Body of Divinity, Book 3 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the Sun, Moon and Stars.
ON the fourth Day were made the Sun, Moon. and Stars, which are as it were certain Vessels wherein the Lord did gather the light, which beforeGen. 1. 14, 15. was scattered in the whole body of the Heavens. The Hebrew word translated Lights, signifieth Lamps, Torches, or other things which shine forth and give light.
It was a great work of God in making and ordering the Sun, Moon, and other heavenly bodies. This work is often spoken of in Scripture, Gen. 1. 14. Psal. 104. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. Psal. 136. 7, 8, 9. Psal. 148. He calleth upon the Sun, Moon and Stars of light to praise God: and Psal. 19. he saith of the Sun, God hath set a Tabernacle for the Sun. In another place he saith, He guideth the Stars, and calleth them by their names.
The wonderfulnesse of these works of God is seen,
First, In the very matter and substance of them, which is wonderful and inexplicable, who can tell what the Sun is made of?
2. In their quantity, both in respect of multitude and greatnesse. For multtiude they be innumerable: and for magnitude, many of the stars are far greater then the earth.
3. In their qualities, which are principally three.
1. Their figure, the fittest for motion and use, round and orbicular.
2. Their brightnesse and shining, especially the splendour of the Sunne and Moon.
3. Their durablenesse: they do not change.
4. In their motion which is very swift and regular.
5. In their effects, working so constantly and variously in the seasons of the2 Chron. 33. 3 Jer. 44. 17. Deut. 4. 19. year.
The most beautiful bodies of the Stars which we see fastned in Heaven, are not Gods, as Plato in Timaeo called the Stars, by the worshipping of which the blinde Gentiles, and the Jews also horribly polluted themselves: but excellent works of God, by the contemplation of which we ought to be stirred up to acknowledge and celebrate the Majesty, Glory, Wisdome and Power of the Creatour, Psal. 8. 3, 4.
First, For the Sunne that is called the greatest Light, and that most truly and properly, both for the body and substance of it, and also for the brightnesse and abundance of light which is in it. For the most skilfull Mathematicians have demonstrated, that the very body of the Sun doth exceed the whole earth in bigness a hundred sixty six times, others say a hundred and fourty times.
The Sun *Sol ufitatissimè Hebraeis dicitur foreign Schemesh à ministrando (quod foreign Schimme…ch) quia Dei Minister in natura clarissimus: aliter à calor… foreign Chammah. Graecis foreign, i. e. splendore, foreign; Latinis Sol, vel qui… solus ex omnibus …ideribus est tantus, vel quia quum est exortus, obscuratis aliis solus appareat. Martinius.is the glorious servant of all the world, therefore it hath its name in Hebrew from serving.
The Sun is the fountain of heat and light, the life of the Universe, the great Torch of the world, and the Ornament of Heaven.
Its beauty, magnitude, the swiftnesse of its course, and its force are commended by David:
1. Beauty, It comes forth as a Bridegroom out of his chamber, Psal. 19. 6.
2. Strength, It is compared to a Giant.
3. Its Swiftnesse, v. 6. goes ten hundred thousand miles, say the Mathematicians, in an hour.
4. Its force and efficacy upon the inferiour bodies, There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
The Sun is fitly scituated, being in the midst of the six other Planets, neither too high nor too low.
Altius egressus coelestia tecta …r…mabit,
Inferius terras: medi… tutissimus ibis.See Dr Browns Enquities, lib. 6. cap. 5.
Ovid. lib. 2. Metamorph.
The Philosophers conceive that the Sun and Moon are not Actu calidi, only they have a vertue, and by way of eminency as it were, they do produce heat below, and are not hot themselves. To contain any thing by way of eminency, is a property of God, he contains all things eminenter, these faculties which he hath not actually, habitually and subjectively in himself, as faculties, yet he contains them eminently, as being able to produce all; but no creature can produce any thing but by some vertue put into it. Dr Stoughtons Burning Light.
If the Stars be not fiery, why are waters (saith Vossius) placed above the Heaven, as Moses, and in other Scriptures, but to temper their burning heat, least the Heavens should be destroyed by their burning? Vossius de orig. & progress. Idol. l. 2. c. 39. Vide c. 38.
Secondly, The Moon is also called a great Light, not for the bignesse of the body of it, but because it is the lowest of all the Planets, and nearest unto the *Non tam ad magnitudinem corporum, quàm splendoris eorum respexit Moses, & ad popularem captum & aspectum, qui haec judicat esse maxima sydera in Caelo juxta sensum. Mercer. See Doctor Hackwels Apology of Gods Providence, pag. 74, 76. 77.earth, and therefore appears biggest of all next unto the Sunne, and gives to the earth a greater light then any of the Stars, which are far greater in substance, and brighter in light.
Some say it is the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea, for it agreeth exactly with the Revolution of the Moon, it causeth it, 1. By its motion, as it brings its beams, 2. By its beam, as that brings the influence. 3. By infusion, as that stirs the waters.
It is called in Latine Luna à lucend…, saith Tully, or because Solâ lucet nocte, saithDominatur corporibus humidis; as over women (the brain) sh…ll-sish. From the new Moon to the full, all humours do encrease, and from the full to the new Moon decrease again. Varro. In Hebrew Iareach and Ierech, which words signifie a monethmonth, because it is renewed every monethmonth.
A Star is the thicker part of Heaven, round and full of light.
In the day the glistering light of the Sun (say some) obscures all the Stars, butTo think that the brightnesse of the Suns body above, doth drown o… discerning o… …he lesser ligh…s, is a popular errour; the sole impediment being that lustre, which by reflection doth spread about us from the face of the earth. Sir Henry Wottons Elem. of Architect. part. 2. Only God can number the Stars, Psal. 147. 4. It is impossible for man to number them, which God intimates to Abraham, Gen. 15. 5. in the night how many hundred thousand of them do we see, besides those that are hidden from us in the other part of the Sphere which is not seen by us? The number of Stars set upon the Globe are 1025. and divers of them have proper names. All the Stars of the Heaven are not numbred nor cannot, since divers of them are so small: but these 1025. are the principallest amongst them, and all that have ever been accounted of.
Philosophers distinguish them into fixed Stars and Planets. The Planets are apparently seven, Saturn, Iupiter, Mars, then the Sun in the midst as it were the King of all, after Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Neither Moses, Iob, nor the Psalms (the most frequent in Astronomical observations) mention any of the Planets but the Sun and Moon.
Of these Stars some are greater then other, and are distinguished into six sorts of1 Cor. 15. 41. All Stars are not Primae magnitud…nis. quantities. Their proportions are thus delivered, viz. a Star of the first bignesse or magnitude, is a hundred and seven times bigger then the earth.
A Star of the second magnitude, ninety times bigger then the earth.
A Star of the third bignesse, seventy two times bigger then the earth.
A Starre of the fourth bignesse, is four and fifty times bigger then the globe of the earth.
A Star of the fifth magnitude, is six and thirty times bigger then the earth.
A Starre of the sixth bignesse, is eighteen times bigger then the globe of the earth.
We are to bewail our own great solly and blindnesse, that we have not moreCorollaries. Ethnici colebant Solem & Lunam prius quam alias creatur as terres…res: usque a… ut Moses, Deut 40. 19. notans duos sontes idololatriae, prius facit mentionem Solis & Lunae, deinde similitudiuem viri aut soemin…, a…t qua…rupedis, Job 31. 26. …er. 44. 17, 18. Rainold. de lib. Apoc. Tom. 2. Praelect. 237. Sol ab antiquissimis, ut Deorum maximus col…batur: nominaque Jovis, Saturni, Martis, Liberi, Ari, Osiridis, aliaque multa Solem significarunt. Qu… d… re Macrobius l. 1. Saturn. c. 16. Voss. in Maimon. de Idol. c. 6. admired, honoured, feared, loved that great worker to whom these Creatures do point us. We do not often enough tell our selves, this Moon, this Sunne, these Stars could not, nor did not make themselves. They could not possibly be without any beginning at all, for they are but parts of the whole world, and no part of any whole can be eternal, because there must be something before that did unite those parts together; wherefore they were made by some superiour essence, and more excellent then themselves, and that is God. How great, how wise, how good, how infinitely excellent is he whose hand framed and ordered these things! The Sunne ariseth to us constantly, the Moon also keeps her course with like constancy. Doth not that mighty Army of Stars which in a clear night shew themselves, even speak to us as it were to consider of his incomprehensible excellency, which made and rules them? See Iob 38. 31, 32, 33.
Let us accustome our selves hereafter to these Meditations, if God had not beautified Heaven with these excellent bodies, light and heat could not have been equally and in due quantity conveyed into all the quarters of the world. We must observe this work so as to praise God for it, to inform our selves of his nature, and strive to work more love, fear, obedience and confidence in our selves towards him. The Apostle saith, That in the times before the Gospel, the Gentiles might have found God as it were by groping, Act. 17. 27.
Now we that have the Scripture to direct us as in the day-light, shall not we find God out by these illustrious works of his?