;

They are made up of contrary principles: There is light and darkness in the fame mind fin and grace in the fame will; carnal and spiritual in the fame affections; there is the flesh lufting against the fpirit, Gal. v. 17. in all thefe: And too oft (the Lord knows) is the believer led away captive by these warring lufts: So was the holy Apoftle himself: I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is prefent with me. Rom. vii. 21, and ver. 23. I fee another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin." And this was that which broke his fpiritual peace, and filled his foul with trouble and complaints, as you fee, ver. 24. "O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from the body of this death?"

So that it is fin that interrupts the peace of God's people: In-dwelling luft ftirring and breaking forth, must needs caufe trouble and grief in the heart of a believer; for it is as natural for fin to bring forth trouble, as it is for grace to bring forth peace: Every fin contracts a new guilt upon the foul, and guilt provokes God; and where there is a fenfe of guilt contracted, and God provoked, there can be no peace, no quiet in the foul, till faith procure fresh fprinklings of the blood of Jefus Christ upon the confcience.

2.

Another fpring of the believer's trouble and difconfolatenefs of fpirit is, the defertion of God: And this follows upon the for

mer,

mer, God doth sometimes disappear, Pfal. xiii. 1. and hides himself from his people: "Verily thou art a God that hideft thy felf." Ifa. xlv. 15. But the caufe of God's hiding, is the believer's finning: "Your iniquities have feparated between you and your God, and your fins have hid his face from you.' Ifa. lix. 2. In heaven, where there is no finning, there is no lofing the light of God's countenance for a moment; and if faints here could ferve God without corruption, they should enjoy God without desertion, but this cannot be, while we are in this ftate, remaining lufts will ftir and break forth, and then God will hide his face, and this muft needs be trouble :"Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." Pfal. xxx. 7.

The light of God's countenance fhining upon the foul, is the Chriftian's heaven on this fide heaven; and therefore it is no wonder if the hiding of his face be looked upon by the foul, as one of the days of hell; for fo it was by David. "The forrows of death compaffed me, the pains of hell got hold upon me; I found trouble and forrow." Pfal. cxvi. 3.

3. A third fpring of that trouble and complaint that brings the banks of the Christian's fpirit is, the temptations of fatan, ho echthros. Matth. xiil. 39. He is the great enemy of all faints, and he envyeth the quiet and comfort that their hearts are filled with, when his confcience is brimmed with horror and terror; and therefore though he knows he cannot destroy

ftroy their grace, yet he labours to disturb their peace: As the bleffed fpirit of God is first a fanctifier, and then a comforter, working grace in order to peace; fo this curfed fpirit of hell, is first a tempter, and then a troubler; first perfuading to act fin, and then accufing for fin: And this is his conftant/practice upon the spirits of God's people; he cannot endure that they fhould live in the light of God's countenance, when himfelf is doomed to eternal intolerable darkness.

And thus we fee whence it is that the people of God are often under trouble and complaint: All arifes from these three springs of fin within, desertions without, temptations without.

If the faints could ferve God without finning, and enjoy God without withdrawing, and refift Satan without yielding, they might enjoy peace and comfort without forrowing: This must be endeavoured conftantly here, but it will never be attained fully but in heaven.

But yet fo far as grace is the prevailing principle in the heart, and fo far as the power of godliness is exercised in the life, fo far the condition of a child of God is a condition of peace: For it is an undoubted truth, that the fruit of righteoufnefs fhall be peace: But fuppose the people of God experience little of this comfort is this life. Yet,

2. They find it in the day of death. Grace and holinefs will minifter unto us then, and that miniftration will be peace. A believer hath a two-fold fpring of comfort, each one emptying

emptying itself into his foul in a dying feafon ; one is from above him, the other is from within him: The fpring that runs comfort from above him, is the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the confcience; the fpring that runs comfort from within him, is the fincerity of his heart in God's fervice. When we lie upon a death-bed, and can reflect upon our principles and performances in the fervice of God, and there find uprightness and fincerity of heart running through all, this must needs be comfort. It was fo to Hezekiah: "Remember O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy fight." Ifa. xxxviii. 3. Nothing maketh a death-bed fo uneafy and hard, as a life spent in the service of fin and luft; nothing makes a death-bed fo foft and fweet, as a life fpent in the fervice of God and Christ. Or put the cafe the people of God fhould not meet with this comfort then. Yet,

3. They fhall be fure to find it after death. If time bring none of this fruit to ripeness, why, yet eternity fhall; grace in time will be glory in eternity; holiness now, will be hap-. piness then: Whatever it is a man foweth in this world, that he shall be sure to reap in the next world: "He that foweth to the flesh, fhall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that foweth to the spirit, fhall of the fpirit reap life everlasting." Gal. vi. 7, 8. When fin fhall end in forrow and misery, holiness shall end.

in joy and glory. Rom. vi. 2. "Well done, thou good and faithful fervant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Matth. xxv. 23. Whoever shareth in the grace of Christ, and conformeth to the life of Chrift in this world, fhall fhare in the joys of Chrift in the world. to come, and that joy is joy unfpeakable, and full of glory. Pet. i. 18. Lo, here is the fruit of godlinefs. Say now, if there be not enough in religion, whether we refpect profit or comfort, to engage us to be Chriftians throughout.

Confideration 4. What an entire refignanation wicked men make of themselves to their lufts; and fhall not we do fo to the Lord Chrift? They give up themselves without referve to the pleasures of fin; and fhall we have our referves in the fervice of God? They are altogether finners, and fhall not we be altogether faints? They run and faint not in the fervice of their lufts, and fhall we faint and not run in the fervice of Chrift? Shall the fervants of corruption have their ears bored at the door-pofts of fin, in token of an entire and perpetual service. Exod. xxi 6. And shall we not give ourselves to the Lord Chrift, to be his for ever? Shall others make a covenant with hell and death, Ifa. xxviii. 15. and fhall not we join ourselves to God in an everlasting covenant that cannot be forgotten? Jer. 1. 5. "Acrius ille ad perniciem quam ad falutem?" Shall they take more pains to damn their fouls, than we do to fave ours? And make more speed