Heaven upon earth in the serene tranquillity and calm composure, in the sweet peace…

Now if it be Asked how this comes to pass? We Answer▪ that there are three things that accompany real willingness▪ that contribute to, and give ground of peace▪ even though there be failings, 1. A real hatred and abhorrence of the sin. Psal. 119. 128. I hate every false way. There is a keeping at a distance with Conscience▪ wasting sins, so that the man not only abstains from ⟨p. 309⟩acting them, but out of Conscience towards God, from Filial awe and reverence, from love and respect to him, hates that which he hates; Do not not I (says David) Psal. 139.) hate them that hate thee; I hate them with a perfect hatred. 2ly. Real willingness keeps off Conscience wasting-aggravations, so that Believers fall not in sins of infirmity with full deliberation; Neither do they allow or suffer themselves to lie still in them; Now its such as these that especially wound the Conscience and raise the storm and tempest of a controversy there, which greatly mars peace. 3ly. Where this real willingness is in exercise, though sin prevail, yet (as I oftener then once said) it puts the Christian to enter his dissent from, and protestation against it, which in some respect exoners him; even as in a humane ju•lcatory, where a thing is carried by the peat of the plurality of voices, any Member thereof that protests is exonerated by that his protestation; just •o its here, when the soul is surprised, taken unawares, and hurried by the violence of temptation; and though it do not simply and altogether free and excuse him as to the sin, as it may do a man in the other case; Yet it keeps (as it were) a legal right to him, whereupon he may humbly plead with God against his unrenewed part, complain of it, and come to him, and say, It is no more I, but sin that dwells in me: And therefore, from all we may very confidently conclude, that it is not absolute perfection that is the ground of the Conscience its good Testimony, and of the peace that results therefrom, but sincerity, or real willingness to live honestly.