PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 11 



earthquake, or movement of the solid mass of the earth, beneath the 

 chaotic ocean: and that this movement had been followed by a most 

 violent irruption of the waters, after which irruption the waters gradually 

 subsided ; for which gradual subsidence the INIosaic account affords suf- 

 ficient room in the indefinite duration of the third day. I cannot pass 

 over, in this place, Saussure and De Luc's united opinions, that the 

 human race cannot be very old. They would seem indeed, according to 

 Dr. Ividd's representation, to be decidedly of opinion, that the origin of 

 the human race must be dated subsequent to the above catastrophe ; and 

 though they do not, like Cuvier, go so far as to date that catastrophe, 

 yet they would plainly lead us to conclude, that that catastrophe was the 

 last which had materially affected the crust of the earth ; that since it 

 had occurred, the earth's surface had continued much in its present state ; 

 as even the very boulders which it had produced had not been removed, 

 nor yet, in all cases, covered. 



Before I leave the consideration of the Mosaic account, I cannot 

 forbear offering a few observations on the passage from verse 14 to 19*. 



Now in this passage, Moses surely cannot be understood to speak of 

 the first creation of the sun and planets, for he had told us before, that 

 God had made them in the beginning; Moses therefore must here be 

 understood to signify, merely that God now gave them a fresh regulation 

 with respect to the earth and to each other. 



With respect to the earth, he tells us, that they were now made to 



* To guard against the imputation of rashness in consequence of the observations which I 

 have presumed to offer on this passage, let me request the reader's very attentive perusal of 

 the following most excellent note, extracted from the works of Bishop Beveridge, and cited by 

 the learned editors of the Family Bible lately published by the Society for promoting Christian 

 Knowledge. 



" We must distinguish betwixt God's saying let such a thing he, and let such a thing 

 do, so or so. By the first, he produced the thing out of nothing ; by the other, he gave laws 

 to it, then in being. As when he said, ' Let there be light,' by that word, the light which was 

 not before, began to he ; but when he said, let there be hght in the firmament to divide the 

 day from the night, &c. he thereby gave laws to the light he had before made, where he 

 would have it he, and what he would have it do. This is what we call the law of nature ; that 

 law which God has put into the nature of every thing, whereby it always keeps itself within 

 such bounds and acts according to such rules as God has set it, and by that means shews forth 

 the glory of his wisdom and power." 



c 2 



