For continuance in the new covenant, and delightful obedience unto God. The remedy is not only suited to the disease, but the duty to the reward. Our duty is to know God, and to love him • and our reward is to see him, and. be like him, 1 John iii. 2. There is a mar- vellous suitableness between the end and means, holiness and happi- ness, conformity to God, and our communion with him ; the holiness required of us now, and the happiness we expect hereafter ; perfect conformity and uninterrupted communion ; and they differ only but as the bud and the flower, the river and the ocean : here it is begun, hereafter perfected.
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III. In the application of his grace to particular believers, he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence.
1. In the way God taketh to convert souls to himself, there is a sweet contemperation and mixture of wisdom and power. There is a I)roposal of truth and good to the understanding and the will, and by the secret power of his grace it is made effectual. We are taught and drawn : John vi. 44, 45, ' No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.' In the 45th verse, ' And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath lieard and learned of the Father, comcth unto me.' There is opening of blind eyes, and the turning of a hard heart: Acts xxvi. 18, ' To o\)on their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light,' &c. ; Eph. i. 18, ' The eyes of the understanding being opened,' &c. ; Col. iii. 10, ' Henewed in knowledge.' Turning the heart: Acts xvi. 14, ' God opened the heart of L'ydia ;' Acts xi. 21, ' The hand of the Lord was with him ; and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.' His hand implieth his power. Thus God worketh strongly, like him- self ; sweetly, with respect to us, that he may not oppress the liberty of our faculties. Christ comes into the heart, not by force, but by consent. We are ' transformed,' but so as we ' prove what the will of God is,' Rom. xii. 2. He draweth, we run, Cant. i. 4. The power of God and liberty of man do sweetly consist together. As God is said to ' create in us a new heart,' he is also said to ' give us a free spirit,' Ps. li. 10, 12. Eph. ii. 10, We are said to be ' his workman- ship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.' So he ' puts a new heart,' and we are said to ' walk in his ways.' Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, ' A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 1 will give you a heart of liesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.' Thus God showeth forth the powerful efficacy of liis grace, and doth also win the consent and good liking of the sinner ; he obtaineth his effect, and yet doth preserve the liberty of man's nature and the principles thereof. It is not only voluntas mofa, but mutata ; the nature is changed and renewed. 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all with (i])en face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to gloiy, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.'
2. In the persuasive and moral way, the wisdom of God is seen as talcing the most likely course to gain the heart of man, discovering himself to us as a God of love, kindness, and mercy. Guilty creatures stand aloof from a condenming God ; our fear of his justice maketh us run from him : Gen. iii. 7, 10, Adam ' hid himself from the presence of the Lord.' So all liis posterity forsake God and hate him. But God, though the superior, though the wronged party, maketh offers of peace, and showeth how willing he is to be reconciled to us. Hav- ing first laid the foundation in the highest demonstration of goodness that ever could come to the ears of man to hear of, or enter into the heart of man to conceive ; namely, in giving his Son to die for a sinful world, 2 Cor. v. I'J, 20. What more apt to make man relent ? And
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then, because man had fallen from the love of God to the creature, Jer. ii. 13, what wisdom doth God show, not only in the offers of pardon, but eternal life and blessedness, infinitely beyond the false happiness which carnal self-love inclineth us to ! that it is a shame and disgrace to our reason to tliink these things are worthy to be compared together. What are all the pleasures, profits, and honours we dote upon, to the pleasures at God's right hand ? the riches of the inheritance of the saints, and the gloiy which cometh from God. And therefore, what more powerful motive can be produced than this blessed immortality ? Indeed, God is invisible, and the glory is to come ; and sensual plea- sures are at hand, ready to be enjoyed. But faith checketli sense : Heb. xi. 1, ' Faith is the evidence of things not seen.' Oh the wisdom of God in the frame of the gospel !