3. Will you fear men or devils, who have a God to restrain them?
whom the prophet Isaiah thunders, Isa. 29:15, 16: 'Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay.' Their counsels were as well known to him as the potter's clay is to the potter, which he can either frame into a vessel, or fling away into the mass from whence he took it. God hath not despoiled himself of his government; nor will devolve his right upon any men to dispose of his concerns. When men think to act so secretly, as though they framed themselves, as though God's eye were not upon them, he will watch and trace all their motions, and make them insignificant to their purposes. Satan himself, the slyest and subtilest agent, is too open to God to hide his counsels from him. Never fear man till the whole combined policies of hell can control the resolves of heaven, till God wants omniscience to dive into their secrets, skill to defeat their counsels, and an arm to abate their power.
3. Will you fear men or devils, who have a God to restrain them?
The great dragon and general of the serpent's seed is under a binding power, who can bind him not only a thousand years, Rev. 20:2, but a thousand ages. Have his seed more force to resist almightiness than their captain? The prophet, speaking of the Assyrians threatening
Jerusalem, and the confusion in some cities for fear of them, yet, saith he, 'he shall remain at Nob,' a city of the Levites, not far from Jerusalem, where he might have a full prospect of the city. He shall but 'shake his hand,' he shall not gripe it in his talons: he shall shew his teeth, but not bite, snarl but not worry, Isa. 10:32. God will let out so much of the enemies' wrath as may answer his gracious ends to the church in purging of them, but 'the remainder of wrath,' which remains in their hearts for the church's destruction, 'he will restrain,'
Ps. 76:9, 10; as the physician weighs out as much as may curb the disease, not kill the patient. The chain of providence controls the power of Satan, when it doth not change his desires. The Egyptian's will against the Israelites was strong, but his power was weak. Might and power is only in the hand of God, who reigns over all, 1 Chron.