man in one person, who laid down his Ufe, upon agreement with his Father, to make an atonement for the sin of the world, and now offers thee that blood, which then he shed, as a price to carry in the hand of thy faith to the Father for pardon and peace. No, though they should come and call thee from Christ to Christ, from a Christ without thee to Christ within thee ; as the Jesuit doth in the Quaker, into whom he is now got, as the friars of old were wont nito their hollow images, that the}' might deliver their lying doctrines out of the mouths of their reputed saints, and thereby deceive the multitude without any suspicion of their knavery. Just so do the Jesuits now-a-days deliver their Popish stuff' out of the mouths of the Quakers ; a design so much more danger- ous, as it is more cunning than the other. There is too much light shed abroad for that old puppet-play to take ; but though men are too wise to lend an ear to a block or a stone, yet holiness in a living saint commands such reverence, that the devil hath ever found, and will to the end of the world, that he may pass least suspected under this cloak. Well, when he comes to call thee from a Chi-ist without thee to a Christ within thee, strip the doctrine out of its pleasing phrase, and, in plain English, he calls thee from trusting in the righteousness of Christ wrought by him for thee, and by faith to be made thine for thy justifi- cation before God, to an inherent work of grace, or righteousness wrovight by the Spirit of God in thee for thy sanctification and renovation, called sometimes the new creature, and Christ within us. Now hast thou not made a goodly change if thou hast let go thy hold on Christ, who is thy righteousness, to rely on a creature, and that a weak one too, God knows, full of so many im])er- fections, that thy conscience, except injudicious and given over to believe a lie, can tell that it is but a vein of gold enibased with much more earth and dross, which shall never be quite purged till thou art put into the refining- pot of the grave ? Look to thyself, Christian ; here it is matter of life and death. Prize Christ's grace within thee thou must, yea, thou hast none in thee if thou dost not value it above all the mountains of gold the world hath ; but trust not to this Christ, or grace of Christ within thee, for life and salvation ; for now thou pi-izest the creature above God, and settest Christ within thee to fight with Christ without thee. The bride doth well highly to esteem her hus- band's picture which he hath given her, especially if very like him, and most -of all if drawn by his own hand ; but it were very ridiculous if she should dote on that so far as to slight her husband, and when she wants money, clothes, or the like, to go not to her husband, but to the picture he gave her, for all. The saint's grace is called Christ within him because it is his pictiu'e, and makes the saint so like Christ. This, for the resemblance it bears to the holiness of Christ himself, thy husband, who with the finger of his own Spirit drew it on thy soul, deserves highly to be valued ; but what a dotage were it for thee to tiu'n thy back on the Lord Jesus Christ himself^ to whom by faith thou art married, and, when thou wantest pardon and comfort, wouldst have heaven and happi- ness, to expect these, not from Christ, but thy grace ! Will Christ thank thee for honouring his creature to the dishonour of his person ?
CHAPTER VIL
AN EXHORTATION TO SUCH AS ARE AT PEACE WITH GOD, IN SIX PARTICULARS.
Use 2. Secondly, A few words by way of improvement to you whose peace is concluded with Christ.
First, Hast thou peace with God ? look thou makest no peace with sin. This broke thy peace with God : now let thy peace with God begin a war with that, never to have end. Thou canst not surely foi'get the inestimable wrong and damage thou hast suffered by it; every moment's sweet enjoyment of God, whose bosom-love thou hast now happily recovered, will help to keep the fire of wrath and revenge burning in thy heart against that cursed enemy that both threw and kept thee so long thence. God hath now won thy heart, I hope, by his pardoning mercy, dearly to love him for his love to thee. How then canst thou with patience see any lust come braving forth from its trench, (thy heart I mean,) defying thy God and his grace in thee ? Paul's spirit was stirred in him at Athens, to see God dishonoured by ihe supei-stition of others ; and is not thine, to see him reproached by the pride, unbelief, and other sins
THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. <5Y I