the Airs were ordered to go, and were gone down to, and mix with the reft in one Place or Congregation, ftill fomething of less Denfity than that which incloses it or them, he calls an Abyss of Waters; and he calls the Darknefs, or Airs, which came out of the Abyfs, or the Abyss of Darkness, which came into the Sphere which the Waters which were above the Surface of the Earth had lately poffeffed and left, and were prefently in the fame Condition as the Airs above that Sphere, and mixt with them, alternately Light and Darkness; and foon after called them, the open Expanfion of the Airs, whofe Powers fhall be fhaken, Matt. xxiv. 29. Luk. xxi. 26. and which is to perifh, Job xiv. 12. Pfal. cii. 26. Ifai. xxxiv. 4. Ibid. li. 6. Matt. xxiv. 35. And called the folid Substance or Sphere, which was feparated from the Waters, Earth; and the Waters which remained in the deepeft Furrows, which the Waters which went down tore in the Surface of the Earth at their going off, Seas. The fhifting of Airs and Waters will be more fully proved at the Flood.

And God faw that it was good.

That it answered, and would answer the Ends it was defigned for: and no doubt was vaftly more fruitful, more commodious, and more pleasant than the present Earth; but I have not yet feen one Scheme, or one tolerable Guefs published, to fhew what made it fo.

If any should ask my Opinion, why God did not create things perfect at once, but in Atoms, and produced a Cause to form them by Degrees fucceffively: And why Mofes is fo particular in these and all the other Formations, Changes of Conditions, Situations, &c. Befides the Reafons affigned of inftructing Men in useful Knowledge, and preventing Adoration of the Agents employed in keeping up the Oeconomy, he has an Opportunity, befides his Creation, to fhew that it was his Spirit, and not the Spirit of the World, which produced Motion, &c. to fhew that Light is not the Iffue of the Sun, but the Sun the Iffue of Light; to fhew that the Origin of all Bodies was from impalpable Duft; and his Wisdom and

Power

Power in infufing a Power into an invifible thin Fluid to act, before there were two Atoms of Solids together; and to fort, form, unite and keep them together, place and keep them in proper Situations, &c. and thereby his continued Dominion and Operation upon Matter, which could not have appeared fo plainly, if he had made and only revealed that he had created all things perfect, or in the State they were in when formed; perhaps, then Men would always have doubted, whether Solids were not the Cause of Motion, and whether he could have diffolved them. Why was Man made of Atoms? Was it not to fhew; that he, who collected and once put them together, could diffolve and collect them again, when dispersed.

What Motion in the Air produces, how it is continued, what Light is, how it is now propagated, what this Expanfion is, how it is performed, what Effects it has upon that which is expanded, what Effects it has upon that it compreffes in its different Degrees, and in their different Conditions and Situations, belongs in Part to a Description of the folid Parts of the Earth, &c. and are coupled toge

E 4

ther

ther. Wifd. vii. 17. He gave me the true Knowledge of the Things that are; that I fhould know the Conftitution of the World, and the Power of the Elements deed to feveral other Works.

But in

OF

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OF THE

DISSOLUTION

AND

REFORMATION.

HE Revelation of the Flood, or what happen'd then, which was reducing the Earth to its firft State, and a Parallel A&

to the first Formation of it, differs much from the Revelation of the Creation, and firft Formation. There were living Witneffes, who faw many of the Particulars which he relates of the Flood, and furviv'd; and Relations of what they faw were doubtless handed down, and well known, when Mofes writ: And as the Earth has remain'd from the Flood as it was when he writ, they had, and we have natural Evidences of many things, which he needed not reveal;

and