340 
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confifts, firft, in drying the tartar in iron boilers; fe. 
condly, pounding it and ditl'olving it in hot water, which 
by cooling it affords purer cryftals ; thirdly, re-diil'olving 
thefe cryftals in water, and clarifying the folution by 
whites of eggs and wood allies. The procefs of Mont¬ 
pellier is preferable to that of Venice. The addition of 
the afhes introduces a foreign fait, which alters the pu¬ 
rity of the produCt. Cream of tartar cryftallizes in te¬ 
trahedral prifms cut off llantwife. This fait is ufed by 
the dyers as a mordant; but its greater Confumption is 
in the north, where it is ufed at table as a f'eafoner. 
CREA'MY, adj. Full of cream ; having the nature 
cf cream. 
CRE'ANCE,/! [French.] Infalconry, a fine fmall 
line, faftened to a hawk’s lealh when {he is firff lured. 
CREAN'CES, a town of France, in the department 
of the Channel, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
trict of Coutances: three leagues and a half north of 
Coutances. 
CREAN'GE, or Krichlingen, a town of Germany, 
in the circle of the Upper Rhine, and capital of a county ; 
thirty-eight miles wert-fouth-weft of Deux Pouts. 
CREASE, f. [from creta, Lat. chalk. Skinner . ] A mark 
made by doubling any thing.—Men of great parts are un¬ 
fortunate in bufinefs, becaufe they go out of the common 
road : I once deftred lord Bolingbroke to obferve, that 
the clerks ufed an ivory knife, with a blunt edge, to di¬ 
vide paper, which cut it even, only requiring a ftrong 
hand ; whereas a (harp penknife would go out of the 
creafc, and disfigure the paper. Swift. 
To CREASE, v. a. To mark any thing by doubling 
it, fo as to leave the imprdlion. 
To CREA'TE, v. a. [cra>, Lat.] To form out of no¬ 
thing ; to caufe to exift.—In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth. Genejis. —To produce; to caufe ; 
to be the occafion of.—They eclipfe the cleared truths 
by difficulties of their own creating, or no man could 
mifs his way to heaven for want of light. Decay of Piety. 
None knew, till guilt created fear, 
What darts or poifou’d arrows were. Rofcommon. 
To beget: 
And the iffue there create 
Ever (hall be fortunate. Shakfpearc, 
To invert with any new character : 
Arife, my knights o’ th’ battle : I create you 
Companions to our perfon, and will fit you 
With dignities becoming your ertates. Shakefpeare. 
To give any new qualities ; to put any thing in a new 
Hate.—The belt Britifh undertaker had but a proportion 
of three thoufand acres for himfelf, with power to create 
a manor, and hold a court-baron. Davies on Ireland. 
CREA'TION,yi The aCt of giving exiftence to that, 
•which before did net exift. The power of doing this is 
aferibed, in a lower degree and in a figurative manner of 
fpeaking, to Man. We fay, for inftance, a poem is the 
work of a poet’s own “ creation.” But, in the higheft 
fenle of the word, we attribute “Creation” to Al¬ 
mighty God ; by whofe effective Will and all-com¬ 
manding Power was called into exiftence every particle 
©f that primogenial Matter, from which the Univerfe 
was formed. That an Intelligent and Omnipotent God 
fhould be the primary caufe of exiftence to every thing 
material, is an idea rational, as it is fublime. For by this 
dodtrine, we at once place Mind in the rank which we fee 
it actually holds 'through our Mundane Syftem : we give 
it that dominion over Master, which by experience we 
know to be its diftingu idling faculty. That Matter fhould 
originally have produced its own exiftence, involves in it 
a contradiction: for it luppofes Matter to have been in 
aCtion before it exifted. But that Creation of Matter, that 
is, the calling of Matter into exiftence, Ihould be wrought 
by an Almighty Spiritual Agent, fuperior and 
prior to all Matter , is more cenfonuut with Reafon; be- 
C R E 
caufe it firft affigns an adequate Caufe , and thence derives 
a probable effeCt. 
The right conception, and proper application of the 
term “Creation” to the power necellarily inherent in 
the Supreme Being, evince juft apprehenfion and well, 
formed perfuafion refpeCting Divine Omnipotence. The 
fubjeCt is of the firft importance ; becaufe it is tire foun. 
dation of Natural and Revealed Religion. To this point 
therefore we (hall direct more than common attention l 
and not fatisfied with our own ideas, (hall adduce the 
opinions of various writers, who are of the higheft repute 
for deep penetration and found reafoning ; and being' 
fucli, are conftantly cited as authorities, in queftions of 
metaphyfical and abftrufe refearch. 
Becaufe we are verily perfuaded of the truth of this 
article, we (hall briefly ailign fome reufons of our belief 
in thefe following particulars: 
Firft, It is a thing pojjible, that Matter may have been pro¬ 
duced out of Nothing. It is urged as an univerfal maxim. 
That Nothing can proceed from Nothing. Now this we rea¬ 
dily allow; and yet it will prove nothing•againft the 
poffibility of Creation. For, when, they fay, Nothing 
from Nothing; they mu ft fo underhand it, as excluding 
all caufes, both material and efficient. In which fenfe it 
is moft evidently and infallibly true ; being equivalent to 
this propofttion, “ That Nothing can make itfelf;” or, 
“ Nothing cannot bring' its no-felt' out of non-entity into 
Something.” Which only exprell'es thus much, “ That 
Mattel' did not produce itfelf;” oiy “ That all Sub (lances 
did not emerge out of an univerfal Nothing.” Now, who 
ever talked at that rate ? We do not fay the World was 
created from Nothing, and by Nothing we alfert an 
eternal God to have been the efficient canfe of it. So 
that a Creation of the World out of Nothing by Some¬ 
thing ; and by that Something that includes in its nature 
a necellary exiftence and perfection of Power; is certain¬ 
ly no contradiction, nor oppofes that common- maxim. 
Whence it manifeftly follows, That fince God may do 
any thing that implies not a contradiction ; if there he 
fucli an Effence as God, he may have created Matter, 
out of Nothing ; that is, have given an exiftence to Mat¬ 
ter, which had no Being before.—Bentley’s fixth Sermon 
in Confutation of Atheifm. 
Some other inftances there are, in the queftion about 
the extent of Infinite Power-, wherein the principal diffe¬ 
rence between us and the Atheifts, (next to the queftion. 
Whether the Supreme Caufe be an Intelligent Being , or 
not?) does in great tneafure confift. As, 
i. That Infinite Power includes a power of creating 
Matter. This has been conftantly denied by all Atheifts, 
both antient and modern ; and as conftantly affirmed by 
all who believe the being and have juft notions of the 
attributes of God. The only reafon which the Atheifts 
have or can pre end to allege for their opinion, is, That 
the thing is in its own nature abfolutely impojfible, But 
how does it appear to be impojfible? Why, only becaufe 
they are not able-to comprehend how it can be. For, to 
reduce it to a contradiction, (which is the alone real 
impoflibility,) this they are by no means able to do. For, 
to fay that i'omething which once was not, may fince 
have begun to exift ; is neither direCtly, nor by any con- 
fequence whatever, to affert that That which is not, can 
be, while it is not ; or that That which is, can not be while 
it is. ’Tis true, v/e, who have been ufed to converfe 
only with generations and'corruptions ; and never faw 
any thing made or created, but only formed or framed-, are 
apt to endeavour to conform our idea of Creation to that 
of Formation-, and to imagine, that as in all Formations 
there is fome pre-exifting Matter, out of which a thing is 
formed ; fo in Creation there mult be conlidered a pre- 
exifting Nothing, cut of which, as out of a real material 
caufe, a Thing is created: which looks indeed very like 
a contradiction. But this is only a confufton of ideas; 
juft like childrens imagining that darknefs is fome real 
thing, which in the morning is driven away by the light, 
x or 
