CHAP. X. Of the Special Government of Man before the Fall; including the Institutions of the Sabbath and of Marriage Page 296 Of the Functions of the Mediator, and of his threefold Office . ., 400 CHAP. XXIV. Of Union and Fellowship with Christ and His Members; wherein is considered the Mystical or Invisible Church. CHAP. XXV. Of Imperfect Glorification; wherein are considered the Doctrines of Assurance and Final Perseverance Page 53 58 CHAP. XXVI. Of the Manifestation of the Covenant of Grace, including the Law of God CHAP. XXVII. Of the Gospel, and of Christian Liberty 75 83 CHAP. XXVIII. Of the External Sealing of the Covenant of Grace. ... 112 Of Perfect Glorification; including the Second Advent of Christ, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the General Conflagration 201 211 Of the Time for Divine Worship; wherein are considered the CJAP. VIII. Of our Duties towards Man, and the general Virtues belonging thereto.... CHAP. IX. Of the first Class of Special Virtues connected with the Duty of 318 326 342 352 CHAP. X. Of the second Class of Virtues connected with the Duty of Man towards himself 371 CHAP. XI. Of the Duties of Min towards his Neighbour, and the Virtues comprehended under those Duties CHAP. XII. 375 Of the Special Virtues or Duties which regard our Neighbour . . . 389 CHAP. XIII. Of the second Class of Special Duties towards our Neighbour . . . 395 CHAP. XIV. The second Class of Special Duties towards our Neighbour continued 416 CHAP. XV. Of the Reciprocal Duties of Man towards his Neighbour; and spe JOHN MILTON, TO ALL THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST, AND TO ALL WHO PROFESS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, PEACE, AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE TRUTH, AND ETERNAL SALVATION IN GOD THE FATHER, AND IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. SINCE the commencement of the last century, when religion began to be restored from the corruptions of more than thirteen hundred years to something of its original purity, many treatises of theology have been published, conducted according to sounder principles, wherein the chief heads of Christian doctrine are set forth sometimes briefly, sometimes in a more enlarged and methodical order. I think myself obliged, therefore, to declare in the first instance why, if any works have already appeared as perfect as the nature of the subject will admit, I have not remained contented with them-or, if all my predecessors have treated it unsuccessfully, why their failure has not deterred me from attempting an undertaking of a similar kind. If I were to say that I had devoted myself to the study of the Christian religion because nothing else can so effectually rescue the lives and minds of men. from those two detestable curses, slavery and superstition,* I should seem to have acted rather from a regard to my highest earthly comforts, than from a religious motive. But since it is only to the individual faith of each that the Deity has opened the way of eternal salvation, and as he requires that he who would be saved should have a personal belief of his own,† I resolved not to repose on the faith or judgment of others in matters relating to God; but on the one hand, having taken the grounds of my faith from divine revelation alone, and on the other, having neglected nothing which depended on my own industry, I thought fit to scrutinize and ascertain for myself the several points of my religious belief, by the most careful perusal and meditation of the Holy Scriptures themselves. If therefore I mention what has proved beneficial in my own practice, it is in the hope that others, * 'Vota vestra et preces ardentissimas Deus, cum servitutis haud uno genere oppressi ad eum confugistis, benigne exaudiit. Quæ duo in vitâ hominum mala sane maxima sunt, et virtuti damnosissima, tyrannis et superstitio, iis vos gentium primos gloriose liberavit.' Pro Pop. Anglican. Defens. ad finem. Milton's Prose Works, Symmons's Edition, Vol. V. p. 195. His living temples, built by faith to stand, Their own faith, not another's?-Paradise Lost, XII. 526. |