YeR. 3.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 417
but there is a difference. This speaks the beauty and excellency of the world, the variety of God's works.
2. The beauty and artificial composition of all things. Human wit cannot reach it ; whether we respect the outward shape or inward frame, look upon man ; ' He is fearfully and wonderfully made,' saith the psalmist, Ps. cxxxix. 14. The beauty of women overcomes, be- sots, and takes away the heart of wise men, it is so great ; nothing can be added or taken away from any creature, but there will be deformity find ugliness. Do but take away an eye from a man ; or add a mouth, to him ; how deformed would it be, to see a man with one eye, or two mouths ! Nay, look upon the baser creatures, those that seem to be the most uncomely parts of the creation, yet there is a beauty in their make and frame. A man would look upon a swine as a filthy creature, yet to see a swine without ears, how uncomely ! Nay, go to lower things ; God hath showed his power in great things, but his wisdom in small. In a gnat, in a grain of mustard seed, how much of God may be seen ! What virtue is there in that small seed to grow up into a tree ! Certainly, nature is nowhere seen so much as in the least things. Christ sendeth us to the lilies of the field. Mat. vi. 29. What curious drafts are there in the flowers of the field ! Solomon sends us to the ant. So we may go to a gnat ; to see such a little creature to have feet, head, and heart, all the inward senses, and all the outward senses, all necessary sagacity for its own preservation ; how wonder- fully are these little creatures made ! But now look to man's inward frame, there is more, all full of riddle. Galen, when he was dissecting the hand of man, he fell into a great admiration of that God that made man. It is wonderful to consider the continual motion that is in man's body, and that without alteration. Men have laboured much to make a clock that should run by the force of a weight for four and twenty hours. Oh, bow great is the wisdom of God, and the power of God that made man ! So that there is a clock that still strikes within him from his birth till he comes to die, and be no more in the world — that the nutritive power should be working perpetually without intermis- sion, tbat there should be a continual beating of the pulses, that the lungs and arteries should move without ceasing to seventy or ninety years, nay, before the flood, nine hundred years. All the creatures are curiously and wonderfully made and framed.
3. The order and beauty of the world consists as in their composition, so in their disposition, and in the apt placing of all things. When we look upon every creature, we shall see it could not have a better place than God hath bestowed upon it ; the superior and inferior bodies are all exactly ordered. The earth, of all bodies the most heavy and pon- derous, is lowest, and the foundation of all the rest. The elements as they are more pure and simple, so they have an upper place — the waters above the earth, and the air above the waters. Then the stars. which are most pure and simple, they have the uppermost places of the world ; and the sun, as king and prince, placed in the middle of the stars. So that the air and water, which are of a middle purity, are like so many couples and loops which tie heaven and earth to- gether, and they are between them both. The air conveys the influ- ■ences of the stars to the earth, and preventeth emptiness and vacuity.
VOL. XIII. 2 D
418 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR, X.
The water that is more impure, though not altogether so gross a body- as the earth, insinuates itself with the earth, and makes it fruitful. Living creatures, because they are made up of elements, they are placed in them, some in the air, some upon the earth, some in the water, that so from above and beneath they may receive comfort and profit ; heat and comfort from above, and food from beneath. Then they are exquisitely and accurately placed : creatures that are hugest and of the greatest multitude are put into the sea, Leviathan is to sport thei-e, lest if they should be upon earth, they might be an annoyance to man, and cause too great a waste of food. And therefore the reason- able creatures, they are in the highest and lowest parts of the world ; the angels in the highest heavens, and man upon earth ; because in both ends of the world God would have some to behold his glory, and to contemplate the whole frame. In short, the earth, the dwelling- place of man, standeth fixed and unmoved. The sea rolls up and down to keep it pure and fresh ; the heavens move to convey their influences ; the clouds are carried hither and thither, God rides up and down upon them, as princes in their chariots: Isa. xix. 1, 'The Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt ; ' Ps. xviii. 10, ' And he rode upon a cherub and did fly, yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind ; ' that so the earth might receive due moisture for the use of man. Then the distribution of the waters into all the parts of the earth, as it were by pipes, conveyances, and channels, prepared on purpose, that all the creatures may have drink and refresliment. The psalmist takes notice of that, Ps. civ. 10, 11, ' He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field, the wild asses quench their thirst; he wateretli the hills from his chambers.'