3. It works beyond all probabilities, and rational conjectures of men; this Almighty power hath •• ted ⟨p. 179⟩deliverances for the people of God when things have been brought to the lowest ebb, and all the means of salvation have been hid from their eyes. We have diverse famous instances of this in Scripture, wherein we may observe a remarkable gradation in the working of this Almighty power: It is said in the 2 Kings 14. 26, 27. The Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was not any shut up, nor any left; nor any helper for Israel. A deplorable state; how inevitable was their ruin to the eye of sense? Well might it be called a bitter affliction; Yet from this immediate power arose for them a sweet and unexpected Salvation; and if we look into 2 Cor. 1. 9, 10. we shall find the Apostles and choicest Christians of those times, giving up themselves as lost men, all ways of escape being quite out of sight; for so much those words signify, We had the sentence of death in our selves; i. e. We yielded our selves for dead men. But though they were sentenced to death, yea, though they sentenced themselves, this power which wrought above all their thoughts, and rational conjectures, reprieved them. And yet one step farther in Ezek. 37. 4, 5, 6, 7. The people of God are there represented as actually dead, yea as in their graves, yea as rotted in their graves, and their very bones dry, like those that are dead of old; so utterly improbable was their recovery: Yet by the working of this Almighty power which subdueth all things to it self, their graves in Babylon were opened, the breath of life came into them, bone came to bone, and there stood up a very great Army; it was the working of this power above the thoughts of mans heart, which gave the ground of that famous Proverb, Gen. 22. 14. In the Mount of the Lord it shall •eseen. And the ground of that famous Promise, Zech. ⟨p. 180⟩14. 7. At evening time it shall be light; i. e. Light shall unexpectedly spring up, when all men according to the course and order of Nature, expect nothing but increasing darkness. How extensive is the power of God in its glorious operations!
3. It works beyond all probabilities, and rational conjectures of men; this Almighty power hath •• ted ⟨p. 179⟩deliverances for the people of God when things have been brought to the lowest ebb, and all the means of salvation have been hid from their eyes. We have diverse famous instances of this in Scripture, wherein we may observe a remarkable gradation in the working of this Almighty power: It is said in the 2 Kings 14. 26, 27. The Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was not any shut up, nor any left; nor any helper for Israel. A deplorable state; how inevitable was their ruine to the eye of sense? Well might it be called a bitter affliction; Yet from this immediate power arose for them a sweet and unexpected Salvation; and if we look into 2 Cor. 1. 9, 10. we shall find the Apostles and choicest Christians of those times, giving up themselves as lost men, all ways of escape being quite out of sight; for so much those words signifie, We had the sentence of death in our selves; i. e. We yielded our selves for dead men. But though they were sentenced to death, yea, though they sentenced themselves, this power which wrought above all their thoughts, and rational conjectures, reprieved them. And yet one step farther in Ezek. 37. 4, 5, 6, 7. The people of God are there represented as actually dead, yea as in their graves, yea as rotted in their graves, and their very bones dry, like those that are dead of old; so utterly improbable was their recovery: Yet by the working of this Almighty power which subdueth all things to it self, their graves in Babylon were opened, the breath of life came into them, bone came to bone, and there stood up a very great Army; it was the working of this power above the thoughts of mans heart, which gave the ground of that famous Proverb, Gen. 22. 14. In the Mount of the Lord it shall •eseen. And the ground of that famous Promise, Zech. ⟨p. 180⟩14. 7. At evening time it shall be light; i. e. Light shall unexpectedly spring up, when all men according to the course and order of Nature, expect nothing but increasing darkness. How extensive is the power of God in its glorious operations!
