he is prefent with them, and they are lying in the devil's chains, and at the very brink of death and hell? Surely, holy converfe with the godly is, in itself, more delightful, than all the poor merriment and idle drolleries of the ungodly. If you think not fo, it is because your relish is depraved, the devil hath deluded you, and fin hath bereaved you of your wits.Thus you fee fome of the paths that Wisdom directs us to walk in, that are peace.I come now,

IV. To the fourth thing propofed, viz. To touch at the nature and qualities of that peace that is to be found in Wisdom's paths. It is a peace that differs vaftly from the peace that the wicked may have. I shall therefore, 1. Defcribe the peace negatively, by fhewing what fort of a peace that of the wicked is. 2. I fhall defcribe this peace pofitively, by fhewing what kind of a peace is to be found in Wifdom's paths.

Ift, Let us take a view of this peace negatively, by fhewing what kind of a peace that of the wicked is.

1. It is a peace that cannot endure a fcriptural trial; the man cannot endure to be fearched, but hates the light, John iii. 19, 20.; whereas true peace loves to be fearched by the rule of the word, Pfalm xxvi. 1, 2, 3and cxxxix. 23, 24.

2. It is a peace that ftands not upon fcriptural evidences; whatever pretences to truth and reality one's peace may have, yea, though it pretend to a great deal. of the Spirit, it is falfe peace, if it have not full evidence from the word, Ifa. viii. 20. and lix. 24.

3. It is a peace that confifts with fin and floth. It confifts with the maintainance of known fin; whereas true peace keeps the foul at war with every evil, Pfalm Ixvi. 18, 19.it confifts with floth and fecurity; whereas true peace kills floth, and flirs up to fpiritual exercise, Rom. v. 1, 2, 3, 4. Phil. iv. 6, 7, 8. Pfal. cxix. 32.

4. It is a peace which pleafes the devil, and which raifes no oppofition to him; whereas true peace is oppofed by all the power and policy of hell. See Luke xi. 21. Eph. vi. 11, 12. "When a strong man armed

keeps

keeps his palace, his goods are in peace. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to fland against the wiles of the devil."

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5. The peace of the wicked is a profane peace, Deut. xxix. 19. "I fhall have peace, though I walk after the imagination of my own heart." They think they may lie, and fteal, and fwear, and commit adultery, and break the Sabbath, and yet have peace; that is a profane peace: better have a confcience roaring, and full of the terrors of the Almighty.

6. It is a deluded peace: "He feedeth on afhes; a deceived heart hath turned him afide, that he cannot deliver his foul, nor, fay, Is there not a lie in my righthand," Ifa. xliv. 20. It is as if a man were fleeping on a top-maft, ready to be flung into the ocean, with every pire of wind, and yet dreaming that he is an univerfal monarch: Would any man envy him?This is the cafe of the profane; they are in all circumftances of danger, expofed to the loudeft thunder of heaven, yet dreaming of nothing but eafe and quiet, while ready to plump into the ocean of God's wrath; for they have no fhelter, no defence: who would envy them?

7. It is a dangerous and deftructive peace, Ifa. 1. 11. 1 Theff. v. 3. "They fay, Peace, peace, when fudden deftruction cometh," and is at the door. "The profperity of fools destroys them;" and fo doth the peace of the wicked destroy them: "They look for peace; and be. hold trouble." They think they are fafe, when they are juft at the perifhing for ever.

8. It is a facrilegious peace; for God allows no peace to his enemies: "There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked," Ifa. lvii. 21. If thou art an unconverted man, living in a fate of enmity against God, he doth not allow you one moment's quiet of mind; and if you take it, it is theft, it is a taking what is not yours. Confider this, man, in your jovial and revelling hours: your mind should be upon the rack, till the enmity between God and you be taken away, and you be interested in the bleffed Peace-maker. And the more fo, in regard that there are bars on God's part, and on yours both,

that

that exclude you from that peace which is only the privilege of thofe that are in Wisdom's ways.

[1.] On God's part, there are four bars which exclude you from this peace.

(1.) The power of God is a bar that excludes; God only hath authority to give peace: all the angels in heaven cannot fpeak a comfortable word to a finner, if God be against him. It is he that createth the fruit of the lips; peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is nigh, Ifa. lvii. 19. It is not men or angels that can create, it is a work peculiar to God alone,. Carnal men look upon pardoning grace as an eafy thing, that it is eafy to give pardon, and easy to take it; yea, but take a guilty confcience, that fees itfel, as it were, hanging over hell, ready to drop in, then all the minifters in the world can do this perfon no good, except the Lord encourage him. Alas! this is fuch a hard lock, that no hand, but that of the Spirit of God, can

turn.

(2.) The holiness of God is a bar that excludes the wicked from peace. His holiness manifefled in the precepts of the law, fays, "Before "Before you have peace, I must have perfect obedience: what have you to do "with peace, as long as your fpiritual whoredom doth "remain ?" Again,

(3.) The juftice of God is a bar; for, his juftice, in the threatening, fays, "Before you have peace, I must "have fatisfaction, Gal. iii. 10.; "There is no peace, "faith my God, to the wicked," Ifa. lvii. 21.

(4.) Yea, the mercy of God is a bar: for, as mercy will not vent to the dishonour of justice; so flighted mercy brings on the foreft vengeance, Rom. ii. 4, 5. Heb. ii. 3. x. 28, 29. xii. 25.

[2.] On the finner's own part, there are allo four bars, that exclude them from peace.

(1.) Their own corruption is a bar: one fin making way for another; and different lufts make great disturb ance: See Ifa. lvii. 20. " But the wicked are like the troubled fea, when it cannot reft, whofe waters caft mire and dirt."

up

(2.) Their

(2.). Their own confcience is a bar that impedes their peace. Confcience will not be fatisfied without keeping the law. God's deputy is a terror to the man. It is a Rebecca, feeling the child ftruggling in her womb. Confcience condemns, and cafts daggers at the heart of a finner.

(3.) Their own croffes are a bar that keep them from peace. As the Ifraelites, when they were in the wildernefs, and in Egypt, though God ftopped their mouths, it could not stop their murmurings: they cannot learn in every ftate to be content. They fret against God. The crofs galls them; and every thing fears them: whereas it is faid of the righteous, "He fhall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trufting in the Lord.". It is not fo with the wicked.

(4.) Their own comforts are a bar that exclude them from, this peace. As they cannot ferve God without? diftraction; fo they cannot live in profperity, without diflraction; "The fleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little os.much: but the abundance of the rich will not fuffer him to fleep," Eccl. v. 12. A good man can fleep quietly, because he lays his head upon the pillows of God's providence and promife":" whereas the wicked, when they pretend to trust their foul with God, yet cannot truft their riches with him: they cannot truft him with their temporal concerns; their comforts keep them from peace.

2dly, We would now defcribe this peace pofitively, fhewing what that peace is that is to be found in •Wifdom's, paths.

1. It is an internal peace. There is an outward external peace in the world, between man and man, as I observed in the explication of the words: but worldly peace is oft-times denied unto the godly; for Chrift fays, "In the world ye fhall have tribulation:" but he hath promised them peace of a fpiritual nature, faying, "In me ye fhall have peace," John xvi. 33. This internal peace is either peace above us, with God; or peace within us, in our heart: the one is the caufe, and the other is the effect. Peace with God, is what all true believers have in the first moments of their juftification,

Rom. v. 1. and viii. 1. And this inward refultpeace, ing from peace with God, may be confidered, either as it hath a relation to fin, or to affliction.-As it hath a relation to fin, it hath a threefold afpect. It looks to fin, and the guilt thereof; it looks to God, and his wrath, the defert of fin; and it looks to Christ, and his blood, as the remedy of both, taking guilt from fin, and wrath from God; as making reconciliation through the blood of his crofs: and, in this refpect, this "peace is a fweet compofure and tranquillity of mind, arifing from a fense of pardon, and reconciliation, in "and through the Lord Jefus Christ, wrought in the "foul by the Spirit of God."As it hath relation to affliction, it imports the fame thing, namely, a fweet compofure of Spirit and tranquillity of mind, flowing from a fenfe of divine favour through Chrift ;" and further, it contains these three things.

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(1.) An acquiefcing in and fubmiffion to the divine will, whatever befals the man; refolutely to take up the crofs, with an abfolute refignation to the divine pleasure, 1 Sam. xxv. 25, 26.

(2.) An heroic courage to encounter with difficulties, the foul faying, "Thro' God we fhall do valiantly; for it is he that fhall tread down our enemies, Pfal. lx. 12.By thee will I run thro' a troop; by my God will I leap over a wall," Pfal. xviii. 29.

(3.) Holy fecurity, and a fweet inward relifh of eafe, in the midst of trouble and difficulties. When the ftorm is whirling about their ears, in patience they pof fefs their fouls.

This peace as it relates to fin, is oppofite to enmity: the enmity hath got a deadly ftroke in regeneration and juftification: God is at peace with the foul, and the foul is at peace with God, And as it relates to affliction, it is oppofite to difquieting thoughts, impatience under trouble, and a fretful difpofition.

God the

2. It is a divine peace, and has a divine original. All the three perfons of the glorious Trinity are coworkers herein, as the author of this peace. Father, he is called the God of peace that bruifes Satan under our feet. He gives peace, creates, maintains,

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