An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Secondly, God had no partner in his work. Hast thou with him spread out the Sky? The Scripture is much in exalting the honour of God, as the sole Agent and Efficient in setting up the frame of the Wo•ld, (Isa 44.24.) Thus saith the Lord, I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the Heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the Earth by my self. The Prophet brin•s in God speaking thus, to com•••t his ancient people when they ⟨p. 568⟩saw none to help them. What cannot God do alone, who stretcheth out the Heavens alone? Cannot he bring back the Church of the Jews out of Babylon alone, who stretcheth out the Heavens alone? cannot he raise up Cyrus for his Shepherd, and move him to make Proclamation for their return, when there was none to move him about it? He frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh Diviners mad. Those lying Diviners said, the Jews were fast enough for coming out, but God frustrated their tokens, and made them mad at their disappointments. Now as this may exceedingly comfort and encourage the people of God all the world over in their greatest straits, that God made the world, and spread ou• the Sky alone, so it doth exceedingly advance the power and glo•y of God. If a man have but a great Carpet or Coverlet to un•old, he must call in the help of two or three to spread i• and hold it up, one man cannot do it alone: But God spread out the H•aven, that mighty Canopy of the Heavens alone. And his spreading of it was the making of it; The mighty God by one act gave the Sky both its being and its form: And all this he did without either Counsellor or Coadjutor. No man ever did any very great thing in the world, but it was either by the help of other mens heads in contriving, or by the help of their hands in effecting. To be a sole-Agent of Great things, is the sole-privilege of the Great God. And surely if the Lord God had no assistant in the great work of Creation, he needs no assistance in his greatest works of Providence. He who made the world without help, can do what he pleaseth in the world without help. Our help (saith the Psalmist 124.8.) is in the name of the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth; but the Maker of Heaven and of Earth, fetcheth all his help from his own Name.