A47542:638
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. There is a Spiritual Life, which is the Life of the Soul, the Life of a Saint, or of the New Creature; this is the Life of Grace. 1I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the Life which I now live in the Flesh, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, &c. The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; and they that hear, shall live; that is, their 2Souls shall live, or be quickened and raised to a State of spiritual Life.
2. There is a Spiritual Life, which is the Life of the Soul, the Life of a Saint, or of the New Creature; this is the Life of Grace. 1I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the Life which I now live in the Flesh, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, &c. The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; and they that hear, shall live; that is, their 2Souls shall live, or be quickned and raised to a State of spiritual Life.
3. Eternal Life, that is properly the Life of Glory, or the Life of the other World, that Life which the glorified Saints possess above: The Wages of Sin is Death; but the Gift of God is Eternal 1Life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Object. But Christ says, I give them Eternal Life; He speaks in the Present Tense.
Answ. 1. I answer; you heard before that true and saving Grace is the Seed of Eternal Life, or the Seed of Glory to come, as Glory is the Harvest of Grace.
2. Spiritual Life is the earnest of Eternal Life. Now every Believer hath received the Spirit, which is the Earnest of their Eternal 1Inheritance: And thus they have it, as a Man that purchases an Inheritance, he gives Earnest for it; and no sooner that is done, but he cries, such a House, or such Land, is mine; 'tis his by virtue of the Earnest given, though he hath not yet the actual possession of it: so it is here.
3. Christ gives his Saints Eternal Life. Now because he gives them a sure Title to it, he makes them a Deed of Gift of it; or seals unto them a Right, and legal Conveyance of it, as firm as the Law and Ordinance of Heaven. Now when a Person hath a true Right and Title, or Deed of Gift, made and sealed to him of such or such an Estate, he may say he has the Estate, 'tis his own. And thus Believers have Everlasting Life, or the Eternal Inheritance, i. e. they have a true Right and Title of it sealed to them here by the Holy Spirit: After that ye believed, you were sealed with the Spirit of Promise, which is the Earnest of the Saints Inheritance, 1&c. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen.
4. The Spirit of God, who is that Principle of Divine Life in the Soul of Believers, is Eternal. Christ is in us; every Believer hath Christ in possession, and Christ is Eternal Life; and therefore he that hath the Son, hath Everlasting Life: These things have 1I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye may know you have Eternal Life, &c. Jesus Christ being in us 2here, is more to us than the Hope of Glory, for he is Eternal Life*; and the Soul of a Child of God, shall never lose nor be dispossessed of Christ, no not by Death it self, therefore may be said to have Eternal Life. They have Eternal Life abiding in them, because they have the Spirit abiding in them; But the Water that I shall give him, shall be in him a Well of living Water, springing up unto Everlasting 4Life.
Query. Methinks I hear some doubting Soul say, O that I could but experience this Spiritual Life to be in me! How may I know I am made alive, and have Eternal Life given to me?
1. In answer to such it is necessary to consider, that all Adam's Posterity by Nature are spiritually dead in Sin, or under a Privation of the Life of God, until spiritually quickened and made alive by Jesus Christ.
1. In answer to such it is necessary to consider, that all Adam's Posterity by Nature are spiritually dead in Sin, or under a Privation of the Life of God, until spiritually quickned and made alive by Jesus Christ.
2. Now as natural Death is made use of by the Spirit of God, to show what spiritual Death is; so also natural Life is tropically made use of, to demonstrate and discover spiritual Life.
2. Now as natural Death is made use of by the Spirit of God, to shew what spiritual Death is; so also natural Life is tropically made use of, to demonstrate and discover spiritual Life.
A Man naturally dead,
1. Is cold; all Heat is gone, if long dead. So all unregenerate Persons are spiritually Cold, or without any Divine Heat or Warmth in their Spirits; that Principle of internal Life Man had before he fell, being lost and gone, he is cold as a Stone God ward, or in a spiritual Sense.
2. A Man naturally dead cannot move, all power of Motion and Activity, or all vital Actings are gone also. So in Men spiritually dead, there is a Disability or Impotency unto all spiritual things to be performed in a spiritual manner; they can perform or act spiritually no Act of Life, or do any thing that is absolutely accepted of him: The carnal Mind is Enmity against God; it is not 1subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.—So then they that are in the Flesh cannot please God.
3. A Man naturally dead cannot breath nor speak, no more can carnal Men: Men spiritually dead breath forth their Desires in Prayer to God, they have no Tongue to speak for God, or to pray to God acceptably; all they do is dead Service, all their Prayers and Works, are dead Prayers, dead Works, because performed from Persons spiritually dead, and not from a Principle of Divine Life.
4. A dead Man can't feel, see, nor hear: No more can such who are dead in Sin, they cannot feel spiritually, they have a heavy Burden, a mighty Weight of Sin, Guilt and Wrath lying upon them, but feel it not: They are grievously wounded, but feel no pain, do not cry out; think they are well, and all nothing: They cannot see spiritual Objects, nor spiritual Things. These Dead see not Jesus Christ, see not his Beauty, his Glory; neither the Want of him, nor the Worth of him; the Eye of their Understanding is darkened, they have no Faith, which is the Eye of the new Creature: Nor can they hear in a spiritual Sense, until, ⟨p. 146⟩like dead Lazarus, they hear Christ's voice by his Spirit, and are made alive.
4. A dead Man can't feel, see, nor hear: No more can such who are dead in Sin, they cannot feel spiritually, they have a heavy Burden, a mighty Weight of Sin, Guilt and Wrath lying upon them, but feel it not: They are grievously wounded, but feel no pain, do not cry out; think they are well, and all nothing: They cannot see spiritual Objects, nor spiritual Things. These Dead see not Jesus Christ, see not his Beauty, his Glory; neither the Want of him, nor the Worth of him; the Eye of their Understanding is darkned, they have no Faith, which is the Eye of the new Creature: Nor can they hear in a spiritual Sense, until, ⟨p. 146⟩like dead Lazarus, they hear Christ's voice by his Spirit, and are made alive.
5. The Beauty of the Dead is gone, Death is ghastly; so is the spiritual Beauty of the Soul gone, of those who lie dead in Sin and Trespasses.
5. The Beauty of the Dead is gone, Death is gastly; so is the spiritual Beauty of the Soul gone, of those who lie dead in Sin and Trespasses.
