Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A84372
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Christianity in short or The way to be a good Christian· Recommended to the use of such as want either time or capacity for reading longer and learneder discourses. By C. Ellis author of the Gentile-sinner.
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Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing E552aA; ESTC R229363
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19,559
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74
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CHRISTIANITY in Short OR The way to be a good CHRISTIAN Recommended To the use of such as want either time or capacity for reading longer and Learneder discourses Mat. VII 13.14 Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the Gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it Ver. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven By C. Ellis Author of the Gentile-sinner LONDON Printed for Tho. Guy at the Oxford Armes on the West side of the Royal Exchange 1682. To my Beloved Neighbours for whose Use this little Book is written My Dear Friends I Hope some of you need not much the help this little Book can afford and indeed it is a shame either for you or me that any of you should need it except Children Yet I fear it is too needful I pray God it may prove as useful to many of you I have often told you that neither an Ignorant nor a Carnal nor a Worldly nor a Formally Religious course of Life can ever bring you to Heaven I now â—ell it you again and at you love your Souls let me intreat you to believe me except you become other men than some of you yea than the most of you yet are you cannot be saved You have God's Word to read you may hear Sermons when you will you may be instructed privately when you will you have many good Books to instruct you you have so much sense as to know you are a dying you have understandings to consider what 's like to become of you you have sure the wit to know that all things here will have an end and that nothing can concern you so much as the Salvation of your Souls to all Eternity I am confident were you dying you would say so Can it be any thing then but a brutish inconsideration that keeps you in the state you are in Awake awake and see here in short what you have to do 'T is short that you may not plead you want time to read and learn it 'T is plain that you may not plead 't is above your capacity 't is cheap it shall cost you nothing but the pains of reading it for your instruction in the way of Life You will in a little room see what it is to be a Christian Practice then what here you read and then dye in Peace But if you slight these easie helps and will go on your old way I must leave you to God and comfort my self in this that I have not dealt deceitfully with you The good God make us all wise unto Salvation Amen Consider seriously Learn industriously Pray devoutly Believe firmly Repent sincerely Love unfeignedly Resolve deliberately Practice constantly Hope Patiently Receive Thankfully And Enjoy Eternally The Entrance into CHRISTIANITY I Must shortly dye and after death I must for ever be either endlesly happy or endlesly miserable It concerneth me therefore above all things in this short time of my Life so to prepare for Death that after Death I may be Eternally happy To this end two things are altogether necessary a sound Knowledge and a sincere Practice Two things are needful to be well known the End which I am to aim at and the Way which will lead me to it My daily practice must be to walk in the way in hopes of attaining the End What both these are JESVS CHRIST hath abundantly taught us in his Gospel which it therefore highly concerneth me diligently to read and learn Christ hath instituted two Sacraments the one for our entrance into the other for our confirmation and strengthning in the way of Life Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. In both these the whole substance of Christian Religion which is the way to happiness is summarily comprehended and represented Christ JESVS commanded his Apostles to go up and down in the World and by Preaching the Gospel to perswade men to be his Disciples and learn of him the way to Life He commanded them to admit men into his Church or the Society of his Disciples by Baptism or washing them with Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost This Ceremony of Washing with water did signifie and assure them that as many as continued Christ's faithful followers were washed from the guilt of their past sins and should be daily more and more Sanctified and prepared for Eternal Glory Persons of years to understand were thus in Baptism to give up themselves in an Holy Bond or Covenant to God and thus my Parents when I was an Infant did give and dedicate me to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost In this Baptismal Covenant God the Father doth give himself to be our reconciled Father and God the Son Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and God the Holy Ghost to be our Sanctifier In the same Covenant we do accept of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be our only God submitting to him as our Owner and Governour and chusing him as our chief good and portion and heartily consenting to be taught and ruled made Holy and â—saved by him in a firm belief of his word and humble Obedience to his Lawes We do also promise and resolve not to follow nor be led by the Devil the World nor the Flesh but to watch against and resist all their temptations and to persevere so doing unto our lives end Every one that keepeth this Covenant sincerely is a good Christian and hath the pardon of his sins and Eternal Life sealed and assured unto him by God in this Sacrament of Baptism As I therefore desire to be Eternally happy and would avoid Everlasting Torments it concerneth me to see that I keep Covenant with God which I cannot do without learning and knowing what I am to believe and do If I have not already learn'd this it is no time now any longer to delay it seeing my Eternal happiness depends upon it And I know not how soon no not whether this night God may call me out of this world by death when if I be either ignorant or wicked I am undone Soul and Body for ever The Christian Faith THere is a GOD and but one God the FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST God is an infinite and most glorious SPIRIT a most pure and living substance without body parts or passions God is invisible cannot be seen or perceived by sense God is incomprehensible cannot be perfectly known by any but himself God is Immortal cannot dye Impassible and cannot suffer God is Immense not limited to place but is every where God is Eternal not limited by time but without beginning or end God is Independent not caused or governed by any other God is Immutable not subject to change but necessarily
what he is the same for ever God is Almighty able to do all things Omniscient knowing all things infinitely Wise in ordering all things God is Infinitely good and the Fountain of all goodness Holy and Just and Merciful God is self-sufficient perfectly blessed and happy in himself alone needing nothing but Infinite in all perfections The Father begetting the Son the Son begotten of the Father the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son are Three Persons but one uncompounded undivided GOD blessed for ever God is the Maker or Creator of all things the Preserver and Vpholder of all things God is the absolute Owner and Lord of all things God is our Soveraign King Supream Law-giver and Righteous Judge God is our chief good and loving Father and bountiful Benefactor All Life and Power and Wisdom come from God and our final rest and perfect happiness is in Him alone God is a most free Agent and doth what and when and how he will In the Beginning by his Word of his own good pleasure he made the World and all things in six dayes when before there was nothing but Himself All that God made was very good God by his Providence preserveth ruleth and ordereth all things great and small There is no goodness in any thing but what God giveth nothing can come to pass but as God permitteth it God may justly do what he will with every thing he can do no wrong to any thing he ordereth the whole course of the World wisely and for the best God made an innumerable company of Angels or pure Spirits A great multitude of these Angels continue holy and happy in loving praising and enjoying God doing his Commandments and serving him in such Ministries as he pleaseth to employ them in for the good of his people Many of the Angels did sin and were cast down to Hell into Everlasting torments These are Devils under Beelzebub the Prince of Devils the Old Serpent and Satan The Devil is the Spirit that worketh in the children of Disobedience the Father of Evil-doers going about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour God made Adam the first man of the Dust of the Earth and the first woman Eve of a Rib of Adam Man hath two parts a Body of Flesh and Bones and a Soul which is a Spirit God made Man after his own Image he gave him an Immortal soul endued with understanding a free will and a power to do good and authority to rule and use the creatures for such ends as God designed them God made not man a Lawless creature to live as it should list him but God made him for himself and to serve him in Holy Love and perfect Obedience Man understood God's Will and that Will understood was the Law in his heart whereby he was to live Knowing God to be his Owner and Governour and chief good he was bound to resign himself to his disposal submit himself to his command and to delight himself in him above all If Man had done thus he should never have dyed but have lived for ever happy in the love and enjoyment of God God having placed man in the garden of Eden gave him free leave to eat of all the Trees thereof only excepting the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil which upon pain of death he charged him not to eat of But the Devil in a Serpent Tempted Eve and by her he tempted Adam to eat thereof and so sin against God in breaking his command By breaking God's Law they lost their Holiness and became Mortal under the curse of Death hearkening to the Devil they fell under his power loving their own pleasure more than God they lost their Happiness Thus they who were made Wise and Powerful and Happy made themselves foolish and weak and miserable We are all the children of sinful Adam and of unholy Parents are born unholy ignorant of God our duty and our happiness dead to goodness forward to evil easily conquered by the temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and if left to our selves must perish Everlastingly If God had punished Adam according to his sin with death He had cut off Mankind from the Earth But he was graciously pleased to shew mercy God suffered man to live for a time upon Earth but so as he might be sensible of the great evil he had brought upon himself by breaking God's Commandment The creatures are accursed to bring forth for him vanity and trouble and vexation hard labour pains and sicknesses come upon his body he becomes ashamed of himself and is filled with terrors of Conscience and having struggled through many evils and difficulties must at last dye and return to dust Yet God opened unto him a new way to Eternal happiness after death in such a way as to magnifie his Love and Mercy to Mankind and manifest his hatred of sin and Zeal for the keeping of his Laws that he might at once shew grace to the Offender and secure the honour of his just government God did graciously promise that a man should be born of a woman who should conquer the Devil and deliver man from his Tyranny and give such satisfaction unto God's Justice that for his sake all they should be Eternally happy that would accept of him for their Saviour Accordingly God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life God the Son took to himself our humane nature Soul and Body and was made truly man yet ceased not to be truly God but is both God and Man in one Person God manifested in the Flesh He was wonderfully made Man by being Born without all stain of sin of a pure Virgin called Mary who conceived him by the Divine power of the Holy Ghost when she had never known man An Angel from Heaven revealed his conception to the Blessed Virgin and commanded his name to be called Jesus because he was to save his people from their sins Being Born and Circumcised according to the Law he lived many years upon earth in an humble and low condition gave us an example to imitate in his Life doing the whole will of God and conquering all the temptations of the Devil and the World This is that Messia whom many Prophets had foretold the very CHRIST or anointed of the Lord to be a Prophet a Priest and a King and in this Threefold Office the Mediator of a New Covenant between God and Men. As a Prophet he hath in his Gospel and by his Apostles made known unto us all his Fathers will concerning our salvation and the way to it As a Priest he was Crucified and dyed under Pontius Pilate so offering himself once for all a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins in consideration whereof God hath granted pardon and Life to all true Believers Being dead he was buried and wentiamong the dead