lecture contained ample evidence, we presume, that the civilized nations of antiquity, assigned no sufficient cause for the existence of any thing. On the contrary, Moses begins his account of the origin of time, by placing before you a being, the infinitude of whose wisdom and power, are demonstrated by his acts. Instead of adducing metaphysical arguments in proof of the divine existence, he proceeds, at once, to describe the order in which he developed his attributes. The general terms, "heaven and earth," unquestionably comprehend the material and frame-work of the universe; or, as St. John defines them, "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them!"

On the first day, the whole mineral fabric of this globe, called the "earth," and "light," were produced at once. "Common sense," says Granville Penn, "discerns that there can be no intermediate stage or degree between non-existence, and existence, and therefore no graduality in passing from the one state to the other." 'God, in the beginning," observes Sir Isaac Newton, "formed all material things in moveable particles, variously associating and composing them, in the first creation, and setting them in the

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order most conducive to the end for which he made them, with respect to size, figure, space, and all other properties!" Thus, matter, motion, and light, were produced instantaneously by the omnific fiat of the supreme being; the earth commenced its diurnal revolution on its axis, while the light scattered over the confused elements of matter, or existing in some localized form, marked the distinction between "the evening and the morning" of the first day!"

On the second day, "God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

I shall only make one remark upon the first verse of the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' The original here is very emphatical, both as to the earth, and as to the heavens. I have before remarked, that the original word for heavens signifies the placers; but this name was not given, until the matter of the heavens was formed into an expansion, or firmament, as we are told, Gen. i. 8.; and God called the firmament heaven.' Therefore I apprehend the expression in verse first, is not, God created heaven, nor merely the heavens, which would have been sufficiently denoted by the original word, but a particle is interposed which makes

it peculiarly emphatical. In general it signifies the very when applied to a person, it signifies himself; when to a thing, itself; when to any thing considered as material, it signifies the very substance, matter, or essence of the thing; so here, the first thing that God did was, to create the very matter of the heavens and of the earth. This matter of the heavens, I would therefore call the celestial ether itself. This celestial ether was machined, or formed into a machine by the Creator; as appears from Ps. viii. 3. When I view Thy

the moon and the

heavens, the work of Thy fingers, stars which Thou hast machined.' Again, Pro. viii. 27., ‘In his machining the heavens, I was there.' The original verb, from which both words are formed, properly signifies, to place and adapt things together in such a manner, as to become fit for operation; which is the same as to machine: and it is very probable, that the English word machine, is derived from the same verb: so that God, having created the matter, or substance of the Heavens, machined it in the next place, putting the several parts together in such a manner and order, as to render it fit to operate when He should set it in motion. These things being done, the heavens became a machine, a delegated agent, and acted after God had rested from his