A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

But the sea doth so violently rush into those receptacles of the earth, which she finds hollow, that it forceth springs even upon mountains. Most interpreters by this Deep, understand the deep heads and springs of waters within the earth, which were opened and enlarged to this inundation: those Exod. 20.4. Waters under the earth, the rivers and deep gulf gushing forth.

But the sea doth so violently rush into those receptacles of the earth, which she finds hollow, that it forceth springs even upon mountaines. Most interpreters by this Deepe, understand the deepe heads and springs of waters within the earth, which were opened and inlarged to this inundation: those Exod. 20.4. Waters under the earth, the rivers and deepe gulfe gushing forth.

The windows of Heaven.] This signifies not an eruption of any waters in the Crystal heavens, as they call that above the starry sky. Some have conceived waters to be above the firmament to mitigate the heat of the stars But.¹ 1. the waters are an heavy substance, and should be kept there against nature. 2. If these waters had come from thence, there must have been a dissolution of the starry heaven. 3. The watery heaven should then be a vacant place. 4. The celestial bodies have no need to be refrigerated: for they are of no fiery and elemental nature, they admit no qualities: the Sun it self not being hote formaliter, sed effectivè. But it is objected;^m Ye waters that be above the heavens: By heaven is understood there the lower region of the air. So it is said,ⁿ The Lord thundered in the heavens, hailstones and coals of fire: but thunder, lightning, and hail, come not properly from heaven, but from the air. There be three heavens; A um; so we called the fowls of heaven, that is, of the air; Sydereum, so the Firmament is called Heaven; Empyreum, the fiery heaven; so called, not for the hea, but for the glory. If the air be so comfortable, that is but lightened with the Son, what is the heaven, where the Sun it self is? If that be so refulgent, how glorious is the heaven where God himself dwells!