void," or hollow, a rude sphere of terraqueous substance, filled only with air in a torpid and stagnant state. “And darkness was upon the face," (Heb. the faces or surfaces) the interior and exterior surface "of the deep," or chaotic mixture. This latter word is of the same root with that which is just before rendered "without form." That darkness is not the mere absence of light, but that it is the etherial fluid in a state of stagnation, is evident from other passages, in which the root whence the noun is derived, is used in the sense of impeding action or motion*

* 66 Chap. i. 1.-Created, .-This word, on the authority of Maimonides, Abenezra, and other Jewish Grammarians, has been considered as implying what theologians call an absolute creation out of nothing. In the Hebrew language we have three verbs, 72, nwy, 7, each having its proper meaning; and though, in the negligence of common speech, the adjacent words may sometimes be used, the one for the other, the extremes never can. is properly to create in the highest sense; to produce out of nothing the whole thing both matter and form. is "to fashion" in the lowest sense: to give external shape and figure. wy is a word of a middle meaning between the other two; signifying properly to induce form (not external form, the to ti ny eivas of the thing) upon a preexistent material. The peculiar force of the word 2 seems to be put out of doubt by the use of it Is. xlv. 7. "The Bp. proceeds to justify the meaning he assigns to two of these words by their use in the above passage of Isaiah, and then adds, I take the word чwn as signifying, both in that passage and in the second verse of the present chapter, not common darkness, but the matter of a fluid in a state of perfect torpidity and stagnation; deriving the noun from the verb un ‘to restrain.' The Masoretes make two roots, Twn to be dark,' and w

Such then was the primitive state of those materials, out of which the plastic hand of Omnipotence formed this magnificent fabric, for the habitation of intelligent creatures afterwards to be produced, and to be a theatre on which the glory of God might be displayed by a spiritual building still more stupendous than the material fabric of In confirmation and explanation of the theory above stated, I must refer you to the same authors as I have mentioned in preceding letters.

nature.

But before I proceed with the account of the inspired historian respecting the creation, I must, consistently with my proposed plan, call your attention to the analogy that subsists between nature and grace. If "the new creation," (or rather, the new formation) "in Christ Jesus," is to be illustrated by the formation described by Moses, it may be expected that the illustration will extend to the state of the materials out of which Almighty power produced the visible

to restrain;' but I believe the distinction to be all their own. In Gen. i. 2, if qwn is to be understood of common darkness (privation mere of light and absent day); this before light was, must have been as much in one place as in another; and why does the sacred historian assign the surface as its place? Add to this, that the next thing we hear of is the production of motion; before which all must have been still and stagnant."

"In Isaiah xlv. 7, if qwn be not some substance, God describes himself as making a non-entity: which is equally absurd, whether the making be understood in the highest sense, or only of the superinducement of form, or the giving of external figure." Bp. Horsley's "BIBLICAL CRITICISM." Vol. i. p. 58.

world. And how striking is the analogy! "The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." The Gentile world, previous to the revelation of the grace of God, "walked in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that was in them, because of the blindness of their heart;" they were past feeling." I can conceive of no image of the natural state of man, independant of Divine Revelation and of enlightening and converting grace, more appropriate and instructive than that chaotic state of the terraqueous matter, which Moses has described. Let the believer recal to mind the state of his own soul before it was quickened by the Spirit of grace, even under all the advantages of an external revelation, and he cannot but be struck with the aptness of the illustration.

We proceed now to consider the employment of those material agents, by which the formless mass was to be reduced to shape and beauty. The first of these which was brought into action is called THE SPIRIT OF GOD; and the second is

LIGHT.

That by THE SPIRIT OF THE ALEIM* we are to understand a material agent, is, I conceive, plain from several considerations. Many ancient writers,

.רוח אלהים *

both

among the Jews and the Christian fathers,* so understood the expression. I need not prove that SPIRIT means, indifferently, wind, that is, air in motion, one of the conditions of the celestial

* Some, says Theodoret, "think that it (viz. the phrase b) signifies the ALL-HOLY SPIRIT, vivifying the nature of the waters—but I think that the true interpretation is, that Moses, by the word spirit, intended the air." Critici sacri in Gen. i. 2; where the opinions of other interpreters, namely those of the Jewish commentators in general and of the Chaldee paraphrast, those of Chrysostom, Grotius, &c. may be also found in unison with that of Theodoret.

The word never denotes spiritual agency. Indeed, it occurs only in Deut. xxxii. 11, Jer. xxiii. 9, and in Gen. i. 2. With the latter text the following instances of minor effects, ascribed to the material agency under the name of the wind, may be compared; Exod. xv. 10; Ps. civ. 30; cxlvii. 18; and Is. xl. 7. If the agency of the light, mentioned in the following clause, symbolized, as St. Paul, (2 Cor. iv. 6.) seems to say it did, the agency of the Second Divine Person in the spiritual world; there is reason to expect that the agency of the Third world also be recognized by some instrument employed in the material formation. But unless such a symbol be recognized in the phrase, THE SPIRIT OF THE ALEIM, it is not to be found at all.

I cannot see how such an interpretation as is here advocated can, in the least degree, be considered favourable to materialism. For the spirit, by being called the spirit of God, is claimed as his instrument, and can be viewed only as employed by Divine wisdom and power.

Consult Grotuis De Veritate, in his notes to his first book, on the history of creation as preserved with more or less accuracy in the traditions of ancient nations. See Onkelos, Maimonides, Eben-ezra; and among the Christian fathers Theodoret, Tertullian, Episcopius and others. Grotius's note in his Annotations is Vis formativa, sive ενεργεια ζωτική

fluid, and the Holy Spirit: but it may not be so evident that the phrase here adopted, "the SPIRIT of the ALEIM," is frequently used in the former sense. If, however, you will refer to the following passages, you will, I think, require no further proof of this latter point. See Exod. xv. 10; Isai. xl. 7; Ps. civ. 4;-xxxv. 5; cxlvii. 18; Hos. xiii. 15; &c. &c. But that which is more conclusive than the mere use of the phrase in these passages to denote a material agency, is a comparison between the agency employed in the formation of the earth at the creation, and in its re-formatiou after the deluge; which agency is, in both cases, designated by the same Hebrew word: and in the latter case, no one has, I believe, ever doubted its materiality. In Gen. viii. 1, it is recorded that "God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were assuaged." The agency, primary and subordinate, was, I conceive, the same in both cases, as was also, in part, the effect to be produced.+

* m the Spirit. The same word that is used in Gen. i. 2; the words being omitted because it is represented as his agent: GoD made the Spirit to pass, &c.

+ Bishop Horsley says, (BIBLICAL CRITICISM, Vol. i. p. 62.) “I would not too confidently assert that (the Spirit of God) in this passage signifies the Holy Ghost himself, because I am aware that men of great learning and piety have been of a contrary opinion; but yet I find it difficult to make sense of the passage taking it otherwise." Let the reader consult the Bishop's