Sermons preached

II. Because if we have sufficient Knowledge, yet God can easily put some Impediment, from within, or without, to hinder the Use of our Wisdom, Power, and Knowledge.

1. Within. He can blast our Excellencies in an instant, or obstruct the Use of it for the time. As, though he did not destroy the property of the Fire, yet he suspended the burning, when the three Children were in the Furnace. So of a sudden can he blast our Strength. Psal. 26. 5, 6. The Stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their Sleep; none of the Men of Might have found their Hands; at thy Rebuke the Chariot and Horses are cast into a dead Sleep. Whatsoever Strength, Courage, Wit, or any other Point of Perfection, any Man hath; God, who gave it, can take it away when he pleaseth, or suspend the Use of it. All this God can do with a Rebuke, ⟨p. 256⟩with a Word of his Mouth. Now as the Strong cannot find their Hands, so the Wise cannot find their Hearts. Job 5. 14. They meet with Darkness in the Day-time, and grope in the Noon-day as in the Night. Who were these? The Wise, and the Crafty, whom he speaketh of in the foregoing Verses. In the clearest Cases they are to seek, and so their well contrived Plots come to nothing. There is a Blast and Plague upon their Judgments, so that they do involve and confound themselves; and what by self-conceit and froward self-will, they drive on their Designs so precipitantly and furiously, that they must needs miscarry. They do not seem to have the Judgment of ordinary Men. Thus though Men be endowed with good Gifts and Qualities, both of Wisdom and Strength, God can easily take away their Power and Will to use them.

1. Within. He can blast our Excellencies in an instant, or obstruct the Use of it for the time. As, though he did not destroy the property of the Fire, yet he suspended the burning, when the three Children were in the Furnace. So of a sudden can he blast our Strength.