The  narrative  of  the  beginning  and  the  progress
of  the  work,  taken  as  real  histoiy,  affords  an  histo-
rical confutation  of  all  systems  of  Materialism  and
Idolatry  ;  as  it  contradicts,  in  one  point  or  another,
all  the  principles  upon  which  any  such  systems  can
be  founded  :  and  in  this  light,  but  not  in  this  light
only,  it  is  of  importance  to  man,  not  only  as  con-
veying a  curious  piece  of  knowledge,  but  practically
as  the  basis  of  religion.
1.  The  world  has  not  been  from  eternity ;  for  it
had  a  beginning ;  and  its  beginning  was,  that  God
made  it*

2.  The  world,  such  as  we  now  behold  it,  arose  not
out  of  chaos  from  any  fortuitous  concourse  of  the
atoms  of  the  matter  thrown  together  in  that  chaos.
Concourse  supposes  motion  5  and  there  was  no  mo-
tion iii  the  matter  of  the  chaos,  till  the  spirit  of  God
excited  a  motion  on  the  surface.  No  fortuitous  mo-
tion therefore  j  no  fortuitous  concourse  ;  nor,  when
motion  was  once  excited,  was  the  formation  and  dis-
tribution of  the  parts  of  the  universe  the  effect  of
any  random  combinations,  which  that  motion  miglil
be  supposed  to  produce.
A    '1


4  GENESIS.
3.  Neither  the  sun,  nor  any  of  the  celestial  lumi-
naries  were  in  being,  when  light  was  produced.
For  light  was  a  work  of  the  first  day  ;  the  lumina-
ries of  the  fourth.  The  luminaries  therefore  are  not
the  cause,  nor  the  makers  of  light,  as  the  principles
of  Materialism  require  ;  but  merely  the  receptacles,
or  magazines  of  light  previously  made.
