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predict and defcribe the grand apoftacy. But the coming of the Meffiah, and the gospel difpenfation, run through the whole, from the begining to the end, in a lefs or clearer degree of light. And it was fiting that this,which is the chief of God's works, fhould receive the brightest evidence from prophecy. And therefore it was not fit it fhould be introduced till fuch time as it had received that evidence; which in fcripture 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 agreable and lovely ideas of the workman. His wifdom, his goodness and truth, will stand in a fair light, and we fhall confefs him infinitely worthy of our higheft regard. Then we fhall think of God with admiration, pleasure and delight, (Pfal. xcii. 4. Thou, Lord, haft made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands.) and shall serve and fol low him with willing minds. But if we form fuch conceptions of the ways of God, as reprefent them to be arbitrary and tyrannical, incónfiftent with all our notions of juftice and goodness, the effect of fovereign will, without either reafon or love, he muft ftand before our thoughts in the moft frightful colors. 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 joyless constrained 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 difcourse upon the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, with this folemn exclamation; O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfearchable are his judgements, and his ways paft finding out! Rom. xi. 33. It becomes us to admire and adore the counfels of infinite wifdom, and to acquiefce where we cannot gain a full knowledge of them. Rev. xv. 3. Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! We cannot comprehend the ways of God in their fulleft extent, in all their largeft views, and remotéft connections. He therefore that is wife will not cavil at them, hor foolishly endeavour to pry into them beyond the bounds of revelation, and of human underftanding.

X. But under all our prefent darknefs, and under every difpenfation, an honeft heart, fincerely defirous to know the truth, ferioufly inquifitive after it, meekly fubmiffive to what God hath reveled and commanded, willing to work together with him, patiently perfevering in well doing'; fuch a temper, and fuch a conduct, is the beft 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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CH. IV. 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 ftand in thy lot, the lot of pious and faithful fouls, at the end of the days.

CHA P. IV.

OF THE CREATION.

Gen. I. 1.-26.

*****HIS is the work of creation. To create is to give Being T to that which did not exift before; and fo, is no contradic***** tion. That a thing fhould be and not be at the fame time, is a contradiction and impoffibility; but that a thing fhould exift now, which did not exift before, is no more a contradiction, than that my hand fhould move now, which did not move before.

That there is one firft 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 first Caufe, must 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 fullness of the self-existent 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 exiftence 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 first, and most ftupendous work of God, fo far as was neceflary 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 most accurate difcoveries, which have been made in later ages concerning the fyftem of the universe, or any part of it.

Ver. 1. In the begining, &c. The heavens and the earth may comprehend the whole univerfe, or all things visible 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 begining of their existence, whenever that was, God created, and is ftill creating, them all.

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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 begining, 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 phrase, in the begining, may have a special reference to the time, when our earth was created. The matter, of which it confifts, was produced in the state of a Chaos, (Ver. 2.) without form and void i. e. fhapeless, wafte, and sufelefs; all the parts, folids and fluids, jumbled together, and furrounded with darkness, 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 di→ gefted, 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, 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 atmofphere, 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, ÌI, 12.

On the fourth day God created the fun and moon. Ver. 14-19, The fun being the centre of our fyftem, it seems 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 fuppose, that all the stars, which are probably each of them the centre of a diftinct fyftem, were, on this day, all of them created. Moft of them might have been created long before, and fome of them fince, our world came into being. For that claufe (Ver. 16.) be made the stars 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 thus-Ver. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the leffer light to rule the night with the stars. That is to fay, the moon and fars to rule the night, as it is expreffed, Pfal. cxxxvi. g. 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 rest. But now, when the fun, the centre of our fyftem, was created, and the earth was reduced to a proper ftate of firmnefs and folidity, they might be thrown into those regular and rapid motions, about the fun,

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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 seasons; namely, fpring and fummer, autumn and winter; which are certainly the effect of the annual and diurnal motions of the earth; and therefore the annual and diurnal motions might on this day commence. Ver. 14.

On the fifth day fish 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 darkness. Which fhews, that it did exist 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 system, no light would appear, though ten thousand funs fhould at once, be placed in our hemifphers. Juft 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

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*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 emited. The light of a candle, upon an eminence, may be seen 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 fpherical 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 space, are actuated, or excited inftantaneously by the luminous body.

N. B. Dr. TAYLOR, fome time after he had finished this scheme 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 himself, 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 visibly 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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fuppofition the element or fubftance of light was created on the first day, and the divine power alone might be the exciter, which made the light appear

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"6 we do not mean that fenfation which we experience in ourselves, on the prefence of any illuminated body, but that inconceivably fubtle matter, "which makes an impreffion on the organs of fight, and paints on the optic "nerve those objects from the furfaces of which it was reflected to us. Light "then, taken in this fenfe, is a body quite different from the fun, and independent on it, and might have exifted before it, feeing now it does exift in "its abfence, as well as when prefent. It is diffused from one end of the "Creation to the other, traverses the whole universe, forms a communi"cation between the moft remote fpheres, penetrates into the inmoft receffes "of the earth, and only waits to be put in a proper motion to make itself vi"fible. Light is to the eye what the air is to the ear: Air may not be "called the body of found, and it does equally exift all round us, though there "be no fonorous body to put it in motion; fo likewife the light does equally "extend at all times, from the most distant fixed ftars to us, though it then "only ftrikes our eyes, when impelled by the fun, or fome other mass of "fire.

"The difference betwixt the propagation of found and light confifts in "this, that the air, which is the vehicle of found, being, beyond all compa"rison, more denfe than the vehicle of light, its motion is much flower. "Hence we may account for that common phænomenon, why we do not hear "the found of the first stroke of a hammer, when at a distance from it, till it "is at the point of giving the following blow; whereas light is propagated "with incredible fwiftnefs, though at some small distance of time between "its receiving the impulfe, and its communicating it to us; feven minutes, according to Sir ISAAC NEWTON's calculation, being fufficient for its paffage from the fixed ftars down to us. This difference of velocity between "the progreffive motion of light, and that of found, is fenfibly demonstrated "by firing a gun in a large open plain, where the spectator, at a great distance "from it, will perceive the flash a confiderable time before he hears the "noife.

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"The body of light therefore does either exift independently of the luminous body, and only waits to receive a direct impulse from it, in order to upon the organ of vifion; or we must suppose that every luminous body, "whether it be the fun, a candle, or a spark, does produce this light from "itself, and project it to a great diftance from its own body. There is no "medium between these two fuppofitions, and either the one or the other "must be true. But to affert the latter, is to affert a very great improbabi"lity; for if a fpark, which is feen in every part of a large room, fifty cubick "feet in dimenfions, emits from its own substance a quantity of light fufficient to fill the whole room, then there must iffue from that fpark, which is "but a point, a body, the contents of which are fifty cubick feet. How in"credible the fuppofition!

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"Suppofe the lanthorn, on the light-house of Messina, to be feen only eight "cubick leagues, of which itself is the centre; it will follow, that an eye placed in any point of thofe fix cubick leagues will difcern it, and "confequently fo much space will be filled with the light of it. Now how "incredible that a little fire, fome few inches in diameter, fhould diffuse " around it a fubftance capable of filling eight cubick leagues! Suppose the "the lanthorn concealed, and the light immediately difappears; let it be un"covered the moment after, and it will inftantly be feen as far as before, and

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