THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER X

Concerning the Chanel of the Sea, and the Original of it: The Causes of its irregular form and unequal depths: As also of the Original of Islands, their situation, and other properties.

WE have hitherto given an account of the Subterraneous Regions, and of their general form; We now come above ground to view the surface of the Globe, which we find Terraqueous, or divided into Sea and Land: These we must survey, and what is remarkable in them as to their frame and structure, we must give an account of from our Hypothesis, and shew to be inaccountable from any other.

As for the Ocean, there are two things considerable in it, the Water and the Chanel that contains it. The Water, no doubt is as ancient as the Earth and contemporary with it, and we suppose it to be part of the great Abysse wherein the World was drowned; the rest lying covered under the hollow fragments of Continents and Islands. But that is not so much the subject of our present discourse as the Chanel of the Ocean, that vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe, and reacheth, for ought we know, from Pole to Pole, and in many places is unsearchably deep: When I present this great Gulf to my imagination, emptied of all its waters, naked and gaping at the Sun, stretching its jaws from one end of the Earth to another, it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature. What hands or instruments could work a Trench in the body of the Earth of this vastness, and lay Mountains and Rocks on the side of it, as Ramparts to enclose it?

But as we justly admire its greatness, so we cannot at all admire its beauty or elegancy, for ’tis as deformed and irregular as it is great. And there appearing nothing of order or any regular design in its parts, it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the work of Nature, according to her first intention, or according to the first model that was drawn in measure and proportion, by the Line and by the Plummet, but a secondary work, and the best that could be made of broken materials. And upon this supposition ’tis easie to imagine, how upon the dissolution of the primæval Earth the Chanel of the Sea was made, or that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth; which shall be more particularly explained after we have viewed a little better the form of it, and the Islands that lie scattered by its shores.

There is no Cavity in the Earth, whether open or Subterraneous, that is comparably so great as that of the Ocean, nor would any appear of that deformity if we could see it empty. The inside of a Cave is rough and unsightly; The beds of great Rivers and great Lakes when they are laid dry, look very raw and rude; The Valleys of the Earth, if they were naked, without Trees and without Grass, nothing but bare ground and bare stones, from the tops of their Mountains would have a ghastly aspect; but the Sea-chanel is the complex of all these; here Caves, empty Lakes, naked Valleys are represented as in their original, or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their irregularities; for the Cavity of the Ocean is universally irregular, both as to the shores and borders of it; as to the uncertain breadth and the uncertain depth of its several parts, and as to its ground and bottom and the whole mould: If the Sea had been drawn round the Earth in regular figures and borders, it might have been a great beauty to our Globe, and we should reasonably have concluded it a work of the first Creation, or of Nature's first production; but finding on the contrary all the marks of disorder and disproportion in it, we may as reasonably conclude, that it did not belong to the first order of things, but was something succedaneous, when the degeneracy of Mankind, and the judgments of God had destroyed the first World, and subjected the Creation to some kind of Vanity.

Nor can it easily be imagined, if the Sea had been always, and the Earth, in this Terraqueousform, broke into Continents and Islands, how Mankind could have been propagated at first through the face of the Earth, all from one head and from one place. For Navigation was not then known, at least as to the grand Ocean, or to pass from Continent to Continent; And, I believe, Noah's Ark was the first Ship, or Vessel of bulk, that ever was built in the World; how could then the Posterity of Adamoverflow the Earth, and stock the several parts of the World, if they had been distant or separate then, as they are now, by the interposal of the great Ocean? But this consideration we will insist upon more largely in another place; let us reflect upon the irregularities of the Sea-chanel again, and the possible causes of it.

If we could imagine the Chanel of the Sea to have been made as we may imagine the Chanels of Rivers to have been, by long and insensible attrition, the water wearing by degrees the ground under it, by the force it hash from its descent and course, we should not wonder at its irregular form; but ’tis not possible it should have had any such original; whence should its waters have descended, from what Mountains, or from what Clouds? Where is the spring-head of the Sea? what force could eat away half the surface of the Earth, and wear it hollow to an immeasurable depth? This must not be from feeble and lingring causes, such as the attrition of waters, but from some great violence offered to Nature, such as we suppose to have been in the general Deluge, when the frame of the Earth was broken. And after we have a little surveyed the Sea-coast, and so far as we can, the form of the Sea-chanel, we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other original than what we assign.

The shores and coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform, but go in a line uncertainly crooked and broke; indented and jaged as a thing torn, as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts; and yet there are innumerable more inequalities than are taken notice of in those draughts; for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays; but there are besides those a multitude of Creeks and out-lets, necks of Land and Angles, which break the evenness of the shore in all manner of ways. Then the height and level of the shore is as uncertain as the line of it; ’Tis sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes spread in sandy Plains, as smooth as the Sea it self, and of such an equal height with it, that the waves seem to have no bounds but the meer figure and convexity of the Globe; In other places ’tis raised into banks and ramparts of Earth, and in others ’tis walled in with Rocks; And all this without any order that we can observe, or any other reason than that this is what might be expected in a ruine.

As to the depths and soundings of the Sea, they are under no rule nor equality any more than the figures of the Shores; Shallows in some places, and Gulfs in others; beds of Sands sometimes, and sometimes Rocks under water; as Navigators have learned by a long and dangerous experience: And though we that are upon dry Land, are not much concerned how the Rocks and the Shelves lie in the Sea, yet a poor Ship-wreckt Mariner, when he hath run his Vessel upon a Rock in the middle of the Chanel, expostulates bitterly with Nature, who it was that placed that Rock there, and to what purpose? was there not room enough, saith he, upon the Land, or the Shore, to lay your great Stones, but they must be thrown into the middle of the Sea, as it were in spite to Navigation? The best Apology that can be made for Nature in this case, so far as I know, is to confess that the whole business of the Sea-chanel is but a ruine, and in a ruine things tumble uncertainly, and commonly lie in confusion: Though to speak the truth, it seldom happens, unless in narrow Seas, that Rocks or Banks or Islands lie in the middle of them, or very far from the Shores.

Having viewed the more visible parts of the Chanel of the Sea, we must now descend to the bottom of it, and see the form and contrivance of that; but who shall guide us in our journey, while we walk, as Jobsaith, in the search of the deep? Or who can make a description of that which none hath seen? It is reasonable to believe, that the bottom of the Sea is much more rugged, broken and irregular than the face of the Land; There are Mountains, and Valleys, and Rocks, and ridges of Rocks, and all the common inequalities we see upon Land; besides these, ’tis very likely there are Caves under water, and hollow passages into the bowels of the Earth, by which the Seas circulate and communicate one with another, and with Subterraneous waters; Those great Eddeesand infamous Syrtesand Whirlpools that are in some Seas, as the Baltickand the Mediterranean, that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach, show that there is something below that sucks from them in proportion, and that drinks up the Sea as the Sea drinks up the Rivers. We ought also to imagine the Shores within the water to go inclined and sloping, but with great inequality; there are many Shelves in the way, and Chambers, and sharp Angles; and many broken Rocks and great Stones lie tumbled down to the bottom.

’Tis true these things affect us little, because they are not exposed to our senses; and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from reason what the form of the invisible and inaccessible parts of the Earth is; Or if we do sometimes, those Idea's are faint and weak, and make no lasting impression upon our imagination and passions; but if we should suppose the Ocean dry, and that we lookt down from the top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell, how horridly and barbarously would it look? And with what amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell, or a wide bottomless pit? So deep, and hollow, and vast; so broken and confused, so every way deformed and monstrous. This would effectually waken our imagination, and make us inquire and wonder how such a thing came in Nature; from what causes, by what force or engines could the Earth be torn in this prodigious manner? did they dig the Sea with Spades, and carry out the molds in hand-baskets? where are the entrails laid? and how did they cleave the Rocks asunder? if as many Pioneers as the Army of Xerxes, had been at work ever since the beginning of the World, they could not have made a ditch of this greatness. According to the proportions taken before in the Second Chapter, the Cavity or capacity of the Sea-chanel will amount to no less than 4639090 cubical miles. Nor is it the greatness only, but that wild and multifarious confusion which we see in the parts and fashion of it, that makes it strange and inaccountable; ’tis another Chaos in its kind, who can paint the Scenes of it? Gulfs, and Precipices, and Cataracts; Pits within Pits, and Rocks under Rocks, broken Mountains and ragged Islands, that look as if they had been Countries pulled up by the roots, and planted in the Sea.

If we could make true and full representations of these things to our selves, I think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate product of Divine Omnipotence; being destitute of all appearance of Art or Counsel. The first orders of things are more perfect and regular, and this Decorumseems to be observed afterwards, Nature doth not fall into disorder till Mankind be first degenerate and leads the way. Monsters have been often made an argument against Providence; if a Calf have two heads, or five legs, streight there must not be a God in Heaven, or at least not upon Earth; and yet this is but a chance that happens once in many years, and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the World: but if we make the standing frame of Nature monstrous, or deformed and disproportioned, and to have been so not by corruption and degeneracy, but immediately by Divine Creation or Formation, it would not be so easie to answer that objection against Providence. Let us therefore prevent this imputation, and supposing, according to our Theory, that these things were not originally thus, let us now explain more distinctly how they came to pass at the Deluge, or upon the dissolution of the first Earth.

And we will not content our selves with a general answer to these observations concerning the Sea-chanel, as if it was a sufficient account of them to say they were the effects of a ruine; there are other things to be considered and explained besides this irregularity, as the vast hollowness of this Cavity, bigger incomparably than any other belonging to the Earth; and also the declivity of the sides of it, which lie shelving from top to bottom; For notwithstanding all the inequalities we have taken notice of in the Chanel or the Sea, it hath one general form, which may, though under many differences, be observed throughout, and that is, that the shores and sides within the water lie inclined, and you descend by degrees to the deepest part, which is towards the middle. This, I know, admits of many exceptions, for sometimes upon a rocky shore, or among rocky Islands the Sea is very deep close to the Rocks, and the deeper commonly the higher and steeper the Rocks are. Also where the descent is more leisurely, ’tis often after a different manner, in some Coasts more equal and uniform, in others more broken and interrupted, but still there is a descent to the Chanel or deepest part, and this in the deep Ocean is fathomless; And such a deep Ocean, and such a deep Chanel there is always between Continents. This, I think, is a property as determinate as any we can pitch upon in the Chanel of the Sea, and with those other two mentioned, its vast Cavity and universal irregularity, is all one can desire an account of as to the form of it; we will therefore from this ground take our rise and first measures for the Explication of the Sea-chanel.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig 3

Let us suppose then in the dissolution of the Earth when it began to fall, that it was divided only into three or four fragments, according to the number of our Continents; but those fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full breadth and expansion, or at least could not descend so fast in the middle as towards the extremities; because the Air about the edges would yield and give place easily, not having far to go to get out of the way; but the Air that was under the middle of the fragment could not without a very swift motion get from under the concave of it, and consequently its descent there would be more resisted and suspended; but the sides in the mean time would continually descend, bending the fragment with their weight, and so making it of a lesser compass and expansion than it was before: And by this means there would be an interval and distance made between the two falling fragments, and a good part of the Abysse, after their descent, would lie uncovered in the middle betwixt them; as may be seen in this Figure, where the fragments A. B. bending downwards in their extremities, separate as they go, and after they are fain leave a good space in the Abysse betwixt them, altogether uncovered; This space is the main Chanel of the great Ocean, lying betwixt two Continents; and the inclining sides shew the declivity of the Shores.

This we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth, in the first Figure ; but it may be better represented in a broader surface, as in the second Figure , where the two fragments A. B. that are to make the two opposite Continents, fall in like double Doors opening downwards, the Hinges being towards the Land on either side, so as at the bottom they leave in the middle betwixt them a deep Chanel of water, a. a. a. such as is betwixt all Continents; and the Water reaching a good height upon the Land on either side, makes Sea there too, but shallower, and by degrees you descend into the deepest Chanel.

This gives an account of two things that we mentioned to be considered and explained as to the Sea, how the great Cavity of its Chanel was made, and how it was made in that general form of declivity in its sides from the Land: The third thing was the irregularities of it, both as to its various depths, and as to the form of the shores and of the bottom. And this is as easily and naturally explained from the same supposition as the former two; for though we have hitherto represented the fragments A. B. as even and regular after their fall, because that was most simple, and there was no occasion then to represent them otherwise, yet we must suppose that as soon as in their fall they hit upon the top or bottom of the Abysse, that great force and weight with which they descended broke off all the Edges and extremities, and so made innumerable ruptures and inequalities in the shores, and as many within the Sea and at the bottom; where the broken Rocks and lumps of Earth would lie in all imaginable disorder; as you may conceive from the third Figure . For when the motion came on a sudden to be obstructed, the load of the fragment still pressing it forwards, such a concussion arise as made thousands of lesser fragments, of all shapes and magnitudes, and in all postures and forms, and most of them irregular. And by these fractions and secondary ruines the line of the shores was broken, and the level of them too; In some places they would stand high, in others low, sometimes rough and sometimes even, and generally crooked, with Angles and in-lets, and uncertain windings. The bottom also, by the same stroke, was diversified into all manner of forms, sometimes Rocky with Pits and Gulfs, and sometimes spread in plain beds, sometimes shallow and sometimes deep; for those differences would depend only upon the situation of the secondary fragments; and so it might come to pass, that some places near the shore might be excessive deep when a Rock or Rocks stood in a steep posture, as (Figure 3. ) b. b. b. and, on the contrary, sometimes places much more advanced into the Ocean, might be less deep, where a fragment of Earth lay under water, or one bore up another, as c. c. c. but these cases would not be very frequent. To conclude, there are no properties of the Sea-chanel, that I know of, nor differences or irregularities in the form of it, which this Hypothesisdoth not give a fair account of: And having thus far opened the way, and laid down the general grounds for their Explication, other things that are more minute, we leave to the curiosity of particular Genius's; being unwilling to clog the Theory at first with things that may seem unnecessary. We proceed now to the consideration of Islands.

We must in the first place distinguish between OriginalIslands and FactitiousIslands; Those I call factitious, that are not of the same date and Antiquity with the Sea, but have been made some at one time, some at another, by accidental causes, as the aggestion of Sands and Sand-beds, or the Sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high, and yet flowing about the lower skirts of them; These make sandy and plain Islands, that have no high Land in them, and are but mock-Islands in effect. Others are made by divulsion from some Continent, when an Isthmus or the neck of a Promontory running into the Sea, sinks or falls in, by an Earthquake or otherwise, and the Sea entring in at the gap passeth through, and makes that Promontory or Country become an Island. Thus the Island Sicilyis supposed to have been made, and all Africamight be an Island, if the Isthmus between the Mediterraneanand the red Sea should sink down. And these Islands may have Rocks and Mountains in them, if the Land had so before. Lastly, there are Islands that have been said to rise from the bottom of the Sea; History mentions such in both the Archipelago's, Ægæanand Indian; and this seems to argue that there are great fragments or tracts of Earth that lie loose at the bottom of the Sea, or that are not incorporated with the ground; which agrees very well with our Explication of the Sea-chanel.

But besides these Islands and the several sorts of them, there are others which I call Original; because they could not be produced in any of the forementioned ways, but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Chanel of the Sea; and such are the generality of our Islands; They were not made of heaps of Sands, nor torn from any Continent, but are as ancient as the Continents themselves, namely, ever since the Deluge, the common Parent of them both. Nor is there any difficulty to understand how Islands were made at the dissolution of the Earth, any more than how Continents were made; for Islands are but lesser Continents, or Continents greater Islands; and according as Continents were made of greater masses of Earth or greater fragments standing above the Water, so Islands were made of less, but so big always, and in such a posture, as to bear their tops above the water. Yet though they agree thus far, there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their Origin; for the Continents were made of those three or four primary masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided, but the Islands were made of the fractures of these, and broken off by the fall from the skirts and extremities of the Continents; We noted before, that when those great masses and primary fragments came to dash upon the Abysse in their fall, the sudden stop of the motion, and the weighty bulk of the descending fragment broke off all the edges and extremities of it, which edges and extremities broken off made the Islands; And accordingly we see that they generally lie scattered along the sides of the Continents, and are but splinters, as it were, of those greater bodies. ’Tis true, besides these, there were an infinite number of other pieces broke off that do not appear, some making Rocks under water, some shallows and banks in the Sea; but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another, or in such a posture as to prop up one another, their heads and higher parts would stand out of the water and make Islands.

Thus I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produced; we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous, or far more numerous than the Continents; These are the Parents, and those are the Children; Nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the Continents several Islands or sets of Islands, sown, as it were, by handfuls, or laid in trains; for the manner of their generation would lead us to think they would be so placed. So the AmericanIslands lie scattered upon the Coast of that Continent; the Maldivianand Philipineupon the East-Indianshore, and the Hesperidesupon the Africk; and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the Ocean, though, by an accident, that also might come to pass. Lastly, it suits very well with out Explication, that there should be Mountains and Rocks, sometimes in clusters, sometimes in long chains, in all Islands; (as we find there are in all that are true and Original) for ’tis that makes them high enough to appear above the water, and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high situation.

And thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the causes of the Sea-chanel and Islands, according to our Hypothesis.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER IX

The Second Part of this Discourse, proving the same Theory from the Effects and present Form of the Earth. First, by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe, and then by a more particular Induction; beginning with an Account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters.

WE have now finisht our explication of the Universal Deluge, and given an account, not only of the possibility of it, but of its Causes; and of that form and structure of the Earth, whereby the Old Worldwas subject to that sort of Fate. We have not beged any Principles or Suppositions for the proof of this, but taking that common ground, which both Mosesand all Antiquity presents to us, viz. That this Earth rose from a Chaos; We have from that deduced, by an easie train of consequences, what the first Form of it would be; and from that Form, as from a nearer ground, we have by a second train of consequences made it appear, that at some time or other that first Earth would be subject to a dissolution, and by that dissolution to a Deluge. And thus far we have proceeded only by the intuition of causes, as is most proper to a Theory; but for the satisfaction of those that require more sensible arguments, and to compleat our proofs on either hand, we will now argue from the Effects; And from the present state of Nature, and the present form of the Earth, Evidence that it hath been broken, and undergone such a dissolution as we have already described, and made the immediate occasion of the Deluge. And that we may do this more perspicuously and distinctly, we will lay down this Proposition to be Evidenced, viz. That the present form and structure of the Earth, both as to the surface and as to the Interiour parts of it, so far as they are known and accessible to us, doth exactly answer to our Theory concerning the form and dissolution of the first Earth, and cannot be explained upon any other Hypothesis.

Oratours and Philosophers treat Nature after a very different manner; Those represent her with all her graces and ornaments, and if there be any thing that is not capable of that, they dissemble it, or pass it over slightly. But Philosophers view Nature with a more impartial eye, and without favour or prejudice give a just and free account, how they find all the parts of the Universe, some more, some less perfect. And as to this Earth in particular, if I was to describe it as an Oratour, I would suppose it a beautiful and regular Globe, and not only so, but that the whole Universe was made for its sake; that it was the darling and favourite of Heaven, that the Sun shined only to give it light, to ripen its Fruit, and make fresh its Flowers; And that the great Concave of the Firmament, and all the Stars in their several Orbs, were designed only for a spangled Cabinet to keep this Jewel in. This IdeaI would give of it as an Oratour; But a Philosopher that overheard me, would either think me in jest, or very injudicious, if I took the Earth for a body so regular in it self, or so considerable, if compared with the rest of the Universe. This, he would say, is to make the great World like one of the Heathen Temples, a beautiful and magnificent structure, and of the richest materials, yet built only for a little brute Idol, a Dog, or a Crocodile, or some deformed Creature, placed in a corner of it.

We must therefore be impartial where the Truth requires it, and describe the Earth as it is really in it self; and though it be handsome and regular enough to the eye in certain parts of it, single tracts and single Regions; yet if we consider the whole surface of it, or the whole Exteriour Region, ’tis as a broken and confused heap of bodies, placed in no order to one another, nor with any correspondency or regularity of parts: And such a body as the Moon appears to us, when ’tis looked upon with a good Glass, rude and ragged; as it is also represented in the modern Maps of the Moon; such a thing would the Earth appear if it was seen from the Moon. They are both in my judgment the image or picture of a great Ruine, and have the true aspect of a World lying in its rubbish.

Our Earth is first divided into Sea and Land, without any regularity in the portions, either of the one or the other; In the Sea lie the Islands, scattered like limbs torn from the rest of the body; great Rocks stand reared up in the waters; The Promontories and Capes shoot into the Sea, and the Sinus's and Creeks on the other hand run as much into the Land; and these without any order or uniformity. Upon the other part of our Globe stand great heaps of Earth or stone, which we call Mountains; and if these were all placed together, they would take up a very considerable part of the dry Land; In the rest of it are lesser Hills, Valleys, Plains, Lakes, and Marishes, Sands and Desarts, &c. and these also without any regular disposition. Then the inside of the Earth, or inward parts of it, are generally broken or hollow, especially about the Mountains and high Lands, as also towards the shores of the Sea, and among the Rocks. How many Holes and Caverns, and strange Subterraneous passages do we see in many Countries; and how many more may we easily imagine, that are unknown and unaccessible to us?

This is the pourtraicture of our Earth, drawn without flattery; and as oddly as it looks, it will not be at all surprizing to one that hath considered the foregoing Theory; For ’tis manifest enough, that upon the dissolution of the first Earth, and its fall in to the Abysse, this very face and posture of things, which we have now described, or something extreamly like it, would immediately result. The Sea would be opened, and the face of the Globe would be divided into Land and Water: And according as the fragments fell, some would make Islands or Rocks in the Sea, others would make Mountains or Plains upon the Land; and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesses, especially in the Mountainous parts of it. And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines, when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water; or which is more obvious, when the Arch of a Bridge is broken, and falls into the water, if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts, you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents, and Islands, and Rocks under water: And in the parts that stand above the water, you may see Mountains, and Precipices, and Plains, and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth. What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things? Let us suppose this Arch as the great Arch of the Earth, which once it had, and the water under it as the Abysse, and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth; There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater, the same things appearing in both. But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice, that we think great things are not to be explained from easie and familiar instances; We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them, or else we are not satisfied; whether it is that we are ashamed to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless, or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication, and the greatness of the thing explained; but that is a very false Judgment, for let things be never so great, if they be simple, their explication must be simple and easie; And on the contrary, some things that are mean, common, and ordinary, may depend upon causes very difficult to find out; for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness, but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes. And the effects and Phænomenawe are here to explain, though great, yet depending upon causes very simple, you must not wonder if the Explication, when found out, be familiar and very intelligible.

And this is so intelligible, and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes, that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave, that had never seen the face of the Earth, nor ever heard any description of it, more than that it was a great Globe, having this Theory proposed to him, or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was, how it stood over the waters, and then how it was broke and fell into them, he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution; and what the new form of the Earth would be. As in the first place he would tell you, that this second Earth would be distinguished and checkered into Land and Water; for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon, all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drowned under water; and those that stood above, would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth. Then in the second place, he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land, could not lie all plain and smooth and equal, but some would be higher and some lower, some in one posture and some in another, and consequently would make Mountains, Hills, Valleys, and Plains, and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth. And lastly, a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it, a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish, as I may so say; for this we see happens in all ruines more or less; and where the fragments are great and hard, ’tis not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall, but that they would lie hollow in many places, and many unfilled spaces would be intercepted amongst them; some gaping in the surface of the Earth, and others hid within; so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth, or within its body. And these Cavities, that I may add that in the last place, would be often filled with Subterraneous waters, at least at such a depth; for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters, so high as those waters reached they would more or less propagate themselves every way.

Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the new World would be, or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution; and we find his reasonings and inferences very true, these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth; which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves, but if we look upon them through this Theory, we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them. There are different Genius's of men, and different conceptions, and every one is to be allowed their liberty as to things of this nature; I confess, for my own part, when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesisdoth apply it self to all the particularities of this Earth, hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of its parts, I cannot, without violence, bear off my mind from fully assenting to it: And the more odd and extravagant, as I may so say, and the more diversified the effects and appearances are, to which an Hypothesisis to be applied, if it answers them all and with exactness, it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility. As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship, many Wards, and many odd pieces and contrivances, if you find a Key that answers to them all, and opens it readily, ’tis a thousand to one that ’tis the true Key, and was made for that purpose.

An eminent Philosopher of this Age, Monsieur des Cartes, hath made use of the like Hypothesisto explain the irregular form of the present Earth; though he never dreamed of the Deluge, nor thought that first Orb built over the Abysse, to have been any more than a transient crust, and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years, as we suppose it to have been. And though he hath, in my opinion, in the formation of that first Orb, and upon the dissolution of it, committed some great oversights, whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing, and of the disruption of it, to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it.

Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth, and the easie account it gives of the causes of it. And though I believe to ingenuous persons that are not prejudiced by the forms and opinions of the Schools against every thing that looks like a novelty or invention, thus much might be sufficient; yet for the satisfaction of all, we will, as a farther proof of our Theory, or that part of it which concerns the dissolution of the Earth, descend to a particular explication of three or four of the most considerable and remarkable things that occur in the fabrick of this present Earth; namely, the great Chanel of the Ocean; Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters;and lastly, Mountains and Rocks. These are the wonders of the Earth as to the visible frame of it; and who would not be pleased to see a rational account of these? of their Origin, and of their properties; Or who would not apEvidence of that Hypothesis, when they see that Nature in her greatest and strangest works may easily be understood by it, and is in no other way intelligible.

We will speak first of Subterraneous Cavities and Waters, because they will be of easier dispatch, and an introduction to the rest.

That the inside of the Earth is hollow and broken in many places, and is not one firm and united mass, we have both the Testimony of Sence and of easie Observations to Evidence: How many Caves and Dens and hollow passages into the ground do we see in many Countries, especially amongst Mountains and Rocks; and some of them endless and bottomless so far as can be discovered. We have many of these in our own Island, in Derbishire, Somersetshire, Wales, and other Counties, and in every Continent or Island they abound more or less. These hollownesses of the Earth the Ancients made prisons, or storehouses for the winds, and set a God over them to confine them, or let them loose at his pleasure. For some Ages after the Flood, as all Antiquity tells us, These were the first houses men had, at least in some parts of the Earth; here rude mortals sheltered themselves, as well as they could, from the injuries of the Air, till they were beaten out by wild beasts that took possession of them. The Ancient Oracles also used to be given out of these Vaults and recesses under ground, the Sibylshad their Caves, and the DelphickOracle, and their Temples sometimes were built upon an hollow Rock. Places that are strange and solemn strike an awe into us, and incline us to a kind of superstitious timidity and veneration, and therefore they thought them fit for the seats and residences of their Deities. They fansied also that streams rise sometimes, or a sort of Vapour in those hollow places, that gave a kind of Divine fury or inspiration. But all these uses and employments are now in a great measure worn out, we know no use of them but to make the places talkt on where they are, to be the wonders of the Countrey, to please our curiosity to gaze upon and admire; but we know not how they came, nor to what purpose they were made at first.

It would be very pleasant to read good descriptions of these Subterraneous places, and of all the strange works of Nature there; how she furnisheth these dark neglected Grottoes; they have often a little Brook runs murmuring through them, and the roof is commonly a kind of petrefied Earth or Icy fret-work; proper enough for such rooms. But I should be pleased especially to view the Sea-caves, or those hollow Rocks that lie upon the Sea, where the waves roll in a great way under ground, and wear the hard Rock into as many odd shapes and figures as we see in the Clouds. ’Tis pleasant also to see a River in the middle of its course throw it self into the mouth of a Cave, or an opening of the Earth, and run under ground sometimes many miles; still pursuing its way through the dark pipes of the Earth, till at last it find an out-let. There are many of these Rivers taken notice of in History in the several parts of the Earth, as the Rhonein France, Guadianain Spain, and several in Greece, Alpheus, Lycus, and Eracinus; then Nigerin Africa, Tigrisin Asia, &c. And I believe if we could turn Derwent, or any other River into one of the holes of the Peak, it would groap its way till it found an issue, it may be in some other County. These subterraneous Rivers that emerge again, shew us that the holes of the Earth are longer and reach farther than we imagine, and if we could see into the ground, as we ride or walk, we should be affrighted to see so often Waters or Caverns under us.

But to return to our dry Caves; these commonly stand high, and are sometimes of a prodigious greatness: Strabo mentions some in the Mountains towards Arabia, that are capable to receive four thousand men at once. The Cave of Engedihid Davidand six hundred men, so as Saul, when he was in the mouth of it, did not perceive them. In the Mountains of the Traconitesthere are many of these vast dens and recesses, and the people of that Country defended themselves a long time in those strong Holds against Herodand his Army; They are placed among such craggy Rocks and Precipices, that, as Josephus ells us, Herodwas forc’t to make a fort of open chests, and in those by chains of Iron he let down his Souldiers from the top of the Mountains to go fight them in their dens. I need add no more instances of this kind; In the Natural History of all Countries, or the Geographical descriptions of them, you find such places taken notice of, more or less; yet if there was a good collection made of the chief of them in several parts, it might be of use, and would make us more sensible how broken and torn the body of the Earth is.

There are subterraneous Cavities of another nature, and more remarkable, which they call Volcano's, or fiery Mountains; that belch out flames and smoke and ashes, and sometimes great stones and broken Rocks, and lumps of Earth, or some metallick mixture; and throw them to an incredible distance by the force of the eruption. These argue great vacuities in the bowels of the Earth, and magazines of combustible matter treasured up in them. And as the Exhalations within these places must be copious, so they must lie in long Mines or Trains to do so great execution, and to last so long. ’Tis scarce credible what is reported concerning some eruptions of Vesuviusand Ætna. The Eruptions of Vesuviusseem to be more frequent and less violent of late; The flame and smoke break out at the top of the Mountain, where they have eaten away the ground and made a great hollow, so as it looks at the top, when you stand upon the brims of it, like an Amphitheater, or like a great Caldron, about a mile in circumference, and the burning Furnace lies under it. The outside of the Mountain is all spread with Ashes, but the inside much more; for you wade up to the mid-leg in Ashes to go down to the bottom of the Cavity, and ’tis extreamly heavy and troublesome to get up again. The inside lies sloping, and one may safely go down if it be not in a raging fit; but the middle part of it or center, which is a little raised like the bottom of a Platter, is not to be ventured upon, the ground there lies false and hollow, there it always smoaks, and there the Funnel is supposed to be; yet there is no visible hole or gaping any where when it doth not rage. Naplesstands below in fear of this fiery Mountain, which hath often covered its Streets and Palaces with its Ashes; and in sight of the Sea (which lies by the side of them both) and as it were in defiance to it, threatens at one time or another, to burn that fair City. History tells us, that some eruptions of Vesuviushave carried Cinders and Ashes as far as Constantinople; this is attested both by Greekand LatinAuthors; particularly, that they were so affrighted with these Ashes and darkness, that the Emperor left the City, and there was a day observed yearly for a memorial of this calamity or prodigy.

Ætnais of greater fame than Vesuvius, and of greater fury, all Antiquity speaks of it; not only the Greeksand Romans, but as far as History reacheth, either real or fabulous, there is something recorded of the Fires of Ætna. The Figure of the Mountain is inconstant, by reason of the great consumptions and ruines it is subject to; The Fires and Æstuations of it are excellently described by Virgil, upon occasion of Æneashis passing by those Coasts.

------Horrificis juxta tonat Ætnaruinis;
Interdumque atram prorumpit ad æthera nubem,
Turbine fumantem piceo & candente favillâ;
Attollitque globos flammarum & sydera lambit;
Interdum scopulos, avolsáque viscera Montis
Erigit eructans, liquefactáque saxa sub auras
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundóque exæstuat imo.

Fama est Enceladisemustum fulmine corpus
Urgeri mole hâc, ingentémque insuper Ætnam
Impositam, ruptis flammam expirare caminis.
Et fessum quoties mutet latus, intremere omnem
Murmure Trinacriam& cœlum subtexere fumo.

------Ætna, whose ruines make a thunder;
Sometimes black clouds of smoak, that rowl about
Mingled with flakes of fire, it belches out.
And sometimes Balls of flame it darts on high,
Or its torn bowels flings into the Sky.
Within deep Cells under the Earth, a store
Of fire-materials, molten Stones, and Ore,
It gathers, then spews out, and gathers more.

Enceladuswhen thunder-struck by Jove,
Was buried here, and Ætnathrown above;
And when, to change his wearied side, he turns,
The Island trembles and the Mountain burns.

Not far from Ætnalies Strombolo, and other adjacent Islands, where there are also such magazines of Fire; and throughout all Regions and Countries in the West-Indies and in the East, in the Northern and Southern parts of the Earth, there are some of these Volcano's, which are sensible evidences that the Earth is incompact and full of Caverns; besides the roarings, and bellowings that use to be heard before an eruption of these Volcano's, argue some dreadful hollowness in the belly or under the roots of the Mountain, where the Exhalations struggle before they can break their prison.

The subterraneous Cavities that we have spoke of hitherto, are such as are visible in the surface of the Earth, and break the skin by some gaping Orifice; but the Miners and those that work under ground, meet with many more in the bowels of the Earth, that never reach to the top of it: Burrows, and Chanels, and Clefts, and Caverns, that never had the comfort of one beam of light since the great fall of the Earth. And where we think the ground is firm and solid, as upon Heaths and Downs, it often betrays its hollowness, by sounding under the Horses feet and the Chariot-wheels that pass over it. We do not know when and where we stand upon good ground, if it was examined deep enough; and to make us further sensible of this, we will instance in two things that argue the unsoundness and hollowness of the Earth in the inward recesses of it, though the surface be intire and unbroken; These are Earthquakesand the communication of Subterraneous waters and Seas: Of which two we will speak a little more particularly.

Earthquakes are too evident demonstrations of the hollowness of the Earth, being the dreadful effects or consequences of it; for if the body of the Earth was sound and compact, there would be no such thing in Nature as an Earthquake. They are commonly accompanied with an heavy dead sound, like a dull thunder, which ariseth from the Vapours that are striving in the womb of Nature when her throes are coming upon her. And that these Caverns where the Vapours lie are very large and capacious, we are taught sometimes by sad experience; for whole Cities and Countries have been swallowed up into them, as Sodomand Gomorrha, and the Region of Pentapolis, and several Cities in Greece, and in Asia, and other parts. Whole Islands also have been thus absorpt in an Earthquake; the pillars and props they stood upon being broken, they have sunk and faln in as an house blown up. I am also of opinion that those Islands that are made by divulsion from a Continent, as Sicilywas broken off from Italy, and Great Britain, as some think, from France, have been made the same way; that is, the Isthmus or necks of Land that joyned these Islands with their Continents before, have been hollow, and being either worn by the water, or shaked by an Earthquake, have sunk down, and so made way for the Sea to overflow them, and of a Promontory to make an Island. For it is not at all likely that the neck of Land continued standing, and the Sea overflowed it, and so made an Island; for then all those passages between such Islands, and their respective Continents would be extreamly shallow and unnavigable, which we do not find them to be. Nor is it any more wonder if such a neck of Land should fall, than that a Mountain should sink, or any other tract of Land, and a Lake rise in its place, which hath often happened. Platosupposeth his Atlantisto have been greater than Asiaand Africatogether, and yet to have sunk all into the Sea; whether that be true or no, I do not think it impossible that some arms of the Sea or Sinus's might have had such an original as that; and I am very apt to think, that for some years after the Deluge, till the fragments were well setled and adjusted, great alterations would happen as to the face of the Sea and the Land; many of the fragments would change their posture, and many would sink into the water that stood out before, the props failing that bore them up, or the joynts and corners whereby they leaned upon one another; and thereupon a new face of things would arise, and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth. Such removes and interchanges, I believe, would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood; as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first, till the parts be so well poised and setled, that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more.

But to return to our Earthquakes, and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence: Plinymentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Cæsarthat struck down twelve Cities of Asiain one night, And Fourniergives us an account of one in Peru, that reacht three hundred leagues along the Sea-shore, and seventy leagues in-land; and leveled the Mountains all along as it went, threw down the Cities, turned the Rivers out of their Chanels, and made an universal havock and confusion; And all this, he saith, was done within the space of seven or eight minutes.

There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent, that gave passage to the Vapours, and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length, and above two hundred in breadth. Asiaalso hath been very subject to these desolations by Earthquakes; and many parts in Europe, as Greece, Italy, and others. The truth is, our Cities are built upon ruines, and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults, and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the Earth, and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken; there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines, or Cavernous passages, that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation; and, upon such occasions, requiring more room, they shake or break the ground that covers them. And thus much concerning Earthquakes.

A second observation that argues the hollowness of the Earth, is the communication of the Seas and Lakes under ground. The Caspianand MediterraneanSeas, and several Lakes, receive into them great Rivers, and yet have no visible out-let: These must have subterraneous out-lets, by which they empty themselves, otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their Vessel. The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind, because ’tis observed that at one end the great Ocean flows into it through the straits of Gibralter, with a sensible current, and towards the other end about Constantinoplethe Pontusflows down into it with a stream so strong, that Vessels have much ado to stem it; and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let, nor overflows its banks. And besides that it is thus fed at either end, it is fed by the navel too, as I may so say; it sucks in, by their Chanels, several Rivers into its belly, whereof the Nileis one very great and considerable. These things have made it a great Problem, What becomes of the water of the Mediterranean Sea?And for my part, I think, the solution is very easie, namely, that it is discharged by Subterraneous passages, or conveyed by Chanels under the ground into the Ocean. And this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean, but is common to it with the CaspianSea, and other Seas and Lakes, that receive great Rivers into them, and have no visible issue.

I know there have been proposed several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the efflux or consumption of the waters of the Mediterranean; some have supposed a double current in the strait of Gibralter, one that carried the water in, and another that brought it out; like the Arteries and Veins in our Body, the one exporting our bloud from the heart, and the other re-importing it: So they supposed one current upon the surface, which carried the water into the Mediterranean, and under it at a certain depth a counter-current, which brought the water back into the Ocean. But this hath neither proof nor foundation; for unless it was included in pipes, as our bloud is, or consisted of liquors very different, these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another. Others are of opinion, that all the water that flows into the Mediterranean, or a quantity equal to it, is consumed in Exhalations every day; This seems to be a bolder supposition than the other, for if so much be consumed in Vapours and Exhalations every day as flows into this Sea, what if this Sea had an out-let, and discharged by that, every day, as much as it received; in a few days the Vapours would have consumed all the rest; and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let, and are not consumed, or sensibly diminisht by the Vapours. Besides, this reason is a Summer-reason, and would pass very ill in Winter, when the heat of the Sun is much less powerful: At least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in Summer and Winter, if so much was consumed every day as this Explication supposeth. And the truth is, this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the MediterraneanSea, as we noted before, but is also in other Seas and great Lakes, some lying in one Climat and some in another, where there is no reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations; And though ’tis true some Rivers in Africk, and in other parts of the Earth, are thus exhaled and dried up, without ever flowing into the Sea (as were all the Rivers in the first Earth) yet this is where the sands and parched ground suck up a great part of them; the heat of the Climat being excessively strong, and the Chanel of the River growing shallower by degrees, and, it may be, divided into lesser branches and rivulets; which are causes that take no place here. And therefore we must return to our first reason, which is universal, for all seasons of the Year and all Climats; and seeing we are assured that there are Subterraneous Chanels and passages, for Rivers often fall into the ground, and sometimes rise again, and sometimes never return; why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause? Nay, I believe the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by Subterraneous out-lets; for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth, it must have out-lets proportionable; and those Syrtesor great Whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or Sinus's of the Sea, as upon the Coast of Norwayand of Italy, arise probably from Subterraneous out-lets in those places, whereby the water sinks, and turns, and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass; and if there was no issue at the bottom, though it might by contrary currents turn things round, within its Sphere, yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom. Neither does it seem improbable, that the currents of the Sea are from these in-draughts, and that there is always a submarine inlet in some part of them, to make a circulation of the Waters. But thus much for the Subterraneous communication of Seas and Lakes.

And thus much in general concerning subterraneous Cavities, and concerning the hollow and broken frame of the Earth. If I had now magick enough to show you at one view all the inside of the Earth, which we have imperfectly described; if we could go under the roots of the Mountains, and into the sides of the broken rocks; or could dive into the Earth with one of those Rivers that sink under ground, and follow its course and all its windings till it rise again, or led us to the Sea, we should have a much stronger and more effectual Ideaof the broken form of the Earth, than any we can excite by these faint descriptions collected - from Reason. The Ancients I remember used to represent these hollow Caves and Subterraneous Regions in the nature of a Worldunder-ground, and supposed it inhabited by the Nymphs, especially the Nymphsof the waters and the Sea-Goddesses; so Orpheussung of old; and in imitation of him Virgilhath made a description of those Regions; feigning the Nymph Cyreneto send for her son to come down to her, and made her a visit in those shades where mortals were not admitted.

Duc age, duc ad nos, fas illi limina Divûm
Tangere, ait: Simul alta jubet discedere latè
Flumina, quà juvenis gressus inferret, at ilium
Curvata in montis faciem circumstitit unda,
Accepítque sinu vasto, misítque sub amnem.
Jámque domum mirans Genetricis & humida regna,
Speluncísque lacos clausos, lucósque sonantes,
Ibat, & ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum
Omnia sub magnâ labentia flumina terrâ
Spectabat diversa locis; Phasímque Licúmque, &c.
Et Thalami matris pendentia pumice tecta, &c.

Come lead the Youth below, bring him to me,
The Gods are pleas'd our Mansions he should see;
Streight she commands the floods to make him way,
They open their wide bosom and obey;
Soft is the path, and easie is his tread,
A watry Arch bends o’er his dewy head;
And as he goes he wonders, and looks round,
To see this new-found Kingdom under ground.
The silent Lakes in hollow Caves he sees,
And on their banks an echoing grove of Trees;
The fall of waters ’mongst the Rocks below
He hears, and sees the Rivers how they flow:
All the great Rivers of the Earth are there,
Prepar'd, as in a womb, by Nature's care.
Last, to his mother's bed-chamber he's brought,
Where the high roof with Pumice-stone is wrought, &c.

If we now could open the Earth as this Nymphdid the Water, and go down into the bosom of it, see all the dark Chambers and Apartments there, how ill contrived, and how ill kept, so many holes and corners, some filled with smoak and fire, some with water, and some with vapours and mouldy Air; how like a ruine it lies gaping and torn in the parts of it; we should not easily believe that God created it into this form immediately out of nothing; It would have cost no more to have made things in better order; nay, it had been more easie and more simple; and accordingly we are assured that all things were made at first in Beauty and proportion. And if we consider Nature and the manner of the first formation of the Earth, ’tis evident that there could be no such holes and Caverns, nor broken pieces, made then in the body of it; for the grosser parts of the Chaos falling down towards the Center, they would there compose a mass of Earth uniform and compact, the water swimming above it; and this first mass under the water could have no Caverns or vacuities in it; for if it had had any, the Earthy parts, while the mass was liquid or semiliquid, would have sunk into them and filled them up, expelling the Air or Water that was there; And when afterwards there came to be a crust or new Earth formed upon the face of the Waters, there could be no Cavities, no dens, no fragments in it, no more than in the other; And for the same general reason, that is, passing from a liquid form into a concrete or solid leisurely and by degrees, it would flow and settle together in an entire mass; There being nothing broken, nor any thing hard, to bear the parts off from one another, or to intercept any empty spaces between them.

’Tis manifest then that the Earth could not be in this Cavernous form originally, by any work of nature; nor by any immediate action of God, seeing there is neither use nor beauty in this kind of construction: Do we not then, as reasonably, as aptly, ascribe it to that desolation that was brought upon the Earth in the general Deluge? When its outward frame was dissolved and fell into the great Abysse: How easily doth this answer all that we have observed concerning the Subterraneous Regions? That hollow and broken posture of things under ground, all those Caves and holes, and blind recesses, that are otherwise so inaccountable, say but that they are a Ruine, and you have in one word explained them all. For there is no sort of Cavities, interior or exterior, great or little, open or shut, wet or dry, of what form or fashion soever, but we might reasonably expect them in a ruine of that nature. And as for the Subterraneous waters, seeing the Earth fell into the Abysse, the pillars and foundations of the present (exteriour) Earth must stand immersed in water, and therefore at such a depth from the surface every where, there must be water found, if the soil be of a nature to admit it. ’Tis true, all Subterraneous waters do not proceed from this original, for many of them are the effects of Rains and melted Snows sunk into the Earth; but that in digging any where you constantly come to water at length, even in the most solid ground this cannot proceed from these Rains or Snows, but must come from below, and from a cause as general as the effect is; which can be no other in my judgment than this, that the roots of the exteriour Earth stand within the old Abysse, whereof, as a great part lies open in the Sea, so the rest lies hid and covered among the fragments of the Earth; sometimes dispersed and only moistning the parts, as our bloud lies in the flesh, and in the habit of the body; sometimes in greater or lesser masses, as the bloud in our Vessels. And this I take to be the true account of Subterraneous waters as distinguished from Fountains and Rivers, and from the matter and causes of them.

Thus much we have spoke to give a general Ideaof the inward parts of the Earth, and an easie Explication of them by our Hypothesis; which whether it be true or no, if you compare it impartially with Nature, you will confess at least, that all these things are just in such a form and posture as if it was true.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VIII

The particular History ofNoah's Flood is explained in all the material parts and circumstances of it, according to the preceding Theory. Any seeming difficulties removed, and the whole Section concluded, with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary Providence, and how far of an extraordinary.

WE have now Evidenced our Explication of the Deluge to be more than an Idea, or to be a true piece of Natural History; and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the World. We have shown it to be the real account of Noah's Flood, according to Authority both Divine and Humane; and I would willingly proceed one step further, and declare my thoughts concerning the manner and order wherein Noah's Flood came to pass; in what method all those things happened and succeeded one another, that make up the History of it, as causes or effects, or other parts or circumstances: As how the Ark was born upon the waters, what effect the Rains had, at what time the Earth broke, and the Abysse was opened; and what the condition of the Earth was upon the ending of the Flood, and such like. But I desire to propose my thoughts concerning these things only as conjectures, which I will ground as near as I can upon Scripture and Reason, and am very willing they should be rectified where they happen to be amiss. I know how subject we are to mistakes in these great and remote things, when we descend to particulars; but I am willing to expose the Theory to a full trial, and to shew the way for any to examine it, provided they do it with equity and sincerity. I have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance, and wherein the World hath hitherto had so little satisfaction: And he that in an obscure argument proposeth an Hypothesisthat reacheth from end to end, though it be not exact in every particular, tis not without a good effect; for it gives aim to others to take their measures better, and opens their invention in a matter which otherwise, it may be, would have been impenetrable to them: As he that makes the first way through a thick Forest, though it be not the streightest and shortest, deserves better, and hath done more, than he that makes it streighter and smoother afterwards.

Providence that ruleth all things and all Ages, after the Earth had stood above sixteen hundred Years, thought fit to put a period to that World, and accordingly, it was revealed to Noah, that for the wickedness and degeneracy of men, God would destroy mankind with the Earth(Gen. 6. 13) in a Deluge of water; where-upon he was commanded, in order to the preserving of Himself and Family, as a stock for the new World, to build a great Vessel or Ark, to float upon the waters, and had instructions given him for the building of it both as to the matter and as to the form. Noah believed the word of God, though against his senses, and all external appearances, and set himself to work to build an Ark, according to the directions given, which after many years labour was finished; whilst the incredulous World, secure enough, as they thought, against a Deluge, continued still in their excesses and insolencies, and laught at the admonition of Noah, and at the folly of his design of building an extravagant machine, a floating house, to save himself from an imaginary Inundation; for they thought it no less, seeing it was to be in an Earth where there was no Sea, nor any Rain neither in those parts, according to the ordinary course of Nature; as shall be shown in the second Book of this Treatise.

But when the appointed time was come, the Heavens began to melt, and the Rains to fall, and these were the first surprizing causes and preparatives to the Deluge; They fell, we suppose, throughout the face of the whole Earth; which could not but have a considerable effect on that Earth, being even and smooth, without Hills and eminencies, and might lay it all under water to some depth; so as the Ark, if it could not float upon those Rain-waters, at least taking the advantage of a River, or of a Dock or Cistern made to receive them, it might be a-float before the Abysse was broken open. For I do not suppose the Abysse broken open before any rain fell; And when the opening of the Abysse and of the Flood-gates of Heaven are mentioned together, I am apt to think those Flood-gates were distinct from the common rain, and were something more violent and impetuous. So that there might be preparatory Rains before the disruption of the Abysse: and I do not know but those Rains, so covering up and enclosing the Earth on every side, might providentially contribute to the disruption of it; not only by softning and weakning the Arch of the Earth in the bottom of those cracks and Chasms which were made by the Sun, and which the Rain would first run into, but especially by stopping on a sudden all the pores of the Earth, and all evaporation, which would make the Vapours within struggle more violently, as we get a Fever by a Cold; and it may be in that struggle, the Doors and the Bars were broke, and the great Abysse gusht out, as out of a womb.

However, when the Rains were faln, we may suppose the face of the Earth covered over with water; and whether it was these waters that St. Peterrefers to, or that of the Abysse afterwards, I cannot tell, when he saith in his first Epistle, Chap. 3. 20. Noahand his Family were saved by water; so as the water which destroyed the rest of the World, was an instrument of their conservation, in as much as it bore up the Ark, and kept it from that impetuous shock, which it would have had, if either it had stood upon dry land when the Earth fell, or if the Earth had been dissolved without any water on it or under it. However, things being thus prepared, let us suppose the great frame of the exteriour Earth to have broke at this time, or the Fountains of the great Abysse, as Mosessaith, to have been then opened, from thence would issue, upon the fall of the Earth, with an unspeakable violence, such a Flood of waters as would over-run and overwhelm for a time all those fragments which the Earth broke into, and bury in one common Grave all Mankind, and all the Inhabitants of the Earth. Besides, if the Flood-gatesof Heaven were any thing distinct from the Forty days Rain, their effusion, tis likely, was at this same time when the Abysse was broken open; for the sinking of the Earth would make an extraordinary convulsion of the Regions of the Air, and that crack and noise that must be in the falling World, and in the collision of the Earth and the Abysse, would make a great and universal Concussion above, which things together, must needs so shake, or so squeeze the Atmosphere, as to bring down all the remaining Vapours; But the force of these motions not being equal throughout the whole Air, but drawing or pressing more in some places than in other, where the Center of the convulsion was, there would be the chiefest collection, and there would fall, not showers of Rain, or single drops, but great spouts or caskades of water; and this is that which Moses seems to call, not improperly, the Cataractsof Heaven, or the Windows of Heaven being set open.

Thus the Flood came to its height; and tis not easie to represent to our selves this strange Scene of things, when the Deluge was in its fury and extremity; when the Earth was broken and swallowed up in the Abysse, whose raging waters rise higher than the Mountains, and filled the Air with broken waves, with an universal mist, and with thick darkness, so as Nature seemed to be in a second Chaos; and upon this Chaos rid the distrest Ark, that bore the small remains of Mankind. No Sea was ever so tumultuous as this, nor is there any thing in present Nature to be compared with the disorder of these waters; All the Poetry, and all the Hyperboles that are used in the description of Storms and raging Seas, were literally true in this, if not beneath it. The Ark was really carried to the tops of the highest Mountains, and into the places of the Clouds, and thrown down again into the deepest Gulfs; and to this very state of the Deluge and of the Ark, which was a Type of the Church in this World, Davidseems to have alluded in the name of the Church, Psal. 42. 7. Abysse calls upon Abysse at the noise of thy Cataracts or water-spouts; all thy waves and billows have gone over me. It was no doubt an extraordinary and miraculous Providence, that could make a Vessel, so ill maned, live upon such a Sea; that kept it from being dasht against the Hills, or overwhelmed in the Deeps. That Abysse which had devoured and swallow'd up whole Forests of Woods, Cities, and Provinces, nay the whole Earth, when it had conquered all, and triumphed over all, could not destroy this single Ship. I remember in the story of the Argonauticks, when Jasonset out to fetch the Golden Fleece, the Poet saith, all the Gods that day looked down from Heaven, to view the Ship; and the Nymphsstood upon the Mountain-tops to see the noble Youth of Thessalypulling at the Oars; We may with more reason suppose the good Angels to have lookt down upon this Ship of Noah's; and that not out of curiosity, as idle spectators, but with a passionate concern for its safety and deliverance. A Ship whose Cargowas no less than a whole World; that carried the fortune and hopes of all posterity, and if this had perisht, the Earth, for any thing we know, had been nothing but a Desert, a great ruine, a dead heap of Rubbish, from the Deluge to the Conflagration. But Death and Hell, the Grave, and Destruction have their bounds. We may entertain our selves with the consideration of the face of the Deluge, and of the broken and drowned Earth, in this Scheme, with the floating Ark, and the guardian Angels.

Thus much for the beginning and progress of the Deluge. It now remains only that we consider it in its decrease, and the state of the Earth after the waters were retied into their Chanels, which makes the present state of it. Mosessaith, God brought a wind upon the waters, and the tops of the Hills became bare, and then the lower grounds and Plains by degrees; the waters being sunk into the Chanels of the Sea, and the hollowness of the Earth, and the whole Globe appearing in the form it is now under.

Click to enlargeThere needs nothing be added for explication of this, tis the genuine consequence of the Theory we have given of the Deluge; and whether this wind was a descending wind to depress and keep down the swellings and inequalities of the Abysse, or whether it was only to dry the Land as fast as it appeared, or might have both effects, I do not know; But as nothing can be perpetual that is violent, so this commotion of the Abysse abated after a certain time, and the great force that impelled the waters, decreasing, their natural gravity began to take effect, and to reduce them into the lowest places, at an equal height, and in an even surface, and level one part with another: That is, in short, the Abysse became our Sea, fixt within its Chanel, and bounded by Rocks and Mountains: Then was the decreed place establisht for it, and Bars and Doors were set; then it was said, hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stopt. And the Deluge being thus ended, and the waters setled in their Chanels, the Earth took such a broken Figure as is represented in those larger Schemes, p. 118 . And this will be the form and state of it till its great change comes in the Conflagration, when we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth.

But to pursue this prospect of things a little further; we may easily imagine, that for many years after the Deluge ceast, the face of the Earth was very different from what it is now, and the Sea had other bounds than it hath at present. I do not doubt but the Sea reached much further in-land, and climbed higher upon the sides of the Mountains; And I have observed in many places, a ridge of Mountains some distance from the Sea, and a Plain from their roots to the shore; which Plain no doubt was formerly covered by the Sea, bounded against those Hills as its first and natural Ramparts, or as the ledges or lips of its Vessel. And it seems probable, that the Sea doth still grow narrower from Age to Age, and sinks more within its Chanel and the bowels of the Earth, according as it can make its way into all those Subterraneous Cavities, and crowd the Air out of them. We see whole Countries of Land gained from it, and by several indications, as ancient Sea-ports left dry and useless, old Sea-marks far within the Land, pieces of Ships, Anchors, &c. left at a great distance from the present shores; from these signs, and such like, we may conclude that the Sea reached many places formerly that now are dry Land, and at first I believe was generally bound on either side with a chain of Mountains. So I should easily imagine the Mediterranean Sea, for instance, to have been bounded by the continuation of the Alps through Dauphinnd Languedockto the Pyreneans, and at the other end by the DarmatickMountains almost to the Black Sea. Then Atlas majorwhich runs along with the Mediterranean from ypt to the Atlantick Ocean, and now parts Barbary and Numidia, may possibly have been the Ancient Barriere on the Africkside. And in our own Island I could easily figure to my self, in many parts of it, other Sea-bounds than what it hath at present; and the like may be observed in other Countries.

And as the Sea had much larger bounds for some time after the Deluge, so the Land had a different face in many respects to what it hath now; for we suppose the Valleys and lower grounds, where the descent and derivation of the water was not so easie, to have been full of Lakes and Pools for a long time; and these were often converted into Fens and Bogs, where the ground being spongy, suckt up the water, and the loosened Earth swelled into a soft and pappy substance; which would still continue so, if there was any course of water sensible or in-sensible, above or within the ground, that fed this moist place: But if the water stood in a more firm Basin, or on a soil which for its heaviness or any other reason would not mix with it, it made a Lake or clear Pool. And we may easily imagine there were innumerable such Lakes, and Bogs and fastnesses for many years after the Deluge, till the world begun to be pretty well stockt with people, and humane industry cleansed and drained those unfruitful and unhabitable places. And those Countries that have been later cultivated, or by a lazier people, retain still, in proportion to their situation and soil, a greater number of them.

Neither is it at all incongruous or inconvenient to suppose, that the face of the Earth stood in this manner for many years after the Deluge; for while Mankind was small and few, they needed but a little ground for their seats or sustenance; and as they grew more numerous, the Earth proportionably grew more dry, and more parts of it fit for habitation. I easily believe that Plato's observation or tradition is true, that Men at first, after the Flood, lived in the Up-lands and sides of the Mountains, and by degrees sunk into the Plains and lower Countries, when Nature had prepared them for their use, and their numbers required more room. The History of Mosestells us, that sometime after the Deluge, Noahand his posterity, his Sons and his Grand-children, changed their quarters, and fell down into the Plains of Shiner, from the sides of the Hills where the Ark had rested; and in this Plain was the last general rendezvous of Mankind; so long they seem to have kept in a body, and from thence they were divided and broken into companies, and disperst, first, into the neighbouring Countries, and then by degrees throughout the whole Earth; the several successive Generations, like the waves of the Sea when it flows, over-reaching one another, and striking out further and further, upon the face of the Land. Not that the whole Earth was peopled by an uniform propagation of Mankind every way, from one place, as a common center: like the swelling of a Lake upon a Plain, for sometimes they shot out in length, like Rivers: and sometimes they flew into remote Countries in Colonies, like swarms from the Hive, and setled there, leaving many places un-inhabited betwixt them and their first home. Sea-shores and Islands were generally the last places inhabited: for while the memory or story of the Deluge was fresh amongst them, they did not care for coming so near their late Enemy: or, at least, to be enclosed and surrounded by his forces.

And this may be sufficient to have discourst concerning all the parts of the Deluge, and the restitution of the Earth to an habitable form, for the further union of our Theory with the History of Moses; There rests only one thing in that History to be taken notice of, which may be thought possibly not to agree so well with our account of the Deluge; namely, that Mosesseems to shut up the Abysse again at the end of the Deluge, which our Explication sypposeth to continue open. But besides that half the Abysse is still really covered, Mosessaith the same thing of the windows of Heaven, that they were shut up too; and he seemeth in both to express only the cessation of the Effect which proceeded from their opening: For as Moseshad ascribed the Deluge to the opening of these two, so when it was to cease, he saith, these two were shut up; as they were really put" into such a condition, both of them, that they could not continue the Deluge any longer, nor ever be the occasion of a second; and therefore in that sence, and as to that effect were for ever shut up. Some may possibly make that also an Objection against us, that Mosesmentions and supposes the Mountainsat the Deluge, for he saith, the waters reached fifteen Cubits above the tops of them; whereas we suppose the Ante-diluvian Earth to have had a plain and uniform surface, without any inequality of Hills and Valleys. But this is easily answered, twas in the height of the Deluge that Mosesmentioned the Mountains, and we suppose them to have risen then or more towards the beginning of it, when the Earth was broke; and these Mountains continuing still upon the face of the Earth, Moses might very well take them for a standard to measure and express to Posterity the height of the waters, though they were not upon the Earth when the Deluge begun. Neither is there any mention made, as is observed by some, of Mountains in Scripture, or of Rain, till the time of the Deluge.

We have now finisht our account of Noah's Flood, both generally and particularly; and I have not wittingly omitted or concealed any difficulty that occured to me, either from the History, or from abstract reason: Our Theory, so far as I know, hath the consent and authority of both: And how far it agrees and is demonstrable from natural observation, or from the form and Phomenaof this Earth, as it lies at present, shall be the subject of the remaining part of this First Book. In the mean time I do not know any thing more to be added in this part, unless it be to conclude with an Advertisement to prevent any mistake or misconstruction, as if this Theory, by explaining the Deluge in a natural way, or by natural causes, did detract from the power of God, by which that great judgment was brought upon the World in a Providential and miraculous manner.

To satisfie all reasonable and intelligent persons in this particular, I answer and declare, first, That we are far from excluding Divine Providence, either ordinary or extraordinary, from the causes and conduct of the Deluge. I know a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without the will of our Heavenly Father, much less doth the great World fall in pieces without his good pleasure and superintendency. In him all things live, move, and have their being; Things that have Life and Thought have it from him, he is the Fountain of both: Things that have motion only, without Thought, have it also from him: And what hath only naked Being, without Thought or Motion, owe still that Being to him. And these are not only derived from God at first, but every moment continued and conserved by him. So intimate and universal is the dependance of all things upon the Divine Will and Power.

In the second place, they are guilty, in my Judgment, of a great Error or indiscretion, that oppose the course of Nature to Providence. St. Paulsays (Act. 14. 17.) God hath not left us without witness, in that he gives us Rain from Heaven; yet Rains proceed from natural causes, and fall upon the Sea as well as upon the Land. In like manner, our Saviour makes those things instances of Divine Providence, which yet come to pass in an ordinary course of Nature; In that part of his excellent Sermon upon the Mount, that concerns Providence, He bids them Consider the Lilies how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yetSolomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these; He bids them also consider the Ravens, they neither sow nor reap, neither have they Storehouse nor Barn, and God feedeth them. The Lilies grow, and the Ravens are fed according to the ordinary course of Nature, and yet they are justly made arguments of Providence by our Saviour; nor are these things less Providential, because constant and regular; on the contrary, such a disposition or establishment of second causes, as will in the best order, and for a long succession, produce the most regular effects, assisted only with the ordinary concourse of the first cause, is a greater argument of wisdom and contrivance, than such a disposition of causes as will not in so good an order, or for so long a time produce regular effects, without an extraordinary concourse and interposition of the First cause. This, I think, is clear to every man's judgment. We think him a better Artist that makes a Clock that strikes regularly at every hour from the Springs and Wheels which he puts in the work, than he that hath so made his Clock that he must put his finger to it every hour to make it strike: And if one should contrive a piece of Clock-work so that it should beat all the hours, and make all its motions regularly for such a time, and that time being come, upon a signal given, or a Spring toucht, it should of its own accord fall all to pieces; would not this be looked upon as a piece of greater Art, than if the Workman came at that time prefixt, and with a great Hammer beat it into pieces? I use these comparisons to convince us, that it is no detraction from Divine Providence, that the course of Nature is exact and regular, and that even in its greatest changes and revolutions it should still con-spire and be prepared to answer the ends and purposes of the Divine Will in reference to the MoralWorld. This seems to me to be the great Art of Divine Providence, so to adjust the two Worlds, Humane and Natural, Material and Intellectual, as seeing thorough the possibilities and futuritions of each, according to the first state and circumstances he puts them under, they should all along correspond and fit one another, and especially in their great Crises and Periods.

Thirdly, Besides the ordinary Providence of God in the ordinary course of Nature, there is doubtless an extraordinary Providence that doth attend the greater Scenes and the greater revolutions of Nature. This, methinks, besides all other proof from the Effects, is very rational and necessary in it self; for it would be a limitation of the Divine Power and Will so to be bound up to second causes, as never to use, upon occasion, an extraordinary influence or direction: And tis manifest, taking any Systeme of Natural causes, if the best possible, that there may be more and greater things done, if to this, upon certain occasions you joyn an extraordinary conduct. And as we have taken notice before, that there was an extraordinary Providence in the formation or composition of the first Earth, so I believe there was also in the dissolution of it; And I think it had been impossible for the Ark to have lived upon the raging Abysse, or for Noahand his Family to have been preserved, if there had not been a miraculous hand of Providence to take care of them. But tis hard to separate and distinguish an ordinary and extraordinary Providence in all cases, and to mark just how far one goes, and where the other begins. And writing a Theory of the Deluge here, as we do, we were to exhibit a Series of causes whereby it might be made intelligible, or to shew the proximate Natural causes of it; wherein we follow the example both of Mosesand St. Peter; and with the same veneration of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the government of Nature, by a constant ordinary Providence, and an occasional extraordinary.

So much for the Theory of the Deluge, and the second Section of this Discourse.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER VII

That the Explication we have given of an Universal Deluge is not anIdea only, but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth, and the true Explication ofNoah's Flood; as is Evidenced by Argument and from History. An Examination ofTehom-Rabba, or the great Abysse, and that by it the Sea cannot be understood, nor the Subterraneous Waters, as they are at present. What the true Notion and Form of it was, collected fromMoses and other Sacred Writers; The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse, and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin, and the Formation of the Earth. Observations onDeucalion's Deluge.

WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature, and of the Universal Deluge, in a way that is intelligible, and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect; We have supposed nothing but what is also Evidenced, both as to the first form of the Earth, and as to the manner of its Dissolution: and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge; which was that, which put a period to the old World, and the first state of things. And though all this hath been deduced in due order, and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another, so far as I know, which is the true evidence of a Theory; yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons, who will allow, it may be, and acknowledge, that this is a fair Ideaof a possible Deluge in general, and of the destruction of a World by it; but this may be only an Idea, they'll say; we desire it may be Evidenced from some collateral arguments, taken either from Sacred History, or from observation, that this hath really been exemplified upon the Earth, and that Noah's Flood came to pass this way. And seeing we have designed this first Book chiefly for the Explication of Noah's Deluge, I am willing to add here a Chapter or two extraordinary upon this occasion; to shew, that what we have delivered is more than an Idea, and that it was in this very way that Noah's Deluge came to pass. But they who have not this doubt, and have a mind to see the issue of the Theory, may skip these two Chapters, if they please, and proceed to the following.

To satisfie then the doubtful in this particular, let us lay down in the first place that conclusion which they seem to admit, viz. That this is a possible and consistent Explication of an Universal Deluge; and let's see how far this would go, if well considered, towards the proof of what they desire, or towards the demonstration of Noah's Deluge in particular. It is granted on both hands, that there hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth, which was Noah's Deluge; and it is also granted, that we have given a possible and consistent Ideaof an Universal Deluge; Now we have Evidenced Chap. II. and III. that all other ways assigned for the Explication of Noah's Flood are false or impossible; therefore it came to pass in that possible way which we have proposed. And if we have truly Evidenced, in the forementioned Chapters, the impossibility of it in all other ways, this argumentation is undeniable. Besides, we may argue thus, As it is granted that there hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth; so I suppose it will be granted that there hath been but one: Now the dissolution of the Earth, whensoever it happened, would make one universal Deluge, and therefore the only one, and the same with Noah's. That such a Dissolution as we have describ'd, would make an universal Deluge, I think, cannot be questioned; and that there hath been such a dissolution, besides what we have already alledged, shall be Evidenced at large from natural Observations upon the Form and Figure of the present Earth, in the ThirdSection and last Chap. of this Book; In the mean time we will proceed to History, both Sacred and Profane, and by comparing our Explication with those, give further assurance of its truth and reality.

In the first place, it agrees, which is most considerable, with Moses's Narration of the Deluge; both as to the matter and manner of it. The matter of the Deluge Moses makes to be the Waters from above, and the Waters from below; or he distinguishes the causes of the Deluge, as we do, into Superiour and Inferiour; and the Inferiour causes he makes to be the disruption of the Abysse, which is the principal part, and the great hinge of our Explication. Then as to the manner of the Deluge, the beginning and the ending, the increase and decrease, he saith it increased gradually, and decreast gradually, by goingand coming;.that is after many repeated fluctuations and reciprocations of the waves, the waters of the Abysse began to be more composed, and to retire into their Chanels, whence they shall never return to cover the Earth again. This agrees wholly with our Theory; we suppose the Abysse to have been under an extream commotion and agitation by the fall of the Earth into it, and this at first encreast more and more, till the whole Earth was fain; Then continuing for some time at the height of its rage, overwhelming the greatest Mountains, it afterwards decreast by the like degrees, leaving first the tops of the Mountains, then the Hills and the Fields, till the Waters came to be wholly drawn off the Earth into their Chanels.

It was no doubt a great oversight in the Ancients, to fancy the Deluge like a great standing Pool of water, reaching from the bottom of the Valleys to the tops of the Mountains, every where alike, with a level and uniform surface; by reason of which mistaken notion of the Deluge, they made more water necessary to it than was possible to be had, or being had, than it was possible to get quit of again; for there are no Chanels in the Earth that could hold so much water, either to give it, or to receive it. And the Psalmistspeaking of the Deluge, as it seems to me, notes this violent commotion of the Abysse. The Waters went up by the Mountains, came down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. I know some interpret that passage of the state of the waters in the beginning, when they covered the face of the whole Earth, Gen. 1. 2. but that cannot be, because of what follows in the next Verse; Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the Earth. Which is not true, if the preceding words be understood of the state of the waters at the beginning of the World; for they did pass those bounds, and did return since that time to cover the Earth, namely at the Deluge: But if these words be refered to the time of the Deluge, and the state of the waters then, tis both a just description of the motion of the Abysse, and certainly true, that the waters since that time are so setled in their Chanels, that they shall never overflow the Earth again. As we are assured by the promise made to Noah, and that illustrious pledge and confirmation of it, the Rainbow, that the Heavens also shall never pour out so much waters again; their state being changed as well as that of the Earth, or Sea, from what they were before the Deluge.

But before we leave Moses's Narration of the Deluge, we must examine further, what is, or can be understood by his TEHOM-RABBA, or great Abysse, which he saith was broken up at the Deluge; for this will help us to discover, whether our Explication be the same with his, and of the same Flood. And first we must consider, whether by the Tehom-Rabba, or Mosaical Abysse can be understood the Sea or Ocean, under that form we see it in at present; and tis plain, methinks, that the Sea cannot be understood by this great Abysse, both because the Sea is not capable upon any disruption to make such an universal Deluge; and because the Narration of Moses, and his expressions concerning this Abysse, do not agree to the Sea. Some of the Ancients indeed did imagine, that the waters of the Sea were much higher than the Land, and stood, as it were, on an heap; so as when these waters were let loose, they overflowed the Earth, and made a Deluge. But this is known to be a gross mistake; the Sea and the Land make one Globe, and the Waters couch themselves, as close as may be, to the Center of this Globe in a Spherical convexity; so that if all the Mountains and Hills were scaled, and the Earth made even, the Waters would not overflow its smooth surface; much less could they overflow it in the form that it is now in, where the Shores are higher than the Sea, the Inland parts than the Shores, and the Mountains still far above all: So as no disruption of the Sea could make an universal Deluge, by reason of its situation. But besides that, the quantity of Water contained in the Sea is no way sufficient to make a Deluge in the present form of the Earth; for we have shewn before, Chap. 2. that Eight such Oceans as ours would be little enough for that purpose. Then as to the expressions of Mosesconcerning this Abysse, if he had meant the Sea by it, and that the Deluge was made by the disruption of the Sea, why did he not say so? There is no mention of the Sea in all the History of the Deluge: Moseshad mentioned the Sea before, Gen. 1.10. and used a word that was common and known to signifie the Sea; And if he had a mind to express the same thing here, why should he not use the same word and the same term? In an Historical relation we use terms that are most proper and best known; but instead of that he useth the same term here that he did, Gen. 1. 2. when he saith, Darkness was upon the face of the Abysse, or of the Deep, as we render it; there the Abysse was open, or covered with darkness only, namely before the exteriour Earth was formed; Here the same Abysse is mentioned again, but covered, by the formation of the Earth upon it; and the covering of this Abysse was broken or cloven asunder, and the Waters gusht out that made the Deluge. This I am sure is the most natural interpretation or signification of this word, according as it is used in Moses's writings. Furthermore, we must observe what Mosessaith concerning this Abysse, and whether that will agree with the Sea or no; he saith the Fountains of the great Abysse were broken open; now if by the great Abysse you understand the Sea, how are its Fountains broken open? To break open a Fountain, is to break open the ground that covers it, and what ground covers the Sea? So that upon all considerations, either of the word that Moseshere useth, Tehom-Rabba, or of the thing affirmed concerning it, breaking open its Fountains; or of the effect following the breaking open its Fountains, drowning of the Earth; from all these heads it is manifest, that the Sea cannot be understood by the great Abysse, whose disruption was the cause of the Deluge.

And as the MosaicalAbysse cannot be the Sea, so neither can it be those Subterraneous waters that are disperst in the Cells and Caverns of the Earth; for as they are now lodged within the Earth, they are not one Abysse, but several Cisterns and Receptacles of water, in several places, especially under the roots of Mountains and Hills; separate one from another, sometimes by whole Regions and Countries interposed. Besides what Fountains, if they were broken up, could let out this water, or bring it upon the face of the Earth? When we sink a Mine, or dig a Well, the waters, when uncovered, do not leap out of their places, or out of those Cavities, and flow upon the Earth; Tis not as if you opened a Vein, where the Bloud spirts out, and riseth higher than its Source; but as when you take off the cover of a Vessel, the water doth not fly out for that: So if we should imagine all the Subterraneous Caverns of the Earth uncovered, and the waters laid bare, there they would lie unmoved in their beds, if the Earth did not fall into them to force them up. Furthermore, if these waters were any way extracted and laid upon the surface of the ground, nothing would be gained as to the Deluge by that, for as much water would run into these holes again when the Deluge begun to rise; so that this would be but an useless labour, and turn to no account. And lastly, these waters are no way sufficient for quantity to answer to the Mosaical Abysse, or to be the principal cause of the Deluge, as that was.

Now seeing neither the Sea, as it is at present, nor the Subterraneous waters, as they are at present, can answer to the Mosaical Abysse, we are sure there is nothing in this present Earth that can answer to it. Let us then on the other hand compare it with that Subterraneous Abysse, which we have found in the Ante-diluvian Earth, represented 2 Fig. 5, and examine their characters and correspondency: First, Moses's Abysse was covered, and Subterraneous, for the Fountainsof it are said to have been cloven or burst open; then it was vast and capacious; and thirdly, it was so disposed, as to be capable of a disruption, that would cause an universal Deluge to the Earth. Our Ante-diluvian Abysse answers truly to all these characters; twas in the womb of the Earth; the Earth was founded upon those Waters, as the Psalmistsaith; or they were enclosed within the Earth as in a Bag. Then for the capacity of it, it contained both all the waters now in the Ocean, and all those that are dispersed in the Caverns of the Earth: And lastly, it is manifest its situation was such, that upon a disruption or dissolution of the Earth which covered it, an universal Deluge would arise. Seeing then this answers the description, and all the properties of the MosaicalAbysse, and nothing else will, how can we in reason judge it otherwise than the same, and the very thing intended and proposed in the History of Noah's Deluge under the name of Tehom-Rabba, or the great Abysse, at whose disruption the World was overflowed. And as we do not think it an unhappy discovery to have found out (with a moral certainty) the seat of the MosaicalAbysse, which hath been almost as much sought for, and as much in vain, as the seat of Paradise; so this gives us a great assurance, that the Theory we have given of a general Deluge, is not a meer Idea, but is to be appropriated to the Deluge of Noah, as a true explication of it.

And to proceed now from Mosesto other Divine writers; That our Description is a reality, both as to the Ante-diluvian Earth, and as to the Deluge, we may further be convinced from St. Peter's discourse concerning those two things. St. Petersaith, that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such, in reference to the Waters, that by reason of that it was obnoxious to a Deluge; we say these Waters were the great Abysseit stood upon, by reason whereof that World was really exposed to a Deluge, and overwhelmed in it upon the disruption of this Abysse, as Moseswitnesses. Tis true, St. Peterdoth not specifie what those waters were, nor mention either the Sea, or the Abysse; but seeing Mosestells us, that it was by the waters of the Abysse that the Earth was overwhelmed, St. Peter's waters must be understood of the same Abysse, because he supposeth them the cause of the same Deluge. And, I think, the Apostle's discourse there cannot receive a better illustration, than from Moses's History of the Deluge. Moses distinguishes the causes of the Flood into those that belong to the Heavens, and those that belong to the Earth; the Rains and the Abysse: St. Peteralso distinguisheth the causes of the Deluge into the constitution of the Heavens, in reference to its waters; and the constitution of the Earth, in reference to its waters; and no doubt they both aim at the same causes, as they refer to the same effect; only Mosesmentions the immediate causes, the Rains and the Waters of the Abysse; and St. Petermentions the more remote and fundamental causes, that constitution of the Heavens, and that constitution of the Earth, in reference to their respective waters, which made that world obnoxious to a Deluge: And these two speaking of Noah's Deluge, and agreeing thus with one another, and both with us, or with the Theory which we have given of a General Deluge, we may safely conclude, that it is no imaginary Idea, but a true account of that Ancient Flood, whereof Moseshath left us the History.

And seeing the right understanding of the Mosaical Abysseis sufficient alone to Evidence all we have delivered concerning the Deluge, as also concerning the frame of the Ante-diluvian Earth, give me leave to take notice here of some other places of Scripture that seem manifestly to describe this same form of the Abysse with the Earth above it, Psal. 24. 2. He founded the Earth upon the Seas, and established it upon the Floods; and Psal. 136. 6.He stretched out the Earth above the Waters. Now this Foundation of the Earth upon the Waters, or extensionof it above the Waters, doth most aptly agree to that structure and situation of the Abysse and the Ante-diluvian Earth, which we have assigned them, and which we have before described; but very improperly and forcedly to the present form of the Earth and the Waters. In that second place of the Psalmist, the word may be rendered either, he stretched, as we read it, or he fixt and consolidatedthe Earth above the Waters, as the Vulgate and Septuagint translate it: For tis from the same word with that which is used for the Firmament, Gen. 1. So that as the Firmament was extended over and around the Earth, so was the Earth extended over and about the Waters, in that first constitution of things; and I remember some of the Ancients use this very comparison of the Firmament and Earth, to express the situation of the ParadisiacalEarth in reference to the Sea or Abysse.

There is another remarkable place in the Psalms, to shew the disposition of the Waters in the first Earth; Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the Waters of the Sea as in a Bag, he layeth up the Abysses in storehouses. This answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the Abysse which it had before the Deluge, inclosed within the vault of the Earth, as in a Bagor in a Storehouse. I know very well what I render here in a Bag, is rendered in the English, as an heap; but that translation of the word seems to be grounded on the old Error, that the Sea is higher than the Land, and so doth not make a true sence. Neither are the two parts of the Verse so well suited and consequent one to another, if the first express an high situation of the Waters, and the second a low one. And accordingly the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Oriental Versions and Paraphrase, as also Symmachus, St. Jerome, and Basil, render it as we do here, in a Bag, or by terms equivalent.

To these passages of the Psalmist, concerning the form of the Abysse and the first Earth, give me leave to add this general remark, that they are commonly ushered in, or followed, with something of Admiration in the Prophet. We observed before, that the formation of the first Earth, after such a wonderful manner, being a piece of Divine Architecture, when it was spoken of in Scripture, it was usually ascribed to a particular Providence, and accordingly we see in these places now mentioned, that it is still made the object of praise and admiration: In that 136 Psalm tis reckoned among the wonders of God, Vers. 4, 5, 6. Give praise to him who alone doth great wonders; To him that by wisdom made the Heavens: To him that stretched out the Earth above the Waters. And in like manner, in that 33 Psalm, tis joyned with the forming of the Heavens, and made the subject of the Divine Power and Wisdom: Vers. 6, 7, 8, 9. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth; He gathereth the Waters of the Sea together, as in a Bag, he layeth up the Abysse in Storehouses. Let all the Earth fear the Lord; Let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him; For he spake, and it was; he commanded, and it stood fast. Namely, all things stood in that wonderful posture in which the Wordof his Power and Wisdom had establisht them. Davidoften made the works of Nature, and the External World, the matter of his Meditations, and of his praises and Philosophical Devotions; reflecting sometimes upon the present form of the World, and sometimes upon the primitive form of it: And though Poetical expressions, as the Psalmsare, seldom are so determinate and distinct, but that they may be interpreted more than one way, yet, I think, it cannot but be acknowledged, that those expressions and passages that we have instanced in, are more fairly and aptly understood of the Ancient form of the Sea, or the Abysse, as it was enclosed within the Earth, than of the present form of it in an open Chanel.

There are also in the book of Jobmany noble reflections upon the works of Nature, and upon the formation of the Earth and the Abysse; whereof that in Chap. 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the Empty places, and hangeth the Earth upon nothing, seems to parallel the expression of David; He stretched out the Earth upon the Waters; for the word we render the empty placeis TOHU, which is applied to the Chaos and the first Abysse, Gen. 1. 2. and the hanging the Earth upon nothingis much more wonderful, if it be understood of the first habitable Earth, that hung over the Waters, sustained by nothing but its own peculiar form, and the libration of its parts, than if it be understood of the present Earth, and the whole body of it; for if it be in its Center or proper place, whither should it sink further, or whither should it go? But this passage, together with the foregoing and following Verses, requires a more critical examination than this Discourse will easily bear.

There is another remarkable discourse in Job, that contains many things to our present purpose, tis Chap. 38. where God reproaches Jobwith his ignorance of what passed at the beginning of the World, and the formation of the Earth, Vers. 4, 5, 6. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth? Declare if thou hast understanding: Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest; or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned, or who laid the corner-stone?All these questions have far more force and Emphasis, more propriety and elegancy, if they be understood of the first and Ante-diluvian form of the Earth, than if they be understood of the present; for in the present form of the Earth there is no Architecture, no structure, no more than in a ruine; or at least none comparatively to what was in the first form of it. And that the exteriour and superficial part of the Earth is here spoken of, appears by the rule and line applied to it; but what rule or regularity is there in the surface of the present Earth? what line was used to level its parts? But in its original construction when it lay smooth and regular in its surface, as if it had been drawn by ruleand linein every part; and when it hung poised upon the Deep, without pillar or foundation stone, then just proportions were taken, and every thing placed by weight and measure: And this, I doubt not, was that artificial structure here alluded to, and when this work was finisht, then the morning Stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

Thus far the questions proceed upon the form and construction of the first Earth; in the following verses(8, 9, 10, II.) they proceed upon the demolition of that Earth, the opening the Abysse, and the present state of both. Or who shut up the Sea with doors when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of a womb?Who can doubt but this was at the breaking open of the Fountains of the Abysse, Gen. 7. II. when the waters gusht out, as out of the great womb of Nature; and by reason of that confusion and perturbation of Air and Water that rise upon it, a thick mist and darkness was round the Earth, and all things as in a second Chaos,When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swadling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and made bars and doors. Namely, (taking the words as thus usually rendered) the present Chanel of the Sea was made when the Abysse was broke up, and at the same time were made the shory Rocks and Mountains which are the bars and boundaries of the Sea. And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. Which last sentence shows, that this cannot be understood of the first disposition of the waters as they were before the Flood, for their proud waves broke those bounds, whatsoever they were, when they overflowed the Earth in the Deluge. And that the womb which they broke out of was the great Abysse, The ChaldeeParaphrase 1 in this place doth expressly mention; and what can be understood by the womb of the Earth, but that Subterraneous capacity in which the Abysse lay? Then that which followeth, is a description or representation of the great Deluge that ensued, and of that disorder in Nature, that was then, and how the Waters were setled and Bounded afterwards. Not unlike the description in the 104 Psalm, vers. 6, 7, 8, 9. and thus much for these places in the book of Job.

There remains a remarkable discourse in the Evidencerbs of Solomon, relating to the MosaicalAbysse, and not only to that, but to the Origin of the Earth in general; where Wisdomdeclares her antiquity and pre-existence to all the works of this Earth, Chap. 8. vers. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, ere the Earth was. When there were no Deeps or Abysses, I was brought forth; when no fountains abounding with water. Then in the 27. verse, When he prepared the Heavens, I was there; when he set a Compass upon the face of the Deep or Abysse. When he established the Clouds above, when he strengthned the fountains of the Abysse. Here is mention made of the Abysse, and of the Fountains of the Abysse, and who can question, but that the Fountains of the Abysse here, are the same with the fountains of the Abysse which Mosesmentions, and were broken open, as he tells us, at the Deluge? Let us observe therefore what form Wisdom gives to this Abysse, and consequently to the Mosaical: And here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it, verse28. He strengthned the fountains of the Abysse, that is, the cover of those Fountains, for the Fountains could be strengthned no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them. And that Arch is exprest more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse, When he prepared the Heavens, I was there; when he set aCompass on the face of the Abysse; we render it Compass, the word signifies a Circle or Circumference, or an Orb or Sphere. So there was in the beginning of the World a Sphere, Orb or Arch set round the Abysse, according to the testimony of Wisdom, who was then present. And this skews us both the form of the MosaicalAbysse, which was included within this Vault: and the form of the habitable Earth, which was the outward surface of this Vault, or the cover of the Abysse that was broke up at the Deluge.

And thus much, I think, is sufficient to have noted out of Scripture, concerning the MosaicalAbysse, to discover the form, place, and situation of it; which I have done the more largely, because that being determined, it will draw in easily all the rest of our Theory concerning the Deluge. I will now only add one or two general Observations, and so conclude this discourse; The first Observation is concerning the Abysse; Namely, that the opening and shutting of the Abysse, is the great hinge upon which Nature turns in this Earth: This brings another face of things, other Scenes and a new World upon the stage: And accordingly it is a thing often mentioned and alluded to in Scripture, sometimes in a Natural, sometimes in a Moral or Theological sence; and in both sences, our Saviour shuts and opens as he pleaseth. Our Saviour, who is both Lord of Nature and of Grace, whose Dominion is both in Heaven and in Earth, hath a double Key; that of the Abysse, whereby Death and Hell are in his power, and all the revolutions of Nature are under his Conduct and Providence; And the Key of David, whereby he admits or excludes from the City of God and the Kingdom of Heaven whom he pleaseth. Of those places that refer to the shutting and opening the Abysse in a natural sence, I cannot but particularly take notice of that in Job. Chap. 12. vers. 14, 15. God breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up man, and there can be no opening: Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the Earth. Though these things be true of God in lesser and common instances, yet to me it is plain, that they principally refer to the Deluge, the opening and shutting the Abysse, with the dissolution or subversion of the Earth thereupon; and accordingly they are made the great effects of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the foregoing Verse, With God is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding; Behold, he breaketh down, &c. And also in the conclusion tis repeated again, With him is strength and wisdom which solemnity would scarce have been used for common instances of his power. When God is said to build or pull down, and no body can build again, tis not to be understood of an House or a Town, God builds and unbuilds Worlds; and who shall build up that Arch that was broke down at the Deluge? Where shall they lay the Foundation, or how shall the Mountains be reared up again to make part of the Roof? This is the Fabrick, which when God breaketh down, none can build up again. He withholdeth the waters and they dry up:As we shewed the Earth to have been immoderately chapt and parcht before its dissolution. He sendeth them forth and they overturn the Earth. What can more properly express the breaking out of the waters at the disruption of the Abysse? and the subversion or dissolution of the Earth in consequence of it? Tis true this last passage may be applied to the breaking out of waters in an ordinary Earthquake, and the subversion of some part of the Earth, which often follows upon it; but it must be acknowledged, that the sence is more weighty, if it be refered to the great Deluge, and the great Earthquake which laid the World in ruines and in water. And Philosophical descriptions in Sacred writings, like Prophecies, have often a lesser and a greater accomplishment and interpretation.

I could not pass by this place without giving this short Explication of it. We proceed now to the second Observation, which is concerning the stile of Scripture, in most of those places we have cited, and others upon the same subject. The reflections that are made in several parts of the Divine writings, upon the Origin of the World, and the formation of the Earth, seem to me to be writ in a stile something approaching to the nature of a Prophetical stile, and to have more of a Divine Enthusiasm and Elocution in them, than the ordinary text of Scripture; the expressions are lofty, and sometimes abrupt, and often figurative and disguised, as may be observed in most of those places we have made use of, and particularly in that speech of Wisdom, Prov. 8. where the 26. verseis so obscure, that no two Versions that I have yet met with, whether Ancient or Modern, agree in the Translation of that Verse. And therefore though I fully believe that the construction of the first Earth is really intended in those words, yet seeing it could not be made out clear without a long and critical discussion of them, I did not think it proper to be insisted upon here. We may also observe, that whereas there is a double form or composition of the Earth, that which it had at first, or till the Deluge, and that which it hath since; sometimes the one, and sometimes the other may be glanced upon in these Scripture phrases and descriptions; and so there may be in the same discourse an intermixture of both. And it commonly happens so in an Enthusiastick or Prophetick stile, that by reason of the eagerness and trembling of the Fancy, it doth not always regularly follow the same even thread of discourse, but strikes many times upon some other thing that hath relation to it, or lies under or near the same view. Of this we have frequent examples in the Apocalypse, and in that Prophecy of our Saviour's, Matth. 24. concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the World. But notwithstanding any such unevenness or indistinctness in the stile of those places which we have cited concerning the Origin and form of the Earth, we may at least make this remark, that if there never was any other form of the Earth but the present, nor any other state of the Abysse, than what it is in now, tis not imaginable what should give occasion to all those expressions and passages that we have cited; which being so strange in themselves and paradoxical, should yet so much favour, and so fairly comply with our suppositions. What I have observed in another place, in treating of Paradise, that the expressions of the Ancient Fathers were very extravagant, if Paradisewas nothing but a little plot of ground in Mesopotamia, as many of late have fansied; may in like manner be observed concerning the ancient Earth and Abysse, if they were in no other form, nor other state than what they are under now, the expressions of the Sacred Writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable, without any sufficient ground, or any just occasion for such uncouth representations. If there was nothing intended or refered to in those descriptions, but the present form and state of the Earth, that is so well known, that in describing of it there would be nothing dark or mysterious, nor any occasion for obscurity in the stile or expression, whereof we find so much in those. So as, all things considered, what might otherwise be made an exception to some of these Texts alledged by us, viz. that they are too obscure, becomes an argument for us: as implying that there is something more intended by them, than the present and known form of the Earth. And we having proposed another form and structure of the Earth, to which those characters suit and answer more easily, as this opens and gives light to those difficult places, so it may be reasonably concluded to be the very sence and notion intended by the holy Writers.

And thus much, I think, is sufficient to have observed out of Scripture, to verifie our Explication of the Deluge, and our Application of it to Noah's Flood, both according to the MosaicalHistory of the Flood, and according to many occasional reflections and discourses dispersed in other places of Scripture, concerning the same Flood, or concerning the Abysse and the first form of the Earth. And though there may be some other passages of a different aspect, they will be of no force to disEvidence our conclusions, because they respect the present form of the Earth and Sea; and also because expressions that deviate more from the common opinion, are more remarkable and more proving; in that there is nothing could give occasion to such, but an intention to express the very truth. So, for instance, if there was one place of Scripture that said the Earth was moved, and several that seemed to imply, that the Sunwas moved, we should have more regard to that one place for the motion of the Earth, than to all the other that made against it; because those others might be spoken and understood according to common opinion and common belief, but that which affirmed the motion of the Earth, could not be spoke upon any other ground, but only for truth and instruction sake. I leave this to be applied to the present subject.

Thus much for the Sacred writings. As to the History of the ancient Heathens, we cannot expect an account or Narration of Noah's Flood, under that name and notion; but it may be of use to observe two things out of that History. First, that the Inundations recorded there came generally to pass in the manner we have described the Universal Deluge; namely, by Earthquakes and an eruption of Subterraneous waters, the Earth being broken and falling in: and of this we shall elsewhere give a full account out of their Authors. Secondly, that Deucalion's Deluge in particular, which is supposed by most of the Ancient Fathers to represent Noah's Flood, is said to have been accompanied with a gaping or disruption of the Earth; Apollodorussaith, that the Mountains of Thessalywere divided asunder, or separate one from another at that time: And Lucian(de deSyri tells a very remarkable story to this purpose, concerning Deucalion's Deluge, and a ceremony observed in the Temple of Hieropolis, in commemoration of it; which ceremony seems to have been of that nature, as implied that there was an opening of the Earth at the time of the Deluge, and that the waters subsided into that again when the Deluge ceast. He saith, that this Temple at Hieropoliswas built upon a kind of Abysse, or has a bottomless pit, or gaping of the Earth in one part of it, and the people of Arabiaand Syria, and the Countries thereabouts twice a year repaired to this Temple, and brought with them every one a vessel of water, which they poured out upon the floor of the Temple, and made a kind of an Inundation there in memory of Deucalion's Deluge; and this water sunk by degrees into a Chasm or opening of a Rock, which the Temple stood upon, and so left the floor dry again. And this was a rite solemnly and religiously performed both by the Priests and by the People. If Moseshad left such a Religious rite among the Jews, I should not have doubted to have interpreted it concerning his Abysse, and the retiring of the waters into it; but the actual disruption of the Abysse could not well be represented by any ceremony. And thus much concerning the present question, and the true application of our Theory to Noah's Flood.

Footnotes

78:1 תהומָה מן