Discourse of the Gospel of Peace, Tract 1 · Chapter 10
CHAP. X.
THE Improvement of the abovenamed Doctrine.
First; This Doctrine teaches us to understand two things: 1. Who they are, that are like to hold on in a Christian Course. Not all certainly that make a Profession of Christianity: Alas, how many such are there that go to the War without their Armour, yea, that never entred the Lists of a Spiritual Combat, nor came within the reach of the Cross of Christ, nor ever yet intended it.
But for those whom the Cross and other Temptations assault, but they are either without any Armour at all, of God's appointment or preparing; what can be expected from them, but to be overtaken and prevailed on by the Temptation? and that is the Evil, the Snare of it.
There are yet another sort of Persons, who neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor move, nor live, without this Armour on: Their Feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. These are the Persons (if we could but know them) that are like to hold on their way; to whom the worst of Godliness will be no loss, but great Gain: Who may challenge and defie all Adversaries and Adversities in the Terms of the Apostle, Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Rom. 8. 35, to the end.Shall Tribulation, or Distress, or Persecution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword?—Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us. The same strain of a holy well-grounded Triumph of Faith, reaches to the End of the Chapter.
Then they are much mistaken, who take a Life of Godliness upon the Terms of following Jesus Christ, and living in the Ordinances and Truths of the Gospel at all seasons, to be an intolerable and unreasonable thing. Did Jesus Christ send his Servants as Beasts to the Shambles, run them on the Point of Temptations without a sufficient Security to their greatest Concerns; did he send them on a Warfare at their own Charges, and put them upon Impossibilities; did he propose to them those Rewards that were hopeless and desperate; there might be some Pretence for such sad and discouraging Censures of the holy Ways of Jesus Christ: But these Pretences are all out of doors. No Man was ever lost in God's Way, nor a Loser by it. The Ways of Wisdom are Pleasantness, and all her Paths are Peace.Pro. 3. 17.
None are of the above-nam'd bad Opinion, but such as know not God; such who are unacquainted with the Gospel, or have made no tryal of it in good earnest. If the Flesh were to undertake the Task of Religion, or a willing Mind left to its own feeble Powers, the best of us all would sink under its weight: But let us up and be doing what Christ commands, and have open Hands and Hearts to his Comforts and Reliefs; then we shall say and feel, that his Yoak is easy, and his Burden is light.Mat. 11. …0.
This Doctrine in the second place is of reproof, and First to those who esteem of the Profession of Gospel-holiness and Practice of it in others so far as it goes, to be but Hypocrisy; because they cannot find in their hearts to go to the charge of it themselves.
Judg Righteous Judgment. Do not measure all by your selves. If they had neither a renewed Nature, that renders those t…gs agreeable, and a Pleasure to them that are co…rary and painful to you; or that they had not this blessed Furniture of Grace and Peace: you might more rationally pass this Judgment on them. Wonder as long as you will, when you see a dead Man walk and work; or call it no natural thing but a mere Artifice: but if you will by no means be reconciled to the Belief, that a living Man who hath Principles of sense and motion, should feel and move accordingly, question your living a rational, rather than their living an Evangelical Life. And although you may have made some irregular Essayes to taste and relish that Spiritual Food which carries in it their Nourishment, and meets their Taste with an unexpressible Delight, and have made some short Attempts to use their Armour, but all without the Effects they profess the Experiment of: Ask your selves again, if Life and natural Heat do not first warm the Apparel, before that can maintain Warmth to the Body? If a dead Man can taste and relish the best prepared Viands, or put on, and use to purpose the most approved Armour? Let your State be first changed, by being renewed in the Spirit of your Minds; become God's Workmanship in Christ Jesus; and then you will be created to all these good Works, and have Faculties and Powers disposed to do, suffer, and enjoy like a Christian.
Secondly, It reproves those Professors of the Gospel, who are so far from Peace, that they shame the Gospel, as if its Furniture were not of Proof to obtain and maintain inward Peace. The holy Psalmist in one Instance of Defectiveness in this Peace, chidesPs. 42. 5. his own Soul▪ and gives it better advice; Why art thou cast down, O my Soul? why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his Countenance. A cheerful exact Holiness is the great Glory of the Gospel; and an invincible Evidence that 'tis the Gospel of Peace. We find when the Spies sent from the Israelitish Camp to search out the Land of Canaan, they brought back a bad Report of the Land, and all from a base Fear; thereby they brought up a bad Report of the Promise of God, and the Character he had given of it as a Land flowing with Milk and Honey. They saidNumb. 13. 31, 32, 33. it was a Land that eateth up its Inhabitants, instead of feeding them with Plenty and Dainties: A Land wherein were the Anakims, terrible Men: And it was not so easy a matter, as that going up and possessing it was all they had to do; they must fight for it, and fight against such, before whom they were no more able to stand, than a Grashopper before a Man. Little was God, his Word, or his People beholden to these Men.
But there are another sort of Men whom this Doctrine highly commends: And they are such as give credit and reputation to this Truth, by living like it: Such an one was Caleb; But my Servant Caleb had Numb. 14. 24.another Spirit with him: And what was that but a Spirit agreeing to the Promise of God? And Caleb still'd the People before Moses, and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it: He tells them that those Giants were but Meat for them; he represents God like himself, and the Promise, such as became God, a very Truth. Such another was the Apostle Paul, None of these things move Acts 20. 24.me, &c. His Mind was neither removed from his Duty, nor moved in its Peace and Tranquillity. One or two such Heroes live more Credit to the Gospel, than a thousand faint-hearted, unbelieving, flesh-pleasing Professors.
The third Improvement shall be for exhortation; First, to the Ʋnregenerate; Secondly, to the Regenerate.
To the Unregenerate first, Do not think it will be to your Loss, to embrace the Gospel in all the Laws of it.
Do not let the pains-taking, the Adversaries, the Adversities that attend Gospel-integrity, discourage you. It hath Provision for your Peace, notwithstanding all these. If you cannot have a Freedom from Trouble, you may have Peace in Trouble, and this is better, and your Peace greater: Nay in all Rom. 8.these things we are more than Conquerors. Conquerors overcome their Enemies, and disable them from afflicting; but the truly Evangelical Soul overcomes by suffering, and overcomes the Suffering it self by Faith and Patience. O begin to trust God in good earnest: Let not the Pleasures of the Flesh tempt you to make God a Liar any longer: Do not sooth up your selves in a false Opinion that you trust in God, till you dare to try him, by resolving effectually to live godly in Christ Jesus.
Secondly, Bewail your Sin and Folly in seeking Peace where God hath said, and all Mens experience has proved that there is none.
O what Folly and Perverseness is this! to hope against Hope, to persist in an Opinion against the Ʋniform Contradictions of all Men, in all Ages: And yet not to seek Peace, where never any sought it duly, but first or last they have or shall find it.
This Doctrine exhorts those who are regenerate, and have sincerely embraced the Gospel of Peace, first, to live like the Gospel of Peace.
Let your Lives be a due Representation of the Gospel, as that whose Furniture is sufficient to preserve your Souls in Peace against all Encounters in your Christian Course. Do not tempt others to believe there is no such Vertue in the due Improvement of the Gospel by your unquiet Spirits under Afflictions, and too often without any Temptation but your unquiet Hearts. That Physician and his Medicines are not likely to have many Admirers, whose Patients appear little or nothing the better, except a verbal Commendation of his Skill, and the Excellency of his Remedies. 'Tis a great shame and Scandal that those Professors of the Gospel cast upon it, that have their Peace no better secured against Assaults, than theirs who make none or but small pretensions to any serious Acquaintance with the Gospel, or any such high Opinion of it.
I have had much ado to forbear downright chiding some high Professors, who upon a cross Providence in the Concerns of this World, loss of dear Relations, Reflections upon their Reputations, Distempers in their Bodies, Apprehensions of Trouble in and for the Ways of Truth and Godliness, shew as great or greater Distempers and Passions, than those who know no other Supports than mere natural Fortitude. What do these more than others? What do these but reduce the Profession of the Gospel to that low Ebb, which Stoicism was charged with, that for all its great Looks made no difference between its Disciples and others, but only this, that they could talk more gloriously?
Secondly, Do not go out of God's Way to provide for your Peace.
If you are not secure there, you can be secure no where: Be ashamed to trust to your own Prudence, rather than to God's Promise, who will lay out Heaven and Earth and all his infinite Perfections, rather than be worse than his Word. If you run away from your God and leave his Tents, you must leave your Armour behind you, and expose your selves naked to your Adversaries Weapons. God hath promised to keep thy Peace in his ways, but not out of them.
While you are in God's Ways, put on and keep on Eph. 6. 11:his Armour; live continually in the due use of it. 'Tis not having it in your Bibles or Heads, but in your Hearts that will bless you with its Peace: It is Spiritual Armour: In your Spirits it must have its Magazine, on your Spirits it must be worn, and sit as near you as your Skin to your Back, and as the Quality adheres to its Subject. By your Spirits assisted by God's it must be managed for this great Service.
The third Doctrine I gave you from the Text, was, that in order to preserving our Peace by the Armour of God, we must put it on; and also every Piece of Armour in its right place, according to the Text therefore; Let your Feet be shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
I shall add only four Directions how this Preparation, which I have so largely insisted on, may be useful to you, and conclude this Subject.
First, Faith must be kept up in its strength. Tho it be a principal Part of the Christian's Armour by it self, yet 'tis a large share in all the rest; yea, all the rest will lie by dead and useless, but as invigorated by Faith. And indeed 'tis therefore called the Shield, which covers and is applicable to all the Parts of the Body, from Head to Foot. Our Saviour said to the blind Men, Be it to you according to you Faith imperatively: I may say indicatively everyMat. 9. 28. Part of your Spiritual Armour will prove as the Faith is whereby you use it. The Promises and Doctrines of the Scripture, though intitled truely from God, can have no more Power with us, than Faith, which is the Gift of God too, gives to them.
Secondly, Let the Word of God dwell richly in you in all Wisdom.
The more rich you are in the indwelling Word of God (I mean of that written Word of God) the more plentiful your Preparations; but without Wisdom to understand, and apply it aright: The Devil will be more able to wound you, yea to wound you with your own Weapons, than you will be able to defend your selves. The Wisdom of the Lord Jesus confounded the Devil and the Sadduces to admiration, and discouragement from farther Attempts, by his ready and wise application of Scripture. Our own Hearts have not only a strange Perverseness against Duty, but sometimes against our due Comforts also: and I have known not only Men, but Women strangely witty to prevent the cure of their wounded Spirits. Impertinent Applications of Scripture seldom prevail where the Soul refuses to be comforted, or the Arrows of Affliction and sad Apprehensions sink deep.
Thirdly, Be careful and watchful: Let not your Adversary take you napping, or, which is as bad, in a sensless Indifferency. Let not the Devil out do you in these two so necessary Qualities. While Men slept, the Eenemies sowed the Tares. He watches Advantages to break; do you be as watchful to keep or or to recover your Peace.
Lastly, Joyn Prayer to, and with all your Preparations.
It is God who puts Spirit and Life into our Spiritual Armature, and into us too, that we may know, and be able to use it. He is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh. Your Armour, as I shewed in opening the Text, is the Power of God; that Power which God sends as Auxiliaries to us in our Spiritual Warfare, and that Power which God is pleased to joyn himself unto, and thereby renders it like himself Almighty and invincible in its Place, and to its designed Ends. Prayer takes hold on God, and adds his Influence to your Graces, and to his Word: And what cannot the Word of God, the Grace of God,Ep. 6. 18. and the God of both do, when all are united to the same end: With the Words of the Apostle to the same purpose, I therefore conclude, Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all Perseverance.
A SHORT TREATISE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF Our own Spirits.
Prov. 16. 32.
He that is slow to Anger, is better than the Mighty; and he that ruleth his Spirit, than he that taketh a City.