Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
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A89617
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Mary Magdalen's tears wip't off. Or The voice of peace to an unquiet conscience. Written by way of letter to a person of quality. And published for the comfort of all those, who mourn in Zion.
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Martin, T., 17th cent.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing M850; Thomason E1913_2; ESTC R202880
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54,570
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127
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must he be the ultimate end of our Actions But in this case we must distinguish betwixt what God is and what we apprehend him to be a Sinner is not presently brought to lay aside the fear of Gods revengefull hand and to imbrace and depend upon him for the mercie that is offered to him Ordinarily I conceive God doth manifest his love goodness and mercy to penitent Sinners gradually and with proportion to future experience of the truth and sincerity of their Repentance I mean such a manifestation of himself in these Attributes of complacency and benignity to Mankind which one may term the overshadowing of the Spirit of Love upon the Soul inlightning refreshing and comforting her against the terrors of the Divine Justice due to Sin without a Propitiation by Christ Let me therefore advise you to wait with patience till the day break and the shadows flee away Cant. 1.17 till this Sun of Righteousness arise upon your Soul with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and to endeavour to be perswaded as of other mens so of your own filiation and that you may the better believe it to bless God most frequently for the inestimable gift of his Son Jesus Christ by whom alone a Reconciliation was wrought betwixt God and mankind by the Faith whereof holy Men and Women look for the inheritance of Sons and Daughters and do not stand in fear of stripes as vassals and Bond-slaves being emancipated from the Spirit of Bondage through the freedom they have by the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father Rom. 8 15. meditating upon the greatness and excellency of that love the ever-blessed and glorious Trinitie hath exprest unto our Souls engraven before our eyes in eternal Characters of Blood even the Blood of the only Son of God largely described by all four Evangelists in their Histories of the Gospel though sundry yea innumerable other passages of our Saviours life are omitted S. Jo. 21 yea even the birth of Christ by two of them intimating unto us not only the certain truth of his Passion which had been unquestionable if but recorded by one of them and the great concernment of it to all mankinde as well in the example as necessity thereof but likewise recommending by that variety of describing the last tragical Act of his Blessed Life the frequent perusal of it in all times and kindes of Trial and Temptations What therefore you want of felicity at present and content in your New life do not despair of but expect assuring your self that you shall one day know and feel that the Kingdom of God is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 God alone knowes how much of Heaven 't is best to give you in this Life that Angelical state which you aim at might be much more dangerous for you then you imagine When St. Paul had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard things impossible to be uttered because he should not be elated by the abundance of Revelations there was given unto him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.7 some humiliating Temptation that might make him know that as yet he was lock't up in an earthly Tabernacle as lyable to the Assaults and Invasions of Satan and his Complices as to a final dissolution by death OBJECT XXV But still me thinketh if God had such a Love to my Soul he should vouchsafe me some manifestations thereof St. Paul rejoyced in his Infirmities desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ but nothing is so terrible to me as Death as if I had either no Christ to go unto or no such Christ as Saint Paul had SOLUTION 31. THe Consideration of the World to come and expectation of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgement of God dispensed by Jesus Christ according to the things that men have done in their bodies whether it be good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10.11 is questionless a very terrible thing even to such Christians as shall never have their share in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for evermore But is it not the same Word of God which promiseth a Pardon to the Penitent and threatneth damnation to the impenitent Sinner Why do you not believe him when he promiseth Mercy as well as when he threatneth Vengeance He that believes not the Divine Majesty in any one branch of Faith revealed plainly in his Word doth not believe him in the rest because the ground of Faith viz. the Veracity of God is the same in all the same Truth in Promises of Mercy as in Threatnings of Punishment the same Fidelity in performance of Good things as in the Execution of Evil. As for your instance in St. Paul I think I have already intimated unto you that he being a Saint of most eminent and exemplary piety of a Charity and Love to Christ and his Church even unto Extasie and Frenzy in the eyes of the World you ought not to expect the extraordinary favours vouchsaf't him by Heaven A lass why should you or I look for so much of Heaven to be delivered to us before hand or else must judge our selves wholly unconcern'd in the distribution of those heavenly Mansions I am confident either of us would be well content for such an assurance as had St. Paul to lye mouldring in our graves a million of years after the rest of our Brethren are crown'd with Glory yea perhaps as long in the Refining Flames of the Romish Purgatory But I mention not this as the faint Ejaculations of men that live without Hope but as expressions suitable to a sad Reflection upon our own Demerits Remember therefore that if God think fit to give you no Assurance yet he hath vouchsaf't unto you with the rest of Believers Promises of Glorification much fitter to be look't after and relyed upon then any sensible and experimental Consolation for what is tendred to us in the Holy Scriptures is immutable and permanent but such conclusions as are drawn only from experimental knowledge of our own obedience are very transjent and incertain never as is the Word of God infallible and eternal As for your Fear of Death which you are so far from meeting with St. Pauls alacrity of Spirit that you dare not encounter the thought of it in your breast the sound of a passing Bell or the Sight of a Friend strugling with the pains of Death being next to your remembrance of your own last end the formidablest thing imaginable no question the moral causes thereof ought to be heeded and the effects prevented I say moral causes because I presume there is in all creatures men not excepted a natural cause of fear of death which may be as innocent in men as the affections of Joy Delight Grief Anger c. and this can no more be alike in all men in the world then it can be imagined there should be the same degrees of other Affections in all constitutions and complexions of
resolves is the keeping of Gods Commandements Jo. 14.15 if you mark it the keeping his Commandements is the Test of every mans love so that he that doth that that observes what ever doth appear to be Gods Commandement is said truly to love God and that with al his Heart So that consequently there is left unto men a Latitude of expressing their Love to God in some Acts of Heroical Vertue proportionable to the free-will offerings amongst the Jews whereby God may have occasion given him of remunerating such men according to his Bounty like as the Duties performed agreeable to his Law are rewardable by his Iustice You may take this Resolution of your scruple in this formal way of reasoning The Love that Christ requires from his Disciples is the Love of Him with all their Heart with all their Mind c. But such a Love as this is exprest by keeping his Commandement Ergo The keeping of Gods Commandments is such a Love as God requires from his Children We may adde hereto that when a man doth sincerely propose the glory of God as the scope and center of all his Actions every single Act of his Life whether civil or religious may be interpreted as a line tending thereto drawn from the Circle of his first Resolution and cannot be truely said to be a breach of Duty for that it tends less to perfection than doth every other Action of his Life gradual Differences in moral Actions as good better and best making no essential difference in the Subjects in which they are whereas the objects of Reward and Punishment must be opposed by contrariety as are Vertue and Vice which diversity of Degrees in the same subject are not as well in moral as in natural Things So that without forfercing your Reason you may believe that you do not love the Divine Majestic with all your heart with all your mind and with all your strength because you do not every thing which some eminent Christians have done before you as giving all to the poor c. such high Attempts require long sitting down and considering with your self e're you ing age in them lest not only that happen unto you which befel the man in the Gospel who beginning a building too great for his Purse Luke 14.30 and desisting was derided therefore by his Enemies but a much worse thing I mean the irremoveable anxiety of future life with all the vexatious scruples that Satan or a volatile fancy may cast upon your Soul OBJECTI XXIII But I need not contest so hotly about the measure of holy and vertuous Actions The Apostle tells me that without Charity all is nothing worth I cannot deny but that I do heartily endeavour to do all the good that I may to any one who stands in need thereof but I have no assurance that I do it in Charity and so all my Hay Wood and Stubble may perish when it comes to the Test SOLUTION 29. IT is no small difficultie to define what that Charitie is which you suspect you want You accuse not your self of the neglect of any good Dutie that concerns the bodies or souls of men and that as your Brethren and Partners with you in the common benefit of Redemption You sincerely endeavour to practise forbearance are patient and not revengefull of Injuries kind tender and compassionate as sensible and zealous of other mens good as of your own far from envying well-pleased at other mens happinesses hating all foolish elation of mind as also all pride and insolence in over-valuing your self and despising others you keep your self from using others unseemlie either in Words or Gesture inclinable to take care of others Good and Safetie and not only of your own you fall not upon any provocation into violent and immoderate distempers of Anger keep account of all the Good that hath been done by any but none of the Evil you rejoyce not at the Errors and Sins of other men but are passionately grieved for them and contrarily made glad by the good and holy conversation of your fellow Christians inclinable to conceal all the Evil that you know of another so far as is for his Good and not contrary to the greater Good of others you blelieve without prejudice all the Good you hear of others or have Ground in Charity to believe of them you hope that you believe not and never so far despair of their Repentance as to give over using all probable means which may reclaim your wandring Brethren enduring much pain trouble and loss without Regret for the recovering of such as are indangered by any unchristian practises Now that this is that Charitie the Apostle so magnifies you have not only the evidence of the thing it self but the credit of a most learned pious and judicious Paraphrast on that Chapter whose very words I have transcribed at least the full importance of them for your satisfaction in this scruple presuming that the authoritie of so reverend a Person will fix your judgement beyond the assaults of anie ordinarie Temptations I cannot therefore be so uncharitable to you as to joyn with you in a Verdict against your self for want of Charitie I doubt not but you have in your heart this Water springing up to eternal life though like Hagar almost dead by thirst you want an Angel to shew you this Fountain Gen. 21. When such fumes as these darken your Soul do not seek for light from sparks of your own kindling but from the Sun of Righteousness that Light that lightneth everie one that cometh into the world Jo. 1.9 In a word therefore you must know that when the Apostle thus magnifies Charity it is the same thing as to comprize and exalt the whole dutio of man toward our Neighbour in that one word and to prefer that before the guifts of edification whether Tongues Healing Miracles c. the excellencie and reputation whereof or of any heroical Action as giving ones Goods to the Poor or ones Bodie to suffer Martyrdome is not comparable to that practical Vertue in the full latitude thereof And this cannot but be evident unto you if you consider the comparison the Apostle makes betwixt Charitie and such Gifts in the 12 13 Chap. OBJECTION XXIV But in all my Actions I endeavour to skrien my self from the wrath of God and to prevent his Justice upon my person for Sin already committed perfectly indeed abhorring it as the cause of all my Troubles but not truly enamoured of Vertue me thinks because it yields me no such Harvest of Content and felicity as the Heathens themselves could boast of SOLUTION 30. THat your self should be your end aswell as God is not contrary to Piety but your self must be put in a second and subordinate place and God in the first and chiefest because God being the chiefest good and our Salvation subordinate to his Glory as he is in this the prime mover of our Wills both objectively and efficiently so consequently