The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…

¹§. 13. The sum of the History of the Old Testament is this: That in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth, with all things in them: Viz. That having first made the Intellectual superior part of the World, and the matter of the Elementary World in an unformed Mass, he did the first day distinguish or form the active Element of Fire, and caused it to give light; The second day he separated the rarefied Passive Element called Fire, expanding it from the Earth upwards to be a separation and medium of action between the superior and inferior parts: The third day he separated the rest of the Passive Element, Earth and Water into their proper place, and set their bounds; and made individual Plants, with their specific forms, and virtue of generation. The fourth day he made the Sun, Moon and Stars, for Luminaries to the Earth; either then forming them, or then appointing them to that Office (but not revealing their other uses which are nothing to us.) The fifth day he made Fishes and Birds, with the power of generation. The sixth day he made the terrestrial Animals, and Man, with the like generative Power. And the seventh day he appointed to be a Sabbath of Rest, on which he would be solemnly worshipped by Mankind as our CREATOR. Having made one Man and one Woman, in his own Image, that is with Intellects, Free-will, and executive Power, in wisdom, holiness, and aptitude ⟨p. 209⟩to Obey him, and with Dominion over the sensitive and vegetative, and inanimate Creatures; he placed them in a Garden of pleasure, wherein were two Sacramental Trees, one called, The Tree of Life, and the other the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: And (besides the Law of Nature) he tried him only with this positive prohibition, that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge: Whereupon the Devil ^*(who before this was fallen from his first state of innocency and felicity) took occasion to persuade the Woman that Gods Threatening was not true; that he meant not as he spake; that he knew Man was capable of greater Knowledge,³ but envied him that happiness; and that the eating of that Fruit,⁴ was not the way to death as God had threatened, but to Knowledge and Exaltation: whereupon the woman seeing the beauty of the Fruit, and desiring Knowledge, believed the Devil, and did eat of that which God forbade: