which the Infinite Being has wrought, and the ways in which he governs his own creation, may, in a sound and obvious sense sanctioned by the inspired apostle, be called a revelation of HIM; " because that which may be known of God (τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Ocoû) is manifest in them." (Rom. i. 19.) It cannot be held excusable, in any to whom he has given the means of studying this manifestation of himself, to neglect that duty, or to oppose and decry those who endeavour to perform it. This study is, not the rival, but the valuable assistant, of the manifestation which God has granted us in positive revelation; and which is to us practically of infinitely the greatest importance.

II. THERE is another and very different class of men, who are not only aware of the difficulties which we have undertaken to discuss, as producing some appearance of contradiction, but who affirm, without hesitation, that there is a real and insuperable discrepancy between the demonstrated facts of science and the unambiguous declarations of the Mosaic writings; and their method of resolving the difficulty is not like that of others who deny the geological facts, (for this, their knowledge makes impossible for them,) but they take the opposite course. The two leaders in this course are Mr. Babbage and Professor Baden Powell. The former of these philosophers, thinks himself compelled to resort to a desperate kind of hypothesis, which is really cutting the knot. He is of opinion that we cannot so depend upon our ability to construe the ancient Hebrew language, as to be sure that we have correctly interpreted the archaic documents before us. Thus, to speak the plain truth, an opening is made for treating the written records of the creation as if they

had no existence; or, in the same manner as would be our conduct with regard to some antique marble, inscribed with characters which we might believe to express the words of a lost language, but that language one which we could never hope to recover. We might admire the elegance of its form and the beauty of its sculptured figures; we might lay it up as the most interesting treasure of a museum; but we should not spend our time in attempting to decipher its characters, persuaded beforehand that the attempt would be vain.

was

The second of those distinguished mathematicians and philosophers goes farther. He has no difficulty in admitting the perfectly intelligible character of the commencement of Genesis and the Fourth Commandment; but he considers it incumbent upon him to maintain that, in both cases, the statement not intended for an HISTORICAL narrative; and if the representation cannot have been designed for literal history, it only remains to regard it as having been intended for the better enforcement of its objects in the language of figure and poetry; and to allow that the manner in which the Deity was pleased to reveal himself to the Jews as accomplishing the work of creation was (like so many other points of their dispensation,) veiled in the guise of apologue and parable; and that only a more striking representation of the greatness and majesty of the Divine power and creative wisdom was intended, by embodying the expression of them in the language of dramatic action.*

I offer a few remarks upon each of these hypotheses.

Mr. Babbage is careful to state that he has not "any acquaint

* Connexion of Nat. and Div. Truth; by the Rev. Baden Powell, F.R S. &c. Savil. Prof. Geom Oxford: p. 260. A work which I regard as of great value; and cannot but earnestly recommend to those who wish to search deeply and accurately into philosophical subjects and their moral relations: notwithstanding the author's deplorable mistake in his notion of Calvinism, and the appearance of some serious theological errors. But I cannot surrender him to the self-styled Rationalists; men whose just claim would be to a very different appellation. The learned Professor has, more recently, done excellent service to the cause of religion by his masterly exposure of a system, which comes forwards indeed with lofty pretensions, uniting in itself the lamb and the dragon (Rev. xii. 11,) but which he rightly characterizes "as involving in entire ambiguity the land-marks of christian truth:-by neutralizing it destroys the whole evidence of the gospel." Tradition Unveiled; p. 68. Deeply also are the friends of Scriptural religion and just liberty indebted to him for another contribution to their cause. State Education, considered with reference to Prevalent Misconceptions on Religious Grounds : 1840 and more recently still the Supplement to Tradition Unveiled.

ance with the language in which the sacred volume" of the old Testament is written. This deficiency is much to be regretted. Had it not existed, the acute investigator would never have taken up his hypothesis, or any approach to it. He would have felt himself assured that, as a consequence of the uninterrupted use of the Hebrew language by the Jews, and the constant public reading of these very writings, from the days of Moses down to our own, we have in fact as firm a hold upon the meaning as we have in regard to the Greek and Latin; that, from its being one of a family of languages, all of which possess literary monuments and those of great antiquity, we are furnished with aids and guarantees, in the comparison of the cognate tongues, by which the correct understanding of Hebrew is made sure to those who will rationally study it; and that, by the aid of the Greek Version, all or most of which was made in the third century before Christ, we have a still further ground of satisfaction for the intelligence of the Hebrew Scriptures. There are oriental scholars, especially in Germany, and of whom some are awfully hostile to the truth and the authority of revelation, who would inform Mr. Babbage that the fact of a clear and certain understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures is above all reasonable doubt. The construction of the language is the most simple and luminous that can well be imagined; its peculiar idioms are well ascertained and illustrated; few very difficult passages occur; the principal obscurities lie in the determination of a small number of words referring to natural objects and operations of art; and the text is settled to a degree of purity more satisfactory than we dare affirm of many of the Greek and Latin classics. All competent scholars, of whatever opinions and parties they may be in other respects, will agree to reject any imputation of uncertainty with respect to the means of ascertaining the sense of the language.

Professor Powell's scheme appears, at first sight, to be a reproduction of the mythic hypothesis which the German Antisupernaturalists generally hold; and which we could not consistently adopt unless we went with them to the infidel length of denying any positive revelation. This I am persuaded that the Professor would not do. But as a divine, he has involved himself in serious difficulty. His notion, that we have here "the language

of figure and poetry," is palpably erroneous. The whole is in the style of plain narrative, evidently intended to be understood as a simple, straightforward, unadorned history. The dramatic form, introducing the Creator as speaking, to command an effect; and then stating that the effect followed, and that he was pleased with the contemplation of it;—is a part of the great characteristic which runs through all the Hebrew Scriptures and especially the earlier parts of them, the Anthropopathia; a mode of expression adapted, by the graciousness of Divine condescension, to the capacity and habits of thought which belong to men in an unpolished state of society, who were totally ignorant of abstract phraseology, and would have been unable to receive spiritual sentiments, unless clothed in language borrowed from sensible objects and from the emotions and actions of men. This is indeed the very principle which will appear, as I trust, in a following lecture, to be both "a true cause" in the formation of the ancient scriptural phraseology, and to be adequate to carry us out of the difficulty, without sacrificing the reality of the things related, or invading the truth and majesty of Divine Inspiration.

I do cherish much hope that, had Professor Powell more carefully and completely examined the case, he would have found this principle, which indeed he definitely lays down, quite sufficient for obviating all the difficulty; without having recourse to admissions which cannot but be revolting to the calm judgment of any man; as well as to the enlightened piety of a reflecting Christian. We, equally with him, admit the folly of "constructing systems of philosophy out of the Bible,

of attempting to force its language into accordance with philosophical results," or of supposing that the senses or applications which, by some engineering of verbal criticism, we might maintain that the words could be made to bear, were actually in the understanding and intention of Moses, or of any other inspired writer;-or of "imagining that the delivery of the Judaical law was really intended to embrace the doctrines of Geology, and this too under the guise of expressions which, in their obvious sense, are directly contradictory to those doctrines;" or, in a word, of "saying something plausible to satisfy prejudice, and avoid giving offence to popular belief."* Some Expressions of Prof. Powell.

persons indeed have been, and still are; who have held notions like these, and have pursued some such fallacious course as is here reprobated. We cannot shield them from the Reverend Professor's censure. We repudiate all such devices. But it is not necessary for us to go into the opposite extreme, and affirm that the language of revelation, when stripped of the conventional forms of description which were necessary in that state of mind and habits which characterized the people and the age, is irreconcilably and insuperably contradictory to the truth of facts in nature. I fear that Mr. Powell's expressions are in danger of involving some inconsistency with his own sacred professions and obligations; and, that, if followed out, they would lead to consequences deeply injurious to the cause of Christianity. He admits the inspiration of Moses, and the divine origin and authority of the previous patriarchal and the subsequent prophetic revelations; and yet he maintains that the christian system of religion is independent of those former disclosures of the will and truth of God, and distinct from them, in such a manner that (if I do not misapprehend his meaning,* which I sincerely wish may be the case with me,) we might lawfully and safely give them up, as obsolete ideas, mingled with much that is erroneous. This is a notion which stands in direct hostility to the sentiment that pervades the whole frame of revelation, a progression of knowledge and its practical applications; exhibiting a twilight, a dawn, a sunrise, and the perfect day. Moses and the prophets bore testimony to the Messiah, the promised Redeemer of mankind; and that Messiah with his immediate disciples pointed

*Sec. ed. It is with great pleasure that I here copy the words of the Professor in a more recent publication. "Dr. Pye Smith-fears [-no,-wishes,] he may have mistaken my meaning. He has certainly done so, if he supposes me to deny any of the positions which he states respecting the progressive nature of the divine dispensations. All this is the very view that I take. All that I contend for is the plain fact that these different relations were addressed, as they were adapted, to different parties; one to the Jews, another to us. In connexion with the view of such adaptation, when I suggested the idea, that the whole description of the creation, taken as a whole, might be understood as couched in the language of mythic poetry, this was not laid down dogmatically, but simply suggested as a less harsh alternative than a naked statement which might seem directly impugning the truth of the narrative.If the true statement be not boldly made by the friends of Christianity, it will inevitably be perverted and turned against them by its adversaries."--Suppl. to Trad. Unveiled; p. 36. But upon this subject, a few remarks will be offered in a Supplementary Note.