confirmed Christian. page 1 1. He liveth by such a Faith of unseen things as governeth his soul instead of sight 6 2. He hath cogent Reasons for his Religion 9 3. He seeth the well-ordered frame of sacred verities and the integral parts in their harmony or consort and setteth not up one truth against another 11 4. He adhereth to them and practiseth them from an inward connatural principle called The Divine Nature and The Spirit of Christ. 12 5. He serveth not God for fear only but for Love 14 6. He loveth God 1. Much for his Goodness to himself 2. And more for his Goodness to the Church 3. And most of all for his essential Goodness and perfection 16 7. He taketh this Love and its Expressions for the heart and height of all his Religion 19 8. He hath absolutely put his soul and all his hopes into the hand of Christ and liveth by faith upon him as his Saviour 21 9. He taketh Christ as the Teacher sent from God and his Doctrine for the truest wisdom and learneth of none but in subordination to him 23 10. His Repentance is universal and effectual and hath gone to the Root of every sin 25 11. He loveth the Light as it sheweth him his sin and duty and is willing to know the worst of sin and the most of duty 27 12. He desireth the highest degree of Holiness and hath no sin which he had not rather leave than keep and had rather be the Best though in poverty than the Greatest in prosperity 30 13. He liveth upon GOD and HEAVEN as the End Reward and Motive of his Life 32 14. He counteth no cost or pains too great for the obtaining it and hath nothing so dear which he cannot part with for it 35 15. He is daily exercised in the practice of Self-denial as next to the Lovers of God the second half of his Religion 38 16. He hath mortified his fleshly desires and so far mastereth his senses and appetite that they make not his obedience very uneasie or uneven 42 17. He preferreth the means of his holiness and happiness incomparably before all provisions and pleasures of the flesh 45 18. He is crucified to the world and the world to him by the Cross of Christ and contemneth it through the belief of the greater things of the life to come 47 19. He foreseeth the End in all his waies and judgeth of all things as they will appear at last 50 20. He liveth upon God alone and is content with his favour and approbation without the approbation and favour of men 53 21. He hath absolutely devoted himself and all that he hath to God to be used according to his will 56 22. He hath a readiness to obey and a quick and pleasant compliance of his will to the will of God 58 23. He delighteth himself more in God and Heaven and Christ and Holiness than in all the world Religion is not tedious and grievous to him 59 24. He is conscious of his own sincerity and assured of his Justification and title to Everlasting Joyes 66 25. This Assurance doth not make him more careless and remiss but increaseth his love and holy diligence 68 26. Yet he abhorreth Pride as the first born of the Devil and is very low and vile in his own eyes and can easily endure to be low and vile in the eyes of others 69 27. Being acquainted with the deceitfulness of the heart and the methods of temptation he liveth as among snares and enemies and dangers in a constant watch and can conquer many and subtil and great temptations through grace 72 28. He hath counted what it may cost him to be saved and hath resolved not to stick at suffering but to bear the Cross and be conformed to his crucified Lord and hath already in heart forsaken all for him 74 29. He is not a Christian only for company or carnal ends or upon trust of other mens opinion and therefore would be true to Christ if his Rulers his Teachers his Company and all that he knoweth should forsake him 78 30. He can digest the hardest Truths of Scripture and the hardest passages of Gods Providence 80 31. He can exercise all his Graces in harmony without neglecting one to use another or setting one against another 81 32. He is more in getting and using Grace than in enquiring whether he have it though he do that also in its place 82 33. He studieth Duty more than Events and is more carefull what he should be towards God than how he shall here be used by him 83 34. He is more regardfull of his duty to others than of theirs to him and had much rather suffer wrong than do it 84 35. He keepeth up a constant Government of his Thoughts restraining them from evil and using them upon God and for him 87 36. He keepeth a constant Government over his passions so far as that they pervert not his judgement his heart his tongue or actions 88 37. He governeth his tongue imploying it for God and restraining it from evil 90 38. Heart-work and Heaven-work are the principal matters of his religious discourse not barren controversies or impertinencies 92 39. He liveth upon the common great substantials of Religion and yet will not deny the smallest Truth or commit the smallest sin for any price that man can offer him 93 40. He is a high esteemer and carefull Redeemer of Time and abhorreth Idleness and Diversions which would rob him of it 98 41. His heart is set upon doing all the good in the world that he is able It is his daily business and delight 101 42. He truly loveth his neighbour as himself 103 43. He hath a special love to all godly Christians as such and such as will not stick at cost in its due expressions nor be turned into bitterness by tollerable differences 104 44. He forgiveth injuries and loveth his enemies and doth them all the good he can from the sense of the love of Christ to him 106 45. He doth as he would be done by and is as precise in the Justice of his dealings with men as in acts of piety to God 108 46. He is faithful and laborious in his outward trade or calling not out of covetousness but obedience to God 111 47. He is very conscionable in the duties of his several Relations in his family or other society as a superiour inferiour or equal 112 48. He is the best subject whether his Rulers be good or bad though Infidel and ungodly Rulers may mistake use him as the worst 113 49. His trust in God doth overcome the fear of man and settle him in a constant fortitude for God 121 50. Judgement and Zeal conjunct are his constitution His Judgement kindleth Zeal and his Zeal is still judicious 123 51. He can bear the infirmities of the weak and their censures and abuses of himself and requiteth them not with uncharitable censure or reproach 126 52. He
speech contradict the matter When hard heartedness and security and deadness and lethargick drowsiness is the common and dangerous disease of Souls let him that loveth his Soul and would not perish by his disease make use of a Physician and remedy that is suited to the cure and not of one to rock him asleep or give him an opiate to increase his malady 8. See also that he be one that is of a truly Catholick spirit not addicted to a Sect nor to Divisions in the Church nor one that liveth in a separation or distance from the generality of the godly sober Ministers For you take him not for your Guide as separated from the Catholick Church but as united to it and a Member of it as valuing the Judgment of all the Church above the judgment of any one Pastor and knowing that you are your selves to be kept in the unity of the Church and not seduced into a Sect and that the Pastors are to be the bonds and ligaments of the body that by their help it may grow up in love and unity and not the dividers of the body Eph. 4.13 14 15 16. As Captains and inferior Officers in an Army that are to conduct each Souldier in Vnity with the Army and not to separate and make every Troop or Regiment an Army by it self that they may be the petty Generals In a word read some good Visitation Sermons which tell you what a Minister must be and choose if possible to live under such a Minister I say if possible for I know to many it is not possible Wives and Children and Servants while they are bound cannot leave their Husbands Parents or Masters and strong Christians who are called to do good to others must prefer that before such advantages to themselves and many other impediments may deny men such a blessing But yet I say undervalue not so great a mercy and neglect it not where lawfully it may be had and prefer nothing before it as a just impediment which is not really more worth And remember that Divines do commonly resolve the case of the Infidel Nations of the World that they are unexcusable in their Infidelity because when they hear that other Nations profess to know the way to Heaven they do not in so great a case go over Sea and Land to enquire after the Doctrine which we profess And if the Tartarians Indians and other Nations are bound to send to Christian nations for Preachers of the Gospel I only leave you proportionably to measure your case by theirs allowing for the disproportion And to consider how far you should deny your worldly profit in removeing your habitations for such helps as your own necessities require DIRECT XII Make choice of such Christians for your familiar friends and the companions of your lives as are holy humble heavenly serious mortified charitable peaceable judicious experienced and fixed in the wayes of God and not of ungodly persons or proud self-conceited censorious dividing injudicious unexperienced sensual worldly opinionative superficial luke-warm or unsetled Professors THe Reasons of this Direction you may perceive in what I said under the last Your company is a matter of exceeding great concernment to you as one of the greatest helps or hinderances comforts or discomforts of all your lives especially those that you dwell with and those that you choose for your familiars and bosome friends And therefore so far as Gods Providence doth not forbid you and make it impossible choose such as are here described or at least one such for your bosome friend if you can have acquaintance with no more It is of unspeakable importance to your Salvation with whom you are associated for most familiar converse A good companion will teach you what you know not or remember you of that which you forget or stir you up when you are dull or warm you when you are cold and watch over you and warn you of your danger and save you from the poison of ill companions O what a help and delight it is to have a holy judicious faithful friend to open your heart to and to walk with in the wayes of life And how exceeding hard is it to scape sin and hell and get well to Heaven in company and familiarity of the servants of the Devil who are posting unto Hell Let not your companions be worse than your selves lest they make you worse but as much wiser and better as you can procure See Eccles. 4.9 12. Psal. 16.2 and 119.63 Prov. 13.20 DIRECT XIII Subdue your passions and abhor all uncharitable principles and practises and live in love maintaining peace in your families and with your neighbours but especially in the Church of God LOve as you would be loved yea Love if you would be loved for there is no surer way to purchase love And love because you are so freely loved by that God whose wrath you have so oft deserved Let the thankful feeling of his Love in Christ even turn you wholly into love to God and man Abhor every thought and word and deed which is contrary to love and tendeth to the hurt of others And hate the backbitings and bitter words of any which tend to make another odious and to destroy your love to any one that God commandeth you to love Allow that moderate passion which is the fruit of love and tendeth only to do good but resist that which inclineth you to hatred or to do evil The more men wrong you remember that you are the more watchfully to maintain your love knowing that these temptations are sent by the Devil on purpose to destroy and quench it and fill your heart with uncharitableness and wrath Give place to the wrath of others and stand not resisting it by words or deeds Rom. 12.18 19 20. Recompense to no man evil for evil in word or action ver 17. Especially be most tender of the Union of true Christians and of the Churches peace When you hear the men of several Sects representing one another as odious understand that it is the language of the Devil to draw you from love into hatred and divisions And when you must speak odiously of mens sin speak charitably of their persons and be as ready to speak of the good that is in them as of the evil Believe not that dividing ungrounded Doctrine which telleth you that you cannot sufficiently disown the Errors of any party in Doctrine and Worship and Discipline without a separation or withdrawing from their Communion and which telleth you that you are guilty of the Ministerial faults of every Pastor that you joyn with or of the faults of all that Worship which you are present at which would first separate you from every worshipping society and person upon earth and then lead you to give over the worshipping of God your selves You must Love Christians as Christians though they have errors and faults repugnant to their Christianity And you must joyn in Worship with Christians as
Christians though their Worship hath errors and faults repugnant to the right order and manner of Worship so be it you joyn not in that Worship which is substantially evil and such as God doth utterly disown Or that you commit no actual sin your selves or that you approve not of the errors and faults of the Worshippers and justifie not their smallest evil Or that you prefer not defective faulty Worship before that which is more pure and agreeable to the Will of God For while all the Worshippers are faulty and imperfect all their Worship will be so too And if your actual sin when you Pray or Preach defectively your selves doth not signify that you approve your faultiness much less will your presence prove that you allow of the faultiness of others The business that you come upon is to joyn with a Christian Congregation in the use of those Ordinances which God hath appointed supposing that the Ministers and Worshippers will all be sinfully defective in method order words or circumstances And to bear with that which God doth bear with and not to refuse that which is Gods for the adherent faults of men no more than you will refuse every dish of meat which is unhansomly Cooked as long as there is no poyson in it and you prefer it not before better 1 Cor. 1.10 and 3.1 2 3. with 11.17 18 21. Rom. 15.1 2. DIRECT XIV Keep up a constant Government over your Thoughts and Tongues especially against those particular sins which you are stronglyest tempted to and which you see other Christians most overtaken with KEep your Thoughts imployed upon somthing that is good and profitable either about some useful Truths or about some duty to God or man of your general or particular Calling yea about all these in their several seasons Learn how to watch your thoughts and stop them at their first excursions and how to quicken them and make them serviceable to every grace and every duty You can never improve your solitary hours if you have not the Government of your Thoughts And as the Thoughts must be governed because they are the first and intimate actings of good or evil so the Tongue must be Governed as the first expresser of the mind and the first instrument of good or hurt to others Especially take heed of these sins which the faultiness of most Professors of Religion doth warn you to avoid 1. An ordinary course of vain jesting and unprofitable talk 2. Provoking passionate inconsiderate words that tend to kindle wrath in others 3. Backbiting censuring and speaking evil of others without any just call when it is either upon uncertain reports or uncharitable suspition or tendeth more to hurt than good 4. A forward venting of our own conceits and a confident pleading for our uncertain unproved Opinions in Religion and a contentious wrangling for them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them And a forwardness in all company to be the Speakers rather than the Hearers and to talk in a Magisterial Teaching way as if we took our selves to be the wisest and others to have need to learn of us But especially take heed of speaking evil of those that have wronged you or of those that differ from you in some tollerable Opinions in Religion And hate that devilish uncharitable vice which maketh many ready to believe any thing or say any thing be it never so false of those that are against their Sect yea of whole parties of men that differ from them when there is not one of a thousand of all the party that ever they were acquainted with or ever could prove the thing by of which they are accused By the means of these bold uncharitable reports the Devil hath unspeakably gained against Christ and the Kingdom of malice hath won upon the Kingdom of Love and most Christians are easier known to be factious by hating or slandering one another than they can be known to be Christs Disciples by loving one another And while every Sect without remorse doth speak reproachfully and hatefully of the rest they learn hereby to hate one another and harden the Infidel and ungodly world in hating and speaking evil of them all So that a Turk or Heathen need no other witness of the odiousness of all Christians than the venemous words which they speak against each other And as foul words in quarrels prepare for blows so these malicious invectives upon differences in Religion prepare for the cruellest persecutions From my own observation which with a grieved soul I have made in this Generation I hereby give warning to this and all succeeding Ages that if they have any regard to Truth or Charity they take heed how they believe any factious partial Historian or Divine in any evil that he saith of the party which he is against For though there be good and credible persons of most parties yet you shall find that passion and partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity in most that are sick of this Disease And that the envious zeal which is described Jam. 3. doth make them think they do God service first in believing false reports and then in verting them against those that their zeal or laction doth call the enemies of truth so that there is little credit to be given to their reproaches farther than some better evidence is brought to prove the thing Nay it would astonish a man to read the impudent lies which I have often read obtruded upon the World with such confidence that the Reader will be tempted to think Surely all this cannot be false Yea about publick words or actions where you would think that the multitude of Witnesses would deter them from speaking it if it were not true and yet all as false as tongue can speak Therefore believe not Pride or Faction or Malice in any evil that it saith unless you have better evidence of the truth Most Christian is that advice of Dr. H. More that all Parties of Christians would mark all the Good which is in other Parties and be more forward to speak of that than of the Evil And this would promote the work of Charity in the Church and the interest of Christianity in the World whereas the overlooking of all that 's good and aggravating all the evil and falsly seigning more than is true is the work of greatest service to the Devil and of greatest enmity to Christianity and Love that I know commonly practised in the World Keep your tongues from all such hellish work as this DIRECT XV. Let every state of life and Relation that you are in be sanctifyed unto God and conscionably used And to that end understand the advantages and duties of every condition and Relation and the sins and hinderances and dangers which you are most lyable to THe duties of our Relations are a great part of the work of a Christians life As Magistrates and Subjects Pastors and Flocks Parents and Children Husband and Wife Masters and