A47542:888
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.
5. The more you know of Christ's Love, the more your Hearts will die (and your Love cool) to all earthly things.
6. The more you know of Christ's Love, the more firmly you will be fixed and settled in his Truth, and be delivered from Fears and Doubts about your standing. Alas, it is not Sin, nor Satan, nor Hell, nor Death, that can deprive your Souls of Christ's Love, if you are his. If Satan says, Thou art a vile Sinner, and lays before thee the Baseness of thy Heart; tell him, Christ's Love passeth Knowledge. Does he say, that thou wilt fall one time or another? Tell him, Christ loved thee not for thy Righteousness; and his Love that is so infinite, will never suffer thee to fall and rise no more.
6. The more you know of Christ's Love, the more firmly you will be fixed and setled in his Truth, and be delivered from Fears and Doubts about your standing. Alas, it is not Sin, nor Satan, nor Hell, nor Death, that can deprive your Souls of Christ's Love, if you are his. If Satan says, Thou art a vile Sinner, and lays before thee the Baseness of thy Heart; tell him, Christ's Love passeth Knowledg. Does he say, that thou wilt fall one time or another? Tell him, Christ loved thee not for thy Righteousness; and his Love that is so infinite, will never suffer thee to fall and rise no more.
7. The Knowledge of Christ's Love will make us to speak well of God, and Christ, and his Ways, at all times; still we shall say, the Love of God, and Jesus Christ, is the same, all is in Love; whom I love, I rebuke and chasten: Christ's Love known and experienced, 1will be a Cordial to bear thee up to the end of thy Days.
7. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will make us to speak well of God, and Christ, and his Ways, at all times; still we shall say, the Love of God, and Jesus Christ, is the same, all is in Love; whom I love, I rebuke and chasten: Christ's Love known and experienced, 1will be a Cordial to bear thee up to the end of thy Days.
8. This will set your Souls at liberty, and bring you out of the Spirit of Bondage, and make you to run after him: But it is 1not the knowing of Christ's Love in any degree, but to that degree that passeth Knowledge; a Love that can't fail which will do this.
8. This will set your Souls at liberty, and bring you out of the Spirit of Bondage, and make you to run after him: But it is 1not the knowing of Christ's Love in any degree, but to that degree that passeth Knowledg; a Love that can't fail which will do this.
9. The Knowledge of Christ's Love will make you cling and cleave to him: Christ is the Lodestone, and our Soul the Needle; and now our Soul having touched him, it makes to the Centre; and though you may, like the Needle, tremble for a Time, yet you are hastening to him, and never will rest till you come to him whom your Souls love.
9. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will make you cling and cleave to him: Christ is the Loadstone, and our Soul the Needle; and now our Soul having touched him, it makes to the Center; and though you may, like the Needle, tremble for a Time, yet you are hastening to him, and never will rest till you come to him whom your Souls love.
10. The more you know of him, and of his Love, the more will be your inward Joy and Peace: For this is the Way to be filled with all the Fullness of God, and to know the Love of Christ 1which passeth Knowledge, that you may be filled with all the Fullness of God.
10. The more you know of him, and of his Love, the more will be your inward Joy and Peace: For this is the Way to be filled with all the Fulness of God, and to know the Love of Christ 1which passeth Knowledg, that you may be filled with all the Fulness of God.
Secondly, This may reprehend and sharply reprove, such Christians that doubt of the Love of Christ; especially those who affirm, that justified and sanctified Persons may for ever lose his Love and ⟨p. 202⟩perish; for this renders his Love mutable and changeable, according as the Love of Mortals change one towards another.
Thirdly, and lastly, What Comfort and Consolation doth this afford to all true Christians?
But I must proceed to the next Argument, to prove, That Saints shall not, cannot finally fall so as to perish.
Fourthly, Christ's Sheep, his Saints, shall never so fall, as finally 1and eternally to perish, I shall in the next place prove, and that from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace.
First. Because it is a Covenant of Grace: We do not stand in this Covenant, as Adam stood in the first Covenant.
And now that it is a Covenant of Grace, will appear, if we consider with whom this Covenant was primarily made; and that was with Jesus Christ, it was made between God in the Person 1of the Father, and Man in the Person of Christ. Our Lord Jesus was constituted in this Covenant, the great Head, Representative, and blessed Surety, for and in behalf of all the Father gave unto him. Adam had no Surety that undertook for him in the first Covenant, as a Covenanting Hand, but was entrusted with all his Riches, all being put into his own Hand, which he soon by his Sin lost, and undid himself and all his Posterity, whom he was set up as the common Head and Representative of. God foreseeing this, he would not enter into a Covenant any more with Man, his Credit being for ever lost: And since he lost all when he had Power to stand, there was no likelihood or possibility of his standing, after he had deprived himself of his Power of doing good, being depraved in all the Faculties of his Soul. Therefore Christ was set up, set up from Everlasting, by the Holy God, (who foresaw all things before they came to pass) as the Head and Surety of the New Covenant, (called the New Covenant, in respect had to the time of the Revelation of it to Mankind, it being not known until Man had broke the first Covenant): now Christ undertook in the Covenant of Grace for all the Elect, he personating them, when the Father and he entered into that glorious Compact or Covenant-Transactions, we having not then an actual Being, he represented all that were given to him out of the lost Lump of fallen Man; and undertook, as Mediator, to make up that Breach that was between God and Man; and by his perfect Obedience to merit for them Everlasting Life, and to bring them all to Glory. ⟨p. 203⟩This being so, nothing can more fully demonstrate the Certainty of their Salvation, and the Impossibility of any of their perishing; for they for whom Jesus Christ did undertake this great and glorious Work, even all the Elect Seed, were put into his Hand by the Tenor of this Covenant, to work out Life and Salvation for them, and to die in the room and stead of them; thereby to bear that Wrath and Curse that they otherwise must have suffered, born and endured for ever.
And now that it is a Covenant of Grace, will appear, if we consider with whom this Covenant was primarily made; and that was with Jesus Christ, it was made between God in the Person
Now in this Covenant, Eternal Life comes to us primarily by God's Free Grace, in his finding out, parting with, and accepting of his own Son to be our Saviour and Surety. And secondly, by virtue of what Christ hath done, and did undertake to do and suffer for all that should be saved, they cannot perish: I have found David my Servant; with my Holy Spirit have I anointed him.—My Mercy will I keep with him for evermore, 1and my Covenant shall stand fast in him. His Seed also will I make to endure for ever. His Seed, that is, all that are the Product of his Spirit, or are quickened and renewed by him. This is the Nature of the Covenant of Grace, Christ is their Root and Head, their Spirit of Life is in him, and it is derived from him in Regeneration, in a spiritual way, as our natural Life was in, and derived to us from the first Adam by Generation, in a natural way. My Brethren, pray do not mistake about the Nature and Tenor of this great and glorious Covenant: The Father, we say, enters into a Covenant with his Son, and promises Eternal Life unto him, and to all his Elect Seed, upon the consideration of what he, I mean our Blessed Saviour, was to perform in respect of those federal Conditions proposed to him, which he did then undertake on Man's behalf, or such of Mankind that God did intend to save. And the Father that accepted of him, and sent him into the World, and gave him his Sheep, doth look to him as to the final and complete Accomplishment of all things, that were either to be done for them, or wrought and done in them, in order to the Everlasting Salvation of their Souls. And this Christ engaged to do, and took them into his Hands in this Covenant to effect; which is clearly signified in my Text, together with a full Assurance unto us, that he will do it in spite of Sin, Devil, World, and all Enemies; Neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand. Our Blessed Saviour further saith, All that the Father hath given me, shall come unto me; and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. For 2I came down from Heaven, not to do mine own Will, but the Will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's Will that sent me, that of ⟨p. 204⟩all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last Day.
Now in this Covenant, Eternal Life comes to us primarily by God's Free Grace, in his finding out, parting with, and accepting of his own Son to be our Saviour and Surety. And secondly, by virtue of what Christ hath done, and did undertake to do and suffer for all that should be saved, they cannot perish: I have found David my Servant; with my Holy Spirit have I anointed him.—My Mercy will I keep with him for evermore,
This was the Covenant between them both, this is his Father's Will, that none, no not one, no nothing of them that were given to him, neither their Souls nor Bodies, should be lost, but all must be saved, he having engaged and promised to fulfil and accomplish the Father's Will herein. O happy Believers! you are not left to your own Covenanting with God, to the Power of your own Wills; nor do you stand upon your own Legs, but you are in God's Covenant, in Christ's Covenant; you are committed into Christ's Hand to keep, you stand upon your Surety's Engagements, his Undertakings; God looks to him, and expects that he gives a good Account of all his Sheep at the last Day; and Christ is able and faithful: He says, Them I must bring; I have struck Hands with my Father, I have covenanted and promised to die for them, and to call, renew, and eternally to save them; and they shall never perish. This being all true, what is become of the Doctrine (or rather of the gross Error) of a final falling from a State of true Grace?
Secondly, To proceed a little further: Jesus Christ, by virtue of this Covenant, and in pursuance of that great Work he undertook, did not only die to satisfy for the Sins of his People, but also purchased or procured thereby a gracious conveyance of the Holy Spirit, and the saving Graces and Influences thereof, to change their Hearts, bend and subject their Wills, and graciously to renew and convert their Souls unto God, which God foresaw otherwise could never be done, and also to carry on that good Work in them until they come to Glory: And this indeed he was obliged to perform, according to the Tenor of this Covenant. And hence it is that Paul saith, Being confident of this very thing, that he which 1hath begun a good Work in you, will perform it until the Day of Christ; or until the Day of your Death he will perform it; which denotes his Covenant-undertaking, he having obliged or bound himself as our Surety to do it. It is not said he will perfect, or finish it, but he will perform it. Had not the Apostle referred to that Obligation in the Covenant of Grace which he laid himself under, the other Expression had been as proper, i. e. to say, he will perform it. He is faithful, and cannot fail in doing and performing what he hath made a Bargain, or covenanted to do: As we say, when a faithful and responsible Person hath covenanted to do this or that, though the Work be great and difficult, and much Opposition lies in his way, yet he will do it, he will perform what he hath undertaken. ⟨p. 205⟩Hence David saith, I will cry unto God most High; unto 2God that performeth all things for me: To God most high that is able to do it, let Sin, Men and Devils, do what they can to hinder him. This is further confirmed by the Prophet; Lord, thou wilt ordain 3Peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our Works in us: All is the Effects of thy Grace, according to thy glorious Covenant. Hence also the Apostle saith, For it is God that worketh in you, both to will 4and to do of his own good Pleasure. No Man can choose that which is savingly Good, much less perform it, until his Will is graciously renewed: My People shall be willing in the Day of my Power.
This 1being so, how contrary is this Doctrine to that which some Men maintain concerning the Power of the Creature, or Power of Man's depraved Will, the purport of which leaves the Salvation of every Soul at the greatest Uncertainty imaginable? They tell you Christ died for all Men, that is, for their Good, and satisfied for their Sins, against the first Covenant, for all Men; and that all are put into a Capacity to be saved, if they will believe, repent, and continue in believing and in well-doing to the End: they clearly intimate, that whatsoever the Decree or Purpose of God is, and whatsoever the Nature of the Covenant of Grace is, yet all is at the determination of Man's own Will, whether any one will be saved or not, God affording him only strong moral Persuasions, Reasons, Motives, and Subjective Considerations thereunto, which may, or may not incline, excite or prevail with him to believe and obey the Gospel, and perform the procuring Conditions of Life and Salvation; or they may not incline, excite or prevail with any one Soul: they do not, will not say, that Christ is under an Obligation, by virtue of the Covenant made with the Father, to afford effectual Grace, special Aid, internal Strength to any, in order to bring them over unto God; but that it is left to the Creature, and that he needs no such supernatural or irresistible Grace to work upon him: Which doth, (1.) Evidently tend to ascribe the whole Glory of our Regeneration and Perseverance in Grace unto Man, and not to the Grace of God: for that Act of our Wills on this Supposition whereby we convert unto God, is merely an Act of our own, and not of the special Grace of God. This is clear; for if the Act it self were of effectual Grace, then would it not be in the Power of the Will to hinder it, as a late Reverend Minister notes.2 Also (2.) it would and must follow, that this would leave Regeneration and Salvation absolutely uncertain, (notwithstanding ⟨p. 206⟩the Purpose of God, the Covenant of Grace, the Undertaking and Death of Christ) whether ever any one in all the World should be saved, or no, as I hinted before: for when God hath done all, Christ hath done all that he is concerned in, or is to do on his part, it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man, whether it shall be effectual, or not; which is directly contrary to the Covenant, Promise and Oath of God unto Jesus Christ: (3.)
Secondly, To proceed a little further: Jesus Christ, by virtue of this Covenant, and in pursuance of that great Work he undertook, did not only die to satisfy for the Sins of his People, but also purchased or procured thereby a gracious conveyance of the Holy Spirit, and the saving Graces and Influences thereof, to change their Hearts, bend and subject their Wills, and graciously to renew and convert their Souls unto God, which God foresaw otherwise could never be done, and also to carry on that good Work in them until they come to Glory: And this indeed he was obliged to perform, according to the Tenour of this Covenant. And hence it is that Paul saith, Being confident of this very thing, that he which 1hath begun a good Work in you, will perform it until the Day of Christ; or until the Day of your Death he will perform it; which denotes his Covenant-undertaking, he having obliged or bound himself as our Surety to do it. It is not said he will perfect, or finish it, but he will perform it. Had not the Apostle referred to that Obligation in the Covenant of Grace which he laid himself under, the other Expression had been as proper, i. e. to say, he will perform it. He is faithful, and cannot fail in doing and performing what he hath made a Bargain, or covenanted to do: As we say, when a faithful and responsible Person hath covenanted to do this or that, though the Work be great and difficult, and much Opposition lies in his way, yet he will do it, he will perform what he hath undertaken. ⟨p. 205⟩Hence David saith, I will cry unto God most High; unto 2God that performeth all things for me: To God most high that is able to do it, let Sin, Men and Devils, do what they can to hinder him. This is further confirmed by the Prophet; Lord, thou wilt ordain 3Peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our Works in us: All is the Effects of thy Grace, according to thy glorious Covenant. Hence also the Apostle saith, For it is God that worketh in you, both to will 4and to do of his own good Pleasure. No Man can chuse that which is savingly Good, much less perform it, until his Will is graciously renewed: My People shall be willing in the Day of my Power.
