A SECOND DEFENCE OF THE New Theory of the Earth FROM THE EXCEPTIONS OF Mr. JOHN KEILL.  
By WILLIAM WHISTON, M. A. Vicar of Lowestoft, Suffolk; and Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God, JOHN, Lord Bishop of Norwich.  
LONDON: Printed for Benj. took at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet. 1700.   

A SECOND DEFENCE OF THE New Theory of the Earth, etc.  
SINCE I have resolved to be as short as possible in this Rejoinder, and have ever determined with myself to avoid all Heat and Passion; all Recriminations and personal Reflections; which I look upon as Things unworthy of the Professors of the Peaceable and Charitable Religion of our Saviour; as Immoralities in Philosophers, and Crimes in Christians: I shall therefore wave all things in Mr. Keill's Defence which might occasion any Reflections of that nature, and endeavour only to debate the Matters in dispute between us with all the Calmness and Fairness possible. And as wherever I am convinced by his Reasons, I shall freely own it; so it is but Equal that I expect the same of him upon the same Occasions. Only He must give me leave to say, That the Reason of my Surprise at His appearing in Public against me, was not any Special Obligations I thought him under to me; but his having declared his Satisfaction with the principal Assertion, nay the main Foundation of my Theory, viz. That a Comet passed by the Earth at the Deluge. After which Concession I could not, I thought, expect an Opposition in Print to my Book from him. I will repeat Mr. Keill's Words at large, in the beginning of his former Remarks, and Appeal to the Candid Reader, whether I had not some reason to be surprised. I cannot but acknowledge, says Mr. Keill, that the Author of the New Theory of the Earth, has made greater Discoveries, and proceeded on more Philosophical Principles, than all the Theorists before him have done. In his Theory there are some very strange Coincidents, which make it indeed probable, That a Comet at the time of the Deluge passed by the Earth. It is surprising to observe the exact Correspondence between the Lunar and Solar Year, upon the Supposition of a Circular Orbit, in which the Earth moved before the Deluge. It cannot but raise admiration in us, when we consider, that the Earth at the Time of the Deluge was in its Perihelion, which would be the necessary Effect of a Comet that passed by at that time, in drawing it from a Circular to an Elliptical Orbit. This, together with the Consideration that the Moon was exactly in such a place of its Orbit at that time, as equally attracted with the Earth, when the Comet passed by, seems to be a very convincing Argument that a Comet really came very near, and passed by the Earth, on the day the Deluge began. But to leave this Preface, and to come to the Matters themselves in dispute between us.  
In the First place therefore, because Moses at the beginning of the Six days Creation, says, That Darkness was upon the face of the Deep; whereas the Atmosphere of a Comet, which I suppose to be the Chaos here meant, is a transparent Fluid while it is such: Mr. Keill argued, that this transparent Atmosphere could not be the dark Abyss of Moses. Now what I answered was, That Moses did not concern himself with the ancient State of the Chaos, but only with its State at the Commencing of his Creation: at which time it would be a dark Abyss in the properest sense, and highest degree imaginable. Now all that Mr. Keill adds about this matter (whether as to the light and shining of the Central Solid, and his Calculations thereto relating: As to the Change from a Pellucid to an Opake Fluid: or as to the Restraint of the word Abyss to the Dense Fluid alone) might have been omitted, if he had first rightly understood and considered the Propositions in the New Theory, where these Matters were explained already. For certainly, though the Central Solid were as luminous as the Sun itself; yet to a Spectator, placed in so thick a Mist, there could no more of its Light from within, than of the Sun's from without, appear: Though truly the Calculations here suppose (1.) the Earth, when a Comet to have moved as near the Sun as the last; whereas perhaps no other ever did so besides. (2.) The Heat of its own Nucleus the main Cause of its Tail; which is utterly false, and never imagined by me. And (3.) The Spectator at only Ten Miles distance from the Nucleus, when he must have been as many Hundreds at least: and so are wholly groundless, and my Theory not at all concerned in them. Besides; though All the Upper parts of the Atmosphere of a Comet, through which we see the Fixed Stars, is Transparent; yet the Lowest part next the Nucleus, or Dense Body, seems Opake and Dark; like a very thick Mist; so as to hid the Nucleus itself from our sight, and cause Darkness upon the Face of the Deep. For the Changes which some observe in the Nucleus of Comets, are to be supposed not in the Solid Body, but in the Cloudy Bottom of the Atmosphere, which next encompasses the Nucleus. And this Darkness upon the Face of the Deep might continue till the Comet was grown Cold, and all the Denser part of the Atmosphere was Subsided: and be greatest while those Denser parts were in a State of Coagulation and Subsiding. 'Tis also evident in my Book that I ascribe the Changes of the Chaos to the Operations of the Spirit of God introducing such Laws of Bodies by which the Earth would first be formed, and its Phaenomena ever after be governed. And 'tis sure no hard interpretation to include all that Fluid Region beneath the Earth's Future Surface under the term Abyss; though after the Separation of the Earthy Parts, and their Consolidation, the Dense Fluid may most properly go by that Name: And upon the Face of the Abyss there was at first Darkness, and that succeeded by Light, according to the exact Description of Moses; and according to the Solution of the First Day's work in the New Theory.  
My next Answer was to Mr. Keill's Objection against the sudden Formation of the Earth in a few years' time by the Laws of Mechanism. For since, says he, the Confusions of the Comet's Atmosphere seem to arise from the Violence of the Heat in its Perihelion; as that Heat gradually decreased, (which would not be under many Hundreds, or perhaps Thousands of Years) the Confusions would cease also; and the Subsidence and Mechanical Formation be completed proportionably in the same time, and not sooner; contrary to my Theory. My Answer to this was, it seems, by me so obscurely expressed, that Mr. Keill could not apprehend my meaning: Which therefore I shall endeavour to explain more distinctly thus. I deny that all the Confusions of a Comet's Atmosphere are owing to the Heat at the Perihelion; and I also affirm, That since Astronomers find by Observation, that upon a Comet's return to the Solar Regions, the Atmosphere does still return, and is not at all settled and form like a Planet, I must have contradicted that Observation if I had ascribed the Formation of our Earth to such a gradual and tedious Operation. In short: My Chaos was a Comet's Atmosphere. Such an Atmosphere does not Subside in the Period about the Sun; and consequently Mr. Keill, who makes that an Objection against me, is mistaken, and the Formation of the Earth is to be ascribed to other Causes, and perfected by other Measures than he here imagines; and so for aught that appears, by those assigned in my Theory. I had said, 
Vind. p. 4, 5.  that All the same Laws, Properties, and Operations of Bodies, which we find established here on Earth, do not so Universally obtain in the Atmosphere of Comets. Which Assertion Mr. Keill is surprised at, and endeavours to Expose. Now in this Case I would desire Mr. Keill to show how, according to the Laws of Bodies with us, that so Thin Atmosphere of a Comet can sustain, at the distance of so many Thousand Miles from its Centre, such Clouds or Opake Masses as it frequently does. Nay, if we come to the Planets, which appear to be Bodies so like to our Earth, as to require the same general Measures and Laws in them; we may find such a Ring about Saturn, as 'twill be hard to account for by the Mechanical Laws upon our Earth. Sure there is no reason to imagine that, because God has been pleased to fix several arbitrary Laws, and Powers of Bodies resulting from them, in our little System; that therefore he has confined himself to ordain no others in different ones. To give an instance: The Particles of our Elastical Fluid, or Air, may be preserved from coming close together, as Mr. Keill, 
Vid Newt. p. 301.  I suppose, will not deny, by a Special Law directly opposite to that of Gravity; or by a particular vis centrifuga belonging alone to such Particles of Matter as the Air is composed of. Now I believe Mr. Keill will hardly affirm this to be an Universal Law, obtaining all over the Universe, but confined to some parts of it at pleasure. And many such Laws there may be in the Opinion of that Great Man, whose very Name is enough to defend one (as Mr. Keill justly speaks: 
Vid. Verb. Newt. N.T. pag. 225. marg. p. 134. ) upon which the particular Phaenomena among us do generally depend. Now though I believe such Laws as these various in various Systems, yet I never imagined that the Mechanical Powers demonstrable from the Necessary Laws of Motion are at all so; whatsoever, for the diversion of his Readers, Mr. Keill is pleased to suppose.  
However, By this Answer I not only, it seems, have prevented all possible Objections against my Theory: [a thing, to be sure, I cannot but be very fond of:] But I have Granted Mr. Keill all he designed to prove, viz. That the Earth was not formed according to the known Laws of Mechanism, but by the Efficacy of the Divine Spirit, which moved on the Face of the Waters. Now I must here deny the Opposition, and affirm, That in my Opinion the Earth was formed according to the known Laws of Mechanism, some of them introduced then by the Efficacy of the Divine Spirit, which moved on the Face of the Waters; and ever since continued among us. For Almighty God to introduce New and Regular Laws at the beginning of a New World, which are to be ever afterward observed in it, I take to be a Miraculous Interposition very worthy of God, and very accountable to our Reason. But to suppose him by a Multitude of Miracles acting so disproportionably and disorderly, as the common Scheme of the Creation obliges one to do, is to introduce Miracles sufficiently strange and unaccountable to me: and such as I can't be persuaded of by such Reasonings as I have yet met with upon this Occasion. Though to Mr. Keill, 
Pag. 4, 5.  who finds so little difficulty in this matter; and without Authority, can admit the Creation, and, I suppose, the Annihilation of the Waters of the Deluge; I little expect to show that any Miracle can be strange and unaccountable.  
As to the Internal Heat in the Earth, which is allowed by Mr. Keill; and by reason of some Earthquakes, of a very large Compass derived from it, can't but Reach downwards to a mighty Depth; It must be accounted for, whether it be a Cause of Fountains or not. And if Mr. Keill think it more easily ascribed to the Mixture of Sulphureous, Nitrous, and Mineral Principles, than to a Hot Central Solid; He must give me leave to retain my former Opinion, for these two Reasons: Viz. Because the Earth, at the Depth necessary for the Mixture, is too close and fast, and has no Caverns or Hollows requisite thereto: And Because such a Mixture itself supposes that Heat and Motion of Parts as Causes, which ought only to be the Effects thereof: Besides; I am still inclinable to ascribe the Origin of Springs in great part to the Vapours ascending, and elevated by the Subterranean Heat, for this particular, and to me substantial Reason, among others, That the Springs break forth extraordinarily, and run the fastest in a Frost, as they ought to do in this Hypothesis: when the Vapours in the Air seem most at rest and quiet; as is commonly observed, and particularly in the great Frost, 
3. Disc. 2 d Edit. p. 109.  by the Excellent Mr. Ray. To some other of whose Reasonings also I refer him upon this Occasion.  
As to my Receding, without Reason, from the Letter of Moses in the Fourth Day's work; Mr. Keill has so little still to say against those large Accounts I have given of that Matter, that I shall venture the Reasons I have already alleged with the Impartial and Considering, without any addition. Only his Argument against the Nature of the Hexaemeron, viz. that of an Historical journal, such as a Spectator on the Earth would have made: Because there was, in his Opinion, no such Spectator in being to make it; Is, I think, neither Conclusive, nor True. For though there were no real Spectator at first, yet the Nature of the History might, for good Reasons, be such as I assign notwithstanding. But, to tell him my Mind freely, I believe that the Messiah was there actually present: That He made the Journal: that He delivered it afterwards to Moses on Mount Sinai: and, That from thence it appears in the Front of his Pentateuch at this day.  
In the next place Mr. Keill endeavours to Vindicate his Assertion, That the Heat of the Sun for half the Second Day, or Year of the Creation, could not elevate Vapours enough to fill the Seas of the Primitive Earth. I had told him that I did not suppose the Waters in the Small Seas and Lakes of the Primitive Earth much above the Thousandth part of those in the present Seas and Ocean; and so there was no need of the raising of so many Vapours that day as he imagined. Now to confute this, he says, that so little Water would necessarily render that Earth dry, barren, and unfruitful. For since the quantity of Vapour raised is proportionable to the Surface of those Waters from whence 'tis raised; and since the Thousandth part of the present Water must have only the Thousandth part of the present Surface (which he must say, or say nothing:) It will follow that the Rains and Dews before the Flood were but the Thousandth part of those at present in a year's time: And since by the Absence of the Ocean the dry Land then was near double to that now, and to be supplied with only the Thousandth part of its Water, every Region would have in particular little more than the Two thousandth part as much Moisture as it has at present. Now this looks like a very formidable Calculation, and sufficient to destroy a main Foundation of the New Theory. But for Answer: How comes it about that Mr. Keill, who knows it so well, should forget the different Proportions between Solids and Superficies? between the quantity of Water for Use, and the quantity of its Surface for Evaporation? 'Tis certain, that though the Channels of the Primitive Seas and Lakes were Similar to those at present, yet a little more than a Thousandth part of the present Waters would have near an Eightieth part of the present Surface: Besides, 'Tis evident, that as our Ocean affords vast Quantities for Vapour, so the much greatest part of those Vapours return upon itself again, and are of no Use to the dry Land, especially in the Middle parts; from whence the Clouds seldom or never march so far as is necessary for that purpose: Nay, I will venture to say, that near the Thousandth part of the Waters of our present Ocean might be so disposed of in the Plains and smaller Valleys of our present Earth, as to afford not much less Surface, and so not much less Vapour than it does at present; if once all those Middle parts were away, whence little or nothing does accrue to the dry Land, which alone stands in need of it. Which things being supposed, as they are, I think, undeniably true; I answer thus; (1.) I never assign the Sun as the Sole Cause of the Ascent of the Vapours at the Time referred to. My Words are, 
N. T. p. 242.  The Heat of the Sun, with the continual Assistance of the Central Heat. From which Assistance Mr. Keill may imagine, that I believe vast Quantities of Vapours would be raised, at a time when it was really greater, and had a much freer passage; since I still derive so much of the Vapours of our present Rivers from it, even after its enclosure within the Crust of Earth consolidated together. (2.) I fear not to assert that a small part of the Water now raised in a year, when it fell regularly and constantly in equal Dews, and went not off in violent Rains and Torrents, not insufficient for the Antediluvian Earth. (3.) At a time when the Ground was every Night very wet with a mighty Dew, the Surface of the dry Land did afford much more Vapour than the present Surface; which is only sometimes wet with some uncertain Showers, and that in some particular places only. (4.) The Channels or Receptacles of the Waters would scarcely then be Similar to the Channel of the Ocean now, but more level and shallow; which would still make the Surface larger in proportion to the Solid Content; and so afford much more Vapour for the supply of the Earth proportionably. (5.) If all my own Computations fail, I will for once beg one of Mr. Keill; which will certainly help us over this difficulty, [though it increase upon us by his next, which takes away Nine Tenths of our former quantity by the Interposition of the Atmosphere:] And that is from his Assertion, which we shall come to by and by; That the Heat of the Sun, at the time assigned, was several Hundreds of times as great as at present. Now though I shall show anon that this Computation is much too great; yet let us allow but a small part of that, and it will set us over this difficulty. For if the Heat were but Twenty times as great, it would in the same Space elevate Twenty times as many Vapours: which I hope will satisfy even Mr. Keill's own Expectations; and being from his own Assertion, will be allowed as satisfactory in the present Case. But after all; Sure Mr. Keill has forgotten that Solution in my Theory, whence all this Objection is raised: Otherwise He would have seen, that the vast Quantity of Vapours in the Air, on the Second Day of the Creation, came thither in Ways very different from that of the Raising of them now by the Heat of the Sun upon the Surface of our present Ocean, at a time when neither its Surface nor itself was in being. Which therefore has little to do with all the Computations used by Mr. Keill upon this Occasion.  
Neither has the next Objection any more weight in it: That the Waters in the Seas are called by Moses, Waters under the Firmament: and so are of a different Nature and Original from those in the Air, which are Waters above the Firmament: Whereas I derive the one from the other, and suppose the Seas to have once been Vapour, and so part of the other Waters. For certainly if Vapours in the Air, or Waters above the Firmament, fall down, become Water, and run into the Seas, they must be allowed to change their Name, and become Waters below the Firmament. I am sure this Change is no new thing, but has been continual from the Creation till our Times. Every day Vapours become Rain, and run into the Seas; and the Seas are every day resolving into small Parts, and become Vapours: and so the Inferior and the Superior Waters still communicate with, and supply each other, and accordingly change their Denomination perpetually. And truly this, and the next Shadow of a Difficulty about the Appearance of the Dry Land, might have been so easily avoided by a little more careful perusal of a Solution or two in my Theory, that Mr. Keill need not have desired a farther Answer.  
We are now come to the great Point of the Inconveniences which would arise from the long Days and Nights in my first Hypothesis; and how entirely they all vanish upon that Additional one of the Elliptic Orbit till the Fall. Now though Mr. Keill does not disown that his former Objections are of no force against me now; yet because this Additional Hypothesis did not appear before in my Theory, He thinks it not worth while to confute it: which is truly a short and easy way of Answering. Now for my part, I am far from thinking worse of any Discovery upon the account of the Time in which it was made: And if I can show good Reason for this, as I think I can, I shall not be much concerned at Mr. Keill's passing it over untouched. For the only thing he says, 
P. 181, 182.  viz. That 'twill hardly be allowed that but one half of the Primitive Earth was Habitable before the Fall, seems to me too inconsiderable to be made an Objection. I should think it no great matter if all the Earth, excepting the Regions about Paradise, were uninhabitable at a time when they were not to be inhabited. For to what great Purpose is it that all proper provision be made for the Entertainment of a Company of Guests at a Table, when 'tis certainly known that not one Guest will be there? Providence does ever wonderfully provide for the Accommodation of his Creatures wherever it places them: But that a suitable Provision is made for them where they will never be placed, I see no reason to imagine. If I ever attempt another Edition of my Book, this Hypothesis, with several other Discoveries since made, will be inserted; and will, I believe, with fair and considering Persons, be thought far from spoiling the Beauty of the Theory; whatsoever Mr. Keill, who is no friend to Theories in general, may think to the contrary. But to proceed.  
Mr. Keill still asserts, that the Heat in my Hypothesis before the Fall, when the Sun was half a year at least above the Horizon at once, was several Hundred times greater than that with us at present. Now in answer to this, I alleged, That if we compute the Quantity of Heat from that of the Sun's Rays, it will be equal in both Cases, and so his Assertion must be a plain Error. But it seems he meant quite otherwise than I imagine; viz. That the Degree of Heat, produced by so long continuance of the Sun's presence, would at last be several Hundred times as great as with us at present. I answer, That in this sense the Assertion is not much truer than in the other. The Heat produced by the Fire, or the Sun, for some time continually increases; and perhaps pretty nearly in proportion to the time. But this only for a while, till a suitable or competent Degree of Heat be produced; but no longer. Let us try this by Calculation. A piece of Wax will melt in a Second of Time, suppose, at the distance of an Inch from the Fire; because the Degree of Heat there is sufficient to dissolve its Texture immediately. Let us remove it to the Distance of a Hundred Inches, where the Heat is Ten Thousand times weaker; for Ten Thousand Seconds, or near Three Hours Space, the Quantity of Heat is therefore (as the Rectangle, contained betwixt the Sine of the Angle of Incidence (the same in both Cases here) and the time of continuance) exactly equal to the former Heat; and must therefore have the same effect: Which yet, I presume, Mr. Keill does not believe it will. Thus let us compare the Heat of the Sun at the Equator, and near the Poles; where the Sins of the Sun's Angle of Incidence are as 10 to 1, [for the Daytime, or 12 Hours at the Equator; and for the 12 Hours at the Conclusion of the Half-year-day near the Poles] Which will, according to Mr. Keill, be as 10 + 12 to 1 + 4320; or as 120 to 4320; and so the Heat near the Pole 36 times as great as that at the Equator: Which, I presume, Experience does not attest. But after all, This Objection, if it were true, only refers to the Circular Orbit before the Fall: But as my Theory stands at present, with the Hypothesis of an Elliptic Orbit, 'tis no way concerned in it.  
But now we are come to a Point of much greater Consequence, Whether the Dense Fluid, on the Approach of the Comet at the Deluge, would have force enough to burst the Earth, or that upper Crust which is situate upon the Surface of the Dense Fluid. For Mr. Keill, with no mean Appearance of Demonstration, urges, That since the first Impetus of the Dense Fluid is infinitely less than any succeeding Impetus acquired by Motion; and since here is no room for Actual Motion, here cannot be Impetus sufficient to break the Crust, which otherwise Mr. Keill owns it would easily do. In answer to this I say, That since Mr. Keill does not disown the first Original of the Earth's Fissures, and the breaking of the Crust by the Diurnal Rotation; he ought much less to scruple it here. A Plank or Board, when once 'tis cut into several pieces, let the pieces be laid as true and close as possible, will be separated without any difficulty upon all Occasions. And just thus it is here. The Strata having been formerly separated, and by the continuance of the Diurnal Motion not permitted to join or close afterward upon any Impetus of the Fluid below, they will open again; as I have asserted in the New Theory. But because Mr. Keill imagines that the Upper Crust of Earth would hinder the force of the Fluid below from breaking open its Fissures; let us compute the force of the Comet's attraction upon itself, and see whether even that alone, without the assistance of the Dense Fluid, would not be sufficient to break it in the manner I have assigned. Mr. Keill may remember, 
Coroll. 8. post Hyp. 10.  that I suppose the Comet at the Deluge about half as big as the Earth; and the nearest distance of its Centre to that of the Earth about 30000 Miles. Let us see what force this will afford towards breaking the Earth. At the nearest distance the Gravity of the Parts of our Earth nearest the Comet, towards the Comet's Centre, would be near 1 1/100 100 of their Gravity towards the Centre of the Earth; and the difference between the Gravity of those Parts towards the Comet, and of the Middle Parts or Centre of our Earth towards the same, would be the difference of the Squares of their several Distances, or about a quarter of the former Force 1 1/400 400 So that the Parts nearest to the Comet, and farthest off it, 
New Theor. Fig. 7.  [the Regions about b and a in my 7 Fig.] if the Crust be supposed 400 Miles thick, will have a Force upon them equal to the Weight of an entire Mile of Earth: and this sure will be more than sufficient to break and separate those Strata which are already broken and separated; and which therefore, at the first Impulse, would yield to that powerful Attraction which the Neighbourhood of so mighty a Body would occasion in the Case before us.  
As to the sudden Condensation of the Vapours from the Comet, upon their first Fall, whether by the Air or Earth, were it never so evident and universal, 'tis of very small consequence to me; since, as Mr. Keill does not deny, their own Heat would ratify vast Quantities of them again, and occasion their Elevation into the Air immediately: which is all I desire of him. But still he urges, That then the first Violent Fall would itself do the Business of the Deluge, without any occasion for the great and long Rains: And so the Forty days Rain, which occasioned the Flood in Moses, can't be accounted for, and is almost wholly superseded by us. In answer to which I say, That though the primary violent Fall of the Vapours were in less than a Day's time, as I have shown in my Theory; yet because as many would immediately arise again as the Air could hold, here is a Fund abundantly sufficient for the most violent Forty days Rain imaginable. And though the Vapours did Originally fall in so short a time, and with such Violence, on that Hemisphere of the Earth exposed to them, as there to do the Business of the Deluge immediately: Yet because the Regions near the Ark were not in that Hemisphere, their Deluge must arise from the Forty days Rain succeeding, and from the flowing in of the Waters from those other Parts of the Earth on which they first fell: according as this Matter is already stated in the New Theory; and, I think, need not be altered from any thing here suggested.  
We are now got to the principal Thing considerable in Mr. Keill's Objections; and that is his Demonstrations, that the Pressure of the incumbent Fluid could not raise the Subterranean Waters to the Surface of the Earth. And I must own, that I see the force of his Demonstrations now, which I did not before. And I hearty thank Mr. Keill for correcting so considerable a mistake in the New Theory; and a mistake that before was the only Obstacle to as remarkable a Confirmation of the main Parts of it, as perhaps any other whatsoever; which in due time shall appear. All that Moses says relating to this matter, 
Gen. 7.11. & 8. 1.  is, That the Fountains of the Great Deep were broken up at the beginning, and shut up at the Conclusion of the Deluge, without the least Affirmation that any Waters issued out of them; as has hitherto been universally supposed, and as I accordingly believed also. Though, in truth, I am now so far from that Opinion, that I believe the use of that disruption of the Fissures was only to drain off, and not at all to send out the Waters of the Deluge, as will more distinctly be shown upon a proper Occasion hereafter.  
But if Mr. Keill's Reasoning under this last Head appear so strong, what follows, touching the Removing of the Waters of the Deluge, seems to me of a very different Character. For (1.) Let the Cracks and Fissures be full during the Deluge; nay, let the Waters be draining away by them continually into the Bowels of the Earth: Yet till this Drain took away more than the Rains and the Running in of the Waters brought, the Flood would continually increase notwithstanding. (2.) I say still, Certainly the Pores and Interstices of 30 or 40, I might say of 60 or 80 Miles of dry Earth, or Earth that can still admit vast Quantities of Water, are capable of receiving 3, 4, or more Miles of Water into them. (3. Mr. Keill's Assertion, That the inward Strata of the Earth are almost wholly composed of a tough Clay, common Stone, Whinstone, Coal, Metalline Oars, and the like, uncapable of containing any Water considerable, is not generally true. I appeal to the following Table of the several Strata of a Well at Amsterdam, mentioned by Varenius, which is the best and deepest that I know where readily to meet with. And let the Reader judge whether all the Strata are such as will exclude Water or not, or such as Mr. Keill supposes the whole Body of the Earth below composed of.  

Feet.  Garden-Mould 
7 
Varen. Greg. p. 46.   Turf 
9  Soft Clay 
9  Sand 
8  Earth 
4  Clay 
10  Earth 
4  Sand in which the Piles for the Amsterdam Buildings are fixed 
10  Clay 
2  White Gravel 
4  Dry Earth 
5  Mud 
1  Sand 
14  Sandy Clay 
3  Sand mixed with Clay 
5  Sand mixed with Sea-shells 
4  A Clayey Bottom 
102  Gravel 
31  In all 
232   
(4.) I look upon his last Argument, viz. That these Fissures would not drain off the Waters in half a year, nor indeed under several Hundred years; as so far from affecting me, that I hearty thank Mr. Keill for so considerable a Confirmation of my Conjecture to this purpose at the End of my former Vindication. For though I think his Computation of the Time much too long, because the Fissures were then very much more open than now; and because the vast weight of the Waters, at first especially, would hasten the Velocity of their Descent: yet in general I am fully of his mind; that the Waters of the Deluge could not be Mechanically drained off so soon as the common Opinion is; 
Vind. p. 46, 47,48.  as he may see in the place referred to, which 'tis a little strange he should not discover before, and so perceive that he was, by the last Computation, but confirming one of the Points I had observed since the publishing of the New Theory. In short; The Remarks and Objections Mr. Keill and Others have made against some Branches of the New Theory, have occasioned me to correct some Parts, to confirm others, and to improve the whole. But so little do I esteem the principal Foundations of that Book destroyed by all that has been hitherto said, (Though Mr. Keill is pleased to presume, that by those few Objections he before made against a few particulars in it; And this after he had granted me the principal Point of all, it was in general already confuted:) That I may venture to say, I am prepared, upon a Second Edition, more fully to confirm and establish the main Conclusions in it than ever; as I hope will appear in due time.  
I shall add no more: But because the two concluding Questions I put to Mr. Keill before, are wholly passed over in silence, I shall Reprint them here again; and if he make another Rejoinder, again desire his free and ingenuous Answer: and so take my Leave.  
(1.) Since Mr. Keill grants that a Comet passed by at the Deluge, and yet contends that the Flood is not to be solved therefrom, but is to be believed wholly miraculous; To what purpose did the Comet so providentially pass by just at that time, if it had no relation to the Deluge? Does Mr. Keill imagine, That the same miraculous power which caused the Deluge, could not also, without the attraction of a Comet, make the Earth's Orbit Elliptical? A strange, unheardof, and most surprising Phaenomenon happens in the World! A Blazing Star, which we but seldom discover at a vast distance in the Heavens, descends hard by the body of our Earth: which without the greatest exactness in the Chain of Providence does not happen in thousands, nay millions of years: and as soon as ever 'tis passed by, a wonderful, and incredible Deluge of Waters overflows the whole Earth, and drowns all its Inhabitants without any other visible or imaginable occasion in the World: and yet, as it seems, the Comet only accidentally passed by, and had no hand at all in the Deluge!— Credat judaeus Apella.  
(2.) How could those effects I have mentioned be avoided upon the passing by of the Comet? We are not now in a Cartesian Vortex, where Fancy and Contrivance can introduce or hinder any effect at pleasure: But we are in Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy, which is an inflexible thing, and not at all subject to our inclinations. When the Comet therefore was just passed by us, I desire to know how the Earth could possibly avoid passing through its Atmosphere and Tail: If it could not, Pray what could prevent the acquiring that Column of Vapours I, by computation, find would fall on its Surface? And if such a Column of Vapours was left on the Earth, what could hinder their becoming Water, and drowning the Earth? I shall not, though I easily might, carry on the Chain of Queries any longer. But if Mr. Keill can fairly Answer me these few leading Questions, I shall then believe him alike able to Answer the rest: and so I shall not pursue this particular any farther, but leave it and this whole matter to his and the Reader's leisure and consideration.  
Lowestoft, Suffolk, Octob. 4.— 99  
FINIS.