butes. God and revelation. Nothing elfe indeed can account for the general his attri prevalence of a doctrine fo remote from human imagination, and of which we find veftiges in the facred books of almost every civilized people of antiquity. The corrupt flate in which it is viewed in the writings of Plato and others, is the natural confequence of its defcent through a long course of oral tradition; and then falling into the hands of men who bent every opinion as much as poffible to a conformity with their own fpeculations. The Trinity of Platoniim therefore, inftead of being an objection, lends, in our opinion, no feeble fupport to the Chriftian doctrine, fince it affords almost a complete proof of that doctrine's having made part of the first revelations communicated to man. Having thus difcovered that the one God, to whom Mofes gives the plural name Elohim, comprehends three perfons; let us now inquire what power this Tri une God exerted, when, as the fame facred writer informs us, he created the heaven and the earth. That by the heaven and the earth is here meant the whole universe, visible and invifible, is known to every perfon acquainted with the phrafeology of Scripture; and we need inform no man converfant with English writers, that by creation, in its proper fenfe, is meant bringing into being, or making that to exift which exifted not before. It muft, however, be acknowledged, that the Hebrew word does not always imply the produc tion of fubftance, but very often the forming of particular organized bodies out of pre-exifting matter. Thus when it • Gen. i. is faid * that " God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abun. dantly after their kind," and again, that "he created man male and female;" though the word 2 is used on both occafions, we are not to conceive that the bodies of the first human pair, and of these animals, were brought into being from nonentity, but only that they were formed by a pro. per organization being given to pre-existent matter. But when Moles fays, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," he cannot be fuppofed to mean that "in the beginning God only gave form to matter already exifting of itfelf;" for in the very next verse we are affured that after this act of creation was over," the earth was ftill without form and void," or, in other words, in a chaotic ftate.. 21,27. 70 Creation taught by Mofes. bures. 71 not created at once. other paffage in the facred Scriptures, that the whole uni. God ani That the whole corporeal univerfe may have been created at once must be granted; but if fo, we have reafon to believe that this earth, with the fun and all the planets of the fyftem, were fuffered to remain for ages in a ftate of chaos, "without form and void;' because it appears from other fcriptures, that worlds of intelligent creatures exifted, and even that fome angels had fallen from a ftate of happiness prior to the era of the Mofaic cofmogony. That the fun 72 The folar and the other planets revolving round him were formed at the fame time with the earth, cannot indeed be queftioned sted at once, fyftem crea That the Jews, before the coming of our Saviour, un- for it is not only extremely probable in itself from the derflood their lawgiver to teach a proper creation, is plain known laws of nature, but is exprefsly affirmed by the fafrom that paffage in the fecond book of the Maccabees, in cred hiftorian, who relates the formation of the fun and which a mother, to perfuade her fon to fuffer the cruelleft moon in the order in which it took place. Into the partortures rather than forfake the law of his God, ufes the ticulars of his narrative we have no occafion to enter, as it following argument: "I befeech thee, my fon, look upon is fufficiently explained and vindicated in other articles of the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and confi- this work (fee CREATION and EARTH); but there is one der that God made them of things that were not." To difficulty which, though we have given the common foluthe fame purpose the infpired author of the epiftle to the tions of it elsewhere, we may again notice in this place, Hebrews, when magnifying the excellence of faith, fays, because it has furnished infidel ignorance with fomething "Through faith we understand that the worlds were fra- like an objection to the divine legation of the Hebrew law med by the word of God, so that things which are feen were giver. not made of things which do appear;" where, as bishop Pearfon has ably proved , the phrase un exp is equiExpofition valent to u svi, in the quotation from the Maccabees. The very firft verte, therefore, of the book of Genefis informs us of a molt important truth, which all the uninfpired wisdom of antiquity could not difcover. It affures us, that as nothing exilts by chance, fo nothing is neceffarily exifting but the three divine perfons in the one Godhead. Every thing else, whether material or immaterial, derives its fubftance, as well as its form or qualities, from the fiat of that felt-existent Being, "who was, and is, and is to of the Greed. come." It does not, however, follow from this verfe, or from any ༡༣ Mofes informs us, that on the first day after the produc- A difficulty tion of the chaos, the element of light was created; and yet folved. within a few tentences he declares, that the fun, the fountain of light, was not made till the fourth day. How are thefe two paffages to be reconciled? We aufwer, That they may be reconciled many ways. Mofes wrote for the ufe of a whole people, and not for the amufement or inftruction of a few aftronomers; and in this view his language is fuffici ently proper, even though we fuppofe the formation of the fun and the other planets to have been carried on at the fame time, and in the fame progreffive manner, with the for mation of this earth. The voice which called light into exiftence would feparate the fiery and luminous particles of butes. God and the chaos from thofe which were opake, and, on this hypohis attri- thefis, confolidate them in one globe, diffufing an obfcure light through the planetary fyftem; but if the earth's atmofphere continued till the fourth day loaded with vapours, as from the narrative of Mofes it appears to have done, the fun could not till that day have been feen from the earth, and may therefore, in popular language, be faid with fufficient propriety to have been formed on the fourth day, as it was then fit made to appear. (See CREATION, n° 13. and EARTH, n° 108, 174, 175). But though this folution of the difficulty ferves to remove the infidel objection, and to fecure the credit of the facred hiftorian, candour compels us to confefs that it appears not to be the true folution. The difficulty itfelf arises entirely from fuppofing the fun to be the fole fountain of light; but the truth of this opinion is not self-evident, nor has it ever been established by fatisfactory proof. It is indeed to a mind divested of undue deference to great names, and confidering the matter with impartiality, an opinion extremely improbable. The light of a candle placed upon an eminence may in a dark night be feen in every direction at the diftance of at least three miles. But if this fmall body be rendered vifible by means of rays emitted from itself, the flame of a candle, which cannot be fuppofed more than an inch in diameter, muft, during every inftant that it continues to burn, throw from its own fub. ftance luminous matter fufficient to fill a spherical space of fix miles in diameter. This phenomenon, if real, is certain ly furprifing; but if we pursue the reflection a little farther, our wonder will be greatly increased. The matter which, when convertd into flame, is an inch in diameter, is not, when of the confiftence of cotton and tallow, of the dimensions of the 20th part of an inch; and therefore, upon the common hypothefis, the 20th part of an inch of tallow may be fo rarefied as to fill a space of 113,0976 cubic miles! a rarefaction which to us appears altogether incredible. We have indeed heard much of the divifibility of matter ad infinitum, and think we understand what are ufually called demonftrations of the truth of that propofition; but thefe demonftrations prove not the actual divifibility of real folid fubftances, but only that upon trial we fhall find no end of the ideal procefs of dividing and fubdividing imaginary extenfion. Upon the whole, therefore, we are much more inclined to believe that the matter of light is an extremely fubtile fluid, diffufed through the corporeal univerfe, and only excited to agency by the fun and other fiery bodies, than that it confifts of ftreams continually iffuing from the fubftance of these bodies. It is indeed an opinion pretty generally received, and certainly not improbable in itfelf, that light and electricity are one and the fame fubftance (fee ELECTRICITY-Index); but we know that the electrical fluid, though pervading the whole of corporeal nature, and, as experiments show, capable of acting with great violence, yet lies dormant and unperceived till its agency be excited by fome foreign caufe. Juft fo it may be with the matter of light. That fubftance may be "diffufed from one end Nature of the creation § to the other, it may traverse the whole fplayed. univerfe, form a communication between the most remote fpheres, penetrate into the inmoft recefles of the earth, and only wait to be put in a proper motion to communicate vifible fenfations to the eye. Light is to the organ of fight what the air is to the organ of hearing. Air is the medium which, vibrating on the ear, causes the fenfation of found; but it equally exifts round us at all times, though there be no fonorous body to put it in motion. In like manner, light may be equally extended at all times, by night as well as by day, from the moft diftant fixed ftars to this earth, tho' it then only ftrikes our eyes to as to excite vifible fenfations when impelled by the fun or fome other mass of fire." Nor I butes. let any one imagine that this hypothefis interferes with any God and of the known laws of optics; for if the rays of light be im. his attri pelled in ftraight lines, and in the fame direction in which they are supposed to be emitted, the phenomena of vision muft neceffarily be the fame. 74 Mofes there ore was probably a more accurate philofopher Mofes a than he is fometimes fuppofed to be. The element of light found phi was doubtlefs created, as he informs us, on the first day, lofopher, but whether it was then put in that state in which it is the medium of vifion, we cannot know, and we need not inquire, fince there was neither man nor inferior animal with organs fitted to receive its impreffions. For the firft three days it may have been used only as a powerful inftrument to reduce into order the jarring chaos. Or if it was from the beginning capable of communicating vifible fenfations, and dividing the day from the night, its agency must have been immediately excited by the Divine power till the fourth day, when the fun was formed, and endowed with proper qualities for inftrumentally discharging that office. This was indeed miraculous, as being contrary to the prefent laws of nature: but the whole creation was miraculous; and we furely need not hesitate to admit a lefs miracle where we are under the neceffity of admitting a greater. The power which called light and all other things into exiftence, could give them their proper motions by ten thousand different means; and to attempt to folve the difficulties of creation by philofophic theories refpecting the laws of nature, is to trifle with the common fenfe as well as the piety of man. kind: it is to confider as fubfervient to a law that very power by whose continued exertion the law is established. Having thus proved that the univerfe derives its being, as well as the form and adjustment of its feveral parts, from the one fupreme and felf-exiftent God, let us here pause, and reflect on the fublime conceptions which such aftonishing works are fitted to give us of the Divine perfections. tor, 75 And, in the first place, how ftrongly do the works of infinite creation imprefs upon our minds a conviction of the infinite power of the Crea power of their Author? He spoke, and the universe started into being; he commanded, and it stood faft. How mighty is the arm which "ftretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; which removeth the mountains, and they know it not; which overturneth them in his anger; which thaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble! How powerful the word which commandeth the fun, and it rifeth not; and which fealeth up the ftars;" which fuftaineth numberless worlds of amazing bulk fufpended in the regions of empty space, and directs their various and inconceivably rapid motions with the utmoft regularity! "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created all thele things? By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Hell is naked before him, and deftruction hath no covering. He ftretcheth out the North over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a fpan; and comprehended the duft of the earth in a measure; and weighed the mountains in fcales, and the hills in a balance. Behold! the nations are as a drop of the bucket, and are counted as the small duft of the balance; behold, he taketh up the ifles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him lefs than nothing, and vanity. To | Pf. xxxii. whom then will ye liken God, or what likenefs will ye com- 6, 9.; Job pare unto him?” ix. 4, &c. xxvi. 6. ; As the works of creation are the effects of God's power, la xi. 12. they likewife in the most eminent manner difplay his wif 76 dom. This was fo apparent to Cicero, even from the His wif partial dom, butes. Gud and partial and very imperfect knowledge in aftronomy which his attri his time afforded, that he declared thofe who could affert the contrary void of all understanding. But if that great 3D: Nat matter of reason had been acquainted with the modern difDerum, lib coveries in aftronomy, which exhibit numberlefs worlds fcattered through space, and each of immenfe magnitude; had he known that the fun is placed in the centre of our fyftem, and that to diverfify the feasons the planets move round him with exquifite regularity; could he have conceived that the diftinction between light and darkness is produced by the diurnal rotation of the earth on its own axis, instead of that difproportionate whirling of the whole heavens which the ancient aftronomers were forced to fuppofe; had he known of the wonderful motions of the comets, and confidered how fuch eccentric bodies have been preferved from falling upon fome of the planets in the fame fyftem, and the feveral fy ftems from falling upon each other; had he taken into the account that there are yet greater things than these, and "that we have seen but a few of God's works ;"-that virtuous Pagan would have been ready to exclaim in the words of the Pfalmift," O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wildom haft thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches." And good. Befs. That creation is the offspring of unmixed goodnefs, has been already shown with fufficient evidence (fee METAPHYSICS, no 312. and no 29. of this article); and from the vaft number of creatures on our earth endowed with life and fenfe, and a capability of happiness, and the infinitely greater number which probably inhabit the planets of this and other fystems, we may infer that the goodness of God is as bound. lefs as his power, and that "as is his majefty, fo is his mercy." Out of his own fulness hath he brought into being numberlefs worlds, replenished with myriads of myriads of creatures, furnished with various powers and organs, capacities and instincts; and out of his own fulness he continually and plentifully supplies them all with every thing necessary to make their existence comfortable. "The eyes of all wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due feafon. He openeth his hand and fatisfies the defires of every living thing: he loveth righteoufness and judgment; the earth is full of the goodnefs of the Lord. He watereth the ridges thereof abundantly; he fettleth the furrows thereof; he maketh it foft with fhowers, and bleffeth the springing thereof. He crowneth the year with his goodness; and his paths drop fatness. They drop upon the paftures of the wil dernefs; and the little hills rejoice on every fide. The paftures are clothed with flocks; the valleys alfo are covered •Pi calv. with corn; they fhout with joy, they alto fing Survey the whole of what may be feen on and about this terraque x. 5. lv. ous globe, and say, if our Maker hath a fparing and a nigardly hand. Surely the Author of fo much happiness muft be effential goodness; and we must conclude with St John, 13,16. 18 The fee nd the imme that "God is love." *". These attributes of power, wisdom, and goodness, fo conperfo in fpicuously difplayed in the works of creation, belong in the de frity fame fupreme degree to each perfon in the bleffed Trinity; Crea-for Mofes declares that the heaven and the earth were created, not by one person, but by the Elohim. The xoyes in. deed, or fecond perfon, appears to have been the immediate Ch. i. 3. Creator; for St John affures us, that "all things were made by him, and that without him was not any thing made that was made." Some Arian writers of great learning (and we believe the late Dr Price was of the number) have afférted, that a being who was created himfelf may be endowed by the Omnipotent God with the power of creating other beings; and as they hold the y or word to be a creature, they contend that he was employed by the Supreme Deity to create, not the whole univerfe, but butes. only this earth, or at the utmoft the folar fyftem. "The old God and argument (fays one of them), that no being inferior to the his attri great Omnipotent can create a world, is fo childish as to deferve no answer. Why may not God communicate the power of making worlds to any being whom he may choose to honour with fo glorious a prerogative? I have no doubt but fuch a power may be communicated to many good men during the progrefs of their exiftence; and to lay that it may not, is not only to limit the power of God, but to contradict acknowledged analogies." God. 79 We are far from being inclined to limit the power of Creation God. He can certainly do whatever involves not a direct reculiar to contradiction; and therefore, though we know nothing ana logous to the power of creating worlds, yet as we perceive not any contradiction implied in the notion of that power being communicated, we shall admit that fuch a communication may be possible, though we think it in the higheft degree improbable. But furely no man will contend that the whole univerfe was brought into existence by any creature ; because that creature himself, however highly exalted, is neceffarily comprehended in the notion of the universe. Now St Paul exprefsly affirms §, that, by the fecond perfon in § Colof. iv, the bleffed Trinity," were ALL things created that are in 17. heaven, and that are in earth, vifible and invifible, whether they be THRONES, or DOMINIONS, OF PRINCIPALITIES, OF POWERS; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things confiit." Indeed the Hebrew Scriptures in more places than one † ex- † Ifa. xl. prefsly declare that this earth, and of course the whole folar 12. xliv. 24 fyftem, was formed as well as created, not by any inferior be- lerem. x. ing, but by the true God, even Jehovah alone; and in the New Teftament*, the Gentiles are faid to be without excufe for not glorifying him as God, "because his eternal power and Godhead are clearly feen from the creation of the world." But if it were natural to fuppofe that the power of creating worlds has been, or ever will be, communicated to beings inferior to the great Omnipotent, this reafoning of the apostle's would be founded on false principles, and the fentence which he passed on the Heathen would be contrary to juftice. 10-13. . Rom. i 18-220 But though it be thus evident that the eyes was the im mediate Creator of the univerfe, we are not to suppose that it was without the concurrence of the other two perfons. The Father, who may be faid to be the fountain of the Divinity itfelf, was certainly concerned in the creation of the world, and is therefore in the apostle's creed denominated the "Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;" and that the Holy Ghoft or third perfon is likewise a Creator, we have the exprefs teftimony of two infpired writers: "By the word of the Lord (fays the Pfalmift) were the heavens made, and all the hoft of them by the breath (Hebrew, SPLRIT) of his mouth." And Job declares, that the "SPIRIT of God made him, and that the breath of the Almighty gave him life." Indeed these three divine perlons are fo intimately united, that what is done by one must be done by all, as they have but one and the fame will. This is the reafon affigned by Origen for our paying divine wor- Contr. Caf fhip to each; psxevóμE CU TOTαliga the axillas at Tor viovp. 386. την αληθειαν, οντα δυο τη υποςβασει πραγμαία, εν δε τη ομονοια, και τη συμφωνία και τη ταυλοίητι της βουλήσεως, we worship the Fa ther of truth, and the Son the truth itself, being two things as to Hypoftafis, but one in agreement, confent, and famenefs of will." Nor is their union a mere agreement in will only; it is a phyfical or effential union: fo that what is done by one muft neceffarily be done by the others alfo, accord ing to that of our Saviour, "I am in the Father and the Father in me: The Father who dwelleth in me, he doth the works." Thus man, Orginal Thus we fee, that to the feveral perfons in the ever blef. fate of fed Trinity is equal praife due for the creation of the world. Their all-powerful word commanded into being every thing that exifts, and by the fame Divine power is every thing continued in existence. Well therefore might the Pfalmiit call upon the heavens and the earth to praife the name of the Lord; "for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever; he hath made a decree which shall not pafs. Let all things praise the name of the Lord; for his name Dr, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, alone is excellent, and his glory above the earth and heaven." 80 Peculiarity which God is faid to make man the Mofaic account of the creation, every attentive of the ex reader must be ftruck with the manner in which the fupreme preffion in Being is reprefented as making man: "And God faid, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fifh of the fea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he THEM. And God blessed them; and God faid unto them, be fruit. ful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and fubdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the fea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God faid, behold, I have given you every herb bearing feed, which is upon the face of all the earth; and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding feed: to you it fhall be for meat. And God faw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the fixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hoft of them. And on the feventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he reted on the feventh day from all his works which he had made. And God bleffed the feventh day, and fanctified it; because that in it he had reitGen. i. ed from all his work which God created and made ‡.” 26, &c. ii. I, 2, 3. 81 In his own image. 82 This is a very remarkable paffage, and contains much im. portant information. It indicates a plurality of perfons in the Godhead, defcribes the nature of man as he came at first from the hands of his Creator, and furnishes data from which we may infer what were the duties required of him in that primeval ftate, and what were the rewards to which obedience would entitle him. Of the plurality of Divine perfons, and their effential union, we have treated in the preceding fection, and proceed now to inquire into the fpecific nature of the firft man. This must be implied in the image of God, in which he is faid to have been created; for it is by that phrase alone that he is characterized, and his pre-eminence marked over the other animals. Now this image or likeness mult have been found either in his body alone, his foul alone, or in both united. That it could not be in his body alone, is obvious; for the infinite and omnipotent God is allowed by all men to be without body, parts, or paffions, and therefore to be fuch as nothing corporeal can poffibly re femble. Different If this likeness is to be found in the human foul, it comes pinions re-to be a queftion in what faculty or power of the foul it fecting confifts. Some have contended, that man is the only creahe image ture on this earth who is animated by a principle effentially of God. different from matter; and hence they have inferred, that he is faid to have been formed in the Divine image, on ac count of the immateriality of that vital principle which was Origina infufed into his body when the Lord God breathed into his noftrils, the breath of life, and man became a livin ; foul §.” That this account of the animation of the body of man in-§ Geo. ii. dicates a fuperiority of the human foul to the vital principle 7. of all other animals, cannot, we think, be quetioned; but it does not therefore follow, that the human foul is the only immaterial principle of life which animates any terreftrial creature. It has been shown cliewhere (fee METAPHYSICS, n° 235.), that the power of fenfation, attended with individual confcioufnefs, as it appears to be in all the higher species of animals, cannot refult from any organical structure, or be the quality of a compound extended being. The vital principle in fuch animals therefore must be immaterial as well as the human foul; but as the word immaterial denotes only a negative notion, the fouls of men and brutes, though both immaterial, may yet be fubftances effentially different. This being the cafe, it is plain that the Divine image in which man was formed, and by which he is diftinguished from the brute creation, cannot confift in the mere circumitance of his mind being a fubance different from matter, but in fome pofitive quality which diftinguishes him from every other creature on this globe. 83 About this characteristic quality very various opinions Calvi iti have been formed. Some have fuppofed " that the image of God in Adam appeared in that rectitude, righteoufnels, dy of D and holinefs, in which he was made; for God made man vinity, b. ii upright (Ecclef. vii. 2.), a holy and righteous creature ; ch. 3. which holinefs and righteoufnefs were in their kind perfect; his understanding was free from all error and mistakes; his will biaffed to that which is good; his affections flowed in a right channel towards their proper objects; there were no finful motions and evil thoughts in his heart, nor any propenfity or inclination to that which is evil; and the whole of his conduct and behaviour was according to the will of God. And this righteoufnefs (fay they) was natural, and not perfonal and acquired. It was not obtained by the exercife of his free will, but was created with him, and belonged to his mind, as a natural faculty or inftinet." They therefore call it original righteousness, and fuppofe that it was loft in the fall. 84 To this doctrine many objections have been made. It has Objected been faid that righteoufnefs confifting in right actions pro-to. ceeding from proper principles, could not be created with Adam and make a part of his nature; because nothing which is produced in a man without his knowledge and confent can be in him either virtue or vice. Adam, it is added, was unquestionably placed in a state of trial, which proves that he had righteous habits to acquire; whereas the doctrine under confideration, affirming his original righteoufnefs to have been perfect, and therefore incapable of improvement, is inconfiftent with a state of trial. That his understanding was free from all errors and mistakes, has been thought a blafphemous pofition, as it attributes to man one of the incommunicable perfections of the Deity. It is likewife believed to be contrary to fact; for either his underftanding was bewildered in error, or his affections flowed towards an improper obje&, when he suffered himself at the perfuafion of his wife to tranfgrefs the exprefs law of his Creator. The objector expreffes his wonder at its having ever been fuppofed that the whole of Adam's conduct and behaviour was according to the will of God, when it is fo notorious that he yielded to the firft temptation with which, as far as we know, he was affailed in paradife. See his Convinced by thefe and other arguments, that the image of God in which man was created could not confift in original righteoufnefs, or in exemption from all poffibility of) error, many learned men, and Bishop Bull among others, works, Englife have ii. 1 Рум Part II. man. 85 and fome of the an cient fa thers $1 Cor. *v.45,46. 2 THEOLOG Y. Original have fuppofed, that by the image of God is to be underState of food certain gifts and powers fupernaturally infused by the Holy Spirit into the minds of our first parents, to guide This opinion they them in the ways of piety and virtue Opinion of reft chiefly upon the authority of Tatian, Irenæus, Tertul. Bith Bulian, Cyprian, Athanafius, and other fathers of the primitive church; but they think, at the fame time, that it is countenanced by feveral paffages in the New Teftament. Thus when St Paul fays §, "and fo it is written, The firft man Adam was made a living foul, the laft Adam was made a quickening Spirit ;" they understand the whole paffage as relating to the creation of man, and not as drawing a comparifon between Adam and Chrift, to show the great fupeIn fupport of this riority of the latter over the former. interpretation they obferve, that the apoftle immediately adds, "howbeit, that was not firft which is fpiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is fpiritual;" an addition which they think was altogether needlefs, if by the quickening Spirit he had referred to the incarnation of Chrift, which had happened in the very age in which the was writing. They are therefore of opinion, that the body of Adam, after being formed of the dull of the ground, was first animated by a vital principle endowed with the faculties of reafon and fenfation, which cutitled the whole man to the appellation of a living foul. After this they fuppofe certain graces of the Holy Spirit to have been in fufed into him, by which he was made a quickening fpirit, or formed in the image of God; and that it was in confe quence of this fucceffion of powers communicated to the fame person, that the apoftle faid, "Howbeit, that was not firft which is fpiritual, but that which is natural." We need hardly obferve, that with refpect to a queftion of this kind the authority of Tatian and the other fathers quoted is nothing. Thofe men had no better means of discovering the true fenfe of the fcriptures of the Old Teftament than we have; and their ignorance of the language in which these fcriptures are written, added to fome metaphyfical notions refpecting the foul, which too many of them had derived from the school of Plato, rendered them very ill qualified to interpret the writings of Mofes. Were authority to be admitted, we should confider that of bishop Bull and his modern followers as of greater weight than the authority of all the ancients to whom they appeal. But authority cannot be admitted; and the reafoning of this learned and excellent man from the text of St Paul is furely It makes two perfons of Adam; a firft, very inconclufive. when he was a natural man composed of a body and a reasonable foul; a fecond, when he was endowed with the gifts of the fil-founded. Holy Spirit and by them formed in the image of God! In the verfe following too, the apoftle exprefsly calls the fecond man, of whom he had been fpeaking, "the Lord from heaven;" but this appellation we apprehend to be too high for Adam in the fate of greatest perfection in which he ever exifted. That our firft parents were endowed with the girts of the Holy Ghoft, we are ftrongly inclined to believe for reafons which fhall be given by and by; but as thefe gifts were adventitious to their nature, they could not be that image in which God made man. juns. 86 87 Other opi- Since man was made in the image of God, that phrafe, whatever he its precife import, muft denote fomething peculiar and at the fame time effential to human nature; but the only two qualities at once natural and peculiar to man are his fhape and his reafon. As none but an anthropomorphite will fay that it was Adam's fhape which reflected this image of his Creator, it has been concluded that it was the Warbur faculty of reafon which made the refemblance. To give ton's Divine ftrength to this argument it is obferved ‡, that when God fays, let us make man in our image," he immediately adds, VOL. XVIII. Part II. Leg. buck ix. man." 448 ftare of man. nity, book Gill's Ba "and let them have dominion over the fifh of the fea, and over Original By fome, however, who have admitted the probability Gill, &c The |