their Substance or Matter, and Creations as to Life and Senfe.

LIGHT or Fire collected into Orbs, and fet in proper places in the great Expanse, became Sun and Stars. The WATERS, endued with Gravity and Lubricity, were gathered together, that is, ran down into the bafon prepared for their reception, and fo formed the Sea. And the EARTH, endued with the wonderful quality of Vegetation, was, in the hand of its Maker, the powerful Medium of the Germination of Grass, Herbs, and Trees. Yet, after all, these Effects were as inanimate as the Elements of which they were formed. There is fomething in our ideas of Life and Senfation, G 2 which

which cannot be accounted for as the mere effect of any configuration or modification of inanimate matter. The Waters by conflu

ence might hew out a Rock, or shape out an Island; and a portion of Earth might be concreted into a precious Stone or a Mineral; yet rocks and iflands, precious ftones and minerals are as void of sense or self-motion, as if they had never been formed. Neither Water nor Earth (though powerful mediums to caufe furprizing effects) can any more communicate Life and Senfe to their own

productions, than a weight or fpring can communicate Life or Senfe to a Clock or a Watch. If, by the motion of the Waters, the Slime or Subftance in the bed of

the

the Sea had been thrown into the form of the most perfect Fish; or if the Earth had brought forth a Vegetable in the perfect form of a Beaft; the Fifh would have been as lifelefs as a rock or a sponge, and the Beast as infenfible as a stone or a blade of grafs. Or, if all the Elements together by an accidental concourfe had formed Beings of the shapes of all the Animals that exift in the Univerfe, and of the fame fubftance and texture as to every part of them within and without, ftill they would have been but as figures of paste, or as dead corpfes without Life or Senfe.

To communicate Sense to inanimate matter, or to kindle but the

G 3

as

the firft fpark of Life (however when fo kindled or communicated to any being, that Being might be enabled to continue and extend the flame to others of its own fpecies and generation) was a new and diftinct exertion of the divine Agency; or, it was much a CREATION, as the original Creation of the inanimate Elements; and as fuch it is reprefented to us by Moses. though it is written*, GOD faid, 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; yet we are not to fuppofe, from this form of expreffion, that the Fishes and Fowls

* Gen. i. 20.

For

were

were a spontaneous generation, or the meer production of the waters without the interpofition and operation of the divine Power; for

it

follows in the next verse, 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 bis kind. The WATERS brought them forth, and yet GOD created them. That is, they were both Productions and Creations. And the meaning feems to be this. Of the Slime or Mud or other neceffary Ingredients brought forth or yielded from the Waters and * Earth,

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* That Earth as well as Water was part of the Subftance of Fowls is evident from

ch. ii.