all these difficulties. Multitudes were prophesied of to embrace it;
whence the prophet Isaiah, after the prophecy of the death of Christ
(Isa. liii.), calls upon the church to enlarge her tents, and “lengthen
out her cords” to receive those multitudes of children that should call
her mother (Isa. liv. 2, 3); for she should “break forth on the right
hand and on the left, and her seed should inherit the Gentiles!” the
idolaters and persecutors should list their names in the muster‑roll of
the church. Presently, after the descent of the Holy Ghost from heaven
upon the apostles, you find the hearts of three thousand melted by a
plain declaration of this doctrine; who were a little before so far
from having a favorable thought of it, that some of them at least,
if not all, had expressed their rage against it, in voting for the
condemning and crucifying the Author of it (Acts ii. 41, 42): but in a
moment they were so altered, that they breathe out affections instead
of fury; neither the {b73} respect they had to their rulers, nor the
honor they bore to their priests; not the derisions of the people,
nor the threatening of punishment, could stop them from owning it in
the face of multitudes of discouragements. How wonderful is it that
they should so soon, and by such small means, pay a reverence to the
servants, who had none for the Master! that they should hear them
with patience, without the same clamor against them as against Christ,
“Crucify them, crucify them!” but, that their hearts should so suddenly
be inflamed with devotion to him dead, whom they so much abhorred when
living. It had gained footing not in a corner of the world, but in the
most famous cities; in Jerusalem, where Christ had been crucified; in
Antioch, where the name of Christians first began; in Corinth, a place
of ingenious arts; and Ephesus, the seat of a noted idol. In less
than twenty years, there was never a province of the Roman empire, and
scarce any part of the known world, but was stored with the professors
of it. Rome, that was the metropolis of the idolatrous world, had
multitudes of them sprinkled in every corner, whose “faith was spoken
of throughout the world” (Rom. i. 8). The court of Nero, that monster
of mankind, and the cruelest and sordidest tyrant that ever breathed,
was not empty of sincere votaries to it; there were “saints in Cæsar’s
house” while Paul was under Nero’s chain (Phil. iv.): and it maintained
its standing, and flourished in spite of all the force of hell, two
hundred and fifty years before any sovereign prince espoused it. The
potentates of the earth had conquered the lands of men, and subdued
their bodies; these vanquished hearts and wills, and brought the most
beloved thoughts under the yoke of Christ: so much did this doctrine
overmaster the consciences of its followers, that they rejoiced more
at their yoke, than others at their liberty; and counted it more a
glory to die for the honor of it, than to live in the profession of
it. Thus did our Saviour reign and gather subjects in the midst of his
enemies; in which respect, in the first discovery of the gospel, he is
described as “a mighty Conqueror” (Rev. vi. 2), and still conquering
in the greatness of his strength. How great a testimony of his power
is it, that from so small a cloud should rise so glorious a sun,
that should chase before it the darkness and power of hell; triumph
over the idolatry, superstition, and profaneness of the world! This
plain doctrine vanquished the obstinacy of the Jews, baffled the
understanding of the Greeks, humbled the pride of the grandees, threw
the devil not only out of bodies, but hearts; tore up the foundation
of his empire, and planted the cross, where the devil had for many
ages before established his standard. How much more than a human force
is illustrious in this whole conduct! Nothing in any age of the world
can parallel it: it being so much against the methods of nature, the
disposition of the world, and (considering the resistance against it)
seems to surmount even the works of creation. Never were there, in
any profession, such multitudes, not of bedlams, but men of sobriety,
acuteness, and wisdom, that exposed themselves to the fury of the
flames, and challenged death in the most terrifying shapes for the
honor of this doctrine. To conclude, this should be often meditated
upon to form our understandings to a {b74} full assent to the gospel,
and the truth of it; the want of which consideration of power, and
the customariness of an education in the outward profession of it, is
the ground of all the profaneness under it, and apostasy from it; the
disesteem of the truth it declares, and the neglect of the duties it
enjoins. The more we have a prospect and sense of the impressions of
Divine power in it, the more we shall have a reverence of the Divine
precepts.
III. The third thing is, the power of God appears in the application
of redemption, as well as in the Person redeeming, and the publication
and propagation of the doctrine of redemption: 1. In the planting grace.
2. In the pardon of sin. 3. In the preserving grace.
First, In the planting grace. There is no expression which the
Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this work
to, but argues the exerting of a Divine power for the effecting of it.
When it is expressed by light, it is as much as the power of God in the
creating the sun; when by regeneration, it is as much as the power of
God in forming an infant, and fashioning all the parts of a man; when
it is called resurrection, it is as much as the rearing of a body again
out of putrified matter; when it is called creation, it is as much as
erecting a comely world out of mere nothing, or an inform and uncomely
mass. As we could not contrive the death of Christ for our redemption,
so we cannot form our souls to the acceptation of it; the infinite
efficacy of grace is as necessary for the one, as the infinite wisdom
of God was for laying the platform of the other. It is by his power we
have whatsoever pertains to godliness as well as life (2 Pet. i. 3);
he puts his fingers upon the handle of the lock, and turns the heart
to what point he pleases; the action whereby he performs this, is
expressed by a word of force; “He hath snatched us from the power of
darkness:”[875] the action whereby it is performed manifests it. In
reference to this power, it is called creation, which is a production
from nothing; and conversion is a production from something more
incapable of that state, than mere nothing is of being. There is
greater distance between the terms of sin and righteousness, corruption
and grace, than between the terms of nothing and being; the greater
the distance is, the more power is required to the producing any thing.
As in miracles, the miracle is the greater, where the change is the
greater; and the change is the greater, where the distance is the
greater. As it was a more signal mark of power to change a dead man
to life, than to change a sick man to health; so that the change here
being from a term of a greater distance, is more powerful than the
creation of heaven and earth. Therefore, whereas creation is said to
be wrought by his hands, and the heavens by his fingers, or his word;
conversion is said to be wrought by his arm (Isa. liii. 1). In creation,
we had an earthly; by conversion, a heavenly state: in creation,
nothing is changed into something; in conversion, hell is transformed
into heaven, which is more than the turning nothing into a glorious
angel. In that thanksgiving of our Saviour, for the revelation of the
knowledge of himself to babes, the simple of the world, he gives {b75}
the title to his Father, of “Lord of heaven and earth” (Matt. xi. 5);
intimating it to be an act of his creative and preserving power; that
power whereby he formed heaven and earth, hath preserved the standing,
and governed the motions of all creatures from the beginning of the
world. It is resembled to the most magnificent act of divine power that
God ever put forth, viz. that “in the resurrection of our Saviour” (Eph.
i. 19); wherein there was more than an ordinary impression of might.
It is not so small a power as that whereby we speak with tongues, or
whereby Christ opened the mouths of the dumb, and the ears of the deaf,
or unloosed the cords of death from a person. It is not that power
whereby our Saviour wrought those stupendous miracles when he was in
the world: but that power which wrought a miracle that amazed the most
knowing angels, as well as ignorant man; the taking off the weight of
the sin of the world from our Saviour, and advancing him in his human
nature to rule over the angelic host, making him head of principalities
and powers; as much as to say, as great as all that power which is
displayed in our redemption, from the first foundation to the last
line in the superstructure. It is, therefore, often set forth with an
emphasis, as “Excellency of power” (2 Cor. iv. 7), and “Glorious power”
(2 Pet. i. 3): “to glory and virtue,” we translate it, but it is διὰ
δόξης, through glory and virtue, that is, by a glorious virtue or
strength.
The instrument whereby it is wrought, is dignified with the title of
power. The gospel which God useth in this great affair is called “The
power of God to salvation” (Rom. i. 16), and the “Rod of his strength”
(Ps. cx. 2); and the day of the gospel’s appearance in the heart is
emphatically called, “The day of power” (ver. 3); wherein he brings
down strong‑holds and towering imaginations. And, therefore, the angel
Gabriel, which name signifies the power of God, was always sent upon
those messages which concerned the gospel, as to Daniel, Zacharias,
Mary.[876] The gospel is the power of God in a way of instrumentality,
but the almightiness of God is the principal in a way of efficiency.
The gospel is the sceptre of Christ; but the power of Christ is the
mover of that sceptre. The gospel is not as a bare word spoken, and
proposing the thing; but as backed with a higher efficacy of grace;
as the sword doth instrumentally cut, but the arm that wields it gives
the blow, and makes it successful in the stroke. But this gospel is the
power of God, because he edgeth this by his own power, to surmount all
resistance, and vanquish the greatest malice of that man he designs to
work upon. The power of God is conspicuous,
1. In turning the heart of man against the strength of the
inclinations of nature. In the forming of man of the dust of the
ground; as the matter contributed nothing to the action whereby
God formed it, so it had no principle of resistance contrary to the
design of God; but in converting the heart, there is not only wanting
a principle of assistance from him in this work, but the whole strength
of corrupt nature is alarmed to combat against the power of his grace.
When the gospel is presented, the understanding is not only ignorant of
it, but the will perverse against it; the one doth not relish, and the
{b76} other doth not esteem, the excellency of the object. The carnal
wisdom in the mind contrives against it, and the rebellious will puts
the orders in execution against the counsel of God, which requires the
invincible power of God to enlighten the dark mind, to know what it
slights; and the fierce will, to embrace what it loathes. The stream of
nature cannot be turned, but by a power above nature; it is not all the
created power in heaven and earth can change a swine into a man, or a
venomous toad into an holy and illustrious angel. Yet this work is not
so great, in some respect, as the stilling the fierceness of nature,
the silencing the swelling waves in the heart, and the casting out
those brutish affections which are born and grow up with us. There
would be no, or far less, resistance in a mere animal, to be changed
into a creature of a higher rank, than there is in a natural man to
be turned into a serious Christian. There is in every natural man a
stoutness of heart, a stiff neck, unwillingness to good, forwardness
to evil; Infinite Power quells this stoutness, demolisheth these
strongholds, turns this wild ass in her course, and routs those armies
of turbulent nature against the grace of God. To stop the floods of the
sea is not such an act of power, as to turn the tide of the heart. This
power hath been employed upon every convert in the world; what would
you say, then, if you knew all the channels in which it hath run since
the days of Adam? If the alteration of one rocky heart into a pool of
water be a wonder of power, what then is the calming and sweetening
by his word those 144,000 of the tribes of Israel, and that numberless
multitude of all nations and people that shall stand “before the
throne” (Rev. vii. 9), which were all naturally so many raging seas?
Not one converted soul from Adam to the last that shall be in the end
of the world, but is a trophy of the Divine conquest. None were pure
volunteers, nor listed themselves in his service, till he put forth his
strong arm to draw them to him. No man’s understanding, but was chained
with darkness, and fond of it; no man but had corruption in his will,
which was dearer to him than anything else which could be proposed
for his true happiness. These things are most evident in Scripture and
experience.
2. As it is wrought against the inclinations of nature, so
against a multitude of corrupt habits rooted in the souls of men. A
distemper in its first invasion may more easily be cured, than when
it becomes chronical and inveterate. The strength of a disease, or
the complication of many, magnifies the power of the physician, and
efficacy of the medicine that tames and expels it. What power is that
which hath made men stoop, when natural habits have been grown giants
by custom; when the putrefaction of nature hath engendered a multitude
of worms; when the ulcers are many and deplorable; when many cords,
wherewith God would have bound the sinner, have been broken, and (like
Sampson) the wicked heart hath gloried in its strength, and grown more
proud, that it hath stood like a strong fort against those batteries,
under which others have fallen flat; every proud thought, every evil
habit captivated, serves for matter of triumph to the “power of God”
(2 Cor. x. 5). What resistance will a multitude of them make, when
one of them is enough {b77} to hold the faculty under its dominion,
and intercept its operations? So many customary habits, so many old
natures, so many different strengths added to nature, every one of
them standing as a barricado against the way of grace; all the errors
the understanding is possessed with, think the gospel folly; all the
vices the will is filled with, count it the fetter and band. Nothing so
contrary to man, as to be thought a fool; nothing so contrary to man,
as to enter into slavery. It is no easy matter to plant the cross of
Christ upon a heart guided by many principles against the truth of it,
and biased by a world of wickedness against the holiness of it. Nature
renders a man too feeble and indisposed, and custom renders a man more
weak and unwilling to change his hue (Jer. xiii. 23). To dispossess man
then of his self‑esteem and self‑excellency; to make room for God in
the heart, where there was none but for sin, as dear to him as himself;
to hurl down the pride of nature; to make stout imaginations stoop to
the cross; to make desires of self‑advancement sink into a zeal for the
glorifying of God, and an overruling design for his honor, is not to
be ascribed to any but an outstretched arm wielding the sword of the
Spirit. To have a heart full of the fear of God, that was just before
filled with a contempt of him; to have a sense of his power, an eye to
his glory, admiring thoughts of his wisdom, a faith in his truth, that
had lower thoughts of him and all his perfections, than he had of a
creature; to have a hatred of his habitual lusts, that had brought him
in much sensitive pleasure; to loath them as much as he loved them;
to cherish the duties he hated; to live by faith in, and obedience to,
the Redeemer, who was before so heartily under the conduct of Satan
and self; to chase the acts of sin from his members, and the pleasing
thoughts of sin from his mind; to make a stout wretch willingly fall
down, crawl upon the ground, and adore that Saviour whom before he
out‑dared, is a triumphant act of Infinite Power that can subdue all
things to itself, and break those multitudes of locks and bolts that
were upon us.
3. Against a multitude of temptations and interests. The temptations
rich men have in this world are so numerous and strong, that the
entrance of one of them into the kingdom of heaven, that is, the
entertainment of the gospel, is made by our Saviour an impossible thing
with men, and procurable only by the power of God (Luke xviii. 24‒26).
The Divine strength only can separate the world from the heart, and the
heart from the world. There must be an incomprehensible power to chase
away the devil, that had so long, so strong a footing in the affections;
to render the soil he had sown with so many tares and weeds, capable
of good grain; to make spirits, that had found the sweetness of worldly
prosperity, wrapt up all their happiness in it, and not only bent down,
but――as it were――buried in earth and mud, to be loosened from those
beloved cords, to disrelish the earth for a crucified Christ; I say,
this must be the effect of an almighty power.
4. The manner of conversion shews no less the power of God. There is
not only an irresistible force used in it, but an agreeable sweetness.
The power is so efficacious, that nothing can vanquish it; and so sweet,
that none did ever complain of it. The Almighty {b78} virtue displays
itself invincibly, yet without constraint; compelling the will without
offering violence to it, and making it cease to be will: not forcing it,
but changing it: not dragging it, but drawing it; making it will where
before it nilled; removing the corrupt nature of the will, without
invading the created nature and rights of the faculty; not working in
us against the physical nature of the will, but working it “to will”
(Phil. ii. 13). This work is therefore called creation, resurrection,
to shew its irresistible power; it is called illumination, persuasion,
drawing, to shew the suitableness of its efficacy to the nature of
the human faculties: it is a drawing with cords, which testifies
an invincible strength; but, with cords of love, which testifies
a delightful conquest. It is hard to determine whether it be more
powerful than sweet, or more sweet than powerful. It is no mean part
of the power of God to twist together victory and pleasure; to give
a blow as delightful as strong, as pleasing to the sufferer, as it is
sharp to the sinner.
Secondly, The power of God, in the application of redemption, is
evident in the pardoning a sinner.
1. In the pardon itself. The power of God is made the ground of
his patience; or the reason why he is patient, is, because he would
“shew his power” (Rom. ix. 22). It is a part of magnanimity to pass by
injuries: as weaker stomachs cannot concoct the tougher food, so weak
minds cannot digest the harder injuries: he that passes over a wrong is
superior to his adversary that does it. When God speaks of his own name
as merciful, he speaks first of himself as powerful (Exod. xxxiv. 6),
“The Lord, The Lord God,” that is, The Lord, the strong Lord, Jehovah,
the strong Jehovah. Let the power of my Lord be great, saith Moses,
when he prays for the forgiveness of the people:[877] the word _jigdal_
is written with a great _jod_, or a _jod_ above the other letters.
The power of God in pardoning is advanced beyond an ordinary strain,
beyond the creative strength. In the creation, he had power over the
creatures; in this, power over himself: in creation, not himself, but
the creatures were the object of his power; in that, no attribute of
his nature could article against his design. In the pardon of a sinner,
after many overtures made to him and refused by him, God exerciseth a
power over himself; for the sinner hath dishonored God, provoked his
justice, abused his goodness, done injury to all those attributes which
are necessary to his relief: it was not so in creation, nothing was
incapable of disobliging God from bringing it into being. The dust,
which was the matter of Adam’s body, needed only the extrinsic power
of God to form it into a man, and inspire it with a living soul: it
had not rendered itself obnoxious to Divine justice, nor was capable to
excite any disputes between his perfections. But after the entrance of
sin, and the merit of death, thereby there was a resistance in justice
to the free remission of man: God was to exercise a power over himself,
to answer his justice, and pardon the sinner; as well as a power over
the creature, to reduce the run away and rebel. Unless we have recourse
to the infiniteness of God’s power, the infiniteness of our guilt will
weigh us down: we must consider not only that we {b79} have a mighty
guilt to press us, but a mighty God to relieve us. In the same act of
his being our righteousness, he is our strength: “In the Lord have I
righteousness and strength” (Isa. xlv. 24).
2. In the sense of pardon. When the soul hath been wounded with the
sense of sin, and its iniquities have stared it in the face, the
raising the soul from a despairing condition, and lifting it above
those waters which terrified it, to cast the light of comfort, as well
as the light of grace, into a heart covered with more than an Egyptian
darkness, is an act of his infinite and creating power (Isa. lvii. 19);
“I create the fruit of the lips; Peace.” Men may wear out their lips
with numbering up the promises of grace and arguments of peace, but
all will signify no more, without a creative power, than if all men and
angels should call to that white upon the wall to shine as splendidly
as the sun. God only can create Jerusalem, and every child of Jerusalem
a rejoicing (Isa. xlv. 18). A man is no more able to apply to himself
any word of comfort, under the sense of sin, than he is able to convert
himself, and turn the proposals of the word into gracious affections in
his heart. To restore the joy of salvation, is, in David’s judgment, an
act of sovereign power, equal to that of creating a clean heart (Ps. li.
10, 12). Alas! it is a state like to that of death; as infinite power
can only raise from natural death, so from a spiritual death; also from
a comfortless death: “In his favor there is life;” in the want of his
favor there is death. The power of God hath so placed light in the sun,
that all creatures in the world, all the torches upon earth, kindled
together, cannot make it day, if that doth not rise; so all the angels
in heaven, and men upon earth, are not competent chirurgeons for a
wounded spirit. The cure of our spiritual ulcers, and the pouring in
balm, is an act of sovereign creative power: it is more visible in
silencing a tempestuous conscience than the power of our Saviour was
in the stilling the stormy winds and the roaring waves. As none but
infinite power can remove the guilt of sin, so none but infinite power
can remove the despairing sense of it.