See what a sad condition all wicked men are in, that live and die in their sins: They have nothing to do with peace. What! Shall they have peace that make War with Heaven, persecute Christ in his Members? Shall they have peace that deride and grieve the Spirit of God, whose very Office it is to drop peace into the Conscience? What, a sinner to have peace! 2 Kings 9.22. What peace, so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezebel and her Witchcrafts are so many! A wicked man is a worker of iniquity: As a man works at his shop; so he ⟨p. 56⟩works at the trade of sin; and what hath he to do with peace? and how deplorable is his case! What if a Foreign. Enemy should come; sinners would be in a storm, and have no where to put in for Harbour. It is a very sad thing to be in Sauls condition; the Philistines upon him, and God departed. It is a very sad thing to have fightings without, and fears within; to have the Bullets shooting against the Ship, and the Ship leaking within? Isa. 57.21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God: And if God saith it, he knows it to be true. The wicked perhaps they may delude themselves, and presume, that though they go on in sin, yet they shall have peace; but to undeceive them, turn to that one Scripture, Deut. 29.19. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart. Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him; but then the anger of the Lord and his ⟨p. 57⟩Jealousy shall smoke against that man. One may as well think to suck health out of Poison, as to suck peace out of Sin. Sinners they may be quiet, or rather secure for the present; but as 2 Sam. 26. it will be bitterness in the latter end. Guilt will sooner or later raise a storm, saith Chrysostom. Sin will conjure up the Winds and Storms into the Conscience. I have sometimes thought it is with sin, as it is with poison; there are some sorts of poison that will lie a great while in the body and not work; but at last it does wring and torture the bowels; a fit resemblance of sin. Men, they drink this poison, and they may be quiet a while; but at last, especially at death, then it begins to work, and then the poison begins to touch the Conscience.
See what a sad condition all wicked men are in, that live and die in their sins: They have nothing to do with peace. What! Shall they have peace that make War with Heaven, persecute Christ in his Members? Shall they have peace that deride and grieve the Spirit of God, whose very Office it is to drop peace into the Conscience? What, a sinner to have peace! 2 Kings 9.22. What peace, so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many! A wicked man is a worker of iniquity: As a man works at his shop; so he ⟨p. 56⟩works at the trade of sin; and what hath he to do with peace? and how deplorable is his case! What if a Foreign. Enemy should come; sinners would be in a storm, and have no where to put in for Harbour. It is a very sad thing to be in Sauls condition; the Philistines upon him, and God departed. It is a very sad thing to have fightings without, and fears within; to have the Bullets shooting against the Ship, and the Ship leaking within? Isa. 57.21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God: And if God saith it, he knows it to be true. The wicked perhaps they may delude themselves, and presume, that though they go on in sin, yet they shall have peace; but to undeceive them, turn to that one Scripture, Deut. 29.19. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart. Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him; but then the anger of the Lord and his ⟨p. 57⟩Iealousie shall smoke against that man. One may as well think to suck health out of Poison, as to suck peace out of Sin. Sinners they may be quiet, or rather secure for the present; but as 2 Sam. 26. it will be bitterness in the latter end. Guilt will sooner or later raise a storm, saith Chrysostom. Sin will conjure up the Winds and Storms into the Conscience. I have sometimes thought it is with sin, as it is with poison; there are some sorts of poison that will lie a great while in the body and not work; but at last it does wring and torture the bowels; a fit resemblance of sin. Men, they drink this poison, and they may be quiet a while; but at last, especially at death, then it begins to work, and then the poison begins to touch the Conscience.
