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fall of rain which produced the deluge . Gen . vii . 11 , 12 : " The windows /' or , as it is in the margin , the flood-gates * ' of heaven were opened , and the rain fell upon the earth forty days and f ^ rtv Jlip-htS . "
I will not say , that , solely owing , to having a system to support , for I do not believe that Mr . Belsham is any ways interested in supporting a system , but that having made up his mind to a system , Mr . B . certainly does take the varied ( expression of the causes of Moses , as though they were but one cause , and that one was the
collection of water which rested on the " celestial hemisphere . " But the language of Moses states not one single cause , but two distinct causes . 1 . " The fountains of the great deep were broken up /* 2 . " The windows of heaven were opened . " And , 3 . An effect which followed those causes
—" And the ram was upon the earth forty days and forty nights . " The first word , m . P # D , invariably signifies fountains , springs , or wells , ( Ps . lxxxvii . 7 , Isa . xli . 18 , 2 Chron . xxxii . 4 , Prov . v . 16 , &c . &c ., ) and not
floodgates . The next important word in this consideration is mnn , here rendered deep , — " the fountains of the great deep were broken up . " If Mr . B . is as candid as I suppose him to be , he must confess that this great deep can have nothing to do with the celestial hemisphere . In Gen . xiix . 25 , this word evidently must mean the vast
abyss beneath the surface of the earth , and it becomes a candid opponent to . shew why , as used by the same author , it should not so signify here ; and if it so does , it destroys the whole evidence on which Mr . B . ' s hypothesis rests .
Ihe next cause of the deluge , Mos M es says , was , D'Dtim naiHI , And the windows of heaven were opened . " The word nmtt here used , appears to be the word from which the Arab nations derive their title from
their habit of plunder , and lying , like leasts of prey , in holes and dens , read y to dart upon the unwary paaaengcrs . The locust , from the same <' uuse , is called by the same name . iur
-m me same reason , holes , dens , yaves , and such places as have vast internal recesses communicating with Uie boWels of lhe earth > are SQ calied * tH > other word , C 3 > Dtt > , in this place vol . xvn . > n
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and in Gen . i . 1 . and in a vast maay other places , signifies the airs or heavens , and the place should be rendered , the caverns of the airs were opened * i . e . these caverns being unstopped , and the atmosphere forced in , the waters within the earth were driven
out through the spring's or fountains of the vast internal q , byss , and caused the deluge . And thus owing to this additional quantity o ¥ water upon the earth , there was an increase of vapour , which descended for forty days and nights in incessant rain . But in all this account we do not find any thing about a firmament , or
of the firmament being a solid arch , capable of containing a sufficiency of waters to drown the globe . This is not the hypothesis of Moses : it may be the supposition of a man who has only read the Bible in the English language , but it is to me surprising that it should be the faith of a Hebrew
scholar and a Christian . Mr . Belsham , also , seems to consider the philosophy of Moses to determine the sun and moon to be fixed , as lamps , in the solid
firmament , and that Moses regarded the stars as ornamental spangles in the firmament . It is evident , from this conception of Mr . Bealshm ' s , that he considers Moses as supposing that the sun , moon and stars were the
creative work of the fourth day . But I would here again observe , that Moses was not writing" upon the creation of the whole system , of which the sun
is the centre , nor was he writing on the formation of any thing out of nothing . But he was writing upon the reducing the chaotic mass of earth and water into this our beautiful globe , with its surrounding atmosphere . To have here introduced the creation of
the sun , moon and stars , would have been foreign to his subject . No where in the whole of the Scriptures is the word miKD , here used by Moses , put for the body of the sun . Whenever this is spoken ot \ it is under the name D ^ n , the burner j and where its effects are mentioned , it is under the
name ttfDttf , solar light . Mr . Belsham should , therefore , have shewn why Moses should here have used this word , to have supported his idea of the opinion of Moses on this subject . If Mr , B . will again examine the 14 th *
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Mr . Teuton on the History of the Mosaic Crtatibh . 233
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 233, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/41/
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