EXPOSITORY DISCOURSES, &c. DISCOURSE I. ON THE BOOK IN GENERAL, AND THE FIRST DAY'S CREATION, Genesis i. 1-4. Ir is common for the writers of other histories to go back in their researches as far as possible; but Moses traces his from the beginning. The whole book is upon the origin of things, even of all things that bad a beginning. The visible creation, the generations of man, moral evil among men, the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah, the new world, the church in the family of Abraham, the various nations and tribes of man: every thing, in short, now going on in the world, may be traced hither as to its spring-head. Without this history the world would be in total darkness, not knowing whence it came, nor whither it goeth. In the first page of this sacred book a child may learn more in an hour than all the philosophers in the world learned without it in thousands of years. There is a majestic sublimity in the introduction. No apology, preamble, or account of the writer: you are introduced at once into the very heart of things. No vain conjectures about what was before time, nor why things were done thus and thus; but simply so it was. In this account of the creation nothing is said on the being of God: this great truth is taken for granted. May not this apparent omission be designed to teach us, that those who deny the existVOL. V. 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 wri ters 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 cause— ELOHIM, 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 OF 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 general, 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 called 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 thoa, O SPIRIT -That with mighty wings outspread, Dove like, satt'st brooding on the vast abyss, 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 even of night and day, which are well known to arise from the situation |