So afterwards speaking of the great raine which drowned the world,[1] he saies, the windowes of heaven were opened, because it seemed to come with that violence, as if it were, poured out from windows in the Firmament.[2] So that the phrases which the Holy Ghost uses concerning these things are not to be understood in a literall sense; but rather as vulgar expressions, and this rule is set downe by Saint Austin, where speaking concerning that in the Psalme, who stretched the earth upon the waters, [3] [4] hee notes, that when the words of Scripture shall seeme to contradict common sense or experience, there are they to be understood in a qualified sense, and not according to the letter. And 'tis observed that for want of this rule, some of the ancients have fastened strange absurdities upon the words of the Scripture. So Saint Ambrose esteemed it a heresie, to thinke, that the Sunne
- ↑ Gen. II.
- ↑ Sr. W. Rawly c. 7. §. 6.
- ↑ l. 2. in Gen.
- ↑ Psal. 136. 6.
