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A54823
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Christ alone our life The great case of every man's life and death determin'd by the sentence of God, in 1 John 5.12. Opened and applied in a sermon preach'd in the Sessions-House at Northampton, Sept. 9th. 1690. to some prisoners the day before their execution: and now published with enlargements, for the further benefit and service of souls. With a narrative of the behaviour of the prisoners. By Edward Pierce, M.A. rector of Cottesbrook in Northampton-shire.
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Pierce, Edward, d. 1694.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing P2161; ESTC R218929
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83,820
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193
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That the First-born is of the same Nature with the rest of the Children thinking thereby to strip him of his Divine Nature and Godhead and to make him no more than a Man then he would partake of the Nature of every Creature as well as Mans for he is not said to be the First-born of Men only but of every Creature This therefore is a Title of Dignity and Honour as much as to say He is the First-born Heir and Lord of every Creature He is not a Creature nor called first Mr. P. Bayn on the Colos Christianni Schotanni in Collegio Miscellaneorum Theologicorum Disp 1. de prim genitura Sec. 11 12. Zanch. in Col. as tho first made but first and chief in Dignity and Power over all Creatures Psal 89.28 I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the Earth All things are subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 and put under his Feet Ephes 1.22 His Dominion is over all This is the Son of God's Love manifested in the Flesh suffering in our Nature even unto Blood to make Attonement and to procure us the forgiveness of Sin O how happy are they who have him 5. That he is not a Creature not a meer Man or made God which implies the greatest Contradiction Nor a Divine Man as if he were more like God than other Men as the Arians and Socinians dream and feign him to be but that the Son of God the Son of God's Love is true God and hath an undoubted Title to the Dominion of all Creatures is made evident from ver 16 17. in which there are these infallible Proofs of his Godhead 1. All things were created by him that are in Heaven and that are in Earth c. 2. As all things were created by him so they were created for him All things were created by him and for him therefore he was not an Instrument in the Hand of the Creator but the most High God and one God with the Father and Holy Ghost To us there is but One God of whom are all things c. 1 Cor. 8.6 All things are by Christ the Son of God and also for him as their End therefore he is the High God See Rom. 11.36 The Instrument is for the principal Cause That which I as the Principal do use my Servant to do is not for his sake but my own but the end of all these things was no less the Honour of Christ than the Father Reverend Holy Bayn on the Coloss If Christ were the Instrument of God the Creator in the Creation then all things would not be for him for his Service and his Glory who was the Instrument He was an equal Cause with the Father and the Holy Ghost because all things are for him for his Service and Glory therefore he was not an Instrument nor an inferiour Agent but one God with the Father Yet we must observe an Order in the Government and Administration of the Mediatory Kingdom of Christ Christ as God is one with the Father but Christ God-Man as Mediator hath a respect to God the Father John 5.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much Fruit so shall you be my Disciples John 11.4 I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 7.18 He that seeketh the Glory of him that sent him is true and there is no unrighteousness in him And Phil. 2.11 And that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father 3. And he is before all things ver 17. before the World and all things in it If he were a meer Creature he could not be before all things he could be but the first of Creatures but being before all Creatures he should not be degraded and debased to be made but a Creature But he is before all things that are made therefore God the Creator of all things for there can be nothing before All things but God as before all Time nothing but Eternity And that Saying of the Reverend Davenant upon these Words Quomodo fuit ante omnia si ante suam incarnationem non fuit Quomodo condidit omnia qui ipse non extitit Expos Rep. P. ad Colos might stop the Mouths of all the Socinians who make the Conception of Christ to be the Principle and beginning of his Filation or being the Son of God grounding their Error upon that Text spoken of before Luke 1.35 How was he before all things if he was not before his Incarnation How could he make all things who was not himself in being Saith that clear and learned Man 4. By him all things consist He supporteth and beareth up all things upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power Heb. 1.3 All things are continued in their Being Place Order and Usefulness by him by whom all things were made He beareth up the World and keepeth things together from falling into confusion and ruin I have been the longer in the Description of the Son that you may know him and that knowing him you may desire him come to him believe in him have him honour him admire him and do all that is required of you Consider one thing before I go to the next Head The Son of God is to be had as he is given and sent of the Father and as he is said to come into the World All which Expressions do signifie to us his Office and Undertaking of a Mediator with the Performance and Benefits thereof The Knowledge of him as such is necessary to and is the beginning of Eternal Life John 17.3 This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent as Mediator to mediate Peace between the infinite God and sinful Men. Therefore let me in few Words open to you the meaning of the Word and the reason and nature of the Office of the Mediator as he is called 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all where observe these things plainly 1. The Mediator is a middle Person between Parties 2. The Parties between whom he dealeth as Mediator are God and Man Medius Natura Medians Officio Trelent alii 3. The high Quality of the Mediator is set out by his Humane Nature and by his Names the Man Christ Jesus 4. What he did he gave himself a Ransom for all And by this last Particular we understand three things of great Moment 1. The Condition of all Men they were guilty of an heinous Transgression against God and were fallen under the Curse and Justice of God A miserable Condition 2. What God required and must have or sinful Men must abide and perish under the Wrath and Curse of God there must be a Ransom given and paid for them and that was the precious Blood of the Son of God 1 Pet. 1.18 19. and his Life
lost cursed state of Guilt Uncleanness Bondage and utter Inability to come to Life of your self 2. Have you seen the necessity of a Mediator to make your Peace and to bring you to a reconciled God 3. Have you been and are you still satisfied with Christ And Christ alone His Death Merits Resurrection and Intercession alone not joyning Antichrist as a Head bringing him to Christ and sodering him to you with soft Wax or binding him to you with a Rope of Sand nor adding Saints Merits and Intercessions to his Nor any other devised Supplements and Means of your Peace and Salvation 4. Have you with hearty self-abasement been and are you still a great Admirer of the way of your recovery by Jesus Christ And stand amazed at the Grace Wisdom Righteousness and Love of God in Christ 5. Have you come naked wounded poor and humbled to Jesus Christ upon his Offer and Invitation and taken him understandingly advisedly deliberately heartily and resolvedly through his Grace and Assistance without whom you can do nothing casting away whatever offends him out of his place and House namely your Heart And do you still know that you are dead without him And do you love him and observe him and the longer you are acquainted with him the more and better 2. What Use do you make of the Son Do you reckon him your Life Do you draw your Spiritual Life from him And do you alledg him Rom. 8.34 and plead him for your Discharge against all Accusations and trust him for your Salvation in his own way and your way of Adherence and Obedience 2. Positively All that have him are united to him that 's the immediate Work of the principal efficient Cause the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Spirit who makes Application of Redemption and brings Christ and his Members to be one and the immediate Work and Office of Faith given of God and excited by the Spirit like the opening of a blind Eye to behold an admirable lovely Object or quickning a dead Palsie Hand to receive a Pardon 2. Every one who is united to him and made one is regenerate and born of God 1 John 5.1 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 3. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And this having of the Spirit is made a Sign of the mutual Union between Christ and the true Believer 1 Joh. 3.24 And he that keepeth his Commandments of Believing on the Name of his Son Christ and mutual Love to the Brethren vers 23. dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us But how may the true Spirit be known By his Light Life Operations and Fruits As the Soul of Man is known to be a rational Soul by its Operations so is the Spirit of Christ known to be in Believers by his Operation and Effects Take your Aim and Direction in this from one effect of the Spirits uniting us to Christ and dwelling in us and that is Life He that hath the Son and the Spirit of the Son hath Life in him whereby he lives a New Life to God through Jesus Christ Where this Life is it is known by a spiritual sense and motion from Christ and back again unto him 2. By Hunger and Thirst by an Appetite to Spiritual Food As a new born Babe desires the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 3. By Growth and Strength As new born Babes grow and gather strength till they come to be Men by using proper means of nourishment as Milk and stronger meat by abiding in Christ and living by Faith drawing Supplies of Grace by holy Desires and Prayers with all perseverance 4. By Nauseating and loathing refusing resisting and casting out Contraries to it and using Preservatives These things being drawn up for your Service in this little room I return to my Exhortation to persuade you to have Christ to have him for Life for your Necessity is so great that you do not need him for less than your Life and that you would make haste and have him while he is near Isa 55.1 2. Or else you may seek him when you shall not find him John 8.21 And when you have him adhere to him have him and cleave to him for still the same reason continueth it is for your Life What will stir you if the Words of the Text will not Consider the unconceivableness of the loss and what is the consequent of it The greatness of the loss and deprivation and the nearness of it are implied in these Words Hath not Life Oh! Wo Wo to that Soul His state is infinitely worse than his who hath not the Light of the Day to look on nor Eyes to see it Worse than his who hath not a Friend in the whole World not a Rag to his Back not a Farthing in his Purse not a Morsel to eat not as much as a fading Gourd to hide his Head under not the use of a Limb not Skin upon his Back no not a Grave to rest in If every Unbelievers loss were as great as Job's was it were nothing to this Hath not Life It amounts to as much as the loss of God of Heaven and all that is therein The loss of Earth and the present Life is the least part of it This loss cannot be reckoned in the Ages of of the World it is a loss under which there is no support or relief to bear it Miserable Sinners can contribute nothing but Miseries and Sorrows to one another Nor will God himself ever repair it to any of them They who will not have the Son for their Saviour and Redeemer would refuse yea despise all other means and ways of their recovery and readmission to happiness They who do not assent to this wonderful way of God nor consent to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace now revealed would dissent from any other ways if there were any other reserved in the Will of God They who cannot forsake nor give up their Sins which a Disgrace a Shame a Burden a Perversion a Confusion of Nature which every Sinner hath cause to be sick of and in continual pain till he be delivered of it would never accept of Grace and Mercy upon condition of being Holy and pleasing God They who will not have the Son for their Saviour would not have God for their God and Father There being no way left to recover their forfeited Life they are lost for ever who lose it Q. But may not a man who hath not the Son at present have him and Life by him hereafter A. Yes if he have him while it is to day when God waiteth that he may be gracious But if he die before he comes to and receiveth Christ he dies in his Sin and is out of all hopes of Life Oh! who would for any business or any Pretence whatsoever delay the having of the