yet once more in an act of creation and with the human, heaven-aspiring dynasty, the moral government of God, in its connexion with at least the world which we inhabit, 'took beginning:' and then creation ceased!" The geological theory, based, as the reader will perceive, upon the doctrine of inference, assumes that between, the original creation of all things and the processes of the six days that followed, there may have intervened "thousands or millions of years and that during that period, "entire species of plants and animals lived, sickened, and died." Dr. Harries, has actually published a work on the Pre-Adamite Earth as might be expected, it is one of the most hypothetical books of the age. "With imagin'd sovereignty Lord of his new hypothesis he reigns: We shall now assign our reasons, for refusing to adopt the principle of interpretation offered by the above writers. 1st. They profess to determine the antiquity of the earth and the catastrophies or changes which have marked its history! But have these gentlemen ascertained, or are they agreed about the agents, or L the various physical energies, which have brought the earth to its present state, and with what degree of efficiency they have severally contributed their respective powers? Has it been determined whether these agents act uniformly or with intermission, or according to what laws they relax or increase their intensity, during any given period of time? Now, unless this is first known, how can any thing like certain or even probable truth be elicited? Who can presume to define the nature or the effects of the chymical action that has been going on for the last six thousand years? For the present, and until the above questions shall have been satisfactorily solved, we believe that the six days of Moses comprehend the origin and consummation of the creation of this world! 2nd. All Hebrew expositors affix no other meaning to the word day, used by the sacred historian, than that of a natural day, and the hebdomadal return of the sabbath, is a permanent memorial, to perpetuate its true and legitimate signification. 3rd. The evidence of Geology is not, as yet, sufficiently conclusive to justify a departure from this rule. The advocates of Geology have embarked," says Dr. Forbes, "on an investigation, of all others, I hesitate not to affirm, the most defective, at present, in data, essential to its fair and just solution!" In moments of sobriety some of its own friends have admitted this. Dr. Cumming says, "Geology has before now, retraced its steps; Genesis never. This will show you that I am not speaking rashly, when I say the latter may be in some of its generalizations wrong. Before now, it has been discovered, that what were thought to be facts incontrovertible were fallacies. It is found that phenomena described and discussed as true, were mistakes, and misapprehensions, which maturer investigations have disposed of ; and therefore I am not speaking dogmatically, and without reason, when I say, that while Genesis must be true, Geology, having already erred, may err again, and some of its very loudest assertions, made rashly by those who have least acquaintance with its data, may yet be proved to be wrong. But certain facts in it are now beyond all dispute." 4th. Admitting God to be omnipotent, then all that is said to have been done, might as well have been done within six days as in sixty thousand years. "God," says one of the above writers, "might have called the earth, in all its beauty, and furnished with all its elements and apparatus, into existence by one single fiat. He had only to speak the word, and the earth would have sprung into its orbit, beautified with all its terrestrial clothing." What need then of a "million of years?" Why strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? 5th. If the six days were indefinite periods, so must the first sabbath have also been an indefinite period. Indeed, Professor Hitchcock says, "The sabbath, or seventh day, in which God rested from his work, has not yet terminated: and there is reason to suppose the demiurgic days may have been at least of equal length. This interpretation corresponds remarkably well with the traditional cosmogonies of the ancient Etruscans and modern Hindoos." We shall supply the Professor with a valuable extract for the next edition of his book. "The Egyptians boasted that they had a succession of Kings for seventythousand years. An Egyptian Priest told Alexander, that the kingdom of the Assyrians exceeded 5,000 years of the Persians, 8,000 years. "We have Chronicles," says Pompeius, says Pompeius, "for 12,000 years. Diogenes, accounteth from Vulcan to Alexander, 48,860 years. The Egyptians reckon 100,000 years since they first learned Astrology." The learned author adds, "we condemn the folly of those who Willits' Hexapla, xvi. 1632. extend the age of the world many thousand years before it was made. All these are lying fables, seeing that by just computation of years it is found, that the world hath not yet continued since the first beginning thereof, 6,000 years." 6th. Admit the doctrine of indefinite periods and all the recognized principles of biblical interpretation are unsettled. 66 If the world existed thousands, and even millions, of ages before the beginning" of Moses; if numerous races of animals and vegetables, were created and died, before that period, then, in all fairness Moses should have told his readers, that he was writing not about the first, but the middle age of the world. We must either impeach the integrity of Moses, or modify the assumptions of Geology. 7th. Geology, as now taught, contradicts the obvious sense of scripture. The inspired record declares that "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is!" Geology affirms, that the earth was made, and that millions of animals lived and died upon it, long before those six days commenced. The Bible assures us, "that the waters (of the deluge) prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and that all the high hills, that were under |