guage of the apostle Peter, sanctions and demands it. That God should be understood when He spoke to Adam of a day, and by Moses of the Six days' work, and Seventh day's rest, and also when He appeared on Earth in the form of a man, and spoke of three days, that He should be understood (with one exception) as speaking of a thousand years as a day, is a thing I think that cannot be doubted; for seven thousand years are but an exceeding small point of time with Him who spoke of the glory He had with the Father "Before the world was," and who declared Himself to be the " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending."

There is another proof that the work of the Six days, and the rest on the Seventh day, was prophetical of the creation of mankind during the first Seven thousand years, arising from the method of the prediction given by Jacob, as recorded by Moses in the 49th Chapter of Genesis, "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days; gather yourselves together and hear ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father." "Reuben, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Simeon and Levi, instruments of cruelty are in their habitations." "Juda is a lion's

whelp, as an old lion, who shall rouse him up. The sceptre shall not depart from Juda until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." "Zebulun, he shall be for an haven of ships." "Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two burdens." "Dan shall be a serpent by the way,

G

an adder in the path." "Gad, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat &c." "Naphtali is a hind let loose." Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall." Benjamin shall raven as a wolf."

Here it is evident that Jacob was inspired by the Holy Spirit to prefigure to his children the dispositions and future condition of the twelve tribes, by symbolic representations; and such a method is exactly similar to the prophetic predictions by Moses, or by some of the fathers, as given of the Six days' work, and Seventh day's rest; for Jacob, like Moses' narrative, begins his prophecy by the representation of water; then beasts; then bread, which is the seed of grass; by trees or boughs and branches.

These explanations derived from the Bible itself, I believe to be the true meaning of the Six days' work, and Seventh day's rest; and by carefully reading what Moses says in the 2nd Chapter, it is evident he intended it should be understood as predictive of of the future creation of mankind, and figurative of their future glory; and that the Prophets understood it so is evident from the reference they have made to the language of the days of the creation, as given by Moses, viz. Malachi iv. 2, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise." Zechariah xiv. 6, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, and dark; but it shall be one day, which shall be known to the Lord,

not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light, &c."

The language of Malachi has reference to Moses' fourth day, and Zachariah has reference to Moses' seventh day, the great sabbath of the world. And Isaiah quotes the 1st verse of Genesis, and distinctly puts it in the future tense; and the apostle Peter appeals to it, and says, "According to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth, &c." the apostle Paul refers to the better creation, which was to be more extensive on the sixth day, as in Col. iii. 10, " And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."

And

The Seventh day's rest, of 24 hours each, was instituted by the command of the Lord to Moses, because it was adapted to the physical and spiritual wants of man: as Christ said, "Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man; and designed as a type of the Seventh thousand years of the creation of mankind, the future great Sabbath of the world." And Moses distinctly says, in Exodus xxxi, 13—18, That the Sabbath was instituted as a sign, and in commemoration of the Six days' creation and Seventh day's rest; and, in scripture language, sign signifies a type, prophecy, or prediction of what should happen.

Has not all that referred to Christ been typified by something symbolical? and shall it be supposed that the account of the creation, as delivered to us by Moses, could be destitute of every thing that related

to the future creation, or work of God? Christ dise tinctly says, John v. 17 My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Could it be destitute of every thing that related to a coming Saviour? Was it not this very thing that Jesus charged the unbelieving Jews with: Had you," says He, believed Moses ye would have believed me, for she wrote of me." Could Moses or any other have selected, within the whole compass of material things, such powerful emblems as he has done to represent the future temporal and spiritual condition of mankind, as Heaven and Earth, light and darkness, day and night. These are palpable objects to the whole human race, which could not be lost, and which would forcibly strike the senses of all. There could not have been devised a method better calculated to prefigure to us the rising of the Sun of Righteousness on the fourth day, or fourth thousand years; and also to prefigure the unclouded brightness of that Sun of Righteousness on the great Sabbath of the world; upon the eve of which its inhabitants are now about to enter, being also figu rative of that glory and rest that awaits the children of God, than the instituting of a Sabbath every seventh day, of 24 hours, in remembrance of the past and future creation of God, both natural and spiritual; for Christ said, "I go to prepare a place for you."

The arrangement of, and also the very words used in describing, the days of the creation, show that it was intended they should be understood in a figurative and prophetic sense, as "Evening and Morning." If the expression "Evening and Morning" had really

been intended to signify a natural day of 24 hours, the arrangement of the words would be Morning and Evening, as it is mentioned by Moses himself, in Exodus xviii. 1350 And the people stood by Moses from Morning until Evening.", indt zahlt yo

2 But the arrangement of Morning and Evening would not apply as ofigurative of the creation of the human race; because, in the beginning of their day, or thousand years, they are less enlightened, therefore it is their evening and on account of their experience of good and evil they have more knowledge or light, hence the end of their day, or thousand years, is their morning; and the length of this figurative day was near to the length of the time the Fathers lived, before the flood; and there is reason to believe, that on account of this figurative prediction, the Hebrews commenced their day of 24 hours at sunset, Isaiah, 21st Chap, the urgent question was asked twice: "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the night, if ye will enquire; enquire ye, return, come." i

It was in the evening or night of the first day of the creation of the human family, that our first parents fell,* by giving obedience to the beast, whose principle worked powerfully in Cain, who murdered his brother Abel; and in the morning of the same day, Enoch

* Concerning the fall of our first parents, Christians generally imagine that Adam, the first man, fell from a higher state of perfection than what he really did; and this they have been led to believe because they did not perceive that the creation of man, male and female, "in the image of God," on the sixth day, does not apply to the first man who was of the earth earthy, but to the general