496 Rough Notes on the controversy against Geologists. 



on the earth's surface, it supposes a most extended lapse of 

 time to have intervened between the beginning, in which 

 the earth itself was created, and that latter creation, during 

 which several systems of animated and organised being 

 were successively brought into existence and again destroy- 

 ed. According to this, the creation of light, of the atmos- 

 phere, and of the sun and moon, mentioned in the Mosaic 

 account, was more properly a restoration than a creation ; 

 in like manner as the then creation of organised being was 

 in many respects a renovation of the same types of being 

 as formerly existed. In so far as regards effects and practi- 

 cal results, this is evidently nearly the same as the other. 



Though this view may not be directly supported by the 

 words of Scripture, it is certainly not at variance with them ; 

 and though there are difficulties, it may yet reconcile physi- 

 cal appearances with moral doctrines as well as the other. 

 The principal support it has is derived from an argument 

 of analogy. According to the prophesies of Scripture, there 

 shall be, in after-ages, a destruction of the things presently 

 existing upon the earth by fire, which is described in such 

 terms as to render it evidently a geological effect of sub- 

 terranean igneous agency, and other causes connected with 

 that agency. Thence it becomes probable, that, as we 

 observe the marks of such igneous action in by-gone times 

 outspread upon and over the surface of the earth, the or- 

 ganised remains of extinct species of being, under the soil 

 and in the rocks, may have resulted from similar catas- 

 trophes of other creations. 



This future great convulsion of the earth, by which the 

 creation of organised being presently subsisting shall be 

 destroyed, is described in a manner according with observed 

 geological facts, and the phenomena usually accompanying 

 earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. There shall be an 

 alteration in the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars, and 

 on earth the sea and waves roaring. The sun shall be 



