[ 337 1 



when it is firft introduced in thefe chapters of Generis, it feems 

 to follow, that it mud: continue to be ufed in the fame fig- 

 nification, when it ocourrs afterwards in the account of the 

 flood. 



Thus again, if and the flood was forty days upon the earth, and 

 s ' the waters increafed and bare up the ark, and it was lift up- 

 «* above the earth''' 



When . the earth is. thus introduced a fecond time, it muft 

 mean only the fpace of ground which was under the ark* 1 ; 

 whilft it is alfo expofitory of the fame word ufed in the preceding 

 part of the verfe, which cannot therefore reafonably be extended 

 beyond the diftricT:. 



The next term which hath occafioned the mifunderllanding 

 the fcripture account is that of Heaven, the fenfe of which again, 

 and its fynonyms, in moft languages, depends upon the context, 

 as it often lignifies no more than the atmofphere over a particular 

 diftricl, or fcarcely more fometimes than the vertical point over 

 bur heads. 



Thus in the 1 2th book of the OdyfTey vgavog means only the 

 atmofphere above a high rock. 



tsaavdv svpvv Ixuvei 



Ofci-nKo^tpri Od. M. 74. 



And again in the lair, book of the Iliad, 



Xe/Sg 3s oivov, 



Oupocvov surciVifiuv, > II. fl. 306. 



where it is confined to the clouds above the perfon who is to 

 make the libation. 



The Latin term Coelum is often likewife not applied to more 

 than the atmofphere of a diftrift, or a ftill fmaller portion ; thus 

 in the often cited line of Horace, 



Coelum lion anlmum mutant, qui trans mare currunt ; 

 1 Gen. vii. 16. 



X x whilft 



