Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A42685
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The nature of justification opened in a sermon on Romans V. 1. By Mr. Gibbons, sometime preacher at Black-Fryers, London.
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Gibbon, John, 1629-1718.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing G651; ESTC R216248
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24,547
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32
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Justifying grace that are on record in the Scripture What hath been done may be done again Nay will be done again in the case we speak of by the God that changeth not God hath pardoned as great Sinners see Ephraims case Jer. 31.18 see the Corinthians example 1 Cor. 6.10 11. see Pauls 1 Tim. 1.13 Whoever goes and doth likewise shall receive likewise for Christ is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Fifthly Consider it is the very design of God in giving his Son and of Christ in giving himself to die for us to Justifie such as thou art Isa 16.1 Luk. 4.19 20. Jer. 3.12 1. John 5.9 Use 4. Exhort First To the Unconverted Use 4. Exhort Let me then beseech Sinners not to love Death Why should iniquity be your ruin There is Balm in Gilead there is a Physician there Why are ye unwilling to be healed Turn ye Turn ye why will ye die Would it be a hard matter to perswade a Condemned Person to be willing not to be Executed were he not distracted If having a pardon offered upon the easie Terms of confessing his fault and serious promising Amendment he should bid the Prince keep his Pardon to himself for his part he was in love with his Chains he would not be Released he would die Thou art the man whoever thou art that neglectest Gospel-grace what Fury and Raging madness is it that thou art Guilty of Thy Soul with all its Eternal interests lies at Stake and as if it were neither here nor there what became of thee for ever thou despisest the riches of Gods forbearance after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.4 5. Is it well done of thee Sinner is this thy kindness to thy own Soul is this thy thanks to thy Redeemer How inexcusable art thou thy self being Judge thou can'st not answer it to thy Conscience to thy God with the least Colour or Shadow of a reason God sends his Gospel Proclaiming Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blottted out Acts 3.19 His Ministers Proclaiming We then are Embassadours of Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. Why dost thou hate thy Soul and say I will not why wilt thou not Is it because it doth not concern thee or because Eternal Life and Death are trifles small little things not worth thy considering or doth any body hinder thee No no our Saviour gives the true account Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Let me intreat this small request of thee for Gods sake for thine own take the next opportunity and spend half an hour alone let thy Spirit accomplish a diligent search pursue this inquiry to some Issue am I Justified or no if not what will become of me if it should happen sometimes such things fall out that I should die now presently I cannot promise my self that I shall see to morrow morning Thus go on and bring it to something before thou leavest give not over till thou art not only clearly convinced of but heartily affected with thy Guilt not only to see but seel thy self to be the Man who art undone without an Interest in this Justification Be in good earnest thou canst not mock thy God and is there any Wisdom in mocking and cheating thy own Soul What thou do'st do it heartily as unto the Lord as for thy life as one that would not rue thy self-deceiving folly when it cannot be recalled and if thou art hearty and serious in these Reflections 1. Thou wilt deeply humble thy self before the Majesty of the Judge of all the Earth with that self-abhorrence and Confusion that becomes one who feels himself even himself being Judge most righteously condemned 2. Thou wilt Sollicite and Assail the Throne of Grace with all redoubled favours and Holy Passionate Importunities of Prayer and Supplication giving God no rest till he hath given thee his Spirit according to his own promise Luke 11.13 Ezek. 36.26 27. To help thee to perform the conditions of the Gospel Covenant plead his own promise with him Wrestle with him for a broken and clean Heart for Faith for Repentance unto Life for these are not of thy self they are the Gift of God let him not go till he hath Blessed thee with these Blessings in Christ Jesus This will confound every Sinner at the day of Judgement that when he might have had grace yea the Spirit of Grace for asking he either asked not or if he did it was so coldly as if he were contented enough to go without Now if thou art in good earnest God is I assure thee in full as good earnest as thou he is ready to meet thee try but once whether it be in vain to seek him all that ever tried found it good to draw near to God and found him easie to be entreated he useth not to send the Hungry empty away He that commands us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling he it is that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. Secondly To them that are the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Let me beseech them 1. To walk Worthy of God who hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory to adorn their Holy Profession take the Exhortation in Pauls words Col. 2.6 As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Receive not this Grace of God in vain the interest of your comfort obligeth you hereunto hereby you will know that you know him that you are in Christ Jesus that there is no condemnation to you if you walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 and herein will your Father be glorified if ye bring forth much fruit Joh. 15.6 2. To live up to the Comforts of their State 1 Joh. 3.1 you are already the Sons of God it doth not yet appear what you shall be who shall lay any thing to your charge it is God that Justifies who is he that condemns it is Christ that died c. Rom. 8.33 Go eat thy Bread with joy and put on thy white raiment God now hath accepted thy works Eccles 9.7 8. I conclude this particular and the whole Discourse with the happy effects and proofs of Jufication which every believer hath as good a Right and Title to as the Gospel it self the Word of the God of Truth can give him as I find by those sweet Effects and Consequences set down in my Text and the words next following it 1. Therefore being Justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 2. By whom also we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God 3. And not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience 4. And patience experience and experience hope 5. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us wherefore the righteous shall be glad in the Lord and all the upright in heart shall glory Psal 64.10 FINIS
an Eclipse of the Glory of his God-head And his passive Righteousness was every where active because what he suffered was not by constraint or against his Will no it was his own voluntary Act and Deed all along let me instance in the greatest of his Sufferings his very dying was the Product both of the freeness of his Love and the Majesty of his Power John 10.17 18. Rev. 1.5 In the third place Both Christ's active and passive Righteousness what he did and what he suffered partake in common of the form of satisfaction therefore they are both integral parts or joynt Ingredients thereof for forma dat esse but this brings me to the second Enquiry 2. Query What is the form of Christ's Satisfaction or that which renders it Satisfactory I answer the infinite Merit of what he did and suffered which infinite Merit stands 1. In the dignity of his Person the fullness of the God-head dwelt in him bodily Col. 2.9 John 1.14 Now for the work of a Servant to be done by the Lord of all renders his Active and for him to suffer as a Malefactor between Malefactors who was God blessed for evermore renders also his passive Righteousness infinitely Meritorious no wonder the Blood of Christ cleanseth from all Sin for it is the Blood of God Acts 20.28 1 John 1.7 And this is the Reason why the Righteousness of one redounds unto all for the justification of life Rom. 5.18 19. because his active and passive Righteousness is infinitely of more value than all that the Creatures in Heaven and Earth could have done or suffered to Eternity the very Man Christ Jesus is above all the Angels Heb. 1.6 for he is the Man that is God's fellow Zech. 13.7 And this infinite Worthiness of the Redeemer's Person you have excellently described as irradiating and infinitely exalting all he did and suffered Phil. 2.6 7 8 9. Heb. 7.24 25 28. 2. The active and passive Righteousness of Christ are of infinite Merit because not at all due but both meer supererrogations of an infinitely glorious Person And First For his active Righteousness it stood in his Obedience to the Ceremonial and Moral Laws 1. His Obedience to the Ceremonial Law was a meer supererrogation for the Substance to comply with the Shadows the Antitype to do homage to its own Types besides he submitted to those very Ordinances whose End and Institution supposeth Guilt and whose Nature argues them designed only for the use of Sinners what foreskin of Impurity had he to be cut off in Circumcision what Filth to be wash'd away in Baptism Did the holy Child Jesus defile his Mother's Womb. as common Mortals do that are conceived in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity And yet he was Circumcised and Baptized and his Mother offered for her Purification Luke 1.21 22. chap. 3.21 No imaginable Obligation lay on him to these Submissions being to him meer Ciphers wholly insignificant 2. His Obedience to the Moral Law Although it must be granted that as Man it was his Duty Gal. 4.4 yet was it not his Duty to become Man True a Creature 's homage was due from him when a Creature a Servant's Work when in the form of a Servant but the whole was free and Arbitrary because his entring into that State was so for what but his own infinite Love could ever move the Eternal Word to pitch his Tent in our Nature What Obligation lay on the Heir of all things to take the form of a Servant Who bound the Eternal Son of God to become in the fullness of time the Son of Man And as his active Righteousness so Secondly His Passive too was a meer Supererrogation for his Almighty Father's Holy All-seeing Eye could never espy the least Iniquity in him to punish What had the Divine Justice to do with him for he was a sinless Person he suffered not for himself Dan. 9.26 No for us 2 Cor. 5.21 And therefore since no Obligation lay on him to do what he did or to suffer what he suffered he may impute the Merit both of the one and the other to whomsoever and upon what terms soever he and his Father please But before I come to consider the terms upon which Christ's Satisfaction is applied I must answer some Questions and clear the Scruples in the way 1. Object 1. What is become of the Law of that first Covenant made with Adam in Paradise Gen. 2.17 repeated again to the Jews Deut. 27.26 The summe of which you have fully expressed Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth it shall dye I answer It is not fully executed nor abrogated but released or dispensed with First It is not fully executed for there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. Rom. 8.1 Secondly It is not abrogated for it is in part executed upon Believers they are liable to the first or natural Death which is the wages of sin although the second death hath no power over them besides all manner of Chastisements and Afflictions Psal 89.30 31 32. And also that Law is totally executed upon finally Impenitent Unbelievers over whom not the first only but the second Death also hath Power 2 Thess 1.8 For he that believeth not is condemned already John 3.18 That is the Gospel finds him and every one in a state of Condemnation but those who believe it proclaims Deliverance to those who through Unbelief reject it judging themselves unworthy of everlasting Life see Acts 13.46 it leaves such as it found them viz under the Condemnation of the old Covenant since they refuse the pardoning Mercy of the New Thirdly I answer therefore positively That the first Covenant is released and dispensed with by super-inducing a New Covenant of Grace over it That whosoever closeth with and comes into the terms of the New should be exempted from the Rigor and Extremity i. e. from the Eternal Condemnation of the old John 3.16 It is not said He that believes shall not be Sick shall not be Afflicted shall not Die No but he shall not perish Thus you see the Covenant of Works as to its Execution upon such as are in the Covenant of Grace is in the chief part restrained but yet in some part inflicted They never shall complain under the Eternal and Destructive yet they do complain under the Temporal and Corrective Punishment of their Sins Lam. 3.39 Yet more particularly for the clearer understanding of this we must consider that the first Covenant lays a double Obligation on sinful Man First In reference to what is past and here it requires Satisfaction and Reparation from us for our Sin in breaking it And Secondly In reference to the future after such Satisfaction and amends made it requires perfect Conformity still as at first absolute Obedience to all God's Commands being the Eternal Debt of the reasonable Creature to that God that made it in his own Image if therefore we could which hath already been proved to be impossible ever