PART III. would leave their basin empty, exposed, and dry; and thus, by a similar operation, render CHAP. II. it in its turn an habitable earth, applicable to all the same uses as the former, which had been obtained by a similar drainage of the waters. We are enjoined by sound philosophy, to refer similar effects to similar causes; and the effects which we are considering, being in both cases similar, we are to refer them to similar causes. And, since the record contains nothing which opposes the application of this principle to the case in question, we are authorized by reason to conclude; that the production of a second earth, was effected by means exactly corresponding to those, which had given origin to the first earth. The evidence which the mind is able to discern, of the means by which that first earth was produced, becomes evidence to the reason, that a second earth might be produced by similar means; and therefore, it directs us to look to those means for its production. CHAPTER III. CHAP. III. THUS, then, from the terms of the divine PART III. menace, and from the concurring testimony of the ancient Jewish church, we are to conclude by critical induction, antecedently to all investigation of monuments or phænomena; that it was the determination of Almighty God, to destroy, not only man and every living creature, but likewise, THE EARTH ITSELF; that earth, upon which He had pronounced His curse. To give effect to that tremendous design of His counsels, the order of things which He had established was to undergo a temporary suspension and alteration; and His Almighty agency was to reassume an immediate operation, in the works of His terrestrial creation. By a new exercise of His incomprehensible power, and by a new direction of the instruments and agencies which He had provided, He caused the irruption of violent inundations, sufficient to commence the work of destruction, and, at the same time, to raise and float the Ark, from the station on which it had been constructed; the direction CHAP. III. PART III. of which fabric, was thenceforth taken under the immediate care of His own divine providence. Vast causes were put in action, and vast effects produced, which are expressed in the record by "the fountains of the great 66 deep being broken up," and "the windows of "heaven being opened;" phrases, which plainly imply, the inroad of the sea upon the land, and the descent of violent rains from the heavens. But, here it is asked; "to what purpose a "rain of forty days, to overwhelm a continent, "that was to be immersed under a whole ocean1?" Doubtless, if the immersion of a continent under an ocean, as a mere physical effect, was the whole design of the revolution of the deluge, a rain of forty days was a very superfluous agent. But, since the chief end to be attained by the operation, was not a physical, but a moral end; and since the physical effect was wholly subservient to that moral end; the rain of forty days was a necessary, and a most efficient agent. The condemned race of mankind, was to witness the progress of the vast scheme of destruction ' which their wickedness had provoked. They were to be taught, experimentally, that their place of habitation was passing away from PART III. them, and was no longer to remain a dwelling CHAP. III. accommodated for the service of animal life; that it was at length to receive the consummation of the curse, pronounced at the disobedience of their first parent, and confirmed by their own incorrigible wickedness. They were to be terrified by the sight of the various instruments of vengeance, by which the power of God could execute His curse; and they were to foretaste destruction in every stage of its advance, until its actual and ultimate arrival. They were "to call upon the mountains to cover them, and upon the hills to fall on them!" Great, therefore, was the purpose, and equal must have been the effect, of the terrific prelude of a rain of forty days, and of all the accompaniments of horror which attended it; which are thus awfully represented by the learned Jew Philo, either by reasonable inference, or from national tradition. "The vast ocean 66 (says this writer) being raised to an height. which it had never before attained, rushed "with a sudden inroad upon the islands "and continents. The springs, rivers, and "cataracts, confusedly mingling their streams, "contributed to elevate the waters. Neither 66 was the air quiet; dense and continuous clouds "covered the whole heavens; violent hurricanes, PART III. CHAP. III. thunders, and lightnings, were blended with unintermitting torrents of rain; so that it "seemed as if all parts of the universe were resolving themselves into the single "element of water: until, the fluid mass 66 having at length accumulated from the waters "from above and from below, not only the "lower lands, but even the summits of the highest mountains, were submerged, and disappeared. For, every part of the earth sunk beneath the water-εδυ καθ ̓ ὕδατος—and "the entire and perfect system of the world σε ὁ κόσμος ὁ παντελης και όλοκληρος — became - (what it is not lawful either to speak or λελωβήσθαι. But, (it has been asked,) what was the immediate cause which first put these powerful agents in motion? "If we would discover the cause of "this catastrophe, (says the mineral geology,) "we must look for a cause foreign to our globe, foreign to the whole solar system, capable of inundating continents, and giving to the waters "of the deep unexampled impetuosity." This is most truly observed; but, wherefore does it 66 6.6 PHILO de Abrahamo, p.7. |