Wilkins justly observes, "that of the two, it is much more difficult to assign a number and bulk of necessary things to answer the capacity of the ark, than to find sufficient room for the several species of animals already known to have been there." The objection, therefore, which rests upon the incapability of the ark to furnish accommodation to its cargo, falls to the ground.

The last objection, which turns upon the inadequacy of one window to admit an adequate supply of light and air to so many animals, seems to us to be even more frivolous than either of the preceding. Though God gave the model of one window only, we have no right to assert that only one was framed. On the contrary, if we take the word, which is in our translation rendered "window," to signify something shining or previous to light, as we fairly may, all that God will be represented as doing amounts simply to this-that he instructed Noah how to apply this substance, be it what it might, to the purpose of resisting the ingress of water, at the same time that it admitted light, whilst the expression "in a cubit shalt thou finish it above," appears distinctly to refer to the degree of slope given to the roof. But after all, it is perhaps a waste of time to reason with those, who call in question, not the fundamental evidences on which the authority of Scripture rests, but the minute details which here and there occur in it. If the Bible be the word of God, these details, however apparently singular or unaccountable, must be credited. This appears to us to be a mode of reasoning not to be controverted; though at the same time we firmly believe, that in all other instances, as in those before us, the facts, at which sceptics pretend to start, will be found, when examined, to be in themselves both reasonable and credible.*

*The following extract from the Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. ii. Occas. Annot. in the Appendix, though scarcely admissible in the text, appears too much to the purpose to be entirely omitted. Speaking of the window which Noah opened to let his dove fly, the writer says, It is very observable that the words which we render window, in chap. vi. verse 16, and chap. viii. verse 6, of Genesis, are far from being the same. In the former place the word is zohar, (the nature of which we shall have a proper occasion to explain,) in the latter it is hhalon, which signifies, indeed, an oval hole or window in any building, but here is a window of a peculiar denomination. That it was customary among the Jews to have a room in the upper part of their houses, set apart for divine worship, in Hebrew called bethalijah, or simply alijah, in Greek huperoon, and in Latin oratorium; and that in this place of prayer there was

CHAPTER IV.

Descent from the ark.-Noah's death.-Objections noticed, and

answered.

A. M. 2257 to 2857.-B. C. 3154 to 2554.

It is not easy to imagine the delight which Noah and his family must have experienced, when on looking abroad from their dreary habitation, they beheld the earth once more delivered from the waters, and nature smiling as she had been accustomed to do, ere the terrible Deluge began. That they were eager to step forth and enjoy again the blessing of liberty we may well believe, yet an apprehension that the danger was not yet past, or a fear of offending God by too great precipitancy, seems to have detained them within the ark for some time after they saw that the Deluge had subsided. At last, however, God took pity upon the

always a hhalon, a hole or window, which pointed to the Kebla, or place whereunto they directed their worship, is evident from several passages of Scripture. Among the Jewish constitutions, in the code called beracoth, there is a certain canon grounded upon this custom, That no man shall pray but in a room where there is a hhalon, opening towards the Holy City;' and of Daniel it is positively related that when he knew that the decree for his destruction was signed, 'he went into the house, and his hhalon, his window, being opened in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, as he did aforetime:' for that this was not a common window, but one dedicated to religious worship, is plain from the people's discovering by its being open, that he was at prayers.

"Now, as the practice among the Jews of worshipping in upper rooms, with their faces towards a hole or window in the wall, was never introduced by any positive law, and yet universally prevailed, it is reasonable to believe, that at first it was derived from Noah, and that the windows in their oratories were made in imitation of his hhalon, or point of adoration in the ark."

We have quoted this, not, as the reader may well believe, for the purpose of discussing with its ingenious author his theory of the hhalon, but merely to show, that from the use of two distinct meanings, it is quite clear that Noah's ark neither was, nor was intended to be lighted by one window only.

prisoners, "and spake unto Noah, saying, go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." This was a gracious command, implying a no less gracious promise, and the fathers of the new world, glad at heart, lost no time in obeying it.

It has been stated in the previous pages, that Noah carried with him into the ark an equal number of animals of all species; that of some species seven males and as many females, of others only one male and one female were preserved. The former of these are in Holy Writ called clean, doubtless because from them God was in the habit of exacting those sacrifices which he had taught man to offer; or it may be that Moses, who wrote more especially for his countrymen, employs the terms clean and unclean, as they were used in the congregation of Israel. Be this as it may, the first use which Noah made of his deliverance was to build an altar to the God who had preserved him, and to offer upon it a sacrifice of thanksgiving of every clean beast and of every clean fowl. With this act of pious gratitude, Jehovah was well pleased, and he promised that, though the imagination of man's heart be evil from his youth up, he would not curse the ground any more for man's sake, neither would he again smite every thing living as he had done. While the earth remaineth, continued God, "seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Concerning the precise geographical position of the spot, where this important transaction occurred, many and widely different conjectures have been hazarded. It is neither worth while to examine the claims to reception, which these severally advance, nor to waste a longer space upon the subject at all, than may be necessary to state, that by far the most probable opinion is, that which pronounces Mount Ararat to be the same with Mount Musis in Armenia. Mount Musis, as well as the mountains of Cardu, overlook the plain of Mesopotamia, of which Shinar forms a part; and as the first colonists are said to have made excursions as far as Shinar, that fact of itself seems to imply, that Ararat could not be very distant. A strong tradition, moreover, prevails throughout the whole of the east, that Musis

is the Ararat of Moses; and as such traditions when wide ly extended, and of long continuance, usually rest upon truth, we shall not greatly err if we give credit to this.

As Noah was always a devout and pious man, we may readily believe, that he by no means considered his debt of gratitude wiped out by this his first great sacrifice. On the contrary, he was doubtless, regular and frequent in his devotions, which Almighty God received with so much favour, that he replied to them by blessings and assurances of his continued protection. As he had done to the first pair, so he did to Noah and his sons; "he blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth." He granted to them, likewise, the same dominion which Adam had possessed over the brute creation; and he added this privilege to all which man had hitherto enjoyed, that Noah and his descendants were authorized to kill for food any of the inferior animals, all being delivered absolutely into their hands. One restriction only was imposed upon man, namely, that he should display no unnecessary cruelty in the exercise of his power, by eating "the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood." Moreover, the life of man was rendered more than ever sacred, a strict account being demanded of it both from man and beast, insomuch that every man or beast which slew him that bore the image of God, should surely be put to death. This is a very remarkable expression, and it clearly implies, as we took occasion formerly to observe, that the image of God, in which man was created, could not consist in any quality, moral or physical, which was destroyed by the fall.

It was but natural that man, just escaped from so tremendous a judgment as the Deluge, should experience the live. liest apprehensions, as often as clouds began to collect, that a second deluge should ensue. To deliver him from that dread, God distinctly promised that he would never again destroy the earth by water; and he set up a sign, of all others, the best calculated to assure man that his promise would not be violated-" This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." We are not ignorant that to the above expression several objections have been raised. Are we to suppose, it has been asked, that a rainbow was never seen till after the Deluge, aware as we are, that the

phenomenon results from the immutable laws of the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in the drops of falling rain? If the case be so, then are we bound to believe, also, that there had been neither clouds nor rain previous to the flood; but as this is extremely improbable, how could the bow, with whose appearances Noah was already acquainted, be to him any assurance, that another deluge would not take place?

We will endeavour to answer these questions, not because we consider them as deserving of an answer, but because they have not unfrequently been put.

There is no reason to believe either that rain had never fallen, previous to the commencement of the flood, or that the bow had never made its appearance in the clouds till after Noah's sacrifice. On the contrary, the language of Moses, in the early part of his history, seems to imply, that though during the six days' cosmogony no rain fell, it fell soon afterwards, and if the constitution of nature was from the first, what it continues to be now, it could not have fallen without producing the phenomenon which we call a rainbow. These facts, for such we take them to be, so far from injuriously affecting the credibility of Scripture, only tend to place its reasonableness in a point of view more conspicuous than ever.

It seems to be a very vulgar prejudice to believe, that the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth were men ignorant of all sciences, natural as well as moral. This we have endeavoured to prove, at length, elsewhere; and if our reasoning be admitted as sound, the difficulty stated here falls to pieces of its own accord. If Noah was well acquainted with the particular law of nature, to which the appearance of the rainbow is owing, so far from the phenomenon itself bringing with it no assurance of safety, it is not easy to im agine a more appropriate token than that which God esta. blished between himself and the earth. Noah could not be ignorant that the phenomenon of the rainbow is totally incompatible with such rain as that which contributed to the Deluge, and hence Noah could not but feel, as often as the bow appeared, that no second deluge was at hand. The truth, indeed, is, that the sole difficulty here hinges upon the use of the phrase, "I do set my bow in the cloud," a form of speech which seems to imply that the bow had never appeared in the cloud before; but the words in the original might have been with equal and even greater propriety ren