34 ON CHANGES IN THE DISPOSITION 



very regions where it was constructed. Nor could 

 the torrents which demolished mountains throughout 

 the wide extent of the globe, have left a leaf on an 

 olive ; while to suppose that this also was miraculously 

 preserved, is but to invent a human romance of in- 

 volved miracles, to serve a fanciful and unnecessary 

 purpose. Were we even to speculate on what must 

 have happened, though not narrated by the Sacred 

 historian, we could add nothing .to his account but the 

 Tides. Under their influence the waters of the Deluge 

 must have remained; but, even thus, they were in- 

 adequate to produce any one of the ascribed effects, 

 since we know how limited they must be in an earth 

 which is all ocean. Let us contemplate this subject 

 as we do all else in Scripture: and not attempt, by 

 misapplied reasonings, to interfere with that, of which 

 the Deity has condescended to communicate all that 

 was necessary for the moral ends alone in His con- 

 templation. But as, in such questions, the authority 

 of a Theologian carries a weight which is refused to 

 the opinions of mere Science, it is Burnet who remarks 

 that " 'Tis a dangerous thing to engage the authority 

 of Scripture in disputes about the natural world, in 

 opposition to reason; lest time, which brings all things 

 to light, should discover that to be evidently false 

 which we had made scripture to assert." If that pro- 

 phecy has now been fulfilled, it is he also who quotes 

 the parallel opinions of St. Austin on the same subject. 

 " Cum enim quemquam Christianorum in ea re quam 

 optime norunt errare deprehenderint, et vanam sen- 

 tentiam suam ex nostris libris asserere, quo pacto illis 

 libris credituri sunt de resurrectione mortuorum et spe 

 vitae aBternae regnoque coelorum, quando de his rebus 

 quas jam experiri, vel indubitatis numeris percipere 

 potuerunt, fallaciter putaverint esse conscriptos." 



