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
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
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
But who hath hardened himself against thee and hath prospered The whole Creation proclaimeth thy Perfection But it is Heaven where the Blessed see thy Glory and the Glory of our Redeemer where the Angels and Saints behold thee admire thee adore thee love thee and praise thee with triumphant joyful Songs the Holy Holy Holy God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who was and is and is to come Of Thee and through Thee and to Thee are all things To Thee be Glory for ever Amen A short Prayer for Families MOst Glorious Ever-living God Father Son and Holy Ghost Infinite in thy Power Wisdom and Goodness Thou art the Creator of all the World the Redeemer of lost Mankind and the Sanctifier of thine Elect. Thou hast made us living reasonable Soulâ— placed a while on Earth in Flesh to seek and know and love and serve thee which we should have done with all our Soul and Might For we and all things are Thine own and Thou art more to us than all the World This should have been the greatest Businesâ— Care and Pleasure of our Lives We were bound to 〈◊〉 by thy Law and invited by thy Love and Mercy and the Promise of a Reward in Heaven And in our Baptism we were devoted to this Christian Life of Faith and Holiness by a solemn Covenant and Vow But with Grief and Shame we do confess that we have been too unfaithful to that Covenant and too much neglected the Lord our Father our Saviour and our Sanctifier to whom we were devoted And have too much served the Flesh and the World and the Devil which we renounced We have added to our Original Sin the guilt of Unthankfulness for a Saviour and resisting his Spirit and Grace that should have renewed governed and saved us We have spent much of our Lives in fleshly and worldly Vanity and finfully neglected the greatest work of making a sure Preparation for Death and Judgment and our endless State In a Custom of sinning we have hardened our Hearts against thy Word and Warnings and the Reproofs of thy Ministers and of our Consciences that have oft told us of our Sin and Danger and called us to Repent And now O Lord our convinced Souls confess that we deserve to be forsaken by thee and left to our own lust and folly and to the deceits of Satan and untoendless Misery But seeing thou hast given a Saviour to lost Man and a pardoning Covenant through the Merits of Christ promising Forgiveness and Salvation to every true penitent Believer we thankfully accept thy offered Mercy and penitently bewail our Sin and cast our miserable Souls upon thy Grace and the Sacrifice Merits and Intercession of our Redeemer Forgive all the sins of our Hearts and Lives and as a reconciled Father take us as thy adopted Children in Christ O give us thy renewing Spirit to be in us a powerful and constant Author of Holy Light and Love and Life to fit us for all our Duty and for Communion with thee and for Everlasting Life And to dwell in us as thy Witness and Seal of our Adoption Let him be better to our Souls than our Souls are to our Bodies Teaching us thy Word and Will and bringing all our love and will to a joyful compliance with thy Will and quickening our dull 〈◊〉 drowsie Hearts to a Holy and Heavenly Conversation Let him turn all our sinful Pleasures and Desires into the delightful love of thee and of thy Ways and Servants Save us from the great Sins of Selfishness Pride and Worldliness and give us Self-denial Humility and a Heavenly Mind That while we are on Earth our Hearts may be in Heaven where we hope to live in thy joyfull Love and praise with Christ and all his Holy Ones for even Let us never forget that this Life is short and that the Life to come is endless That our Souls are precious and our Bodies vile and must shortly turn to rottenness and dust that Sin is odioâ—s and Temptationâ— dangerous and Judgment dreadful to unprepaved guilty Souls and that without a Saviour and his Grace and Spirit there is no Salvation Cause us to live as we would die and let no Temptation Company or Business draw us to forget our God and our everlasting state Lord bless the World and specially these Kingdoms â—ith Wise Godly Just and Peaceable Princes and â—nferiour Judges and Magistrates and guide protect â—nd prosper them for the common good and the proâ—oting of Godliness and suppressing of sin And blesâ—â—ll Churches with able godly faithful Pastors that are â—ealous Lovers of God and Goodness and the Peoples â—ouls And save the Nations and Churches from Opâ—essing Tyrants and Deceivers and from melignanâ— Enemies to serious Piety And cause Subjects to live in just Obedience and in Love and Peace Bless Families with wise religious Governours who will carefully instruct their Children and Servants and restrain them from Sin and keep them from Temptation Teach Children and Servants to fear God and honour and obey their Governours O Our Father which art in Heaven Let thy Name bâ— hallowed Let thy Kingdom comâ— Let thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven 〈◊〉 in this day our daily Breâ—d Forgive us our Trespasses as 〈◊〉 forgive them that Trespass against us Lead us not into Temptation but Deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever Amen Before Meat MOst Gracious God who hast given 〈◊〉 Christ and with him all that is necessary to Life and Godliness We thankfully take this our Food as the Gift of thy Bounty procured by his Merits Bless it to the Nourishment and Strength of our frail Bodies to fiâ— us for thy chearful Service And save us from the abuse of thy Mercies by Gluâ—tony Drunkennesâ— Idleness or sinful fleshly Lusts for the sake of Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Lord. Amen After Meat MOst Merciful Father Accept of our Thanks for these and all thy Mercies And give us yet more thankful Hearts O give us more of the great Mercies proper to thy Children even by Sanctifying and Comforting Spirâ—â— assuâ—â—nce of thy Love thrâ—ugh Christ and a â—reasure and 〈◊〉 Conversation in Heaven And bring and keep 〈◊〉 in a constant readiness for a safe and Comfortable Death For the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen FINIS a Mar. 8. 36. Mat. 6. 33. Job 21. 14. and 22. 17. Psal 1. 2 3. Psal 14. and 12. b Psal 8. 4 5 6. Gen. 1. 26 27 Gen. 9. 6. Col. 3. 10. c Joh. 17. 3. 1 Joh. 4. 6 7. Jer. 9. 24. d Luk. 12. 4 5. e Psal 16. 5 to 11. f Isa 45. 18. g Psal 14. 1. Gen. 1. 1. Rev. 1. 8. Rom. 1. 19. 20. Psal 46. 10. Psal 9. 10. Psal 100. and 23. Psal 19. 1 2 3. Psal 47. 7. Ezek. 18. 4. Gen. 18. 25. Mal. 1. 6. h Matth. 22. 37. Jer. 5. 22. 2 Cor. 5. 8 9. Titus 2. 14.