Although John Bellamy relinquishes every argument in favour of the vau conversive, yet from the manner he has translated the 1st Chap. of Genesis, he did not perceive its prophetic character, and was led to understand it as giving a history of the past material creation of the Heavens and Earth; therefore that learned gentleman had to search out some other plausible reason for altering the tense or time of the Hebrew text, from the future to the preter ; and his reason for doing so, is, that the first verb Bara created is in the past time; therefore, all the following verbs, although written in the future time, must, on this account, be written in the past. This does not appear to be sound reasoning, because Bara signifies to create, to bring forth; and Bara, therefore, appears more in the future than the past tense and the proof is, that God says in the 2nd Chapter, that "He would finish the creation of the Heavens and Earth on the Seventh day, and shall rest from all his work;" which proves that the creation of these Heavens and Earth, spoken of in the 1st verse, were future at the beginning of the One day; and the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Peter puts it in the future tense, as I have already observed. But I ask, what right has any human being or beings, to place a single word in the past, that God placed in the future; in doing so would they not be arrogating to himself or themselves, a wisdom above that which is written?

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Those who place confidence in the Greek translation above the original Hebrew text, should observe,

that if all that has been written by learned men, concerning the Greek translation of the Bible, were well considered by them, their conclusion would probably amount to nearly the following:-That the translation of the Hebrew text into Greek, by the seventy or seventy two Jerusalem Jews in Egypt, at the request of the Egyptian King, about 280 years before Christ, was carefully placed in the library of the city of Alexandria, which would have been destroyed when that library was burned, when Julius Ceaser went to Egypt, at the time of the death of Pompey, about 44 years before Christ. And that the Greek translation we have now, which goes under the name of the Seventy or Septuagint, is not the translation made by the seventy or seventy two Jews in Egypt, about 280 years before Christ. The probability is great, that our present Greek translation was made by individuals, at different times, less informed than the 70, for the use of those Jews in Egypt who only understood the Greek tongue; and which must have been transcribed after the time of Christ, by careless and designing corruptors, owing to the gross corruptions in its chronology. As Josephus wrote in the Greek language, the same language as the Septuagint, it is evident his chronology was altered and made nearly to square with the corruptions in the chronology of the Septuagint; and I believe this is the conclusion any one will come to, who will carefully examine the chronology of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and Josephus, and compare them together. Josephus, who was a learned Jew, and one of the order of the

priests, he informs us, in the end of his preface, and by an observation he has on the first day, that he understood the 1st Chapter of Genesis in an allegorical sense; and he promised to give an exposition of that part of scripture, which, if he did, it is likely, as the enemies of Christianity were destroying every writing that favoured Christianity, it also would have been destroyed, for fear the figurative prophetic sense would be retained. The reading of the original Hebrew, in the 1st Chapter, could not fail to leave the Hebrew reader, or hearer, with the impression that it was allegorical; and from references made to it by the Prophets, they understood it both in an allegorical and prophetical sense. And it now appears that the Jews have long since lost the true meaning of the 1st Chapter of Genesis :-the probability is, that its true meaning was thrown aside when they felt themselves disappointed in the coming of their true Messiah, in such an humble manner in their fourth day,—if they had retained its true meaning, it would have continued to point out (as it still does) to them the true time the Messiah came in to the world, by prefiguring the creation of the sun in the fourth day, alluded to by the Prophet Malachi, who wrote in the Fourth day, by the rising of the Sun of righteousness in the fourth thousand year. Parkhurst's Hebrew lexicon, page 28, under the word " or Cyril, who was Patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt, says, 'That On, among the Egyptians, meant the sun, &c.' It appears, however, highly probable, that in the days of Joseph, this title among the Egyptians denoted rather the Sun of righ

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teousness than material light, &c.; which however no doubt they, like all the rest of the world, idolized in after times."

Romaine in his works, vol. 5, page 16, observes, "The Hebrew is fixed in nature, and cannot change. He should be acquainted with the genius of the Hebrew tongue, and with its manner of expressing spiritual things under their appointed images in nature."

It is clear that the design of the 1st Chapter of Genesis, is to adopt Heaven and Earth as the great appointed images in nature, to show the moral and spiritual condition of the whole human race, during the first great week of the world, or first seven thousand years of the existence of the human family; thereby pointing out their Heavenly and Earthly qualities, during the first seven ages of the world.

Particular attention will now be paid to the numbers given by Christ, and the reader will observe that they square with the Seven days, as described by Moses, Matthew xii. 40, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth." Luke xiii. 20, "Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God; it is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Luke xiii. 31 to 34, "Then came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, 'Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee; and He said unto them, go ye and tell that fox, behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall

be perfected; nevertheless, I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following, for it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem." John ii. 19, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." After careful examination, the writer believes, that the only exception in the above quotations where Christ does not mean a thousand years for a day, is when He says, "Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following, for it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem." In this part of Scripture it appears that Christ was speaking of the three last days, symbolical of the three last years of the angel Gabriel's 62 weeks, or 434 days, symbolical of 434 years to Daniel, when Himself the Messiah, the Prince, was to be cut off. Christ said, "Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? it is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." The beginning of our Lord's prayer, or the direction given by the Lord how to pray, commences with, "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven." The Lord will accomplish his own prayer, for it was himself that established the kingdom of God in this world, like a little leaven. The three measures of meal represent the whole inhabitants of this world, during three thousand years; at the end of which time the whole world will be leavened with this kingdom; and as Christ's ministry commenced in the beginning of the Fifth day, or Fifth thousand year, it squares with Moses' seven days