A20559:326
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandments gathered from the mouth of a faithful pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholar in Cambridge.The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandements gathered from the mouth of a faithfull pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholler in Cambridge.
London: printed by John Harison for Thomas Man, 1603London: printed by Iohn Harison for Thomas Man, 1603
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In six days the Lord created the heaven and earth.
In sixe dayes the Lord created the heauen and earth.
IN this example which God hath proposed, we may consider something of the power of God in the creation, and in that he spent no longer time then six days in creating the whole world; we must understand by this doctrine, that God is able to bring to pass great matters in a short time, and by small means. The making of the world, one would think needed some good time for the thing it self, and some thing also, for the preparation of so long a building, but when God would be the workman, and take in hand so great a matter, what time took he to finish it? he began and ended it and all within the compass of six days, and left not the least creature unmade, till the seventh; & he took so long time, not because he needed such a space, for he could have done it with as much ease in an hour, yea, in a minute, as in these six days, but he hath divided the whole into six days work, because we might have a fitter occasion, and be better moved to consider of every one, for if he had folded up altogether as it were in the compass of an hour, then it had not been so fit and easy for our meditation. In this then we generally see what wonderful works, & great things God can bring to pass in a very small time, and ⟨p. 88⟩with very small means, if the power of them be judged according to humane reason, for he spake, as the Psal. saith, and it was done, he willed it, and without any more ado it was effected. This we see likewise by other examples in scriptures, as Nebuchadnezzar the mighty prince and monarch of the world, when he was walking in his princely palace, in that great city of Babel, which was the seat of his kingdom, yet how quickly was stripped from all, how soon deprived of his kingdom, so that he had not so much as an house, yea, a poor cottage to put his head into, nay, not one rag to cover his nakedness, not a dish to drink in, not a morsel of the coarsest bread to eat, but of a King became more miserable then the basest beggar under the Skye; yea, as miserable as a beast: so that from the highest top of prosperity, he was cast down to the extremity of misery.