GROUNDS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Laid down briefly and plainly by way of Question and Answer. By H. B. 1. Pet. 3. 13. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an Answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. LONDON, Printed by G. M. for Robert Bird, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Bible in Saint Laurence-Iane. GROUNDS OF Christian Religion. Quest. WHo made the world, Heaven and Earth?, Answ. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, Eternal, Omnipotent, invisible, all-sufficient, infinite in his most blessed Essence. Q. How prove you God to be three Persons, and those to be one God in Essence? A. 1. joh. 5. 7. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. Q. Whereof did God make or create the World? A. Of Nothing. Q. How know you this? A. By faith grounded on the Word Heb. 11. 3 of God. Q. Wherefore did God create all things? A. For his own glory, Psal. 19 1. & Pro. 16. 4. Q. What was the chief creature on earth that God made? A. Man. Q. Whereof did God make man? A. Of the dust of the earth, breathing into him a living reasonable soul immortal. Q. In what state was man made? A. In the image of God, in righteousness without sin, and in a state of blessedness. Q. Whereof was the woman made? A. Of the man's rib, that they might be as one, inseparable, and that * Act 17. 26. all men might come of one blood. Q. What covenant made he with them? A. A covenant of works, which while they kept, they should live happily in an earthly paradise. Q. How did God try their obedience? A. By forbidding them the eating of a tree, Gen. 2. 17. Q. Did they observe it? A. No. Q. How so? A. Satan in the serpent told them a lie, which they believing fell from God, Q. What became of them then? A. By sin they lost God, and happiness, & became the children of death, corporal, spiritual, eternal, and subject to all kind of misery in this world, and in hell fire. Q. What is this to us? A. It concerns us nearly: for hereby we are all made guilty of their sin and punishment. Q. How prove you that? A. Rom. 5. 12. For both when our first parents received the Commandment, and when they broke it, we were all in their loins, so that we sinned and fell in and with them. Secondly, we are conceived and borne in original sin, being of the corrupt seed of Adam. Q. What example have ye to show this? A. A father's treason against his Prince cuts off all his posterity from the inheritance by man's law. And secondly, a bondslaves children are all Exo. 21. 4 born slaves by God's law. Such are we by nature. Q. But are we not able to recover ourselves from our fall? A. There is no means left in us to do it, for neither have we will, nor 2 Cor. 3. 5 Phil. 2. 13. Ps. 49. 7. power to do any good at all; nor can we satisfy God's justice for the least sin. Q. Had not Adam free will before his fall, and hath not man the same still? A. Adam before his fall had free will, but now he hath quite lost his freedom of will to any good, and is become the servant of sin, * Gen. 6. the imaginations of his heart only evil continually, being dead in trespasses and Eph. 5. 2. sins. Q. Then our case is most miserable. But is there no help for us? A. None in the world, but in God alone. Q. What means hath God given to recover us from this unspeakable misery? A. His unspeakable mercy and free joh. 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. love hath found out the only all sufficient means, even his own Son whom he hath sent. Q. How is the Son of God a means for us? A. By taking our nature of Adam into the unity of his divine person, and so jesus Christ God-man became a perfect Saviour, in dying for our sins, and rising again for our justification. Q. What be the benefits which Christ hath procured unto us by his life and death? A. Twofold; 1. a freedom from all * Gal. 4. 5. Rom. 8. 32 curse spiritual, temporal, and eternal. 2. A full interest in all good things, spiritual, temporal and eternal. Q. Are not all still subject to death, diseases, and manifold miseries in this life? A. Yes; but all that are redeemed by Christ, are freed from the curse of death, of diseases and miseries, not to be hurt or overcome by them. Q. How did Christ free us from the curse? A. By being made a curse for us, undergoing the curse in our steads. Gal. 3. Q. But who are they for whom Christ underwent this curse? A. The elect of God over the world in all ages, whom Christ according to his Father's appointment redeemed. joh. 6. 39 [Reuel. 5. 9 joh. 17. 2. & 10. 15. Luk. 1. 68 Act. 20. 28. Eph. 5. 23. 25, 26. Psal. 130. 8. Rom. 9 6, 7, 8. Q. What mean you by the elect of God? A. A certain number of men, whom God out of his free love, favour and grace did from all eternity choose out of Rome 911 Rom. 8. 28 Rom. 8. 29. mankind, predestinating them by an unchangeable purpose and decree to eternal life and glory. Q. Did not God choose men out of a foresight of their willingness to receive grace, and of their faith and perseverance therein? A. No, in no wise: but he chose us merely because he loved us, & that Deut. 7. 7, 8. for his own sake, to show the glorious riches of his grace, and he chose us Rom. 8 30 Eph 1. 4. that we might line, and so be holy in bringing forth fruit, and that our fruit joh. 15. 16 might remain. Q. Is God's election then the foundation and first cause of all our happiness and salvation. A. Yes surely; for electing us freely out of his mere love, for this very cause he gives us his Son to redeem us, to be the author and finisher of our faith, and salvation. Q. But how may we come to know whether we be elected or no? A. By our being in Christ, and labouring to make our calling and election sure by faith, and a holy life. 2. Pet. 1. 10, Q. But how come we to be in Christ? A. By believing in him alone for salvation. Q. But are we not to believe in God the Father also, and in God the holy Ghost? A. Yes surely, we believe in God the Father in and by Christ, in God the Son by the holy Ghost, all the three persons being joint authors and workers of our salvation, wherein they are distinguished only, not divided. Q. What is that faith whereby we believe in Christ alone, as sent of the Father, and anointed by the holy Ghost, for our salvation. A. It is a saving, living, justifying faith, being a special work of the Spirit of Christ, and gift of grace, whereby the heart steadfastly believeth in Christ's righteousness imputed unto the believer, by which righteousness of Christ imputed he stands perfectly justified in God's sight from all his sins, and so hath an interest to eternal life in and with Christ, as fellow-heirs Rom. 8. with him. Q. Why do you call faith in Christ a saving faith? A. To distinguish it from common historical faith, mentioned jam. 2. 19 and to show it to be an instrument of salvation by Christ. Q. Why do you call it a living faith? A. Because uniting the heart and soul to Christ, there is a communion of spiritual life: as Gal. 2. 20. this faith also working by love, whereby it is known from a dead faith, as jam. 2. 17. Q. Why call ye it a justifying faith? A. Not that it doth justify us as an act or work, but only as an instrument, applying Christ's righteousness to our justification. Q. How is this faith wrought in the heart? A. By the Spirit of Christ, and that ordinarily by hearing the word preached. Q. Why call you this faith a gift of grace? A. Because it is not of ourselves, but it is the free gift of God: as Eph. 2. 8. Phil. 1. 29. Q. How is this faith steadfast? A. In a twofold regard: first of sure evidence: secondly, of perseverance. Q. May a believer then be sure of his salvation by faith? A. Yea he is, and aught to be so: [2. Cor. 13. 5. Q. Doth not a believer often doubt of his salvation? A. Yes he may, during some strong fit of temptation: yet as the sun under a cloud shineth all the while, though we see it not: so faith under the cloud of temptation believeth truly though we feel it not. Q. But may not this faith be quite extinguished and lost for ever▪ A. No, not possibly. Q. How so? A. First, because it is a free gift of grace, for the gifts and calling of God Rom. 11. 29. joh. are without repentance. Secondly, because he that truly believeth hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Thirdly, because Christ prayeth that our faith fail not, whose prayer must needs be effectual. Fourthly, because we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Fifthly, from the nature of saving grace, jer. 32. 40. and 1. joh. 3. 9 Q. Is not this a doctrine of presumption? A. Nothinglesse; it being a doctrine of singular comfort to God's child, to encourage and strengthen him against Satan's temptations, and own infirmities, as knowing that his faith shall not fail; nor stands it with the nature of a true believer to be careless of his salvation, because he is sure of it, sith he knoweth that salvation is not attained, but by the means appointed of God, he hath in him an inward principle of grace holding him on towards 1 joh. 3. ●. & 3. 27. perfection. Q. But doth faith only justify? Do not works also justify? A. Faith only justifieth as an instrument, and that perfectly in God's sight: works are said to justify before men, but not before God: as Rom. 4. 2. jam. 2. 18. Q. But are not good works necessary to salvation? A. Yes, but not as meritorious causes of salvation, but only as fruits of faith and duties of love, and they appointed us to walk in to the kingdom; being created in Christ jesus unto good works, that we should walk in them, that according to them, not for them, we may freely receive the recompense of reward. Q. But are not believers altogether freed from the moral Law by Christ, it being that covenant of works made with Adam in Paradise before the fall, do this, and live? A. Christ the second Adam, by his exact fulfilling of the Law, and suffering the penalty of our transgressions, hath freed us from the rigour and curse of it: but yet he hath left it as a rule of direction for a holy life. Q. How prove you that? A. By the very manner of giving the Law in mount Sina, where before the decalogue or ten commandments, the Lord saith, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: and thereupon inferreth, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, etc. Q. Why? what is the meaning of those words, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage? Q. They are not only a history, but a mystery, containing a clear type and figure of our redemption by Christ from our spiritual bondage under Satan and sin. So that that covenant in Sina being rightly and spiritually understodd, was not the first covenant of works given to the first Adam, but it was the very evangelical, the second Covenant of grace and faith given in Christ the second Adam. Q. But the Apostle saith, * Gal. 2. 1●. The Law is not of faith: how then comes the law to be given under faith? A. The law in that place is taken for the first covenant, to wit, of works, which hath no communion with faith belonging to the second covenant. But the Law as it is given in mount Sina, the literal veil being removed, is not delivered as the first covenant, but as a rule of conversation to the faithful under the second covenant. Q. But the Apostle calls the giving of the Law in mount Sina the first covenant, standing in opposition to the second, as Agar to Sara, the bondwoman to the free, Sina to Zion and jerusalem? A. The Apostle compares it so only in regard of the literal kill sense, to which the carnal jew was captinated, and thereby slain, while not looking unto Christ the redeemer, that brought them out of the spiritual Egypt and bondage, they sought to be justified by the works of the Law, which Saint Paul beats down in that epistle to the Galatians. But to the beléeving jew, the Law was no other, but the sweet yoke, and light Mat. 11. 30. burden of Christ. Q. Show me then the proper differences between the first Covenant and the second? A. The opposite differences between the two covenants are these? First: the first covenant was of man's works: the second of God's grace; and these two are unreconcilable. Rom. 11. 6. The second: The first covenant was made with Adam, and all his posterity Gen. 17. 7. Rom. 9 8. universally: the second only with Abraham's séed, called the woman's séed, Gen. 3. 15. to wit, Christ and all the elect. The third: The first covenant stood upon man's own righteousness: the second stands upon another's righteousness, to wit, Christ's righteousness: made ours by imputation. The fourth: The first covenant stood upon the mutability of man's will, and therefore was quickly broken: but the second stands firm upon the sure foundation of God's immutable unchangeable will, good pleasure, and purpose in himself, and so can never be broken, called an everlasting covenant. The fifth: The first was acovenant of justice without mercy: the second was a covenant of mere mercy. Psal. 89. 28. yet in Christ justice and mercy met together. Psal. 85. 10. The sixth: The first covenant had no other reward revealed to the first Adam Es. 27. 9 Rom. 11. 27. (from the earth earthy) but what was confined to the earthly Paradise: but the second hath the kingdom of heaven revealed in Christ (the second Adam the Lord from heaven) and by him purchased and prepared unto all the elect. So that natural moralists are here rewarded with outward blessings: so God's children are here afflicted, but their reward is in heaven. Q. It should seem then, that the estate we have in and by Christ, is infinitely better than that which we lost in Adam? A. Yes certainly, and that in regard of many more privileges and prerogatives, then have vet been mentioned: for by this we are partakers of the divine nature, made one mystical body of Christ, united to him our head, made the adopted Sons of God, coheirs with Christ, having the holy angels appointed for our guardians, which Adam had not, till after the fall he believed in Christ. Psal. 91. 11. Heb. 1. 6. 14. Again we have in Christ such a kind of sanctification and holiness, as Adam never had; for Adam's righteousness was a created righteousness, connatural unto him: but ours is a righteousness and holiness that fioweth from Christ our head, as beams from that sun, and as streams from that fountain, into all his mystical members; yea they are the graces of Christ glorified, so as they are of a glorified nature; as 2. Cor. 3. 18. Rom. 6. 4, 5. 1. Cor. 15. 45, 46, 47, 48, 49. Q. How is the covenant of grace sealed unto us? A. By four seals: first by the seal of the holy Ghost. 2 Cor. 1. 20, 21, 22. and Eph. 1. 13. and 4. 30. Secondly, by the seal of faith. joh. 3. 33. and 1. joh. 5. 10. Thirdly, by the two Sacraments, Baptism, and the Lords Supper. Q. How prove you the Sacraments to be seals? A. Rom. 4. 11. Circumcision was a seal of Abraham's faith, and of the Covenant of grace, which God made with him. Q. But do not the Sacraments of the new Testament differ from those of the old? A. They differ not in regard of their divine institution, end and use, all of them pointing out Christ unto us in his death, whereby the Covenant of grace was ratified: only circumcision, and the Paschall Lamb pointed out Christ to come, and Baptism and the Lords Supper point him out already come, as the Lamb slain. Q. What other argument have you to prove all the Sacraments, as well those of the Old Testament, as those of the New, to be seals of the Covenant of grace? A. This: that all of them as types or signs point unto Christ's death, wherein the Covenant is ratified. Q. How may a Sacrament be defined, or what is a Sacrament? A. A Sacrament is a sacred action of Christ's institution, wherein the visible elements sanctisied by the Word, do not only signify and represent to the outward senses, but also instrumentally coney and seal to the faith of the receiver that holy invisible grace whereof it is a sign and seal. Q. How prove you this definition of a Sacrament? And first how prove you a Sacrament to be an action? A. By these reasons. 1. Because it is no longer a sacrament, than it is in the action. 2. Because the force and efficacy of the sacrament consists in the action rightly performed. Q. How prove you this in the Sacraments? A. Thus circumcision is an action, the cutting off the foreskin: The slaying and eating of the Passeover is all in action; so baptising an action so of the Lords Supper, the whole celebration of it is action, as consecrating, giving, receiving, eating, drinking, all is action. Do this in remembrance of me. Q. What use make you hereof? A. Hereby I learn, that that is no sacrament, which is idly gazed upon, or reserved in a box, or carried about in solemn pomp, to be adored for Christ, but is very Idol. Q. Why call you the Sacrament an action sacred? A. In regard of the parties conversant about the sacrament, who are all sacred. Q. Who are they? A. The minister of the Gospel: the communicants, & the holy Ghost working in and by them. Q. What is the action of the minister about the sacrament of the Lords Supper? A. To sanctify or consecrate the elements by the Word of God & prayer to a sacramental or holy use. 2. He is to eat and drink the Lords Supper. 3. He is to distribute the consecrated bread and wine unto the people the communicants. Q. What doth the Minister's action in consecrating the elements, and distributing of them to the people, signify? A. His consecrating of the elements signifieth Christ's consecrating of himself for us; his distributing of them to every Communicant signifieth, Christ giveth himself to every true believer. Q. What is the action of the holy Ghost about the Sacrament? A. To seal inwardly to the beléeving soul of the communicant, the merits and virtue of Christ's death. Q. What is the action of the Communicants in the Lord's Supper? A. Twofold: 1. Outward, with the hand of the body, to take eat, drink: 2. Inward, with the hand of the soul, to wit faith, to receive, and spiritually to faéd upon the body and blood of Christ. And with these two is joined the action of prayer and thanksgiving in the very act of receiving. Q. How is the minister sacred or holy? A. By his ministerial calling, as he ought also to be holy in his conversation. Q. What if he be profane in his life? A. Yet that hinders not, but than the may administer the Sacrament, sith his calling is holy. Q. How is the Communicant sacred or holy? A. Not only by his common calling, as he is a Christian, whereby he hath a right to the outward ordinance: but specially by his holy faith and life, being a living member of Christ, by which he hath an interest to Christ himself in the ordinances. Q. May none of these three agents, the holy Ghost, the Minister, the Communicants 1 Cor 11. 2, 3. be wanting to make up the full Sacrament? A. No sir, The minister may not communicate alone, without the people communicating with him; and the element is of no efficacy, without the holy Ghost do apply the inward grace, which he doth to every believer. Q. You say a Sacrament is instituted of Christ: why so? may not the Church instiwte a Sacrament? A. No: only Christ is the author of a Sacrament: for these reasons: 1. because he is the author of salvation, and therefore he only may appoint the means, as the Word & Sacraments: secondly, because Christ only can make the Sacraments effectual by his spirit: thirdly, because his heavenly wisdom knew best how and whereof to institute the sacramental signs, or elements. Q. But may not the Church dispense with the Sacraments, as by altering of them, by adding or taking away? A. No, in no case, for it brings that curse, Reuel. 22. 18. 19 Deut. 4. 2. & 12. 32. Pro. 30. 6. Q. May not the cup be taken away in the Lord's Supper? A. No: for it is the communion of the blood of Christ. Q. Is not the blood of Christ contained in his body, which is represented under the forms of bread? and is not the cup then superfluous? A. Neither is Christ's body carnally under the forms of bread: nor is the bread sufficient alone to represent Christ's death, without the cup, which poured out doth represent the shedding of Christ's blood for us, as the bread broken doth the breaking of his body. And Christ's ordinance must in no sort be broken. Q. But doth not the bread & wine, after the words of consecration, cease to be bread and wine, their substance being changed or transubstantiated into the very body and blood of Christ, nothing but the colour, and savour of the elements remaining? A. The bread and wine being consecrated by the word & prayer, receive a change indeed in regard of their use, being now sacred, which before were common: but not in regard of their substance, which remaineth one and the same still. Q. But is it not said of the bread, This is my body? and of the wine, This is my blood? And are not Christ's words true? A. Yes, Christ's words are true, and because they are true, therefore the substance of the bread is not changed into the substance of Christ's body; and so of the wine. Q. But is not God omnipotent? Cannot he change the substance of bread into the substance of Christ's body? A. God is omnipotent, and therefore he cannot lie. But such a change must needs import and imply a lie: for 1. Christ's body is in heaven, and therefore cannot be in earth, and in many places at the same instant. 2. Christ's body was made of the substance of the Virgin, and therefore not of the substance of a piece of bread. Q. Why doth Christ say then, This is my body? A. He saith no otherwise of this Sacrament, than he doth of all the rest, both of the old Testament, and of the New. For so circumcision is called the Covenant, being but a sign and seal of it: as Gen. 17. 10, 11. The Paschall Lamb is called the Passeover. Exod. 12. 11. though it were but the sacrifice and memorial of the Passeover, v. 27. So baptism is called regeneration. Tit. 3. 5. though it be but a sign and seal of it. And thus the Sacramental bread is called Christ's body: so that this is the constant language of the holy Ghost in all the sacraments both of the old and new Testament to call the signs by the name of the thing signified, that we might not be deceived in the meaning of the holy Ghosts words. Q. But are the Sacramentalll elements bare signs? Do they not work grace effectually of themselves? A. They neither work grace effectually of themselves, nor are they bare signs: but these signs are called by the name of the thing signified, to signify that they are means ordained of Christ to confirm to the faithful receiver the thing signified, not of themselves, but by virtue of Christ's institution, where the conditions of faith and repentance be observed. Q. What then is every man to do, before he come to the Lords Table? A. He must examine himself: 1. Cor. 11. 28. Q. Wherein is a man to examine himself? A. In two things: 1. touching his knowledge of the Sacrament: 2. touching his knowledge of himself. Q. What is a man to know touching the Sacrament of the Lords Supper? A. He must be able to discern the Lords body. 1 Cor. 11. 29. Q. How is that Lords body discerned? A. By two things: 1. by the outward elements of bread and wine as they are consecrated to an ●oly use, which must not be received as ●●●●mon bread and wine: secondly, by the analogy or proportion which they bear to Christ's body. Q. What analogy or proportion do the consecrated bread and wine hold with Christ's body and blood being received by the faith of the Communicant? A. A twofold proportion; one, in respect of the benefits of Christ's body and blood to every faithful receiver, signified by the benefits which the body receiveth by the bread & wine, the other proportion in respect of the communion of Christ's mystical body signified by the nature of the bread & wine. Q. What be the benefits which the body receiveth by the bread and wine? A. These: Nourishment, strength, and comfort, bread strengthening, and Psal, 10. 4. 15. wine comforting man's heart, and so becoming one with our body. Q. What do these signify? A. That Christ's death received and applied by faith in the Sacrament, doth strengthen our faith, and comfort our consciences in the pardon of our sins, and so nourisheth us to eternal life, Christ becoming one mystical body with us by faith, living in us. Gal. 2▪ 20. Q. What is the other proportion, which the bread and wine do bear of Christ's body? A. They bear a proportion of the communion of his mystical body. Q. What call you Christ's mystical body? A. The whole company of the faithful elect united in one mystical body 1 Cor. 16, 17. of Christ. Q. Wherein stands their communion? A. In two things: in the union of every true believer to Christ the head: 2. In a communion with the members among themselves, all joined to that one Head. Q. How is every member united to Christ the Head? A. By the holy Ghost, and by a holy faith. 1. Cor. 12. 12, 13. & Gal. 2. 20. Q. How are all the mystical members of Christ united in a communion together, as of one body? A. By charity, and by the unity of the spirit. Eph. 4. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Q. How doth the Sacramental bread and wine signify or represent this communion of Christ's mystical members in one body? A. As one and the same bread is made of many grains, and one and the same mystical body of Christ is made up of many members, even all the faithful, whereof consists the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints. Q. What use make you of this knowledge concerning the sacramental signs? A. It leads me to the examination of a second knowledge, namely, concerning myself, before I come to communicate at the Lords Table? Q. What are you chiefly to examine concerning yourself before you come to the Communion? A. Two things especially: my faith, and my charity. Q. Why these two especially? A. Because by having faith and charity I come to discern the Lords body, while by faith I am united to Christ my Head, and by charity to the mystical body of Christ, the communion of Saints. Q. How is your faith to be examined? A. By the nature of saving faith, and by the fruits of it. Q. You showed me before the nature of saving and justifying faith, which you must examine in yourself, whether it be truly in you or no, according to that of the Apostle. 2. Cor. 13. 5. Tell me therefore what be the special fruits and signs of saving faith? A. They are especially two; to wit, repentance and charity. Q. What is true repentance? A. It is a godly sorrow: causing repentance unto salvation not to be repent of. 2. Cor. 7. 10. Q. Why is it called a godly sorrow? A. Because it is a sorrow for sin wrought in the heart by God's Spirit, it being a gift of God. 2. Because this sorrow mourneth more for God's dishonour, than our own by-sins, & more for God's Law broken, then for the punishment deserved. 3. While we give God the whole glory in the seeking pardon of sin, taking to ourselves the whole shame. 4. While in a sincere Psal. 51. 4. purpose and endeavour for amendment we rather choose to suffer the torments of hell, then afresh to sin against God. Q. How doth godly sorrow differ from worldly? A. Both in the kind, and in the end of it. Q. How differ they in kind? A. Worldly sorrow is a carnal and legal re pentance, looking mainly at the punishment of sin, such was Ahabs and judas his repentance, but godly sorrow is evangelical, looking through the spectacles of faith upon a father offended by our sin, but appeased in Christ. Q. How do godly and worldly sorrow differ in their end? A. Godly sorrow causeth repentance to salvation, never to be repent of: but worldly sorrow causeth death. Q. How is this godly sorrow a fruit of saving faith? A. Because a man can never sorrow godly, till he believe in Christ the redeemer, so as looking on Christ the Saviour with the eye of faith he therewithal reflects upon himself, as the sinner saved by Christ. Q. What is the second special fruit and sign of saving faith? A. Charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. 1. Tim. 1. 5. Q. What be the chief objects of true charity? that is, whom doth true charity chiefly respect? A. In the first place, our charity respecteth God in Christ, loving him above all, for the manifestation of the riches of his glory and grace in electing and redeeming us: 1. joh. 4. 19 2. Our charity looks upon our brethren and fellow-members in Christ, who hear his image, for which sake we love them as truly and entirely as our own souls. This charity being the badge of a true believer. 1. joh. 2. 14. 16, 17, 19 3. Our charity reacheth to strangers, yea to our very enemies, to help them in extremity, and to pray for their conversion. And 4. we must have an entire love to God-ward, and to his ministers, accounting their feet beautiful, that bring us the glad tidings of salvation. Q. But many profess love to God and to the brethren, wherein stands the proof of our love? A. Not in a bare profession: but we must prove it first by our inward servant affection, as also by the many real 1 joh ● 17, 18, fruits of love, loving not in word only, but in deed and in truth. Q. What else are you to examine in yourself before you come to the Lords Supper? A. I must stir up my heart to a spiritual hunger and thirst after Christ Mat. 5. in the Sacrament, because according to this hunger I shall be satisfied with his sweetness, and shall féelingly find him a Saviour of life unto my soul. Q. How may your spiritual appetite be stirred up to hunger after Christ in the Sacrament? A. By finding mine own emptiness, and how wretched I am without Christ, and how blessed in him: this must be by sound repentance and humiliation. Q. What conclusion do you draw from this duty of examination before the Sacrament? A. First, hence I learn, that the sacrament is a high mystery, and strong meat, for men of ripe years having their wits exercised to discern good and evil. 2. That no ignorant persons, such as cannot give a reason of their faith, nor of the nature and use of the Sacrament, may be admitted to the Lords Table. Well, coming thus duly prepared, what are you to do in the time of Administration? A. I am to meditate of Christ's death, by the things I see and hear: of the wonderful love of God towards me a poor wretched sinner, in that he spared not his Son, but gave him up to death for me, that I by believing in him might live for ever, that as by my body I receive, eat, and drink the bread and wine, so by faith I receive and feed upon Christ, tasting how sweet the Lord is to my soul: and that I stir up my heart to be exceeding thankful for so precious benefits, as Ps. 103. 1. &c Q. What are you to do after you have received the Sacrament? A. I must endeavour to walk in the strength of that spiritual meat, as Elias did, until I come to the mount of God, the kingdom of heaven, Q. Will receiving the Lord's Supper once in the year, or so, sufficiently strengthen a man for his whole life, as baptism is but once administered? A. No, the comparison holds not. A science is but once grafted, as we into Christ by baptism, but must be often nourished as in often hearing of the Word, and often communicating at the Lords Table, for (saith the Apostle) as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye show the Lords death till he come: whereby he teacheth us to frequent the Lords Table upon all occasions, and constantly to continue the remembrance of his death, that so we may be kept watching, and waiting for that appearing looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, that we may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. Q. What other duty is requisite for a Christian to practise, that he may grow in grace? A. To call upon God in all occasions. Q. When must we pray especially? A. Though we are to pray continunually, yet especially we are to keep constant times morning and evening, as Psal. 55. 17. & 92. 2. Q. To whom must we pray? A. To God alone in the name of Christ: for Christ taught us to pray, Our Father, etc. Q. May we not also pray to Saints departed, and to the Angels in heaven? A. No, in no wise. Q. Why? A. Because prayer is a divine worship of God alone. For whom we call upon by prayer, we believe also in him. Rom. 10. 14. But we may not believe in Saints and Angels. Q. But may we not make Saints and Angels our Mediators of intercession to God for us, in the Court of heaven? A. No: for there is but one Mediator between God and man, jesus Christ. 2. Tim. 2. 5. In his name whatsoever we ask the Father, he will give it us. And Christ alone is our intercessor in heaven. Rom. 8. 24. He is our only high priest, who hath entered into heaven, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Heb. 9 24. So that none can be our Mediator or Intercessor in heaven, but only our High Priest, which is Christ. Heb. 9 11, 12. Q. But may we not be stirred by pictures and images of God, and of Christ, and the like, and so before them pray unto God? A. No, in no sort, for this is flatly against the second commandment: Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, etc. Q. But may we not pray before them, though we pray not unto them, but unto God represented by them? A. No▪ for we are forbidden to make any image or picture of God at all; much less are we to worship God in or by it. Deut. 4. 15, 16. Q. True, God forbade them to make no similitude of him, because they saw no form of God in the mount? But may we not make the picture of Christ, and so pray before it, or a crucifix? A. No, in no wise; for to make such a picture, were to make a lie, because a false representation: for first no man now for 16. hundred years almost, ever saw Christ's body as he was before his death. And secondly no mortal eye can behold his face in heaven, which passeth the brightness of the sun. And thirdly, though we had the true picture of his body yet it is not lawful to pray before it, as having no warrant in Scripture for it but against it, as in the second commandment. Q. But may we not pray for our friends departed? A. No, it is vain, because all that die go immediately either to heaven, or to hell. When David's child was dead, he ceased praying for it, saying, Wherefore should I fast or pray any longer. And there is no example nor rule in Scripture for praying for men departed, so as it is against our faith in God's word. Q. But is there not a third and middle place, namely Purgatory, where souls must be purged before they come into heaven, into which no unclean thing can enter. A. Purgatory is a mere device of man's brain to pick fools purses, who must pay sweetly for so many masses for their friends souls. And it is a blasphemous doctrine, destroying the blood of Christ, which alone doth purge every true believer from all his sins. 1 joh. 1. 7. It leaves neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, Eph. 5. 27. And for Purgatory it is not so much as once named in all the Scripture, as heaven and hell are. And if purgatory or any material fire could purge away sin, as it never can: then Christ's blood was spilt needlessly and in vain. And it is against nature for a material fire to work upon a spiritual substance, as man's soul is. Q. Is faith in Christ then sufficient to carry a man strait to heaven? A. Yes surely; for so Christ saith, joh. 5. 24. Q. But no man is saved out of the Church: which is then the true Church of Christ visible? A. That Church whose faith is guided by the only rule of God's Word, and hath the due administration of the Sacraments. Q. Cannot that be a true Church of of Christ visible, which denyeth the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith? A. It cannot. Because the only rule to know the true Church by, is the Scripture. Secondly, because humane Traditions being against the Word of God, and yet added to it, as an equal rule of faith, and of equal authority, quite razeth the foundation of faith. Because such Traditions destroy the Scriptures; and in vain do such worship to God; teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, Mar. 7. 7. And will worship separates from Christ. Col. 2. 19, 23. Q. But is not that a true, yea and the only true Church of Christ on earth visible, which hath one visible head as the Pope? A. No. Such is neither the only true Church, no nor yet a true member of the true Church of Christ visible on earth. Q. Why so? A. Because such a visible Head must needs be the great Antichrist, who usurps that title and office which is proper to Christ alone: for such a one, as the Pope, saith in effect, * Mat. ●4. 5▪ I am Christ, because he takes upon him all the offices and prerogatives of Christ over his Church. He usurps Christ's Kingly office, challenging subjection of all men, great and small under pain of damnation. Secondly, he usurps Christ's prophetical office challenging a freedom from, and an impossibility of erring & a power to determine all matters of faith. Thirdly, the Pope usurpeth Christ's Priestly office, in challenging a plenary power to pardon sins, and in setting up a breaden Christ in the mass to be a propitiatory sacrifice for quick and dead. And thus be is that Antichrist spoken of, 2. Thes. 2. who showeth himself that he is God. Q. What becomes then of that body, which cleaves to such a head? A. He is so powerful in all deceiveableness of unrighteousness, and hypocrisy, that those do perish who trust unto him, such as are possessed with a strong delusion, to believe lies, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, 2 Thes. 2. Q. But is not that the only true Church of Christ visible which only can show a visible & uninterrupted succession of Bishops sitting in Peter's chair, ever since the Apostles times? Is not this visibility of succession an infallible mark of the true Church of Christ visible? A. No surely: for first, for Peter's chair, that's but made of cunning net work, to enclose and catch the silly fish. And if ever Peter had been Bishop of Rome, what is Peter's chair without Peter's faith and doctrine? They have quite destroyed Peter's doctrine, 2 Pet. 5. 2. who said, feed the flock of God, etc. taking the over sight of it, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. But the Pope and his Clergy do quite contrary. Secondly, visible succession of Bishops is no true mark of a true Church of Christ, unless it can show a true succession of doctrine from the Apostles writings. For may not errors and heresies creep upon the same particular visible Church, and so in time insensibly like a gangrene, eat into the very heart of it, and so leave it nothing but the very carcase of a Church, as it hath: done with the Church of Rome? Thirdly, the succession of Romish Bishops hath had many interruptions, so as the chair hath been empty for many years together, the body wanting a head, or else having sometimes two, sometimes three heads at once, while three Popes were at once. Once a woman Pope made the interruption. And so many heretical Popes, so many Simoniacal, so many exercising diabolical arts, have made a fearful interruption, never to be made up again. Q. But how can the Protestant Churches prove themselves true Churches, while they cannot show an uninterrupted line of succession of such and such Doctors, as have from age to age conveyed the Doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles down to our very times? A. This is as frivolous, as it would be a tedious task. It sufficeth us, that we can show our faith to be evidently grounded upon doctrine of the Apostles, and so we are sure we succeed them in their doctrine and faith, though perhaps we cannot punctually and particularly number up all those Doctors, by whom we have received it from hand to hand. It sufficeth we have our evidences to sh●w out title and right to our inheritance. Let those that want the evidences of Scripture, which we have, prove their pretended title by a long beadrow of personal succession. Blessed be God we have the Scriptures to prove our faith and religion by, and we need seek no further, though we could show how our faith hath been professed in all ages from the Apostles days. Q. If it be so; how comes it, that the Romish Priests and Jesuits do so stand upon succession, and put us to prove our religion by naming all those Doctors in all ages, who from one to another have brought our religion home to our doors? A. This is a mere shift, whereby they gull and beguile silly souls, and so they gain time in exacting that, which they themselves are never able to show on their part. For they cannot exactly tell the punctual time, wherein all their errors, and numberless ceremonies entered into their Church, nor can they tell the authors of them perfectly, It sufficeth that the envious man, Satan did sow so many tares in that field, while the husbandmen, drowned in sensuality, were fast asleep. Yet all that while, God had his Church, though persecuted here and there by Antichrist and his followers: which Church blessed be God we Protestants in England now a long time have iniored, and pray and trust we shall enjoy to the coming of jesus Christ. Even so come Lord jesus. Amen. FINIS. To my loving and beloved Friends and Neighbours, the Parishioners of S. Matthews Friday street, increase of Grace in the knowledge of jesus Christ. MOst loving neighbours, though late, yet now at length I present you with a Dedication, small in bulk, but for the substance weighty, being the sum of those doctrines which you have heard me deliver in the course of my ministerial charge; so as both you may more properly challenge an interest herein than others: and myself may more boldly presume of an acceptance at your hands, of whose patience and love towards my poor ministry I have had so plentiful proof. The Preacher saith, The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given by one shepherd. I therefore have collected these short notes to be as nails to fasten the main doctrines (which you have heard, and here may see) upon your believing hearts, and as goads, to quicken up your willing 〈◊〉 affections to the perfecting of holiness in the fear of God. And because it is the duty of faithful parents to propagate and convey the knowledge of Christ unto their children and families, as Abraham did: I therefore commend these grounds to your Christian care, to the end you may the more easily instruct your families in them, that you with yours being built upon the rock of truth, may be established in the belief and love of the same against the winds of error, and waves of heresy, till you arrive on the haven of eternal rest, which is in jesus Christ: which that you may do, it shall be the daily prayer, and dutiful endeavour of your unworthy, but faithful and loving Pastor, Henry Burton.