To all that love the Lord Jefus Chri/t in Sincerity and Truth. Dearly Beloved, THE Love of God, which hath been shed abroad in your Hearts by the Holy Ghoft, through the Knowledge of Jefus Chris, in dying for you, to redeem you from all Ini- quity, and bring you nigh to God by his Blood, I hope does fill your Souls with an earneft De ire of being found fully walking in all the Ways of his Appointments in his Houfe, which is the Place where his Honour dwells, and where he records his Name, and where he will come and bief you. And that you may the better be enabled thereunto, it is highly neceffary to know the Nature of the Houfe, as to the Matter and Form,the Comings in and the Goings out thereof, and what ought to be your Behaviour and De- portment therein. Ignorance and Indifferency on the one Hand, and Pride and Selfifhnefs on the other, have been the great Reafon of the Calamities that have befallen the Churches of Chrift. Hence has come theDishonourofChrift inthe World; hence the Want of Love among the Saints, and the Decay of Pu- rity and Holinefs. And to that Height it is arrived, that ever. tome of thofe Churches that feem to be moil: feparate from the World and Antichriftian Worship in the Administration of Ordinances, are too much departed from the Purity of God's Worship, and from the Order of his Haufe ; who in.. bead of obferving all that the Head of the Church hath. commanded, have modelled the Churches to their own car- nal Fancy and worldly Intereft; from whence has pro- ceeded the unfaithful AdmiffionofMembersinto the Church, (efpecially if they be rich) and the little inquiring after their growingin Faith, and the Knowledge Jefus. H n ce eh 41.7 .4ú..m h-' A. . .
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