Discourse of the Gospel of Peace, Tract 1 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
SECT. I.
The Improvement of the Doctrine.
THE first End I shall improve it to, is the informing our understandings of these considerable Truths.
First, That they are the greatest enemies to peace with God, men, and themselves, who are enemies to this Gospel of Peace: Who are enemies to its peaceable progress and entertainment in the world, and to its prevalency in their own hearts and lives. The Gospel taught in its purity and power, and learned in its knowledg and practice, is the all-heal of the greater and lesser world. They who attempt it without, or in contradiction to this, are Physicians of no value, the way of peace they have not known.
2ly, That so far as men have not peace in themselves, or are unpeaceable towards others, they dissent from, and are Nonconformists to this Gospel of Peace; i. e. so far they are from the perfection of Christianity. Men may and ought to contend for the Truths of the Gospel; but they that contend against the peace of it, or for its truth or peace unpeaceably, give it a back-blow, which is most fatal. It will be somewhat a more happy time when men shall be reputed Christians more or less, according to their peaceable principles, dispositions and deportments towards God and men.
3ly, This Doctrine shews us, How unbecoming Mat. 24. 2… to the end.the professed Ministers of the Gospel of Peace, it is to be unpeaceable themselves; but especially in their Pulpits, where they stand in the stead, and speak in the name of the God of Peace,
Certainly for such men, especially in the Pulpit, to vent Sedition, faction, hatred, wrath, enmity, instead of peace on earth, and good will toward men; say their lesson backward, and will sooner preach the Gospel out of the world, than into the hearts of men.
4ly, Then God is the God of Peace. The Scriptures say it in so many words, but this Gospel of Peace proves it, If Gods say-so had needed a proof. There was nothing could constrain or move him to frame such a Gospel of Peace, but his own nature with him, and be at peace: i. e. Let the knowledg and sense of God awe thee into a better than a froward unquiet temper of spirit under his mighty hand; or, let the knowledg of the wisdom and goodness of God send thee to such constructions of his most severe Providences, as may perswade thee to expect with patience a happy issue.
4ly, Examine your selves whether or no this Gospel of 2 Cor. 13. 17.Peace hath laid the true foundations of peace in your own souls. Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith; Prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Somewhat I shall say for explaining the last word of this Text, whose misconstruction hath startled many, supposing that it means all those are Castaways, utterly rejected offoreign God who know not that Christ is in them. Whereas the import of the word here is, without proof, or that judgment and sa…city by which it is to be discerned. But we return to the Exhortation.
He determines blindfold this great question, whether for or against himself, who doth it without serious and due examination. The Peace of the Gospel in its consolations derives from a reflect act upon our state. Our state as being in the faith, possessed by its principles. Christ in us in his dominion and spirit of Grace, is the promise, from which an enlightned judgment and Conscience draws peace as the improvement and just conclusion. I will not put so much upon examination as some do who are exercised almost in nothing else. For 'tis my opinion after deep consideration of the case, that many lose their peace by over-doing in seeking it this way. And that to be pressing forward in our duty and resignation practical to the obedience of faith, is the shortest cut to peace, and raises its evidence to such a degree, as is not only to be seen with more ease and certainty, but felt also. To love God, and truth, and holiness, and live in the exercise and pursuit of them as our main end and business, will hardly leave room for a doubt of our sincerity. Yet I would have both allowed a due share in our exercises. Let not the peace of the Gospel be of so low a value, or an indifferent thing with thee, as not worth both the pursuit and the examination of thine interest in it.
SECT. II.
The comfort of knowing upon due inquiry that we are interested in the peace of the Gospel. The prudence of seeking the truth in this matter, concerning our selves. The security and tendency to a change for the better, which is in knowing our not having the peace of the Gospel. Some Exhortations to such who embrace not the Gospel savingly. I shall handle all these briefly.
First, The comfort of knowing our interest in the Peace of the Gospel.
Every thing, whether good or evil, affects with joy or sorrow as it toucheth us, or is our concern. Relation to, or propriety in whatever, doubles and puts the accent and emphasis upon it. To know that this God, this Redeemer, and this Covenant and Gospel of Peace is ours is another kind of pleasure of a higher relish unexpressibly more greateful and comfortable than the most accurate knowledg of all the excellencies that are in them abstracted from our relation to them, and interest in them. Therefore the wise Merchant when he had found the inestimable Pearl bought the field wherein those riches were, and sold all he had to make theMat. 13. 44 purchase. And the wise woman considereth a field and Prov. 31. 16.she buyeth it; that is, that it might be her field.
It is a great unhappiness to know a good that is without our reach, or that we have not somewhat within our reach that can supply its room. This may be one construction of that truth, He that increaseth knowledg encreas…th sorrow. But to haveEccl. 1. 18. it not only possible to be ours, but certainly so, affects with proportionable pleasure. This is the happiness of assurance which is more than meer saving faith without it; That we can rejoice in what we have in hand, and what we have in hope. We begin to reap in this life. We can draw water of life out of the Promises as out of our own Cistern. As the great blessing of the Covenant of Grace lies in this relative particle my or thy, my Lord, and my God, I will be their God, their Father; So the great consolation is in the knowledg of our interest in him.
Wicked men, yea the Devils themselves may know as much of the being of God, and his infinite perfections, and of the Grace of the Gospel, as a Saint, or an Angel; but this is so sar from contributing to their comfort, that 'tis the very flame of their trouble, they could rather wish they were not, and the cause is, that they know them as a felicity inaccessible by them. Certainly no less comfortable is the knowledg of the Treasures of the Gospel as ours; this unites us to them, and communicates their comforts to us. To be particular in the comforts of a well grounded assurance, would fill a Volume by its self. I shall add only, that all the good of the life that now is, and that which is to come, we can then put in ballance against the evils and afflictions of this present life. This will not only overballance them, but render them light afflictions indeed.
But 2ly, supposing that upon examination we find not an answer of peace, but on the contrary, that in our present state we are in the gall of bitterness, and have no lot in this matter of the Peace of the Gospel. Had we not better have saved our selves the trouble of searching, than to find an insupportable trouble, a sentence of death upon record against us, that we have nothing to do with peace?
I answer, That the case the thing in its self and really is but the same; 'tis not the true or false conceptions that make any alteration therein, yet there is a mighty advantage in the knowledg of the Truth, though the Truth do not presently make us free from, but feel our misery which before we had no sense of. For,
First, It is a happiness to be undecieved. And it must be so, if it be an evil to be deluded and cheated. I have read of a Prince whose General being defeated in a battel: The General sent him news of a great victory, which was the cause of three days rejoycing in Court and City. But the truth being soon brought to light, and the General returned, he was demanded by his Prince how he durst put such a trick upon him. He answered that the three joyful days they had in the room of three melancholly ones, in case they had known the truth, might not only excuse him, but merit some thanks for his good policy. I leave you to judg what was his reward for such a mockery. And what improvement to make of it to my present purpose.
2ly, Considering that tho we are at present strangers to the Peace of the Gospel, having no interest in the Covenane of promise, yet this sad condition is not unalterable, 'tis not incurable, 'tis a most necessary and good step to a well-grounded peace. A conviction of our present misery is exceedingly desirable. I cannot blame those Physicians and friends that bury the truth in silence, when the Patients condition is hopeless. But to conceal a mortal disease that's curable, to save a little present ease or satisfaction to the Patient, would be a cruel treachery. The whole need not the Physician (saith our Saviour) but the sick. i. e. 'tis a dangerous thing to think our selves whole when we are not; for then we supposing no need of the Physician, will not go to him, and will slight him if he come to us. That man that is arrived at a conviction of his present evil state; and a due sense of it, and a knowledg of the remedy, is gotten a great way toward a happy change. The Jews that slew the Lord of Life were pricked at the heart by their convictions, but that stab at heart was a happy one, a healing one for them; for, it led them to the Lord of Life, to whom never any came for life in good earnest, and went away without it.
A second Exhortation well grounded on this Doctrine that the Gospel is a Gospel of Peace, is, That you would not deceive your selves by seeking peace where it is not to be found, nor in any method but what the Gospel proposes. There 'tis to be found, and theJoh. 6. 68. way to it, and no where else. We seek the living among the dead if we go to the creature, or nature, or to God himself without Jesus Christ. To whom should we go, (said Peter) Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Fourthly; Bless God that you are yet under the sound and tenders of the Gospel of Peace. The fallen Angels, so much more excellent by Nature than you, never had such Grace appeared to them. Those Men and Women who are gone to their place, dying in their Sins, shall never have its tenders again: this last might have been your present case; the only Grace of God hath made the difference; acknowledg it by blessing, and glorifying him for such an unspeakable Gift.
Fifthly; Embrace the Gospel of Peace, that you may injoy the Peace of the Gospel: Embrace its Promises, its Precepts, its Doctrines and Counsels: Embrace its Mediator in the acknowledgment of all his Offices, of Priest, Prophet, and King; in the chearful submission of your selves to him, to his Merit, and Intercession; of your Faith to his Doctrine and Teaching; of your whole Practice to his Law and Government. I have shewed in this Tract, in many Particulars, what are its Characters and its Comforts, to which I shall refer you for Motives to this Duty; only I shall add two more in this place.
1. You can never have a well-grounded Peace till then. There is no Peace to the wicked, saith my Isa. 57. 1.God. And all that embrace not the Gospel tendred to them, are wicked in his sight, tho not flagitiously Mal. 3. 16.wicked among Men. The righteous and the wicked divide all Mankind; under one of these distinctions we must be found, in the great day of Discrimination for Life or Death to all Eternity. If no due regard to God and the Redeemer: If quenching the holy and gracious Motions of the Spirit of God: If despising the Riches of Divine Goodness: If Enmity to sincere Evangelical Holiness: If the highest Ingratitude to divine Love, Bounty, and Pity: If a wilful hard-hearted living to Sin and Vanity, and being altogether dead while we live, to that God and his righteous Ends, who gave us our Being out of nothing, be to be wicked; every Man and Woman rejecting the Gospel of Christ, are wicked with a witness. God hath said, there is no Peace to such; none but delusions and dreams of Peace; 'tis not all the Advantages thou canst promise Peace to thy self from, will be able to afford it, no not for the present.
2. This Peace of the Gospel will cost you nothing but what is next to nothing, or worse than nothing.
What are all the Treasures, Honours, Dominion, and Pleasures of the World, but next to nothing? A great part of the World (saith one) is but a Crumb which God casteth to a Dog. Wilt thou set thine Eyes on that which is not? (saith Solomon) who had Time, Experience, and Wisdom above all mere Men, to make a true Judgment of this World, and all the Contentments that can be extracted from it; Vanity of Vanities is the brand put upon it by him, and by the common Consent of all considering Mankind.
As for the Corruptions of our Natures, our foolish and hurtful Lusts, our Ignorance, Error, hardness of Heart, alienation from God, Indisposition to all Evangelical Goodness, our Deserts or Demerits, which are all the Evils of Affliction we are capable of here, and hereafter: If these are not worse than nothing, I know not what is. And are these hard Terms of Life and Peace, of Covenant-Union, and Communion with Christ? Was ever any Man so beside himself to stand on such terms as these? I would accept of, and embrace the Gospel of Peace, but, alas! I cannot part with my Sores and Stench, my Chains and Fetters, the Plagues and Diseases of my Soul: I would fain be as crooked, perverse, ignorant, deformed as I have been; I know not how to part with my Dreams of Felicity, the Sweets that derive from that relish my Diseases give them: But these are really the Follies of all Men who close not with the Gospel, out of dislike to Gospel-Holiness, and Happiness. He that sinneth against me [i. e. Christ the Son of God] wrongeth his own Soul; and he that hateth me, loveth Death.Prov. 8.