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A PARAPHRASE

UPON

THE HARD TEXTS

OF

THE WHOLE DIVINE SCRIPTURE.

GENESIS.

I. 1. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the eartha."] -In the beginning of time, God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, made of nothing the whole great and goodly frame of the world; both the heaven and the earth, and the other elements, with all the furniture and inhabitants of them all.

2. "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."]-Yet not all together, and at once, nor in this perfect form, at first, wherein we now see them; but by leisure and degrees; for both the earth and elements, in their first being, were a rude and confused heap, by him newly created without any matter preceding, or without any fashionable shape at all; it being not distinguished, fashioned, beautified, as afterward: neither had this vast mass of water and earth intermingled, as yet, any light, either for distinction or ornament; but even in this their confusion, the Holy Spirit, the preserver of all creatures, upheld, cherished, and gave fit succour to this imperfect beginning of all things.

3. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."— Then God willed, and in this point brought his eternal decree to

a [The passages of Scripture are in some instances extended beyond the length in which they appear in the BP. HALL, VOL. III.

edition of 1633, but never, I believe, beyond the verse in which they occur.]

B

execution, that there should be light; not of the sun, or stars, which were not yet created; but a common brightness only to distinguish the time, and to remedy that former confused darkness; and it was accordingly made.

4. "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."]-And God approved this light, by him created, to be of excellent and necessary use; and established it, by his allowance, as fit to continue, and to be interchanged with darkness.

5. "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”]— And God set to either of them their due times and courses; appointing that the light should serve for day, darkness for night, and that man afterwards should so call them; and so was the first natural day, consisting of evening and morning, fully finished.

6. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."]-Then God willed that there should be a large, clear, airy distance betwixt those upper waters which are gathered into clouds, and these below.

7. "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."]-Therefore God caused this largo extent of air to spread itself high and wide; and thereby made a separation betwixt those airy and these lower earthly waters: and it was done.

8. "And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."]-And this dilated air, as also that above, he taught man, after to call Heaven; and established the due use and course thereof; and thus was the second natural day, consisting of evening and morning, finished.

9. "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so."]-Further, God willed that these lower waters should be gathered into one common place of receipt; and that the dry land, which was till now covered over therewith, should appear: and it was so done.

10. "And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."]-And God taught to call this dry land, according to the nature of it, earth; and the common receptacle of waters, seas:

and God allowed this second day's work also, as of necessary and excellent use for his purposed creatures.

II. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."]-Then God willed that by his immediate power, even before the sun was created, the earth should bring forth all manner of vegetables; both those that do voluntarily sprout up, and those which do since require the art and labour of man: all buds, blossoms, herbs, trees, which both may and do bear fruit according to their kind; and whose fruit by his appointment containeth in it the seed of their own kinds and it was so done.

12. "And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good."]—And the earth brought forth, as God commanded her, all manner of vegetables, in very great variety, according to the several kinds; both of herbs that yield their own seed as the means of their future increase, and all trees that bear fruit, and whose fruit by his appointment containeth in it the seed of their own kind: and God allowed them as of necessary and excellent use, and established the benefits thereof to his future creatures.

13. "And the evening and the morning were the third day.”]— And thus was the third natural day, consisting of morning and evening, also finished.

14. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:"]-And God further willed, that in the highest part of the air, which we call heaven, there should be made the stars, which are so many glorious lights, in the firmament; partly, to make a perpetual and constant division betwixt day and night; and partly, to be certain and natural signs for man's direction in his course of judgment and practice, for sowing, planting, sailing, and such other common affairs; and partly, to make a distinction of seasons: summer, winter, spring, harvest, autumn, years, months, weeks, days, hours.

15. "And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so."]-Lastly, which is their chiefest use, he willed that they should serve to give lively heat and light, from those high places wherein he set them, to his creatures here upon earth: and it was so done.

16. "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."-And now God made, amongst the rest, two great lights greater than the rest, not in body but in glory; the greater to rule the day; to which purpose he gathered into it all that light which hitherto was diffused through the air: the lesser, together with the other smaller stars, to rule the night.

17. "And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth."]-Thus God, I say, made these heavenly lights, and placed them in the highest part of the air, that they might the better give light to the earth.

18. "And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good."]—And that they might interchangeably govern the day and night, and distinguish the light from the darkness, the dawning and twilight from the clear day: and God allowed them, as of excellent and necessary use for his other creatures.

19. "And the evening and the morning were the fourth day."] -So the fourth natural day, consisting of morning and evening, was fully finished.

20. "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."]-Now that God had thus made fit room and place for his creatures, he willed that they should, in their several ranks and orders, be framed; and first, as the least perfect, he decreed, that the waters should abundantly bring forth all swimming and creeping things proper to itself, that have life; and that of the lighter and more airy part thereof should be made all kinds of fowls that fly upon the earth and waters in the open space of the air.

21. "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."]—Then God, of the same element, made the mighty whales, whirlpools, and all other those huge and strange forms of creatures; and all kind of fishes, that live and move in the waters, he framed of the same matter, in great variety and abundance, according to their kinds; and every flying fowl according to his kind: and God allowed them to be of excellent use.

22. “And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”]

―Then God gave a real and sensible blessing unto them; willing and decreeing, by an everlasting Law, that these watery creatures should naturally multiply themselves by generation, in an especial manner and measure, so as they should plentifully store both the sea and rivers; and that the fowls also should, by a natural form of generation, multiply their numbers and successions upon earth.

23. "And the evening and the morning were the fifth day."] -So the fifth natural day, consisting of morning and evening, was fully finished.

24. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."]-Furthermore, God appointed that, of the earth, by his almighty power, should be made all other living things, according to their kinds: all cattle that should be for more familiar use to man; all those creeping things which live and move in and upon the earth; and those wild beasts of the forest which live apart from the sight and service of man; each of them according to his nature and kind: and it was so done.

25. "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."]-And God accordingly made the wild beast of the field, according to his kind; and all those creeping things which move in and upon the earth, according to their several kind; and the tamer cattle according to their kind: and God allowed their use, as commodious and necessary.

26. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”]— Then God, when all helps and ornaments were thus prepared, decreed, and after a Divine manner consulted with himself, the Father with the Son and Holy Spirit, concerning the creation of his chief creature, Man; as it were to this effect: We have made our several creatures, in great variety; having given to them being, life, sense, and motion: but now, let us make that creature for whose sake the rest have been created; consisting, as of a material body, wherein he shall partake with other creatures in being, life, sense, and motion; so also, of a spiritual nature and substance, wherein he shall be like to us; being indued, as with all the faculties of a reasonable soul, so also with perfect knowledge,

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