their actuall beliefe and exercise of their saving Faith Answ. They receive hereby First a comfortable sense feeling and fruition of their regeneration renovation effectuall calling union adoption remission of sins justification reconciliation and in a word communion of all Christs benefits and hence it is that they are said by Faith to turne to God to be united to Christ adopted justified and to obtaine remission of all their sins that is in their own sense and feeling And secondly by this actuall beleeving and by the sense and feeling which it brings to the beleevers all other graces are set a worke and more and more increased in them Quest How doth beleeving give to the Elect a feeling of their regeneration renovation effectuall calling union adoption and other saving works of God in them Answ. First as it is a fruit and work of the Spirit of regeneration and adoption which hee never workes in any but them who are regenerate made new creatures effectually called united to Christ adopted and have communion of all his benefits so it is a cleare evidence to them of those graces in themselves and by it the Spirit witnesseth with their spirits that they are the children of God by regeneration and adoption and are effectually cald and engraffed into Christ become new creatures heires of God and coheires with Christ Secondly the act of beleeving by a true saving Faith is an applying of the things beleeved to themselvs and by beleeving that they are regenerat renued effectually cald united adopted and have cōmunion of Christs perfect satisfaction intercession and righteousnesse they possesse and injoy all those graces and are in their own sense fully reconciled to God Quest How are they justified and have their sins pardoned by Faith Answ. They are justified and have their sins remitted by Faith not as by an instrumentall cause and meanes to make them righteous before God but as by the hand of the soule receiving and applying to themselves the righteousnesse of Christ to make them righteous in their own sense and feeling And their actuall beleeving that they are justified and pardoned is neither their righteousnesse nor the satisfaction for their sins nor any thing which in it selfe properly is accepted of God or reputed for righteousnesse and satisfaction but is only the applying of Christs righteousnes and satisfaction to themselves and an assuring of themselves that by communion thereof they are justified And by this beleeving they possesse and sweetly enjoy them and are in their owne sense and feeling justified and absolved from the guilt of al their sins and obteine this testimony from God that they are righteous Rom. 4. 3. Quest Can any man bee justified before hee doth actually beleeve Answ. If we take justification in the first most proper and principall sense as it is the act of God alone communicating Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to his elect when hee doth first unite them to Christ by his Spirit and make Christ theirs with all his treasures Then it must bee granted that men may be and are justified before and without any expresse act of beleeving As for example elect infants which dye in their infancy when they are regenerated and united to Christ by his Spirit they have communion of his righteousnesse and are justified and made righteous and all their sins are abolished and blotted out and yet they do not actually beleeve nor performe any explicit and expresse act of Faith Also they who are not effectually called to the state of grace and to communion with Christ till they come to yeares of discretion though they have the gift of Faith immediatly at the same time infused into them yet Christs righteousnesse is in order of nature communicated to them and they are made righteous by it before God before they do actually beleeve or can truly beleeve that Christ is made to them righteousnesse or can by beleeving possesse and enjoy his righteousnesse for justification As a child may bee borne or made an heire to Lands Honor and riches and may have a true right and interest in them and bee Lord of all before hee hath wit to know his own estate or discretion to possesse actually and use them So men may be justified by Christs righteousnesse madetheirs in the first instant of their regeneration and spirituall union with Christ before they do actually beleeve and sensibly possesse and enjoy Christ and his obedience for justification But if we take justification in a secondary sense as it is an act wherein the elect themselves do cooperat and work together with God by receiving and applying to themselves particularly the gift of righteousnesse freely given unto them and by possessing and enjoying it then must actuall beleeving go before it as the instrumentall cause by which God justifieth them in their own sense and feeling and upon which he doth esteeme and account them righteous in the intercourse betweene him and them and gives them his warrant to esteeme themselves justified with him But if we take justification in a Iudiciary sense as it is used in Courts of Iustice and Iudgement for proving declaring and pronouncing men righteous Then not only Faith and actuall beleeving but also repentance amendment of life and all holy Christian duties and good works of piety mercy and charity must necessarily go before as evidences testimonies and proofes by which men must be justified that is judged declared and pronounced righteous First in the Court of their owne conscience so often as sin and Satan stand up against them to accuse them Secondly in the common judgement of men Thirdly in the generall judgement at the last day Of the first Iustification the Apostle speakes Rom. 5. 19. where he saith that by the obedience of Christ many are made righteous and Rom. 8. 4. and 1 Cor. 5. 21. Of the second he speakes Rom. 3. 28. and 4. 3. and Gal. 3. 8. where he saith we are justified by saith without workes or deedes of the Law Of the third Saint James speakes where he saith that Abraham was justified by works Jam. 2. 21. and Job 13. 18. where he saith Behold now I have ordered my cause I know that I shall be justified and this S. Paul cals justification of life Rom. 5. 18. because it is an adjudging of men to eternall life according to the evidence of their works as our Saviour sheweth Mat. 24. 35. Quest How doth justifying Faith differ from that which they call historicall Faith Answ. They both in the elect are one and the same Faith and differ onely as severall acts of the same Faith exercised about severall objects For when they beleeve the History of the Scripture and that those things are true which they heare or read out of Gods Word this is called historicall Faith But when they beleeve firmely and confidently that the promises of God in Christ belong to them and that Christ with his righteousnes is given to them of God made theirs this
noysom weeds plants Lastly it brought all mankind in bondage to death both temporal wch is such a corruption of the body as doth separat the soule frō it make it utterly unfit for the soule to lodge in and also eternall which is the punishment of him with eternall destruction from the presence of God and from the glory of his power Quest Is there any hope of deliverance from this foule staine guilt of sins and from death and all evill of wrath which are the fruits and effects of it Answ. There is no hope of deliverance in any thing which mans wit and reason can devise or man by his art skil and power can performe All creatures in the world can yield him no help God only of his infinit mercy free grace love and kindnesse to man-kind hath from all eternity ordeined an all-sufficient Saviour and Redeemer even his only begotten son who immediatly after mans sin and fall did undertake for man staid the execution of the sentence and punishment of death and was promised to become the seed of the woman and by suffering death and all the punishments due to sin in our nature to redeeme man-kind from sin and death and to destroy the Devill who had the power of death and to dissolve all his workes Quest Who is this Son of God which did undertake to redeeme man Answ. It is the Lord Iesus Christ who was first promised under the name of the seed of the woman Gen. 3. 15. which should break the serpents head and afterward was promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob under the name of the blessed seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed And to David and by the Prophets by the name of Messiah that is the annoynted Saviour of the seed of David And at last in the fulnesse of the time when hee was made flesh tooke our nature upon him and was borne of a Virgin did beare the name of Iesus and is now preached and made knowne to the world under the name of the Lord Iesus Christ Quest Why did not Christ come in the flesh in the beginning or first age of the world and worke mans redemption that the Fathers who lived under the old Testament might bee redeemed and saved by him as we now are under the Gospell Answ. The Incarnation of Christ and all things which he did and suffered for our redemption in the dayes of his flesh were present with God from all eternity as all times and all things which come to passe in all times past present and to come are continually present with him and were as effectuall to satisfie his justice appease his wrath and to purchase and procure perfect salvation to men at his hands as they are now ever since they were actually performed And through Christ promised God did shed his Spirit on the Fathers of old as hee now doth on us through Christ given and exhibited and by the Spirit united them to him in one spirituall body and wrought in them Faith by which they did as it said of Abraham see the day of Christ beleeve in him were partakers of all his benefits and were made conformable to him both in his death and life by mortification and sanctification Quest Why did Christ come and satisfie for sinfull men in the mids of yeares between the times of the Old and New Testament Answ. Because that was the most fit and seasonable of all times for man-kind for divers reasons First if he had appeared in the first ages of the world the memory of him would have been worne out For as the people of the Gentiles within a few ages forgot the promises of Christ made to Adam Noah and Sem and lost the knowledge of them so men would have forgotten Christ and all his doings and sufferings long ago for the world loveth changes and loathing old things seeketh after novelties Secondly the deferring of Christs comming held the world in suspence and expectation with promises from age to age still more plainely renued that after much longing his comming might be so much more welcome and men might with greater joy receive him Thirdly the world increasing in sin and corruption and being growne so hard that weaker meanes and obscurer revelation could worke litle upon men it was Gods Wisdome to reserve the appearance of Christ and the publishing of the powerfull Gospell for these latter evill days as being the fittest meanes for these harder times Fourthly if Christ in our nature had made satisfaction in the first ages of the world and had paid our ransome so many ages before wee were borne or had our being it had not been so equall and proportionable to justice as now it is by reason of his comming in the midst of yeares between the Old and the New Testament For by this meanes Gods forbearance of the ransome and satisfaction for the sinnes of the Fathers before Christs death is recompensed with payment of our debt and making a full satisfaction for our sinnes as much before hand even many ages before our committing of sinne or running in debt to his Majesty in our own persons Lastly it was necessary that many of the members of his elect and faithfull Church should by the Spirit bee united to him and by Faith have Communion with him before and at his comming appearing in the flesh that being the head of the Church actually through them He might by Cōmunion and imputation of the sins of so great a body multitude justly suffer the punishments due to the sins of his people even of them who were in after ages to grow up into the same mystical body by the same Spirit If he had beene borne in the beginning of the world before the Church of the Old Testament had any actuall being he could not have been the actuall head of the body nor united to the Church which as yet was not in being and so could not have borne the sins of his Church nor justly suffered the punishment of them Therefore the Apostle very fitly cals the time of Christs comming in the flesh the fulnesse of time that is the time most seasonable Gal. 4 4. Quest What have you learned concerning Christs person needfull to be knowne and beleeved Answ. I have learned That as he was the eternall Son of God one and the same God and of the same nature and substance with the Father and the Spirit hee did undertake according to Gods eternall Counsell to bee the Mediator between God and man and to mediate for man from the day of his fall and as hee was promised to bee the Seed of the woman so hee did in fulnesse of time assume and take into personall union with himselfe the whole nature and substance of a man and was made of the seed of Abraham and David in the womb of a Virgin of their seed a man like unto us in all things but without sin even
1 Tim. 26. and by him all things are said to consist Coloss. 1. 17. Quest How can Christs vertue reach to them who are a far off Aliens and Strangers from him and enemies to his Crosse and sufferings Answ. It reacheth to them not immediatly by vertue of union with him as it doth to the Faithfull but after a secondary manner for his Elects sake For Christ by his mediation hath obteined of God that all the World which was made for mans use should be upheld by his generall providence that the Heavens and the Sun Moon and Stars should keep their course and continue in their naturall being and give light and influence to the good and the bad the just and unjust and that the Aire the Earth and the Sea should breed and nourish living creatures and herbes plantes fruit-trees and all other things usefull for men yea the wicked prosper and flourish in wealth and strength either that they may be a wall of defence to the Elect which live among them or that they may build houses plant vineyards and subdue the Earth for them as the cursed Canaanites did for Israel or that they may be progenitors and instruments to bring forth an elect seed as our fore-fathers the Heathen Gentiles were to us their Christian progeny or for the punishing and correcting of the sins of the elect as the Canaanites were kept alive to punish the Israelites when they sinned and for the tryall and exercise of their Faith and patience by unjust persecution Christ by his Mediation hath procured all these things for his elects sake to all creatures which otherwise should have perished with man being all stained and corrupted by his sin And hence it is that he is said to beare up the pillars of the world when the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved Psal. 75 3. And thus farre we may grant and acknowledge an universall grace which Christ by his Mediation hath procured to all the world even to the wicked reprobates which perish Quest Hath not Christ procured to all man-kind grace and ability to beleeve repent and be saved if they will do as much as they are able for the obteining of regeneration and other saving graces of the Spirit Answ. No certeinely For Regeneration Effectuall calling Faith and all saving Graces are purchased and given by Christ only to the Elect for whom alone he prayed and doth still make intercession And they also while they remaine in the common state of Nature have no power in themselves either to will or to do any work truly good but are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes. 2. 1. They are aliens and enemies in their minds and all their thoughts incline to evill Colos. 1. 21. If all men even they who perish had power and liberty of will to beleeve and be saved certeinely some of them who are not elect would beleeve and be regenerate and use their liberty to the saving of their soules For it is given for that end that it might be brought into act and take effect if it never doth it is given by God in vaine But Nature as the Philosophers observed never gives power in vaine and much more doth the God of Nature abhorre to give men a vaine power which never comes into act Quest If it be not in their power to do any worke tending to life nor to beleeve and repent why are they condemned for infidelity impenitency and omission of good works Answ. Though they cannot beleeve nor repent to salvation yet they have a power left by common grace to use the meanes which lead to Faith and Repentance as hearing of the Word reading the Scriptures hearkning to Reproofes and to good admonitions and exhortations and this naturall power they refuse to exercise and wickedly and wilfully neglect and reject those outward meanes Also by their sin in Adam they have disabled themselves are become froward and averse from all actions truly good and are a cursed generation justly condemned Quest How come the Elect to bee redeemed and saved by the Mediation of Christ seeing they by nature have no more interest in Christ than others Answ. They are redeemed and saved by the most gracious supernaturall working of God in them according to his eternall Counsel Purpose and Decree For as he hath ordeined them to eternall life in Christ before the foundation of the world so it doth in the time appointed gather them to himselfe in and by the Lord Iesus Christ Quest By what meanes doth God worke saving grace in them Answ. By the Ministery and Preaching of his holy Word which is a worke of the Propheticall office of Christ For by that Word spoken to the Elect Fathers of old in Dremes Visions and Apparitions and after spoken and written by Moses the Prophets and Holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and since by the mouth of Christ and his Apostles Evangelists and their successors hee hath revealed and doth continually reveale himselfe to them in Christ teacheth them the onely right way to salvation cals upon them and invites them by gracious promises to come unto him and by the threatenings of the Law he drives them out of themselvs discovers their sins and the dangerous estate in which they are by reason of sinne and suffers them to find no place wherein to rest untill like Noahs dove they flee unto his Arke the true Church Quest Can the Word Preached bring men to Christ and to salvation in him Answ. It is the only outward ordinary meanes which God useth for that purpose and we never read of any who without the word beleeved were called effectually to Christ and saved All Heathen Infidels Turks and Pagans who either never heard the Word Preached or hearing do refuse and reject it do undoubtedly perish in their unbeliefe For he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3. 18. and without the Word heard none can beleeve Rom. 10. 14. Quest What then shall wee thinke of infants borne of beleeving parents which dye before they heare or are able to beleeve the Word Answ God teacheth and inclineth them inwardly by his Spirit to long after Christ and to grope after him as they do after their mothers breasts for milk and bodily nourishment but yet not without the Word For by the Word preached to their Fathers hee workes Faith in them and makes his covenant of life in Christ with them and their seed and so by the Ministery of the Word their infants come to be in the Covenant And God doth often times sanctifie them by his Spirit from the wombe as we read of Jeremy and John the Baptist or in their baptisme at the Prayers of his Church And therefore we ought charitably to beleeve and judge that children of beleeving parents as they are from the wombe holy by dedication 1 Cor. 7. 14. and capable of baptisme so are inwardly baptized by the Spirit into Christ and if they dye
in their infancy are saved by the free Grace of God who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will Quest How doth the Word preached worke saving grace in men Answ. Not barely by it selfe nor by any divine vertue inherent in it but by the free grace of God and the inward operation of the Spirit working with it when and where and in whom he will For the Word preached doth not profit when it s notmingled with Faith in them that heare it Heb. 4. 2. as we see in the Iewes to whom Christ himselfe preached and yet they were not turned to God but the Word by him spoken through their infidelity turned to their hurt wrought to the hardening of them in their sins and left them without all excuse or any cloak for their wickednesse Iohn 15. 22. Quest What are those necessary works and saving graces which God by his Word and Spirit worketh in men to bring them to salvation in Christ Answ. They are works and graces which flow from Gods eternall election and are only wrought in the elect They are necessary because without them none can be saved and they are called saving works and graces because the persons in whom they are once wrought can never fall away and perish but shall certeinely persevere in them and be saved And they all may be brought under two heads The first are the works which God alone by his Word and Spirit worketh in his Elect. The second sort are the works which God so worketh that they also do cooperat with him and work together with his Spirit Quest Which are the works which God alone by his Spirit worketh in the Elect Answ. The first is regeneration from which all the rest do flow to wit renovation which is called renuing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Effectuall calling union with Christ adoption and Communion of all Christs benefits as of his ransome satisfaction righteousnesse and intercession for redemption remission of sins justification and perfect reconciliation Quest Which is the first saving grace Answ. The first which is the ground of al the rest is Regeneration Quest What is Regeneration Answ. It is that worke of God by which he sheds the Holy Ghost on his Elect through Iesus Christ of which Spirit given to dwell in them as his immortall seed they are borne again and become new creatures and spirituall members of Christ and children of God by a new birth and Generation Quest What is Renovation Answ. It is the work of God which he by his Spirit shed on them and dwelling in them doth work in them renuing them after the image of Christ and making them conformable to him both in his death by mortification and in his life by vivification Quest What is Mortification Answ. It is that work of Gods Spirit wherein hee deriveth the vertue of Christs death unto them and worketh in them such a sense of their misery sin and corruption and such a godly griefe sorrow contrition of heart loathing and abhorring of themselvs as doth tame their rebellious lusts and gives a deadly blow to the old man of sinfull corruption in them so that sinne can no more reigne in their mortall bodies but by grace they prevaile more and more over their corruption and do mortifie it continually Quest What is Vivification Answ. It is that worke of the Spirit by which he derives the vertue of Christs holy life unto them to quicken them and sanctifie them by inherit holines and to make them in the whole course of their life conformable to the holy and upright life of Christ Quest What gifts and graces are wrought in the Elect by Renovation Answ. The first which is as it were the root of the rest is Faith For as the Devill did first breath into Adam an unbeleefe and distrust of God and his truth so that hee beleeved not the Word and threatning of God but gave credit to Satans lyes and relyed on them and by his false beliefe Satan drew him on to a false opinion of God and a conceipt that God envyed his greater good whereupon hee began proudly to imagine that he might by eating of the forbidden tree become wise as God and did conceive enmity in his mind against God ambitious lusts and evill affections So God in renuing man doth first worke Faith in him which is the gift of beleeving in God and relying on his Word and Promises And by his Word beleeved he gives light of undeâ—standing and knowledge which drives out errors and false opinions and enables man to see his owne vilenesse and Gods goodnesse towards him whence ariseth the grace of humility and repentance also a sincere holy love of God feare and reverence of his Majesty joy rejoycing hope and delight in God and a will and desire to obey him in all things and in a word all Christian vertues by which a man becomes conformable to Christ Quest What is Effectuall Calling Answ. It is the work of the Spirit of Regeneration who by giving to the elect a new heart and spirit doth incline and enable them to follow the outward calling of the Word and to turne from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. Quest What is the Vnion of the Elect with Christ Answ. It is not a making of their severall persons one undivided Essence and Substance with the person of Christ For that unity is only in God and in the three persons of the blessed Trinity Neither is it a making of them one person with Christ by such a personal union as is between his Godhead and Manhood and betweene the soule and body of every man Neither is it a bodily uniting of them with Christ by a bodily mixture and composition of the substance of their soules and bodyes with the substance of the soule and body of Christ as wine and water are mingled together For such an union makes the things united inseparable in place one from another so that wheresoever Christs body is there they must needs be and can be in no other proper place who are thus united Neither is this union only in heart and affection But this is a spirituall mysticall and substantiall union in which Christ sitting at Gods right hand above the Heavens and they dispersed over all the Earth are made one spirituall and mysticall body whereof Christ is the head and they members by meanes of the same Spirit dwelling and working in them after the same maner as he dwelleth and worketh in the humane nature of Christ from his first conception and framing in the wombe For by one Spirit they are all Baptized into one body whereof Christ is the head and being many members they make up one body even as all members in naturall body though they be many make up but one body because they all have but one soule and life the holy Spirit of which they are regenerate borne againe and made new creatures is
beleeving applying of Christs righteousnes to themselves is the justifying act of Faith And whereas the historicall saith of Devils and carnall men is only an assent unto the Word of God that it is true arising from carnal reason and arguments convincing the judgement without any affection to the truth or any relying on it On the contrary every act of beleeving any word or promise of God if it proceeds from a true Faith in the elect is not a naked assent ruled by humane and naturall reason but guided by Gods Spirit and joyned with a relying on God and his Word upon the Divine authority of the speaker and may be brought as an evidence of their salvation may in that respect be called a saving beliefe as we see at large Heb. 11. where beleeving that the worlds were framed by the Word of God And that God would bring a flood upon the world and destroy all except them that were in the Arke made by his appointment and that he would give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham the Israelites and after 400 yeares deliver them out of Aegypt and such like acts of beleeving proceeding from an holy spirituall Faith are declared to bee saving Faith Quest How doth actuall beleeving set a work all other graces and increase them more and more in the Elect regenerate and justified Answ. By the sense feeling and sweet fruition of Christ and his righteousnesse satisfaction and intercession it brings us to the sight and experimentall knowledge of the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God to us in Christ And being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and hereby the holy Ghost sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts so that being inflamed with the love of God wee begin more and more to hate and abhorre our owne vile corruptions and sins which are offensive to his holy Majesty We are ashamed and confounded because we have by our sins so often provoked so gracious a God and mercifull Father wee grieve and mourne and sorrow with godly sorrow to repentance wee strive and wrastle against our lusts and by the assistance of the Spirit tame and subdue them so that sinne can no more reigne in our mortall bodies we contend to sollow hard after God to cleave to him in love and to bee still more more united to Christ in love and zealous affection of heart And in holinesse and newnesse of life we study and strive to be conformable to his image and in a word we are stirred up to use all care and endeavour that wee may abound in all good works and still forgetting those things which are behind may reach forth unto those things which are before and presse hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus In all which workes of saving grace as God moves us by his Spirit so we being moved enabled and made a free people do cooperate and work together with him till we come to the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ and be fitted to see God in glory Quest What outward meanes are to bee used whereby the Spirit of God may worke in the Elect and beget and increase Faith and beliefe with all other saving graces in them Answ. The chiefe outward meanes is the Word of God without which God doth not ordinarily shed his Spirit on them beget them again and by his Spirit work saving grace and the works of grace in them For they are borne again of incorruptible seed that is of the Spirit by the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. and regeneration which is Gods shedding of the holy Ghost on them through Christ and the first saving worke even the ground worke of all other saving graces is not to be found where the Word is not Preached By the Word of Christ the holy Gospell only the Spirit speaks inwardly to mens hearts and leads them into all truth John 16. 13. By the Word preached hee begets Faith for Faith commeth by hearing and none can beleeve except heheare Rom. 10. 14 17. The Word is the whole and perfect rule of Faith and whatsoever the elect beleeve to salvation is conteined in the Word and there only to be learned John 3. 39. The threatenings of the Law are the meanes by which the Spirit discovers to beleevers the danger of sin and their own misery humbles them in their own eies and drives them out of themselves to Christ by repentance The precepts of the Law prescribe to them the right way in which they ought to walk and is a lamp to their feet and light to their steps Psa. 119 105. The Word of the Gospell is the Covenant of life and sets before them the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God in Christ and by it the Spirit inflames them with the love of God with joy and delight in God and with zeale for his glory and stirres them up to imitate God in works of mercy love and charity and in all holinesse and sanctification till they be conformed to Christ and to serve honour and worship God And in a word the whole Scripture which is the sure infallible Word of God given by Divine inspiration is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may bee perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Quest How must the Word of God bee used that it may be such an effectuall meanes of the Spirit to worke all these gracious effects in Gods elect people Answ. It must not only be read out of the Sacred Scriptures in which it is recorded by the Prophets and Apostles but also preached and expounded by godly able and learned Ministers who are called and sent of God Rom. 10. 15. For they are Gods watchmen who have a charge given to watch for mens soules Ezek. 3. 17. Heb. 13. 17. They are his Shepheards and Overseers to feed his flock with his Word the Bread of Life Act. 20. 28. Ezek. 34. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Ephes. 4. 11. And by delivering Gods message faithfuly they obteine this honour to themselves to bee called the Angels of the Lord Mal. 2. 7. and Gods Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. 20. and to be spirituall Fathers under God who beget children to God in Christ by the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. Quest What other meanes are to be used Answ None but such as God hath prescribed in his holy Word to wit the Sacraments which are seales annexed to the Word publike Prayers Invocation and Worship of God And also good education and private Prayers and instruction and often reading of Gods Word alone and in private Families Quest What is a Sacrament Answ. It is a religious action prescribed by God in which by using outward visible rites consecrated to be signes seales pledges and