Thoughts for the day of rain. In two essay's

years, there prevailed such a Flood of Wickedness in the World, that the Holy and Righteous God, by a Flood of Water, brought upon it, a most horrible Desolation. But, who can comprehend, who can imagine, the horror of the Desolation! Many Refined Wits have Employed themselves, to frame Hypotheses, of the Methods of Nature, in which the Flood was brought about; until some of them fall into the Distemper, which Learned Men have wisely called an, Hypothesimania; and some of them have too much Excluded that Immediate Interposition of the Almighty GOD, in a way transcending the usual course, and common Law, of Nature, which was doubtless made on this tremendous Occasion. The Fancies and Fictions which Burnet has offered us in his Theory, (proved by Ramazzini, to be no other, than what Patritius an Italian, Published as a part of the Abyssertian Philosophy, an hundred and fifty years ago,) have met with sharp castigations, from them, who have had at heart, the cause & credit of the Sacred Scriptures. But, As of old, a Musician being asked, a Definition of the Soul, his answer was, Tis an Harmony! An answer that had a Tincture of his own Profession in it: So, I do not wonder, when I observe, what the Speculations of Some Gentlemen on this Noble Subject, are tinged withal. A Professor of the Mathematics, brings in a Comet, as producing all ⟨p. 10⟩the hideous hurly burly of the Flood, by approaching too near our Globe, in its Elliptic Motion. A Nation (of Whistons) that is not without its Probabilities: And agreeably to it, some Learned Men, foretell the Appearance of another Comet, [For old Seneca's Prediction about such Predictions is now accomplished!] which may bring our Globe, under the other Destruction, for which, we know, it is reserved. Nor am I without Suspicions, That a Comet may be intended by the Vapour of Smoke, which is to bring on the Great and Notable Day of the Lord; which also is most Literally, A Star falling from Heaven: And some think, A World in a State of Punishment! A Professor of Chemistry, from what he had seen in the Effervescence between an Acid and an Alkali, concludes, that there are great Cavities in the Bowels of the Earth, full of Water; that Minerals are generated in these Cavities; that by the colluctation of several Salts meeting together here, an Air was generated, which caused horrendous Earthquakes;

years, there prevailed such a Flood of Wickedness in the World, that the Holy and Righteous God, by a Flood of Water, brought upon it, a most horrible Desolation. But, who can comprehend, who can imagine, the horror of the Desolation! Many Refined Wits have Employ'd themselves, to frame Hypotheses, of the Methods of Nature, in which the Flood was brought about; until some of them fall into the Distemper, which Learned Men have wisely called an, Hypothesimania; and some of them have too much Excluded that Immediate Interposition of the Almighty GOD, in a way transcending the usual course, and common Law, of Nature, which was doubtless made on this tremendous Occasion. The Fancies and Fictions which Burnet has offered us in his Theory, (proved by Ramazzini, to be no other, than what Patritius an Italian, Published as a part of the Abyssertian Philosophy, an hundred and fifty years ago,) have met with sharp castigations, from them, who have had at heart, the cause & credit of the Sacred Scriptures. But, As of old, a Musician being asked, a Definition of the Soul, his answer was, Tis an Harmony! An answer that had a Tincture of his own Profession in it: So, I do not wonder, when I observe, what the Speculations of Some Gentlemen on this Noble Subject, are tinged withal. A Professor of the Mathematicks, brings in a Comet, as producing all