MOSES's PRINCIPIA,

PART I.

Of the Invisible Parts of MATTER; Of MOTION; Of VISIBLE FORMS; And of their DISSOLUTION and REFORMATION,

GEN. CAP. 1.

HE Revelation by Mofes of the Creation and Formation of Matter is very fhort; was not intended to relate any Thing or Circumftance to us; but what we could not perceive without it; and yet has not omitted any Thing we could not otherwife know. The Knowledge imparted in this Hiftory of the Creation and of the Flood is offer'd in general to all Men, without regard to this or that Family, or Tribe; this or that Time, or Period; or Church; not only to thofe who think themselves learned and wife, but to thofe they term vulgar; to every Man who has been fince, or will be: and the Fountain of all their real Know

VOL. I.

B

ledge

ledge of what they call Nature is contain ed there. And I have always thought, that a Man, infpired by him who created and form'd all things, might write or give a Description of those things with as much Certainty, Propriety, and Elegancy, and that his Writings deferv'd as well to be confider'd, as the Works of an Author, or Dreffer up of a few idle imaginary Stories. "So that we may juftly fay, as Joh. Nierenberg does, that Mofes has given us more Philofophy in one fingle Chapter, the first of Genefis, fuppofe, than all the Philofophers and Explainers of Nature put together? (a) " They ought to be cenfured who would fubject the facred Writings to the Rules of Philofophy, inftead of what is much more befitting, the making Philofophy fubfervient to them, as their Handmaid (b). "

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Ver. 1. In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.

The first Act of God which this Hifto ry treats of was, that he produc'd from

(a) Joh. Cunradi Dieterici Antiq. Bibl. in Genef. p. 37. de Orig. Script. S. L. 2. C. 7. p. 39. (b) Synopf. Crit. Tom. 1. p. 97. Oleafter.

nothing