written by his infpiration, and spoken by holy men as they were moved by him; by working in us that faith, which is the gift of God, and which no one can have, but from the Holy Ghoft; and giving us that new birth or regeneration, without which we cannot fee the kingdom of God, nor enjoy the poffeffion of God's promifes, referved for believers in the next world. And confequently it is this bleffed Spirit which gives clearness to our faith, zeal to our charity, and ftrength and power to every thing we think or do. For

Thofe helps and affiftances, which are necessary for the performance of thofe conditions, upon which our His manner falvation depends, are beftowed upon us by this of working divine Spirit; partly by illuminating our under- in us.

standings in our fincere and diligent inquiries after divine truth; and partly by exciting our wills to that which is good, and ftrengthening our vigorous endeavours in the profecution thereof: and these are to be obtained only by the use of those means, which God hath established for this end; as humble, hearty, and fervent prayer; a frequent and devout ufe of the holy facrament of the Lord's fupper; reading and hearing God's holy word; with the use of all other likely means to attain thofe graces, which we feek for at his hands: and all this as obedient members of the communion of faints, to whom alone Chrift hath promised these influences of the Holy Ghoft, which we must feel or know to work in us. When we constantly take care to demean ourselves as living members of that kingdom, which is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft, our converfation will be in heaven, our delight in God; all our hopes, wishes, and defires will be fixed on things above, and we shall live that heavenly life here, the perfection whereof will be our happiness hereafter, in the kingdom of God and of his Son Jefus Chrift. For the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are represented to us as feverally, and in a distinct manner, concurring to our falvation; for God fo loved the world, that he fent his only begotten Son; and through him we are admitted by one Spirit to the Father.

And we may judge of the neceffity of this belief, in that it is taken from the very form of baptifin, ordained by

Why an article of

graces

Christ himself. Befides, our beef in the Holy Ghoft tends to excite in us a defire of those gifts and that flow from him, of that new birth from him, faith. which may wholly renew and fpiritualise our fouls; that being always led by him, and receiving fupplies from him and continuing in his holy fellowship, we may through him become fuch temples of God as he will chufe to delight and dwell in. Therefore we ought to endeavour to cleanse ourselves from all filthinefs of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; whofe will is our fanctification, and who from the beginning hath chosen us to falvation through fanctification of the Spirit, whom he fent to teach us his will, and to guide us in the way of all truth. Therefore,

Our duty, with regard to the Holy Ghoft, is to pray to God our Father continually for the affistance of Duty to him. this his holy spirit; whereby we may be inabled to overcome all the temptations of fin. We are to receive his testimony, as delivered down to us in the writings of the apostles and prophets; to obey his good motions; be follicitous to obtain his gifts and graces, which are the habits of moral and christian virtues; and be careful, above all things, not to quench, and grieve, and drive him from us, left we be found to do despite unto the fpirit of grace. There is one thing particularly needful to be here taken notice of: that to follow the guidance of the holy spirit is not to follow enthufiaftick imaginations; but to be guided by that doctrine, which the Holy Ghost infpired the apoftles to teach; and that we obey it in the practice of all moral and christian virtues, which are the fruits of the fpirit. The apostles were directed by a miraculous affistance of the fpirit, upon every extraordinary occafion; but we have now no promise of any fuch miraculous direction. To obey the spirit now is to obey his dictates as delivered down to us in the infpired writings and to be a good man is now the only evidence of being full of the Holy Ghost.

Every wilful act of fin, efpecially in a christian, is, in some fenfe, a fin against the Holy Ghoft; it is a grieving, a quench

Of the fin

ing, a refifting, and doing defpite to the fpirit, in fcripture language: and therefore all finning against the clear conviction of our confciences, and the mo- against the tions and suggestions of God's Holy Spirit to the Holy Ghoft. contrary; all obftinacy in a vicious courfe of living, notwithstanding the motives and arguments of the gospel to perfuade men to repentance; all profane fcoffing at religion, and making a mock of fin; all abuse of the fcriptures, and ridiculing the holy word of God; all perverfe infidelity, and malicious oppofition of the truth, when the arguments for it are very plain and evident to every impartial mind; are crimes of an high nature, and of a near affinity to this great and unpardonable fin: and though God, to encourage the repentance of men, has not declared them irremiffible; yet, where they once get poffeffion of a man, they, by degrees, fo wafte the confcience, and corrupt the mind, as to make it incurable. They are, in fhort, great and grievous provocations to A!mighty God, and, if they be long perfifted in, we know not how foon he may withdraw his grace frorn us, and fuffer us to be hardened through the deceitfulness of fin.

II. In the ninth ARTLCLE of our chriftian faith we profefs to believe in the holy catholick church, the commuOf the holy nion of faints; because Chrift promised to erect a catholick church, when he faid, On this rock will I build church. my church; and we find it mentioned as actually erected in that paffage of the Acts, And God added to the church daily fuch as fhould be faved; which church then confifted of the twelve apostles, and other believers in Chrift, continuing in their fellowship, and hearing together the word preached, and breaking bread from houfe to houfe, and joining in public prayers to the Almighty. Therefore as many as embrace and obey the gofpel may be faid of whom to compofe one church, in refpect of their being compofed. members of the fame body, and through one and the fame spirit united unto one head, which is Chrift; and built upon one foundation, the chief corner-ftone whereof is Christ Jefus; and profeffing that holy faith, which is but one, and receiving the fame facraments, which are signs and badges of the people of God, whereby we, being many, are united

by

by one baptifm, and are one bread and one body; also we are one, as being all called in one hope of our calling; and we ought alfo to be one, as keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; and as united by one difcipline and government, and guided by the fame paftors into the way of eternal life. So that,

It cannot

Howfoever the unity of the vifible church may, through the weakness and perverfenefs of man, or the wiles fail. of the devil, be defective in thefe laft refpects; yet all true and fincere believers are, and always have, and for ever shall be led by him the only good fhepherd, their eternal high-priest, king, and prophet, unto thofe heavenly manfions, where joy, peace, love, harmony, unity, happiness, and glory, fhall have no end. Moreover, it is reasonable to believe that this one church hath a present existence, and that it hath continued from the times of the apostles, and will continue to the end of the world, from thofe promises of our Lord, that the gates of hell fhall not prevail against it; and that he will be with his difciples always, even unto the end of the world. This whole chriftian church alIs holy. fo may be well termed holy, as being separated from the reft of the world by an holy calling, and having holy offices, inftituted by God, adminiftered among them, and being more particularly obliged, by naming themselves by the name of Christ, to depart from iniquity, and to obtain that holiness without which no man can fee the Lord: its members being predeftinate to be conformed to the image of Chrift, and efficaciously called by God, elect, fanctified, and juftified; and fhall be perfectly holy when they die.

The primitive fathers at first understood, by the catholick Is catbolick, church, no more than the church in general, as or univer- compofed of all particular churches. Therefore fal. we call the epiftles of Peter catholick, becaufe they were directed to the church in general; and thus in fucceeding ages they called thofe places of divine worship, wherein all perfons of both fexes within a certain district, met without diftinction, catholick churches, in oppofition to such private chapels as were erected by monks and friars. And again, the word catholick is fometimes applied to par

3

ticular

ticular national churches, as profeffing the true faith with the rest of the church of God, in oppofition to fchifmaticks and hereticks. Befides, the chriftian church may be alfo called catholic, as it is to be diffused into, and at laft take in all nations, and is not confined to one nation, as the Jewish religion was, nor to one place, as the Jewish facrifices and other prieftly miniftrations were.

To this church it is that we believe God hath added, and will continue to add, those that shall be faved: In a state of and as none were faved from the flood but thofe only falvation. who were in the ark of Noah; fo we have no reafon to think that any shall be saved from the wrath of the last day, and receive the glory promised to the faints, who are not found within the chriftian church. And therefore we ought to take the greatest care that we be not excluded from it, either by justly incurring its cenfures by fcandalous and incorrigible fins, or by falling into apoftafy, herefy, or fchifm; and we ought to remember, that, as this church is holy, it will be impoffible for us to be living members of it, unless we alfo are holy, without which our being outward members of it will be not only vain, but pernicious, and the highest aggravation of our crime; because the catholic church is the communion of faints.

The larger fenfe of the word faints implies all thofe perfons that are baptifed into and profefs the chriftian faith, Of the com. and are vifible members of Chrift's church. And, munion of as the wheat grows in the fame field with the faints. tares, fo the faint hath an external communion in the fame church with the hypocrite; both are baptifed with the same water, and eat at the fame table the bread and wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received; they hear the fame doctrine, and openly profess the fame faith; but they do not communicate in the fame faving grace, nor in that faith which works by love, nor in the renovation of the mind and spirit of finful man. And, whenever we profefs this belief of the communion of faints, it ought Its influ to excite us to endeavour after the greatest purity and fanctity of life we can poffibly attain; because we must

I

See this explained under baptifm, Sund. 2 Sect. vii,

ence.

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