sapientia dum reluctatur comprehenditur Greg. God so ordered it by his providence that what his Brethren sought to decline they were constrained to promote even by their resisting of it Joseph was therefore sold by his Brethren that they might not adore him and yet he was therefore worshipped because he was sold and they forced to render him duties as to their Soveraign not knowing him that was now over their heads and whom they would have troden under their feet Joseph takes not up the government of Aegypt untill he hath been used like a Beast and sold as a slave even by those who must one day be his captives and vassals and he must go out of a Dungeon to the Court and of a Shepherd become Viceroy of Aegypt Even so the divine counsell is accomplished in being opposed so humane policy is defeated while men seek to promote it 3. In preserving Moses from drowning contrary to the Kings cruell Commandment His Mother having hid him three moneths and being no longer able to conceal him she deviseth for him a little Ark made of Reeds and dawbed it with slime and pitch putting the Child in it and setting it among the Bullrushes by the River side appointing her Daughter the Childs Sister to watch the same committing the Child to the providence of God whom she could not preserve from a bloody Tyrant depending upon God for the safety of her Child The Child thus placed by the Bank of Nilus while the prudent Mother looks with horrour on the Tomb of her Son and her eldest Daughter standeth as a Sentinell to see what would become of her little Brother Babingt Notes in Exod. 2. Gods providence so ordered it that this cruell Pharaohs Daughter called of some Thermutis cometh down that way to wash her self in the River who descending on the Bank of the River perceived the Cradle wherein little Moses was at the same time an happy curiosity incited her to send one of her Maids to see what it was who brought to her Lady the little Vessell in which was inclosed the honour and prosperity of the people of Israel the poor Babe weeping upon her begged by tears as well as it could some pity against the cruell Edict of her bloody Father The Sister of this found Infant who looked for nothing less than such an encounter asked if she should fetch a Nurse for him among the Hebrew women the Child utterly refusing as Stories say to suck an Aegyptian woman then present she willingly consenteth the Maid instantly brings the Mother of the Child to whom Pharaohs Daughter gave the charge of nursing up this Infant in Pharaohs Court he afterward continueth being called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter as Stephen witnesseth till he was forty years old Act. 7.23 at which time God put it into his heart to leave the Kings Court that so he might become a leader and Captain to the people of God that he was appointed by God to deliver the people of Israel out of their miserable servitude he knew not till God revealed it which seemeth to be at the age before-mentioned One might think that Moses had been in the most likely capacity of delivering his Brethren when he was stiled the Son of Pharaohs Daughter and was as Philo the Jew noteth adopted as the next heir of the Crown Philo Judaeus in vit Mos and after his adoption could expect nothing but a Crown and Scepter yet here behold a stratagem of divine providence Moses must depart out of Aegypt and leave the Court of Pharaoh having no other but poverty and miseries for his companions he must become a fugitive in the Land of Midian where he exerciseth the imployment of a Shepherd for forty years together then God delivereth his people by the hands of Moses a poor Shepherd when Moses the great favourite in Pharaohs Court could not do it In a word all the promises and prophesies concerning Christs conception birth life death were all in due time accomplished both for matter and manner substance and circumstance as also the threatnings of Christ against the Jews the destruction of their City and Temple which plainly prove the Providence of God CHAP. IV. Argum. 3. Argum. 4. Argum. 3 THis appeareth likewise by the orderly government of all things in the world viz. Families and private Houses Towns and Incorporations Cities Countries Kingdomes and Commonwealths wherein some govern and others are governed A Kingdome or Commonwealth is a lawfull government of many Families and of those things which unto them in common belongeth with a puissant Soveraignty so is a Family the right government of many persons and of such things as are unto them proper under the rule and command of one and the same Head of the Family Bodin de Repub l. 1. c. 2. as a famous Lawyer and States-man hath well noted Now this could not be without a divine Providence so ordering and disposing matters over-ruling mens minds setting and keeping some in Authority to rule and others in awe and subjection to be ruled This some of the Heathen by the Moon-light of nature have been able to discern and confess that Commonwealths were governed much more by a divine hand and assistance Deorum ope auxilio multo magìs quam hominum ope consilio Respublicae gubernantur Cicero pro Rabirio than by the endeavours labours and counsels of men therefore even some of them held that man an Atheist that should deny Providence as well as deny a Deity Now this is a most certain truth for in all States there be some loose lewd fellows that had rather all to go at six and sevens as they say viz. in a confused course and disorderly fashion than submit themselves to live in a well-setled and established Government and yet even these the Providence of God so represseth as that either for shame or fear or some other thing they ordinarily break not out to be extraordinarily and notoriously outragious In a word it is he that preserveth Rulers and Governours and putteth it into their heads and hearts to make good Laws and take order that they may be kept being made as he tells us Prov. 8.15 By me Kings raign and Princes decree justice God sets his eternall Law before their eyes as being of principall force and moment to breed in religious minds a high estimation thereof and there can be no doubt as a learned man hath observed but that Laws apparently good Hooker Ecclesiast polit l. 1. are as it were things copied out of the very tables of that high everlasting Law not as if men did behold that Book and accordingly frame their Laws but because it worketh in them discovering and as it were reading it self to the world by them when the Laws which they make are just and righteous Furthermore the Providence of God is evident by the long continuance of this or that very form of Government through many ages as of a
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