Part 8
4. Fourthly, There is a peculiar relation of God and Christ to the church ; upon which account this doctrine must needs be true. God is set out in all relations to manifest his great care of his people. He is a Father to provide for them, Isa. Ixiv. 8 ; a mother to suckle them, Isa. xlix. 15. Christ is a husband to love and protect them, Eph. v. 29 ; a brother to counsel them, John xx. 17. And when all these relations meet in one and the same person, the result of it must be very strong. Any one relation where there is affection is a great security ; but here all the relations are twisted
together with the highe'st affections of them in God to the church. A father will order all for the good of his child, a mother for her infant, a husband for his wife, and one kind brother for another ; so doth God for his people ; and whatsoever those relations bind men to on earth, in respect of care, love, and faithfulness, that is God to his church. The church hath the relation to God which none in the world have besides. They are his jewels, therefore he will keep them ; they are his children, therefore he will spare them, Mai. iii. 17. They shall have protection from him as they are his jewels, and compassion from him as they are his sons. The church is
Christ's flesh, as dear to him as our flesh is to us ; as much his, as our flesh is ours : Eph. v. 29, ' No man hates his own flesh, but nourisheth it, as Christ doth his church.' No man can have a higher value for his own flesh than Christ hath for his church. The church, as Tertullian speaks, is nothing else but Christus explicatus;* and as considered in union with Christ, is called Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12. It is ' the apple of his eye,' Zech. ii. 8, a tender and beloved part. The church is Christ's spouse ; the con tract is made, the espousals shall be at the last day. The members are picked out one by one to be presented to the Lamb at last as a glorious bride for him, Rev. xxi. 2.
And all God's dealings with them in the world are but preparations of them for that state. Upon the making of the match God promises a com munion of goods : Hosea ii. 20, « I will even betroth thee unto me in faith
fulness,' which is a fruit of marriage, the wife being invested in her husband's estate. When God hath given the blood of his Son for the church, he will not deny her the service of the creatures, but jointure her in that as one
part of her dowry. ' In that day will I hear the heavens,' &c., ver. 21. In what clay ? In the day of betrothing, in the day of the evangelical administration, when the contract shall be made between me and my church. Heavens, earth, corn, wine, and oil, the voice and motions of all creatures, are for Jezreel, which signifies the seed of God. This great prince he hath
a care of all his subjects, so more peculiarly of his spouse and princess, which is his seed too, and all creatures shall be her servants. This fatherly relation and affection is strong and pure, not as the love which acts an ambitious man to ambition, or a covetous man to wealth ; which respects
nothing but the grasping and possessing the objects they doat upon, and have nothing of love for the objects themselves, therefore deserves not the name of love. But it is the love of a father, whose love is pure towards his children ; he seeks their good as his own.
* Christ unfolded.
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• Consider these two things. 1. God hath a peculiar love to this very relation, and often mentions it with delight, as if he loved to hear the sound of it in his own lips : Cant.
viii. 12, ' My vineyard which is mine, is before me.' Me, my, mine. The church is always under his eye, seated in his aifection, and God is pleased with his propriety in them. God never calls the world my world, though he created it ; sometimes he saith, the earth is mine, but it is either to check the presumptions of men, who ascribe that to themselves which is due to the first cause ; or to encourage his people in the expectation of deliver ance, because all things in the earth are at his beck ; or to shew his own sufficiency, without the services of his people ; as when he saith, the earth is mine, and the fulness thereof ; but it is never mentioned in such a way, as to discover any pleasure he hath in the relation between him and it, simply considered ; but my vineyard, my people, my children, my jewels, my sanctuary, very often. So much doth God esteem his propriety in them.
2. This relation is prevalent with God in the highest emergencies and distresses of his people. The very consideration that they are his people, kindles his affection, and enlivens his strength for them : Isa. Ixiii. 8,
* And he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie : so he was their Saviour.' God is brought in, as one that had heard the cries of his church, and had not been moved ; but when he recollects himself, and considers that they were his people, and that he was in a special manner related to them, he became their Saviour ; he could no longer bear it, but
stirs up himself to relieve them. Nay, it hath so strong an influence upon him, that if this note be often sounded in his ears, it doth as it were change his voice, and when he seems to have a mind to cast them off he cannot. When Israel had offended by erecting and worshipping a golden calf, he calls
them no more his people, but Moses's people: Exod. xxxii. 7, ' And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down ; for thy people, which thou broughtest out
of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.' As though God had not been concerned in this miraculous conduct out of Egypt ; and ver. 9, ' t people,' as if he had had no interest in them, but particularises them wi disdain. God had here discarded them, and turned them over upon Moses' hands, as if he would have no longer anything to do with them ; but Mo in prayer turns them upon God again, and would not own them as his, bu
pleads that they were God's proper goods : ver. 11, * Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the
land of Egypt?' And ver. 12, again, ' thy people;' and God at last resumes his former notes, ver. 14, « And the Lord repented him of the evil he thought
to do unto his people.' Now they are God's people again ; the repetition of this relation is a powerful rhetoric to persuade him to own them again, which he had cashiered and turned off.
5. Fifthly, The whole interest of God in the world lies in his church and people. He sees little of himself in any part of the corrupted world, but only in them. It is in the church he hath put his name ; it is there he sees his image, and therefore places his love there; and shall all this signify nothing? Shall the Governor of the world let things go contrary to his own interest ? They are like to him in that which is one of his greatest perfections, viz his holiness, which gives him a greater interest in them. It is his interest that is opposed by an opposition to the church. All the hatred any bear it grows from the inward root of enmity against God himself: Ps.
xliv. 22, ' Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long.' God surely will concern himself in the church's interest, since it is his own. His interest lies,
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.J A DISCOUKSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 89
(1.) In the persons of his people. It is his inheritance, Isa. xix. 25. It
is his portion : Deut. xxxii. 9, ' The Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.' Every part of an inheritance and a portion doth as particularly belong to the owner as the whole. Every part of the ground
which belongs to the inheritance is the heir's, as well as the whole field. He will not suffer the world, which is but the work of his hands, to lay waste his church, which is his proper inheritance. It is his treasure, and
where a man's treasure is, there is his heart ; and where God's treasure is, there is God's heart.
(2.) In the services and actions of the church. If the church should be destroyed, whom hath God to love and imitate him, and to shew forth his glory ? If the candlestick is broken, what is fit to hold out the light to the world ? He hath none in the world besides, that do intentionally mind his honour, that take pleasure in glorifying his name, and writing after his copy, and observing his works. And will it stand with his interest to govern things contrary to theirs, which is really his own ?
When God had made the world, and pronounced it good, what would it have signified if he had not brought in man as his rent-gatherer, and the collector of his tribute, to return it to him ! And what would man signify,
since the corrupted world embezzles that which is God's right, and turns it to its own use, if God had not some honest stewards, who faithfully act for him, and give him the glory of his works ! And God will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him. God hath no voluntary service in the world but from them, therefore he is more interested in their good than in the good of the world besides. The services of the church are
all the delight God hath in the world : Hosea ix. 10, « I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness ; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time.' They are as the refreshing wine and grapes, as the delicious fruit of the first ripe figs, wherewith a weary traveller recruits his spirits after a long and trying journey. And God hath a greater delight in the fruit he receives from the church, than in it simply as it is his inheritance ; for no inheritance is valued but for the fruit and revenue it yields ; and therefore God orders all his blackest providences in the world, like dark clouds, to be the watering-pots of this his garden, that the fruit and flowers of it may be brought to maturity, which yield him so much pleasure and honour. God only is acknowledged by them and in them, as the Jews were bound to acknowledge God the author of their mercies, by presenting the first fruits of their increase to God. And believers are called so : Kev.
xiv. 4, « These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and the Lamb.' It is by and in them that God hath the acknowledgment of all his mercies and blessings to the world.
6. It cannot be but all the providences of God shall work to the good of his church, if we consider the affections of God.
(1.) His love. What hath God in the world as an object to bestow his affections upon, and communicate the rays of his love unto, since he created it, but his church ? The men of the world hate him ; he can see nothing amiable in them ; for what was first lovely they have defaced and blotted
out, but the church hath God's comeliness put upon her : Ezek. xvi. 14, * It was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God ; ' and he did not lay those glorious colours upon her, to manage his government, or any part of it against her, to deface her. Besides their loveliness, which is conferred upon them by God, they have a love to God, and no man will act against those whom he thinks to be his friend. God being punts actus, there being nothing but purity and activity in God, his
90 A DISCOUESE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 C/HRON. XVI. 9.
love must be the purest and highest love, the most vigorous and glowing ; as fire, which sets all other bodies, so this all other powers in the world in motion for them. God cannot love them, but he must wish all good to them, and do all good for them ; for his love is not a lazy love, but hath its raptures and tenderness, and his affection is twisted with his almighty power to work that good for them, which in their present condition in the world they are capable of. Now it is certain God loves his church ; for,
[1.] He carries them in his hand, Deut xxxiii. 3 ; and that not in a loose manner to be cast out, but they are engraven upon the palms of his hands, Isa. xlix. 16, that he cannot open his hand to bestow a blessing upon any person but the picture of his church doth dart in his eye. God alludes to the rings wherein men engrave the image of those that are dear to them. And the Jews did in their captivity engrave the effigies of their city Jeru
salem upon their rings, that they might not forget it.* If his eye be alway upon the church, his thoughts can never be off it in all his works.
[2.] He loves the very gates and outworks : Ps. Ixxxvii. 2, * The Lord loveth tae gates of Sion;' he loves a cottage where a church is more than the stately palaces of princes. The gates were the places where they con
sulted together, and gave judgment upon affairs. God loved the assemblies of his saints because of the truths revealed, the ordinances administered, the worship presented to him.
[3.] Nay, one saint is more valued by him than the whole world of the wicked. God is the God of all creatures, but peculiarly the God of Abra ham and of his seed. One Abraham is more deeply rooted in his heart than all the world, and he doth more entitle himself the God of Abraham than the God of the whole world ; for in that style he speaks to Isaac :
Gen. xxvi. 24, ' I am the God of Abraham thy father,' much more the God of Israel, the God of the whole church, of which Abraham was but a member, though the father of the faithful, and a feoffee of the covenant. God hath a greater value for one sincere soul than for a whole city. He saves a Lot, and burns a Sodom ; yea, than for a whole world, he drowns a world and reserves a Noah ; he secures his jewels, whilst he flings away the pebbles.
[4.] He loves them so, that he overlooks their crabbed and perverse mis constructions of his providence. When the Israelites had jealous thoughts of him, and of Moses his instrument, when they saw that mighty Egyptian army just at their heels, and themselves cooped up between mountains, forts, and waters, God doth not upon this provoking murmuring draw up his cloudy pillar to heaven, but puts it in the rear of them, when before it had marched in the van, Exod. xiv. 19, and wedgeth himself in between
them and Pharaoh's enraged host, to shew that they should as soon sheath their swords in his heart as in their bowels ; and if they could strike them, it should be through his own deity, which was the highest expression of his affection. And though they often murmured against his providence after they were landed on the shore, yet he left them not to shift for themselves, but bore them all the way in his arms, as a father doth his child, Deut. i. 31, and bare them like an eagle upon his wings, Deut. xxxii. 11. And
God loves them magnificently and royally: Hosea xiv. 4, 'I will love them freely, 'f without any doubting, without any reluctancy. I will love thee without any repugnancy in my heart to draw me back from thee ; ' for mine anger is turned away,' as the streams of a river, quite another way. Now, all this considered, can the Governor of the world, the King of saints,
* Sanctius in Isa. xlix. 16. t Hosea xiv. 4,
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act anything against his own affections ? Yea, will he not make all things subservient to them whom he loves ?
(2.) His delight. See what an inundation of sweetening joy there was in him, for which he had not terms of expression to suit the narrow apprehen sions of men: Zeph. iii. 17, 'The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his
love; he will joy over thee with singing.' He seems in his expression to know no measure of his delight in the church, and no end of it : 'I will
rejoice over thee with joy.' Joy sparkles up fresh after joy; it is his rest, where the soul and all that is within him centres itself with infinite con
tentment. 'Joy over thee with singing:' a joy that blossoms into triumph. Never had any such charming transports in the company of any he most affected as God hath in his church ; he doth so delight in the graces of his
people, that he delights to mention them. He twice mentions Enoch's walk ing with him, Gen. v. 22, 24. And certainly God cannot but delight in. it more than in the world, because it is a fruit of greater pains than the crea tion of the world. The world was created in the space of six days by a word, the erecting a church hath cost God more pains and time. Before the church of the Jews could be settled, he hath both a contest with the peevishness of his people and the malice of their enemies. And his own Son must bleed and die before the church of the Gentiles could be fixed. Men delight in that which hath cost them much pains and a great price. God hath been at too much pains, and Christ at too great price, to have small delight in the church ; will he then let wild beasts break the hedges, and tread down the fruit of it ? Shall not all things be ordered to the good of that which is the object of his greatest delight in the world ?
7. Seventhly, The presence of God in his church will make all providences tend to the good of it.
It would be an idle, useless presence if it were not operative for their
good. ' The Lord is there ' is the very name of the gospel church, Ezek. xlviii. 85 ; what would it signify if it were a useless presence ? Christ stands upon mount Sion, his throne is in the church, when the great things
in the world shall be acted for the ruin of antichrist, Rev. xiv. 1. God's presence in his church is the glory and defence of it, as the presence of the king is the glory of the court : Zech. ii. 5, ' For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of
her.' His presence is a covenant presence: Isa. xli. 10, * Fear not, I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy God ;' whence follows strength, help, and support : ' I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness;' that is, with my righteous power, with my power engaged to thee in a righteous covenant. His presence and providence in the world is in a way of absolute dominion, but in his church in a way of federal relation. He is the God of Israel, and God to Israel, or for Israel, 1 Chron. xvii. 24, yea, and a God in the midst of Israel, — every one of them sufficient engagements to protect
Israel, and provide for Israel, and govern everything for Israel's good. God is under an oath to do good to Israel ; will he violate his oath, tear his seal, break his covenant, who never broke his league with any of his people yet ?
8. Eighthly, The prayers of the church have a mighty force with God to this end. God is entitled a God hearing prayer ; and what prayers should God hear, if not the prayers of his church, which aim at God's glory in their own good ? Though the prayers of the church may in some particulars fail, yet in general they do not ; because they submit their desires to the will of God, which always works what is best for them.
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When God would do any mighty work in the world, he stirs up his people to pray for it ; and their prayers by his own appointment have a mighty in fluence upon the government of the world, for when they come before him in behalf of the church in general, he doth indulge them a greater liberty and boldness, and as it were a kind of authority over him, than upon other occasions of their own: Isa. xlv. 11, * Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask of me things to come concerning my sons ; and
concerning the work of mine hands command you me.' God would be more positively, confidently, and familiarly dealt with about the concerns of his sons, though they were things to come to pass in after ages. And indeed the prayers of the church have a powerful and invisible efficacy on the great actions and overturnings which are in the world. The being of
the world is maintained by them from sinking; according to the Jews' say ing, sine stationibus non subsisteret mundus (standing in prayer was their usual prayer gesture). And that they have actually such a force is evident: Rev. viii. 3, 4, an angel hath a golden censer with incense, to offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the altar which was before the throne. And, verse 5, the censer wherein their prayers were offered was filled with the fire of the altar, and cast into the earth; and there were voices, thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes. When the prayer of the saints were offered to God, and ascended up before him, that is, were very pleasing to him, the issue is, the angel fills the censer with fire of the altar, and thereby causes great commotions and alterations in the world, signifying that the great changes of the world are an answer unto those prayers which are offered unto God ; for fire is taken from that altar upon which they were offered, and flung into the world. And it must needs be that the prayers of the church should have an influence on the government of the world.
(1.) Because God hath a mighty delight in the prayers of his people. ' The prayer of the upright is his delight ; ' and he loves to hear the church's voice : Cant. ii. 14, 4 0 my dove, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice ' (Chaldee, ' Thy voice is sweet in prayer'). In the times of the gospel, God promises that the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem should be pleasant to him, Mai. iii. 4. When Christ shall sit as a refiner, ver. 3, what is the
issue of those prayers ? ver. 5, ' 1 will come near to you to judgment, and I
will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,' &c. Prayer awakes providence to judge the enemies of the church. A parent delights not in the bare cry ing, or the voice of his child simply considered in itself, but in the signifi cations and effects of it. He delights in the matter of their prayers, it being so agreeable to his own heart and will, and in the sense they have of the sufferings of the whole body.
(2.) Because prayer is nothing else but a pleading of God's promises. Unto this they are directed by that Spirit which knows the mind of God, and mar shals their petitions according to his will. Now as God turns his own decrees and purposes concerning his church into promises to them, so the church turns those promises into prayers for them ; so that promises being for the good of the church, and there being an exact harmony between those
promises and the church's prayers, all those providences which are the issue of those promises, and the answer of the church's prayers, must needs be for the church's good.
(3.) Because there are united supplications and pleadings both in heaven and earth. All the hands of the whole family in heaven and earth are con cerned in their petitions.
[1.] Christ intercedes for the church, who always desires mercy and deliver-
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOUESE OF DIVINE PEOVIDENCE. 93
ance for them in the appointed time : Zech. i. 12; ' How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem ? ' and the issue is always gracious ; for, ver. 13, God answers him with ' good and comfortable words ; ' and there upon carpenters are raised to ' cut off the horns which had scattered Judah,' ver. 20.
[2.J Angels in all probability plead for the church, as we have already heard ; it is likely they offer and present that to God which makes for his
glory, 'and that is the good of the church. Angels surely desire that which their head doth, which is described as one of their own order, and called an
angel, Zech. i. 12. Do they rejoice at the repentance of a sinner, and do they not likewise triumph at the happiness of the church, which is part of that family they are of? And we know that the greatness of our joy ig suited to the mercies of our desires ; where our joy is most triumphant, it
implies that our desires before were most vehement.
[3.] Glorified saints are not surely behind. The rich man in the parable desired his friends on earth might not come into that place of torment, Luke xvi. 28. Ifihere be so much charity in hell, can there be less in heaven ? If he desired it, that by the presence of his companions in sin, his own torments might not be increased, do not the saints in heaven de sire the presence of the whole church, that their happiness in that of the whole body may be completed ? If the head Christ be not complete with out the body, the members of the body cannot be complete without one another. The souls of them that were slain for the word of God cry under the altar for vengeance on them that dwell on the earth ; as Kev. vi. 9, 10,
'How long, 0 Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' Will not their kindness to their fellowmembers be as strong as their justice, and their love for the good of their friends draw out their prayers as well as their desire of vengeance on their enemies ? Why may they not as well pray for us as we praise God for them ? Had they not some likeness to their great Master whilst they were on earth, and shall they not be more like to him now they are in heaven, and behold his face, and feel all the stirrings of his heart? And if they have no
sense at all of the church's sufferings, how shall they be like to him who hath ? As their bodies shall be like the glorious body of Christ at the resurrection, are not their souls now like his glorious soul, merciful, and com passionate, and sympathising in all the afflictions of the church ? And can
this be without some breathings for a full completing of the church's freedom ? Are such desires and pleas any hindrance to their present happiness ? It is so far from that, that it doth rather further their glory, which cannot be complete, as the glory of Christ, as head, is not mounted to the highest pitch of glory, till his mystical body be all gathered in and lodged with him. If it be thus, \vill God do anything prejudicial to the church, and contrary to the combined desires of all those that are so near him ? If God doth some
times stir up himself upon the supplication of one man, and grant an order upon his petition according to his mind ; and if the prayers of one faithful Moses, or Elias, or Samuel have such a kind of almighty power in them, much more is the joint force of so many prayers twisted together.
Use 1. For information. Is it so that all providence is for the good of the church ? Then,
1. God will always have a church in the world, he will have some to serve him. The whole course of his providence being designed for it, as long as the world, which is the object of his providence, doth endure, he will have a
church. God would otherwise lose the end of the motion of his eyes,* the
* As in the text, 2 Chron. xvi. 9.
94 A DISCOUESE OF DIVINE PEOVIDENCE. [2 CHEON. XVI. 9.
operation of his providence, since it is to shew himself strong for the church and every member of it. As long as the candle and light of the gospel burns and shines, God will have a candlestick to set the candle in.* His great design in making a world was not to have sun, moon, and stars, but a church, a company of men that might bear his mark, and honour him, to whom he might speak, and extend his grace abroad, which he was so full of within. As a limner who would draw an excellent draught, draws his design in the midst of the cloth, and fills the void places with clouds, and land scapes, and other fancies at his pleasure, which communicate some beauty and lustre to the work, but that was not the principal design of the work man. That Redeemer which bears the church upon his heart, will create a
stability for it ; it is a part of his priestly office to have a care of the lamps ; it is one of his titles to be he that walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, Rev. ii. 1. Priests under the law were to look to the great candlestick in the temple, supply the lamps with oil, and make them clean, Lev. xxiv. 3, 4. The church indeed may be eclipsed, but not extinguished ; if it be not conspicuous on the mountain, yet it shall be hid in the wilderness. There shall be sprinklings of professors among all people. God will leaven the places where they are into Christianity, and cause them to fructify and
grow up in purity and glory : Micah v. 7, * And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the
grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.' It tarries not for man. It attends not the power of man, the precepts of man-, or inventions of man ; but whose descent is from heaven, and is carried on not by human power, but by the divine Spirit and providence ; it shall be firmer than all worldly power, and the strongest kings : Isa. ii. 2, ' And the moun
tain of the Lord's house shall be established upon the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted.above the hills.' Above mountains and hills, to which sometimes the powers of the world are compared, Zech. iv. 7. That provi dence which gave the church at first a footing in the world upon a weak foundation to outward appearance, in spite of men and devils will preserve it, and not suffer it to be blown up ; he will shadow the church with his wings in a perpetual succession of the choicest mercies.
2. God will in the greatest exigencies find out means for the protection of his church. This will be till his providence be at an end. When God
hath removed one instrument of his church's protection, he hath his choice of others, whom he can raise and spirit for his work. When those upon
whom the church's hopes hang are taken off, he can raise things that are unlikely to supply the place. As the lutenist accidentally had a grasshopper leapt upon his instrument, to supply by its noise the place of a string which had newly cracked, whereby his music was continued without interruption. God can spirit men against their own natural fears. It is very improbable, that Nicodemus, one of a fearful disposition, who came to our Saviour by night for fear of the Jews, should have the courage to assert his cause in the face of a whole council of pharisees, contriving his death, and at present blunt the edge of their malice, though we read of none at that time in the council to second him, John vii. 50, 51. The Holy Ghost takes particular notice that it was he that came to Jesus by night.
Joseph of Arimathea, whose name we meet not with* in the catalogue of any of our disciples,! till the time of his death, and then he appears boldly to beg the body of Jesus of Pilate. God will never want instruments for the preserving that church, which he owns as his. It is observed by some,
* Cham. Les trais verit. liv. 3 chap i. p. 16. f Qu. ' in any of the catalogues of our Lord's disciples '?— Ed.
2 CHKON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 95
that God so ordered it, that the same day that Pelagius, the great poisoner of the Christian doctrine, was born in Britain, Austin, the most famous de fender of the truth, was born in Africa ; that the horn which pushed the truth should no sooner appear, but the carpenter to cut it off should be pro vided too. As it is observed where poisons grow, antidotes grow near them
by the indulgent provision of the God of nature.
As there is the wisdom of the serpent against the church, so there is the
wisdom of God for it. God's goodness upon his church in former ages is not all laid out, he hath his stores still, neither is his wisdom nonplussed, nor his power weakened ; neither is he, nor can he be weary of his care.
3. The church shall in the end prove victorious against all its adversaries,
or providence must miss of its aim. The church is compared to an olive
tree, Hosea xiv. 6, in respect of beauty, ' his beauty shall be as the olive tree!' It is so also in respect of victory. Olive branches were used in
triumph. God is on the church's side, and he is stronger than the strongest, and wiser than the wisest, and higher than the highest. Jesus Christ
is the church's head and general ; Christ the head watcheth for the good of the church, the body. He must be destroyed before the church can. There is a mighty arm, which, though it may for a time seem withered, will in the end be stretched out, and get itself the victory. Whilst Christ is in the ship, it may be tossed, but it shall not be sunk. It may be beaten down, but like a ball to rebound the higher. The young tree that is shaken by the wind may lose some leaves, and some fruit too,
but the root gets greater strength and strikes itself deeper into the earth, and makes the branches more capable of a rich return of fruit the following
year. The church's stature is compared to a palm tree, Cant. vii. 7, which cannot be depressed by the weights which hang upon it, but riseth the
higher. God uses the same method in the church's, as in Christ's advance ment. Our Saviour's death was necessary to his glory, Luke xxiv. 26, and the church's affliction sometimes to its exaltation. A nation may lose some battles, and yet be victorious ; the church may have many a cross, but in the end will surmount all difficulties. Though judgments and apostasies may be great in a nation, yet God will have a care of his own plants, Isa. vi. 12, 13 ; ' There shall be a tenth ; it shall return, the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.' As a tree in winter, which seems dead, but its juice
shall revive into rich and generous blossoms. The ark 'shall float above the waters. Babylon shall fall, the Lamb shall stand upon mount Zion. Men may as well stop the rising of the sun in its mounting to the meridian, bridle in the tide of the ocean, as hinder the current of an almighty providence.
4. The interest of nations is to bear a respect to the church, and coun tenance the worship of God in it. This is to concur with God's main end,
and imitate him in his providential administrations. God's people, what ever their enemies suggest to the contrary, are a blessing in the midst of a land, Isa. xix. 24 ; their interest is greater than the interest of all the world besides ; though they be but a handful, their fruit shall shake like Lebanon, Ps. Ixxii. 16. The neglect of religion is the ruin of nations. It is observed that Cyrus was slain in the war in Scythia, a little after he neglected the building of the temple of Jerusalem which he had begun.* Those Persian kings reigned the longest that favoured the Jews in that and their other just requests. God honoured or disgraced them as they were kind or cruel to his people. And when they act for the good of his people, they shall not be without their reward. When Cyrus should let the Jewish captives go free without ransom, he should be no loser by it. God would
* Brougnton on Dan. x. 10.
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give him the labour of Egypt, the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the strength
of the Sabeans into his hand for the price of his people's delivery, Isa. xlv. 13, 14. Those nations which should favour them in the times of their per secutions and flights, and give them shelter in their countries, should thrive and prosper by the blessing of God upon them. If Moab give entertain ment to the flying Israelites in the time of the invasion of Shalmanezer, God will preserve their land that the spoiler shall not enter into the confines of it, and they shall have kings and judges under the protection of the house of David, i. e. under the kings of Israel, as some understand it, Isa. xvi. 4, 5. Saints are the guardians of the places where they live, their prayers have a greater influence than the wisest counsels, or the mightiest force,
2 Kings ii. 12 : « And Elisha cried, My father, my father ! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.' The Chaldee paraphraseth thus : ' Thou art better to Israel by thy prayers than chariots and horsemen.' This is the elogy of one single prophet ; what influence then hath the whole church of God in a place ? The whole world is the better for the church of God. The Chaldee paraphrase hath a notion upon that, Ps. xxii. 3 : ' But thou art holy, 0 thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel ;' thou that establishest the world for the praises of Israel. God hath nothing to do in the world but the saving of his people. When that is once done, he will put an end to this frame of things. When he hath gathered his wheat into his garner, he will burn up the chaff. His people are the spirit and quint essence of the world. When this is extracted, the rest are flung upon the dunghill, as a caput mortuum.
5. We may see hence the ground of most of the judgments in the world.
Men by their rage against the church, will not acknowledge God's govern ment of the world for the church's good ; therefore the psalmist, Ps. lix. 13, ' Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be, and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.' The church is the seat of his government, and from thence he extends it to the utter most parts of the earth. In Jacob he rules, and for the sake of Jacob he orders his government to the ends of the earth ; the not acknowledging this brings wrathful consumptions upon men ; and it is also the end of his judg ments to make men know it. It is likely enough the four kings, Gen. xiv.
9, might have gone clear away with all their booty, had not they laid their fingers upon Lot ; But when they would pack him up among the rest, they did but solicit their own ruin, and arm the almighty God against them. God did not think any of the people worth the mention, verse 11; only Lot
a righteous person, verse 12, he is named, as having God's eye only upon him. And when Abraham returns from the victory, ver. 16, the rest of the delivered captives are mentioned in the bulk, Lot only in particular, as though
all that had been done had been done by God only for Lot's sake. They might have preserved the whole prey to themselves, had it not been for this
jewel, too precious in God's account for their custody. And the fearful curse that God pronounced against the Ammonite and Moabite, that they should not come into the congregation for ten generations, though any of them turned proselytes, was because they came not out with so much as bread and water to meet the Israelites, and because they hired Balaam to curse them, Deut. xxiii. 3, 4. The utter wasting of nations and kingdoms, is because they will not serve the interest of God in his people : Isa. Ix. 12,
' For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish ; yea,
those nations shall be utterly wasted.' God will bring an utter consumption upon those people that refuse to love them, much more upon those that hate them.
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6. What esteem, then, should there be of the godly in the world ? The providence of God, being chiefly for the good of his people, cannot well fall upon them, but some drops will fall upon those involved with them in a common interest. When the corn, and wine, and oil hear Jezreel (the seed of God), and the earth hears the corn, and the heavens hear the earth, and God hears the heavens, Hosea ii. 21, 22 ; when their supplications come up to the great superintendent of the world, many of the wicked will fare
the better for that providence which is given only in answer to Jezreel's prayer ; God causes his sun to shine upon the unjust, upon them, not for their sakes. When Nebuchadnezzar issued out that Unjust order for the slaying the Chaldeans for not performing an impossible command in telling him the dream he had forgotten, Dan. ii. 12, Daniel was sought out to undergo the same fate; yet by his wisdom God bends the heart of Arioch, the executioner of this decree, to stay his hand. Daniel goes to the king,
God stays Nebuchadnezzar's fury, and moves his heart to give them time. The providence is chiefly intended for the preservation of Daniel and his godly companions, but the rest of the wise men have the benefit of it. As the water with which a man waters his choicest plants and flowers in his garden is intended only for them, yet some falling off from those flowers refresheth the weeds that grow under them. If God had not had such flowers as Daniel and his companions, the weeds in Chaldea had been plucked up. Yet the ungrateful world takes no notice of the benefits they receive from this salt of the earth, which preserves them, and to whom they are all so much beholding. Lot had been the occasion of restoring Zoar from captivity, as I mentioned before, for the inhabitants of that city were
engaged with those of Sodom in the fight against the four kings (* And the king of Bela, the same is Zoar,' Gen. xiv. 8) ; and perhaps were carried captives with the rest of their neighbours ; and it had been saved from the
flames which fell upon Sodom merely by Lot's prayer : Gen. xix. 21, ' See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing, that I will not overthrow this city
for the which thou hast spoken ; ' yet he found them a surly people, and was requited with a rude reception, notwithstanding his kindness : ver. 13, ' He went up out of Zoar, for he feared to dwell in Zoar.' It was not likely he was so distrustful of God, that he should overthrow it, when he had abso lutely promised him the contrary ; therefore most likely for some churlish threatenings from them. Nay, Sodom itself was beholden to him for a small respite of the judgment intended against them. For God tells him he could do nothing till he were come thither, Gen. xix. 22. And it was so, for Lot was entered into Zoar before a drop of brimstone and fire was rained down upon Sodom : ver. 23, 24, « Then the Lord rained upon Sodom ; ' when ? When Lot was entered into Zoar. This good the wicked world get by God's people is so evident, that sometimes wicked men cannot but take notice of it. Laban, a selfish idolater, was sensible of it :
Gen. xxx. 27, « I have found by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.' It was a lesson so legible that he might have learned it sooner than in fourteen years. The church is the chief object of preserva tion, wicked men are preserved for their sakes ; as dung is preserved, not for its own sake, but for the manuring a fruitful field, and thorns in the
hedge are preserved for the garden's sake.
7. It is then a very foolish thing for any to contend against the welfare
of God's people. It is to strive against an almighty and unwearied pro vidence. Men may indeed sometimes be suffered by God for holy ends to have their wills, in some measure, upon the church, but not altogether ; they must first depose him from his throne, blind his eyes, or hold his arm.
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It is as foolish as if a worm should design to dig down a mountain, or chaff to martial itself in battle array against the wind, or for a poor fly to stop the motion of a millstone.
(1.) It is foolish, because it is exceeding sinful. What is done against the church is rather done against God than against it ; since all her constitu tion, worship, observances, are directed to God as their ultimate end ; so that to endeavour to destroy the church is to deny God a worship, deprive him of his sanctuary, break open his house, ravish his spouse, cut off
Christ's body, rob him of his jewels, and will be so interpreted by God at the last, upon the scanning of things. If the church be God's house, the enemies shall answer for every invasion, every forcible entry, for the breaking down the gates and bars of it, God will sue them at last for dilapi dations.
(2.) Very unsuccessful. Shall God be afraid of the multitudes and power
of men ? No more than ' a lion, or a young lion roaring after his prey, when a multitude of shepherds are called forth against them, shall he be
afraid of their voice, or abase himself for their noise,' Isa. xxxL 4. Noise and clamour is all they can do, and that not long; the fierceness of the lion
quickly scatters them. The associations, and men's girding themselves against the church, is but a preparation to their own ruin : Isa. viii. 9,
1 Associate yourselves together, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces,' three times repeated. Your counsels, saith he, shall not stand against that presence of God that is with us, ' for God is with us.'
(8.) It is very destructive too. God will not alway be still and refrain himself ; he seems to do so for a while, but when he doth arise he will
destroy and devour at once, Isa. xlii. 14, he will make but Jone morsel of them. When God is angry with his people, and gives them into the hands of men to execute his justice upon them, and punish them, he will even punish those enemies for their cruelty, and going beyond their com mission, in satisfying their own immoderate passions upon them. Upon this account God threatens Babylon: Isa. xlvii. 6, ' I was wroth with my people; I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thy hand : thou
didst shew them no mercy ; ' whereupon God threatens them afterwards, &c. ; so Zech. i. 15, God was sore displeased with the heathen, for when
he was ' but a little displeased' with his people, ' they helped forward the affliction.' Use 2. Is for comfort.
If all the providence of God be for the good of the church, if his eyes run to and fro to shew himself strong for them, it affords matter of great com fort. His providence is continual for them, Zech. iv. 2. He hath seven pipes to convey kindness to them, as well as seven lamps whereby to discern their straits. His providence is as vast as his omniscience. The number of pipes belonging to the candlestick of the church is exact accord
ing to the number of lamps. The church's misery cannot be hid from God's eye, let it be in what part of the earth soever, for his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, and his sight excites his strength. Upon the sight of their distressed condition he watches only for the fittest opportunity to shew himself strong for them. And when that opportunity comes he it
speedy in the deliverance of them : Ps. xviii. 10, ' He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.' He doth noi only ride upon a cherub, but fly. His wings are nothing but wind, whict hath the quickest and strongest motion, which moves the greatest bodies, and turns down all before it. What is for the good of the whole hath ar influence upon every member of the body.
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1. It is comfort in duties and special services. Nothing shall be wanting for encouragement to duty, and success in it when God calls any to it, since all his providence is for the good of the church. Let there be but sincerity
on our parts, in our attempts of service upon God's call, and we need not fear a want of providence on God's part. God never calls any to serve his church in any station, but he doth both spirit and encourage them. God hath in his common providence suited the nature of every creature to that place in which he hath set it in the world ; and will he not much more in his special providence suit every one to that place he calls them to, for the service of his church ? He did not forsake Christ in redeeming his church, neither will he forsake any in assisting his church. When Joseph of Arimathea would boldly demand the body of our Saviour, providence made the way plain before him ; he meets with no check, neither from Pilate nor the priests, Mat. xxvii. 58, Mark xv. 43.
2. In meanness and lowness. It is one and the same God that rules the
affairs of the whole world, of the church and of every particular member of
it. As it is the same soul that informs the whole body, the meanest mem ber as well as that which is most excellent. Not the meanest sincere
Christian but is under God's eye for good. The Spirit acts and animates every member in the church, the weakest as well as the most towering
Christian. Baruch was but the prophet Jeremiah's amanuensis or scribe, and servant to Jeremiah (who was no great man in the world himself), yet God takes notice so of his service, that he would particularly provide for him, and commands Jeremiah in a way of prophecy to tell him as much :
Jer. xlv. 5, ' I will bring evil upon all flesh, but thy life will I give unto thee
for a prey, whithersoever thou goest.'
3. In the greatest judgments upon others. In an epidemical judg ment upon the whole nation of the Jews, God would have a special care of Baruch. If he should cast his people far off among the heathen, and scatter them among the countries, yet even there he would be a little sanctuary unto them. His own presence should supply the want of a temple, so he is pleased to express himself, Ezek. xi. 16. But how is it possible the great
God can be but a little sanctuary ? His eye is upon them to see their danger, and his hand upon them to secure them from it. His promise shall shield them, and his wings shall cover them, Ps. xci. 4. While he hath indignation, he hath a secret chamber for their security, Isa. xxvi. 20, an almighty shadow under which they abide, Ps. xci. 1. In times of the most devouring danger he hath a seal to set upon their foreheads as a mark
of his special protection. We never have so much experience of God's care and strength as in times of trouble : Ps. xxxvii. 39, * He is their strength in time of trouble.' He is a friend who is as able as willing, and as willing as able to help them, whose watchfulness over them is as much above their apprehension as it is above their merits.
4. In the greatest extremities wherein his people may be, there are pro mises of comfort, Isa. xliii. 2. Both in overflowing waters and scorching fires he will be with them ; his providence shall attend his promise, and his truth shall be their shield and buckler, Ps. xci. 4, That surely is a suffi- :ient support ; Christ thought it so, when he only said to his disciples, ' It
is I, be not afraid,' John vi. 17, 18. What though there be a storm, a iarkness, and trouble, « It is I am he.' The darkness of the night troubles aot the pilot whilst he hath his compass to steer by. If all his providences be for the good of them that fear him, he can never want means to bring :hem out of trouble, because he is always actually exercised in governing ;hat which is for their good, and till he sees it fit to deliver them, he will be
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with them. Great mercies succeed the sharpest afflictions, Jer. xxx. 5, 6, 7,
&c. When there should be a voice of trembling, and men with their hands upon their loins, as women in travail, and paleness in their faces from the excess of their fears, in that day God would break the yoke from them, and they should serve the Lord their God, and David their king. Though the night be never so dark, yet it is certain the sun will rise and disperse its light next morning, and one time or other shew itself in its brightness. We have no reason to despond in great extremities, since he can think us into
safety, — Ps. xl. 17, 'Lord, think on me,' — much more look us into it; his thoughts and his eyes move together.
5. In fear of wants. The power of the government of the world cannot be doubted. His love, as little as it seems, since it hath moved him to pre pare heaven to entertain his people at the end of their journey, it will not be wanting to provide accommodation for them upon the way, since all things, both good and bad, are at his beck, and under the government of his gracious wisdom. His eyes run to and fro through the whole earth, not only to defend them in dangers, but supply them in wants, for his strength is shewed both ways. Doth he providentially regard them that have no respect for him, and will he not employ his power for, and extend his care to them that adore and love him, and keep up his honour in the world? He will not surely be regardless of the afflictions of his creatures. His people are not only his creatures, but his new creatures ; their bodies are not only created by him, but redeemed by his Son. The purchase of the Redeemer is joined to the providence of the Creator. If he take care of you when he might have damned you for your sins, will he not much more since you are believers in Christ ? And he cannot damn you believing, unless he renounc
his Son's mediation and his own promise. A natural man provides for hi own, much more a righteous man : Pro. xiii. 22, « A good man leaves an inheritance to his children,' much more the God of righteousness, a Go< who hath his eye always upon them. His eye will affect his heart, and hi
heart spirit the hand of his power to relieve them. He hath ' prepared o his goodness for the poor,' Ps. Ixviii. 10.
6. It is comfort in the low estate of the church at any time. God's eye is upon his church even whilst he seems to have forsaken them. If he seem to be departed, it is but in some other part of the earth, to shew himsel strong for them ; wherever his eye is fixed in any part of the world, his
church hath his heart, and his church's relief is his end. Though the church may sometimes lie among the pots in a dirty condition, yet there 18 a time of resurrection, when God will restore it to its true glory, and make it as white as a dove with its silver wings, Ps. Ixviii. 13. The sun is not alway obscured by a thick cloud, but will be freed from the darkness of it 'Godwill judge his people, and repent himself concerning his servants, Ps. cxxxv. 14.* It is a comfort to God to deliver his people, and he wil do it in such a season when it shall be most comfortable to his glory anc their hearts. The very name Jerusalem some derive from Jireh Salem,
1 God will provide in Salem.' The new Jerusalem is the title given to God's church, Rev. xxi., and is still the object of his providence, and he will provide
for it at a pinch : Gen. xxii. 14, ' Jehovah Jireh,' God will raise up the honour and beauty of his church ; great men shall be servants to it, and employ their strength for it when God shall have mercy on it, Isa. Ix. 10, 12; yea, the learning and knowledge of the world shall contribute to the building
of it; ver. 13, ' The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree,
the'pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary.
j comfort himself.
2 CHKON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOUESE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 101
It shall be called the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel, that she may know that the Lord is her Saviour, and her Eedeemer, the
mighty one of Jacob.' As Christ rose in his natural, so he will in his spiritual body. If Christ when dead could not be kept from rising, Christ now living shall not be hindered from rising and helping his church. His
own glory is linked with his people's security, and though he may not be moved for anything in them because of their sinfulness, he will for his own name, because of its excellency : Ezek. xxxvi. 22, * I do not this for your sakes, 0 house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake.' As sorrows in creased upon the Israelites, the nearer their deliverance approached.
Because this method of God is the greatest startling even to good men, let us consider this a little, that God doth, and why God doth, leave his
church to extremities before he doth deliver it.
Take the resolution of this in some propositions.
1. It is indeed God's usual method to leave the church to extremity before he doth command help. You never heard of any eminent deliverance of the church but was ushered in by some amazing distress. The Israelites wero not saved till they were put in between sea, hills, and forts, that their destruction was inevitable, unless heaven relieved them. Pharaoh resolves to have his will, and God resolves to have his ; but he lets him come with
his whole force and open mouth at the Israelites' backs, and then makes the waters his sepulchre. Constantine, the man-child in the Revelation, was preceded by Diocletian, the sharpest persecutor. When his people are at a loss, it is his usual time to do his greatest works for them ; God had pro mised Christ many ages, and yet no appearance of him ; still promise after promise, and no performance, Ps. xl. 8. It was then, ' Lo, I come,' yet many hundred years rolled away, and no sight of him yet. Captivity and affliction, and no Redeemer ; but when the world was overrun with idolatry, the Jews oppressed by the Romans, the sceptre departed from Judah, Herod an Edomite and stranger-king, and scarce any faith left, then, then he comes. The world will be in much the like case at his next coming : Luke xviii. 8,
' When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith in the earth ? ' There shall be fain tings, despondency, unbelief of his promise, as though he had
cast off all care of his church's concerns. It is not meant of a justifying faith, but a faith in that particular promise of his coming. The faith of the Israelites must needs begin to flag when they saw their males murdered by the Egyptians ; could they believe the propagation of the seed of Abraham, when murder took off the infants, and labour and age would in time the old ones ? Whilst their children were preserved, the promise might easily be believed. ^ But consider, this was but just before their deliverance ; like a violent crisis before recovery. He doth then 'judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he sees their power is gone, and there is none
shut up or left,' Deut. xxxii. 36. He doth so for the wicked many times. When the affliction of idolatrous Israel was bitter, when there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel, then he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, 2 Kings xiv. 26, 27. He doth so with private persons ; Peter might have been delivered by God's power out of prison when he was first sent thither, but God thought it fittest for him to lie in chains, and free him but the night before his intended execution, Acts xii. 6, 7. Lot had his goods rifled and carried away captive before God stirred up Abraham to rescue him. When the hand of the wicked lies heaviest upon the heads of the righteous, and wrings the most mournful sighs from them ; when they are needy, and the wicked securely puffing at them, as though they had brought them to so low a condition as to blow them away with a blast; ' Now,' saith
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God, 'will I arise: ' Ps. xii. 5, ' For the oppression of the poor, for the sigh ing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord ; I will set him at safety
from him that puffeth at him.' Now, this is the time I watched for as fittest for my own glory and their safety. Then God disappoints them, when they seem to have got to the goal, with the ball at their foot.
Secondly, God hereby doth glorify himself. He then discovers that there is nothing too high for his power to check, nothing too subtle for his wisdom to disappoint, nothing too low for his love to embrace. That is the season wherein his mercy will be most prized, his power most admired, his wisdom most adored, and his justice most cleared. God lets the concerns of his church go backward, that he may bring them on with more glory to himself and satisfaction to his creature. God will divide the benefit and the honour between himself and the creature ; he will have the whole glory, and his creature shall have the sensible advantage. They shall enjoy salvation, there is their benefit, but ' not by sword or bow, but by the Lord their God,' Hosea i. 7. Saved they should be, but in such a way wherein the honour of God might most appear, without any mixture of the creature.
1. God glorifies his power. His eyes run to and fro to shew himself strong. He will then pitch upon such a season when his strength may appear most illustrious, and none else have any pretence to claim an equal strength with him. A time of extremity is the fittest opportunity for this, when his power cannot be clouded by any interpositions of the creature for
challenging a share in it. The greater the malice against the church, the
weaker the church's ability to help itself, the more glorious is the power of God magnified in deliverance ; little dangers are not so suitable for the triumph of an infinite strength. As God let Christ lie three days in the grave, that his resurrection might be known to be the fruit of a divine power, for the same end he lets his mystical body lie in the same condition. Had God brought Israel out of Egypt in the time of the kings that were friends to them from a kindly remembrance of Joseph, there had been no character of a divine power, though there had been of a divine truth apparent in the case ; but he set apart that time for their deliverance, when he was to con test with the mightiest opposition from the whole body of the Egyptian nation, who had forgot Joseph their great benefactor. Had not the disciples been in a great storm, ready to be cast away, and Christ asleep till they were in extremity, they had not seen such visible marks of the extensiveness
of their Master's power, Isa. xxxiii. 7, 8, &c. When the hearts of the strong men fainted, when the Assyrians would not hear the ambassadors of peace, when they had broke their former covenant, resolved to invade the
land, when their calamity and despair had arrested all their hopes, * Now,'
when all things are in such a deplorable state, * will I rise, saith the Lord, now will I be exalted ; now will I lift up myself.' God was not asleep or unconcerned, but he sat still watching for such a season ; now is three times repeated. The Psalmist gives us a record of this in his particular case. When the waters of his affliction were many, the enemy strong, and too strong for him, their strength edged with an intense hatred, then God appears to be his stay, and prevents them in the day of his calamity, Ps. xviii. 16-18. God lets his enemies be too strong for him, that he might appear his only stay, without any mixture of David's strength in the case. When the Jews thrust Christ out of Nazareth, led him to the brow of the hill, and were ready to cast him down, then, and not till then, he frees him self out of their hands, and disappoints the effects of their rage, Luke iv. 29. As Christ dealt thus for himself, so he deals for his church in all ages.
2. God glorifies his wisdom. « His eyes run to and fro throughout the
2 CHKON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 103
whole earth, to shew himself strong.' It is not a bare strength that God would shew, or such a power which we call in man a brutish valour, without wit or skill, but to shew his strength with his wisdom, when all his other attributes may be glorified with that of his power. When all worldly helps are departed, we can as little ascribe our security to our own wisdom and