Christ as Your Peace
Thomas Wilcox (1621 – 1687) was a Puritan pastor and author. He pastored a small congregation, which met at his house in London before the Plague. He was imprisoned in Newgate multiple times for the sake of Nonconformity. After 1665, he pastored a church in the Borough of Southwark. He labored lovingly, with pen as well as tongue, until his death in 1687.
Thomas Wilcox writes in A Choice Drop of Honey From the Rock of Christ:
If you would pray and cannot, and if you find yourself discouraged, then see Christ praying for you—see His interest with the Father for you (John 14:16). If you be troubled, see Christ as your peace (Eph. 2:14)—see Christ as leaving His peace for you when He went up to heaven. Remember again and again Christ charging you not to be troubled—no, not in the least (sinfully troubled) so as to obstruct your comfort or your faith (John 14: 1, 27).
He is now upon the throne, and by suffering on the cross, in the lowest state of His humiliation, He has spoiled everything that can hurt or annoy you. He has borne all your sins, sorrows, troubles, temptations, and He has gone to prepare mansions for you.
You who have seen Christ as everything and yourself as nothing, are dead to all self-righteousness. Moreoever, you are a Christian, one highly beloved, and who has found favor with God—a favorite of heaven.
Do Christ this one favor for all His love to you, love His poor saints and churches (the meanest and weakest—notwithstanding any difference in judgement), for they are engraved on His heart, as the names of the children of Israel on Aaron’s breastplate (Ex. 23:21). Let them be so on your heart. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for they shall prosper that love you (Ps. 122:6).