Genesis 1

Genesis 1:1

The foundation of all religion being laid in our relation to God as our creator, it was fit that that lack of divine revelations, which was intended to be the guide, support, and rule of religion in the world, should begin, as it doth, with a plain and full account of the creation of the world; in answer to that first inquiry of a good conscience, Where is God any maker? Job xxxv. 8. Concerning which, the wife? Heathens served accordingly: some affecting the world’s eternity and self-self-serve; others affecting it to a fortuitous concourse of atoms; thus the world by wisdom knew not God. The holy scripture therefore is recorded to extricate as from this labyrinth of error, and to teach us that this world was, in the beginning of time, created by a Being of infinite wisdom and power, who was himself before all time, and all world. The first verse of the Bible gives us a furor and better, a more satisfying and useful knowledge of the origin of the universe, than all the volumes of the philosophers. The truly faith of the humble Christians under-stand; this matter better than the elevated fancy of the greatest genius, Heb. xi. 3.

We have three things in this chapter. (1.) A general idea given us of the work of creation, ver. 1, 2. (2.) A particular account of the several days work. The creation of the light the first day, ver. 3-5. Of the firmament the second day, ver. 6-8. Of the sun, the earth, and its fruits, the third day, ver. 9-13. Of the light of heaven the fourth day, ver. 14-19. Of the fish and jowl the fifth day, ver. 20-23. Of the hoists, ver. 24-25. Of man, ver. 26-28. And food for hath, the sixth day, ver. 29-30. (3.) The reviews and approbation of the whole work, ver. 31.

1. “IN the beginning” God created the heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

What dignity of sentiment! what majesty of language, yet withal, what simplicity! Behold in the very opening of the scriptures, the strong and striking evidence of their divine original.

We have in these verses, a short, but expensive history of the creation of all things.

1. The great Agent is the Elohim. The name is plural, to lead us to the immediate view of the trinity of persons in the one divine offence. Note, Without the light of revelation, we must have for ever remained ignorant of the true God. The Supreme Being of the wise desists, is as far removed from the Elohim of the scripture, as the innumerable deities of the blind idolater.

2. The work. Heaven and earth. The highest archangel is as much the workmanship of God, and as much dependent on him, as the worm which crawls under our feet. The fan that golds the firmament, and the clod it shines upon, have one original; how great then He who made all these! What beauty, what order, what fumes of wonder and admiration strike the eye of the attentive beholder. Look, my soul, and read in these fair letters the wisdom, power and glory of thy maker. Yet these eyes can reach no farther than the clouds; if such the excellence of the outer court, what may we not expect within! yes, how much more than eye hath seen, or human heart conceived!

3. The time. In the beginning. Then time began. God alone is eternal. This is his essential attribute. The difference between creator and creature, is as the measure of time to eternity. The highest created being in this scale, is here left as the drop of the bucket in the boundless ocean. Let those tremble then at the dire indignity they offer him, who dare degrade into a temporary existence that eternal Son, who, from everlasting to everlasting, is over all, God blessed for ever.

4. The manner. God created. Creation is the bringing into being what had before no existence. This is the prerogative of God alone. The things which are seen, were not made of the things which do appear.

Learn hence the object of our worship, the Creator, the Elohim, Three persons, but one only and true God. His right to us is undoubted; all we have, and are, is of his bounty. Most justly therefore should we yield up ourselves to him, in love and admiration; by whom, and for whom we all things. Happy that heart that thus is led to answer the end of its creation.

Genesis 1:2

The creation here appears in its state of chaos and confusion. The jarring elements yet unseparated, the earth an undivided mass, the deep spread over it, which darkness wrapped in swaddling hands the new-born embryo. But He who could produce the materials, can as easily arrange them in beauty, order, and comely proportion. The Spirit of the Lord, not the material wind that was not yet produced, but the eternal Spirit

of the Elohim moved upon the face of the waters, impregnating them, as it were, with the principles of life and activity, as the hen broods over her neft.

Such as appeared the material world before the Spirit of God quickened the lifeless lamp; hath is now the spiritual world, till the same divine power interposes. 1. The soul of man by sin, is become a heap of confusion: as dead to God, and incapable of producing any fruits of holiness, as the unformed chaos to produce trees or flowers. 2. Darkness covers it: we have neither the faculty of vision to defray, nor light to illuminate spiritual objects. We know nothing of ourselves, our God, our Saviour, our proper work, or happiness, as we ought to know. 3. The whole world, which now loth in wickedness, presents to the enlightened mind, a lively image of this original confusion and emptiness. Darkness furnishes it, no beauty appears, God is forgotten, the jarring elements of corrupt nature breed wild upon, and universal deflation from diffused around. The heart that hath been taught its true reft, daily cries after that new heaven and new earth, where only real joy is to be found. 4. As incapable as this chaos was, of forming itself into order; as impossible as it was for this darkness to produce the light, or kindle up the sun, to impossible is it for man, by any powers or ability of his own, to restore his fallen soul to the likeness and image of God, or to produce one beam of heavenly light, or spirit of spiritual life. 5. It is the office of the spirit of God, (and his power only can effect it) to produce light and order in the dark and chaotic soul. There must be as evident a demonstration of his divine agency upon the heart, as here appeared on the great deep. If a man have not experienced this, it had been good for him he had never been born. 6. Be our mortal bodies however dissolved in earth, fire, water, air, He who first moved upon the face of the waters, can by the same energy recall the scattered particles of our dust, and from the dissipated and disjointed atoms rafe up a glorious body, bright as the sun when it shineth in its strength.

3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night: and the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:3

Light is the first born of creation, and brightest image of its Creator, who is called the father of lights, and in whom is no darkness at all. Whenever we enjoy the beams of day, our minds should be led up to him, who dwelleth in the light, which no man can approach unto. But he must bellow the internal as well as the external blessing, else in the blaze of noon we must grope for the wall as blind, nor can by searching find out God. Lighten our darkness then, we beseech thee, O Lord!

He wills, and strait starts into being the exact form of the divine idea. By the same power of his effectual word, he saith to the soul, Let there be light; and instant a new creation rises to the view; the soul emerges from the deep of ignorance and sin; the true light shineth; the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ appears; the heart is drawn by lots of irrefutable conviction, and begins to walk in the light, as he is in the light: happy that God who by experience can say, I was once darkness, but now am light in the Lord! But forget not the exhortation which follows, Walk as children of the light.

Genesis 1:4

It was such as God designed, excellent in use, and beautiful in itself. How little are common meres noticed: who thinks of the blessing of light? though without it, creation would be a blank, and earth a dungeon. Though light appears, darkness has still its side: it is not delivered: the vicissitude is as grateful as necessary in this mortal state. The beams of the morning are not more pleasing to the opening eye, than the shadows of the night to the closing eyelids. The present is a changing state, where night and day are successive: Let the soul who mourns in darkness be comforted, the day is at hand: and let him, on whose head the candle of the Lord shines brightest, not be too confident, the day of joy hath some dark clouds: blessed be God for this reviving hope; that the hour approaches when our sun shall no more go down. It is among the glories of heaven, that there is no night there.

Genesis 1:5

The things receive their name as well as their being from God. The day is thine, the night also is thine: oh that both may be for ever comforted to his fervor and glory, and then whether we sleep or wake, we are the Lord’s. A glorious day! nor finished without the praise of admiring angels: these morning stars then sung together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, Job xxxviii. 7. May my every day thus be closed with praise to him, who is to worthy to be had in remembrance. The first day of the world was the first day of the week also: the resurrection of Jesus on the same day, hath made it doubly distinguished. Henceforth it is set apart to commemorate that yet more glorious work the new creation; this is the day the

John Christ

Genesis 1:6

Can, in it. 7. Heb. Benew to the light and benew to the darkness. 8. Heb. And the evening, was, and the morning was, &c. Before Chich

Gross Lord hath made, and flamped with his own great name, “The Lord’s Day.” Rev. i. 10.

1 PC. cerevi. 6. Jer. 2. 13. 1. 15. Heb. Experfect. 6 PC. calviii.

6. ¶ And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven: and the evening and the morning were the second day.

v. 6, 7. God proceeds in his stupendous work. 1. Having made the light, a proper medium is now provided, through which its rays may pass the firmament, or expanse, that salt immensity of space, in which the celestial bodies move, in which this habitable globe appears, as little when viewed amidst the surrounding creation, as the more which plays in the sun-beam compared with that great luminary. Note, Though this firmament is threshed over us, the way is open to the throne of God, and faith can even here enter within the wall, and prayer hath wings that mount beyond the skies; and when, in the judgment-day, the heavens shall be wrapped together as a scroll, we shall, without a covering, see the glories now concealed; and face to face behold him, who made all these things. 2. The design of this firmament, to divide the waters from the waters. There are waters beneath the firmament that cover the great dogs, and rivers which run among the valleys; and there are waters above the firmament, in clouds that drop down fatuels, and in treasure houses reserved for purposes of judgment. We have seen, when God opened the windows of heaven, and swept away a world of the ungodly. O what a great God is he who hath thus provided for the comfort of all that serve him, and the confusion of all that hate him. It is good having him our friend, and had having him our enemy.

3. The instant accomplishment of the divine will; it was so. What God wills, he works. Lord, what thy all powerful word enjoins, let thy almighty grace effect, and then shall I be such as thou wouldst have me be.

Genesis 1:8

The name given the firmament, Heaven. The visible heaven, the outer court of this great temple, we behold; the region of air and clouds and meteors around us, and the yet more distant scene gilded with the sun, and all those stars that glitter in their several spheres; but above these heavens, a third appears, where God is said to fix his radiant throne, and where immortal spirits dwell: not that the heaven, or heaven of heaven can contain him, whose immensity can no more be circumfered by his creation, than his eternity can be measured by the successions of time. With heaven in our eye, can we continue to grow on the earth? Is there our father’s house, and this his glorious abode, and shall not our souls afore after him, and long to be with him, to pass the threshed of his dwelling-place, and to be admitted into his immediate vision? The Second Day: Time now began to measure its regular periods, and what a work each day produces! Happy could we, as these swift hours pass by, be able to say at every closing day, I have finished the work he hath given me to do.

9. ¶ And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together, unto one place, and let the dry-land appear: and it was so. 10. And God called the dry-land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth a grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, who seed it in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, who seed it in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

v. 9, 10. The separation of the superior from the inferior world being perfected, the third day opens with the formation of this earth into beauty and order, from its state of confusion. 1. The waters are collected into proper receptacles, which he called Seas, or the Great Sea; for though diffused and distant the parts, they are one great whole. All the rivers which run into the seas, do first derive their source from the same. The action of the sun railing up the waters, as far in an alembics, the clouds return in in dew, or flowers; and these collecting, from the streams which thus alternately come from, and return to, the storehouse of the great deep.

2. The waters being drawn off, the earth acquires its necessary solidity, and the dry land appears. Lord, if thou speak the word, I shall emerge from the hands of sin, and stand forth from amidst the deep waters which run over me, to tell thy power and praise.

v. 11, 12, 13. The earth thus prepared is now filled with vegetative life, for present use, and for perpetuity too, each of

the various and innumerable species of trees, plants, and flowers, bearing seed in itself. Wonderous provision! what a gracious God have we, who openeth his hand thus, and fillet all things living with plenteousness! How ungrateful is man, who so seldom, or so coldly, remembers, that these are thy gods, O God! Learn hence,

1. That as all things are from God, they should be employed for him. We are but stewards, he the great proprietor; the more he behows, the more obliged are we, and bound in duty and gratitude to love and honour him in his mercies. 2. The command once given, full operates; the earth continues its productions in regular succession, and every returning spring and summer a new creation rises. We should do well, always to look beyond second causes; the more we see of God in the productions of the earth, the more shall we value them. 3. God’s creatures are all good; the corn, the wine, and the oil, have received a blelling from God. Shall we turn then these blellings into a curle by our abode of them, through intemperance, or idolatrous attachment of our hearts to them? God forbid. 4. Every day has its work of many and grace, generally to attract our notice, and awaken our gratitude. Let it be remembered always, that he who once began, wrecketh full, nor does a day pass over us, but some work of providence or grace marks it with a note of observation.

2. ¶ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night: and let them be for lights, and for visitors, and for days, and years. 15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16. And God made it two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: It made the stars also. 17. And God let them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth. 18. And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

v. 14, 15. The fourth day presents us with the formation of the luminaries of heaven, particularly considered in their uses and design respecting the earth. Thus being the place where God chides to make the most especial display of his grace and glory, the other parts of the creation are disposed for its service.

The light had been before created, but diffused abroad; now it is collected into several bodies, and thereby becomes more powerful, more glorious, and more serviceable. Where God is the agent, his work must be perfect. Use and beauty there ever unite.—Hath the Lord kindled these heavenly luminaries in the firmament, and shall they not warm our hearts with sacred love, whilst in the constipation of them, and lead us up to himself, who is the father of lights!

Thir sledge is, 1. To divide the day from the night, by their rising and setting; to mark the season by the progress of the sun through the signs of the Saviour; and the years, by his return at the appointed time. In wisdom hath God made them all. By him projected in their spheres, such separate luminary revolves at fixed periods, and, as if endowed with motion, the sun knoweth its going down. 2. To give light upon the earth, to thine with cheering beams to comfort us, and to direct us in the work we have to do. The day is the season for labour: what thy hand then findeth to do, do it with thy might; the night cometh, when no man can work.

v. 16, 17, 18, 19. The lights mentioned before, are here particularized; the sun, moon, and stars. 1. The sun, which, though to the eye of so small a circumference, is more than an hundred and sixty times as big as the earth. He is the great fountain of light, and from him our planetary system rejoindhes its several orbs with light; and whilst they all receive immediately from the sun, they reflect it again one to another. How glorious that visible luminary! the unguarded eye cannot bear his beams direct: but how much more glorious He who placed him in his sphere, and before whom the angels veil their faces! 2. The Moon. The lethal light, though counted great, because by its retracts to us we receive more light from it, than from all the rest: thus inferior to many other planets in size, yet to us more useful than them all. Not be that known most, but be that makes the best use of his knowledge, is the truly valuable man.—The moon is dark, and borrows all her light from the sun. Do we think, let us never forget the fountain from whence our orb is filled; if we are light, it is only in and through the Lord. 3. The stars. Vail in size, and numberless as they appear, they are spoken of as a very little thing; just mentioned to point out their maker, and no more. The scripture indulges no vain curiosity. Though He who made them bringeth them forth in order, and called them all by their names, his intention in the scripture towards us is not to teach us a system of astronomy, but to instruct us in the wisdom that maketh wise unto salvation. It was a noble sentiment of a cer-

tain Before Christ

tain judge, when prested to flusty asstonomy: “I intend to se-” cure heaven sirst, and I’ll take the ssars in my way."—

4. The setting and rising sun now sirst began to mediate esight and day, and ever since thest ordinances endure. My soul, let never morning rise, that does not find thee on thy bended kitees; let never evening sawes, without the duteous tribute of prayer and praise to him, who maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.

5. ¶ And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly” the moving creature that hath life, and +fowl that may fly above the earth in the open fir-mament of heaven. 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveeth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Genesis 1:23

24. Amongst the works of God, animal life had not yet appeared on the earth. The fifth day begins this work; and as there is provision made, mouths are found for the meat. The fifth and fowl are first formed of the water, dead in them-selves, but teeming with life the moment the creature word goes forth. The gearest, as well as the leaf, owe to God their breath and being; and the whale that unweildly rolls along the ocean, costs him no more than the worm that twinkles in the drop before the macrokcope. Each endued with powers so ex-astly suited to his slate, and so exquistely sastioned, that he who looks without wonder and adoration must be blind indeed. I know not whether most to pity the ignorance, or abhor the impiety, of the achesit and the insdel.

Genesis 1:24

25. Not only their being, but the continuance of it, is provided for. Life is a fleeting thing; succession is needful. Godshath commanded it shall be, and, in virtue of his blessing, the heavens are covered with fowl, and the fifth replenisth the wa-ters; and all for the use of man. Oh that he were wife, that he knew the beautiful giver. The fisher, who casts the bait into the brook, and the fowler, who seeks to the wood, should remember ever, that shale are God’s creatures, given for our good, and therefore to be received and sought with thankfulness to him. When any amusement leads us from God, instend of to him, however innocent in itself, it becomes ruinous to us. As the days advance, still something more excellent than the former is produced. It will be well with us when the like pro-grest appears, and to-day is one step nearer perfescion than yctsenday.

26. ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

27. The beasts are the production of the sixth day. The earth, prossic now as the sea before, pours forth her offspring. The grazing herds, the various repoles, and ravening inhabitants of the forerst, each in his kind suited to answer the propuses of his maker, and to fill the place assignod him in the rank of beings.—Let cavillers qustion the use of many beasts of prey, or animals that appear a burden rather than a blessing; it is enough for the believer, that God saw it was good, to silce all sceptical reassening. Though we may not know how at present, we shall know fully hereafter.

28. ¶ And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have domi-nion over the fifth of the sea, 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. 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: ‘male and female cre-ated he them. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and reple-nisth the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fifth of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that’ moveeth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:26

27. 28. Behold the sinssing stroke of the Divine Cre-ater, Man, the last and gearest work of God. Animal life was produced; now at last the crown of creation is brought forth in a rational soul. The earth, like a flatstly palace, fur-nished for his reception, stems to call for the great inhabitant;

one who can be the tongue of this lower world, and render to the great Author of all the praise of his glorious works. Osserve.

1. The solemnity of his creation. He is not, like the other creatures, produced at an influent; but first a sacred counsel is as it were held between the persons of the undivided Trinity: the result of it is, one who in his person shall unite both worlds. His body, though far transcending other animals, to be of the earth; his soul spiritual, and in the image of God. One who is capable of paying a辉sonable device to that trium’ God, in whom he lives, and moves, and hath his being. Nate, Man is then only Man, when he answets the end for which God made him. He who forgets the design of his creation, and presets the indulgence of the body, to the proper enjoyments of the immortal soul, is no longer a man, but a beast.

2. The pattern after which he is formed. No lest than God himself; in his image and likeness. This likeness chiefly ap-pears. (1.) In his posssing a rational and immortal soul. His body, however beautiful and glorious, was of the earth, earthy; his spirit from the Father of Spirit, a ray from the un-created Sun of light and life. (2.) In the restitude and purity of his nature. His unsubssending capricious, sissind, and clear; his will turning to God’s will, as clay unto the soul; self-inclined, and ever ready to hear and to obey. His af-fections, without wandering or dsstassion, supremely fixed on one great object, and finding all their enjoyment in his love and service. To live for God, was as natural, as to breath; and all his conversation holy, as God is holy. Ah happy slate! no more now alas is left, but the sad remem-brance; a remembrance, that makes the present slate of sin and misery but more grievous. How fallen! how desced this image! How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! Oh Lord, raise up thesec defoliations of many generations! (3.) He represented God on earth. All things were put under his feet; they paid their homage to man, as he to God. But sin hath broke the tie; and since man played the rebel first, no wonder the creatures have revolted from him, and scarce can now be reduced to serve him. The whole cre-ation groaneth. Lord, hasten the day of ressitution, when this disordered world once more shall rise from the furnace, and rightousness again shall dwell in it.

3. Man was created male and female, two in person, one by the union of marriage. Nate, Man is but half himself, without his partner woman. From this original pair descend the nu-merous generations of men that have oversprecd the earth. How soulish and vain then is the pride of pedigree, when the beggar on the dunghill can claim the most ancient and ennobled extraction, as the son of Adam, which was the son of God. We have, in the literal sense, one father; we are brethren of one family, the same blood ruin in our veins, and therefore brotherly affection should be in our hearts one to another. Oh when shall it be, that we shall peastice this great duty, to love one another out of a pure heart fervently!

4. The blessing of God is pronounced upon him; he hath the earth as his possesion, and is commanded to multiply and replenisth it with inhabitants. (1.) The earth is given to the children of men, but not as lords paramount. Man is to occu-py it for God’s glory, and render him the tribute of bounden duty and service continually. The moment he abuts it by waste, or pride, or inordinate affection; he will be reckoned with as an unjust steward. (2.) Children, and the fruit of the womb, are an herniage and gift that cometh of the Lord. In virtue of his first benediction, the world continues from gene-ration to generation: yet usually how little is God’s hand seen, or his blessing sought for herein?

5. Man is to subdue and govern it. By his superior wisdom he is furnished with methods to make the served animals yield, and the strongset to serve him; and he hath dominion over all, by grant from God himself. We have forstrend it by sin, but God in mercy, hath not wholly reformed it: though much is lost, and all had been, were it not for the repairer of the breath, who is come to be the Saviour of all men; though more espe-cially of those who believe; to them all is restired, for all is ours, in blessing and sanctified use, when we are Christ’s.

6. ¶ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a cree-yielding seed: ’to you it shall be for meat. 30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Genesis 1:29

God having given man a general dominion, gives him a particular grant of provision. Though he ruled over the beasts, they are to be his subjects, not his food. In his first slate of hists, he needed them not: yet no doubt his board was spread with such fruits and herbs, as this now ruined earth cannot produce.

1. The Before Chas. 4.

2. The provision was liberal. Every tree. God is no niggers of his gifts, nor restrains us from any thing truly good for us. When it became needful, he added the living creatures to his former grant, Gen. ix. 3. and hath given them to us richly to enjoy. ‘Tis not the use, but the abuse, which he forbids: may we never then spend in the indulgence of our lufts, what was given for the comfort of our lives.

3. It was place and simple, suited to preserve his body in health, and to perpetuate his life, either here below, or till his resignation to a better world. The curle which entered by sin, hath indeed now brought in death; but the unnatural luxury that hath taught many so to disgust their food, that we can no longer know it, is no small means of shortening the few days that are yet alluded.

4. 30. Man is not the only object of God’s care; he giveth fodder to the cattle, and feeleth the young ravens who cry to him. On him the creatures all depend; and though they have no storehouse or barn, they want for nothing. He opsoneth his hand, and filleth all things living with pheromones. How wondrous his bounty! How universal his providence! What abundant reason have we to call at all times our care upon him! Shall the cattle be fed, and his children famished?

5. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

6. 31. Behold now the compleat work of the glorious God. He who begins, will also make an end. Let the people of God be comforted; he doth not work by halves: Hath he begun the new creation in their hearts, he will perfect the same, unto the day of his appearing.

7. We have here a solemn review of the whole. He who makes the work, knows it thoroughly. Be it ever in our mind, that these eyes of Omniscience still go to and fro through the earth, and that from them nothing is hid, nothing is secret.

8. The approbation on the review: It was very good. Exactly answering the mind of the Creator; no flaw, no error, no want, no redundancy: admirably found for the service of man, and in the highest measure demonstrating the wisdom, power, grace, and glory of the hand which formed it.—Whatever God doth, is well done. Though unbelief would often call in question the works of his providence or grace, the day is coming, when we ourselves shall be convinced, that all was holy, and just, and good. At the end it shall speak.—How different are our works on the review from God’s! Alas! the more we reflect, and the more attentively we view them, the more we see of their evil, and are covered with shame and confusion. Yet, to be thus humbled, is mercy. When we begin to die, and cease from our own works, we shall be led to him whose work is perfect, and of whom, and of us in him, God will himself declare, that he is well pleased.

9. The closing of the sixth day. God could at an instant have begun and made an end: he wanted no confidations, or correction in his work; all known to him it was from the beginning, and to him as early to will a world, as a worm into being; but he wrought six days, to reach us to work, and rested the seventh day, enjoining by precept, as he hath taught us by example, to separate it for our day of holy reft, to be spent entire in his service, in the contemplation of his works and ways, and in adoration, love, and praise. Lord, may my every Sabbath thus be spent, till not one day, but every day, I shall come to celebrate an eternal Sabbath in thy presence in glory, and reft from all my works and labours beneath the sun, in the enjoyment of thy blessed self.