to the beasts upon the consideration that they also were Creatures framed by the same powerful hand of God which prevailed with Job in another case Job 31.15 The Earth is here commanded by God to bring forth the Living Creature after his kind not by any power that it had in it self to give life to other Creatures which it had not in it self but by the Power and Will of God who appointed and decreed it And shall not the same Will and Decree of God that produced living Creatures out of the Dead Earth cause the same Earth to yield up her dead and the Sea her dead Rev. 20.13 The difference between the Creation of Beasts and Man cannot be passed by without speciall observation Mans Body was indeed taken out of the Earth as well as the Bodies of the Beasts but his Soul was not from the Earth but from Heaven But in the Creation of Beasts the Body and Soul or Life is wholly out of the Earth for the Earth is Commanded to bring forth the Living Creature that is the Creature with the Life thereof So that we find no Original of the Soul or Life of the Beast but from the Earth onely VVhence 2. Observe Beasts are Wholly Of and Out of the Earth Observ 2 THeir Life or Soul is in their blood Levit. 17.11 and thence it is that all their motions are wholly Earthly and after Earthly things and all the Operations of their Soules in Nutrition Motion or Sense exercised meerly by Bodily Instruments And in their very dissolution their Spirit goes downwards to the earth from whence it was at the first taken as Solomon tells us Eccl. 3.21 VVere it not then a foul shame for Men endowed with understanding to imitate Beasts and to take them for their pattern Surely men that understand not are like the Beasts that perish Psal 49.20 whose wisdom is sensual and earthly Jam. 3.15 Their mind only upon earthly things Phil. 3.19 by which they corrupt themselves as bruit beasts Jude 10. becoming wholly sensual Jude 19. walking altogether by Sense and not by Faith as Gods Children either do or at least should do 2 Cor. 5.7 By the VVord and Decree of God both the tame and wild beasts and every creeping thing were Created VVhence 3. Observe All the Beasts on the Earth being Gods Creatures are Gods Store and at his Command Observ 3 EVen every Beast of the Forrest and the Cattel upon a thousand hills he justly challengeth as his own Psal 50.10 he sends forth his Spirit and creates them Psal 104.30 he opens his hand and feeds them ver 27 28. and he gives out his Word and commands them and orders all their goings directing them to execute his VVill as appears in the example of the two she-Beares 2 King 2.24 and she-Lion 1 King 13.24 and the Lions in the Den Dan. 3. Let us then ascribe all the store that we have unto God 1. Looking upon it as a gift from God as Jacoh doth Gen. 31.9 and made fruitfull and usefull by his blessing Psal 144.13 14. 2. Seek all at his hands 3. And serve and honour him with all that we possesse yea with the first of our increase Prov. 3.9 4. And use all that we have according to his direction in Mercy towards the Creature and in a way of Sobriety to our selves VERSE 25. ANd God made Though God had commanded the Earth to bring forth the Creatures yet it was his own Power giving efficacy to his Will and Word that was the onely means by which they were produced This making of the Creatures was not by means according to the course of nature but the Creating of them without means supernaturally by the power of the Creator VVhence 1. Observe God not only Decrees and Commands but Performs and Brings to effect whatsoever he Wills Observ 1 IF he command Moses to do any thing he shall not lift up his hand in vain but the stretching out of it over the waters shall turn them into blood the Ashes of the Furnace by sprinckling them into the Ayr shall turn in Sores and Blains upon mens bodies his Word alone shall bring forth Froggs and Caterpillers Murrain upon the Cattel Hail and Lightnings from Heaven Darknesse upon the Land and â—eath upon the first born And this God doth not onely in extraordinary miraculous works that are Supernatural but even in those that are according to the course of nature He decreed that Summer and Winter Earing and Harvest should not cease while the world lasted and we see they continue to this day He commanded their Propagation and sustentation and they continue according to his Ordinance unto this day Psal 119. Living Moving and having their Being in him Act. 17.28 And by his Word our food gives us nourishment and strâ—â—gth Deut. 8.3 Nay he wills our Sanctification and Holy conversation and he works in us both to VVill and to do Phil. 2.13 Let this Consideration stay up and support the hearts of Gods Children whatsoever God hath engaged himself unto by his VVord and Promise he will not fail to bring to passe to give Grace at present and Glory hereafter Psal 84.11 For he speaks Righteousnesse Isa 45.16 Never look either upon the weaknesse of the Meanes or the greatnesse of the work but look upon the Power and Truth of him that hath promised it It is Gods VVord and it shall stand when Heaven and Earth shall fail And let this bear up our spirits when they are sincking under the sense of our weaknesse Indeed without Him we can do nothing Joh. 15.5 But as he can do all things Job 42.2 So in him that strengthens us we shall be able to do all things Phil. 4.13 And he will work In and For us Isa 26.12 Onely let us undertake nothing in our own strength but all in the Power of his might That which might be observed out of the particular enumeration of the Creatures which God made we have taken notice of heretofore as also of the Execution of the Decree and answerablenesse of it in all things according to that which he had appointed There followes in the last place the Creation of Man the last and perfectest and the Crown and Glory of all Gods visible VVorks for that cause described more at large and with more variety of Circumstances then any of the rest and Consequently more needful to be attended and more carefully enquired into by us especially seeing withal it more nearly concerns us VERSE 26. LEt Before God gave out his Command to the Creature as to the Earth and Sea to bring forth Fishes Fowls and Beasts or more Generally commands things to be made Let there be Light Let the waters be gathered Let there be great Lights Here he puts as it were his own Hand to the work and in a sort incourageth himself to undertake it as if he had an hard task to undertake if we may speak of God as the Holy Ghost here represents him
usefull for habitation then we now find it to be Secondly for the use of mans life it is beneficial 1. By furnishing them with more plentiful provision of food by the infinite store and variety of fishes that are bred therein 2. By affording the means of entercourse between Nation and Nation and thereby in some measure uniting the far distant parts of the earth and making way for the dispersing of those various commodities in which some Countries abound when others want them so that by this means all the fruits which the earth produceth are communicated to every part of it VERSE 10. ANd God called the dry Land Earth The word Eretz in the Original to which our English Earth comes very near and the Radical letters whereof both the Latine and some other Languages seem to retain whether it be derived from Rutz which signifies to Run or Ratsats which is to wear or presse down both which seem to point at either the Firmnesse of the Earth which yeelds sure footing to the Creatures that run and tread upon it Or at the Scituation of it which by its own weight is pressed down into the lowest place the other Elements of Ayr and Fire if there be any such circuiting and being carried about it in a perpetual motion comprehends the whole body of the dry land so that it seems to be more general then Tebel which signifies only the habitable earth Seas Or Waters called Seas by a kind of Eminency because all the waters to speak of are contained in the Seas And God terms them Seas in the Plural number because that collection of waters hath many parts and branches This name of Sea we find also given to Lakes as the Lake of Genesaret is also called the Sea of Galilee Matth. 4.18 nay to Solomons huge brasen vessel which he made for the Priests to wash themselves in 1 King 7.23 This separation of the VVaters from the Earth and the discovery of the dry land by gathering them together into one place God Looks upon and Approves as good as he had done the Light before and doth the rest of his works in particular afterwards and all of them taken together when he had ended them vers 31. Out of which particular view and approbation of every work apart we may Observe The goodnesse of every Creature of God ought to be considered and observed in Particular Observ THe Earth Seas Ayr Heaven Sun Moon Stars Fowles Fishes Beasts Man his Soul his Body and every Faculty of the one and Part of the other that we may be wholly swallowed up with admiration and may cry out with the Psalmist How manifold are thy Works O Lord in wisdom hast thou made them all Psal 104.24 Thus God having first given Job a view of the world in general takes him as it were by the hand and leads him to the Observation and Consideration of divers Creatures in particular Job 38. ver 39 40 41. Now if the Queen of Sheba were so much astonished when she beheld and took a particular surview of the order of Solomon's hovse the meat at his Table sitting of his servants attendance of his Ministers 1 King 10.5 what impression ought the consideration of the infinite multitude and various kinds of the Creatures all supplyed out of Gods own store and directed and ordered by his VVisdome to make upon our hearts VERSE 11. LEt the earth bring forth He means Presently as he doth in all the rest of his Commands in his Chapter for God will not endure that the earth should be barren for a moment and withal Constantly not only for the present time but for continuance in all times to come Now we know the earth yeelds nothing but the Matter of the herbs and plants The several forms and shapes of them especially their life is from God who makes the grasse to grow upon the Mountains Psal 104.14 Grasse Or Tender grasse a name which some conceive signifies only such herbs as grow of themselves without seed and then we have here mentioned two sorts of herbs some that spring up of themselves and others that grow of seed which is sowen Herb yielding seed By which when it decayes it self yet the Kind of it might be renewed and continued those are herbs that spring not of themselves but grow only out of seed otherwise there is neither herb nor plant but either bears some seed or hath at least a propagative root which is instead of seed by which it is or may be encreased and multiplyed in the kind thereof as experience shewes And fruit Trees And all trees have some fruit or something answerable to it by which they propagate themselves as appears in those that seem least fruitful as Elms Populars and the like Some think that poysonous herbs and briars and thornes were not within the compasse of this Decree but were the effects of Gods curse on the earth for mans sin Gen. 3.18 Although others more probably conceive that even all these were created at the first and became hurtful only by the curse of God upon man for sin as it happened in beasts which were all made in the beginning but for mans sin of useful and profitable servants divers of them were made untractable and dangerous enemies After his kind That is according to the nature of the plant on which it growes A matter worth our admiration that Trees and Herbs should produce as we see they do every one of them their proper seed nothing like unto the plant it self on which it growes and yet infallibly out of it self produceth such another body of an herb or plant as it self grew upon Whose seed is in it self Not received from another as it is usual in Animals which are propagated by the mixture of sexes whereof one receives seed from the other as we see by experience And it was so Not only at present for the earth was presently cloathed with all variety of herbs and plants but continues so untill this day according to the same Ordinance and Decree of God and shall do to the worlds end VERSE 12. ANd the Earth brought forth Every particular in the Event answers the Decree in every point wherein the admirable and unchangeable order that God hath set in nature offers it self to our consideration First that all herbs and plants having the matter of their nourishment and being produced by the same Earth and cherished by the influence of the same Heavens yet grow up into several forms having their natures and kinds still distinct one from another every several kind answerable to it self in every one of the individuals Secondly all of them grow to perfection and continue the way of their propagation in the same uniform course first the blade then the ear and at last the full and ripe corn in the ear Mark 4.28 The seed falls into the ground and shoots up into a tender grasse that growes into a stronger stemme and sends forth in some a flower
with Him And let it not discourage us that the work goes so slowly on and receives many interruptions God is pleased to make us sensible of the difficulty of the work that when it is perfected as it shall be hereafter we might not onely honour him Alone but withal Honour him as a God able to do all things even those which surmount our hope and expectation 2. Let all that are Godly imitate God striving earnestly to go on to perfection both in knowledge Heb. 6.17 and in every Grace 2 Pet. 1.5.6 For which end God hath furnished us with sufficient means 2 Tim. 3.17 Even that we might be perfect in our measure As our heavenly Father is perfect Matth. 5.48 How God by gathering the waters into their Channels had drained the Earth and made it habitable and presently furnished it with herbs and plants as soon as it was capable of them we have seen already In like manner he deales with the waters as soon as he hath gathered them together he takes order that they also shall be furnished with their Inhabitants Whence 2. Observe God leaves nothing Empty that he hath made but furnisheth all with his Store and riches Observ 2 THus when he had created the Heavens he furnished them with stars the Ayre with Birds the waters with Fishes and the Earth first with herbs and Plants and afterwards with beasts and men so that the Earth is full of his riches and so is the wide Sea Psal 104.24 25. The reason whereof is thereby to manifest both his All-sufficiency and withal the riches of his bounty 1. And will God then leave his Children empty the vessells which he hath formed for himself will God stock the whole world and not stock his own Garden hath God given his children hearts capable of Grace and will he leave them barrain and empty of Grace Surely the time will come shortly that every vessell shall be filled and in the mean time we shall not be utterly left empty and naked 2. Let men be ashamed that delight in empty houses or lands unpeopled that they may dwell alone Isa 5.8.1 Houses were made for habitation and Lands for Culture and it is a fearfull plague threatned by God Himself to leave both without inhabitants 2. It is our shame to cause desolations and discovers not onely our weaknesse as it doth Gods sufficiency that he leaves all things full but besides a disposition crosse to God in the course of his Providence to labour to make that empty which he hath ordained to be replenished In casting our eyes upon that infinite variety of all the works of Gods Hands we cannot but admire his infinite Power to work all things in All and out of All. If there be Nothing at all he makes something if there be something be it never so deformed and confused be the nature of it what it will God makes out of it what he pleaseth The glorious Heavens and the Stars therein all out of that rude lump living plants and herbs and fishes with life and motion out of the dead Sea and Earth so that nothing is hard to him which he purposeth to do VVhence 3. Observe God works all things out of all things and in all things according to his good pleasure Observ 3 EVen whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven in Earth and in all deeps Psal 135.6 All in all 1 Cor. 12.6 Is any thing too hard for the Lord Gen. 18.14 It must needs be granted that if he be Almighty it is easy for him who hath made all things and that out of nothing and hath still the same power in his hand to make what and when and where he will seeing He hath nothing to limit his power but his own will 1. Let men depend upon him at all times and in all places for all things He is the God of the Mountaines as well as of the Vallies 1 King 20.28 He can provide bread for his People in the Wildernesse as well as by the flesh pots of Egypt water in Horeb as well as in Elim Nay flesh in the Wildernesse without herds or flocks Numb 11. Only trust in him at all times Psal 62.8 and do good Psal 37.3 and then thou shalt be fed assuredly 2. Let us take notice of the weaknesse of mens power in comparison of Gods Their skill reacheth every mans to the work of his own hand One plants Vinyards another sowes Corn another feeds Cattail as Cain and Abel did and others are able to work the works of their own trade But God alone doth all things Himself and by his own Power Iob. 42.2 Now if a man were able to do all things he cannot do all things every where he cannot make all things out of Nothing as God hath done It is worth our consideration that God hath not onely Created such Variety of works of sundry sorts but he hath fitted them to places answerable to their natures the Fishes to the Sea and the Birds to the Ayre as he doth afterwards dispose of the beasts uppon the Earth Whence 4. Observe God disposeth all Creatures in such places as are most convenient and agreeable unto them Observ 4 THus he fixeth the Stars in the Heavens carries the Clouds in the Ayre appoints the waters for the Fishes and the Earth for Beasts and men And amongst men fits the Ayre and soil where they are bred diversly according to the temper of their bodies and that as to make their dwellings delightfull and pleasant to them so to make them thereby the more usefull by the preservation of their health therein Let the Consideration of our disposition and temper of our hearts direct us in the choice of the places of our abode What should fishes do on dry land Or beasts of the Earth in the midst of the Sea David in Mesech Psal 120.5 The plants of the House of God can flourish no where but in the Courts of God Psal 92.13 God indeed can support and preserve Iacob in Idolatrous Labans House Ioseph in Egypt Elijah in Zarephath Saint John in Patmos if he call or send them thither only we are to feel some unquietnesse in such places as David did Psal 120.5 And to long for our own dwellings with Jacob Gen. 28.21 Above all for heaven prepared for us Joh. 14.2 2. Let it Comfort our hearts in the expectation of those heavenly Habitations unto which God hath designed us and for which he will fit us with bodies and minds answerable thereunto Heavenly and Holy according to his promise Eph. 5.27 1 Cor. 15.49 Onely for the present he cloaths us with earthly Tabernacles fitted to the Earth in which we dwell and Spirits both Earthly and sensuall in a great part according to the Condition both of our estate and place in which he hath thought fit to continue us for a while The first Creatures that received breath and life of all that God had made were the Fishes and the Birds and they received it as we
bodies the Horse by his Conrage the Peacock and Ostritch by the beauty of their Feathers the Lion and the Unicorn and the like by their several eminencies that Himself the Creator of them might be the more admired in them This is now the Second time that we find the greatnesse of the Creature mentioned Before we had Great Lights now we have Great Whales But in the Creation of Man we have him though the most excellent of all Gods visible works marked onely by this That he was Created after Gods Image VVhence 2. Observe Many other Creatures excell and go beyond man in outward things Observ 2 THe Heavens and Stars go beyond him in brightnesse both they the Earth Seas Mountains and divers other Creatures in Bignesse The Lion in fiercenesse of Courage the Horse Oxe and divers other Creatures in Strength some one Creature or other in every sense The Birds in Swiftnesse the very Flowers in Beauty Let not the strong man glory in his strength how many Creatures excell all men that way Nor the rich man in his wealth the Earth is richer then all the Princes of the world Nor the fair in their beauty and the like neither let any man delight in or affect any of these Jer. 9.23 Only wisdom is that by which man excells all creatures Job 35.11 and Holinesse and Righteousnesse that by which one man excells another Psal 16.3 Prov. 12.26 Let only these be our desire and delight God who had appointed birds to flye in the open Firmament withall mentions their wings wherewith they flye in the description of their Creation The fishes that are appointed to move swiftly or slide through the waters are furnished with finnes which are unto them instead of wings by which they move swiftly in the waters as the Birds do in the Ayr although they be not expresly mentioned in this place as the wings of the Fowles are VVhence 3. Observe God furnisheth every Creature with Parts and Abilities needful for the Nature of it and use to which he hath assigned it Observ 3 THis truth experience makes evident to us in the surview of every Creature but is most clearly discovered if we duly weigh the composition of mans body with the infinite variety of the Parts thereof and correspondence of every part to the several faculties of the Soul for the Use and Service whereof they were Ordained which hath moved even Heathen men to admire at the Power Wisdom and Goodnesse of the Creator We need not doubt then but that the same God who hath manifested so much Wisdom and Goodnesse in furnishing the natural bodies not only of Men but of all Creatures will much more take care that the Church the mystical Body of his own Son may be fully supplyed in every part thereof according to the effectual working of the Measure in every Part Ephes 4.16 He that hath given wings to the Birds to sport themselves withall in the Ayr will not deny means to the Soul of man to raise up it self from Earth to Heaven to enjoy God and have the conversation of it in Heaven Till Bodies and Soules be carried up thither to be ever with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 VVhat was the Matter of which the Bodies of the Fishes and Fowles are composed is not expressed whatsoever it was considering the infinite variety of Plants and Herbs wherewith the Earth was furnished in the former dayes work and here of Fishes and Fowles and in the next day following of Beasts and Men all drawn out of the same Principles of Composition the wonderful Power of God must be looked upon with astonishment who drawes such infinite variety and diversity of Creatures of severall Kinds Shapes and Natures out of the same materials VVhence 4. Observe God can and doth out of the same masse draw out infinite variety of severall shapes and natures Observ 4 OF this truth again all the works of God yield abundant and manifest proofs not only in their first Creation but in the constant course of Propagation of the Creatures The same matter in the framing of mans body yields strange variety of the Parts and members of the body diversified in shape nature and use consisting each of them of many dissimilar parts And in the sustentation and nourishment of it the bread yields blood spirits flesh veins sinews skin and bones Men indeed can make out of the same Timber Iron Stone or Clay divers vessels or Instruments distinguished in form and use But out of the same Substance to draw out so many different natures can be the effect of none other but a Divine power All those works even the Fishes of the Sea and Fowles of the Ayr God after he had made them he looks back upon and pronounceth this censure of them all That they were Good Now out of this regard that he had to the works of his hands we may 5. Observe God respects and takes special notice of all even the meanest of the works that he hath made Observ 5 Ravens Sparrowes the very grasse that is to day and to morrow is cast into the oven Matth. 6.30 to support feed and direct and order them according to his Will and this he doth 1. Out of his Goodnesse and Faithfulnesse for he is a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.19 2. And withall out of Necessity least otherwise he should have Created them in vain seeing they must needs perish and come to nothing if they be not supported by his hand 1. Let the meanest and those which are neglected and despised by men depend upon his care and Providence the Children of the needy whom Christ shall Judge and Save Psal 72.4 The hungry Prisners Blind Bowed down the Fatherlesse and Widdows Psal 146.7 8 9. Whom God takes care of relieves contends for and sometimes from the dunghill advanceth to high places Psal 113.7 8. Much more those that he hath chosen to be partakers of his Glory hereafter even poor Lazarus himself Luke 16.22 2. Stoop to the poore and such as are despised of men Oppresse them not Prov. 22.22 Job 31.13.21 Contend for them Job 29.12 Cherish them Isa 58.7 Consider them every way Psal 16.1 Remembring that they are such as God Himself careth for that they bear his Image and are abased by the same God who hath advanced us may perhaps be higher in Gods esteem richer in Grace at present and our Companions and equalls in Glory with Christ for ever hereafter All these Creatures that he had made God doth not onely look upon after he had made them but besides approves and sees them even the meanest of them to be good Whence 6. Observe Even the meanest of the Creatures that God hath made are Good Observ 6 NOt onely in their Being but besides in relation to God as they serve to advance his Glory as being the effects of his VVonderfull Power VVisdom and Goodnesse which are manifested in them so that all his works praise him Psal 145.10.2 In themselves as they
with those bodies of ours on which he bestowed so much workmanship possessing our vessells in holinesse and glorying neither in our strength nor beauty but in him alone that made us for his own honour and service Now after God had thus curiously framed mans body he became not a living soul untill he himself breathed into him the breath of Life Whence 3. Observe The soul of Man by which he lives comes Immediately from God Himself Observ 3 SO Solomon tells us that God gave the Soul Eccle. 12.7 or made it as it is expressed Jeremy 38.16 And whereas the Body is supported by Meanes and the help of the Creatures the Soul is supported without meanes by the immediate Hand and Power of God Himselfe And comming Immediately from God carries the most lively Resemblance of his Image as we have seen already 1. Let our soules seek unto him who gave them and serve him as we are directed 1 Cor. 6.20 1. Praising him with all that is within us Psalme 103.1 2. Submitting all the Abilities of our souls to be guided by his Spirit that we may be led by it and walk in it 3. And labouring with all our endeavours to lay hold on Heavenly things whence we had our Originall forgetting the things that are here below Col. 3.1 2. Lay hold on this as a ground of special Comfort that which God hath given more immediately he will certainly most carefully preserve and provide for as it appears he hath done by redeeming the soul from hell and purging it from sin by the blood of his own Son and adorning it with the graces of his Spirit and reserving it hereafter to enjoy his presence and there to be satisfied with his Image The manner of Gods uniting the soul unto the body the Holy Ghost expresseth by the phrase of breathing which besides that it points at the secret way of infusing the soul as Elihu testifies that the Breath of the Almighty gave him life Job 33.4 withall may imply the weak band of Conjunction of the soul unto the body so often mentioned in Scripture that our breath is in our Nostrils Whence 4. Observe The life of Man consisting in the union of the Soul with the body hath but a very weak foundation Observ 4 THough the soul it self be of a durable substance ordained by God unto Eternity yet it dwells in an house of Clay founded in the dust supported by meanes which perish with the using and the breath which soders both together is in the nostrils Isa 20.22 to be blown out at one puff which when it is gone they turn to their dust again Psal 104.29 Let it move us in the whole course of our lives to passe the time of our dwelling here in fear having alwaies our Lamps burning and our loynes girt Luk. 12.35 ready to remove hence whensoever God shall call us 2. Ceasing our immoderate care for outward things Luke 12.20 Which are in themselves of short continuance and from which we may be taken we know not how soon 3. And endeavouring to make sure of a state of continuance a Life that is hid with Christ in God 4. Forbearing any dependance upon or fear of men as we are advised Psal 146.3 4. Who cannot long continue to do us either good or evil The body of man which God had framed of the dust was in it self but a lump of Earth 〈◊〉 because though it had the shape of a man yet it wanted life but when God had breathed into it that breath of life then man became a living soul and not before Whence 5. Observe The life of man is only by his Soul Observ 5 THe Breath of the Almighty that is the soul inspired by him is that which gives us life ar Elihu speaks of himself Job 44.4 Wherefore in many places of Scripture we find Life and Soul put one for another as Gen 19.17 That which we render life is Soul in the Original upon the same ground a Living person is frequently in Scripture called a soul because every man lives wholly by his Soul Let every mans Soul be his chiefest care by which we live at present and in which we live Eternally get it clearsed by Christs Blood renewed by his Spirit beautified and adorned by his Graces and assured of enjoying his Glory unto the hope whereof we are called But Beasts we know have souls as well as Men Yea and their soules are called spirits too Eccl. 3.21 yet beasts are no where termed living soules as men are Partly because beasts have a life of a lower and baser Condition as being wholly drowned in the grosse matter of the body and exercised about that alone and partly because their soul dyes together with their body and goes downwards as Solomon speaks Eccl. 3.21 that is perisheth as the body doth which turns to the Earth Whence 6. Observe There is none worthy the name of a Living soul but he only that lives by a Reasonable Soul Observ 6 NOw amongst them whereas men by nature have reasonable souls yet that being so Corrupted that their Reason serves them to no other use then to guide them according to sense howsoever amongst men they are accounted living soules the Spirit of God esteems them amongst bruit beasts Jude 10. Dead while they live 1 Tim. 5.6 Living indeed a Natural life but Spiritually dead as being cut off from Christ who is the fountain of true life yea twice dead and plucked up by the roots Jude 12. as being guided and carried on only by sensual lusts and desires after the manner of a beast Let it then be every mans care and endeavour to live as a man that is as one Created after Gods Image whose soul and the motions thereof ascend upwards and not downwards to the things below Col. 3.2 and therefore unworthy to be embraced by the Soul which is from above lest the man dye while he lives and that not only for the present but for ever VERSE 8. VVHat right God had to dispose both of Man and of all the rest of the Creatures as being all of them the Works of his Own Hands we have seen already He that gave them their Being when they were not and still supports them now they are hath undoubtedly just right to Order them according to his own Will Now how God Disposed of the Man that he had made what laws he gives him and how far he limits him in the use of the Creatures the Holy Ghost relates to the end of the seventeenth Verse of this Chapter in which we have laid before us Gods Direction First for mans Employment Secondly for the Use of those Creatures which he allowes him In the Law given to Man for his Employment are expressed 1. The place where he was to reside and exercise himself Paradise a Garden of Pleasures 2. The Employment it self which was to Dresse and Keep it In the Description of the Place where the Man was to reside and be employed
him to be righteous and our selves sinful above measure Dan. 9.7 8 9. And withal to set him before us for our pattern hating nothing in men but sinne Considering 1. That otherwise we owe love to all men 2. That we manifest not holinesse more in any thing then when we put difference between man and man only according to their good or evil disposition or desarts In laying the censure upon the Serpent God first pronounceth a curse upon him in general and afterwards expresseth the evils in particular which that curse includes and delivering this judgement in this order and manner gives us occasion thence to 6 OBSERVE Gods curse upon any creature is the fountaine of all plagues and miseries Observe 6 THus God in proceeding against Cain first lays his curse upon him and then sets before him the evils which flow from thence Gen. 4.11 Balak desires nothing of Balaam but to pronounce Gods curse upon the children of Israel and then hopes to prevaile against them Numb 22.6 And Joshuah wishing all mischief to the builder of Jericho pronounceth against him a curse from the Lord Josh 6.26 and a curse a blessing are put for all manner of good evil Deut. 11.26 Whence it is that wicked men to whom as the portion of their cup belong snares fire brimstone and horrible tempest Psal 11.6 are called the people of Gods curse Isa 34.5 and children of the curse 2 Pet. 2.14 It must be so of necessity seeing the curse of God is the manifestation of his wrath who creates all evil Isa 45.7 Let it raise up all our hearts to abhorre sin and behold the heinousnesse thereof which hath brought this curse upon us and to behold the infinite riches of Christs love unto man who became a curse for us that he might redeem us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 An incredible abasement to him who is God blessed for ever and an incredible happinesse unto us especially seeing by him the curse is not only taken away but is besides turned into a blessing Satan chooseth the Serpent to be his instrument to deceive the woman for his subtilty in sliding closely into the Garden and God for that layes on him that punishment that he should alwayes go upon his belly he was his instrument to tempt the woman in eating and is adjudged to eat dust all his dayes see the punishment points at the sinne which is usual in Gods judgements Whence 7 OBSERVE It is usual with God in his judgements so to order them that they may point at the sin for which they are inflicted Observe 7 EIther by paying like for like as in cutting off Adonibezeks thumbs of his hands and feet because he had dealt so with others whence he in his Law gives direction to give eye for eye and tooth for tooth Exod. 21.24 25. or by some circumstance or other he points at the sin which he punisheth Jehoram must be cast into Naboths vineyard to point at his Fathers sin in killing Naboth to get possession of that vineyard 2 King 9.25 26. sometimes the instrument or the time or the manner or some other like circumstance shews what the sinne is that brings the judgement Thus God deals with men 1. To justifie himself that by such lively characters his righteousnesse in all his ways may be read by him that runs 2. To further mens repentance by pointing out unto them the sinne that brings the judgement upon them The curse that God lays upon the Serpent he expresseth and amplifieth by way of comparison that it should light and abide upon the Serpent above any beast of the field So that the Serpent became viler then any other creature by becoming an instrument of sin Whence 8 OBSERVE It is only sin that makes one more vile then another Observe 8 THat makes Coniah though a Prince a despised broken vessel Jer. 22.28 and deprives his father Jehojakim of the common honour that belongs to the meanest man so that he is cast out to be buried with the burial of an Asse ver 19. That makes any that is defiled with it a vile person Psal 15.4 yea though he were a Prince as Antiochus surnamed the glorious is called a vile person Dan. 11.21 and his memory rottennesse Prov. 10.7 It makes whole nations an hissing and an astonishment Jer. 25.9 the taile and not the head Deut. 28.14 as on the other side righteousnesse advanceth one man above another Prov. 12.26 and wisdom promotes to honour Prov. 4.8 All which abasements and honours which sin and godlinesse bring to men in this life are but meere shadows of that more eminent difference which shall be put between them hereafter when they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament Dan. 12.3 The particulars of the Serpents curse are two First that she shall go upon her belly Secondly that her food shall be the dust of the earth so that her abasement is that she is wholly fastened unto the earth Whence 9 OBSERVE It is a shameful abasement to be glewed to the earth Observe 9 IT is a part of our abasement at present that we dwell here on earth in houses of clay Joh 4.19 in bodies of clay termed earthly Tabernacles 2 Cor. 5.1 under which we groane as under an heavy burthen ver 4. waiting to be freed from it Rom. 8.23 that those earthly bodies may be changed into heavenly 1 Cor. 15.44 But our greatest abasement is in stooping to the earth in our affections bringing down our mindes to embrace earthly things which is our shame Phil. 3.19 taking unto us earthly and sensual wisdom as it is termed Jam. 3.15 for our guide whence it is that we are so seriously exhorted to raise up our affections to heavenly things to fixe them on them Col. 3.2 having our negotiation or conversation as we render it in heaven Phil. 3.20 even in our earthly imployments when we do them with heavenly mindes as duties of obedience to God in them serving the Lord Christ Eph. 6.5 6 7. and referring all to his glory 1 Cor. 10.31 and in these services seeking after glory and honour and immortality hereafter VERSE 15. HItherto of Gods curse upon the Serpent which was Satans instrument in deceiving the woman The curse upon himself who was the chiefe agent follows in this verse which some conceive to have relation to the Serpent too but upon no sufficient ground if the words be throughly scanned For howsoever it be true that there is an enmity between men and Serpents yet that is no other then is found between him and other hurtful creatures who hate men or at least hurt them more then Serpents do neither are serpents more apt to hurt men then they are to hurt other creatures Again for the next clause it is true that Serpents usually bite the heele and that men may and do sometimes tread on their heads But it is most evident that God in denouncing this curse aimes not
expressed probably they were such as Satan had suggested unto her Cursed is the ground for thy sake The earth in general in which Adam was now to live being to be cast out of Paradise this curse upon the earth was the weakening of the fructifying power thereof as it is afterwards expressed and that for his sake that is both for his sin which made him unworthy of any blessing by any creature and for his punishment who was to be sustained by the fruits which the earth was to bring forth In sorrow shalt thou eate of it That is an hard labour causing wearinesse and grief thereby We see still a mixture of mercy with the judgement a curse with a promise annexed to it His labour should be hard but yet it should produce him meanes for the susteining of his life he should eat by his labour All the dayes of thy life To put thee in minde continually of thy sin and my justice yet even in this clause there is some comfort that those labours and sorrowes thereby shall determine with this â—ort life The first circumstance to be taken notice of in this censure is the Author of this curse upon the earth it proceeds as we see from the Decree of God himself Whence 1 OBSERVE The curse as well as the blessing upon all creatures proceeds from the Will and Decree of God alone Observe 1 THerefore he denounceth the one and promiseth the other Deut. 28. Lev. 26. he makes barren lands fruitful and fruitful lands barren Psal 107.33 34. Bozrah shall be a desolation if God swear it Jer. 49.13 Nay according to his will both the bodies and soules of men are either barren or fruitful Numb 5.27 Isa 29.14 Reason 1. It can be no otherwise seeing in him all things consist Col. 1.17 and have their being Act. 17.28 2. And it is fit it should be so that all men might feare before him Jerem. 5.24 depend on him Jer. 14.22 and praise him alone Psal 107.32 33 34. 3. And it is every way best for us who know that God judgeth righteously Psal 67.4 and that those that feare him shall want no good thing Psal 84.1 First let us learne when we want any needful blessing or feare any curse upon the earth or other creatures upon our own persons our bodies or souls to look up unto him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will And 1. Walk uprightly before him which interests us in all his blessings Psal 84.11 2. Pray to him upon all occasions Phil. 4.6 Secondly if we enjoy any good by any creature if our grounds be fruitful our flocks our wives if we our selves be fruitful in holinesse let us acknowledge all to him with thankfulnesse that bestowes all out of his own bounty This curse of God upon the earth is for Adams sake that is both for his sinne and for his punishment so that we see not only from whom but for what the curse comes upon the creatures Whence 2 OBSERVE It is our own sinne that brings the curse of God upon all that we enjoy Observe 2 FOr sin a fruitful land is turned into barrennesse Psal 107.24 Lev. 26. Dâ—ut 28. and by sin only we keep off good things from us Jer. 5.25 Reason 1. Gods mercies are over all his works Psal 145.9 and his hand in it self is not shortened Isa 59.1 neither is there any thing that he hates but sin or for sin Psal 5.4 5. 2. And it is fit that God should so shew his detestation of sin by manifesting his wrath every way against such as provoke him thereby as he did in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and upon his own land see Deut. 29.23 25. 3. Those things which wicked men enjoy are usually defiled by them being made instruments to the fulfilling of their lusts and consequently are fit to be partakers of the plague as they are defiled with the sinne Let it work our hearts to the detestation and abhorring of sinne with which we see God to be so highly displeased even God the faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.14 that haâ—eth nothing that he hath made but as out of his overflowing bounty he created all things and delighted in them when he had made them Gen. 1.31 so he cherisheth them still who consequently must needs be provoked in a very high degree when he turnes to hate his own works and to curse what he â—ath blessed as he dealt with the whole old world Gen. 6.6 7. and with his owne people Jer. 11.17 and out of that detestation of sin let it be our care and endeavour to break off all sinful courses to avoid any famillarity with those that are defiled in them yea to hate the very garment spotted with the flesh and if we have any delight in the fruitfulnesse of our grounds encrease of our flocks towardlinesse of our children and desire the prospering of any thing that we have let us be careful to remove sin far from our dwellings lest it bring in such a curse upon all that we have as is described Zech. 5.4 The curse that God layes is upon the whole earth that vast body that man can hardly measure much lesse can command upon this whole earth God exerciseth his Authority Whence 3 OBSERVE The greatest of all creatures are under Gods command Observe 3 THe Earth and Heavens are his servants Psal 119.91 the sea Prov. 8.29 Job 38.10 11. how much more the greatest amongst the sons of men even Kings themselves whom he commands Psal 105.15 yea rules their very hearts Prov. 21.1 Reason 1. They are all creatures Jer. 14.22 even the work of his hand Job 34.19 2. He could not otherwise be an absolute Lord over all Psal 103.19 if any creature were out of his command Let no man feare any creature Psal 46.2 3. Isa 51.12 13. but God alone Jer. 5.22 and trust in him alone Psal 146.3 6. and obey his voice whom the windes and sea obey This curse which God here layes upon the earth as it was occasioned by Adams sinne so it was not the least part of his punishment for whose relief and comfort that fruitfulnesse was bestowed on the earth at the first by Gods blessing upon it Whence 4. OBSERVE The curse of God upon the creatures is a part of mans punishment Observe 4 THus God threatens it shal be Lev. 26.18 19 20. all Pharaohs house is smitten for Pharaohs sake Gen. 12.17 The plagues upon the waters of Egypt destroying of the corn vines and other fruits murrain amongst their cattel and death of all their first-born we know were the plagues that God brought on Pharaoh and his people for hardning their hearts against him The reasons 1. We have interest in them so that their destruction is our losse 2. Our subsistence is by them so that to lose them is to lose the meanes by which our lives should be supported Let such chastisements as light upon us in the fruits of the earth the
services easie Gen 29.20 2. And of the Law it selfe for the purity of it Psal 119.140 the righteousnesse and saithfulnesse of it v. 138. the wonderful perfection and admirable effects of it Psal 19.7 8. 3. For the reward set before us hereafter and peace which our obedience to the Law brings at present See Psal 73.24 and 119.165 This cheerfulnesse of spirit is necessary 1. To sweeten and make us despise those incombrances which we meet in our wayes 2. To encourage others 3. To bring honour to God But it is observable that in this Commandment though the labour enjoyned be hard and painful yet it shall not want effect though it be purchased with the sweat of his brows yet his labour shall produce him bread to sustaine his life Whence 3. OBSERVE Whatsoever we undertake in obedience to Gods Commandment shall not want effect Observe 3 PRov. 14.23 He that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully 2 Cor. 9.6 which is not only true in respect of the future reward promised 1 Cor. 15.58 but besides in respect of mens present labours that they shall not want successe unlesse God be pleased to deny his blessing to humble men for their sins as Hag. 1.6 otherwise the promise holds and is made good to all that in their labours serve God in sincerity Ps 128. 2. Isa 65.23 Unles God see it fit sometimes to with hold his blessing on them for some greater good to us or honour to himself Reasons 1. That God is able to give successe and by his blessing to prosper mens endeavours no man can deny 2. That it concerns him in point of honour to prosper that which he commands is as clear as theformer 3. It is needful to be so lest other wise men should be discouraged in his service if they should labour therein without bringing any thing to effect Let it encourage all men in the services which God Commands wherein they are sure not to labour in vaine but either to effect what they undertake 2. Or to attain something that shall be better for them 3. And to have the reward of their endeavours from God Isa 49.5 so they undertake things 1. In obedience to Gods Command 2. To a right end for his glory and the good of others 3. And depend upon Gods blessing and not on their ownlabours for successe After the injunction of painful labour follows the duration of it for terme of his life containing withal the sentence of God concerning mans dissolution by death with the equity thereof In this sentence take notice 1. Of the moderation thereof in respect of the curse threatened 2. Of the mitigation thereof 1. In the time Adam shall die though not that day 2. In the kinde of death it shall be temporal but not eternal though both were included in the Sanction Whence 4 OBSERVE Gods Sanctions are certain as well of judgement as of mercy Observe 4 NOt only unto the wicked Gen. 4.12 Eccl. 8.12 13. but unto the godly too 2 Sam. 12.14 18. but with this difference 1. That their judgments are only outward and temporary whereas wicked mens judgements are spiritual and eternal 2. And those judgements are laid on them not as a part of their debt for sin which Christ hath satisfied to the full 3. And are sanctified to them so that they work together to their good Reason 1. Both the threats of judgement as well as the Promises of mercy are founded on the same grounds of Gods Truth and Immutability and Power 2. And have the same scope the honouring of God in the manifestation as well of his justice as of his mercy giving to every man according to his deeds see Psal 58.11 Isa 59.18 19. 1. Learne to tremble at Gods judgements Ps 119.120 as well as to hope in his mercy yea even the godly who though they are freed from the everlasting curse by the death of Christ yet are liable to such chastisements Psal 89.31 32. as may make their hearts ake Psal 143.4 2. Let it appale the hearts of all wicked men that notwithstanding all Gods threatenings go on desperately in their sins Deut. 29.19 who as they dishonour God in the highest degree either denying his Power Holinesse and Providence Psal 94.7 and his truth or imagining him to be like unto themselves Psal 50.21 so they bring upon themselves the wrath of God to the uttermost to their everlasting destruction Deut. 29.20 Psal 50.21 If we consider this sentence of Gods decreeing mans dissolution and the turning of his body into dust in particular we may 5. OBSERVE Though God hath freed his children from eternal death yet he hath left them as well as others under the sentence of temporal death Observe 5 DEath by sinne passed upon all men Rom. 5.12 Heb. 9.27 from which though Henoch was exempted Heb. 11.5 and Elijah 2 Kings 2.11 as shall be such as are found living when Christ shall come to judgement 1 Cor. 15.51 1 Thes 4.17 yet upon the rest as well godly as wicked this sentence takes hold as all experience shewes Reason 1. That by it they might be put in minde of sin that brought death upon them Rom. 5.12 2. They have no harme by death which is at present but a sleep wherein they rest from their labours Isa 57.2 and which severs them not from Christ 1 Thes 4.14 through whom it is sanctified to them see 1 Cor. 15.55 and is made an entrance into life Rev. 14.13 and hurts not the body which shall be raised up in glory 1 Corinth 15.42 43. Prepare for it as being 1. Most certain Eccl 9.5 2. And yet uncertain in the time and meanes of it Luke 12.20 3. And whereof men are naturally regardlesse being bewitched by the world Psal 49.11 4. And yet being of all other things that which most nearly concerns us To this end 1. Make sure of Christ whom if we have to die is gaine Philip. 1.21 2. Be alwayes doing good see Luke 12.40 42 43. knowing there is no work nor device in the grave whither we go Eccl. 9.10 3. Stand loose from the world that it may not trouble us to go out of the world 4. Let us have our conversation in heaven Phil. 3.20 and lay up our treasure there Mat. 6.20 whither by death we are translated The Lord contents not himselfe to minde Adam that he was taken out of the dust but tells him that he is dust and shall be resolved into dust Whence 6 OBSERVE Mens bodies are bast every way both in their original in their present condition and in their dissolution Observe 6 IN their Original of the dust Eccl. 3.20 earthly of the earth 1 Cor. 5.47 in their present condition no better then dust Psal 103.14 Eccl. 12.7 their food out of the earth Psal 104.14 their clothing no better and their dwelling houses of clay Job 4.19 In their dissolution turned into dust Psal 104.29 where one may say to corruption thou art my father to the worme thou art
furthers their use and service to the earth and to the Creatures here below which are cherished and quickned thereby and so becomes in a sort a common band and meanes of union between heaven and earth 3. It makes way both to the motion of our selves and every other moving Creature by the yielding nature thereof without which the places in which we and other creatures are would become our prisons and consequently would make both them and us utterly unfit for any service at all 4. It sustaines the clouds in which the rain is bound up and maks way to their moving about the Earth and le ts down from them the soft rain without which all hearbs and plants must wither of necessity and by consequent the Earth must become wholly barren and unfruitfull The truth is those common blessings which all Creatures enjoy the Light Ayre VVater and the Earth whereon we walk and by the fruites whereof we are sustained are of an infinite and inestimable value infinitely beyond gold and silver which we set at so high a rate and yet are despised because they are enjoyed in common and therefore ought to be the more throughly enquired into and observed by Gods Children whose hearts ought to be enlarged unto thankfulnesse by the Consideration and taste of Gods goodnesse communicated to us in every one of his Creatures The dividing of the waters from the waters which is conceived to be one use of the Ayre is a work worth the scanning especially if by the waters above we understand the clouds vvhich contain the rain which is raised in thin vapours and consequently severed thereby from the waters below and carried about over our heads and let down upon the Earth without which a great part of it would be utterly unfruitfull for God having gathered the water here below into one Chanel that the Earth might be dry and by that means habitable howsoever in his Wisdom and Providence he hath so ordered it that waters issuing out from the Seas by secret passages and breaking out into Fountaines and Rivers may thereby make fruitfull the vallies and lower parts of the Earth yet we know they reach not to the higher grounds much lesse to the tops of the hills It was therefore needful that some water should be carried on high above the hills and higher grounds that from thence they might distil and fall down in just showers upon the mountaines and higher places of the Earth to moisten them too that no part thereof might remain barrain and unprofitable and might thereby further manifest the care and Providence of God in cherishing those parts from Heaven which seem to be most unprovided and in a sort neglected in the constitution of the World and the several parts thereof Thus Moses affirmes that Gods Eyes and Care were more for Canaan then for Egypt because that was overflowed by waters below which might be carried hither and thither by the industry of men to make their grounds fruitful but Canaan was watered from Heaven with seasonable rains Deut. 11.10 11 12. Whereupon the Prophet taxeth the Jewes of great unthankfulnesse for not fearing God that gave them rain from Heaven the former and the later and thereby brought about the appointed weeks of harvest Jer. 5.24 So this division of the waters must needs be acknowledged to be a speciall work of Gods Wisdome disposing them so as they might be most useful to the Earth Whence 3. Observe God so orders all things as they may best serve for use Observ 3 THus in the Creation he drevv the waters into their Channels that the earth being by that means left dry might be fit for habitation compassed the earth with the Heavens that they might cherish every part thereof with their influence hath so ordered the course of the Suune that it might successively give light and heat unto the World Set herbs and plants on the upper face of the earth that they might be at hand for the food of men and beasts In our bodies he hath set our eyes on high as it were in a Watch-tower our feet below to support and carry the whole body our hands in the middest that they might be usefull and serviceable to every part and the like And the same order we may easily see he observes in the whole course of his Providence Reason 1. His Wisdom and goodnesse which together both moved and enabled him to dispose of all things for use and profit which is not the least part of his honour 2. Gods end in all his works was to make all for use and service for the mutual support of Creatures one by another that they might be all knit together in a straight band of Love grounded upon or strengthened by the mutuall help and supply which they have one from another without which they could not subsist Let it quiet all mens hearts which are so apt to quarrel at the distribution of the Commodities of the Earth the division of mens habitations and disposition of their estates which howsoever we conceive out of a partiall respect to our selves to be full of ertour and inequality yet we shall find upon due examination to be equall and just directed by the Wisdom of God to the send for which all things were made the honour of himselfe and the general good of his Creatures It should indeed silence all our murmurings that God may do with his own what he will and if we understand not in every particular how he hath done things well let us in modesty blame our own ignorance who cannot search into the depth of his counsels whose waies are past finding out Rom. 11.33 2. Let it move us to dispose of our selves as we may be most serviceable to others and employ our abilities and means to the good of others as having received whatsoever we have for that end The Creation and Use of the Firmament we have seen the matter whereof could be none other then that which was taken out of that rude and confused masse which before was described to be without shape or form out of that deformed and mishapen heap were taken those glorious bodies of the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars the beauty whereof we now behold with so much admiration Whence 4. Observe God can put beauty and excellency on the basest things that are and raise Earth to Heaven if He please Observ 4 THis is clearly manifested by the shapes of all Creatures which are all of them comely in their kinds and yet all of them deformed and base in their Originals as all experience shewes not man himself excepted although created after Gods own Image Thus God puts beauty upon his Church which he found weltring in her blood cast out to the contempt of her person Ezek. 16.14 Reason 1. God hath all beauty and excellency in himself and therefore can easily bestow it where he pleaseth even where it is not 2. He delights to do it that no flesh might glory but the
in others another form under the flower comes and ripens the seed again the same in form and nature with that from which it sprung at first That this distinction between the several kinds of creatures all produced by the same common causes and the Identity of every kind and agreablenesse thereto of every individual in that kind through so many variations into severall shapes and forms till it come to perfection should be constantly and unchangeably preserved can come to passe by no other means but by the unchangeble law which God hath set in nature by which he gives to every seed his own body as it pleaseth him 1 Cor. 15.38 And to every plant and herb his own seed so that men gather not grapes of thorns nor figgs of thistles as our Saviour speaks Luke 6.44 In the order of this decree for the production of herbs and plants it is observable that all these are Created before the Sunne or any other of those Celestiall bodies by the influence whereof they are now cherished without which either they spring not at all or at least come to no perfection that we may know them to be the effects of Gods Power and not of any natural cause and were produced before the beasts or Man that were to be sustained by them to manifest Gods Providence who failes not to make provision for all his Creatures which he foresees and takes care to supply even before they need nay before they have any being at all Upon this ground that herbs and plants were produced in their full ripenesse some conclude that the world was created in the Autumne when all things in the course of nature come to their full growth and ripenesse An argument that might be easily answered since God must be acknowledged in their first Creation to do all things Miraculously and therefore did not bind himself to observe the course of nature at all in that work as appears in the Creation of the man and woman not Infants but of full growth in the first moment of their Creation and to regard as little the time of ripening herbs and plants as he did the causes that should produce them In the time of producing those herbs and plants that as soon as the Earth was dried that is was fit to receive them he stored it with such great variety of so many useful Creatures and gave it that fruitfulnesse to produce them for time to come We may 1. Observe God will have nothing barrain and unprofitable Observ 1 NOt the Earth which receiving the first and the later rain he ordained to bring forth herbs to them that dresse it Heb. 6.7 Not the herbs or plants which all of them yeild their seed and fruits Not the beasts Fishes or Fowles which are fruitfull in propagation usefull by their labours and serviceable for food and cloathing Not the clouds which empty themselves upon the Earth Eccl. 11.3 Not the Sunne Moon and other Celestial bodies which by their light and influence cherish all things here below Reason 1. It is the end for which all things were made that they might support one another by their fruitfulnesse and service 2. God thereby testifies his overflowing bounty and goodness by the fruitfulnesse and usefulnesse of all the works of his hands Let not men then for shame be barrain either in any duties of obedience unto God or services of love to men but be fruitfull both waies nay filled with fruits Phil. 1.11 Alwaies bringing them forth in their season and abounding more therein even to their old age Psal 92.14 and encreasing therein Rev. 2.19 As being 1. ordained by God more especially thereunto Joh. 15.16 2. Having all needful helps to that end not onely outward as the word and Sacraments falling on us like the first and latter rain Hebr. 6.7 To which the word is resembled Isa 55.10 11. Or generally by the influence of Gods fructifying Power by which he blesseth the springing of all things Psal 65.10 11. But particularly and inwardly the assistance of his Holy Spirits which is able to work in us both to will and to do 3. Having our fruits ordained to a more excellent end both Gods Glory Joh. 15.8 and the furthering of our own account Phil. 4.17 Wherefore we are justly threatned with the greater plague if we remain barrain and unfruitfull Matth. 3.10 Heb. 6.8 The meanes to be used to make us fruitfull are 1. to be engraffed into Christ Joh. 15 2.2 To live under the continuall dropping of the clowds that is the Ministry of the Word 3. To be often purging and cleansing of our hearts whence are the issues of life Pro. 4.23 and all our actions whether good or evil Mark 7.21 22. The Order observed by God in producing the herbs and plants ministers unto us matter worthy our meditation 1. That they were created before the causes by which they are now according to the course of nature ordinarily produced which make manifest the Power of God that can effect what he will without means Numb 11 23. See the observation before upon verse 3. 2. That God made provision for the sustaining of Man and Beasts before he created them wherein he discovrs his provident care of his Creatures in providing for them before hand But the Observation to be drawn from thence we shall defer till we come to verse 26. In describing the Creation of the herbs and plants Moses laies before us first the Author by whom and then the time When they were produced out of the Earth by his Command he bad the earth bring forth and it did so Whence 2. Observe Even the Herbs and Plants of the Earth are Gods Creatures Observ 2 PSalm 104.14.16 Not onely Jonahs Gourd which was prepared by God extraordinarily but even the Corn which the Earth produceth by humane Culture God is said to prepare Psal 65.9 To which as unto all the rest he gives a body as it pleaseth him yea and cloathing too unto the very grasse of the field Matth. 6.29.30 Let us then take notice of Gods Work in all the fruits of the Earth observing in them 1. the infinite variety of them according to their severall kinds 2. Their beautiful shape and proportions exquisite tastes and delightfulnesse of many of them 3. The strange variety of severall forms through which they passe before they come to their full perfection from small seeds to tender herbs from thence to stronger stemms divided many times into severall branches Covered with leaves and after that garnished with flowers and lastly yielding such seeds as themselves sprang from at the first 4. Take notice of their life by which they grow and encrease which all the Potentates in the World cannot give nor any Art of man imitate Let all these considerations strike into all mens hearts an awful apprehension and admiration of Gods wonderful Wisdom and Power that our mouthes may be filled with his praise And let it bring us all to an acknowledgment of Gods
infinite Mercy and Justice in bestowing or taking away those useful Creatures without which we cannot subsist that we may receive them as a gift from Gods Hand with all thankfulnesse and use them with all moderation and sobriety unto the Glorie of his Name who both made them and bestowed them upon us These plants and herbs God commands to spring out of the Earth which yields them the substance of that Body which they have and nourishment by which they are maintained Whence 3. Observe The substance of all Trees and Plants is from the Earth Observ 3 GOd brings food out of the earth saith the Prophet David Psal 14.104 and our Saviour himself tells us that the earth brings forth fruit out of her self Mark 4.28 Let us then behold and admire the wonderfull power of that God who out of the same masse of the Earth is able to produce such infinite variety of Creatures so far different one from another in Shape Nature and Use so many comely proportions out of such a rude lump so many various Smells and Tastes out of that which of it self hath neither Taste nor Sent at all Nay life it self out of that which is wholly without life as the Earth is which notwithstanding yieldeth such variety of sundry sorts of living Herbs and Plants which may occasion us farther to 4. Observe God can and usually doth draw Life out of Death it self Observ 4 THis he manifested That he was able to do in that vision of the Dry bones representing the state of his own people Ezek. 37.10 This he doth in the whole course of nature All seeds dye before they be quickened as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15.36 Yea our own bodies are nourished by dead food and receive Life and strength thereby Reason 1. God can do it who is the Life and hath Life both In and Of Himself Joh. 5.26 and therefore can quicken the dead vers 21. 2. And it is fit he should do it for his own honour that he may be the more wonderful and admired of all men in all his wayes and works Let it strengthen our faith when in our own judgment we seem to be in a dead condition as feeling in our selves no power of Grace no Life the Spirit of God that quickned us when we were dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 both can and will certainly recover us out of that seeming deadnesse of our hearts that sicknesse is but like unto Lazarus his short death only for Gods further glory Ioh. 11.4 And let it encourage us to expect the resurrection of our bodies with holy Job Chap. 19.26 by the power of him that quickeneth the dead Rom. 4.17 whereof the ordinary course of natural effects give evident testimony as the Apostle proves at large 1 Cor. 15. We see besides that God takes further order that these herbs and plants should every one of them have seed in it self by which though they perish daily yet the Kinds of every one of them might be preserved lest the Creatures should in time be utterly destroyed Whence 5. Observe God provides for all his Creatures that though they decay daily yet they shall not wholly perish Observ 5 ALl Creatures that are nourished waste every moment but God hath provided them food by which they are repaired and kept alive and when they dye and perish in their own bodies yet he hath ordained that by propagation they should be renewed in their kinds Psal 104.30 This continual decay and change God hath in his Wisdom decreed 1. To shew his own unchangeable continuance by the mutability of the Creature Heb. 1.11 12. 2. To quicken us to a longing desire after heaven where all things are durable and constant whereas here below they are subject to change every moment He hath likewise decreed the renewing of the face of the Earth Partly to shew himself a faithful Creator And partly to preserve his own works to be monuments of his Goodnesse Wisdom and Power Let Gods example teach us to extend our care to make provision for Posterity not only in our own Children in whom every man desires to continue his name and in furnishing our own store with continual supplyes although God is pleased to make use of such private respects for the preservation of Community but in General to provide for posterity that is to come after that we may leave all things and deliver them over into the hand of succeeding ages in as good estate as we found them since we cannot but acknowledge that God hath as it were put his stock into our hands not to waste and consume it but to manage it discreetly for our own use and necessary preservation and to deliver it over to our Successours for the same end God we see not only provides for the perpetuation of the Creature by successive Propagation but besides that the nature of every Creature might continue the same without change takes order that the Seed of every plant may be according to the kind of the plant that yeelds it Whence 6. Observe Fruits ought to do and certainly Will resemble the Nature of the Stock of which they come Observ 6 EIther Good or Evil according to the Tree or plants on which they grow Matth. 12.33 so that men gather not grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles Matth. 7.16 And this seems to be thus ordered by the Wisdom of God 1. For our sakes that we might more fully and perfectly know the kinds and natures of things which are manifested by the fruits which they produce And 2. for the manifesting of his Truth who desires that every thing should appear as it is seeing He himself is as He appears 1. Let good men then endeavour to shew forth the renewing of their nature by the works of the Spirit and not of the flesh that men may know and approve of them by their fruits and for them glorific God Matth. 5.16 lest they otherwise dishonour God scandalize Religion and corrupt others by their ill examples which men readily take up when they have the countenance of any godly mans failing to cloak the evils of their wayes 2. Let all men abhor all hypocrisie 1. As being in it self unnatural 2. Extreamly dishonourable both to God and to Religion 3. Dangerous to others when they are graves that appear not Luk. 11.44 4. Damnable to our selves seeing we cannot be hid from him that seeth in secret and knowes our thoughts afar off Psal 139.2 or left unpunished by him who being a God of Truth must necessarily pour out his wrath upon all false dissemblers VERSE 14. LEt there be Lights in the Firmament They that conceive that the Sun Moon and Stars were made the First day because otherwise there could have been no distinction of Day and Night as we see there was and thereupon conceive that in these verses there is related only the fixing of them to their places it seems never well considered the letter of the Text.
bodies and spirits 2. In divers parts of the Earth to temperate the Ayre which is inflamed there by the extream heat of the Sunne 3. To make way for the falling of those sweet and comfortable dewes by which the Earth especially in those hot countreys is much refreshed 4. And to manifest by experience the comfortablenesse of the Light by interrupting and cutting it off daily by the darknesse of the night and so discovering the comfortablenesse of the presence of that glorious Creature by the terrours occasioned by the absence thereof Let no man in Use confound those things which God hath severed in nature by turning day into night and night into day shutting and closing their eyes against the Light of the day by unseasonable sleeping and opening them to the darknesse of the night using the day for their rest and the night for their sports and pastimes surfeiting and drunkennesse chambering and wantonesse a Custom though sometimes countenanced by great examples yet in true estimation preposterous and every way unprofitable and commonly by experience found to be as much prejudiciall to health as it is undoubtedly crosse to Nature The next use of these Lights is to be for signs or Indications of events which are to follow as natural causes are Prognostickes oftentimes of their effects to ensue now seeing God hath among therest appointed them for this end we by warrant may 6. Observ It is not unlawfull by the Stars and Planets to guesse at some events that are to follow Observ 6 WHether certain and infallible as Summer and Winter which God himself hath promised shall never cease Gen. 8.22 And which we constantly and upon good ground expect according to the Revolutions of those heavenly bodies or probably onely as Heat Cold Rain Drout whereof there may be some sleight guesses by the conjunction of those Celestial bodies but more probable conjectures when the effects themselves begin to appear as rain in the skie which is lowring red which our Saviour himself allowes to be a sign of Rain presently to follow Math 16.3 Onely we must take heed that we ground no more but conjecture upon such signs as these Nay beyond all this as we have already intimated although these general Causes work very uncertainly upon things here below yet the conjunctions of the Planets especially in Eclipses though they point not out the particular events to follow in the Persons Places Times Measure and Manner thereof yet they may not unprofitably stir us up to the expectation of some observable events to ensue which experience shewes us to fall out accordingly sometimes Let no man upon this ground undertake by the observation of those Celestiall bodies to guesse at the knowledge of such future events as they were never appointed for neither in their own Nature can foreshew as the disposition of mens minds successe of their affaires Length of their lives kinds of their death Mutations and Periods of Kingdomes and Cities and the like Curiosities which are condemned by God Isa 47.13 and unprofitable to men to busie their heads about seeing Constellations have their operations in such events only as general causes which effect nothing farther then they are seconded by the more immediate working of particular causes 2. The nature of many of them is rather guessed at than distinctly known and consequently our guesse at their operations must needs be very uncertain 3. If their Nature could be fully known yet the Impediments of their Operations partly by the frequent failing of Particular and Immediate causes and partly by the different disposition of the Subjects on which they work are so many that the effect hath an exceeding uncertain dependance on them which the frequent failings of the predictions grounded thereupon doth evidently discover A Third Use of these Lights and Celestial bodies is for the determining of Seasons by which the labours of men and their affaires are directed Thus we see what a stroke God hath by the Influence of these heavenly bodies on things below in all the affaires of men VVhence 7. Observe All especially the chief of the affaires of men are ordered and directed by God himself from heaven FAring and Harvest have their dependance on the Spring Summer and Autumn included under the names of Summer and Wanter Gen. 8.22 all of them appointed by God in their seasons by the Motions of the Celestial bodies The light of the day sets men on work Psal 104.23 then comes the Night when no man can work Joh. 9.4 Fair weather invites men to labour abroad the Snow and Rain seal up their hands Job 37.7 and confine them to their houses Nay much more is the successe and prospering of all mens labours from heaven From thence they are prospered Deut. 28.12 Mal. 3.10 or blasted Deut. 28.23 24. Hag. 1.10 So that Good and Evil are dispensed as it were out of his storehouse that men may know his work Job 37.7 Let all men then have their dependance upon God who onely Ruleth and disposeth of the Heavens Stars yea of the Clouds that let down the rain on the Earth which are turned about by his counsel to do whatsoever he commands whether in Mercy or Judgment Job 37.12 13. He must hear the Heavens and the Heavens the Earth and the Earth the Corn and Wine Hos 2.22 Let us then pray to him 1 King 8.35 as Elijah did 1 King 18.42 Fear him Jer. 5.22 and behold his Metcy or Judgment in all these dispensations Job 37.13 that our hearts may be sometimes quickned to thankfulnesse and at other times be humbled before him The last Use of the Lights is for dayes and years that is for Computation of Times without which neither could we well either give directions for things to come nor take account of things past without such a means of computing Times which must needs cause great Confusion in all mens affaires So that amongst divers blessings which we enjoy from God this rule for the computation of Times is not to be accounted the least VERSE 15. TO give light And not only to have it in themselves Now under this name of Light is included that secret and effectual Influence which those Celestial bodies cast out with their Light upon things here below to make all things fruitful and to cherish the Creatures Upon the Earth Which hath neither light nor life in it self but that which it borrowes from above It is not amongst the least of Gods Wonders that these Celestial bodies should cast out their light and influence at such an incredible distance as we shall see anon Now this Light and Influence which they convey unto the Earth although it be especially serviceable to men yet we find by experience to be a singular benefit to the rest of the Creatures or at least to the most of them We cannot but take notice that this Light which God hath now planted in the Sun was notwithstanding Created before it that it might be the more evident
his Instruments Observ 3 THis course God hath constantly observed from the beginning to this day unlesse it were onely in the Conception of our Saviour Christ by the Blessed Virgin He Himself indeed is the Father of all Creatures and he gives strength to conceive seed and that sometimes beyond the ordinary course of nature as he did unto Sarah and Elizabeth but yet so that they conceived seed by their Husbands Now this Course God holds 1. That by this meanes the Creatures might be the more firmly united in love and every one of them might be stirred up to provide for his own flesh 2. That the Power of God might be the more manifested in the weaknesse of the Instrument which propagates life to another which it neither had from nor can continue in it self When we Consider the vastness of the Sea we can never sufficiently admire the infinite power that appoints it to be replenished with fishes This indeed hath been a great vanity and folly for any man to undertake as work beyond his power but God undertakes and performs it Whence 4. Observe There is nothing so Vaste or Wide but God can easily Furnish and Fill at his Pleasure Observe 4 AS he hath done the whole Compasse of the Earth with Herbs and Plants yea with Men and Beasts The Sea with Fishes the Heavens of such an incredible extent with Starres 1. Seeing he hath abundance of Spirit Mal. 2.15 which enables him to create Millions as easily as to create One 2. Because he created nothing in vain but proportioned in his Infinite Wisdome the works which he made according to the measure of the Creatures that should store it seeing we account it folly in men to build a Large House for a Small Family Let all men depend on Him for sufficiency He that stored the Earth the Sea and the Heavens shall we doubt whether he can furnish one of our poor Cottages fill every one of our bellies provide Portions for a few of our Children Or shall we fear that he who satisfies the desire of every living thing will neglect his own or encrease his Family beyond the portion of his provisions There remains even in the best a Leaven of Atheisme by which we are prone to measure God according to the scantlet of Men. Moses himself doubts where God can find means to fill the bellies of six hundred thousand men with flesh Numb 11.21 but if God undertake we see he makes it good Out of the same heart of unbelief it is that we are questioning what we shall eat or drink or put on Matth. 6.31 As if he that made this world out of nothing could not as easily have made and furnished a thousand if he had thought it fit Nothing shall be left empty of all that he hath made only our unsatiable desires which he never made he never promised nor intended to fill VERSE 24. LEt the Earth bring forth Or cause to come forth as it were out of the womb A phrase that notes rather the place wherein than either the Efficient or Material cause or Manner in which they were produced As for the Manner it was meerly Supernaturall by a work of Creation in which the Earth could have no efficacy at all it being an Act of Gods immediate Power alone The Matter of which they were Created was in all probability taken out of the Earth as we see afterwards the Body of Man was but that is more then this phrase implyes which notes onely Out of what they were produced which was out of the Earth and Where they were to abide The living Creature Plants and Herbs we know are said both to Live and Dye but because that is but an imperfect life as wanting the two main faculties in which Life is exercised Sense and Motion therefore those Creatures that enjoy that more perfect life exercising those faculties are termed by an eminency Living Creatures After his Kind By which as they were distinguished in their first Creation both in Form and Nature so they here ordered and appointed by God to continue to the worlds end distinct one from another in their successive propagation by which they were to be multiplyed Cattel The word Behemoth which Moses useth in this place as some think signifies most properly the greater kinds of Beasts But we find it generally when it is put without any addition used for any kind of four-footed beast But in this place it seems to be set in opposition against the beasts of the field and therefore is conceived to signifies tame Beasts which men keep about them in their Grounds or Houses for Food Labour or Pleasure Beasts of the Earth Wild Beasts called Beasts of the Earth because they are not within any Inclosures but have the wide earth to range in at their pleasure As for the name Caijah by which they are called in the Hebrew Language it is derived from a word that signifies to live whether it be given them for their Livelinesse in which many of them surpasse tame beasts or because they are many of them beasts of prey and are nourished by other living Creatures it is not much material Why God made not the Beasts with the Birds and Fishes on the fifth day but made them on the sixth day together with man it is Curiosity to enquire God had power to make What and When he would and is not to be accountable to us for any of his actions or for any Circumstance of them It is enough to stop all mens mouthes That it pleased him so to do Yet we may probably guesse that seeing Beasts were nearer to men in their dwelling God was pleased to make them together which were to dwell together Onely we are to take notice that the Beasts were produced out of the earth out of which as we shall see by and by the body of Man was taken too VVhence we may 1. Observe Man and Beasts are of near Alliance Observ 1 OF one Common Parent the Earth in respect of their bodies even of the same Substance nourished by the same food confined at the least at present to the same habitation and to be resolved with them into the same dust of which we were made so that we may say unto the worm Thou art my Mother and my Sister Job 17.14 Let us then blesse Him that hath put so great a difference between them and us 1. In Nature having given men wisdom and understanding which he hath denied unto the Beasts of the field Job 35.11 2. In our advancement who hath put them under our feet making them our Vassals and us their Lords Psal 8.6 7. 3. In our Spiritual estate in making us at present members of his Son and thereby his Children by Adoption and heires of his glory Let it please us with our Condition encourage us to his service who hath so highly advanced us abase us in our thoughts and esteem of our selves and move us to Mercy and Compassion even
therein Deut. 32.8 And good reason it should be so seeing the Earth being his and the fulnesse thereof Psal 24.1 no man can warrant his title to any part thereof unlesse he can derive it from God either Immediately which is by a Natural title by first subduing it or Mediately by a Civil title which is derived from thence Let every man labour to derive his title to his possessions from God Now we hold Lands from God when we hold them by just Title warranted by him which may be either Naturall or Civil A Natural Title men gain by possessing and subduing any void portion of the Earth which is the firmest and surest holding in the World A Civill Title is that which is gotten by Inheritance Gift or Purchase from those either Immediately or Mediately which formerly possessed it by such a Natural Title We must withall labour to adde unto this a Religious Title that having forfeited all our right which we had unto the earth and the blessings thereby by Adams rebellion being now restored by Christ whom God hath made heir of all things Heb. 1.2 we may enjoy whatsoever God hath allotted unto us in Him in whom we have the Promises both of this life and of that which is to come and from whom Abraham through faith derived his Title to be heir of the World Rom. 4.13 By that title Psal 37. those that wait on the Lord ver 9. the Meek ver 11. the Righteous ver 29. and Psal 25. ver 12 13. those that fear the Lord shall inherit the Earth But God not onely warrants man to replenish and possesse the Earth but appoints him withall to subdue it that is by Culture and Husbandry to Manure and make it fit to yield fruits and provisions for the sustaining both of men and beasts which God hath appointed to receive their food out of the Earth which is done by Planting Earing Sowing and other works of Husbandry Whence 6. Observe Those that have possessions in the Earth must withall so manure and husband them that they may be made useful and fruitfull Observ 6 THis indeed was mans task in his Innocency wherein though God planted for him a Garden full of all choice fruits for necessary use and delight yet he appointed man some labour about it to keep and dresse it which he commanded upon a double ground 1. That thereby Man might the better observe the blessing of God in the fruitfulnesse of the Creatures 2. That observing the wayes of Gods providence in blessing the labours of his hand man might be stirred up to more chearfulnesse in his service But in this state of Man since the Fall this Commandement of God binds us more strongly to humble us the more by getting our bread with the sweat of our browes Gen. 3.19 So that plenty of bread is now annexed to hard labour Prov. 12.11 28.19 And withall such kind of labour is not onely for necessity but exceeding profitable to man both for the preserving of the health of his body and for preventing those distempers of the mind that Idlnesse would certainly pester it withall So our present condition considered in labour there is profit every way Prov. 14.23 But besides the dominion of the Earth God is pleased to put under mans feet the rest of the works of his hands the Fowls Fishes and Beasts of the field and to make him Lord over them all both to govern them and to make use of them for his service Whence 7. Observe All the Creatures of the Earth are the Servants of Man by the Appointment of God Himself Observ 7 SEe Ver. 26. Observ 10. They were indeed so ordained to be by God and continued to be till mans Apostacy And even since the Fall God hath been pleased to renew this priviledge which sin had forfeited as we see he did in expresse terms to Noah Gen. 9.2 after the Flood Which also we still enjoy in a great part so that the fear of man is upon the rest of the Creatures still And howsoever they serve not so willingly as they should have done if man had not fallen yet we see the power of man prevailes over them to master and tame them in a great part Jam. 3.7 An argument of the great power of God that we prevail over such Creatures as both in the fiercenesse of their nature and strength of their bodies do far excell us If then the Creatures obey us not or if they do it rather by force then willingly and sometimes cast off the yoak and offer violence to their Masters thank Sin for that as well as for many other mischiefs but from the beginning it was not so VERSE 29. BEhold That is Take notice of a speciall favour although all the Creatures are mine as being the work of mine own hand yet am I well pleased that some of them should perish to preserve and keep you alive It may be withall that by this particle of Observation he points at Gods provident Care in providing means to sustain Man before he had Created him I have given you Who am Lord of all and therefore have power to dispose of mine own as I please And though you can claim nothing in your own right yet you shall receive all of my free gift And I have given expresseth the full ratification of the Gift as not to be expected hereafter but to be enjoyed presently from that very instant Every herb bearing seed By which though you spend the herb yet the kind of it may be still preserved and so the provisions for the sustaining of your lives renewing daily may be sufficient to yield you a lasting supply of food for time to come Which is upon the face of the Earth Which you are to replenish and subdue The words seem to enforce a double encouragement to labour The first from necessity as if he had said Husband the Earth well for it is the fruitfulness of the Earth by which you must support your lives The Second for the Interest which God gave them in the fruits of their Labours As if he had said Bestow your labour in husbanding and manuring the Earth well for you shall eat the fruits of it so that you shall labor but for your own good In which is the fruit of a Tree For it is only the fruit of any tree that we make use of for food The leaves may be sometimes useful for Medicine but only the fruit is our food To you it shall be for meat Thus God expresseth the use of the Herbs and Fruits which he had given Man that they should be for their food in which clause is withall included a secret Blessing of God upon them that they should not onely be meat but nourishment too For Herbs and Fruits are not presently nourishment because they are eaten neither do they prove so to all nor at all times It is true that Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out
of free bounty 2. Depending and trusting on him by Faith as we are directed Psalme 37.3 grounded on his Promise I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Hebr. 13.5 3. Walking in a Course of Holy Obedience to which sufficiency and abundance in all blessings of this life is promised Deut. 28.13 and Psalme 81.13.16 Especially to diligence in an honest Calling he that tilleth his Land shall be satisfied with bread Prov. 12.11 He that laboureth with his hand the thing that is good shall have both to supply his own wants and an overplus to give to him that needs Eph. 4.28 2. For shame Let us serve him faithfully who feeds us as it were at his own Table nay prepares a Table before us and makes our Cup to run over Psal 23.5 And besides Warmes us and cloatheth us with the flieces of his own Flocks which He gives as he did to Abraham Gen. 24 35. Yea abaseth Himself so low as to take off our yoak from us and to lay our meat before us Hos 11.4 And beyond all this supports and protects us by his Power so that the Everlasting armes are underneath us Deut. 33.27 So that we dwell in safety alone verse 28. and no evil comes near our dwellings The kinds of the provisions which God allowed unto Man followes Herbs and fruits of trees must be his food both of them but a little before and produced out of the Earth by the powerfull Word of Gods Mouth upon the third day verse 11. So that we may out of that Consideration 6. Observe All the Provision that God hath allowed Man for his food is drawn out of Earth Observ 6 WHence by his own blessing upon the labours of Men he brings it forth Psal 104.14 And if we consider it well what are Corn Fruits Cattel and their flesh on which we feed but Earth as it were refined and changed both in shape and quality but not in substance Neither is this more true then necessary that Mens bodies which are themselves out of the Earth should be nourished out of the Earth that is with a kind of food that is proportionable to themselves neither is it more necessary then it is Convenient that the heart of Man by the consideration thereof may be kept low by the representation of the basenesse both of his Original and End that he came out of the earth and thither must return again set before him in every dish at his Table which he feeds upon It justly taxeth both our nicenesse and foolish pride in making that an occasion and meanes of lifting up our hearts and glorying to others by which God most endeavours to humble and abase us our food and cloathing being both of them Evidences of our Weaknesse Basenesse and Shame who being made of Earth dwelling in houses of Earth or Clay as Job calls them Job 4.19 and getting our bread and food out of the Earth are withall cloathed with no better then Earth from whence we draw our finest linnen immediately and from whence the flieces of our flocks the skins and costly furres which we borrow from the backs of beasts are derived in the second descent O Earth Earth Earth know thine own vilenesse and glory not in thine owne shame as wicked Men are justly charged to do Phil. 3.19 If we lay together the dispensations of God unto Man we may easily observe and have cause seriously to consider how strangely God levels Mans waies thereby and tempers together our Advancement and Abasement First Adam is made as it were a God upon Earth and now a Worm feeding as it were upon the dust first a Lord over all the works that God had made to rule and Command them and now made to stoop in a sort to his own vassails and to make use of them for the sustaining of his life Whence 7. Observe God doth strangely counterballance our Honours and Abasements in all his dispensations unto us Observ 7 THus the Prophet David professeth that God did lift him up and cast him down Psal 102.10 Thus he dealt with Jacob whom he advanced in his Birth-right and Blessing above his brother Esau and made him his Lord and not long after brings him down before him on his knees Makes Moses the reputed son of Pharaohs daughter and by and by an Exile and Shepherd in Midian and from that base condition advanceth him to an estate above the greatest Monarchs of the world Thus he dealt with David Job and many others And in the same manner he deals with all his children in spiritual things tempering our advancement with abasement as he dealt with S. Paul 2 Cor 12.7 our Consolations with Heavinesse of spirit our Holinesse with manifold Corruptions And thus it pleaseth him to deal with us 1. To fit us to that condition of basenesse in which he hath placed us in this World 2. To keep our hearts low and humble which especially in this state of Corruption we are so hardly brought unto lest we forget both our selves and which is much worse Him that made as all things so us also for his own honour which Agur feared Prov. 30.9 In the kinds of the food which God allowed to Adam we cannot but take notice of the homelinesse of that provision that God appoints him to feed on no way answerable to those delicates that our Luxurious Palates so much affect and delight in but wholsome and vulgar easily to be found in any place where he should set his foot It cannot be denyed but that those Herbs and Fruits before Gods curse came upon the Earth for sin exceeded both in Taste and Virtue those which the Earth now brings forth Notwithstanding since God makes such vulgar provision for the greatest Monarch that ever the Sun saw we may 8. Observe Plain and Ordinary Fare may and ought to content the best amongst men and is most agreeable to the Mind and Will of God Observ 8 THe Patriarchs of whom the world was not worthy feasted strangers with Veal and Butter Gen. 18.8 and themselves fed upon Pottage of Lentiles Gen. 25.34 Food convenient will content Agur Prov. 30.8 And our Saviours own provisions were but barley loaves and small fishes John 6.9 It is true that John Baptists feeding upon Locusts and wild honey was extraordinary and therefore not to be drawn into imitation And it must be granted that both for Civil and Religious Respects and Occasions we are permitted to a more free and liberal use of the Creatures for our food Rulers as Solomon implyes Prov. 23.1 and as appears by the provision which he made for his own Table and Family 1 King 4.23 and that of Nehemiah Chap. 5.18 and all other men of Abilities and Large Estates are permitted to make provisions for their Tables according to their Places and Conditions Yea men of ordinary rank upon Special Occasions of Marriages Birth of Children entertaining of friends holy feastings and like are allowed to exceed their ordinary proportions Provided alwayes 1.
earth and the Earth the Corn and Wine if any of them prosper Hos 2.21 Let us acknowledge the wonderful Goodnesse and Mercy of God that from time to time provides that means without which neither men nor beasts could possibly subsist and that constantly and seasonably so that neither Earing nor Harvest fail according to his promise Gen. 8.22 And withal take notice of his wonderful Power that makes the Rain a means of cherishing Life in the Herbs and Plants which it self hath no Life at all Without Rain or any help by humane culture God as Moses relates created the Herbs and Plants howsoever he pleaseth ordinarily to make use of both for the propagating and preserving of them Whence 6. Observe Though God be pleased to make Use of Mans Labour in Producing and Cherishing the Fruits of the Earth yet he can encrease and preserve them without it Observ 6 THis He manifested by causing every Seventh Year to produce Fruits sufficient for his people without any labour of theirs at all And indeed all that mans labour doth this way is but the applying of those means which have all their power and efficacy from God Man neither makes the Seed that he sows nor the Earth that receives and nourisheth it nor gives the one power to yield it nourishment or the other vertue to receive it and to grow and spring thereby These are the Effects of Gods Power who gives to every seed his own body who sends forth his Spirit and renewes the face of the earth Psal 104.30 and blesseth the springing of the fruits thereof Psal 65.10 Let no man then burn incense to his own net or yarn or think highly of his own wisdom or diligence as the cause and means by which his fields of Corn or Pastures are made fruitful seeing both our Strength to labour is from God and our Wisdom to manage our affairs aright is from him too Isa 28.26 and this blessing upon our labours is that only that makes them successeful So that every way it is he that gives ability to get wealth Deut. 8.18 riches are his blessing Prov. 10.22 without which it is in vain to rise early and to eat the bread of sorrow and carefulnesse Psal 127.2 Notwithstanding though Moses hereby proves these Herbs and Plants were the work of Gods hand at the first because there was no man to till the ground he must necessarily imply that ordinarily there is required mans labour in the producing and cherishing of the fruits of the Earth So that we may 7. Observe Though the fruitfulnesse of the Earth come only by Gods blessing yet the labour of man is required as the ordinary means to further it Observ 7 TO that indeed is the promise of Gods blessing annexed Deut. 28.8 12. Prov. 12.11 Now this labour God hath laid upon the generation of men Partly to humble us as appears by that Curse upon Man after his Fall and Partly to exercise both our Bodies and Minds and that for the good of them both seeing idlenesse as experience teacheth us both fills the body with ill humours and the Mind with noisome lusts and lastly that being daily busied about the Creatures we might the better observe the wayes of Gods providence in providing for blessing and supporting them and working by his influence both In and By them in a wonderful manner Let then every man apply himself to labour in the place that God hath set him in 1. In Obedience to Gods Command 2. Depending still upon Gods blessing which only must prosper his Endeavours lest otherwise sicknesses in his Body and noisom lusts in his Soul and the Curse of God upon his Estate waste and consume him and misery and beggery come upon him like an armed man Prov. 24.34 VERSE 6. ANd there went up a mist So many read it and then the sense is that as God only made the Creatures so he only cherished them neither by mans labour nor by Rain the ordinary means by which they now grow and live but instead thereof he prepared a Mist which he made to be sufficient to water the Plants which he had made But some there are who translate it Neither a Mist which also the Original may well bear And then the sense seems to be more clear and suitable to the scope of the Holy Ghost who to shew that the Plants and Herbs were produced meerly by the Power of God excludeth all the Ordinary means by which according to the Course of Nature they might be cherished both mans labour and the dew of Heaven whether by rain the more usual and effectual or so much as by a mist the weaker and lesse usuall means of nourishing the Plants Howsoever the words be rendred the scope of Moses appears to be this by excluding the help of any Second cause to make it evident that the Herbs and Plants were produced and sustained only by the Power of God that we might acknowledge the Equity of Gods Command in restraining man from eating of the sruit interdicted and might behold his Goodnesse and Bounty in bestowing on him the free use of all the rest of the fruits which he had Created for which man had never laboured So that if he denied man any sruit seeing he had no right to it it was just and equall and if he granted him any much more if he gave him all the rest it was out of favour and superaboundant bounty Now if we consider the words as we do in our Translation But a Mist We may 1. Observe God wants no variety of means to effect whatsoever he will Observ 1 IF there be no rain to water the Earth the Mist shall suffice if his People want corn to feed them in the wildernesse the Heavens shall rain down Mannah for their food If there be no other means to conveigh bread and flesh to Elijah the Ravens shall bring it him every morning and evening if that meanes fail he hath a widdow in Zarephath that shall provide for him if her proifions fail an handfull of meal in the barrel and a little oyle in the Cruse shall be sufficient to maintain him and her with her whole family till God send rain on the Earth Let no man despair when meanes seem to fail he that takes them away can provide other at his pleasure if they seem weak and insufficient in themselves he can make them sufficient by his Power If Christ be taken away from the Earth to ascend unto to his Father his Spirit shall descend upon the Apostles and work more effectually by their Ministery than it had done by Himself in the daies of his flesh when he was present with his Church here on Earth Now if we render those words as others do Neither a Mist We may 2. Observe God can and many times doth bring things to passe without any meanes at all Observ 2 SEe Gen. 1. ver 30. Obs 7. and ver 11. Obs 2. The end why Moses in this Narration excludeth
the means by which the Plants and Herbs are usually produced and cherished is to make it appear that therefore they were brought sorth by God Himself Whence 3. Observe Gods Power in effecting all things is never clearly discovered untill all meanes be removed Observ 3 SO much God Himself affirmes to Gideon Judg. 7.2.4 For where the meanes appear men who are too much inclined to judge of things by sense are more easily drawn to ascribe effects to Means that appear than unto the Divine Power that works by them which is not seen Besides the wisdome of man being as it is enmity against God there is a wonderful aptnesse in us to withold his Truth in unrighteousnesse and to advance the Creature above the Creator so that God for preserving his own nonour finds it needful many times to work without means as He did in that glorious work of our Redemption wherein he admitted no Creature to share with him in the work that men might glory only in the Lord Isa 63.5 or by such meanes as appear to be unable to effect by their own strength that work which is wrought by them This Mist Moses tells us rose out of the Earth as indeed all rain doth and fell down upon it again to water it and to refresh the fruits that grew upon it Whence 4. Observe Every Creature ought in an especiall manner to be Usefull unto that from whence it is produced Observ 4 SO is the rain unto the Earth out of which it is drawn up the Corn to him that sowes it and so should the children be ready to serve their Parents that brought them forth so just and equall is God in all his waies Let us then for shame return all unto that God from and by whom we and all things are lest all the rest of the Creatures arise up in judgment against us And let the Observation of that course which God hath set in nature be an especial meanes to quicken us unto that duty VERSE 7. FOrmed the Man Or Fashioned or as the Prophet David speaks pointing at our natural generation Psal 139.15 16. wrought curiously now in relation to this Forming it is that God is called our Potter Isa 64.8 Of the dust of the ground Or Clay as it is termed Isa 64.8 But dust seemes to be a name that more significantly expresseth both the base Matter of our bodies and the Power of him that fashioned them into so excellent a form of a matter baser and more unapt to be brought into fashion then clay it self not onely Earth but Earth that had no coherence or Consistence apt to be scattered by every puff of wind This name is commonly used to expresse our basenesse as Gen. 3.19 and 16.27 Now that clause of the dust of the ground is more significant then if he had said Out of the dust of the ground for that had onely expressed Of what matter he was made but this expresseth What he was made even dust fashioned into the form of a man so that he is still Dust as God termes him Gen. 3.19 and Solomon Eccl. 12.7 Breathed Immediately from himself or Secretly Breath Or Spirit because the Soul's residence in the body is manifested by breathing which we know never ceaseth till the Soul depart out of the body Now some observe that the word here used which is Neshemah is never applyed but to signifie either the Spirit of God or the soule of man Of life Or lives as it is significantly expressed in the Originall by the plurall number to expresse the severall faculties and Operations of life exercised by the soul in Vegetation Sense and Reason and the rest of the abilities subordinate thereunto which are so far diversified in the natures of them that although they proceed from one fountain yet they seem to be as so many severall soules by the diversity of their operations and by some have been conceived to be so indeed And man became that is this body formed of the dust into the shape of a man and the soul breathed into it by God became one person and being truly and really joyned togther the man consisting of them was a living Soul that is as soul is often taken in Scripture a living person A living Soul Living a natural life exercised in vegetation Sense and Reason Otherwise in respect of Spiritual life the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.45 opposeth the first Adam to the second and a living soul to a quickning spirit implying that man received now only a Naturall life but obtaines his Spirituall life only by Christ 1. Observe The Substance of mans body is exceeding base and vile Observ 1 AS is clearly manifested both in the Original and Dissolution of it Dust at first or more vile then dust and dust at last yea Dirr at present termed an house of clay Job 4.19 Comely indeed without but full of filthinesse within breeding and casting out corruption every day maintained by as base meanes as it self is Bread out of the Earth and flesh of such Creatures as in a few hours would turn into stincking carrion and cloathed with Skins or Excrements of Beasts and worms or Linnen out of the Earth as vile as either Let no flesh glory in beauty which is Vanity Prov. 31.30 Or esteem the man whose breath is in his nostrils Isa 2.22 Or delight in making provision for the flesh but first long after that estate wherein the Corruptible and Earthly bodies shall be made Heavenly and Spiritual and in the mean time labour to beautifie the hidden man of the heart which God sets much by Pet. 3.3 4. labouring to adorn it with grace and to cloath it with Christs Righteousness This dust as base as it was God wrought curiously into the shape and form of a Man Whence 2. Observ How base soever the matter of mans body is yet God hath framed it into a curious and excellent piece of work Observ 2 JOb tells us that not only Gods Hand made him and fashioned him round about Job 10.8 But farther that he Cloathed that is covered and adorned him with flesh and skin after he had fashioned and finished the firm frame of his body of bones and sinewes Ver. 11. The Truth is that of all visible Creatures there is none that in any sort equals man in the curious composition of his body whether we look upon the Beauty and Majesty of his Person or take notice of the Variety Nature and Use of his severall parts with their composition and framing of them together in a wonderfull order and correspondence one to another which even heathen Men behold with admiration of the Wisdom Goodnesse and Power of Him that made them 2. Let it assure us of Gods provident care for the sustaining and supporting of a work on which he bestowed so much Art in framing and composing it especially since we know him to be a faithful Creator who neglects nothing that he hath made 2. Let us honour the Lord even
and hereafter be partaker of Eternal glory having been used as an instrument for Gods service Let all those lay it to heart that delight in Idlenesse and therein not only walk inordinately 2 Thess 3.11 but besides corrupt their own minds destroy their bodies trouble their neighbours and help to ruin society These are indeed the Moaths and Caterpillers of the Earth living upon the sweat of other mens browes whose portion is shame and misery at present and vengeance from God hereafter without repentance Now it was God Himself that appointed Adam this employment Whence 2. Observe Mens Callings and Employments are by Gods own Appointment Observ 2 FIrst the Calling God appoints either expresly by his Word as the calling of Husbandmen Gen. 3. of Magistrates Numb 11.16 Rom. 13.1 Ministers Exod. 28.1 Souldiers Exod. 17.9 Or by warranted Examples as feeding of Sheep and other Cattel Merchandise all sorts of Manufactures and the like Or else such as have been enforced by necessity which seems to be the ground of many Callings now in use Secondly the designation of men unto particular callings is also from God either immediately as Moses and Aaron Bezaleel Aholiab Gideon the Prophets and Apostles or by the Ministery of Angels as Philip was by an Angel from a Deacon called to be an Evangelist Act. 8.26 Sampson appointed to be a Judge Judg. 13.3 John Baptist to be Christs Messenger Luke 1.17 Or most usually by the election and choice of men directed therein either by expresse commission from God by Word of Mouth as Moses was to choose Joshuah to succeed him Elijah to anoint Elisha Samuel Saul and David and the Prophet John Or by marking out the men by special extraordinary endowments as Bezaleel and Aholiab or most commonly by that ordinary wisdom and discretion which God hath given Parents Guardians and Magistrates to choose out fit employments for such as are under their government so the Elders of the Church called by the Apostles or the Church with their advice and assistance are said to be set over the Church by the Holy Ghost Act. 20.28 Good reason it should be so seeing 1. We our selves are Gods and consequently to be disposed of by him every way 2. And the work in which we are employed is his service Col. 3.24 3. And the abilities by which we are enabled to perform it are his gifts Isa 28.26 4. And the successe in the work must be by his blessing Psal 127. 5. And the recompence of the service must be his reward Eph. 6.8 Col. 3.24 Let every man then in his Calling so carry himself as Gods servant 1. Undertaking it by his warrant either by Publique or Private direction or by bestowing on us Abilities for the employment or by presenting Opportunities outwardly or moving us Inwardly by strong constant and regular inclinations thereunto 2. Walking in it with Fear Fidelity and Chearfulnesse Eph. 6.6 7 8. 3. Guiding himself by the rule of Gods Word directing him either by particular precepts or by general rules 4. Ayming therein at the right end seeking not so much our good as the good of Community 5. And abiding therein till God Himself discharge him 2 Cor. 7.20 either 1. By taking away the use of the calling it self as of a Souldier in time of peace or by disenabling him either in body or mind to follow it as Nebuchadnetzar was forced to cease ruling when he was mad 3. Or by withdrawing his needful maintenance they cannot serve at the Altar that cannot live of the Altar 4. Or by furnishing the person with Abilities fitting him with opportunities or urging him by just occasions to undertake some more serviceable employment This is truly to abide with God in ones Calling 1 Cor. 7.24 But what need was there of Adams labour in Paradise which was able sufficiently to maintain and supply him with all things convenient either for necessity or delight without his labour or what need he labour at all who was Lord of the whole world yet we see God layes this employment upon him to dresse and keep this Garden Whence 3. Observe Duty and not Gain to our selves is or should be the ground and scope of the undertaking of all our particular Callings Observ 3 THis Duty we owe 1. To God whose we are and to whom we must be accountable for all that we do whence the Apostle requires every man to continue in his place because he is called of God 1 Cor. 7.20 as being there in the servants of God or Christ Eph. 6.7 2. To men serving one another thorough love labouring not so much what is good to our selves as what is good generally to others with our selves Eph. 4.28 not seeking our Own but the profit of many 1 Cor. 10.33 This is a truth founded upon the Principles of Nature as appears by the account the world makes of such men as labour out of Conscience and Duty with respect to the Common good as appears in the examples of Jehojadah 2 Chron. 24.16 Mordechai Hest 10.3 and the base esteem that it hath of such as do all things in relation to their private advantages and pursue only the wayes of their own gain It is true that men May and Ought to aym at Competency for the maintaining of themselves in their employment without which it is impossible for them to do service therein Nay when God so blesseth their labours that they find an overplus above their needful expences they may lawfully lay up for themselves and their posterity after them as Abraham did for Isaac and Isaac for Jacob. But that respect to the enriching of themselves or theirs should neither be the ground of undertaking nor the rule of managing any mans employment as being contrary to all grounds of Religion and destructive to Community 1. Because it guides all our actions and excludes all Justice and Mercy towards our Brethren 2. It shuts us out of all hope of recompence of reward from God whom we serve no longer then we deny our selves and serve one another through Love Let every man then be careful to undertake and enter into his particular Calling 1. Upon a right ground as one called thereunto by God though not immediately yet by such means as are warranted by him 2. And to propose unto himself therein a right End not so much the enriching of himself as the serving of others through love and advancing the common good Considering 1. That we are not our Own but his who hath Created Redeemed and doth Continually preserve us who therefore only hath power to dispose of us at his own pleasure and to whom only we are to yield obedience in doing his Will even in the services of men Eph. 6. bringing forth fruit unto him Rom. 7.4 acknowledging when we have done all we can that we are unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 2. Our obligation to our brethren we are members one of another and therefore ought not to have any thing apart unto our selves 3.
and very great change as we shall see hereafter The curse might cause a change in the Serpents going not by altering the kinde of her going from stepping to creeping but by appointing it another part of the body to go upon then that which it went upon before For the emphasis seemes to be in Belly not in Go which Moses expresseth here by the word Telech which is of general signification and extends to any kinde of moving forwards whether by stepping creeping swimming or any other kinde of motion Now if God had given the Serpent a kinde of motion different from that which it had before it may be probably conceived that Moses would have expressed it by such a word as might signifie that difference This therefore seemes to be the most likely conjecture that before the curse the Serpent moved forwards upon the hinder part of her body with the breast and belly and head erected whereas now it creeps on the whole length of the body which conjecture may be strengthened by these arguments First we see that Serpents at this day upon occasion as when they assault a man or the like for a time raise up themselves upon the hinder part of their body so that the former part of it stands upright why may we not conceive then that before their strength was weakened by this curse they might do that alwayes which now they can do for a shift Secondly if we allow the Serpent such a manner of creeping with the former part of the body erect we may more plainly see the reason why Satan made choice of the Serpent in tempting the man for the subtilty of it which might consist somewhat in altering and changing her going When she was to conveigh her self into the Garden unespied she could apply her body close to the ground when she was to speak to the woman she could raise her self upright and so confer with her as it were mouth to mouth Thirdly we may in this curse discover the equity of Gods judgement upon the Serpent For if the Serpent could apply her self to do mischief unespied good reason she should be accursed to go in that manner ever after so that this curse might point directly at the sinne for which it was inflicted Now these at the best are but conjectures And dust shalt thou eate But experience teacheth that Serpents feed also upon and devoure other small vermine which the Prophet Esay seemes also to imply when speaking of that peace that should be in the restauration of the Church between all creatures he names the Serpent amongst the rest affirming that it should live by dust as the lion should do by straw implying that they both live by preying upon other creatures at present which then they should forbear Some therefore by eating dust conceive that God meanes living hardly as Serpents do which in the winter season living most in their holes get little food to sustain themselves But that is the condition of other beasts as well as of Serpents it seems therefore that this feeding upon the dust is opposed to the former manner of the Serpents feeding upon herbes and fruits after the manner of other beasts for if before the curse she went with the former part of her body erect as we have shewed already then might she be easily able to reach many sorts of herbes and fruits though growing above the ground as other beasts do whereas now creeping with her very mouth upon the earth she must necessarily take her food out of the dust and so lick in some dust withal so that though the dust be not all her food yet she taking all her food out of the dust and licking in the dust with it may not improperly be said to eate dust All the dayes Both thou and all thy kinde hereafter to the worlds end But what had the Serpent deserved being an unreasonable creature and consequently uncapable of any purpose or intention to do evil why is the beast punished for Satans fault who made use of the Serpent only as his instrument to do mischief To that it is easily answered that the derestation and hatefulnesse of sin is so great that it is fit to be manifested upon whatsoever is defiled with it Thus we break in pieces the sword dagge or other instrument of a Princes death dam up a Well in which any man hath been drowned And God himself will require a mans life at the hands of every beast Gen. 9.5 and therefore in his own Law appoints an Oxe that goares any man to death to be stoned Exod. 21.28 This part of the curse if we take the words according to the letter we see most properly belongs to the beast whereof Satan made use for the acting of this mischief Some there are notwithstanding that conceive that under the curse upon the Serpent is shadowed out the curse laid by God upon Satan who being created to look upwards for his Apostasie was by Gods just judgement throwen down to the earth and abased even below the dust and instead of delighting himselfe in God was carried by the inordinate motion of his spirit to exercise himself and to take delight in base and sensual things more vile then dust it selfe which was appointed to be the Serpents food But this curse upon Satan cannot be conceived to be inflicted in this place because it was laid upon him by God before he was an actor in this sinne Only in this that God will not vouchsafe to reason the case with Satan before he layes his judgement upon him 1. OBSERVE God many times will not so much as reason the case with such as he destinates to destruction Observe 1 EPhraim is joyned to idols let him alone Hos 4.17 and Ezekiels tongue must cleave to the roof of his mouth that he may not reprove and the Prophets must not prophecie that men may take shame Mic. 2.6 when God hath once decreed a peoples destruction Thus he dealt with the heathen that had no face of a Church amongst them he suffered them to walk in their own wayes Acts 14.16 only he might and did sometimes call them to accompt before their own consciences Rom. 2.15 as well to keep them within some bounds of civility for peace and orders sake as to give them a taste in present of that gnawing worme that dieth not by which they shall be everlastingly tormented hereafter And well may God deale thus with men seeing he is no mans debtor neither can gain any thing by administring Physick to dead men such as are alienated from the life of God Eph. 4.18 As for his own people whom he hath taken into Covenant with him he brings his judgements amongst them to light every morning though many times the unjust know no shame Zeph. 3.5 as well to win such as may be reclaimed as also to stop mens mouthes that no man might cavil at Gods justice when the obstinacy of men is made manifest in refusing the mercy
he shall take on him the very nature of man so that he shall truly and properly be called the seede of the woman 14. Notwithstanding he shall not be her seed by the ordinary way of natural generation but he shall be made immediately only of a woman not by the help of man for which cause he is called here the seed of the woman and not of the man 15. In this flesh of his Christ shall fight with Satan who after divers combates shall prevaile so far upon this sonne of the woman as to bring him by his instruments to the death of the Crosse which is the bruising of the heele here mentioned as farre as concernes Christs own person 16. This suffering of Christ in his flesh shall not wound him to death for it shall be only a bruise in the heele which is farre from any vital part 17. This combate between the two Commanders Christ and Satan and their armies in the issue and conclusion thereof shall end in a total and final overthrowing of Satan and breaking in pieces of all his power termed in this place the crushing of his head This ample Promise concerning the restoring of our first Parents and withall of all their posterity after them we see is pronounced against Satan as a part of his curse God telling him that this should be his judgement that those persons whom he had beguiled by faire pretences and drawn into rebellion against God should be delivered out of his snares Whence 1 OBSERVE Mans salvation is Satans grief and vexation Observe 1 HE is exceeding wroth because the Church escapes out of his hand Rev. 12.17 as he must needs be considering his inward malice and envie against God and man which carries him on violently to use all meanes to dishonour the one and destroy the other going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devoure 1 Pet. 5.8 so that the defeating of the effects of his malice against God and of his dangerous attempts against his people must be his greatest vexation especially when he findes withal by experience that his wrath turnes to Gods praise as the Psalmist speaks Psal 76.10 and to the good of his children Rom. 8.28 Let all the godly labour the more seriously to make their election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 watching carefully and using all diligence for that purpose 1 Pet. 5.8 assuring our selves that as many devils as there are in hell and as many wicked which are Satans seed and instruments as we converse withal here on earth so many open enemies or dangerous seducers we have about us lying in our way like the Amalekites in the children of Israels way to Canaan discouraging our hearts opposing our endeavours ensnaring our soules and labouring to cut off the meanes or at least to make them useful to us that might further us in our passage to heaven whom therefore it behoves us to suspect to avoid and to fight against with all our power as being utter enemies not only to our estates and lives but especially to the salvation of our soules It cannot be denied that the wrath of God was moved against Satan in the highest degree considering how many wayes he had wronged him in deceiving our first Parents So that he comes at this very instant to lay an heavy curse upon him and yet at the same moment he is moved with compassion towards the man and woman that were beguiled by him so that with the same breath he pronounceth a curse upon the one and a blessing upon the other as the words here expresly mention Whence 2 OBSERVE Gods indignation is never so much kindled against the wicked that he forgets his mercy towards his owne Observe 2 IN the instant of his destruction of the old world by the flood yet Noah found grace in his sight and God thought upon and took care for him both before the flood Gen. 6.8 and after Gen. 8.1 The like provision he made for Lot in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha Gen. 19.29 2 Pet. 2.6 the same respect he shewed towards the godly people in Judea Jer. 24.5 6. when he overthrew the state of that land and utterly destroyed the rest Ezech. 9.4 6. This shall be most clearly manifested at the last day when at that very instant wherein the wicked shall be cast into hell his own children shall be put into possession of their Kingdome Mat. 25.34 41. For God is not like a man subject to passions which transport him oftentimes beyond himself Nay the same Holinesse of his Nature that moves him unto wrath and indignation against the wicked stirs him up to compassion towards the godly as it is fit it should that the Judge of all the world may still do right in all things What our Parents had deserved at Gods hand we have seen already and now we see they do not so much as once open their lips to sue unto God for mercy and reconciliation before they speak or in probability think of their own good much more before they deserve it God out of his own goodnesse both deviseth and proposeth unto them meanes of their recovery out of this sad condition into which they had brought themselves Whence 3 OBSERVE Gods mercy towards man in the meanes of his salvation proceeds meerly from himself and is free every way Observe 3 IT proceeds meerly out of Gods love and kindnesse to man Tit. 3.4 5. out of which only it was that he sent into the world his Son Christ that embracing him by faith men might have eternal life John 3.16 1 John 4.10 and that when we were both sinners and enemies Rom. 5.8 our Justification is likewise out of his free grace Rom. 3.24 and our effectual calling seeing he seeks after us and not we after him Isa 65.1 and this love of his he dispenseth meerly according to his own Will Rom. 9.18 Reason 1. It can be no otherwise for seeing the being of the creature depends meerly upon Gods Will the condition of its being must of necessity depend upon the same Will But especially since mans fall what could there be in man to move God any wayes towards him unlesse it were to destroy him 2. Indeed as there is none that can give unto him first Rom. 11.35 or if he could can give him any thing that can profit him Job 35.7 so it s most equal that it should be so that the glory of Gods goodnesse might be entire unto himself alone when he bestowes it on those that cannot claime or deserve it 1 Tim. 1.16 Eph. 2.7 that every mouth might be stopped and all boasting taken away from men ver 9. when they have nothing of themselves but what they have received 1 Cor. 4.7 and have received nothing of desert but what was bestowed on them out of free grace The first beginning of mans recovery as God here promiseth shall be the renewing and sanctifying of their hearts for so much must necessarily be implied by this enmity that
pleasant This painfulnesse in labour must needs be a consequent of Gods curse upon the earth which thereby becoming more barren in it self required the more labour to make it fruitful So that the earth which of it self should be apt to bring forth nothing but briars and thornes with hard labour should yield him bread this clause hath in it both a precept and a promise Till thou return to the ground A phrase that both expresseth the continuance of his labour which should not end but with his life and withal pronounceth the sentence of death upon him and the corruption of his body after death This sentence although pronounced against the man alone yet comprehends the woman too who was to be mortal as well as he as the former injunction of painful labour is indifferently extended unto both the one and the other and all their posterity as all experience makes it evident For out of it thou wast taken Thus God manifests his justice in the censure which reduceth man to no worse condition then he was in at first So righteous is God in all his judgements and so careful to shew us the equity of them Now the woman was not framed out of the dust of the earth immediately yet seeing the man was made of dust it must needs follow that the woman who was taken out of him could be made of no better substance and therefore may be truly said to be taken out of the dust as well as the man For dust thou art As Psal 103.14 Eccles 12.7 And such are all the sonnes of Adam though cloathed with skin and flesh and senced with bones and sinews This indeed is the matter of all mens bodies whatsoever forme God is pleased to grace them withal And unto dust shalt thou return Flesh and bones and all as experience shews and so to continue till God raise us at the last day to cloath us with glory and immortality To begin with the first Clause mans labour in the sweat of his face We may 1 OBSERVE Mans employment in this life is in wearisom and painful labours Observe 1 ALl things indeed are full of labour Eccl. 1.8 But mans task especially is to labour with his hand Eph. 4.28 1 Thes 4.11 which if he do not by the Apostles censure 2 Thes 3.10 12. he must not eat It is true that some callings as Ministers and Magistrates imploy the minde most and not so much the body but those employments as all experience teacheth are of all the rest most wearisome and painful Reason 1. The curse that is laid upon the earth for sinne by which without hard labour it yields no fruits for the sustaining of mans life 2. The Lord hath so appointed it for mans good 1. To humble him by leaving him that remembrance of sin 2. To make him long for heaven Rom. 8.22 23. 3. To preserve the body in health See Eccl. 5.12 and to keep the minde in frame 2 Thes 2.11 which unlesse it be exercised in useful and profitable things is filled with vain and evil thoughts First this reproves all idle sloathful persons living without callings or idle in their callings or in unprofitable callings Who are all moaths 1. In the State Prov. 18.9 2. To themselves in their own estates Prov. 20.4 3. Enemies to their bodies and their minds both which idlenesse corrupts and weakens Secondly and should stirre us up to diligence in such employments as we are called unto 1. In obedience to Gods command 2. And as therein serving God and not men Eph. 6.7 3. And being profitable Prov. 14.23 to our selves Prov. 10.4 and others Prov. 21.5 4. And thereby procuring us a just title to what we possesse 2 Thes 3.12 Only 1. Labour that which is good Eph. 4.28 2. And with a desire to be profitable to community Psal 112.5 9. 1 Tim. 6.18 3. In a way of justice 1 Thes 4.6 4. Depending on God for his blessing on our labours which only makes them prosperous Psal 127.2 Thirdly long for heaven where we shall cease from all our labours Rev. 14 1â— Now if we observe this commandment we may take notice of a promise annexed or implied at least Adam must sweat but thereby he shall have bread to eat So that we may thence in general 2 OBSERVE There is profit in all the duties which God enjoyns us Observe 2 NOt only honour to God Mat. 5.16 though to speak properly God is not profited by our services Job 35.7 and good to men Job 35.8 But specially to our selves Deut. 6.24 and 10.13 who have by our labours sufficiency and in exercising our selves in other duties our fruit in holinesse and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 yea even in giving and exercising duties of mercy there is profit as well to our selves as to others Isaiah 32.8 Proverbs 11.24 25. Reasons 1. God who is in himself al-sufficient and perfectly blessed neither needs nor can be profited by any creature 2. Neither is it for his honour that his service should be unprofitable as wicked men unjustly slander him Job 21.15 3. Neither could his servants have otherwise any encouragement to go on in his service with cheerfulness which God requires Deut. 28.47 and delights in 2 Cor. 9.7 First it manifests the folly of wicked men joyned with fearful impiety who complaine of Gods government Mat. 25.24 as hard and rigorous esteem his laws bands and coards Psal 2.3 and reject them with the Capernaits Joh. 6.60 And in the meane time subject themselves to the yoke of Satan who seeks their destruction whose wayes yield them no fruit but shame Rom. 6.21 and profit them not at all Job 33.27 as themselves will be forced to acknowledge when it will be too late to help it Secondly make choice of Gods Commandments with David Psal 119.30 and that 1. Upon good grounds Psal 119.96 and 128. 2. And with a firm resolution to keep them Psal 119.106 1. As more easie Mat. 11.30 to a renewed heart 2. More honourable Prov. 12.26 both in respect of the Commander and of the Commandment 3. And more profitable both at present and hereafter Romans 6.22 4. And more full of peace and comfort Psal 119.165 The meanes to bring our hearts which by nature cannot submit unto Gods yoke Rom. 8.7 to make choice of and cleave to his Commandments are 1. To beg at Gods hands both wisdom to understand his Law Psal 119.18 and a renewed heart to encline to it ver 36. 2. To compare the wayes of sin with the ways of righteousness both in the present practice and in the issue of both at last Thirdly let all that are godly serve the Lord in all duties commanded by him with cheerfulnesse it should be joy to the just to do judgement Prov. 21.15 Gods Commandments should be sweeter to our taste then honey Psal 119.103 our delights ver 143. our joy v. 62. This cheerfulnesse our hearts may be wrought unto 1. By the love of God which makes all
him c. p. 105 God gives Bountifully p. 106 Gods blessings upon his Children ought to be remembred in Particular p. 107 Verse 27. Gods Purposes and Promises are all Yea and Amen p. 109 Gods Special Favours ought to be often Remembred ibid. The Distinction of the Sexes of Man and Woman is ordained by God Himself p. 110 Verse 28. It is by Gods blessing that Man must be sustained and upheld p. 110 God will have men to take notice of the Blessings that he bostowes upon them p. 111 God can easily bring Multitudes out of One p. 112 All men and Nations are of one Blood and have but one Father ibid. Mans Replenishing the Earth is by Special Command from God p. 113 Those that have Possessions in the Earth may so manure them that they may be useful and fraitful p. 114 All the Creatures of the Earth are the Servants of Man ibid. Verse 29. God created Man without Means p. 117 That God that hath given us life will give Means to preserve our life p. 118 Gods goodnesse in supplying us with necessary provision requires special observation p. 119 Men that have the greatest Possessions in the world must receive their Allowance from Gods Hand ibid. Mans Food is the gift of God p. 120 All the provision that God hath allowed Man for his Food is drawn out of the Earth p. 122 God doth strangely counterballance our Honours in all his dispensations unto us p. 123 Plain and Ordinary Fare may and ought to content the best amongst men ibid. Gods Allowance of Food to Man is of great variety p. 125 God gives us not our Provisions at once but by a continual Supply ibid. It is onely by Gods Decree and Blessing upon the Creatures that they have strength to nourish us p. 126 Verse 30. God allowes Sufficient Provision for the Creatures that he hath made p. 127 Men and Beasts are allowed by God the same Provisions of Food c. p. 128 Verse 31. The whole Frame of the Works which God made in the Creation of the VVorld is perfectly good p. 129 CHAP. II Verse 1. IT must be our Care to observe how God Disposeth and Ordereth that which he hath wrought Page 3 The Creatures that God hath made are to be looked on as an Army arrayed in an excellent and well composed Order ibid. God perfecteth every work that he takes in hand p. 4 Verse 2. God Commands nothing but that which is Convenient p. 6 God makes his Lawes Equal and Reasonable ibid. God Creates no more then what he made in the Beginning p. 7 God ceaseth not from his Works of Providence c p. 8 Verse 3. The Worship of God ought to be Mans first and chief care p. 13 God makes great account of the Sanctifying of his Sabbaths p. 14 The Sabbath Day is a day of Blessings ibid. The Sabbath is a Day of Rest set apart to an Holy Use ibid. The Law given by God to observe the Sabbath Day is Perpetual p. 18 Meditation in Gods Works is a Christians chief Exercise p. 19 Verse 4. He that gives things their Being may Order them as he will p. 21 When we mention the Being of the Creatures we ought to Remember Him that made them ibid. Verse 5. Every Herb and Plant is Gods Creature p. 22 The Mercies of God must be taken Notice of ibid. That which is brought to passe without ordinary Means must needs be wrought by the Power of God ibid. There can be no Rain on the Earth unlesse God send it p. 23 It is by Rain from Heaven that all the Herbs and Plants on the Earth do grow ibid. God makes use of Mans Labour to cherish the Fruits of the Earth p. 24 The Fruitfulnesse of the Earth comes onely by Gods Blessing p. 25 Verse 6. God wants no Means to effect whatsoever he will p. 26. God can bring things to passe without any Means at all ibid. Gods power is never clearly discovered till all Means be removed p. 27 Every Creatures ought to be useful unto that from whence it is produced ibid. Verse 7. The Substance of Mans Body is exceeding Base and Vile p. 28 God hath framed Mans Body into aa excellent piece of work p. 29 The Soul of Man comes Immediately from God himself p. 30 The Life of Man consisting in the union of the Soul with the Body hath a very weak foundation ibid. The Life of Man is onely by his Soul pag. 31 None worthy the Name of a Living Soul but he that lives by a Reasonable Soul p. 32 Verse 8. The Fruitfulnesse of one part of the Earth above another is from God Alone p. 34 Man can have no more title to any part of the Earth then God allowes him page 35 God bestowes upon men his Best and Chiefest Blessings p. 36 Verse 9. God takes Special Notice of all things that he bestowes upon us p. 39 Every Plant on the Earth growes where God Appoints it p. 40 Gods Bounty abounds unto men ibid. It is usual with God to mix delights and pleasure with usefulnesse and profit in all his blessings p. 41 The best amongst men have need of Outward Means to put them in mind of their Duties p. 42 Spiritual and Religious Duties ought to be remembred in our Employments in the things of this Life p. 43 Gods Commandements ought to be still before the face of his Children p. 44 God teacheth his Children by things of Ordinary and Common use ibid. God engageth himself by his Word to do us good p. 45 The continuance of Present and hope of future Life are assured by Gods Providence p. 46 All Gods Promises must be understood under the Condition of the performance of our Obedience p. 47 Good and Evill are bounded and limited only by the Will of God ibid. Verse 10. Gods Blessings are every way Compleat and Perfect Page 49 Springs and Rivers of Waters are not the least of Gods Mercies ibid. Verse 11. Gold is a Creature of great Price with Men. p. 50 God is none of the Creatures in which our Happinesse consists p. 53 Verse 15. Every Son of Adam is bound to some Employment or other in a particular Calling p. 55 Mens Callings and Employments are by Gods Own Appointment p. 57 Duty and not Gain should be the Ground of the undertaking of all our particular Callings p. 58 Mans Labour at last redounds unto himself p. 60 Mans Employment ought to be in those places where it is most needed ibid. The Labour of man makes nothing at all but only by his Husbandry c. p. 61 Verse 16. Experience of Gods goodnesse is the best Means to encourage us to chearful obedience unto Gods Will. p. 64 Mans Labour about the things of this life gives him good title unto that which he enjoyes p. 65 All Mans labour is for his own good ibid. The best way to quiet our hearts in what we want is to set before our eyes what we do enjoy p.
And this he doth 1. Because we could not otherwise observe Gods works if they were done in an instant we can take notice of nothâ—â—g but that which is done in time so great is our weaknesse 2. That our hearts might be the longer stayed upon the meditation of Gods works while we wait for the perfecting and full accomplishing of that which we see to be already begun Let it move us to wait upon God in the way of his providence with the greater care and watchfulnesse when we see how far God condescends unto our weaknesse and applies himself to our weak and slow understandings heedfully observing the beginings taking notice of the Progresse and waiting for the full accomplishment and perfecting of any work that he hath in hand Thus should Gods works be sought out of all that have pleasure therein Psal 111.2 VERSE 6. LEt there be a Firmament Or Body spread out like mettals that flow abroad when they are melted and as then they waxing cool grow firm and stiffe withall Some conceive this name Rakiah importeth the Firmnesse of the Heavens which opinion the Greeks seem to favour who translate it Stereoma which we in our Language render Firmament signifying not so much the Grossenesse or Thicknesse as the Strength and Compacted firmnesse of the Heavens unto which Elihu seems to allude Job 37.18 when he stiles it strong and as a melted Looking-glasse But it seems more probable that Rakiah implyes only the Extention or spreading out as Psal 104.2 not the compacted firmnesse of the Heavens seeing that under this name Firmament we must necessarily comprise as well the aire which is spread out over and round about the earth as that firmer body of the Heaven above of which more anon That the heaven above is understood by the name of Firmament it is evident because God set the Moon and the Sun and Starres in the Firmament vers 14. And that it includes the Aire also is as Evident seeing God appoints the birds to flye in the open Firmament ver 20. Now if we conceive the Planets and Stars to move in the Ayr which many with very great shew of reason maintain the opinion may seem to be favoured by the Holy Ghost in this Chapter who calling both the Ayr where the birds flye and the Heaven in which the Starres are carried by one name may seem to imply that they are both carried in the same body of the Ayr though at a great distance one from the other Howsoever it is most probable that the word Firmament in this place includes at the uttermost no more then the sphear in which the Stars are carried which is the uttermost bound of the visible world the making whereof was that which Moses only intended to describe in this place where we find nothing at all mentioned concerning the Third Heavens or the Angels who have their residence therein In the middest of the Waters That is as it is expressed in the next verse to be between the waters and to separate the waters above and below the Firmament Now what these Waters be that are below the Firmament we see but what is meant by the Waters that are above the Firmament is much questioned Some place them above the Starres and imagine them to be either a kind of Christal sphaere which is termed Waters for the resemblance which it hath unto waters congealed or else that there are true real waters there indeed Others by the Waters above understand the waters which are carried in the Ayr above the Earth in the Clouds and bound up in them Job 26.8 Which opinion if we embrace we must understand the word Firmament by a Synecdoche for the lower part of the Firmament in and above the lower part whereof the clouds are carried And let it divide That is by receiving and taking up part of the waters which are to be carried in clowds in the ayr and employed in watering the earth by consequent separate and divide them from the waters which remain here below Thus we see the first of those creatures which were formed out of that rude masse this huge vaste Firmament which our eyes can hardly measure of an extent almost incredible This is notwithstanding a part of Gods work created only by the Word of his mouth Whence 1. Observe The vaste and almost boundlesse Body of the heavens is the Work of God Observ 1 THe largenesse of this work although we extend it no farther then may be discerned by us that is to the starry sky is so great and almost exceeding belief that it cannot but astonish any man that thinks of it especially if we believe Astronomers dimensions according to which the least of the fixed stars exceeds the earth in bignesse nine times and according to that account the whole earth in comparison of the Heavens is not so much as the smallest hillock in comparison of the whole Earth and this is Gods Work called therefore Gods Heavens Psal 8.3 and the Heavens of the Lord Lam. 3.66 Let it set before us the infinite power of him that made it nay stretched it out like a Curtain Psal 14.2 and compare with this work Nebuchadnezars Babylon Dan. 4.30 or Ahasuerus hangings in the Pallace at Shushan Hest 1.6 or Solomons Temple or that which was after enlarged and beautified by Herod so much admired Matth. 13.1 and the rest of the famous works wrought by men which they accompted the wonders of the world and so whether they be if compared with this work so much as a drop to the whole Ocean and let it swallow up our Spirits with the admiration of the greatnesse of him whose work it is and whose immensitie notwithstanding the large extent of the heavens cannot be contained in them 1 King 4.27 We have already shewed that the Ayre is included under this name firmament or body spread out as well as the higher heavens So that the Ayre also is a part of Gods Work which we may not passe by without taking speciall notice thereof Wherefore 2. Observre The Ayre in which we move and breath is Gods Creature Observ 2 IT is true that the Ayre is no where expresly by name reckoned amongst Gods works as the Earth and Seas and other Creatures are but is still included under this generall name of the heavens and so accounted as a part thereof and thereby testified to be a part of Gods work Let us acknowledge the Ayre also among none of the meanest of Gods blessings taking notice of the manifold uses thereof unto the lives and comfortable being and subsisting of our selves and other Creatures as 1. serving for Respiration or breathing the immediate meanes of preserving our lives as we know for to take away breath is to take away life Psal 104.29 And when God is said to have power over our lives he is said to have our breath in his hand Job 12.10 Dan. 5.23 1. It transmits the Light and Influence of the Celestiall Bodies and so