little Souls So that this acquaintance with the great God will greaten the Soul towards God but will diminish and lessen it towards a mans self and the World in our estimation thereof 2. We ought from hence also be led to a dependance upon him for he that made Heaven and Earth must needs be sufficient to help us in all cases whatsoever The Heathens are said to trust in a God that could not save Isa 45. 20. And the Reason is given because their gods did not make Heaven and Earth as we read vers 18. He that brought all things out of the Abyss of non-entity into Being can raise us out of the lowest depth of affliction and misery He that said Let there be Light and made the Darkness vanish before it is able to bring us out of the greatest darkness of trouble He that made the Waters retreat from covering the Earth can discharge us of the Waters of Sorrow and Affliction wherewith we sometimes seem to be covered or overwhelmed The Church of Israel comforts her self in such a prospect of God Psal 124. 8. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth That is to say Our help is in one that is All-sufficient and upon whom we may safely depend One great cause of the Saints distrustful heart-fainting fears is the not considering this Hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not Isa 40. 28. Why then doth Jacob faint in his distress And when we are afraid of Man it is because we forget the Lord our Maker that stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth Isa 51. 13. Did we well remember this it would strengthen our Faith and vanquish our Fears and make us able under the greatest Difficulties and Dangers and Deaths to commit our Souls to him as a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. For as in the Works of Creation we behold him a powerful Creator so in Christ Jesus and the Covenant made with us in him we may behold him also a faithful Creator and so be encouraged to depend upon him and commit our selves to him 3. Hereupon we ought to have an holy awe and fear of him As the considering God the Creatour of the World should dispel distrustful fear so it ought to beget an awful fear of him All appearances of God are tremendous to the Creature As when he appeared in Transient Visions to the Prophets it struck them with dread as we read of Daniel Chap. 10. And those Beams of Glory that shone forth in Christ's Transfiguration made the Disciples fear Matth. 17. 6. So verily his appearances in in the Works of Creation are wonderful and dreadful Aquin. 1. 2. q. 41. Art 4. Here we may first wonder and then fear as the Schoolmen have made Admiration one of the kinds of Fear Greatness and Majesty are apt to strike this Heart with Fear and both these are visibly written upon God's Creation What cannot he do either for a Man or against him that is the Maker of the World what is exceeding high hath a dread in it As in Ezekiels Vision of the Wheels it 's said Chap. 1. 18. As for their Rings they were so high that they were dreadful In the Creation of the World we behold the sublimity of God's Majesty and his Wisdom and Greatness in a Stupendious Elevation As Bildad tells Job Job 25. 2. speaking of God Dominion and Fear are with him These are joyned together as Cause and Effect And he shews Job this Dominion of God in the Works of his Creation He maketh peace in his high places All the Creatures of the upper World quietly subject to the Creator's Law And vers 3. Is there any number of his Armies c. which are the Hosts in Heaven and Earth as the Creatures are called Gen. 2. 1. Here is God's Dominion which should strike us with an holy awe of him The Heathen beholding these glorious Works of the Creation had thereby a fear of a Deity imprest upon their hearts which was the occasion of that Atheistical Speech of the Poet Primus in Orbe Deos fecit timor Fear â—irst made gods upon the Earth Yet this is a Truth the Works of God's Creation should strike our Hearts with a reverend Fear of the Creatour which the Psalmist exhorts men to Let all the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Oh how should the whole World stand in awe of such a Being Our very praises are to be mixt with fear He is therefore said to be fearful in praises Exod. 15. 11. For those Excellencies of his Works for which we praise him have such Impressions of his Glory and Power upon them that may make men fear while they are praising of them But because I would still make my Discourse to serve the Design of true Christianity I therefore add That this Fear ought not to be afrighting or meerly astonishing to enslave the Soul or drive Man into fond superstition as it did the Heathen but such as may suit a state of Sonship and may be proper to him that is not only our Creator but our Redeemer and Father in Christ Jesus And by that Principle of Grace we have received of him as our Redeemer to fear him as our Creatour Upon this account also we owe him Praise and Admiration 1. Praise It is the ultimate end of these Works of Creation that the Creator may be praised in them and it is the ultimate end of Man to give Glory and Praise to him After God had made and finished the rest of his Works he lastly made Man that he might have a Creature to contemplate the Works of his hands and praise him in them all and by him reduce all his Works back again to himself And without question Adam as soon as he had a Being and was placed in the Theatre of this World he saw the Creator in his Works and found in himself a Principle that naturally led him to adore and magnifie him And as this Principle is renewed in any Man and the Image of God restored to him so is he disposed to the performance of it How often do we find David's heart in a rapture of praise upon the contemplation of God's Workmanship in the Worlds Creation as we may find in Psal 8. 1. Psal 33. 6 7. Psal 104. 24. And when he calls upon irrational Creatures to praise their Creator as in Psal 148. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him all ye Stars of Light Praise him ye Heavens of Heavens and ye Waters that are above the Heavens And thence he comes down to this lower World vers 7. Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Dragons and all Deeps c. All this is but to quicken up his own heart to that Duty which was
he rose again loosing the Bands of Death and the Grave and ascended triumphantly into Heaven and acquired a new Title to his Dominion over the World in his conquest of it 5. And being now in Heaven yet still the Creation is in his hand and bringing in revenews of Glory to God by him He disposeth of Kingdoms and Nations as he pleaseth sometimes throwing down the mighty from their Seats and then exalting the lowly and meek as was prophesied of him Luk. 1. 70. Sometimes straitning the Nations in his displeasure and then enlarging them again in his mercy and goodness He takes care for the upholding and propagating the everlasting Gospel accompanies it with his Spirit to the conversion of Souls to God and building them up an habitation for him fits them for his Service and Praise in this World and then gathers them into the presence of his Father to stand before him and to minister to him for ever He also orders their Tryals and Sufferings as he seeth them requisite to the Glory of God and their preparation for Heaven and then when he seeth it meet delivers them out of them also 6. After all this at the time of the Consummation of all things he will come down from Heaven and judge the World receiving some into the Kingdom of his Father and sending others into everlasting Fire wherein the riches of God's Grace and Mercy and the clearness of his Justice will most illustriously shine forth to his eternal Praise and Glory And when this is done he delivers up his Kingdom and Dominion to his Father that he had received from him having subdued all Enemies under his feet and put down all Rule 1 Cor. 15. 28. Authority and Power his Father becomes All in All. Thus with respect to Christ and to the accomplishment of these Glorious Works which I have but briefly touched was this Creation of the World erected and which are transcendently more to the glory of God than what could have been under the first Adam either by any obedience performed by him or the dispensation of God towards him under that first Covenant And from hence I shall briefly make three Inferences Inference 1. That the Redemption of the World is a greater Work than the Creation of it seeing it was erected for the Son of God to transact that glorious Work in The end hath a pre-eminence above all those means that are made use of in a subserviency to it This lower World was made with respect to it where the Foundation of this Work is begun and laid And the upper World also where it is compleated and finished On Earth God hath the praise of it begun and in Heaven it shall be made perfect And if the Angels that are the chief part of God's Creation are made and appointed with a subserviency to it to be ministring Spirits to Christ and to the Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. ult much more than sure the inferiour part of it And when all the Elect which are these Heirs shall be inflated in their Inheritance and fully possest of it then comes the dissolution upon this visible Creation as having then served the end for which it was first erected Inference 2. It also may be observed hence How the Nature of Man is in Christ advanced to the top of God's Creation For the World was created that it might be set under the government of the Son of God in the Nature of Man So that as I took notice before of its advancement by its union with him so here by the Dominion it hath over the whole Creation by vertue of that Union and the determination of God therein He first descended and assumed our Nature and then ascended and carried it up far above all Heavens Principalities and Powers which are the highest parts of God's Creation being made subject to him Ephes 1. 21. Our Nature was advanced in the first Adam into a great Dominion over the Creatures but it is advanced higher in the second Adam There it had a dignity upon Earth but here it hath a dignity both in Heaven and Earth There it had dominion over the Creatures of this lower World that were of an inferior Nature to it Here it hath dominion over the Angels in the upper World that are of a superior Nature and Order Lord what is Man saith the Psalmist that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Thou hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Thou madest him to have dominion over the Works of thine hand Thou hast put all things under his feet And the Psalmist had respect not so much to the dignity of Man's Nature in the first Adam as in the Second For these words are in Heb. 2. applyed to Christ and the dignity God exalted him to Being first made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little while lower than the Angels by his debasement and suffering in this lower World and then exalted into Power and Dignity above them all in his ascending the upper World being crowned with Glory and Honour Oh the mysterious depths of Wisdom and Goodness that here meet together in the Man Christ Jesus Oh the stupidity and blindness of fal'n Man that takes so little notice of these great Works of God with respect to which the World was principally made With what sacred astonishment should we behold these Counsels of Heaven With what thanks givings and adorations should we celebrate this unspeakable Love Especially if we consider Man's Nature to be thus advanced after it had transgrest the Law of its Creation and corrupted it self more than any inferiour Nature Inference 3. We may hence conclude That the whole Creation being made for Christ and put into his hand shall be managed to the highest exaltation of the Glory of God However the course of things may run for a while and the reason of many things hid out of our sight yet all things will at last meer in this general Issue the universal end of all things which is the Glory of God The first Adam was made and placed upon the Stage of the World that through him God might have the Glory of his Creation but he being mutable fell from his Station lost his Strength and so could not serve the end of his Being Therefore God hath now put all things into a surer hand and his Glory stands upon a surer bottom For he that is both God and Man is likely to bring in both higher and surer glory to God than he that was but meer Man If he should fail in it it should be either because he wants ability which cannot be because he made all things or because he wants love and good will to God which cannot be neither because he is his only begotten Son And seeing the Work of Man's Redemption and Salvation was principally in the eye of God when he made the World as that Work
to come these are all made evident to us by Scripture-Light which were either not at all or but darkly known by any Light of Nature How dubiously and sometimes ridiculously did the sagest of the Heathen write of these things As to the Souls Immortality their great Orator Cicero doubted of it As for the Resurrection of the Dead Plin. lib. 7. cap. 55. their great Naturalist Pliny explodes it As to Rewards and Punishments in a future State their Poets had ridiculous Fictions about them Therefore Life and Immortality are said to be brought to Light by the Gospel speaking more distinctly of the future State and World to come than what is found either in the Dictates of Nature or the Writings of the Old-Testament Lastly Yea as to the very Nature of God his Holiness Unity Simplicity Actuality of Being Omniscience Immensity and other Attributes these are more clearly revealed in the Word of God than in any Evidence of Nature Which though in this it is not wholly dark as in some other Truths before mentioned yet even here it is not so distinct and clear as the Scripture is which as it is a System of Natural Truth beyond any other Writing in the World so it contains those Supernatural Truths that could not else be known to the Sons of Men. And this is all I shall speak to this Head which though it doth not so immediately result from my present Subject yet I thought needful to interpose only in my leaving it shall add this Inference Inference We may hence evince the absurdity of casting off Scripture-Light Scholars may read a more distinct account of the deficiency of this Natural Theology and its inferiority to Gospel-Revelation in Dr. Owen's Polite Discourse on this Subject at large in his Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lib. 1. and betaking our selves to the Light of Nature Is not the Light of the Sun above that of the Moon the one Ruleth the Day and the other the Night Those that have no Scripture-Light live under the Dominion of Nature's Moon-light Acts 7. 27. and are but in the Night feeling after God as Men in the dark It is Scripture-Light through the Spirit that makes the Day It argues also our great Ingratitude that this great Mercy of God in the Scriptures should be no more valued by us Do we pitty the poor blind Heathen and shall we cast away that Light without which we shall be as blind as they Hath God dealt with us in such Mercy as with Israel of old to give us his Statutes and Judgments when he hath not so dealt with every Nation and shall not we be thankful above other People Hath God magnified his Word above all his Name Psal 138. 2. and shall we put it below the other parts of his Name or hath God magnified his Name upon his Word as a learned Rabbin reads the Text and shall we despise it and not magnifie that Name of God which is there so eminently written The great Masters of Wisdom among the Gentiles as Pythagoras Plato Socrates Trismegistus c. got more knowledg of Divine Things from some Fragments of those Truths that were made known by Divine Revelation to the People of Israel than from all their Studies of Nature And much of the Gentile Theology Mr. Theoph Gale both as to the Deities they worshipped and the manner of their Worship was though corruptly derived thence as hath been made evident by a Learned Author of late that hath travelled in those Studies Now we that have with us the whole Body of Scripture and Revelations of Supernatural Truths therein are highly concerned to give thanks to the Almighty for so great a benefit After the Psalmist had spoken of the common Benefits of Nature for which God is to be praised of all men Psal 147. Who covereth the Heavens with Clouds prepareth Rain for the Earth maketh Grass to grow upon the Mountains giveth the Beast his Food c. vers 8 9. He then speaks of his special Goodness to Jacob And wherein He sheweth his Word unto Jacob vers 19. c. And then concludes the Psalm Praise ye the Lord. Jacob that is the Church of Israel had the special favor of God's Word and therefore above all People and Nations were obliged to praise him CHAP. VII God's Being Demonstrated from the Creation of man Several peculiar things spoken of about his Creation How the Workmanship and Operations of of the body declares Gods Being The soul considered in its Capacity innate principles immortality operations whence we have a further evidence of God's Being I Shall now proceed to speak to a further evidence of God's Being from one special part of his Creation which is the Creation of man And therefore shall speak to it by it self And we may observe some peculiar things related about it above what is said of the other works of God 1. When God in the course of his works came to give Man his Being He said Come let us make Man Of his other Works he only said let them be as Let there be Light and Let there be a Firmament c. But as if himself was more Concerned and that in the Trinity of his Being about making Man then any other of his works he saith let us make Man 2. Other creatures he speaks to the Earth and Waters to bring them forth whether Vegetables as Herbs Grass Fruits Trees c. Or Animals in the several Regions of Ayr Earth or Water where they do Inhabit But God sets to his own hand in the making of Man He himself forms him of the dust of the ground and then himself breathed into him the breath of life Gen. 2. 7. 3. God saith also of Man Let us make Man after our own Image and our own likeness Gen. 1. 26. Which he said not of his other works either the Light or Firmament or Sun Moon or Stars which are all Glorious Creatures Yet he said of none of these Let us make them after our own likeness It may be observed also that the Word Created is three times repeated and that in one Verse with respect to Man's Creation So God Created Man in his own Image in the Image of God Created he him Male and Female Created he them Gen. 1. 27. Which some concieve refers to the plural term used about the making of Man Let us make Man God Created him that is God the Father God Created him that is God the Son God Created him that is God the Holy Ghost And which is remarkable when God is called in Scripture the Maker or Creator of Man it is still expressed Plurally as 35 Job 10. and 149 Psal 2. 12 Eccles. 1. 54 Isa 5. Where God is stiled the Creatours and Makers of Man in the Hebrew Text. Yet the Creation of him was but one and the God that Created him one also 4. Man had this Preeminence also that he was Created last God