1. Without means God made the world, Gen. 1. 3. Psal. 33. 9. Moses remained alive forty days and forty nights, and neither eat bread nor drank water, Deut. 9. 9. So Elijah, 1 King. 19. 8. And Christ, Matth. 4. 2.
2. The extraordinary means which God hath used, have been manifold; as
1. In the very thing it self or kind of means. Manna wherewith the Lord1 fed the Israelites forty years together, was a grain that fell from heaven, Exod. 16. 4, &c. the like was never heard of before, or since.
2. In the quantity of the means. The meal and oil wherewith the Prophet Elijah and the widow of Zarephah and her household were nourished for three years together, was in the kind of it ordinary: but that so little meal as could make but one little cake, and so little oil as was but sufficient for that cake,2 should feed so many, so long, was extraordinary and miraculous. The like may be said of the five loaves and two fishes wherewith Christ fed five thousand men, beside women and children, Matth. 14. 17, &c.
⟨p. 136⟩3. In the quality of the means; that Daniel and his three companions, should for three years feed on pulse only, and drink water only, and yet their countenances appear fairer and fatter then they who did eat of the choicest meat and drink that could be provided for that end, was also miraculous, and appeared to be an especial work of God, Dan. 1. 5, &c.
4. In the manner of providing means; that Ravens should be Elijahs Caters, constantly to provide him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, was extraordinary, 1 King. 17. 6. So also that water, upon striking of a Rock with Moses his Rod, should flow forth and run like a River, Exod. 17. 6. Psal. 105. 41.
3. That the three servants of God should be preserved safe in the midst of an hot fiery Furnace, was against means, or by contrary means; for fire is an ordinary means to consume things cast thereinto, Dan. 3. 27. The like may be said of Daniels preservation in the Den of Lions, Dan. 6. 22.
1. Without means God made the world, Gen. 1. 3. Psal. 33. 9. Moses remained alive forty daies and forty nights, and neither eat bread nor drank water, Deut. 9. 9. So Elijah, 1 King. 19. 8. And Christ, Matth. 4. 2.
2. The extraordinary means which God hath used, have been manifold; as
1. In the very thing it self or kinde of means. Manna wherewith the Lord1 fed the Israelites fourty years together, was a grain that fell from heaven, Exod. 16. 4, &c. the like was never heard of before, or since.
2. In the quantity of the means. The meal and oyl wherewith the Prophet Elijah and the widow of Zarephah and her houshold were nourished for three years together, was in the kinde of it ordinary: but that so little meal as could make but one little cake, and so little oyl as was but sufficient for that cake,2 should feed so many, so long, was extraordinary and miraculous. The like may be said of the five loaves and two fishes wherewith Christ fed five thousand men, beside women and children, Matth. 14. 17, &c.
⟨p. 136⟩3. In the quality of the means; that Daniel and his three companions, should for three years feed on pulse only, and drink water only, and yet their countenances appear fairer and fatter then they who did eat of the choicest meat and drink that could be provided for that end, was also miraculous, and appeared to be an especial work of God, Dan. 1. 5, &c.
4. In the manner of providing means; that Ravens should be Elijahs Caters, constantly to provide him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, was extraordinary, 1 King. 17. 6. So also that water, upon striking of a Rock with Moses his Rod, should flow forth and run like a River,
- 1Extraordinary means various.
- 21 King. 17. 12, &c.
