A New Theory of the Earth was a book written by William Whiston, in which he presented a description of the divine creation of the Earth and a posited global flood. He also postulated that the earth originated from the atmosphere of a comet and that all major changes in earth's history could be attributed to the action of comets. It was published in 1696 and was well received by intellectuals of the day such as Isaac Newton and John Locke. Summary of the book The book is organized as follows: Introduction, discussing the text of Creation according to Genesis Book I: Lematta, discussing the premises and assumptions on which his argument is based; Book II: Hypotheses, discussing his model for the origin of the Earth; Book III: Phaenomena, discussing evidence predicted by his model; Book IV: Solutions, discussing how his model explains the evidence; Appendix: An abstract of his theory drawn from various sources. Intro In the introduction, Whiston discusses the Mosaic account of creation. He argues for a literal interpretation of Genesis, writing: "We must never forsake the plain, obvious, easy and natural sense, unless where the nature of the thing itself, parallel places, or evident reason, afford a solid and sufficient reason for so doing." In so doing, he challenges allegorical and mythological interpretations of Genesis, concluding that: "The Mosaic Creation is not a nice and philosophical account of the origin of all things; but a historical and true representation of the formation of our single Earth out of a confused Chaos, and of the successive and visible changes thereof each Day, till it became the habitation of mankind." (p.3) He interprets the Genesis account of creation as being only of the preparation of the Earth for mankind, and not as an account of creation from nothing. He draws this from the text, as the account speaks of the waters that existed before God's first creative act on the first day, implying that the Earth predates Genesis chapter one. He interprets the account of "placing the heavenly bodies in the firmament" as simply being a consequence of the terrestrial frame of reference, for the heavenly bodies do in fact revolve about the Earth from the perspective of a man standing on the Earth. He describes his Arianism, or the view that Jesus is subordinate to God but first in creation, a view considered heretical within much of