Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Especially the Heavens declare him, which God stretches out like a Curtain, ^*or as some render the word, a Skin, whereby is signified, that Heaven is as an open book, which was Anciently made of the skins of beasts, that by the knowledge of them we may be taught the knowledge of God. Where Scripture was not revealed the world served for a witness of a God; what ever arguments the Scripture uses to prove it, are drawn from nature, (though indeed it doth not so much prove as suppose the Existence of a God) but what Arguments it uses are from the Creatures, and particularly the Heavens, which are the public Preachers of this Doctrine: The breath of God sounds to all the World through those Organ-pipes. His Being is visible in their Existence, his Wisdom in their frame, his Power in their motion, his Goodness in their usefulness:^* They have a voice, and their voice is as intelligible as any common Language. And those are so plain Heralds of a Deity, that the Heathen mistook them for Deities, and gave them a particular adoration which was due to that God they declared. The first Idolatry seems to be of those Heavenly bodies, which began probably in the time of Nimrod. In Jobs time it is certain they admired the Glory of the Sun, and the brightness of the Moon, not without kissing their hands, a sign of Adoration.^* Tis evident a man may as well doubt whither there be a Sun when he sees his beams gilding the Earth, as doubt whither there be a God when he sees his works spread in the World.

Especially the Heavens declare him, which God stretches out like a Curtain, ^*or as some render the word, a Skin, whereby is signified, that Heaven is as an open book, which was Anciently made of the skins of beasts, that by the knowledge of them we may be taught the knowledge of God. Where Scripture was not revealed the world served for a witness of a God; what ever arguments the Scripture uses to prove it, are drawn from nature, (though indeed it doth not so much prove as suppose the Existence of a God) but what Arguments it uses are from the Creatures, and particularly the Heavens, which are the publick Preachers of this Doctrin: The breath of God sounds to all the World through those Organ-pipes. His Being is visible in their Existence, his Wisdom in their frame, his Power in their motion, his Goodness in their usefulness: