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3. Q. Do you then expect to be saved by virtue of your own good works?

A. God forbid: on the contrary, I am persuaded that when I shall have done all that I can, I shall be but an unprofitable servant. Luke, xvii. 10. But, however, I must sincerely endeavour, what in me lies, to keep God's commandments; and then I am assured that God will reward me, not according to my deserts, but according to his own mercy and promises to us in Jesus Christ.

4. Q. Are you able, of yourself, by your own natural strength, to keep God's commandments?

A. No, I am not: for in me, that is to say, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Rom. vii. 18. It is the grace of God, which must work in me, both to will, and to do, according to his good pleasure. Phil. ii.

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5. Q. Being thus assisted by the holy spirit, can you perfectly keep God's commandments?

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A. No, I cannot, nor will it ever be possible for me, in this life, to do it. I must serve God sincerely, with all my heart; I must serve him zealously, with all my strength; I must go as far as I can, and as the measure of the grace, which he is pleased to allow me, will enable me to do, towards perfection: but to discharge a perfect, that is to say, an unsinning obedience, to God's commandments; this neither I can, nor did ever any one else but he, who was God as well as man, do it. For, in many things we offend all. James, iii. 2. And, if we say, that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John, i. 8.

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PROOFS SUBJOINED.- Matt. xxii. 37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all

thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Matt. v. 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. xix. 21. Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have pleasure in heaven: and come and follow

me.

2 Cor. vii. 11. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! xiii. 9. For we are glad when we are weak and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. Col. i. 28. Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom: that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 1 Pet. v. 10. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

6. Q. Will not this undervalue the grace of the Holy Ghost, by which we are sanctified?

A. Not at all: forasmuch as I ascribe to that the glory of all the good I do; and take to myself the shame of whatsoever is evil or defective in me.

7. Q. What think you of those of the church of Rome, who, notwithstanding this, talk of works of supererogation; and thereby pretend not only perfectly to keep God's commandments, but to do even more than God required them to have done?

A. I think that they neither understand themselves nor their duty: it being certain that the measure of our duty is, to love the Lord our God with all our

heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength: beyond which, as it is not possible for any man to go, so neither is there any one that can justly say, he has ever, for any long time together, absolutely come up to the utmost height of it.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Matt. xxii. 37. Comp. Deut. x. 12. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Deut. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

8. Q. Seeing then our obedience cannot be brought to perfection in this life; what is that obedience which God does now require of us, in order to our salvation?

A. It is the obedience of an honest, humble, sincere heart: such as leads us, in the first place, to an universal obedience of all God's commandments. Secondly, to a hearty endeavour to come up to as perfect a discharge of our duty, according to the measures of them, as our present condition will admit of. And that, thirdly, with constancy and perseverance, unto our lives' end. Matt. x. 22. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. 1 Cor. i. 8. Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. i. 13. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Heb. x. 38, 39. If any man draw back, my soul shall have no plea sure in him. But we are not of them who draw back

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unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Rev. ii. 10. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Psalm cxix. 16. I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word. 1 Cor. xv. 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Coloss. i. 22. To present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight. 1 Thess. iii. 13. To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord

Jesus Christ, with all his saints. v. 23. I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Matt. xxii. 37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 2 Pet. iii. 18. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

SECT. XXII.

Of the Measure of it, as reduced to the Ten Commandments in particular, and the Rules laid down for the Exposition of them.

1. Q. Has there been any such collection made of the main branches of what we are to do; as we had in the Creed, of what we are to believe?

A. There is such a collection, and that delivered by God himself, in what we commonly call the ten commandments.

2. Q. Do those commandments, which were given

by God to the Jews, still continue in force, and oblige us Christians?

A. Yes, they do. Matt. v. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

And that, in some measure, more strictly than they did them: the most part, if not all of them, having been either more fully expounded, or more perfectly delivered to us by Christ in the New Testament, than they were first given by God to the Jews in the Old. See Matt. 5, 6, 7, chapters.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Matt. xix. 16, 18. Behold, one came and said unto him, Good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder; thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, &c. xxii. 37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Rom. xiii. 9. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. James, ii. 8. If ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well.

3. Q. Why do you call them the Ten Commandments?

A. Not only because they have been usually divided into that number, but because they were ori

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