DISC. neceffity, left in utter ignorance of fo caI. pital a point. And this reflection alone may fupply the place of a thousand arguments, to convince us that he hath done it.

We find an opinion current through heathen antiquity, that all is not right with the human race; that things were not at first as they are now, but that a change hath been introduced for the worse. When the Philofophers tell us, that mankind were fent upon earth to do penance for crimes by them committed in a pre-existent state, what is it but faying, that man once was upright and happy; but that ceafing to be upright, he ceafed to be happy; and that natural evil is the confequence and punishment of moral. Nor is it at all difficult to difcern, through the fictions of the poets, thofe truths which gave birth to them, while we read of a golden age, when righteoufnefs and peace kiffed each other of a man framed of clay, and animated by a fpark of celeftial fire; of a woman endowed with every gift and grace from

1.

above; and of the fatal casket, out of DISC. which, when opened by her, a flight of calamities overspread the earth; but not without a referve of HOPE, that, at fome future period of refreshment and restitution, they should be done away. Such are the fhadowy scenes, which, by the faint glimmering of tradition reflected from an original revelation, prefent themselves in that night of the world, the æra of pagan fable and delufion, when the imaginations of poetry and the conjectures of philofophy were equally unable to fupply the information, which had been long loft, concerning the origin of the world, of man, and of evil.

With this information we are furnished by the writings of Mofes, penned under the direction of him, who giveth to man the fpirit of understanding, for the inftruction of ages and generations. We are told, by whom the matter of which our fyftem is compofed, was brought into being; and in what manner the feveral objects around us were gradually and fucceffively formed,

DISC. till the whole, compleatly finished, and

I.

furveyed by it's great author, was pronounced good, or fit in every refpect, ta answer the end for which it was defigned.

After this are related the particulars concerning the formation of man; the time of his production; the refolution taken upon the occafion the materials of which he was compofed; the divine image in which God created him; and the dominion over the creatures with which he was invefted. It is intended, in the following difcourfe to offer fuch confiderations, as may be of ufe towards the explanation and illustration of these particulars in their order.

With regard to the time of man's formation, we may obferve of the divine procedure, what is true of every human plan, concerted with wifdom and forefight; that which was first in intention, was last in execution. Man, for whom all things were made, was himself made laft of all. We are taught to follow the heavenly artist,

Step

I.

ftep by step, firft in the production of the DISC. inanimate elements, next of vegetable, and then of animal life, till we come to the masterpiece of the creation, man endued with reafon and intellect. The house being built, it's inhabitant appeared; the feaft being fet forth, the guest was introduced; the theatre being decorated and illuminated, the fpectator was admitted, to behold the fplendid and magnificent scene

ry

in the heavens above, and the earth beneath; to view the bodies around him moving in perfect order and harmony, and every creature performing the part allotted it in the univerfal drama; that, feeing he might understand, and understanding, adore it's supreme author and director.

Not that, even in the original and perfect state of his intellectual powers, he was left to demonftrate the being of a God, either a priori, or a pofteriori. His Creator, we find, immediately, manifested himfelf to him, and converfed with him, informing him, without all doubt, of what

DISC. had paffed previous to his own existence,

I.

which otherwife he never could have known; inftructing him, how, and for what purpose the world and man were made, and to whom he was bound to afcribe all praise and glory on that account. The lofs of this inftruction occafioned fome of his defcendants, in after ages, to worship the creature instead of the Creator. Ignorant of him who gave the fun for a light by day, they fell proftrate before that bright image of it's Maker's glory, which to the eye of fenfe appeared to be the God that governed the world.

The other parts of this fyftem were produced by the word of the Creator. "He

fpake, and it was done." The elements were his fervants: "he faid to one, Go,

and it went; to another, Come, and it "came; to a third, Do this," and the commiffion was inftantly executed. But to the formation of man (with reverential awe, and after the manner of men be it spoken) he seems more immediately to have addreffed