The sound believer. A treatise of evangelical conversion. Discovering the work of Christ's spirit,…

3. If a Christian, ignorant of maintaining his Peace with God by Faith in his Justification, notwithstanding all the Errors in his Obedience and Sanctification; if, I say, he wants his Peace, shall we therefore break the Law in Pieces? If a secure Christian that walks loosely wants Peace, by the Accusations of the Law, 'tis God's Mercy to him to give him no Peace in himself, while he is at Truce with his Lust.

4. That Peace will end in dismal Sorrow which is got by kicking against the Law, it is but daubing for a Man to keep his Peace by shutting his Eyes against the Way of Peace: A Servant may have Peace in his Idleness, by thinking that his Master requires no Work from him, and by hiding his Talent, yet what will the Lord say to him when his Day is ended, and he comes to reckon with him at Sun-set? Bring the Law into thy Conscience in Point of Justification, it will trouble Conscience: For there only Christ's Righteousness, God's Grace, & the Promise are to be looked on, and our own Obedience & Holiness laid by in the Dust; but bring it before thee as a Rule of thy Sanctification, and as thy Copy to write after, & to imitate, and aspire after that Perfection it requires, it will then trouble thee no more, than it doth a Child, who having a fair Copy set him to write after, and knowing that he is a Son, is not therefore troubled, because he cannot write as fair as his Copy; he knows if he imitates it, his Scribbling shall be accepted: However, tho' his Father may chastise him with Rods, if he be careless to imitate, yet he will never cast him therefore off from being his Son. The Truth is this, it argues a most graceless, carnal, wretched Heart, for a Man to care by God's Rules, because Attendance to them is his Trouble and Torment, which unto a gracious Heart ⟨p. 252⟩are Life & Peace & Sweetness; All the Ways of Wisdom to him, are Ways of Pleasantness, and her Paths Peace, Prov. 3.17. And it is God's common Curse upon them that love not the Truth in these Days, that because Sin is not their Sorrow, nor Breach of Rules their Trouble, that therefore the Observance of the Law, and Attendance unto Rules shall be their Burden and Trouble, they feel not the Plague in their own Hearts, and therefore Reproofs plague them, and Commands are a Plague and a Torment to them: Crooked Feet, and crooked Wills, make Men tread awry in such corrupt Opinions.