No question, but the humihation of God's people bi'ought antichrist so much upon his knees, as he hath in Germany. God's people humbled themselves, and believed the threatenings against antichrist, and believed the promises of the church, and laboured to have faith suitable to God's pro- mises, suitable to God's threatenings ; and in that faith, as an exercise of it, pray to God, we shall see God make good all his ordinances, ' God will be terrible out of his holy place, and he will send help out of Sion.' Pray therefore for the church and against the enemies, and we shall quickly see an end of them. And therefore you have 2 Cor. x. 6, that speaking of the power of the ordinances of God, he saith in the 6th verse, ' God is in readiness to revenge all disobedience. 'f There is a power in the ordi- nances of God to kill men, to send men to hell. You think the words of the ordinances are wind, but they are not ; for as it is in Zech. i. 5, 6, ' the prophets be gone, and are dead, but their words are made good.' Whom we bind, God bindeth from heaven ; whom we loose, God looseth from heaven. If we threaten the judgments of God, and punishment upon swearers, or profane persons, or despisers of the ordinances, do you think it doth them no harm ? Beloved, they are struck, they be men under the sentence of damnation. They are not yet in hell, but the word hath damned them,
* Our version is, ' out of ' bis holy place : but this is not = outside of, but ' from < out.' The Hebrew is "TI^Ii>"^pQQ =^ e, ex, sanctuariis tuis. — G.
t Query — Is it not rather the Corinthians who are asked to bo thus ready, rot an affirmation that God is ready? The latter is true no doubt, but does not seem to be taught here. — G.
390 COMMENTAEY ON
the ordinance hatli clamncd them, they be slrnck men. There is a power in God's ordinances to bo revenged on the disobedience of men, when men will live in sins, threatened and condemned by the ministers. They go up and down like glorious men, but they be condemned and under sentence. There is but a step between them and hell. And they shall know one day God will make good every one of his threats in his ministry against their profane courses, though they make slight of it. No ! it shall not be made light oil", when God cometh to execute it ; when God shall come imme- diately from heaven, to execute the word he hath spoken mediately by the minister, as one day he will. What we speak mediately, he will immediately from heaven come to execute it. How will they shake ofl" that, ' Go, ye cursed, into everlasting tire' ? Mat. xxv. 41. You that have lived in sins against conscience, can you shake off that ? God is now palient to them, if his patience can win them, but can they shake off God's immediate peremptory sentence from heaven ? Oh no ! And therefore I beseech you, labour to bring your souls to obedience of the ordinances of God, for it is mighty to take vengeance of all obstinate sinners. Therefore take heed of living in sin, condemned by the ordinance ; for God w'ill make good every word that ho hath spoken.
The last thing I propounded in the words to shew us is, that God doth shew his power, and excellent power, by weak means, that it may appear by the disproportion that it is of God.
Doct. The point from hence is this, that God is wonderful curious,'^ as we may trith reverence speak; he is wonderful exact in this, that his glory may he advanced in all. And therefore he would have this carriage of things, that heavenly treasures should be carried in earthen vessels ; not gold, not silver, but earth, that the good done may not be attributed to the vessels, being so base, but to him. God's aims and our aims must concur. God aimeth at his own glory, and it is no pride in him, because there is none above him, whose glory he should seek. And therefore it is natural for God to do all for his own glory, as it is natural for him to be holy, because he is the first cause, and the last end, of all things. It is fit the first cause and last end of all things should have all the glory : ' Of him, and through him, are all things : therefore to him be all the glory,' Eom. xi. 36. It is God's prerogative. The grace is ours. He giveth grace to us, but the glory is his own, and his glory he will not part withal.
To make this clear. God takes all the course he doth in the govern- ment of the world, in the ministry and church, that it may appear that the glory is his in all things. Look to his providence in governing the world. Doth not he do great things sometimes without means, and some- times with poor weak means ? What be the blowing of rams' horns to the fall of ' the walls of Jericho' ? Josh. vi. 20. Was it not that it might appear that the falling of the walls was from God ? What was Gideon's ' pitchers with lamps ' for the confounding of the Midianites ? Judges vii. 19. What was a victory to an earthen pitcher ? So what is the light of the gospel to an ' earthen vessel ' ? Doth the virtue come from these ? No. God appointeth to us these means, that the glory and excellency of power may appear to be of him. The ministers are but Gideon's pitchers, with the light of the gospel in them. What was Shamgar's ' ox-goad ' to the slaying of so many ? Judges iii. 31 ; Samson's 'jaw-bone of an ass' to the slaying of so many Philistines ? Judges xv. 15. It was to shew that the * That is, ' careful.'— G.