Thomas Manton · 28 of 57

The Second Verse. · Part 4

2. In ease you have great means, fear them; God usually worketh by the most unlikely. The prophet David in the Psalms often expresseth himself as full of fears when his armies had been successful and victorious, not doubting of God, but himself; doubting lest he provoke him by being lifted up with his mercies, as you know in that place, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25, ‘His heart was lifted up, therefore there was wrath upon him.’ David, when he had great strength, must needs fall to numbering of the people, 2 Sam. xxiv. 11. It is a sad sign of speedy ruin when a people reckon and rely upon their strength. The more it is, the less it should be in your value and estimation. Asa had an army of six hundred thousand, and yet, 2 Chron. xiv. 11, he saith, ‘We have no power.’ Get it out of your hearts; it is no strength to you unless God go with it.

3. la case weak means have been successful, give God the glory, and do not boast. This is visibly one of God’s ends in such providences, that we may take notice of his strength. In other instances it is from God, but in this most remarkably: as Pharaoh’s magicians said, Exod. viii. 19, ‘This is the finger of God.’ There God remarkably discovereth himself in such deliverances. We ascribe it to his power, but not to his mercy. Therefore our care, as I told you, should be especially that we do not ascribe the merit of it to ourselves, as we do ascribe the working of it to God: Deut. ix. 4, ‘Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land.’ Give the Lord the praise. This is our case; our praise should live beyond the day of its public solemnisation.

I proceed to the second point, viz.:—

Doct. 2. That God cometh in for the deliverance of his people in times of greatest despair and unlikelihood. I will give you a few places. Zech. xiv. 7, ‘At evening time it shall be light;’ that is, sepulcrum lucis, it shall break forth when a man would think that all things should be enveloped and wrapped up in darkness. So Mat. xxv. 6, ‘At midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh,’ when all slumbered and slept; all expectation was given over. So Luke xviii. 8, ‘When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?’ All things will be at such a desperate pass, that nobody will believe that ever he will come. Faith there is taken for a confident expectation of good success, not in its whole latitude, as it is falsely mis-expounded.

The reasons are:—

1. That he may seize upon his enemies suddenly, even steal upon them, as Christ did upon the world, when the sixth vial was poured out. Christ saith, Rev. xvi. 15, ‘Behold, I come as a thief;’ that is, as one not expected. So 1 Thes. v. 2, ‘For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night;’ that is, with respect to the suddenness of it. To wicked men it is unexpected.

2. That he may sufficiently try and exercise the patience and other suffering graces of his people: James i. 4, ‘Let patience have its perfect work.’ It is but a partial patience in a partial calamity. Then it is perfect patience when it is thoroughly exercised. So also that he may try their faith, whether they will believe in him or no, whether they can fetch one contrary out of another: Hosea ii. 15, He hath given ‘the valley of Achor for a door of hope.’ And so for prayer, and to stir up delight in him.

Use. Do not then give over your dependence upon God in the worst of times: Gen. xviii. 14, ‘Is anything too hard for the Lord?’ Unbelief stumbleth most at God’s power; when we cannot see which way we shall be helped, then we are apt to doubt. But at such times consider:—

1. You have no cause to distrust God; though he doth not find means, he can create them. The root of Jesse, though there be no branches, it can bear a sprig. God, that could make the world out^ of nothing, can preserve the church by nothing; you do not know his in visible way of working. Believe beyond what you can see. Luther was wont to comfort himself, when all supplies failed, with this, that God was alive: Dan. ii. 34, ‘A stone cut out without hands, smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.’ ‘In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.’ It is a spiritual proverb, Gen. xxii. 14: in the greatest extremities the Lord will appear, and provide for those that commit themselves to him.

2. You have much ground of confidence: Ps. cii. 13, 14, ‘Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come: for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.’ Now you are in a condition fit for deliverance: Deut. xxxii. 36, ‘For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.’ God puts his people into such a condition in which deliverance will be most welcome, and then he bestoweth it upon them. Wait upon him now you are in a condition for God to help. When Caligula was angry with Philo, saith he, ‘Now God will help, for the emperor is angry.’

I come now to the last point.

Doct. 3. That mean beginnings may grow up to great matters and glorious successes. This is admirably set forth by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. xvii. 22-24, ‘Thus saith the Lord God, I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain, and eminent: in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowls of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken, and have done it.’ As it was with Christ, so it is many times with his followers; as in many instances. Jacob from himself and his staff was multiplied into two bands, Gen. xxxii. 10, meaning his company of children and cattle, so divided to meet Esau. David was taken from feeding of sheep to feed Israel: Ps. lxxviii. 70, 71, ‘He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.’ Saul, when seeking his father’s asses, found a kingdom. Christ’s kingdom sprang from a small beginning. This might also be shown from the great spreading of Satan’s kingdom, many times from little matters: it is well known that ‘a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’ Arius, a private priest in Alexandria, drew the whole world after him; as Montanus and other heretics might be said to do. We should not therefore lay too much on success. So Rev. xii. 3, ‘The dragon drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.’

The reasons of this in short are these:—

1. God’s sovereignty over us, as we are his creatures; he that hath made us, can do what he will with his own.

2. Because he will keep the world in a continual vicissitude and change, some up, some down.

Use 1. To teach us to look to beginnings: Ps. cxxix. 1, 2, ‘Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed against me;’ Cant. ii. 15, ‘Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines.’ This is added for abundant caution, to teach the church to prevent errors and heresies in the beginnings of them, before they spread, and grow strong and incurable; to crush things in the beginnings.

2. To support the hearts of Christians when they first put forth into the world: Eccles. iv. 14, ‘For out of prison he cometh to reign.’ One seed multiplieth into many. Broad rivers come from a small fountain: Job viii. 7, ‘Though thy beginning was but small, yet thy latter end shall greatly increase.’ Men rise like hop-stalks out of the dunghill, by the pole of Providence.

3. To keep men from despairing of public mercies. When the child of deliverance hath put forth the hand, it will come to the birth: Zech. iv. 10, ‘Who hath despised the day of small things?’ Christ was but a branch at first.

4. To encourage those that are weak in grace, Mat. xii. 20. God will not despise smoking flax, though it cannot flame: Phil. i. 6, ‘Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ Be humble and thankful in admiring God’s goodness towards you, saying, as David, ‘Who am I, O Lord, and what is my father’s house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?’