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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A53959 A practical discourse upon charity in its several branches and of the reasonableness and useful nature of this great Christian virtue / by Edward Pelling ... Pelling, Edward, d. 1718. 1693 (1693) Wing P1086; ESTC R21750 75,615 304

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Authority of Jesus Christ and assents to his Doctrines Now this Assent of the Mind is required in order to the Practice of Christ's Religion because it is not imaginable how People can be brought to obey his Laws sincerely and universally unless they be first perswaded in their Hearts that he was the Son of God the very Christ sent by his Father from Heaven to help Mankind thither This puts a Divine Stamp upon the whole Christian Religion it gives it an unquestionable Credit and renders every the most difficult Article of it worthy of all Acceptation because it came from God and was revealed by the Son of God and therefore must needs be infallibly true Upon this account the belief of Christ's Authority and of the Truth and certainty of his Religion is the first thing necessary And for this Reason it was that his first Disciples took such pains every where to prove him to be the very Christ and inculcated the necessity of Faith in him For this was the ready way to bring the World in Obedience to him and nothing but this could prevail with Men to observe Christ's Institution with such strictness as the Primitive Christian did and for the sake of it to venture and undergo upon all Occasions the utter loss of all Faith then being required to produce Obedience as the proper Means in order to this noble End cannot possibly stand us in stead if it be only a Notion in our Heads if it be a liveless and unfruitful Perswasion if it be naked and alone if it hath not that effect and power upon our Souls as to bring on the Love and Practice of those other Virtues and Graces for the Production whereof it hath been all along intended Now of those Virtues and Graces Charity is the very chiefest this must accompany our Faith to make it as it should be such a Faith as we may safely rely on and therefore St. Paul describing that Assent of the Mind which availeth indeed calls it Faith which worketh by love Gal. 5. 6. Or as some Learned Criticks would rather render it Faith which is consummate and perfected by Charity The truth is all our Notions are very imperfect Things without this and though these Notions be never so right and Orthodox yet are they vastly short of our true Duty till they reach our Hearts and make us to open our Bowels towards other Men and to exercise our Hands in Offices of Love And therefore since without a Spirit of Charity nothing will avail us nor answer the great Ends of Christ's Religion no not our very Faith according to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Though I have all Knowledge and all Faith and give away Goods Body Life and all and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Since I say it is thus it is of infinite Concernment to us all so to subdue our Minds and Passions as to approve our selves in this respect the hearty Disciples of a meek and charitable Jesus Many Voluminous Disputations have been written which might have been better spared about Faith and Works and Justification whether we are justified by the one or the other or by both and great Endeavours have been used to Reconcile St. Paul and St. James upon this Point Rather I might say to set them at Variance for their Sense is the same touching the necessity of Works Evangelical as Piety Humility Meekness Patience and the like and very plainly and particulary upon the Point of Charity Here the most vulgar Eye may see their clear Agreement In Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love saith St. Paul Gal. 5. 6. And He shall have Judgment without Mercy that hath shewed no Mercy saith St. James Jam. 2. 13. Therefore in a Case that is so positively and fully decided we should leave Controversie and fall to Practice and study how to be fruitful in good Works rather than how to make our Brains Prolifick This is the right way of performing the Conditions of the Evangelical Covenant and of bringing Peace and Comfort to our own Minds I am sure when we come to die it will turn to far better account for our poor Souls than all the Disputes which we shall leave behind us and which we shall leave too with this great Question which perhaps will never be determin'd Whether Men have managed them with as much Truth as Uncharitableness 4. Fourthly A Charitable Temper serves to prepare and fit us for the Everlasting Happiness of another Life Many Virtues are required to dispose us for the Enjoyment of that Happiness to make us capable of it to render us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1. 12. Neither will the Decrees nor the Power nor the Mercy of God bring us to that Fruition without due Qualifications on our part because there can be no true Happiness but where there is a Correspondence and Suitableness between the Mind and the Thing if a Man be not pleased with what he Enjoys nor finds any delightful Relish in it it is impossible for him to be happy by enjoying it nor can Heaven it self be a place of Pleasure to those whose Minds have as little Taste of those Divine Satisfactions as a vitiated Palate hath of the most pleasant Meats and Drinks To prepare our selves for those Delights it is necessary to transform our Souls into the love of them now and to accustom our selves now to the familiar and delightful Practice of those Virtues wherein the Felicity of another Life doth really consist Of which Virtues a charitable Disposition is one and a very great one because we shall be sure to carry that Disposition with us out of this World to continue with us everlastingly and to make us happy indeed in the enjoyment of a suitable Society of Blessed Spirits which are all made up of Love Charity never faileth saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 8. Whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away But Charity endureth for ever it is an inseparable Glory of the Souls of just Men made perfect And this is another Reason why Charity is set above Faith and Hope because it is of infinite Duration As it is the most beneficial so it is the most lasting Virtue Faith is the Evidence or firm Perswasion of Things not yet seen Heb. 11. 1. And when we come to behold God Face to Face it will be no longer Faith but Vision And so Hope is the expectation of Things that are future and when we come to the actual Possession of them it will be no longer Hope but Fruition or Enjoyment But Love is of an unchangeable Nature nor will it ever cease because it is a Ray of the Immutable and Everlasting God This is the Happiness of Heaven that though there be different Ranks and Orders of Angels different States of