Classical Theology.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JANUARY 3 ^ 6 ® RAND == = = = = H ' -ODQE

X . —TESTA AND DECEMBER . ^ ON ^ Natural philosophy , or the analysis of terrestrial things , which embraces cosmography , or the visible , and mineralogy , or the hidden construction of the world , now , as a science , better known under the name of geologya word compounded of r E terra

, ; , and Aoywj j logos , has given rise to vast controversies and wide and wild speculations on the origin of the earth , and mankind . "We read in Job's reasonings on the mi ght , majesty , and wisdom of tho Almighty , as in the ninth chapter of his bookfor examplethat " Tie is wise in heart

, , , and mighty in strength . . -who hath hardened himself against Him and hath prospered ? Which removeth the mountains , and thej r how not : which overtnrneth them in His anger . Which shaketh the earth out of her place , and the pillars thereof tremble . Which commandeth the sunand it resist not ; and sealeth

, up the stars . Which alone spreadeth out the heavens , and treadeth upon the waves of the sea . Which maketh Arcturus , Orion , and Pleiades , and the chambers of the South . Which doeth great things past finding out : yea , and wonders without number . Lo , He goeth by me , and I see Him not ; He passeth

on also , but I perceive Him not . Behold , He taketh away , who can hinder liim ? Who will say unto Him , what doeth thou ? If God will not withdraw His anger , the proud helpers do stoop under Him . How much less shall I answer Him , and choose out my words to reason with Him ? " And also , in God ' s demandment of Job , chap , xxxviii ., it is written : —

' Who is this that darkeneth council by words without knowledge ? Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? Declare , if thou hast understanding . Who hath laid the measure thereof , if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner stone thereof ; when

the morning stars sang together , and all the sons of God shouted for joy ? Or who shut up the sea with doors , when it brake forth , as if it had issues out of the womb ? When I made the cloud the garment thereof , and thick darkness a swaddling band for it , and brake up my decreed placeand set bars on doorsand said

, , hither shalt thou come , but no farther : and there shalt thy proud waves be stayed ? Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days , and caused the dayspring to know her place ; that it might talce hold of the ends of the earth , that we wicked mi ght be shaken out of it ? It is turned as day to the seal ;

and they stand as a garment . Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth ? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee ? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death ? Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiadesor loose the bands of Orion ?

, Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season , or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ?" Consequently , therefrom , we may conclude in fact , that if the Pleiades , an appellation derived from the Greek , were named as stars after the daughters of Atlas , by his wife Pleione , the name of those stars

Signify ing sailing , ( for when they arise they are thoughi tTtTportend good weather to sailors ) or otherwise de'Sped from their number , or from their mother ' s name , "' it is accounted the same . Job must have lived aftei ' the time of Cadmus and Perseus , the son of Jupiter as , according to mythology and ancient history , was Atlas the King of Mauritaniain Africa . Also we

, learn in truth that God declared himself to be the creator , architect , and disposer of the heavens ana the earth , from that time " the morning stars sang together , and the sons of God shouted for joy . " Eor " He made the stars also . The lightnings he made . " that they may go" and say unto Him " here we are . "

, As He commands it "the waters are hid as with a a stone , and the face of the deep is frozen . " This divine cosmogony is now termed the Mosaieal Geology in contradistinction to the mineral , Plutonian , and Neptunian geologies , which ascribe the rise oi the world " to first formations , " as out of a " globe

of fire , " or from a " spheroidical chaotic ocean . " Doubtless , to some , these are very antiquated and classical notions ; also , we admit , respecting some skilful astronomers that some of the stars may be igniferous and aquarious bodies , but , then , the ancients ascribed to the god of the sea and the god of the

subterraneous regions , a parentage descended from the " father of the light , " by name more ancient than Jupiter . It also follows that , if Mercury was the son of Maia , the daughter of Atlas , Orion must have lived in the time of Hercules and Orpheus , who were companions in the Argonautic expedition , B . C . 1256 . Yet still , before they acquired their astronomical names

in any language , the stars were of the creation , howsoever relative they might have beer ., and weieappertaining to the sons of God . Mineralogy , now called geognosy , being , classically speaking , the procreator of geology , it concerns Vesta to inquire , what may be meant by " first formations , " whether they be naturalcog-naturalnon-naturalor

, , , whether they are creations , and if so why therefore contradictions ? Vesta claiming to be , as the wife or Coelum , or the creation of God , and as the mother of Saturn , or the beginning of time , in fossil or bone , in . earth or flesh the Alma Mater , (* Minis ' ) and Altrix , of all terrene bodies organised in her , as made , and

as not made , begotten of her . Or otherwise , as shown by the words of Bacon and Newton , the existence , arrangement , size , figure , and properties of all mundane formations can only be attributed to the ted to the immediate act of God himself . A plain question is demanded of Job . " Hast the rain a father ? or who hath begotten the

drops of dew ? " And another not less plain .- " Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds , that abundance of waters may cover thee ? " To these an absolute answer may be found in the words of Elijah : — "As the Lord God of Israel liveth , before whom I stood , there shall not be dew nor rain these three

years , but according to my word . " That is , by prayer , as it came to pass : — " Behold there ariseth a little cloud , out of the sea , like a man ' s hand , and he said . . . and there was a great rain . " Chronological computation has fixed the Mosaic date by the creation at about T . 01 . 3228 , or B . C . ' 4004 . But , with the exception of the records of