From this examination, it is evident that although the word in question is etymologically connected with roots (like the Eng]. pare, L&t, paro, etc.) that have a less decided import, yet its current and legitimate sig- nification is that of creation in the modem and proper acceptation. As the Hebrews were not given to phil- osophical disquisition, their language is peculiarly bar- ren in terms expressive of metaphysical or dialectical niceties, and hence they frequently employed this word in less exact applications. Moreover, as the act of creation was in the nature of the case but once per- formed, the term could only be used infrequently with reference to that event, just as "create" with modems etymologically and even practically refers rather to production in a subordinate sense than to absolute origination. In both words, however^ the higher and M sense is never lost sight o^ and thus they appear &s nearly synonymous in actual usage as any two in diflferent and widely remote languages could well be. The translators of the Auth.Vers. have therefore done well by invariably (except in the single passage above noted) rendering K'^S (in Kal and Niphal at least), and no other Heb. terra, by create.
The K.-T. writers employ in the same sense KriZ<»t (with the nouns crtVic, creation, Kriofia, creature, and *n<rr^f , creator) as the nearest equivalent in Greek, ^^ the example of the Sept., in most passages (in Gen. it has voikui). See Macdonald, Creakon omd FaU (E<iinb.l856),p.61-4. That this absolute sense is the tme one in Gen. i, 1, • At least, is demonstrable ttom the association there ^th the term ''heghningy For if matter had exist- ed eternally, there would have been no proper "be-
ginning" at all of its existence ; and to onderstand the mere arrangement of cBaotic elements by the phraseology in question would be to confound some- thing that is said to have taken place " in the begin- ning" with what is afterwards detailed under suo cessive days. On the other hand, if matter be not eternal, it must at some time have been brought into being, and precisely that act would be the real "be- ginning" of all material things. This is obviously what the sacred writer intended to state : in opposition to the general belief of antiquity, he afilrms that mat- ter was originally the direct product of divine power, and from this event he dates the history of the physic- al universe. *
II. God't Motive in Creation, — ^This motive has been ascribed by doctrinal writers to the free operation of God's love, his bonitas communicativa. He was not affected by any compulsion or selfish desire. In the essence and volition of divine love, all the much-dis- cussed antagonism between freedom and necessity is cancelled. To suppose that the creation could have been otherwise than it was is an abstraction of no util- ity whatever. We only speak relative^ when we de- clare that God could not have created otherwise than he did. But if we make the same aflirmation dbtohttely^ we degrade God's freedom to abstract authority, and creation to ac(!ident or a mere experiment. The neces- sity in which God created the universe is the definitive- ness of his own will, his self-determination which he possesses by virtue of his own divine character. It b not an external compubion, but an interior impulse of the divine nature to manifest itself; a necessity of God's love to communicate itself. The question whether God could have created any other world than he has was discussed earnestly by the Scholastics, and later by Leibnitz in hb Theodicy. If we imagine that God had a number of world-plans, out of which he selected the one which he consummated, we concede too much to the Optimbts. That creation which he brought into being was the only one to which he was moved by the deep inner love of hb infinite divine character. The aim which God had in view was not his own glory exclusively ; he was not impelled by a purely egotbtical power, but by eternal love ; he de- sired the good of hb creatures ; and it was only as he wished hb creation to be pure that he desired to be glo- rified by that purity. All created beings are not solely means for an end ; but they have been created for their own sake, that they might receive the communications of God and be permeated by hb goodness ; not that they might subsequently be absorbed in him, but rest eternally happy in and with him. Creation reached its aim relatively in personal creatures and absolutely in Christ the God-man. The kingdom of the natural creation attains its perfection in the kingdom of grace and glory ; the effulgence of the glory of God appeare in, and concura with, the happiness of hb creatures ; and the perfection of the Church takes place, not by the overthrow, but by the renewal and illumination of the world in God (2 Pet. iii, 18 ; Isa. Ixv, 17 ; Ixvi, 22; Bev. xxl, 1; comp. Rom. viii, 19, etc.; comp. Twesten, Vorlet, Hb, rf. Dogmattk, ii, 89).
III. Time occupied in Creation, — La Place's theory of the formation of the whole solar system b that it was originally a mass of vapory or nebulous matter, which, according to the laws of gravitation, assumed the form of an immense sphere. Thb sphere received from without an impulse which caused it to revolve on its axis from west to east. In consequence of the revolution, the mass became flattened at the poles and swollen in the equatorial region. In consequence of the greatness of the centrifugal force at the equator, and the contemporaneous condensation and contrac- tion of the nebulous mass, a free revolving ring, sim- ilar to that of Satum, detached itself in the region of the equator. Thb ring, not being of uniform dens- ity, and in consequence of contraction, broke in one