the human race has been in existence but a few thousand years. According to the usual modes of reckoning, the Scripture chronology makes a little more than 6000 years since the creation of man; according to Hale's method of interpreting the Scripture chronology, it is somewhat more than 7000. There is nothing in geology to lengthen out the period. Indeed, the science furnishes much evidence to the effect that man cannot have been long an inhabitant of the earth, by showing that he has yet made but little impression upon its surface and materials, and that none of his works exhibit marks of great antiquity. The great Cuvier gave the subject his attention, and after collating the annals of the earth and of the nations, some of the latter making extravagant claims to antiquity, he came to a conclusion in perfect agreement with our Scripture account of the age and history of the human race. 6. Geology harmonizes with our cosmogony in teaching that every product of divine power was adapted to a wise and benevolent end, and was, in fact, emphatically good. At each step in the work of creation, the Divine Being, after the poetical style of the Hebrews, is represented as looking upon his productions and declaring them to be "good;" and when the entire work is crowned in the creation of man, he reviews the whole, and they are all declared to be "very good." This account is the more remarkable from the fact, that it has had no practical recognition in the other systems of ancient cosmogony. Perhaps without a single other exception, all the ancient cosmogonies supposed evil beings and evil spirits to have dominion in the universe, even in the work of creation. But peculiar as this part of our cosmogony is, it has been wonderfully confirmed by the disclosures of science. So far from finding evidence of cruelty and malignity in the records of past creations, geology detects the most clear and convincing proofs that all things have been created on the principles of universal goodness, every race of creatures having been adapted to a wise and benevolent end, and so constituted as to be the partakers of the divine bounty, and at the same time to contribute their share to the good of the general system of which they were individual parts. This feature of the bearing of geology on the cause of religion has been very eloquently set forth in the writings of Presi dent Hitchcock; and how his positions can be reconciled with the idea of the existence of infinite evil and endless punishment under the divine government, we are totally unable to conceive. But the creation of the earth and its living tribes is represented as having taken place in six days, what shall we say to this? Because geology shows that a longer period than six literal days must have been consumed in the work, shall we therefore reject the whole account as a piece of religious imposture, although exhibiting so many remarkable instances of agreement with the results of scientific discovery? Candor would hold us back from a conclusion so rash and hasty, and suggest the possibility of finding an interpretation which will banish all appearance of contradiction, and allow of perfect harmony between the Scriptural cosmogony and modern science. The seeming discrepancy is accounted for and explained by many, both among theologians and geologists, by regarding the designations of time, called six days, as descriptive of so many long periods of indefinite length; and it is certain that the freedom and latitude with which the Scripture writers have employed the term day, lends much plausibility to this interpretation. But if we pay due attention to the poetical style in which the account is written, and to the immediate purpose of the writer, we may discover good reason for regarding these periods of time as mere costumes, or dress, for the purpose of giving his subject a form to make it the more impressive, or as mere framework, like scaffolding in architecture, designed merely for temporary use. This manner of speaking was frequent with the sacred teachers, as in the accounts of the temptation of Job and of Christ. And was there not need of its adoption by Moses in addressing the Jews? They were not a body of keen-sighted philosophers, who were qualified to master abstractions; and it was no part of his business to give them lessons in physics or metaphysics. Their education had been in the brick-yards of Egypt, under a system of Polytheism which had taught them to worship the sun, moon, stars and animals, as living and immortal gods; and it was the divinely-appointed purpose of his mission to deliver. them from this system, and teach them the unity, spirituality and moral government of the true God. How could he do it? In no way so effectually as by teaching them the doctrine of the creation of all things by one God, thus enabling them to look upon the universe as his temple and altar; and as it was to be to them an ordinance and a benefit to work six days and rest the seventh, how natural and how wise was it for their teacher and lawgiver to frame his representation of the work of creation after a model drawn from this institution, representing God as creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, wholly for the purpose of making the truth and reality of the great doctrine the more vivid and impressive to their as yet unspiritual minds. This view has been taken by several learned men, even independently of considerations drawn from geology. "If we would form a clear and distinct notion of this whole description of creation," says Knapp, "we must conceive of six separate pictures, in which this great work is represented in each successive stage of its progress towards completion. And as the performance of the painter, though it must have natural truth for its foundation, must not be considered or judged of, as a delineation of mathematical or scientific accuracy; so neither must this pictorial representation of creation be regarded as literally and exactly true. By such a representation, the notion of the creation is made easy to every mind; and common people seeing it so distinctly portrayed, can form some distinct conceptions concerning it, and read or hear the account of it with interest." 32 "The picture of the creation is sublime poetry," says Herder, "arranged by six days' works and numbers." 33 We have now travelled over the ground we had intended; and though the journey has been somewhat long and tedious, we have reached an eminence which commands a goodly prospect, a view in which are blended the beauties of earth and the glories of heaven. Whether we consider the revealed doctrine of creation in the light of history, or of modern science, we find it every way entitled to our reverence and confidence; and, adopting its sublime philosophy of the universe, we can say, with an 32 Lectures on Christian Theology, vol. i., p. 356. 33 Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, vol. ii., pp. 258 — 265. This view of the subject is very ably presented by Mr. Powel in his Connection of Natural and Divine Truth. elevation of thought and feeling, known only to him who has drunk at "Siloa's brook that flowed fast by the oracle of God," "These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good! Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then! In these thy lowest works; yet these declare M. S. ART. XXVIII. Literary Notices. 1. Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England, during the Century between 1740 and 1840. Boston: James B. Dow, Publisher. 1847. 12mo. pp. 126. Ox the ground of taste, we may complain that the title of this pamphlet is too vague, like the policy which the work exposes. The real subject is, the gradual preparation for Unitarianism, in the old Congregational churches of New England; the subsequent rise of that doctrine in them; and its successive developements. All this is traced out by a rapid, but comprehensive, historical review. The writer begins with the early state of religious parties among the Puritans here; shows the points of divergence between them, Orthodox as they all still were; follows the progress of this divergence till one of the tendencies began to come out into Arminianism, and then into glimpses of Arianism,― marks the transition to a latent Unitarianism, which grew more decided after the Revolutionary war; and finally he presents the successive forms in which this latter doctrine came out, down to its last and lowest manifestation in the "Discourse" of Rev. Theodore Parker. The following is a synopsis of the history. When Whitefield came to New-England, in 1740, "there was already a stricter and a gentler party" among the Congregationalists here. The violent agitations that followed his preaching, brought these two classes into frequent collision, widening the apparent difference between them. The excessive dogmatism of the " stricter " party provoked the "gentler" to latitudinarianism; and this departure from the ancient landmarks, led the latter, in an age of dominating and jealous Orthodoxy, to a degree of concealment on certain controverted points of faith. For a while, they seem to have rested on a form of Arminianism, as opposed to the Calvinism of their brethren. Some of the more adventurous were strongly suspected of Arianism, as early as the middle of the century, though all direct proof of this "heresy" was carefully guarded from the public eye. The style of preaching grew more studiously negative in respect to certain doctrinal tenets, covering them up, under the plea that they were matters of indifference. The object was to preserve outward uniformity in the body of Congregational churches; notwithstanding this body was really so discordant in faith, that a plain avowal of the more recent opinions would probably have dissolved the bond at once. As usual, the forbearance was chiefly on one side, that of the suspected; though members of both parties occasionally entered into warm controversy on Free-will and Calvinistic decrees, and on the Revival movements. It was not till 1787, that Unitarianism had a tangible existence in New England. At this date, King's Chapel, formerly an Episcopal church, (now Stone Chapel, School street, Boston,) became avowedly Unitarian, under its new pastor, the excellent Freeman. But though, from this time onward, the ministers and theologians were, in general, conscious that some form of Unitariansm secretly prevailed, to a great extent, in Massachusetts, particularly in the capital and its neighborhood, yet, for twentyfive years longer, or till as late as 1812, there was not, among the Congregationalists of the Commonwealth, a preacher, nor society, nor church, nor an eminent individual, who openly avowed that doctrine, or who could be positively convicted of it; those connected with the Stone Chapel being, of course, excepted. In 1815, the mask, so long worn, was torn off, by the unexpected publication, at Boston, of Extracts from Letters written by Unitarians here, to Mr. Belsham, the distinguished Unitarian of England, to inform him of the real state of their doctrine in this country. "That can never be a bright page in the history of their cause in New England, which records that it was not their own hand that, at last, drew the veil aside." Such is a summary of what the writer says of the rise and fortune of Unitarianism, in the Congregational churches of New England, down to the date of its exposure. We are not sufficiently acquainted with the facts in detail, to pronounce on the accuracy of many of the particular statements in this pamphlet. The general representation, however, we sup |