PART III.

CHAP. II.

"of our hands, and from THE EARTH which the Lord hath cursed!" In which word "us," we are not to understand themselves, personally, but their race. And, after the retreat of the waters of the deluge, God did not revoke the curse which He had formerly pronounced, because it had been fully executed in "cutting off the "cursed thing;" but He declared, that He would not again pronounce a curse, i. e. pronounce a second curse, upon the earth; that is, upon the new earth, which He had provided to succeed that which had been cursed, and cut off:που προσθησω ετι καταρασθαι την γην. non "addam maledicere rursus terram :" which implies, that the curse was terminated by the deluge. Neither is there any mention in Scripture of a general curse upon the earth, except, 1. When it was originally pronounced to Adam; and finally commemorated at the birth of Noah. 2. When God, after the flood, declared that He would not curse the earth a second time. 3. When a warning is given in Malachi, not to provoke a curse upon the earth.

But, if that first earth, which had been produced on the third day of the creation by the removal of the waters that covered it, perished indeed, according to the menace of God; what was that second earth, upon which the Ark was

7

СНАР. ІІ.

brought to its rest by His favour and provi- PART III. dence, and which has continued to be the abode of the generations of mankind, from the time of Noah to the present day? From whence did it acquire its origin?

And can we find any difficulty in resolving this question to ourselves, who have the record open before us, and who have seen how that first habitable earth was brought to light? We cannot fail to perceive, that a repetition of the same process, a renewal of the same divine operation, which produced the former earth, was alone requisite to bring to light another earth to replace it, now that the counsels of its Creator had determined to remove it. We have already seen, that a violent disruption and subsidence of the solid surface of one portion of the subaqueous globe, produced at first a bed, or basin, to receive the diffusive waters; and that those waters, drawn into that bed from off the other portion of the same globe, left it exposed, and fitted for the reception of vegetation, and for the habitation of man. That exposed portion was now, in its turn, to sink and disappear. By a similar disruption and subsidence of its surface, which should depress it below the level of the first depressed part, or basin of the sea, the waters, flowing into a still lower level,

PART III.

would leave their basin empty, exposed, and dry; and thus, by a similar operation, render CHAP. II. it in its turn an habitable earth, applicable to all the same uses as the former, which had been obtained by a similar drainage of the waters. We are enjoined by sound philosophy, to refer similar effects to similar causes; and the effects which we are considering, being in both cases similar, we are to refer them to similar causes. And, since the record contains nothing which opposes the application of this principle to the case in question, we are authorized by reason to conclude; that the production of a second earth, was effected by means exactly corresponding to those, which had given origin to the first earth. The evidence which the mind is able to discern, of the means by which that first earth was produced, becomes evidence to the reason, that a second earth might be produced by similar means; and therefore, it directs us to look to those means for its production.

CHAPTER III.

CHAP. III.

THUS, then, from the terms of the divine PART III. menace, and from the concurring testimony of the ancient Jewish church, we are to conclude by critical induction, antecedently to all investigation of monuments or phænomena; that it was the determination of Almighty God, to destroy, not only man and every living creature, but likewise, THE EARTH ITSELF; that earth, upon which He had pronounced His curse. To give effect to that tremendous design of His counsels, the order of things which He had established was to undergo a temporary suspension and alteration; and His Almighty agency was to reassume an immediate operation, in the works of His terrestrial creation.

By a new exercise of His incomprehensible power, and by a new direction of the instruments and agencies which He had provided, He caused the irruption of violent inundations, sufficient to commence the work of destruction, and, at the same time, to raise and float the Ark, from the station on which it had been constructed; the direction

CHAP. III.

PART III. of which fabric, was thenceforth taken under the immediate care of His own divine providence. Vast causes were put in action, and vast effects produced, which are expressed in the record by "the fountains of the great

66

deep being broken up," and "the windows of "heaven being opened;" phrases, which plainly imply, the inroad of the sea upon the land, and the descent of violent rains from the heavens.

But, here it is asked; "to what purpose a "rain of forty days, to overwhelm a continent, "that was to be immersed under a whole ocean1?" Doubtless, if the immersion of a continent under an ocean, as a mere physical effect, was the whole design of the revolution of the deluge, a rain of forty days was a very superfluous agent. agent. But, since the chief end to be attained by the operation, was not a physical, but a moral end; and since the physical effect was wholly subservient to that moral end; the rain of forty days was a necessary, and a most efficient agent. The condemned race of mankind, was to witness the progress of the vast scheme of destruction which their wickedness had provoked. They were to be taught, experimentally, that their

'KIRWAN'S Geol. Essays, p. 63.