And, therefore, if at any time you have a distrusting heart to look to the creature, he withdraweth his strength, and then we are at a loss, and fall, and die ; because we work not our own salvation. We are given to seLf- sufliciency and self-dependency, and therefore God oftentimes blasts our endeavours. ' Blessed is the man that feareth alwaj^s,' Prov. xxviii. 14, not with a fear of distrust, but a fear of jealousy. Oh this fear of jealousy ! We have false hearts, ready to trust in the creature, in wits, in friends. But all that be God's children must have this fear of jealousy, to make an end of salvation with fear and trembling, for God worketh both the will and the deed. He giveth a power according to his good pleasure, and can suspend it when he list.* So much shall serve for the unfolding of this verse, which I did specially intend ; the other verses are but an application of this, ' We are troubled on every side, but not distressed,' &c.
VERSES 7-9.
That the exceUency of the power may he of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, hut not in despair ; persecuted, yet not forsaken ; cast doicn, hut not destroyed.
I have spoken largely of the verse before, wherein you may remember that the apostle might take away all suspicion of arrogancy in taking too much upon himself, he saith, ' We carry treasures but in earthen vessels.' The end of which dispensation of God is, * that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of man.' There we shewed there is a ' power,' and an * excellent power' in the ordinance of God. And that this is of God, and exclusively, not of us. All which we have propounded at large.
We shewed, there is a blessed presence of God and of his power, and sweetness, and goodness, in all his ordinances. He distilleth and conveyeth whatsoever is in his Father's breast to us by his ordinjfnce. He doth good to us by men like ourselves. As the devil conveyeth all his mischief by men unto men, so God conveyeth all his good by men to men. But they are but the conduits, for the virtue and excellency of the power is of God. * That is, ' chooseth.'— G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VF.-R. 7-9. 395
Things otherwise seeming alike diflfer in regard of virtue, as cold water differs from hot water. They differ not in colour but in virtue. It is the Spirit of God that accompanieth his ordinance, that giveth power, and virtue, and efficacy to it. For the ministers of the gospel are ministers, and no more nor no less, to be regarded as ministers and no farther. To regard them more is to make idols of them ; to deny* them less is to deny them due right. This should stir up a wonderful care of diligence in all the ways and courses that God hath sanctified to convey grace by. They that be God's children love God's presence wheresoever they find it ; and because God vouchsafeth his presence in his ordinance, therefore they regard it, and remember always to give the glory of all to God. For the power and excellency is of God, and not of us. * Why gaze ye on us, as if we by our own power had cured the man?' Acts iii. 12. It is not from man, but from God.
Now to come to the 8th verse, ' We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; we are perplexed,' &c.
The apostle's words have an elegant antithesis of things seeming contrary. * We are perplexed, not in despair ; persecuted, not forsaken ; cast off, but not destroyed.' There is a kind of elegancy in the dispensation of God. And this serveth to the former argument to shew that we carry these treasures in ' earthen vessels.' That we should not despise the earthen vessels because they be weak, he sets down what befalls them in the world, and how God supports and giveth supply of comforts suitable to the distress. He grants * we be troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; perplexed, but not in despair.' Those that are to deal with enemies, and are to pre- vent objections, they must grant the worst that may be granted, that so they may make their apologyf better. Saint Paul freely granteth all that can be objected by any that look on the outside of the professors and ministers of the gospel. I grant these fall out, and yet it must be granted God hath a special care likewise, as you shall see in the unfolding of the words, which we will particularly go over, and then jointly raise out of them some observations.
' We are troubled on every side,' The word signifieth pressed, '^Xi(36- fisvoi, but yel not oppressed. God suffers his children to be pressed. Afflictions, they are the wine-press of God, to press out of them all that is good, to the view and taste of others. They have liquor in them, but it is not tasted of, but by pressure. For the most part spices relish not, savour not, unless they be beaten. So it is with grapes unless they be pressed. The works the enemies of the church do to the children of God, is to press the ill that is in them, and to press out the ill that is in themselves. For at the same time they press out by trouble, and disgraceful usage, better men than themselves, at the same time they press out and make apparent their own mahce and poison. So that afflictions are discoveries of their evil, and of good men's good. And it is helpful for the church, that there be both, that all men may be known, and the thoughts of men discovered; and that the graces of the good may be also manifested. And therefore he saith, ' We be troubled or pressed on every side.'