§ 4. HARMONY WITH REVELATION. 29 



works — divinity or philosophy : but rather let men endea- 

 vour an endless progress or proficiency in both ; only let 

 them beware that they apply both to charity and not to 

 arrogance — to use and not to ostentation ; and again, that 

 tliey do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings 

 together." Deeply impressed with the necessity of strictly 

 obeying this admonition, I have, in all my written and oral 

 discourses on geology, confined myself to a simple statement 

 of the opinions of certain eminent philosophers and divines 

 on this subject — men, alike distinguished for their piety 

 and learning, and who have cultivated with ardour this 

 department of natural science, and have expressed their 

 conviction of its high importance and beneficial influence 

 upon the mind — in the hope that such evidence would be a 

 sufficient and direct reply to the absurd and unfounded 

 charges brought against geology. On the present occasion, 

 I shall content myself with the following extract from a 

 sermon by the Bishop of London : "As ire are not called 

 vpon by Scripture to admit, so neither are we required to 

 deny the supposition, that the matter, without form and 

 void, out of which this globe was framed, may have con- 

 sisted of the wrecks and relics of more ancient worlds, 

 created and destroyed by the same Almighty Power which 

 called our world into being, and will one day cause it to 

 pass away?* 



Thus, while the Bible reveals to us the moral history 

 and destiny of our race, and instructs us that mankind and 

 the existing races of beings have inhabited the earth but 

 a few thousand years, the physical monuments of our globe 

 bear witness to the same truth ; and as astronomy unfolds 

 to us innumerable worlds not spoken of in the sacred 

 records, geology in like manner proves, not by arguments 



* Sermons, by Dr. Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London. 

 8vo. 1829. 



