356 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. cannot but approve of it, like it, delight in it ; and men of understanding bewail the loss of it, since craft, falsehood, treachery, and all sorts of villany, have driv- en it out of the world. So is divinewisdom attractive of divine gracious affections. The Psalmist declares his admiration of, and delight in, the works of God, because ' he hath made them all in wisdom,' Ps. civ. 24. Those characters of divine wisdom which are upon them, which they are filled with, draw the souls of men into a delightful contemplation of them. But all the treasures, all the glory of this wisdom, are laid up, and laid forth, in the great spiritual things of the gospel in the mystery of God in Christ, and the dis- pensation of his grace and goodness to us by him The consideration hereof fills the souls of believers with holy admiration and delight, and thereon they cleave to them with all their affections. Whenwe see there is light in them, and all other things are in dark- ness, that wisdom is in them, in them alone, and all other things are filled with vanity and folly, then are our souls truly affected with them, and rejoice in them with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Unto the most, this wisdom of God is foolishness. It was so of old, as the apostle testifieth, 1 Cor. i. And so it continues yet to be. And therefore is the mystery of the gospel despised by them ; they can see neither form nor comeliness in it, for which it should be desired. Nor will ever any man have sincere spir- itual affections to spiritual things, who hath not a spiritual view of the wisdom of God in them. This is that which attracts our souls by holy admi- ration to unspeakable delight. And the reason why men do so generally decline from any love to the gos- pel, and lose all satisfaction in the mystery of it is,
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