( no ) 
of Heaven ; and the rifing up out of the Ground of 
the Waters under the Earth, fpoken of in the fecond 
Commandment : Or, (if you will underftand that 
by the nsn CD inn is meant the great Ocean) by the 
overflowing of the Sea, rifing upon the Land, which 
is exprefs’d by the breaking up of the Fountains of 
the great Deep. So that we may realonably con- 
clude, that by the one of thofe ExprefTions is meant 
an extraordinary fall of Waters from the Heavens, not 
as Rain, but in one great Body ; as if the Firmament, 
fuppofed by Mofes to fuftain a Snpra-aerial Sea , had 
been broken in, and at the fame Time the Ocean did 
flow in upon the Land, fo as to cover all with 
Water. 
By an extraordinary Encreafe of the Waters this 
could not be effected, for that at this Time there is 
not Water fufficient of itfelf to cover any more of 
the Earth than now it doth ; and to fuppofe a Crea- 
tion and Annihilation of Water on purpole to deftroy 
the Earth, is by much the moft difficult Hypothecs 
that can be thought of to effect it. A change of the 
Center of Gravity , about which Center the Sea is 
formed, feemed not an improbable Conjecture, till it 
appeared that this Center of Gravity was the neceffa- 
ry Refult of the Materials of which our Globe con- 
Ms, and not alterable whilft the Parts thereof remain- 
ed in the fame Pofition : And befides this Suppofition 
could not drown the whole Globe, but only that Part 
thereof towards which the Center of Gravity was 
tranflated, leaving the other Hemifphere all dry. 
I fliall fay nothing of Dr. Burnet ' s Hypothefis, nor 
of the many Infufficiencies thereof, as jarring as much 
with the Phyfical Principles of Nature, as with the 
Holy Scriptures, which he has undertaken to recon- 
cile- 
