believed but what may be comprehended, the very being of God must be rejected, and all his unsearchable perfections. If we believe the attributes of God to be infinite, how can we comprehend them? We are strangely puzzled in plain, ordinary, finite things; but it is madness to pretend to comprehend what is infinite; and yet, if the perfections of God be not infinite, they cannot belong to him.' Since then the Scriptures teach that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one, and since the unity of three persons who partake of the same Divine nature must of necessity be a unity of the most perfect kind, we may rest assured that the more we can abstract from every idea of inequality, division, and separation, provided we preserve the distinction of persons, our conceptions approach the nearer to the truth."-(Hill's Lectures.)

66

The Bible doctrine of the Trinity is one of those sublime and glorious mysteries, which the mind of man, at least while shrouded in clay, cannot penetrate. We may study and meditate until lost in thought, yet never can we comprehend the mode and nature of the Divine Being. A trinity of persons, in the unity of Godhead, is something of which we can form no definite idea. The fact is revealed to us, beyond contradiction, in God's holy word. But, as to the manner of that fact, God says to reason, noble and mighty as is that faculty of the soul, Thus far shalt thou go," "and here shall thy proud" flight "be stayed;" and while reason lies thus humbled in the dust, shorn of her vaunted strength, and perhaps sullenly murmuring she will never essay another heavenward flight, faith meekly whispers, "I am the resurrection and the life." (( Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." And when we shall have thrown off this earthly vestment for the "robe of righteousness," and when "we shall know even as also we are known," who can say what things may not be revealed to us? What knowledge can be so desirable to an immortal spirit as the knowledge of its Maker? Yet, hidden as are the mysteries of the Christian faith, they are not gloomy nor dark; for they concern him who is light, and love, and life. We are bound to believe all God has graciously revealed of himself; and it is no argu ment against belief in the Trinity, to say it is a mystery incomprehensible Dost thou, proud mortal, doubt or disbelieve thine own existence? and yet, canst thou tell how the coursing of the red fluid through the veins preserves thee a probationer in time? "Lord, I do believe; help thou mine unbelief." Let me know thee in the pardon of all my sins through the Son of thy love, and in the enlightening and comforting influences of thy Holy Spirit! Here let me walk by faith,

till "faith is turned to sight" in a brighter world, and I shall see without the dimming veil of mortality before my raptured vision!

LECTURE VI.

THE CREATION.

I. We examine in what sense creation is to be understood. The original word rendered created, in the first of Genesis, is bara, which, according to Kimchi, Buxtorf, and learned critics generally, means to bring forth into being what previously had no existence; an egression from nonentity to entity. From the prime meaning of the word itself, as well as from the process, as presented in the Mosaic record, we learn that God, "in the beginning," or at the commencement of time, made or created the matter of which the heavens and the earth were formed.

Many of the ancient heathens, ignorant of revelation and guided only by the wild speculations of their own imagination, had such inadequate conceptions of the character of Deity, that they could not conceive it possible for him to create the material universe out of nothing. Hence they supposed that matter, in a chaotic state, existed from all eternity, and that the Deity only arranged and combined the discordant materials, so as to bring order out of confusion, and cause the universe to appear in its harmony and beauty.

As we have already seen, this fabulous account of creation is contrary to the Mosaic history. St. Paul, in Heb. xi. 3, appears to aim a blow directly at this error of the Pagan philosophers, when he tells us, that "Through faith 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." The "things which do appear" are material; but, according to the text just quoted, the worlds were not made of preexistent matter. Indeed, the first work of creation, according to the Bible, appears to have been to call forth into being the materials of which the worlds were afterwards framed. Thus, we perceive that God, in the highest sense of the word, created all things out of nothing. It might easily be shown, that the Mosaic account of the origin of the world is the only consistent theory of the material universe ever presented. The views upon this subject, of those who have rejected revelation, may all be embraced in two general divisions. First, the system already noticed, which admits the eternity of matter, but allows

that the power of God was exerted in forming, out of the original materials furnished to his hand, and which were coëxistent with him, the worlds as we see them displayed around us.

The second theory is that which teaches the eternity of the material universe, in its properly organized condition.

Both these theories are not only not countenanced by revelation, but are in direct contradiction to its plain declarations. That they are also absurd in themselves, and encumbered by insuperable difficulties in the view of reason, a little reflection will clearly evince.

First; to suppose that matter existed from eternity is to ascribe to it self-existence. That which existed from eternity could not have been produced by anything else; consequently, all the cause of its existence must be in itself; and this implies that it is self-existent and independent. Again; that which is self-existent and independent must exist necessarily; for if the cause of its existence has always been in itself, 't could not but have existed; otherwise, the necessary connection between cause and effect would be destroyed. Hence, if we say that matter existed from eternity, we assert that it existed necessarily; and if its existence was necessary, so were all its parts and properties; for the parts and properties of any substance inhere in the constitution of its essence. It appears, therefore, that if matter is eternal, it must exist necessarily in all its parts and properties. And if so, the particular state in which it exists must be necessary; and then, the same eternal necessity in itself, which determined the state of its existence, must determine its continuance in the same state; consequently, if matter had existed from eternity in a chaotic form, it must have continued forever in the same form; and upon that hypothesis, the worlds could never have been produced from chaos. Thus, the eternity of matter is seen to be unreasonable and absurd.

In the second place, to suppose that the world existed from all eternity, in its organized state, is unreasonable.

For, first, if eternal, it must be so in all its parts; and if in all its parts, then the inhabitants thereof are included; but to suppose an eternal succession of animals would be to suppose an infinite number made up of finite numbers, which would be unreasonable; for we may add as many finite numbers together as we please, yet they never can amount to infinity.*

The present state of improvement in the arts and sciences argues

*Bishop Pearson remarks that, "The actual eternity of this world is so far from being necessary, that it is of itself most improbable; and without the infallible certainty of faith, there is no single person carries more evidences of his youth than the world of its novelty." (Exposition of the Creed.)

one.

against the eternity of the world. As a natural consequence, each generation may profit by the labors and experience of the preceding So that, the natural course of improvement, from age to age, is progressive; but all the great and important inventions and discoveries in the arts and sciences, are of comparatively recent origin. To account for this, upon the supposition that men have eternally existed upon the earth, would be exceedingly difficult.

Once more; the comparatively modern date of the most ancient records, is another argument against the eternity of the world, in its organized state. Had the nations of the earth existed from all eternity, we might reasonably suppose that history, monumental or recorded, would carry us back for multiplied hundreds of centuries. These are only a few of the difficulties with which we find ourselves entangled, when, in reference to the origin of the world, we wish to become "wise above what is written."

II. THE DATE of creation. In the next place, we inquire concerning the time when the creation of the world took place.

According to the Septuagint, the date of creation is placed near six thousand years before Christ; but Archbishop Usher has shown, to the general satisfaction of the learned, that, according to the Hebrew chronology, the creation took place four thousand and four years previous to the birth of Christ. The original Hebrew is certainly better authority than a translation which, like the Septuagint, is admitted to contain many mistakes. Accordingly, the computation of Usher has been generally acceded to as correct.

Corroborative testimony to the correctness of this account may be gathered from general history and traditionary legends of the different nations of the earth. None of these, which bear any evidence of authenticity, extend so far as the date of Moses; and from the representation which they make in reference to the times of their earliest date, the evidence can scarcely be resisted that the world was then in a state of infancy.

The effort has, however, been made by scepticism, to discredit the Mosaic testimony in reference to the date of creation, as being entirely too modern; and the aid of science has been summoned to combat the statements of Scripture. Geologists, in modern times, have pretended to discover, from the structure of the earth, that it must have existed long anterior to the date of Moses. As described in the language of Cowper :

"Some drill and bore

The solid earth, and from the strata there
Extract a register, by which we learn
That he who made it, and revealed its date

To Moses, was mistaken in its age."