furnished with innumerable kinds of inhabitants, and amply supplied with all things for the production and maintenance of a continued and multiplied succession of animate and inanimate creatures! Yet this World, admirable as it must appear to every considerate mind, is but a small part of that universe, which from the discoveries of astronomers we have reason to believe 'consists of innumerable suns, with their revolving planets, all created by the same Almighty Being! Who that reflects but a moment upon the infinite power and wisdom which were requisite to perform these astonishing works, can forbear to adore, with the most profound veneration, the great Author of them?

Why the Creator, who could have brought all things into existence instantaneously, chose to employ six days in creating his world, we are not told, but it is not improbable he did so, that attendant Angels might view them distinctly, and have new causes for adoration; and that Mankind in future ages, when they heard the history of creation, might be led to consider with particular attention the numberless benefits resulting to them from the various works of GoD, and glorify his holy name from day to day. A WORLD brought to perfection in a moment would have been an object too great for the contemplation even of the highest intellectual powers, and infinitely beyond the limited capacity of the human mind.

Let us imagine ourselves among the spectators of the wonderful scene exhibited in the gradual production of our earthly Globe, and its appendages. How grand and sublime was the first object of terrestrial creation, the stupendous chaos! How astonishing the effect of the CREATOR'S Command, "Let there be light!” How wonderful the division of the waters, and the consolidating B. 6

of

of the earthy particles! How delightful the sight of Trees and Plants rising from the earth, and unfolding to view, in the course of a few hours, all the varieties of vegetable beauty! accompanied by innumerable kinds of insects, expanding as rapidly to their most perfect state! How astonishingly magnificent, even to celestial beings, the first sight of the sun, heightening with his resplendent beams all the charms of nature in one hemisphere of the globe; and the moon amidst the stars, shedding her mild reflected light on the other, and giving peculiar graces to every visible object! How truly interesting must it have been to witness the production of living creatures! To behold the seas swarming with innumerable fishes, both great and small; and the same watery element producing abundantly fowls and birds of all the different kinds which naturalists described! To observe. the feathered tribes taking their winged flight in the aerial region, or perching among the branches; and to hear them from every leafy shrub pour forth their sweet melodious warblings! To see the huge elephant, the mighty lion, and all the beasts of the forest, rise from their parent earth, and mingle with the cattle of the field, and the reptile tribes! But what must have been the wonder and delight of Angels at beholding the last great work, the formation of MAN, a creature designed by Almighty Goodness to be their future associate, an inhabitant of heaven! Well might the sons of GOD,, those benevolent Spirits who surround his throne, shout with joy, when the foundation of the earth was laid* ! What then should be the sentiments of the human race, for whose use and pleasure these wonders were created? Ought they who are constant partakers of innumerable earthly blessings, who are endued with faculties by means

* Job xxviii. 7.

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of which they can understand from whose goodness they all proceed; ought, I say, these favoured creatures, who alone are capable of knowing their CREATOR, to slight His inestimable gifts, or misapply them to purposes directly contrary to the intention of the Almighty in bestowing them? Nothing can be more ungrateful than to pass over the Works of GOD without consideration. To study them is among the highest gratifications the human mind can enjoy, provided this study is conducted upon religious principles. The Book of Nature is open to all." On every leaf CREATOR GOD is written." Let us then daily employ some of those intervals of leisure which all may command, in examining those objects which fall under our immediate observation, and we shall find cause to say, with the inspired Psalmist, from the conviction of our own minds, "O LORD, how ma nifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all, the Earth is full of thy Riches *!" Let us also reflect with gratitude upon the wonderful condescension of the ALMIGHTY CREATOR, in imparting to MAN a portion of his own Spirit, to make him immortal, and render him a fit candidate for heavenly bliss, and let us endeavour, by all the means in our power, to preserve the divine Image in our souls, that we may be found in the Likeness of GOD.

It is reasonable to conclude, that at the first creation all was disposed for harmony and peace: impressed with the IMAGE OF THE DEITY, the souls of mankind were adorned with every mental perfection, and inclined by the HOLY SPIRIT to obey their Maker and shew benevolence to all the creatures over which they had dominion; the inferior creatures were individually impressed with an instinctive submission to the will of man, and with peaceable dispositions towards each other: so that MAN

* Psalm civ, 24.

might without danger caress the tyger and the wolf, or take the serpent to his bosom; and the lamb without fear lie down with the lion. Man had then no privilege to make sanguinary repasts upon the bodies of the animal tribes; neither were the animals at liberty to prey upon each other. What a delightful place must the earth have been at that time! Well might the CREATOR when he viewed his collective Works pronounce them good! Even now, that evil has such predominant of influence, the world, as far as it respects the works nature and Providence, is indisputably good; and much happiness may be enjoyed in it: the great privilege of dominion still continues with the human race, and gives them decided advantages over creatures vastly superior to themselves in strength. Mankind still continue to replenish and subdue the earth, whilst the beasts of the forest, and cattle of the field, still submit to his hand: ought not mankind then to observe the rules of justice towards the brute creation, by giving to all, under their immediate command, food in due season, and kind and merciful treatment? O let us never exercise cruelty upon the smallest creature that is within our power : but ever remember, that every thing which breathes is the object of divine benevolence; that they who would receive mercy from GoD are expected to practise it to-wards all that have life; and that the truly merciful man will be merciful to his beast.

SECTION II.

OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH, AND GOD'S FIRST COVENANT WITH MANKIND.

From Genesis, Chap. ii.

THUS the heavens and the earth were finished, and

all the host of them.

And

And on the seventh day GoD ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it ; because that in it he had rested from all his work which GOD created and made.

And the LORD GOD planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed

And out of the ground made the LORD GOD to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden : and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

The name of the first is Pison: that is it which com. passeth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth towards the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

And the LORD GOD took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.

And the LORD GOD commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

ANNO