HINTS AND CONJECTURES. 313 



ocean, if not from the interior of the globe, in order to overflow the 

 earth ; which implies, that the bed of the sea was elevated, and the 

 land proportionally depressed, and consequently that the strata were 

 extensively bi'oken and deranged. Moses, indeed, repeatedly states, 

 that the earth was destroyed, as well as its inhabitants; and the 

 Apostle Peter, in the last chapter of his Second Epistle, considers 

 that destruction of the earth by water, as somewhat analogous to 

 the final destruction of the globe by fire ; and since he describes the 

 latter as a dissolution of the substance of the earth, particularly of its 

 crust, where the works of man are carried on, Ave must, to preserve 

 the analogy, understand the former of a similar dissolution, though 

 by another element. 



As collateral proofs of the extent of the revolution effected by the 

 deluge, we may notice the abridgment of the life of man immediately 

 following, and the change that seems to have taken place even in the 

 atmosphere. No mention is made of rain before the deluge, but only 

 of mist employed to water the ground ; and as the rainbow was 

 appointed a token of God's covenant with Noah, it seems probable, 

 that it then appeared for the first time, and consequently, that the 

 state of the atmosphere was materially altered. The shortening of 

 human life may be presumed to be connected with this alteration, 

 and with corresponding alterations in the earth's surface, occasioning 

 great changes of soil and climate. 



Even the duration of the deluge is a presumptive evidence, that 

 it was intended for other purposes than the mere destruction of the 

 inhabitants of the globe. The waters prevailed on the earth an hun- 

 dred and fifty days (including, it would seem, the forty days during 

 which it continued rising); after the ark took the ground, above two 

 months more elapsed, before the tops of the mountains were distinctly 

 seen, emerging from the ocean; and other four months were almost 

 expired, before Noah and those under his charge were permitted to 



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