CHAP. VII.
That the Explication we have given of an Universal
Deluge is not an Idea only, but an account of
what really came to pass in this Earth, and the
true Explication of Noah's Flood; as is prov'd
by Argument and from History. An Examination of Tehom-Rabba, or the great Abysse,
and that by it the Sea cannot be understood, nor
the Subterraneous Waters, as they are at present.
What the true Notion and Form of it was, collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers;
The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening
and shutting the Abysse, and the particular stile
of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin, and
the Formation of the Earth. Observations on
Deucalion's Deluge.
WE have now given an account of the first
great revolution of Nature, and of the Universal Deluge, in a way that is intelligible, and from
causes that answer the greatness of the effect; We
have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd, both
as to the first form of the Earth, and as to the manner of its Dissolution, and how far from that would
evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge;
which was that which put a period to the old World,
and the first state of things. And though all this hath
been deduc'd in due order, and with connexion and
consequence of one thing upon another, so far as I
know, which is the true evidence of a Theory; yet it
may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons, who will allow, it may be, and
acknowledge, that this is a fair Idea of a possible De
