habitants of the earth. Can we be filent, who behold and enjoy thofe things! alas! too many can. Neither the heavens, which declare the glory of God, nor the days of the gofpel, nor the righteoufnefs of the new law, are regarded by them. But the wife will ever join with all their hearts, in the moft exalted prayer and praife, and adore the Giver of thefe good and perfect gifts; for all his bleffings vouchfafed us; and efpecially, for the charter of his pardon granted by his bleffed Son, and the promises of everlasting happiness and glory in a life to come, reafon muft declare it juft to offer up reli gious praife, and make the greatest mental and moral improvement we can in this first state.

An extraor dinary lech on the top of a bigh moun tain.

34. Another extraordinary thing I daw in the place I have mentioned, was a water on the top of a hill, which stood at the other end of the lake, and was full as high as the moun tain, from the fide of which, the water poured into the lake. This loch measured three quarters of a mile in length, and half a mile over. The water appeared as black as ink, but in a glafs was clear as other water, and bright in running down. It tafted

tafted fweet and good. At one end, it runs over its rocky bank, and in feveral noify cafcades, falls down the face of the mounrain to a deep bottom, where a river is formed, that is feen for a confiderable way, as it wanders along. The whole is a striking scene. The fwarthy loch, the noify defcending ftreams, clumps of aged trees on the mountain's fide, and the various fhores and valleys below, afford an uncommon view. It was a fine change of ground, to afcend from the beautiful lake, (encompaffed with mountains, and adorned with trees) into which was poured from a gaping precipice, a torrent of ftreams; and fee from the reverfe of an oppofite hill, an impetuous flood defcending from the top to the fineft points of view in the wildeft glins below.

35. What line I had with me, for experiments on waters and holes, I applied to this loch, to difcover the depth, but with 300 yards of whipcord my lead could reach no ground, and from thence, and the blacknefs of the water, and the great iffing ftream, I concluded, juftly think, that it went down to the great abyfs, the vaft treafury of waters within the earth.

the cause of able lock on an unfathom

the top of the

mountain.

Many fuch unfathom

unfathomable lochs as this have I feen on the fummits of mountains in various

parts of the world, and from them, fuppofe, the greatest part of that deluge of waters came that drowned the old world. This leads me to fay fomething of the flood.

Remarks on the deluge.

36. Many books have been written in relation to this affair; and while some contend for the overflowing of the whole earth to a very great height of waters and fome for a partial deluge only--others will not allow there was any at all. The divine authority of Mofes they difregard. For my part, I believe the flood was univerfal, and that all the high hills and mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The cause was forty days heavy rain, and fuch an agitation of the abyfs, by the finger of God, as not only broke up the great deep, to pour out water at many places, but forced it out of fuch bottomlefs lochs as this I am fpeaking of on the mountains top, and from various fwallows in many places. This removes every objection from the cafe of the deluge, and gives water enough in the space of 150 days, or five months of 30 days each, to over-top the highest mountains by 15 cubits, the height defigned.

The

The abyss in strong commotion, or violent uproar, by a power divine, could fhake the incumbent globe to pieces in a few minutes, and bury the whole ruins in the deep. To me, then, all the reasoning against the deluge, or for a partial flood, appear sad stuff. Were this one loch in Stanemore to pour out torrents of water, down every fide, for five months, by a divine force on part of the abyss, as it might very easily by fuch means do, the inundation would cover a great part of this land; and if from every loch of the kind on the fummits of mountains, the waters in like manner, with the greatest violence, flowed from every fide out of the abyss, and that, exclufive of the heavy rains, an earthquake fhould open. fome parts of the ground to let more water out of the great collection, and the seas and ocean furpass their natural bounds, by the winds forcing them over the earth, then would a univerfal flood very foon prevail. There is water enough for the purpose, and as to the fupernatural afcent of them, natural and fupernatural are nothing at all different with respect to God. They are diftinctions merely in our conceptions of things. Regularly to move the fun or earth, and to ftop its motion for a day;-to make the waters that covered the whole earth at the creation, defcend into the feveral recepta

cles

cles prepared for them; and at the deluge, to make them afcend again to cover the whole earth, are the effect of one and the fame Almighty Power; though we call one natural, and the other fupernatural. The one is the effect of no greater power than the other. With refpect to God, one is not more or lefs natural or fupernatural than the other. *

The means

which drained off the waters of the deluge from the

earth.

But how the waters of the deluge were drawn off at the end of the five months, is another queftion among the learned. The ingenious Kell, who writ against the two ingenious Theorists, fays the thing is not at all ac countable in any natural way: the draining off, and drying of the earth, of fuch a huge column of waters, could only be effected by the power of God: natural caufes both in decreafe and the increafe of the waters. muft have been vaftly difproportionate to the effects, and to miracles they must be afcribed. This, I think, is as far from. the truth, as the Theorists lafcribing both increafe and decreafe to natural causes. God was the performer, to be fure, in the flood and the going off, but he made ufe of natural caufes in both, that is, of the things he had. in the beginning created. The natural

caufes