Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BX5200 .B352 1835 v2

484 WHAT LIGHT MUST by his word what is the law or will of God : who belie veth that all that God willeth is good, and had rather have his life, and health, and wealth, and friends, at God's will and disposal, than his own; whoknoweth that God's will is love itself, and that to please him is the end of all the world, and the only felicity of men and angels ; and resteth wholly.in the pleasing of that will. What can be more wise and just than to have the same. will (ob- jectively) with him who is infinitely wise and just? What can be more honorable than to have the same will as God himself, and (so far) as his children, to be like our Father ? What can be more orderly and harmonious than for the will of the creature to move according to the Creator's will, and to be duly subservient to it, and accurately compliant with it? What can be more holy, nay, what else is holiness, but a will and life devoted and conformed to the will of God? What can be more safe, or what else can be safe at all, but to will the same things which the most perfect wis- dom doth direct to, and infinite love itself doth choose? And what can be more easy and quieting to the soul, than to rest in that will, which is always good, which never was misguided, and never chose amiss, and never was frustrated, or missed of its de- creed ends? If we have no will but what is (objectively) the same with God's, that is, if we wholly comply with, and follow his will as our guide, and rest in his will as our ultimate end, our wills will never be disordered, sinful, misled, or frustrated. God hath all that he willeth, (absolutely,) and is never disappointed ; and so should we, if we could will nothing but what he willeth. And would you not take him unquestionably for a happyman, who bath whatsoever he would have? Yea, and would have nothing but what is more just and good? There is no way to this happi- ness but making the will of God our will. 'God will not mutably change his will to bring it to ours: should holiness itself be con- formed to sinners, and perfection to imperfection? But we must, by grace, bring over our wills to God's, and then they are in joint ; and then only will they find content and rest. O, what would I beg more earnestly in the world, than a will conformed wholly to God's will, and cast into that mould, and desiring nothing but what God willeth! But contrarily, what can be more foolish than for such infants and. ignorant souls as we to will that which infinite- wisdom is against? What more dishonorable than to be even at the very heart so contrary or unlike to God ? What can.be more irregular and unjust than for a created worm to set his will against his Ma- ker's? What else is sin but a will and life that is cross to the reg- ulating will of God? What can be more perilous and pernicious than to forsakea perfect, unerring guide, and to follow such igno-

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