Peripateticall institutions. In the way of that eminent person and excellent philosopher Sr. Kenelm Digby. The theoricall part. Also a theologicall appendix of the beginning of the world. / By Thomas White Gent.

CHAP. IV.

An explication of Genesis con∣cerning the same.

1. WHat says Theology to this? It says, And God said, Let there be Light; and LIGHT was made. Speech and command are address'd to another: clearly, therefore, it reaches that, by the intermediate operation of An∣gels, Light was made.

2. And it was made, clearly shews that the making immediately and instantly be∣gan, viz. that there was no delay in the in∣termediate Instrument; wherefore, that 'twas an Incorporeall Substance which needed not be mov'd that it might move: Moreover, the word he said, which implyes Knowledge, declares it to have been an In∣telligent Instrument.

3. It adds, And God saw the Light that it was good. Goodnesse is perfection: name∣ly, because the nature of the Elements, by the addition of Fire, was compleat and perfected; therefore, Light is said to be good: Again, because the rest of the Ele∣ments

were passive, and Light active; therefore Light is call'd good or perfect: for, what has attain'd an aptitude to pro∣duce or make its like, is esteem'd perfect, in its kind.

4. It follows, And he divided the light from the darknesse &c. 'Tis plain, this division was made, not by Place but by Time, since Day and Night are parts of Time: and consequently, that motion or the diurnall conversion was now begun; which is de∣clar'd by those words, and he call'd the light Day and the darknesse Night. For, since, as yet, Man was not, to whom words might be significant; He call'd is as much as he e∣stablisht the Essence of Day and Night: for, a name or appellation denotes the essence or quiddity of the Thing nam'd.

5. 'Tis added, and the Evening and the Morning was made one Day: in the origi∣nall Text, and the Evening was made and the Morning was made, or, the Evening was and the Morning was. From which Phrase 'tis understood, that this motion had, for its term whence, the Evening, and for its term whether, the Morning; and conse∣quently, that the motion was made in a Subject to which it agrees to have Eve∣ning and Morning, that is, in the Earth;

and that it was from West to East, that is, towards the Light.

6. Again, And God said, let there be a FIRMAMENT in the midst of the Wa∣ters, and let it divide the Waters from the Wa∣ters: In the Hebrew, an Expansion. Either word is properly taken, since it was a Space unpassable for its vastnesse and ex∣pansion, and, by consequence, fixed, and fixing the division of the Waters.

7. But those words in the midst of the waters are to be noted; which teach, that no Substance was made a new, but only be∣tween the waters and the waters: which is evident, too, from the word, Heaven; which name he gave the Firmament; by which very word, 'tis express'd, that, be∣fore, God created the Heaven. The Etymo∣logy also of the word is to be noted; which, both in the Hebrew and Greek Idi∣om, signifies as much as whence the waters, or, whence or where it drops: that it may be evidenc'd, even from the name, that the Aire it self is the Firmament.