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it as well as he. Mofes has not yet faid any thing of God, but in defcribing his Actions concerning Matter. He speaks of and uses proper Names for material things, which were then created out of nothing, and proper Words for the Actions and Accidents of those things: He fays nothing of the Subfiftence, Refidence, or Actions of any other Beings or Things: It was not his Bufiness to describe them, much less to defcribe Philofophical Voids, &c. And if by what we call Heaven he only means Airs, and the Matter in the Sun, Planets and Stars; immaterial Beings and what they call Space, are not included in his Defcriptions. The latter divine Penmen, in relating God's Actions or Operations in or concerning this created material Syftem, have attributed them to his Spirit, or Strength, or Power in the Airs; as Pfal. lxviii. 34. Thy Strength is in the Clouds, &c. and ftiled them his Spirit, his Hand, his Minifters, his Voice, his Breath, his Prefence, his Glory, his Attire, nay every thing less than himfelf; called them his Throne, and mentioned the Heaven of Heavens, &c. Indeed his Operations in them and by them, were, and are, the vifible and permanent Evidence, of his Power; but the pious Tranflators

have imagin'd the Upper Heavens to be the Place of his more immediate Refidence, and for Fear of robbing Hea ven (which there is no Danger of, fo long as they allow them to be his Servants) have attributed all the Actions to him immediately, or to the Acts of his Angels. His Throne implies no more in Matter, than the Matter where his Ordinances of the Airs were imparted, and by them his Minifters executed there, and upon the Earth The Heaven of Heavens implies no more than the present Sphere of Airs, which is compos'd of the Sphere of Airs which was created above and that which was created in the Abyfs, and now united, and fo the Airs of Airs: The Sun, Planets, and Stars are all in the fame Matter, the Expanfion of the Airs, as the Fowls fie in: The Descriptions of the Heavens are not to magnify, but diminish them, Solomon fays, 1 Kings viii. 27. Behold, the Heaven, and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee; and God fays, Ifa. lxvi. 1. The Heaven is my Throne, and the Earth is my Footstool where is the Houfe that ye build unto me? where is the Place of my Reft? Wifd. of Sol. xi. 12. For the whole World before thee is as a little Grain of the Balance; yea, as a Drop of

the Morning-Dew that falleth down upon the Earth. Our modern Philofophers, they fay, and I fhall not now rob them of their Invention, have brought into their empty Space, which can do nothing in direct Oppofition to Scripture, powerful, but invifible Properties in folid Matter to act in that Space; nay, the Sun and Planets to extend their Power to the Earth, and each of them to each other reciprocally, and thereby taken away the Fluids, and the reveal'd Power in Fluids, and the vifible Evidence of the Power of God.

Ver. 9. And God faid, Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together to one Place, and let the Dry Land appear: and it was fo.

'Tis remarkable, Mofes does not fay here that God gathered the Waters together to one Place, or that God made the Dry Land to appear, but seemingly leaves these Actions to fecond Caufes: These are left as Accidents of a lower Clafs, indeed to be executed by the Agent established: The Waters next under the Heavens, and upon the Surface of

the

the Earth, were to go to fome Place where there were other Water for them to mix or join with, and be in one Place. "To their Gatherings together; into one Collection (o)". What Place was this? The Seas, if they had been then in Being, or the Conceptacula had been form'd, the Waters to go had been in them: were there other Waters in the Clouds, or above the highest Extent of the Airs? If thofe here below had gone to them, then we should have had no Waters left: Where were the Waters they were to be gather'd to? Where was there any Room for them next the other Waters? And what was to fill the Room they were to leave? Was there not a Place appointed for them? Yes certainly. But, as I hinted above, there was fomething to be done before the Waters could go: There wanted Swallows and Inlets through, and alfo Cracks in and through the Shell; they ; were to be made; but that is both implied, and may be discover'd by Observation, fo needed not be reveal'd: And it must stand thus, Let the Waters nextunder the Airs and above the Earth be ga

(0) Polyglot. Vol. 6. p. 1. Flaminii Nobiki Note.

ther'd

ther'd at Inlets, or Funnels through the Sphere of Earth, and carried down to the Sphere of Waters, into the Place of the Abyss of Darkness or Airs; and let that Sphere of Waters which is below, and the Sphere of Waters which is to descend and change Places with the Airs which are now below, and which are to afcend as the Waters go down, be in, or make one inclos'd or undivided Place, or an Abyss, or Congregation of Waters, larger, by the Quantity of the Sphere of Waters which are below, than the Abyss of Airs, that which goes down with them included. But why one Place? why not denominated from the Matter in the Place? This was just at the Time when the Airs and Waters were to change Places, fo could not be denominated from either. And it could not be mistaken, because there was not at that time any other Place bounded: But moft defcriptively, because Part of the Waters at that time was there, and the other Part was to go to it, or them, and be together, or in one Place, or Congregation: And confequently, let the Airs which are in the Abyfs, or the Abyss of Airs, come up into the Place of Waters which go down; let it come in under the Airs which were above the Wa

ters,

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