the Heauens made. That vncreated Light commaunded this elementarie Light to be,
that so the thinner and higher Element, seuered from the Aire, might by his enlight∣ning
operation, effect; and the Aire, according to the nature thereof, receiue this
lightsome shining: which to the Fire was an essentiall propertie, to the Aire an acci∣dentall
qualitie, approued of God, as good both in it selfe, and to the future creatures.
This Light did God separate from the darknesse (which indeed is nothing in nature,
but the absence of Light) so disposing thereof, that Light and Darknesse should in
their Hemisphere succeed each other. Whether it were so moued by the motion of
the ninth Sphere, or first moueable, the highest of the moueable Heauens, and out∣most
circumference, created in the beginning, as
some interprete the first words of
Moses, or by any other meanes, then appointed by God, it is hard to determine. For
we may not reason à facto ad fieri, from the order of their constitution, in which they
now are, to the principles of their institution, whiles yet they were in making, as
Simplicius, and other (Philosophers may I call them, or Atheists?) haue absurdly
done, in this and other parts of the Creation. This was the first dayes worke.
In the second, God said let there be a Firmament in the middest of the waters, &c. The
word Rakiah, translated Firmament, signifieth
expansum, or a thing stretched out;
or as some
say, a thing made strong by stretching out, designing that vast and wide
space and ayrie Region, by the extension thereof, made thinner, purer, and stronger,
able to beare those waterie Clouds, which it separateth from these inferior waters,
in their proper and elementarie Seat. In which sense He is said to stretch out the Hea∣uens
like a Curtaine, and to lay the beames of his chambers in the waters. Psal.104.2.
After the Aethereall
Region (reaching in the hither part thereof from the middle
Region of the Aire to the Moone, and from thence in the higher part to the highest
Heauen) and the Aire (distinguished also into two parts, the middle, and the lower
part, as the Philosophers tearme them, when they consider not the whole, as here we
doe, but that part, wherein the Meteors are caused) after these two Elements, thus in
the two first dayes ordered and disposed: in the third day followeth the perfecting of
the two lowest Elements, the Water and Earth, which yet were confused, vntill that
mightie Word of God did thus both diuorce and marrie them, compounding of
them both this one Globe, now called Drie Land, and Seas. The waters which yet
oppressed, and by their effusion and confusion did tyrannize, rather than orderly sub∣due,
and gouerne this inferior myrie masse, were partly receiued into competent cha∣nels,
and there also gathered on swelling heapes, where, though they menace a re∣turne
of the old Chaos, both by their noyse and waues, yet hath
God stablished his
commaundement vpon it, and set barres and dores, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and
no further, and here shall it stay thy proud waues. Otherwise,
the Deepes, which then
couered it as a garment, would now stand aboue the Mountaines. At his rebuke they
flie, who with fetters of sand (to shew his power in weakenesse, with a miracle in na∣ture)
chayneth vp this enraged Tyrant, that the creatures might haue a meet place of
habitation. Thus did not onely the drie Land appeare, but by the same hand was en∣riched
with Hearbes and Trees, enabled in their mortall condition, to remaine im∣mortall
in their kind. And here beginneth Moses to declare the creation of com∣pound
bodies; hitherto busied in the Elements.
Now when the Lord had made both Plants, Trees, and Light, without the influ∣ence,
yea before the being of Sunne, Moone, or Starre, he now framed those fierie
Balls, and glorious Lights, whereby the Heauens are beautified, the Aire enlightned,
the Seas ruled, and the Earth made fruitfull. Thus he did the fourth day, after those
other things created, least some foolish Naturalist should bind his mightie hand in
Natures bands, seeing these Lights now become the chiefe officers in Natures Court.
That shining, before dispersed, was vnited in these bodies, whether by refraction of
those former beames by these solide Globes, or by gathering that fierie substance
into them, or by both, or by other meanes, I leaue to others coniectures. These be
appointed to distinguish day and night, to dispose the diuers seasons of the yeare, to