Thc `Ufe of the Law: j 391 nage the difpenfation of the Law, that men may not thereby be cxalperated, butput in minde of the Sanctu- ary to which they fhould flye. The heart of man is bro- ken as a flint, with a hard and a loft together : A Ham- mer and a pillow is the befr way to breake a flint ; a Prifon and a Pardon,a Scourge and a Salve,a Curfe and a Saviour, is the belt way to humble and convert a fin- ncr. When we convince the hearers that all the terrors we pronounce are out of compaffton to them ; that we have mercy and Balme in {tore to powre into every wound that we make,that al the blows we give are not to kill their foules,but their fins;that though our words bring fire and fury with them, yet they are frill is the hand of a Mediator ; that the Law is not to bring them unto defperátion,but unto humiliatiô;not to drive them unto fury, but unto Faith,to {hew them Hell indeed, but withal' to keep them from it;ifwe doe not by thefe meanes fave their foulcs,yet we fhal flop their mouthes, that they (hall be afhatned to blafpheme the commillion by which we fpeake. Secondly, the people likewifethould learne to rejoyce when the Law is preached as it was publifhed ; that is, when the confcience is thereby afrighted, and made to tremble at the prefence of God, and to cry unto the Me- diator as the people did unto Mofes, Let not gee /peake Exo o 19 any more to as,lefl We dye ; Speake thou with us,ar>d we will heare. For when firme is onely by the Law difcovered and death laid open, to cry out againfr fuch preaching, is a fhrewd argument of a minde not willing to be dif- quieted in finne,or to be tormented before the time;cfa foule which would have Chrifr, and yet not leave her former husband ; which would have him no other king than the Rump of wood was to the Frogs in the fable, or the molten Calfe u:ito Ifrael in the Wilderneffe, a quiet Idol, whom every lufr might fecurely provoke & dance about. As the Law may be preached too much, C c 4 when
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=