LECT. V. quantity of water as their interpretation requires, would so dilute and alter the mass as to render it an unsuitable element for the existence of all the classes, and would kill or disperse their food; and all have their own appropriate food. Many of the marine fishes and shell animals could not live in fresh water: and the fresh water ones would be destroyed by being kept even a short time in salt water. Some species can indeed live in brackish water; having been formed by their Creator to have their dwelling in estuaries and the portions of rivers approaching the sea: but even these would be affected, fatally in all probability, by the increased volume of water and the scattering and floating away of their nutriment. Descent from Thus, in a variety of ways, it is manifest that, upon the interpretation which I conceive to be erroneous, the preservation of animal life in the ark, was immensely short of being adequate to what was necessary. Further; if we admit that interpretation, and also accede to the usual opinion that the Ararat upon which the ark rested was the celebrated mountain of that name in Armenia, and which tradition points out as being such, we are involved in another perplexity. That mountain is nearly the height of our European Mont Blanc, and perpetual snow covers about five thousand feet from its summit. If the water rose, at its liquid temperature, so as to overflow that sum ANCIENT TREES. 163 mit, the snows and icy masses would be melted ; LECT. V. and, on the retiring of the flood, the exposed mountain would present its pinnacles and ridges, dreadful precipices of naked rock, adown which the four men and four women, and with hardly any exception the quadrupeds, would have found it utterly impossible to descend. To provide against this difficulty, to prevent them from being dashed to pieces,―must we again suppose a miracle? Must we conceive of the human beings and the animals, as transported through the air to the more level regions below; or that, by a miracle equally grand, they were enabled to glide unhurt down the wet and slippery faces of rock? trees. One fact more I have to mention, in this range Antediluvian of argument. There are trees of the most astonishing magnificence as to form and size, which grow, the one species in Africa, the other in the southern part of North America. There are also methods of ascertaining the age of trees of the class to which they belong, with satisfaction generally, but with full evidence after they have passed the early stages of their growth. Individuals of these species now existing are proved, by those methods, to have begun to grow at an epoch long before the date of the deluge; if we even adopt the largest chronology that learned men have proposed. Had those trees been covered with water for three-quarters of a year, they must have been destroyed: the most certain LECT. V. conditions of vegetable nature, for the class (the most perfect land-plants) to which they belong, put such a result out of doubt. Here then we are met by another independent proof that the deluge did not extend to those regions of the earth.* Such are the objections which present themselves against the interpretation which, with grief I acknowledge, is generally admitted, in relation to the scriptural narrative of the deluge. It is a painful position in which I stand. I seem to be taking the part of an enemy, adducing materials for scepticism, and doing nothing to remove them. But this situation for me is inseparable from the plan of these lectures; the only plan that appeared practicable. The apparent discrepancies, between the facts of science and the words of Scripture, must be understood, before we can make any attempt at their removal. I confide in the candour of my friends, that they will suspend their judgment till I am enabled to lay before them the way, in which I conceive that independent and unforced philological evidence will enable us satisfactorily to dispose of those difficulties. * See Supplementary Note, C. LECTURE VI. 1 THESSALONIANS V. 21. PART I. Prove all things: hold fast that which is good. The Design istence. WE are born for great and noble purposes. The LECT. VI. object of existence, to every rational creature, of human exis to enjoy a conscious union, in approbation, delight, and conformity, with the Being who is supreme in all excellence. To love and obey him is to secure our own happiness, and to acquire the best means of promoting that of every other being within our influence. If our minds be not dead to just feeling, we must be sensible that this is a necessary truth: and its undeniable concomitants are accountableness and retribution, stretching out into immortality. To that immortality of moral purity and happiness, the Revelation from GOD, contained in the Scriptures, is our only guide. Clearly then, it is the duty of every man to apprehend, with the most complete intelligence and satisfaction that he can attain, the contents and evidences of that Revelation; and to remove out 166 GIFTS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. LECT. VI. of the way every obstacle to a complete "assu rance of faith." Among the Christians of the apostolic age, there was a variety of talents for the understanding of sacred subjects, their explication, and their communication to others. Some of these were of an extraordinary kind, depending for their existence and exercise upon peculiar communications from the Sovereign of all minds, who, in order to give the fullest proofs of divine authority, in the introduction of Christianity, confirmed it by wisely adapted miracles. Among these was the gift of Prophecy. The meaning of this word was not restricted to the foretelling of future events, in such a manner as evinced an emanation from the Omniscient; but it comprehended a faculty of communicating divine knowledge, by public speaking, with remarkable attractions of fervid eloquence: in fact, it was preaching. But the matter thus declared was not necessarily and in all cases the result of inspiration or any divine influence. Even in the hands of the wise and holy, it was not infallible; but was exposed to the intrusions of error in judgment and imperfection in representation. Therefore the apostle Paul gave precepts for the regulation, controul, and correction of this "gift for the edifying of the church."* In the words preceding our text, he enjoins a respectful and reverential treatment of all those means of in * 1 Cor. xiv. A similar precept is in 1 John iv. 1. |