the Bellows of Sedition or Rebellion or of an envious hurtful Zeal or a snare for the Innocent or a Pistol to shoot at the Upright in Heart These are not they that have been the shame of their Profession the hardning of Ungodly Men and Infidels and that have caused the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme If any Man will make a Religion of or for his Lusts of Papal Tyranny or Pharisaical Formality or of his private Opinions or of proud censoriousness and contempt of others and of Faction and 〈◊〉 warrâ—ntable Separations and Divisions and of standing at a more observable distance from common Professors of Christianity than God would have them or yet of pulling up the Hedg of Discipline and laying Christ's Vineyard common to the Wilderness the Storm is coming when this Religion founded on the Sand will fall and great will be the fall thereof When the Religion which consisteth in Faith and Love to God and Man in mortifying the Flesh and crucifying the World in Self-denyal Humility and Patience in sincere Obedience and faithfulness in all Relations in watchful Self-Government in doing Good and in a Divine and Heavenly Life tho' it will be hated by the ungodly World shall never be a dishonour to your Lord nor deceive or disappoint your Souls A Short Catechism Quest 1. WHat is the Christian Religion Answ The Christian Religion is the Baptismal Covenant made and kept wherein God the Father Son and Holy Ghost doth give himself to be ouâ— reconciled God and Father our Saviour and Sanctifier and we believingly give up our selves accordingly to him renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil Which Covenant is to be oft renewed specially in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Quest 2. Where is our Covenant-part and Duty fullier opened Answ 1. In the Creed as the Sum of our Belief 2. In the Lord's Prayer as the Sum of our Desires 3. And in the Ten Commandments as given us by Christ with the Gospel-Explications as the Sum of our Practice Which are as followeth The CREED I Believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord which was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified dead and buried he descended into Hell The third day he arose again from the Dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right Hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to Judg the Quick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting Amen The LORD'S Prayer OUR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The Ten Commandments I. I Am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage Thou shalt have no other Gods before me II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and shewing Mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain IV. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any Work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the Stranger that is within thy Gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh Day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-Day and hallowed it V. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy Days may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee VI. Thou shalt not Kill VII Thou shalt not commit Adultery VIII Thou shalt not Steal IX Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House thou shalt not cover thy Neighbour's Wife nor his Man-servant nor his Maid-servant nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbour's Quest 3. Where is the Christian Religion most fully opened and entirely contained Answ In the Holy Scriptures especially of the New Testament Where by Christ and his Apostles and Evangelists inspired by his Spirit the History of Christ and his Apostles is â—ufficiently delivered the Promises and Doctrine of Faith are perfected the Covenant of Grace most clearly opened and Church-Offices Worship and Discipline established in the understanding whereof the strongest Christians may increase whilst they live on Earth The explained Profession of the Christian Religion I. I Believe that there is one GOD an infinite Spirit of Life Understanding and Will 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 Benefactor and most amiable Good II. I believe that Man being made in the Image of God an imbodied Spirit of Life Understanding and Will with holy Viâ—acity wisdom and Love to know and love and serve his Creator here and for ever did by wilful finning fall from his God his Holiness and Innocency under the Wrath of God the Condemnation of his law and the Slavery of the Flesh the World and the Devil And that God so loved the World that he gave his only Son to be their Redeemer who being GOD and one â—ith the Father took our Nature and became MAN being conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary called Jesus Christ who was perfectly holy sinless fulfilling all Righteousness over came 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 â—nd was buried and went among the Dead the â—hird Day he rose again having conquered Death And he fully established the Covenant of Grace that â—ll that truly repent and believe shall-have the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Comâ—union of the Holy Spirit and if they love God and â—bey him sincerely to the
sober Profession can be taken for an insufficient title Grudge not then at the Communion of any Professed Christian in the Church Visible though we must do our part to cast out the obstinately impenitent by Discipline which if we cannot do the Fault is not ours The presence of Hypocrites is no hurt but oft a Mercy to the Sincere How small else would the Church seem in the World Outward Privileges belong to Outward Covenanters and Inward Mercies to the Sincere Division is wounding and tends to Death Abhor it as you love the Churches welfare or your own The Wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable Never separate what God conjoineth It is the Earthly sensual devilish Wisdom which causeth bitter envying and strife and confusion and every evil Work Blessed are the Peace-makers XIV Take heed of Pride and Self-conceitedness in Religion If once you over-value your own understandings your crude Conceptions and gross Mistakes will delight you as some supernatural light And instead of having compassion on the Weak you will be unruly and despisers of your Guides and censorious contemners of all that differ from you and persecutors of them if you have Power and will think all intolerable that take you not as Oracles and your words as Law Forget not that the Church hath always suffered by censorious unruly Professors on the one Hand and O what Divisions and Scandals have they caused as well as by the Prophane and Persecucutors on the other Take need of both And when Contentions are afoot be quiet and silent and not too forward and keep up a Zeal for Love and Peace XV. Be faithful and conscionable in all your Relations Honour and obey your Parents and other Superiors Despise not and resist not Government If you suffer unjustly by them be humbled for those Sins which cause God to turn your Protectors into Afflictors And instead of murmuring and rebelling against them reform your selves and then commit your selves to God Princes and Pastors I will not speak to Subjects and Servants and Children must obey their Superiors as the Officers of God XVI Keep up the Government of God in your Families Holy Families must be the chief preservers of the Interest of Religion in the World Let not the World turn God's Service into a customary lifeless Form Read the Scripture and edifying Books to them Talk with them seriously about the State of their Souls and everlasting Life Pray with them fervently Watch over them diligently Be angry against Sin and meek in your own cause Be Examples of Wisdom Holiness and Patience And see that the Lord's Day be spent in holy preparation for Eternity XVII Let your Callings be managed in Holiness and Laboriousness Live not in Idleness be not slothful in your Work whether you be Bound or Free in the sweat of your Brows you must eat your Bread and labour the six Days that you may have to give to him that needeth Slothfulness is Sensuality as well as filthier Sins The Body that is able must have fit Employments as well as the Soul or else Body and Soul will fare the worse but let all be but as the labour of a Traveller and aim at God and Heaven in all XVIII Deprive not your selves of the benefit of an able faithful Pastor to whom you may open your Case in secret or at least of a holy faithful Friend And be not displeased at their free Reproofs Wo to him that is alone How blind and partial are we in our own Causeâ— and how hard is it to know our selves without an able faithful Helper You forfeit this great Mercy when you love a Flatterer and angrily defend your Sin XIX Prepare for Sickness Sufferings and Death Overvalue not Prosperity nor the Favour of Man If selfish Men prove false and cruel to you even those of whom you have deserved best marvel not at it but pray for your Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers that God would turn their Hearts and pardon them What a Mercy is it to be driven from the World to God when the love of the World is the greatest danger of the Soul Be ready to die and you are ready for any thing Ask your Hearts seriously What is it that I shall need at a dying Hour And let it speedily be got ready and not be to seek in the time of your Extremity XX. Understand the true Method of Peace of Conscience and judge not of the State of your Souls upon deceitful Grounds As presumptuous Hopes do keep Men from Conversion and embolden them to sin so causless Fears do hinder our Love and Praise of God by obscuring his Loveliness And they destroy our Thankfulness and our Delight in God and make us a Burden to our selves and a grievous Stumbling block to others The general Grounds of all your Comfort are 1. The gracious Nature of God 2. The sufficiency of Christ And. 3. the Truth and Universality of the Promise which giveth Christ and Life to all if they will accept him But this Acceptance is the Proof of your particular Title without which these do but aggravate your Sin Consent to God's Covenant is the true Condition and Proof of your Title to God as your Father Saviour and Sanctifier and so to the saving Blessings of the Covenant Which Consent if you survive must produce the Duties which you consent to He that heartily consenteth that God be his God his Saviour and Sanctifier is in a state of Life But this includeth thâ—â— rejection of the VVorld Much Knowledge and Memory and Utterance and lively Affections are all very desirable But you must judge your state by none of these for they are all uncertain But 1. If God and Holiness and Heaven have the highest estimation of your practical Judgment as being esteemed best for you 2. And be preferred in the Choice and Resolution of your Wills and that habitually before all the Pleasures of the VVorld 3. And be first and chiefly sought in your Endeavours This is the infallible proof of your Sanctification Christian Upon long and serious study and experience I dare boldly commend these Directions to thee as the VVay of God which will end in Blessedness The Lord resolve and strengthen thee to obey them This is the true Constitution of Christianity This is true Godliness and this is to be Religious indeed And all this is no more than to be seriously such as all among us in general VVords profess to be This is the Religion which must difference you from Hypocrites which must settle you in Peace and make you an Honour to your Profession and a Blessing to those that dwell about you Happy is the Land the Church the Family which doth consist of such as these These are not they that either Persecute or Divide the Church or that make their Religion a servant to their Policy to their ambitious designs or fleshlâ— Lusts nor that make it
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
all Men are fallen from God and Holiness and Happiness unto Self and Sin and Misery you know that you are so far redeemed by Christ you know as to have a pardoning and saving Covenant tendered you and Christ and Mercy offered to your choice But whether you are truly penitent Believers and renewed by the Holy Ghost and so united unto Christ this is the Question yet unresolved this is the Work that is yet to do without which there is no Salvation and if thou die before it is done wo to thee that ever thou wast a Man Except a Man be Regenerate by the Spirit and Converted and made a New Creature and of Carâ—al be made Spiritual and of Earthly be made Heavenly and of Selfish and Sinful be made Holy and Obedient to God he can never be saved no more than the Devil himself can be saved And if this be so as nothing is more sure I require thee now who readest these words as thou regardest thy Salvation as thou wouldest escape Hell Fire and stand with Comfort before Christ and his Angels at the last that thou soberly consider whether Reason command thee not to try thy State whether thou art thus renewed by the Spirit of Christ or not And to call for help to those that can advise thee and follow on the search till thou know thy Case And if thy Soul be a stranger to this sanctifying Work whether Reason command thee not without any delay to make out to Christ and beg his Spirit and cast away thy Sins and give up thy self entirely to thy God thy Saviour and Sanctifier and enter into his Covenant with a full Resolution never to forsake him to deny thy self and the desires of the Flesh and this deceitful transitory World and lay out all thy hopes on Heaven and speedily whatever it cost thee to make sure of the Felicity which hath no end And darest thou refuse this when God and Conscience do command it And further I advise you X. Understand how it is that Satan hindreth Souls from being sanctified That you may know how much to resist his Wiles Some he deceiveth by malicious Suggestions that Holiness is nothing but Fancy or Hypocrisie And if God and Death and Heaven and Hell were Fancies this might be believed Some he debaucheth by the power of fleshly Appetite and Lust so that their Sins will not let their Reason speak Some he keepeth in utter Ignorance by the evil Education of ignorant Parents and the negligence of ungodly Soul-murdering Teachers some he deceiveth by worldly Hopes and keepeth their Minds so taken up with worldly Things that the Matters of Eternity can have but some loose and uneffectual Thoughts or as bad as none Some are entangled in ill Company who make a scorn of a holy Life and seed them with continual Diversions and vain Delights And some are so hardened in their Sin that they are even past feeling and neither fear God's Wrath nor care for their Salvation but hear these things as Men asleep and nothing will awake them Some are discouraged with a conceit that Godliness is a Life so grievous sad and melancholy that rather than endure it they will venture their Souls come on it what will as if it were a grievous Life to love God and hope for endless Joys and a pleasant Life to love the World and Sin and live within a step of Hell Some that are convinced do put off their Coversion with Delays and think it's time enough hereafter and are purposing and promising till it be too late and Life and Time and Hope be ended And some that see there is is a necessity of Holiness are cheated by some dead Opinion or Names or Shews and Images of Holiness either because they hold a strict Opinion or because they joyn with a Religious Party or because they are of that which they think is the true Church or because they are baptized with Water and observe the outward parts of Worship and perhaps because they offer God a great deal of Lip-Service and Lifeless Ceremony which never savoured of a Holy Soul Thus Deadness Sensuality Worldliness and Hypocrisie do hinder Millions from Sanctification and Salvation XI If ever thou wouldest be saved oppress not Reason by Sensuality or Diversions But sometimes retire for sober Consideration distracted and sleepy Reason is unuseful God and Conscience have a great deal to say to thee which in a crowd of Company and Business thou art not fit to hear It is a dolesul case that a Man who hath a God a Christ a Soul a Heaven a Hell to think of will allow them none but running Thoughts and not once in a Week bestow one Hour in Man-like serious Consideration of them sure thou hast no greater things to mind Resolve then sometimes to spend half an hour in the deepest thoughts of thy everlasting State XII Look upon this World and all its Pleasures as a Man of Reason who foreseeth the end and not as a Beast that liveth but by Sense or present Objects Do I need to to tell thee Man that thou must die Cannot Carcases and Dust instruct thee to see the end of Earthly Glory and all the Pleasures of the Flesh Is it a Controversie whether thy Flesh must shortly perish and wilt thou yet provide for it before thy Soul What a sad farewel must thou shortly take of all that Worldlings sell their Souls for And O how quickly will this be Alass Man the Day is even at hand a few days more and thou art gone and darest thou live unready and part with Heaven for such a World as this XIII And then think soberly of the Life to come What it is for a Soul to appear before the living God and be judged to endless Joy or Misery If the Devil tempt thee to doubt of such a Life remember that Nature and Scripture and the Worlds Consent and his own Temptations are Witnesses against him O Man canst thou pass one day in Company or alone in Business or in Idleness without some sober Thoughts of Everlastingness Nothing more sheweth that the Hearts of Men are asleep or dead than that the Thoughts of endless Joy or Pain so near at hand constrain them not to be Holy and overcome not all the Temptations of the Flesh as Toys and inconsiderable Things XIV Mark well what Mind most Men are of when they come to die Unless it be some desperate forsaken Wretch do they not all speak well of a Holy Life and wish that their Lives had been spent in the most fervent Love of God and strictest Obedience to his Laws Do they then speak well of Lust and Pleasures and magnifie the Wealth and Honours of the World Had they not rather die as the most mortified Saints then as careless fleshly worldly Sinners And dost thou see and know this and yet wilt thou not be instructed and be
Conscience bear witness against thy Sin and tell thee that a holy Life is best regard not the Gain-sayings of a Bediam World which is drunk with the Delusions of the Flesh But give up thy Soul and Life to God by Jesus Christ in a faithful Covenant Delay no longer Man but resolve Resolve immediately resolve unchangeably And God will he thine and thou shalt be his for ever Amen Lord have Mercy on this Sinner and to let it be resolved by thee in him II. The Parts and Practice of a Holy Life for Personal and Family Instructions ALL is not not done when men have begun a Religious Life All Trees that blossom prove not fruitful and all Fruit comes not to perfection Many fall off who seemed to have good Beginnings And many dishonour the Name of Christ by their Scandals and Infirmities Many do grieve their Teachers Hearts and lamentably disturb the Church of Christ by their Ignorance Errors Self-conceitedness Unruliness Headiness Contentiousness Sidings and Divisions Insomuch that the Scandals and the Feuds of Christians are the great Impediments of the Conversion of the Infidel and Heathen World by the exposing Christianity to their contempt and scorn as if it were but the Error of men as unholy and worldly and proud as others that can never agree among themselves And many by their Passions and Selfishness are a Trouble to the Families and Neighbours where they live And more by their Weaknesses and great Distempers are Snares Vexations and Burdens to themselves Whereas Christianity in its true Constitution is a Life of such Holy Light and Love such Purity and Peace such Fruitfulness and Heavenliness as if it were accordingly shewed forth in the Lives of Christians would command Admiration and Reverence from the World and do more to their Conversion than Swords or Words alone can do and it would make Christians useful and amiable to each other And their Lives a Feast and pleasure to themselves I hope it may prove some help to these Excellent Ends and to the securing Mens Salvation if in a few sound Experienced Directions I open to you the Duties of a Christian Life I. Keep still the true Form of Christian Doctrine Desire and Duty orderly printed on your Minds That is Understand it clearly and distinctly and remember it I mean the Great Points of Religion contained in Catechisms You may still grow in the clearer understanding of your Catechisms if you live an hundred Years Let not the Words only but the Matter be as familiar in your Minds as the Rooms of your House are Such solid Knowledge will establish you against Seduction and Unbelief and will be still within you a ready Help for every Grace and every Duty as the Skill of an Artificer is for his Work And for want of this when you come among Infidels or Hereticks their Reasonings may seem unanswerable to you and shake if not overthrow your Faith And you will easily err in lesser Points and trouble the Church with your Dreams and Wranglings This is the Calamity of many Professors that while they will be most censorious Judges in every Controversie about Church-matters they know not well the Doctrine of the Catechism II. Live daily by Faith on Jesus Christ as the Mediator between God and you Being well-grounded in the Belief of the Gospel and understanding Christ's Office make use of him still in all your Wants Think on the Fatherly Love of God as coming to you through him alone and of the Spirit as given by him your Head and of the Covenant of Grace as enacted and sealed by him and of the Ministry as sent by him and of all Times and Helps and hopes as procured and given by him When you think of Sin and Infirmity and Temptations think also of his sufficient pardoninâ— justifying and victorious Grace When thou thinkest of the World the Flesh and the Devil think how he overcometh them Let his Doctrine and the Pattern of his most perfect Life be always before you as your Rule In all your Doubts and Fears and Wants go to him in the Spirit and to the Father by him and him alone Take him as the Root of your Life and Mercies and live as upon him and by his Life and when you die resign your Souls to him that they may be with him where he is and see his Glory To live on Christ and use him in every Want and address to God is more than a general confused Believing in him III. So believe in the Holy Ghost as to live and work by him as the Body doth by the Soul You are not baptized into his Name in vain but too few understand the sense and reason of it The Spirit is sent by Christ for Two great Works 1. To the Apostles and Prophets to inspire them infallibly to preach the Gospel and confirm it by Miracles and leave it on Record for following Ages in the Holy Scriptures 2. To all his Members to illuminate and sanctifie them to believe and obey this Sacred Doctrine beside his common Gift to many to understand and preach it The Spirit having first indicted the Gospel doth by it first regenerate and after govern all true Believers He is not now given â—s for the revealing of new Doctrines but to understand and obey the Doctrine revealed and sealed by him long ago As the Sun doth by its sweet and discreet Influence both give and cherish the natural life of things Sensitive and Vegetative so doth Christ by his Spirit our spiritual Life As you do no work but by your natural Life you should do none but by your spiritual Life You must not only Believe and Love and pray by it but manage all your Calling by it for Holiness to the lord must be written upon all All things are sanctified to you because you being sanctified to God devote all to him and use all for him and therefore must do all in the Strength and Conduct of the Spirit IV. Live wholly upon God as All in All As the first Efficient principal Dirigent and final Cause of all things Let Faith Hope and Love be daily feeding on him Let Our Father which art in Heaven be first inscribed on your Hearts that he may seem most amiable to you and you may boldly trust him and filial Love may be the spring of Duty Make use of the Son and Spirit to lead you to the Father and of Faith in Christ to kindle and keep alive the Love of God God's Love is our Primitive Holiness and especially called with its Fruits Our Sanctification which Faith in Christ is but a means to Let it be your principal End in studying Christ to see the Goodness Love and Amiableness of God in him A condemning God is not so easily loved as a gracious reconciled God You have so much of the Spirit as you have Love to God This is the proper Gift of the Spirit