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, upon the birth of Abraham, the father of the faithful, not above ten generations, if so many, took up two hundred and ninetytwo 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 and 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 (a) generations usually take up a hundred years. If then it be not yet three thousand and seven hundred years since the birth of Abraham, as certainly it is not; if all men which 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 is it not probable that any person now alive is above one hundred and thirty generations removed from Adam. And indeed thus admitting but the Greek account of less than five thousand years since the flood, we may easily bring all sober or probable accounts of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Chineses, to begin since the dispersion at Babel. Thus having expressed at last the time, so far as it is necessary to be known, I shall conclude this second consideration of the nature and notion of creation.

Now being under the terms of heaven and earth we have proved all things beside God to be contained, and that the making of all these things was a clear production of them out of nothing; the third part of the explication must of necessity follow, that he which made all things is God. This truth is so evident in itself, and so confessed by all men, that none did ever assert the world was made, but withal affirmed that it was God first edition.]

[Upon. This means to the birth of Abraham. The words "upon the "birth three thousand seven "hundred years

h [In the first edition it was, "If "then it be not yet four thousand years since the universal deluge."]

66 were not in the

who made it. There remaineth therefore nothing more in this particular, than to assert God so the Creator of the world as he is described in this Article.

Being then we believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth, and by that God we expressed already a singularity of the Deity; our first assertion which we must make good is, that the one God did create the world. Again, being whosoever is that God cannot be excluded from this act of creation, as being an emanation of the Divinity, and we seem by these words to appropriate it to the Father, beside whom we shall hereafter shew that we believe some other persons to be the same God; it will be likewise necessary to declare the reason why the creation of the world is thus signally attributed to God the Father.

The first of these deserves no explication of itself, it is so obvious to all which have any true conception of God. But because it hath been formerly denied, (as there is nothing so senseless, but some kind of heretics have embraced, and may be yet taken up in times of which we have no reason to presume better than of the former,) I shall briefly declare the creation of the world to have been performed by that one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As for the first, there is no such difference between things of the world as to infer a diversity of makers of them, nor is the least or worst of creatures in their original any way derogatory to the Creator. God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it Gen. i. 31. was very good, and consequently like to come from the fountain of all goodness, and fit always to be ascribed to the same. Whatsoever is evil, is not so by the Creator's action, but by the creature's defection.

In vain then did the heretics of old, to remove a seeming inconvenience, renounce a certain truth; and whilst they (b) feared to make their own God evil, they made him partial, or but half the Deity, and so a companion at least with an evil God. For dividing all things of this world into natures substantially evil and substantially good, and apprehending a necessity of an origination conformable to so different a condition, they imagined one God essentially good, as the first principle of the one, another God essentially evil, as the original of the other. And this strange heresy began upon the first (c) spreading of the Gospel; as if the greatest light could not appear without a shadow.

Whereas there is no nature originally sinful, no substance in

5.

itself evil, and therefore no being which may not come from the Isa. xlv. 7. same fountain of goodness. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things, saith he who also said, I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me. Vain then is that conceit which framed two gods, one of them called Light, the other Darkness; one good, the other evil; refuted in the first words of the Creed, I believe in God, Maker of heaven and earth.

But as we have already proved that one God to be the Father, so must we yet farther shew that one God the Father to be the Maker of the world. In which there is no difficulty at all: the whole church at Jerusalem hath sufficiently declared this truth Acts iv. 24 in their devotions: Lord, thou art God which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. Jesus then was the child of that God which made the heaven and the earth, and consequently the Father of Christ is the Creator of the world.

:

We know that Christ is the light of the Gentiles, by his own interpretation; we are assured likewise that his Father gave him, by his frequent assertion: we may then as certainly conclude that the Father of Christ is the Creator of the world, by Isa. xlii. 5, the Prophet's express prediction: For thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens and stretched them out, he which spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.

6.

And now this great facility may seem to create the greater difficulty for being the Apostles teach us that the Son made all things, and the Prophets that by the Spirit they were produced, how can we attribute that peculiarly in the Creed unto the Father, which in the Scriptures is assigned indifferently to the Son and to the Spirit? Two reasons may particularly be rendered of this peculiar attributing the work of creation to the Father. First, in respect of those heresies arising in the infancy of the Church, which endeavoured to destroy this truth, and to introduce another Creator of the world, distinguished from the

[The meaning of gave in this place may be seen in the end of the following quotation.]

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. An error so destructive to the Christian religion, that it raseth even the foundations of the Gospel, which refers itself wholly to the promises in the Law, and pretends to no other God, but that God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; acknowledgeth no other speaker by the Son, than him that spake by the Prophets: and therefore whom Moses and the Prophets call Lord of heaven and earth, of him our blessed Saviour signifies himself to be the Son, rejoicing in spirit, and saying, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and Luke x. 21. earth. Secondly, in respect of the paternal priority in the Deity, by reason whereof that which is common to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, may be rather attributed to the Father, as the first Person in the Trinity. In which respect the Apostle hath made a distinction in the phrase of emanation or production: To us 1 Cor. viii. there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and wce by him. And our Saviour hath acknowledged, The Son can John v. 19. do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; which speaketh some kind of priority in action, according to that of the Person. And in this sense the Church did always profess to believe in God the Father, (d) Creator of heaven and earth.

The great necessity of professing our faith in this particular appeareth several ways, as indispensably tending to the illustration of God's glory, the humiliation of mankind, the provocation to obedience, the aversion from iniquity, and all consolation in our duty.

6.

andli. 15.

God is of himself infinitely glorious, because his perfections are absolute, his excellencies indefective; and the splendor of this glory appeareth unto us in and through the works of his hands. The invisible things of him from the creation of the world Rom. i. 20. are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. For he hath made the Jer. x. 12. earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion. After a long enumeration of the wonderful works of the creation, the Psalmist breaketh forth into this pious meditation; O Lord, how manifold Psalm civ. are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all. If then the 24. glory of God be made apparent by the creation, if he have made Prov.xvi. 4. all things for himself, that is, for the manifestation of his glorious attributes, if the Lord rejoiceth in his works, because his glory Psalm civ. shall endure for ever; then is it absolutely necessary we should 31.

13.

2, 3, 4, 5.

confess him Maker of heaven and earth, that we may sufficiently Ps. cxlviii. praise and glorify him. Let them praise the name of the Lord, saith David, for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the earth and heaven. Thus did the Levites teach the children of Neh.ix. 5,6. Israel to glorify God: Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all things that are therein. And the same hath Rom.xi. 36. St. Paul taught us: For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. Furthermore, that we may be assured that he which made both heaven and earth will be glorified in both, the Prophet calls upon all those celesPsa. cxlviii. tial hosts to bear their part in his hymn: Praise ye him all his angels, praise ye him all his hosts. Praise ye him sun and moon, praise him all ye stars of light. Praise him ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created. And Rev. iv. 10, the twenty-four Elders in the Revelation of St. John, fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns, the emblems of their borrowed and derived glories, before the throne, the seat of infinite and eternal Majesty, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and Psa. xix. 1. for thy pleasure they are and were created. Wherefore, if the heaPsalm cxlv. vens declare the glory of God, and all his works praise him; then shall his saints bless him; they shall speak of the glory of his kingdom, and talk of his power. And if man be silent, God will speak; while we through ingratitude will not celebrate, he himJer.xxvii.5.self will declare it, and promulgate: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm.

II.

10, II.

Secondly, The doctrine of the world's creation is most properly effectual towards man's humiliation. As there is nothing more destructive to humanity than pride, and yet not any thing to which we are more prone than that; so nothing can be more properly applied to abate the swelling of our proud conceptions, than a due consideration of the other works of God, with a Psal. viii. 3. 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; when I view those glorious apparent bodies with