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not think fo, elfe he would not judge the appearance of the olive 

 to be a fign of the diminution of the waters — Where is it men- 

 tioned or what renders it neceffary to infer that iflands exifted 

 before the flood ? If iflands did exift, and were to efcnpe the 

 flood, fo might their inhabitants alfo, contrary to the exprefs words 

 of the text. 



It would furely be much more convenient for Noah, his family 

 and animals, to have taken refuge in one of them, than to remain 

 pent up in the ark. 



The dove, Mofes tells us, returned the firft time (he was let 

 out of the ark, finding no place whereon to reji her foot ; flie con- 

 fequently could not difcover the ifland, whereas the raven never 

 returned, plainly becaufe he found carcaflTes whereon to feed, there- 

 fore thefe carcafl^es were not fwallowed up, as Mr. De Luc would 

 have it. Mofes tells us that at the cefl'ation of the flood the 

 fountains of the deep were flopped or fliut up ^ therefore, in his 

 apprehenfion, inftead of the ancient continents finking into the 

 deep, the waters of the abyfs flowed from their fources upon that 

 continent, and again returned ; from all which it follows that this 

 hypothefis is as indefenfible as the foregoing. 



Pafllng over the fyftems of Burnet, Woodward and Whifton, 

 which have been repeatedly refuted, I recur to the account of this 

 great revolution given by Mofes himfelf, taken in its plain literal 



fenfe, 



