The beginning of the creation of God. Not principium passivum, as if He himself was the first of all created be ings, but principium activum, from whom all created beings received existence. Col. i. 16. Psalms cii. 26. 27. Heb. ii. 2. Agxn, the beginning, signifies the first foun→ tain, author or origin, and is a word of great import among the ancient Orientals. The beginning of creation denotes the first opening and entrance of the ground-plot to all existence; and in progressive life, to higher degrees. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. John i. 3. The Zend Avesta of Zoroaster, according to Mr. Anquetil du Perron's translation, T. iii. p. 800. 670. 697. conceives the most inward principle of all creation to be life, and cosmogony, a refining or clarifying of light into life. The life of the earth, sun, trees, animals and men, are only so many different degrees of clarified light into life, which in its highest degree of refinement is the image of God in the souls of holy, charitable and good men. God dwelled from eternity in his fullness of uncreated light, and revealed himself by the Logos in the creation of the Universe, who there was the fountain-head of the life and light of angels and men. These are the noble ideas of the ancient Persians, whom we call Heathens. What a difference between their exalt ed conceptions of the Logos of God, and those low and degrading assertions of self-idolizing infidels in our days? They shall rise in judgment, and condemn them with all their deluded followers.

Verse 15. I know thy works. I have inspected thy offices, and the nature and spirit of their administration. My judgment differs widely from your boasting congratulations, by which you console yourselves to your own destruction. You are utterly mistaken in the general character of your administration.

Thou art not cold. Thou art not entirely ignorant of the things of the spirit of God, not totally a stranger to matters of a divine nature; not a Jew, Heathen or Infidel.

Nor hot. As boiling water is penetrated by the particles of heat, thus should our souls be occupied by the power of Godliness in faith, love and charity, through the opera tions of the Holy Ghost.

I would thou wert cold or hot. Thou couldst sooner be recovered, and my sentence on thee would be less terrible. Luke xii. 47. 2 Pet. ii. 21.

Verse 16. Thou art lukewarm. Not an Infidel, an Antichrist, nor a Christian. By this expression the Lord refers to the whole administration of all his offices. Lukewarmness in the ministry of a Church may be comprehended under the three following heads:

I. When they fall into such gross errors and misconceptions, as to neglect preaching the peculiar doctrines of the Christian religion. These essential points are the doctrine of the Holy Trinity of persons in the undivided Godhead; the incarnation of the Son of God; the expiation of the sin of the world by the Redeemer's sufferings and death; the efficacy of his intercession; the necessary cooperation of the Holy Ghost, in order to become experimentally acquainted with the Spirit and vital influence of religion, spreading itself over all the powers of men's souls, and quickening them into a divine life; together with the intimate union, between God and the believer's soul. When the ministry of a Christian society ceases to be evangelical when their sermons are thus divested of the genuine spirit and savour of Christianity, which alone produces vital heat, nourishes the soul, and quickens the spirit; then such a ministry is lukewarm-it is like a dying man, in whom the incapacitated principle of life has given way, to the cold hand of chilling death.

II. When their sermons are reduced to mere moral cssays without scriptural motives, or instruction from whence the hearer is to obtain the power, and necessary disposition of heart, to perform those duties and virtuous actions, which are impressed on his conscience. Our pro

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per office is to preach the word of reconciliation to a world of offending and ungrateful sinners; to propound the terms of peace and pardon to the penitent; to open the fountain of light and life on their souls; administer medicine to the sick; and wholesome refreshment for the thirsty and panting soul. When therefore a ministry make the practice of religion their sole subject of public discourse, and even turn apes of Epictetus, or the Stoics, under a Christian garb, as if the illiterate, or common people wanted capacity to comprehend the great mystery of Godliness; such abody of nominal divines is lukewarm, and might with the same justice bear any other name, as well as that of a Christian ministry..

III. When their manner of life and conversation is void. of that sweet, mild, humble and loving spirit of Jesus, which like the morning sun, spreads a heavenly lustre upon all the actions of good men, and animates them at all times to cultivate those two grand principles of Christianity-piety to God, and charity to man. A ministry of Jesus, without vital and experimental religion, is a curse to the land. Zech. xi. 16. He that is not with me is against me, and cannot gather, but scatters and destroys. Luke xi. 23. They follow their office as a profession, come abroad one day in seven, dressed in solemn looks; and all the rest of the week their social intercourse and personal conduct is in open contradiction to the spirit of the gospel. They are of the world, and court favour with the world, that they may enjoy her pleasures; they confide in human learning and knowledge, more than in the illumination from above.

I will spuce thee out. As a nauseating morsel, which excites disgust and vomition. Wo to that soul against which the Lord has such a great aversion! its final doom must be dreadful! This expression denotes, that the Lord will disown this succession of his ministry when he comes, and

reject them with contempt and indignation. This is the signification of-usa-in the original.

Verse 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. Aéyw here should be rendered to teach, to preach, Math. xxiii. 9. to declare publicly, 2 Cor. ix. 3. Heb. ix. 11. Math. iv. 14. Rev. iii. 9. Math. xiii. 14. These three sentences contain those peculiar points of doctrine, which the ministry of the Laodiceans inculcate, and by which they stand distinguished from the Philadelphians, as a separate Church. I am rich: Man is not in a depraved and fallen condition by naturethere is no such a thing as original sin. The image of God has never been defaced in the human soul-he is suited to his state and place, as perfect as he ought to be in the gradation of the whole chain of rational beings. All the vices and corruptions in the world derive their origin from education and the necessary circumstances of our existence here. Our modern metaphysicians have now explored the ocean of the human soul, and probed all its faculties to the bottom. Reason is a pure and unsullied light; the will of man is not alienated from the life of God; our affections are not estranged by nature; and conscience is the mere child of education. This is the comment on the above sentence: I am rich; which seems to refer solely to their general course or drift of doctrine concerning the natural capacities and dignity of man.

I am increased with goods. Man is fully sufficient to make himself virtuous-it only requires a firm and steady resolution of being so; and of this resolution he himself is master, at his own pleasure. As all our disorders are not the effects of sin, but consequences of our limited nature; all evil inclinations may be overcome by reason, without the grace and assistance of God. Our happiness is in our own power, and we may change our habits and disposition, by a mere philosophic use of the natural and Christian means in hand. What great progress have we

not made in arts and sciences, in civilization and polites ness! To what a great degree of illumination has the human mind arrived since the days of the Reformation! Superstition is turned out of doors-the wings of fanaticism and enthusiasm will now soon be sufficiently clipped. We soon will have a rational body of exegetic rules, for a more reasonable explanation of the Bible, and are already furnished with means sufficient to determine the flowers of Hebrew poetry, and the bold flights and fire of oriental genius, Blessed be God! we now say little more of Creeds, or Confessions of Faith; our province is the prac tice and moral part of religion. Whether the people believe one God or twenty Gods, that will neither pick my pocket, nor break my leg. These are just inferences and a true explanation of the words: I am increased with goods, and have need of nothing; by which the Lord refers to their boasting of acquired abilities in science, religion and virtue,

And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. You are most egregiously deceived full of self-conceit and vain presumption, says the Lord; your real condition is quite the reverse, of what you conceive yourself to be, or to possess. Your boasted metaphysics, and essays on human understanding are like a transmigrating soul among the ancients, which in every generation assumed a new body, and in essence always remained the same. Your endeavours to model the principles of exegetical theology after this meteor of so transitory a nature, can only serve to confuse and perplex divinity, in order that others may again disentangle and simplify it from your heterogeneous wisdom, which is foolishness before God. You boast of superior illumination in Divine things by the help of reason and philosophy, like a blind man of sight. The empire of reason can never be extended beyond the limits of the material world; and that inward illumination from above, by which alone spirit.