the very nature of holiness; and therefore all divine methods of refor mation are fo wifely adjufted, as to leave human actions in their proper ftate of freedom. By none of his works did God ever intend to render wickedness impracticable; and he hath always provided fufficient fupports for integrity and virtue. With this very fentiment prophecy in Daniel and in the Revelation is fealed up. Rev. xxii. 11. He that is unjuft, let him be unjust fill; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy fill. That is to fay, there is no cure for the obftinately blind and wicked; neither are the ways of God intended to purify thofe, who will not be made clean; but, after all that God hath done, the wicked (Dan. xii. 10.) fhall be left to do wickedly. And none of the wicked will understand, but only the wife will underftand. But be that is righteous, let him be righteous ftill; and he that is boly, let him be holy still. Hof. xiv. 9. Whe is wife, and [for] he shall under fand thefe things? Prudent, and [for] he ball know them? For the ways of Jehovah are right; and the just ball walk in them; but the tranfgrefors fall fall in them. The fincere and upright, who choose the way of truth, or turn from fin unto righteousness, the righteous and merciful God will never forfake. They make a wife improvement of his difpenfations, and, under all trials and difficulties, he will guide and fupport them; and their path fhall be as the fhining light, that fhineth more and more to the perfect day.

COROLLARY. Hence we may conclude-That in computing the progrefs of religion, under any difpenfation, the quantity of knowledge and religion is to be measured only by the improvement of the righteous; and that the wicked, how many foever, are not to be taken into the account, as making any deductions from it. Or, the advances of knowledge and religion, under any difpenfation, are not to be estimated by numbers, but by the proficiency of fingle perfons, how few foever. Noah, a single perfon, was, at the time of the deluge, the true ftandard of religious improvement in that age; though all the reft of mankind were exceeding corrupt

and wicked.

VI. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, faith the apostle James, Acts xv. 18. Then all God's works were formed and planned in his counfels, and lay under his eye in one comprehenfive view; and therefore must be perfectly confiftent. One uniform scheme must be laid, and one even thread of defign muft run through the whole. They are not the refult of fudden, incoherent thoughts; but a well digefted plan, formed upon the moft juft principles by him who feeth all his works from the beginning to the end. Whence it follows, that if we do not difcern one coherent defign in the divine difpenfations, or if we make any one part clafh with the reft, we may be fure we do not underftand them. Goodnefs was the principle of creation. God made man because he delighted to communicate being and happiness. Confequently, goodness and fatherly love, which was the beginning and foundation of God's works, must run equally through them all, from first to laft.

VII. Previous notice was given of fome of the principal difpenfations, either for warning, or to prepare men for the reception of them. The deluge was preached by Naab 120 years before it came to pafs. The Jewith difpenfation was predicted to Abraham 430 years beforehand. Jo remiah foretold the Babylonifh captivity; and Paul, and John at large,

predict and defcribe the grand apoftacy. But the coming of the Meffiah, and the gospel difpenfation, run through the whole, from the beginning to the end, in a lefs or clearer degree of light. And it was fitting that this, which is the chief of God's works, fhould receive the brightest evidence from prophecy. And therefore it was not fit it should be introduced till fuch time as it had received that evidence; which in Scripture is called the fulness of time. Gal. iv. 4.

VIII. The difpenfations of God are intended for our contemplation and ftudy; and it is a fingular advantage to form right notions of them, because they will tincture our conceptions of God, and influence our difpofitions towards him. If we judge truly of God's works, we shall have agreeable and lovely ideas of the workman. His wildom, his goodness and truth, will stand in a fair light, and we shall confefs him infinitely worthy of our higheft regard. Then we fhall think of God with admiration, pleafure and delight, (Pfal. xcii. 4. Thou, Lord, haft made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands) and fhall ferve and follow him with willing minds. But if we form fuch conceptions of the ways of God, as reprefent them to be arbitrary and tyrannical, inconfiftent with all our notions of juftice and goodnefs, the effect of fovereign will, without either reafon or love, he muft ftand before our thoughts in the most frightful colours. The moft horrible gloom will be drawn over the perfections of the best of beings; our minds will be filled with darkness and dread; and, if we worship him at all, our worship and obedience will not be the free and generous duty of fons, but the joylefs conftrained drudgery of flaves.

IX. It must be remembered, that the works of God are unfearchable, and paft our finding out to perfection. Pfal. xcii, 5. O Lord, how great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep! From a juft fenfe of the infcrutability of the divine difpenfations, the apoftle concludes a difcourfe upon the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, with this folemn exclamation: Ŏ the depth of the riches, both of the wifdem and knowledge of God! How unfearchable are his judgments, and his ways paft finding out! Rom. xi. 33. It becomes us to admire and adore the counfels of infinite wisdom, and to acquiefce where we cannot gain a full knowledge of them. Rev. xv. 3. Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! We cannot comprehend the ways of God in their fullest extent, in all their largeft views, and remoteft connexions. He therefore that is wife will not cavil at them, nor foolishly endeavour to pry into them beyond the bounds of revelation, and of human understanding.

X. But under all our prefent darknefs, and under every difpenfation, an honeft heart, fincerely defirous to know the truth, feriously inquifitive after it, meekly fubmiffive to what God hath revealed and commanded, willing to work together with him, patiently perfevering in well doing s fuch a temper, and fuch a conduct, is the best and fafeft guide under every difpenfation; will enable us to follow God, to comply with every defign of his providence, to overcome in every hour of trial, and will lead us to eternal life. To fuch a character, as well as to Daniel, (Chap. xii. 13.) it is the language of divine grace-But walk thou, thou honeft, upright man, walk thou thy way to the end, take courage and VOL. I. comfort,

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comfort, walk on, perfevere in the path of truth and integrity; for, after all the trials and difquietudes of this world, thou shalt reft, and fland in thy lot, the lot of pious and faithful fouls, at the end of the days.

HIS is the work of creation. To create is to give Being to that

a thing should be and not be at the fame time, is a contradiction and impoffibility; but that a thing should exift now, which did not exist before, is no more a contradiction, than that my hand fhould move now, which did not move before.

That there is one first uncaufed Caufe, from which all other beings derive their existence, and upon whom they have their entire dependence, hath already been proved. Confequently, all beings, except the firft Cause, muft have been produced, or brought into being, by the power and agency of the firft Caufe. Not produced, out of nothing, but out of nothing befides the immenfe and unconceivable fulness of the felf-exiftent Being, who must have in himself the power and poffibility of all being; though we cannot comprehend or conceive in what manner, or by what kind of agency, he createth or communicateth existence to beings diftinct from himself.

Of the Creation of all things, Mofes in this chapter has given us a fummary account; not in a precife philofophical manner, but fo as to give the men of that age in which he wrote, juft and affecting notions of this firft and moft ftupendous work of God, fo far as was neceffary to the purposes of true religion, and no further. It is enough, therefore, that his account is true, fo far as it goes, and not in any refpect inconfiftent with the moft accurate difcoveries which have been made in later ages concerning the fyftem of the univerfe, or any part

of it.

Ver. 1. In the beginning, &c. The heavens and the earth may compre hend the whole univerfe, or all things vifible and invifible. It doth not therefore follow, that the whole univerfe was created all together at once, or at fome one period of time. But the meaning is this; at firft, when the universe was produced, it was brought into being by the fole power and wifdom of the almighty and eternal God. This is true, though the feveral parts of the univerfe may have been produced at different times, or at any diftance of time from each other; and though God may ftill be creating new worlds in the immenfe bofom of space, which is not improbable: I fay, it is true, that in the beginning of their existence, whenever that was, God created, and is ftill creating, them

all;

fall; the fentiment which Mofes, I apprehend, would inculcate being this, that the whole univerfe of beings, whenever created, doth not exift by neceffity or chance; but had a beginning, and was produced by the fole power of God.

But, as Mofes here gives us a particular account of the formation of our earth, this phrafe, in the beginning, may have a fpecial reference to the time when our earth was created. The matter of which it confifts, was produced in the ftate of a Chaos, (Ver. 2.) without form and void, i.e. fhapeless, wafte, and useless; all the parts, folids and fluids, jumbled together, and furrounded with darknefs, unadorned, uninhabited. But the fpirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; i. e. the influences and exertions of the divine power actuated this dark, confufed mafs, and digested, and reduced its parts to the beautiful ftate and order in which we now behold them.

On the first day, and the first thing after the production of the Chaos, the element of light was created. Ver. 3, 4, 5.

On the fecond day was created the element of air, or that body of air which we call the Atmosphere, ypn the firmament, or rather, fpacious expanfion of air, where the fowls do fly, (Ver, 20.) and which is fpread abroad above, and all round the earth, including meteors and clouds, which are the waters above, or at the upper part of, the atmosphere, in contradiftinction to the waters of the fea and rivers, which are under it. Ver. 6, 7, 8.

On the third day the great God formed the element of water, by draining off the fluids of the Chaos, and caufing them to flow into large cavities prepared to receive them; that thus the earth might become one firm, compact, voluble globe, and in a fit condition to produce grafs, herbs, trees, and plants, which were then created. Ver. 9, 10,

11, 12.

On the fourth day God created the fun and moon. Ver. 14-19. The fun being the centre of our fyftem, it feems probable that the whole folar fyftem was produced at the fame time with the earth, though the defign of the writer did not lead him to take notice of the other parts of it. But we have no juft ground, from his account, to fuppofe that all the stars, which are probably each of them the centre of a diftinct fyftem, were, on this day, all of them created. Most of them might have been created long before, and fome of them fince, our world came into being. For that claufe (Ver. 16.) he made the flars alfo, in the Hebrew is no more than, and the ftars; the words he made being inferted by the tranflators. And therefore it may be well rendered thusVer. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the leffer light to rule the night with the ftars. That is to fay, the moon and fears to rule the night, as it is expreffed, Pfal. cxxxvi. 9. The conjunction fometimes hath the force of the prepofition with; as Gen. iv. 20. With his weapons. 2 King. xi. 8. Jer. xxii. 7. c.

Hitherto our globe, and perhaps the other planets, might, by the power of God, be fufpended in the empty space, in a state of reft. But now, when the fun, the centre of our fyftem, was created, and the earth was reduced to a proper ftate of firmness and folidity, they might be thrown into thofe regular and rapid motions, about the fun,

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and

and their own centres, which, by the fame power impreffed upon them, continue to this day; and by their exact periodical revolutions produce that grateful and neceffary variety of day and night and feafons; namely, fpring and fummer, autumn and winter; which are certainly the effect of the annual and diurnal motions of the earth; and therefore the an→ nual and diurnal motions might on this day commence. Ver. 14.

On the fifth day, fifh and fowl; on the fixth day, beafts and man were created. Ver. 20, &c.

There is one difficulty remaining, namely, that light was created before the fun, Ver. 3, 14, &c. Whereas the fun is fuppofed to be the fole fountain of light, by emitting luminous particles from its body. But I fufpect the truth of this hypothefis; and Mofes may be found a more accurate philofopher than is commonly imagined. It appears from electrical experiments, that light is a diftinct fubftance from all other, as much as air is from water; and that, by being properly excited, it may be made to appear in midnight darknefs. Which, fhews, that it did exift in that darkness, previously to its being excited; and that it was rendered vifible by being excited. Confequently it may, and, I doubt not, doth exift, expanded through the whole vifible fyftem of things at all times, by night as well as by day; and that the fun, a fiery body, is, in our fyftem, the great exciter, by which the fubftance of light is impelled, and becomes vifible. For, were there no fubftance of light previously exifting throughout the whole fyftem, no light would appear, though ten thoufand funs fhould at once be placed in our hemifphere. Just as the ringing of the bell produces found, not by an emanation of particles from the fubftance of the bell, but by exciting the air, or the founding fubftance, without which the bell could produce no found at all. As the air will not found, fo the light will not appear without being excited *. Upon this

fup

*This hypothefis, I prefume, doth not interfere with any rules of optics, the rays of light being excited according to the fame laws and directions by which they are fuppofed to be emitted. The light of a candie, upon an eminence, may be feen at least three miles at fea, in a dark night. Therefore, according to the common fuppofition, the flame of a candle, fuppofe of one inch diameter, muft emit from its body inftantaneously, and in every inftant, while it continues to burn, as much luminous matter, or substance, as will fill a spherical space of fix miles in diameter, or of 113,0976 cubical miles; which, notwithstanding the divifibility of matter in infinitum, feems to me to be incredible. It is furely more probable and rational to fuppofe, that the extremely agile particles of light, which fill that large fpace, are actuated, or excited inftantaneously by the luminous body.

N. B. Dr. TAYLOR, fome time after he had finished this fcheme of fcripture divinity, met with the fame thought and reasoning in the ingenious author of NATURE DISPLAYED; and was not a little pleased to find an hypothefis, which he judged peculiar to himfelf, adopted by fo deep an inquirer

into nature.

That the curious reader may compare the paffages, he is prefented with the following extract.

"Light is vifibly pre-exiftent to luminous bodies: this may feem a "paradox at firft fight, but it is not therefore a lefs evident truth.-By light

Vol. III. Page 409. Second Edition.

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