tian divines have been labouring with all their might to accomplish. It is surely full time for them to abandon their mad project.

"Simply holding with Cuvier, Parkinson, and Silliman, that each of the six days were lengthened periods." Now it so happens, that not one of the individuals here named assign any reason for their erroneous interpretations of the Record of creation. Cuvier's view has already been disposed of. "Professor Silliman," says Dr Buckland, "is disposed to consider the six days of creation as periods of indefinite length, and that the word 'day' is not necessarily limited to twentyfour hours." (Bridgewater Treat. i. 18.) Though "day" be not limited in the Scriptures to the one import of twenty-four hours, neither in the Scriptures nor out of the Scriptures is it ever extended to denote thousands of years. Universal practice is hostile to such usage, and geologists cannot prove a single instance of its being so applied. "Circumstances will be observed," says Parkinson," apparently contradictory to the Mosaic account, but which, it is presumed, serve to establish it as the revealed history of creation. The discordance appears to be removed by the assumption of indefinite periods for the days of creation: an interpretation adopted by many learned divines and pious men, and which derives confirmation from innumerable circumstances agreeing with the important fact of certain fossils being found to be peculiar to certain strata ; and especially from the remains of widely differing animals being in such situations as evince their creation to have taken place at very distant periods." (Parkinson's Foss. Remains-Pref.) Mr Miller refers to Parkinson as one of his authorities for viewing the six days of creation as long periods, and Parkinson refers to "learned divines and other pious men." It is to be regretted that Parkinson did not state particularly what he thought the apparent discrepancy to consist

in; but, from what he says above about fossils, it appears to have been this: Geology has made known to us, that the solid crust of the globe is of vast thickness; that this crust is composed of stone, and is divided into a great number of layers or strata; that in these layers a vast number and variety of fossil plants and animals have been found; that these plants and animals seem to have occupied the globe at periods far remote from one another-circumstances which, taken together, prove to demonstation the great age of the earth. Now, this is what no one will dispute; as yet there is no discrepancy; whence, then, arises the discrepancy? It owes its origin to a most illogical inference, which is this: The earth had existed for countless ages before the creative week; Moses must, therefore, have described its age in his Record of creation; if so, the six days of that Record must be geological periods of great length. Parkinson admits, that it is an "assumption" to call the days of the Record long periods, but he has recourse to it with the view of doing away with the apparent discordancy between the Mosaic Record and the facts of geology. Now, it is a fact, alike remarkable and undeniable, that the very thing which Parkinson and others assume, to remove the apparent discrepancy, is the very thing which occasions it. How very weak and unphilosophical in such men to conclude, that, because the researches of geology have proved our globe to be of vast antiquity, Moses must of necessity describe its age. A more illogical piece of reasoning-a more absurd non-sequitur-never was penned.

If the first chapter of Genesis does not contain a narrative of the preparation of the world to be the abode of mankind, we must ever remain ignorant of that interesting event. And, what a strange view does it present of the opening chapter of the Bible to suppose, that, though the history of creation there record

ed was written expressly for mankind, it should not contain a single statement of what was done to the world for our accommodation and well-being; nor a full account of the changes made upon it, at the commencement of any one of the epochs in its past history; that we should be told how, in one of those epochs, fogs, which had gathered to a great extent on a sea covering a region which had at a previous time been dry land, were removed by a miraculous wind; and light which had somehow got obscured was reproduced, and made good day light, but nothing done to remove the waters which had overwhelmed the dry landhow, in the next epoch, an atmosphere was created for a world which contained neither plants nor animals of any sort, and the extensive region, which lay buried under water, not yet made fit to be the habitation of either plants or animals-how, in another period, the land, which had so long been covered by a flood, was at length relieved of the weight of water which had so long oppressed it, and immediately plenished with grass, fitted to be food for birds, cattle, beasts, and creeping things-also with seed-bearing herbs, and fruit-bearing trees, both admirably adapted to become food to a higher and nobler race of beings, but was allowed to remain for many ages after without living and sentient creatures, to whom these various products of the earth might have proved useful-how, in the succeeding epoch, some alteration was made on the sun and moon, but what it was, or for what purpose done, we are not told, and feel no interest in endeavouring to make the discovery, seeing it is an event so far removed from us, and so unconnected with our time-how, in the following or fifth period, certain fish were created, in particular great whales; also certain birds that could soar aloft in heaven; but, with the exception of the whales, we know neither what fish these were, nor what these birds were, and

are left in profound ignorance of the purposes they were meant to serve-how, in the sixth period, cattle, and beasts, and creeping things, are brought into existence for the first time; but these are not the cattle, the beasts, or the creeping things of our era; how man is created just before the close of the sixth or human period.

Now, how can we, on reading such an account of creation, be but puzzled, and greatly at a loss to know, in what epoch of the world we are living-some confounding it with the fifth or last of the great geological periods-some calling it the sixth period-others blending it with the seventh. But, whatever may be the period in which we live, on examining the world in which our lot has been cast, we find-grass, seedbearing herbs, fruit-bearing trees; cattle, beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, &c., but are completely nonplussed in our attempts to discover how they came there; for, according to the a posteriori expositors of the Record of creation, not one of the plants and animals named in that narrative belong to the human period: the plants of the third day are the plants of the paleozoic age-the fish and birds of the fifth day belong to the secondary age, and the land animals of the sixth day were made for the tertiary age. Well : that we are so amply provided with the good things of this life claims our warmest gratitude and acknowledgments. At the same time, however, we must be allowed to say, that if the views of the a posteriori men be right, the Mosaic Record of creation—such as they interpret it is wholly unworthy of God, and only fitted to throw ridicule on inspiration. As we proceed with our exposition, every aspect in which we present the views of these men, shows, convincingly, how repugnant they are to common sense, to philology, to reason, and to the Word of God.

THE CREATION OF MAN.

Ver. 26. "And God said: Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Ver. 27. "And God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

"Let us make" seems to imply a plurality of persons-it is employed in the Record of creation only in reference to the creation of man; and, probably, because man, as regards his spiritual nature, was to be formed in the image common to all the three persons of the Trinity.

in

"In our own image, after our likeness"his own image," "in the image of God;" the repetition of the same thought with a slight change in the mode of expressing it, is a Hebraism, which runs through the whole of the Old Testament.

The

"The beast of the earth" (ver. 24 and 25) is not expressed by a separate name in ver. 26 and 27: it may be implied either in "the cattle"-a part being put for a whole; or in "over all the earth." latter, however, is the more probable supposition, seeing the beasts were destined to roam over all the earth;" and mankind, as they multiplied, were to occupy its habitable parts, and, wherever they went, were to maintain dominion or lordship over all the inferior tribes.

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It was a high privilege, and great honour, for man to be formed in the likeness of his Maker. On none but himself, of all the inhabitants of this world, was