gave forth his voice, hail-stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."*

3. With respect to the animal system, the knowledge of the ancient Hebrews did not go beyond what might be expected from men in their circumstances. They appear to have ascribed distinct intellectual functions to the region of the kidneys (usually rendered the reins,) and the liver. They referred pain to the bones; and they seem to have not had the least knowledge of the nervous system. There is no word in Hebrew for the brain and nerves except that which denotes the marrow of the bones, with which it is probable they confounded the cerebral and nervous substance; and even that word was a derivative from another signifying fat. Yet upon this defective physiology the language of Scripture is formed for the expression of sensations and many intellectual operations.+

It was incumbent upon me to go thus largely into the induction of particulars, not merely on account of the connexion of the entire view of

Psa. xviii. 7-15.

+ Examples. Psa. xxvi. 2; lxxiii. 21. Lam. ii. 11. (Psa. xvi. 9; lvii. 8; cviii. 1; where the word is usually rendered glory, but learned orientalists incline to the opinion that the use of the term is based upon the sensitive properties which were supposed to reside in the liver.) Job xxxiii. 19. Psa. vi. 2.

Scripture-Idioms with our particular object; but because I venture to hope that the principle thus established will be of use to those who favour me with their attention, as some assistance to the forming of an intelligent and therefore most profitable method of studying the divine word.

We have thus seen it placed beyond the possibility of a doubt, that it is the manner of the Scriptures, and most copiously in their earliest written parts, to speak of the DEITY, his nature, his perfections, his purposes, and his operations, in language borrowed from the bodily and mental constitution of man, and from those opinions, concerning the works of God in the natural world, which were generally received by the people to whom the blessing of revelation was granted.

That so the fact is, cannot be denied: and will any dare to find fault with it? Is it not sufficient to satisfy any rational man, that it has pleased Him who cannot err to make use of this method? We have no right to demand any more satisfaction. But let it not be forgotten, what has already been stated, that, not only is this style that which alone would have been intelligible in the early ages of the world; but it is still the best adapted for universal use.

An observation now arises to our view, which must, I cannot but think, force itself with irresistible conviction upon any impartial mind. If it was not unworthy of the Adorable Majesty of GOD to permit HIMSELF to be described in terms

infinitely beneath him, and which require our watchfulness and pious care, lest we take up with conceptions far remote from the spirituality of the Divine Nature, and the purity of christian worship; MUCH MORE may it be regarded as consonant with the honour of his word, that its references to natural objects should be, in the character of thought and expression, such as comported with the knowledge of the age in which they were delivered.*

:

Again the completed manifestations of the Divine Will in the New Testament raise us to a justness and purity of conception concerning "the things of God," far superior to that which the ministrations of Moses and the prophets could supply. The one was obscure, tinctured with the spirit of bondage, only a preparatory and temporary system :

* No doubt this principle has been often thought of, and happily employed in theological discussions; as by Archbishop King, the German divine Seiler, Mr. John Sheppard, and probably others. Whether it has been distinctly applied to the interpretation of the Bible, in relation to the objects of natural science, by any writers in particular, I am not able to say. I am aware of but two distinguished authors who have expressly pointed it out: and, as they only indicate it in general terms, the effort in this lecture to pursue it into its details, and to shew its application as a shield to scientific investigations, against the misconceptions and alarms of some well-intentioned men, will not, I trust, be held superfluous. The two authors alluded to, are John George Rosenmüller, in a book published more than sixty years ago, and from which the relevant extracts are given in the Appendix, Supplementary Note N; and my honoured friend, Professor Sedgwick, in his Discourse on the Studies of Cambridge:-A "source of error, on physical questions, has been a mistake respecting the import of certain scripture-phrases. These writings deal not in logical distinctions or rigid definitions. They were addressed to the heart and understanding in popular forms of speech, such as men could readily comprehend. When they describe the Almighty as a being capable of jealousy, love, anger, repentance, and other like passions, they use a language accommodated to our wants and capacities, and God is put before us in the semblance of humanity." Page 147. Galileo must be added: see the next Note.

but the other is the "ministration of righteousness," in comparison with which the former " had no glory."* We stand therefore upon safe ground, and are fully warranted by divine authority to translate the language of the Old Testament upon physical subjects, into such modern expressions, as shall be agreeable to the reality of the things spoken of.

PART II.

UPON the principle which has been explained, I now propose to the impartial judgment of Biblescholars, that method of understanding the Mosaic account of the Creation and the Flood, which appears to me just and safe. The way is sufficiently cleared, and the principles explained and confirmed;

* 2 Cor. iii. 10, 11. [Second ed.] A Passage of the man who was in scientific respects so wondrously in advance of his age, Galileo, is highly interesting, as shewing that he clearly understood and justly applied this principle of Bible-interpretation.

"I admit and maintain that the Holy Scripture can never depart from what is true, provided we take it in its true and germane sense: but no one will deny, that this often lies deep, and is a good deal removed from the bald signification of the words. If any one think that it is always to be understood according to the letter, he will not only run into error, but he will impute to Holy Scripture numerous contradictions, propositions palpably untrue, even heresies and blasphemies. He would be obliged to ascribe to God feet, hands, and eyes, and human properties and accidents both bodily and mental, such as anger, repentance, hatred, forgetfulness of the past, and ignorance of the future. Propositions of this kind have been in this manner expressed by the sacred writers, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in order to accommodate divine truths to the capacity of the uncultivated and ignorant mass of mankind. It is therefore the duty of competent and diligent expositors to bring forth, in every instance, the true meaning; and to explain the ground and reason of their having been expressed in the words which are presented to us." Novantiqua; alla Serenissima Madama la Gran Duchessa di Toscania, Madre; p. 10, 11; printed in 1636, at Augusta Trebocca, perhaps Trevi in the duchy of Spoleto.

so that little will be necessary in shewing the application to the cases before us.

I. With respect to the account of the CREATION. Gen. i. 1. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

The phrase "the heavens and the earth," though not always used by the sacred writers in the full sense, is the most comprehensive that the Hebrew language affords, to designate the universe of dependent being; and on account of the connexion, it requires to be so taken in this place. It thus corresponds to the expressions in the New Testament; "All things that are in the heavens and that are on the earth, the visible and the invisible;--the all things." This sublime sentence therefore stands, as an independent axiom,† at the head of the sacred volume, announcing that there was an epoch, a point in the flow of infinite duration, when the whole of the dependent world, or whatever portion of it first. had existence, was brought into being; and that this commencement of being was not from preexistent materials, nor by fortune, chance, or accident, nor through the skill of any finite agent, but absolutely and solely by the will, wisdom, and power of the ONE and ONLY GOD. It was a creation, in the proper sense; not a modelling or new-forming. The phrase, “In the beginning" is used several times in Scripture, to denote the commencement of whatever

* Τὰ πάντα, τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τὰ πάντα. Sec. ed. The equivalent phrases in common authors are rà öλa, and Tò

πᾶν.

+ See pp. 171-181.