perfectly indefinite in respect to date, and was doubtless designed so to be. The revelation made to Moses seems not to have shown how long the heaven or even the earth had been in existence. It is plainly enough taught that the origin of both is to be ascribed to God, they having been created by Him in the beginning; but as to the exact time when the beginning was, we are not informed.

God created. It is worthy of note here that Moses says not a word respecting what the heaven and the earth were created out of. Was, or was not, the world made of nothing? Is, or is not, matter eternal? Decide these questions as you may, the credibility of Moses's account will not be impeached thereby.

I

The heaven and the earth. The heaven is literally the space occupied by the heavenly bodies; but it is obvi ous that Moses's meaning here is not that God then created space; for he couples the heaven with the earth as though the two were in some respects specifically analogous to each other. Besides, it is at least questionable whether mere space is really an object of creation, its non-existence being not so easily conceived. deem that "the heaven," as here used, is, by a metonymy, put for the orbs contained in the heaven-a figure of speech to be met with in all writings. These are described, in verse 16, to have been the sun, moon, and stars; and the creation of these, as well as of the earth, I suppose to be affirmed in Gen. i. 1. But to me, Moses does not affirm that the universe of worlds was created, all of them, at the particular time the earth was; his affirmation, as I understand it, amounts merely to this, that the universe of worlds had its origin in being created by God.

Until within a few years, both the friends and the enemies of the Bible have generally agreed that, according to Moses's account of the creation, the heavenly bodies were produced on the fourth day; hence that, according to the Scriptures, there were natural day and night upon the earth before sun, moon, and stars were created. I however affirm, that no one has really learned from the book of Genesis that these bodies were not in existence before the fourth day. What is actually taught, is, that they were not in the firmament till then. Thus we read, in verse 14 of this chapter, "And God said, Let there be

lights in the firmament of the heaven;" which firmar at the first, as we learn from verses 6 and 7, had w under it, and waters above it, that is to say, the ocean the clouds. I know no good reason for supposing Moses thought the sun was not then in the heaven; it could not then have been in "the firmament of heaven," unless it was actually below the clouds; for firmament, or visible expanse over head, extended upw only to the clouds. Now suppose the clouds to have b removed from the atmosphere, would not the appar concave above have so extended itself as to take in heavenly bodies? And would they not then be in firmament?

The way it has happened that readers of the Bi have so very generally supposed that according to it sun, moon, and stars, were created on the fourth day doubtless thus: Moses, in the commencement of account, uses "the heaven" for the orbs contained in t heaven, and delays specifying what the heaven containe until he comes to speak of its contents as being in t firmament, that is, in sight. Our translators then ma him say, "And God made two great lights," &c.; ar his thus saying, in that place, has been taken for sayin that He made them at that time. But may not this rendered "Now God had made," &c.

(2.) And the earth was without form and void. Tha is to say, unformed, a shapeless mass, and empty or un furnished, visibly destitute of inhabitants.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep,-or abyss that is, upon the place or surface of the then unshapely and unfurnished earth. It is not probable that at this period the atmosphere was destitute of the property of transparency; but that it was so loaded with vapors that the light of the sun had never penetrated to the surface of the more solid parts of the earth; which surface, as we learn from what follows, was water, perhaps in a heated state. The remark that darkness was upon the face of the deep, seems an intimation that somewhere else was light. If he had intended to be understood that darkness, at that time, shrouded the entire universe, would he have said that it rested upon a particular part thereof? Observe also, he is describing the condition, not of the heaven but of the earth.

And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. By the face of the waters, here, is meant the same as is meant in the preceding sentence by the face of the deep; unless, which is perhaps probable, the formation of water took place subsequently to the prevalence of that state of things expressed by "the deep." In either case both expressions seem to have reference solely to the condition of the earth. What is said about the moving of God's spirit, belongs not to the description of that state of things which then prevailed, but should be read in connection with what follows:

(3.) And God said, Let there be light. That is, on the earth's surface.

And there was light. The quantity of opaque substances in the atmosphere became so much diminished that the light of the sun penetrating the remainder, now reached the surface of the earth for the first time.

(4.) And God divided the light from the darkness. The sun's light now reaching the earth's surface on the side next the sun, the rotation of the earth upon its axis, which had probably been going on from the beginning, now caused its surface to be alternately enlightened and darkened, as at present.

(5.) And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. That is, when the surface of the earth was enlightened, it was day; when it was darkened it was night. This succession of day and night is strong presumptive evidence that the sun was then in existence, and was moreover a luminous body; for if we suppose that at the first the earth was illuminated by some accumulation of light within our atmosphere, we must also suppose, what is quite improbable, that the light appeared and disappeared in so regular a manner, forming so exact representations of day and night, that even the Creator himself bestowed upon such representations the names designed for the things represented.

And the evening and the morning were the first day. The literal rendering of this, as given in the margin, is, "And the evening was, and the morning was, &c." Perhaps the sense of the passage really is, that the evening commenced, and the morning continued, the first day; and so of the others. But whatever may be thought of this,

there would seem to be no necessity of supposing t days of creation to be periods of just twenty-four each. The term day, in common speech, often den considerable space of time. Who has not hear scripture quoted, "Behold now is the day of salvati -a day which is supposed to include the past, p and future, of the entire Christian dispensation, so o

By the first day I understand that period of time, l or shorter, embraced in Moses's first view of the earth its changes; and so of the second, the third, and other days respectively. To my mind the languag Moses himself is quite sufficient to decide whethe seven days he mentions are just equal to an ordinary v In chap. ii. 4, 5, we read, "These are the generation the heavens and of the earth when they were create the day that the Lord God made the earth and the hea and every plant of the field before it was in the e and every herb of the field before it grew." Wha said in the first chapter to have taken three days to acc plish, if not also some unreckoned time between the day and the beginning, is, in this place, spoken o having been all accomplished in one day. Now if in first chapter, Moses meant, and expected to be underst that so much as was done up to the period when veg tion was produced was accomplished in neither more less time than three days of twenty-four hours eac Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday-it seems quite incre ble that in the very first sentence after finishing account of what transpired in the whole seven days, e ing on Saturday at sunset, he should speak of the f three days' works as only one. But understand, by a d here, a portion of time indeterminate as to its leng and the language of Moses is perfectly consistent ; many indefinite periods, taken together, may be prope mentioned as one such, the whole being still an indefin period.

(6.) And God said, Let there be a firmament, or expansion," as we read in the margin. A region clear air. In the midst of the waters. At this period would seem that the vapor in the atmosphere touched th surface of the water all over the earth.- -And let it divi the waters from the waters. The ocean from the clouds.

(7.) And God made the firmament, &c. Caused the vapors to ascend from the surface of the water, so as to leave an expanse of clear air surrounding the earth between the ocean and the clouds.

(8.). And God called the firmament heaven. Perhaps for the reason that although the firmament at that period extended upward but a little distance, being overhung by the under surface of the clouds, it was destined by the subsequent removal of those clouds to extend itself even beyond the atmosphere, and far into the regions occupied by the heavenly bodies.

(9.) And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. Let a considerable portion of the earth's surface beneath the universal ocean be somewhat depressed; thus causing the waters surrounding the depression to run into it, leaving the other parts bare of water.-And it was so. A chasm having been formed beneath the earth's crust, probably by the process of cooling and shrinking, a great part of the crust broke suddenly down, by its own weight and that of the superincumbent waters. The parts nearest the depression remained at nearly their former elevation; but in the more distant parts, the reaction of the fluid mass beneath raised up the crust into ridges, as on the top of gigantic waves. Some of these ridges becoming fixed, formed the mountain chains; and thus was the earth divided into land and water. It is proper to observe here, that the sinking of the earth's surface in some parts, and its rising in others, would necessarily disturb the equilibrium of the atmosphere, and produce unwonted commotion in the clouds. And the mere making of the earth into a terraqueous body would obviously occasion inequalities of temperature; and these would give rise to aerial currents, or winds; and from all these it would certainly follow that the vapors in the atmosphere, denominated by Moses "the waters above the firmament," would at length be precipitated from the atmosphere, in the form of rain. It is not likely, however, that rain in any great quantities was produced immediately, especially over the dry land." Volcanic fires must have issued through the broken strata in innumerable places, building up thousands of mountain peaks, and heating the atmosphere