Chapter I.
vy naturally ſunk, which he calls the Earth; and the lighter Parts got above them, which he calls the Waters: For it is clearly intimated the Waters were uppermoſt.
The Word we here tranſlate moved, ſigniſies literally brooded upon the Waters, as an Hen doth upon her Eggs. So the ancient and modern Interpreters have obſerved: And Morinus, who oppoſes it, hath ſaid nothing to make us doubt of this Sence of the Phraſe. From whence ſome have, not unhappily, conjectured, the Ancients took their Notion of a (
Greek characters) ὠὸν, a firſt laid Egg, out of which all things were formed. That is, the CHAOS (out of which all the old Philoſophers, before Ariſtotle, thought the World was produced) conſiſting of Earth and Water, of thicker and thinner Parts, as an Egg doth of Yolk and White.
Now the Spirit of God thus moved upon the Waters, that by its incubation (as we may call it) it might not only ſeparate, as I ſaid, thoſe Parts which were jumbled together; but give a viviſick Virtue to them, to produce what was contained in them. The Souls and Spirits, that is, of all living Creatures, were produced by the Spirit of God, as Porphyry ſaith Numenius underſtood it. For his Opinion, he tells us, was, That all things came out of the Water (Greek characters), being Divinely inſpired: For which he quoted theſe words of the Prophets, as he called Moſes. See Porphyry, περί (Greek characters), on thoſe words of Homer:
———(Greek characters).
did
