trifling Differences in Religion, is one of the great Benefits Scotland will reap by this Union. I am not so much terrified at the Vision of a noble Lord, as he is himself, but heartily wish to fee a Plantation of as rich Jews as any in Amfterdam, as rich Independents, Quakers, and Anabaptifts as any in England, fettled in all the Trading Towns of the Kingdom. Not but that I think all Motives that are not penal, ought to be used for their Conversion; but I would not have Churchmen afraid of the Increase of their Manufacture too; for Hereticks are properly the Subject which they are to work upon: To be afraid to live among Hereticks is to refuse the Tafk their Master has impofed upon them. Their Predeceffors the Apostles used to go, at the Hazard of their Perfons, to preach the Gospel to the Jews; they are afraid the Jews fhould come to them, where they run no Rifque at all in attempting their Converfion. In a Word, if any unjuft Tyranny over the Perfons, Eftates, or Confciences of Men be the Motive which prevails with fome to oppofe this Union, I would have such consider, that to govern a Free People is a more noble and honourable Character than to infult over Slaves and Beggars; and if any fuch there be, who hug their Chains, and are fond of their Rags, and, as a wretched People once did by the Romans, refuse their Liberty when offered, they are unworthy of fo generous and beneficial a Propofal. Laftly, If this is only a Scuffle raised by the united Force of the Skillin and Louis d'Or, let fuch confider, that both of them are not to be put upon the Balance with the Guinea which they may get by their Industry.

Confider then, in this your Day, the happy Condition of your neighbouring Nation: Survey their verdant Fields, their beautiful Plantations, and fumptuous Gardens, where Culture, Art, and Expences reign; their populous and fourishing Cities: View

the

the Magnificence of their publick Structures; the Neatnefs, Cleanliness, Conveniency, and coftly Furniture of their private Houses: Confider the Liberty and Plenty of their meaneft Commoners; the comfortable Eftates which even the lowest of their Tradesmen leave to their Families; the immenfe Riches of their Merchants; the Grandeur and Magnificence of the Learned Societies; the prodigious Stocks of their Trading Companies; the unconquerable Force of their Fleets and Armies; the Juftice and exact Execution of their Laws; and the wife Administration of their Government: Ponder all thefe Things, and then fure you will not reckon them your Enemies, who offer you a Partnership in fo great Bleffings; but will conclude with the wife Man in my Text, Better is he that laboureth, and aboundeth in all Things, than he that boasteth himself, and wanteth Bread.

An

An Examination of Dr. Woodward's Account of the Deluge,

&c.

With a Comparison between Steno's Philofophy and the Doctor's, in the Cafe of Marine Bodies dug out of the Earth.

I

The PREFAC E.

Shall make no Apology for the following Remarks, fince the unquestionable Liberties of the Commonwealth of Learning allow me the fame Privilege of examining, as they do the Doctor of propofing his Hypothefis; and I am so far from having given the Doctor any just Caufe of Offence, that I shall rather believe I deferve his Thanks; for fince he has fet up his Effay as the Model of a larger Structure, he ought to be fuppofed rather to invite than difcourage those who may point at any Faults which afterwards it may be too late to correct: The Citations out of Dr. Woodward and Steno may feem tedious, but they were neceffary; for after fuch heavy and unjust Charges of mif-reprefenting, which had appeared in fome Matters relating to this Controverfy, I durft not venture out of the beaten Road of verbal Quotation.

An

An Examination of Dr. Woodward's Account of the Deluge, &c.

TH

I.

HAT the Reader may have a true Notion of Dr. Woodward's Hiftory of the Deluge, he may take the following Account, in his own Words. 1. That at the Time of the Deluge (p. 164) the Water of the Ocean was firft borne forth 6 upon the Earth; that it was immediately fucceeded by that of the Abyss, which likewife was brought out upon the Face of the Globle (p. 109.). How this Water was raised at the Deluge? By what I fues or Out-lets it came forth? What fucceeded into the Room of it while abfent? The Author fays he will tell us in his larger Work.

2. That the whole Terreftrial Globe was taken all to Pieces, and diffolved at the Deluge; (Preface) the Particles of Stone, Marble, and all other folid Foffils diffevered; their conftituent Corpufcles all disjoined (p. 74.) their Cohesion perfectly ceafing; that the faid Corpufcles of those folid Foffils, together with the Cor pufcles of those which were not before folid, fuch as Sand, Earth, and the like (he means the leffer Solids, for Sand Earth are not Fluids) as alfo all Animal Bodies, and Parts of Animals, Bones, Teeth, Shells, Vegetables, and Parts ⚫ of Vegetables, Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, and, to be fhort, all Bodies whatsoever that were either upon the Earth, or that conftituted the Mass of it; if not quite down to the Abyfs, yet at leaft to the greatest Depth we ever dig: (that is, if not to the Depth of two thousand Miles, at least of two hundred Feet) but the Reft of the Hypothefis • and the former Part of the Paragraph does not VOL. II. Suffer

I

I fuffer this to be any Doubt: (For the whole Terreftrial Globe was diffolved :) I fay, all these were affumed up promifcuoufly into the Water, and fuftained in it in fuch Manner, that the Water and Bodies in it together made up one common confufed Mafs (p. 107.) What was the immediate Inftrument or Means whereby the Stone and other folid Matter of the antediluvian Earth was diffolved (p. 108.) Why the Shells, Teeth, Bones, and other Parts of Animal Bodies, as alfo the Trunks, Roots, and other Parts of Vegetables, were not diffolved as well as the Stones and other mineral Solids of that Earth, the Author has promifed a Reafon in his larger

• Work.

3. That (p. 75.) at length all the Mafs that was thus borne up into the Water was again • precipitated, and fubfided towards the Bottom; that this Subfidence happened generally, and, as near as could poffibly be expected in fo great a Confufion, according to the Laws of Gravity : That Matter, Body, or Bodies, which had the greatest Quantity or Degree of Gravity, fubfiding first in Order, and falling loweft; that which had the next, or ftill a leffer Degree of Gravity, fubfiding next after, and fettling upon the Precedent; and fo on in their feveral Courses. (p. 108.) But the Terreftrial Matter that first fubfided did not defcend down quite to the Centre, and fill up the Cavity of the great Abyss, but stopped at that Distance from it, forming an arched Expanfum, or rather a Sphere around it; which is now the loweft Stratum and Boundary of that vaft Conceptacle of Water. Of this likewife the Author will aflign a Reafon in his larger Work.

4. That