Here it is distinctly said that the earth should be destroyed; but how was the prediction fulfilled? Certainly not by the destruction of the earth; that still remains, and is full of fertility and beauty. It may be replied that the statement only means the overflowing of the earth with water; well, but that abandons the literal sense, and so far it goes with us in showing that such forms of expression are not to be understood with critical exactness. But did the water really overflow the earth, and so effect the destruction which is supposed? Every one who knows anything of the modern science, learning, and literature expended upon this question is aware, not only of the difficulties of the narrative, but of the impossibility of such an occurrence at the time and in the way described; and, therefore, sees that the material destruction supposed to have been effected by such an overflow was not accomplished. The subject referred to in those passages is not a mundane deluge, but a spiritual flood, such as that of which David spoke when he said, "I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. . . . Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up."[1] The earth, then, which the Lord saw to be corrupt and filled with violence, was the Church as it then existed; this indeed came to its end, and this was the circumstance referred to in the words "I will destroy the earth."
The Apostle Peter has some remarkable statements upon this subject. He says, "By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and per-
