A SHORT VIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL DUTIES OF THE Christian Religion WITH Plain Arguments to perswade to the sincere and speedy Practice of Them To which is added A Prayer suited to the Whole to be used Morning and Evening For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation has appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 11 12 13. By a Divine of the Church of England for the Use of his Parishioners LONDON Printed for I. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard 1700. Price 3 d. or 20 s. per Hundred To my beloved Parishioners of Ailesham in the County of Norfolk Brethren AS my hearts Desire and Prayer to God for you is that ye may be saved Rom. 10. 1 So it shall be my great Endeavour to guide and assist you in this important Business of working out your own Salvation And in order thereto I Phil. 2. 12 have in the following Pages given you as it were in one View a Summary of all those Christian Duties with their Motives to them which I conceive necessary to Eternal Life which being such I intend God willing to make the constant Subject of my publick Discourses among you And therefore I do earnestly recommend them before-hand to your serious and constant Perusal that so your Minds by forming the same Notions of the Christian Doctrin with my self may better apprehend my Meaning in my Sermons and consequently be the better enabled not only to keep in memory what is preached unto you but also to edifie or profit by it And the great concern I have for your Eternal Welfare makes me the more desirous of your ready complyance with these my Endeavours to build you up in your most holy Faith the end whereof is nothing less than the Salvation of your Souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. It is to be observed and remembred that our composition is not made up of what is sensible only though we chiefly converse with this but that Man consists of a Soul as well as a Body and our experience may convince us that the World is not a suitable or satisfactory Luk. 12. 15. good for the one though it be for the other which plainly shews that our chief End is not to eat and drink and sleep and carry on a few wordly Designs then go out of the World as ignorant less innocent than we came into it but our great End is to cultivate our better Part and by the constant exercise of Eccles 12. 13. Religion fit our Souls for that spiritual and immortal Life the loss whereof not even the whole World it self can compensate Mat. 16. 26. and yet nothing can put us into the Possession of it but keeping the Commandments For so it has pleased 19. 17. the Wisdom of God to make Religion or Obedience to his Laws at once the Condition of our future Happiness and the necessary Preparation for it For 't is our likeness to or resemblance of God that must dispose us to relish any Pleasure in the presence and enjoyment of him for no one delighteth in the conversation of him who is of a temper contrary to his own and 't is our Obedience to his Will that must make us like him i. e. holy as he is holy and 1 Pet 1. 15 16. consequently happy as he is happy So that the various Duties of the Christian Religion laid before you in the following Pages are the very life of your Souls and your Right or Claim to the one encreaseth or diminisheth in the same Proportion with your Practice of the other And therefore as ye love your Souls ye must love your Duty Pro. 19. 16 Psal 119. 52. 165. 2 Cor. 112. Prov. 14. 32. for there is nothing else can afford you any solid Comfort in this World or any reasonable hopes of Happiness in the other And it may be of great encouragement to your Duty to consider that as it is thus exceeding necessary to be practised So it is with all as easie to be known It is made so plain that he who runs may read it and accordingly it seems to have been more throughly understood I am sure much better practised by poor Sheperds and ignorant Fishermen than by the most learned Philosophers and Disputers of 1 Cor. 1. 21 this World and St. Paul though a Acts 22. 3. Scholar was yet to preach the Gospel not with Wisdom of Words and therefore 1 Cor. 1. 17. there is not so much need of Logick or the Art of reasoning as of true Faith and Piety to understand it So that if ye bring but along with you to these Papers an honest and docible temper of Soul I could hope ye might with as little James 1. 21 trouble as ye could desire know enough to make you wise unto Salvation â— Tim. 3. 15 And when once ye have attained to such a degree of Knowledge in these necessary Duties then all that remains to be further urged is only that ye would please to remember our Saviour's Words to his Disciples If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them and that John 13. 17. ye may as 't is the earnest desire So it shall be the great Endeavour of Your most faithful Friend and loving Pastor Jonathan Wrench A short View of the Principal Duties of the Christian Religion c. GOD Who would have all men to be saved 1 Tim. 2. 4. and come to the Knowledge of the Truth has implanted in every Man a Desire of Happiness and in the Gospel has made true Religion that is to say Pref. p. 2. Matthew 7. 21. Heb. 12. 14. a faithful Observance of the Laws of Christ necessary for the Attainment of that Desire So that it becomes at once every Man's Duty and Interest to acquaint himself with this true Religion as being the one thing needful for the Object of his Thoughts and the Subject of his Practice And as 't is your Duty thus to learn So having the Care of your Souls upon me I think it mine to inform you what ye must do to inherit eternal Life and that is in short what the Doctrin of the Gospel or as the Apostle expresseth it what the Grace of God which brings Salvation and has appeared to all Tit. 2. 11 12. Men teacheth us namely that Denying Vngodliness and wordly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World This is the Sum of what we on our Part promised to God and Christ to perform when we were baptized into the Christian Religion for Baptism is that Ceremony by which God enters into Covenant with the Persons to be baptized wherein God is pleased to promise certain Advantages to them on his Part and
the Persons to be baptized engage to observe certain Conditions on theirs The Terms of Stipulation or the Covenant to be performed on Gods part are as our Church Catechism informs us First That we shall be made Members of Christ that is to say Members of his spiritual Body the Church whereof Christ himself is Rom. 12. 5. the Head from whom we are to expect all our Strength and Power to live as becometh the Gospel of Christ or as Christians that walk Eph. 1. 22 23. worthy of the Lord unto all Well-pleasing Secondly That we shall be made the Children of God that is God with whom we are in Covenant will adopt us for his Sons John 1. 12. Rom. 8. 15. Gal. 4. 5. 6. Luke 11. 13. through Faith in and Obedience to Christ our Saviour and as his Sons will expect only a filial Obedience will readily pass by our Infirmities freely forgive our Sins and be heartily reconciled to us in and through the Beloved will bestow upon us his Holy Spirit and with Him a Supply of all things necessary for the Support of our spiritual Life and Growth in Grace Thirdly as a Consequence of this we shall be also made Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven for if we are as I said just now we were hereby made the Children of God the Rom. 8. 16 17. Tit. 3. 5. 7. Heb. 1. 14. Apostle's Conclusion is very strong that if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ which can import nothing less than that we shall be together with him Heirs of Salvation All this is in short what God makes over to us in the Covenant of Baptism All which we can expect only upon Condition of the Performance of our Part of this sacred Covenant For such is the Nature of Covenants that when one of the Persons covenanting or contracting receedeth from his Part of the Covenant he does thereby actually acquit the other with whom he covenanted from all Obligation to perform his Part of the Covenant So that if we do not perform our Part of this Covenant made in our Baptism we thereby discharge God from the Obligation of performing his Part and â—herefore it stands us in great stead to be very punctual in our Observance of those Sacred Obligations which we laid upon our Selves â—n our Baptism because all the Priviledges belonging to us as Christians together with our Eternal Life and Happiness either stand or fall by our well or non-Performance of them â—or though Jesus and he only has delivered us 1 Thess 1. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 18. Acts 4. 12. Heb. 5. 9. from the Wrath to come and reconciled us to God by â—is Death yet it must be with all remember'd â—hat the Benefits of his Death and Passion are all conditional and that he is Become the Author â—f eternal Salvation only to them that obey him This being therefore a Matter of great Imporâ—ance I shall be the more particular as far as my intended Brevity will admit in my Consideration of those Conditions which every Christian is supposed to promise in his Baptism faithfully to observe and these are no more than what the Grace of God which has appeared to all men teacheth us viz. that denying Vngodliness Tit. 2. 11 12. Eccles 12. 13. Phil. 2. 12. Psal 34. 14. 1 Pet. 3. 11. and wordly Lusts we should live soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World for This is the Whole of Man the Sum of all that God requires at our hands in order to the working out our own Salvation our Duty consists only in these two Things the Eschewing Evil and doing Good The Evil to be eschewed denyed or forsaken by us is comprehended under these few Words Vngodliness and wordly Lusts and the Good in these The Living Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World 1. One Condition of the forementioned Priviledges is that we Deny Vngodliness or Impiety Now as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piety is that Part of our Duty which has a more immediate Relation to God So * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impiety or Vngodliness may be supposed to comprehend in iâ— all those Sins which are levelled more immediately against Him which may be all reduced to these two general Heads Either 1. The Disowning Him the true God for our God or 2dly The setting up other Gods besides him For 1. The Disowning the true God for our Josh 24. 27. Psal 53. 9. Acts 17. 29. Psal 73. 9 11. Matt. 5. 34. James 5. 12. Job 31. 26 27 28. Lev. 24. 15 16. 1 Tim. 6. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Tit. 1. 16. God implies in it the Disowning or Denying Him in our Thoughts either thinking Him not at all or thinking unworthily of him the Denying Him in our Words by arguing against his Being and endeavouring to dispute Him out of it Swearing falsely or vainly by his Name Cursing Blaspheming Him and Ridiculing his sacred Word Lastly the Denying him in our Actions Living as without God in the World either by Omitting our known Duties to him or Committing wilful Sins against him All which are notorious Instances of Ungodliness 2dly Ungodliness consisteth not only in disowning the true God any of the foremention'd Ways but also in Setting up other Gods besides Him Which I conceive may be done either of these three Ways 1. By Substituting or Placing any other God in Lev. 26. 1. Rom. 1. 23. Acts 17. 29. 2 Kings 17. 33. Zeph. 1. 5. Room of the true God or 2dly By worshiping any other God together with Him or 3dly By giving those Acts of Worship to any created Good which are due to God alone The two former of these relate to the Idolatrous Worship of the Heathens which was one great Sin that Christians formerly promised in their Baptism to forsake when they engaged to Renounce the Devil and all his Works and the latter is what Christians not only were but are now a-days obliged to Renounce and yet but too frequently adhere to â—t in that they are apt to Repose as sad Expeâ—ience shews a greater Reliance on their â—ordly Goods fixing more Hope in them and Rom 25. 1. â—ffording a larger share of Love to them than â—o God himself so making them their God â—nd their Happiness And accordingly we are â—old in Scripture of some Whose God is their â—elly of others Who sacrifice to their Net and Phil. 3. 19. Hab. 1. 16. Psal 20. 7. Job 31. 24. â—â—rn Incense to their Drag of some Who trust in Chariots and some in Horses of others Who make Gold their Hope and say to the fine Gold Thou art â—â—r Confidence whose Sin is therefore justly calâ—ed * Idolatry because they affix those Acts of â—he Soul to a created Good which ought to be employed upon God alone So that all these wicked Practices being in effect Idolatrous may be justly stiled ungodly Actions and are therefore included in this great Sin of
numerous as they will be afterwards And therefore we have now less Work than ever we shall have upon our Hands and what is a greater Encouragement our Faculties are now most vigorous most fit to engage in this necessary Undertaking and Now too is the only Time to serve God acceptably Now is the proper Season to exercise our Graces to shew the Reality and Strength of them Now that there are proper Rom. 5. 3. James 1. 12. Eccles 11. 9. Temptations both to try and improve Them For 't is now in the Days of our Youth that the World besets us with Enchantments and that our own Bodies turn Tempters to us 'T is now that the Gaities of the World are apt to allure us T is now that the Unruliness of our Blood and the ill Propensities of the Flesh prompt us to the Breach of those Vows which we have taken up against Them So that Now is the proper Season for the Exercise of Religion For now if we can resist these unruly Motions and keep our Selves unspotted from the World we shall James 1. 27. Prov. 23. 26. Mark 12. 33. Prov. 14. 14. Eccles 12. 1. manifestly prove our Faith and Piety to be sincere which will infallibly recommend it to the Divine Acceptance and afford no little Satisfaction to our Selves It was therefore an Advice well-becoming the Wisdom of Solomon Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the evil Days come not nor the Year draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them For in such a Time of Trouble as Old Age is which the Wise Man here describes we cannot reasonably hope that our Souls without any previous Preparation should be duly qualify'd to perform any Service acceptable to Him who is Hab. 1. 13. of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity Alas all the Faculties of our Souls will long before that Time be grown Restive for want of Exercise and Improvement and what is worse They will be over-run with our Lusts and Vices And Now to devote the Powers of our Souls to the Service of our God when weaken'd as much as possible by our Lusts would be to offer him the Malach. 1. 8. Blind the Lame and the Sick for Sacrifice And should he accept such an Offering at our Hands Offer it now to thy Governour says God and see if 1 Tim. 6. 15. he will be pleased with Thee or accept thy Person Much less will he who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords And indeed if Sinners would but speak out and tell the Truth they must needs own that their Religious Exercises like all their other Actions of Life are at that Time of Day very troublesom and uneasie to Them And would it not be very unreasonable to expect that God should delight in those Dregs of our Lives which we our Selves can take no Pleasure in Sinners surely must have a very mean Opinion both of God and Religion too to think Themselves fit enough for the Service of Both when they are disabled and unfit for every thing else Though properly speaking it is no Service but as you have seen only the Effect of Impotence and Weakness that they can then present him with for what Vertue can there be in Men's insignificant Intentions to begin to be Good at a time when perhaps they can't if they would be actually Bad This is only in plain English to have the Thoughts of serving God when they can serve the Devil no longer And what a sad Thing is it to live so long in Wickedness as at length to be forsaken by It And then when our Sins have left us rather than we them we will even look out for a better Master and begin to serve God who never faileth Them that seek him And therefore Amos 5. 4. Psal 9. 10. Why should he not be Gracious unto us now at last Why may not we find as much Grace and Favour at our last Minutes as the Labourâ—rs Matth. 20. 1. Luke 23. 42. did who came into their Lord's Vineyard at the last Hour or as the Thief upon the Cross who could not have converted Later nor yet had a more comfortable Promise made over to him upon his Conversion as Late as it was Now as to the former of these Instances alledged in Favour of a late Repentance namely That of the Labourers going late into the Vineyard to work it is by Learned Men thought that the whole Design of that Parable is only to exhibit or set forth to us the Justice and Goodness of God in tendring the Light and Mercies of the Gospel to the Gentiles and rewarding their late Acceptance of them equal with the Jews that were called before us and so it reacheth not in the Opinion of some to the Case of private Sinners Though I will for once suppose it does but withal must observe That this gives no Encouragement to any Sinner to defer the Reformation of his Life or the Practice of Religion to the last no nor yet to the next Hour for supposing the Eleventh Hour in the Parable to signifie the Last of our Lives and that God did accept and reward Those that converted to Him then yet it does not appear that They who were then Hired into the Vineyard or called to Repentance had rejected more early Invitations to it but whether Idleness or whatever was the Occasion of their late Call and Conversion this is certain that at what Hour soever whether at the First Sixth or Ninth they were called they immediately obeyed the Motion and needed not a second Call as Men now a-days do who stop their Ears Psal 58. 5. at the Voice of the Charmers charming never so wisely and so they add to all their Sins this One and that a very great One too of Obstinacy and Incorrigibleness which render their Case different from the Labourers it being far more unlikely that such stubborn Tempers should be ever wrought unto Repentance and Reformation especially to that which is sincere 't is far more likely that God being by their Stubbornness provoked should give them over to a reprobate Mind Rom. 1. 28. And then as to the other Instance of a late Repentance that of the Thief on the Cross Here I will suppose because I know Sinners do that this late Penitent's Life was as theirs is but one continued Course of Wickedness of which he repented not till his last Minutes and that as God did graciously pardon him then so may he forgive them also if they do but then repent as heartily as he did yet I hope to shew them that they have no reasonable Encouragement from this Example to continue in their Wickedness at Present in hopes of finding Mercy upon their Repentance at Last or at a dying Hour as will appear if they consider That 't is possible nay probable that this Thief might never have heard of the Name of Jesus before or
our Souls we therefore thine unworthy Cereatures sinful Dust and Ashes present our Selves before Thee to praise thee for the infinite Perfections of thy Nature and to beg of Thee the necessary Supplies of thy Grace and Holy Spirit that we may give thee the Honour due unto thy Name and Worship thee suitably to thy Nature with an holy and a spiritual Worship Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity and therefore how shall such polluted Wretches as we are dare to approach thy dreadful Majesty who by our Sins and Follies have made our selves so unlike to thee who art righteous in all thy Ways and holy in all thy Works How then shall we presume to come into thy holy Presence who are defiled in our very Natures having nothing but Vanity and Blindness in our Minds Perversness in our Wills both spiritual and carnal Iniquity in our Affections and Appetites and what is worse have defiled our Selves yet much more by our many actual and habitual Sins against thee so that we are altogether unworthy to approach thy Presence or expect thy Favour and yet have so great need of both that without them we are lost for ever O therefore cast us not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from us but out of Pity to thy defective and diseased Creatures receive us graciously and heal our Souls though we have sinned against Thee Rescue us from the Power and Bondage of our Lusts by the greater Power of thy Grace Renew and purifie our corrupted Natures Create in us a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within us Teach us a perfect Denial of all our Sins and establish us in a stedfast Obedience to all thy Laws To which End enlighten our Minds to form clear and true Notions of Thee and open our Hearts to attend upon all the Means that may help us to discharge our various Obligations to Thee Inspire our Souls with thy heavenly Graces Strengthen our Faith confirm our Hope encrease our Love quicken our Fear establish our Trust inspire us with Patience Constancy and Sincerity Enflame our Devotions and envigorate our Endeavours in a faithful Discharge of our Duty to Thee Give us thy Grace also to assist us in the Peformance of our Duty to our Neighbour that we may ever remember and constantly observe thy great and righteous Law to love him as our selves and to this End grant That we may never defraud Him of his Right but give him his due in all the Relations towards us wherein he stands Dispose us therefore good Lord chearfully to obey Them that have the Rule over us whether in Church or State and bless them in an happy Government of us that under them we may lead qulet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty Bless all Sorts of Parents and Masters grant that they may faithfully discharge the various Duties of their Stations and their respective Inferiours may in a grateful Return thereof ever Love Honour and Obey them Grant to all Men we beseech thee the Spirit to think and do all such Things as be rightful ever adhering to that equitable Rule the dâ—ing as they would be dealt by And grant us O thou Fountain of Mercy and Love a universal Charity towards all Men even to our Enemies that we may be ever ready both to forgive and also to provide that they which are in need and necessity have Righte in a suitable Relief of their various Wants and because our Prayers to Thee from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh are oft the best and only Helps we can afford them therefore do thou O Lord abundantly for them more than we can ask or think Suit thy Mercies according to their various Necessities sanctifie their Afflictions to them and when thou seest it best for them give them a happy Deliverance out of all their Troubles And Lastly O Lord we come unto thee for a Blessing upon our Selves who as we are here Living Instances of thine Almighty Power and Goodness so be pleased to make us the happy Instruments of thy Praise and Glory to which Purpose enable us to subject all the Faculties of our Souls and the Powers of our Bodies to thy blessed Will which is the Law and Perfection of our reasonable Nature Direct our Understandings to the Knowledge of those glorious Manifestations which thou hast been pleased to give us of thy self Clear up our Apprehensions both of the Perfections of thy Nature and the Excellency of those Perfections Direct our Wills to the Choice and Imitation of such thy Perfections as are imitable by us Teach us the Wisdom to proportion our Affections of Things according to the Nature and Value of them that having a less Concern for this World we may fear thee more and love thee better Give us a râ—ght Understanding of our Selves of our own Insufficiency and of our entire Dependance upon thee that so we may not think more highly of our selves than we ought to think Teach us a chearful Submission to thine all-wise Dispensations and in whatever State we are therewith to be content Endue us with a calm and gentle Temper of Soul such as may invite thy Blessed Spirit to come and take up his Abode with us that through his Blessed Operations we may bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit in Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Subdue our bodily Appetites to the Laws of our Reason and the End of their Creation ever remembring that our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit and that he who defileth the Temple of God him thou hast threatned to destroy Out of an holy Fear and Dread of this and all other thy reasonable Threats grant that we may be ever careful to keep under our Bodies and cleanse our Selves from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit that so we may as we are in Duty bound glorifie thee in our Body and in our Spirit which are Thine and we not only beg thy Grace to assist us in but thy heavenly Wisdom to shew us the reasonableness and necessity of our Performance of these Duties that we may make haste and delay not to keep thy Commandments AND as we desire this Morning to enter into For the Morning the World upon our lawful Occasions with this holy Frame and Disposition of Soul so grant that we may never lose it either through Surprize or wilful Neglect but guide us safely by thy Grace through all the Dangers and Temptations of this and all other Days of our Life that escaping the Corruption that is in the World through Lust we may live and die thy faithful and obedient Servants AND now O Lord that we are going to repose For the Evening our selves keep us from all Dangers and Adversities that may happen to our Bodies and from all evil Thoughts and Dreams which may assault and hurt our Souls that we may rise in the Morning with a fresh sense upon our Minds of thy Mercies to us and a full Conviction of the absolute necessity of expressing our Thankfulness not only with our Lips but in the constant Obedience of our Lives spending that Strength which thou hast given us to thy Honour and Service to whom we owe our utmost Praises for all thy free and undeserved Mercies Therefore We not only pray unto thee but desire to bless thee for all thy Benefits from time to time conferred upon us for thy Creation of us out of Nothing for thy Preservation of us ever since we had a Being for all the Accommodations of this Life and the plentiful Provision thou hast made for our Happiness in the other for all that thy Son our dear Redeemer has done and suffer'd for us for his wonderful Incarnation and Birth for his exemplary Life his meritorious Death and Passion for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and for his sending the Holy Ghost to comfort us for all thy Saints and Servants departed this Life in thy true Faith and Fear beseeching thee to give us Grace so to follow their good Examples that with them we may be Partakers of thy heavenly Kingdom These Prayers and Praises with whatever else thou in thine infinite Wisdom seest most necessary and expedient for us we humbly offer up in the Name and for the Sake of thy Son our blessed Saviour and Redeemer who has commanded us when we pray to say Our Father which art in c. This Prayer may be used by one Person only changing the Words We Vs and Our into I Me and My and saying instead of Creatures Creature c. FINIS