prepared for him. Again, confidering the works of Nature and all parts of the World fubject to generation and corruption, they alfo (r) obferved that nothing is ever generated but out of fomething pre-exiftent, nor is there any mutation wrought but in a fubject, and with a prefuppofed capability of alteration. From hence they prefently collected, that if the whole World were ever generated, it must have been produced out of fome fubject, and confequently there must be a matter eternally preexifting.

Now what can be more irrational, than from the weakness of some creature to infer the fame imbecillity in the Creator, and to measure the arm of God by the finger of man? Whatsoever speaketh any kind of excellency or perfection in the artificer may be attributed unto God: whatsoever fignifieth any infirmity, or involveth any imperfection, must be excluded from the notion of him. That wisdom, prescience, and preconception, that order and beauty of operation which is required in an artift, is moft Wifd. xi. 20. eminently contained in him, who hath ordered all things in meafure, and number, and weight: but if the moft abfolute idea in the artificer's understanding be not sufficient to produce his defign without hands to work, and materials to make use of, it will follow no more that God is neceffarily tied unto pre-existing matter, than that he is really compounded of corporeal parts.

Again, it is as incongruous to judge of the production of the World by those parts thereof which we fee fubject to generation and corruption: and thence to conclude, that if it ever had a cause of the being which it hath, it must have been generated in the fame manner which they are; and if that cannot be, it must never have been made at all. thing is more certain than that this manner of generation cannot poffibly have been the first production even of thofe things which are now generated.

For no

We

We fee the plants grow from a feed; that is their ordinary way of generation: but the first plant could not be fo generated, because all feed in the fame courfe of nature is from the pre-exifting plant. We fee from spawn the fishes, and from eggs the fowls receive now the original of their being: but this could not at first be fo, because both spawn and egg are as naturally from precedent fish and fowl. Indeed because the feed is feparable from the body of the plant, and in that feparation may long contain within itself a power of germination; because the fpawn and egg are fejungeable from the fish and fowl, and yet ftill retain the prolifick power of generation; therefore fome might poffibly conceive that these feminal bodies might be originally fcattered on the earth, out of which the firft of all thofe Creatures should arise. But in viviparous Animals, whofe offfpring is generated within themselves, whofe feed by feparation from them lofeth all its feminal or prolifick power, this is not only improbable but inconceivable. And therefore being the (s) Philofophers themfelves confefs, that whereas now all animals are generated by the means of feed, and that the animals themselves must be at firft before the feed proceeding from them; it followeth that there was fome way of production antecedent to and differing from the common way of generation, and, confequently, what we see done in this generation can be no certain rule to understand the first production. Being then that univerfal maxim, that nothing can be made of nothing, is merely calculated for the meridian of natural caufes, raised folely out of obfervation of continuing creatures by fucceffive generation, which could not have been fo continued without a being antecedent to all fuch fucceffion; it is moft evident, it can have no place in the production of that antecedent or first being, which we call Creation.

Now when we thus defcribe the nature of Creation, and under the name of Heaven and Earth com

prehend

prehend all things contained in them, we must diftinguish between things created. For fome were made inmediately out of nothing, by a proper, fome only mediately, as out of fomething formerly made out of nothing, by an improper, kind of Creation. By the firft were made all immaterial fubftances, all the orders of Angels, and the Souls of Men, the Heavens and the fimple or elemental boGen. i. 1. dies, as the Earth, the Water, and the Air.

Verse 2.

Verfe 9.

In the

beginning God created the heaven and the earth; so in the beginning, as without any pre-existing or antecedent matter: this earth, when fo in the beginning made, was without form and void, covered with waters likewise made, not out of it but with it, the fame which, when the waters were gathered together unto one place, appeared as dry land. (t) By the fecond, all the hofts of the earth, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the fea, Let the earth, faid God, bring forth grafs, the herb yielding feed, and the fruitVerfe 20. tree yielding fruit after his kind. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and

Verse 11.

fowl that may fly above the earth; and more expreffly Gen. ii. 19. yet, Out of the ground God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air. And well may we grant thefe plants and animals to have their origination from fuch principles, when we read, God formed man out of the dust of the ground; and faid unto him whom he created in his own image, Duft thou

Verse 7.

Gen. iii.

Having thus declared the notion of Creation in refpect of those things which were created, the next confideration is of that action in reference to the Agent who created all things. Him therefore we may look upon firft as moved; fecondly, as free under that motion; thirdly, as determining under that freedom, and fo performing of that action. In the first we may fee his Goodness, in the second his Will, in the third his Power.

I do not here introduce any external impulfive caufe, as moving God unto the Creation of the World; for I have prefuppofed all things distinct from him to have been produced out of nothing by him, and confequently to be pofterior not only to the motion but the actuation of his will. Being then nothing can be antecedent to the Creature befide God himself, neither can any thing be a cause of any of his actions but what is in him; we must not look for any thing extrinfecal unto him, but wholly acquiefce in his infinite Goodness, as the only moving and impelling cause. (u) There is none good but one, Matt. xix. that is God, faith our Saviour; none originally, es‐ 17. fentially, infinitely, independently good, but he. Whatfoever goodness is found in any Creature is but by way of emanation from that fountain, whose very being is diffufive, whose nature confists in the communication of itself. In the end of the fixth day God faw every thing that he had made, and behold Gen. 1. 31. it was very good which fhews the end of creating all things thus good was the communication of that by which they were, and appeared fo.

The ancient Heathens have acknowledged this (x) truth, but with such disadvantage, that from thence they gathered an undoubted error. For from the Goodness of God, which they did not unfitly conceive neceffary, infinite, and eternal, (y) they collected that whatsoever dependeth of it must be as neceffary and eternal, even as light must be as ancient as the fun, and a fhadow as an opacous body in that light. If then there be no instant imaginable before which God was not infinitely good, then can there likewise be none conceivable before which the World was not made. And thus they thought the Goodness of the Creator must stand or fall with the Eternity of the Creature.

For the clearing of which ancient mistake, we must observe, that as God is effentially and infinitely good without any mixture of deficiency, fo is he in

respect

9, 10.

refpect of all external actions or emanations absolutely free without the leaft neceffity. Those bodies which do act without understanding or preconception of what they do, as the fun and fire give light and heat, work always to the utmost of their power, nor are they able at any time to fufpend their action. To conceive any fuch neceffity in the divine operations, were to deny all knowledge in God, to reduce him into a condition inferior to fome of the works of his own hands, and to fall under the cenfure Pfal. xciv. contained in the Pfalmift's queftion, He that planted the ear, fhall be not hear? he that formed the eye, fhall be not fee? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall be not know? Thofe creatures which are endued with understanding, and confequently with a will, may not only be neceffitated in their actions by a greater power, but also as neceffarily be determined by the proposal of an infinite good: whereas neither of these neceffities can be acknowledged in God's actions, without fuppofing a power befide and above Omnipotency, or a real happiness befide and above Allfufficiency. Indeed if God were a neceffary Agent in the works of Creation, the Creatures would be of as neceffary a being as he is: whereas the neceffity of being is the undoubted prerogative of the firft Cause. Ephef. i.11. He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, faith the Apostle: and wherefoever counfel is, there is election, or else it is vain; where a will, there must be freedom, or else it is weak. We cannot imagine that the all-wife God fhould act or produce any thing but what he determineth to produce; and all his determinations muft flow from the immediate principle of his will. If then his determinations be free, as they must be coming from that principle, then must the actions which follow them be also free. Being then the goodness of God is abfolutely perfect of itself, being he is in himself infinitely, and eternally happy, and this happiness as little capable of augmentation as of diminution; he cannot

be