I cannot help thinking, therefore, that the imagery of this vision lend support to the belief that there was a great Creation enacted in heaven, which was followed by the actual carrying out of the processes on earth, _but which has retained its representative forms in the heaven itself_. Had this vision stood alone, it might have been passed over, on the ground that it deals with high and transcendental matters, and that it would be hardly safe to let a practical argument rest too much on it. But the fact is that again in the New Testament a very similar vision is mentioned (in the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation): here again the four living creatures represent the typical forms of life, the bird, the carnivorous and herbivorous animals, and man; and it will be observed that in this case there is hardly room to doubt that we have an exhibition of _Creation_, for there is express allusion to it in the address of the elders--"Thou hast _created all things_, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." CHAPTER XV. _AND SUPPORTED BY THE CONTEXT._ But a step further is necessary: if the conclusion that I have come to, by accepting "day" in its ordinary and natural sense, and by giving a hitherto overlooked (and so far a new) meaning to "creation," is sound, it must not only be rendered probable by reference to other parts of Scripture written when Genesis was much nearer its original publication than it is now; it is still (before all things) necessary, that the interpretation adopted should be conformable to the context. And I have heard it objected that there are verses which imply not only a Divine Act in heaven, with the Sons of God in conclave around the throne--sublime and wonderful picture!--but also distinctly indicate a corresponding action on earth, and so require us to include in our rendering of "creation" _both_ the ideas which (page 169 ante) I have admitted may, on occasion be required by the terms. For example: after the creative command in verses 7, 9, 11, 15, and 24, is declared, it is followed by the words of fulfilment--"and it was so;" and in verse 11, when God has said "Let the earth bring forth grass, &c.", in the next verse it is positively recorded that the earth _did_ bring forth grass, &c. I of course admit all this, but it is in no way opposed to my suggestion. The _commencement_ of the _result_ probably, if not necessarily, followed immediately on the issue of the finished command, viz., the promulgation of the forms to be obtained and the processes to be followed. The _whole_ result did not become accomplished then and there, in the time mentioned, or exactly in the order mentioned: we know that for a fact. Take, for example, the case of _vegetation_. Here the author, in terms at once precise and universally intelligible, speaks of "vegetation[1]" (grass of the A.V.), "herb yielding seed," and "trees yielding fruit," thereby exhaustively enumerating the members of the vegetable kingdom.