CHAP. XLV. Of the Creation. (Book 45)
TWO ways we come to the knowledge of God; by his Works and by his Word. By his Works we come to know there is a God; and by his Word we come to know what God is. His Works teach us to spell; his Word teacheth us to read. The first are as it were his back parts, by which we behold him a far off: The latter shews him to us face to face. The World is as a book consisting of three leaves, and every leaf Printed with many Letters, and every Letter a Lecture. The leaves Heaven, the Air, and Earth with the Water. The Letters in Heaven, every Angel, Star, and Planet. In the Air, every Meteor and Soul. In the Earth and Waters, every Man, Beast, Plant, Fish, and Mineral: all these set together, spell to us that there is a God, and the Apostle saith no less though in less space, Rom. 1. 20. For the * 1.1 invisible things of him, that is, his eternal Power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the World, being considered in his Works. And so David, Psal. 19. 1. It is not for nothing that God hath set the Cabinet of the Uni∣verse open, but it is because he hath given us Eyes to behold his Treasure. Neither is it for nothing that he hath given us Eyes to behold his Treasure, but because he hath gi∣ven us Hearts to admire upon our beholding. If we mark not the Works of God, we are like Stones that have no Eyes, wherewith to behold. If we wonder not at the Works of God, when we mark them, we are like Beasts that have no Hearts wherewith to admire. And if we praise not God for his Works, when we admire them, we are like Devils that have no Tongues wherewith to give thanks. Remarkable is the story of the poor old man, whom a Bishop found, most bitterly weeping, over an ugly Toad: being asked the reason of his Tears, his answer was, I weep, because, that whereas God might have made me as ugly and filthy a creature as this Toad, and hath not, I have yet ne∣ver in all my life been thankful to him for it. If the works of the Creation would but lead us to this one Lecture, our labour of observing them were well bestowed. How much more when they lead us far further.