The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded

Secondly, Spiritual things are to be considered as they are filled with Divine Wisdom. I speak not of himself whose Essential Wisdom is one of the most amiable Excellencies of his holy nature; but of all the Effects of his Will and Grace by Jesus Christ. All Spiritual Truths, all Spiritual and Heavenly things whereby God reveals and communicates himself unto the Souls of Men, and all the ways and means of our approach unto him in Faith and Obedience through Christ Jesus, I now intend. All these are filled with Divine Wisdom, see 1 Cor. 2.7. Eph. 3.10. Chap. 1.8, 9. Now Wisdom in it self, and in all the Effects of it, is attractive of rational Affections. Most men are brutish in them and their Actings, for the most part, pouring them out on things fleshly, sensual and carnal. But where they are at all reduced under the Conduct of Reason, nothing is so attractive of them, so suited unto them, which they delight in, as that which hath at least an appearance of Wisdom. A wise and good man doth command the Affections of others, unless it be their Interest to hate and oppose him, as commonly it is. And where there is true Wisdom in the Conduct of civil Affairs, sober Men cannot but approve of it, like it, delight in it, & men of Understanding do bewail the Loss of it, since Craft, Falsehood, Treachery, and all sorts of Villainy have driven it out of the world. So is Divine Wisdom attractive of divine gracious Affections. The Psalmist declares his Admiration of, and Delight in the Works of God, because he hath made them ⟨p. 306⟩all in Wisdom, Psal. 104.24. 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, & laid forth, in the great Spiritual things of the Gospel, in the Mystery of God in Christ, and the Dispensation of his Grace and Goodness unto us by him. The Consideration hereof fills the Souls of Believers with holy Admiration and Delight, and thereon they cleave unto them with all their Affections. When we see there is Light in them, and all other things are in Darkness, 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 do rejoice in them with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory.