PREFACE to the Reader.
THE following Poem has for its Subject the great and glorious Works of God from the Beginning of the World: For tho' before all Time, Matter, Form or Place, God himſelf was all in all, there being nothing elſe beſide, nor he ſtanding in need of any thing, but enjoying himſelf in his own infinite Perfections; yet of his own good Pleaſure, and for the Manifeſtation of his Glory and Goodneſs, from all Eternity he had reſolved upon the Creation of the Heavens and Earth, and all Creatures therein contained; and therefore, when it was his good Pleasure ſo to do, he by one Act of his infinite Power created out of nothing the whole Maſs of Matter in one rude and undigeſted Heap, which he preſently afterwards brought into that ſtupendous regular Form and Order in which we ſee them; ſo that within the Space of ſix Days the Heavens and Earth, and all the Hoſts thereof, were completed, all the Creatures therein made, very good in their Kind: And in particular he made our firſt Parents Adam and Eve after his own Image, in Knowledge, Righteouſneſs and Holineſs, with Dominion over the other earthly Creatures, and gave them a Law written in their Hearts, with Power to fulfil the ſame, only they were not made impeccable, but liable to Change. Beſides this Law written in their Hearts he gave them one eaſy poſitive Law, forbidding them to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, on the Pain of Death natural, ſpiritual and eternal, whichLaw
