Days and Nights unequal except in the two Equinoctial Days and Nights all which is performed by two uniform circular Motions of the AEther the one by the Zodiack and the other by the Equator The Sun doth so far exceed in Light all the other Stars as to the illumination of the Earth that when it shines bright their shining tho it ceases not is yet unperceivable The Sun is not only the chief Luminary and Fountain of Light but likewise of Heat which increaseth and decreaseth not only every Day as the Sun comes nearer to or goes farthest from the Meridian or Southermost Places of the Earth but also as it proceedeth toward the North and the South and so the Heat is always equal about the middle of the Earth but elsewhere unequal whereby it makes the different Seasons of the Spring when all Plants do sprout and become green of the Summer when the Flowers appear and the Fruits begin of the Harvest when the Fruits come to Maturity and of Winter when the Fruits Leaves and Herbs fall whereby in the Wisdom and Prudence of God there is a Ballance of Enjoyment through the whole Earth the variety of the Seasons where the Days are unequal compensing the Pleasure where the Days are equal because what is ordinary and doth not change is little noticed We would be little sensible of the glorious Light of the Day if we had not the Vicissitude of the Darkness of the Night and albeit the Places near both Poles be far short of the Enjoyment of the rest yet most part there is Sea and not Land There is also great conveniency of the Night for Man in the State of Mortality whereby the Curtains of Heaven are drawn that he may sleep The Earth also doth require a perpetual Vicissitude of the rising and falling of the Vapours by which the Dews and Rains do water the Earth Another Sun opposite to this would have made a perpetual Day but with great Detriment to the Earth The Wisdom of God is also seen in the Instincts of the ravenous Creatures whereby they have no Inclination to go abroad in the Day-time but in the Night thereby Men and the tame and harmless Creatures are free of their Trouble for which the Psalmist praiseth the Wisdom and Goodness of God Thou makest Darkness and it is Night wherein all the Beasts of the Forest do creep forth the Sun ariseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their Dens Man goeth forth to his Work and to his Labour until the evening O Lord how manifold are thy Works in Wisdom dom hast thou made them all The Glory of the Sun is also well expressed by the Psalmist which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber rejoiceth as a strong Man to run a Race his going out is from the End of the Heaven and his Circuit unto the Ends of it and there is nothing hid from the Heat thereof The Wisdom of God is also seen in the usefulness of the Moon which was appointed to rule over the Night and to give a faint Light for those that might have necessity to travel in the Night but God having ordained the Night for Man to rest in he has not given the Light of the Moon to be so constant as the Light of Sun and therefore it doth not derogate from his Wisdom and Goodness that he did not make more Moons by which there might always have been Light in the Night and besides the brightest Glory and Majesty of God is in this visible World the starry Heaven which in number and variety of the Stars exceed the comprehension of Men and Angels they are the Lamps and Flame-beaus making some resemblance of the Magnificence of the Palace of the King of Glory and yet they are no more than the Ornaments of his Outter-Court or the enamelling of the Pavement of his Inner-Court the third Heaven or the Heaven of Heavens When God doth most favourably condescend to Abraham he bids him look unto the starry Sky and asks if he could number them and doth the like with Job when he was first to humble him for his boldness and then to exalt him for his faithfulness The starry Heaven is never so glorious as when neither Sun nor Moon doth appear therefore it was fit that the Light of the Moon should have Intervals Little is known of the Influence of the Stars tho many Astrologers make unsolid and unwarrantable Conclusions on pretence of their Experience It is true God said to Job Knowest thou the Ordinance of Heaven canst thou set the Dominions thereof in the Earth canst thou bind the Influences of Pleiades or loose the Bonds of Orion Which imports a great Influence of the Stars upon the Earth but the Astrologers infer most from the Planets and their Aspects which are opake and unactive Bodies doubtless the Sun and Moon have great Influence on the Earth not only by their Light and Heat but that correspondence betwixt the Tides of the Sea and the Course of the Moon giveth strong ground to infer that the Moon hath much Influence thereon I cannot certainly know whether the sweet Influence of the Pleiades doth import any more than that when the Sun is under the Pleiades or seven Stars the Spring is in its Prime when all things revive and it is called the Time of Life or whether the Bonds of Orion being near to the North Pole implieth more than the Rigour of Cold and Frost when the Sun is nearest them and farthest Northward God in his Wisdom hath said little of the dark Planets Saturn Jupiter and Mars Venus and Mercury but hath left them to Man's Exercise and Industry who hath found by their Eclipses that they have no Light of their own but do only reflect the Light of the Sun as doth the Moon and tho of old they were thought to be wandring Stars yet now their regular and certain Courses are found and known and more little Planets moving about Saturn and Jupiter since the Invention of Telescopes whereby their Courses are also known and calculated and the Usefulness thereof for finding out the Longitude is known which is of so great Use for Navigation and it is very probable that more will yet be found The Comets or blazing Stars are yet looked upon as prodigious or irregular yet it is not without Hope that their regular Course may be also found The Eclipses of the Sun and Moon gave great Astonishment and Terror at first to all and still to the less knowing Nations but they give still Matter of Admiration and incite us to consider the wonderful Works of God Their Recourses are now certainly known and calculated for many Years to come for the Predictions of these that have past have always held since the Course of the Planets have been exactly known from whence the Eclipses do necessarily follow The Eclipses have also great Use for the Calculation of Time for in divers Nations and at divers
would not have omitted to plead that when he pleaded fo weak a ground as the Invitation of his Wife not that he spared the Soveraignty of God for he insinuates a too harsh Reflection against God not only blaming the Woman but that she was given of God It was a farther degree of the Bounty of God that he had given a mutual Affection between Angels and Men that their Converse was both profitable and pleasant By these Principles that God gave Man he was not only innocent without Vice or Sin but he was holy and morally good till he fell from his Integrity by disobeying God and brought Sin into the World if he then being innocent became sinful tho he was ripe in his Capacities so soon as he was created and had the Love of God awakned in him in so high a degree having freshly received so great and so high Favours of God how much more capable behoved his Posterity to be of Defection that were to be born and live so long an animal Life unless God had given him a Promise or declared unto him a Purpose to confirm him and his Posterity if he had continued to give Proof of his Obedience in his innocent fallible State as it is commonly believed that the elect Angels were confirmed The Bounty of God doth yet further manifest it self in giving Man the Dominion of all the Creatures in this inferior World not peculiarly to Adam as if all Right of the Creatures had been to be derived from him but God gave Right to subdue and possess them which could not be done by Adam but by Mankind and therefore the first Title of Right was the Possession of that which was void and possessed by none and the Fruits thereof not only the Profit but the Pleasure of the Creatures was given chiefly to Man The variety of Shapes and Colours of Animals Trees Herbs and Fruits the beautiful Verdure of Trees and Herbs the various Painture of the Fruits of Trees of the Flowers and Blossoms of Plants and of the Feathers of Birds were of little use to themselves but of much use to Man by an innocent Pleasure arising from the Sight of them leading to the Admiration of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God their Author In which I doubt not that the Angels are Sharers so that it was not in vain that the Earth brought forth all these things tho for a long time Man possessed but a small part of it for the Wisdom of God could have so ordered that the Seeds disseminate in Earth and Waters should only spring as Man had use of them It does not diminish the Bounty of God that there is a great Inequality in the Perfections of these Creatures and that some of them bred Horror and Hurt unto Man because they set off the Lustre of the rest which otherwise would be less valued if we never had Darkness we would little value Light The hurtful Creatures are Instruments of God's Justice and none of them want their peculiar Vertues It is also the Goodness of God that the Discovery of the Natures of the Creatures and all experimental Knowledg hath proceeded from the beginning and shall to the end encrease that there might never be wanting a sutable Exercise Diversion and Delight to the more ingenious and inquiring Men. The Sun the Moon and Stars and all their Courses and Motions are designed to manifest to Angels but chiefly to Men the Majesty and Glory of the Omnipotent Creator and for the Pleasure and Profit of Men. It is a general Effect of the Bounty of God that he preserveth all these things in their Existence Power Vigor and Action but more particularly he preserves Man and Beast in over-ruling their Inclinations whereby they shun those things that might destroy them and attain those that may preserve them Without God's Preservation no Creature could subsist nor have any Activity For in him we live and move and have our Being God needs no positive Act to destroy any Creature if he withdraw his Support they would return into nothing out of which they came Yet I do not think that Preservation is a continual Creation otherwise God should create the Souls of the wicked full of actual Wickedness and even the damned Spirits in all their Malice I know not how this Difficulty could be shunned by any but those who think that Accidents can subsist being separate from Subjects or transmitted from one Subject to another Nor could the same Individual be continued but as every moment one is created another behoved to be annihilated so that all Creatures were deceived of themselves and all others thinking they were the same and yet they were an innumerable Multitude of in-coexisting Individuals Preservation is more properly expressed by a continued Support as Creation is an Elevation to Existence from nothing Preservation is the Support from receding into nothing a thing supported will certainly fall if the Support be removed The Bounty of God is crowned by God's Government of the World especially of Angels and Men How unhappy should Man be if they had an Epicurean God that were not concerned in the Actings of Men leaving them wholly to themselves The Goodness of God extends it self not only to the Natural Capacities of Men but to supernatural Powers as the Gift of Prophecy of Language not learned and the Interpretation thereof and of other miraculous Works which in distinction from saving Graces are called Gifts These are the Graces whereby God gives the supernatural Faculties of the Regenerate in Conversion or doth encrease the same thereafter yet that Term is otherwise taken and is extended to a graceful Countenance or Deportment making the Person having it to have a special kind of Amiableness for it is not every Beauty or Comeliness that is esteemed Gracefulness but that which shews a Nobleness or Excellency of Mind which therefore is very sutable to Princes and is frequently attributed to them without sufficient Ground The highest degree of this Gracefulness is called Majesty appropriated to Kings yea every signal Favour having eminent Effects is called Grace whence ariseth the distinction of Gratia gratis data and Gratia gratum faciens upon both accounts the Capacities given in Conversion are called Graces being freely given of the greatest Import and making the Receivers acceptable and lovely to God and it is chiefly in respect of these that he takes the Title of Most Gracious God and thereby also the Converted are called Gracious MEDITATION XIII Upon the Truth of God NExt unto the Goodness of God is his Truth Nothing can be more evident than that it is most congruous to and becoming the Divine Nature to be true nor could any thing more inconsistent be imagined than lying or deceiving in God The Truth of God is the first Ground-stone of his Creatures Happiness and if it were not sure it were impossible to know that they were not in all things deluded even in the concurring Testimonies of Sense
Infancy Can it be thought that Man by his Merit could deserve Celestial Glory and Confirmation freeing him from the hazard of falling in Sin or losing that blessed State by Mortality or Annihilation and yet there is no ground to doubt that as the Angels were confirmed after their Trial so would Men have been which with the Immortality God had promised he lost and became mortal and miserable by eating the forbidden Fruit. Whence there is enough to satisfy the Consciences of Men of God's Dispensation in suffering Adam to fall whereby neither he nor any of his Posterity could ever by themselves recover that blessed Estate which he had lost to himself and them by his Fall albeit they could not conceive how God could eternally torment all his Posterity for his Sin tho they had none of their own But blessed be God that Christ was separate from Sin unto the end and became the second Adam expiating Sin and procuring for the Elect that Blessedness which through Adam's Fall they had lost How unreasonable then and odious must the Meritmongers of Rome be who not only hold that sinful Men acquire Heaven by their Merits but that they have so great store of Works of Supererrogation to which they were forced to flee when the horrid Grossness of the Pope's setting to Sale Indulgences for Money through most of the Dominions of his Obedience had awakened a great part of the World to see that it was impossible he could be Christ's Vicar on Earth but rather the Antichrist There was no Evasion with any pretence but that there was a Treasure of the Supererrogatory Merits of the Saints whereof the Pope was the sole Dispenser and yet tho that Treasure was not pretended to be infinite and inexhaustable the Popes neither knew what was the measure of it nor how much was exhausted and how much remained or if any thing at all for there was no Record kept of what Indulgences were given out or how much they needed that got them nor could there be seeing the Indulgences were not given by the Popes immediately and upon trial but were gifted and farmed to his Emissaries who were the vilest of Men who rendered that Religion absolutely ridiculous I pity the deceived Multitude of that Synagogue but I abhor their chief Leaders and without the breach of Charity I think I may safely say that many of them must be convinced of gross Errors in that Church but cannot acknowledg them because of the Canons already made unless therewith they quit Infallibilty which is the Pillar and Ground of their Faith God's Punitive Justice has not escaped dangerous Errors not only from those who make all God's Laws to be only obliging by his Will so that he may not only dispense with them without any Punishment but may abrogate them of which I have cleared my self before in meditating upon his Holiness but from those that think his Justice requires no exact Proportion between the Crime and the Punishment but that it is meerly Arbitrary that God might have accepted the Sacrifice of a Lamb for the greatest Sin or the Penance that Men inflict upon themselves and that the Mosaical Sacrifices did expiate Sin of themselves not as Types of the only one satisfying Sacrifice of Christ. I am convinced that the very Nature of the Justice of God imports an exact Proportion of Rewards and Punishments to the Objects of them and that therein God's Justice differs from the Justice of Man who neither can know the exact Proportion nor can adjust a Punishment to expiate any Sin Mens Justice in Punishments are not to satisfy Justice or to expiate Crimes past but to prevent and suppress them for time to come and therefore they become unjust and cruel by applying Arbitrary Punishments more than are needful to suppress the Crimes but God perfectly knows the just Proportion of Rewards and Punishments and he hath not that Indifferency in applying them as he hath in his Acts of Bounty Sin is so opposite and so odious to God that his Aversion to it is infinite and therefore it cannot be expiated but by a Punishment infinite in Value and therefore in the Damned Punishment is only eternal because in no Time the finite Natures of Creatures can bear an infinite Punishment The Sins of the Elect are expiated by the Sufferings of Christ which were short in Time but infinite in Value because of the Dignity of the Person that suffered yet God having denounced the Wages of Sin to be Death both by the Separation of the Soul and Body and by the Separation of both from the Joy arising from God's Countenance Justice required that the Mediator should suffer both tho but for a short time in his Agony in the Garden and on the Cross when innocent Nature made him cry out in the one that if it were possible that Cup might be removed yet with voluntary Submission and in the other when he said My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken me They must be strangely deluded that attribute that Cry to the Pains or Sense of Death for therein he should have been exceeded by innumerable Martyrs none of which cried that they were forsaken of God and many have triumphed over their Tormentors and have sung in the midst of the Flames I think they are both bold and ignorant who presume to assert that any Suffering of Christ without Death had been sufficient to expiate the Sins of the Elect None but God can know the just Punishment of Sin Common Reason may assure that God would not afflict his innocent Son in vain but Revelation putteth it beyond doubt by the Apostle's arguing against the Possibility of Salvation by Works of the Law saying If Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain It is necessarily understood as in all such Arguments but that is impossible that Christ should have died in vain nor would it conclude if by dying in vain were understood dying to no purpose For tho it had been indifferent to God to have brought Salvation by the Law or by the Death of Christ yet neither of the ways had been in vain that is to no purpose which soever of the two God had chosen But then it would not have concluded that Righteousness could not have come by the Law therefore in vain must be understood as ordinarily it is that which is needless or unnecessary and then the Argument is clear and convincing thus If Righteousness had been by the Law then Christ's dying had been needless because the Law alone could have brought Righteousness but it is impossible that Christ should have died when there was no necessity for it therefore the Law nor no other way could do it There is another dangerous Mistake about God's Punitive Justice as if the Consideration of his Punishment were to compense the Displeasure he had from Sin by his Pleasure in the suffering of his Creature as Men commonly do but the true Consideration is
an Object as the Eye The Particles of Fire severally have so small Force that their rolling can easily be stopped by which Men can so easily be master of raising and quenching Fire In all which the wonderful Wisdom of the Divine Contrivance is resplendent The Work of the second Day of the Creation was the creating of that Power of Motion or Pression of the several Parts of the AEther whereby one Sphere of it moved about compleating its Motion in twenty four hours and thereby the Light that was created in the one Hemisphere of the AEther illuminating one side of the Earth was carried about and made Day and Night in the same way that the Sun now doth and so made Day and Night before the Sun was created That AEther is called in the English Translation the Firmament but by the Dutch and Latin Translation is more accurately called the Expansum or the Bulk having Parts stretched out and is called the Waters but more accurately the Fluid which comprehends both Water and AEther for the same Word was used before that the Spirit moved upon the Waters there being nothing then but the Chaos or pure AEther and thereafter it is called Heaven which is that part of Heaven in which the Sun and the Planets were after created for that Heaven is said to divide the Waters above from the Waters beneath that is the AEther in which the fixed Stars are above the Planetary AEther and the AEther in which the Terraqueous Globe is being the Waters under the Planetary Sphere In the third Day of the Creation that part of the Fluid which is now more strictly and properly called the Water and which surrounded the whole Face of the Earth was gathered together God having made the Surface of the Earth which at first was round unequal by Mountains Vallies and Plains and by that great and hollow Receptacle in which the Sea is contain'd and thereby the dry Land appeared and the Waters of the Sea could never return to cover the Face of it tho by the miraculous Deluge not only all the Clouds which are but rarified Water fell down in Showers upon the Earth but much more of the AEther was turned into Water the Clouds were but raised after the Separation of Sea and Land for it is said There went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole Face of the Ground the Return whereof could not have covered the Mountains After the Separtion in the same day the creating Will of God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees which did immediately take Effect and it was so In the Works of this Day the wonderful Wisdom of God doth gloriously appear 1. In the Structure of the Terraqueous Globe being of a round Globular Figure most capable of the Vicissitudes of Day and Night and of the several Seasons ballanced by its own Weight in the midst of the World and tho it be a very small part of the World yet the whole visible World hath its Perfections directed towards it not upon its own account but as it is the Habitation fitted and destinated for Mankind Its Figure makes it fit for Man's Habitation upon all the sides and parts of it being so contrived that near both the Poles there is nothing but the vast Ocean where if there had been dry Land it had been altogether uninhabitable 2. The Figure of the Earth in its Inequalities sheweth the Wisdom of God that thereby the Sea is hemmed in which is majestickly expressed by God in his humbling Job saying Who shut up the Sea with Doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the Womb and brake up for it is my decreed place and set Bars and Doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed By the Mountains also there are Vallies whence the Rain that falls on the Mountains runneth down into Vallies and makes them fruitful and in the Mountains there are Fountains perpetually flowing whence arise Rivulets and by their Concourse Rivers running down into the Sea and making a perpetual Circulation of Water from the Sea into these Fountains and from the Fountains back into the Sea so making perpetual Motion which God only hath immediately made By these Rivers there is not only Fruitfulness in the Vallies by the reciprocal Vapours arising from them and returning to them and the Lands about them by an unending Intercourse they are the Marches of Countries and give much retardment and stop to the Invasion of the Inhabitants on either side in time of War but in time of Peace make an easy Intercourse and Commerce among Men where they are navigable which in many is continued for many hundred Miles If the Earth had been exactly round the Surface of it had been much less and there could have been no Rivers because there could have been no Descent The Mountains also serve to give shelter against the Excess of the Sun and shelter against the Tempest of the Wind. 3. In the Mountains all sorts of Metals are found which were partly created and partly gathered so that they have a kind of Growth like Trees 4. The Mountains also are like Eliopils the Wind springing from their Caverns from some of them so constantly and strongly that from divers sides of the same Mountains there are Anniversary Winds keeping their fixed Periods whereby Men know to sail from one Country to another and to return by the vast Ocean but the nearer Distances where Men must pass in short time the Winds are variable that may serve them both to come and go and the wonderful Providence of God is seen in them that Men are furthered or stopped in their Designs according to his Purpose and may warrantably trust and pray to be served by these Winds without tempting God by desiring a Miracle Tho the Winds be the necessary Products of inscient Matter yet God foresaw both the Exigence Faith and Prayers of all his Creatures and made the course of Nature to answer them as well as sometimes on their Prayers he changes the course of Nature If God in his Wisdom had not provided both these fixed and variable Winds the Intercourse and Communion of Mankind had been very small expensive and troublesome it had been an unpleasant and dangerous undertaking of a Voyage of many Months if it had always been liable to contrary Winds and no less inconvenient in short Voyages if Men could not go and return for many Months together until the turning of these stated Winds and if there were no Winds there were little Benefit by Rivers and none at all by the vast Ocean It makes no Exception from the Wisdom of God that all the Earth is not equally fertile for if it were it would be little noticed or valued and beside God has ballanced well the Advantages of the fertile and barren warm and cold Regions In the cold Regions there is long Life much Health great
therefore succeed in their several Seasons The Industry of Man hath not been able to discover whether the Leaves Flowers and Fruits of Plants be Parts of the Plants on which they grow or whether they be different Plants having their own Seeds which can only pass by the peculiar Passages of the several Plants and grow from their own Seeds seeing after they are compleat they fall off without Violence and it is hard to apprehend how the grosser Passages of the principal Plants can by straining the Aliment through them figure it in so admirable a Variety whence such rare Colours and Proportions do arise however it be there must be the Contrivance of so much Wisdom as hath given and shall give all the Generations of Mankind a pleasant Exercise to discover more and more yet leaving ever more undiscovered This might and ought to check the Pride of Man in his Knowledg and make him admire and adore the Wisdom of God in this so low a Step of his Works of Nature 6. It is said Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. as if it were a Command to the stupid and unsensible Earth to work all these wonderful Things far exceeding its own Perfection tho all the Efficacy of the Sun of the Stars and of Fire were adjoined which has puzled the most piercing Witts how these things could come to pass and many have been forced to attribute all to the omnipotent Power of God alone wherein they derogate highly from the Wisdom of his Contrivance and are contrary to Revelation Why should he say to the Earth Bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees if nothing of the Earth had a casuality in them How could it be said that on the seventh Day God ended that which he had made and he rested from all his Works if there be no Efficacy in Creatures but only that he creates not new Matter It might as well be said the first Minute when he created the Chaos that he had rested from all his Works as that he rested on the seventh Day if that were the meaning But I am perswaded that on this third Day God created the Seeds of all Plants with all their Parts and Passages and disseminated them near the Surface of the whole Earth as they might be most useful for his Ends and that they do alwise necessarily grow when and where their proper Aliment entereth in their Passages and proceedeth by them 7. The wonderful Wisdom and Goodness of God appears not only in the Pleasure but in the Profit of all these Plants as the several Kinds of them are the Food of the different Species of Animals for which the several Animals have their Instincts by which they have Pleasure in them Appetite to them and Aversion to others and yet more as they are the Physick of Animals by their several Parts solid or fluid chiefly by their Juices and Spirits The Brutes have their Instincts to know their Physick which are not given to Man that he might not be idle but improve Sense Reason and Experience to know what parts or preparations of Plants served to prevent or cure all the Diseases that his Irregularity hath brought upon himself or even upon the Beasts which Virtues were discovered to Adam whereby he was enabled to give Names to Beasts fitted to express their peculiar and prime Perfections which hath been communicated by Tradition and increased by Experience without such Tradition there can hardly be any rational Account given of the Medicinal Skill which hath been so much propagated in the World tho the Causes thereof be very little known so that they could not be known by general Principles and none were ever so industrious as by hap-hazard to apply to every Disease all things applicable to find out what would work which might not warrantably be practised upon Man lest thereby more might be killed than cured Botanists have ranked Plants as they are congenerous by their agreeing in Shape Colour Taste and Smell and of late they have observed Marks in them as different Signatures more exactly to show their physical Operations all which comes far short of the Virtues of Plants which are already discovered much more of all the Virtues which are in them Upon the fourth Day of the Creation God created the Sun the Moon and the Stars the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night for Signs and Seasons and for Days and Years which do not only give light through the whole visible World but do also much enlighten the Minds of rational Creatures with the Knowledg of the Wisdom and Glory of the great Creator 1. In the Sun which is nothing else but a vast Globe of Fire which was first dispersed in the one Hemisphere of Heaven whereby Light and Darkness Day and Night were divided by equal Durations for the first three Days the Sun having been created but the fourth Day yet it was an Act of Creation by the sole Power of God and not a Production by a natural Cause there was also then formed a Globe of AEther rolling continually about the Sun to keep it perpetually in a globular Figure shunning that irregular Shape which necessarily follows the interfering of the Particles of Fire Recent Observations of Astronomers have demonstrated that the Sun is rolled about its own Center in the same time that the Moon is moved about the Earth which they observe from the Motion of some more regular Spots in the Sun The Sun is the far most glorious Creature in this visible World as the Agitation of Fire gives Light by the continual Vibration of its Parts so this glorious Globe of Fire which no natural Cause can ever dissipate suppress or extinguish by the interfering of its Particles outward it thrusts upon and darts out the Rays of the AEther by streight Lines so far as ever these can reach till the Rays be stopped reverberated and reflected back into it self again by the Earth the Moon or other dark Planets which have no Light of their own but do reflect the Sun-Beams a great Part whereof fall upon the Earth and illuminate it The Sun illuminates more than one Hemisphere of the Earth because it is a far greater Body than the Earth The Sun hath its Motion about the Earth in a Year from West to East under twelve Constellations commonly known which are called the twelve Signs of the Zodiack still moving obliquely whereby it crosseth the diurnal Motion from South-West to North-East in one half of its Course and from North-East to South-West in the other whereby the whole Earth hath equal length of Light and Darkness every Year when the Days are reckoned together those Parts of the Earth that are equally distant from the North and South Poles have their Days and Nights always equal and those Parts of the Earth that are near both Poles have but one Day and one Night in the Year each being an half Year in length The remanent Parts have their
Principle to Mankind to prefer the common Interest of the whole to that of any part On the fifth Day God perfected the Creation of inanimate Creatures by an orderly Procedure according to the degrees of their Perfections 1. The Chaos which before it had Figure or Motion was the most imperfect Substance 2. Adding Perfections to that part of the Chaos he made Fire to give Light and Heat by its Motion 3. Giving an uniform circular Motion to those Particles of the Chaos that made up the Spheres of AEther by whose Revolution the Vicissitudes of Day and Night began 4. Adding Cohesion of Parts of the Chaos about the Earth whence arose the Figures of the Particles of Water which at first covered the whole Face of the Earth being then exactly round 5. Separating the Earth and the Water by making the Mountains and Vallies the Earth having been also made of the Chaos by Cohesion of its Parts whereby a far more variable Figure of its Particles arose in which were comprehended Metals Minerals Stones saline and sulphurous Bodies the Seeds of Plants and the Terrestrial Fire 6. The Plants are formed whether they sprung of these Seeds by the immediate creative Power of God or whether beside the Seeds the Plants were formed fit to receive them it is uncertain it might appear rather that they sprung of the Seeds because it is said Let the Earth bring forth c. yet that may be understood of the subsequent Growth of Plants And last the Stars were created being the most perfect and glorious of all inanimate Creatures Then followed the Creation of living Creatures in the same order proceeding from the least perfect Kinds to the more perfect until the last Termination in the Creation of Man The other living Creatures are stated in three Orders the Fish in the Waters the Fowl to fly in the Air and the Beasts on the Earth all which have their variable Motions which some imagine to be without Perception or Sense and that they be only passive in their Motions from the Impression of outward Objects for which I see no solid Reason for they having Senses so like unto Men if all their Motions were by Impressions on their Senses it could not be doubted but such Motions would be also in Men seeing their Senses are operative without their Will or any intrinsick active Power which is contrary to the common Sense and Experience of all Mankind However it be there is great Evidence of the wonderful Contrivance of the Wisdom of God in brute Creatures especially in the peculiar Instincts of the several Species which do all act necessarily upon their proper Objects without Hesitation or Deliberation They have their Pleasures and Griefs their Appetites and Aversions in which they cannot divert from one Object to another nor can they compare Objects Means or Ends and yet by the wonderful Wisdom of God they do most things necessary for their Preservation their Promotion and Propagation by meer Instincts more exactly than Men can in the same things that are common to both Besides the wonderful and various Structure of their Bodies there are Depths concerning them that the most knowing Men have never been able to reach as what their Souls are how they are produced how their Bodies are framed by Generation wherein certainly there is a difference from the Generation of Men. God doth not command the Earth to bring forth Man as he doth to bring forth the brute Creatures therefore it seems their Seeds were created in the Beginning as well as the Seeds of the Plants Some late Experiments by Microscopes have shown an infinite number of Animalcula in the Sperme of the Brutes but their Souls are not endued with that Perfection to have any Perception but by the Impression of Objects so their Bodies being marred their Souls can never more have any Animal Operation as the separate Souls of Men have The first and lowest Degree of Animals is of Fish which live in the Water whereof there are innumerable kinds and degrees of Perfection from the Oister that hath no other Motion but the opening its Shell to receive its Aliment to the Whale This also is strange in Fishes that Concourse of the Seeds of Male and Female do but in few of them appear nor have they that Pairing which the Fowls and other Brutes have when left to their natural Course nor any Knowledg of or Affection to their Birth The more perfect Fish are furnished with Instruments for their Progress especially with Fins The next Degree in Perfection of Brutes are the Fowls who are adorned with their beautiful Feathers and instructed with their Wings by which they fly Their several Kinds have their distinct Voices by which they express their Affections the variety of which and of their Shapes and Colours and their Instincts by which they know their Food and Physick and what is hurtful to them and the melodious Songs of many of them do all manifest the wonderful Wisdom of their Creator The Water is impowered and commanded to bring forth both Fish and Fowl which doth import that their Seeds are lubrick and not firm as that of Plants and therefore are dispersed in that soluble Element On the sixth Day were created the Terrestrial Beasts for God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creatures after his kind which are three beside the various Species of every Kind to wit Cattel creeping Things on the Earth and the Beasts these seem to be the wild and ravenous Beasts that live not in Herds or Flocks which are the Cattel but both walk with Legs and so are different from the creeping Things as Worms and Serpents I shall not need to speak any thing of the Variety of these and of the Wisdom of God shining in them seeing they differ not much from what has been said of the Fish and the Fowls but that they come nearer to the Perfection of Man than they God hath given eminent Instances of his Wisdom in the Perfections of the Horse and the Leviathan whose Scales do clearly distinguish it from the Whale so that it is a Terrestrial Animal and in the Unicorn All the Creation tho it be very wonderful holds a small Proportion with the Wisdom of God in the creating and governing of Man which is incomprehensible Some part of it will appear in the Dominion of God which I shall leave to the next Meditation and only remark upon the whole Creation that wonderful Beauty of all its Parts their Correspondence and mutual Usefulness and the Termination of all their Perfections on Mankind MEDITAT XVIII Upon the Dominion of God and his Dispensations thereupon towards his Rational Creatures especially by the Covenant of Works and Covenant of Grace I Have as distinctly and orderly as I could cleared and quieted my Thoughts concerning the Divine Perfections Natural and Moral severally I come now to consider them jointly in the glorious and gracious Dominion of God over the World in
by God and unalterable by Man but in other things their Pactions are effectual as in other Cases So also in Civil Government the Form of Government the Persons governing the Extensions of their Power more than what is requsite for Order and Determination of Controversies are by the express and tacit Pactions of the Parties except what God did immediately determine in the Government of Israel God did also institute a distinct Government for his own Worship and separated it from the Paternal and Civil Authority both among the Jews in the Levitical Priesthood which was propagated by imitation to most other Nations and among Christians a Church became a distinct Society from a State and hath its proper Ecclesiastick Government tho both Societies may concur in the same Persons The Civil Government is for the outward State of their Society and the Means of their Government is outward by extrinsick Rewards and forcible Punishments The Ecclesiastick Government is about the inward State of those of their Society in so far as Man's Knowledg can reach to promote Holiness and internal and eternal Happiness and about their outward Acts only as they signify their inward Condition and their Rewards and Punishments are only by application of the Divine Ordinances in exciting Joy or Grief Fear or Hope as is conducible for the inward State but without temporal Rewards and forcible Punishments But there is yet a more inward and secret Dominion of God exercised by the Conscience which is his Deputy by which he distributes the most powerful and important Rewards and Punishments not only in this Life but chiefly after Death The most eminent and important Dispensations of God's Dominion is by the Covenants he made with Men which therefore require a particular Consideration especially the general Covenants relating to all Mankind It was a high Honour put upon Men that God was pleased to enter into mutual Ingagements with them by way of Covenant whereby God promised some Favours to them besides those which arose from their Creation which Favours they could not warrantably believe nor expect by his Justice Bounty Mercy or even by his Faithfulness but only by his Promise in these Covenants And on the other part there was not ground to expect them even from the Promises unless there were a voluntary Engagement on Man's part by entring into these Covenants God's Dispensations might have been without any Covenant either by commanding Men to do that which he proposed to them to do whereby the not Performance became a Transgression of his Command and Sin or he might have made Promises conditional without requiring Mens Engagements I see very many Covenants between God and Man in Scripture but the purely Celestial and Eternal Covenants are only two the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Grace is the chief Concern of Mankind and it runs through the whole Current of Scripture It was published to our first Parents immediately after their Fall and tho the Record of it in Scripture at first be no more but that the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent I doubt not but it was more fully manifested to and understood by the first Parents It was more fully manifested to Abraham to whom it was said That in thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed It was continued in the Church in the Revelation and Expectation of the Messiah who was to deliver his People from their Sins and was represented by the Sacrifices instituted by God from the beginning and by the Sacraments and Ceremonies instituted thereafter tho the Jews in their latter times were wholly perverted believing their Messiah to be a Temporal Monarch to raise their Nation to great Glory wherein Christ the Messiah himself did fully confute them from the Old Testament and brought Life and Immortality to light in a clear Discovery of the Covenant of Grace as it remains recorded in the Gospel The Covenant of Works being broken and become void there is but little of it expressed in Scripture in which that Name of the Covenant is no where mentioned and tho it may seem a needless Curiosity to enquire into the Terms of it I conceive it is not unprofitable but very useful to manifest the Glory and Goodness of God in all his Dispensations with Mankind and for the understanding the Covenant of Grace that came in its place which will appear by that excellent Parallel of the Apostle Paul betwixt the first and second Adam It hath been the common Opinion of Christians that there was a Covenant between God and Adam upon solid Grounds It is certainly a great Condescension and Kindness in God to enter into Covenant with Creatures but seeing it is certain that he hath so often admitted sinful Creatures to covenant with him there is no ground to doubt that he enter'd into Covenant with innocent Adam which is yet more clear from the Parallel of the first and second Adam whereby both are acknowledged to represent and undertake for the whole or a great part of the Race of Mankind that through Adam's Failure Sin entered in the World and that Christ had obtained a better Covenant It is therefore inferred that there was a prior Covenant As to the Terms of the first Covenant it is clear that God promised Adam Immortality seeing the Penalty expressed by Moses for the Breach in eating the forbidden Fruit is Death not only Temporal by the Separation of the Soul and Body and the Corruption of the Body but Eternal by the Separation from the Favour of God therefore Life and Immortality is implied which tho it was possible to have been preserved in Adam and his Posterity by the continuance of Adam and his Posterity upon Earth living an Animal Life but this Earth could not have sufficed for all the Posterity of Adam if none had died or been removed yea Immortality could not have been continued in that State wherein the Body was perpetually wearing with its Food and Exercise if there had not been extraordinary Means to have preserved or restored it Therefore I do not conceive that Immortality was competent to innocent Man by his Nature and was taken from him as his Punishment against his Nature but that it was only promised to be given as a part of that Covenant the loss of which was a great Penalty It is true the Soul was naturally immortal and could not cease to exist but by taking away that which was given in its Nature but it will not follow that Man the Complex of Soul and Body was so immortal The Parallel doth also give ground to infer that it was a part of God's Promise in the first Covenant that Adam and his Posterity should be exalted from an Animal Life on Earth to an Angelical Life in Heaven which is evidently a part of the Covenant of Grace and is frequently expressed by Restitution and Redemption importing that it belonged to Mankind before but
Strength and Courage little Provocation to Luxury so that in the fertile and warm Countries where there is much of Plenty and Luxury much of Idleness and Thoughtfulness more nimble Spirits yet hardly hath their Wit been able to hold Ballance with the Strength and Courage of the other In Countries which can scarcely sustain their Inhabitants Necessity makes Invention Diligence and Improvement What strange height of Glory and Riches have the Venetians come to who had nothing at first but a few barren bare Rocks where the overflowing of barbarous Nations forced them to settle their Habitation What Riches and Strength have the Hollanders arisen to who at first had but Spots of Ground in the midst of vast Marishes Neither affords it any Exception that the most of the Terraqueous Globe is Sea seeing there is much more Land than is like ever to be fully improved and inhabited by Mankind Revelation having discovered the Residence of Mankind to be but short upon Earth 5. The Wisdom of God appears eminently in the Sea for the Intercouse Commerce and Converse of Mankind especially after the discovery of the Direction of the Loadstone whereby Mankind is now become like one great Society and thereby both the Requisites of Nature and Art are communicated through the whole World which could not effectually be attained by Rivers for we see how many Impositions and Impediments are made in the Passages of these and even in the narrow Channels of the Sea which cannot be in the vast Ocean 6. The stupendous Wisdom of God is seen in the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which hath given a great Check to and Abasement of the Pride of Man who for so many thousand of Years have never arrived at any satisfying Discovery of the Causes thereof In this also that the proudest Monarchs could never pretend the Dominion of the Sea nor of any of that vast Multitude of Creatures therein because it is capable of no Bounds and so the least Fish in it can belong to no Man and therefore of God alone it can be said that he hath his Dominion in the Sea 7. In this Day 's Work is that glorious Garment of the Earth which at first Creation was all clothed with Herbs Grass and Trees of innumerable variety of Kinds in which the Wisdom of God shineth forth sensibly 1. In the Grass which is universally upon the whole Earth and hath that singular in it that it groweth continually All other Herbs and Plants have their fixed times of rising growing decaying and falling and there is no other Herb that springeth up of the same Root but if the Herb be cut off neither it nor the Root can be made further to grow In which the wise Design of the Creator is that the pleasant Verdure of the Earth may ever continue in all Seasons of the Year and that it may be the Food of the Beasts of the Earth great and small though in the divers Seasons Grass be in the divers Degrees of Perfection hence Grass is not comprehended under the general Term of Herbs which yield Seed after their several Kinds to wit sensible Seeds framed by the Herbs in which Seeds there are innumerable impalpable Seeds of the same kind which arise from the Earth enterr'd as by the Roots in the Earth and are collected into these sensible Seeds on the Top of the Plants which is evident because in one of the most minute sensible Seeds a great many Herbs will arise which must have their different Seeds so minute that no Sense can reach but tho Grass hath also such sensible Seeds it is seldom permitted to come to the Seed but doth ever grow by the Root 2. The Herbs are not universal over the whole Earth nor every-where under the same Climate and Degree but are wisely ordered to the several Places of the Earth where they may be most useful for the peculiar Uses of Men and Beasts of that Place and therefore many of them will not thrive and continue in other Places tho there be no difference between the Sun and Soil of both some of which will not continue in Verdure others will not come to the maturity of a Flower and most will not come to have perfect Seed or Fruit or if the minute Seeds that were in their Bodies when transplanted come to a sensible Seed they will not reciprocate and continue 3. On this Day were the Trees created which do comprehend the Shrubs and the bulbous Plants which are propagated not by the Seed but by the Root sensibly divided in divers Slips whence the Blade tho cut off doth grow again are rather to be referred to the Trees to which that is common than to the Herbs This also is peculiar to Trees that they have a different Fruit from their Seed which Fruit serveth both to preserve and to be the first Food of their Seeds and also have a several use for Animals for their Food or Physick but other Trees have no Fruit beside their Seed which is not so tender whence is the division of Trees into Fruit-trees and Barren-trees 4. The wonderful Wisdom of God appeareth in that innumerable variety not only of the same Kind but of different kinds of Seeds Herbs and Trees their Roots Flowers and Fruits all which have an innumerable variety of the Uses to Man and Beasts for Food and Physick and yield Pleasure to Man by their Shape Proportions Colours Smells and Tastes 5. The unsearchable Wisdom of God is seen in the inward Frame of the Plants and Seeds by which their Aliment doth enter and pass to all their Parts whereby they grow and new Parts sprout out as Branches Leaves Flowers Fruit in a most orderly Course which must be by regular Passages and Conduits like the Veins of Animals some of these Passages are perceivable by the Eye or by Microscopes but some of them are so exile that no Sense by the assistance of any Instrument yet found can reach the least sensible Seed yea even the insensible cannot grow till its Aliment be thrust into these Passages and having no animal Motion as the Passages of Animals have the Aliment cannot proceed through these Passages but as it is protruded by extrinsick Force How wonderful then must that contrivance be which is so orderly sending out first Sprouts then Leaves then Flowers then Fruits And the Passages must be so various and curious that they will only admit the proper Parts of their Aliment and by recent Experiments it is found that in these Passages there are Valvulae like to those in the Veins of Animals which give way to the Parts of the Aliment but after it is entered lest it recede are closed and suffer it not to repass That part of the Aliment which makes the Flower must be more fine and subtile than that which makes the Leaves and the Sprouts and Passages thereof must require a greater Heat to expand them that the several Parts of the Aliment may pass which
which all his Perfections are displayed and manifested It is Omniscience and infinite Wisdom in the Contrivance of the World and of all that was to occur in it unto Eternity His Omnipotence in bringing all his Purposes to pass His Goodness that all he did and was to do is very good and nothing he made is without some Perfection for it self and Usefulness for some other Creature and that even from the evil Actions of Men he taketh occasion to increase the Exercise of his Goodness Bounty and Mercy His Justice Truth and Faithfulness are exercised upon all his Rational Creatures who only are capable of them and his most eminent Goodness in that Resemblance he gave them of his own Perfections and in those Principles wherewith he hath endued them beside his Image congruous to their Natures but not perfectly correspondent to his own to whom none of his Creatures can be like but with infinite Unlikeness Yet with that real tho imperfect Likeness of him his Reasonable Creatures were originally formed whereby he made them all capable of Blessedness and by Resemblance thereof to conceive Thoughts of his own Blessedness in being the only pure Spirit self-existent everlasting self-sufficient independent free unchangeable in all his Perfections Purposes and Performance of them fully delighting in himself and thereby infinitely blessed The Dominion of God comprehends his Dominion of Property and his Dominion of Soveraignty By the former he is Lord of all his Creatures by the latter he is Sovereign Ruler of all his Rational Creatures and so is King Law-giver and Ruler of the whole World There is a clear and known difference between Dominion of Things and a Dominion over Persons The Dominion of Things is a Right and Power to dispose of them at Pleasure without any Restraint This Right is founded in their Creation and Preservation for he that gave Being and that freely might give it with what Perfections he pleased and might at full Arbitrament annihilate or alter whatever he gave and in that Consideration even his Rational Creatures are part of his Property more at his disposal than the Clay is at the disposal of the Potter who can but mould and varnish his Clay and may mar it at his Pleasure but could neither give it its Being and Capacities nor can take them from it In this Relation there can be no Obligement or Debt from God to any Creature and it is by this Dominion that he hath stated all his Rational Creatures in their different Degrees not only of the Kinds but of the Individuals No other account ought to be inquired of the different degrees of Knowledg Wisdom Power Beauty Health Dexterity Length of Days Riches Pleasure or Honour tho these may be used as Means of Justice Truth Faithfulness and Mercy and as the Means of Government yet may they be absolutely without respect to these and it can hardly be discerned when they are otherwise and therefore in them all things befal alike to all and no Man can judg Love or Hatred of God from any thing that is so before him Some Men have thought they magnified God by magnifying this as the only Dominion of God and that there is no other distinct Dominion of Persons which would altogether make void the Justice Truth and Faithfulness of God which are no less essential to God and much more glorious than his Right of Disposal or Property A Proprietor in making use of his Goods doth not govern them no not in the ordering of his Beasts but where-ever Government is there must be Law Liberty Rewards and Punishments by the Government of Persons only can there be a Kingdom He that had the Property of a whole Country could be Lord of it tho there were not a Man on it but himself but he could not be King of it God takes to himself the Title of King in a more proper Sense and it is so acknowledged by all his holy Creatures He is called the King of the whole Earth of all the World The Lord has prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all He is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth they are but his Deputies and Vicegerents Yea the greatest of them are but as Grashopers in his Sight The Scepter of his Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness he sits on a Throne of Holiness he is a great King and he is King of Glory his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom of his Dominion there is no End Yea he is the only Potentate He doth what he will in Heaven and in Earth and who can say what dost thou David at the Dedication of the Temple saith to God Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty Thine is the Kingdom O God and thou art exalted as Head above all And Jeremiah saith Who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain The Psalmist saith The Lord is a great King above all Gods The Sea is his and he made it The Sea is mentioned as his Property only because the vast Ocean is capable of no humane Dominion None can or ever did claim a local Soveraignty over the whole Sea nor a Property in it The Psalmist saith The Heavens are thine the Earth also is thine as for the World and Fulness thereof thou hast founded them For his Pleasure all things are and were created Is there any other Soveraign can pretend these Titles He rules in the Kingdom of Men and gives it to whomsoever he will even unto the vilest of Men who can neither pretend worth nor deserving If then Gods's Dominion over Persons be not arbitrary as over things what impudent Presumption must it be for Creatures tho they were Angels much more for Men of like Infirmities with others and of more impetuous Passions to give no other reason for their Commands than Such is our Pleasure There are three common innate Principles written in the Heart of Man the Love of God the Love of Mankind and Self-love which in their due Subordination and in their proper Limits are all Good as Christ hath said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Mind with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy Self These are the chief Means of the Divine Government by which Mankind might be happy in all Conditions Stations and Relations as Men as Married as Parents or Children as Masters and Servants as Soveraigns and Subjects as Fellow-Citizens as Neighbours and Friends who have all their special Principles and Rules by Reason and Revelation which when they forsake and follow the swing of their own Lusts and Passions God in his Justice might give them up to their own Counsels to follow their own Ways and oftentimes doth so as he declares by his Word as to their eternal Interest yet so great is his Goodness as he doth rarely utterly abandon them but as to their outward Condition