Seven Sermons, Sermon 3
SERMON III.
John 16 33.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace: In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
THESE words were spoken by our blessed Saviour not long before his suffering. The Chapters foregoing are full of spiritual sweetness: This blessed Sun of Righteousness did it seems shine more glorious and bright a little before his setting. Our Saviour Christ, he was now about to leave the world, and go to his Father; and therefore having endeavoured to comfort the hearts of his Apostles and Disciples, he knew they would be sorrowful; therefore the more he endeavours to comfort them; and this is the great Cordial he gives them before his death: These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. Christ foretold that Sufferings would befal his Apostles and Disciples: In the world, saith he, ye shall have tribulation: the Greek word for tribulation, it is a metaphor that alludes to Grapes that are squeezed in the Wine press till the blood of the Grapes comes out: So saith Christ, In the world ye shall have tribulation: You shall be put into the Wine-press, and perhaps the blood of the Grape may be prest out. Tribulation it is the Saints Diet-drink; it is bitter, but it is wholesom▪ All that God doth in afflicting his Children, it is but to make them better, and to try them, and make them white, Dan. 10. v. 12. Is it not far better to swim thorow the main River, the Red Sea of Affliction to Heaven, than to swim thorow the perfumed Joys and Pleasures to Hell and Damnation. In the world, saith Christ, you must look for, ye shall have tribulation: But Christ having told of this bitter Pill, he gives them some Sugar of comfort to sweeten it, and make it go down the better. In these words of the Text; These things I have told you, that in me ye might have peace.
First, Here is the dark side of the Cloud, tribulation.
Secondly, The bright side of the Cloud, that in me ye might have peace.
Doct. That the Lord Iesus Christ, who is our Peace-maker, gives his sweet peace to all his people; that in me ye might have peace.
That peace meant here in the Text, it is spiritual and sacred; it is the immediate fruit and product of our Justification, Rom. 5.1. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. This spiritual peace the Lord Jesus procures by his Blood, conveys by his Spirit, maintains by his Intercession.
First, This peace Christ doth purchase and procure by his Blood; it swims to us in the Blood of Christ▪ the Justice of God being wronged by us, Jesus Christ laid down his life as a price: that he paid for our peace: it is his blood that doth cement us and reconcile us to God the Father, as it is in Col. 1.20. Having made peace thorow the Blood of Iesus.
Secondly, Christ conveys this blessed peace by his Spirit; he doth procure it by his Merit; and he doth convey it by his Spirit, Iohn 16.7. The Lord Jesus left this peace to us as a Legacy: And the Spirit it is Christs Executor, to see that his Will be made good; and that we should have …his peace: And now God being at peace with us thorow Christ, Conscience that's at peace too. If the Heavens be quiet and serene, and no tempest there, nor wind blowing, then the Sea is calm. So if the great God be but at peace with us, and there is no tempest in his face, then Conscience that is quiet, and all is calm.
Thirdly, As Christ doth procure this blessed peace by his Blood, and doth convey it by his Spirit: So thirdly, He doth maintain this peace by his daily Intercession. What Saint alive doth not sometimes offend God, and cause the fury of his anger to rise up in his face! Now when the case is thus, that we offend God, and are ready to break his peace; then Jesus Christ he stands up as an Intercessor, and he speaks to God the Father on our behalf; and it is his request that God would lay aside his anger, and that he would smile upon his people again; and therefore in Scripture Christ is called our Atonement to make peace; and he is called our Advocate to purchase peace. When we break our peace, Christ he pleads our cause, and makes up this peace again by his Intercession, 1 Iohn c. 3. v. 7.
To make some Application of this▪
Use 1.
First, By way of Inference; See then here to what Coast we must trade for this Pearl; whither we must go for this spiritual peace that is our consolation in life and death: Go to Christ for it; That in me ye might have peace.
Saith Cyprian, peace it is in Christ, as sap is in the Root of the Vine, as water is in the Spring; That in me… ye might have peace, saith Christ. This blessed peace that Christ gives, it's worth going to him for; it is superiour to all other peace. Peace in a Kingdom, it is very desirable; peace it is every ones Vote. Peace, it is the very quintessence of earthly blessings: To sit quietly under our Vines and Figg-trees, surely better, a great deal better is the sounding of the Lute and Viol, than the roaring of the Cannon. See what a sweet promise God makes, Isa. 2.4. He will break their Swords into Plowshares: all shall be peace. But what is this peace to the peace Christ gives to his People that is sacred? This peace our Saviour gives, it hath these two properties, or these two qualifications, to name no more.
First, It is an Emboldening peace.
Secondly, It is a Lasting peace.
First, It is an Emboldening peace. Friends that are at peace, they use a kind of freedom and boldness one with another: So we having peace thorow Christs Blood conveyed by his Spirit, may be bold to make use of Gods Promises. There is never a Promise in the Bible, but a Believer may pluck a Leaf from, and be at peace with God thorow Christ. We may now use a holy boldness in prayer. We may come to God as Children to their Father, Heb. 4.16. Let us come with boldness to the Throne of Grace. God is our Father, and he being at peace with us, he will not deny any thing that may conduce to our real good. This may make us come with boldness to the mercy Seat: That's the first: It is an Emboldening peace.
Secondly, Christs peace that he gives, as it is an Emboldening peace; so it is a Lasting peace: Here is a peace that will hold. For all Earthly peace, to speak properly, it is rather a truce than a peace; a truce, that is but for a small time, and it ends: Yea but this peace that Christ gives, it is for ever. Once in Christ, and ever in Christ. Once justified, and ever justified: Here is a Lasting peace, Isa. 54.10. The Covenant of my peace shall not be moved, saith the Lord. The peace of a Believer, it is but begun here in this life; it is perfected in the Kingdom of Heaven, Isa. 57.2. He shall enter into peace: Here is a godly mans priviledge; when he dies, he dies in peace; and as soon as ever he is dead, he enters into peace; he shall enter into peace; that is, he shall go to the Ierusalem above, that City of peace. Here the Saints peace it is but begun; it is but in the seed, there it shall be in the Flower. Here it is but in its infancy, there it shall be in its full growth. That's the first; see to what Coast you must trade for this peace: Go to Christ for it; That in me ye might have peace.
Use 2.
See what a sad condition all wicked men are in, that live and die in their sins: They have nothing to do with peace. What! Shall they have peace that make War with Heaven, persecute Christ in his Members? Shall they have peace that deride and grieve the Spirit of God, whose very Office it is to drop peace into the Conscience? What, a sinner to have peace! 2 Kings 9.22. What peace, so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many! A wicked man is a worker of iniquity: As a man works at his shop; so he works at the trade of sin; and what hath he to do with peace? and how deplorable is his case! What if a Foreign. Enemy should come; sinners would be in a storm, and have no where to put in for Harbour. It is a very sad thing to be in Sauls condition; the Philistines upon him, and God departed. It is a very sad thing to have fightings without, and fears within; to have the Bullets shooting against the Ship, and the Ship leaking within? Isa. 57.21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God: And if God saith it, he knows it to be true. The wicked perhaps they may delude themselves, and presume, that though they go on in sin, yet they shall have peace; but to undeceive them, turn to that one Scripture, Deut. 29.19. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart. Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him; but then the anger of the Lord and his Iealousie shall smoke against that man. One may as well think to suck health out of Poison, as to suck peace out of Sin. Sinners they may be quiet, or rather secure for the present; but as 2 Sam. 26. it will be bitterness in the latter end. Guilt will sooner or later raise a storm, saith Chrysostom. Sin will conjure up the Winds and Storms into the Conscience. I have sometimes thought it is with sin, as it is with poison; there are some sorts of poison that will lie a great while in the body and not work; but at last it does wring and torture the bowels; a fit resemblance of sin. Men, they drink this poison, and they may be quiet a while; but at last, especially at death, then it begins to work, and then the poison begins to touch the Conscience. The great God of Heaven and Earth hath set up his Standard, and proclaimed open War against every impenitent sinner, and it will not be long, if men go on in sin, before Gods Cannon Bullets will begin to flie. Gods wrath may seem to be like a sleeping Lion; but this Lion will awake, and roar, and tear his prey. I will say but this, I confess God may bear long with wicked men, let them alone; he may bear long with them in respect of punishment, when he doth not remit the sin; but it will be sad with the sinner at last, a sad hour at death; the Body and Soul must part; and Christ and the Soul must part. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God. Can they have peace that strike against the Crown and Dignity of Heaven, and make War with Christ, and God, and Heaven?
A second Use is of Tryal.
Use 2.
Let us then search and examine; Have we this secret and sweet peace in our Souls flowing from the Lord Jesus? You may know it these three ways; and they are three sure Notes that will never fail.
First, Such as have Christs peace in their Souls, they are ingrafted into Christ; they are one with Christ. Mark the words of the Text; In me peace. First, we must be in Christ, before we can have peace from Christ; in me: Then peace▪ The Graft or Scien must first be inoculated into the Tree before it receives sap and influence from the Tree. We must by faith be inoculated into Christ, before we can receive of his fulness. The wicked they may presume to have peace, and that they shall have peace; and yet they are not acquainted with Christ. Do they think ever to have an Interest in Christs peace, that have no Interest in Christs person? it cannot be. A Christless Soul hath no more to do to lay claim to Christs peace, than a Woman hath to do to lay claim to a Mans Estate that was never married to him. In me, saith Christ: First in Christ, and then you shall have peace from Christ, sacred peace; it is a Legacy that Christ bequeaths: he gives this Legacy not to strangers, but to his friends; such as are united to him. First the Pipe must be laid to the Spring before it receives Water from the Spring: so we must first by faith be united to Christ, laid to this Spring by faith, before we can receive the sweet influences of peace from him. That's the first.
Secondly, Where ever Christ gives peace to any Soul▪ there he always sets up his governing Scepter to bear sway in that Soul. A pregnant Scripture for this, Isa. 9.7. Of his Government and Peace shall be no end. First, there must be Christs Government set up in the Soul, before there is peace. Whenever the Lord Jesus comes with an Olive branch of peace in his mouth, he always comes with a Scepter in his hand. A parallel Scripture for this, Zech. 6.13. It is a promise of Christ; He shall Sit and Rule, and he shall be a Priest upon the Throne. Observe, Christ as a Priest, he makes peace, but he will be a Priest upon the Throne; that is, he will bring the heart, where he gives peace, into a full subjection to his Laws; he will be a Priest upon his Throne.
Now let us examine; Have we given subjection to Christ Jesus? do we submit to his blessed Laws? does Christ Sit and Rule in our hearts as a Priest upon his Throne? then all is well. There are many people would have Christ to speak peace to them, but they will not suffer him to bear Rule: they would have his Olive branch, but they will not endure his Scepter.
Thirdly, If Christ hath given us this blessed peace; then we shall know it thus; then he hath made us to be of a meek, quiet and peaceable disposition. Where ever Christ doth give his peace, he makes the heart to be peaceable, Isa. 11.6. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb; the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid; that is, after grace is brought into a mans heart, and Christ hath given him peace, this man becomes of a peaceable and quiet disposition▪ Now, the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb; the fierceness of the Wolf shall be turned into the meekness of the Lamb. It was a saying of Bernard, that good man; he was a man of a peaceable spirit; and at any time when some fell out with him, saith he▪ I will be at peace with you, though you go on in trouble. Such turbulent spirits that are troublers of the common peace, they are like the Salamander, that lives in the fire of Broyls and of Contention; and they love to live in this fire. Surely, where Christ gives this peace, it makes men of a peaceable spirit; it turns the Brier into a Mirtle Tree. So by this we may know whether Christ hath given us this peace or no.
Third Vse is Hereditary.
And here I will turn my self to such as are acquainted with Christ, and this blessed Peace.
First, Have you this blessed peace from Christ? then be not over-much troubled about the afflictions and incumbrances that are incident to this present life. It is true, our lives, they are full of vicissitudes and troubles: it will be so. He that doth not expect some trouble, must go out of the world. Fear and grief are the two constant companions of Mans Life. You may as well separate weight from Lead, or moistness from the Air, as trouble from the Life of Man. Doth not the Text say, In the world you shall have tribulation? But here is that which may sweeten the troubles of Gods People; Christ gives peace: Here is an Antidote against your fears and troubles; and none like a Scripture Antidote; That in me, saith Christ, ye might have peace. This is a glorious peace indeed; it is a peace that will hold out in a Storm and Tempest; it turns a Prison into a Paradice; it turns our Mourning into Musick; it turns our Sighs into Songs and Triumphs. As that holy man dated his Letter thus; Written from the pleasant Garden of the Lion Prison. David he had Christ prepared▪ and therefore let the times be never so stormy, he would lie down in peace, Psal. 4.8. I will lay me down in peace. It was a very tempestuous time: David was flying from his Son Absolom: Now, saith David, I will lay me down in peace: I will take a nap, and sleep sweetly upon this good Pillow of Conscience: I will sleep in peace. David, he was in danger of losing two Jewels at once; but there is a third Jewel he could not lose, and that was a good Conscience. I read of one that had a precious Stone, and it was of that brightness, that it made it be like the Ark when it was tossing upon the Water. Let me allude to it: If Jesus Christ hath given us this peace; this will give light to the Soul when the Clouds do gather, and thou art tossing upon the Waters of Affliction.
Secondly, If Christ hath given thee a well grounded peace; oh! be thankful for this great gift: No Rhetorick, no Tongue of Angels can set it forth in all its glory. Peace of Soul, it makes a harmony in a Christian: Though there be never so many discouragements in the world; yet he enjoys a harmony in his own Soul. This inward peace, it is the best still Musick: That you may be thankful for this peace, consider how sad it is to want this peace, because this is the contrary of it.
I argue thus;
If the Devil, and horrour of Conscience, be so dreadful; then certainly inward peace of Conscience flowing from Christ must needs be very sweet: to have Conscience vex and trouble, it is, as it's well called, a sharp fury. Spira, he had that inward horrour of Soul, when he had sinned; that he died with the fear and terrour of Hell in his Soul; he thought Judgment less than that. Now if the sting of Conscience be so bitter; then the peace of Conscience must needs be sweet. Hath God set thy Soul, which was once like a troublesom Sea, now to be calm and peaceable? Oh! then sound thy Harp and Viol: Admire this God; sing forth praises and acclamations unto Christ this blessed Prince of Peace.
Lastly, If Christ hath spoken peace; if he hath dropt this blessed peace into your Souls; then let me beseech you, that you would be careful not to lose this Jewel. Labour to preserve this peace in your Souls: preserve your peace, as you would preserve your lives. And to that end,
First, If you would preserve your peace; take heed of Relapses; they are dangerous. Do not tamper any more with sin. Dare not to feed sin in a corner. Sin is the peace-breaker, Psal. 85.8. The Lord will speak peace to his people: But what follows? but let them not return again to folly: Let not them return again to their sins any more. There is a great deal of folly in our relapsing from a strict and holy life.
Secondly, Would you preserve this Jewel in your bosoms; this blessed peace; then make up your Accounts with God daily. Often reckoning keeps God and Conscience friends, Psal. 4.4. Commune with your own hearts; that is, call your selves▪ to an account, and make up your account; make them even; see how things stand betwixt God and your Souls: observe your Affections whether they are lively: examine your Evidences, and see if there be no decay in your graces; no loss of first love. Oh! keep the Reckoning even betwixt God and you; that's the way to keep your peace.
Thirdly, Walk closely with God every day: Live as under the continual Inspection of Gods Omniscient Eye: Live holily: Peace and purity they go together: The way to preserve our peace, it is to preserve our Integrity. Oh! keep your constant hours every day with God: Turn your Closets into Temples: Search the Scriptures: The two Testaments are the two Lips by which God hath spoken to us. Love the Word: Love Prayer: Love the Sabbath, Psal. 119. v. 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law. Thus you may sweetly enjoy your selves; and this Jewel of peace will be preserved in your bosoms.