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

that some of the Exhalation Escaping into our open Air, it produced vast Rains, with such Thunder and Lightning, as filled the Ungodly Men with a most confounding Amazement; and that by the Air still Enclosed under ground, the Water of the Abyss, raged and swelled, and broke out, & overflowed the highest Mountains. This (of St. Clair's) as probably conjectured as the other, I will pass over Mr. Delapryme's Imagination, That God broke the Foundations, Pillars, and Hollows, of the ⟨p. 11⟩Earth, which till then had stood above the Water. The continual Rains helped forward the Dissolution; the Earth yielded, and sunk down; it and all the wicked Burden of it, Subsided, and was absorbed in the Sea, which now covers it; As this Old Earth fell in, our New Earth rose up; This was lifted up, to balance the other; and as it Rose, the Waters rolled off, and left it at length to be what it is. This conjecture, seems liable to more objections than the former; and will have little but Plato's Tradition of the vast Island Swallowed up in the Atlantic Ocean, to Support it. Our Warren takes the Account of the Flood given in the Sacred Scriptures, to be Sufficiently Explained, by Saying; That there were vast Caverns, filled with Waters, in the Antediluvian Mountains. The Great GOD broke them open, and they came rolling down, and over-turning all that was in the way of the Mighty Inundation. At the same time, there fell prodigious Rains for Forty Days together. It was impossible for People to ascend these Mountains, when the Waters were issuing out from them, with such an impetuous Power & Plenty: and the Loaden Clouds, hanging & bagging about them, Emptied themselves there, like pressed Sponges, and ran down in irresistible Torrents. Doubtless, the Air was full of Water-spouts, like the Exhydriae, which are at Sea sometimes met withal; and the Hills were full of Cataracts Poured out by the Vengeance of God. This Gentleman, finds enough here to drown the World; and thinks ⟨p. 12⟩there is no Necessity of understanding the Bible, as if the Waters of the Flood, were Fifteen Cubits above the Tops of the Highest Mountains.

that some of the Exhalation Escaping into our open Air, it produced vast Rains, with such Thunder and Lightning, as filled the Ungodly Men with a most confounding Amazement; and that by the Air still Enclosed under ground, the Water of the Abyss, raged and swelled, and broke out, & overflow'd the highest Mountains. This (of St. Clairs) as probably conjectured as the other, I will pass over Mr. Delaprymes Imagination, That God broke the Foundations, Pillars, and Hollows, of the