this Houfe that I have builded? -Ver. 30. And hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling Place. It alludes to the Palace or Court of a Prince; and though a Prince cannot be faid to be confined to his Palace, yet it may be faid to be his dwelling Place; and here he fays, is the Earth a fit Place for God, (as the Chald. Par. renders it) for his Majefty, or can the Heaven, or Heaven of Heavens fuftain his Glory, or be fit for his Refidence, much lefs this Houfe? and after this, no lefs than eight times in this Chapter Solomon prays, that God would hear them in Heaven, his dwelling Place. The next is as oppofite as Words can make it, nay, carries it too far. Job xxii. 12, 13, 14. Is not God in the Height of Heaven? and behold the Height (Heb. Icad) of the Stars, how high they are. And thou fayeft,. How deth God know? can he judge through the dark Cloud? Thick Clouds are a Covering to him, that ke feeth not, and he walketh in the Circuit of Heaven. phaz ftates this Syftem, or the Circumference of the Heavens, as it really is environed with Caligo and thick Clouds; and there the Heavens make their Circuit, as will be fhewed below, and he places God's Refidence above thefe; and then fuppo

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fuppofing Job a Man ignorant of the Power of God, as the Heathens pretended to be, makes him fay, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark Cloud? thick Clouds are a Covering to him, that he feeth not, &c. And the next and last is, Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. Upon a Notion, that God was departed from the Earth, had ceased to interpofe in the Manner he did formerly in their Deliverances, could not fee their Actions at that Distance, and that Baal (of whom hereafter) was prefent every where, faw and did every thing; upon these Dreams they thought to divert the People from God to Baal: As Ezek. ix. 9. For they fay, the LORD hath forfaken the Earth, and the LORD feeth not. So Jer. is directed to fay, -Am I a God at band, and not a God afar off? can any bide himself in fecret Places, that I Shall not fee him? faith the LORD. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth? faith the LORD. The firft Expreffion of this Kind is, Gen. xiv. 19. The most high God, Poffeffor of Heaven and Earth. What is Heaven and Earth? Space, or Matter created? Are they not fome Things which God created, folid Atoms of Matter; thofe of Earth, adhering in Bodies or denfe Fluids; thofe of the Heaven in Orbs, Darkness, Fire, F 4 Light,

Light, Clouds? &c. Exod. xxiv. 10. And Dy the Subftance of the Heavens for Clearnefs. Thus he filled, and by filling formed this Dimenfion, and this includes what the Heathens took for their God: But this is not all, as the Heavens or Light was, and is an Agent, and pervaded the Pores of all Things, and fo filled the Intervals between the Atoms, even of the Earth, and was God's Vice-Roy or Deputy, he claims it as one of his Attributes. God is called Fire, the Father of Light, Christ the Light, and the Holy Ghost the Spirit; not only as thefe Things are used for Reprefentations of them, but as they are his Agents; fo their Subftances, their Actions, their Glory His, though created and material; they are alfo fpoken of by way of Claim, in as ftrong Terms as if they were himself, or Attributes of his, which is the fame. And fo even of what they render Clouds; his Strength is in the Clouds, fo the Earth is full of the Knowledge, Goodness, &c. of the Lord. Not content with the Evidence in God's Word, that he exifts, and is poffeffed of his Attributes, as David fays, Pja. xciii. 5. vulg. II 2. He dwelleth in the Height, and refpects the bumble Things in Heaven and Earth, they attempt to give us an Idea,

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by Philosophy, of fomething that is not Space, but conftitutes Space (I fuppofe he means by poffeffing it) in him (I fuppofe he means in this Subftance) are contained and moved all Things; but without mutual Paffion, God fuffers nothing from the Motions of Bodies, nor do they fuffer any Refistance from the Omniprefence (I fuppofe he means from the Substance) of God; one might make ftrange Deductions from these and fome others of his Pofitions. Every Atom is a folid Substance, and of fome forts of them are Compounds or Solids of Subftances; of other Sorts, gofs Fluids of Subftances; and of another fort in Grains, Spirit of Subftances; and of the fame fort loose, the subtlest fluid Fire, and Light of Subftances; of the last fort there is a created fluid Substance in, and by which the Orbs move, which the firft Heathens knew to be a Machine compofed of three Parts, yet took it for their God; and to which, the later Heathens, from whom we have our Language, gave the Attributes of te rnal, Infinite, all Eye, all Hand, &c. In Scripture God claims the Machine, and all the Attributes the Heathens then gave to it, to himself, and we borrow those Words to convey Ideas of the Perfonality:

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Whether he took fome of thefe Words from Scripture, or from the later Heathens, tho' they in fome refpects, exprefs the Manner of the Existence of the God of the Heathens, as Clem. Alex. &c. "But let me not pafs by the Stoicks, who fay that God pervades all Matter, be it never fo vile and abjcct; who openly difgrace their own Philofophy. P. 43. But they indeed fay, that God pervades the Effence of all Things; but we fay, that he is only the Maker, and this by his Word." That does not make it follow, that thefe Attributes exprefs the Manner of the Existence. of God, any more than they exprefs him to be a framed Machine, nor do they any Way favour this Notion of Space: Indeed there were fome Atheists among the later Heathens, from whom thefe Notions of Space and Powers in Bodies to move in it were taken, but they are not well cited; and I am afraid this infinite Space will prove a Child of Satan, and only father'd upon God; and if they had not produced this, we had had no Philofophy, nor no Philofophers. I fee not that God intended to give us any Idea of his Subftance, Dimenfion, or Figure; but when they rival'd him with his Creatures, upon account of their Prefence, and his Distance, he fays,

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