hea works, because his glory fhall endure for ever; then is it abfolutely neceffary we should confefs him Maker of heaven and earth, that we may fufficiPfal. 148. 13. ently praife and glorify him. Let them praise the name of the Lord, faith David, for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the earth and heaven. Thus did the Levites teach the Children of Ifrael to glorify God: Neh. 9. 5, 6. Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praife. Thou even thou art Lord alone; thou haft made heaven, the heaven of heavens, . with all their hofts, the earth and all things that are therein. And the Rom. 11. 36. fame hath S. Paul taught us: For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever, Amen. Furthermore, that we may be affured that he which made both Heaven and Earth will be glorified in both, the Prophet calls upon all those celestial hosts to bear their part in his Pfal. 148. 2, Hymn: Praife ye him all his Angels, praise ye him all his Hoffs. Praife ye him Sun and Moon, praise him all ye Stars of light. Praise him ye vens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praife the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created. And the Elders in the Revelation of S. John, fall down before him that fitteth on the Throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and caft their Crowns, the emblems of their borrowed and derived glories, before the Throne, the feat of infinite and eternal Majesty, faying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleafure they are and were created. Wherefore, Pfal. 19. 1. if the heavens declare the glory of God, and all his works praise him Pfal. 145. 10, then shall his Saints bless him, they shall speak of the glory of his kingdom, and talk of his power. And if Man be filent, God will speak; while we through ingratitude will not celebrate, he himself will declare it, and Jer. 27. 5. mulgate. I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power, and by my out-ftretched arm. 3, 4, 5. Rev. 4. 10,11. 24 II. Pfal..8. 3. pro ; Secondly, The Doctrine of the World's Creation, is moft properly effectual towards man's Humiliation. As there is nothing more deftructive to humanity than Pride, and yet not any thing to which we are more prone than that; fo nothing can be more properly applied to abate the fwelling of our proud conceptions, than a due confideration of the other works of God, with a fober reflection upon our own original. When I confidered the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; when I view thofe glorious apparent bodies with my eye, and by the advantage of a glafs find great numbers, before beyond the power of my fight, and from thence judge there may be many millions more which neither eye nor inftrument can reach; when I contemplate thofe far more glorious Spirits, the inhabitants of the Heavens, and attendants on thy Throne; I cannot but break forth into that admiration of the Prophet, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? what is that off-fpring of the earth, that duft and afhes? what is that fon of man, that thou vifiteft him? what is there in the progeny of an ejected and condemned Father, that thou fhouldeft look down from Heaven, the place of thy dwelling, and take care or notice of him? But if our Original ought so far to humble us, how fhould our Fall abafe us? That of all the creatures which God made, we fhould comply with him who first oppofed his Maker, and would be equal unto him from whom he new received his Being. All other works of God, which we think inferior to us, because not furnished with the light of underftanding, or endued with the power of election, are in a happy impoffibility of finning, and fo offending of their Maker: "The glorious Spirits which attend upon the Throne of God, once in a condition of themselves to fall, now by the grace of God preferved, and placed beyond all poffibility of finning, are entred upon the greatest happiness, of which the workmanship of 2 Pet. 2. 4. God is capable: but men, the fons of fall'n Adam, and finners after the fimilitude of him, of all the creatures are the only companions of thofe Angels which left their own habitatious, and are delivered into chains of darkness, Fude . 6. to be referved unto Judgment. How should a serious apprehenfion of our own corruption, mingled with the thoughts of our creation, humble us in the fight of him, whom we alone of all the Creatures by our unrepented fins drew unto repentance? How can we look without confufion of face upon that monument of our infamy, recorded by Mofes, who firft penned the original of Humanity, It repented the Lord that he had made man on Gen. 6. 6. the earth, and it grieved him at his heart? Thirdly, This Doctrine is properly efficacious and productive of most chearful and univerfal Obedience. It made the Prophet call for the Commandments of God, and earnestly defire to know what he should obey. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding that I Pfal. 119.73. may learn thy commandments. By virtue of our first production, God hath undeniably abfolute dominion over us, and confequently there must be due unto him the most exact and complete obedience from us. Which reason will appear more convincing, if we confider of all the creatures which have been derived from the fame fountain of God's goodness, none ever disobeyed his voice but the Devil and Man. Mine hand, faith he, hath laid the fa. 48. 13. foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath Spann'd the heavens ; when I call unto them they stand up together. The most loyal and obedient fervants which stand continually before the most illustrious Prince are not fo ready to receive and execute the commands of their Sovereign Lord, as all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth to attend upon the will of their Creator. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things, Isa 40. 26. that bringeth out their hofts by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one fail eth, but, every one maketh his appearance, ready prefs'd to obferve the defigns of their Commander in chief. Thus the Lord commanded and they fought from heaven, the stars in their courfes fought against Sifera. He Judg. 5. 20. commanded the Ravens to feed Elias, and they brought him bread and flesh 1 King 17. in the morning, and bread and flefb in the evening; and fo one Prophet lived merely upon the obedience of the Fowls of the air. He fpake to the devouring Whale, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land; and fo Jonah 2. 10. another Prophet was delivered from the jaws of death by the obedience of I 4,6. the Fishes of the Sea. Do we not read of fire and hail, fnow and vapour, Pfal. 148. 8. Stormy wind fulfilling his word? Shall there be a greater coldness in man than in the fnow? more vanity in us than in a vapour? more inconftancy than in the wind? If the univerfal obedience of the creature to the will of the Creator cannot move us to the fame affection and defire to serve and please him, they will all confpire to teftifie against us and condemn us, when God fhall call unto them; faying, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, isa. 1. 2. for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. Laftly, The Creation of the World is of most neceffary meditation for the confolation of the fervants of God in all the variety of their conditions, Happy is he whofe hope is in the Lord his God, which made Pf. 146. 5, 6. Heaven and earth, the fea and all that therein is. This happiness confifteth partly in a full affurance of his power to fecure us, his ability to fatisfie us. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the world and Pfal. 24. I, 2. they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the feas, and eftablished it upon the floods. By virtue of the first production he hath a perpetual right unto, and power to difpofe of all things: and he which can order and difpofe of all, must neceffarily be esteemed able to secure and fatisfie K 2 Ifa. 40. 28. fic any Creature. Haft thou not known, haft thou not heard, that the everlafting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no external resistance or oppofition where Omnipotency worketh, no internal weakness or defection of power where the Almighty is the Agent; and confequently there remaineth a full and firm perfuafion of his ability in all conditions to preferve us. Again, this happiness confifteth partly in a comfortable affurance, arifing from this Meditation, of the will of God to protect and fuccour us, of his defire to prefervé and Pfal. 121.2, blefs us. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth: he will not fuffer thy foot to be moved, faith the Prophet David; at once expreffing the foundation of his own expectancy and our fecurity. God will not defpife the work of his hands, neither will he fuffer the rest of his Creatures to do the least injury to his own Image. Behold, faith he, I have created the fmith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an inftrument for his work. No weapon that is formed against thee fhall proSper. This is the heritage of the fervants of the Lord. 3. Job 10. 3. Ifa. 54. 16, 17. Joh. 14.1. bi Joh. 3.23. * Eadem regula veritatis docet nos Wherefore to conclude our explication of the first Article, and to render a clear account of the last part thereof; That every one may understand what it is I intend, when I make confeffion of my faith in the Maker of heaven and earth, I do truly profefs, that I really believe, and am fully perfuaded, that both heaven and earth and all things contained in them have not their being of themselves, but were made in the beginning; that the manner by which all things were made was by mediate or immediate creation; so that antecedently to all things befide, there was at first nothing but God, who produced most part of the World merely out of nothing, and the reft out of that which was formerly made of nothing. This I believe was done by the most free and voluntary act of the will of God, of which no reason can be alledged, no motive affigned, but his goodnefs; performed by the determination of his will at that time which pleafed him, most probably within one hundred and thirty generations of men, moft certainly within not more than fix, or at fartheft leven, thoufand years. I acknowledge this God Creator of the World to be the fame God who is the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift; and in this full latitude, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jefus Chrift, his only Son, our LozD. HE fecond Article of the Creed prefents unto us, as the object of our Faith, the second Perfon of the blessed Trinity; that as in the Divinity there is nothing intervening between the Father and the Son, fo that immediate union might be perpetually expressed by a constant conjunction in our Chriftian Confeffion. And that credere poft upon no lefs authority than of the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who in Patrem etiain the Perfons of the Apostles gave this command to us, a Te believe in God, in Filium believe alfo in me. Nor fpeaketh he this of himfelf, but from the Father ftum Jefum, which fent him: For this is his commandment, that we should believe on Dominum the name of his Son Jefus Chrift. According therefore to the Son's prefcriftrum, fed Dei ption, the Father's injunction, and the Sacramental inftitution, as we are Filium; hu- baptized, fo do we believe in the name of the Father, and the Son. Dei, Chri Deum no unus & folus * jus Dei qui & Our bleffed Saviour is here reprefented under a threefold defcription: first, eft, conditor by his Nomination, as Jefus Chrift; fecondly, by his Generation, as the fcilicet rerum only Son of God; thirdly, by his Dominion, as our Lord. omnium. No vat, de Trinit. c. 9. But when I refer Jefus Chrift to the nomination of our Saviour, because he e a b * Si tamen nomen eft he is in the Scriptures promifcuously and indifferently fometimes called Jefus, fometimes Chrift, I would be understood fo as not to make each of them equally, or in like propriety, his name. His name was called Je-Luke 2. 21. fus, which was fo named of the Angel before he was conceived in the Mar. 1.16. womb: who is alfo called Chrift, not by name, but by Office and title. Which obfervation, feemingly trivial, is neceffary for the full explication Chriftus, & tio potius; of this part of the Article; for by this distinction we are led unto a dou- non appeilable notion, and fo refolve our Faith into these two Propofitions, I believe Unctus enim there was and is a man, whofe name was actually, and is truly in the most fignificatur. high importance, Jefus, the Saviour of the world. I believe the man who bare that name to be the Chrift, that is, the Meias promifed of old by gis nomen eft God, and expected by the Jews. Unctus au tem non ma quam veiti tus, quàm calceatus, accidens nomini res. Tertul, adv. Prax. c. 28. Quorum nominum alterum eft proprium, quod ab An gelo impofitum eft; alterum accidens, quod ab unctione convenit. Ibid. Chriftus commune dignitatis eft nomen, Jefus proprium vocabulum Salvatoris. S. Hieron. in Mat. 16. 20. Jefus inter homines nominatur; nam Chriftus non proprium nomen eft, fed nuncupatio poteftatis & regni. Lactan. de Falfa Sap. l. 4. c. 7. Dum dicitur Chriftus, commune nomen dignitatis eft; dum Jefus Chriftus, proprium vocabulum Salvatoris eft. Ifidor. Orig. l. 7. c. 2. "Inoue xades Pigorúμws. S. Cyril. Catech. 10. a rum vacuis For the first, it is undoubtedly the proper name of our Saviour given unto him, according to the cuftom of the Jews, at his Circumcifion: and as the Baptift was called John, even fo the Chrift was called Jefus. Befide, as the impofition was after the vulgar manner, fo was the name it felf of ordinary ufe. We read in the Scriptures of a Jefus which was called Juftus, a fellow-worker with S. Paul; and of a certain Sorcerer, a Jew, whose Col. 4. 11. Jofephus, in his Hifto- Habuit & Juname was * Barjefus, that is, the Son of Jesus. ry, mentioneth one Jefus the Son of Ananus, another the Son of Sapha- dæa quofdam tes, a third the Son of Judas, flain in the Temple: and many of the high Jefus, quoPriefts, or Priests were called by that name; as the Son of Damnaus, of gloriatur voGamaliel, of Onias, of Phabes, and of Thebuth. Ecclefiafticus is called cabulis. Illa the Wisdom of Jefus the Son of Sirach, and that Sirach the Son of ano- enim nec luther Jefus. Š. Stephen speaks of the Tabernacle of witness brought in feunt,necmewith Jefus into the poffeffion of the Gentiles; and the Apostle in his explication of those words of David, To day if you will hear his voice, obferveth that, if Jefus had given them reft, then would be not afterwards Act. 7.45. have spoken of another day. Which two Scriptures being undoubtedly understood of Joshua, the Son of Nun, teach us as infallibly that Jefus is as generally the fame name with Joshua. Which being at the first * imposition in the in full extent of pronunciation Jehoshua, in procefs of time contracted to Jefbuah, by the omiffion of the laft letter, (ftrange and difficult to other languages) and the addition of the Greek termination, became Jesus. Wherefore it will be neceffary, for the proper interpretation of Jefus, ven in Haggai C cent, nec pa nard. in Cant. Serm. 15. dentur. Ber c Heb. 4. 8. יהושע Firi * of Mofes, in Joshua, the Books muel, the Kings, yea Judges, Sa ah: then con to look back upon the first that bare that name, who was the Son of Nun, and Zechariof the Tribe of Ephraim, the fucceffor of Mofes, and fo named by him, tracted into 24.11. 2 Chr. 31. 15. and Ezra and Nehemiah. conftantly in e as it is written, and Mofes called Ofbea the Son of Nun Jehofbuah. His y, as in first name then impofed at his Circumcifion was Obeah, or Hofeah; the the 1 Chron. fame with the name of the fon of Azaziah, ruler of Ephraim, of the * fon of Elah, king of Ifrael, of the & fon of Beeri, the Prophet: and the interpretation of this first name † Hofeah is Saviour. Now we must not Next the last letter y was but lightly pronounced, as appears by the Greek Tranflation, 1 Chron. 7. 27. where yo is rendred in the Roman and Alexandrian Copy 'Inosè, in the Aldus and Complutenfian Editions Iwoni, and by Eu1 Chron. 27. 20. £ 2 King. 17. 1. febius, who expreffeth it truer than thofe Copies, 'Iwesi. At last y was totally left out both in the pronunciation and the writing, and the whole name of Joshua contracted to W. Numb. 13.16. Hof.1.1. † Ofee in lingua noftra Salvatorem fonat, quod nomen habuit etiam Jofue filius Nun, antequam ei à Deo vocabulum mutaretur. S. Hier. in Ofee, c. 1. y. 1. l. 1. adv. Jovinianum. I read indeed of other interpretations among as in an ancient MS. of the LXX. Tranflation of the Prophets, the Greeks, no good expofitors of the Hebrew names: now in the Library of Cardinal Barberini, at the beginning of Hofeah. Nani, aus, and again, Qozi, Cowor pesí, (voxingar (Of which the first and laft are far from the Original and the middle agreeable with the root, not with the conjugation, as being deduced from yo not in Niphal, but in Hiphil) And in another MS. of the Prointerprephets in the King's Library at St. James's, 'noni Cxiawy, púλng and again, Doni, ieur Casons, which is the 3 interpretation inferted into Hefychius; in whom for 'Song we must read one and so I suppose Salmafius intended it, tho' the Holland Edition hath made his emendation 'exé. it the fame * As the Sa- imagine this to be* no mutation, neither muft we look upon it as a tomaritan Pen- tal alteration, but obferve it as a change not trivial or inconfiderable. tateuch makes And being Hofeah was a name afterwards ufed by fome, and Jebofbuab, name, which as diftinct, by others, it will neceffarily follow, there was fome difference he was first between these two names; and it will be fit to enquire what was the adnamed, and dition, and in what the force of the alteration doth confist. which he had הושע * afterwards; as if Mofes had only called Ofhea, Ofhea. † So Juftin Martyr Speaks of Hofeah as μeloropade Inc ονόματι. And comparing it with that alteration of Jacob's name; τὸ ἐπώνυμον Ἰακὼς τὸ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπικληθέντι ἐδόθη, καὶ τὸ Αὐτῆ ovoμa Incus inexhnen where, to pass by his mistake in fuppofing him first named Ifrael, and after called Jacob, he makes the alteration of Hofeah to Joshua equal to that of Jacob to Ifrael. The reason whereof was the Greek verfion of the name, who for Hofeah tranfated it Αὐτῆς· ἐπωνόμασε Μωσῆς τ Αὐσῆ τὸν Ναυὴ Ιησῶν, Numb. 13. 16. Dum Moyfi fuccefor deftinaretur Aufes filius Nave transfertur certè de priftino nomine, & incipit vocari Jefus, Tertul. adv. Jud. & adv. Marcion. l. 3. §. 16. Igitur Moyfes his adminiftratis Aufem quendam nomine præponens populo, qui eos revocaret ad patriam terram, Clem. l. 1. Recognit. Qui cum primùm Aufes vocaretur, Mofes juffit eum Jefum vocari. Lactan. de vera Sap. c. 17. Οὐ πρότερον γεν (Μωϋσῆς) ἢ αὐτὸ Διάδοχον τῇ τῇ Ιησέ κεκρημθύου προσηγορία, ονόματι ἢ ἑτέρῳ τῷ Αὐση, ὅπερ οι γυνήσαντες αὐτῷ τέθειν 5, καλέμρον, Ἰησῶν αὐτὸς αναγορεύει. Εufeb. Eccl. Hift. I. I. C3. Thus was the Hofeau fomething difguifed by Aufes, and was farther eftranged yet by thofe which frequently called him Nowens, as Eufeb. Demonft. Ev. 1. 5. c. 17. thrice. This Juftin Martyr charges on the Jews as neglected by them, and affirms the reason why they received not Jefus for the Chrift, was their not obferving the alteration of Hofeah into Jofua or Jefus. Avola xaλέμθμον Ἰησῶν Μωσῆς ἐκάλεσε, τότο (ὺ & ζητῶς· δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἐποίησεν, ἐκ δπρεῖς, ἐδὲ φιλοπόσεις, τοι[αρῶν λέληθε (ε ὁ Χρισός, x avasivaoxov & Cavins. And whereas they spake much of the change made in the names of Abram and Sarai, which were but of a letter, they took no notice of this total alteration of the name: So he, Aid Tiμiväḍα weŃτy wogreléon TS Aegἀμ ὀνόματι θεολογεῖς, καὶ ἐὰ τί ἐν τῷ τῷ Σάρρας ὀνόματι ὁμοίως κομπολοιεῖς· καὶ τὸ ἢ τὸ πατρόθεν ὄνομα τοῦ Αὐσῃ τῷ ἐῷ Ναυτ nov μstaróμason Inc, & less. Where, to pass by the vulgar mistake of the Greeks, who generally deliver the addition of a in the name of Abraham, and g in the name of Sarah, when the firft was an Addition of, the second a change of into, he would make that of Hofea into Jesus a far more confiderable alteration than that of Abraham or of Sarah. First therefore we obferve that all the original letters in the name * Hofeah yw are preferved in that of Jofbuah from whence 'tis evident that this alteration was not made by a verbal mutation, as when Jacob was called Ifrael, ncr by any literal change, as when Sarai was named Sarah, nor yet by diminution or mutilation; but by addition, as when Abram was called Abraham. Secondly it must be confeffed that there is but one literal addition, and that of that letter which is most frequent in the Hebrew names: but being thus fothe fame with lemnly added by Mofes, upon fo remarkable an occafion as the viewing of the third per- the land of Canaan was, and that unto a name already known, and after used; fon of the future in Hiphil, it cannot be thought to give any less than a † prefent defignation of his perfon to be a Saviour of the people, and future certainty of falvation included in his name unto the Ifraelites by his means. Thirdly, tho' the number of cal letter of the letters be augmented actually but to one, yet it is not improbable that athe conjuganother may be virtually added, and in the fignification understood. For betion Hiphil be excluded in ing the first letter of Hofeah will not endure a duplication, and if the fame letter were to be added, one of them must be abforpt; 'tis poffible another tenfe, and fo of the fame might be by Mofes intended, and one of them fuppreffed. If the regular word be your then unto the name Hofeah we join one of the titles of God, which is Jab, frequently in there will refult from both, by the custom of that Hebrew tongue, Jehoshuab; and fo not only the ‡ inftrumental, but also the original cause of the Jews expreffed, as it deliverance will be found expreffed in one word: as if Mofes had faid, This is the person by whom God will fave his people from their Enemies. † For it may thought that well be is added to make the יהושע name For יהושיע altho' the characterifti the future ufe; yet fometimes it is is used, 1 Sam. 17.47. And all the affembly hall know that the Lord faveth (or will fave) not with fword לא בחרב ובחנית יהושיע יהודה and fpear: and Pfal. 116. 6. yw I was brought low, and he helped me. And although there be another in the future than in the name, yet being it is alfo found fometimes with the leffer Chiric, and fo without the latter, or without any Chirick at all, as frequently with the addition of 1, yum, there is no reafon but yw, the name of the son of Nun, may be of the fame force, as confifting of the fame letters with the third person of the future in Hiphil. Again, being added to the future, as formative thereof, ftands in the place of 1 (for the avoiding of confufion with conjunctive) which is nothing else than the abbreviation of 1, we may well affign at least this Emphafis to the mutation which Mofes made; that whereas before there was nothing but Salvation barely in his name, now there is no lefs than he fhall fave, in which the Nor is a peculiar defignation of the person, and the fhall or Tense a certainty of the futurition. Thus will the defign of Mofes appear to be nothing else but a prediction or confirmation of that which was not before, but by way of defire or omination; and this only by changing the Imperative into the Future, you ferva the expectation of the people, into y fervabit, the ratification of Mofes. So did the ancients understand it: to the Greeks Jefus is Calness, to the Latines, Salvator Dei. So Eufeb. Demonftr. Ev. 1.4. ad finem. Exeraler Os cig 7 Exλάδα φωνὴ τὸ τῶν Ιησῶ μεγαληφθὲν ὄνομα σημαίνει. Ισγα μ γδ παρ' Ἑβραίοις σωτηρία, τὸς ἢ Ναυὴ σοὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς Ἰωσγέ I |
