Treatise of Divinity, Book 3 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
ON the fourth day were made the Sunne,Gen. 1. 14. 15 Moone, and Starres, which are as it were certaine Vessells wherein the Lord did gather the light, which before 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, Moone, and other heavenly bodies. This worke is often spoken of in Scripture, Gen. 1. 14. Psalm 104. 19. 20. 21, 22, 23. Psalme 136. 7. 8. 9. Psalm 148. He calleth upon the Sunne, Moone, and Starres of light to praise God: and Psal. 19. Hee 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 seene,
First, in the very matter and substance of them, which is wonderfull and inexplicable, who can tell what the Sunne is made of.
2. In their quantity both in respect of multitude & greatnesse. For multitude they be innumerable, and for magnitude, many of the starres are farre 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 Sun and Moon.
3. Their durablenesse: they doe 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 the yeare.2 Chron. 33. 3. Jer. 44. 17. Deut. 4. 19.
The most beautifull bodies of the Starres which we see fastned in Heaven, are not Gods, as Plato in Timaeo called the Starres, by the worshipping of which the blinde Gentiles and the Jewes also horribly polluted themselves: but excellent workes of God, by the contemplation of which wee ought to be stirred up to acknowledge and celebrate the Majestie, glory, wisedome and power of the Creator, 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 Sunne doth exceed the whole earth in bignesse 166. times. King David did aptly compare the Sun to a Giant (for strength) refreshed with wine (for the heate) to run his course, for his swift motion.
The Sun*Sol usitatissimè Hebraeis dicitur foreign Schèmech. à ministrando (quod foreign Schimmesch. quia dei Ministerin natura clarissimus aliter à calore foreign Chammah. Graecis ab foreign i. e. splandore, foreign Latinis Sol, vel quia solus ex omnibus sideribus est tantus, vel quia quum est exortus, obscuratis aliis sol…s appareat. Martinius. is the glorious servant of all the world, therefore it hath its name in Hebrew from serving. The continuall motion, great swiftnesse, exceeding heate, & admirable brightnsse of the Sun doth utter the praise of God, Psal. 19. 3, 4, 5.
The Sun is the fountaine of heate and light, the life of the Universe, the great Torch of the world, and the Ornament of Heaven.
The Sun is fitly scituated, being in the midst of the sixe other Planets, neither too high nor too low.
Altins egressus coelestia tecta cremabit,
Inferius terras: medio tutissimus ibis.
Ovid. lib. 2. de Metamorph. See Dr. Brownes Enquiries, lib. 6. chap. 5.
Secondly the Moone 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, & nearest unto the*… ad corporum quam splendoris eorum respexit Moses, & ad popularem captum & aspectum, qui haec judicat esse maxima sydera in coelo juxta sensum Mercer. See Doctor Hackewells Apology of Gods providence, page 74. 76. 77. earth, and therfore appears biggest of all next unto the Sunne, and gives to the earth a greater light then any of the starres, which are farre 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 beames, 2. by its beame, as that brings the influence. 3. by infusion, as that stirs the waters.
It is called in Latine Luna à lucendo saith Tullie, Dominatur corporibus humidis; as over women (the brain) shel-fish. From the new Moone to the full, all humours doe encrease, and from the full to the new Moone decrease againe.or because solâ lucet nocte, saith Varro. In Hebrew Jareach & Jerech, which words signifie a month, because it is renewed every monethmonth.
A starre is the thicker part of Heaven, round and full of light.
In the day the glistering light of the Sunne obscures all the stars, but in the night how many hundred thousand of them doe we see,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. besides those that are hidden from us in the other part of the Sphere which is not seene 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 beene accounted of.
Philosophers distinguish them into fixed stars and Planets. The Planets are apparently, 7. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, then the Sun in the midst as it were the King of all, after Venus, Mercury, and the Moone. Neither Moses, Job, nor the Psalmes (the most frequent in Astronomicall observations) mention any of the Planets but the Sun and Moone.
Of these stars some are greater then other, and are distinguished into sixe sorts of bignesses. Their proportions are thus delivered, viz. A star of the first bignesse or magnitude is 107 times bigger then the earth.
A Starre of the second magnitude ninety times bigger then the Earth.
A Starre of the third bignesse, 72. times bigger then the Earth.
A Star of the fourth bignesse, is 54. times bigger then the globe of the earth.
A starre of the fift magnitude is 36. times bigger then the Earth.
A starre of the sixt bignesse is eighteene times bigger then the globe of the earth.
We are to bewaile our own great folly and blindness that wee have not more admired,Corollaries. honoured, feared, loved that great worker to whom these Creatures doe point us. We do not often enough tell our selves, this Moone, 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 eternall, because there must be something before that did unite those parts together; wherfore 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 Moone also keepes her course with like constancie. Doth not that mighty armie of stars which in a cleare night shew themselves, even speake to us as it were to consider of his incomprehensible excellencie which made and rules them?
Let us accustome our selves hereafter to these meditations, if God had not beautified heaven with these excellent bodies, light and heate could not have been equally and in due quantity conveyed into all the quarters of the world. We must observe this worke so as to praise God for it, to informe our selves of his nature, and strive to worke more love, feare, obedience, and confidence in our selves towards him. The Apostle saith, that in the times before the Gospell, the Gentiles might have found God as it were by groping, Acts 17. 27.
Now we that have the Scripture to direct us as in the daylight, shall not wee finde God out by these illustrious works of his?