general Rules of his Word A Form of Words is necessary in some parts of Worship and is but a manner or mode of doing and corrupteth not the Substance Circumstances are variable and must answer to the End of Worship Commandment III. 1. Christians may lawfully swear when lawful Power Matter Cause and End require it and when it is in a due manner The Light of Nature taught it Gen. 21.15 chap. 24.3,9 chap. 31.52 chap. 47.31 Holy Men used it and directions are given for it Jer. 4.2 Swearing by the Creatures or causless prophane Swearing is only contrary to our Saviour's Law Math. 5.37 Calling for or imposing Oaths on slight Occasions calls for Mourning and Repentance in our days 2. Christ and the Holy Ghost are God Jehovah It is lawful to swear by none but by God Jehovah It is lawful to swear by God and Christ say the Socinians Rom. 1.9 2 Cor. 1.23 chap. 11.31 Phil. 1.8 1 Thess 2.5,10 and by the Holy Ghost Rom. 9.1 therefore Christ and the Holy Ghost are God Jehovah He whom we honour by lawful Swearing is no other than Jehovah thy God. Commandment IV. 1. There was a Sabbath from the beginning of the World the first Seventh after the Sixth of the Creation was a Sabbath Gen. 2.2,3 Exod. 20.11 2. A Day of Rest is as necessary under the Gospel as before if it be not kept holy we are worse and not better for it We are not discharged from Ceremonial Burthens to take more liberty to contrive Business make Bargains travel coach about receive and pay Visits meet in Coffee-houses speak our own Words or do our own Deeds 3. The Commandment is contained in these words Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy The Confirmation and Establishment of it runs in these words Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and sanctified it We are obliged to a weekly Sabbath or Day of holy Rest and not to the Seventh any more than a First when the Lord thought fit to make a Change. Beside the Duty laid down there are many words added by way of Explication and Motive only 4. The Observation of the First Day was universal in all Christian Churches 1 Cor. 16.1,2 As I have given order in the Churches of Galatia so do ye upon the first day of the week c. This Order given for Charity doth strongly intimate the Observation of the First Day weekly And this Order was given to the Churches of Galatia who are blamed for observing the legal Sabbaths Gal. 4.10 They vanished the First Day is established 5. The believing Gentiles received the Observation of the First Day together with the Faith and the Christian Jews made no Controversie about it 6. It is called The Lord's Day Fev 1.10 as instituted by him and as consecrated to him Easter Day is only the first Lord's Day in order every first Day of every Week is of the same nature and for the same end 7. The word Remember doth not imply that it is a Ceremonial Precept but rather a strictness of Command and a Caveat against carelesness and forgetfulness of it Religion grows or decays is preserved or lost according as this Day is observed or not 8 Sabbath signifying Rest our Lord's Day may be called Sabbath without Judaizing as it is in our Homilies 9. A Day of bodily Rest is necessary for spirituâ—l 10. Parents Masters and Governors must see that it be sanctified To sanctifie it is a Moral Duty and though the Fourth Commandment be not a prime Moral Precept as the First is yet it hath a consequential Morality in it Commandment V. 1. All the Duties of this Commandment are enjoined under the Name of Honour teaching us a mutual Estimation of all Ranks of Men. 2. Parents must not provoke their Children by Rigour or unjust Commands Ephes 5.4 yet they may wisely correct as well as instruct them into due Obedience Heb. 12.6,7,8 And they who do the duty of Parents are to have the honour 3. Children in the power of Parents ought not to marry without their Consent if possible by dutiful means Col. 3.20 Ephes 5.1 In all things and In the Lord. 4. To make Vows and enter into Orders of Religion without Consent of Parents or to violate Marriage-Covenants for the same reason or to seduce any so to do is sinful Numb 30.4,5,6 Col. 3.20 Matth. 19.6 1 Cor. 7.5 5. Vows of blind Obedience are not seasonable therefore sinful Act. 4.19 1 Cor. 11.1 Rom. 12.1 6. All Orders of Men are subject to temporal Laws and must answer when accused Act. 26.2 Peter taught Subjection to all in Authority 1 Pet. 2.13,14 Rom. 13.1 7. Belivers under the Old Testament had spiritual Promises and not only temporal They had the Promise of Christ therefore all in him Gen. 3.15 chap. 12.3 of the Spirit Gal. 3.14 lived by Faith Heb. 11.13 looked for Eternal Life Joh. 5.39 and were Godly therefore had the Promises of the Life to come 1 Tim. 4.8 Under the Gospel we have better Promises Heb. 8.6 because we are put into a better State. Commandment VI. 1. It is lawful for a Christian to be a Minister or Servant of God therefore to be a Magistrate and to bear the Sword Rom. 13.4,6 Captains left not their Places by becoming Christians Matth. 8. Act. 10.3 Soldiers are directed Luk. 3.14 The Promises of great Peace Isa 2 4. Mic. 4 3. Zech. 9.10 intimate the nature and influence of the Gospel which is not brought in by the Sword nor propagated by it 2. It is our duty to live peaceably c Rom. 12.18 yet a Man ought to maintain his own right Acts 21.37 chap. 22,23 to 26. But hatred and revenge are great sins Gen. 4.6 chap. 31.24 Levit. 19.18 Love and Righteousness must be promoted and maintained Commandment VII 1. Marriage is of the Law of Nature and not peculiar to the Church Plurality of Wives at once is contrary to the first institution Mat. 2.13,14,15 One should die before another be taken Rom. 7.2,3 1 Cor. 7.39 It is not Lawful to divorce for every cause Mat. 19.1 to 10. to marry in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 and Love intirely Ephes 5.25 are preventives of many sins 2. Fornication is a great sin 1 Cor. 6.13.18 ver 9. 3. It is better to marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7.9 All have not the gift chap. 7.2 therefore a single Life is not more perfect in it self And for Ministers it is Lawful in such cases Heb. 13.4 1 Cor. 9.5 1 Tim. 3.2,4 chap. 5.12 Peter's Wife had a Mother therefore he had a Wife Mar. 1.30 and we believe Philip had a Wife for he had four Daughters Acts 21.9 Commandment VIII 1. Men have a distinct property in goods 2. Every Man should peaceably enjoy his own 3. yet alienation by sale commutation charity contracts and payments of tribute and debts is Lawful I believe Paul well understood the manner of the King 1 Sam. 8.11 c. yet speaks of no more than of tribute
Sabbath A. From the beginning of the World to the Resurrection of Christ God hath appointed the seventh Day of the Week to be the weekly Sabbath And the first Day of the Week ever since to continue to the end of the World which is the Christian (r) Gen. 2.2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he made V 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctisied it because that in it he rested from all his work which God created and made 1 Cor. 16.1 Now concerning the collection for the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia even so do ye V. 2. Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come Acts 20.7 And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached to them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight Sabbath Q. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified A. The sabbath is to be sanctified by an holy resting all that (Å¿) Exod. 20.8 Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy V. 10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy son c. day even from such worldly Employments and Recreations as are lawful on other (t) Nehem. 13.15 In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath-day and bringing in sheaves and lading asses as also wine grapes and figs and all manner of burthens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals V. 16. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein which brought fish and all manner of wares and sold on the Sabbath-day unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem V. 17. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said unto them What evil thing is this that ye do and prophane the Sabbath-day V. 18. Did not your fathers thus and did not God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by prophaning the Sabbath V. 19. And it came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath I commanded that the gates should be shut and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath and some of my servants I set at the gates that there should be no burthen brought in on the Sabbath-day V. 21. Then testified I against them saying Why lodge ye about the wall If ye do so again I will lay hands on you From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath V. 22. And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and come and keep the gates to sanctifie the Sabbath Remember me O my God concerning this also c. days and spending the whole time in the publick and private Exercises of God's (u) Luk. 4.16 And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day and stood up for to read Acts 20.7 And on the first day of the week c. Psal 92. Title A psalm or song for the Sabbath-day Isa 66.23 And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. Worship except so much as is to be taken up in the works of (x) Matth. 12. from V. 1 to 13. At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath-day through the corn and his Disciples were an hungred and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat But when the Pharisees c. V. 12. Is it lawful to do well on the Sabbath-days Necessity and Mercy Q. What are the Sins forbidden in the fourth Commandment A. The fourth Commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the Duties (y) Ezek. 22.26 Her priests have violated my law and prophaned mine holy things they have put no difference between the holy and prophane neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and clean they have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am prophaned among them Amos 8.5 Saying When will the New Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat making the ephah small and the shekel great and falsifying the balances by deceit Mal. 1.13 Ye said also Behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of Hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering Should I accept this of your hand saith the Lord. required and the prophaning the Day by (z) Acts 20.7 And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until mid-Night V. 9. And there sate in a window a certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep and as Paul was long preaching he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead idleness or doing that which is in it self (a) Ezek. 23.38 Moreover thus they have done to me They have defiled my Sanctuary in the same day and have prophaned my Sabbaths sinful or by unnecessary Thoughts Words or Works about our worldly Employments or (b) Jer. 17.24 And it shall come to pass if ye diligently hearken unto me saith the Lord to bring in no burthen through the gates of this city on the Sabbath-day but hallow the Sabbath-day to do no work therein V. 25. Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David riding in chariots and on horses they and their princes the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and this city shall remain for ever V. 26. And they shall come from the city of Judah and from the places about Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin and from the plain and from the mountains and from the south bringing burnt-offerings and sacrifices and meat-offerings and incense and bringing sacrisices of praise unto the house of the Lord. Isa 58.13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shall honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words Recreations Q. What are the Reasons annexed to the fourth Commandment A. The Reasons annexed to press the Observation of the Sabbath-day to the fourth Commandment are God's allowing us six Days of the Week for our own (c) Exod. 20.9 Six days shalt thou labour and
the Godhead inform us of the exceeding great usefulness of the Knowledge of the Trinity Hath God revealed himself as a Father and would he not have his Children know him and be the better for it Hath he made known himself as the Son and Holy Ghost and not intend us a particular Kindness by it He most graciously conveys to his People the Knowledge and Assurance of most astonishing incomprehensible Love Grace Power and Goodness to allure and draw us into his Covenant to oblige us to take him for our God and become his Sons and Daughters that we ignorant lost miserable helpless Sinners might become happy for ever in him 3. As the Plurality of Persons or one God and three Persons are revealed to us so the practical Vse and Benefit of it is also revealed and therefore it is to be opened to his Covenant-people As soon as we know the Covenant and our Entrance into it we know our God to be the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And this Knowledge is not laid up for the Wise and Learned which hath been most depraved by and lost in those proud and subtile and learned Wits in all Ages but laid open before the Faith of the weakest Believer to whom it is revealed I am verily perswaded saith the judicious Mr. Lawson that the Mystery of the Trinity is more clearly and fully delivered in the Scripture than we understand it Theopolitica p 32. N. 3. And I have wondred how familiarly that Man of Search and Reach Dr. Thomas Goodwyn speaks of it as if he saw how it was in his excellent Discourse of the Knowledge of God 2 Vol. Fol. We must humbly follow the Scripture-Light and dive into this Deep no further than our Line doth reach growing more and more in Grace and Knowledge till we come to see him face to face and to know him as we are also known I cannot but observe the Doctrine of the excellent and modest Melancthon These things are wonderful and above the Creature 's reach Sed scimus c. But we know these Mysteries are revealed to the Church that we may worship and call upon God aright c. Christ would have the sum of the Gospel to be comprehended in this first Ceremony of Baptism wherefore he testifies at once that we are received of God and teacheth us who God is and what God we invocate and what he doth bestow upon us I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that is to say I testifie that thou art received of the Eternal Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that by their Mercy and Power thou mayest be delivered from Sin and eternal Death and be endowed with Righteousness and eternal Life He makes a Covenant with thee in Baptism and affirmeth that he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that he appointed the Son to be a Propitiation and sent the Holy Ghost to begin in thee Righteousness and eternal Life Loc. Commun de 3. Personis it de Filio The glorious infinite God Father Son and Holy Ghost is the Object and Foundation of our Faith and Hope the bottomless incomprehensible Spring of all Grace Promises Blessings and Privileges granted in the New Testament and being so made known we by Faith acknowledge him as such and promise Love and Obedience to him We receive from the Father through the Son by the Holy Ghost Grace and Life even all manner of Grace and all that are alive live by them upon them and to them Therefore again the Knowledge of this Mystery is practical and necessary to Salvation for except we believe and worship God as he hath revealed himself except we keep Covenant with him as God in Covenant and that as he hath declared himself therein how can we be saved By him as thus made known we are quickned strengthned encouraged and comforted in all our Services and every step of Duty in our way to Heaven The reverend and learned Beza observes That Arrius Sabellius Actius and other ancient Hereticks did many ways pollute and prophane the most holy Mystery of the Trinity but none of them ever grew to that degree of Impudence as to rank the Knowledge of it among things unnecessary and which if known make no Man the better Vol. Tractat. Theol. fol. p. 100. De Haeret. Puniendis The necessity of knowing and believing the Father Son and Holy Ghost To Be that is according to their meaning that there is a Son and Holy Ghost as well as the Father but not Co-essential is professed by the Socinians Racov. Catech c. 6. p. 30,31 So that he is no Christian who doth not believe it But what they say is not sufficient As the Being of one God is the Foundation of all Religion so that this God is Father Son and Holy Ghost as the God of all Grace in Covenant is the Foundation of the Christian Religion and distinguisheth it from that of Heathens Mahumetans and Jews And it is such a Foundation as is a living Root to the Tree of spiritual Knowledge and eternal Life to every true Believer Our Orthodox Divines assign it the chief place in Fundamentals and practical Doctrines and therefore it is of great use and benefit to have it and the Benefits of it declared So doth the most reverend Archbishop Usher often profess Serm. before King James I on Ephes 4 13. Bishop Prideaux Praelec 17. de Sancta Trinitate N. 3 7. Hornbeck Socin Confutat lib 1 cap. 9. it Disputat Theol. 4. inter vetera nova lib. 2. cap 2. Unicum est Religionis Fundamentum saith Beza Loc Citat Zanch de 3. Flohim lib. 5 cap 9. Partis Secundae Mr. Baxter Theol. Method p 76 Q2 it p. 122. N. 10. Ursin Catech. Explicat à Pareo p. 159 Q8 Dr Owen of the Trinity and of the Holy Ghost lib 1. p. 8. p. 44. Sect 4. p. 126. Dr. Potter c 4. The practical use and benefit of it being known it is a great inducement to Christians to study it and a furtherance of their Faith Hope and Joy and all other Graces and it will engage them to hold fast the revealed Doctrine of it which is most necessary in these Days when they who display their Banners against our Church and one Factor for them who hath served and dis-served his Principals borrowed an Argument of the same stamp but he will write no more would drive us into a Belief of Tâ—ansubstantiation because we believe a Trinity and an Incarnation which if we should admit they might not only brand us as the foulest Hereticks that ever were since Christ left the World but for being so But this Insinuation of an Antichristian Error of theirs hath brought forth an excellent Discourse in two Parts The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared Of the practical Vse of the Mastery of the Trinity the words of Armenius are notable At verò
serve them for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain IV. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy eattel nor the stranger that is within thy gates For in six days the the LORD made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it V. Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee VI. Thou shalt not kill VII Thou shalt not commit adultery VIII Thou shalt not steal IX Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant nor his ox nor his ass nor any thing that is thy neighbour's The LORD'S Prayer MATTH VI. OVR Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread. And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors And lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The CREED I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his Only Son our Lord which was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into * i. e. Continued in the state of the Dead and under the power of Death till the third Day Hell the third Day he arose again from the Dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting Amen FINIS PART II. A sensible Demonstration of the existence of God. SECT I. God is I. ALL Religion and Righteousness is grounded upon this foundation That God is Besides the belief I have in God by revelation and Spiritual sense I am convinced that he is by these evident proofs laid all together 1. I am certain that I was come into the World before I knew of my coming 2. I am certain I made not my self I was before I knew my self to be what I am 3. I am certain my Parents and other Persons and Creatures were in being before me 4. I am certain that no Being is so likely to make himself and all other things as Man is because he is a rational Being of great invention and contrivance 5. No Men of this inquisitive and learned Age pretend to make or to be present at the making of the admirable frame of the Universe and if any Man or Men of former Ages had made the World we of this Age should have found them in it For 1. They who could make themselves could preserve themselves 2. They who could make themselves and the World must needs be great and happy 3. They who were once great and happy and always continued to be so For 1. if they did depose or divest themselves of their happiness freely and of choice they were defective in Wisdom to exchange a happy Being for a less happy or for nothing and by consequence were not wise enough to make the World. 2. If they grew weary of themselves they were not happy 3. If they were constrained to unmake themselves they were not superior but subject to other Powers Therefore I believe there were no such Men no such self-makers and makers of other things I conclude that I am made by another who made all things else and he is the first infinite Cause in which my thoughts and belief do rest who is infinitely Wise Great and Good to whom be glory for ever Again it is impossible to prove there is no God for all things are mediums to prove that he is and there is no medium to prove that he is not Lastly all Men Die they who are prepared and willing do believe in God they who are unwilling cannot refuse to Die therefore there is a Superior Power that is Lord of Life and Death and he is the living God. SECT II. Of the Holy Scriptures The Scriptures are of God. 1. NO Man can know the mind and will of the infinite God Creator and Governor of the World except he be pleased to make it known That his will should be known is necessary or else we could not worship nor please him by doing his Will. 2. Besides the light of Nature we have his will made know by revelation by which God who made the World is so revealed and declared that as sure as I am that God made the World so sure am I that God gave the Scriptures to direct us in the way of Duty and Happiness 3. I find the Book of God in the possession of his Church and People like a Royal Charter in a City by which the City is constituted and governed and enjoy their privileges When I peruse the Charter I know it to be the King 's and no private Mans invention or forg'd instrument I know the great Charter of the City of God to be his Word 1. By the matter of it For instance Who can describe or declare the infinite God by his Glorious Names and Titles and attributes but himself Who can declare his relation to himself as Father Son and Holy Ghost but himself Who can prescribe his Worship make Laws set down rewards and declare what shall be in the World to come but himself 2. I observe the Style and Manner of speaking the manner of revealing the admirable consent of the Old and New Testament tho given the one so long before the other the scope of the whole their perfection and efficacy as able to make a Man Wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 by the operation of the Holy Ghost Authority of the Scriptures 1. The Scriptures derive their Authority from God their Author The Church is not the Author of the Scriptures therefore they derive not their Authority from it The Testimony and Tradition of the Church is but Ministerial We are directed to place our faith in the Word as it is Gods who gave it by inspiration 2 Tim.