Part 10
Thirdly, It was contrary to the sensuality of the world, and the lust of the flesh. How much the Gentiles were overgrown with base and unworthy lusts at the time of the publication of the gospel, needs no other memento
than the apostle's discourse, Eom. i. As there was no error but prevailed upon their minds, so there was no brutish affection but was wedded to their
hearts. The doctrine proposed to them was not easy ; it flattered not the sense, but checked the stream of nature. It thundered down those three
great engines whereby the devil had subdued the world to himself, ' the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.' Not only the most sordid affections of the flesh, but the more refined gratifications of the mind ; it stripped nature both of devil and man, of what was commonly esteemed great and virtuous. That which was the root of their fame, and satisfaction of their ambition, was struck at by this axe of the gospel. The first article of it ordered them to deny themselves, not to presume upon their own worth ; to lay their understandings and wills at the foot of the cross, and resign them up to one newly crucified at Jerusalem. Honours and wealth were to be despised, flesh to be tamed, the cross to be borne, enemies to be loved, revenge not to be satisfied, blood to be spilled, and torments to be endured for the honour of one they never saw nor ever before heard of, who was preached with the circumstances of a shameful death, enough to affright them from the entertainment ; and the report of a resur rection and glorious ascension were things never heard of by them before, and unknown in the world, that would not easily enter into the belief of
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men. The cross, disgrace, self-denial, were only discoursed of in order to the attainment of an invisible world, and an unseen reward, which none of
their predecessors ever returned to acqanint them with ; a patient death, contrary to the pride of nature, was published as the way to happiness and a blessed immortality. The dearest lusts were to be pierced to death for the honour of this new lord. Other religions brought wealth and honour ; this struck them off from such expectations, and presented them with no promise of anything in this life but a prospect of misery, except those inward consolations to which before they had been utter strangers, and had
never experimented. It made them to depend not upon themselves, b'ut upon the sole grace of God. It decried all natural, all moral idolatry, things as dear to men as the apple of their eyes. It despoiled them of whatsoever
the mind, will, and affections of men naturally lay claim to and glory in. It pulled self up by the roots, unmanned carnal man, and debased the prin ciple of honour and self-satisfaction, which the world counted at that time noble and brave. In a word, it took them off from themselves, to act like
creatures of God's framing, to know no more than he would admit them, and do no more than he did command them. How difficult must it needs
be to reduce men, that placed all their happiness in the pleasures of this life, from their pompous idolatry and brutish affections, to this mortifying religion. What might the world say ? Here is a doctrine will render us a company of puling animals. Farewell generosity, bravery, sense of honour, courage, in enlarging the bounds of our country, for an ardent charity to the bitterest of our enemies. Here is a religion will rust our swords, canker our arms,
dis-spirit what we have hitherto called virtue, and annihilate what hath been esteemed worthy and comely among mankind. Must we change conquest for suffering, the increase of our reputation for self-denial, the natural
sentiment of self-preservation for affecting a dreadful death ? How im possible was it that a crucified Lord and a crucifying doctrine should be received in the world, without the mighty operation of a divine power upon the hearts of men ! And in this also the almighty power of God did notably
shine forth.
[2. j Divine power appeared in the instruments employed for the publish ing and propagating the gospel ; who were,
First, Mean and worthless in themselves ; not noble and dignified with an earthly grandeur, but of a low condition, meanly bred ; so far from any splendid estates, that they possessed nothing but their nets, without any credit and reputation in the world, without comeliness and strength, as unfit to subdue the world by preaching, as an army of hares were to conquer it by war. Not learned doctors, bred up at the feet of the famous rabbins at
Jerusalem, whom Paul calls ' the princes of the world,' 1 Cor. ii. 8, nor nursed up in the school of Athens, under the philosophers and orators of the
time ; not the wise men of Greece, but the fishermen of Galilee, naturally skilled in no language but their own, and no more exact in that than those of the same condition in any other nation ; ignorant of everything but the language of their lakes and their fishing trade, except Paul, called some time
after the rest to that employment ; and after the descent of the Spirit, they were ignorant and unlearned in everything but the doctrine they were com manded to publish, for the council before whom they were summoned proved them to be so, which increased their wonder at them, Acts iv. 13. Had it been published by a voice from heaven that twelve poor men, taken out of boats and creeks., without any help of learning, should conquer the world to the cross, it might have been thought an illusion against all the reason of men ; yet we know it was undertaken and accomplished by them.
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 155
They published this doctrine in Jerusalem, and quickly spread it over the greatest part of the world. Folly outwitted wisdom, and weakness over powered strength. The conquest of the east by Alexander was not so admirable as the enterprise of these poor men. He attempted his conquest with the hands of a warlike nation, though indeed but a small number of thirty thousand against multitudes, many hundred thousands of the enemies, yet an effeminate enemy ; a people inured to slaughter and victory attacked great numbers, but enfeebled by luxury and voluptuousness. Besides,
he was bred up to such 'enterprises, had a learned education under the best philosopher, and a military education under the best commander, and a natural courage to animate him. These instruments had no such advantage from nature ; the heavenly ' treasure was placed in those earthen
vessels,' as Gideon's lamps in empty pitchers, Judges vii. 16 ; ' that the excellency ' or hyperbole, ' of the power might be of God,' 2 Cor. iv. 7, and the strength of his arm be displayed in the infirmity of the instruments. They were destitute of earthly wisdom, and therefore despised by the Jews and derided by the Gentiles ; the publishers were accounted madmen, and the embracers fools. Had they been men of known natural endowments, the power of God had been veiled under the gifts of the creature.]
, Secondly, Therefore a divine power suddenly spirited them, and fitted them for so great a work. Instead of ignorance they had the knowledge of the tongues, and they that were scarce well skilled in their own dialect, were instructed on the sudden to speak the most flourishing languages of the world, and discourse to the people of several nations the 'great things of God,' Acts ii. 11. Though they were not enriched with any worldly wealth, and possessed nothing, yet they were so sustained that they wanted nothing in any place where they came ; a table was spread for them in the midst of their bitterest enemies. Their fearfulness was turned into courage, and they that a few days before skulked in corners for fear of the Jews, John xx. 19, speak boldly in the name of that Jesus, whom they had seen put to death by the power of the rulers and the fury of the people ; they reproach them with the murder of their master, and outbrave that great people in the midst of their temple, with the glory of that person they had so lately crucified, Acts ii. 23, iii. 18. Peter, that was not long before qualmed at the presence of a maid, was not daunted at the presence of the council, that had their hands yet reeking with the blood of his master, but being filled with the Holy Ghost, seems to dare the power of the priests and Jewish governors, and is as confident in the council chamber as he had been cowardly in the high
priest's hall, Acts iv. 9, &c., the efficacy of grace triumphing over the fearfulness of nature. Whence should this ardour and zeal to propagate a
doctrine that had already borne the scars of the people's fury be, but from a mighty power which changed those hares into lions, and stripped them of their natural cowardice to clothe them with a divine courage, making them in a moment both wise and magnanimous, alienating them from any consul tations with flesh and blood ? As soon as ever the Holy Ghost came upon them ' as a mighty rushing wind,' they move up and down for the interest of God, as fish after a great clap of thunder are roused, and move more nimbly on the top of the water ; therefore, that which did so fit them for
this undertaking is called by the title of* power from on high,' Luke xxiv. 49.
[8.] The divine power appears in the means whereby it was propagated. First, By means different from the methods of the world. Not by force
of arms, as some religions have taken root in the world. Mahomet's horse hath trampled upon the heads of men, to imprint an dlcoran in their brains, and robbed men of their goods to plant their religion. But the apostles
156 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
bore not this doctrine through the world upon the points of their swords ; they presented a bodily death where they would bestow an immortal life ; they employed not troops of men in a warlike posture, which had been possible for them after the gospel was once spread ; they had no ambition to subdue men unto themselves, but to God ; they coveted not the posses sions of others ; designed not to enrich themselves ; invaded not the rights of princes, nor the liberties and properties of the people ; they rifled them not of their estates, nor scared them into this religion by a fear of losing their worldly happiness. The arguments they used would naturally drive them from an entertainment of this doctrine, rather than allure them to be proselytes to it. Their design was to change their hearts, not their govern ment ; to wean them from the love of the world to a love of a Redeemer ; to remove that which would ruin their souls. It was not to enslave them,
but ransom them ; they had a ' warfare,' but not with ' carnal weapons,' but such as were ' mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds,' 2 Cor. x. 4 ; they used no weapons but the doctrine they preached. Others that have not gained conquests by the edge of the sword and the stratagems of war, have extended their opinions to others by the strength of human reason and the insinuations of eloquence. But the apostles had as little flourish in their tongues as edge upon their swords ; their preaching was
* not with the enticing words of man's wisdom,' 1 Cor. ii. 4 ; their presence was mean, and their discourses without varnish ; their doctrine was plain, a crucified Christ, a doctrine unlaced, ungarnished, untoothsome to the world ; but they had the demonstration of the Spirit, and a mighty power for their companion in the work. The doctrine they preached, viz., the
death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, are called the ' powers,' not of this world, but ' of the world to come,' Heb. vi. 5. No less than a super natural power could conduct them in this attempt, with such weak methods in human appearance.
Secondly, Against all the force, power, and wit of the world. The divi sions in the eastern empire, and the feeble and consuming state of the western, contributed to Mahomet's success.* But never was Rome in a more flourishing condition ; learning, eloquence, wisdom, strength, were at the highest pitch. Never was there a more diligent watch against any innovations ; never was that state governed by more severe and suspicious princes than at the time when Tiberius and Nero held the reins. No time seemed to be more unfit for the entrance of a new doctrine, than that age wherein it begun to be first published ; never did any religion meet with that opposition from men. Idolatry hath been often settled without any contest : but this hath suffered the same fate with the institutor of it, and endured the contradictions of sinners against itself. And those that pub lished it were not only without any worldly prop, but exposed themselves to the hatred and fury, to the racks and tortures, of the strongest powers on earth. It never set foot in any place, but the country was in an uproar, Acts xix. 28 ; swords were drawn to destroy it ; laws made to suppress it ; prisons provided for the professors of it ; fires kindled to consume them, and executioners had a perpetual employment to stifle the progress of it.
Rome in the conquest of countries changed not the religion, rites, and modes of their worship. They altered their civil government, but left them to the liberty of their religion, and many times joined with them in the worship of their peculiar gods ; and sometimes imitated them at Rome, in stead of abolishing them in the cities they had subdued. But all their councils were assembled, and their force was banded ' against the Lord and
* Daille, Serm. xv. p. 57.
JOB XX-YI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 157
against his Christ,' and that city that kindly received all manner of super stitions, hated this doctrine with an irreconcileable hatred. It met with reproaches from the wise, and fury from the potentates ; it was derided by the one as the greatest folly, and persecuted by the other as contrary to
God and mankind ; the one were afraid to lose their esteems by the doctrine, and the other to lose their authority by a sedition they thought a change of religion would introduce. The Romans, that had been conquerors of the
earth, feared intestine commotions, and the falling asunder the links of their empire. Scarce any of their first emperors but had their swords dyed red in the blood of the Christians. The flesh with all its lusts, the world with all its flatteries, the statesmen with all their craft, and the mighty with
all their strength, joined together to extirpate it. Though many members were taken off by the fires, yet the church not only lived, but flourished in the furnace. Converts were made by the death of martyrs, and the flames
which consumed their bodies, were the occasion of firing men's hearts with a zeal for the profession of it. Instead of being extinguished, the doctrine shone more bright, and multiplied under the sickles that were employed to cut it down. God ordered every circumstance so, both in the persons that published it, the means whereby, and the time when, that nothing but his power might appear in it, without anything to dim and darken it.
[4.J The divine power was conspicuous in the great success it had under all these difficulties. Multitudes were prophesied of to embrace it ; whence the prophet Isaiah, after the prophecy of the death of Christ, Isa. liii., calls
upon the church to ' enlarge her tents, and lengthen out her cords' to re ceive those multitudes of children that should call her mother, Isa. liv. 2, 3,
for she should ' break forth on the right hand and on the left, and her seed should inherit the Gentiles.' The idolaters and persecutors should lift their names in the muster-roll of the church.
Presently after the descent of the Holy Ghost from heaven upon the apostles, you find the hearts of three thousand melted by a plain declaration of this doctrine, who were a little before so far from having a favourable thought of it, that some of them at least, if not all, had expressed their rage against it, in voting for the condemning and crucifying the author of it, Acts ii. 41, 42. But in a moment they were so altered, that they breathe out affections instead of fury ; neither the respect they had to their rulers, nor the honour they bore to their priests, nor the derisions of the people, nor the threatening of punishment, could stop them from owning it in the face
of multitudes of discouragements. How wonderful is it that they should so soon, and by such small means, pay a reverence to the servants, who had none for the master ! that they should hear them with patience, without the same clamour against them as against Christ, Crucify them, crucify them ! but that their hearts should so suddenly be inflamed with devotion to him dead, whom they so much abhorred when living. It had gained footing not in a corner of the world, but in the most famous cities ; in Jerusalem, where
Christ had been crucified ; in Antioch, where the name of Christians first began ; in Corinth, a place of ingenious arts ; and Ephesus, the seat of a noted idol. In less than twenty years there was never a province of the Roman empire, and scarce any part of the known world, but was stored with the professors of it. Rome, that was the metropolis of the idolatrous world, had multitudes of them sprinkled in every corner, whose ' faith was spoken of throughout the world,' Rom. i. 8. The court of Nero, that monster of mankind, and the cruellest and sordidest tyrant that ever breathed, was not
empty of sincere votaries to it ; there were ' saints in Caasar's house,' while Paul was under Nero's chain, Philip, iv. And it maintained its standing,
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and flourished in spite of all the force of hell 250 years before any sovereign prince espoused it.
The potentates of the earth had conquered the lands of men, and subdued their bodies ; these vanquished hearts and wills, and brought the most be loved thoughts under the yoke of Christ. So much did this doctrine over master the consciences of its followers, that they rejoiced more at their yoke than others at their liberty, and counted it more a glory to die for the honour of it, than to live in the profession of it. Thus did our Saviour reign and gather subjects in the midst of his enemies ; in which respect, in the first discovery of the gospel, he is described as a mighty conqueror, Rev. vi. 2, and still conquering in the greatness of his strength.
How great a testimony of his power is it, that from so small a cloud should rise so glorious a sun, that should chase before it the darkness and power of hell, triumph over the idolatry, superstition and profaneness of the world ! This plain doctrine vanquished the obstinacy of the Jews, baffled the understanding of the Greeks, humbled the pride of the grandees, threw the devil not only out of bodies but hearts, tore up the foundation of his empire, and planted the cross where the devil had for many ages before established his standard. How much more than a human force is illustrious in this whole conduct ! Nothing in any age of the world can parallel it, it being so much against the methods of nature, the disposition of the world, and (considering the resistance against it) seems to surmount even the work of creation. Never were there in any profession such multi tudes, not of bedlams, but men of sobriety, acuteness, and wisdom, that ex posed themselves to the fury of the flames, and challenged death in the most terrifying shapes for the honour of this doctrine.
To conclude ; this should be often meditated upon to form our under standings to a full assent to the gospel, and the truth of it ; the want of which consideration of power, and the customariness of an education in the outward profession of it, is the ground of all the profaneness under it, and apostasy from it, the disesteem of the truth it declares, and the neglect of the duties it enjoins. The more we have a prospect and sense of the im pressions of divine power in it, the more we shall have a reverence of the divine precepts.
(3.) The third thing is, the power of God appears in the application of redemption, as well as in the person redeeming, and the publication and pro pagation of the doctrine of redemption.
[1.] In the planting grace. [2.] In the pardon of sin. [8.] In the preserving grace.
[1.] In the planting grace. There is no expression which the Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this work to, but argues the exerting of a divine power for the effecting of it. When it is expressed by light, it is as much as the power of God in creating the sun ; when by re generation, it is as much as the power of God in forming an infant, and fashioning all the parts of a man ; when it is called resurrection, it is as much as the rearing of the body again out of putrefied matter ; when it is called creation, it is as much as erecting a comely world out of mere nothing, or an inform and uncomely mass. As we could not contrive the death of Christ for our redemption, so we cannot form our souls to the acceptation of it ; the infinite efficacy of grace is as necessary for the one, as the infinite wisdom of God was for laying the platform of the other.
It is by his power we have whatsoever pertains to godliness as well as
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 159
life, 2 Peter i. 8. He puts his fingers upon the handle of the lock, and turns the heart to what point he pleases ; the action whereby he performs
this is expressed by a word of force : Col. i. 13, eoevffaro, ' He hath snatched us from the power of darkness ;' the action whereby it is performed mani fests it. In reference to this power, it is called creation, which is a produc tion from nothing ; and conversion is a production from something more uncapable of that state, than mere nothing is of being. There is a greater distance between the terms of sin and righteousness, corruption and grace, than between the terms of nothing and being ; the greater the distance is, the more power is required to the producing anything. As in miracles, the miracle is the greater where the change is the greater ; and the change is the greater where the distance is the greater. As it was a more signal mark of power to change a dead man to life, than to change a sick man to health, so that the change here being from a term of a greater distance, is more powerful than the creation of heaven and earth. Therefore, whereas creation is said to be wrought by his hands, and the heavens by his fingers, or his word, conversion is said to be wrought by his arm, Isa. liii. 1. In creation we had an earthly, by conversion a heavenly state ; in creation, nothing is changed into something ; in conversion, hell is transformed into heaven, which is more than the turning nothing into a glorious angel. In that thanksgiving of our Saviour for the revelation of the knowledge of him self to babes, the simple of the world, he gives the title to his Father, of
' Lord of heaven and earth,' Mat. xi. 25, intimating it to be an act of his creative and preserving power ; that power whereby he formed heaven and earth, hath preserved the standing and governed the motions of all creatures from the beginning of the world.
It is resembled to the most magnificent act of divine power that God ever put forth, viz., that in the resurrection of our Saviour, Eph. i. 19, wherein there was more than an ordinary impression of might. It is not so small a power as that whereby we speak with tongues, or whereby Christ opened the mouths of the dumb and the ears of the deaf, or unloosed the cords of death from a person. It is not that power whereby our Saviour wrought those stupendous miracles when he was in the world ; but that power which wrought a miracle that amazed the most knowing angels as well as ignorant man, the taking off the weight of the sin of the world from our Saviour, and advancing him in his human nature to rule over the angelical host, making him head of principalities and powers ; as much as to say, as great as all that power which is displayed in our redemption, from. the first founda tion to the last line in the superstructure. It is therefore often set forth
with an emphasis, as ' excellency of power,' 2 Cor. iv. 7, and glorious power, 2 Peter, i. 3. ' To glory and virtue,' we translate it ; but it is dia do%rj$, 1 through glory and virtue,' that is, by a glorious virtue or strength. The instrument whereby it is wrought is dignified with the title of power. The gospel, which God useth in this great affair, is called ' the power of God to salvation,' Eom. i. 16, and the ' rod of his strength,' Ps. ex. 2. And the day of the gospel's appearance in the heart is emphatically called, ' the day of power,' verse 3, wherein he brings down strongholds and towering imaginations. And therefore the angel Gabriel, which name signi fies the power of God, was always sent upon those messages which concerned the gospel, as to Daniel, Zacharias, Mary.* The gospel is the power of God in a way of instrumentality, but the almightiness of God is the principle in a way of efficiency. The gospel is the sceptre of Christ, but the power of Christ is the mover of that sceptre. The gospel is not as a bare word
* Grotius in Luke i. 19.
1GO CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JoB XXVI. 14.
spoken, and proposing the thing, but as backed with a higher efficacy of grace ; as the sword doth instrumentally cut, but the arm that wields it gives the blow, and makes it successful in the stroke. But this gospel is the power of God, because he edgeth this by his own power, to surmount all resistance, and vanquish the greatest malice of that man he designs to work upon.
The power of God is conspicuous. First, In turning the heart of man against the strength of the inclinations of nature. In the forming of man of the dust of the ground, as the matter contributed nothing to the action whereby God formed it, so it had no principle of resistance contrary to the design of God. But in converting the heart, there is not only wanting a principle of assistance from him in this work, but the whole strength of corrupt nature is alarmed to combat against the power of his grace. When the gospel is presented, the under standing is not only ignorant of it, but the will perverse against it ; the one doth not relish, and the other not esteem the excellency of the object. The carnal wisdom in the mind contrives against it, and the rebellious will puts the orders in execution against the counsel of God, which requires the in vincible power of God to enlighten the dark mind, to know what it slights ; and the fierce will, to embrace what it loathes. The stream of nature can not be turned, but by a power above nature. It is not all the created power in heaven and earth can change a swine into a man, or a venomous toad into a holy and illustrious angel. Yet this work is not so great in some respect, as the stilling the fierceness of nature, the silencing the swelling waves in the heart, and the casting out those brutish affections which are born and grow up with us. There would be no, or far less, resistance in a mere animal to be changed into a creature of a higher rank, than there is in a natural man to be turned into a serious Christian.
There is in every natural man a stoutness of heart, a stiff-neck unwilling ness to good, forwardness to evil. Infinite power quells this stoutness, demolisheth these strongholds, turns this wild ass in her course, and routs those armies of turbulent nature against the grace of God. To stop the floods of the sea is not such an act of power as to turn the tide of the heart. This power hath been employed upon every convert in the world. What would you say, then, if you knew all the channels in which it hath run since the days of Adam ? If the alteration of one rocky heart into a pool of water be a wonder of power, what then is the calming and sweetening by his word
those ' one hundred forty-four thousand of the tribes of Israel,' and that numberless multitude of all nations and people that shall stand before the throne, Rev. vii. 9, which were all naturally so many raging seas ? Not one converted soul, from Adam to the last that shall be in the end of the world, but is a trophy of the divine conquest. None were pure volunteers, nor listed themselves in his service till he put forth his strong arm to draw them
to him. No man's understanding but was chained with darkness, and fond of it ; no man but had corruption in his will, which was dearer to him than anything else which could be proposed for his true happiness. These things are most evident in Scripture and experience.
Secondly, As it is wrought against the inclinations of nature, so against a multitude of corrupt habits rooted in the souls of men. A distemper in its first invasion may more easily be cured than when it becomes chronical and inveterate. The strength of a disease, or the complication of many, magni fies the power of the physician and efficacy of the medicine that tames and expels it. What power is that which hath made men stoop, when natural habits have been grown giants by custom, when the putrefaction of nature hath engendered a multitude of worms, when the ulcers are many and de-
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plorable, when many cords, wherewith God would have bound the sinner, have been broken, and (like Samson) the wicked heart hath gloried in its strength, and grown more proud that it hath stood like a strong fort against those batteries under which others have fallen flat.
Every proud thought, every evil habit captivated, serves for matter of triumph to the power of God, 2 Cor. x. 5. What resistance will a multi tude of them make, when one of them is enough to hold the faculty under its dominion, *and intercept its operations ! So many customary habits, so many old natures, so many different strengths added to nature, every one of them standing as a barricade against the way of grace ; all the errors the understanding is possessed with think the gospel folly, all the vices the will is filled with count it the fetter and band. Nothing so contrary to man as to be thought a fool ; nothing so contrary to man as to enter into slavery. It is no easy matter to plant the cross of Christ upon a heart guided by many principles against the truth of it, and biassed by a world of wickedness against the holiness of it. Nature renders a man too feeble and indisposed, and custom renders a man more weak and unwilling to change his hue, Jer.
xiii. 23. To dispossess man, then, of his self-esteem and self-excellency, to make room for God in the heart where there was none but for sin, as dear to him as himself, to hurl down the pride of nature, to make stout imagina tions stoop to the cross, to make desires of selfadvancement sink under a zeal for the glorifying of God and an over-ruling design for his honour, is not to be ascribed to any but an outstretched arm wielding the sword of the
Spirit. To have a heart full of the fear of God, that was just before filled with a contempt of him ; to have a sense of his power, an eye to his glory, admiring thoughts of his wisdom, a faith in his truth, that had lower thoughts of him and all his perfections than he had of a creature ; to have a hatred of his habitual lusts, that had brought him in much sensitive plea sure ; to loathe them as much as he loved them, to cherish the duties he hated ; to live by faith in, and obedience to, the Redeemer, who was before so heartily under the conduct of Satan and self; to chase the acts of sin from his members, and the pleasing thoughts of sin from his mind ; to make a stout wretch willingly fall down, crawl upon the ground, and adore that
Saviour whom before he out-dared, is a triumphant act of infinite power that can ' subdue all things to itself,' and break those multitude of locks and bolts that were upon us.
Thirdly, Against a multitude of temptations and interests. The tempta tions rich men have in this world are so numerous and strong that the entrance of one of them into the kingdom of heaven, that is, the entertain ment of the gospel, is made by our Saviour an impossible thing with men, and procurable only by the power of God, Luke xviii. 24-26. The divine
strength only can separate the world from the heart, and the heart from the world. There must be an incomprehensible power to chase away the devil, that had so long so strong a footing in the affections, to render the soil he had sown with so many tares and weeds capable of good grain ; to make spirits that had found the sweetness of worldly prosperity, wrapped up all their happiness in it, and not only bent down, but (as it were) buried in earth and mud, to be loosened from those beloved cords, to disrelish the earth for a crucified Christ, I say this must be the effect of an almighty power.
Fourthly, The manner of conversion shews no less the power of God. There is not only a resistible force used in it, but an agreeable sweetness. The power is so efficacious, that nothing can vanquish it, and so sweet, that none did ever complain of it. The almighty virtue displays itself invincibly,
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yet without constraint, compelling the will without offering violence to it,
and making it cease to be will : not forcing it, but changing it ; not drag ging it, but drawing it ; making it will where before it nilled ; removing the corrupt nature of the will without invading the created nature and rights of the faculty; not working in us against the physical nature of the will, but
'working to will,' Phil. ii. 13. This work is therefore called creation, resurrection, to shew its irresistible power; it is called illumination, per suasion, drawing, to shew the suitableness of its efficacy to the nature of the human faculties. It is a drawing with cords, which testifies an invincible
strength; but with 'cords of love,' which testifies a delightful conquest. It is hard to determine whether it be more powerful than sweet, or more sweet than powerful. It is no mean part of the power of God to twist together victory and pleasure ; to give a blow as delightful as strong, as pleasing to the sufferer as it is sharp to the sinner.
[2.] The power of God in the application of redemption is evident in the pardoning a sinner.
First, In the pardon itself, The power of God is made the ground of his patience ; or the reason why he is patient is because he would shew his power, Bom. ix. 22. It is a part of magnanimity to pass by injuries. As weaker stomachs cannot concoct the tougher food, so weak minds cannot digest the harder injuries. He that passes over a wrong is superior to his adversary that does it. When God speaks of his own name as merciful, he speaks first of himself as powerful: Exod. xxxiv. 6, The Lord, the Lord God, that is, the Lord, the strong Lord, Jehovah, the strong Jehovah. ' Let
the power of my Lord be great,' saith Moses, when he prays for the forgive ness of the people (Numb. xiv. 17, V-^/U^TU, be exalted ; Sept., J"O> strength, &c.). The word Jigdal is written with a great jod, or a jod above the other letters. The power of God in pardoning is advanced beyond an ordinary strain, beyond the creative strength. In the creation, he had power over the creatures ; in this, power over himself. In creation, not himself, but the creatures, were the object of his power; in that, no attri bute of his nature could article against his design. In the pardon of a sinner, after many overtures made to him and refused by him, God exerciseth a power over himself; for the sinner hath dishonoured God, pro voked his justice, abused his goodness, done injury to all those attributes which are necessary to his relief. It was not so in creation ; nothing was in capable of disobliging God from bringing it into being. The dust, which was
the matter of Adam's body, needed only the extrinsic power of God to form it into a man, and inspire it with a living soul. It had not rendered itself obnoxious to divine justice, nor was capable to excite any disputes between his perfections; but after the entrance of sin, and the merit of death thereby, there was a resistance in justice to the free remission of man. God was to exercise a power over himself, to answer his justice and pardon the sinner, as well as a power over the creature to reduce the runaway rebel. Unless
we have recourse to the infinitenegs of God's power, the infiniteness of our guilt will weigh us down. We must consider not only that we have a mighty guilt to press us, but a mighty God to relieve us. In the same act of his being our righteousness, he is our strength : ' In the Lord have I righteous ness and strength,' Isa. xlv. 24. Secondly, In the sense of pardon. When the soul hath been wounded with the sense of sin, and its iniquities have stared it in the face, the raising the soul from a despairing condition, and lifting it above those waters which terrified it, to cast the light of comfort as well as the light of grace into a heart covered with more than an Egyptian darkness, is an act of his infinite
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 163
and creating power : Isa. Ivii. 19, ' I create the fruit of the lips, peace.' Men may wear out their lips with numbering up the promises of grace and arguments of peace, but all will signify no more without a creative power than if all men and angels should call to that white upon the wall to shine
as splendidly as the sun. God only can ' create Jerusalem,' and every child of Jerusalem ' a rejoicing,' Isa. Ixv. 18. A man is no more able to apply to himself any word of comfort under the sense of sin, than he is able to con vert himself, and turn the proposals of the word into gracious affections in
his heart. To 'restore the joy of salvation' is in David's judgment an act of sovereign power, equal to that of ' creating a clean heart,' Ps. li. 10, 12. Alas! it is a state like to that of death; as infinite power can only raise from natural death, so from a spiritual death, also from a comfortless death :
* In his favour there is life,' in the want of his favour there is death. The power of God hath so placed light in the sun, that all creatures in the world, all the torches upon earth kindled together, cannot make it day if that doth not rise ; so all the angels in heaven and men upon earth are not competent chirurgeons for a wounded spirit. The cure of our spiritual ulcers, and the pouring in balm, is an act of sovereign creative power. It is more visible in silencing a tempestuous conscience, than the power of our Saviour was in the stilling the stormy winds and the roaring waves. As none but infinite power can remove the guilt of sin, so none but infinite power can remove the despairing sense of it.
[8.] This power is evident in the preserving grace. As the providence of God is a manifestation of his power in a continued creation, so the preserva tion of grace is a manifestation of his power in a continued regeneration ; to keep a nation under the yoke is an act of the same power that subdued it. It is this that strengthens men in suffering against the fury of hell, Col. i. 13 ; it is this that keeps them from falling against the force of hell, the
Father's hand, John x. 29. His strength abates and moderates the violence of temptations ; his staff sustains his people under them ; his might defeats
the power of Satan, and bruiseth him under a believer's feet. The counterworkings of indwelling corruption, the reluctances of the flesh against the breathings of the Spirit, the fallacy of the senses and the rovings of the mind, have ability quickly to stifle and extinguish grace, if it were not maintained by that powerful blast that first inbreathed it. No less power is seen in per
fecting it, than was in planting it, 2 Peter i. 3 ; no less in fulfilling the work of faith, than in ingrafting the word of faith, 2 Thess. i. 11.
The apostle well understood the necessity and efficacy of it in the preser vation of faith, as well as in the first infusion, when he expresses himself in
those terms of a greatness or hyperbole of power, his ' mighty power,' or the ' power of his might,' Eph. i. 19. The salvation he bestows, and the strength whereby he effects it, are joined together in the prophet's song : Isa. xii. 2, ' The Lord is my strength and my salvation ; ' and, indeed, God doth more magnify his power in continuing a believer in the world, a weak and halfrigged vessel in the midst of so many sands whereon it might split, so many rocks whereon it might dash, so many corruptions within, and so many temptations without, than if he did immediately transport him into heaven, and clothe him with a perfectly sanctified nature.
To conclude ; what is there, then, in the world, which is destitute of notices of divine power ? Every creature affords us the lesson, all acts of divine government are the marks of it. Look into the word, and the manner of its propagation instructs us in it ; your changed natures, your pardoned guilt, your shining comfort, your quelled corruptions, the standing of your
staggering graces, are sufficient to preserve a sense, and prevent a forgetful-
164 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
ness of this great attribute, so necessary for our support, and conducing so much to your comfort.
IV. Uses. 1. Of information and instruction.
(1.) If incomprehensible and infinite power belongs to the nature of God, then Jesus Christ hath a divine nature, because the acts of power proper to God are ascribed to him. This perfection of omnipotence doth unques tionably pertain to the Deity, and is an incommunicable property, and the same with the essence of God ; he therefore to whom this attribute is ascribed is essentially God.
This is challenged by Christ in conjunction with eternity : Rev. i. 8, 'I Am* Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty ; ' this the Lord
Christ speaks of himself. He who was equal with God proclaims himself by the essential title of the Godhead, part of which he repeats again, ver. 11. And this is the person which ' walks in the midst of the seven golden candle sticks ; ' the person that ' was dead and now lives,' ver. 17, 18, which can not possibly be meant of the Father, the first person, who can never come under that denomination of having been dead. Being therefore adorned with the same title, he hath the same Deity ; and though his omnipotence be only positively asserted, ver. 8, yet his eternity being asserted, ver. 11, 17, it inferreth his immense power ; for he that is eternal, without limits of time, must needs be conceived powerful, without any dash of infirmity.
Again, when he is said to be ' a child born,' and ' a Son given,' in the same breath he is called ' the mighty God,' Isa. ix. 6. It is introduced as a ground of comfort to the church, to preserve their hopes in the accomplish ment of the promises made to them before. They should not imagine him to have only the infirmity of man, though he was veiled in the appearance of a man ; no, they should look through the disguise of his flesh to the might of his Godhead. The attribute of mighty is added to the title God, because the consideration of power is most capable to sustain the drooping church in such a condition, and to prop up her hopes ; it is upon this account he saith of himself, that ' whatsoever things the Father doth, those also doth the Son likewise,' John v. 19. In creation of heaven, earth, sea, and the preservation of all creatures, the Son works with the same will, wisdom, virtue, power, as the Father works ; not as two may concur in an action in a different manner, as an agent and an instrument, a carpenter and his tools ; but in the same manner of operation, opoius, which we trans late likewise, which doth not express so well the emphasis of the word. There is no diversity of action between us ; what the Father doth, that I do by the same power, with the same easiness in every respect ; there is the same creative, productive, conservative power in both of us ; and that not in one work that is done ad extra, but in all, in whatsoever the Father doth.
' In the same manner ; ' not by a delegated, but natural and essential power, by one undivided operation and manner of working.
[l.J The creation, which is a work of omnipotence, is more than once ascribed to him. This he doth own himself ; the creation of the earth, and of man upon it ; the stretching out the heavens by his hands, and the form ing of all the host of them by his command, Isa. xlv. 12. He is not only the Creator of Israel, the church, ver. 12, but of the whole world, and every creature on the face of the earth, and in the glories of the heavens ; which is repeated also, ver. 18, where, in this act of creation, he is called God himself, and speaks of himself in the term Jehovah; and swears by himself,
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 165
ver. 28. What doth he swear ? ' That unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.' Is this Christ ? Yes, if the apostle may be be lieved, who applies it to him, Rom. xiv. 11, to prove the appearance of all men before the judgmentseat of Christ, whom the prophet calls, ver. 15, a
' God that hides himself,' and so he was a hidden God when obscured in our fleshy infirmities. He was in conjunction with the Father when the sea re ceived his decree, and the foundations of the earth were appointed, not as a spectator, but as an artificer, for so the word in Prov. viii. 80 signifies, as
one brought up with him ; it signifies also, ' a cunning workman,' Cant, vii. 1. He was the east, or the sun, from whence sprang all the light of life and being to the creature ; so the word Dip, ver. 22, which is translated
' before his works of old,' is rendered by some, and signifies the east as well as before ; but if it notes only his existence before, it is enough to prove his deity.
The Scripture doth not only allow him an existence before the world, but exalts him as the cause of the world. A thing may precede another, that is not the cause of that which follows ; a precedency in age doth not entitle one brother or thing the cause of another ; but our Saviour is not only ancienter than the world, but is the Creator of the world : Heb. i. 10, 11, Who ' laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of
his hands.' So great an elogy cannot be given to one destitute of omnipo tence, since the distance between being and not being is so vast a gulf that cannot be surmounted and stepped over, but by an infinite power. He is ' the
first and the last,' that ' called the generations from the beginning,' Isa. xli. 4, and had an almighty voice to call them out of nothing ; in which
regard he is called ' the everlasting Father,' Isa. ix. 6, as being the efficient of creation ; as God is called the Father of the rain, or as father is taken for the inventor of an art ; as Jubal, the first framer and inventor of music,
is called ' the father of such as handle the harp,' Gen. iv. 21. And that person is said to ' make the sea, and form the dry land by his hands,' Ps. xcv. 5, 6, against whom we are exhorted not to ' harden our hearts,' ver. 8, which is applied to Christ by his apostle, Heb. iii. 8 ; in the 15th verse he is
called ' a great king, and ' a great God, our maker.' The places wherein the creation is attributed to Christ, those that are the antagonists of his deity would evade by understanding them of the new or evangelical, not of the first, old, and material creation ; but what appearance is there for such a sense ? Consider,
First, That of Heb. i. 10, 11. It is spoken of that earth and heavens which were in the beginning of time ; it is that earth that shall perish, that heaven that shall be folded up, that creation that shall grow old towards a decay ; that is, only the visible and material creation. The spiritual shall endure for ever ; it grows not old to decay, but grows up to a perfection ; it sprouts up to its happiness, not to its detriment. The same person creates that shall destroy, and the same world is created by him that shall be destroyed by him, as well as it subsisted by virtue of his omnipotency.
Secondly, Can that also, Heb. i. 2, ' By whom also he made the worlds,' speaking of Christ, bear the same plea ? It was the same person by whom
' God spake to us in these last times,' the same person which he hath ' con stituted heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.' And the particle also intimates it to be a distinct act from his speaking or prophetical
office, whereby he restored and new created the world, as well as the right ful foundation God had to make him heir of all things. It refers, likewise,
not to the time of Christ's speaking upon earth, but to something past, and
something different from the publication of the gospel ; it is not doth make,
166 CHAKNOCK'S WOKKS. [Jos XXYI. 14.
which had been more likely if the apostle had meant only the new creation, but hath made, Evolqatv, referring to time long since past, something done
before his appearance upon earth as a prophet. ' By whom also he made the worlds,' or ' ages," all things subjected to or measured by time, which must be meant, according to the Jewish phrase, of this material visible world ;
so they entitled God in their liturgy, the ' Lord of ages,' that is, the Lord of the world, and all ages and revolutions of the world, from the creation to the last period of time. If anything were in being before this frame of heaven and earth, and within the compass of time, it received being and duration from the Son of God. The apostle would give an argument to prove the equity of making him heir of all things as mediator, because he was the framer of all things as God. He may well be the heir or Lord of angels as well as men, who created angels as well as men. All things were justly under his power as mediator, since they derived their existence from
him as creator. But,
Thirdly, What evasion can there be for that Col. i. 16, ' By him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were created
by him and for him ' ? He is said to be the creator of material and visible things, as well as spiritual and invisible ; of things in heaven, which needed no restoration, as well as things on earth, which were polluted by sin, and stood in need of a new creation. How could the angels belong to the new creation, who had never put off the honour and purity of the first ? Since they never divested themselves of their original integrity, they could not be re-invested with that which they never lost. Besides, suppose the holy angels be one way or other reduced as parts of the new creation, as being under the mediatory government of our Saviour, as their head, and in regard
of their confirmation by him in that happy state, in what manner shall the devils be ranked among new creatures ? They are called principalities and powers as well as the angels, and may come under the title of things invisible. That they are called principalities and powers is plain : Eph.
vi. 12, « For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principali ties and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.' Good angels are not there meant, for what war have believers with them, or they with believers ? They are the guardians of them, since Christ hath taken away the enmity between our Lord and theirs, in whose quarrel they were engaged against us. And since the apostle, speaking of all things created by him, expresseth it so, that it cannot be conceived he should except anything, how come the finally impenitent and unbelievers, which are things in earth, and visible, to be listed here in the roll of new creatures ? None of these can be called new creatures, because they are subjected to the government of Christ, no more than the earth and sea, and the animals in it, are made new creatures, because they
are all under the dominion of Christ and his providential government. Again, the apostle manifestly makes the creation he here speaks of to be the material, and not the new creation ; for that he speaks of afterwards as a
distinct act of our Lord Jesus under the title of ' reconciliation,' Col. i. 20, 21, which was the restoration of the world, and the satisfying for that curse that lay upon it. His intent is here to shew, that not an angel in heaven, nor a creature upon earth, but was placed in their several degrees of excellency by the power of the Son of God, who, after that act of creation and the entrance of sin, was the reconciler of the world through the blood of his cross.
Fourthly, There is another place as clear : John i. 8, ' All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was made.' The
JOB XXVI. 14.J GOD'S POWEE. 167
creation is here ascribed to him : affirmatively, ' All things were made by him ; ' negatively, ' There was nothing made without him ;' and the words are emphatical, ovdi 'iv, not one thing, excepting nothing, including invisible things, as well as things conspicuous to sense only, mentioned in the story of the creation, Gen. i. ; not only the entire mass, but the distinct parcels, the smallest worm and the highest angel, owe their original to him. And if not one thing, then the matter was not created to his hands ; and his work consisted not only in the forming things from that matter. If that one thing of matter were excepted, a chief thing were excepted; if not one thing were excepted, then he created something of nothing, because spirits, as angels and souls, are not made of any pre-existing or forecreated matter. How could the evangelist phrase it more extensively and comprehensively ? This is a character of omnipotency ; to create the world, and everything in it, of nothing, requires an infinite virtue and power. If all things were created by him, they were not created by him as man, because himself, as man, was not in being before the creation ; if all things were made by him, then himself was not made, himself was not created ; and to be existent without being made, without being created, is to be unboundedly omnipotent. And if we understand it of the new creation, as they do that will not allow him an existence in his deity before his humanity, it cannot be true of that ; for how could he regenerate Abraham, make Simeon and Anna new creatures, who ' waited for the salvation of
Israel,' and form John Baptist, and fill him with the Holy Ghost, even from the womb, Luke i. 15 (who belonged to the new creation, and was to pre pare the way) if Christ had not a being before him ? The evangelist alludes to, and explains the history of, the creation in the beginning, and acquaints us what was meant by God said, so often, viz., the eternal Word, and describes him in his creative power, manifested in the framing the world, before he describes him in his incarnation, when he came to lay the founda
tion of the restoration of the world: John i. 14, « The Word was made flesh;' this Word who was with God, who was God, who made all things, and gave being to the most glorious angels and the meanest creature without excep tion, this Word, in time, was made flesh.
Fifthly, The creation of things mentioned in these Scriptures cannot be attributed to him as an instrument. As if when it is said, God created all things^by him, and by him made the worlds, we were to understand the
Father to be the agent, and the Son to be a tool in his Father's hand, as an axe in the hand of a carpenter, or a file in the hand of a smith, or a servant acting by command as the organ of his master. The preposition per, or oiu,, doth not alway signify an instrumental cause. When it is said, that the
apostle gave the Thessalonians a command ' by Jesus Christ,' 1 Thes. iv. 2, was Christ the instrument, and not the Lord of that command the apostle gave ? The immediate operation of Christ dwelling in the apostles, was that whereby they gave the commands to their disciples. When we are called by God, 1 Cor. i. 9, is he the instrumental or principal cause of our effectual vocation ? And can the will of God be the instrument of putting Paul into the apostleship, or the sovereign cause of investing him with that
dignity, when he calls himself an apostle ' by the will of God ' ? Eph. i. 8. And when all things are said to be through God, as well as of him, must he
be counted the instrumental cause of his own creation, counsels, and judg ments ? Rom. xi. 86. When we ' mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit,' Rom. viii. 13, or keep the ' treasure of the word by the Holy Ghost,' 2 Tim. i. 14, is the Holy Ghost of no more dignity in such acts than instrument? Nor doth the gaming a thing by a person make him a mere
168 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JoB XXVI. 14.
instrument or inferior ; as when a man gains his right in the way of justice against his adversary by the magistrate, is the judge inferior to the sup pliant ? If the Word were an instrument in creation, it must be a created or uncreated instrument ; if created, it could not be true what the evangelist
saith, that ' all things were made by him,' since himself, the principal thing, could not be made by himself ; if uncreated, he was God, and so acted by a divine omnipotency, which surmounts an instrumental cause. But indeed, an instrument is impossible in creation, since it is wrought only by an act of the divine will. Do we need any organ to an act of volition ? The effi cacious will of the Creator is the cause of the original of the body of the world, with its particular members and exact harmony ; it was formed by a word and established by a command, Ps. xxxiii. 9 ; the beauty of the creation stood up at the precept of his will. Nor was the Son a partial cause ; as when many are said to build a house, one works one part, and another frames another part. God created all things by the immediate operation of the Son, in the unity of essence, goodness, power, wisdom; not an extrinsic, but a connatural instrument. As the sun doth illustrate all things by his light, and quickens all things by his heat, so God created the worlds by Christ, as he was the brightness or splendour of his glory, the exact image of his person, which follows the declaration of his making the worlds by him, Heb. i. 3, 4, to shew that he acted not as an instrument, but one in essential conjunction with him, as light and brightness with the sun. But suppose he did make the world as a kind of instrument, he was then before the world, not bounded by time, and eternity cannot well be conceived belonging to a being without omnipotency ; he is the end as well as the author of the creatures, Col. i. 16, not only the principle which gave them being, but the sea into whose glory they run and dissolve themselves, which consists not with the meanness of an instrument.
[2.] As creation, so preservation is ascribed to him : Col. i. 17, ' By him
all things consist.' As he preceded all things in his eternity, so he establishes all things by his omnipotency, and fixes them in their several centres, that they sink not into that nothing from whence he fetched them. By him they flourish in their several beings, and observe the laws and orders he first appointed. That power of his which extracted them from insensible nothing, upholds them in their several beings with the same facility as he spake being
into them, even ' by the word of his power,' Heb. i. 3, and by one creative continued voice called all generations from the beginning to the period of the world, Isa. xli. 4, and causes them to flourish in their several seasons.
It is ' by him kings reign, and princes decree justice,' and all things are confined within the limits of government ; all which are acts of an infinite power.
[3.] Resurrection is also ascribed to him. The body crumbled to dust, and that dust blown to several quarters of the world, cannot be gathered in its distinct parts, and new formed for the entertainment of the soul, without the strength of an infinite arm. This he will do, and more ; change the vileness of an earthly body into the glory of an heavenly one ; a dusty flesh into a spiritual body, which is an argument of a power invincible, to which all things cannot but stoop ; for it is by such an operation, which testifies
an ability to ' subdue all things to himself,' Phil. iii. 21, especially when he works it with the same ease as he did the creation, by the power of his
voice : John v. 28, ' All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall
come forth :' speaking them into a restored life from insensible dust, as be did into being from an empty nothing. The greatest acts of power are owned to belong to creation, preservation, resurrection. Omnipotence, therefore,
JOB XXVI. 14. J GOD'S POWER. 1G9
is his right ; and therefore a deity cannot be denied to him that inherits a perfection essential to none but God, and impossible to be entrusted in, or managed by, the hands of any creatures.
And this is no mean comfort to those that believe in him. He is, in re-' gard of his power, ' the horn of salvation ;' so Zacharias sings of him, Luke i. 69. Nor could there be any more mighty found out upon whom God could have laid our help, Ps. Ixxxix. 19. No reason, therefore, to doubt his ability to save to the utmost, who hath the power of creation, preservation, and resurrection in his hands. His promises must be accomplished, since nothing can resist him. He hath power to fulfil his word, and bring all things to a final issue, because he is almighty ; by his outstretched arm in the deliverance of his Israel from Egypt (for it was his arm, 1 Cor. x.), he shewed that he was able to deliver us from spiritual Egypt. The charge of mediator to expiate sin, vanquish hell, form a church, conduct and perfect it, are not to be effected by a person of less ability than infinite. Let this almightiness of his be the bottom, wherein to cast and fix the anchor of our hopes.
2. Information. Hence may be inferred the deity of the Holy Ghost. Works of omnipotency are ascribed to the Spirit of God. By the motion of the wings of this Spirit, as a bird over her eggs, was that rude and unshapen mass hatched into a comely world, Gen. i. 2 : so the word moved properly signifies. The stars, or perhaps the angels, are meant by the
' garnishing of the heavens' in the verse before the text, were brought forth in their comeliness and dignity, as the ornaments of the upper world, by,this
Spirit ; ' By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens.' To this Spirit Job ascribes the formation both of the body and soul under the title of Almighty : Job xxxiii. 4, ' The Spirit of God hath made, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.' Resurrection, another work of omnipotency, is attributed to him, Rom. viii. 11. The conception of our Saviour in the womb ; the miracles that he wrought, were by the power of the Spirit in him. Power is a title belonging to him, and sometimes both are put together, 1 Thes. i. 5, and other places ; and that great power of changing the heart, and sanctifying a polluted nature, a work greater than creation, is frequently acknowledged in the Scripture to be the peculiar act of the Holy Ghost. The Father, Son, Spirit, are one principle in creation, resurrection, and all the works of omnipotence.
8. Inference from the doctrine. The blessedness of God is hence evi denced. If God be almighty, he can want nothing ; all want speaks weak ness. If he doth what he will, he cannot be miserable ; all misery consists in those things which happen contrary to our will. There is nothing can hinder his happiness, because nothing can resist his power. Since he is omnipotent, nothing can hurt him, nothing can strip him of what he hath, of what he is.* If he can do whatsoever he will, he cannot want anything that he wills. He is as happy, as great, as glorious, as he will ; for he hath a perfect liberty of will to will, and a perfect power to attain what he will : his will cannot be restrained, nor his power mated. It would be a defect in blessedness to will what he were not able to do. Sorrow is the result of a want of power, with a presence of will. If he could will anything which he could not effect, he would be miserable, and no longer God ; he can do what
soever he pleases, and therefore can want nothing that pleases him.f He cannot be happy, the original of whose happiness is not in himself: nothing can be infinitely happy that is limited and bounded.
4. Hence is a ground for the immutability of God. As he is incapable of * Sabunde, tit. 89. t Tout, part vi., med. 16, p. 631.