VeR. 3.] SERMOXS UPOX HEBRLWS XI. iOl
If you would meditate upon tlie faitlifulness of God, you cannot have n. better object thau the constant course of the heavens and recourse <;f the seasons ; they still remain as they were from the beginning of the world, and so they will continue : Ps. cxix. 90, 91, ' Thy faithfulness is unto all generations : thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances ; for all are thy servants.' Ps. Ixxxii. 9, ' Thy faithfulness wilt thou establish in the very heavens ; ' that is, in the constant motions and courses of the stais in the heavens, Grod hath given the world a document of his truth and faithfulness. How many thousand years hath the sun kept his course without errors and alterations ? So constant are the courses of the heavens, that astronomers are able for a great while before to tell when an eclipse shall be to an hour and minute. Jer. xxxi. 35, 36. ' Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun to be a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon, and of the stars, for a light b}' night ; which divideth the sea, when the waves thereof roar ; the Lord of hosts is his name : If these ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before mi- for ever.' If you would think of the wisdom of God, then think upon the multitude of creatures that are in the world, yet they are all mar- shalled and guided in their order and course ; such an innumerable company of creatures kept like a well-ordered army without any rout or confusion. Ps. cxlviii. 6, ' He hath established them for ever, he hath made a decree which shall not pass.' All the creatures, though so many, they keep their path and their course, and God wisely orders all for the service of the whole ; and that discovers the wisdom of God. So for the unweariedness of his mercy and bounty ; the stars go long journeys, yet are never tired, but continue their beneficent influences : Job xxxviii. 31, ' Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades ?' The sun riseth fresh every morning to communicate its influences ; so the compassions of God come in fresh every morning : Lam. iii. 22, 23, ' It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because his com- passions fail not : they are new every morning ; great is thy faithful- ness.'
4. Above all things meditate much upon the heavens, and upon man. Upon the heavens, that you may know God ; upon man, that you may know yourselves. The smallest things are of use and profit. Christ takes notice of the lilies of the field in Mat. vi. 28, 29, the beauty nature hath bestowed upon the lilies ; 'so that Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like one of them ; ' but now the heavens and man are the chiefest objects. The heavens are God's dwelling-place, and man is God's image ; therefore here are the chiefest representations of the deity and godhead.
[1.] Look up to the heavens ; there is God's royal house and pavilion, and a lively character of the divine perfections. Job and David were great students in the heavens: Ps. xix. 1, 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handywork." Some of the heathens made gods of the sun and stars for their glory and beauty. And indeed the Lord speaks to his own people, as if they were in dan- ger, being such glorious bodies, and lively representations of the divine glory : Deut. iv. 19, ' Take heed, saith God, lest thou lift up thine eJQs
VOL. XIII. 2 c
402 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. VIII.
to heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the starf?, even all the host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them, and serve them.' The sun is a representative of God, so the psalmist sets him out, Ps. xix. There is the omnipresence of the sun, ver. 6, ' His o-oino- out is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it.' The omriisciency and omni-efficiency of it, ' nothing is liid from the heat thereof;' the sun is totus Ocuhis, one broad eye that looks over all the world. So is God, ' all things are naked and open to him/ Heb. iv. 13 ; and his virtue reacheth to the smallest creatures. I have heard of a philosopher that would lie upon his back all the day, to look upon the beauty of the sun. Certainly we may stand gazing and admiring the heavens, and, oh, how many sweet thoughts might it occasion of the majesty of God, and the glory of the everlasting state ! This is but the canopy, but the outward veil, and the covering of the beauty and glory that is within ; it is but the outside of the heavenly palace where we shall reign with Christ for ever. There are some have gathered all divinity out of the heavens. There is but one heaven and one sun, to teach us there is but one God. The properties of heaven, motion, light and heat, are some kind of resemblance of the mysterious trinity. The vast extension of the heavens shows the infiniteness of God ; the thinness of the air shows the spiritual essence of God ; the incorruptibility of the heavens shows the immortality and immutability of God; the influences of the heavens discover the sweet emanations of the divine goodness ; the order of heaven, God's wisdom ; the bi-ightness of heaven, the majesty of God ; the purity of heaven, the holiness of God ; the subtility and thinness of heaven, the simplicity of God ; and the spheric form of the heaven discovers to us the eternity of God, without beginning and without end. The heavens are the natural catechism out of which you may read all points that are not mysterious, and do not depend merely upon revelation.