for whom thou wast made thy light shall tend downward Besides the Sun never goes out of his way yet is in continuall motion there is a diversity in every day of the year yet notwithstanding if we compare one thing with another through the whole year we shall see it is constant in its motion and when it hath touched those limits which we call tropicks it is retrograde and turneth back again and though the Sun rise at one point of the Sky to day and at another a few dayes after and likewise do set yet at the end of the year he returneth again to follow the same trace which he hath continued ever since the Creation of the world except once in Joshuaes dayes This is that great light which God made to rule the day 3. From the Sun I shall proceed to speak of the Moon Luna à Phaenicibus coelestis regina appellata est est humorum domina oeconoma The Moon is called a great light not because it is greater than the other Stars for there are many bigger than the Moon they seem little to us because of their distance from us Calvin which runneth a much shorter compass than the Sun whereby it appeareth that she is in the midst between the earth and the Sun This is that other great light made by God to rule the night Gen. 1.16 called by the Phaenicians the Queen of Heaven by others the Wife of the Sun for the Moon is the last receptacle of all the influences and vertues that go forth from the Sun into other Stars which afterwards she communicateth to the earth and here the wisdome of God is admirable for therefore is the sphear of the Moon placed in the lowest place of the heavenly bodies and in the highest of the elementary bodies and albeit the benefits of the Sun seem to be more apparent because it maketh notable mutations of times of Summer and Winter and with his heat cherisheth and maketh the earth fruitfull nourisheth Plants and living Creatures yet the Moon also is very beneficiall to man because it nourisheth and governeth the humours for the life of Plants and Animals ariseth from the mixture of heat and moisture and is nourished by a due temperament of both The Moon is a celestiall Calendar for most Nations in times past used Lunar moneths describing their Moneths Festivall dayes and times appointed for publick meetings and debates by the Moon and for this cause David saith Psal 104.19 that God hath appointed the Moon for seasons The Hebrews reckoned their Moneths from one new Moon to another whence from the newness thereof A novitate ejus mensis Chodes dicitur quasi dicas nova Luna Flac. Illyr Clavis Script the Moon was called Chodes which is as much as to say the new Moon and here the wisdome of divine Providence is much to be observed that this Planet the most familiar with the earth appointed by God for the remedy of nocturnall darkness should outgo the admiration of all the rest She with her manifold windings and turnings into divers shapes hath much troubled the wits of the spectators fretting and fuming that of this Star being the nearest of all they should be most ignorant growing as it doth or else waining evermore one while bended point-wise into tips of horns another while divided just in the half and anon again in compass round sometime shining all night long and other-while late it is ere she riseth one while big and full and another while little or nothing to be seen as every mans experience maketh evident Plin. Natural Hist l. 2. c. 9. And Pliny saith that the Moon being next to the Center and therefore of least compass performeth the same course and circuit in twenty seven dayes and one third part of a day which Saturn the highest Planet runs in thirty years after this making conjunction with the Sun two dayes forth she goeth and by the thirtieth day at the most returneth to the same point and ministery again wherein is to be seen much of the Providence of God CHAP. IX Of the Eclipses a large discourse on the miraculous Eclipse that happened at the death of Christ IN the next place we may observe the operation of Gods Providence in the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon for every year both Planets are eclipsed at certain dayes and hours under the earth Pliny observeth Plin. Natural Hist l. 2. c. 13. that all Eclipses in two hundred and twenty two moneths have their revolutions and return to their former points Although Eclipses arise from naturall causes yet is it contrary to the property of the lights of Heaven whose nature and office is to shine therefore when their light is obscured they are in a suffering condition whence Eclipses are called by Heathens Defectus Solis lunaeque labores When the Sun is obscured all the Stars and Creatures which receive their strength from the Sun do as it were suffer together with him The examples of all ages do testifie that great mutations drought inundations pestilences warres and great destructions have followed immediately after great Eclipses At the death of our Saviour there was a great Eclipse of the Sun there being darkness over all the earth till the ninth hour Luk. 23.44 45. The Sun the eye of the world as the Poets call him was darkned but how he was darkned and how this Eclipse was occasioned there 's the difficulty and that it was not naturall but miraculous all Interpreters new and old consent and agree for it is concluded by Divines Philosophers and Astronomers that there cannot be a naturall Eclipse of the Sun but in the new Moon when those two Planets may be in conjunction and so the body of the Moon interposed between the Sun and the earth but this was at the full Moon for it was the day before the Jews Passeover which ever was celebrated the fourteenth day of the Moneth Nisan or the first full Moon after the Vernall Equinoctiall Besides there could not have been darkness of so long continuance by that means but the Sun would have recovered his light sooner by reason that he is by many hundred degrees bigger than the Moon Solis eclipsis nòn potest esse universalis Lyra. Istae tenebrae fuerunt factae per retractionean radiorum Solis virtute divina Hieron Per interpositionem nubium densarum Origen Dionys Aereop Epist ad Polycarp And Lyra saith that an Eclipse of the Sun cannot be universall And Hierom saith that darkness hapned through the retraction of the Sun-beams by a divine power And Origen saith it was by the interposition of a thick Cloud And Dionysius the Aereopagite in an Epistle to Polycarpus whereto Nicholas Lyra giveth much credit which Mr Beza thinketh to be counterfeit saith that being at that time in Aegypt where the air is wondrous thin and there be seldome any clouds or rain but the Land is watered and made fruitfull by the overflowing of
the River Nilus he saw in a miraculous and prodigious manner the Moon coming out of the East being by course of nature in another Hemisphere and Horizon viz. full South with their Antipodes and about noon interposing it self between the Sun and the earth and there continuing by the space of three hours and then returning again to the East whereupon it is said he cryed out Aut Deus naturae patitur aut mundi machina dissolvitur Either the God of nature is now suffering some impediment and is by a greater than himself hindered or if that be impossible he hath determined to make a present dissolution of the world The course of nature was altered when the God of nature suffered Now for the largeness and extent of this darkness in regard of place divers are of divers opinions Some think that this was universall and over all the world because St. Luke saith there was darkness over all the earth of this opinion was Tertullian among the Ancients as Beza noteth Beza in Annot. sup Marc. 15.35 Gualt in Luc. 23. and Gualter in his Commentary upon these words But Lyra Calvin Beza Perkins and divers others be of another judgement sc that this darkness was in the Land of Jury only or at least but in some few neighbouring and near adjoyning Countreys Hereof they give divers conjecturall Reasons Reason 1. Because Lyra saith there cannot be a generall or universall Eclipse of the Sun over all the world at once as aforesaid but being miraculous it might therefore not to insist upon that 2. Calvin Beza and Mr Perkins affirm that if it had been universall it 's not unlikely but that all Historians of those tintes both Greek and Latin would have mentioned it but many they say say nothing of it and but some few speak of it 3. Also they say It had been less miraculous and prodigious and not so likely to portend the ruine of the Jews if it had been common to others as well as to them but to be appropriate and peculiar to them only might well be thought fatall Beza saith likewise It 's the more probable opinion because it hath more resemblance to a miracle of the like nature Exod. 10. where it 's said that by the space of three dayes there was gross and palpable darkness over the whole Land of Aegypt but light in the Land of Goshen where the children of Israel dwelt So here for the space of three hours there was darkness over the Land of Juda but light over all the world besides Object If the words of the Text be alleadged viz. that there was darkness over all the earth Resp 1. Then their answer is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terram pro regione the Earth or Land put for the Land of Canaan only as Mat. 9.26 Luk. 4.25 as for the Epistle of Dionysius before-mentioned it is counterfeit and therefore of no credit but may be a fabulous fiction 2. It might signifie portend and admonish them of the great judgement of God shortly to ensue upon that Nation viz. that as when Christ suffered there was darkness over the Land of Jury only whereas all the world besides enjoyed the benefit of the light of the Sun so shortly after spirituall darkness and blindness of mind was to surprize and seize on that Nation because they refused the light that shined among them and was offered to them whereas unto all other Nations the Sun of righteousness more clearly shined in the preaching of the Gospel Mal. 4.1 2 3. 2 Cor. 3.14 c. 3. This miraculous Eclipse of the Sun confuteth the folly of the Jews and declareth them to be much deceived in thinking and saying Christ was a deceiver who was no less than the Lord of glory the Messiah and Saviour of the world and this appeared in that all the Creatures did him homage and suffered together with their Creator 4. It sheweth the horribleness and hainous nature of sin so provoking God to anger as at the punishment thereof he even seems to turn the whole course of nature topsie-turvy or upside down Also it may admonish us that the price of our redemption was no trifle or small matter it costing no less than if the Sun should have fallen from Heaven to earth A wise Captain or Housholder will not easily be induced to alter the course and order of his government in his Camp or Family much less will God alter his government of the world notwithstanding now he did even disordering as it were the whole order of nature to set our disorders to rights again CHAP. X. Of the extent of Providence to the Stars of their order variety and use how they are for signs and for seasons and for dayes and years a discourse on the Star that led the Wise men to Christ FRom the Sun and Moon let us proceed to the Stars Stellae sunt corpora luminaria coelestia verbo Dei in Firmamento collocara ad illuminandam totam machinam sublunarem Alsted Theol. Natural part 2. c. 6. which God hath made also to rule the night Psal 136.6 wherein Gods Providence will much appear They are celestiall and shining bodies called Stars of light Psal 148.3 they were all made at the first immediately by God himself they are placed likewise in their severall orbs Philosophers say that the Stars are nothing but the thicker part of all the Heavens made in the Heavens of the matter of the Heavens God likewise hath set and placed them in the Heavens in a most beautifull order of these some are fixed some are wandring Stars or Planets they difer one from another in glory 1 Cor. 15.41 they are innumerable God alone knoweth the number of them and calleth them all by names Psal 147.4 Some of the Stars or Constellations have names in Scripture Ainsworth in Gen. 1. Ursa major or Acturus are seven Stars near the North Pole called of some Charls wain as Mazzaroth or Mazzaloth Arctururs Orion Pleiades Job 38.31 32. Job 9.9 Amos. 5.8 Ainsworth saith They may well be Englished water-Stars winter-Stars thunder-Stars and the like The Stars have their courses periods and revolutions taking the tracks and wayes which were traced out to them from East to West at their Creation from that time they have cast their favourable aspects and their influences have fallen upon the earth Ut Sol maximus est omnium syderum ita minimus est Mercurius post eum Luna Soli propemodum par videtur nobis quod citima vicinissima terrae sit Perrer in Gen. 1. observing inviolably and with great respect the Orders and Laws of their Creation As the Sun is the Prince of all the heavenly lights and the greatest of the Stars so Mercury is the least and after him the Moon though she seem to us of equall bigness with the Sun yet is she not so but seemeth great unto us because she is nearest to the earth God hath
appeareth in preserving a Church to himself from several parts of the world Psal 110.2 He ruleth in the midst of his enemies like a King that is able to keep up his Court and royal Family in the midst of rebels though they may sometime prevail against yet they shall never be able to root up the Church of Christ Object But it may be objected That when the seventh Angel sounded there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever And the four and twenty Elders fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying We give thee thanks O Lord God Allmighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned Revel 11.15 16 17. Divers circumstances shew this to be a new event and that God had not alwayes actual possession of all the Kingdoms of the world it happening at the sound of the seventh Trumpet and when be took this great power to himself and entered upon the government of all the Kingdomes of the world it was then entertained by the Church with praise and thankesgiving which seemeth to shew that God did not governe universally at all times and in all Ages of the World Resp. I answer that the Lord hath a two-fold Kingdom Regnum Potentiae Regnum Gratiae A Kingdom of Power A Kingdom of Grace In the exercise of his power he hath alwayes reigned over the world The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heaven and his Kingdome ruleth over all Psal 103.19 God hath always ruled over all the world when the world hath reigned most in wickednesse but in respect of the exercise of his government in regard of the Kingdom of his Grace by the Spirit of his Son in the hearts and consciences of men he hath reigned over but a very few This therefore is meant of the Kingdom of his Grace that the Lord upon the sound of the seventh Trumpet would bring them in subjection to his Gospel causing men in all places to yield subjection to the golden Scepter of Christ held forth in the preaching of the Gospel CHAP. XXXIII Corol. 6. Corol. 7. Cor. 6. IF God govern the whole world then it must needs be that he cannot want Instruments to execute vengeance upon his Enemies he need not seek far for Instruments for there is not a creature in Heaven in Earth or in Hell but is at his command If he speak to the fire it burneth the Sodomites if to the water it destroyeth the wicked old world if to the Earth it openeth its mouth and swalloweth up Corah and his companions Two Bears at his command tear in pieces two and fourty children that mockt the Prophet Worms at his command devour Herod that persecuted the Apostles Act. 12. He plagueth a proud King by poor creatures as Frogs Lice Flies Ut per animalcula ostenderetur opitulatoris omnipotentia Theodoret Pompon Laetus Locusts or Grashoppers Exod. 8. that by those little animals the omnipotency of his peoples helper might be manifested as Theodoret speaketh Prophane Histories tell us also that Honoricus King of Vandals and Arnulphus the Emperour were fed upon alive and gnawn till they were dead by Worms and lice Fabius the proud Senator was suddenly taken away with an hair swallowed in milk And Pope Adrian the fourth after that he had accused Frederick the first was choked with a Flie in a draught of cold water Yea the Angels good and bad are pressed at his command to do what he pleaseth And should God make use of none of these Instruments yet his own immediate wrath were enough to confound his Enemies as Saul Judas Joseph Naucler Egesippus Atalus King of Pergamus and Aristobulus son of Hircanus who living in horrour of conscience died in fearfull sort which examples serve to shew that his means are as his power is infinite to chastise and scourge the proudest and greatest of his Adversaries And if God arm not the creatures against us yet he can make one man to devour another Such a judgment the Lord threatneth Jer. 13.13 14. viz. to fill the King of Judah the Priests Prophets and all the Inhabitants of the Land with drunkenness and dash them one against another As drunkenness depriveth men of the use of common sense and reason and worketh so upon some tempers as to fill them with rage and fury that like mad men they spare not those that are near and dear unto them Carion Chron. lib. 2. as is evident in Cambyses the second King of Persia notwithstanding he was well brought up and dealt valiantly during the life of his Father Cyrus who committed the Kingdom to him while he lived yet falling to drunkenness he slew his brother married his own sister and slew her afterwards being great with child for but lamenting the death of her brother So Alexander the Great being drunk slew his dearest friend Clitus Wit overcome with wine is like a Horse that hath cast his rider Even so such a spirit of drunkenness and madness did God threaten to give up the people of Jerusalem unto that like drunken men they should destroy and consume one another Yea God can cause sinners themselves to become their own Executioners and to lay violent hands upon themselves And as God hath all the hosts of Heaven and Earth and Sea ready prest at his command to perform his pleasure against his Enemies so likewise to do any good office for his children and friends the jaw-bone of an Ass is both a sword and a bottle to Sampson Judg. 15 15 19 And the Earth helpeth the woman by opening her mouth and swallowing up the floud which the Dragon cast out of his mouth Revel 12.15 16. Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 15. Eusebius tells us That at the same time God sent rain to refresh the Souldiers of M. Aurelius his Army at the prayers of the Christian Legion Comment Relig. Reipubl Galliae and a tempest to affright their Enemies It 's likewise recorded that God provided wonderfully for the poor Protestants of Rochel sending them plenty of Fishes to feed upon during the siege which ceased also when the siege removed Whence was it that Stephen Brune that godly French Martyr could not be consumed with a fire of Faggots twice made about him so that the Executioner was compelled to thrust him thorow with a Sword Was it not from God's over-ruling Providence Cor. 7. If God govern the world by his Providence then it is in his power to deny us the use and benefit of any of his creatures and of any thing that is most dear unto us and can at his pleasure take them from us For the Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof and as the original right and title to all things is the Lord's so he never parteth from the Fee-simple of any thing no he
use of variety of Agents in the world led by divers principles some by the spirit and power of grace some by the flesh and by the spirit of the world and by the Prince of the power of the air some labour to build up the Church of God others like Sanballat and Tobiah do hinder the building and crosse others who seek the welfare of Sion and altogether seek for honour and preferment for themselves Now by these contrary effects of men the Lord bringeth forth contrary events and causeth his Glory to shine thorow all How justly then are they to be reproved that have lived long yet make no special observations of those events that have happened in their dayes Some are so much taken up with vain and foolish delights as pleasant Musick jovial company feasting and carousing that they regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hand Isa 5.12 Whoredome and wine and new wine hath stollen away their hearts Hos 4.11 Others there are whose hearts are wholly taken up with worldly business only minding earthly things It is an argument of a bruitish spirit to neglect observation Wherefore is a price put into the hand of a fool seeing he hath not an heart Prov. 17.16 Gods work is about us and in us at least in a common providence and yet few there are that see it or see God in it It is the part of fools to passe by these things without observation Who so is wise will observe these things Psal 107. ult He that is endued with heavenly wisdom and taught by the Spirit of God will observe them and shall understand the loving kindnesse of God It is admirable to consider God's Providences without the Church among the Enemies thereof The Kings of Assyria had overcome divers Nations therefore Sennacherib sends messengers to Hezekiah to tell him That the gods of the Nations could not deliver them whom his fathers had destroyed as Gozar Haran c. therefore he would have Hezekiah to have believed that he could have done the like to his God also Now the use that he makes of it was not slightly to passe by these things but makes a contrary use of it acknowledging his God to be the living God and able to save him out of his hand and that the gods whom the Assyrians had cast into the fire were no gods but the work of mens hands therefore they had destroyed them Now the issue was dreadfull to the Assyrians Isa 37.11 12 18 19 36 37 38. An Angel of the Lord in one night slayeth an hundred fourscore and five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians and Sennacherib himself was afterwards slain by two of his own sons as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god So likewise it is very observable concerning the Turks the vassals of that base and grand Impostor Mahamet who are great enemies of the Church that the Lord hath so ordered it by his Providence that they have not sent such huge armies against the Christian Church for many yeares past as they did heretofore Within the Church Christ bids us discern the signes of the times Mar. 16.2 and makes it a note of hypocrisie to be able to discerne the face of the skie and of the earth and not to discern the signes of the times as he sad to the Pharisees which then were admirable the Scepter being then departed from Judah and one of Esau's race enjoying it John Baptist the promised Elijah the forerunner of Christ being now come before the face of the Messiah as a messenger to prepare his way before him Great Miracles wrought by our Saviour the blind receiving their sight the lame walking the Lepers cleansed the deaf hearing the dead raised and the poor having the Gospel preached unto them all which shewed him to be that Messiah that was to come and not another So in Luther's time there was an admirable change What warrant have the Papists for their Jubilees but the Popes knocking at Rome-Gates with his golden hammer promising pardon to whomsoever shall enter in at them that year bringeth much Gold to St Peter's chair and the Pope's coffer keeping their Kitchen smokeing Jubilees were of use before Christs coming but ever since out of date clear light shining out of thick darknesse the year of Jubilee proclaimed the acceptable year of our Lord the year of release from Babilonish thraldom and Popish superstition free justification by the blood of Christ preached An Angel cometh down from heaven having great power and the earth was lightned with his glory and he crieth out mightily with a strong voice saying Babylon the great is fallen c. Rev. 18.1 2. and vers 4. Another voice from Heaven saith Come out of her my people that ye be not pertakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues And is it not vrey needfull for us to observe the Signs of these our times how many Nations professing the truth of the Gospell with us have of late endured many hard and sore trials God hath destroyed the strength of many Kingdomes overthrowing the Charets and those that rode in them the Horses and their riders have come down Hag. 2.21 22. every one by the Sword of his Brother God hath even shaken the Heavens over us and the earth under us for the great formality and lukewarmnesse intemperance earthlymindednesse of the Nations and for the great opposition of the Kingdom of Christ the beauty of holynesse and the truth of God clearly revealed in the Gospell Furthermore It is very observable how that many men in all ages have been taken away by suddain judgements and that divers waies Herod on a suddain cometh upon the Galileans and killeth them as they were Sacrificing mingling their Blood with their Sacrifices Luk. 13.1 upon eighteen others a Tower falls suddainly and killeth them as the house upon Job's Children Thus some men have been taken away in their drunkennesse and in their riotous meetings some fall from scaffolds some be slain with timber some killed with the overthrow of earth some drowned some with falls from Horses some with Tiles or Stones falling from Houses Mayer Exposit in Jam. Paenitentia est animi medicina Lactant. Secunda Tabula post naufragium Hieron as that worthy Roman Captain riding through the streets of Rome in Triumph after a famous victory was killed by a Tile of a House falling on his head Now the use and end of God's judgments upon some is to work amendment and repentance upon all Repentance as Lactantius calls it is the Physick of the soul which all that be sin sick as all Adam's brood be must take before they can be recovered and all that will not be drowned in the Sea of Sinne must of necessity swim out upon the plank of repentance CHAP. XXXV Instruction second Instruct 2 AS we must observe So likewise we must be carefull to remember and not forget