And the evening

h

3 And God said, Let there be light: and | darkness he called Night. there was light. and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, & Let there be a firma ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

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

e

a Psa. 33. 6, 9. & 148. 5.-b Job 36, 30. & 33. 19. Pa. 97, 11. & 101, 2 & 118, 27. Isai. 45. 7. & 60. 19. John 1. 5, 9. & 3. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Ephes. 5. 8. 1 Tim. 6. 16. 1 John 1. 5. & 2. 8.-c 2 Cor. 6. 14.-d Heb. between the light and between the darkness.

the Hebrew Bible. And the reasonableness of this is founded on another maxim, viz. that either the Arabic was derived from the Hebrew, or the Hebrew from the Arabic. I shall not enter into this controversy; there are great names on both sides, and the decision of the question in either way, will have the same effect on my argument. For, if the Arabic was derived from the Hebrew, it must have been when the Hebrew was a living and complete language; because such is the Arabic now; and therefore all its essential roots we may reasonably expect to find there but if, as Sir William Jones supposed, the Hebrew was derived from the Arabic; the same expectation is justified, the deficient roots in Hebrew may be sought for in the mother tongue. If, for example, we meet with a term in our ancient English language, the meaning of which we find difficult to ascertain; common sense teaches us that we should seek for it in the Anglo-Saxon, from which our language springs, and, if necessary, go up to the Teutonic, from which the Anglo-Saxon was derived. No person disputes the legitimacy of this measure; and we find it in constant practice. I make these observations at the very threshold of my work, because the necessity of acting on this principle (seeking deficient Hebrew roots in the Arabic) may often occur; and I wish to speak once for all on the subject.

·

e Chap. 8. 22. Pan. 19. 2. & 74. 16. & 104. 20. Jer. 33. 20. 1 Cor. 3. 13. Ephes. 5. 13. 1 Thess. 5. 5.-Heh, and the evening was, and the morning was.-g Job. 26.7. & 37. 18. Paa. 19. 1. & 104. 2. & 136. 6. & 150. 1. Jer. 10. 12. & 51. 15.-h. Heb. expansion.

may, by due management, be brought on a level with the most ordinary capacity.

In the beginning] Before the creative acts mentioned in this chapter, all was eternity. Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; but prior to the creation of these bodies, there could be no measurement of duration, and consequently no time; therefore, In the beginning must necessarily mean the commencement of time which followed, or rather was produced by God's creative acts, as an effect follows, or is produced by a cause.

Created Caused that to exist which, previously to this moment, had no being. The rabbins, who are legitimate judges in a case of verbal criticism on their own language, are unanimous in asserting that the word " bara, expresses the commencement of the existence of a thing: or its egression from nonentity to entity. It does not, in its primary meaning, denote the preserving or new forming things that had previously existed, as some imagine; but creation, in the proper sense of the term, though it has some other acceptations in other places. The supposition that God formed all things out of a pre-existing eternal nature, is certainly absurd: for, if there was an eternal nature besides an eternal God, there must have been two self-existing, independent, and eternal beings, which is a most palpable contradiction.

DN eth hashamayim. The word n eth, which is generally considered as a particle simply denoting that the word following is in the accusative or oblique case, is understood by the rabbins in a much more extensive sense, "The particle n eth," says Eben Ezra, "signifies the substance of the thing." The like definition is given by Kimchi in his Book of Roots. "This particle," says Mr. Ainsworth, "having the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in it, is supposed to comprise the sum and substance of all things." "The particle ne eth," (says Buxtorf, Talmudic Lexicon sub voce) "with the Cabalists, is often mystically put for the beginning and end, as A alpha, and omega, are in the apocalypse." On this ground these words should be translated: "God in the beginning created the substance of the heavens, and the substance of the earth" i. e. the prima materia, or first elements, out of which the heavens and the earth were successively formed. The Syriac translator understood the word in this sense, and to express this meaning has used the word Ayoth, which has this signification, and is very properly translated in Walton's Polyglott, ESSE cæli et ESSE terræ, "the being or substance of the heaven, and the being or substance of the earth." St. Ephraim Syrus, in his comment on this place, uses the same Syriac word, and appears to understand it precisely in the same way. Though the Hebrew word is certainly no more. than the notation of a case in most places: yet understood here in the sense above, it argues a wonderful philosophic accuracy in the statement of Moses, which brings before us not a finished heavens and earth, as every other translation appears to do, though afterward the process of their formation is given in detail, but merely the materials out of which God built the whole system in the six following days.

The first sentence in the Scripture shows the propriety of having recourse to this principle. We have seen that the words Elohim is plural; we have traced our term God to its source, and have seen its signification; and also a general definition of the thing or being included under this term, has been tremblingly attempted. We should now trace the original to its root; but this root does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Were the Hebrew a complete language, a pious reason might be given for this omission: viz. "As God is without beginning and without cause, as his being is infinite and underived, the Hebrew language consults strict propriety in giving no root whence his name can be deduced." Mr. Parkhurst, to whose pious and learned labours in Hebrew literature most Biblical students are indebted, thinks he has found the root in salah, he swore, bound himself by oath; and hence he calls Elohim, the ever-blessed Trinity, as being bound by a conditional oath to redeem man, &c. &c. Most pious minds will revolt from such a definition, and will be glad, with me, to find both the noun and the root preserved in Arabic, ALLAH U is the common name for GOD in the Arabic tongue, and often the emphatic AU is used, the very same letters as those in Ob elohim, the yod being dropped, and the lamed doubled. Now both these words are derived from the root Xalaha, he worshipped, adored, was struck with astonishment, fear, or terror: and hence he adored with sacred horror and veneration, cum sacro horrore, ac veneratione coluit, adoravit. WILMET. Hence, ilahon, fear, veneration, and also the object of religious fear, the Deity, the supreme God, the tremendous Being. This is not a new idea; God was considered among the ancient Hebrews as the fearful or tremendous Being: and hence Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, Gen. xxxi. 53. To complete the definition, Golius renders JJ alaha; juvit, liberavit, et tutatus fuit, "he succoured, liberated, The heavens and the earth] As the word o shamakept in safety, or defended." Thus, from the ideal mean-yim is plural, we may rest assured that it means more ing of this most expressive root, we acquire the most correct notion of the divine nature; for we learn that God is the sole object of adoration, that the perfections of his nature are such as must astonish all those who piously contemplate them, and fill with horror all who would dare to give his glory to another, or break his commandments: that consequently he should be worshipped with reverence and religious fear; and that every sincere worshipper may expect from him divine help in all his weaknesses, trials, difficulties, temptations, &c. freedom from the power, guilt, nature, and consequences of sin; and to be supported, defended, and saved to the uttermost and to

the end.

Here, then, is one proof, among multitudes which shall be adduced in the course of this work, of the importance, utility, and necessity of tracing up these sacred words to their sources; and a proof also, that subjects which are supposed to be out of the reach of the common people,

than the atmosphere, to express which some have endeavoured to restrict its meaning. Nor does it appear that the atmosphere is particularly intended here, as this is spoken of ver. 6. under the term firmament. The word heavens must therefore comprehend the whole solar system; as it is very likely the whole of this was created in these six days: for, unless the earth had been the centre of a system, the reverse of which is sufficiently demonstrated, it would be unphilosophic to suppose it was created independently of the other parts of the system. Indeed we must have recourse to the almighty power of God, to suspend the influence of the earth's gravitating power, till the fourth day, when the sun was placed in the centre, round which the earth began then to revolve. But as the design of the inspired penman was to relate what especially belonged to our world and its inhabitants, therefore he passes by the rest of the planetary system, leaving it simply included in the plural word heavens. In the word earth, every thing.

TABLE I. THE REVOLUTIONS, DISTANCES, &c. &c. OF ALL THE PRIMARY PLANETS.

The following celestial bodies, commonly called planets, revolving between Jupiter and Mars, have been recently discovered: all that is known of their magnitude, surface, diameter, and distance, I here subjoin.

TABLE IV. SATELLITES OF HERSCHEL, OR THE GEORGIUM SIDUS.

1000

500

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

a

14 And God said, Let there be lights in

a Deut. 4. 19. Ps. 74. 16. & 136. 7.

iii. 8. and which as a mighty rushing wind on the day of pentecost, filled the house where the disciples were sitting, Acts ii. 2. which was immediately followed by their speaking with other tongues, because they were filled with the Holy Ghost, ver. 4. These scriptures sufficiently ascertain the sense in which the word is used by Moses.

Moved] non merachepheth, was brooding over, for the word expresses that tremulous motion made by the hen while either hatching her eggs or fostering her young. It here probably signifies the communicating a vital or prolific principle to the waters. As the idea of incubation, or hatching an egg, is implied in the original word, hence probably the notion, which prevailed among the ancients, that the world was generated from an egg.

Verse 3. And God said, Let there be light,

YEHI AUR, va yehi aur. Nothing can be conceived
more dignified than this form of expression. It argues at
once uncontrollable authority, and omnific power; and in
human language it is scarcely possible to conceive that
God can speak more like himself. This passage in the
Dionysius Longinus, one of the most judicious Greek
critics that ever lived, and who is highly celebrated over
the civilized world for a treatise he wrote, entitled zip vous,
concerning the SUBLIME, both in prose and poetry; of this
passage, though a heathen, he speaks in the following
terms: ταύτη και ο Ιουδαίων θεσμοθετης (ουκ ο τυχων ανηρ)επείδη
την του θείου δύναμιν κατα την αξίαν εγνώρισε καξέφηνεν, ευθύς εν
τη εισβολή γράψας των νόμων, ΕΙΠΕΝ Ο ΘΕΟΣ, φησι, τι;
TENEEON QUE VIT TENEZON гн• xa sysvero
"So likewise the Jewish lawgiver (who was no ordinary
man) having conceived a just idea of the divine power, he
expressed it in a dignified manner; for at the beginning of
his laws he thus speaks: GOD SAID-What? LET
THERE BE LIGHT! and there was light. LET
Longin.
THERE BE EARTH! and there was earth.'
Sect. viii. edit. 1663.

Greek translation of the
the Septuagint fell in the way of

the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day
from the night; and let them be for signs, and
for seasons, and for days, and years:

b Heb. between the day and between the night.-c Ps. 74. 17. & 104. 19.
Verse 4. God divided the light from the darkness, &c.]
This does not imply that light and darkness are two distinct
substances, seeing darkness is only the privation of light;
but the words simply refer us, by anticipation, to the rotation
of the earth round its own axis once in twenty-three hours,
fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, which is the cause of
the distinction between day and night, by bringing the dif-
ferent parts of the surface of the earth successively into, and
from under, the solar rays; and it was probably at this mo-
ment, that God gave this rotation to the earth, to produce
this merciful provision of day and night.-For the manner,
in which light is supposed to be produced, see verse 16, un-
der the word sun.

Verse 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament.] Our translators, by following the firmamentum of the Vulgate, which is a translation of the spawn of the Septuagint, have deprived this passage of all sense and meaning. The Hebrew word pp rakeeâ from yp¬ raka, to spread out as the curtains of a tent or pavilion, simply signifies an expanse or space, and consequently, that circumambient space or expansion, separating the clouds which are in the higher regions of it, from the seas, &c. which are below it. This we call the atmosphere, the orb of atoms, or inconceivably small particles: but the word appears to have been used by Moses in a more extensive sense, and to include the whole of the planetary vortex, or the space which is occupied by | the whole solar system.

Verse 10. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas.] These two constitute what is called the terraqueous globe, in which the earth and the water exist in a most judicious proportion to each other. Dr. Long took the papers which cover the surface of a seventeen inch terrestrial globe, and having carefully separated the land from the sea, he weighed the two collections of papers accurately, and found that the sea-papers weighed three hundred and forty-nine Many have asked, "How could light be produced on grains, and the land-papers only one hundred and twentythe first day, and the sun, the fountain of it, not created four; by which experiment it appears that nearly threetill the fourth day?". With the various and often unphi-fourths of the surface of our globe, from the arctic to the losophical answers which have been given to this question I will not meddle; but shall observe that the original word Naur, signifies not only light, but fire, see Isai. xxxi. 9. And for Ezek. v. 2. It is used for the sun, Job xxxi. 26. the electric fluid or LIGHTNING, Job xxxvii. 3. And it is worthy of remark, that it is used in Isai. xliv. 16. for the heat derived from ex esh, the fire. He burneth part thereof in the fire, (ND bemo esh.)-Yea, he warmeth himself, and saith aha!-I have seen the fire, raceti aur, which a modern philosopher, who understood the language, would not scruple to translate, I have received caloric, or an additional portion of the matter of heat. I therefore conclude, that as God has diffused the matter of caloric or latent heat through every part of nature without which there could be neither vegetation nor animal life, that it is caloric or latent heat which is principally intended by the original word.

That there is latent light, which is probably the same with latent heat, may be easily demonstrated: take two pieces of smooth rock crystal, agate, cornelian, or flint, and rub them together briskly in the dark, and the latent light or matter of caloric will be immediately produced and become visible. The light or caloric, thus disengaged, does not operate in the same powerful manner as the heat or fire which is produced by striking with flint and steel; or that produced by electric friction. The existence of this caloric, latent or primitive light, may be ascertained in various other bodies; it can be produced by the flint and steel, by rubbing two hard sticks together, by hammering cold iron, which in a short time becomes red hot; and by the strong and sudden compression of atmospheric air in a tube. Friction in general produces both fire and light. God therefore created this universal agent on the first day, because without it no operation of nature could be carried on or perfected.

Light is one of the most astonishing productions of the creative skill and power of God. It is the grand medium by which all his other works are discovered, examined, and understood, so far as they can be known. Its immense diffusion, and extreme velocity, are alone sufficient to demonstrate the being and wisdom of God. Light has been proved by many experiments to travel at the astonishing rate of 194, 189 miles in one second of time! and comes from the sun to the earth in eight minutes, 11 seconds, a distance of 95,513,794 English miles.

antarctic polar circles, are covered with water. The doctor did not weigh the parts within the polar circles, because there is no certain measurement of the proportion of land and water which they contain. This proportion of threefourths water may be considered as too great, if not useless: but Mr. Ray, by most accurate experiments made on evaporation, has proved that it requires so much aqueous surface to yield a sufficiency of vapours for the purpose of cooling the atmosphere, and watering the earth. See Ray's Physico-theological Discourses.

An eminent chymist and philosopher has very properly observed, that it seems plain that Moses considered the whole terraqueous globe as being created in a fluid state, the earthy and other particles of matter being mingled with the water. The present form of the earth demonstrates the truth of the Mosaic account; for it is well known that if a soft or elastic globular body be rapidly whirled round on its axis, the parts at the poles will be flattened, and the parts on the equator, midway between the north and south poles, will be raised up. This is precisely the shape of our earth; it has the figure of an oblate spheroid, a figure pretty much resembling the shape of an orange. It has been demonstrated by admeasurement, that the earth is flatted at the poles, and raised at the equator. This was first conjectured by Sir Isaac Newton, and afterward confirmed by M. Cassini and others, who measured several degrees of latitude at the equator and at the north pole, and found that the difference perfectly justified Sir Isaac Newton's conjecture, and consequently confirmed the Mosaic account. The result of the experiments instituted to determine this point, proved, that the diameter of the earth at the equator is greater by more than twenty-three miles than it is at the poles.

And God saw that it was good.] This is the judgment which God pronounced on his own works. They were beautiful and perfect in their kind, for such is the import of the word tobh. They were in weight and measure, perfect and entire, lacking nothing. But the reader will think it strange that this approbation should be expressed, once on the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth days: twice on the third, and not at all on the second! I suppose that the words, And God saw that it was good, have been either lost from the conclusion of the eighth verse, or that the clause in the tenth verse originally belonged to the eighth. It appears from the Septuagint translation, that

31

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament | greater light to rule the day, and the lesser of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

it was so.

16 And God made two great lights: the

a Ps. 136. 7, 8, 9. & 148. 3, 5.

the words in question existed originally at the close of the eighth verse, in the copies which they used; for in that version we still find x. v o 105 oтi xxλov, And God saw that it was good. This reading, however, is not acknowledged by any of Kennicott's or De Rossi's MSS. nor by any of the other Versions. If the account of the second day stood originally as it does now, no satisfactory reason can be given for the omission of this expression of the Divine approbation of the work wrought by his wisdom and power on that day.

Verse 11. Let the earth bring forth grass-herbs-fruit trees, &c.] In these general expressions all kinds of vegetable productions are included. Fruit trees are not to be understood here in the restricted sense in which the term is used among us; it signifies all trees, not only those which bear fruit, which may be applied to the use of men and cattle, but also those which had the power of propagating themselves by seeds, &c. Now as God delights to manifest himself in the little as well as in the great, he has shown his consummate wisdom in every part of the vegetable creation. Who can account for, or comprehend the structure of a single tree or plant? The roots, the stem, the woody fibres, the bark, the rind, the air-vessels, the sap-vessels, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits, are so many mysteries. All the skill, wisdom, and power of men and angels could not produce a single grain of wheat! A serious and reflecting mind can see the grandeur of God not only in the immense cedars on Lebanon, but also in the endlessly varied forests that appear through the microscope in the mould of cheese, stale paste, &c. &c.

Verse 12. Whose seed was in itself] Which has the power of multiplying itself by seeds, slips, roots, &c. ad infinitum: which contains in itself all the rudiments of the future plant through its endless generations. This doctrine has been abundantly confirmed by the most accurate observations of the best modern philosophers. The astonishing power with which God has endued the vegetable creation to multiply its different species, may be instanced in the seed of the elm. This tree produces one thousand five hundred and eighty millions of seeds; and each of these seeds has the power of producing the same number. How astonishing is this produce! At first, one seed is deposited in the earth; from this one a tree springs, which in the course of its vegetative life produces one thousand five hundred and eighty millions of seeds. This is the first generation. The second generation will amount to two thousand, four hundred and ninety-six billions and four hundred millions. The third generation will amount to three thousand nine hundred and forty-four trillions, and three hundred and twelve billions! And the fourth generation from these would amount to six sextillions, two hundred and thirty-two thousand and twelve quintillions, and nine hundred and sixty thousand quadrillions! Sums too immense for the human mind to conceive; and when we allow the most confined space in which a tree can grow, it appears that the seeds of the third generation from one elm would be many myriads of times more than sufficient to stock the whole superficies of all the planets in the solar system!

Verse 14. And God said, Let there be lights, &c.] One principal office of these was to divide between day and night. When night is considered a state of comparative darkness, how can lights divide or distinguish it? The answer is easy: the sun is the monarch of the day, the state of light; the moon of the night, the state of darkness. The rays of the sun falling on the atmosphere, are refracted and diffused over the whole of that hemisphere of the earth immediately under his orb; while those rays of that vast luminary, which, because of the earth's smallness in comparison of the sun, are diffused on all sides beyond the earth, falling on the opaque disk of the moon, are reflected back upon what may be called the lower hemisphere, or that part of the earth which is opposite to the part which is illuminated by the sun: and, as the earth completes a revolution on its own axis in about twentyfour hours, consequently each hemisphere has alternate day and night. But as the solar light reflected from the face of the moon is computed to be 50,000 times less in intensity and effect than the light of the sun, as it comes directly from himself to our earth, (for light decreases in its intensity as the distance it travels from the sun increases ;) therefore a sufficient distinction is made between day and night, or light and darkness, notwithstanding each is ruled and determined by one of these two great lights. |

b Heb. for the rule of the day-c Ps. 8. 3-d Job 38. 7.

The moon ruling the night, i. e. reflecting from her own surface, back on the earth, the rays of light which she receives from the sun. Thus both hemispheres are to a certain degree illuminated; the one on which the sun shines, completely so; this is day: the other on which the sun's light is reflected by the moon, partially; this is night. It is true, that both the planets and fixed stars afford a considerable portion of light during the night, yet they cannot be said to rule or to predominate by their light, because their rays are quite lost in the superior splendour of the moon's light.

And let them be for signs] nn le-othoth. Let them ever be considered as continual tokens of God's tender care for man, and as standing proofs of his continual miraculous interference; for so the word ns oth, is often used. And is it not the almighty energy of God that upholds them in being? The sun and moon also serve as signs of the different changes which take place in the atmosphere, and which are so essential for all purposes of agriculture, commerce, &c.

For seasons] DIN moâdeem, for the determination of the times on which the sacred festivals should be held. In this sense the word frequently occurs; and it was right that, at the very opening of his revelation, God should inform man that there were certain festivals which should be annually celebrated to his glory. Some think we should understand the original word as signifying months, for which purpose we know the moon essentially serves, through all the revolutions of time.

For days] Both the hours of the day and night, as well as the different lengths of the days and nights, are distinguished by the longer and shorter spaces the sun is above or below the horizon.

For years] Those grand divisions of time, by which all succession in the vast lapse of duration is distinguished. This refers principally to a complete revolution of the earth round the sun, which is accomplished in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; for, though the revolution is that of the earth, yet it cannot be determined but by the heavenly bodies.

Verse 16. And God made two great lights] Moses speaks of the sun and moon here, not according to their bulk or solid contents, but according to the proportion of light they shed on the earth. The expression has been caviled at by some who are as devoid of mental capacity as of candour. "The moon," say they, "is not a great body; on the contrary, it is the very smallest in our system." Well, and has Moses said the contrary? He has said it is a great LIGHT: had he said otherwise, he had not spoken the truth. It is, in reference to the earth, next to the sun himself, the greatest light in the solar system; and, so true is it, that the moon is a great light, that it affords more light to the earth than all the planets in the solar system, and all the innumerable stars in the vault of heaven put together. It is worthy of remark, that on the fourth day of the creation the sun was formed, and then "first tried his beams athwart the gloom profound;" and that at the conclusion of the fourth millenary from the creation, according to the Hebrew, the Sun of righteousness shone upon the world, as deeply sunk in that mental darkness produced by sin, as the ancient world was while teeming darkness held the dominion, till the sun was created as the dispenser of light. What would the natural world be without the sun? A howling waste, in which neither animal nor vegetable life could possibly exist. And what would the moral world be without Jesus Christ, and the light of his word and Spirit? Just what those parts of it now are, where his light has not yet shone-"Dark places of the earth, filled with the habitations of cruelty," where error prevails without end; and superstition engendering false hopes and false fears, degrades and debases the mind of man.

Many have supposed, that the days of the creation answer to so many thousands of years; and that, as God created all in six days, and rested the seventh, so the world shall last six thousand years, and the seventh shall be the eternal rest that remains for the people of God. To this conclusion they have been led by these words of the apostle, 2 Pet. iii. 8. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years; and a thousand years as one day. Secret things belong to God: those that are revealed, to us and our children.

He made the stars also.] Or rather, he made the lesser light, with the stars to rule the night.