which seemeth to be the peace that is chiefly, though not only, intended in this text.

II. Farther Excellencies of the Peace of God.

That you may be induced, with all diligence and earnestness, to seek after this blessed peace, and may better perceive that this peace of God, for worth and use, passeth all understanding, take these reasons in particular:

1. That must needs be an excellent peace, which God will please to take into his holy title, calling himself "The God of peace," calling Christ "The Prince of peace."

2. That peace must needs be of infinite value, passing all understanding, for which Christ gave himself; paying the price of his own most precious blood for it.

3. This peace cannot but pass all understanding, because the cause from whence it cometh, namely, Christ's love, and the effect which it worketh, namely, joy in the Holy Ghost," do, as the apostles affirm, pass knowledge, and are unspeakable.

4. This peace was that first congratulation, wherewith the holy angels saluted the church at Christ's birth, giving her joy in her new-born Husband and Saviour. And it was that special legacy which Christ Jesus did bequeath to his church, leaving that as the best token of his love to it, a little before his death: saying, My peace I leave with

you."

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5. This peace is one of the principal parts of the kingdom of God, which consisteth, as the apostle

saith, of" righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."

6. By as much as the evils and mischiefs that come to a man by having God to be his enemy, which draweth upon him God's wrath, justice, power, and all God's creatures to be against him; and by as much as the grievous and intolerable anguish of the wounded spirit passeth understanding; by so much the peace of God, which freeth him from all these, must of necessity pass all understanding.

Now, that it is a fearful thing to have God to be an enemy, it is said, He is "a consuming fire," and, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It appears, likewise, by Christ's compassion and grief for Jerusalem, who neglected the time of making and accepting of peace with God: for he wept over it, and said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." But what it is to have God to be an enemy, is seen most fully by Christ's trouble and grief in his passion and agony in the garden, and in the extremity of his conflict with God's wrath on the cross, when God showed himself to be an enemy, and did, for man's sin, pour on him the fierceness of his wrath. It made him, though he was God, being man, to sweat, for very anguish, as it were drops of blood, and to cry, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," and, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Moreover, if you do observe the complaints of such distressed souls that have had terror of conscience, (if you have not had experience thereof in

yourself,) how that they were at their wits end, pricked at heart, as it were with the point of a spear, or sting of a serpent, pained like men whose bones are broken and out of joint, making them to roar, and to consume their spirits for very heaviness, then you will say that peace of conscience doth pass all understanding.

7. When God and a man's own conscience are for him, and God's grace in some good measure hath subdued sin and Satan in him, this bringeth with it assurance that all other things, whose peace are worth having, are also at peace with him. For, "if God be for us, who can be against us." This peace must of necessity bring with it all things which will make us happy, even all things which pertain to life, godliness, and glory.

Lastly, Consider this, that as the worth and sense of peace with God is unutterable and inconceivable, so the time of it is indeterminable, it is everlasting, and hath no end. Compare this with the former, and it cannot be denied, but that the peace of God doth every way pass understanding.

CHAPTER XIV.

Concerning the Impediments to Peacefalse Hopes, and false Fears.

I. The Kinds of Impediments that hinder Peace.

FIRST, If you would enjoy this happy peace, you must remove and avoid the impediments. Secondly,

You must use all helps and furtherances which serve to procure and keep it.

I reduce the impediments to two heads.

1. A false opinion and hope that all is well with a man, and that all shall be well with him in respect of his salvation, when yet indeed God is not reconciled to him. Hence will follow a quietness of heart, somewhat like to peace of conscience; which yet is but a false peace.

2. Causeless doubting, and false fear, that a man's estate, with respect to his salvation, is not good, although God be at peace with him; hence followeth trouble and anguish of heart, somewhat like unto that of hellish despair, disturbing his true peace.

Either of these do hinder peace.

The first hindereth the having, the second hindereth the feeling and comfortable enjoying of peace.

It hath been an old device of Satan, when he would keep any man from that which is true, to obtrude upon him that which shall seem to be true, but is false. Thus he did in the first calling of the Jews. When he saw they had an expectation of the true Christ, he, to divert and seduce them from the true Christ, setteth up false Christs. Even so in the matter of peace: if he can so delude men that they shall content themselves with a false peace, he knoweth that they will never seek for that which is true. It is a common practice with the devil to endeavour to make all who are not in a state of grace, to presume that they are.

Also, such is his cunning and malice, that when any man is in the state of grace, he will labour by all means to distress and perplex the soul with unreasonable fears and suspicions, to make that estate

doubtful and uncomfortable, to vex and to weary him, if he cannot drive him to despair. Now the heart of man, so far as it is unsanctified, being "deceitful above all things," is most apt to yield to Satan in both these cases. Whence it is, that there are very many who boast of much peace, and yet have none of it. And many fear they have no peace, who yet have much of it.

Wherefore, the rule is, Believe not either your deceitful heart, nor the devil, when they tell you, either that you are in a state of salvation, or in a state of damnation: but believe the scripture, what it saith in either.

You may know when these persuasions come from your deceitful heart or from the devil, thus:

1. If the means to persuade you to either, be from false grounds, or from misapplication of true grounds.

2. If the conclusions inferred from either persuasion, be to keep you in a sinful course, and to keep you, or to drive you from God, as if you need not be so strict in godliness, or that now it is in vain, or too late, to turn and seek unto God, then it is from Satan and from a deceitful heart, and you must not believe them. But if these persuasions be from a right application of true grounds, and do produce these good effects, to drive you to God, in praise or prayer, and unto a care to please God, they are from his gracious Spirit.

II. The Causes of Presumption, or, false Peace.

The false peace and evil quiet of conscience, doth arise from these three causes: