less than the earth. 'Tis therefore asked why it is called here one of the great lights? No doubt because to us it seems greater than any besides the sun, being nearer to us than any of them. The moon is also called a great light, because it gives to us a far greater light, and has a greater influence upon us, than any of the stars.

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.

That the fishes should be brought forth by the waters is easily understood, water being their proper element and receptacle. But how the fowls should be productions of the water is more difficult to understand. Yet I see no inconvenience, if we say that the same waters which brought forth the fish, brought forth the fowl; and certainly the same almighty power (and it could be no less) that produced fishes out of water, could, if he pleased, produce fowls out of water too; who yet were not designed to be the inhabitants thereof.

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.

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

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

The whales were not properly created, that is, made out of nothing, for doubtless they had the same original with the rest of the fish; but the word is probably used, (and it is only used here and ver. 1. of all together, and ver. 27, of man) because the making of the whales, creatures of such vast bulk, seems to be the product of more than ordinary power, -almighty power indeed. Whales are the largest of all fishes, and are therefore mentioned to manifest the power of God. He that could make the whales, could much more make all the rest. Having made them, he blessed them. We do not find that he blessed the herbs and trees, and bid them be fruitful and multiply, for they have their seed in themselves. But to the fish and the fowl he doth give a command,

or rather a promise of fruitfulness; and along with this word, power went forth to make them fruitful, as is clear by the effect; for no creatures under heaven multiply like fishes; and it is the fruit of this benediction. The fowls are not bid to fill the earth or the air, as the fishes are bid to fill the sea; for the sea is peculiar to the fish, no creatures living in it but they, and therefore they may fill it but the earth and air are common to birds, with men and beasts, and therefore, though they must multiply, they must not fill it.

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.

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.

Some think that these two verses of the creation of the beasts should rather belong to the fifth day's work; and they read them, God had said, Let the earth bring; or they think these words, the evening and the morning were the fifth day, should come in

after ver. 25, and that the words, God saw that it was good, may be allowed to be repeated twice in the fifth day's work, as they were in the third. But certainly we should be very careful how we chop the scriptures, and make transpositions where there are none, nor any grounds to support them. Neither can I see any inconvenience at all in placing the creation of the beasts on the same day with that of man, both being made of the same unlikely materials,-earth.

Let the earth bring forth the living creature; a very unlikely thing that the earth, which had no life itself, should bring forth that which should have life. It is a known rule, nil dat quod non habet; and therefore it is added, and God made the beast. The same almighty hand that made the earth, made the beasts out of it. That expression, after his kind, is repeated five times in these two verses, to intimate that the beasts were made, not only of divers forms, but of divers natures and fashions; some to be tame about the house, others wild in the fields; some living upon grass and herbs, others upon flesh; some for service, some for sustenance, and some for neither. In all which appears the manifest wisdom of God.

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.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every