An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

Others understand by these strong helpers, godly men; if the Lord vvill not turn away his anger, the righteous shall stoop under him, ⟨p. 244⟩that is, they shall not be able to rescue a person or a Nation from the anger of God by prayer, or by the utmost improvements of their interest with God. Some places have fallen, because they wanted godly men to support them; and some places have fallen, though they had godly men to support them.¹ The Vulgar Latin translation renders, They that bear up the pillars of the world shall fall. Godly men bear up the pillars of the world. Though the Hebrew vvill not bear their translation, yet the sense is good. Godly men are the worlds supporters. It is said, (Revel. 12.16.) That the earth helped the woman, that is, worldly men for carnal ends helped the Church, when a flood of persecution, cast out of the mouth of the dragon, was ready to swallow her up. But the Church continually helps the world, and swallows up many of those floods of Gods displeasure, which else would drown the world. And because the Church was so thin, and there were so few godly men in the old world, therefore it was drowned, Gen. 7. And because ten righteous persons were not found in Sodom; fire from heaven consumed it (Gen. 18.) God seeks for Saints many times to stand in the gap, and save a Kingdom (Ezek. 22.30. Jer. 5.1.) and yet sometimes Kingdoms are not saved, though many such stand in the gap. Except the Lord turn away his anger; these Porters of the world shall not support it, these spiritual Atlases shall faint and fall under him. The Heathens had a fiction of a mighty Gigantine man, whom they called Atlas, him they fancied bearing up the frame of nature: it is most true in a spiritual sense, the Saints bear up the world; yet if the Lord turn not away his anger, the world must totter and fall too, notwithstanding these helpers. For the Saints do not bear up the world, or save Kingdoms from wrath, by giving the least satisfaction to the justice of God (that's the sole Prerogative of Jesus Christ) but only by imploring the mercy of God. Or they are therefore said to turn away the wrath of God from a people, because God vvill not pour out his wrath upon that people, while his Saints are mingled with them. The tares are let grow, lest in pulling them up, the wheat should be pulled up also.