Ver. 1. In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.

Several of our most notorious Men have very lately made a Jeft of the Beginning of this System, at the Time Mofes mentions, and others of the Creation, for which they can have no Authority; nor can Men have any more from God, than an ipfe fcripfit, who fhew'd that all Nature was at his Mafter's Command before he writ it, with the Confirmation of the other Prophets, and of Chrift. And thefe Men alfo make feveral Objections against the Concifenefs, and the Manner of their writing of this Hiftory, as though it were only a fhort Tradition, and not to be understood: If they had Capacities to understand it, every Criminal is at Liberty to find, or pretend to find Faults in the wording of his Indict

ment.

Some have made Doubts, whether the Word here fignifies to produce the Subftance, or to form it. M. Heb. 2. Create "It is faid of any Thing that from Non-existence procceds to Existence, ib. Chald. & Syr: &, where God created any Thing from nothing, or produced

fome

fomething New and Remarkable from another. C. Ifad, A Foundation. Chald. An Element, or first Principle. Every Element returns to its own Element. R. D. Sam. 1. q. Ar. Atzul, Roots, Origins, Lit. Dam.' The Heathens were for making the Power of bringing forth the Atoms, and forming them, which they called Creation, an Attribute of what they took for a God: And the Divines have been puzzled to afcertain the Meaning of the Word, because 'tis afterwards used for Whales, and every living Creature, formed out of Matter in the Water, and Man; where 'tis as neceffary as the Word is for Heaven and Earth, because the Atoms of the Matter, which Creatures are made of, are neither Atoms of the Heavens, nor of the Earth, nor of the Water. 'Tis Gen. ii. 7. 8

which Glaffius in Philol. Sacr. p. 858. would spoil with a Figure, and there could not be any Defcription of that Matter while in Atoms difperfed through the Water and Earth, till God made fome of them be collected and formed. And if there had been twenty Species of Atoms differing as widely as thofe do, he would have gone with the Word through them

all, or have fufficiently implied it; as the Atoms

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Atoms which conftitute Man are created, the Atoms of Beafts which form the Body of Man; of Fruits which form the Body of Man and Beast; and of Plants, which form the Bodies of Beafts, are fufficiently included. Indeed the Food of Fish is not fo vifible to Man; Chaldee Paraphrafe on Pfal. cxxxix. 16. "Thine Eyes faw my Body, and in the Book of thy Memorial were all my Days written on the Day the World was created, all Creatures were created at the firft, like another among them : 15, 16. My Subftance was not hid from thee, when it was formed in Secret, it was Spun beneath in the Earth *. This fet right, there are alfo Diftinctions between creating and forming, Gen. ii. 3. - The whole of his material Legate which God created to act. These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth, for which they were created, when Jehovah the Perfons in Covenant had formed the Earth

nor is one In Heb. v.

*God knows every Atom which compofes each Man's Body from its firft Accretion in the Earth, and fees it through all its Stages till it becomes Part of the human Body: The Atoms which compofe our Bodies are brought together, fpun, net, or accreted within the Surface of the Earth, thence raised into Fruits, &c. fo into our Bodies.

and

and the Heavens. 2 Mac. vii. 28. Vulgate. "I beseech thee, Son, look up to the Heaven, and to the Earth, and all that in them is, and understand that God made them of nothing, and all the Race of Men; fo it fhall be, that thou shall not fear Lat. Beholding, that thou mayeft understand that God made them when they were not, and the Race of Man was made in the fame Manner. Fear not -Syr.-and confider and behold that God made these things of what did not exist before: Alfo in the fame Manner theHuman Race had its Existence: Be not therefore afraid of this curfed Fellow.-Ifa. xliii. 7. I have created him, (viz. Man)

I have formed him, I have alfo made him, Maim. Mor. Nev. Part 2d. c. 30. For the Foundation of our Law is that God created this World of nothing." With refpect to the conftituent Parts of Solids, faying, that he created them in loofe Atoms, fets afide all Cavils, for nothing can be faid of forming an Atom, but giving it Solidity, Size and Figure, and that is what is expreffed by creating it. The Word

is never ufed but for fimple Creation or Production of the Matter in Atoms from nothing; but there is one Exception, it appears, that Part of the Atoms of the Hea

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vens

vens were created, and in the fame Act concreted into fmall Grains which is called Spirit, fo that Part of God's Action is represented by a Participle of this Verb, not as continually, but as in a few other Cafes referring to the Time, where the Action of Creation was joined with that Action which ferved to the fame End, and is now an Action of the Heavens, which continually and fucceffively concrete a Proportion of its constituent Atoms into Darknefs, or Grains, or Spirit to be the Inftruments of Motion; the Matter to keep the Fire in Action, and fupply it with Atoms to be divided or feparated by that Action, and fent out in Light, and for all the intermediate Ufes they are employed in for fupporting this Machine, thofe material Legates, or Minifters, and this whole Syftem, as Ifa. xlv. 7. Forming Light, and concreting Darkness; ver. 18. Jehovah who concreted the Heavens; be the Perfons in Covenant who formed the Earth and made it: He who framed it. Was it not created in loofe Atoms? He formed it to be inhabited. Ibid. xlii. 5. God the Jehovah who concreted the Heavens, and ftretched them out, who spread forth the Earth and its Products. Amos iv. 13. He that formed the Mountains and concreted