That the act of Creation occupied the space of six ordinary days; 3.

That the Deluge was universal, and that the animals which survived it were preserved in an ark; 4.

That Adam was created perfect in morality and intelligence, that he fell, and that his descendants have shared in his sin and his fall.
Of these points and others that might be mentioned there were two on which ecclesiastical authority felt that it must insist.

These were: 1.

The recent date of Creation; for, the remoter that event, the more urgent the necessity of vindicating the justice of God, who apparently had left the majority of our race to its fate, and had reserved salvation for the few who were living in the closing ages of the world; 2.