3. The obedient saint —
[It is your privilege to have your " peace flowing down like a river." And such it will be, if you apply to your souls the many " great and precious promises " which are given you in the Gospel. Search them out, therefore, and treasure them up in your minds. Hear God himself speaking to you in them: and so embrace them, as to live upon them, and to derive from them all the consolation which they are calculated to impart. In this way will you be kept from spiritual declension, and will be enabled to " cleanse yourselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God11."]
m Rev. ii. 5. n 2 Cor. vii. 1.
Ps. lxxxv. 9, 10. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together ; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
WE are told in Scripture, that " the prayer of the upright is God's delight :" and in instances without number has he evinced the truth of this saying. If
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only we wait upon him with humility, and listen to his voice, "he will speak peace unto usa." The writer of this psalm, which was most probably com- posed after the return of the Jews from their cap- tivity in Babylon, records for our instruction, that he sought not the Lord in vain. The people, though restored, found many difficulties to encounter : and the Psalmist earnestly entreated God to perfect for them what he had begun, and to establish the nation in righteousness and peace \ In answer to this prayer, God assured him, not only that the blessings which had been solicited should be conferred, but that the more glorious redemption, which was sha- dowed forth by those events, should in due time be accomplished. In this sense of the passage all the best interpreters concur : and it perfectly accords with the general language of the Prophets, which, in addition to the literal meaning, has also a spiritual or mystical sense ; and which, under images appa- rently relating only to one peculiar people, has respect to Christ and his Church to the end of time. Taking the words then in a prophetical sense, we may notice in them,
I. The obstacles on God's part to the salvation of man —
When man fell, the "truth and righteousness" of God required that the penalties of his transgression should be executed upon him —
[To man in Paradise, God gave liberty to eat of every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: but in reference to that tree he said, " In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." This death com- prehended not merely the dissolution of the body, but the de- struction also of the soul, even that everlasting destruction from which the second Adam has delivered us : according as it is written, " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord0." From the moment therefore of his transgression, man became obnoxious to this punishment ; and the truth of God was pledged to inflict it. Moreover, God as a righteous Governor could not but maintain the honour of his law. His justice was engaged not to suffer the violations of that law to pass unpunished.]
a ver. 8. " ver. 1—7. c Rom. v. 12—19. and vi. 23.
643.] god's PERFECTIONS RECONCILED IN CHRIST. 85
This presented an apparently insurmountable ob- stacle to man's salvation —
[To say that God could not have found some other means of satisfying the demands of truth and righteousness, would be presumptuous, because the resources of his wisdom are infinite: but we are perfectly justified in saying, that he could not save man unless some way of satisfying the demands of truth and righteousness were found. However God might desire to exercise mercy, and to be at peace with man, he could not do it at the expense of any other of his perfections. St. Paul himself frequently assigns this limit to the divine procedure : " God cannot lie," says he : and again, " It is impossible for God to lie :" and again, " God cannot deny himself." Again he says, " Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." It is plain, therefore, that unless a way could be found for " mercy and truth to meet together, and righteousness and peace to kiss each other," no hope could be entertained for fallen man: the judgments denounced against him must be executed ; and, having partaken with the fallen angels in their guilt, he must partake with them also in their misery.]