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HOUSE.—It consequently appears, contrary to what has generally been supposed, that the greatest sectarians, are the least enlightened; that those who clamour most for the particular doctrines of men, understand those doctrines the least; and that, when religious truth is properly understood, it is always believed, and held, under GOD, independently of man."

These principles, which were professed by the AUTHOR, will be found to be purely scriptural, and a key to the unfolding of the various accounts of the manifestations of God recorded in the Bible. -The EDITOR considers it unnecessary to say any thing more than to recommend the work to the serious perusal of every sincere lover of truth, earnestly desiring that it may answer all the good purposes for which it is designed; by enabling every reader to see that the Word of God is both true and good, being given for the instruction, reformation, and regeneration of all who are desirous of knowing the Lord's will, and of living according to Divine direction, that they may receive that change of affection in this life, which will prepare them for everlasting bliss in the world to come.

Salford. April 29th, 1818.

FACTS AUTHENTIC,

IN

Science and Keligion.

ON THE ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF THE EARTH ;-ITS GASEOUS, FLUID AND SOLID STATES.

IN

[Genesis i. 1.]

N the beginning, says Sir ISAAC NEWTON, God formed matter into particles solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, of such magnitudes and figures, with such other properties, in such number and quantity, and in such proportion, with regard to space, as best answered the end for which He formed them. And as these primitive particles are solid, they on that very account are incomparably harder than any of the porous bodies which are composed of them; and so very hard are they, that they neither wear out nor can be broken: consequently, that nature may be durable, the alteration of corporeal beings ought only to consist in the different separations, new assemblages and motions of these permanent particles. See his Optics.

2. Had those antient philosophers, who contended that the world was formed from atoms, ascribed their combinations to certain immutable properties received from the hand of the Creator, such as general gravitation, chemical affinity, or animal appetency, instead of ascribing them to a blind chance; the doctrine of atoms, as constituting or composing the material world by the variety of their combinations, so far from leading the mind to Atheism, would strengthen the demonstration of the existence of a Deity, as the first cause of all things; because the analogy resulting from our perpetual experience of cause and effect would have thus been exemplified through universal nature. DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, canto iv. l. 147.

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5. [Gen. i. 3.] That philosophy, which blames Moses for having made the birth of the body of the light of more antient date than that of the sun, is at present generally exploded. Nat. Delin. vol. vii. p. 37.

The electric fluid, or light, appears to be universally diffused over the face of nature, and particularly attracted as an atmosphere around each sun, or gaseous earth centering each solar system.

So soon as this vast fluid, which penetrates and contains all the spheres, begins to turn, the universe is in motion: and from that very instant it is, that the revolutions, which are the measure of the night and the day, are reckoned.

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7. [Gen. i. 2.] In the solar system there are bodies of three kinds; as planets, their satellites, and masses which

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circulate round the sun and have been thence called solar spots. These being separated into globes, are thrown forth into the plain of the vortex-and in process of time extend themselves to a greater or less distance from the sun, proportionably to their gravity and magnitude; till at length, having attained their stated periphery or orbit in the solar vortex, they are in a state of equilibrium with its whole volume. Sec SWEDENBORG's Principia, part iii. § 4. p. 394.

8.

There is a compound spot, or rather two or three neighbouring spots, a little south of the sun's equator, and nearly parallel with it, which I observed, says Mr. CaPEL LOFFT, Feb. 9th, 1815. It extends, he adds, 5 minutes in length, equal to 130,000 miles; and cannot, he thinks, be less in breadth than a diameter of the earth. There is also, continues this intelligent observer, a very round, opaque, well-defined spot of about 24 minutes diameter, or larger than the earth, north-west of the sun's disc; and a small obscure spot east of it, and nearly in apparent contact. In position and appearance, he says, the larger of these two is very like a spot seen 15th December, 1813, which was very planetlike. Such planet, he remarks, whether of the same species as ours, or whether cometary, may be so near the sun, and so much immersed in its dense atmosphere, as nearly to partake of the solar period of rotation, instead of what would be the law of its revolution if moving freely in open space. Month. Mag. for March, 1815, p. 101.

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10. The comet of 1811 might very possibly be an incipient world, just passed its gaseous state, but not having yet derived solidity from the precipitation and condensation of its surrounding atmosphere. On this point, successive observations on different comets, in the course of which we may probably distinguish progressive stages from their chaotic to their distinct formation, can alone furnish the desirable knowledge in which we are allowedly deficient at present. See some sensible observations on this comet, in

The Morn. Chron. for Nov. 18th, 1811.

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14.

Every cometic figure, which is not already globular, must have eccentric nebulous matter, which, in its endeavour to come to the centre, will either dislodge some of the nebulosity which is already deposited, or slide on it sideways, and in both cases produce a circular motion; so that in fact we can hardly suppose a possibility of the production of a globular form without a consequent revolution of the nebulous matter, which in the end may settle in a regular rotation about some fixed axis.

Ibid. for 1811, part ii. p. 319.

15. [Gen. v. 4.] Our earth, which is at the distance of about ninety-five millions of miles from the sun, revolves about him yearly in a little more than three hundred and sixty five days, at present. But, as our planet is regularly reeeding, we have cause to conclude, that, like those solar spots, seen successively to break away from the sun, she was ejected originally out of the immediate atmosphere of that great luminary, and that, in passing to her present place in the solar system, her year has gradually lengthened in its progressive periods of time, having been at first proportionable to one, now to three hundred and sixty-five, nearly, of our days. "I found," says the Rev. JOHN JACKSON, “at last with great satisfaction, that the most antient computation of days for years amongst the Chaldeans, and of months for years amongst the Egyptians, warranted by the testimony of writers of the greatest credit, and most conversant in the histories and antiquities of these nations, reconciled all their accounts together, made them consistent with the course of nature, and the history of the first ages of the world, delivered in the authentic Mosaic writings. JACKSON'S Chronological Antiquities, Dedication, p. 12.

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the Newtonian philosophy was familiarly known in remote anti-creation; and endeavours to prove them by geological quity, possibly much anterior to the Phoenician or Egyptian phenomena: nations. 2 Peter iii. 5.

HUTTON'S Whitehurst, Formation of the Earth, p. 18.

18.

It was the sublime opinion of Thales, that all things have proceeded from water.

19. into fixed earth.

See Month. Mag. for Sep. 1814, p. 116.

1. That the waters of the ocean for a long time covered the whole earth.

2. That no organized being existed for a long time in this universal ocean.

3. That the water had subsided before the creation of organized beings.

4. That an indefinite period followed, during which the vegetable creation was formed.

5. That in the next period the sea produced locomotive

Water, by frequent distillations, is changed animals, and aerial volant animals or birds.

PRIESTLEY, on Vision, p. 774.

20. [Gen. i. 20.] All sublunary bodies are made from water, condensed by the power of seeds which ferment the particles of water, and alter their texture and figure. This action ccases not, till the seed have formed itself a body, exactly corresponding with the proper idea, or picture contained in it. THOS. SHERLEY, on the Origin of Bodies, and Nature of Petrifaction, p. 24.

6. That the creation of quadrupeds followed.-And 7. That the creation of man was later than all the abovementioned events.

TILLOCH'S Journal for Oct. 1815. pp. 285, 290.

25. [Gen. i. 1.] The interior structure of the earth, whereby its various fossil substances,-though differing exceedingly from each other in specific gravity,-though not arranged (near the surface) according to any regular law of situation, do yet constitute a world self-balanced, a sphere whose centre of gra

Fermentation is an intestine motion in the principles or par-vity coincides with its centre of magnitude (without which all ticles of which any body consists, with an intent to perfect the said body, or change it into another.

21.

Dr. WILLIS.

The earth was originally covered with water, as appears from some of its highest mountains, consisting of shells cemented together by a solution of part of them, as the lime-stone rocks of the Alps. FERBER'S Travels. It must, therefore, be concluded, that animal life began beneath the sea.-Nor is this unanalagous to what still occurs, as all quadrupeds and mankind, in their embryon state, are aquatic animals.

DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, canto i. l. 295.

22. [Gen. i. 2] "All birds, beasts, and fishes," says NEWTON, "insects, trees and vegetables, with their parts, grow from water, and, by putrefaction, return to water again." In short, almost every substance that we see, owes its texture and firmness to the parts of water that mix with its earth; and, deprived of this fluid, it falls away into a mass of shapeless dust and ashes.

GOLDSMITH'S Hist, of the Earth, vol. i. p. 165.

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its motions must have been in an extreme degree irregular), evidently demands a First Cause, which neither acts blindly, nor of necessity.-Again: The projectile force by which the earth was, in the beginning, made to move round the centre of light and heat; its diurnal rotation, duly diffusing this light and heat over the surface; the inclination of its axis to the plane of the ecliptic, whereby the tropical climates receive fewer of the sun's rays, while the inhabitant of the polar circle enjoys a much larger share all these effects, far surpassing the present powers of nature-most aptly combined together-working in concert without interference or disorder, for the attainment of one great, and good, and excellent end, clearly prove that this world has been produced by one powerful, intelligent, and benevolent Principle, utterly unlike to any mechanical cause which now does exist, or that can be conceived to exist.

PINKERTON'S Voy, and Trav. part xiii, pp. 917, 918.

26. [Gen. i. 5.] The Creator has composed this globe and its inhabitants solely of contraries, which are maintaining an incessant struggle. Our soil is formed of earth and water; our temperament of hot and cold; our day of light and darkness; the existence of vegetables and animals, of their youth and of their old age, of their loves and of their strifes, of their life and of their death. The equilibrium of beings is established only on their collisions. Nothing is durable but their lapse, nothing immutable but their mobility, nothing permanent but their combination: and Nature, every instant varying their forms, has no constant laws but those of their happiness. ST. PIERRE'S Works, vol. iv, p. 226.

27. [Gen. ii. 19.] From petrifactions of animals every where found throughout the world, it appears, that genera

tions of species long extinct have preceded those, which now people the earth, the waters, and the air.

HUMBOLDT'S Researches in South America.

28. [Gen. i. 20, 21.] The Mosaic creation may be considered as only a new modification of the creatures living on this globe, adapted to its present state, under which it will remain till circumstances shall make a new change necessary; and then our globe will again, by a new creation or revolution, appear more adapted to its state, and be stocked with a set of animals more suitable to that state. This gives us a grand idea of the Creator, his œconomy and management of the universe; and is, moreover, conformable to what is written in Psal. civ. 29, 30. "Thou hidest thy face, and they (small and great beasts) are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth."

DR. HUNTER's Remarks on Fossil Animals in the Phil. Tran. vol. Iviii. as referred to by Forster, in his Notes on KALM's Trav. in N. America.

29. [Gen. i. 5.] And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.

It is properly the atmosphere that produces the day, by collecting for us the light which the sun casts thereon.-The earth receiving his rays, beats them back on all sides: thus they ascend again into the atmosphere, which once more returns us the greatest part of them, and maintains around us, during day, that heat which is the soul of nature, and that splendor which is the beauty thereof.

30.

Nature Displayed, vol. iv. pp. 39, 40.

WHISTON admits that the sun, moon and stars, which must have been previously created, are in Gen. i. 17. only described as lights rendered visible in our atmosphere on the fourth day.

31.

See his Theory. p. 24, &c.

For no one of a sane mind, says ORIGEN, can imagine that there was an evening and a morning, during the three first days, without a sun.

32.

Pire Archon, lib. iv. cap. 14.

Of course the word day in the first chapter of Genesis, denotes a period of undetermined length, and not one of our days of twenty-four hours.

J. A. De Luc. Month.Mag. Feb. 1814, p. 12.

33. Night and day are of four kinds : 1. The night and day of Brihma; 2. The night and day of angels;

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37.

The variety of seasons arises from the axis of the earth not being perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic; for if it were, the ecliptic (the sun's revolution amongst the fixed stars) and equator would coincide, and the sun would then be always in the equator, and consequently it would never change its position in respect to the surface of the earth. VINCE'S Astron. vol. i. p. 81.-The antient astrological works of the Hindoos have preserved many valuable facts relating to the Indian sphere and the precession of the equinox.

Works of Sir W. JONES, vol. i. p. 154.

38. Plato believed, that the sun and moon which mark out the times and seasons, the days and years, will return, after fifteen thousand years, to the same point they occupied at the beginning of the world: Aristotle, on the contrary, maintained that such a revolution cannot take place till the thirty-six thousandth year from the creation. Long Livers, p. 36.

39.

Men have found that, in a long train of ages, all the celestial signs have by little and little receded from the point of the vernal equinox, and have drawn back now more than thirty degrees towards the east. Notwithstanding this alteration, the point of the zodiac that cuts the equator is still called the first degree of Aries, though it be in reality the first degree of Pisces which at the time comes above the horizon. p. 24.

ABBE PLUCHE'S Hist. of the Heav. vol. ii.

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