strong men, of high men, of any men? No sure! for their breath is in their
nostrils; they have no power but as he breathes in them. If he keep in his
breath, as it were, they perish. All nations are as nothing before him and
what power hath nothing? Is it devils may do it? No, for they cannot,
though they would; he chains them, he limits them. Is it good angels? They
are powerful indeed, but they neither can nor will resist his will. Let it
be the whole university of the creation,--suppose all their scattered force
and virtue conjoined in one,--yet it is all but finite; it amounts to no
more, if you would eternally add unto it, but all victory and resistance
of this kind must be by a superior power, or at least by an equal.
Therefore we may conclude that there is no impediment or let, that can be
put in his way, nothing can obstruct his purpose; if all the world should
conspire as one man to obstruct the performance of any of his promises and
purposes, they do but rage in vain. Like dogs barking at the moon, they
shall be so far from attaining their purpose, that his majesty shall
disabuse them, so to speak, to his own purpose. He shall apply them quite
contrary to their own mind, to work out the counsel of his mind. Here is
the absolute King only worth the name of a King and Lord, whom all things
in heaven and earth obey at the first nod and beckoning to them! Hills,
seas, mountains, rivers, sun and moon and clouds, men and beasts, angels
and devils,--all of them are acted, moved, and inclined according to his
pleasure, all of them are about his work indeed, as the result of all in
the end shall make it appear, and are servants at his command, going where
he bids go, and coming where he bids come, led by an invisible hand,
though in the meantime they know it not but think they are about their own
business and applaud themselves for a time in it. _Ducunt volentem fata,
nolentem trahunt._(146) Godly men who know his will and love it, are led
by it willingly, for they yield themselves up to his disposal, but wicked
men, who have contrary wills of their own, can gain no more by resisting,
but to be drawn along with it.

Now to what purpose is all this spoken of God's decrees and purposes,
which he hath called a secret belonging to himself? If his works and
judgments be a great depth, and unsearchable, sure his decrees are far
more unsearchable, for it is the secret and hidden purpose of God, which
is the very depth of his wa