[2.] He will fill them with folly and giddiness; so taking away their counsel. Foolish and giddy undertakers do but conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble. " The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived ; they have also seduced Egypt. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof; and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit." Isa. xix. 13, 14. This he calls taking away the spirit of Egypt, and destroying the counsel thereof, verse 3. There is no means of ruin, destruction, and disappointment, that God doth more frequently threaten than this, — he will take wisdom from the wise, and then pour contempt upon the spirit of princes. When to their madness he adds blindness; to their fury, folly; to their rage, giddiness; — what can be the issue but such as is expressed: " They shall stagger like a drunken man in his vomit " ? Stand before him, and he'll pour his filth upon you ; let him alone, and he and it will quickly tumble to the ground. What, I pray, can be expected from mad, blind, furious, foolish, raging, giddy men ? Should a man use these expressions of any, it would be said he railed ; yet God hath spoken it, that all undertakers against him shall be so, and no other- wise. Now, hence ariseth upon the spirits of such men a twofold effect ; — first, they shall not be able to advise rationally against others ; nor, secondly, shall they be able to receive suitable advice from others. They shall be able neither to make out counsel to support them in the way wherein they are, nor to take in counsel for their reducing to better paths. If this were not evident in the late dispensation of the Lord towards poor creatures setting up themselves against the Lord, then never did any providence speak plain in any latter age.
214 HUMAN POWER DEFEATED.
[3.] He will fill them with fear and amazement; so taking away their courage. This God caused to fall upon a whole host at one time ; [so] that, without seeing an enemy, they ran and fled, and lost all they had, and the spoil, 2 Kings vii. 6, 7. And he threatens that in such a condition he will make men like women, — they shall be afraid and fear, Isa. xix. 16. Yea, this is the way of God's usual dealing; first, he overcomes the spirit of his enemies, and then their armies or force : and the Lord is magnified therein ; as is fully set out, Exod. xv. 1 4-1 6. The hearts and spirits of men are all in the hand of God ; he can pluck them in, or let them out, as seems good unto him ; make him that was mighty one day, the next day to be of no power: what is left of fury, folly shall devour ; and what is left of folly, fear shall consume ; and the purpose of the Lord shall be established.
[4.] If he have any favour for them, and so will not proceed in these ways of revenge against them, which would end in their speedy ruin; he will give them contrition and humility, so changing them. What a clear testimony of this did he give in the business of Jacob and Esau! Esau resolves and threatens his death upon the first opportunity, Gen. xxvii. 41 ; an opportunity is put into his hands by Jacob's return into Canaan, chap, xxxii. ; means of revenge he is ready furnished withal, and comes out, accordingly, with a band of cut-throats for the purpose, in the same chapter. What should any man now rationally expect, but that poor Jacob must certainly be ruined, and the mother slain with the children ? In an instant the Lord toucheth the heart of Esau, and all his menaces of revenge issue in tears and expressions of love and joy ! chap, xxxiii. 4. It is to be rejoiced in, that the stout hearts of some men are changed upon their disappoint- ment : and the issue of the mercy is no loss to you, to the nation, and themselves therein ; though truly to them it had been an argument of greater love, had the Lord graciously bent their spirits unto it before. But by his infinite wisdom he hath accomplished his holy will.
Now, in one, more, or all of these ways, will the Lord proceed with the mighty of heart, that set up themselves against him, until he take away their hearts, and make them useless; that, either willingly or unwillingly, " they shall yield themselves" even " to the spoil."
(2.) He will not only take away their hearts, but also their hands; he will not only dispirit them, but he will also disarm them ; he will take not only wisdom from their hearts, but the wheels from their chariots. He is the God of the power of men, as well as of the spirits of men. Will he continue power and strength unto men, to use it against him that gives it ?
Use 1. To discover the ground of God's late dispensation, in taking away the hearts from the stout and hands from the mighty, — bringing them into a condition of weakness and vanity. Their undertakings