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 dilations of the heart, whereby it spouts out 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 God 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 Infinite 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 creature’s motion, as a thing utterly inconceivable,
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?
(3.) 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 4,000,000 of miles;[863] whence it follows, that
it is whirled about the world with that swiftness, that in the space
of an hour it runs 1,000,000 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 {b51} of a
cannon, which is computed to fly not above three miles in a minute:[864]
so that the sun runs further in one hour’s space, than a bullet can in
5,000, 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 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
signalized 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?[865] 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 turning 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 weed? 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? {b52} 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.
_Secondly_, 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 invisible, 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
subtlety, 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 our heads; daub our bodies with
scalbs and boils, and let all the humors in our blood loose upon us.
He that envied Adam a paradise, doth envy us the pleasure of enjoying
its out‑works. If we were not destroyed by him, we should live in a
continued vexation by spectrums and apparitions, affrighting 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 over‑masters his strength, that he cannot move a hair’s
breadth beyond his tedder; not only is he unable to touch an upright
Job, but to lay his fingers upon one of the unbelieving Gadarenes
forbidden and filthy swine without special license (Matt. viii. 31).
When he is cast out of one place, he walks “through dry places seeking
rest” (Luke xi. 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 much 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” (Luke xi. 22) from effecting his
purpose, testifies more ability than his adversary! How doth he lock
him up for a “thousand years” (Rev. xx. 3) in a pound, which he cannot
leap over! 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 {b53} 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 confess him against
his own interest, as Apollo’s oracle confessed.[866] 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
overrule his most malicious designs, to his own glory.
2. In the restraint of the natural corruption of men. Since the
_impetus_ of original corruption runs 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,” being,
by nature, “abominable and filthy” (Job xv. 16). He greedily swallows
all matter for iniquity, everything suitable to the mire and poison in
his nature, and would sprout it out with all fierceness 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 in all, natural in 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 therefore do equally possess the villanous nature of the root.
No child of Adam can, by natural descent, be better than Adam, or have
less of baseness, and vileness, and venom, than Adam. How fruitful
would this loathsome lake be in all kind of streams! 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 rased out of the heart, if God should leave human nature to
itself! Who can read the first chapter of Romans, (verses 24 to 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 overrun, 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
{b54} 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” (Ps. xciii. 3, 4); that doth hush and pen in the
turbulent passions of men.
3. 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 imbrued 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 tyranically loaded
with their chains (Exod. iii. 21, 22)! When a great part of an army
came upon Jehoshaphat, to dispatch 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. 31)! 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 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 assuageth the
waves of the sea, suppresseth the tumults of the people.
{b55} _Thirdly_, 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 tempestuous 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 rase her foundation even with the ground;
when hell hath roared; when the wit of the world hath contrived, 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 Sennacherib’s army, and the protector of
Jerusalem, who run his sword into the hearts of eighty thousand
(2 Kings xix. 35), when they were ready to swallow up his beloved
city. When the knife was at the throats of the Jews, in Shushan (Esther
viii.), by a powerful hand it was turned into the hearts of their
enemies. With what an out‑stretched 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 passage 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 humor, and pursue 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 in 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 dismission of them at the first summons (Exod. ix. 16);
“In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to {b56} shew
my power, and that my name might 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 age, 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 Roman emperors bandied 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 the devil poured out to drown her did but slime the earth for
a new increase of her. She hath sometimes been beaten down, and, like
Lazarus, hath seemed to be 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 themselves upon the face of the earth” (Amos ix. 6.) In
forty days’ time the waters overtopped the highest mountains fifteen
cubits (Gen. vii. 17‒20); and by the same power he afterwards reduced
the sea to its proper channel, as a roaring lion into his 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 judicial 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 (Exod. viii. 3); turning their
waters into blood, and their dust into biting lice (Exod. vii. 20);
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 {b57}
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 (Isa.
xl. 23, 24); “He brings princes to nothing, and makes the judges of the
earth as vanity.” Great monarchs have, by his power, been hurled from
their thrones and their sceptres, like 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; dissolved rocks,
and established bubbles (Luke i. 52): “He hath showed 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:――