"the word firmament by no means exhibits the "real idea of the Hebrew substantive1." That great oriental authority Michaelis, however, pronounces just as emphatically against him: "Ac 66 cording to what I have said of the signification "of this word, as confirmed by the practice of the "Hebrew and Syriac tongues, the word y will "not signify expanded, but confirmed, or, to use "the term employed in the Vulgate, the firma66 ment. In Gen. i. 6, it can hardly signify any thing else than the atmosphere sustaining the "clouds. So in Ezek. i. 21, 22, where it expresses the basis or pavement of the chariot of "God"." 66 66 This article, therefore, implies; that there were waters above the aqueous surface of the globe which were separable, though not yet actually separated, from it. It therefore relates; that the universal watery vapour, which had been in course of continual exhalation during the preceding day from the universal watery surface, was now separated from it and raised to a high elevation above it, by the creation of the aerial atmosphere; so that the vaporous body formed a canopy above the globe, instead of enveloping it like a cloak, in immediate contact with the water. Rosenmuller, 1 FABER, on the Three Dispensations, vol. i. p. 129. 2“ Ex his, quæ de verbi significatu, usu linguæ Hebraicæ et Syriacæ "firmata diximus, nomen yp non erit expansum, sed ―firmatum, seu, "ut vocabulo Vulgatæ utar, firmamentum. Gen. i. 6, vix potest nisi at"mosphæra esse, nubes portans; sicque et Ezech. i. 21, 22, ubi basis "pavimentum est currus Dei tonantis." Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. no. 2386. well applies to this place the remark of Pliny: "what can be more wonderful, than waters stationary "in the sky! —quid esse mirabilius potest aquis in "cælo stantibus!" which phenomenon, we know, is only produced by the " atmosphæra nubes por"tans," the yp or firmamentum. The globe was thus disengaged from its incumbent vapour, but still, the effect of light was alone apparent; for, congregated clouds had succeeded to terrestrial mist, and continued to render the cause of that effect non-apparent, and therefore, optically non-existent as we ourselves experience, during the prevalence of similar weather. It is this that the sacred historian describes, when he says; for many days neither sun nor stars appeared μητε ήλιου μητε αστρων επιφαινοντων επι πλείονας ήμερας. Homer also describes, in a similar manner, the optical effect of a continued cloud enveloping two contending armies, during a day of obstinate conflict: 66 66 ουδε κε φαιης ούτε ποτ' ΗΕΛΙΟΝ σουν εμμεναι, ούτε ΣΕΛΗΝΗΝ ηερι γαρ κατεχοντο3. Around so dense the murky clouds arise, It seem'd nor Sun nor Moon possessed the skies. The cause of the diversity of day, and night continued therefore to be unapparent, relatively to the earth; but, that cause was now in course of perpetual operation, and it therefore now completed the Second Day. PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxi. 2 Acts, xxvii. 20. 3 Iliad. XVII. 366. CHAPTER V. THE historian proceeds to his Third Article, which consists of two parts : 66 "And GOD said; Let the WATERS UNDER THE HEAVEN BE GATHERED TOGETHER UNTO ONE PLACE, and let the DRY LAND APPEAR. "And it was so. "And GOD called the dry land EARTH, and the gathering together of the waters called He SEAS. And GOD saw that it was good. "And GOD said; Let the EARTH bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the FRUIT-TREE yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. "And the earth brought forth grass; and herb yielding seed after its kind: and the TREE yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind : and GOD saw that it was good. "And the evening and the morning were the THIRD DAY." I. In the first part of this article, two vast and wonderful events of the most essential importance to true geology, because in them are laid the very first foundations of that historical science; but which, nevertheless, have most strangely failed to fix the attention both of commentators and geologists; are distinctly, though briefly, revealed for the apprehension of the intelligence; namely, 1. the sudden formation of a BED, or BASIN, to receive and contain the universal mass of waters diffused over the solid and compacted surface of the whole mineral globe: 2. the consequent immediate drainage and EXPOSURE of a portion of that surface. The second part of the article, relates the first formation of all the vegetable matter with which that exposed portion of the globular surface was immediately invested. We may here again observe, with Ròsenmuller, that, in the second verse, denotes the abyss; not in any sense of a "chaotic ocean very different "in its chemical properties from our present sea1," (an ocean which never existed out of the imagination of the mineral geology); but simply, of the waters of the sea flowing without limit': for, what is called the abyss in the second verse, is in the same verse called also, n, the waters; and the same waters, become in this verse b, the SEAS, only by being congregated in one place, and therefore being reduced within limits. II. Previous to these amazing operations, the globe, disengaged from its cloak of mist in consequence of the ascent of the vapours into the higher regions of the atmosphere, presents to the con See above, p. 27. templation only the simple idea of an aqueous spheroid: its solid parts, being totally concealed beneath the waters. There were, as yet, 66 66 по depths" -men ps, in the surface of those solid parts; but, it was now the design of God, to "make or rend the depths by His Intelligence;" to expose a portion of those parts; and, to reduce the unlimited surface of waters, which concealed that portion, within limited bounds: thus, converting the uncircumscribed abyss into a circumscribed sea. The record imports, that the waters which caused the concealment were to be extensively removed, and collected into one place, so that - Engœ, that substance which was dry beneath them, might be seen, or rendered visible, now. Accordingly, Josephus thus represents the general operation; τη τρίτη ίστησι την γην, ΑΝΑΧΕΑΣ περι αυτην την θαλασσαν on the third day God established "the land, causing the REFUSION of the sea "around it." This, also, the apostle describes ; γη εξ ύδατος και δι ̓ ὕδατος συνεστωσα the earth 66 di' standing out of the water and in the midst of the "water";" and, from thence was derived that relative description which our version renders, "the "waters under the earth," but, which ought in strictness to have been expressed, "below "the earth:"-i. e. " the heavens above (the (the heavens), the ÚTOKαTE TNS yns. In familiarly expressed 'Prov. viii. 24. 32 Pet. iii. 5. 2 Ib. iii. 20. See Introduction, § 25. |