men, the gifts of Providence bestowed upon him. | Another very seldom reaches the attainment of saying, "I know in whom I have believed;" is generally subject to the bondage of various doubts and fears; and, from an ill-informed conscience, and the remains of a naturally avaricious spirit, is either perpetually perplexed with questions of lawfulness or unlawfulness about absolute trifles; or abridges himself, and those who have the claims of humanity upon him, of the proper enjoyment of what God has given him. Thus you see, then, that in the case of angels and of men, both unconverted and converted, a most striking and original inequality obtains, in their rank, in their endowments, and in their degrees of happiness. As well, therefore, may you deny all these to be the creatures of God, and their superior advantages to be his gift, as dispute the truth of revealed religion, because it is not published to all nations! Here behold the visible, palpable, and audible analogy of the Almighty, in his works of creation, of providence, and of grace! THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR JOHN LIVINGSTON, Continued from page 356. for now they had none at all. The Assembly thought not fit to loose any, but for four or five years thereafter, ordered some eight ministers in the year to go over for and in the meantime some godly and able young men visits, two for three months, and after them other two, to be dealt with to go over for settling; and that these ministers might in parishes elect elderships, and with the presbytery of the army, try and admit ministers. The ministers who went used for most part to separate themselves to divers parishes in several parts of the country; there being such a great number of vacant parishes, yet so as the one would also visit the place where the other had been. By this appointment I was sent over three months in summer 1643, and as long in summer 1645; and in summer 1646 and 1648 I went thither. For the most part of all these three months the destitute parishes were many; the hunger of the I preached every day once, and twice on the Sabbath; people was become great; and the Lord was pleased to furnish otherwise than usually I wont to get at home. I came ordinarily the night before to the place where I was to preach, and commonly lodged in some religious person's house, where we were often well rebefore I went to bed, but to make sure the place of freshed at family exercise; usually I desired no more Scripture I was to preach on the next day. And rising in the morning, I had four or five hours myself alone, either in a chamber or in the fields; after that we went to church, and then dined, and then rode some five or six miles more or less to another parish. Sometimes there would be four or five communions in several places in the three months' time. I esteemed these visits in Ireland the far best time of all the while I was in Galloway. After the year 1647 or 1648, the General Assembly sent no more any for visits to Ireland, because by that time several godly and able ministers were settled there. The ministers with whom I kept most society, and by whose counsel and company I profited most, were my brother M'Clellan at Kirkcudbright, Messrs Robert Hamilton at Ballantrae, George Hutcheson at Colmonel, and in the presbytery of Stranraer, Alexander Turnbull at Kirkmaiden, John Dick at Inch, George Dick at Glenluce, and in the presbytery of Wigtoun, Andrew Lauder at Whithorn, and John Park at Mochrum, who also succeeded me in Stranraer; and with all these I have been at communions, and most of them have been at communions at Stranraer. The fifth period of my life I reckon from the time I was settled in the ministry at Ancrum to this present February 1666. In summer 1648 I had a call from the parish of Ancrum, and an invitation from the Pres THE fourth period of my life, I reckon from the time I entered into the ministry at Stranraer, till I was transported to Ancrum. I was received at Stranraer the 5th of July 1638, and shortly after transported my family thither, and I remained in the ministry of that place until harvest 1648, when, by the sentence of the General Assembly, I was transported to Ancrum in Teviotdale. Because I had some household furniture to carry, and the way was far, I put my family in a boat at Irvine, and put in a tolerable quantity of provisions. The wind being the first day very fair, we were like to be soon at our port; the boat's company consumed most of all our provision, so that by a calm and a little contrary wind, being three days at sea, the last day we had neither meat nor drink, and could reach no coast, and my wife had then a sucking child, yet it pleased the Lord, we came safe to Lochryan. Some of our friends came out of Ireland, and dwelt in Stranraer, and at communions twice in the year, great numbers used to come; at one time five hundred persons. At one time I baptized twenty-eight children brought out of Ireland.bytery of Jedburgh, and a presentation from the Earl Providence so ordered that I was a member of the General Assembly at Glasgow in November 1638, which established the reformation of religion, and of the rest of the General Assemblies, even till that in the year 1650, except that only in Aberdeen in the year 1640. When I came first to Stranraer, some of the folks of the town desired to come to our house, to be present at our family exercise; thereafter I propounded that I would rather choose every morning to go to the church; and so each morning the bell ringing we convened, and after two or three verses of a Psalm sung, and a short prayer, some portion of Scripture was read and explained, only so long as a half-hour glass ran, and then closed with prayer. The whole parish was within the bounds of a little town. The people were very tractable and respectful, and no doubt had I taken pains, and believed as I ought to have done, more fruit would have appeared among them. I was sometimes well satisfied and refreshed, being with some of them on their death-bed. The people of the north of Ireland sent commissioners to the General Assembly in Scotland in the year 1642, petitioning for ministers to be sent to them, of Lothian the patron, and, by act of the General Assembly, that year was transported thither, and was received by the Presbytery. I the rather inclined, because I found they were generally landward simple people, who, for some time before, had not had so much of the Gospel as to despise it. The people were very tractable, but were very ignorant, and some of them loose in their carriage; and it was a long time before any competent number of them were brought to such a condition as we might adventure to celebrate the Lord's Supper. But within some time some of them began to lay religion to heart. Some two or three years after the English had in a manner subdued the land, there began some reviving of the work of God in the land. In several parts sundry were brought in by the ministry of the Word; amongst which there were some also in the parish of Ancrum, and other parts of the South in Teviotdale and in the Merse. Communions were very lively and much frequented. We had several monthly meetings in these two shires. At last in April 1663, I went aboard old John Allan's ship, and in eight days came to Retterdam. I was many a time in Leith well refreshed in conference and prayer with those that came to visit me, and had the company of very many friends when I went aboard. When I came to Rotterdam, I found before me the rest of the banished ministers, viz., Messrs Robert Trail, minister at Edinburgh, John Nevy at Newmills, Robert M Ward at Glasgow, James Simpson at Airth, John Brown at Wamphray, and James Gardner at Saddel. Here I got frequent occasion of preaching in the Scots congregation. In December 1663, my wife came to me and brought two of the children, the other five were left in Scotland. Hitherto, I can say, during my abode in Rotterdam, I have been in my body as free of pain and sickness, and in my mind as free of anxiety, as ever I had been all my life during so long time, and I make account that my lot is a great deal easier than that of many that are at home. Now, when I look back upon the whole, as for my spiritual condition, I cannot deny, but sometimes, both in public and private, I have found the Lord work upon my heart, and give confirmations of kindness and engagement to his service, but I do not remember any particular time of conversion, or that I was much cast down or lifted up. I do remember one night in the Dean of Kilmarnock, having been most of the day before in company with some of the people of Stuarton, who were under rare and sad exercises of mind, I lay down in some heaviness that I never had experience of before. That night, in the midst of my sleep, there came upon me such a terror of the wrath of God, that if it had increased a small degree higher, or continued a minute longer, I had been in as dreadful a condition as ever living man was in; but it was instantly removed, and I thought it was said to me within my heart, "See what a fool thou art, to desire the thing thou couldest not endure." And that which I thought strange was, that neither the horror nor the ease out of it awakened me out of my sleep, but I slept till the morning, only the impression of it remained fresh with me for a reasonable time afterwards. As concerning my gift of preaching, I never attained to any accuracy therein. I used ordinarily to write some few notes, and left the enlargement to the time of the delivery. I found that much studying did not so much help in preaching, as the getting of my heart brought to a spiritual disposition; yea, sometimes I thought that the hunger of the hearers helped me more than my own preparation. Many a time I found that which was suggested to me in the delivery, was more refreshful to my self, and edifying to the hearers, than what I had premeditated. I was often much deserted and cast down in preaching, and sometimes tolerably assisted. I never preached a sermon that I would be earnest to see again in writ but two. The one was at a communion on a Monday at the Kirk of Shots, and the other on a Monday after a communion at Holywood. And both these times I had spent the whole night before in conference and prayer with some Christians, without any more than ordinary preparation; otherwise, my gift was rather suited to simple common people, than to learned judicious auditors. Had I in a right manner believed and taken pains, it had been better for myself; but, by a lazy trusting to assistance in the meantime, I kept myself barehanded all my days. I had a kind of coveting, when I got leisure and opportunity, to read much, and of different subjects; and I was oft challenged, that my way of reading was like some men's lust after such a kind of play or recreation. I used to read much too fast, and so was somewhat pleased in the time, but retained little. It was once or twice laid on me by the General Assembly, to write the history of the Church of Scotland, since the late reformation 1638; but, besides my inability for such an undertaking, and my lazy disposition, I could by no means procure the materials for such a work, Now, since I came to Holland, and so had more leisure than before, when I was devising how to employ my time to some advantage, I remembered that I had spent some of my former years in the study of the Hebrew language, and had a great desire that some means might be used, that the knowledge of the only true God might be yet more plentifully had, both by ministers and professors, out of the original text; and for that cause, in as small a volume as might be, the original text of the Bible might be printed in the one column, and the several vulgar translations thereof in the other column, in several Bibles. For this cause much of my time in Holland I spent in comparing Pagnin's version in the original text, and with the later translations, such as Munster's, the Tigurine, Junius, Diodati, the English, but especially the Dutch, which is the latest and most accurate translation; being encouraged therein, and having the approbation of Voetius, Essenius, Nethenus, and Leusden, and so through the Old Testament wrote some emendations on Pagnin's translation. I also took some time in going through the English Bible, and wrote a few diverse readings, and some explanatory notes, and some reconciliations of seemingly contrary places, to have been inserted either among the marginal readings, or printed in two or three sheets in the end of the Bible; but the death of worthy John Graham, provost of Glasgow, who was ready to have borne most of the charges of printing, stopped both these enterprises. Therefore, on a motion from Dr Leusden, that a printer in Utrecht would print a Latin Bible, having for the Old Testament Pagnin's translation so amended, I sent Dr Leusden all these papers, but as yet have not heard of anything done. After having completed his Autobiography, Mr Livingston lived six years, and died at Rotterdam on the 9th August 1672. HEBREW GLEANINGS. BY THE REV. ROBERT SIMPSON, A. M., HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.-PART I. THE sacred writings of the Hebrews, apart from their inspiration, contain much that cannot fail to be highly interesting to the inquisitive and enlightened mind. The whole volume is replete with the most valuable historical information, and is rich alike in the sublimest lessons of piety and wisdom, and the most beautiful models of pathetic and eloquent composition, both in prose and poetry. A much higher antiquity has been assigned, by the consent of all competent judges, to the earlier books of the Hebrew Scriptures than can be justly claimed for any other authentic and intelligible written documents now in existence. Herodotus, the acknowledged and honoured father of Grecian history, was long posterior to Moses; and even Homer, the chief, if not the first, of the poets of Greece whose writings have come down to us, must yield the palm of precedence, by many centuries, to the illustrious lawgiver of the Hebrews. Any pretensions on the part of oriental works to a priority of date are wholly unsupported by satisfactory evidence; and in the opinion of those best qualified to decide the point, they are entirely without foundation, except on the credit of a notoriously fabulous and extravagant chronology. The subject-matter of the canonical books of the Hebrews is familiar to every intelligent Christian. All, too, that is known authentically respecting the inspired penmen of these books may be found detailed in our best commentaries. But there are many remarkable and instructive facts connected with the canon of the Old Testament, particularly in reference to its history and arrangement, which are not so generally accessible to ordinary readers. To illustrate some of the most important of these will be the object of the following observations. By the express direction of Moses (Deut. xxxi.) the book of the law was deposited in the side, or rather by the side, of the ark of the covenant, there to remain as the infallible guide of the children of Israel in the worship of God and in the duties of life, and as a testimony against them if they should fail to walk according to its dictates. The two tables of the ten commandments were laid up within the ark; but the book of the law, it is thought, was placed in a small coffer which formed an appendage to it. That this annexed repository of the sacred writings of the Hebrews was removed on all occasions with the ark itself, and even carried out with it, when borne in war before the armies of Israel, is highly probable. The safety of the one, however, amid all the perils to which it was exposed, clearly implies the preservation of the other, since nothing is recorded to the contrary. In this situation, it is believed that the autograph, or original manuscript of the Pentateuch, and along with it the other inspired books,* as they were successively committed to writing by the holy men raised up in different ages for that purpose, were preserved down to the building of the temple in the days of Solomon. The ark of the covenant was then placed in a condition of greater outward security within the most holy place (1 Kings viii.;) and most probably the small coffer in question continued to be attached to it there as formerly, though it is often affirmed, but upon no certain grounds, that the book of the law henceforth lay in the treasury. There, too, the autographs, or authenticated copies, of the subsequent inspired writings were now likewise deposited, as they were from time to time indited or composed. But transcripts of all these records, more or less correct and complete, were in ordinary use for the instruction of the people. (2 Chron. xvii.) The solemn public reading of the law every seventh year, while duly attended to, would obviously tend to preserve the book itself, as well as to diffuse the knowledge of its contents. Moses expressly enjoined (Deut. xvii.) that every king of Israel should write out a copy of the law, in order, doubtless, to impress upon his mind more distinctly its leading principles and various enactments; but the practice would also serve to multiply authentic manuscripts. And that great attention, besides, was paid to the multiplication of copies of different portions of the Sacred Scriptures is manifest from an instance particularly mentioned (Prov. xxv.) to the honour of Hezekiah; and may it not be presumed that pious princes generally pursued the same commendable course? But during the reign of one or other of the wicked kings of Judah, most likely Manasseh, who profaned the temple by the introduction of heathen impieties within its hallowed precincts, it is supposed, with much probability, that the book of the law, and, no doubt, also the other sacred writings, then existing, were removed from their appointed and appropriate situation. And they were thus removed, it is conjectured, by the hands of the priests, acting either of their own accord in the matter, or at the instigation of some friend to the cause of true religion, it might be the prophet Isaiah, and concealed in some obscure part of the temple, lest any attempt should have been made to destroy them, because of the testimony they bore against abounding iniquity. In this concealment they were at length lost sight of for a time, and almost forgotten amid the political troubles and religious declension of that turbulent and backsliding period. On the happy accession of Josiah, however, these invaluable records were unexpectedly discovered, it would seem, in some recess of the treasury. And the profound Of this there is presumptive evidence, 1 Sam. x, 25. reverence with which that godly prince listened to the reading of the venerable original book of the law, and the surprise, mixed with alarm, he manifested on hearing some parts of its contents, perhaps the threatenings denounced against disobedience, (Deut. xxviii.) with which he might have been but imperfectly, if at all, acquainted before, as well as the general interest displayed on the occasion, clearly show the high regard in which these ancient and inspired writings were still held among the Hebrews. Some, it is true, have expressed a doubt whether the manuscript here spoken of was in reality the autograph of the Hebrew lawgiver. In addition, however, to the argument obviously arising from the sensation produced by the event, since it is highly improbable that, after the recent labours of Hezekiah's transcribers, no copies of the law, more or less perfect, then existed, a strong confirmation of the other view is found in the peculiar terms in which the discovery was announced : Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord, given by Moses," or by the hand of Moses (2 Chron. xxxiv.) Now, though we often read of the law of Moses and the book of Moses, this is the only place where the expression by the hand, or in the hand, occurs in the same relation to the other words with which it stands here connected. It is, besides, manifest from the whole scope of the passage, that some particular and distinguished manuscript was intended; for, although in our translation of the verse just quoted, the indefinite article is used, the sense of the original is strictly definite. And to the opinion here supported, the assumed antiquity of the writing (nine hundred and fifty years) involves no objection, because, at this day, copies exist which are said to be of a greater age. This remarkable occurrence, under the divine blessing, led to a revival of religion, the salutary effects of which would not be soon obliterated. The captivity ensued almost immediately after, when it is supposed that the sacred records perished in their original form, that is, the identical handwriting of their several authors. But we have the clearest proof that authentic copies were possessed by the Hebrews in their captive state. Daniel (chapter ix.) expressly quotes the law, and refers to the prophecies of Jeremiah. And, as we are elsewhere informed, (Psalm cxxxvii.) that their insulting oppressors required of the forlorn Israelites that they would sing the songs of Zion in the land of the stranger, though it is signified, at the sametime, that they refused compliance with a demand so painful to their feelings, does not the fact of its having been made, attest the known existence of some interesting and affecting portions of their sacred poetry? The rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonish captivity formed an era in the history of the sacred books, as well as an epoch in the national annals of the Hebrews. About this eventful period Ezra, an honoured servant of God, and a distinguished ornament of the Old Testament Church, became the zealous promoter of various measures which tended to preserve the Sacred Volume pure and entire, and to render its meaning more obvious. He is said to have collated or compared different copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, correcting the errors which had crept in through the negligence of transcribers, and to have collected the several portions or books and disposed them according to a new and better arrangement. He is also thought to have added, or at least to have revised and sanctioned, those supplementary passages and incidental remarks, and made those verbal alterations, which, it is evident, could not have proceeded from the pen of the original authors. Of these, we may just mention, as instances, the account of the death of Moses given in the end of Deuteronomy, the observation in reference to a circumstance in Abraham's history, that "the Canaanite was then in the land," (Gen. xii.) and the new names of some places, inserted by way of explanation, as they were known long subsequently to the date of the writings in which they occur. three great sections to which reference is made more or less explicitly in different parts of the New Testament; that is, the law, the prophets, and the Hagiographa or holy writings. The first of these sections contained the Pentateuch only, because it was held to be the basis of the whole Hebrew system of polity and religion. The second comprehended the principal historical books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, called the former prophets, perhaps because revised, if not written, by men possessing the spirit of prophecy, and the strictly prophetical books, called the latter prophets, and also distinguished into the greater, namely, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, reckoned as three, and the twelve less or minor prophets, reckoned as one. And the third included all the remaining books, that is, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles, several of which books are of a devotional character, and their designation as a class no doubt ori follow each other no explanation can now be given, neither is it uniformly the same. It is further supposed that several important changes in the mode of writing the sacred books were introduced by Ezra. These, it is considered, were rendered necessary in consequence of the unavoidable neglect of the Hebrew tongue by his countrymen during the seventy years of their captivity. From that time it became, in many essential respects, a dead language. And it has been contended by some that this inspired reformer of the Old Testament canon first inserted the vowel points in the ordinary copies of the Scriptures, with the view of preventing the knowledge of the peculiar structure and pronunciation of Hebrew from being lost or corrupted; and the reason, say those who adopt this view, why these marks of sound, expressed after the oriental manner, were never admitted into the copies used in public worship, was, that no persons were allowed to conduct it who could not read properly with-ginated in that fact; but as to the order in which they out their aid. This, however, is a matter of very minor importance, about which various opinions are held by the learned. But it is more confidently alleged by many, who have studied the subject much, that, as the Israelites, who returned with Ezra into the land of their fathers, had been educated among the Chaldeans, whose language, though intimately allied to the Hebrew, or rather only another dialect of the same tongue, was expressed by a different character; and as they were now more familiar with the alphabet of their late foreign masters than with that formerly used by their own ancestors, a change even of the letters was found to be expedient. While, therefore, the Hebrew Scriptures were most religiously preserved in all their purity and entireness, it is affirmed, with great apparent force of argument, that the Chaldee character was adopted, with Ezra's sanction, instead of the ancient Samaritan. And not only was the inspired text thus transferred, without being altered in its sacred import, but it also henceforth became indispensable for the sake of general edification, that in the stated public reading of the Scriptures the sense of the original should be rendered by the officiating teacher into what was now the vernacular of the great body of the people, (Nehem. viii.) Hence the origin of the Chaldee paraphrases; and considerable portions, moreover, of the books of Daniel and of Ezra, to say nothing of minuter instances, are written wholly in that tongue. The change of the alphabetic characters, which has just been adverted to, startling as it may appear at first sight, and strenuously as it has been denied by some, is far from being without example in the history of languages. A transition of a similar kind is going on at this moment in British India, where the extreme diversity in the mode of writing the letters found to exist in the various districts, has proved, hitherto, a great bar to communication and improvement. And we have a well known instance of precisely the same species of change nearer home. For some time after printing was introduced into England, the old Saxon alphabet continued much in use; but has it not long since given almost exclusive place to the more clear and convenient form of the Roman character? And surely the change from the indistinct and perplexing black-letter of our forefathers to the fair and beautiful modern type of our present Bibles, must be regarded not as a source of error, but of greater accuracy. But there was yet another point in the settling of the Hebrew canon of inspired writings, which Ezra is believed to have fixed, assisted, as in other things, by his associates in that important work, among whom are usually numbered Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, namely, the classification and arrangement of the sacred books. The Old Testament Scriptures were divided, it is thought, bv him and his coadjutors into those Our Lord himself expressly mentions this division of the sacred books of the Old Testament; and the way in which he does it, exemplifies a peculiar practice in use among the Hebrews. They frequently designated particular books of their Scriptures from the word with which they respectively begin. And, for the same reason, the first book of any of the three great sections into which they were all arranged sometimes stood for the whole class to which it belonged. Agreeably to this mode of quoting, our Saviour, after his resurrection, said, (Luke xxiv.,) "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me;" in which passage, the Hagiographa is plainly indicated by the Psalms. And on the same principle, an apparent misquotation (Mat. xxvii. 9, 10,) has been explained. The passage there referred to, is not in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah. Since, however, the book of Jeremiah, according to the Talmudic arrangement, stands first in the section of the Prophets, it might represent in citations all the prophetical books. Again, that the writings bearing Samuel's name, though historical, were reckoned among the prophets, is manifest from the words of the Apostle Peter, (Acts iii. 24.) Josephus also recognises the foregoing classification of the Hebrew Scriptures, (against Apion;) but says, that the inspired books amounted to twenty-two only, according to the number of letters in the alphabet. But that statement, which has somewhat the appearance of a conceit, involves no inconsistency with the commonly received computation, because two books in our present reckoning of the Hebrew Bible were, in some instances, formerly considered as one. Of course, the order of succession among writings all inspired is not very material. The arrangement now observed in our English Bibles seems to be dictated chiefly by chronological sequence, as far as the historical books are concerned. But the book of Job, according to some authorities, ought to take precedence even of the Pentateuch, in point of date. And it has indeed much the air of the patriarchal times in sentiments, as well as customs. With respect, however, to the minuter features of style and diction, a later period appears to be indicated. The Hebrew Scriptures were anciently divided into sections or lessons, of which there were fifty-four in the law of Moses. The division into chapters was unknown till a few centuries ago; but the subdivision into verses is of very old standing. If Ezra was not the author of this also, it was certainly introduced soon after his time, and most probably, for the sake of convenience, in rendering the Hebrew, clause by clause, into Chaldee. And each verse originally, it is thought, | whether long or short, occupied a separate line on the entire breadth of the parchment; but this arrangement was afterwards changed. If it should be asked, and the question is pertinent, and likely to occur to those who think deeply on the subject, what security have we that the sacred writings of the Hebrews were transmitted, as recognized and important public documents down to the days of Ezra? The brief history of these records, which has now been given, is chiefly of a literary nature. Are there any general arguments, by which it can be shown that their existence was asserted or necessarily implied throughout the period under review? It might, doubtless, be deemed enough, when we consider the subsequent attestation of our Lord and his apostles to the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures, to affirm simply, in reply to such inquiries, that the providence of God was every way sufficient to preserve the memorials of his revealed will from every danger to which they might be exposed. But it will be still more satisfactory, to be able to trace the actual dealings of the Almighty in this particular sphere of his dispensations; stating the specific means which he employed to subserve his purpose, and the more obvious proofs that these were blessed for the attainment of the end in view. Upon this branch of the subject we shall enter in our next communica tion. DILUVIAN ANTIQUITIES. BY THE LATE REV. JAMES Kidd, D.D., VARIOUS HYPOTHESES IN REFERENCE TO THE MEANS WHILE in every nation on the face of the earth whose traditions have come down to us, the fact of a deluge having happened may be distinctly traced, various opinions have been started as to the mode in which the submersion of the whole earth was effected. This, it must be confessed, is a matter of pure curiosity, and not of any practical importance, but still it may be interesting to notice the strange fancies which learned men have formed upon the subject. The quantity of water necessary to give rise to an universal deluge has appeared to many writers so enormous as to require the intervention of a miracle for its production. On this point Scripture is so explicit, that it is wonderful such a theory should have ever been maintained. The words of Moses are, Gen. vii. 11, "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.' It is evident, surely, from this passage that there was no miraculous creation of water for the purpose of effecting what the Almighty could accomplish by ordinary means. The storehouses of nature required only to be unsealed by the fiat of the great Creator, and the water rushed forth to drown an ungodly world; and when the work of judgment was completed, the floodgates were again shut and the water retired within its natural boundaries. It has been doubted by some whether a sufficient quantity of water could have been obtained from natural sources alone. To obviate this difficulty, Dr Burnet, in his Sacred Theory of the Earth, supposes that the earth in its primitive state was merely a shell or crust, investing the surface of the water contained in the ocean, and as he imagined, in the central cavity also of the earth. This theory, which was evidently only a modification of that of Descartes, required for the production of a deluge no thing more than that the outward crust which enveloped the waters should be broken into a thousand pieces, and thus permit the water to overflow the whole surface. This, of course, is a mere gratuitous supposition; but it is curious to mark the fanciful vagaries of men upon a subject which is so simply and clearly explained in the Word of God. And even admitting, as the words of Moses evidently imply, that the natural resources of the antediluvian world afforded a sufficient quantity of water to accomplish a deluge, it has still been a difficult problem with many writers to explain the mode in which that great catastrophe was effected. Some account for it by alleging a shifting of the earth's centre of gravity; Mr Whiston attributes it to the influence of a comet coming in contact with the earth; Mr Hutchinson to a miraculous pressure of the atmosphere forcing out the waters over the whole surface of the dry land; and M. De Beaumont has started the strange idea that the sudden appearance of the Cordillera of the Andes may have led to this universal inundation. M. De La Pryme maintained that the antediluvian world had an internal sea as well as land, with mountains and rivers; and that the waters of this sea were forced from the subterraneous caverns by dreadful earthquakes, while the present earth, he supposes, must have emerged from the bottom of the antediluvian sea. This, and indeed all the hypotheses we have noticed, are quite arbitrary, and have no foundation in the statements of the Mosaic record. The sacred historian speaks not a single word of earthquakes; nay, in the very nature of things it is impossible that, without a miracle, the flood could have been occasioned by an earthquake, and yet the ark have been preserved. Besides, as the ark was built not at sea but upon dry ground, when the earth on which it rested sunk down, the ark must have sunk along with it, and the waters falling in with such tremendous force as the supposed earthquake must have caused, could not fail to have dashed in pieces the strongest vessel that can be imagined. Earthquakes also operate suddenly and violently; whereas, according to the Mosaic account, the flood came on gradually, and did not arrive at its height till several weeks had elapsed from its commencement. It is obvious from the language of the inspired writings, that the water by means of which the earth, even to the top of the highest hills, was submerged, must have been derived from two different sources, called respectively "the fountains of the great deep," and "the windows of heaven." Now, to explain the first of these expressions, it is not necessary to imagine that the centre of the earth is occupied by a vast abyss or immense collection of water. Independently altogether of this huge internal cistern, it has been found, in process of mining, that the earth, as far as has yet been excavated, is not dry but moist, and when we reflect on the vast thickness of the globe of the earth, the quantity of water which pervades it simply in the form of moisture must be enormous. And in explanation of the expression "the windows of heaven," we are informed by Moses that "it rained forty days and forty nights." The quantity of water, then, discharged from the atmosphere must have also been immense, of itself sufficient, we might imagine, to be capable of overtopping the highest hills, which probably do not exceed four miles in height. And to render the water thus contained in the bowels of the earth and in the atmosphere available for the production of the deluge, the simple fiat of the Almighty was surely enough. It is not necessary that we should search for a natural agent adequate to produce what is not ascribed in Scripture to any natural agency whatever. No cause is adduced by the inspired his torian but the simple will of the Almighty; and although we are inclined to believe with some modern |