And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Ver. 6. Let there be a firmament.] Yet not so firm, but it shall be dissolved. 2Pe 3:11 That it is not presently so; that those windows of heaven are not opened, as once in the deluge, having no better a bar than the liquid air, and we suddenly buried in one universal grave of waters; see a miracle of God's mercy, and thank him for this powerful word of his, "Let there be a firmament." Bartholinus a tells us, that in the year of Christ 1551, a very great multitude of men and cattle were drowned by a terrible tempest, the clouds suddenly dissolving, and the waters pouring down amain with such a strange stupendous violence, that the massy walls of many cities, various vineyards, and fair houses were utterly destroyed and ruined. Clouds, those bottles of rain, are vessels as thin as the liquor which is contained in them. There they hang and move, though weighty with their burdens. How they are upheld, saith a reverend divine, b and why they fall here and now, we know not, and wonder. Job 26:8 They water our lands, as we do our gardens, and are therefore called our heavens. Deu 33:28
a Barthol. l. 2. De Meteoris
b D. H. Contemp.