A47542:468
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.
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.
8. Sheep are subject to go astray; So are the Saints to go astray from Christ, and to wander from his Precepts: I have gone astray (saith David) like a lost Sheep; seek thy Servant.1
9. Sheep also are subject to take Soil and Filth, and therefore have need of washing: Even so likewise the Sheep of Jesus Christ are subject to contract fresh Guilt and Pollution on their own Souls and Consciences, Sin being of a polluting and defiling Nature; and therefore David cried out to his Blessed Shepherd to be washed: Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than Snow. O cleanse my filthy and leprous Soul in the 1Fountain of thy Son's Blood, signified by those Ceremonial Washings under the Law. If I wash thee not, (saith Christ to Peter) thou hast no part with me.2
10. Sheep love to feed and lie down together; Nay, it is a difficult thing to scatter, sever, or divide them from each other; and if by Dogs or Wolves, &c. they should be scattered, they will quickly get together again; and such that straggle behind, the Shepherd fears are not well. So the Saints and Sheep of Christ dearly love to assemble together; and it is an Argument that such are diseased, ⟨p. 111⟩or sickly, who forsake the assembling themselves with the rest of the Flock; Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another, 1&c. They that fear thee, (saith David) will be glad when they see me, because I hoped in thy Word. I can tell them that which will cause their Souls to rejoice; I have been afflicted, and tempted, and yet have been succoured and relieved by the Lord, because I hoped in his Word: So that none of them that meet with like Perplexities, need to fear or doubt of God's gracious Help and Support. Sirs, if wicked Men, like Dogs, Wolves, or Lions, do endeavour to scatter Christ's Sheep by Persecution, &c. they will soon get together again: And being let go, they went to their own Company again.2
11. Sheep need a shady Place when the Sun shines hot at Noon: which is a great refreshment to them, where they chew their Cud; and being secured from the scorching heat, they with the greater alacrity return to their Pasture. In this also the Saints may be compared unto Sheep; for evident it is, Believers do need a shady Place, a Place of Refreshment to rest in and under, in the time of the great heat of Temptation, Affliction, and Persecution: And at such Seasons the Lord Jesus hath a Place of sweet Repose for them; In me you shall have Peace: in the World you shall have 1Tribulation. Under the shadow of thy Wings will I make my Refuge, until these Calamities be overpast. Hence also Jesus Christ is said to be as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land; or in a dry 2and scorching Country, which, metonymically, is called a weary Land, because it makes the People weary that abide therein. Christ refreshes his Sheep under his own gracious Protection, in time of the hottest Persecution, &c. and affords them relief by his own Presence, and precious Promises: And when they return out of those Afflictions, with what joy do they feed in their Pastures, calling to mind and meditating upon those blessed Experiences they had of his Goodness in those hot and scorching Times.
11. Sheep need a shady Place when the Sun shines hot at Noon: which is a great refreshment to them, where they chew their Cud; and being secured from the scorching heat, they with the greater alacrity return to their Pasture. In this also the Saints may be compared unto Sheep; for evident it is, Believers do need a shady Place, a Place of Refreshment to rest in and under, in the time of the great heat of Temptation, Affliction, and Persecution: And at such Seasons the Lord Jesus hath a Place of sweet Repose for them; In me you shall have Peace: in the World you shall have 1
12. Sheep will live where greater Cattle cannot, even upon very hard and barren Commons, where the Grass is exceeding short, and be very well contented with it, nay, thrive upon it. So will the Faithful in Jesus Christ live, where and when the carnal Professor cannot, even in a Time of Want and Scarcity, when the great and tall Cedars whose Hearts are not upright with God, fall away, and their Spirits die in them. A poor Believer can live by Faith on the Promises of God, when he can't see by an Eye of Sense how he should subsist, yet doth then trust on God's Providence, ⟨p. 112⟩who careth for him; and he is contented and well satisfied with those hard Pastures the Lord is pleased to put him into: Although 1the Fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall Fruit be on the Vines; the Labour of the Olive shall fail, and the Fields shall yield no Meat; the Flocks shall be cut off from the Fold, and there shall be no Herd in the Stall: Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my Salvation.
12. Sheep will live where greater Cattel cannot, even upon very hard and barren Commons, where the Grass is exceeding short, and be very well contented with it, nay, thrive upon it. So will the Faithful in Jesus Christ live, where and when the carnal Professor cannot, even in a Time of Want and Scarcity, when the great and tall Cedars whose Hearts are not upright with God, fall away, and their Spirits die in them. A poor Believer can live by Faith on the Promises of God, when he can't see by an Eye of Sense how he should subsist, yet doth then trust on God's Providence, ⟨p. 112⟩who careth for him; and he is contented and well satisfied with those hard Pastures the Lord is pleased to put him into: Although 1the Fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall Fruit be on the Vines; the Labour of the Olive shall fail, and the Fields shall yield no Meat; the Flocks shall be cut off from the Fold, and there shall be no Herd in the Stall: Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my Salvation.
13. Among a Flock of Sheep are oftentimes some Goats, who feed with them, and lie down together. So in Christ's Flock are some evil and corrupt Members, such who are none of his Sheep, but Hypocrites, though they seem to feed and have Communion together; and these also are called Goats by the great Shepherd.1
14. Sheep are very fruitful, and do multiply in a little time exceedingly, though many of them may be killed by Butchers. The Saints may be compared to Sheep also in this respect, for they from a few have often increased to a very great Multitude. How few were the Number of Christ's Sheep at the time of his Ascension, yet in a little space we read, that their Number was five Thousand; And though the Heathen Butchers killed many Thousands, yet how wonderfully did they increase! which was marvellous in the Eyes of their Enemies. The like may be noted in these Days among us in England; what a few were they of the Baptized Churches, and other Dissenters, not many Years ago, and to what a Multitude are they risen now? Also the Saints grow in Grace, they are fruitful, bearing Twins, and none barren among them.
15. Sheep are sometimes separated from the Goats, for some special Occasion known to the Shepherd. Even so at the last Day shall all the Sincere and truly Godly be separated from unsound and unsanctified Ones, by our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd: Before him shall be gathered all Nations, and he will separate them one 1from another, as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats: And he will set the Sheep at his right Hand, and the Goats on his left Hand.
Secondly, To proceed: Tho I have already clearly opened the Properties or Characters of the Sheep of Christ, in speaking to several Parts of my Text, yet I shall in a summary way, here add some few Particulars further upon this Account, which may serve by way of Trial to all of us.
First, The first distinguishing Character of them is, They hear Christ's Voice.
What is meant by his Voice, and how they do hear it, we have showed.
What is meant by his Voice, and how they do hear it, we have shewed.
Secondly, Christ's Sheep have passed through a great Change, a glorious, internal and visible Change. They are converted Persons, renewed or regenerated by Divine Grace: They were once like other Men and Women, and had no Sheep-like Nature, (as you have heard) but rather the same filthy, unclean, and brutish Nature of Swine, &c. which is in all ungodly Ones.
1. It is a real Change from Nature to Grace; 'tis not a seeming, a nominal, or notional, but a true and real Change; they have a new Heart, a new Spirit, a new Nature created in them; they are become new Creatures: all real Operations of the Spirit suppose some real Form; a real Habit is infused, from whence they act, which works in them a ready Inclination, Disposition, and sweet Propensity to do that which is truly and spiritually Good.
2. And this is common to all the Sheep of Jesus Christ; in this respect they are all alike, having all obtained the same precious Faith, as to the Quality of it: As all Wolves have the Nature of Wolves, and all Swine the Nature of Swine, and all Sheep have the Nature of Sheep; so all the Saints and Children of God have the Nature of Saints; all Believers and Sheep of Jesus Christ have one holy Nature.
3. It is a Nature and Disposition quite contrary to that which was in them formerly: 'Tis a mighty Change, as when a Wolf is made a Lamb, the "Wolfish Nature (as one observes) is lost, and the Lamb-like Nature is introduced. By Corruption Man was Carnal and Brutish, but by the new Creation he is Spiritual and Divine; by Corruption he hath the Image of the Devil, by this he is restored to the Image of God; by that he had the Seeds of all Villainies, by this the Seed of all Graces." He was an Enemy to God, nay, had Enmity in his Heart against God; but now he loves God, loves Christ, loves Holiness, loves the Ways of God, and People of God.
3. It is a Nature and Disposition quite contrary to that which was in them formerly: 'Tis a mighty Change, as when a Wolf is made a Lamb, the "Wolfish Nature (as one observes) is lost, and the Lamb-like Nature is introduced. By Corruption Man was Carnal and Brutish, but by the new Creation he is Spiritual and Divine; by Corruption he hath the Image of the Devil, by this he is restored to the Image of God; by that he had the Seeds of all Villanies, by this the Seed of all Graces." He was an Enemy to God, nay, had Enmity in his Heart against God; but now he loves God, loves Christ, loves Holiness, loves the Ways of God, and People of God.
4. It is an universal Change, a Change of the whole Heart; as when a Child is formed in the Womb, it hath all the Parts, Nature doth not fashion one Part and leave another imperfect: So the Holy Spirit forms every Part of the new Creature in the Soul of the Regenerate. This Habit is but one, 'tis an entire Rectitude in all the Faculties, and an universal Principle of inclining 1and disposing to that which is good and well-pleasing to God: there is a Divine Light in the Understanding, by which the Soul ⟨p. 114⟩sees God to be its chief Good, and owns and looks upon him as such. There is a Change in the Will, that consents and chooses God as such; there is a Change in the Affections. There is no true Draught of the Image of God in us, unless there be a Rectitude of Affection and Disposition: There is therefore a conformity of Affections to God, they love God, and love as God loves, and hate as God hateth; they hate Evil, because of that inward Filthiness that is in it, and love Grace and Virtue, because of its pure and native Beauty and Excellency: therefore it is from hence the Soul comes to take delight in God.
4. It is an universal Change, a Change of the whole Heart; as when a Child is formed in the Womb, it hath all the Parts, Nature doth not fashion one Part and leave another imperfect: So the Holy Spirit forms every Part of the new Creature in the Soul of the Regenerate. This Habit is but one, 'tis an intire Rectitude in all the Faculties, and an universal Principle of inclining 1and disposing to that which is good and well-pleasing to God: there is a Divine Light in the Vnderstanding, by which the Soul ⟨p. 114⟩sees God to be its chief Good, and owns and looks upon him as such. There is a Change in the Will, that consents and chuses God as such; there is a Change in the Affections. There is no true Draught of the Image of God in us, unless there be a Rectitude of Affection and Disposition: There is therefore a conformity of Affections to God, they love God, and love as God loves, and hate as God hateth; they hate Evil, because of that inward Filthiness that is in it, and love Grace and Vertue, because of its pure and native Beauty and Excellency: therefore it is from hence the Soul comes to take delight in God.
