To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
THat we may conclude this particular of the excel∣lency of our Reconciliation with God: there is
yet another Use which we may make of it. And that is this.
Use 3.
If it be of such a great excellency to be at peace with God: O that you would al be in love with it, that you would al seek to make your peace with him who is the great Reconciler.
You wil say, Can we make our peace with God?
No, you cannot do it, but it is in a great part done to your hands if you have but hearts to seek after it. It is true, there is another point (but that wil fal in after∣ward) to shew how it is done to the hand of some al∣ready. But for the present, you must know, that you can have no evidence to your own Conscience, til you seek after this peace: and the truth is if we either knew the need of it, or the excellency of the injoyment of it, we would never be at rest in any thing til we come to be assured that it is ours.
You wil say, What shal we do?
I Answer; though we know that it is the great work of Christ to make our peace with God; yet God re∣quires this, and in requiring it (if you belong to him) he wil convey some secret influences of his grace into you to inable you to do it; be wil give you a heart to labor for it, which indeed is one signe of our peace.
And therefore let me perswade you to do what you can, do but keep (for the present) from the outward acts of sin; and do not willfully give way to the inward or outward acts of sin, labor to get your hearts to this, that may you say, the Lord knows I do not wilfully yield to any known sin, convince your hearts, possess your hearts throughly with this, that it is the great work that you have to do in the world, that this is that one thing that is necessary for your souls, and you shal find, that even this wil be a mighty thing to help you on.
Again, Labor to set God Continually before you;
the greatness of God, the Majesty of God, the power of God, the goodness of God, labor to set these before you, thereby to draw your hearts to seek after your making your peace with God. There is an excellent Scripture in Isa. 27.5. That hath some difficulty for the under∣standing of it, but it is very sweet if rightly understood. Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me, and he shal make Peace with me: it is a strange kind of Phrase, and I find a great deal of differ∣ence amongst Interpreters about this text. I find Mr. Calvin, that usually hits as right as most, carrying of it by way of interogation, and so he saith you may read it thus. Wil he take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me? as if he should have said, what wil he do? wil he stay so long till he come to be made sensible of my power upon him, and of my strength to bring him down? and then it may be he wil make peace with me. Thus many do, they stay til God comes to make them sensible of his power, and of his strength, and then they wil make their peace with God. But I can hardly think this to be the scope, only it is a very good meditation to set God before you in his power, & in his strength, & in his glory, and to meditate with your selves thus: O, if the Lord should come now, and make me apprehensive, and sensible of that power, and strength of his, indeed this wil stir up my heart to seek to make my peace with him. What is the reason that there comes so many shreiks, and cryings from souls when they are sensible of Gods power, and strength? O! they well know what a mighty God they have to do withal: the truth is the reason why men do not make it their work now to seek Reconciliation and peace with God; it is because they are not apprehensive of the power, and majesty, and glory that is in God, how God is above them, and can bring them under, and make them vile, and base when he pleaseth. Therefore it is a good interpretation of the words, Wil he take hold, or apprehend my strength,
(so the word signifies) that he may make peace with me? But to me, the meaning is rather this, wil he rather make use of my goodness, and my mercy, and so make peace with me? For that is the strength that is here meant, and that I shal shew you from the dependance; only first let me tel you, that in Scripture [Strength] is often used for Gods goodness, and mercy, his power to do good, as wel as his power to inflict misery, and judg∣ment. I wil give you but a scripture or two for that. Num. 14.17. And now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, the Lord is of long Suffering, & of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and trangression, &c. And in vers, 19. Pardon I be∣seech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy. When Moses is pleading with God for a pacification between him and his people, he makes use of Gods power, O Lord (saith he) according to the greatness of thy power, or according to the great∣ness of thy strength (for it is all one) do this. So Psal. 27. The Lord is the strength of my life; where Gods power, and strength are tearmes used to set out the way of God towards David. And here the word doth signifie such a kind of strength as is to help a thing that is very weak, that as the Vine being very weak, and being left to itself, fals down, and therefore you use to put props under your Vines which have more strength in them than the Vines have in themselves to keep them up, and that is the very word in the Original which is trans∣lated [Strength] as if God should have said, wil he take hold on me, as on a prop? And that this is the meaning of it, appeares by the dependence of the words, for the Prophet in that Chapter was speaking of the goodness of God to his Vinyard, vers. 2. In that day Sing you unto her a Vinyard of Red wine, I the Lord do keep it, I wil water it every moment, least any hurt it, I wil keep it night and day: what a sweet promise is this of God to his Church: Are there a great many ene∣mies
abroad that are strong and powerful, and of swift feet, ready to shed blood? mark, in one verse you shal read three I's, I, I, I, saith God; I oppose my self to al the ene∣mies of my Church: I do keep it, I wil water it every mo∣ment, I wil keep it: but what shal become of it in the night? I wil keep it saith he, night and day. We have here a promise to help us to sleep quietly. Wel, he goes on, verse 4. Fury is not in me; though it is true, I may come against you in such waies that you may think I am provoked, but saith he, fuiry is not in me, I am not provoked in a revenging way towards my people. Who would set the Briers, and Thorns against me in Battail? there are a Company of wicked and ungodly men that may set themselves against me like Briers, and Thorns; But saith he, I wil go through them if they come in my way, I wil consume them, I wil burn them together. But my people, they are my Vinyard, I wil deal gently with them, I wil be a prop, and a sup∣port to them. And then he comes in with this, let them take hold of my strength that they may make peace with me: as if he should say, you are pore weak creatures, you are indeed my Vinyard, and my Vine, but you are weak, and when a storm comes, you are ready to bow down, and ly quash upon the ground; yea, but saith God, though you think that my wrath is abroad in the world, yet my power and my wrath is against mine ene∣mies, and al my power, and my strength, are for you, it is no otherwise but as the seting of a prop under a Vine in a time of tempest when a storme would beat the Vine to the ground, my power shal be set under to keep it up. Now you should (saith he) take hold of this my strength, as the Vine claspeth about the prop, and so make peace with me. This is an excellent text to put you on in these dangerous times to be sure to make peace with God. You that are godly, and have some hopes that God is at peace with you, it may be you are troubled with fears of danger, know that God puts under his
power, and his strength, and he would have you take hold of it, take hold of my strength saith he, even as the Vine takes hold of the prop, and so by renewing the act of Faith upon my power, and goodness, thereby you shal renew your peace with me, that whatsoever fury is abroad to burn the Briers, and Thorns, yet you shal have peace with me, and that power of mine that is put forth to destroy them, shal be a prop to uphold you. So that this Scripture, as it makes much for the openning of what I said before, so it seems to put you on to a la∣boring, and indeavouring to make your peace with God in troublesome times. Set therefore before your eyes the power of God, the greatness of God: That is one in∣terpretation. Then set before your eyes the goodness, and the mercy of God, that your hearts may come and twist themselves about this God, as the Vine doth about the prop, or the hop about the pole.
In your making your peace with God, observe this rule: To resolve with your own hearts, that you wil never be at peace with your selves til you be at peace with God, that you wil never have any peace in your own hearts, til you have gotten true peace with God. I do not say, that you should resolve never to have peace with others, but I say, resolve never to be at peace with your selves: and it is a good controversy when men are at contention with their evil hearts. Say within your selves, shal I be at peace with this wretched heart that is an enemy unto God? God forbid, this heart of mine shal be brought down, and be at peace with God before ever I wil be at peace with it. It is that which destroyes many a soul, that they are so indulgent to their own hearts, they are loth to fal out with them. And the truth is, many keep on in waies of enmity against God, because they are loth to fal out with their own hearts, we should be willing our hearts should be troubled al our dayes, that the foundation of our peace, and quiet
might by this be layd, and accomplished.
And then another way is this. Come in before God, even with a Rope about thy neck, and with Sackcloath upon thy loynes, cast thy self down before the Lord, and beseech him to write his own tearms, give up thy heart unto God as it were a Blanck, and pray the Lord to write his own Conditions, only that God might be at peace with thee. And if thou do'st so indeed, then manifest the truth of it thus. That if afterwards any temptation to any sin comes, or if thou beest cast upon any duty, and findest thy heart backward thereto, make use then of the disposition of thy heart: think thus: Was there not a time when I did seek to make my peace with God? was there not a time when I did cast my self before the Lord, and did then give up my self as a blank to God, and intreated him to write his own conditions? and now God requires this duty of me, and I am loth to come to it, O, I do not do now so as I said I would do when I was seeking for peace. Here is such a tempta∣tion to sin; O how opposite is this to that which I pro∣mised to God when I gave up my heart unto him. My Bretheren, I put this to you, either you have come into Gods presence, and as poor humbled souls have given up your hearts to God as Blanks for him to write his own tearms upon; or you have not: If you have not; then you are not at peace with God, and so you may go away assured that you have nor done that great work which concerns you ten thousand times more than your breath∣ing in the Ayre.
But you wil say, I hope I have done this, I have been in my Closet giving up my heart as a Blank to God to write what Conditions he pleaseth, and I have professed to yield unto any tearms.
Have you done so? Examine then the course of your lives, how answerable your actions are to such a thing.
You should do this at every fast, for every fast is ei∣ther
to make peace, or to renew your peace. Now this is one work of a day of Attonement, to come in before the Lord and to yield your selves up unto him; and at the latter end of a day of fasting, to enter into Covenant with God, to give up your hearts unto God as a blank to write what he pleaseth. Either this must be done, or else you take Gods name in vaine. Now if you do this, or have done this in the uprightness of your hearts; then make use of this when any temptation comes, and say with∣in your selves; O! this is suitable for one that hath given up his heart to God.
O that we could now prize and make as present before us, what this peace wil be to us at the day of Judgment, when the glorious appearing of the great God shal be; then you think it will be worth somwhat, labor now to make it to your hearts of as much worth as it wil be then, endevour to realize it now as it will be then. Certainly that is the reason there is no more stirrings of the hearts of me•• after their making up of peace with God, because they do not apprehend really what that peace wil be worth another day. You have a precious Scripture in the 2 Pet. 3.14. Wherefore Beloved seeing we look for such things, be diligent that you be found of him in Peace. Do you not beleeve that there wil be a manife∣sting of the glorious God one day in another manner than ever he was manifested here in the world? Do you not look for such things? If you do, certainly you will be glad to be at peace with God, Seeing you look for such things (saith the Apostle) be diligent that you may be found of him in Peace; let this take up your thoughts as the greatest business that your hearts can be set upon, that you may be found of him in peace. Woe be to you if you be then found enemies to God; what wil become of you, if you be not found of him in peace? it had been better for you, that you had never been born. But how found of him in peace? mark what follows,
without spot and blameless; this is the way to be at peace with God. But you will say, O Lord, if this be requi∣red as a way to be found of him in peace, that we should be without spot, and blameless, then we are undone, for who can be found of God without spot, and blameless? Yet you see, this is the word of God, and this is the truth of God, and truth must stand, it is a certain truth, that whosoever shal be found of God in peace when that glo∣rious appearance of his shal be, he must be without spot, & blameless. If God find any one spot upon you, he wil proceed against you as an enemy. But you will say, How is that? First in Christ, there the soul stands be∣fore the Lord without spot, cleer in the point of Justi∣fication: and likewise Evangelically it may be found so in Gods esteem, for God cals the uprightness of a mans heart perfection in other Scriptures. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, and let us perfect holiness in the fear of God. God looks so upon it, because God par∣doneth al in Christ, & accepteth of beleevers in Christ; & so they are pesented before him spotless, and blameless, and he gives them a heart too, to endeavor to wash a∣way their spot, and blame, and so to walk blameless be∣fore the Lord, and before men. This is the way of co∣ming to make your peace with God. And O! that the reading this Book might be a means that some soul might be reconciled unto God, that was an enemy to him before: O! that this scripture might be fulfilled in the bosomes of some souls. And thus, though but very briefly I have passed over the opening of this point of Reconciliation: with the excellencies, and the blessed fruits of it.