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SERM. II. fay of that unhallowed Zeal kindled up by Rage and Hatred in the Hearts of this World's Children against their Brethren, who, because they cannot call down Fire from Heaven to confume them, are refolved to fetch it from Hell to work their own Will and malicious Wickednefs: The Zeal infpired under the Law, tho' fierce, was holy, and, appointed to be the Minifter of Justice and Judgment against the Enemies of God; but this is from beneath, and fpends its Fury againft his Friends: Surely, the least we can fay of all fuch is," that they know not what Spirit they are of." >

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The Glory of Chrift's Kingdom stands not only in Righteousness but in Peace, and accordingly we are told, that in those happy Days of the Church, when true Religion shall be established and exalted in the Earth, there fhall be no deftroying in all God's holy Mountain And where the Kingdom of Chrift is begun in the Hearts of his Children, this Truth is already exemplified; for there the deftroying Spirit is caft out, and all is Love, Joy, Peace; for as the King's Daugh ter, like the King's Son, is meek and gentle to others, fo does the enjoy a State of Complacency

placency and Serenity within; and indeed SERM. II. if we have not the Peace of God in our Hearts, we can hardly be at peace with others, This inward Freedom from unruly Paffions, and all fuch Perturbations of Mind as hinder our Intercourse with God in Prayer, and other devout Exercifes of the Heart, is fignified to us in what is related concerning the building of the Temple, which was a Type of the Spiritual Church, viz. that there was neither Hammer nor Axe, nor any Tool of Iron heard in the House whilft it was buildingy figuring thereby, that there must be no restlefs Agitations of Spirit, noTumult of diforderly Appetites in the Soul that draweth nigh unto God, but all must be ftill and quiet within, that it may be the better dif posed to listen to the gentle Whispers of his Holy Spirit: To the unconverted and una wakened Sinner, to his difobedient and rebellious Sons and Daughters, God does indeed, for the moft Part, make Himself known in a more alarmingWay, even as clothed with the Terrors of hisMajefty, but to his Beloved, to the King's Daughter, his Manifestation is not in the Fire, nor in the great ftrong Wind, nor in the Earthquake, but in the small still

SERM. II. Voice. Nor, on the other hand, are we to

think, that we fhall be the better heard either for our much or loud fpeaking, for unless the fame Spirit that comforts and bleffes us, help our Infirmities, and be in our Prayers and Praises, the Spirit of Supplication and Thanksgiving, the utmost Efforts of Nature joined to the most ingenious De vices of Art, and tho' we cry aloud from Morning till Evening, will prove but as "founding Brafs or a tinkling Cymbal."

The Third Qualification of the King's Daughter that I fhall take notice of, is Purity of Heart; "Bleffed are the pure in Heart, "for they shall fee God."

are not here to understand

By Purity we any Perfection

in Man by Nature that can commend him
to God, for in this respect we are all as an
unclean thing, and the Heart declared to be
"deceitful above all things and desperately
"wicked, and all the Thoughts and Imagi→
"nations of it to be evil continually:"
"But
"Chrift fo loved his Church that He gave
"Himself for it, that He might fanctify and
"cleanse it: " Now it is required of the
Soul, thus cleanfed and washed from the
Pollutions of Sin, that the preferve her Pu

rity, and fo continue fit for an Habitation SERM, IĮ. of God thro' the Spirit; for he is the Temple of the living God. Now, if any Man defile the Temple of God, him fball God destroy,

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And

here it is not fufficient that the keep herself unspotted from the World, and free from the outward Infection of Sin, but also from the inward Contagion of it, even from thofe Lufts and evil Thoughts (as much as poffible) which war against the Soul.

"

That vain, impure or other badThoughts, do involuntarily arife in the Minds even of good Men, is a frequent Subject of their Complaint, and that the beft find this to be the Cafe with them at times will hardly be denied: Where thefe proceed from bad Difpofitions and Habits voluntarily contracted, as they are the natural Confequence of our Sin continued, we cannot be fuppofed free from Guilt in this matter, and even otherwise, where we delight in or confent to them, we make them our own, and they take upon them the formal Nature and Effence of Sin. There is the more need to obferve upon this Head, inasmuch as the Sin of the Thoughts is not fufficiently attended to by many, who think that they are free from the Guilt of this or that particuE

lar

SERM.II. lar Sin if they are not chargeable with the outward Commiffion of it, whereas from

the Heart proceeds every thing that defileth the Man, that is the Womb in which Sin is conceived; Imagination and Defire form the Child, and the actual Perpetration is only the Out-birth, tho' it confeffedly adds aggravated Malignity to the Tranfgreffion, as our firft Parents in eating the forbidden Fruit fet the Seal of Rebellion to the Purpose of Difobedience: And to fhew that Sin begins before it is brought forth, nay tho' it proceed not to overt Act, we are told in Scripture, that a luftful Look is a Species of Adultery, and the Hatred of our Brother a kind of Murther. "Cleanfe us, O Lord, "from our fecret Sins, and enter not into Judgment with us on their Account, for "how great is the Sum of them! But Thou

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art not extreme to mark what is done "amifs; there is Mercy with Thee, there"fore fhalt Thou be feared. [worshiped.]

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Now the King's Daughter having her House not only fwept and garnished, but also wafhed and cleanfed from every thing that materially defileth, the endeavours to keep it fo for the Reception of her heavenly Bridegroom, when he vouchfafes her the Honour

of

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