It is high time now to speak of the second thing prayed for, which is 'peace ; whence observe that peace is a great blessing, one of the main privileges of the gospel.
I shall, first. Show you what it is ; secondly. Give you some obser- vations concerning it ; and thirdly, Come to application.
1. What it is. It is a tranquillity of mind arising from the sense of a sure estate with God. To this peace two things concur. First, a sure estate, or terms of amity with God. This is called in scripture ' peace with God/ and is the immediate effect and fruit of actual justification, Eom. V. 1. And then, secondly, there is a se7ise of this sure estate, or the reflex of this amity upon the conscience, and is usually called ' peace of conscience,' and is a special privilege of Christ's spiritual kingdom. See Eom. xiv. 17 ; the apostle speaketh there of a ' peace/ which is ranked with 'joy in the Holy Ghost.' But it will be better opened to you in the ensuing propositions.
[1.] Man by nature is at enmity with God, and upon ill terms with him. When we lost God's image, we lost his favour. This enmity is mutual ; man is an enemy to God, and God is an enemy to man. On God's part there is wrath, which is all that we are born to by nature, Eph. ii. 3 ; and on man's part there is hatred ; we hate God because we love sin. Col. i. 21. God's enmity is suspended in the day of his patience. Now and then wrath breaketh out, but it is not executed to the full ; sentence is passed, but not executed. Nay, it may be reversed if we take sanctuary at grace ; for God is now upon a treaty with us, or offer of peace ; therefore it is said ' peace on earth,' Luke ii. 14. The next world is a time of vengeance and recompense ; but during our earthly state God wooeth us and inviteth us to lay down the weapons of our defiance, and accept of terms of peace. Thus mat- ters stand on God's part. But now on our part this enmity is carried on with a great deal of spite. We seek to destroy God, and to deface all the memorials of him that are impressed upon the conscience ; we ungod him in our thoughts and affections. It is a pleasing thought to us to suppose if there were no God, as guilty prisoners wish there were no judge, no assizes, that they may not be called to account.
68 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 2.
[2.] Man being at enmity with Grod, all God's creatures are at enmity with him. Angels, men, fire, air, water, they are all at God's beck, and are ready to destroy man whenever the Lord biddeth them ; as good subjects take part with their prince against rebels. The angels ' hearken for the voice of his word,' Ps. ciii. If he do but ' hiss for the fly of Egypt,' Isa. vii. 18, it is ready presently. It is ill contesting with him that can command legions. The fire saith, Let me burn his house or dwelling-place ; the water saith, Let me drown his ships ; the earth, Let me swallow him up quick, as I did Korah and his accom- plices. Certainly the Lord cannot want instruments of vengeance. Man as God's creature is his own enemy. God needeth not fetch foroes from without, there is enough within ; the humours of the body, the passions of the mind, all these are wilHng to serve God as creatures for our punishment ; so that if God should but arm our own thoughts, our own affections against us, man is soon overwhelmed. AVho can bear the wounds given him by his own conscience ?
[3.] We, being in this estate, can only be reconciled by Jesus Christ. He obtaineth it by his merit, and conferreth it by his power. For his merit, see Col. i. 20, and Isa. liii. 5, ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him.' It will not stand with the majesty of God to make peace with us without satisfaction. That there might be no wrong done to his sovereignty, his law, his truth, his justice, his hohness, it was meet that we should be chastised either in our own persons or in our surety ; and also all the notions of the Godhead are kept inviol- able. Then for his power : He worketh it at first, and then main- taineth and keepeth it afoot between God and us. He worketh it at first, and bringeth it about thus, by opening the gospel, wherein God is revealed as pacified in Christ ; which is the only doctrine that can calm the conscience, and establish the soul in peace and hope. All false religions are accompanied with scruples and jealousies : Jer. vi. 16, there is no ' rest for the soul.' And then he applieth the gospel by his Spirit. The gospel is a sovereign plaster, but Christ's own hand must make it stick. There is a double ground of enmity in man's heart — the guilt and power of sin. Christ wipeth guilt out of the conscience by the application of his own blood, and weakeneth the power of sin more and more. Sin is the makebate, and Christ is the ' Prince of peace,' Isa. ix. 6. The great end for which God set him up, was to plant grace in our hearts, and so to work a friendship between God and us. But Christ is not only the author, but the great conservator of the peace between us and heaven. Partly by his intercession : as foreign states have their agents in princes' courts to preserve a mutual correspondence, so Christ taketh up all differences that fall out be- tween us and God, that no breach may ensue, Heb. ix. 24. Partly by a further declaration of God's love to the conscience, Isa. xxvi. 3. Partly by stirring us up to watchfulness, that no occasion may be given on our part by ' returning to folly,' Ps. Ixxxv. 8. Thus you see what Christ doth : all is briefly summed up by the apostle in 2 Cor. V. 19, ' God was in Christ reconciling the world.' Where note, that our peace with God is a reconciliation or a peace after a breach, and this reconciliation is mutual. God appeareth in a form of grace and mercy to us, and we lay down our enmity against God ; he is gracious