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OF THE WORLD, &c.

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orders of living beings, from the Mollusca tribes to the Mastodons, and Mammoths, &c. nothing like the faculty of reason, or gift of speech appearing amongst them all; surely this is calculated to make us expect, that the introduction of the human race, whenever it happened, would be marked as an event of quite a superior description, and so announced, as to convey to our minds the strongest impressions of God's immediate and special interposition; for I cannot bring myself to look upon man as a mere development, and therefore feel myself, as others should do, greatly indebted to Mr. Lyell, for taking our part against Lamark, who would have made, as is well known, nothing but apes, and monkeys, and ourang-outangs of us; or even worse, a mere expansion of organic particles. Dr. Macculloch, speaking of Lamark's system, is puzzled to say whether it were the effect of Epicurism, disease, or imbecility. He acknowledges that Lamark was accounted in his time a great naturalist. "It might be so," he adds, "in empty shells."

I will acknowledge, that I was at first rather startled to find that apes and monkeys were missing from our ancient strata', as well as man, fearful that it might lead to a suspicion that if not identical, they were, as a link in the chain of beings, so decidedly next to man, as almost to belong to the same type of organization; but upon further consideration it appeared to me probable, that apes and monkeys might be expressly designed to show how near to the human species organization might ascend, and yet remain as far below it, for want of the higher faculties with

"Not a single bone of a quadrumanous animal has ever yet been discovered in a fossil state." Lyell: but the fossil reliquiæ of tree animals

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GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT

Mediterranean and other inland seas, the islands therein being tops of mountains not wholly submerged; and it may be added, that Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and other ancient writers, decidedly thought there had been a time when the Mediterranean did not exist.

The question still remains, what revolutions and changes of this description have been brought about by natural causes, operating according to the order of things, without the special and immediate interposition of providence; and what have taken place, not merely for natural ends and purposes, but to accomplish some great end of God's moral government of the world, with which as individuals, we have evidently, in point of time, but little connection, and as human beings, by all accounts, (geological as well as theological) not much more. This, I confess, prevents my taking such interest as some seem to do, in the calculations of modern geologists, when they speak and write so confidently of the lapse of ages, of myriads, nay millions of ages; telling us all the while, not in direct terms, but evidently by implication, that Moses could not possibly have known, that the human race was comparatively a recent introduction, otherwise than by revelation from the Fountain of all knowledge, and the Source of all existences.

I confess, I have long been at a loss to comprehend, why geologists should seem so anxious to make the world, globe, or in fact planet on which we dwell, so exceedingly old, as they represent it to be, without the smallest attempt, as far as I can understand the matter, to place it in a more important point of view, than as the habitation exclusively of only the inferior

OF THE WORLD, &c.

165

orders of living beings, from the Mollusca tribes to the Mastodons, and Mammoths, &c. nothing like the faculty of reason, or gift of speech appearing amongst them all; surely this is calculated to make us expect, that the introduction of the human race, whenever it happened, would be marked as an event of quite a superior description, and so announced, as to convey to our minds the strongest impressions of God's immediate and special interposition; for I cannot bring myself to look upon man as a mere development, and therefore feel myself, as others should do, greatly indebted to Mr. Lyell, for taking our part against Lamark, who would have made, as is well known, nothing but apes, and monkeys, and ourang-outangs of us; or even worse, a mere expansion of organic particles. Dr. Macculloch, speaking of Lamark's system, is puzzled to say whether it were the effect of Epicurism, disease, or imbecility. He acknowledges that Lamark was accounted in his time a great naturalist. "It might be so," he adds, "in empty shells."

I will acknowledge, that I was at first rather startled to find that apes and monkeys were missing from our ancient strata', as well as man, fearful that it might lead to a suspicion that if not identical, they were, as a link in the chain of beings, so decidedly next to man, as almost to belong to the same type of organization; but upon further consideration it appeared to me probable, that apes and monkeys might be expressly designed to show how near to the human species organization might ascend, and yet remain as far below it, for want of the higher faculties with

"Not a single bone of a quadrumanous animal has ever yet been discovered in a fossil state." Lyell: but the fossil reliquiæ of tree animals

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SUPERIORITY OF MAN.

which man is endowed, as any of the Mollusca or Testaceous tribes; for this actually is the fact, though people in general may not always perceive it. On the contrary, most persons I verily think, are inclined to shudder at the organized resemblance, not considering that, after all, this ugly and offensive image of man, is as wide apart from the intelligent image of GOD, as earth from the heaven of heavens.

When this is duly reflected upon, we shall learn the better to appreciate the knowledge displayed by Moses, of the wide distinction between our species, and all creatures merely animal; we shall learn to entertain more exalted ideas of the spiritual nature of man, and of the perfectibility, not merely of his earthly talents, which must be obviously confined within very narrow limits; but of his very nature and being, when the corruptible body in which he now appears, shall have put on incorruption, when from mortal he shall have become immortal, death itself being swallowed up in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ such are the prospects of man theologically, and let me add, Mosaically; for Moses foretold this victory and it has come to pass. Death is swallowed up; "we shall not all sleep," in the graves to which we are hastening, but "we shall all be changed." Human creatures there are indeed so heedless of these great privileges and distinctions, as seemingly to prefer to live the life of the brutes that perish; but let such persons understand, that the refuge of perishing is not open to them; these also shall be "changed" indeed, but not "to the image of the heavenly," to an image, I fear, worse than the earthy, in its most abject state of brutishness and despair!

PART V.

It used formerly to be regarded as a very plausible objection to the Mosaic history, that it seemed to assign so small an antiquity to our globe or system, as to be scarcely consistent with the infinite majesty of God. Here then geologists may appear to have stepped in, very much to the relief of revelation from so weighty a charge, especially such of them, as do not consider their boundless calculations to be inconsistent with the sacred history of man; and in truth, myriads and myriads of ages must go a great way to satisfy the minds of those who think the world too new (according to Moses) to be the work of God; but what can be new or old in the eyes of an eternal Being? And have we no instances in nature, of the possibility, not to say probability, of a NEW creation of a world or worlds? Most men of education must know by this time, that the loss of stars noticed in ancient catalogues, as well as the appearance of new ones, have led very eminent and pious astronomers to the conjecture, that in the course of God's providential government of the universe, some systems are from time to time dissolved, and others called into being; and that it may continue so till the period fixed for the final consummation of all things.

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