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Creation
192. Wisdom of the
Creation. The contrivance of the organs of speech are peculiarly
wonderful. In the first place, no other way in the world can be thought
of so convenient for the communicating our minds as by sounds. But one
would think that it would be impossible that it should be done by
sounds, or that organs should be contrived that should quickly and
easily give so many clearly distinguishable sounds and yet short ones,
as there are innumerable different sentiments of mind to be expressed.
For we see nothing else in the world by which such a distinction can be
made, or anything like. We can make but few distinct sounds by anything
else we can find or make — but with the organs of speech an infinite
number, by the various ordering of the throat and tongue. And these
distinctions are very clear and plain, and yet all reducible to a very
few simple ones, so that almost every sound may be, by rule, easily
reduced to four and twenty letters, [See The Mind, No. 45] and at the
same time these organs shall be excellently adapted to innumerable other
uses.
1039. We are wont to make
a distinction between the work of creation and the work of providence,
but indeed the creation of the world, or the manner of creation, is one
thing, and one main thing that appertains to God’s providence, or the
provision that God makes, in the disposal of things for the bringing to
pass the events and designs he had in view to be accomplished and
attained in and by the world. The creation of the world, in strictness,
cannot be distinguished from his government and disposal of all things.
God’s making the creatures such as he did, and in constituting the world
as he did at first, and disposing of them as he did in their first
creation is a part, and a very great and main part, of what he did as
the great and sovereign and all-wise disposer of all things, in order to
attain the purposes and designs and indeed the general course of all
things in the natural world from the creation of the world to the end of
it. It was in effect mainly disposed ordered and governed and provided
for in the manner in which things were made constituted and ordered at
their first creation.
1336. Creation. There are
these things which seem to show that there was no creation before the
Mosaic creation.
1. Those who suppose that there was a creation before the Mosaic
creation generally suppose the Mosaic creation to respect only this
globe of the earth, and that the heavenly bodies in general were created
before, concerning which I would observe,
First. That this does not well agree with the account Moses gives of the
fourth day’s work of the creation, of which he gives an account.
The accounts we have of the creation of the heavenly bodies from time to
time, particularly of the sun, moon and stars, here and elsewhere in the
Old Testament, with reference to Moses’s account, are so expressed that
it would be almost impossible to understand them any other way than as a
proper making, creation and formation, and not merely of a scattering
away of fogs and mists which hung over the face of the earth, so that
they might have been seen here on the face of the earth, had there
existed any inhabitants to see them.
Second. Nor does it well agree with his account of the creation of the
light on the first day, for if the Mosaic creation was only of this
earth, then we must suppose the sun was created before, and so the light
would have existed before.
Third. If any should suppose that the Mosaic creation, though it
extended beyond this earth, yet that it respected only the solar system,
I think there is no manner of reason to suppose any other, than that as
the whole visible universe, the many suns or fixed stars that belong to
it, are all one frame. So they were created together, not first one and
then two, or first ten and then ten more, thus gradually increasing the
number till they came gradually to be so many millions. As if we find a
stately building erected, it would be reasonable to suppose any other
than that it was built together, and not first one stick of timber, and
then after a long time another.
2. They who suppose there was any creation before the Mosaic creation
suppose the angels to have been created before. In opposition to which,
I would observe,
First. That place in Neh. 9:6, “Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone. Thou
hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host; the earth,
and all things that are therein; the seas, and all that is therein: and
Thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth Thee.” Here
I think it is most reasonable to suppose that Nehemiah has reference to
the very same creation that God speaks of in Exo. 20:11, “For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.”
The descriptions are the same, and the things spoken of as created are
plainly the same. But the creation Nehemiah speaks of includes angels.
They are included in the host of heaven that he mentions, as part of the
creation of which he speaks, as is plain by what he says further of the
host of heaven at the end of the verse, “And the host of heaven
worshippeth Thee.” The angels are evidently the host of heaven that
worship God.
Second. Christ’s eternity is largely set forth by his existing before
the creation of this lower world, and all the parts of it, Pro. 8:22-30,
“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his world of
old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the
earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth: when there
were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were
settled, before the hills was I brought forth. While as yet he had not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the
world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass
upon the face of the depths.” Which would not be proper and significant,
if many created beings had existed long before these things, as well as
he.
Third. God expresses his own eternity by this, that he was before the
day, and that he then existed alone, existing before any other being
that men erroneously worship as God. From whence we may conclude that no
created angels, who of old, and in most ages of the world, have been
worshipped as gods, had any existence before the day, Isa. 43:10-14,”Ye
are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen,
that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He: before me
there was no god formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am
the Lord; and besides me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have
saved, and I have showed when there was no strange god among you;
therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea,
before the day was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of
my hand: I will work, and who shall let it me?”
From this place, it is probable, that the angels were created the first
day with the light.
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