66 His counsellor1?" It is, by à posteriori reasoning only. Whatever God shall be found to have revealed, is reasonably revealed, because it is His revelation:-" Dei sermo, sermo rationis." There is no method for truly ascertaining this point, as it relates to the circumstances of our Earth, but by comparing the declarations of Revelation with the discoveries of science; and it is by the correspondences of these only, that the bearing of physical So long science on Revelation can be truly determined. as the physical evidences were unapparent, the mind rested, in full and entire security, on the moral evidences. But, when physical evidences are at length disclosed and superadded, in collateral confirmation of the moral evidences, the intelligence is not free to disregard them, but is bound, by virtue of its "prerogative of reason," to contemplate them in combination with the moral evidences which they are manifested to corroborate. If, we correctly ascertain à posteriori what is revealed, and if we accurately compare with it what is discovered, then we cannot fail to perceive clearly, how far the discovery bears upon the revelation. I shall now proceed to consider the learned and scientific author's two propositions. 10. With respect to the first of these, that "the pro fessed object of Revelation was to treat of the history of "In man only;" I would respectfully ask the reverend writer, what said the Creator when He enforced the observance of His seventh day on the Hebrew people? "six days the Lord created the Heaven, and the Earth, "the Sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and 1 Rom. xi. 34. * TERTULLIAN, de Oratione, in princip. "sanctified it." Here is no mention of man, still less of "man only." The knowledge of man's relation to his Creator, is thus laid, by God Himself, on man's knowledge of God's relation to the universe in all its separate constituent members; of His exclusive property and operation in it; and of the part which He took in forming and disposing every member of it. The knowledge of man's own origin, without an equal knowledge of the origin of the whole visible creation around him, would have left him essentially deficient in the knowledge of his Creator; and therefore, God was pleased to impart to him special and particular historical knowledge, of the origin of the Heavenly bodies which enlightened and directed him, of the Earth on which he dwelt, of the Sea which encompassed that earth, and of the Vegetable and Animal structures which clothed and inhabited its surface, before He imparted to him the history of his own origin. The history of the origin and relations of all and each of these, is therefore as much a professed object of Revelation, as the history of the、 origin and relations of Man himself. And, here it will be most material to point out for attention, discrimination, and reflection, that the formation of the Sea, throughout both Testaments, is an operation specially vindicated to the Divine arm, as a subject equally distinct from the formation of the Earth, as that of the Earth from that of the Heaven; conformably to 1 Exodus, xx. 11. 2 "Thou, even Thou art Lord alone; Thou hast made HEAVEN, the HEAVEN OF HEAVENS, with all their host the EARTH, and all things "that are therein the SEA, and all that is therein and Thou pre"servest them all." (Nehemiah, ix. 6.)—“ Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in HEAVEN, and in EARTH, in the SEA, and in "all DEEP PLACES." Psalm cxxxv. 6. the primitive historical statement of that formation, imparted by God through Moses. Jerom, therefore, certainly made a more correct statement of the contents of the Record, when he affirmed" that the Book of "Genesis treats, of the nature of the world, of the be 66 ginning of the human race, of the division of the earth, " of the confusion of languages and nations, until the "Exode of the Hebrews.-Manifestissima est Genesis, in qua de natura mundi, de exordio generis humani, de "divisione terræ, de confusione linguarum et gentium, 66 usque ad exitum scribitur Hebræorum '." 11. Again, if " the dealings of Divine Providence in regard to man" were also a professed object of Revelation, as this author admits, a knowledge of the Divine judgments on the universal race of man, was necessarily included in that object; which judgments, embrace the universal infertility of the earth that received the first generations of men, and the universal destruction of that earth by the waters of the Deluge. And thus, the history, both of the origin and formation of the earth and its appurtenances, and of the universal changes which it has undergone, are embraced within the professed scope of Divine Revelation. And, because they are presented for our knowledge, they are unquestionably presented for the diligent exercise, and faithful apprehension, of our intelligence. That, therefore, is virtually declared to us, which results to our implanted intelligence by immediate consequence from that which is expressly declared. Thus, when it is expressly declared, that on the fourth day the sun gave its light upon the earth; it is virtually declared under the laws of Creation, which are the laws of Nature, 1 Epist. ad PAULINUM, tom. iv. p. 571. Ed. Benedict. that the earth and its vegetation then received the warmth of its beams, that the azure sky was then apparent, that hills and trees then cast their shadows, &c. When it is expressly declared, that on the fifth and sixth days feathered fowl and cattle received their existence, it is virtually declared, that birds then flew in the air from place to place, and that animals then moved and grazed on the surface of the ground; although "we are not told "so:" a condition, which a modern Critic appears to deem indispensably necessary for every step which his reason may venture to take1. Again, when it is expressly declared, that waters which at first had covered and concealed the entire surface of the Globe, were, on the third day, collected into one place or portion of that surface, so as to leave the other portion dry and apparent; it is virtually declared, under the same laws, that those waters were then admitted into, and sunk within that place or portion, below the portion which they had abandoned and left dry. When it is expressly declared, that that dry portion was afterwards destroyed by the waters of the sea brought again upon it, it is virtually declared, that a partial refusion, at least, or return of its waters, then took place; and, when it is further expressly declared, that the land" which now is," is not that same dry portion" which "then was," it is virtually declared, with the concurring testimony of marine monuments universally incorporated into the substance of this present land, that the refusion or return of the waters was complete. And, when we have once apprehended the last of these amazing transactions, thus virtually declared and palpably attested; transactions," 1 See afterwards. which human science could never have discovered or devised; it is not short of ludicrous to observe the perplexities of those who search, in vain, in all the storehouses of theory and invention, for water enough to cover the earth, and who entirely overlook Him who only " calleth "for the waters of the Sea, and poureth them out upon "the face of the Earth." Who shall say, that it was not reasonable for God to impart these great events to His reasonable creature, MAN? And yet, they would never have entered into man's most reasonable expectations of what God might impart by revelation. These vast data, supplied from without by irrefragable testimony, constitute a basis for geological and mineralogical superstructure, infinitely surpassing in solidity and security any thing that has been or can be drawn, by theoretical invention, from within the precincts of any human mind; and, far from giving any cause of "dread to the delightful study "of geology, or rendering its very name ridiculous," it is these that can alone relieve it, both from all dread of error, and from the ridicule which must eventually attend all attempts to raise an edifice on vacuity, or on a foundation utterly and essentially incapable of sustaining it. 12. I come now to our learned author's second proposition; that, to have made " physical truth generally," or, as he explains his meaning more clearly six lines before," a SYSTEM of physical truth," the subject of Revelation, would have been to destroy its (physical truth's) great use. This able writer, like all others who have too hastily embraced the same opinions, argues, as if no physical FACTS could be imparted to man by revelation 1 Amos, ix. 6. 2 Edin. Review, No. lxxvii. p. 196. |