(4.) Consider how angry God hath been with his children for not resting upon his power. Nothing hath hindered the discovery of God's power and the manifestation of his love to them so much as distrust of his power : Mark vi. 5, ' He could there do no mighty work.' It is not said, he would not, but he could not do any miglity works there, because of their unbelief. Unbelief dolh put a bar and rub in the way
VeR. 27.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 91
of God's omnipoteucj ; and John xi. 40, 'If thou wonldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.' God doth not put forth hiniselt' because we do no more rest upon him and his all-sufficiency to help us. See how angry God hath been on this account with his own chiklren and people ; with Moses and Aaron : Mat. xx. 12, ' Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.' The believing of God's power is not determining the success, but when we encourage ourselves to pray and wait, and to be sincere and faithful upon the account of God's power, that God is able. Many troubles and perplexities have befallen God's children for not believing his power. Zacharias, John's father, was struck dumb for not believing : Luke i. 20, ' Behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.' And God let the noble- man live to see himself confuted, and then he was crushed to death: 2 Kings vii. 2, ' Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Beliold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt sec it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof,'
(5.) Consider it is a notable argument in prayer to conjure the Lord by his power. As the leper comes to Christ, Mat. viii. 2, ' Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean ; ' do what thou wilt, but this I know, that thou canst, thou hast power enough. See how Moses insin- uates : Num. xiv. 15, 16, 'Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying. Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the w^ilderness ; ' as if he should say. Lord, thou wouldst have the glory of thy power seen in the eyes of the nations, that they may know thee as a mighty powerful God ; now they will say, The Lord was not able to bring them into Canaan.
(6.) All our courage, and all the strength of our comfort and obedience, and all the blessings of obedience^ depends upon the be- lief and the improvement of God's power. Look into the book of God, and you shall see all the generous acts that worthy men have performed came from hence. Abraham, the father of the faithful, oftered up his son, his only son, the son of the promise, and that freely ; and why ? ' Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure,' Heb. xi. 19. In such a trial, what would support and bear us out ? So when the fiery furnace was heated seven times hotter than ordinary, burning and flaming exceedingly, the three children ventured into it upon this principle, ' Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, 0 king,' Dan. iii. 17. What is the reason we are so cowardly and dastardly ? We look to things sensible and visible, and cannot set the power of God against it or above them, and consider how he can bring good out of evil, and so carnal fears and hopes draw us aside. "Why are we discouraged, and turn from God in difficult cases rather than in easy cases, but that we do not believe that he can do all things ?
92 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. XV.
Paul believed, therefore in the face of opposition he goes on in his work imweariedly : 1 Tim. iv. 10, ' Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe/ This made him in the midst of reproaches and all manner of difficulties to go on with courage.
(7) When we run to carnal shifts because we cannot trust this power of God, then we engage his strength, that should be for us, against us, and it is just with God to blast us. Jonah runs from his work, and God sends a storm after him. Jonah was afraid of the Ninevites, but mischief will sooner or latter overtake them that run from their duty, and they have worse inconveniences by their own shifts. Jacob would get the blessing by a wile, but that cost him dear ; he was banished from his father's house upon it, lest Esau should kill him. Indirect courses will certainly prove a loss ; though you may obtain your purpose, yet you plunge yourselves into greater difficulties afterward, and obtain your desires with more trouble than if you had waited upon God.