ence of a Deity are rather to be rebuked than reasoned with? All reasoning and instruction must proceed upon some principle or principles, and what can be more proper than this? Those writers who have gone about to prove it, have, in my opinion, done but little, if any good; and in many instances have only set men a doubting upon a subject which is so manifest from every thing around them, as to render the very heathens without excuse. Rom. i. 20.

The foundation of this vast fabric is laid in an adequate causeELOHIM, The Almighty. Nothing else would bear it. Man, if he attempt to find an adequate cause for what is, to the overlooking of God, shall but weary himself with very vanity.

The writer makes use of the plural term Elohim, which yet is joined to singular verbs. This has been generally thought to intimate the doctrine of a plurality in the unity of the Godhead. It is certain, the scriptures speak of the Son and Holy Spirit as concerned in creation, as well as the Father. Nor can I, on any other supposition, affix a consistent meaning to such language as that which afterwards occurs: Let us make man in our image, after OUR likeness.-Behold the man is become like ONE or us.

The account given by Moses, relates not to the whole creation, but merely to what immediately concerns us to know. God made angels; but nothing is said of them. The moon is called one of the greater lights, not as to what it is in itself, but what it is to us. The scriptures are written, not to gratify curiosity, but to nourish faith. They do not stop to tell you how, nor to answer a number of questions which might be asked; but tell you so much as is necessary, and no more.

Ver. 1, 2. The first act of creation seems to have been gene

ral, and the foundation of all that followed. What the heavens were when first produced, previously to the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, did not greatly concern us to know, and therefore we are not told. What the earth was, we are informed in verse 2. It was a chaos, without form, and void; a confused mass of earth and water, covered with darkness, and void of all those fruits

*John i. 1. Gen. i. 2.

which afterwards covered the face of it. As regeneration is cal led a creation, this may fitly represent the state of the soul while under the dominion of sin--The Spirit of God MOVED upon the face of the waters. The word signifies as much as brooded; and so is expressive of "an active, effectual energy, agitating the vast abyss and infusing into it a powerful vital principle." Hence those lines of Milton:

"And chiefly thou, O SPIRIT

-That with mighty wings outspread,

Dove like, satt'st brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant."

Thus also God hath wrought upon the moral world, which, under sin, was without form, and void; and thus he operates upon every individual mind, causing it to bring forth fruit unto himself.

Ver. 3. From a general account of the creation, the sacred writer proceeds to particulars; and the first thing mentioned is the prduction of light. The manner in which this is related has been considered as an example of the sublime. It expresses a great event in a few simple words, and exhibits the almighty God perfectly in character: He speaks, and it is done; he commands, and it stands fast. The work of the Holy Spirit upon the dark soul of man is fitly set forth in allusion to this great act of creation: God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. As soon might chaos have emerged from its native darkness, as our benighted world, or benighted souls, have found the light of life of their own accord. Nor was it sufficient to have furnished us with a revelation from heaven: the same almighty power that was necessary to give material light a being in the world, was necessary to give spiritual light a being in the heart.

The light here mentioned was not that of the sun which was created afterwards. From hence, a late infidel writer has raised an objection against the scriptures, that they speak of light, and event of night and day, which are well known to arise from the situation

of the earth towards the sun before the sun was made. But he might as well have objected, that they speak of the earth in ver. 1,2. and yet afterwards tell us of the dry land, as separated from the waters, constituting the earth, (ver. 9, 10.) The truth seems to be, that what chaos was to the earth, that the light was to the sun: the former denotes the general principles of which the latter was afterwards composed. A flood of light was produced on the first day of creation; and on the fourth it was collected and formed into distinct bodies. And though these bodies when made; were to rule day and night; yet prior to this, day and night were ruled by the Creator's so disposing of the light and darkness as to divide them. (ver. 4.) That which was afterwards done ordinarily by the sun, was now done extraordinarily by the division of darkness and light.

Ver. 4. God saw the light that it was good. Light is a wonderful creature, full of goodness to us. This is sensibly felt by those who have been deprived of it, either by the loss of sight, or by confinement in dungeons or mines. How pathetically does our blind poet lament the loss of it;

Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine:
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me! From the cheerful ways of men
Cut off; and for the book of knowledge fair,
Presented with a universal blank

Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shuts out!

If such be the value of material light, how much more of that which is mental and spiritual; and how much are we indebted to the Holy Spirit of God for inditing the scriptures, and opening our benighted minds to understand them!

DISCOURSE II.

ON THE LAST FIVE DAYS' CREATION.

Gen. i. 6-31.

VER. 6-8. We here enter upon the second day, which was employed in making a firmament, or expanse. It includes the atmosphere, and all that is visible, from the position of the sun, moon, and stars, down to the surface of the globe. ver. 14, 15. 20.

The use of it was to divide the waters from the waters: that is, the waters on the earth from the waters in the clouds, which are well known to be supported by the buoyant atmosphere. The division here spoken of is that of distribution. God having made the substance of all things, goes on to distribute them. By means of this, the earth is watered by the rain of heaven, without which it would be unfruitful, and all its inhabitants perish. God makes nothing in vain. There is a grandeur in the firmament to the eye; but this is not all usefulness is combined with beauty. Nor is it useful only with respect to animal subsistence: it is a mirror, conspicuous to all, displaying the glory of its Creator, and showing his handy works. The clouds also, by emptying themselves upon the earth, set us an example of generosity; and reprove those who, full of this world's good, yet keep it principally to themselves.*

Ver. 9-13. God having divided the heavens and the earth, he now, on the third day, proceeds to subdivide the earth, or chaos, into land and water. The globe became terraqueous; partly earth, and partly sea.

*Eccles, xi. 1-3.

It is easy to perceive the goodness of God in this distribution. Important as earth and water both are, yet while mixed together they afford no abode for creatures: but separated, they are each a beautiful habitation, and each subserves the other. By means of this distribution, the waters are ever in motion; which preserves them, and almost every thing else, from stagnancy and putrefaction. That which the circulation of the blood is to the animal frame, that the waters are to the world were they to stop, all would stagnate and die.*—See how careful our heavenly Father was to build us a habitation before he gave us à being. Nor is this the only instance of the kind: our Redeemer has acted on the same principle, in going before to prepare a place for us.

Having fitted the earth for fruitfulness, God proceeds to clothe it with grass, and herbs, and trees of every kind. There seems to be an emphasis laid on every herb and tree having its seed in itself. We here see the prudent foresight, if I may so speak, of the Creator, in providing for futurity. It is a character that runs through all his works, that having communicated the first principles of things, they should go on to multiply and increase, not independently of him, but as blessed by his conservative goodness. It is thus that true religion is begun and carried on in the mind, and in the world.

Ver. 14-19. After dividing this lower world, and furnishing it with the principles of vegetation, the Creator proceeded, on the fourth day, to the producing of the heavenly bodies. First, they are described in general, as the lights of heaven; (ver. 14, 15.) and then more particularly, as the sun, moon, and stars. ver. 16-19.

The use of these bodies is said to be not only for dividing the day from the night, but for signs and seasons, and days and years. They ordinarily afford signs of weather to the husbandman ; and, prior to the discovery of the use of the loadstone, were of great importance to the mariner. They appear also, on some extraordinary occasions, to have been premonitory to the world. Pre

Eccles. i. 7.

+ Matt. xvi. 3.

Acts xxvii. 20.