So you see what manner of worker God is in the creation, although independent, that can do all things at a word, with ease, without influence, without help. He dependeth not on matter as we do, that can do nothing without matter and subject to work upon, but he can work his own matter, can raise things out of nothing.
Use. And it is very observable, /«/• to help 21s in the dealiiu/s of our lives, to have such a conceit''^' of God that ive should not limit God in our thoughts ; when we are in any extremity to tie him to this thing or to that thing. He can make matter out of nothing. Why should we limit the unlimited God, and so hinder our own comfort ? Therefore we should infer hence, that God commandeth light to shine out of darkness. Observe that, when we be in dark conditions, and dark in sin, whatsoever sin and dark conditions we are in, as Isa. xlv. 7, ' I the Lord create light out of darkness,' that is, out of a darksome condition. Now light is taken for a comfortable con- dition, Esther viii. IG. When we be in any dark condition, limit not God. He is an independent worker. Question not how this may be and that may be. We must not bring God within the compass of our conceits and reasons. God is not as man ; and therefore whatsoever our condition be, let us never limit God. God's people should never be better, the times were never worse. Where we be bad, God is good. Times are bad, God is good. He can alter all. When there is no hope of escaping, no likely issue, God can make it good. In the hardships, the exigencies of the soul, God takes occasion to shew the glory of his power, as Isa. iv. 5, God, saith he, ' created a pillar of fire, to go before the Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan.' If we want any comfort in any condition, being in covenant with such a God, if we be his children, he can create light, and can make a pillar of fire to go before his people to bring them to Canaan. See what the apostle saith, 2 Cor. i. 3, ' He is the God of all consolations ;' not of this or that consolation, but the God of all consolations ; that if we want he can work good out of the contrary, light out of darkness ; he can draw matter of comfort out of discomfort ; he can make every condition serve to his own ends ; he can make ' all things work together for the good of his children,' Rom. viii. 28. The greater the power of this great God is, the greater is our comfort. W^e serve a Gpd that can ' command light to shine out of darkness,' and shall we despair ill any condition whatsoever? He can give rest without sleep, and strength without meat. He cannot be limited. Therefore let us not limit him.
Use 2. So again, for the state of the church, whatsoever condition it is in,
consider the creation. ' God commands light to shine out of darkness.' The
church being in dai'kness, God can command the light presently to shine
out of darkness, as in Esther's time, Esther vi. 3, seq. What terrible dark-
* That is, ' couceptijn.' — G.
318 COMMENTARY ON
ness was the church in, when Haman was commanded to destroy all the Jews ! and what a terrible case was the church in in Egypt and Babylon ! In a most darksome condition ; and yet God brought light out of darkness, as in Esther's time.
And so of latter times ; a little before Luther's time, was not the church brought low, so that darkness overspread the world ? and cannot God raise up the blessed light of the truth ? And also of latter times, look but the last year,'"' in what a dark condition the church was. But God begins to do for his church again. Who would have thought this the other year, when the enemy began to be so insolent ? But God can fetch Cyrus from the east and from the noi-th to help his people, Isa. xliv. 28 ; xlv. 1. God can fetch a man from the north, from this place and that place, to help his church. Therefore in no condition of the church despair ; for we are in covenant with God, that can ' command light out of darkness.' ' He that is in darkness, and hath no light,' let him trust in the name of his God, Isa. 1. 10. We must cast anchor at midnight, and trust in the midst of darkness. We see darkness is hideous, yet a little spark of light doth banish it, and overcome it, as a little rotten wood expelleth it in some measure, that hath shining in it. Now, beloved, is this darkness in the v.'orld, this lower darkness, driven away by a spark of light in some proportion ? and shall not we think that great Light, the Father of Hghts, God, when he shines on the soul, will quickly banish away all darkness ? It must needs be so.
Use 3. This may help us likewise for time to come. Great things are promised for time to come. We must help ourselves by this former work of creation. God that ' commanded light to shine out of darkness' will restore the Jews his ancient people again. St Paul calleth it the resurrec- tion from the dead, Kom. xi. 15. It shall be a raising from the dead, as it were. He that ' commanded light to shine out of darkness' can do it, and will do it. He that did make all things out of nothing, can cause that that which is less, a resurrection. And so the fulness of the Gentiles, they be now in darkness, and in the shadow of death. What pitiful darkness are the East and West Indies in, and many of the southern countries, that serve the devil, not God ? Better times are coming. The converting of the Gentiles will come, and in due time we may expect that the ' man of sin' shall be laid flat in the dust. Babylon shall fall. It is fallen exceed- ingly much, specially in the hearts of the people, which is the way to the last fall ; but antichrist must fall together,-)- and then the church will be glorious, Eev. xiv. 8. He that made all things out of nothing, can make great things out of nothing. He that made of nothing glorious things, can make glorious things nothing. It is the same power to annihilate that it is to create. God, that made all things out of nothing, can bring all things to nothing. God will consume, and blast, and blow upon that ' man of sin.' Jehovah is mightj', and doth mightil3^ Therefore the vast world shall be consumed ere long. Comfort yourselves therefore with these things from hence, that God that made all things of nothing, can turn those things that are into nothing again.