[3.] All lesser errors, like the little foxes, are slain by this sword. Those that went greedily after Balaam and the doctrine of the Nico- laitans, what doth God say to them ? ' Repent, or I will come and fight against thee with the sword of my mouth,' Rev. ii. 16 ; that is, with his word. That is punishment enough, to detect their errors by the gospel. The sword is put for a powerful weapon ; the sword in the mouth showeth it was the word; God's appointing it to these great uses argueth there is a divine power in it.
Secondly, Private ; and that is to convert souls : Ps. xix. 7, ' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.' This is such a difficult work that it must needs require a divine power. That this may be of use to you, I shall show you what a difficult thing it is to convert a soul, there being so many obstacles and hindrances against it, and yet the word is the only fit instrument to overcome them.
1. There is Satan, who is strong. The devil hath great power to possess the hearts of wicked men ; he is said to ' work in the children of disobedience,' Eph. ii. 2. Those frequent possessions in Christ's time were a discovery of that spiritual thraldom in which the heart of man is engaged whilst in the service of the devil : 2 Tim. ii. 26, ' That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.' As violent tempests whirl things at their pleasure, so doth he our blinded understandings and crooked wills. We are taken of the devil in his snare, to be led about at his will and pleasure. Well, then, no power but that of God can set us free ; it must be by the mighty ministry of his arm. The strong man will hold fast till he be cast out by a stronger than he, Luke xi. 22. It is not so easy dispossessing the old man, and to turn from the power of Satan to the power of God.
2. The perverseness of man's heart. The chief hindrances there are these : —
[1.] Subtle evasions, crafty pretences, whereby to evade and escape the power of the word : Heb. iv. 12, ' Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.' The soul is that faculty wherein the affections do reside ; the spirit is the reasoning power ; it discovereth
208 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 1.
the closest affections of the heart, and the most secret plots and devices of the spirit ; it telleth the heart how it cleaveth to sin, and the mind how it plotteth pretences to hide it. The mind and spirit conspire together.
[2.] Crafty disputes and reasonings. There are great and many perverse debates in our hearts against the tilings of God ; therefore the apostle expresses the power of the word thus : 2 Cor. x. 5, ' Cast- ing down imaginations, and every liigh thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God ; and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' It demolisheth all carnal reason- ings, and convinceth of truth. Then —
[3.] Swelling lusts. To tame these, nay, to set up the work of grace instead of these, must needs argue a divine hand. It is a hard matter to break the course of any inclination, much more of a rooted affection ; to break the very course of nature ; to turn lions into lambs, as it is said, ' The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.' There shall be such a wonderful change, that the violence and turbulency of the affections shall be done away. To make the filthy and intemperate to become chaste and sober, and to make the proud to become humble, argueth the great power of God. Thus you see how it overcometh ditiiculties.
But now observe how powerfully and wonderfully the word worketh this. It is not by a fond conceit and opinion of it in the minds of men : ' The simple believeth every word,' as it is said in the Proverbs ; and some weak persons may be easily awed into a scrupulous fear. But, on the contrary —
(1.) It hath wrought upon them that have been cast upon it unawares, that looked for no such thing. The apostle saith of unbelievers: 1 Cor. xiv. 24, ' And there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned ; he is convinced of all, he is judged of all,' if he be by chance put upon the ordinances. Thus we read in the story of Austin and of Firmus, who, though they looked for nothing less, yet were wTOUght upon, and converted to God.
(2.) Those that came with a mind to despise the word have been won by it. The unbeliever that cometb in falleth down on his face, 1 Cor. xiv. 25. It may bring men that have wrong conceits of the ways of God on their tiices, and to say, ' God is in them of a truth.'