imagery combined, so as to produce the most magnificent effect. "Then the earth shook and trembled: the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken; because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet and he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place: his pavilion round about him was dark waters, thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness before him his dark clouds passed, hail-stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave forth his voice, hail-stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Then the channels of water were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."*

3. With respect to the animal system, the knowledge of the ancient Hebrews did not go beyond what might be expected from men in their circumstances. They appear to have ascribed distinct intellectual functions to the region of the kidneys (usually rendered the reins,) and the liver. They referred pain to the bones; and they seem to have not had the least knowledge of the nervous system. There is no word in Hebrew for the brain and nerves except that which denotes the marrow of the bones, with which it is probable they confounded the cerebral and nervous substance; and even that word was a derivative from another signifying fat. Yet upon this defective physiology the language of Scripture is formed for the expression of sensations and many intellectual operations.†

It was incumbent upon me to go thus largely into the induction of particulars, not merely on account of the connexion of the entire view of Scripture-Idioms with our particular object; but because I venture to hope that the principle thus established will be of use to those who favour me with their attention, as

*Psa. xviii. 7-15.

Examples. Psa. xxvi. 2; lxxiii. 21. cviii. 1; where the word is usually rendered to the opinion that the use of the term is which were supposed to reside in the liver)

Lam. ii. 11. (Psa. xvi. 9; lvii. 8; glory, but learned orientalists incline based upon the sensitive properties Job xxxiii. 19. Psa. vi. 2.

SCRIPTURAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DEITY.

191

some assistance to the forming of an intelligent and therefore most profitable method of studying the divine word.

We have thus seen it placed beyond the possibility of a doubt, that it is the manner of the Scriptures, and most copiously in their earliest written parts, to speak of the DEITY, his nature, his perfections, his purposes, and his operations, in language borrowed from the bodily and mental constitution of man, and from those opinions concerning the works of God in the natural world, which were generally received by the people to whom the blessing of revelation was granted.

That so the fact is, cannot be denied: and will any dare to find fault with it? Is it not sufficient to satisfy any rational man, that it has pleased Him who cannot err to make use of this method? We have no right to demand any more satisfaction. But let it not be forgotten, what has already been stated, that, not only is this style that which alone would have been intelligible in the early ages of the world; but it is still the best adapted for universal use.

An observation now arises to our view, which must, I cannot but think, force itself with irresistible conviction upon any impartial mind. If it was not unworthy of the Adorable Majesty of GOD to permit HIMSELF to be described in terms infinitely beneath him, and which require our watchfulness and pious care, lest we take up with conceptions far remote from the spirituality of the Divine Nature, and the purity of christian worship; MUCH MORE may it be regarded as consonant with the honour of his word, that its references to natural objects should be, in the character of thought and expression, such as comported with the knowledge of the age in which they were delivered.*

* No doubt this principle has been often thought of, and happily employed in theological discussions; as by Archbishop King, the German divine Seiler, Mr. John Sheppard, and probably others. Whether it has been distinctly applied to the interpretation of the Bible, in relation to the objects of natural science, by any writers in particular, I am not able to say. I am aware of but two distinguished authors who have expressly pointed it out: and, as they only indicate it in general terms, the effort in this lecture to pursue it into its details, and to shew its application as a shield to scientific investigations, against the misconceptions and alarms of some well-intentioned men, will not, I trust, be held superfluous. The two authors alluded to, are John George Rosenmüller, in a book published more than sixty years ago, and from which the relevant extracts are given in the Appendix, Supplementary Note P; and my honoured friend, Professor Sedgwick, in his Discourse on the Studies of Cambridge:-A "source of error, on physical

Again: the completed manifestations of the Divine Will in the New Testament raise us to a justness and purity of conception concerning "the things of God," far superior to that which the ministrations of Moses and the prophets could supply. The one was obscure, tinctured with the spirit of bondage, only a preparatory and temporary system: but the other is the "ministration of righteousness," in comparison with which the former "had no glory."* We stand therefore upon safe ground, and are fully warranted by divine authority to translate the language of the Old Testament upon physical subjects, into such modern expressions, as shall be agreeable to the reality of the things spoken of.

PART II.

UPON the principle which has been explained, I now propose to the impartial judgment of Bible-scholars, that method of questions, has been a mistake respecting the import of certain scripture-phrases. These writings deal not in logical distinctions or rigid definitions. They were addressed to the heart and understanding in popular forms of speech, such as men could readily comprehend. When they describe the Almighty as a being capable of jealousy, love, anger, repentance, and other like passions, they use a language accommodated to our wants and capacities, and God is put before us in the semblance of humanity." Page 147. Galileo must be added: see the next Note. * 2 Cor. iii. 10, 11. Second ed. A passage of the man who was in scientific respects so wondrously in advance of his age, Galileo, is highly interesting, as shewing that he clearly understood and justly applied this principle of Bibleinterpretation.

"I admit and maintain that the Holy Scripture can never depart from what is true, provided we take it in its true and germane sense: but no one will deny, that this often lies deep, and is a good deal removed from the bald signification of the words. If any one think that it is always to be understood according to the letter, he will not only run into error, but he will impute to Holy Scripture numerous contradictions, propositions palpably untrue, even heresies and blasphemies. He would be obliged to ascribe to God feet, hands and eyes, and human properties and accidents both bodily and mental, such as anger, repentance, hatred, forgetfulness of the past, and ignorance of the future. Propositions of this kind have been in this manner expressed by the sacred writers, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in order to accommodate divine truths to the capacity of the uncultivated and ignorant mass of mankind. It is therefore the duty of competent and diligent expositors to bring forth, in every instance, the true meaning; and to explain the ground and reason of their having been expressed in the words which are presented to us." Novantiqua; alla Serenissima Madama la Gran Duchessa di Toscania, Madre; p. 10, 11; printed in 1636, at Augusta Trebocca, perhaps Trevi in the duchy of Spoleto.

Creation and the

understanding the Mosaic account of the Flood, which appears to me just and safe. The way is sufficiently cleared, and the principles explained and confirmed; so that little will be necessary in shewing the application to the cases before us.

I. With respect to the account of the CREATION.*

Gen. i. 1. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

The phrase "the heavens and the earth," though not always used by the sacred writers in the full sense, is the most comprehensive that the Hebrew language affords, to designate the universe of dependent being; and, on account of the connexion, it requires to be so taken in this place. It thus corresponds to the expressions in the New Testament; "All things that are in the heavens and that are on the earth, the visible and the invisible; the all things."+ This sublime sentence therefore stands, as an independent axiom, at the head of the sacred volume, announcing that there was an epoch, a point in the flow of infinite duration, when the whole of the dependent world, or whatever portion of it first had existence, was brought into being; and that this commencement of being was not from preexistent materials, nor by fortune, chance or accident, nor through the skill of any finite agent, but absolutely and solely by the will, wisdom, and power of the ONE and ONLY GOD. It was a creation, in the proper sense; not a modelling or newforming. The phrase, "In the beginning" is used several times in Scripture, to denote the commencement of whatever flow of time, or series of things, the subject spoken of requires. One of the primary doctrines of the New Testament is, "In the beginning was the WORD;" shewing that the Word was already in existence, at the point of time spoken of, did not then begin to be, and consequently must have existed in all prior time. But here the expression specifies an action as taking place at this point of time; an act of the Infinite Being. But WHEN that beginning was, when that act was put forth, it was not the design of revelation to inform us. Carry it back as far as we * Supplementary Note, Q.

Tà máy tại Sec. ed. The

† Τὰ πάντα, τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς equivalent phrases in common authors are τὰ ὅλα, and τὸ πᾶν. See pp. 126-132.

may, there is ETERNITY beyond it: and compared with that eternity, all finite duration sinks into a moment.

In the same manner we understand the recapitulation in chap. ii. 1-3; the commencement of the briefer narrative, in chap. ii. 4; and the reason of the sabbath given in the fourth commandment, Exodus xx. 11. All that the Israelites could understand by "the heavens and the earth," all that they knew and all that it concerned them to know,* was "made," (adjusted, arranged, appropriated to new purposes, for so the word often signifies,) "in six days." There is just as much reason to interpret that commandment, as representing the Deity to "faint and be weary," in direct contradiction to other parts of the Bible,† as to maintain that it teaches the proper creation of the universe to have taken place immediately before the institution of the sabbath.

Here, I trust that, without assumption or captiousness, I may express regret that Dr. Buckland, in his Bridgewater Treatise, instead of relying on his own sound and clear judgment, obtained a note from one of his learned fellow Professors, which appears very obscure and quite nugatory. If it had any application to the matter at all, it would rather go to darken the evidence of a proper creation being here asserted, or declared in any other part of the Bible. Such aid was not needed.

Whether the original writer of this sacred archive was Moses, or whether he was placing at the head of his work, a composition of an earlier patriarch, the calm majesty and simplicity of the declaration, give, as a matter of internal evidence, the strong

* Fourth ed. "Whatever worthy and exalted apprehensions of the Author of nature, the infinite perfection of his attributes, or the extent and magnificence of his works, reason and philosophy may dictate and discover to us; to whatever important uses, God, in his infinite wisdom and power, may have destined the planets and the fixed stars (in the discovery of which we have no other light to direct us but bare conjectures, and arguments drawn from congruities,) Moses, by divine direction, has withdrawn our thoughts and speculations from all such far distant objects; not only because we have no visible relation to, nor perceptible connexion with, them, but rather (as we may with certainty and confidence affirm) because they do not measure our time, by either their real or apparent revolutions. God has created and ordained two great luminaries, the sun and moon, to be unto us 'for signs and for seasons, for days and years;' and to this motion only Moses, with great judgment and accuracy, confines his astronomy." Scripture Chronology, by John Kennedy, Rector of Bradley, Derb. 1751: p. 7.`

"Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" Is. xl. 28.