4. A Christian that hath made his ' peace ' with God, will never allow him- self ill any sin against conscience, because he knows sin is odious in itself, loathsome to God, and hurtful to his soul ; therefore he will not be in league with any sinful, unjust course. What ! to be in league with God, and to be at ' peace ' with that that God hates more than the devil himself ! He hates sin more than the devil, for he hates him for sin. Therefore a man that allows himself in known sins, there can be no peace between God and him, as he saith, ' Why do you talk of peace, as long as the witchcrafts and whoredoms of Jezebel remain ?' 2 Kings ix. 22. A man that lives in sins against conscience, that is an open swearer, an unjust person, that cares not by what means he advanceth himself, what doth he talk of peace with God, when he is in league with God's enemy ? Therefore, though such men, — out of ' the hardness of their hearts, which are harder than the nether millstone,' Job xli. 24, and God seals them up under a hard heart to damnation, except some terrible judgment awake them, — force a peace upon themselves, they ought to speak none, and they shall find it to their cost ere long. Therefore let us examine our own hearts how we stand affected to any sinful course. There may be infirmities and weaknesses hang upon the best that are besides* their purposes and resolutions, but for a man resolvedly to set himself in an ill way, how can he be at peace with God and with Satan at the same time ? Let us take notice of these things, and not daubf with our own consciences.
6. Again, Where there is a true peace established, there is a high esteem of the ivord of peace, the gospel of reconciliation, as St Paul calls it, 2 Cor. V. 18, * He hath committed to us the word of reconciliation.' Those that find this peace, there is stirred up by the Spirit in their breasts a high esteem of the ordinance of God, as being the word of their ' peace.' How come we to have peace between God and us ? Is it not by opening the riches of God's love in Christ in the Scriptures ? Therefore, saith Ihe Scripture, ' blessed are the feet of them that bring glad tidings,' Isa. lii. 7. « That is, ' beside.'— G. • t Cf. Ezekiel xxii. 28.—
344 angels' acclamations.
The meanest part of their body, their feet, arc blessed. Therefore those that have despicable conceits of the ministry of the word, and place their happiness in depraving* the labour and pains of that office and callinjT, it is a sign that they have profane hearts ; for whosoever hath had any grace wrought by the word of reconciliation and of peace, they will highly esteem it, and respect them for their office sake. It cannot be otherwise.
6. Lastly, Those that have found peace are peaceable. It is universally true God doth make an impression of the same disposition in us to others. We apprehending God in Christ to be peaceable to us, we are peaceable to others. Therefore, in Isa. xi. G, scq., the knowledge of God in Christ, it alters and changeth men's dispositions. It makes wolves and lions to be of a milder disposition and temper. Harsh, proud, sturdy dispositions, they never felt * peace' and mercy themselves ; therefore they are not ready to shew it to others. In the nature of the thing itself it is impos- sible for the soul to apprehend peace in the love of God, and not to have the disposition wTought upon to shew what it ha(.h felt. Let us think of these and such like evidences daily, to keep our hearts from speaking false ' peace.' The greatest danger in the world, in this regard, is in the church ; for people under the gospel speak false ' peace ' to themselves. There is a spirit of delusion that carries them along to their death, and deceives them also in death ; and so they are in hell before they be aware, and then too late. They see that they were never in good terms with God in all their life, because they looked on Christ making peace, without any consideration of the spirit of application.
There must be a sprinkling of the blood of Christ on our souls to make it our own : ' We are come to the blood of sprinkling,' Heb. xii. 24. It is not the blood of Christ that makes our peace only as blood ; but as it is sprinkled by the hand of faith, that is as the hyssop that sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice upon the people. We must not think to have any good by the blood of Christ, when we want the blood of sprinkling, that is, this particular faith : ' Christ loved me, and hath chosen me,' Gal. ii. 20 ; and I choose him, and love him again ; and so go with boldness to God as a Father. Unless there be this passage of the soul, between God and us, let us not talk of peace. For if we might have good by Christ, without a spirit of application, and if there were not a necessity of sprinkling the blood of Christ upon our souls by faith, all the world should be saved.