OBJECT OF MOSAIC NARRATIVE.

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The design of the narrative was to declare the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God; to exhibit Him as the architect of the globe, and to record His direction of human events, and His dealings with mankind. The Creation of the world and of its varied inhabitants, by the direct fiat of the Almighty, was a theme which, not only on account of it being an event founded in fact, and being also the prominent feature of the written and oral traditions then existing, but on account too of it being an event impressively declaratory of Divine interposition, power, and wisdom, was the best conducive to that design. With any other than this view, we cannot suppose the sacred historian to have referred to it. It was foreign to the object of his work to narrate the events of the globe as matter of natural history, and particularly, because, while the monuments of nature could themselves be consulted, no written statements on the subject could be necessary. A Deluge too, such as that described in the Mosaic narrative, was a visitation affording an instructive example; calculated to inspire astonishment and awe; and as an event having direct reference to the moral guilt of mankind, the sacred instructor could not have chosen a more impressive vehicle of warning, than by investing a great event in nature with the character of an instrument of retributive justice, or have urged a more signal instance of Divine Providence and mercy, than by representing the chosen family of the righteous patriarch, sus

tained on the Diluvian waters, and spared to replenish the earth, from the face of which all but themselves had been swept away. Besides, we must recollect that the author of the narrative was giving the history of the posterity of Adam and of Noah, to themselves; and it was naturally flattering to that posterity that their ancestors should be represented, as having been selected for Divine favour.

Again, the Mosaic narrative does not furnish a complete history, even as to the first generations of mankind. Many events of human history are doubtless omitted, and as an instance, it may be observed, that the text omits any announcement as to the origin or descent of Cain's wife, who is mentioned, for the first time, at the 17th verse of the 4th chapter of Genesis. And a similar omission has occurred with regard to many other persons there named, although the narrative professes to give the genealogies of mankind.

The Rev. Mr. Harcourt, who supports the literal construction of the Mosaic text, in his "Doctrine of the Deluge," Vol. 1. p. 91., himself admits that "the object of Moses was to interest those for whom he wrote his history, and that he omitted events too remote to interest them." We cannot doubt such to have been indeed the case.

It is therefore most difficult to suppose that the Mosaic narrative can have been delivered as furnishing a complete history of the globe. In affirm

PURPOSES OF REVELATION.

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ing, or repeating in his work the affirmation of, the doctrine that "God created the Heaven and the Earth," the sacred historian referred to a great anterior event undefined in point of time, and forming a leading feature which had direct reference to his object. It was not likely that he could have entertained the slightest suspicion of the events which had subsequently affected the globe;-nor, that he should have intended by noticing the Creation, which he did, as being a doctrinal, and the last physical event, the Deluge as being an historical and traditionary fact, to interfere with or prejudge the testimony of the globe, when the advancement of science should enable mankind to deduce and to understand it.

It does not follow that, because we cannot with certainty determine from the Mosaic narrative how the earth acquired its actual condition, we are to detract in any degree from the truth and dignity of the narrative in question. We have good reason to believe that the process by which, and the period when, this great work was accomplished, were not intended to form the subject of revelation; we know that they could not have been adequately described except in that profoundly scientific language which must have been unintelligible to those for whom the Mosaic history was originally designed, and consequently inapplicable to the purposes of revelation; and the suitableness of the actual announcements of the text to the capacities of unlearned society, as

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SENSE ORIGINALLY RECEIVED.

well as their consistency with spiritual truth, corroborate the Divine origin of the Scriptures.

It cannot be supposed that those for whom Moses wrote or compiled this history, received it in any other sense; and why should we be so unjust as to consider that the silence of a Sacred Code of morals and religion upon the subject of the physical mutations which modern researches prove to have visited the globe, can impeach its validity, or place it in conflict with the testimony of nature.

CHAPTER VI.

The Conclusions of Geology considered with reference to the Doctrine which the Mosaic Narrative was thought to teach, as regards the Creation of the Earth, and of Animated Nature.

IT is curious to contrast with the well founded conviction of the antiquity of our planet, which inevitably results from the phenomena disclosed in geological research, the hitherto received opinions of mankind with reference to the history and antiquity of the great theatre of their present existence.

In accordance with the hitherto received interpretation of the Mosaic text, and with the chronology which that text has been supposed to fix, it has

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been held from one generation to another, that at a period not more distant than six thousand years the whole dependent universe, our globe itself, and the other planetary worlds, were suddenly created out of nothing; and that their creation was commenced and finished within six natural days; the creation of the heaven and the earth, the production of light, and the separation of light from darkness being the work of the first day; the creation of, the firmament being that of the second; the separation of the dry land and seas, and the creation of plants, being the work of the third day; the making two great lights in the firmament of heaven” being the work of the fourth day; and the creation of fish and fowl that of the fifth; and the creation of animals, and lastly of man, being the great and final work of the sixth day. And, that after a duration of about one thousand six hundred years, during which period no change is, by the Mosaic narrative, stated to have occurred, the Almighty brought a flood upon the earth which, for one hundred and fifty days prevailed upon the land, utterly destroying all living forms except those few saved by His special Providence in an ark. And further, that this supernatural Deluge was the only event of the kind that ever affected our planet. To these "years" and days" were attributed the respective periods of duration which those words signify in our computation of time.

The testimonies of Geology with regard to the