him, and without him was nothing made. Here is no exception, but the Father made all things by him, whether vifible or invifible, fenfible or intellectual, temporal, for a certain purpofe, or eternal. He made all things, not by Angels, or powers, different from his mind; for the God of all things want nothing, but by his Word and Spirit making, difpofing, and governing all things, and giving being to them.

6. The fame doctrine Irenæus delivers in another place, P. 214. There is only one God, the Creator, who is above all principality and power, and dominion and dignity. He is the Father, the God, the Creator, the Builder, the Maker, that made thofe things by himself, i. e. who made the heaven, the earth, the fea, and all that in them is, by his Son and Holy Spirit." Again, (P. 369 of Irenæus's works) "The Angels then did not make, did not form us: They could not make the Image of God, nor any but the Word of God; no power diftin&t (feparate) from the Father. Nor did the Father ftand in need of them to make what he had before defigned, as if he had not hands of his own. He has always with him his Word and Wifdom, the Son and Spirit, by whom, and in whom, he freely made all things, and to whom he fpake, faying,--Let us make Man after our image and fimilitude."

7. To thefe teftimonies of Juflin, Athenagoras, and Irenæus, difciples of the Apoftolical Fathers, I shall add from the Bishop, a paffage of Origen, which the Bishop defends as perfectly orthodox. -The Word, the Son of God, is the immediate, and, as it were, the very framer of the world: The Father of the Word, in that he ordered the Word, his Son, to make the world, is primary Creator."-Origen, P. 317.

8. The Fathers, therefore, at least in these paffages, (which it will not be doubted Bishop Bull has fairly reprefented) approve this doctrine,that though the Father is primary Creator, yet that the Son, his Word, is the immediate Creator and Framer of the world. But that he did not do this as a Being feparate from the Father, but in fuch a fenfe one with him, that the Father, creating the world by him, might be faid to create it by his own hands, as Irenæus's phrafe is, or by himself: according to the words of Isaiah, Ch. xliv. 24. I am Jehovah that maketh all things, that ftretcheth forth the heavens ALONE, that fpreadeth abroad the earth by MYSELF. For as the Holy Spirit, who is undoubtedly of a nature properly divine, is the Spirit of the Father, and proceedeth from the Father, but though fent forth, is never feparated from him; fo, in like manner, the Word is the Word of the Father; and though he fays he proceeded forth, and came from God, and that he came not of himself, but the Father fent him (John viii. 42.) yet he is ftill united to him, and one with him,-is ftill in the Father, and the Father in him.

9. What I have faid of the Creation, must also be faid of the Prefervation of all things. By him, St. Paul affures us in the above mentioned pasfage, all things confift, ouverne, ftand together, are upheld, or fupported: Upholding all things, fays the Author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews, Chap. i. 3. Both paffages are defignedly and profeffedly fpoken of Chrift, but not of him as a Being feparate from the Father, but in, and with him; for in and through the Son, all creatures, as St. Paul declares (Acts xvii.) live, and move, and have their being in the Father, who, we are assured, is above all, and through all, and in all,-creating, preferving, governing, and pervading the univerfe, and giving life and energy to every thing, through his Son, and by his Spirit. Nay, as all things acknowledge the Son as their Creator and Preferver, fo alfo as their Owner and Lord,-for all things were created for him, Col. i. 16.—and he is said to

be

be heir of all, as being the firft begotten, and only begotten of the Father, and Lord of all: See Heb. i. 1. and A&ts x. 36.

10. Now have we confidered thefe many and mighty works, of which he is declared to be the Creator, Preferver, and Lord? At leaft thofe of them that come under our obfervation. Has that glorious luminary, the Sun, catched our attention, fo immenfe, that the mind can scarce comprehend it, and fo bright, that no eye can behold it,-and the fource of light to a whole fyftem of worlds? Have we viewed the Moon, walking in brightnefs, and marked the wonderful phenomenon of her waxing and waning glory? Have the Stars of light attracted our notice, thofe glittering diamonds, wherewith the firmament is ftudded and enriched, and rendered the moft grand and ftriking, as well as the most beautiful object the Eye of Man can behold? And have we confidered their inconceivable distance from the earth, and from each other--a diftance fo immenfe, that the whole circuit of the folar fyftem is but a point, when compared to it? Have we confidered how probable it is, that each Star is a Sun, and each Sun a fountain of light to revolving worlds?

11. Have we marked the Planets, whether primary or fecondary, that surround our own Sun, and obferved the difference of their magnitudes, distances, and revolutions? And if we have not been able to determine, as to the probability of their being inhabited, and ftored with fundry kinds of creatures like our earth, yet have we confidered their wonderful influence upon the furrounding atmosphere of our own globe, and their use as "an Horologue,-machinery divine!" as one fays, appointed for times and for seasons, for days and for years? Dividing time into fundry periods, longer or fhorter by their different revolutions, and thus measuring it out to thofe, whofe grand business it is, and whose chief conK 2

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cern it ought to be, to improve it to the glory of their great Maker?

12. Have we furveyed our own globe, that large and valuable eftate, given by the Father of All, as a rich and plentiful inheritance to Adam, and his pofterity? Have we traverfed, not with a meafuring line indeed, but with the eye of the mind, the boundless tracts of land and water of which it is compofed? Have we taken the height of the perpetual hills, (as Mofes calls them) the everlasting mountains, covered with eternal fnows, and from bubbling fountains, pure brooks and defcending torrents, difperfing ftreams and rivers of clear and refreshing water, in many and meandering courses, through the largest Continents? Have we fathomed the depths of the Ocean, admired the flux and reflux of its waters, or afcertained the number of its fcaly inhabitants, and marked their different species?

13. Have we afcended into the regions of the Air, and learnt the nature and properties of the particles which compofe that fubtile and invifible fluid? Have we obferved, how it furrounds the earth as a fwaddling band, binds old Ocean in its bed, and, by its preffure, is the spring of life to the animal and vegetable creation? Have we marked the rife of vapours, observed the ballancing of the clouds, liftened to the grumbling of thunder, and gazed when the forked lightening played? Have we confidered the treafures of hail and fnow, and viewed, attentively, the hoarfrost of Heaven? Have we admired the provifion made for the afcent of waters into the air, and for their conveyance to the remoteft distance over fea and land, that they may defcend in dews and fhowers, as well to refresh the high places of the wilderness, as to water the cultivated and fertile country?

14. Have we defcended below the furface of the earth, examined the different ftrata through which we paffed, and taken a full and comprehenfive view of the mineral kingdoms? Have we beheld

the

the quarries of ftone, the mines of copper and lead, and the immenfe magazines of fuel, wonderfully formed, and commodiously hid, below the furface of the earth? Has the glittering ore of filver, the admired metal of gold, and the brilliant and fparkling lufture of precious ftones, catched our eyes, and engaged our attention ?

15. From the mineral, have we paffed to the vegetable kingdom? Have we noticed the innumerable kinds of grafs that clothe the meadows, the different species of corn that enrich the fields, the immenfe variety of flowers, of different hues and forms that beautify the parterre,-and the fundry kinds and ranks of ftately trees, that wave in the foreft? Have we confidered the different feeds from which they fpring, the provifion made for difperfing and fowing them in a proper foil, and the aftonifhing progrefs of their vegetation? Have we admired the contrivance, and adored the Power that causes the fame spot of earth, with the fame kind of culture, to produce fruits of fuch different taftes and qualities, and flowers fo endlefsly diverfified in form and colour? And have we praifed and glorified the Wifdom and Goodnefs, which, in the warmest climes, and moft fultry feafons, furnishes us with the fruits of the moit cooling nature, and fuch as are moft replete with juices calculated to refresh and allay our thirst ?

16. From vegetables, have we afcended to animals? And have the innumerable fpecies and kinds we are acquainted with, paffed in review before us? Have we confidered the myriads of animalcula, of different kinds poffeffed of various degrees of life and activity, of all shapes and forms, too small to be difcerned by the naked eye, but rendered vifible by the help of a microfcope, fporting, and taking their paftime in one ingle drop of water, like Leviathan in the deep? Have we viewed the thousands of thousands of infects of a larger kind, of all forms and fizes, varied endlefsly, poffeffed of powers and qualities moft aftonishingly different from each other, but all

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