II.KNOWLEDGE devised the plan.

III.JUDGMENTS prepare the way.

IV.GRACE achieves the result.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. In the gift of His Son.

2. In the communication of His righteousness.

3. In the glory of the issue.

II. MYSTERY IS THE PROCEDURE.

1. With the world at large.

2. With individual believers.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

1. The very proposal of salvation for sinners is a matter of wonder. God was not obliged to save. Man deserved to perish; and God could have filled his place instantly with better beings. Moreover, man is the solitary object of saving mercy. When sin broke out in heaven, God hurled the thunderbolt of a just vengeance. Certainly here is ground for amazement.

2. The incarnation of Christ was a miracle beyond any other miracle of God. Deity took upon Himself the form and nature of humanity. Among all God's wonders, you can find no analogy for the person of Christ.

3. Our ordinary idea of the proceedings of justice is confounded by the sufferings of Christ. We connect suffering with sin; at least, we consider that an innocent being cannot justly be treated as a malefactor. Yet the sinless Son of God was a man of sorrows and died as a culprit, abandoned even by the Father whom He always pleased. Reason can only exclaim, "O the depth!" at this.

4. Amazement rises higher at the Bible representation that He suffered the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. How could justice be satisfied by the sufferings of an innocent One? How can it be a just thing that they should be accepted as a propitiation for our sins? God has taught us the fact, and hence we believe it; but the fact is a wonder. These are only examples. Things of the same marvellous nature run all through the system of redemption. Infidelity is confounded by these depths. But what confounds an infidel comforts a Christian.

II. THOSE WONDERS ARE REASONS FOR OUR ACCEPTING IT AND BEING COMFORTED BY IT.

1. They constitute a feature of our religion which comports with our experience on all other subjects. The facts which we have mentioned are all plainly revealed facts. There is no darkness or depth in them. The depth and darkness meet us only as we proceed to philosophise. The further we investigate the things of God anywhere the more deep and wonderful they become.(1) The astronomer finds it so. His wonder grows as he passes the known suns and stars; and now, as he casts his keen eye out upon the illimitable space beyond him, he is compelled to feel that he has not yet passed the porch of the temple of God. All he can say is, "O the depth!"(2) So in the ever-descending field of microscopic study.(3) The providences of God, again, are full of wonders. What a marvel is human history!

2. There are many things of importance, but they are not all of equal value. Unorganised matter lies below the organisms of life. Brute life is of a lower rank than human. The mental kingdom, while superior to the vegetable and animal, is inferior to the moral. Now, we are limited creatures, and cannot have an equal understanding of all subjects, and must expect to meet with the highest wonders in the highest departments. An infidel tells us he meets with the most wonders in Christianity. For that reason he rejects it, and for that we glory in it. Consider two arguments here.(1) God is glorious in everything, but not in everything of equal glory. His highest glory lies in His saving sinners. The angels knew this who sung over Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest." Well, on that high field of wonders, where God is more glorious than anywhere else, shall we not expect Him to be more amazing than anywhere else?(2) Consider the soul. It is immortal, and its capacities will expand for ever. It is to be saved or lost. When a soul is perilled, shall God for its salvation work no more wonders than He does about the petty interests of a world of matter and beasts, and threescore years and ten?

3. It is in these deep things of God only that we find provision for our deepest necessities. Reason cannot hope except before the amazing depths of God's wisdom and mercy. As sinners, we need God to do for us just the wonders He has wrought. Had He not done them, we must have despaired.

(I. S. Spencer, D.D.)

(John Howe.)

I. ADMIRATION of —

1. His wisdom.

2. His knowledge.

II. THE CONFESSION OF HIS UNSEARCHABLENESS in respect of —

1. His purpose and procedure.

2. His all-sufficiency.

III. THE PRAISE OF HIS GRACE, which is —

1. Free.

2. Undeserved.

IV. THE INCREASE OF HIS GLORY.

1. He is the end of all things.

2. To Him be glory for ever.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. THE MANIFESTATION OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE RESTORATION OF REBELS. Human monarchs have shown their justice in crushing rebels, but God in restoring them.

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SPIRIT OF REBELLION IN THE RESTORATION OF REBELS, Human monarchs may deliver rebels, but they cannot destroy the spirit of rebellion, God does this.

III. THE AUGMENTATION OF THE FORCE OF MORAL GOVERNMENT IN THE RESTORATION OF REBELS. Human monarchs may weaken their government by saving rebels, but God strengthens the force of His moral administration by redeeming transgressors.

IV. THE PROMOTION OF ALL THE RIGHTS OF HIS SUBJECTS IN THE RESTORATION OF REBELS. Human monarchs, by delivering rebels, endanger the rights of loyal citizens God, in the restoration of rebels, promotes the rights of all.

V. THE ELECTION OF EARTH INSTEAD OF HELL AS THE SCENE FOR THE RESTORATION OF REBELS.

(D. Thomas, D.D.)

1. His wisdom.

2. His knowledge.

3. His judgments and procedure.

II. ITS EXPRESSION.

1. Wonder.

2. Submission.

3. Love.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

(H. G. Salter.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Dean Stanley.)

1. That He knows what He does.

2. That He needs no counsellor.

II. THEREFORE OUGHT WE TO RESIGN OURSELVES TO HIS WILL, with —

1. Resignation.

2. Obedience.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. SOME CAUSES AND REASONS OF THAT INCOMPREHENSIBILITY.

1. As the dealings of very wise men sometimes are founded on maxims, and admit justifications not obvious to nor penetrable by vulgar conceit, so may God's. As there are natural modes of being and operation — such as God's necessary subsistence, His eternity without succession, etc. — so there may be prudential and moral rules far above our reach (Isaiah 55:9). Some of these we may be incapable of knowing on account of our finite nature; others on account of our meanness and low rank among created beings. In such cases the absolute will, sovereign authority, and pure liberality of God, supply the place of reasons.

2. As the standing rules of God's acting, so the occasional grounds thereof are commonly placed beyond the sphere of our apprehension. God is obliged to prosecute His own immutable decrees; "working all things according to the counsel of His own will": which how can we anywise come to discover? God also has a perfect foresight of contingent events. He observes in what relation and degrees of comparison things stand towards each other; whereas we cannot tell what things to compare.

3. We are also incapable thoroughly to discern the ways of Providence, from our moral defects, in some measure common to all men; our stupidity, sloth, temerity, impatience, impurity, of heart, etc.

4. Again, the nature of those instruments which Divine Providence uses in administration of human affairs, hinders us from discerning it. The footsteps of Divine wisdom are far more conspicuous in the works of nature than in the management of our affairs, and while the one has confirmed faith, the other has bred doubt.

5. As in nature the influence of heaven and of inferior causes, so in the production of special events among men Divine and human agency are so combined, that it is not easy to discriminate what God performs by natural instruments, and what by superior efficacy.(1) Not seeing the first, we are prone to ascribe too much to the last, which are most obvious.(2) And this we are the more apt to do because the manner of Divine agency is ever soft and gentle. God so fashions the hearts of men, so manages their hands, so guides their steps, that even they who are most acted on by Him cannot feel the touch.

6. God, in His progress towards the achievement of any design, is not wont to go in the most direct and compendious ways, but commonly takes a large compass, enfolding several other coincident purposes; which moves our impatience, etc.

7. Like every wise agent, He is wont to act variously, according to the state and circumstances of things, or to the dispositions and capacities of persons.

8. There are different ends which Providence pursues in various order and measure, which we, by reason of our dim insight and short prospect, cannot descry.(1) God permits things, bad in their own nature, having regard to their instrumental use and tendency.(2) Also the expediency of things to be permitted or crossed, frequently consists, not in themselves singly taken, as particular acts or events, but in their conjunction with or reference to others, with which they may become subservient to a common end.

9. That Providence is sometimes obscure and intricate, may be attributed to the will of God, on many accounts designing it so. He will not glare forth in discoveries so bright as to dazzle or confound our weak sight.(1) He meaneth thereby to improve and exalt our faith.(2) It is fit also that He should thus in many things surpass our understanding, that He may appear to be God indeed.(3) The obscurity of Providence conciliates an awful reverence towards it, as darkness raises a dread of invisible powers.(4) It is also requisite that God should dispose many occurrences, cross to our notions, and offensive to our carnal sense, that we may thus be prompted to think of Him, and to seek Him.(5) It is needful that the present course of Providence should not be perfectly clear and satisfactory, that we may be well assured concerning a future account, and forced in our thoughts to recur thither for a solution of our doubts and difficulties.

II. SOME PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS GROUNDED ON THE FOREGOING REASONS.

1. It should render us modest and sober in our judgment about providential occurrences, since it is plain arrogance or imposture to assume perfect skill in what passeth our capacity to learn.

2. It should make us cautious in passing judgment or censure on events, since it is temerity to give sentence on what is incapable of evidence.

3. It should repress wanton curiosity, which would only make us lose our time, etc.

4. It should keep us from conceit and confidence in our own wisdom.

5. It should preserve us from infidelity, and despair on account of any cross accidents.

6. It should prevent our taking offence at such.

7. It should guard us against security, or presuming on impunity for our miscarriages; for seeing that God does not always fully discover His mind, it is vain to suppose that, because He is now patient, He will always be so.

8. It should quicken our industry in observing and considering the works of Providence: the fainter our light is, the more attentive should we be in looking.

9. It should oblige us to be circumspect and wary in our conversation.

10. Also constantly to seek God, and to depend on Him for protection, and for the conduct of His grace, the only clue in this labyrinth.

11. In fine, it should cause us humbly to admire and adore that wisdom which governs the world in ways no less great and wonderful than just and holy.

(L Barrow, D.D.)

2. The Scripture is in nothing more full and frequent than in representing the transcendency of God's ways above all created intellectuals (Psalm 139:6; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 18:9; Psalm 77:19). If we consult its reports, or those of our own experience, about the amazing events of Providence, we shall find the result of our most exact inquiries in the text. I shall demonstrate that the most advanced wisdom of man is incompetent to judge of —

I. THE REASON OR CAUSE OF GOD'S WAYS. The causes men assign of the passages of Providence are —

1. For the most part false, as e.g.,(1) That the prosperous are the objects of God's love; and the miserable of His hatred. And all this in defiance of the Spirit of God Himself who (Ecclesiastes 9:1) assures us that "no man knows either love or hatred by all that is before him"; nor consequently can conclude himself in or out of favour with God by anything befalling him in this life. Otherwise Lazarus would have been in flames, and the rich man in Abraham's bosom. God sometimes curses men with prosperity, and casts His Jobs upon dunghills, and sells His beloved Josephs into slavery.(2) That the good only must prosper and the bad suffer. A most absurd assertion, for how is it that the good suffer and the bad prosper? — a fact which staggered Asaph (Psalm 73:2), and so confounded Jeremiah (Jeremiah 12:1), that he could almost have offered to dispute the point with God Himself. And from the same topic it was that Job's friends argued, until they were confounded by God's verdict on the whole matter.

2. Always imperfect. Who would assign an adequate reason of anything which God does, must see as far into it as God sees. There is no action of God but there is a combination of impulsive causes concerned in it, one or two of which man may light upon, but the weakness of his discerning powers keeps him inevitably a stranger to far the greater part of them. God, by one and the same numerical lot of providence, may intend to punish one nation, to advance another; to plant the gospel in a third, and to let in trade into a fourth; likewise to make way for the happiness of one man's prosperity, and for the extinction of another's; to reward the virtues of sober and industrious people, and to revenge the crimes of a vicious and rebellious; and we are no more able to search into these than we are to govern the world.

II. THE ISSUE AND EVENT OF ACTIONS. Men usually prognosticate —

1. According to the measure of the wisdom of second agents. And it must be confessed that it is the best rule were it not controlled by two better, viz., Scripture and experience. The former of which brings in God laughing at the wisdom of the wise; taking and circumventing the crafty in their own wiles (Job 5:12, 13). And for the latter, history so abounds with instances of the most artificially-spun contrivances dashed in pieces by some sudden and unforeseen accidents, that to ascertain the event of the most promising undertaking, if we trust but our own eyes, we shall have little Cause to trust another's wisdom.

2. From success formerly gained under the same or less probable circumstances. But remember(1) That it is hard, and perhaps scarce possible to repeat any action under perfectly the same circumstances.(2) That in most actions there are still some circumstances not observed, which may have a surer and more immediate influence upon the event than those which, coming more into view, are more depended upon.(3) That the success of every action depends more upon the secret hand of God than upon any causes or instruments visibly engaged in it.

3. According to the preparations made for it, and the power employed in it. And yet we find that it is not always the bigger weight, but sometimes the artificial hand managing the balance which turns the scale. And in like manner, when we have raised armies and manned our fleets, we are still in the hand of that Providence which sometimes sets the crown of victory upon the weak and the few, and disappoints the hopes and breaks the force of the confident and numerous Could anything look more invincible than the Spanish Armada? But we find that there is no commanding the sea without being able to command the winds too. And what a painful defence is multitude on the one side, where Omnipotence takes the other!

III. THE USE AND IMPROVEMENT. We may infer —

1. The vanity of making the future event, or presumed success of any enterprise, the rule of our present actings about the same.

2. The absolute necessity of an entire, total, unreserved dependence upon Providence in the most hopeful and promising condition of our affairs.

3. The impossibility of a rational dependence upon Providence with comfort, but in the way of lawful, honest, and religious courses.

(R. South, D. D.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Dean Goulburn.)

(T. Adams.)

1. To human intellect.

2. To human merit.

II. THE ASSERTION. God is —

1. The source of all.

2. The agent in all.

3. The end of all.

III. THE ASCRIPTION.

1. To Him be glory.

2. On earth.

3. In heaven.

4. For ever.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

1. Teaching us the feebleness of our understanding.

2. Checking our daring speculations.

II. TRUE.

1. Inviting our confidence.

2. Commanding our submission.

III. MERCIFUL.

1. Soliciting our love.

2. Inspiring our hope.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. OF Him. He is of none. They originate in His will, and but for Him they would never have been.

II. BY Him. He creates and sustains all.

III. TO Him. All things are intended to manifest forth His glory, and will ultimately serve His purpose. He has made all things for Himself, and it is obviously meet that it should be so, that His will should be the law, His glory the end of the universe of which He is the Creator, the Supporter, and Proprietor.

(J. Brown, D.D.)

(Bp. Sanderson.)