F40 RUIN AND RECOVERY, &C. caverns of the earth with tremendous bellowings, which have filled its inhabitants with horror and astonishment, which have deformed its blooming surface, and have made wide devasta- tions ? What storms and thundershave spread abroad fatal mis- chiefs? Do not these seem to he evident tokens of the actual displeasure of a God against the inhabitants of this globe? Can we ever suppose that an infinitely good and gracious Being would Jlave orignally so formed and governed the inanimate parts of this lower world, as to produce such deadly concussions,and such desolating appearances, if he had not designed it to be the habi- tation of such creatures, as he foresaw would become rebels against their Creator, and deserve these strokes of his indig- nation ? The remarks which the late ingenious Doctor Woodward has made in his " Essay toward aNatural Historyof the Earth," may sufficiently convince any reasonable and attentive reader, that this globe of ours hath suffered such dreadful and desolating convulsions as we speak of, whieh must have been attended with horrible ruin, calamity and destruction to the men who were then inhabitants of it. He bath found the several strata or layers of the upper crust of the earth, whether marl, marble, clay, chalk, or sand, &c. to have been broken to pieces and dissolved, in America as well as Europe, Asia and Africa ; and that huge trees and the bones of animals, together with infinite shells of sea -fishes and other productions of the sea, have been found inclosed in these strata, or beds of marl, clay, chalk, &c. and that at vast depths of earth, as well as at long distances from the sea: And whosoever shall peruse that author will see plainly, that the upper part of this globe has been ruined almost into a chaos, since it was made ; and he imputes it with great reason and justice to the general destruction of the world, and the wicked race of men who peopled it, by that flood, of which Moses the ancient Jewish -writer gives usso particular an account. And what further dreadfulconvulsions of nature, and what un- known desolations shall break out hereafter, to punish or to de- stroy the inhabitants of this globe, lies beyond the reach of our reason to foretell. Known unto God are all our hearts and our works, and all his own ways from the beginning, and those ways of his are managed and conducted towards us, as becomes awise and righ- teous governor ; sometimes for our trial and warning, and some- times for our correction and punishment. Can we ever suppose that the blessed God, who loves all the innocent creatures that he, has made`, would place them in such a dangerous habi- tation, where many of them must necessarily be exposed to so many horrible accidents and mortal devastations, even while they continuedin their own innocence and in his favour. If We
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