This is also the title of a book by
Philip Henry Gosse. One of the ideas in this book is that even if the Earth was created only a few thousand years ago, omnipotence could still have given it the appearance of age, and indeed would have had to. The book was published in
1857.
This argument is still sometimes made by young earth creationist's today, often after trying to argue the Earth is young on the basis of scientific evidence and being told why the evidence doesn't really support that.
More information is available about this argument in the what is creationism and other FAQ's in the talk.origins archive.