1. Chamber which comes to be opened as a refuge to distressed behevers in a stormy day, is that most secure and safe attribute of Divine Power : into this let us first enter by serious and beheving meditation, and see how safe they are whom God hides under the protection thereof, in the worst and most dangerous days. In opening this attribute, we shall consider it,
1. In its own nature and properties.
2. With respect to the promises.
3. As it is actuated by providence in the behalf of distressed saints.
And then give you a comfortable prospect of their safe and happy condition, who take up their lodgings by faith in this attribute of God.
1. Let us consider the power of God in itself, and we shall find it represented to us in the scriptures, in these three lovely proper- ties, viz.
1. As an omnipotent and all-sufficient power, which hath no
THE niGIlTEOUS MAN's IlEFUGE. 345
bounds or limits but the pleasure and will of God, Dan. iv. 34, 35. " He doth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and " among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stav his hand, " or say unto him, Wliat dost thou ?'' So Psal. cxxxv. 6. " What- *' soever the Lord pleased that did he, in heaven, ainl in earth, in " the seas, and in all deep places." You see Divine pleasure is the only rule according to which Divine Power exerts itself in the world ; we are not therefore to limit and restrain it in our narrow and shallow thoughts, and to think in this, or in that, the j)o\\er of God may help or secure us ; but to believe that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Thus those worthies, Dan. iii. 17. by faith exalted the power of God above the order and common rule of second causes. " Our God *' vvhom we serve is able to deliver us from tlie burning fiery fur- " nace, and he will dehver us out of thine hand, O king." Their faith resting itself upon the omnipotent power of God, expected deliverance from it in an extraordinary way; it is true, this is no standing rule for our faith ordinarily to work by ; nor have we ground to expect such miraculous salvations, but yet when extraor- dinary difficulties press us, and the common ways and means of deliverance are shut up, we ought by faith to exalt the omnipotency of God, by ascribing the glory thereof to him, and leave ourselves to his good pleasure, without straitening or narrowing his Almighty Power, according to the mould of our poor, low thoughts and ap- prehensions of it : for so the Lord himself directeth our faith in difficult cases, Isa. Iv. 8, 9. " For my thoughts are not your " thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord ; for " as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher " than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." He speaks there of his pardoning mercy, which he will not have his people to contract and hmit according to the model and platform of their own desponding, misgiving, and unbelieving thoughts ; but to exalt and glorify it, according to its unbounded fulness ; as it is in tlie thoughts of God, the fountain of that mercy ; so it ought to be with respect to his power, about which his thoughts and ours do vastly differ ; the power of God as we cast in the mould of our thoughts, is as vastly different and disproportionate from what it is in the thoughts of God the fountain thereof, as the earth is to the heavens, which is but a small inconsiderable point compared with them.
2. The power of God is a supreme and sovereign power, from which all creature-power is derived, and by which it is over-ruled, restrained, and limited at his pleasure. Nebuchadnezzar was a great monarch, he ruled over other kings, yet he lield his king- dom from God ; it was God that placed not only the crown upon
346 THE RIGHTEOUS MAN's REFTTGE.
his head, but his head upon his shoulders, Dan. ii. 37. " Thou, O " king, art a king of kings ; for the God of heaven hath given " thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory." Hence it fol- lows, that no creature can move tongue or hand against any of God's people, but by virtue of a commission or permission from their God, albeit they think not so. Knoivest thou not^ saith Pilate unto Christ, that I have power to crucify thee, cmd power to release thee? Proud worm ! what an ig-norant and insolent boast was this of his own power ! and how doth Christ spoil and shame it in his answer ? John xix. 11. Thou couldest have no power at all against me, ex- cept it were given thee from above.
Wicked men, like wild horscF, would run over and trample under foot all the people of God in the world, were it not that the bridle of Divine Providence had a strong curb to restrain them : Ezek. xxii. 6. " The princes of Israel every one were in " thee, to their power to shed blood.*" And it was well foi' God's Israel that their power was not as large as their wills were ; this world is a raging and boisterous sea, which sorely tosses the pas- sengers for heaven that sail upon it, but this is their comfort and security : " The Lord stilleth the noise of the sea, the noise of the " waves, and the tumult of the people,'' Psal. Ixv. 7. Moral, as well as natural waves, are checked and bounded by Divine power. " Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the re- " mainder of wrath thou shalt restrain,'' Psal. Ixxvi. 10. As a man turns so much water into the channel as will drive the mill, and turns away the rest into another sluice.
Yea, not ordy the power of man, but the power of devils also is under the restraint and limitation of this power. Rev. iii. 10. " Sa- " tan shall cast som.eofyou into prison, and ye shall have tribulation " ten days." He would have cast them into their graves, yea, into hell if he could, but it must be only into a prison : He would have kept them in prison till they had died and rotted there, but it must be only for ten days. Oh glorious sovereign power ! which thus keeps the reins of government in its own hand !
3. The power of God is an everlasting power ; time doth not weaken or diminish it, as it doth all creature-powers, Isa. xl. 28. " The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, " neither is weary," Isa. lix. 1. " The Lord's hand is not shorten- " ed," i. e. He hath as much power now as ever he had, and can do for his people as much as ever he did ; time will decay the power of the strongest creature, and make him faint and feeble ; but the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not. " Thou (saith the Psalmist) abideth for ever, thy years flee not," Psal. cii. 27. In God's working there is no expence of his strength, he is able to do as much for his church now as ever he did, to act over-
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