and see his glory. The world which you are going to is unlike to this: there is no pride, or lust, or cruelty, oppression, deceit, or any sin; no wicked men to scorn or persecute us; no vanity to allure us; no devil to tempt us; no corruption of our own to burden or endanger us; no fears, or cares, or griefs, or discontents; no poverty, sickness, pain, or death; no doubtings of the love of God, or our salvation; but the sight of God, and the feelings of his love, and the fervent flames of our love to him, will be the everlasting pleasure of the saints. These will break forth into triumphant and harmonious thanks and praise in the presence of our glorified Redeemer, and in concord with all the heavenly host, the blessed angels, and the spirits of the just. This is the end of faith and holiness, patience and perseverance; when hell is the end of unbelief, ungodliness, sensuality, and hypocrisy. How justly are they condemned who sell their part of endless joys for a shadow, and a dream of transitory pleasures; and can delight more in the filth of sin, and in a fading vanity, than in the love of God, and the forethoughts of glory! What love can be too great; what desires too fervent; what prayer and labour can be too much; what sufferings too dear, for such a blessedness?

VII. Lastly, because there are many cases of the sick which require the presence of am judicious divine; if it be possible, get the help of such; if not, remember that God is just in denying of men that mercy in their distress which in time of their health and prosperity they rejected with scorn and contempt and cleave to him whom you may enjoy for ever.

The Shortest Catechism.

Q. 1. WHAT is the Christian religion?

A. The Christian religion is the baptismal covenant made and kept wherein God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, doth give himself to be our reconciled God and Father, our Saviour and our Sanctifier; and we believing, give up ourselves 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.

Q. 2. Where is our covenant part and duty more fully opened? A. 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 1Rev. xxi., aud xxii.

m Mal. ii. 7; Jam. v. 11.

"Psalm 1xxiii. 26.

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; who 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 rose 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 judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic 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, who 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. into temptation; but deliver us from evil. kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever.

The Ten Commandments.

And lead us not For thine is the

Amen.

1. I AM the Lord, thy God, who 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 thyself 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 ine, and showing 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 who 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 cattle, 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 covet 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 sufficiently delivered, the promises and loctrine 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, Governor, 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 embodied spirit of life, understanding, and will, with holy vivacity, wisdom, and love, to know, and love, and serve his Creator, here and for ever, did, by wilful sinning, 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 with the Father, took our nature, and became man; being con

ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, called Jesus Christ, whow as perfectly holy, sinless, fulfilling all righteousness, overcame 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, and was buried and went among the dead: the third day he rose again, having conquered death. And he fully established the covenant of grace, that all that truly repent and believe, shall have the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Holy Spirit; and if they love God, and obey him sincerely to the death, they shall be glorified with him in heaven for ever; and the unbelievers, impenitent, and ungodly, shall go to everlasting punishment. And having commanded his apostles to preach the Gospel to all the world, and promised his Spirit, he ascended into heaven; where he is the glorified Head over all things to the church, and our prevailing Intercessor with the Father; who will there receive the departed souls of the justified, and at the end of this world will come again, and raise all the dead, and will judge all according to their works, and justly execute his judgment.

III. I believe that God, the Holy Spirit, was given by the Father and the Son to the Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists, to be their infallible guide in preaching and recording the doctrine of salvation, and the witness of its certain truth, by his manifold divine operations; and to quicken, illuminate, and sanctify all true believers, that they may overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil. And all that are thus sanctified are one holy Catholic church of Christ, and must live in holy communion, and have the pardon of their sins, and shall have everlasting life.

Believing in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I do presently, absolutely, and resolvedly, give up myself to him, my Creator and reconciled God and Father, my Saviour and Sanctifier; and, repenting of my sins, I renounce the devil, the world, and the sinful desires of the flesh; and, denying myself, and taking up my cross, I consent to follow Christ, the Captain of my salvation, in hope of his promised grace and glory.

A Short Catechism for those that have learned the First.

Q. 1. WHAT do you believe concerning God?

1. Assent. Ausw. There is one only God, an infinite Spirit of life, understanding, and will, most perfectly powerful, wise, and good; the Father, the Word, and the Spirit: the Creator,

Governor, and End of all things; our absolute Owner, our most just Ruler, and our most gracious and most amiable Father.

1. The word 'God,' signifieth both the nature and the relations.

I. God's nature or essence is not known to us in itself immediately, but in the glass of the creatures, as the cause in the effects, and especially by God's image on our own souls. Therefore we have no name, or words of God, but such as are borrowed from creatures, as the first things signified in our use of them. Though God only be signified by them in this our application. Therefore we are fain to describe God in terms. 1. Of generical notion. 2. Of formal or specifical notion. 3. Of accidental notion. Though God is not properly matter or form, genus or species, nor accident.

1. The generical notion is that he is a Spirit, which includeth the more general notions of a substance and a being, as distinct from accidents and nothing. A spirit chiefly signifieth, not only negatively that which is no body, but also positively a pure substance, transcending our sensitive conception or apprehension, which some call metaphysical matter: for before we think what form or virtue a spirit is possessed of, we think it of a something substantial, though not corporeal. But of the substance of a spirit, as different from a body, before we come to the formal virtues, we can have no satisfying conception but its purity, and transcending the most perfect sense. Whatsoever some say of penetrability and indivisibility, which are also considerable, if any say that the true nature of fire is a spirit, and so that a spirit is sensible, as far as motion, light, and heat are, I only say, if that were true, yet motion, light, and heat are not sensed by us in pure fire, but only as from fire incorporate in air at least. But the word 'spirit' also includeth the formal special notion of it, by which we most clearly discern it from a body, called matter; which is, that it is formally a life, or an active nature; in which is included the three notions of power, force (vis), and inclination, and, altogether, may be called a virtue; so that to be a pure substance, transcending sense, not accidentally having, but naturally being, an active, vital virtue, is to be a spirit.

2. But though this formal notion be included in the word 'spirit,' yet it is of distinct conception from essence and substance and this one formal virtue in God is wonderfully, yet certainly, therein one, that is, 1. Vital, active virtue.