Happy condition of our first parents-Fall of man-Flood- Subject continued.—Volcanoes and earthquakes, probable agents in opening the bason of the sea-Instances of great changes produced by each in our present earth-Exuvia of animals which only exist in the torrid zone, found in northern latitudes-How accounted for-Extinct species- Conjecture why no remains of the human race have ever been discovered-New creation of vegetables, most pro- bably of many species of animals-Reasons for this con- clusion-Strata crowded with animal or vegetable produc- tions, found in the midst of ancient secondary strata: land animals beneath heaps of marine productions-Inferences Important purposes answered by the hills and valleys; utility of the sea-Winds- - Currents-Poetry-Atmosphere-Light -Tides-Evaporation-- Instances of admirable arrangement ..page 253 FIRST DAY OF CREATION. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. : And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. GENESIS i. 1-5. THUS Comprehensively, and sublimely, has the sacred historian set before us the history of the first formation of the nucleus of this globe. It was evidently produced at one moment of that division of eternity, which men call time; this is all that we are taught concerning it, excepting that it was covered B with water and wrapped in darkness; yet there was no intermixture of that water with the particles that composed the hard and solid body beneath; they were distinctly separate, and the water did not remain long enough upon the earth to penetrate far into its substance. The solid nucleus of the globe was, therefore, concealed by the cloak of waters, and total darkness encompassed the mighty covering, so that the mass was barren of all external decoration, and it might consequently be denominated, without form and void. The first interpreters of the sacred text, the Jews of Alexandria, nearly three hundred years before the Christian era, use the words invisible, or unfurnished, instead of "without form and void." "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, but the earth was invisible." It was also understood in the same sense by the learned Jew Josephus, and thus has he paraphrased it: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, but the latter not coming into view, but being hidden in profound darkness, was invisible." St. Jerome also, and Grotius, with many eminent biblical scholars, give the same interpretation. Thus, therefore, was the earth enveloped with thick darkness for a season, till it pleased the Most High, first to render it visible, and then most gloriously to adorn it. Light sprung up at his commanding word. He divided the light and the darkness, and this completed the first day. Here, then, commenced the history of time, in its appointed succession of day and night. The Almighty first produced light, which broke in upon the darkness, and these succeeding each other in regular diurnal alternations, showed that the instrumental cause was first put in action. |