tlierefore makes her iiioan, as willing to follow his counsel, and to be ordered by his direction, as ever}' patient is by his physician, of whose skill and care he is thoroughly satisfied; this I call the broken lienrt, which if you be wholly strangers to, your acquaintance is to begin with gospel-peace. I beseech you rest not till you have answer from your consciences. What if they say. Was your wine once water? doth your light arise out of darkness? is your peace the issue of a soul conflict and trouble ? did you bleed before you were healed ? You may hope it is a kindly work of God's gracious Spirit : make much of it, and bless thy God that hath given this wine to cheer thy sad heart. But if thou commencest persaltum, hast thy wine before thy pots were filled with water, — thy mornmg be come before thou hast had thy evening, — thy peace be settled before thy false peace is broken, — thy conscience sound and whole before it is lanced, and the putrid stuff of thy pride, carnal confidence, and other sins thou hast lived in, be let out, thou mayst have some ease for a while ; but know it, the Lord Jesus denies it to be his cure. ' The strong man's house is kept in peace,' Luke xi. 21, as well as the good man's. It requires more power to work true sorrow than false joy and peace : a happier man thou wouldst be, if mourning in the distress of a troubled conscience, than dancing about this idol- peace which the devil, thy sworn enemy, mocks thee withal.
Secondly, Gospel-peace is obtained in a gospel-wa}', and that is twofold. First, In a way of obedience and holy walking : Gal. vi. 16, ' As many as walk by this rule, 2>eace be on them.' Now this rule you may see, ver. 15, to be the rule of the new creature. And what is that but the boh' rule of the word ? to which the principles of grace planted in the soul of a believer are so fitted, that there is not a more connatural agreement betwixt the eye and light, than betwixt the disposition of this new nature in a saint and the rule of holiness in the word. Now, it is not enough for one to be a new creature, and to have a principle of grace in his bosom, but he must actually walk by this rule, or else he will be to seek for true peace in his conscience. No comfort in the saints is to be found but what the Comforter bi'ings : and he who commands us ' to withdraw from them, ' though our brethren, ' that walk disordei-ly, ' 2 Thess. iii. 9, will himself surely withdraw from such, and withhold his comforts, so long as they are disorderly walkers, which they are as long as they walk besides this rule ; and, therefore, if thou be such a one, say not the Spirit brought thy com- fort to thy hand, for he would not bid thee good speed in an evil way ; no, he hath been withdrawn as a comforter ever since thoii hast withdrawn thy foot •from walking by the holy rule. All thy peace which thou pretendest to have in this time is base-born, and thou hast more cause to be ashamed of it than glory in it. It is little credit to the wife that she hath a child when her hus- band is abroad, and cannot father it; and as little to pretend to comfort when the Spirit of Christ will not own it. Secondly, Gospel peace is given into the soul in a way of duty and close attendance on God in his ordinances. ' Now the Lord of peace give you peace always by all means,' 2 Thess. iii. 16; that is, bless all means for comforting and filling your souls with inward peace : so that he that drives no trade in ordinances, and brags of his peace and comfort, speaks enough to bring the truth of it into suspicion in the thoughts of sober Christians. I know God can, by immediate illapses of his Spirit, comfort the Christian, and save him the labour of hearing, praying, meditating ; but where did he say he would ? why may we not as well expect a harvest without sowing and ploughing, as peace without using the means ? If we were like Israel in the wilderness, in such a state and posture, wherein the means is cut from us, and not by pride or sloth put from us; as is sometimes the Christian's condition, he is sick, and deprived of ordinances ; or, by some other providence as pressing, he is shut cut from the help of this means or that ; now I should not wonder to see comfort lie as thick in his soul, as manna about the Israelites' tents; but as (lod would not rain bread any longer, when once they had corn, of which with their labour they might make bread, Josh. v. 11, 12, so neither will the Lord comfort by a miracle when the soul may have it in an ordinance. God could have taught the eunuch, and satisfied him with light from heaven, and never have sent for Philip to preach to him ; but he chooseth to do it out of Philip's mouth, i-ather than inunediately out of his own, no doubt to put honour on his ordinance.
2c
388 'T'^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE.