Of the Peace of God, as Enjoyed by the Christian Under the Covenant of the Gospel
SOME ACCOUNT OF WHAT PASSED AT THE SACRAMENT, JANUARY 3, 1742.
The subject of my meditation at the table of the Lord was those words; “I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.” Isaiah lvii. 19. We are now in a circumstance of praise, which is “the fruit of the lips.” I observed with what majesty God claims to be the Creator of those fruits that were offered to him. It may indeed be said, “Of thine own have we given thee.” It is a new creation of his own. He has given the matter and the heart for it; especially in these instances. The Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed his church with his blood; this was the gift of the Divine bounty; redemption by him was the contrivance of the Divine grace, and so is a disposition of soul to accept of this salvation, and to pray to God for it. Why are we not like the mad herd who call themselves the wise men of this world, despising this gracious Redeemer? or why are we rejoicing in his salvation, and not mournino; and lamenting, and fetching our arguments of sorrow and distress from the very message that Christ has brought? It is God that has created this fruit of praise. He has caused the wilderness to bloom with this plant of paradise; and all the solemn desert, where no sound but doleful notes of sorrow and despair might have been heard, to resound with anthems of social joy! The blessed God condescends to reckon this up as it were among his royal prerogatives, and places the fruit of the human lips among the tributes in which he particularly delights! Yea, he utters it with a kind of sacred triumph, and repeats it to express the certainty of the fact, and to express the delight with which he pubhshes the tidings of it. “Peace! peace! unhappy creatures as you are, you have been at war with me, but I grant you peace. I not only send you the tidings of it, but I bring it myself; now I see that you are humbled in my presence, in the breaking of your soul;” for to such the context speaks. “I assure you that I am willing to be at peace with you; willing to give you all the joys of prosperity. ‘Believe it from my own lips. Believe it, and echo it back with a sacred pleasure; and let this be the first-fruit of your lips, ‘Peace, peace!’ I speak it to him that is afar off, and to him that is near; to Jews and Gentiles, to all the world that will receive it.” Peace is actually granted to him that is come near. Peace is proposed to him that is yet at a distance. This blessed peace is proclaimed to you who have approached this table in the sincerity of your hearts; to you who surround it; and to you who do not partake of the ordinance, if you seek that Lord whom we here commemorate, and do not absent yourselves in contempt; though surely it will be your wisdom, as soon as possible, more solemnly to declare your acceptance of his grace. “1 will heal him, saith the Lord” (that is, the afflicted humble soul, be he who he may.) “My wounds were the wounds of a friend, not those of an enemy. And as I have wounded, so will I heal; as I have broken, so will I bind up.” For all this let us return our praises; let us renew this covenant of peace; let us devote ourselves to God’s service with greater determination than ever, and let us do so according to the free access which is given us, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way which he has consecrated. May the Holy Spirit in this ordinance take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us, a blessing for which the ancient church used especially to pray at this holy ordinance.