XI.

SERM, out answering him when he fpeaketh to us; that is, without correfponding to the invitations which he frequently by his providence maketh to us, of converfing with him, of feeking his favour, and imploring his help, and returning thanks for his mercies.

V. Lastly, the confideration that God doth uphold all things, and confequently ourselves, in being, may upon feveral good accounts be influential upon our practice; particularly it may powerfully deter us from offending and displeasing him; for put cafe our life, our livelihood, all the conveniences and comforts of our being, should wholly depend upon the bounty and pleasure of any perfon, fhould we not be very wary and fearful to affront, or injure, or displease such a perfon? It is in the highest degree fo with us in refpect to God; and why are we fo inconfiderate, that the fame reafon hath not the fame effect upon us?

This confideration alfo fhould mind us how infinitely we are obliged to the goodness of God, who when he may by the bare withdrawing his confervative influence utterly destroy us, and fuffer us to fall to nothing, doth, notwithstanding our many provocations, the many neglects and injuries he receiveth from us, continually preferve us in his hand, and every moment imparteth a new being to us. For which, and all his infinite mercies and favours toward us, let us for ever yield unto him all thanks and praise. Amen.

Maker of Heaven and Earth,

SERMON XII.

ACTS iv. 24.

O Lord, thou art God, which haft made heaven and earth,

IT

and the fea, and all that in them is.

may be demanded, why befides that of Almighty, no SERM. other attribute of God is expreffed in our Creed? why, for XII. inftance, the perfections of infinite wisdom and goodness are therein omitted? I answer,

1. That all fuch perfections are included in the notion of a God, whom when we profefs to believe, we confequently do afcribe them to him (implicitly.) For he that fhould profefs to believe in God, not acknowledging those perfections, would be inconfiftent and contradictious to himself. Deum negaret, as Tertullian speaks, auferendo Adv. Marc. quod Dei eft. He would deny God by withdrawing what cap. 3. belongs to God.

2. The title Tavтoxpáτwp, as implying God's univerfal providence in the prefervation and government of the world, doth alfo involve or infer all Divine perfections difplayed therein; all that glorious majesty and excellency, for which he is with highest respect to be honoured and worshipped by us, which added to the name of God doth determine what God we mean, such as doth in all perfection excel, and with it doth govern the world.

3. I may add, thirdly, That the doctrine of God's univerfal providence being not altogether so evident to natu

SERM. ral light as thofe attributes discovered in the making of XII. the world, (more having doubted thereof, and disputed against it with much more plausibility,) it was therefore convenient to add it; as a matter of faith clearly and fully (as we did fhew) attested unto by Divine revelation. So much may suffice to remove fuch a scruple concerning the fulness and sufficiency of the Creed in that particular. I proceed;

Maker of Heaven and Earth.

This claufe is one of those which was of later times inferted into the Creed; none of the most ancient expofitors thereof (Auftin, Ruffin, Maximus Taurinenfis, Chryfologus, &c.) taking any notice thereof. But Irenæus, Tertullian, and other moft ancient writers, in their rules of faith, exhibit their fenfe thereof, and the Confeffions of all General Councils (the Nicene, and those after it) express it. And there is great reason for it; not only thereby to difavow and decry thofe prodigious errors of Marcion, Manichæus, and other fuch heretics, which did then afcribe the creation of the world (or of fome part thereof, feeming to their fancy lefs good and perfect) to another God, or Principle, inferior in worth and goodness to that God which was revealed in the Gofpel; or did opinionate two Principles, (not diftinct only, but contrary one to the other;) from one whereof good things did proceed, from the other bad things were derived: but for that the creation of the world (which the holy Confeffors of Christ do here in the text afcribe unto God) is that peculiarly auguft and admirable work, by which we learn that he is, and in good measure what he is; by which, I fay, the existence of God is most strongly demonftrated, and in which his Divine perfections are most confpicuously difplayed; which is the prime foundation of his authority over the world, and consequently the chief ground of all natural religion; of our just subjection, our reasonable duty, our humble devotion toward him: the title, Creator of heaven and earth, is that alfo, which moft especially characterizes and diftinguishes the God whom we believe

xix. 15, 19.

and adore, from all falfe and fictitious deities; for, as the SERM. Pfalmift fings, All the gods of the nations are but idols, but XII. the Lord made the heavens: and, Thou, prayeth Hezekiah, Pr. xcvi. 5. art the God, thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth,2 Kings thou haft made heaven and earth: and, The gods, faith the Jer. x. 11. prophet Jeremiah, that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens: and, We preach unto you, faid St. Paul to the ig- Acts xiv. 15. norant Lycaonians, that ye should turn from thofe vanities xvii. 24. unto the living God, which made heaven and earth. It is therefore a point, which worthily hath been inferted into all creeds, and confeffions of our faith, as a neceffary object of our belief; and it is indeed a subject no less wholesome and fruitful, than high and noble; deferving that we employ our beft thoughts and most careful attention upon it to the commemoration thereof God confecrated the great fabbatical feftivity among his ancient people; nor fhould even the confideration of the great work concerning our redemption abolish the remembrance of it: to confer fome advantage thereto, we fhall now fo difcourfe thereon, as first to propound fome obfervations explicative thereof, and conducing to our information about it, then to apply the confideration thereof to practice.

ex

τους περιεχο

μένων φύσε

We may first observe, that the ancient Hebrews, having, as it seems, in their language no one word properly fignifying the world, or univerfal frame and complex of things created, (that system, as the author de Mundo defines it, confifting of heaven and earth, and the natures contained in them,) did for to express it use a collection of its chief parts, (chief abfolutely in themselves, or fuch in respect to us,) the heaven, and the earth, adding fometimes, because of wv. de M. 2. the word earth its ambiguity, the fea alfo: yea fometimes, Lipf. Phyf. for fuller explication, fubjoining to heaven its hoft, to earth its fulness, to the fea its contents. So, In fix days the Gen. i. 1. Lord made heaven and earth, faith Mofes: and, Do not 【Jer. xxiii. fill heaven and earth? faith the Lord, (in Jeremiah :) and, It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle Luke xvi. of the law to fail, faith our Saviour: and, God, faith St. 17 Paul, who made the world, and all things therein, seeing 24.

24.

A&ts xvii.

Exod. xx.

11.

2 Kings

xix. 15.

SERM. that he is Lord of heaven and earth; (where the world and XII. all things therein do fignify the fame with heaven and Pf. lxix. 34. earth; he firft ufes the word (world) which the Greek Neh. ix. 6. language afforded, then adds the circumlocution, whereby the Hebrews did exprefs it.) By heaven and earth therefore we are, I fay, to understand thofe two regions, fupeIfa. xlii. 5. rior and inferior, into which the whole system of things is divided, together with all the beings that do refide in them, or do belong unto them, or are comprehended by them; as we fee fully expreffed in our text, and otherwhere; particularly with utmost diftinction by the angel Rev. x. 6. in the Apocalypfe: who fwears by him that liveth for ever, who created the heaven, and the things that are therein, and the earth, with the things that therein are, and the fea, with the things therein.

By heaven then is understood all the superior region encompaffing the globe of earth, and from it on all fides extended to a distance unconceivably vaft and spacious, with all its parts, and furniture, and inhabitants; not only fuch things in it as are vifible and material, but also those which are immaterial and invifible; fo we are plainly Col. i. 16. taught by St. Paul: By him, faith he, were created all things, which are in heaven, and which are in earth, both thofe that are visible, and those that are invifible; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him: that is, not only the material and fenfible parts, or contents of heaven, (those bright and beautiful lamps expofed to our view, with the fluid matter, in which they may be conceived to float or swim,) but those beings of a more pure and refined fubftance, and thence indifcernible to our fenfe, however eminent in nature, mighty in power, exalted in dignity, whofe ordinary refidence and proper habitation (their idov oixnτngiov, as St. Jude termeth it) is in thofe fuperior regions; in that they are courtiers and domeftic officers of God, (whose throne, and special prefence, or the place where Dan. vii.10, he more peculiarly and amply difcovereth himself, and difPf. ciii. 21. playeth his glory, is in heaven,) attending upon him, and Matt. xviii. miniftering to him; encircling his throne, (as it is in the

Jude 6.

Heb. i. 14.

Rev. v. 11.