gents employed afterwards by the principal Agent the Ruahh, and just mention the State of the Earth before and after the Deluge. And God faid, let there be Light, or rather be there Light, and there was Light. This Command, fo greatly admir'd by the celebrated Critic Longinus, as a Form of Expreffion worthy of God, was juft intimated to the Ruahh, and immediateJy executed; and this Light, Or, in Hebrew, included Fire; for Ur, Fire, is the fame Word differently pointed, and derived from the fame. Root, Or, Lucidum effe, or Lucere: and this is one of the principal inferior Agents under the Direction of the Ruahh, and was form'd in that Portion of Time which is call'd the First Day.Another Agent form'd by the Ruabb, at the Command of God, was the Firmament, in Hebrew Rakiang, Expanfe or Expanfion, from the Root Rakang, to fpread abroad, expand and make thin. This Firmament God call'd Shemaim, Heavens; it fignifies Airs, Æthers, Sky. What immenfe Strength and Power was communicated to this Agent by the Ruahh, will appear from Job xxxvii. 18. Haft thou with him Spread out the Sky, in Hebrew Shebbakim, Æthers; which is, or are strong as a molten Looking glass? or Speculum made of hard folid Metal. Alfo, Pfalm lxviii. 35. Thy Strength is in the Shehhakim, Ethers.-I could cite many more Paffages to fhew the mighty expanfive and compreffive Force of the Æthers or Heavens; but as it would at this Time be foreign to my Purpofe, I fhall only

only take a very fhort View of the State of the Earth at its Formation, and at, and after the Deluge.-God next intimated His Will to the Ruabb, That the Waters under the Heavens, Æthers, fhould be gathered together in one Place, or Collection, and that the dry Land should appear. This Command was inftantly executed. The Ruabb made innumerable Fiffures or Cracks in the vaft Sphere of Stone in all Manner of Directions:Collected the Waters, which conftitute much the greater Part of this Globe; impelled them thro' these Fiffures into the Abyss, separated and form'd all the different Bodies of which the Strata in the Earth are compofed, and difpofed the different Strata, not according to the Laws of Gravity affign'd by our Philofophers, but fo as they might be best adapted to the Ufe and Service of Man, the chief Inhabitant; rais'd those Protuberances we call Mountains; cover'd the Surface of the Earth with Adamak, mold impregnated with that immense Variety of Atoms or Particles adapted to Vegetation, Nutrition, &c. made those vaft Concavities (which, when fill'd with the Waters, are call'd Seas) to contain the Waters which remain'd after the great Deep was full; imprefs'd that Motion in the Waters of the Seas, which we call Tides; which Motion has been fince continued by the inferior Agents; fettled the Communication between the leffer Deeps, or Seas, by the horizontal Fiffures; and preferv'd the Communica

tion of all with the Great Deep, or Abyfs, by Means of thofe Apertures, which are emphatically call'd the Fountains of the Great Deep. Here again I could cite numerous Paffages of Scripture, but I omit them till I come to speak more fully to all these Points, which I shall do in their refpective Places.-On that Portion of Time call'd the Fourth Day, God again intimated His Will to the Ruabh, that there fhould be Lum naries; that is, Receptacles or Inftruments to contain Light; for that is the true Meaning of the Word Meor, a Luminary, and Meoret, Luminaries, in the Hebrew. The Ruabb immediately form'd the proper Receptacles; collected the Atoms or Particles of Light which were difperfed before, and placed them in those Bodies, which God aftewards diftinguish'd by the Names of the Sun, Moon, and Stars; all perfectly difpos'd and adapted to anfwer the wife and great Ends for which they were form'd. This is mention'd in Job xxvi. 13. By his Ruahh he hath garnish'd the Heavens, Æthers. I have but juft touch'd upon the Formation of thefe inferior Agents of the Ruahh, whofe Ufes and Powers I fhall endeavour to explain, together with the rest of the Formation, when I resume the Subject. I fhall only remark, that God is faid by Mofes to have refted on the Seventh Day;-that He bleffed, and confecrated that Day as Holy, and appointed it as a perpe→ tual Memorial to all Mankind in all Ages; that He, and He only, was the Creator, and confe

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quently the Supreme Governor of every Thing which exifted. God had now perfectly fram'd this vaft Machine, and regulated all its Motions, and its whole Oeconomy by the most perfect Order: He is therefore said to have refted; that is, God no longer exerted His infinite innate Power, which He had employed in the Creation and Regulation of the Universe, but committed the Care of continuing the Motions, and carrying on the Oeconomy of the whole Machine to inferior Agents, all fubordinate to the Power, and under the immediate Direction of his Ruabh. To keep this great Event ever fresh in their Memories, God fet apart this Day in a peculiar Manner; and forbade all manual Labour, that Man might employ his whole Time in contemplating, and fearching into the Works of God; from whence he would eternally find fresh Causes for Wonder and Amazement, and confequently for Love, Praife, and Adoration of his Great Creator. A ftrict Obfervance of this great pofitive Precept was conftantly rewarded; and the Violation of it as "conftantly punish'd by the feverest Judgments: A Point highly worthy of the most serious Attention of this Country at this terrible Juncture The Earth was now form'd in its moft perfect State, and produc'd every Thing fpontaneously, which might contribute to the Pleasure as well as Support of Man. At the Fall a very great Alteration was made the natural Fertility of the Earth was in great Mea

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Measure deftroy'd; and Man was reduc'd to earn his Bread by hard Labour and the Sweat of bis Brows, out of that Adamah, Mold, out of the Atoms or Particles of which he was first form'd: But I fhall confider the Nature of this Curfe in its proper Place, and make only a few Remarks upon the Destruction and Reformation of this Globe at the general Deluge.-Mofes tells us, Gen. the 6th chap. "That the Wickedness of

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Mankind was come to fo great a Height, that "God was determin'd to extirpate the whole "Race, except one righteous Man and his Famiσε ly, whom he preferv'd to repeople this Earth after its Re-formation." Man had totally inverted all moral Order, God therefore inverted the Order of Nature.-Here again was an immediate Exertion of his infinite Power by the Agency of the Ruahh. God fays, 1, even I do bring a Flood of Waters upon the Earth to destroy all Flefb. This Declaration was made to convince Mankind in all future Ages, that God the great First Caufe, the Creator of this Earth, was also the Author of this most amazing and moft terrible Catastrophe.-The Manner how this amazing Scene of Ruin was brought on, is defcrib'd by Mofes, and finely fumm'd up in that concife, but ftrongly defcriptive Allufion in the 24th chap. of Ifaiah, ver. 18, 19. For the Windows (Cataracts, Flood-gates) from on high are open, and the Foundations of the Earth (that is the vast Sphere or Arch of Stone, call'd the Foundations of the Earth,