BETWEEN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND SOME PARTS OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. BY JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D. LL.D. F.R.S. & F.G.S. DIVINITY TUTOR IN HOMERTON COLLEGE; MEMBER OF THE PHILOLOGICAL, ETHNOLOGICAL, MICROSCOPICAL, AND PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETIES FIFTH EDITION. WITH A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LITERARY LIFE OF The author, BY JOHN HAMILTON DAVIES, B.A. MINISTER OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT SHERBORNE. Οὐθὲν ἀνθρώπῳ λαβεῖν μεῖζον, οὐ χαρίσασθα. Θεῳ σεμνότερον, ἀληθείας. PLUTARCH. de Is. et Csir. "Than TRUTH, no greater blessing can man receive or God bestow. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. There is a knowledge which creates doubts that nothing but a larger knowledge can satisfy; and he who stops in the difficulty will be perplexed and uncomfortable for life. MR. SHARON TURNER. GEOLOGY, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects which it treats, undoubtedly ranks, in the scale of the sciences, next to Astronomy. SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL. The conclusions of GEOLOGY have lent, in fact, a new evidence to revealed religion. They have broken the arms of the sceptic; and, when we ponder over the great events which they proclaim, the mighty revolutions which they indicate, the wrecks of successive creations which they display, and the immeasurable cycles of their chronology the era of man shrinks into contracted dimensions; his proudest and most ancient dynasties wear the aspect of upstart and ephemeral groups; the fabrics of human power, the gorgeous temple, the monumental bronze, the regal pyramid, sink into insignificance beside the mighty sarcophagi of the brutes that perish. QUARTERLY REVIEW, vol. lxx. p. 57. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PSALM CXI. 2. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them Object, design, utility, and importance of geological science. Requisites and method of the study. Harmony of all science with the announce- ments of Revelation. Truth. Evidence. The world. The SUPREME BEING. Accountableness. Authority of Scripture. Necessity of ascer- taining its genuine sense. Danger of presumption. Citations from Chris- DEUTERONOMY XXXIII. 13, 15, 16. Blessed of the Lord be his land; for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, -and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof. Change in the material universe, constant, but according to law. A series of Propositions, describing the most general facts relating to the crust of the earth. Internal condition. Pyrogenous rocks. Stratified formations. Remains of creatures which once had life. Their distinct periods, and areas. Separate creations. Uniformity of sequence. ROMANS XI. 36. Of Him, and through HIм, and to Him, are all things : Recital of opinions which are by many assumed to be asserted or implied in the Scriptures, but which are contrary to geological doctrines. I. The recent creation of the world. II. A previous universal chaos over the earth. III. The creation of the heavenly bodies after that of the earth. IV. The derivation of all vegetables and animals from one centre of creation. V. That the inferior animals were not subject to death till |