The immensity of God. A sermon delivered to the Congregational Society in Hampton, November 14, 1797; at the dedication of their new house, for...

"WHEN we cast our thoughts back to the ages preceding the creation, and reflect that the space which is now occupied by this earth, by these heavens, and by the universe itself, was then a mighty void;that there was not a single particle of matter, or a ray of created light, in all this boundless extent, we are amazed at beholding this material system rising instantaneously into life. That creation, of which we can entertain any tolerable conception, is nothing more than the change of one thing into another.When a tree, or a plant is produced, certain particles from the earth, and air are differently arranged, placed in a new relation to each other, and thus assume a new appearance. Yet strictly speaking, there is in all this no new creation; matter only assumes a different form:all the materials were provided before. But there was a time, when there were no materials in the universe; and when all the matter, which is now in existence, was created from nothing. This surpasses our comprehension, and the thought confounds us. Our astonishment still increases when we are told that all this took place, without any thing like that which is called labour, or exertion. God spake and it was done. He said, Let there be light, and there was light. By the word of the Lord, were the..."
This is an edition of a classical book first published in the eighteenth century.