e ordinary limits of human knowledge and
imagination it would be received by a simple-minded man; and finding
that "the heavens and the earth" are spoken of always as having
something like equal relation to each other, ("Thus the heavens and
the earth were finished, and all the host of them,") I reject at once
all idea of the term "heavens" being intended to signify the infinity
of space inhabited by countless worlds; for between those infinite
heavens and the particle of sand, which not the earth only, but the
sun itself, with all the solar system, is, in relation to them, no
relation of equality or comparison could be inferred. But I suppose
the heavens to mean that part of creation which holds equal
companionship with our globe; I understand the "rolling of these
heavens together as a scroll," to be an equal and relative destruction
with the melting of the elements in fervent heat; and I understand the
making of the firmament to signify that, so far as man is concerned,
most magnificent ordinance of the clouds;--the ordinance that, as the
great plain of waters was formed on the face of the earth, so also a
plain of waters should be stretched along the height of air, and the
face of the cloud answer the face of the ocean; and that this upper
and heavenly plain should be of waters, as it were, glorified in their
nature, no longer quenching the fire, but now bearing fire in their
own bosoms; no longer murmuring only when the winds raise them or
rocks divide, but answering each other with their own voices, from
pole to pole; no longer restrained by established shores, and guided
through unchanging channels, but going forth at their pleasure like
the armies of the angels, and choosing their encampments upon the
heights of the hills; no longer hurried downwards for ever, moving but
to fall, nor lost in the lightless accumulation of the abyss, but
covering the east and west with the waving of their wings, and robing
the gloom of the farther infinite with a vesture of diverse colours,
of which the threads are purple and scarlet, and the embroideries
flame.

This I believe is the ordinance of the firmament; and it seems to me
that in the midst of the material nearness of these heavens, God means
us to acknowledge His own immediate presence as visiting, judging, and
blessing us: "The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the
presence of God." "He doth set His bow in the clouds," and thus
renews, in the sound of every droop