Christ Gives Peace
From Jonathan Edwards in a sermon on John 14:27 - preached August 1750:
Christ gives peace to the most sinful and miserable that come to him. He heals the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. But it is impossible that they should have peace, while they continue in their sins, Isaiah 57:19-21. There is no peace between God and them. For as they have the guilt of sin remaining in their souls, and are under its dominion, so God’s indignation continually burns against them, and therefore there is reason why they should travail in pain all their days.…
I invite you now to a better portion. There are better things provided for the sinful miserable children of men. There is a surer comfort and more durable peace: comfort that you may enjoy in a state of safety, and on a sure foundation: a peace and rest that you may enjoy with reason, and with your eyes open. You may have all your sins forgiven, your greatest and most aggravated transgressions blotted out as a cloud, and buried as in the depths of the sea, that they may never be found more. And being not only forgiven, but accepted to favor, you become the objects of God’s complacence and delight. Being taken into God’s family and made his children, you may have good evidence that your names were written on the heart of Christ before the world was made, and that you have an interest in that covenant of grace that is well ordered in all things and sure, wherein is promised no less than life and immortality, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, a crown of glory that fades not away. Being in such circumstances, nothing shall be able to prevent your being happy to all eternity, having for the foundation of your hope that love of God which is from eternity to eternity, and his promise and oath, and his omnipotent power: things infinitely firmer than mountains of brass. The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, yea, the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, yet these things will never be abolished.
