by St. Paul and St. James +, yet by St. John is turned into that Word which we here tranflate, Almighty. (c) Because he hath all Power originally in Himself, and hath produc'd all things by the Act of his own Will, without any Commander, Counsellor, or Co-adjutor. * Rom. ix.296 Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a Seed. the Cries of them that have reaped are entred into the Ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. *Rev. iv. 8. Holy, (d) Because it is unlimited, abfolute, and fupreme, and Holy, Holy, Lord the Fountain whence all other Dominion is deriv'd; and God Almighty, therefore no way dependent, or accountable. He who is from Ifai. vi. 3. the God of Gods, is, for that reason, alfo the Lord of Lords, is the Lord of Holy, holy, holy, and King of Kings, the only Potentate. Hofts. (e) Behold the Heaven, and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lord's thy GOD, the Earth alfo, with all that is therein*. * Dut. x. 14. The Heavens are thine, the Earth alfo is thine; as for the World and the fulness thereof, thou haft founded them t.Thine, †Pf. lxxxix. 11. O Lord, is the Greatness and the Power, and the Glory, and the Victory, and the Majefty: for all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is thine. Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as Head above all: Both Riches and Honour come of thee, and thou reigneft over all *. (f) Thus we are wholly at the Disposal of His Will, and our present and future Condition framed and order'd by His free, but wife and juft, Decrees. O Houfe of Ifrael, cannot I do with you as this Potter, faith the Lord? Behold as the Clay is in the Potters hand, fo are ye in my hand, O House of Ifrael.* * 1 Chron, xxix. II, 12. * Jer. xviii. 6. (g) Since the Continuation of any Creature is as much from Him as the firft Production, fome of his Creatures being Immortal, He muft Himself be the King Eternal †. † 1 Tim. i. 17. Thy Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom, and thy Dominion endureth throughout all Generations. The Lord fhall reign for ever and ever. * (b) It is neceffary to believe and confefs this Divine Attribute: 1. For the breeding in us an awful Reverence of the Majefty of O OD, and an entire Subjection to His Will. He as our Abfolute Lord, hath a Right to require cf us whatever we *Pfal. cxlv. 13. we can perform: And we, as His Servants and Vaffals, have an Obligation to execute whatever He commands. Why Luke vi. 46. call yeme, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I fay? + 2. To beget in us true Equanimity and Patience, under Sufferings; to prevent all murmuring, repining, and objecting against the Actions or Determinations of GOD; whofe Will is a Law to us, and His Power incapable of Abufe. Let the Potfbeard ftrive with the Potfbeards of the Earth: Shall the Clay fay to him that fashioneth it, what makeft Thou? I was dumb and open'd not my Mouth, because thou † Pfal. xxxix. 9. didst it. † * Ifai. xlv 9. 3. To make us truly fenfible of the Benefits we receive from GOD. No Man can rightly prize the Bleffings of Heaven, but He who acknowledgeth they might juftly have been denied him: No Man can be fufficiently thankful for them, unless he confeffeth that nothing was owing to him from the Donour. I believe in GOD, the Father Almighty, I DO truly profess my felfreally to believe, and fully to be perfuaded, that both Heaven and Earth (a ) and all things contained in them (b) have not their being of themselves, but were made in the beginning: That the manner by which all things were made was by mediate (c), or immediate (d), Creation (e); fo that antecedently to all things befides, there was at firft 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 no Reason can be alledg'd, no Motive affign'd, but His Goodness (f); performed by the determination of His Will (g) at that time (b) which pleased Him, most probably within One hundred and thirty Generations of Men (i), most certainly within not more than fix, or at fartheft seven, thousand Years. I acknowledge this GOD Creator of the World, to be the fame GOD who is the Father (k) of our Lord Jesus Christ (1). *Ifai.i. 2. (a) The antient Hebrews feem to have had no Word in ufe among them which fingly of it self did fignify the World, and therefore they ufed in conjunction the Heaven and Earth, as the two Grand Extremities within which all things are contain'd. When GOD would call a General Affembly of the Creatures, and make up an Univerfal Auditory, the Prophet cries out, Hear O Heavens, and give ear Ỏ Earth*: When He would exprefs the full Splendor of His Majefty, and the utmost extent of his actual Dominion, Thus faith the Lord, the Heaven is my Throne, and the Earth is my Footftool+: When He would challenge unto Himself thofe Glo- + Ifai. Ixvi 1. rious Attributes of Immenfity and Omniprefence, Do not I fill Heaven and Earth? faith the Lord.* *Jer. xxiii. 24. (b) All things vifible and invifible, as in the Nicene Creed. As every Honfe is builded by fome Man, fo He which built all things is GOD* --This Houfe of GOD, tho' uni- *Heb.iii. 4 form, yet is not all of the fame Materials; the Footftool and the Throne are not of the fame Mould; there is a vast difference between the Heavenly Expanfions. This firft aerial Heaven, where GOD fetteth up his Pavilion, where He maketh the Clouds his Chariot, and walketh upon the Wings of the Wind+, is not fo far inferior in Place, as it is in Glory, † Pfal. civ. 3. to the next, the Seat of the Sun and Moon, and Stars innumerable, far greater than the one of them. And yet that fecond Heaven is not fo far above the firft, as beneath the third, into which St. Paul was caught. The Brightness of C the Heb. xi. 3. the Sun doth not fo far surpass the Blackness of a wandring Cloud, as the Glory of that Heaven of Prefence furmounts the fading Beauty of the Starry Firmament. For in this Great Temple of the World, in which the Son of God is the High Priest, the Heaven which we fee is but the Veil, and that which is above, the Holy of Holies. This Veil indeed is rich and glorious, but one day to be rent, and then to admit us into far greater Glory, even to the Mercy Seat and Cherubins. For this third Heaven is the proper Habitation of the Bleffed Angels which constantly attend upon the Throne. And if thofe Glorious and Happy Spirits, those Morning Stars which fang together, thofe Sons of God which shouted for Joy, when the Foundations of the Earth were laid, if they and their Habitation were made, then can we no way doubt of the production of all other Creatures, fo much inferior to them. (c) As all compound material Bodies. (d) As all immaterial Substances, the Orders of Angels, Man's Soul, the Heavens, and the Simple Elementary Bodies. (e) We pretend not to gather the Nature of this Action from the Force and Importance of the Word in Hebrew, or Latin, in both which it is often us'd to fignify any kind of production or formation; but from the Teftimony of GOD, the Creator, in Scripture, and of the World created, in our Reafon. Thro' Faith we understand that the Worlds were made by the Word of GOD, fothat things which are feen were not made of things which do appear*, (or do exift, to which the Phrafe is equivalent.) And the Opinion of the Jewish Church we learn from the Exhortations of the good Mother, in the Book of Maccabees, tho' not Canonical: I beseech thee my Son look upon the Heaven and the Earth, and all that is therein, and confider that God made them † 2 Mac. vii. 28. of things that were not †. With respect to Reason, the old Platonick Notion of a real Matter eternal, and coæval with GOD, not only derogates from the Divine Independence, Abfolutenefs, and All-fufficiency, but is in it felf ridiculous and impoffible. Nor much wifer is the Maxim which Ariftotle delivers as the common Judgment of all Philofophers, Thatout of Nothing, Nothing can be produc'd, if apply'd to the ་ C the Origine of the World; fince this is only true, when it excludes all Caufes, as well Efficient, as Material: Or if reftrain'd to Matter only, is plainly calculated for Second Causes, and the Natural Course of Generation. But this way of Generation could not be the first Production; (as appears efpecially in viviparous Animals, the firft of which could not be fo brought forth;) and confequently can be no Rule or Standard to judge of that Production by. (f) The Wifer Heathens confefs'd the World to be the effect of G O D's Goodness; but then they erroneously conceiv'd it to be no lefs Eternal than that Goodness, flow ing neceffarily from it's Cause, as Light from the Body of the Sun. For the clearing up of which antient Mistake, we are to diftinguish upon the Term Goodness: As it implies a Rectitude and Excellency of all Virtue and Holiness, fo GOD is abfolutely and neceffarily Good; but if we take (as they did,) for Beneficence, or Communicativeness of Good to others, in this Senfe GOD is not neceffarily, but freely, Good; being no way oblig'd to make the leaft Communication of His own Perfections. (g) This is the admirable Prerogative of the Divine Power, that with GOD to will, is to effect, to determine is to perform. And fo it muft needs happen, where the Object makes no refistance, and where the Agent wants no Prepa ration, no Inftrument, no Affiftance. Thou haft created all things, and for thy pleasure (that is, by thy Will,) they are and were created*. Thus G O D did make the Heavens Rev iv. 11ễ and the Earth, by willing them to be. This was the first Command to the Creatures, and their Existence was their firft Obedience: Let there be Light; this is the Injunction: And there was Light; that's the Creation. Which two are fo immediately and intimately the fame, that in the Original there is not the least difference either in Point, or Letter. And even in the Diverfity of the Translation, the Phrase is fo expreffive of GOD's Infinite Power and Majefty, as to raise an Admiration of Mofes, and of his fublime Style, in the Great Heathen Mafter Longinus. (b) With refpect to the determinate Age of the World, (which can ftrictly be prov'd by Revelation only,) the Egyptians and Chaldeans, who valued themselves fo highly on their Aftronomical Obfervations, pretended to a Chrono C 2 logy |