As obedience without faith is impossible, so faith without obedience is vain and unprofitable: ‘For as the body,’ says St. James, ‘without the spirit is dead, so faith without good works is dead also.’¹⁶⁰¹⁶⁰   James, ii. 26. Having therefore, I hope, laid a sure foundation, by resolving what, and how, to believe, I shall now, by the grace of God, resolve so to order my conversation, in all circumstances and conditions of life, as to raise a good superstructure upon it, and to finish the work God has given me to do, i. e. so to love and please God in this world, as to enjoy and to be happy with him for ever in the next. And it is absolutely necessary that I should be speedy and serious in these resolutions; especially when I reflect with myself how much of my time I have already spent upon the vanities and follies of youth, and how much enhanced and increased this work is, by acquired guilt, by settled and repeated habits of sin, which are not without great difficulty to be atoned for, and removed. My heart, alas! is now more hardened in iniquity, more puffed with pride, and more averse from God, than when I first 114entered into covenant with him; and I have added many actual sins and provocations to my original guilt and pollution: instead of glorifying God, I have dishonoured him; and, instead of working out my own salvation, I have taken a pleasure and delight in such things as would, in the end, be my ruin and destruction. So that, before I can be able to make any progress in the duties of religion, or walk in the paths that lead to life, I must first be freed and disentangled from these weights and encumbrances that clog and retard me in my spiritual course; I must have my heart cleansed and softened, humbled and converted to God, and all my transgressions purged and pardoned by the merits of my Redeemer. And then being fully persuaded that there is no way for me to come to the joys of heaven, but by walking according to the strictest rules of holiness upon earth, I must endeavour for the future, by a thorough change and reformation of my life, to act in conformity to the divine will and pleasure in all things, ‘and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord:’ for the Most High has told me in his word, that ‘without holiness no man shall see the Lord.’

In order, therefore, to qualify myself for this happiness, it will be necessary for me to settle firm and steady Resolutions, to fulfil my duty, in all the several branches of it, to God, my neighbour, and myself; and to take care these Resolutions be put in practice according to the following method.