The works of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. in nine volumes (volume 1 of 9)Watts, Isaac
Religion
The works of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. in nine volumes (volume 1 of 9)
Watts, Isaac
Dissenters, Religious -- England; Sermons, English -- 18th century; Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 18th century
The divine wisdom is another part of his all-sufficiency. There are in
God infinite varieties of thought and counsel, 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 in the natural
world. Eph. i. 8. _He hath abounded towards us_, sinners, in this work
of salvation, _in all wisdom and prudence_. 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, and join 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 a dead
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 divine skill is required here? What
immense profusion of wisdom, to form bodies of immortality and glory,
for every saint, out of the dust of the grave, and the ashes of martyred
christians? Our spiritual and our eternal life are hid in the wisdom of
God.
The power of God is his all-sufficience too. The power that quickens and
raises a soul to this divine life, must be almighty; Eph. i. 19, 20. It
is the same exceeding greatness of his power that works in us who
believe, which wrought in our Lord Jesus Christ, when he raised him 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. and when he commanded us, who lay among the
dead, to awake, and arise, and live. Was it not a noble instance of
power, to spread abroad these heavens of unknown circumference, with all
the rolling worlds of light in them, the planets and the stars? And the
same hand is mighty enough, if these were not sufficient, to build a
brighter heaven, 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 his wisdom and goodness. Thus it
is contained in the all-sufficience of the divine nature, and each part
of it is ready to be produced into act, in every proper season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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