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WEAK, DISTEMPERED CHRISTIANS.

The text opened. What it is to receive Christ. The nature

of justifying faith in its three essential acts. How to know

that we have received Christ. What it is to walk in him.

What to be rooted, to be grounded, and built up, &c.

The Doctrine of the necessity of weak Christians seeking sta-

bility, confirmation, and increase of grace. What confir-

mation is, in the understanding, will, affections, and in the

Twenty Motives to convince weak Christians of the great

need of growth and confirmation

A Lamentation for the weaknesses of Christians: in their

knowledge, in their practice, in public worship, in inward

grace, in outward obedience, about known duties, confes-

sion, reproof, &c. their uncharitableness, backbiting,

Ten more considerations to convince them that it is not tri-

fling, but great things which God requireth at their hands

Twenty Directions for confirmation and increase of grace

THE CHARACTER OF A

SOUND, CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN.

The Characters of a strong, confirmed Christian.

1. He liveth by such a faith of unseen things as governeth

his soul instead of sight.

2. He hath cogent reasons for his religion

3. He seeth the well-ordered frame of sacred verities, and the

integral parts in their harmony or concert; and setteth not

up one truth against another

4. He adhereth to them, and practiseth them, from an inward

con-natural principle, called "the Divine nature,” and

"the Spirit of Christ."

5. He serveth not God for fear only, but for love

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 or his essential goodness and perfection. .

7. He taketh this love and its expressions, for the heart and

height of all his religion. .

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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 393

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

10. His repentance is universal and effectual, and hath gone

to the root of every sin

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 397

12. He desireth the highest degree of holiness, and hath no

sin which he had not rather leave than keep, and had ra-

ther be the best, though in poverty, than the greatest in

13. He liveth upon God and heaven as the end, reward, and

motive of his life

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 402

15. He is daily exercised in the practice of self-denial, as

(next to the love of God) the second half of his religion •

16. He hath mortified his fleshly desires, and so far mastereth

his senses and appetite, that they make not his obedience

very uneasy or uneven

17. He preferreth the means of his holiness and happiness,

incomparably before all provisions and pleasures of the flesh 410

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

19. He foreseeth the end in all his ways, and judgeth of all

things as they will appear at last

20. He liveth upon God alone, and is content with his favour

and approbation, without the approbation and favour of men

21. He hath absolutely devoted himself, and all that he hath

to God, to be used according to his will.

22. He hath a readiness to obey, and a quick and pleasant

compliance of his will to the will of God

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.

24. He is conscious of his own sincerity, and assured of his

justification, and title to everlasting joys...

25. This assurance doth not make him more careless and re-

miss, but increaseth his love and holy diligence

26. Yet he abhorreth pride as the firstborn 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

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 subtle, and great temptations (through

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

29. He is not a Christian only for company or carnal ends, or

upon trust of other men's opinions, and therefore would be

true to Christ, if his rulers, his teachers, his company, and

all that he knoweth should forsake him

30. He can digest the hardest truths of Scripture, and the

hardest passages of God's providence..

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31. He can exercise all his graces in harmony, without neg-

lecting one to use another, or setting one against another.

32. He is more in getting and using grace, than in inquiring

whether he have it, (though he do that also in its place).. ibid.

33. He studieth duty more than events, and is more careful

what he should be towards God, than how he shall here be

34. He is more regardful of his duty to others, than of theirs

to him, and had much rather suffer wrong than do it ....

35. He keepeth up a constant government of his thoughts,

restraining them from evil, and using them upon God, and

36. He keepeth a constant government over his passions, so

far as that they pervert not his judgment, his heart, his

tongue or actions..

37. He governeth his tongue, employing it for God, and res-

training it from evil ..

38. Heart-work and heaven-work are the principal matters of

his religious discourse, and not barren controversies or im-

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

40. He is a high esteemer, and careful redeemer of time, and

abhorreth idleness and diversions which would rob him of it 447

41. His heart is set upon doing all the good in the world that

he is able: it is his daily business and delight...

42. He truly loveth his neighbour as himself

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 tolerable differences

44. He forgiveth injuries, and loveth his enemies, and doth

them all the good he can: from the sense of the love of

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.. 453

46. He is faithful and laborious in his outward trade or call-

ing, not out of covetousness, but obedience to God .....

47. He is very conscionable in the duties of his several rela-

tions, in his family or other society, as a superior, inferior,

48. He is the best subject, whether his rulers be good or bad,

though infidel and ungodly rulers may mistake, and use him

49. His trust in God doth overcome the fear of man, and set-

tle him in a constant fortitude for God

50. Judgment and zeal conjunct are his constitution; his

judgment kindleth zeal, and his zeal is still judicious

51. He can bear the infirmities of the weak; and their cen-

sures and abuses of himself; and requiteth them not with

uncharitable censure or reproach....

52. He is a high esteemer of the unity of Christians, and ab-

horreth the principles, spirit, and practices of division

53. He seeketh the church's unity and concord not upon par-

tial, unrighteous, or impossible, but upon the possible,

righteous terms here mentioned...

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54. He is of a mellow, peaceable spirit; not masterly, domi-

neering, hurtful, unquiet, or contentious

55. He most highly regardeth the interest of God, and men's

salvation in the world; and regardeth no secular interest of

his own, or any man's, but in subserviency thereto.....

56. He is usually hated for his holiness by the wicked, and cen-

sured for his charity and peaceableness by the factious and

the weak; and is moved by neither from the way of truth..

57. Though he abhor ungodly, soul-destroying ministers, yet

he reverenceth the office as necessary to the church and

world; and highly valueth the holy, faithful labourers....

58. He hath great experience of the providence, truth, and

justice of God, to fortify him against temptations to unbelief 491

59. Though he greatly desireth lively affections and gifts, yet

he much more valueth the three essential parts of holiness,

1. A high estimation in the understanding of God, Christ,

holiness, and heaven, above all that be set in any competi-

tion. . A resolved choice and adhesion of the will, to

these above and against all competitors. 3. The seeking

them first, in the endeavours of the life. And by these he

judgeth of the sincerity of his heart

60. He is all his life seriously preparing for his death, as if it

were at hand; and is ready to receive the sentence with

joy; but especially he longeth for the blessed day of Christ's

appearing, as the answer of all his desires and hopes ....

Six Uses of these characters

GOD'S GOODNESS VINDICATED,

For the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempt-

ed to deny it, and think him to be cruel, because of the pre-

sent and future misery of mankind, with respect to the doc-

trine of reprobation and damnation

DIRECTIONS

AND

PERSUASIONS

TO A

SOUND CONVERSION.

FOR

PREVENTION OF THAT DECEIT AND DAMNATION OF SOULS, AND OF THOSE SCANDALS, HERESIES, AND DESPERATE APOSTACIES, THAT ARE THE CONSEQUENTS

OF A COUNTERFEIT OR SUPERFICIAL

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