Consequences of the Deluge. 71

J^ight not the Divine Power and Providencebring together at that time such natural A-gents, as might change the Air or Æther ,or both together into Water ; and so supplywhat was wanting in Rains, and extraordi-nary Eruptions of Springs. To them that^ r gue the Improbability of such a change,tr om the great quantity of Air requisite tosoe making of a little Water,• it may be an-swered , That if Air, and all Bodies commixtfrith it, were together changed into Water ,they must needs make a bulk of Water ofc qual quantity with themselves, unless wefrill brant a Peripatetical Condensation andRarefaction ; and hold that the same Mattermay have sometimes a greater, sometimes alessor quantity or extension.

This Cause [ the conversion of Air into'Vater ] the Learned Jesuite Athanafm Kir-c her, in his Book De Area Noœ, alledges assoe undoubted instrumental Cause or Meansof the Deluge in these words, Dico totum il-hd aereumj'patium usque adsupremam regio-n em aeris, preepotentis Dei virtute , in aquas,

Per inexplicahilem nuhium coacervatarum mul-titudinem, quh replebatur , conversant esse ;c »jus ubertas tanta suit, ut Aer supremusCt *m inferiori in Oceanum commutatus videriP°tuerit, non naturae virihus , fed illius cujusiuntati & imperio c unit a subsunt . That is,

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