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 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, considered 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 resurrection 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, 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 hyperbole 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.
II. 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. (1.) It was contrary to the common
{b66} 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
themselves 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 themselves with folly for rendering an honor 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 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 (1 Tim. vi. 20) entitles, a “science
falsely so called,” 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 (Acts xvii. 18), and openly
mocked him (ver. 32); a seed gatherer,[873] one that hath no more
brain or sense than a fellow that gathers up seeds that are spilled
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 disgraceful 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 Romans, that used to
incorporate the gods of other conquered nations in their capital, 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? Surely,
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 {b67} 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.
(2.) 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
endeavoring 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 ceremonies, 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 intrusted with the oracles of God. It would
bury forever 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 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 judgments 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 they imagined, their peace, plenty, and glory, things of the dearest
regard with mankind? The Jews were no less devoted to their ceremonial
traditions 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 vail 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 easy matter 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 {b68} 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 color 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 custom of the Gentiles, were unconquerable by
any but an Almighty power. And in this the power of God hath appeared
wonderfully.
(3.) It was contrary to the sensuality of the world, and the lusts 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 (Rom. 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 the 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: honors 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 honor 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 resurrection 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 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
acquaint 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 honor of this new
Lord. Other religions brought wealth and honor; 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, but
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 {b69} self up by the roots, unmanned carnal
man, and debased the principle of honor 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 honor, 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, dispirit 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 impossible 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. Divine power appeared in the instruments employed for the
publishing and propagating the gospel; who were (1.) 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 commanded 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. They published this doctrine in Jerusalem, and quickly spread
it over the greatest part of the world. Folly outwitted wisdom, and
weakness overpowered 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 {b70} 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.
(2.) 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 in 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 changed 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. 13). 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 ardor and zeal, to propagate a doctrine that had
already borne the scars of the peoples’ 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
consultations 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).
3. The Divine power appears in the means whereby it was propagated.
{b71} (1.) 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
Alcoran in their brains, and robbed men of their goods to plant their
religion. But the apostles 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 possessions 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
government; 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
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 supernatural power
could conduct them in this attempt, with such weak methods in human
appearance.
(2.) Against all the force, power, and wit of the world. The
division in the eastern empire, and the feeble and consuming state of
the western, contributed to Mahomet’s success.[874] 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 published it, were not only without any
worldly prop, but exposed {b72} 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 its 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 sometime imitated them
at Rome, instead of abolishing them in the cities they had subdued.
But all their councils were assembled, and their force was bandied
“against the Lord, and against his Christ;” and that city that kindly
received all manner of superstitions, 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.