p.] The manner — KarrjprLaOai, he curiously jointed and made it, and digested it iuto an exquisite rank and frame.
[3.] The instrument — pr^ixan Qeov — By the toord of God. It may be taken either for his substantial word, or his word of power, by which all things were produced out of nothing ; ' He spake, and it was done,' Ps. xxxiii. 9.
[4.] The term from whence God's action took its rise — eV fii] (patvoixivcov — Of things lohieh do not appear, e/c doth not properly note the matter ; and when we say, God made the world out of nothing, our meaning is not, that nothing is the matter whereof the world is made, as if God should bestow a new fashion and shape upon nothing ; but only that it is the terminus a quo, not materia ex qua, as much as to say, God made the world when nothing was before ; God had not any matter to work upon. There are some difficulties attending the Greek phrase, but I shall consider them hereafter.
2. The means whereby we come to imderstand this great mystery — TTt'crret vovjxev — By faith ice understand. Reason will give us a
VeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 389
E^limpse, but by faith alone we can unfold the riddle and mystery of the world's creation.
I begin with the means of knowledge as being first in the words, ' By faith we understand.' Whence observe —
1. That it is of great profit and comfort to believers to consider the creation.
2. That we can only understand the truth and wonders of the crea- tion by faith.
The first point is a preparative to the whole discourse ; it is this —
Doct. 1. It is a necessary exercise for the children of God to turn their minds to the creation.
Reasons : —
1. It discovereth much of God. God hath engraven his name upon his works ; as those that make watches or any curious pieces write their names upon them ; or, as he that carved a buckler for Minerva had so curiously inlaid his own name, that it could not be razed out with- out defacing the whole work ; so hath God. The creatures are but a draft and portraiture of the divine glory. In the creatures we may discern — (1.) His essence ; ^2.) His attributes.
[1.] His essence. Creation is the true note of the true God ; the first cause is the supreme being ; therefore creation always is avouched on the behalf of the divine majesty of God : Jer. x. 11, 12, ' Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and fi-om under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched forth the heavens by his discretion.' Jonah i. 9, 'I am an Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.' Isa. xlv. 6. 7, ' I am the Lord, and there is none else ; I form the light, and create darkness,' &c. and ver. 8, ' I the Lord have created it.' So the apostles : Acts xiv. 1.5, ' That ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are thereiu.' Acts xvii. 24, ' God that made the world, and all things therein.' Rom. i. 20, ' For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under.<5tood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead.' This was the heathens' bible, and out of this will they be arraigned at the day of Christ: the creatures will witness against them — they discoveied an eternal essence, but the world discovered it not. God at first spake to the world not by words but things, and taught them by hieroglyphics. The scriptures are but a comment upon this book of the creatures.
[2.] His attributes. They are all engraven upon the creatures, but he that runneth may read these three attributes, goodness, power, and wisdom, which call for love, reverence, and trust. 'E-noiTjaev &>? dyado^ TO ■)(^pr}<JLixov, O)? ao(f)o^ roKaWca-Tov, w? Buvaro'i to fiiyiarov — Basil. The goodness of God is seen in the usefulness of the creatures to man ; the power of God in the stnpendousness and wonderfulness of the works ; and the wisdom of God in the apt structure, constitution, and order of all things. First he createth, then dictinguisheth, then adornetb. The fir.st work was to create heaven and earth out of nothing ; there is his power. God's next work is a wise distribution and ordination, he dis- linguisheth night from day, daikness from light, waters above ttip
390 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. VII,
firmament from waters beneath the firmament ; the sea from the dry land ; there is his wisdom. Then he decked the earth with plants and beasts, the sea with fishes, the air with birds, the firmament with stars ; there is his goodness. Let ns explain these a little more particularly.
(1.) His goodness. The creation is nothing else but an effusion of the goodness of God : Ps. cxv. 3, ' Our God is in heaven, he hath done whatsoever he pleased.' He acteth at liberty ; he might have made it sooner or later ; the only reason is the counsel of his own will : Rev. iv. 11, ' Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' Creatures work out of a servile necessity. The trinity was not solitarj''. God was happy enough without us, and had a fulness and sufficiency of happiness within himself, only he would have us to participate of his goodness. God's great aim was to communicate his goodness to creatures ; and therefore in making the world, he did not only aim at his own glory, but the benefit of man, that man might have a place for his exercise and a dwelling for his eternal rest. A place for liis exercise : Isa. xlv. 18, ' He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited;' so Ps. cxv. 16, 'The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children of men.' In heaven God sitteth in his palace, in the midst of his best creatures ; but the earth, the round world is ours. And heaven was prepared before the beginning of the world for their place of rest : Mat. XXV. 34, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' His love was towards us before the world was, and we shall reap the fruits of it, when the world shall be no more.