602 DELUGE. 
heat, would be drawn lip into the atmofphere, and after¬ 
wards return in violent rains: and this he takes to be 
what Mofes intimates, by “ the windows of heaven being 
opened,” and particularly by the “forty days rain.” For, 
as to the following rain, which with this made the whole 
time of raining 150 days, Mr Whilton attributes it to 
the earth coming a fecond time within the atmofphere oi 
the comet, as the comet was on its return from the fun. 
Laftly, to remove this vaft orb of waters again, he fup- 
pofes a mighty wind to have arifen, which dried up fome, 
and forced the reft into the abyfs, through the clefts by 
which it came up ; only a good quantity remained in the 
alveus of the great ocean, now firft made, and in lefler 
feas, lakes, &c. This theory was at firft only propofed 
as an hypothefis ; but, on further confideration, Mr. 
Whifton thought he could adtually prove that a comet 
did at that time pafs very near the earth, and that it was 
the fame which afterwards appeared in 1680. After this, 
he looked upon his theory no longer as an hypothefis, 
but publifhed it in a particular trad!, inti tied. The Caufe 
of the Deluge demonftrated. But the uncertainty of the 
cornet's return in 1758, and the abfolute failure of that 
which ought to have appeared in 1788, or 1789, has ren¬ 
dered Mr. Whifton’s calculations extremely dubious. 
According to Mr. De la Pryme, the antediluvian world 
had an external -fea as well as land, with mountains, ri¬ 
vers, &c. and the deluge was effected by breaking the 
fubterraneous caverns, and pillars thereof, with dreadful 
earthquakes, and caufing the fame to be, for the mod 
part, if not wholly, abforbed and fwallowed up, and co¬ 
vered by the feas that we now have. Laftly, this earth 
of ours arofe out of the bottom of the antediluvian fea ; 
and, in its room, juft as many iflands are fwallowed down, 
and others thruft up in their ftead. On this, as on all 
the other hypothefes, it may be remarked that it is quite 
arbitrary, and without the lead foundation from the 
words of Mofes. The facrcd hiftorian fpeaks not one 
word of earthquakes ; nay, from the nature of the tiling, 
we know it is impoflible that the flood could have been 
occafioned by an earthquake, and the ark preferved, 
Without a miracle. It is certain, that if a fhip links at 
fea, the commotion excited in the water, by the defeent 
of fuch a large body, will fwallow up a large boat that 
happens to come too near. If the pillars of the earth 
itfelf then were broken, wjiat mull the commotion have 
been, when the continents of F.urope, Afia, and Africa, 
defeended into the abyfs, at once ; not to mention Ame¬ 
rica, which, lying at fo great a diftance from Noah, he 
might be fuppofed out of danger from that quarter? By 
what miracle was the little ark preferved amidft the tu¬ 
mult of thofe impetuous waves which mull have rallied 
in from all quarters? Befides, as the ark w'as built not 
at fea, but on dry ground, when the earth on which it 
refted funk down, the ark muft have funk along with it; 
and the waters falling in, as it were, over-head, muft have 
dallied in pieces the ftrongeft veffel that can be imagined. 
Earthquakes, alfo, operate ludaenly and violently; where¬ 
as, according to the Mofaic account, the flood came on 
gradually, and did not arrive at its height till fix weeks, 
or, perhaps, five months, after it began. 
Mr. Hutchinfon, and his followers, prefent us with a 
theory of the deluge, which they pretend to derive from 
feripture. This theory hath been particularly enlarged 
upon and illuftrated by Mr. Catcot, who in 176*8 pub- 
lilhed a volume on the fubjeft. This gentleman aliens, 
that when the wmrld was firft created, at the time when 
it is faid to have been “without form and void,” the 
terreftrial matter was then entirely- dilTolved in the 
aqueous; fo that the w'hole formed, as it were, a thick 
muddy water. The figure of this mafs was fpherit'al; 
and on the outfide of this fphere lay the grofs dark air. 
Within the fphere of earth and water was an immenfe 
cavity, called by Mofes the deep ; and this internal cavity 
was filled with air, of a kind fimilar to that on the outlide. 
On the creation of light, the internal air received elaliicity 
fufficient to burft out through the external covering of 
earth and water. Upon this the water defeended, filled 
up the void, and left the earth in a form fimilar to what 
it hath at prefent. Thus, according to him, the antedi¬ 
luvian world, as well as the prefent, confifted of a vaft 
collection or nucleus of water, called the great deep , or 
the abyfs ; and over this the fhell of earth, perforated in 
many places; by which means the waters of the ocean 
communicated with the abyfs. The breaking up of thefe 
fountains was occafioned by a miraculous preflure of the 
atmofphere, from the immediate afhion of the Deity 
himfelf. So violent was this 'preflure, that the air de¬ 
feended to where it had been originally ; occupied the 
fpace of the abyfs ; and drove out the waters over the 
whole face of the dry land. But this account, fo far 
from being infallibly certain, feems inconfiftent with the 
moll common obfervation. No preflure, however vio¬ 
lent, will caufe water to rife above its level, unlefs the 
preflure is unequal. If, therefore, the atmofphere en¬ 
tered into the fuppofed abyfs, by a vehement preflure 
on the furface of the ocean, that preflure muft only have 
been on one place, or on a few places ; and even though 
we fuppofe the atmofphere to have been the agent made 
ufe of, it is impoflible that it could have remained for 
any time in the abyfs without a continued miracle ; as 
the preflure of the water would immediately have forced 
it up again through thofe holes which had afforded it a 
paflage downwards. The explication given from Hutch¬ 
infon by Mr. Catcot, of the “ windows of heaven,” is 
fomewhat extraordinary. According to him, thefe win¬ 
dows are not in heaven, but in the bowels of the earth ; 
and mean no more than the cracks and fiflures by which 
the airi, as he calls them, found a paflage through the 
fhell, or covering of earth, which they utterly dilfolved 
and reduced to its original ftate of fluidity. It is, how- 
ever, difficult to conceive how the opening of fuch win¬ 
dows as thefe could caufe a violent rain for forty days 
and nights. 
The following conjectures have been offered by the 
editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: 1. If we con- 
fider the quantity of water requifite for the purpofe of 
the deluge, it will not appear fo very extraordinary as 
has been commonly represented. The height of the 
higheft hills is thought not to be quite four miles. It 
will therefore be deemed a fufficient allowance, when we 
fuppofe the waters of the deluge to have been four miles 
deep on the furface of the ground. Now it is certain, 
that water, or any other matter, when fpread out at large 
upon the ground, feems to occupy an immenfe fpace in 
comparifon of what it does when contained in a cubical 
veffel, or when packed together in a cubical form. Sup- 
pofe we wanted to overflow a room fixteen feet every 
way, or containing 256 fquare feet with water, to the 
-height of one foot, it may be nearly done by a cubical 
veffel of fix feet filled with water. A cube of eight feet 
will cover it two feet deep, and a cube of ten feet will 
very nearly cover it four feet deep. It makes not the 
leaft difference whether we fuppofe feet or miles to be 
covered. A cube of ten miles of water would very nearly 
owerflow 256 fquare miles of plain ground to the height 
of four miles. But if we take into our account the vaft 
number of eminences with which the furface of the earth 
. abounds, the above-mentioned quantity of water would 
do a great deal more. If, therefore, we attempt to cal¬ 
culate the quantity of water fufficient to deluge .the earth, 
we muft make a very confiderable allowance for the bulk 
of all the hills on its furface. To conlider this matter, 
however, in its utmoft latitude: the furface of the 
earth is fuppofed, by the lateft computations, to contain 
199,51 2,595 fquare miles. To overflow this furface to 
the height of four miles, is required a parallelopiped 
of water fixteen miles deep, and containing 49,878,148 
fquare miles of furface. Now, confidering the immenfe 
thicknefs of the globe of the earth, it can by no means 
be improbable, that this whole quantity of water may be 
contained 
