ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 5 -7. 193 our fields, our houses, our purses, (nor that either without his over - ruling power and providence, who alone manageth all the counsels and resolutions of men,) but he alone can give peace to our consciences by the assurance of his love which is better than life. And if there should be peace in a nation, made up only by human prudence and correspondences, without public repentance, and thorough reformation in church, in state, in families, in persons, in judgment, in man- ners ; it would be but like those short interims between the Egyptian plagues, Exod. viii. 15. ix. 34. a re- spiting only, not a removing of our affliction ; like the shining of the sun on Sodom before the fire and brimstone fell upon it, Gen. xix. 23, 24. We all cry and call for peace, and while anything is left would gladly pay dear, very dear to recover it again. But there is no sure and lasting purchase of it, but by unfeigned repentance and turning unto God ; this is able to give peace in the midst of war. In the midst of storm and tempest, Christ is sufficient security to the tossed ship, Matt. viii. 24. 27. " This man is the peace even when the Assyrian is in the land," Mic. v. 5. Whereas impenitency, even when we have re- covered an outward peace, leaves us still in the midst of most potent enemies ; God, Christ, angels, scripture, creatures, conscience, sins, curses, all our enemies. The apostle tells us that " lusts war against the soul," 1 Pet.. ii. 11. There is a strong emphasis in the word soul, which is more worth than all the world, nothing to be taken in exchange for it, Matt. xvi. 26. So long as we have our lusts unconquered, we are under the most woful war in the world, which cloth not spoil us of our blood, our money, our coin, our cattle, our houses, our children, but of the salvation of our immor- tal souls. Time will repair the ruins of other wars, but R
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