the great universe, without the concurrence of any material cause, from nothing. For this reason the raising this glorious fabric is produced as the distinctive character of the Deity from the troop of false gods. The psalmist declares, Psal. 96. 4, 5. “ The Lord is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” And as he began the creation by proceeding from nothing to real existence, so in forming the other parts, he drew them from infirm and indisposed matter, as from a second nothing; that all his creatures might bear the real testimonies of infinite power. Thus he commanded light to arise out of darkness, and sensible creatures from an insensible element. He created man, the accomplishment of all his works, from the lowest and grossest element, the earth. Now although at the first view we might conceive that the visible world is the greatest miracle that ever God performed; yet upon serious reflection we shall discover, that the works of grace are as wonderful as the works of nature, and that the power of God is as evidently expressed in our redemption as in the creation. For the fuller understanding of this, I will consider some of the principal effects of the divine power in order to our blessed recovery.

1. The incarnation of the Son of God, in accomplishing whereof such power was exercised, as no limited understanding is able to comprehend. “ The word was made flesh.” This signifies the real union between the human nature, and the divine in our Redeemer, John 1. 14. Before his incarnation he appeared in a human form to the patriarchs, and in the flaming bush to Moses; but it is never said with respect to those apparitions, that the word was made flame, or man. But when he came into the world to save us, he assumed the complete nature of man into an hypostatical union with himself. That admirable person possesses the titles, qualities and natures of God and man. In that ineffable union, each of the natures preserves its proper form with all the necessary consequences proceeding from it. The human nature is joined to the eternal word, but not changed into its divinity; it is not infinite and impassible. The Deity is united to flesh, but not transformed into its nature, it is not finite and passible. Though there is a distinction, yet no separation : there are two natures, but one sole Jesus. In the same subsistence the Creator and the creature are miraculously

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allied. Now this is a work fully responsible to omnipotence, and expresses whatever is signified by that title. The apostle mentions it with an attribute of excellency. 1 Tim. 3. 16. “Without eontroversy great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.” It is as sublime, as holy. In this the divine power appears in its magnificence, and in some respect more gloriously than in the creation : for there is incomparably a greater disparity between the majesty, greatness and infiniteness of God, and the meanness of man, than between the whole world and nothing. The degrees of disparity between the world and nothing are not actually infinite, but between the most excellent creature and the glorious Creator they are absolutely infinite. From hence it is, that that which in other things resolves our doubts, here increases the wonder, and in appearance makes it more incredible. “Ye do err,” saith Christ to the Sadducees, (who denied the resurrection) “not knowing the power of God.” But the more raised thoughts we have of his immense power, the more unlikely his conjunction with a nature so far beneath him will seem to be.

2. The divine power was magnified in our Redeemer's supernatural conception. It was requisite his body should be miraculously formed of the substance of a woman, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, not only in respect of its singular dignity, and that he might be the pattern of our regeneration that is performed by the efficacy of the spirit not of the flesh, but in respect of his office : for undertaking to reconcile God by the expiation of our sin, he must be allied to us; and absolutely pure from the stain of sin. Heaven and earth concurred to form that divine man the king of both, the earth furnishing matter, and heaven the principie of his conception. Accordingly the angel told Mary, Luke 1. 35. who questioned how she could be a mother not having known a man,

66 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.” This was foretold many ages as an admirable effect of God's power. When Judah was oppressed by two potent kings, and despaired of an escape, to raise their drooping spirits the prophet tells them, Isa. 7. 14. “The Lord himself would give them a sign of their future deliverance. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name" Immanuel. The argument is from the greater to the less; for it is apparently more difficult that a virgin, without injury or blemish to her purity and integrity, should conceive and bring forth Immanuel, than the defeating human forces how great soever. If God will accomplish that stupendous, 'unheard of wonder, much more would he rescue his people from the fury of their adversaries.

3. The divine power was eminently declared in the miracles our Saviour wrought during the time of his public ministry, to verify his divine mission, that he was the great prophet sent from God to instruct men in the way of life. In discoursing of this, I will briefly show, that miracles were a convincing proof of his celestial calling, and that the performance of them was necessary in order to the conviction of the world, and consider particularly those he wrought.

(1.) A miracle is an extraordinary operation of God in nature, either in stopping its course, or in producing some effects that are above its laws and power : so that when he is pleased to work any, they are his seal to authorize the person and doctrine to which they are annexed. By them faith is made visible: the unbeliever is convinced by his senses, the only witnesses above reproach in his account. From hence Nicodemus addresses himself to Christ, John 3, 2. “Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do those miracles that thou dost, except God be with him :" that is, no inferior agent can perform them, without the special assistance of the divine power. And it is not to be supposed that God will lend his omnipotency to the devil to work a real miracle, to confirm a falsity; and thereby, necessarily induce men into error in a matter of infinite moment: for such is the doctrine of salvation that Christ preached.

(2.) The working of miracles was necessary to convince the world, that Jesus Christ was sent from God, whether we consider the Jews or the Gentiles. To convince the Jews upon a double. account:

1st. Because the performance of them was one of the characters of the promised Messiah. For this reason when two of John's disciples came to inquire whether he were the expected prophet, he returns this answer to the question : " Go and show John those things which ye do hear and see, the blind receive their

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sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Mat. 11. 4, 5. Thus he described his office, and verified the commission he had from God, by representing his miracles in the words of the prophecy, Isa. 35. 5, 9.

2dly. Our Saviour came to alter the religion of the Jews, that had been confirmed by many illustrious miracles: therefore to assure them that he was authorized from heaven, he wrought such and so many, that for their greatness, clearness, and number, exceeded all that were done before his coming. Our Saviour tells the Jews, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin :" that is, in rejecting him. For if he had exercised only a power like unto that of Moses and the prophets, in his miraculous actions, they had been obliged to have honoured him as one of their rank, but not to have attributed an incomparable dignity to him. But he did those which neither Moses nor the prophets had performed; and in those that had been done, Christ excelled them in the manner of doing them. This the Jews could not contradict, and from hence, their infidelity was made culpable.

his commission authentic. Before his coming, the hand of the synagogue was dried up, and impotent to produce miracles. The holy spirit was withdrawn, and for the space of four hundred years, no prophet nor worker of wonders appeared. John the Baptist, though the angel deputed to signify the coming of Christ, yet did no miracles. But our Saviour was invested with power from above, and performed many. Their quality and number is considerable.

(1.) Their quality. They were not mere signs, as the conversion of Moses' rod into a serpent; nor destructive and punishing, as the wonders in Egypt; but advantageous and beneficial to men, the equal demonstrations of his mercy and power. He cured diseases, that were absolutely desperate, without means, by his omnipotent will, as the son of the nobleman who was sick at Capernaum, when himself was at Cana in Galilee, John 4. 46. or by such visible means, that the spectators might be fully convinced, that it was not the external application, but his sole virtue and divine power that produced the effect. Thus by anointing with clay and spittle the eyes of him that was born blind, who never had any natural possibility of seeing, he wrought an unparalleled cure: "It was never yet heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." John 9. Therefore he that was healed, inferred from that, as a most pregnant proof, that our Saviour was from God." He raised the dead. This effect exceeds the power not only of men, but of the angels. It is true that one angel destroyed in a night an hundred fourscore and five thousand of the Assyrian army; but it is as true, that all the angels together cannot raise from the dead one man. It is wholly the work of the Lord of nature, who holds the keys of life and death in his hands. It is only his light can dispel the darkness, his voice can break the silence of the grave. And it is observable, that our Saviour who sometimes concealed his miraculous works, and forbad the publishing of them, yet performed this kind before many witnesses, that they might publish and verify it, as being most conclusive of his mission from God. He raised to life the ruler's daughter, Mar. 5. 42. to the astonish ment of all that were present to attend her funeral. The widow's son of Nain was carried without the gates of the city to his grave, Jesus stops the sad train, and restores life to the young man, and to his mother something more dear than her