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surplus waters were withdrawn — hollows formed by the eleva- 
tion of mountains and the depression of valleys. And these, 
whether the same as existed previous to that period, when 
“ the earth was without form and void,” or whether then re- 
arranged, were clearly the sources from which those waters, 
that then covered the earth, were made at God's command to 
flow. And who will venture to deny the possibility of the 
formation of such reservoirs within the globe when first 
created by God ? Or who will assert that a natural law or 
order is, to infinite skill and power, impossible, according to 
which, by the earth's revolution on its axis at a certain velocity 
or at a certain angle, such a mass of waters should be retained 
in those reservoirs, and by a diminution of that velocity or a 
change of angle be set loose. For myself, however, I care not to 
know how or by what means these effects were produced. My 
one object hitherto has been to establish the fact that the Scrip- 
tures quoted declare, that in the several given but undefined 
periods, the waters of the earth had been so restrained ; that 
they had been so sent forth over the face of the whole earth 
(Gen. i. 2, 9) ; and that they had been withdrawn and again 
restrained (Gen. i. 9-13). 
Now in this same Book the inspired writer, in his 
description of the extent of the Noachian flood, and the 
depth of its waters, employs language as nearly as possible 
the same as that in which he and the other inspired writers 
describe the Pre- Adamite flood. God Himself is stated by him 
to have spoken to Noah thus : “ I will destroy them (men) 
with the earth 33 “ Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters 
upon the earth “ For yet seven days and I will cause it to 
rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.'' Then, in his 
narrative of the event so threatened, he employs, with respect 
to the extent of the Deluge and the depth of its waters, 
language so distinct and positive as this : “ And the flood 
was forty days upon the earth. And the waters increased and 
bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the 
waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth. 33 
And the high hills that were under the ivhole heaven were 
covered 33 (Gen. vii. 1 7-20) . Again the withdrawal of the waters 
is related in such full and particular expressions as these : — 
“ And the waters returned from off the earth continually; and 
after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were 
abated and the Ark rested in the seventh month on the seven- 
teenth day of the month on the mountains of Ararat. And 
the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In 
the tenth month, on the seventeenth day of the month, 
were the tops of the mountains seen 33 (Gen. viii. 3—5). Surely 
