many repusses thou hast given to the Messages of Heaven and withal how if they were ten thousand times ten thousand more God knows and remembers them all and then say with Job c. 9.2 how should men be just with God 2. Their greatness Indeed they seem little to us because they are a great way off Distance of place gives disadvantage to the prospect but lie that saith they are no bigger than they seem is as wife as that Philosopher that thought the Sun was no bigger than his head The Learned and most Skillful Astronomers do generally conclude it for a demonstrative Truth that the least Star in the Firmament is bigger than the Earth we live upon And yet these so great Bodies are carried so high supported only with the hand of the Almighty let not the Penitent Sinner then say can God raise me up from the Grave of Sin from things below and set me up on high and bring me safe to Heaven Tho thou liest now among the Potsherds sunk deep into sin and misery yet God is able to lift thee and thousands more and carry thee as upon Eagles Wings and set you as Stars in Heaven there to shine for ever and ever 4. Dstance from one another especially thePlanets and from the Earth The Moon is next to us Mercury next Venus in the third place the Sun fourth Mars the fifth Jupiter the sixth Saturn highest the Fixed Stars abovethemall Were they all the same Orb they would move together at the same time and make no distinction of Day and Night of Winter and Summer or not so much as would serve for our necessities And should they be all so low as the lowest or should he that holds them there let them fall thence by the reverse of his Decree or the withdrawing of his constant Providence they would soon set this World on fire and send us off the Stage and burn the Universe into a Scrole Should God draw back the hand of his Omnipotence but one moment the Stars would fall upon our Heads and make this whole World into a Hell in the twinkling of an Eye How necessarily do we depend upon the Divine Mercy for our safety and security every hour we live more ways than one than a thousand doth he keep death and destruction from us Let us consider a little this excellent Favour So many Globes as big as Worlds and most of them far greater hanging over our Heads all the days of our Life and westill walking safe under them how much methinks do we owe to the Power and Good Providence of God forsaving our Lives in such eminent danger were those excellent Bodies subject to the like irregularities as we are aptto go out of their place toleave their Orbs to disobey the Will of him that made them as Man generally is what a dangerous condition should we be in Damocles sat down to Table at a Feast with a naked Sword hanging over his Head with a Horse-hair had no such rouson of an awful fear upon him as we have if he that Govern'd the Stars were a Man and not God 5. Their Light Which is so great in all that if but one of the Stats or Planets except the Moon which hath none but borrowed Light that if they were not kept at a distance from us would certainly dazle our weak Eyes into absolute blindness or if removed much farther off would not serve our necessities p. 63. But of this more hereafter 6. Motion Incredibly swift insomuch that as Lessins saith such Stars as are near the Equinoctial Line do move every hour 40 millions ofmiles every million being 1000000 and so in one hour move more than comes to 2000 times the Compass of the Earth The Sun saith the same Author in the compass of one hour goes in its motion 1000000 miles whereupon 't is certain that in the same space of time it equals the Compass of the Earth in its course above 50 times What an amazing wonder of Omnipotence is this Let those Atheistical Sinners think of it that all daily for a Miracle to prove the Being of a God Here 's a Miracle that presents before us every day And every man that hath Eyes in his Head if he hath Brains too may see it and wonder Why what would men have a God todo more than this If he should make a fresh Creations of a World every hour men might still wink and disbelieve and still call for fresh Miracles As if the Almighty Jehovah had nothing else to do than humour the silly Passions of hard hearted sinners of pitiful ineredulous worm Well! it will not be long but God will justifie himself to these men before Angels and Devils and shew in spight of all their spightful insidelity that he did not leave himself without witness in the World 7. Influences which are divers and some of them not known to us or discoverable to us I shall mention some 1. Warming these Sublunary Bodies and insusing sueli a heat into them as is necessary for Life and Motion insomuch that without it there would be no generaton no motion no life in the Creatures of this World Take away but the Sun out of the Firmament and no Spring would appear Man would be no more the Acts of Accretion Growing Feeling Moving Seeing Living would all cease presently Sol Homo generant hominem Nay were the Sun removed but as far from us as the Fixed Stars England would be Ireland and all our year prove a cold Winter our very Senses would prove chill and our Reasons follow hard after them for temperamentum animi sequitur temperamentum Corpois What an excellent God have we to deal with who accommodates us so kindly seasonably suitably with Fire and Fuel from Heaven not only to ferment the Clouds in order to Rain to dissolve the Snow and Hail to warm the Ar that pierceth our Bodies to foment the Earth and make it fruitful but also cherish our Human Bodies and makes our Souls more pleasant which dwell in such warm Stoves If all the Wood and Combustible Matter on the Earth were heaped together to make one Pile in order to a great Bonefire for the benefit of the Earth it would not do so much good but would come infinitely short as the Stars and Planets of Heaven Besides if the warmth of the lower Orbs be so friendly and beneficial to our natures what is the Grace of God that comes down from the Inner Heaven the Light of his Countenance to our Inner Souls If the Sun with its Pleasant Rays makes the Sublunary World smile and laugh and sing shall not the Special Grace and Favour of the Almighty much more put gladness into our hearts and make us chearful in the Service of our Maker If the presence of the Hosts of Heaven the Sun Moon and Stars be so comfortable what is the presence of the Lord of Hosts the Blessed God the Communion of the Holy Jesus the Influences
immediate presence into the Court of Heaven nothing that hath any spot or blemish or wrinkle must come into that Holy Quire All the dogs and all the impenitent unpurified sinners are banished thence all those unclean beasts are shut out of the Coelestial Ark No unclean thing shall enter there c. Good Angels are disobliged by the impurity of our lives and good Men are ready to say David Psal 101. 3. Depart from me c. It leaves a blot of deformity upon our Reputation Sin is a dishonourable thing it brings shame to us for its real effect it brings shame to us for its real effect and puts our Names into a dark Eclipse Whose glory is their shame Phil. 3. 19. What fruit had ye in these things c. The Name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10. 7. In short almost all the sins that men are guilty of renders their Actions deformed their Lives unlovely their reputation noisome their Memories putrid in the eyes of God and all good Men and to make this more evident suppose a Scheme of our own Societies our present age exposed to open view in the presence of the Gravest Catoes the Wisest Senators the Holy Angels the Blessed Jesus the Almighty God the Searcher of Hearts and the Book of all Mens Actions unclasped and laid open to the eye of the whole World as they will shortly be without any hopes or possibility of Dissimulation or Hypocrisie how eager then and solicitous do ye think would all impenitent sinners be to sew leaves together to fain Excuses to hide in rocks to cover their shame to veil over their deformity In the mean time what makes the prophane Rabble abscond so industriously from the searching eyes of wise and good men what makes them that are drunken drunk in the night and they that commit fornication do it within the Confines of the close Curtains and every sinner desire the Twilight yea the thickest darkness and most Men put on Cloak to hide their Wickedness were it not that sin in its own nature is deformity at least is so esteemed in the eyes of them that judge according to right reason and the light of Truth Where 's the Man that dares avow wickedness in its own Colours and will plead for vice and profess Debauchery even Atheists themselves the grossest sinners of all others would fain prove Truth and Vertue on their side and they dare hardly speak with their mouths what they would willingly entertain in their hearts That there is no God nor Heaven nor Hell nor Vertue nor Vice in the whole World The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Secondly I would perswade to worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness 1. Beauty is an amiable thing 'T is lovely and inviting and as the Orator saith if we desire to observe a Decorum in those things that relate to our Bodies to our Garments to our Gestures we should be much more so to keep up a Decency and Beauty in all our Actions especially when we are conscious that an Omniscient Eye seeth all we do and Angels do still attend us and all our secret things shall sortly be broughtly into Cognisance before the whole World Turpe quid c. 2. All things that are true wise and good are beautiful Indeed there is nothing of Decency in any thing else but what is conform to a holy rule and what dares abide the examen of the Light and the Tryal of a searching eye Ignorance Error and Vice are apt to sneak and the guilty sinner hates the light because his deeds are evil Only Truth and Goodness as being conscious of their own Beauty Order Loveliness and Excellency are bold to appear before the Noon sun And therefore Sirs if there be such excellent qualities as these in the world be exhorted to pursue after them if Religion be lauidble Christinaity excellent a sincere Devotion a fervent Zeal a warm Charity and an Honest Life have any thing of Beauty and Commendation belonging to them if it be a pleasant thing to pour out the Soul in Prayer to offer Eucharists and Hallelujahs to the God of your Mercies to pay Devoirs to the King of Heaven to fing his Praises upon the Harp and Heart to live humbly holily and righteously in the sight of Men Do Sirs dare to take some pains to pursue carefully after these things Phil. 4. 4 8. 3. This Beauty of Religion commends it to the Approbation of the World and makes the Church shine to those that are without It represents it lovely and inviting to all Beholders and therefore for the sake of those incredulous souls that yet lye under prejudices and the disadvantages of an ill prospect we should do what we can to make our light shine before men and our Graces give a lustre to our Principles that if it be possible and as much as lies in us we may charm Proselytes court the Love and Embraces of the incredulous world stop the mouths of contradicting sinners make Proselytes of all that know us and are acquainted with our Conversations let our Words be true our Speech savory our Tables sober our Port grave our Actions honest and our Worship Evangelical and every instance of our lives impress'd with a tincture of Grace Holiness and Heaven and then our faces will shine and our light extend it self round about us to the Reputation of our Religion and the inviting or silencing of very Enemies 'T is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun but 't is much more so to behold the Son of Righteousness in his full glory shining in the Church and communicating his graces in plentiful manner to them that dwell on Mount Zion to see the Priests cloathed with righteousness and the Saints shouting aloud for ioy Psal 132. 9 16. To see the Disciples of the Holy Jesus in their Wedding Garments cloathed with such Raiment as may qualifie them for the Espousals of the King of Heaven the Ring on their hand and a Crown of Glory upon their head and the best Robes in the whole World the best manners the most amiable Graces for their common wear and their heads anointed with Oyl the most costly Ointments the Consolations of the Holy Ghost the peace of Conscience inward and spiritual joy their feet shod with the preparations of the Gospel of Peace to see all Orders and Ranks of Men among us keep up Order and Decency and Love in their full strength and vigour to see the Husband loving the Wife and Wife reverencing the Husband the Parents providing carefully for and instructing their Children and the Children dutiful and loving and faithful to their Parents Servants obedient to their Masters with fear and trembling in the singleness of their heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not as to Men and Masters again doing the same things unto them forbearing threatning knowing that they also have a Master in Heaven the Prince ruling in justice
join in a serious and solemn Commemoration of the Death Passion Love and Merits of our dying Lord when like Brethren of the same Society and of the same Family they symbolize together in Celebration of the Holy Eucharist eating at the same Table of the same Bread drinking of the same Wine in memory of that blessed Body and Blood which were both given for the Nourishment of us to Eternal Life when we commemorate his Cross with a Croud of Passions and crucisie our Lusts with a warm Devotion and look upon our Saviour's immense Love with weeping Eyes and wondering Hearts Faith Gladness and great Delight and with one Consent enter our selves afresh under his Banner to engage all the sinful Powers of the World and promise faithfully to be all for the time to come better Servants and more faithful in the precedure of our Lives When we solemnize the Memory of our dearest Saviour and his Love like loving Disciples with an ingenuous return of hearty Love to him agen and with a mutual Love to one another When Humility Faith Obedience and Charity all meet at the Passover together and we are in quarrel with nothing but what God himself quarrels at Sin and Hell Psal 96.6 8. The Glory for which we worship is exceeding beautiful If we consider 1. The Description given of it in Sacred Scripture under the Mosaic Oeconomy it was represented by Types and Emblems and figurative Expressions for in truth the Intellectuals of Mankind were then so gross and cloudy that they had need of Pictures and sensible Ideas to make things spiritual invisible and future intelligible and 't is not much better with Mankind now tho' the World be grown older yet not much wiser We have still need of Material Instruments and Opticks to help us forward in Quest of the World to come The Land of Canaan the Milk Oyl Honey and exceeding fruitfulness of the place were a lively Figure of the promised Inheritance They stuck then so deep in the Mud and adhered so close to the present World that it was hard to draw them over to abstracted and lofty speculations and therefore God Almighty indulged their Infancy of Reason and Judgment so far as to give them a Prospect of Heaven in a fine spot of ground here on Earth A sight of Life everlasting and the World to come in a piece of clear Landskip in this World But a Brighter discovery was reserved to these last times of the World when Men were come to some maturity of Age and Judgment and able to lay aside their Fescues and throw away their Pictures and ruder Elements they had been accustomed to and exercised in so that now we have as full a Discovery and Description of the future Glory revealed to us as we are capable at present of receiving And here I must confess the Beauty is so dazling the Apprehension so amazing that a deep Meditation upon it would go near to strike our Thoughts into a perfect stupor and incuriousness about the things of this World Life and Immortality are brought to light thro' the Gospel but such a light as we are able to receive and no more 2. The Nature of it collected from the chief Topicks of Consideration 1. God himself the Object and Author 2. The Design and Intention 1. God himself the Object and Author Of which I shall say but little for when we stare long upon such Transcendent Objects our Senses fail us and we commonly find our selves at our Wits end We may indeed discourse modestly about them and think at present so far as to make our Thoughts quick and Devotion lively but whatsoever is more than this is more than meet Can we think that that God who made the World and made us with so much Wisdom and exercised a continual Providence over us for so many thousands of Years did not mean some excellent admirable End at the last for the Reward of that Creature which was made the top of all the visible Creation For my part I expect to see and I think upon excellent Reason too the God of Mercy admit me in favour to that Enjoyment the most ravishing sight that ever was or will be in the Vniverse There and then I hope to see what will be the product and effect of that Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness that first made and now maintains this World Then the Glory of all his Attributes will be made known and exposed to open view and Oh! the Beauty of that Prospect and therefore 2. The Design and Intention of it being to set forth the Divine Glory and Man's Happiness it must needs be full of Beauty As the Case stands with us now a little a lighter kind of Happiness would serve our turns Our Bodies are very frail our Intellectuals very infirm our Natures so bemired with sin and vicious Inclinations that a Mahomet's Paradise or an Elysian Field or a good Constitution of Body and a pleasant Soul and some cheerful Company and a full Purse or Barn would go a great way with us But when the Body is raised incorruptible and all the Man's Faculties renewed and repaired we shall not be content with that Draff we feed on now but call for Manna Angels food more glorious Objects and refined Notions and a clearer Medium for the Conveyance of Idea's and Communion with Spirits and then every thing will be and appear in its due place and order God Angels Men every sense and faculty suited and filled with its meet Object All things full of beauty and Glory without any intermixture of Deformity Defect or Disorder The supream Being in his Throne of Majesty and all his Creatures in their proper places of Subjection and Glory reciprocating the Acts of a Holy Sweet and blessed Communion one with another To which Blessed Estate the Lord grant that both he that writes and he that reads these Lines may be admitted for the sake of our dear Redeemer the Holy Jesus We shall now in the next place come to consider First The Deformity of an unholy life opposita juxta se c. 1. Sin is full of Deformity of its own nature 'T is all of it an Ireegularity a divaricating from the Rule a trangression of the Holy Law of God a disobedience to the Divine Precept a going aside into By-paths and Errors 2. It renders us uncomely and deformed in the sight of God Good Angels and Good Men They look not upon us with that loving eye that liking and approbation that pleasure and delight as upon the righteous and him that fears God As for the former 't is called by God in Scripture Abomination and that which his soul abhors so is all injustice diverse weights and measures proud looks and hypocritical prayers and in a word all the kinds of sin nay the Prophet tells us His Eyes cannot endure to look upon iniquity and besides he hates them so that he will never suffer these qualities to come into his
of the Spirit of Grace the Company of Angels Cherubim and Seraphim Let us say as Psalm 4. many say who will shew us any good c. Besides if the Outward Court of this World be so comforted with the warmth of the Outward Parts of Heaven is there nothing in the Emperial Orbs in the Inner Chambers to refresh and comfort the Church of God! Is the Atrium Gentium so pleasant and is the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holies devoid and desolate 2. The Flux and Reflux Ebb and Flowing of the Sea that indeed depends as generally concluded upon the Moon only But that is such a Wonder in Nature that it sufficiently illustrates the Power and Wisdom of God Psalm 107.21 22 23. Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Thus God who daily makes the great and wide Seas to Ebb and Flow is able also to make the like changes and visicissiudes in the World in the Church he turneth mand to destruction again be c. Psal 90.3 5 6. Bsal 107 31 32 c. 3. Other secret Influences and Operations unknown to us as to Weather Health Plenty and it may be Wars and Peace Prosperity and Afflictions Life and Death For so far Astrologers go but I would be wise unto sokiety and not peer too far lest I should be taxed for Curiosity in all this the Glory of God appears CHAP. V. Of Comets Thunder and Lightning Air and Winds Storms and Tempests Hail Rain Snow and Frosts Extraordinary Signs and Apparitions I Shall here speak of the other Insevlour Appurtenances of Heaven I choose to range them under that notion because I intend not so much a Lecture of Philosophy as a plain discourse of Divinity I mean the Comets Thunder and Lightning Wind and Air Vapours and Exhabations Storms and Tempests Hail Rain and Snow strange Apparitions and Phenomena I hope my time will not be quite lost nor I censur'd for impertinent in treating on these things God himself therefore exhibiting them that we might duly meditare upon them and deduce Inferences thence for his Glory 1. Comets and Blazing Stars or whatever else of that nature appears in the Heavens above us I pass over those Miteors of lesser moment Falling Stars Burning Launces Flying Dragons Skipping Goats Ignes Fatui and licking Fires as exhalations of inferiour wonder Comets are the most stupendious I hope no body amongst Christians is so silly as Democritus who took them for the Souls of the Saints Trimphing in Glory Or as others Fires carried thither by Spirits only to astonish the World Whatever they are generated of for I will not meddle here with the Physical Consideration their meaning is something the God of Nature who is so Wise as to make nothing in vain without all doubt puts them in the Heavens for some sign or other Nor dare I be peremptory to assign the particular signification I humbly conceive the most that we can read in those Coelestial Hierogliphycks is that God is going to do some great thing in the World and that at the hanging out of those Flags it behoves men to enquire into their Lives and search their ways more narrowly and prepare to meet their God who is coming to judge the World in equity and maketh these Flames of Fire his Harbingers to prepare his way and give notice of his coming I shall not trouble you with particular Instances of these kind of Meteors the Scripture tells us at the Birth of our Saviour a Star appeared which perhaps was the Comet spoken of by Heathen Authors in the days of Angustus of a stupendious greatness upon which the Tibertine Sibyl shewed the Emperor the Divinity of our Saviour in these words Hic Puer Major te est Ipsum adora Our last great Comet I doubt not was of extraordinary signification not to us only but to whole Europe and farther so far as it was conspicuous What a Gracious God have we that never scarce goes about any great Commotions or Changes in the World but he gives warning beforehand as if not willing to take us tardy He shews his signs in the Heavens above when he is about to do any great Work in the Earth beneath And therefore as Darius in the case of Daniel Chap. 6.26 27. Let men tremble and fear before this God for he is the Living God and steadfast for ever his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even unto the end he delivereth and rescueth and worketh signs and wonders in Heaven and Earth 2. Thunder and Lightning called by the Psalmist the Voice of God and by some supposed to be that Trumpet that shall sound at the last day to raise the Dead and to call to Judgment I will not trouble you with declaring the strange and divers effects of this kind of Meteor its hurting of things Inward when the Outward are safe shattering the Bones when the Flesh is left sound melting the Blade of the Sword when the Scabbard is free breaking the Vessel when the Wine flows not away exempting poisonous Creatures from their Venom and infusing it into those who are not so striking men dead and leaving them in the same posture it found them as if still alive c. It is enough to say that 't is a stupendious Meteor and may well be called the Voice of the Divine Excellency Job 37.2 3 4 c. Job 26.6 14. It is said of Nero that a Thunderbolt fell upon his Table and struck the Cup out of the Emperors Hand And we have known in our Age some strong Towers and high buildings demolished to the very gound with Lightning Some Men struck dead some lamed some blinded Trees clove asunder A Learned Divine of our Nation tells of a profane Person walking abroad with another upon the Lord's Day when it thundred to his Companion telling him of it made answer 't is nothing but a Knave Cooper beating of his Tubs but he had not gone much farther but himself was struck dead This may teach us to put on a Reverential awe of the Divine Majesty at such seasons That Emperor Caligula who used to brave it out as if he meant to vye with the Almighty and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was an instance of the Divine Patience but no safe example for imitation The Psalmist is more ingenuous Psal 29. c. Give unto the Lord O ye Mighty c. and Psal 97.1 2 3 4. To see all the lower World cover'd with thick Clouds and the Cracks of Thunder shake the very Pillars of the Earth and terrible Flashes and Corruscations of Ligtning with a speedy pace fly from one end of the Heavens to the other is so like the Voice of God and a Type or Shadow of that Black Gloomy Day which shall put a period to the World that it may well be a Memento of our Duty and Reverence we owe to the Divine Majesty and may well put that Question into our Mouths Who shall