(7.) Beasts of prey (“creeping” here meaning “prowling”)—
(8.) Man.
In this succession, we observe not merely an order of events, like that deduced from science; there is a system in the arrangement, and a far-reaching prophecy, to which philosophy could not have attained, however instructed.
The account recognizes in creation two great eras of three days each,—an Inorganic and an Organic.
Each of these eras opens with the appearance of light: the first, light cosmical; the second, light from the sun for the special uses of the earth.
Each are ends in a “day” of two great works,—the two shown to be distinct by being severally pronounced “good.” On the third “day,” that closing the Inorganic era, there was first the dividing of the land from the waters, and afterward the creation of vegetation, or the institution of a kingdom of life,—a work widely diverse from all preceding it in the era. Soon the sixth “day,” terminating the Organic era, there was first the creation of Mammals, and then a second far greater work, totally new in its grandest element, the creation of Man.
The arrangement is, then, as follows:—
1. The Inorganic Era.
1st Day.—LIGHT cosmical.
2d Day.—The earth divided from the fluid around it, or
individualized.
3d Day.—{ 1. Outlining of the land and water.
{ 2. Creation of vegetation.
2. The Organic Era.
4th Day.—LIGHT from the sun.
5th Day.—Creation of the lower orders of animals.
6th Day.—{ 1. Creation of Mammals.
{ 2. Creation of Man.
In addition, the last day of each era included one work typical of the era, and another related to it in essential points, but also prophetic of the future. Vegetation, while, for physical reasons, a part of the creation of the third day, was also prophetic of the future Organic era, in which the progress of life was the grand characteristic. The record thus accords with the fundamental principle in history that the characteristic of an age has its beginnings within the age preceding. So, again, Man, while like other Mammals in structure, even to the homologies of every bone and muscle, was endowed with a spiritual nature, which looked forward to another era, that of spiritual existence.—The seventh “day,” the day of rest from the work of creation, is man’s period of preparation for that new existence; and it is to promote this special end that—in strict parallelism—the Sabbath follows man’s six days of work.
The record in the Bible is, therefore, profoundly philosophical in the scheme of creation which it presents. It is both true and divine. It is a declaration of authorship, both of Creation and the Bible, on the first page of the sacred volume.