384 On the Mosaic account of the Creation, 



the already quoted declaration of St. Peter, his theory of a 

 change of places between land and sea, or in other words, 

 that our present earth is the bed of the antediluvian ocean. 



In this, however, it may be perceived, that his desire to 

 subvert the mineral geology has caused him to overlook the 

 fact, that the threat bears equally on ee all flesh/" both man 

 and beast, as on the earth itself ; and yet we know that all 

 flesh did not perish, for the family of Noah was excepted, 

 and with it a certain number of animals which were destined 

 to keep their seed alive upon the earth, after the waters 

 should have again subsided. 



Thus we may infer, that by the destruction of the earth 

 was not meant its annihilation, but only the obliteration, or 

 removal of that surface on which the sins of mankind had 

 been committed ; and which became virtually destroyed, 

 when by the waters of the deluge it was rendered unable to 

 perform its allotted functions, that is, when it was no 

 longer able to support and nourish the terrestrial classes of 

 the vegetable and animal kingdoms. 



A thing is said to be destroyed when it can no longer per- 

 form the proper duties for which it was constructed ; thus in 

 the common parlance of every day occurrences, a watch is 

 said to be destroyed when the mainspring is broken ; or a 

 body of troops is destroyed when it has received so severe a 

 check or defeat, as to render it too weak to perform that 

 duty which was allotted to it; not that we mean thereby that 

 all parts of the watch are destroyed, or that every soldier 

 is killed; and this reading of the text is the more apparent, 

 since we know that by repairing the mainspring, the watch 

 is restored to its former state, and by recruiting the body of 

 troops they are as able to effect their duty as before their 

 defeat by superior power; and so in reality was the earth 

 restored and enabled to perform the purposes of its original 

 creation, when the waters of the deluge again subsided. The 

 words above quoted, therefore, would seem to imply, not the 



