CHAP. XII.
A short review of what hath been already treated
of, and in what manner. The several faces
and Schemes under which the Earth would appear
to a Stranger, that should view it first at a distance, and then more closely, and the Application of them to our subject. All methods, whether Philosophical or Theological, that have been
offer'd by others for the Explication of the Form
of the Earth, are examin'd and refuted. Aconjecture concerning the other Planets, their Natural Form and State compared with ours.
WE have finisht the Three Sections of this Book,
and in this last Chapter we will make a short
review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto
treated of, and add some further confirmations of it.
The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first
proposal and design of this Discourse, to make that a
thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man:
And the full Explication of this drew in the whole
Theory of the Earth: Whose original we have deduc'd from its first Source, and shew'd both what was
its Primæval Form, and how it came into its present
Form. The summ of our Hypothesis concerning the
Universal Deluge was this; That it came not to pass,
as was vulgarly believ'd, by any excess of Rains, or
any Inundation of the Sea, nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters; unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time,
namely when the Great Abyss was broken open. And
accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution, or if the Earth had been always in the same
form it is now, no mass of water any where to be
