.I.

In the following reflections, the important subjects LETTER of thought which occur to the inquiring mind on the recorded subject of the primeval history of man during the first period of his being—a period which in the shortest computation comprised the first 1656 years of human existence-will be considered as they arise, with continual deference to the authority from which the facts are taken, but with the exercise of that mental investigation which is usually termed philosophical. No arrogant assumption is intended by this epithet: it is a word which is used to denote an inquiry into the principles of what we discuss, according to those of our just knowlege on all natural phenomena a mental investigation, that searches for intelligible causes and agencies consistent with those with which we are already acquainted, and which seem to be most certain. It is an endeavour to illustrate by reason, what we believe upon proper authority. I have always found my own belief most steady, whenever I traced it to be in coincidence with my other knowlege; and it is my earnest desire that in all things your belief may be accompanied by your judgment; and that Faith and Reason may in you be always in that pleasing union, which will ever constitute the soundest and largest mind, and yield the greatest comfort. I cannot pretend to do more than to explain to you those inferences and reasonings which have satisfied myself. It is absurd for any human being, uninspired, to domineer over another. I would not attempt to do so. It would be both unjust and foolish. It would fail in its effect, and be contrary to the well-founded claim which every one has to judge for himself, under his own responsibility to the Deity, who rightfully claims our implicit obedience

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LETTER and immediate acquiescence in all that He discloses. But, between man and man, no one can with any justice or reason, tyrannize or dogmatize over others.

That we belong to a class of beings, whose existence will not cease with their present earthly life, but will continue elsewhere-altho the body we now animate will decay, and separate into its elementary particles you and I believe, from reason, from our intellectual feelings, from the consent of the best philosophers of all ages, from the traditions of all nations, and from the deciding communications of the Christian Revelation. We do not perish when our material frame dissolves. Our thinking and feeling principle survives its fleshly limbs and organs, which are but the instruments of its use and pleasures here; and will, after the visible death of our corporeal frame, and in re-union with another, possess its consciousness, its sensitivity, and its active powers in some other place, and under such other circumstances as its Creator shall appoint. We are on this earth solely from his special designation. Neither we, nor our ancestors, have ourselves constructed it for our habitation. It has been provided for our present existence before the birth of our race began. It continues, for the reception and residence of others, when we disappear. We are placed on it, without any previous consultation with our will or choice. We find every thing in it most artificially and specifically made, and all independently of us. Such as

it is, we have no option, but to be in it as it is. The whole of it has been framed, in every part, by some other and superior Power, who has formed it upon. his own plan, and for his own purposes. Our term of existence in it, is that which He has been pleased

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to fix, and to which He has limited our enjoyment of LETTER it. This special fabrication of all things which now surrounds us, leads the mind to infer and believe, that our next state and mode of existence will be as elaborately and specifically provided, according to his appointing will and established designs. In all periods of our being, our Creator must be our disposing Governor, so far as He shall chuse to be so; and it therefore becomes an object at all times of the deepest interest to us, to ascertain, if it be possible, what his intentions and wishes are with respect to our present and future destinies. What He has imparted to us of his will and expectations; what commands He has imposed; what information He has condescended to convey; and what intercourse He has been pleased to hold with any portion of our progenitors, in the anterior ages of our history:-the more we know of these important subjects, and the more just our notions of them shall be, the more clearly we shall discern how we ought to direct and regulate both our conduct and our reasoning speculations, for the improvement of our intellectual nature, and for the preservation and increase of our personal happiness. These topics are comprised in the SACRED HISTORY of the World. We can know nothing of the thoughts and purposes of the Divine Mind, but from its own Revelations of these to us. We possess a record of these, in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and we have no other authoritative memorial of them. Without these, we should be in utter darkness on this most interesting subject. On these, therefore, all our knowlege of divine things must be formed on their direct information, so far as that extends; and on those further probabilities, which may be deduced from

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LETTER them by correct inferences, cautiously and reverentially made, in addition to what they have positively declared. The grand and beautiful Creation furnishes an illustrating comment on these revealed truths; and a careful consideration of these sources of our most important knowlege will enable us to take such views of the moral constitution and course of things, which have been framed for our terrestrial globe, as may make them, in some degree, more intelligible to us. Our present inquiries will be confined to the first æras of the world which were closed by the Deluge; but many of the essential principles of this great subject will arise to our contemplation from the events of this period. If we can but think justly on these, they will enable us to reason more correctly on the subsequent history of mankind; and they will give to this subject, so repulsive in some of its results and features to our ordinary feelings, a more connected, orderly, and rational aspect, than it has generally been thought to present to the deliberating understanding.

It was nearly 6,000 years ago, according to the chronology of the Hebrew Scriptures and their numerals, which, after much thought, I cannot but deem the true standard of the duration of the human existence, that it pleased the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe to determine on the Creation of the Earth which we inhabit, and upon the formation of those races of animated beings which appear upon it. His purposes in this grand operation of his power, and the degree and course of agency and interposition, which He chose to pursue with regard to those whom He called into being upon it, we can learn only from his special communications, and from the authentic

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narratives of his intercourse with us. On these, there- LETTER fore, our eye must be fixed, as from these alone can the sacred history of our World be composed. They will be the foundation of our present investigations.

Our Globe consists of its earthly structure-of the ethereal fluids which move upon it and above it-of the watery masses and effusions-of the vegetable kingdom-and of the animated races. It is subjected to the potent and varied agencies of the Sun and Moon. It rolls, with undisputed and unsupported. freedom, thro a boundless space; and it is connected by immediate relations with the Planets of our system; more remotely with the splendid Stars, whose nature and numbers we have not yet ascertained; ; and occasionally, at intervals, some of which are recurrent, with the rapidly-moving Comets. These rush suddenly and unexpectedly, for the most part, into our visible heavens, by laws and for purposes yet unknown; rather advertising us of their existence, and amazing us by their appearance, than exercising any perceptible effect or imparting any knowlege of their composition, of the causes of their journey, or of the places from which they come and to which they so mysteriously depart. In this grand system of existence, Man is the most intelligent being that is visible to our material sense; and we have as yet no decisive evidence that any thing, below the Creator, will be ultimately his superior.

The Sacred History of the World is built on the grand truth expressed in the first verse of the Pentateuch :

In the beginning GOD (ELOHIM) created the heavens and the Earth.''

' Genesis, ch. i. ver. 1.