Now it appears to us that the great event with which this narrative begins, the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, is not represented as a part of the work that was accomplished within the Six Days. It is not said that _on the first day_ God created the Heavens and the Earth, but _in the beginning_. Besides, the Sacred writer, uniformly throughout the chapter, employs one and the same peculiar phrase to introduce the work of each successive day. In describing the operations of God on the second day, he begins: “_And God said_, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters:” on the third day, “_And God said_, Let the waters that are under the Heavens be gathered together into one place:” on the fourth, “_And God said_, Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heavens to divide the day from the night:” on the fifth, “_And God said_, Let the waters bring forth the creeping thing having life:” on the sixth, “_And God said_, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind.” Hence, when we meet this same phrase for the first time in the third verse, “_And God said_, Let there be light,” we may reasonably suppose that the work of the first day began with the decree which is set forth in these words. If so it plainly follows that we may allow the existence of created matter before that particular epoch of time which, in the language of Moses, is styled the First Day: for, before the creation of light, the Heavens and the Earth were already in existence, and the Earth was waste and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. An objection is sometimes raised from the words of God in the promulgation of the third commandment:--“Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; thou shalt do no work on it.... For _in six days the Lord made the Heavens and the Earth_ and the sea, and all that is in them, and resteth the seventh day.”[116] It is argued that the creation of the Heavens and the Earth is here set forth as a part of the work accomplished within the Six Days; which is directly against our opinion. This difficulty would be simply insurmountable, if it could be proved that the text refers to that _first act of creation_ by which the Heavens and the Earth were brought into existence out of nothing. We think, however, that the phrase may fairly be understood to mean, in six days the Lord _fashioned_ the Heavens and the Earth; that is to say, gave to them that form and shape and outward character which they now possess. In this sense the words would apply, not to the first act of creation out of nothing, but rather to that subsequent series of operations by which the Earth was fitted up and furnished for the use of man.