at first and who hath restored all things and redeemed his People to God by his blood out of every kindred and Tongue and People and Nation If with the Apostle John Rev. 5.11 12 13. We behold and hear the voyce of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders the number of them ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voyce Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And every Creature in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever If God had his Sabbath to celebrate his work of Creation good reason Christ should have his Sabbath wherein we should commemorate his work of Redemption And now this being the Lords day and our Christian Sabbath let us do the duty of the day in the season thereof Bless the Lord O our Souls and all that is within us bless his Holy Name Forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all our iniquities who redeemeth our life from destruction who crowneth us with loving kindnesses and tender mercies Psal 103.1 2 3 4. U II I shall conclude all with a few words of Exhortation When God looked upon his works did he see every thing very good 1. Then let us not cavil or carp at any of all God's works Wo to him that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Let 's not blame or find fault with God for any of all his works either of Creation or Providence for God hath made all things well and he hath made every thing beautiful in his season If any of God's Creatures or Providences prove evil and hurtful to us let 's blame our selves let 's blame our sins For Sin that it might appear Sin worketh death in us by that which is good Rom. 7. 2. Let 's admire and adore God Let 's bless and praise and magnify him for ever for all his goodness For his goodness is in and over all his works Let 's have high thoughts of God and low of our selves And this is the use the Prophet David makes of this Doctrine Psal 8.147 148 149 150. Yea this is the use which God himself would have Job make of it when he preached upon part of this Text in the 38 39 40 41. Chapters of the Book of Job And let us say with the Psalmist Ps 103. when we take a survey of Gods works Bless the Lord ye his Angels who excel in strength ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Bless the Lord all his Works in all places of his Dominion every one of us Bless the Lord O my Soul 3. Let 's learn good from the Creatures God would have us go to school to the Creatures to learn many good Lessons from them He would have the Sluggard go to the industrious Ant to consider her ways and be wise Those who are ignorant of God their Lord and feeder are reproved by the bruit Creatures For the Oxe knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib Those who do not or cannot discern the times and seasons even the times of their Visitation the Prophet would that we go to the Stork the Crane and the Swallow for all these know their appointed seasons And because Christians and Ministers especially are sent out in the World as Sheep among Wolves Christ would have them to be as wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves Last of all did God look upon daily and at the end of the sixth day again review all his works Did he examine judge and find them all very good Let us go and do likewise let us imitate God we cannot have a better precedent or example to follow Let us every evening look back upon the works of the day and at the end of the week upon the works of the week Let 's examine and judge them This has been the practice of many precious Saints as the Lord Harington Mr. Herbert Palmer and others Yea some such thing as this viz. calling himself to an account at night for what had passed him in the day Seneca tells of himself These examples we shall do well if we follow so as they followed God himself This is a right method to proceed from good to very good to have all good but our latter work better than our former But because that in many things we offend all whil'st we are in this World here upon Earth let us look for and long after that place and state I mean for Heaven when we shall be made like unto God and our works like his works When from day to day and Sabbath to Sabbath even to all eternity we may look upon every thing that we have done and behold it shall be very good The END of the first Sermon Proverb 20.10 The righteous Man regardeth the life of his Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ACcording to the Hebrew 'tis A righteous Man knows that is regardeth taketh care of the life of his Beast If on the one hand we consider the great commendations which the Holy Scriptures give of diverse of the bruit and unreasonable Creatures together with God's great care of and cost about them himself and his charge and laws to Men concerning them And on the other hand compare therewith Men's vilifying disregarding abusing of them It may seem not unreasonable nor unprofitable to bestow one lecture about them namely for this end to instruct and teach Men who have a right to use them how to use them aright to make them good Lords to those good Servants As he that rules over tnen must be just so he that is Lord over these bruit Creatures must not be cruel towards them As God will require the life of a Man of the Beast that slayeth him Gen. 9.5 Ex. 21.29 the Beast shall be put to death So will God call Men to accompt for the lives of their Beasts if they be cruel unto them For my own part I would not when my Lord cometh be found causelesly or cruelly beating or misusing these my Servants and my fellow Servants From the words we may observe 1. That Man hath a Right and Title to the Beasts of the Earth and that not only in common but each Man hath a particular Right and Propriety in them The righteous Man regardeth the life of his Beast 2. That a good or righteous Man is good or merciful to his Beast 3. That unrighteous or wicked Men are unmerciful or cruel to their Beasts I. Psal 8.6 7. Of the First God the soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth the Maker of Man and Beast hath made him Lord over the Beasts he hath put them all under his hand or under his feet Gen. 1.25.26 28. He that made the Beast of the Earth
and that with a Sentence of approbation and commendation upon every particular thing which he had made And behold saith the Text it was very good God's survey of all his Creatures and his judgment of them upon his survey and review of them these two divide the Text. From the words we shall deduce these two Observations 1. That God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth look upon again again and consider his works 2. That it is a true and righteous Sentence or Judgment namely this which he passed upon his Creatures at first as they then were as they came out of his hands Behold they were very good The former I shall very briefly dispatch the latter I shall insist upon 1. Of the first It cannot be that ever any thing should be hid from Gods all-seeing Eye which is a thousand times brighter than the Sun Which if it look on the Sun the eye of the World that shineth not yea God who is All-eye Totus oculus sees more than the eye of Faith doth and yet that sees things that are invisible and therefore nothing which was registred in Moses's Natural History of the Creation could possibly lye undiscovered unto him No not the Angels of Heaven above which because not to be seen with corporal eyes much less Minerals hid in the bowels of the Earth beneath which because not actually seen without much digging and delving or because not so soon perfected by the heat of the Sun are therefore omitted altogether in the preceding Narration I say there was never any thing either in Heaven above in the Earth beneath or in the Waters either above or under the Earth which was not alway visible and actually seen and beheld by him And yet if you look over this Chapter you will find that 't is said that God had seen his works four times before now He saw the work of every day in the end thereof and pronounced it good except the second day which some think was because the Angels were created that day and that day fell multitudes of them Others because that day was a work of division for then God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament verse 7. Or lastly and most probably because the work which was begun that day was not so fully perfected until the third day when God gathered the Waters under the Heaven into one place and call'd it Seas when 't is said that God saw that it was good Vers 10. I say God had seen his works four times before this sixth day and never looked on any thing that he had made but he saw it was good and yet this satisfies not but he sees and surveys them again a fifth time namely now on the sixth day God saw every thing that he had made If any wonder at this and say in their heart what doth this mean if it was so why was it thus I answer that it was not done for that it was possible for God to have overseen himself in any of his works and to have omitted either any part or parcel of work which he had designed to do or any punctilio of workmanship requisite It was not because that any thing either actually did or possibly could miscarry in his hands or be marred by him in the making of it It was not because there was any want of harmony or due proportion of the parts one to another or because all together they could possibly render the Universe ugly or monstrous It was not for any one nor for all these causes put together that God is said thus often to see his works But it may be for some such ends as these 1. To teach us seriously to contemplate and wisely to consider the operation of his hands to study the Book of Nature well that large Volume of two Tomes Heaven and Earth and therein to see the invisible things of God even his eternal Power and Godhead which being of themselves not seen yet are manifest by the things that do appear In the Sun Moon and Stars you may see digitum Dei In the inferior or sublunary Creatures vestigia Dei Gods footsteps for quaelibet Herba quaelibet Bestiola Deum refert In Man you may see Dei Speculum Imaginem the Glass Image and Representation of God In the Universe as in a fair Book and very legible Characters you may read yea you may run and read the Name and Nature of God and by reading and studing this Book only you may prove good Scholars in Divinity God would have no Atheist in the University of the World But if any such there be who shut their eyes against the light of the knowledge of God in the face of the whole Creation let them know that God's eye is ever upon them and that for evil for this horrid ingratitude in that that they would maâ—â— him that made them not allow him a being who give them and all things or Creatures else theirs 2. To teach us to view and review our own works If God who could not err surveyed every days work one excepted in the end of the day and the whole weeks work in the end of the sixth day Let us go and do likewise Let 's consider our ways daily and again let 's consider our ways weekly Let there be no man amongst us but who reviews his works saying What have I done This was the way wherein David if we judge him the pen-man of the 119. Psalm was converted or restored after his fall he thought on his ways look'd them over and over again and turn'd his feet unto God's Testimonies 3. To secure to himself his own honour and glory and to render the Creatures inexcusable in case of any future miscarriage Now if any thing fall and be marr'd the fault cannot justly and reasonally be imputed unto God for he was exceeding careful to make and overlook and examine his works and to make and leave all well good and very good If therefore there happen hereafter to be any errour any crack flaw spot or blur any fault in any of the Creatures it must be acknowledged to be by some abuse neglect miscarriage or fall out of our hands for before they came out of God's hands he looked them over and over again and found and left them all right and good and very or vehemently good 4. To prevent our carping quarrelling and finding fault with God's works Ne aliter de suis operibus sentire vel loqui quisquam audeat Calvin That we say not no not in our hearts Cui bono Or Quorsum perditio haec Concerning any of the Creatures that none may say What is this Wherefore is that For all the works of the Lord are exceeding good And he hath made all things for their use saith the Author of Ecclesiast Cap. 39.16 17 21. That none might blaspheme Gods works as that profane Spaniard
THE Creatures Goodness As they came out of God's Hands AND THE GOOD MANS MERCY TO THE BRUTE CREATURES Which God hath put under his Feet IN TWO SERMONS The first Preached before the University of Oxford The second at the Lecture at Brackley By Thomas Hodges B. D. late Rector of Souldern in OXFORDSHIRE London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside 1675. To the much Honoured RICHARD WINWOOD Esq SIR I Here humbly present to you and under your Name and Patronage publish to the World two Sermons the one concerning the primitive Goodness of the Creatures as they first came out of God's hand the other of the righteous Man's goodness kindness and mercy to the Creatures which God hath put into his hand or under his feet If any question me for preaching on the first Subject saying wherefore is this loss My answer is that God himself Psal 8. who is infinitely wise did preach on the Creatures goodness and excellency unto Job and thereby brought him on his knees See Job Ch. 38 39 40 41. even to abhor himself in dust and ashes That Solomon the wisest of Men since Adam shewed his Wisdom not in Metaphysical Speculations or Notions not in Logical Sophisms or Terms of Art not in Philological Criticisms But in that he spake of Trees from the Cedar-tree that is in Libanon unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the Wall he spake also of Beasts and of Fowls 1 Kings 4.33 c. and of creeping Things and of Fishes And I have heard of Mr. Wheatly of Banbury an eloquent and a famous Preacher that he made a whole Sermon in commendation of a Horse And truly where God gives a Text and preaches on it himself his Ministers have a sufficient warrant to make a Sermon As for my choice of the subject of the second Sermon and my Discourse thereon my apology is if it need one that it hath often grieved my Soul to see how the poor bruit Beasts have been used or abused rather by their inhumane merciless absurd unreasonable cruel Masters who having no understanding became worse than the Beast that perisheth And I would if it was possible put a stop to the rage of brutish Men and however hear testimony to the truth namely that 't is a good Character of a good Man to be merciful to his Beast As for this Address to you I may say that of all Men living of quality that I have known you are most free from this fault You are like the good Man in the Text you do regard the life of your Beast And I wish all your Servants may be like their Master or like Eleazir Gen. 24. Abraham's Steward that had such a care of his Masters Camels Further SIR give me leave to tell you that I have read a Treatise of Monsieur de la Chambre to prove that Beasts have reason B. M. and that one of the Ancients saith that Canis is Logicus Ethicus Theologus Now if so it be that Dogs make Syllogisms and that they do discurrere as well as currere discourse as well as course I presume you may know as well as most Gentleman in England Honoured SIR although I never did preach to those irrational Animals as the Book of Conformities tells us S. Francis did to the Wolf and the Birds to teach them their duty to God or Man nor do I pretend to preach in these Sermons to stir up Men's Devotions from what is reported of the great Reverence which S. Anthony's Mule V. D. S. 2. D. p. 502. S. Francis his Sheep and the Cook of Lisbon's Dog shew'd to the Sacrament yet I may and must profess to learn Gratitude to my Benefactours and particularly to your Worthy self from Patroclus his Lyon who fawned on him when thrown to him in the Theatre at Rome to be devoured by him A. G. l. 5. c. 14. and all this for a good turn the Man had formerly done him in Africa by pulling something out of the Lyons foot that hurt him SIR I shall not hold you long in the porch by prefixing a large Epistle to so small a Piece I shall only add one humble and hearty Request unto all Gentlemen who delight in Hunting who shall read these Sermons if any such shall happen to cast their eyes in them That they would often think of Amedeus Duke of Savoy who was chosen Pope but too good to hold it who shewing a Company of poor People nourished by him said these were the Hounds wherewithal he did hunt after the Kingdom of Heaven And however never to take the Childrens bread to cast it to the Dogs I mean to provide always that the Poor may not fare the worse because their Hounds fare so well And so I conclude with my humble and hearty Request to the Almighty GOD for you that he would be pleased long to continue you a Lover Practiser and Countenancer of the true Protestant Religion a loyal Subject to his Majesty a worthy Patriot a Son of Peace and like that great and good Man your Father when he was Ambassadour in Holland remonstrated against Vorstius a Lover of the Truth and a Lover of good Men. So wishing you and your virtuous and religious Consort all happiness I rest as in duty bound Your obliged humble Servant T. H. May the 12th 1675. Gen. I. Part of the 31. Verse And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good THE Holy Scriptures even from the beginning of them speak of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of men And because 't is the ordinary practice of the best Artificers often to take a view of the works under their hands to compare them with the Idea which they have in their minds or with the Model or Pattern which they have before their eyes to the end to see how well they agree thereunto Therefore also doth the Text represent to us Almighty God the great Architect Builder or Maker of Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things therein having in six days finished this glorious Fabrick now in the close of the sixth day taking a general survey or review of all his works as it were to see whether all things were made according to the Idea or platform of things which he had in his own mind from all eternity to see as it were whether there was any necessary Creature wanting any thing made superfluous or redundant how the several particulars did correspond and conspire to adorn the Universe whether any Momus or Aristarchus could ever after come forth and justly criticise upon any of his works upon any tittle or jota in all the great Book of the Creatures from the beginning to the end thereof And God saw every thing that he had made And when God had viewed and reviewed supervised and revised his whole work and every particular of it he passed judgment righteous judgment
did That none might speak or think falsely and foolishly concerning God as the Jews do viz. Deum ultima vespera praeventum quaedam animantia imperfecta reliquisse Calvin in Gen. 2.1 God the Judge of Heaven and Earth did in the beginning of the World strictly look and enquire into truly try and righteously judge all his Creatures and he returns Omnia benè I find no fault in any thing that I have made God having newly printed the Book of the Creatures in six days and having compared it sheet by sheet as it were before with the original in his own mind and found no fault in it he doth now again that the whole work is finished read it and examine all over again and sees no jota or tittle amiss in it from the beginning to the end thereof no place for the least dash of the pen of Men or Angels and no need of the least touch of his own hand either to correct or compleat it And this brings us to the other Observation that it was a true and righteous judgment which God passed upon his Creatures as they came out of his hands at first that they were very good They were good before and well approved of four or five times by God but now that all is done and polished by God's own hand now 't is perfect very good nothing need to be added thereunto When God saw the parts of this body of the Universe part by part each was good and beautiful as he made and viewed it day by day But now the body being fully compleated by that which every part supplyeth and now this body of the visible World being headed with a visible head Man God's Deputy and Vice-roy made and set to rule and govern all his Creatures here below Now 't is added they were very good God assembled the Creatures before Adam to see what names he would give all his Subjects and Adam gave names to all Cattel and to the Fowls of the Air and to every Beast of the Field Gen. 2.20 Adam gave them every one his name and God gave them all an Epithitâ—e very good I shall endeavour with Gods leave and help to shew 1. How and in what sense the Creatures may be said to be good and very good 2. To prove that the Creatures are so very good 3. Whether all the Creatures have always been and now are so very good as when they first came out of God's hands and if not then 4. Whether ever there has been or shall be a restauration of the Creatures to their primitive goodness 5. What God requires that we should contribute towards the repair of this great House of the World and towards the restoring the Creatures to their first goodness and beauty Of the First 1. The Creatures are all good Metaphysically as they had a being Ens bonum convertuntur And so they were drops of that Ocean of goodness that is in God 'T is good by some participation of his goodness and conformity to his Word and Will without which it could not have been at all So the Scripture testifieth that every Creature of God is good here and in the 1 Tim. 4.4 All that was made was every way agreable to his Will and contrary to or without that was nothing made that was made 2. The Creatures were all good Morally There was no Anomy or Ataxy amongst them all Nothing prejudicial to God's glory and every thing serviceable for mans benefit The Creatures were good that is were goodly fair pleasant to the eyes Again they were good that is profitable or commodious So the word may import for that which one Evangelist calleth good Mar. 9.42 another calleth profitable Luk. 17.2 3. They were Theologically good They were as so many Letters out of which men might spell the Name of God Almighty Psal 19. Yea from these Creatures as from so many Teachers men might learn many profitable Lessons touching service and obedience to their Maker The Creatures proclaim to us God's goodness and glory and again the homage and duty which we owe unto God our Creator The Creatures are a kind of Ladder whereby we may always ascend up unto God The World is Templum Dei God's Temple and in this Temple doth every one of his Creatures speak of his honour Of the Second we shall endeavour to evidence the goodness and beauty of the Creation 1. From the various Natures of the Creatures 2. From the goodly Order of their creation propagation and working 3. From their great Usefulness and serviceableness unto Man 4. From their extraordinary Obedience unto God their Maker Of the First 1. Every Creature of God is good and it is a pleasant thing to behold or consider the beauty of them all in their first creation How much are we delighted with a good Prospect yea with a fair Landskip sometimes The shew which the Devil tempted our Saviour withal for from the top of an exceeding high Hill he shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them was of it self a tempting and would have been a ravishing sight to us But alas this sight was nothing to that view which God took of all the Creatures of the World and the goodness of them Let 's behold God's six days works beginning from the Angels in Heaven to the meanest Creature on the Earth or in the Waters and we shall see a delightful sight rendred so by the excellent variety of the Creation Some Creatures as Angels are all spirit and no bodies Some again corporal Creatures and no spirits Some half the one and half the other as Man Again some Creatures have life and some are without life Of those that have life some are rational some are irrational Of unreasonable Creatures some are integra Animalia some Insecta and of both sorts some live in the Air and some in the Water and some on the Earth and some are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Crocodils c. which live partly in the Water and partly on the dry Land Again there is a Creature which is partly a Plant and partly an Animal and that is a Sponge and what if we say the same of the sensitive Plant Come we to instance only in the bruit Creatures and there we shall see an admirable variety God hath not fill'd the World with all great or all small or all of a middle size but with some of every sort I shall be beholden to the Naturalist Franzius to shew a five-fold observable Variety amongst these And this is our First 1. God their Maker hath set to all their several quantities their bounds which they shall not pass The greedy Swine shall never grow to be so big as the Elephant nor the Pigeon to be so great as the Swan 2. They have their several Voices and Tones the Cuckow doth never crow like the Cock nor the Lyon grunt like the Hog nor the Dog neigh like the Horse 3. They have their several