Thirdly, because God is very tender of this flower of his crown, this part of his name; indeed he cannot spell it right, and leave out this letter; for that is God's name, whereby he is known from all his creatures. Now man may be called wise, merciful, mighty; God only all-wise, all-merciful, all-mighty; so when we leave out this syllable all, we nick-name God, and call him by his creature's name, which he will not answer to. Now the tenderness that God shows to this prerogative of his, appears in three particulars :

First, in the strict command he lays on his people, to give him the glory of his power, Isa. viii. 12, 13 : 'Fear ye not their fear, but sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; that is, in this sad posture of your affairs, when your enemies associafe, and you seem a lost people to the eye of reason, not able to contend with such united powers which beset you on every side: now I charge you sanctify me, in giving me the glory of my almighty power; believe that your God is able of himself, without any other, to defend you, and destroy them.

Secondly, In his severity to his dearest children, when they stagger in their faith, and come not off roundly, without reasoning and disputing the case, to rely on his almighty power: Zacharias did but ask the angel, How shall I know this, because I am an old man, and my wife stricken in years? yet for bewraying therein his unbelief, had a sign indeed given him, but such a one as did not only strengthen his faith, but severely punish his unbelief; for he was struck dumb upon the place. God loves his children should believe his word, not dispute his power; so true is that of Luther, Deus amat curristas non quæristas. That which gave accent to Abraham's faith, Rom. iv. 21, was that he was 'fully persuaded, that what God had promised he was able to perform.'

Thirdly, In the way God takes of giving his choicest mercies, and greatest salvations to his people, wherein he lays the scene of his providence so, that when he hath done, it may be said almighty power was here. And therefore God commonly puts down those means and second causes, which if they stood about his work, would blind and hinder the full prospect thereof in effecting the same, 2 Cor. i. 9: We received the sentence of death in ourselves, that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.' Christ staid while Lazarus was dead, that he might draw the eyes of their faith more singly to look on his power, by raising his dead friend, rather than curing him, being sick, which would not have carried so full a conviction of almightiness with it. Yea, he suffers a contrary power many times to arise in that very juncture of time when he intends the mercy to his people, that he may rear up the more magnificent pillar of remembrance to his own power, in the ruin of that which contends with him. Had God brought Israel out of Egypt in the time of those kings which knew Joseph, most likely they might have had a friendly departure and an easy deliverance; but God reserves this for the reign of that proud Pharaoh, who shall cruelly oppress them, and venture his kingdom, but he will satisfy his lust upon them. And why must this be the time? but that God would bring them forth with a stretched out arm: the magnifying of his power was God's great design, Exod. ix. 16: In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout the earth.'

Fourthly, In the prevalency which an argument that is pressed from his almighty power hath with God. It was the last string Moses had to his bow, when he begged the life of Israel, Numb. xiv. 16: The nations which have heard the fame of thee, will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able,' &c. And ver. 17: 'Let the power of my Lord be great;' and with this he hath their pardon thrown him.

The application of this point will fall in under the next, which is,

CHAPTER IV.

OF ACTING OUR FAITH ON THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF GOD, AS ENGAGED FOR

OUR HELP.

Doct. THAT it is the saints' duty, and should be their care, not only to believe God Almighty, but also strongly to believe that this almighty power of God is theirs, that is, engaged to their defence and help, so as to make use of it in all straits and temptations.

SECTION I. First, I shall prove that the almighty power of God is engaged for the Christian's defence; with the grounds of it.

Secondly, Why the Christian should strongly act his faith on this.

First, The almighty power of God is engaged for the saints' defence: God brought Israel out of Egypt with a high hand; but did he set them down on the other side the Red Sea, to find and force their way to Canaan, by their own policy or power? When he had opened the iron gate of their house of bondage, and brought them into the open fields, did he vanish as the angel from Peter, when out of prison? No, as a man carries his son, so the Lord bare them in all the way they went, Deut. i. 31. This doth lively set forth the saints' march to heaven: God brings a soul out of spiritual Egypt by his converting grace; that is, the day of his power, wherein he makes the soul willing to come out of Satan's clutches. Now when the saint is upon his march, all the country riseth upon him. How shall this poor creature pass the pikes, and get safely by all his enemies' borders? God himself enfolds him in the arm of his everlasting strength: We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.' 1 Pet. i. 5. The power of God is that 'shoulder,' on which Christ carries his sheep home, rejoicing all the way he goes, Luke xv. 5. These everlasting arms of his strength are those eagles' wings, upon which the saints are both tenderly and securely conveyed to glory, Exod. xix. 4. There is a fivefold tie or engagement that lies upon God's power, to be the saints' life-guard.

First, The near relation he hath to his saints: they are his own dear children; every one takes care of his own; the silly hen, how doth she bustle and bestir herself to gather her brood under her wing when the kite appears! No care like that which nature teacheth. How much more will God, who is the Father of such dispositions in his creatures, stir up his whole strength to defend his children! He said, They are my people; so he became their Saviour,' Isa. xxxiii. 8. As if God had said, Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosom, while my own people are thus misused before my face? I cannot bear it. The mother, as she sits in her house, hears one shriek, and knows the voice, cries out, O it is my child! Away she throws all, and runs to him. Thus God takes the alarm of his children's cry: I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,' saith the Lord; his cry pierced his ear, and his ear affected his bowels, and his bowels called up his power to the rescue of him.

Secondly, The dear love he beareth to his saints engageth his power. He that hath God's heart cannot want his arm. Love in the creature commands all the other affections, sets all the powers of the whole man on work; thus in God, love sets all his other attributes on work; when God once pitched his thoughts on doing good to lost man, then wisdom fell on projecting the way; almighty power, that undertook to raise the fabric according to wisdom's model. All are ready to effect what God saith he likes. Now the believing soul is an object of God's choicest love, even the same with which he loves his Son, John xvii. 26.

First, God loves the believer as the birth of his everlasting counsel; when a soul believes, then God's eternal purpose and counsel concerning him, whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, and with whom his thoughts went so long big, brings forth. And how must God needs love that creature, whom he carried so long in the womb of his eternal purpose! This goodly fabric of heaven and earth hath not been built, but as a stage whereon he would in time act what he decreed in heaven of old, concerning the saving of thee, and a few more of his elect; and therefore according to the same rate of delight with which God pleased and entertained himself in the thoughts of this before the world was, must he needs rejoice over the soul now believing with love and complacency unconceivable; and God having brought his counsel thus far towards its issue, surely will raise all the power he hath, rather than be disappointed of his glory within a few steps of home; I mean, his whole design in the believer's salvation; the Lord who hath chosen his saints (as Christ prays for Joshua their representative) will rebuke Satan and all their enemies, Zech. iii.

Secondly, God loves his saints as the purchase of his Son's blood; they cost him dear; and that which is so hardly got shall not be easily lost. He that was

willing to expend his Son's blood to gain them, will not deny his power to keep them.

Thirdly, God loves the saints for their likeness to himself; so that if he loves himself, he cannot but love himself appearing in them; and as he loves himself in them, so he defends himself in defending them. What is it in a saint that enrageth hell, but the image of God, without which the war would soon be at an end? It is the hatred the panther hath to man that makes him fly at his picture; for thy sake are we slain all the day long:' and if the quarrel be God's, surely the saint shall not go forth to war at his own cost.

Thirdly, The covenant engageth God's almighty power, Gen. xvii. 1: 'I am the Almighty God, walk before me.' There is a league offensive and defensive between God and his saints; he gives it under his hand, that he will put forth the whole power of his godhead for them, 1 Chron. xvii. 24: The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel.' God doth not parcel himself out by retail, but gives his saints leave to challenge whatever God hath as theirs; and let him, whoever he is, sit in God's throne, and take away his crown, that can fasten any untruth on the Holy One; as his name is, so his nature, a God keeping covenant for ever. The promises stand as the mountains about Jerusalem, never to be removed; the weak as well as the strong Christian is within this line of communication. Were saints to fight it out in open field, by the strength of their own grace, then the strong were more likely to stand, and the weak to fall in battle; but both, castled in the covenant, are alike safe.

Fourthly, The saints' dependence on God, and expectation from God in all their straits, oblige this power for their succour: whither doth a gracious soul fly in any want or danger from sin, Satan, or his instruments, but to his God? as naturally as the coney to her burrow, Psa. lvii. 3. At what time I am afraid,' saith David, 'I will trust in thee:' he tells God he will make bold of his house to step into, when taken in any storm; and doth not question his welcome. Thus when Saul hunted him, he left a city of gates and bars, to trust God in open field. Indeed, all the saints are taught the same lesson; to renounce their own strength, and rely on the power of God; their own policy, and cast themselves on the wisdom of God; their own righteousness, and expect all from the pure mercy of God in Christ; which act of faith is so pleasing to God, that such a soul shall never be ashamed, Psa. ix. 18. 'The expectation of the poor shall not perish.' A heathen could say, when a bird, scared by a hawk, flew into his bosom, I will not betray thee unto thy enemy, seeing thou comest for sanctuary unto me. How much less will God yield up a soul unto its enemy, when it takes sanctuary in his name, saying, Lord, I am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust; either thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love, for Christ's sake; castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength; it is in thy power to save me from, or give me up into the hands of my enemy; I have no confidence in myself or any other. into thy hands I commit my cause, myself, and rely on thee. This dependence of a soul undoubtedly will awaken the almighty power of God for such a one's defence. He hath sworn the greatest oath that can come out of his blessed lips, even by himself, that such as thus fly for refuge to hope in him, shall have strong consolation, Heb. vi. 17. This indeed may give the saint the greater boldness of faith to expect kind entertainment, when he repairs to God for refuge, because he cannot come before he is looked for; God having set up his name and promises as a strong tower, both calls his people into these chambers, and expects they should betake themselves thither.

Fifthly, Christ's presence and employment in heaven lays a strong engagement on God to bring his whole force and power into the field, upon all occasions, for his saints' defence; one special end of his journey to heaven, and abode there, is, that he might, as the saints' solicitor, be ever interceding for such supplies and succours of his Father, as their exigencies call for; and the more to assure us of the same before he went, he did, as it were, tell us, what heads he meant to go upon in his intercession when he should come there; one of which was this, that his Father should keep his children, while they were to stay in the world, from the evil thereof, John xvii. 15. Neither doth Christ take upon him this work of his own head, but hath the same appointment of his Father, for what he now prays in

heaven, as he had for what he suffered on earth: he that ordained him a priest to die for sinners, did not then strip him of his priestly garments, as Aaron, but appoints him to ascend in them to heaven, where he sits a priest for ever by God's oath. And this office of intercession was erected purely in mercy to believers, that they might have full content given them for the performance of all that God hath promised; so that Jesus Christ attends at court as our ambassador, to see all carried fairly between God and us according to agreement: and if Christ follows his business close, and be faithful in his place to believers, all is well: and doth it not behove him to be so, who intercedes for such dear relations? Suppose a king's son should get out of a besieged city, where he had left his wife and children, whom he loves as his own soul, and these all ready to die by sword or famine, if supply come not the sooner; could this prince, when arrived at his father's house, please himself with the delights of the court, and forget the distress of his family? Or rather, would he not come post to his father, having their cries and groans always in his ears, and before he eat or drink, do his errand to his father, and entreat him, if ever he loved him, that he would send all the force of his kingdom to raise the siege, rather than any of his dear relations should perish? Surely, sirs, though Christ be in the top of his preferment, and out of the storm in regard of his own person, yet his children left behind in the midst of sin, Satan, and the world's batteries, are in his heart, and shall not be forgotten a moment by him. The care he takes in our business, appeared in the speedy despatch he made of his Spirit to his apostles' supply, when he ascended, which as soon almost as he was warm in his seat, at his Father's right hand, he sent, to the incomparable comfort of his apostles and us, that to this day, yea, to the end of the world do, or shall believe on him.

SECTION II.-The second branch of the point follows: that saints should eye this power of God as engaged for them; and press it home upon their souls, till they silence all doubts and fears about the matter; which is the importance of this exhortation: Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' Fortify and entrench your souls within the breast-work of this attribute of God's mighty power, made over to you by God himself.

First, It is the end as of all promises to be security to our faith; so of those in particular, where his almighty power is expressly engaged, that we may count this attribute our portion, and reap the comfort it yields as freely as one may the crop of his own field. Walk before me,' saith God to Abraham, I am God Almighty;' set on this as thy portion, and live upon it: the apostle, Heb. xiii. 6, teacheth us what use to make of promises; ver. 5, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,'-there is the promise; and the inference, which he teacheth us to draw by faith from this, follows, ver. 6, 'So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. We, that is, every believer, may boldly say, that is, we may conclude God will help; not sneakingly, timorously, perhaps he will; but we may boldly assert it in the face of men and devils, because He that is almighty hath said it. Now for a Christian not to strengthen his faith on this incomparably sweet attribute, but to sit down with a few weak unsettled hopes, when he may, yea, ought. to be strong in the faith of such promises; what is it but to undervalue the blessing of such promises? As if one should promise another house and land, and bid him make them as sure to himself as the law can bind, and he should take no care to effect this; would it not be interpreted as a slighting of his friend's kindness? Is it a small matter that God passeth over his almighty power by promise to us, and bids us make it as sure to ourselves as we can by faith, and we neglect this, leaving the writings of the promises unsealed on our hearts?

Secondly, Our obedience and comfort are strong or weak, as our faith is on this principle.

First, Our obedience, that being a child of faith, partakes of its parent's strength or weakness. Abraham being strong in faith, what an heroic act of obedience did he perform in offering up his son? His faith being well set on the power of God, he carries that without staggering, which would have laid a weak faith on the ground. No act of faith more strengthens for duty than that which eyes God's almighty power engaged for its assistance. Go in this thy night,' said God to Gideon, have not I called thee?' as if he had said, Can I

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not, will I not carry thee through thy work? Away goes Gideon in the faith of this, and doth wonders. This brought the righteous man from the east to God's foot, though he knew not whither he went, yet he knew with whom he went, God Almighty. But take a soul not persuaded of this; how uneven and unstable is he in this obediential course! Every threat from man, if mighty, dismays him, because his faith is not fixed on the Almighty, and therefore sometimes he will shift off a duty to comply with man, and betray his trust into the hands of a sorry creature, because he hath fleshly eyes to behold the power of man, but wants a spiritual eye to see God at his back, to protect him with his almighty power; which, were his eyes open to see, he would not be so routed in his thoughts at the approach of a weak creature: 'Should such a man as I flee?' saith good Nehemiah, Neh. vi. 11. He was newly come from the throne of grace, where he had called in the help of the Almighty, ver. 9. O God, strengthen my hands.' And truly now he will rather die upon the place, than disparage his God with a dishonourable retreat.

Secondly, The Christian's comfort increaseth or wanes, as the aspect of his faith is to the power of God. Let the soul question that, or his interest in it, and his joy gusheth out, even as blood out of a broken vein: it is true, a soul may scramble to heaven with much ado, by a faith of recumbency, relying on God as able to save, without this persuasion of its interest in God; but such a soul goes with a scant side wind, or like a ship whose masts are laid by the board, exposed to wind and weather, if others better appointed did not tow it along with them. Many fears like waves ever and anon cover such a soul, that it is more under water than above; whereas one that sees itself folded in the arms of almighty power, O how such a soul goes mounting afore the wind, with her sails filled with joy and peace! Let afflictions come, storms arise, this blessed soul knows where it shall land and be welcome. The name of God is his harbour, where he puts in as boldly as a man steps into his own house, when taken in a shower. He hears God calling him into this and other his attributes, as chambers taken up for him, Isa. xxvi. 'Come, my people, enter into thy chambers.' God calls them his, and it were foolish modesty not to own what God gives; Isa. xlv. 24, 'Surely shall a man say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength;' that is, I have righteousness in God's righteousness, strength in his strength: so that in this respect Christ can no more say that his strength is his own, and not the believer's, than the husband can say, my body is my own, and not my wife's. A soul persuaded of this, may sing merrily with the sharpest thorn at his breast; so David, Psalm lvii. 7, My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.' What makes him so merry in so sad a place as the cave where now he was? He will tell you in ver. 1, where you have him nestling himself under the shadow of God's wings, and now well may he sing care and fear away. A soul thus provided, may be at ease on a hard bed. Do you not think they sleep as soundly who dwell on London-bridge, as they who live at Whitehall or Cheapside, knowing the waves that roar under them cannot hurt them? Even so may the saints rest quietly over the floods of death itself, and fear no ill.

SECTION III.-Use 1. Is the almighty power of God engaged for the saints' defence? Surely then they will have a hard pull, the saints' enemies I mean, who meddle with them that are so far above their match. The devil was so cunning, that he would have Job out of his trench, his hedge down, before he would fall on; but so desperate are men, they will try the field with the saints, though encircled with the almighty power of God. What folly were it to attempt, or sit down before such a city, which cannot be blocked up so as no relief can get in? The way to heaven cannot. In the church's straitest siege, there is a river which shall make glad this city of God, with seasonable succours from heaven. The saints' fresh springs are all from God; and it is as feasible for sorry man to stop the water-courses of the clouds, as to dam up those streams, which invincibly glide like veins of water in the earth, from the fountain-head of his mercy, into the bosom of his people. The Egyptians thought they had Israel in a trap, when they saw them march into such a nook by the sea side. They are entangled, they are entangled; and truly so they had been irrecoverably, had not that almighty power which led them on, engaged to bring them off with honour and