ftop all Mens Mouths, and put them in the Duft to keep Silence, feeing he hath Law to do infinitely more than he doth, why should not we rather proclaim his Clemency, than argue him so very hard? If to both thofe, you shall-add the Confideration of his Mercy, that all his Paths are Mercy and Truth unto you, even when he correcteth most severely, fo that you may bless him as well for Rods, as for Meat and Cloathing, and count yourself bleffed when you are taught by the Rod and the Word, the one fpeaking to the other, and the other fealing its Inftruction: If you believed that it were a Fruit of his Love, He chaftenetb every Son whom be loveth, that because he will not let you depart from him, will not let you fettle upon a prefent World, and forget your Country above; there fore he compaffeth you about with Hedges of Thorns to keep in your Way; and therefore he maketh this World bitter and unpleasant, that you may have no continuing City: If all this were believed, would not the Soul triumph with Paul, What can separate me from the Love of God? not paft Things, for all my Sins are blotted out, and shall be remembered no more; not prefent Things, for they work to Good, and are a Fruit of his Love; not Things to come, for that is to come which fhall more declare his Love than what is paft. Would not a Soul fleep fecurely within the Compass of this Power, this Love, and Faithfulness of God, without Fear of dashing or finking?

Now, judge whether a perfect Peace may not flow from all this; may it not be a perfect Calm, when the Mountains that environ go up to Heaven? Not only doth the Soul truft in God, but God keepeth the trufting Soul in Peace. He

is the Creator of Peace, and the Prefervator of it, I create Peace, I keep bim in Peace: The fame Power and Virtue is required to the preferving of a Thing, and the first Being of it. Our Faith and Hope in God, is too weak an Anchor to abide all Storms: Our Cords would break, our Hands faint and weary, but he is the everlasting God, who fail etb not, and wearieth not, he holdeth an invifible Grip of us, We are kept by bis Power to Salvation, and we are kept by his Power in Peace: Thy Right-band boldeth me, faith David, and this helpeth me to pursue thee. What maketh Believers inexpugnable, impregnable, is it their Strength? No indeed, But Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks: Almighty Power is a ftrong Wall tho' invifible, this Power worketh in us and about us.

Now Believers, pity the World about you, that knoweth not this Peace: When they ly fecure, and cry Peace, Peace; alas, they are a City open without Walls as the plain Field, there is no Keeper there, nothing to hold off Destruction. Entertain your own Peace, do not grieve the Spirit who hath fealed it: If you return to Folly after he hath fpoken Peace to you, I perfwade you, you. shall not maintain this Peace; there may be Peace with God, but no Peace in thy Confcience, as long as the Whoredoms of thy Heart are to the fore: Thou may be fecure, but Security is worfe than Fear. Know this, that continuing in a Course of Sin, entertaining any known Sin, fhall trouble thy Peace. If God hath spoken Peace to thee, thou shalt not lodge that Enemy in Peace, Great Peace bave they that love thy Law. Obedience and Delight in it doth not make Peace, but it is the Way of Peace; and much MeEeee ditation

our Affection, which is always recent and new in its Operation and Efficacy toward us. Other News, how great or good foever, fuppofe they were able to fill the Hearts of all in a Nation with Joy, yet they grow ftale, they lose their Vertue within few Days. What Footfteps or Remainder is of all the Triumphs and Trophies of Nations, of all their Solemnities for their victorious Succefs at home and abroad. These great News, which once were the Subject of the Dif courfe of, and Delight of many Thoufands, who report them now with Delight: So thefe Things that may caufe Joy and Triumph to fome at this Time, as they cannot choose but make more Hearts fad than glad; fo they will quickly lofe, even that Efficacy they have, and become taftelefs, as the White of an Egg, to them that are most ravished with them. But my Beloved, here is glad Tidings of a Redeemer come to Zion to fave Sinners, which have no Occafion of Sadness in them to any, but to them who are not fo happy as to confider them, or believe them, and they are this Day after many hundred, I may fay thoufand Years fince they were firft publifhed, as green and recent, as refreshing to wearied Souls as ever they were; yea, fuch is the Nature of them, and fuch an ever lafting Spring of Confolation is in them, that the oftner they be told, and the more they be confidered, the fweeter they are; they grow green in old Age, and ring forth Fruit, and are fat and flourishing; and indeed it is the never dying Vertue and everlafting Sap of this Word of Life, that maketh the Righteous fo, Pfal. xcii. 14. This Word of a Redeemer at the first pub lithing, and for a long Time, was but like Waters iffuing out from under the

Threshold, and then they came to the Ancles, when it was publish'd to a whole Nation; but ftill the longer it fwells, the higher above Knees and Loins, till it be a great inexhausted River, and thus it runs at this Day thro' the World, and hath a healing Virtue and a quickning Virtue, Ezek. xlvii. and a fanctifying Virtue Ver. 9, 12. Now this is our Errand to you, to invite you to come to these Waters; if ye thirst, come to be quenched; if ye thirft not, ye have fo much the more Need to come, because your Thirt after Things that will not profit you, will deftroy you, and your Unfenfibleness of your Need of this, is your greatest Min fery.

That the Words may be more lively unto us, we may call to mind the greateft and deepest Design that hath been carried on in the World, by the Maker and Ruler of the World, is the Marriage of Chrift his Son with the Church; this was primely intended when he made the World, as æ Palace to celebrate it into; this was efpecially aimed at, when he joined Adam and Eve, in the Beginning of Time, together in Paradife, that the second Adam fhould be more folemnly joined to the Church, at the End of Time, in the Paradife of Heaven: And this the Apostle draws out as the Samplar and Arch-copy of all Marriages and Conjunctions in the Creatures, Epb. v. Now this be ing the great Defign of God, of which all other Things done in Time are but the Footsteps and low Reprefentations. But the great Question is, how this thall be brought about, because of the great Distance and huge Difproportion of the Parties, He being the Brightness of the Father's Glory, and we being wholly eclipfed and darkened fince our Fall; He bigher than the Heaven of Hea Eeee 2

vens,

vens, and we fallen as low as Hell into a Dungeon of Darkness and Mifery, led away by Sin and Satan, lying in that abominable Pofture, reprefented in Ezek. xvi. Not only unfuitable to engage his Love, ut fit to procure even the Loathing of all that pafs by.

Now it being thus, the Words do fur nifh us with the noble Refolution of the Son, about the taking away of the Dif .tance, and the royal Offer of the Father, to make the Match hold the better, both flowing from infinite Love, in the most free and abfolute Manner can be imagined. 'The Son's Refolution, which is withal the Father's Promife, is to come into the World first, to redeem his Spouse, and fo to marry her; And the Redeemer fball come unto Sion, &c. The Father's Offer (that he might not be wanting to help it forward) is to difpone, by an irrevocable Covenant, having the Force of an abfolute Donation, his Word and Spirit to Chrift and his Seed, to the Church, even to the End of the World, Ver. 21. As for me, this is my Covenant. The Son hath done his Part, and is to exprefs his infinite Love, infinite Condefcendency, and ftooping below his Majefty: Now, as for me, I will fhew my good Will to it, in my infinite Bounty and Riches of Grace to the Church; he hath given himself for her, I will give my Spirit; and thus it cannot but hold.

We shall speak a Word then of thefe three; firft, What Estate and Condition Chrift findeth his Church into, out of which the must be taken to be his Spoufe; then what Way and Course is laid down by the Council of Heaven, to fill up the infinite Diftance between Chrift and Sinners; and to clofe all, we shall fhew you the Suitableness of thefe Promifes, and the wonderful Fitness of this Doc.

trine to the Church, at this Time Ifaias preached it, and at all Times.

The firft is fuppofed in the Words; Redemption fupponeth Captivity or Stavery, Redemption of Perfons importeth Captivity and Slavery of these Perfons, and Redemption of other Things that belong to Perfons, importeth Sale or Alie nation of our Right to them. Of both, perfonal Redemption is the greateft and most difficult; yet both we have Need of, for our Eftate and Fortune (so to speak) is loft, For all Men bave finned and come short of the Glory of God, Rom. iii. 23. That Inheritance of eter nal Life, we have mortgaged it, and given away our Right to it; the Favour of God and the Bleffedness of Communion with him, was Adam's Birth-right, and by a free Donation was made his proper Inheritance and Poffeffion, to be tranfmitted to his Pofterity: But O! how, for how fmall a Thing did he give it away, for a little Tafte of an Apple he fold his Eftate; and both he and we may lament over it, as the King that was contrained to render himself and all his Army for Want of Water, when he tafted it, for how fmall a Thing (faith he) have I loft my Kingdom? Then our Perfons are in a State of Bondage, in Captivity and Slavery; Captives under the Wrath of God, and Slaves or Servants to Sin. There needed no greater Diffe rence and Deformity between Chrift and us, than this, our Servitude and Bondage to Sin, which truly is the bafeft and moft abominable Vaffalage in the World; the Abasement of the highest Prince, to the vileft Servitude under the baseft Creatures in his Dominion, is but a Shadow of that loathsome and ugly Posture of our Souls. This Servitude doth in a Manner unman us, and transform us into Beafts;

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