Part 9
God?'* It is no less a wonder that a little infant can live so long in a dark sink, in the midst of filth without breathing; and the eduction of it out of the womb is no less a wonder than the forming, increase, nourishment of it in that cell ; a wonder that the life of the infant is not the death of the mother, or the life of the mother the death of the infant. This little crea-
* Trismegist. in Serm. Greek in the Temple, p. 57.
JOB XXVI. 14. J GOD'S POWER. 137
ture, when it springs up from such small beginnings by the power of God, grows up to be one of the lords of the world, to have dominion over the creatures, and propagates its kind in the same manner. All this is un accountable without having recourse to the power of God in the government of the creatures.
And to add to this wonder, consider also what multitudes of formations and births there are at one time all over the world, in every part of which the finger of God is at work ; and it will speak an unwearied power. It is admirable in one man, more in a town of men ; still more in a greater and larger kingdom, a vaster world. There is a birth for every hour in this city, were but one hundred and sixty-eight born in a week, though the weekly bills mention more. What is this city to three kingdoms, what
three kingdoms to a populous world ? Eleven* thousand and eighty will make one for every minute in the week ; what is this to the weekly propa gation in all the nations of the universe, besides the generation of all the
living creatures in that space, which are the ' works of God's fingers ' as well as man ? What will be the result of this but the notion of an uncon
ceivable, unwearied almightiness, alway active, alway operating ?
[3.] It appears in the motions of all creatures. All things ' live and move in him,' Acts xvii. 28, by the same power that creatures have their beings, they have their motions. They have not only a being by his power ful command, but they have their minutely motion by his powerful concur rence. Nothing can act without the almighty influx of God, no more than it can exist without the creative word of God. It is true indeed the order ing of all motions to his holy ends is an act of wisdom, but the motion itself whereby those ends are attained is a work of his power.
First, God as the first cause hath an influence into the motions of all second causes. As all the wheels in a clock are moved in their different motions by the force and strength of the principal and primary wheel, if there be any defect in that, or if that stand still, all the rest languish and stand still the same moment. All creatures are his instruments, his engines, and have no spirit but what he gives and what he assists. What soever nature works, God works in nature ; nature is the instrument, God is the supporter, director, mover of nature ; that what the prophet saith in another case may be the language of universal nature, ' Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us,' Isa. xxvi. 12. They are our works sub jectively, efficiently, as second causes ; God's works originally, concurrently. The sun moved not in the valley of Ajalon for the space of many hours in the time of Joshua, chap. x. 13; nor did the fire exercise its consuming
quality upon the three children in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, Dan. iii. 25. He withdrew not his supporting power from their being, for then they had vanished ; but his influencing power from their qualities, whereby their motion ceased, till he returned his influential concurrence to them ; which evidenceth, that without a perpetual derivation of divine power the sun could not run one stride or inch of its race, nor the fire devour one grain of light chaff or an inch of straw. Nothing without his sustaining power can continue in being, nothing without his co-working power can exercise one mite of those qualities it is possessed of. All creatures are wound up by him, and his hand is constantly upon them, to keep them in perpetual motion.
Secondly, Consider the variety of motions in a single creature. How many motions are there in the vital parts of a man, or in any other animal which a man knows not, and is unable to number ? The renewed motion of the lungs, the systoles and diastoles of the heart, the contractions and
* 'Ten.'— ED.
138 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXYI. 14.
dilatations of the heart, whereby it spouts ont and takes in blood, the power of concoction in the stomach, the motion of the blood in the veins, &c., all which were not only settled by the powerful hand of God, but are upheld by the same, preserved and influenced in every distinct motion by that power that stamped them with that nature. To every one of those there is not only the sustaining power of God holding up their natures, but the motive power of Gcd concurring to every motion ; for, if we move in him as well as we live in him, then every particle of our motion is exercised by his concurring power, as well as every moment of our life supported by his preserving power. What an infinite variety of motions is there in the whole
world, in universal nature, to all which God concurs, all which he conducts, even the motions of the meanest as well as the greatest creatures, which demonstrate the indefatigable power of the governor. It is an infinite power which doth act in so many varieties, whereby the soul forms every thought, the tongue speaks every word, the body exerts every action. What an in finite power is that which presides over the birth of all things, concurs with the motion of the sap in the tree, rivers on the earth, clouds in the air, every drop of rain, fleece of snow, crack of thunder ? Not the least motion in the world, but is under an actual influence of this almighty mover.
And lest any should scruple the concurrence of God to so many varieties
of the creatures' motion as a thing utterlykinconceivable, let them consider the sun, a natural image and shadow of the perfections of God. Doth not the power of that finite creature extend itself to various objects at the same moment of time ? How many insects doth it animate, as flies, &c., at the same moment throughout the world ! How many several plants doth it erect at its appearance in the spring, whose roots lay mourning in the earth all the foregoing winter ! What multitudes of spires of grass, and nobler flowers, doth it midwife in the same hour ! It warms the air, melts the blood, cherishes living creatures of various kinds in distinct places, without tiring ; and shall the God of this sun be less than his creature ?
Thirdly, And since I speak of the sun, consider the power of God in the motion of it. The vastness of the sun is computed to be at the least 166
times bigger than the earth,* and its distance from the earth some tell us to be about four millions of miles, f whence it follows, that it is whirled about the world with that swiftness, that in the space of an hour it runs a million of miles, which is as much as if it should move round about the surface of the earth fifty times in one hour, which vastness exceeds the swiftness of a bullet shot out of a cannon, which is computed to fly not above three miles
in a minute, so that the sun runs further in one hour's space, than a bullet can in five thousand if it were kept in motion ; so that if it were near the earth, the swiftness of its motion would shatter the whole frame of the
world, and dash it in pieces : so that the psalmist may well say : ' It runs a race like a strong man,' Ps. xix. 5. What an incomprehensible power is that which hath communicated such a strength and swiftness to the sun, and doth daily influence its motion, especially since after all those years of its motion, wherein one would think it should have spent itself, we behold it every day as vigorous as Adam did in paradise, without limping, without shattering itself, or losing any thing of its natural spirits in its unwearied motion. How great must that power be, which hath kept this great body so entire, and thus swiftly moves it every day !
Is it not now an argument of omnipotency to keep all the strings of nature
* A Lapide, in i. cap. Gen. 16. Lessius, de perfect, divin. p. 90, 91. Lessius, de Providen. p. 633. Voss. de Idol, lib. ii. cap. ii.
f In reality nearly 96,000,000.— ED.
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWEB. 139
in tune ; to wind them up to a due pitch for the harmony he intended by them ; to keep things that are contrary from that confusion they would naturally fall into ; to prevent those jarrings which would naturally result from their various and snarling qualities ; to preserve every being in its true nature ; to propagate every kind of creature ; order all the operations, even the meanest of them, when there are such innumerable varieties ?
But let us consider, that this power of preserving things in their station and motion, and the renewing of them, is more stupendous than that which
we commonly call miraculous.
We call those miracles which are wrought out of the track of nature, and contrary to the usual stream and current of it, which men wonder at, because they seldom see them and hear of them, as things rarely brought forth in the world, when, the truth is, there is more of power expressed in the ordinary station and motion of natural causes, than in those extraordinary exertings of power. Is not more power signalised in that whirling motion of the sun every hour for so many ages, than in the suspending of its motion one day, as it was in the days of Joshua ? That fire should continually ravage and consume, and greedily swallow up every thing that is offered to it, seems to be the effect of as admirable a power as the stopping of its appetite a few moments, as in the case of the three children. Is not the rising of some small seeds from the ground, with a multiplication of their numerous posterity, an effect of
as great a power as our Saviour's feeding many thousands with a few loaves by a secret augmentation of them ?* Is not the chemical producing so pleasant and delicious a fruit as the grape from a dry earth, insipid rain, and
a sour vine, as admirable a token of divine power as our Saviour's turn ing water into wine ? Is not the cure of diseases by the application of a simple inconsiderable weed, or a slight infusion, as wonderful in itself as the cure of it by a powerful word ? What if it be naturally designed to heal ; what is that nature, who gave that nature, who maintains that nature, who conducts it, co-operates with it ? Doth it work of itself, and by its own strength ? Why not then equally in all, in one as well as another ? Miracles indeed affect more, because they testify the immediate operation of God without the concurrence of second causes ; not that there is more of the power of God shining in them than in the other.
(2.) This power is evident in moral government. [1.] In the restraint of the malicious nature of the devil. Since Satan hath the power of an angel and the malice of a devil, what safety would there be for our persons from destruction, what security for our goods from rifling by this invincible, potent, and envious spirit, if his power were not restrained and his malice curbed by one more mighty than himself? How much doth he envy God the glory of his creation, and man the use and benefit of it? How desirous would he be in regard of his passion, how able in regard of his strength and subtilty, to overthrow or infect all worship but what was directed to himself; to manage all things according to his lusts, turn all things topsy-turvy, plague the world, burn cities, houses, plunder us of the supports of nature, waste kingdoms, &c., if he were not held in a chain as a ravenous lion, or a furious wild horse, by the creator and governor of the world ? What remedy could be used by man against the activity of this unseen and swift spirit ? The world could not subsist under his malice : he would practise the same things upon all, as he did upon Job, when he
had got leave from his governor ; turn the swords of men into one another's bowels ; send fire from heaven upon the fruits of the earth, and the cattle intended for the use of man ; raise winds to shake and tear our houses upon
* Faucher, sur Act. vol. ii. p. 47.
140 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
our heads ; daub our bodies with scabs and boils, and let all the humours in our blood loose upon us. He that envied Adam in paradise, doth envy us the pleasure of enjoying its outworks ; if we were not destroyed by him, we should live in a continued vexation by spectres and apparitions, affright
ing sounds and noise, as some think the Egyptians did in that three days' darkness. He would be alway ' winnowing ' us, as he desired to winnow Peter, Luke xxii. 31. But God overmasters his strength, that he cannot
move a hair's-breadth beyond his tether ; not only he is unable to touch an upright Job, but to lay his fingers upon one of the unbelieving Gadarenes' forbidden and filthy swine without special licence, Mat. viii. 31. When
he is cast out of one place, he ' walks through dry places seeking rest,' Luke ii. 24, new objects for his malicious designs, ' but finding none,' till God lets loose the reins upon him for a new employment. Though Satan's power be great, yet God suffers him not to tempt as much as his diabolical appetite would, but as mnch as divine wisdom thinks fit, and the divine
power tempers the other's active malice and gives the creature victory, where the enemy intended spoil and captivity. How much stronger is God than all the legions of hell, as he that holds a strong man from effecting his pur pose testifies more ability than his adversary ! Luke xi. 2. How doth he lock him up for a thousand years in a pound which he cannot leap over, Rev. xx. 2 ; and this restraint is wrought partly by blinding the devil in his designs, partly by denying him concourse to his motion, as he hindered the active quality of the fire upon the three children, by withdrawing his power, which was necessary to the motion of it ; and his power is as necessary for the motion of the devil as for that of any other creature. Sometimes
he makes him to confesss him against his own interest, as Apollo's oracle confessed.! And though, when the devil was cast out of the possessed
person, he publicly owned Christ to be ' the holy one of God,' Mark i. 24, to render him suspected by the people of having commerce with the unclean
spirits, yet this he could not do without the leave and permission of God, that the power of Christ in stopping his mouth and imposing silence upon him might be evidenced, and that it reaches to the gates of hell as well as to the quieting of winds and waves. This is a part of the strength as well as
the wisdom of God, that ' the deceived and the deceiver are his,' Job xii. 16 : wisdom to defeat, and power to over-rule his most malicious designs to his own glory.
[2.] In the restraint of the natural corruption of men. Since the impetus of original corruptions in the blood conveyed down from Adam to the veins of all his posterity, and universally diffused in all mankind, what wreck and havoc would it make in the world, if it were not suppressed by this divine power, which presides over the hearts of men ! Man is so wretched by nature, that nothing but what is vile and pernicious can drop from him.
Man ' drinks iniquity like water,' Job xv. 16, being by nature abominable and filthy. He greedily swallows all matter for iniquity, everything suitable to the mire and poison in his nature, and would sprout it out with all fierce
ness and insolence. God himself gives us the description of man's nature, Gen. vi. 5, that he hath not one good imagination at any time. And the apostle from the psalmist dilates and comments upon it, Rom. iii. 10, &c. :
' There is none righteous, no not one ; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood,' &c. This corruption is equal to all, natural to all ; it is not more poisonous or more fierce in one man than in another. The root of all men is the same ; all the branches there fore do equally possess the villanous nature of the root. No child of Adam
f Cseteros deos ae'rios essc, &c. — Grvt. Verit. rel. lib. iv.
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 141
can by natural descent be better tban Adam. How fruitful would this loathsome lake be in all kind of steams ! What unbridled licentiousness and headstrong fury would triumph in the world, if the power of God did not interpose itself to lock down the flood-gates of it ? What rooting up of human society would there be ; how would the world be drenched in blood, the number of malefactors be greater than that of apprehenders and punishers ! How would the prints of natural laws be razed out of the heart, if God should leave human nature to itself! Who can read the first chapter to the Romans, verses 24-29, without acknowledging this truth, where there is
a catalogue of those villanies which followed upon God's pulling up the sluices and letting the malignity of their inward corruption have its natural course ? If God did not hold back the fury of man, his garden would be over-run, his vine rooted up, the inclinations of men would hurry them to the worst of wickedness. How great is that power that curbs, bridles, or changes as many headstrong horses at once and every minute, as there are
sons of Adam upon the earth ! ' The floods lift up their waves ; the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty
waves of the sea,' Psal. xciii. 3, 4, that doth hush and pen in the turbulent passions of men.
[8.] In the ordering and framing the hearts of men to his own ends. That must be an omnipotent hand that grasps and contains the hearts of all men, the heart of the meanest person as well as of the most towering angel, and turns them as he pleases, and makes them, sometime ignorantly, sometime knowingly, concur to the accomplishment of his own purposes. When the hearts of men are so numerous, their thoughts so various and different from one another, yet he hath a key to those millions of hearts, and with infinite power, guided by as infinite wisdom, he draws them into what channels he pleases for the gaining his own ends. Though the Jews had embrued their hands in the blood of our Saviour, and their rage was yet
reeking hot against his followers, God bridled their fury in the church's infancy till it had got some strength, and cast a terror upon them by the
wonders wrought by the apostles : Acts ii. 43, ' And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.' Was there not the same reason in the nature of the works our Saviour wrought, to point them to the finger of God and calm their rage ? Yet did not the power of God work upon their passions in those miracles, nor stop the impetuousness of the corruption resident in their hearts. Yet now those who had the boldness to attack the Son of God and nail him to the cross, are frighted at the appearance of twelve unarmed apostles, as the sea seems to be afraid when it approacheth the bounds of the feeble sand. How did God bend the hearts of the Egyptians to the Israelites, and turn them to that point as to lend their most costly vessels, their precious jewels and rich garments, to supply those whom they had just before tyran
nically loaded with chains ! Exod. iii. 21, 22. When a great part of an army came upon Jehoshaphat to despatch him into another world, how doth God in a trice touch their hearts, and move them by a secret instinct
at once to ' depart from him !' 1 Chron. xviii. 81, as if you should see a numerous sight of birds in a moment turn wing another way by a sudden and joint consent. When he gave Saul a kingdom, he gave him a spirit fit
for government, and ' gave him another heart,' 1 Sam. x. 9, and brought the people to submit to his yoke, who a little before wandered about the
land upon no nobler employment than the seeking of asses. ' It is no small remark of the power of God to make a number of strong and discontented persons, and desirous enough of liberty, to bend their necks under the yoke
142 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
of government, and submit to the authority of one, and that of their own nature, often weaker and unwiser than the most of them, and many times an oppressor and invader of their rights, Upon this account David calls God his fortress, tower, shield, Ps. cxliv. 2, all terms of strength in subduing the people under him. It is the mighty hand of God that links princes and people together in the bands of government. The same hand that assuage th the waves of the sea, suppresseth the tumults of the people.
(3.) It appears in his gracious and judicial government. [1.] In his gracious government. In the deliverance of his church : he
is the ' strength of Israel,' 1 Sam. xv. 29, and hath protected his little flock in the midst of wolves, and maintained their standing when the strongest kingdoms have sunk, and the best jointed states have been broken in pieces ; when judgments have ravaged countries and torn up the mighty, as a tem pestuous wind hath often done the tallest trees, which seemed to threaten heaven with their tops, and dare the storm with the depth of their roots, when yet the vine and rose-bushes have stood firm, and been seen in their beauty next morning. The state of the church hath outlived the most flourishing monarchies, when there hath been a mighty knot of adversaries against her ; when the bulls of Bashan have pushed her, and the whole tribe of the dragon have sharpened their weapons and edged their malice ; when the voice was strong, and the hopes high to raze her foundation even with the ground ; when hell hath roared ; when the wit of the world hath con trived, and the strength of the world hath attempted her ruin ; when decrees have been passed against her, and the powers of the world armed for the execution of them ; when her friends have drooped and skulked in corners ; when there was no eye to pity, and no hand to assist, help hath come from heaven ; her enemies have been defeated, kings have brought gifts to her and reared her ; tears have been wiped off her cheeks, and her very enemies, by an unseen power, have been forced to court her, whom before they would have devoured quick. The devil and his armies have sneaked into their den, and the church hath triumphed when she hath been upon the brink of the grave. Thus did God send a mighty angel to be the executioner of Sen
nacherib's army, and the protector of Jerusalem, who run his sword into the hearts of eighty thousand, when they were ready to swallow up his beloved city, 2 Kings xix. 35.
When the knife was at the throats of the Jews in Shushan, by a powerful hand it was turned into the hearts of their enemies, Esther viii. With what outstretched arm were the Israelites freed from the Egyptian yoke ? Deut. iv. 34. When Pharaoh had mustered a great army to pursue them, assisted with six hundred chariots of war, the Red Sea obstructed their pas sage before, and an enraged enemy trod on their rear ; when the fearful Israelites despaired of deliverance, and the insolent Egyptian assured himself of his revenge, God stretches out his irresistible arm to defeat the enemy and assist his people ; he strikes down the wolves, and preserves the flock. God restrained the Egyptian enmity against the Israelites till they were at the brink of the Red Sea, and then lets them follow their humour and pur sue the fugitives, that his power might more gloriously shine forth in the deliverance of the one and the destruction of the other. God might have brought Israel out of Egypt hi the time of those kings that had remembered the good service of Joseph to their country, but he leaves them till the reign of a cruel tyrant, suffers them to be slaves, that they might by his sole power be conquerors, which had had no appearance had there been a willing dis mission of them at the first summons : Exod. ix. 16, 'In very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew my power, and that my name might
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 143
be declared throughout all the earth.' I have permitted thee to rise up against my people, and keep them in captivity, that thou mightest be an occasion for the manifestation of my power in their rescue ; and whilst thou art obstinate to enslave them, I will stretch out my arm to deliver them, and make my name famous among the Gentiles, in the wreck of thee and thy host in the Red Sea. The deliverance of the church hath not been in one
a<*e or in one part of the world, but God hath signalized his power in all kingdoms where she hath had a footing. As he hath guided her in all places by one rule, animated her by one spirit, so he hath protected her by the
same arm of power.
When the Eoman emperors banded all their force against her for about three hundred years, they were further from effecting her ruin at the end than when they first attempted it : the church grew under their sword, and was hatched under the wings of the Roman eagle, which were spread to destroy her. The ark was elevated by the deluge, and the waters of the devil, poured out to drown her, did but slime the earth for a new increase of her. She hath sometime been beaten down, and, like Lazarus, hath seemed to lie in the grave for some days, that the power of God might be more visible in her sudden resurrection, and lifting up her head above the throne of her persecutors.
[2.] In his judicial proceedings. The deluge was no small testimony of his power, in opening the cisterns of heaven, and pulling up the sluices of the sea. He doth but call for the waters of the sea, and they ' pour them
selves upon the face of the earth,' Amos ix. 6. In forty days' time, the waters overtopped the highest mountains fifteen cubits, Gen. vii. 17, 19, 20 ; and by the same power he afterwards reduced the sea to its proper channel, as a roaring lion into its den. A shower of fire from heaven upon Sodom and the cities of the plain, was a signal display of his power, either in creating it on the sudden for the execution of his righteous sentence, or sending down the element of fire, contrary to its nature (which affects ascent), for the punishment of rebels against the light of nature.
How often hath he ruined the most flourishing monarchies, led princes away spoiled, and overthrown the mighty, which Job makes an argument of his strength, Job xii. 13, 14. Troops of unknown people, the Goths and Vandals, broke the Romans, a warlike people, and hurled down all before them. They could not have had the thought to succeed in such an attempt, unless God had given them strength and motion for the executing his judi cial vengeance upon the people of his wrath.
How did he evidence his power by daubing the throne of Pharaoh, and his chamber of presence, as well as the houses of his subjects, with the slime
of frogs ; turning their waters into blood, and their dust into biting lice, Exod. vii. 20, viii. 3 ; raising his militia of locusts against them ;
causing a three days' darkness without stopping the motion of the sun ; taking off their first-born, the excellency of their strength, in a night, by the
stroke of the angel's sword ! He takes off the chariot wheels of Pharaoh, and presents him with a destruction where he expected a victory ; brings those waves over the heads of him and his host, which stood firm as marble walls for the safety of his people. The sea is made to swallow them up, that durst not by the order of their governor touch the Israelites. It only sprinkled the one as a type of baptism, and drowned the other as an image of hell. Thus he made it both a deliverer and a revenger, the instrument of an offensive and defensive war. ' He brings princes to nothing, and
makes the judges of the earth as vanity,' Isa. xl. 23, 24. Great monarchs have by this power been hurled from their thrones, and their sceptres (like
144 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
Venice glasses) broken before their faces, and they been advanced that have had the least hopes of grandeur. He hath plucked up cedars by the roots, lopped off the branches, and set a shrub to grow up in the place ; dis
solved rocks, and established bubbles : Luke i. 52, ' He hath shewed strength with his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted them of
low degree.' And these things he doth magnify his power in. First, By ordering the nature of creatures as he pleases ; by restraining their force, or guiding their motions. The restraint of the destructive quali ties of the creatures argues as great a power as the change of their nature, yea, and a greater. The qualities of creatures may be changed by art and composition, as in the preparing of medicines ; but what but a divine power could restrain the operation of the fire from the three children, while it re
tained its heat and burning quality in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace ? The operation was curbed while its nature was preserved. All creatures are called his host, because he marshals and ranks them as an army to serve his purposes : the whole scheme of nature is ready to favour men when God orders it, and ready to punish men when God commissions it. He gave the Ked Sea but a check, and it obeyed his voice : Ps. cvi. 9, ' He rebuked the Bed Sea also, and it was dried up ; ' the motion of it ceased, and the waters of it were ranged as defensive walls, to secure the march of his people ; and, at the motion of the hand of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the sea re covered its violence, and the walls that were framed came tumbling down
upon the Egyptians' heads, Exod. xiv. 27. The Creator of nature is not led by the necessity of nature ; he that settled the order of nature can change or restrain the order of nature according to his sovereign pleasure. The most necessary and useful creatures he can use as instruments of his vengeance. Water is necessary to cleanse, and by that he can deface a world ; fire is necessary to warm, and by that he can burn a Sodom. From the water he formed the fowl, Gen. i. 21, and by that he dissolves them in the deluge ; fire or heat is necessary to the generation of creatures, and by that he ruins the cities of the plain. He orders all as he pleases, to per form every tittle and punctilio of his purpose. The sea observed him so exactly that it drowned not one Israelite, nor saved one Egyptian : Ps.
cvi. 11, ' There was not one of them left.' And to perfect the Israelites' deliverance, he followed them with testimonies of his power above the
strength of "nature : when they wanted drink, he orders Moses to strike a rock, and the rock spouts a river, and a channel is formed for it to attend them in their journey ; when they wanted bread, he dressed manna for them in the heavens, and sent it to their tables in the desert ; when he would de clare his strength, he calls to the heavens to pour down righteousness, and to the earth to bring forth salvation, Isa. xlv. 8. Though God had created righteousness or deliverance for the Jews in Babylon, yet he calls to the heavens and the earth to be assistant to the design of Cyrus, whom he had raised for that purpose, as he speaks in the beginning of the chapter, ver. 1-4. As God created man for a supernatural end, and all creatures for man as their immediate end, so he makes them, according to opportunities, subservient to that supernatural end of man, for which he created them. He that spans the heavens with his fist can shoot all creatures, like an arrow, to hit what mark he pleases ; he that spread the heavens and the earth by a word, and can, by a word, fold them up more easily than a man can a gar ment, Heb. i. 12, can order the streams of nature ; cannot he work without nature as well as with it, beyond nature, contrary to nature, that can (as it
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 145
were) fillip nature with his finger into that nothing whence he drew it? Who can cast down the sun from his throne, clap the distinguished parts of the world together, and make them march in the same order to their con fusion as they did in their creation ; who can jumble the whole frame to gether, and by a word dissolve the pillars of the world, and make the fabric lie in a ruinous heap.
Secondly, In effecting his purposes by small means ; in making use of the meanest creatures. As the power of God is seen in the creation of the
smallest creatures, and assembling so many perfections in the little body of an insect, as an ant or spider, so his power is not less magnified in the use he makes of them. As he magnifies his wisdom by using ignorant instru ments, so he exalts his power by employing weak instruments in his service. The meanness and imperfection of the matters sets off the excellency of the workman, so the weakness of the instrument is a foil to the power of the principal agent. When God hath effected things by means in the Scripture, he hath usually brought about his purposes by weak instruments.
Moses, a fugitive from Egypt, and Aaron, a captive in it, are the instru
ments of the Israelites' deliveranee. By the motion of Moses his rod, he works wonders in the court of Pharaoh, and summons up his judgments
against him. He brought down Pharaoh's stomach for a while by a squad ron of lice and locusts, wherein divine power was more seen than if Moses had brought him to his own articles by a multitude of warlike troops. The fall
of the walls of Jericho, by the sound of ram's horns, Josh. vi. 20, was a more
glorious character of God's power, than if Joshua had battered it down with an hundred of warlike engines. Thus the great army of the Midianites, which lay as grasshoppers upon the ground, were routed by Gideon at the head of three hundred men ; and Goliah, a giant, laid level with the ground by David, a stripling, by the force of a sling ; a thousand Philistines de spatched out of the world by the jaw-bone of an ass in the hand of Samson. He can master a stout nation by an army of locusts, and render the teeth of those little insects as destructive as the teeth, yea the strongest teeth, the cheek-teeth of a great lion, Joel i. 6, 7. The thunderbolt, which produceth sometimes dreadful effects, is compacted of little atoms which fly in the air, small vapours drawn up by the sun, and mixed with other sulphurous matter and putrefying juice. Nothing is so weak, but his strength can make victori ous ; nothing so small, but by his power he can accomplish his great ends by it ; nothing so vile, but his might can conduct to his glory ; and no nation so mighty, but he can waste and enfeeble by the meanest creatures. God is great in power in the greatest things, and not little in the smallest ; his power in the minutest creatures, which he uses for his service, surmounts the force of our understanding.
3. The power of God appears in redemption. As our Saviour is called the wisdom of God, so he is called the power of God, 1 Cor. i. 24. The arm of power was lifted up as high as the designs of wisdom were laid deep. As this way of redemption could not be contrived but by an infinite wisdom, so it could not be accomplished but by an infinite power ; none but God could shape such a design, and none but God could effect it. The divine power in temporal deliverances and freedom from the slavery of human op pressors veils to that which glitters in redemption, whereby the devil is defeated in his designs, stripped of his spoils, and yoked in his strength ; the power of God in creation requires not those degrees of admiration, as in redemption. In creation, the world was erected from nothing ; as there was nothing to act, so there was nothing to oppose ; no victorious devil was in that to be subdued, no thundering law to be silenced, no death to be con-
VOL. II. K
146 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. ' [Jos XXVI. 14.
quered, no transgression to be pardoned and rooted out, no hell to be shut, no ignominious death upon the cross to be suffered. It had been in the nature
of the thing an easier thing to divine power to have created a new world, than repaired a broken and purified a polluted one. This is the most ad mirable work that ever God brought forth in the world, greater than all the marks of his power in the first creation.
And this will appear,
In the person redeeming. In the publication and propagation of the doctrine of redemption. In the application of redemption. In the person redeeming. [1.] First, In his conception. First, He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin : Luke i. 85, ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ;' which act is expressed to be the effect of the infinite power of God, and it expresses the supernatural manner of the forming the humanity of our Saviour, and signifies not the divine nature of Christ issuing itself into the womb of the virgin ; for the angel refers it to the manner of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the producing the human nature of Christ, and not to the nature assuming that humanity into union with itself. The Holy Ghost, or the third person in the Trinity, over
(2- (3.
(I-
shadowed the virgin, and by a creative act framed the humanity of Christ, and united it to the divinity. It is therefore expressed by a word of the same import with that used Gen. i. 2, ' The Spirit moved upon the face of the waters;' which signifies (as it were) a brooding upon the chaos, shadowing it with his wings, as hens sit upon their eggs to form them and hatch them into animals ; or else it is an allusion to the cloud which covered the tent of the congregation, when the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, Exod. xl. 34. It was not such a creative act as we call immediate, which is a production out of nothing ; but a mediate crea
tion, such as God's bringing things into form out of the first matter, which had nothing but an obediential or passive disposition to whatsoever stamp the powerful wisdom of God should imprint upon it. So the substance of the virgin had no active, but only a passive disposition to this work. The matter of the body was earthy, the substance of the virgin ; the forming of it was heavenly, the Holy Ghost working upon that matter. And therefore when it is said, Mat. i. 18, that ' she was found with child of the Holy Ghost,' it is to be understood of the efficacy of the* Holy Ghost, not of the substance of the Holy Ghost. The matter was natural, but the manner of conceiving was in a supernatural way, above the methods of nature. In reference to the active principle, the Kedeemer is called in the prophecy,
Isa. iv. 2, ' the Branch of the Lord,' in regard of the divine hand that planted him ; in respect to the passive principle, ' the Fruit of the earth,' in regard of the womb that bare him, and therefore said to be ' made of a woman,' Gal. iv. 4. That part of the flesh of the virgin whereof the human nature of Christ was made, was refined and purified from corruption by the
overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, as a skilful workman separates the dross
from the gold. Our Saviour is therefore called ' that holy thing,' Luke i. 35, though born of the virgin. He was necessarily some way to descend from Adam. God indeed might have created his body out of nothing, or
have formed it (as he did Adam's) out of the dust of the ground ; but had he been thus extraordinarily formed, and not propagated from Adam, though he had been a man like one of us, yet he would not have been of kin to us, because it would not have been a nature derived from Adam, the common
JOB X-XVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 147
parent of us all. It was therefore necessary to an affinity with us, not only that he should have the same human nature, but that it should flow from
the same principle, and be propagated to him.* But now, by this way of producing the humanity of Christ of the substance of the virgin, he was in Adam (say some) corporeally, but not seminally ; of the substance of Adam, or a daughter of Adam, but not of the seed of Adam. And so he is of the same nature that had sinned, and so what he did and suffered may be im puted to us, which, had he been created as Adam, could not be claimed in a legal and judicial way.
Secondly, It was not convenient he should be born in the common order of nature, of father and mother, for whosoever is so born is polluted : ' A
clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean,' Job xiv. 4. And our Saviour had been incapable of being a redeemer had he been tainted with the least spot of our nature, but would have stood in need of redemption himself. Besides, it had been inconsistent with the holiness of the divine nature to have assumed a tainted and denied body. He that was the foun tain of blessedness to all nations, was not to be subject to the curse of the law for himself, which he would have been had he been conceived in an
ordinary way. He that was to overturn the devil's empire, was not to be any way captive under the devil's power, as a creature under the curse ; nor could he be able to break the serpent's head had he been tainted with the serpent's breath.
Again, supposing that almighty God, by his divine power, had so ordered the matter, and so perfectly sanctified an earthly father and mother from all original spot, that the human nature might have been transmitted immacu late to him, as well as the Holy Ghost did purge that part of the flesh of the virgin of which the body of Christ was made ; yet it was not convenient
that that person that was ' God blessed for ever,' as well as man, partaking of our nature, should have a conception in the same manner as ours, but different, and in some measure conformable to the infinite dignity of his person, which could not have been had not a supernatural power and a divine person been concerned as an active principle in it. Besides, such a
birth had not been agreeable to the first promise, which calls him ' the seed of the woman,' Gen. i. 15, not of the man, and so the veracity of God had suffered some detriment. The ' seed of the woman ' only is set in opposition to the ' seed of the serpent.' Thirdly, By this manner of conception the holiness of his nature is secured, and his fitness for his office is assured to us. It is now a pure and unpolluted humanity that is the temple and tabernacle of the divinity. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily, and dwells in him holily ; his humanity is supernaturalised and elevated by the activity of the Holy Ghost, hatching the flesh of the virgin into man, as the chaos into a world. Though we read of some ' sanctified from the womb,' it was not a pure and perfect holiness ; it was like the light of fire mixed with smoke, an infused holiness accompanied with a natural taint ; but the holiness of the Redeemer by his conception is like the light of the sun, pure and without spot, the
Spirit of holiness supplying the place of a father in a way of creation, i His fitness for his office is also assured to us ; for being born of the virgin, one of our nature, but conceived by the Spirit, a divine person, the guilt of our sins may be imputed to him because of our nature, without the stain of sin inherent in him ; because of his supernatural conception he is capable, as one of kin to us, to bear our curse, without being touched by our taint. By this means our sinful nature is assumed without sin in that nature which
* Amyrald, in Symbol, p. 103, &c.
148 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXYI. 14.
was assumed by him. Flesh he hath, but not ' sinful flesh,' Rom. viii. '6 ; real flesh, but not really sinful, only by way of imputation.
Nothing but the power of God is evident in this whole work. By the ordinary laws and course of nature a virgin could not bear a son, nothing but a supernatural and almighty grace could intervene to make so holy and perfect a conjunction. The generation of others, in an ordinary way, is by male and female ; but the virgin is overshadowed by the Spirit, and power
of the Highest.* Man only is the product of natural generation ; this which is born of the virgin is the holy thing, the Son of God. In other genera tions a rational soul is only united to a material body ; but in this, the divine nature is united with the human in one person by an indissoluble union.
[2. 1 The second act of power in the person redeeming is the union of the two natures, the divine and human. The designing indeed of this was an act of wisdom, but the accomplishing it was an act of power.
First, There is in this redeeming person a union of two natures. He is God and man in one person : Heb. i. 8, 9, ' Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever. God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness,' &e. The Son is called God, having a throne for ever and ever, and the unction speaks him man ; the Godhead cannot be anointed, nor hath any fellows. Humanity and divinity are ascribed to him, Rom. i. 8, 4. He was ' of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.' The divinity and humanity are both prophetically joined : Zech. xii. 10, ' I will pour out my Spirit,' — the pouring forth the Spirit is an act only of divine grace and power, — ' and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced ;' the same person pours forth the Spirit as God and is pierced as man. ' The Word was made flesh,' John i. 14; Word from eternity was made flesh in time, Word and flesh in one person; a great God and a little infant.
Secondly, The terms of this union were infinitely distant. What greater distance can there be than between the Deity and humanity, between the Creator and a creature ? Can you imagine the distance between eternity and time, infinite power and miserable infirmity, an immortal Spirit and dying flesh, the highest being and nothing ? Yet these are espoused. A God of unmixed blessedness is linked personally with a man of perpetual sorrows, life incapable to die joined to a body in that economy incapable to live without dying first, infinite purity and a reputed sinner, eternal blessed ness with a cursed nature, almightiness and weakness, omniscience and ignorance, immutability and changeableness, incomprehensibleness and comprehensibility, that which cannot be comprehended and that which can be comprehended, that which is entirely independent and that which is totally dependent, the Creator forming all things and the creature made met together to a personal union, the Word made flesh, John i. 14, the eternal Son the seed of Abraham, Heb. ii. 16. What more miraculous than for God to become man, and man to become God ! That a person possessed of all the perfections of the Godhead should inherit all the imper fections of the manhood in one person, sin only excepted ; a holiness incapable of sinning to be made sin ; God blessed for ever taking the pro perties of human nature, and human nature admitted to a union with the properties of the Creator ; the fulness of the Deity and the emptiness of man united together, Col. ii. 9, not by a shining of the Deity upon the humanity, as the light of the sun upon the earth, but by an inhabitation or indwelling of the Deity in the humanity : was there not need of an infinite power to bring together terms so far asunder, to elevate the humanity to be capable
* Amyraut, sur Tirnole, p. 292.
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWEB. 149
of, and disposed for, a conjunction with the Deity ? If a clod of earth should be advanced to, and united with, the body of the sun, such an advance would evidence itself to be a work of almighty power ; the clod hath nothing in its own nature to render it so glorious, no power to climb up to so high a dignity. How little would such a union be to that we are speaking of ! Nothing less than an incomprehensible power could effect what an incomprehensible wisdom did project in this affair.
Thirdly, Especially since the union is so strait. It is not such a union as is between a man and his house he dwells in, whence he goes out and to which he returns, without any alteration of himself or his house ; nor such a union as is between a man and his garment, which both communicate and receive warmth from one another ; nor such as is between an artificer and his instrument wherewith he works ; nor such a union as one friend hath with another. All these are distant things, not one in nature, but have distinct substances. Two friends, though united by love, are distinct per sons; a man and his clothes, an artificer and his instruments, have distinct substances ; but the humanity of Christ hath no substance but in the person of Christ.
The straitness of this union is expressed, and may be somewhat conceived by the union of fire with iron.* Fire pierceth through all the parts of iron, it unites itself with every particle, bestows a light, heat, purity upon all of it ; you cannot distinguish the iron from the fire, or the fire from the iron ; yet they are distinct natures. So the Deity is united to the whole humanity, seasons it, and bestows an excellency upon it, yet the natures still remain distinct. And as, during that union of fire with iron, the iron is incapable of rust or blackness, so is the humanity incapable of sin. And as the opera tion of fire is attributed to the red hot iron (as the iron may be said to heat, burn, and the fire may be said to cut and pierce), yet the imperfections of the iron do not affect the fire ; so in this mystery, those things which belong to the divinity are ascribed to the humanity, and those things which belong to the humanity are ascribed to the divinity, in regard of the person in whom those natures are united ; yet the imperfections of the humanity do not hurt the divinity. The divinity of Christ is as really united with the humanity as the soul with the body. The person was one, though the natures were two ; so united, that the sufferings of the human nature were the sufferings of that person, and the dignity of the divine was imputed to the human by reason of that unity of both in one person. Hence the blood of the human nature is said to be the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. All things ascribed to the Son of God may be ascribed to this man, and the things ascribed to this man may be ascribed to the Son of God, as this man is the Son of God eternal, almighty.f And it may be said God suffered, was crucified, &c. ; for the person of Christ is but one, most simple ; the person Buffered, that was God and man united, making one person.
Fourthly, And though the union be so strait, yet without confusion of the natures, or change of them into one another. The two natures of Christ are not mixed, * as liquors that incorporate with one another when they are poured into a vessel ; the divine nature is not turned into the human, nor the human into the divine; one nature doth not swallow up another and make a third nature distinct from each of them. The Deity is not turned
into the humanity, as air (which is next to a spirit) may be thickened and turned into water, and water may be rarefied into air by the power of heat boiling it. The Deity cannot be changed, because the nature of it is to be
* Lessius de Perf. Divin., lib. xii. cap. iv. p. 104. t Ibid., p. 103, 104. J Ibid., p. 103, 104 ; Amyrald, Ironic., y. 234.
150 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
unchangeable. It would not be deity if it were mortal and capable of suffer ing. The humanity is not changed into the deity, for then Christ could not have been a sufferer. If the humanity had been swallowed up into the deity, it had lost its own distinct nature, and put on the nature of the Deity, and consequently been incapable of suffering. Finite can never by any mixture be changed into infinite, nor infinite into finite.
This union in this regard may be resembled to the union of light and air, which are strictly joined ; for the light passes through all parts of the air, but they are not confounded, but remain in their distinct essences as before the union, without the least confusion with one another. The divine nature remains as it was before the union, entire in itself, only the divine person assumes another nature to himself.* The human nature remains as it would have done had it existed separately from the Adyoj, except that then it would have had a proper subsistence by itself, which now it borrows from its union
with the Ao'yo;, or Word, but that doth not belong to the constitution of its nature.
Now let us consider what a wonder of power is all this. The knitting a noble soul to a body of clay was not so great an exploit of almightiness as the espous ing infinite and finite together. Man is further distant from God than man from nothing. What a wonder is it that two natures infinitely distant should be more intimately united than anything in the world, and yet without any con fusion ! That the same person should have both a glory and a grief; an infinite joy in the Deity, and an unexpressible sorrow in the humanity; that a God upon
a throne should be an infant in a cradle ; the thundering Creator be a weeping babe and a suffering man, are such expressions of mighty power, as well as condescending love, that they astonish men upon earth, and angels in heaven.
[8.] Power was evident in the progress of his life. In the miracles he wrought, how often did he expel malicious and powerful devils from their habitations, hurl them from their thrones, and make them fall from heaven like lightning. How many wonders were wrought by his bare word or a single touch : sight restored to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, palsied members restored to the exercise of their functions, a dismiss given to many
deplorable maladies, impure leprosies chased from the persons they had in fected, and bodies beginning to putrefy raised from the grave. But the mightiest argument of power was his patience : that he who was in his divine nature elevated above the world should so long continue upon a dung
hill, ' endure the contradiction of sinners against himself,' be patiently sub ject to the reproaches and indignities of men, without displaying that justice
which was essential to the Deity, and in especial manner daily merited by their provoking crimes. The patience of man under great affronts is a greater argument of power than the brawniness of his arm. A strength employed in the revenge of every injury signifies a greater infirmity in the soul than there can be ability in the body.
[4.J Divine power was apparent in his resurrection. The unlocking the belly of the whale for the deliverance of Jonas, the rescue of Daniel from the den of lions, and the restraining the fire from burning the three children, were signal declarations of his power, and types of the resurrection of our Saviour. But what are those to that which was represented by them? That was a power over natural causes, a curbing of beasts and restraining of elements ; but in the resurrection of Christ, God exercised a power over himself, and quenched the flames of his own wrath, hotter than millions of
Nebuchadnezzar's furnaces ; unlocked the prison doors, wherein the curses of the law had lodged our Saviour stronger than the belly and ribs of a
* Amy raid, Irenic., p. 282;
JOB XXYI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 151
leviathan. In the rescue of Daniel and Jonas, God overpowered beasts, and in this tore up the strength of the old serpent, and plucked the sceptre from the hand of the enemy of mankind. The work of resurrection, indeed, con sidered in itself, requires the efficacy of an almighty power. Neither man nor angel can create new dispositions in a dead body, to render it capable of
lodging a spiritual soul, nor can they restore a dislodged soul by their own power to such a body. The restoring a dead body to life requires an infinite power, as well as the creation of the world. But there was in the resurrec tion of Christ something more difficult than this. While he lay in the grave he was under the curse of the law, under the execution of that dreadful
sentence, 'Thou shalt die the death.' His resurrection was not only the re-tying the marriage knot between his soul and body, or the rolling the stone from the grave, but a taking off an infinite weight, the sin of mankind, which lay upon him. So vast a weight could not be removed without the strength of an almighty arm. It is therefore ascribed not to an ordinary operation, but an operation with power, Rom. i. 4, and such a power wherein the glory of the Father did appear : Rom. vi. 4, ' Raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father ; ' that is, the glorious power of God. As the eternal generation is stupendous, so is his resurrection, which is called a new begetting of him, Acts xiii. 33. It is a wonder of power that the divine and human nature should be joined, and no less wonder that his person should surmount and rise up from the curse of God under which he lay. The apostle therefore adds one expression to another, and heaps up a variety, signifying thereby that one was not enough to represent it : Eph.
i. 19, 'Exceeding greatness of power,' and 'working of mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.' It was an hyper bole of power, the excellency of the mightiness of his strength ; the loftiness of the expressions seems to come short of the apprehension he had of it in his soul.
(2.) Secondly, This power appears in the publication and propagation of the doctrine of redemption.
The divine power will appear, if you consider, [1.] The nature of the doctrine. [2.] The instruments employed in it. [3.] The means they used to propagate it. ) [4.] The success they had.
[1.] The nature of the doctrine. First, It was contrary to the common received reason of the world. The philosophers, the masters of knowledge among the Gentiles, had maxims of a different stamp from it. Though they agreed in the being of a God, yet their notions of his nature were confused and embroiled with many errors ; the unity of God was not commonly assented unto ; they had multiplied deities according to the fancies they had received from some of a more elevated wit and refined brain than others. Though they had some notion of mediators, yet they placed in those seats their public benefactors ; men that had been useful to the world, or their particular countries, in imparting to them some profitable invention. To discard those was to charge them selves with ingratitude to them, from whom they had received signal benefits, and to whose mediation, conduct, or protection they ascribed all the success they had been blessed with in their several provinces, and to charge them selves with folly, for rendering an honour and worship to them so long. Could the doctrine of a crucified Mediator, whom they had never seen, that had conquered no country for them, never enlarged their territories, brought
152 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Jos XXVI. 14.
to light no new profitable invention for the increase of their earthly welfare,
as the rest had done, be thought sufficient to balance so many of their reputed heroes ? How ignorant were they in the foundations of the true religion ! The belief of a providence was staggering ; nor had they a true prospect of the nature of virtue and vice ; yet they had a fond opinion of the strength of their own reason, and the maxims that had been handed down to them by their predecessors, which Paul entitles, a ' science falsely so called,' 1 Tim. vi. 20, either meant of the philosophers or the Gnostics. They presumed that they were able to measure all things by their own reason ; whence, when the apostle came to preach the doctrine of the gospel
at Athens, the great school of reason in that age, they gave him no better a
title than that of a ' babbler, 'f Acts xvii. 18, and openly mocked him, ver. 82,
2«e/ioXoyo£, a seed-gatherer, one that hath no more brain or sense than a fellow that gathers up seeds that are spilt in a market, or one that hath a vain and empty sound without sense or reason, like a foolish mountebank ; so slightly did those rationalists of the world think of the wisdom of heaven. That the Son of God should veil himself in a mortal body, and suffer a dis graceful death in it, were things above the ken of reason.
Besides, the world had a general disesteem of the religion of the Jews, and were prejudiced against anything that came from them. Whence the Eomans, that used to incorporate the gods of other conquered nations in their capitol, never moved to have the God of Israel worshipped among them. Again, they might argue against it with much fleshly reason. Here is a crucified God preached by a company of mean and ignorant persons ; what reason can we have to entertain this doctrine, since the Jews, who (as they tell us) had the prophecies of him, did not acknowledge him? Sorely, had there been such predictions, they would not have crucified, but crowned their king, and expected from him the conquest of the earth under their power ! What reason have we to entertain him, whom his own nation (among whom he lived, with whom he conversed) so unanimously, by the vote of the rulers as well as the rout, rejected ? It was impossible to conquer minds possessed with so many errors, and applauding themselves in their own reason, and to render them capable of receiving revealed truths without the influence of a divine power.
Secondly, It was contrary to the customs of the world. The strength of custom in most men surmounts the strength of reason, and men commonly are so wedded to it, that they will be sooner divorced from anything than the modes and patterns received from their ancestors. The endeavouring to change customs of an ancient standing hath begotten tumults and furious mutinies among nations, though the change would have been much for their advantage.
This doctrine struck at the root of the religion of the world, and the cere monies wherein they had been educated from their infancy, delivered to them from their ancestors, confirmed by the customary observance of many ages, rooted in their minds, and established by their laws. Acts xviii. 13, ' This fellow persuadeth us to worship God contrary to the law,' against customs, to which they ascribed the happiness of their states, and the prosperity of their people; and would put in the place of this religion they would abolish, a new one instituted by a man whom the Jews had condemned, and put to death upon a cross as an impostor, blasphemer, and seditious person.
It was a doctrine that would change the customs of the Jews, who were entrusted with the oracles of God. It would bury for ever their ceremonial rites, delivered to them by Moses from that God who had with a mighty hand brought them out of Egypt, consecrated their law with thunders and
JOB XXVI. 14.] GOD'S POWER. 158
lightnings from mount Sinai at the time of its publication, backed it with severe sanctions, confirmed it by many miracles, both in the wilderness and their Canaan, and had continued it for so many hundred years. They could not but remember how they had been ravaged by other nations, and judg
ments sent upon them when they neglected and slighted it, and with what great success they were followed when they valued and observed it, and how they had abhorred the author of this new religion, who had spoken slightly of their traditions, till they put him to death with infamy. Was it an easy matter to divorce them from that worship, upon which were entailed (as
th*ey imagined) their peace, plenty, and glory, things of the dearest regard •with mankind ? The Jews were no less devoted to their ceremonial tradi tions, than the heathen were to their vain superstitions.
This doctrine of the gospel was of that nature, that the state of religion all over the earth must be overturned by it ; the wisdom of the Greeks must veil to it, the idolatry of the people must stoop to it, and the profane customs of men must moulder under the weight of it. Was it an easyjmatter for the pride of nature to deny a customary wisdom, to entertain a new doctrine against the authority of their ancestors, to inscribe folly upon that which hath made them admired by the rest of the world ? Nothing can be of greater esteem with men than the credit of their lawgivers and founders, the religion of their fathers, and prosperity of themselves ; hence the minds of men were sharpened against it. The Greeks, the wisest nation, slighted it as foolish ; the Jews, the religious nation, stumbled at it, as contrary to the received interpretations of ancient prophecies, and carnal conceits of an earthly glory. The dimmest eye may behold the difficulty to change custom, a second nature ; it is as hard as to change a wolf into a lamb, to level a mountain, stop the course of the sun, or change the inhabitants of Africa into the colour of Europe. Custom dips men in as durable a dye as nature. The difficulties of carrying it on against the divine religion of the Jew, and rooted customs of the Gentiles, were unconquerable by any but an almighty power. And in this the power of God hath appeared wonderfully.