A DISCOURSE OF THE Gospel of Peace, AND OF THE Government of our own Spirits. Being the substance of Divers SERMONS, FROM EPHES. VI. 15. AND PROV. XVI. 32. Lately Preached by JOHN FALDO, Minister of the Gospel. LONDON: Printed for Tho. Cockerill, at the Three Legs in the poultry, over against the stock-market, MDCLXXXVII. An Epistle Dedicatory to the Right Honourable and truly Religious Lady, the Lady CLINTON. Madam, IT is not worth the Errand of an Epistle Dedicatory of an Evangelical Discourse, to tell the world of the Nobility and greatness of its desired Susceptor: Nor would such an impertinent gawd at the entrance, much awaken and encourage your Honour to the perusal of what follows in the Body of the Book. And if I should( as more genuine and congruous) tell your ladyship, and thereby my Reader, of the Piety that shines in all the circumstances of your Relations and Converse, I must expect that your humble and self-denying reflections on yourself( to which the most worthy are the most disposed) world distaste it, as too much bordering upon the too common flattery of Epistles Dedicatory, which seldom regard what is true, but what is plausible. Yet if I am obliged to give some account why I Dedicate this my poor undertaking, on so great a Subject, to your ladyship, I am content to give you and my Reader some satisfaction. I have by your Honours favour, and the Conduct of a greater Providence been many years acquainted in my Ministerial work and converse with you, and divers of your Noble Family, as well as your household, and its circumstances; on whom I have reason to believe my Concerns for your Spiritual and Eternal Welfare have not been wasted, but have produced or fostered what hath been becoming the Gospel of Christ. And I know not why that Husbandman should be blamed whose prudence disposes his best seed on that ground which his experience hath proved genuine and fruitful. And( if it need it) I am content to crave pardon for saying that beside your ladyships Personal Conversation, and that of your Noble Sister the Lady elinor Hollis,( whom nature and piety hath bound to so near a Converse, that you know not well how to live asunder) I cannot remember that I have heard in your Family to the meanest of your Servants one sinful word, but observed so blameless a deportment that to say( their profession added) there is a Church in your House, or rather that your household are fit matter for a Church, would not be beyond measured truth. And this I have said as that which the consideration of, hath been often grateful to me, but principally to engage persons of your quality and character( as to serious profession) to the like care in the choice and manage of their Housholds, and not to excuse themselves from endeavouring it as a thing impossible. But Madam, Besides what is said in the Title of the Book presented to your ladyship, which is almost all that can be said to persuade its acceptance( if the management of so great a Subject were answerable) I can say little to commend it to you. The Gospel of Peace, and the Government of our own spirits meeting together, will certainly create so happy an experiment, as will little need, and be much above the accessions of what most men court and adore, because they know no better. Your ladyship hath been many years in Christs School of instruction, which the Noble Families of clear by Title, and Hollis by proper name( of which you are so principal a member) have not disdained, but embraced equally with the most forward Professors of Christianity. This is not to be post-poned to the greatest of your blessings in this world, of which no good account can be given, but by so learning Christ as to embrace and live the truth as it is in Jesus. This carries with it the wisdom, the comfort and fortitude of a Christian in this life, and the well-grounded evidence of an interest in the consummate blessedness of that which is to come. If I also add, that you are not unacquainted with Christs School of affliction, it is but saying that Divine wisdom hath given you the more means and advantages of learning, and being wise to Salvation; and that mark which none of Gods legitimate Children are without; a fruit of Gods faithfulness and fatherly care, which his best Children can no more be without, than infirm bodies without dieting and Medicines. Some silly people take that condition to be most happy, which is most easy for the present; and that the most accomplished wherein their most corrupt affections meet with no check, and their sleep in the forgetfulness of God and their duty is most undisturbed. Others( no more discerning than they) propose to themselves, that if they can but clamber any how to greatness, and make their nests on the mountains of this world; they dwell where those vapours and storms have nothing to do, nor can find any place, that so much molest the meaner sort, that herd in the valleys. But Madam, you know, and are willing to know and have it known, that those great appearances have no such immunities, and that a moderation of spirit under adversities, and a holy improvement of them, is an aim and attaimment much more rational and secure. Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest, O Lord, and teachest out of thy Law; that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, &c. But I have almost forgotten that I am writing an Epistle of this nature, and seem to myself discoursing with your ladyship after my wonted freedom. I shall add no more but my wishes, raised to sincere requests to the Father of Mercies, and the God 〈◇〉 Comforts, that as the following 〈…〉 peculiarly directed to you, so you may more especially embrace the 〈…〉 reap the Blessings which are the 〈◇〉 of it. That you may 〈…〉 ways of Evangelical 〈…〉 i. e. obedience of Faith, which you haue 〈◇〉 and espoused; and that your 〈…〉 have that portion of the Righteous, which is to shine brighter, and brighter, unto perfect day: That all your Mercies may be filled with comforts, by him who is the God and disposer of both: That all your Relations may have a portion of real goodness, equal to, and beyond that of outward greatness: That your own Personal mercies may by that spring of Divine love from whence they derive, be rendered more sweet, and your afflictions from the same cause, become less bitter. That the God of all grace would supply all your need, according to the riches of his Glory by Jesus Christ, till you arrive at that place and estate, where no sin, nor want, nor foe, nor affliction can enter. Your ladyships Servant for Christs sake, JOHN FALDO. July 22d. 1687. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER. READER, I Am not careful to restrain my Address or Application to the Pious, Candid, or Courteous Reader, knowing that Books published in Print, are past all enclosures. I think it therefore best to give thee that which thou mayest take without my farther licence, and most indefinitely interest thee in the account that follows. We have a long time last past been agitated so much in the dust and darkness of contention, and mutually reproaching and( one way or other) afflicting and grieving each other, that we have almost lost all notions and ideas of ourselves, our neighbour and fellow Christian, but what these provocations, heats and passions have created. And I wish I could say, that God and Religion too, did not share in the same injuries, from the same causes. Give me leave to say, that tho Dissenters from( I would that truth could not add) and oppressors of each other, may take the fall, and bear the blows by turns; the God of Peace, the Prince of Peace, and the Gospel of Peace, are by every turn losers in their honour and interest, whoever wins. Methinks therefore( unless we cannot be weary of doing and suffering ●ll) it cannot be unseasonable to p●● you in remembrance of the Gospel of Peace, and the Government of our own spirits; nor my fact all guilty of injury, or imperti●ence, if it could reach no higher than a more Remembrancer. Certainly peace ●s a most comprehensive bl●ssing, and by a●l pretended to be desired, as the end of all their adventures and encounters they meet with therein. But as man by the fall, and itis 〈…〉 from worse to worse, hath lost his knowledg●●●d se●se of the happiness that is real, and the way to it: So he has found( as he thinks) a peace in prospect, and the way to that. But who can express the blindness, the madness, the perverseness therein evident▪ What is the peace he thinks he has in his eye? It is the satisfying of his lust●, his unbridled, unbounded affections; and that by means as unrighteous, as lice●ti●us, as pernicious to himself and ●thers, as they are in themselves unreasonable and unsatiable. My b●siness therefore in the following Tracts, is t● persuade thee by the greatest evidence of truth and goodness, to se●k peace where ' ●is to be found; which the blessed Gospel of Christ only can show thee, and the way to it; It being that( as the Apostle speaks) by which life and immortality is brought to light. I have endeavoured to obviate every material Objection, as far as a Tract of so small a bulk, and my poor capacity could reach. But the great, tho ●●tent Objections against entertaining this Evangelical Peace, which the mind bes●t●ed b●i●● foolish and hurtful lusts knows not when th●y are answered, are, That there can be no peace in self-denial: No pleasure in mortif●ing th●se affections, the gratifyings of which is the only s●urce of pleasure, or rather the pleasure itself: No rest in that Divine fullness we talk of, so much out of reach and view; every weighty th●●ght of which is so terrible or troublesone: N● gain or r●ches in the crossing of our 〈◇〉 rests: No wisdom or policy in imag●●ing the reduction of a world of men, from the methods they have been so l●●g ●●●stowed to, and hard●●d in. These Objections I shall answer to, with as gre●t 〈…〉 s●, and infi●●tely greater reason and evidence. What self is the corruption of nature? What pleasure is that which is but the tickling the itch of a loathsome and destructive disease? Where is rest, if not in the fountain and center of all? What truth in manifest contradiction of all good and goodness? What interest is there in crossing our great End, and being drowned in eternal perdition, for a pleasant dream, or a short and little grasp of earth and vanity? Is it not horrid beyond expression, to desire, and madness to expect that God himself should part with his honour to humour us? and vilify his holy and infinite perfections by( not only permitting, but) maintaining and countenancing a company of worms in those disorders that bid defiance to his wisdom, truth, power over, and interest in his own creature; who by him was brought from nothing into being, all whose powers, supports, and comforts, derive from his fullness and bounty, who without his continuate concourse and supplies could neither eat nor drink, nor move, nor love, nor hate, nor live? I could not forbear to start those secret vanities, which are the inward works and secret strengths by which our great adversary holds his prey till a stronger than he makes men willing to be happy, by being delivered from those powers of darknes●, and translated into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God, who is the King of Righteousness, and Prince of Peace. And what is this Kingdom of the dear Son of God but what is described by this Gospel of Peace? Certainly the great all heal is to be gathered from this Gospel: were its directions universally or generally well understood, and embraced, and lived, the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, a holy and a happy Church and State would be immediately present. Nations, Cities, Families, Souls, from the greatest Prince to the meanest peasant, would not only speculatively, but feelingly know what true peace means. I am not now pleading for parties or great portions of this world. There has been such scrambling and scuffling for these among Christians by profession, and under pretence too of answering to the obligations of the Gospel, that the Gospel itself is almost lost, or smothered in the crowd; or which is as bad or worse, 'tis charged with being the great peace-breaker, and causer of all the mischiefs. Some men think themselves wise enough to be happy in their own methods in the Church itself, were not the Gospel such an intermedler. The Gospel that teaches so much self-denial, that makes Jesus Christ in the form of a servant to be so perfect a pattern, especially for Ministers of the Gospel; that allows no compulsions but a Conscience well informed, and a spirit made willing by its Convictions, and the sensible apprehensions of God, and the great after-reckoning to the Divine Majesty. The Gospel, that obliges obedience to Princes out of Conscience to God, whose Representatives they are, reverence to their Persons, prayers and praises to God for their prosperity; Honour to whom honour, fear to whom fear, tribute to whom tribute, as most equal and due; love benignity, affableness and peaceableness to, and with all men. I have therefore as a kind of Appendix to this Treatise of the Gospel of Peace, annexed a short one of the Government of our own spirits, without which all speculations will come short of use and practise. I know not what may be the acceptance or success of either, I leave them to his blessing, to the service of whose glory I can say by the Grace of God, they are designed. Some persons perhaps may esteem the whole impertinent, and the style canting, and voided of that masculine sense which is peculiar to one sort of men; but so much above the principles and genius of dissenters from them, especially those of the lower form, that if they should chance to red or hear somewhat of theirs that looks that way, they will hardly believe their own eyes or ears. But let them judge of me, or such as I and these poor Papers, as they please, I shall own and bless God for any thing of theirs that is worthy. And if I may but be a means to serve in any degree the interest of Christ, and souls, I hope I have counted the Costs, and shall not repent my undertaking, except the many sinful infirmities that have attended its manage, by an unworthy Servant in the Ministry of the Gospel, July 23. 1687. JOHN FALDO. ERRATA. REader, I pray Correct or remember these few Escapes; Pag. 10. l. 21. red satisfaction. P. 95. l. 17. deal to his Merit and Intercession. P. 156. l. 2. r. Hero. l. 3. r. himself. THE CONTENTS OF THE DISCOURSE OF THE GOSPEL of PEACE. CHAP. I. THE opening of the Text. CHAP. II. Three Doctrines or Propositions. 1. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a Gospel of Peace. 2. That there is in the Gospel of Peace, furniture sufficient to preserve our peace against all encounters in our Christian course. 3. That in order to securing our peace, by the preparations and furniture of the Gospel, we ought to make a due use and application of it. The first Doctrine confirmed. Sect. 2. What the nature of Peace is in general. 1. It is exclusive of all those evils that are adversaries to our tranquillity. 2. Inclusive of all that good that is necessary to our satisfaction. p. 10. 3. An acquiescence in the true matter or means of satisfaction already possessed, or hereafter to be possessed. Sect. 3. Upon what Considerations the Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace. p. 12. Scil. Its principal design, itis powerful tendency, itis free tenders, its commands and entreaties, its fruits and effects, its being the only revealed way to peace. CHAP. III. Sect. 1. Who or what the Peace of the Gospel hath respect unto. Negatively, not the holy Angels, not to reconcile the fallen Angels. Sect. 2. Positively, it declares the reconciliation of the Divine Attributes to peace with sinners, p. 20. The peace between God and fallen man, with the terms or conditions of it. Sect. 3. The Gospel embraced gives a man peace with his own Conscience, p. 23. Also a stated inward peace indefinitely considered. Sect. 4. The efficacy of the Gospel to obtain and maintain peace with men, both good and bad, friends and foes. CHAP. IV. An account of the excellent nature of that Peace, which is the design and tendency of the Gospel, scil. A Divine peace, a Holy peace, a just peace, a faithful peace, a well-grounded▪ peace, a peace that enlarges the soul, to a secure meditation of all the understanding is capable of. A lasting and growing peace. An inward peace. A peace that none under the Gospel want, bat those who wilfully or carelessly reject it. CHAP. V. Sect. 1. On what foundations the Peace of the Gospel is laid, scil. In the good pleasure of God from eternity, more especially God the Father. In the agreement or Covenant between God the Father, and God the Son. Sect. 2, 3. The various methods and progress of the Gospel in its revelation, scil. by short and more dark hints of Promises and Prophesies, by Types and Shadows, of Gods appointment, by more large and explicit Promises and Prophesies, by the Preaching and Writings of Christ and his Apostles, by the ordinary Ministry in succeeding Ages, by the work of the Spirit of God accompanying the Ministry of the Word and Ordinances. The most complete revelation reserved till we come to Heaven. CHAP. VI. Sect. I. Some Objections against, and Reflections on the Gospel from the Contentions among its Professors, and the oppositions and unpeaceableness that hath arisen upon its first entrance into the world, obviated and answered in general. Sect. 2. More particularly in the Jewish Church. Sect. 3. Into the Heathen or gentle World. CHAP. VII. Sect. 1. The causes of opposition to the Gospel in its purity and power among professed Christians, and their Contentions among themselves. Sect. 2. The causes of Contentions and disquietness about matters of Religion among its sincere Professors. Sect. 3. The causes of disquietness in the minds of particular persons, when the Gospel enters into their Consciences by powerful Convictions. CHAP. VIII. Sect. 1. The improvement of the first Doctrine. Sect. 2. The comfort of knowing upon good inquiry that we are interested in the Peace of the Gospel. The prudence of seeking the truth in this matter. CHAP. IX. Sect. 1. The second Doctrine confirmed from its precepts being observed, tending to prevent unpeaceableness in ourselves, or the breach of our Peace from others. Sect. 2. The Prudentials the Gospel allows for preserving our Peace. Sect. 3. In necessary sufferings to avoid sin, the Gospel provides sufficiently to secure an entire Peace in our own bosoms. Sect. 4. The Furniture of the Gospel to maintain our Peace, not only within ourselves from the assaults of others, but also with ourselves; scil. between the several faculties in the same individual person. Sect. 5. The Gospel furnishes with a sufficiency to maintain peace with God. CHAP. X. Sect. 1. The improvement of the second Doctrine. Sect. 2. A short Consideration of the third Doctrine. A Treatise of the Government of our own Spirits, Pag. 141. CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THE words of the Text opened. Sect. 2. Four Propositions for the determining what Government of our own Spirits may, and will be found in every good man. CHAP. II. The Doctrine from the Text. Sect. 1. He that governs his own spirit, is a better man than he that by force conquers a multitude of other mens bodies, and external possessions, but is a slave to his own passions, Confirmed; and divers eminent instances of the government of the passions or affections, especially that of our Saviours. Sect. 2. The goodness and excellency of governing our own spirits in ten instances. CHAP. III. Sect. 1. The improvement of the Doctrine to the reproof of six gross miscarriages and contradictions to this Doctrine. Sect. 2. Three Conclusions for informing our understandings. Sect. 3. An Exhortation to the practise of two Duties the Doctrine obliges us unto. Sect. 3. Eight remarkable instances, wherein the ungoverned spirits of men appear. CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. Six cogent motives to engage us to attend to the government of our own spirits. Sect. 2. Twelve Means or Helps proposed to the willing, for the better enabling them to govern their own spirits, as becomes men and Christians. THE GOSPEL OF PEACE, &c. EPHES. VI. 15. Having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. CHAP. I. SECT. I. WE have in these words one part or piece of that armor, with its use, which the Apostle exhorts the Ephesian Christians, and with them all that engage in the Christian Spiritual Warfare, to put on. But that we may the better understand the sense and scope of the Text, we must look back to verse 10. Ephes. 6. 10. Here the Apostle begins that Paragraph wherewith he shuts up, and concludes this Epistle; Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. A necessary advice: And indeed such an one, without a conformity to which, there can be no engaging successfully and comfortably in our Christian duty. Verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God, is an Verse 11. advice which gives the true exposition of being str●ng in the Lord, and in the power of his might, according to the sense of verse 10. It is not only to have▪ our dependence on the immediate Divine Grace and Assistance; but also in the due use of all that Spiritual Armature he hath provided for us, to fortify us to, and in our duty, against all dangers that threaten us in it, or allurements that tempt us to depart from it. This armor is called the power of his might, First, As it is a power of Gods creating and ordination, and which he hath provided and bestowed on us as his Auxiliaries, his helps and assistances, for our encouragement and ability to do our duty, and our security in it. 2dly, As this armor put on, and in its due exercise hath an energy and efficacy to its designed ends, above and beyond all human or natural causality, agreeable to a Divine and Supernatural Power. For tho we walk after the flesh, we do not 2 Cor. 10. 3, 4. war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, &c. Material fleshly things are weak: Their horses are flesh, and not spirit. And Isa. 31. 3. tho this armor is not spirit, it is spiritual, and partakes of the power of Spirits; yea, of the God of Spirits. 3dly, As there is a Divine Power annexed to every piece of this armor in its due use, it is mighty through God: 'tis animated by his Spirit. So the Gospel is said to be the power of God to salvation, Rom. 1. 18. to every one that believeth. The preaching of the 1 Cor. 1. 18. across to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, the power of God. This armor will not be found armor of proof, if not animated by a power above itself, or him that wears it. Indeed God hath promised the concourse of his Divine Power, where 'tis diligently improved: but still its efficacy lies not in itself, or our improvements, but the Divine Power annexed to, and acting by it. The holy Apostle Paul's Grace was not, but God's Grace assisting, his was sufficient for him. Thus much is not only expedient to be said, in the consideration of verse 10. but necessary; because it concerns, and affects the whole of that Armature whereof our Text is a part; and puts upon it that countenance which is its chief beauty, strength and glory. This armor of God, which is the power of his 2 Cor. 12. 9. might, is complete armor; not only with respect to its efficacy, but also in regard of its parts: there is some or other piece of this armor for every part; according to the Apostles Military allusion to the body of a Soldier, armed at all points for offence and defence, cap-à-pie: no part wanting, no part to be neglected, but taken to us, and put on: And indeed any one part unarmed, is sufficient to expose us to wounds and death. Therefore we are exhorted to put on the whole armor of God: 〈◇〉, armaturam integram; which implies not only all its parts, but so united and compacted, as may render it( tho of divers parts, yet) one whole and well compacted armor, leaving no space so much as between the joints of the Harness, for an Arrow, or a fiery Dart to enter. In this Ahab's armor was defective, and it cost him his life. But here let me observe by the way, that tho there be armor even for the feet in this Divine furniture, yet there is not the least provision to fortify the back, which yet is common in bodily armor. I can guess at no better ground for it than this, That runaways and backsliders are so far out of God's protection, as to be left to smart for their Cowardice. He would have all to stand and keep their ground: 'tis to that purpose, this excellent armor is provided for them. Stand therefore, having, &c. Eph. 6. 14. Having said what I judged meet of the Christians spiritual armor in general; I shall now consider that particular piece in my Text, appropriated to the feet. Having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. The Christian life is in Scripture often represented by a walk, a journey: But as 'tis a spiritual warfare, its motions may well be rendered a spiritual March, under the Command and Banner of our Lord Jesus, the Captain of our Salvation. In common motions and travels, the feet are exposed to many calamities and sufferings; more especially to wounds and bruises, by length of journeys; stony, thorny, rugged and uneven ways. It was a special evidence of God's care and Providence over Israel in their journeyings in the Wilderness, Deut. 8. 4. Deut. 29. 5. that their shoes did not wax old on their feet, neither did their feet swell in all the forty years they continued there. Here the Lord eked out their short store, and made there Leather wear like Iron; corrected natural infirmity, and made their tender feet travel-proof: that it might appear that God sometimes will make his ways free from pain, or penury, to those who engage in them in sincerity, and trust in him. But in our spiritual motions, he has great variety of methods to preserve us from snares and mischiefs. That Promise made, and more particularly applied to our Lord Jesus, reaches all his followers: For he shall give his Angels charge Psal. 91. 11. over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a ston. It is prophesied of the promised Seed of the Woman, That the Serpent( meaning the Devil) should bruise his heel; which doth imply, Gen 3. 15. that his progress in the way, and work of our redemption, should be attended with sore temptations and sufferings. And it is not without some intimation, that his Disciples and followers in the way of their duty, should meet with the same hard measures from Satan and his instruments: the proof of which hath filled up the Volumes of all the Ages of Christianity. These considerations might tempt such, whose hearts are engaged to enter into, and walk in the holy ways of the Lord, to hesitate at the prospect of these unpleasing encounters: at least to take their steps fearfully and staggeringly, without that holy holdness, resolution, uprightness, thorowness, and assured Countenance as becomes the Servants of the Lord, the followers of the Lamb, and those who, in the obedience of Faith, press toward the mark, the prise of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But our Text furnishes us against all fears of what we may meet with in our Christian Course, with armor for our feet, armor of God's own hammering, and of Divine appointment for our security: which if we put on, all fears and griefs will fall off of themselves: and our temptations 〈◇〉, a mind fitted, disposed. and adversities will no more pierce and wound, than the Swords and Bullets that aim at that Body which is enclosed in armor of proof. We may hold on our way thorough thick and thin, and tread on the sharpest stones with as much delight and security, as on the smoothest pavement strewed with Roses. The next thing we have to consider in the Text, is the armor itself, wherewith the Feet ought to be shod: and that is, The preparation of the Gospel of peace. The Gospel of Peace is such Furniture, as is sufficient to prepare us to, and fit us for our Christian wayfare▪ and warfare: No wise man will undertake either of these▪ but he will first be prepared with what is meet to carry him thorough( if possible) both safely and comfortably. Such an accomplishment is the Gospel of Peace to those who are shod with it. They are aforehand with whatever may happen: have prevented all dangers or disapointments. And 'tis called a preparation, because till we are furnished with it, we are no way fit for the profession and life of Christianity: But when this is put on, we are ready prepared to duty, and all that attends it. All that remains for the opening the Text is, to show what this Gospel of Peace is, that is such a necessary and blessed preparation. The Gospel, in the Greek, 〈◇〉, signifies glad tidings, answerable to that enunciation of the coming of the Son of God in the flesh. Behold, Luk. 2. 10. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. And it agrees most exactly, and in the highest sense, with the true design and nature of the Gospel: For the Gospel contains, declares, and tenders the medicinal remedying Law and Covenant of Grace: The cure of that sin and misery derived from the fall, the methods of Divine wisdom in the prosecuting the gracious end of reconciliation between God and sinful undone Man: than which, what can be more welcome to a rational creature, sensible of his misery, and desirous of a Recovery? The old English Saxon expressed the Gospel by two words, viz. Gots-spel or Gods-spel: the Genuine import of which, was Gods cure or remedy. But we are not to restrain the Sense of this term Gospel, to the more privileges of the Covenant of Grace, in which Sinners become interested by sincere Evangelical and saving Faith: but to extend it to all its Precepts, Doctrines, Advices: yea, to its warnings and menaces, all which in the due use of them, have some share in this Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. Three Doctrines or Propositions will take in the Sense of the Text: all which I purpose( if the Lord will) to consider, according to the interest they have in the Text, and the share they( seem to me to) contribute to our Edification in the Grace and Peace of the Gospel. CHAP. II. DOct. 1st, The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a Gospel of Peace. Doct. 2d, That there is in the Gospel of Peace, furniture sufficient to preserve our Peace against all Encounters in our Christian course. Doct. 3d, In order to the securing our Peace, by the Preparations and Furniture of the Gospel, we ought to make a due use and application of it. I Shall consider these three Doctrines in their order. 1st, That the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, is a Gospel of Peace. Peace is a quality belongs to it, not only as some lesser Circumstance or small Appendage: but as its principal Subject runs in all its Veins: 'tis the very Spirit and Soul of it. Some Men impose Titles on their Books, that have but little concern in the Books themselves. This is not their Wisdom, but their Vanity, and the Readers utter disappointment. The only wise and faithful God cannot be liable to such an Incongruity: He calls things by their right Names He doth not draw a great shoe upon a little foot. We have abundant testimony of this truth in the Scripture. I shall instance in two only. When Christ sent forth his Disciples to Preach the Gospel, he orders them to signify its Errand in their Salutation: Peace be unto this House. But Luke 10. 5. Acts 10. 36. more expressly in the words of St. Peter, Preaching Peace by Jesus Christ. Peace is its Errand and Argument. Seven things I shall endeavour in the Explication of this Doctrine. 1st, To give a short, but sufficient account of the Nature of Peace in General. 2dly, show you upon what Considerations the Gospel is a Gospel of Peace. 3dly, To whom, or what this Peace concerns, and hath respect unto. 4thly, What is the Nature and excellent Properties of it. 5thly, On what Foundations it is laid. 6thly, In what methods it is derived to us. 7thly, Answer a great Objection against, and Reflection upon this Doctrine, from the sad Expeperience of the unpeaceable Condition of the World, where, and when the Gospel hath set footing, and in the Spirits and deportments of its Professors. SECT. II. What the Nature of Peace is in General. 1st, It is Negative, excluding all those evils that are Adversaries to our tranquillity, to our true and real Happiness. It is as impossible for Fire and Water to be quiet, when mingled together, or the Waters to be calm, when beaten on by fierce and impetuous Storms: as for a Man to be at Peace while under the Power and Impressions of what is contrary to him. And this is none of the least of its Excellencies, that where it is, all things contrary to us are either absent: or we are so fortified, that they cannot hurt or distress us. Motion or Agitation( simply considered) is no Breach of our Peace: but Contrariety and Contradiction, this is War, the true Breach of the Peace, where we have not a Defence sufficient to secure us. The Apostle Paul had Adversaries and Adversities attended him wherever he came: but tho he could not fly them, he did escape them: None of these Acts. 20. 24. things move me. He was steady as a Rock against the Waves: calm as those Heavens which no Vapour can reach. 2dly, It is Positive, as including all that good that is necessary to our Salvation. A Negative Peace alone, is a very bare and beggarly thing. Not to be sick, in pain, any way contradicted, afflicted, or unhappy: This is the peace of a Stock, or a ston: not that of a sensible and rational being: of all created beings, the intelligent, as they are most capable, so they are most craving. How unhappy a thing is it to hunger and thirst, and have nothing to answer and satisfy those vehement Appetites? Man is a large Vessel, if he be not filled with what is Connatural, agreeable to him, somewhat unfriendly, unkind and injurious, must fill up the Room. A Vessel not filled with more solid Matter, will entertain more Air, rather than any Emptiness. A more negative peace is a dead peace. The Hebrew salutation, Peace be with you, intended all good things, whatever might contribute to their joys. Life and Peace morally considered, are but the same things: And the Apostle couples them as pares of like import. To be spiritually minded is life and Rom. 8. 6. peace: They are exegetical or interpretative each of other. It is observable what is said of Nabal, in the direction of David's Message to him. Say to him that liveth in prosperity, so our Translation: But in the original 'tis only, Say to him that liveth: for no man liveth that liveth not comfortably: and also no man has true solid peace, but he that Louis himself, by enjoying what is necessary to his satisfaction. 3dly, Peace is an aquiescence in the true matter or means of satisfaction which we possess, or may possess. Heaven itself would not be sufficient to create a Peace for that man who cannot aquiesce in its felicity. The fallen Angels, and our first Parents, had enough in those stations wherein God had placed them, to fill their capacity, to answer the utmost of their affections: and whilst they aquiesced therein, they had perfect peace. But when once their desires shot themselves beyond those bounds, their conditions grew uneasy, their Peace was broken. That expression of the Psalmist, He maketh me to lye Psal. 23. 2▪ down in green pastures, is a complete representation of Peace: A sufficiency, plenty enough to answer necessity, and kindle a delight: and this acquiesced in, the Soul taking up its rest, the heart, and so adequate provision brought together. What is the cause that all men that hear the Gospel of Peace, are not immediately changed into its image: I mean their Souls blessed with its Peace? It must be either from their disbelief of the real existence of those good things proposed there, or at least their suspicion that they are not attainable by them; or which is the most prevailing, that their hearts cannot, or do not aquiesce in, and embrace them as a sufficiency, an adequate good: And this is the true cause of the impossibility of the peace of that man, whose Principles, or Affections, and Will, are under the prevalency of corrupted nature. As for me( saith the Wise and Holy David) I Psal. 17. 15. will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Righteousness is not only a condition of happiness, as answering the terms of the law of Grace, but also a necessary preparation to it. And that likeness of God, which is a congruity of the glorified creature to all the Divine perfections, renders it capable of satisfaction in that God, between whom and such a Soul there is so exact and complete an agreement. SECT. III. Upon what Considerations the Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace. 1st. The principal design of God, in and by the Gospel, is Peace: Next and subordinate to his own Glory, Peace is the mark which his Eternal Thoughts and councils aimed at by the whole frame of the Gospel. Glory to God in the highest, takes the first place, next to that peace on earth, and lastly, good will towards men: of which, this Peace is the highest evidence and expression. In Christ's state or humiliation, The chastisement of our peace was upon him. Isa. 53. ●5. In his state of exaltation he is said to be( according to the type) Melchisedech king of Salem: That is, Heb. 7. 1. King of Righteousness, King of Peace. So that, take him at lowest or highest, Suffering, Obeying, Reigning, the design of all is peace. 2dly, The tendency of the Gospel to Peace. There is the highest and most accomplished tendency to Peace in the Gospel: The means answers the end, suitable to that good will and wisdom that is peculiar to the Divine Being. No natural cause hath a more exact tendency to its proper effects. All its Promises, Provisions, Precepts, Cautions, Convictions, Instructions: yea, itis very Chidings, Menaces, and Chastisements, conspire to carry on this blessed end of peace. 3dly, Its Proposals, and Tenders, and Treaties, are Peace. Peace is the Pearl it offers: The great business its Ministers and Ambassadors are to treat of: And they are unworthy of the name of Ministers of the Gospel, who so far forget its errand and their own, as to neglect the blessed work of Peace-makers: But of all others, they who contradict it so far, as instead of tendering and treating God's Peace, vent their own Passions to serve their own Parties, Factions, and Carnal Interests. The hypocritical Jews mocked God, and abused his Ordinance of fasting, by fasting for strife and debate: and were severely reproved for their pains, by him they pretended to worship, serve, and reconcile. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, to smite with the fist of wickedness: Ye shall not fast as ye do this day. Is not this the fast that I have chosen: Isa. 58. 4, 5, 6. to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? red but Preaching instead of Fasting: 'tis all as congruous to truth, and as obvious to human reason. Pardon this digression( if it be such) it being to meet with those who are so much out of their way. See the tenders of the Gospel, and the business of its Ministers. And into whatever house ye enter, Luke 10. 5. say Peace be to this house: But if this tender of peace be rejected, the Ambassadors of Peace are called off, and must leave nothing behind them but the witnesses Verse 10. 11. of their ingratitude, and the menaces of the most severe revenge from the God of Peace. 4thly, The Gospel Commands and wooes Peace, and directs us into the way of it. The Lord doth not by his Gospel commend it to us, and leave ●● there, but he commands it also: Thereby making it our sin as well as our folly to reject or slight it: An affront to the Divine Majesty, as well as a wrong to ourselves and others. Be diligent that ye 2 Pet. 3. 14. may be found of him in peace. The Gospel passes from Commands to entreaties. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ, as tho' God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God. If our hearts be inclined to Peace, but we are ignorant of the way of it, the Gospel becomes our director, To guide our feet into the way of peace. 5thly, Its Effects and Fruits are Peace. They are actually so with some or other, as froward and perverse as the World is to Peace, to whom the Gospel of Peace makes its addresses. None of God's designs are barren and vain. And if his Will and Design be to promote Peace by the Gospel, and especially Peace with God: it shall have these effects somewhere: God has told us afore-hand it shall be so, tho' he has not told us the persons by name. The unbelief of the body of the Rom. 3. 3. Jews( the Apostle saith) shall not make the faith of God of none effect. God had designed, declared, promised an Efficacy of Peace to the Gospel of Peace; Who, or what can resist his good Will, the purposes of his Grace? Consider the Promises made to the Son of God, upon his undertaking the gracious work of reconciliation: And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth. When thou shalt Isa. 53. 10. make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. We may take that prophesy of Christ, for the Exposition of this concerning Joh. 12. 32. Isa. 55. 10, 11. him: And I, when I am lift up will draw all men to me: i.e. by reconciliation, by my Gospel of Peace. What can we think of those promises of writing God's Law in the mind? giving a heart of flesh? The sense of which is, their being reconciled to God; but that some, and many shall be wrought on, savingly to perform the terms of life in the Covenant of Grace. No one person, or sort of persons, however qualified, can be here pointed out, but are all hide in the Arcana of God's purpose; 'tis effectual calling must speak them particularly to belong to the election of Grace. This certain infallible efficacy that was certain and future, before it had any actual being, methinks is hard to be reconciled to that opinion, that leaves all reconciling saving successses of the Gospel of Peace, to uncertain Contingencies; which is to say, it might, or was most likely to be savingly effectual: But it was possible it might so come to pass, that not one Soul might be reconciled by it. It was so left to the Liberty and Power of Man, that he had the turning of the Scale. The last Consideration I offer, upon which it is, or may very congruously be called the Gospel of Peace, is, That it is the only revealed way of Peace. I am neither so adventurous or uncharitable, as to utter any Sentence against the more honest Heathen, who lived up to their light, which God hath not denounced in the Patent writings of his Word. But, that there is no other name given under Heaven among men, but the name of Jesus Christ, whereby Acts 4. 12. we must be saved, is the express Text. So much for the Considerations upon which it may be said to be the Gospel of Peace. 'Tis not an empty title, but has in it what abundantly answers to this Character. CHAP. III. SECT. I. Who, or what the Peace of the Gospel hath respect unto. I Shall determine this, First Negatively. Secondly Positively. Negatively first, It hath not any design for the Peace of the Holy Angels, who have kept their first habitation. The God of Peace hath found them always where, and what they ought to be: In that order and decorum wherein he first placed them. They never sinned, and therefore never broke their Peace with God, nor among themselves: And therefore need no Gospel, nor other means to reconcile them. The Scripture tells us, that they desire to look 1 Pet▪ 1. 12. into the things contained in the Gospel: But this desire is, to behold the glory of the Divine attributes shining forth in Grace, riches of Grace to sinners among men: Such Grace as hath an height, and depth in it; beyond the prospect and reach of Angels, without the help of Divine Revelation. 2dly, It is not a Gospel of Peace that hath any design to reconcile the Devils, or fallen Angels: These are reserved in everlasting Chains, under darkness, judas v. 6▪ to the judgement of the great day. 'Tis a double chain under which they are held; a chain of guilt, and the chain of God's decree, which neither men nor Angels can break. It hath been put as a question, Why God should show so much Grace and Favour to fallen Man, and none at all to the fallen Angels? Why the Son of God took on him, not the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham? Seeing they were creatures who, by nature were so much superior to man in all excellencies; in substance spirits, but Man a poor lump of day, quickened by a Soul, but one step above the brutes: In strength so much superior, as a Man is to a Worm, and more: In knowledge and sagacity, as admits not the wisest of men to any comparison: In duration immortal, whereas man begins to die as soon as he begins to live: In their habitation, dwellers in the Heaven of Heavens, Courtiers and immediate attendants on the Holy and Divine Majesty; whereas man hath his foundation in the dust, dwells in a habitation of day, is a poor creeping worm on God's foot-stool. It is commonly answered, that God dealt more severely with them than with man, because their sin was of a deeper slain, more exceeding sinful. 1st. As they were placed in an higher station, and their fall was accordingly greater. 2dly, They had greater ability to stand, whereas man had but a bare sufficiency. 3dly, They had more immediate knowledge of God; and a more complete and intimate enjoyment of him. 4thly, That only some part of their number fell: Heaven was not left totally empty of their species: Whereas man fell one and all, all had sinned, and come short of the glory of God. If a means of reconciliation and recovery had not been found out for man, one entire Tribe of intelligent creatures would have been missing in Heaven for ever, there being but two in all; Angels, and men. But I will rather take my Answer out of Christ's mouth, in a mat. 11. 25, 26. Case not altogether unlike this, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hide these things▪ from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Here was a regard to the less excellent and capable, before their betters in both those points; the only reason being the free and sovereign pleasure of God. That man who dare affront the Will of God with the Law of his own reasonings, and oppose plain Scripture words and sense with his rules of equity; Let him consider this Divine practical Comment on those words, I will have mercy on whom Rom. 9. 15. I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. The Lord by a hand of love and pity, takes hold of sorry fallen Man, and leaves the fallen Angels where their sin had cast them. Surely here is election and preterition; and both depending purely on Divine Pleasure. Let men take heed, that under pretence of magnifying the goodness of God, by extending it beyond the Gospel line, that they do not divest him of his sovereignty, and more than question his truth. Job's Friends were good men, and pretended to pled God's Cause with admirable oratory, and flourish against Job, as if it became not God, was incompatible with his justice to deal so severely with Job, if he were not a rank hypocrite: But Job under all his pressures, asserts God's sovereignty, and justifies his own integrity. God himself determines the controversy on Job's side, viz. That his friends had not spoken right of God as his servant Job. He pardons Job's friends, but Job must deal in the atonement. SECT. II. To answer positively, first, The Peace the Gospel is concerned in, is a Peace or Reconciliation of the Divine Attributes, in reference to fallen man's happiness. Not that they were ever at any jar among themselves: But the Case of fallen Man was such, That upon the supposal of God's design of Grace and Mercy to him, his justice and faithfulness must needs demur to it; till some mean was offered for their satisfaction and security. Fallen sinful Man lay a Sacrifice at the foot of Divine vindictive justice; Man's sin exposed him to death as a penalty, not only by the Law of nature, but by the sentence expressly passed against him by God himself, in case he should eat of the three of the knowledge of good G●●. 2. 17. and evil. Man ventures on the transgression of that inhibition; God is bound by his word to exact the penalty. It was past the reach of the wisdom of Man or Angel to reconcile God's Mercy( if he were disposed to exert it) to his Justice and Truth. Man must perish to satisfy the justice, veracity, and honour of God, which he had affronted: or God must put up the wrong, as far as to a denial of himself. Here was a sad dilemma, a difficult knot: But the Gospel declares how the knot was untied. That Divine Wisdom and Love by the mutual consent of God the Father, and God the Son, had transferred the punishment of Man's sin upon the Son of God; for which end in due time he was made man, took on him the seed of Abraham, was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, With his stripes Isa 53 ●6 we are healed. God laid on him the iniquities of us all. Hereby the way lay open for Mercy and Truth to meet together; Righteousness and Peace to kiss each other. Mercy to Man, to agree with Divine Truth; Peace with Man, to kiss and embrace Righteousness in God. Hereby God was at a just and honourable liberty, yea, under a just and merciful obligation; to erect a new Covenant, a Covenant of Grace; more easy and secure terms of life and happiness. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh: God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. This reconciliation of the Divine Attributes, and the methods of it, in rendering Man salvable, notwithstanding the impossibility of his being so, by the severe, and strict execution of the first Law, or Covenant, is declared to us by the Gospel: without which we could have had no such satisfaction to build our Faith on as the gracious Promise of God. Whereas by these methods revealed in the Gospel, the Grace contained therein appears more rational, and many great objections removed out of the way of our Faith. 2dly, The Peace of the Gospel, is a Peace between God and sinful Man: There was, and is a dreadful quarrel between God, and every Man that is under the guilt and power of sin. Man's sin broken the Peace, and sin uncured increases the breach, and makes its wounds wider: But notwithstanding all Man's guilt and misery, there is a remedy in the Gospel: Peace for sinful, miserable, impotent Man, with the Almighty and provoked God. The great Doctrine of the Gospel is, Peace with God through Jesus Christ: preaching peace by Jesus Acts 10. 36. 2 Cor. 5. 18, 19. Christ. And hath committed to us the word of reconciliation; to wit, That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. This is the substance and grand design of the Gospel, to make peace between God and Man. Other designs of Peace it has, and declares; but this carries the pference: All the rest are either in order to it, or consequent of it. The Name of Christ Jesus is only to be found in the Gospel. 1st, Not only Peace with God, is the Peace designed by it; but also the only way and means is declared by it: for if the Gospel be hide, it is hide to 2 Cor. 4. 3. those that are lost. All the wit and prospect of Men, or Angels, could reach no prospect of this Peace with God, till Life and immortality was brought to light through the Gospel. God cannot look on sinners peaceably, without anger; nor sinners on God without terror; 'tis the light of the Gospel discovers the face of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Till we behold the face of God reconciled by the Gospel, Mercy and Truth met together, and Righteousness and Peace kissing each other, We cannot see his face and live. 2dly, The Gospel declares the terms and conditions of this Peace with God on our part: Faith and Repentance; The obedience of Faith, The new birth; Being made new creatures; Resigning ourselves sincerely and universally to the will of God; accepting and embracing the whole Covenant; and living congruously to a Christian profession. 3dly, It tenders this Peace with God to all, and adds the compulsion of the highest and strongest motives that man is capable of; The promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come. 4thly, It does not only wooe, but work by a Divine, secret efficiency to a sense of, and compliance with this Peace with God upon Gospel terms. It is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth. Rom. 1. 16. SECT. III. 3dly, A Gospel of Peace with a man's own Conscience. Conscience, yea, natural Conscience can discern and reflect on the wound, the breach made by sin betwixt a sinner and his God: Tho of it self, it can neither work, nor discern the cure. Our first Parents fled from the presence of God Gen. 3. 8, 10, 11. at the fright which Conscience raised in their Souls. I was afraid, because I was naked. They knew they were naked, exposed to God's displeasure and their own shane. But, Who told thee that thou wert naked? No other but his own Conscience told him so; And the same Conscience that told him he was naked, remembered him of the Law he had transgressed, the penalty of death incurred thereby, the loss of Divine favour, his being exposed to intolerable and inevitable vengeance. The same Conscience made such application of these direful considerations, that as he fled from the presence of the offended God, so he would gladly have fled from himself and from his Conscience also, that bound him; his sin, and his punishment together: From his Conscience that was become his Enemy; and fought against him in God's stead, and with God's Weapons. Thus it was between Cain and his Conscience. Gen. 4. 13, 14. When God had passed his sentence on him for his fratricide, his Conscience makes the poison and smart of it stick to his bones; My punishment is greater than I can bear. He turns Vagabond, but could not flee from his Conscience. His Conscience frights him with the terrors of death, to be executed by the next hand that meets him. Whoever meets me shall slay me. An accusing and condemning Conscience, is sin open before hand, and haleing the Soul to judgement: An antedatedd Hell. It lies at the door, at the catch to Arrest the guilty Soul. O what would not a man give for Peace with Conscience, who hath felt its stings, and carried its Hell in his bosom wherever he goes, wherever he is, in his downlying, his up-rising, his worship, his reading, his meditations, his table, his cups, yea in his very dreams? This blessed Gospel is a Gospel of Peace betwixt a sinner and his terrible intimate enemy, an awakened Conscience. And this naturally follows peace with God. Where peace with God is by the word and Spirit of God proclaimed in the sinners soul, with convincing evidence: Conscience, which is Gods instrument, lays down its weapons, becomes our friend, and treats us as the friends and confederates of God. When God speaks peace by his Gospel, Conscience echoes to its voice, and says so too. This is the answer of a good Conscience to Gods 1 Pet. 3. 21. voice and our inquiries. That man who embraces the Gospel of peace, that Gospel will instruct his Conscience to speak peaceably and kindly to him. The sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus which the Gospel discovers and applies, will be the sinners Passover. Where that is found on the Door-posts, Conscience has no power to smite with death. The believing converted sinner, will be no more frighted from the presence of the Lord: But, can draw nigh to him( as the best of his Paradise) with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; having his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body washed with pure water. And though it so falls out with some really Evangelized souls, that by the sentence of the Gospel they have peace with God, yet by the sentence of Conscience 'tis directly contrary. This does not arise from any defect in the Gospel, but of our own misunderstanding the Gospel, or our own hearts. And Conscience being an human faculty, can reflect no further than enlightened by the understanding: yea it goes along with that, tho into a gross error. But that Spirit of God which is the Spirit of the Gospel, does ordinarily, and will( when 'tis congruous to divine wisdom) cause our spirits to join issue with his evidence of peace, where Rom. 8. 14, 15, 16. we are truly reconciled to God. For, as many as are lead by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the Children of God. I might add, that the Gospel assists to peace of Conscience, as it directs and moves to that frame of heart and life, as preserves our peace with Conscience. For besides our peace with Conscience as to our state for eternity, and general reconciliation with God, we are concerned to preserve it with respect to particular actions, and the whole frame of our life. Tho Conscience enlightened will not charge a man as a damned sinner for every careless, or wilful failing, and throw hell in his face; yet, it will charge him as a sinner, and it may be as guilty of deeply aggravated sin; such sin as God will not only hid his face for, but frown, threaten, and execute severe displeasure. Now he that according to the Rules of the Gospel, Acts. 24. 16. sincerely exercises himself to have a conscience voided of offence towards God, and towards men, shall maintain such a peace with conscience that he shall not be so much as accused, threatened, or chid by it; yea, it will be an excusing, comforting, and justifying Conscience. For our rejoicing 2 Cor. 1. 12. is this, the testimony of our conscience, &c. that in simplicity and godly sincerity— we have had our conversation in the world. Fourthly, A stated inward peace universally considered: It is such a peace the Gospel derives to us when sincerely embraced, as makes all calm within, exclusive of perturbation from any cause, or consideration whatsoever. There are other arrows that sometimes stick in the soul, besides those that fly from the quiver of an irreconciled God, or an awakened, troubled, and disquieting Conscience. As losses and crosses in the world, fears of foes, desolations, wants of necessary relief, frowns of men, and others innumerable. Such as these( without the former) may pave all our paths with thorns and briars; stuff our pillows with anxious and perplexing thoughts and cares. But the Gospel of Peace embraced, and applied in its directions, promises and comforts, will maintain an inward peace and tranquillity against all their assaults. I will lay me down in peace and Psal. 4. 8. sleep, for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety. That Princely Saint( whose words these were) had many adversaries and adversities to disrest him, and break his peace; but the consideration of the shines of divine favour, and the shadow of Gods protection( which the Gospel only could discover to him) could sufficiently secure him in the midst of his dangers from all disturbing cares or fears; he could sleep in utramque aurem on both ears. And well may he be at peace who has God for his stay against all storms; and as such, he is no where represented but in the Gospel-promise; that promise is a branch of the Gospel-Covenant, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed Isa. 26. 3. on thee. To have a God all-sufficient, such a God in Covenant to stay upon, is sure enough to keep the mind steady. But suppose the mind be feeble, and wavering in this act of reliance; here is that which makes sure work for our peace, who trust in him, tho so defectively. God has promised to do the work himself, if our faith can't do it, he will do it. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. The God of peace himself, he that commands peace in his high places. He that creates peace, he will keep him in perfect peace. It is this peace of God, of Gods creating in the soul, of which the Apostle saith, It shall keep your hearts and minds; or as the Greek, Phil. 4. 17. 〈◇〉. Shall garrison your hearts, or secure them with a power able to give a good account of that peace it is are charged with. SECT. IV. The Gospel of Jesus Christ hath an efficacy to obtain, and maintain peace with men; and not only with good men, but bad men; not only with friends, but foes also. 1. It hath an efficacy by special●ties and motives to maintain peace with, and among good men. By good men, I mean here such as are good in a Scripture, that is a sanctified sense; or if you will, good Christians. For many go under that name of Christians, to no better end than the reproach of that worthy name; and are Christians but as an apple is an apple that is rotten at the heart, and it may be quiter through within, and without too, 'tis an apple, notwithstanding but I never met with any yet that would call it a good apple. I do not say that the Gospel hath alway, and with all good men this blessed effect. But there is that in it which if it were well understood, and lived in good earnest, there would be no such agreement, union, and peace as among sincere Christians. They would be the only persons who would deserve the title of the Lovers band. That observation of the Primitive Christians, by the old Heathen, would be revived, See how they love one another. The means, motives, and inducements which the Gospel effects, or proposes to this end, among Christians indeed, are innumerable and inexpressible. It informs them of those real truths, that they are one spiritual body, yea, that they are one spirit: He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. That 1 Cor. 6. 16. they are one mystical Christ. Christ personal is the head, and all true believers are his members. They are all the Children of the same Father and Mother, God is their Father, and Jerusalem which is Gal. 4. 26. above is the mother of us all. There is in every good Christian an agreement in nature. The new creature is formed of the same holy, divine, vital principles in the strongest man, and the weakest babe; tho not arrived to the same measures of perfection. There is by their union an holy sympathy and communion with all the good and evil that concerns any, or all the members of this body: A circulation of the blood and spirits throughout the whole: And whether one member 1 Cor. 12. 16. suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. They have all the same heaven, the place of everlasting rest, which is the journeys end they aim at, and shall obtain. 'Tis for this self-same Rest they are now all preparing, and are dispositively prepared by the spirit of grace that abides, and lives in them. For he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who hath also given unto us of 2 Cor. 5. 5. his Spirit. And as they have but one heaven, their journeys end; so they have but one way, the obedience of faith; tho with respect of different stations, conditions, circumstances, understandings also, they may not tread just in the same tract. Our Lord Jesus in his blessed Gospel commands, and commends peace to his followers with the greatest authority and most Pathetical expressions. He leaves them peace as a legacy, and leaves as his last and dying command( when his love wrought highest, and his sufferings for them were within a few hours of their hottest) that they would do that in remembrance of him which is the Symbol of the most principal union and motives of love and peace one with another: I mean the holy Sacrament of the Lords-Supper. He promises the presence of the God of love and peace with them that live in peace; and threatens a severe revenge upon the breakers of the peace, that smite Mat. 24. ●9. their fellow servants. The Laws which the Gospel lays on us of love, forbearance, bearing one anothers burdens; pitying and supporting one anothers infirmities; curing all we can, and covering what we cannot cure, does certainly render it a Gospel of peace for good men, one among and towards another. It teaches them to be so far above indifferent things, childish toys, as to believe them below their contentions; but if such fancies do possess any, then to forbear one another in love, and not deal judgings, and severe censures on the one hand, and contempts on the other, which the eminent and holy Austin elegantly resolves into these few words, In necessariis unitas, in nonnecessariis libertas, in omnibus charitas. In necessary things unity, in unnecessary things liberty, in all charity. Indeed the Gospel represents Christians so disposed by grace, that if it be diligently improved and exerted, all that court and compliment, that benign, obliging deportment, that civilizes and reconciles the world by art, will be found in Christians, as the genuine products of renewed nature. To conclude, these are the Gospel representations of Christian engagements and dispositions to peace among themselves, which if they were all drawn to the life upon its professors, the whole Christian world would be the terra pacata, Zion would be a peaceable habitation. All its lively stones would quietly lye in their order, in this Temple of God on earth. They would no more disturb each others peace, nor justle into anothers place. All would be one sweet Consort, contributing to the beauty, strength, and comfort of the whole building. Consider what is spoken of those days, wherein the Gospel of peace shall prevail at another rate than now, and impress its image with more vigour Isa. 55. 11. 12, 13. on the Church. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me voided.— it shall prosper whereto I sent it. And what doth this efficacy of the Gospel particularly intend? For you shall go out with joy, and be lead forth with peace.— Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtletree. The same word we now are so poorly affencted with, shall one day bring forth a richer crop of Aut hoc non est Evangelium, aut nos non sumus Evangelici. grace and peace. The ancient reproof confirms the truth I am affirming, Either this is not the Gospel, or we are no Christians. It was a degenerating age, tho( perhaps) not half so much as ours. Whatever men may pretend unto, for bearing the name of Christianity, they may measure their distance from the thing it self, or their approaches to it, much, by the peaceableness of their spirits, and deportment towards their brethren. Their souls who dwell far from dispositions to peace, have no intimacy with the Gospel. Let them who make earnings for their pleasure, or their profit, by smiting their fellow-servants, consider the Contents of Mat. 24. ver. 49. to the end of the chapped. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not ware of; and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. So far as this Text concerns Ministers, whom certainly it concerns as deeply as any; it aggravates their cruelty to their fellow-servants, by its being joined with their own sensuality and luxury. And I need not use many words to persuade the present age, that those who have dealt such severe blows to good men, have ordinarily been very complaisant and fellowly with the worst, if not partaking with them in their follies. Secondly, The Gospel contributes very much to our peace with bad men. 1. By prescribing, and disposing good men to a peaceable affection and carriage towards the bad. The Gospel is no such narrow strait-laced thing, as to restrain a kind, benign, and courteous carriage to the best, or better sort of men. Bad men, yea notorious hypocrites, who are the sink of corrupted nature, are by its rules and principles, to partake of our civilities and charity. Do good to all men, but especially to them who are of the household of faith. Those who are best deserving, are to have the greatest share in our complacence and kindness; yet the worst of men not to be wholly abandoned, but their shreds of goodness to be acknowledged, and their necessities supplied from a sincere benevolence. It obliges us to follow peace with all men, so far as not to part with holiness. Not only to accept peace when it offers itself, admit it when it courts us, but to pursue it when it flees from us. We must not part with peace with any man if it may be had, and preserved upon tolerable terms. This Heb. 12. 14 peaceable and benign spirit to evil men, the Gospel teaches us to be the image of God, that wherein consists a principal part of Godliness or God-likeness. That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil, and the good; and his rain to fall on the just and the unjust. These are the Gospel-lessons, which few of the Heathen understood; and the morose narrowhearted Jews expunged with their false Glosses. 2ly, A compliance with the Gospel-directory, mightily conduces to procure and conciliate peace from evil men, to those who are good and holy. Were the Lessons and Principles of the Gospel more lively represented by the conversations of its professors, it would in a great degree abate the hatred and injuries of the worst of men. Tho they have no principles of Grace, it would work on the remains of good nature. These men( said the Amorites of Jacobs Family) are peaceable with us: therefore let Gen. 34. 21 them dwell in the land, and trade with us. And let it be supposed that the bad natures of unregenerate men has a radicated enmity to the godly as such; yet not only human alliance, but common interests would engage to peace with such men who bear the image of the Gospel. Who will harm you, if ye 1 Pet. 3. 13. be followers of that which is good? None certainly that have any sparks of goodness remaining in them. None that have any regard to justice or modesty. Thirdly, The Gospel contributes to peace with enemies. Men may be bad men, and yet in no actual enmity with the good and holy. But suppose there be such as hate thee personally; yea, that are in professed enmity to all that bear the name of serious professors of Christianity; A Gospel-conversation may do much, not only to alloy or quench the flames of enmity and injuries, but also to turn them into friendship and kindness. The Gospel of peace hath a Medicinal virtue, to heal and make peace here. It may be this just, amicable, peaceable deportment under all provocations, may melt them down into a better temper. The cords of a man are Prov. 16. 7. cords of love. When a mans ways please the Lord, it shall make his enemies to be at peace with him. This is a Lesson not only of the Divine Wisdom, who knows the ways of mans heart, and all its secret wards, but 'tis also a lesson of experience: Saul was a bitter enemy to good David, but when he had an evident proof of Davids fidelity, his tenderness, a spirit free from base revenge: How did it take with him? What a flood of Pathetical expressions of a heart moved with the undeserved kindness of this good man David, did it wring out of him? Is this thy voice, my Son David! And 1 Sam. 24. 16. Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.— If a man find 1 Sam. 26. 21. his enemy, will he let him go well away? Thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil. I have sinned. Return, I will do thee no more harm. But if the Gospel of Peace( in the life and practise of it) do sometime reconcile an enemy, change his heart; how much more may it chain up his hands, or make him let fall his weapons of offence; mat 5. 43, 44. especially, if we arrive to those more noble heights Luk. 22. 34. of Evangelical generosity, as to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, pray for them that persecute Act. 7. 60. us, and despitefully use us; and let these be all the revenges we do, or aim at, to take of them. Methinks that petition( with the measure it proposes) in the Lords-Prayer, is of an high strain; Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. The sense of which is, If we forgive not our injurers, do not thou forgive us. Deal by us as we deal by them. If we wish evil to them that hate and abuse us, let our prayers be turned into the greatest curse that can fall upon our selves. If this be not our meaning when we utter this Petition to God, we are most gross hypocrites, or such ignorant Sots that we understand not our prayers in a most plain, easy instance. If this be our meaning, our practise will certainly in some good degree comform to it. And where 'tis so, it will be no mean inducement to the most barbarous to be at peace with us. CHAP. IV. An account of the nature of that Peace which is the design and tendency of the Gospel of Christ. WHat I shall say on this head, will chiefly refer to that peace which is between God and a reconciled sinner; tho in some things it may extend to other parties in, and considerations of this peace. First, It is a Divine peace. 1. A peace of which God alone is the author and contriver as to all the articles of it. All its articles that concern the Promises on Gods part, the terms and conditions of enjoying them on mans part, are all of Gods sole authority and disposing. No man on earth, nor Angel in Heaven, had any thing to do in their composure. God did never treat with any man to agree about the terms of the Covenant of Grace, nor to propose what he would be content to submit unto, for reconciliation with his God. As the Law of Commandments on Mount Sinai, so the Law of Grace, and Covenant of Promise from Mount Zion, was so completed by God alone, that no room was, or shall ever be left for man to set the least hand to it. No room left for any alteration, any new condition. God hath made a large abatement, and relaxation of the Law of Works, as a Condition and Covenant of Life; but of this Covenant of Grace, the Law and terms of life contained in that, he will bait nothing to the best, or greatest of men. He that will have peace with God, must have it on Gods own terms, these Gospel-terms, or go without it, and shift for himself as well as he can. It is therefore called altogether Gods Covenant in Scripture, because tho man be one of the foederati, yet he is so only by accepting. This peace as to the Covenant on which 'tis founded, is called a Covenant of promise, to denote that, 'tis not terms of justice or equity on our part Eph. 2. 12. that hath any concern in it, any plea to make, 'tis all as freely and fully Gods, as gift itself. 2dly, It is a Divine peace, as to the accepting it, closing with the terms of it on our part. I am not so silly as to say, that faith, repentance, Covenanting with God, are not our acts. I will affirm they are not only our proper acts, but also the proper acts of none but ourselves. But yet that assistance, influence, vigour, by which we perform them, is so little our own, so much above the power of corrupted nature, that man is divested of all pretence of glorying, or pretending to it. I shall not need to produce a Scripture-confirmation, Chapter and verse, of our being born of God, of the Spirit, not of the will of man, but God's; our being sanctified by him, as well as elected or justified. 'Tis agreed on all hands, that our closing with, and embracing the Gospel, which derives its peace to us, may be called Gods work, and is so beyond all dispute, tho not without some distinction. Secondly, This peace of the Gospel, is an holy peace. A peace that is neither patched up for unholy ends, nor by any unholy 〈◇〉 There is nothing in it unbecoming the Divine being on the one hand, nor man on the other. No temptation to any thing that is indecert, except it be uncomely to part with a leprosy, or a shane to be ashamed of things most shameful; or a sin to be sanctified; or an unhappiness to be saved; or below us to be so much beholden to the most high God, and to be bound to acknowledge it. Thirdly, 'Tis a just peace. A peace wherein man hath infinitely more than his right, and yet God hath no wrong. A peace wherein God is unspeakably gracious to man, and perfectly just to himself. No Attribute of God receives any affront, tho the sinner goes unpunished, and the sin clean remitted. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Fourthly, 'Tis a faithful peace. There is nothing in this peace that will deceive or betray us. As the Gospel tells us the best( as far as words can express, and such narrow souls as we at present can apprehended) so it tells us the worst we may meet with in this way of Gospelholiness. It tells you of a Crown of Life, Righteousness, and Glory; and it tells you also of many a bitter across, of being killed all the day long, of a life in this world, filled with spiritual warrings, and the great fight is against the foes, which are so insinuated into our bowels, our very souls, that we call them ourselves. mortify therefore your members Col. 3. 5. which are on the earth. What members are they? are they right eyes, or right hands? Indeed they are not so in a proper sense, but they are so in that rank and value they hold in the corrupted nature; and must be plucked out, and cut off with our own hands, if we would enter into life. The Apostle enumerates some few of them; Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is Idolatry. The Gospel tells you of the sweets of peace with God through Jesus Christ, and it tells you also of the enmities of the world, wherein you must expect to live as lambs among wolves. It tells you of the joys of Gods countenance, and the smiles of his face: It tells you also of the frowns of men, and of God too; if you deal unfaithfully with him, and unbecoming his children. It tells you of a glorious reward, an everlasting rest: But also that you must work, and run, and war, and wait, and deny yourselves, and crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. In short, it tells you of God being your Father, the unsearchable riches of Christ your portion, the holy spirit your companion and comforter; but also that you must wholly resign yourselves to the will of God, and your Redeemer; to do and suffer what he pleases; you must live by faith, and not by sense; and cast the chief anchor of your hope on the other side the grave. Fifthly, 'Tis a well grounded peace. Isa. 57. 21. Most mens peace is built in the air, and dreams of their own imaginations. Their peace is a peace Job 25. 2. & 22. 21. without a foundation. But the Gospel peace hath foundations, against which neither time nor storms, men nor Devils can prevail. The whole fabric is composed by Divine Wisdom, and defended by Divine power, and derived to the Saints by the Word and Oath of the only true God, imprinted Isa. 26. 3. in their souls by the Holy Spirit of Grace and Peace. 'Tis not a peace grounded on sensuality, legal Joh. 14. 7. righteousness, or superstition; all which are but rolling sands, and all the peace built on them will soon disband, and fall to ruins, and more woeful disappointments. But 'tis such a peace that the Isa. 7. 27. more enlightened, awakened, and scrutinous the soul is, the more she is confirmed, and consolated in her peace. Yea the troubles, and emptyings of the false satisfactions of this world, do but make her so much the more happy, as to retire to this peace and rest wherein she is at home, and begins everlasting rest here. Sixthly, 'Tis a Peace that enlarges the Soul to a secure Meditation of all the Understanding is capable of. It is a sad Consideration of the Peace of carnal Worldlings, of all men unreconciled to God, that 'tis within a very narrow compass so imprisoned to present exterior things, that if they dare to step in their serious Meditations beyond these narrow Bounds, their Peace is in no small hazard. If they look into their Consciences, such as can Jer. 2. 3. and dare speak truth, its reports are like alarms of War, or messengers of worse Tidings than of Death. If they look up to Heaven, that's none of their 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 Treasure; they are not free of that holy and happy City, nor are they meet to be its Inhabitants. Death makes all their Life-time subject to Bondage. Isa. 33. 14. If they think seriously and genuinly of God, so much the more as they have a Sense of his glorious Perfections, so much the more terrible he is to them. All the Considerations of his Justice, Veracity, Omnipotency, Eternity, are against them. Yea, his very Patience, Mercy, Goodness abused, are the greatest Upbraiders of their Ingratitude, Rom. 2. 4. and threaten the sorer Destruction. If their thoughts look into Hell, they behold that flaming Furnace, that bottonles pit gaping upon them, and kindling in their own Bosoms. If they consider Eternity, it looks to them, either very dark, empty and naked, or furnished with those Treasures of wrath they have heaped up by Sin and Unbelief, against the day of Wrath. If they dare acquaint themselves with the great Tribunal of the Holy and Just one, and the best Pleas they can make there: Alas, how Self-condemned are they already. But this blessed Peace of the Gospel gives the Soul that delightful freedom, that well-grounded security, that it can with an assured mind take its turn in any of these quarters. 'Tis its daily Conversation. Thence it is she fetches her chief Supports and comfort▪ It is this World is her Prison, the Body her ●ns, and Remain-corruptions her Tormenters. ●●●er Sallies into those Regions which are so bad Airs to an unregenerate Soul, are her Recreations and Reliefs. Such a Person who embraces the Gospel with all that belongs to it, can look inward, and red the Testimonials of his Sincerity, and consequently, its interest in all the Blessings of the new Covenant. He can rifle over his Conscience without fear from top to bottom; he can appeal to it for his Compurgator. Whatever Evil yet lodgeth in his Soul, if his Conscience be dim-sighted, or partial, he loves it not so well, but he will apply himself to the supreme Lord, in those honest Expressions of the Psalmist, Search me, O God, Psal. 139. 23. and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and led me into the way everlasting. Heaven is the place of his Citizenship and privileges, Phil. 3. 20. 〈◇〉. his daily Walk, his Fathers House, his everlasting Rest; his Heart is there already. That is the Mark his Eye is fixed on, the prise he aims at in his Christian Course. Every serious believing Meditation of that blessed State, imps his Wings, puts new Life into him. His name is written there, 'tis prepared for him; and he for it. The more free, frequent and genuine his thoughts are of the Divine Being, the more full and ravishing are his Delights and Satisfactions. All those Attributes and Perfections of Glory, which are a terror to unsanctified Souls, shine upon him in the Face of Jesus Christ. He beholds that Justice and Power, that frowns so terribly on an unconverted Sinner reconciled to him, greatening and confirming his Felicity, transforming his Soul into the Divine Image, ravishing it from 〈◇〉 World and himself; to live in, upon, and to this blessed and beatifying Object. It is one of the greatest acts of Self-denial he is capable of, to be willing to live at this distance from him. It is his chief support and stay, while in this Wilderness and Dungeon, that he shall behold his Face in righteousness, Psal. 17. 15 he shall be satisfied, when he shall awake with his likeness. Death is therefore become desirable. He can meditate its Terrors, and out of that invincible Conqueror extract Sweetness. Its Countenance is as amiable to him, as a broken demolished Prison to an escaped Prisoner. He can red that Text with a Comment to his own unexpressible advantage, And delivered them who through fear of Death, Heb. 2. 15. were all their life-time subject to Bondage. He looks on Hell as a flamme that hath no Power on him, so much as to sing his Garments. Its Meditations have these, as its principal Effects. That he beholds in that Misery the evil of Sin, even of his own, the rich distinguishing and endearing Grace of God. The pity he owes to those yet within its Danger; how much he ought to love, serve, honour, long, and wait for that blessed Jesus from Heaven, who hath delivered him from wrath to come. Seventhly, It is a lasting and a growing Grace. 1st, It is a lasting Peace; 'tis not a more truce of a short period; 'tis not a Peace that depends on an humour, or mutable contingent Interests. It is a Peace that hath Gods Covenant, and the embracing Truth and Godliness for its basis. These are no fickle, feeble Foundations, they are alway of the same Countenance and Endearment. 'Tis built on Gods 2 Sam. 23. 5. Covenant, which is an everlasting Covenant, well ordered in all things and sure. It is not every defect in the performance of Duty, nor every false Step we make in our walking, will break this Peace on Gods part. For while the heart is sincere, and the bent of the Soul for God and Duty, there's no Breach on the terms of Peace. The Covenant of God in Christ hath provided Pardon in course for eommon Infirmities, and Pardon upon Repentance for grosser miscarriages. The Law or Covenant that was too weak to maintain our Peace, through the weakness of the Flesh, is not now the Covenant of our Peace: But such a Covenant as supposes our Infirmities, and hath provided a Justification in the sight of God, in a righteousness beyond our own. If any man sin, we have an 1 Joh. 2. 1. Phil. 3. 3. advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the Flesh. And on our part, so far as we embrace and understand the Gospel, those Providences which are dark to our Reason, and unpleasing to the Flesh, will not produce hard thoughts of God or Godliliness, and prove a make-bate in our hearts against them. We shall not be so foolish and unhappy, as to stumble at the across. Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. 2dly, As it is a lasting, so it is a growing Peace. The more we grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the wise Application of it to our own Souls; the more will our Peace grow, and burnish. It will not rest in a bare negative Peace, exclusive of trouble and uneasiness; but will be accompanied with joy in believing. Like generous Wine poured into the glass by a skilful hand, it will sparkle and have the Mo●on● and Countenance that will affect the Eye and taste with what is exceedingly grateful. But this Peace, tho capable of increase here to abundance, 'tis but a dwarf, an embryo, to what it shall arrive at in Heaven: 'Tis the same Peace begun here, that we shall carry with us thither, and which will there be consummate, and in its highest Perfection. Eighthly, It is an inward Peace. It is a Joy without noise, none of that which is like the crackling of thorns under the pot. It is a secret silent thing, that which the stranger intermeddleth not with. It breaks not Prov. 18. 1. out into the vain and foolish Demonstrations of a wine-sprung-mind. It decorates the countenance with signs of an inward Pleasure, a delightful Scene acted on the Stage of the Mind: Its great Concerns are with God and its self, whose Communion is purely Spiritual. He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him, it shall be in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life. Ninthly, It is a Peace that none under the sound of the Gospel want, but those who carelessly or wilfully reject. Nothing but that unbelief, which is the hardness of the heart, can exclude and make us Strangers to this Peace. It is a general Peace in its tenders. God is so far reconciled in Christ, that none but by their own desault need want this incomparable Peace. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself: What he did in, and by Jesus Christ, hath laid the way open on his part. That which remains, is our Duty and Concern, scil. to be reconciled to God. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as tho 2 Cor. 5. 18, 20. God did beseech you by us. We beseech you in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God. Upon this Consideration, we are to go out into the high ways and hedges, Luk. 14. 23 and compel them to come in, that is, to the Gentiles, and the vilest of sinners among the Gentiles, and preach, and tender this peace through Jesus Christ, use all the Scripture-arguments; yea, those from the fall by sin, and the curse of the Law, and the misery of their condition under that fall and curse; and the blessed and gracious reliefs the Gospel of life affords; and not take a denial, if all the pains, and prayer, and patience, and means we can use may persuade them. But if all those will not do, we must lay the Damnation that follows, at their own Doors, their Blood, the Blood of their Souls upon their own Heads; their want of Peace is just on Gods, wilful on their parts. CHAP. V. SECT. I. On what Foundation the Peace of the Gospel is laid. 1st, THE Foundations of the Peace of the Gospel are laid in the eternal Counsels, Purposes, and good pleasure of God, and more especially of the Father. He is therefore said to be Eph. 3. 9, 11. The God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus Christ. This Gospel of Peace was first laid in the eternal purposes[ of God] which he purposed in Christ, and hide in God. It was a Sceret that was formed in his own Bosom, and reserved to himself, till due time for its Manifestation. When this Counsel of God was revealed in its new testament-dispensation, the Apostle refers all to Gods purpose, as the Original and Rule of it. Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to Eph. 1. 8. 10. his good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will. Here is enough, and that which is clear enough to an indifferent, impartial understanding, for the proof of what is asserted. The Foundation of our Peace, and the Gospel methods of it, were not laid in Faith foreseen: Were not laid in the Ideas, Imaginations or Contrivances of Man or Angel; none of these ever thought of, or proposed, or were his instructors in this great and momentous matter. It was begun in Gods counsel and purpose, before Mans fall; yea, before Men or Angels had a being. There was nothing before this Counsel and Purpose either in order of time or causality. In short, the eternal Thought and divine Grace conceived it in God himself; there was the first beginning, the first cause of the Gospel of Peace. Secondly, It had its foundation in that agreement that was made between God the Father, and God the Son, before the World was. The order wherein the Persons in the Divine Being were concerned in carrying on this Gospel of Peace: The Father proposed to the Son, the Son consented to the Father, what should be done and suffered by the Son, in the Name, and by the Authority of the Father. This is commonly called, The Covenant of Redemption. In this Covenant the Father and the Son were the Foederati, or parties to the Covenant. According to this Covenant, the Son voluntarily submitted himself to the Law, and Subjection to his Father. And he said, It is a light thing that Isa. 49. 6. thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my Salvation to the ends of the earth. These words may sufficiently determine who and what the prophesy in this Chapter concerns; and that it is the Redemption of Sinners, Jews and Gentiles, by Jesus Christ; according to the Capitulation between the Father and the Son, here expressed. As the result of this Covenant and Law, to which the Son of God submitted: The Son of God makes profession of the Pleasure he took in the Execution of his Engagement to his Father. In the volume of the Book, it is written of me, Lo, I come Psal. 40. 6, 7, 8. to do thy will, O God; yea, thy Law is within mine heart. The 8th of the Proverbs, expresses the same things, with the great Contentment the Son took in the Prospect and Contemplation of his Converse with the Sons of Men, when he should become the Immanuel, God with us. I will add only the depositing ●rov. 8. 2, to 38. these promises of eternal Life, and other subordinate Blessings of the new Covenant, in the hands of the Son of God, upon this Covenant of Redemption, which( to me) is the only Sense these words are capable of; viz. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lye, promised before the World Tit. 1. 2. began. And on this account many were actually saved, before Christs actual purchase. The third foundation of the Gospel of peace was laid, in the Son of Gods actually performing his part of the Covenant of redemption, and the improvements of it. By that part of the Covenant of Redemption, which the Son of God had by his consent unto, and agreement with the Father engaged to discharge, I mean his taking, or assuming the human nature, more especially the seed of Abraham; and in that nature, not only to fulfil personally and actively the Law of nature as a man, and also the Jewish Positive and Ceremonial Law as a Jew, and under the obligation of a member of that Church: But also to suffer and take upon him all that affliction, and misery that filled up his state of humiliation, from his Conception to his Ascension. I add also the improvements of this performance, because his being invested in the Kingly, Priestly, and Propheti●al Offices in and to his Church, and in a more large sense to the whole world, is both a reward to his merit, centring in his own person; and necessary to carry on this Gospel of Peace to the full ends for which it was intended by God, upon all the Sons and Daughters of peace. This humiliation of the Lord Jesus, was it that reconciled the justice of God to his mercy▪ and both to us. This made way for Christs Ascension, and entering into the Holy of Holies, There to appear in the presence of God for us. This obedience both active and passive, was rewarded to Christ by his Exaltation to Gods right hand; whereby he not only gives Laws and Pardons to his people, but is authorised to conquer their hearts to himself, and to defend them from all their enemies. But unto the Heb. 1. 8, 9. Son he saith, Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of Righteousness is the sceptre of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore, God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the Angels, for the suffering of death, crwoned with glory and honour, that he by the Heb. 2. 9, 10. grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings. This Exaltation of the Lord Jesus, makes highly for our peace, in all the parts of its administration. But the merits of our peace, in whatever methods it derives to us, is in the active and passive obedience of Christ; tho ordinarily ascribed to his sufferings: As our Justification to his blood: his bearing our sins in his body on the three; our being healed by his stripes; his soul being made an offering for sin. It is disputed what need there is of Christs active obedience, for laying the foundation of merit of this Gospel of peace, and the blessings contained therein; seeing his passive obedience was sufficient to discharge us from the punishment of sin, of which the pana damni, or that of loss was a part. 1. I answer, that his active obedience was necessary to qualify him for the merit of his passive. Had he not been a Lamb without spot himself, he could not have been a meet sacrifice expiatory for others. 2dly, Both active and passive obedience as they were voluntary on his part; he undertaking them not by any necessity of nature, but by consent, was made under the Law; both of them had the nature of a free act in them, and as such were meritorious. 3dly, As Jesus Christ is the Head and Father of the Faithful, and they his members and posterity; whatever he merited for himself as Mediator, Godman in one person( which alone was capable of a reward, or an accession of any felicity it had not before) is communicated to them, which is a strain of happiness beyond what was, or could be lost by the transgression of the Law of Works. And this may be a sufficient proof that the Saints enjoy a greater happiness by the second, than they lost by the first Adam. SECT. V. The various methods and progress of the revelation of the Gospel of peace. It is certain that not the least iota of the Gospel, or remedying Law, could arrive to the knowledge of man, by any more natural light, or help. As the nature of it is wholly of absolute sovereign Divine pleasure, so its knowledge must be derived to us by supernatural divine light. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him: But God hath revealed 1 Cor. 14. 15, 16. them to us by his spirit. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Man in his integrity had a natural light, whereby he could discern his whole duty( except that which concerned the three of knowledge, which was of positive obligation) and also what he might expect from God, as the reward of his obedience, or disobedience. But farther in that state, he neither had nor needed. Therefore, as to all things that concern our new Covenant-state, we are said to be built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ Eph. 2. 20. himself being the chief corner-stone. i. e. Our knowledge of the Gospel, or Medicinal new Covenant, is built on what was revealed by God to the Prophets and Apostles; and by them to us, but especially by Jesus Christ himself. This renders the whole of the Gospel( as such) to be rather the object of faith than knowledge. The first step of the revelation of the Gospel, was by s●m● sh●rt and more dark hints of promises and prophesies. The first dawning of this blessed day-light was, in those words, It( scil. the seed of the woman) shall bruise thine head. The head of the Serpent; by which Gen ●. 15. is to be understood the Devil. The seed of the woman should give him a mortal wound, spoil his designs, destroy the works of the Devil. It is to be noted as a special expression of the favour of God, that there was but a very short space of time betwixt the breach of the peace between God and his creature man, and the revelation of the means of reconciliation, betwixt the deadly wound and the application of an effectual remedy. This circumstance expresses the Divine bowels of compassion and grace, to be suitable to that of his nature, which is essential abstracted love. God is love. And it is to be observed that this was said by God( not to our first Parents, but highly concerning them) before there was any expression, or appearance of their repentance, that we red of. The next Gospel-revelation we red of was in the sacrifice of Abel, which we may presume was in compliance with some Divine express obligation, and perhaps its ends explained. For it is said that by faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Heb. 11. We have also the Typical representation of Christ, by Noah's Ark; and the saving of some therein, when the far greater number perished by the universal deluge. I will instance but in two more of this kind. The Covenant with Abraham, that in his seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed. And Gen. 12. 3. Circumcision the token of the Covenant, which signified that Gospel-sanctification, and separation to God, from sin, and the ungodly world, which by faith wrought in the heart and life, is the condition of the Covenant of Grace on our part, and gives a right to Justification and Salvation. These were short and enigmatical discoveries of Gospel-grace: the first dawnings which shined in the Old Testament brighter and brighter, until the perfect day of the New Testament Meridian-glory, according to those words, God who at sundry times, and divers manners, spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son,— the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. Secondly, The Gospel was revealed in Types, shadows and figures, all of Gods appointment. This was the next step, which tho wholly Hieroglyphical, and therefore dark, yet the order and number of them were such as gave an account in their language of Jesus Christ in all his Offices; the New Testament Church in its order and purity in a good degree, but especially of its Sanctification, and separation from the world, by a real difference. But above all, of a Crucified Christ, and his Priestly Office. So that it might well be called Evangelium velatum; and indeed it was so to the Jews, for when they red, to this day the veil is upon 2 Cor. 3. 16, 17. their heart. Unto this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. Thirdly, By large and express Prophesies. Somewhat we have of this by Jacob in the blessings of his Sons, but not much, till Moses time. Jacob tells us of Shilo's coming; Balaam( tho a bad man) a Prophet of a great good, The Star that should arise out of Jacob. Moses speaks of a Prophet like unto him, that God would raise up. But David and the rest of the Prophets after him( especially Isaiah) do speak with that clearness of Jesus Christ, and the Grace that is by him, that in many places they might be thought to have written Histories rather than Prophesies. Fourthly, This Gospel of peace was revealed in the greatest clearness and perfection that we are capable of in this world, by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, in the matter contained in the New Testament. Herein it was not only more fully declared, but its Doctrines and Ordinances stripped of those dresses and masks under which they were shadowed. Herein it appeared open and naked in its simplicity, itis proper beauty and glory. As it was under the Old Testament Evangelium velatum; so it is under the New, Evangelium revelatum. But we all with open 2 Cor. 3. 18. face beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. This was such a revelation, such a clear and barefaced representation of that life and immortality designed by the New Covenant; such a noon-day brightness, that which preceded was comparatively but a night enlightened by some lesser Stars: No glory by reason of this which so much excelleth. And well may this be esteemed the day-light of the Gospel, the Sun of Righteousness himself being risen upon us. Fifthly, By the Ministry of the Word and Ordinances, in the hands of those whom Jesus Christ hath graced, gifted, and called to that venerable employ. The matter of the Gospel revealed in the New Testament, would have been comparatively but a dead stock, a sealed Book without this Ministry. Most men might say of it, as the Eunuch of the prophesy he red, How can I understand unless some one should guide me? To the preaching of this New Testament-revelation in the due sense, construction and application of it, our Lord Jesus promised to be Mat. 28. 18, 19, 20. with his Ministers successively to the end of the world. The Apostles lived but the common age of men, yet sufficient to lay and leave us the foundation, and by their Preaching and Miracles to give the Gospel a considerable entrance into the world, and interest in the hearts of multitudes. But the standing continuing Ministry is necessary to continuate and carry on the efficacy of that stock of truth derived from those master-builders. These are now( especially the fixed Pastors of particular Churches) the Rev. 1. Stars in Christs right hand, the Ambassadors Liegier of the Prince of Peace, to expound his mind, to prosecute the instructions of his Word, to promote his interest in the heads, hearts, and lives of men. And as they are accountable to the great Shepherd and Lord of his Church, of their manage of that great trust; so are all others with whom they have to do, of their carriage towards them, and improvement of their Ministry. Remember them Heb. 137, 17. which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.— Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unproptable for you. SECT. III. Sixthly, This Gospel of peace is yet farther revealed, by the Ministry of the Spirit accompanying that of the Word. The matter of Gospel-revelation, is in the Scriptures so entire, and complete, as admits of nothing new; but it doth admit of such a revelation of its sense, and genuine consequence, as is new to us; but especially of a new and farther efficacy upon the souls of men, another taste, relish, and power than that which is contained in the bare letter. This revelation by the Ministry of the Spirit, hath two parts. 1. Assisting to the enlightening the mind and understanding to the knowledge of the sense of the written Word. 2dly, Working by the Word, to the opening the heart to its truths and obligations, prevailing on it to embrace Gospel-truths effectually and savingly. For the first of these, the natural abilities may go far, and acquired learning may help it on much farther, without any special assistance of the Spirit of God; yet the assistance of the Spirit in its common work may and does so mend the market, that they that are blessed therewith, may pierce much deeper, and with much more ease into the sense of Gospel-truths than those under the same circumstances otherwise, can do without it. And if the genius and skill in those far lower things, scil. of Gold, Silver, Brass, was imputed to the instructions Exod. 31. 2, 3, 4. of the Spirit of God, much more doth it by its assistance advance the intellect in what is more sublime, and doth more properly belong to it. And therefore we are directed to pray to God for the increase of this understanding, both for ourselves, and Ministers. And this doth imply that we need a spirit more active, and penetrating than our own, to reach the sense of Divine Truths. Tho yet( as I said before) it may be obtained by the Spirits common assistance in a great degree. There is also a farther understanding of the Scriptures, by the work of the Spirit, which is not properly a speculation, or a true notion of the things themselves, but a taste, relish and sensation of them; which is not so barren as the former may be, but a kind of impression and efficacy, which strikes the spiritual sense with some experience of that goodness and ●ower, and sweetness which is in Evangelical Truths. And certainly this kind of understanding which lies in a taste and sensation, as it is a work of the Spirit, beyond that of a mere dry speculation; so it is such an one as is more prevailing and lively, and that which persons may receive that are far short of others in the speculative knowledge. And it may be are no way able to express it intelligibly to others, or form any distinct conception of it to themselves. As it is with Infants and Children, who do by a sensation of the sweetness of the breastmilk understand its goodness and difference from other things, yet without any exact and distinct notions of it in the understanding. I may add for more elucidation of this truth, the notions that Book-learning hath of Countries, and the varieties of Fruits, and their as various relishes. No man will say but that the notions which they have of those Countries, and those Fruits, and their relishes, are of another kind, and far short of theirs who have seen and tasted them by their own experience. I must say somewhat to that revelation of the Gospel, by which it is not only opened to the understanding, so as to form in it some due conceptions of it, but also by the work of the Spirit of God enlivening and animating the Truths of the Gospel, the will and affections are prevailed on to embrace and comform themselves to them; and as the Text expresses it, are changed into the same image 2 Cor. 3. 18. from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Evangelical Grace is here called glory, of which there are degrees. And the lowest degree is so glorious, that where it is wrought in the Ministry of the Gospel, it implies no less than the Spirit of the Lord working in it and by it. And indeed when all is said, this comforming the heart to the love and prevailing practical embraces of the Gospel, as it is the most contrary and difficult to corrupted nature; so it is that wherein the more peculiar work of the Spirit of God is necessary, and doth evidence its self. How easy it is for men of quick apprehensions, refined intellects, and exercised in Theological learning, to discourse, dispute, and preach Evangelical Truths with no mean accuracy and instruction to others, and yet themselves be chained up to a worldly sensual affection and conversation, is the sad and common experience. 'Tis certainly more easy for a person so qualified, to writ a Volume of Excellent Truths, than to mortify one lust, or reconcile his affections to a delight in holiness. The use of understanding and reason merely natural or acquired, may go a great way in enlightening our minds to true notions of the Gospel, and may go so far in conviction on the conscience and judgement, as that we may thereby be prevailed on to approve the things of the Gospel as excellent. But to open the heart filled with enmity to God and Godliness, to receive the truth as it is in Jesus, to a living godly in Christ Jesus; there must be more than the will and good inclination of the best of fallen men. The Gospel by its rational construction may reveal its truth to us, but it cannot rise so high without a higher spring, as to form this light into an answerable disposition in the soul, which the Scripture calls the new birth, and the new creature. Eph. 2. 10. For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. There can be no less allowed as the genuine and necessary sense of these words, than that the disposedness to Evangelical obedience, is the work of God upon and in a soul voided of any principles, morally inclined to those ends. But as many as received Joh. 1. 12, 13. him, to them he gave power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This Text needs no comment to clear its sense. Seventhly, There is yet another degree and method of the revelation of the Gospel of Peace, and the peace of it. And this is reserved for the other world. As the ultimate and consummate end of the Gospel, is the Salvation, and complete and eternal happiness of the Faithful; so till they arrive to that blessed estate, their knowledge, and the means of it, is short of that perfection it shall then and there receive. The present powers and faculties of our souls are too narrow to receive, and too weak to bear those manifestations and impressions of the glory of the reconciled face of God. That new wine which they shall drink with their Lord and Head Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of their Father, would burst these old vessels. What we have here is suited to our present capacity, in a language we can understand, and in a measure we may contain, which is but an earnest of the full inheritance; a cluster of the Grapes of the Heavenly Canaan to the full vintage; a small sip to relieve our faintings, strengthen our faith and patience, and keep up our longings in the way to the promised rest. It is reserved to that state to know as we are known, to see that God face to face, the beholding whom in such a manner and measure, will complete our likeness to him. Now the Gospel reveals to us that we who receive Jesus Christ, are the Sons of God, but the full consequence of that relation words cannot express, nor souls dwelling in mortal flesh comprehend. Now we are the Sons of God, 1 Joh. 3. 2. and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The Gospel is now revealed to us, as to its ultimate end, the enjoyment of God reconciled, but in dark and general expressions comparatively, to what it will be in Heaven. In this world Ministers, yea the chiefest of the Apostles know but in part, and prophesy but in part; but when 1 Cor. 13. 9. that which is perfect is come, that which is but in part shall be done away. The words and tongues of men, are too scanty to express the Grace and glory of the Gospel. We do but lisp it like Children, and chatter as swallows. All we can say, or receive of it now is, but gibberish and non-sense, compared with the perfection of Evangelical Truth. We shall be sensible in Heaven that not the half was told us of what we shall there know and sensate. The secrets of its wisdom and grace will be found more than double to that which is, or can be now revealed Job 11. 6. or received. CHAP. VI. Some Objections against, and reflections upon the Gospel of Peace, from the contentions among its Professors, and the oppositions and unpeaceableness that hath arisen upon its first entrance into the world; obviated and answered. SECT. I. THAT there hath been frequently commotions, unpeaceableness, and violent oppositions, upon the first entrance of the Gospel into the several parts of the world; and( which is most to its disadvantage) contentions amongst the professors of it, and under pretence of a zeal for it, and its own warranty and obligations, is a sad truth, and too manifest. The complaint made of the Gospel as such a make-bait and breaker of the peace, is very ancient, and took it by the heel in its first steps and motions after Christs Ascension. What was there less in that out-cry, They drew Jason— crying, These that have Act. 17. 5, 6. turned the world upside down, are come hither also. All the City was on an up-roar. That the Gospel should meet with such entertainment, we have Christs fore-warnings. Think not that I am come to sand peace on earth, but a sword. And the most unnatural sword too. For, I am come to set a man at variance against Mat. 10. 34. his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a mans foes shall be they of his▪ own household. But this is spoken not of Christs intent, or end of his coming, nor of the tendency of his Gospel in its own nature, but of its event. There is not the least seed in this Gospel that doth naturally, and of its self produce any thing unpeaceable, any thing of hatred, discord, or contention. But as the Apostle saith of the Law, Is the Law sin? God forbid! The Law is holy, just and Rom. 7. 7. V. 12, 14. good, and spiritual. But sin taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid! but sin that it might appear sin, working death V. 13. in me, by that which is good, &c. In short, the viciousness, Idolatry, ignorance, blind zeal of those to whom it came, took occasion from the Gospel for those disturbances, while the Gospel was perfectly innocent, and gave no such cause in the least. We know that God the Author of all things, is perfectly good, essential Love. If it be asked, how comes it to pass that there is so much evil of Affliction and Misery in the World? The answer is ready, There is nothing but what is good that derives from God, as its Original; and all evil of Affliction hath another Spring, which is Sin. And tho God be the most principal efficient Cause of all the Sorrows of Men; yet the original Cause, is ab extra. All good and goodness that derives to the Creature, is originally in God, it hath its first cause in his Love, Goodness, Benignity: But Afflictions( tho from God) are by a kind of necessity. His Justice indeed is engaged therein, but it is by occasion of Sin, by which the Divine Being is wronged, and affronted by his Creatures. Thus much only in the Negative, to the unjust Imputations on the Gospel of Peace, and for the Explication of the question. I must now show you, whence then it is that the Gospel, and Contention, if they be not of kin, or agreed, do thus frequently dwell, and walk together. How come they to be such usual Concomitants, if they are not cause and effect? I shall answer first generally, or give some general Causes of such sad events, where the Gospel enters, and then the more special Causes of unpeaceableness in the several places to be instanced in, and in individual Persons also. First, It arises from the great interest and power that Sin, the corrupter of Nature, hath in the Soul of fallen Man. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Jam. 4. 1. come they not hence, even of your lusts, that War in your members? The Gospel is not only designed and adapted to save, but also to sanctify the Souls of Men; not only to quench the Flames of Hell in the World to come, but also every spark of Lust and Sin in us, while we are in this World. Now, as the varying and contradicting Members of the Body of Sin, do militate in the same Subject one against another; so they all agree with all their might to oppose the Gospel, which is their common Adversary. And that which is the greatest Misery, and of all other to be bemoaned is, that Sin, the Corruption of Nature, hath so far insinuated itself into our good Opinion, hath so much of advantage by Nature, Custom, and long time of Possession; hath so assimilated us to its own deformed hateful Image, that we are fond of its mis-rule, and proud of its Chains; 'tis become our familiar; and tho it be the worst of the Devil himself, we are persuaded it will do us no harm. It is become so near essential to us, as if it were indeed no Foreigner, no Enemy, but a part of our very selves. Therefore the Scripture speaking our Language and Sense, calls the wretched Members of the old Man, or Natures Corruption, our right Eyes, and our right Hands; and the mortifying Sin, our Death and Crucifying; and the restraint of our Lusts, a denying ourselves. And can we now wonder at the Opposition rising so high against the Gospel, whose business it is to pluck up these Weeds by the Roots, to purge out this old Leaven, to separate us from those darling Lusts that lye so near our hearts, to commence a War irreconcilable in our own Bowels against this Enemy, that will not be wholly vanquished, till the Fort and garrison it possesses be dissoved? Yea, moreover, when the Sinner shall look on all his Pleasures, deriving from that relish his Sins give them, and that his awakenings out of its sweet Dreams, is no less than letting out his Soul, and letting loose all the Terrors of Hell upon him: Well, saith a sinful deluded Soul, I must overcome, and banish all the Powers of this Gospel, or it will destroy my so necessary Sins. This makes him buckle to its Opposition, and raise all the Powers of Earth and Hell against it. Secondly, From Satan, that great Enemy to the Honour of God, and Welfare of Men. Satan well knows that the Gospel is Gods great Engine to batter his Kingdom in pieces; to take the prey from the Mighty, to deliver his Bondslaves from the power of Darkness, and to translate Col. 1. 13. them into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God. He knows that for this cause the Son of God was manifested in the Flesh, that he might destroy 1 Joh. 3. 8. the works of the Devil. We have a remarkable Description of Satans Opposition to the Gospel, Rev. 12. First his diligent Rev. 12. 1, 2, 3, 4. attendance to destroy Christ himself, the Seed of the Woman, the Church, at his Birth, by the minstry of the ungodly Herod; then in his own Person to ensnare him by his Temptations; either of which having prevailed, the Gospel had been killed in the Bud, stisted in the Birth, and plucked up by the Roots. These attempts not succeeding, he pursues the Church, drives her into the Wilderness of Affliction by his Persecutions, that the Gospel and its Professors might be so ill accommodated in all ourward appearance, that few should be prevailed on to embrace it so much to their cost. This was the state of the Gospel, and the Gospel-Church under Heathen Rome in the three first Centuries. But this course not prevailing neither,( for the Gospel and its faithful profession never lost either its reputation, or number of adherents by persecution) he insinuates himself into the Church itself, and by an hypocritical, rotten-hearted generation, aiming at nothing less than the high and holy designs of the Gospel, mingles himself with its sincere professors. And now he plays his Master-piece by fighting against Christ under his own Colours. Certainly the days of this temptation are the sorest and the perilous times predicted. In the last days perilous times shall come, for men( professing the Gospel) 2 Tim. 3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, boasters, &c. The word rendered perilous in this Text, may be 〈◇〉. red difficult, difficult times shall come. And what more difficult to discern than a Devil transformed into an Angel of light; Satan in the appearance of a principal Minister, and a zealous promoter of Christ and his Gospel? This new, hypocritical, dangerous, and Tragical Scene is described, v. 7. And there was war in Heaven, Michael and his Angels Rev. 12. 7. fought against the Dragon and his Angels, and the Dragon fought and his Angels. By Heaven in the Text, we are to understand the Church on Earth, in that latitude, which takes in all the professors of the Christian Faith. It was this Church, wherein as on a Stage or theatre this Batt●l was fought. By Michael and his Angels, we are to understand the Lord Jesus, and all his Faithful Ministers and adherents. By the Dragon and his Angels; Satan and all that side with him, under the visor of the Christian name and profession, corrupting its Doctrine, and Discipline and Order, and contending for these corruptions by word and dead against Christ and his Faithful adherents, for promoting those lusts and interests by the Gospel profession, which it doth in its genuine nature, and tendency, most abhor and oppose. This battle, tho it began in some small Bickerings and skirmishes in the days of the Apostles; yet till Constantine's time, when much of this world was poured into the lap of the Church, and was a prise thought worth contending for by men whose principles tasted nothing above earth; the Dragons party were not so great and numerous as to perform any great matters against the truth, as it is in Jesus. But what it hath done since, is sufficiently apparent; and what it may do for the future, the Providence of God( for ought I know) will be the only Key to open. By what hath been said, the cause of the contests and disquietments attending this Gospel of Peace, is manifest. And where the corruptions of the lusts of men, abetted by worldly interests, and inflamed by the spirit of Satan to such an opposition, do meet, we need not wonder at its unreasonableness and fierceness. We have a common saying of those men who act at a rate of villainy and violence beyond the common rate of human force, That the Devil is in them; and certainly where his energy is added to human opposition to the Gospel, as we have shewed; the contest and confusion, the disquietness and oppositions cannot likely be short, of what we have seen and heard of. SECT. II. I shall now consider more particularly the causes of this disquietness. First, In the Jewish Church. Secondly, Among the Heathen world. Thirdly, In the professed Christian world. Fourthly, In Individuals. First, The causes of disquietness upon the Gospels entrance amongst the Jews: That there was such disquietness and oppositions, is so well known to all that red the Scriptures with any degree of understanding, that I need not give you a syllable for the proof of that. The first cause I shall assign is, The disappointment of their great, but ungrounded expectation of the messiah to come in the Majesty of a worldly Potentate, and delivering the Jewish Nation from the yoke of Rome-Heathen , and advancing it in exernal splendour above all other Nations. The mistake that ran current among the Jews, of the true meaning of those prophetic Texts of Scripture, which prima fancy, or literally, spake of the Jewish, or Israelitish Church and their Kings, as clothed with all the worldly pomp and observance imaginable; But their mystical and true sense being of the spiritual seed of Abraham, or the Children of Abraham by promise; and that spiritual glory of them, and their King the Lord Jesus. I say this mistake was the cause of their irreconcilable prejudice against Christ and his Gospel. We find the Disciples of Christ themselves were not wholly cured of such false conceits; no, not after their Lord was crucified; and they ran so strong in their minds, that they inquire of him, Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? meaning Act. 1. 6. that external freedom and glory abovesaid. Now the unconverted and worldly-minded Jews could not endure to have their ungrounded expectations so far disappointed and contradicted, as to have a messiah, a King, a Saviour born in a common Inn, Cradled in a Manger; whose condition in the world placed him in the form of a servant, brought up among the Chips, no way concerned or intermeddling with worldly politics; the most abject, hated and despised among men. The Throne of whose glory in this world was a most painful and shameful across; executed betwixt two notorious Malefactors, as the most criminal of the three; his Courtiers a few poor Fishermen, his most frequent addresses to Publicans and Sinners. And all that his Doctrine proposed to them, being but a self-denying mortifi●d life in this world, and the hopes of a happiness and eternal life in the other, grounded on the merits of him who was not thought worthy to live in this world, nor to die within, but as an accursed unclean wretch to be cut off without the City. They commonly covered his purity and glory with the reproach of one born at Nazareth, whence no good thing could be expected, a friend of Publicans and Sinners, the Carpenters Son, a Seducer, a Glutton, and a Wine-bibber, a Blasph●m●r, a caster out of Devils by Be●lzebub, the Prince of Isa. 52. 14. Devils. Upon these considerations, many were astonished at him, his visage was so marred more than any I●● 3. 2, 3. mans, and his form more than the sons of men. And as the Prophet proceeds, For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form or comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs. And we hide as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. But how unreasonable were these causes of quarreling Christ and his Gospel, which were so necessary qualifications of both, seeing that without them the Errand of the messiah into the world would have been wholly frustrate, and their reconciliation to God and eternal Salvation desperate and unattainable? How unreasonable to be offended at the Son of God, for stooping so low, and giving such a pattern of condescending love? Why should they not rather than stumble at such an humble crucified Christ, and a Gospel answerable, be offended at their own pride and vanity, in preferring an earthly before an heavenly glory; and at their being so blind and hardened, and ignorant of the Scriptures they boasted their skill and value of? Surely the Sacrifices, and Prophesies, and Rites of their Law, did so plainly represent the messiah in this humble and afflicted estate, and his Gospel to be so pure and heavenly, that they must as industriously shut their eyes, and wink out its light, not to red therein such plain truths, as they hide their faces from his person, as below their acknowledgements. The second cause I shall assign was, the danger they supposed or pretended, That if they received Jesus, and his Laws, Caesar would be incensed, and their Nation instead of being saved, would be destroyed. If thou let this man go, thou art no friend to Caesar. Joh. 19. 15. Whosoever maketh himself a King, speaketh against Caesar. This was the charge they urged against him, they pretended to be great Loyalists, and very tender of Caesar's interest; altho it is plain that they abhorred his authority over them. No language was more sweet to them than freedom from his yoke; nor intolerable to their ears than paying him the just acknowledgement of an easy tribute. We may red their hearts through all their pretences, in this one passage, If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on Joh. 11 48. him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation. Jesus Christ had by his Doctrine, Life, and Miracles, given such an evidence of his being sent of God, that their consciences told them no honest heart could withstand. Let them have but their free course, and they would run and be glorified of all men. But a slavish unreasonable fear that Caesar would deprive them of their worldly possessions( not any regard to the interest of Caesar, their souls or their God) raised their hatred of Christ and his Gospel to such a fermentation. But they little thought that by rejecting this Prince of Peace, and his Gospel of Peace, they should so provoke the God of Peace to become their enemy, that he should s●nd against them those very Romans, whom they so much flattered, and they should take away both their place and Nation to this day, and wrath should come upon them to the utmost. Thus wisely do men provide for themselves, by fighting against God, and rejecting his counsels. He that sinneth Pro. 8. ult. against me, wrongeth his own soul; and he that hateth me, loveth death. When it came to the last trial of their ingenuity, and not only the innocence and excell●ncy of the Lord Jesus pleaded his acceptation, but Pilate a heathen Roman judge pleads his justification; tells them after all their clamours that he found no fault in him at all; yet they proceed on the old topic, the pretence of a mighty regard to Caesar, We have no Joh. 19. 1●. King but Caesar; tho still at the bottom lay those unworthy principles of unreasonable fear, and self-love; and I may add, profound ignorance of Christ and his Kingdom. Why no King but Caesar? Could they not have had Christ for their King, and Caesar too? To be a good Christian, and a good subject, are so far from an inconsistency that the better Christian any man is, the better subject he will be. Yea to be a good subject, and good in every relation, is a good part of Christianity. Thirdly, Another cause was that, Christs Doctrine did so much slight and oppose their hypocrisy, and ungrounded expositions, and traditions of the Elders. The Scribes, Pharisees and Elders of the Jews, had so great an opinion and interest with the people, that they became their very shadow; followed their dictates as Oracles, and were perfectly enslaved to their impositions. If we look into their expositions, how narrow and corrupt were they? How far from that perfect and sincere holiness the Law obliges to? How far from that love to their neighbour( so much the substance of the Law) was that Comment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy? What were their Traditions but trifles at best? such as washings before eating, cleansings of cups and vessels? But that of their Corban was the most inhuman, that for a gift to the Temple, which they pretended was to God, they were discharged for ever of any obligation to relieve their own Parents in their greatest necessities or misery. These with their abominable hypocrisies, the Doctrine of Christ was an enemy to, and for that cause the whole body of the Jews were enemies to that, and its Author. But was there any reason they should quarrel with Christ and the Gospel for these causes? What good did their hypocrisy do them, but make them stink in the nostrils of God, for seeking by such dissimulations to perfume their reputations with men? What were their Traditions worth, which they did not so much as pretend any authority for, from God; but were only to gratify that pride that loves to be observed and honoured; tho by robbing God of his honour, and making voided his Commandments by their Traditions? Fourthly, The dissolution of the Jewish Churchstate, with all its Temple-worship. This Church-state consisted of two things: 1. Of an external figurative Worship, with Rites and Priesthood suitable belonging to it. 2. Of their being the only Church of God in the world, separated from all other Nations and people by Gods choice, with some rites of this signification. The first of these carried with it a glory that was very dazzling to the eyes of beholders, admired for its pomp, richness and contrivance; not only by the Jews, but by all Nations. Two things relating to it they excelled all Nations in, first, in the matter and form of their Rites, and order of their Priesthood. No Temple on earth so celebrated as that at Jerusalem, no order of Priesthood, and their Vestments so venerable. But 2dly, and that which added a greater glory, They were Gods own appointment; they had his authority to justify and sanctify them, and the wisdom of his contrivance to put a beauty on them. It was not the moral Law of the Jews that so signalized them among other Nations, for that they had all of them written in their hearts( tho not in so clear a Character) as the Jews on the Tables of ston; but it was the Ceremonial Law. This kind of Worship and Rites the whole world in those days had their Religion made up of, of outward pomp and Ceremony, of mystical sense, and some of them secret to all but their principal Priests, and these were their most venerable mysteries. In these things the Jews had no temptation to change theirs for any of their neighbours. And the second consideration of Gods appointment, and contrivance out-did theirs beyond all measure. But here I must make a short stop to tell you, that the Heathen pretended no less for all their worship, and its rites. The whole of their Sacra was alway pretended the appointments of their imagined Deities. Nature was not then so blind as( tho it mistook so greatly the Gods they worshipped) as to mistake so far as to believe that their Deities would accept any worship at their hands, the order and forms of which they received not first from their Oracles. But what were Imaginary Deities to the true God? What was a National, Provincial, or City-ministerial Demy-god to the only true Sup●eme God, and Lord of Heaven and Earth? This Glory of External Typical Rites and Worship, the Gospel utterly stripped them of, and left them to the naked simplicity of Spiritual Worship( except the two positives of the Lords-Supper and Baptism) The time cometh, and now is, that they that worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in truth. In spirit, not in carnal rites, material things without life: In truth, not in shadows and resemblances, which are b●t appearances, not the things themselves. This the Jews could not bear; yea, the converted Jews were hardly brought off from them, when they were espoused to Jesus Christ and his Gospel. They were willing to entertain him and his more manly and real furniture and order, but also they would fain have retained their childish shadows. And indeed we have little cause to wonder at their plainness to part with such a splendid order and worship( once of Gods appointment) at the call of the Gospel, and their rising up in opposition to it, for this( tho but supposed) wrong; having so near our doors less things of mere and confessed human invention so hotly contended for. But what reason had they to be offended at the Gospel, for removing beggarly Elements, carnal Ordinances, to make way for Spiritual and real exercises and enjoyments, suited to an intelligent rational soul? What reason to rise up in such a fury, for removing the Picture, when the person it represented was to take up its room? to be offended at parting with that which was no glory, by reason of that which excelleth, and which the Gospel brought along with it? 2dly, The privilege of being Gods peculiar people, the only Church in the world, being abolished by the Gospel; made the blood boil in their veins at the very mention of it. Isaias was said to be very Rom. 10. 20. bold, who dare adventure to deliver a message of this import from God himself, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest to them that enquired not after me. And tho they had little patience Act. 22. 21, 22, 23. for the Apostle Paul's defence, yet, they heard him to that word. And he said unto me, Depart, for I will sand thee far hence unto the Gentiles. Now they could hold no longer, all patience was broken. Away with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit he should live. Wherefore all this anger? was it because he would preach the Gospel no more to them? No, that was it they had no mind to; but to carry it to the Gentiles, to break down the partition-wall, to preach a Law from heaven that shined with an equal grace on all mankind, this galled them, and filled them with the bitterness of envy. But alas, what evil did the Gospel do in this? what wrong did it to the Jews? Had not the Sun of Righteousness light enough to impart to all the world? and all at one time too, in which he excels the Sun in the Firmament? I shall say no more on this head, but the apparent as well as designed conclusion, That this cause of their disquietness on the Gospel approach, was altogether unreasonable. The Gospel was no criminal party to the breach of he peace. SECT. III. The causes of disquietness and opposition among the heathen world, upon the approach of the Gospel of peace into their quarters. The Scriptures( especially the History of the Acts of the Apostles) do so fully bear witness to the matter of fact, that I am unwilling to imply a suspicion of my Readers unacquaintedness of so notorious a truth; tho I shall take leave to add, that there was none, or little of violent opposition from the heathen for forty years, but what was stirred up by the Jews, who dwelled in their several Nations and Cities. Nero was the first Roman Emperor that by public prosecutions opposed it: And in many places it was entertained friendly by them. Cause 1. It cast down their Idols, and rendered their Idolatries unreasonable and damnable things. It might well seem hard to men to have their gods( tho but imaginary ones) blasphemed, as they took it. For the Gospel declared the one only true God, excluding not only by what that implied, but expressly all their Idols to be false gods; yea, devils and not gods; For such Daemons they were that joined themselves to their Idols, and gave forth their Oracles. What we red of the man Micah, when his Levite left him, and took his Images with him, is the exact Specimen of the humour of Idolaters, that are( pardon the term) religiously so. What aileth thee( said the Danites to Micah) that judge 18. 23, 24. thou comest after us with such a company? And he said, Ye have taken away my Gods which I made, and the Priest, and ye are gone away, and what have I more? What is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee? All the complaints and emotions of the soul imaginable, are no such extravagant things as to be wondered at in such a case. And I may here take leave to observe, that as too ordinarily the professors of the one only true God, are criminally and unbecomingly loose, indifferent, and defective in their respects to him and his worship whom they can never value to excess: So the Votaries of false gods, and false worship, are commonly beyond all measures in the zeal of their Idols and Superstitions. I perceive( said the Apostle Act. 17. 2. of the Athenians) ye are in all things too superstitious. Their Religion( such as it was) which they deemed 〈◇〉. the fear or service of the gods, had no bounds in the outward expressions of it. And therefore, tho they had altars to gods, and Lords many, too many, almost innumerable, and their Sacra and Rites so excessive, they must add one altar to the unknown God, that they might compass within their Religion the very Terra incognita of Religion. This the Apostle expresses by Daemon-fear, which like the Devil is tyrannical, tormenting, holding men always on the rack of doubt that they have not done enough to secure themselves of being accepted. And if we consider what hath been said, with this addition, that the Heathen as they represented their Deities commonly by human shapes and forms, so also by human passions, and the worst of mens vices as their qualifications, as theft, murder, uncleanness, treachery, drunkenness, and all manner of debauches, and luxury; and agreeable to this, were the actions by which they pretended to honour and please them, scil. Feasts, Plays, Drunkenness, obscenities, and vicious excesses. These things( I say) considered, as the cause is plain, so the unreasonableness of opposing the Gospel for such causes is as plain and obvious. Secondly, The Gospel proposing the Son of God made man, and him crucified, to be the only Mediator of our reconciliation, and acceptance with God, and our eternal happiness; with the Doctrines of the Trinity in Unity, Resurrection of the Body, and other Mysteries revealed, and peculiar to the Christian Religion. These great and fundamental Truths of the Gospel, were the mysteries hidden from many ages, and which nothing but Divine Revelation Supernatural could make known to us, nor any thing short of miraculous, the apparent finger of God, be a sufficient conviction to man that these things were the Revelation of God. The Heathen had some apprehension that some extraordinary thing was to be done to appease and reconcile to men their angry Deities, but especially the supreme God. They had their rites and mysteries, they had their sacrifices of blood, and sometimes of human blood, among the more civilized Nations. The former sort may be presumed to be received first by tradition, the spring and origin of which to them was utterly lost. The latter,( if in imitation of what was commanded to Abraham not executed) was begun by the Oracles of him who is the great Abaddon. But their Mediators were their demi-gods, such as were once Heroes among men, whom for their excellent virtues and usefulness when in the world, they placed in heaven as gods of a second rank, and such they thought worthy to interpose betwixt the supreme God and men, by their intercession and ministry. But how unlike to these notions of their Mediators was, a crucified Carpenter's Son, an illiterate mean malefactor, for such were their notions of him, which the unbelieving Jews were industrious to furnish them with? Therefore as a crucified Christ was a stumbling 1 Cor. 13. 21. block to the Jews, so he was to the Greeks foolishness. Foolishness to believe that this Mediator with God would have any such efficacy as the Gospel pretended; foolishness to believe that they ought to make him the object of their faith and worship. It was the common reproach of the Christians among the Heathen, that they worshipped a crucified God. And this was the first rise of the figure of the across, worn on mens apparel. For the Christians to tyre them, and discourage them from so reproaching, they did hereby let them know that they took it not for their shane, but their glory. The Doctrines of the Gospel which asserted the Trinity, Resurrection, &c. they d●rided, because they did not understand them. That of the Resurrection was d●rided by the learned Athenians. What( said they when the Apostle preached it) will this babbler say? No wonder at all this, seeing they looked on themselves as able to penetrate by their wit and learning into any truth; and what was beyond that prospect, they rejected as foolish. Thirdly, Their misrepresenting the Gospel and practise of Christians to the greatest disadvantage for absurdities and impieties. There were no crimes so brutish and vile that they did not charge upon the Christians and their Religion. The Christians had large experience of the blessedness our Lord Jesus pronounced of them, of whom all manner of evil was spoken falsely for his Mat. 5. 11. name-sake. It was the measure Christ himself met with, who did all things well, who was on earth the infallible Oracle, the Essential and Divine Truth. He was reported to be a Seducer, a Deceiver of the people, a Conjurer, and Glutton, a Winebibber, and what not? The Scriptures give us a large account of the reproaches cast on the Apostles, and the primo-primitive Christians, that they were stirrers up of ●edition, enemies to all Government; yea, that they had a principle pregnant of all mischief, scil. to stir up one another to do evil that good might come thereby. It would be too Rom. 3. 8. large to recite what some of the Fathers, especially Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and Origen, report of the Slanders the Heathen raised on the Christian Doctrine and practices. As that they had no Religion at all, but were perfect Atheists( which is supposed to be the first cause of the Christians calling their Ministers by the name of Priests, and their Communion-Tables by the name of Altars, for that those who had not these, were thought by the Heathen to acknowledge no God.) The Christians were misrepresented, as guilty of Whoredoms, Incestuous meetings, feeding on human flesh, yea that of innocent infants; which the Heathen maliciously grounded on their Doctrine of eating the flesh of Christ in the Sacrament, tho the true sense of that Doctrine, and the Christians practise was, a Spiritual feeding on a Crucified Christ, by a lively faith. They were falsely charged with setting the City of Rome on fire: All mischiefs( whoever were the Authors) the Christians must bare the blame of. All plagues of death, Famine, Inundations, and whatever was adverse, was imputed to the wicked Doctrines and lives of the Christians. This caused it to be the common cry of the deceived embittered people, Christianos ad Leones, whenever any such thing happened. We may see that this way of misrepresenting is not a new, but an old trick of the Devil, who being Satan, so malicious an enemy, turns devil, a false accuser, and accuses, that he may be to the Saints a true Abaddon, their cruel destroyer. And this had been so successful an Engine against the Gospel, and its sincere professors, that the Father of lies will never leave it till he be cast out of Heaven, and bound hand and tongue too, as is written of him. And( the Dragon and his Angels) Rev. 12 9, 10. prevailed not, neither was their place found my more in heaven. And the Dragon was cast out, that old. Serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his Angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our br●thren is cast down, which accused th●m before our God day and night. This Context is doubtless to be understood of Satan's being cast out of the Church on earth, or the Eccl●siastical state. And his accusing of the Saints before God, is of the same sense with that in Job of Satans appearing in the presence of God among Job. 6, 11. Job 2. 3, 5. the Angels to accuse Job; and as the Text saith, moved God against him, i.e. to prove his integrity by afflictions. CHAP. VII. The true causes of oppositi●n, and unpeaceableness in the professed Christian world, and especially among the professors of Christianity. THIS hath been partly agitated in Sect. 1. to which I must refer you, that I may not do the same thing over again. But I shall here add divers other causes which deserve to be seriously considered and laid to heart. It is no strange thing that the Gospel should meet with opposition from a people perfectly strangers to it, and such as are prepossessed with a veneration for that which the Gospel is a professed adversary unto, and cannot consist with, as it certainly cannot with judaisme and Heathenism in the same Creed or practise. But that those who do not only acknowledge the light of nature common to all mankind, or the Scriptures of the Old Testament, common to the Jews and Christians; but the New Testament, with its Exposition of the Old, and are the professed Disciples of Christ; I say, that these should not only live at such a height of variance, but pretend all from the conduct of, and zeal for the Truths contained in the same professed common rule, is not more scandalous and lamentable in its effects, than monstrous in its own nature. Some of the principal causes of this cvil will appear in what follows. SECT. I. The first I shall mention is, That in the visible Church there is a mixture of sincere Believers of, and Votaries to the Rules of the Gospel, and such as are pretenders, outside professors, and very hypocrites. Those Parables concerning the Kingdom of Mat. 13. 3, 24, 28. God, i.e. e. the visible Church: The Gospel being like a Net that takes of all sorts of Fishes, good and bad. The Parable of the sour; of the field of Corn: All these import the mixtures of sincere Christians, and hypocrites in the visible Christian Church; and that its state shall continue so more or less, beyond the cure of the best men, and the means they can use, till the end of the world; then the angels shall make an exact, perfect, and eternal separation of the one into the Heaven of the blessed; of the other into the Hell of the accursed. This mixture considered, and such as runs too much through it in all the parts and veins of it: How can it be expected that all should move in a quiet and peaceable order? The principles of the one and the other( notwithstanding the greatest unity in profession that can be imagined) are not only divers, but diametrically opposite, as believers and unbelievers, born of the flesh and of the spirit, such as are of the world, and their affections and designs governed by it; and such as are taken out of the world, their hearts set on the things above, and their designs and motions answerable; such who are sincerely and entirely resigned to God in Christ( which is the true Sanctification) and such who are enslaved to their corrupt humours and interest. In a word, such as are truly enlightened, and quickened by Divine grace; and such as are blind and dead in trespasses and sins. There will be a time indeed( for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken Isa. 11. 6, 7, 8, 9. it) when, The wolf shall lye down with the lamb, and the leopard shall lye down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall led them. And the cow and the bear shall feed their young ones, and shall lye down together, and the lion shall eat straw as the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the coccatrice den; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain, i.e. Though the adversaries to the Saints shall retain their old natures, yet there shall be from the all-ruling power of God an effectual restraint laid upon them. Tho their hearts shall not be changed, their hands shall be chained by an extraordinary and Divine influence, which the Text intimates to us, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea. The sense of which I suppose to be either that there shall be such an universal knowledge of the Lord as shall convince men of the interest and justice of at least an amicable correspondence with the sincere professors; and of the superfluity of naughtiness, the inhumanity that is in a feral brutish deportment; or, that the sanctifying knowledge of the Lord shall obtain so generally, as that the upright ones shall have so far the ascendant over others as to keep them quiet and peaceable, tho against their own natures and inclinations. SECT. II. In and among those that are sincere professors of Christianity, there are too many sources from whence naturally this disquietness arises. 1. Conversion and Sanctification is not so perfected, in those in whom it is real; and the principles of it radicated in their souls; but there are sad remains of corrupted nature in all the instances of it in the best of men, much more in those that are true Christians, but without an hyperbole the least of all Saints. And these remains of corruption in them( tho under some restraints by Grace) will not be altogether still and idle. The flesh will be lusting against the spirit, and too often bringing good men into captivity to the Law of sin. So far as these lusts prevail, they will diffuse into Kingdoms, Cities, Families, Churches, all converses, those hateful fruits of disquietness, and most of all into their own souls, which are so near the spring-heads, and through a gracious tenderness most sensible of the disorder. If those chief Apostles Peter and Paul, such eminent Saints, had sinful distempers in them to raise Gal. 2. 11. Act. 15. 39 a quarrel; and Paul and Silas fell out to a parting, what may be expected from the common rank of Christians? But let us all along take this with us, that it was none of the Gospel, none of their Christianity that was in the fault, but a defect in their compliance with it. Whence come wars and fightings among Jam. 4 1. you, come they not from your lusts, &c. This is spoken of real Christians. Secondly, And more particularly, It arises from the different sentiment of good men, of the mind of God in the Scriptures. I dare be bold to say, that were it not for this, all contests would be for ever butted, or very shortlived among real Christians. That the Scriptures are by all professors of Christianity owned to be the Word of God, is an unspeakable mercy; for, thereby the standard of truth is preserved. That all sincere professors are willing to acknowledge it practically, is also a very happy consideration. Yet, while either ignorant defects in the knowledge of its sense, or erroneous determinations contrary to its sense, carry so great a party, and have some share in all; we must know how to separate causes and effects, or expect no such blessing as an universal peaceableness amongst all real Christians. One only cure is left, which is to agree in aliquo tertio, i.e. to embrace that Gospel cure of the symptoms and effects of this disease in the eyes, which is, To forbear one another in love; to be of one heart, and one soul, with a non obstante to many different sentiments. And indeed God has not promised that babes and men shall ever in this world understand alike, but love and sorbearance he hath both commanded to all now, and hath promised shall be the blessing of the Saints in the days of the Churches glory in this world. Thirdly, It arises from a false construction of each others sentiments, and commonly ●rring on the worse side. It is a fault among Christians( too notorious to need proof) to believe, and report of one another that they hold opinions which they do not; but it may be detested in their very hearts. And also that those opinions which are really theirs are false, when it may be they are true, or nearer the truth than their own. This breeds ill blood, and malignant spirits; alienates affections, and makes so much the greater soreness on the one part, because they know they are wronged and slandered. And indeed( as it too often happens) when once a contention and difference is raised, one part will be glad of any pretence true or false to speak evil of the other; and remove to a farther distance from brotherly love; and that which is worst of all, be very sorry if an evil report or surmise of the adverse party do not prove true. I am afraid this is so Epidemical a disease, that too many better Christians in other respects, will ●ind themselves touched with a taint of this peace-breaker. It is a truth that as to fact cannot be ref●lled. All that I must say in apology is, that I hop● when they come to see it in themselves, they will cry as loudly, crucify it, as any other can do. Fourthly, From an immod●rate zeal for the promoting or defending the interest of some doubtful and lesser truths. I would be loth to be guilty of giving any discouragement to a godly zeal, at this time especially when 'tis so rare, and at so low an ebb. Yet I shall say of that zeal that, as where 'tis genuine and guided by a due proportion of light and discretion, 'tis the very sparkling beauty and cheerfulness of the Graces; so where 'tis adulterine, a wrong zeal, nothing is more mischievous and mons●rous. The most beautiful faces( they say) look most terribly when anger possesses the features, and we all know that fire out of the Chimney is far worse than n●ne at all. It is good to be zealously affencted( saith Gal 4. 18. the Apostle) in a good matter. But a zeal not according to knowledge, or according to error, is too commonly a Jewish hard hearted zeal. I bear them Rom. 10. 2, 3. witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. The converted Jews had a zeal for the Law, to the prejudice of the Gospel, and the righteousness which is by faith. The unconverted Jews had so great a zeal for Moses against Christ, that Joh. 16. 2. they thought they did God good service, by killing his Christian servants. Such an one was Saul in his ignorant zeal, such were many of the Heathen in their Idolatrous zeal. And this zeal where 'tis in a right path, may so far out-run its measure as to over-run many greater Truths, and run upon the very bellies of those who stand in their way, and whose knowledge, sobri●ty and grace far excels; and to destroy that Christian love and peace, without which Christianity itself looks more like a fury than the birth of the God and Gospel of love and peace. The Scribes and Pharisees were branded as hypocrites, not for tithing of Mint, Annis and Cummin, but for being more zealous for those minutes of Religion, than for its more weighty concerns of judgement, and the love of God. No truth is to be slighted, Luk. 11. 42. but may sometimes be concealed, and must always give way to greater and more weighty Truths, as to their agitations and interests. Christ taught his Disciples as they could bear. We can do nothing( saith Joh. 16. 12. the Apostle) against the truth, but for the truth, i.e. Our obligation in the discharge of our Ministry is so to circumstance it, as may most promote the truth, considered round, and taken together. Sometimes men have let forth their zeal into the Channel of some one circumstantial or nonessential truth, so that they have been dry to all others. The contention about meats had well nigh this effect among some of the primo-primitive Christians. And I have known some among ourselves, that have so far butted all truth in some one disputed non-essential, as to distinguish of persons as in or not in the truth, as they have espoused or rejected that, without farther explication. Strange divisions were among the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 34. Cap. 4. 6. ult. who should carry the bell for the best Preachers, I am of Paul, I of Apollo, I of Cephas; and the interests ran so high, that they were puffed up for one against another. Proud of their choice, and partial adh●r●n●es. It may be there was a difference in their Gifts, and Minist●rial abilities, but they and their Gifts were all for Christ, in the edi●ication of the Church. How foolish and childish a heat was this controv●rlie? Proportion is a great word, and hath all wisdom lodged in it; to give to every thing its due measure. Could we arrive at this, all false or immoderate zeal, which is but a dark heat, would vanish, and the peace of the Gospel be rid of a ●ierce and unreasonable adversary. Errors and vanities in Religion would lose their advantages which they obtain▪ when received for Truths and Duties, tho confessed●● lesser ones. And sure I am that in all Controversies we shall see never the worse, nor have our light the less clear, for a calm, meek, and quiet spirit. SECT. III. Causes of disquietness arising in the minds of particul●● persons when the Gospel enters into their consciences by its Convictions. It is an ordinary thing to reproach the faithful Preaching of the Gospel of Peace and purity, with the troubles it raises in mens minds, and that it makes them distracted and melancholy. It may be so in its events, but either its Preachers are very imprudent in the dispensation of it, or the true cause of such sad effects, must be found in somewhat else, and not the Gospel. I shall therefore faithfully, and as briefly as I am able solve this knot, and show how far the Gospel contributes to this unquietness of mind, and to its cure, and then leave thy Conscience to judge of its faultiness, or innocency in this matter. First, It doth in faithfulness and good earnest discover to men the horrors and misery of their condition, in a state of corrupted nature, of alienation from, and e●nity to God and godliness. It tells men plainly and convincingly, That all they inherit by their birthright from our first Parents, is Rom. 5. 12 Psal. 51. 5. Job 11. 12. but sin, misery, error, impotence, folly, and an utter incapacity of being happy; and an exposedness every moment( while in that state) to the just wrath and severity of a wronged, affronted Almighty God: That all the world is become guilty before Rom. 3. 19. Joh. 3. 18. Rom. 6. 23 Eph. 2. 12. God, subject to the curse of the Law, condemned already to the wages of sin, which is death, eternal death. That they are in that state strangers to the Covenant of promise, not having any promise-security of being out of Hell another moment. Either let men deny the truth of all, or any of these things, and make their denial good, or not blame the Gospel for telling them so great Truths so nearly touching them. What wonder if these things startle and amaze men that have lived so long without the knowledge, or a serious sensible thought of them that have dropped into the stream of a b●nighted sensual world, and been carried down smoothly and insensibly with it all their days; without putting these great questions home to themselves, What am I? How came I into being? What errand was I sent into the world about, by that God whose wisdom cannot be supposed to raise such a fabric Job 35. 10. as man, and have no design in it, but to leave it to take its own course, eat, and drink, and play, and sin, and die as the beasts without farther account of its matters? Will you quarrel the Gospel for this? or yourselves who would otherwise have slept on in this wretched state and course, till you had slept the sleep of eternal death, and ●ever been awakened, but in unquenchable flames, out of which there is no redemption? you may as w●ll quarrel him as a foe to your peace, who warns you how near you are to a precipice, which you are blindly running unto, and within a step, of that you may alter your course; or who gives you notice of a leak sprung in the Ship, that carries your lives, and all your concerns in it, because it gives you the trouble of hard pumping; or that awakens you out of a dead sleep, when your house is on fire, and the flames ready to devour you, because he hath spoiled a good nap, or lost you a pleasant dream, and put you into a short affright. Secondly, It disrests men by taking them off from false foundations of hope of the cure of their misery, and to an interest in Gods favour, and eternal life. It is true that the Gospel doth as well awaken men from sleeping on a wrong pillow of security, as from an insensibleness of the misery of a state of sin. Our Lord Jesus himself warns us that we build not on the sands, but on a rock; that we Mat. 7. 26. Rom. 8. 5. Joh. 3. 18. Rom. 3. 21 Phil. 3. 1, to 11. may not be butted alive in the ruins of our hopes, but may be able to stand in present trial, and in the last judgement. It tells us that if we live after the flesh( whatever our knowledge or professions may be) we shall die. That he that believeth not is condemned already. That a mere civil life, or moral righteousness, will not justify us in the sight of God. No, nor our personal Evangelical righteousness, or real sanctification, by its own worth or value, but the righteousness of Christ embraced and relied on by faith. That such a faith in Christ as is without works in the adult, is not saving, but dead, and will leave us exposed to an eternal death. That all our knowledge, profession, and attendance on external Ordinances and Worship, is but a shadow without substance, a body without a soul, if not animated by a sincere disposedness to the obedience of faith, a real prevailing respect to all Gods Commandments, both of the first and second Table. That he that is offended at the across of Christ, or Mat. 10. 38 sufferings in and for adherence to his duty, hath no Gospel-worthiness or meetness for the Kingdom of Heaven. That a Sacramental, or Symbolical regeneration by external washing, or baptism, without spiritual real sanctification, is no such regeneration 1 Pet. 3. 21 as will secure salvation to us. That all who are of the visible Church( whether universal or particular) on earth, and not real Saints, under a real Mat. 25. 2, to 8. change to holiness of heart and life, shall notwithstanding( if so living & dying) be shut out of Heaven. But if these faithful admonitions of the Gospel cause disquietness in the minds of those who lean on these Bulrushes, and shelter themselves in such deceitful unwarranted refuges, let them not blame the Gospel for telling them their danger, and rousing them up to a sincere effectual faith and holiness; but let them blame their wilful ignorance, error, laziness, love of the flesh's ease, and indulgence and real unbelief that takes up in such hypocrisies, for their disrest. The Gospel disturbs them but in those ways of peace that will be bitterness in the latter end, and would not have them bring forth an abortive birth which after high expectation and some travail is a double wo. Heb. 6. 10, 11, 12. If men will presume that if they do not wrong their neighbour they are righteous persons, tho they make no conscience of repentance towards God, nor faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; 'tis as reasonable for such men to expect peace with God, as for malefactors that are in a Goal to expect to be acquitted by the judge and the Law, merely because they have not wronged one another, tho they are Traytors to their Prince, and have trampled all his Laws under their feet. Believe it, th●se who have received the light of the Gospel, and will not live a Gospel-life, they turn that light into fire in their own bosoms, arm Conscience against themselves, breed that worm that will eat out all their comforts, and by its continual corrodings begin a hell within. If they will hold the truth in unrighteousness, Conscience will break l●se upon them, and accuse and torment them. Whereas if they walked in the light of Gospel-precepts and promises, their little-case would be turned into those comforts, and that peace which passes all understanding, if not that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. Thirdly, Where the Gospel is sincerely embraced, disquietness may arise from divers causes. 1. From the want of assurance of their sincerity, and Gods favour. Saving faith, and the faith of assurance, are two things, as different as is true believing on Christ, and believing that we do believe. The first must needs be before the second, as the existence of a thing must be before we can know that it is. Many a good soul lives in doubt of the latter all her days. But where there is the former, the concerns for eternity are secure; for the Lord knoweth who are his, tho they do not. But if they understood the Gospel and themselves, all their tormenting doubts would soon vanish. They have a proof of Gods love in their souls, and the light of the Gospel tells them so, but their eyes are so dim through ignorance, melancholy, fear, suspicion, or Satans temptation, that they cannot see it. No wonder these good hearts are unquiet for the present, while to them, or in their apprehensions they are free among the dead. But this is not the fault of the Gospel, but of their own ignorance of the truth. 2dly, From the motions and prevalencies of remaining corruptions. This is not only the cause of continual agitations in the soul, the spirit lusting against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit; but besides that, all those motions of sin discover a sad source of sinful evil yet dwelling and abiding in us, and those motions and actuations of it are not only reluctancies, but rebellions against the Law of God, and spirit of Grace. The events are oftentimes to sins advantage, and we are lead captive by it for a season: What I would, that I do not; but what Rom. 7. 15 I hate, that do I. But if men shall be offended at the Gospel of Peace, and object against its title as incongruous, upon these or the former considerations; it is without all shadow of justice; for all its tendencies are to a righteous, real, satisfying, and durable peace; and will certainly procure it where it meets with a full and due compliance. But so far as we are defective therein, the banks are broken down, and sin and miseries break in upon us. And to a sanctified observing spirit, the effects, but much more the cause cannot but be grievous. To conclude, If it shall be said that then what hath been spoken in the behalf of the Gospel of Peace, is all idle and to no purpose; because 'tis acknowledged that in the best there is, and will be that, which as long as they abide in flesh will resist, and obstruct its efficacy. I answer first, That as the ultimate design of the Gospel is to bring us to that state wherein our peace shall be complete; so notwithstanding all the troubles that arise in the mean time to a sincere upright soul, this feli●ity of everlasting rest will be the certain issue. And for our present militating state, there are in it( while we vigorously press toward that mark) that kind and degree of peace which passes all understanding, with the present satisfaction that arises from the prospect and sense of that perfect peace, that Crown of Glory, Righteousness and Life, which we are nearer to, by every day that passes over our heads. I must not leave this blessed and beautiful Doctrine, without some improvement. It being such a well of life and truth, we shall therefore let down our Pitcher, and draw from thence some rational conclusions for divers services. CHAP. VIII. SECT. I. The Improvement of the Doctrine. THE first End I shall improve it to, is the informing our understandings of these considerable Truths. First, That they are the greatest enemies to peace with God, men, and themselves, who are enemies to this Gospel of Peace: Who are enemies to its peaceable progress and entertainment in the world, and to its prevalency in their own hearts and lives. The Gospel taught in its purity and power, and learned in its knowledge and practise, is the all-heal of the greater and lesser world. They who attempt it without, or in contradiction to this, are Physicians of no value, the way of peace they have not known. 2ly, That so far as men have not peace in themselves, or are unpeaceable towards others, they dissent from, and are Nonconformists to this Gospel of Peace; i.e. so far they are from the perfection of Christianity. Men may and ought to contend for the Truths of the Gospel; but they that contend against the peace of it, or for its truth or peace unpeaceably, give it a back-blow, which is most fatal. It will be somewhat a more happy time when men shall be reputed Christians more or less, according to their peaceable principles, dispositions and deportments towards God and men. 3ly, This Doctrine shows us, How unbecoming Mat. 24. 2● to the end. the professed Ministers of the Gospel of Peace, it is to be unpeaceable themselves; but especially in their Pulpits, where they stand in the stead, and speak in the name of the God of Peace, Certainly for such men, especially in the Pulpit, to vent Sedition, faction, hatred, wrath, enmity, instead of peace on earth, and good will toward men; say their lesson backward, and will sooner preach the Gospel out of the world, than into the hearts of men. 4ly, Then God is the God of Peace. The Scriptures say it in so many words, but this Gospel of Peace proves it, If Gods say-so had needed a proof. There was nothing could constrain or move him to frame such a Gospel of Peace, but his own nature with him, and be at peace: i.e. Let the knowledge and sense of God awe thee into a better than a froward unquiet temper of spirit under his mighty hand; or, let the knowledge of the wisdom and goodness of God sand thee to such constructions of his most severe Providences, as may persuade thee to expect with patience a happy issue. 4ly, Examine yourselves whether or no this Gospel of 2 Cor. 13. 17. Peace hath laid the true foundations of peace in your own souls. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; Prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Somewhat I shall say for explaining the last word of this Text, whose misconstruction hath startled many, supposing that it means all those are Castaways, utterly rejected of 〈◇〉 God who know not that Christ is in them. Whereas the import of the word here is, without proof, or that judgement and sa●●city by which it is to be discerned. But we return to the Exhortation. He determines blindfold this great question, whether for or against himself, who doth it without serious and due examination. The Peace of the Gospel in its consolations derives from a reflect act upon our state. Our state as being in the faith, possessed by its principles. Christ in us in his dominion and spirit of Grace, is the promise, from which an enlightened judgement and Conscience draws peace as the improvement and just conclusion. I will not put so much upon examination as some do who are exercised almost in nothing else. For 'tis my opinion after deep consideration of the case, that many lose their peace by weeping' in seeking it this way. And that to be pressing forward in our duty and resignation practical to the obedience of faith, is the shortest cut to peace, and raises its evidence to such a degree, as is not only to be seen with more ease and certainty, but felt also. To love God, and truth, and holiness, and live in the exercise and pursuit of them as our main end and business, will hardly leave room for a doubt of our sincerity. Yet I would have both allowed a due share in our exercises. Let not the peace of the Gospel be of so low a value, or an indifferent thing with thee, as not worth both the pursuit and the examination of thine interest in it. SECT. II. The comfort of knowing upon due inquiry that we are interested in the peace of the Gospel. The prudence of seeking the truth in this matter, concerning ourselves. The security and tendency to a change for the better, which is in knowing our not having the peace of the Gospel. Some Exhortations to such who embrace not the Gospel savingly. I shall handle all these briefly. First, The comfort of knowing our interest in the Peace of the Gospel. Every thing, whether good or evil, affects with joy or sorrow as it toucheth us, or is our concern. Relation to, or propriety in whatever, doubles and puts the accent and emphasis upon it. To know that this God, this Redeemer, and this Covenant and Gospel of Peace is ours is another kind of pleasure of a higher relish unexpressibly more greateful and comfortable than the most accurate knowledge of all the excellencies that are in them abstracted from our relation to them, and interest in them. Therefore the wise Merchant when he had found the inestimable Pearl bought the field wherein those riches were, and sold all he had to make the Mat. 13. 44 purchase. And the wise woman considereth a field and Prov. 31. 16. she buyeth it; that is, that it might be her field. It is a great unhappiness to know a good that is without our reach, or that we have not somewhat within our reach that can supply its room. This may be one construction of that truth, He that increaseth knowledge encreas●th sorrow. But to have Eccl. 1. 18. it not only possible to be ours, but certainly so, affects with proportionable pleasure. This is the happiness of assurance which is more than mere saving faith without it; That we can rejoice in what we have in hand, and what we have in hope. We begin to reap in this life. We can draw water of life out of the Promises as out of our own Cistern. As the great blessing of the Covenant of Grace lies in this relative particle my or thy, my Lord, and my God, I will be their God, their Father; So the great consolation is in the knowledge of our interest in him. Wicked men, yea the Devils themselves may know as much of the being of God, and his infinite perfections, and of the Grace of the Gospel, as a Saint, or an Angel; but this is so star from contributing to their comfort, that 'tis the very flamme of their trouble, they could rather wish they were not, and the cause is, that they know them as a felicity inaccessible by them. Certainly no less comfortable is the knowledge of the Treasures of the Gospel as ours; this unites us to them, and communicates their comforts to us. To be particular in the comforts of a well grounded assurance, would fill a Volume by its self. I shall add only, that all the good of the life that now is, and that which is to come, we can then put in balance against the evils and afflictions of this present life. This will not only overbalance them, but render them light afflictions indeed. But 2ly, supposing that upon examination we find not an answer of peace, but on the contrary, that in our present state we are in the gull of bitterness, and have no lot in this matter of the Peace of the Gospel. Had we not better have saved ourselves the trouble of searching, than to find an insupportable trouble, a sentence of death upon record against us, that we have nothing to do with peace? I answer, That the case the thing in its self and really is but the same; 'tis not the true or false conceptions that make any alteration therein, yet there is a mighty advantage in the knowledge of the Truth, though the Truth do not presently make us free from, but feel our misery which before we had no sense of. For, First, It is a happiness to be undecieved. And it must be so, if it be an evil to be deluded and cheated. I have red of a Prince whose General being defeated in a battle: The General sent him news of a great victory, which was the cause of three days rejoicing in Court and City. But the truth being soon brought to light, and the General returned, he was demanded by his Prince how he durst put such a trick upon him. He answered that the three joyful days they had in the room of three melancholy ones, in case they had known the truth, might not only excuse him, but merit some thanks for his good policy. I leave you to judge what was his reward for such a mockery. And what improvement to make of it to my present purpose. 2ly, Considering that tho we are at present strangers to the Peace of the Gospel, having no interest in the Covenane of promise, yet this sad condition is not unalterable, 'tis not incurable, 'tis a most necessary and good step to a well-grounded peace. A conviction of our present misery is exceedingly desirable. I cannot blame those Physicians and friends that bury the truth in silence, when the Patients condition is hopeless. But to conceal a mortal disease that's curable, to save a little present ease or satisfaction to the Patient, would be a cruel treachery. The whole need not the Physician( saith our Saviour) but the sick. i. e. 'tis a dangerous thing to think ourselves whole when we are not; for then we supposing no need of the Physician, will not go to him, and will slight him if he come to us. That man that is arrived at a conviction of his present evil state; and a due sense of it, and a knowledge of the remedy, is gotten a great way toward a happy change. The Jews that slay the Lord of Life were pricked at the heart by their convictions, but that stab at heart was a happy one, a healing one for them; for, it lead them to the Lord of Life, to whom never any came for life in good earnest, and went away without it. A second Exhortation well grounded on this Doctrine that the Gospel is a Gospel of Peace, is, That you would not deceive yourselves by seeking peace where it is not to be found, nor in any method but what the Gospel proposes. There 'tis to be found, and the Joh. 6. 68. way to it, and no where else. We seek the living among the dead if we go to the creature, or nature, or to God himself without Jesus Christ. To whom should we go,( said Peter) Thou hast the words of eternal life. Fourthly; Bless God that you are yet under the sound and tenders of the Gospel of Peace. The fallen Angels, so much more excellent by Nature than you, never had such Grace appeared to them. Those Men and Women who are gone to their place, dying in their Sins, shall never have its tenders again: this last might have been your present case; the only Grace of God hath made the difference; acknowledge it by blessing, and glorifying him for such an unspeakable Gift. Fifthly; Embrace the Gospel of Peace, that you may enjoy the Peace of the Gospel: Embrace its Promises, its Precepts, its Doctrines and Counsels: Embrace its Mediator in the acknowledgement of all his Offices, of Priest, Prophet, and King; in the cheerful submission of yourselves to him, to his Merit, and Intercession; of your Faith to his Doctrine and Teaching; of your whole practise to his Law and Government. I have shewed in this Tract, in many Particulars, what are its Characters and its Comforts, to which I shall refer you for Motives to this Duty; only I shall add two more in this place. 1. You can never have a well-grounded Peace till then. There is no Peace to the wicked, saith my Isa. 57. 1. God. And all that embrace not the Gospel tendered to them, are wicked in his sight, tho not flagitiously Mal. 3. 16. wicked among Men. The righteous and the wicked divide all Mankind; under one of these distinctions we must be found, in the great day of Discrimination for Life or Death to all Eternity. If no due regard to God and the Redeemer: If quenching the holy and gracious Motions of the Spirit of God: If despising the Riches of Divine Goodness: If Enmity to sincere Evangelical Holiness: If the highest Ingratitude to divine Love, Bounty, and Pity: If a wilful hard-hearted living to Sin and Vanity, and being altogether dead while we live, to that God and his righteous Ends, who gave us our Being out of nothing, be to be wicked; every Man and Woman rejecting the Gospel of Christ, are wicked with a witness. God hath said, there is no Peace to such; none but delusions and dreams of Peace; 'tis not all the Advantages thou canst promise Peace to thyself from, will be able to afford it, no not for the present. 2. This Peace of the Gospel will cost you nothing but what is next to nothing, or worse than nothing. What are all the Treasures, Honours, Dominion, and Pleasures of the World, but next to nothing? A great part of the World( saith one) is but a Crumb which God casteth to a Dog. Wilt thou set thine Eyes on that which is not?( saith Solomon) who had Time, Experience, and Wisdom above all more Men, to make a true judgement of this World, and all the Contentments that can be extracted from it; Vanity of Vanities is the brand put upon it by him, and by the common Consent of all considering Mankind. As for the Corruptions of our Natures, our foolish and hurtful Lusts, our Ignorance, Error, hardness of Heart, alienation from God, Indisposition to all Evangelical Goodness, our Deserts or Demerits, which are all the Evils of Affliction we are capable of here, and hereafter: If these are not worse than nothing, I know not what is. And are these hard Terms of Life and Peace, of Covenant-Union, and Communion with Christ? Was ever any Man so beside himself to stand on such terms as these? I would accept of, and embrace the Gospel of Peace, but, alas! I cannot part with my Sores and Stench, my Chains and Fetters, the Plagues and Diseases of my Soul: I would fain be as crooked, perverse, ignorant, deformed as I have been; I know not how to part with my Dreams of Felicity, the Sweets that derive from that relish my Diseases give them: But these are really the Follies of all Men who close not with the Gospel, out of dislike to Gospel-Holiness, and Happiness. He that sinneth against me[ i. e. Christ the Son of God] wrongeth his own Soul; and he that hateth me, loveth Death. Prov. 8. CHAP. IX. THE second Doctrine I observe from the Text, is, That there is in the Gospel of Peace sufficient furniture to maintain our peace, in our Christian Course against all Encounters. SECT. I. If our Feet be shod with the armor of the Gospel of Peace; let our way be fair or foul, hard or soft, rough or smooth; 'tis all one: Our armor is of proof; it will either preserve us from stroke, or so abate their force, that they shall not wound us. He shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee Psal. 91. 11. in all thy ways; they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy Foot against a ston. This Promise is not so peculiar to Christ, but that his Members may apply, and take the comfort of it to themselves. Only we must take heed we go not out of our way, i.e. e. that way directed to by our God; for then we go out of God's protection. He never gave a good word to Sin, nor a Promise to us to secure us from the Evil of Sorrow, while we presume into the evil way of Sin. The Devil was an errand Cheat in so deceitfully reciting this Text to our Lord Jesus, as to leave out that necessary condition of its Blessing and Protection,[ in thy ways]; and adding Luke 4. 1●. [ any time], which broke the Hedge God made about his Promise. We must take heed of being thus fooled by him, or ourselves. Forsake her not, and she Prov. 4. 6. shall preserve thee; i.e. forsake not the ways of Christ, the Divine Wisdom; keep them, and nothing shall be able to break thy Peace. I shall next give some account of the Furniture of the Gospel, with its Powers and Tendences to maintain our Peace with Men, with our Selves, with our God. If all these reach the Doctrine, or the Doctrine them, I hope the Gospel will be a Gainer, and they who embrace it on any terms, will be no Losers. And I shall consider its Tendency to Peace with Men, in its Precepts and Rules for prevention of Contentions with, or Injuries from them: Its Rules for our Behaviour, and supports under their Injuries, in the Way of our Christian Duty and Deportment: Its Tende●cies to Peace with ourselves, and with God. First, Its Precepts; a Conformity to which, highly contribute to the prevention of Contentions with, or Injuries from Men. 1st. The Precepts of Righteousness and Equity to all Men do so. What is it that the Lord requires of thee O Mic. 6. 8. Man, but to do justly, love Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? The Grace of God( i.e. the Gospel of his Grace) hath appeared to all Men; teaching us, that denying all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts, we should live Righteously, Soberly, and Godly in this World. Observe how Righteousness, and doing justly, possess the first place in the order of the Texts; and it may signify that( according to the Gospel) all other matters of Religion or Morals, without Justice and Righteousness in the front, are but more cyphers, and stand for nothing. What Precepts more equitable than render to all their due; Tribute to whom Tribute, Honour to whom Honour, Custom to whom Custom, Rom. 13. 7. Fear to whom Fear? All the Quarrels, and Injuries in the World are pretended at least to be for some Wrong done, or intended as the Cause. But this Precept of the Gospel duly put in practise, disarms Men of all just causes and pretences of breaking thy Peace, by causing thy Sufferings. Secondly, That general Rule it gives, to do unto others, what we would should be done unto us; which is said by our Saviour to be the Law and the Prophets, i.e. the Sum and Substance of their moral Precepts, concerning the deportments of Men towards one another. This Rule conformed to, would dispose the whole World into an amicable and innocent Converse and deportment, in matters both religious and civil; We should see Halcyon days. And altho other Men, Men not much pretending to a Gospel-Spirit, are not likely to enslave themselves( as they deem it) to this blessed Rule, which hath the professed Suffrage of the Light of Nature, yet shining through the Darkness of all its Corruptions; thy apparent conformity to it in all thy ways would much win upon them( tho but for shane of the World) to carry it equitably and peaceably towards thee. Thirdly, The Gospel obliges to a most benign, kind and beneficial carriage to all Men; both in word, dead and countenance. By all these to express good will to all Men. Do good to all, but especially to the household of Faith. Let the Stream of thy kindness be most abounding to them that fear God; but not so restrained by that larger Channel, as not to reach in some degree the very worst of Men. The Gospel Rules give no countenance to a morose, tetrical, humoursome, and froward Behaviour, to a more selfish, close-fisted, unmerciful Temper. It obliges to all that is worthily obliging, not only to Grace, but also to Nature: to whatsoever things are true; whatsoever things are † Phil. 4. 8. 〈◇〉 venerable; whatsoever things are just; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely; whatsoever things are of good report: If there be any virtue; if there be any Praise, to think of these things. How great encouragement is given to beneficence in these Words; Trust in the Lord, and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the Land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Add to thy Faith virtue, and thou shalt have Provision from God, and Quiet with Men. I must not omit so remarkable a Passage as, for scarcely for a righteous Man will one die, yet peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to die. This Goodness will not only bind bad Men to their good Behaviour, but oblige some to suffer for thee, rather than thou shouldst suffer. If Righteousness, bare severe Righteousness fail of obliging Men to be peaceable toward thee, Goodness and Benignity may eke it out to a sufficiency. Fourthly, Not to render evil for evil. Doing wrong is a breach of Justice; But a returning of wrong for wrong, is a breach of the Peace. 'Tis an Injury returned that makes the War. That Passage is worthy the Divine Goodness and Wisdom of the Lord Jesus: Ye have heard that it hath been said; Mat. 5. 38. 39. An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth,( Talion Law right or wrong) but I say unto you, that ye resist not Evil: This is not the way to quench the Coals of Injury, but rather by suffering Evil patiently: If one smite thee on the one Cheek, turn the other to him also. Let Men be weary of doing thee Injury, before they shall be able to provoke thee to pay them in their own Coin, or do any thing in a way of revenge. The Jews held it lawful to revenge Injuries; and many of the Heathen Philosophers in their Morals maintained it, not only to be lawful but glorious: But what the Jews accounted innocent, and the Heathen a virtue; that the Gospel-Law restrains as a 'vice. Fifthly, To carry our Climax a step higher; the Gospel obliges to render good for evil. See that none render evil for evil unto any Man, but ever follow 1 Thes. 5. 15. that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all Men. That of our Saviour is unparallelled; Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour, and hate thy Enemy: But I say unto you, Bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that persecute you, and despitefully use you. How did this kind of deportment melt the Heart of that envious and enraged Saul into not only desisting from his Pursuit of David, that upright and useful Servant of his; but turned his Wrath into Repentance; his obdurate Heart into Tears; and his false accusation into a Confession, that David was much his better. Thou( saith he) art more righteous than I; whereas I rewarded thee evil, thou hast rewarded me good this day. If such a deportment as this will not quench the Evil; 'tis such an one as is kindled from Hell. Sixthly, The Gospel ranks Unthankfulness, not only among the distasteful, but the damnable Transgressions. Such as a Man of any goodness toward God or Men, will not be guilty of. Unthankful, Unholy is its order of speaking. And sure as Unthankfulness is the most ungrateful 'vice in the Eyes of God and Men, Thankfulness must needs be the most grateful and obliging. Seventhly, It recommends to us a public Spirit for the Church and all Mankind. If we have the Impression of this upon us, we shall be apparently the Blessings of Mankind, a public and common Good. And if the Outcry against us be, as it was of the Primitive Christians, that we are a public Pest, a Plague to the World; this publick-spiritedness will be our Compurgator, and give our Accusers the lie, as it did theirs; and in time render us as truly lovely, as 1 Cor. 12. 13. before we were undeservedly hated. And what is this public Spirit, but to mind the Phil. 1. 17. common and universal Interest, and not narrow it to myself, or my Family, or my Party? To be content, and choose to suffer in my own Person or Estate, that many may be the better for it. To be a Christian, and so much the more a Man as I am more a Christian than another. This is a Morality which the Gospel highly commends in the Apostles, and the Old Testament in Moses, &c. But the Blessed Son of God, whose Pattern the Gospel commends to us, as we value the worthy Name of Christian, excelled all in this Point; who gave his Life a ransom for many, and became Man, that he might by his Sufferings deliver us from Wrath to come, and reconcile us to God, with whom are all our Concerns. Eighthly, It advices us to mind our proper work, and not to intermeddle with the matters that belong not to us. The contrary to this is one of the greatest Makebaits in the World. Where this is practised, many a Rock of Offence, and provocation to Wrath is removed. Every Man to keep his Place, is an excellent way for every Man to keep his Peace. In order to this the Scriptures commend it as our Duty and Wisdom, from the highest to the lowest. David, though a great Prince, did not think he had no bounds to his Province: Lord( said he) My Heart Psal. 131. 1. is not haughty, nor mine Eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me: He did not attempt beside his standing, nor above his understanding. The Truth is, that as Disorder disturbs the March or Motions of an Army, embroils a Man's business, consumes his Estate, Body, and Soul: so whoever is the Author of it, is look't on as an ill Man; and a busy Body is not only a Cause, but the very Evil itself. Therefore the Apostle exhorts the Christians not to be busy-bodies in other Mens matters. This was proverbial among the Greeks, and to 1 Pet. 4. 15. 〈◇〉. speak their Proverb in plain English, it signifies, or as B●shops, or meddlers in other Mens Concerns. There are few things more provoking to mean Men; 'tis an Invasion and Intrusion into Property, a removing the Land-mark: Much more, and more justly provoking is it to Princes, Magistrates and Grandees, when private Persons, and of as private parts, shall intermeddle with their Arcana's. To study to be quiet, 1 Thes. 4. 7. and to mind our own business, according to the apostles Rule, are as near of kin as Cause and Effect. And therefore proves this Gospel-Precept an excellent provision, for the preserving our Peace with Men. SECT. II. The Prudentials the Gospel furnishes us with, or allows to preserve our Peace. I do not reckon the avoiding downright Sin, or that which is such per se; nor the necessary indispensible Duties themselves, which the Gospel obliges us to, among the Prudentials of a Christian, or within the verge of its determination. Whatever appears to be such, must without farther consideration be embraced, or rejected accordingly. If there be no avoiding of suffering, but at the price of Sin on either hand; he makes a fool's bargain, who purchases his Peace at so dear a rate. Prudentials ought not to determine on any consideration whatever: whether we shall transgress a negative Precept at any time: for that obliges ad semper. Though there be a time for all things; what is against a negative Precept is to be excepted; the Precept that forbids Murder, Uncleanness, Lying, &c. forbids it at all times. Neither doth Prudence reach the determination of the question of dispositive Duties, or Habits of Grace; whether we shall love God and fear him, or have a purpose and disposedness to obey all his positive or affirmative Precepts, when, and in what manner they become our Duties. Nor has it to do in matters of affirmative Commands, when a natural necessity, or what is equivalent, is a restraint upon us: For 'tis a ridiculous thing to put it to the determination of Prudence, Whether he that is blind, ought to red the Scriptures? or he that is deaf, hear the Word preached? or he that is a Prisoner, to go to the Christian Assemblies abroad? or he that has not any thing to dispose of, should communicate Relief to others? The question that Prudence is concerned to determine in a time of danger, is; What we may do to avoid suffering, without violating the Rights of God or Man? If there be any room for the Wisdom of the Serpent, 'tis to defend us from the suffering, and yet Mat. 10. 16. maintain the Innocency of the Dove. First, The Gospel teaches, and gives a liberty to choose a lesser Evil( all things considered) for the preventing or avoiding a greater. But we must take this Rule, as concerning the Evils of Affliction, not of Sin. If a lesser Sin, comparatively with a greater, stand in competition; both are absolutely to be rejected. We must not compound one Sin for another, to do any sinful Evil that Good may come thereby, Good either simply such, or Good comparatively, i.e. e. a lesser Evil, is so far from our liberty and maintaining Purity, that 'tis a Flood-gate to Impiety, and such a blank brand as Christianity abhors. And not rather as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil, that Good may come thereby: Whose Damnation is just. But we may admit, and choose a lesser Evil of Affliction, to avoid a greater of the same kind. Nature teaches to expose an Arm to a blow, to save the Head; to take Medicines, suffer Incisions, Cauterisings, &c. to save our Lives, or preserve, or recover health. We are exhorted by Christ himself, when persecuted in one City, to fly into another, Mat. 10. 23. 24. 16. Act. 27. 11. and rather suffer a voluntary Banishment, than to abide the Oven's Mouth of an unmerciful, persecuting, tempting Adversary. We may preserve the liberty and safety of our Persons at the charge of our Purses. The Scriptures are so pregnant with Advices and Examples of this Nature, that 'tis needless to give more particulars. Secondly, We may totally shift and avoid a suffering, by withdrawing out of its way, when 'tis threatened by some sudden transient motion. Thus did our Lord himself, whose Pattern is an Authority equivalent to a divine Precept or Commission. Then took they up Stones to cast at him: but John 8. 59. Jesus hide himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and passed by. And it is fit to be observed, that this withdrawing was in the very Act of his preaching to the Jews, and from the Temple itself, the most solemn, and the only consecrated place of God's Worship. God doth not require us to regard our Safety so little, as for a bare Circumstance, to stand obstinately in the way of a mad Bull, or unreasonable enraged Men, who are worse. Thirdly, We may, and ought to order the Circumstances of Time, Place, Number, and the like,( which are alway left to human Prudence) in Religious Actions, and Duties, as may most conduce to Safety, and free us from Disturbances from Men, and our own Fears; I say, the Circumstances, not omit the Duties themselves altogether, or so far as to hazard the Salvation, or necessary Edification of our Souls. This is the due Construction of Affirmative Precepts, that they bind not at all times, i.e. e. not to be practised always;( for otherwise we must be always praying, hearing, &c. and confounded all Duties by performing them at the same instant of Time, which is neither a Duty, nor a Possibility;) but most to Edification. Fourthly, We may be silent as to the open public Profession of some Truths, at some times, wherein it will be made a Snare. We must not at any time deny the least Truth; to do so is utterly inexcusable, from the great Transgression, the presumptuous Sin. Suppose we were in Idolatrous Pagan, or Mahometan Countries: If we take liberty to speak some Truths as freely as we may, and do, in Christian Countries; we must on no occasion visit such places, but at the cost of our Lives, unless we should be defended by Miracles. When the Reason is the same in other Places, the Duty or Liberty is the same also. No Man ought to accuse himself. And if Men will accuse of professing necessary Truths with necessary Circumstances, as guilty of a Capital Crime; we may say John 18. 23. as Christ, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. Fifthly, We may make use of any good Principles, which our Adversaries, or any of them hold in common with our selves, to conciliate their Friendship, and engage them to our Security. I confess 'tis one Expression, and sad evidence of the Malice that prevails in the World, that a disagreement in some one Opinion shall raise more Hatred, Enmity, and Mischief, than the agreement in an hundred shall kindle Love and Kindness. There is much of the great Abaddon in this, of the Destroyer of Christians, by destroying their Love; that in order to Hatred and Miseries, an Opinion, a mere Opinion, or peaceable practise, contrary to our Sentiments, shall weigh so much as to render a Man unworthy our Love, Peace, or to Live: And yet many a Moral, and Evangelical Truth which he holds as we do, shall not be thought worthy to touch the balance, nor speak one good word for him. I shall city only one Text, to speak, or rather confirm the design of this Particular. But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadduces, Acts 23. 6, 7. and the other Pharisees; he cried out in the open Assembly, Men and Brethren, I am a Pharisee, the Son of a Pharisee: of the Hope and Resurrection of the Dead am I called in question. The Issue was, the Pharisees, who were in that point one with him, took his part; and the Sadduces lost their unjust and cruel Design against the Innocent Apostle. It is no part of the Duty, or Commendation of a Christian, to be so silly, as not to know and promote a just Interest, by honest and lawful means. He that puts on this Furniture of Christian Prudence, may prevent much of that Trouble which others expose themselves unto, and might avoid without Sin. It were well if we knew the difference of suffering the breach of our outward Peace for Imprudence, from that which is for pure Conscience: I am sure that upon a just Discovery, the former cannot find so good a Security for its inward Peace as the latter; tho invincible Ignorance of the difference of the one from the other, may in some degree pled an excuse. SECT. III. If there be no avoiding Suffering without Sinning: If neither Piety nor Prudence can secure us, nor reconcile Men to us: Tho we cannot divert the Blow, we may ward it off, or be so well provided to bear its violence, that it shall not wound our better Part; its I●ons shall not enter into our Souls, our inward Quiet shall abide undisturbed, there shall be entire Peace. For this we have a Promise from him that can as easily make it good, as speak it; When thou passest thorough the Waters, I will be with thee; and thorough Isa. 43. 2. the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest thorough the Fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flamme kindle upon thee. What higher Expressions of Security in Sufferings can be imagined? And what is the Sense of all but this, that in the midst of Dangers they shall be safe? The God of the Spirits of all Flesh will protect their Spirits from being afflicted, whatever their outward Calamities may be. Another Passage like this, and one that brings its Construction in its Forehead, is, He shall deliver thee in six Troubles, yea, in seven there shall no evil Job 5. 19 touch thee. Not only from Troubles, but in them: and how so? No Evil shall touch thee. Thy better Part shall not feel the smart of them; No, nor the Snare of them. They are indeed God's Corrections, or trials: Considered as the former, an afflicting Sense may be our Duty, and become us: But considered as the latter, for Righteousness Sake, and the keeping a good Conscience; 'tis our Duty and privilege, to be so far from afflicted, as to be affencted with Joy. The Gospel hath provided such a Guard as is sufficient; a Guard like our Glass-Windows( tho of much better Mettal) that lets in the Light, and keeps out the Storm. Be Phil. 4. 6, 7. careful in nothing, but in every thing let your Requests be made known to God by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving; and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your Hearts and Minds through Jesus Christ. And that this Peace, as from God, is such as is like its Name, a Security from him, a Solace to ourselves in that Security, 'tis said to be passing all understanding, which refers to the Cause and the Effects also. To the Cause: As it hath that Virtue and Power that is able to fortify to the utmost; which the Greek 〈◇〉. will afford a more copious Expression of, scil. shall garrison your Hearts, &c. The Lord, as the Lord of Hosts, will pitch his Tents not only round about thee, but within thee. To this Effect, it is in and upon the Heart and Mind: They shall be preserved entire, there shall be no breaking in upon them: They shall not be pillaged of their Graces, or their Comforts: When all outward Peace and Comforts may be ravished from you, your Hearts and Minds shall be safe. And if they be safe, all is safe; if they be disturbed, whatever outward Blessings we possess, they are barren and fruitless. But if it be demanded, How can these things be? I answer, the Gospel hath shewed them unto us, or rather God by the Gospel, in its Furniture of Precepts, Promises, and adequate Provisions. First, Our support under our suffering, is the well-grounded Contentment it directs and enables to. A Contentment with what we have, and without what we have not; and both upon desirable and possible terms. Be content with the things that you have, 〈◇〉 Jam. 1. 16 or that are present. Ay, may a Man say, that's easily said; as, Be ye warmed and filled: But where shall we have the things needful to this Contentment with little or nothing, or it may be worse than nothing, Frowns, and Fears, and Foes, and Afflictions? The Well-Spring of this Contentment is in the next Words: The Lord put not his Servants on unreasonable or impossible things; for he hath said, I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee. And if there be not enough for thy present supply in God, graciously present with thee, Heaven itself will be barren of Contentment and Satisfaction. This Contentment the Apostle Paul had actually learned in Christ's School, where every true Christian is a Scholar, and hath the same Book and Lesson as Phil. 4. 11. he; and the same Spirit to be his instructor and Assister. God forbid( saith the same Apostle) that I should glory, save in the across of our Lord Jesus Gal. 6. 14. Christ, by whom( or whereby) the World is▪ crucified to me, and I unto the World. This was his Experiment, this was his Glory, that as the World was become without any beauty or desirableness, and but of little use to him; so his relish of it was as flat, as its taste was insipid; his love and desires towards it were as dull, low and unactive, as was its loveliness. And this being wrought in him by Christ, or( according to the Margin) by the across of Christ, the across became his Glory; that as it emptied him of the World, so it emptied him to it, and made him well content without it. He was as dead to the World, as the World was to him: This was his Contentment and Glory, and may by Grace become ours. Secondly, The Satisfaction arises from having done our Duty and, maintained our Innocency. Such a Testimony of our Consciences is sufficient to maintain our Peace within, and such a Peace, as, like generous Wine poured out, shall sparkle with Joy: This is our rejoicing, the Testimony of our 2 Cor. 2. 12. Conscience. Believe it, a Man's Conscience has more to do in the keeping or breaking a Man's Peace than all the World beside. 'Tis not all the plenty or security the World can advance, that can withstand the Assaults Conscience can make against our Peace: And that Man's Peace cannot be low or assaultable, whose Witness is in Heaven, his Record on high, and both copied into his own Bosom. That Expression looks big, and somewhat like the Philosopher's; I carry my All with me. A good Man is satisfied from himself. The Philosopher gloried in Pro. 14. 4. his virtue, which was( according to his notion) his own, and none could take it from him. The evangelically good and virtuous Man has his satisfaction from his Conscience, witnessing his Innocency to Men, his Integrity to God. Let every Man prove his own work, so shall he have rejoicing in himself, and not in another; i.e. his Work being approved by Conscience, which is to a Man in God's-stead: Let the World say or do what they can, it will bring forth the genuine Fruit of an inward Satisfaction. Thirdly, In these ways of the Gospel of Peace, a Christian avoids, and is secure against the greatest Trouble. His Sins are pardonned, and the Evidence of reconciled Divine Favour shines, in all the holy Evangelical Principles that possess his Soul, and in the very Paths he walks in. That Man is blessed to whom God will not impute Sin; and what can tend more to make a Man a quiet Man, than the Contemplation of his being a blessed Man? How can any thing be left behind, where the Sting of Death is plucked out by the roots? Tho it may be he cannot please some implacable Men, God is pleased with him; for Psal. 11. 7 his Countenance beholds the upright, and then more especially, when they are discountenanced by Men for Righteousness sake. As greater Troubles swallow up the lesser, so their unbounded Felicity by the free Grace of God in the Redeemer; may swallow up all afflicting sense of the absence of those lesser Comforts, which at best are but for the present; and though they come and go as God sees good in his own Wisdom, for the just Designs of his own Glory, they will leave the Peace of God dwelling and abiding with us. Fourthly, The great Reward of Suffering for Christ's and Righteousness sake. A believing sense of this is enough to keep a Heart quiet under the most impetuous Storms of Affliction, and suppress not only our Groans, but the most secret Murmurs or Reluctancies: Blessed are they Mat. 5. 12. that are persecuted for Righteousness sake; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.— rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your Reward in Heaven: For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you. A multitude of Texts of this Import are easily produced. That Christian's Sight is very dim, and his Heart more dark than the lowest Dungeon his present estate can be reduced unto, that cannot derive sufficient Consolation from all those bright Stars of this kind that shine over his Head. Certainly Believers are not made up all of Faith, and the little they have is very idle, when such Promises as these cannot keep them from breaking their Patience and Peace under a light Affliction. O for a Life of Faith! that's all that is wanting to confirm our Peace in the worst of Times, and put these words of Triumph first into our Hearts, and then into our Lips, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; And Gal. 3. 20. the Life that I now live in the Flesh, is by the Faith of the Son of God. Fifthly, If all these Considerations prove not effectual by moral suasion, or as they carry in them the highest reason; to work a Christian walking in his Integrity into a quiet and calm Temper of Spirit: Yea, if all the Assistances of gracious Principles fall short of this end by their own Powers: There is somewhat I have yet to offer beyond them all; and that which all our Infirmities cannot baffle. And that is, God( according to his Promise) will undertake to work this Peace where the Mind is stayed on him. Tho it reach not the Triumph of the Assurance of Faith, or it is not strong enough to take fast hold of God's Strength and Truth, yet if it have but the Faith of Recumbency or Reliance; yea, but such a Faith as will keep it resolved from departing from God, he has engaged to keep such a Soul in Peace, in perfect Peace. Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace, whose Mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. The God Isa. 26. 3. of Peace has engaged to keep that Soul in Peace, who embraces the Gospel of Peace; yea, who embraces it sincerely, tho with much weakness. Now, let the worst come to the worst: If( in thy Christian Course) all those holy, harmless, benign, obliging Deportments towards the Adversaries of Evangelical Holiness, which the Gospel directs and assists thee in, cannot make their hard Hearts relent, their Bowels express some Pity toward thee: If all thy Christian Prudentials cannot put by the designed blow, but it lights and lies heavy on thee: Yet there is a reserve within thyself, or with thy God, that will secure thy Peace under all their Pressures. But we have this Treasure in Earthen Vessels, that the excellency of the Power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, but not distressed; We are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed: Alway bearing about in our Body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body. SECT. IV. The Gospel Furniture, for preserving a Man's Peace with himself. I am not now to consider Peace in general, or as within ourselves as the Subject and Seat of it, but Peace with ourselves, i. e. a Peace between those Faculties and Powers of the Soul, which are each of them apart of ourselves; and also of the same faculty with it self. For not only the judgement and Will, the Conscience and Affections may be at a jar one with another, but also the judgement itself may not only hesitate, but militate with itself. I am in a strait betwixt two( saith the Apostle) first to determine which is best( all Circumstances considered) secondly, and consequently, which to choose. This Contest and Counter-acting may be found in the Conscience, Will, and all the Affections upon divers scores, not now intended to be handled: But there is that in the Gospel of Peace, which, though it do not, yea ought not to restrain all those Agitations, that sometimes counterbalance, and give check to one another, and in the same faculty, yet it provides so, as notwithstanding to preserve the peace and tranquillity of a Man with himself, so as those counter-Motions shall make no Disturbance or Disquiet to him. What this Furniture is, is the next question to be resolved, and that which answers the Design of this Section. First, There is a sufficient clearness of Light in the Gospel, to determine and fix us aright in our main Concerns. To be undetermined in our main Concerns( whatever prospect we have of other things) exposes us to storms within from the Contentions of the greatest Competitors that can have to do with us, or we with them. When the judgement, Understanding, Will, &c. shall have the question agitated by them in earnest; Whether God or the World, the Flesh or the Spirit, Time or Eternity shall have the ascendant in our Hearts and Lives? The Issues of these things, or of such like import, are so momentous and weighty, as it may well put a Man upon the wrack. But when these things are adjusted and fixed, all other things are comparatively indifferent. So that, though every thing is to be considered, chosen, affencted with a Christian Discretion, yet the Passions or Affections have no just provocation to be stirred up to so high a Ferment, or our Impressions to be so deep and piercing, as to disturb our Peace. A sufficient proof of this we have in the Animosities that are in the World in the Concerns of Religion, beyond those which derive from diversities of Opinions in Philosophy, Medicine, or such Arts and Sciences as touch not Religion, or the Concerns of the Soul with God, and for Eternity. The reason is plain; because the one sort make no pretence to our main Concerns, which the other doth, as carrying our eternal Life or Death in their Hands. And though our Instance be of disquietness abroad, of Men one against another, yet all arises from those Lusts that war in our Members, and often act the same part among themselves. Having said thus much to clear our way, I shall say somewhat of the sufficiency of Evangelical Light, to help us to determine and fix in our main Concerns. Jam. 4. 1. Two great things, yea the greatest of all other, the Gospel-Light sufficiently determines. First, That the knowledge and enjoyment of, and conformity to God is our chiefest and only satisfying Good. The knowledge of and conformity to God are essential to the enjoyment of him. The Evangelical Light of the Scriptures do so plainly discover these, that he that runs may red them, if he attend to it. I will instance in a few Texts; Acquaint thyself with Job 22. 31. him and be at peace, so shall good come unto thee: Peace the summary of all Good shall be thine, if thou so know God, as to enjoy free and friendly Converse with him. My Punishment is greater than I can Gen. 4. 13, 14. bear, said Cain. And from thy Face shall I be hide. It seems, that Sin and Lust had not yet so far blotted out the Truth of Man's Happiness, consisting in the enjoyment of God; but that some notions and sense of it did abide in so bad a Man as Cain, or at least was restored by the Gospel, as it was revealed in those Exod. 33. 18. early days. And he( Moses) said, I beseech thee show me thy Glory. The Lord had signified to his Servant Moses in the verse next foregoing, the special Favour he had for him: Thou hast found Grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. In the contemplation of this, Moses proposes to himself the highest improvements of so great a Favour; and this he pitches on, and no other, as that which includes all other, as that which reached the topmost and highest Point of Man's Blessedness; I beseech thee show me thy Glory. Ps. 17. 15. I will behold thy Face in Righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I shall awake with thy Likeness. Here is all in one Text, the knowledge and enjoyment of God in a state of Conformity to him, is a satisfying Good. Mat. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they shall see God. I shall add but one more: Beloved, now are 1 Joh. 3. 2. we the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This is our present Satisfaction, that we know by the Light of the Gospel that the time will come that we shall have a satisfying Vision of God. So far as this great Truth is embraced, there remains no more ●i●igants in that great claim. Motions and suggestions may arise in a good and honest Heart, that carry a Contradiction to this blessed Evidence, but they are but as a few stragglers of a routed Army. Secondly, The Gospel clearly determines the way to this Blessedness and Satisfaction. Men may fully and darken its Evidence, by straining their Wits to make it seem to countenance their Sin and Worldly Interests; that licentiousness or looseness that is so dear to them, or that Pride and Vanity of Mind that some Men an● too f●nd of: But if Men would come to the Gospel-Light with good and honest Hearts, and instead of an Industry, to n●rrow their Duty with an Enquiry, how little may we do, and yet be saved? To inquire only with St. Paul; Lord, what wil● thou have me to do? The way to the enjoyment of our chiefest Good would be much more clear, though it may be not all so wide, as some Men must have it, or perish. What does the Gospel speak more clearly, than Reconciliation to God by Jesus Christ, Justification by his Blood, Sanctificatian by his Spirit unto Obebedience, and that Faith which embraces all these, and goes to God by Christ alone as the Mediator of the new Covenant? No Man comes to the Father Joh. 14. 6. but by me: There is one Mediator betwixt God and 1 Tim. 2. 5. Man, the Man Christ Jesus. Being justified by Faith, we have Peace with God through the Blood of his across. Faith without Works is dead. Elect through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience, and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ.— Grace and Peace unto you, &c. These things are so easily understood, as were it not for some heavy bias, that prophesy would pass for performed long since. And an High-Way shall be there, and a Way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness: The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for Isa. 35. 8. those, the wayfaring Men, though Fools, shall not err therein. Secondly, The Gospel excludes double-mindedness, and directs to the making God our sole ultimate End, and all other things subordinate to him. They who would have God, and the Happiness which is in his Favour, and yet are as much resolved to have the World, and gratify their Lusts too, create to themselves an inextricable Labyrinth of Contradictions and Troubles. The way of this Blessedness, and that of Sin, never lye together. The way of this Blessedness, and that of the otherwise lawful enjoyments of the World, often part. What shall the double-minded Man do? How shall he agree with himself in this case? He cannot be satisfied without both, and both he cannot have. His Affections are set on things above, and things on the Earth also. Will not this cruciate his Soul, tear his Thoughts, Affections and Contentments asunder, and set them together by the Ears about their divided and contrary Interests? Will not that Man go forward and backward, sometime in God's Way, and by and by he breaks over the Hedge? A double-minded Man is unstable Jam. 1. 8. in all his ways. He aims at God and the World, Louis neither, no nor himself. Where, according to the Gospel-Rule, the Aim is single and sincere for God; all things that tend to that holy and happy End, are in a strait Line, are at an Agreement among themselves; their Way lies together in a happy Concord. The Soul that has but that one principal Mark, may press forward towards it in a peaceful Order. If thine Eye be single, thy whole Body shall be full of Light: But if thine Eye be evil( i.e. double) thine whole Body shall be full of Darkness. error and Distraction will possess the Head, where contraries possess the Heart: But clearness of Understanding, Contentment, and Comfort are the Companions of a Soul sincerely disposed for God, the one and only due End. I will add one notable Instance of him who came to Christ with a Good Master! What good Thing Mat. 19. 16. shall I do, that I may have Eternal Life? Here he seems a single-ey'd Man, that aimed at the one thing necessary, and would spend all the Arrows in his Quiver to hit that Mark: But when all came to all, a latent Love, absolute prevailing Love to the World discovers itself: Sell that thou hast, and give v. 21. to the poor, and come and follow me, was too hard a Bargain, too great a Price for Treasure in Heaven: He parts with Christ and Treasure in Heaven for his Treasures on Earth, yet with so little satisfaction, that it was a sorrowful parting: He went away sorrowful: Whereas, had he had the single Aim of Zacheus, v. 22. he had partend freely with the World, for the Embraces of Christ and Heaven, and rejoiced at so happy a lot. Thirdly, The Gospel discovers and commends to us all Goodness, virtue, and necessary Truth, without mixture of Evil or Error. All Goodness, virtue and Truth are at peace among themselves. There can be no Discord between one Truth and another, one virtue and another. So far as Truth and Goodness have the Dominion, there will be Peace: and so far as the Gospel is understood and embraced, they will be uppermost. It is not so with Error, Ignorance, 'vice and Sin; They are at variance among themselves: One Error contrary to another, one Lust contrary to another: And he who serves them, and follows their Conduct with greatest fervour, is like to be the most unhappy Man, as they separate him farthest from Peace with God▪ and with himself. Two Titles are ascribed to Christ and his Kingdom; Melchisedec King of Salem. Melchisedec Heb. 7. 1. which is here put for a proper Name, is a compound Word, and signifies King of Righteousness. If the Hebrew of the Title, King of Salem, had been also retained, it would have been Melech-Salem; and both interpnted, King of Righteousness, and King of Peace. Sure I am Jesus Christ, bears no empty Names or Titles. And these now considered carry this Truth in their Fore-heads; that where Righteousness has the Dominion, Peace will be the blessed Issue; wherever 'tis extended, to without us, or within us, to others, or ourselves. 'Tis said, Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness, and hath translated us into Col. 1. 13. the Kingdom of his dear Son. The Power of Darkness, which is, either the Devil, or those Lusts by which he prevails, or rather both: 'Tis called a Power; that to which we are translated, a Kingdom: The one being a mere unrighteous Force, that which can pled no Right, or Authority from God, or pure Nature. 'Tis a perfect mischievous Tyranny, full of Error, Confusion, Contradiction and Fear: They who are Slaves to this Tyranny, must needs be alway quarreling with themselves: But a Kingdom( and a Kingdom of the dear Son of God especially) is a State of Law, Righteousness, Order, Common-good and Tranquillity, and therefore desirable and peaceable. Fourthly, So far as the Gospel of Peace is embraced, The Understanding, Conscience and Will are agreed, and have a peaceful Harmony in the same Subject. They are all regulated by that Law, which most effectually and infallibly answer to the righteous Ends of God, his own Glory, and the pure natural, and rational Ends of Man, his consummate Good: This is Peace, pure Peace. All these Faculties are part of ourselves; but where Truth prevails on the Judgement, Conviction moves the Conscience, and stubborn Opposition possesses the Will, how can that Man be at peace with himself? There is certainly the most domestic, intestine, unnatural War that can be imagined: The judgement directs the Conscience, the Conscience first commands the Will, and upon its Opposition, or Rebellion rather, it discharges all its Artillery against that and the Man himself, whose Will is thus obdurate. Conscience flashes Hell into the Soul like so many granades or Fireballs, breeds the gnawing Worm there that never dies, till Conversion; or Conscience tired and fallen asleep, or so often ba●led as to desist from farther Attempts: But if it come to this last, the Condition of that Man is so much the more desperate, and next door to that of a Reprobate. Tell me then in sober sadness, if the Gospel understood, and embraced into the Possession of the whole Soul, is not a blessed Mean to that Peace with our selves, which, next to that with God, is our greatest Concern? To apply it more particularly: 'Tis hard for them that converse with the Gospel( except Atheism or desperate Hardness of Heart have gotten the ascendant) not to be convinced that there is a God, that God is the God of Peace, that Obedience to the Gospel is the high-way to Peace with God and eternal Life: But if the Will and Affections maintain the contrary, and rebel against this Light, this Light turns to Fire in the Bosom, it wounds the Soul, and makes those Breaches as let out all its Peace, without which Life itself is not worth continuing. Thou knowest better things than thou dost love or live; every step thou takest Conscience meets thee with a sore rebuk, and tells thee no Man goes this way and lives. Conscience neither fears nor spares thee. Rom. 1. 18. But when once thou bearest a respect, a sincere powerful respect to all the Evangelical Law; and thy judgement, Conscience and Will are under its Conduct; all of them conspire to a sweet Calm, a holy Serenity under the Shines of God's Countenance, and well-grounded Evidences of the Uprightness of thy Heart, and the Goodness of thy State. Fifthly, The Gospel obliges us to a Resignation of our Judgments to the Divine Wisdom, and our Wills & Affections to the Divine Will, revealed in the Scriptures. If the Light of Nature, corrupted by the Fall, was so far benighted, that the World by Wisdom knew not 1 Cor. 1. 21. God; but did as it were feel( or grope) after him, as Men without either Eyes or Light; what certainty Acts 17. 27. in matters Divine or Spiritual could be expected from it? How unfruitful, and consequently how unpeaceable would all our Agitations be, in quest of those Truths that most concerned us? Whereas now by the Light of the Gospel, we have the Umpirage of the Divine Wisdom and Veracity. All we have to consider, is duly to understand the true Sense of the written Word, which is the Oracles of God. There Psal. 119. 99. is sufficient in his ipse dixit to determine all Controversies, solve all Difficulties, answer all Objections, fix the Mind upon that Rock of Truth, which is as firm and as stable as its Author. And though the right Understanding of the Sense of some Texts of holy Writ hath been a Bone of so much Contention and Mischief in the Church; 'tis not to be imputed to the Obscurity of the Text in momentous Matters at least, such as are necessary to Salvation: But to the Pride and corrupt Interests that Men first espouse, and then cruciate the Scriptures to serve those Lusts, with the Sanction of a Divine Authority. When the Christian World shall become honest, humble, heavenly and peaceable; the Scriptures will not only be better practised, but also much more easily understood, and Men shall see eye to eye their true meaning. If we consider the resignation of our Will's and Affections to the Divine Will; we shall find it equally contributing to Peace with ourselves, with that resignation of our Understandings and Opinions to the Divine Wisdom. There is indeed no Peace with ourselves in any thing short of this Method, and this will reach it infallibly. Experience proves that Children left to Prov. 22, 15. their own Wills and Appetites, are of all others the most froward and troublesome to others, and themselves also. That Liberty of Will proves the greatest Bondage and Torment. Therefore Parents, in reference to the Childrens Good and Quiet, take it to be not only their Authority, but the genuine Fruit of Parental Love, to subdue their Childrens Wills to an absolute Subjection to their Command; till they have their own Reason grown up to some competency to govern themselves. But when they are risen to a Freedom from parental Tutelage, is all then secure? is there no danger of brutish self-disturbing and self-destroying Passions? Far otherwise: Nothing more blind, heady, ungoverned Job 11. 12. than Man left to himself. But suppose that at mature Age he betake himself to a comporting with the Wills of others; this will but increase his Difficulty and Torment. If he pleases one, he shall displease others. One Man wills, another nills the same thing; and 'tis so with Men of equal repute for Wisdom. Ignorance, Conceit, Humour, Custom, Interest, enslave almost all Mankind, and bias them from the true and strait Measures of Truth and Goodness: So that a Man that has any Care of his own Concerns, had need put the question, whether he or they to whose Advice or Authority he commits his Will, betray him not to some greater Evils than mere Inconveniences, from the taint of some one or more of the above-named Biasses? But if he do so, I am in a dream waking, if he increase not his Perplexities, and tempt himself to let loose the Reins of his Fancy, or sit down altogether unconcerned in the matters of God and his Soul, whatever he may do as to the Concerns of this World. But the Will, and Affections resigned to the Will and Conduct of God and the Redeemer, hath all the Security imaginable. There can be no Ignorance in Wisdom itself, nor Design to deceive in Truth and Faithfulness itself. God hath not, nor can have any Ends to serve upon us, for he needs nothing out of himself: Nor can there be any Addition to Perfection. All that God pretends to from us, is his own Glory: and to render him that is, not only most agreeable to pure Humanity, and becoming his Creature; but by the Divine Grace is made inseparable from our own Good. And as ill as the Behaviour of fallen Man has been towards his God; the Gospel of Christ hath its whole Design and Tendency written in its Fore-head; Glory to God in the highest, Peace on Earth, good Will towards Men. Luk. 2. 14. To conclude, I will appeal to the Experiences of all that have trusted God, so far as to try him by this holy Resignation of their whole Soul to his Wisdom and Will, if they have not found their Peace with themselves, thrive or languish according to their Sincerity in this Resignation. Sixthly, The Gospel above all things explodes designed Hypocrisy. The designed Hypocrite aims at deluding others, by Simulation and Dissimulation, i.e. e. by putting on an appearance of what he is not, and by hiding from others what he really is: Thus his Inside and Outside are at the highest jar and disagreement. Now as the whole mask of an Hypocrite is a more piece of Art and Juggle, an Appearance that ariseth not from inward spontaneous Principles; 'tis matter of continual Pain and Care to maintain and carry on this Imagery: And if it be done so like the Truth and Life, that, as the Disciples of Christ, every one will suspect himself rather than this Judas; yet in the mean time his Heart reproaches him, his Conscience that sees all, and is under no Temptation to Fear or Flattery, casts in his Teeth, that all his painted laboured outside, is but shame and Illusion. Beside all this, he finds it a hard Task to carry on the Cheat long without discovery; and in the mean time his Guilt puts him in continual Fear, that he is detected, and that others suspect what he knows of himself to be too true. Thus the Hypocrite has no Peace in, no agreement with himself. But a sincere, upright and free Soul, which the Gospel so much commends, doth not place it in Trammels, needs no Paint nor Peruque, may spare all those troublesome Artifices. Let but the renewed Nature, the Love and Fear of God, the living Principles of Grace that are within, have their free course; and the outward Countenance of the Conversation will naturally and easily be formed a Saint, a holy, blameless, lovely, divine thing. The King's Daughter is all glorious within, and her Raiment is of embroidered Ps. 45. 13. Gold. The outside of a sincere Christian agrees to the inside, but is somewhat the worse of the two. Our Lord Jesus Christ advices, to wash the inside of the Cup or Platter, that the outside may be Mat. 23. 26. clean also; i.e. cleanse the Spring, and that will cleanse the Stream, make the Stream like it self without more ado: two works are done in one; whereas the Hypocrite cleansing the outside only, acts but the labour in vain, and is still like the garnished Sepulchre, fair without, but the inside full of stench and rottenness. SECT. V. The Gospel furnishes us with a sufficiency to maintain our Peace with God. This it doth three ways: First; It furnishes us with a Covenant of Peace with God, whose Terms are the sincere Obedience of Faith. If fallen Man had been set upon his Legs again, and every Individual made a Candidate for his own Perfection in fulfilling the Law of Works: But, he not continuing in all things that are written in the Law to fulfil it, must have fallen under the Curse; his Market had been but little amended. Our security of our first Parent, in whose standing or falling He and all his Posterity were concerned; was more likely to engage his Perseverance than our Concern only for our single selves. But the Gospel hath provided better things for us: For though we are defective in our Duty, subject to many Infirmities, ever and anon making false Steps, yet while our Eyes are single, our Aims sincere to please God in all things, God is pleased with us, our Peace is kept with him, His Countenance beholds Ps. 11. 7. the upright. Secondly; In case of wilful, known Transgressions, which the Psalmist calls the presumptuous Sin, the great Transgression, which indeed lays our Peace a bleeding; True Evangelical Repentance renews the Soul to its Integrity in it self, and its Peace with God. If we confess our Sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins, and to cleanse us from all 1 John 1. 9. Unrighteousness. God's Justice to Christ's Purchase, and his Faithfulness to his own Promise oblige him to Forgiveness, and all is Peace again between him and us. No sooner David said, I have sinned, but Nathan by commission from God and in his Name answered; The Lord hath also put away 2 Sam. 15. 13. thy Sin. And that every true Penitent shall meet with the same relief; the Psalmist gives us his own experience, with what hope others ought to raise from thence. I acknowledged my Sin unto thee, and mine Iniquity have I not hide; I said I will confess Psal. 32. 5, 6. my Transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin. Selah. For this shall every one that is godly, pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: Surely in the Floods of great Waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Blessed Terms of maintaining Peace with God! That no sooner Repentance has gone so far as a real Purpose, but God will meet the humbled Soul with an answer of Peace. This was not the manner of the Law of Works: for there was no place for Repentance: Its Severity rendered the first Fault to be Death without Remedy. Thirdly; The Interest in the Son of God, as our Advocate at his Right Hand. This blessed God-man is ascended and seated a Lieger and Stationary at the Right Hand of his Father, for this very end; There he everliveth to make Intercession for us. Indeed the Gospel with all its privileges, leaves us in this World to a Necessity of such a Friend in the Court of Heaven: But such a faithful and effectual Friend he is, that an upright Soul may live at Hearts ease in this World, for all it needs fear of a breach with God. If any Man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 2. 1. the righteous. This blessed Advocate is concerned in the execution of that Office, principally for three things: First, to obtain assisting Grace, that we may not fall into Sin. Secondly, Restoring Grace, that we may be recovered out of the Snare of the Devil. Thirdly, Pardoning Grace, that we may have the same Smiles of God's Face, the same delightful Converse with him, and the same plentiful Communications from him. All that has been said( though short, exceeding short of what is real Truth, revealed Truth in this matter) may be abundantly sufficient to confirm that great Gospel-truth. That there is sufficient Furniture in the Gospel, to maintain our Peace in our Christian Course against all Encounters. That which remains will be to consider, what this Doctrine teaches, and obliges to the belief and practise of. CHAP. X. THE Improvement of the abovenamed Doctrine. First; This Doctrine teaches us to understand two things: 1. Who they are, that are like to hold on in a Christian Course. Not all certainly that make a Profession of Christianity: Alas, how many such are there that go to the War without their armor, yea, that never entred the Lists of a Spiritual Combat, nor came within the reach of the across of Christ, nor ever yet intended it. But for those whom the across and other Temptations assault, but they are either without any armor at all, of God's appointment or preparing; what can be expected from them, but to be overtaken and prevailed on by the Temptation? and that is the Evil, the Snare of it. There are yet another sort of Persons, who neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor move, nor live, without this armor on: Their Feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. These are the Persons( if we could but know them) that are like to hold on their way; to whom the worst of Godliness will be no loss, but great Gain: Who may challenge and defy all Adversaries and Adversities in the Terms of the Apostle, Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Rom. 8. 35, to the end. Shall Tribulation, or Distress, or Persecution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword?— Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us. The same strain of a holy well-grounded Triumph of Faith, reaches to the End of the Chapter. Then they are much mistaken, who take a Life of Godliness upon the Terms of following Jesus Christ, and living in the Ordinances and Truths of the Gospel at all seasons, to be an intolerable and unreasonable thing. Did Jesus Christ sand his Servants as Beasts to the Shambles, run them on the Point of Temptations without a sufficient Security to their greatest Concerns; did he sand them on a Warfare at their own Charges, and put them upon Impossibilities; did he propose to them those Rewards that were hopeless and desperate; there might be some Pretence for such sad and discouraging Censures of the holy Ways of Jesus Christ: But these Pretences are all out of doors. No Man was ever lost in God's Way, nor a Loser by it. The Ways of Wisdom are Pleasantness, and all her Paths are Peace. Pro. 3. 17. None are of the above-nam'd bad Opinion, but such as know not God; such who are unacquainted with the Gospel, or have made no trial of it in good earnest. If the Flesh were to undertake the Task of Religion, or a willing Mind left to its own feeble Powers, the best of us all would sink under its weight: But let us up and be doing what Christ commands, and have open Hands and Hearts to his Comforts and Reliefs; then we shall say and feel, that his yoke is easy, and his Burden is light. Mat. 11. ●0. This Doctrine in the second place is of reproof, and First to those who esteem of the Profession of Gospel-holiness and practise of it in others so far as it goes, to be but Hypocrisy; because they cannot find in their hearts to go to the charge of it themselves. judge Righteous judgement. Do not measure all by yourselves. If they had neither a renewed Nature, that renders those t●●●gs agreeable, and a Pleasure to them that are co●●rary and painful to you; or that they had not this blessed Furniture of Grace and Peace: you might more rationally pass this judgement on them. Wonder as long as you will, when you see a dead Man walk and work; or call it no natural thing but a more Artifice: but if you will by no means be reconciled to the Belief, that a living Man who hath Principles of sense and motion, should feel and move accordingly, question your living a rational, rather than their living an Evangelical Life. And although you may have made some irregular essays to taste and relish that Spiritual Food which carries in it their Nourishment, and meets their Taste with an unexpressible Delight, and have made some short Attempts to use their armor, but all without the Effects they profess the Experiment of: Ask yourselves again, if Life and natural Heat do not first warm the Apparel, before that can maintain Warmth to the Body? If a dead Man can taste and relish the best prepared Viands, or put on, and use to purpose the most approved armor? Let your State be first changed, by being renewed in the Spirit of your Minds; become God's Workmanship in Christ Jesus; and then you will be created to all these good Works, and have Faculties and Powers disposed to do, suffer, and enjoy like a Christian. Secondly, It reproves those Professors of the Gospel, who are so far from Peace, that they shane the Gospel, as if its Furniture were not of Proof to obtain and maintain inward Peace. The holy Psalmist in one Instance of Defectiveness in this Peace, chides Ps. 42. 5. his own Soul▪ and gives it better advice; Why art thou cast down, O my Soul? why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his Countenance. A cheerful exact Holiness is the great Glory of the Gospel; and an invincible Evidence that 'tis the Gospel of Peace. We find when the Spies sent from the Israelitish Camp to search out the Land of Canaan, they brought back a bad Report of the Land, and all from a base Fear; thereby they brought up a bad Report of the Promise of God, and the Character he had given of it as a Land flowing with Milk and Honey. They said Numb. 13. 31, 32, 33. it was a Land that eateth up its Inhabitants, instead of feeding them with Plenty and Dainties: A Land wherein were the Anakims, terrible Men: And it was not so easy a matter, as that going up and possessing it was all they had to do; they must fight for it, and fight against such, before whom they were no more able to stand, than a grasshopper before a Man. Little was God, his Word, or his People beholden to these Men. But there are another sort of Men whom this Doctrine highly commends: And they are such as give credit and reputation to this Truth, by living like it: Such an one was Caleb; But my Servant Caleb had Numb. 14. 24. another Spirit with him: And what was that but a Spirit agreeing to the Promise of God? And Caleb stilled the People before Moses, and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it: He tells them that those Giants were but Meat for them; he represents God like himself, and the Promise, such as became God, a very Truth. Such another was the Apostle Paul, None of these things move Acts 20. 24. me, &c. His Mind was neither removed from his Duty, nor moved in its Peace and Tranquillity. One or two such Heroes live more Credit to the Gospel, than a thousand faint-hearted, unbelieving, flesh-pleasing Professors. The third Improvement shall be for exhortation; First, to the Unregenerate; Secondly, to the Regenerate. To the Unregenerate first, Do not think it will be to your Loss, to embrace the Gospel in all the Laws of it. Do not let the pains-taking, the Adversaries, the Adversities that attend Gospel-integrity, discourage you. It hath Provision for your Peace, notwithstanding all these. If you cannot have a Freedom from Trouble, you may have Peace in Trouble, and this is better, and your Peace greater: Nay in all Rom. 8. these things we are more than Conquerors. Conquerors overcome their Enemies, and disable them from afflicting; but the truly Evangelical Soul overcomes by suffering, and overcomes the Suffering it self by Faith and Patience. O begin to trust God in good earnest: Let not the Pleasures of the Flesh tempt you to make God a Liar any longer: Do not soothe up yourselves in a false Opinion that you trust in God, till you dare to try him, by resolving effectually to live godly in Christ Jesus. Secondly, Bewail your Sin and Folly in seeking Peace where God hath said, and all Mens experience has proved that there is none. O what Folly and Perverseness is this! to hope against Hope, to persist in an Opinion against the Uniform Contradictions of all Men, in all Ages: And yet not to seek Peace, where never any sought it duly, but first or last they have or shall find it. This Doctrine exhorts those who are regenerate, and have sincerely embraced the Gospel of Peace, first, to live like the Gospel of Peace. Let your Lives be a due Representation of the Gospel, as that whose Furniture is sufficient to preserve your Souls in Peace against all Encounters in your Christian Course. Do not tempt others to believe there is no such virtue in the due Improvement of the Gospel by your unquiet Spirits under Afflictions, and too often without any Temptation but your unquiet Hearts. That Physician and his Medicines are not likely to have many Admirers, whose Patients appear little or nothing the better, except a verbal Commendation of his Skill, and the Excellency of his Remedies. 'Tis a great shane and Scandal that those Professors of the Gospel cast upon it, that have their Peace no better secured against Assaults, than theirs who make none or but small pretensions to any serious Acquaintance with the Gospel, or any such high Opinion of it. I have had much ado to forbear downright chiding some high Professors, who upon a across Providence in the Concerns of this World, loss of dear Relations, Reflections upon their Reputations, Distempers in their Bodies, Apprehensions of Trouble in and for the Ways of Truth and Godliness, show as great or greater Distempers and Passions, than those who know no other Supports than more natural Fortitude. What do these more than others? What do these but reduce the Profession of the Gospel to that low Ebb, which Stoicism was charged with, that for all its great Looks made no difference between its Disciples and others, but only this, that they could talk more gloriously? Secondly, Do not go out of God's Way to provide for your Peace. If you are not secure there, you can be secure no where: Be ashamed to trust to your own Prudence, rather than to God's Promise, who will lay out Heaven and Earth and all his infinite Perfections, rather than be worse than his Word. If you run away from your God and leave his Tents, you must leave your armor behind you, and expose yourselves naked to your Adversaries Weapons. God hath promised to keep thy Peace in his ways, but not out of them. While you are in God's Ways, put on and keep on Eph. 6. 11: his armor; live continually in the due use of it. 'Tis not having it in your Bibles or Heads, but in your Hearts that will bless you with its Peace: It is Spiritual armor: In your Spirits it must have its Magazine, on your Spirits it must be worn, and sit as near you as your Skin to your Back, and as the Quality adheres to its Subject. By your Spirits assisted by God's it must be managed for this great Service. The third Doctrine I gave you from the Text, was, that in order to preserving our Peace by the armor of God, we must put it on; and also every Piece of armor in its right place, according to the Text therefore; Let your Feet be shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. I shall add only four Directions how this Preparation, which I have so largely insisted on, may be useful to you, and conclude this Subject. First, Faith must be kept up in its strength. Tho it be a principal Part of the Christian's armor by itself, yet 'tis a large share in all the rest; yea, all the rest will lye by dead and useless, but as invigorated by Faith. And indeed 'tis therefore called the Shield, which covers and is applicable to all the Parts of the Body, from Head to Foot. Our Saviour said to the blind Men, Be it to you according to you Faith imperatively: I may say indicatively every Mat. 9. 28. Part of your Spiritual armor will prove as the Faith is whereby you use it. The Promises and Doctrines of the Scripture, though entitled truly from God, can have no more Power with us, than Faith, which is the Gift of God too, gives to them. Secondly, Let the Word of God dwell richly in you in all Wisdom. The more rich you are in the indwelling Word of God( I mean of that written Word of God) the more plentiful your Preparations; but without Wisdom to understand, and apply it aright: The Devil will be more able to wound you, yea to wound you with your own Weapons, than you will be able to defend your selves. The Wisdom of the Lord Jesus confounded the Devil and the Sadduces to admiration, and discouragement from farther Attempts, by his ready and wise application of Scripture. Our own Hearts have not only a strange Perverseness against Duty, but sometimes against our due Comforts also: and I have known not only Men, but Women strangely witty to prevent the cure of their wounded Spirits. Impertinent Applications of Scripture seldom prevail where the Soul refuses to be comforted, or the Arrows of Affliction and sad Apprehensions sink deep. Thirdly, Be careful and watchful: Let not your Adversary take you napping, or, which is as bad, in a senseless Indifferency. Let not the Devil out do you in these two so necessary Qualities. While Men slept, the Eenemies sowed the Tares. He watches Advantages to break; do you be as watchful to keep or or to recover your Peace. Lastly, join Prayer to, and with all your Preparations. It is God who puts Spirit and Life into our Spiritual Armature, and into us too, that we may know, and be able to use it. He is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh. Your armor, as I shewed in opening the Text, is the Power of God; that Power which God sends as Auxiliaries to us in our Spiritual Warfare, and that Power which God is pleased to join himself unto, and thereby renders it like himself Almighty and invincible in its Place, and to its designed Ends. Prayer takes hold on God, and adds his Influence to your Graces, and to his Word: And what cannot the Word of God, the Grace of God, Ep. 6. 18. and the God of both do, when all are united to the same end: With the Words of the Apostle to the same purpose, I therefore conclude, Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all Perseverance. A SHORT TREATISE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF Our own Spirits. Prov. 16. 32. He that is slow to Anger, is better than the Mighty; and he that ruleth his Spirit, than he that taketh a City. CHAP. I. SECT. I. THese Words will not give us any Exercise in looking into the Context, for the better understanding their genuine Sense: For, according to the Nature of Proverbs, they are a short sentence, including much solid and pithy matter in a few words. We have in the Text a double pference; first, of the slow to Anger before the Mighty: 2dly, of him that ruleth his Spirit, above him that taketh a City. But the Comparison lies not in things of the same kind, and the Determination to which the majus aut minus, the greater or lesser degree of that ought to be given: but of things of a divers kind, which of them has in it the greater Goodness. In short, not who is the greater, but who of these is the better Man. The particular Qualifications instanced in, are two on each part: and they both are expressive of Power and Dominion; but they greatly differ in their Objects and the Orbs wherein they act. The Mighty, the Mighty, whose Power hath for its Object things without himself; the Mighty to such a Degree that a City( wherein the Power and Policy of many single Persons are met and united, a City walled and munited, and thereby better able to resist Assaults, than a Multitude of Men in the open Field) is made a Captive by it, cannot withstand its Force: This looks great. The Qualifications on the other part are Might and Power too; but as its Object is more secret and invisible, the Spirit of a Man, his own Spirit, and its Exercise principally upon the Theatre within, a Man's own Bosom; it looks not so big as the other, it may be is not observed, it may be so far as observed by the foolish sensual World, is not approved, but scorned as an abject, pusillanimous thing. But whatever the common Cry of brutal Men may be; the Divine Wisdom that judges not according to these Appearances that take with Us, but judges righteous judgement: He gives the Garland to the latter; He is the better Man of the two. And this is to be understood indifferently of high or low, rich or poor: He that is slow to Anger, he that ruleth his Spirit is a better Man, than he( let him in other respects be what he will) that hath this for his principal Commendation, that he is a great Conqueror, a Mighty Man in outward carnal Force and Power, and that successful also. I shall yet further consider the Man in his Qualifications that the Text gives the pference to; that by mistaking, I may not set the Crown on the wrong Head, or leave the thing in question as dubious as I found it. His first Qualification is a slowness to Anger. He that is slow to Anger. It is not said, He that is never angry, or that hath wholly suppressed that Passion or Affection: for, that were( whatever the stoics boast) a maim to pure Nature. We may be angry and not sin, or that Text, Be angry and sin Ep. 4. 26. not, is unintelligible; yea, we may sin in not being angry: For, so did David in his remission of it to his Son Adonijah; And good old Eli, for not mingling more Fire in his Rebukes to his profane Sons, who by their Wickedness caused the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred. Yea, God is said to be angry, and Jesus Christ was really so, neither of which could sin, or would lay on themselves an Imputation of it in a real and proper sense. Again; I must consider this slowness to anger, as not deriving from a dull, sheepish, flegmatick, natural Temper, or rather Distemper: for, a Man so qualified, hath no more of Grace or virtue in that regard, than may be found in some more Animals: And the Spirit of Grace or Human Reason hath no Concern in it at all, no more than is in the staidness of a Log. It is not by Election, but by necessity of Nature or Habit. Though there may be a natural Goodness in a Sheep or Dove, we cannot allow that the Patience of the one, or the Meekness of the other is either a Grace or a virtue. The due Consideration of the Text will set it beyond all Controversy, that the Goodness of the Person, to whom the pference is given, derives from a Rule or Government of the Spirit; and therefore is not a mere Disposition how good soever, which we very properly have learned to call a good Humour. And this particular Instance of a Slowness to Anger doth fall under that Goodness of our ruling or governing our Spirits, for which the Commendation of the Text is wholly designed. We must now consider the later good Qualification in the Text; And he that ruleth his Spirit: Here is Agency and Object, that which ruleth, and that which is ruled; both included in the same Subject, the same individual Man, a certain economy, or Ministration of Government in the Microcosm the little World of Man. Our first Inquiry will be( as it ought to be) what Part of Man it is that carries the Title of the Person He, and bears the Regency? and what that Spirit is, that is, or ought to be in subjection to it? Where the Mind or inward Man is distributed into the superior and inferior Parts; we usually understand by the Soul the inferior, and by the Spirit the superior Parts of it: But here is an Inversion of that Order, or we must allow this Title of the Spirit of Man, to those Parts of the Mind or inward Man that are in the Order of Nature the subjected and inferior. This the holy Scripture sticks not at in more places than one. In the Words I am expounding, it must be understood of the inferior Faculties of the Soul; and I shall give two other Scripture-Instances of the same sense, and that will be enough; for we are not now inquiring of the Propriety or Boundaries of Words and Terms, but what is the true meaning and sense of the Text: The Words are▪ Do you think the Scripture saith in vain, Jam. 4. 5. the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to Envy? The Spirit is said here to lust, which must needs be an Act, Disposition, or Motion of the Will or Affections. I shall add that of our Saviour, whereby he rebuked his Disciples; Ye know not what manner of Luk. 9. 55. Spirit ye are of; i.e. what manner of jealousy of, and Zeal for my Honour that is which ye pretend to; 'tis not so pure and regular as ye imagine. This Province being thus far discharged, what remains necessary to add, is easy, and obvious; scil. That the superior Faculties of the Soul are the ruling or governing Parts, the inferior subjected to them. By the inferior we understand the Affections; these ought to attend to the Dictates of the superior, by which is to be understood the judgement, or Understanding, which determines of true or false, good or evil; and the Conscience which accordingly makes the Application to the Will and Affections, to will or nill, to love or hate, &c. But here will arise another Question not inferior in its weight to any of the former, viz. That seeing these superior Faculties in Man, to which God hath given the Superintendency over the inferior, are so weak, blind, wild, bribed and biased a thousand ways, and too often prostituted to the Service of the most vile Lusts and Passions. This Ruler stands in as great need of being ruled and corrected, as those Faculties, the Will and Affections, which of themselves are perfectly blind: Who is the Ruler, and what the Rule of its Government, a Submission and Obedience to which will justly reach the Goodness commended in the Text? SECT. II. I do not forget, nor am insensible of the maze of Difficulties and Contradictions, the Agitation of this Question hath been encumbered with. I shall therefore content myself here with four Propositions, which will go a great way toward the determining this Question. First, That God himself as he is the Original and Author, and( by consequence) the most rightful and absolute Owner, so he is the Supreme and sovereign governor and Law-giver to all his Creatures. This is asserted by the Apostle, and most apparently Rom. 11. 36. 〈◇〉. consonant to the Light of Nature; For of him, and through him, and to him are are all things, to whom be Glory for ever, Amen. All Power( or Rom. 1. 1. Authority) is of God; whether Natural, or Political, or Ecclesiastical, it derives from Him: And whatever other Sanctions of Laws and Commands there may be to oblige a practical and external Conformity; there is no Sanction that touches the Conscience, but the respect of their Derivation from the Divine Authority: Therefore the same Apostle exhorts Christians to a more noble, rational and assured Rom. 13. 4, 5. Obedience to their Governours, than could arise from mere politic or selfish regards: For, he is the Minister of God to thee for good:— Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for Wrath, but for Conscience sake. Secondly, The Government we are now concerned to understand being natural, hath of all other the most immediate Derivation from God, and the least disputable. Parental or Paternal Government is natural, and therefore till the Sight of those great Spring-heads, such as patriarches, or more General Fathers was lost by the distance of the Streams, or Confusion of Posterities by other accidental or violent occasions; the Parental Government was general, most extensive and indisputable. But of all natural Government, as that of and within each rational Individual is most entire, so it is most intimate and near; and of all other the first derived from God; it being concreated with the first Man, and continued distinct from all others in every Individual. And although the fitness and disposedness of the judgement or Understanding and Conscience in each rational Creature as created, may sufficiently determine them for that Office of Rule in a Mans self, as designed and appointed thereunto by the alwise creator; we are not left without a supernatural Revelation of this Divine Disposition. 'Tis said of Saul, that he forced himself. This is 1 Sam. 13. 12. easily understood by the Context, to be meant of his violating his own Conscience, sinning against the light, dictates, and sanctions of it, breaking thorough all to gratify his own impatient Passions. This the Samuel calls in the next Verse, the not keeping the Commandment of God: It was a violating his Authority. The Apostle Paul reduces all Duties wherein any Man is religiously concerned, or with respect to Divine Authority to this secret Court of Conscience, as to God's acceptance and his own Satisfaction: And herein do I exercise myself to have a Conscience Acts 24. 16. voided of Offence towards God and towards Men. This may suffice to prove that God hath placed these superior Faculties, not only with a disposedness to direct the Will and rule the Affections, and all the inferior Man, but hath invested them with his Authority. Thirdly, The Rule by which the superior Faculties, the judgement, or Understanding, and Conscience are to be directed, is Right Reason, and the Word of God supernaturally revealed. I say Right Reason: For as there is Science falsely so called, and vain Philosophy, because, either 1 Tim. 6. 20. consisting of Chimerical and arbitrary Dogma's, or of no use to the benefit or bettering of Mankind; so many things pass for Reason, and obtain that Reputation both in private and public, that are mere Fallacies. And indeed if we consider the shipwreck of Reason, or of the Light of pure Nature, that is the doleful and apparent Consequence of the Fall: we ought to be concerned to examine every thing with the greater Diligence, that imposes itself under the pretence of that venerable Authority: Lest we receive base Mettal to our loss, under the counterfeit Stamp and Image of caesar. It hath been the wise and gracious Work of God in favour of Mankind, so maimed and impotent in this Guide of his Life, to superinduce a new Edition of Light and Truth for our direction in Morals, derived immediately from the Divine Will and Understanding, and contained in his written Word. To this it becomes us to take heed, as to a Light that shineth in a dark place, and to revere it to that degree, as readily and thankfully to receive it to conduct, and correct our Understandings and Consciences, and over-rule their Dictates, wherein they dissent from it. But that Part of the written Word which is properly Evangelical, and which the Light of Nature( how pure and clear soever) could have no prospect of, without the Assistance of supernatural Divine Revelation, hath, or ought to have, so absolute and independent Dominion over our Understandings and Consciences, that all the Exercise of our Reason thereabout is only to take in the due sense and meaning of those Expressions, by which the Divine Understanding and Wills is communicated to us. In short, our Understandings, as they( according to the Light of Nature) apprehended, and we accordingly aclowledge the Divine Understanding to be infallible, and the Divine Will inculpable; that which derives most purely from God( which generally is his written Word, or the Sense contained therein) is to be so far the Light and Rule of our Understanding, that nothing is to be admitted as true, or good in Contradiction to what it affirms or denies to be such. Fourthly, That he who with an upright honest Mind, applies himself effectually to▪ the Conduct and Government of his Affections by his Understanding and Conscience; guided by this right Reason, assisted by the Light of God's Word: He I say is the Man that so rules his Spirit, as( according to my Text) he is a better Man than he that taketh a City. I am not ignorant, that an honest well-meaning Person, who proposes to himself a Government of his Spirit by these Rules and Helps, may in many things miscarry and tread awry. scribblings of the Rule, Mis-applications of it arising from the Ignorance of our selves, and sometimes in the best of Men, the Violence and Unruliness of some Passions or Affections, abetted by various occasions, will render our Conformity to the Rule, many Degrees below Perfection: yet a Mind applying itself to practical Understanding, will not only be positively good, but compared with that which is disbanded, and let loose to blind and impetuous Passions, will be eximiously and excellingly good. It will ordinarily keep within some Compass that hath a Decorum and Beauty in it. If thine Eye be single, Mat. 6. 22. thy whole Body shall be full of Light. Honesty and Simplicity in the Aim will scatter many of those Clouds, and much of that benighting Darkness, which corrupt and base Ends embroil the Understanding withal. And indeed, though natural and acquired Parts in Conjunction with an upright Heart, will ordinarily much outdo Honesty, not so attended: yet, with the Helps afforded by Divine Favour, to those who live in our Age and Place, that Scripture will be experimentally confirmed; And an High-way shall be there, and a Way, and it Isa. 35. 8. shall be called the Way of Holiness: The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those: The way-faring Men( though Fools) shall not err therein Therein is a Supplement not of the Text. The Sense in short is, that those under the Light of the, Gospel, whose Business it is to be holy and happy shall not miss the main Scope, though they are not so sharp-sighted as many others. CHAP. II. SECT. I. FROM the Words explained as before, I shall lay down this Proposition. That he who governs his own Spirit, is a better Man than he that makes a Conquest of a multitude of other Mens Bodies and external Possessions. Or, That it is Man's Excellency to govern his own Spirit. This is that wherein he excels the Brutes, who are carried by a more Impetus of Inclination or Aversation. It is that wherein he excels the far greater Number of Men, who so far unman themselves, as to be hurried blind-fold by their Passions, knowing no other Law or Interest but their Appetites, no other Happiness or Satisfaction, but making Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof. This brutal feral Power subservient to Ends more vile than itself, may render Men greater, but 'tis the Government of a Man's own Spirit that renders him better than others: That by its appearances may carry the Opinion of Fools, this as real and substantial, obtains the pference with God and all wise Men. It is this Government of the Spirit wherein the Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour. The holy Scriptures give us no Encomiums, no eulogies of Praise in the Memorials of great Conquerors, for that more Consideration, but often the contrary: But the Volume of that sacred Testimony is every where furnished with the Commendations of those Men, who were so much Men and Saints, as by the Grace of God, governed their own Spirits, crucified the old Man with its Affections and Lusts, lived by Rule, ordered their Conversations aright. 'Tis said of Aaron that he held his Peace, i.e. he Levit. 10. 3. held so strait a rain upon his Passions, that( his Sons Nadab and Abihis being devoured by strange Fire from the Lord, for offering strange Fire to the Lord in contempt of his Command) he sanctified the Severity of God, acknowledging by his Silence, that the Breach made on his Family by so stupendious a judgement was just; so just and necessary as it became him to revere it; and he well content that God should vindicate his own Honour, though so much to his Cost. And probably it was for this that he obtained the Honour, which no Man ever obtained but he, scil. to be recorded in Scripture under that high Character, Aaron the Saint of the Psal. 106. 16. Lord. Job had the greatest trials that ever Man had, enough to have routed the Patience, and broken the Consistency of the greatest Composure and Fortitude; but he held the Helm in his Hand, he kept himself steady, while the Storm of unparalleled Providences made a wrack of all but a perverse Wife. In all this( saith the Text) Job sinned not with his Lips, nor charged God foolishly. Ye have heard of Job 2. 10. the Patience of Job. The Devil designed to prove Jam. 5. 11. Job an Hypocrite in his Appearances of Piety, and God a Liar in saying Job was such an upright Man: but by Job's ruling his Spirit, the Devil was confounded, God and his Servant Job justified▪ and the Words of the Text are the matter of God's Triumph and Glorying in Job thus ruling and over-ruling his own Spirit. In order to this Excellency the Apostle Paul wisely prepared himself against the Tyranny of Custom or Superstition in indifferent things. All things are lawful, but I will not be brought under the Power of 1 Cor. 6. 12. any; i.e. e. neither my Passions, nor those of others shall usurp Authority over my Understanding or my Liberty to act accordingly. Above all other Examples to this End, those of our blessed Redeemer excelled in the steady Government of his own Spirit; he was in all things purely Heb. 4. 15. natural of the same Make with the rest of Mankind; he had the same Affections, was equally exposed to Hunger, Thirst, Pain, Weariness; his Temptations exceeded those of any other: Yet under all he so governed his Spirit, that nothing of Disorder was to be found in it. His Affections moved not, but at the Command of a sanctified Will, guided by a clear and pure Understanding: He had nothing of that Corruption within him, that in us echoes to the Call of Temptations from without; when he was reviled, he reviled not again: The Agitations of his Soul was like that of the most pure Water, retaining its Clearness,( though shaken) and nothing sullied with those Dregs which lodge in us, and are so easily stirred and mix themselves with our best Motions. The highest Instance of the Rule of his Spirit appeared in that Scene which some of his detractors have dared to charge with the manifest Tokens of Weakness and Pusillanimity. My Soul( saith he) is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death.— O my Mark 14. 34. Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Our Saviour in these Passages most abundantly expresses the just and due Measures by which his Passions moved. He permitted those deep Impressions of that Prospect he had of his dying Sufferings, as they were Penal,( not for his own Faults, for he was most perfectly innocent, but) as in them he bare the Punishment of our Sins in his own Body and Soul. In all of this Nature he was voluntarily complying therein with his Love to fallen Man, and that Obedience and Duty wherein he was by his own Consent obliged to his Father. And though his Fortitude was infinitely beyond any Man's, by which he could have faced the severest and most terrifying Objects, without the least change of Countenance or depression of his Spirits: yet he did not so, because he ought not; his Duty as Mediator( and being under that peculiar Law) was to suffer, and to choose Suffering. He was sent and came into the World to that very End, which never was the case of any Man but of him. And whereas his ardent Prayer, that if possible that Cup might pass from him, hath been by some Adversaries of Christianity reflected on as a kind of repentance of his great Undertaking; There is nothing in it but what answered the Conduct of the most deep Wisdom, and the answer of the most stayed and well-governed Affections. The Spirit and Grace of God which dwelled in our Lord Jesus without measure, did not destroy or abate in him any thing of that which was purely natural. Death, as a dissolution of those Bands of Union between the Soul and the Body, was a proper and sinless object of Fear: But as his Death was accompanied with Pain and Sufferings to such a degree, as answered to what was due to them whom he redeemed, it was to be feared to a degree proportionable. And as this Fear was a part of his Suffering( which was so necessary to his Body and Soul, being made a Sacrifice and Offering for Sin,) so it was but the Motion of pure Nature, of pure natural Affection; which to be without is reckoned by the Spirit of God, to be not only a Sin in it self, but also a cause of 2 Tim. 2. 3. those that should render the last Days so perilous. But herein shined especially the Government our blessed Redeemer had of his own Spirit, that he could give to pure natural Fear such a Scope as became him; and yet make so full and perfect a stop, when its farther Advance would have usurped on the sovereignty of the Divine Law; of that Divine Law which obliges by both the Light of Nature, and that of Evangelical Grace, to sacrifice some natural Rights to his Glory and the Good of our Brethren; trusting to the Divine Benignity to make a full Compensation some other way. And by so much the more, as his pure natural Fear, Aversation and Abhorrence of so great a Misery was risen in his Soul; so much the more noble and conspicuous was the Government of his Passions, in their not so much as relucting against the Divine Will, abstracting perfectly from such an Evil; yea from the Consideration of the Divine Will, that so he must suffer; they, even those Affections assist in forwarding his Sufferings; and a greater Zeal appears for suffering than ever was of a Fear and Abhorrence of it. The Roman Heroes did not with so great a Resolution cast themselves into the gaping Chasm, as he into this manifold Hell of Misery. He seemed afraid lest his Adversaries should by mistake miss their Prey, or his Friends should feel one Spark of that Fire, which he was designed to embrace and quench in his own Bosom. Whom seek ye?( says he to these who sought his Blood) I am he. Let these go their way. And John 18. 7, 8. elsewhere; I have a Baptism to be baptized with, and O how I am straitned till it be accomplished! This Luke 12. 50. across of our Lord Jesus was the greatest trial, and the greatest Proof of the Government and Rule of his Spirit, that in so great a Difference and seeming Contrariety of Duties, he could answer all with that Exactness, as if he had been a more Intelligence, and had nothing of human Passions or Affections moving in him. This was a most perfect Proof and Exemplar of the Excellency of governing our Spirits. SECT. II. The Goodness of governing our own Spirits, above that of Power over the Persons and Concerns of other Men. First, The governing a Man's own Spirit hath in it much more of Generosity and true Greatness. What Greatness of Spirit is in those Men, who are so feeble as to be hurried on by vicious Passions; obstinately bent to have their Wills how blind and unreasonable soever in themselves, and mischievous and destructive to others? What mighty virtue or worthy of Praise, to thirst after the Applause of Greatness, and a remembrance to Posterity as an hero, by a mad hair-braind World, who have generally had so poor a Spirit as to flatter Greatness for fear its Weight should otherwise crush them. Certainly more Power subduing others, without any Consideration of Right, Justice, or any virtue( for 'tis such a Power and Domination we speak of) is the most feeble and slavish in itself, and the most pernicious to Mankind. I can hardly believe that any Man who has a sense of that great after-reckoning, which all Men must make with the most high and holy God; would not rather choose in that dreadful Day to stand before God an humble, meek, self-denying mortified Believer( tho the most obscure Person in the World) who hath endeavoured to live according to a divinely enlightened and sanctified Reason, than an Alexander or a Julius Caesar, a Dyonisius, or any that have been the very Image of the great Abaddon. But he that governs his own Spirit is truly great and generous: His Conflicts are the most just and also the most difficult. It is no great matter for a Man to ride over other Mens Bellies whom he hates, as across to his Ambition and Self-will: but to turn our Weapons into our own Bosoms, and stab those Lusts that have been dearer to us than our very Souls; those Lusts that were bread and born in us, from the Service of which we have drawn all our sensual Delights, and those sweet Dreams of Felicity wherein we have blessed ourselves, and have had our grateful Sentiments, accompanied with the Consent and Applauses of the Generality of Mankind; and those in vogue for wise sagacious Persons: This is great indeed; especially considering that the struggles of these inordinate Affections are so strong, continuate, Mat. 18. 8, 9. and near to us, that every blow we reach them, we feel the Smart of, at least so long as their Interest is great in us, as if it were a wounding ourselves, and a Dagger piercing our own Bowels. I will add, what renders it most generous, viz. that this bridling our Affections, and mortifying their corrupt and extravagant Motions, is to reduce ourselves to a right and sanctified Reason to serve the Will and Interests of God and his Glory, which is the most becoming an intelligent Being that is his Creature, as 'tis the only genuine Gratitude to, and acknowledgement of his Creator, and the only wise Method for obtaining Holiness and Happiness which are inseparable. A governing and bridling a Man's own Spirit, from far less generous Principles, was deemed by the better sort of Heathens more great and glorious than their other Victories. Alexander the Great gloried Quin. Curt. in Vitâ. more in his abstinence from beholding the temptatious Beauties of the Captive Persian Women, than in subduing to his Will the Persons and Possessions of their Princes. Agesilaus a King of Sparta, refusing the Kisses of a beautiful Boy, and being by some Lookers-on wondered at, and in some kind reproved Plut. in Vitâ. as too morose, replied, that he would give away one half of his Kingdom to be able to resist such another Temptation. This self -Government is that Greatness and Generosity that renders a Man so free, as 'tis not in the Power of bad Men, nor the evil Angels neither to enslave him. This Notion was the Philosopher's Glory; but the Christian's is so much more glorious, that the Glory of more Philosophers is no Glory by reason of that Christian Glory which so far excelleth it. A singular Instance of this Christian Greatness we have in the Apostle Paul: None of these things move me: I stand as a Rock against all their Billows: The strong Winds and Storms that beat on Acts 24. 20. my outward Concerns, do not so reach my inward Man as to make any Commotion there, much less so as to remove me through a base Fear of suffering from my Duty. Another Expression of the same Gospel Hero is, God forbid that I should glory save in the across of our Lord Jesus, by whom the World is crucified unto Gal. 6. 14. me, and I unto the World. He accounted nothing more great and generous, than to be as much above, or out of the reach of the World's Temptations, as a dead Man: Nor any thing conducing to this Greatness so much as the across of Christ, i.e. e. the practical knowledge of a crucified Redeemer. So that in fine, this Government of our own Spirits is not only better than that other Might and Dominion to which it is opposed; but, 'tis also more mighty, overcomes greater Difficulties, and its very Power as Moral, much more as Christian, has a Goodness in it equal to its Power; yea the very Power is Goodness in the Principle, and its Exercise is Goodness in the practise. Secondly, The ruling of our own Spirits is our Duty, and a Compliance with that which is the true and only Measure of Goodness. A Man beside his Duty, is so far vain and waste; a Man opposite to his Duty, is so far vile, polluted a Sinner, a crooked deformed thing. This only have Eccl. 7. 29: 〈◇〉 I found, that God made Man upright, but they have sought out many Inventions. God made Man streight or as the Hebrew, most significantly[ right]. He made him right what he ought to be, every way adapted and disposed to his Duty, and the holy Ends of his Being. And this was that Goodness which God saw in him, which he calls very good: Yea, for the sake of this his perfect disposedness to Goodness, which was not then crook'd by any perverse ungoverned Passion; all the rest of the Creation with him was said to be very good, being capable by Man to reach their final End, the glorifying their Creator. Power and Dominion by Conquest or Force over others may be our Sin. And though the Violence of Arms is in some cases not only lawful, but a necessary Duty; yet 'tis rare that either that, or its End, or both, be not as sinful against God, as miserable to Men. And 'tis one part of the Goodness of the Government of our own Spirits, that it can spare those Powers in their best Exercise; for did every one govern his own Spirit, the Sword of Justice would rust in its sheathe. The Law is not made for a righteous Man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the Ungodly and Sinners, for Unholy and Profane, 1 Tim. 1. 9. 〈◇〉. &c. It is made for, and to be executed upon the lawless, and them only: upon them who are not a Law to themselves, who do not, by the Law embraced and written in the Heart, govern their own Spirits. Thirdly, To rule our own Spirits, is( beyond all dispute) every Man's own Business and Concern. He that rules his own Spirit, discharges his own Province. He is not a busy-body in other Mens matters in so doing. Who was ever charged as an Evil-doer, an Oppressor, a Breaker of the Peace, an Usurper of the Rights of another, for ransacking his own Heart and Ways to the bottom; for exercising a Dominion over himself; directing to that which is right to God, to Men, to himself; correcting what is amiss, and restraining his own Spirit as with a Bridle, that it may not pass its due Bounds, in thought, word or dead? Keep thy Heart with all Diligence: for out of it Prov. 4. 2● are the Issues of Life. This is a Province, the discharge of which is committed to every Man by the supreme Authority of God himself. It may be a pertinent Question, and a just rebuk to some in some cases, Who made thee thy Brother's Keeper? Who made thee a Lord or a Ruler over Us? But a Man's ruling himself, correcting his own Disorders, was never imputed as a Crime by God or Man. But Might, and the forcing others by its Violence, though so necessary that there were no living without it in so licentious a World, yet how ordinarily doth it break over its proper Channel, and prove Ruinous by its Excess? How much more often is it taken into, and abused by those Hands that have nothing to do with it? There is a double Fault, where Wrong is done by him who hath no Authority to do Right. It is too natural to every Man to be desirous that all Men should be under the check of Government and Correction but himself: Therefore Might or Power is fearful to its Neighbour. He that has it, can rarely keep it quiet, that like Fire it take not hold of his Neighbour's House. Be not afraid Psal. 49. 16. ( saith the Text) when one is made rich. What need this Caution, this Inhibition? Riches are a Man's Happiness: He that attains them, is esteemed a blessed Man, all Men commend and honour him; Whiles he lived, he blessed himself: and Men V. 18. will praise thee when thou dost well to thyself. This Estate seems rather to move Envy than Fear. But there is somewhat certainly in Riches, of which the wise Men saith it answereth all things, that tempts Men to fear also. In short, a Man that hath them, hath the means in a great degree to do Good, there is no fear of that indeed: But also to do Evil, there's the Fear. Mens Hearts are generally so bad, that they will do Evil, if for no other cause but this, that it is in the Power of their Hand. Riches and Power are Mic. 2. 1. mostly; as much Provender, little Work, and no Bridle to a mettl'd Horse, that kicks and flings at all near him, 'tis Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Rom. 13. 14. Lu●s thereof. Might and Power knows no Bounds, but what it cannot break over: It doth not intermeddle with all Wisdom, but it will intermeddle with all Mens doings and interests; to subdue them to be his own, or at his own dispose; 'tis a great engrosser and Usurper, where self-Government doth not bank and bound it to the Channel and Service of virtue. Wo to them that device Iniquity, and work Evil upon their Beds; when the Morning is light, they practise it; because it is in the Power of their Hand. And they covet Fields, and take them by Violence, and Houses, and take them away; so they oppress a Man and his House, even a Man and his Heritage. Fourthly, Ruling our own Spirits by Christ's Rule, hath the most excellent Principles, and the highest Ends. There may be a ruling our Spirits, which is but a Mis-rule, bending them from one Crookedness to another: But where the Rule of Christ is the Rule by, and to which we endeavour to manage our Spirits: This governing hath Principles and Ends that have no Parallel for Goodness and true Greatness. For its Principles, shall I give you that first which is first( in order of being) of all Christian virtues or Graces, Evangelical sanctifying Faith. That Faith, by which we have a Prospect of those Motives, that are of greater weight in the balance, than the All of this lower World. That Faith by Gal. 2. 20. which we adhere to God's Will, trusting on God's Word; who can as soon die as lye, cease to be God as cease to be true, and can as easily perform his Ep. 2. 12. Promises as speak them: That Faith by which we enter into the Covenant of Grace. and become( I dare not say Confederates with God, but) Foederati, or Parties to that Covenant, wherein God hath graciously become bound to us. That Faith by which we become so united to Christ, as to be his Members; Members of a Divine Head, and Head of Influence, from whom Faith derives a Power, Col. 2. 19. greater and better than ever subsisted in any more Man without it. I will only add one Quality more of this Principle; viz. that it sanctifies the Heart; which is to say, it purifies our Affections, as well as empowers us in the pursuing their Objects. A second Principle is Love, a holy, a Divine Love, a Divine Love, as it hath principally a Divine Object, and a Divine Original and Author, and in a way supernatural derived to us. 'Tis the Love that is the Chariot of the Government of a Christian's Spirit; the Vehicle of its Motions. A Chariot the midst Can. 3. 10. thereof being paved with Love. What more powerful than Love? What more sweetening to doing or suffering? What more regular in its designs and Tendencies than a holy Love? A third Principle( which is not the meanest) is a Principle of Righteousness, an inherent prevailing Disposition to give to every one their due, and to God in the first place. This Principle is that which we commonly call Honesty. And indeed that Rule that is governing, that is on the bottom of pure impartial Honesty, must needs excel. The Apostle gives us three Qualifications of what he commends Phil. 3. 8. to us; True, honest, just; And they seem all to intend much the same thing. When once a Man comes to this Point, that he will not, he dares not do or be otherwise than becomes him, than is his Duty; He loves Righteousness, and hates Iniquity: That Psal. 45. 7. Man's ordering and managing his Spirit must be lovely, truly comely and excellent. I might add the Principle of Gratitude, the most generous of all, and most abounding in a real Christian, who, in all his ways is designed to acknowledge God; such a due Object of highest Gratitude from all Men, that he that lives in the Neglect of it, is an ungrateful Wretch; let him compliment his Fellow-sinners at what rate he will. The Ends of governing our Spirits according to Christian Principles are more excellent, being especially five, which I shall but name. 1. To reduce it to, and maintain it in its Rectitude. 2. To live more happily: This Rectitude being as conducible to it, as Health is to bodily Happiness. To serve our Generation, which is next to be preferred after ourselves, and sometimes before ourselves. 3. It hath for its End a preparedness for Heaven. The Grace of God in us, though it be nothing meritorious of the State of the Blessed; yet it is that which renders us meet to be Partakers of th● Inheritance of the Saints in Light. It is Gratia Col. 1. 12. disponens, that which fits us for Heaven. An unmortified Spirit, wherein the Lusts and Passions of Men are unbridled, and take their Swing, and are not subdued so far as a sincere Disposition to Holiness and Pursuit of it, is no way capable of this Rom. 9. 23. Blessedness. The Vessels designed for Glory, must be before prepared unto Glory, wrought for the selfsame 2 Cor. 5. 5. thing. Every Imagination and high Thought must( in sincere designation) be brought under the Obedience of Christ. I know not how Men of any Discretion and impartial Inquiry into their own Hearts, can satisfy themselves of the Sincerity of their Disposition to this Obedience, who do not watch, and pray, and work to some degree of Industry for the obtaining of it; And, as the Apostle speaks, keep under their Bodies, i.e. use all means to bring their Affections into order; lest after all their presumptions of their Security for another World, they should prove Cast-aways. 4. They rule their Spirits, that they may in this World be to the Honour and Glory of God and the Redeemer. These are none of the Principles from which, nor Ends for which Men ordinarily greaten and lift up themselves in the World by Force and Might: They are commonly Principles and Ends of quiter another Nature, have nothing to do with things of so worthy a Character; self, corrupted self, is their Spring, and their Aims rise no higher. 5. The Advantage of governing our own Spirits above Power to subdue others, is, That to the overcoming and subduing others, many Hands are necessary beside our own, and thereby the Action and its Success is common to many: Whereas the Government of our own Spirits is our own peculiar Act. And although the Honour of every good Act especially is to God, as performed by his Grace; yet an Act which is peculiarly ours( which a Conquest over ourselves is) doth give us a much greater share of the Character of Goodness, than what is dependant on thousands for the help of Heads, Hearts and Hands. 6. The Capacity of governing our own Spirits renders us capable of a Law, and the Ends of it, which is obtained by governing our Spirits. Whether we consider a Law as the Law of God or Man( if a Law indeed) we are obliged to render Obedience to it. All Laws are supposed to have to do with rational Creatures, and the Scripture supposes, and affirms also, should be obeied for Conscience sake; that is, not only an external politic Obedience is to be given them, but an internal and conscientious Obedience. Divines and Philosophers agree, that more Animals, on the consideration of their being without Reason, cannot be guilty of Sin or moral pollution, because they are not capable of a Law: Certainly this places them at a great distance below rational Creatures. To bring this home to our purpose; Doth not that highly contribute to our Goodness, that so far ranks us above Beasts? And indeed though a Man be a Man as to his essential Considerations, who is a Lawbreaker, a lawless Person, with whom a Law has no regard, and, as such, no effect; yet as being a Man, and yet so bad a Man, he becomes more vile than a Beast; as he that neglects and destroys the Ends of Reason, which is so great an Excellency, is more vile than that which never had such a trust, but acts suitably to its natural Principles tho of a lower kind. 7. We are able to resist Temptation, no farther than we have the Government of our own Spirits. Temptation, whether from Men, or from the wicked one, is no Temptation to us, any farther than it finds or begets an Inclination to compliance with it. 'Tis this Inclination therefore that is to be disposed and ordered according to Duty: But he that doth not govern and rule his Affections, is like the Chaff driven to and fro with the Wind. Tinder or Gun-powder does not sooner take the Spark fallen into it, nor is more violently affencted by it, than John 14. 30. an ungoverned Spirit by Temptations. The Prince of this World cometh( saith our Saviour, that great Commander of his own Spirit) and hath nothing in me, i.e. no inordinate Affection, no sinful Passion or Inclination for his Temptation to work upon, or that is of his Party. But was this a sufficient Security from the Prevalence of Temptation? No such matter; it was the complete Government of his own Spirit, not only in the Habit and Power, but in the Act and Exercise also that was his Security. Tho some add the Impossibility of his Defection, because of the Hypostatical Union. Adam in his Integrity, and the glorious Angels had nothing in them that inclined them to Sin. As they came out of God's Hand, there was a pure and entire Goodness in them; only they were in a Possibility of Defection: Their actual Defection, in the first Disposition to Sin, arose from their letting loose the Reins of the Government of their own Spirits, which they ought to have preserved untainted, and had Power to do so. But how much more have we need to put the Bridle on our Spirits, that are already so full of Disorder, and wholly engaged under the Power of Corruption to an Indisposition and aversion to Good, and a violent Disposition to Evil till sanctified? And God saw that the Wickedness of Man was great upon the Earth, and that every Imagination of the Gen. 6. 5. Thought of his Heart was only evil continually. Vain Man would be wise, though he be born as a wild Job 14. Asses Colt. And for those who have the new Creature born from Heaven in them; those holy Principles that dispose them to all Righteousness; they know, and Experience tells us, how great a Power of corrupt Affections and Lusts abide within them, insomuch that that Saint and Apostle, Paul, groans out this Complaint; O wtetched Man that I am, who shall deliver Rom. 7. 24. me from the Body of this Death? 8. That Man who can rule his own Spirit, is the most fit to rule other Men. This will hold true from the smallest Family to the greatest Monarchy. No Man so fit to govern others as he that hath first attained to the Government of himself. Magistracy is God's Ordinance, and Magistrates are in God'sstead, and bear his Name: But that which carries the exactest Image of God in it that they are capable of, is their extensive knowledge, and being free from the Tyranny of any Passion. Solomon's large Heart so capacious of knowledge, and of so generous a Greatness, did undoubtedly much adorn the Beginning of his Reign; but his Wisdom which preserved his Spirit in so great a Calm and Serenity, adorned it much more: It was this Government of his own Spirit that added to his reaching Head an understanding Heart: The exact Answer to that Prayer of his, inspired by the Divine Spirit; Give therefore thy Servant an understanding Heart, to judge thy People, and to discern between good and bad: His 1 Kings 3. 9. Father David was a Man cut out for Government, as he was Master of his own Passions: The Lord hath sought him a Man after his own Heart; a Man 1 Kings 3. 9. whose Will followed God's Will, not his own corrupt Inclinations. The greatest Instances of this was in his correcting those violent Passions of Revenge and Ambition, from so noble Principles as Duty and Loyalty, when the Life of Saul his implacable Enemy and unreasonable Injurer, was by so signal a Providence brought within his Power: He did not here, as some have done, pled Providence to justify the Breach of a Precept and his Duty, and make God himself serve with his Sins. A Spirit of Power derived from the Spirit that is almighty sanctifies all our Powers, and renders the Political Powers, which are of God, to be for God; and that cannot be for the hurt, at least for the Injury of any. Happy those Kingdoms, those Countries, Cities, Families, whose Governours act their Parts without perverse unbridled Passions, moving in so exact and regular an Order, as not to be tempted out of it by any Man, no nor by themselves. This is an Excellency beyond compare, to be fit to be a God by resemblance among Men. 9. He that governs his own Spirit, is good in all his Relations; which no other can be. This makes a Husband without Bitterness, and that dwells with his Wife, and uses his Superiority as a Man of knowledge: This disposes a Wife to that Faithfulness and Respect as becomes her Place. Parents to rule Children so, as not to provoke them to Wrath, by correcting for their Pleasure, rather than the Childrens Profit: A Child to filial Respect and Obedience. A Master not to be froward, surly, threatening, but to give to his Servant that which is meet, and not to despise his Cause, when for his Right he meekly contends with him: A Servant to be faithful, diligent, obedient, and to bear Rebukes, and sometimes Corrections, not only for Evil, but also for well-doing; to carry it well, not only to the kind and gentle, but also to the froward. A Subject to honour, obey, and serve his Prince; not to expose the Infirmities of a Political Father through Levity or Malignity; much less to slander him, not to be unruly, troublesome, if their own Partialities are not countenanced; and to intermeddle with things belong not to him, but are above his Sphere; yea it will render a Prince to be indeed Pater Patriae, who will be well pleased that Salus Populi should be his Suprema Lex. 10. He who in good earnest designs and endeavours to rule his Spirit, cannot be a bad Man. Though he may have Infirmities, he cannot be wicked; though he come not up to legal Perfection, he will not come short of Evangelical Sincerity;( supposing him acquainted with the Scriptures) he can neither be an Enemy to God in his Mind, nor an heretic in his Opinion: Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo, is St. Austin's well known Saying. That of the Apostle is certainly the Character of a good Christian, who I think cannot be a bad Man; Herein( i.e. the Christian Principles) do I exercise myself, to have a Conscience voided of Offence towards God, Acts 24. 16. and towards Men. The Doctrine which asserts the Excellency of ruling our own Spirits, and the Goodness of those who bare this Rule, above all those that have natural Force, by which a Man prevails against others being thus far proved: I shall next consider what Improvement may be made of this important Truth. CHAP. III. THE Improvement of the Doctrine. I shall improve this Doctrine for the Reproof of five sorts of Men. And First, of those who ambitiously reach at that Greatness above others, which God hath made none of their Duty, and hath set out of their Reach; and in the mean time are wholly unconcerned for this far greater Excellency that God hath made their Duty, and put within their Power by Divine promised Assistance, scil. the Rule of their own Spirits. What projecting, intrigueing, troubling the World and themselves, does the whole Life, and all its powers of many Men resolve themselves into, for no other end but to top others in the Shadows of Greatness; but to govern themselves, which is both true Greatness and Goodness, are the serious Thoughts and industry but of a very few. God, who is the most perfect Understanding and Truth, hath told us wherein Goodness and real Tranquillity consists; who are the best of Men, and the most happy; that how low soever our Station is in the World, we are capable of this Felicity, that 'tis to be attainned with much greater Certainty, and upon far better Terms: But we will have none of this; but that which of itself is of as small a value as vexatious Vanity, and to most, both unlawful and impossible. Psal. 4. 2. O ye Sons of Men! How long will ye turn my Glory into shane? How long will you love Vanity and seek after leasing? Selah. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. And who is this godly Man, but he that sincerely endeavours to rule his Affections, and consequently his Life to a Conformity to God's Law? This is the Man that he has marked out for the wise and good Man, meet for his Favour, his Service, his Approbation, and his Portion among Men. And what and whose Portion they must be that are rejected of God, I will leave to you to determine, when your Thoughts are serious. Secondly, It reproves those who value themselves by their having other Men under their Feet. This may signify their Might, but not their Goodness at all. But I pray what value is to be put upon more Might and Power? poisons we say have a great virtue, i.e. Force, but 'tis a mischievous one. The fallen Angels are mighty in strength, but what value is to be put on them? Believe it, they that are under Foot may be better Men than those who tread upon their Heads. We red of the wisest among Philosophers, that they have been sold for Slaves; and the greatest Worthies among the Saints have been Martyrs and Confessors; and in the purest Times of the Church, Christians and Christianity were so low, that they were the Scorn of the Jews and Heathen, and accounted the Off-scouring of all things; yea the Lord of Glory was under the power of not only Pilate but the meanest of his Souldiers, to wound and mock him at their Pleasure. Alas! What Glory is it for one Man, one Party to tread on the Neck of another? But this is a Vanity, a Folly we are too well acquainted with, yet the worst of all is, that Men value themselves by it as the better Men, and the weak World strike in with the Conceit as ungrounded and foolish as it is. Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur. The People will commonly take them to be best who are uppermost; and if Christ be on the across, the unthinking Vulgar will repute him a great Malefactor. Let not the wise Man glory in his Wisdom, nor let the mighty Man glory in his Might, nor the rich Man glory in Jer. 9. 23. his Riches. What then should they glory in? In understanding and knowing God, to exercise Lovingkindness, judgement and Righteousness in the Earth, and to have that sense of him, as to govern our Spirits by so just and benign a Pattern. Thirdly, It reproves those who follow their Inclinations and Passions without consulting their Superiors, i.e. their Understandings and Consciences. Certainly such Men who wear their Spectacles only in their Pockets, or forget to open their Eyes when they move on a Precipice, are as wise and self-consistent as these. There are a sort of People in the World, whose Passions sally out without Direction, Correction, or Self-examination: The Egyptians painted an inconsiderate Man with the Globe of the Earth before him, and a Looking-Glass behind him. These are the wild Asses used to the Wilderness, who Jer. 2. 24. snuff up the Wind at their Pleasure, who feed upon Ashes; a deceived Heart hath turned them aside, so Isa. 44. 20. that they cannot say, is there not a lye in my right Hand? They abandon Reason as an useless thing, or as a Rub in that way which they are resolved in right or wrong: This is( I will not say unchristianing, but) unmanning themselves. He that best knows the Nature of such Degenerates, gives them their due Characters and proper Names; and tells us, that Man that is in Honour, and understandeth Ps. 49. 20. not, is like the Beasts that perish. Let a Man be accomplished with any or all the titular Dignities that other Men can put upon him; if his Understanding be not his Master and Tutor; if he cast off those Reins of Government, consult nothing but his own Interest( as Men love to call their unreasonable Appetites) he conforms to the Brute, prostitutes himself to his Sensuality, as if he had to do with nothing more noble and worthy. But what judas 10. they know naturally as brute Beasts, therein do they corrupt themselves. Under this Cognisance the Lord takes them; Hear this Word ye Kine of Bashan. Amos 4. 1. Upon this Text one gives this Paraphrase; Great Men who consult not their Understandings for the Conduct of their Actions, are but great Beasts. And such Beasts are little Men too, who follow the same Tract, only they are of the lesser Herds of cattle. Be not like the Horse or the Mule without Understanding, that must be held in with Bit and Bridle. He that is so unlike a Man as to have nothing to do with his Understanding deserves the Bit and Bridle of a Horse: If he will not rule his own Spirit by his own virtue, he must be ruled with the Bit and Bridle of an outward restraint from another Hand. Non caret regiâ Potestate, qui corpore suo noverit rationabiliter Aust. in Sent. imperare: That Man( and that Man only) who knows how to govern himself by his own Reason, needs no Royal Authority but his own. Fourthly, It reproves those, whose blind and froward Will and Affections fight against and master the Dictates of the Understanding, and Authority of their Consciences. To go on carelessly without consulting our Understandings, and what Directions it may afford us, is a Contempt of the Law of our Duty, and the means of our Welfare: but to act against them is Presumption, Scorn, and flat Rebellion against God in our Consciences. It is a black Brand on those of whom it is said, These are of them Job 24. 13. who rebel against the Light, they know not the Ways thereof, nor abide in the Paths thereof: But if 'tis said, they know not the ways thereof; so that 'tis at most but a Sin of Ignorance: I answer, no such matter! They know but will not acknowledge; they behave themselves notwithstanding their knowledge, as if they were utterly ignorant, which is an high Aggravation of their Sin: and when by God Men are judicially given up to this Spirit, 'tis a Token of his highest Displeasure in this World, a Reservation in those Chains of Darkness, which are like to hold them till the judgement of the great Day. For the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men, who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God( i.e. his Being and their Duty) is manifest in them, for God hath shewed it unto them. In short, they oppressed and fought against their Light till they put it quiter out, and all in favour of those unruly Affections and Lusts, which by it were made uneasy to them. For this Rebellion against their Light God gave them their Swing, and left them to embrace without control the grossest Follies, and most unbecoming rational Creatures. That Advice of an Heathen therefore, reverere seipsum, was the Voice of a wise Man for he that hath not an aweful regard of the Light and Authority of his own Understanding and Conscience, is a dissolute Wretch, who hath burst the Bands, and broken the Cords, by which the supreme and sovereign Authority holds Men to their Duty to him, to their Neighbour, and themselves. Fifthly, It reproves them who abandon themselves to the arbitrary Conduct of others without concerning their own Judgments and Understandings, in the trial of its Truth or Goodness. And I must say that of all Men they run most headlong into Error and Unmanliness, who will be at no farther Pains to consider what becomes them in their Places, what to entertain as their Opinion, what in their practise; than only what such a Man says and does, whose Reasons may be as weak, whose Authority as little, and Motives as unreasonable as their own. We decry the giving up our Judicium Discretionis, and yet do it where there is not the least Shadow for it to a considering Man: What Advantage is it to decline our our own Ignorance and inordinate and irregular Appetitions, and follow anothers blind-fold. The Authority and Examples of a good and wise Man ought to weigh somewhat with us; but not so much as to determine us without farther Examination. God alone is so wise as not possibly to be mistaken, and so good and just as he cannot injure his Creatures: a perfect and absolute deference to him is our duty and safety. I will thank my fellow-servant to lend me his eyes, that I may see better with mine own: but, I will not so abuse his eyes as to put out mine own. God hath given to every Man a Guide in his own bosom, which with all other helps is to be his immediate controller and Director. I know not any commission we have to devolve its office upon a proxy. It is as reasonable, and as eligible, to commit it to others to eat and to drink for us, as to understand for us. Let every Man prove his own work; then shall he Gal. 6. 4. have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. But I would not forget to mind those, whose Lusts and Passions have misled and dethroned their own Judgments, and Consciences; and yet are not so content, but give up themselves to a sort of Men, who are greater Masters of Misrule, and Doctors in Debauchery and 'vice; that they woefully transgress this Doctrine of the excellency of a Mans governing his own Spirit. Is it not enough, and infinitely too much, for a Man endued with reason to turn Rebel, and subdue it by his own unreasonable appetite; but he must call in the greatest offenders against this Law, and submit himself wholly to their conduct? How many in our day go to school to learn the Art of sinning more sinfully, and choose such wicked Companions for their patterns, who are most perfect in villainy; and can with the most scorn, and least sense of all that is venerable, not only satisfy, but inflame their Pride and Luxury, and all Licentiousness! Certainly if it be an unmanly error, to follow the tract of the better sort of men without examination; because, cause they may be misled themselves, or misled others by their own Passions: It is a Crime, an Enormity for which no name is bad enough, to give up ourselves to the misrule of the worst of Men; and for this very cause or motive, that they are more wicked; and can give us Instructions and Examples of Sinning, and gratifying our corrupt Affections above ourselves, or any others. Lastly, It reproves those above all others, whose Judgments and Understandings are given up and prostituted to the service of sinful passions. This is a most lamentable inversion of that Order, which God hath created in his creature Man; a turning it up-side down, a most direct and diametrical opposition to the Divine Institution. It is Man's Excellency to rule his own Spirit by a sanctified Reason: but he is so far fallen from that, his Reason so unsanctified, as to turn it into a Slave and Vassal to his Lusts. This Men do, when their Understandings have nothing to do, but to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof, and when that is done, to justify and turn Advocate for Sin. The Scriptures give us many sad Instances of this, of a whole Generation that are pure in their own eyes, Prov. 30. 12. and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness. Their Judgments are so far polluted, as to justify them from any degree of Faultiness in the greatest degrees of Pollution. It tells us of Men that are wise to do Evil, but to do Jer. 4. 22. Good have no knowledge. And what is this but a total giving up their Understanding to plot, and contrive the gratifying of sinful Passions; a Sagacity, and reach, a cunning for nothing else. This is the Wisdom which is not from above( and whence 'tis then you may guess) but 'tis earthly, sensual, devilish. Jam. 3. 15. The Faculty of Understanding is from above, and placed in Man to tread under Foot these vile Affections; but so to abuse it, as to be a Contriver for, a Promoter of what comes under any of these three Taints, is not from the pure Fountain above, but from the source beneath, the bottonles Pit of Sin, Folly and Misery. To have our Understandings so much abased, as to serve no higher Ends than earthly things, 'tis become a poor, low, restrained, imprisoned thing; it digs for Riches, but they are earthly Riches, Excesses of shining day, extension of Houses, Lands, which one calls Bona scabelli, the good things of God's Footstool, and such as he has placed under our Feet. This is making our Understandings Slaves to the Sin of Covetousness, which the only true God calls Idolatry. And tho Pride and Ambition look somewhat bigger than what may be tied up in a Bag, yet 'tis but earthly. nabuchadnezzar thought his Wisdom and Understanding had been bravely employed, when it had raised such a Morsel for his Ambition as his great Babylon; but God esteemed him a Beast for using his Understanding no better, and turns him among the Herd to admonish himself and others to employ it better. But to have our superior Faculties serve more Sensualities, is yet a greater Abuse. This is for Man to become brutish in his knowledge, which is complained of by God as a wosul Degeneracy. For a Man Jer. 1●. 14. to slave his Understanding, to provide what may most gratify the Lusts of the Eye, and the Lusts of the Flesh, by a voluptuous eating, drinking, wearing, hearing, and the touches of Uncleanness, is more base than Bestiality itself; for though the highest of their Heaven be the gratifyings of Sense, they know their Measure, and where left to themselves, act most exactly according to that Law of Self-preservation, and what is peculiar to their several Species, for their delights. Yet Mens Understandings sink lower, even to drudge to Devilism; to contrive for, and to justify Envy, Revenge, Enmity, Cruelty, all manner of Mischief; yea, to turn Tempters to Soul-damning Sin, and taking pleasure in tormenting( not Beasts, but) Men. I forbear to give Examples of these several degrees of Sin, which have devoured Mens Understanding and Consideration in their Service. If I should tell you of a Crassus, a Midas, a Demas, an Achan, a Judas, who put Christ himself into his Bag; an Alexander, a Julius Caesar, Ahab, Jezebel, Nero, Sardanapalus; some it may be would stay their thoughts in them, as if such unreasonable and reason-prostituting Men were rare things: whereas indeed, this Disease is Epidemical, Common, and in some degree Universal. But where this Crime is reigning, 'tis but playing the Fool with all our Cunning, and sinning the more profoundly. To be brutish in our Affections, is very unbecoming a rational Creature; but to have our Understandings approving and serving brutish Lusts is far worse; the greatest degeneracy we are capable of in this World. And it seems as if intended to express the ne plus ultra of the possible defection of Man from his Integrity, to have his Mind and Conscience defiled, i.e. to have sentiments, and give instructions Tit. 1. 15. agreeable to inordinate Affections: If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? SECT. II. We shall next consider some Instructions to our Understandings this Doctrine affords us. And first, it informs us how we are to judge of Mens Excellencies, Goodness or Worthiness. Not by their Greatness and Might with respect to others, but by that Dominion they have and exercise over their own Spirits. He is an Hero indeed who is his own Master: He is a Grandee, and as good as he is great, that by his Understanding taking its Light from the Word of God, governs and keeps in order his own Affections. Such a Man has the Empire of a whole World, a lesser World, but of more value than the greater. They who judge of Goodness by such outward Appearances as agree to common Opinion and more Pageantry, judge according to Appearances, but not righteous judgement. Secondly, This informs us that there are but a few Men in the World that are excellent Men. My Goodness extendeth not to thee,( saith David) but Ps. 3. 16. to the Saints that are on the Earth, and to the Excellent in whom is all my Delight. But who are these Excellent ones? why they are Saints, such who exercise 1 Tim. 4. 7. themselves( as the Apostle speaks) unto Godliness, have their Heads and Hearts employed to the ordering their Conversation aright, both that without, and that within: Who are upright before God, and keep themselves from their Iniquity. But these are a very few comparatively. Among the Throng of People that are in the world, 'tis the Lot of but a few to be Noble, Rich or Great; and I fear 'tis the choice of fewer to be in good earnest in this cumbersome unpleasing-work to the Flesh, of ruling their own Spirit. In all Places and Societies of Men, unruly Spirits banish the Delight and Profit of Christian and human Converse, and make but an illfavoured Representation of Christianity. 'Tis a rare thing to meet with a Man whom you shall be sure to find in the Path of Reason and Christian Duty, who needs no other Motives to be what he ought to be, than what he carries alway in his own Bosom. And I would I could say of Professors of the Fear of God, that they were generally a People of this Excellency commended, such as have crucified the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts; whose enlightened Understandings and Consciences had a powerful Influence to restrain their Passions, when under no Temptation but of natural Humours. True Notions of Truth and Duty, a tract of Ordinances, with some professed Approbations of the things that are excellent, is the utmost Limit of most Mens Religion. What Crookedness, Perverseness, Worldliness, Sensuality, Pride, Frowardness were the Symptons of their unbridled Spirits long since, continues the same, and are more unchanged than their Faces: Their Graces seem powerless, and short of the Effects of moral virtue: yea good Nature, or good Breeding have much a fairer Appearance, and render their Societies who rise no higher( at least) less offensive. There may be true Grace within, Charity may suggest so much, when 'tis as a Candle in so foul a lantern, as not only its useful Shine is withdrawn, but also itis being there is almost most invisible. But let me make bold to tell Professors, that have no better Proof of their being delivered from the Power of Darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God, that they put their eternal Estate to a very great hazard. Thirdly, This Doctrine informs us, how happy and blessed the Heaven of the Blessed will be. There will be this Goodness in its Perfection, there will be no pricking Briars nor grieving Thorns of unmortified unbridled Passions in others, or ourselves. Into that place shall enter nothing that doth offend. Every thing that is crooked here, shall be found streight there. Humour, carnal Interest, Flattery, Opinion are not the bias of that thoroughly reformed World. All there is naked Plainness and perfect Beauty, that needs none of the Masques and Disguises which Men use here to cover those Disorders in their Affections, which they have no Will, and therefore no Power to cure. This World is not worth the living for, 'tis so rude a thing; Men who by Nature are fitted for delightful and useful Society, are become the most degenerate and troublesome of the whole Creation. We know not where to be, but we find it a Meshek or a Kedar. How gladded will a Soul, disposed for, and assured of that blessed Rest, be at its Departure from so much Uneasiness from others, and from remaining Corruptions in her self, which as more near, and more its own Guilt, is more her own Disease and Grief? It is one of the good, if not of the best Improvements we can make of all the Evils we know, or do, or suffer here; to raise thereby the Price of Heaven in our Hearts, where none of that Disorder, Deformity and Bitterness will be found: And of what Sparks or Drops of good we see, or taste here, to raise the Price of Heaven in our Hearts by considering, that all this Goodness will be there in Perfection. This will be the way to make our Mercies and Comforts more sweet and comfortable, and our Afflictions, yea our very Sins, less embittering our Days. The third Improvement we shall make of this Doctrine, will be of such things it puts us on the practise of. First, To call over the Records of our Memories and Consciences, that we may inform ourselves how far, and wherein we are fallen from this Excellency, the Rule of our own Spirits. It is certain that God invested Man with it in his first Creation, and as certain he never gave to any an Authority to divest us of it, nor have we his Warrant to neglect it, or discharge ourselves. We had once a Right to this Empire of our own Spirits, and the Possession also: But woe is us! 'tis lost and hath been so time out of mind. If God should now demand of us an Account of our selves, how we have conserved this Trust, and maintain our Authority in its Vigour; what Answer should we make to the Supreme Lord? Alas we have cared so little for these things, that we can give no Account of them; they have not fallen under our Observation; we have not charged ourselves with them as any part of the Province committed by the great Sovereign to our Custody. Our Wills have taken no Measures from our Understandings, nor our Understandings from that Law of the whole Creation, scil. to serve the Ends of our Being. There hath been an universal Conspiracy against the Divine Right, and that Order he has commanded. Not only our Love, Hatred, Joy, Sorrow, Desire, Aversation have been licentious and run riot, been a Sort of Self-movers; but our Wills and Understandings also have quit their Posts, and like treacherous Counsellors and Commanders in an Army, have taken part with, and headed a Mutiny. We came into this World like corrupted troubled Springs, and have fallen in with the Stream of this Folly, and followed its Current into the dead Sea of Sin and Vanity, we knew not how nor asked why. If the case is so, as certainly it is, or hath been so, and is so in too great a degree with the best. Then, Secondly, Let this Doctrine, this momentous and so much a self-concerning Truth, put us upon resuming our Command and Rule of our own Spirits. Though we have lost the Power and Possession, we have not lost the Right, nor is the Possession irrecoverable. Look into the holy Scriptures, there thou shalt find the Records of thy first Rights, and the true Constitution of self-Government, with all the Helps thou canst desire to set it upon its Legs again, with a greater Encouragement and Advantage than thou hadst at the Beginning. And though thou mayest not expect wholly to reform the Disorder all thy days: yet so much may be done by the Grace of God which offers itself to thee, as may render thee through Christ acceptable in the Sight of God, thy Life more righteous, orderly, comfortable, and useful to thyself and others, and thine End blessed. Rouse up thyself therefore, let thy Reason( submitted and devoted to God) take the Throne, lay its Commands on thy Affections, and force their Obedience: Keep thine Heart with all Diligence, take a daily, an hourly, a Pro 4. 23. 〈◇〉 above all keeping. continual Account of all its Motions: Restore to thy Conscience its Office of directing, examining, accusing, excusing, and encouraging. Live like a Man, a Christian in good earnest, that has something to do with the World, but more with thyself, and the Concerns of thy Soul with God. That this may be done, and how it may be done in some good measure, I shall propose shortly some Motives and Directions for thine Assistance. In the mean time I shall put thee upon one Task more, to which this Doctrine obliges thee. SECT. IV. Put a Remark upon the Disorders in the Spirits of others, more especially in thine own, with their Causes, that renders the World involved in so much Confusion, and wherein this great Duty of Self-government is most neglected, and most apparently injured. I shall endeavour to give a Prospect of some few of them, and leave you to enlarge by your own Observation. First, It appears in the perverse and contentious adhering to whatever is our own. Alas! what proper rational Evidence is there of Worth or Goodness in any thing because it is ours? Because 'tis our Opinion, our Party, our Relation, our Interest? Yet under this only Consideration, or rather from these Motives without any farther consideration, not only the above-named, but our very Sins, Lusts and Follies are passionately espoused. If our Spirits were regulated as they ought, we would love Truth as Truth, and Goodness as Goodness wherever we find it: and what is contrary should have none of our Countenance. nabuchadnezzar Dan. 3. would needs have the Image in the Plain of Dura worshipped by all, because it was of his setting up. The Disciples of Christ had not well learned what the best of Masters taught them, when they would have their Mouths stopped who followed not them, and for no other cause. I am of Paul, and I of Apollo, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ was no Symptom of well-governed Spirits among the Corinthian Professors of Christianity. And if the Order wherein these Parties are expressed may signify any thing 'tis this, that where Men prefer in the first place their own Passions, Christ will be so far put behind as to become last of all. But these things, and their being puffed up for one against another, were their Follies, and so notorious Follies and unbridled Passions, that the Apostle does not nakedly say they were carnal; but makes them their own Judges, puts it to their own Consciences if they were not so; Are ye 1 Cor. 3. 3. not carnal? It was the early Christians of whom the Apostle said, All Men seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. But this( you will easily Phil. 2. 21. believe) was not written for our Imitation, but for our Caution. Secondly, This unruled Spirit appears in Mens Impatience of Contradiction however reasonable. Men when having obtained some Reputation for Learning, Wisdom, Parts, &c. a Spirit of Pride sensually plucks the Reins of their own Spirits out of their Hands: They will rather run into twenty Errors in word or dead, than aclowledge themselves guilty of one, or leave him a Saver that will not go out of the way with them, as well as in it. Who would think that so many should be ambitious of being thought infallible themselves, who seem to be so much against that Character on any? Vain Man Job 11. 12 would be wise, tho he be born as a wild Asses Colt. It were well if he would be so: But the Sense is, he would be thought so, and is more fond of being thought so, than of being so indeed. How impatient was Zedekiah of Contradiction, that he could not forbear in the presence of two Kings, and many Princes and Nobles, to smite Micaiah( that honest Tell-Truth) on the Cheek. This was certainly a Token that the Spirit of the Lord was gone from him( whether it went to Micaiah or not) and that he had lost also the Rule of his own Spirit. This impatience of Contradiction has been the cause of many a feverish Heat in some Men, from whose Examples might be expected the most eminent Patterns of Humility. And if we think this ungoverned Spirit is not to be found but in the worst of Men, or at least not to be found in those we judge and rank among the best; we may sooner or later find ourselves mistaken. knowledge, or Learning and Parts, have not alway Grace growing up equally with them. I may be bold to say, that if Humility be the Legitimate Daughter of knowledge, Pride is its Daughter too, tho I confess 'tis not Legitimate, but a Byblow. knowledge puffeth up, but Grace edifieth, i.e. e. knowledge fills Men as a Bladder with that windy Vanity, but Grace makes Men truly Great and Good. Who would have thought that such a Man as Jonah should be so impatient of a seeming Contradiction to his prophesy, from the Divine Pity itself, and the imputation of a false Prophet, from the Construction Fools would make of that compassionate and tender Mercy, which is alway implied upon Repentance: Yet so it was, and so unequally, as well as feverish did his Pulse beat, that he justified his Anger against God himself( for who else could he be angry with?) for smiting his Mushroom Gourd, but could have had Patience enough, and it may be some Pleasure too, to see his prophesy confirmed, by the Destruction of so many thousand Innocents( among greater Sinners) as dwelled in that great City Nineveh. Thirdly, This ungoverned Spirit appears in Men's so easily shifting, and changing Opinions, Professions, and Communions. I do not, I dare not say, that when there is a just Evidence of our being in an Error, we must not change an Error for a Truth: That were to give unto a perverse Stubbornness, the Honour of a well-principled Stability. I do not here concern myself with those who under any Profession of Religion whatever, have no design above the low Things of this World. We must expect( say what can be said) that such will admit of no Godliness that crosses worldly Gain. But I speak of, and to, such who do so easily shift and change Principles, and think they do their Duty, and give good satisfaction to God and their own Consciences; and it may be take themselves to be so much the better and more genuine Christians. Some who I hope are real Christians( but I must needs say are very weak) if they hear a Man speak good Words, and such as it may be contain Truths worthy our acknowledgement; presently grow fond of all that Person holds or practices in the matters of Religion. Is not such a sally of the Affections without Bit or Reigns, which a very mean Understanding may afford them? I would ask such, if they might not as reasonably turn to every Opinion of every Man, that saith somewhat more or less that affects them? and then they must, or may shift all Points of the Compass in a short time, and hold all true that any Man holds, who doth so far gratify them as was said before. Others, when any thing is said to them for a new Opinion, or contrary to their old Sentiments, which they cannot answer presently; they forsake what they formerly held and professed, and upon good grounds too: Only they knew not how to manage them, and are captivated by the Assailant. If these are not Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine, Eph. 4. 14. those words of Holy Writ have no meaning: For, let another deal with them against those Arguments that altered them before, and say more than they know how to answer; must they not face about as they were, or be as partial now, as before they were both weak and imprudent? Do these poor Souls rule their own Spirits, or their Spirits rule them? Or rather are they not neither ruling nor ruled, but poor passive indifferent things, rolled to and again with a Breath? Do these People believe that all Truth stands on their Legs, and if their strength cannot support it, it must fall to the Ground and be an Error? But I must drive it a little farther. These Persons( for the more part) are surely within the reach of some more knowing, and as sincere for Truth as themselves: And most of them( I suppose) have some or other Pastors, who by their own Choice have a particular Charge and Care of their Souls. I find but very few of them( upon such Temptations) who will have recourse to them, to try what satisfaction they can give them against the Adversaries Arguments, and to retain them in their former Principles. Doth not this give abundant evidence, that they are so far chained by their precipitate Choice of a new Opinion, that they are afraid of being better informed, and re-established? This is the very Truth of most of these Men's shifting Principles. And I dare say these Persons neither rule their own Spirits according to their Portion of Understanding, nor know what manner of Spirit they are of. And I will add, that beside their unfaithfulness to Truth and their own Souls; they cannot be excused from perfidiousness too, and wronging and grieving those who are over them in the Lord. And I pray God to furnish his Church with such Pastors, whose knowledge may enable them, and whose Integrity may dispose them( like their Lord) to have pity on the Ignorant, and those who are out of the way; and to carry it with that sweetness of Love, Humility, Meekness, and Self-Denial; as may encourage poor Souls in their difficulties to expect their Help. I have said thus much not partially for this or that Persuasion in the Matters of Religion, but from an impartial regard to Souls, and their stability in the Truth. Fourthly, It appears in the prevalency of corrupt Passions, in giving and receiving Reproofs or Admonitions. I must acknowledge, that it requires much of a Spirit of Wisdom, Love, Meekness, and Impartiality to discharge either of these parts becoming Christians: A wise Reprover, and an obedient Ear, seldom meet. There is a Humour runs in the Veins of all Men( few excepted) to have every Body under check but themselves; a strange inclination to, and fondness of a Self-Indulgence Universal, without regard to what is right or meet. Moses that Pattern of singular Meekness, reproves( with a Meekness like himself) a Brother Hebrew, Exod. 2. 13. from brotherly Love; Why smitest thou thy Fellow? The Text tells us that his Reproof was to him that did the wrong: Yet, he met with so sharp, and ungrateful Reception, as made him flee his country. A sad Reward for his Charity! He was paid off with Wrong, and Revenge, and raillery: Who made thee a judge? there's raillery. Wilt thou kill me? there's a false Accusation: As thou didst the Egyptian Yesterday: there's Revenge added to both the other. That advice of our Saviour, Cast not your Pearls before Swine, lest they turn again and rent you; seems to Mat. 7. 9. most, a sufficient discharge from all reproving; Men are generally become so Swinish; having so little rule of their own Spirits. He that reproves, must not only cloath himself with Wisdom, Love, and Meekness, but he must also arm himself with the greatest Patience and Fortitude. This difficulty and danger of reproving has turned Friendship into unfaithful Silence, or a more pernicious Flattery: But it is better to love with this Severity, than to deceive with Flattery. I have thought sometimes to restrain Reproof to the Pulpit, would be the wisest way in a Minister; Because, that leaves the particular Application to the Hearer's own Conscience: But, this tho the most wary, as well as authoritative, does not alway secure him from the charge of a false, or malicious Accuser, of a particular Person, or busy-body, tho he has neither had that Offender, nor any particular Person in his Thoughts: Of this many sad and revengeful Instances might be given. Thus Men like foolish Children, hate, if not break the Looking-Glass, that shows them the Dirt or Deformity of their Faces, but hereby they discover their Souls more foul and deformed. I have no small Opinion of that of Bernard, Omnia enim in confessione Bern. in Serm. lavantur, nisi quod ea quae sponte dicunt aliis, ab aliis patienter audire non possunt. God will forgive all the Sins we confess; but not so, if we will not bear a Reproof from others patiently, for the Sins we confess of our own aecord. The Reproved are commonly of the unruly Spirit we have observed, and much more might be said: But, the Reprover commonly is as little concerned to manage his Spirit in giving, as the Reproved in receiving the rebuk. Some Persons have such an itch of reproving, that they must be at that work; and are as busy to seek it, as the Fly to find the sore place. These make other Mens Sores smart, to please and tickle, their own Itch. Some Men reprove in Wrath and Anger, as if they hated the Persons more than the Vices they reproved. — Licuit semperque licebit Parcere Personis, dicore de Vitiis. And whereas Love and Wisdom would, that as bitter Pills are wrapped in Gold, and a sour Portion made more tolerable by sweetening; so Reproofs should be prefaced with due Commendations, of the goodness and worth of the Person reproved, and Expressions of good Will, with all the mollifying terms the nature of the Fault, and the hope of the Cure will bear. This was the great Example of Christ the divine Wisdom, in five of his Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia; worthy to be considered by all in Rev. chap. 2. & 3. giving Reproof. But where is the Reprover that regards so to govern his own Spirit? What Wrath commonly in the Countenance? What biting Words? What remembrances of former and other present Faults? What deafness to all just Justifications? What discomposure and interestedness to Condemn? And as little judgement and Charity to consider and weigh with ourselves before-hand, what may be said for the Person supposed Faulty, by which we should put ourselves in his Case. It was an excellent spirit appeared in the Church of Rome, writing an Epistle of Reproof to the Church at Corinth: I will give you a shred for a Sample. Haec Clarissimi, non tantum ut vos officii vestri admoneamus scribimus, sedut nos ipsos common faciamus; In eodem enim stadio versamur, & certamen idem nobis impendit. i. e. Dear Brethren, We writ these things, to advice not you only of your Duty, but with you ourselves also: For indeed, we are in the same Fault with you, and labour under the same Disease and Difficulties. To conclude, I know no Action wherein Men do so rarely on the active or passive part, so much as design to govern their own Spirits: For which cause, Reproofs seldom are given but it comes to a down-right Quarrel, and wounding, instead of healing, is the work on both Hands. Plato had indeed the art of reproving an ill-taught Reprover, and striking the Quarrel dead with one soft, but heavy Blow. Diogenes the Father of the cynics, that is, of the cross-grained, unmannerly Humourists, who are for pleasing no Body but themselves; He being in Plato's Lodgings, and seeing there a delicate Bed, and very rich, gets him up with his dirty Feet on the Bed, and tramples it to its great discomposure, and prejudice, crying out; Now I tread Diog. Laer in vit. under Feot Plato's Pride. Plato with a composed, and mildred Countenance only returns those words, with greater Pride. Fifthly, This unruled Spirit among Men, appears in the great Incongruity of Men's Understandings, Professions, Approbations, and their own Practices: without much burden to, or complaint of themselves. The Truth is, the World is full of knowledge, and Christianity mightily advanced among us, if its Confines reached not to either Heart or Life: But, Wisdom both Human and Divine, which is the practic knowledge, is sunk to a very low ebb. But what is the matter, that Men look so high, and live so low? talk like Men, like Saints, or Angels, and walk like Crabs? It is because they are not concerned in ruling their own Spirits; Affections inordinate have gotten the Mastery, and keep quiet Possession. It hath been said of the graecian Stage-Players, that for that Stageturn they had so furnished themselves with excellent Sentences, that honest and wise Men were ashamed to use them, after such Slaves to their Lusts, had so defiled them. Certainly, they who consider what Christianity is commended to us in our Bible, how we generally commend, and pretend to have a dear and aweful respect to it; and also how contrary and unbecoming it our Deportment to God and Men are: I say, such will conclude that either we understand not our Bible, or do not believe it; or we have no care to govern our Spirits. It is true, that the best of Men come short of their knowledge in their Lives: The Apostle Paul himself saith, To will is present with me, Rom. 7. but how to perform that which is good I know not. But as the first was his Choice and Delight, the latter was his loathing and burden; which vented itself in that Groan, O wretched Man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death? I take it to be neither boldness nor uncharitableness to affirm, that where with the knowledge, the Grace of God is in Truth, tho there may be, and is too great a Non-conformity of the practise to the Understanding, and the taint of natural Corruptions will not be quiter wrought out; yet, there is a sincere design, a purpose of Heart, to reduce outward Acts, and inward Dispositions to a conformity to our Understandings, and that where it is so, there will be apparently some Bridle of Restraint: Pride, Anger, Frowardness, Covetousness, Hatred, Contention, and other enormous Lusts, will not riot it, and have so free and beaten a Road, as where there is no such Self-Rule sincerely determined. There will be a Change for the better, a stated endeavour to purify ourselves even as God is pure. Where Men understand the proper ways of their Callings, and that they are necessary to answer the ends of a comfortable living in the World, and yet are not to be found ordinarily in them, but in Idleness and ill Haunts, destructive to those Ways and Ends: Every wise Man will conclude such to be a sort of dissolute Persons, i.e. e. ungoverned loose Men: such as have disbanded themselves from under the Authority of their Understandings, in those Concerns. It is no less a reasonable Conclusion, where the case is alike in Matters of Religion and our Eternal Concerns. And that there is such a looseness among Professors this day, from the Paths that are professedly leading to our Duty and true Felicity, needs no secret Search, no elaborate inquiries to find the sad proof of. Sixthly, It appears, in the unreasonable and sudden Alterations wrought on Mens Spirits, by not only great, but small Changes and Provocations. By nothing more than this, is the unruliness of Men's Spirits to be discerned. Where is the Man that is semper idem? that has such a Poise on his Spirit, that he sinks not under a Change to Adversity, or over-sets not with a stiff Gale of Prosperity? I said in my Prosperity, I shall never be moved: Thou didst hid thy Face, and I was troubled. As good a Man as he was that said it, he said no more than what he had proved in his own unruly Heart: It was lifted up so high upon the weak movable Waters of the World, that he had an unworthy Confidence in, and Opinion of his Stability on so poor a Foundation: It seemed to be a sudden transport of mind. But when God frowned on him by adverse Providences, what became of his Confidence? where was his Mountain? He then had a Heart melted like Wax, his Spirit was as Water in a Storm all disordered. It is said of our English Nation, that they hurry from one extreme to another, are alway Strangers to Moderation. I was so self-indulging as not to believe it a long time, I took my own Nation( as plain Country People do) to be every way worthy, because it was mine own. But if this last Age hath not proved us more than disposed to extremes, no Nation ever was proved so. Indeed we have been all in a Passion this Fifty Years and more. One Bucket is on the Seat, 'tother at the bottom of the Well. The Ball is gotten to this end of the Street, and there's the Shout now, and by and by to the other end, then the Shout is there; and they that Shouted before are Dumb, and have scarce Heart enough to keep them on their Feet. This is not the Spirit of the Boys only, 'tis theirs that are old enough to be Men. We cannot but play the Child, when we are mightily pleased, but when otherwise, we are all in the Dumps, or murmur; and 'tis well if God himself have a good Word from us. If we consider another manner of Humour: When Men have gotten Power, then nothing but Tyranny, Domineering, Scorn, and Contempt of all Mankind except their Superiors: A Spirit full of Revenge and Cruelty; nothing more pleasant than to make them, especially who have wronged them, feel how big they now are, by laying all their weight on them, that they may expire in Groans. But let these very Men become low; their Hearts are in their Heels, no bigger than a Pease; they are shrunk into the most slavish, flattering Abjects imaginable: Such a pusillanimity is there among Men. And I know not how to reflect on such, as Men whose Superior Souls are any great Counsellors or Commanders in their little▪ World, or that Spirits so easily moved, or so far removed by outward Changes, can be truly Great, or well managed by the judgement and Understanding. Seventhly, This unbridled Spirit appears in Mens pursuit of the World. No bounds are given to the measure, nor means for obtaining it. The Word enough is one of the most unintelligible in our Dictionaries. The Heart, Head, all the Powers are enslaved to its interest. It hath usurped the Place of God Himself. Men take all measures by it in matters both Civil, and Ecclesiastical: Love and Hatred, Court and Contempt, rise and fall at its beck. It answers all things, as far as the most violent Passions can carry it, which are become its perfect Slaves. In this Argument there is Field-room enough to fill a Volume. I would only ask a few Questions, and they are, What thinking Men say, preach and print of the Weight, Worth and necessity of that Measure of the World( if that word may pass for the present) which Men press unto? the Means and Spirits laid out to obtain it? the value of it when the most is made of it that can be possible? Really there is so general a Consent to what the Scripture speaks of its Vanity to those great Ends of Satisfaction, its Snares to entangle in all Evil, its Fumes and Vapours to intoxicate Men both seeking and finding it, desiring and possessing it; that we may call it by all the hard Names imaginable, charge its Idolatrizers with setting their Eyes and Hearts on that which is not, with all the Folly, Wrong to God, Ruin to their own Souls we can express: All Men generally( that pretend to Religion or Reason) will say Amen to't, and( it may be) the Conscience of Guilt in this matter, and the Heart resolved notwithstanding to continue it, shall sand forth a faint Sigh, and go away a little sad for the present, as the young Man after he had heard from Christ what was not fit for his turn. Now considering that the things of the World are( at best and worst) such, and all consent to't, when their Judgments and Consciences speak; Where is the Rule and Government of Mens Spirits, that are so perfectly, violently and constantly contrary to those Sentiments? What Account can they give to themselves? or do they dare to call themselves to any Account at all in this matter? Certainly the God of this World cannot but laugh and triumph at this almost universal Folly and Madness, whereby Men with wind and stream are hurried on to serve his malicious Ends. Quem Deus pro malis suis abjicit, Cassiodorus in verba, Omnia te expectant. fit Diaboli pabulum; quapropter si inescam inimici dari nolumus, non debemus esse terreni: Quia sic in Principio maledictus est, ut terram comedat. They whom God rejects, are the Devils Prey. Therefore if we would not be devoured by that Enemy, it becomes us to take heed of earthly-mindedness; because the Devil was in the Beginning cursed to have the Earth for his Morsels. A little grain of Salt for the strain of Wit usual with( otherwise) great Men in their day, and it carries in it a substantial and useful Truth. Eighthly, In Anger, Lust and Revenge: I join all three under one Head; because they are the three greatest Furies in corrupted Nature; such as of all others disdain any Rule or Order; when once they have gotten the Bit in their Teeth. What a mad thing is Anger? He that cannot so rule his Spirit, as to preserve it from being at all prevailed on by this Passion, in vain doth he hope afterward to correct it, till it has with the fiercest Horse run itself out of Breath, or with the Waters broken over the Bank, spent their Torrent. This Passion is of all others the least guilty of Hypocrisy, but of all others is the most impudent, for it exposes its Fury in all the Features of the Face, in Looks full of Terror and threatening; a Tongue set on fire of Hell, Actions and Gestures so uncomely, so inconsiderate, that it differs nothing from stark Madness, only in Duration. It is Furor brevis, it is so voided of all Deference to the Understanding, that it will have an absolute sovereignty or Tyranny; All true it saith, all Good it doth, when 'tis most uncapable of either. Nulli irascenti sua Ira videtur injusta: And it hath one Aust. Quality peculiarly unreasonable, that nothing more inflames it than to be opposed with Reason. And certainly Men under this Distemper, if they had Power equal to their Passion, nothing would end it but the End and Destruction of its Objects. Therefore our Saviour makes it a degree of Murder. It is a dangerous Companion to ourselves and others, fit to Prov. 21. 19. live no where but alone; 'tis better to live in a Wilderness than with an angry Woman. Make no Friendship with an angry Man, and with a furious Man Prov. 22. 24. thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his Ways, and get a Snare to thy Soul. So far is an angry Person from the Rule of his own Spirit, that he is not fit for Society. Lust, so far as it prevails, is no less a Sympton of an unbridled Spirit, of the Understanding dethroned. When once this Evil hath touched and infected the Heart, 'tis it alone possesses all the Powers. What became of David's Piety or Humanity? What Token left of any thing of a Man of Understanding, much less of a Man after God's own Heart, when his inordinate Affection had fastened on Bathsheba? What did he stick at to accomplish and continue his unchaste Desires. Give me Dinah, said Shecem, let the Dowry be what it will be. Solomon himself, a most wise King in his Youth, played the fool in his old Age, broken the Bonds of Duty and Loyalty to his God, Equity to his Subjects, and Prudence to himself; this Passion did so far divest him of the Rule of his own Spirit. That Expression of the Heathen Philosopher, of Jupiter, accounted the Supreme Deity, runs highest in this Evidence, and with that I shall conclude it; Jupiter himself cannot love and be wise at once. This is a great Document, but Thanks be to God we have the Kowledg of a greater and a better Deity. Revenge is as great an Usurper on the Authority of the superior Soul, an Usurpation of what is peculiar to God and the Magistrate, and renders our Spirits as ungoverned by the Understanding as any other. It is one of the first Masters of Misrule that appears in the human corrupted Nature. Children before they can speak, can fight, and show sad Tokens of what they would do, did not their Impotency rather than their Innocency restrain them. The World is in a continual flamme by the Heat of this unbridled Passion. If we are but displeased, our Minds crossed, right or wrong, the cause just or unjust, all is one; the measure of Revenge is as little consulted as the Cause. What mad work did Simeon and Levi make upon the Shechemites, left not a Man of them alive, after they had made so brotherly a Covenant, and brought them to profess their own Religion, and all for one Man's inordinate Affection to their Sister. Cain would be revenged on Abel, for being a better Man than himself, and more accepted of God. Haman would revenge Mordecai's Contempt, with the utter Destruction of the Jews. Yea, David would leave neither Nabal nor any of his alive that could piss against the Wall, because he had a across Answer from a Churl by name and by Nature. All these Evidences( and many more that might be added) speak plainly the Unruliness of Mens Spirits, what a poor ineffectual thing the Understanding and Conscience is among Men. As it was before the flood, the Earth is now filled with Violence, which Men begin, by first violating their own Understandings and Consciences, by neglecting and rejecting the Government of their own Spirits. CHAP. IV. SECT. I. Five Motives to engage us to the Rule of our own Spirits. FIrst, He that can rule his own Spirit, has the command of his own Peace. And if there be no Motive in this to the greatest, and most difficult Undertaking, 'tis with the Unbelieving: For whose Conviction, I will first give downright, and down-weight Authority, the Word of God: A good Man shall be satisfied from himself. Let Pro. 14. 4. every Man prove his own Work, so shall he have rejoicing Gal. 6. 4. in himself, and not in another. This latter Text I have used in this Tract once, if not twice before, but I dare say 'twill not be worn out with many times using. I bless God it has been my daily Joh. 4. 14. Bread, and I have found it no light Food. 'Tis a blessed thing not to have our Peace in another's Power. While others take Fire like Thatch, by the Sparks of his Neighbours House; this Man is like Matter that is not Combustible. Provocations are to him but as the Waves that dash themselves in pieces against the Rock; leaving it where, and what it was without change. Whatever Affronts a Man meets with from Men, he keeps his Peace till he loses his Patience. In your Patience possess ye your Souls. Luk. 21. 19 It is a pitiful Slavery to have our Peace, and by consequence our All( for what is any thing to us without Peace) in the Power of others, of others that are not in their own Power. What an easy and a light thing is it for another, for every mean, foolish, insignificant Person to give us a bad Word, a wry Look, a neglectful scornful Behaviour, to wrong us in our Goods and good Name. If we have but the Rule of our own Spirits, a Power to guide them by Reason; how contemptible will all these Provocations be; how far from removing a weighty Soul, or working in it any Commotion or Disturbance. Secondly, He that rules not his Spirit, his Affections, loseth the Rule of his better Part; His Understanding is fruitless to its principal End. As good have no Ears or Eyes, as not hear and see with them. As good have no Understanding, and better too, than to have it and not use it. It is the Understanding in which we excel the Beasts of the Field, and the Fowls of the Air; in any other Faculty, what are we better than they. Man that is in Honour, and understandeth not, is like the Beasts that perish. Yea I will add all the Accomplishments a Man is capable of,( as the Ornaments or Powers of the Mind) are lost, where a Man rules not his own Spirit. What is Learning good for, without teaching ourselves; yea what are the Principles and Habits of Grace or virtue( we suppose and profess ourselves qualified with) good for, without being exerted to Self-government: In very dead good for nothing but to add to our Account, and render them and the Profession of them a Contempt and Scorn to Men. But if we consider strictly our Affections, as they are qualified and move within ourselves, they are capable of great Disorder, and Obliquity or Sinfulness in relation to external Actions, that are materially good and laudable. Our Understandings and Consciences have a greater Province to take care of, and Conduct than the outward Face of our Conversation, which is exposed to the observation of Men. When this outside looks fair, the inside may be full of Rottenness & Deformity. Pride, Self-love, Vain-glory, worldly Interest, may run riot within. If our Spirits are not so governed as to have a conformity to the Rule, so far our superior Faculties are in vain and waste; can give no good Account to God of their Talent and Trust. Men judge the inside by the outside, but God judges the outside by the inside. I Jer. 17. 10. the Lord search the Heart, and try the Reins. Every Man must give an Account of himself to God. Rom. 14. 12. Thirdly, That Man that rules his own Spirit, is prepared to all Duties which he understands to be such, to all enjoyments, to possess them and dispose them honestly, holily, comfortably, for all Afflictions to bear them with Patience and Moderation, if not with Cheerfulness. Affections under the Conduct of our Understandings, habituated to its Rule, are not like unbroken Horses, full of Mettle, but for use and service utterly awkward and unfit, that must be brought to another pass before they will move readily in the Road and Path into which the Rider gently directs them. It is a pleasant and blessed thing for a Man to have his Spirit so tractable, that it will be lead by the Conduct of the Understanding, and the Empire of a sanctified Will into its Duty, and from one Duty to another; as we can go out of one Room into another. Such regular Motions, without the Jadings and contradicting Frowardness of the Affections are exceeding beautiful and grateful to ourselves, and also in the Eyes of God comform to the new Creature, which is said to be God's Eph. 2. 10. Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works, i.e. every way disposed to them. The imperfection of this Readiness was the apostles continual Grief; To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I know not. The inferior Soul did either rebel or hang backward. And as to our enjoyments, according to the Government we have of our Spirits, they will be serviceable to God's Glory, comfortable to ourselves, useful to others. Men by being over-fond of outward good Things in Possession, are rather smothered than refreshed by them. We may overly our Mercies, and they also may overly us, by our overloving them. Our Care to keep, and Fear to lose them may turn them into pricking Briars and grieving Thorns; a Burden instead of a Blessing. Besides immoderate Affections will make us so fond of them, that they shall neither be at God's Command, nor our Brothers need. Whereas, having the Rule of our own Spirits, these Servants shal not become our Masters nor our Miseries. We shall give them their Lodgings where they ought to be; not in our Hearts nor Heads neither, farther than for Direction, but in our Hands to dispose of; as Servants ought to administer their Masters Trust, for his Service, at his Pleasure, and their own natural Support. This well-governed Spirit hath a sweet Influence also on us, in reference to Afflictions. As our Pleasures in Ease and enjoyments, so our Griefs under Crosses will be moderate. Inordinate Passions on either part may be deadly. The weaned Child can look on the Breasts it is denied, and in which it tasted before so much Sweetness, with a contented Smile. Lastly, Every good Man and Woman doth sincerely aim at that Rule of its own Spirit proposed. The Law of God is in his Heart, he would be what God would have him be. It is a vain thing for any to conclude their Estate good, their Character good who do not take Christ's yoke on them, who use not their Understandings to direct their Wills, and mortify the Extravagancies and Corruptions of their Affections. SECT. II. Twelve Directions and means for the obtaining Direct. 1. the rule and government of our own Spirits. First, A weighty and impartial Consideration. Consideration is near of kin to reasoning, but 'tis confined within ourselves. It is the exercise of knowledge and reason, those faculties wherein the excellency of man shines above the mere animals. It is this that weighs in the balance, and brings to the touch-stone that we may discern the quality and quantity of things we are concerned to judge of, and their true tendencies. Without it we are uncapable of Law or Rule, and the due application of it. And there is this eminent difference between rational and irrational Creatures, that the later being conducted by instinct, they move by pure inclination almost as naturally and as necessary as the fire upwards, and heavy bodies downward: Whereas man as a rational and intelligent being is committed by the wise Creator to the conduct of his Reason duly improved, to elect or reject as it represents, which necessary requires Consideration. According to this Seneca gives this excellent sentence, Tunc per rationem recte vives, si omnia prius existimes & perpendes & ex natura eorum Senec. de Penae. pri. Virt. dignitatem constituas. Then a man lives according to Reason, when he first thoroughly weighs, then esteems all things according to the dignity of their nature. The Scriptures abound with instructions to consideration, and charges all the wild sallies of the spirits of men upon the neglect of it. There must be somewhat more than mere consideration, but wirhout it there cannot be any thing truly regular and worthy a man. Consider her ways, and be wise. Prov▪ 6. 6. Eccl. 5. 1. Isa. 1. 3, 4 They consider not that they do evil. No wonder then that they do not correct it. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. The beasts, yea the most dull and stupid of them will act at a more becoming rate than man without consideration. What follows in the next Verse, speaks home to our purpose: Ah sinful Nation! a people laden with iniquity,— they are gone away backward. An expression of the most irregular and ungoverned spirits imaginable. A people moved wholly by corrupt inclination, perfectly contrary to what becomes a rational being. Secondly, I shall next advice to( at least) a daily Direct. 2. calling thyself to an account, what order or disorder thy affections have been under, and to put thy conscience upon accusing, excusing, and obliging thee to a more correct and exact temper for the future, than that wherein thou hast failed. So doing will be a good token of a sincere disposition to a rectitude of soul, and the task will be more easy: Whereas on the contrary an omission of it for a long time, will render thine heart more indisposed to it, and the task of a due examination more difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, the preapprehension of this account to be made, and to which thou art so speedily to be brought, will have its awe upon thy spirit, like the judgement speedily to be executed. What the consequence of putting afar off our account is, you have in that Text, Because Eccl. 8. 11. sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. God has made every man not only a governor but a judge to himself. If we would judge 1 Cor. 11. 31. ourselves, we should not be judged. The faithful and timely discharge of this duty will have two happy effects, the curing our own unruliness, and preventing not only the eternal judgement, but also the temporal chastisements of God. Thirdly, Inquire effectual●y into the make and constitution Direct 3. of thine own spirit; and especially to find out wherein thy spirit is most inclined to disorder, what inordinate affection is most prevailing in thee. It is impossible that a man should govern himself, that knows not himself in some competent measure. He that will order man or beast, must consider the variety of their dispositions, and use a discipline suitable to that variety; else he will act at the same rate of indiscretion and disappointment, as the physician who prescribes but one and the same remedy and method for all Patients and Diseases. But especially look to thy special and more prevailing lusts, they or that, which may be called more peculiarly thine iniquity; the sin that doth more easily beset thee; the iniquity of thine heels( as the Scripture expresseth it) which dogs thee continually, and follows thee as constantly and near, as thine own shadow. I was upright before him, and I kept myself from Ps. 18. 23. mine iniquity. This was not only an effect of his wisdom, but a spring of a good evidence, and a sweet testimony in his own conscience, that he meant honestly in his profession of the fear of God. The Apostle advices that in our Christian course we may answer the encouragements of so great a reward proposed, and the examples of so many Worthies who were already crwoned with it, that we would lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so Heb. 12. 1. easily beset us. We must attend to the discharging ourselves of all hindrances of our exact and speedy walking with God; but of that especially which with most advantage attacks us, and as it were beleagures us. He that is a good Charioter or Coachman, will have the bit, and the rain, and the whip too, for every horse; but he will lash most at the most dull, and keep the straightest rain, and strictest eye on the most unruly. It was notable counsel given by the King of Syria, Fight neither 1 King 22. 31. with small nor great, but with the King of Israel. He knew well that if his principal enemy, and he on whom the rest so much depended, were overcome, all the rest would soon be discouraged, routed, and flee. Certainly we may expect a much more easy victory over the disorders of any of our affections, if we once master our greatest disorder. He that bridleth his tongue( that master of misrule, that great Incendiary) is able to rule his whole body. You may easily apply it to the present purpose, whatever passion is most violent. Fourthly, Watch continually: Believe it, he that Direct. 4. hath many fires going, had need watch that they pass not their bounds, and catch the whole house. The Devil our great adversary watches continually to do us a s●rewd turn, by blowing up one passion or other into rebellion. It was no solo●cism in the good old plain hearted Latimer, citing that Text, 1 Pet. 5. 8. Watch therefore, for your adversary the Devil walketh about, &c. in his Sermon he bid his hearers learn somewhat of the Devil for shane, and that was to watch alway, and never be idle. Indeed we had need take heed that Satan never find us off our guard, or take us napping. Two things especially we should continually watch. First, All occasions of sinning. We know, or may know what they are, and have been. Watch— that ye enter not into temptation. It is little sign that he who knows what have been the occasions of the disorders of his spirit, and yet shall either seek them, or not shun them, has any hearty purpose to order his spirit and conversation aright. Consider seriously that accurate advice, Enter not into the Prov. 4 14. path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. Secondly, Watch the emotions of any affection from its due order. These the Apostle calls the motions of sin that work in our members. These motions are the sad experiments of the best of men. These were principally the evils under the sense of which that holy Apostle groaned; yet if they go no farther than those motions, 'tis no small degree of holiness and happiness, such a well governed spirit, as a better we are not like to attain, while it lodges in this earthly Tabernale. But if we suffer the disorder of our passions to go on, 'tis as hard to kerb them as the horse that has got the bit in his mouth, or to quench the flamme, or cure the disease that has gotten head. Principiis obsta, sera est medicina parata. Men talk sometimes of plucking up the evils of sinful disorders by the roots, and at other times of a source of all sin in every person, and that 'tis like the Ivy in the wall that will never clearly out while the wall stands; reconcile these things who can. Yet if a spirit of Wisdom and Grace dwell in thy soul, set them on work to check those motions at their first, and it will be a means not only to preserve thee from obeying them to the fulfilling their lusts; but also to render their motions less frequent and violent; and the Tempter more discouraged from attempting what he finds crushed in the egg, and but a labour in vain. Fifthly, Be not discouraged, tho thou findest not desired, Direct. 5. or any sensible success, at thy first attempts: No, tho thy affections are more sinfully violent and troublesone. Strong and powerful habits are not easily and suddenly vanquished. Some great and amazng encounter may so astonish them, that they shall seem really dead, when yet the best shall find they have too much life in them, and will soon have a resurrcction, tho not to their former strength. The Apostle Paul in his Conversion had as great a blow, and as signal a violence from Heaven against all disobedience to that Jesus, whom before he hated and persecuted, that one would think he should have had every irregular affection wholly mortified; but his confession and complaints inform us otherwise. Sometimes where a sense of sin and wrath is suddenly turned into the more powerful impressions of Divine love, and pardoning Grace; the joy in, and gratitude for such a Salvation works the grace of love into a flamme, that no sin can stand before it, and all the affections crowd after this triumphing love, and budge not from a conformity to its strictest Laws. Yet after a while, when its fervour is a little spent, inordinate affections will find work enough to do for all her powers, for every grace, with whatever assistance from without, or from above. But let us consider the ordinary case of attempting( and regularly too) the reducing our spirits to their duty, and bringing them under the Law of an enlightened and sanctified understanding; and we shall find that 'tis not to be done with a wet finger. The heart will be off and on; this holy purpose will make some advances, and it may be as many retreats; that it will be hard to find a foot of ground gained; the perverseness and resistance of these wretched habits may tyre our best spirits in every encounter, to no purpose( as we may be tempted to think) this is apt to be woefully dish●artning, but especially if we shall find our lusts and corrupt affections grow upon us in their motions, as fire by could or wind grows more vehement. Wonder not at this: for Satan knows how precious a soul is, and will very unwillingly part with such a rich prey. He is the strong one that keeps the house, and will not easily be outed. But 'tis sport and triumph to him to see the vain attempts of poor cowardly fresh-water soldiers, who make a flourish, and brave essays at distance from foe or trouble; but a small inconvenience sends them home with a base dishonourable peace, clapped up to their enemies greater advantage, and to their own loss and shane. I do not advice thee to measure the time, or charge of this great and so necessary a work, venture thy all of both: So work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and God will work in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure, to attempt and perform also. But however troublesone these habits of inordinate affection, loose affections may be which know not thee nor God for their master, yet when they have been once broken and tamed, how easy, how sweet will the government of thy spirit be to thee? Habits of Grace will apparently prevail. The victory will recompense all the costs with infinite advantage. Thou wilt not dream as before, but feel thyself happy, and entered into that rest which is the earnest and Specimen of everlasting rest. Let that ungoverned spirit you see in others, in all, or Direct. 6. any of its instances, be one special glass wherein to behold the character of your own. Alas, we cannot see our own faces in their proper colours, they are so near us. The Spartans were more politic than human, in their forcing the poor Ilotes their slaves to drink drunk, that their children seeing how unmanly, and monstrous a thing a man in that case was, might abhor to be tardy of so gross an evil. We have so many sad representations of unruly licentious spirits, and volunteers in all manner of wickedness, that we need not be at the cost and guilt of forcing some into that pit, we would preserve ourselves or others from. We have among ourselves a custom to put our garments on others backs( especially on theirs who are much of our own make) to understand thereby the better how they will become our own. If we were but as wise and faithful in our soul-concerns, their health and beauty, as for our bodies, the world would soon be at a most sensible reformation. How ugly does wrath and passion, a morose, froward, uncultivated distemper look in another? and is not the same thing in ourselves really as deformed? Who thinks that man or womans converse worth having, or rather n●t to be avoided with some inconveniency, who is a thief, a liar, a tale-bearer, a make-bate, revengeful, proud, contemptuous, a self-lover and pleaser only? If thou canst find any of these bad qualities in thine own spirit, hate them as much as thou dost the same in others; and so much the more as thou wouldest more fear to have the Plague or any noisome mortal disease, to fasten on thine own body, than on any others. I must yet acknowledge that this direction will help thee but little in those disorders of spirit that consists in more spiritual evils; and as monstrous and deadly as any of the former, e. g. forgetfulness of God, enmity to the power of Godliness, unbelief, inordinate love of the world, and the like. Either th●se cannot be seen by their symptoms, or will not look like deformities, till thine own soul be reformed, and thou art become a new creature, Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works. till then the Word of God must be thy Glass, which knows not how to flatter or delude, and thine own conscience, and the Spirit of God thy Monitors. Seventhly, Maintain in thy soul a sense of the omnipresence, Direct. 7. Psal. 16. 8. and all-seeing eye of God. Who but rank idiots will play the fool, or give themselves the liberty to things unbecoming in the presence and eye of a Prince or Master, or any other for whom they have any reverence? Either men are for the greater part real Atheists, or they are such hardened wretches as to think( or at least venture it) that they may make more bold with God than with the least of ten thousand among sinful mortal men. Certainly the belief of a Deity is but a very superficial thing with most. But I hope I have now to deal with thee, who art persuaded to be a man, to behave thyself as such, and as a Christian also. And then I am sure thou wilt think my advice good, and knowest it to be so as far as thou hast tried it. Let a farther sense of this God enter thy soul, and it will not be easy for thee willingly or carelessly to give thyself( no not in thy inward man) a scope to any sin. Holy David practised this to very good purpose, I have set the Lord always Psal. 16. 8. before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. It was common among the Romans to check any extravagancy they were entering on, by saying, Cato sees you. Cato being a severe man, and by office the Censor of mens behaviour, and much reverenced by the people, they feared to come under his reproof, and suspected his eye was by one means or other every where. Upon the consideration of the prevalency of the sense of Gods eye on us, those who live at loose, without this Law of restraint, are frequently in Scripture said to forget God, and to cast him behind their backs. So are all the paths of all that forget Job 8. 13. God. Let therefore this direction be well put in practise, and it will put the reins of the government of thine own spirit into thine hand. Thou wilt then as soon behave thyself as a malefactor in the eye of thy judge, as before the eye of God. We may observe that sickness when it threatens death, or any eminent danger of death, gives men some sense of him with whom they have to do, quickens the thoughts of that account they are to give of themselves to God. What a change does this make? How are men in such a case cured of their licentious extravagancies? If this were abiding on us at all times, as there is alway the same reason of it( for we alway are in God's eye, and take every step on the brink of Eternity) we should take heed to ourselves at another rate than we do. Eighthly, Lay up in your hearts the Word of God, Direct. 8. in its Light and Authority. I have hide thy Word in my Heart, that I might not sin against Thee. This word of God is a word of power. Where the Word of a King is, there is Power. How much more where the Word of the Great GOD is? Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his ways? A great inquiry it is, and a very difficult task, young men having all temptations in their highest advantages attending them. As the question, so the answer is from the Divine Oracle: By taking heed thereto, according to Psal. 119. v. 9. thy Word. The Word of God in the Letter, or Matter of it, will not do the work alone; but in its Light and Authority it will be mighty to this end. Ninthly, Come to a resolution to exercise( by the Direct. 9. Grace of God) this rule over thine own Spirit. The justice and goodness of it is beyond all dispute. All thy Objections against it, are but the blind reluctancies, and perverse Cavils of sensuality. Use a violence to thy corrupt inclinations. They are not worthy to be reasoned with any longer, when they refuse to submit to Reason. While the matter falls under Consideration, all or both sides is to be heard: But when once 'tis come to this plain result, that 'tis both thy duty and happiness to govern thy Spirit to a compliance with the Divine Law, all genuine evidences are on that side, and not one rational evidence speaks a good word for sin, What remains but execution? Lay all the bonds imaginable on thyself. The highest expression of this we have in, the man after Gods Psal. 119. v. 106. own Heart: I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy Righteous judgments. A feeble fickle veleity, a faint purpose, would not serve the turn. He now girds up the loins of his mind, and acts like a man that would neither dally, nor be wheedled, nor be tantalized any longer. Tenthly, M●●tifie all Curiosity of gratifying the sensual Direct. 10. Appetite. The lust of the Eye, the lust of the Flesh, and the pride of Life, are the great snares of men. When a Curiosity, i.e. e. an Apetition of that which has no necessity or substantial good in it, so as it must be had; men make that necessary which God and Nature never made so. This extravagancy makes the Spirit wanton and unruly; as we see in children never broken of their wills. And as Jeremiah complains of the great men of his time: I will get me( saith he) to the great men, and I will speak unto them: for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgments of their God: But see the disappointment: But these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the Bands. The poor uneducated People were too low and poor spirited. These great ones were too high. The poor were ignorant, short sighted, half men: but the great ones( tho knowing enough) their pampered Lusts made them to big for any bounds, great Beasts that would not be tamed. The Apostle acted like a wise man in bringing Job 21, 14. under his Body, lest he should prove a cast away: Not that he cruciated it by any voluntary superstitions castigations, but he so Dieted it, that it might be useful; and not render his Spirit wanton and unruly. Eleventh, Entertain and foster those Evangelical, Direct. 11. Vital, powerful Principles in thy Soul, which are the parts of the new Creature, and the Divine Image. These are the Spirit of God( in the Scripture sphrase) dwelling in good and holy men. The Spirit of God in its works: the new Birth: the Love and Law of God written in the heart. A man thus principled, is he who can, who doth walk after the Spirit, and not after the Flesh. He hath his understanding enlightened by the Word and Spirit of God, and his passions or affections following the Divine Light; and not the earthly, and sensual, if not devilish Wisdom, as the Apostle ranks and styles them. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty. Not licentiousness, but Liberty. And what is this Liberty, 2 Cor. 3. v. 17. but a freedom from those bonds and Fetters of unbridled Lusts, and a walking without their prevailing contradictions, righteously, soberly, and godly in this World; following with the greatest spontaneity and self-gratifying, the Conduct of a Divinely instructed understanding. Twelfth, Apply thyself to all Gods Ordinances, for Direct. 12. Light and Strength to rule thine own Spirit; But withal and especially, to frequent, serious, fervent, believing Prayer. He that would rule his own Spirit must beg his direction and assistance from him who is the God of Spirits. All endeavours without his assistance and blessing, are but labour in vain. It is he on whom is our whole dependence. Our life is hide with Christ in God. To relinquish or Col. 33. slight God as our dependence, is the greatest outleap and inordinacy we are capable of. In and by our addresses to this founta●n of all good and goodness, we shall meet a sweet calm over-spreading our souls, in a full and delightful resignation of our all to God; and resting on that all-sufficiency that in Christ is made ours. When Job's Spirit was out of order, his Friend hit right on the cause, Thou restrainest Prayer before God. Hannah, Job 15. v. 4. a good Soul, was under the power of immoderate grief and bittterness; but she pours forth her Soul to God, and she went away, and was no more sad. When I find persons struggling under Convictions, applying themselves to God for help, to will and to do of his good pleasure: My hopes have some life in them; but till then, have but a poor foundation. I know it will be said, I prescribe prayer so qualified, that most who would gladly be what God would have them be, cannot find in their preparations. And indeed I am of thy mind, especially in the point of beelieving, that they shall be heard. But let me tell thee, that no man can pray seriously and fervently without Faith in some degree, no more than the Husbandman can Plough, and Sow, and be diligent without some hope of a Crop. I am almost confident that the issue of such Applications to the Throne of Grace, do seldom leave the Soul in a known sinful passion. Those entreaties of, and converses with God, tho they may and do often come short of our assurance of God's being reconciled to us, yet they never fail of reducing us to a disposition to a complete dispositive reconciliation to the whole will of God. And I would not have you think that man preys without faith, that can hearty say, Thy will be done. But I shall also say, that tho all these qualifications of Prayer are thy duty, and very expedient to the end proposed, yet these very qualifications of Prayer must be prayed for. Let us give God what we have, and be thankful; and ask of God what we have not, that we may be more Prov. 16. 1 thankful. Not only the answer of the lips, but the preparation of the heart also is from the Lord. If any man want wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth liberally Jam. 1. 5. Luk. 11. 13. and upbraideth not. He giveth his holy Spirit to them that ask it. Wisdom from God, and the Spirit of God, what will not they be sufficient to teach, dispose, and enable to perform? FINIS. BOOKS Printed for, and Sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three-Legs in the Poultry, over against the stock-market. THe Works of the late Learned Divine Stephen Charnock, B. D. in two Vol. in fol. Annotations upon the Holy Bible, wherein the Sacred Text is inserted, and various Readings annexed, together with the parallel Scripture; the more difficult terms in each verse are explained; seeming contradictions reconciled; Questions and Doubts resolved, and the whole Text opened, in two Vol. in fol. By Matthew Pool. The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, of several Cases of Conscience, Practically resolved by sundry Ministers, in 4to. A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate, or several more Cases of Conscience, Practically resolved by sundry Ministers, in 4to. Speculum Theologiae in Christo: Or, a view of some Divine Truths, which are either Practically exemplified in Jesus Christ, set forth in the Gospel, or may be reasonably deduced from thence, by Edw. Polhill of Burwash in Sussex, Esq; in 4to. Geography Rectified: Or, a Description of the World in all its Kingdoms, Provinces, Cities, Towns, Seas, Rivers, Bays, Capes, Forts; their ancient and present Names, Inhabitants, situations, Histories, Customs, Governments, &c. And also their Commodities, coins, Weights and Measures, compared with those of London. Illustrated with above sixty new Maps. The whole Work performed according to the accurate Discoveries of Modern Authors, in 4to. English Exercise for schoolboys to Translate into Latin, comprising all the Rules of Grammar, &c. By J. Garretson, Schoolmaster.