od, by his Word, established a dwelling-place for man
and other living beings on dry land, above the water, contrary to
nature; for it is opposed to natural law that the earth, being placed
in water, should rise up out of it. If you cast a clod into the water,
it sinks at once. But the dry land stands up out of the water by
virtue of the Word, which has set bounds for the sea, as Solomon (Prov
8, 27) and Job (ch 38, 11) declare. Unless the water were restrained
by the power of the Word, with a bound, as it were, they would
overflow and lay waste everything. Thus is our life guarded every
single moment, and wonderfully preserved by the Word. We have an
illustration in partial deluges, when at times entire states or
regions are flooded, proving that we should daily suffer such
unpleasant things if God did not take care of us.

47. But just as there are waters below us, and beneath the earth, so,
too, are there waters above us, and beyond the sky. If they should
descend, obeying natural law, destruction would result. The clouds
float as if suspended in space. When at times they descend, how great
the terror they cause! But imagine the result of a universal collapse!
How they would burst, in obedience to the law of their nature, did
they not remain in place above us, suspended, as it were, by the Word!

48. Thus we are girt about on all sides by water, shielded only by a
frail ceiling of unsubstantial material--the air that we
breathe--which bears up the clouds and carries that weight of water,
not in obedience to the laws of nature, but by the command of God, or
by the power of the Word.

49. When the prophets think of these things they are lost in
admiration. It is contrary to nature that such a weight should remain
in suspension above the earth. But we, blinded by daily witnessing of
such wonders, neither observe nor admire them. That we are not at any
moment overwhelmed by waters from above or from below, we owe to the
divine majesty which orders all things and preserves all creatures so
wonderfully, and he ought to be the object of our praise.

50. Startling and significant are the words Moses uses--the fountains
of the great deep were broken up. The conception he would convey is
that they had been closed by God's power and sealed, as it were, with
God's seal, as today; and that God did not open them with a key, but
rent them with violence, so that the ocean, in a sudden upheaval,
covered everything with water. It