that we ourselves had a beginning; and we can believe that He by whose power we have been so fearfully and wonderfully made, could as easily give to matter also its beginning.

The creation of all things from nothing is in Scripture declared to be the prerogative of God: a prerogative by which he is distinguished from all pretended deities. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." He is great above all gods; for he hath done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and in earth. The prophet Jeremiah speaking of the vanity of idols, says; "Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good-But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king.-The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion."

The operation of secondary causes we fancy we can more easily understand than the act of creative power which brings a world from nothing into being. We are familiar with the wonderful effects resulting from the influence of bodies on each other both at a distance, and in immediate contact. We know the astonishing works that are produced by the ingenuity. of man. But in all these there is nothing at all analogous to the creative act of omnipotence.

Behold the greatness of the divine power in the innumerable variety of things to which it at once gave being. It formed them, not out of any pre-existent

matter, but from nothing. In an instant it produced beings, and endued them with different natures, different powers, different capacities of enjoyment, and appointed them for different uses. The omnipotence of God formed and lighted up the sun which we behold, and millions of suns, at an immeasurable distance from us, to give light and warmth to revolving worlds. By the same almighty power he made the earth on which we dwell, and adorned it with hills and valleys, and rocks, and seas, and flowers. He made it in beauty and in fruitfulness for to be a fit habitation of the innumerable tribes of living creatures, who were in uninterrupted succession to possess it. These he formed of different sizes, some immensely large, others invisibly minute; with bodies adapted in their organization to the elements in which they live, and to their different kinds of food; but all subservient, though in various ways, to the use and the pleasure of man. He surrounded every part of the globe with the air we breathe, which is necessary to the existence of animal and vegetable life, composed of two elastic fluids, united in a definite and exact proportion: a proportion so precisely suited to those for whose respiration it was intended, that any difference in the quantity of either ingredient would prove injurious or destructive. The same air which supplies life and health to the human race, is equally and alone salubrious to every other race of animals. That portion of it which is expired from the lungs, after having performed its service, though insalubrious to man, affords grateful nourishment to the plants by which he is surrounded; according to which provision

nothing is lost, and the constant purity of the atmospheric air preserved.

It was after the parts of the visible creation were thus formed, that God said "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness;-so God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." How wonderfully is the omnipotence of God displayed in creating and in fashioning the human body; but how much more impressively is it shewn in forming the soul, with powers of understanding, memory, imagination, and will-with a capacity to receive true knowledge, and a disposition to relish and retain it-with a judgment free from any corrupt bias, a will disposed to obedience, and with affections regulated in regard to objects according to their real excellency. Thus did man proceed from the hand of the Creator, in the possession of natural, rational, and spiritual life, exhibiting in himself, and still exhibiting though fallen, in the successive myriads of his offspring, the mighty power of God. The power that has made each of us capable of receiving enjoyment in such a variety of ways, has given, and continues to give, from age to age, the same capability to each of the family of mankind ;—and has communicated it in a much higher degree to angels, and to the different orders of intelligences, who occupy the several portions of the universe. Extend your thoughts to the innumerable worlds that God has made, far surpassing this in beauty and in fruitfulness, moved by his hand through the measureless void of space, and all peopled by intelligent beings, who proclaim in the excellency and happiness which they

enjoy, the Creator's praise,—think of them only as possessing that of which we are conscious in ourselves, a living principle of thought, and activity, and feeling, which according to its own emotions clothes the heavens with light or with darkness, and which whether it be in the human face divine, or in the written record of its operations, awakens a more lively interest than all the glories of that universe in which we are placed, think of the power that called these spirits into being, and that gives an individual and immortal existence to each, and then are you prepared for uniting with these celestial inhabitants in the acknowledgment: "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

This mighty power is seen in the creation of every thing, of an atom, an insect, a world, a system of worlds, in universe succeeding universe to an endless extent; but it appears to me more gloriously displayed in the creation of the human soul, by which alone we are capable of considering the heavens as the work of God's fingers; the moon and the stars which he has ordained, and of saying in admiration of his condescension, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Without this living soul, what were all nature but a blank the form which brute unconscious matter wears,—and in which we should be incapable of discerning the eternal power and godhead of the Creator? What were an universe of matter but shapeless mag

nitude, without the Living Spirit of such a Being to beautify and arrange it, or without the existence of intelligences capable of deriving pleasure from the view of its varied aspects of grandeur, and loveliness, and sublimity? Such intelligent creatures did God make in angels and in men, and he has shewn the greatness of his power, not only by the faculties which he has given them, but by also rendering them capable of increasing improvement through eternity.

Omnipotence is also shewn in the manner in which all things were made. If we are astonished at the magnitude of its effects, our admiration will be increased by contemplating the ease with which they were produced. God created all things by an act of his will: by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them. He called those things which were not, and they came forth into his presence in the form, and in the variety, which accorded with his wisdom and his will. At the same instant, and with the same ease, were the heavens and the earth, things visible and invisible, made. The Almighty, after creating this world, occupied six days in arranging it for the abode of man, that we might learn from hence to note more carefully the glories displayed in each successive period, and so minutely to survey the wonders of divine power rising progressively superior to all that went before, that we might be suitably affected with admiring gratitude. But when he uttered the command, every thing obeyed his call. He said, "Let there be light;" and the light surrounded the world. "The waters retired to their place; the dry land appeared; the mountains rose; the heavens