of his Hand and make the Clouds his Chariot and ride upon the Wings of the Wind and climb up to the highest Orbs and extend every Globe with the present thought and hang not only the Earth but the Heavens upon nothing and this in the exactest order and perfection that no remarkable default shall appear in 6000 years in any part of all this Magnificent Building Who that considers a little the Nature of the Supream Architect shall not be ready to cry out with the Psalmist Psal 8.1 9. O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth 2. What little low worthless Creatures are we That God who is the Author of such excellent Handy-work that dwells in that inaccessible Light in such a glorious Palace who can make Heavens at his pleasure and garnish them in a moment and fill the whole World with the Beams of his Glory should yet place his Affections so much on such little silly things as we are Psal 8.3 c. Shall I speak my Opinion freely in this matter I do conceive that one great Reason why God hath laid out so much of his Excellency and bestowed so much of his Infinite Wisdom and Power upon the creation of the Things that are above us especially the Heavens over our Heads was on purpose to astonish proud man into a Religious Admiration of his God and an humble detestation of himself for that 's the very frame and temper which disposeth man for the impressions of Religion and the exercise of a devout affection Isa 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne 3. A due consideration of the Creation of the World and especially of the Heavens belongs unto us all Os Homini sublime c. if God doth preach to us by these things that are seen and thereby reveal to the World the invisible properties of the Divinity then we ought to hearken to this Voice and make some good use of their Language The Curious Spectator looks up to the Heavens and examines every particular there Quidni quaerat Scit ill ad se pertinere Tunc contemnit domicilii prioris angustias Seneca And as he goes on what is all the distance from the utmost Coasts of Spain to the Indies But a Voyage of a very few days if thou fail with a good Wind But that Heavenly Country above for many hundreds of years affords space for the swiftest Stars to travel in without lett or molestation In short the very Natural Propensity of Mankind to enquire into those upper Regions and peer amongst the Stars is some argument of our concernment that way 4. Let us beware of Idolatry the fault of the Old Pagan World Who when they saw those Lights hung out at the Windows of Heaven which should have been but ministerial to help them in the search of him that made them sell down and worshipped the Servants instead of their Master the Candles at the Door instead of the Lord of the House Deut. 4.19 yet the Jews themselves were so forgetful of this Precept that we find them often taxed for burning Incense to the Queen of Heaven and worshipping the Star Remphan And 't is too well known that the Heathens generally worshipped the Sun Moon and Stars becoming vain in their imaginations and tho they professed themselves Wise they became Fools changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Image of his Corruptible Creatures 5. By this Law they who want a special Revelation shall be judged Rom. 2.12 13 14 15. Let no man then whether within or without the Pale of the Church think to shroud his guilt under the Cloak of Ignorance There 's no Corner of the World so remote no People so dark where this Voice hath not been heard the Musick of the Spheres is soft and still but such as shortly will make even both the Ears of the guilty sinner tingle The Language wherein these Sermons are preach'd to the World is temperate and equal it makes no great noise at present to them who are busie digging low in the Bowels of the Earth but it hath a sharp and heavy accent at the End Let no man then upbraid the Almighty as if he were a Severe Judge for calling all men to the same Judgment for damning men that never had the knowledge of his Laws Fear not God will be just he 'll vindicate his Righteousness from the foul aspersions and abuses of a Scandalous World Hast thou sinned without Law without Law then thou shalt be tried and a hundred to one but condemned too and yet God clear from thy Blood and just in all this What a black List of sins doth the Apostle present thee with Rom. 1.29 c. all chargeable upon all Nations of the World Jew and Christian and Turk and Heathen and damnable by the very Law of Nature unrighteousness fornication c. but that which affects us most in all this is that not only the poor Infidel is guilty in this Case but a great part of Christendom also Not only they that have no other Law to read in no other Rule to go by but the Book of the Creation but they also who have the Bibles in their hands and the Creed upon their tongues end and have all the advantages of Nature and Revelation both When these very sins and as bad or worse walk bare-fac'd within the Confines of the Church and men of the best Creed and Profession in the World are not ashamed to commit the foulest sins and sometimes account it their glory to boast of such vices which ought not so much as to be named amongst Christians There are several live amongst us it may be in this place now whose ordinary conversations are stain'd with such blots as both the lights both that of Positive Religion and that of mere Natural Reason too do abhor and condemn And yet which is mighty strange these very men do please themselves with the hopes of escaping safely the Sentence of the Judge at the last day And upon their Repentance they may but else I cannot think of any plausible Argument that will stand their Friend at the day of Judgment And to drive the Nail farther yet it will not be enough for men to plead their Interest in a Church or Party in such cases Let the Church be never so pure nor the Profession never so good nor the advantages of Knowledge and Information never so great if under all these pretensions thou shouldst play the Hypocrite and live ill thy own Mouth would condemn thee and a whole Cloud of Witnesses depose evidence against thee And yet notwithstanding all this we may take up the complaint of the Prophet Jer 18.13 Ask now among the Heathen who hath heard such things the Virgins of Israel have done very horrible things Thy poor men are tenacious of their Superstitious
Whether the darkest Nations have heard this Voice Answ Yes Their sound hath gone out to all the ends of the World And it is very easily made out For 1. They had no other Bible to read in than that of Nature and this of the Heavens was the most legible Page in the whole Book They were without the written Law but they were not without this Natural Light They had neither Moses nor the Prophets nor Evangelists nor Apostles and therefore whither else should they go but to the word writ upon the Book of the Creation the Divine Handy-works in the Make of the World Rom. 1.20 2. We find them confessing it making use of this Book reading studiously amongst the Stars poring with an inquisitive Eye upon the Heavens and Firmament to gather some scraps of a Religious Philosophy and trace the Principles of a Spiritual Divinity Seneca when he hath placed the Wise Man walking to and fro by the contemplation of his mind amongst the Stars Illic demum discit saith he quod diu quaesivit illic incipit Deum nosse And in the beginning of his Book of Natural Questions having undertaken some Philosophical Account of the Heavenly Bodies we find him no where in such a Rapture of Divinity as upon that Thesis Nisi ad haec the study of Divine Things the Contemplations of the Heavenly Bodies c. admitterer non fuerat operae pretium nasci O quam contempta res est Homo nisi supra humana se erexerit Nay more than this they had generally the original of all their Theology from the Firmament Their Gods were amongst the Stars nay the Stars were their only Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Even the Egyptians themselves are accounted to have lead the way to this Superstition And for this reason it was chiefly that their several Priests Prophets and Magi amongst the Egyptians Chaldeans Assyrians Persians c. were so well-skilled commonly in the Curious Arts of Astrology and Divination which have been since derived and diffused from them to us and the rest of the World Their Hermes Tresmegistus Ptolomy and Haly being Authors of great request still with our Astrologers and Prognosticators 2. What did they learn from hence Truly a great deal more than some Christians learn from Nature and Revelation both I speak not of all the poor dark Heathen World but of some who were more serious and contemplative amongst them Who took more pains than their Fellows And I dare safely say that tho their Eyes were dim and the Light they saw by but like the obscure Twilight or the first Dawning of the Morning that they might well School and Catechise some of our old Professors Gray-hair'd Christians for seven years together It would be too large a task now to tell you what Lessons they learn'd from the Contemplation and Study of these Things Their Books of Moral Philosophy writ by Aristotle Plato Cicero Seneca Isocrates c. were they preach'd in our Pulpits were enough to fill some number of years with Sermons strong enough for our Auditors of the Lower Form And convictive enough to shame the major part of Christians among us into blushing and confusion Read over but the Roman Twelve Tables Plato's Republic the Laws of the several Heathen Nations about Religion Sobriety Justice c. And you 'l find reason to fear left the Queen of the South and the Inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon the Greek Scythian and Barbarian will escape better some of them at the Day of Judgment than many of Christendom that have both the Books wide open before them all the days of their life Rom. 2.14 15. 3. What might they learn Answ All the Articles of our Christian Creed and all the Precepts of our Christian Religion except those which refer to the Cause and Cure of our Misery viz. The fall of Adam and the Intercession of the Second Adam That there was a God one only Supreme Maker of Heaven and Earth Infinite in the Attributes of Wisdom Power Truth Justice Mercy worthy to be worshipped with a Holy Life Prayer Praise Obedience and a pure Heart and Affection one that had a Good Will to save us one that would reward us with excellent Rewards or Punishments according to our Actions in the other World All this and more than this they might have discerned by their Glimmering Light of Nature in only the Frontispiece of Heaven if they had but used their Eyes And so much many of them did not only learn but teach and make a publick and stout profession of it to the World The Existence of one Supreme God the Divine Governance of the World the Immortality of the Soul a Mediation between God and us and almost all the Moral Duties of the Law in Substance the distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life distinct Places and times of Worship Priests and Priestly maintenance and Attonements and Purifications and something like the Dedicating of their Infants to God by Baptism with secret Devotions and Family Worship as well as that which was publick in the Temples All these and much more were adopted into the Body of the Heathen Religion And excepting only some few Articles of our Creed referring to the Trinity and especially the business of our Redemption and the True Notion of our two Sacraments and it may be the Resurrection of our Bodies it were not very hard to make out all the rest of our Religion demonstrable by the meer Light of Reason The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made 4. What Practical Deductions may be made from hence How great is God A Contemplation of the Heavenly Fabrick will directly lead us to this point viz. an admiration of the Divine Eternal Power of the Godhead For Rom. 1.19 that which may be known of God is manifest to all the World for God hath shewed it to them He hath shewed his Face in the Glass of his Works and his Features there appear so glorious that 't is a wonder it doth not fill our apprehensions with a pregnant and awful conceit of his Infinite Majesty and Power The Splendor of the Divine Attributes gives shine to all the World so that now all the Inhabitants of the Round World have scope enough for Spiritual Contemplation and the exercise of their Rational Faculties and the Turk and Pagan both have a book large and voluminous enough lying wide open before them enough to employ all their studies in all the days of their Life Who that considers a while the Nature of that God that made the Heavens how he must stretch his Compass over the whole Vniverse how he must mete out the Heavens with a Span and comprehend the Dust of the Earth in a Measure and weigh the Mountains in Scales and the Hills in a Ballance and take up the Isles as a very little thing and measure the Waters in the hollow
The Gods of the Heathens are but meer Parelii silly Adumbrations Ciphers compared to this One Johova An Idol is nothing so saith the Apostle i. e. of that which it pretends to represent And 't is a bold piece of presumption and sacrilegious Impudence to set up Rush-Candles or Wax-Tapers to vye with the Saviour to put mear Creatures in competition with the God of Heaven Nay the Moon herself is not fit to enter any comparison in right Judgment with the Fountain of Lights the Sun for what Light she hath 't is dim and uncertain and all borrowed she hath none of her own So nor all the Church Catholick put together that in Heaven and this on Farth are worthy of the tenth part of that Adoration and Honour we owe to the God of all theWorld And yet there have been some so absurd in their practice that they have burnt Incense to the Queen of Heaven the Moon when the Sun must be put off with a bare Sacrifice And some that say ten Ave Mary's to one Pater Noster saying with that Superstitious Monk tu spes mea Thou my Hope my Tower in whom I have placed the very End of my Salvation if which God forbid I should like a Man mad and rebrobate forget my God vere tui nunquam obliviscar Thy memory is sweeter than Honey and the Honey-comb in my Mouth c. Methinks the Apostle seems 1 Tim. 6.16 to allude to this similitude of the Vnity of the Sun 2. Of the Trinity There are three considerable distinct affections belonging to the Sun all which I mentioned but now Motion Heat and Light They are all of a several different property and yet inseparable one from the other and yet these three all concenter in one Sun Why may not this be a pretty Tolerable Representation of the Trinity of Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost 'T is a hard Mysterious Article to Humane Reason Mankind hath long complained of the depth and difficulty of this Mystery I will not say that God meant this consideration of the Sun for a Natural Advantage to our Faith in the case But I dare say we are allowed to help our Unbelief with all the Assistances of Nature as well as Grace that we can get And this if we please may be one Nor am I singular here neither The Ancient Fathers of the Church have started the Notion before me Dr. Day in his Lectures cites Juslin Martyr Tertullian Cyprian and Lactantius making use of this Comparison I humbly acknowledge this Article of our Faith is without a bottom past Humane Fathom 'T is storyed of St. Augustin that he endeavoured to found it He walkt abroad to that purpose at last came to a River-side musing with himself and labouring to conceive it At length not far off a little Child appeared unto him very busie on the Bank He had made forsooth a little hole and with a Spoon which he had in his Hand was lading of the Water into the aforesaid little hole St. Augustine draws nearer to him demands of the Child what he was a doing Father quoth he my purpose is to unlade this whole River into this little hole you here see Augustne That 's impossible c. Child No more will you be ever able to bring to pass that which you are about And with that the Child vanished I relate not the Story for a certain Truth The thing itself in absolute consideration is true viz. that 't is as impossible for us to conceive the Blessed Trinity as with a little Spoon to unlade a Great River into a little hole The present Emblem may serve a little to take off our suspicions of the Impossibility and Absurdity of the Trinity of Persons in One God It is not sufficient to expound the thing it self all the Three Persons are represented under this Notion FATHER The Lord is a Sun Isa 60.19 SON Mal. 4.2 and vide Margent Luk. 1.78 and Mat. 17.2 Rev. 1.16 HOLY GHOST He shall baptise with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Lead you into the way of all Truth Multa sunt quae dici possunt sed suffioiat fidelibus pauca de Mysterio Trinitatis audivisse Aug. In die judicii non damnor quia dicam nescivi Naturam Creatoris mei si autem aliquid temere dixero temeritas poenas luit ignorantia veniam promeretur Id. 3. Of the Divine Glory and Vnsearchableness He that goes about to stare long upon the Sun or approach its Light and dive deep into the Nature of it may as Demecritus stare himself Blind before he can make any near approaches to it 'T is not easie to bear the insiuence of the Sun for one whole day suppose we could possibly be so long under the immediate and direct emission of its Glorious Beams tho upon the Earth It will burn combustible stuff at the distance of 1000000 miles should it stand still and neither remove away nor be tempered with other cooling Elements Consider this a little seriously and apply it The Glory of God is such an amazing wonder that as the Father saith in hac mortali vita quicquid ad nos usque pertingit aliud nihil est quam exiguus quidam rivulus ac velut parvus magnae Lucis Rivulus Naz. vide Act. 26.13 1 Tim. 6.16 so that when we go about to search into the Divine Nature we must stand off and know our distance and assume modestly to our thoughts and acknowledge the depth of the Mystery and cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33 c. O the Depth c. sure I am tho we ought as much as any thing in the world to study the Nature and Properties of that God we are concerned with and account it one of the first points of True Wisdom to acquaint our selves with that Almighty Being we have to do with and to pray for more Light and Grace that we may be able in due time to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the Love of God which passeth knowledge Yet in our highest attainments on this side the veil we shall know but in part and prophesie in part our utmost skill will not be sufficient to comprehend the Infinite God in the Embraces of our Finite Conceptions And we shall as soon be able to climb the Sun and stare with open Eyes upon that great Luminary and comprize all its excellent Rays and Influences within the limits of our narrow Bosom as by searching to find out and trace out the Almighty to perfection Est in Deo quod percipi potest est plane si modo quod potest velis Sicut videre est in Sole quod videas si hoc velis videre quod possis amittas autem quod potes videre dum quod non potes niteris it a ut in rebus Doi habes quod intelligas si intelligere quod potes velis Caelum si ultra quam potes speres