is wrought in us by the Word and the Spirit of God That Faith is that Grace whereby we believe and trust in Christ for remission of sins and Life Everlasting according to the Promises of the Gospel that whosoever believeth not in the Son of God shall not see Life but shall perish eternally That they who truly repent of their sins do see them sorrow for them and turn from them to the Lord and that except men repent they shall surely perish That a godly life is conscionably ordered according to the Word of God in Holiness and Righteousness without which no man shall see God That the Sacraments are Seals of the Covenant of Grace in the Blood of Christ that the Sacraments of the New Testament are Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord that the outward Elements in the Lords Supper are Bread and Wine and do signifie the Body and Blood of Christ crucified which the worthy Receiver by Faith doth partake of in the Sacrament which Christ hath likewise ordained for the remembrance of his Death that whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord therefore that every one is to examine himself lest he eat and drink Judgement to himself not discerning the Lords Body That the Souls of the Faithful after death do immediately live with Christ in Blessedness and that the Souls of the Wicked do immediatly go into hell torment that there shall be a Resurrection of the Bodies both of the Just and Unjust at the last day at which time all shall appear before the Judgement-Seat of Christ to receive what they have done in the Body whether it be Good or Evil and that the Righteous shall go into Life Eternal and the Wicked into Everlasting Punishment 3. Because some persons through want of Education weakness of apprehension bashfulness and other impediments are unable to express their minds in fit and composed words and yet others by roat can easily speak more than they understand we will therefore use the most familiar means by easie questions and discourse to discern the meaning of such not taking any for ignorant for want of apt expressions nor accepting every one for competently knowing who verbally can recite the fore-mentioned particulars but so far as we can discover we will make their ignorance or knowledge it self the ground of our proceeding Unblameable Conversation and Scandal 1. SCandalous sinners we agree cannot be admitted to the Lords Supper without great sin and judgement to themselves danger by their example of leavening the whole lump defiling the Ordinance and very great dishonour to Christ therefore we resolve not to receive any of what degree or quality soever that is proved such before satisfaction be given the Church by evidence of serious Repentance 2. We will not reject any from our own private apprehensions and suspitious or others bare report but where the matter of fact shall have some evident proof 3. Because all sins are not alike evil nor of a scandalous nature therefore we shall distinguish of such sins and accordingly proceed 4. We agree that no person ought to be judged scandalous for sins of such meer infirmity and daily incursion that all the Saints daily are subject to mourn for and strive against 5. But such we agree are scandalous persons who continue in any course or way of open wickedness whatsoever and particularly are evidently guilty of any of those wayes of sin mentioned in Scripture as marks and characters of wicked persons being utterly inconsistent with Holiness saving Faith true Repentance new Obedience and coming up to the terms of the Covenant of Grace sealed by this Sacrament and thereby appearing in open rebellion against Christ the Ordainer of it such as Idolaters Sorcerers Fornicators Drunkards Lyars and any such kind of evil livers 6. We agree that a person is scandalous by not only a way or course of open wickedness but likewise by any one single act or work of manifest wickedness whereby the people of Christ have that evil example set before them and may be drawn into the like Rebellion and disobedience against Christ such as a single act of Fornication Drunkenness Blasphemy Idolatry or any the like immorral and flagitious act To this we add for further evidence that innumeration of scandals by the Assembly in their Church-Government The words are as followeth All scandalous Persons hereafter mentioned are to be suspended from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper that is to say all persons that shall blasphemously speak or write any thing of God his holy Word or Sacraments all Renouncers of the true Protestant Religion professed in the Church of England and all persons who shall by preaching or writing maintain any such Errours as do subvert any of those Articles the ignorance whereof doth render any person excluded from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper an Incestuous person an Adulterer a Fornicator a Drunkard a prophane Swearer or Curser one that hath taken away the life of any person maliciously all Worshippers of Images Crosses Crucifixes or Reliques all that shall make Images or Pictures of the Trinity or of any person thereof all Religious Worshippers of Saints Angels or any meer creatures any person that shall profess himself not to be in charity with his Neighbour all persons in whom malice appeareth and they refuse to be reconciled any person that shall challenge any other person by word message or writing to fight or that shall accept such challenge and agree thereto any person that shall knowingly carry any Challenge by word message or writing any person that shall upon the Lords day use any Dancing playing at Dice or Cards or any other Game Masking Wakes Shooting Bowling Playing playing at Foot-ball Stool-ball Wrestling or that shall make resort to any Playes Interludes Fencing Bull-baiting Bear-baiting or that shall use Hawking Hunting or Coursing Fishing or Fowling or that shall publikely expose any wares to sale otherwise then is provided by an Ordinance of Parliament of the sixth of April 1649. Any person that shall travell on the Lords Day without reasonable cause any person that keepeth a known Stew or Brothel-house or that shall solicite the chastity of any person for himself or any other any person Father or Mother that shall consent to the Marriage of their Children to a Papist or any person that shall marry a Papist any person that shall repair for any advice to any Witch Wizard or Fortune-teller any person that shall menace or assault his Parents or any Magistrate Minister or Elder in the execution of his office any person that shall be legally attained of Barrotry Forgery Extortion or Bribery Thus the Rubrick before the Communion in these words If any be an open and evil liver so that the Congregation by him is offended or have done wrong to his Neighbour by deed or word the Curate having knowledge thereof shall advertise him in any wise not to presume to the Lords Table
part of the same that through death he might destroy c. And became man 1 Tim. 2.5 there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Jesus Being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary Matth. 1.18.20 21. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise Luke 1.27 31 35 42. When as his Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus c. Made of her substance Rom. 1.3 Concerning his Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Gal. 4.4 In the fulnesse of time God sent his Son made of a woman and borne of her Matth. 1.25 she brought forth her first-borne Son and he called his name Jesus Luke 2.7 Who being perfect God and perfect man in one person Matth. 1.23 Behold a Virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Sonne and they shall call his name Emmanuel John 1.14 Rom. 9.5 1 Tim. 3.16 which being interpreted is God with us Free from sin even in his humane nature and life Heb. 7.26 1 Pet. 2.22 1 John 3.5 2 Cor. 5.21 for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we c. Heb. 4.15 he was without sin Having fulfilled all righteousnesse Matth. 3.15 with 5.17 Jesus said unto him suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousnesse Gave himself a sacrifice for our sins and a ransome for us Eph. 5.2 And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Heb. 9.14.26.28 Mat. 20.28 1 Tim. 2.6 1 Pet. 3.18 Mat. 26.38 and 27.46 Gal. 3.13 Phil. 2.8 Rom. 3.24 25 26. with 5.9 Heb. 2.17 1 Pet. 3.18 and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour By suffering the wrath of God and the death of the Crosse 1 Pet. 2.21 24. Christ hath suffered for us c. who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree c. To reconcile us to God 2 Cor. 5.18 19 21. All things are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them c. And being buried Acts 2.23 24 27. Col. 2.15 Heb. 2.14 yet so triumphed over death that he rose again the third day And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures And afterwards ascended up into heaven Luke 24.51 Acts 1.9 11. Mark 16.19 after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven c. Where he remaineth Rom. 8.34 Act. 3.21 whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things Ruling in equal power and glory with the Father Col. 3.1 Eph. 1.20 21 22. which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalities and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church And making intercession for us Heb. 7.25 Rom. 8.34 who is even at the right hand of God who maketh intercession for us Whence he shall come again 1 Thes 4.14 15 16. Act. 1.11 this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven At the appointed day to judge the world in righteousness 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. Acts 10.42 with 17.31 John 5.22 27. for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto the Sonne And hath given him authority to execute judgement c. I beleeve that God the holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne Gal. 4.6 John 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall c. Luke 24.27.44 Rom. 3.22 with 15.4 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 2 Pet. 1.19 20 21. Ephes 2.20 Deut. 9.2 Rev. 22.18 19 Ephes 2.8 Acts 13.48 Joh. 6.37 39 44 45. 2 Thes 2.13 Tit. 3.4 5 6 7 Eze. 36 26 27 Nehem. 8.1 2 3 Isa 59.21 Acts 15.21 with 17.11 Mat. 15.10 Mark 7.14 Rev. 1.7 11. Mat. 28.19 20 1 Cor. 12.28 29. Hath fully revealed the truth and will of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Luke 1.70 as he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began To be a perfect perpetual and onely rule of Faith and obedience Psal 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect Isa 8.20 to the Law and to the Testimony Luke 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And doth effectually apply to his elect by working Faith in the saving benefits of that redemption purchased by the blood of Christ Eph. 1.5 7 9. Which precious benefits are dispenced by the same Spirit 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God In the Use of those holy Ordinances John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me Which Christ hath instituted in his written Word Eph. 4.11.12 And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ 2 Tim. 4.2 John 6.44 45. Acts 12.37 with 10.44 26.18 1 Pet. 1.23 25. For the begetting Rom. 10.14 15 17. how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace and bring glad tidings of good things So then Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And encreasing Grace James 1.18 1 Thes 5.19 20. Acts 2.42 46. 1 Cor. 10 16 17 with 11.20 23. 2 Pet. 2.2 As new-born-babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby Carefully to be observed Isa 2.3 Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob Luke 4.16 Acts 13.14
THE AGREEMENT OF THE ASSOCIATED MINISTERS OF THE County of Essex Proposed to their particular Congregations and to all such of the County that love the Churches Peace with a word of Exhortation to Brotherly Union Rom. 14.19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another 1 Cor. 1.10 11 12. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment For it hath been declared unto me of you my Brethren by them which are of the house of Cloe that there are contentions among you Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas I am of Christ Rom. 16.17 Mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them The second Edition Corrected and much Amended LONDON Printed for Edward Brewster at the Crane in Pauls-Church Yard 1658. THE PREFACE THe richest Crown and highest glory of a people is to be Gods Peculiar related in Covenant-nearness to him dedicated to his Praise trusted with his Word the only perfect Rule guided in the alone way of Salvation the true Religion Religion shining in those greater Beauties of Purity Power and Vnity still that Purity being preserved most tenderly the Power held up eminently the Vnity maintained entirely and to have all due provision made for this Crown and Glory to descend and settle upon Posterity for ever To consider how much of the fore-mentioned Glory hath dwelt in our Land together with its gradual declining great decay almost departing the hopes of Reformation given and heightned but soon disappointed sadly turned into fears confusions and such vast evils which once let in have been so lengthened out Above all to seriously view our present condition of sin after soarest smartings more abounding it spreads farther roots deeper rises higher but comes daily nearer to a filling up Of miseries in complicate distempers imminent dangers and so extreme difficulty of healing settlement and security our hearts cannot but break and bleed within us To see Souls more precious than Worlds whose price can never fall lower to run unwonted higher hazards of utter undoing The numbers among us either more setled in ignorance or improved in prophaneness fixed in meer civility and formality without any Power of Godliness or arrived at very Neutrality and not a few which we tremble to mention under fearful Apostacy of damnable Heresies and vilest practises often also attended with hellish blasphemies These Souls all retaining their invaluable worth and for ought can be known possibility of saving should they not have all endeavour of pulling them out of the fire and if by Covenant-Obligation and Sacramental-Dedication they are Christs Propriety and Right should not his Officers and Stewards strive to the utmost to recover them to the King of Glories use and service yet these poor perishing ones as to any effectual order for Instruction or Reformation remain helpless Ah! that we could not go higher to the injuries and dissecurities of Religion it self in those checks given to the progress damps to the Power wide breaches made in the Vnity and most daring attempts against the very Being and Reality almost no Doctrine or practise escaping vain doubting yea impious vilifying and decrying Add that further danger of Opportunity and Temptation either of shifting wayes and Religions till the substance and foundation is overturned or for to shake off profession of Godliness shut out the Knowledge and sit at home at doing nothing Besides which still more endangers many of the elder sort who should derive Religion to succeeding Times by sinful indifferency are ready to let go their hold of the Truth and most of the younger either distracted at diversities of Wayes and Opinions or disacquainted with the very principles of Christianity are never like to take sure hold of it Oh that we had not to bewail the dissatisfactions divisions distances and oppositions among Brethren of the same houshold of Faith and these arising chiefly from less and lower points and punctillioes when in fundamentals and the main there is so great an accord And to all we annex the offence given the weak discouragements to commers in to godliness just scandal to many at home and in Forraign Nations opening wide the mouths and strengthening the hands of Adversaries against us and the most if not all these evils arising chiefly from our unestablishment as to Scripture and Gospel-Order Therefore when Souls are thus perishing Truth lies bleeding divisions continuing enemies insulting dangers and difficulties not abating and which far transcends all that can be said the most precious and glorious Name of Christ so infinitely suffering All this likewise when our calamitous condition is not utterly hopeless but like the patient languishing not from utter defect of remedy but want of the Physitians willingness to joyn together study the case and apply the cure For these things our hearts melt and eyes mourn till the Lord look down from heaven and help But when all looking bewailing pities and prayers can little avail without endeavours of redress in a right way first resolved and then unanimously carried on for which the conceived expedient is a Brotherly Association long since in our thoughts and already begun by others godly learned in divers Counties others of different judgement in point of Church-Government shewing the hitherto hindred Vnion to arise not so much from difference of principles inconsistent with Vnion as from defect of will and inclination and this from a grand failing in Brotherly Love Therefore laying aside all private respects and carnal interests and resigning our selves wholly up to the Lord we resolve in his strength according to what we have attained to unite together for carrying on the work of Reformation and discharge of our duties in our respective places and not only an Associating in this particular County but correspondency with our Brethren in other parts of the Nation yet hereby not binding up and limiting our selves from further improvement of Vnion which we hope the Lord will teach and stablish in his time Vniversally And for an Introductive to the work in hand and freeing our selves from imputed Innovation in the Doctrine of Religion we declare that as all way formerly we have owned so we do and by Christs assistance will ever own and maintain the form of wholesome words contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in the constantly received sense of the Orthodox Churches of Christ exprest more especially as to the Fundamentals of Faith in that most Ancient and Vniversally received Creed called the Apostles in the therewith agreeing famous Nicene Creed and that notable Creed of Athanasius to which we might add those excellent Creeds of the Great Councils of
he rose again the third day and afterwards ascended into heaven where he now remaineth ruling in equal power and Glory with the Father and making Intercession for us whence he shall come again at the appointed day to judge the World in Righteousness 5. I believe that God the Holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father and the Son hath fully revealed the truth and will of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament for a perfect perpetual and only Rule of Faith and obedience and doth effectually apply to his Elect by working Faith in them the saving benefits of that Redemption purchased by the Blood of Christ which precious benefits are dispenced by the same Spirit in the use of those holy Ordinances which Christ hath instituted in his written Word for the begetting and perfecting grace to be carefully observed till his second coming 6. I believe that this Holy Spirit dwelleth and worketh in all that are drawn to believe in Christ who being united to him the Head maketh up one holy Catholike Church which is his body the members whereof having fellowship with the Father the Son and Holy Ghost by Faith and with one another in love do receive here on earth forgiveness of sin with the life of Grace in Christ and at the last Resurrection of the bodies of all men then dead shall for ever enjoy the life of glory with God in Heaven when the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment in hell I Believe that there is one only true God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost which are three distinct persons each of them God and all of them that one and the same God Infinite Eternal Unchangeable in being and all perfection I believe Mark 9.24 And straight way the Father of the child cryed out and said with tears Lord I believe c. That there is one only true God Deut. 6.4 Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Isa 44.6 1 Cor. 8.4 Isa 44.6 1 Tim. 2.5 There is none other God but one and ver 6. to us there is but one God 1 Tim. 2.5 The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Heb. 1.3 John 14.26 compared with 15.26 which are three distinct persons Matth. 28.19 Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 13.14 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Each of them God 1 Cor. 8.4 To us there is but one God the Father c. Rom. 9.5 Christ is over all 1 Cor. 8.6 2 Cor. 3.17 God blessed for ever Acts 5.3 4. But Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thy heart to lye to the Holy Ghost c. Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God And all of them that one and the same God 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Infinite 2 Chron. 6.18 Job 11.7 c. Psal 45.3 with Psa 139.7 8 9. But will God in very deed dwell with men upon the earth Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee Eternal Deut. 33.27 The Eternal God is thy refuge Psal 90.2 From everlasting to everlasting thou art God Unchangeable Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Exod. 3.14 James 1. v. 17. With him there is no variableness neither shadow of change In being and all perfection Exod. 34.5 6 7 1 Chron. 16.27 with 29.11 Mat. 5.48 with 6.13 Job 37.23 Acts 7.2 Isa 46.10 Eph. 1.11 Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God Rom. 9.5 Who is over all God blessed for ever I believe that God is the Fore-ordainer Maker Preserver and Governour of all things according to the counsel of his own will I believe that God is the Fore-ordainer Prov. 19.21 There are many devices in a mans heart nevertheless the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand Acts 17.26 And hath made of one blood all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation Maker Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Acts 17.24 God that made the world and all things therein c. Preserver Neh. 9.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made heaven Heb. 1.3 the heaven of heavens with all their Host the earth and all things that are therein and thou preservest them all Col. 1.17 By him all things consist And Governour of all things Psal 103.19 His Kingdome ruleth over all Dan. 4.34 35. Mat. 10.29 30. Acts 17.28 John 5.17 According to the counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will I believe that God made man upright after his own Image in knowledge righteousnesse and holinesse who by transgressing the Law of his Creator fell from that holy and happy estate and brought himself with his whole posterity into a state of sin and death I believe that God made man upright Eccles 7.29 God hath made man upright But they have sought out many inventions After his own Image Gen. 1.27 In knowledge Coloss 3.10 and have put on the new man Gen. 3.6 7 16 17 18. Rom. 5.18 19. with Rom. 3.9 10 11 12 23. which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Righteousness and holiness Eph. 4.24 Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Who by transgressing the Law of his Creator fell from that holy and happy estate Eccles 7.29 God hath made man upright But they have sought out many inventions And brought himself with his whole posterity into a state of sin and death Rom. 5.12 sin entred into the world Psal 51.5 John 3.3 5 6. Eph. 2.1 2 3. and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned I believe that man thus fallen not being able to deliver himself from this state of misery Rom. 5.6 for when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Eph. 2.1 Rom. 8.3 for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh God so loved the world that he sent forth his only begotten Son Jesus Christ Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him Gal. 4.4 5. 1 John 4.9 should not perish but have everlasting life Who took to himself our nature Heb. 2.14 for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took
15 16 42 43 44 1 Thes 5.20 1 John 4.6 and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths Heb. 10.24 25. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Till his second coming 1 Cor. 11.26 for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come Matth. 28 20. Eph. 4.12 13. Heb. 2.25 Rom. 8.9 11. 1 Cor. 3.16 2 Tim. 1.14 I beleeve that the holy Spirit dwelleth John 14.17 even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him But ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you and worketh Joh. 16.13 he will guide you into all truth In all that are drawn to beleeve in Christ Rom 8.14 Phil. 2.13 Heb. 13 21. 1 Joh. 3.23 24. with 4.15.16 Ephes 3.16.17 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner-man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith c. Who being united to him their Head Eph. 5.23.30 Joh. 17.21.22.23 that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Eph. 1.10.22 23. with chap. 2.19.20 3.15 4.12 13 14 15. 5.23 with Heb. 12.23 c. that they may be one even as we are one I in them and them in me that they may be made perfect in one c. Make up one Catholick Church which is his body 1 Cor. 12.12 13 14 27. For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit for the body is not one member but many Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 1.9 2 Cor. 13.14 Phil. 2.2 1 Cor. 2.12 2 Cor. 4.13 John 17.20 21 Eph. 3.17 with 4.4 5 Acts 2.42 44 46. Rom. 12.5 6. 1 Cor. 12.25 26 27. Gal. 6.2 Eph. 4.2 3 4 15 16. Phil. 2.1 2 3 4 Acts 10.4 and 26.18 Col 1.14 Rom. 8.1 2. John 15.4 5. Gal. 5.25 1 John 5.12 1 Cor. 15.51 52. 1 Thes 4.16 17. Luke 12.32 Col. 5.4 Rom. 6.8 1 Tim. 2.11 1 Thes 4.17 John 1.3 2. Matth. 25.46 2 Thes 1.8 9. Rev. 22.8 Mark 9.24 1 Pet. 3.15 The members whereof having fellowship with the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit by Faith 1 John 1.3 Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And with one another in love 1 John 1.7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another Do receive here on earth forgiveness of sins Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace With the life of grace in Christ Ezek. 26.27 A new heart will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgements and do them Gal. 2.19 20. For I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And at the last Resurrection of the bodies of all men then dead Acts 24.15 there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and of the unjust Shall ever enjoy the life of glory with God in heaven Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 25.46 But the righteous into Life Eternal When the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment in hell Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the people that forget God I do heartily take Is 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel John 1.12 But as many as know him to them gave he power to become the sons of God This one God for my only God Exod. 20 2 3. Josh 24.21 22 24. Psa 48.14 with 63.1 Psa 4.6 7. Deut. 26.17 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his waies and to keep his Statutes c. And chief good Psal 73.25.26 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee And this Jesus Christ for my only Saviour and Redeemer Job 19.25 26 27. Luke 1.47 John 20.28 Rom. 8.2 Gal. 2.20 1 Pet. 1.2 Act. 4.12 Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And this Holy Ghost for my Sanctifier 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing ye have purified your selves in obeying the truth through the Spirit c. Psal 51.11 Take not thy holy Spirit from me By his grace giving up my self wholly to this one God 2 Cor. 8.5 Deut. 26.17 Isa 44.5 First Luke 10.27 Deut. 6.5 Acts 11.23 Joh 24.15 16 18 21 22 23 24.1 Sam 12.24 Luke 1.6 Deut. 4.2 with 5.32 12.32 Rev. 22.18 Job 14.14 Psal 48.14 Luke 1.74 75. Revel 2.10 Psal 119.106 115. Esa 2.3 Mich 4.2 Acts 2.42 44 46. Heb. 10.23 25 Rom. 12.3 4 5 to the 10.17.2 Thes 3.6 11 12 14. Col 2.5.1 Cor. 11 12 13. with ch 14.32 33 34 37 40. they gave their own selves to the Lord. To love and obey him sincerely and faithfully Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind According to all his Laws contained in the holy Scripture Psa 119.6 Then shall I not be confounded when I have respect unto all thy Commandements And all this unto the death Psal 119.112.117 I have enclined my heart to perform thy Statutes alway even unto the end I will have respect unto thy Statutes continually Also I consent and resolve in the strength of Christ Josh 24.15 I and my houshold will serve the Lord. To hold constant Communion with the Church of Christ in the publick Worship of God Jer. 50.5 They shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward
all disintending and neglect of a duty arises from over intending and following something else that should not be done The neglect of the publick must have some ill unworthy ground and occasion There 's some evil that infects the Heart of Men that breeds this animi deliquium this heartlessness unto the publick It was holy Paul's complaint in his time All seek their own and none the things of Christ. The defect of publicknesse of Spirit seeking the things of Christ breeds from a private Spirit and sinfull seeking our own things There is a very private narrow Spirit gone out into the Nation that like Pharaoh's lean and ill favoured Kine eats up the fat and good Many Christians many publick persons many Ministers for their own safety ease self-enjoyments and attendance on their own private affairs design retiredness and please themselves in unprofitable Privacies lying hid and lying still withdrawing themselves from the publick in a great measure when the publick cals so loud to all for help There is a very sinful unworthy Spirit in divers this way suffering themselves to be of little use in comparison of what they might and hiding much of their Talent in the Napkin of an unprofitable privacy This is as if the Springs and Rivers should seal up themselves or hide themselves under ground and bid us go seek our water As if the Sun should stand still draw a Curtain before it and then bid the Moon and Stars to warm the world and make day Ah how sinfull is it to be all self Center-self and Circumference self aimes and actings all self Or to prefer a mans own petty privacies and particularities before the publick to have all the heart on the one no heart on the other or in an exceeding great disproportion Never any Christian yet had his license made him or his quietus est given him to retreat from the publick and lie still in meer unactivenesse It is the alone prerogative of him that is immutably self-sufficient and from whom all things only are to be solely for himself Weigh it seriously there are but two sorts of Creatures in the world that have made themselves a license to be meerly and only for themselves and they are Divels and wicked men left to themselves There is nothing in the whole Creation but as it is stampt with a principle of self-preservation so likewise it hath a strong inclination and will accordingly on occasion to bestir it self into a zealous activity to preserve the universe Many heathens though moved only by principles of Morality yet were often Persons of a most Publick and Heroicall Spirit eminently carried forth and acted to undertake and adventure for the publick good Holy persons in Scripture are purposely put upon the file of a glorious Record for their excellent publick Spirit their being so studious and zealous for promoting the publick and not regarding their own private as to estates liberties lives or whatsoever might be dear and precious to them As Moses David Nehemiah Paul and many others The Saints in Heaven though so secure and happy yet are all of a most publick transcendently publick Spirit engaging for the Church Militant in their requests continually The glorious Angels are of this publick Spirit being daily most freely ministring Spirits for the good of the Heires of Salvation The most Blessed God although he needeth nothing and is under no obligation to any but as himself pleases yet hath the largest heart and most liberall hand doing good to all especially his Churches and guides continually every thing as to his own glory so the good of his That private Spirit that designing of and pleasing it self in unprofitable recesses latencies and lying still That Spirit which is under a Spirituall Listlesness and Cowardize for doing and adventuring any thing to promote or preserve the publick is the most improper and irregular thing in the world The most excellent Christians have the most publick lively Spirits the greatest thoughts highest aimes largest affections most abundant Zeal activity and equality of endeavours for the publick These when private narrow listless Spirited men that overminded their own will have but a bad account to give in to Christ These will render up their account with greatest joy and confidence This the first great Obstruction to our healing and relieving Union want of a publick Spirit and this from being so much of an unprofitable private Spirit set upon and seeking our own and not the things of Christ The second and which also greatly grounds the former is that very great want of Love First To Jesus Christ his cause and Gospel-Brotherly Love Love which is exclusive of a meerly private and narrow of a listless cold and dull distemper introduces a free and enlarged active adventurous and zealous disposition and way and is one of the great Fountains and Feeders of publickness of Spirit One of the great Legacies the Lord Jesus bequeathed to his Disciples when he was leaving the world was peace And one of the great Commandments given in charge by him was Brotherly Love the ground of peace and unity let that be well considered Brotherly Love which besides that great weight of the golden Scepter of Christ lying on it all the Scriptures over and the clear stamps of his authority in those frequencies of strictest Scripture Precepts to make it more passable and currant it received from Christ himself a peculiar Stamp and new Signature and is that alone in all the Scripture which is stiled the new Commandment required to be the proper Gospel-badge of Christs Disciples Herby shall all men c. And Brotherly unity is the genuine and rare fruit of Brotherly Love by every Christian to be endeavoured to the utmost extent of Gospel possibility Nothing in our own Spirits of corrupt distemper carnal ends or undue prejudice should hinder it nothing in our Brethren sound in the Faith and of Godly Conversation though not absolutely agreeing with us in way disposition or opinion in all things Christians cannot be all alike here All have not the same intellectuall complexion It is a great defect of meekness of wisdome to refuse all agreement with others because they agree not with us in all things Neither may any other Christian precepts hinder us Ah that we could duly consider of this new this one new Commandment our Lords peculiar charge given upon ground of great necessity in Gospel times foreseen perfectly by the Lord the all-knowing Law-giver and King of his Church Certainly when Christ will heal and stablish a people he fills their Spirits with over-powering Brotherly Love to smooth off heart-unevennesses of disinclinations distrusts and misunderstandings and makes them firmly piece together in Godly unity Love as the Apostle hath it is the bond of perfectness Yea Love is the fulfilling of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That will encline and enable wise for and make willing with it and constrain us into it into all the latitude of