with a sober reflection upon our own original. "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained;" (Psal. viii. 3.) when I view those glorious apparent bodies with my eye, and by the advantage of a glass find great numbers, before beyond the power of my sight, and from thence judge there may be many millions more, which neither eye nor instrument can reach; when I contemplate those far more glorious spirits, the inhabitants of the heavens, and attendants on thy throne: I cannot but break forth into that admiration of the prophet, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" What is that offspring of the earth, that dust and ashes? "What is that son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Psal. viii. 4.) What is there in the progeny of an ejected and condemned father, that thou shouldst look down from heaven, the place of thy dwelling, and take care or notice of him? But if our original ought so far to humble us, how should our fall abase us? That of all the creatures which God made, we should comply with him who first opposed his Maker, and would be equal unto him from whom he new received his being. All other works of God, which we think inferior to us, because not furnished with the light of understanding, or endued with the power of election, are in a happy impossibility of sinning, and so offending of their Maker: the glorious spirits which attend upon the throne of God, once in a condition of themselves to fall, now by the grace of God preserved, and placed beyond all possibility of sinning, are entered upon the greatest happiness, of which the workmanship of God is capable but men, the sons of fallen Adam, and sinners after the similitude of him, of all the creatures are the only companions of those " angels which left their own habitations," (Jude ver. 6.) and are "delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment." (2 Pet. ii. 4.) How should a serious apprehension of our own corruption, mingled with the thoughts of our creation, humble us in the sight of him, whom we alone of all the creatures by our unrepented sins drew unto repentance? How can we look without confusion of face upon that monument of our infamy, recorded by Moses, who first penned the original of humanity, "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart?" (Gen. vi. 6.)

Thirdly, This doctrine is properly efficacious and productive of most cheerful and universal obedience. It made the prophet call for the commandments of God, and earnestly desire to know what he should obey. "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments." (Psal. cxix. 73.) By virtue of our first production, God hath undeniably absolute dominion over us, and consequently there must be due unto him the most exact and complete obedience from us. Which reason will appear

more convincing, if we consider of all the creatures which have been derived from the same fountain of God's goodness, none ever disobeyed his voice but the devil and man. "Mine hand," saith he, "hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens; when I call unto them they stand up together." (Isa. xlviii. 13.) The most loyal and obedient servants which stand continually before the most illustrious prince are not so ready to receive and execute the commands of their sovereign lord, as all the hosts of heaven and earth to attend upon the will of their Creator. "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their hosts by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth," (Isa. xl. 26.) but every one maketh his appearance, ready pressed to observe the designs of their commander-in-chief. Thus the Lord commanded and "they fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." (Judg. v. 20.) He "commanded the ravens to feed Elias, and they brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening;" (1 Kings xvii. 4. 6.) and so one prophet lived merely upon the obedience of the fowls of the air. He spake to the devouring whale, " and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;" (Jonah ii. 10.) and so another prophet was delivered from the jaws of death by the obedience of the fishes of the sea. Do we not read of "fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind, fulfilling his word?" (Psal. cxlviii. 8.) Shall there be a greater coldness in man than in the snow? More vanity in us than in a vapour? More inconstancy than in the wind? If the universal obedience of the creature to the will of the Creator cannot move us to the same affection and desire to serve and please him, they will all conspire to testify against us and condemn us, when God shall call unto them saying, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." (Isa. i. 2.)

Lastly, The creation of the World is of most necessary meditation for the consolation of the servants of God in all the variety of their conditions; "Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God, which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is." (Psal. cxlvi. 5, 6.) This happiness consisteth partly in a full assurance of his power to secure us, his ability to satisfy us. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods." (Psal. xxiv. 1, 2.) By virtue of the first production he hath a perpetual right unto, and power to dispose of, all things: and he who can order and dispose of all, must necessarily be esteemed able to secure and satisfy any creature. "Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the

Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isa. xl. 28.) There is no external resistance or opposition where Omnipotency worketh, no internal weakness or defection of power where the Almighty is the agent ; and consequently there remaineth a full and firm persuasion of his ability in all conditions to preserve us. Again, this happiness consisteth partly in a comfortable assurance, arising from this meditation, of the will of God to protect and succour us, of his desire to preserve and bless us. "My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth: he will not suffer thy foot to be moved," (Psal. cxxi. 2, 3.) saith the prophet David; at once expressing the foundation of his own expectancy and our security. "God will not despise the work of his hands," (Job x. 3.) neither will he suffer the rest of his creatures to do the least injury to his own image. Behold (saith he,) I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord." (Isa. liv. 16, 17.)

Wherefore to conclude our explication of the first Article, and to render a clear account of the last part thereof; that every one may understand what it is I intend, when I make confession of my faith in the Maker of Heaven and Earth, I do truly profess, that I really believe, and am fully persuaded, that both heaven and earth and all things contained in them have not their being of themselves, but were made in the beginning; that the manner by which all things were made was by mediate or immediate creation; so that antecedently to all things beside, there was at first nothing but God, who produced most part of the World merely out of nothing, and the rest out of that which was formerly made of nothing. This I believe was done by the most free and voluntary act of the will of God, of which no reason can be alleged, no motive assigned, but his goodness; performed by the determination of his will at that time which pleased him, most probably within one hundred and thirty generations of men, most certainly within not more than six, or at farthest seven, thousand years. I acknowledge this God, Creator of the World, to be the same God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: and in this full latitude, I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.

situation feared neither perishing by fire nor water), serve only for a confirmation of Noah's flood so many ages past, and the surer expectation of St. Peter's fire, we know not how soon to

come.

It remaineth then that we steadfastly believe, not only that the "heavens and earth, and all the host of them" (Gen. ii. 1.) were made, and so acknowledge a creation, or an actual and immediate dependence of all things on God; but also that all things were created by the hand of God, in the same manner, and at the same time, which are delivered unto us in the books of Moses by the Spirit of God, and so acknowledge a novity, or no long existence of the creature.

Neither will the novity of the World appear more plainly unto our conceptions, than if we look upon our own successions. The vulgar accounts, which exhibit about five thousand six hundred years, though sufficiently refuting an eternity, and allaying all conceits of any great antiquity, are not yet so properly and nearly operative on the thoughts of men, as a reflection upon our own generations. The first of men was but six days younger than the being, not so many than the appearance, of the earth: and if any particular person would consider how many degrees in a direct line he probably is removed from that single person Adam, who bare together the name of man and of the earth from whence he came, he could not choose but think himself so near the original fountain of mankind, as not to conceive any great antiquity of the World. For though the ancient heathens did imagine innumerable* ages and generations of men past, though Örigent did fondly seem to collect

ἡμῖν δὲ, saith he, ὁ Νεῖλος εἴς τε τἆλλα σωτὴς, καὶ τότε ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ἀπορίας σώζει Avóμevoc. p. 291. Thus the Egyptians pretend Nilus saved them from the flames of Phaethon. Nor were they only safe from conflagrations, but from inundations also. For when in Greece or other parts a deluge happened, then all their cities were swept away into the sea: Κατὰ δὲ τήνδε τὴν χώραν, says the priest, οὔτε τότε, οὔτε ἄλλοτε ἄνωθεν ἐπὶ τὰς ἀξούρας ὕδωρ ἐπιῤῥεῖ· τὸ δ ̓ ἐναντίον, κάτωθεν ἐπανιέναι πέφυκεν. ὅθεν καὶ δι ̓ ἃς αἰτίας τἀνθάδε σωζό μένα λέγεται παλαιότατα. p. 292. 3ο Egypt receiving not their waters from above by clouds, but from below by springs from the river Nile, was out of danger in a deluge, and thereby preserved the most ancient monuments and records. But, alas! this is a poor shift to them who believe that in the great and universal flood," all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Gen vii. 11.

So Cicero indeed speaks, innumerabilia sæcula, in his book of Divination: and Socrates in Plato's Theaetetus brings

this argument against the pride of great and noble families, that they who mention a succession of their ancestors who have been rich and powerful, do it merely: ὑπ' ἀπαιδευσίας, οὐ δυναμένων εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἀεὶ βλέπειν, οὐδὲ λογίζεσθαι, ὅτι πάππων καὶ προγόνων μυριάδες ἑκάστῳ γεγόνασιν ἀναρίθμη τοι, ἐν οἷς πλούσιοι καὶ πτωχοί, καὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ δοῦλοι, βάρβαροί τε καὶ Ἕλληνες πολλάκις μυρίοι γεγόνασιν ὁτιοῦν· p. 118. as if every person were equally honourable, having innumerable ancestors, rich and poor, servants and kings, learned and barba

rous.

+ Origen did not only collect the eternity of the World from the coexistence of all God's attributes, as because he is παντοκράτωρ and δημιουργός, therefore he was always so, for how could he be dμουργὸς ἄνευ δημιουργημάτων, οι παντοκράτως ἄνευ τῶν κρατουμένων ; but also from the ninetieth psalm, "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yester. day;" and that at the beginning of Ecclesiasticus, "Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of the rain, and

so much by some misrepresentations of the Scriptures; yet if we take a sober view, and make but rational collections from the chronology of the Sacred Writ, we shall find no man's pedigree very exorbitant, or in his line of generation descent of many score.

When the age of man was long, in the infancy of the World, we find ten generations extend to one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, according to the shortest, which is thought, because the Hebrew, therefore the best account; according to the longest, which, because the Septuagint's, is not to be contemned, two thousand two hundred and sixty-two, or rather two thousand two hundred and fifty-six. From the flood brought at that time upon the earth for the sins of men which polluted it, unto the birth of Abraham, the father of the faithful, not above ten generations, if so many, took up two hundred and ninety-two years according to the least, one thousand one hundred and thirty-two according to the largest account. Since which time the ages of men have been very much alike proportionably long; and it is agreed by all that there have not passed since the birth of Abraham three thousand seven hundred years. Now by the experience of our families, which for their honour and greatness have been preserved, by the genealogies delivered in the Sacred Scriptures, and thought necessary to be presented to us by the blessed evangelists, by the observation and concurrent judgment of former ages, three generations* usually take up a hundred years. If then it be not yet three thousand seven hundred years since the birth of Abraham, as certainly it is not; if all men who are or have been since have descended from Noah, as undoubtedly they have; if Abraham were but the tenth from Noah, as Noah from Adam, which Moses hath assured us: then it is not probable that any person now alive is above one hundred and

the days of eternity?" But Methodius, bishop and martyr, hath well concluded that disputation: ταῦτά φησιν ὁ Ωριγένης σπουδάζων, καὶ ἄρα οἷα παίζει. [Vid. p. 83.]

By the Greeks called yeveal, which are successions of generations from father to son: as in St. Matt. i. 17. Indeed sometimes they take it for other spaces of time: as Artemidorus observes, for seven years. Κατ ̓ ἐνίους μὲν ἔτη ζ'. ὅθεν καὶ λέγουσιν οἱ ἰατρικοί, τῶν δύο γενεῶν (not

Tav, as Wolfius and Portus would correct it) μηδένα (not μὴ δεῖν, as Suidas) φλεβοτομεῖν, τὸν τεσσαρεσκαιδεκέτη (που τεσ σαρεσκαιδέκατον, as Suidas transcribing him negligently) Xiyor. Sometimes they interpret it twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years, as appears by Hesychius. And by that last account they reckoned the years of Nestor : Κατ ̓ ἐνίους δὲ λ'. ὅθεν καὶ τὸν Νέστορα βούλονται εἰς ἐννενήκοντα ἔτη γε

yovéval. So Artemidorus and the Grammarians. Although I cannot imagine that to be the sense of Homer. IX. A. 250. Τῷδ ̓ ἤδη δύο μὲν γενεαὶ μερόπων ἀνθρώπων Ἐφθίαθ ̓, οἵ οἱ πρόσθεν ἅμα τράφεν ἠδ ̓ ἐγέ

TOYTO.

And I conceive that gloss in Hesychius, Ἐπὶ διαστήματος χρόνων τῶν μὴ κατ ̓ αὐτὸ BECinórov, to be far more properly applicable to that place. But, in the sense of which we now speak, it is taken for the third part ordinarily of a hundred years; as Herodotus, mentioning the Egyptian feigned genealogies: Καίτοι τριηκόσιαι μὲν ἀνδρῶν γενεαὶ δυνέαται μύρια ἔτεα· three hundred generations equalize ten thousand years: γενεαὶ γὰς τρεῖς ἀνδρῶν ἑκατὸν Tá iori. Euterp. c. 142. And after him Clemens Alex. Strom. 1. i. c. 21. p. 145. Εἰς τὰ ἑκατὸν ἔτη τρεῖς ἐγκαταλέγονται γεvtal.