Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
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A53980
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A sermon preach'd at Whitehall before the Queen, March the sixteenth, 1691 by Edward Pelling ...
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing P1101; ESTC R6815
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11,035
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34
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a Carnal Mind is so far from relishing those Divine Pleasures which are at God's right hand that it is at Enmity against them and against God himself This I take to be one great Reason why God hath given us so many Laws of Vertue that thereby he may make us Vessels fit for Glory fit for that Happiness which of his infinite Goodness he hath provided for all his poor Creatures which are capable of receiving it and which he desires to Communicate to us all not willing that any should perish Though the Practice of Vertue be Reasonable and Excellent in it self and though it brings with it such Peace and Comfort and Satisfaction here as is preferrable to all the Glories under the Sun yet the usefulness of it another Day and in another Place is the main Thing considerable God who dwells himself in Heaven knows what we are to do and how we are to live there and which are the best means to prepare and fit us for an Heavenly State Though the Reasons of every Particular Vertue may not at present be so obvious to our view yet God sees them He knows whither every Vertue ultimately tendeth and how it serves to Subdue to Regulate to Purifie our Minds to Raise our Affections to Refine our Natures and to Cultivate our Souls so that every Particular Grace and Vertue now may spring up into a Life of perfect Glory and Happiness hereafter From which Premises these Four things must follow 1. First That we may not in any wise build our Hopes of Eternal Happiness upon any Decree of God without due Preparations of our own For God's Decrees suppose us to be rightly prepared And as it is God's Purpose that without Holiness no Man shall see him so the very Nature of the Thing requires all possible Sanctifications of Heart and Body to fit us for the Beatifical Vision 2. Nor may we depend upon Faith without other Acts of Obedience to the Divine Laws because that Faith must needs be Imperfect and Ineffectual which doth not serve to Purifie us as God is pure 3. Nor may we lay any stress upon Repentance it self without such Fruits as are meet for it For where there is not such a Renovation of Heart as is Productive of Reformation of Life there is no Repentance unto Salvation let the Grief and Remorse of Mind be never so great 4. Much less may we trust to any outward Severities and Mortifications of the Flesh without the Sanctification of Heart and Spirit Though this Solemn Paschal Fast be of very Ancient Institution and was observed in the Primitive Times to great Purposes of Religion and is of great use still where People are careful to answer the Ends of it yet no Bodily Exercises profit any thing in comparison of Substantial Holiness Fasting is a Relative Duty intended for the mortifying of our sinful Lusts and Affections It is not alone and of it self any Preparative to Happiness nor are those outward Penances to be valued at all which the Folly and Superstition of later Ages have grafted upon it In short Considering how the Holy Scripture inculcates the necessity of a new Heart a new Spirit a new Creature and the like the only Business we have to do in this our day is to form in our Souls such Divine and Noble Dispositions as may make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of God's Saints and render a Life in Heaven perfectly agreeable to our own Hearts desire 2. What those Dispositions are which are necessary to Fit and Prepare us for an Heavenly State is the next thing to be Considered And for the right understanding thereof it is requisite to enquire a little into the Life of the Blessed above because that is the proper Idea and Pattern according to which we are to form those Dispositions I speak of Not that we can pretend to have Perfect Conceptions of the other World It is a thing we know but little of because God hath not been pleased particularly to Reveal the Condition and State of it and therefore we must not presume to pry too narrowly into that Holy of Holies or think to discover now all those things which are yet within the Veil Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. Yet so much God hath Revealed to us by his Spirit that we have reason to believe these Five following things 1. That the Life of the Blessed Saints is a Life of perfect Love and Peace Though we cannot now distinctly conceive how Spirits Converse with one another and Communicate their Thoughts and Affections to one another because the Notions we have here come from Idea's presented to our Senses and our Senses are not fine enough for Spiritual Representations yet it is certain that entire Harmony is a great Part of the Heavenly State God himself the Center of Happiness is Love And as he Displays and Communicates his Love over the whole Intellectual World so the Affections of that infinite Host of Blessed Spirits to him are Reciprocal because it is in him that they are happy And because they are all like him and all love him and all derive their Felicities from him their mutual Love to each other must needs be inviolable and universal so that Angels and Saints make up but one Society all united together in the same Mind in the same Joys and in the same common Love of God Hence the Apostle tells us that Charity never faileth 1 Cor. 13. 8. and so he sets it above Faith and Hope not only because it is of greater Use and singularly Communicative and Beneficial in this World but chiefly because it hath this peculiar Prerogative that it is of endless Duration in the next Whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away but Charity shall never fail it will be the everlasting Exercise of the Saints in Light their proper and peculiar Employment Those Wars and Fightings which are among us now proceed from our Lusts That Envying and Strife which rageth in this World is Earthly Sensual Devilish those Hatreds and Animosities and Divisions which attend our present Warfare are Effects and Arguments of Carnality When that which is Imperfect shall be done away a Perfect State of Love and Unity and Concord will be at once the Portion and the Happiness of the Triumphant 2. The Life of the Saints in Light is a Life of Devotion By Devotion I mean the offering up of the Soul to God from a lively sense of the glorious Excellencies of his Nature and of his boundless Goodness to his Creatures Whether the Saints departed do offer up any Prayers unto God is a thing uncertain Though some Protestants are inclined to think as a probable Matter that out of a Principle of Charity they pray in general for