A47542:1125
A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the mediator to believers, and his direful wrath against impenitent sinners containing the substance of near forty sermons upon several subjects / by Benjamin Keach.
London: printed by the author, 1694
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. To renew, to regenerate, to sanctify them; this is the Work and Office of the Spirit: I will sprinkle clean Water upon 1you, and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness. And hence the Gentiles are said to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost. But pray take notice of this, the Rock in the Wilderness was first smitten before Water gushed forth. So Christ was first smitten, first crucified, then the Spirit like Water was poured forth: It is, Sirs, wholly the Effects and Fruits of his Death.
2. To renew, to regenerate, to sanctify them; this is the Work and Office of the Spirit: I will sprinkle clean Water upon 1you, and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness. And hence the Gentiles are said to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost. But pray take notice of this, the Rock in the Wilderness was first smitten before Water gush'd forth. So Christ was first smitten, first crucified, then the Spirit like Water was poured forth: It is, Sirs, wholly the Effects and Fruits of his Death.
3. It is the Work of the Spirit to cause us to walk in God's Ways, and to keep his Statutes: I will put my Spirit within you, 1and cause you to walk in my Statutes, and ye shall keep my Judgments, and do them. We should not do this were it not for the Spirit; we could not keep God's Precepts, nor walk in his Paths, but God puts his Spirit into us that we shall not depart from him; that is, we shall not finally apostatize from him, but shall keep his Precepts to the End.
4. It is the Work of the Spirit to help us to pray, and breathe forth our Desires to God: We know not how to pray, but as the Spirit 1helps our Infirmities, and maketh intercession for us with Groans that cannot be uttered. Christ having redeemed us from the Curse of the Law, it is, that this Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles: And because ye are Sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts, crying, Abba, Father.2
5. The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, is to enable us to mortify Sin: Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body, ye shall live. And hence it is also that Sin shall not have Dominion over them; and therefore Believers cannot perish, they having such a Helper: He destroys all that Dominion Sin and Satan had in them, and Power over them: The Spirit utterly spoils Satan's Kingdom in them, Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the World, saith John, speaking to the Saints. This is 1such a Helper that can never be worsted.
6. It is hereby we perform all our Holy Duties: By the Spirit Ministers preach to profit, and Hearers hear to their profit; hereby we read to profit, and sing God's Praise to our profit and sweet comfort: for as we pray with the Spirit, so we sing with the Spirit; and the same Measure, the same Fillings of the Spirit that enable us to do the one, enable us to do the other. By the Spirit we are also helped to meditate on God, and on his Word; and hereby our Meditations of him are sweet to our Souls.
7. 'Tis by the Spirit we resist and repel Satan's Temptations: Or if he doth at any time worst us, the Spirit will help us up again.
8. It is the Holy Spirit that doth confirm and establish us in the Truth.
9. In a word, All Grace is from the Spirit; and it is by the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit, that we are enabled to exercise that Grace: for as he first formed the Habit in our Souls, so it is he helps us to do the Act also, or that doth influence us in the Exercise thereof.
10. The Holy Spirit is also the Earnest of the Saints Inheritance: 1'Tis given to them as an Earnest of that Glory they shall one Day absolutely be possessed of: 'Tis given to assure them, that as certainly as they have received the Holy Spirit here, and he is in them, so certain it is that they shall be saved, or have the Eternal Inheritance. True, I have mentioned this two or three times already, yet it is of so great Importance, I cannot pass it by here: It is ⟨p. 261⟩no small Matter that God gives us, when he gives the Holy Spirit to us; for as he is that Principle of Life in us, so he gives us a full Assurance of Eternal Life hereafter: and it is upon this Earnest-Money a Saint may be said to live, whilst in this World; nay, and it will defray all his Charge, and supply all his Need and manifold Wants, as long as he lives upon the Earth, even until he comes to the full possession of his Inheritance above.
11. And as the Spirit is the Earnest of Glory, or of Everlasting Life, so he is also the Witness of God in our Souls; yea, such a Witness, whose Testimony every Christian may trust to, and rest upon: The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are 1the Children of God. It witnesseth to us our Adoption, that we are Children, and so Heirs, Heirs of God, and joint Heirs with Christ. There is a twofold Witness of the Spirit. (1.) The Spirit witnesseth by a direct Act, we taking hold of Christ, and of the Promise: Saith the Spirit to the Soul, I testify that Christ and Eternal Life is yours; you believe, and therefore you have Christ, and shall be saved. (2.) There is the witnessing of the Spirit by a reflex Act: A Man finds such and such gracious Effects of Divine Grace upon his Soul, and by these the Holy Spirit testifies he is gracious. One that loves God, that hates Sin, is changed, renewed, lives a godly Life; therefore is in Christ Jesus, and shall be saved.
12. It is also by the Holy Spirit that Believers are sealed unto the Day of Redemption. Also after that ye believed, ye were sealed 1with that Holy Spirit of Promise. Strange! Can these fall away? Can such perish that have received the Earnest of Heaven, and have the Witness of the Spirit, and have it sealed to them? No, no, God hath put his Seal, or Mark, upon them; he by his Seal hath secured them to and for himself: and all this is the Effects of Christ's Death and Resurrection.
13. The Spirit also thus purchased by Christ's Death, and given as the Fruits and Effects thereof to Believers, the Promise of the Father is, that it shall abide with them for ever; it is the great Promise made to Christ in the Covenant; My Spirit which is upon thee—shall not depart from thee, nor from thy Seed, henceforth and for ever: See the Words, Isa. 59. 21. there is the Promise of the Father; it is an absolute Promise, and it runs thus, it shall be in Christ and in his Seed, henceforth and for ever. The Spirit is called the Promise of the Father. Also we have a Promise of the constant abiding of the Spirit in all Believers, made by Christ, the second ⟨p. 262⟩Person in the Trinity; he told his Disciples, The Spirit of Truth, the Comforter should abide with them, and be in them forever. Unto 1these, add the Testimony of the Holy Ghost himself; for it is he that doth in the Word assure us of his own abiding with us; he hath chosen our Souls to be his own Temple and Habitation for ever; and also assures us, That all the Promises are in Christ, yea and amen, to the Glory of God. So that we have this great Truth sealed and confirmed to us by the Three that bear witness in Heaven.
Fourthly, Pardon of Sin is another Effect and Fruit of the Death of Christ, In whom we have Redemption through his Blood, that is, as 1the Effects of his Blood, even the Forgiveness of Sin. True, Jesus Christ satisfied God's Justice for our Sins, he paid our Debts, it is not Remission without a Satisfaction, but yet we are freely forgiven; we have it of God's Free Grace, but it is through the Blood of Christ; Remission of our Sins follows Redemption, as the necessary Effects thereof. Christ hath procured this Favour and Blessing for us, and Gospel-Remission or Pardon of Sin is for ever: I will remember their Sins no more, they are blotted out for ever; he hath cast our Sins into the Depth of the Sea, put them behind his Back; yea, he hath put them far away from him, as the East is from the West.
Fifthly, Adoption is the Fruit and Effect of Christ's Death; He hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law, that we might receive 1the Adoption of Sons. God takes us through Christ, or by virtue of Christ's Death, into the Relation of Sons; which Privilege we have for ever, we shall never cease being Sons and Daughters of God.
Sixthly, Free Access to the Throne of Grace, or unto the Father, is the Effect of Christ's Death: Having therefore, Brethren, 1boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living Way, which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil, that is to say, his Flesh, Christ's Blood: His Death opened this Way, it is by him we have access to the Throne of Grace.
Sixthly, Free Access to the Throne of Grace, or unto the Father, is the Effect of Christ's Death: Having therefore, Brethren, 1boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living Way, which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail, that is to say, his Flesh, Christ's Blood: His Death opened this Way, it is by him we have access to the Throne of Grace.
Seventhly, Another Fruit and Effect of the Death of Christ, is, Redemption from all Iniquity: He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, &c. Tit. 2. 14. Therefore this Glorious Effect his Death shall have upon all Redeemed Ones; it ⟨p. 263⟩was not to redeem only from the Curse of the Law, as some talk, but from the Guilt, Pollution, Power and Punishment of Sin; therefore Believers shall never perish.
