choiceft bleffings of Heaven upon the inhabitants 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 righteoufness of the new law, are regarded by them. But the wife will ever join with all their hearts, in the most exalted prayer and praise, and adore the Giver of thefe good and perfect gifts; for all his blesfings 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 must declare it just to offer up religious praise, and make the greatest mental and moral improvement we can in this firft ftate. in An extraon loch on the ordinary high 34. Another extraordinary thing I faw the place I have mentioned, was a water the top of a hill, which ftood at the other top of a end of the lake, and was full as high as the mountain, mountain, from the fide of which, the water poured into the lake. This loch mea fured three quarters of a mile in length, and half a mile over. The water appeared as black as ink, but in a glafs it was clear as other water, and bright in running down. It tafted sweet and good. At one end, it runs over its rocky bank, and in several noisy cafcades, falls down the face of the mountain to a deep bottom, where a river is form The caufe ed, that is feen for a confiderable way, as it wanders along. The whole is a striking fcene. The swarthy loch, the noify defcending ftreams, clumps of aged trees on the mountain's fide, and the various fhores and vallies below, afford an uncommon view. It was a fine change of ground, to ascend 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 finest points of view in the wildest glins below. 35. What line I had with me, for experiments on waters and holes, I applied to this loch, to discover the depth, but with 300 yards of whipcord my lead could reach no ground, and from thence, and the blackon the top nefs of the water, and the great iffuing mountain. ftream, I concluded, juftly I think, that it of an un fathomable loch of the went down to the great abyss, the vast treafury of waters within the earth. Many fuch unfathomable lochs as this have I feen on the fummits of mountains in various parts of the world, and from them, I fuppofe, the greatest part of that deluge of waters came that drowned the old world. This leads me to fay fomething of the flood. 36. Many on the de 36. Many books have been written in re- Remarks lation to this affair; and while fome contend luge. 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 universal, 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 abys in strong commotion, or violent uproar, by a power divine, could shake the incumbent globe to pieces in a few minutes, and bury the whole ruins in the deep. To me, then, all the reafoning against the deluge, or for a partial flood, appear fad ftuff. 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 abyfs, as it might very eafily by fuch means do, the inundation O would The means would cover a great part of this land; and if But how the waters of the deluge were which drawn off at the end of the five months, is drained off the waters another question among the learned. The of the de luge from the earth. inge ingenious Keill, who writ against the two ingenious Theorists, fays the thing is not at all accountable 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 decrease and the increafe of the waters must have been vaftly difproportionate to the effects; and to miracles they must be ascribed. This, I think, is as far from the truth, as the Theorists afcribing both increafe and decreafe to natural caufes. God was the performer, to be fure, in the flood and the going off, but he made ufe of natural caufs in both, that is, of the things he had in the beginning created. The natural caufes he is the author of were at hand, and with them he could do the work. The fun evaporated; the winds dried; and the waters no longer forced upwards from the abyfs, fubfided into the many fwallows or fallow-holes, that are ftill to be seen in many places, on mountains and in vallies; thofe on the mountains being neceffary to abforb that vaft column of waters which rofe 15 cubits above the highest hills. A fwallow is fuch another opening in the ground as Eldine Hole in Derbyfire (16), and in (16) Eline Hole in Derbyfnire is a mile fouth of Manter, and 4 miles eaft of Buxton. It is a perO 2 pen |