382 APPENDIX. NOTES. 



3. The third instrument of Divine Power to produce 

 the deluge was rain. And the rain was upon the earth 

 forty days and forty nights. 1 It is a common form of 

 expression, It rains as if heaven and earth would come 

 together ; and this probably was the character of the rain 

 that now fell for forty Nycthemera, or entire days of 

 twenty-four hours. A circumstance that does not require 

 further explanation. 



By the united operation of these three mighty agents, 

 guided by the Almighty hand of the Deity Whose way 

 is in the sea f and whose path is in the great waters, and 

 whose footsteps are not known* the waters kept gradually 

 rising and prevailing more and more, till they overtopped 

 all the high mountains 3 that were under the whole heavens 

 fifteen cubits, 4 by which the Divine decree to destroy the 

 earth with all its inhabitants, both rational and irrational, 

 except those in the ark, was fully executed. With respect 

 to the earth itself, when we consider the violent action of 

 the ascending and descending waters, and of the firmament 

 rushing downwards; the disruptions, dislocations, intro- 

 versions, comminutions, deportations here and there of the 

 original strata of the crust of our globe, can scarcely be con- 

 ceived, and are still more difficult to calculate and explain 

 exactly. In the waters thus again, as at the creation, 

 masters of the whole earth, God had an instrument by 

 which his will with respect to its crust, and the changes 

 to take place in it, might have full accomplishment, espe- 

 cially when we consider the long time during which the 

 waters kept rising or prevailed, till they reached the height 



1 Genes, vii. 12. 2 Ps. Ixxvii. 19. 



3 Genes, vii. 19. In our translation, D*mn in this verse is 

 rendered hills, and in the 20th mountains. 

 * Ibid. 20. 



