thousand would be moderate: each has its appropriate habitation and food, and these are necessary to its life; and the larger number could not live in water. Also the innumerable millions upon millions of animalcules must be provided for; for they have all their appropriate and diversified places and circumstances of existence.* But all land animals have their geographical regions, † to which their constitutional natures are congenial, and many could not live in any other situation. We cannot represent to ourselves the idea of their being brought into one small spot, from the polar regions, the torrid zone, and all the other climates of Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, and the thousands of islands; their preservation and provision; and the final disposal of them ;-without bringing up the idea of miracles more stupendous than any that are recorded in Scripture,‡ even what appear appalling in comparison. * Fourth ed. To the best of my remembrance, these numbers were given, in the delivery of the Lecture, from general recollection, or when I had not the time for accurate research. I therefore adduce the following as more perfect statements. The sentence upon animalcules was intended to refer to individuals, not to species. From the Encyclopædia Britannica (1842,) upon the authority of Mr. Swainson: Mammalia. Birds . . 6,000 Insects 550,000 2,500 2,500 Reptiles and amphibious animals 1,500 Fishes "Besides these, there exist innumerable hosts of Infusoria." Vol. xvii. p. 549. To Dr. Beard's Bible Dictionary, vol. i. p. 422, I am indebted for another passage: "Greatly has our acquaintance with the animal world been extended by the labours of Cuvier. Linnæus, in the last edition of his System of Nature, described altogether six thousand species of animals. [Linnæus died in 1778.] Whereas the following numbers have been known for a long time, and every year is making some addition. + See Lect. II. prop. xxvii. Some one may adduce Josh. xi. 13, the sun and the moon standing still: but the obvious reply is, that the whole effect wanted in that case, and fully answering to the description of the apparent phenomenon as recorded, would be produced by an alteration in the refracting and transmitting properties of the atmosphere, immediately over the part of Judea where the victory was obtained. Such an alteration would be an indubitable miracle. But if any exclaim, 'All miracles are alike; the smallest and the greatest are equal to Omnipotence;' I request their kind The great decisive miracle of Christianity, the RESURRECTION of the LORD JESUS,-sinks down before it. The persons of whom we are speaking have probably never apprehended any difficulty with respect to the inhabitants of the waters; supposing that no provision was needed for their preservation. It may therefore be proper to notice some particulars. Such an additional quantity of water as their interpretation requires, would so dilute and alter the mass as to render it an unsuitable element for the existence of all the classes,* and would kill or disperse their food; and all have their own appropriate food. Many of the marine fishes and shell animals could not live in fresh water: and the fresh-water ones would be destroyed by being kept even a short time in salt water. Some species can indeed live in brackish water: having been formed by their Creator to have their dwelling in estuaries and the portions of rivers approaching the sea; [or they may be brought to endure it] but even these would be affected, fatally in all probability, by the increased volume of water and the scattering and floating away of their nutriment.† Thus, in a variety of ways, it is manifest that, upon the interpretation which I conceive to be erroneous, the preservation of animal life in the ark, was immensely short of being adequate to what was necessary. Further; if we admit that interpretation, and also accede to the usual opinion that the Ararat upon which the ark rested was the celebrated mountain of that name in Armenia, and which tradition points out as being such, we are involved in another perplexity. That mountain is nearly the height of our European attention to some remarks in a former lecture, (pp. 62-65.) Upon this particular case, to suppose that the diurnal rotation of the earth was interrupted, is to bring in a shock which would have disturbed the functions of not only every part of our earth, and the planetary system, but would extend through the astral spaces, rendering necessary three continuous and universal miracles, one for the disturbance, a second for preserving all creatures from being ruined by the shock, and a third for the restoration of order. * Third ed. A very moderate proportion of salt water will dilute a much larger quantity of fresh, if it be introduced suddenly, in such a degree as to destroy life. In the dreadful hurricane of Barbadoes, Aug. 10, 1831, the spray of the sea was carried by the wind for many miles inward, so that its falling was called a saltwater rain; and "all the fresh-water fish in the ponds of Major Leacock were killed." Gen. Reid on the Law of Storms; 1838, p. 34. Third ed. The larger number of land-plants, and those the most important for size and utility (as timber and fruit trees, and the different kinds of corn and Mont Blanc, and perpetual snow covers about five thousand feet from its summit. If the water rose, at its liquid temperature, so as to overflow that summit, the snows and icy masses would be melted; and, on the retiring of the flood, the exposed mountain would present its pinnacles and ridges, dreadful precipices of naked rock, adown which the four men and four women, and with hardly any exception, the quadrupeds, would have found it utterly impossible to descend. To provide against this difficulty, to prevent them from being dashed to pieces,--must we again suppose a miracle? Must we conceive of the human beings and the animals, as transported through the air to the more level regions below: or that, by a miracle equally grand, they were enabled to glide unhurt down the wet and slippery faces of rock? One fact more I have to mention, in this range of argument. There are trees of the most astonishing magnificence as to form and size, which grow, the one species in Africa, the other in the southern part of North America. There are also methods of ascertaining the age of trees of the class to which they belong, with satisfaction generally, but with full evidence after they have passed the early stages of their growth. Individuals of these species now existing are proved, by those methods, to have begun to grow at an epoch long before the date of the deluge; if we even adopt the largest chronology that learned men have proposed. Had those trees been covered with water for threequarters of a year, they must have been destroyed: the most certain conditions of vegetable nature, for the class (the most perfect land-plants) to which they belong, put such a result out of doubt. Here then we are met by another independent proof that the deluge did not extend to those regions of the earth.† grasses,) lose their vitality by a short submersion in water; so that, in a period equal to the duration of the Deluge, they would have become putrescent and in a great measure decomposed. Thus, upon the supposition of a strict universality, a new creation of the chief part of the vegetable tribes would have been necessary, after the waters had subsided. In this view, the existence of an olive-leaf (Gen. viii. 11) is an observable circumstance. It was probably a fresh germination, but the stem must have grown very near the highest point to which the waters ascended, and could not have been long under water. * The most recent statements make it much higher: Mont Blanc, 15,668 English feet: Ararat, 17,000. Black's Atlas, 1840. + See Supplementary Note, L.; on the Longevity of Trees. Such are the objections which present themselves against the interpretation which, with grief I acknowledge, is generally admitted, in relation to the scriptural narrative of the deluge. It is a painful position in which I stand. I seem to be taking the part of an enemy, adducing materials for scepticism, and doing nothing to remove them. But this situation for me is inseparable from the plan of these lectures; the only plan that appeared practicable. The apparent discrepancies, between the facts of science, and the words of Scripture, must be understood, before we can make any attempt at their removal. I confide in the candour of my friends, that they will suspend their judgment till I am enabled to lay before them the way, in which I conceive that independent and unforced philological evidence will enable us satisfactorily to dispose of those difficulties. LECTURE VI. PART I. 1 THESSALONIANS v. 21. Prove all things: hold fast that which is good. WE are born for great and noble purposes. The object of existence, to every rational creature, is to enjoy a conscious union, in approbation, delight, and conformity, with the Being who is supreme in all excellence. To love and obey him is to secure our own happiness, and to acquire the best means of promoting that of every other being within our influence. If our minds be not dead to just feeling, we must be sensible that this is a necessary truth: and its undeniable concomitants are accountableness and retribution, stretching out into immortality. To that immortality of moral purity and happiness, the Revelation from God, contained in the Scriptures, is our only guide. Clearly then, it is the duty of every man to apprehend, with the most complete intelligence and satisfaction that he can attain, the contents and evidences of that Revelation; and to remove out of the way every obstacle to a complete assurance of faith." Among the Christians of the apostolic age, there was a variety of talents for the understanding of sacred subjects, their explication, and their communication to others. Some of these were of an extraordinary kind, depending for their existence and exercise upon peculiar communications from the Sovereign of all minds, who, in order to give the fullest proofs of divine authority, in the introduction of Christianity, confirmed it by wisely adapted miracles. Among these was the gift of Prophecy. The meaning of this word was not restricted to the foretelling of future events, in such a manner as evinced an emanation from the Omniscient; but it comprehended a faculty 66 |