Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
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A53957
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A practical discourse concerning God's love to mankind written for the satisfaction of some scrupulous persons / by Edward Pelling ...
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing P1083; ESTC R21771
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58,579
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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
sendeth out his good Word into the whole World and his Good Spirit along with it that all the Earth may be full of Good People and of his Glory That they may be prepared and fitted to Participate of his Infinite Goodness and Glory in another Life And if after all this any come short of that Glory of God and of their own Happyness that they may have no reason to accuse any but their own Perverse and Wicked Selves This is the real way of leaving all Men without Excuse They are not Inexcusable for not doing things which are out of their Power or for being Miserable when they cannot avoid it for Impossibilities would excuse all Mankind But this renders Wicked People Inexcusable that Salvation is Tender'd them and means given them of attaining to it and they willfully neglect the things which belong unto their Peace This is the Condemnation That Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness rather because their Deeds are Evil Joh. 3. 19. AGAINST all this which hath been said to prove the Universality of God's Love to Mankind from the Universality of that Grace which hath been exhibited to the World by the Preaching of the Gospel every where I foresee it may be Objected THAT the Gospel is not yet Publish'd to the whole World ARE there not divers parts of the Earth that are yet Undiscover'd And in those we know or have heard of are there not multitudes of Blind and Idolatrous poor Wretches without any Footsteps of Christianity among them And if so how then was the coming of Christ an Argument and Expression of God's Unfeigned Love to them and especially to those their Ancestors who since Christ's time have Dyed in a State of invincible Infidelity TO this I presume to say these four things 1. FIRST That it is impossible for Us now to tell where the Gospel hath not been Preached And consequently it is not a certain Principle that neither any of the Apostles nor yet any of their Successors Publish'd it in those Countries which are unknown to us at this distance or in others which are known to be addicted still to Heathenish Idolatries and Superstition How probable soever Mens Conjectures may be 't is impossible for them in this as in other Cases to prove a Negative 2. SECONDLY Nor can we tell but that in those Regions of the World which are now Infidels the Christian Faith hath been formerly rejected upon the Preaching of it Nothing is so contrary to the Perswasions Customs and Vices of Heathens as the Christian Religion and therefore it is no Wonder if it hath not been Received by People every where The Gergesens desired Christ himself to depart out of their Coasts He came unto his Own and his Own Received him not and so it is no Wonder if his Disciples found ill Usage at the Hands of Strangers When he sent them out he foresaw that they would not find the Sons of Peace every where and therefore he Commanded them to leave Obstinate People and to shake off the Dust of their Feet as a Testimony against them St. Paul told some of the Jews that they put the Word of God from them and Judged themselves unworthy of Eternal Life And for that Reason that he would turn to the Gentiles Acts 13. 46. Nor were all among the Gentiles disposed to Believe Though the Apostles had generally better success among them than among the Jews yet among some of those too they met with unconquerable Opposition 3. THIRDLY Suppose some whose Office it was to propagate the Faith were wanting t o some People either through Carelessness or for fear of Death and Persecution This doth not Argue any want of Love in God whose Intentions were that all Men should come to the knowledge of the Truth and whose Commands were that the Gospel should be Preach'd to every Creature CHAP. III. Proved Secondly from the Universality of that Redemption which was Purchased by our Saviour's Death HAVING thus Proved the Universal Love of God towards Mankind from the Amplitude of that Commission which Christ gave his Apostles and their Successors to Publish the Gospel Universally I proceed now to a farther Demonstration of it from the Consideration of the Extensive Merit of our Blessed Saviour's Death AS to this Matter I think fit to premise these two preliminary Observations 1. FIRST That the Doctrine of our Universal Redemption by the Blood of Christ is Deliver'd in the Holy Scripture in as plain and as clear Terms as could possibly have been used Supposing the Doctrine were Unquestionably True nay as fully in as few Words as could have been Wish'd had Mankind been Empowr'd to have Penn'd the Doctrine themselves for their own Satisfaction HERE the Lord Jesus himself saith God so Loved the World that he gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Joh. 3. 16. And elsewhere it is said That God will have all Men to be Saved 1 Tim. 2. 4. That Christ gave himself a Ransom for all v. 6. That He is the Saviour of all Men especially of those that Believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. That he Tasted Death for every Man Heb. 2. 9. That he was Deliver'd up for us All Rom. 8. 32. And that he is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for our Sins only but also for the Sins of the whole World 1 Joh. 2. 2. These Expressions are Clear and Open to the Sence of every one in the World nor is any Article of our Faith Deliver'd in Terms that are freer from Ambiguity or less liable to doubtful meanings than these are The very Being of God though the Belief of it be the Foundation of all Religion yet it is no where more clearly Taught nor I think of sett Purpose so often and so Expresly Inculcated as this Principle is For the Holy Scriptures suppose God's Being and tho' they be full of Declarations and Proofs of God's Attributes his Singularity Omniscience Immutability Mercy Justice and the like Divine Perfections yet his Existence and Being Consider'd Abstractedly from his other Infinite Glories is no where to my Remembrance so Expresly Openly Directly and Frequently Proposed to our Belief as this Truth is That he gave his Son to die for all Men. 2. SECONDLY It is Observable That in those Places of Scripture I have now Cited this Principle is laid down as the Ground-work Motive and Reason of some Important Duty wherein all Mankind are concerned Our Saviour's Words about God's Love to the World were intended to Invite and Incourage all People to come unto Him and to Believe on Him In the next place it is used as a strong Argument for Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks to be made for all Men. Then it is laid down as a sure Ground for our Trusting in the Living God notwithstanding all Labouring and suffering Reproach Next it is mentioned as the great Reason of our Universal Obedience