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hastily given , he would impute ideas to Moses which , from his writings , do not appear to have entered his mind , and which no part of his after-language will give support to 9 without straining it from its plain and obvious meaning :.
Mr . Belsham will , doubtless , rest his proposition chiefly on the 3 rd verse— " Let there be light , and there was light / ' compared with the 14 th verse . But I need not tell Mr . Belsham that the word nitt , in this place , does not necessarily mean light ; that the same word was applied to the city of Ur or rather Aur , of the Chaldees , because there they worshiped the Deity under the emblem of fire ; that the Prophet Isaiah , xxvii . 11 ,
xxxi . 9 , and in other places , uses it for / ire , and that here it might be , and , to do Moses philosophical justice , ought to be , so rendered - , and by so rendering it , the systems of the Neptunists and Vulcanists of Geology would gain a grand step from sacred history towards the true knowledge of
the structure of this globe , by shewing , from the writings of Moses , that the present organic structure of this earth was the produce of the united action of fire and water . But , says Mr . Belsham , when Moses * ' adds , that God made a firmament in the midst of the waters , and thus divided the waters under the
firmament from the waters which were above the firmament , it is plain enough to a reader who has no hypothesis to support , that , in the author's idea , the firmament possesses solidity sufficient to sustain the weight of half
the waters / ' And " this firmament '' here spoken of , Mr . B . says , whether the word be used in Hebrew , Greek ,
Latin or English , signifies " the celestial hemisphere . " And on this , I think , Mr . B . seems chiefly to rest his oivn hypothesis . As each of the other three languages are descending generations from the parent Hebrew in which Moses wrote , the examination of this language alone will be sufficient , I should think , to determine this
subject . Moses introduces the subject he was writing upon by stating what it was—the earth and its atmosphere . He then proceeds to inform his readers of the state in which the earth was , and then of the means by which
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God first reduced it by volcanic fire out of confusion into order . He then very properly proceeds to shew how the stagnated atmosphere was set in motion , and the effect which it pro . duced . And here , I think , lies Mr Belsham ' s next great error .
Moses does expressly say , that the earth was not only a chaos on its surface , but that it was also hollow and that in the midst of this chaos , he says , " Let there be a firmament . " Mr . B . says , that in all these
languages its meaning is the celestial hemisphere . Taylor , in his Concordance , observes on this word yp ^ that it is applied to beating upon | stamping upon , spreading dirt abroad !
" To beat a mass of metal into a broad piece with a hammer ; hence it is applied to God's spreading out or extending far and wide the surface of the earth when he created it . " The
word used by Moses , p » pi , is not a substantive , and , therefore , is not a thing but a cause , an expansion ; a cause which , acting upon the airs , will produce the effect intended , to set the dark , stagnated , damp vapours in motion , and , pressing from the midst of the waters to the internal shell of the
earth , compress and harden it , and separate the internal waters from those which were external . I know that Mr . Belsham , if he is not convinced by me , will call this cabalistic , and a mystery of a Hehrew root . As no argument is contained in
outlandish names , they will carry no more weight with me , nor indeed so much , as Calvinistic , Methodistic , &c . I shall require something more ; I shall require to know why Moses leaves his first subject to introduce one quite distinct from it ? Why lie ceases to treat on the earth and its
atmosphere , to introduce the sun , moon and stars , and not only the atmospheres in which they revolve , but the vast immensity of what Mr . Belsham calls " celestial hemisphere" ? Mr . Belsham , indeed , intends further to support his proposition l > y
Moses ' s account of the deluge , and it is but fair he should , if it will aid his assertion , sayingv ' * that in the idea of Moses , the firmament-possessed solidity sufficient to sustain the weight of half the waters : which interpretation is confirmed by the account which the same writer gives of the immense
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232 Jk [ r . Teuton on the Mosaic History of the Creation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/40/
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