young man, throwing himself at his feet, "some body would wish to ruin me. I know not how this money came into my pocket." "My friend," said the king, "God often sends us good in our sleep. Give it to thy mother. Salute her in my name, and tell her that I will take care of her and you."

Esop's master having one day given him a sour apple to eat, he devoured it without reluc tance. Astonished at this act of obedience, his master asked him how he could eat a fruit so disagreeable to the taste? you have given me many sweets, replied sop, and it would be surprising if I could not eat the only sour fruit that I ever received from you. An admirable lesson similar to that of Job, viz. shall I receive good from the hand of the Lord, and shall I not also receive evil.

THE advantages of history, civil and sacred, are sufficiently obvious and universally acknowledged. It brings into our view transactions and events, which were accomplished long before we had a being, and of which, otherwise, we must have remained ignorant. To review the conduct of Providence, especially as it is employed about the Church on earth, in the earlier and latter times, is an employ, at once, instructive and entertain ing.

The term, in the Greek New Testament, which we translate Church, has been used to denote any public assembly, lawful, or unlawful, convened for a good purpose or a bad. Waving a variety of definitions and distinctions, which have been used by writers on this subject, by Church I understand that part of mankind, whether great or small, that, in every age of the world, under both the Old Testament and the New, professes faith in the Saviour, and subjection to his government and laws. The crection of the Church, from this definition it is apparent, must have been subsequent to the fall, and the first promulgation of the gos pel to our fallen parents in Eden. From this ori ginal discovery of the Saviour to man, in his lapsed state, to our own times we may easily trace

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a Church, greater or smaller, more or less visible, in one part of our world or antoher. That our ori ginal ancestors embraced the revelation of the Saviour, and began, immediately after to worship God in a manner unknown to them in their primeval state, to worship him through the intervention of a Mediator, the scriptures positively and expressly declares.

Concerning the origin of the world, various, dis,cordant, contradictory theories have been publish. ed. The opinion of the eternity of the world, which has been held by Pagan philosophers, is equally repugnant to the sacred scriptures and the principles of sound philosophy. Of the great antiquity of the universe, the most extravagant and fabulous ideas have been entertained, by the Chinese, the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Concerning the early existence of it, several Christian writers have formed a variety of speculations. But, as has been observed, were we, for a moment, to set revalation aside, we might, on rational principles, with a high degree of probability, though not with infallible certainty, infer the short duration of the world. For this we might plead the general tradition of the most ancient nations; the concurring testimony of the earliest philosophers and poets; the total deficiency of all history preceding the Mosaic; the manifold and palpable absurdities and contradictions of those few accounts, which pretended to greater antiquity; the num. ber of the inhabitants of the earth; the continued discoveries of new countries; the late invention of many useful arts and sciences, &c. But, with

out revelation, all speculation concerning the ori gin of the world is conjecture, uncertainty, fable, perplexity. The books of Moses are confessedly the most ancient in the world. In these and the subsequent sacred writings alone, is an authentic, consistent, satisfactory account of the origin of all things to be found. Concerning the original pro duction of the heavens and the earth, as well as the economy of providence and grace, the scriptures gives us sufficient information. That God, at the time and in the manner, related by Moses, creat ed the heavens and the earth, has ever been an article of the creed of both Jews and Christians. Through faith says an apostle, we understand that the worlds were framed by the ward of God. Often has presumptuous man arraigned the Omnipotent at his bar. Why, it has been asked, was not creation accomplished before it commenced? If one asks, why it did not happen at an earlier period, I may, with equal reason, ask, why it was delayed tilla later. But ever ought we to recollect, that the Omnipotent acts not according to the extent of his power, but according to the wise determinations of his sovereign and uncontrollable will. Among many other questions on this subject, it has been queried, at what season of the year the world was created; whether in spring or autumn. One thing is certain the fruits of the earth were produ ced in a statc. of maturity. Nor is it unworty notice, that the Jewish year commenced inautuma. I speak not of the sacred, but of the civil year of the Jews.

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Concerning the extent, in which the Mosaic his

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tory of creation is to be interpreted, Christian writers are divided in their sentiments. One restricts it to the earth; another extends it to the | solar system'; and many understand it of all worlds visible and invisible; known and unknown. Not only the heavenly bodies, it has been pretended, but the earth itself existed prior to the six days, to which that part of sacred history, we are now ¡ reviewing, refers; and was then reduced to that form in which we now behold it. Suffice it for me to say, we have no authentic, consistent, satisfactory information concerning the origin of things, but what we collect from the sacred volume; and concerning any world prior to the Mo. saic creation, the scripture has said nothing. Of hypotheses, conjectures, speculations, there is no end. Under the appellation of the heavens and the earth the scripture seems to comprehend all worlds and creatures, Acts xvii, 24.

The chronology of the world, which our best Ewriters have almost universally adepted, is that of the celebrated archbishop Usher; a man equally famous for learning and piety. This computation, conformably to the Hebrew text, fixes the creation four thousand and four years before the Christian

aera.

The term Creation, seems to have, in general, two significations in the Mosaic history; a pri. mary and a secondary. According to the former acceptation it denotes the production of something fort of nothing. According to the latter it signifies the formation of creatures, of various species, cat of the common mass of pre-existent matter.

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