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Guide To Raspberry Pi 3 And Android Development
Programming Raspberry Pi 3
Getting Started With Android

--by UpSkill Learning

Copyright:

Copyright © 2016 by UpSkill Learning All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording,
or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in
the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted
by copyright law.
Dedication:

Dedicated to the ones who look at the world from a different perspective, the ones who are restless, the
ones who strive for change, the ones who see things differently, the ones who don’t accept the status quo,
the ones who challenge current thinking patterns, the ones who break down existing barriers, the ones
who make the impossible possible, the ones who build new things.....
 Table Of Contents

RASPBERRY PI 3
Chapter 1: Introduction - Embedded Systems & The Raspberry Pi
Chapter 2: Moving Toward A Smarter Internet – The Internet Of Things
Chapter 3: Understanding The Raspberry Pi
Versions & Features
Chapter 4: Understanding The Raspberry Pi 3
Chapter 5: The Raspberry Pi 3 – Hardware Setup
Chapter 6: Operating Systems Required For Raspberry Pi 3
Chapter 7: NOOBS for Raspberry Pi 3
Chapter 8: Connecting The Raspberry Pi 3
Chapter 9: Starting And Programming Raspberry Pi 3
Chapter 10: General Purpose Input Output (GPIO)
Chapter 11: Understanding And Accessing Python 3
Programming Using Python 3
Chapter 12: Understanding And Accessing Mathematica
Chapter 13: Programming In Mathematica
Chapter 14: Accessing Camera In Raspberry Pi 3
Chapter 15: Raspberry Pi 3 – Getting Ahead With IOT
Chapter 16: Conclusion - Sculpting Your Career In IOT

ANDROID DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Choosing App Development As A Career Option
Chapter 3: History Of Android App Development
Chapter 4: Advantages Of Android Programming
Chapter 5: Android Apps Vs other OS Apps
Chapter 6: Different Versions In Android
Chapter 7: The Skills You Need To Develop An Android App
Chapter 8: Getting Started - System & Software Requirements
• How To Set Java Environment
• How To Set Android Studio
Chapter 9: Let's Build Your First Android App
• R.Java & String.XML
• Learn About Manifest.XML
• Learn About Layouts
• Learn About Databases
Chapter 10: How To Publish Your Android App
Chapter 11: Rooting Android App
Chapter 12: How To Use Your Mobile As AVD
Chapter 13: Why Should You Become An Android Developer?
Chapter 14: Conclusion – Future Of Android App Development
 Chapter 1
Introduction
Embedded Systems & The Raspberry Pi

In the current world embedded systems play a vital role in day-to-day human life. The world of
Electronics has evolved from manual control to semi automatic and now we have complete smart
automations.

So what will be the next evolutionary step?

Today, we have complete automated systems that once programmed can work on their own. Still there are
few aspects in these systems that cannot be completely automated. Here, the major deciding factors are
human judgment and desire.

Let’s see an example; consider a system to control your room temperature - it can be designed to maintain
certain temperature but that certain temperature needs to be set by user. It won’t be able to start itself prior
you enter your room. You first need to enter the room and then set the temperature.

So the next step in evolution is IOT. It would allow you to control your room temperature from any place
you are. You can setup your air conditioner when you are 15 minutes away from your home. So that by
the time you reach home your room temperature will be already set at a degree you prefer.

There are many constraints come into picture while designing such advanced level of system. The systems
you design need to respond to minute changes i.e. it should be highly responsive. Also the Speed of
operation is a must; we, humans prefer our system to be very fast. The system should not take a lot of time
in processing the given request. Also the system should be compact. Bulky systems are difficult to fit in
whereas small ones are always appreciated as they can be adjusted in any corner and give us freedom to
choose its place.

Power is one of the most critical considerations these days. If our system is battery operated then power
will be the highest priority in design considerations. So we need systems that consume very low power.

As we’ve seen in the previous example, to control system remotely we need Connectivity. Connectivity
is nothing but the ability of a system to connect to other devices and Internet. This can be achieved by
Ethernet port on Pi and full network stack. We also need to consider other peripherals like ADC, DAC,
memory and GPIO.

This information is simply about automation but embedded systems have influence over all aspects of
our life from T.V. to Cars, from radio tower to satellite - nearly all our day to day life is connected with
embedded systems. With these vast application comes variability.
Is it possible to classify all these systems under only one embedded system? No we can’t do that. But we
can classify according to use, size and application and many more parameters. Hence embedded systems
have been divided into many sub systems.

So remember that, First we need to classify our application under right embedded system and then decide
on its development and design process.

The above diagram shows a small possible division of embedded systems but this can be further
classified in many more ways like appliance systems, automobile embedded etc. To develop any project
its future development must also be kept in mind along with present requirements. To develop systems
many development boards are available in market, Few examples are Arduino, Raspberry Pi etc.
 What is a Raspberry Pi?

A Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer originally designed for education, inspired by the 1981
BBC Micro. Creator Eben Upton's goal was to create a low-cost device that would improve
programming skills and hardware understanding at the pre-university level. But thanks to its small size
and accessible price, it was quickly adopted by tinkerers, makers, and electronics enthusiasts for projects
that require more than a basic microcontroller (such as Arduino devices).

The Raspberry Pi is slower than a modern laptop or desktop but is still a complete Linux computer and
can provide all the expected abilities that implies, at a low-power consumption level.

The main benefits of using the Raspberry Pi are:

1.) It's small. You don't need a computer desk or anything to place it.

2.) It's quiet. You don't have to worry about noise at all.

3.) Want to learn about hardware + software integration? No problem, you can get an Arduino setup with
a Pi as well.

4.) It's cheap! Yes, you do need only a monitor and keyboard for initial setup.

We only have great things to say about the Raspberry Pi. To get started with your IOT journey, buy a
Raspberry Pi and read this book to understand more about Raspberry Pi.
 Chapter 2
Moving Toward A Smarter Internet – The Internet Of Things

Imagine you are living in a world where millions and millions of objects has the super power to sense,
communicate and share information – all interconnected over public or private Internet Protocol (IP)
networks. These interconnected objects have data regularly collected, analysed and used to initiate action,
providing a wealth of intelligence for planning, management and decision making - This is the world of
the Internet of Things (IOT).

The concept – IOT was coined in 1999 and it has currently became more relevant to the practical world
majorly because of the exponential growth in technology, medical devices, embedded system, cloud
computing and data analytics.

From 1999 to till now, many visionaries have seized on the phrase “Internet of Things” to refer to the
general idea of things, especially everyday objects, that are readable, recognisable, locatable, addressable,
and/or controllable via the Internet, irrespective of the communication means (whether via RFID, wireless
LAN, wide- area networks, or other means).

Everyday objects include not only the electronic devices we encounter or the products of higher
technological development such as vehicles and equipment but things that we do not ordinarily think of
as electronic at all - such as food, transportation, logistics and clothing.
These day to day things of the practical world can be effortlessly integrated into the virtual world
facilitating anytime, anywhere connectivity. In 2010, the number of everyday physical objects and devices
connected to the Internet was around 12.5 billion. Cisco forecasts that this figure is expected to double to
25 billion in 2015 as the number of more smart devices per person increases, and to a further 50 billion
by 2020

The technological innovation is leaping beyond measures. With more physical objects and smart devices
are getting connected in the Internet of Things landscape, the value and impact IOT brings our life
and business becomes more ubiquitous. Apart from catering to the seamless operation of high end
technology, IOT can benefit common people in their day to day lives – using
IOT people can make better decisions like which route to take to work that day or which restaurant to
choose to have a romantic dinner. Right from security surveillance to health care monitoring to smart
homes to smart cities to agricultural automation to industrial automation – IOT creates a bigger impact
and makes lives easier.

For government, the convergence of data sources on shared networks improves nationwide planning,
promotes better coordination between agencies and facilitates quicker responsiveness to emergencies and
disasters. For businesses, IOT brings about tangible business benefits from improved management and
tracking of assets and products, new business models and cost savings achieved through the optimisation
of equipment and resource usage.

Benefits Of IOT:
The benefits of IOT are immense. In this practical world, you can integrate IOT into anything according
to your creativity and need. Be it business conglomerates or an individual small home, the amount of
benefit you can derive from IOT is enormous. IOT is the hot topic in the industry as well as house-holds
because of its huge technical advancements and assistance in making our lives seamless and smarter.

• Real time monitoring

The devices that are given Internet access will be updating their status or condition
periodically or on user request. This gives users the exact information of the condition of that device
at that instant which enables you to take necessary actions.

• Real time data logging

In previous systems data used to be logged on to system either by taking manual readings or
through other wired protocol. But this limitation can be overcome by giving the device to update its data
over Internet.

• Data analytics
The upcoming cloud technologies help to organize and present user data in very descriptive and
graphical ways like bar graphs, graphs, pie charts etc.

• Remote monitoring
Any place that has Internet facility can be monitored from all over the world through GPRS or
Ethernet or wired connection.

• Control based on actual situation’s data

Controls can be setup automatically on actual situation. Users can also give commands on basis
of data.

• Process optimization
As the availability of data is time independent and location independent, work can be optimized
accordingly.

• Simplicity to access
Controls are available through mobile devices. Even apps can be developed to give users ease of
access.
Applications of IOT:

IOT has a list of applications ranging from household things to heavy industrial machinery. There is no
end to the usage of IOT in technology, business and personal lives.

• Home automation
Household devices like fans, lights, air conditioners can be connected to internet thus giving
users access to their house hold devices from any part of the world.
• Industrial automation
Automation in industry is very critical, as there are harsh and unpleasant conditions for human
beings. Instead of following manual processes, when taking a step further with automated control – by
connecting the systems and controlling over the Internet, it gives great control for the employer/manager
and monitoring since you can monitor not only from the company’s premise but from anywhere. This
facilitates productivity and ensures tasks/people can be monitored simultaneously.

• Patient monitoring system

Patients can be given small devices that continuously monitor patient health and updates report
to hospital servers. Aged patients can be provided with tracking system to monitor their whereabouts.

• Vehicle management system

 Most of people rent out their cars or have travel business, this system helps them monitor things
like time for which A/C was working, vehicle mileage from ECU, engine and petrol status etc.

• Vehicle tracking system

Vehicles can be tracked by using GPS. This will give vehicles exact location on owner or
registered mobiles. This can be used as theft trackers.

• Security system
Burglar alarm, break detectors fitted in house or shops can be connected to Internet. This will
give a high priority alert to owners and nearby police stations.

• Agricultural automation
Agricultural fields can be fitted with various sensors like soil moisture, humidity temperature and
even water pumps can be connected to Internet. All this can be controlled and monitored over Internet.

Vehicle security system

Vehicles can be fitted with security system that not only buzz alarm when unauthorized person
tries to unlock vehicle but also gives instant alert to owner’s mobile.
• Emergency SOS beacon system
Incase of emergency a simple system implemented in vehicle, which on crash will automatically
broadcast its location and SOS message to the nearby police station and hospital. The nearest hospital can
respond to that message and help will be provided in time.

• Industrial safety system

As the SOS beacon industries can be implemented with a small system that will notify fire
brigade in case of fire.

• Military monitoring system

Military applications can be very vast from soldier health monitoring system, armed vehicle
monitoring system to Tracking of solders, supply trucks, tanks etc. Automated unmanned vehicles or Bots
can also be controlled using IOT.
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the Son of man that shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord
thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the
foundation of the earth; and hast feared continually every day,
because of the fury of the oppressor?” To fear man that is as grass,
that cannot think a thought without a Divine concourse, that cannot
breathe, but by a Divine power, nor touch a hair without license first
granted from heaven; this is forgetfulness, and consequently a slight
of that Infinite Power, which hath been manifested in founding the
earth and garnishing the heavens. All fear of man, in the way of our
duty, doth in some sort thrust out the remembrance, and discredit
the great actions of the Creator. Would not a mighty prince think it a
disparagement to him, if his servant should decline his command for
fear of one of his subjects? and hath not the great God just cause to
think himself disgraced by us, when we deny him obedience for fear
of a creature: as though he had but an infant ability too feeble to
bear us out in duty, and incapable to balance the strength of an arm
of flesh?

4. It is contemned by trusting in ourselves, in means, in man,

more than in God. When in any distress we will try every creature
refuge, before we have recourse to God; and when we apply
ourselves to him, we do it with such slight and perfunctory frames,
and with so much despondency, as if we despaired either of his
ability or will to help us; and implore him with cooler affections than
we solicit creatures: or, when in a disease we depend upon the
virtue of the medicine, the ability of the physician, and reflect not
upon that power that endued the medicine with that virtue, and
supports the quality in it, and concurs to the operation of it. When
we depend upon the activity of the means, as if they had power
originally in themselves, and not derivatively; and do not eye the
power of God animating and assisting them. We cannot expect relief
from anything with a neglect of God, but we render it in our
thoughts more powerful than God: we acknowledge a greater
fulness in a shallow stream, than in an eternal spring; we do, in
effect, depose the true God, and create to ourselves a new one; we
assert, by such a kind of acting, the creature, if not superior, yet
equal with God, and independent on him. When we trust in our own
strength, without begging his assistance; or boast of our own
strength, without acknowledging his concurrence, as the Assyrian;
“By the strength of my hand have I done this; I have put down the
inhabitants like a valiant man” (Isa. x. 13). It is, as if the axe should
boast itself against him that hews therewith, and thinks itself more
mighty than the arm that wields it (ver. 15), when we trust in others
more than in God. Thus God upbraids those by the prophet, that
sought help from Egypt, telling them (Isa. xxxi. 3), “The Egyptians
were men, and not gods;” intimating, that by their dependence on
them, they rendered them gods and not men, and advanced them
from the state of creatures to that of almighty deities. It is to set a
pile of dust, a heap of ashes, above Him that created and preserves
the world. To trust in a creature, is to make it as infinite as God; to
do that which is impossible in itself to be done. God himself cannot
make a creature infinite, for that were to make him God. It is also
contemned when we ascribe what we receive to the power of
instruments, and not to the power of God. Men, in whatsoever they
do for us, are but the tools whereby the Creator works. Is it not a
disgrace to the limner to admire his pencil, and not himself; to the
artificer, to admire his file and engines, and not his power? “It is
not I,” saith Paul, “that labor, but the grace, the efficacious grace of
God, which is in me.” Whatsoever good we do is from him, not from
ourselves; to ascribe it to ourselves, or to instruments, is to overlook
and contemn his power.

5. Unbelief of the gospel is a contempt and disowning Divine

power. This perfection hath been discovered in the conception of
Christ, the union of the two natures, his resurrection from the grave,
the restoration of the world, and the conversion of men, more than
in the creation of the world: then what a disgrace is unbelief to all
that power that so severely punished the Jews for the rejecting the
gospel: turned so many nations from their beloved superstitions;
humbled the power of princes and the wisdom of philosophers;
chased devils from their temples by the weakness of fishermen;
planted the standard of the gospel against the common notions and
inveterate customs of the world! What a disgrace is unbelief to this
power which hath preserved Christianity from being extinguished by
the force of men and devils, and kept it flourishing in the midst of
sword, fire, and executioners; that hath made the simplicity of the
gospel overpower the eloquence of orators, and multiplied it from
the ashes of martyrs, when it was destitute of all human assistances!
Not heartily to believe and embrace that doctrine, which hath been
attended with such marks of power, is a high reflection upon this
Divine perfection, so highly manifested in the first publication,
propagation, and preservation of it.

Secondly, The power of God is abused, as well as contemned.

1. When we make use of it to justify contradictions. The doctrine of
transubstantiation is an abuse of this power. When the maintainers
of it cannot answer the absurdities alleged against it, they have
recourse to the power of God. It implies a contradiction, that the
same body should be on earth and in heaven at the same instant of
time; that it should be at the right hand of God, and in the mouth
and stomach of a man; that it should be a body of flesh, and yet
bread to the eye and to the taste; that it should be visible and
invisible, a glorious body, and yet gnawn by the teeth of a creature;
that it should be multiplied in a thousand places, and yet an entire
body in every one, where there is no member to be seen, no flesh to
be tasted; that it should be above us in the highest heavens, and yet
within us in our lower bowels; such contradictions as these are an
abuse of the power of God. Again, we abuse this power when we
believe every idle story that is reported, because God is able to
make it so if he pleased. We may as well believe Æsop’s Fables to be
true, that birds spake, and beasts reasoned, because the power of
God can enable such creatures to such acts. God’s power is not the
rule of our belief of a thing without the exercise of it in matter of
fact, and the declaration of it upon sufficient evidence.

2. The power of God is abused by presuming on it, without

using the means he hath appointed. When men sit with folded arms,
and make a confidence in his power a glorious title to their idleness
and disobedience, they would have his strength do all, and his
precept should move them to do nothing; this is a trust of his power
against his command, a pretended glorifying his power with a slight
of his sovereignty. Though God be almighty, yet, for the most part,
he exerciseth his might in giving life and success to second causes
and lawful endeavors. When we stay in the mouth of danger, without
any call ordering us to continue, and against a door of providence
opened for our rescue, and sanctuary ourselves in the power of God
without any promise, without any providence conducting us; this is
not to glorify the Divine might, but to neglect it, in neglecting the
means which his power affords to us for our escape; to condemn it
to our humors, to work miracles for us according to our wills, and
against his own.884 God could have sent a worm to be Herod’s
executioner when he sought the life of our Saviour, or employed an
angel from heaven to have tied his hands or stopped his breath, and
not put Joseph upon a flight to Egypt with our Saviour; yet had it
not been an abuse of the power of God, for Joseph to have
neglected the precept, and slighted the means God gave him for the
preserving his own life and that of the child’s? Christ himself, when
the Jews consulted to destroy him, presumed not upon the power of
God to secure him, but used ordinary means for his preservation, by
walking no more openly, but retiring himself into a city near the
wilderness till the hour was come, and the call of his Father manifest
(John xi. 53, 54). A rash running upon danger, though for the truth
itself, is a presuming upon, and consequently an abuse of, this
power; a proud challenging it to serve our turns against the
authority of his will, and the force of his precept; a not resting in his
ordinate power, but demanding his absolute power to pleasure our
follies and presumptions; concluding and expecting more from it
than what is authorized by his will.

Instruct. 9. If infinite power be a peculiar property of God, how

miserable will all wicked rebels be under this power of God! Men
may break his laws, but not impair his arm; they may slight his
word, but cannot resist his power. If he swear that he will sweep a
place with the besom of destruction, “as he hath thought, so shall it
come to pass; and as he hath purposed, so shall it stand,” (Isa. xiv.
23, 24). Rebels against an earthly prince may exceed him in
strength, and be more powerful than their sovereign; none can
equal God, much less exceed him. As none can exercise an act of
hostility against him without his permissive will, so none can struggle
from under his hand without his positive will. He hath an arm not to
be moved, a hand not to be wrung aside. God is represented on his
throne like a “jasper stone” (Rev. iv. 3), as one of invincible power
when he comes to judge; the jasper is a stone which withstands the
greatest force.885 Though men resist the order of his laws, they
cannot the sentence of their punishment, nor the execution of it.
None can any more exempt themselves from the arm of his
strength, than they can from the authority of his dominion. As they
must bow to his sovereignty, so must they sink under his force.
A prisoner in this world may make his escape, but a prisoner in the
world to come cannot (Job x. 7). “There is none that can deliver out
of thine hand.” “There is none to deliver when he tears in pieces”
(Ps. l. 22). His strength is uncontrollable; hence his throne is
represented as a “fiery flame” (Dan. vii. 9). As a spark of fire hath
power to kindle one thing after another, and increase till it consumes
a forest, a city, swallow up all combustible matter till it consumes a
world, and many worlds, if they were in being, what power hath the
tree to resist the fire, though it seems mighty, when it outbraves the
winds? What man, to this day, hath been able to free himself from
that chain of death God clapped upon him for his revolt? And if he
be too feeble to rescue himself from a temporal, much less from an
eternal death. The devils have, to this minute, groaned under the
pile of wrath, without any success in delivering themselves by all
their strength, which much surmounts all the strength of mankind,
nor have they any hopes to work their rescue to eternity. How
foolish is every sinner! Can we poor worms strut it out against
Infinite Power? We cannot resist the meanest creatures when God
commissions them, and puts a sword into their hands. They will not,
no, not the worms, be startled at the glory of a king, when they
have the Creator’s warrant to be his executioners (Acts xii. 23). Who
can withstand him, when he commands the waves and inundations
of the sea to leap over the shore; when he divides the ground in
earthquakes, and makes it gape wide to swallow the inhabitants of
it; when the air is corrupted to breed pestilences; when storms and
showers, unseasonably falling, putrify the fruits of the earth; what
created power can mend the matter, and, with a prevailing voice,
say to him, What dost thou? There are two attributes God will make
glister in hell to the full; his wrath and his power (Rom. ix. 22):
“What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power
known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted
for destruction?” If it were mere wrath, and no power to second it, it
were not so terrible; but it is wrath and power: both are joined
together. It is not only a sharp sword, but a powerful arm; and not
only that, for then it were well for the damned creature. To have
many sharp blows, and from a strong arm, this may be without
putting forth the highest strength a man hath; but in this God makes
it his design to make his power known and conspicuous; he takes
the sword, as it were, in both hands, that he may show the strength
of his arm in striking the harder blow; and therefore the apostle calls
it (2 Thess. i. 9) “the glory of his power,” which puts a sting into his
wrath; and it is called (Rev. xix. 15) “the fierceness of the wrath of
the Almighty.” God will do it in such a manner as to make men
sensible of his almightiness in every stroke. How great must that
vengeance be, that is backed by all the strength of God! When there
will be a powerful wrath, without a powerful compassion; when all
his power shall be exercised in punishing, and not the least mite of it
exercised in pitying; how irresistible will be the load of such a
weighty hand! How can the dust of the balance break the mighty
bars, or get out of the lists of a powerful vengeance, or hope for any
grain of comfort? O, that every obstinate sinner would think of this,
and consider his unmeasurable boldness in thinking himself able to
grapple with Omnipotence! What force can any have to resist the
presence of Him, before whom rocks melt, and the heavens, at
length, shall be shrivelled up as a parchment by the last fire! As the
light of God’s face is too dazzling to be beheld by us, so the arm of
his power is too mighty to be opposed by us. His almightiness is
above the reach of our potsherd strength, as his infiniteness is
above the capacity of our purblind understanding. God were not
omnipotent, if his power could be rendered ineffectual by any.

Use II. A second use of this point, from the consideration of the
infinite power of God, is of comfort. As Omnipotence is an ocean
that cannot be fathomed, so the comforts from it are streams that
cannot be exhausted. What joy can be wanting to him that finds
himself folded in the arms of Omnipotence? This perfection is made
over to believers in the covenant, as well as any other attribute;
“I am the Lord, your God;” therefore, that power, which is as
essential to the Godhead as any other perfection of his nature, is, in
the rights and extent of it, assured unto you. Nay, may we not say, it
is made over more than any other, because it is that which animates
every other perfection; and is the Spirit that gives them motion and
appearance in the world. If God had expressed himself in particular,
as, “I am a true God, a wise God, a loving God, a righteous God,
I am yours;” what would all, or any of those, have signified, unless
the other also had been implied, as, “I am an almighty God, I am
your God?” In God’s making over himself in any particular attribute,
this of his power is included in every one, without which, all his
other grants would be insignificant. It is a comfort that power is in
the hands of God; it can never be better placed, for he can never
use his power to injure his confiding creature; if it were in our own
hands, we might use it to injure ourselves. It is a power in the hands
of an indulgent Father, not a hard‑hearted tyrant; it is a just power;
“His right hand is full of righteousness” (Ps. xlviii. 10); because of his
righteousness he can never use it ill, and because of his wisdom he
can never use it unseasonably. Men that have strength, often
misplace the actings of it, because of their folly; and sometimes
employ it to base ends, because of their wickedness; but this power
in God is always awakened by goodness, and conducted by wisdom;
it is never exercised by self‑will and passion, but according to the
immutable rule of his own nature, which is righteousness. How
comfortable is it to think, that you have a God that can do what he
pleases; nothing so difficult but he can effect, nothing so strong but
he can overrule! You need not dread men, since you have One to
restrain them; nor fear devils, since you have One to chain them; no
creature but is acted by this power; no creature but must fall upon
the withdrawing of this power. It was not all laid out in creation; it is
not weakened by his preservation of things; he yet hath a fullness of
power, and a residue of Spirit; for whom should that eternal arm of
the Lord be displayed, and that incomprehensible thunder of his
power be shot out, but for those for whose sake and for whose
comfort it is revealed in his word? In particular,

1. Here is comfort in all afflictions and distresses. Our evils can

never be so great to oppress us, as his power is great to deliver us.
The same power that brought a world out of a chaos, and
constituted, and hath hitherto preserved, the regular motion of the
stars, can bring order out of our confusions, and light out of our
darkness. When our Saviour was in the greatest distress, and beheld
the face of his Father frowning, while he was upon the cross, in his
complaint to him, he exerciseth faith upon his power (Matt.
xxvii. 46): “Eli, Eli: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
that this, My strong, my strong; El, is a name of power, belonging to
God; he comforts himself in his power, while he complains of his
frowns. Follow his pattern, and forget not that power that can
scatter the clouds, as well as gather them together. The Psalmist’s
support in his distress, was in the creative power of God (Ps.
cxxi. 2): “My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and
earth.”

2. It is comfort in all strong and stirring corruptions and mighty

temptations. It is by this we may arm ourselves, and “be strong in
the power of his might” (Eph. vi. 10); by this we may conquer
principalities and powers, as dreadful as hell, but not so mighty as
heaven; by this we may triumph over lusts within, too strong for an
arm of flesh; by this the devils that have possessed us may be cast
out; the battered walls of our souls may be repaired; and the sons of
Anak laid flat. That power that brought light out of darkness, and
over‑mastered the deformity of the chaos, and set bounds to the
ocean, and dried up the Red Sea by a rebuke, can quell the tumults
in our spirits, and level spiritual Goliahs by his word. When the
disciples heard that terrifying speech of our Saviour, concerning rich
men, that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matt.
xix. 24), to entertain the gospel, which commanded self‑denial; and
that, because of the allurements of the world, and the strong habits
in their soul; Christ refers them to the power of God (ver. 26), who
could expel those ill habits, and plant good ones: “With men this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible.” There is no
resistance, but he can surmount; no strong‑hold, but he can
demolish; no tower, but he can level.

3. It is comfort from hence, that all promises shall be

performed. Goodness is sufficient to make a promise, but power is
necessary to perform a promise. Men that are honest, cannot often
make good their words, because something may intervene that may
shorten their ability: but nothing can disable God, without
diminishing his godhead. He hath an infiniteness of power to
accomplish his word, as well as an infiniteness of goodness to make
and utter his word. That might whereby he made heaven and earth,
and his keeping truth forever, are joined together (Ps. cxlvi. 5, 6);
his Father’s faithfulness, and his creative power are linked together.
It is upon this basis the covenant, and every part of it, is
established, and stands as firm as the almightiness of God, whereby
he sprung up the earth, and reared the heavens. “No power can
resist his will” (Rom. ix. 19); “Who can disannul his purpose, and
turn back his hand when it is stretched out” (Isa. xiv. 27)? His word
is unalterable, and his power is invincible. He could not deceive
himself, for he knew his own strength when he promised: no
unexpected event can change his resolution, because nothing can
happen without the compass of his foresight. No created strength
can stop him in his action, because all creatures are ready to serve
him at his command; not the devils in hell, nor all the wicked men
on earth, since he hath strength to restrain them, and an arm to
punish them. What can be too hard for Him that created heaven and
earth? Hence it was, that when God promised anything anciently to
his people, he used often the name of the Almighty, the Lord that
created heaven and earth, as that which was an undeniable answer
to any objection, against anything that might be made against the
greatness and stupendousness of any promise; by that name, in all
his works of grace, was he known to them (Exod. vi. 3). When we
are sure of his will, we need not question his strength, since he
never over‑engaged himself above his ability. He that could not be
resisted by anything in creation, nor vanquished by devils in
redemption, can never want power to glorify his faithfulness in his
accomplishment of whatsoever he hath promised.

4. From this infiniteness of power in God, we have ground of

assurance for perseverance. Since conversion is resembled to the
works of creation and resurrection, two great marks of his strength,
he doth not surely employ himself in the first of changing the heart,
to let any created strength baffle that power which he began and
intends to glorify. It was this might that struck off the chain, and
expelled that strong one that possessed you. What, if you are too
weak to keep him out of his lost possession, will God lose the glory
of his first strength, by suffering his foiled adversary to make a
re‑entry, and regain his former usurpation? His out‑stretched arm
will not do less by his spiritual, than it did by his national Israel: it
guarded them all the way to Canaan, and left them not to shift for
themselves after he had struck off the fetters of Egypt, and buried
their enemies in the Red Sea (Deut. i. 31). This greatness of the
Father, above all, our Saviour makes the ground of believers’
continuance forever, against the blasts of hell and engines of the
world (John x. 29). “My Father is greater than all, and none is able
to pluck them out of my Father’s hands.” Our keeping is not in our
own weak hands, but in the hands of Him who is mighty to save.
That power of God keeps us which intends our salvation. In all fears
of falling away, shelter yourselves in the power of God: “He shall be
holden up,” saith the apostle, speaking concerning one weak in faith;
and no other reason is rendered by him but this, “For God is able to
make him to stand” (Rom. xiv. 4).
 5. From this attribute of the infinite power of God, we have a
ground of comfort in the lowest estate of the church. Let the state of
the church be never so deplorable, the condition never so desperate,
that Power that created the world, and shall raise the bodies of men,
can create a happy state for the church, and raise her from an
overwhelming grave; though the enemies trample upon her, they
cannot upon the arm that holds her, which by the least motion of it,
can lift her up above the heads of her adversaries, and make them
feel the thunder of that Power that none can understand: by the
“blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils they are
consumed” (Job iv. 9); they “shall be scattered as chaff before the
wind.” If once he “draw his hand out of his bosom,” all must fly
before him, or sink under him (Ps. lxxiv. 11): and when there is
“none to help, his own arm sustains him, and brings salvation, and
his fury doth uphold him” (Isa. lxiii. 5). What if the church totter
under the underminings of hell? What if it hath a sad heart and wet
eyes? In what a little moment can he make the night turn into day,
and make the Jews, that were preparing for death in Shushan,
triumph over the necks of their enemies, and march in one hour with
swords in their hands, that expected the last hour “ropes about their
necks” (Esth. ix. 1, 5)? If Israel be pursued by Pharaoh, the sea shall
open its arms to protect them: if they be thirsty, a rock shall spout
out water to refresh them: if they be hungry, heaven shall be their
granary for manna: if Jerusalem be besieged, and hath not force
enough to encounter Sennacherib, an angel shall turn the camp into
an Aceldema, a field of blood. His people shall not want
deliverances, till God want a power of working miracles for their
security: he is more jealous of his power, than the church can be of
her safety. And if we should want other arguments to press him, we
may implore him by virtue of his power: for when there is nothing in
the church as a motive to him to save it, there is enough in his own
name, and “the illustration of his power” (Ps. cvi. 8). Who can
grapple with the omnipotency of that God, who is jealous of, and
zealous for, the honor of it? And therefore God, for the most part,
takes such opportunities to deliver, wherein his almightiness may be
most conspicuous, and his counsels most admirable. He awakened
not himself to deliver Israel, till they were upon the brink of the Red
Sea; nor to rescue the three children, till they were in the fiery
furnace; nor Daniel, till he was in the lion’s den. It is in the weakness
of his creature that his strength is perfected, not in a way of addition
of perfectness to it, but in a way of manifestation of the perfection
of it; as it is the perfection of the sun to shine and enlighten the
world, not that the sun receives an increase of light by the darting of
his beams, but discovers his glory to the admiration of men, and
pleasure of the world. If it were not for such occasions, the world
would not regard the mightiness of God, nor know what power were
in him. It traverses the stage in its fulness and liveliness upon such
occasions, when the enemies are strong, and their strength edged
with an intense hatred, and but little time between the contrivance
and execution. It is a great comfort that the lowest distresses of the
church are a fit scene for the discovery of this attribute, and that the
glory of God’s omnipotence, and the church’s security, are so straitly
linked together. It is a promise that will never be forgotten by God,
and ought never to be forgotten by us, that “in this mountain the
hand of the Lord shall rest” (Isa. xxv. 10); that is, the power of the
Lord shall abide; and Moab “shall be trodden under him, even as
straw is trodden down for the dunghill.” And the “plagues of Babylon
shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; for strong
is the Lord who judgeth her” (Rev. xviii. 8).

Use III. The third use is for exhortation.

1. Meditate on this power of God, and press it often upon your

minds. We conclude many things of God that we do not practically
suck the comfort of, for want of deep thoughts of it, and frequent
inspection into it. We believe God to be true, yet distrust him; we
acknowledge him powerful, yet fear the motion of every straw. Many
truths, though assented to in our understandings, are kept under
hatches by corrupt affections, and have not their due influence,
because they are not brought forth into the open air of our souls by
meditation. If we will but search our hearts, we shall find it is the
power of God we often doubt of. When the heart of Ahaz and his
subjects trembled at the combination of the Syrian and Israelitish
kings against him, for want of a confidence in the power of God,
God sends his prophet with commission to work a miraculous sign at
his own choice, to rear up his fainting heart; and when he refused to
ask a sign out of diffidence of that almighty Power, the prophet
complains of it as an affront to his Master (Isa. vii. 12, 13). Moses,
so great a friend of God, was overtaken with this kind of unbelief,
after all the experiments of God’s miraculous acts in Egypt; the
answer God gives him manifests this to be at the core: “Is the Lord’s
hand waxed short” (Numb. xi. 23)? For want of actuated thoughts of
this, we are many times turned from our known duty by the blast of
a creature; as though man had more power to dismay us, than God
hath to support us in his commanded way. The belief of God’s power
is one of the first steps to all religion; without settled thoughts of it,
we cannot pray lively and believingly for the obtaining the mercies
we want, or the averting the evils we fear; we should not love him,
unless we are persuaded he hath a power to bless us; nor fear him,
unless we were persuaded of his power to punish us. The frequent
thoughts of this would render our faith more stable, and our hopes
more stedfast; it would make us more feeble to sin, and more
careful to obey. When the virgin staggered at the message of the
angel, that she should “bear a Son,” he, in his answer, turns her to
the creative power of God (Luke i. 35), “The power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee;” which seems to be in allusion to the Spirit’s
moving upon the face of the deep, and bringing a comely world out
of a confused mass. Is it harder for God to make a virgin conceive a
Son by the power of his Spirit, than to make a world? Why doth he
reveal himself so often under the title of Almighty, and press it upon
us, but that we should press it upon ourselves? And shall we be
forgetful of that which everything about us, everything within us, is
a mark of? How come we by a power of seeing and hearing, a
faculty, and act of understanding and will, but by this power framing
us, this power assisting us? What though the thunder of his power
cannot be understood, no more can any other perfection of his
nature; shall we, therefore, seldom think of it? The sea cannot be
fathomed, yet the merchant excuseth not himself from sailing upon
the surface of it. We cannot glorify God without due consideration of
this attribute; for his power is his glory as much as any other, and
called both by the name of glory (Rom. vi. 4), speaking of Christ’s
resurrection by the glory of the Father; and also “the riches of his
glory” (Eph. iii. 16). Those that have strong temptations in their
course and over‑pressing corruptions in their hearts, have need to
think of it out of interest, since nothing but this can relieve them.
Those that have experimented the working of it in their new
creation, are obliged to think of it out of gratitude. It was this mighty
power over himself that gave rise to all that pardoning grace already
conferred, or hereafter expected; without it our souls had been
consumed, the world overturned; we could not have expected a
happy heaven, but have lain yelling in an eternal hell, had not the
power of his mercy exceeded that of his justice, and his infinite
power executed what his infinite wisdom had contrived for our
redemption. How much also should we be raised in our admirations
of God, and ravish ourselves in contemplating that might that can
raise innumerable worlds in those infinite imaginary spaces without
this globe of heaven and earth, and exceed inconceivably what he
hath done in the creation of this?

2. From the pressing the consideration of this upon ourselves,

let us be induced to trust God upon the account of his power. The
main end of the revelation of his power to the patriarchs, and of the
miraculous operations of it in Egypt, was to induce them to an entire
reposing themselves in God: and the Psalmist doth scarce speak of
the Divine Omnipotence without making this inference from it; and
scarce exhorts to a trust in God, but backs it with a consideration of
his power in creation, it being the chief support of the soul (Ps.
cxlvi. 1): “Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God, which
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.” That Power
is invincible that drew the world out of nothing: nothing can happen
to us harder than the making the world without the concurrence of
instruments: no difficulty can nonplus that strength, that hath drawn
all things out of nothing, or out of a confused matter next to
nothing: no power can rifle what we commit to him (2 Tim. i. 12).
He is all power, above the reach of all power; all other powers in the
world flowing from him, or depending on him, he is worthy to be
trusted, since we know him true, without ever breaking his word;
and Omnipotent, never failing of his purpose; and a confidence in it
is the chief act whereby we can glorify this power, and credit his
arm. A strong God, and a weak faith in omnipotence, do not suit
well together. Indeed, we are more engaged to a trust in Divine
power than the ancient patriarchs were; they had the verbal
declaration of his power, and many of them little other evidence of it,
than in the creation of the world; and their faith in God being
established in this first discovery of his omnipotence, drew out itself
further to believe, that whatsoever God promised by his word, he
was able to perform, as well as the creation of the world out of
nothing; which seems to be the intendment of the apostle (Heb.
xi. 3); not barely to speak of the creation of the world by God, which
was a thing the Hebrews understood well enough from their ancient
oracles; but to show the foundation of the patriarch’s faith, viz. God
making the world by his Word, and what use they made of the
discovery of his power in that, to lead them to believe the promise of
God concerning the Seed of the woman to be brought into the
world. But we have not only the same foundation, but superadded
demonstrations of this attribute in the conception of our Saviour, the
union of the two natures, the glorious redemption, the propagation
of the gospel, and the new creation of the world. They relied upon
the naked power of God, without those more illustrious appearances
of it, which have been in the ages since, and arrived to their notice;
we have the wonderful effects of that which they had but obscure
expectations of.

(1.) Consider, trust in God can never be without taking in God’s

power as a concurrent foundation with his truth. It is the main
ground of trust, and so set forth in the prophet (Isa. xxvi. 4); “Trust
ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength.” And the faith of the ancients so recommended (Heb. xi.),
had this chiefly for its ground; and the faith in gospel times is called
a “trusting on his arm” (Isa. li. 5.) All the attributes of God are the
objects of our veneration, but they do not equally contribute to the
producing trust in our hearts; his eternity, simplicity, infiniteness,
ravish and astonish our minds when we consider them; but there is
no immediate tendency in their nature to allure us to a confidence in
him, no, not in an innocent state, much less in a lapsed and revolted
condition: but the other perfections of his nature, as his holiness,
righteousness, mercy, are amiable to us in regard of the immediate
operations of them upon and about the creature, and so have
something in their own nature to allure us to repose ourselves in
him; but yet those cannot engage to an entire trust in him without
reflecting upon his ability, which can only render those useful and
successful to the creature.886 For whatsoever bars stand in the way
of his holy, righteous, and merciful proceedings towards his
creatures, are not overmastered by those perfections, but by that
strength of his which can only relieve us in concurrence with the
other attributes. How could his mercy succor us without his arm, or
his wisdom guide us without his hand, or his truth perform promises
to us without his strength? As no attribute can act without it, so in
our addresses to him upon the account of any particular perfection
in the Godhead according to our indigency, our eye must be
perpetually fixed upon this of his power, and our faith would be
feeble and dispirited without eyeing this: without this, his holiness,
which hates sin, would not be regarded; and his mercy, pitying a
grieving sinner, would not be valued. As this power is the ground of
a wicked man’s fear, so it is the ground of a good man’s trust. This
was that which was the principal support of Abraham, not barely his
promise, but his ability to make it good (Rom. iv. 21); and when he
was commanded to sacrifice Isaac, the ability of God to raise him up
again (Heb. xi. 19). All faith would droop, and be in the mire,
without leaning upon this; all those attributes which we consider as
moral in God, would have no influence upon us without this, which
we consider physically in God. Though we value the kindness men
may express to us in our distresses, yet we make them not the
objects of our confidence, unless they have an ability to act what
they express. There can be no trust in God without an eye to his
power.

(2.) Sometimes the power of God is the sole object of trust. As

when we have no promise to assure us of his will, we have nothing
else to pitch upon but his ability; and that not his absolute power,
but his ordinate, in the way of his providence; we must not trust in it
so as to expect he should please our humor with fresh miracles, but
rest upon his power, and leave the manner to his will. Asa, when
ready to conflict with the vast Ethiopian army, pleaded nothing else
but this power of God (2 Chron. xiv. 11). And the three children, who
had no particular promise of deliverance (that we read of) stuck to
God’s ability to preserve them against the king’s threatening, and
owned it in the face of the king, yet with some kind of inward
intimations in their own spirits, that he would also deliver them
(Dan. iii. 17). “Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from
the burning fiery furnace.” And accordingly the fire burnt the cords
that tied them, without singeing any thing else about them. But
when this power hath been exercised upon like occasions, it is a
precedent he hath given us to rest upon. Precedents in law are good
pleas, and strong encouragements to the client to expect success in
his suit. “Our fathers trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them,”
saith David (Ps. xxii. 4). And Jehoshaphat, in a case of distress
(2 Chron. xx. 7), “Art not thou our God, that didst drive out the
inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel?” When we have not
any statute law and promise to plead, we may plead his power,
together with the former precedents and act of it. The centurion had
nothing else to act his faith upon but the power of Christ, and some
evidences of it in the miracles reported of him; but he is silent in the
latter, and casts himself only upon the former, acknowledging that
Christ had the same command over diseases, as himself had over his
soldiers (Matt. viii. 10). And our Saviour, when he receives the
petition of the blind men, requires no more of them in order to a
cure, but a belief of his ability to perform it (Matt. ix. 28). “Believe
you that I am able to do this?” His will is not known but by
revelation, but his power is apprehended by reason, as essentially
and eternally linked with the notion of a God. God also is jealous of
the honor of this attribute; and since it is so much virtually
discredited, he is pleased when any do cordially own it, and entirely
resign themselves to the assistance of it. Well, then, in all duties
where faith is particularly to be acted, forget not this as the main
prop of it: do you pray for a flourishing and triumphing grace?
Consider him “as able to make all grace to abound in you” (2 Cor.
ix. 8). Do you want comfort and reviving under your contritions and
godly sorrow? Consider him, as he declares himself, “the high and
lofty One” (Isa. lvii. 15). Are you under pressing distresses? take
Eliphaz’s advice to Job, when he tells him what he himself would do
if he were in his case (Job v. 8), “I would seek unto God, and unto
God would I commit my cause:” but observe under what
consideration (ver. 9) as to one “that doth great things, and
unsearchable; marvellous things without number.” When you beg of
him the melting your rocky hearts, the dashing in pieces your strong
corruptions, the drawing his beautiful image in your soul, the
quickening your dead hearts, and reviving your drooping spirits, and
supplying your spiritual wants, consider him as one “able to do
abundantly,” not only “above what you can ask,” but “above what
you can think” (Eph. iii. 20). Faith will be spiritless, and prayer will
be lifeless, if power be not eyed by us in those things which cannot
be done without an arm of Omnipotence.

3. This doctrine teacheth us humility and submission. The vast

disproportion between the mightiness of God, and the meanness of
a creature, inculcates the lesson of humility in his presence. How
becoming is humility under a mighty hand (1 Pet. v. 6)! What is an
infant in a giant’s hand, or a lamb in a lion’s paw? Submission to
irresistible power is the best policy, and the best security; this
gratifies and draws out goodness, whereas murmuring and
resistance exasperates and sharpens power. We sanctify his name,
and glorify his strength, by falling down before it; it is an
acknowledgment of his invisible strength, and our inability to match
it. How low should we therefore lie before him, against whose power
our pride and murmuring can do no good, who can out‑wrestle us in
our contests, and alway overcome when he judges (Rom. iii. 4)!

4. This doctrine teacheth us not to fear the pride and force of

man. How unreasonable is it to fear a limited, above an unbounded
power! How unbecoming is the fear of man in him, who hath an
interest in a strength able to curb the strongest devils! Who would
tremble at the threats of a dwarf, that hath a mighty and watchful
giant for his guard? If God doth but arise, his enemies are scattered
(Ps. lxviii. 1): the least motion makes them fly before him: it is no
difficult thing for Him, that made them by a word, to unmake their
designs, and shiver them in pieces by the breath of his mouth: “He
brings princes to nothing, and makes the judges of the earth vanity;
they wither when he blows upon them, and their stock shall not take
root in the earth. He can command a whirlwind to take them away
as stubble” (Isa. xl. 23, 24); yea, with the “shaking of his hand he
makes servants to become rulers of those that were their masters”
(Zech. ii. 9). Whole nations are no more in his hands than a
“morning cloud,” or the “dew upon the ground,” or “the chaff before
the wind,” or the smoke against the motion of the air, which, though
it appear out of a chimney like a black invincible cloud, is quickly
dispersed, and becomes invisible (Hos. xiii. 3). How inconsiderable
are the most mighty to this strength, which can puff away a whole
world of proud grasshoppers, and a whole sky of daring clouds! He
that by his word masters the rage of the sea, can overrule the pride
and power of men. Where is the fury of the oppressor? It cannot
overleap the bounds he hath set it, nor march an inch beyond the
point he hath prescribed it. Fear not the confederacies of man, but
“sanctify the Lord of hosts; let him be your fear, and let him be your
dread” (Isa. viii. 13). To fear men is to dishonor the name of God,
and regard him as a feeble Lord, and not as the Lord of hosts, who
is mighty in strength, so that they that harden themselves against
him shall not prosper.

5. Therefore this doctrine teacheth us the fear of God. The

prophet Jeremiah counts it as an impossible thing for men to be
destitute of the fear of God, when they seriously consider his name
to be great and mighty (Jer. x. 6, 7): “Thou art great, and thy name
is great in might: who would not fear thee, O thou King of nations?”
Shall we not tremble at his presence, who hath placed the “sand for
the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree;” that though the waves
thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail (Jer. v. 22). He can
arm the weakest creature for our destruction, and disarm the
strongest creatures which appear for our preservation. He can
command a hair, a crumb, a kernel, to go awry, and strangle us. He
can make the heavens brass over our head, stop close the bottles of
the clouds, and make the fruit of the fields droop, when there is a
small distance to the harvest; he can arm men’s wit, wealth, hands,
against themselves; he can turn our sweet morsels into bitter, and
our own consciences into devouring lions; he can root up cities by
moles, and conquer the proudest by lice and worms. The
omnipotence of God is not only the object of a believer’s trust, but a
believer’s fear. It is from the consideration of this power only, that
our Saviour presses his disciples, whom he entitles his friends, to
fear God; which lesson he presses by a double repetition, and with a
kind of asseveration, without rendering any other reason than this of
the ability of God to cast into hell (Luke xii. 5). We are to fear Him
because he can; but bless his goodness because he will not. In
regard of his omnipotence, he is to be reverenced, not only by
mortal men, but by the blessed angels, who are past the fear of any
danger by his power, being confirmed in a happy state by his
unalterable grace: when they adore him for his holiness, they
reverence him for his power with covered faces: the title of the “Lord
of hosts” is joined in their reverential praise with that of his holiness
(Isa. vi. 3), “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” How should we
adore that Power which can preserve us, when devils and men
conspire to destroy us! How should we stand in awe of that Power
which can destroy us, though angels and men should combine to
preserve us! The parts of his ways which are discovered, are
sufficient motives to an humble and reverential adoration: but who
can fear and adore him according to the vastness of his power, and
his excellent greatness, since “the thunder of his power who can
understand?”
 DISCOURSE XI.
ON THE HOLINESS OF GOD.

Exodus xv. 11.—Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

This verse is one of the loftiest descriptions of the majesty and

excellency of God in the whole Scripture.887 It is a part of Moses’
Ἐπινίκιον, or “triumphant song,” after a great and real, and a typical
victory; in the womb of which all the deliverances of the church were
couched. It is the first song upon holy record, and it consists of
gratulatory and prophetic matter; it casts a look backward to what
God did for them in their deliverance from Egypt; and a look forward
to what God shall do for the church in future ages. That deliverance
was but a rough draught of something more excellent to be wrought
towards the closing up of the world; when his plagues shall be
poured out upon the anti‑christian powers, which should revive the
same song of Moses in the church, as fitted so many ages before for
such a scene of affairs (Rev. xv. 2, 3). It is observed, therefore, that
many words in this song are put in the future tense, noting a time to
come; and the very first word, ver. 1, “Then sang Moses and the
children of Israel this song;” ‫ישיר‬, shall sing; implying, that it was
composed and calculated for the celebrating some greater action of
God’s, which was to be wrought in the world.888 Upon this account,
some of the Jewish rabbins, from the consideration of this remark,
asserted the doctrine of the resurrection to be meant in this place;
that Moses and those Israelites should rise again to sing the same
song, for some greater miracles God should work, and greater
triumphs he should bring forth, exceeding those wonders at their
deliverance from Egypt.

It consists of, 1. A preface (ver. 1); “I will sing unto the Lord.”889
2. An historical narration of matter of fact (ver. 3, 4), “Pharaoh’s
chariots and his host hath he cast into the Red Sea;” which he solely
ascribes to God (ver. 6), “Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious
in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy;”
which he doth prophetically, as respecting something to be done in
after‑times; or further for the completing of that deliverance; or, as
others think, respecting their entering into Canaan; for the words, in
these two verses, are put in the future tense. The manner of the
deliverance is described (ver. 8); “The floods stood upright as an
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.” In the
9th verse, he magnifies the victory from the vain glory and security
of the enemy; “The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will
divide the spoil,” &c. And ver. 16, 17, He prophetically describes the
fruit of this victory, in the influence it shall have upon those nations,
by whose confines they were to travel to the promised land; “Fear
and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thy arm they
shall be as still as a stone, till thy people pass over which thou hast
purchased.” The phrase of this and the 17th and 18th verses, seems
to be more magnificent than to design only the bringing the
Israelites to the earthly Canaan; but seems to respect the gathering
his redeemed ones together, to place them in the spiritual sanctuary
which he had established, wherein the Lord should reign forever and
ever, without any enemies to disturb his royalty; “The Lord shall
reign forever and ever” (ver. 18). The prophet, in the midst of his
historical narrative, seems to be in an ecstasy, and breaks out in a
stately exaltation of God in the text.

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? &c.

Interrogations are, in Scripture, the strongest affirmations or
negations; it is here a strong affirmation of the incomparableness of
God, and a strong denial of the worthiness of all creatures to be
partners with him in the degrees of his excellency; it is a preference
of God before all creatures in holiness, to which the purity of
creatures is but a shadow in desert of reverence and veneration, he
being “fearful in praises.” The angels cover their faces when they
adore him in his particular perfections.

Amongst the gods. Among the idols of the nations, say some;
others say,890 it is not to be found that the Heathen idols are ever
dignified with the title of “strong or mighty,” as the word translated
gods, doth import; and therefore understand it of the angels, or
other potentates of the world; or rather inclusively, of all that are
noted for, or can lay claim to, the title of strength and might upon
the earth or in heaven. God is so great and majestic, that no
creature can share with him in his praise.

Fearful in praises. Various are the interpretations of this

passage: to be “reverenced in praises;” his praise ought to be
celebrated with a religious fear. Fear is the product of his mercy as
well as his justice; “He hath forgiveness that he may be feared” (Ps.
cxxx. 4). Or, “fearful in praises;” whom none can praise without
amazement at the considerations of his works. None can truly praise
him without being affected with astonishment at his greatness.891
Or, “fearful in praises;” whom no mortal can sufficiently praise, since
he is above all praise.892 Whatsoever a human tongue can speak, or
an angelical understanding think of the excellency of his nature and
the greatness of his works, falls short of the vastness of the Divine
perfection. A creature’s praises of God are as much below the
transcendent eminency of God, as the meanness of a creature’s
being is below the eternal fulness of the Creator. Or, rather, “fearful,”
or terrible, “in praises;” that is, in the matter of thy praise: and the
learned Rivet concurs with me in this sense. The works of God,
celebrated in this song, were terrible; it was the miraculous
overthrow of the strength and flower of a mighty nation; his
judgments were severe, as well as his mercy was seasonable. The
word ‫ נורא‬signifies glorious and illustrious, as well as terrible and
fearful. No man can hear the praise of thy name, for those great
judicial acts, without some astonishment at thy justice, the stream,
and thy holiness, the spring of those mighty works. This seems to be
the sense of the following words, “doing wonders:” fearful in the
matter of thy praise; they being wonders which thou hast done
among us and for us.

Doing wonders. Congealing the waters by a wind, to make them

stand like walls for the rescue of the Israelites; and melting them by
a wind, for the overthrow of the Egyptians, are prodigies that
challenge the greatest adorations of that mercy which delivered the
one, and that justice which punished the other; and of the arm of
that power whereby he effected both his gracious and righteous
purposes.

Whence observe, that the judgments of God upon his enemies,

as well as his mercies to his people, are matters of praise. The
perfections of God appear in both. Justice and mercy are so linked
together in his acts of providence, that the one cannot be forgotten
whilst the other is acknowledged. He is never so terrible as in the
assemblies of his saints, and the deliverance of them (Ps. lxxxix. 7).
As the creation was erected by him for his glory; so all the acts of
his government are designed for the same end: and his creatures
deny him his due, if they acknowledge not his excellency in
whatsoever dreadful, as well as pleasing garbs, it appears in the
world. His terror as well as his righteousness appears, when he is a
God of salvation (Ps. lxv. 5). “By terrible things in righteousness wilt
thou answer us, O God of our salvation.” But the expression I pitch
upon in the text to handle, is glorious in holiness. He is magnified or
honorable in holiness; so the word ‫ נאדר‬is translated (Isa. xlii. 21).
“He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Thy holiness hath
shone forth admirably in this last exploit, against the enemies and
oppressors of thy people. The holiness of God is his glory, as his
grace is his riches: holiness is his crown, and his mercy is his
treasure. This is the blessedness and nobleness of his nature; it
renders him glorious in himself, and glorious to his creatures, that
understand any thing of this lovely perfection. Holiness is a glorious
perfection belonging to the nature of God. Hence he is in Scripture
styled often the Holy One, the Holy One of Jacob, the Holy One of
Israel; and oftener entitled Holy, than Almighty, and set forth by this
part of his dignity more than by any other. This is more affixed as an
epithet to his name than any other: you never find it expressed, His
mighty name, or His wise name; but His great name, and most of
all, His holy name. This is his greatest title of honor; in this doth the
majesty and venerableness of his name appear. When the sinfulness
of Sennacherib is aggravated, the Holy Ghost takes the rise from this
attribute (2 Kings xix. 22). “Thou hast lift up thine eyes on high,
even against the Holy One of Israel;” not against the wise,
mighty, &c., but against the Holy One of Israel, as that wherein the
majesty of God was most illustrious. It is upon this account he is
called light, as impurity is called darkness; both in this sense are
opposed to one another: he is a pure and unmixed light, free from
all blemish in his essence, nature, and operations.

1. Heathens have owned it. Proclus calls him, the undefiled

Governor of the world.893 The poetical transformations of their false
gods, and the extravagancies committed by them, was—in the
account of the wisest of them—an unholy thing to report and
hear.894 And some vindicate Epicurus from the atheism wherewith he
was commonly charged; that he did not deny the being of God, but
those adulterous and contentious deities the people worshipped,
which were practices unworthy and unbecoming the nature of
God.895 Hence they asserted, that virtue was an imitation of God,
and a virtuous man bore a resemblance to God: if virtue were a copy
from God, a greater holiness must be owned in the original. And
when some of them were at a loss how to free God from being the
author of sin in the world, they ascribe the birth of sin to matter, and
run into an absurd opinion, fancying it to be uncreated, that thereby
they might exempt God from all mixture of evil; so sacred with them
was the conception of God, as a Holy God.
 2. The absurdest heretics have owned it. The Maniches and
Marchionites, that thought evil came by necessity, yet would salve
God’s being the author of it, by asserting two distinct eternal
principles, one the original of evil, as God was the fountain of good:
so rooted was the notion of this Divine purity, that none would ever
slander goodness itself with that which was so disparaging to it.896

3. The nature of God cannot rationally be conceived without it.

Though the power of God be the first rational conclusion, drawn
from the sight of his works, wisdom the next, from the order and
connexion of his works, purity must result from the beauty of his
works: that God cannot be deformed by evil, who hath made every
thing so beautiful in its time. The notion of a God cannot be
entertained without separating from him whatsoever is impure and
bespotting both in his essence and actions. Though we conceive him
infinite in Majesty, infinite in essence, eternal in duration, mighty in
power, and wise and immutable in his counsels; merciful in his
proceedings with men, and whatsoever other perfections may dignify
so sovereign a Being, yet if we conceive him destitute of this
excellent perfection, and imagine him possessed with the least
contagion of evil, we make him but an infinite monster, and sully all
those perfections we ascribed to him before; we rather own him a
devil than a God. It is a contradiction to be God and to be darkness,
or to have one mote of darkness mixed with his light. It is a less
injury to him to deny his being, than to deny the purity of it; the one
makes him no god, the other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable
god. Plutarch said not amiss, That he should count himself less
injured by that man, that should deny that there was such a man as
Plutarch, than by him that should affirm that there was such a one
indeed, but he was a debauched fellow, a loose and vicious person.
It is a less wrong to God to discard any acknowledgments of his
being, and to count him nothing, than to believe him to exist, but
imagine a base and unholy Deity: he that saith, God is not holy,
speaks much worse than he that saith, There is no God at all. Let
these two things be considered.
 I. If any, this attribute hath an excellency above his other
perfections. There are some attributes of God we prefer, because of
our interest in them, and the relation they bear to us: as we esteem
his goodness before his power, and his mercy whereby he relieves
us, before his justice whereby he punisheth us; as there are some
we more delight in, because of the goodness we receive by them; so
there are some that God delights to honor, because of their
excellency.

1. None is sounded out so loftily, with such solemnity, and so

frequently by angels that stand before his throne, as this. Where do
you find any other attribute trebled in the praises of it, as this (Isa.
vi. 3)? “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of
his glory;” and (Rev. iv. 8), “The four beasts rest not day and night,
saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” &c. His power or
sovereignty, as Lord of hosts, is but once mentioned, but with a
ternal repetition of his holiness. Do you hear, in any angelical song,
any other perfection of the Divine Nature thrice repeated? Where do
we read of the crying out Eternal, eternal, eternal; or, Faithful,
faithful, faithful, Lord God of Hosts? Whatsoever other attribute is
left out, this God would have to fill the mouths of angels and blessed
spirits for ever in heaven.

2. He singles it out to swear by (Ps. lxxxix. 35): “Once have

I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David:” and (Amos
iv. 2), “The Lord will swear by his holiness:” he twice swears by his
holiness; once by his power (Isa. lxii. 8); once by all, when he
swears by his name (Jer. xliv. 26). He lays here his holiness to
pledge for the assurance of his promise, as the attribute most dear
to him, most valued by him, as though no other could give an
assurance parallel to it in this concern of an everlasting redemption
which is there spoken of: he that swears, swears by a greater than
himself; God having no greater than himself, swears by himself: and
swearing here by his holiness, seems to equal that single one to all
his other attributes, as if he were more concerned in the honor of it,
than of all the rest. It is as if he should have said, Since I have not a
more excellent perfection to swear by, than that of my holiness, I lay
this to pawn for your security, and bind myself by that which I will
never part with, were it possible for me to be stripped of all the rest.
It is a tacit imprecation of himself, If I lie unto David, let me never
be counted holy, or thought righteous enough to be trusted by
angels or men. This attribute he makes most of.

3. It is his glory and beauty. Holiness is the honor of the

creature; sanctification and honor are linked together (1 Thess.
iv. 4); much more is it the honor of God; it is the image of God in
the creature (Eph. iv. 24). When we take the picture of a man, we
draw the most beautiful part, the face, which is a member of the
greatest excellency. When God would be drawn to the life, as much
as can be, in the spirit of his creatures, he is drawn in this attribute,
as being the most beautiful perfection of God, and most valuable
with him. Power is his hand and arm; omniscience, his eye; mercy,
his bowels; eternity, his duration; his holiness is his beauty (2 Chron.
xx. 21);—“should praise the beauty of holiness.” In Ps. xxvii. 4,
David desires “to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his
holy temple;” that is, the holiness of God manifested in his hatred of
sin in the daily sacrifices. Holiness was the beauty of the temple
(Isa. xlvi. 11); holy and beautiful house are joined together; much
more the beauty of God that dwelt in the sanctuary. This renders
him lovely to all his innocent creatures, though formidable to the
guilty ones. A heathen philosopher could call it the beauty of the
Divine essence, and say, that God was not so happy by an eternity
of life, as by an excellency of virtue.897 And the angels’ song
intimate it to be his glory (Isa. vi. 3); “The whole earth is full of thy
glory;” that is, of his holiness in his laws, and in his judgments
against sin, that being the attribute applauded by them before.

4. It is his very life. So it is called (Eph. iv. 18), “Alienated from

the life of God,” that is, from the holiness of God: speaking of the
opposite to it, the uncleanness and profaneness of the Gentiles. We
are only alienated from that which we are bound to imitate; but this
is the perfection alway set out as the pattern of our actions, “Be ye
holy, as I am holy;” no other is proposed as our copy; alienated from
that purity of God, which is as much as his life, without which he
could not live. If he were stripped of this, he would be a dead God,
more than by the want of any other perfection. His swearing by it
intimates as much; he swears often by his own life; “As I live, saith
the Lord:” so he swears by his holiness, as if it were his life, and
more his life than any other. Let me not live, or let me not be holy,
are all one in his oath. His Deity could not outlive the life of his
purity.

II. As it seems to challenge an excellency above all his other

perfections, so it is the glory of all the rest. As it is the glory of the
Godhead, so it is the glory of every perfection in the Godhead. As his
power is the strength of them, so his holiness is the beauty of them.
As all would be weak, without almightiness to back them, so all
would be uncomely without holiness to adorn them. Should this be
sullied, all the rest would lose their honor and their comfortable
efficacy: as, at the same instant that the sun should lose its light, it
would lose its heat, its strength, its generative and quickening virtue.
As sincerity is the lustre of every grace in a Christian, so is purity the
splendor of every attribute in the Godhead. His justice is a holy
justice; his wisdom a holy wisdom; his arm of power a holy arm (Ps.
xcviii. 1); his truth or promise a holy promise (Ps. cv. 42). Holy and
true go hand in hand (Rev. vi. 10). His name, which signifies all his
attributes in conjunction, is holy (Ps. ciii. 1); yea, he is “righteous in
all his ways, and holy in all his works” (Ps. cxlv. 17): it is the rule of
all his acts, the source of all his punishments. If every attribute of
the Deity were a distinct member, purity would be the form, the
soul, the spirit to animate them. Without it, his patience would be an
indulgence to sin, his mercy a fondness, his wrath a madness, his
power a tyranny, his wisdom an unworthy subtilty. It is this gives a
decorum to all. His mercy is not exercised without it, since he
pardons none but those that have an interest, by union, in the
obedience of a Mediator, which was so delightful to his infinite purity.
His justice, which guilty man is apt to tax with cruelty and violence
in the exercise of it, is not acted out of the compass of this rule. In
acts of man’s vindictive justice there is something of impurity,
perturbation, passion, some mixture of cruelty; but none of these fall
upon God in the severest acts of wrath. When God appears to
Ezekiel, in the resemblance of fire, to signify his anger against the
house of Judah for their idolatry, “from his loins downward” there
was “the appearance of fire;” but, from the loins upward, “the
appearance of brightness, as the color of amber” (Ezek. viii. 2). His
heart is clear in his most terrible acts of vengeance; it is a pure
flame, wherewith he scorcheth and burns his enemies: he is holy in
the most fiery appearance. This attribute, therefore, is never so
much applauded, as when his sword hath been drawn, and he hath
manifested the greatest fierceness against his enemies. The
magnificent and triumphant expression of it in the text, follows just
upon God’s miraculous defeat and ruin of the Egyptian army: “The
sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters:” then it
follows, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, glorious in holiness?” And
when it was so celebrated by the seraphims (Isa. vi. 3), it was when
the “posts moved, and the house was filled with smoke” (ver. 4),
which are signs of anger (Ps. xviii. 7, 8). And when he was about to
send Isaiah upon a message of spiritual and temporal judgments,
that he would make the “heart of that people fat, and their ears
heavy, and their eyes shut; waste their cities without inhabitant, and
their houses without man, and make the land desolate” (ver. 9‒12):
and the angels which here applaud him for his holiness, are the
executioners of his justice, and here called seraphims, from burning
or fiery spirits, as being the ministers of his wrath. His justice is part
of his holiness, whereby he doth reduce into order those things that
are out of order. When he is consuming men by his fury, he doth not
diminish, but manifest purity (Zeph. iii. 5); “The just Lord is in the
midst of her; he will do no iniquity.” Every action of his is free from
all tincture of evil. It is also celebrated with praise, by the four
beasts about his throne, when he appears in a covenant garb with a
rainbow about his throne, and yet with thunderings and lightnings
shot against his enemies (Rev. iv. 8, compared with ver. 3, 5), to
show that all his acts of mercy, as well as justice, are clear from any
stain. This is the crown of all his attributes, the life of all his decrees,
the brightness of all his actions: nothing is decreed by him, nothing
is acted by him, but what is worthy of the dignity, and becoming the
honor, of this attribute.

For the better understanding this attribute, observe, I. The

nature of this holiness. II. The demonstration of it. III. The purity of
his nature in all his acts about sin. IV. The use of all to ourselves.

I. The nature of Divine holiness in general. The holiness of God

negatively, is a perfect and unpolluted freedom from all evil. As we
call gold pure that is not embased by any dross, and that garment
clean that is free from any spot, so the nature of God is estranged
from all shadow of evil, all imaginable contagion. Positively, It is the
rectitude or integrity of the Divine nature, or that conformity of it, in
affection and action, to the Divine will, as to his eternal law,
whereby he works with a becomingness to his own excellency, and
whereby he hath a delight and complacency in everything agreeable
to his will, and an abhorrency of everything contrary thereunto. As
there is no darkness in his understanding, so there is no spot in his
will: as his mind is possessed with all truth, so there is no deviation
in his will from it. He loves all truth and goodness; he hates all falsity
and evil. In regard of his righteousness, he loves righteousness (Ps.
xi. 7); “The righteous Lord loveth righteousness,” and “hath no
pleasure in wickedness” (Ps. v. 4). He values purity in his creatures,
and detests all impurity, whether inward or outward. We may,
indeed, distinguish the holiness of God from his righteousness in our
conceptions: holiness is a perfection absolutely considered in the
nature of God; righteousness, a perfection, as referred to others, in
his actions towards them and upon them.898

In particular, this property of the Divine nature is, 1. An

essential and necessary perfection: he is essentially and necessarily
holy. It is the essential glory of his nature: his holiness is as
necessary as his being; as necessary as his omniscience: as he
cannot but know what is right, so he cannot but do what is just. His
understanding is not as created understanding, capable of ignorance
as well as knowledge; so his will is not as created wills, capable of
unrighteousness, as well as righteousness. There can be no
contradiction or contrariety in the Divine nature, to know what is
right, and to do what is wrong; if so, there would be a diminution of
his blessedness, he would not be a God alway blessed, “blessed
forever,” as he is (Rom. ix. 5). He is as necessarily holy, as he is
necessarily God; as necessarily without sin, as without change. As
he was God from eternity, so he was holy from eternity. He was
gracious, merciful, just in his own nature, and also holy; though no
creature had been framed by him to exercise his grace, mercy,
justice, or holiness upon.899 If God had not created a world, he had,
in his own nature, been Almighty, and able to create a world. If
there never had been anything but himself, yet he had been
omniscient, knowing everything that was within the verge and
compass of his infinite power; so he was pure in his own nature,
though he never had brought forth any rational creature whereby to
manifest this purity. These perfections are so necessary, that the
nature of God could not subsist without them. And the acts of those,
ad intra, or within himself, are necessary; for being omniscient in
nature, there must be an act of knowledge of himself and his own
nature. Being infinitely holy, an act of holiness in infinitely loving
himself, must necessarily flow from this perfection.900 As the Divine
will cannot but be perfect, so it cannot be wanting to render the
highest love to itself, to its goodness, to the Divine nature, which is
due to him. Indeed, the acts of those, ad extra, are not necessary,
but upon a condition. To love righteousness, without himself, or to
detect sin, or inflict punishment for the committing of it, could not
have been, had there been no righteous creature for him to love, no
sinning creature for him to loathe, and to exercise his justice upon,
as the object of punishment. Some attributes require a condition to
make the acts of them necessary; as it is at God’s liberty, whether he
will create a rational creature, or no; but when he decrees to make
either angel or man, it is necessary, from the perfection of his
nature, to make them righteous. It is at God’s liberty whether he will
speak to man, or no; but if he doth, it is impossible for him to speak
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