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A47296 Five discourses on so many very important points of practical religion by John Kettlewell ... ; with a preface giving some account of the author's life. Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695. 1696 (1696) Wing K367; ESTC R17624 70,803 182

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put off the old man which is corrupted by sinful Lusts and be born again we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 This then is clear both from the Declarations of the Scripture and the evidence of the thing that a Life of Vertue is plainly necessary to our future Happiness and that our being saved from sin in this World is indispensiblely requisite to our Salvation in the next The eternal Life of Heaven is a Life as I have shewn that is after the likeness and similitude of God's a Life of unspotted Vertue and compleat Goodness that implies an entire Exemption and most absolute Deliverance from all manner of sin This Perfection and Compleatness of it we must expect in Heaven whereas St. Paul says The Spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12.23 But as for the Life it self we must enter upon it and begin it here That Life of Vertue and Reformation which we engage upon at our becoming Christians is that very Life which never ends but which is to grow up to full degrees and to be eternal in the Heavens And therefore the Scriptures as in respect of the full Perfection and Fruition of it which is to be had in the next World they are wont to speak of it as a thing future so in respect of that more imperfect Enjoyment which we have of it in this World they use sometimes to speak of it as a thing possess'd here He that believes on me saith our Saviour hath eternal Life Joh. 6.47 And again Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life Verse 54. St. John bids them That believe on the name of the Son of God know that they have eternal life 1 Joh. 5.13 And that Grace or Goodness of Spirit which our Saviour expressed by water Joh. 4. and which he bid the woman of Samaria to ask of him Verse 10. he tells her Shall be a Well of water springing up to eternal life Verse 14. A Life of Vertue and Obedience then is not only a necessary Qualification for our Salvation and eternal Life in Heaven but in a degree it is that very Salvation and eternal Life it self our Deliverance from our sins is not only the way to Happiness but in an imperfect measure it is that very Happiness whose perfection and compleat Degrees we are bid to hope for in Heaven The Misery that befell us all in Adam was our falling from God's image wherein he and all his Holy Angels are infinitely Happy and that Happiness and Salvation which is promised to us in Christ is our Restoration to it So that as for the Promises of God 't is clear from them that the great Salvation which they are designed for is this Deliverance from our sins since all other promised Blessings are made to depend upon it since it is not possible they should be had without it nay since this Deliverance is the chief promis'd Mercy and even Happiness and eternal Life it self and as to the third part of the Gospel I proposed to speak to viz. Thirdly Those Threatnings which are contain'd therein the Salvation which they aim at is evidently this Deliverance from our Sins which are those very things they are all denounced to The Gospel tho' it breath out nothing but Grace and Mercy to the Penitent is yet the severest Dispensation that ever was to all incorrigible Men. For therein God declares himself an utter Enemy to all that will not be reformed and that he will inflict a most terrible Punishment and exemplary Vengeance on them the Author of Grace and Mercy Christ himself hath spoken it That except we repent we shall all perish Luk. 13.3 And St. Paul tells us plainly That at the last Day God will render to all that obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and that upon every soul of man whether he be Jew or Gentile Rom. 2.6 8 9 10. Our sins then are plainly those Evils which the Threatnings of the Gospel would fright us from and our Deliverance from them is that Salvation which they would enforce upon us Their end is evidently to make us leave all evil ways for fear least they should be inflicted on us for our perseverance in them As for that Salvation then which Christ came to purchase for us from what I have deliver'd it appears I suppose most evidently what it is The Declarations of the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles the prime end of the Precepts the Promises and the Threatnings of the Gospel the Nature of God of Heaven and Happiness in a word the Design of our whole Religion and Christianity make it clear to us that it is our Reformation or as the Angel expressed it our Deliverance from our sins He shall be called Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins And thus having represented what that Salvation is which Christ came to purchase for us and shewn I think clearly that the great Deliverance design'd us by him and promoted by his Gospel is our Reformation and a Freedom from our Sins I proceed now Secondly To note some Uses and particular Improvements of this Discourse 1. Then from what has been discoursed upon the Nature of the Christian Salvation we may plainly understand what Faith what Repentance what Grace what Preaching what Ordinances are saving For if Salvation mainly consists in our Deliverance from our Sins as we have evidently seen it doth then that is a saving Faith which makes us obedient and that a saving Repentance which works our Amendment and that is saving Grace which enables us to a pious Practice and that is saving Preaching which is fitted not to fill us with vain Delights or learned Niceties or abstract Speculations or mysterious Notions but to awaken our Consciences and reform our Lives and those are saving Ordinances which are powerful and proper means of our Conversion and vertuous Performances This is to be the end of all the helps of Religion and this the Excellency of all the means of Grace that they tend strongly to make us leave our sins and rescue us from Disobedience Our Salvation is a Deliverance from our sins and then any thing is saving when it delivers and frees us from them 2. A second Use which I shall note of this Discourse is for the Tryal of our State to know whether we are indeed of the number of the saved or no for if Salvation consists in our Deliverance from our sins then they are not saved but lost men who still live in them and are enslaved to them Is any man then a contemner or prophaner of God of his dreadful Name or of his holy word Doth he spend his time in Luxury and Wantonness Pride and Covetousness are his hands full of violence or is he a stranger to the ways of Peace In sine if he doth not make it his business and care to fear God and keep his Commandments to be humble chaste