to spread over the earth ten thousand ways if He chose, and withdraw it at pleasure. Milton thus elegantly solves the question :

"Let there be light," said God, " and forthwith light

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

Sprung from the deep, and from her native east

To journey through the airy gloom began,

Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun

Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourn'd the while."

Paradise Lost. Book VII. p. 243–249.

Next God said, "let there be an expansion to divide the waters, this immediately became manifest, for the firmament appeared and separated the waters, and God called this expansion or firmament heaven, and the morning and evening of the second day were conspicuous. Then God said let the waters under the firmament be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so; and he named the dry land earth, and the congregated waters seas. He then bade the earth bring forth grass, trees, shrubs, plants, and fruits of every description, and it did so, and the evening and morning of the third day were manifest. God then bade the heavenly luminaries appear, to give light upon the earth, and they did so ; two of them he caused to appear to man superior to the others, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser the night; He made the stars also, and placed the whole of them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day, and over the night, to divide the light from the darkness, to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years, and it was so, and the evening and morning of the fourth day appeared. On the fifth day, God said, let the air be supplied with fowls, and the seas with fishes of every description, and all these appeared, and God blessed them and bade them be fruitful and multiply, and they did so. On the sixth day God called to being all kinds of beasts, cattle, and creeping things upon the earth, and bade them be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and all kinds appeared as God commanded, and have increased and spread over the earth.

Now, said Jehovah, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness;" God did so, and formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, then man became a living soul; and God gave him dominion over all created things on earth; thus on the sixth day

God finished the stupendous work. It is impossible to have a plainer historical account than this of the Creation given by Moses, and nothing can be clearer than that the whole work is attributable to the almighty power of God. See 1st and 2d chapters of Genesis.

In what part of the earth man's primeval residence was placed, Moses gives us no account, except that it was eastward in the land of Eden, and that a river flowed out of this land of Eden into the Garden to water it ; which river, after issuing from thence, was divided into four separate streams; but no place exactly answering the description has, since the deluge, been discovered; therefore, where this delightful place really was must for ever be a secret unrevealed to us at this day. But the most probable conjecture is, that Paradise was situated in Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Tigris or Euphrates; and that the deluge has so changed the course of these noble rivers, as to render Moses's description of man's first residence imperceptible to future generations.

The sacred historian thus proceeds. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "of the fruit of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat, except of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die:" or rather, " from the day that thou eatest thereof death shall have dominion over thee." See Gen. ii. 15, 16, 17.

NOTE II.-P. 25.

It appears clear that the wilful disobedience of our first parents to their Creator, has caused all the misery that has ever since afflicted mankind. And unto Adam the Lord God said "Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; In sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground, from which I took thee. See Gen. iii.

NOTE III.-P. 26.

That the Almighty revealed to man the blessings of redemption immediately after the fall, is unquestionable; as the sacred text clearly confirms the fact. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field:

upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." See Gen. iii.

NOTE IV.-P. 36.

Philosophy again attempts, but ineffectually, to find natural causes, independent of Almighty agency, to effect this great convulsion; but Moses confutes all her ridiculous conjectures, by plainly informing mankind how it was effected. “Behold," says God, "I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh; but with thee, Noah, I will establish my covenant, thou and thy family shall be preserved in an ark, which thou shalt build according to the directions I give thee." Then the sacred historian thus continues, In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the same month, were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, so that the waters (from these sources) prevailed exceedingly and covered all the high hills, full fifteen cubits above their summits, and all flesh died. (See Gen. vi. vii. and viii.) This is a plain account. By the great deep, I think that Moses means no other waters than those contained in the different seas upon the face of the earth; these seas, at God's command, breaking their bounds and overflowing the ground again as they did before He caused it to arise from beneath them at the creation. But to accomplish the work more effectually, He brought to their assistance the whole mass of ethereal waters, separated from them at the last named period, by causing violent, and incessant rain to pour upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. Yet, in aiding these waters, probably all the elements were combined; and each, by the Creator, had its part assigned in the mighty work.

To raise the bed of the seas and propel them over the land perpetual motion might be retarded, or a terrible convulsion might cause the ground to swell beneath the waters, and by that means the bed of the oceans might be raised to a level with the dry land. Fire and air might likewise act their parts in forming the clouds, and breaking them asunder, as they do in all ordinary cases of great rains and storms. Still, let us rest assured that the whole work was wrought by that Almighty Power, who " holds the seas in the hollow of his hands," and who can cause them to overflow their bounds

or recede at his will, and send the greater or lesser rain at pleasure. All ancient records confirm Moses's account of the deluge, but their narrations are too long to insert here. The Babylonian give nearly the same account as Moses, the Grecian and Roman confirm the principal fact, but blind the narrative with fable in honor of their own false deities, and India and China want not records to elucidate this stupendous miracle, which was universally believed in every ancient nation; and at this day among the unlearned and uncivilized moderns the same notion is prevalent, though they be totally ignorant of the writings which elucidate the fact. For the ancient heathen account of the Creation and Deluge, see Ovid's Metamorphoses, lib. i.

NOTE V.-P. 45.

On Sunday, the 30th of November 2349 years before the birth of Christ, Noah entered the ark; and, on the Sunday following, the rain commenced. On the 6th of May, in the succeeding year, the ark rested on Mount Ararat; and on Friday, December the 18th, Noah and his family left their floating habitation, the earth again being dry, and fit to receive them.

NOTE VI.-P. 54.

To trace the real origin of the various nations possessing the globe, has employed the attention of modern historians in almost every civilized country, but ineffectually, owing to the want of authentic information, no records of antiquity, before the time of Herodotus, the Grecian, that can be depended upon, having reached us, except the Holy Scriptures. In the tenth chapter of Genesis, we are informed by Moses, that Noah had three sons, the eldest of whom was Japhet, the second Shem, and the youngest Ham; that Japhet the eldest had seven sons, Gomer, Magog, Medai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras he then says that Gomer had three sons, Ashkenaz, Riplah, and Togarmah; that Javan had four, Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Danaim; and thus concludes his account of Japhet and his family, "That the Isles of the Gentiles were peopled and divided among them."

Respecting what countries Moses calls the Isles of the Gentiles, of what became of Japhet, his other five sons, and their progeny, we are left totally in the dark; but the most probable conjecture is, that after he and his family had separated from their friends, they travelled from Shinar northwards, and that most parts of the northern temperate zone have been repeopled by them. Though nations often obtain their names from the first founders, and

Ezekiel tells us that in the latter ages of the world, Gog, the prince of Ma. gog, Meshech, and Tubal, countries unquestionably named after these three sons of Japhet, and probably known by these appellations when this prophet lived, shall join the standard of Satan, and come in immense numbers to invade the dominions of the Messiah, and shall be destroyed by fire from heaven; yet, these countries having changed their names, we are now to tally at a loss where to find them.

Shem, Noah's second son, had five sons, Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram, from these and their descendants sprang the Persians and other eastern nations. The sacred historian, in a direct line to Abraham, traces the origin of the Israelites from Shem; but to give the genealogy of his countrymen appears to have been his chief object for introducing this sketch of the first founders of nations, well knowing that the Messiah was to spring from this branch, therefore he is more particular in detailing it.

Ham, the youngest of Noah's sons, had four sons, Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan; from these sprang the Arabians, the Canaanites, the Phonicians, the Sidonians, the Egyptians; and probably all the various tribes of Africa; and Nimrod, who founded the Babylonian empire, was the youngest son of Cush.

There can be little doubt but the Almighty in the plainest and most posi tive manner informed Adam how he would be worshiped ; and it is equally clear that this true religion was preserved unstained by the faithful few amid all the depravity of the antediluvian world, and that righteous Noah, and his family left it as a sacred trust to their posterity. But, as the human species increased, wickedness did the same, and so far predominated as almost totally again to obliterate the love of the true God. At no long period after the deluge particular individuals were set apart to officiate as ministers of religion, and probably were paid by the community at large for their services. These men too often indulged in idleness, luxury, and licentiousness, under the mask of sanctity; and, in order to increase their trade invented different forms of worship, and substituted many false deities for the one true God. The heavenly luminaries were the first objects they intruded upon mankind as proper for adoration; afterwards departed conquerors, wise legisla tors, and the inventors of useful arts, or sciences, were ordained to increase their catalogue, and, of course, add to their numbers, and emoluments to their craft. In this manner idolatry was introduced into the world, and by the same means it was spread over the universe. Priests under the influ