£14 Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge. 
ground rendered, by the catastrophe, unfit for the cultivation of 
the vine. 
Viewing, in connection, these differences between the Mosaic 
history and these interpreters of the phenomena of nature, it 
seems impossible to admit, that, “ as far as it goes, the Mosaic 
account is in perfect harmony with the discoveries of modern 
science.” The reverse appears rather to be the case. It is well 
known, that Linnaeus declared that he saw no examples in na- 
ture of the ravages of a universal flood : “ Cataclysmi universa- 
lis certa rudera ego nondum attigi, quousque penetravi ; minus 
etiam veram terrain Adamiticam ; sed ubique vidi factas ex se- 
quore terras, et in his mera rudera longinque sensim prseter- 
lapsi aevi,” (Syst. Nat. iii. 5.) ; and this opinion has given of- 
fence to several well disposed friends of revelation, who have, 
nevertheless, formed their notions of the deluge from the specu- 
lations of geologists, instead of the records of Scripture. I con- 
fess that I entertain the same opinion as Linnaeus on this sub- 
ject ; nor do I feel, though a clergyman, the slightest reason to 
conceal my sentiments, though they are opposed to the prejudices 
which a false philosophy has generated in the public mind. I 
have formed my notions of the Noachian deluge, not from Ovid, 
but from the Bible. There the simple narrative of Moses permits 
me to believe, that the waters rose upon the earth by degrees, 
and returned by degrees ; that means were employed by the Au- 
thor of the calamity to preserve pairs of the land animals; that 
the flood exhibited no violent impetuosity, neither displacing the 
soil, nor the vegetable tribes which it supported, nor rendering 
the ground unfit for the cultivation of the vine. With this con- 
viction in my mind, I am not prepared to witness in nature any 
remaining marks of the catastrophe, and I feel my respect for the 
authority of revelation heightened, when I see on the present sur- 
face no memorials of the event. On the other hand, had I witnes- 
sed every valley and gravel-bed, nay, every fossil bone, attesting 
the ravages of the dreadful scene, I would have been puzzled to 
account for the unexpected difficulties ; and might have been in- 
duced to question the accuracy of Moses as an historian, or the 
claims of the Book of Genesis to occupy its present place in the 
sacred record. Instead of finding the Deity setting his bow in 
the cloud, as a pledge that he would not again visit the earth 
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