vicious and perplexed pursuit of flattering objects, what frequent lamentations, what fond complaints of delusive fortune, and that tragical outcry, ιώ ιώ τραυματων ἐπωδύνων, of grievous and painful wounds! What crowds of fears and cares divide the mind, and hurry it, now one way, and now another! But when we fix our hope and our heart on the only support, on the only true and all-sufficient Good, all is safe, and the soul treads firm while the whole globe trembles. Let external

things be borne this way or that, there is peace within; nor, when all methods have been examined, can any other be found for the establishment of the mind, than that it should lay all its stress upon the one immovable and immutable Rock.

541

A FRAGMENT

ON PART OF

THE EIGHTH PSALM:

THAT which it is needful and competent for us to know concerning God, He hath been pleased to reveal; and our most excellent and happy employment in this world, is, to learn it.

The third verse of this Psalm affords us clearly the doctrine of the creation. That part in the Psalmist's eye, the heavens, being the highest and largest of the visible world, surrounding and containing all the rest, is mentioned. The work of Thy fingers, importing the curious embellishments of them. The moon and stars which Thou hast ordained,-placed them in their orbits, and set them a going, and appointed them the periods and revolutions which they observe. So, the same Hand hath fetched all other things out of the same nothing, as we have it in the beginning of this Book, In the beginning God created, &c. And it is therefore to be believed, because we find it there.

Can the Worker, and His operation, be discovered by strength of reason? Certainly, they who have been of most confessed and famous ability in that way, have been partly of another mind; and we see it reduced to its truest principle, Heb. xi. 4, By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Yet this we may boldly affirm, that there is not only nothing in sound reason crossing it, but that all the cavils alleged against it are most

weak of themselves; and there be many things in nature that plead strongly for it, which we may, yea, ought to take notice of.

The continual turnings and changes of things, the passing of one thing to another, the destruction of some things, and the production of others, and the general decaying of all, the very heavens waxing old as a garment, declare that the whole frame is mutable and corruptible, and therefore not from eternity, but terminable in its beginning.

There is in this a very strong appearance of the beginning of the world and of time being according to the sacred history we have of it, and which faith receives; that there are not any records nor any memoirs or history of time, or things, produceable in the world, that go higher up, no, nor any human histories that go near so high. Now, if there were thousands of ages before, whence is so deep a silence of what passed in them?

They who can conceive it, may take this reason into consideration, that if the world had been from eternity, then, certainly, the number of revolutions would be infinite: now, to that which is so, nothing can be added; so that it were impossible there could be any new days or years, &c. But, above all dispute, we believe it upon HIS word, who by His word gave all things a being. The whole Trinity, as, in all works without, They are together equally concerned, so, in that first and great work of making all things.

As by the Father, so, by the Word were all things made, and the Spirit moved upon the face of the deep: BARAH EloHIM-Trinity in unity, created,

It is most vain to inquire why the world was not created sooner, in tempore; yea, it is nonsense, for the same question might equally be moved whensoever the world had been made, though it had lasted now millions of years; still there would have been an eternity preceding, wherein it was not; and Time itself was concreated. Nor was there any pre-existent unformed matter. It is a poor, shallow conceit, that any such

thing was needful to the Almighty. It is even a monstrous, absurd conceit, that any such thing was possible, and destroys itself; for if this framed world could not have a being from eternity, much less frameless matter. So, of necessity, all things were made of nothing, received a being from the Infinite Being, as the spring of all being. His hands stretched forth the Heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. His fingers set them all in this sweet and admirable order, in a beautiful frame.

Now these expresssions are suited to our reach, but the truth is, His finger and His whole hand are all one, and His hand is His word. Psalm xxxiii. 6. Gen. i. 3. And His word is His all-powerful and eternal will; that is the breath of His mouth, and His stretched-out arm. He said, i. e. He willed it, and it was so. When as yet there was no man nor angel, no heaven nor earth, no time nor being, but the alone blessed Trinity, eternally self-happy, upon the simple act of His absolute will came forth this whole frame, out of the womb of Omnipotence. And this is that certain truth which we believe under the name of Creation.

This supposed, it is very easy to conceive, yea, it is impossible to question it, that it had been as easy for THAT Power to have brought forth all in complete perfection at one instant, as to have divided the work into six days. And as we cannot think it easier, so we cannot but think it better, since He chose, yea because He chose it, as for that reason better. Well may His will be sufficient cause why that way of His production of all things was better, seeing that His will was purely the cause of the production and being of all.

But in part we may observe some advantage in that way, that he made so many days' work of it, and proceeded by degrees to bring it to perfection; that we might the more clearly perceive, and more distinctly consider, the greatness and excellency of the work, and the wise contrivance of it in its several parts and progress, which we could not so well comprehend altogether. Now, we consider Him as first framing one great

mass, and then proceeding to beautify it, first with that which is indeed the first beautifier of all things, light, and then ordering the successive interchange of it with its opposite, darkness, that sets it off and makes its beauty appear the more, giving them their terms in day and night; then proportioning and dividing the rooms of the great house into upper and lower, according to His model and design; then decorating them with rich furniture, and providing all kinds of store in great variety and abundance. And thus, having first prepared all, having built, beautified, and replenished so stately a palace, then framed He the guest for whom He intended it, and whom He appointed to dwell in it. Then He said, let us make man after Our image. Thus, the work of itself, and the order of it, and all the parts, carry on them HIS name who formed them. How do His power, and wisdom, and goodness, appear in them! And yet how little do we see and observe it! It shines bright in all His works, but we are blind; we look on them, and see Him not! Oh, what a childish, trifling thing is Man in all his ways, till he learns to remark God in all, and to have his soul upon all occasions musing and admiring, and sweetly losing itself in God, that immense sea of excellencies! What a bottomless wonder is that Power, from which, by a simple act of will, issued forth all being! This vast fabric, and all things in it, He willed they should be, and where never any thing was, there appeared, on a sudden, Heaven and Earth: the earth settled upon His word, so that it cannot be moved, and enriched with such a variety of plants, and flowers, and fruits growing forth, and springs and mines within the bowels of it; the seas fitted for navigation, together with the multitudes of creatures in it, small and great, and the impetuousness of it, yet confined and forced to roll in its channel, so that it cannot go forth; the small sands giving check to the great waters. Oh, how strong and large that Hand, which without help expands the heavens as a curtain! Look up and see, consider their height and roundness, such a glorious canopy set with such sparkling diamonds: then think how swift their motion,