and St. Peter 2 Epistle, iii. 8, a day may be estimated a thousand years; and consequently six days must be counted six thousand years, for the duration of the world. This is their interpretation, and their inference; but it must be acknowledgad, that there is an essential weakness in all typical and allegorical argumentations, in comparison of literal; and this being allowed in diminution of the proof, we may be bold to say that nothing yet appears, either in nature or Scripture, or human affairs, repugnant to this supposition of Six thousand years, which hath antiquity and the authority of the fathers on its side."

The above extract shows that Africanas, who is supposed to have been the first christian Chronologer, computed by the Septuagint Chronology; and he believed in the figurative prophetic days of the creation, which made him believe that he was about two hundred years from the end of the Six days' creation, for he wrote about A. D. 220.

Time, the great and unerring tryer of all prophecies and prophetical calculations, has proved him in error; he was deceived by the corrupted Chronology of the Septuagint; and those calculators who now follow the Septuagint, have been trebly deceived by the corruptions of the Chronology of the Septuagint; and by the reasonings of those ancients who followed that Chronology; and by the corruption of the tenses in the 1st Chapter of Genesis, which has destroyed for ages past the prophetic character of the Six days' work, and Seventh day's rest. Voss. Scal. says, that Eusebius, who wrote A. D. 300, copied whole pages

from Africanas' Chronology: what part he copied may not now be known. Comparing the Chronology of Porphirus, the enemy of christianity, who wrote about A. D. 250, and the Chronology of Eusebius, who wrote about A. D. 300, it is clear that Eusebius copied the Chronology of Porphirus, concerning the period of time at the beginning of the Grecian monarchy, and the period of time at the beginning of the Roman monarchy. Christian Chronologers have followed Eusebius' Chronology in these periods of time, so that it is clear that all Christian Chronologers who have copied Eusebius, are led by the computations of Porphirus, the keen enemy of Christianity. As for Eusebius' character, we learn from the following Eusebius, speaking of the tenth persecution, which happened about A.D. 302, says, "The number of the martyrs cannot be reckoned, for in Egypt (a small parcel of the Roman empire) one hundred and forty four thousand were put to death, and seven hundred thousand banished." Epiph, heres. 68, says, "Eusebius sayeth nothing of those who in this persecution denied the faith, because he was one of them himself."

The Six days' creation, and Seventh day's rest, as given to us by Moses, not only agrees with Christ's three days, and the apostle John's account of the creation, and with the answer given by the watchman of Isaiah, but also with Jacob's prediction concerning the twelve tribes of Israel; and is in agreement with the whole Bible; and is in harmony with the history of the human race; it also agrees with the sciences of Astronomy and Geology and such a view, which

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I believe to be the truth and nothing but the truth, puts an end at once to the seeming discrepancies that appear in the account of the creation; and overthrows infidel objections; and shows that it was intended to be understood as a mere arrangement of the past material creation of the universe, placed in such an order as to prefigure to us the future creation of mankind. Such appears to have been the manner of communicating prophetic inspiration by holy men of old, in the first ages of the world; and from what Christ said, it is clear it was not intended that the world at first should clearly understand concerning prophecy, excepting to those few in the world who loved the truth, and made earnest investigation; and in whose hearts arise the day-dawn, and the day-star; and who ranked among the wise who understand, and not among the wicked who shall not understand: and even those few were not permitted fully to understand, although they made earnest investigation, like Daniel the prophet, when he enquired, "O my Lord what shall be the end of these things?" His answer was, "Go thy way Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end;" and in the time of the end "The lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof." Rev. v. 5.

From the following quotations the reader will see the opinion of some of the ancient authors, concerning the 1st Chapter of Genesis :

Philo, vid, Sixt, Senens, Biblioth L 5.338, says, "It is a manifest proof of ignorance to suppose that

God really was employed Six days, of twenty four hours each, in the production of things." St. Austin says, "No Christian will say that they are not to be understood figuratively, when he recollects that the Apostle declares how all these things happened to them in a figure."

The learned Rabbi Marmonides says, in More Novechim, Chap. xxix. p. 265, 272, "In the account that is given of the creation, the ancient Rabbies, from the time of Moses, held that these things reduced to an historical form, in the 1st Chapters of Genesis, were not to be literally understood; but that this was the method by which, in ancient times, they instructed the people." Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived in the second century, was of the same opinion.

I shall now refer to the last book of the Bible; and there it is written, Rev. ii. 7, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Chap. vi. 12, "The sun became black as sackloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth." Chap. ix. 4, "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." Chap. xii. 9, "The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and satan." Chap. xiii. 1, "I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea." Chap. xvii. 15, "The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes, and nations and

tongues." Chap. xix. 17, "I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice saying, 'To all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God.""

Thus does the last as well as the first book of the Bible contain figurative representations; and it should be particularly remarked by the student, who may be desirous to obtain a correct knowledge of the prophetical parts of the Scriptures, that the apostle John, in the Revelation, uses nearly the same language which Moses does, in the 1st Chap. of Genesis, when describing the work of the Six days; and the apostle John applies to these figurative representations language which refers more directly to the human race, than Moses did in the narrative of the days of the creation.

Some learned astronomers and geologists, who have been misled in their understanding concerning the 1st Chapter of Genesis, suppose that Moses wrote the account of the Six days' creation in ignorance concerning the true architecture of the heavens, and the formation of the earth; some of whom I heard say, "We, now-a-days, know better than Moses how the earth was formed!" And some pious Christians having read or heard that astronomers and geologists, from the discoveries they have made, believe that the heavens and the earth were created long before the account given by Moses; denounce these sciences and the professors of them as dangerous, and leading to infidelity. The fact is, both Christians and

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