his entrance into the heart of man ; called, therefore, ' the ministration of the Spirit,' 2 Coi-. iii. 8. He fashions anew tlie heart, as he framed the world at first, with a word. This is ' the day of Ciod's power, wherein he makes his people willing.' Power, indeed, to make those that had the seeds of war sown in their very natm-es against (iod willing to be friends with him. Unheard of power, as if the beating of a drimi should carry such a charm along with its sound, to make those on the enemy's side upon the hearing of it, to throw down their arms and seek peace at his hand, against whom they even now took the field with great rage and fiuy ; such a secret power accompanies the gospel. It strikes many times not only the sinner's sword out of his hand while it is stretched out against God, but the enmity out of his heart, and brings the stoutest rebel upon his knees, lumibly to crave the benefit of the articles of peace published in the gospel. It makes sinners so pliant and tract- able to the call of God in the gospel, that they on a sudden, upon the hearing of a gospel sermon, forget tlieir own natural affections whicli they have had to their beloved lusts, and leap out of their embraces with indignation, lest they should keep God and them at enmity one moment longer. Now follows the third.
Quest. 3. Why doth God convey his peace of reconciliation by this channel unto the sons of men ? Or, in plainer terms. Why doth God choose to reconcile poor sinners to himself by Christ? For this is the peace which the gospel pro- claims. Col. i. 20 : ' And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself.' And ver. 21, 22 : 'And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.'
Alls. They are too bold with God, who say. That he could not find out another way ; who knows that, except God himself had told him so ? Alas f how unmeet is the short line of our created understanding for such a daring attempt, as to fathom the unsearchableness of God's omnipotent wisdom ! To determine what God can, and what he cannot do ! But we may say, and not forget to revere the Majesty of heaven, that the wisdom of God could not have laid the method of salvation more advantageous to the exalting of his own glorious name, and his poor creatures' happiness, than in this expedient of reconciling them to himself by Christ our great peace-maker. This transaction hath in it a happy temperament, to solve all the difficulties on either hand ; and for its mysterious contrivance exceeds the workmanship which God put forth in making this exterior world, though that in its kind perfect, and so glorious, that the smallest creature tells its Maker to be a Deity, and puts the atheist to shame in his own conscience that will not believe so ; yet I say, it exceeds this goodly frame of heaven and earth, as far as the watch itself doth the case which covers it. Indeed, God intended by this way of reconciling poor sinners to himself, to make work for angels and saints to admire the mystery of his wisdom, power, and love therein to everlasting. O, when they shall all meet together in heaven, and there have the whole counsel of God unfolded to them ; when they shall behold what seas were dried up, and what rocks of creature impossibilities digged through by the omnipotent wisdom and love of God, before a sinner's peace could be obtained, and then behold the work, notwithstanding all this, effected and brought to a happy perfection ; O, how Avill they be swallowed up in adoring the abyss of his wisdom, who laid the platform of all this ac- cording to the eternal counsel of his own will ! Surely the sun doth not so much exceed the strength of our mortal eyes, as the glory of this will their under- standings from ever fully comprehending it. This, this is the piece which God drew on purpose, for its rare workmanship, to beautify heaven itself; when Christ returned to heaven, he carried none of this world's rarities with him : not its silver and gold ; not crowns and diadems, which here men venture their lives, yea, part with their souls so prodigally for. Alas ! what are these, and the whole pride and gallantry of this world to heaven ? That in which it glories most, suits heaven no better than the beggar's dish and scraps do a prince's table ; or the patched tattered coat of the one, the wardrobe of the other. No, the Lord Christ came on a higher design than this to earth : the enterprise he undertook to achieve, was to negotiate, yea, effect a peace between God aiid
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358 '^^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE.