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Motion, but cannot be told to human Ears, fo as earthly Motion may receive any Idea without Process of Speech. When the Almighty Will was heard in fuch a Declaration, there was great Triumph and Rejoicing in Heaven: They fung Glory to the most HIGH! Good-will to, future MEN! and Peace in their Dwellings! Glory to him, whofe juft avenging Wrath had driven out the Wicked from before his Sight, and from the Habitations of the Juft: Glory be to him and Praife! whofe Wisdom had ordained to create Good out of Evil; inftead of malignant Spirits, to bring a better Race into their Room, and thence diffufe his Goodnefs to infinite Worlds and infinite Ages. Such Songs as thefe the bleffed Angels fung to the Glory of God.

CHA P. H.

GOD fends his Son to perform the Work of Creation; which the Angels celebrate: His Re-afcenfion into Heaven.

M

EAN while the Son of GoD appeared on

his great Expedition, having Almighty Power, and being crowned with divine Majefty, Wisdom, and infinite Love, and all his FATHER fhone in him: About his Chariot there thronged innumerable Cherubim and Seraphim, Potentates, and Thrones, and Virtues; winged Spirits, and Chariots from the Armory of GoD with Wings, where Thoufands ftand lodged between two brazen Mountains, heavenly Equipage, and always ready harneffed against a folemn Day, and now came forth attendant upon their LORD of their own Accord, for Spirit lived within them; Heaven opened her everlasting Gates wide, moving upon golden Hinges, to let forth the King of Glory, in his powerful Word and Spirit coming to create new Worlds. They-ftood upon the Ground of Heaven,

Heaven, and viewed from the Shore the vaft and immeasurable Abyss, which was as outragious as a Sea turned up from the Bottom by furious Winds; raifing up the furging Waves like Mountains, which would feem wildly to affault the Height of Heaven, and mix the Centre with the Pole.

THE WORD, by whom all Things were made, called out and faid: Ye troubled Waves be filent, and be at Peace Thou great Deep! be no longer at Strife.

This faying, he ftaid not, but lifted up upon the Wings of Cherubim in the Glory of his FATHER, rode far into CHAOs, and the unmade World; for the CHAOS had obeyed his Voice. All his Train followed him in bright Proceffion, to behold the Creation and the Wonders of his Power. Then stayed the Motion of his Chariot Wheels, and took the golden Compaffes into his Hand, which are prepared in the everlafting Stores of Gop, to circumfcribe this Universe, and all Things that are created. One Foot of the Compafies he fixed in the Centre, and turned the other round in the vaft dark Depth, and faid O World! let this be thy juft Circumference, and thus far extend thy Bounds!

THUS GOD created the Heaven and the Earth, and the firft Matter was without Form and void, and Darkness covered the Deep; but the Spirit of GoD moved upon the Waters, and infufed vital Warmth and Virtue through all the fluid Parts, but purged downward all the black, cold, and grofs Dregs, that were Enemies to Life; then laid the Foundation of all Things, and gathered together like Things to like, so that the Elements were feparated in their feveral Places, and Earth hung felf-balanced upon her own Centre.

GOD faid, let there be Light! and heavenly Light, the first of Things, pure Quinteffence, fprung from the Deep, and began to pafs from her native East through

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through the gloomy Air, and being inclofed in a bright Cloud, dwelt a while in a fhadowy Tabernacle. (for as yet the Sun was not) GOD faw that the Light was good, and by the Hemisphere divided the Light from the Darknefs; and GoD called the Light Day, and the Darkness he called Night, and the Evening and the Morning were the first Day: Nor did it pafs uncelebrated or unfung by the Angels, when they beheld fhining Light firft exhaling from Darkness, in the Day that Heaven and Earth were made: They filled the Univerfe with Shouts of Joy, and played upon their golden Harps, praifing GoD and his Works with Hymns; they fung his Praise both when the first Evening was and the first Morning.

AND GOD faid, let there be a Firmament in the Midst of the Waters, and let it divide the Waters from the Waters. And GOD made the Firmament of expanded Air, liquid, pure, transparent, and elemental, diffused and extended to the uttermoft Parts of this new Creation; which was a firm and fure Partition, dividing the Waters underneath from thofe above: For he built the World like the Earth floating in a calm, wide, pure Sky, far removed from the Mafs of the mixed Elements; left fierce Extremes being too near, might damage the whole Frame; and he named the Firmament Heaven: So the Evening and the Morning were the second Day.

THE Earth was now formed, but involved as yet in the great Mafs of Water, and not yet thoroughly prepared, did not appear: The main Ocean flowed all over the Earth, not without Virtue, but foftening all her Globe with warm prolifick Humour, fermented the Earth, now full of kindly Moisture to conceive; when GOD faid, let the Waters be gathered together, and to one Place, and let the dry Land appear! immediately the great Mountains appeared, rifing up above the Water, and lifted their Tops into the Clouds,

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as high as the Hills rofe, fo low funk down a hollow Bottom, broad and deep, a proper Receptacle for the Waters; thither they flowed fwiftly, Part rifing in a Chrystal Wall or direct Ridge for Hafte; fuch Flight the great Command had impreffed on the Floods: As Armies at the Sound of the Trumpet (which, as thou haft heard me fpeak of our Armies, thou underftandeft fomething of) make up to their Standard: So the Waters Wave after Wave, wherever they found Way; if steep, they flowed with rapid Torrent; if through Plains, ebbing foftly; nor could Rock or Hill withstand them; but they, either under Ground, or in wide Circuit winding and wandering, at laft arrive at the Place defigned for them, and wore deep Channels upon the washy and flimy Ooze; which was very eafy for them to do, before GOD had bid the Ground be dry; (except within those Banks where the Rivers now continually flow) And GoD called the dry Land Earth, and the gathering together of the Waters called he Seas; and GoD faw that it was good. And GoD faid, let the Earth bring forth Grafs, and the Herb yielding Seed, and the FruitTree yielding Fruit after her Kind, whofe Seed is in herself upon the Earth! He had scarcely fpoke, when the Earth (which until then was bare, barren, unfightly, and without Beauty) brought forth the tender Grafs, whofe Verdure covered her all over with a pleasant Green: Then all Sorts of Herbs fmelling Tweet, and opening with Flowers of various Colours, fuddenly appeared: And before thefe were well blown, forth flourished the thick cluftering Vine; forth crept all Kinds of fmelling Gourds, Reeds, Bushes, and humble Shrubs; laftly, arofe the ftately Trees, and fpread their Branches hung with Plenty of Fruit, or elfe gave forth their beautiful Buds and Bloffoms; The Hills were covered with high Woods, and the Vallies with green Turf, and each Fountain and Ri-· ver Side with Borders of Flowers; that now the Earth feemed like Heaven, a Habitation where Gods

might dwell, or love to wander in with Delight and frequent fuch facred Shades: Though GoD had not yet caufed it to rain upon the Earth, and MAN was not as yet to till it, but there went up a Mift from the Earth, and wate.ted all the Ground and each Plant of the Field; which God made before it was' in the Earth, and every Herb before it grew upon the green Stem; and GoD faw that it was good: So the Evening and the Morning were the third Day.

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THE ALMIGHTY spoke again, and faid, Let there be Lights high in the Firmament of Heaven, to divide the Day from the Night; and let them be for. Signs, for Seafons, and for Days, and for revolving Years; and let them be for Lights, as I ordain their Office in the Firmament, to give Light upon the Earth; and it was fo. And GOD made two great Lights; if not great with Regard to other Bodies, yet fo for their Ufe to MAN) the greater to rule over the Day, and the leffer to rule the Night, and each by turns divide Light from Darknefs. GOD overlooking his great Work, faw that it was good for of the celeftial Bodies he firft made the Sun, (a very great Globe) which though of etherial Matter was without any Light: Then made the Moon, another great Globe, and Stars of every Degree of Magnitude, with which he filled the Firmament, thick as Seeds are fown in the Field. He took the greater Part of Light, tranfplanting it from the Cloud, in which at its first Creation it was placed, and removed it into the Sun's Orb, being made porous to receive and take it in, and yet firm fo as to retain its gathered Beams, it being now the great Repofitory of Light: Hither the Stars repairing, as to a Fountain, draw additional Light, and from hence the Morning-Star gathers more Brightness; and though feen with great. Diminution, being fo far remote from human Sight, they augment their own peculiar Light, either by Tincture

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