This Section teaches :

1st. That neither the world (the visible universe) nor anything therein is either, as to substance or form, selfexistent or eternal.

2d. That the one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in the beginning created the elements of the world out of nothing, and brought them to their present form, and that the particular stages of this work which are recorded in Genesis were accomplished in the space of six days.

3d. That when finished by God all things were very good, after their kind.

4th. That the design of God in creation was the manifestation of his own glory.

There is a very obvious distinction between the substances of things and the forms into which those substances are disposed. In our experience the elementary substances which constitute things are permanent, as oxygen, hydrogen and the like, while the organic and Inorganic forms in which they are combined are constantly changing. That personal spirits and the various forms in which the material elements of the universe are disposed are not self-existent or eternal is self-evident, and the universality, the constancy and the rapidity of the changes of the latter are rendered more obvious and certain with every advance of science. That the elementary substances of things were created out of nothing was never believed by the ancient heathen philosophers, but is a fundamental principle of Christian theism. This is proved by the following considerations :

(1st.) The Scriptures speak of a time when the world was absolutely nonexistent. Christ speaks of the glory " which I had with thee before the world was." John xvii. 5, 24. " Before thou hadst formed the earth atid the world, from everlasting to everlasting, thou ai*t God." Ps. xc. 2.

(2d.) The Hebrew word translated " to create," and used by Moses to reveal the fact that God created the world, is the very best afforded by any human language anterior to revelation to express the idea of absolute making. It is introduced at the beginning of an account of the genesis of the heavens and of the earth. In the beginning — in the absolute beginning — God created all things (heaven and earth). After that there was chaos, and subsequently the Spirit of God, brooding over the deep, brought the ordered world into being. The creation came before chaos, as chaos before the bringing of things into their present form. Therefore the substances of things must have had a beginning as well as their present forms.

(3d.) The Scriptures always attribute the existence of things purely to the " will," " word," " breath" of God, and never, even indirectly, imply the presence of any other element or condition of their being, such as preexisting matter. "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Heb. xi. 3 ; Ps. xxxiii. 6 ; cxlviii. 5.

(4th.) If God be not the creator of substance ex nihilo, as well as the former of worlds and of things, he cannot be absolutely sovereign in his decrees or in his works of creation, providence or grace. On every hand he would be limited and conditioned by the self-existent qualities of pre-existent substance, and their endless consequences. But the Scriptures always represent God as the absolute sovereign and proprietor of all things. Rom. xi. 36 ; 1 Cor. viii. 6 ; Col. i. 16 ; Rev. iv. 11 ; Neh. ix. 6.

(5th.) The same traces of designed and precalculated correspondences may be clearly observed in the elementary and essential properties and laws of matter that are observed in the adjustments of matter in the existing forms of the world. If the traces of design observed in the existing forms of the world prove the existence of an intelligent former, for the same reason the traces of design in the elementary constitution of matter proves the existence of an intt^lligent creator of those elements out of nothing.

2d. Hence theologians have distinguished between the areatio prima or first creation of the elementary substance of things ex nihilo, and the creatio secunda or second creation or combination of the elements and the formation of things, and their mutual adjustments in the system of the universe. This Section attributes creation in both of these senses to the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The Scriptures attribute creation — (a.) To God absolutely without distinction of person. Gen. i. 1, 26. (6.) To the Father. 1 Cor. viii. 6. (c.) To the Father through the Son. Heb. i. 2. (d) To the Father through the Spirit. Ps. civ. 30. (e,) To the Son. John i. 2, 3. (/.) To the Spirit. Gen. i. 2 ; Job xxxiii. 4.

This Section, using the precise words of Scripture, Ex. XX. 11, declares that God performed the work of creation in the sense of formation and adjustment of the universe in its present order " in the space of six days." Since the Confession was written the science of geology has come into existence, and has brought to light many facts before unknown as to the various conditions through which this world, and probably the stellar universe, have passed previously to the establishment of the present order. These facts remain in their general character unquestionable, and indicate a process of divinely regulated development consuming vast periods of time. In order to adjust the conclusions of that science with the inspired record found in the first chapter of Genesis, some suppose that the first verse relates to the creation of the elements of things at the absolute beginning, and then, after a vast interval, during which the changes discovered by science took place,

the second and subsequent verses narrate how God in six successive days reconstructed and prepared the world and its inhabitants for the residence of man. Others have -supposed that the days spoken of are not natural days, but cycles of vast duration. No adjustment thus far suggested has been found to remove all difficulty. The facts which are certain are: (1.) The record in Genesis has been given by divine revelation, and therefore is infallibly true. (2.) The book of revelation and the book of nature are both from God, and will be found, when both are adequately interpreted, to coincide perfectly. (3.) The facts upon which the science of geology is based are as yet very imperfectly collected and much more imperfectly understood. The time has not come yet in which a profitable comparison and adjustment of the two records can be attempted. (4.) The record in Genesis, brief and general as it is, was designed and is admirably adapted to lay the foundation of an intelligent faith in Jehovah as the absolute creator and the immediate former and providential ruler of all things. But it was not designed either to prevent or to take the place of a scientific interpretation of all existing phenomena, and of all traces of the past history of the world which God allows men to discover. Apparent discrepancies in established truths can have their ground only in imperfect knowledge. God requires us both to believe and to learn. He imposes upon us at present the necessity of humility and patience.

3d. God himself pronounced all the works of his hands when completed very good. Gen. i. 31. This does not mean that finite and material things possessed an absolute perfection, nor even that they possessed the

highest excellence consistent with their nature. But it means — (1.) That all things in this world were at that time excellent according to their respective kinds — the human souls morally excellent after the law of moral agents, and the world and all its organized inhabitants excellent according to their several natures and relations. (2.) That each and the whole was perfectly good with reference to the general and special design of God in their creation.

4th. With respect to the final end of God in the creation of the universe two distinct opinions have been entertained by theologians: (1.) That God proposed for himself as his ultimate end the promotion of the happiness, or as others say the excellence, of his creatures, (2.) That God proposed for hin .elf the manifestation of his own glory.

This is obviously a question of the highest importance. Since the chief end of every system of means and agencies must govern and give character to the whole system, so our view of the chief end of God in his works must give character to all our views as to his creative, providential and gracious dispensations. Our Confession very explicitly takes the position that the chief end of God in his eternal purposes, and in their temporal execution in creation and providence is the manifestation of his own glory. Chapter iii., §§ 3, 5, 7 ; iv., § 1 ; v., § 1 ; vi., § 1 ; xxxiii., § 2; Larger Catechism, Qs. 12 and 18 ; Shorter Catechism, Q. 7. That this opinion is true is proved —

(1.) The Scriptures explicitly assert that this is the chief end of God in cTcation, Col. i. 16; Prov. xvi. 4; and of things as created. Rev. iv. 11 ; Rom. xi. 36.

(2.) They teach that the same is the chief end of God in his eternal decrees. Eph. i. 5, 6, 12.

(3.) Also of God's providential and gracious governing and disposing of his creatures. Kom. ix. 17, 22, 23 j Eph. iii. 10.

(4.) It is made the duty of all moral agents to adopt the same as their personal ends in all things. 1 Cor. X. 31; 1 Pet. iv. 11.

(5.) The manifestation of his own glory is intrinsically the highest and worthiest end that God could propose to himself.

(6.) The highest atla,inment of this supreme end carries wdth it the largest possible measure of good to the creature.

(7.) God as the absolute creator and sovereign cannot have the final ends or motives of his action exterior to himself Otherwise all God's actions would be subordinated to the finite and created ends he had adopted as his ultimate objects.

By the word creation we are to understand the production and formation of all things. I use two words, because creation is twofold, — primary and secondary, or immediate and mediate. By the former, is meant the j)roduction of something out of nothing ; by the latter, the foi-mation of things out of pre-existing matter, but matter naturally indisposed for such productions, and which never could by any power of second causes have been brought into such a form. This section teaches us : —

1. That the world had a beginning. This will now be considered one of the most obvious truths that can be stated, but it is one that required to be confirmed by divine revelation. That the world existed from eternity was generally maintained by the ancient heathen philosophers. Some of them held, that not only the matter of which the world is framed existed from eternity, but that it subsisted in that beautiful form in which we behold it. Others admitted that the heavens and the earth had a beginning in respect of their present form, but maintained the eternity of the matter of which they are composed. That the world had a beginning

is the uniform doctrine of the Scri])tures Gen. i. 1 ; Ps. xc.

2. 'J'his is implied in the phrases, " before the foundation

of the world," " before the world began." — Eph. i. 4 ; 2 Tim. i. 9.

According to the generally received chronology, the Mosaic creation took place 4004 years before the birth of Christ. If, indeed, the accounts of the Egyptians, Hindoos, and Chinese, were to be credited, we should believe that the universe has existed, in its present form, for many millions of years ; but these accounts have been satisfactorily proved to be false. And as a strong presumption that the world has not yet existed 6000 years, it has been often remarked that the invention of arts, and the erection of the earliest empires, are of no great antiquity, and can be traced back to their origin.

2. That creation is the work of God. Often does God claim this work as one of the peculiar glories of his Deity, to the exclusion of all others. — Is. xliv. 24, xlv. 12. The work of creation, however, is common to all the three persons of the Trinity. It is ascribed to the Father, — 1 Cor. viii. 6; to the Son, — John i. 3; to the Holy Ghost. — Gen. i. 2; Job xxvi. 13. All the three persons are one God. AVe must not, therefore, suppose that in creation the Father is the principal agent, and the Son and the Holy Ghost inferior agents, or mere instruments. In all external works of Deity, each of the persons of the Godhead equally concur.

3. That creation extends to "the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible." This is expressly declared in many passages of Scripture : " God made the world, and all things therein." — Acts xvii. 24. " By him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible." — Col. i. 16. This certainly includes angels. We have no reason to think that their creation preceded the period of the Mosaic creation; and they are generally supposed to have been created on the first day.

4. That the world, and all things therein, were created " in the space of six days." This, also, is the express langiiage of Scripture : " For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." — Ex. xx. 11. The modern discoveries of geologists have led them to assign an earlier origin to the materials of which our globe is composed than the period of the six days, commonly known by the name of the Mosaic creation ; and various theories have been adopted in order to reconcile the geological and Mosaic records. Some have held that all the changes which have taken place in the materials of the earth occurred eitbc during the six days of the Mosaic creation, or since that period ; but, it is urged, that the facts which geology establishes prove this view to be utterly untenable. Others have

62 CONFESSION OF FAITH. [ciIAP. IV.

held that a day of creation was not a natural day, composed of twenty-four hours, but a period of an indefinite length. To this it has been objected, that the sacred historian, as if to guard against such a latitude of interpretation, distinctly and pointedly declares of all the days, that each of them had its " evening and morning," — thus, it should seem, expressly excluding any interpretation which does not imply a natural day. Others hold that the materials of our globe were in existence, and under the active operation of creative powers, for an indefinite period before the creation of man; and that the inspired record, while it gives us no information respecting the pre-existing condition of the earth, leaves ample room for a belief that it did pre-exist, if from any other source traces of this should be discovered by human research. The first verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis, in their opinion, merely asserts that the matter of which the imiverse is composed was produced out of nothing by the power of the Almighty, but leaves the time altogether indefinite. The subsequent verses of that chapter give an account of the successive process by which the Eternal, in the space of six days, reduced the pre-existing matter to its present form, and gave being to the plants and animals now in existence. This explanation, which leaves room for a long succession of geological events before the creation of the existing races, seems now to be the generally received mode of reconciling geological discoveries with the Mosaic account of the creation.*

5. That all things were created terij good. Everything was good ; for it was agreeable to the model which the great Architect had formed in his infinite mind from everlasting ; it answered exactly the end of its creation, and was adapted to the purpose for which it was designed.

6. That God made all things for the manifestation of Ms own glory. " The Lord hath made all things for himself," for the manifestation of his infinite perfections ; and all his works proclaim his almighty power, his unbounded goodness, and his unsearchable wisdom. His glory shines in every part of the material universe ; but it would have shined in vain, if there had been no creature to contemplate it with an eye of intelligence, and celebrate the praises of the omnipotent Creator. Man, therefore, was introduced into the habitation which had been prepared for him, and of his creatiop the next section gives an account. I

* The geological opinions of M. Agassiz are corifistent with this explai | tion. See also Candlish on Genesis, i. 20, and Dr Duncan's (of Ruthw Geological Lecture lo Young Men. Glasgow, 1842.