About the same time, or rather a little earlier, between 1680 and 1690, Bishop Burnet published his famous "Sacred Theory of the Earth," in which he improved upon the theory of Des Cartes that the earth was originally perfectly round and equal, without mountains or vallies. Burnet imagined it to be a smooth orbicular crust resting upon the face of the abyss. This crust, being heated by the sun, became chinky, and in consequence of the rarefaction of the enclosed vapors it was burst asunder and fell down into the waters, and so it became dissolved, while the inhabitants perished. Burnet's work is beautifully written, and although extremely visionary, it has had more popularity perhaps than any similar work. The following paragraph will give our readers an idea of his manner. "In this smooth earth were the first scenes of the world, and the first generations of mankind; it had the beauty of youth and blooming nature, fresh and fruitful, and not a wrinkle, scar, or fracture in all its body: no rocks nor mountains, no hollow caves, nor gaping channels, but even and uniform all over. And the smoothness of the earth made the heavens so too; the air was calin and serene; none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapors, which the mountains and the winds cause in ours it was suited to a golden age, and to the first innocency of nature."+

This notion of a dissolution and reconsolidation of the earth at the deluge continued to be a favorite with philosophers for nearly a century. In 1761 Catcott's Treatise on the Deluge" appeared. It was a work of no small merit; but "the dissolution of the earth" held a prominent place in it. And it is amusing as well as instructive to see how casily he leads himself into the belief that the Scriptures teach this doctrine. Take a few examples of his mode of interpretation. After having persuaded himself by the help of an extract from Hutchinson's

This work was originally published in Latin, with a title that provokes a smile: "The Sacred Theory of the Earth, containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of all the general Changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo, till the Consummation of all Things." In the English copy before us, however, printed as late as 1816 in London, this title is altered so as to be comparatively modest, and notes more extensive than the text are added from various writers on Natural Religion.

Sacred Theory of the Earth, p. 76. London 1816.

famous work entitled " Moses's Principia," that the windows of heaven mentioned in the account of the deluge mean 66 passages of the airs" through the cracks in the earth's crust, he says: "As there are other texts which mention the dissolution of the earth, it may be proper to cite them. Ps. 46: 2, God is our refuge; therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed [in be changed, be quite altered, as it was at the deluge] God uttered his voice, the earth melted [flowed, dissolved to atoms]. Again Job 38: 9, He sent his hand [the expansion, his instrument, or the agent by which he worked] against the rock; he overturned the mountains by the roots; he caused the rivers to burst forth from between the rocks [or broke open the fountains of the abyss]. His eye [symbolically placed for the light] saw [passed through or between] every minute thing [every atom and so dissolved the whole]. He (at last) bound up the waters from weeping [i. e. from pressing through the shell of the earth, as tears make their way through the orb of the eye; or as it is related Gen. 8: 2, He stopped the fountains of the abyss and the windows of heaven]. And brought out the light from its hiding place [i. e. from the inward parts of the earth from between every atom, where it lay hid, and kept each atom separate from the other, and so the whole in a state of dissolution; his bringing out those parts of the light which caused the dissolution would of course permit the agents to act in their usual way and so reform the earth.] 2 Esdras 8: O Lord, whose service is conversant in wind and fire; whose word is true; whose look drieth up the depths, and indignation maketh the mountains to melt away which the truth witnesseth, [which the word of God and the present natural state of the earth bear witness to.]"*

It seems truly surprising to us at this day, who view the subject no longer with the chromatic optics of physico-theology, how such an exposition as this could satisfy able and logical minds that the Scriptures teach the dissolution of the earth at the deluge. Still more surprising is it, how such a man as bishop Burnet could have thought it consistent with Scripture, to maintain that the primitive earth was only "an orbicular crust, smooth, regular, and uniform, without mountains, and without a sea ;" when it is so definitely stated that the waters

* Treatise on the Deluge, p. 43. London 1761.

Rees' Cyclopedia, Article Deluge.

under the heavens were gathered together unto one place and the dry land appeared; and that God called the dry land, earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas: And further, when it is stated that there were rivers in this primitive world, implying inequality of surface, and also, when the deluge came it is said that all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Yet so far was such a theory from being regarded as opposed to the Scriptures that it was long considered the orthodox view, while those who opposed it were looked upon with suspicion, as being skeptics. Here is, indeed, an instructive lesson, both for those geologists of the present day, who first frame their hypothesis and then endeavor to torture the Bible to support them; and also for those theologists, who denounce geological theories as anti-biblical, while they admit opposing theories that strike at the root of all revealed truth.

Will it be believed that a really able and scientific man, writing by appointment of the president of the Royal Society in England in the year 1835, should have revived and adopted with slight modifications, the essential features of this hypothesis of dissolution and reconsolidation of the earth by the deluge! Yet Mr. Kirby has done it in his Bridgewater Treatise, already referred to. He does not, indeed, contend for the smooth orbicular crust of Burnet; yet he does undertake to show, both from reason and Scripture, that there is a vast abyss of waters beneath the crust of the globe, or under the earth, distinct from the ocean, though in communication with it;" and he "contends that the principal reservoir from which they (rivers) are supplied, has its station under the earth." Nay, he inquires whether besides the unexplored parts of the surface of the earth, and of the bed of the ocean, we are sure that there is no receptacle for animal life in its womb?" And after a long argument he says, "all circumstances above stated being duly weighed, and especially the discovery of a species in the depths of the earth, related to one of the fossil ones, I trust that my hypothesis of a subterraneous metropolis for the Saurian, and perhaps other reptiles, will not be deemed so improbable and startling as it may at the first blush appear." In this metropolis' he imagines those enormous fossil Saurians, hitherto regarded as extinct, may still be living; while our "smaller ones may be regarded as inhabiting the outskirts of the proper station or metropolis of their tribe." This is certainly one step in absurdity

beyond the dreams of a visionary of our own country and our own times, well known for his speculations respecting the interior of the earth.

The exegetical skill by which Mr. Kirby makes the Scriptures teach the doctrine of a subterranean abyss of waters, and a subterranean metropolis of animals, reminds us of that which we have just presented from the treatise of Catcott. Thus, on the passage from the Apocalypse, 5: 13, "And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them," etc., he remarks: "Some interpreters understand this passage as relating to those men that were buried under the earth, or in the sea, but admitting they were meant in the spirit, the creatures in general are expressed in the letter, and therefore the outward symbol must have a real existence, as well as what is symbolized."* So on the same principle we suppose "the great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head," mentioned in Rev. xii, and "the beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy," described in Rev. xiii; these being "outward symbols, must have a real existence."

On the passage in Ps. xlv, "Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death," Mr. Kirby remarks: "In these words the place of dragons, and the shadow of death evidently mean the same thing; and the object of these metaphors is to express the lowest degree of affliction, depression, and degradation, equivalent to being brought down to hell, or hades, in other passages. The shadow of death, properly speaking, is in the hidden or subterranean world. This appears from the passage of Job before quoted, in which the abyss, the gates of death and the gates of the shadow of death, are used as synonymous expressions, Job 38: 17. The place of dragons, then, according to this exposition, will be subterranean. In another Psalm, David couples dragons and abysses, Ps. 148: 7."+

Mr. Kirby's exposition of the phrase windows of heaven, which were opened at the time of the deluge, corresponds with that already alluded to as given by Catcott and Hutchinson. He here quotes a criticism from his " venerated friend, the late Rev.

* Bridgewater Treatise, p. 13.

† Idem, p. 14.

Wm. Jones of Nayland, well known for his knowledge of the Hebrew, and the variety and ability of his researches on every subject connected with the interpretation of the Scripture.' "We suppose, then," says Mr. Jones, "that the air was driven downwards for this purpose, through those passages which are called windows of heaven. These may seem very obscure terms to express such a sense by; but heaven is the firmament, or expanded substance of the atmosphere; and windows, as they are here called, are holes, or channels of any kind. The same word is used for chimneys through which smoke passes, and for the holes, probably cliffs of a rock, in which the doves of the eastern world have their habitation." Mr. Kirby adds: "It strikes me as not very improbable that the term I am speaking of, may allude to volcanoes and their craters, which may be called the chimneys of this globe, by which its subterranean fires communicate with the atmosphere, and by which the air rushing into the earth, when circumstances are favorable, may possibly act the part of the fabled Cyclops, and blow them up previous to an eruption. Thus they become literally channels, or chimneys, through which the matter constituting the firmament, passes, either from heaven, or in an eruption towards heaven."

Through these windows of heaven; that is, cracks and volcanic rents in the earth; Mr. Kirby supposes the waters within and around the globe, rushed outward and inward, alternately, until they had "subdued and destroyed the primitive earth, till they reduced it to the state, for the most part, in which we now find it." (B. T. p. 15.) This process, however, is represented by him rather as one of comminution than of dissolution, and he supposes some part of the crust of the globe to have resisted comminution; for he states, "the vestiges of such clefts in the earth's crust, (that is, we suppose, the windows of heaven) are still to be traced in many places." (B. T. p. 486.) In relation to the extent of the destruction, he says, "With respect to the earth itself, when we consider the violent action of the ascending and descending waters, and of the firmament rushing downwards; the disruptions, dislocations, introversions, comminutions, deportations here and there of the original strata of the crust of our globe, can scarcely be conceived, and are still more difficult to calculate and explain exactly." (B. T. p. 488.)

The formation of the present crust of the globe from the detritus of the old, Mr. Kirby imputes to the descending or subsiding waters; and thus adopts the last item of the old physico