uses. brought to light more facts in its favour, than at this late period of the earth could have been expected to occur. Those which are of this description are enlarging in number every year; and therefore my belief is, that the veracity of the chief Hebrew historian will be ultimately found to be as exact in what he has recorded in the cosmogony with which he commences his work, as it is in the account of his own legislation There is certainly no appearance as yet that any contradictory theory will long survive its public enunciation. Magna est Veritas, et prevalebit, is the everlasting axiom. Truth, and truth only, will obtain any immortality in the intellectual, and therefore in our literary and social world.'-Turner's Sacred History, vol. i. pp. 30-34. London 1832. In studying the scriptures, it is peculiarly de- supplementary aid, so far as that was needed, than in sirable that we should, on no occasion, depart any more his notices of the divine creation. This was indeed the from the usual and natural meaning of the words and true basis of his mission and tuition; and it is brought phrases which there occur, than we do in reading any prominently forward at once to our view, as if it were other author. They have been greatly disfigured by meant to be so. His brief intimations are, therefore, the forced construction which most men seek to put upon most probably the just outlines of all true geology; and them; and much dissatisfaction has by this conduct been thus far we may affirm, that the more our materials of excited in the intelligent mind. The true construction judgment are increased by the multiplying labours of of every part must be, not the possibilities of meaning our geological students, the less founded any opwhich refining ingenuity may draw from the expression, posing speculations appear to become. It is now but that sense and purport which the author himself, in thirty-five years since my attention was first directed to penning them, intended that they should express. His these considerations. It was then the fashion for science personal meaning at the time, and not the import which and for a large part of the educated and inquisitive our verbal criticism can now extract, should be the great world, to rush into a disbelief of all written revelation; object of our attention. And therefore it appears to and several geological speculations were directed me to be most probable, that whenever the right theory against it. But I have lived to see the most hostile of on the fabrication of our earth, and on the era and suc- these destroyed by their as hostile successors; and to cession of its organized beings, shall be discovered, it observe that nothing which was of this character, however will be found to be compatible with the Mosaic cosmo- plausible at the moment of its appearance, has had any gony, in its most natural signification, But until this duration in human estimation, not even among the sceptidesirable event arrives, there will be as much incongru- cal. Augmented knowledge has, from time to time, overity between this ancient account and our modern specu- thrown the erroneous reasonings with which the Mosaic lations, as there cannot but be between the devious ex-account has been repeatedly assailed; and has actually cursions of an active imagination, and the simple and solid, but unattractive reality. Our German contemporaries, in some of their reveries on ancient history, are equally alert to prove that novelty of fancy is more sought for by many than justness of thought, that it is easier to argue than to judge,—and that even truth becomes weariness when it ceases to be original, and has lost the impression of its beauty by its habitual familiarity. It is quite true that Moses did not profess to be a geologist, and had no business to be so. His object was, not to teach natural science, but to inculcate the existence, the laws, the will, and the worship of God; and to found the polity and social manners and institutions of his countrymen, on this only true foundation of national prosperity and of individual happiness. But as he was the chosen organ of divine truth to man, on his moral and religious duties, it is most probable that what he expresses on other subjects, in those compositions which were to be the permanent guides of the opinions and conduct of his nation, will be also what is true and proper. It is most consistent with all that we know of intelligent agency, to suppose that he who was instructed or guided to be the lawgiver and sacred preceptor of his people, would be likewise so informed, or influenced, as to avoid falsehood on every collateral subject which it would be in the course of his narration to notice. If we were directing or assisting any pupil to write on any topic, we should certainly not suffer him to insert any thing that we knew to be a fiction or a fallacy. It is therefore most rational to suppose that the same precaution was used by the Deity towards his selected messenger. Hence, I am induced to believe that what Moses expresses incidentally on other points besides those of his divine legislation, is substantially true, and will be found to be so, as soon as his judges or readers have acquired competent knowledge. It is our deficiency in this which hurries us to discredit, or to doubt, or oppose him. But on no collateral point, additional to his main subject, was he more likely to have been correct, either from true human traditions of preceding knowledge, or communications, or from new Every lover of science, and every enlightened friend of religion, must applaud the noble and zealous efforts which so many learned and talented individuals of the present day are making, to penetrate the recesses of nature, and to discover the wonders that are hid in the deep places of the earth. The book of nature and the book of Revelation proceed from the same almighty and all-wise source, and therefore what is contained in the one must harmonize with what is contained in the other. It is only our weak and erring understandings that hinder us from perceiving this harmony in any particular instance; but we may rest assured, that the phenomena of nature, when rightly interpreted, will, instead of opposing and contradicting revelation, be found to confirm and support it. Already has geology lent its aid in this way, it has furnished indubitable evidence that this earth could not have existed from eternity, but must have had a beginning; that it was originally in a state of chaos, and its surface buried under the deep; and that at a period less remote its surface was again swept over by a deluge. (See b. i. sect. vi. ch. iii. of this history.) These and several other circumstances recorded in scripture history, receive confirmation from the fact which geology has disclosed, and there is reason to believe that future inquiries will elicit additional evidence of this kind.-See Prof. Hitchcock's Tract, Student's Cab. Lib. No. xix. Let the geologist then pursue his researches with all possible zeal and ardour; but let him do so in or whether they may not be so modified as to be in accorda proper spirit, and by a patient investigation of facts; ance with the declarations of scripture, taken in their let him abstain from rash speculations, into which the most natural and obvious sense. In this way may he objects of his inquiries are, from their very nature, ex-reasonably hope to meet with success, and to arrive at ceedingly apt to plunge him. Instead of attempting to conclusions which shall harmonize with those parts of accommodate scripture to his own conclusions, let him Scripture, between which and geology there is at precarefully examine whether these conclusions be accurate, sent a seeming inconsistency. xliv THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. BOOK I. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THINGS FROM THE CREATION TO THE FLOOD, IN ALL 1656 YEARS; ACCORDING TO DR HALES 2256 YEARS. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. THE Pentateuch or five books of Moses, designated Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, contains the authentic history of the world during a period of 2515 years. "It is a wide description, gradually contracted; an account of one nation, preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. The books are written in pure Hebrew, with an admirable diversity of style, always well adapted to the subject, yet characterised with the stamp of the same author: they are all evidently parts of the same work, and mutually strengthen and illustrate each other." The name of the first Book of the Pentateuch, Genesis, which signifies generation or production, has been given to this portion of the Sacred Canon, because it contains an account of the generation or production of all things. 'It narrates the true origin and history of all created things, in opposition to the erroneous notions entertained by the heathen nations; the origin of sin, and of all moral and physical evil; the establishment of the knowledge and worship of the only true God among mankind; their declension into idolatry; the promise of the Messias; together with the origin of the church, and her progress and condition for many ages. It makes known to the Israelites the providential history of their ancestors, and the divine promises made to them; and shows them the reason why the Almighty chose Abraham and his posterity to be a peculiar people, to the exclusion of all other nations, that from them should spring the Messiah. This circumstance must be kept in view throughout the reading of this Book, as it will illustrate many otherwise unaccountable circumstances there related. It was this hope that led Eve to exclaim, 'I have gotten a man the Lord.' The polygamy of Lamech may be accounted for by the hope that the Messiah would be born of some of his posterity,-as also, the incest of Lot's daughters,-Sarah's impatience of her barrenness, -the polygamy of Jacob-the consequent jealousies 'Gray's Key to the Old Testament, p. 76. between Leah and Rachel:-the jealousies between Ishmael and Isaac, and especially Rebekah's preference of Jacob to Esau."2 SECT. I. CHAP. I.-Of the Creation of the World. THE INTRODUCTION. A. M. 1. A. C. 4004; or, according to Hales, 5411. Gen. ch. 1. THE chief design of the author of the Pentateuch is, to give a short account of the formation of the earth, and the origin of mankind; of the most remarkable events that attended them in the infancy of the world; and of the transactions of one particular nation more especially, from whence the Messias was to spring: and therefore it cannot be well expected, that he should extend his history to the creation of the supreme empyrean heaven, which God might make the place of his own residence, and the mansions of those celestial beings, whom he constituted the ministers of his court, and attendants on his throne," an immense space of time, perhaps, before the "Horne's Introduction, &c., vol. iv., pp. 5, 6. firmed by many great authorities, as the learned and ingenious Dr Burnet testifies. For, speaking of some, who supposed that the whole universe was created at one and the same time, and the highest heaven and angels included in the first day's work, "It may be here proper," says he, "to present the words of six thousandth year, and how many eternities, how many cycles, Hieronymus." "The age of this globe hath not yet reached its how many centuries must we conceive to have existed prior to that time, in which angels, thrones, dominions, and other powers worshipped the omnipotent. In a book on the Trinity, (either by Novatian or Tertullian), a world of angels, far above our firmament, is said to have been created before the Mosaic world, in these words, that in the higher spheres God had formerly created angels, appointed spiritual powers, planted thrones, dominions, &c., and framed many other boundless expanses of skies, &c.; so that this world rather seems to have been the latest than the sole work of the Deity. In a word, Cassian remarks that in his time, that is, in the beginning of the a This is no novel notion of our own, but what has been con A. M. 1. A. C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, 5411. GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CH. 2. Mosaic account of the origination of this planetary world | turn, Herschell, or Urania describes about the sun, have begius. 3 so near a similitude and relation: the same form, the same centre, and the same common luminary with one another, that it can hardly be imagined but that they were the production of one and the same creation. And therefore, though the historian seems chiefly to regard the earth in his whole narration; yet there is reason to presume, that the other parts of the planetary world went all along on in the same degrees of formation with it. In the introduction of the history indeed we are told, that God created a the heaven and the earth: but when it is considered, that heaven in Scripture language, is very commonly set to signify no more than the upper region of the air; that we frequently read of the firmament of heaven, the windows of heaven, the bottles of heaven, and the hoary frost of heaven,' &c., none of which extend beyond our atmosphere, we have no grounds to conclude, that at one and the same time God 2. It is to be observed farther, that this planetary created every thing that is contained in the vast extra-world, or system of things, was not immediately created mundane spaces of the universe. On the contrary, when we find him recounting to Job, that at the time when he laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,' we cannot but infer, that these stars, and these sons of God, were pre-existent; and consequently no part of the Mosaic creation. By the heaven therefore we are to understand no more, than that part of the world which we behold above us: but then I imagine we have very good reason to extend our conceptions of this world above us so far, as to include in it the whole planetary system. The truth is, the several planets that are contained within the magnus orbis, (as it is called), or the circle which Sa "Gen. vii. 11. 1 Gen. i. 20. Job xxxviii. 37. Job xxxviii. 29. 5 Ibid. ver. 4, 7. fifth century, it was the common opinion of Catholics, that before the beginning of the Geneseos, viz., the birth of the Mosaic world: it was beyond a doubt God must have created all these heavenly powers." Burnet's Arch. Phil. c. 8. a By heaven, some understand in this place the highest super-firmamentary heaven, and by the earth, that pre-existent matter whereof the earth was originally made; and so the sense of the words will be-"that God at first created the matter whereof the whole universe was composed, all at once, in an instant, and by a word's speaking; but it was the supreme heaven only which he then finished, and formed into a most excellent order, for the place of his own residence, and the habitation of his holy angels; the earth was left rude and indigested, in the manner that Moses has described it, until there should be a fit occasion for its being revised, and set in order likewise." The better to understand this, and some other matters, in our explication of the formation of celestial bodies, it is proper to observe, that there are three more remarkable systems of the world, the Ptolemaic, Copernican, and what is called the New System, which astronomers have devised. 1. In the Ptolemaic, the earth and waters are supposed to be in the centre of the universe, next to which is the element of air, and next above that the element of fire; then the orb of Mercury, then that of Venus, and then that of the Sun; above the sun's orb those of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; and above them all, the orbs of the fixed stars, then the crystalline orbs, and lastly, the cœlum empyreum, or heaven of heavens. All these massy orbs, and vast bodies borne by them, are in this system supposed to move round the terraqueous globe once in twenty-four hours; and beside that, to perform other revolutions in certain periodical times, according to their distance from the supposed centre, and the different circumference they take. 2. In the Copernican system, the sun is supposed to be in the centre, and the heavens and earth to revolve round about it, according to their several periods; first Mercury, then Venus, then the Earth with its satellite the Moon; then Mars, then Jupiter with its four moons; lastly, Saturn with its five, or more moons revolving round it; and beyond, or above all these, is the firmament, or region of fixed stars, which are all supposed to be at equal distances from their centre the sun. 3. In the New System, the sun and planets have the same site and position as in the Copernican; but then, whereas the Copernican supposes the firmament of the fixed stars to be the out of nothing, (as very probably the supreme heavens were,) but out of some such pre-existent matter as the ancient heathens were wont to call chaos. And accordingly we may observe, that in the history which Moses gives us of the creation, he does not say, that God at once made all things in their full perfection, but that e' In the beginning he created the earth,' that is, the matter whereof the chaos was composed, which was without form,' without any shape or order, and void,' without any thing living or growing in it; and darkness was upon the face of the waters,' nothing was seen for want of light, which lay buried in the vast abyss. According to tradition, then, and the representation which this inspired author seems to give us, this chaos bounds of the universe, and placed at equal distance from its centre the sun; this new hypothesis supposes, that there are many more systems of suns and planets, besides that in which we have our habitation; that every fixed star, in short, is a sun, encompassed with its complement of planets, both primary and secondary, as well as ours; and that these stars, with their planets are placed at regular distances from each other, and, according to their distances from us, seem to vary in their respective magnitudes.—Derham's Astro-theology, in the preliminary discourse. c What our translators render in the beginning' some learned men have made in wisdom God created the heavens and the earth;' not only because the Jerusalem targum has it so, but because the Psalmist, paraphrasing upon the works of the creation, breaks forth into this admiration. 'O Lord! how wonderful are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all,' Ps. civ. 24. And again, exhorting us to give thanks unto the Lord for his manifold mercies, he adds, who by wisdom made the heavens,' Ps. cxxxvi. 5. where, by wisdom, as some imagine, he means the Son of God, by whom, says the evangelist, John i. 3. all things were made, or all things created,' says the apostle, Col. i. 16. that are in heaven, and that are in the earth; and therefore the meaning of the phrase must be, that God, in creating the world, made use of the agency of his Son. Among the ancients (says Petavius, on the work of the six days, B. 1., c. 1.) it was a well known and very common opinion, that by the noun principium, or beginning, was signified the Word or Son. And to this interpretation the word Elohim in the plural number, joined with bara a verb singular, seems to give some countenance; though others are of opinion, that a noun plural, governing a verb singular, is no more than the common idiom of the Hebrew tongue; and for this idiom a very considerable commentator assigns this reason:-That the Hebrew language was originally that of the Canaanites, a people strangely addicted to idolatry and polytheism; and who therefore made more use of the plural Elohim, than of the singular Eloah; which usage the Jews continued, though they were zealous assertors of the unity of the Godhead, and thereupon most commonly joined a verb of the singular number with it, pursuant to their notions of the divine unity.-Le Clerc's dissert. De ling. Hebraica. d To mention one author out of the many which Grotius has cited, Ovid, in the beginning of his Metamorphoses has given us this description of it: Before the appearance of the earth and sky A. M. 1. A. C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES 5411. GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CH. 2. is sometimes in love with one, and sometimes with another. But this account of Moses was to last for ever, as being the ground-work which God designed for all his future revelations; and therefore it was requisite to have it framed in such a manner, as that it might condescend to the meanest capacity, and yet not contradict any received notions of philosophy. was a fluid mass, wherein were the materials and ingredients of all bodies, but mingled in confusion with one another, so that heavy and light, dense and rare, fluid and solid particles, were jumbled together, and the atoms or small constituent parts of fire, air, water, and earth, (which have since obtained the name of elements), were every one in every place, and all in a wild confusion and disorder. This seems to be a part of God's The Jews, it must be owned, were a nation of no original creation; but why he suffered it to continue so great genius for learning; and therefore, if Moses had long, before he transformed it into an habitable world, given them a false system of the creation, such as a is a question only resolvable into the divine pleasure: simple people might be apt to fancy, he had both made since, according to the ideas we have of his moral per- himself an impostor, and exposed his writings to the fections, there is nothing to fix the creation of any thing contempt and derision of every man of understanding: sooner or later, than his own arbitrary will determined. | and yet, to have given them a particular explication of Only we may imagine, that, after the revolt of so many angels, God, intending to make a new race of creatures, in order to supply their place, and fill up (as it were) the vacancy in heaven; and withal, resolving to make trial of their obedience before he admitted them into his beatific presence, singled out one (as perhaps a there might be many chaotic bodies in the universe) placed at a proper distance from his own empyrean seat, to be the habitation of the creatures he was about to form, and might delay the fitting it up for them until the time which his infinite wisdom had determined for their creation was fully come. 3. It is to be observed farther, that though Moses might have in his view the whole planetary system, and know very well, that every day each planet advanced in the same proportion, as the earth did in its formation: yet what he principally chose to insist on (as a specimen of all the rest) was this sublunary creation. He who was versed in all the learning of the Egyptians,' could not be unacquainted with the vulgar, or what is usually called the Ptolemaic hypothesis, which came originally from Egypt into Greece; and yet, instead of expressing his notions according to this, or any other system, we find him giving us a plain narrative, how matters were transacted, without asserting or denying any philosophic truth. Had he indeed talked a great deal of globular and angular particles, of centrical motion, planetary vortices, atmospheres of comets, the earth's rotation, and the sun's rest, he might possibly have pleased the taste of some theorists better; but theories we know are things of uncertain mode. They depend in a great measure upon the humour and caprice of an age, which Throughout the Universe had but one form a If matter existed as chaos before the beginning of the Mosaic world, what was it? for what purpose, or in what place did it exist before that time? I answer, that things such as these are not too narrowly to be searched after, since, in a great measure, they exceed the power of humaa investigation. Thus, we see at times stars arising in our hemisphere which never before had been apparent, but whose pre-existence in some shape, and in some quarter of the universe, cannot properly be doubted. And, also, comets are frequently discovered, concerning whose origin and first place of abode the abilities of man cannot elicit the least dawning of information. In fine, it is not to be supposed that the heavens themselves are free from decay,-the celestial as well as the terrestrial bodies must have their inversions and transmutations; and by the lapse of time and return of rhaos, the fixed stars may be converted into planets, and planets, when their deteriorated matter is consumed, in their turn may become fixed stars, &c.—Burnet's Archeol. Phil.. c. 9. the true one, must have made the illiterate look upon 4. It is to be observed farther, in relation to this account of Moses, that when God is said to give the word, and every thing thereupon proceeded to its formation, he did not leave matter and motion to do their best, whilst he stood by (according to Dr Cudworth's expression) as an idle spectator of this sport of atoms, and the various results of it; but himself interposed, and, conducting the whole process, gave not only life and being, but form and figure to every part of the creation. The warmest abettors of mechanical principles do not deny, but that a divine energy at least must be admitted in this case, where a world was to be formed, and a wild chaos reduced to a fair, regular, and permanent system. The immediate hand of God (they cannot but acknowledge) is apparent in a miracle, which is an infraction, upon the standing laws of nature; but certainly, of all miracles, the creation of the world is the greatest, not only as it signifies the production of matter and motion out of nothing, but as it was likewise the ranging and putting things into such order, as might make them capable of the laws of motion which were to be ordained for them. For whatever notions we may have of the stated economy of things now, it is certain that the laws of motion (with which philosophers make such noise) could not take place before every part of the creation was ranged and settled in its proper order. It may be allowed however, since, even in the Mosaic account, there are some passages, such as, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, and it was so,' that whatever comes under the compass of mechanical causes, might possibly be effected by matter and motion, only set on work by infinite wisdom, and sustained in their being and operation by infinite power; but whatever is above |