Religion & morality > Poem on the creation of the world, or, A meditation on the wonderful operation of the divine hand

PREFACE to the Reader.
)CT*HE following Poem has for its Subjetl the
great and glorious IVorks of God from the
Beginning if the IVorld: For tho' before all
Time, Matter, Form or Place, God himfelf was
i all in all, jhere being nothing elfe befide, nor he
/landing in need of any thing, but enjoying him¬
felf in his own infinite Perfe&ions; yet of his own
good Pleafure, and for the Manifeftation of his
Glory and Goodnefs, from all Eternity he had re-
folved upon the Creation of the Heavens and
Earth, and all Creatures therein contained; and
i therefore, when it was his good Pleafure fo to do,
1 he by one A£t of his infinite Power created out of
I' nothing the whole Mafs of Matter in one rude and
Iundigefted Heap, which he prefently afterwards
brought into that ftupendous regular Form and
Order in which we fee them ; fo that within the
Space of fix Days the Heavens and Earth, and
all the Hofts thereof, were completed, all the
Creatures therein made, very good in their
Kind: And in particular he made our firjl Pa¬
rents Adam and Eve after his own Image, in
Knowledge, Rigbteoufnefs 'and Holinefs, with
Dominion over the other earthly Creatures, and
gave them a Law written in their Hearts, with
Power to fulfil the fame, only they were not made
impeccable, but liable to Change. Befides this
Law written in their Hearts t he gave them one
eafy pofitive Law, forbi"' ling them to eat of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, on the Pain
of Death natural, fpiritual and eternal, which
Law
l