BOOK III.

OF THE EXTERNAL WORKS OF GOD.

OF CREATION IN GENERAL.

HAVING considered the internal and eternal acts of the divine mind, and the transactions of the divine Persons with each other in eternity; I proceed to consider the external acts and works of God, or his goings forth out of himself, in the exercise of his power and goodness in the works of creation, providence, redemption, and grace; which works of God, without himself, in time, are agreeable to the acts of his mind within himself, in eternity. These are no other than his eternal purposes and decrees carried into execution; for he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, Eph. i. 11. I shall begin with the work of creation, which is what God himself began with; and shall consider the following things concerning it.

I. What creation is. Sometimes it only signifies the natural production of creatures into being, in the ordinary way, by generation and propogation; so the birth of persons, or the bringing them into being, in the common course of nature, is called the creation of them, and God is represented as their Creator, Ezek. xxi. 30. and xxviii. 14. Eccles. xii. 1. Sometimes it designs acts of providence, in bringing about affairs of moment and importance in the world; as when it is said, I form the light, and create darkness; which is explained by what follows, I make peace, and create evil: It is to be understood of prosperous and adverse dispensations of providence; which are the Lord's doings, and are according to his sovereign will and pleasure, Isai. lv. 7. So the renewing of the face of the earth, and re-production of herbs, plants, &c. in the returning spring of the year, is called a creation of them, Psal. civ. 30. And the renewing of the world, in the end of time, though the substance of it will remain, is called a creating new heavens and a new earth, Isai. Ixv. 17. Sometimes it intends the doing something unusual, extraordinary and wonderful; such as the earth's opening its mouth, and swallowing up the rebellious Israelites in the wilderness, Numb. xvi. 30. and the wonderful protection of the church of God, Isai. iv. 5. and particularly the amazing incarnation of the Son of God, Jer. xxxi. 22. But, to observe no more, creation may be distinguished into

mediate and immediate; mediate creation is the production of beings, by the power of God, out of pre-existent matter, which of itself was not disposed to produce them; so God is said to create great whales and other fishes, which, at his command, the waters brought forth abundantly; and he created man, male and female; and yet man, as to his body, was made of the dust of the earth, and the woman out of the rib of man, Gen. i. 21, 27. and, indeed, all that was created on the five last days of the creation, was made by the allcommanding power and will of God, out of matter which before existed, though indisposed of itself for such a production. Immediate creation, and which is properly creation, is the production of things out of nothing, or the bringing of a non-entity into being, as was the work of the first day, the creating the heavens and the earth, the unformed chaos, and the light commanded to arise upon it, Gen. i. 1-3. And these are the original of all things; so that all things ultimately are made out of nothing, which is the voice of divine revelation, and our faith is directed to assent unto and receive; 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, Heb. xi. 3. but of things unseen, and, indeed, which had no existence; for God, by his all-commanding word and power, called things that are not, as though they were, Rom iv. 17. that is, called and commanded by his mighty power, non-entities into being; and this is what is meant by a creation of things out of nothing; and so the word, used for the making of the heavens and the earth in the beginning, signifies, as Aben, Ezra, and Kimchi observe; and indeed, it cannot be conceived of otherwise, but that the world was made out of nothing: for,

If nothing existed from eternity but God, or if nothing existed before the world was but himself, by which his eternity is described, and which he claims as peculiar to himself, Psal. xc. 2. Isai. xliii. 10. and if the world was made by him, as it most certainly was, it must be made by him out of nothing, since be_ · sides himself, there was nothing existing, out of which it could be made; to say it was made out of pre-existent matter, is to beg the question; besides, that pre-existent matter must be made by him; for he has created all things, Rev. iv. 11. and if all things, nothing can be excepted; and certainly not matter; for he that visible or invisible, one of them it must be; and both the one and the other are created of God, Col. i. 16. and this matter must be made out of nothing, so that it comes to the same thing, that all things are originally made out of nothing. Besides, there are some creatures, and those the most noble, as angels and the souls of men, which are immaterial, and therefore are not made out of matter, and consequently are made out of nothing; and are brought from non-entity into being, by the almighty power of God; and if these, why not others? and if these and others, why not all things, even matter itself? As for that old and trite maxim, so much in the mouths of the ancient philosophers, as well as modern reasoners, Ex nihilo nihil fit, out of nothing, nothing is made; this only holds true of finite nature, finite beings, second causes; by them out of nothing, nothing can be made; but not of infinite nature, of the infinite Being,

377 the first Cause, who is a God of infinite perfection and power; and what is it that omnipotence cannot do? Plato" owns, that God is the Cause, or Author of those things, which before were not in being, or created all things out of nothing.

II. The object of creation, all things, nothing excepted in the whole com. pass of finite nature; Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure, or by thy will, they are and were created, Rev. iv. 11. these all things are comprehended by Moses under the name of the heavens and the earth, Gen. i. 1. and more fully expressed by the apostles in their address to God, who is described by them as having made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is, Acts iv. 24. and still more explicitly by the Angel, who swore by the living God who created heaven, and the things that therein are; and the earth, and the things that therein are; and the sea, and the things which are therein, Rev. x. 6.

1. The heavens and all in them; these are often represented as made and created by God, and are said to be the work of his fingers and of his hands; being curiously as well as powerfully wrought by him, Psal. viii. 3. and xix. 1. and cii. 25. They are spoken of in the plural number, for there are more heavens than one; there are certainly three, for we read of a third heaven, which is explained of paradise, 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. this is,-1. The heaven of heavens, the superior heaven, and the most excellent, the habitation of God, where his glorious presence is, where he has his palace, keeps his court, and is indeed his throne, Isai. lxv. 15. and lxvi. 1. and where angels dwell, and therefore they are called the angels of heaven, are in the presence of God there, and behold the face of our heavenly Father, Matt. xxiv. 36. and xviii. 10. and where glorified saints will be in soul and body to all eternity. Now this is a place made and created by God, and as such cannot contain him, though his glory is greatly manifested in it, 1 Kings viii. 27. it is where the angels are, who must have an ubi, somewhere to be in, being finite creatures, and who are said to ascend unto, and descend from thence, John i. 51. and here bodies are, which require space and place, as those of Enoch and Elijah, translated thither, and the human nature of Christ, which has ascended to it, and will be retained in it, until his second coming; and where the bodies of those are, who rose at the time of his resurrection; as well as all the bodies of the saints will be to all eternity: and this is expressly called a place by Christ, and is distinguished as the place of the blessed, from that of the damned, John xiv. 2, 3. Luke xvi. 26. and is sometimes described by an house, a city, a country, kingdom, and an inheritance; and particularly it is called a city whose builder and maker is God, Heb. xi. 10. for he that built all things built this; it is a part of his creation; and all things in it are created by him; he the uncreated Being excepted; even God, Father, Son, and Spirit; but the angels of it are his creatures; He makes his angels spirits, Psal. civ. 5. of their creation, and the time of it, of their nature, Sophista, p. 185.

VOL. I.

number, excellency, and usefulness, I shall treat, in a particular chapter. 2. There is another heaven, lower than the former, and may be called the second, and bears the name of the starry heaven, because the sun, and moon, and stars are placed in it: Look towards heaven, and tell the stars, Gen. xv. 5. see Isai. xl. 26. Job xxii. 12. this reaches from the region of the moon, to the place of the fixed stars, and to that immense space which our eyes cannot reach. Now this, and all that in it are, were created by God; he made the sun to rule by day, and the moon to rule by night: and he made the stars also, Gen. i. 16. 3. There is another heaven lower than both the former, and be called may the aerial heaven; for the air and heaven are sometimes synonymous; hence the fowls are sometimes called the fowls of the heaven, and sometimes the fowls

of the air, they being the same, Gen. vii. 3, 23. Now this wide expanse, or firmament of heaven, is the handy-work of God, and all things in it; not only the fowls that fly in it, but all the meteors gendered there; as rain, snow, thunder and lightening. Hath the rain a father? None but God; and the same may be said of all the rest, Job xxxvii. 6. and xxxviii. 28, 29.

11. The earth and all that is therein. This was first made without form; not without any, but without the beautiful one in which it quickly appeared; and when the waters were drained off from it, and became dry land, it was called earth, Gen. i. 2, 9, 10. and as this was made by God, so all things in it; the grass, the herbs, the plants, and trees upon it; the metals and minerals in the bowels of it, gold, silver, brass, and iron; all the beasts of the field, and "the cattle on a thousand hills;" as well as the principal inhabitants of it, men, called eminently the inhabitants of the earth, Dan. iv. 35. Of the creation of man I shall treat in a distinct chapter by itself.

III. The sea, and all that is in that; when God cleaved an hollow in the earth, the waters he drained off of it, he gathered into it; and gave those waters, thus gathered into one place, the name of seas, Gen. i. 10. and which were of his creating; The sea is his, and he made it, Psal. xcv. 5. and all in it: likewise the marine plants and trees, with other things therein; and all the fishes which swim in it, great and small, innumerable, Psal. civ. 25, 26, Now these, the heavens, earth, and sea, and all that are in them, make up the world which God has created, and which is but one; for though we read of worlds, God has made by his Son, and which are framed by the word of God, Heb. i. 2. and xi. 3. yet these may have respect only to the distinction of the upper, middle, and lower world; for the numerous worlds some Jewish writers speak of, they are mere fables; and that the planets are so many worlds as our earth is, and that the fixed stars are so many suns to worlds unknown by us, are the conjectures of modern astronomers, and in which there is no certainty; revelation gives no account of them, and we have no concern with them; and were there as many as are imagined, and can be conceived of, this we may be assured of, they were all created by God.

III. The next thing to be enquired into is, When creation began? or God

began to create and bring things into being? and this was not in eternity, but in time; an eternal creature, or a creature in eternity, is the greatest absurdity imaginable; to assert it is an insult on the common sense and understanding of men: It was in the beginning of time, or when time first began, as it did, when a creature was first made, that God made all things; In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, Gen. i. 1. And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, &c. Heb. i. 10. these were the first that were created, and with these time begun!; and every creature has a beginning, creation supposes it; for that is no other than bringing a non-entity into being; and therefore since what is created, once was not, it must have a beginning. Some Philosophers, and Aristotle at the head of them, have asserted the eternity of the world; but without any reason; and is abundantly refuted by scripture; and therefore cannot be received by those that believe its divine authority; for that not only assures us that it was created in the beginning, and so had beginning; but gives us an account of what was before it; as, that before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and world were formed, God was, even from everlasting; so that an eternity anteceded the making of the world. Christ also, the Wisdom and Word of God, was before the earth was; even when there were no depths, nor fountains abounding with water; before the mountains and hills were settled, and the highest part of the world made, Psal. xc. 2. Prov. viii. 24-30. A choice of men was made in Christ unto eternal life, before the foundation of the world; and grace was given to them in him, as their head and representative, before the world began, Eph. i. 4. 2 Tim. i. 9. A full proof that the world had a beginning; and that there were things done in eternity, before the world was in being. To say the world, or matter, was co-eternal with God, is to make that itself God; for eternity is a perfection peculiar to God; and where one perfection is, all are: what is eternal, is infinite and unbounded; and if the world is eternal, it is infinite; and then there must be two infinites, which is an absurdity not to be received. Besides, if eternal, it must necessarily exist; or exist by necessity of nature; and so be self-existent, and consequently God; yea, must be independent of him, and to which he can have no claim, nor any power and authority over it; whereas, according to divine revelation, and even the reason of things, all things were according to the pleasure of God, or by his will, Rev. iv. 11. and therefore must be later than his will, being the effect of it.

And as the world had a beginning, and all things in it, it does not appear to be of any great antiquity; it has not, as yet run out six thousand years, according to the scriptural account, and which may be depended on. Indeed, according to the Greek version, the age of the world is carried fourteen or fifteen hunyears higher; but the Hebrew text is the surest rule to go by: as for the accounts of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Chinese, which make the original of their kingdoms and states, many thousand of years higher still: these are

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