or many of the elements, of the Negro, Japhet of the European, and Shem of the Asiatic. married too into different tribes, and

They may have

their wives have

It is, then, alto

been as diversified as themselves. gether gratuitous to assert, that the races which now exist must be traced down from one man Noah, as from a new starting point. This at once carries back our range of time 1,700 years, to the days of Adam, for the operation of the changing causes; and the objection is entirely removed.

With these various examples before us, I think we may boldly say, that to assert that Scripture and Science are opposed to each other is UNPHILOSOPHICAL.. With such experience as the past has heaped up for our instruction and warning, is it not in the highest degree contrary to the spirit of true philosophy to sound the alarm at every apparent contradiction between the works and word of God? Have not the scientific, in the steady and sure advance of their admired pursuit, had times without number to abandon theories which once appeared so plausible and comprehensive, and to yield to the stern requirements of fact and truth? Have anomalies and contrarieties staggered them, and not rather quickened their search for clearer light and a nearer acquaintance with hidden connexions? And why should not the same waiting and trusting spirit guide us, when the Holy Scriptures are involved; coming too, as they do, with such high sanctions, and carrying the trophies of victory from so many previous conflicts?

With the history of past conflicts and past triumphs before us, whatever startling difficulties may yet arise, we shall do well to pause and wait for further light ere we risk our credit in venturing to assert, or even to suspect, that they are enemies whom we have found to be friends under so many trying circumstances. Let our inductions be sober and well-weighed, and our reverence for the Sacred Volume, as God has given it to us, unshaken; and no discoveries can move our confidence that the Scriptures, as the Inspired Word of God, and Science, as the means of setting forth the glory of His works, will always be found to speak the same thing in matters which they touch upon in common.

CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER, PLENARY INSPIRATION, AND SURPASSING IMPORTANCE, OF THE FIRST ELEVEN CHAPTERS OF GENESIS.

In the previous Chapter the argument has been rather of the negative description. The high improbability of Scripture and Science contradicting each other has been established; and that, not from a consideration of the character of Scripture itself, but from the experience of the past; which shows so many instances of imaginary discrepancies becoming in the end witnesses on the other side, and illustrating with such force the harmony of the word and works of God, that any man who ventures to set aside this experience, and to abandon the high ground which it commands, justly forfeits the title of philosopher.

In the present Chapter I propose to make some remarks on the character and contents of the earlier portion of the Sacred Volume, selecting for this purpose the first eleven chapters of Genesis, as it is here that Scripture and Science have been supposed more particularly to come into collision. I hope thus to establish the historical character and

plenary inspiration of these chapters upon the authority of our Lord and His Apostles, and to point out in various eminent particulars their surpassing importance. An argument of a positive nature, and confirmatory of that of the former chapter, will thus flow from the character of Scripture itself, to show how impossible it is that a record, of such an original and so pre-eminently important, can in any way contravene the teachings of the phenomena and laws of the material world which proceeds from the same Almighty Author.

§ 1.-The Historical Character and Plenary Inspiration of the First Eleven Chapters of Genesis.

By the Inspiration of Holy Scripture I understand, that the Scriptures were written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who communicated to Definition of the writers facts before unknown, directed Inspiration. them in the selection of other facts already known, and preserved them from error of every kind in the records they made. That the portion of Scripture now under consideration is a genuine historical document and comes under this definition of Inspiration, I hope now to show by an appeal to the use made of it by our Lord and His Apostles, to the matters which it contains, and to the early place it occupies in the Sacred Volume.

The following series of verses chosen from the first

Eleven Chapters of Genesis, with corresponding texts from the New Testament placed after them, shows how repeatedly this portion of Scripture is either quoted or referred to by our Lord and His Apostles.