PREPARATORY TO » vine warrant to speak that which God himself would of - fect; whence it is said, that therein God hearkened un- to the voice of a man, ver. 14. It is a vanity of the greatest magnitude in some of the Jews, aoMaimonides, More Nebuch. p. 2. cap. 35. Levi B. Gerson on the place, and others, who deny any fixation of the sun or moon, and judge that it is onlythe speed of Joshua in subduing his enemies before the close of that day which is intended. This theycontend for, lest Joshua should be thought to have wrought a greater miracle than Moses. But, as the prophet Habakkuk is express to the contrary, chap. ilk II. and their own Sirachide, c. 45, 56. so it isno small prevarication in some. Christians to give countenance unto such a putid fiction, see Grot. in Loc. It is so in all other miraculousoperations, even where the parts of the bodies of men were made instru- mental of the miracle itself, as in the gift of tongues. They who had that gift did not so speak from any skill or ability residing in them, but they were merely organs of the Holy Ghost, which he moved at his pleasure. Now the end of all these miraculous operations was to give reputation to the persons, and to confirm the min- istry of them by whom they were wrought. For, as at first, theywerethe occasion of wonderand astonishment, so upon their consideration they evidenced the respect and regard of God unto such persons, and their work. So when God sent Moses to declare his will in an ex- traordinary manner unto the people of Israel, he com- mands him to work several miracles or signs before them, that they might believe that he was sent of God, Exod iv. 8. And such works werecalled signs, because they were tokens and pledges of the presence of the Spi- rit of God with them by whom they were wrought. Nor was this gilt ever bestowed on any man alone, or for its own sake, but it was always subordinate unto the work of revelation or declaring the mind of God. And these are the general heads of the extraordinaryopera- tions of the Holy Spirit of God in works exceeding all human or natural abilities in their whole kind. Sect. 22.The next sort of the operations of the Holy Ghost under the Old Testament, whose explana- tion was designed, is of those whereby he improved through immediate impressions of his own power, the natural facultiesand abilities of the minds of men. And these, as was intimated, have respect to things political, moral, natural, and intellectual, with some of a mixed THE NEW CREATION. 81 nature. First, He had in them respect unto things po- litical; such were his gifts whereby he enabled sundry persons unto. rule and civil government amongst men. Government, or supreme rule is of great concernment unto.the glory of God in the world, and of the highest usefulness unto mankind.. Without it the whole world would be filled with violence, and become a stage for all wickedness visibly and openly to act itself upon in disorder and confusion. And all men confess that un- to a.due management hereof unto its proper ends, sun- dry peculiar gifts and abilities of mind are required in them, and needful for them, who are called thereunto. These are they themselves to endeavour after, and se- dulously to improve the measures which they have at- tained of them. And where this is by anyneglected, the world and themselves will quickly feed on the fruits of that negligence. But yet because the utmost of what men may of this kind obtain by their ordinary endea- vours, and an ordinary blessing thereon, is not sufficient for some especial ends which God aimed at in and by theirrule and government; the Holy Ghost did often- times give an especial improvement unto their abilities ofmind by his own immediate and extraordinary oper- ation. And in some cases he manifested the effects of his power herein by some external visible signs of his coming on them in whom he so wrought. So, in the first institution of the Sanhedrin, or court of seventy elders, to bear together with Moses the burden of the people in their rule and government; the Lord is said to put his Spirit upon them, and that theSpirit rested on them, Numb. xi. 16, 17. " And the Lord said unto " Moses, gather unto me seventy men of the elders of " Israel, whom thou knowest to be elders of the people ., and officers over them. And I will take of the Spirit " that is upon thee, and put it upon then:, and they " shall bear the burden of thepeople with thee, ver. 25. "And the Lord took of the Spirit that was ore Moses a and gave it unto the seventy elders, and the. Spirit " rested on them." That which these elders were called unto, was a share in the supreme ruleand government of the people, which was before entirely in the hand of Moses. This the occasion of their call declares, ver,: 11, 12, 13, 11, 1 5., and they were `I.. inferioryficers before; such as they had in Egypt, who influenced the people by their counsel and arbitration, Exod. iii. 16. chap. v, 6. chap. xxiv. 1, 9. Now they had a supreme
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