Chapter 23. Use 4: Do Not Despair of God's Making Peace in This Nation
the purpose of breaking the hearts of sinners and drawing them to come in and accept that blessed covenant that You have offered to them in Christ, and to be reconciled to You. Now, Lord, I desire to cast my soul upon this free grace of Yours in Your Son; O! that I might feel Your Spirit enabling me for such a glorious work as this."
O! that the Lord might hear such things as these from some of your closets today. It will cause the heart of God to rejoice that He ever opened the doctrine of reconciliation to you; otherwise, it will turn to the quite opposite end—it will only serve to silence your mouths on the great day. That is another use.
Chapter 23 Use 4: Do Not Despair of God's Making Peace in This Nation Yet once more: If there is such a way of reconciliation between God and us, if God has worked it so that it is in Christ, then truly, from this, we have no cause to despair in God's power, wisdom, and goodness to make peace in this nation. God has done the greater work. You see that God is a God of peace and loves peace; and in order that He might be at peace with the wretched children of men,
He has worked so wonderfully as to send His own Son into the world and provide such a way to ensure that peace may be made, and through that way, He has done it. He has made peace between mercy and justice; there is peace made between an infinitely provoked God and wretched, sinful, vile creatures.
I told you before that this was a mighty difficult work, indeed, the most difficult that ever was or can be in the world. If God has therefore accomplished such a difficult work in such a glorious way, then from this, learn not to despair but believe that God can work even peace for us in this nation, and that it can be an honourable and good peace as well. We are not only encouraged by this to cry unto
God for peace between Him and our souls, but we are also encouraged to cry unto Him for peace in the nation, and that He would put an end to these woeful times of destruction, misery, and war under which many of our brethren have suffered and bled.
Indeed, those who understand or have ever felt the work of God in making peace between His majesty and their souls are those who have such an interest in God that, if any people shall prevail with Him for peace in the land, it must be these. They will prove to be our peacemakers in the end, despite people at present crying out against them as if they were the means and instruments of causing the greatest debate, as if they were the enemies of peace. No, my brethren, those who have experienced this great work of God in making peace between Himself and their souls are the ones at the throne of grace, continually crying to Him, who is the Prince of Peace, to make peace in the land.
We desire peace. But you may say, "How can it be done in this way?"
Why should we ask how, when God Himself has made peace between heaven and earth? We see things so complex that we do not understand how it could be done, and we wonder how it could ever be brought about, that the spirits of men, being so set against one another, could ever find reconciliation. But God has ways, in His infinite wisdom, that we cannot comprehend. The spirits of any of our adversaries are not so desperately bent against us as we were by nature against God. If, therefore, God could find a way when we were
such enemies to Him to make peace between us and Himself, then God likewise has a way to make a true, settled, and lasting peace between our adversaries and us.
We should desire that, as God has made our peace with Him firm and sure, so the peace that God makes in this land may be somewhat like that peace He has made between heaven and earth. There is a firm peace made between God and us, a peace on which we may rest and confide. A peace between our adversaries and us, as things stand now, cannot be counted as secure; you cannot be certain of your lives even one night after it is established, given the current state of affairs. But we must desire that such a peace may be made as there is between God and us—sure, firm, and stable.
Therefore, pray much, and believe as much as you are able. And though things have reached such a strait that there seems to be no likelihood in the minds of men of how it should be done, they are not brought to as great a strait as things were between God and us before He reconciled Himself to us. And more was required to make up that reconciliation between God and us than could ever be needed between us and our adversaries.
And what was it that made our peace first with God? God was in Christ reconciling the world; it was the blood of His Son that saved our blood. Therefore, let all those who are godly go to this God of peace, not only crying to Him in prayer to make a true and firm peace among us but also presenting to Him the blood of His Son for that purpose. Say, "O Lord, You who sent Your Son into the world to make peace between our souls and You, look upon that blood, and let that blood prevail with You to make peace in England, that no more of the precious blood of Your saints may be spilled and shed among us."