cannot
please God do what they can, because God hath made Christ the centre in
which he would have the good pleasure of sinners meeting with his good
pleasure, and therefore, without faith it is impossible to please God,
(Heb. xi. 6) not so much for the excellency of the act itself, as for the
well pleasing object of it, Christ. The love of the Father is terminate in
him, his justice is satisfied in him, his love is well-pleased with the
excellency of his person, he finds in him an object of delight, which is
nowhere else, and his justice is well pleased with the sufficiency and
worthiness of his ransom, and without this compass, there is neither
satisfaction to the one, nor to the other, so then, whatsoever you are,
how high soever your degree in the world, how sweet soever your
disposition let your natures be never so good, your carriage never so
smooth, yet certainly there is nothing in all this that can please God,
either by an object of love, or a price for justice. You are under that
eternal displeasure, which will fall on and crush you to pieces. Mountains
will not be so heavy, as it will appear in that great day of his wrath
(Rev. vi.). I say, you cannot come from under that imminent weight of
eternal wrath unless you be found in Jesus Christ,--that blessed place of
immunity and refuge--if you have not forsaken yourselves and your own
natures, and denied your own righteousness as dung, to be found in him,
clothed with his righteousness and satisfaction. If the delight and
pleasure of your soul do not coincide and fall in at one place with the
delight and good pleasure of the Father, that is, upon his well beloved
Son, certainly the pleasure and good will of God hath not as yet fallen
upon you, and met with you; therefore, if you would please God, be pleased
with Christ, and you cannot do him a greater pleasure than believe in him,
(John v. 23) that is, absolutely resign yourselves unto him, for salvation
and sanctification.

The other ground is,--Such as are in the flesh cannot frame their spirits,
affections, and ways to God's good pleasure, for their very wisdom, the
very excellency that is in them, is enmity to God and cannot be subject to
his law, and therefore they cannot please him. I am sure you may easily
reflect upon yourselves, and find, not with much search, but upon all
these, as the prophet (Jer. ii. 34) speaks, that it is not the study and
business you have undertaken to please God, but the bent and