SERMON VII. WHO IS WISE, AND HE SHALL UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS? PRUDENT, AND HE SHALL KNOW THEM ? FOR THE WAYS OF THE LORD ARE RIGHT, AND THE JUST SHALL WALK IN THEM : BUT THE TRANSGRESSORS SHALL FALL THEREIN. -HOSEA xiv. 9. THESE words are a most pathetical close, and, as it were, a seal which the prophet setteth to all the doc- trine of his whole book, and to the course of his ministry ; implying, 1. A strong asseveration of the truth of all those things which he had in the name of God delivered unto them. 2. An elegant and forcible excitation of the people unto a sad and serious pondering of them, laying to heart the sins therein charged, the duties therein required, the judg- ments therein threatened, the blessings therein pro- mised. And withal, 3. A tacit complaint of the paucity of those who were wise unto salvation, and of the desperate use which wicked men make of the word of God, and the ministry of his grace ; namely, to stumble at it, and to turn it unto themselves into an occasion of ruin. " Who is wise, and he shall understand ?" &c. The interrogation is, 1. A secret exprobation of folly unto his hearers, or the greatest part of them : for so this kind of interrogation doth frequently in scripture intimate either a negation, or at least the rareness, and difficulty of the thing spoken of as, " Who hath known the mind of the Lord ?" 1 Cor. ii. 16. " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ?"
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