in things which they command contrary to Gods commandements Yea they must remember that they are Gods creatures and handi-worke and ought to employ all their power and authority to the honour of God If otherwise they abuse the talents which God hath lent them let them know that God will one day call them to a reckoning and give them the reward of evill unfaithfull and unprofitable servants even eternall destruction and torment in Hell where shall be howling and wayling and gnashing of teeth Secondly this serves to shew that whosoever offers wrong and injury to any of mankind by cutting mangling or any way defacing their 〈…〉 age and deforming their bodies by afflicting or some way corrupting their soules or by taking away their lives and naturall being without speciall warrant and cōmmandement from God they are notoriously injurious to God himselfe they scorne despise mis-use and deface Gods Workmanship they provoke God to wrath and jealousie and hee surely will bee avenged on such doings And here wee have matter as of dread and terrour to all cruell Tyrants and unmercifull men so of hope and comfort to all who suffer injury and wrong at their hands As the first sort have just cause to feare and tremble so often as they thinke on God the avenger of such wrong so the other have cause to hope that God will not wholy forsake them being the worke of his owne hands nor leave them to the will and lust of the wicked his enemies but will in his good time save them and send them deliverance Thirdly this discovers the abomination and filthinesse of all Idolaters who being the workmanship of God the Lord and wise creator of all things doe most basely bow downe to images and altars and debase themselves to worship humane inventions and the worke of mens hands which are dumbe Idols of wood and stone and lying vanities It is just with God to cast out and expose all such people to ignominy shame and confusion in this world and in the world to come into that place of darknesse where the Divell and all such as forsake God and rebell against the light which from the creation shines to them shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the face and presence of God and from the glory of his power Secondly in that God is here said to forme man of the dust of the ground not of clay well tempered and wrought but of dust which of it selfe is most unfit to be compacted and made into a stedfast shape and which is counted so base and so light that every blast of wind drives it away and in Scripture the basest things are resembled to it Hence wee may learne two things First that God in the creation even of mans body shewed his infinite power and wisedome in bringing dust of the earth which is the basest thing of all into the forme and shape of mans body which is the most excellent of all visible bodies and a fit house and temple not onely of a reasonable living soule but also of Gods holy spirit as other Scriptures plainly affirme This point appeares so plainly in the Text that I need not spend time in further confirmation of it the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formed here first used implies an excellent forme and the upright face of man Here therefore I will adde for illustration sake the words of David which are very pertinent to this purpose Psal. 139. 14 15 16. where speaking of Gods forming and fashioning him in the wombe of the living substance even the seed blood and flesh of his parents saith he I will prayse thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made Marvelous are thy workes and that my soule knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy booke were all my members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Here we see with what feare admiration and astonishment David considers mans frame and the curious workmanship of his body when God forms it in the mothers womb by lively instruments and of a lively matter and substance How much more may we conclude that Gods creating of Adams body which was the most curious naturall body that ever was made is most admirable and deserves more reverence feare and astonishment at our hands being made without instruments out of the basest matter and substance even dust of the earth Surely in this God shewed wisedome and power beyond all admiration The Vse of this doctrine is to stirre us up so often as we thinke of our creation in Adam to laud and praise Gods wisedome and power to feare and reverence God and to admire his curious workmanship And although the matter of which God framed mans body was the basest of all even dust of the ground yet let us not thinke ever a whit more meanly of our creation but so much more admire Gods workmanship in our bodies For to make a curious worke in gold silver or of some beautifull precious and plyable mettall is not rare nor so excellent but to frame of the basest matter the dust of the ground the chiefest worke and even the Master-piece of all works in the visible world that is the body of Adam in the state of innocency this is worthy of all admiration and is a just motive and provocation to stirre us up to praise and to extoll with admiration the wisedome and power of God especially if wee consider the most excellent forme of mans body and upright stature together with the head comely face hands and other members every way fitted and composed to bee instruments of a reasonable soule and to rule and keepe in order and subjection all living creatures Secondly in that the dust of the ground the basest part of the earth is the matter out of which mans body the beautifull Palace and Temple of his Soul was formed in the excellent state of innocency Hence wee learne that man is by nature and in his best naturall being given to him in the creation but a dusty earthy substance in respect of his body and in respect of his Soul an inhabitant of an house of clay the foundation whereof is in the dust But some perhaps will object against the collection of this Doctrine from the base and fraile matter of which mans body was formed and will thus argue That the state and condition of creatures is not to bee esteemed by the matter of which they were made but by the forme and being which God gave to them as for example the Angels together with the highest heaven were created immediatly of nothing as well as the rude unformed masse which is called earth and yet they are most glorious spirits and the rude masse is not to bee compared to them Yea man was created
according to his inferiour part the body of dust which is a created substance better then nothing of which the Angels were made and yet the Angels in nature far excell man Therefore mans creation of dust doth not prove him to bee so fraile a creature seeing God gave him such an excellent forme To this I answer that to bee created immediatly of nothing is in it selfe a more excellent worke and shewes greater power then to bee made of a meane inferiour matter For when things are said to bee created of nothing the meaning is not that they are made of nothing as of a matter but that they are made of no matter at all but have their whole being from God and his infinite power and so may bee if God will most excellent But when man is said to be formed of dust the meaning is that dust is a part of his substance even the matter of which hee consists and that his body according to the matter is a dusty earthy substance and his Soul though a spirituall substance created of nothing yet dwelling in that body is an inhabitant of an earthly Tabernacle and house of clay founded in the dust Secondly though the frame of mans body is in it selfe most excellent and surpasseth all bodily formes and his Soul is a spirituall substance endowed with reason yet all these were of mutable excellency in the best naturall estate of innocency and could not continue in that excellency but by dependance upon God and cleaving fast to him and by his hand and power sustaining them continually which by promise hee was not bound to doe in that estate And therefore wee may truly gather from the matter of which God formed mans body that hee was in his best naturall being in respect of his body but a dusty substance such as might returne to dust by falling off from God by sin and disobedience yea undoubtedly as God in framing man his chiefest visible creature of dust intended to shew his wisedome and power and to glorifie his goodnesse so also hee teacheth man thereby his owne naturall frailty and mutability how unable hee is of himselfe to abide in honour and excellency And this hee shewes most plainely Gen. 3. 19. where hee saith to man alluding to his creation Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Wee have also an excellent argument to this purpose Iob 14. 18 19. and 15. 15. where the Lord is said to charge his Angels with folly and to lay no trust in his servants and the heavens are not cleare in his sight how much lesse can hee find steadfastnesse in men who dwell in houses of clay which have their foundation in the dust that is seeing the heavenly spirits are not immutably pure in Gods sight but some of the Angels hath God charged with folly to wit such as did fall and to the rest hee hath added supernaturall light of his Spirit and so hath made them Saints immutably holy much lesse is man immutably pure and steadfast by nature whose better part the Soul is by creation made to dwell in an house of clay a body made of dust To this purpose serve those Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles which compare man in his first creation to clay in the hand of the potter Ier. 18. 9. Rom. 9. 21 which affirme that the first Adam was of the Earth earthy 1 Cor. 15 47. that is in his first creation hee was of an earthy and dusty substance First this serves by discovering unto man his frailty and mutability in his best naturall being to humble every man in his owne eyes and to make him lowly and to withdraw his heart from pride and all high conceipts of any worth in himselfe and to teach us all to ascribe all the unchangable purity which wee finde in ourselves and all our steadfastnesse to the free grace of God in Christ and not to any power of our owne free will or to the excellency of our naturall frame and being If man in his first creation and best naturall being was but of earth and dust an earthy and dusty creature and before that death entered into the World while hee had yet power of free will to obey God and to depend on him was mutable and might fall into sin and disobedience and by sin might bring and did bring death upon himselfe and all his posterity how much more now in the state of nature corrupted is every Son of man a very masse of corruption and frailty yea vanity and abominable filthinesse who drinketh iniquity like water as it is written Iob 15. 16. Wherefore Let no man glory in any naturall power or prerogative nor hope to stand by his owne strength much lesse to merit or purchase by any works of nature or power of free will the least grace supernaturall which tends to bring him to heavenly happinesse and glory unchangeable For man as hee is flesh and blood that is an earthly creature cannot possibly come to inherite the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. Secondly this discovers the madnesse and desperate blindnesse of Pelagians and Papists who teach that a man by the right use of his naturall power and free-will may procure spirituall grace from God and even the Spirit of regeneration and faith working by love by which hee may merit and purchase to himselfe eternall life and heavenly glory and felicity as a just and condigne reward of his works If Angels cannot bee made steadfast and trusty without supernaturall light added to them much lesse can earthy man who by sin is become filthy and abominable worke out his owne salvation by meriting and purchasing the heavenly reward Oh let us all hate and abhorre all such conceipts which wholly tend to the frustrating and evacuating of Christs merits and satisfaction and to make them seeme vaine and needlesse Be not deceived God is not mocked they who sow such tares and feed like swine on the huskes of their owne works and on things which nature teacheth they are enemies to the grace of God which is given onely in Iesus Christ and together with him by communion of his Spirit After the creation of mans Body of dust immediatly followes the creation of his Soule which is to bee understood in these words And breathed into his nosthrils the breath of life and man was a living Soule For no sooner was mans body brought into frame but God breathed into him the breath of life that is caused him to breathe with the breath of life even those vitall spirits which are the band of union by which the Soule is united to the body and in the first instant wherein he created the vitall spirits he also created the spiritual substance of his Soule in his body immediatly of nothing by his omnipotent hand Some are opinion that mans Soule was first created a Spirit subsisting by it selfe before his body was formed and when the body was formed a
fit subject for it then instantly God infused it into the body and by it did give life and breath to the body Some thinke that the body was formed and the Soule in the same instant created together with it as Damascene lib. 2. de fide cap. 12. Aquinas and others And Cyrill thinks that Gods breathing into mans face the breath of life was the infusion of the holy Ghost into man and that man in the creation had the holy Spirit given to dwell in him and was sanctified and endowed with supernaturall grace and holinesse Some thinke that Gods breathing into mans nosthrils was his inspiring into man a reasonable Soule as a part of himselfe so Rabby Moses Maymonides But by breathing into mans face I doe not understand any materiall breathing or blast but that God in causing breath of life to breathe through mans nosthrils did withall create the Soule in the body and by meanes of this reasonable Soule created in the body and united to the body by vitall spirits and breath man became a living Soule that is a living reasonable creature living onely a perfect naturall not an holy spirituall life The Apostle expounds these words in this Sense 1 Cor. 15. and doth make this a maine difference betweene the first man Adam and Christ the second Adam that the first Adam was onely a naturall Man endowed with a naturall living Soule but to be a quickning Spirit that is to bee sanctified by the holy Ghost and endowed with spirituall life is proper to Christ in his creation for in him the Spirit dwelt from his first conception Hence wee learne That the image of God in which mans was created was onely naturall and did consist in naturall gifts which naturally flow from his reasonable Soule and not in any supernaturall gifts of the holy Ghost as true holinesse and the like The words of Saint Paul last before named doe fully prove this I will here onely adde one strong Reason and invincible argument to prove it fully And that is drawne from the mutability of man in the creation and from his fall by which Gods image was defaced in him For it is most certaine that hee who hath in him that image of God which consists in true holinesse and in spirituall and supernaturall gifts hee is not mutable nor subject to fall away because hee hath the holy Ghost dwelling in him who is greater then he that dwels in the World 1 Ioh. 4. that is then the Divell who worketh powerfully in the children of disobedience For all true holinesse and all spirituall graces are the proper worke of the holy Ghost dwelling in man as all the Scriptures testifie But Adam in innocency and honour lodged not therein one night Psalme 49. 12. The Divell at the first onset gave him the foile in his greatest strength of nature and best estate which Divell with all his temptations and all the powers of darknesse and spirituall wickednesses the little ones of Christs flocke doe overcome by the power of the holy Ghost and his graces which they have in their fraile earthen vessels Therefore the image of God in which man was created was naturall onely This discovers Gods goodnesse free grace and bounty beyond all measure and all conceipt and comprehension of humane reason in that it shewes how God by mans fall malice and corruption which made him a slave of Hell and Death did take occasion to bee more kind and bountifull to man and to shew more love and goodnesse to him by repairing the ruines of his fall and renuing him after a better image then that which hee gave him in the creation and making him better after his sin and fall then hee was before in the state of innocency when hee had of himselfe no inclination to any sin or evill and bringing him to grace spirituall in Christ and to an image which cannot bee defaced and to a state firme and unchangable when wee rightly consider these things wee have no cause to murmur at Gods voluntary suffering of man to fall from his estate which was perfect and pure naturall but rather to rejoyce in God and to blesse his name and to magnifie his goodnesse for turning his fall to our higher rising and exaltation and lifting us up by Christ from hell and misery to heavenly glory which never fadeth and to a state spirituall and supernaturall not subject to change and alteration Secondly this Doctrine overthrowes the foundation and false ground upon which Papists and Pelagians doe build and seeke to establish their false and erroneous opinion concerning the apostasie of the Saints regenerate and their falling from supernaturall grace and Iosing the Spirit of regeneration which errour they seeke to establish by this argument Because Adam in innocency had the holy Ghost shed on him and was endued with spirituall and supernaturall gifts of holinesse from which hee did fall by sin and transgression But here wee see there is no such matter Adams image was onely naturall uprightnesse not spirituall supernaturall and true holinesse Hee was but a perfect naturall Man and a living Soule Christ the second Adam onely is called the quickning Spirit because through him onely God sheds the holy Ghost on men and hence it is that though Adam did fall away from his estate which was onely naturall yet the Saints regenerate and called to the state of grace in Christ can never fall away totally nor finally into apostacy because they have the seed of God even the holy Ghost dwelling and abiding in them CHAP. XIII Of the womans creation in particular How without her all was not good Woman not made to be a servant Of giving names to the creatures No creature but woman a meet companion for man Vses Of the rib whereof woman was made Of Adams deepe sleepe Five Points thence collected Of Gods bringing Eve to Adam and two Points thence Of Adams accepting Eve for his wife and calling her bone c. w 〈…〉 h divers points thence Of their nakednesse demonstrating the perfection of the creation GEn. 2. 18 19 20 21. And the Lord said It is not good that the man should be alone I will make an helpe meet for him And every beast and every fowle God brought to Adam to see what hee would call them c. And Adam gave names to them all but for Adam there was not found an helpe meet for him And the Lord God caused a deepe sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he tooke one of his ribs and made it a Woman and brought her to the Man c. These words and the rest which follow in this Chapter containe a particular description of the creation of the Woman which before was touched generally and summarily Chap. 1. 27. in these words Male and female created hee them In this History of the Womans creation wee may observe three speciall things First the preparation to it or the antecedents
matter first made and of a forme thereto added afterwards and therefore have a proper existence and being every one in himselfe which cannot be dissolved but in respect of second causes remaines immortall so that this definition and every branch thereof flowes from the former Doctrine as a naturall Corollary or necessary Conclusion And it doth excellently set forth the nature and naturall being and properties of Angels by which they are distinguished from all other things First in that they are called spirits or pure spirituall substances this shewes their nature and being wherein they resemble God and beare his image who is the one onely true Jehovah who hath his essence and being in and of himselfe and gives essence and being to all things and by whom all things subsist as that name Jehovah signifies which he assumes as proper to himselfe Exod. 3. 14 15. and Isa. 42. 8. and who is a spirit as our Saviour restifieth John 4. 24. And by this name spirits they are distinguished from all bodily creatures Secondly in that they are called pure intire spirituall substances and perfect creatures which have every one a proper existence and particular being hereby they are distinguished from the spirits that is the soules of men which are not intire complete and perfect creatures of themselves by creation but are made to be and to subsist in an humane body and together with the body to make up a perfect man Hereby also they are distinguished from the breath of life and the vitall and animall spirits which are in living bodies of men and other living creatures for they are not pure perfect intire creatures which subsist by themselves but fraile vanishing parts of creatures which continually increase and decrease fade and perish Thirdly in that they are called heavenly spirits hereby they are distinguished not onely from the spirits created here below on earth in this inferiour world even soules of men and all bodily spirits but also from God who is a spirit but not contained in any place no not in the Heaven of heavens but is essentially present in all places as well in earth as in heaven as the Scriptures testifie 1 Kin. 8. 27. and Psal. 139. 8. Fourthly in that they are said to be created in the beginning by God hereby they are distinguished from the absolute essence of God and from every one of the three persons in one God for they are not created but are absolutely eternall without beginning of being Fifthly in that they are said to be created in the image and similitude of God this shewes the excellent naturall properties of Angels that they are living spirituall and immortall creatures indued with knowledge wisdome understanding liberty of will power strength and activity to doe and performe great things wisely justly and freely and so to resemble God in his glorious attributes and workes Sixthly in that they are said to be distinguished one from another by a proper and particular subsistence and being which every one hath by himselfe this shewes that Angels are not one common spirit breathed into the highest heavens and every one a part of that one spirit but they are every one a whole substance or person by himselfe as Augustine saith Enchirid. 18. Lastly in that every one is said to have a proper existence and particular being which God hath given him to have in himselfe by which he differs from the rest this necessarily implies that Angels are finite and limited both in their substance and number and are mutable not infinite and unchangeable as God is This is the definition which in the severall parts and branches thereof doth fully set forth the nature and naturall properties of Angels I proceed to the confirmation of the severall parts in order First that Angels are spirits or spirituall substances the holy Scriptures affirme most clearly Psal. 104. 4. and Heb. 1. 7. where it is said that he maketh his Angels spirits And Hebr. 1. 14. where they are called ministring spirits And lest any should thinke or imagine that Angels are not spirits by nature and creation but by grace and communion of the Holy Ghost which is given to the elect Angels in and by Christ and by which they become holy and are settled in the immutable state of eternall blessednesse we have most cleare testimonies in those Scriptures which call not onely the good and elect Angels spirits as Act. 23. 9. and the places before cited but also the evill Angels of Satan even the Divell himselfe and his Angels which in respect of their substance which they still retaine though they have lost their goodnesse and uprightnesse are still called spirits as Levit. 20. 27. 1 Sam. 16. 1 Kin. 22. Matth. 8. 16. Act. 5. 16. Ephes. 2. 2. where the Divell speaking in false Prophets and his spirit of fury in Saul and of lying in Ahabs Prophets and his evill Angels possessing divers persons and cast out by Christ and his Apostles are called evill and unclean spirits Secondly that Angels are entire and complete spirituall substances and perfect creatures which have every one a proper existence and being in himselfe the holy Scriptures prove most clearly by divers reasons First by naming some of them by proper and distinct names as the Angell which was sent to Daniel Dan. 8. 16. and to salute the Virgin Mary Luke 1. is called Gabriel Secondly by giving them such titles and ascribing and assigning to them such offices as belong to none but complete substances and persons which have a proper and personall existence as for example they are called the sons of God Job 1. 6. and 38. 7. They are called Gods messengers and ministers as appeares by their Hebrew and Greek names and by Scriptures Matth. 4. 11. and Heb. 1. 14. They have the office of watchers and guardians which have charge given over the elect and encamp about the righteous to guard and defend them and observe and behold the face of God ready to be at his beck for the defence of his little ones as appeares Num. 22. 22. Psal. 34. 7. and 91. 10. Dan. 4. 13. and Matth. 18. 20. Thirdly the Scriptures doe plainly shew that Angels doe willingly and readily and by themselves performe perfect and complete actions and workes which none can doe but perfect creatures which have a proper subsistence by themselves as for example that in the first creation as soon as they were created they did sing together and lift up their voice Job 38. 7. that they praise God hearken to the voice of his word and keep his commandements Psal. 103. 20. and 149. 2. that they have appeared and spoken to men as to Gideon Judg. 6. to the father of Sampson Judg. 12. and to Eliah 1 Kin. 19. that they have comforted Christ in his agony Luke 22. rolled the stone from his sepulchre Matth. 28. opened the prison doores and set the Apostles at liberty Act. 5. and 12. and
have smitten and destroyed thousands of men in a night as 2 Kin. 19. and rejoyce over sinners which repent Fourthly the Scriptures reckon up Angels not among those inspirations motions or affections which proceed from Gods Spirit or any other person or substance but among perfect creatures and spirituall substances which live and move and subsist by themselves and not in another substance and so the Spirit of God speakes of them Psal. 149. 5. and in all the places where they are said to come from heaven to earth and to be sent from God unto men The third point in the definition is That Angels are heavenly spirits that is neither made of any bodily substance nor compounded of any elements or creatures of the visible world but of a pure and heavenly nature made to dwell in the highest heaven as in their proper and naturall place of habitation and there have their continuall residence This is manifestly proved by the former Doctrine and also by those Scriptures which testifie that they alwaies and continually in heaven behold the face of God as Matth. 18. 10. and that they are the heavenly host Luke 2. 13. and Spirits of heaven Zach. 6. 5. And there they encamping are in a moment as ready to defend the righteous and to guard the Church militant on earth and avenge all wrongs done to Gods little ones as if they were here present on earth for in the twinckling of an eye they can descend from heaven to earth and deliver the godly and stay the hand of their enemies and smite them with death as we see by the army of Angels coming from heaven and guarding Elisha so soon as he called upon God 2 Kin. 6. and by the Angell of God which at the praier of Hezekiah destroyed all the army of the Assyrians in one night and at our Saviours praier in his agony appearing presently from heaven and comforting him In a word our Saviour affirmes that spirits have not flesh and bones Luke 24. 39. They cannot be seen with bodily eies nor felt by bodily hands as corporall things may be Therefore Angels being spirits are not corporall nor compounded of bodily elements but are pure and invisible as the Apostle cals them Colos. 1. 16. The fourth point to wit That Angels were created by God in the beginning and God hath given to them their being is aboundantly proved in divers Doctrines before I need not say any more of it The fifth point is That Angels were created in the image of God and doe in many respects resemble God more then any other creatures First in their very substance and naturall being for as God is a spirit so they are spirits yea pure spirits and in that respect resemble God more then any other creatures Secondly as God is absolutely pure and simple so they are more pure and simple then any other creatures and have no corporall or visible substance in them Thirdly as God is the living God and even life it selfe and as he is infinite in wisdome knowledge goodnesse and power and doth all things freely of himselfe according to the good pleasure of his owne will also is in and of himselfe most glorious and blessed for ever and with him is no variablenesse or shadow of turning so Angels are most quick active and lively spirits the most excellent of all Gods creatures in wisdome knowledge and liberty of will and in all goodnesse and good will towards men they are also great in power and excell in strength Psal. 103. 20. and are called the blessed and glorious Angels of light heaven the place of blisse is their habitation And as they are incorporeall spirits which cannot be dissolved and die as men doe when their soules are separated from their bodies and the whole person is dissolved so and in that respect they are immortall do more resemble God who only hath immortality then any other creatures doe by nature All these things to wit the lively strength activity knowledge wisdome free-will glory power and blessed estate of Angels wherein they were created the Scriptures doe most clearly testifie and declare where they affirme that the Angels doe see Gods face who is all in all and that they look into all the mysteries know the manifold wisdome of God concerning the salvation of the Church 1 Pet. 1. 12. and Ephes. 3. 10. and have great joy in heaven over sinners which repent and doe relate great and mighty workes done by Angels most readily and speedily without delay The sixth point is That Angels are distinct and different among themselves and one from another by a proper and particular existence and being this I have fully proved in the second branch The last is That Angels are finite in their nature and number and have their bounds and limits and also are by nature mutable such as might fall from the first estate wherein they were created That Angels are in nature finite and cannot be in divers places or in all places at once is most plaine both by this that they are said to be Gods heavenly host and Angels in heaven that is who are confined to heaven for the proper place of their dwelling and when they are here on earth are said to be descended from heaven Matth. 28. 2. and to be here and not there That though they are many and more then man can number and in that respect are called innumerable yet that their number is limited and that God knowes the number of them cals them by their names and brings them out by number the Prophet testifieth Isa. 40. 26. That Angels are mutable by nature subject to fall from the state wherein they were created the Scriptures doe testifie where they make this Gods property that hee onely changeth not Malach. 3. 6. And with him is no variablenesse Iam. 1. 17. And where it is testified that God hath charged the Angels with folly Iob 4 18. And many of the Angels did not keep their first estate but left their habitation and by sinning did fall from Heaven and are cast downe to Hell and delivered into chaines of darknesse 2 Pet. 2. 4. and Iude 6. And that onely the elect Angels are made holy and immutably blessed by the light which God hath added to them Iob 4. 18. Thus much for the definition of Angels 3. Corollary The third Corollary is That the bodily shapes of men and other creatures in which Angels have appeared were no parts of their nature and substance neither were essentially united unto them but were onely assumed for the present time and occasion that thereby they might make fraile men see more evidently and acknowledge their presence and their actions For the heaven of heavens is not the place of grosse earthly bodies and therefore Angels being naturall inhabitants of heaven have no such bodies personally united they onely did for a time assume the bodies in which they appeared and performed some
there is no helpe in them Psalme 146. 3. and that of the Prophet Ieremie Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme Ier. 17. 5. Secondly though there happen many changes and great confusion in the World yet let us here take notice that they come not by chance and allwayes acknowledge that they are in the will and power of God and are ordered and disposed by his over-ruling wisedome If to the wicked enemies and persecutors of Gods Church changes come for worse to their confusion and overturning of their power let us see Gods hand therein and let us give him the praise for working our deliverance and avenging our cause on our enemies If changes come to our selves and our peace bee turned into trouble and danger let us humble our selves as under Gods hand If our adversity bee turned into prosperity let God have all the thankes If wee see just cause to feare great changes in Church or State let us flie to God for helpe strength courage and patience and betake our selves to his protection that wee may rest safely under the shadowes of his wings The third point of doctrine which wee may observe from the Spirit of God moving upon the waters cherishing and fitting the unformed masse to receive a perfect being and perfect formes of visible creatures doth shew the concord and perfect similitude which is between the worke of creation by which God formed all things by his word and Spirit and the worke of restauration and redemption of mankind by which he reformes them by Christ and by his Spirit and brings them to supernaturall perfection and blessednesse As in the creation God by his Spirit cherishing the rude masse did prepare and fit every part thereof to receive a perfect forme and naturall being so in the restoring of man kind being deprived of his image and deformed God doth by his Word and by his Spirit shed on us through Christ regenerate renue reforme and prepare us for the fruition of himselfe and doth fit and prepare us for supernaturall perfection and blessednesse As in Ezechiels vision the wind from God did move and shake the drie bones scattered upon the face of the earth and fitted them by flesh and skinne to receive life and to stand up living men in perfect strength and stature So by the word and Spirit of God men dead and rotten in sinnes and sinfull corruption are by the Spirit of God breathed through Christ renued after his image and fitted by the life of grace for the eternall life of glory Ezech. 37. The Spirit of God as our Saviour testifieth is like the wind which bloweth where it listeth it is hee which doth frame us after Gods image in our new birth Ioh. 3. 5 8. and fits us for the Kingdome of glory Wee are as farre from God and from Christ and as void of his image and of all Spirituall life as the rude masse was of all forme in the first creation untill the Spirit of God bee given to us in Christ to dwell in us and renue us as the Apostle sheweth Rom. 8. 9. 13. Ephes. 2. 18. 22. and Tit. 3. 5. 6. Wherefore as wee desire to be made like unto Christ in the image of glory and to see and enjoy God in his heavenly Kingdom where all fulnesse of perfection and blessednesse is to bee found So let us by the consideration of this Doctrine bee stirred up to thirst after the river of the water of life even the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost and never rest satisfied till wee feele within us the testimony of the Spirit of Christ witnessing with our Spirits that wee are the children of God and till wee feele our selves sanctified throughout both in soule and body and holinesse engraven upon our hearts without which none can see God Secondly seeing the Spirit of God is he who prepares men for supernaturall perfection and there is no communion to be had with Christ nor participation of his merits and saving benefits to salvation except men have the Spirit of God dwelling in them and of profane and carnall sons of Adam making them holy and spirituall sons of God Let us not count it any shame or reproach to us that profane mockers of these last times doe in mockery and derision call us spirituall men who ascribe all good motions which are in us to the Spirit of God dwelling in us directing us in all our wayes We doe not deny but that all Enthusiasts and other men of fanaticall Spirit doe most profanely and sacrilegiously Father their owne fansies and lustfull motions on the Spirit of God and therein deserve reproach and derision but let men take heed that they doe not by loathing their hypocrisie and arrogancy runne into Atheisme and blasphemous impiety by rejecting and denying the Spirits dwelling in all Gods regenerate children working in them all saving graces and moving them to walke in the holy wayes of God which lead unto supernaturall perfection and eternall blessednesse For most certaine it is that as the first rude matter of the visible World was sustained and cherished by the Spirit of God moving upon the face of it and was not otherwise able to subsist or to bee formed into divers creatures every one made perfect in their kind with naturall perfection so the perfect stabilitie of man in an happie unchangable estate yea the perfection of the visible World made for mans use is the work of the holy Ghost uniting man to to God in Christ and gathering and reconciling all things unto God in him who is the head over all Although man and all creatures as appeares in the last verse of this Chapter were created every one good and perfect in his kind with naturall perfection yet man the chiefe and the Lord of them all having not as yet the holy Ghost shed on him through Christ as all the regenerate and faithfull have was mutable and in that honourable estate of innocency hee did not stand and abide but did full from it very quickly after that the Woman was created and given to him as wee read Chap. 3. yea hee did not lodge one night therein Psalme 49. 12. and by Mans sinfull fall and corruption the whole frame of the visible World was made subject to vanity and groaneth under it as under an intolerable burden and with earnest longing waiteth for deliverance and restitution to an higher estate in the glorious libertie of the sons of God Rom. 8. 19. 20. And although the eternall Word the Son of God had undertaken for man in the eternall counsell of the blessed Trinitie and did step in to mediate for man and in the first promise made upon mans fall was proclaimed to bee the onely and all-sufficient Redeemer and was fully exhibited in the flesh and became a perfect Redeemer in his death and resurrection so that in him is plenteous redemption and matter sufficient to merit more then
man lost by sin even heavenly glory and immortality yet all this profits nothing without the work of the Spirit Christ with all his sufferings and obedience unto death and all his righteousnesse and fullfilling of the law are as a Fountaine sealed up and treasures hid and locked up in darknesse so that none can partake of him or them for redemption and salvation without communion of the holy Ghost which God in our regeneration doth shed on us aboundantly through Christ. This Spirit dwelling in Christ and the faithfull makes them one mysticall body with Christ sons and heires of God makes his satisfaction their ransome for actuall redemption and reconciliation and his righteousnes their righteousnes for justification This Spirit also doth renue them after the image of God and transformes them into the image of Christ in all holinesse that they may bee fit to see and enjoy God and thus hee brings them to the fruition of perfect blessednesse and to the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which never fadeth And Gods blessings are through Christs mediation poured out upon all creatures for their sakes And hereupon it is that all gifts and graces which tend to make men perfect and unchangably blessed are ascribed to the Spirit as wisedome knowledge faith hope love meekenesse patience courage strength prayer and in a word all holinesse and perfection and whensoever God is said to give any of these gifts to men in an effectuall and saving manner and measure hee is said to give them the Spirit of grace wisedome zeale and supplication as appeares Isa. 11. 2. Zach. 12. 10. Yea common illumination and all extraordinary supernaturall gifts which are given to unregenerate reprobates for the revealing of Christ as the gift of prophecie to Balaam and Saul and the change of heart in Saul from cowardly pusillanimity to fortitude and magnanimity the gift of miracles to Iudas also illumination tast of the heavenly gift joy in the holy Word of God given to backsliders Heb. 6. are the worke of the holy Ghost assisting them and inspiring them from without for the Churches good not inwardly dwelling and working in them for their owne salvation Wherefore let us count it no reproach that wee have no hope of being in an happy and blessed estate no assurance that wee are in the way to perfection till wee feele the Spirit of God dwelling and working in us moving our hearts and conforming us to the image of Christ and that wee rejoyce in this and this is our glorying that wee are not carnall but spirituall They who think it enough for the obtaining of perfection and salvation to know beleeve and professe that in Christ there is as sufficient matter of satisfaction for the redeeming of all mankind as there was in the rude masse without forme matter enough for the whole visible World and all creatures therein doe much deceive themselves for many who know and beleeve all this doe perish and none are saved or perfected by Christ but onely they who are by the Spirit dwelling in them united to Christ and regenerated and renued after his image This Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance and witnesseth to us our adoption hee makes us new creatures and a free willing people hee sanctifieth us to bee an holy Temple for himselfe to dwell in purgeth out sinfull corruption mortifieth the deeds of the flesh so that sin cannot reigne in our mortall bodies There is one thing more which I may not passe over here in silence to wit that this text doth prove plainely that the Spirit of God the third person in the Trinity is one and the same God with the Father and the Son of the same uncreated nature and substance the almighty Creatour and Preserver of all things in heaven and in earth visible and invisible To sustaine a rude matter without forme and void and to make it subsist is a worke of power farre above the power of any thing created and to compasse and comprehend the whole matter and masse of the visible World and to assist and cherish by present vertue every part thereof at once is a strong argument and plaine proofe of divine and infinite power and omnipotency proper to Iehovah the one onely true God and all this is here testified of the Spirit of God in these words and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters that is as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Merachepheth and here used in the originall signifieth did sit upon and cherish that mightie masse as an Hen doth sit upon and cherish her egges that they may bee formed into chickens Therefore the Spirit of God is here proved to bee one and the same God with the Father and the Son and the almighty Creatour former and preserver of the whole World and all things therein To which purpose the Scriptures also speake fully in other places where the heavens and the host of them are said to bee made by the Word and Spirit of God as Psalme 33. 6. and that when God sends out his Spirit things are created as Psalme 104. 30. and that God by his Spirit garnished the heavens Iob 26. 13. and that hee is present by his preserving and sustaining power in all places Psalme 139. 7. which places prove the Spirit of God to bee Iehovah the Creatour and Former of all things and the true God in whom wee all live move and have our being This point which I have proved and confirmed by many other strong arguments already in my discourse of the Trinitie as it discovers the desperate malice impudency and Atheisme of the Remonstrants the Disciples of Socinus and Arminius who call into question the Deitie of the holy Ghost and his unitie with the Father and the Son and his right to bee prayed unto and worshipped with Divine worship so it is of singular comfort to the faithfull whose bodies are Temples of the holy Ghost in that it assures them that God is their portion and dwells in them and they are begotten of his seed in regeneration and are partakers of the Divine nature and heaven is their inheritance CHAP. VI. Of the first dayes worke What the light was What it is God said Let there be light How be called the light day and the darkenesse night Of a day naturall and civill That the night was before the day How a day was before the Sunne was Prerogatives of the first day VErs 3 4 5. And God said Let there be light and there was light And God saw the light that it was good And God divided the light from the darknesse And God called the light day and the darknesse hee called night and the evening and the morning were the first day After that darknesse had continued upon the face of the deep and the whole matter of this inferiour World had remained full of darknesse for the space of one night God by his powerfull Word created Light the first
15. In a word common sense and reason teach us that if the Woman be made in the image of the Man and the Man is made in Gods image then Women must needs beare Gods image and likenesse But the truth is God being still the same both in the creation of the Man and of the Woman and creating both by the same wisedome and power hee needed not to take Adam for his paterne whereby to make the Woman but made her in his owne image as hee did man and so in all things like to man the different sexe onely excepted This serves to admonish and stirre up women to bee carefull diligent and industrious so to beare themselves as they that are made after Gods image so to order their lives conversation as they who expect the glory of heaven and must by passing through the state of grace here and by conforming themselves to Christ both in his death by mortification and in his life by sanctification come to the fulnesse of glory in Heaven and bee made conformable and like to Christ in his glorious body and coheires of God with him Secondly it serves to reprove the wicked and profane men of the World whose wickednesse is transcendent and their profanenesse most horrible and impious in that base esteeme which they have of the female sexe and the vile account which they make of woman-kind who thinke and speake of women that they have no soules nor any part in Gods image and are utterly uncapable either of grace in this World or glory in the World to come Like and equall unto which in their profane impiety are common strumpets and whorish women the shame and staine of woman-kind who prostitute themselves to all filthinesse and so live as if they were made onely to serve the lusts of unreasonable men of bruitish lust I proceed to the more speciall things which are more distinctly laid downe concerning the creation of mankind where I will first insist upon the creation of the male and female and the matter of which they were made and of the manner and order in which God formed them Which that wee may distinctly understand wee must looke forward to the 7. Verse of the 2. Chapter where the creation of mankind is more particularly rehearsed in these words and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nosthrils the breath of life and man became a living soule In the Hebrew text the man is here called Adam not as by his proper name but as it is the common name of all mankind for so much the article which is prefixed before it doth shew and therefore as the Greeke so also our English Translators doe translate this word not Adam but Man God formed man of the dust For in the first creation the man comprehended in him all mankind even the Woman who then was a Rib in his side and afterward was taken out and formed into a Woman The matter of which God formed Adam is said to bee the dust of the ground and here he useth another word not used before in the creation of other things that is the word formed for hee doth not say that God made or created but formed man and true it is that whole man was not made of dust but onely the substance of his bodie and therefore it is said that God formed man to wit in respect of his body of the dust of the ground that is hee framed and fashioned it of dust as a potter formes a pot of clay and brought it into that forme and shape which all perfect bodies of mankind doe beare untill this day And this is the first beginning of the being both of the Man and also of the Woman who was created here a Rib at the first in Mans side and afterwards taken out and made into a Woman First in that Iehovah Elohim the Lord God is here said to forme man that is to frame his body of dust and to bring it into the forme and shape which it beares in all mankind Hereby wee are taught that God did neither consult with Angels about mans creation nor assume them or any other creatures into the fellowship of this worke but God himselfe alone who is Iehovah one God in essence and substance and yet Elohim that is more Persons even three Persons in that one undivided essence did forme the very body of man and brought it into that forme and temper that it might bee a fit subject of the soule which is a spirituall substance And this all other Scriptures confirme which attribute the creation of mankind to God alone as Deut. 4. 32. and Isa. 45. 12. with many other places where the creation of man upon earth is ascribed unto God onely and where holy and faithfull men speaking as they were moved by the holy Ghost confesse themselves the worke of Gods hands as Iob 10. 3. and God their maker and former Iob 36. 3. and Malac. 2. 10. and God the potter and themselves his formed worke Isa. 64. 8. This Doctrine well weighed is of excellent use First to make us ascribe all our excellency and all our well being to God that wee may give him the glory of them and that wee may beare our selves before God as before our creatour and may ever remember that whatsoever service wee are able to performe either with our soules or bodies it is wholy due to God and none other but onely in him and by commandement and warrant from his holy and infallible Word Seeing God alone hath created us and given us all our being even the forme and shape of our bodies wee must not thinke it enough to keepe our selves to God and to serve him in spirit onely but wee must serve and worship him with our bodies also and with all parts and members of our bodies Although God many times makes men instruments and meanes to convey health life being and well being to us as naturall Parents to bring us into being and life and to nourish and bring us up and as Kings and Rulers and wise Magistrates to bee Saviours of our bodily lives from death and other dangers and to procure safety peace and well being to us and in this respect and for these causes wee doe owe love honour and service to them in and under God yet in no case may wee in things which tend not to the honour but dishonour of God and are contrary to his Word and Will and offensive to his Majesty obey serve and honour them In such cases let us say as the Apostles did to the high-Priests and Rulers of the Iewes We ought to obey God rather then men and whether it be right and lawfull to obey you more then God judge yee Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29. All Potentates Kings and Rulers because they are men and have no power but from God must not looke that any should serve and obey them rather then God or
a different substance Secondly that it bee formed and made by that whereof it is the image and according to the paterne of it Where any of these two is wanting there can bee no image at all as for example One egge is like another in nature substance and all naturall properties yet that egge is not the image of the other because the one is not made by the other as the paterne of it so wee may say of an apple or a figge and of many other things but the forme of an egge or apple made in chalke or paste or wax is the image of an egge or apple though not so like it as another egge or apple and farre different in nature and substance because it is formed by it as by a paterne And againe though an egge bee formed in the body and of the naturall substance of a bird and sometimes wormes are bred in the bodies of men and beasts and the egge resembles the bird in whitenesse or in variety of other colours and the wormes seeme like mans flesh in whom they are bred both in colour and substance and in life sense and motion yet they cannot bee called images because they are not like in shape nor outward forme nor in any property but onely in some qualities and small resemblance But the picture or statue made after a man and in many things like him though more like another man then him yet it is his image and not the image and picture of another so the figure of a man appearing in a glasse when hee stands before it though it differs in nature and substance and is but a vanishing shadow yet because in outward shape forme and colour it is very like and is expressed in the glasse by him looking in it therefore is his image And the impression of a stamp or seale made in wax or well tempered clay is the image of that stampe or seale though it bee not perfectly like by reason of some small defects in the wax clay or stamping and the impression of another seale engraven with the same figure or letters may bee in all points more like and yet not the image of it because it was not made after it but by another seale engraven with the same figure Now then that wee may plainely see that man was created and how hee was created in the image of God and made after his likenesse and that hee is a true accidentall image of God his Creatour Wee are to observe and take notice of these two things First that God did frame mans nature even his whole soule and body after himselfe with intent that both his substance and naturall properties and endowments might take their patterne from him his Creatour that is in a word God himselfe was the originall and chiefe patterne by which alone man was made and formed Secondly that though divers other creatures had in divers things more resemblance of God then man had as the heavens in large comprehension of the visible World the Sun in glorious brightnesse beauty and Majesty the highest heaven in glory and immutability And all creatures as they have essence and being and were made good and perfect in their kind have some more some fewer impressions and resemblance of God in his essence and attributes yet none can bee called the image of God among all visible creatures but onely man because though God formed all things after his owne will wisedome and goodnesse yet hee made no visible creature living or without life so farre resembling himselfe in his nature and essentiall properties that it might justly or with good reason bee called his image but onely man As man alone of all creatures under heaven was made in the image of God so man alone doth so plainely resemble God is so stamped with the impression of Gods properties and in his whole nature and frame is made so fit a subject for God to dwell in and to bee conformed to God and wherein God may shew his wisedome power goodnesse liberty of will justice mercy and other attributes that hee onely of all visible creatures can truely bee called the image of God Let us now therefore in the next place come to the things wherein this image of God did consist and in respect of which things man is said to bee created in the image of God and to bee the image of God his creatour First it is a most certaine truth that the image of God in which man was created is nothing else but the conformity of man unto God and man is truly called the image of God in respect of all those things wherein hee doth more then any other visible creatures resemble God in his divine essence and properties Now this conformity of man unto God is twofold primary or secondary Primarie conformity is seated in the Soule of man or in man according to his soule the chiefe part of his substance Secondary conformitie is that which is in man according to his bodie and consists in the body and in things which belong to his body Conformitie of Man to God in his Soule is either in the Nature of substance of his Soule or in the naturall Faculties Properties and Endowments of it First conformity to God in the Substance of his Soule is the similitude which mans Soule hath unto the nature and substance of God in that mans Soule is not a Corporeall substance as all visible Creatures are nor a Materiall body created of any former matter but it is a pure Spirit even a spirituall incorporeall invisible and living substance and so it is called 1 Cor. 2 11. Heb. 12. 23. and both here in my text and 1 Cor 15. 45. a Living Soule which lives and gives life to the body and in these things it is like unto God who in his nature and being is a Spirit or a spirituall substance as our Saviour affirmes Joh. 4. 24. is called the Invisible God Coloss. 1. 15. Tim. 1. 17. and the Living God Psal. 42. 2. Ier. 10. 10. Ioh. 6. 96. and his Eternall power and Godhead are called Invisible things Rom 1. 20. yea as God saith of himselfe Isa 40. 18. So wee may truely say of mans Soule that it cannot truely be likened to any visible thing neither can any bodily substance resemble it Conformity to God in the naturall faculties properties and indowments of his Soule is the likenesse and similitude which man in respect of his reason understanding liberty of will desires and affections all upright and perfect had unto Gods wisedome knowledge goodnesse libertie justice mercy and the like First man in his perfect understanding naturall light wisedome and knowledge did resemble Gods wisedome and knowledge of all things For man in his creation and naturall integritie did rightly know God and himselfe and did perfectly understand all the workes and the nature of all the creatures of God and what was good both
nothing is said to be performed in the beginning that is in the first part or moment of time Hence some profitable Doctrines arise and here some questions offer themselves to be discussed First we here are taught That the whole world and all things therein even the highest and most durable heavens and the first matter of the visible world had a beginning and were not from all eternity as some Heathen Philosophers imagined This Doctrine as it is plainly affirmed in this Text which alone is proofe sufficient so other Scriptures doe aboundantly prove and confirme it John 17. 24. our Saviour saith that God the Father loved him before the foundation of the world Ephes. 1. 4. the Apostle saith that God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world And 1 Pet. 1. 20. it is said that Christ was ordained before the foundation of the world And Prov. 8. 23. the Wisdome of God saith I was set up from everlasting before the earth was or ever the heavens were prepared These and such other Scriptures which mention things before the first beginning and foundation of the world doe most evidently shew that neither the world nor any part thereof was from eternity but with time and in time began And if this be not sufficient to satisfie Atheists who refuse to beleeve God or his Word naturall reason it selfe is able to prove it against them by their owne Principles which they grant First they acknowledge that whatsoever is corruptible or mutable by nature must needs have a beginning and cannot be eternall Now it is manifest that the whole world and all things therein are by nature corruptible and changeable and whatsoever therein is constant unchangeable and incorruptible it is so not by any naturall power in it selfe but of the free grace of God in Christ. The Angels the most glorious creatures and the spirits and soules of men which are created of nothing they are changeable by nature as appeares by the fall of the Divell and mans fall and corruption and therefore it is said that hee charged his Angels with folly to wit them that did fall and to the rest which stand he added light even supernaturall light of his sanctifying Spirit Job 5. And although the wisest of the Heathen Philosophers did gather from the constant course of the visible heavens and the starres that the heavens were incorruptible and unchangeable yet experience hath taught the contrary and it is found by long observation of Astronomers that there are many fixed starres and strange comets or blazing starres generated in the heavens farre above the Moon which appeare for a time and after doe vanish away as the late blazing starre in Anno 1618. was found to be by certaine demonstration But for the inferiour Elements under heaven and the creatures therein every eye sees them to be in daily change and alteration and to have no constancie in them Therefore the world is not from all eternity Secondly that which is eternall hath no cause subsisting before it nor any superiour to over-rule order and dispose it but is absolute of it selfe And that which hath such a preceding and superiour cause authour and disposer must needs have and receive a beginning from another Now such is the world and all things therein the world and the whole course of it is over-ruled and disposed by God as every eye may see For whereas it is the nature of Summer to be hot when the Sunne which is the fountain and cause of light and heat is most present with us God at his pleasure for the sins of men doth turne our Summers heats into cold Winter stormes and doth drown our Harvests with immoderate raine in the midst of the dry scorching dog-daies as we have found of late yeares So hee makes fruitfull lands barren when they are best tilled and the barren wildernesse hee turnes into a fruitfull field and the desart into springs of water Also daily experience doth teach us that things which naturally serve for health are sometimes turned to poyson that which enricheth one doth impoverish another and that which hurteth one doth help another All which shew that God over-rules the world and that all things are under his hand and he is the supreme cause and disposer of all Yea if we observe all parts of the world we shall see that the earth and the sea are ruled much by the heavens and the heavens are moved by some superiour power Therefore the world is not eternall without cause or beginning These and such arguments and experiments convinced the Heathen Philosophers and Poets and forced them to confesse that the world was not eternall but made in the beginning of time as appeares in Hermes Trismegistos Pythagoras Plato Orpheus Sophocles Homer and others And even Aristotle himselfe though he affirmed stiffely the worlds eternity and did oppose the fictions of Plato and others concerning the making of the world of a matter which was before existing and without beginning yet at length he was forced to confesse and doth in divers of his bookes that God is the authour and preserver of the whole universall world as appeares lib. de mundo lib. 2. de gener corr This admonisheth us not to set our hearts on the world nor content our soules with such things as are therein but to looke up higher to a better portion if we desire full satisfaction and true contentment and felicity indeed He that builds on a foundation which of it selfe may faile and needs a supporter it selfe he can never dwell safely and securely but in continuall feare that his house will fall on his head neither can he sleep in peace till he hath laid a deeper and surer foundation under that Now here we see the world is a moveable foundation it was not from eternity but had a beginning and the being of it hangs on an higher cause even God And therefore let us not set our hearts on the world nor make it our portion but looke up to God and set our affections on him and seeke to him to be our portion for he onely can fill our soules and he is and hath been and shall be for ever the same and in him is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Secondly this truth serves to arme us against all temptations of Sathan and all cunning sophistications of Atheists which tend to shake our faith in this point of the worlds beginning and to make us thinke that the world hath been from all eternity we have here a sure foundation from Gods infallible Word and strong reasons also to confirme our hearts in this doctrine and therefore let no cavills of opposers trouble our hearts Yea that we may more cleerly see and more firmly beleeve this truth without doubting I will briefly shew the weaknesse of the best arguments which are brought to the contrary and so will remove those clouds and mists out of the way
the starry visible heavens as Deut. 26. 15. 1 Kings 8. 30. and Mat. 18. 10. Yea the hoâ—y Apostle puts all out of doubt 2 Cor. 12. 2. where he calls this the third heaven That this highest heaven is not God but a place created by God for here it is said that God created this heaven Some thought that there was no place above the Spheres of heaven but that there God is all in all and that there all things are in God and subsist in him Their ground is that speech of the Apostle 1 Corinth 15. that God shall be all in all But that shewes the contrarie that God is in all not that all things are or shal be and subsist in God as in a place Againe this shewes not the place but the state of the blessed that they shall immediately injoy God without a Mediatour Now that the highest heaven is not God divers reasons shew First it is Gods throne Isa. 66. 1 Deut. 26. 15. therefore not God himselfe Secondly it cannot containe God but he is infinite and farre without the compasse of it 1 Kings 8. 27. Thiâ—dly God is every where but this heaven is not so it is onely above not in the visible world Fourthly it is such a bodily substance as can containe glorified bodies as the body of Christ Enoch and Eliah It comprehends the visible heavens within the compasse of it But God is a spirit That it is not God but his creature and his workmanship and that he hath the disposing of it as his creature appeares Gen. 2. 1. Heb. 11. 10. Psal. 115. 16. That this heaven is above the visible heavens divers Scriptures testifie For it is called Heaven above where Jehovah is Deut. 4. 39. Jos. 2. 11. that is above all the visible world Into this heaven our Saviour is said to be taken up on high when he ascended Luke 24. 51. Yea he is said to ascend up farre above all the visible heavens Ephes. 4. 10. Fourthly that this heaven is a most ample and large place may easily be gathered and proved from this That it was made distinct from the earth which was the matter of the whole visible world and doth subsist above and without the compasse both of the masse and of all things which were made of it and so comprehends them within the large compasse of it And our Saviour intimates so much where he affirmes that in it are many mansions John 14. 2 3. Also the Psalmist Psal. 68. 5. where hee calls this heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies faire and large spacious plaines And yet it is not infinite nor every where for God fills it and the earth also and it is not able to containe him 1 Kings 8. 27. The fifth instruction is That the highest heaven is a place most glorious and excellent free from all corruption and full of glorious light farre surpassing our fraile imagination and the reach of mans naturall understanding The very signification of the name shewes that it is farre remote from our sight conceipt and apprehension And that rule in Philosophy proves that it is free from alteration and corruption to wit That those things onely are changeable and may be corrupted and turned into their first matter which are made of a common matter capable of divers formes But things which have no part of any such matter in them are incorruptible and unchangeable free from alterations incident to inferiour things Now such are these heavens discovered to be in my Text For they were made absolutely of nothing with or before the first common matter of the visible world Yea in the next words the Spirit of God doth distinguish the rude masse from these heavens by this that it was full of darknesse and without forme and void which implies that these heavens were farre different that is full of beauty forme and light And other Scriptures fully confirme this First by the names by which this heaven is called and by the excellent things which are spoken of it for it is called the Heaven of heavens that is the heaven farre above all heavens in glory and excellency Deut. 10. 14. and 1 Kings 8. 27. and Psal. 68. 34. The Heaven of heavens everlasting so much the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth intimate And Saint Paul who was rapt up into this heaven was so astonished with the glory of it that he knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body there he heard words which it was not lawfull to utter and the sight thereof was such a cause of glorying that he was afterwards in danger thereby to be too much exalted and had need to be buffetted by the Angell of Sathan for his humiliation to keep him from excessive boasting 2 Cor. 12. And the same Apostle calls the inheritance therein reserved for the elect the inheritance of the Saints in light Colos. 1. 12. and he saith of God who dwels there by his glory that he dwels in light which none can approach unto 1 Tim. 6. 16. which testimonies with many other which might be cited fully prove the glory and excellency of this heaven Besides we have many Arguments to this purpose The first is drawne from the proper efficient cause of this heaven For it is most certaine that the place and city which hath God only for the builder maker of it in the building whereof God hath shewed such admirable divine wisdome that it more specially is called his worke and building must needs be most excellent and glorious Now such is the highest heaven it is called the citie whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. that is the city which God builded alone as his master-piece for his owne purpose to shew therein his glorious wisdome and art as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used doth signifie Yea it is said to have foundations that is to be so firmly built that it can never faile but stand stedfast for ever world without end Therefore it is a most glorious place A second Argument is drawne from the proper inhabitants of these heavens For in all reason and by the course of nature that is the best place which falls to the share and is allotted to the best inhabitants by the will and appointment of him who is the wisest of all and doth order all things in wisdome and equity Now the highest heavens are allotted by God to the best inhabitants First he hath chosen them to be his owne habitation wherein he delighteth to dwell not onely by his essentiall presence and power as he is in all other places but also by his visible glory holinesse and unspeakable majesty So the Scriptures testifie Deut. 26. 15. where these heavens are called the habitation of his holinesse And Psal. 113. 5. the high dwelling in which God is so high above all And Isa. 57. 15. and 63. 15. the high and holy place the habitation
above man in innocency whose best dwelling was but an earthly Paradise or Garden furnished with fruits which might be eaten up and consumed and such were the Angels as the former Doctrine hath plainly proved Therefore this conclusion necessarily flowes from that Doctrine and is proved and confirmed by it But we have for further confirmation both plaine testimonies and arguments in the holy Scriptures The royall Prophet David being ravished with the contemplation of the supercelestiall glory appearing in the secondary beames thereof which shine in the visible heavens and in the Sun Moon and Starres cries out in admiration and wonders that God dwelling in such admirable glory and having such excellent and glorious company and attendants about him should vouchsafe to look upon man or have any regard of him What is man saith he that thou art mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou visitest him Psal. 8. 4. But in the next words he goeth further and speaks fully to the point and shewes that Christ himselfe according to his humanity though conceived and borne most pure and holy was made lower then the Angels thou hast made him saith he a little or for a little while lower then the Angels that is Christ in the nature of man which he took upon him for so the Apostle expounds these words of David Hebr. 2. 6. And Psal. 103. 20. Yee Angels saith he which excell in power Our Saviour also in the Gospel sheweth plainly that the Angels in heaven are so excellent in nature and substance as the elect Saints glorified shall be after the last resurrection and their most glorious and blessed condition which farre excels Adam in innocency shall be like unto the Ange's Matth. 22. 30. Saint Peter in plaine words saith that Angels are farre greater then men in power and might 2 Pet. 2. 11. Saint Paul calls them Angels of light 2 Corinth 11. 14 and the Angels of Gods power 2 Thes. 1. 7. he numbers them with principalities and powers which farre excell the nature of man Rom. 8. 38. Whensoever he sets forth the greatest excellency of things created greater then in men he doth instance in Angels as 1 Cor. 13. 1. though I speak with tongues of men and Angels And Galat. 1. 8. If I or an Angell from heaven and 4. 14. Ye received me as an Angell of God yea as Christ Jesus In a word whereas man is an earthly creature framed out of dust in respect of his visible part his body Angels are pure heavenly spirituall substances framed immediately out of nothing by the simple and absolute act of creation And whereas mans better part the soule though it be a spirit yet was not created a perfect compleat creature but made to subsist in the body and cannot be in full perfection without it Angels are spirits complete and perfect in themselves without subsistence in any other creature as shall appeare hereafter And therefore Angels are by creation and in nature and substance farre above man in his best naturall estate even in the state of innocency First this shewes most clearly that all the love and favour which God extends to man in Christ and in giving Christ to be mans Saviour and Redeemer by taking mans nature upon him and making full satisfaction therein to justice for him and in saving man from hell and damnation and exalting him to heavenly glory is on Gods part most free and voluntary arising meerly and wholly from the good pleasure of his owne will and not from any merit worth and excellency which he at first created or since found in mans nature If the naturall excellency of any creature could procure Gods speciall favour or deserve his bountie or move him to shew mercy to any creature which hath sinned and by sin is fallen into misery surely the Angelicall nature should have been more respected of God then the nature of man and Angels being fallen should more easily have found mercy at his hand For as this Doctrine hath proved Angels are by creation and in nature and substance the chiefest and most excellent of all Gods creatures far excelling man in power might purity and being And yet when Angels and man were both fallen and found guilty charged with folly and involved in misery God passed by the Angels and shewed no mercy to them neither gave his Son to take upon him the nature of Angels and to be their Saviour and Redeemer but so many of them as sinned and kept not their first estate but left their habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines of darknesse unto the judgement of the great day 2 Pet. 2. Jud. 6. But for man who is of lesse worth and farre inferiour by nature he hath given his Sonne to take mans nature upon him to be incarnate and made flesh and hath sent him forth in the forme of fraile and sinfull flesh made of a woman and made under the Law and hath delivered him up to a cursed death and to hellish agonies pangs and sorrowes that he might redeem this fraile worme of the earth miserable and sinfull man from hell and damnation unto which the Angels which sinned are reserved under darknesse and to exalt him far above the state of innocency in which he was created and his best naturall estate in Paradise unto the high estate of heavenly glory with the elect holy and blessed Angels which is farre above that mutable state of glory in which the Angels were first created and from which so many of them did fali Wherefore let us admire this free grace of God and stand amazed at his wonderfull and supertranscendent bounty to mankind And whatsoever mercy we receive from him in our deliverance from any evill or whatsoever blessing and benefit of bounty and goodnesse in advancing us to this state of grace or glory let us wholly ascribe it to the good pleasure of his owne free will and not to any merit in our selves or any excellency created in our nature And let no man glory in his naturall wit or wisdome and knowledge gotten by learning and study nor boast in his owne strength but as it is written Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord and triumph in this that he knoweth Gods free grace and aboundant mercy in Jesus Christ and hath the sweet taste and experience of it in his owne soule Secondly this serves to magnifie in our eyes both the large measure of Gods bounty to his elect in Christ and also the infinite power and excellency of Christ his mediation and the dignity and worth of his person in which hee hath so dignified our fraile nature by assuming it upon himselfe and uniting it personally to his Godhead that hee hath exalted it farre above the most glorious and excellent state of the Angels in heaven That Angels are the best and chiefest of all Gods creatures by creation and in nature and substance farre more excellent then man in his best naturall estate of
actions on earth The wordes of our Saviour Luk. 24. 39. shew that Spirits have not flesh and bones Therefore Angels being spirits have no such bodies united to them as those wherein they appeared 4. Corollary That Angels are confined to the places in which they are and are in places definitively though not circumscribed and measured by them as bodily things are Angels being pure spirits doe not consist of parts as bodily things doe neither have they any bodily quantity or dimension as length breadth height and thicknesse and so they cannot bee compassed about nor measured nor limited by any bodily space but yet they are definitively in their places that is there and no where else and their substance together with bodily substances may be in the same place as the whole soule of man is in the whole body and is wholly in every part of it and no where else so it is with Angels 5. Corollary Seeing Angels are by creation the proper and naturall inhabitants of the highest heavens which is a most spacious place compassing about the whole visible World and more large and capacious then all other places as Solomon doth intimate 1 Kin. 8. 27. Hence it followeth that the Angels are many in number more then can be numbred by man and so in respect of man innumerable For we must not thinke that God who in the creation replenished the Sea with fishes the aire with birds and the visible heavens with innumerable starres and the earth with beasts and creeping things and commanded man to multiply and replenish the earth wouldleave the bestand most glorious place of all not fully replenished with inhabitants glorious Angels who were created at the first in their full number undoubtedly therefore there must be many farre more then man can number And this the Prophet Daniel saw in a vision and testified Dan. 7. 10. where hee saith that a thousand thousand ministred to the Lord Christ and ten thousand thousand stood before him Also in the Gospell wee read that there was a Legion that is six thousand divels in one man Mark 5. 9. And if there be so many divels that is evill Angels in one man then surely the whole company or multitude of those evill Angels must be many And the whole company of Angels in the first creation of which some onely did fall and become Divels must needs much more bee innumerable And if that conjecture and opinion of learned men be true to wit that the Angels which sinned and were cast downe from heaven are as many in number as all the elect of mankind which have beene are or shal be to the end of the World and that they shall fill up the glorious mansions and supply the roomes and places of the lost Angels then surely the multitude of all the Angels which God created must needs bee great and innumerable farre exceeding our capacity 6. Corollary Sixthly the highest heavens being the place of rest and not of motion which is proper to visible and corporeall things and being the place where God hath appointed that the eternall rest or Sabbath shal be kept Therefore the Angels which were created to bee the naturall inhabitants of those glorious heavens were not made to move with bodily motion as bodily creatures doe their coming from heaven to earth is not a passage through the whole space between heaven and earth which would require a long time but as it is with the mindes and thoughts of men they are now here exercised about things present and in a moment of time in the twinckling of an eye they are in the remotest parts of the World or in the highest heavens and yet passe not through the space betweene so it may well be and we may with good reason conceive that the Angels which are of a purer and more heavenly substance then our soules and more nimble and active then the mindes or thoughts of men are by nature can in a moment bee present here on earth and in the next moment bee againe in heaven But howsoever or by what way soever they descend and ascend it is most certaine that they are the swiftest of all things created and so much the Scriptures shew clearly in many places where they describe Angels with wings and call them Cherubins and Seraphins yea some one of them with many wings which are instruments of flying and of swiftest motion as Gen. 3. 24. Ezech. 10. 1. 19. and 11. 22. and Isa. 6. 2. Also we read that on a suddaine even in an instant a whole multitude of the heavenly host have descended from heaven and beene present on earth Luk. 2. 13. And the Angell of the Lord is said to encampe with an heavenly host round about them that feare God Psalm 34. 7. not by being here resident and abiding on earth out of their proper place of abode but by standing before God in heaven and beholding his face that they may bee ready in a moment when hee gives the watch word to present themselves on earth there to deliver his elect and to destroy their enemies as our Saviour doth intimate Matth. 18. 20. 7. Corollary Seventhly seeing the highest heaven is the proper place of Angels and this is the order which God did set in the creation that all creatures should keep their station and not leave their dwelling Hence it followes that it is against nature and contrary to the order of creation that many Angels are excluded and shut out of heaven even all the evill Angels And it is a thing above nature even the supernaturall grace and gift of God and a thing purchased and procured by the infinite power excellency and dignity of Christs merit and mediation that the elect and holy Angels should bee made ministering spirits and sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation as the Apostle saith Hebr. 1. 14. And here now occasion is offered to discourse about the sin and fall of the Divell and evill Angels how contrary it was to the law of nature that they should forsake their station sin against God and not stand in the truth and to the order which God set in the creation that they should leave their dwelling and exclude themselves out of heaven and be cast downe into Hell Also here is occasion given to shew that the elect Angels come to minister for the elect through the supernaturall power and efficacy of Christs mediation that Christ by supernaturall grace and benefits given to the heavenly Angels hath obliged and bound them to himselfe to obey him as their head and to minister for the good of his little ones But these things come more fittly to bee handled after the creation when wee come to discourse of the confusion of the World by the Divels Apostasie and mans fall and of the restoring of mankind and the renuing and perfecting of the World by Christ. Now these Doctrines thus opened and proved are of great
use for comfort and confidence to all the elect and faithfull people of God in the midst of all troubles which befall them in this life and when dangers and worldly enemies beset them round about also for confirmation and strengthening of them against all the assaults and temptations of the Divell For if the glorious Angels which are ministering spirits for their good which also love them rejoyce at their conversion watch for their safety and are their fellow servants under one Lord Christ be such heavenly powerfull and active spirits even by creation so excellent in strength so lively quick and ready at hand to help in a moment when God gives the watch-word what need we feare or faint so long as wee cleave to God and sticke to his truth Hee is a tender and loving father and Christ our high Priest hath a feeling of our infirmities and doth pity us he will be ready to help and he hath mighty instruments and ministers even thousands and ten thousand thousands ready to save and deliver us from all enemies as he did Daniel from the Lyons and his three fellowes from the fiery furnace Or if hee doth not send them to deliver us out of the troubles of this life yet hee will at our death send his Angels to carry our soules with triumph to heaven as Eliah was carried up in a fiery Chariot and the soule of Lazarus is said to bee carried up by them into Abrahams bosome Wherefore let us not feare either multitude malice or might of enemies but carefully serve God and confidently rest on the Lord Christ our Redeemer and Saviour Secondly These Doctrines serve to discover divers errours concerning the nature and substance of Angels as that grosse opinion of Peter Lombard who held that the Angels are corporeall substances because the Divell and evill Angels shall suffer the torment and feele the paines of hell fire which hath no power but over bodily creatures Also that opinion of the Gentiles and Cardanus who held that the Angels were mortall and corruptible creatures both these are here discovered to be erroneous For the first is builded on a grosse conceipt that the fire of hell is elementall and corporcall fire which as it burneth and consumeth bodily substances over which it hath power so it in time wasteth it selfe and goeth out but indeed the fire of Hell is the fire of Gods wrath which burneth and tormenteth worse then elementarie fire but consumeth not neither shall ever be quenched as our Saviour testifieth The second opinion is also confuted by these doctrines which have proved Angels to be spirits or spirituall substances which though they may bee stained with sin yet they cannot bee dissolved as men are in death by the separation of soule and body not corrupted as mens bodies are in the grave but the evill Angells shall live in eternall torment and their substance shall never be corrupted and consumed and the holy and blessed Angels are immortall and shall live in glory for ever and there shall be no end of their blessednesse CHAP. V. Of the Creation of the Earth The names whereby it is called Properties of it All creatures have being of God with Vses The World is all mutable and appointed so to be Vses The creation and redemption of the World wherein they resemble one another Vses The holy Ghost is of one and the same nature with the Father and the Sonne THe Second thing created next after the highest heaven with the inhabitants thereof the Angels is the Earth as my text here faith in these wordes and the Earth But wee must not here understand by Earth this earth or drie land upon which men and beasts doe live and move and have their being and which is beautified and adorned with trees plants greene herbes and flowers and replenished with stones and metals of all sorts For that was created together with the waters of the Sea and brought into forme and replenished in the third day as appeares in the 9. 10. 11. verses of this Chapter But here by Earth wee are to understand a certaine rude matter and masse without forme and void out of which God made all the inferiour visible World and all things therein contained so the wordes following in the second verse plainely shew The earth was without forme and void and darknesse was upon the face of the deep Now that wee may know what creature this Earth was wee are to consider these 3 things First the severall names by which it is called Secondly the properties by which it is described Thirdly the meanes by which it was upheld in being and disposed to bee the common matter of all othervisible things created afterwards First the names by which it is called are three 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earth 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 waters First it is called the earth because of the grossenesse unmoveablenesse and impurity of it For the earth is of all elements most grosse heavy impure and confused not fit to move out of the place wherein it is most untractable and not ready to apply it selfe to any other thing and hard to bee turned into the forme of other things without labour and working of it This first rude and informed masse which God created out of nothing is here declared by this name Earth to have beene like the earth very impure and confused dull and unfit for motion resembling at the first the earth rather then any purer element Secondly it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep here also in the text which word signifies a great deep or devouring gulfe as it were of troubled waters also troubled and confounded with mixture of mud and myre which though in respect of the troubled mixture and confusion it hath a resemblance of earth yet it is bottomlesse there is no solidity in it no ground or stay to bee found at all Thus much the Hebrew word signifies according to the notation and common use of it Thirdly it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 waters also in this text because of the waterish fluxibility which was in it by meanes of which it was unstable and unsettled and also because it was an huge deep like the great waters of the Sea Now it may seeme strange that this one and the same rude masse should bee like earth and like a bottomlesse depth of myre or quick-sand and like waters all at once which are things different and unlike one to another especially the thinne flowing element of water and the grosse dull unmoveable earth And therefore the learned Expositors labour thus to qualifie the meaning of the words they say it was a confused masse even the matter of all the elements mingled together and because the earth and water are the most grosse and impure and did most of all appeare in it therefore it is called earth and water and the deep which is a
fulnesse thereof Secondly this former discourse shewes what a vaine and foolish thing it is for Christian people to be so wedded to the opinions of godly learned men in all points which have beene formerly received and commonly beleeved or to be so strongly conceipted and perswaded of their full understanding and perfect knowledge of all the Scriptures and of all truth taught in the written word of GOD that whatsoever they have taught and commonly held they will cleave too till death and they will receive and embrace no truth nor any exposition of any Scripture which hath not beene before observed taught and published in the Sermons and writings of the godly learned Ancient Fathers and the soundest Orthodox moderne Divines I confesse the Scriptures alone dayly read and heard by men of ordinary capacity and learning are able to make them wise to Salvation For the way to life may easily be discerned by their guidance and direction But there are degrees of knowledge and divers measures of gifts and when a man knoweth enough to bring him on in an ordinarie way to life yet there is still more knowledge to be learned and a greater depth of knowledge to be found in the Scriptures which are doubtfull obscure and more hard to be understood and many new expositions of divers places which more plainly and fully confirme solid truthes formerly beleeved which he that searcheth out and discovereth doth thereby get more strength in faith and growth in grace and more spirituall joy and comfort and runs on faster and more speedily and steadfastly in the way to Salvation Wee see here for example the common opinion of Ancient and moderne writers to goe currant that there is but one kind of Image of God in man and that the Image unto which Christ restores us is the very same in which Adam was created that Adam had power by that Image to obtaine Heavenly glory and to grow up to that estate which the elect Saints come to in Christ that Christ restores no more but that which Adam lost and unto which he should have attained after some time of continuance in innocency that he was created in holinesse as well as Christ and true Christians are and so partaker of the Holy Ghost And when any thing is taught out of the Scriptures to the contrary many mouthes even of more learned men are opened to gainsay and oppose And yet you see the Scriptures more narrowly sifted do teach most plainely to the contrary and have not any plaine speech tending to prove these common opinions yea the Scriptures which are alledged for them are so applied expounded do prove the contrary if they be well weighed and considered with a cleare judgement not forestalled with prejudice and partialitie wherefore let us wholly depend on Gods word and not on mens reason or jugdement to subject either the Scriptures or the sense of them thereunto and let us still more and more thirst after increase of knowledge and understanding of Divine truths hid in the harder places of Gods written word knowing that these are the last times wherein knowledge shall be increased as wee read Dan. 12. 4. Let us not consider the Person which preacheth and teacheth but what is by him taught If new expositions and Doctrines not formerly taught yea crossing the common opinions be proved by better grounds and clearer evidence of Scripture and tend more to advance other saving truthes to beate downe errours and to increase Piety and godly affection in men let men take heed and beware of rash opposition and gainesaying lest they be found to fight against God while they stand too much for the authority of men though such as have beene holy and godly servants of Christ and famous in their generations Thirdly this doctrine of Gods Image in Adam doth both discover and also minister strong arguments whereby to confute divers erroneous opinions much dissenting and dissonant from the solid truth and word of God to wit not onely those mentioned before but others also as that Gods Image was onely originall righteousnesse or justice and that the naturall faculties of Soule and Body did not concurre to it that the whole Image of God in Adam was utterly lost by his fall and is quite abolished till it be repaired and restored by Christ with divers others of the same stampe concerning which I finde many hot disputations among the learned all which appeare superfluous if this doctrine were well weighed and made a rule whereby to measure them for it will like a just measure shew which of them come short and which goe too farre beyond the truth and true line of holy Scriptures Lastly in this wee see as in a cleare glasse the dignity and excellency of humane nature above the nature of all other visible creatures in that he was made completely in Gods Image and conformable to God and like to him in his whole frame and in all faculties of Soule and parts and members of body And let this stirre us up to walke worthy and beseeming such a nature and frame and labour to keep both our whole Soule and Spirit and all members of our bodies unspotted and unstained with sinne which is the defacing of Gods Image and let us reverence Gods Image in other men especially seeing it is repaired and made of a better kind by Christ and above all take heed of cruelty and of defacing Gods Image in any part by cuting of members and mangling the bodies of men especially of Gods Saintes whose bodies are Temples and Tabernacles of God by his Spirit Thus much concerning the first externall worke of God the creation and the state wherein God created man and wherein the state of Innocency did consist CHAP. XVI Of the actuall providence of God The Obiect of it What the word signifieth in 3. things Proofe that there is a providence by Texts and Arguments Description shewing what it is demonstrated in the parts and branches of it Providence generall and speciall Acts of it Speciall providence in saving the elect by Christ what and in what parts Uses THe next great externall worke of God after the creation is his actuall providence by which hee doth rule and dispose all things created and doth order all actions which are done and all events which come to passe in the World to the manifestation of his glorious goodnesse This great worke of God doth reach through all other externall works which are done either by God himselfe or any other and doth comprehend with in the compasse of it all Gods works which hee doth in the World whether they bee works of wisedome and power in ruling and preserving his creatures or workes of iustice in punishing and destroying or workes of mercy and grace in redeeming repairing and saving the World and in bringing his chosen to eternall blessednesse Yea there is no worke done nor any event which comes to passe at any time or in any