The Apostle Paul (Acts 17.28.) discoursing with the Athenians, having said, In him we live, and move, and have our being; convinceth them further by that saying of their own Poets, for we are also his off-spring; We spring from him as from a root or fountain. With him is the fountain of lives (Psal. 36.9.) even of natural life, as well as of spiritual and eternal: Every life, every being, is but a stream issuing from Jehovah. And as every life is from God, so also is the being of all things without life. The Lord gave the lifeless Earth its being, its beginning. Some Naturalists have asserted the eternity of the World, and so the eternity of the Earth: They could not compass which way or how the World could have a beginning, and therefore said it had none. Here we have the Founder of the World, God himself, teaching man this Divine Philosophy about the beginning of the World, and taking it to himself, I laid the foundations of the Earth. When the Heathen Philosopher read what Moses had written concerning the Creation of the World; Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them (Ger. 2.1.) He presently said, The man speaks wonders, but how doth he prove what he hath spoken? Where are his demonstrations? He would put Moses to his proof: but Moses's proof was faith in the testimony of God. Through faith we understand that the ⟨p. 51⟩Worlds were framed by the Word of God; so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear (Heb. 11.3.) We understand the Work of Creation, yet not by the strength of natural reason, but through faith; which gives credit to the Word of God, and persuades the heart that the report therein made is a truth.1 For though some Philosophers have evinced by arguments grounded upon reason, that the World was made; yet that it was made by the Word of God, either the Essential Word, the Son of God spoken of (John 1.1.) who is the efficient cause of it; or by the Declarative Word, spoken of in this place of the Hebrews, which was the means or instrumental cause of making the World (Gen. 1.3, 6.) This, I say, cannot at all be understood by reason, but purely and only by faith, because it is so revealed in the Scriptures.
The Apostle Paul (Acts 17.28.) discoursing with the Athenians, having said, In him we live, and move, and have our being; convinceth them further by that saying of their own Poets, for we are also his off-spring; We spring from him as from a root or fountain. With him is the fountain of lives (Psal. 36.9.) even of natural life, as well as of spiritual and eternal: Every life, every being, is but a stream issuing from Jehovah. And as every life is from God, so also is the being of all things without life. The Lord gave the liveless Earth its being, its beginning. Some Naturalists have asserted the eternity of the World, and so the eternity of the Earth: They could not compass which way or how the World could have a beginning, and therefore said it had none. Here we have the Founder of the World, God himself, teaching man this Divine Philosophy about the beginning of the World, and taking it to himself, I laid the foundations of the Earth. When the Heathen Philosopher read what Moses had written concerning the Creation of the World; Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them (Ger. 2.1.) He presently said, The man speaks wonders, but how doth he prove what he hath spoken? Where are his demonstrations? He would put Moses to his proof: but Moses's proof was faith in the testimony of God. Through faith we understand that the ⟨p. 51⟩Worlds were framed by the Word of God; so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear (Heb. 11.3.) We understand the Work of Creation, yet not by the strength of natural reason, but through faith; which gives credit to the Word of God, and perswades the heart that the report therein made is a truth.1 For though some Philosophers have evinced by arguments grounded upon reason, that the World was made; yet that it was made by the Word of God, either the Essential Word, the Son of God spoken of (John 1.1.) who is the efficient cause of it; or by the Declarative Word, spoken of in this place of the Hebrews, which was the means or instrumental cause of making the World (Gen. 1.3, 6.) This, I say, cannot at all be understood by reason, but purely and only by faith, because it is so revealed in the Scriptures.
- 1Plato in Timaeo.
