XII.

LET. Every body knows the expreffion to be metaphorical. But the truth is, that the original word does not fignify windows, according to the modern idea, but rather clefts, fillures, paffages: thefe were opened, the clouds were rent, as we fay. The waters rifing from beneath met the rains defcending from above, and, uniting their forces, they deluged the world.

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

There was no occafion for annihilating the waters. They returned to the place from whence they came. And as to the wind, which God caufed to pass over the earth, it was not intended merely to evaporate, but, like that which moved upon the chaos at

ארבות *

the

XII.

the creation, to feparate the waters LET. 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 mightythings it can effect, when employed in full force by it's Creator.

P. 8. It seems ftrange, that fo "vaft an affemblage of animals could "be inclosed in an ark, or cheft."

-But why, cheft? The Hebrew word is used only for this ark of Noah, and that in which the child Mofes was committed to the Nile; both hollow veffels, conftructed to float upon the waters. But there was fomething pleasant in the notion of the whole animal world being fhut up in a cheft; and the temptation was not to be refifted.

-"Which had but one window " (which

LET.

XII.

(which window was kept fhut for "more than five months) without "being ftifled for want of air."

"feems

All this, the infidels say, "ftrange"-it does fo; but it is not more ftrange, than true. That air would be neceffary to fupport the life of the creatures inclofed in the ark, was as well known to him who enjoined it to be built, as it can be to them. Our conclufion therefore is, that either a proper fupply of it was conveyed in fome manner from without, or elfe the air within, by means natural or preternatural, was preferved in a state fit for respiration. There might be various contrivances in and about the ark, which are not mentioned in fo concise a hiftory. The general facts, of which it concerned us to be informed, are these two; that the world was destroyed

by

by a flood; and that one family, with LET. a number of animals fufficient to re- XII. plenish the earth, was preferved in a veffel conftructed for that purpose.

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

Many more queftions of a like kind' might easily be asked, if one were to fet one's wits to work upon the fubject. But it should be confidered, that the author who relates this tranfaction, relates it to have been carried on under the immediate direction and infpec-: tion of God. By divine power the creatures were brought to Noah, and the fierce difpofitions of the wild kind overruled and mollified, that

they

LET. they might live quietly and peaceably XII. with one another, and with those of the tame fort, for the time appointed. Otherwise, instead of asking, how they were taken care of and fed in the ark, it should firft have been asked, how they came into it, or stayed a fingle moment in it, before the flood began ?-When "the wolf thus dwelt "with the lamb, the lion might eat "bay like the ox."-We fhould not recur to miracles upon every occafion; but if the event under confideration took place at all, it muft, from the very nature of it, have been miraculous, and out of the common course, as it is faid to have been. Some means of preferving the fifb might therefore be provided by their maker, notwithftanding the dilemma to which the learned and respectable writer abovementioned