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instance of this idiom immediately occurs — “ And darkness 
upon the face of the deep.” Had he wished to express the 
immediate or close connection of such a state with creation, 
he would have used what may be called the successional or con- 
necting form of the verb >nni ; such as is employed through- 
out the chapter. For instance: “And God said , Let there 
be light, and there was light.” No sooner, that is, had the 
Spirit brooded on the face of the waters, than God said. Let 
there be light ; and no sooner had this command been given 
than it was obeyed — “ He spake ; and it was done.” Dr. 
Pusey in a note to his preface on the Book of Daniel very 
truly observes, “ Moses was directed to choose just that 
idiom which expresses a past time, anterior to what follows, 
but in no connection of time whatever with what pre- 
cedes.” To this I will only add a single passage, which, 
when fairly considered, however, is of itself conclusive on 
the point in question. The Lord Himself speaks thus by 
Isaiah (xlv. 18), “ Thus saith the Lord that created the 
heavens ; God Himself that formed the earth and made it. He 
established it, He created it not in vain , He formed it to he 
inhabited. 33 The word rendered “ in vain ” is the “ to-hoo ” 
of Genesis i. 2, which fairly expresses desolation. And the 
plain statement here, so exactly corresponding with all I have 
previously stated, is this, — that the earth did not so proceed 
in that state of desolation from its Creator's hands. Previous 
to such a state of things it had fulfilled His purpose. It had 
been inhabited. For how long a period, I repeat, we are not 
told. But at length, whether for the sin of its then inhabit- 
ants, or for whatever cause, desolation and destruction came 
upon it. “ The earth was (or became) without form and void;” 
the deep covered it ; and darkness was upon the face of these 
covering waters ; until at length, at the close of an unknown 
period, the earth was restored in the way described (Gen. i.) 
to light and life, and order and beauty. 
And if, in the place of the fable of an original chaos or of 
theories not less fabulous, this fact of restoration be re- 
ceived, we through it perceive something of what was the 
previous state of things. At all events, a little reflection will 
lead us to a very important point in my argument — the sources 
of the waters which during that deluge so covered the earth. 
In the work of restoration a firmament is formed to sustain 
that portion ; here styled “ the waters that are above the firma- 
ment.” This, to my mind, especially if taken in connection 
with the passages from Job, the Proverbs, and the Psalms, 
points to the previous existence of such a firmament. A 
portion of those waters had previously been sustained, as sub- 
