this House that I have builded? Ver. 30. And bear thou in Heaven thy dwelling Place. It alludes to the Palace or Court of a Prince; and though a Prince cannot be faid to be confined to his Palace, yet it may be faid to be his dwelling Place; and here he says, is the Earth a fit Place for God, (as the Chald. Par. renders it) for his Majesty, or can the Heaven, or Heaven of Heavens sustain his Glory, or be fit for his Refidence, much less this House ? and after this, no less than 'eight times in this Chapter Solomon prays, that God would hear them in Heaven, his dwelling Place. The next is as oppofite as Words can make it, nay, carries it too far. Job xxii. 12, 13, 14. Is not God in the Height of Heaven? and behold the Height (Heb. Head) of the Stars, how high they are. And thou fayeft, How doth God know ? can be judge through the dark Cloud? Thick Clouds are a Covering to him, that ke feeth not, and be walketh in the Circuit of Heaven. Eliphaz states this System, or the Circumference of the Heavens, as it really is environed with Caligo and thick Clouds; and there the Heavens make their Circuit, as will be shewed below, and he places God's Refidence above these ; and then supposupposing Job a Man ignorant of the Power of God, as the Heathens pretended to be, makes him fay, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark Cloud? thick Clouds are a Covering to him, that he seeth not, &c. And the next and last is, Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. Upon a Notion, that God was departed from the Earth,, had ceased to interpose in the Manner he did formerly in their Deliverances, could not fee their Actions at that Distance, and that Baal (of whom hereafter) was present every where, faw and did every thing; upon these Dreams they thought to divert the People from God to Baal: As Ezek. ix. 9. - For they say, the LORD hath forSaken the Earth, and the LORD feeth not. So Jer. is directed to fay, - Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? can any hide himself in fecret Places, that I shall not fee him? faith the LORD. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth? faith the LORD. The first Expreffion of this Kind is, Gen. xiv. 19. -The most high God, Poffeffor of Heaven and Earth. What is Heaven and Earth? Space, or Matter created? Are they not fome Things which God created, folid Atoms of Matter; those of Earth adhering in Bodies or dense Fluids; thofe of the Heaven in Orbs, Darkness, Fire, Light,

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Light, Clouds? &c. Exod. xxiv. 10. And עצם the Substance of the Heavens for Clearness. Thus he filled, and by filling formed this Dimension, and this includes what the Heathens took for their God: But this is not all, as the Heavens or Light was, and is an Agent, and pervaded the Pores of all Things, and fo filled the Intervals between the Atoms, even of the Earth, and was God's Vice-Roy or Deputy, he claims it as one of his Attributes. God is called Fire, the Father of Light, Chrift the Light, and the Holy Ghost the Spirit; not only as these Things are used for Representations of them, but as they are his Agents; so their Substances, their Actions, their Glory His, though created and material; they are also spoken of by way of Claim, in as strong Terms as if they were himself, or Attributes of his, which is the fame. And fo even of what they render Clouds; his Strength is in the Clouds, fo the Earth is full of the Knowledge, Goodness, &c. of the Lord. Not content with the Evidence in God's Word, that he exists, and is poffefsed of his Attributes, as David says, Pja. xciii. 5. vulg. 112. He dwelleth in the Height, and reSpects the bumble Things in Heaven and

Earth, they attempt to give us an Idea,

by

by Philofophy, of something that is not Space, but constitutes Space (I suppose he means by poffeffing it) in him (I suppose he means in this Substance) are contained and moved all Things; but without mutual Paffion, God fuffers nothing from the Motions of Bodies, nor do they suffer any Resistance from the Omniprefence (I fuppose he means from the Substance) of God; one might make strange Deductions from these and fome others of his Positions. Every Atom is a folid Substance, and of some forts of them are Compounds or Solids of Substances; of other Sorts, gofs Fluids of Substances; and of another fort in Grains, Spirit of Substances; and of the same sort loose, the fubtlest fluid Fire, and Light of Substances; of the last sort there is a created fluid Substance in, and by which the Orbs move, which the first Heathens knew to be a Machine composed of three Parts, yet took it for their God; and to which, the later Heathens, from whom we have our Language, gave the Attributes of te rnal, Infinite, all Eye, all Hand, &c. In Scripture God claims the Machine, and all the Attributes the Heathens then gave to it, to himself, and we borrow those Words to convey Ideas of the Personality : Whe

Whether he took some of these Words from Scripture, or from the later Heathens, tho they in fome respects, express the Manner of the Existence of the God of the Heathens, as Clem. Alex. &c. "But let me not pass by the Stoicks, who say thatGod pervades all Matter, be it never so vile and abject; who openly disgrace their own Philofophy. P. 43. But they indeed say, that God pervades the Effence of all Things; but we say, that he is only the Maker, and this by his Word." That does not make it follow, that these Attributes express the Manner of the Existence of God, any more than they express him to be a framed Machine, nor do they any Way favour this Notion of Space: Indeed there were some Atheists among the later Heathens, from whom these Notions of Space and Powers in Bodies to move in it were taken, but they are not well cited; and I am afraid this infinite Space will prove a Child of Satan, and only father'd upon God; and if they had not produced this, we had had no Philofophy, nor no Philofophers. I fee not that God intended to give us any Idea of his Substance, Dimenfion, or Figure; but when they rival'd him with his Creatures, upon account of their Prefence, and his Distance, he says, shall