tion of the Mosaic history, as Mat. 3. 16; Acts 2. 3. Indeed it can scarcely be doubted that the entire process of the natural creation, was designed to shadow forth the spiritual creation, and under this aspect it is frequently referred to by the Prophets and Apostles.— This verse ought not to be divided by a period, as is the case in some editions of the English Bible, as it forms one continuous narrative.

V. 3.

What was the first creative command of the Almighty, and the effect of it? And God said;' i. e. willed; efficaciously purposed or decreed within himself; a very frequent sense of the word say' in the Scriptures, as will appear from examples hereafter to be given. See note on Gen. 20. 11. The sacred writer having in ver. 2 described the condition of the globe in its pre-existing chaotic state, a state in which it may perhaps have remained for ages, now enters upon the details of that stupendous work by which the whole was reduced into order, and converted to the grand fabric of the heavens and the earth as they now appear. The first step was the production of light, emanating, as we shall shortly endeavor to shew, from the sun, and diffused in the regions of space around the exterior surface of the sphere, but not originally penetrating the dense superficial darkness which it had to encounter. To this the Psalmist alludes, Ps. 104. 2, Who coverest (thyself) with light as with a garment.' Heb. Who coverest (the earth) with light as with a garment.' Our translators without due attention to the scope have inserted thyself' in this passage of a Psalm in which it will be evident on inspection that the writer's aim is to recite the successive gradations in the work of creation, and thence to educe matter of lofty praise to the Great Architect. So also in the moral creation, there is first a 'true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,' but this light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not;'

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i. e. admitteth it not. Yet as on the fourth day every interposing medium to the light of the natural sun was removed, and that bright luminary shone forth in unclouded lustre, so by a renewed operation of Divine power upon the benighted soul, God, who command-ed the light to shine out of darkness, shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face (or person) of Jesus Christ.' What is said of the character of the light when created, and of the subsequent division of the light from the darkness?

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v. 4.

Good;' i. e. good, as answering the end for which it was designed; and good, in the sense of pleasant, grateful, refreshing, delightful. Thus, Eccl. 11, 7, Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant (Heb. 'good') thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.''Divided,' &c. Heb. Separated between the light, and between the darkness.' This must mean something more than distinguished' between light and darkness, as this was effectually done by the bare creation of light, an element in its own nature directly opposite to, and therefore perfectly distinguished from, darkness. The division' of the light from the darkness here spoken of is undoubtedly the succession' of the one to the other, arising from the revolution of the earth round its axis, which now first commenced-a strong confirmation of the opinion that the sun had already been brought into being. As to the expedient fancied by some commentators of a temporary luminary, an aurora-like meteor,' to perform the office of the sun for the three first days and nights, we see not why Omnipotence should have resorted to it when the production of the sun itself was equally easy; and that the letter of the record does not militate with this supposition we shall endeavor to shew in the note en v. 14. It may here be remarked that the interpretation which has sometimes been given to the word 'light,' as implying a subtle, ethereal, all-pervading

fluid which produces light from being excited by appropriate foreign agents, and of which philosophers have imagined the sun to be the great exciting instrument, receives no countenance from the predominant usage of the word by the sacred writers. The notion of a light which does not actually shine is entirely foreign to the simplicity of the primeval tongue, and though we neither affirm nor deny the theory as a matter of science, we are confident that such an interpretation is doing great violence to the meaning of words; nor would it probably ever have found a place in the explication of the Mosaic cosmogony, had it not been for the purpose of solving the supposed difficulty in the historian's statement that light was created on the first day, and yet the sun not till the fourth. This difficulty we trust will appear on a subsequent page to be altogether imaginary, and consequently the proposed key to it entirely useless.

What were the Light and the Darkness respectively called, and how is the first day described? v. 5.

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Heb. And the evening was, and the morning was.' Perhaps on the whole the rendering of Vatablus and some others, who take day' to be in the genitive under regimen to the preceding noun, is the most to be approved; And there was the evening twilight and the morning twilight of the first day :' i. e. thus began that series of alternations of light and darkness which occurs every morning and evening when the one passes into the other, and of which the two with their respective ensuing seasons of light and darkness make up one complete natural day. First day.' Heb. 'One day.' The use of one' for 'first' is an idiom of the Heb. which has been transferred into the Gr. of the N. T. Gen. 8, 5,In the tenth month, on the first day of the month.' Heb. 'the one day of the month.' Dan. 9, 1, In the first year of Darius.' Heb. In the one year.' 1 Cor. 16, 2

'Upon the first day of the week.' Gr. 'the one day.' At what time did the Jewish day begin? Lev. 23. 32.

Is a lesser portion of time than twenty-four hours ever called a day in the Scriptures? John 11. 9.

Thus the distinction of larger and lesser days in the sacred writings is very explicitly affirmed. The former is particularly alluded to, Dan. 8. 13, 14, 'How long shall be the vision?' i. e. the space of time destined to elapse before the fulfilment of the vision; And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days.' (Heb, evening and morning:') i. e. 2300 days composed of evening and morning; such days as Moses here speaks of. This larger kind of day is designated in Gr. by the term Nuchthemeron,' from Nux,' night, and Hemera,' day, used by the Apostle, 2 Cor. 11. 25, A day and a night (Gr. a Nuchthemeron') was I in the deep :' i. e. a full natural day of twenty-four hours.

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For what period of time is 'a day' used in prophecy? Ezek. 4. 6.

Daniel's 70 weeks, ch. 9. 24, are universally allowed to be weeks of years, a day for a year, amounting in all to 490 years. Consequently on the same principle the remarkable period of 1260 days, or 42 months, so frequently mentioned in the Revelation, ch. 11, 2, 3, &c. is in fact a term of 1260 years. The prophetical period, 'a time, times, and half a time,' Rev. 12. 14, is the same term differently expressed; a 'time' being a year of prophetical days, or 360 years; times,' two such years, or 720 years; and 'half a time,' half a year, or 180 years, the sum total of which is 1260 years, or 42 prophetic months.

What was the creating command on the second day, and what the result? v. 6, 7. Firmament,' or 'expansion.' The original word

for 'firmament,' Râkiah, comes from a root signifying to stretch out, to expand like a curtain, and also to make hard and firm by treading, stamping, or beating with a hammer, as is done by gold-beaters, in the manufacture of gold leaf. Although, therefore, it is sometimes rendered expansion,' it still conveys the idea of a firmament,' or that which firmly supports an incumbent weight, as the atmosphere does the masses of watery clouds above. But since the aerial regions of the atmosphere, by an illusion of the senses, seem to extend to the heavenly bodies, therefore the sun, moon, and stars are said to be placed in the firmament, though in reality they are removed to immense distances beyond it. It is the usage of the Scriptures, however, to describe the things of the natural world as they appear, as they strike the eye of plain, unlettered observers; accordingly, in former ages, before the true structure of the solar system was understood, the idea naturally suggested by the word Rakiah, firmament, was the blue vault of heaven, but now that our superior knowledge enables us to correct the impressions of the senses, we interpret the term with stricter propriety of the extensive circumambient fluid called the atmosphere. Let it divide;' Heb. Let it be separating.' The original word implies a continued act. So also in Is. 59, 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.' Heb. are separating :' i. e. have continued to separate. By this act, one portion of the waters remained suspended in the upper regions of ether, whilst another was forced down in immediate contact with the body of the earth, and the expanse left void by their separation was called by the name of firmament' or 'heaven.' Possibly the entire space now occupied by the atmosphere was previously occupied by the surrounding waters, as the Psalmist says they stood above the mountains,' Ps. 104. 6.

What remarkable allusion do we elsewhere