The Kernel of Christianity
The source for this document is https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A90349.0001.001
Project Note
This is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
The source of this document is the Early English Books Online (EEBO-TCP) website. Those books were transcribed in a character for character manner and can be very cumbersome to read since there was no standard spelling during that time. Many spelling variations such as "unlesse", "vnlesse", and "vnles" regularly appear.
This project was conceived to clean up those books as much as possible and make them more accessible to the interested reader, leading to the creation of a massive list of variant spellings and their corrections. This was used to clean up the text, but is of course only as complete as the list itself. Because of the nature of the original transcription, some words have missing characters or places where the original language (e.g., Greek) was not transcribed. This effort does not change that. Be aware that the original transcription can also be faulty and in some cases entire sentences may be missing.
Although this is no substitute for a properly compared, proofed, and scholarly edition, I believe that the result is a document which is far more accessible, particularly for searching for terms using standard spelling. The document has been cleaned and presented in what I hope is a pleasing and useful format for the vast majority of Christian brothers and sisters who just want access to read these spiritually nourishing works.
However, a word of warning: The Puritans were a very diverse group of people and their age was characterized with godliness, but also much upheaval, disputation and strife. They disagreed on many doctrines and some of these works contain less orthodox or Scriptural views than others. The reader is strongly advised to read with discernment, particularly if it is unknown whether author is trustworthy.
This project took a huge amount of time and skill to bring to fruition. I would particularly like to thank David Jonescue for the initial list of Puritans he found on EEBO and the concept behind this project as well as the continuous, unceasing efforts toward seeing this complete. Without his labor, this would not be available. Alex Sarrouf was invaluable in providing the initial list of over 7,000 spelling variations he had identified and corrected, as well as continuing to review more than 16,000 additions to that list for any typos.
Logan West
(with David Jonescue and Alex Sarrouf)
www.puritansearch.org
THE KERNELL OF CHRISTIANITY: CONTAINING A SHORT YET FVLL Sum of our Communion with CHRIST.
By M FRANCIS PECK M r of Arts, Minister of the Word and Pastor at Hartford.
Imprimatur
John Downame.
London, Printed By G. M. for John Bellamy at the sign of the three Golden-Lions near the Royal-Exchange, 1644.
THE KERNELL OF Christianity.
Q W Hat is every own bound to know that looks to be saved?
A. Two things.
- 1. Something concerning God.
- 2 Something concerning Man.
Q What ought you to know and believe concerning God?
A. That there is own most glorious God. Deut. 6.4. Exod. 33.18.
Q How doth it appear that God is so glorious?
A. In four particulars.
- 1. In his Effence, which is incomprehensible.
- 2. In his attributes, which are those divine perfections whereby he makes himself known to us, which attributes are not qualities in God, but nature. God's Justice is God himself, and God's power is God himself &c.
-
3. In his persons, which are three.
- 1. The Father begetting.
- 2. The Son begotten.
- 3. The Holy Ghost proceeding.
- 1 The Father is glorious in regard of Election.
- 2. The Son is glorious in regard of Redemption.
- 3. The Holy Ghost is glorious in regard of Application.
- 1. The Father is glorious in choosing the house. that is in the heart of a poor sinner.
- 2. The Son is glorious in purchasing the house. that is in the heart of a poor sinner.
- 3. The Hoy Ghost is glorious in dwelling in the house. that is in the heart of a poor sinner.
- 4. In his works.
Q What are those?
A.
-
1. His decrees of
- Election.
- Reprobation
-
2. His works of
- Creation.
- Providence.
Q What ought you to know and believe concerning his work of creation?
A. That this one glorious God made all things of nothing in six days in excellent order and very good. Heb. 11.3. Exod. 20.11. Gen 1. • 1.
Q What ought you to know and believe concerning the work of providence?
A. That this one glorious God wisely ordereth, governeth, and disposeth of all things, even to the least circumstance, Mat. 6.26. &c. and 10, 29, 30.
Q. What ought you to know and believe concerning man?
A. These six things following:
- 1. What was the glorious, and happy condition of man by creation.
- 2. What that miserable, and lamentable estate is, that man is now fallen into.
- 3. What Jesus Christ is, the only means of deliverance out of this estate.
- 4. What faith is, the only means of applying Christ, and how it is wrought in the soul.
- 5. What that happy estate is, that every man that is in Christ by Faith, is brought unto.
- 6. What kind of thankfulness, and life it is, that God requires of all them that be in this estate by Christ.
Q. What are you to know concerning the glorious condition of man by Creation?
A. God created all man-kind in his own Image.
Q Wherein did the Image of God consist?
A. In perfect knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Col. 3.10. Ephes 4 24.
Q. Man being created in a most happy condition, wherein did his happiness consist?
A In two things especially:
- 1. His understanding was full of divine knowledge of the whole mind of God.
- 2. His will and affections were fully conformable to God's will.
Q Wherein did man's happiness further consist?
A. In five things:
- 1. He was in favor with God.
- 2. He had familiar communion with God.
- 3. He felt unspeakable joy arising from this communion.
- 4. He had dominion over all inferior creatures.
- 5. He was immortal, and should never have tasted of death, if he had not fallen by sin.
Q. Doth this any way concern us?
A. Yes; his estate was ours in him; we being then in his loins.
Q. What learn you by this?
A. Three things:
1. To lament and bewail the loss of this condition by sin.
2. That I ought to labor to get this jmage of God repaired in me.
3. That I ought not to be ashamed of holiness, nor to content myself with some small measures of it, much less to hate it, as profane persons and dissembling hypocrites do.
Q. What is that miserable and lamentable estate that man is now fallen into?
A. His misery now appears in four things.
1. In his birth: he is borne dead in sin and so void of all good, and full of all evil, and so a child of wrath. Ephes. 2.1, 2, 3, 4. Rom. 1.29.
2. In his life, whatsoever he doth is sin in God's sight. Tit. 1.15. God and all creatures are his enemies. Psal. 5.5. Job. 5.23. he remains a bondslave of Satan til God convert him. Acts. 26.18. and hangs by the twinethred of life every moment ready to drop into hell.
3. In his death: then comes an end of all his hopes, and pleasures, and the beginning of all his woes and sorrows.
4. After death: First comes his particular judgment. Heb. 9.27. after this follows his general judgment, when that terrible sentence, 25. and the 41. ver. shall be pressed upon him. After this follows the execution, wherein the vials of God's fierce wrath are poured out upon his soul and body, which fire shall never be quenched.
Q. Wherein doth the aggravation of this woeful estate of man by nature appear?
A. In three particulars:
- 1. He knows not his misery. Rev. 3.17
- 2. He is not affected with it, though he should know it. Rom. 2.5.
- 3. He is unable of himself to come out of it, though he should both know it and be affected with it. Rom. 5.6.
Q. What learn you from hence?
A. I learn that God's wrath against sin, and sinful man (temaining in this condion) is very great.
Q. How great is it?
A. So great that nothing (without Christ) but eternal death of body and soul in the everlasting torments of hell can satisfy God's just displeasure. Gal. 3.10.
Q. Is it best now to see your miserable condition by nature, and to feel this wrath of God, and mourn under it while there is hope, and means to come out of it; or to stay till the gate of grace be shut; and God snatches the soul from all hope, and means by death?
A. It's far better to see it, and to mourn under it now.
Q. How, and why must a man see and feel himself under this wrath and misery?
A. 1. Every man must see that he is under God's wrath for the present; else he will never seek to Christ to bear it for him.
2. Man must see what this fearful wrath of God is, that is now piled against him; else he will never prize Christ to deliver him out of it.
3. All men must see that this wrath is ready to light on them every moment in the full measure of it; else they will defer their return till hereafter.
4 A man must see he is bound hand and foot in the chains of his sins, and cannot come from under them, nor lay hold of Christ to help him out of them; else he will presume he hath received Christ when he hath not.
Q. What is to be known of everyone concerning Jesus Christ, the only means of deliverance out of this estate?
A. These four things:
1. What his person is, namely, both God and man united into one person, which is Jesus Christ.
2. What his love is towards man, namely past understanding. Ephes 3.18, 19.
3. What his offices are, which are these three.
1. His Priestly office, whereby he offered himself for his Church Heb. 7.27.
2. His Prophetical office, whereby he teacheth his Church. Acts 3.22.
3. His Kingly office, whereby he rules his Church. Psal. 2.6.
4. How he delivers those, whom he purposeth to save, hamely by being made sin, and curse and righteousness for them. 2. Cor. 5.21. Gal. 3.13. 1. Cor. 1.30.
Q. What learn you from hence?
A. I learn that all my sinful duties, no nor my death, cannot pacify God's wrath, and deliver me from it: It is done only by the perfect righteousness and death of Jesus Christ.
Q. How may we come to get this Christ to do all for us?
A. By receiving him by Faith. John. 1.12.
Q. When may a man without presumption receive Christ as his own?
A. 1 When the poor soul is so weary, and heavy laden with the apprehension of sin, and wrath that it cannot live without Christ.
2. When the poor sinner is so out of love with himself, that he is content to part with all sin for Christ. Isa. 55.7.
3. When the poor sinner receives Christ to that end that God the Father offers him, namely to be his Priest, Prophet, and King.
Q How may a man come to receive Christ? can man create Faith in himself to receive him, or must the Lord by an infinite almighty power work it in him?
A. The Lord must create faith in him by his almighty power. Ephes. 1.19.
Q. What is to be known concerning faith, the only means of applying Christ?
A. Two things
- 1. what Faith is.
- 2. How it is wrought in the soul.
Q. What is Faith?
A. It is a special grace of God, whereby an humbled sinner feeling himself unable to believe, is drawn, and so comes by the help of God's Spirit to Christ for all good, and so rests upon him. Job. 6.44, 45. Phil. 3.7, 8, 9.
Q. How doth the Lord work this Faith in the soul by his mighty power, and how comes the soul to know it is wrought?
A. By these nine steps:
1. The Lord gives the soul a listening ear to the word preached, as if God himself were speaking to it.
2. The Lord makes the soul to understand the word. Mat. 13.23.
3. The Lord savingly wounds the soul, with the sense and apprehension of his lost estate; having understood it. Acts. 2.37.
4. Then the Lord makes the soul poor in spirit, ready to die for want of grace, and Christ. Mat. 5.3.
5. The Lord reveals unto the soul the freeness of his grace and mercy in Christ, and then brings the soul to ponder on this mercy, from whence ariseth hope of help; hereupon hope comes and waits one Christ for it, seeing now it is possible that an unworthy sinful, lost creature may have it. Joel. 2.14. Jonah 3.9.
6. The Lord reveals the riches of his mercy in Christ, whereby the soul hungers after it. Mat. 5.6. and is not quiet without it, hence he desires, and longs, and begs for it, with unutterable groans, seeing and knowing (with the prodigal) that there is enough in his fathers house. Rom. 8.26.
7. Then the Lord reveals the worth and excellency of his mercy in Christ, and hereby makes the soul to love it. Hence love to this mercy comes secretly, and contents it self with it; hereupon the soul promiseth if it may but have this mercy in the Lord Jesus to pity it, and receive it; it will everlastingly own it, and admire the Lord for it. Lam. 3.24.
8. The Lord reveals the sweetness of his mercy in the Lord Jesus, and hereby gives the soul a satisfying taste of it, and hence the will comes and is persuaded with joy to leave it self forever upon it, here to live, or here to die. Psal. 39.7.
9. The soul being thus come up to Christ; the Lord doth at last reveal the property of mercy to him, (thus believing) whereby the soul is now assured, and persuaded that neither height, nor depth shall separate him from God's love in Christ. Rom. 8.38, 39.
Q. What is that happy condition that everyone doth enjoy, who are thus in Christ by Faith▪
A. It consist in two things:
- 1. Union with Christ.
- 2. The benefits which the soul doth enjoy hereby.
Q. What is Union with Christ?
A. It is that whereby the Spirit makes the soul one with Christ, and Christ all to it. 1. Cor. 6.17. Col. 3.11.
Q. What benefits doth the soul immediately enjoy by Union with Christ?
A. These four
- 1. Justification.
- 2. Reconciliation.
- 3. Adoption.
- 4. Regeneration.
Q. What is Justification?
A. It is a gracious act of God the Father, whereby he imputing the sins of a believer to Christ, and Christ's righteousness to him, he accounts him guiltless, and just before him. Rom. 3.26.4.3.5.5.1. 2 Cor. 5.21. Ephes. 1.7. Col. 1.14. Psalm. 32.1, 2.
Q. What is reconciliation?
A. It is a most gracious act of God the Father offended, whereby he receives into his favor a justified sinner. 2 Cor. 5.18, 19. Col. 1.21.
Q. What is Adoption?
A. A gracious act of God the Father, whereby he accounts a reconciled sinner his son, and so makes him coheire with Christ. Gal. 4.5, 6.
Q. What is Regeneration?
A. It is a gracious act of God in the heart of his sons, whereby in uniting them unto Christ, he infuseth a most glorious life into them. Ephes. 2.10. and 4.24.
Q. What follows a believers Union with Christ?
A. Two things.
- 1. Coalition, or growing up with Christ
- 2. Glorification.
Q By what means or wherein doth a believing soul grow up with Christ?
A. By increase of Faith and sanctification
Q Wherein doth sanctification consist?
1. In mortification, or dying daily to sin.
2. In vivification, or living daily to Christ. Rom. 6.3, 4, 5. Rom. 8.11.
Q How are Faith and sanctification confirmed and increased?
A. By the same means that they are begun by, and also by receiving of the Sacraments.
Q. How many Sacraments be there?
A. Two
- 1. Baptism, which confirms our Regeneration, or new birth.
- 2. The Lord's Supper, which signifies and seals our growth in Christ.
Q What is a believers glorification?
A. When death hath swallowed the bodies of God's faithful Servants, their blessed souls are taken up to Christ, and swallowed up in Glory which never shall have an end. 1. Thes. 4.17.
Q. What kind of thankfulness and life is that which God requires of all them that be in this estate by Jesus Christ?
A. The Lord requires of them to answer his infinite love with their love again, to the praise of Jesus Christ, testified by obedience to the morral law, observing it (though not as a covenant of works, yet) as a rule of life, according to his will. John. 14.15, 21.
Q. What is this called?
A. Serving of God. Luk. 1.74, 75.
Q How must this be performed?
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