Read your Bibles for yourselves
with a single eye, and with a pure heart which longs to know God's
will because it longs to _do_ God's will; and you will need no false
prophets, under pretence of explaining it to you, to draw you away
from the Holy Catholic faith into which you were baptized.
But if you must have a commentary on the Bible; if you must have
some book to give you a general notion of what the Bible teaches
you, and what it expects of you; go to the prayer-book. Go to the
good old Catechism which you learnt at school. There, though not
from the popular preachers, you will learn that God is just and
true, loving and merciful, and no respecter of persons. There you
will learn, that Christ died not for a few elect, but for the sins
of the whole world. There you will learn that in baptism, by God's
free grace, and not by any experiences or feelings of your own, you
were made children of God, members of Christ, and inheritors of the
kingdom of heaven. There you will learn, that the elect whom the
Holy Spirit sanctifies, are not merely a favoured few, but _you_--
every baptized man, woman, and child. That the Holy Spirit is with
you, every one of you, to sanctify you, if you will open your hearts
to his gracious inspirations. And there you will learn what
sanctification really means.
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