Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A64959
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The day of grace in which the chief of sinners may be turn'd and healed / by Nathanael Vincent.
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Vincent, Nathanael, 1639?-1697.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing V406; ESTC R26347
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73,032
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192
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when we cherish those lusts that war against our own souls The Vipers off-spring do eat out the Vipers bowels and sinful lusts in like manner will destroy at last those in whom they are bred and foster'd Oh let us all be reconciled to our selves and not continue any longer the greatest accessories to our own misery I have shewed now what Peace is In the second place I am to manifest what are the things which belong unto our peace 'T is in the Gospel that these things are revealed which therefore is called the Gospel of Peace Rom. 10. 15. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things Herein is contained an Embassage of reconciliation The God of peace proclaims to the world what an inclination he hath to be a friend and a Saviour to the children of men and informs them upon what articles a peace shall be made and established between him and them The Law of Nature is here silent the Heathens by the light of that could never find out the way how Divine Justice may be satisfied and an attonement for sin made Nay the written Law of God speaks not a word concerning it The Law teacheth our duty convinceth of transgression thunders out curses against transgressours and they would be left under the curse if the Gospel did not tell them how to be redeemed from it and how Grace and Mercy and Peace may be obtained There are three things which the Gospel reveals concerning our peace 1. Who is the Mediatour or Peace-maker Jesus Christ 2. What are the conditions of this Peace 3. How we may attain to an assurance of it 1. One thing which we must know concerning our peace is Who is the Mediatour or Peace-maker between God and men and he is Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time Here it was that Jerusalem was ignorant a cruclfied Messiah though his crucifixion was necessary to his making of our peace they hid their faces from and disesteemed Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are reconciled and saved he is the power of God and the wisdom of God Hence 't is that the Apostle resolves to know nothing besides him All things that are revealed in Scripture must be known with relation to Christ else our knowledge will be uncomfortable and without advantage What good will it do us to hear that God is gracious and merciful unless in Christ he be reconciled what good to be informed of heaven and glory unless Christ who hath the Key of David do open the door that we may enter What good to hear of the Promises unless in Christ they be Yea and Amen to the glory of God Finally what will it benefit us to hear of the priviledges of the Gospel unless through Christ we are admitted to them There is an excellency in the knowledge of Christ our Peace-maker in comparison of which the Apostle counted all things but loss and dung Phil. 3. 8. Christ Jesus is our Peace-maker by a threefold means His Satisfaction his Intercession and the communication of his benefits 1. Christ Jesus is our Peace maker by means of his satisfaction For the iniquity of his people was he smitten and the chastisement of their peace was laid upon him He was sent on purpose to be a propitiation 1 John 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Christ is said to reconcile both Jews and Gentiles unto God by the bloud of his Cross and to have slain the enmity thereby Corruptible things as silver and gold were insufficient but the bloud of Christ was a sufficient price for our redemption We may conceive such a kind of dialogue as this between Justice and Christ and Man who hath offended 1. Divine Justice thus begins Bring forth the Soul which hath sinned that it may dye A righteous Law hath been broken and 't is but righteous that the curse should be inflicted Here are not one or two but thousands of sins upon record Now therefore I am resolved to whet my glittering sword and my hand shall immediately take hold on vengeance and I 'll make the sinner know to his cost what 't is to provoke the Lord to jealousie 2. Christ answers Hold Justice stay thy hand those sins thou speakest of they are transferred unto another therefore the Soul must not dye that 's guilty of them The debt is great but I undertake to pay it all where thou art wronged it shall be put wholly on my account I am resolved to be the sinners Surety I am content to be made sin for him though I knew none though I never was my self in the least guilty 3. Unto this Justice replyes Then O thou Son of God I must sheath my sword in thy bowels I must wound and bruise and afflict thee where ever I find sin though but imputed I can't forâ—ear to punish it 4. Christ answers again Do Justice strike and spare not I am willing to be wounded that the sinners wounds may be closed and cured I am willing to dye that be may live I am willing to undergo the curse that he may receive the blessing even life for evermore 5. Upon this the sinner wonders and cryes out Oh love that passeth knowledge My Lord my Saviour since thou hast given thy life a ransom for me I am resolved to trust in thee and to lay the stress of my salvation on thee I expect and desire favour and pardon no other way then by thee who art both the Price and the Prince of Peace 2. Christ is our Peace-maker by means of his intercession As his satisfaction is one so his intercession is the other part of his Priestly office He seconds his sufferings by his intercession and we may be confident his intercession will be prevalent because of that love which his Father bears him and because by his sufferings he hath purchased whatever he intercedes for Christ the righteous is our Advocate with the Father 1 John 2. 1. He presents before his Father the compleatness of his satisfaction and how he hath endured the Cross and shame and drank off that whole Cup which his Father put into his hand and fulfilled all righteousness how he did and suffered all that was required of him and all this not for himself but us Whereupon the Father looks upon us with an eye of love he is pacified towards us and as he is Christs God and Father so he is ours too John 20. 17. Go tell my brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Christ is our Peace-maker by the communication of his benefits He is made unto us
continually cutting and wounding his own conscience and if he be not quickly translated out of this estate he will quickly give himself the fatal blow As long as any are enemies to God they are also their own adversaries but when they leave off fighting against God they cease warring against themselves Peace within is very comprehensive several things are therein included 1. Peace within comprehends calmness in the Conscience This calmness follows upon the apprehension and sense of our peace with God and that now he is in his Son reconciled A reproaching Conscience is a fearful companion we cannot fly away from Conscience it is alwayes with us if awakened 't will speak boldly and tell us our own be we never so proud or high in the world and the ear is forced to hear Conscience's accusations when God gives it a command to speak how impossible is it for us to impose silence on it Oh what a storm doth the remembrance of manifold sins with their manifold aggravations raise in the Conscience how amazed is it to see so much guilt and God so much and so justly incensed But when God by his Spirit doth say Soul though sin hath abounded my grace doth superabound thy debts are all paid thy iniquities are all pardoned Then the storm ceases and there follows a great calm Then Conscience layes aside the whip of steel wherewith before it lash'd it self Conscience acquits the sinner because God hath first justified and absolved him Sins which are past are remitted and instead of continuing in sin the heart is changed and is sincerely desirous to have it slain and this godly sincerity Conscience gives testimony to the effect of which is peace and joy 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience Conscience tells us of our duty and urges us to the performance of it now when Conscience is heeded by us and what we do for God our very hearts are in it Conscience will not condemn but approve us and this will quiet us for sayes the Apostle 1 Job 3. 20. Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God 2. Peace within comprehends satisfaction in the heart Solomon while making trial what sufficiency was in the things under the Sun was far from peace within vanity was the fruit of all his labour and his spirit is so far from being satisfied that 't was filled with vexation But when God doth give himself to us whom our hearts must then needs look upon as a proportionable happiness as a sufficient portion oh then we are come to our centre and are at rest When the Soul ceases to tire and weary it self in pursuing after the creatures and is fixed upon God who is a Sun a Shield an exceeding great Reward who is the God of all grace and calls us to eternal glory who cannot only satiate our desires but do exceedingly above our desires and thoughts according to that power which worketh in us Ephes 3. 20. Then then our peace abounds and passes all understanding The heart is exceedingly pleased with its choice having made choice of God it would not exchange conditions with the greatest graceless ones in the whole world It must be acknowledg'd indeed that in this life only the back parts of the Lord Jehovah are seen and little of him in comparison is to be enjoyed Yet this is certain that Gods little is much more then the worlds all The enjoyment of the Lord in part affords more peace and satisfaction by ten thousand degrees then the creatures are capable of yielding and that satisfaction how much is it heightned by the assured hopes that at last we shall be fully satisfied 3. Peace within comprehends an agreement in our wills to the will of God 'T is but reason that since Gods will is so high so holy so good our wills should stoop and submit and we cannot have peace but in that submission The carnal mind is enmity against God and refuses to be subject to the Law and Word of God Nay by that very Law the corrupted heart is irritated and provoked 't is the more forward to sin because forbidden to transgress He was not unacquainted with mans nature who said Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata We are very prone to do that which is forbidden and to desire what is denied us And while the heart is thus irritated by the Law alas the sinner is like the troubled sea when it cannot rest Sin taking occasion by the commandment doth work all manner of concupiscence Rom. 7. 8. But now what peace is there when our hearts are reconciled to our duty when we do not quarrel at but love the Law and wish oh that our wayes were directed to keep it How can there be peace within unless there be some sutableness between our spirits and Gods Word and Ordinances unless what was before look'd upon without cause as a burthen and weariness be now esteem'd as a priviledge and advantage Peace within comprehends ordinateness in the affections Our passions and affections being corrupted by sin are very tumultuous and unruly and except these are tamed and brought into right order we shall not know peace Those are some of the worst kind of slaves that are enslaved by their own affections How is that man hurried who is under the power of worldly or unclean desires His fleshly and his worldly lusts do so take up his time and pains that they will not permit him to eat or drink or sleep and much less pray in quiet How is that heart rent and torn that is by inordinate love glued to any creature when of that creature 't is deprived Oh the overwhelming sorrow which follows upon love that is excessive What a rack and torture is anger What an evil is fear many times worse then the evil feared And so I might instance in other affections If the world be compared to a Stage and the life of man to a part which he acts upon it we may truly say that a wicked man doth act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the part of a Self-punisher because by giving way to his corrupt affections he contributes so much to his own disquiet But 't is the work of the Spirit of God to renew these affections the anger and sorrow are turned against and on sin the love and the desire are towards God And as here there is no danger of excess so there is a certainty of enjoyment The heart sits loose from the world and the world is not able to disturb that peace which it hath in God None are more free from trouble then those that are most masters of their own affections And well may the Apostle say that the fruit of the Spirit is peace and joy Gal. 5. 22. since he brings our affections into captivity 5. Peace within comprehends a ceasing to be our own foes When are we our own foes Surely when we side with Satan against our selves