yet I hope his Authority will warrant my arguing from this Topick, to fuch as may think it new and fingular.

The Angels were the beginning of the Creation and were created probably in the Morning of the first Day. For in the Book of Job, God fays, that when the Foundations of the Earth were laid, the Morning Stars fang together, and all the Sons of God fhouted for joy, Job xxxviii. 7. from whence we learn, that the Angels were created before this visible World, and glorified God for his creating it. Now the An

gels, tho' bleffed and glorious Spirits, yet are finite, and are unable to comprehend and fathom the wonderful Works of God; there are things which the Angels defire to look into, 1 Pet. i. 12. and the more they know of God and his Works, the more they adore and praise him. The whole Scene of the Creation feems to have been laid open in order before them, according to the feveral degrees and the various natures of things, whereby they must have had a fuller view and a clearer understanding of the Divine Power and Wisdom, than they could have had, if the World had started forth in an instant, and jump'd, as it were, into this beautiful Frame and Order. As he who fees the whole method and contrivance of any curious Piece of Art, values and admires the Artist more than one does that beholds it in Grofs. God was pleased therefore to display his Glory before the Angels, and by feveral steps and degrees, to excite their Praise, and Love, and Adoration, which moved them to Songs and Shouts of Joy, and by this means his Glory and their own Happiness was advanced, much beyond what it would have been, if all things had been created and difpofed into their Rank and Order at one moment. They look'd into the first Principles and Seeds of Things, and every day prefented them with a glorious fpectacle of new Wonders; the first feven Days of the World, they kept a continual Triumph

or

or Jubilee; and thus their Voices were tun'd and rais'd, as I may say, to thofe Praises, which were to be their Employment and their Happiness to all Eternity; the more they faw, the more they knew, and the more they knew of the Works of God, the more they for ever love and adore him.

This affords us a Reason, why fo much more time was spent in the forming of the Earth, and the Creatures belonging to it, than in the formation of the heavenly Bodies. Because the Heavens are of an uniform and fimilar Nature, and a vast Vacuum is now fuppofed to be in them, and therefore the Nature of them might, without any fucceffive Production, be difplayed at once to the Angels; but the Earth being of a compound Nature, and containing Creatures of very different kinds, it required more time to give a diftinct Perception of the feveral Parts and Species of it. And the Planets being of the like nature with the Earth, fince the Earth, the Seat of Man's Habitation was framed by fuch leifurely degrees, as might give a fuitable Idea of it; the other Planets might be framed at once, there being nothing more in them than what was obfervable in the formation of the Earth, or they might be framed together with the Earth by the fame Measures and Degrees.

But according to the mechanical way, the Angels would have only the profpect of a vaft Chaos, rolling and working for many thousands of Years, perhaps before any thing confiderable could have been framed out of it: And thofe tedious Delays muft yet, according to this Notion, have been carried on by fuch certain Methods, that there could have been little wonderful in it to an Angel, when the mechanical Philofophers themselves think they can point out the feveral Steps and Motions by which all was done.

The making of Man was the laft and finishing Work of the Creation, when the World was prepared for the reception of him, and he was made with much Solemnity.

lemnity. Let us make Man in our Image, after our Likeness, Gen. i. 26. and the Man and the Woman were made apart. For Adam was created with all the Perfections fuitable for him, both as a Man, and as the first Man, out of whom Eve was to be formed: As Man he was to have all the Parts and Faculties which Men have now, but in greater perfection; as the first Man, he was befides to have a Rib, or Part, out of which the Woman was to be made. Which being the principal, and, as it were, the feminal Matter, no mention is made of any other; but as Animals and Plants are properly faid to come from the Seed, tho' they are not made of that only; fo Eve was properly made of Adam's Rib, tho' other Matter besides might go to her Compofition. This way of Formation was to betoken that Love and Duty which ought to be between Husband and Wife. And as the Creation and Happiness of Man provoked the Envy of Evil Angels, fo no doubt it occafioned the Joy and Praise of the Good ones.

2. By this fucceffive and gradual production and difpofition of things in fix days at the Creation, the Glory of God is likewife more manifefted to Men than it would have been, if all had been done at once, or by flow and tedious Methods. This gives us a more clear and distinct comprehenfive Notion of the Works of God than we could otherwise have had. It is acknowledged, that Mofes has given fuch an Account of the Creation, as is more intelligible and better adapted to the Capacities of the generality of Men, than that which any one would now obtrude upon us as a true Account of it: But whatever Reasons can be

• Dicunt etiam Unam ex coftis ejus idem effe quod unam ex partibus ejus, vel unam partem ejus quam explicationem confirmant ex eo quod in Targum vocabulum Tzelah cofta redditur per Setar ut Tzelah cofta Tabernaculi redditur in Targum per Setar latus Tabernaculi, ita hic dicunt Mitzalotar idem effe quod Miffitrobi. Maimon. More Nevoch. Part 2. c. 30.

affigned

affigned why the Creation fhould be defcribed as it is in the Book of Genefis; the fame Reafons will prove, that it was fitting it fhould be fo performed: If it be more fuitable to the Capacities and Apprehenfions of Men, that the Creation of the World fhould be delivered to us as finished in fix days, rather, than in a lefs or a longer time; it was fit that it fhould have been really finished in this space of time, and should be indeed fo performed as might make the History the more useful to us. For, in respect of God, it was alike to create all things in an instant, or to do it fucceffively in a shorter or a longer time; and in refpe&t of Mankind, no Reafon can be affigned why the Hiftory of the Creation fhould be delivered fo as to reprefent it to Men as performed in this manner; but the fame Reason will hold, why it fhould have been in the fame manner performed.

God blessed the feventh Day, and fanctified it, because that in it he had refted from all his Work which God created and made, Gen. ii. 3. and fo, Exod. xx. 10, 11. the Obfervation of the Sabbath, or of one Day in feven to the Honour of God, is established upon the World's being created in fix Days; and therefore, if it be reasonable to keep one Day in feven holy, in remembrance of the Creation, it must be reasonable that the Creation of the World should have been performed in fix Days, fince the obligation to observe a feventh Day in remembrance of the Creation, inplies that God rested on the seventh Day after he had created the World in fix, or in the fame space of time which is contained in fix Days. God faw it fitting that a Day should be fet apart to commemorate the Creation, and to praise him for all his wonderful Works, and that this Day should return at fuch a diftance of time; and he observed fuch Order in the Creation, that every Day between these Periods of Time, might bring fome particular Work of it to O

remem

remembrance, and every seventh Day might conclude in the Commemoration of the whole Creation.

Our Saviour answers the Pharifees, when they proposed the Question to him about Divorces, by put thing them in mind of the Order which God ufed in the Creation, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them Male and Female? and faid, for this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother, and fhall cleave to his Wife: and they twain shall be one Flesh? Matth. xix. 4, 5. And St. Paul in like manner, to fhew that the Woman ought not to ufurp Authority over the Man, proves it by this Argument: For Adam was firft formed, then Eve, 1 Tim. ii. 13. and in another place, and upon another occafion, he obferves, that the Man is not of the Woman, but the Woman of the Man, 1 Cor. xi. 8. And long before the Prophet Malachi had argued from the fame Topick, Malach. ii. 15. And Heb. iv. 4. it is noted, that God did reft the feventh Day from all his Works, from whence the Apostle concludes, that he that is entred into his reft, he also hath ceafed from his own Works, as God did from his, ver. 10. Now as these, and whatever other Arguments are to be found in the Scriptures of the like nature, do evidently suppose the Creation of the World in the fame manner, as it is related in the Book of Genefis; fo they explain to us the Reasons why it was thus created. For all thefe Arguments had been loft, and there could have been no ground for them, if the World had been otherwise created. As certainly therefore as this Arguing from the manner of the Creation is good; fo certain it is, both that the World was fo created, and that there was great reafon for it.

But whatever fome Philofophers may think now, there is nothing which would have been more difagreeable to the Notions of the generality of the wisest Men in all Ages, than that the World fhould be made upon mechanical Principles. He Spake, and it was

done,