The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities.

Signes of true Faith.

1. An earnest and vehement prayer: for it is impossible we should heartily believe the things of God and the glories of the Gospel, and not most importunately desire them. For every thing is desired according to our belief of its excellency and possibility.

2. To do nothing for vain glory, but wholly for the interests of religion, and these Articles we believe; valuing not at all the r••mours of men, but the praise of God, to whom by faith, we have given up all our intellectual faculties.

3. To be content with God for our Judge, for our Patron, for our Lord, for our friend, desiring God to be all in all to us, as we are in our understanding and affections wholly his.

Adde to these.

4. To be a stranger upon earth in our af∣fections, and to have all our thoughts and prin∣cipal

desires fixed upon the matters of Faith, the things of Heaven. For if a man were a∣dopted heir to Caesar, he would (if he believed it real and effective) despise the present, and wholly be at court in his Fathers eye; and his desires would outrun his swiftest speed, and all his thoughts would spend themselves in crea∣ting Ideas, and little phantastick images of his future condition. Now God hath made us Heirs of his Kingdom, and Coheirs with Je∣sus: if we believed this, we would think and affect, and study accordingly. But he that rejoyces in gain, and his heart dwells in the world, and is espoused to a fair estate, and trans∣ported with a light momentany joy, and is af∣flicted with losses, and amazed with temporal persecutions, and esteems disgrace, or poverty in a good cause to be intolerable, this man either hath no inheritance in Heaven, or be∣lieves none; and believes not that he is adopt∣ed to be the Son of God, the Heir of eter∣nal Glory.

5. S. Iames's signe is the best: [Shew me thy faith by thy works] Faith makes the Merchant di∣ligent and venturous, and that makes him rich. Ferdinando of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus, and therefore he furnished him with ships, and got the west Indies by his Faith in the undertaker. But Henry the seventh of England believed him not, and therefore trusted him not with shipping, and lost all the purchase of that Faith. It is told us by Christ [He that forgives shall be for∣given] if we believe this, it is certain we shall forgive our enemies; for none of us all but need and desire to be forgiven. No man can possibly despise or refuse to desire such

excellent glories as are revealed to them that that are servants of Christ: and yet we do no∣thing that is commanded us as a condition to obtain them. No man could work a dayes labor without faith: but because he believes he shall have his wages at the dayes or weeks end, he does his duty. But he onely believes who does that thing which other men in the like cases do, when they do believe. He that believes, money gotten with danger is better then po∣verty with safety, will venture for it in unknown lands or seas: and so will he that believes it better to get Heaven with labour, then to go to Hell with pleasure.

6. He that believes does not make haste, but waits patiently till the times of refreshment come, and dares trust God for the morrow, and is no more sollicitous for next year, then he is for that which is past: and it is certain, that man wants faith who dares be more confi∣dent of being supplied when he hath money in his purse, then when he hath it onely in bills of exchange from God: or that relyes more upon his own industry then upon Gods provi∣dence, when his own industry fails him. If you dare trust to God when the case to humane reason seems impossible, and trust to God then also out of choice, not because you have no∣thing else to trust to, but because he is the one∣ly support of a just confidence, then you give a good testimony of your faith.

7. True Faith is confident, and will ven∣ture all the world upon the strength of its persuasion. Will you lay your life on it, your estate, your reputation, that the doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is true in every Article? Then you have true Faith. But he that fears men

more then God, believes men more then he believes in God.

8. Faith, if it be true, living, and justify∣ing cannot be separated from a good life: it works miracles,* 1.1 makes a Drunkard become sober, a lascivious person become chast, a co∣vetous man become liberal: it overcomes the world, it works righteousnesse, and makes us diligently to do, and cheerfully to suffer what∣soever God hath placed in our way to Heaven.

Notes

• * 1.1

  2 Cor. 13.5. Rom. 8.10.