Caryl - Houston-Packer Collection BS1415 .C37 v8

34o Chap. 28. an Extofìtion aspon the BookofJOE. Verf. z7' there to none like me,declaring the endfrom the beginning, andfrom ancient times the things that are not yet done. If the Lord had not a clear fight of ail things, from the end to the beginning, he could not make them known, nor declare the end, chat is, what the con- clufion or iffues of all things (hall be from the beginning ; and when 'cis faid,he declareth the end, we mu( take in all the inter- mediate a&s and fecond caufes which concur to the making up of that conclufion. It is the priviledge of God alone to be able to declare the end from the beginning.''Tis conímonlylaid when any great bufinefs is undertaken We havefeen the beginningof it,but who can tell the endof it ? We have feen the beginning of wars and troubles in this Nation, and we have feen a great pro- grefs, but yet we know not what the furchefa end may be ; and who could believe they would have come to fuch anend as now they are at ? but God faw the end that is now, andwhat the end will be to the end from the beginning;this is his glory,and this is his peculiar glory. Mancannot feewhat (ball be done tomorrow, nor can he fee the endor iffue of what isdoing this day.Man can- not fee a day before him, but Godcan fee thoufands and thou- fands of yeares before him ; Known unto Godare all bis worker from thebeginning of the world (A&s 1 5.18.) Where fill remem- ber chat, thofe wordes, from the beginningofthe world, are not to be under(iood, as if the Lord began to know all things at thebe- ginning ofthe wcrld,and did not know them before the world be- gan but the Scripture fpeakes fo, becaufe, the beginning of the world, was the firm or beginning of time, and fo to know from the beginningof the world leadsus co this confideration, that the Augaßíriüs au. knowledge of God, as himfeif, is eternal, or from eternity. 3,6 de Geneti One of the Ancients brings this placeof job, to prove that alt ad mewl. ehinga,before they were or hadany being chemfelves, hadabeing in the foreknowledge ofGod, and that they were infinitely more perfc& in the foreknowledgeof God, then in their created exi- fiencies, becaufe there they are in their fountain and original. What David fpake (Pfal.139. i5, 16.) concerning his body, we may take up in reference to all man, foul and body, yea in re-. ference to all things with their iffues and cperations r Theirfab- fiance was not hid from himwhen they were made in fecret, and cu- r:oe+fly wrought in the lowr3 parts of the earth. His eye did fee their fisbflance,,yet being urperfsE1., and in this book all their members were

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