A47542:308
A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the…
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.
Secondly, There is the Voice of Christ's Spirit; and this Voice of his his Sheep hear also, and indeed none but they. Sirs, this is that Voice of Christ which doth the Work, and that which discovers who are his Sheep. The Voice of Christ's Word, without the Spirit, is not sufficient; the Word will not make Sinners hear, though it be spoken a thousand times over, except the Spirit's Voice do accompany it: I shall therefore open to you the Nature of this Voice of Christ, I mean, the Voice of his Spirit.
1. 'Tis an awakening Voice: Sinners are asleep, yea, in a dead Sleep, and sleep they will till they hear this Voice. The powerful Voice of Christ awakened dead Lazarus after he had lain in the Grave four days: And it must be the like Voice that doth awaken the sleepy and dead Sinner; Wherefore he saith, Awake thou 1that sleepest, and arise from the Dead, and Christ shall give thee Life. 'Tis sad to see what a multitude of poor People sit, day by day, under the hearing of the Word, and yet remain in their Sins: they are asleep, the Word doth not awaken them; but when the Spirit's Voice is heard, when that works with the Word, they are quickly roused up out of that dead Sleep in which they lay.
2. The Voice of Christ's Spirit, is a convincing Voice. Come, 1see a Man that told me all things that ever I did: The Spirit of Christ reached her Heart, convinced her what a vile Sinner she was: We do not read of many things Christ told her she had done, but that he she had then was not her Husband, ver. 18. so that she lived in Adultery with him. But now as soon as the Spirit convinced her of this one Sin, she is convinced of all her other abominable Evils; and therefore cries out, Come, see a Man that told me all things that ever I did; Is not this the Christ? Intimating, none but Christ can make the Evil of Mens Hearts and Lives appear unto them: So 'tis none but the Holy Spirit can pierce the Soul, or convince the Sinner throughly of his Sin and Misery, and discover the Vileness of their Hearts and States unto them; They were pricked in their Hearts,