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waters were truly and elegantly said to stand as a wall, but not with such a rigidity as if they had been frozen; nor had they, I presume, any greater degree of immoveableness, than what was barely necessary for the completion of the miracle. If indeed this type was intended, a sufficiency of motion must have been preserved for that purpose. Whether the glory which, at times, appeared in the cloud, and was expressed by the word fire, partook at all of the nature of common or elementary fire, we need not examine; for even if it did, we are sure that, in such a cloud, the elements of fire and water would have accorded and been compatible in the awful presence of their creator! Even a common cloud emits both rain and lightning, so that I see no reason why my authorities should be deprived of their," dew from the cloud." A type, it is true, need not reflect its antitype in every point; but the nearer it comes to it the better. Though a general resemblance may sometimes be sufficient, yet where more appears to be meant we ought to allow it; and after all the type will be in some measure incomplete, as in the present instance, there was no running stream, nor water in a vessel, nor hand of an apostle to sprinkle it. Were your correspondent even like the famed knight, who "could not ope his mouth, but out there flew a trope," yet he should consider that tropes and figures, any more than miracles, are not to be resorted to unnecessarily. Where the reality is, there is no room for figures; and that the reality, and not a trope, is here meant by St. Paul, I have argued from his asserting plain facts in the latter part of the same proposition, for it is not to be conceived that he would use figures in one part of his argument, and plain facts in the other. Surely I am the true advocate, and not your correspondent, for the plain and obvious sense of the words in question; and what occasion can there be for tropes, where the literal meaning of what is asserted can be so naturally and easily made out?

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A SERIES OF ESSAYS,

TENDING TO ELUCIDATE THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all: the EARTH is full of thy riches! Psalm civ. 24.

ESSAY I.

ON THE ORIGINAL FORMATION OF THE EARTH. ARIOUS hypotheses have been formed to account for difficulties supposed to embarrass the Mosaic history of the creation; and some writers have taken most unwarrantable liberties with the sacred text, by endeavouring to force and bind it down to a compliance with their fanciful systems.

The inspired penman has merely left us an historical record of the origin of the world, and he has briefly, but expressively, described the primitive condition of matter and the changes which it underwent, until the earth assumed a regular form and became a fit habitation for man. He plainly declares that this substance, or mass of matter, was itself created in the beginning, together with the expansum, or the "widely extended fluid called the HEAVENS,' as contrasted with the opake, solid and revolving body which is named the EARTH. This is not only a complete refutation of the Atheistic blasphemy that matter is eternal, but also of that wild and visionary notion which approximates to it, that this globe was formed out of the ruins of a comet or a former world*.

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Scripture describes this original mass of matter, as an illimitable, dark, confused deep, a

vast immeasurable abyss,

Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault

Heaven's height, and with the centre inix the pole.

MILTON.

The first act of omnipotence towards reducing this watry or fluid body into order and consistence, is stated

* Whiston's Theory of the Earth.

to

to have been the moving or fluttering of the Spirit of God upon its face or bosom. Whatever may be understood by this remarkable expression, whether the divine Spirit, or as it should rather seem a powerful wind sweeping its surface, the consequence was that it dislodged the finer particles from the gross, and caused the one to ascend above the other. Its action on the deep is expressed by a word drawn from the manner in which the eagle and other birds flutter and agitate themselves when in the act of incubation. This is the more deserving of remark, because in most, if not all the antient cosmogonies or accounts of the origin of the world among the heathen, whether poetical, historical, or philosophical, the primitive chaos, from whence all things sprung, is described as an egg, which was hatched by a divine Spirit, 'called love*.

That there was heat produced by this motion is reasonable in itself, and is agreeable to a passage in the psalms, which ascribes this effect to the "breath or wind of God:"-" He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word and stilleth them; he causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow."-cxlvii. 17, 18.

This view of the subject will be materially aided if we consider that this action of the wind or spirit, produced a rotatory motion in the mass, so as to dispose it into a globular form; and it is in this sense that I wish to understand the original word, nan merachepet, the moving and revolving of the abyss or mass of matter, as the bird carefully moves about the egg in her nest, to diffuse an equal degree of heat to all its parts. Another consequence of this rotatory motion, and impress of an exterior force upon the particles of matter in their fluid state, would be to form concretions of the heavier ones, and the disposal of them in regular strata or layers according to their specific gravities and relations, similar to what is the present state of the earth, notwithstanding the changes which it has undergone by the universal deluge, and by partial convulsions of various kinds.

In the book of Job there is a most beautiful commentary upon the cosmogony of Moses, expressed by the Deity himself to the afflicted patriarch," out of the

* See the Testimonies of this enumerated in Grotius, de Verit. 1. 1, $ 16. in Not. And at still greater length, with many curious particulars in Gale's Court of the Gentiles, part I, lib. 3. cap. 3. whirlwind."

whirlwind." It is there asked, "Where wast thou, when I laid the FOUNDATIONS of the earth? declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? whereupon are the FOUNDATIONS thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"-xxxviii. 4-7.

These questions plainly relate to the original formation of the matter composing the earth, and they express in very sufficient terms the "laying," or regular disposition of that matter, so as to form the "foundations" of the globe.

By the corner-stone, probably is meant the nucleus of the planet, or that primary collection of massy bodies, which forms the centre, and upon which all the supervening strata are regularly formed.

The nature of the atmosphere and its original heavy, and almost impervious state, are thus elegantly and accurately described:-" I made the cloud the garment thereof, [i.e. enwrapping the globe as a vestment,] and thick darkness a swaddling band for it.”—v. 9.

(To be continued.)

TO THE EDITOR'S OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

GENTLEMEN,

UR university almanack-makers seem strangely careless. Two years ago in the OXFORD almanack, we had Advent Sunday; and the Sunday after was denomi nated the FIRST, instead of the second Sunday in Advent This year the CAMBRIDGE almanack, which I have bought from its commencement, omits St. Mark's day entirely, and takes no notice of the Ember weeks; this latter omission had like to have misled me last week, when I had left out the prayer for those about to be admitted into Holy Orders, but for an accident which reminded me of the return of Ordination Sunday. I intend collating two or three almanacks next year, and if the result be worth your notice, I will lay it before you for the benefit of your readers.

Sept. 24, 1804

I am, Gentlemen,

Yours, &c.

PETAVIUS.

EXTRACTS.

TWO LETTERS OF DR. EDWARD YOUNG, AUTHOR OF THE NIGHT THOUGHTS.

From the Life and Correspondence of Mr. Richardson, author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Grandison, just published.]

TO MR. RICHARDSON,

MY VALUED FRIEND,

Bulstrode, Nov. 26, 1745.

FTER a very wet journey above and below, I arrived at this family, to arrive at which, one would a be glad to go through some difficulties. Virtue, prudence, peace, industry, ingenuity, and amiableness, dwell here. You will say I keep very good company; but you must know that anxiety has lately intruded, without the least invitation from folly or vice. The Duke *, has a considerable estate in and about Carlisle, which must have suffered much; nor can they yet see to the end of the mischieft. So that the common calamity makes more than a common impression here. God Almighty send us good news and good hearts.

I was a little struck at my first reading your list of evils in your last letter. Evils they are, but surmountable ones, and not only so, but actually by you surmounted, not more to the admiration, than the comfort of all that know you. But granting them worse than they are, there is a great difference between middle and old age. Hope is quartered on the middle of life, and fear on the latter end of it; and hope is ever inspiring pleasant dreams, and fear hideous ones. And if any good arises beyond our hope, we have such a diffidence of its stay, that the apprehension of losing it destroys the pleasure of possessing it; it adds to our fears, rather than encrease our joys. What shall we do in this case? Help me to an expedient: there is but one that I know of, which is, that since the things of this life, from their mixture,

*The Duke of Portland.

In consequence of the progress of the rebels.

repetition,

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