XI. SERM. gree so with us in respect to God; and why are we so inconsiderate, that the same reason hath not the same effect upon us? This consideration also should mind us how infinitely we are obliged to the goodness of God, who when he may by the bare withdrawing his conservative influence utterly destroy us, and suffer us to fall to nothing, doth, notwithstanding our many provocations, the many neglects and injuries he receiveth from us, continually preserve 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 hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is. XII. IT may be demanded, why besides that of Al- SERM. mighty, no other attribute of God is expressed in our Creed? why, for instance, the perfections of infinite wisdom and goodness are therein omitted? I answer, 1. That all such perfections are included in the notion of a God, whom when we profess to believe, we consequently do ascribe them to him (implicitly.) For he that should profess to believe in God, not acknowledging those perfections, would be inconsistent and contradictious to himself: Deum negaret, Adv. Marc. as Tertullian speaks, auferendo quod Dei est; He cap. 3. would deny God by withdrawing what belongs to God. 2. The title Tavтoкpáτwp, as implying God's universal providence in the preservation and government of the world, doth also involve or infer all Divine perfections displayed 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 SERM. we mean, such as doth in all perfection excel, and with it doth govern the world. XII. 3. I may add, thirdly, That the doctrine of God's universal providence being not altogether so evident to natural light as those attributes discovered in the making of 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 shew) attested unto by Divine revelation. So much may suffice to remove such a scruple concerning the fulness and sufficiency of the Creed in that particular. I proceed; Maker of Heaven and Earth. This clause is one of those which was of later times inserted into the Creed; none of the most ancient expositors thereof (Austin, Ruffin, Maximus Taurinensis, Chrysologus, &c.) taking any notice thereof. But Irenæus, Tertullian, and other most ancient writers, in their rules of faith, exhibit their sense thereof, and the Confessions of all general councils (the Nicene, and those after it) express it. And there is great reason for it; not only thereby to disavow and decry those prodigious errors of Marcion, Manichæus, and other such heretics, which did then ascribe the creation of the world (or of some part thereof, seeming to their fancy less good and perfect) to another God, or Principle, inferior in worth and goodness to that God which was revealed in the gospel; or did opinionate two Principles, (not distinct 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 con fessors of Christ do here in the text ascribe unto SERM. XII. God) is that peculiarly august and admirable work, by which we learn that he is, and in good measure what he is; by which, I say, the existence of God is most strongly demonstrated, and in which his Divine perfections are most conspicuously displayed; 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 also, which most especially characterizes and distinguishes the God whom we believe and adore, from all false and fictitious deities; for, as the Psalmist sings, All Ps. xcvi. 5. the gods of the nations are but idols, but the Lord made the heavens: and, Thou, prayeth Hezekiah, 2 Kings art the God, thou alone, of all the kingdoms ofxix. 15, 19. the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth: and, The gods, saith the prophet Jeremiah, that have Jer. x. 11. not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens: and, We preach unto you, said St. Paul to Actsxiv.15. the ignorant Lycaonians, that ye should turn from those vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth. It is therefore a point, which worthily hath been inserted into all creeds, and confessions of our faith, as a necessary object of our belief; and it is indeed a subject no less wholesome and fruitful, than high and noble; deserving that we employ our best thoughts and most careful attention upon it to the commemoration thereof God consecrated the great sabbatical festivity among his ancient people; nor should even the consideration of the great work concerning our redemption abolish xvii. 24. XII. SERM. the remembrance of it: to confer some advantage thereto, we shall now so discourse thereon, as first to propound some observations explicative thereof, and conducing to our information about it, then to apply the consideration thereof to practice. οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἐν τούτοις φύσεων. M. 2. Lips. We may first observe, that the ancient Hebrews, having, as it seems, in their language no one word properly signifying the world, or universal frame and complex of things created, (that system, as the Zurna i author de Mundo defines it, consisting of heaven and earth, and the natures contained in them,) did for to express it use a collection of its chief parts, Quesa. de (chief absolutely in themselves, or such in respect to Phys. St. ii. us,) the heaven, and the earth, adding sometimes, 7. because of the word earth its ambiguity, the sea also: yea sometimes, for fuller explication, subjoining to heaven its host, to earth its fulness, to the sea its contents. So, In six days the Lord made Jer. xxiii. heaven and earth, saith Moses: and, Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord, (in Jeremiah :) Luke xvi. and, It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail, saith our Saviour: Acts xvii. and, God, saith St. Paul, who made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth; (where the world and all things therein do signify the same with heaven and earth; Ps. lxix. 34. he first uses the word (world) which the Greek Exod. xx. language afforded, then adds the circumlocution, Gen. i. I. 24. 17. 24. Neh. ix. 6. 11. 2 Kings xix. 15. Isa. xlii. 5. whereby the Hebrews did express it.) By heaven and earth therefore we are, I say, to understand those two regions, superior and inferior, into which the whole system of things is divided, together with all the beings that do reside in them, or do belong unto them, or are comprehended by them; as we |