Directions and persuasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation…Directions and perswasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation…

4. Also be sure that you Practise all practical Truths, upon the first opportunity, as soon as you have heard them. Imprison them not in unrighteousness. Cast them not out in forgetfulness; use not a Lecture of Divinity as if it were a lesson of Music, or a mere Philosophical, ⟨p. 350⟩or Historical discourse. Read not the Doctrine of Salvation, and the Promises of Heaven, and the forewarnings of everlasting misery, as you read a common story, or a groundless conjecture in an Almanac: But as a Message from God, which tells you where you must dwell for ever, and as a Direction sent from Heaven to teach you the way thither. Fall to work then, and practise what you know, if you would be Christians indeed. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For the Opinionative hearer, seeth but a slight appearance of the Truth, as a man that looks on his face in a glass, which he quickly forgets: But he that is a Sound Believer, and practiser, and not only an Opinionative forgetful hearer, is the man that shall be blessed in his deed, Jam. 1. 22, 23, 24, 25. Opinion without Practise, is building on the Sand; but hearing, and sound Believing, and doing, is building upon the Rock, where the building will stand after all assaults. Matth. 7. 26, 27, 28. An Opinionist doth but seem to be Religious, while he keeps his reigning sins, and therefore his Religion is in vain: but the Practical ⟨p. 351⟩Religion, is the pure, and undefiled Religion, Jam. 1. 26, 27. Hearty obedience will not only show that your Religion is deeper then mere Opinion, but it will also advance it to a greater purity, and root it more deeply then it was before: A man that hath studied the Art of Navigation in his closet, may talk of it, almost as well as he that hath been at sea; but when he comes to practise it, he will find that he is far to seek: But let this man go to sea, and join practise, and experience to his Theory, and then he may have a knowledge of the right kind. So if a man that hath only read over Military Books, would be a true Soldier, or a man that hath only studied Physic, would be a true Physician, what better way is there, then to fall to Practise. And so must you, if you would have a Religion that shall save your Souls; and not only a Religion that will furnish you with good Opinions, and expressions.