Death they shall be gloriâ—â—ed with him in Heaven for ever And the Unbelievers Impenitent and Ungodly shall go to everâ—â—sting Punishment And having commanded his Apostles to Preach the Gospel to all the World and promised his Spirit he ascended into Heaven Where he is the Glorified Head over all Things to the Church and our prevailing Intercessor with the Father who will there receive the departed Souls of thâ— Justified and at the end of this VVorld will come again and raise all the Dead and will Judge all according to their VVorks and justly execute his Judgment III. I believe that God the Holy Spirit was given 〈◊〉 the Father and the Son to the Prophets Apostles 〈◊〉 Evangelists to be their Infallible Guide in Preachâ—â—â— and Recording the Doctrine of Salvation and the Witness of its certain Truth by his manifold Divine Operations and to quicken illuminate and sanctifie all true Believers that they may overcome the Flesh thâ— VVorld and the Devil And all that are thus sanctified are one holy Catholick Church of Christ and mâ—â—â— live in holy Câ—mmunion and have the pardon 〈◊〉 their Sins and shall have everlasting Life Believing in God the Father Son and Holy Spirit do presently absolutely and resolved 〈◊〉 give up my self to him my Creator and reconciled God and Father my Saviour and Sanctifier And repenting of my Sins I renounce the Devil the World and the sinful desireâ— of the Flesh And denying my self and taking up mâ— Cross I consent to follow Christ the Captain 〈◊〉 my Salvation in hope of his promised Grace and Glory A Short CATECHISM for those that havâ—â— Learned the first Quest 1. WHat do you believe concerning GOD 1 Assent Answ There is one onely God aâ— Infinite Spirit of Life Understanding and Will mâ—â—â— perfectly Powerful Wise and Good The Father the Word and the Spirit The Creator Governour and end of all things Our Absolute Owner our most Just Ruler and our most Gracious and most Amiâ—ble Father Quest 2. What believe you of the Creation and the nature of Man and the Law which was given to him Answ God created all the World And made MAN in his own Image an imbodied Spirit of Life Understanding and Will with holy Liveliness Wisdom and Love to know and love and serve has Maker here and for ever and gave him the inferiour Creatures for his use But forbad him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge upon pain of Death Qu. What believe you of Man's fall into sin and misery Ans Man being tempted by Satan did by wilful sinning fall from his Holiness his Innocency and his Happiness under the Justice of God the condemnation of his Law and the slavery of the Flesh the World and the Devil whence sinful guilty and miserable Natures are propagated to all Mankind And no meer Creature is able to deliver us Quest 4. What believe you of Man's Redemption by Jesus Christ Answ God so loved the World that he gave his only Son to be their Saviour Who being GOD and One with the Father took our Nature and became MAN being conceived by the Holy Ghost Born of the Virgin Mary and called JESUS CHRIST who was perfectly holy without sin fulfilling all Righteousness and overcame the Devil and the World and gave himself a Sacrifice for our Sins by suffering a Cursed Death on the Cross to ransom us and reconcile us unto God and was buried and went among the Dead the third day he rose again having conquered Death and having sealed the New Covenant with his Blood he commanded his Apostles and other Ministers to Preach the Gospel to all the World and promised the Holy Ghost And then Ascended into Heaven where he is God and Man the Glorified Head over all things to his Church and our prevailing Intercessor with God the Father Quest 5. What is the New Testament or Covenant 〈◊〉 Law of Grace Answ God through Jesus Christ doth freely give to all Mankind himself to be their Reconciled God and Father his Son to be their Saviour and his Holy Spirit to be their Sanctifier if they will believe and accept the Gift and will give up themselves to him accordingly Repenting of their sins and consenting to forsake thâ— Devil the World and the Flesh and sincerely though not perfectly to obey Christ and his Spirit to the end according to the Law of Nature and his Gospel Institutions that they may be glorified in Heaven for ever Quest 6. What believe you of the Holy Ghost Answ God the Holy Spirit was given by the Father and the Son to the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists to be their Infallible Guide in Preaching and Recording the Doctrine of Salvation and the Witness of its certain Truth by his manifold Divine Operations And he is given to quicken illuminate and sanctifie all true Believers and to save them from the Devil the World and the Flesh Quest 7. What believe you of the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins Answ All that truely consent to the Baptismal Covenant are one sanctified Church or Body of Christ and have Communion in the same Spirit of Faith and Love and have the forgiveness of all their sins and all that by Baptism visibly Covenant and that continue to profess Christianity and Holiness are the universal visible Church on Earth and must keep holy Communion with Love and Peace in the particular Churches in the Doctrine VVorship and Order Instituted by Christ Quest 8. What believe you of the Resurrection and Everlasting Life Answ At Death the Souls of the Justified go to Happiness with Christ and the Souls of the Wicked â—o Misery And at the end of this World Christ will â—ome in Glory and will raise the Bodies of all Men â—rom Death and will Judge all according to their Works And the Righteous shall go into Everlasting Life where being made perfect themselves they shall 〈◊〉 God and perfectly Love and Praise him with Christâ— and all the glorified Church and the rest into Everâ—asting punishment Quest 9. You have told me what you Il. Consent Believe Tell me now what is the full Resolution and Desire of your Will concerning all this which you Believe Answ Believing in God the Father Son and Holy â—pirit I do presently absolutely and resolvedly give up my self to Him my Creator and reconciled God and Father my Saviour and my Sanctifier And Repenting of my Sins I renounce the Devil the World and the sinful desires of the Flesh And denying my self and taking up my Cross I consent to follow Christ the Captain of my Salvation In hope of the Grace and Glory promised Which I daily desire and â—eg as he hath taught me saying Our Father which 〈◊〉 in Heaven c. Quest 10. What is that Practice which by this Covenant 〈◊〉 are obliged to Answ According to the Law of Nature and Christs â—nstitutions I must desiring Perfection sincerely Obey him in a Life of Faith and Hope and
THE Grand Question RESOLVED What we must do to be SAVED INSTRUCTIONS FOR A Holy Life BY The Late Reverend Divine Mr. RICHARD BAXTER Recommended to the Bookseller a few days before his Death to be immediately Printed for the good of Souls Acts 16. 30. Sirs What must I do to be Saved LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheap-side 1692. The Great Case Resolved How to be certainly SAVED Instructions for a Holy Life I. The Necessity Reason and Means of Holiness II. The Parts and Practice of a Holy Life For Personal Direction and for Family Instruction With two short Catechisms and Prayers Reader IGnorant Persons cannot remember long and many words nor understand a brief stile and few words This maketh it impossible to write a Catechism that shall not be unsuitable either to the Understanding or the Memory of such I must therefore desire the Teacher to make up this unavoidable Defect by opening the 〈◊〉 especially of the Catechisms to the Children and Servants when they have learned and say the words Read the Instructions often to them and press all as you go on their Affections For the bare words without a present Guide may â—â—e be all lost I. The Necessity Reason and Means of Holiness 1. To keep up the Resolutions of the Converted And 2. To instruct those in Families that need them THough the saving of Souls be a matter of unexpressible Importance yet the Lord have mercy upon them What abundance are there that think it not worthy of their serious Enquiry nor the reading of a good Book one hour in a Week For the sake of these careless slothful Sinners I have here spoken much in a little room that they may not refuse to read and consider so short a Lesson unless they think their Souls worth nothing Sinner as thou wilt shortly answer it before God deny not to God to thy self and me the sober pondering and faithful practising these few Directions I. Begin at home and know thy self Consider what it is to be a MAN Thou art made a nobler Creature than the Brutes They serve thee and are governed by thee and Death ends all their Pains and Pleasures But thou hast Reason to rule thy self and them to know thy God and â—oresee thy End and know thy way and do thy Duty Thy Reason and Free-will and Executive Power are part of the Image of God upon thy Nature so is thy Dominion over the Brutes as under him thou art their Owner their Ruler and their End But thy Holy Wisdom and Goodness and Ability is the chief part of his Image on which thy Happiness depends Thou hast a Soul that cannot be satisfied in Knowing till thy Knowledge reach to God himself Nor can it be disposed by any other Nor can it or the Societies of the World be well governed according to its Nature without regard to his Soveraign Authority and without the hopes and fears of Joy and Misery hereafter Nor can it be happy in any thing but seeing and loving and delighting in this God as he is revealed in the other World And is this Nature given thee in vain If the Nature of all things be fitted to its Vse and End then it must be so with thine II. By knowing thy self then thou must needs know that there is a GOD and that he is thy Maker and infinite in all Perfections and that he is thy Owner thy Ruler and thy Felicity or End He is mad that seeth not that such Creatures have a Cause or Maker and that all the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the World is caused by a Power and Wisdom and Goodness which is greater than that of all the World And who can be our Owner but He that made us And who can be our highest Governour but our Owner whose infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness maketh him only fit thereto And if he be our Governour he must needs have Laws with Rewards for the Good and Punishments for the Bad and must Judge and Execute accordingly And if he be our Chiefest Benefactor and all that we have is from him and all our Hope and Happiness is in him nothing can be more clear than that the very Nature of Man doth prove that in Hope of future Happiness he should absolutely resign himself to the Will and Disposal of this God and that he should absolutely obey him and that he should love and serve him with all his Power It being impossible to Love Obey and Please that God too much who is thus our Cause our End our All. III. By knowing thus thy self and God it is easie to know what Primitive Holiness and Godliness is Even this hearty entire and absolute resignation of the Soul to God as the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness as our Creator our Owner Governour and Felicity or End fully submiting to his Disposals obeying his Laws in hope of his promised Rewards and fear of his threatned Punishments and loving and delighting in himself and all his Appearances in the World and desiring and seeking the endless sight and enjoyment of him in heavenly Glory and expressing these Affections in daily Prayer Thanksgiving and Praise This is the Vse of all thy Faculties the End and Business of thy Life the Health and Happiness of thy Soul This is that Holiness or Godliness which God doth so much call for IV. And by this it is easie to know what a state of Sin and Ungodliness is Even the want of all this Holiness and the setting of carnal Self instead of GOD. When Men are proudly Great and Wise and Good in their own Eyes and would dispose of themselves and all their Concernments and would rule themselves and please themselves according to the fleshly appetite and Fancy and therefore love most the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of the World as the Provision to satisfie the desires of the Flesh and God shall be no â—urther Loved Obeyed or Pleased than the Love of Fleshly Pleasure will give leave nor shall have any thing but what the Flesh can spare This is a Wicked a Carnal an ungodly State though it break forth in various ways of Sinning V. By this Experience it self may tell you that most Men yea all till Grace renew them are in this ungodly miserable State Though only the Scripture tells us how this came to pass Though all are not Fornicators nor Drunkards noâ— Extortioners nor Persecuâ—ors nor live not in the same way of Sinning yet Selfishness and Pride and Sensuality and the love of Worldly Things Ignorance and Ungodliness are plainly become the common Corruption of the Nature of Man so that their Hearts are turned to the World from God and filled with impiety filthiness and injustice and their Reason is but a Servant to their Senses and their Mind and Love and Life is Carnal and this carnal Mind is Enmity to the Holiness of God and
cannot be subject to his Law This Corruption is hereditary and is become as it were a Nature to us being the mortal Malady of all our Natures And it is easie to know that such an unholy wicked Nature must needs be loathsome to God and unfit for the happy enjoyment of his Love either here or in the Life to come For what Communion hath Light with Darkness VI. Hence then it is easie to see what Grace is needful to a Man's Salvation So odious a Creature such an unthankful Rebel that is turned away from God and set against him and defiled with all this filth of Sin must needs be both Renewed and Reconciled Sanctified and Pardoned if ever he will be saved To love God and be beloved by him and to be delighted herein in the sight of his Glory is the Heaven and Happiness of Souls and all this is contrary to an unholy State Till Men have new and holy Hearts they can neither see God nor love him nor delight in him nor take him for their chief Content for the Flesh and World have their delight and Love And till Sin be pardoned and God reconciled to the Soul what Joy or Peace can it expect from him whose Nature and Justice engageth him to loath and punish it VII And Experience will tell you how insufficient you are for either of these two Works your selves to renew your Souls or to reconcile them unto God Will a Nature that is Carnal resist and overcome the Flesh and abhor the Sin which it most dearly loveth Will a Worldly Mind overcome the World When Custom hath rooted your natural Corruptions are they easily rooted up O how great and hard a Work is it to cause a blind unbelieving Sinner to set his Heart on another World and lay up all his Hopes in Heaven and to cast off all the things he seeth for that God and Glory which he never saw And for a hardned worldly fleshly heart to become Wise and Tender and Holy and Heavenly and abhor the Sin which it most fondly loveth And what can we do to satisfie Justice and reconcile such a rebel Soul to God VIII Nature and Experience having thus acquainted you with your Sin and Misery and what you want will further tell you that God doth not yet deal with you according to your deserts He giveth you Life and Time and Mercies when your Sins had forfeited all these He obligeth you to repent and turn unto him And therefore Experience telling you that there is some Hope and that God hath found out some way of shewing Mercy to the Children of Wrath Reason will command you to enquire of all that are fit to teach you what way of Remedy God hath made known And as you may soon discover that the Religion of Heathens and Mahometans is so far from shewing the true Remedy that they are part of the Disease it self So you may learn that a wonderful Person the Lord Jesus Christ hath undertaken the Office of being the Redeemer and Saviour of the World and that he who is the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father hath wonderfully appeared in the Nature of Man which he took from the Virgin Mary being conceived by the Holy Ghost and that we might have a Teacher sent from †Heaven infallably and easily to acquaint the World with the Will of God and the unseen things of Life Eternal How God bare Witness of his Truth by abundant open and uncontrouled Miracles How he conquered Satan and the World and gave us an Example of perfect Righteousness and underwent the Scorn and Cruelty of Sinners and suffered the Death of the Cross as a Sacrifice for our Sins to reconcile us unto God How he rose again the third day and conquered Death and lived forty days longer on Earth instructing his Apostles and giving them Commission to preach the Gospel to all the World and then ascended bodily into Heaven while they gazed after him How he is now in Heaven both God and Man in one Person the Teacher and King and High-Priest of his Church Of Him must we learn the way of Life by Him must we be ruled as the Physician of Souls All Power is given Him in Heaven and in Earth By his Sacrifice and Merits and Intercession must we be pardoned and accepted with the Father and only by him must we come to God He hath procured and established a Covenant of Grace which Baptism is the Seal of Even That God will in him be our God and reconciled Father and Christ will be our Saviour and the Holy Ghost will be our Sanctifier if we will unfeignedly consent that is if penitently and believingly we give up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in those Resolutions This Covenant in the Tenor of it is a Deed of Gift of Christ and Pardon and Salvation to all the World â—f by the true Faith and Repentance they will turn to God And this shall be the Law according to which he will judge all that hear it at the last for he is made the judge of All and will raise all the dead and will justify his Saints and judge them unto endless Joy and Glory and condemn the Unbelievers impenitent and ungodly unto endless Misery The Soul alone is judged at Death and Body and Soul at the Resurrection This Gospel the Apostles preached to the World and that it might be effectual to Mens Salvation the Holy Ghost was first given to inspire the Preachers of it and enable them to speak in various Languages and infallibly to agree in One and to work many great and open Miracles to prove their Word to those they preached to And by this means they planted the Church which ordinary Ministers must increase and teach and oversee to the end of the World till all the Elect be gathered in And the same Holy Spirit hath undertaken it as his Work to accompany this Gospel and by it to convert Mens Souls illuminating and sanctifying them and by a secret Regeneration to renew their Natures and bring them to that Knowledge and Obedience and Love of God which is the Primitive Holiness for which we were created and from which we fell And thus by a Saviour and a Sanctifier must all be reconciled and renewed that will be glorified with God in Heaven All this you may learn from the Sacred Scriptures which were written by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit and sealed by multitudes of open Miracles and contain the very Image and Superscription of God and have been received and preserved by the Church as the certain Oracles of God and blessed by him through all Generations to the sanctifying of many Souls IX When you understand all this it is time for you to look home and understand now what State your Souls are in That you were made capable of Holiness and Happiness you know that you and