[2.] Ah utili, from the happiness of being at peace with God. Your great work is over, and you have a world of benefit by it — you stop all danger at the fountain-head. When you are at peace with God, you are at peace with the creatures : Ezek. xxxiv. 25, ' I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the e\dl beasts to cease out of the land. Danger might waylay us at every turn. Then for men : Prov. X. 17, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes his ene- mies to be at peace with him.' Then peace in your own consciences: Kom. XV. 13, ' Now the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in be- lieving.' To have a man's conscience settled on sound terms is a great mercy. Peace with the holy angels ; instead of being instruments of
Col. 1. 20.] by the blood of chrtst. 503
vengeance, they are ' ministering spirits,' Heb. i. 14. Lastly, Com- munion with G-od himself: Rom. v. 1,2, ' Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom also we have access by faith,' &c. ; Eph. ii. 17, 18, ' Preach- ing peace, by whom also we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.'
[3.] I reason from the confidence we may have of this benefit if we submit to godly terms.
1. God is willing to give it : ver. 19, 'It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell.' There is God's authority and good pleasure in it. The first motive came from God, who received the wrong, not from him that gave it. God was in Christ, 2 Cor. v. 14. Among men, the inferior should seek to the superior, the party offending to the party offended, the weaker to the stronger, they that need the reconciliation, to him that needeth it not ; but here all is contrary.
2. You may be confident of it upon another ground, the suffi- ciency of Christ to procure all fulness. The whole divine nature did inhabit and reside in the man Christ Jesus, and so he is completely fitted and furnished for this work. He hath paid a full price for this peace when he bare our sins and carried our sorrows ; and by his Spirit he changes our hearts as well as pacifies the wrath of God. And then he preserveth this peace by his constant intercession, Heb. ii. 17, 18. Now, shall we doubt of it but that we may get it ?
[1.] Let us take the way of entrance by faith and repentance. It concerns us much to see whether we be in peace or trouble: if in trouble, you see the cure ; if in peace, the next question is, is it God's peace ? That is had by the blood of Christ, the merit of which we must depend upon, and devote ourselves to God, break off" our old league with sin, and bind ourselves with a bond to live unto God, to be the Lord's for evermore.
[2.] When this peace is made, be very tender of it, that no breach fall out between you and God : Ps. Ixxxv. 8, ' He will speak peace to his people, and to his saints : but let not them turn again to folly.'
[3.] Let us be thankful to God for this fruit of Christ's death ; it is an act of free and undeserved "mercy, and to be imputed to nothing but his mere grace that God hath appointed such a way : ' It pleased the Father to bruise him,' Isa. liii. 9. That he sendeth ambassadors to publish it : Acts x. 36, * The word which God sent unto the chil- dren of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all) : ' and that he appointeth a ministry. It is a great privilege in itself ; for by this peace we have not only the beginnings but the increase of grace till all be perfected in heaven : Heb. xiii. 20, 21, ' Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight.' 1 Thes. i. 23, ' The God of peace sanctify you, that you may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' This peace doth encourage us in all tempta- tions from the devil : Rom. xvi. 20, ' The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.' From the world : Eph. vi. 15, ' Shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.' Fears of the wrath of
504 RECONCILIATION WITH GOD, ETC. [SeR. VIII.
God, and doubts about our eternal condition : Eom. xiv. 17, ' The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Here are three words — comfort, peace, and joy. These succeed one another as so many degrees : comfort is sup- port under trouble, peace a ceasing from trouble, joy a lively sense of the love of God.
THE END OF VOL. I.
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