them for wives, and not for the purpose of profitution, to be afterwards abandoned. But the more probable opinion is that the defcendants of Seth, who had been diftinguifhed by the appellation of the sons of God, from the time that it is faid that men began to be called by his name, became degenerate by their connection with the impious defcendants of Cain. 3. This cannot mean that the age of man in general fhould be one hundred and twenty years, for this never was the standard of human life at any time; having fallen gradually from near a thoufand to the prefent ftandard. The meaning probably was that the Divine Being would yet wait an hundred and twenty years before he would fend the deluge; and in that time, no doubt, Noah would not fail to warn men of their wickedness, and the calamity that it would bring upon them. 4. The offspring of thefe men of violence were more degenerate than their fathers; and as the word which is here rendered giants does in other places fignify men of uncommonly large ftature, I do not fee why it should not have the fame fignification here, tho' we are not able to affign any natural reason for it. 8. As a change of conduct in men is generally owing to a change in the ftate of their minds, the fame is here afcribed to God, as are other affections of man. All that we can juftly infer from it is that, tho' the Divine Being had hitherto fhewn great favour to mankind, he now faw good reason for difcontinuing it, and even for deftroying the whole race of them. In crder, however,to give a reason for it, and fhew his refpect for virtue, virtue, he spared the righteous Noah, which would be a ftriking lesson of inítruction to all mankind in future ages. 13. As nothing is here faid of idolatry, but only of violence, and wickedness in general, we are by no means authorized to fay that idolatry prevailed before the flood. Befides, had it been known to mankind in gen eral that idolatrous practices had been in any measure the cause of fo calamitous an event as the general deluge, the fame practices would hardly have been refumed fo foon afterwards, That the fame vices fhould prevail in the world is not extraordinary, because they arife from the natural paffions of men ; but the origin of idolatry must have been fome merely fpeculative notion, tho' it led to vicious practices. 14. It is in vain to form any conjecture concerning the wood of which the ark was made, but it was proba bly the cypress. Its timber is proper for the building of fhips, and not subject to rot. As to the difpofition of the apartments within it, it was, no doubt, fufficient to contain all the animals which the Divine Being did not think proper to reproduce after the flood. 16. Instead of window, Dr. Geddes renders the Hebrew word in this place a sloping deck, or roof. Ch. VII. 2, By clean beafts was probably meant thofe that were proper for the food of man, for that was the meaning of the phrafe afterwards, It may there fore appear probable that man lived on animal as well as vegetable food before the flood; and the reason why Noah was directed to take feven pairs of each of thefe might be that they might ferve for food in the ark as well as for facrificing, and a better provifion for their propagation afterwards. 4. It feems evident from this that the division of time into seven days was known to Noah. Why elfe fhould this rather than any other number be mentioned ? It appears that Noah was an hundred years in conftructing the ark, and in this time he, no doubt, would not fail to forwarn mankind of the calamity that was coming upon them, tho' it was without any good effect. 11. From the notes of time, which are very partiticular in this hiftory of the flood, it appears that the divifion of the year into twelve months, and of those months into thirty days each, was known to Noah, and therefore to the antediluvians. That the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep was an eruption of water from the Southern ocean (tho' we are wholly ignorant of the cause of it, and therefore muft refer it to the immediate finger of God) is pretty evident, as Mr. Kirwan obferves from fuch animals as elephants and rhinoceroffes, which naturally belong to a warm climate, being found in great masses, mixed with marine fubftances, in Siberia; whereas no animals or other fubftances belonging to the northern regions are ever found in the fouthern climates. One rhinoceros was found uncorrupted. Had these animals died natural deaths, in their proper climate, their bodies would not have been found in fuch heaps. But that they were carried no farther northwards than Siberia, is evident from there being no remains of any animals befides thofe of whales found in the mountains of Greenland. Geology, p. 69. That That this great rufh of water was from the South, or South Eaft, is farther evident from the South and South Eaft fides of almost all great mountains, and ranges of mountains, being much teeper than their North or North West fides; as they neceffarily would be if the force of a great body of water fell upon them in that direction. He obferves farther, that the principal force of this current feems to have been between the 100 and 200 degrees of longitude from London, as the land within thofe degrees fuffered more than those that are fituated more to the Eaft or Weft of it. p. 75. 17. We are not yet acquainted with any fufficient natural caufe for fuch a delugs asthas, fuce from the account it appears to have risen higher than the highest mountains that were known to Mofes. It is poffible, however, that when we shall know more than we now do of the structure, and natural hiftory, of the earth, it may appear to have been an event within the course of nature, and only predicted by the Divine Being, and At previously adapted to the moral state of the world. prefent it must be regarded as an extraordinary interpofition of divine providence; and then, the event being confidered as miraculous, an enquiry concerning the fource of the waters employed, or in what manner they were difpofed of afterwards, is intirely fuperseded. Ch. VIII. 4. There is little doubt but that Ararat is a mountain in Armenia, not far from the fituation of Eden. The feventh month was about our April; the beginning of the year being in autumn, The tenth month will be July, and the first October B 3 7. The 7. The raven being a bird that lives on carrion might find food where the dove could not. 14. Noah was in the ark a whole year and eleven days. These very particular notes of time fufficiently prove that there must have been fome method of recording them, whether by alphabetical writing or in fome other way. 21. I will not curse the ground for man's sake, tho' the imagination of man's heart be evil from his youth. GAle. Here again the Divine Being is reprefented with the fentiments of men, who are more favourably difpofed towards those who please them, and remit their anger on that account. Ch. IX. 4. This permiffion to eat animal food feems to imply that before this men had lived on vegetables only; and yet unless the whole economy of the human body had been changed, there appears no reason for a change in his food, and other circumstances mentioned before feem to imply that animal food had been ufed before, The prohibition to eat blood, in which life is fuppofed to refide, feems to have been intended as an acknowledgment that God is the giver, and confequently the fovereign difpofer, of life, and therefore that it was not lawful to take it without his permiffion. There follows an express order to take it even from man in cafe of murder, which had not been permitted before, Cain not having been punished in this manner, but only banished. Some fuppofe that the practice of eating the. blood or the flesh of living animals, as is the custom in Aby flinia |