Dr Lloyd's Address. 



419 



these erroneous and wild opinions we find the following : — That matter 

 was eternal ; the Deity was the soul of the world ; and, consequently, the 

 material frame of nature was to be regarded as his body, and not as his 

 work, with many other equally presumptuous. Now in this, his first sen- 

 tence, the inspired writer settles definitively what we are to believe on 

 the subject, by stating the primary relation which all things in common 

 bear to the Supreme Being ; and with this information he forbears mixing 

 up any other matter. For it will be perceived, that the statement is 

 made without any specification of time or other circumstance ; seemingly 

 because no addition of this kind could be of use in aiding our concep- 

 tions of a truth purely religious, or in strengthening our faith in the au- 

 thority on which it was founded, but chiefly because it was the sole ob- 

 ject of the writer, in this first sentence, to claim for God the creation of 

 all things whatsoever. And that this claim must remain unshaken, how- 

 ever we may decide on other questions which may be raised about the 

 creation — such as the question relative to the time when it occurred — how 

 long before the origin of the human race — whether all parts of the uni 

 verse were brought into existence simultaneous, or at different and wide- 

 ly distant epochs. It is plain, then, that in this place the sacred writer 

 furnishes no help for the decision of such questions. Let us look to what 

 follows. In proceeding to those arrangements by which the earth was to 

 be fitted for the residence and support of man, and the other inferior 

 tribes by which it was then to be tenanted, we find him describing its 

 preceding condition, informing us that it was then " without form and 

 void," and that " darkness was upon the face of the deep." Now I con- 

 fess that this always seemed to me very like the description of a ruined 

 world; and if such was the earth at that time, it would be difficult to 

 suppose that it had not existed long before. But this is not all. When 

 he does come to the work of the six days, we find the description of each 

 day's work introduced by an expression of a particular form, and con- 

 cluded by another ; by which it appears, that the original work of crea- 

 tion, spoken of in the first verse, is excluded from the series of j>erform- 

 ances belonging to those days, and if excluded, then perhaps removed to 

 an indefinite distance, for had it immediately proceeded, we might natu- 

 rally expect to find it spoken of, either as the work of the first of a series 

 of seven days, or as part of the work of the first of the six days. This, 

 then, would seem to remove the work of original creation far beyond that 

 of the reconstruction of the globe. It is true that nothing is exhibited to 

 our imaginations to mark the intervals between these performances, but to 

 deny that there was such an interval, and for that reason, would be to 

 conclude about as wisely as the peasant, who supposes the clouds to be 

 contiguous to the stars, because when looking up he discerns nothing be- 

 tween them. How, then, stands the case between Moses and the men of 

 science ? From Moses it is collected by the most learned chronologers 

 that the human race has existed about seven thousand years. According 1 

 to geologists, the race of man is coeval with the earth in its present 

 form ; and judging by the marks of age observable on the features of 

 this latter, they are led to the same conclusion. Again the geolo- 

 gists see reason to believe that the globe, though in some different 

 condition, is far more ancient than the races by which it is now 

 inhabited ; and the indications discoverable in the sacred records, as 

 far as they help to decide, are, we perceive, in favour of this notion 

 of its higher antiquity. But some persons may think that the argu- 

 ments here derived from the sacred records themselves are too weak to 

 establish a coincidence so extensive. Be it so ; we are under no neces- 

 sity of pressing them to this extent. It is enough for us to shew, on the 

 part of men of science, that they offer no contradiction whatever to the 

 sacred historian ; and on the part of the latter, that we have this free per- 



