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But must it so indeed?

How much then does

it concern me, seriously to bethink myself, where I had best to lead this everlasting life, in the heavenly mansions of eternal glory, or else in the dreadful dungeon of infernal misery? but betwixt these, (as there is no medium, so) there is no comparison; and therefore, I shall not put it to the question, which place to choose to live in; but without giving the other that honour to stand in competition with it, I this morning, with the leave of the most high God, do choose the land of Canaan, the kingdom of heaven, to be the lot of mine inheritance, the only seat of bliss and glory for my soul to rest and dwell in, to all eternity.

But heaven, they say, is a place hard to come at, yea, the King of that glorious place hath told me, that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leads to eternal life, and that there be but few that find it." " Yea, and that many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." What therefore must I do? Why, I must either resolve to make it my whole business to get to heaven, or else I must never hope or expect to come thither. Without any farther dispute, therefore, about it; I resolve, at this time, in the presence of almighty God, that from this day forward, I will make it my whole business here upon earth, to look after my happiness in heaven, and to walk circumspectly in those blessed paths, that God hath appointed all to walk in, that ever expect to come to him.

Now, though there be but one way, and that a narrow one too, that leads to heaven; yet there are two things requisite, to all those that walk in it; and

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they are faith and obedience, to believe and to live aright. So that it as much behoves me, to have my faith rightly confirmed in the fundamentals of religion, as to have my obedience exactly conformed to the laws of God. And these two duties are so inseparably united, that the former cannot well be supposed without the latter; for I cannot obey what God hath commanded me, unless I first believe what he hath taught me. And they are both equally difficult, as they are necessary: indeed, of the two, I think it is harder to lay the sure foundation of faith, than to build the superstructure of obedience upon it; for it seems next to impossible, for one that believes every truth, not to obey every command that is written in the word of God. But it is not so easy a thing as it is commonly thought to believe the word of God, and to be firmly established in the necessary points of religion; especially in these wicked times wherein we live; in which there are so many pernicious errors and damnable heresies crept into the articles of some men's faith, as do not only shock the foundation of the church of Christ, but strike at the root of all religion. The first thing, therefore, that by the grace of God, I am resolved to do, in reference to my everlasting state, is to see my faith, that it be both rightly placed and firmly fixed; that I may not be as a

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wave tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive;" but that I may be thoroughly settled in my faith and judgment concerning those things, the knowledge of, and assent unto which, is absolutely necessary to my future happiness. Let,

therefore, what times soever come upon me; let what temptations soever be thrown before me; I am resolved, by the grace of God, steadfastly to believe as followeth.

ARTICLE I.

I believe there is One God, the Being of all things.

THE other articles of my faith I think to be true, because they are so; this is true, because I think it so for if there was no God, and so this article not true, I could not be, and so not think it true. But in that I think, I am sure I am; and in that I am, I am sure there is a God; for if there was no God, how came I to be? How came I hither? Who gave me my being? Myself? That could not be; for before I had a being, I was nothing; and therefore, could do nothing, much less make myself a being. Did my parents give me my being? Alas! they knew not that I should be, before I was; and, therefore, certainly, could not give me my being, when I was not.

As to my soul, (which I call myself) it is plain, they could not give me that, because it is a being of a spiritual nature, quite distinct from matter, (as my own experience tells me) and, therefore, could not be the product of any natural or material agent: for, that a bodily substance should give being to a spiritual one, implies a contradiction. And if it could neither make itself, nor take its rise from any earthly or secondary cause, I may certainly conclude, my own reason, as well as from divine revela

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tion, that it must be infused by God, though I am not able to determine, either when, or how, it was done.

As to my body; indeed, I must own it was derived from my parents, who were immediately concerned in bringing the materials of it together: but, then, who made up these coarse materials into the form or figure of a body? Was this the effect of natural generation? But how came my parents by this generative power? Did they derive it, by succession, from our first parents in paradise? Be it So. But whence came they? Did they spring out of the earth? No: what then? Were they made by chance? This could not be; for as chance seldom or never produces any one effect that is regular and uniform, so it cannot be supposed, that a being of such admirable beauty, symmetry, and proportion, and such a nice contexture of parts, as the body of a man is, should ever be jumbled together by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, which nothing but the chimeras of Epicurus could ever reduce into a regular form and composition.

And the like may be said of all other created beings in the world. For there is no natural cause can give being to any thing, unless it has that being it gives, in itself; for it is a received maxim in philosophy, that nothing can give what it has not. And so, however the bodies of men, or brutes, or plants, may now, in the ordinary course of nature, be produced by generation, yet there must needs be some one supreme almighty Being in the world, that has the being of all other beings in itself; who first created these several species; and endued them

with this generative power to propagate their kind. And this supreme Being is that which we call God.

Hence it is, that there is not a leaf, no not a line, in this great book of the creation, wherein we may not clearly read the existence and perfections of the great and glorious Creator, and that even by the glimmering light of nature. For who is it that bedecked yonder stately canopy of heaven, with those glittering spangles the stars? Who is it that com

mands the sun to run his course and the moon to ride her circuit so constantly about the world? Who is it that formed me so curiously in my mother's womb? Who is it that gives my stomach power to digest such variety of meats into chyle, and my heart or liver to turn them all to blood; and thence to send each particle to its proper place, and all to keep up this crazy carcase? Doubtless, these, and such like things, however ordinary or natural they may appear to us at present, are in themselves very great and wonderful effects, that must, at first, be produced by some infinitely powerful and supernatural agent, the high and mighty God, who is not only the chiefest of beings, but the Being of all beings whatsoever.

I say, the Being of all beings, because whatsoever excellency or perfection is in any other thing, is eminently, yea, infinitely comprehended in him; so that he is not only the creature's perfection in the concrete, but in the abstract too; he is not only all-wise, all-good, all-mighty, &c. but he is all-wisdom, allgoodness, all-might, all-mercy, all-justice, all-glory, &c.

And as he is the ocean and abyss of all these perfections in himself; so is he the fountain of them

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