(2.) Besides, even when they do prevail, it is but over part only, not over the whole. They prevail over persons, it may be, not over the cause : that stands impregnable. They prevail over men's lives, perhaps, but not over their spirits, which is that they chiefly aim at. A true Christian conquers when he is conquered. Stephen prevailed over his enemies when they seemed to prevail over him. God put glory upon him, and a spirit of glory into him, Acts vii.
(3.) The church's enemies may prevail in some place, but then, as the sea, they lose in another. The more they cut down God's people, as Pharaoh did the Israelites, the more they multiply ; and the more they are kept straight,! the more they spread and are enlarged. God suffers the enemies of his trath to prevail, in some passages, to harden their hearts the more for destruction, as Pharaoh prevailed in oppressiag the Israelites,
* This is one of only two notices of the Jews, that are found in the vohiminous works of Cicero. It occurs in Orat. Pro L. Flacco, c. 28. As Sibbes rather para- phrases than translates, the true and vivid original may be given : — '. . . . Nuncvero hoc magis, quod ilia gens, quid de imperio, nostro sentiret ostendit armis ; quam cara Diis immortalibus esset, docuit, quod est victa, quod elocata, quod servata.' — G.
t Qu. ' strait ?'— Ed.
304 THE saint's safety in evil times.
and Herod in killing John, &c. But yet, lay the beginning and the end together, and then we shall see they prevailed not, and so far as they did prevail, it tended only to hasten their own ruin, because the present success lifts up the heart. We see antichrist prevailed, but spiritually, only over those ' whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of hfe,' Rev. xiii. 7, and outwardly over the saints ; for so it was prefixed, Rev, xviii. 24, that he should viake war with the saints, and overcome them : and this was ob- jected as a fiery dart against the Christians in those times, that therefore they might think their cause naught, because they were so prevailed over ;* but they, by help of the Spirit of God, understood so much of the Revelation as concerned themselves, and used this as a weapon, confessing that they were the conquered people of God, but yet the people of God still. But the chief stay and satisfaction of the soul herein, is to look to the day of the righteous judgment of God, when we shall see all promises performed, all threatenings executed, and all enemies trodden for ever under Christ and his church's feet.
Use 1. This is a point of marvellous comfort, when Israel can say, * They have afflicted me from my youth, but yet they have not prevailed over me,' Ps. cxxix. 1. The gates of hell may set themselves against the church, but shall not prevail. The church is not ruled by man's counsel. We neither live nor die at man's appointment. Our Uves are not in our own hands, or Satan's, or oitr enemies', but in God's. They can do no more, they shall do no less, than God will, who is our life, and the length of our days. God may give way a while, that the ' thoughts of many may be revealed,' Luke ii. 35, and that his glory may shine the more in raising his children, and confounding his enemies ; but he will put a period in his due time, and that is the best time. There is a day of Jacob's trouble, when his enemies say, ' This is Sion, whom none regards,' Jer. xxx. 7 ; but God sets bounds both to the time of his children's trouble, and to the malice of the wicked. ' Their rod shall not rest over- long upon the back of the righteous,' Ps. cxxv. 3. God will put a hook into the nostrils of these leviathans, and draw them which way he pleaseth.
Use 2. Again, we see here that mischievous attempts are successless in the end ; for did ever any harden themseWes against God and prosper long ? Let Cain speak, let Pharaoh, Haman, Ahithophel, Herod ; let the persecutors of the church for the first two hundred years ; let all that ever bore ill-will towards Sion, speak, and they will confess they didj but kick against the pricks, and dash against the rocks. The greatest torment of the damned spirit is, that God turns all his plots for the good of those he hates most. He tempted man to desire to become like God, Gen iii. 5, that so he might ruin him ; but God became man, and so restored him. God serveth him- self of this archpolitician and all his instruments ; they are but executioners of God's will while they rush against it. Joseph's brethren sold him that they might not worship him, and that was the very means whereby they came at length to worship him. God delights to take the oppressed party's part. Wicked men cannot do God's children a greater pleasure than to oppose them, for by this means they help to advance them.
Why wicked plots iniscarry. The ground of the miscarriage of wicked plots is, that Satan and his, maintain a damned cause, and their plots are under a curse. Every one that prays, ' Thy kingdom come,' prays by con- pequence against them as opposers of it ; and how can the men and plots of so many curses but miscarry, and prove but as the imtimely fruit of a