his Majefty by the Degrees of his Crea- rence between the true God, and the Gods tures, this is the climbing and afpiring Na- that made not the Heavens and the Earth. ture of Faith. You fee how much thofe Alas, the Worship of many Chriftians Saints in the Old Teftament were in this; fpeaks out no diviner or higher Object and certainly, they had more excellent than a Creature, it is fo cold, fo formal, and befeeming Thoughts of God than we. ; and empty, fo vain and wandring, there It should make Chriftians afhamed, that is no more Respect teftified unto him, than both Heathens who had no other Book we would give to fome eminent Perfon: Opened to them, but that of Nature, did You find in the Scripture how the Strain of read it more diligently than we; And the Saints Affections and Devotion rifes, that the Saints of Old, who had not fuch when they take up God in his abfolute Sua plain Teftimony of God as we now premacy above the Creatures, and look have, yet did learn more out of the Book on him as the alone Fountain of all that is of the Creature, then we do both out of worth the Name of Perfection in them. it and the Scriptures: We look on all A Soul in that Confideration cannot Things with fuch a careless Eye, and do chufe but affign unto him the most eminot observe what may be found of God nent Seat in the Heart, and gather those in them: I think verily there are many Affections which are scattered after the Chriftians, and. Minifters of the Gofpel, Creatures, into one Channel, to pour who do not afcend into those high and them out on him who is all in all, and hath ravishing Thoughts of God, in his Being all that which is lovely in the Creatures and working, as would become even in en eminent Degree. Therefore know meer Naturalifts; How little can they what you are formed for, to fhew forth Speak of his Majefty, or think, as it be- his Praife, to gather and take up from the comes his tranfcendant Glory. There Creatures all the Fruits of his Praife, and is little in Sermons or Difcourfes that offer them up to his Majefty: This was holds out any fingular admiring Thoughts the End of Man, and this is the End of a of a Deity, but in all these we are fo Chriftian, you are made for this, and you common and careless, as if He were an were redeemed for this, to read upon Idol. the Volumes of his Works, and Word, and from thence extract Songs of Praise to his Majesty.

It is not in vain that it is expreffed thus, By Faith we know that the Worlds were made, for certainly the firm believing and pondering of this one Truth, would be of great Moment and Ufe to a Chriftian in all his Journey. You may obferve in what ftead it is to the Saints in Scripture: This raises up a Soul to high Thoughts, and fuitable Conceptions of his glorious Name, and fo conforms the Worship of his Majefty unto his Ex cellency, it puts the Stamp of Divinity upon it, and fpiritualizes the Thoughts Rad Affetions fo, as to put a true Diffe

As this would be of great Moment to the right worshipping of God, and to the Exercise of true Holinefs; so it is most effectual to the establishing of a Soul in the Confidence of the Promises of God. When a Soul by Faith understands the World was made by God, then it relyes with Confidence upon that fame Word of God, as a Word of Power, and hopes against Hope: There are many Things in the Chriftian's Way betwixt him and Glory, which look as infuperable: Thou

art

art often emptied into nothing, and ftript David, Hezekiah, &c. What is it haked of all Encouragements, and there is would difquiet a Soul if it were repofed nothing remaining but the Word of God's on this Rock of creating Power and Promifes to thee and to the Church, Faithfulness? This would always found which feems contrary to Senfe and Rea-in its Ears, faint not; weary not Jacob, fon; Now, I fay, if thou do indeed be-I am God, and none elfe, the Portion heve that the World was made by God, of Jacob is not like others, be it inward then out of all Question thou may filence or outward Difficulties, fuppofe Hell and· all thy Fears with this one Thought, God Earth combined together, let all the Enecreated this whole Frame out of nothing, mies of a Soul, or of the Church affemhe commanded the Light to thine out of ble, here is one for all, the God that Darkness, then certainly he can give a made the Heaven and the Earth can speak. Being to his own Promifes; is not his and it is done, command, and it Word of Promife as fure and effec-stands faft! He creates Peace, and tual as his Word of Command? This who then can make Trouble, when he is the grand Encouragement of the Church, gives Quietness to a Nation, or to a Perboth offered by God, from Ifa. Chap. fon. Almighty Power works in Saints, xl. and made use of by his Saints, as and for Saints, let us trust in Him.

Gen. i. 16, 27. And God faid, Let us make Man in our Image, after our Likeness: And let them have Dominion over the Fifh of the Sea, and of the Fowl of the Air, and over the Cattle, and over all the Earth, and over ever creeping Thing that creepeth upon the Earth. So God created Man in bis own Image, in the Image of God created be bim, Male and Female. created be them. With Epb. iv. 24. And that ye put on the new Man, which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness. And Heb. iii. 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that Generation, and faid, They do always err in their Hearts, and they have not known my Ways.

WHILE we defcend from the Meditation of the Glory of God thining in the Heavens, in Sun, Moon, and Stars, unto the Confideration of the Lord's framing of Man after this Manner, we may fall into Admiration with the Pfalmift, Pfa. viii. Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of bim, or the Son of Man that tbou shouldft remember bim. It might

indeed drown us in Wonder, and aftonifh us, to think what fpecial Notice he hath taken of fuch a Creature from the very Beginning,and put more refpect upon him than upon all the more excellent Works of his Hands. You find here the Creation of Man expreffed in other Terms, than was used before, He faid, Let there be Light, and it was, let ibere

be

be dry Land, &c. But it is not fuch a fimple Word as that, but let us make Man according to our Image; as if God had called a Confultation about it. What was there any more Difficulty in this than in the reft of his Works? Needed he any Advisement about his Frame and Conftitution? No certainly, for there was as great Work of Power, as curious Pieces of Art and Wisdom, which were inftantly done upon his Word. He is not a Man that he should advife or confult: As there is no Difficulty nor Impediment in the Way of his Power, (He doth all that he pleases, ad nutum, at his very Word or Nod, fo eafie are Impoffiblities to him; )-fo there is nothing hard to his Wisdom, no Knot but it can loofe, nothing fo curious or exquifite, but he can as curiously contrive it, as the moft common and grofs Pieces of the Creation; and therefore, He is wonder ful in Counsel, and excellent in working. But ye have here expreffed, as it were, a Counfel of the Holy and Bleffed Trinity about Man's Creation, to fignify to us, what peculiar Respect he puts upon that Creature, and what fpecial Notice he takes of us, that of his own free Purpose and good Pleasure he was to fingle and choose out Man from among all other Creatures, for the more eminent Demon-Natüres, the Duft of the Earth, and the ftration of his glorious Attributes of Grace, . Mercy, and Juftice upon him; and likewife to point out the Excellency that God did ftamp upon Man in his Creation beyond the reft of the Creatures, as the Apostle fhows the Excellency of Chrift above Angels, To which of the Angels faid be at any Time, thou art my Son, Heb. i. 5. So we may fay, of which of the Creatures faid he at any Time, come, let us make them in our. Image af ter our Likeness? O how fhould this

make us liften to hear, earnest to know what Man once was, how magnified of God, and set above the Works of his Hands? There is a great Defire in Men to fearch into their Original, and to trace backward the dark Foot-fteps of Antiquity, especially if they be put in Expectation of attaining any honourable or memorable Extraction? How will Men love to hear of the Worth of their Ancestors? But what a Stupidity doth, poffefs the moft Part, in Relation to the high Fountain and Head of all, that they do not ain fo high as Adam, to know the very Estate of humane Nature: Hence it is that the most Part of People ly still afto nifhed, or rather ftupid and fenfelefs, after this great Fall of Man, because they never look upward to the Place and Dignity from whence Man did fall. It is certain, you will never rightly understand your felves, or what ye are, till ye know first what Man was made? You cannot imagine what your prefent Mifery is, till you once know what that Felicity was in which Man was made (let us make Man in our Image; ) fome have called Man uxpoxoop, a little World, a Compend of the World, because he hath Hea ven and Earth as it were married together in him; two most remote and diftant

immortal Spirit, which is called the Breath of God, fweetly. linked and conjoy ned together, with a Difpofition and Inclination one to another. The Lord was in this Piece of Workmanship as it were to give a narrow and fhort Compend of all his Works, and fo did affociate in one Piece with marvellous Wisdom, Being, Living, Moving, Senfe, and Reason, which are fcattered abroad in the other Creatures, fo that a Man carries thefe Wonders a bout with him, which he admires with

out him. At his bare and fimple Word, this huge Frame of the World ftarted out of nothing: But in this, he acts the Part of a cunning Artificer, Let us make Man, he makes rather than creates, firft raifes the Walls of Flesh, builds the House of the Body with all its Organs, all its Rooms, and then he puts in a noble and divine Gueft to dwell in it, He breathes in it the Breath of Life, he inclofes as it were an Angel within it, and marries thefe together in the most admirable Union and Communion, that can be imagined, fo that they make up one Man.

but Man he created according to his own Image, and gave him to have fome Like: nefs to himself, Likeness I fay, not Samenefs or Oneness. That is high indeed, to be like God,the Notion and Expreffion of it imports fome ftrange Thing: How could Man be like God, who is infinite, incom prehenfible, whofe Glory is not communicable to another? It is true, indeed, in thofe incommunicable Properties he hath not only, no Equal, but none to liken him; in these he is to be adored, and admired as infinitely tranfcending all created Perfections and Conceptions; but yet in others he has been pleased to hold forth himself to be imitated and followed: And that this might be done, he firft ftamps them upon Man in his firft Moulding of him; and if ye would know what these are particularly, the Apoftle expreffes them, Eph. iv. 24, in Knowledge, in Righ

But that which the Lord looks moft into in this Work, and would have us moft to confider, is that Image of himself that he did imprint on Man (let us make Man in our own Image :) There was no Creature but it had fome Engravings of God upon it, fome curious Draughts and Linea ments of his Power, Wisdom, and Good-teousness and true Holiness,Col. iii. 10. nefs upon it, and therefore the Heavens are faid, to fbew forth bis Glory, &c. But what ever they have, it is but the lower Part of that Image, fome dark Shadows and Refemblances of him: But that which is the laft of his Works, he makes it according to his own İmage, tanquam ab ultima manu, be therein gives out himself to be read and feen of all Men as in a Glafs; other Creatures are made as it were according to the Similitude of his Foot-step, ad fimilitudinem veftigii, but Man, ad fimilitudinem faciei, according to the Likeness of his Face, (in our Image after our Likeness.) It is true there is only, Jefus Chrift his Son, who is the Brightness of bis Glory, and the exprefs fubftantial Image of bis Perfon, who refembles him perfectly, and throughly in all Properties, fo that he is alter idem, another-felf both in Nature, Properties, and Operations, fo like him that he is one with him, fo that it is rather an Oneness, than a Likeness;

This is the Image of bim who created bim, which the Creator ftamped on Man, that he might feek him, and fet him apart for himfelf to keep Communion with him, and to bless him. There is a Spirit given. to Man with a Capacity to know, and to will: And here is a Draught and Lineament of God's Face, which is not engrav en on any fenfitive Creature; It is one of the moft noble and excellent Operations of Life,in which a Man is moft above Beafts to reflect upon himself, and to know himfelf and his Creator; There are natural Inftincts given to other Things, natural Propenfions to thofe Things that are con venient to their own Nature, but none of them have so much as a Capacity to know what they are, or what they have, they cannot frame a Notion of him who gave them a Being, but are only proportionate to the difcerning of some fenfible Things, and can reach no fur

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