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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A53957 A practical discourse concerning God's love to mankind written for the satisfaction of some scrupulous persons / by Edward Pelling ... Pelling, Edward, d. 1718. 1694 (1694) Wing P1083; ESTC R21771 58,579 154

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which is a thing altogether hidden but in respect of those excellent Qualities Vertues and Perfections for which some are Eminent and Exemplary in this present World and because for their gracious dispositions and endowments they are the Choicest the Best the most valuable part of Mankind a peculiar people Zealous of good Works There is no doubt but God knoweth who are his who will continue his who will be fit and rightly prepared for his most Glorious Beatifical Presence But we have no Revelation concerning of particulars and as for the Scripture which is the standing Revelation we are to trust unto and to go by it meaneth by the Elect Sincere Sound Holy and Faithful Christians They are God's Elect in the Scripture Sence AND hence it followeth that none of those People who profess the Faith of Christ and Obedience to him should be Censorious and Uncharitable to others who own the Lord Jesus as well as they and who are for ought they know in as ready nay by their Humility and Charity in a readier way to Eternal Happiness than such as out of a principle of Pharisaism and Spiritual Pride Judge hardly of their Brethren Have they been Baptized in the Name of Christ So have we Do they Believe the several Articles of the Christian Faith So do we Do they use the Ordinances of Christ So do we Do they pretend Holiness I pray God we may all appear Holy in the Day of God and I wish some be not grosly mistaken in the Notion of Holiness for it doth not consist in a demure Look nor in odd Gestures nor in dry Opinions nor in Raptures and Ecstacies nor in Niceness Affectation or Singularity as to Matters Circumstantial But good Morality is a great part of True Holiness and it doth entirely consist in a Godly Righteous and Sober Life And whether their Holiness or ours be most substantial that Day will shew when all our Works shall be tried and when God will Judge even the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ IN the mean time People should not talk of their Election and Holiness so as to forget Charity God's great and undeserved Goodness to us all should Teach us to be Good and Kind and Affectionate to each other Beloved if God so Loved us we ought also to love one another saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 11. Some have a strange faculty of Predestinating Themselves to Eternal Happiness and of Reprobating others to Eternal Misery But by all that I have read and considered upon this Subject it is great Ignorance joyn'd together with Self-love and Factiousness of Spirit that prevails with some Men to maintain a Point so opposite to the Love of God since the Point has been so accurately Examined especially in these Later and more Inquisitive Ages INSTEAD of expressing uncharitableness to one another upon fond presumption when we are all called by the Great Mercy of God to a State of Savlation we should every one of us give diligence to make our Calling and Election sure as the Apostle tells us 2 Pet. 1. 10. Meaning that we should make such a good use of these means of Grace we have the Privilege and Happiness of enjoying that they may be effectual to us and that we fail not of obtaining the end of that Faith and Hope to which we are all called And the way the Apostle directs is Plain and Open If saith he ye do these things ye shall never fall that is if ye do the things he mentioneth particularly at the 5 6 and 7 ver of that Chapter if ye add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity If these things be in you and abound ye shall never fall You see the Terms of Everlasting Life are conditional and that it lies on our part to perform those conditions Whence it necessarily follows that whatever God's Purposes are there are none on Their side who are People of Ungodly and Uncharitable Minds The Decree is extant Heb. 12. 14. Without Holiness that is without the entire practice of Religion no Man shall see the Lord and therefore it is very dangerous to trust to God's Secret Decrees while Men are wanting to that which is a manifest Duty Besides there is required Habitual Sanctity and Purity of Heart to fit and prepare us for an Heavenly State to make us Meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of Saints in Light Col. 1. 2. without this gracious disposition of Soul the Works of Heaven would be utterly Unsuitable to our Inclinations and we our selves should be utterly Uncapable of exerting our faculties upon them with the chearfulness and pleasure which is the Life of the Blessed and the Joys there are of such a Spiritual and Sublime Nature that they are altogether inconsistent with Tempers which are Earthly Sensual Devilish So that were there no Decree to keep Evil-minded People out of God's Everlasting Kingdom the very Nature of the Thing would render it absolutely impossible for them to be Happy in it because their Corrupt dispositions are quite Unfit for it nay Averse and Contrary to those things wherein the Blessedness of Heaven doth consist Therefore instead of taking upon us to shut others out we should have a great care lest we exclude our selves by depending upon Decrees on God's part without Holiness on our own Upon such Decrees as may be said to be of our own making if we do not qualifie our selves in such a sort as God hath commanded us Men should look very well at Home inquire diligently into their true State Rectifie their Tempers Mould their Hearts unto a Divine Frame set their Affections on things which are Honest Pure and Lovely Resemble God by being Merciful and Good to All and Imprint on their Souls those Divine Characters which are a Similitude of His Perfections and Glory This is the ultimate end of God's Love to us all that he may make us like unto Himself in the entire goodness of our Nature and that by those means he may render us truly Happy in the Fruition of Himself And whatever some giddy-headed People conceive it is very high and dangerous Presumption to leave the whole business of their Salvation to God and to throw it all upon God first to ordain them peremtorily to Everlasting Happiness and then to work upon them after an Irresistible manner as if they were to be haled and forced to it though with all their ill Qualities about them and notwithstanding their uncharitableness in particular than which nothing can be more Opposite to the Love of God nor to the Condition of that Place which is the Habitation of his Glory CHAP. VIII That our Care must be to make such a due Use of Gods Love and Goodness towards us all as to perform those things which are indispensibly necessary in order to the actual Possession of