36 A Dissertation on the 
is regulated, and so effectual that self-physic which the Al- 
mighty has instituted through all his works, that if any for- 
tuitous accident happens in the system, there requires no 
immediate interposition to prevent or cure the mischief, 
each body carrying within itself the principles of preserva- 
tion and cure; an argument of wisdom and foresight wor- 
thy of the Deity! 
«¢ The planet Jupiter was attracted out of his orbit by the 
enormous comet which appeared in the year 1680. The 
comet came across the plane of his track, had a temporary 
influence upon him, and it is observable, be has not travel- 
led by the same fixed stars since that period which he did 
before it. When the influence of the comet had ceased, 
and he was again left to that of the sun as before, no doubt 
but his usual motion was momentarily retarded, and the 
shape of his orbit altered. Now if Jupiter consists of land 
and water (and by the spots seen on his face it is more than 
probable), it is possible he might experience a revolution 
something similar to our flood; for that our flood was oc- 
casioned by the near approach of a comet, 13 a most natural 
supposition, and in no wise militates against the Scriptural 
doctrine of that event: it being as easy, and as consistent 
for the Almighty, to render justice by a secondary cause, as 
by an immediate interposition. Nor is his attribute of 
mercy arraigned by the promiscuous destruction the deluge 
occasioned ; for it is evident, by reasoning from his works, 
that he governs the universe by ‘general, not by partial 
laws.” 
“« The vestiges of the deluge are so remarkable, both on 
the surface and within the bowels of the earth, that, if ex- 
amined without prejudice, they prove, I think, beyond a 
doubt, that awful revolution to have been the work of a 
comet. Not that the moisture of its tail drowned the 
world, as was unphilosopbically suggested by Whiston; but 
if the attraction of the moon be capable of raising the wa- 
ter of the sea above its common level, what effects might 
not be supposed from the nearer approach of a body perhaps 
many thousand times as large as the moon? If a tide by 
such an attraction was raised three or four miles above the 
level of the sea, the earth, by turning on its axis, would have 
that protuberance dragged over the land, and its surface 
would be ploughed up into those inequalities we call moun- 
tains; for that mountains are not of eternal duration, is 
evident from their growing less, even in the memory of 
man; for every thing strives at a. level. Rains falling on 
mountains wash down their asperities; this matter bemuds 
thé 
