical Now according to this proportion allowing the earth to be 7000. miles in Diameter and adding a fourth part to render it Oval viz. 1750 miles thickness the earth at each Pole must bear above fourteen degrees latitude more than if it had been round So that the hypothesis which removes its Poles so much farther from the Sun must also allow the cold thereabouts to be proportionably augmented And though in the hundred and fourth degree of latitude as we must call it on each side of the aequator that is at the very Poles there might have been a perpetual day c. This is the first time I ever heard that there could be more than ninety degrees between the pole and the aequator but he thinks he has fairly made it out that there can be a huâ—dred and four degrees between them therefore there must be four hundred sixteen degrees in the whole circumference and then every right angle being only proportioonal to ninety degrees there must be more than four right angles about one point and therefore the Corollary of the 13 th of the first of Euclid must be false Thus has that subtle Philosopher not only subverted Dr. Burnet's Theory but also Euclid's demonstrations and that by an argument which the dull Mathematicians could never discover But I will leave Euclid to his mercy and answer that part of his argument that concerns the Theory which is easily done if he will consider that the difference between the poles of the earths distance from the Sun and the aequator of the earths distance from the Sun even tho the earth were ten times more Oval than he would have it is so very inconsiderable that it does almost bear the same proportion to the whole that a point does to a line for the Mathematicians know that the diameter of the earth is but a point in respect of its distance from the Sun and therefore two lines drawn from the Suns centre to any two points of it are very near in a proportion of equality so that upon the account of a greater or lesser distance of the parts of the earth from the Sun there can be no sensible alteration of heat or cold But I am afraid this is a little too far beyond Mr. Warren's capacity however to surprize him a little more I will tell him he is so far out in his account of the cold at the poles that tho the North pole be much colder in the Winter than it is in the Summer yet is it some hundred thousands of miles nearer to the Sun in Winter than in Summer If he pleases to consult the Astronomers they can demonstrate the truth of this to him I beg Mr. Warren's pardon for bringing him into this place I ought to have been favourable to him he being one of my Associates against Dr. Burnet But I was willing to produce him as an instance to shew how unfit a man who understands no Geometry is to write a book of Natural Philosophy But to return to the Theory I cannot but acknowledge that there was never any book of Philosophy written with a more lofty and plausible stile than it is the noble and
was would not be perpetual nor last many thousands of years if one consider the effect the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and rarifying the other into vapours For according to him the course of the Sun was such at that time that there was no diversity or alteration of Seasons in the year as there is now by reason of which alteration of Seasons our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary Seasons ballancing one another so that what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth is repaired again in Rains the next Winter and what chaps are made in it are filled up and the Earth is reduced to its former constitution But if we should imagin a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in dryness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it The heat of the Sun therefore according to the Theorist acting continually upon the Earth would have reduced it in the space of some hundreds of years to a considerable degree of dryness in certain parts and would also have much rarifyed and exhaled the water under it so that considering the structure of that Globe the exterior Crust and the Water under it he thinks it may be fitly compared to an AEolipile or an hollow Sphere with Water in it which the heat of the fire rarifies and turns into Vapour or Wind the Sun here is the Fire and the exterior Earth the shell of the AEolipile and the Abyss the water within it as soon then as the heat of the Sun had reached the waters in the Abyss it began to rarify them and raise them into Vapours by which rarifaction they required more room than they did before and finding themselves pent in by the exterior earth they pressed with violence against that Arch to make it yield and give way to their dilatation and by this means the Earth was broken and the frame of it torn in pieces as by an Earth-quake and those great portions or fragments into which it was divided fell down into the Abyss some in one posture and some in another and was the cause of a general Deluge I shall now examin these causes which the Theorist has given for the Dissolution of the Earth and in this Chapter I will first enquire whither the heat of the Sun can reach so far as the great Abyss to rarify the waters thereof First then I have proved in the third Chapter of this examination that there were Hills and Mountains in the primitive Earth as there are now in ours I have also shown that the Axis of the earth was then enclined the same way to the Plane of the Ecliptick as it is at present from thence it plainly follows that there was then the same variety of Seasons and Alternations of Heat and Cold in the primitive earth that there are now in our earth and by consequence all the Arguments drawn from the great heat and strong action of the Sun upon the Antediluvian earth must fall to the ground there being then no greater heat of the Sun on the earth than there is at present But 2 dly there are places in the earth as the Island of Barbadoes and some other Islands near the AEquator where there is little or no variety of Seasons or alteration of the Suns heat but it continues to shine very strongly upon them throughout the whole year and yet in none of them is there any of these great Chaps and Cracks which the Theorist sayes were made in the primitive earth by the strong action of the Sun tho it has shon above thrice as long upon these Islands as it did upon the Antediluvian World 3 dly It is certain that if we judge according to experience that the heat of the Sun doth not reach far into the Earth and that its beams can go but a very little way into the Crust for in Vaults and Caves there is no sensible alteration of heat in Summer and Winter even tho they have a communication with the open Air And in the deep pits of the Royal Observatorie at Paris it has been found by experience that a Thermometer placed there in the coldest day of Winter does not sensibly vary from what it was in the greatest heat in Summer and they who work in Mines can tell how little difference they observe of heat in the Summer more than in the Winter in places underground But if the heat of the Sun could penetrate for any considerable depth the Crust of the Earth it is plain that when its heat is strongest and most intense upon the Surface it would also be most intense within the Crust but the forementioned experiments do prove that within the bowels of the Earth there is no sensible difference between the heat of the Sun when its action is strongest from what it is when its action is weakest Since then the heat of the Sun does not penetrate the Earth so as to be sensible even for the small space that we are able to dig thorough how can we imagin it possible that it should ever reach the Abyss through the whole exterior Crust of the Earth so as to be able to heat the water and raise it into Vapour But that I may bring this point to a Calculation as near as I can I will suppose that the heat caused by the direct influence of the Sun upon any Surface is alwayes all other things being the same as the quantity of Rayes of heat which falls upon that Surface which I believe the Theorist will allow I will also suppose that fewer Rayes of heat passed thorough the solid Orb than if it had been composed of several concentrical Surfaces placed at some distance from one another every one of which transmitted only the one half of the Rayes of heat which fell upon it this I think may be also easily allowed for it is plain that the Surface of the Earth does not transmit the half nay not the hundredth part of the Suns beams which fall upon it These things being supposed it is plain that but one half of the Rayes which fall upon the first Surface would fall upon the second but one fourth of them upon the third one eighth part of them upon the fourth and one sixteenth part upon the fifth c. so that they would still decrease in a Geometrical proportion of 2 to 1 and if there were but one hundred of these Surfaces the number of Rayes which fell upon the first would be to the number of Rayes which passed thorough to the last as 2 99 to 1 or as the ninty ninth power of 2 is to 1. How great a disproportion then would there be between the number of those Rayes which fell upon the first surface and those which fell upon the last for the ninty ninth power of 2 is a number which if written at length would
from the Abyss in places near the Equinoctial as he supposes yet it is impossible that it should ever reach the Poles there to form the Springs from which the Rivers were to run Or if Vapours were once brought to the Poles by whatever cause we can imagin yet it is impossible that they should ever run back from the Poles to the AEquator since according to him the Earth was perfectly smooth and uniform without any upper grounds from whence the water was to descend to the lower places of the Earth 5 thly The Figure of the Earth which the Theorist rightly affirms not to have been exactly Spherical because at the Commencement of the Diurnal rotation it being Fluid all the parts of it would endeavour to recede from the Axis of their motion but as he has guessed that it did settle into an Oblong Spheroidical or Oval Figure on no other account that I know of but because he thinks such a one would best answer his design so I think I have clearly enough demonstrated that the Earth has formed it self into a quite contrary Figure whose Axis is shorter than the Diameter of the AEquator and I have proved from Observations that the Earth is really of such a Figure 6 thly The causes the Theorist has assigned for the breaking of the outward Crust which he affirms to be done by the great heat of the Sun But this I have clearly proved to be a cause altogether insufficient for such an effect since the heat of the Sun could never reach so far into so thick a Crust as to be great enough to raise water into Vapours But lastly granting the Crust to have been broken and to have fallen down into the Abyss yet I have proved from the Theorists own Principles that there could follow no Universal Deluge there being not so much water in the Abyss as was sufficient to cover the face of the whole Earth Throughout the whole Examination I have observed the Theorists advice and have considered only the substance of the Theory without making any excursions upon things that are accidental and collateral which as he sayes do not destroy his Hypothesis These are the main foundations on which his Theory is built and since I have proved them all to be not only precarious but impossible his whole Hypothesis must fall with them Perhaps many of his Readers will be sorry to be undeceived for as I believe never any Book was fuller of Errors and Mistakes in Philosophy so none ever abounded with more beautiful Scenes and surprising Images of Nature but I write only to those who might perhaps expect to find a true Philosophy in it They who read it as an Ingenious Romance will still be pleased with their Entertainment FINIS SOME REMARKES ON M r. WHISTON'S Theory of the Earth THO' I think it impossible to give a True and Mechanical account of that great Deluge of waters which once overflowed the Face of the whole Earth it being a work not to be performed without the extraordinary contrivance of the Divine power yet I cannot but acknowledge that Mr. Whiston the Ingenious Author of this new Theory of the Earth has made greater discoveries and proceeded on more Philosophical Principles than all the Theorists before him have done In his Theory there are some very strange coincidents which make it indeed probable that a Comet at the time of the Deluge passed by the Earth It is surprizing to observe the exact correspondence between the Lunar and Solar year upon the supposition of a circular Orbit in which the Earth moved before the Deluge It cannot but raise admiration in us when we consider that the Earth at the time of the Deluge was in its Perihelion which would be the necessary effect of a Comet that passed by at that time in drawing it from a Circular to an Elliptical Orbit This together with the consideration that the Moon was exactly in such a place of its Orbit at that time as equally attracted with the Earth when the Comet passed by seems to be a very convincing Argument that a Comet really came very near and passed by the Earth on the day the Deluge began But notwithstanding this I believe it will be evident by the following considerations that a Comet could never have produced those various effects that Mr. Whiston has attributed to it and it will also further appear that the Deluge was the immediate work of the Divine power and that no secondary causes without the interposition of Omnipotence could have brought such an effect to pass But first I will make some Remarks on the Origin of the Primitive Earth and method by which Mr. Whiston supposes it was formed Mr. Whiston's first Hypothesis is that the antient Chaos the Origin of our Earth was the Atmosphere of a Comet but this supposition tho he endeavours to prove it by several Arguments doth not seem probable for the reasons following First the Scriptures represent the Primitive Antient Chaos as a very dark and obscure Body for they say that it was without form and Void and that Darkness was upon the face of the Deep this will further appear by the next verse where God is said to have made light upon the first day of the Creation which is a clear proof that there was none before that time but that the whole Chaos was originally a dark and confused heap of Bodies Now it is certain by the Testimonies of all those who have made any Observations about Comets that their Atmospheres are very bright and luminous Fluids through which the beams of the Sun diffuse themselves very freely and many of them are again reflected back to us and indeed if we consider their pellucidness and the vast quantity of Light which passes through them without reflection it is not easy to imagine how they should appear so lucid to our Eyes Nor do I believe that it is possible to find among all the pellucid Bodies of our Earth any one which being placed at the same distance from us as the Atmosphere of Comets are would appear so bright or reflect the light so strongly as they do For it is easy to be observed that diaphanous Bodies are not so luminous nor do they reflect light in such a quantity as it is reflected from opake Bodies It cannot be said that the light by which we perceive a Comet is only reflected from the top of its Atmosphere and that it doth not pass through the Body of it to illuminate all the other parts of it which are therefore involved in thick darkness for it is evident that light passes clearly through the whole Body of the Atmosphere and illuminates the central solid which strongly reflects the light to us back again I know Mr. Whiston supposes that this great darkness mentioned in the Scripture proceeded from the subsiding of the vast Dense and heavy Fluid or large Abyss which he sayes encompassed the central solid and was it self covered over
reasons that I cannot be induced to believe Mr. Whistons Hypothesis that the Earth had no diurnal rotation before the fall to be probable it seeming to be far more agreeable to the Laws of Nature and Philosophy that the Earth received both its annual and diurnal motions at the same time viz. when it was first Created These are the chief and principle Remarks that I have made on the Original State and Formation of the Earth I will now briefly consider his Theory of the Deluge which is in short thus He supposes that a Comet at the time of the Deluge came very near and passed by the Earth that the Comet when it came below the Moon would raise a vast and strong Tide both in the Seas that were then on the Surface and in the Abyss which was under the upper Crust of the Earth after the same manner as the Moon doth at present in the Ocean that this Tide would begin to rise and encrease all the time of the approach of the Comet would be at its greatest height when the Comet was at its least distance from the earth By this tide and the attraction of the Comet he supposes that the Abyss would put on an Elliptick or rather an exactly oval figure whose surface being much larger than the former spherical one the exterior crust of earth which lay upon it must conform it self to the same figure which it could not do as long as it remain'd solid and conjoin'd and therefore it must of necessity by the violent force of the tide be stretched and broken and have innumerable fissures made quite through it After this he supposes that the Comet in its descent towards the sun passing close by the body of the earth involved it in its Atmosphere and tail for a considerable time and left prodigious quantities of condensed and expanded vapours on its surface a great part of which being very much rarify'd after their primary fall would be immediatly drawn up into the Air again and afterwards descend in violent and outragious Rains upon the Earth and would be the canse of the forty dayes rain mentioned in Scripture The other great Rain which together with the former lasted an hundred and fifty dayes was occasioned as he thinks by the Earths being involved a second time in the Comets tail from which and from its Atmosphere he derives one half of the water which served for the Deluge The other half he supposes was deduced from the subterraneous Abyss the fluid whereof he says was forced upon the Surface of the Earth by the vast and prodigious pressure of the incumbent water that was derived from the Comets Atmosphere and Tail which he supposes would press downwards with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the outward Crust of the Earth into the Abyss by which vast quantities of the subterraneous fluid would be forced and raised upon the Surface of the Earth through the Cracks and Fissures that were made in the Crust by the violence of the Tide in the Abyss By these methods Mr. Whiston supposes that there was water enough brought on the Surface to cover the face of the whole Earth for the perpendicular height of three miles that is above the tops of the highest Mountains But he further supposes that neither that water which was derived from the Comet nor that which was forced up from the bowels of the Earth was pure Elementary water but rather a thick and muddy fluid which he sayes being heavier than water sunk to the bottom and covered the Earth for the depth of 166 feet After having thus formed the Deluge his next great work is to remove these waters which were brought on the Earth and this he supposes to be performed by a wind which dried up some and forced the rest through the Cracks and Fissures of the Earth into the Abyss in which a great part of them had been before and from whence they were derived These are the suppositions by which Mr. Whiston pretends to account for all the Phaenomena of the Deluge But tho I can easily allow the first Hypothesis to be true viz. That a Comet at the time of the Deluge came very near and passed by the Earth since its approach at that time is not only made possible but also very probable by him yet I cannot admit of the particular explications he has given of several of the Phaenomena of the Deluge a great many of them as he has explained them seeming to be no wayes agreeable to the Laws of Mechanicks and Philosophy For first tho it is certain that a Comet when it passed by the Earth would raise a very strong and prodigious Tide in the Seas that were then on the Surface yet I cannot perceive that such an effect would be produced in the Abyss which he supposes to be a dense and heavy fluid encompassed on all sides with a thick and solid Crust of Earth lying closely upon it For Tides being only a violent swelling and motion of the waters produced by the attraction of some great Bodies that come near them if we should suppose that the waters were every where shut up within a solid Orb lying on them so that there were no room or space left for them to move in it is plain that in such a case there could be no Tide or agitation of the waters but they would remain in the state they were in before nor could they press stronger on that Orb which inclosed them than Sand Gravel or any other firm and hard Bodies would do that could fill their place all Bodies whether firm or Fluid being equally attracted when the attracting Body is at the same distance from them This being then the true case of the Abyss which Mr. Whiston supposes to be enclosed by the thick solid and upper Crust of the Earth which pressing so close upon it as to leave no void space at least not such a one as would make room enough for any considerable commotion of the waters and because fluids are not more attracted than solids are it is plain that by the Tide of the Abyss and the attraction of the Comet there could never be produced any greater effect on the Crust which encompassed the subterraneous fluid than if the whole Earth had consisted of firm and solid matter without any Abyss It is certain therefore that since there was no tide in the Abyss there could be no cracks and fissures made in the Earth by it To explain the great rains which fell on the Earth during the time of the deluge Mr. Whiston assumes a proposition which I believe he can hardly prove viz. that after the Earth was involved in the Comet 's Atmosphere and tail and had acquired a prodigious quantity of condensed and expanded Vapours that fell on its surface a great part of them being much rarify'd would be drawn up again into the Air and afterwards descend in violent and outragious rains Now if we consider
the incredible velocity with which these Vapours descended which Mr. Whiston calculates to be so great that they descended eight hundred and sixty eight miles in a minute and the great resistance they met with in their descent through the Air and the force by which they fell on the ground we must necessarily acknowledge that they must have been condensed and turned into Water by such a resistance and fall For it is certain that when Vapours fall they must meet with a great check and resistance from the Air by which their parts will be pressed close together and as their velocity encreases so would the resistance and their density till at last their parts come to be as closely united as it is possible and then they 'd fall in the form of Water Thus it is without doubt when it rains for we must not imagine that rain drops have the same form and density in the Clouds with which they arrive at the ground for Water being of a greater intensive gravity than Air it is impossible that it should be sustained in it but when it is expanded into Vapour Now it is plain by observations on the Barescope that whenever the Vapours begin to descend the Air is lighter than it was before it therefore not being able to sustain them they must fall to the ground but in their way they meet with a great resistance and check from the Air and so must necessarily be condensed and fall in drops of Water on the ground And since the resistance of the medium is always as the square of the velocity with which the Body moves through it and because the velocity of vapour which fell from the Comet to the Earth must have been according to Mr. Whiston some thousands of times greater than the velocity with which common Vapour or Rain descends it must needs follow that the resistance the Vapour which was derived from the Comet met with was some millions of times greater than the resistance of common Vapour when it descends but the resistance of common Vapour when it descends is great enough to condense it into water it is evident therefore that all such Vapours as descended from the Comet must have been of necessity condensed into water long before they ever touched the Earth Seeing then they descended on the Earth in the form of water and seeing there was no sufficient cause that could immediatly raise and mount them up again the heat of the Sun not being great enough for such an effect it is plain that they could never rise up again to produce the forty Dayes Rain mentioned in Scripture Mr. Whiston having as he imagins explained the great Rains which fell on the Earth at the time of the Deluge doth in the next place proceed to shew how the waters of the Abyss were forced up to the Surface of the Earth and became a great cause of the Universal flood This he supposes to be performed by the vast quantity of waters that had descended from the Comet which he sayes being of a prodigious weight would press the Crust of the Earth downwards with a mighty force and endeavour to sink it deeper into the Abyss by this pressure the waters of the Abyss would be forced upwards through the Cracks and Fissures newly made by the violence of the Tide on the Surface of the Earth He endeavours to illustrate this method of Operation by the Example of a Stone or Marble Cylinder exactly fitted to a hollow Cylindrical vessel that it may just ascend or descend freely within it He supposes the Stone Cylinder to have holes bored in it quite through parallel to its Axis and let down in the hollow Cylinder which is half full of water till it touch the water then if each of the holes be filled with Oil or some other fluid lighter than water he says that the weight of the Cylinder pressing on the water would squeeze the Oil on its Surface through the holes and throw it out with some violence and this would be a just representation of the Deluge There is but one possible case wherein the pressure of the water could sink the Crust deeper into the Abyss and that is if the waters which lay on the Surface could not descend through the Cracks and Fissures of the Earth And tho I can see nothing that can hinder them from descending yet if I should suppose that they did not I can evidently prove by Calculation that such a pressure could never raise the Abyss above the Surface of the Crust To demonstrate this I assume the height of the water which was derived from the Comet to have been a tenth part of the thickness of the whole Crust tho doubtless this is much greater than in reality it can be allowed to have been and because according to Mr. Whiston the Columns of which the Crust is composed are about four times heavier than common water it follows that a Column of the same specifick gravity with the rest of the Crust whose base is equal to the base of the incumbent Column of water and one fourth part of its height will weigh as much or press the Crust as much downwards as the whole Column of water could do but the height of the water being a tenth part of the depth of the whole Crust the height of the additional Column that weighs as much as the water must be a fortieth part of the depth of the Crust From hence it follows that the height or thickness of the Crust before the additional Column is laid on is to its thickness after the additional Column is laid on as 40 is to 41. The whole problem then is plainly reduced to this Having two Cylinders or Columns of the same intensive gravity but of different heights that swim in any Fluid to find what proportion the parts or heights immerged bear to one another By a known proposition in Hydrostaticks the part immerged of each Cylinder bears the same proportion to the whole Cylinder that the intensive gravity of the Cylinder bears to the intensive gravity of the Fluid from thence it is evident that the parts immerged have the same proportion that their respective whole Cylinders have to one another which in the present case is as forty to forty one By this it is clear that the additional weight of the incumbent water would not sink the Crust above one fortieth part deeper into the Abyss than it was before and therefore it could never rise by such a pressure so high as the Surface of the Earth But if we should suppose that the pressure on the Crust should be so great as to press the Abyss upwards and the waters in it to the Surface of the Earth it is certain that in such a case when the waters in the Abyss had ascended to the Surface there must be a communication between the Abyss and it by this communication the waters on the Surface must necessarily descend and ly immediately on