The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. 5 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. 5<br><br>The exposition of the words of the text. - What is the great design of the gospel. - The excellency of the knowledge of it. - The highest attainment is to see the gospel in its original, those eternal transactions between God the Father and God the Son for the salvation of man.<br><br>And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. - 2 Cob. Y.18, 19.<br><br>These words do summarily tell us what is the argument of that great mystery of the gospel, as it concerneth sinners, viz., reconciliation. There fore he styles it the 'ministry of reconciliation:' that is the title he gives the doctrine of it; and withal further explains this, 'To wit,' says he, 'that God was in Christ, reconciling the world;' and so the foot of the angels evangelical song, wherein they sung forth the main end of Christ's nativity, was reconciliation: Luke ii. 14, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.' This reconciliation consists of two parts, peace and good will.<br><br>The full scope of the words you may conceive, as I have cast them into this frame; and withal, what also is the sum of all the discourse upon them.<br><br>First, The word reconcile imports the whole of mankind to have been once created in an estate of amity and friendship with God. For to reconcile, is to make friends again, and argues former friendship. And this sets and limits the subject of these eternal transactions between God the Father and the Son, to have been man considered as fallen.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.