and praise him Gods great works call for great praise Commend him with our tongues and speak good of his Name Psal. 19. 2. The Heavens declare the glory of God i. e. give occasion to man of declaring it 5. This is a comfort to those who acknowledge God to be such a one as he is Is not he rich enough to maintain them Wise enough to direct them Strong enough to protect them If thou want goodness he can create in thee a new heart it may comfort the godly in regard of the Resurrection God can raise them up at the last day 6. It is a great terror to the wicked which do not fear but despise him God will hate despise and destroy them God can do it he made Heaven and Earth and he will do it because he is true he hath threatned it Oh the misery of that man which hath him for his enemy 7. We may learn from all the creatures in general 1. To bewail our Rebellion against God which all of them reprove for they all stand in their kinde and station in which God set them at first The Sunne rejoyceth to runne his course the Sea keepeth her bounds the Earth stands upon her foundation the Heavens keep their motion and declare Gods glory the very Windes and Seas obey him 2. All of them teach the invisible things of God Rom. 1. 20. as was before-shewed 8. We should make a right use of the creatures use them 1. Devoutly 1 Tim. 4. 5. in Faith Rom. 14. 14. ult with Prayer and Thanksgiving Mat. 15. 36. Act. 27 35. 2. Soberly 1 Cor. 10. 31. 3. Thankfully 1 Tim. 4. 4. Having handled the works of Creation in general I now proceed according to Moses his Method to a more particular enarration of each dayes work The whole first Chapter of Genesis may be thus divided 1. The Author of the worlds Creation God 2. The Work 3. The Approbation of it Verse 1. In the beginning of time or being therefore the World was not eternal Iohn begins so and took it hence But beginning there may mean from Eternity or as here Christ did not begin then but was then Prov. 8. 22. Bara Elohim Gods Created That difference between the Noun Plural and Verb Singular saith Rivet signifieth not the mystery of the Trinity but is an Idiotism of the Hebrew Tongue in which such Enallages are frequent as Numb 32. 25. Most of our men take the joyning of a Singular Verb with the Plural Elohim for a mystical expressing the holy Trinity But the Jewish Grammarians make it an Enallage of number chiefly to expresse excellency in the Persons to whom it is refer'd Mr Seldens Titles of Honour part 1. chap. 6. However there is no difference in the thing it self for the Name of Gods being taken here essentially not personally is common to the three Persons Gods created is as much as the Father the Sonne and holy Ghost created for elsewhere it is manifest from Scripture that not only the Father but the Sonne and holy Ghost also created the world Created signifieth an act of infinite power and is not communicable to any creature i. Ex nihilo fecit quidem potentissimè ac magnificentissimè Junius Heaven and Earth In the first day were created Heaven and Earth as it were the foundation and roof of the building Psal. 104. 5. Isa. 40. 21 22. The work of the first day was 1. Heaven under which name are comprehended partly the Empyraean first and immovable Heaven which is called in Scripture the third Heaven and Heaven of Heavens Ephes. 4. 10. 2 Chron. 6. 18. Acts 1. 11. and partly the celestial Spheres which it is probable were made the first day but without those lights of the Stars with which at length in the fourth day they were adorned the Hebrew word for Heaven being of the Dual number may imply both The heavenly Intelligences or Angels the Inhabitants of the invisible Heaven were then made as is probable saith Chemnitius Coelum id est extimum illum hujus universitatis ambitum cum super coelestibus incolis illius spiritualibus formis atque intelligentiis Gen. 2. 1. Job 38. 7. Iunius in loc 2. The four first simple things or elements as some think Earth Water Air Fire and the fitting of them for use by making day and night Though others hold that the Air and Fire are comprehended under Firmament the work of the second day For the Earth there is He emphatical this Earth which we dwell in though then unpolished The Earth is described in the second verse It was without form and void Informity and Vacuity in the original without inhabitants and without ornament the Earth and Waters were joyned together among themselves the waters at first did encompasse and cover the Earth round about as it were a cloathing and garment Psal. 104. 6. Darknesse was on the face of the deep that is the waters which inclosed the earth in themselves Vers. 3. There is an extraordinary Light mentioned the ordinary fountain of light is the Sunne which in what subject it did inhere is not certain Some say water in the thinner parts of the Superficies some the heavenly Spheres others say the Element of fire for that say they is either included under light or we know not whether to referre it and God created not accidents without subjects The works of the second day were twofold First That most vast firmament viz. that space between the Earth and Skie The Hebrew word signifieth the extending of any thing or the thing it self Secondly The division of the waters above from the Waters below that is of the clouds which are in the middle Region of the Air from the Fountains Rivers and Sea which remain under the lowest Region But by the name of Clouds and Waters above the Firmament we may understand all the Meteors both watery and fiery which were created then in their causes Ier. 10. 13. The approbation given of other dayes is here omitted in the Hebrew not because Hell was created on this day as the Hebrews say but because this work of distinguishing the waters was yet imperfect and finished on the third day The work of the third day was threefold First The conflux or gathering of the waters below into one place in regard of the greater part of them called Sea that so they might not overflow the Earth and by this command of Gods they still continue so Luther said well that all a mans life upon the Earth is as great a miracle as the Israelites passing thorow the red Sea Secondly The drying of the earth to make it habitable and fit for nourishing plants and living creatures Thirdly The producing of Herbs and Trees of all kindes The works of the fourth day were the Lights both greater as Sun and Moon and lesser as the other Stars placed in the Heavens as certain receptacles or vessels wherein the
great blame that have scarce ever directed our minds to the contemplation and fruitful meditation of this great act of God among the rest for any good spiritual and holy intent Scholars sometimes in their Philosophical studies stumble upon these questions and set their wits on work to finde out the natural reason of them but alas in how unsanctified a manner so as not at all to inforce the thing upon their souls for making of them more thankful and obedient But for the plain man that is no Scholar though he have wit enough for all things else yet he hath no wit to enter upon these cogitations and when he findeth the matter so far above his reach yet to tell himself that this is one of Gods works and so to call on himself to fear know and obey him this this is that we must every man lament in himself as a just and due cause why the Scripture should ascribe brutishnesse unto us and we unto our selves and why we should present our selves before the divine Majesty with bashful and lowly confessions of our wrong done to God in robbing him of the honour due unto him for his works which our selves have the fruit of Secondly to our selves in depriving our selves of the best and most excellent fruit of them which is to be led by them above themselves vnto him This may exhort every one of us to take this work of God from David and to make it as it were our theame or the object of our meditations Whosoever applieth himself to raise up such thoughts shall finde a great unaptnesse in himself and a kinde of wearinesse to them with a vehement inclination to entertain other â—â—ncies and the Devil will take occasion hence to disswade him from doing the duty at all as if it were as good omit it as perform it so weakly it is a falâ—e tale which Satan tels for God hath promised acceptance to the weakest endeavours in calling himself a Father but to accept of the non-performance he hath never promised for even a Father cannot do that Lastly we must learn to seek unto God and trust in him for spiritual stability of grace in our souls and must thus importune him Lord when there was never an earth thou mad'st one and didst lay the foundation of it so sure that no force nor skill can move it O thou canst also create a frame of holinesse in my heart and soul and so stablish settle and confirm it that it shall never be movâ—d I beseech thee do it and trust that thâ—u wilt do this as thou hast done the former One prime use to which we must improve these natural benefits is to quicken our prayers and confirm our faith in begging and expecting such as are spiritual When God will confirm the faith of his people and win them to call upon him for good things he puts them in minde of these wonders in nature they must make use of them therefore for this purpose The second Element is water so necessary a creature as nothing can be more dangerously or uncomfortably wanting to the life of man It is an Element moist in some degree and cold in the highest therefore it cools the body and tempers the heat that it grow not excessive It hath manifold uses constantly Triplex maxime aquarum est usus in irrigando in abluendo in navigando Vossius 1. We and our Cattel drink of it and neither can continue without water or something made of it our bread must be kneaded with it and our meat boyled with it 2. It serves to wash our bodies and the apparel we weare if our hands and feet were never washt what an evil smell should we carrie about 3. It makes the earth fruitful The Husband-man looseth his labour if after sowing there come no rain it is 1. Of large and common use no Country can want it neither rich nor poore man nor beast 2. Of constant use we must have it daily or something made of it and our beasts also 3. Very profitable we drink it and wash with it and our meat is prepared by it and beasts drink it Because of so many good things in water God himself in his word hath so often â—ompared the grace of his Spirit with it Isa. 55. 1. Iohn 4. 14. Rev. 22. 17. Divine grace purgeth the soul from sin extinguisheth the heat of anger lust and other perturbations satisfies the desires of the soul thirsting after God It reprehends us that so ungratefully enjoy and devoure this benefit without lifting our hearts up to God and praising him for it A secret Atheisme prevails in our hearts which is the cause of this great blockishnesse and ingratitude and corrupts all things to us and forfeits them and provokes Gods justice against us Say Lord thou mightest justly choak me for the time to come for want of water that have not been particularly thankful to thee for this mercy We should bring in the parcels of Gods goodnesse for bread water fire when thou washest thy hands let thy heart be lifted up to God that made the Element Stay O that I could praise love and obey him that hath done this for me The usefulnesse abundance and easinesse to come by doth highly commend this benefit and the giver of it shewing water to be very good and our selves much beholding to him that giveth it Anciently in thâ—se warmer Countries especially water was the usual drink of men therefore in the description of the cost of families in house-keeping when we reade of so many Oxen and Sheep slain and so much meale and fine flower we reade not of any wine which would have been mentioned if it had been usually drunk 3. The Aire or all the void place between the clouds and the earth giving breath of life to all things that breathe this is the third Element light and subtil moving upward not downward because it hath no heavinesse in it It is divided into three regions or stages The highest is said to be exceeding hot and also dry because it is neer the fiery Element and Stars by the force of whose beams it receiveth the heat which is much encreased by following the motions of the Heavens The lowest region is they say hot and moist hot by the reflection of the Sun-beams meeting with the earth and moist from its own proper nature and by reason of the vapours exhaled out of the earth and water or rather it is variable now hot now cold sometime temperate differing according to times and seasons of the yeer and places also or several climates The middle region of the aire is cold in respect of the two other because it cannot follow the motions of the Heavens as the upper region doth being hindered by the tops of mountains 2. Being free from the reflex beams of the Sun by which the lower region of the aire is made hot The aire is most thin without light or colour but apt to
of aire as winds 3. Watery which retain the nature of the water as snow and rain 4. Earthly which being begot of earthly vapours are also digged out of the Earth as metals stones The efficient cause is God according to that of the Psalmist haile snow ice winde and storm do his will The remote matter of the Meteors are Elements the next matter are exhalations which are two-fold fumus vapor smoak is of a middle nature between earth and fire vapour between water and aire If it come from the earth or some sandy place it is fumus a fume or kinde of smoak if it come from the water or some watery place it is a vapour Vapours or exhalations are fumes raised from the water and earth by the heavenly bodies into one of the three Regions of the aire whence divers impressions are formed according to the quality and quantity of the exhalations Thunder is a sound heard out of a thick or close compacted Cloud which sound is procured by reason of hot and dry exhalations shut within the cloud which seeking to get out with great violence rend the cloud from whence proceeds the tumbling noise which we call Thunder The earth sends out partly by its own innate heat and partly by the external heat and attraction of the Sun certain hot and dry steams which the Philosopher cals exhalations and these going up in some abundance are at last enclosed within some thick cloud consisting of cold and moist vapours which finding themselves straightned do with violence seek a vent and break through the sides or low part of the cloud There is first a great conflict and combate there of the contrary qualities a great rumbling and tumbling and striving of the exhalations within the cloud until it break forth into a loud and fearful crack Then the exhalation by its heat incensed in the strife proves all on a slame as it comes in the aire and that is Lightning Lastly the exhalation falling down upon the earth is so violent that sometimes it breaks trees sometimes it singeth and burneth what it meets with it kils mâ—n and living creatures and in the most abundance of it there is a Thunder-bolt begotten through exceeding great heat hardning the earthly parts of it God hath power over the Thunder He commands it rules it orders it for time place manner of working and all circumstances the Thunder in Egypt at the delivering of the Law proves this Therefore in the Scripture it is called the voyce of God and the fearfulnesse and terriblenesse thereof is made an argument of the exceeding greatnesse of God that can at his pleasure destroy his enemies even by the chiding of his voyce in Egypt he smote them with haile lightning thunder and with stormy tempest At the delivering of the Law mighty thunder-claps made way to the Lords appearance and were his harbingers to tell of his coming and prepare the hearts of the people with exceeding great awfulnesse and obedience to receive directions from him The Lord puts down Iob 40. 9. with this question Canst thou thunder with a voyce like God speak terribly and with as big and loud a voice as thou canst and if thy voice be answerable to loud thunder either in terriblenesse or loudnesse then will I confesse my self to be thy equal and Elihu reasoned for God by consideration of this great work David Psal. 29. sheweth the greatnesse of God in the greatnesse of this mighty sound But it pleaseth God to effect this work not immediately but mediately using natural and ordinary causes according to his own good will and pleasure for the effecting thereof There do arise from the ends of the earth as the Scripture speaks that is from all quarters of this inferiour part of the world consisting of earth and water certain steams or fumes partly drawn up thence by the heat and influence of the Sun and other Planets or Constellations partly breathed out of the earth by the natural heat thereof Whereof some are hot and moist being us it were of a middle nature betwixt water and aire some hot and dry being of a middle nature betwixt fire and aire as some Philosophers think of which two as of the matter are brought forth these strange things which we see in the aire and among the rest Thunder Though thunder be first in nature being by the violent eruption it makes out of the cloud the cause of fulgurations yet we see first the lightning before we hear the Thunder because of the swiftnesse of the fire above the aire and because the eye is quicker in perceiving its object then the ear This is done for the benefit of the world that by shaking of the aire it might be purged and made fit for the use of man and beast being cleansed from those ill and pestilent vapours which otherwise would make it too thick grosse and unwholsome for our bodies for this is one special end of winds thunders and the like vehement works that are in the aire besides the particular work for which God assigneth them and therefore with thunder likely is joyned much rain because the cloud is dissolved at the same time and sometimes violent winds and tempests because the exhalation inflamed snatcheth with it self such windy fumes as it meets withal in the aire and so by violent stirring the aire purgeth it and openeth the parts of the earth by shaking and moving it 1. We must turn all this to a spiritual use viz. to instruct us in the fear of him that is Lord of Hoasts who shews his greatnesse in these mighty deeds of his hand to which purpose alwaies the Scripture speaks of it exhorting the mighty to give unto the Lord glory and strength in regard of this 2. We must observe God so in this and all his great works as to cause our minds to increase in the knowledge of his excellency and our hearts in the love and fear of him All his works are therefore exhorted to praise him because we by all should learn his praise and greatnesse How able is God to destroy sinners how quickly and in a moment can he bring them to ruine let him but speak to the thunder haile tempest and they will beat down and consume his adversaries before his face O then tremble before him 3. We must learn to put our confidence in God and boldly to promise our selves deliverance when he promiseth it God is wonderful in making and ruling the clouds This is a work which God doth often alledge in Scripture to prove his greatnesse Iob 37. 26. He binds the waters in a garment Prov. 30. 4. that is makes the Clouds How as it were by an even poysing of one part with the other God makes these Clouds to hover a great while over the earth before they be dissolved is a thing worthy admiration and greatly surpasseth our knowledge Iob 38. 34. Psal. 14. 78. and Prov. 8. 28. Psalm 104. 3. The
forth a great multitude many hundreds as we may see in their spawn That God should give unto these things a power to multiply so very fast is wonderfull and it is agreeable to reason too for the fishes do more devour one another then the beasts do the greater being much more ravenous then any beast as being bigger and their stomacks by an Antiperistasis of the cold water more vehement in digesting They are said to be without number Psa. 104. 25. not simply but to us for we cannot tell the number of them though God which made them do know the particular number of them He can tell how many fishes there be in the Sea though to us they exceed the power of counting yet he hath the precise and exact number of them We know not the kindes of fishes how much lesse the particulars There be saith Pliny of fishes and other creatures living in the Sea one hundred seventy and six severall and distinct kindes What Philosopher can tell how many Dolphins Herrings Whales Sword-fishes there be in the Sea A Crocodile equals eighteen cubits it comes from an Egge as bigge as that of a Goose Nec aliud animal ex minori origine in majorem crescit magnitudinem Pliny lib. 8. cap. 25. From so small a beginning it encreaseth to eight or ten yards in length Their bodies are not much longer then their tails which is of like use with them as the Proboscis is to the Elephant their mouths are very wide at one gulph able to swallow horse or man The name is taken a Croceo colore or per Antiphrasin quòd Crocum timeat The Ichneumon steals into his belly and gnaws his guts whilest he opens his chaps to let the little Troclill pick his teeth which give it feeding Herb. Trav. l. 3. The Echeneis Remora or stop-ship but half a foot long is able to stay the greatest Ship under sail Keckermannus humori frigido à remora fuso adscribere videtur qui aquam circa gubernaculum conglaciet in Disput. Physic. The Cramp-fish Torpedo is able to benumn and mortisie the arms of the lustiest and strongest Fishers that be by touching onely the end of any part of an angle-rod which they hold in their hands although they stand aloft and a great way from her hence it hath its name quod torpore manus afficiat because it benummeth the hands See Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 4. c. 11. both of the Remora and Torpedo The Naturalists tell us of one fish which they call the Uranoscope which hath but one eye and that in a verticall point on the top of the head directly upward by which it avoids all rocks and dangers There have been known Whales six hundred foot long and three hundred and sixty foot broad some like mountains and some like Islands God himself speaking of his own power over all the creatures rehearseth only two the Behemoth Job 40. 15. to the end that is the Elephant and the Leviathan Job 41. per tot that is the Whale this being the greatest among the Fishes as that among the Beasts The Sword-fish hath a beak or Bill sharp-pointed wherewith he will drive through the sides and planks of a Ship and bore them so that they shall sink withall The Dolphin is said to be a fish of such exceeding great swiftnesse as that oftentimes he out-strippeth a Ship under sail in the greatest ruffe and merriest winde in swiftnesse of course In this fish is propounded to us an example of charity and kinde affection toward our Children as Plinyb in his description of the nature of this fish sheweth and Aelianus l. 5. c. 18. As also of his singular love toward man whereof Aelianus produceth strange examples It may seem strange that it should please the Pope to forbid flesh to men rather then fish that is the lesse dainty and luxurious before the more for what is by some alledged that the curse fell upon the earth and not the Seas is fondly affirmed seeing when it is said cursed be the earth by earth is meant the whole globe of the earth consisting of Sea and dry Land Some fishes are exceeding small and for their smalnesse and workmanship bestowed upon them admirable In the Sea the Cockles a little kinde of shell-fish yet in its kinde very artificiall somewhat resembling a Cre-fish which are dainties for rich men Those little and small things are made with so many joynts and parts and turnings such a proportion and shape and every thing so exact and suitable as would stir up astonishment in any beholder Gods power is likewise seen in the greatnesse of some fishes as the Whale some of which are 80. yards long their eyes are as big as an hogshead and their mouth so wide that a man sitting on horseback might be held in it God hath created the Fowls of Heaven among other creatures Psa. 104. 12. Gen. 1. 20 21. The things wherein the Fowls differ from other creatures are 1. That they be winged having feathers and wings by which they are covered and by which they do passe through the air and the place wherein they fly viz. in the open firmament in this lower heaven Their creation is wonderfull in divers respects 1. Their making is wonderfull far differing from that of beasts fishes and men 2. They have great variety of kindes some wilde some tame some great some little some Sea or water birds some land birds 3. Their manner of breeding they lay egges and hatch them and out of a kinde of confused substance that to us seems void of life by the heat of their bodies they doe bring forth their young naked at first which after by the same cherishing of warmth do bring forth feathers to cover them Many of them are so beautifully adorned with their feathers for colour and are so glorious as a man cannot but look upon them with wondring and delight for where doth nature shew more variety and a pleasinger composition of colours then in Doves neck a Peacocks tail and some other like Birds 4. For their swiftnesse of flying that they can with such celerity passe through the air 5. They are many waies serviceable to many they are a dainty food for weak stomacks they pull up many kindes of worms and vermine that else would be harmfull to us Fowls or Birds are more worthy then Fishes because they do more participate of air and fire the two noblest Elements then of water and earth All birds are mastered under the name of Fowls as under their Genus There are examples of vertues in the fowls propounded for us to imitate and of vices for us to shun In the Phaenix an example of the Resurrection in the Stork of loving affection In the Dove of innocency and conjugall faith in the Crows and Estridges of unnaturalnesse We should imitate the Storke Crane ond Swallow in acknowledging the seasonable time of our
receive heat light and cold heavier then the fire lighter then the earth or water placed in the midst of them fit for breathing seeing smelling and moving This Element also leads us to God For 1. It truly and really subsisteth though it be not seen So also the Lord the Maker of it hath a real but invisible existence 2. It is every where within and without us so is God every where present 3. It is the preserver of my life and we may say of it truly as the Apostle of God himself in it under God we live move and have our being 4. Fire which is some say to be understood in light an adjunct and quality of it Scaliger would prove a fiery Element because fire tends thither First God made the Elements of the Earth and Water which in Geography make one Globe Others say light neither is that Element nor proceeds from it but the Sun however I shall handle it here among the works of the first day Without light Gods other works could not have been discovered by men Light is an excellent work of God tending to manifest his excellency to men it is a comfortable thing to behold the light Psal. 104. 2. Who coverest thy self with light as with a garment that is createdst the light thereby shewing his excellency as a man doth by making and wearing a rich and glorious suit of cloths he made and doth maintain the light in its perfection God expresseth his greatnesse above Iob in that he could not make light nor knew not what it was q. d. Iob thou art a mean Creature thou dost not create nor order the light neither dost thou know the nature and working of it The greatnesse of this work appears principally by two considerations 1. The hidden abstruse and difficult nature of it Philosophers cannot tell what to say of it whether it be a substance or accident and if a substance whether corporeal or incorporeal and spiritual it is a quality say they which makes other things visible that is the effect of it This word light in English signifieth both that which the Latines call lux and that which they call lumen which yet are two distinct things The first being in the Sun or Moon properly the second in the aire and an effect of the other Some think that it is a substance and one of the simple substances which they call Elements of which compounded substances are made by mixing them together and is nothing but the Element of fire which Philosophers speak of being more subtil theu the aire And as the water compassed the earth and the aire the water so did light the aire and was far greater then the aire as that was then the water and earth so as this is the highest of all the Elements See Sir Kenelmâ— Digb Treatise of Bod. c. 7. 2. It is very useful needful and beneficial For first it carrieth heat in it and conveigheth heat and the coelestial influences unto all other things 2. It distinguisheth day and night each from other without it what were the world but a dungeon 3. It is exceeding necessary for the dispatch of all businesse 4. To make the beautiful works of God visible Heaven and Earth and dissipate those sad thoughts and sorrows which the darknesse both begetteth and maintaineth 1. We cannot see light without light nor know God without his teaching 2. This serves to condemn our selves which cannot see God in this light though we see it with content we should lament this blindnesse When the day begins to peep in at your windows let God come into your thoughts he comes cloathed and thus attired tell your selves how beautiful and excellent he is 3. It may exhort us to labour to raise up our hearts to God in hearty thankfulnesse for the light How merciful and gracious art thou who givest me light and the sight of it take heed of abusing it to sin and thy eyes whereby thou discernest it especially magnifie God that giveth you spiritual light and sight Christ is the light of the world natural darknesse is terrible light comfortable what is spiritual Light is so pure faire and cleare that nothing can pollute it a resemblance of Gods infinite purity The creation of day and night and the distinction and vicissitude of both is the last thing in the first daies work Day is the presence of light in one half of the world and night the absence of it in the other So that the dispute whether day or night were first seems superfluous seeing they must needs be both together for at what time the light is in one half of the world it must needs be absent from the other and contrarily for all darknesse is not night nor all light day but darknesse distinguished from light that is night and light distinguished from darknesse that is day unlesse we will take day for the natural not the artificial day that is the space of 24 hours in which the Sun accomplâ—sheth his diurnal motion about the earth Darknesse is nothing but the absence of light Night is the space of time in every place when the light is absent from them Day is the space of time in every place when the light is present with them it is not simply the presence of light but presence of light in one half of the world when the other is destitute of it and night is not simply the absence of light but the absence of it from one half of the world when the other half enjoyeth it God made the Sun the chief instrument of continuing the course of day and night for ever by its diurnal and constant motion This is a wonderful work of God and to be admired The Scripture notes it The day is thine and the night also is thine saith the Psalmist and the ordinances of day and night cannot be changed The greatnesse of this work appeareth in the cause of it and the beneficial effects First for the cause it is the incredibly swift motion of the Sun which goeth round about the world in thes ace of 24. hours that is the space of 60 miles every houre in the earth but how many thousand 60 miles in its own circle or circumference for the earth is a very small thing compared to the Sun The body of the Sun is 166 times as it is thought greater then the earth therefore the circumference that it goes must needs be at least so much larger then the compasse of the Earth therefore its course must needs be at least 160 times 60 miles every houre that is almost 16000 miles every houre that is 166 miles every minute The celerity of this motion * is incredible it goes beyond the thoughts of a man to conceive distinctly of the passage through every place if a man should divide the circumference of the circle of the Sun into certain parts he could not so soon have thought of them as
cloud is water rarified drawn upward till it come to a cold place and then it is thick and drops down They are but nine miles say some from the earth but they are of unequal height and are lower in Winter then in Summer when the Sun hath the greater force then they ascend higher and in his smaller force they hang the lower Vide Vossium de orig progress Idol l. 2. c. 83. Let us consider the causes of these clouds and the uses of them The efficient causes are thought to be the heat and influence of the Sun and the Stars which doth rarifie the water and draw thence the matter of the clouds as you shall perceive if you hold a wet cloth before the fire that a thick steame will come out of it because the fire makes thin the thicknesse of the water and turns it into a kinde of moist vapour and the earth hath some heat mixed with it through a certain quantity of fire that is dispersed in the bowels of it which causeth such like steams to ascend out of it and the coldnesse of the middle region doth condensate and thicken these steams or breaths and turn them again into water at length and at last to thick clouds 2. The matter is the steams that the waters and earth do yeeld forth by this heat The uses of it are to make rain and snow snow is nothing but rain condensated and whitened by the excessive cold in the winter time as it is in descending for the watering of the earth and making it fruitful or else for the excessive moistning of the earth to hinder the fruitfulnesse of it if God see fit to punish The earth without moysture cannot bring forth the fruit that it should and some parts of the earth have so little water near them below that they could not else be sufficiently moystened to the making of them fruitful God hath therefore commanded the Sun among other offices to make the vapours ascend from the Sea and Earth that he may poure down again upon the forsaken wildernesse or other places whether for punishment or otherwise Obj. How can it be conceived that the clouds above being heavie with water should not fall to the earth seeing every heavie thing naturally descendeth and tendeth down-ward Ans. No man by wit or reason can resolve this doubt but only from the word of God which teacheth that it is by vertue of Gods Commandment given in the Creation that the Clouds fall not Gen. 1. 6. Let the Firmament separate the waters from the waters by force of which commanding word the water hangeth in the clouds and the clouds in the aire and need no other supporters Iob 26. 7 8. setting out the Majestie and greatnesse of God in his works here beginneth that He hangeth the Earth upon nothing he bindeth the waters in the Clouds and the Cloud is not rent under them Philosophy is too defective to yeeld the true reason of this great work of God which commonly attributeth too much to Natura naturata Nature and too little to Natura naturans the God of nature Now we must here also blame our own carelesnesse and folly which forbear to consider of this work that hangs over our heads The Clouds are carried from place to place in our sight and cover the Sunne from us They hinder the over-vehement heat of the Sunne from scorching the earth and yet we never think what strange things they be and what a merciful Creator is he that prepared them Not seeing God in the works of nature shews great stupidity and should make us lament Let us endeavour to revive the thoughts of God in our minds by his works When we see the Clouds carried up and down as we do sometimes one way sometimes another swiftly then let us set our heart a work to think there goes Gods Coach as it were here he rides above our heads to mark our way and to reward or punish our good or bad courses with seasonable rain for our comfort or excessive showers for our terror O seek to him and labour to please him that he may not find matter of anger and provocation against us When the Clouds either favour or chastise us let us take notice of Gods hand in these either comfortable or discomfortable effects and not impute it all to the course of nature By means of the Clouds God waters the earth yea the dry wilderness without moisture there can be no fruitfulness without clouds no rain without that no corn or grasse and so no man or beast Rain is as it were the melting of a Cloud turned into water Psal. 104. 13. It is a great work of God to make rain and cause it fitly and seasonably to descend upon the earth It is a work often named in Scripture Deut. 11. 14. 28. 12. Levit. 26. 4. Ier. 5. 24. It is noted in Iob divers times ch 36. 27. He maketh small the drops of water God propounds this work to Iob as a demonstration of his greatness Iob 38. 25 34. See Ier. 30. 13. Psal. 137. 8. Now this work is the more to be observed in these respects 1. The necessity of it in regard of the good it bringeth if it be seasonable and moderate and the evil which follows the want excesse or untimelinesse of it 2. In regard of mans utter inability to procure or hinder it as in the dayes of Noah all the world could not hinder it and in the dayes of Ahab none could procure it The Hebrews say God keeps four Keys in his own hand 1. Clavis Pluviae the Key of the Rain Deut. 28. 12. 2. Clavis Cibationis the Key of Food Psal. 145. 15 16. 3. Clavis Sepulchri the Key of the Grave Ezek. 37. 12. 4. Clavis Sterilitatis the Key of the Womb Gen. 38. 22. 3. In regard of the greatness of the work in the course of nature for the effecting of which so many wonders concur First Without this drink afforded to the fields we should soon finde the world pined and starved and man and beast consumed out of it for want of food to eat It is the cause of fruitfulnesse and the want of it causeth barrennesse and so destruction of all living creatures that are maintained by the increase of the earth As mischievous and terrible a thing as a famine is so good and beneficial a thing is rain which keepeth off famine Secondly It procureth plenty of all necessaries when the Heavens give their drops in fit time and measure the earth also sends forth her off-spring in great store and fit season and so both men and beasts enjoy all things according to their natural desire this so comfortable a thing as plenty is so worthy a work of God is the effect of rain I mean rain in due season and proportion Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga Mercis Aut Iovis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo Lucan Egypt no
rains nor merchandize doth need Nilus doth all her wealth and plenty breed The Romans accounted it their Granary Lastly The greatnesse of the works which must meet together for making and distributing of ram doth magnifie the work The Sunne by his heat draws up moist steams and breath from the earth and water these ascending to the middle region of the Air which is some what colder then the lower are again thickned and turn into water and so drop down by their own heavinesse by drops not all together as it were by cowls full partly from the height of place from which they fall which causeth the water to disperse it self into drops and partly because it is by little and little not all at once thickned and turned into water and so descends by little portions as it is thickned So the Sun and other Stars the earth the water windes and all the frame of Nature are put to great toil and pains as it were to make ready these Clouds for from the ends of the earth are the waters drawn which make our showrs God is the first efficient cause of rain Gen. 2. 5. It is said there God had not caused it to rain Iob 5. 10. Ier. 14. 22. Zech. 10. 1. 2 The material cause of it is a vapour ascending out of the earth 3. The formal by the force of the cold the vapours are condenâ—ed into clouds in the middle region of the Air. 4. The end of rain to water the earth Gen. 2. 6. which generation and use of rain David hath elegantly explained Psal. 147 8. The cause of the Rain bow is the light or beams of the Sun in a hollow and dewy cloud of a different proportion right opposite to the Sun-beams by the reflection of which beams and the divers mixture of the light and the shade there is expressed as it were in a glasse the admirable Rain-bow We should be humbled for our unthankfulnesse and want of making due use of this mercy the want of it would make us mutter yet we praise not God nor serve him the better when we have it Ier. 14. 22. intimating without Gods omnipotency working in and by them they cannot do it If God actuate not the course of Nature nothing is done by it let us have therefore our hearts and eyes fixed on him when we behold rain sometime it mizleth gently descending sometimes fals with greater drops sometime with violence this ariseth from the greater or lesse quantity of the vapour and more or lesse heat or cold of the Air that thickneth or melteth or from the greater or smaller distance of the cloud from the earth or from the greater purity or grosnesse of the Air by reason of other concurring accidents either we feel the benefit or the want of rain likely once every moneth Let not a thing so admirable passe by us without heeding to be made better by it Want of moisture from above must produce praying confessing turning 1 King 8. 35 36. The colours that appear in the Rain-bow are principally three 1. The Cerulean or watery colour which notes they say the destroying of the world by water 2. The grassie or green colour which shews that God doth preserve the world for the present 3. The yellow or fiery colour shewing the world shall be destroyed with fire Dew consists of a cold moist vapour which the Sunne draweth into the Air from whence when it is somewhat thickned through cold of â—he night and also of the place whether the Sunne exhaled it it falleth down in very small and indiscernable drops to the great refreshment of the Earth It falleth only morning and evening Hath the rain a Father or who hath begotten the drops of Dew Out of whose womb came the rain and the hoary frost of Heaven who hath genared it saith God to Iob Chap. 38. 28 29. A frost is dew congealed by overmuch cold It differs from the dew because the frost is made in a cold time and place the dew in a temperate time both of them are made when the weather is calm and not windy and generated in the lowest region of the Air. Hail and ice is the same thing viz. water bound with cold they differ only in figure viz. that the hail-stones are orbicular begotten of the little drops of rain falling but â—ce is made of water continued whether it be congealed in rivers or sea or fountains or pools or any vessels whatsoever and retains the figure of the water congealed Though Ice be not Crystal yet some say Crystal is from Ice when Ice is hardned into the nature of a stone it becomes Crystal more degrees of coldnesse hardness and clearness give Ice the denomination of Crystal and the name Crystal imports so much that is water by cold contracted into Ice Plinie in his natural History saith The birth of it is from Ice vehemently frozen But Dr Brown in his Enquiries into Vulgar Errors doubts of it The windes are also a great work of God he made and he ruleth the windes They come not by chance but by a particular power of God causing them to be and to be thus he brings them out of his treasures he caused the windes to serve him in Egypt to bring Frogs and after Locusts and then to remove the Locusts again He caused the winds to divide the red Sea that Israel might passe He made the winds to bring quails and the winds are said to have wings for their swiftness the nature of them is very abstruse The efficient causes of them are the Sun and Stars by their heat drawing up the thinnest and driest fumes or exhalations which by the cold of the middle region being beaten back again do slide obliquely with great violence through the air this way or that way The effects of it are wonderful they sometimes carry rain hither and thither they make frost and they thaw they are sometimes exceeding violent and a man that sees their working can hardly satisfie himself in that which Philosophers speak about their causes The winde bloweth where it listeth we hear its sound but know not whence it cometh nor whether it goeth It is a thing which far surpasseth our understanding to conceive fully the causes of it They blow most ordinarily at the Spring and fall for there is not so much winde in Winter because the earth is bound with cold and so the vapour the matter of the winde cannot ascend nor in Summer because vapours are then raised up by the Sun and it consumes them with his great heat These windes alter the weather some of them bringing rain some drinesse some frost and snow which are all necessary there is also an universal commodity which riseth by the only moving of the air which air if not continually stirred would soon putrifie and infect all that breath upon the earth It serves to condemn our own blindnesse that cannot see God
eminenter these faculties which he hath not actually habitually and subjectively in himself as faculties yet he contains them eminently as being able to produce all but no creature can produce any thing but by some vertue put into it Dr Stoughtons Burning Light If the Stars be not fiery why are waters saith Vossius placed above the Heaven as Moses and in other Scriptures but to temper their burning heat least the Heavens should be destroyed by their burning Vossius de orig progress Idol l. 2. c. 39. Vide c. 38. Secondly The Moon is also called a great Light not for the bignesse of the body of it but because it is the lowest of all the Planets and nearest unto the earth and therefore appears biggest of all next unto the Sunne and gives to the earth a greater light then any of the Stars which are far greater in substance and brighter in light Some say it is the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea for it agreeth exactly with the Revolution of the Moon it causeth it 1. By its motion as it brings its beams 2. By its beam as that brings the influence 3. By infusion as that stirs the waters It is called in Latine Luna à lucend◠saith Tully or because Solâ lucet nocte saith Varro In Hebrew Iareach and Ierech which words signifie a moneth because it is renewed every moneth A Star is the thicker part of Heaven round and full of light In the day the glistering light of the Sun say some obscures all the Stars but in the night how many hundred thousand of them do we see besides those that are hidden from us in the other part of the Sphere which is not seen by us The number of Stars set upon the Globe are 1025. and divers of them have proper names All the Stars of the Heaven are not numbred nor cannot since divers of them are so small but these 1025. are the principallest amongst them and all that have ever been accounted of Philosophers distinguish them into fixed Stars and Planets The Planets are apparently seven Saturn Iupiter Mars then the Sun in the midst as it were the King of all after Venus Mercury and the Moon Neither Moses Iob nor the Psalms the most frequent in Astronomical observations mention any of the Planets but the Sun and Moon Of these Stars some are greater then other and are distinguished into six sorts of quantities Their proportions are thus delivered viz. a Star of the first bignesse or magnitude is a hundred and seven times bigger then the earth A Star of the second magnitude ninety times bigger then the earth A Star of the third bignesse seventy two times bigger then the earth A Starre of the fourth bignesse is four and fifty times bigger then the globe of the earth A Star of the fifth magnitude is six and thirty times bigger then the earth A Starre of the sixth bignesse is eighteen times bigger then the globe of the earth We are to bewail our own great solly and blindnesse that we have not more admired honoured feared loved that great worker to whom these Creatures do point us We do not often enough tell our selves this Moon this Sunne these Stars could not nor did not make themselves They could not possibly be without any beginning at all for they are but parts of the whole world and no part of any whole can be eternal because there must be something before that did unite those parts together wherefore they were made by some superiour essence and more excellent then themselves and that is God How great how wise how good how infinitely excellent is he whose hand framed and ordered these things The Sunne ariseth to us constantly the Moon also keeps her course with like constancy Doth not that mighty Army of Stars which in a clear night shew themselves even speak to us as it were to consider of his incomprehensible excellency which made and rules them See Iob 38. 31 32 33. Let us accustome our selves hereafter to these Meditations if God had not beautified Heaven with these excellent bodies light and heat could not have been equally and in due quantity conveyed into all the quarters of the world We must observe this work so as to praise God for it to inform our selves of his nature and strive to work more love fear obedience and confidence in our selves towards him The Apostle saith That in the times before the Gospel the Gentiles might have found God as it were by groping Act. 17. 27. Now we that have the Scripture to direct us as in the day-light shall not we find God out by these illustrious works of his CHAP. VI. Of the Fishes Fowls Beasts THe fifth Dayes work was the Creation of all living Creatures which live and move in the two moist Elements the Water and the Air viz. Fishes and moving Creatures which live and move in the waters and all kind of Fowls which flie in the open Region of the Air divers in nature shape qualities and manner of living The Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated The moving Creature is derived is used as here so in other Scriptures frequently first to signifie creeping or moving forward without feet as Gen. 7. 21. Levit. 11. 19. And secondly also to bring forth abundantly as here and also Exod. 1. 7. Fishes breed and bring forth young in great abundance more then any other creatures do by the multitude of spawn they would encrease beyond all measure and number if by one means or other the spawn were not devoured and consumed Who can render a reason of their ability to swimme so in the waters to support themselves in the midst of the waters and convey themselves up and down in it Fishes are in Scripture termed Reptilia Psalm 104. 25. In the great and wide Sea there are things creeping innumerable both small and great so called because things when they swim seem to creep along in the water As Birds have their wings and trains by means whereof they cut their way and make smooth passage through the Air so Fishes are furnished with fins wherewith they guide themselves in their swimming and cut the current of the streams and waves for their more easie passage wherein their course is directed by their tail as Ships are conducted by their Helm The Sea gives more and greater dainties then the Earth those that did most affect to please their Palate of old set great store by Fishes and paid dearer for them then flesh God hath furnished them with a strong power of encreasing Birds bring forth some four or five in a nest some three and some but two the most but twenty as the little Wren for being so little the kinde would be consumed by the things which devour such weak creatures if those that be did not bring forth very many But every Fish brings
Meteoris See Purchas his Pilgrimage l. 5 c. 13. Sect. 2. Vide Voss. de orig progres Idol l. 2. c. 6. * Lib. 7. cap. 13 a See Dr Iorden of Bathes c. 3. Purchas his Pilgrimage l. 5. c. 13. Sect. 3. Rivers are said to be ingendred in the hollow concavities of the Earth and derive both their birth and continual sustenance from the air which penetrating the open chinks of the earth and being congeaâ—ed by the extream cold of that element dissolves into water as the air in winter nights is melted in a pearly dew sticking on our glasse windows * Hâ—c est origo fontium fluvâ—orum ut Salomon etiam apertius indicat Eccles. 1. 7. Hoc tamen nâ—sâ—ivit doctus Aristoteles rerum naturalium diligentissimus indagator Fooâ—d in Psal. 104 10 11 12. Dr Halls Contempl It must be large to contain so many creatures Amos 5. 8. 9. 6. Psal. 104. 25. 107. 23 24 25 26 27 28. Dr Halls Contempl Psal. 104. 1 King 19. 26. 10. 22. Consectaries from the Seâ— See the History of Canutus in Cambâ—en The safety of this Kingdom consists much in its wooden wals Our Navy exceeds all others in the world in beauty strength and safety * See Plinics Natural History lib. 16. c. 40. He that carries his life in his hand must carry grace in his heart Docto. Sibbs in his Epistle to Sir Horatio Vere prefixed before his Bruised Reed Qui nescit orare discat navigare Latini distribuunt plantas in tria genera herbam fruticem arborem Hebrai aliter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercerus in primum caput Gen. 5. 11. Voluit Deus per primam germinationem terrae non modo pastui animantium sed etiam immortalitati speciei consuluim Paraeus * A poor man in Kent mowing of Peason did cut his Leg with a Sithe wherein he made a wound to the bones and withall very large and wide and also with great effusion of bloud the poor man crept unto this Herb which he bruised with his hands and tied a great quanity of it unto the wound with a piece of his shirt which presently stanched the bleeding and ceased the pain insomuch that the poor man presently went to his dayes work again and so did from day to day without resting one day untill he was perfectly whole c. Gerrards Herbal Book 2. Chap. 390. of Clowns Wound-wort or All-heal Job 28. 1 2. Ezek. 6. 16 17. Joel 3. 5. Hag. 2. 8. Gen. 1. 11 12. Vide Mercer in Gen. 1. 29. Before the floud both herbs fruits of trees were so wholsome and good as that man needed no other food after it the earth was so corrupted by the inundation thereof and mans body became so weakned that he stood in need of more solid and nourishing meat * Gen. 1. 11 13 It is a Carpet upon the earth to adorn and beautifie it See rare things of a tree called Coquo in Doctor Primrose on the Sac. p. 30. and Purchas his Pâ—â—grimage l. 5. c. 12. pag. 56. 7. The Palm is a famous Tree which bringeth forth Dates and is so called because upon the top the boughs are thick and round extending out like fingers from whence it is called Dactylus that is a finger Travels of the Patriarks Rem mirandam Arist. in 8â— problematum Plutarch in 8â— Sympofiacorum dicit Si supra Palmae inquit arboris lignum magna pondera imponas ac tam graviter urgeas ut magnitudo oneris sustiâ—ere non queat non deorsum Palma cedit nec infra flectitur sed adversus pondus resurgit sursum nititur recurvaâ—urque Aul. Gel. Noct. Attic. lib. 3â— cap. 6. Iosephus Acosta writeth of a tree in America that on the one side being situated towards great hils and on the other being exposed to the hot Sun the one half of it flourisheth at one time of the year and the other part at the opposite season Corollaries * Serunt arbores quae prosint alteri saeculo Cicero Gen. 1. 14 15. 2 Chron. 33. 3 Jer. 44. 17. Deut. 4. 19. * Sol ufitatissimè Hebraeis dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schemesh à ministrando quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schimmeâ—ch quia Dei Minister in natura clarissimus aliter à calor◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chammah Graecis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. splendore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latinis Sol vel quiâ— solus ex omnibus â—ideribus est tantus vel quia quum est exortus obscuratis aliis solus appareat Martinius See Dr Browns Enquities lib. 6. cap. 5. * Non tam ad magnitudinem corporum quà m splendoris eorum respexit Moses ad popularem captum aspectum qui haec judicat esse maxima sydera in Caelo juxta sensum Mercer See Doctor Hackwels Apology of Gods Providence pag. 74 76. 77. Dominatur corporibus humidis as over women the brain shâ—ll-sish From the new Moon to the full all humours do encrease and from the full to the new Moon decrease again To think that the brightnesse of the Suns body above doth drown oâ—â— discerning oâ—â—he lesser lighâ—s is a popular errour the sole impediment being that lustre which by reflection doth spread about us from the face of the earth Sir Henry Wottons Elem. of Architect part 2. Only God can number the Stars Psal. 147. 4. It is impossible for man to number them which God intimates to Abraham Gen. 15. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 41. All Stars are not Primae magnitudâ—nis Corollaries Ethnici colebant Solem Lunam prius quam alias creatur as terresâ—res usque aâ—â—â— ut Moses Deut 40. 19. notans duos sontes idololatriae prius facit mentionem Solis Lunae deinde similitudiuem viri aut soeminâ— aâ—t quaâ—rupedis Job 31. 26. â—er 44. 17 18. Rainold de lib. Apoc. Tom. 2. Praelect 237. Sol ab antiquissimis ut Deorum maximus colâ—batur nominaque Jovis Saturni Martis Liberi Ari Osiridis aliaque multa Solem significarunt Quâ— dâ— re Macrobius l. 1. Saturn c. 16. Voss. in Maimon de Idol c. 6. Gen. 1. 20 21 22. * The Fishes were appointed to encrease and multiply and to fill the waters the Fowls were appointed to increase multiply and flie in the Air. Plinies Naturall History l 32. c. 11. Quidam hoc unum animal quam diu vivit crescere arbitrantur Pliny l. 8. c. 25. Naturalists write of the Crocodile that it grows as long as it lives Scribunt humanum caputà Crocodilo ob crassitiem ossis non posse devorari Cum vero persentiat medullam hoc est cerebrum cranio subesse lacrymas in id effundere quarum vi suturae protinus dissipentar inde medullam exsorberi à truculentissima bestia Abiere hinc in Proverbium Lacrymae Crocodili quae non a commiseratione sed ab immanissima crudelitate proveniuâ—â— Wendelinus de admirandis Nili c 16.
Lord did gather light which before was scattered in the whole body of the Heavens Secondly The use of them they were to give light to the world to distinguish the Night from the Day the Day from the Week as also to distinguish seasons Summer and Winter Spring and Autumne Seed-time and Harvest They are Signs 1. Natural By them we may guesse of the Weather Matth. 16. 2 3. from the colour and figure of the Moon some will conjecture what weather is like to be 2. Civil Husbandmen Gardners Fishermen Mariners gather observations from them 3. Ecclesiastical To know the New Moons and strange apparitions in them are signs of Gods anger as extraordinary Eclipses blazing-stars The works of the fifth day were The Fishes of the Sea and Fowls of the Air divers in nature shape qualities vertues and manners of living the fishes were appointed to increase multiply and fill the waters and the fowls to increase multiply and flie in the air The work of the sixth day is two-fold 1. All terrestrial bruit creatures Beasts Cattle and every thing which creepeth upon the earth in their kinde having vertue and power from God to increase and multiply 2. Man Male and Female Adams body of the dust of the Earth viz. that he might have in his own bosom an argument and incentive of humility lest for his excellency he should wax proud against God Eves body out of a rib of Adam for a sign of most near conjunction and love betwixt man and wife The Creation ceased in man as in the Master-piece of Gods skill and as in the end to which all other things were destinate For all other Creatures by the bounty of the Creator were to serve Adam as their Lord and Prince CHAP. III. Of the Creation of the Heavens the Angels the Elements Light Day and Night I Shall now insist more largely on the particular Creatures and draw some Consectaries from them saying little of the reasonable Creatures Angels and Men because I intend more fully to treat of them by themselves The Creation of the Heavens is a great and wonderful work of God the Heavens were not alwayes neither came they by chance or any other way but by the wonderful power of God creating them So the Scripture telleth us often Psal. 102. 15. Isa. 40. 12. 22. 42. 5. 45. 2. 48. 13. God frequently challengeth to himself the glory of this exceeding great work alledging it as an effect of his wonderful power and greatness The excellency and greatness of this work appears in divers things 1. The Abstruseness of the matter 2. The Perfection of the form 3. The exceeding hugeness of its Quantity 4. The height of it 5. It s swift motion Lastly The excellent Usefulness of it for the Creatures here below and all other things contained in it First The Matter of the Heavens is dark and hidden and goes beyond the power of mortal Creatures certainly to determine of it Philosphers know not what to say here some of them do think that the upper Heavens are made of the same matter with these inferiour bodies and some again do deny it and think it consists of another which they call the fifth Essence because they perceive it to be of such different working and qualities from the things below Secondly The Perfection of the Figure of the Heavens and all the Starres of Heaven doth marvellously grace it For it is of an Orbicular or round form a circle encompassing the earth and waters round which is of it self also for the main Orbicular and this concerning the Stars our senses do declare and concerning the whole Heavens the motions of the Stars which our eye doth tell us for the Sun riseth every Morning over against the place it did set the Evening before and so evinceth that its course is round The round figure is the most beautiful strong perfect and capacious figure and this may minde us of Gods Infinitenesse Perfection and Unchangeableness Thirdly Consider the hugeness of its Quantity for who can measure the back-side of Heaven or tell how many miles space that mighty Circle doth contain The Globe of Earth and Water is very great but all that is as it were an undiscernable point compared to the whole Globe of Heaven how incomprehensibly great is he which hath made a building so great The whole circuit of the heavens wherein are the fixed Stars is reckoned by Astronomers to be a thousand and seventeen millions of miles at least Fourthly It is a high and stately building Iob 22. 12. an hundred and sixty millions of miles high from Earth to Heaven It is so farre by the Astronomers rules It is a wonder saith one that we can look up to so admirable a height and that the eye is not tired in the way If this ascending line could be drawn right forward some that have calculated curiously have found it five hundred years journy unto the starry Heaven This putteth us in minde of the infinite mercy and goodness of God Psal. 103. 3. and of his Majesty The highest Heavens are a fit Palace for the most High Psal. 104. 3. Fifthly It s admirable swift Motion and Revolution in four and twenty hours which our conceits cannot follow teacheth us that God is farre more swift and ready to help us in our need A Bullet out of a Musket flies swiftly it will slie an hundred and eighty miles an hour according to its motion The Sun moves swifter 1160000 miles in one hour the fixed Stars some of them two and fourty millions of miles each hour Macrobius saith by Hercules the driver a way of evils is meant the Sun whence Porphyry interprets those twelve labours of his so often celebrated by the Poets to be the twelve Signs of the Zodiack yearly run thorow by the Sun The Philosophers have ascribed certain intelligences to the Orbs to move them but there is no warrant for it in Scripture they say the Orbs move regularly which cannot be without some understanding mover there is the same order in inferiour creatures and that which worketh by nature worketh equally alwaies Archimedes the great Mathematician did make Sphaeram automatam a Sphere to move it self which many yet imitate Poterit ergo sine angelis movere sphaeram suam homo non poterit Deus saith Ludovicus Vives Vossius also denies it Lastly the use of it is admirable the motion of the heavenly bodies is the cause of generation and corruption here below if they should cease moving the being of sublunary bodies would cease The inferiour heavens are fitted for the generation of Meteors Rain Snow Thunder Lightning by their fit distance as it were from the Earth and Stars Here is room for the making and shewing of them all The lower part of it also by reason of its thinnesse and subtilty is fit for the flying of Birds and for the breathing and the living of
man and beast and it is fitted to be enlightned by the Sun-beams and to receive that illumination and heat without which the Creatures here below could not subsist and the stars chiefly the Sun are placed at a convenient distance and it is sitted for the swift motion of the heavenly bodies in regard of its rarity and subtilnesse which if it were thick and grosse could not have so speedy a passage through or about the same especially the highest heavens are fitted for the in habitation of those immortal persons some of which do and others shall inhabit a being so spacious bright and every way glorious that the multitude of those happy persons may have space enough to see the beauty of God The Philosophers divide the Region of the world into two Regions the Celestial and Elementary Region The Celestial they divide into divers Orbs or Globes for the Heaven of heavens sedes Beatorum the seat of the blessed Saints and Angels they had little knowledge of if any at all The first moveable as they termed it the highest Orbe by the unspeakable swift circumrotation of which they thought all the other Orbes were carried from East to West in the space of 24 hours This is the tenth Globe or Orbe the next they call the Chrystalline or watery Orb because it is clear bright and apt to shine through as water The next is the Starry heaven which hath eight Spheares one for the fixed Stars and seven other for the Planets each Planet having as they say his distinct Orbe Saturne is the uppermost next Iupiter then Mars in the middest the Sun then Venus next Mercury the last and lowest of all is the Moon So is the division of the heavenly Region the Elementary they divide into the region of fire next to the Moon and of aire next to that and that they distinguish into three Regions the highest middle and lowest then that of the Water and Earth compounded together so they But now the Scriptures divide the World into two parts Heaven and Earth as you reade in the first words of the Bible In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth By Earth it meaneth this Globe of Earth and Water where Men Beasts and Fishes are By Heaven all the space from the Earth upward and of this Heaven it maketh three parts 1. The highest Heaven the Heaven of Heavens 1 Kings 8. 27. the habitation of God himself and all his Saints and Angels Iohn 14. where God reveals his glorious presence to them for ever This is called by Paul the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. 4. for its scituation above the Aire and Skie both which have the name of Heaven and Paradise 2 Cor. 12. 4. because the earthly Paradise was a figure of it and because it is a place of endlesse joy and pleasure 2. The Starry Skie where the Stars are it is described ie Iob to be firm as a molten Looking-glasse 3. The lower Heavens all that place above our heads to the Starry Heaven Hence the clouds are called the clouds of Heaven and the Fowls of Heaven and Birds are said to flie in the face of the Heavens Every one is to fall out with himself and blame himself for slighting and neglecting the consideration of this work that offers it self so constantly to our eyes even this so curiously wrought Curtain which God hath spread forth especially let us blame our selves for not seeing God in the workmanship of heaven that we take not notice of him as the Author of it and raise our hearts higher then the heavens to him that measures them forth as with a Span we should beleeve that he is so Great Good and Wise as this Heaven proclaimeth him the Maker thereof to be Let us see and bewaile this blindnesse there is no place in the earth which hath not the Heavens spread over it Oh that we could put our selves in minde of him that did spread out the Heavens and remember that be sees us every where for where any work of his is to be seen surely there is himself to be seen and there he sees all things that are there especially let us learn to presle this knowledge upon our will and affections that it may be get in us obedience love fear joy considence and other holy vertues without which all talking yea and thinking of God is idle and fruitlesse Let us presse our selves to become subject to him who hath the heavens at command because he made them to love him that hath formed for our use so excellent an house so richly vaulted above see the invisible things of him that made all in these things which you behold thy conversation should be there where Christ is Col. 3. There is thy Fathers house thine own Country thy inheritance It is a great deale of comfort to Gods people that have such a Father who can so easily stretch out Heaven trust in him for house-room that can build a world with so much ease For the Angels because I intend to speak more largely of them afterwards I shall here only answer one question about them Why are they not spoken of in the Creation where man and beasts are mentioned and why is not the special day named wherein they were made Answ. Not so much for fear the Jews a people prone to Idolatry should have worshipped them for then by the same reason Moses should have forborn to have mentioned them in the whole story of Genesis which was publisht at the same time and to the same people that the first part of it but it may be to give us to understand that God did not use any of their help in the Creation and had no need of them at all but made the whole world without them or because he relates the making of sensible things only but that they were created appears Col. 1. 16. The Scripture hath not so clearly expressed the precise time and day of their Creation therefore Ambrose and Danaeus confesse that they know not when they were created But it is probable they were made with the highest Heaven the first day of the week As man was then first made after his habitation the earth was made and adorned so it is probable that the Angels were made together in a great multitude after the Heavens their habitation was finished Chemnit in loc commun Gen. 2. 1. The heavens and all the host of them It is plain from Iob 38. 7. that they were made before the Earth When God laid the foundations of the earth and laid the Corner stone thereof then the Sons of God that is the Angels Iob 17. shouted for joy An Element is that whereof any thing is compounded and it self uncompounded Each element is superiour to other not more in place then dignity The dry land is called earth which is a firm cold and dry Element round and heavie hanging unmoveably in the midst of the world fit for habitation
in this great work the winde cometh down unto us it is near us we feel the blasts of it and yet we feel not the power and greatnesse of God in it When God doth so plainly and so many wayes discover himself to us yet blinde wretches we perceive him not We are now to stirre up our mindes to the consideration of God in this his mighty work See him walking through the earth and visiting it in the swift wings of this creature It hath also an apt resemblance and image of God in it 1. In the subtilnesse and invisible nature of it the swiftnesse of the winde may note his omnipresence who is said to ride on the wings of the winde 2. In its powerful motion and efficacy which no man can hinder or resist 3. In the freedome of its motion Iohn 3. 7. 4. In the secresie of his working of mighty works the windes are invisible The consideration of the windes leads us into our selves and that 1. For Humiliation for who knoweth the nature of the winde the place of the winde the way of the winde to see in it our own vanity Iob 7. 7. Psal. 78. 39. 2. Instruction Shall so fierce a creature be at a beck and shall not I See the miserable estate of wicked men on whom destruction and fear shall come as a whirle-winde Prov. 27. 18. They shall be as stubble or chaffe before the winde Psal. 1. Metals are mineral substances fusible and malleable They are commonly distinguished into perfect and imperfect perfect because they have lesse impurity or heterogeneity in them as gold and silver imperfect because they are full of impurities as iron copper tin and lead Gold of all metals is the most solid and therefore the most heavy It will lose none of his substauce neither by fire nor water therefore it will not make broth more cordial being boiled in it The second place is given to silver amongst metals because next to gold it is the most durable and least endammaged by fire Precious stones in Latine Gemmae are esteemed for their rarity or for some vertue fancied to be in them or for their purenesse and transparentnesse Those Pearls are preferred which are most white bright round light especially if naturally they be pierced Rueus l. 1. c. 13. de Gem. The Psalmist declares the great work of God in distinguishing the waters from the earth and making Sea and dry land The waters at the first did encompasse and cover the earth round about as it were a garment and overflow the highest parts of it altogether so that no dry ground was seen or could be seen in the world this was the first constitution of them as Moses relateth Gen. 1. 2. The deep was the whole Orb of waters which inclosed the earth in themselves But then God pleased to divide the waters from the earth so as to make dry land appear and for that end 1. He drave the waters into one place spreading the earth over them and founding it upon them Psal. 104. 6 7. God by his mighty power compared there to a thundering voice did make the waters to gather together into the place that he had appointed for them under the earth and that by raising up hils and mountains and causing dales and valleyes then God appointed the waters their bounds that they should still continue in these hollows under the earth and not return to cover the earth as else of their own nature they would have done There are divers profitable Questions about these things 1. Whether the Sea would not naturally overflow the Land as it did at the first Creation were it not with-held within his banks by divine power The answer is affirmative and the reason is evident the water is lighter then the earth and heavier things are apt to pierce through the light and the light will take to themselves an higher place and give way to the heavier things to descend through them mix a great deal of dirt and water and let it stand a while and take its own proper course and the dirt will sink to the bottom leaving the water above it self Aristotle and others say that the Sea is higher then the earth and they can render no reason why it being apt to runne abroad should be kept from overslowing the Land whence he proves Gods providence but Vossius de Orig. Progress Idol l. 2. c. 67. and others deny that the Sea is higher then the earth Secondly Whether there be more Sea or Land The multitude of waters made by God at first did cover the earth and inclose it round the Sea therefore must needs be farre greater then the Earth The Mapps shew it to be greater in quantity then the earth Thirdly Whether the deepnesse of the Sea doth exceed the height of the mountains It was a great work of God to make mountains and valleys hils and dales The Scripture often mentions it Prov. 8. 25. Psal. 65. 6. 95. 4. 90. 2. Psal. 104. 8. Amos 4. 13. Therefore are the mountains exhorted to praise God Psal. 146. 9. Isa. 40. 12. He is said to have weighed the mountains in scales and the hils in balances that is to have poised them even so that the earth might remain unmoveably in the parts of it as well as in the whole The greatnesse of this work appears 1. In the strangenesse and hiddennesse of it How should so heavy a thing as the earth thus heave up it self into so great ascents to give place unto the waters under it The immediate power of God is the cause of it Psal. 24. 6. Psal. 136. It may be some hils were made by the fury and violent motion of the waves of the waters of Noah's floud but the most and greatest were created on the third day See Gen. 7. 20. 2. In the usefulnesse of it 1. For beauty and ornament it gives a more delightful Prospect to see hils and dales then to look upon all one even and flat piece of ground without any such risings 2. It conduceth to the fruitfulnesse of the earth The vales are much more fruitful then if they were flats without hils because of the dew and moisture that descendeth upon them from the hils and some things grow better upon the higher places on the sides or tops of the mountains 3. Without such hils and mountains there could not have been room for the waters which before did swallow up the earth in its bowels neither could the dry land have appeared 4. Without such hils and dales there could not have been rivers and springs running with so constant a course 5. Hils and mountains are the receptacles of the principal mines for metals and quarries for all kinde of useful stones Deut. 8. 9. 33. 15. They are for boundaries betwixt Countrey and Countrey Kingdome and Kingdome We should tell our selves how admirable and useful this kinde of frame and scituation of the
earth is 4. Whether Islands came since the floud See Dr Browns Vulgar Errors refuted by Mr Rosse c. 13. 5. What is the cause of the saltness of the Sea The water of the Sea is salt not by nature but by accident Aristotle refers the saltish quality of the Sea-water to the Sun as the chief cause for it draws up the thinner and fresher parts of the water leaving the thicker and lower water to suffet adustion of the Sun-beams and so consequently to become salt two things chiefly concurre to the generation of saltishnesse drowth and adustion Therefore in Summer and under the torrid Zone the Sea is salter Our Urine and Excrements for the same reason are also salt the purest part of our nourishment being imployed in and upon the body Lydiat attributes it to under-earth or rather under-sea fires of a bituminous nature causing both the motion and saltnesse of the Sea Vide Voss. de orig progress Idol l. 2. c. 68. The Sea is salt 1. To keep it from putrifaction which is not necessary in the flouds because of their swift motion 2. For the breeding and nourishing of great fishes being both hotter and thicker 6. What is the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea There have been many opinions of the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea De quo plura pro ingeniis differentium quam pro veritatis fide expressa Some say it is the breathing or blowing of the world as Strabo Albertus Magnus One said it was because the waters getting into certain holes of the earth were forced out again by Spirits remaining within the earth Macrobius said it was by meeting the East and West Ocean Cicero seems to ascribe it only to the power of God others for the most part ascribe it to the various light or influences of the Moon which rules over all moist bodies Some attribute it to certain subterranean or under-sea fires The final cause of the Seas motion is the preserving and purging of the waters as the Air is purged by windes Isaiah alludes to the ebbing and flowing of the Sea chap. 57. 2. Coelius Rhodiginus Antiq. Lect. lib. 29. cap. 8. writeth of Aristotle that when he had studied long about it at the last being weary he died through tediousness of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion seven times a day at least adding before that his precipitation Quoniam Aristoteles non coepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem Since Aristotle could not comprehend Euripus it should comprehend him But Dr Brown in his Enquiries seems to doubt of the truth of this story And Vossius lib. 2. de orig progress Idol cap. 69. denies that Decumani fluctus are greater then the other nine for he saith that he and his friends often observed it at the Sea that they were no greater then the others Other Questions there are concerning Rivers What is the original of Springs and Rivers What manner of motion the running of the Rivers is whether straight or circular As one part of the waters and the far greater part is gathered into one place and much of it hidden in the bowels of the earth and there as it were imprisoned or treasured up by making the Sea and dry Land so another part of them was appointed to run up and down within the earth and upon it in Springs and Rivers which Rivers are nothing but assembling of the waters into divers great chanels from the fountains and springs which the Psalmist describeth by its matter and use or effect Psal. 104. 10. He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run along the hils that is He made the Springs and Fountains to conveigh waters from place to place the use of this is to give drink unto the beasts even unto the wilde Asses who quench their thirst there vers 11. There be many other uses of Springs and Rivers but this is noted as the most manifest and evident Another use is for the Fowls which have their habitation in the Trees which grow near and by means of these Springs and there they sit and sing vers 12. These Springs bring up so much moisture to the upper parts of the earth as causeth Trees to grow also for Fowls to build and sing in * Some of the waters were drawn up into the middle region of the world and changed into Clouds that so they may be dissolved and poured down again from thence upon the hils also and other places which cannot be watered by the Springs that so the whole earth may be satisfied with the fruit of Gods works Iohn Baptista Scortia a Jesuite hath published two Books of the River Nilus Wendeline hath written a Book which he calleth Admiranda Nili It seemeth not without cause that the name Paper is derived from Papyrus growing in Nilus so much Paper hath been written thereof Purchas his Pilgrimage lib. 6. cap. 1. The soyl of Aegypt is sandy and unprofitable the River both moistning and manuring it Yea if there die in Cairo five thousand of the plague the day before yet on the first of the Rivers increase the plague not only decreaseth but meerly ceaseth not one dying the day after Id. ibid. The name Nachal a Torrent is given to this River in the Bible Numb 3. 5. Iosh. 15. 47. Isa. 27. 12. 2 Chron. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the name Nilus is derived from it The Poets feigned that Iupiter Neptune and Pluto divided the Universe and that Neptune had the Sea for his part which is called Neptunus either à nando from Navigation or a à nubendo from Covering because the Sea covers the earth and Pontus the Nations about Pontus thought no Sea in the world like unto their own and doubted whether there were any other Sea but that whence Pontus was used for the Sea in general The Sea is a wide and spacious place Psal. 104. 25. The great deep the womb of moisture the well of fountains the great pond of the world The reason of the greatnesse and widenesse of it is the multitude of waters which were made by God at the first which because they did cover the earth and inclose it round it must needs be farre greater then the earth and therefore when God saw fit to distinguish the dry land from the earth must needs have very great ditches cut for it in the earth and caverns made to hold it and therefore the earth in the Scripture is said to be spread out upon the Sea because a great part of it is so in respect of the waters that are under it Again The principal use of the Sea and waters thereof was that it might supply vapours for making of the Clouds by the attraction of the Sun and native heat of the Sea in respect of some fire which God
hath mixed with the earth and waters that they may be more fit to give life to living things Now if the Superficies of the Sea were not very large and wide the Sun could not have power enough by its attractive heat and warmth by which it doth attenuate and make thin the waters into vapours which after the cold of the air when they come into the middle region of it doth again thicken and turn it into waters I say The Sunne could not else have power to draw out of the Sea sufficient store of these vapours for watering the earth with showrs So the multitude of the waters and the necessity of having much of them drawn up for rain required that they should not have little receptacles but one so great and spacious a receptacle which we call the Sea Oceanus the Ocean is that general collection of all waters which environeth the world on every side Mare the Sea is a part of the Ocean to which we cannot come but by some strait In the Sea are innumerable creatures small and great there walk the Ships there play the Leviathans What living monntains such are the Whales some of which have been found six hundred foot long and three hundred and sixty foot broad rowl up and down in those fearful billows for greatness of number hugeness of quantity strangeness of shapes variety of fashions neither air nor earth can compare with the waters Another use of the Sea is That there go the Ships as the Prophet speaks in a kinde of wonderment The whole art of Navigation is a strange Art the Lord fitted the Sea for this purpose that it might be useful to transport men from place to place and other things from Countrey to Countrey Men build moveable houses and so go thorow the waters on dry ground they flie thorow the Sea by the help of windes gathered in fitly with sails as birds do thorow the air and having learnt of birds to steer themselves in the Sea they have an Helm at the which the Master sitting doth turn about the whole body of his Ship at his pleasure The swiftnesse of the motion of a Ship is strange Some say that with a strong winde they will go neer as fast as an arrow out of a Bow The Lord hath given understanding to man to frame a huge vessel of wood cut into fit pieces and to joyn it so close with pitch and rozin and other things mixt together that it shall let in none or but a little water and it shall carry a very great burden within and yet will not sink under water and hath given wisdom also to man to make sails to receive the strength of the wind and cords to move them up and down at pleasure and to make masts to hang on those sails and hath given men a dexterity to run up to the tops of these masts by means of a cord framed in fashion of a ladder that can but even amuze an ordinary beholder and all this for a most excellent use viz. of maintaining commerce betwixt Nation and Nation and of conveighing things needful from one place to another that all places might enjoy the commodities one of another To this Art of Navigation do Kingdoms owe most of their riches delights and choise curiosities a great part of Solomons riches came in this way it is the easiest safest and quickest way of transportation of goods How obnoxious are we to God therefore we should not be bold to offend him how much danger do we stand in if he should let the waters take their own natural course and exalt themselves above the mountains At the floud he gave leave to the great Deeps to break their bounds and permitted the waters to take their own place and the waters were some seven yards higher then the tops of highest mountains He can do as much now for the demonstration of his just wrath for though he hath promised that the waters shall never overflow the whole earth yet not that they shall never overflow England which stands also in the Sea 2. Let us praise the goodnesse of God which preserveth the whole world alive by a kinde of miracle even by keeping the water from overflowing the earth God would convince us that we live of his meer favour and that his special power and goodnesse keeps us the waters if they were left to their own natural propensity would soon overwhelm the earth again but that God locked them up in the places provided for them This work is mentioned in divers places Iob 38. 8. 26. 10. Psal. 37. 7. Prov. 8. 29 Ier. 5. 22. First It is absolutely useful for the preservation of the lives of all things that live and breathe out of the Sea Secondly It is a strange and hidden work God effecteth it by some setled reason in the course of nature but we cannot by searching finde it out Perhaps this may be it the natural motion of every heavy thing is toward the Center and then it will rest when it hath attained to its own proper place Now the earth is stretched over the flouds and it may seem that a great part of them doth fill the very bowels and concavity of the earth in the very place where the Center or middle point of it is seated Hence it is that they will not be drawn up again nor follow the upper parts which tosse themselves up and down but rather pull down those rising graves again especially seeing it is most evident in nature by many experiments every day that it is utterly impossible there should be any Vacuum as they call it any meer empty place in which nothing at all is contained because that would divide the contiguity of things and so cause that the world should be no longer an orderly frame of divers things together for the parts would not be contiguous and united together if such a vacuum should fall out therefore water will ascend air will descend and all things will even lose their own nature and do quite contrary to their nature rather then such a thing should be Now it may seem the Lord hath hidden the water in the earth with such turnings and windings some places in which it is being larger some lesse large that the larger places having no open vent for air to succeed the water cannot be so soon filled from below as they would empty themselves upward and so there must needs be vacuity if they should not return back again and stop their course and therefore they must needs stop as it were in the midst of their career And this also may seem to be a great and principal cause of the flux and reflux of the Sea which if it were not the waters having their course alwayes one way must needs by little and little return again to cover the earth If this be the cause as is probable it is wonderful that God should set such an inclination into all
will commands this is great in them Psalm 103. 20. See 2 Kings 19. 35. The Angels are most excellent creatures when the highest praise is given of any thing it is taken from the excellency of Angels Psal. 78. 25. 1 Cor. 13. 1. They are called holy Angels Luke 9. 26. Mark 8. 36. therefore they are cloathed with linen Dan. 11. 4. to signifie their purity and are called Angels of light 2 Cor. 12 14. to note the purity wherein they were created All the individual Angels were made at once and as God made Adam perfect at the first so they were made of a perfect constitution They have all our faculties save such as be badges of our weakness They have no body therefore not the faculties of generation nutrition augmentation They have reason conscience will can understand as much as we do and better too they have a will whereby they can refuse evil and chuse good a conscience reasonable affections though not such as depend upon the body They are endowed with excellent abilities know more of God themselves us and other things then we do love God themselves and men are obedient to God The good Angels obey God 1. Universally in all things Psalm 103. 20. 2. Freely and readily make hast to do what he would have done therefore they are said to have Harps Revel 15. 2 as a sign of their chearfull minde 3. With all their might They serve God with diligence and sedulity therefore they are said to have wings to fly 4. Constantly Rev. 7. 15. 14 4. They have incredible strength and therefore by an excellency they are called Strong in strength Psal. 103. 20. Angels of the power of the Lord Iesus 2 Thes. 1. 7. Powers Ephes. 3. 10. Col. 2. 10. One Angel is able to destroy all the men beasts birds and fishes and all the creatures in the world and to overturn the whole course of nature if God should permit it to drown the earth again and make the waters overflow it to pu◠the Sun Moon and Starres out of their places and make all a Chaos Therefore we reade of wonderfull things done by them they stopt the mouths of Lions that they could not touch Daniel they quencht the violence of the fire that it could not touch so much as a hair of the three Childrens heads nor a threed of their garments they made Peters chains in an instant fall from his hands and feet they can move and stir the earth say the Schoolmen as appears Matth. 28. 2. The Angels shook the foundation of the Prison where Paul and Silas lay and caused the doors to fly open and every mans bands to fall from him They destroyed the first born of Aegypt Sodom and Gomorrah One Angel slew in one night in the host of Senacherib an hundred fourscore and five thousand men Reas. Their nature in respect of bodily things is wholly active not passive they are of a spiritual nature what great things can a whirl-winde or flash of lightning do They are swift and of great agility they have no bodies therefore fill not up any place neither is there any resistance to them they move with a most quick motion they can be where they will they move like the winde irresistibly and easily without molestation and in an unperceivable time they move more swiftly then the Sun can dispatch that space in as few minutes which the Sun doth in twenty four hours They have admirable wisdom 1 Sam. 18. 14. 14. 20. The knowledge of the good Angels is increased since their Creation for besides their natural knowledge they know many things by revelation Dan. 9. 22 23. Matth. 1. 20. Luke 1. 30. either immediatly from God or from his Word Ephes. 3. 9 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Luke 15. 18. by experience and conjecture Ephes. 3. 10. So perfectly knowing are they as that the very Heathen Philosophers have stiled them by the name of Intelligences as if their very being were made up of understanding How an Angel doth understand is much disputed their understanding is not infinite they know not all things Mar. 13. Of that day the Angels know not Again they cannot know future contingent things any further then God reveals these things to them neither can they know the secrets of mans heart 1 Kings 8. 39. Psal. 7. 10. for that is proper to the Lord alone They are said indeed to rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner but that is no further then their inward conversion puts it self forth into outward actions They do not know the number of the Elect nor the nature of spiritual desertions the manner of mortifying sin unless by the Church and Ministry of the word So again for the manner of their knowledge That of the Schools about their morning and evening knowledge is vain but it is plain they know discursivè as well as intuitivè though some say they are creaturae intelligentes but not ratiocinantes There are three degrees of their knowledge say the Schoolmen 1. Naturall which they had from the Creation Iohn 8. 4. Some abode in the truth others fell from it 2. Revealed 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes. 3. 10. The Greek word signifies to look into it narrowly Piscaetor thinks it hath reference to the Cherubims who did turn their faces to the propitiatory which was a type of Christ. 3. Experimental which they have by the observation of those things which are done among us so they know the repentance of the godly Luke 16. 10. 2. The will of Angels is to be considered Will in the good Angels is that whereby they desire good things known and forsake evil The Angels would never have sinned if they had not been voluntary for although the good Angels be now so confirmed in holiness that they can will nothing but good yet that hinders not liberty no more then it doth in God or Christ himself to be a free Agent is a perfection to sin is a defect and ariseth not from the liberty but the mutability of the will 3. Their motion and place That they are in a place is plain by Scripture which witnesseth that they are sometimes in heaven and sometime on earth as their service and office doth require They are not in a place as bodies are they are not circumscribed by place for a legion of devils was in one man Luke 8. 30. They are so here that they are not there and therefore one Angel cannot be in many places although many Angels may be in the same place and they move not in an instant though they move speedily They continue in the highest heavens unless they be sent thence by the Lord to do something appointed by him where being freed from all distractions and humane necessities they behold the glorious presence of God their understanding and will being pitcht upon him Mat. 18. 10. 22. 30. Ps. 68. 1. Luk. 2. 13. 4. Their society and communion for it
inconstant and fading things Riches take themselves to their wings they are but flowers these three considerations limit the good in them 4. They are all vain empty not simply but entitatis debitae a Well is empty though it be full of Air if it have no water in it Salomon challenged all the world to finde more in learning pleasures then he did What can the man do after the King 5. They are vexation of spirit either in getting keeping fear of losing or real parting 6. They beguile bewitch and make us worse 1. Blinde the judgement with erroneous principles that they are prone to think amisse of God and his wayes 2. Draw the heart from God he who is the great disposer of all earthly blessings out of his fatherly love will measure out of all these mercies the best portion unto thee therefore be careful for nothing but let your request be made known to God The affection opposite to Desire is Flight This was Moses his fault Exod. 4. 13. It is a stirring of the soul to get away from the evil before it come too near and have surprized a man We have an example of it in him that owing a man money knowing or thinking that he will come to such a place findes a kinde of lothnesse to meet with him and is moved to go out of the way or absent himself that he may not meet with him It must be exercised on such things as are fit to be loathed and shunned 1. Such things as may be hurtful to us 1. All manner of sinful actions Luk. 12. 1 15. 2 Tim. 2. 22 23. 1 Pet. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 10. 14. 6. 18. 2. All manner of occasions and sollicitations to sin 1 Ioh. 5. Babes keep your selves from Idols Prov. 5. 8. Ioseph â—â—ed from his mistresse 3. The familiarity and friendly society of sinners chiefly such as would and do sollicite us to sin Prov. 1. 15. 4. 14. Away from me you wicked saith David 2 Tim. 3. 5. 2 Thess. 3. 6. Rom. 16. 17. 4. Natural evils when we are not put upon them by necessity of our calling as poverty disgrace danger of limb or life liberty and the like and such things as may be hurtful to others 5. Things unprofitable vain and uselesse Tit. 3. 9. For measure of working We ought 1. To loathe and shun spiritual evils more then temporal sin then danger 2. To loathe publick evils and shun them more then private the hurt of the Commonwealth or Church more then our own losse or danger as David did when he went against Goliah 3. To shun those natural evils most which most hinder goodnesse vertue and the discharge of the duties of our place as the losse of life more then of goods of good name more then of liberty CHAP. XXIII III. Ioy and Sorrow THe next pair of affections are Joy and Sorrow The Philosophers make these two the ground of all our vertues and endeavours Of Joy Four things are to be considered in Joy 1. The nature of the affection 2. What the Image of God was in this in our primitive condition 3. The corruption of it in our Apostate condition 4. What the Spirit of God doth to the repairing of this in our conversion 1. What the nature of Joy is Joy is acquiescentia cordis in bono sibi congruenti the acquiescence of the will in the presence of a sutable good It is either 1. Bodily then the content the soul takes in it is called voluptas pleasure 2. Spiritual then the content the soul takes in it is called gaudium joy These things are required to make up this affection 1. It must be a sutable good which gives satisfaction 2. Proper one must have an interest in and a title to it 3. Present the desire accomplished is the joy of the soul. Secondly Mans joy in his primitive condition Then it was our happinesse because in that pure estate man was not only freed from all evils which might molest him but was compast about with all good sutable to him He enjoyed God himself and all things which might conduce to his happinesse 2. The holinesse of this Joy The Image of God in this affection stood in the sutablenesse and proportionablenesse which was betwixt all the good which man enjoyed and this affection The rectitude of any faculty is when the faculty and the object meet God is the only absolute adequate and supream good therefore the greatest joy of the soul of man was placed in the enjoying of God he found a sutable joy in all other good things yet so that he did above them all prize God and by them all did rise up more and more to the service of God 3. Mans joy in his fallen condition The Object of it 1. Privatively is not in God 2. Positively It is much placed 1. In the deeds of darknesse Rom. 1. 32. They take pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2. In all things wherein bruit beasts and man do agree 3. In meer fictions Chymaeraes fancies and imaginations 4. The comforts that the rest of the creatures may give the soul it is irregular in all The properties of sinful joy 1. It is unlimited we place all our happinesse in these things Psal. 49. 18. The rich glutton Soul take thy ease 2. Vain an immortall soul cannot finde reall satisfaction in an imaginary object 3. Various the soul rests not in any one of these comforts but slits from one thing to another Thirdly The woful effects of these depraved joyes 1. They wholly keep the soul from seeking or accepting the only good which may give rest to it all Ordinances the motions of the Spirit the thoughts of God and goodnesse are in vain proposed to the soul Eccles. 11. 9. Like the Ivy that seems to adorn the tree but eats away all the sap of it 2. They leave a sting and venome of sorrow after Prov. 14. 43. Iob 20. 5. the end of that joy is sorrow Fourthly What is the work of Grace in sanctifying this affection Although Gods people actually enjoy not the benefits of this affection as of some others because of the weaknesse of Grace yet a great part of our happinesse lies in this The Spirit of God turns it from the corrupt to the right object and helps the affection to act in the measure and order upon that object as it deserves He turns the stream from rejoycing in those sensual and imaginary things 1 Cor. 1. 13. it rejoyceth not in iniquity 2. Is turned to God in Christ hath interest and communion with Christ. We are the circumcision who rejoyce in Christ Iesus I will go to God saith David who is my exceeding joy See Psal. 104. lat end He is the full object of a regenerate soul. God in Christ is not here to be enjoyed immediately but in and by the Ordinances the more of God is in them the more joy doth the soul take There are divers Commandments to rejoyce in
one Circumcision And Baptism had in the Apostate Churches of Christians is answerable to Circumcision retained in Israels Apostasie Now Circumcision being once received in the Apostasie of Israel was not repeated again at their returning to the Lord and leaving of their idolatrous wayes to serve him according to his Word but they that were so circumcised were without any new Circumcision of the flesh accepted at Ierusalem and admitted to the Passeover of which none might eat that was uncircumcised In like manner also Baptism being once received in the Apostatical Churches of Christians is not to be repeated again when any so baptized return unto the Lord and forsake their Idolatries submitting themselves to the truth of the Gospel Iohns ibid. c. 3. p. 27. Whether the children of such as are excommunicated may be baptized M. Cotton and M. Hooker oppose this The Sacraments saith he are given to the visible particular Churches of Christ Jesus and to the members thereof such therefore as are cut off from their member-like Communion with the visible Church are cut off also from the Seals of that Communion Baptism and the Lords Supper As therefore we do not receive an Heathen to the fellowship of the Supper nor their seed to Baptism so neither dare we receive an excommunicate person who is to us as an Heathen unto the Lords Supper nor his children to Baptism M. Perkins in his Cases of Conscience lib. 2. cap. 9. gives several reasons to prove that children of Parents which are professed members of Christ though cut off for a time upon some offence committed have right to Baptism Attersol of the Sacraments l. 2. c. 6. saith The children of excommunicate persons may be baptized Repetition of Baptism or Rebaptizing There is but one Baptism as there is but one body Ephes. 4. 5. Reasons against Rebaptization of such as are rightly baptized 1. Baptism is primarily and properly the Sacrament of our new-birth Tit. 3. 5. of our insition into Christ which is done but once 2. In no place where the institution of it is named is there any mention directly or by consequence of any rebaptizing of it nor any order taken about it whereas in the other Sacrament we have a Quotiescunque in the very Institution 3. Baptism succeeds Circumcision which was but once administred nor to be administred any more as is clear from the total silence of the Scripture and â—osh 5. 4. 4. It is numbred among Heresies in the ancient Church to reiterate a Baptism which was acknowledged to be valid M. Martials Def. of Infant-Bap p. 68. The Errour of Rebaptizing arose upon a corrupt understanding and interpretation of that place Act. 19. 5. They are not the words of Luke the writer but of Paul the speaker continuing his speech of Iohns Disciples and hearers and are not to be understood of the twelve Disciples Some prove from that place that Iohns Baptism and Christs do differ but few urge it â—or the reiterating of Christs Baptism Baptisma est irreiterabile Sacramentum Galatinus de Arâ—an Cathol verit lib. 10. cap. 3. The Anabaptists or Antipoedobaptists themselves will rather deny our Baptism to be a Sacrament then grant a necessity of rebaptizing Private Baptism From St Iohns preaching and baptizing in open meetings we conclude that both preaching and baptizing ought to be in publick Assemblies The Baptism of Midwives and in private houses rose upon a false interpretation of Iohn 3. 5. where some do interpret the word rather of the material water wherewith men are washed whenas Christ takes it there by a borrowed speech for the Spirit of God the effect whereof it shadoweth out cleansing the filth of sin and cooling the great heat of an unquiet conscience as water washeth the thing which is foul and quencheth the heat of the fire It is not a private action of faith but publick and of the whole Congregation whereby another member is received into the visible Church and as it were incorporated into the body all ought to have their part in it as they are members of the same Church and so it ought to be then done when all may best tâ—ke knowledge of it As in Corporations both of the Universities and also of the Cities and Towns none are admitted in them but in a full Congregation or in a publick Assembly where all may be present and give their consent So in the visible Church by Baptism they ought then to be incorporated when the Assemblies are greatest and when all may most conveniently be present which is the Lords Day There was no publick Assembly when the Eunuch Acts 8. and the Goaler Acts 16. were baptized Whether wanting Water we may baptize with Sand or Water distilled and compounded This came at first from that opinion That they are damned which die unbaptized The Minister may not baptize with any other liquor and element then with natural common and ordinary water We may allow mixture of water with wine in the Lords Supper as well as the mixture of compound water with common in the Sacrament of Baptism If no composition may be used then much lesse may any other sign be used and so the element clean changed and the Ordinance of God altered for the Church of God hath no liberty to bring in any other sign in place of water See Levit. 10. 2. Whether it be lawful to use the sign of the Crosse in Baptism In St Augustines time yea before it the Christians as they used to sign their fore head with â—he Crosse in token that they were not ashamed of Christ crucified whom the Jews and Gentiles reproached for the death which he suffered on the Crosse so they brought thereof into the Sacraments and used both the figure of the Crosse and crossing in other things of God also Doctor Rainolds against Hart p. 504. In the Revelation the worshippers of the Beast receive his mark and the worshippers of the Lamb carry his mark and his Fathers in their fore-heads Hence came the first use of the Crosse in Baptism as the mark of Christ into whom we are initiaâ—ed and the same afterwards used in all Benedictions Prayers and Thanksgivings in token they were done in the name and merit of Christ crucified Mede on Ezek. 20. 20. Had not the Popish abuse and superstitions about the Crosse made us jealous of all use of it who would not have thought this a decent ceremony at the administration of Baptism to reminde all the Congregation of their Christian profession and warfare to which the Sacrament it self doth oblige them D. Burgesse See Weemses Christian Synagogue p. 208. and Boyes his Remains p. 166. and Masons Sermon on 1 Cor. 14. 10. The unconformists dispute against the Surplice and Crosse not onely as monuments of Idolatry but as signs analogical of mystical or sacramental signification in nature and use one with the Jewish Ceremonies a will-worship having no ground
upper hand of all external acts of Religion as being more essentially and intrinsecally good then any of them hence Christ saith It is lawfull to do good on the Sabbath day meaning by good works works of mercy and so he justifieth the pulling of an Oxe or an Asse out of a ditch upon the Sabbath day and himself did cure those diseased people which came unto him on the Sabbath day so that if either man or beast be in distresse it is lawful to work labour and take pains for their help succour and relief and this prohibition must be understood not to reach to such things and therefore the lawfulnesse of doing them cannot impeach the perpetuity of this Commandment 2. Works of necessity may be done such I mean as are requisite for the preventing of imminent danger as Elijah did flie for his life divers dayes whereof some must needs fall out on the Sabbath and in the time of warre men may fight on the Sabbath-day and so they may quench a fire if it happen or the like or stop an inundation of the Sea or prevent any other like imminent peril which cannot be prevented without labouring presently 3. Works needfull for the comfortable passing of the Sabbath as dressing of moderate food and the like may be done on the Sabbath-day for seeing Christ allows us to lead the Ox to the water and requireth not to fetch in water for him over night he alloweth us to dresse meat and requireth not to dresse it over night For the order in the Law of not kindling a fire pertained alone to the businesse of the Tabernacle and that order of dressing what they would dresse on the sixth day pertained alone to the matter of Manna And for this we have Christs clear example who being invited went to a feast on the Sabbath-day which he might not have done if it had been unlawfull to dresse meat and drink on the Lords day for a feast sure was not kept without some preparation of warm meat This example of Christ we have Luke 14. 1 8 12. which verses compared make it apparent that it was a feast whereto he was bidden amongst divers others So then all labours and businesses except in these three cases are unlawful for mercy necessity and present needfull comfort And not alone the labour of the hand about these things but also the labour of the tongue and of the heart in speaking and thinking of these businesses out of the cases excepted is condemned as the Prophet Isaiah doth plainly shew commanding to sanctifie the Sabbath to the Lord not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words our own words must be forborn and our own pleasure and consequently our own thoughts for indeed words and thoughts of worldly businesses are as opposite to the sanctifying of the Sabbath as works seeing the soul can no better be imployed in holy exercises if it give it self to them then if the whole body were so bestowed So the true keeping of the Sabbath requireth the turning of hand tongue and heart from our own wayes and thoughts and words that is such as concern our own worldly matters and affairs Secondly Sports and pastimes and natural wonted recreations such as may be used on the week day are also forbidden and therefore in the place alledged before it is forbidden to seek ones own pleasure or will and sure he that taketh leave to use pastimes seeks his own pleasure as he that followeth his businesse Indeed when work is forbidden sports can hardly be allowed which are never lawfull but as sauce for work only the spiritual pastimes of singing holy Psalms and Songs as a spiritual recreation is allowed to prevent all wearinesse Indeed the exercises of the day are of such divers kindes that nothing but meer fleshlinesse can cause a man to be weary But it must be shew'd thirdly how long this rest must continue to which the answer is For a whole natural day for of what quantity the foregoing six are of that must the seventh be which cometh betwixt six in numbring even four and twenty hours If it be demanded at what time the day must begin and end it is answered when the first of the six following beginneth and seeing Gods intention was not to binde all Nations to begin and end their dayes at one period and that we cannot tie the seventh day but we must in like manner tie the daies before and after to a set period of beginning and ending it is apparent that by this Commandment we are not tied to any set beginning or ending but must follow the common computation and reckoning of other daies which is amongst us from twelve of the clock at night to twelve the next night for we say twelve at night and one a clock in the morning Neither is it any inconvenience that in some Countreys the Sabbath shall be in being before and after the being of it in others for the same inconvenience must needs follow upon any kinde of beginning or ending either by Sun-set or Sun-rising unlesse God had named a special hour which he hath not for the Sunne riseth and setteth in some places three or four five or six hours sooner then in others for a good space of the year at least Yea in some Countreys they have but two Sun-risings and Sun-settings in one year that is one half-year day the other night See Cartw. Catechism And so have we one part of the celebration of the Sabbath-day concerning resting the next follows concerning the sanctification of it Time is sanctified by bestowing it in holy exercises tending to work increase and exercise sanctity in man So this day is sanctified when the time wherein men surcease the labour of their callings which they followed all the six daies before is imployed in exercises of holiness These exercises are of two sorts 1. Publick 2. Private For the publick they are the hearing and reading of the Word praying partaking of the Sacraments and all such like services of God for the reverend and orderly performing of which men are bound on this day as God giveth opportunity to assemble together and each man is to appear before God in the Land of the living as David saith It is manifest that our Saviour Christs custome was still to go into the Synagogues and teach them on the Sabbath-daies as appears Luke 4. 16. And it is apparent that Moses was read and preached in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day Act. 15. 21. See Act. 15. 14 15. and that the custome of the ancient Church was on their Sabbaths to meet as we now do twice a day it is to be seen in the Ordinance of the morning and evening Sacrifices which were appointed to be as many more for the Sabbath as for the other daies Upon the Lords-day God is to be publickly served of the whole Church in their several Congregations and all the particular members
written well of Eternity Psal. 117. 2. and 146. 6. Heb. 13. 8. Precious are the serious thoughts of eternity the treasures of eternity are opened in the times of the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. Dicamus Deum immutabilem non modo mutatione substantiali quia esse vivere non modo nunquam definet qued Angelis competit animabus rationalibus sed fieri non potest ut definat Dicimus etiam ne accidentalis mutationis capacem esse quia transferretur à potentia ad actum aliquem accidentalem Twis Animadvers in Colat. Arm. cum Iun. propofit 6. Sect. 3. Vide Aquin. part 1. Quaest. 9. Artic. 1 2. Quaest. 9. Art 7. Iob. 4. 18. And his Augels he charged with folly the good Angels with possible though not actual folly * Geâ—h loc commune Martinus de Deo Wendelinus Christ Theol. l. 1. c. 1. Psal. 120. 27 28. Heb. 4. 13. Mat. 5. 18. * Cum nos paenitet destruimus quod fecimus Sic Deus paeâ—tuisse dicitur secundum similitudinem operationis in quantum hominem quem fecerat per diluvium à terrae facie delevitâ— Aquinas Quaest 19. Artic. 7. partis primae * Mutat facta non mutat consilia August Aliud est mutare voluntatem aliud velle mutationem Aquinas Quaest. 19. Art Septimo partis primae * Jer. 18. 8. and 26. 2 3. Windelinus Christ. Theol. l. 1. c. â— Consectaries from Gods Immutability 1 Sam. 15. 18 19. Adam supported himself with that one promise Gods promises are faithful and firm words What good thing the Lord hath promised what grace or priviledge as Christians any ever received or succoâ— found the same may the faithful iook for Gal. 6. 9. 2 Tim. 3. 14. 1 Cor. 15. ult Queen Elizabeths word was Semper eadem Deut. 32. 3. Nihil magnum niâ—i magnus Deuâ— Of Gods Perfection Greatness is attributed to God metaphorically and denoteth an incomprehensible and unmeasurable largeness of all excellencies * The Apostle by an Hebrew pleonasm saith the same thing twice illustring it by the contrary Reasons of Gods Perfection 1. That which is the chiefest being and Independent is most perfect 2. That which is infinite in Essence can want nothing 3. The more simple a thing is the more perfect * Psal. 7. 10. and 7. 6 8. and 137. 9. Psal. 56. 3. and 11. 1. Rom. 12. 2. Perfect in the general is that to which nothing is wanting therefore that is most perfect to which agreeth no imperfection Little works of nature and of providence have a greatness in them considered as done by God 2 Sam. 22. 31. All Gods works are perfect Gen. 1. 31. Alphonsus was wont to say If he had been of councel with God in the making of his works he should have made some of them melius ordinatius Ezek. 36. 23. Iob 38. 34 35 37. Isa. 40. 12. Elihu alledgeth Gods works to Iob to shew his greatness Iob 36. 27. 28 29. and 37. 1. to 7. Reasons why Gods works are great 1. He that worketh most universally unlimittedly supremely must work great things 2. He that works most wisely must needs do great things Psal. 104. 24. 2. He that works most mightily and powerfully must needs do great things Isa. 43. 13. 4. He that does all this most easily must needs do great things Psal. 33. 6. God is great in his Authority He is King of Kings the only Potentate God is most high The Greatness of Gods authority standeth in two things 1. The universality of it Gods authority reacheth to all things the whole world and all creatures in it are subject to his will and disposing 2. The absoluteness of it what he willeth must be done Absolute Dominion is a Power to use a thing as you please for such ends as you think good God hath a double power and authority over the Creature 1. As an absolute Lord. 2. As a Judge according to which double power he exerciseth two kindes of acts Actus Dominii and Iudicii 1. He hath an absolute soveraignty over all the Creatures and hath no rule to govern the Creature by but his own will Dan. 4. 17 32. Ephes. 1. 11. He can do the creature no wrong in any of his dispensations Four things he doth to the creatures as an act of Soveraignty 1. He gives the Creature what being he pleaseth 2. He appoints it to what end he pleaseth Rom. 9. 22. 3. He gives it what law he will here come in acts of Justice and Mercy 4. Orders all their actions by his effecting or permitting will 2. He resolves to govern these creatures Modo Connaturali suitably to their own natures He gives reasonable creatures a Law which they must know and approve and the service they perform to him must be reasonable Gods Soveraignty here below is seen in ordering 1. Natural causes which act from an instinct of nature and are carried to their end by a natural necessity 1. In acting them according to their natures for the ends he appointed them 2. In restraining their acting sometimes that fire shall not burn 3. In acting them above their natures the rock shall yield water 4. In acting them contrary to their natures fire shall descend 2. Voluntary causes acting from a principle of reason and the liberty of will Prov. 16. 11. Psal. 33. 15. Prov. 21. 1. in ordering their thoughts apprehensions counsels affections Rom. 9. 17. Rom. 9. 20. Heb. 12. 9. Consectaries from Gods greatness in his nature Corollaries of Gods perfection Deut. 18. 13. Matth. 5. 48. Psal. 18. 22. 1 Cor. 13. 10. Consectaries from Gods great works There is a twofold greatnesse in the works of God 1. In the bulk or quantity of them as the work of Creation 2. Of quality or vertue Gen. 1. 16. The Moon is a great light in regard of light and influence excellency and usefulnesse to the world See Iob 37 38 39. Consectaries from Gods being most high Mihi verò dicendum videtur Nihil extra Deum esse absolutè necessarium sed tantum ex hypothesi Attamen esse necessarium secundum quid viz. ex hypothesi reicuique fateor vel contingentissimae poterat accidere Twiss Animadvers in collat Armin. cum Iun. IndepeÌ„dentia est proprietas Dei qua quoad essentiam subsistentiam actiones à nulla aelia dependet causa cum à seipso fit subsistat agat Wendelinus John 1. 3. Act. 17. 25. Ab independentia Dei non differt sufficientia qua ipso in se à se sibi nobis sat habet nullaque re indiget cum omnia alia uti à Deo dependent ita sibi ipsâ—s minimè sufficiant Proprietatem hanc indigitat nomen Dei Schaddai Gen. 17. 1. 35. 11. Wendelinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Il. β Rex unus est apibus dux unus in gregibus in armentis rector unus multo magis mundi unus est rector qui universa quaecunque sunt verbo jubet
the Sun runs through them God doth this great work it is thought to be caused by the turning round of the highest Sphere or the Firmament which pulling along with it self the inferiour Orbes makes them to move according to its course but who can give a reason why that Sphere it self should go so swiftly even much more swiftly then the Sun because it is far higher then the Sun as much as that is higher then the earth but the immediate power of God who doth move all in moving this one But that God should make the Sunne fulfil such a daily race to make day and night it highly commends the work Again the usefulnesse of it is great for if it should be in any place alwaies night what could they do how should they live How would any thing grow seeing the nights are cold light and heat being companions and cold and darknesse companions If no light had been in the world the world would not have been a place fit for living things But if one half onely of the world should have had light with it alwaies it would have caused excessive heat and so would have burnt up and consumed all things and been no lesse harmful then the defect of heat but now the succession of one of these to the other viz. light and heat to darknesse and cold doth so temper them by a kinde of mixture that it is in such proportion in every place as is necessary to bring forth all sorts of living things especially the fruits of the earth So God hath assigned such a way and race to the Sun which by his presence makes day and by his absence night as was fit and onely fit for the quickning enlivening and comfort of every kinde of living creature so that upon this course the wel-being yea the very being almost of all things doth depend We should lament and bewaile our exceeding great blindnesse that live day after day and night after night and yet busie not our selves about this work nor seâ— God in it though it be so constant as it was never stopped but twice sâ—nce the beginning of the Creation viz. in Hezekiah's time by going back of the Sun and in Ioshuah's time by stopping of the Sun for a certain time by the immediate power of God We have the profit of the day and of the night but neither in one nor other do we mark the wisdome goodnesse and power of God In the night men rest and refresh their bodier with sleep wilde beasts then wake and hunt for their prey In the day men and tame creatures make and dispatch their businesse and eat and drink and wilde beasts then rest in their dens God is still working for us our thoughts are still idle towards him thir is a proof of our Atheisme and estrangement from him this is the blindnesse of our minds a not being able to discern of things by discourse of reason and the power of understanding for the conceiving of which just and plain reasons are offered unto us There is a natural blindnesse of the eye when it is unable to discern things by the light of the Sun this is felt and complained of but spiritual blindnesse of minde is when it is unable to discern supernatural truths which concern the soul and another and better life by the use of reason and help of those principles which are as light unto it this is not felt nor lamented but it is therefore not felt because it is so natural to us and because we brought it into the world The beginning of the cure of spirituall blindnesse is to see it let us see it therefore and be troubled at it why do not I see Gods great work in making night and day to succeed each other Let us look up to God in this work and meditate on it at fit times in the morning so soon as we are awake and begin to see the darknesse vanquished and the light conquering and that the Sun is raised above our Horizon and is come to visit our parts again it were a fruitful thing to think thus How great a journey hath the Sun gone in this little time wherein I have been asleep and could observe nothing and now returned again as it were to call me up say Lord thou hast made night I have the benefit of it and now light visits me O that I could honour thee and magnifie thy power and the greatnesse of thy hand and use the light of the day to do the services that are required at my hand in my place Again in the evening a little before we sleep we should think of the great work of making day for these many hours the Sun hath been within our sight and shewed its beams and light unto us and hath run a long race for our good bringing with it lightsome cheerfulnesse the companion of the day Now it is gone to the other part of the world to visit them that God might shew his goodnesse to one place as well as to another Where a multitude of things concur to one effect with which none of them in particular is acquainted there we cannot but know that one common wisdome ruleth them all and so it is in the working of the Sun Moon and Stars to make the Seasons of the day and night and of Summer and Winter therefore some common wisdome must over-rule all of them There is a spiritual light in our Horizon whereas Judaisme and Turâ—isme is darknesse and Popery a glimmering light We should pray to God to give us spiritual light and be thankful for it He makes day and night also in respect of prosperity and adversity weeping may continue for a night this vicissitude keeps the soul in growth in good temper as the other is profitable for the body pray to God to send Christ to them which sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death and vouchsafe to make it day with them as well as with us He hath said in his word that he will discover the glory of his Son and all the earth shall see it together CHAP. IV. Of some of the Meteors but especially of the Clouds the Rain and the Sea the Rivers Grasse Herbs and Trees BY the name of Clouds and Waters above the Firmament Gen. 1. We may understand all Meteors both watery and fiery which were then created in their causes and so by clouds and winds Psal. 104. 3. must be understood all the Meteors the great works of God by which he sheweth himself and worketh in this lower Heaven They are called Meteors because they are most of them generated aloft in the aire Zanchius saith there are foure sorts of Meteors others make but three sorts 1. Fiery which in the Supreme Region of the aire are so enflamed by the fire that they are of a fiery nature as Comets Thunder 2. Airy which being begotten of dry vapours of the earth come near the nature