3. The wisdom of God is to be seen in the great work of redemption and salvation by Christ; herein he hath abounded towards us, in all wisdom and prudence, Eph. i. 7, 8. In the person fixed upon to be the Redeemer. The Son of God was the fittest person to be employed in this service; partaking of both natures, he was the only proper person to be the Mediator between God and man, to be the day's-man, and lay his hand on both, and reconcile those two parties at variance, and to do what respected both, even " things partaining to God, and to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Through Christ's being man, he became our near kinsman, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone; and so the right of redemption belonged to him; hence the same word Goel, in the Hebrew 'language, signifies both a redeemer and a near kinsman.— But then the person pitched upon to be the Redeemer, is God as well as man; and so as he had pity for men as man, he had a zeal for God and his glory, as a divine person; and would be, as he was, concerned for the glorify ing all his divine perfections, one as well as another. Who could have thought of the Son of God, and proposed his becoming man, and suffering, and dying in the stead of men, to redeem them? this is nodus deo vindice dignus; what God only could have found our; and he claims it to himself; I, the only wise God, have fund a ransom, Job xxxiii. 24. The wisdom of God may be observed in the way and manner in which redemption is ob tained': which being by the price of the blood of Christ, and in a way of full satisfaction to law and justice; the different claims of mercy and justice, which seemed to clash with one another, are reconciled; by this happy method wisdom has pitched upon, they both agree; "mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other." The wis dom of God is to be discerned in the time of man's redemption; which was the most opportune and seasonable; it was after the faith and patience of God's people had been suffici. ently tried, even for the space of four thousand years from the first hint of a Redeemer; and when the gentile world was

covered with darkness, blindness, and ignorance, and abound. ed with all kind of wickedness.

4. The wisdom of God shines in the gospel, the good news of salvation by Christ; in its doctrines, and its ordinances; it is called the wisdom of God in a mystery; the hidden wisdom; the manifold wisdom of God, 1 Cor. ii. 7. Eph. iii. 10. every doctrine is a display of it; the ordinances of the gospel are wisely instituted to answer the end of them; and wisely has God appointed men, and not angels, to minister the word, and administer ordinances: " men of the same passions with others."

5. The wisdom of God may be seen in the government and preservation of the church of God, in all ages; no weapon formed against it has prospered; and God has made it, and will still more make it appear that he rules in Job unto the end of the earth.

OF THE WILL OF GOD, AND ITS SOVEREIGNTY,

I shall prove,

I. That there is a Will in God. In all intelligent beings there is a will as well as an understanding. This is frequently ascribed to God in scripture; The will of the Lord be done, Acts xxi. 14. Who has resisted his will? Rom. ix. 19. Will is ascribed to each of the divine persons; to the Father, John vi. 39, 40. to the Son, as a divine person, John v. 21. and xvii. 24. and to the Spirit, Acts xvi. 6, 7.

II. I shall next shew what the will of God is: there is but one will in God; but for our better understanding it, it may be distinguished. The distinction of the secret revealed will of God has generally obtained among sound divines; the former is properly the will of God, the latter only a manifestation of it. Whatever God has determined within himself, that is his secret will; but when these open, by events in providence, or by prophecy then they become the revealed will of God. God's secret will, becomes revealed by events in providence; and some things which belong to the secret will of God,

become revealed by prophecy. The will of God, which he would have done by men, is revealed in the law, that is called his will, Rom ii. 18. this was made known to Adam, by in. scribing it on his heart, a new edition of this law was delivered to the Israelites, written on tables of stone: and in regeneration the law of God is put into the inward parts, and written on the heart's of God's people; Rom. xii. 2. There is the revealed will of God in the gospel; which respects the kind intentions, and gracious regards of God to men; and discovers what before was his secret will concerning them. It is the revealed will of God, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust; and that all must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. So that, upon the whole, thongh there is some foundation for this distinction of the se cret and revealed will of God, yet it is not quite clear; there is a mixture, part of the will of God is, as yet, secret, and part of it revealed. The most accurate distinction of the will of God, is into that of precept and purpose; or, the commanding and decreeing will of God. God's will of precept, or his commanding will, is that which is often spoken of in scripture, as what should be done by men, and which is desirable they might have knowledge of, and be complete in, Matt. vii. 21. The decreeing will of God is only, properly speaking, his Will; the other in his Word: this is the rule of his own actions; "his counsel stands, and the thoughts of his heart are to all generations;" and this is sometimes fulfilled by those who have no regard to his will of precept. Acts iv. 27, 28. Rev. xvii. 17. I shall next enquire,

as

III. What are the objects of it. 1. God himself. He wills his own glory in all he does ; he cannot but will his own glory; "he will not give his glory to another; he cannot will it to another; that would be to deny himself. II. All things without himself, whether good or evil, are the objects of his will, or what his will is some way or other concerned in 1. All good things.-All things in nature; Thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure; or by thy will they are and were created, Rev. iv. 11. All

things in providence. He doth according to his will in the army of heaven; in the heavenly hosts of angels; and among the inhabitants of the earth, Dan. iv. 35. All things in grace are according to the will of God; all are according to the good pleasure of his will, 2 Tim. i. 9. 2 All evil things are the objects of God's will. These are of two sorts. 1. Malum pane, the evil of afflictions; whether in a way of chastisement, or of punishment: if in a way of chastisement, as they are to the people of God, they do not spring out of the dust, Job xxiii. 14. If they are in a way of punishment, as they are to wicked and ungodly men, there is no reason to complain of them, since they are less than the sins deserve, Lam. iii. 39. in 2. Malum culpa, or the evil of fault and blame, that is, sin: about this there is some difficulty how the will of God should be concerned in it. To set this affair in the best light, it will be pro. per to consider, what is in sin, and relative to it: there is the act of sin, and there is the guilt of sin, which is an obliga. tion to punishment, and the punishment itself. Concerning the two last there can be no difficulty; that God should will that men that sin should become guilty; be reckoned, account, ed, and treated as such; or lie under obligation to punishment; nor that he should will the punishment of them, and appoint and foreordain them to it, for it, Prov. xvi. 4. Jude 4. The only difficulty is, about the act of sin; and this may be considered either as natural or moral; or the act, and the ataxy, disorder, irregularity, and vitiosity of it: as an action, barely considered, it is of God, and according to his will; without which, and the concourse of his providence, none can be performed; but then the vitiosity and irregulari ty of it, as it is an aberration from the law of God, and a transgression of it, is of men only; besides, God may will one sin as a punishment for another; as it is most certain he has in the case of the Israelites, Hos. iv. 9-13. of the heathen philosophers, Rom. i. 28. but though God may be said in such senses, to will sin, he does not will to do it himself, nor to do it by others; but permits it to be done; it is expressed

by God's giving up men to their own hearts lusts, and by suffering them to walk in their own sinful ways, Psal. lxxxi. 12. Acts xiv. 16. I proceed to consider,

IV. The nature and properties of the will of God. 1. It is natural and essential to him; it is incommunicable to a creature ; it was even incommunicable to the human nature of Christ, though taken into union with the person of the Son of God; yet his divine will, and his human will, are distinct from each other, though the one is subject to the other, John vi. 38. Luke xxii. 42. II. The will of God is eternal, for if God is eternal, then his will must be so; if any new will arises in God in time, which was not in eternity, there would be a change in him; whereas he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever: Acts xv. 18. This may be illustrated by the decree of election; Eph. i. 4. III. The will of God is immutable: Heb. vi. 17. If God changes his will, it must be either for the better or the worse; and either way it would betray imperfection in him, and want of wisdom. IV. The will of God is always efficacious; there are no wishes, would-bees, or feeble velleities in God; Austin calls it, his most omnipotent will. When a man's will is ineffectual, and he cannot accomplish it, it gives him uneasiness, but this can never be said of the blessed God. v. The will of God has no cause out of himself, for then there would be something prior to him, and greater and more excellent than he; as every cause is before its effect, and more excellent than that; and his will would be dependent on another, and so he not be the independent Being he is: nor can there be any impulsive or moving cause of his will; because there is in him no passive power to work upon; he is a pure, active Spirit. vi. The will of God, for the same reason, is not conditional; if, for instance, God willed to save all men conditionally; that is, on condition of faith and repentance; and to damn them if these conditions are wanting; who does not see that this conditional will, to save and to destroy, is equally the same? destruction is equally willed as salvation; and where is the general love of God to men, so much talked