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Statement of Moses.

Tradition.

according to the conditions above mentioned. And if the cause of heat ceased, the waters would of course, in cooling, retire into their proper places. If the central nucleus be supposed 3000 miles, and the internal sea only 1500 miles deep, its contents will then be 99,200,000,000 cubic miles; or, 125 times the water required; and in that case, an additional heat of 36 degrees to the previous temperature of the earth, will be sufficient to produce the above described effect. It is scarce necessary to say, that the perfect regularity here supposed to exist in the form of the interior parts of the globe, is of no consequence to the proposed hypothesis; which will be equally just, if the above-given quantity of waters be any how disposed within the earth. Neither is it here proposed to discuss the reality of a central fire, which many philosophers maintain, and many deny. It may not be unworthy to remark, that the above hypothesis, which does not in any way contradict any law of nature, singularly accords with the Mosaic narrative of the deluge. For the sudden expansion of the internal waters would, of course, force them up through the chasms of the exterior crust, in dreadful jets and torrents; while their heat would cause such vapours to ascend into the atmosphere as, when condensed, would produce torrents of rain beyond our conception.' Dr. Geddes adds, "It is not at all necessary to suppose, with Sir Henry, that the antediluvian mountains were as high as those of the present earth. They may have been of a very different form and size, and composed of other materials."

Moses derives the deluge from two sources: "the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken up." We can enter into no calculation, as to the inexhaustible stores of these great reservoirs. The historian is perfectly consistent with himself. He represented the earth as originally covered with waters, which were called off by the divine fiat; some of them gathered into seas, others probably impelled into secret receptacles within the earth: the deluge only supposes the reduction of the earth to its original state, in this respect.

It might be expected, that an event of such an order should be corroborated by correspondent collateral evidences. Accordingly, the deluge is confirmed, not merely as a whole, but in important features of detail, by tradition. Whoever has carefully consulted Bryant' Ancient Mythology, can have no doubt, if learning and argument in unusual combination are conclusive, that Prometheus, Deucalion, Atlas, Theuth, Zuth, Xuthus, Inachus, Osiris, Dagon, and others, were all different names by which Noah was intended. Eusebius has preserved a fragment from Abydenus' history of Assyria, bear

ing upon this fact; and even including some circumstances to which

we have alluded, as characteristic of the Mosaic account, only under
different names. 66
Seisithrus," (another name for Noah,)" after
the waters were abated, sent out birds, that he might ascertain

whether the earth had yet appeared through the flood. But these, A.m. 1656. finding only a boundless sea, and having no resting-place, returned B.C. 2348. to Seisithrus."'13 Berosus, according to Josephus, both relates this fact, and observes that fragments of the ark remained in his days in Armenia. 14 Abydenus, before-mentioned, directly refers to the dove, and to the signal which she brought in her mouth, that the flood had subsided. Lucian adverts to an universal deluge, in no doubtful terms; and specifies the suspension of animal ferocity. 15 The change of appellation will excite no surprise, when we recollect that the ancients were in the habit of translating names into their own language; to give their signification, rather than their original form.16 Diodorus Siculus says, that it is a tradition of the Egyptians, that Deucalion's was the universal deluge: and Plato corroborates this testimony by affirming, that this flood, recorded in the sacred books of that people, long preceded the partial inundations known to the Grecians. There is another remarkable coincidence with the Mosaic account. The very day fixed by Moses as the beginning of the deluge, agrees exactly with the day in which Plutarch tells us, Osiris went into the ark-the seventeenth of Athyr: which is the second month after the autumnal equinox, the sun then passing through Scorpio. Add to these traditional evidences, the geological proof of the deluge; the existence of vast quantities of marine productions upon the tops of the mountains, and under the surface of the ground, to considerable depths, over the whole earth, and at all distances from the sea; not to be accounted for upon all the hypotheses by which it has been attempted to impugn the Mosaic history; and the singular fact, that there is no nation, ancient or modern, savage or civilized, without a tradition of the universal deluge; the chain of argument is complete.

geologists

partial.

[The considerations here adduced have long been generally preva- Opinion of lent and believed to be decisive as to the universality of the deluge. that the But within the last few years the majority of professed geologists, Deluge was together with many who may be justly regarded as sound divines, have changed their opinions; compelled, as they believe themselves to be, by the force of evidence, to the conclusion that the deluge was not universal but partial. Proofs are adducible of the occurrence of a succession of partial deluges on the surface of the globe, such as to have changed the aspect and character of many portions of its surface, in such a manner, and to such a degree, as necessarily to have obliterated all satisfactory traces of one great deluge absolutely universal. The deposits and diluvial remains found in far distant places and climates, are accounted for upon the supposition of such partial inundations; and it is believed on philosophical

13 Euseb. Præp. Lib. IX. Cap. 12.

14 Jos. Ant. Apion, I. et Antiq. Lib. I. Cap. 4.

S. H.

D

15 Lucian, Lib. de Dea Syria, &c.

16 Bryant's Ant. Mythol. Gale's Court of the Gentiles. Grotius de verit. Relig. XI. Joseph. Antiq. et contra Apion, &c.

Religion.

Sacrifices.

grounds that there could not have been a transient, tranquil, and universal deluge, producing the effects in question. In reply to the statements and in mitigation of the alarms that have been excited in the minds of the pious by the announcement of this new theory of geological science, it is argued that the terms used in Scripture, in the book of Genesis, do by no means necessarily imply the absolute universality of the great flood, and that in that case as in the entire word of God, which is not to be understood as employing a philosophical language, or communicating a scientific system, either of the earth or heavens, there is a merciful accommodation to the ordinary conceptions and current modes of expression among mankind; and that consequently true science and true theology are not at variance, but in perfect harmony with each other.

It would be quite impossible in this place, and within reasonable bounds, even to give an outline of the important discussions upon this subject; and while disposed ourselves to wait for still further elucidations from the fertile fields of geological discovery, we refer the reader in the meantime to the clear and candid statements of Dr. Pye Smith, in a volume published by him under the title of "The Relation between the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science."—ED.]

RELIGION, POLITY, LONGEVITY, AND CHRONOLOGY
OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.

Having given from the Mosaic narrative the only authentic chain of events belonging to this period, a few particulars illustrative of the religion, polity, longevity, and chronology of the Antediluvian world, may not be unacceptable to the reader, and will enable us to notice some of the more recent contributions to this obscure part of human history.

The religion of the Antediluvians can, at no period, be regard as purely natural, or that of unassisted reason. Although it soon presented the same important distinction between that which was revealed, or preserved in its revealed state, and that which was corrupted by tradition, which has been seen in the history of all succeeding ages, it supplies no proof of the existence of any true religion amongst men, which was not of divine origin, and sustained by the observance of God's own appointed means. If the ritual of the true religion was at this time simple, so is that of the far more perfect dispensation of Christianity. On the other hand, though violence" and evil passions abounded amongst the degraded Cainites, and finally produced universal corruption, we have no authenticated instances of idolatry before the flood.

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Upon the principle that all is vain worship which God has not enjoined, (Mark vii. 7,) many learned men have contended that the

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account of the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, furnishes strong proof of the divine institution of that rite. It is certain, that it contains the only formal instance of antediluvian worship; and the conduct of Abel is brought forward as having evinced his faith in God, &c., Heb. xi. 4, in which place he is said to have offered a more excellent," or, according to Wickliffe's Testament, which correctly expresses the original phrase, "a much more sacrifice (or much more of a sacrifice) than Cain. Warburton, with characteristic warmth for his own hypothesis, has remarked, that the two principal observances of the Jewish ritual, being those of the sabbath and the sacrifices, as the sacred historian is careful to impress us with the divine origin of the former, so he would unquestionably have recorded that of the latter, had it been equally a fact. To this it has been well replied, that the one is, perhaps, as explicitly recorded as the other. That God rested from the work of creation Sabbath. on the seventh day, and blessed or hallowed it, is the reason for its observance, assigned Exod. xx. 11; and that God in some peculiar, but well known way, (probably by fire from the shekinah which hovered over Eden,) blessed, and "had respect" unto the offering of Abel, is as distinctly said. But nowhere have we any express command, for the posterity of Adam to observe the seventh day as holy until the Mosaic law was given; nor have we, on the other hand, any thing like those traces of its continued observance which we have of the practice and acceptability of sacrificial rites. Kennicott and. others, after Fagius, contend that in the opening of the history of Cain and Abel's sacrifices, ought not to be rendered generally in process of time," but "at the appointed time or season.

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"'17

That the sabbath was observed by the pious antediluvians, may be argued from the familiarity with which it is introduced into the Jewish law, and the incontrovertible circumstance of a septennial division of time having obtained over various ancient nations, totally unconnected with the Jews, and coeval with them in their origin as nations. Thus there appear to have been appointed means and appointed times of divine worship.

Perhaps also we have a pretty clear indication of the " presence of the Lord," being more distinctly manifested in some particular place or places than others, in the lamentation of Cain, and the remark of the sacred historian, Gen. iv. 16; while the fact noticed at the end of the same chapter, "Then began men to call themselves by the name of Jehovah," would argue both a social and Social public profession of their religion. But Maimonides, and some other critics, consider this to have been a profane calling on the Lord. The civil polity, or government of the antediluvian world, appears Civil polity. to have been, in the first instance, purely patriarchal, or under the dominion of the respective fathers of its different tribes; so far, at

17 See this subject very fully pursued by Dr. Magee, in his second volume of discourses on the Scripture Doctrines of "Atonement and Sacrifice."

religion.

Arts.

Music.

ones,

least, as any public government can be supposed to have been
exercised before any notions of separate property could have been
entertained, or any other social distinctions were in existence, than
those which arose out of the greater manual strength or skill. And
these distinctions, in the aggregate of numerous families, would be
pretty well equalized. The longevity of this period, too, would
strengthen the ties of kindred, and the claims of this kind of
authority. To be an outcast or vagabond from such society, we
see was a formidable part of Cain's punishment. But the "mighty
or tyrants, that are stated to have arisen in the latter part
of the antediluvian history, hastened on the work of sin and slavery,
until the Judge of all the earth interfered in the awful visitation of
the flood. There seems to be no correct idea of these
66 men of
renown "afforded us in the common translation of the Bible, (Gen.
vi. 4, 5,) although Moses appears to be anxious to give us a
correct impression of their character, by the several epithets under
which he names them. 1. Nephalim-naphal-fallen ones;
apostates from the true religion: yyavts, according to the LXX,
literally earth-born. 2. Gibborim-gabar-victorious, heroes
or conquerors. 3. D-men of name; deriving surnames from
from their unworthy deeds; men not content with the simple family
distinctions of their ancestors. These are represented as filling
the earth with violence," and greatly instrumental in the final ruin
of their race.

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The attainments of the antediluvians in the arts, appear to have been considerable. The smelting of metals is mentioned, and a sort of community, (as we understand the sacred historian,) who, in the time of Tubal-Cain, the seventh in descent from Adam, were artificers in brass and iron. (Gen. iv. 22.) At the same period, and in the same family, we read of a remarkable proficiency in the science of music, and the terms used are probably generic; the one which we render "harp," meaning all stringed instruments, and the other rendered " organ," all wind instruments. Cain himself is said to have built a city, which he named after his son; and, as he had been peculiarly "cursed in his former occupation, on account of the murder of Abel, though we can form no notion of the dimensions of this place, it is not improbable, that an aversion to agricultural pursuits would partly impel him to cultivate the other arts and attainments for which his family so soon became noted. Josephus has Astronomy. some learned fabling on the skill of Seth in the science of astronomy; hieroglyphic pillars of his erection being, as that historian states, extant in his own time. Certain it is, that of all the sciences, astronomy appears to have been early known in great perfection. Astrology. The astrology of the Chaldeans was the daughter of the true science, we cannot doubt, if its other parent was superstition; and the Hindoo observations which have been recently made known to us, argue a considerable and very early acquaintance with the heavens. The

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