Knowledges and personal reflexions be laid aside The Creatures were of several kinds and being Heterogeneous one from another they must consequently all of them be also Heterogeneous from the pretended pure primary Matter For this Matter being supposed by the Asserters of it to be one Homogeneous Substance in it self can never produce so many Heterogeneous Substances If the very Matter of Creatures were one and the same substantial principle in all Creatures and not different how could it produce contrary Entities and Activities and exercise contrary Operations The Word of Truth doth expresly confirm that the things which we see were not made of such things as do appear And we have need and use of special Faith to believe and to improve this aright As that the Heavens and the Earth were not this first general confused matter out of which after Creatures were made the Expanse was not made of the more refined part of this the Herbs Plants and Trees were not made out of the Earthy Matter the Luminaries were not made of the former Light Fishes Fowls Beasts Worms were not made of the Waters or Earth the first Adams Male and Female were not made of former Earth These were after Generations and Productions in the ordinary way yet of the same kind and it is a new Prooem beginning a new Narration Aelohim did not need as men do Stuff or matter to work upon not Tools or other Instruments neither used he the aid or help of any assistant It is by Faith that we come to have right apprehensions of this it is not wrought and attained by the strength of our natural reason but it doth shine in upon the mind from that credibility which is in and from that credence which is given to the Word of God and from the holy Spirits perswading of the heart that this word is the Truth Thus were all manner of Creatures fully and perfectly finished without any want defect or imperfection in them so far as concerned that state and condition the Creator made them in The Author or Efficient was Jehovah Aelohim the means of creating them was by the word of his Power whereby he manifested his Mind and Will Though all these were created and made yet not out of any thing that did or could appear there was no pre-existent matter whereof they were made The Essences and formalities of all Vegetative and Sensitive Natures are not only matter and motion Aelohim gave primitive Natures and different Beings to his several Creatures Universal Nature is both an empty name and an atheistical conceit If only matter were created in the first instance of Time as is pretended and pleaded how could this Matter diversifie it self in the Beginning into Heaven and Earth For local Motion being from one place to another which are several distant Terms must necessarily be in several instants of Time if several Local Motions were the Formalities or formal beginnings of all Spirits and spiritual Qualities then they should not be before nor after nor any longer than that Local Motion doth continue For the Formality of any thing is the very Specifick Being thereof and nothing can be without the Specifical Being of its self otherwise it should not be what it is or be what it is not It was the Spirit of Aelohim and not the first Matter that moved more especially upon the waters Created Beings may and actually do exist without any actual Local Motion and therefore they must necessarily really be different from it The Beginning of all things was not Water as one Ethnick Philosopher mis judged neither was infinite Air the first cause or original of every existence as another affirmed neither was this pretended Catholick Air God as a third esteemed neither did all things take their beginning from Fire and Light as a fourth would have it nor as another says that there is one Universal Fire in and over all things in this World neither is the beginning of all things the substance of the Fire by the Air converted into Water as was the opinion of one neither are there such Radical Principles of all things whereof two are Agents and two Patients as he asserts the Elements which was the imagination of another Creating AElohim was before any created Beings He alone was the Creator All things were made essentially solely immediately by him there was no help of secondary causes They had their Original and Being from him and they have still their dependence upon him and therefore is AElohim in this short yet complete History of the Creation expresly named above thirty times in the seven days of this one Week No mere Creature has Power of Creating It is the sole Prerogative of Jehovah AEtohim If created Beings and their substantial Spirits and all their spiritual Activities and Operations were only various Motions of the Matter or only Matter moving variously then Local Motion one way or other or any way whatsoever should be not only an instrumental causality or effect of these Bodies and their Qualities but also the very Essence and Formality as hath been said or formal cause of them Whereas all created Beings are formal every one of them such as they were severally created in their different kinds and as they are naturally distinguished from other Creatures in themselves in their own proper Being The Creatures may and several of them do exist and they are such as they are created without any actual Motion being more for rest As the blew expanse and the Earth Tâ—hu and Bohu were not Matter and Form The Jews and the Christians have learn'd this wrong conceit in the Schools of Ethnick Philosophers and then afterwards laboured to defend it by this place of Scripture I have on the work of the one day shewn the meaning of those words and things The four Elements as some name them called the simple Bodies were not fetch'd one contrary out of another as out of former Matter as neither Light out of Darkness nor the Firmament out of Emptiness nor dry Earth out of Waters Neither were the compound Bodies out of the same Elements nor for the most part of all four unequally mingled together Not every one principally out of the same Element which they garnish or inhabit As not Herbs and Trees out of the Earth Not the Sun Moon and Stars wholly or specially out of the Expanse Not Fishes out of the Waters not Birds out of the Air not Beasts out of the Earth all and every of the created Beings are of distinct Natures and of several kinds We must put a difference between the first Creation and the after propagation Those four great Bodies Aether Air Earth and Water are still locally and essentially separate one from another and do exist Pure They each of them have their proper Bodies of Matter their peculiar subsistences pure and unmix'd in the beginning of the Creation The several Creatures were created an Whole
Christian Religion and of the Nature and Uses of Created Beings I charge not darkness and obscurity doubtfulness or doubleness upon other Scriptures But these two parts I have now more particularly in my eye and all the rest of the whole Word of God is more or less one way or other a Commentary and Annotations an Interpretation and Explication of these which have a common and familiar understanding such as those who have the due exercise of their right Reason and of spiritual Senses may as soon as they hear conceive what it meaneth The Scripture-History of Created Beings hath its Intrinsecal-self truthfulness in it self and its Extrinsâ—â—â—l-self evidence unto others which is best manifest by the holy Spirits clear shining upon the naked simplicity of the Original Text in a savingly inlightned-heart The Wisdom of Adam was and the Wisdom of Adam's sons would be that which made his would still make their faces to shine to know well the interpretation of a Word the Exposition the Phrase of a Word the Solution the Declaration the Explication of it The Original Text of Holy Writ in its literal significancy must under the Holy Spirit who indited it and under Christ and his Father he speaking it from the Father be the judging Rule of approving or condemning of mens Explications of it and Paraphrases upon it and Illustrations concerning it and of their several Systems and Models of the Created World answerable to those Explications Paraphrases and Illustrations as they are found either agreeing with or disagreeing from that Created Beings must be so conceived expressed and modelled as to be an exact counterpart in all things measured exactly to this Scripture-History of them Scriptural Words and Names by which the several Created Beings are rightly called in Jehovah's Word are the most perfect and proper Definitions of any particular thing in its most specifical difference from any other Creature The only true Essence and specifical Being and particular entity of any Creature is the only true specifical and particular difference of that Creature and doth give a perfect Definition and when the Word is opened a proper description of it Though it were the speaking of the same thing as the same thing identically Thus if it be asked what is the Earth The answer were pertinent and full to say it is Aeretz in its real Being in the same sense that the Scripture doth call it so and for which it hath given it that Name The like may be affirmed of other Creatures for every Created Being had a distinct make and a different Existence When we would describe a Creature by some its properties as to say The Earth is dry Jabeshah this relates to another Matter the best Definitions and the most significant of Essences are those peculiar Words and proper Names which are given to particular Created Beings in the Scriptures of Truth Till we are more brought off from Philosophical darknings and obscurings of things into Scripture Light and into its way of knowing the true Nature of Created Beings there will still be captiousness and contentioâ—sness about such puzling Terms of Humane Inventing as would hold mens understandings in continued ignorance Every converted Being is best convertible into it self and is rightest known by its own Identicalness Where Creatures do differ their Names do differ also It would much forward the sound knowledge of the real Truths in those Matters if extra-Scriptural Philosophical Terms were altogether laid aside and the Expressions were such as we find in the Word of Christ For the words of mens coyning are mistaken Terms of Humane Art and do mislead into Error and will still keep up endless contendings Whereas the Words and Names by which Scriptures do call things do make us to apprehend Created Beings rightly in our Minds according as the things themselves are in their own Nature This Journal this Diary of the first Week of the Created World is a plain Narrative containing a clear History of the matter of Fact which things done are identically declared and described by the most apt significant expressions It is a most faithful punctual Record So that it is no other no less than to give Aelohim the adored Almighties the lye to his faces to deny either the plain Truth of the Fact or the proper significancies of the expressions The God of Infallible Veracity doth not in any part of this Narration intend any thing by any expression either of falsity concerning things or of deception to persons Private Opinionists can never evade or elude the unerring Authority of the Exact Expressiveness of the Original Language in this Scripture He that would be satisfied concerning the foundation of credibility about the Creation must resort to the plain and simple sense of this Text according to teh Subject-matter thereof and the Context of this and the Collation of other Scriptures They very explication of Scriture Terms doth present the Truth of Created Beings in their own naked simplicity carrying by the Aspect and Eradiation thereof a clear evidence of the Nature of the things themselves This History is the Scripture Naturals and the Christian Physicks Even young Children that are of quick apprehensions are capable of taking in of this kind of Learning with great delight so far at least as it is demonstrate to their senses and as for the rest their senses may be directed towards the several places of the invisible World As to point out to them the several Works of the Creation on the several distinct days and with the finger to shew them which is the Expanse What are the Heavenly Luminaries the Fowls of the Air the Earth the Waters the Seas the Light the Darkness the Beasts the Fishes the Worms Man and so of the rest And what is the positure of the Creation Those Hebrews therefore are under a great mistake and do hinder much of the knowledge of Jehovah Aelohim in this Word and Works in forbidding any to read four parts of Scripture till they are thirty years of age the age of the Sacerdotal Ministry The beginning of Genesis is one of those places where the Creation of the World is described Whereas the eye of young ones would tell them the Creators Works are a visible legible Commentary upon his Word The second place is the Song of Songs Whereas this also doth set out spiritual things by sensible similitudes and doth describe much of Created Beings in an affectionate way between the dearest Lovers Christ and his Churches Christ and the Believers Fellow-believers and Sister Churches with each other And this Scripture is therefore adapted to the understanding of young ones who may the better be taught what to believe by what they see and their own eyes and other senses may instruct their Souls and their Understandings and Affections may be mutua Helps and Guides to each other The third place is the beginning of Ezekiels Prophecy where the Majesty of the LORD is described the beauty of
a Created Nature doth contribute much for the discovery of the Positure of the World which is the higher and which the lower part of the Universe in its System orderly disposed as also for the conviction of Infidelity and the confutation of Atheism It being a great and gross Error in the scoffing Anti-Scripturists who daringly affirm that the Gulph and Hell have no certain Existence in the Nature of Beings nor definiteness of locality in the Creation of Places but that they are mere Bug bears to terrifie Fools and Scare-crows to fright Children withal my work therefore here will be to examine whether the Earth at its first Creation were formless and vord so that Tohu and Bohu as commonly interpreted be truly and rightly predicated of Aeretz or not Whether Tohu and Bohu be or be not distinct Creatures from the Earth locally distinct or two created places the one setting out the Gulphy-empty-space the other the doleful place of Hell Then to assert and prove from Scripture and Nature that there are really such places And in what parts of the created World those places are whereby the positures of the Creation will be manifested in what order they are placed one above or below another which is one of the secrets of Nature hidden from vain Philosophers but revealed in holy Scriptures Towards the bringing in of somewhat of a very useful discovery that this Earth was not created deformed not an empty unâ—â—apen or mis-shapen lump confused or without fashion not such an amazing and shameful thing as one who has a name amongst the Learnedest of Criticks and who doth undertake to correct others in their rendring of these words doth amiss call it not such a formless Chaos as it is Heatheneshly standered to be let it be well considered whether they do not great wrong to this Work of Aetohim who do express the significancy of these words to be that which is contrary to fight Order to good-Digestion to methodâ—â— Framing and to comâ—y Modesty as somewhat to be ashamed of and then do 〈◊〉 this to the Earth Seeing that this Earth as also the empty Gulph and the doleful place have a great fitness and a comly order and a beautious decency in the Creators Ordination for the ends of his own Glory for the advancing of rich distinguishing Grace towards the Elect and for the sinners confusion and amongst many other transgressors Idolaters and corrupt worshippers living and dying such Especially if in Ages of such growing light as doth convincingly discover the forbiddenness of all humane Inventions Institutions and Impositions in the matters of Worship exclusive of what is of Christ's prescribing and appointing in his word These are some of those sinners who by name are declared to be in the road way upon the brink to be tumbled down the Gulphy-confounded-space There is not any the least mark of reproach cast or put upon any other of Aelohim's Works and therefore not upon the first created Earth For all and every of his Works have all that kind of perfection which doth belong to that created Work It being made in that excellency of State for goodness which every creature was framed in according as the nature of that creature was capable fit and able to receive for its assigned usefulness in its place So that it was for so far intire consummate absolute in all Numbers and modes and was no way to be reprehended faulted or blamed having the Creator's own Letters Testimonial for its due commendation and praise under his Hand and Seal All was pure unblemished no defect in it as such Therefore did Righteous Adam rejoyce in meditating on these works on the Seventh-day Sabbath By a collation of other Scriptures it will appear that this Verb Was may properly and distinctly belong to Tohu and to Bohu as also to Vechosheâ— As for the significancy of the words in the Original let all the Scriptures be considered that do make mention of them whether Tohu be not the empty gulphy astonishing desolate space and Bohu the doleful place the serious meditating whereon makes to sigh and to groan These words are Substantives and not Adjectives or Participles and do properly stand by themselves So that to praedicate these abstracts of the Earth as if it were amazingness shamefulness deformedness formlesness emptyness or shapelesness and voidness wastness or vanity seemeth to reproach Creating Aelohim who did all in wonderful Wisdom and having approved of every Work of his he rejoyced therein As for the Structure of Speech the Verb belongs in common to Tohu to Bohu and to Vechoshâ—â— appertaining to all the members of this speech being put to one it is to be accommodated to all as if it were expresly added to every one Aeretz was created Tohu was Bohu was each of them was in being truly subsisting though the verb be but once written yet being once spoken it hath a conveniency with the other members by a common right There is great evidence and natural comeliness that is in this kind of Scripture-speaking It cannot be rightfully affirmed of this Earth in the abstract as many do that the Earth was emptiness or an empty thing at its first creation For this appears to be expresly denyed by Jehovah Aelohim in another Scripture because thus he said when he shews himself forth as the Creator of those Heavens and the Former of this Earth that having made the Earth he firmly prepared or established her and that he did create her Not Tohu or Not-emptiness he created her to be dwelt in or satâ—in or to be inhabited or to Sabbatize in Thus doth he expresly deny what men do affirm Tohu only is the Gulphy empty uninhabited place of the created World It being only the Gulphy passage to Hell Several parts of the creation being distinctly spoken unto in that Prophecy by Isaiah as the Text and Context will evidence All other spaces and places are filled up and inhabited but only this Tohu which is empty In the higher Heavens there are the glorious Inhabitants of that better Countrey There are the upper Waters and many other Treasures In the Expanse are Sun Moon and Stars those bright shining Luminaries In the Air are Fowls on the Earth are Men and Women Beasts Cattle Worms in the Waters are Fishes in Hell are Devils and Damned only Tohu is void So that there is a Viâ—â—um in Nature contrary to Paganish Philosophy as Tohu doth properly note That which is contrary to such a Line as is drawn to distinguish to put in order in building upon some Foundation which Tohu doth want So Bohu is that which is contrary to a Foundation and Building or Extruction contrary to a perpendicular by which the Building is directed There is no Foundation or Extruction in Hell for it is bottomless at least so far as that the damned know no bottom of it Tohu not being praedicated of Aeretz neither is Bohu which
Janus in Welch High Dutch French Porteguez Spanish Italian Latin so also in English January Prince Janus they say had two Faces which saw things past and to come or because superstitious Antiquity did consecrate to him the beginnings of things February the rest Month is named in English in French in Italian in Spanish in Portuguez in Latin either from Frebruum Februa which were Sacrifices or Ceremonies for purging of Souls for in this Month they sacrificed to Spirits or to departed Souls and they did celebrate the Anniversaries or yearly Rites in remembrance of the Dead which Sacrifices and Ceremonies were done to infernal gods for them which be dead such as the Dirges amongst the Papists the Soul Masses or Masses for the Dead Or from purged Juno whose holy Day as they called them had solemn Sacrifices and Plays dedicated to Pan their god who kept as they thoght the Wolves from devouring the Sheep on which day also women were purged by the Priests of Pan who on the Seventh day of their Sacrifices ran up and down the City naked and strook the Hands and Bellies of Women that were with child with a goats Skin hereby to signifie both fruitfulness and easie delivery or of Februus the god of purging by sacrifice to whom Numa dedicated this month or this Februus was Pluto the God of Hell and of Riches to whom they sacrificed in this month which Month the Romans consecrated to the Infernal gods The month of March is so called in British or Welsh in high and low Dutch in French Spanish Portugueze Italian Latin and English from Mars to whom this month was dedicated it being believed that he was the Father of Romulus the Author of the Roman Nation The Planet Mars was held to be the God of battel The month April has its name in British or Welsh in high and low Dutch in French Spanish Portugueze Italian Latin and English from a Greek word which doth set out Venus the Goddess of Love as sprung from the foam and froth of the Sea This month was dedicated to her The month of May borroweth it's denomination in low Dutch in high Dutch in Welsh in Italian in Spanish in Portugueze in French in Latin in English from Maia the Mother of Mercury in this Month they sacrificed to Maia and to Mercury those did so who were Merchants The month of June is so called in French Portugueze Italian Spanish Latin and English from Juno an Heathenish goddess the daughter of Saturn and Ops the Sister and Wife of Jupiter or of Junius Brutus the Author of Romes liberty and made Consul in this month The month of Julia hath its name in French in Italian in Portugueze in Spanish in Latin in English from Julius Caesar because he was born in that month The month of August has its denomination in British in French in Spanish in Portugueze in Italian in Latin in English from Augustus Caesar and for his Honour The Rest of the Months are reckoned by their Number from March inclusively September the Seventh Month from March October the eighth Month November the ninth Month December the tenth Month. Having thus given the Reader some account of the Ethnick names of Days and of Months How can I but bewail that carnal complyance which the most of Christians are guilty of with Heathenish corruptions in this as in many things Why is there such a backwardness especially in those who call themselves of the Reformed Religion to bring names and things to Scripture Language and expressions O how much would it make both for the Peace and Purity of Churches and people of Christ to bring all in this as well as in other Cases and Matters to that Word-will of our God by which we must be all judged in that last great Day The true proper names of the Days of the Week according to Scripture are One or the First when another Day of the same Week is in being the Second the Third the Fourth the Fifth the Sixth the Seventh The several Moons or Months in the Year according to Scripture are thus named The Head-Moon or one or First Moon The Second The Third The Fourth The Fifth The Sixth The Seventh The Eighth The Ninth The Tenth The Eleventh The Twelfth Some of those Months have also some other names in some Scriptures but these are they which are of constant use O who will give that the Time were to come when Christ and his Saints shall be there together where there will be a pure River of the Water of Life clear as Crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the Street whereof and of either side of which River the Tree of Life will be which will have twelve manner of Fruits and yield her Fruit every Month the Leaves of which Tree will be for the healing of the Nations Pass we now unto an enquiry concerning the created Work of the Second Day Q. Whether all those upper Waters such as Rain Dew Hail Snow and the like between which and the lower Waters comprehended under the name of Seas such as Springs Fountains Rivers Lakes and the like the firm Out-spread or Expanded doth separatingly divide do come down from above this Expanse Or are they caused in the Air by some influencing operativeness of the Heavenly Luminaries upon the moistness and wateriness here below drawing up such vapours from hence as do condense in the cold middle Region of the Air and are there turned into those distilling Drops which come down here below Whether the Air be the proper place where the upper Waters are generated HUmane Sophists will resolve this Question thus Rain is the moisture of the Earth and of the Seas of Watery places drawn up by the heat of the Sun into the middle Region of the Air which being thus condensed into Clouds is afterwards at the will of God dissolved and dropt down again in showers for his glory in making the Earth fruitful for good to the good for the instruction of all men and for relief to other creatures As to that part which is the generating cause Natural Philosophers do call the Sun the Father of the Rain and a late Christian Philosopher doth own it as not improperly so called in his Exposition on Joh. The Water of the Sea and the moisture of the Earth say they being attenuated by the heat of the beams of the Sun do become vapours which being so rarefied and resolved into an aiery substance are by the same heat of the Sun drawn up into a cold middle loft of the Air where being again thickned into Water they melt down into Rain Thus they describe the manner of the Formation and Generation of Rain And it is a common heathenish expression amongst many who name the name of Christ we shall have Rain when the Moon changeth or when the Wind turneth Thus
and Entire several Substance and Quality Matter and Form as they call them all and every of them on the several days of their being created at least this is very well worthy of a more through inquiry and deeper disquisition than hitherto hath been made I return now to the particular created Beings on the fifth day Fishes do breath in and out though Ethnick Philosophy do contradict For Fishes are some of the Reptils which have a living Soul a vital Spirit breathing to and fro The swimming of Fishes is one kind of creeping and sliding So an Eel swims in the Water as a Snake doth creep on the Land And though other Fishes in swimming do shoot forth more directly and do not altogether make such crooked in and out lines yet they only slide in a streighter manner having bodies of a direct and oblong Figure fitted for that purpose being born up and partly carried by an Equidans fulciment of transpassable Waters through which they move by a Breathing Vital Potenty The flying Fowl was not made of the pre-existent Matter of Waters as some learned Christians some whom they call the Fathers and others did misapprehend but were a distinct Creature both from Waters and Reptils from Fishes from what else doth live in the Waters This is a new production in a certain and different place The precedent Hebrew Accent did absolve the former Paragraph from which this is distinguished both grammatically in sense and distinction and also physically in being and in place The one word is as proper to Birds as the other is to Reptils They were neither of the same make with Fishes neither were Fishes created of Water nor Fowls of Earth but immediately of the adored Almighties severally put into their proper natural places the Fishes into swimming in the Sea the Fowls into the Air over the Earth flying there Some flying Fowls do more delight in watery places others of them are more for Earth as the place of their choice some others are Terraqueous being well pleased both with Earth and Water as a place either of them proper and fit enough for them So that this doth but set out their places not the first Matter of their being and how it would be in their after production distinguished into Land-fowls Sea-fowls and Sea land-fowls Amphibious Ones such as do live and generate in both The Creator doth assign his Creatures their proper localities and places of abode as before he had put the Luminaries in the Heavens and Expanse so here the Fishes to the Waters the Fowls to the Air and so afterwards other Creatures to the Earth The appointed places of Habitation of Motion and of Working are proper and natural and the Bodies of created Beings have a suitable conformity fitting them for their several abode The Creator first finished the Theatre or Habitacle of the World and then Creates the Inhabitants thereof and puts them into their several dwellings and mansions Time and Place were some of the first things created they are therefore to be accounted great things being the foundation of many after-institutions The Creature had a beginning when it was created Time then began This World was not from all Eternity for it had a beginning in Time One part of the Created World was after another part of it by temporary succession of nights and of days in a most direct line by established Order and immutable Law The first beginning of Time was not the moment or measure of the first Heavenly Motion They are mistakes the supposal of the first moveable Heaven or compassing Sphere that doth wheel about all the other pretended Spheres and that this first Mover was first created which have no foundation in Scripture but are the feigned inventions of men high in their own eyes and fond of their own conceits The first moment of the first created Evening was the beginning of Time as to the created World when the Darkness was first made to begin Time is not the measure of duration according to a pretended Motion of the Heavenly Luminous Bodies for three several days were past before the Creation of these Time Place and Number are of the Nature of indifferent things that may be or may not be but are necessarily things in their several circumstances These were concreated and did actually exist with other created beings in the beginning and without which no created Entity whatsoever can actually exist There was in the one day of the World successive Duration every Creature that was made on that day was durable temporary made and existed in time There was consistent extension one part beyond another there where another part was not All the created Beings of that day exist in some places They were where they were made and no where else at that same time and several Creatures were in several places then and afterwards There was then discrete numbring for every created Being whatsoever it be must always be numerable The several distinct days also in which the Creatures were made are distinct in Numeration Thus for Family or Church-worship once every day is not enough but twice a day is necessary Aelohim having instituted the Evening and Morning Seasons and not lest this to our liberty or appointment There is an aptitude in Nature for these fitting the time to the Work Thus for more publick Church-assemblies once in a Month or Quarter or Year is not enough it must be weekly on the seventh-day-Sabbath for so is the Doctrine of Weeks in the first Creation Those who are ingaged in the Controversie about Non-conformity unto national Plantations or establishments in the matters of publick Worship such as is of Humane Invention Institution and Imposition especially when exclusive of all other Worship that is according to the Word-Warrant and Scripture-Institution have greatly wronged and hurt their own cause by their concessions and assertions that the Civil Magistrate has the Power in the Nation to appoint humanely-invented Modes of Worship what forms to use The number in Worship how often it shall be what holy days as they call them and how many of them in an year the time of worship when his will and pleasure is and the place of worship where he will assign As if these were Adiaphorous matters left wholly to our Governours prudential consideration and determination which all subjects must comply with and conform to that there may be as they say Order Unity and Peace in the Church by a national uniformity in these things For under a colour of this all the Christian Religion almost is degenerated into indifferents and those who are most and best Christians most spiritual and heavenly in worship according to the Laws and Institutions of Christ's house and who have their conversation most adorning and becoming the Gospel are most hated and opposed this being the ground of persecution in all ages but more towards the latter days as the servants of and witnesses
the North is the highest part of the created World 89 That this Earth is above the Water And that the middle part of this Earth is not the common Centre to which all heavy bodies do naturally descend 89 90 91 Q. Whether that darkness which doth distinguish and separate between the Night and the Day in a large Day be but the want or privation of Light and so mere nothing And which was first the Darkness or the Light 91 to 103 The discoveries here are that Darkness has a Created Being and doth truly subsist 91 92 That Created Light is a mere accident without but that it has an essentiated substance and has a good perfect subsistence of its own distinct from the Sun 92 134 That Darkness and Light do make a natural large Day which doth begin at the Evening Wherein are divers other useful things opened about Evening Darkness Night and Morning Light Day Weeks Months Winter Summer and Years Time Minutes and Hours 92 to 103 Concerning the Created Work of the Second Day Q. Whether all those upper Waters Such as Rain Dew Hail Snow and the like between which and the lower Waters comprehended under the name of Seas such as Springs Fountains Rivers Lakes and the like the out-spread or expanded doth separately divide do come down from above this Expanse Or are they caused in the Air by some influencing operativeness of the Heavenly Luminaries upon the moistness and watriness here below drawing up such vapours from hence as do condeuse in the cold middle Region of the Air and are there turned into those distilling drops which come down here below VVhether the Air be the proper place where the upper VVaters are generated 103 to 106 Here it is evidenced from the Word that the Rain and such other upper Waters is not generated by the Heavenly Luminaries But that it doth come down from above this blew visible Expanse 103 104 105 Concerning the Created Work of the Third Day Q. Whether the exactest fullest Herbal of Herbs Grasâ— Trees and Plants be not treasured up in the Scriptures of Truth opening this great secret of Created Nature best setting out the Doctrine and use of them both for Feeding and for Healing 106 The answer to this doth open much of the Nature Vertues Vses Kinds Places Cherishers Hurters of Herbs with much more of their usefulness for man both for Food and for Medicine It doth stir up Physicians and Cooks to study the Herbal-Art more in a Scripture-way in order to the promoting of bodily health 106 to 113 Of the Fourth Days VVork Q. Whether the Coelestial Phaenomena Of the glorious Luminaries can ever be reduced to any certain satisfactory Art or improved into an advanced restaâ—red Science by vain Philosophy Or must this be attained only by Scripture-discovery in its pursued Light and followed Directions 113 It is here made manifest that vain Philosophy can never teach this it is only learn'd in the Scriptural-School 113 114 115 That the Scriptures do condemn Judiciary Astrology as it is commonly understood and practised to be Groundless Scriptureless Natureless Superstitious Vain and Sinful 115 to 124 That the Sun is not the Centre of the World 124 125 That the Moon is really in its Created Being a great Light 125 That Eclipses of the Sun and Moon have not the proper true causes of them assigned by Philosophers 125 126 That Earth and Seas are not in the Moon Page 126 Of the Fifth Days VVork Q. Whether that part of Natural History which doth concern Fowls Fishes Beasts and Worms can ever be completed into a Natural Art in the way of Ethnick Philosophy Or must we search after it only in the Word of Truth where only it can be advanced and perfected by a due and diligent comparing of their Created Beings in their proper Natures 127 Here is demonstrated that this natural Art is not found in tâ—e way of Ethnick Philosophy and that the Word of Truth alone can advance and perfect this Natural History 127 to 135 That Art rightly discovered is but Nature truly opened 127 That the Mother-tongued-Hebrew should not be sent to Daughter-Languages to learn to speak 128 That there was not a first prae-existent Matter out of which all other Creatures were made 128 129 130 131 That Matter and Motion are not the Essences of things 130 That all and every of the Creatures were immediate distinct Works of Aelohim's Power 128 to 131 That the Creator hath assigned his Creatures to their proper Localities 131 That the World was not from Eternity but had a beginning 131 132 That Time Place and Number are not of the Nature of different things particularly as applyed to worship 131 132 That the LORD in Scripture and Nature has determined the circumstances of worship 132 133 That some Scripture History is also Prophetical and Promissory 134 135 That it is worthy of further inquiry whether Vau be conversive of the Praeterit into the Future or of the Future into the Praeterit 134 135 That Jehovah Aelohim is still putting forth continued acts of preferring and of blessing his Creatures 134 135 That the first Created Light is a Substance truly subsisting in it self and in its Created Nature 134 see also 92 That Beasts and Worms do belong to the Creatien work of the Sixth day And that the gathering in of the lower Waters into the Seas was a part of the Creators Work on the Second Day 134 135 Concerning the Created Work of the Sixth Day Q. Whether Anthropology or the Doctrine of Created Adam or the knowledge of Man or the Science of the Humane Nature be sufficiently taught in the Schools and Lectures of Ethnick Philosophers Or is it only contained in and augmentable and reâ—staurable by the Word of Truth and the holy Spirits teaching of serious inquiries this Art according to those holy Scriptures 136 The discovery here is that Anthropology or the Doctrine of Created Adam or the knowledge of Man or the Science of the Humane Nature is not sufficiently taught by Ethnick Philosophy and the Readers or Writers of it but by the Scriptures of Truth and the holy Spirits instructing in and hy the Scriptures 136 to 158 That man's make is admirable 136 137 That no mere Creature made man but he had his Being distinct from other Creatures immediately by and from Aelohim 136 137 That Man was Created with the Image and Likeness of Aelohim upon him 136 137 That the Female was Created distinct from the Male and but one Female was appointed for one Male in Marriage at the Beginning where is also discovered the sinfulness of Polygamy and of Divorce 138 to 148 That it deserves a further inquiry whether where-ever this Word Adam is found in the Original it should not be rendred Adam when translated into other Languages 148 149 Also whether the fruitful propagating of Mankind by conjugal Generation be not still a Fruit and effect of Aelohim's first Blessing upon Adam and Eve 149