t 338 3 



whilft Virgil confines it to the void fpace above a tree ; , 



Exiit ad coelum ramis felicibus arbos. 

 Thus Jacob's ladder reaches from the earth to heaven^. Gen. xxviiL 

 1 2, in which paflage nothing more than a very fmall point can be 

 implied.. 



As again, " A tower whofe top may reach to heaven," 

 Gen. xi. 4. 



There is a third expreffion ufed in thefe three chapters of 

 Genefis which it may be right to explain, viz. the fountains of 

 the deep, as it is much relied upon by the partifansof an univerfal 

 deluge, and fuppofed to account for the extraordinary height of the 

 inundation ; whilft fome conceive it to fignify the fea, . and others 

 fubterraneous waters inclofed within the furface of our globe. I 

 underftand, however, by this expreffion,, nothing more than the 

 fountains of the atmofphere, the word deep, in fome languages, , 

 relating to what is over our heads, as well as under our feet. 



The term, therefore, by which the deep is rendered in the 

 Septuagint, is a,£uara-og. r , which fignifies indeed without bottom* 

 but for the fame reafon without top. 



r This term occurs in Pf. xlii. 7. " Deep calleth unto deep at the noife 

 es of thy water-fpouts," which in the Septuagint runs cc&v<r<rog a&vo-crov 

 iTTiKaKincii c-tg (P'jovvjv tc*v rMTa^oixJouv era. It is impoflible that the Pfalmifb 

 can here allude to either waters under"the furface of our globe, or to the 

 fea which is at fuch a diftance from Judea ; but, on the contrary, it mult 

 relate to what is above him, from xujo / ,^oix\cx.i being mentioned, which 

 always lignify the precipitate defcent of a river. Thus alfo oc£v<r<rog is 

 joined to the xuTaooiKjcci t% a^avs, Gen. vii. 11. as again Gen. viii. 2. which 

 being flopped,, the rain from heaven is reftrained. 



This term (viz. ct£vc-<rog) is twice ufed like wife in the revelations, viz. 

 \x. 1 i . and xx. 3* in both which verfes it muft mean, probably, fome 

 inferior part of the heavens, and neither the bottom of the fea, or waters 

 within the central parts of our earth. 



This word is more properly ^v9og } but Suidas informs us, luv;g^irov 

 @v9oy &bcr<rov <p<x<riv. 



Thus- 



