62 THE LIFE OF FAITH
2d. Or if this evil should fall upon God's own children, a man ihat is spiritual, that he be listless and careless about his justification, it argueth some sore spiritual disease, and it will cost them much bitterness before they get rid of it ; and if the Lord meaneth them mercy, they shall again taste the vinegar and gall of the law's curse ; and is it nothing to you to be liable to the wrath of God ?
(2.) To awaken the sluggish heart, consider the utility and profit of it; if once you could clear up your justification, what sweet,happy lives might you lead! Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, 'Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' In the original it is, Oh ! the blessed- ness of the man. But the blessedness of such a man is more fully set forth by the apostle, Eom. v. 1-5, ' Being justified by faith, wie have peace with God through Christ.'
Isf. The very first-fruit of it is peace with God. Sin had broken off all friendship and amity, and procured enmity between God and the creature ; and is it nothing to have God for an enemy, and to be in tlread of him every day, lest he should bend his bow, and shoot his arrows at us? If all the world were at war with you, and God were your friend, you were happy men ; but if all the world be at peace with you, and God your enemy, you may be soon miserable enough ; till you can make a wall between you and heaven, you can never be secured. All that is truly good nnd truly evil dependeth upon our ]ieace and war with God. I shall illustrate it by that place, Acts xii. 20, ' The men of Tyre and Sidon had offended Herod, but they made Blastus their friend, and desired terms of peace, because their country was nourished by the king's country.' Tyre was an island on the sea, and could not subsist without supplies from the king's country. Certainly we cannot subsist a moment without God, nnd therefore it concerns us to be at peace w^ith him. Till we are justified, we are utterly out of God's favour, and liable to his indigna- tion ; but when we are justified, there is an everlasting peace concluded between us and him.
2d. Free and cheerful access to God. So it follows, Rom. v. 2, 'By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." If 3'ou have any dealings wnth God, and know^ anything of this kind of traffic, you will be glad to hear how you may think of him comfort- ably, and come to him with assurance of welcome. Wicked men cannot endure to think of God ; their thoughts of God are a torment to them. But to have a free access to him upon all occasions, and cheerfully to lay forth your whole case to him, is not this a blessed privi- lege ? To be in like favour with God as Joseph was with Pharaoh, to ask and have, and be assured of Avelcome whenever Ave come to him, that, ask what we will, we may be assured it shall be done for us.
3c?. Joy of salvation. So it follows, ' We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' Though our estate be poor and contemptible in the world, yet there is glory enough provided for us in heaven ; and seera- etli it a light thing to be the King's son-in-law ? to be heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ? Well may we forego all transitory prefer- ments, which worldlings so magnify, for these hopes. Well may we despise the shame, and endure the cross, if such a glory be set before us. To have a glimpse of it here in the world is very comfortable ;
THE LIFE OF FAITH. 63
the very preparatives are sweet. Kow this glory is but revealed to us, and our hearts have received a little of it ; what will it be when this glory shall be revealed in us? Kom. viii. 18, ' I reckon that the sufteiings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us,' when we shall have glorious bodies, glorious souls, glorious company, glorious sights, glorious exercises. Nothing can be desired here to be compared with it.
4{h. Comfort in afflictions : ver. 3, ' We glory in tribulations.' Some make it an enlargement of what he had said before : ' AVe rejoice in hope of the glory of God ; ' and tribulation doth not weaken this joy. And others interpret it, ' We do not ouly rejoice in the glory of God, which is the best part of our estate, but, which is much more admir- able, we find matter of rejoicing in our afflictions and tribulations, which are the worst part of our estate ; ' James i. 2, 3, ' My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trial of your faith worketh patience ; ' and 2 Cor. xii. 10, ' 1 take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in perse- cutions, in distresses for Christ's sake : for when I am weak, then I am strong.' Those things that are so unwelcome to the natural man, that spoil all his rejoicings, they are the matter of a godly man's rejoicing. A wicked man will part with God, and Clirist, and peace of conscience, and the hopes of eternal life, and all to shun the cross ; but such is the temper of a godly man, he cleaves closest to God in the worst of times, and finds matter of rejoicing in the worst condition.