SERMON XV.

PSALM CXix. v. 165.

Great peace have they which love thy law.

THE Sweet Psalmist of Israel instructs by example as powerfully as by precept; he speaks what he knows experimentally of the goodness of the Lord, and testifies what he has seen and felt of the comforts of religion. In his devotional habits, no less than in his divine compositions, he exhibits the genuine beauty of holiness, and demonstrates the ways of heavenly wisdom to be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths to be From the whole tenour of the psalms of David it is evident that his obedience to the law of God was prompted not only by a sense of duty but by a feeling of delight. He seems to concenter all his powers and faculties upon the exercises of devotion: "I delight," he says, "to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my

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peace.

heart." "In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul." "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord;" "for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand." It was this pure delight in the law of his God and the way of his duty, which surmounted every obstacle to his tranquillity, and established a perfect calm in his breast amidst all the storms and tempests of the world. This peace was the precious inheritance of which no external troubles, no persecution of his enemies, no treachery of his friends, could rob him, and which in every varying scene of his life enabled him to run with delight the way of God's commandments. Peace, in the Jewish acceptation of the term, comprehended every blessing; and the usual phrase of mutual salutation among that people was "Peace be with you." The peace described in the text as the portion of those who love the divine law, or in other words, religious peace is a temper which none can conceive but they who feel it, and which none can feel, but with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. It has a character divine and inexpressible; it is that "peace of God which passeth all understanding." But if it cannot be defined in its essence, it may be traced and re

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presented in its effects upon the state and disposition of the mind in regard to God, our neighbour, and ourselves; and this shall be my endeavour in the sequel of this discourse.

In the first place, it cannot be necessary to prove that in order to enjoy real tranquillity, the mind must be at peace with God. We must have the privilege of looking up to the Creator of the universe as our Father which is in heaven. What peace can we know whilst conscious of our own sinfulness, yet uninformed or doubtful whether an infinitely just and holy God will be merciful to us as sinners? What peace can we know whilst visited with those painful recollections and foreboding fears, which the anticipation of judgment without mercy, must keep up in the breasts of the most righteous upon earth. Whilst there is no balm in Gilead for the wounded conscience, no healing medicine for mortal sin and frailty, none to intercede for sinful and eversinning man with his offended Judge, his soul will be disquieted within him, and awakened conscience forbid him to listen to the voice of . consolation. But Jesus is the Prince of peace, the Mediator between God and man, by the efficacy of whose atoning sacrifice we have peace with God, our guilty fears are silenced, and we

are emboldened to look up to him with serenity of soul in the endearing character of a friend and a father, through that adorable Saviour" who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification." And thus to every returning penitent who trusts in his all-sufficient merits, the Redeemer is made righteousness and sanctification; to them the disturbing power of guilt is destroyed, and a sure foundation laid on which the superstructure of their peace may rest; they have in their breasts a spring of never-failing comfort, in the assurance of their restoration to spiritual life through him "who in his own self bare our sins in his own body, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we were healed." The sting of death is sin. It is the dread of death, as the punishment of sin, and consequently as foreboding that future misery which is the effect of the divine displeasure, it is this which makes our last enemy the king of terrors. But thanks be to God who has deprived death of this sting, by the display of his pardoning grace and mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A second branch of that peace which they have who love the law of God, is peace with their neighbours. Arduous it must be confessed is the task to preserve the christian bond of peace and

good-will in a continual and unavoidable intercourse with those, whose worldly views and interests, and whose inordinate and insatiable desires, are "a law to themselves." We cannot wonder at the restrictive clause in that precept of the apostle to the Romans: "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men;" which words represent the great difficulty of the duty, and seem to question the possibility of complying with it. There is indeed a description of persons too numerous in the world, whose conduct renders peace with them impossible, consistently with duty, honour, and conscience. It is no breach of christian peace to contend for truth and religion with the open enemies of both. It is no breach of peace to stand up as the zealous adversaries of those who aim to subvert the faith, or to corrupt the morals of our christian brethren. If such enemies of the public peace are not discountenanced and reproved, their practices are abetted, and their hands are strengthened. In the cause of his righteousness and truth, he that is not with God is against him. But in other respects, as much as lieth in them, Christians will cultivate peace with all men, even with those whose principles and interests are most opposite to their own. Their hearts will not be