Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Part 1 · Sermon 6
That there is a God.
Gen. 1. verse 1.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
EƲery Scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, Matth. 13.52.is like a man who is an housholder, which brings forth out of his treasure things New and Old. For every provident Master of a family hath his storehouse, and 'tis well provided,Cato de Senect. abundat hoedo, caseo, lacte, oleo, g…llina, vino; he hath his Old and his New wine, his fruits of this year, and the last, and discreetly he brings forth both, as may make for the honour of his house, and content of his guests and family: So is every Scribe, every Doctor, every Pastor, who is learned and instructed to promote the kingdom of heaven. This man is not to seek for provision for Gods people up and down, he knows not where;Exod. 5.11, 12. (as Israel went to look for straw over all the Land of Egypt, and when all was done it was but stubble) But he hath it by him, and occasionally he brings it forth: his treasury is full of Scripture, full of reason, full of Mo…es, full of the Prophets, full of the Law, full of the Gospel, full of old Presidents, full of new Examples, full of old Exhortations, Parables, Arguments, full of new Demonstrations, Apothegms, Sentences, Axioms, Perswasions, as may make for the repast, nourishment, health, and satisfaction of his auditory.
At the former meetings I entertained you with delicates out of the Newer treasury, those which Saint Luke and Saint Paul had before prepar'd; I was only like the housholder to bring them forth. This hour out of the storehouse I shall present you with a more Old and Ancient dish, being the first that ever was, and put into the treasury by Moses, in comparison of whom, all those whom we call ancient Writers, are but new men, and of yesterday.Just. Martyr. foreign. From him therefore I fetch the provision, that I intend now to set before you; and I have been moved to do it, because it is the confirmation of the first Article of our Creed. Here we professe to beleeve in God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth: and Moses old record assures us that it was so, that In the beginning God created heaven and earth. So that in this our Belief we have not followed cunningly devised fables, 2 Pet. 1.16.but that for which we have a good and an old record to shew: a witnesse beyond all exception.
In this Chapter Moses sets out to us the story of the Creation of the whole world. Teaching us that it was not eternal, but that it had a beginning in time. Thus the record begins In principio, Basil.that is, foreign, at that time when things were not, but began to be, for principium is here verbum inceptionis, Tertul. concra Hermogen.a word that signifies the inchoation or entrance upon the work. As if Moses had said, when God pleased, the world began. And because that every thing is best known, when the causes thereof are discovered, therefore he hath not concealed these.
1. He acquaints us with the efficient, which is Elohim, three persons, the Father, Cap. 2.4.Sonne, and Holy Ghost; Jehovah the Lord God. In our Creed God the Father, who hath a being of himself, and is the sole Author and Father of all being, whether of Nature or Grace.
2. The material cause, which was indeed Nothing, for he created it; and the difference betwixt generation and creation is vulgarly known, that the first was out of a pre-existent matter,Aquin. 1ae parte q. 65. Art. the last the production of a thing according to its whole substance, no matter being presupposed. This is an act of omnipotency, and therefore in the Creed we give him this attribute, Almighty. That which is thus produced, is summed up in both places under the name of heaven and earth. In heaven we are taught, there are the spheres, the starres, the two great lights, with the Angelical powers, which have their seats therein. Below the Moone, then the elements, birds, beasts, fishes, trees, plants, minerals, men; There be visible, there be invisible creatures, some below, some above, and God Almighty is the maker of all these. And all these he made at first from Nothing.Gen. 1.2, 6. Dixit & facta. He said the word only, Let it be so, and so it was. Let there be light, and there was light; Let there be a firmament and there was a firmament.
3. Moses though he only names the generals, as fowles, fishes, herbs, cattel, and creeping things, yet he tells us, that they were made after their kinde, in such or such a species; and then they must have of necessity somewhat that internally doth specificate them, and put an essential difference betwixt kinde and kinde, which can be nothing else but the forme, it being the property of that to give being, distinction, and operation to every kinde. And so he hath led us by the hand to the Formal cause also.
4. Lastly, he opens to us the final cause, viz. That all these creatures were made for Man.Verse 28, 29. He to be the Lord, and have dominon over all; all given to him for his use, for his enjoyment; yet so, that he returne God his tribute of glory. In the Creed therefore also called a Father, standing in a more peculiar relation to men than to other creatures, which Plato perceived, and professed, that God was a maker of other things, but a Father of men.
It is not my purpose at this time to enlarge my discourse upon the work or works of the Creation; my aime meerly is to informe you about matters of faith; and therefore I shall acquaint you with these particulars.
1. That there is a God. For God created.
2. That this God is one in essence, but in this Godhead are three distinct persons.Zanchy. For its said by Moses, that Elohim creavit. The Noune Plural being joyned to a Verb Singular. The Plural intimating to us the Trinity, the Verb Singular the Unity.
3. That this God was the Creatour. By which act is set forth unto us, his Wisdome, his Power, and his Al-sufficiency: which I shall have occasion to make use of in the proof of my first Proposition, viz.
1. That there is a God.
The first duty that God requires of every man, is, That he doth acknowledge that there is a God. 'Tis the first principle that a man must learn.Heb. 11.6. Saint Paul puts a necessity upon it, He that comes to God, must believe that he is; and he spoke it but out of his Masters mouth;John 17.3. This is life eternal to believe thee to be the only God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ. Where two things are propounded for a man to believe; one as a man, the other as a Christian: As a man, to believe a God, to whom he is bound for his Creation. As a Christian, to believe Jesus Christ to whom he is indebted for his salvation. Even nature will bind him to the one, but grace to the other; having from Jehovah his root of being, from Jesus his original of well-being.
The first of these positions, to wit, Deum esse, that there is a God, is so certain in it self, and so universally receiv'd by all Nations, that I thought it lost labour to go about to prove it. Yet when I consider'd again, that there is in the world a degenerate generation of men mis-shapen in the powers of their souls, and transformed from the power of reason, rooting up those Maximes and Principles, which reason and the hand of Nature hath planted in them, I thought it not amiss to fortifie this foundation upon which all that followeth must relie.
foreign. Atheism is the great sickness of the soule, whence proceed all other distemperatures in the life. And of it are guilty, first the contradicting Atheist, who, with that Diagoras flatly denies that there is a God; tell him of blasphemies, he smiles, as if there were no name to be blasphemed; that it is the h… One of Israel, he impudently returns, That there is nothing holy. Wit… him the whole service of God is but an humane invention, that hoped to master them by Religion, whom they could not overcome by reason. Ring in his eare the joyes of heaven, or the paines of hell, 'tis as if you spoke of the Elysian fields, or Plato's Court. Produce Scripture to prove it, as good alledge Rablais or the Alcoran. Next to him is the Sceptick, the disputing Atheist, who though he is not positive there is no God, yet he questions An sit, whether there be a God or no, and to that end he invents Arguments pro & con, Nazian. foreign.that may serve for both sides; and for the most part defends as Julian, foreign, the worst part of the probleme. But let him know, that while he thus hangs in aequilibrio, between the two, from his an sit, he is in danger to come to Non est, from his doubt to the flat Negative, there is no God.Plalm 14.1. And yet there is another of this brood, you may call him the Natural Atheist; who is so taken up with his Natura naturata, that he thinks never of Natura naturans; so drown'd with the constant and visible work of Nature below, that he never looks up to God, that infused by an eternal Law, that constancy into the works of Nature. Now this is a man impeditae linguae, who sometimes lisps and stammers that Nature is that which we Divines call God, and besides her there is no other. In the last place appears the Practical Atheist, the man who in words acknowledgeth God, but in his works denies him. Whence are those sinnes that have tongues and cry? are they not from this fountaine? Blasphemy would not be heard, blood would not cry; Oppression, Sacriledge, Perjury, would not be a burden to the Land; Moses and Aaron would be of more esteem,Psalm 14.1. did not men say in their hearts with the Fool, There is no God.
Now divers causes there are, which may bring men and invite them to sit down and rest in cathedrâ pestilentiae, in this chaire of scorners. Psalm 1.1.The first is pride of heart; they think the vast braine of man should comprehend all things; which being but finite, must needs be too shallow to comprehend an infinite Majesty. For finiti ad infinitum nulla proportio. Is it not enough to apprehend him, but he would comprehend him also? Could he be proportion'd to the model of our braine, he were not God, not infinite, not immense. Never then let the Devil lead thee to this Atheisme, Thou canst not comprehend him, therefore reject him, Thou canst never understand fully what he is, therefore deny that he is. Secondly, There is not any man who is conscious of some wicked deed, who desires not to be hid, and to escape punishment.Tertul. Apol. c. 1. Malefici gestiunt latere, devitant apparere, trepidant deprehensi, negant accusati. If there be a God, he must be just; if just, he will be reveng'd on sinners, and then he will be reveng'd on me, saith the Atheist; which that he be not, he shall not be. Thirdly, They finde things succeed not according to their minde; they ask and have not, and then they doubt with the Israelites, Exod. 17.7. Job 22.15.Whether God is among them or not. What is the Almighty, that they should serve him? and what profit shall they have, if they pray unto him? Lastly, That which should have been for their wealth, is unto them an occasion of falling; that very thing which should have taught them that there is a God, hath perswaded them that he is not. For what greater evidence of the Deity is there, than the constant and interrupted order we see of this Universe, every creature being obedient and observant of that Law which God gave at first? Their actions are uniforme, one course they keep, yet know not what they do, nor why; which proceeding not from themselves, must on necessity come from some such Agent originally, that knoweth, appointeth, holdeth up this order, constancy, uniformity. This then might stay these mens haste and blasphemy, in concluding that God is not: Whereas like a wholeso…e …ose, that meets with a foule stomach or a rotten liver, it hath a contra… e…ect, for it makes them to blaspheme, as is evident;2 Pet. 3.4. Since the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were, say they, even from the beginning of the Creation. The thing which hath been, Eccles. 1.15.is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done, and there is no now thing under the sun; and upon it they infer,
Nullum esse Deum, inan… coelum.
There is no God, nor Lord, nor Diligence,
Nor Love, nor Care, nor Power, nor Providence.
These be the motives to this odious impiety, and easie it is from a Christian heart to remove them: But from one who is resolv'd to be obstinate, and will be st…ff in the denial, there is not any thing more hard and difficult: For this is not a conclusion, but a pri…ciple, and the first of all other principles.Dr. Fotherby Atheomastix. lib. 1. cap. 1. Now principles in all Arts, especially in the highest, as is Divinity, are most difficult to be proved, because they are the first and immediate propositions, most known and indemonstrable in themselves, and admit no cause or medium by which they may be assured. Expect not then in this case invincible demonstrations, because the proposition hath its foundation, not in sense, nor in science, but meerly in belief; and upon that Saint Paul builds it,Heb, 11.3. We by faith understand that the world were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear. By faith alone, (sai…h the Apost…e) we have the assurance thereof; then can reason but grope at this Truth in the dark, and produce only probable Arguments for it,Thom. part. 1ae. q. 46. Art. 2. Concl. not demonstrative. What Aquinas concludes of the Creation, is as true of this principle, Mundum coepisse, suppose it be Deum esse, sold fide tenetur, nec demonstrativè hoc sciri p…test, sed id credere maximè ex…edit. That the world began by Creation, or that God is, is only assured by faith; neither can it be demonstratively known, but it is most expedient to believe it. And he addes, That it is very profitable to know thus much,Corp. Art. lest that any man undertaking to demonstrate this, and being able to produce only Arguments of credibility, gives an occasion to Atheists and Infidels to mock and scoff at him, supposing that we upon those grounds do believe those things which are meerly conclusions of faith.
But if it be objected, That Thomas himself moving the question,Part. 1. q. 2. Art. 2. whether it be demonstrable or not, Deum esse, that God is, resolves it that it is. I answer, That he affirmes no more but that it may be prov'd by an imperfect demonstration. Not, saith he, à priori, or per causam, but only à posteriori, or ex notiori nobis effectu. Never by any former or pre-existent cause, but from some noble and eminent effects, which are after and depend upon that cause; which by Logicians are accounted but imperfect demonstrations, and only Arguments of credibility: Which I shall marshal under these two heads; either of Revelation or Reason, of Scripture or Nature; for the knowledge of God is brought to us either by his Word, or his Works. His Word, the Scripture, is open only to those of his family; but his works, Heaven and Earth, and the creatures in both, is a Book in Folio, open to all the world, wherein the most unletter'd man may perceive there is a God. The Records that are yet extant and receiv'd by all Christians are beyond exception; and he deserves not the name of a Christian, that dare doubt or say, That the Scripture is not his Word. In this he that runnes may reade this Truth engraven, as with the point of a Diamond almost in every Line. If therefore it can be proved that this is his Word, with the same breath prov'd it will be that he is, since it is necessary that the Agent be before the Action, the person exist before he speak. The first being the efficient, and the last the signification of his Will.
These Oracles of God were first entrusted with the Jew. So much was acknowledg'd by an old Oracle extant in Justine Martyr.
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foreign.foreign.
For the old part of this Record they, the Jewes I mean, and yet preserve, have deliver'd it unto us. This together with the New, the Catholick Church of God hath stooped unto as the revealed Will of God. And this must needs be a strong inducement devoutly and diligently to read it, and reverently to esteem it; with which the more we consult, the more we shall be perswaded that it came from God: There is in the Edicts so much Majesty, in the Pen-men so much Unity and Harmony, in the Truth so much constancy, in the Doctrine so much equity and purity. Had it proceeded from the corrupt fountaine of mans braine, either the flatness of the stile, or the jarring of the writers, or the inconstancy of the materials, or the injustice or impurity of the Rules contained in it, would too rankly have savoured of flesh and blood. That I name not those strange predictions (which had their complement in their season) contain'd in it; and those high and sublime Revelations so farre beyond the reach of man to invent, that they are not believed when Taught. Could a Natural man be the Authour of that, which as yet no Natural man is able by the strength of reason to comprehend?
Farther yet, even Nature it self hath ingraffed in every mans soul a desire to be happy. To which all the directions of men are unsufficient, because they never yet could finde out a meanes fully to content and satisfie Gods justice for one sinne. Necessary then it was, that man who was ordained to, and desires to attaine happiness, should have some supernatural help to bring him to it, since all natural was too weak. This we call the revealed Will of God, without which the desire of the soul will be frustrate. And once let it be granted that Revelation is necessary, and then one of these two will follow; That there never was any such Revelation; which will frustrate the intentions of God for mans felicity: Or that the Word of God which we now embrace, is that Revelation, since there is no other extant.
To close up this Digression, I shall offer one thing more only, which will be a stong perswasion that this is the Book of God, and that it came not from any private impulsion. Every man is so great a flatterer of himself, and so jealous of his own honour, that were it possible, he would not suffer the least of his infirmities to appeare, much less his foulest enormities to be blazon'd to posterity. But the Secretaries of this Book have not concealed their grossest faults,Exod. 32. Num. 12. & 20. Psalm. 51. Jonah 1. & 4. 1 Tim. 1.13. nor their friends impurest actions. Moses, not the fathers errours, nor his own, no nor Aarons his own brothers transgressions; David in a Throne mournes, yet expresseth his adultery, and murder of Ʋriah; Jonah Book'd his shameful flight, and his sullen anger, his impatience; Paul mentions his cruel persecution of the Church, and was content to have it set out at large by Saint Luke, as Saint Peter also his perjury and denial of his Master by the Evangelists. Since then these pious soules either wrote themselves their own blemishes, or being written by others, suffered not an Index expurgatorius to pass upon them; a mighty evidence it is, That there was a motion more than humane that thus disposed them to write, and to beare with what was written.
To what purpose you will say, is all this? to what else, but to perswade you, or rather all Infidels, that the Scripture is the revealed Will of God? And then it will necessarily follow, that there is a God before he can reveal any thing, which was the Point to be proved.
Secondly, Were we to convince a Mahometan in this question, we could be copious in proofs out of the Alcoran; were we to undertake a Jew, a Saducee, a Samaritan, we could convince them either out of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, or Talmud. Had we a dispute with some wise Heathen, we could serve our selves of infinite Testimonies from their own Writings. Our Task is then the more difficult, because being to deal with men, who would be held, and are in their own eyes the sole ingrossers and Monopolists of reason, yet to wise men seem most irrational. But as Festus said to Paul, Acts 25.12.Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go; So say I also to these men, that since they appeal to reason, at the Tribunal of reason they shall take their Tryal.
Where the first Witness I produce shall be the soule of man. Consiste in medio anima, Tetrul. Test. animae. cap. 1. Apolog. cap. 17.stand forth, O thou soule of man; I call thee not taught to speak at Athens, or informed in the School, or enabled by Libraries. It is thee now I cite hither, who art rude and simple, and wholly unlearned, such as a man may finde at Plough in the high way; I had almost said dwelling in the breast of an Ideot. In this case I have need of thy simplicity and plainness, since to thy Art and skill this Adversary will not give credit. What we may not without suspicion of fraud be heard to say, you shall hear this simple soul openly pronounce, God is good, God is great, God gives all things. Do him good, he returnes his blessing in the Name of God; Deus benedicat, God bless you for it. Do him wrong, he appeales to Heaven; Deus videt omnia, & Deus reddet, & Deus inter nos judicabit, God sees all, and God revenge my Quarrel, I commend my case to God, God judge betwixt us. O Testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae, This is the Testimony of a soul that even nature hath taught to speak like a Christian. For were this voice heard alone where the Gospel might infuse such a principle, it might be suspected; But when the tongues of naked Indians, and savage Americans are inur'd to these formes, I see that universally in all men there cannot be but some inbred notions of the Deity ingraffed and infixed in their souls, by the larger use of reason, and relicks of the Divine Image. Compass the world, finde you may Cities without walls, Letters, Princes,P…utarch. Wealth, Schools, Theaters; but not one shall you finde without some God, without a Tryal by Oath, without some Ceremony of Religion, by which they hope to procure good things for them, and to avert evil from them. Out of which Calvin well collects, In eo tacita quaedam confessio est, Calvin. instit. c. 1. Sect. 4.inscriptum in cordibus hominum Divinitatis sensum, That by this there is a tacit confession,Tusc. 1 & de Natura Deorum. that there is a sense of a Deity inscribed in the hearts of all men; I adde out of Tully, be they never so cruel or barbarous.
2. And yet this is not the sole evidence that the soule gives in to this Truth. God hath placed in every mans breast a conscience, in which things are not written as in sinking paper, where the letters cannot be read, but as Characters drawn with the juyce of an Onyon, not legible till they are brought to the fire. Suppose you beheld a man commit some heynous sinne securely and secretly, and perswading himself that there is nor Judge nor Revenger; at that instant let but death appeare, and hold up his finger, his countenance is chang'd, his knees smite together, his heart becomes cold as a stone. Now his conscience beginnes to awake, and assures him there is a God that judgeth the earth. It was a pious meditation of Bernard, At home I have an Accuser, a Witness, a Judge, a Tormentor;Bernard. de Inter. domo. c. 14. my conscience accuseth me, my memory is the Witness, my reason is the subordinate Judge, and feare is the Tormentor. This causeth even the boldest Atheist, who in his ruff and jollity defies heaven, in a time of distress and danger to eat his words, and seek for help of that Deity he hath before denyed and blasphemed. The Oratour makes mention of one Metrodorus a famous Atheist of his time,Cicero. than whom I never saw any man more surprized with feare. Nunquam vidi quenquam qui magis timeret ea; quae timenda negaret, mortem dico & Deos, I never beheld a man who did more feare those things which he denyed to be feared, Death and the Gods.Hesych. Illustrius. And there is extant an elegant Epigram of one Bion Borysthenes one of the same crue, who in his health scoffed at the Gods, and every one he saw at his prayers; but falling sick, foreign, &c. He did not only please the Gods with the fat of Rammes, and labour to feast and delight their nostrills with the sweetest incense; neither said only Peccavi, I have sinn'd, pardon what's past; but he yielded his neck to the Charmes of an old Witch. Gods there were when he would live, and was in danger; not so much as the Devil that should not be sought to. A story much like this we finde in Aeschylus. When the Persian Army was to pass the River Strimon before frozen, and on a sudden beginning to Thaw; At every crack of Ice, saith the Messenger, there I saw with my eyes those Gallants (whom before I heard boldly to maintain there was no God) every one of them on their knees, and full devoutly praying the Ice might hold till they got over. See, see, what death, what sick…ess, what a Thaw can do! in an instant it can convert an Atheist into a Theist, a profane wretch into a devout; of a mocker, change a man to a superstitious foole. So hard a matter it is to check nature, and stifle conscience, but it will arrest the man in a time of feare and trouble, and set him to the Barre. In their prosperity confess God they will not, lest they should feare him; but the least feare extorts from them a free confession. And because they would not feare God that made all things,Psalm 53.5. Sueton. Cicero. Lev. 26.36. Isa. 19.16. they are afraid of all things they need not feare. This being the perpetual note of an Atheist, to fear; with Caligula, a Thunder-clap; with the Stoick, a storme, a leafe, a shadow, the shaking of a hand.
Come now, O thou immoveable Stoick, and looser Epicure, thou spawn of the old Saducee, come now, I say, and let us reason together. Why dost quake? why art thou wanne? No eye sees thee, no face beholds thee, all's done in secret, and the night dwells upon thy actions. There are no passions; heaven is a fable, and hell a Tale; there is neither Angel, nor Spirit, nor yet Gods: or if any, they take their rest and ease above, and regard not any thing that is here done below; Fate and Necessity alone beare the sway in all things, and dost thou yet tremble? are thou yet pale? dost thou yet flye and hide? Well, now I see that guilt makes thee a man againe, and danger creates feare, and feare creates Gods. That little spark of the Deity, which thy looser course of life hath raked up for a time beginnes to glow in a time of trouble, presents to thy conscience a Judge, a Tribunal, a fearful Sentence. Let us then appeale ab ebriis ad sobrios, from Caligula in his pride, to Caligula under a clap of Thunder; from the Stoick in a cleare day, to the Stoick in a storme; from the Epicure in h…s drunken fit of security, to the same Epicure under a disease presenting him with the ghastly face of death;Gen. 42.21. In a word, from Josephs Brethren in Dothan, to Josephs Brethren in Prison: And then even these Opponents that stiffly denyed, will now easily grant the Conclusion, That there is a God that judgeth the earth. You shall not need to prove it, for it shall be freely confessed. So powerful is that evidence of conscience in them, the sting of which, though it may be blunted, yet cannot it be pull'd out, but will shoote, and ake, and put them to paine while it convicts them as guilty, and summons them to answer at Gods Tribunal. It was not without reason then, that David prayed,Psalm 9.20. Put them in feare, O Lord, that the Heathen may know themselves to be but men. So he concludes the Psalm, and so will I conclude this Argument.
3. Another there is of no less force, which this Text affords, Heaven and Earth; and the serious view and survey of these, will with a loud voice proclaime the Creatour. Cardinal Cusanus. Rom. 1.20.For universus mundus nihil aliud est quam D us explicatus, The whole world is nothing else but God expressed. For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; even his eternal Power and Godhead. Basil.The heaven and the earth then is foreign, a Divinity Schoole, in which every Creature is a Doctor of the Chaire, and reads to us a plaine Lecture of the Creatour. For as that excellent Carver Phidias did so cunningly engrave his own name in Minerva's shield,Cicero 1. Tusc. that it was impossible to blot out the Letters, without utterly defacing the whole picture: So also it hath pleased Almighty God to set his own Name with so curious a hand upon the least of his creatures, that it is not possible to blur out the Character an not deny the Work-master.
Suppose you should arrive in some Island, where at first there appeared unto you no inhabitant,Phil. Morn. de veritate Relig. Christ. cap. 1. yet you should here behold stately structures, magnificent Temples, Vines digested into order, and Fruits of all sorts springing from stocks either by engraffing or inoculation: Say you would certainly, that the stones roll'd not together of themselves to this beauty, nor the trees could never conspire to plant, and order one another; and upon it conclude, that this Island hath, or hath had wise inhabitants; Some man without question hath seated himself here; for we evidently behold the ingenuity of a man, though the steps of his feet appear not. We will therefore proceed farther, and make trial, if we yet can finde out the the Author of these works of wonder. To the light we are brought, everywhere we meet with works which man was never able to make, no nor yet know nor understand, should his dayes be drawn out to those of Methuselah. Ought we not to wonder, and in admiration to conclude, The Spirit of God hath gone this way, the Spirit of the Almighty is in this; since in every place we behold that, which not the wit of man, nor arme of flesh were able to bring to passe. Pitch upon the immediate cause, you are too low; upon the next wheele, you are yet to seek; ascend to the Sun, the Moon, the Starres, you cannot be so satisfied; for what is it that hath set all these to work in such a constant way, and order? The minde of the most diligent enquirer can finde nothing to rest in, till from the connexion of causes he arrives at the first, which is an infinite omnipotent agent, the Spirit of God that mov'd upon the face of the waters.Gen. 1.2. That meditation of Hermes was pious, Domine ego contemplabor te, &c. O Lord, I will consider thee, in those things above, in those things below.Hermes Trismeg. Thou hast created all things, neither is this universal Nature any thing else than an Idea or exemplar of thee.
Now in this glasse we behold the face of God three several wayes. 1.Viguer. cap. 19. Sect. 1. vers. 1. Via eminentiae. 2. Negationis. Causationis. 1. First, eminently, when those perfections which are in the creature mount our thoughts to the Creator, and warrant us to affirme, that if they be honorable in the effect, they must needs be of far more veneration in the cause. We know that God cannot be compounded of Substance and Accidents, but whatsoever is in God, is God; and therefore we should call him, in abstracto, justice, mercy, goodnesse, power it self, and not just, merciful, good, omnipotent. 'Tis then by Analogy this is done; and from the similitude of a finite object every way agreeable to our weak understanding, we attribute to God those vertues in which the creature doth excel. We hold it an honour to a man to be wise, just, good, holy, merciful, &c. and therefore we conceive it will make for his glory to acknowledge, that he is wise in his counsels, just in his proceedings, good in benefits, holy in his wayes, merciful in his forbearance. Eminent in all these, and paramount, infinitely beyond the perfections of the best man.
2. The way we come to know God from the creature, is Negatively, by which we remove from him all those defects and imperfections which are incid…nt to our selves; We stile him Immortal, Immutable, Invisible, Infinite, Incomprehensible, because mortality, and mutability argue a defect in the creature; and to be limited and confined, imperfectoin. 'Tis not therefore for him who hath an unlimited essence to be stinted by our eye or minde; 'tis not for him, who is life it self, or in whom is no shadow of change, to be subject to mortality and alteration. Leave all these defects to mortal, mutable, and weak men; and therefore that we may be sure to remove them far enough from him, we have chosen to expresse our selves in these Negative Epithets. For,Julius Scaliger. Nullis vocibus tam plenè Deum significamus quam iis, quae ignorantiam praetendunt. We signifie God by no words so fully, as those which expresse our own ignorance.
3. But both these wayes, the Affirmative, the Negative, rather shew us what God is, than that he is: how we shall apprehend him, than how we shall prove his being and existence. And before I proceed farther, I beseech the Majesty of heaven to pardon my bold attempt and presumption, and say the sin to the charge of those miscreants which have put me to this unwilling and unnecessary labour. For such it were, would men but confesse what they see and fee…e, and acknowledge but so much as the grounds of reason would informe them: For we never see any effect, but presently we enquire after the cause; we never behold a thing, but strait we enquire who did it. The effects we must needs confesse are not easie to be numbred, and the causes by which produced, subordinate, a wheele in a wheele, and the inferiour depending upon the Superiour, and the lesse mov'd by that which is chain'd and next to it, by which if we ascend,Thom. parte 1ae q. 2. Artic. 3. Conclus. we shall at last come unto one first mover, in whom our thoughts must rest. For otherwise the progresse in subordinate causes would be infinite, which may not be admitted. For let the causes that work under one another extend to an infinity, the minde will not have whereon to settle, but still must enquire farther, and then nothing can be known, since all science ariseth from the knowledge of the causes. There must then in these be an order, and all order presupposeth primum & ultimum, the first and the last. The last is often evident; The first we seek for, which being not to be found in heaven or earth, for all things in both are moved; and it is granted, that Nihil movetur à seipso, that Nothing can be moved of it self; it then upon necessity must be moved by another, which can be nothing else but a supreme power, from which all other must depend tam in ess…ndo quam causando, both in essence and causation. And this is that eternal being we call God, foreign, that first and independent cause in himself; Causa causae, & causa causati, The cause from which all other inferiour causes have their efficiency, and the cause of all other effects whatsoever: According to that of Saint Paul, God works all in all; far more powerfully, and with greater efficacy concurring to any effect than any second cause; which truth Aristotle, that great Master of Nature saw,Metaphys. 2. text. 17. and confessed; for saith he, Si prima non essent, nihil esset. If there be not a First, there will be Nothing.
It is the belief of a Heathen. Credo Deos immortales ideo sparsisse animos in humana corpora, Cicero de Senect.&c. I beleeve, saith he, the immortal Gods to that end to have sent from the celestial dwelling souls into the bodies of men, that beholding the beauty of the earth, and order of heaven, they should imitate both by an orderly life, and a constant course. Our soul then was not infused to be idle; It was first for contemplation of what Ood made, heaven and earth, in which what can we else see but works of wonder? To which I now call you, and desire your patience, while I lead you through the whole; you must needs acknowledge the Maker the more clearly after this view.
God created heaven and earth.
Behold and see the foundation strongly laid, the fabrick strangely erected, the roofe curiously set on, beautified with greater and lesser lights; and can you do lesse than acknowledge that in every roome, above and below, you see the face of God, as in a glasse, darkly? and read in these great volumes the power, the wisdome, the goodnesse of the Creatour? his power in making, in upholding; his wisdome in placing, and ordering; his goodnesse in beautifying the whole,Tuscul. quest. 1. and giving strange and contrary gifts to the least of his creatures? When we see these things, can we doubt, quin his praesit aliquis conditor & effector, that there is over these some maker and Efficient, some moderator of so great a work?
I will carry you through every chamber of this Escurial; but by the way, I pray take notice of the roof; Look but upon the matter, and you shall finde it more refined than these inferiour bodies, as if that spacious arch had been made of the finer stuff, and these elementary bodies of the dregges and refuse of the mettle. Hence it is that those higher orbes have not run to ruine, nor needed any reparation from the first erection. Look upon the form, and then how spacious, how glorious is it? The extent is beyond thought, in which the most stars exceed in quantity the earth, and are yet remov'd from other by so great a distance. And the glory so clear, that every orbe is as glasse diaphanous, and gives leave to the eye to see those higher and brighter lamps in the eighth wheele, whose light indeed seemes to us to shake into quicker rayes, because our eyes are too weak to behold it. Yet all these are but seconds, indigent candles that must borrow their light, their glory from the fountain of light, the Sun, whose splendour is so fiery and radiant,Job. 31.26, 27. Deut. 4.19. that it will dazle the strongest eye, except that of the Eagle, to behold it: So wonderful, that it hath forc'd them, who know no better, to fall down, adore, and worship it.
Neither are these lights more glorious in their bodies, than wonderful in their motions. Should I but name unto you the swiftness of the first wheele, it were enough to set you in admiration. So beyond all conceit it is, that it hath begot in our Magnetical Philosophers a fancy that the earth moves, and that the heaven stands still; For by casting up the Circumference they find the Orbe so vast,Wright in his Epist. to Gilbert set before his Book de Magnete. that should it whirle round in twenty four hours, in ictu oculi it should run a race of five hundred English miles, or eo circiter tempore, quo quis celeriter incedendo unico tantum passu progredi possit, or in the spacea man could take a swift and hasty stride five thousand. And upon it they have serv'd that Orbe with a writ of ease.
To those then I descend which do move. And in them I meet with the Planets, all which though erratical, yet are constant in their wayes in the Zodiaque. This is the reason that the Astronomers so certainly acquaint you with their Conjunctions, Oppositions, Sex tiles, Trines, divers years before.Plin. l. 2. c. 12. This was the reason that Hipparchus compiled his Ephimerides containing the course and Aspects of the Sun and Moon for six hundred years ensuing, and that no lesse assuredly than if he had been of Natures privy counsel. We finde not that they quickned or slackned their motions, but that in the same space of time they alwayes run the same races, which being ended, they begin them again as freshly as at the first instant they set forth. And it is no lesse wonderful, that however the rest move in some latitude, yet the Sun keeps his course in the Ecliptick, which is an oblique circle, and carries him sometimes on this, sometimes on that side of the Aequatour, and that by a perpetual Law, that all people might proportionably partake of his light, heat and influence:Psal. 148.6. foreign, &c. as Plutarch hath observed; The first motive that led men unto God, was the orderly and constant motion of the Stars, day and night,Plut. l. 1. c. 6. de placitis philosophorum. Summer and Winter observing their designed risings and settings. And Cicero the father of eloquence hath largely delivered the same. Tuscul. quest. 1.
No marvel then if David raised with a diviner spirit, breaks forth and sings, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shews his handy work; one day telleth another, and one night certifies another; there is neither speech nor language, but their voices are heard among them. Ps. 19.1, 2, 3, 4.The heavens he tells us are become Preachers enarrant, they declare; and the subject of their Declaration is the glory of God. And they are diligent preachers, for they preach day and night, vers. 2.Bellar. in hunc Psal. And they are learned Preachers, for they preach in all tongues, verse 3. And they are Catholick Preachers, for they preach in all lands. Give good heed then to the Sermons they preach, and like little children, busie not your selves by gazing on the gilded cover of the book, from whence they have taken their text, but lay up the Doctrine, and you will confesse there is a God.
Hitherto you have looked upon the roof only; will it now please you to enter the house, and view the building: In which I pray take notice of the method of the Creatour, how aptly, how wisely he hath disposed all things. In the higher rooms most purity, but upon the floor, the dregges and lees of all, storing up mettals and minerals in the bowels of the basest element, as in the Cellarage: surely it was his mind to inject some such thought into us, that earth was framed for baser offices and uses, but heaven for our habitation and entertainment. Ever the higher you rise, the more perfection, each element as superiour unto other in place, so in purity, that our thoughts by these staires of perfection might aspire to the top of holinesse.
But it cannot be denyed, we are yet setled upon the lower roome, the ground; wisdome it were to view that we tread upon. Why doth not this foundation sink under us?Numb. 16.31. 'Tis round, hath a figure apt for motion, it hath swallowed up others. Why then should it be fixt upon its center? Why doth it not sink? why doth it not gape? There is no pillars to uphold it, nothing for it to anchor upon, and we are as ripe for judgment as ever was Korah. That then it rests in the midst of the world without any hand to support it; that it opens not to devour a rebellious people, is meer mercy; an act of power in sustaining that, and an act of favour in passing by us. Of the first of which God himself glories, Job 38.3, 4, 5, 6.
Farther yet, How many millions of wonders may we behold in this lower roome?Cicero de Senect. Non me solum fructus, sed vis & natura ipsius t…rrae delectat. 'Tis not so much the profit, as the strange power of the earth delights me. Here it pleaseth the wisdome of God to entertain us with the varieties of trees, leaves, fruits, seeds, flowers, creatures, of different qualities, of different smels, uses, colours; and that we might not see all at once, and so surfet,Virgil. Georg. 1. he hath bestowed upon every corner of the earth some peculiar blessing, making this abundant in corne, that in wine; one in oyle, another in cattle. O the riches of the wisdome of the Creatour! he ordained that there should be some want every where, that one man might know that he stood in need of another, and all men might confesse that they stood in need of him.
Should I enlarge my self in this argument, I should aske how it comes to passe that beasts are of so different kinds and shapes? why the grasse is green? why flowers are so stained with colours? who taught the Bee to frame his vessel to an Octogone? or the Magnet Coition, direction, or inclination? with ten thousand questions of the like nature, the least of which will pose the wit of the wisest man, till he acknowledge the hand of the Lord hath done this. O Lord our Governour how excellent is thy name in all the world!Psal. 8.1.9.
I shall now carry you a little aside, that you may behold the Fountains and Rivers as so many Water-works to serve the house. These all receive their streams from the Sea; but how they should spring in that abundance in and from the tops of hills, since those are farre higher than the surface of the waters, doth farre surpasse the strength of mans wit to assigne a satisfying reason. And no lesse will it trouble the acutest braine to assigne a cause of the wonderful qualities of waters and fountains to be read in Pliny. Plin. l. 2. c. 103.Will you but go down into the great deep; who was it that collected those streams into one place, vaulted the earth, and let in the waters? there holds them that they c…nnot return to cover the earth? How doth the Ocean ebb and flow, and flow and ebb, roaring in its recoile, as if it did complaine and murmur that it is not permitted to passe any farther! What man living is able to give a true reason of this constant and violent motion? Yea and if this could be satisfied, he may be pressed with one more difficult, why the Sea-water should be salt? Many I know are assigned for both, but none yet satisfactory.
I fear me, I have staid you too long in these lower roomes; will you but ascend a little, and take your prospect into the three stories of the aire? What marvels do here entertain you? I will expresse my thoughts in the words of an Eloquent Bishop,Dr. Hall, l. 1. Contempl. 1. There are those clouds, those bottles of raine, vessels as thin as the liquor contained in them; there they hang and move, though weighty with their burden; how they are upheld, and why they fall here, and now, we know not, and wonder; These God makes as airy seas to hold water, and againe as airy furnaces to vomit out fire and lightnings not without thunder and amazement. Another while they resemble steel glasses, wherein the Sun looks and shews his face in all the colours of the Rainebow. Here are streams of light, blazing and falling Meteors, fires darted up and down in many formes, besides those hideous openings, and as it were, gulfes of the sky, the woolly snow, and the stony haile. In the lower room of this thinner body, those boystrous windes that breath from the Caves of the earth exercise their dominion, and act like Tyrants; Their sound we heare, and their force we feele, yet we can neither see their substance, nor well know their cause; whence, and what they are, and whither they passe,John 3.8. God alone knows.
And that man should not pass away his time in a melancholy and dumpish manner, the Creatour hath provided several sorts of musique to content him; Those winged Musicians of the aire build and sit, and sing at our doors, the tongue of many birds being as as instrument of musique to please the ear. Some with a loud voice, others with a still; one humming as it were the Base, another chanting the Treble; this holding the plaine song, while the Nightingale sings descant and division, in that sweetness that no Art of man can exceed, I had almost said imitate. That I mention not those little round beds, and pretty Cradles prepared for their little ones, so artificially composed, and yet according to their several kindes framed, inlay'd, and stuft, that mans hand though it can do strange things, yet is not able to dispose in such order the sticks, the wooll, the haire, the moss, the morter. What is it that taught them this Harmony, this Architecture, if chance, it would not be constant, and alwayes the same; If sence, why then is it not common to other creatures? It must be God or Nature; and to fasten upon Nature, is all one if you named God, since Nature is nothing else but that instinct which God hath bestowed upon every Creature, by which it works constantly and uniformly.
All this while I have only carried you through the several Roomes of this goodly building, and shew'd you the furniture. It remaines only, that I acquaint you for whose sake all this goodly Fabrick was erected. In one word, it was man, created after Gods Image, made last, as another little world, in whom as in a Map, or short Summe, what is in heaven above, and in earth beneath, is express'd. A soul he hath of a wonderful Original; into which when the wisest men have searched,Cic. Tusc. 1. by their mistake and folly they have shewed themselves to be but men. Zeno defined it to be fire,Just. Martyr. foreign in Ellen. Aristoxereus harmony, Xenocrates number; Some will have it aire, some the intellect, some a motion, some a vapour, some blood about the heart, Plato a tripartite faculty; but Aristotle hides his minde under a new word scarce intelligible, foreign, and Hermolaus Barbarus translation of it is as little, perfectihabia; which of these opinions is true, as Tully saith, Deus aliquis viderit; 'Tis evident indeed there is Truth in none of them; for this cannot be known, till we come to that Record, God breathed into his nostrills, Gen. 2.7.the brea…h of of life. His body was from the dust, but his soul from the breath of God; Our flesh is from flesh, but our Spirit from the God of Spirits: In which we may yet finde a resemblance of the Deity; as God, so the soul is but one, and yet distinguished into three powers; for we understand, we will, we discourse, as an inferiour God. What? should I tell you that it is immaterial, immortal, of such activity, that in a moment it flyes up to heaven, and instantly againe to the earth, and apprehends all things; enquires into the occasions of all events, remembers things past, by them foresees divers dangerous consequents, and provides against them.
These foure words difference the world, esse, vivere, sentire, ratio…inari; Being is common to man with other creatures, life with plants, sense with beasts, but by discourse he is raised above the rest, and honoured with the endowment of Angels. Ratio & Oratio, are the maine essential parts of his definition;Plutarch. foreign. His reason ought to be the commander of his tongue, and his tongue the servant of reason. Now who was it that first taught this little filme of flesh these articulate notions, and to express his conceptions in such apt and adequate words. No question the four and twenty letters, as Democritus Atoms, fell together of themselves, and instantly fram'd fit words, which man took up for use, giving distinct names to all things. Or if this may not be imagined,Fr. Thamara de las Costum de todas las gentes lib. 1. c. 2. then surely nature taught them. But if so, then why are not words naturally significant? why do not men by nature speak? why are they mute if not taught? Suppose then that a man could be framed at first by the meere force of nature; out of Atomes, or I know not what matter; yet in this it seems nature was deficient, that it could neither teach him to speak, nor informe him how to conclude. Both these he must needs have from some higher power, or else remaine dumb and illogical clay for ever. The fiction of Prometheus makes this good, who after he had shaped his man of clay, was fain to go and light his Taper at the Sun before he could have life, sense, motion, or the use of reason.
The other part of man is his body, in the frame of which, Physicians and Anatomists confess so many parts, so many miracles. Whence is the hardness of the bones? whence that red juice that flows in the veines? whence are those vital, those animal spirits? whence is that retentive, that concoctive, that expulsive faculty? whence came those sinks to convey away what would obstruct and kill, the gall for choler, the spleen for melancholy, the bladder for urine, the belly for excrements? whence is that continual and musical time of the pulse, actuated by the spirits, to quicken the blood that it cool not, and drive it on that it stay not? All these are wonders. O man, thou neither canst make these in thy self, nor yet Galen or Hippocrates in thee. And therefore know and acknowledge, that all these with infinite more flow from a superiour cause. And because thou understandst, he must understand much more; and because thou art a voluntary Agent, he must much more do what he will: If thou be quick, active, and infinite in thy conceptions, he must farre more exceed in his thoughts; there can be nothing excellent in thee, which is not super-eminent in him who is Jehova the eternal God blessed for ever and ever.
Easie it were to be infinite in this Argument; I shall therefore send him that shall yet be obstinate, to his own face. Let him shew a reason why it is not like another mans, or that of another not like his, or a third to neither, or which is more marvellous,August. c. 8. in Pagan. not any ones like the other? A learned Father calls this diversity of faces a great miracle. And it is also a great blessing, since without it no society could continue; for without it the Wife would not know her Husband from another man, nor the father distinguish his own children, the innocent would be condemned for the Malefactour, and the Malefactour escape without fear of punishment.
And if after all this, men will be so impudent to outface us that there is no God,Read Burtons Melanch. part 1. Sect. 2. Memb. 1. Subsect. 2. and all that have writ of Afrique and America. then I shall send them to Hell, a place fit and prepared for them to converse with, and to enquire of the Devil and his Angels. To deny these; is to contradict the confessions of Witches, and Conjurers, Physicians, and Historians, impudently to cast off all Records, that acquaint us with the Heathen Oracles, their Sybills, and predictions. To tell us that there are no Daemoniacks, or men who being possessed, have not expressed themselves in divers languages, which they being Ideots and unlearned understood not, experience will confute. And to grant there are these powerful and deluding spirits, is with the same breath to yield there is a God, more powerful, and more merciful; who, should he not put a Bridle into their nostrils,Job 1. Mat. 8. their malice is so great, and mischief so vigorous, that it would presently overturn the whole world, as is evident in the case of Job, and the Gadarens Swine.
CONCLƲSIO.
All this while we have been in the Speculation of this Truth;Dr. Hammond practic. Catechis. in initio. and presupposing that these reasons have convinced your understanding, that there is a God, I shall labour now and hereafter that it be operative upon your will, and practical upon your life. For the end of Christian Philosophy is chiefly to make men better; not only to make men learned; to edifie, and not only to instruct: It is an affective, not a speculative knowledge; to teach us what we should do to inherit eternal life, not what to say or know only about it. For as the knowledge of some excellent dose or drugg will not help a disease till it be applyed; or a perfume wrapt up in a Pomander sends forth no sweet favour till it be chased: So neither will this nor any other Article of our faith cure the diseases of our souls, or sweeten our lives, so long as they swimme only in the braine, and are looked upon for content, and not for use.
Into the heart then by a sad and serious meditation let them sink, and this in the first place, because it is the first Principle. And thence you will conclude without any straining, that love, and feare, and confidence, and holiness, and obedience, and worship, and adoration, and giving of thanks is his due, and your duty.
Shall heaven and earth, and the whole body of the creatures in their kinds exhibit these, and shall man alone be the Rebel? T…e appeales that God makes to the heaven and the earth; The gratitude of the Oxe and the Ass:Isa. 1.2, 3. Jer. 8.7. Hos. 2.22. The wisdome of the Crane and the Swallow, and the Stork: The obedience of the dull earth to heare the Corn, and the Wine, and the Oyl, are extant to shame us; for shall these heare Israel, and will not Israel heare God?
—Pudet haec opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli.Ovid. Met.
Thou art inexcusable, O man, upon whom God hath stamp'd his own Image, to acknowledge less of the Creatour than the senseless creatures. The celestial Orbs praise him in their motions, the starres by their light and influences, the Thunder speaks his Majesty, the earth his riches, all creatures heare, feare, and obey, and shall man alone hang off, deride, and question, if not deny his Divine power? Were there no more in it than our irreverence, our presumption, or impudent wickedness, yet this were in effect to perswade men that we doubt of the Deity, and reproach our Maker. Certainly he must needs have but a wavering perswasion of the presence of God, who dares be impudently and maliciously wicked in the sight of so jealous and discerning an eye. This reason is assigned by God himself;Ezek. 9.9. The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the Land is full of blood, and the City full of perversenesse: for they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. Which is all one to say he is not;and 8.12. This the Heathen never conceived of their dumb and blinde Idols, and shall a Christian harbour so foule an indignity of the God of heaven? I know in your soules you abhorre the thought, and then I must infallibly inferre that you will abhorre all impurity, and no more commit sinne with a high hand, than a childe would be malepert in the eye of his father, or a Pupil impudent before his Tutor, or a Wife unchast in the presence of her Husband, or a Servant saucy before his Master.
We act before that Judge who is infallible in his Sentence, all-knowing in his information, severe in his anger, in his wrath intolerable; who hath an open eare to heare all words, a piercing eye to see all hearts, and an unwearied arm to crush all sinners; and if this be not enough to awe us into reverence and obedience, nothing can.
Down, down then you sonnes of pride, fall low at his footstoole, and speak out of the dust for your Atheistical thoughts, and contempt of his presence; and for the future know his Majesty, know his justice, know his power,Exod. 14.28. Isa. 38.36. Dan. 4.33. & 5.27. Acts 12.23. 2 Maccab. 9.12. know his judgements; take a full view of Pharaoh drown'd in the Sea, Senacharibs Army ruin'd in a night, Nebuchadnezzar turn'd among beasts, Baltazar weighed, and found too light, Herod eaten up with wormes, and Antiochus smitten with an incurable and invisible disease, and acknowledge with that profane and proud King, It is meet to be subject unto God, and that a man who is mortal, should not proudly think of himself as if he were God. 'Tis good counsel that Minerva gives in Sophocles, with which I will conclude
Sophocles foreign.foreign
foreign,
foreign
foreign.
foreign
foreign
foreign.
Look into this, and no high word
Prefume to speak against the Lord,
Nor shew no pride, though thou hast more
Of power, of strength, of wealth great store.
For one day breaks, and tumbles down
All humane things. Gods eye doth frown
On haughty mindes; the proud removes,
But he the meek and modest loves.