any respect contributed to his success ; no, nor yet the light which they contained : it was the power of God accompanying that light, which obtained the victory ; and which alone prevails at this day for the subduing of men to the obedience of faith ]
Let us now proceed to contemplate, III. The peculiar advantage arising from this dispen- sation— There is an " excellency of power" in the Gospel —
[There is nothing under heaven that accomplishes such wonders as this. It comes to men who are dead in trespasses and sins, and by a divine energy brings them forth to life. The prophet's vision of the dry bones gives a just representa- tion of its effects'^ We see how it wrought on the day
of Pentecost, and afterwards throughout all the Roman Em- pire And the same effects does it produce at this day,
wherever it is preached in simplicity, and accompanied with power from on high. There are many living witnesses (not a few, I would hope, in this place) who can attest, that, by means of it, their " eyes have been opened, and their souls been turned from the power of Satan unto God."]
By the weakness of those who dispense it, the power of God that accompanies it is the more dis- played—
[If it were ministered by angels, men would be ready to ascribe its efficacy to the instruments by whom it was dispensed. But, when it was preached by poor fishermen, without learn- ing, without any earthly power to support them, and in direct opposition to all the prejudices and passions of mankind, to what could its wonderful power be ascribed? To nothing, surely, but the mighty operation of the Spirit of God. So, if at this day God made use of none but the great and learned, we should give the honour unto those by whom he wrought, rather than to Him alone. But when he ordains strength, as it were, in the mouths of babes and sucklings, we are con- strained to say, that He who works either in us, or by us, is God^. By this it is clearly shewn, that " neither he that planteth is any thing, nor he tliat watereth ; but God, that giveth the increase*^:" it is He that is " all in all"."]
themselves. It was by three hundred only, with their pitchers and lamps, that God wrought this great deliverance. And so it was by the ministry of a few poor fishermen, that he triumphed over all the powers botli of earth and hell.
d Ezek. xxxvii. 1 — 10. « 2 Cor. i. 21. and v. 5.
f 1 Cor. iii. 7. ^ Col. iii, 11.