_Direct._ VIII. When you come home review the mercy which you have received, and the duty which you have done, and the covenant you have made: and, 1. Betake yourselves to God in praise and prayer, for the perfecting of his work. And, 2. Take heed to your hearts that they grow not cold, and that worldly things, or diverting trifles, do not blot out the sacred impressions which Christ hath made, and that they cool not quickly into their former dull and sleepy frame. 3. And see that your lives be actuated by the grace that you have here received, that even they that you converse with may perceive that you have been with God. Especially when temptations would draw you again to sin; and when the injuries of friends or enemies would provoke you, and when you are called to testify your love to Christ, by any costly work or suffering; remember then what was so lately before your eyes, and upon your heart, and what you resolved on, and what a covenant you made with God. Yet judge not of the fruit of your receiving, so much by feeling, as by faith; for more is promised than you yet possess.
[71] Matt. xxvi. 28; Mark xiv. 24; Luke xxii. 20; 1 Cor. xi. 25; Heb. ix. 15-18; 1 Cor. x. 16, 24; John vi. 32, 35, 51, 58.
[72] 1 Cor. xi. 27-29, 31; x. 16, 17, 21; xi. 25, 26; vi. 14; Acts ii. 42, 46; xx. 7.
[73] Rom. vi. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 3; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; Heb. ix. 16; x. 12, 16; ix. 24.
[74] Non absque probatione et examine panem illum præbendum esse neque novis neque veteribus Christianis. Quod siquis est fornicator, aut ebriosus, aut idolis serviens, cum ejusmodi etiam communem cibum capere vetat apostolus, nedum cœlesti mensa communicare, saith a Jesuit, Acosta, l. vi. c. 10. And after, Neque enim ubi perspecta est superstitionis antiquæ aut ebriositatis, aut fœdæ consuetudinis macula, ad altare Indus debet admitti, nisi contraria opera illam manifeste et diligenter eluerint.--Christianis concedatur; sed Non-Christiano, dignis moribus subtrahatur. Pag. 549.
[75] John iii. 5; 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13; xv. 45; Gal. iii. 14: iv. 6; Eph. ii. 22.
[76] Quinam autem indigni, ineptive sint, quibus Angelorum panis præbetur, sacerdotum ipso audita confessione, cæterisque perspectis judicium esto. Acosta, lib. vi. c. 10. pag. 519.
[77] 2 Cor. xiii. 13; Matt. x. 28.
[78] Commandment ii. & iii.; Lev. x. 2, 3.
[79] 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29.
[80] Vide Synod Dortdract. suffrag. Theol. Brit. in Artic. 5.
[81] Psal. iv. 4-6.
[82] Gildas de Excid. Britt. speaketh thus to the better sort of pastors then; Quis perosus est consilium malignantium? et cum impiis non sedit? Quis eorum salutari in area hoc est, nunc ecclesia, nullum Deo adversantem, ut Noe diluvii tempore, non admisit? ut perspicue monstraretur non nisi innoxios vel poenitentes egregios, in dominica domo esse debere.
[83] Mr. Paybodie's book, I think unanswerable.
[84] Numb. xxiv. 5; Psal. cxxxiii.; xv. 4; xvi. 2, 3; Luke xix. 8; Psal. lxxxiv. 10.