take up the yoke and bear the burden quietly and cast it upon the Lord who will bring it to pass That we may not boldly pry into his decrees nor presume upon a rash confidence or despair in distrust of his love but adhere to the plain rule of his word and busy our selves in doing his will That we would tread carefully in the path of duty and mind the business of our general and particular calling and trust God with the success in the use of all lawfull means That we may not be discontented peevish and froward when our humours and interests are cross'd and when his providence answers not our desires but bless God when he takes away as well as when he gives and give him the glory whatever befalls us That we may resign all to his blessed will and rest fully satisfied with his determinations that in all cases we may say with our Saviour Not my will but thine be done That he would write his laws in our hearts and teach us his statutes and acquaint us with his will that we may doe it That he would assist us with his grace and strength from above for the performance of his commandements That he would mortifie our lusts and the corrupt desires of the flesh that we may not set up them in opposition to his Holy will but bring every proud imagination in obedience to him That we may be so acted by his spirit that we may be quickend in every good way and work and be carried on from strength to strength till we come to perfection That we may have a holy emulation for the blessed spirits above and endeavour to imitate them in yielding an obedience without delay without murmuring and without weariness That we may endeavour to the utmost to find out what that good that acceptable and perfect will of God is and to perform it and never think we can doe too much for him or suffer too much for his sake That we would lay aside all worldly cares and serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life and fit our selves for the business of eternity by having our conversation in heaven whilest we are here on earth Thus the three Petitions do immediately concern God and may also have particular reference to the three Persons of the Trinity That the name of the Father who is God blessed for ever may be exalted and glorified That the Kingdom of his Son and his glorious presence may be hastned That the spirit would frame our hearts to the obedience of his will And to the three offices of Christ By whose name as he is our Priest we are saved whose name is above every name holy and excellent who as King rules in our hearts and will come in triumphant manner at the last day to own his faithfull subjects and be avenged of his enemies And who lastly as Prophet hath declared unto us the will of the Father and came to do his will on earth as it is in Heaven with an exact unsinning obedience Nor is the word Thy idle but hath a great significance commending to us that great Gospel-duty of self-denial which is indeed the essential character of a right Christian who can be content to part with all so God may have his due For so the opposition is to be understood Thy name not our honour Thy Kingdom not our interest Thy will not our humour And thus the three petitions seem to be levell'd at the world's Trinity Honour Riches and Pleasure We ought not to study our own honour but to doe all for the glory of God we must not strive for deceivable riches but set the Crown upon Christ's head We should not follow our own pleasure and pursue our own satisfactions and contents but submit to God's will It is no wonder that this holy form of Prayer was so displeasing to the ambitious and factious spirits of these latter times a generation of self-seeekers who meant to advance their own names and get the power of the Kingdom into their own hand and pretended a divine authority for their own will as if they would have prayed rather Our will be done in heaven as it is on earth nor did they stick to say as much when they father'd all their mischiefs on providence and from their successes concluded God's approbation of their wickedness These last words On earth as it is in Heaven may seem to look back upon the three precedent Petitions after this manner on earth as in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done May we men on earth praise and glorify thy name adore thy power and Majesty perform thy commands and submit to thy holy will even as the Angels those ministring spirits and the blessed Saints doe in Heaven saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Now follow the Petitions which concern us and our necessities which are either temporal supplyes of food and a comfortable subsistence and a dayly provision and sustenance or spiritual wants such as are the Pardoâ— of our sins and justification by the blood of the Son of God which was shed for the remission of sins and the strength of assisting grace whereby we may resist and overcome temptation sanctification wrought by the spirit of God dwelling in us and cleansing our hearts by faith So that these three also may have respect to the three persons seeing that they seem particularly directed to the Father for maintenance to the Son for pardon to the Spirit for grace BREAD What more natural for children to ask or for a father to give Bread is the staff of life the stay and support of nature the chief nourishment and that which alone will keep nature in repair and the body in health but is usually taken by a Synecdoche for all manner of food whatsoever even for flesh meat and drink whence to eat bread with one was a common form of speech meant for sitting down at table dining or supping and being entertain'd and indeed feasted with varieties And yet more largely sometimes as here it is for all the provisions and accommodations of life not only food but raiment habitation health strength money friends estate preferment vigour of mind soundness of body success in our undertakings a blessing upon our labours comfort from our relations with all other temporal concernments as seasonable weather the early and the later rain fruitfull fields plenty peace deliverance from dangers long life and a good old age with all those good things of mind of body and of fortune as we call them which may be the objects of a right order'd natural desire and all those additional advantages which the custome of countryes hath made convenient and agreeable to people according to their severall ranks and qualities which are all here comprehended under the name of Bread to teach us frugality and contentedness that if we have but bread we
the head this in the heart Again Faith is divided into Historical Temporal and Saving Faith The first the Divels have who believ and tremble The second is of hypocrites who believe for a time and fall off The last doth properly belong to the elect who are therefore called Believers and the faithfull who hold out to the end live by their Faith Now Faith is a full perswasion of mind and a sure confidence by which we depend upon him in whom we believ IN GOD. We are said to believ a God when we acknowledge that there is a God and he that is such an one as he hath discovered himself in his word and works to believ God when we are perswaded that his word is the very truth and that whatsoever he hath promis'd or threatned in holy Scripture shall surely come to pass to believ in God when we place all our hope and trust in his power and goodness who both will help those that trust in him because he is a Father and can because he is Almighty God is of an infinite nature which exceeds all bounds of time or place much less can be comprehended by our shallow understanding we cannot know but we must believ and this very Faith doth as much exceed reason as reason doth sense in evidence and certainty The Holy Trinity by which three Persons are one God and the Incarnation of the Word by which two Natures meet into one Person are high and deep mysteries not to be reached by the eye not to be fathom'd by the plummet of our reason but Faith takes the heighth with a Iacob's staff and humble Hope fastens her Anchor in the bottom of this depth and diffusive Charity embraceth the whole compass of Divine truth THE FATHER The Deity is distinguished into three Persons the Father the Son and Holy Ghost and these Three are One and the same God the Father begets the Son the Son is begotten of the Father the Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son God is the Father also of all things for of him and to him and through him are all things ALMIGHTY Who can doe all things and doth whatsoever he pleaseth both in Heaven and in Earth neither is there any thing too hard for him for who hath resisted his will Yet God cannot lye call back yesterday or make the same thing to be and not to be at the same time for these are marks of extream impotence not omnipotence and God would not be God if he could doe them MAKER God's power is not idle Even before he made he decreed to make and his thoughts were busy about the work of creation from eternity He made not as workmen doe of stuff lying before them for he made all things of nothing nor with pains and weariness for he spake and they were made He did not only make the world and then leave it to it's self as Masons doe houses they build but he preserves and governs too and disposes all events to his own glory OF HEAVEN AND EARTH That is of the whole world whereof heaven and earth are the principal parts He spred out the earth as a floor and built up the wals and laid the roof of heaven he stored the elements with several creatures the heaven with stars as lamps hung out the aire with birds the water with fishes the earth with beasts He made heaven earth and all things therein contained in the space of six dayes but the chief of all his works were Angels the citizens of heaven and Men the inhabitants of the earth made after his own likeness and indued with understanding and excellent gifts But some of the Angels with Lucifer by reason of pride left their station and turned Divels All mankind fell in Adam by disobedience from a state of innocence and happiness into a state of sin and misery so that by nature we are the children of wrath but by grace become the children of God and that by means of the Son of God who became the Son of Man that he might save the children of men The second Article Here begins the part of the Creed concerning Christ the second Person Now Christ is considered either in his Person or in his State which is two-fold the state of Humiliation and the state of Exaltation And in Iesus Christ his onely begotten Son our Lord. The Person of Christ consists of two natures Divine and Humane for as soul and body make up man so God and man are one Christ. He is described here by his names titles The names are Iesus and Christ by which are noted his offices The titles which are given him that he is the only Son of God and our Lord shew partly his essence partly his dignity AND. He who believes the Father must also believ the Son for he who denieth the Son hath not the Father IN. It must be the same saith by which we believ Father and Son since both Father and Son are the same God I and the Father are one saith he and therefore as Ye believ in the Father believ also in me JESUS That is Saviour for he came into the world to save sinners that he might reconcile God and man and recover fallen man out of the state of sin and misery into a state of grace and glory He saves from sin and from the punishment due to sin and freeth us as well from the power as guilt of sin CHRIST Messias in Hebrew and Christ in Greek is all one as in Latin anointed Now three kinds of men were wont to be anointed that is to be consecrated to their office by powring oyl upon their heads to wit King Priest and Prophet Christ was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows that is extraordinarily furnisht with gifts of the holy Spirit Melchizedeck was King and Priest Samuel Priest and Prophet David Prophet and King Christ alone the thrice greatest King Priest and Prophet King by subduing our enemies the world the flesh and the Divel and ruling our hearts by his word and spirit Priest by offering up a perfect sacrifice for us satisfying divine justice for our sins and by blessing us by a perpetual intercession Prophet by revealing the will of the Father and discovering to us all things which belong to salvation HIS ONELY BEGOTTEN SON God hath many sons but Christ is the onely begotten God is stiled the Father of lights and the Father of spirits and the Angels are called the sons of God Magistrates children of the most High because they resemble him in power and dignity and all Godly men are by grace made the children of God Now there is a vast difference betwixt Christ and these All creatures by creation blessed spirits by imitation Princes and Rulers by institution Believers by adoption become God's children But Christ alone is his Son by eternall generation of
beam and his holy feet closed together to the upright beam of the Cross exposed him naked to publick shame being hung betwixt two theevs in a place without the city at the Feast of Passeover and when he had given up the ghost with many pains and groans a souldier pierced his side with a launce that that saying might have place they shall look on him whom they have pierced DEAD By the separation of soul and body for his body remain'd upon the Cross and his soul return'd immediately to God as himself told the penitent theef This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He was not born after an ordinary manner neither dyed he a common death for as much as beside the extream pain he suffered whilest he hung with the weight of his body upon the Cross and the great shame to which he lay open he lay under a curse the Law pronouncing him cursed that hangs upon the tree AND BURIED Taken down from the Cross embalm'd with spices wrapped up in fine linnen and laid in a tomb where none had lay'n before by the care and cost of Ioseph of Arimathea And the malice of his enemies persued him beyond death and attended him to his very grave who that he might not rise again as himself had promised rolled a great stone to the mouth of the tomb and clapping on their own seals set a guard to watch him HE DESCENDED INTO HELL That is he went down into the lower-most parts of the earth and for the space of three dayes remain'd in the grave amongst the dead Or as some expound it he suffered the pains of Hell and the wrath of God due to our sins and underwent the curse of the law and terrours of conscience to which we were lyable Others take the words as they sound of the place that he did coveigh himself into the regions of darkness and discovered to the divels and to the wicked spirits the glory of his presence and routing the powers of Hell leading captivity captive and trampling Satan that old serpent the enemy of mankind under his victorious feet according to the first Prophesie of Christ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head And in this sense this article is the beginning of Christ's exaltation The other degrees are his Resurrection his Ascension his Sitting at the right hand of God the Father and his Coming to judgement THE THIRD DAY After that he had lain three dayes in the grave as Ionas who ws the type of the Son of Man continued three days in the whale's belly It being observ'd that on the fourth day the body begins to corrupt which was not to happen to Christ David thus speaking concerning him My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption Wherefore early in the morning on the third day which was for that reason appointed the Christian Sabbath HE ROSE AGAIN Partly raising himself by his own virtue and divine power as himself saith I lay down my life that I may take it up again I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Partly being raised by God the Father who when his Iustice was fully satisfied released Christ out of the prison of the grave and to that purpose sent his Angels to roll away the stone death having now no more dominion over him who having finisht the work of our redemption rose again for our justification FROM THE DEAD He return'd to life appeared to his Disciples and others several times shewed the wounds which he had received on the Cross and made Thomas who was hard of belief to feel his side that he might know it was a true body And having for fourty dayes together conversed upon earth and given orders to the Apostles how they should goe into all the world and preach the Gospell and plant churches promising them the assistance of the spirit he took his leave of them in this manner as followeth HE ASCENDED In the sight of his Apostles from the top of mount Olivet where he had bin formerly used to spend much of his time in holy retirements and spiritual exercises he lifted up himself from the ground and so mounting upward through the aire was received by a cloud and to the wonder of them all carried aloft out of sight two Angels telling them as they stood gazing that as they had seen him goe away so he should come again INTO HEAVEN The seat of the blessed where God sits on his Throne attended by millions of Angels far above the sphear of the stars the sky to wit the highest heaven For having dispatched the business for which he came down on earth he return'd to the Father by whom he had bin sent to intercede with him in our behalf and make out to us thence the benefit of all those things which he had done and suffer'd for us here And having conquer'd sin and death and broken the power of Hell what remains but that he should as in triumph ride upon the wings of the wind ascend to Heaven as the prize of his glorious conquest AND SITTETH To note that he hath fully accomplished the work of our Salvation he is said at last to sit down that he may as it were rest from his labours For the servant stands or goes whilest he is employ'd and sits not down till his work be done Now Christ put on the form of a servant and came as he saith of himself to wait not to be waited on That he sits also is a token of that authority which the Father hath given him having delivered unto him all power both in heaven and in earth and put all things under his feet So God sits in Heaven to order all things at his pleasure Again to sit sometimes signifies stay he sits there not to return before the end of the world Lastly by this word is expressed the blessed and glorious condition of the Saints in the life to come who shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore to shew the greatness of the dignitie to which Christ according to his humane nature is advanced is added At the right hand of God the Father Almighty The right hand usually expresseth strength and honour power and glory besides to give the right hand is a sign of fellowship and friendship wherefore God calls him the man my fellow Now to speak properly God hath no right hand or left nor any bodily parts but that he may apply himself to our capacities he doth use to speak of himself after the manner of men Becuse earthly Princes are wont to place those at their right hand whom they favour and would shew a particular honour as Solomon entertained his mother The meaning is that God hath raised him to the highest pitch
and a praise to the good And as he hath corwn'd all mankind with honour and dignity giving them dominion over their fellow-creatures so he hath put that Majesty upon rulers whom he hath appointed to govern their fellow-men who else without lawes and order would be little better then beasts that they may be looked upon and observ'd with that reverence as if they were earthly Gods I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dy like men They are God's anointed ones and honour'd of him accountable only to him required therefore to do their homage and kiss the Son least he be angry And as they must like all other men dy so they must also appear before the judgement-seat of God Kings to their subjects dreadful stand O're Kings themselv's is Gods command He hath all the royalties that belong to an Imperial Crown a righteous Scepter righteous lawes loyal subjects glorious priviledges blessed rewards for the obedient and great punishments for the disobedient Not ought Kings of the earth to be impatient at mutinous and rebellious spirits when God himself wants not those who rise up against him and which may set them a copy of princely clemency to write their acts of grace after gives gifts to the rebellious leaving some of them as monuments of his mercy though too others he make trophies of his justice I might note that sure Kingship is the best form and model of government since God himself rules under that title that the Regicide is a kind of Deicide and when subjects dare mate their soverain and contrive a Common-wealth to justle out the Kingdom they do but challenge divine vengeance for that which perhaps their injur'd princes forces cannot chastise and call upon themselves Lucifer's fate who left his first estate by clambering higher whose pride prefer'd him to the principality in Hell where he gnashes his teeth and curses God who questionless hath been that Angel of light that hath cloak'd sedition with the name of Godliness and taught the late teachers to despise dominion and speak evil of dignities and blaspheme the name of Kings And all nature hath by instinct followed divine example gathering it self as much as may be into oneness making every sort of creature almost submit to monarchical rule and preaching as it were the Apostle's lesson Be not many masters But the sad experience of these nations in the time of tyranny and the wonderfull providence of God in the restitution hath sufficiently convinc'd all honest English of this truth that That government is best which is likest God's to wit a Monarchy a Kingdom Now God hath a twofold Kingdom one universal at large all the world over the other particular and special his Church For he is King of the nations and King of the Saints or we may say a threefold Kingdom in respect of the different administration of this later according to the different condition of the church militant here on earth or triumphant in heaven to wit a temporal spiritual and eternal Kingdom or the Kingdom of his power the Kingdom of grace and the Kingdom of glory By his power he governs the whole fabric of the world disposes of all things appoints seasons sets bounds to human power over-rules their purposes stills the raging of the Sea and the madness of the people raises up casts down kills and makes alive strikes the earth with his thunder and darts forth his lightnings the winds obey him blow only where he lists All things are his servants and he doth what he pleaseth both in heaven and in earth By his grace he governs his Church sets up his throne in the hearts of his people appoints officers gathers the elect and rules them by his word and spirit conquers sin and death kills our corruptions subdues our lusts and treads Satan under our feet and breaks the powers of hell that the gates thereof shall not prevail against the church guids the faithfull ones in his wayes tryes their patience exercises their faith teaches them his lawes that they may observe his statutes and ordinances defends the Saints and is a sun and shield to direct and protect them that neither the Devil nor wicked men can doe them any hurt rewards those that doe or suffer any thing for his sake punishes offenders and persues the impenitent and such as obstinately stand out his calls and tenders of grace and go on presumptuously in their evill way with the fury of his indignation afflicting them with bodily plagues temporal calamities and spiritual judgements as blindness of mind hardness of heart c. giving them up to their own shamefull lusts and a reprobate mind into the power of the divel and either passing final sentence upon them in this life or reserving them till the great Assises of the last judgement In the Kingdom of glory as he himself is call'd the King of glory he sits on his Throne incompass'd with millions of Angels and blessed Saints who fall down before him and sing praises to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb. This is to have it's beginning when the other two end not to be compleated till the last day when the Angels gather the elect from the four corners of the earth whom God shall reward with everlasting bliss when he shall send the ungodly to Hell where the worm never dyeth and the fire never goes out Then those who were sufferers shall be conquerers and wear a never-fading crown I have fought a good fight saith St. Paul and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness All the Saints then shall be Kings there shall be the glorious orders of pure Virgins that defiled not themselves of blessed Coâ—â—essors that were not ashamed of their profession of holy Martyrs who lov'd not their soules to death of Prophets the Harbingers of Christ and Apostles the heralds of the Gospell and all the quire of Heaven singing Halleluiahs This is that Kingdom of Christ which he said was not of this world for which he despised the shame with which his servants that have a tast of the heavenly gift and are afforded the earnest of their meditations a sight of the heavenly Canaan and glorified transfiguration as from Pisgah and on mount Tabor are so ravished and deeply affected that they must needs cry come Lord Iesus come quickly Thy Kingdom come COME i.e. appear and show it self may its interest be promoted may it get ground and inlarge it self may it be seen that the Lord is King let the people be never so unquiet may it come into our hearts and rule there and beat down every proud imagination that lifts it self up against God may Christ hasten his coming illustrious presence which the Iews Liturgy is ful of even to this day the coming of Messias Now there is a twofold advent or coming of Christ mentioned in
Lord God the King of glory immortal infinite eternal the greatest the best in a word the Heavenly Father And this distinguishes him from the fathers of our flesh our earthly parents who are weak men dwelling in houses of clay of a limited life love whose breath is in their nostrils and when they return to the dust all their thoughts perish who cannot do for us as they would and sometimes will not do us that little good they can short-handed and narrow-hearted who if they supply our outward and bodily wants give us a handsome education and provide us a fashionable way of life they do as much as is expected more then can be requited but cannot bestow grace on us nor bless us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places And yet to these parents we are required next to God to pay our service and thanks to the utmost and shew all possible honour Nor did our Saviour who finds fault with the Pharisaical interpretation of that precept and the sorry evasion of the Corban mean to slacken that natural bond of affection and duty which is betwixt parents and their children when he bids us call no man Father upon earth But he speaks that comparatively to heighten our reverences dutyes to our heavenly Father that in comparison of him we should take no notice of our earthly relations nor think them worthy of our least respect as himself sayes elswhere He that hateth not father and mother c. that is doth not infinitely less love them then he doth me my wayes and my concernments he cannot be my disciple Wherefore how great an aw ought we to bring along with us before such a glorious presence what distance should we stand at what reverence should we bear to his name since he is in Heaven and we on earth what obedience should we have for his word with what humility should we come and fall down at his feet kneel before the Lord our Maker How should every one with the prodigal cry out Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son IN HEAVEN God is every where omnipresent fills all places Both lands and tracts of sea heaven high Whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there But he is said in a peculiar manner to be in heaven there he dwels in unapprochable light there he displayes his glory and scatters his goodness out of his treasures his sun and his rain thunder and lightning hail storm fulfilling his word There are the dreadful remarks of his presence and the brightest appearances of his Majesty which made the very heathens place their imaginary deityes in heaven that though they mistook in the object of their worship yet they hit right in the place where they were to seek God For heaven is his dwelling place but the earth hath he given to the children of men The word is in the Heavens not in these lower regions of the sky where the winds bluster and the clouds thicken where the sun and moon and stars observing their courses carry light about the world But in the third heaven in the Heaven of Heavens whence he is called Elion the Highest Poor short-sighted Pagans dazled with the glories of these luminaries which shine in the firmament and are but the servants of nature tapers which God has hung up in the vault and cover of the world directed their devotions no farther and so came short of the glory of God who dwelleth on high far above the very light of nature and the laws of change whereas things here below are subject to continual vicissitudes roll'd about with the wheel of chance alwayes flowing or ebbing the world it self being but a sea of glass there 's a perpetuity of good and a constant happiness which knows neither change nor end Besides it became the infinity of God which cannot be bounded or coop'd up with any term of locality to choose heaven for his mansion whose vast circumference and compass is of that wide extent that in the Natural Philosopher's opinion the whole globe of earth is but as a point to it and this clod in which men make such a quarter and bustle in persuit of their interest is a sorry ant-hillock in respect of that stately arch and spangled roof nay the nations are as the Prophet hath it as the small dust of the balance and a drop of a bucket Lastly the incorruptible God thought fit to set his seat on high far above the sphere of corruption to which all sublunary things are liable and advance himself to the greatest distance from earth the grounds and dregs of nature the bottom of the world the sediment and mother of things There he dwells in liquid and clear regions of glory and bliss the invisible God whose face no man can see and live attended by millions of Angels and blessed Saints departed this life yet is pleased to look down from on high on the children of men and have his ears open to their prayers when they call upon him Nor doth he only dwell in heaven and as with reverence I may say keep house there with his courtiers and domesticks about him but he sits there too as a Iudge The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens Heaven is his throne and earth is his foot stool And let things run never so much at random here on earth there is one in heaven to render to every one according to his works whose wrath as 't is unsufferable so his power is irresistible and his knowledge infallible He has girt the whole round of nature that there is no escaping him the whole world is his close prisoner and let wicked men use all their shifts though the mountains should fall upon them and the hills cover them yet God's hand shall find out his enemies and bring them to punishment For He is there as a spy too upon us he beholdeth us afar of and observes our carriage and takes notice of all our doings not an idle word scapes him nor is there a thought in the heart which he knows not long before His piercing eyes walk too and fro through the earth and his ey-lids try the children of men And this argument our Saviour uses where he perswades to secret good and sayes he thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly What care then should we have to our wayes to our words who are alwayes in sight in hearing of our heavenly Father with what reverence should we approach to his throne in what aw should we stand of his power How should we be struck flat to the ground like Paul at his conversion amazed and astonished with the considerations of a heavenly Majesty How should our hearts be set on fire with heavenly flames and the
to our condition and to that station of life whereunto his good providence hath design'd us That he would give us strength of body and vigour of mind perfect health and all natural and moral abilities that may fit us for the discharge of our duties and above all a contented spirit that we may eat our bread with chearfulness and be satisfied with his gracious disposals of us and any condition that he shall in his wisdom cast us into either riches or poverty That he would neither send us so much of the world 's good as to tempt us to wantonness and riot nor so little as to make us repine but assign us such a competent portion that we may find a comfortable subsistence and have where with to doe good to others That we may be enabled to provide things honest and fashionable before all men yet not make provision for the flesh to satisfy the lusts thereof That our food may be wholsome rather then delicious so that in the strength thereof we may do him service That our attire may be decent and comely to cover shame not to show pride and vanity that we may not turn his gifts into wantonness or â—mbezill his talents but imploy them to his glory and others good â— and make us friends of the unrighteous mammon That he would bless our labours and give success to our honest undertakings that we may eat the labour of our hands and it may be well with us That he would procure us faithfull friends diligent servants dutifull children fruitfull seasons and furnish us with all other perquisites that may make our condition comfortable That he would bless the nation with righteous government and honest magistrates indue the nobles with courage the commons with loyalty bless all orders and conditions of persons from the highest to the lowest from him that sitteth on the throne to him that is behind the mill enlarge all that are in distress send us plenty and peace in our dayes crown the year with his goodness and make all his steps toward us drop fatness that we may thankfully acknowledge his benefits and be charitably disposed to those that are in want that we may be tender-hearted compassionate not forget to communicate and distribute and show gratitude to all those whom he has made instruments of good to us who have obliged us by any kindness and pray for them that God would restore seaven-fold into their bosome That he would keep us in an humble constant dependance on him and provide honest courses for us that we may not eat the bread of idleness or tempt his providence with the use of unlawfull means That he would deliver us from dangers and distresses preserve us from rapine and spoil and keep us from distrusts and anxietyes about the things of this life but that we may seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof assuring our selves that then all things else shall be added to us and whatsoever our share be of outward things take the Lord for our portion and our inheritance That he would to this end give us Christ the bread of life and with him all things and that he would with that bread which came down from heaven feed our souls to life everlasting strengthning our graces pardoning our sins and subduing our lusts AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US Pardon is as necessary for our spiritual life as bread for our natural For the soul that sins shall dy In many things we offend all even the righteous falls seven times a day For death came into the world by sin over all mankind but righteousness and life came by Iesus Christ And we have dayly need on 't too for we provoke God every day So then we are to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ that our souls may live And as Christ's flesh is bread indeed so is his blood which he shed for the atonement of wrath and forgiveness of sins drink indeed the water out of that spiritual rock which is Christ. Oh that our souls might thirst for the living God as the wounded hart panteth after the water-brooks OUR TRESPASSES The other Evangelist useth another word debts which comes all to one both signifying sins by a translated sense borrowed from dealings amongst men betwixt creditor and debtor the person suffering the injury and the person doing it For a debtor or trespasser that is not solvent or hath not wherewith to make satisfaction agrees with his adversary puts it to reference comes to composition and by mediation of friends takes up the business that there may be no arrest or inditement or other procedeur in law against him as knowing that he should come by the worst be cast in his fuit and be sent to prison where he must ly by it till he have paid the uttermost farthing which being utterly unable to doe he must never hope to come out but rot in prison The same is the case betwixt God and us we are bound to him by our creation to an observance of his laws or to undergoe the penalty of the breach which is everlasting death But we are fallen short and are unable to discharge that debt nor are we able to answer him one word of a thousand so that there are due to us all the plagues written in his book We have gone astray and done abominably we have broken all his laws and commandments we have been rebellious children from our youth up and the imaginations of our hearts have been evill continually we have neglected our duty in every thing and have not harkned to him to obey his voice so that to us belongs shame and confusion of face for ever Now Christ became our surety took up the business undertook our reconciliation and hath answer'd the law satisfied justice discharg'd our debts cancell'd the obligation and nail'd the hand writing of the law unto his cross making a new covenant of life betwixt God and us upon Gospell-terms of grace and new obedience yet still we are wanting on our part and deal treacherously in our covenant trampling upon his blood and despising so great salvation Nay even the best of Saints have their dayly slips and failings Who is he that can justify himself and if any perfectist say he has no sin he deceives himself and the truth is not in him Our sins All Adam's off-spring the whole race of mankind is tainted Behold saith the holy Prophet a man after God's own heart I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin hath my mother conceiv'd me And the Apostle has concluded all under sin so that we are all guilty of original corruption whereby all the faculties of our soul and members of our body are over-spread as with a leprosie from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot beyond the cure of all humane arts and helps Philosophy education
other recreation to entertain himself with but to set gins and snares to catch souls in it being the design of his implacable spight to see man who by his means fell from Paradise the place of bliss to an accursed earth fall yet lower into the torments of Hell to be a companion to the damned spirits He 'l accompany thee to Church and watch thee into thy closet whatever thou art about hee 's at hand he intermeddles in thy civil affairs in thy religious duties hee 'l bear a part and suggest vain thoughts hee 'l buy and sell with thee nay hee 'l watch and pray with thee Our Saviour himself was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted where after the preparation of a forty dayes fast for the conflict he was to enter the lists and vanquish this grand enemy of our salvation O blessed preparatory Lent O happy encounter when the Captain of our salvation with the buckler of faith and girt with the sword of truth and meekness upon his thigh was pleas'd to meet this spiritual Goliah in the field and combate with him that he might tread him under our feet break his head his strength and his policy and give his flesh to be meaâ— for his people in the wilderness that as the viper's flesh proves an excellent Antidot against the poyson of the viper and is a great restorative to nature which the creature it self would destroy so temptations might turn to advantages and the malice of Satan improve our bliss How little able should we be to resist him who made such fierce assaults on the Son of God himself How little hope can we have to escape being tempted to the fowlest and most horrid sins when he had the impudence to tempt God himself for such was Christ to the fowlest Idolatry to fall down and worship the Divel Oh dreadfull blasphemy Oh outragious confidence O a Divel void of all ingenuity past all shame and fear All these things will I give thee if thou fall down and worship me All these things all which things Base bold feind hast thou any thing to give All too all at a clap false pretender thou hast nothing to bestow of thy own but evil hell and death the wages of sin All that 's good is God's already or if thou hast any thing to give dost know saucy creature who it is thou speakest to wilt thou offer thy maker any thing dost think that hee 'l take any thing at thine hand If he stood in need would he pass by all his creatures canst imagin to accept thy kindness And why feind this unusual bounty so great a present to him thou hatest What wouldst thou have him doe for 't wouldst thou purchase his favour Hast a mind to buy thy peace and compound for pardon spare thy gifts bring thy self repent and beg that thou mayst have leave to fall down at his footstool and worship before the mercy seat canst thou confess and forsake thy sins Thou hast Scripture for 't and thy former discourse shews thee well read in Scripture thou shalt find favour And what an opportunity hast thou The Saviour of the world in thy company who came on purpose to reconcile sinners and save what was lost will be easily intreated to intercede for thee and get admittance for a faln Angel nor is all his charity tyed to faln men thy brother Angels whom thou left'st in heaven trust in him and worship him And why maist not thou hope the day of thy return is coming now that heaven gates are set open to all that will enter the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence And thou hast greater reasons to prevail with thee for repentance then miserable men have as knowing the great happiness thou hast parted with and having so long felt the torments of an evil conscience thy own hell and of that hell which thou art heating for others If any man were in thy case who yet is of a shallower understanding and sense then thou art would he not willingly leap out of those flames in which thou fryest would he not gladly be freed from the wrath of God which thou hast for so many ages lain under and which for ever thou must lye under unless thou canst repent And to what end shouldst thou stand out any longer in an enmity to him that overpowers thee to whom thy hatred can doe no hurt who constantly baffles thy counsels defeats thy strengths and has bound thee with everlasting chains one would think this very conflict might sufficiently convince thee how poor thy malice shows and how successless all thy attempts No Repentance is a doctrine to be preached only to men as the good Angels cannot sin so neither can the bad repent The Divel is but enraged with the tidings of salvation and his dispair imboldens him and he is resolv'd to be damn'd for ever He has an inveterate hatred and implacable malice against God which has call'd him forth now unto this defiance He hates the very thoughts of being blessed because he cannot be so out of God's company he hates God as God hates sin with a perfect hatred and would treat with God upon no other terms then this that God would not be Out of hatred to God he hates himself and is contented to foregoe his happiness rather then to acknowledge it and buyes his spight with endless torments If God should reinstate him as he is in heaven and inlarge him from his bonds he would look on the favour as a more painful imprisonment and account heaven his worse hell Though he knows aforehand that nothing he doth against God shall prosper he thinks it success enough of his plots that he has shown a contempt and in this very temptation of Christ nothing pleases him so much as the effrontery of it that he could as his servant Herod after did mock him and set him at nought when he was not suffer'd to doe him any more hurt For what is it he tempts him to that which he could not have impudence to hope would be hearkned to that which he knew was impossible for Christ in his very nature as well as in his will to doe to sin the holy one to commit a sin Oh audacious tempter couldst thou offer to corrupt him who knows no sin with a bribe couldst thou fancy the judge of all the earth could be made doe wickedly for reward when every upright judge scorns to have justice bought many an honest lawyer will not be hired to be an advocate for wrong But oh Divelish impudence what sin He had tempted him before to distrust and then to tempt providence and seeing Scripture as he applyed it would not prevail is not dismayed by a double repulse but that he might go of with a boast seeing he could not with conquest shews himself right Divel and belcheth out a blasphemy big enough to fill the wide mouth of hell He would
thou say the Lord's Prayer this way or that so thou say it one way or other either with this addition according to St. Matthew so as to be one of the Christian multitude or without it according to St. Luke so as to be one of the disciples we shall not quarrel only do not thou quarrel at his wisdom who thought fit to vary some expressions in the self same form on purpose to please thee that thou mightst have a liberty of choice there being an express command to use it and thou left to thy freedom to take which thou wilt One thing may yet perhaps be objected why the Church should follow St. Luke in this omission and take the rest from St. Matthew whose words in expressing the fourth and fift petitions differ from St. Lukes To this some perhaps will answer that the Doxologie is of a questionable authority as suppos'd to have crept in out of the scholion or margent into the text wherefore it being without all doubt omitted in St. Luke's Gospel being doubted in St. Matthew's the Vulgar Arabic Translations having it not that the use of it might breed no scruple it was thought fit to be quite left out But allowing it a full authority the Church may surely be allowed the same freedom which any private Christian hath of using which form it shall think fittest for publick service Wherefore seeing both the Evangelists doe agree so far as the petitions which make up the prayer the Church might judge it convenient to lay aside the rest and therein follow St Luke And again because St. Luke's language is more elegant and difficult St. Matthew's on the other side according to the simplicity of the Hebrew style being more plain and facil might consequently be deemed fitter for popular use especially when St. Matthew himself sayes that our Saviour did dictate it to the multitude which variety of style together with the custom of Interpreters who are used to render the same things differently being consider'd may also evince that this prayer though deliver'd by our Saviour upon two several occasions might be the very same in the Syriac language which our Saviour used though it be diversly express'd in the Greek St. Matthew perhaps more closely adhering to the words then St. Luke who according to his genius to keep an accurate propriety of the Greek tongue might take the liberty a little to vary And of this we might produce many instances in several discourses of our blessed Saviour related by them both which though variously reported by both nay by all four yet were plainly meant for the same so that both the forms though not exactly agreeing in all the words are but the same Prayer and he that uses either of the forms sayes the Prayer no less then he that should say it in Latine according to Pagnin's or Steven's or Beza's Translation who yet may differ in the plainest sentences as not using the same pen and possibly sometimes out of the meer study of variety shall be thought to say his Pater Noster in Latin only he that would use it in Latin would no question choose that Latin translation which he thought came nearest the Original which is here the Churches case AMEN This is a word our Saviour who was truth it self therefore call'd in the Revelation the Amen had in his mouth often and seldom began any discourse of weighty moment but he fronted it with this asseveration many times doubled too Amen Amen I say unto you i.e. Truly Truly as St. Luke expounds it or Verily Verily But the chief use of it is at the end of our Prayers especially in public devotion where the Priest's blessings and services are to be attended with the peoples acclamation an ancient custom as appears by the Psalm And let all the people say Amen It has a double significancy in it not only to gather up the whole Prayer which went before and throw it out at a word with a fervent desire that our requests may be heard and granted But also to denote a confidence of obtaining and an assured trust that what we have been praying for will not be denied us It claps a Fiat to the Prayer as the Septuagint render it So be it and seems to demand performance FINIS THE EXPLANATION Of the APOSTLES CREED THE APOSTLES CREED I Believ in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth 2. And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. 3. Which was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried 5. He descended into hell The third day he rose again from the dead 6. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty 7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead 8. I believ in the holy Ghost 9. The holy Catholike Church the communion of Saints 10. The forgiveness of sins 11. The resurrection of the body 12. And the life everlasting Amen Of the Apostles CREED THe Apostles as some deliver it before they went into the several quarters of the world to preach the Gospell to all Nations according to Christ's command met and agreed upon the common form of Doctrine which they should teach in each Province wherein the sum of Faith might be set down Others are of an opinion that some grave and pious men did at the beginning of the primitive Church gather the sense if not the very words out of the Apostles writings Now Symbolum bears a double meaning for it signifies first a military badge or watch word by which a souldier may know one of his own side from an enemy So this distinguisheth a true Christian from an Infidel or an Heretick Secondly a shot or club when every one payes his share towards the reckoning Because the Apostles laid their heads together and every one contributed his peice Wherefore it is also divided into twelve Articles according to their number but it is more conveniently distributed into three main parts that it may answer the Trinity of Persons and their three-fold operation thus The first part treats of God the Father the work of Creation whereby he made the world and all things that are contained in it The second of God the Son and the work of redemption whereby he restored mankind fall'n by sin and by his death and resurrection purchased Salvation for us The third of God the Holy Ghost and the work of sanctification whereby he doth apply to the Church that is to the company of believers the benefits purchased by Christ to wit Pardon Grace and Glory The first Article I BELIEV This word belongeth to all the parts of the Creed We pray for others we believ only for our selves Thy Faith hath saved thee saith our Saviour Faith is either taken for the Doctrine which we believ or the grace by which we believ That is in
the same nature and essence with the Father begotten of his substance before all time God of God Light of Light very God of very God equal to him in all things as to the God-head Christ as the Son of God had no Mother as the Son of the Virgin no Father who became Man that he might in the flesh satisfy for the sins of the flesh yet continued God that he might appeas the anger of an offended God Man that he might suffer death God that he might overcome it God and Man that he might be a perfect Mediator and might reconcile God to Man by atoning wrath and man to God by destroying sin wherefore he took up humane nature put not of the divine But these two natures were united and as it were married in the one Person of Christ. OUR LORD In respect of God Christ is called the Son which shews his essence in respect of us a Lord which shews his dignitie Now he is our Lord both by right of creation because he made us and by right of redemption because he hath bought us with a price and purchased us with his blood to be a peculiar people We are no longer then our own that we should fulfill the lusts of the flesh But we are Christ's the Lord's to doe his Will and keep his Commands The several Steps by which Christ humbled himself and Divine Love moved towards us are his Conception Birth Passion Crucifixion Death Burial and Descent to Hell The infinite is conceiv'd the everlasting is born the Blessed suffers the King of Heaven is nailed to a Cross the immortal dyes the Immense is buried and the King of Glory goes down to Hell What strange contradictions have our sins put the Son of God upon who to procure our Salvation denyed himself and put on the form of a servant Which was conceived of the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary CONCEIVED That is cloathed with flesh formed and fashioned into bodily parts indued with sense motion and a reasonable soul inlivened cherished produced preserved increased and in one word made man Humane nature being taken up and joyn'd to the Divine OF THE HOLY GHOST Not begotten of his substance for then the third Person should be Father too which is contrary to Faith but by the operation of the holy Spirit the power of the Highest overshadowing her the Virgin without the help of man conceived which is a miracle foretold by the Prophets and fulfill'd in our Messias Behold a Virgin shall conceiv and bring forth a Son now the holy Ghost did separate that most pure mass of flesh blood of which the Body of Christ was to be formed from all corruption of our nature and the stain of sin to which all other the Virgin her self not excepted are lyable who are born after the ordinary way of generation Behold saith David a man after God's own heart I was conceived in sin and in iniquity hath my mother brought me forth Moreover 't was necessary that he should be born without sin who came to die for other's sins and the Lamb of God which was to take away the sins of the world should himself be spotless He could not have been our surety had he been himself a debtour nor satisfied justice for us could the law have charged him with any guilt of his own BORN Having taken upon him a true body being in all things made like unto us sin only excepted flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone that he might truely become the Son of Man he observed the lawes and customs of humane nature and after he had continued in the womb the usual time he was at length brought forth into light laid in a manger wrap't in swadling cloaths and attended by the Virgin and bred up passed his child hood in performing obedience to his parents and grew in stature and wisdome OF THE VIRGIN It became God thus to be born not without a miracle Our Faith is full of miracles a Three-One God a God-Man Christ a Virgin-Mother Mary A Virgin she was before her delivery in her delivery and after her delivery for they who are called the brethren of the Lord are after the manner of the Hebrew speech to be understood as Kinsmen She was indeed espoused to Ioseph but she knew no man Her Virginitie dignifies a single life her betrothing justifies the married state It pleased God to choose a woman without the help of man in the business of our salvation for the honour and comfort of that sex that as by the disobedience of the first woman mankind fell so it might be recovered by the birth of the Virgin and Mary might make amends for the miscarriage of Eve MARY For the greater certainty the name of the Royal Maid is expressed she being of the tribe of Iudah of the linage of David the King according to the Prophecies concerning the Messias Yet the Mother of the Lord this Blessed Virgin was very poor to shew that Christ's Kingdom was not of this world and in this were the blind Jewes offended that they looked for outward pomp the glory of an earthly crown little heeding the foretellings of the Prophets wherein Christ is described a man of sorrows to suffer all the punishment due to our sins to wit death and all the miseries of an afflicted life Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried We pass immediately from his birth to his Passion for indeed his whole life from his cradle to the Cross was nothing else but a continual passion being spent in hunger thirst fasting watching and travelling grief reproach and shame and he was therefore sent into the world that he might die and to this end God prepared him a body that he might lay down his life for His. SUFFERED Having undertook our cause he satisfied divine Iustice by undergoing those penalties which God in his word hath threatned to the transgressors of the law He was by the sentence of an earthly Iudge condemned to death that we might be acquitted before the heavenly Father UNDER PONTIUS PILATE In that time wherein Pontius Pilate was Governour of Iudea being set over that Nation by the Roman Emperour when was fulfilled that Prophecie which foretold the coming of the Messias should be when the Scepter was departed from Iudah that is when the Iews should be subject to a forreign power having lost their own government CRUCIFIED Christ being betraid by Iudas forsaken of his disciples apprehended as a malefactor is brought to the judgement hall and having been spit upon and mocked by the souldiers accused by the Priests with the charge of blasphemy persecuted with the hatred of the people crying Crucifie him Crucifie him scourged with whips crowned with thorns and besprinkled with large showers of his innocent blood is at last by Pilate delivered up to the will malice of his enemies who nailing his blessed hands stretched wide open to the Cross
of honour set him above Angels principalities and powers and hath committed to his trust the Government of the world FROM THENCE To wit out of Heaven whither he ascended and where he now is Christ God Man at the last day in the end of the world riding upon the clouds shall shew himself and HE SHALL COME Attended with innumerable Angels and Saints with the voice of a Trumpet in a glorious manner to the joy of his servants and the terrour of his enemies TO JUDGE For all mankind shall be gathered together from the four quarters of the earth and we must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ to give an account of our works Then shall the books be open'd and every man's conscience shall witness against him and that which hath bin done in secret shall be made known and the thoughts of the heart shall be discovered Then righteous sentence shall proceed from the Iudges mouth according to the Law and the Gospell Then shall be put a difference betwixt the good and bad the righteous and the wicked when God shall reward his servants with a Crown of Glory and destroy his enemies with an everlasting destruction endless torments There is a twofold coming of Christ Christ came first to be judged the second time he will come to judge THE QUICK Those who shall then be found alive who shall be suddenly changed in the twinckling of an eye and without death shall pass from death to life AND THE DEAD For the dead shall rise again as many as from the beginning of the world throughout all ages have lived upon the face of the earth and though they have been mouldered into dust or torn by wild beasts or buried in the waves of the Sea yet they shall take up the very same bodies again to which the soul may again be united God's power bringing this about and his justice so requiring it that every man may in his body reap the fruit of those things which he hath done in the body I BELIEV With the same Faith by which I believ the Father and the Son I believ also in the third Person of the holy and blessed Trinity Being verily perswaded that he is true God and the power of the most High depending upon his assistance and finding by experience that whatsoever good I either doe or have comes all from him IN THE SPIRIT He is therefore called Ghost or Spirit because he partly proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of breathing partly because he breaths into us good thoughts and holy desires wherefore it is added HOLY Seeing that he is not only Holy in himself with such holiness as far exceeds all other blessed Spirits both Angels Saints but also makes us holy by an effectual working of grace in our hearts He it is that applyes the benefits of Christ's death unto us and makes us partakers of the salvation which he hath purchased for us by his blood The holy Prophets and Apostles were the penmen of the Holy Ghost who wrote as they were inspired by him He gathers the Church by the Preaching of the word having furnisht the Apostles with the gifts of tongues provided a ministry and other holy ordinances for the propagation of the Gospell filling up the number of the elect and bringing souls to life THE CHURCH The company of believers whom God hath ordained to life before the foundation of the world was laid whom he hath called out of a state of sin to the profession of Faith in Christ and a holy conversation whom he also doth rule by his Word and Spirit HOLY Gathered and guided by the Holy Ghost distinguished from the rest of the world by holy appointments adorning their profession with holy works CATHOLICK or Vniversal in respect of time place and persons being to last through all ages of the world spread abroad over all quarters of the earth consisting of men of all ranks and conditions God having shut the gate of his Kingdom to none but such as wilfully refuse to enter Now the Holy Ghost bestows upon the Church which he gathers by the word and sanctifies by grace these Blessings which follow THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS Whereby the Saints who are the faithfull ones the chosen and the children of light are united to Christ as their head and amongst themselves as members of the same body the Church drawing virtue life and efficacy from Christ and performing to one another all offices of Charity as being knit together with a spirit of love and bond of peace THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS Which the spirit on our unfeined repentance assures us of by applying the merit of Christ and sprinkling our consciences from dead works with his blood which he powred forth to be a price of souls neither doth he onely seal to our hearts a pardon of former offences shewing us the favour of God reconciled in his Son but doth withall give us power to resist sin for the time to come cleansing us from every defilement of the flesh and spirit subduing our lusts changing our wils and renewing our natures according to righteousness THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY For in the last day when Christ shall come to judgement the trump shall sound and the dead shall arise with the very same bodyes that they had before and every one shall receive according to his works For as much as the wicked shall be thrown into Hell there to be tormented with the Divel with the worm which never dyes and the fire which is never quenched But the good shall enter into LIFE EVERLASTING Where they shall rest from their labours and enjoy God for ever living in abundance of joys and pleasures which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor can the heart of man conceiv And all these things I believ not onely with an Historical Faith but appropriate unto my self being fully perswaded that God made me by his power preserves me by his goodness and provides for me both in soul and body by his infinite wisdome And that the Son of God whatsoever he hath done or suffered he performed and underwent for my sake that I through him might live And that the Spirit of God dwelleth in me working in me Faith Repentance that I am a true member of the Church that my sins are forgiven me that I shall rise again and see my Redeemer with these eyes who shall out of his free bounty reward me his unworthiest servant with the Glory which shall have no end FINIS THE EXPLANATION OF THE TEN COMMANDEMENTS The Ten Commandements Exodus xx GOD spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth
tired nor Infinity be exhausted but he was pleas'd to put a period to his own extraordinary actings and by his own will determin the products of his boundless power Again if he had pleas'd he could have dispatch'd all his works in a day in a moment and not have made such leisurely progress and have done all at once But he chose a number of dayes to accomplish his great design in six dayes that there might be an orderly proportion and distance of time betwixt the productions of the several creatures and but six that the glory of his workmanship might not receive any disparagement from a seeming delay Now whether these six dayes in which the world was making were meant to signifie the continuance of the world for so many thousand years a thousand years being in Gods reckoning but as a day and the seaventh day of rest to typifie another thousand years of Christ's reign or an everlasting Sabbath in Heaven or whether any other mystery lye hid in the number of seaven whence fond antiquity might appropriate the seaven Planets each to his day and fonder Art divide the week according to planetary hours may be guess'd but cannot certainly be known Wherefore it may suffice us that it pleas'd God so to order his work and so to appoint a holy rest and he sure had very great reason for observing that order and making this appointment THEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SABBATH-DAY AND HALLOWED IT He stamp'd upon it a particular respect set it aside from common imployment and business of life for holy and spiritual exercises that it might be spent in the commemoration of his wonderful works And if the institution were so solemn upon the account of Creation how much more will the memory of our Redemption heighten the solemnity and improve the observance of this holy day which our blessed Lord and Saviour the holy Iesus blessed by his rising again from the dead and hallowed by his apparition and discourse with his holy Apostles who have by their example recommended to the Church of God as the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day of our Lords Resurrection for which reason it is also call'd the Lord's Day Besides this weekly solemnity and day of rejoycing it is acknowledg'd even by those who are no great friends to the Churches authority that the Church hath power to appoint and set aside for the publick worship of God other peculiar dayes as occasion shall require such as are Anniversary Fasts and Feasts nor is the commemoration of the benefits obtain'd by Christ as his Nativity Passion Ascension c. and of the holy Apostles and other Scripture-Saints more ancient though it be handed to us from the most ancient and the best times then 't is convenient the fundamentals of religion being thus scatter'd through the course of the year and the Holy-dayes next to the Lords-day being the great remarks cognisances of Christianity This reason drawn from the creation which is the moral reason of the precept is in Deuteronomie which is the repetition of the Law omitted and another of a politick concern brought in stead of it as if the command were grounded upon an indulgence to servants and that upon a reflection upon the condition of the Israelites in Egypt where they had been made serve in a cruel bondage mention'd in the Preface Though those words there I suppose might be added only as a reason for the servants and the cattles rest and an argument to inforce the equity of that rather then to be the bottom and ground of the Sabbath it self and yet it seems strange that immediately after Moses tells them God spake these words and no more The sense of the command is this Thou shalt take great heed to the observation of my day and shalt sanctify my Sabbath and keep it holy with exercises of publick private devotion Thou shalt wait upon me in my sanctuary and appear before me in the great assembly Thou shalt come to my house in my fear and enter my courts with due reverence Thou shalt attend to my word obey my voice and shâ—lt bestow this sacred time wholly on the meditation of my Law Thou shalt receive my word with faith and wait upon me in the use of my ordinances Thou shalt set one day in seaven aside from all worldly concernments and thy usual employment and dedicate it and thy self to me Thou shalt prepare thy self and forecast thy business that no other thoughts may distract thee Thou shalt keep it a holy rest to the Lord shalt cause all that belong unto thee to keep it Thou shalt not do thy own works nor speak thy own words nor think thy own thoughts on that day but be taken up with the study of God's word and with the consideration of his works Thou shalt serve me faithfully on thy six dayes of work in a diligent attendance upon the dutyes of thy calling that thou mayst on my day of â—est meet with a blessing find pardon for thy failings and receive strength for thy performances Thou shalt breed up thy children in my fear and acquaint them with my wayes Thou shalt instruct thy houshold and make me known unto strangers Thou shalt be merciful to thy servants and thy cattle and shalt let them injoy the benefit of the Sabbath-rest Thou shalt so observe this rest as not to give thy self up to sloath and idleness nor spend the time in sports and vain recreations but make it a rest from sin as well as from work Thou shalt more particularly imploy thy self in remembring the Lord thy Creatour and thy Redeemer and thankfully acknowledging his benefits Lastly Thou shalt so pass this weekly Sabbath in holy meditations and a heavenly conversation that thou mayst fit thy self for the celebration of an everlasting Sabbath to be kept hereafter with Angels and Saints in Heaven after thou art deliver'd from the troubles of a wicked world How far have we come short of the observation of the Sabbath in these our times who forget the day and neglect the duty who neither labour on the six dayes nor rest on the seaventh as we should doe who profane the sanctuary and pollute the holy place using no reverence and behaving our selves in Gods presence with more rudeness then we would in the presence of men who have made our devotions but a lip labour and plac'd religion in the ear and have excluded God's word contained in the holy Bible and the wholsome forms of the Church to make room for the bold conceits and seditious discourses of men who have preferred Enthusiasms before the written word who have preach'd up rebellion and sacriledge and demolish'd the Churches of God in the Land broken down the sacred ornaments with axes and hammers who have multiplied sects and heresies and dishonour'd God in his solemn worship and in the publick assemblyes who have made void God's ordinances refus'd to
faith applyes that purchase So then we are sav'd by the mercy of the Father by the merit of the Son and by the efficacy of the Spirit This form of Baptism is one of the clearest proofs of Trinity in all Scripture and indeed when our Saviour was Baptiz'd of Iohn all Three did shew themselves present Christ himself whom Iohn did Baptize was the second Person the Spirit descended upon him in the shape of a Dove and the Father spoke out of the Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased In the Command is set down the rite or outward action i.e. the washing with water The Promise delivers the grace signified and conveyed by the action to wit remission of sins The analogie betwixt the outward sign and the inward grace lyes in this that as Water being powred or sprinkled on the body washes off the filth so the Blood of Christ which was the Fountain open'd for the cleansing of iniquity doth purge the conscience and doe away sin whether original or actual and present us clean without spot in the sight of the Father by the virtue of the Spirit HE THAT BELIEVES AND IS BAPTIZED SHALL BE SAVED Faith is the soul's hand by which a man receives and applyes to himself the benefits purchased by Christ. By Faith we are justified Baptism is the laver of regeneration the seal of the Covenant the conveyance of Grace They are both necessary neither can either of them serve turn by it self There must be an Ordinance to ground Faith upon and there must be a Faith to make the Ordinance effectual For every appointment as the just man doth lives by Faith Faith without Baptism were a bucket without water and Baptism void of Faith were but a well without a bucket to draw up the waters of life He that believes by confessing his sins and professing Faith resolves upon amendment of life and gives himself up to Christ's discipline and then is baptiz'd obliges himself by vow enters into Covenant of strict walking with God He shall be sav'd from his sins the punishments due to them being free as well from the power as from the guilt His nature shall be renewed and by the continual supplyes of grace if he make good use of it he shall be enabled more and more to withstand temptations get ground of his lusts he shall be put into a state of salvation and every day set forward on his way to bliss through the paths of holiness till with Christ at last he arrive at perfection have his grace changed into glory HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT SHALL BE DAMNED This is a threat annexed to the promise which holds good by the law of contraries for if those that believe shall be saved then those that believe not must expect nothing but damnation We must observe that there is not added here any mention of Baptism because unbelief it self is enough to shut the gates of Heaven against any one and send him to Hell wherefore it is not said he that believes not and is not Baptiz'd for the unbeliever whether he be baptiz'd or no is lyable to this sentence If he hath been baptiz'd it will be look'd upon as a formal cheat a cloak to disguise his hypocrisy And if he hath not the very neglect of Baptism serves for an open discovery of his unbelief so that either way he aggravates his sin by being on one side hypocrite on the other profane The meaning of these words then is this But on the contrary whosoever doth not with true Faith entertain my Doctrine and with sure purpose of mind resolve on the keeping my Commands but doth either so far disbelieve Christian Truth that he will not so much as take upon him the outward profession of it or having been baptiz'd is of loose opinions and practises and disparages his profession with foul errors or wicked manners such an one will have no benefit by Christ no share in the salvation wrought by him but brings upon himself the guilt of his own sins and continues still in a state of wrath and perishing in his unbelief will assuredly be cast into everlasting torments If the One Sacrament may be termed the Bosom of the Church by which we are entred and have admittance into the fellowship of the Saints The Other may not without reason be call'd the Churches Breast by which we are nourished to a spiritual growth and are refreshed and fed to life everlasting Of the Lord's SUPPER AFter that our Saviour had sufficiently made known by his Doctrine the will of God concerning man's salvation and proved by many miracles that he was the Son of God that came down from Heaven to the end that having put on our nature he might in our stead satisfy the Law and undergoe the punishments due to us for our sins that we through Faith in him might live It pleased him that he might leave with us the Symbols of his presence for ever and preserve the memory of his sufferings afresh in the mind of the faithful to prefigure his Death by a Sacrament appointing Bread Wine the usual supplyes of life for the representing of his sacred Body which was broken on the Cross and torn with the nails and the spear and his Blood which trickled from his sacred Head by the pricking of the thorns gush'd out of his hands feet when he was nail'd to the tree and brake forth of his side when he was wounded with the launce and plentifully stream'd forth out of every vein of his sacred Body when he was cruelly scourged with whips Now his Body thus broken and his Blood thus shed doe no less feed a believers soul and improve the force of grace then the body is nourished and natures strength repaired by Bread and Wine But this hath a spiritual meaning not that any one doth eat the very flesh of Christ and drink his very blood in a gross manner for that will be as absured to think as 't is savage to doe or that Christ can be receiv'd any other way then by Faith for 't is a point of Faith that the Body of Christ did goe up to Heaven and there is to remain till the last day and 't is contrary to very reason to say that the same Body can at the same time be in several places and to bring to pass contradictions is a thing out of the power of omnipotence it self not to say that it is plain even to our outward senses that the elements of bread and wine doe still remain after consecration the same in substance as well as in colour and accidents as they were before In fine it would indeed be no Sacrament if the signs should change their nature and the thing signified be it self really there for a Sacrament is nothing else but a figure and representation of some thing that is absent exhibiting to the understanding that which cannot be seen with the eye and by