Thirdly, Gospel-peace in tlie conscience. It is strengthening md restorative; it makes the Christian strong to fight against sin and Satan; the Christian is revived, and finds his strength come, upon a little tasting of this honey ; but oh, what a slaughter doth he make of his spiritual enemies, when he hath a full meal of this honey^ — a deep draught of this wine ! Now he goes like a giant refreshed with wine into the field against them. No lust can stand before him; it makes him strong to woi-k. Oh, how Paul laid about him for Christ! ' he laboured more abundantly than them all.' The good man remembered what a wretch he once was, and what mercy he had obtained ; the sense of this love of God lay so glowing at his heart, that it inspired him with a zeal for God above his fellow-apostles. This made holy David pray so hard to drink again of this wine, which so long had been locked up from him ; ' Restore unto nie the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with th}' free Spirit : then I will teach trans- gressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee,' Psa. li. 12, 13. Pray mark, it was not his liquorish palate after the sweet taste of this wine of comfort that was the only or chief reason why he so longed for it ; but the admirable virtue he knew in it, to inspirit and empower him with zeal for God : whereas, the false peace and comfort of hypocrites is more heady than hearty ; it leaves them as weak as they were before; yea, it lies rotting, like unwholesome food, in the stomach, and leaves a surfeit in their souls, as luscious summer fruits do in the bodies of men, which soon breaks out in loose practices. Thieves commonly spend their money as ill as they get it ; and so do hypo- crites and formalists their stolen comforts : stay but a little, and you shall find them feasting some lust or other with them. ' I have peace-ofFerings with me,' saith the religious whore — the hypocritical harlot, ' this day I have paid my vows, therefore came I forth to meet thee,' Prov. vii. 14, 15: she pacifies her conscience, and comforts herself with this religious service she jierforms ; and now, having, as she thought, quit scores with God, she returns to her own lustful trade; yea, emboldens herself from this in her wickedness, ^ — -'Therefore came I forth to meet thee;' as if she durst not have plaj^ed the whore with man, till she had played the hypocrite with God, and stopped the mouth of her conscience with her peace-offering. Look, therefore, I beseech j-ou, very care- fully, what elfect j'our peace and comfort have in your hearts and lives. Are you the more humble or proud for your comfort? Do you walk more closely or loosely after your peace ? How stand you to duties of worship ? are you made more ready for commimion with God in them, or do you grow strange to, and unfrequent in them? have you more quickening in them, or lie more formal and lifeless under them ? In a word, can you shew that grace and peace grow in thee alike? or doth the one less appear, since thou dost more pretend to the other? By this thou mayest know whether thy peace comes from the Peace- maker, or peace-marrer, — from the CJod of truth, or father of lies.
Fourthly, Gospel-peace comforts the soul, and that strongly, when it hath no other comfort to mingle with it. It is a cordial rich enough itself, and needs not any other ingredient to be compounded v.'ith it. David singles God out by himself: ' Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee,' Psa. Ixxiii. 25. Give David but his God, and let wdio will take all besides ; let him alone to live comfortably, may he but have his love and favour. Hence it is that the Christian's peace pays him in the greatest revenues of joy and comfort, when outward enjoyments contribute least, yea, nothing at all, but bring in matter of trouble. ' But David encouraged himself in his God,' 1 Sam. xxx. 6; you know when that was: if David's peace had not been right and sound, he would have been more troubled to think of God at such a time, than of all his other disasters. ' Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them,' Psa. cxix. 165 : this distinguisheth the saint's peace, both from the worldling's and the hypocrite's. First, from the worldling's : his peace and comfort, poor wretch, runs dregs, as soon as creature enjo\'ments run a-tilt. When poverty, disgrace, sickness, or anything else crosseth him, in that which he fondly doted on, then his night is come, and day shut up in dismal darkness ; in which respect it is, that Christ, as I conceive, opposeth his peace to the world's, John xiv. 27; ' My peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' Pray mark, Christ is laying in arguments of
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