32 THE KNOWLEngE 01' GGn: huge and astonishing engine of the heavens, Whereby hours and days, seasons and ages are made and measured Out, were all formed by himwithout any materials : I3e made all the materials himself, and gave all the wheels of nature and time their very being, as well as their shapes and their motions, and they conti- nue to observe his . orders. A Creator must be Amighty, he must be God. Again, Let us think within ourselves, what a powerful Being must that be, who canmake a soul, a spirit, a thinking being to exist so nearly like himself, with such a faculty of understanding, as to be capable of takingin so manymillions of ideas, andform- ing the figures of the skies and the seas, and the thousands of plants and animals, which are found upon this earth, each in their proper proportion ? An understanding capable of knowing the works of God, and of knowingGod himself? How powerful is the divine will, which could make acreature with 'a free will to determine its own choice, a will whichcan moveall this frame of flesh andblood, andby these limbs cangivemotion to ten thousand otherbodies round about us ? What aglorious power must that be, who could createsuch an image ofhimself as a human spirit is, and whichbears sucha nearresemblance ofhis ownperfections, both in his understanding and his will, in his knowledge, and his power. We are his image, we are his offspring. Thus sung Aratus the heathen poet, in Acts xvii, 28, 29: and spoke like a christian. And thus it appears beyond all controversy, that the light of nature finds there is a God, and that this God is an All-wise and Almighty Spirit. If we were in doubt about his exis- tence or being, these reasonings would assure us of it; and if we seek after his nature and his perfections, these his works discover them. 3. Another thingwhich we learn by the light of nature, is his suprenie and absolute dominion over all things, that God is the sovereign Lord and Possessor of heaven and earth, so Gen, xiv. 19. and consequently that he bath a right to dispose of all things as he pleases ; Rom. ix. 20. " Who therefore shall say unto him, What dost thou ? Shall the thing formed sayto him that hath formed it, Why hast thou mademe thus ?" Shall the ves- sel say to the potter, Why didst thou mould nie in such a form ? Why was I disposed of in such a station ? and why, was I appointed for such a purpose? And the force of this argument grows yetmuch stronger, when we consider, that the great God not only gives his creatures their form and manner of being, but created the very substance as well as the qualities of every thing, and gave them their whole nature and all the being they have.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=