Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
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A61262
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A little handful of cordial comforts scattered thorowout several answers, to sixteen questions, and objections following : intended chiefly for the good of those that walk mournfully before God ... / by Richard Standfast ...
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Standfast, Richard, 1608?-1684.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing S5210; ESTC R33851
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22,608
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84
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the heinousness of his sins hath any just cause to despair of mercy For though our sins be many yet the mercies of God are more though they be great yet his mercies are above them He is rich in mercy yea his mercy is infinite so that though he have spent much mercy already upon our Fore-Fathers yet he hath mercy enough in store for us also with him there is plenty of forgiveness and his mercy endureth for ever And the merits of Christ are of the same nature for he is Mighty to save and he is the same for ever and through the riches of these merits of Christ there is a way set open even for the worst sinners to become partakers of the riches of the mercies of God Now if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. 1 John 2.1 2. And though the time of his abode upon Earth in the day of his flesh were but short though his sufferings were but for a season yet such was and is the dignity of his person being the Eternal Son of God that his Sufferings and Obedience are infinitely meritorious and his blood is able to clense us from all unrighteousness So that we may well say with the Apostle Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed or rather who is risen again and now maketh Intercession for us Rom. 8.33 34. But let no man turn this doctrine of comfort to a liberty of sinning against the greatest sins there is hopes in Christ for penitent Believers But because there is mercy with God shall we therefore go on in sin God forbid there is mercy with him and therefore he must be feared But if any man shall presume to sin because there is mercy with God through Jesus Christ instead of mercy that man is like to meet with nothing but Justice For as mercifull as God is and as all-sufficient as the Death of Christ is there is no mercy for such as go on still in their wickedness And thus you see that Christ is mighty enough to save us from all our sins and to reconcile us unto God Now that we may have benefit by this sufficiency of Christ we must lay hold upon it by a lively faith This is that which unites us unto Christ and makes us one with him This is that which gives us interest in him and makes us partakers of his merits This makes the death and obedience of Christ as verily our own and as effectual for the pardon of our sins and the salvation of our souls as if they had been performed by our very selves So that if we do truly Believe in the Lord Jesus then is God well pleased with us for his sake and by virtue of his merits being made ours by faith our sins are all pardoned and our souls and bodies shall be Eternally saved And so much the Scripture doth plainly testifie in several places As John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Life Everlasting And again Acts 10.43 Through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins be they never so many never so heinous And again Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you that through this Man is Preached unto you the Forgiveness of Sins And by him all that believe are justified from all those things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses By the Law of Moses we could never have been acquitted either from the Guiltiness of Sin or from the Wrath of God But we are delivered from both by Faith in Christ for by it we obtain the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls And thus it is manifest That Christ is the Way by which we are to obtain the pardon of sin and peace with God and that Faith is the way whereby we are made partakers of the merits of Christ for our Justification and Salvation Proceed we now in a word to shew that nothing but Christ can reconcile us unto God and that nothing but Faith can make us partakers of Christ for our Reconciliation There is no way whereby to come unto God but onely Christ It is onely in Christ that God is well pleased neither is there salvation in any other For there is no other Name under the Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Acts 4.12 Neither is there any other means on our part whereby to receive Christ but onely Faith And yet unless we do receive him we get no benefit by him and therefore unless we do believe in him we shall perish in our sins And to this purpose speaks our Saviour John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath Everlasting Life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him See the summ of all this in that place of St. John 1 Epist 5. Chap. 11 12 and 13 Verses God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life These things have I written to you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life and that ye may believe in the Name of the Son of God By which place it is plain that there is a way to Life that Christ is the way to it that Life is so in him that it is in no other but him that it is so in him that by believing in him we obtain Life and that it is so in him that without believing in him we get no benefit at all by him And thus you have the truth of the former Answer Enlarged and Confirmed according to it 's severall Branches by which it is manifest That Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else but onely Faith in him can help us to the pardon of sin the Love of God and the Salvation of our Souls Hereupon it may be thus replyed The Second Question IF I cannot obtain the pardon of my sins and the Favour of God without Faith in Christ I doubt my condition is woful and that I am yet in my sins and liable unto wrath For I fear that I have not this Faith in Christ and that I do not as yet believe in him Shew me therefore I pray you how I may be comforted against this fear and how I may know whether I do believe in Christ Yea or No Answer Doutless if we do not believe in Christ our condition is woful For there is no salvation in any other and without Faith in him we get no benefit by him but we are in our sins and the obligation unto wrath is in full power and force against us For though the ransome which Christ paid by his Death upon the Cross be a ransome
A LITTLE HANDFUL OF Cordial Comforts Scattered thorowout several Answers to Sixteen Questions and Objections following Intended chiefly for the good of those that walk mournfully before God And are worthy to be gathered up and regarded of all such as wish well to their own Peace By RICHARD STANDFAST Mr. of Arts and Rector of Christ-Church in Bristol Believe and Live The Fourth Edition London Printed by T. Mabb and are to be sold by Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in little Brittain 1665. A Little Handfull OF Cordial Comforts Scattered thorowout several Answers to certain Questions and Objections following The First Question OH wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the wrath to come for my sins are many and mine iniquity is great And if the Lord should deal with me according to his Justice and my Deserts my Portion must needs be in the Lake of Fire with the Devil and his Angels For the Scripture pronounceth every Man cursed that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 Shew me therefore I beseech you shew me what course to take to come out of this Misery shew me the way how to get the pardon of my sin and the favour of God I care for nothing but this neither is there any thing in the World that I do desire in comparison of this Answer This is that indeed which of all other things doth most concern us For upon the pardon of our sins and peace with God depends all solid comforts while we are here and the Eternal Salvation of our most precious souls hereafter And therefore for our better both direction and consolation in this behalf let us take notice of this that follows There is a way for men to come out of the misery of sin and to obtain and enjoy the mercy and favour of Almighty God and that is Faith in Christ This is the Way and there is none but this neither is there any thing in the World that can help us to the pardon of our sins to the love of God and to the salvation of our souls but only Faith in the Lord Jesus That this is the way is apparent enough by the answer which was given by Paul and Silas Acts 16.31 For when the Keeper of the Prison cryed out with trembling Sirs what must I do to be saved They made him this Answer Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved There is in Christ sufficiency enough for the obtaining of our pardon and the procuring of our peace and there is in Faith ability enough to make us partakers of Christs Sufficiency Christ is the onely way whereby we come unto Eternal Life and Faith is the onely way whereby we come to be partakers of Christ by Faith we come unto Him and through Him unto God And that we may the better know that there is in Christ sufficiency enough for the pardon of our sins and the salvation of our souls let us consider a little both who Christ is and also what he hath done for the working out of our deliverance and the procuring of our peace The Lord Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God who pittying that sinfull and miserable condition whereinto we were all brought by the Disobedience of our first Parents undertook to mediate the matter betwixt God and us and to reconcile us again unto God For the better effecting of which great work He came down from Heaven and was Incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made Man yea in all things like unto other Men save only in Sin that so he might the better make us free from all Sin Being found thus in fashion as a Man he set himself in our stead and for us Men and our Salvation he became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross And by his Obedience and Death He hath perfectly alone by himself accomplished whatever was requisite for our Salvation The wretchedness of our condition is briefly this We all like Sheep have gone astray neither have we only omitted those duties which the Law requires but we have also committed those evils which the Law forbids and as the want of Righteousness doth exclude us from the favour of God and the Kingdome of Heaven so the Guiltiness of Sin doth expose us to the Wrath of God and the Damnation of Hell But the Lord Jesus Christ hath fulfilled all Righteousness For in his life He performed as much Obedience as the Law in rigour could exact and by suffering Death upon the Cross he under-went as much Punishment as could be required of sinners in the severity of Justice and so by his Death and Obedience hath he provided against our double misery For by his Sufferings upon the Cross the Justice of God is satisfied and his Wrath appeased and by his Obedience the Law is fulfilled and we are Accepted And as by his death comes the pardon of sin and deliverance from wrath so by his Obedience comes the imputation of Righteousness and Life Everlasting All which as they were done in our Nature so they were done for us and in our behalf he stood in the place of sinners that we might be numbred among the Righteous He took our sins upon him that he might put his Obedience upon us the Chastisement of our Peace was upon him that with his stripes we may be healed He was made a Curse for us that he might Redeem us from it He was made Sin for us that knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Him 2 Cor. 5.22 And the better to assure us that by his Death upon the Cross there was paid a price sufficient enough for the procuring of our pardon he Arose again from the Dead which he could not have done if the Justice of God had not been satisfied to the very full in every particular For as Sin is the sting of Death and the only thing that makes Death Terrible so it is the strength of Death and it is that only that doth give Death dominion over us Sin is the Lock Bar and Bolt that makes fast the Gates of Death and as the door cannot be opened to let out a Prisoner till the Bar be removed so there is no escaping from Death until Sin be taken out of the way Christ therefore by Rising from the Dead hath mightily declared unto us that he hath paid the utmost Farthing of our Debts and that by his Death he hath fully satisfied the Justice of God So that now by virtue of his sufferings the greatest sins are made pardonable and there is a way set open for the worst sinners both to Grace and Glory I say even for the worst sinners There is no man now that can deny himself to be capable of Grace there are too many who from the greatness of Gods mercy do without any cause presume to sin But there is no man who from