A47542:810
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.
1. Because you are beloved of the Lord.
2. And also are elected to Salvation; and because beloved, therefore elected: Whomsoever God doth absolutely appoint to this or that End, he will assist or enable to do whatsoever Means is necessary in order to that End. Now the Elect are chosen to Salvation, to inherit Eternal Life; if therefore any of them miss of it, his Decree and Purpose is frustrated, which cannot be. We have another 1Text of the like Nature with this; For God hath not appointed us to Wrath, but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. From 2hence the Apostle argues, that they needed not to doubt of their Salvation: and by what precedes, it appears, that Election is a great Motive to Holiness; as when a Man that is sure of the Victory will fight courageously, Let us who are of the Day, or Children of Light, not of Night, nor of Darkness, be sober, putting on the Breastplate of Faith and Love; for God hath not appointed us to Wrath, &c. Children of the Night shall perish, but none of the Children of the Light ever shall. The Apostle ascends to the original Cause of it, which is God's absolute Decree of Election; Salvation would wholly else depend upon the uncertainty of Man's Will, and not upon the immutable and unchangeable Will and Purpose of God. Th•• is more than appointing the Means, it is an appointing the Persons, not appointed to Salvation upon the foresight of Man's ⟨p. 183⟩Faith, because Faith is the Gift of God, and proceeds from his Counsel, that's appointed too: else a Man may say, that I might be saved, I must thank God; but that I am saved, I must thank my self, because it was left to the liberty of my own Will whether I would believe, and be saved, or no. Two things are necessary in our Salvation; (1.) The Merits of Christ's Blood: (2.) Faith to apply it; by which God's Image is restored to us, and preserved in us: and both these we have by his own free Grace, through Christ Jesus, as the Fruit of his electing Love.