of the mighty theme! Yet what he can do he will endeavour to perform; he will transfer, in immortal strains, from the table of his heart, to suc. ceeding generations, the praises of the Most High; and call upon "all flesh to bless his holy name for ever and ever." Mr. Addison observes, that the passages in Psalm xvi., relating to the Messiah, "had a present and personal sense, as well as a future and prophetic one:" for though David himself" fell on sleep and saw corruption," yet he could not consider this event as final and irreversible, for he immediately adds, "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore," therefore "his flesh did rest in hope." And if all this should be referred to the Messiah alone, it would be strange, indeed, if the Psalmist, who had such clear views of the Messiah's being raised to an immortal life, should nevertheless conclude, that this great future Prophet and Restorer, "the hope and consolation of Israel," so long waited for, should himself prove only a single and solitary instance of the Divine power and goodness in this respect; and all the people of God besides, from the beginning to the end of time, should lie down for ever in the land of silence and forgetfulness! The ideas are so absurd and incongruous, that they will not bear a moment's discussion; especially when in other psalms he is as precise and determinate on this point as words can well admit of." Depart from evil and do good, and dwell for evermore.-Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth I can desire besides thee! My flesh and my heart shall fail, but thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me! Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints!—I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness!" Thus it appears, as it should seem, that there are sufficient evidences in the Old Testament to prove, to the satisfaction of any reasonable inquirer, that the ancient fathers of the primi tive church, and their successors, believed in and expected a future state; and if the comparative silence on this important subject in the Jewish Scriptures be objected, it may be replied, (besides observing, by the way, that we are to find our religion, and not to make it,) that we are not to reject any doctrine or opinion, reasonable in itself, and honourable to the Supreme Being, on account of a comparative, or even an absolute silence in the saered writings. We know little from the Bible of the state, the numbers and the orders of angels; yet who can doubt of their existence, and of their important services in the creation? A scale of beings above us, supposing the use of our faculties, being almost an intuitive proposition; as a scale below us is a matter of fact and experience. We know nothing, from this source, of the plurality of worlds; but every Tyro in modern philosophy can almost demonstrate the fact. And who will say, it is not as reasonable that there should be a future state, as that there should be superior orders of intelligent beings, or a plurality of worlds in the regions of immeasurable space? Doubtless, there were sceptics in the primitive churches, as well as in our Saviour's time, "who said there was no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit ;" and who, with the rebellious Israelites, in the days of the prophet Malachi, said, "It is in vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and walked mournfully before him?" But, in such evil times, "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name; and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.” But the New Testament places this subject in the most convincing point of view, so that "he may run that readeth." Our Saviour, alluding to the prophecies concerning himself, refers the unbelieving Jews to their own Scriptures, in which also they pro Belief of the Patriarchs and Israelites in a Future State. fessed to find " eternal life;" and he does not deny the inference: on the contrary, concerning a resurrection, he observes to the Sadducees, that Moses himself "shewed it at the bush, in calling the Lord the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob; for he is not the God of the (finally) dead, but of the living, for all live to him." These passages need no comment: and in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer, enumerating the triumphs of faith in the ancient world, represents the OldTestament saints as looking through the present transitory scene, "for a better country, that is, a heavenly;" and he emphatically declares, that the only faith which can please God is that which leads not only to a belief in his existence, but also in his character and government, as "a rewarder of those that diligently seek him; and he insists that the primitive believers possessed this divine principle; that they "all died in faith," not, indeed, having received the promises, but seeing them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, confessing themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth." The notion which we have here endeavoured to disprove, hath called forth the animadversions of many eminent divines. Mr. Robinson, in his Notes on Claude, (ed. 1779, p. 132,) says, "The present times have scarcely produced a more absurd and dangerous error than that of Bishop Warburton; who affirms, that the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments is not to be found in, nor did make a part of, the Mosaic dispensation."" After citing some of the texts above-named, and making a few remarks, not very creditable to the sincerity of the learned prelate, he gives some extracts from eminent foreign writers, in favour of the contrary opinion; namely, "That the patriarchal religion included the doctrine of a future state that the Mosaic œconomy included the patriarchal religion: that the apostles preached what was written in the law and the prophets,' and was believed by the bulk of the Jewish people (Acts xxiv. 14, 15): that the promise of the Messiah alone included all spiritual blessings, and that the Israelites understood it so: 277 that God made the Old-Testament saints fellow-heirs with the New-Testament believers, and that it is senseless and wicked to set the two dispensations at variance. Jesus Christ, far superior to all human glory, was known and celebrated long before he came into the world. His magnificence is of all ages. The foundations of his religion were laid with those of the world; and though not born till four thousand years from the creation, yet his history begins with that of the world. He was first preached in Paradise, the subject was continued down to Moses, and revealed still more frequently and more clearly during the reign of the law and the prophets. Behold, before his birth, the titles of his grandeur! Jesus, above all Jesus crucified, throws the brightest light upon the Old Testament. Without him the law would be a sealed book; and Judaism a confused heap of precepts and ceremonies, piled up without meaning. On the contrary, how beautiful is the history of the people of God, and all their worship, when the cross is the key! It is one whole, the different parts of which relate to the same end. It is a long allegory of Divine wisdom. It is an edifice which God himself hath founded and insensibly raised, with a design of placing upon the top the cross of his Son!" Let us not, therefore, represent the God of grace," the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," as in opposition to the God of nature, or to "the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob;" for these “ are not three Gods, but one God,"---one in name, one in nature, one in person, one in power and glory! Who, though he varies his dispensations to his rational offspring, according to their different situations and circumstances, talents and capacities, which are ordered "after the counsel of his own will;" is himself" without variableness or shadow of turning!" Who" hateth nothing which he hath made;" nor expects "to reap where he hath not sown, or to gather where he hath not strewed;" with whom is "no respect of persons," but who "judgeth according to every man's work;" and who, with regard to the leading and essential principles of all true religion, "hath never left himself without wit ness;" but, in different degrees, "enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." AN OCCASIONAL READER. SIR, Kidderminster, LTHOUGH I entertain a very A high respect for Mr. Belsham's learning, judgment and integrity, and greatly esteem the rich and glowing sentiments concerning the unity and glorious perfections of the Divine Majesty which appear in a sermon he has lately published; [see Mon. Repos. XVII. 111, &c.] yet I cannot concur with him in some of the ideas he has advanced respecting the contents of the first chapter of the book of Genesis, commonly called the Mosaic account of the creation. He considers the narrative to be philosophically wrong, or inconsistent with the system of nature, as demonstrated by modern philosophy; and I cannot but regret that such a decided opinion has proceeded from a person of his merited theological and literary eminence. If the contents of this chapter be thus erroneous, they certainly could not have been communicated by divine inspiration to Adam, or any of his posterity, and transmitted from that sacred origin to Moses; nor could they have been imparted by the Creator immediately to him or any other writer. And as it must be utterly impossible that any human being could know what transactions occurred before the human race had existence, without being favoured with such inspiration, the whole narrative can be nothing else than the effusion of man's imagination, which might have been conveyed from one generation to another as a tradition of the primitive age; and which may now be admired for its high antiquity, and regarded as a curiosity for the singular information it gives of the false philosophical opinions of that early period of the world, but cannot be venerated as a part of divine revelation, for which it has been generally esteemed, both by Jews and Christians. My design is not to consider the question whether or not there be discordances in the former chapters of this book, tending to prove that it is a compilation of different documents; nor to offer any remarks on the variations in the Divine name, adduced as evidences against the prophet Moses' being the author of the whole book of Genesis, as the need of them is superseded by the ingenious observations of Ben David, and the quotations he has made from Essenus, which appeared in a late Repository [pp. 24-26, 95-98]. My object is to state the view I entertain of the first chapter of this book, as containing natural philosophy consistent with the discoveries of modern ages, in the hope it may contribute to convince some of your readers of its correctness, and help to confirm the belief of its having proceeded from the infinite Fountain of wisdom and truth. An attention to this chapter, with a desire, I own, to retain it as a valuable and important part of the Holy Scriptures, has led me to believe that it is a mistaken sentiment, though commonly conceived, that the process represented to have been the employment of six days, includes the primitive creation of the world, which appears to have been prior to their commencement. In the first sentence of the chapter we read, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, or the luminaries of the etherial space, usually termed the firmament, (but in a sense different from the etymology of this word,) and this terraqueous globe. Understanding the word beginning to mean anterior to the measured time of this world, the sentence appears to be a proem to what succeeds, and entirely distinct from it, declaring all the existing worlds in the universe to be the product of God's almighty power in a former period, without stating the mode in which the creative energy was exerted, or the duration of the process; which, for aught we know, may have comprehended millions of such spaces of time as we denominate ages. If what is contained in this declarative introduction were included in the narrative of six days, then the natural order would have been to begin with a particular representation of the heavens, or heavenly luminaries, as having been first mentioned, and as claiming priority in the account for their stupendous grandeur; whereas it begins with the Mr. Fry's Observations on the First Chapter of Genesis. original state of the earth, and no further notice is taken of these luminaries until the fourth day is described, and not, I conceive, as being then created, but as having their regular functions assigned to them relative to the earth. It seems that at the commencement of this process the earth was a dark, chaotic mass, completely covered with water, and encompassed with air. The breath of God, à form of expression denoting an abundant treasure of air, brooded upon the face of the water. This incumbent air must have been a comparatively dense fluid, and perfectly still, before the properties of elasticity and expansion were given to it, to counteract the earth's gravitating power, which must have been coeval with its existence; and before the laws of humidity and motion were superadded, for accomplishing the uses designed by Unliinited Intelligence. The first employment of the Divine wisdom and power was causing light upon the earth: God said, Let there be light, and there was light. It is not conceivable that the Creator spoke this or any other sentence to himself, or uttered such words to any lifeless substance which he had previously made; but this is obviously a most sublime mode of declaring the production of light by almighty energy, as the instantaneous effect of the Divine volition. That this might have been caused without the sun's beams, as Mr. Frend suggests, [Mon. Repos. XVI. 647,] cannot be denied, but it is not probable that such was the light here intended. So great an abundance of the electric fluid and of hydrogen might have been evolved from the world, as would have served for irradiating its surface for all the duration that the six days comprise; but this could not strictly have constituted the day. God saw the light that it was good, and separated the light from the darkness; and he called the light day, and the darkness he called night. It was, therefore, by the rays of the sun that the Almighty caused the earth to be enlightened, and heated for exhalation, or extended the solar light through the etherial region of ninety-five millions of miles. Thus he commanded the exercise of that power, which he afterwards established as a great law of nature, which 279 illumines our world, and is essential to its being a fit dwelling-place for living creatures. The second day's work is thus described: Let there be an expanse amidst the waters, which may divide the water from the water. This has been supposed to imply that the writer was so egregiously deluded as to conceive the heavenly canopy, to which was applied the term firinament, from the Latin translation of the Greek word sepewμa, in the Septuagint, to be a solid, bespangled arch or vault, sustaining a reservoir of water for supplying rain to the earth; but such an irrational conceit was, I imagine, as distant from the mind of Moses, as it is from the astronomy of the present age. The Divine enactment, denoted by the words, Let there be an expanse, seems to have been the spreading upwards the vast volume of air which lay brooding on the face of the water, so as to form an elastic, expanded atmosphere as now existing, and which God called heaven, which must mean the lower heaven. This expanse is said to be amidst the waters, and such is the reality; for, besides the visible aqueous vapours that compose the floating clouds, the atmosphere holds, as a component part, a vast quantum of liquid in gaseous solution, its particles being extremely attenuated by the chemical union of caloric; which is rendered evident in dry, sultry weather by a metallic surface, reduced to a temperature below that of the atmosphere, when the surrounding air will, by parting with a portion of its caloric to restore an equilibrium in the metal, release the liquid, which will appear in a state of condensation. And if so small a quantity of air is found to have contained so much moisture, what a vast abundance of volatilized water may be supposed to occupy the imminense circumference of the atmosphere, encompassing the globe to the height of many leagues, and which gives to the clear sky its beautiful azure aspect. If all this rarified vapour were to be condensed by Omnipotence, and united with the oceans of the earth, there would then be water enough to drown the whole world, for it would bring the earth back to its primeval state, before the copious evaporations reduced the terraqueous waters, and charged the atmosphere-as a single drop which God created could never have been annihilated except by his own power. The great utility of this economy of nature is as obvious as its existence is apparent. Without such a vast solution of water combined with the air, there could not be those reflections and refractions of the solar rays which are of the utmost importance to vision. And if the atmosphere were to be divested of its humidity, or of a large proportion of what it now contains, it would not only be defective for the sight of objects at any distance not exposed to the direct beams of the sun, but it would be unsuitable on account of its aridity for the functions of animal life as at present constituted. Thus, then, on the second day were instituted, by Infinite Wisdom, some at least of the curious and wonderful principles on which the science of optics depends, and the pneumatic laws enacted that are necessary for rendering the atmosphere subservient to the purposes of light, which are necessary also for exciting and controlling the occasional agitations of the air, or the winds, and which are essential to the support and preservation of the vegetable and animal productions which the all-wise Creator designed. The third day's account presents the disposal of the waters that remained on the face of the earth after the atmosphere had been sufficiently replenished with moisture, and determining what portions of the world should be the dry land. Let the waters below the expanse be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear. And let the earth bring forth grass, &c. It may be properly supposed, that on this day there was not merely a separation of the land and water, which of itself would have left the latter a stagnant mass, except as it might be disturbed by gales of wind, but that the ocean was saturated with salt for securing it from putre faction, and its regular motions begun; and that the land was made fit for the uses intended, those occult principles ordained which guide chemical affini ties and combinations in the formation of secondary rocks, crystallizations and minerals; fertility given to the soil of the earth; and the laws of vegetation established, which direct the various selections of proper mucilage, and all the astonishing chemical transmutations that compose vegetable substances in their indescribable variety. The narrative given of the fourth day relates to the celestial ordinances, and the institution of the periodical seasons; and this, in general estimation, is attended with as great, if not greater, difficulty than any other part of this sacred history. As the statement is commonly received, it appears to represent all the celestial luminaries as having been created in one day, while as many as five days were employed in creating the earth and adjusting its appendages. This being so highly improbable, has caused the whole narration to be discredited as a fiction of human device, and repugnant to enlightened reason. But if the idea before expressed be just, concerning the first verse, that God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, or that this original creation of worlds is to be understood as having been antecedent to the commencement of the six days, then this account of the fourth day can have no such meaning as has been commonly supposed; but, on the contrary, it declares what is agreeable to facts and perfectly right. The Common Version begins the narrative of the fourth day with-God said, Let there be lights in the firmament, which imports that the celestial luminaries were first brought into existence on this fourth day; but the Hebrew words have a signification that obviates this opinion which reason and science pronounce to be erroneous, ' ' Let the lights in the expanse of the heavens be, and the Greek Version in the Septuagint will admit of the same rendering, Γενηθήτωσαν φωςηρες ἐν τῷ τερεωματι το ερανε εις φευσιν επι syns. So translated, the passage will read, consistently with probability, Let the lights, so called because they had been shining to the earth during the three preceding days, in the expanse of the heavens, be to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and season, and times and years: evidently meaning, that the luminaries before created were then permanently appointed to these uses. The remaining verses, which describe this fourth day, have the appearance of a paren |