( i *9 ) 
which God fent to dry the Waters away, efpecially 
when it firft came on Ground : But it muft alfb be al- 
lowed, that length of Time may have added, as well 
as taken away many notable Circumflances, as in moft 
other Cafes of the Story of remote Times and A£H- 
ons. 
This we may, however, be fully allured of, that 
fuch a Deluge has been • and by the many Signs of 
marine Bodies found far from and above the Sea, ’tis 
evident, that thofe Parts have been once under Water: 
or, either that the Sea has rifen to them, or they have 
been raifed from the Sea ; to explicate either of which 
is a Matter of no fmall Difficulty, nor does the facred 
Scripture afford any Light thereto. All that it fays 
to help us is, that all the Fountains of the great Deep, 
rDTCDinn, were burff, or broken up ; that the 
Windows, or Cataracts of Heaven were opened, and 
that it rained inceflantly forty Days and Nights. Now 
the Rain of forty Days and Nights will be found to be 
a very fmall Part of the Caufe of fuch a Deluge; for 
fuppofing it to rain all over the Globe as much in each 
Day, as it is now found to do in one of the rainielt 
Counties of England in the whole \ ear, viz>. about 
forty Inches of Water per T)iem, forty fuch Days 
could cover the whole Earth with but about twen- 
ty two Fathom Water, which would only drown the 
low Lands next the Sea, but the much greater Part 
would efcape. What is meant by the Fountains of 
the Abyffe being broken up, and the opening of the 
Windows of Heaven, feems not fo eafy to be under- 
flood, but is intended to indicate the Modus of the 
Deluge, which was, according to the Alofaic Ehilo - 
Jophy^ from the letting in of the Waters above the 
Firmament, mentioned Gene [is i. 7. by the Windows 
Vol. XXXIII. T of 
