4. It does not well comport with the character of the Divine Being, when we consider his eternal power, infinite wisdom, and boundless goodness, to suppose He never exercised his creative energies but _once_, and that not until a few thousand years since. Yet we are compelled to this conclusion, however reluctantly, unless we restrict the Mosaic account of the creation to our Solar System. This argument will derive additional weight, when we recollect the _immensity_ of God’s works taken together, and the _illimitable space_ in which he has, and may, exercise his creative energy. We may _approximate towards_ a very faint idea of their immensity, by calling to mind the immense number of _fixed stars_. All astronomers admit their number to be very great indeed, but how many cannot be correctly known. There may be millions whose light has not reached us yet. Of those which may be detected, Professor _Vince_, says, there are at least _seventy-five millions_; and each the centre of a system as large, possibly much larger than our own. Indeed we can scarcely approach towards a competent idea of _illimitable space_. The nearest _fixed star_ is supposed to be Sirius, or the dog-star, at the lowest calculation _twenty-two billions of miles distant_. If we compute according to this analogy, and say there are seventy-five millions of fixed stars, each the _centre_ of a system, perfect, and independent: what mind can conceive the illimitable space through which these worlds must lie? Yet this would scarcely be an approximation towards the true extent. Beyond this there is still _unoccupied space_, “where existence sleeps in the wide abyss of possibility.” It may, therefore, be asked with justice, whether a being capable of creating, even in this limited view, would have exercised his creative powers _but once_, and that not until a few thousands years since? _Credat qui posset, non ego._ Who can tell what may have been the _successive_ creations, durations, and, possibly, destructions of those worlds which we see, and of others, of which the inhabitants of this earth have never heard, whose light has not yet reached us since their creation, though coming at the rate of nearly _twelve millions of miles in a minute_? Finally: A _succession_ of creative acts, whose commencement runs back _almost_ parallel with eternity, and will extend forward _almost ad infinitum_, seems to comport best with the eternal, immense, and immutable activity, energy, and goodness of the Divine Being.]