himself the true TREE OF LIFE IN THE PARADISE

OF GOD.

To the learned and candid of all denominations these remarks are submitted. If there be any thing in them, the text in question, which has been so long the butt of infidels and the stumbling-block of believers, not only becomes cleared of its difficulties, but throws a light and a glory on the whole patriarchal dispensation.

LETTER XII.

PAGE 7. "The account of the flood is very embar"rassing."

Possibly it may-There was a great deal done in a little time; and neither these gentlemen nor myself were present to see how it was done.

Ibid. "From whence came the water?"

From the place to which it returned, and in which it has remained (God be praised!) ever since. The globe of the earth, as the Scriptures inform us, is a shell, or hollow sphere, enclosing within it a body of waters, styled "the great deep," or abyss. The earth, at the creation, was covered on all sides with water, which, at the command of God, retired to this abyss beneath, from whence, at the same command, it came forth in the days of Noah; and, having performed its task, was again dismissed, as before. "The fountains of the great deep," by the divine power, were "broken up;" gravity for a time was suspended, or overcome; the waters were violently thrown upwards into the atmosphere, and descended in torrents and cataracts of rain. If we measure the circumference of the earth, and gauge its contents, we shall find water enough, I dare say, to answer every purpose mentioned in the book of

Genesis". The shells, and other marine bodies, deposited in the bowels and on the tops of the highest mountains all the world over, afford sufficient evidence, that the waters have been there. If any one can give a better account than Moses has done, when and how they came there, e'en let us have it. A learned and respectable person expresses his surprise, that the shell fish should transport themselves from the bed of the ocean, where they were much better accommodated, to so uncomfortable a situation as the summit of a barren mountain. Alas, worthy sir, it was no party of pleasure! Whenever they took the journey, depend upon it, it was—“ compulsion, Hal!"

upon

Page 8.-"Neither can we easily persuade infidels "that the windows of heaven were opened, while they "know it has no windows."

They can know nothing of the matter, till they know the meaning of the phrase, and its usage in the Scriptures, where the heavens are said to be opened when it rains, and shut when rain is withholden, and the like. What is more common than such modes of expression are in all languages? Suppose, to describe an uncommon fall of rain, I should say, "The sluices of heaven were opened ;'

y" Some are puzzled to find water enough to form an univer"sal deluge: to assist their endeavours it may be remarked, "that was it all precipitated which is dissolved in the air, it might probably be sufficient to cover the surface of the whole "earth to the depth of above thirty feet." WATSON'S Chemical Essays, vol. iii. p. 87.

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would it not be the height of absurdity to reply, that the sluices of heaven cannot be opened, because it has no sluices? Every body knows the expression to be metaphorical. But the truth is, that the original word does not signify windows, according to the modern idea, but rather clefts, fissures, passages: these were opened, the clouds were rent, as we say. The waters rising from beneath met the rains descending from above, and, uniting their forces, they deluged the world.

Page 7. "It (the flood) ceased not by annihilation "of the waters, but they were evaporated by a "wind."

There was no occasion for annihilating the waters. They returned to the place from whence they came. And as to the wind which God caused to pass over the earth, it was not intended merely to evaporate, but, like that which moved upon the chaos at the creation, to separate the waters from the earth, and carry them down to their former habitation. We have no adequate idea, perhaps, of this element the air, and of what mighty things it can effect, when employed in full force by its Creator.

Page 8. "It seems strange, that so vast an assem"blage of animals could be enclosed in an ark, or "chest."

-But why, chest? The Hebrew word is used only for this ark of Noah, and that in which the child Moses was committed to the Nile; both hollow vessels, constructed to float upon the waters. But

ארכות 2

there was something pleasant in the notion of the whole animal world being shut up in a chest; and the temptation was not to be resisted.

"Which had but one window (which window was kept shut for more than five months), without being stifled for want of air."

All this, the infidels say, seems strange." It does so; but it is not more strange than true. That air would be necessary to support the life of the creatures enclosed in the ark, was as well known to him who enjoined it to be built, as it can be to them. Our conclusion therefore is, that either a proper supply of it was conveyed in some manner from without, or else the air within, by means natural or preternatural, was preserved in a state fit for respiration. There might be various contrivances in and about the ark, which are not mentioned in so concise a history. The general facts, of which it concerned us to be informed, are these two; that the world was destroyed by a flood; and that one family, with a number of animals sufficient to replenish the earth, was preserved in a vessel constructed for that purpose.

It is asked farther, how the small family in the ark could give due attendance to the wants of so many creatures; and how the carnivorous animals were supplied with food proper for them.

Many more questions of a like kind might easily be asked, if one were to set one's wits to work upon the subject. But it should be considered, that the author who relates this transaction, relates it to have been carried on under the immediate direction and in

VOL. IV.

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