Cap, t7. AnExpoftion upon the Book ofJ OB, Vére,,4, 4 31 it at all, trulls any one man or fort of men at one time with all wifdom. fobs friends were well acquainted with , and they have acquainted us with many excellent notions about that great Dodtrine ofProvidence; but they were much mi- ¡taken about the providence ofGod with Job, nor did they Phew themfelves acquainted with that Excellent Defignof God in his aftliding Providences, thereby to try the flrength and manifel the graces which he hath bellowed upon his people. Secondly, Obferve: The hiding of the heart from, and the openingof the heart to underftanding, are the workof God. We fee no further then God gives us light, and fofar as he leads us, we go right ; if he withdraw , we turnafide , and quickly wander from thewayof truth, and righteoufnefs. We have nothing of our own but fin and ignorance , wifdom is of. God ; Every good and perfeíl gift comes fromabove.As God hides all Gofpel- truths and Myfteries fromworldly wife men; So no Gofpel-Myflery is known to any man till God difcover and make it known, Matth,ir. 25. At that time Jefus an frveredand[aid, I thank, thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, becaufe thou haft hid thefe things from the Wife and Prudent, but haft revealed them unto Babes. By Wife and Prudent, he means worldly wife men, mear Philofophers and Politicians, or Hypocritical Profelï'ors, fuch as the Scribes and Pharifees were, from thefe God (in judgment ) hides the things of the Kingdom ofHeaven ; and reveals them un- to Babes, even to fuch as are at the greateft diftance in Natural Confiderations from the capacity of fuch Rich and Heavenly manife¡tations, There is no greater Argument, that God opens the'hearr to underftand , then to fee Babes underftand's: If: true Knowledge in Spiritual Myfteries were horn Man, they who have molt ofman in them would have moll of that Knowledge ; but we are taught by exile' rience,that fuch men as the World calls Fools do not erre in the way of holinefs, Ifa. 35. 8. And that the courte of all Worldly wife men , is a continual erring from that way and that fome godly men, whoarehigher by head and thous ders then.fome of their Brethren in Natural Wifdom, have run into, and maintained JEtrors whither can we afcribe alfl
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