present form, we can only advert to volcanic and other irregular agencies of whatever kind in order to exclude them altogether; and we protest against their being introduced at all into such a discussion, and assert that the introduction of such unknown, such inexplicable phenomena only tends to mystify and to mislead. For these are not laws of nature: all that we know of them is that they are disorderly-they are disturbing forces merely-they interfere with the only means of solving the problem-the regular order produced by established laws. They must, therefore, be disregarded-nay, carefully excluded from every enquiry into natural causes and effects, and only employed to fortify the argument in favour of the continual interposition of God, both to counteract the continual tendency of earth to sink and water to rise-the natural tendency of all things to find a level, and also to counteract the utter subversion of all order, and the obliteration of every trace of intention, in which volcanoes uncontrouled must necessarily terminate. And earthquakes and volcanoes, if partial only, and not to the extent of destroying all order, would themselves be neutralized, in such a case, as all matter left wholly to itself, in obedience to the natural law of universal gravitation. After the dry land had been separated by the hand of God, partial volcanoes might occur, on that dry land, and the effects might be permanent in that locality; but this assumes the very point in question-assumes a separation to have been made, and to be still maintained by a power beyond that of nature, counteracting the natural tendencies of matter.

We, therefore, maintain with the utmost confidence that an agency superior to, and counteractive of, the natural tendencies of earth and water, lies at the foundation of geology as a science, in order to account for there having been any dry land at all to begin with; and does prima facie appear, in every stratum that has been since deposited, whensoever that stratum rises above the level of the sea, or indicates any other departure from the laws of specific gravity. The Being who created all things, and gave to them all their several properties, and appointed the laws by which they are governed, is the only Being whom we can reasonably invest with the power of overruling and counteracting the laws of creation: the Overruler is the more powerful Being-overruling is the attribute of the Almighty-there is but one Almighty, and he is the Creator he also is the Overruler-he is the one God. Discarding for a moment from our view all consideration of time, the world must have had a beginning; there was an eternity in which the Creator alone existed, and when the world was not.

Who knows how the world came into being? Can the earth tell us, or is it written in the sea, how they came into being, and how long there existed nothing save earth and sea? Can the fishes tell us-can all creation tell us-can man, confessedly the last and noblest act of creation, tell us, how, when, and wherefore he was made; and how, when, and wherefore all other things were made, before any living creatures appeared on the earth? Confessedly they cannot. Retrospect, like prophecy, requires the omniscience of God. But geology, instead of acquiescing in these negations, and seeking information where alone it can be found, namely, in revelation: geology, instead of being satisfied with this, grounds on these negations a system the result of which is a denial of all the truths of revelation, and throwing our ideas loose upon the wild sea of chance, without compass, or chart, or time, for guidance or computation. The fundamental assertion from which they start is, that man was not in that world which they profess to explore, and during that time which their investigations cover; our only true link with that world is assumed to be wanting-it is supposed to be wholly cut off from our knowledge and our sympathies! The next fact they profess to give us is a negation concerning the existence of the present races of animals; it is supposed to have been tenanted by races wholly cxtinct, and that none of the present animals were there! In the vegetable and mineral kingdoms similar negations are continued the plants, the climate, the very mineral constitution of that world, or rather that succession of worlds for each stratun is considered as in itself a world-are regarded as having been altogether different from the present: for it is not pretended that a single stratum ever has been formed, or can be formed, by any of the operations of nature which are at present known, or now going on. Yet from this string of negations we are expected to receive a theory concerning the origin and age of the world, which thus virtually has no basis-which is constructed upon non-entities alone! But we must allow that the theory itself is in character with its evanescent, impalpable foundation; being in itself unintelligible, and incomprehensible; and assigning periods which it disclaims all idea of defining, or expecting us to comprehend. To evade one creation and one deluge which is revealed, it introduces as many alternate creations and destructions as there are strata, and these are innumerable; and, rejecting the times revealed in Scripture, it sets all time at defiance, or professedly discards itassigning periods for each single operation which are themselves boundless, and in an infinite series,

Ma desires to know these things: he has instinctive longings to comprehend the how and the wherefore of what he sees around him, in the world by which and for which he lives, and the existence of which is so much bound up with his own. God, who implanted these instincts in man, has himself condescended to gratify them. He who alone could know the facts, alone was before the world began, he has revealed how, at the beginning, the heavens and the earth were made, and how the light was created, and the land was separated from the water; and, lastly, how the living creatures leading up to man, and placed under his dominion, were formed; and God looking down upon man, made in his own image, and upon all the other works of his hands, pronounced the whole to be very good.

And we learn moreover, from revelation, how the sin of man brought evil into that creation, which was at the first very good-how by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin-how by one man's offence death reigned by one (Rom. v. 12, 17), and how this entailed a curse upon the whole creation, so that God said to Adam, "cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And when, in the course of time, the sin of man increased as mankind multiplied, and by these aggravated and accumulated sins God was still further provoked, we are taught how, by the hand of the Almighty, an universal deluge was brought up over the whole earth, covering the highest mountains, destroying every living thing from the face of the earth; and how in order "to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth," God had forewarned Noah of the coming desolation, and caused an ark of safety to be prepared, that the new world might be provided with inhabitants without the necessity for another act of creation.

As natural religion leads us to ascribe the origin of all things to God, so it constrains us to ascribe perfection of all kinds and power unlimited to God; and therefore to expect the manifestation of these attributes of God in all the works of his hands that all things according to their place would indicate the love of God in their provisions for enjoyment, and the foresight and omnipotence of God in the permanency of these enjoyments; securing them alike from contingencies, or from insidious or violent assaults, which might defeat the bene

volent intentions of the Creator. But natural religion does not find this to be the case-nay, on the contrary, notwithstanding the admirable mechanism of the creation, and the universal indications of wise intentions, and even of partial and individual enjoyment, it finds that the result is general suffering, and premature destruction or decay; each creature living to destroy or become the prey of another, and man, the lord of all, giving, in the abuse of power and disappointment of hope, only too much of semblance to the despondent or misanthropic conclusion of one of the truest of poets and observers, "that man was made to mourn.”

Were it not for a moral demonstration which was to be given, and a moral purpose which was to be accomplished, there can be no doubt that all the laws of nature would have been fixed and unalterable as those which keep the stars in their courses-impregnable against chance or change. What this demonstration is, and how that moral purpose shall be accomplished, natural religion cannot say; we must learn it from revelation, and it is at present to be apprehended by faith alone. Yet the Scripture is so full of it, and it is so inseparably connected with every other doctrine of the Bible, that no man can consistently hold any one truth of the Gospel without also holding this truth, which is in fact the gist, and conclusion, and climax of the first announcement of the Gospel, as good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people it is glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men. The things around us do not render this praise to God at present; and still less do we find proofs of anything of the kind in the strata of the earth, or the facts which geology brings to light concerning the past. But, on the contrary, all seems to be strife and ill-will amongst men; and in the bowels of the earth nothing but havoc and confusion to have reigned, and these so tremendous as to present no ideas to the mind, save the wrecks of a "Paradise Lost," or the spoils and vietims of a once existing pandemonium.

The creation hath fallen from its place through sin; yet not so fallen as to frustrate the purpose of God, or to escape out of his reach for punishment or recovery. He hath punished, yet not so as utterly to destroy: he will recover, without the necessity of annihilating the old creation and doing another work of the same kind: and God will so restore all things as' to show that he hath not been defeated-hath not changed his plan that he is the Almighty, the first and the last ; and that God is Love unalterable-the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

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It is a cardinal point of Christian faith, that God created all things as one whole; because there was an intention to be accomplished thereby, which did not then appear. And it is a cardinal point to maintain, that God will not add to or change, the creation; and that no creature can do so, because such interference with the creation would also interfere with the further intention of God. And it is a cardinal point to maintain that this first intention shall be finally accomplished in the restitution of all things; and that by means of the creation which was brought into being for that very end. It is declared that the works were finished from the foundation of the world (Heb. iv. 3).That all things were made by Christ, and for him (Col. i. 16; Eph. iii. 9). And that the Son by whom the worlds were made is also appointed heir of all things (Heb. i. 2). And we also, brought into the Church, are made sons of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorined together (Rom. viii. 14). And not only we, but the whole creation, are joint participants in the blessing; for the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God-all alike waiting for that crisis which is called the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom. viii. 23). How these things shall be we profess not to explain, but they are doctrines laid hold of by faith, and they all turn upon the grand personal doctrine of the resurrection of the body, which every Christian cannot but maintain, yet which no one can explain or render intelligible to sense; by the same faith we lay hold of the restitution of all things, and the resurrection of the body, of the first of which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began (Acts. iii. 21).

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles as Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Heb. xi. 3, 19)...

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Yet this continuity of the purpose of God, and especially this deluge, supernatural, brought about by the hand of God; universal, yet not necessitating a new creation, because certain creatures were kept alive in the ark-this most important of