tempests the church will stand fast, because it stands upon a rock, Ps. cxxix. 2. God is on Zion's side, and the enemies of Zion must first pre- vail against Zion's God before they can prevail over Zion herself. Zion's God will be a wall of fire about her, and therefore Zion's enemies shall never prevail over her, Zech. ii. 5 ; Deut. xxxiii. 26-29, Were Zion's shelter stones, these might be battered ; were it walls of lead, these might be melted ; were it a defence of waters, these might be dried up ; were it garrisons of mighty men, these might be scattered ; were it engines of war, these might be defeated ; were it trenches, these might be stopped ; were it bulwarks, these might be overthrown ; but Zion is guarded with a wall of fire round about her, and therefore all her opposers can never prevail over her. The enemies of Zion are weak enemies, they are infatuated enemies, they are conquered enemies, they are limited enemies, they are chained enemies, they are cursed enemies, and they are naked enemies, and therefore they shall never be prevalent enemies over Zion, 2 Chron. xxxii. 7, 8 ; Kom. viii. 37 ; Gen. iii. 12 ; Num. xiv. 9. Pharaoh followed the Israelites, but he and his mighty men were drowned, and Israel delivered, for God was with them, Exod. xiv. Saul hunted David as a partridge in the mountains, 1 Sam. xxvi. 20, but Saul perisheth, and David was crowned, for God was with him. Haman hated Mordecai and plotted against Mordecai, but Haman is hanged and Mordecai advanced, for God was with him, Esth. vi. 7. The presidents and princes inform against Daniel and plot against Daniel, but they are by the lions torn and devoured, and Daniel is delivered and exalted, for God was with him, Dan. vi. Herod kills James with the sword and imprisons Peter, but Herod is devoured by worms, and Peter is delivered out of prison by an angel, for God was with him, Acts xii. Let atheists, papists, and persecutors cease from plotting against Zion, from persecuting of Zion, for it is utterly impossible to prevail against Zion. Let all Zion's adversaries remember once for all that if any policy, counsel, lying, cursing, strength, or cruelty could have prevailed against Zion, Zion had been rooted out of the world long ago. If Balaam was at our enemies' elbows he would tell them roundly and plainly, that it is ' in vg,in to curse those whom God blesseth,' Num. xxiii. 8. ' It is hard to kick against the pricks,' Acts ix. 5. It is high madness for men to run their naked bodies against a sword's point. Let Zion's enemies re- member that God, who takes pleasure in Zion, sits upon the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants are as grasshoppers ; yea, all the nations as a drop of a bucket, and less than the dust of the balance, Isa. xl. 12, 15, 17, and therefore he can easily revenge all the wrongs and injuries that is done to Zion by those that would fain prevail over her, and triumph in her ruin.i But,
[3.] Thirdly, ' If God be with us, who can be against us?' I an- swer. None can be so against us as to he able to separate us from the love of God and the love of Christ : Kom. viii. 35, ' Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distresses, or perse-
^ Some observe that Paul's style is so beautified with wonderful eloquence and rhetoric, that not Tully nor Demosthenes could ever have so spoken. — Augustine, Erasmus. Some report of Augustine that he wished for three things: (1.) To see Christ in the flesh ; (2.) To see Rome in the pride of it ; (3.) To have heard Paul preach.
496 THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
cution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' Ver. 36, 'As it is written, For thy sake are we killed all the day long : we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Ver. 37, ' Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.' Ver. 38, ' For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,' — ver. 39, — ' nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.' It is not the pleasures of life nor the pains of death, it is not evils felt nor evils feared, it is not the height of prosperity nor the depth of adversity, it is not bonds nor banishment, it is not power nor policy, honour nor baseness, it is not violent persecutions nor multiplied tribulations, it is not the scorns of men, nor reproaches of men, nor revilings of men, nor designs of men, nor anything else, that can separate us from the love of the Father or the love of the Son. In the 35th ver. is a position that no crosses nor creatures can deprive us of the love of God, which is set down in a double interrogation, that he might add the more force and life to it and ravish the readers : ' Who shall separate us ?' That is, none can. But he speaks with contempt ; ' Who shall ? shall tribulation ? ' as if he should say, I scorn it. As Goliath defied David, saying, ' Dost thou come to me with a staff ?' so Paul with a better spirit defies all crosses, sufferings, trials, &c., as things not able to deprive sincere Christians of Christ's love ; ' shall tribulation,' &c. He had before spoken of persons, now here he speaks of things, because Satan and his sworn slaves think by such things to separate between God and his people. Chrysostom observes Paul's wisdom in three things. (1.) That he saith not. Shall the love of riches, pleasures, honours, &c., which have a mighty force in them to bewitch us ; but ' shall tribulation, distress,' &c. (2.) That he begins with the lighter, and so riseth to greater troubles, placing them in this order, not casually, but by singular art. (3.) That though these which he here rehearseth consist of a certain number, yet every one as a general hath special troops under it : as when he saith tribulation, he saith imprisonments, bonds, slanders, banishments, &c. ' Shall tribulation, distress, persecution,' &c.? No. They are ' blessed which endure these things,' Mat. v. 10, 11. Shall famine ? He which feeds on Christ shall never perish for hunger. Shall nakedness ? Christ's righteousness is my clothing; I shall willingly follow him even naked ; who when he was clothed with infinite glory as with a garment was content to be born naked and to be stripped on the cross for my sake. Shall peril ? I know the hardest. Shall the sword ? Christ is to me in life and death advantage. But,
[4.] Fourthly, ' If God be for us, who can be against us ?' I an- swer. None can be against us so, as to bring us to their how, their heck, their luill, their humour, their lusts: 1 Kings xix. 18, ' Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him;'i that is, I have many thousands that have not worshipped Baal. Here a set num- ber is put for an indefinite number ; he means a very great number.