Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.1

PART II. - SERMON X. 143 and goodness, which he bath employed for the spiritualwelfare, and eternal life and happiness ofhis own chosenchildren ; and in the secret ofthis grace were all theblessings of his covenant hid- den from eternity. The divine wisdom is another part of his all-sufficiency. There are in God infinite varieties of thought andcounsel, riches of knowledge, and wisdom unsearchable ; and he hath made these abound in his new creation, as well as in the old ; in the supernatural, as well as inthe natural world. Eph. i. 8. Ile hath abounded towards us, sinners, in this work of salvation,, in all wis.= dom andprudence. What surprizing wisdom appears in the vital powers of an animal, even in the life of brutes that perish ? What glorious contrivance, and divine skill, to animate clay, and make a fly, a dog, or a lion of it ? What sublime advances of wisdom to create a living man, andjoin these two distinct extremes, flesh and spirit, in such a vital union, that has puzzled the philosophers of all ages, and constrained some of them to confess and adore a God ? And what a superior work of divinity, is it, to turn adead sinner into a living saint, here on earth ? and then to adorn a heaven, with all its proper furniture, for the eternal life and habitation of his sons and his daughters ? What divineskill is required here ? What immense profusion of wisdom; tb form bodies of immortality and glory, for every saint, out of the dustof the grave, and the ashes óf martyred christians ? - Our, spiritual andour eternal lifeare hid in the wisdomof God. Thepower of God is his all-sufficience too. Thepower that quickens and raises a soul to-this divine life, must be almighty ; Eph. i. 19, 20. It is the same excedding greatness of his power that works in us who believe, which wroughtin our Lord Jesus Christ, when he raisedhim from the dead, and set him at his own right -hand in heavenly places. It is the same powerful word that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that shone into our hearts, when he wrought the knowledge of Christ there ; 2 Cor. iv. 6. andwhen he commanded'us, who lay among the dead, to awake, and arise, and live. Was -it not a noble instance of power, to spreadabroad these heavensofunknown circumference, with all the rolling worlds of light in them, the planets and the stars ? And the samehand is mighty enough, if these were not sufficient, to build a brighterheaven, fit for the saints to live in during all their immortality, and to furnish them with vital powers that shall be incorruptible and everlasting. Thus the life of the saints is hidden in the almightiness of God, as well as in hiswis- dom and goodness. Thus it is contained in the all-sufficience of the divine nature, and each part of it isready to be produced into act, in everyproper season. 2. The life of a christian is hidden in the purposes of the

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=