The reason is, peace comes from righteousness. Christ is first the ' King of righteousness,' and then ' King of peace ;' righteousness causeth peace. Now, unless the soul be assured of righteousness in Christ, it can have no peace. What saith the Virgin Mary ? * My soul doth mag- nify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour.' She begins with magnifying the Lord. But what was the ground ? She rejoiced in
VOL. VI. Y
8B8 angels' acclamations.
God as a S:iviour ; Ihoreforo she magnified liim. So in tlio Lord's Prayer we say ' Our Father,' which is a word of the covenant of grace, when the soul conceives of God as a gracious Father, reconciled in Christ. And then comes ' Hallowed bo thy name,' insinuating that, till wo know in some measure God to be our Father, we cannot with a gracious spirit say, * hal- lowed bo thy name.' For can we heartily wish for the manifestation of the glory of him that we think is our enemy, and him that we have no interest in his greatness and goodness ? The heart of man will never do it, therefore God must first speak peace to the soul ; — the angels knew that well enough ;— and then wo are lit to glorify God.
' Peace on earth.'
What is peace ? It is the best thing that man can attain unto, to have peace with his ]\Iaker and Creator. Peace, in general, is a harmony and an agreement of diflerent things. This peace here you may know what it is by the contrary, as the apostle saith, Ejih. i, 10. The word there is very significant, AiiaJirpJialiosis {ava7.fipa}.a!uc/g). There is a recapitulation or gathering all to a head in Christ. Out of Christ there is a division, a separation and a scattering, a breach, that is five-fold.
(1.) First, There is a scattering mid a division from God, the fountain of good, with whom we had communion in our first creation, and his delight was in his creature. We lost that blessed communion, and our sins have separated between God and us, as the prophet saith.
(2.) Then there is a sejmration between the (food angeh and us ; for they being good subjects, take part with their prince, and therefore join against rebels, as we are. Hence it is, that upon the sight of angels, the very hearts of good men have sometimes been stricken, considering that there is no very good terms between us and the angels, till we come to Christ again.
(3.) Then there is a division and scattering hetireen man and man. No common Spirit of God will keep men together till they bo in Christ, as it is said, God sent an evil spirit, ' a spirit of division,' between the men of Shechem, Judges ix. 23. So, since the fall, there is an ill spirit of division among men, till the gospel again bring peace ; especially there is no sound peace between men in the state of nature and others that are God's children, nor with the ordinances of God. For men appi-ehcnd the ordinances of God as enemies. The word c-uts and lanceth him. It is as the sentence of a judge to condemn him. Therefore he fears and trembles at the power- ful opening of the word. The ordinance of God speaks no comfort to a carnal man. He is as Ahab. He never had a word of peace from the prophet. The word alway speaks ill to him. He is under the law, and it speaks nothing but terror and curses to him.
(4.) And then there is a division and separation hetireen a man and the creature, which is ready to be in arms against any man that is in the state of nature, to take God's quarrel, as we see in the plagues of Egypt and other examples. If God do but give them leave, they presently make an end of sinful man ; and they would glory in it too, to serve their Creator. It is part of their vanity to be subject to wicked men. They have no peace with the creature.
(5.) And they have no peace ivith themselves. They speak peace to them- selves, but, alas ! God speaks none to them. They make a covenant with death and hell, but death and hell make no covenant with them. So it is a forced, sleepy peace. It is a dead sleep. The peace they have, it is but a diversion to other things. They consider not themselves and the war they are in with God, with themselves, and with the creature ; it is but a
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truce that they take up for a time. When God opens their conscience, there is a hell in their hearts and souls, that when it is loosed, makes them to suffer a hell upon earth. They enter into the pains of hell before their time. So there is ' no peace to the wicked' at all, Isa, Ivii. 21. There is, since the fall, a separation between God and man, between angels and man, between man and the creatux'es, between man and himself.
Now, Christ at his coming, taking our nature upon him, brings all into one again. He brings God and man together again, by offering himself a sacrifice, by making full satisfaction to the justice of God ; and sin, which is the cause of his displeasure, being taken away, God being gracious and merciful, his mercy runs amain on us. Sin only separates between God and us, and that Christ takes away. Therefore he is called by St Paul, * Christ our peace,' Eph. ii. 14, and ' the Prince of peace,' Heb. vii. 2. He was qualified to be our peace. He was a friend to both parties, having married our nature of purpose, that he might in our nature bring God and us together, as it is 1 Peter iii. 18. His whole work was to ' bring us back again to God,' from whom we fell at the first.