Petitions I. A. 101. II. A. 102. III. A. 103. IV. A. 104. V. A. 105. VI. A. 106. Conclusion A. 107. Principles of Christian Religion in an 107 Articles with a short and easie Explanation CHAP. I. Of things to be believed comprehended in the Apostles Creed Or a brief Sum of Christian Doctrine which ought to be received or believed Articles of Religion 1562. Artic. 8. For they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture A. 1. MAns chief End is to glorifie God and to enjoy him for ever Homil. 3. Of Salvation Above all things and in all things to advance the glory of God of whom only we have our sanctification justification salvation and redemption Expl. 1. In which A. there are these four things to be explain'd 1. What we are to understand by a mans end And the Answer is That by a mans end we mean that which a man doth intend or aim at in all his actions or that which he does propose to himself as the reason of what he does ex gr when you see a man buâ—lding a House if you ask him the reason why he builds a House or what he intends in so doing his answer will be to dwell in it And here his dwelling in his House when he hath built it is his end in building his House So again when you see a man going to Church if you ask him what he goes to Church for he 'll presently tell you to hear a Sermon Now this being that which he does design in going to Church sc. to hear a Sermon it may very well be called his end in going to Church But then 2 dly It is next to be explained what is meant by a mans chief end Now a mans chief end is that which he doth principally aim at in all his actions As to keep to the last instance though it be a mans end in going to Church to hear a Sermon yet that is but a lower end and that which he does only design in order to his chief end which is to glorifie God and to enjoy Communion with God by hearing his word This Question therefore What is the chief end of man is q. d. what is mans chief errand into the world or what did God make man for or what is the great business that should take up the greatest part of a mans time thoughts cares affections and endeavours whilst he lives in the world or what is it that a man is principally to drive at in all his words thoughts and actions in all his duties both to God and man and in all his dealings with the world Now this is that which should be his general drift in all sc. To glorifie God and to enjoy God both in this world and a better And this is the plain meaning of those Scriptures which are here made use of as proofs But alas is it not sadly to be lamented that the corrupt generality of people have quite forgotten what errand they were sent about into the world whilst some make worldly honours and preferments their chief end as the ambitious others make worldly gain and profit their chief end and that which they mainly drive at as the covetous and others do make their carnal pleasures delights sports and pastimes their chief end as if God had put them into the world as the Psalmist reports of the Leviathans being put into water to play therein and this is the case of the younger sort generally of vain and wicked people who either do not know or will not consider that the end of their Creation was to honour and enjoy their Creator both here and hereafter 3 dly What it is to glorifie God may be thus explained namely it is to live according to his will revealed in his word or it is to think speak and do according to the Rule of his word 1. We glorifie God in our thoughts or in our hearts when we dare not allow our selves to think any thing that is not stampt with Gods authority and allowance and more particularly when our thoughts of God of his works words and all that relates to him are such as do become his excellent Greatness So when we fear love admire trust and desire him above all 2. We glorifie him in our words when our speech is not corrupt vain and idle but seasoned with grace 3. In our actions when we make his word our rule and his glory our great and general end in all our actions 4 thly What it is to enjoy God we may best conceive of it by what it is to enjoy a friend Now this is we know to have his presence company and converse and to take delight in his society So to enjoy God it is to converse with God to be well-pleased with his gracious presence and not only to have him to be our Friend or Father but to entertain this King of glory in our hearts and affections Or as wicked men do look upon the greatest part of their enjoyment to consist in that which they miscall good-fellowship so the Christians enjoying of God is to have fellowship with him Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And to maintain and keep up this fellowship with God for ever it is to enjoy him for ever which in reference to a Christians enjoyment of God in glory is called a being for ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4.17 A 2. The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the only Rule to direct us how we may glorifie and enjoy him Artic. vi In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church Homil. 1. Unto a Christian man there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable than the knowledg of holy Scripture for as much as in it is contained Gods true Word setting forth his glory and also mans duty As many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God must apply their minds to know holy Scripture without the which they can neither sufficiently know God and his Will neither their office and duty Let us willingly search for the well of life in the Books of the Old and New Testament and not run to the stinking Puddles of mens Traditions devised by mens imagination for our justification and salvation Expl. 2. When the written Word of God is here called a Rule we may understand it thus That as an Artificer suppose a Mason or Bricklayer in raising a Wall or a Carpenter in squaring a piece of Timber makes use of his Rule and by applying this to his work comes to know whether it be streight or crooked So the Christian who would order his spiritual Building or Conversation aright so as to glorifie and enjoy God he must lay every stone in this spiritual
Building by this Rule he must square all his thoughts words and actions by this Line and Level and thereby he may come to know what is right and what is wrong what is sin and what is duty what is true and what is false and so accordingly may cease to do evil and learn to do well believe that which is true and reject that which is false nor is the Old Testament alone this Rule nor the new Testament alone but both together and both together they are the only Rule of Christianity neither is there any other ordinary sufficient Rule to direct a Christian either how he may serve God acceptably or enjoy God eternally but this written Word 1. The Pagans Rule or Light of Nature or what may be known of God by the things which are made is not sufficient to this end because it cannot discover Christ to us which is the only means of salvation 2. The Papists Rule of Tradition is no good Rule because fallible and contradictory in many things to the Rule of Scripture And 3. for the very same reason the Quakers Rule is no good Rule I mean their Light within because opposite to the light of the Word without and therefore it remaineth that the written Word is the only Rule A. 3. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requireth of man Artic. vi Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation so that whatever is not read therein or prov'd thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought necessary or requisite to salvation Homil. 1. In holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to love and what to look for at Gods hand at length Expl. 3. There are two things principally which man is to believe concerning God and they are the two main foundations of the Christian Religion in the practice of it 1. That God is or that there is such a being who is in and of himself absolutely perfect and who gives Being to all his Creatures 2. That he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him namely in and through Christ Heb. 11.6 or that it is not in vain to love serve and obey this God And there is but one thing in the general which God requires of man namely a free and full compliance with his will whether in the doing or suffering part of Religion A. 4. God is a Spirit Infinite Eternal and unchangeable in his Being Wisdom Power Holiness Justice Goodness and Truth Homil. xvij It passeth far the dark understanding and wisdom of a mortal man to speak sufficiently of that Divine Majesty which the Angels cannot understand Considering the unsearchable nature of Almighty God to reverence and dread his Majesty excellent Power incomparable Wisdom inestimable Goodness to take him for God Omnipotent Invisible Expl. 4. A Spirit i. e. A Being which has not flesh and bones as we have Luk. 24.39 has not hands or feet or any bodily parts no nor any bodily properties neither as length breadth heigth depth thickness shape or colour such a Being as is not cannot be as God the object of any of the Five Senses for no man has seen God at any time c. but is invisible and absolutely perfect because he does not depend upon any thing else either for what he is or for what he does Infinite i. e. without any limits or bounds to his perfection an unconfined Essence absolutely free from all measure or determination of time place or degrees Eternal i. e. without beginning or end of days or succession of duration always the same before and after time ever present infinitely above all circumscription of motion according to former and latter Vnchangeable i. e. he can never cease to be what he is the true God nor can he alter at all so as to be more or less God than he is nor more or less perfect for saith he I am God I change not In his Being for when the Son of God who is very God became man he did not cease to be God In his Power for this being infinite it is not capable of an alteration either by adding to it or taking from it And the same may be said concerning his Wisdom for the very same reason for how can he be more or less wise than he is who is infinite in Wisdom and Knowledg In his Holiness i. e. he cannot be more or less holy than he is or be more or less inclin'd or obliged to act suitably to the perfection of his own nature than he is already In Iustice Goodness and Truth i. e. he cannot be more just good and true than he is nor less just good and true than he is because he is Justice Goodness and Truth it self and is all these and has all these in infinite and absolute perfection and therefore he is unchangeable in these A. 5. There is but one only the living and true God Artic. I. There is but one living and true God everlasting without Body Parts or Passions of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible Expl. 5. i. e. There is but one only absolutely supreme and perfect Being who is the Maker and Governour of all things for as for Magistrates though they be called gods I have said ye are gods Psal. 82.6 yet they are so only by way of representation only because they do represent God in his Authority and Government And for Idols though they be called gods as there be of this sort gods many yet these gods of the Heathen they are false gods and upon that account are every-where disparaged in Scripture And though the Devil himself be called the god of this world yet 't is only because he is Gods Ape ruling and working in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 but by Gods permission as God does in his own children So that it still holds good that to us there is but one God of whom and by whom are all things 1 Cor. 8.6 A. 6. There are three persons in the Godhead the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and these three are one God the same in substance equal in power and glory Artic. I. And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Expl. 6. In this A. there are three things to be explained as 1. The meaning or nature of a Divine person 2. How they are said to be three persons 3. How distinguisht from each other For the understanding of the first we are to know that by a person in the general we mean a substantial compleat Being whether visible or invisible having
comparison of that we ought to have unto God should be as no love at all comparatively for he is to have all our heart soul strength mind yet 2. Our love to our selves must have the next place for though our love of charity to others must be real yet this charity must begin at home However 3. We are to love our neighbour as our selves not for the degree but for the kind of our love it must be real and hearty and without dissimulation A. 43. The Preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage To. 2. Hom. II. Before he came to the matter that he would specially warn them of and as it were for a Preface to make them to take the better heed unto it Hom. xxi p. 6. The Bishop of Rome left the poor people should know too much he would not let them have as much of Gods word as the Ten Commandments wholly and perfectly withdrawing from the Second Commandment that bewrayeth his impiety by a subtile Sacriledg Expl. 43. Whereas in this Preface God makes use of rational motives to the obedience of his Commands this doth discover 1. The infinite condescention of God who is pleased to inform our judgments of the reasonableness of his Commands before he lays his Commands upon our persons 2. That men should not be unreasonable in their Commands as suppose Parents or other Governours sith God is here pleased to add Reason to his Soveraignty A. 44. The Preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us That because God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer therefore we are bound to keep all his Commandments To. 1. Hom. V. p. 2. Christ reprov'd the Laws and Traditions made by the Scribes and Pharisees which were not only for good order of the people as the Civil Laws were but they were set up so high that they were made to be right and pure worshipping of God as they had been equal with Gods Laws or above them for many of Gods Laws could not be kept but were fain to give way unto them This arrogancy God detested that man should so advance his Laws to make them equal with Gods Laws wherein the true honouring and right worshipping of God standeth to make his Laws for them to be left off God hath appointed his Laws whereby his pleasure is to be honoured They were not content to have them called by the name of other Temporal Laws but called them holy and godly Traditions and would have them not only esteem'd for a right and true worshipping of God as Gods Laws be indeed but also for the most high honouring of God to which the Commandments of God should give place And for this cause did Christ so vehemently speak against them Expl. 44. In the matter of the Preface we have these things observable 1. That God is therefore the supreme Lawgiver because he is the supreme Lord of the whole Creation As God by vertue of his Soveraignty may himself do with his Creatures what he will by the same right he may command them to do what he will 2. That God can easily enable men to do what he commands them for that very power that commands his creatures into being can also command them into action 3 That the bonds of the Covenant should be as the cords of love and the bands of a man sweetly to draw men to obedience when once we are listed into the number of Gods people by Baptism we are under a more special obligation to obey God not only as our Creator but as our Father 4. That deliverances call for duties and if a corporal deliverance of the Israelites was an obligation upon them to obey the God of Israel much more should that spiritual deliverance from the Egyptian slavery of sin be an obligation upon them to obey God Rules to be observed for the understanding of the Moral Law or the Ten Commandments 1 Rule That Christ the Lawgiver is the best Interpreter of Moses or that the Gospel is the fullest and clearest Interpreter of the Law The Writings of the Prophets are many times good Expositions of the Law of Moses But the Writings of Christ and his Apostles are far more clear and full In reference to Christ we have a known instance in the 5 th of Mat. passim And the Apostles frequently in their Epistles as when we are commanded to shun all occasions of evil to love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and our neighbour without dissimulation and not to defraud him any way c. 2 Rule That the Law is perfect Psal. 19.7 as 1. In it self not admitting of any additional Precepts in the Gospel which are generally obliging to all Christians which were not obliging before that Christ came in the flesh For as for those three Precepts of the Gospel for a man 1. To deny himself 2. To take up his Cross and 3. To follow Christ they are rather interpretations and instances of that honour and love we are to have for Christ as God which is required in the First Command than any additions obliging which did not oblige before nay David himself did in some respect deny himself take up his Cross and follow Christ the middle of these had place when he said The reproaches of those who reproached thee are faln upon me and so Moses deny'd himself and Caleb and Ioshuah followed the Lord fully 2. The Law is perfect in its extent and comprehension in regard of the subject for it doth command the whole Soul in all its powers and faculties for it doth require the understanding to know the judgment to approve that which is good the will to chuse it the memory to retain it and the affections to pursue and enjoy it and upon this account it is said that the Law is spiritual 3 Rule Whatever the Law commands it doth forbid the contrary as when it commands us to honour our Parents it doth forbid us to dishonour them and whatever the Law forbids it commands the contrary as when it forbids us to take the name of God in vain it requires us to use any of the names or titles or ordinances of God with reverence 4 Rule When the Law commandeth a duty as suppose to worship God it doth require us to make use of means occasions motives and encouragements to it and when the Law forbids ex gr worshipping of Images it doth also forbid the occasions appearances and inducements of any evil 5 Rule Where a promise is annexed ex gr that the days may be long in the Land c. there the contrary threatning is included and where a threatning is annexed there the contrary promise is included 6 Rule That the duties of the second table must give place to the indispensable and necessary duties of the first table when they cannot both be performed together as the love of