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orig inal state of the earth , and no fu rther notice is taken of these luminaries until the fourth day is described , and not , I conceive , as being then created , but as having- their regular functions assigned to them relative to
the earth . Jt seea > s that at the commencement of this process the earth was a dark , chaotic mass , completely covered with water , aad eneompaesed with air . The breath of God , a form of expression denoting- an abundant treasure of air , brooded upon the face of the water . This incumbent air
must have been a comparatively dense fluid , and perfectly still , before the properties of elasticity and expansion were given to it , to counteract the earth ' s gravitating power , which must have been coeval with its existence ; and before the laws of humidity and motion were superadded , for
accomplishing the uses designed by Unlimited Intelligence . The first employment of the Divine wisdom and power was causing light upon the earth : God said , Let there f ) f light , and there was light . It is
not conceivable that the Creator spoke this or auy other sentence to himself , or uttered such words to any lifeless substance which he had previously made ; but this is obviously a most sublime mode of declaring the
production or light by almighty energy , as the instantaneous effect of the Divine volition . That this might have been caused without the sun ' s beams , as Mr . Frend suggests , [ Mon . Repos . XVI . 647 , 1 cannot be denied , but
it is not probable that such was the li ft ht here intended . So great an abundance of t 4 ie electric fluid and of hydrogen might have been evolved from the world , an would have served for irradiating its surface for all the duration that the six days comprise ;
wit this could not strictly have constituted the day . God saw the light that it urns good , and separated the light from the darkness ; and he called f"e light dayy and the darkness he "died night . It was , therefore , by l
« e rays of the sun that the Almighty J-aused the earth to be enlightened , Ul * d heated for exhalation , or extended u *< ' solar light through the etherial rp ^ non ° f "inety-five millions of miles . hun he commanded the exercise or \ y « \ Power , which he afterwards esta-> n hed * s a great law of nature , which
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illumines our world , awd is -essential to its being a fit dwelling-place for living creatures . The second day ' s w@rk is- thus described : Let there be an expanse
amidst the wat # && , which may divide the water from the water . This has been supposed to imply that the writer was so egregiously deluded as to conceive tke heavenly c sn * 0 f > y * jto which was applied tike term ftrjtfoament , from the Latin translation of
the Greek word $ - £ ? £ *> f * -& 9 in the Septuagint , to be a solid , bespangled arch or vault , sustaining a reservoir of water for supplying rain to the earth ; but such an irrational conceit was , I imagine , as distant from the mind of Moses , as it is- from the astronomy of
the present age . The Divine enactment , denoted by the words , Let there be an expanse , seems * to have been the spreading upwards the vast volume of air which lay brooding on the face of the water , so as to form an elastic ,, expanded atmosphere as now existing , and which Grod called heaven , which
must mean the lower heaven . This expanse is said to be amidst the waters , and such is the reality ; for , besides the visible aqueoue vapours that compose the floating clouds , the atmosphere holds , as a component part , a vast quantum of liquid in gaseoussolution , its particles being extremely attenuated bv the chemical union of
caloric ; which is rendered evident in dry , sultry weather by a metallic surface , reduced to a temperature below that of the atmosphere ,, when the surrounding air will , by par-ting with a
portion of its caloric to restore an ^ equilibrium in the metals , release the liquid , which will appear in a state of condensation . Aud'if so small a quantity of air is found to have contained so much moisture , what a vast
abundance of volatilized water may be sup ^ posed to occupy the immense circumference of the atmosphere , encompassing the globe to the height of many leagues , and which gives to the clear sky its beautiful azure aspect . If all this rurified vapour were to l > econdensed by Omnipotence , and united with the oceans of the earth , there
would then be water enough to drown the whole world , for it would bring the earth back to-its primeval state , before the copious evaporations reduced the terraqueous waters , and
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Mr . Fry ?* Observation * , on the First Chapter of f * enesi& % % ffi
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/23/
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