we do nothing against our Neighbours Life or Bodily welfare but carefully preserve it as our own 7. That no man defile his Neighbours wife nor commit Fornication but preserve our own and others Chastity in thought word and deed 8. That we wrong not another in his Estate by stealing fraud or any other means but preserve our Neighbours Estate as our own 9. That we pervert not Justice by false witness or otherwise nor wrong our neighbour in his Name by slanders backbiting or reproach That we lie not but speak the truth in love and preserve our neighbours right and honour as our own 10. That we be not selfish setting up our selves and our own against our Neighbour and his good desiring to draw from him unto our selves But that we love our Neighbour as our selves desiring his welfare as our own doing to others as regularly we would have them do to us forbearing and forgiving one another loving even our enemies and doing good to all according to our power both for their Bodies and their Souls This is the Substance of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION § 15. II. The summ or Abstract of the Christian Religion is contained in three short Forms The first called The Creed containing the matter of the Christian Belief The second called The Lords Prayer containing the matter of Christian Desires and hope The third called The Law or Decalogue containing the summ of Morall Duties which are as followeth The BELIEF 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth 2. And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended to Hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from thence he shall come again to judge the quick and the dead 3. 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 The LORDS PRAYER Our 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 trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The Ten COMMANDEMENTS God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage 1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth Thou shalt not vow down thy self to them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandements 3. 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 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six dayes 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 Cattel nor the Stranger that is within thy gates For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy dayes may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not Steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Man-servant nor his Maid-servant nor his Oxe nor his Ass nor any thing that is thy Neighbours § 16. The ten Commandements are summed up by Christ into these two Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self § 17. These Commandements being first delivered to the Jews are continued by Christ as the summ of the Law of Nature only instead of Deliverance of the Jews from Egypt he hath made our Redemption from sin and Satan which was thereby typified to be the fundamental motive And he hath removed the memorial of the Creation-Rest from the seventh day-Sabbath to be kept on the Lords day which is the first with the Commemoration of his Resurrection and our Redemption in the solemn Worship of his holy Assemblies § 18. III. The briefest Summary of the Christian Religion containing the Essentials only is in the Sacramental Covenant of Grace Wherein the Penitent Believer renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil doth solemnly give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit as his only God his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier engaging himself hereby to a Holy life of Resignation Obedience and Love and receiving the pardon of all his sins and title to the further helps of grace to the favour of God and everlasting life This Covenant is first entered by the Sacrament of Baptisme and after renewed in our communion with the Church in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ So that the Christian Religion is but Faith in God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer producing the hope of Life Everlasting and possessing us with the love of God and Man And all this expressed in the genuine fruits of Patience Obedience and Praise to God and works of Charity and Justice unto Man § 19. That all this Religion might be the better understood received and practised by us the Word of God came down into Flesh and gave us a perfect Example of it in his most perfect Life in perfect holiness and innocency conquering all temptations contemning the honours riches and pleasures of the World in perfect patience and meekness and condescension and in the perfect Love of God and Man When perfect Doctrine is seconded by Perfect Exemplariness of Life there can be no greater Light set before us to lead us out of our state of darkness into the everlasting Light And had it not been a pattern of holy Power Wisdom and Goodness of Self-denyall Obedience and Love of Patience and of Truth and Prudence and of contempt of all inferiour things even of Life it self for the Love of God and for Life eternal it
interest of their sect or cause and party 6. Nor by your own partial interest which will make you judge of men not as they are indeed and towards God but as they either answer or cross your interests and desires 7. Nor must you judge of all by some that prove hypocrites who once seemed sincere 8. Nor must you judge of a man by some particular fall or failing which is contrary to the bent of his heart and life and is his greatest sorrow 9. Nor must you come with a fore-stalled and malicious mind hating that holiness your self which you enquire after for malice is blind and a constant false interpreter and a slanderer 10. You must know what Holiness and Honesty is before you can well judge of them These conditions are all so reasonable and just that he that liveth among religious honest men and will stand at a distance unacquainted with their lives and maliciously revile them upon the seduction of false reports or of interest either his own interest or the interest of a faction and will say I see no such honest and renewed persons but a company of self-conceited hypocrites this man 's confirmed infidelity and damnation is the just punishment of his wilful blindness partiality and malice which made him false to God to truth and to his own soul § 107. It is not some but All true Christians that ever were or are in the world who have within them this witness or evidence of the Spirit of Regeneration As I have before said Christ will own no others Rom. 8. 4 5 6 7 8 9. 2 Cor. 5.17 Luk. 14.26.33 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Indeed the Church visible which is but the congregate Societies of professed Christians hath many in it that have none of this Spirit or grace but such are only Christians equivocally and not in the primary proper sense 1 Joh. 5.7 8 9 10. There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son § 108. The more any one is a Christian in degree the more he hath of this witness of the sanctifying Spirit in himself and the holier he is § 109. The nearer any Philosopher or others are like to Christians the nearer they come to this renewed Image of God § 110. As this Image of God the holiness of the soul is the very end and work of a true Saviour so the true effecting of it on all true Christians is actually their begun salvation and therefore the standing infallible witness of Christ which should confound unbelief in all that are indeed his own This which I spake of the fore going Chapter is a testimony in every holy soul which the gates of hell shall not prevail against He that undertaketh to cure all of the Plague or Stone or Gout or Fever that will take his medicines and be ruled by him is certainly no deceiver if he do that which he undertaketh He that undertaketh to teach all men Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Musick c. who will come and learn of him is certainly no deceiver if he do it What is it that Jesus Christ hath undertaken Think of that and then tell me whether he be a deceiver He never undertook to make his Disciples Kings or Lords or rich or honourable in the world nor yet to make them the best Logicians Orators Astronomers Mathematicians Physicians Musicians c. but to make them the best men to renew them to the love of God in holiness and thereby to save them from their sins and give them repentance unto life Nor hath he promised this to all that are baptized or called Christians but only to those that sincerely consent to learn of him and take his counsel and use the remedies which he prescribeth them And is it not certain that Christ doth truly perform this undertaking How then can he be a deceiver who doth perform all that he undertaketh Of this all true Christians have a just demonstration in themselves which is his witness Object But Christ undertaketh more than this even to bring us to everlasting blessedness in heaven Answ It is our comfort that he doth so but me-thinks its easie to believe him in that if he perform the rest For 1. I have proved in the first part of this Book that by the light of nature a future life of retribution must be expected and that man is made for a future happiness 2. And who then should have that happiness but the holy and renewed souls Doth not natural reason tell you that so good a God will shew his love to those that are good that is to those that love him 3. And what think you is to be done to bring any man to heaven but to pardon him and make him holy 4. And the nature of the work doth greatly help our faith For this holiness is nothing but the beginning of that happiness When we find that Christ hath by his Spirit begun to make us know God and love him and delight in him and praise him it is the easier to make us believe that he will perfect it He that promiseth to convey me safely to the Antipodes may easily be believed when he hath brought me past the greatest difficulties of the voyage He that will teach me to sing artificially hath merited credit when he hath taught me the gradual tones the Scale of Musick the Sol-fa-ing the Cliffs the Quantity the Moods the Rules of time c. He that causeth me to love God on earth may be believed if he promise me that I shall love him more in heaven And he that causeth me to desire heaven above earth before I see it may be believed when he promiseth that it shall be my great delight when I am there It is God's work to love them that love him and to reward the obedient and I must needs believe that God will do his work and will never fail the just expectations of any creature All my doubt is whether I shall do my part and whether I shall be a prepared subject for that felicity and he that resolveth this resolveth all He that will make me fit for
among themselves who are his disciples How to mortifie sin and to contemn the wealth and honours of the world and to deny the flesh its hurtful desires and lusts and how to suffer any thing that we shall be called to for obedience to God and the hopes of Heaven To tell us what shall be after death how all men shall be judged and what shall become both of soul and body to everlasting But his great work was by the great demonstrations of the Goodness and Love of God to lost mankind in their free pardon and offered salvation to win up mens hearts to the love of God and to raise their hopes and desires up to that blessed life where they shall see his glory and love him and be beloved by him for ever At last when he had finished the work of his ministration in the flesh he told his Disciples of his approaching Suffering and Resurrection and instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud in Bread and Wine which he commandeth them to use for the renewing of their covenant with him and remembrance of him and for the maintaining and signifying their communion with him and with each other After this his time being come the Jews apprehended him and though upon a word of his mouth to shew his power they fell all to the ground yet did they rise again and lay hands on him and brought him before Pilate the Roman Governour and vehemently urged him to crucifie him contrary to his own mind and conscience They accused him of blasphemy for saying he was the Son of God and of impiety for saying Destroy this Temple and in three days I will re-build it he meant his Body and of treason against Caesar for calling himself a King though he told them that his Kingdom was not worldly but spiritual Hereupon they condemned him and clothed him in purple like a King in scorn and set a Crown of thorns on his head and put a Reed for a Scepter into his hand and led him about to be a derision They cover'd his eyes and smote him and buffeted him and bid him tell who strake him At last they nailed him upon a Cross and put him to open shame and death betwixt two Malefactors of whom one of them reviled him and the other believed on him they gave him gall and vinegar to drink The Souldiers pierced his side with a Spear when he was dead All his Disciples forsook him and fled Peter having before denied thrice that ever he knew him when he was in danger When he was dead the earth trembled the rocks and the vail of the Temple rent and darkness was upon the earth though their was no natural Eclipse which made the Captain of the Souldiers say Verily this was the Son of God When he was taken down from the Cross and laid in a stone-Sepulchre they set a guard of Souldiers to watch the grave having a stone upon it which they sealed because he had fore-told them that he would rise again On the morning of the third day being the first day of the week an Angel terrified the Souldiers and rolled away the stone and sate upon it and when his Disciples came they found that Jesus was not there And the Angel told them that he was risen and would appear to them Accordingly he oft appeared to them sometimes as they walked by the way and once as they were fishing but usually when they were assembled together Thomas who was one of them being absent at his first appearance to the rest told them he would not believe it unless he saw the print of the nails and might put his finger into his wounded side The next first day of the week when they were assembled Jesus appeared to them the doors being shut and called Thomas and bad him put his fingers into his side and view the prints of the nails in his hands and feet and not be faithless but believing After this he oft appeared to them and once to above five hundred brethren at once He earnestly prest Peter to shew the love that he bare to himself by the feeding of his flock He instructed his Apostles in the matters of their employment He gave them Commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel and gave them the tenour of the New Covenant of Grace and made them the Rulers of his Church requiring them by Baptism solemnly to enter all into his Covenant who consent to the terms of it and to assure them of pardon by his Blood and of salvation if they persevere He required them to teach his Disciples to observe all things which he had commanded them and promised them that he would be with them by his Spirit and grace and powerful defence to the end of the world And when he had been seen of them forty days speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God being assembled with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait till the holy Spirit came down upon them which he had promised them But they being tainted with some of the worldly expectations of the Jews and thinking that he who could rise from the dead would sure now make himself and his followers glorious in the world began to ask him whether he would at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel But he answered them It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But ye shall receive power after that the holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses to me both at Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth And when he had said this while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up two men stood by them in white apparel and said Why gaze ye up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Upon this they returned to Jerusalem and continued together till ten days after as they were all together both the Apostles and all the rest of the Disciples suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and the likeness of fiery cloven tongues sate on them all and they were filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance By this they were enabled both to preach to people of several languages and to work other miracles to confirm their doctrine so that from this time forward the holy Spirit which Christ sent down upon Believers was his great Witness and Agent in the world and procured the belief and entertainment of the Gospel wheresoever it came For by this extraordinary reception of the Spirit the Apostles themselves were much fullier instructed in the doctrine of salvation than
adjuvante naturâ tamen id quia fortuito fit semper paratum esse non potest Cic. de Or. Etsi ingeniis magnis praediti quidam dicendi copiam sine ratione consequuntur ars tamen dux certior est quà m natura Aliud enim est poetarum more verba fundere aliud ea quae dicas ratione arte distinguere Cic. de sin 4. You may rerceive the Heathens gâ—atâ—ud to God by the â—rdâ— of Cotta◠〈◊〉 Nat. Deor. 3. pag. 109 Numâ— is quod â—onus◠〈◊〉 grat as Dâ—s 〈◊〉 unâ—aâ—n At quod dives quod honoratu quod incolumis Jovemqâ—e Optimum Maximum ob eas res appellant non quod nos justos temperatos sapientes efficiat sed quod salvos incolumes opâ—lentos copiosos Judicium hoc omnium mortalium fortunam à Deo petendam à seipso sumendam esse sapientiam Parvulos nobis natura dedit igniculos quos celeriter in aliis moribus opinionibusque depravatis sic restinguimus ut nusquam naturae lumen appareat Nunc autem simulatque editi in lucem suscepti sumus in omni continuo pravitate versamur ut pene cum lacte nutricis errorem suxisse videamur cum vero parentibus redditi deinde magistris traditi sumus tum ita variis imbuimur erroribus ut vanitati veritas opinioni confirmatae natura ipsa cedat Cic. 3. Tusc Multis signis natura declarat quid velit obsurdescimus tamen nescio quo modo nec ea quae ab ea moventur audimus Cic. Lael Si tales nos natura genuisset ut eam ipsam intueri perspicere eâque optimâ duce cursum vitae conficere possemus haud esset sane quod quisquam rationem doctrinam requireret cum natura sufficeret Nune vero c. Cic. 3. Tusc Quicquid infixum ingenitum est lenitur arte non vincitur Sâ—n. O curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes Quid juvat hoc templis nostros immittere mores Et bona Diis ex hac scelerata ducere pulpâ Persius Non bove mactato coelestia numina gaudent Sed quae praestanda est sine teste fides Ovid. ep â—9 Omne nefas omnemque mali purgamine causam Credebant nostri tollere posse sene c. Ah! nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Fulmineâ tolli posse putatis aquâ Ovid. 2. Fast Multa miser metui quia seei multa proterve Idem In malis sperare bonum nosi innocens nemo solet Senec. Turpe est quicquans mali perpetrare bene autem agere nullo periculo proposito multorum est id vero proprium boni viri est etiam cum periculo suo honestatem in agentem sequi Plut. in Mario At mens sibi conscia facti Praemetuens adhibet stimulos terrerque flagellis Nec videt interea qui terminus esse malorum Possit nec qui sit poenarum denique finis Atque eadem metuic magis haecne in morte gravescant Lucret. 3. Euvaglus saith That Constantine so honoured Sopater the Philosopher that he made him usually sit by him on the same bench Sure the Philosophers were falsly reported to Theoph. Antioch ad Autol. l. 2. p. 137. when he saith that Zeno Diogenes and Cleanthes's Books do teach to eat man's flesh and fathers to be rosted and eaten by the children and sacrificed by them c. Belyirg one another hath been the Devil's means to destroy charity on earth Sed nescio quomodo nil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo Philosophorum Cic. Divinat l. 2. p. 183. Sed haec cadem num censes apud cos iplos valere nisi admodum paucos à quibus inventa disputata conscripta sunt Quotus enim quisque Philosophorum invenitur qui sit ita moratus ita animo ac vitâ constitutus ut ratio postulat qui disciplinam suam non ostentationem scientiae sed legem vitae putet qui obtemperet ipse sibi decretis suis pareat Videre licet alius tanta levitate jactatione ut iis fâ—erit non didicisse necleus alioâ— pecuniae cupdoâ— gloriae nonnul los multos lib dinum servos ut cum corum vita mirabibiliter pugnet oratio quod quidem mihi videtur turpissimum Ut enim si Grammaticum se professus quispiam barbare loquatur aut si absurde canat is qui se haberi velit musicum hoc turpior sit quod in eo ipso peccet cujus profitetur scientiam sic Philosophus in ratione vitae peccans hoc turpior est quod in officio cujus magister esse vult labitur artemque vitae professus delinquit in vitâ Cic. Tusc l. 2. pag. 252. In To 4. Bib. Pat extat liber Hieronymi à Sancta Fide ex Judaeo Christiani contra Judaeos Talmud qui ut dicit Approbatio 5000 Judaeos ad fidem convertit pag 742 c. De Mahumetis origine c. vid. fragm ex Anastas Hist Eccl. in B.P. Gr. Lat. To. 2. pag. 289 c. Vid. Theodore Abucare Opuscul Mahumetem non esse ex Deo c. Et Euthymâ—i Zigaben Moamethica What the Christian Religion is judge not by the intruded opinions of any Sect but by the ancient Creeds and Summaries which elsewhere I have recited out of Tertullian and other ancients and which you may finde recited or referr'd to in Usher and Vossius de Symb. See the description of the Christian Faith in Proclus ad Armenios de fide in Bib. Pal. Graecolat To. 1. pag. 311. Also the Catechis of Junilius Africanus de part div Legis Et Hermenopul de Fide Orthod Leg Julian Toletin cont Judaeus Et Rabbi Samuel Marrochiani de adventu Messiae Gen. 1. * Caesarius Dialog 3. Q. 122. thinketh that Adam was forty dayes in Paradise and that therefore Lent is kept to shew our hungring after Paradise But that 's a singular Fansie And after he changed it upon some old mens tradition of a longer time Gen. 2. 3. Transtulit Deus hominem in Paradisum ei undique occasiones suggerens ut cresceret perfectus redderetur declaratus tandem Deus in astra ascenderet Mediam etenim conditionem obtinuit homo nec totus mortalis nec totus immortalis existens verum utriusque extitit particeps Theoph. Autio ad Autol. l. 1. p. 129. Gen. 3.15 Gen. 4. Gen. 5. Gen. 6. 7. Gen. 8 9. 10. 11. Gen. 12 to the end of the Book Exod per totum Exod. Numb Josh per tot Judg. 1 Sam. 1 King 2 King 1 Chron. 2 Chron. Ezra Nehem. Matth. 1 2 c. Luk. 1 2 c. Vid. Procli Homiliam de Nativ Christi interpret Peltano Matth. 4. Luk. 4. Vid. Microlog de Eccles observ cap. 23. All this is written by the four Evangelists Act. 1. Act. 2. Act. 2 3. Act. 9. Act. per tot 1 Cor. 8.4 6. Matth. 28.19 1 Joh. 5.7 1 Tim. 1.17 Ps 139.7