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 Tavтокрáтwp, 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 XII. with it doth govern the world. 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 of xix. 15, 19. ofxix. 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 Acts xiv. 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 M. 2. Lips. Gen. i. 1. 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 ys, airy and earth, and the natures contained in them,) did Tips 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, 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 XII. see fully expressed in our text, and otherwhere; SERM. particularly with utmost distinction by the angel in the Apocalypse: who swears by him that liveth for Rev. x. 6. ever, who created the heaven, and the things that are therein, and the earth, with the things that therein are, and the sea, with the things therein. By heaven then is understood all the superior region encompassing the globe of earth, and from it on all sides extended to a distance unconceivably vast and spacious, with all its parts, and furniture, and inhabitants; not only such things in it as are visible and material, but also those which are immaterial and invisible; so we are plainly taught by St. Paul: By him, saith he, were created all things, Col. i. 16. which are in heaven, and which are in earth, both those that are visible, and those that are invisible; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him: that is, not only the material and sensible parts, or contents of heaven, (those bright and beautiful lamps exposed to our view, with the fluid matter, in which they may be conceived to float or swim,) but those beings of a more pure and refined substance, and thence indiscernible to our sense, however eminent in nature, mighty in power, exalted in dignity, whose ordinary residence and proper ha- Jude 6. bitation (their diov oiknτýpicy, as St. Jude termeth it) is in those superior regions; in that they are courtiers and domestic officers of God, (whose throne, and Heb. i. 14. special presence, or the place where he more peculi- Ps. iii. 21. arly and amply discovereth himself, and displayeth his glory, is in heaven,) attending upon him, and ministering to him; encircling his throne, (as it is in the Revelation,) and always (as our Saviour tell- Matt. xviii. Dan.vii. 10. Rev. v. II. 10. |