s grace and everything good are
yours! and that he will abundantly give you his Spirit to remain with
you, blessing body and soul, if only you hold fast his grace and do
not allow yourselves to be deprived of it. What price would you not
gladly pay for this blessing, were it purchasable, instead of being
freely given, without your merits, and were you privileged thus to
buy the assurance of having a God so gracious, one willing to bless
you in time and eternity? Who would not willingly give even body and
life, or joyfully undergo all suffering to have the perfect assurance
of heart which says: "I know I am a child of God, who has received me
into his grace and I live in the sure hope that I will be eternally
blessed and saved." Think, Peter says, what a vast difference God
makes between you and others because you are Christians. He has
appointed you to be heirs of everlasting grace and blessing and of
eternal life. But they who are not Christians--what have they but a
terrible sentence like a weight about their necks? the sentence
pronouncing them children of the curse and of eternal condemnation.

26. If men would take this to heart, it would be easy by teaching and
persuasion to win them to friendship and kindness toward their
fellow-men; to induce them not to return evil or reviling from motive
of revenge, but when their own privileges and protection and the
punishment of evil cannot be obtained, quietly and peaceably to
suffer injury rather than lose their eternal comfort and joy.
Christians have excellent reason, a powerful motive, for being
patient and not revengeful or bitter in the fact that they are so
richly blessed of God and given that great glory whereof, as Peter
afterwards remarks, they cannot be deprived, nor can they suffer its
loss, if only they abide in it. The apostle emphasizes this fact and
further persuades Christians by citing the beautiful passage in Psalm
34, 12-16:

"He that would love life, and see good days, let him refrain his
tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: and let him
turn away from evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto
their supplication: but the face of the Lord is upon them that do
evil."

27. These words the Holy Spirit uttered long ago through the prophet
David, for the instruction and admonition of all saints and children
of God. David presents to us the matter as he daily