principle of true religion, is immensely in advance of the greatest men of heathen antiquity; who either acknowledged no God at all, or a multiplicity of deities of limited power and presence, capricious in the bestowal of their favours, and some of whom were regarded as the patrons of the most odious vices, and even of the foulest crimes. According to the testimony of Scripture, the entire universe stands related to God as His creation, the offspring of His power; and He, the Maker of all worlds, is not only almighty, eternal, every where present, and acquainted with all things, but is also infinitely wise, holy, just, and good,—characters of which are impressed upon all His works.

No act of God is asserted with greater frequency and clearness by the inspired writers than the act of creation. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Gen. i. 1.)* "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." (Exod. xx. 11.) "The living God......made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." (Acts xiv. 15.) These texts are only a specimen of the current language of the sacred writers on this great question.

In what manner the process of the creation was accomplished we profess not either to explain or understand. It does not indeed appear that the human

* "I read that 'in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' by which I understand, that, at some remote period,-which may or may not baffle human arithmetic,-it was the pleasure of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost,-three Persons, co-eternal and co-equal, one God, out of nothing to create the entire universe."-Burgon's "Inspiration and Interpretation," pp. 24, 25. Edition of 1861.

mind, at least in its present imperfect state, is capable of apprehending the exact mode of the connexion between the act of the Almighty's will, and the existence of all created nature. We regard the creation as a revealed fact, announced to us by "God that cannot lie." "Through faith" in His testimony "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." (Heb. xi. 3.) Some of the wiser heathens, it would seem, thought that the matter of the universe was eternal; and hence they ascribed to their gods nothing more than the fabrication of different: objects out of pre-existing materials. Whereas the Scriptures ascribe to God the act of creation in the full and unrestricted meaning of that term. He gave exist-> ence to that which previously had no being.

Stupendous as the work of the creation appears to us, especially considering the magnitude of the universe, and the endless variety of objects which it comprehends, it is sometimes spoken of in Holy Scripture as scarcely a work at all, but as produced by a simple volition of the Almighty. "God said, Let there be light and there was light;" (Gen. i. 3;) and so of every other part of the creation. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." (Psalm xxxiii. 6, 9.)

:

Modern science asserts that the earth existed and, was inhabited through vast periods of duration before the time mentioned by Moses for the creation of man and of the other classes of animals which he has described. This statement the sacred narrative neither affirms nor

denies. It teaches, however, that whatever now exists, or may have formerly existed, received its being from God. He only has existed from eternity; and all other beings, whatever may be their nature, are the creatures of His power. "Since the fossil Flora, and the various races of animated creatures which geologists have classified with so much industry and skill, confessedly belong to a period of immemorial antiquity; and, with very rare exceptions indeed, represent extinct species; I, as an interpreter of Scripture, am not at all concerned with them. Moses asserts nothing at all about them one way or the other. What Revelation says is, that nearly six thousand years ago, after a mighty catastrophe,— unexplained alike in its cause, its nature, and its duration, the Creator of the universe instituted upon the surface of this earth of ours that order of things which has continued ever since, and which is observed at this instant to prevail; that He was pleased to parcel out His transcendent operations, and to spread them over six days; and that He ceased from the work of creation on the seventh day. All extant species, whether of the vegetable or the animal kingdom, including man himself, belong to the week in question." *

The connexion between creation and providence is direct and obvious. No being is independent but God Himself. Every creature is as absolutely dependent upon its Creator, for the continuance of its existence, as it was for the commencement of its existence; and but for His sustaining power, it must immediately return to its original nothingness. He "upholdeth all

* Burgon's "Inspiration and Interpretation," pp. xciii., xciv. Edition of 1861.

things by the word of His power;" (Heb. i. 3;) "by Him all things consist;" (Col. i. 17;) "and for His pleasure all things are and were created." (Rev. iv. 11.) In respect of dependence upon God, there is no difference between one creature and another. The highest order of angels are on a level with the feeblest insects. All alike subsist by the will of Him that made them. No being is independent but the great First Cause.

Should it be alleged, that many objects in nature are too mean and insignificant to engage the attention and care of the infinite and eternal God: the answer is, that He made them; He made them what they are; and if the creation of them was not unworthy of His greatness, neither is it unworthy of Him to extend to them His guardian care. Nor must we measure His counsels and acts by our apprehension of what is great and little. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isai. lv. 8, 9.)

From the act of creation arises God's absolute right of dominion over all nature. As the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all that they contain, they belong to Him; and His right to dispose of them at His pleasure is indisputable. He is the "Possessor of heaven and earth." (Gen. xiv. 19, 22.) "All that is in the heaven and in the earth is" His. (1 Chron. xxix. 11.) "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of hosts." (Haggai ii. 8.) "Every beast in the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." (Psalm 1. 10.) "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;

the world, and they that dwell therein." (Psalm xxiv. 1.) Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine." (Ezek. xviii. 3.) He therefore "doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?" (Dan. iv. 35.)

The manner in which He exercises His right of dominion is every way worthy of Himself. His government is not a tyranny, but a reign of benevolence and of righteousness. Having endued mankind with understanding and moral freedom, He holds them responsible for their actions; but His "law," under which they are placed, "is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good;" (Rom. vii. 12;) and His "statutes are right, rejoicing the heart." (Psalm xix. 8.) His government, therefore, both providential and moral, is declared to be a ground of universal joy and gladness. "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof." (Psalm xcvii. 1.) His will, if we may so speak, is always regulated by the moral attributes of His nature. As He "cannot lie," so He cannot do anything that is unworthy of His wisdom, His justice, His mercy, His holiness, His goodness. When His purposes are fully disclosed and accomplished, all His works and ways will therefore be celebrated, with unmingled admiration and delight, by angels and sanctified men for ever. "He is a Rock, His work is perfect all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.” (Deut. xxxii. 4.)

From God's proprietorship of all nature the most