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opened for the waters to retire into from off a PART II. portion of the solid globe, is here represented, as "the waters flying from the rebuke and "thunder of God, down to a place opened be"neath for their reception;" and the borders of the solid portion which was converted into a dry land, are described as "a bound," fixed by God to the further diffusion of the waters. "The rebuke," and the "thunders," manifestly imply a crisis of stupendous and terrific convulsion.

But, that water, as we have seen, was not a vast chaotic ocean, very different in its che"mical properties from our actual seas, and

containing the elements of the primitive earth;" an ocean, which never existed out of the imagination of the Neptunian geology: it was the true briny ocean, and (as far as we may speak of identity of water) the identical ocean that we now witness; which, after dwelling upon the entire surface of the solid globe for the space of two entire days, was, upon the third day, drained off from it into a new and deeper bed. It was denominated the abyss, so long as it flowed unlimitedly, and relatively to that illimitation; but, as soon as it was reduced within a limit, it ceased to be an abyss, and became the sea. These words,

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PART II. therefore, as has before been shown, do not denote any differences in the nature or quality, but solely in the extent and circumstances of the fluid; and thus, at the first creation of this globe, its mineral substance was so far from being in a fluid state; that is, its mineral particles, or molecules, forming a species of mud, or paste, by commixture with the water; that it existed a separate, hard, and solid body, upon which the ocean rested only superficially, and on which it had rested only two days, when it was suddenly withdrawn from one portion of it, leaving that portion perfect, firm, and compact.

This was the first revolution, which the mineral substance of this globe experienced; directed by the immediate intervention of the Creator; and it will be very material to the sequel of our inquiry, that the reader should dwell, with minute contemplation, on the details of the formation, and the consequent condition, of the sea bed thus constructed, and consisting of the fractured, and apparently ruined surface, of a portion of the globe.

When this great work was accomplished, and when the reserved portion was exposed to the action of light and of air, that portion exhibited a mere mineral surface, brute and barren. But

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it pleased God to employ it immediately to the PART II. end for which He had formed it, and for which He had disengaged it from the waters; and to invest it, at once, with an universal covering of vegetation, formed to maintain, by the laws of decay and reproduction, a perpetual succession and increase of vegetable matter, to clothe and incase the mineral. The same immediate act of God, which, on the first day, gave instantaneous and perfect existence to His mineral system, and established its laws; gave instantaneous and perfect existence also, on the third day, to His vegetable system, and established its proper laws, in all the individuals composing it. The first tree and its wood, like the first rock and its grain, were produced by a mode in which no secondary causes could possibly have a share; and though the tree was afterwards to produce seed, in which a process of lignification should originate, yet itself was formed without the intervention of that process. And, although it would wear the appearance of that process, yet the same reason which tells us that it would wear that appearance, tells us, at the same time, that the appearance alone would be no indication of the reality of the process; so that it could exercise no delusion, upon any sane and advised intellect.

Thus, then, the earth was at once invested

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PART II. with the maturity of vegetation; not only “with "the herb yielding seed," but also " with "the TREE yielding fruit, after its kind." In the meantime, the clouded atmosphere still continuing, light continued to exist only as an effect unconnected with its cause. Its course, however, still proceeding, the evening and the morning completed the Third Day.

CHAPTER VI.

THE historian at length arrives at his Fourth PART II. Article, and at the great and signal facts which it reveals. He relates:

"And GOD said, Let the LIGHTS in the firma"ment of Heaven, for dividing the day from the

night, be for SIGNS, and for SEASONS, and for

DAYS and YEARS; and let them be, in the firma"ment of Heaven, for LIGHTS TO GIVE LIGHT 66 UPON THE EARTH! And it was so.

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"And GOD made the Two great lights, (that is,) THE GREATER LIGHT, to RULE the DAY, and THE LESSER LIGHT, to RULE the NIGHT, together with the stars. And God disposed them in the firmament of Heaven TO GIVE LIGHT UPON THE EARTH, and to RULE over "the DAY and over the NIGHT. And GOD saw "that it was good.

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"And the evening and the morning were the FOURTH DAY."

1. The declaration of this important article, is of the utmost consequence to all the pre

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