derived from a verb which signifies to bring forth or multiply abundantly, so that the translation ought not to be the creeping, but the rapidly multiplying creatures.* The meaning is obviously intended to include the larger reptiles, as well as all the small animals inhabiting the water, as insects, worms, and shell fish, many tribes of which are known to be exceedingly prolific. The rapidity with which some shell fish, as the oyster, multiply, may be inferred from the vast numbers which are consumed for food; and there is reason to believe that other species, which are placed without the ordinary reach of man, or which he does not use for food, are equally prolific. The great thickness and extent of some strata, composed almost entirely of shells, are a sufficient proof of the almost infinite fecundity of these animals. The word rendered fowl, (in Hebrew oph,) and by which its meaning is limited to the birds of the air, is said more properly to signify flying thing, and that the original will admit of such a meaning as to include flying insects, appears from Levit. xi. 20. All fowls that creep, going upon all four. We may therefore understand that flying insects, as well as shell-fish, reptiles, and birds, were created on the fifth day. On the sixth and Creation of Mammalia and Man. last day of the creation, the "beasts of the earth,” “ cattle after their kind," and lastly man, were brought into exist ence. The "beast and cattle" are supposed to include the whole division of what are now called Mammalia, or milkgiving quadrupeds, the amphibious quadrupeds having been created on the fifth day. Coincidences between Genesis and Geological facts. Having thus taken such notices of the history of the creation as our object requires, we will next proceed to show the coincidences between the successive creations, and the results which geology has been the means of unfolding. It was long since remarked by geologists, that impressions of ferns, and other cryptogamous plants, were found * Professor Jameson's Ed. New Phil. Jour. 1832. + Ibid. e deepest secondary strata, or in the first deposited which contained any signs of organic life; while on other hand, it was well known that the bones of mamrous animals existed only near the surface. Succesdiscoveries have completed the series, and have shown there exists an exact correspondence between the order reations, as stated by Moses, and of the fossil remains egetables and animals discovered by geology 'he basis of the following table is contained in ProfesJameson's new Philosophical Journal, published at nburgh, in 1832. In the references to Genesis, the nts on which geology can throw no light, are in ics. n the original table there is no reference to the distions which Moses has made with respect to the dif-. ent kinds or classes of plants, and which we have wn to form the most striking coincidence between ipture and science. This coincidence, so far as we ow, has never before been shown to exist in detail, this discovery, if we may so call it, has not only been led to the table, but the whole has been enlarged about half, by additional quotations from different authorities. TABLE COINCIDENCES BETWEEN THE ORDER OF EVENTS, AS DESCRIBED IN GENESIS, AND THOSE UNFOLDED BY GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. IN GENESIS. DISCOVERED BY GEOLOGY. It is impossible to deny that the waters of the sea have formerly, and for a long time, covered those masses of matter which now constitute the highest mountains; and further, that these waters, for a long time, did not support any living bodies.-Cu1vier's Theory of the Earth. Gen. i. 1, 2. In the ginning God cread the heavens and e earth. And the arth was without rm and void; and arkness was upon me face of the deep; nd the spirit of God hoved upon the face f the waters. V.3,4, 5. Creation flight. 6,7,8. Crea- 2 ion of the armancion Again, "Thus it is rational to believe, that shells and fishes did not exist at the period of the formation of the primordial layers."-Cuvier's Rev. of the Globe, p. 68. It is unnecessary to stop to prove, that our continents have once formed the bed of the son, there is no longer any division DISCOVERED BY GEOLOGY. of opinion among naturalists upon this Cryptogamous plants in coal strata.- In the formation of coal and anthracite, There may be a connexion between an extraordinary profusion of monocotyledonous plants, and a youthful condition of the world.-Lyell, vol. i. p. 147. Brown coal is formed of large trees, whose texture is still to be discerned, and from scattered leaves, they undoubtedly belonged to dicotyledonous families.Count Sternberg. (Brown coal is considered a more recent formation than common coal, or anthracite.) Shells in the Paris basin.-Cuvier. Fish in Jura limestone.-ib. Shells and vegetable remains are found in the next order below those of fish and oviparous reptiles.-Sir H. Davy. Teeth and scales of fish in Tilgate sandstone.-Mr. Mantell. Creation of Dying 5 and oviparous reptiles.-Sir H. Davy. The remains of birds with those of fish things. Bones of birds in Tilgate sandstone.- Elytra of winged insects in calcareous DISCOVERED BY GEOLOGY. Bones of crocodiles at Manheim.- Von Bush. Bones of saurian animals at Stonesfield. Mr. Mantell. Remains of sea turtles and lizard like animals, at St. Pierre.-Dr. Ure. It will be impossible not to acknowledge, as a certain truth, the number, the large ness, and the variety of the reptiles which inhabited the seas, and the land, at the epoch at which the strata of the Jura were deposited.—Cuvier. There was a period when the earth was peopled by oviparous quadrupeds, of the most appalling magnitude. Reptiles were the lords of the creation.-Mantell. Animals analogous to the frog, toad, and salamander, existed when the strata were disordered by the revolutions of the globe. -Dr. Ure. Bones of mammiferous quadrupeds are found only when we come to the formations above the coarse limestone, which is above the chalk,-Cuvier. The remains of quadrupeds of extinct species, occur next above those of birds and oviparous reptiles.-Sir H. Davy. It is only in the loose and slightly consolidated strata of gravel and sand, and which are usually called diluvial formations, that the remains of animals, such as now people the globe, are found.-Sir H. Davy, Consolations of Travel. It is a fact, that as yet no human bones have been discovered among fossil remains.-Cuvier's Rev. of the Globe, p. 81. But found covered with mud, in the caves of Bize.-Journal. The great question concerning human remains in a fossil state, stands now before the world in an entirely different aspect from what it did when Cuvier published his work.-Granville Penn. Human bones, supposed to be fossil, have been found in the caves of Durfort and Kosritz.-Outlines of Geology. In some few instances human bones occur, but the era to which their possessors ought to be referred, has not been satisfactorily ascertained. Though some are more modern, others seem to claim an antedilu IN GENESIS. Genesis, chapter vii. The Deluge of Noah. "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered." V. 19. The deluge happened A. M. 1656, being 2348 years before the Christian era, and 4184 before 1836. No. 9 DISCOVERED BY GEOLOGY. In the delta of the Ganges human bones have been found ninety feet deep.-Von Hoff. If there be any thing determined in geology, it is, that the surface of our globe has been subjected to a vast and sudden revolution, not longer ago than five or six thousand years.-Cuvier's Rev. Globe, p. 180. A universal deluge seems clearly proved by the utter extinction of the primeval race of animals.-Dr. Ure. The Alps and Carpathians, as well as every other mountainous region which I have visited, bear the same evidence of having been modified by the force of water, as do the hills of the lower regions.— Dr. Buckland. Geology fully confirms the scriptural history of the deluge.-Prof. Silliman. The numbers 4, 5, and 6, we will not conceal, are liable to be interchanged among themselves, in respect to place, and we shall derive no argument from them, farther than what arises from the circumstance, that they are all placed in one group. Still the number of coincidences here shown between the order of the epochs of creation assigned in Genesis, and that discovered by geology, are calculated not only to excite the attention of scientific men, but also that of theologians, as forming an additional argument to the truth of inspiration. Human science, in the probability of chances, as illustrated by La Place, has put us in possession of an instrument for estimating the value of these coincidences; and we* feel amply entitled to take advantage of it for that purpose, for no case could well be pointed out, where it would be more correctly applicable than in this, where the coincidences assume a definitely successive numerical form. We are entitled to adopt even the language of La Place, and to say, "by subjecting the probability of these coincidences to computation, it is found that there is more than sixty thousand to one against the hypothesis, that they are the effects of chance."+ "It is thus, then, that the discoveries of geology, when more matured, instead of throwing suspicion on the truths * Jameson's Journal. + System du Monde, Book V. |