learned Knight in his Book against Atheism Sir Char. Wolsely There were some other Philosophers that said All things did arise out of Number as the Pythagoreans But it is supposed they meant all things did arise out of Unity that is from one first Being from that Unity which is Unitatis omnis effectrix as one speaks that hath produced all creatures in the several Unities of their individual Beings Others of them thought that all things did at first spring out of Contraries It 's true All compound Bodies are made up of contrary Elements Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia siccis Ovid. Met. l. 1. p. 2. And the opposition of two Contraries in Nature may produce some third thing different from them both But these Contraries must have an existence in their distinct natures before any compound can result from them And so though they be the material or formal cause of any effects in Nature yet they themselves could not have existence without some efficient cause and this doth necessarily lead us up to God who is the first Cause Or could we conjecture with Pliny for it was but his conjecture that the World itself is an Eternal Deity Plin. Nat. Phil. Lib. 1. c. 7. For so he speaks God whosoever he be if happily there be any other but the very world he is all Sight all Hearing all Life all Soul all of Himself But he speaks more positively concerning the Sun Verily saith he it is the Life and Soul of the World the principal Governour of Nature Lib. 1. cap. 6. and no less than a God or Divine Power considering his work and operation Or can we say with Aristotle That the World is eternal which Opinion he grounded upon this Principle Ex nihilo nil fit Out of nothing nothing is made Which is true if we speak of nothing as it imports matter out of which things are made But if we mean by nothing only the term from whence Creation began so it is not true For all things did so arise from nothing as their term It is also true in Philosophy that nothing can bring forth nothing in a natural course but it is not so in Divinity that treats of God and his Infiniteness For He can produce being out of non-being as He hath done in the Worlds Creation And as we read in Genesis 1. 1. But it is as well against Reason as against Scripture to assert the World to be Eternal For as there could be no Progress in Number if there was no unit out of which all Number springs For Number is greater or lesser as it is nearer to or farther off from Unity So there could be no computation of time if there was not some first moment For Time is nothing else but a succession or flux of moments as one gives this description of it it is Nunc fluens So that all time must be computed according to its nearness to or remoteness from the beginning of time If there was no beginning of time there could be no Prius posterius We could not reckon Ancient and Modern And there could properly be no such thing as Antiquity For this present moment would be as antient with respect to Eternity as a thousand years ago And therefore seeing there is prius posterius sooner and later in time there must of necessity be some beginning of time And if there be a beginning of Time there must be a beginning of the World For Time and the World were alwaies together Arg. 2. We see in Nature every thing is serving a rational End As the Sun enlightens the World which else would be but one great Dungeon and unfit for habitation The Clouds and Rain serve an end which is to cool and moâ—sten the Earth which else would be dry and barren The Winds do serve an end which is to purge and purifie the Air that for want of motion it might not corrupt and putrifie And the Earth is endued with a Seminal vertue to bring forth Herbs and Fruits of several kind for the use of Man and Beast And as all things in Nature serve an End so they are wonderfully fitted to their several Ends. Now whence is this but from some wise Agent that fitted things thus to their end As Philosophers tell us of four sorts of Causes in Nature the Efficient Formal Material and Final and the one hath dependance upon the other If there was no efficient there could be no matter if no matter no form if no form no end for the form is given with respect to the end But where we see matter and that matter invested with form and that form serving an end we may then conclude this could not be without an efficient As when we see a Clock or Watch and see how every Wheel yea every Pin therein doth serve an end and these fitted to that end we conclude this was not by chance but by the workmanship of some skilful Artist Or had we seen Archimedes his Sphere artificially framed to represent the several Motions of the Heavenly Orbes we should conclude this was not thus framed of it self So when we see all things in Nature in motion and every wheel of Nature moving to a rational end we may conclude this was done by some Infinite Intelligence Which the Heathen Philosophers did acknowledg when they called God or the Maker of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind and Reason as we read in Plato Anaxagoras so freqâ—ently called God Mens that in derision they gave him the name of Mens And as Virgil as I remember speaks Totáque infusa per artus Mens agitet molem c. A Mind this Heap doth actuate And through its joints doth penetrate By which we may perceive that they apprehended the World had a Maker and that He that made all things was an Intelligent Being Lactantius quoting the several descriptions the Heathen Philosophers made of God Lib. 1. cap. 5. among the rest quotes Chrysippus describing him to be Naturalem vim divinâ Ratione praeditam A natural Power endued with Divine Reason For they evidently saw a Divine Wisdom join'd with Power in all the works of Creation Argum. 3. We see in the Creation the excellent proportion and usefulness of one part to another for the preservation of the whole and the suitableness of the whole to Man that is made the Lord of it The Life of Man or Beast cannot be preserved without Food Food they cannot have unless the Earth bring it forth bring it forth it cannot unless it be watered with Showers from Heaven Showers there cannot be without Clouds Clouds cannot be without Vapours Vapours there cannot be unless they are exhaled by the Sun from the Waters and for this end the Sun-beams do not only bring down Light and Heat to the Earth but attract Vapours from it towards Heaven and all for the service of the Earth Wherein we see the Heavens hearing the Earth and the Earth hearing the Corn Wine and Oyl and other Fruits and all hearing Man And as in this lower World one part of the Creation is supported by another as the Earth by
little Souls So that this acquaintance with the great God will greaten the Soul towards God but will diminish and lessen it towards a mans self and the World in our estimation thereof 2. We ought from hence also be led to a dependance upon him for he that made Heaven and Earth must needs be sufficient to help us in all cases whatsoever The Heathens are said to trust in a God that could not save Isa 45. 20. And the Reason is given because their gods did not make Heaven and Earth as we read vers 18. He that brought all things out of the Abyss of non-entity into Being can raise us out of the lowest depth of affliction and misery He that said Let there be Light and made the Darkness vanish before it is able to bring us out of the greatest darkness of trouble He that made the Waters retreat from covering the Earth can discharge us of the Waters of Sorrow and Affliction wherewith we sometimes seem to be covered or overwhelmed The Church of Israel comforts her self in such a prospect of God Psal 124. 8. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth That is to say Our help is in one that is All-sufficient and upon whom we may safely depend One great cause of the Saints distrustful heart-fainting fears is the not considering this Hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not Isa 40. 28. Why then doth Jacob faint in his distress And when we are afraid of Man it is because we forget the Lord our Maker that stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth Isa 51. 13. Did we well remember this it would strengthen our Faith and vanquish our Fears and make us able under the greatest Difficulties and Dangers and Deaths to commit our Souls to him as a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. For as in the Works of Creation we behold him a powerful Creator so in Christ Jesus and the Covenant made with us in him we may behold him also a faithful Creator and so be encouraged to depend upon him and commit our selves to him 3. Hereupon we ought to have an holy awe and fear of him As the considering God the Creatour of the World should dispel distrustful fear so it ought to beget an awful fear of him All appearances of God are tremendous to the Creature As when he appeared in Transient Visions to the Prophets it struck them with dread as we read of Daniel Chap. 10. And those Beams of Glory that shone forth in Christ's Transfiguration made the Disciples fear Matth. 17. 6. So verily his appearances in in the Works of Creation are wonderful and dreadful Aquin. 1. 2. q. 41. Art 4. Here we may first wonder and then fear as the Schoolmen have made Admiration one of the kinds of Fear Greatness and Majesty are apt to strike this Heart with Fear and both these are visibly written upon God's Creation What cannot he do either for a Man or against him that is the Maker of the World what is exceeding high hath a dread in it As in Ezekiels Vision of the Wheels it 's said Chap. 1. 18. As for their Rings they were so high that they were dreadful In the Creation of the World we behold the sublimity of God's Majesty and his Wisdom and Greatness in a Stupendious Elevation As Bildad tells Job Job 25. 2. speaking of God Dominion and Fear are with him These are joyned together as Cause and Effect And he shews Job this Dominion of God in the Works of his Creation He maketh peace in his high places All the Creatures of the upper World quietly subject to the Creator's Law And vers 3. Is there any number of his Armies c. which are the Hosts in Heaven and Earth as the Creatures are called Gen. 2. 1. Here is God's Dominion which should strike us with an holy awe of him The Heathen beholding these glorious Works of the Creation had thereby a fear of a Deity imprest upon their hearts which was the occasion of that Atheistical Speech of the Poet Primus in Orbe Deos fecit timor Fear â—irst made gods upon the Earth Yet this is a Truth the Works of God's Creation should strike our Hearts with a reverend Fear of the Creatour which the Psalmist exhorts men to Let all the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Oh how should the whole World stand in awe of such a Being Our very praises are to be mixt with fear He is therefore said to be fearful in praises Exod. 15. 11. For those Excellencies of his Works for which we praise him have such Impressions of his Glory and Power upon them that may make men fear while they are praising of them But because I would still make my Discourse to serve the Design of true Christianity I therefore add That this Fear ought not to be afrighting or meerly astonishing to enslave the Soul or drive Man into fond superstition as it did the Heathen but such as may suit a state of Sonship and may be proper to him that is not only our Creator but our Redeemer and Father in Christ Jesus And by that Principle of Grace we have received of him as our Redeemer to fear him as our Creatour Upon this account also we owe him Praise and Admiration 1. Praise It is the ultimate end of these Works of Creation that the Creator may be praised in them and it is the ultimate end of Man to give Glory and Praise to him After God had made and finished the rest of his Works he lastly made Man that he might have a Creature to contemplate the Works of his hands and praise him in them all and by him reduce all his Works back again to himself And without question Adam as soon as he had a Being and was placed in the Theatre of this World he saw the Creator in his Works and found in himself a Principle that naturally led him to adore and magnifie him And as this Principle is renewed in any Man and the Image of God restored to him so is he disposed to the performance of it How often do we find David's heart in a rapture of praise upon the contemplation of God's Workmanship in the Worlds Creation as we may find in Psal 8. 1. Psal 33. 6 7. Psal 104. 24. And when he calls upon irrational Creatures to praise their Creator as in Psal 148. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him all ye Stars of Light Praise him ye Heavens of Heavens and ye Waters that are above the Heavens And thence he comes down to this lower World vers 7. Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Dragons and all Deeps c. All this is but to quicken up his own heart to that Duty which was
5. The Sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the dry Land And then addeth vers 7 8. To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts Which words the Apostle quotes in Heb. 3. as referring to Christ Moses verily was faithful in all his House as a Servant c. But Christ as a Son over his House c. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your hearts That is the Voice of Christ vers 5 6 7. to whom the Psalmist had ascribed the Creation of the World And in Heb. 1. 10. the laying the Foundation of the Earth and the making of the Heavens is expresly attributed to Jesus Christ But I must not divert to that Controversie only to shew how the Creation of the World hath respect to Christ as its Creator not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost for in all Works ad extrà they work as we say indivisim yet according to the order of their subsisting is the order of their working so all things are of the Father through the Son by the Spirit And the Creation of all things seems most properly to appertain to the second Person For he being the First and Immediate Off-spring of his Father it belongs to him to propagate and communicate of his Being in the things that are made which are therefore called the Off-spring of God As the Apostle quotes the Heathen Poet saying Acts 17. We are also his Off-spring And saith it also himself in the next words Forasmuch as we are the Off-spring of God And not onely Men but all created Beings may be stiled his Off-spring as they are the Finite Emanations of his Infinite Being Magne parens mundi As the Poet speaks of God And the Heathens therefore did stile God the great Father of the World Col. 1. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Jesus Christ is called by the Apostle the first-Born of every Creature or of all Creation So called as some conceive with respect to his Eternal Generation and the Creation that in time sprung from him He was brought forth by an Eternal Generation and then by him was the Generation of all the things of Time God communicated his Being Eternally and Infinitely to his Son and then by him communicates of his Being Finitely and in time to the Creatures His communication of himself to his Son is by an immanent Act wherein God did not go out of himself and so by him gave Being to the Creation in those Transient Acts wherein God doth work ad extra and goes out of himself Now what may Christians observe from hence 1. In general That the Creator of the World is also the Redeemer of it He that made all things is also the Restorer of all things The collapsed ruined World is put into his hand to raise and renew it that first made it As we read Heb. 1. 2. He is appointed Heir of all things by whom God made the Worlds He had an original Title to be Heir as Creator but hath a new Title given him as Redeemer and this he executes in the Government of the World 2. More particularly We may observe that it is the Infinite Creator of the World who hath cloathed himself with the flesh of Man and made it to subsist personally in himself Here we may behold this great Mystery Finiteness and Inâ—inity Mortal and Immortality Divinity and Humanity the Creator and the Creature united in one Person As the Evangelist first speaks of Christ as the Creator of all things John 1. 3. and then as assuming our flesh vers 14. The Word that made all things afterwards spake and dwelt personally in humane flesh And Man's Nature being a System of the whole Creation he did in a manner cloath himself with it in his assuming our flesh As one of the Ancients to this purpose speaks Incarnatio est elevatio totius Universi in Divinam Personam Incarnation is the lifting up the whole Universe into Divine Person Which taken in a qualified sense is true And in assuming our flesh How many wonders do here meet together To see the Divine Nature stooping so low is one wonder to see the Humane Nature raised so high is another to see Man's sinful Nature assumed without sin is a third to see the Angelical Nature past by that stood nearest to God and Man's Nature assumed that stood farther off is a fourth to see the Creator assuming the Properties of a Creature which is to be finite passive dependent c. and the Creature assumed into the Properties of the Creator which is to be Infinite Almighty Omnipotent is a fifth c. So that God is hereby Humanified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas and Man as it were Deified as one speaks 3. We may further observe and that with great delight how it is the Creator of all things that is become the Head of the Church Which the Apostle suggests in Col. 1. 16. and vers 18. compared By him were all things created whether Visible or Invisible c. and he is the Head of the Body of the Church an Head not only by way of Government to rule over it but by way of Spiritual Union to influence it and dwell in it as the Head in the Body To see the Infinite Creator humble himself to look down upon his Creatures is taken notice of by the Psalmist as a great condescent Psal 113. 5 6. But to take any of them into a nearness into an oneness with himself is yet far greater He first came into a natural Union with us in assuming our Nature and into a legal Union with us by becoming our Surety and then comes into a mystical Union by making us Members of his Body through the Spirit And this Mystical Union is also set forth by a Marriage Union Ephes 5. 32. And is not this wonderful to see the Creator to match himself with a Creature and that not of the highest Order but with Man and not with him neither when at his best but when degenerated and corrupted Should we see a great King take a poor Maid from the Dunghil and match himself to her it could scarce be a shadow of this For our Maker to become our Husband as it is said Isa 54. 5. our Reasons cannot comprehend it Ambition it self can hardly aspire to such a thing And now what an honour is this to the Church to have such an Head and Husband and what security also to be under the Headship and Protection of the Creator of the World He that created all things can create Salvation for it when there is no visible matter or means out of which to bring it And he that gave Being to the first Creation can and will raise up and perfect his New Creation in his Church which he will effect by this Union it hath with himself as the Head thereof And the assurance hereof the Saints have