and destroyed the whole Earth, and out of whichonly Noah and those with him in the Ark esca-ped.

Men have been very sollicitous to account forthis dismal Judgment, Philosophically, and to dis-cover from whence such an amazing Quantity ofWater could come as was necessary to cover allour Globe to the height of i; Cubits above thehighest Hills, for to that height Moses faith ex-prefly, Gen. 7. 20. the Waters prevailed ; and lomehave made so bold with him as to deny therewere any Mountains at all before the Flood, tho'he expresly mentions them as a Standard for theheight of the Water; .and others have denied theUniversality of the Deluge, though the Text beas plain as words can deliver it, That all the Hillsover the whole Earth were covered. Others havehad recourse to the shifting of the Earth's Centreof Gravity, and so will have its Parts all drownedsuccessively : And our famous Theorist, Dr. Bur-net, makes an Earth as it were on purpose to bedrowned at that time, which being in the form ofan Orbicular Crust on the Face of the Sea fas wenow call it, for he faith there was none before theDeluge) fell down into the Water and so drown’dits Inhabitants.

Now for my own part, I should not at all be incare how to find Water for such a Catastrophe,if that were all that appeared necessary to enquireafter j for I could easily believe, that the greatCreator of the World could soon either educe Sub-terranean , bring down Supercelestial , or createWaters on purpose for such an Occasion ; for no-thing can be too hard for Omnipotence to effect,and I dare not make my Understanding a Judgehow far it may be expedient fbr him to makeuse of his Almighty Power without SecondaryCauses.

But the matter lies not here, the S.S. tells us,that the Waters of the Deluge came from twoFunds, the great Deep below and the Bains above ;to these therefore we must stick and look no fur-ther. Again, when we look into the InternalParts of the Earth, even to the greatest DepthMen have ever dig’d or min’d, we find there thatthe Body of the Terrestrial Globe is composed ofStrata, Rows or Layers lying one over'another,and which appear to every one that observes themto be the Sediments of a Flood ; besides, in the Bo-dies of these Strata, though never so solid, nayeven inclosed within the Solidity of the firmestFlints, Marble, Stone, CSV. we find a prodigiousvariety of the Exuviæ or Remains of Eijhcs, suchas their Shells, Teeth, (Ac, as well Marine ones asthose Which live in Lakes and Rivers. And froma due Observation of these, and repeated Consi-derations upon them it was that the Learned andIngenious Dr. Woodward, Professor of Physick inGrefham College, founded what he delivers uponthis Subject; which therefore is not lo much aTheory , as necessary Deductions and unavoidableConsequences drawn from matter of fact.

And from hence it is, and hence only, that hededuces the following Inferences relating to theUniversal Deluge, in his Natural Hifiory of theEarth ; which appear to me very reasonable, andare these.

1. That these Marine Bodies, and the otherSpoils of Frelh-water Fishes, were born forth ofthe Sea by the Universal Deluge, and on returnof the Water back again from off the Earth, theywere left behind at Land-

2. That during the time 9s the Deluge, *the Water was out upon and covered the a®strial Globe, all the Stone and Marble of the n®diluvian Earth ; all the Metals in it; all therieral Concretions; and in a word, allwhatever that had before attained anywere totally dissolved ; their constituent C°rp ul rwere dit-joined, and their Cohesion perfectly ® .jing .- And that the said Corpuscles.of th of®Fossils, together with the Corpuscles of rhef®/' Iwere not before Solid, such as Sand, Earth,the like; as also all Animal Bodies and parts 0 tSnimalsBones, Teeth, Shells; Vegetables and P ^of Vegetables, Trees, Shrubs, Herbs; and, 1short, all Bodies whatsoever that were eitherthe Earth, or that constituted the Mass

not quite down to the Abyss, yet quite do*"the greatest depths we ever dig; all these, h®'*'j (were assumed up promiscuously into the ^and sustained in it, in such manner, that theter, and Bodies in it, together made up on®mon Mass.

3. That at length all the Mass that was ^born up in the Water was again precipitatf",,^subsided toward the Bottom. And that th 15 ® ^5sidence happened generally according to the

of Gravity : That Matter, Body, or Bodieshad the greatest quantity or degreefublidings first in order, and falling lowest?^,which had the next, or a still lesser degree °‘ (} \vity subsiding next after ; and so in their 1Courses : That which had the least Gravity ^ ^ing not down till last of all, but fettling^:Surface of the Sediment, and covering all th®That the Matter subsiding thus, formed the t)of Stone, Earth, Marble, Coal, (Ac. of with ^ c!lying one upon another, the Terrestrial G*® jUdat least as much of it as hath ever been duPto Humane view, doth mainly consist. fl( j «1

4 . That the Strata of Marble, Stone, * >>

all other solid Matter attained their Solidlysoon as the Sand or other Matter where®>consist, was arrived at the Bottom, and * jo-tled there ; and that all those Strata which ^lid at this day, have been so ever li° cetime.

5. That these Strata lying thus one on awere all originally Parallel; that they

even, and regular, rendring consequently ^face of the Earth even and spherical;were contiguous and not interrupted or, jM 5 9 ,we find them now; and that the whole 4 ]l,the Water lay then upon them, above 1and constituted a Fluid Sphere environingall the Globe. nfa"^

6. That after some time, by the forc e \vef*

gent seated within the Earth, these . s-

broken on all sides the Globe ; that theylocated, and their Situation varied, ^ ein ^ a(1 d ir®"'in some places and depressed in others; . 0 th^

hence arose all the Mountains, Valleys, a j| thInequalities of our present Earths Surf*®. so r z^.Caverns and Grotto’s, all the PerpenM ^ z lHorizontal Fissures; the Channel or s srtfIslands, (Ac. In one word, the whole pist °'

ous Globe was put, by this Disruption *cation of the Strata, into the Condition j,now behold it. Nat. Hilt. of the Earth-

And afterward, in Part the zd.ther this matter of the Universal Deiug >

eludes from his Observations,