Of the EFFECT of Juftification.

ROM. V. I. iv. 7. 2 COR. v. 14. Being justified, by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift.— Blessed are they whofe iniquities are forgiven.-The love of Christ, who died for us, conftraineth us to live unto him.

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HE next thing I am to confider, is, the effect of juftification with respect to the foul. And this is three-fold; and has refpect, 1. Unto the foul's peace. 2. Unto its state. 3. Unto its obedience, To each of thefe, a little in order.

And, 1. The effect of justification, to a justified foul, is peace. As Rom. v. 1. Therefore, being juftified, by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift. As Christ, by his death, made peace with God for poor finners, and as God the Fa ther declared himself to be the God of peace, when he brought again from the dead the Lord Jefus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep,

through the blood of the everlafting covenant; fo this complete and everlasting peace, is declared, and particularly applied to the foul, by the bleffed Spirit of God, when it is enabled to believe in Chrift for juf tification. Peace with God was the legacy our departing Lord left with his people, which was confirmed by the death of the teftator. Thus, John xiv. 27. Peace, fays he, I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: let not your hoart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. It is as if he fhould fay, My dear difciples, I am just a going to leave you, juft upon the point of finishing all that work which the Father gave me to do in the world, for your falvation: but when I depart, I will leave peace with you, my peace; that peace with God, I fhall make by the blood of my crofs, I give unto you. I 'do not give it partially, conditionally, and precariously; I do not give and take, as the world doth; but my peace I give

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unto you wholly, abfolutely, and irreverfibly therefore, let not your heart be • troubled, neither let it be afraid. Do not be troubled that I am going to leave you, as to my bodily prefence; for, it

is expedient for you, that I go away: I go to prepare a place for you. When, as your High-Priest, I have done the work of making peace for you on earth, I have still another work to do for you in heaven; I muft carry my peace-making blood, into the holiest of all, and fprinkle it before the face of God; and fo reconcile that holy place, and makė

• room for you to come thither; or there

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by, prepare thofe manfions, thofe abid

ing places in glory, which are appointed for you. And therefore, let not your heart be troubled, fince my departure from you is fo much for your advantage; neither let it be afraid, for as I made peace for you, by my death on the crofs, fo I will maintain it for you, by my life on the throne: you need not be afraid that there fhould be any after• breach between God and you, nor fear the leaft flaw being made in that peace

with God, which I give unto you.' And as this complete and everlasting peace with God, was made by Christ, and is given to his people; fo it is applied, by the bleffed Spirit, to every believer in particular; as our Lord promifed, in the

preceeding verfe: But, fays he, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghoft, whom the Father will fend in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your rememberance, whatsoever I have faid unto you. As this verfe ftands

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connected with the former, we may take the scope of our Lord's words thus; Though I am going to leave you, I will not leave you comfortless; I leave peace with you, I give peace to you; and I will give you the Comforter, whom the Father will fend in my name, to open this peace to your understandings, to apply it to your hearts, and bring it to your rememberance, to your unspeakable joy, while paffing through a world of trials.' And accordingly, when the Spirit of God has revealed the obedience of Chrift to the foul, and enabled it to act faith thereon, for juftification, he applies the blood of Chrift to that foul, by bearing witness to it, of its own particular interest in the ; death of Jefus, and in that peace with God, made by his blood; and hereby gives it peace of confcience; even true, folid, laft ing peace, that will abide through life, through death, at judgment, and to eter

nity t And this peace, is peculiar to a juftified foul, and a proper effect of justifi

cation..

An unjustified foul, indeed, may have fome kind of peace of confcience, while he works for life, goes about to establish his own righteousness, and quiets his confcience with his own obedience, either prefent, or refolved on for the future. But this is a falfe peace; confcience is but lulled afleep, and not truly pacified: as many as are of the works of the law, that work to make themselves righteous before God, are under the curfe, Gal. iii. 10.; and therefore must be wicked perfons in God's account: and there is no peace to the wicked, faith my God, Ifa. lvii. 21. The way of peace they have not known, Rom. iii. 17. They

+ Though our author here very strongly affirms the permanency of that peace which a juftified perfon has with God, through the blood of Chrift; yet he is not to be understood, as afcerting, that the peace of a juftified person is never interrupted in a prefent life, which is very frequently the cafe, through the prevailancy of the remains of inherent corruption, especially with exercifed Chriftians: he only means, that it is fuch a peace as the grounds and foundation of it cannot be utterly taken away, being Christ's legacy bequeathed to them; becaufe he refts in his love, and his gifts and callings are without repentance.