1 7G PROVIDENTIAL CHANGES,
a way to his bosom-love, and there repose the soul in rest and quiet- ness.
i [2.] As to others, what Paul saith to Timothy in another case, about preaching of the gospel, may in some sense be spoken in this. " Take heed," saith he, " to the doctrine ; for thereby thou shalt save thyself, and them that hear thee." Who knows but that hereby Ave may save ourselves, and the nation wherein we live! The Lord Christ hath certainly a controversy with these nations; he hath begun to deal with them in his indignation ; and we know that there are pro- vocations enough amongst us to stir him up unto our ruin. Who knows, I say, but that by meeting him in a way of generation-holi- ness, we may divert deserved ruin; at least hinder, that it be not brought upon us for the provocations of his sons and daughters?
Now, there are several ways whereby this may have an influence into the safety and deliverance of the nations themselves : —
1st. By setting all things right between Christ and the saints, that he may have no need farther to shake the earth and dissolve the heavens of the nations, to awaken his own from their security, to loosen them from perishing things, or to accomplish any other glo- rious end towards them. Christ sometimes sifts nations, that his wheat may be separated from the chaff: he sets nations on fire, that they may be a furnace for the trial of his own ; and when their dross is cleansed he will quench his fire. When there was but one saint in a ship, yet it was for his sake that a storm came on all the rest. It is not always for the sins of the wicked, that they may be destroyed, that he comes in a way of judgment; but for the sins of his people, that they may be cleansed. So "judgment," as Peter speaks, " be- gins at the house of God." It is not unlikely that our troubles were brought on these nations for the sins of the nations, in their persecu- tion of Christ, his truths, and saints, against great light. Nor is it less likely that troubles are continued on these nations for the sins of the saints themselves, — such as those before insisted on. Now, what is it that in such trials Christ calls for, and which he will not cease calling fur until he prevails? Is it not the work which we are in the pursuit of, — weanedness from the world, self-denial, zeal for truth, humbleness, fruitfulness, faithfulness, universal holiness? If here, then, lies the root of Christ's controversy with these nations, as most probably it doth; if this be the cause of our troubles (as to me questionless it is) ; an engagement into the pursuit of this work is the only remedy and cure of the evils that we either feel or fear in these nations. Other remedies have been tried, and all in vain. O that we had hearts, through the Holy Ghost, to make trial of this, which the great physician, Jesus Christ, hath prescribed unto us ! Heaven and earth call for it at our hands; the nations groan under
AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS. ] 77
our sin ; — if we regard not ourselves, yet let us make it our business to deliver England out of the hand of the Lord, Josh. xxii. 31.
2dly. In that it may be an effectual means for the reformation of the nation. Reformation is the great thing that we have been talking of many years ; and this hath been our condition in our attempts after it, — the more that light for it hath broken forth amongst us, the more unreformed hath the body of the people been ; yea, the more opposite, for the most part, unto reformation. And may not this, among other things, be one occasion, yea, the principal cause of it, — the light of truth hath been accompanied with so many scandals in some, with so little power and evidence in the most, that prejudices have been strengthened in the minds of men against all that hath been pretended or professed? I am persuaded that a design for gene- ration-holiness, carried on according to the light that we have received, would have a greater influence on the minds of the men of the world to look after reformation, than any of our entreaties or exhortations have yet obtained. We are contemptible to the nation, in our pressing after reformation whilst we are divided amongst ourselves; conform- able to the world, whilst we proclaim our unmortified lusts, pride, covetousness, ambition, revenge, self-seeking. Would all the people of God stir up themselves to show forth the power of that faith and life they have received, and so take away advantage from obdurate opposers of the gospel, and give an eminent example to others, who now abhor them on the account of many prejudices that they have taken, the nations would be more awakened unto their duty than now they are. Were we agreed and united on this principle, that we would jointly and severally make this our design, — what work might be wrought in families, councils, counties, cities! Now, reformation is acknowledged to be the means, the only means, of the preservation of a nation ; — and this the only means of that.