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CHAPTER III. Thus, then, from the terms of the divine menace, and from the concurring, testimony of the ancient Jewish church, we are to conclude by critical induction, antecedently to all minute investigation of monuments or phenomena ; that it was the deter mination of Almighty God to destroy, not only man and every living creature, but likewise, the earth itself : that earth, upon which He had pro nounced His curse. To give effect to this tre mendous design of Ilis counsels, the order of things which He had established was to undergo a temporary suspension and alteration; and, His Almighty agency was to resume an immediate operation, in the works of His terrestrial creation. By a new exercise of His incomprehensible power, and by a new direction of the instruments and agencies which He had provided, He caused the irruption of violent inundations, sufficient to commence the work of destruction, and, at the same time, to raise and float the Ark from the station on which it had been constructed ; the direction of which fabric, was thenceforth taken under the immediate care of His own divine provi dence. Vast causes were put in action, and vast effects produced, which are expressed generally in the record, by “ the fountains of the great deep being
