they swear A. No this is but a vain excuse since sober and good men are easily believed on their bare word and common swearers are seldome thought to make conscience even of what they swear Q. Is it not enough to justifie these oaths that what is sworn is truth A. No for an oath must be taken only when we are lawfully called thereto in some weighty case which cannot otherwise be well determined Q. Who else may be said to take the name of God in vain A. They who are careless and irreverent in the worship of God and they who upon every light occasion cry out oh God or oh Lord when they have no sense nor thought of that glorious Majesty whose sacred name they rashly mention Q. What reason is urged to keep us from this sin A. The consideration of that vengeance which sooner or later God will certainly execute upon those who are guilty of this profaneness and contempt of his Majesty Q. What is the fourth Commandment A. Remember the Sabboth day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabboth 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 days the Lord made heaven and earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabboth day and hallowed it Q. What are you taught in the fourth Commandment A. The fourth Commandment teacheth us that it is our duty to set apart one day in seven for the solemn worship and service of God Q. What reason is here mentioned for the enforcing this Command A. Gods allowance of six days in the week for our worldly employments and his own example in resting on the seventh when he had made the world in six days before Q. Which day in the seven did the Jews keep their Sabboth A. They kept the seventh day which we now call Saturday Q. Why do we Christians keep the first day of the week A. In remembrance of our redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus especially of his Resurrection which was upon the first day of the week Q. What warrant have we for so doing A. The example of the Apostles and primitive Christians recorded in Scripture where this day is styled the Lords day the practice of the Church of God in all ages since as also the custom of our own Church and the commands of our Rulers both in Church and State Q. How ought we to spend the Lords day A. In the worship and Service of God both publick and private especially in meditating on and praising him for his works of Creation and Redemption Q. Are there no works lawful on this day A. Yes works of necessity and mercy whether to man or beast but we ought to abstain from such employments and recreations as either prevent the duties of this day or else hinder our due profiting by them Q. What is to be done in private that we may best profit by the publick service of this day A. We ought by prayer and serious consideration to prepare our selves before-hand for the publick worship of God and when we come home to meditate on what we have heard and Masters of Families ought to pray with and instruct those that are under their charge Q. Who are they then that do not remember this day to keep it holy but profane it A. They who without any necessity take journeys or follow their employments on this day or else spend the same in idleness and pleasure neglecting the service of God in publick or in their Family accounting it a burden to spend a day in works of Piety and devotion Thus much of the Commandments of the first Table which enjoyn the duties we owe more immediately to God Now follow those of the second Table which respect our duty to man What is the fifth Commandment A. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long upon the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Q. What are we taught in the fifth Commandment A. The fifth Commandment teacheth us to honour our Parents obeying all their lawful commands succouring and maintaining them if they stand in need of our help Q. Are there none beside our natural Parents to whom we owe obedience A. Yes we are also bound to reverence and obey all those who by their place and power may well be called our Parents to wit the civil Magistrate and our Spiritual Pastours and Teachers Servants must be subject to their Masters shewing all diligence and faithfulness and we must give due honour and respect to all those who are in any regard our Superiours Q. What promise is made to those who keep this Commandment A. A promise of long life and prosperity so far as God shall see it for their good Q. What reason may be given why this promise was made peculiarly to the keeping of this Command A. Because obedience and Subjection both in families and kingdomes ordinarily produce that peace and quietness which tends very much to our happiness even in this world Q. What is the sixth Commandment A. Thou shalt not kill Q. What is forbidden in this Commandment A. The murdering of our selves or any other person Q. Is it sufficient if we abstain only from murder A. No but we moreover ought to abstain from all rash anger inward malice and revenge from railing and provoking language from quarrelling and fighting Q. But what if others shall injure us in word or deed may we not return the like to them A. No but we must bless them who curse us do good to them that hate us forgive and love our very enemies that so we may overcome evil with good Q. Is there then no way of seeking our own right when we are injured and abused A. Yes by just and lawful means we may seek our right but without any malice or revenge in our hearts Q. Is there any case wherein the taking away of a mans life may be allowed A. Yes in execution of publick justice upon malefactours in a lawful war or when we are constrained to it in the just defence of our own lives Q. Who may be said to break this Command by taking away their own lives A. Not only they who lay violent hands on themselves but all those who by immoderate eating and drinking or any such wicked and wilful course destroy their health and so shorten their days Q. What is the seventh Commandment A. Thou shalt not commit adultery Q. What is forbidden in the seventh Commandment A. The seventh Commandment forbiddeth adultery and fornication with all the occasions and beginnings of these sins Q. From what particularly ought we to abstain in obedience to this Commandment A. We ought carefully to abstain
AN EXPLICATION OF THE CREED THE Ten Commandments AND THE LORDS PRAYER WITH The Addition of some Forms of Prayer By Iohn Rawlet Minister of tâ—â— Gospel at Wiggin in Lancashire London Printed for Iohn Sims at the Kiâ—â—â— Head at Sweeting's Alley End in Cornhill next house to the Royal Exchange 1672. TO THE READER IT might justly appear ridiculous to make a large Preface to this little paper The design of it is easily known at the first sight to render the chief Heads of our Religion plain and easie to the young and ignorant And this I hope is an attempt of that nature as needs no great Apologie except on this account that it comes after there hath been so much done to the same purpose already and that so sufficiently as might seem to render all future undertakings of this nature wholly needless But to this let it suffice to answer that what I have here drawn up was intended for my own private use for which I could not find any of those Expositions I light on though otherwise in their kinds very excellent and to some of which I have been much beholden in all circumstances so suited as I desired And they moreover for whose sake this was chiefly designed had not those other helps of this nature at hand nor could I so easily procure the same for them as I can this What is here done is in subserviency to that Catechisme which our Church recommends to the younger sort that by a plain and fuller explication of the principles contained in it the use thereof might be rendred more profitable to the learners And for this I had the judgment and authority of the Right Reverend my Diocesan encouraging me hereto that none may accuse me of boldness in this undertaking Some perhaps may wonder that I observe no more proportion in explicating the Articles of the Creed whilst I am so large on some and on others very brief But for this I thought I had sufficient reason when I considered that about some of them as particularly that of Believing in Jesus Christ there have been many hot disputes and some dangerous mistakes of which there are still some popular Books and Sermons too full notwithstanding all the endeavours of many excellent Divines for their removal That which I have herein sincerely aimed at is onely to represent the Gospel in its native plainness and simplicity that the Text might not be spoiled by a dark Comment as too oft it is whilst easie and obvious truths are obscur'd with hard words and with such subtil notions and distinctions that if the Salvation of Common people lay upon the understanding of them their case were hard In the explication of some other Articles as especially that of the Catholick Church I have consulted the particular necessity and danger of that people amongst whom at present the providence of God hath cast my lot And to this I was the rather inclined as finding not long since in some of their hands an exposition of the Creed by a Popish Author wherein he endeavours though with miserable success to shelter some of the prime novelties and falshoods of Popery under the Articles of the common Christian Faith And under that head of the Catholick Church would fain perswade us that the Roman Church and the Catholick are of equal signification and extent In order whereto with their usual cunning he jumbles I can't tell how many things together and asks his Scholar how he can prove that St. Peter was Head of the Church and the Bishops of Rome his Successors in this power and dignity And the Proof is only from those two Texts which they so commonly press to this purpose Joh. the last 15 16 17. Mat. 16. 18. The insufficiencie of which Allegations for that end they produce them hath an hundred times over been shewn them whilst from Christs command in the former place to St. Peter to feed his flock that is to be diligent in preaching to them the Gospel they would infer his power over the whole Church because forsooth thereis mention made both of Lambs and Sheep And the title given him in the latter place supposing it to be spoke rather of his person than consession is no more than what we find bestowed on the other Apostles Eph. 2. 20. Rev. 21. 14. But all this while here 's not a syllable of his establishment in the Bishoprick of Rome nor of any power over the universal Church to be derived from him to his successours in that Sex nor yet will they ever be able to shew why this power if any such there had been should not rather be confer'd upon the Sex of Antioch whereof they grant him to have been Bishop before he was at Rome On such meer uncertainties do depend the great Articles of the Romish faith But these things 't is needless here to repeat only I shall desire any man that is impartial to let his own conscience judge whether the definition I have afterward given of atrue Catholick Christian That he is one who sincerely believes the doctrines and obeys the precepts of Jesus Christ be not far more agreeable to Scripture and reason than that which Popish Authors give whilst they would have it essential to a Christian to be subctej to the Bishop of Rome And Ineed not suggest to the judicious how considerably the Popish Cause is weakned by this single conclusion That a man may be a true Catholick Christian as I have before defined him and so be saved without being subject to the Pope For if this once be granted as needs it must if Scripture and Reason may be of any force in the dispute then it plainly appears that all their loud talk about the Infallibility of the Church the Authority of the Church no salvation is to be had out of the Church c. is nothing else but empty noise And a company of Quakers or any other Sectaries if they were got but good store of them together might talk just at the same rate and with much-what the same reason whilst they arrogate all those things to their own party which are spoke of the Universal Church of Christ if not more than we find ascribed even to this Yea and grant that the Church of Rome were a sound part of this universal Church yet still'tis but a part and therefore could not with any pretence of reason lay claim to those promises and priviledges which pertain to the whole Church any more than any other part equally sound might do But this is not a place to discourse these matters at large One thing more I cannot but mention which I observed in the forenamed Popish Treatise viz. the Authors endeavour to prove the lawfuless of praying to Saints and that from Gen. 48. 16. Where Iacob blessing Iosephs children saith Let my name be named on them and the name of my Fathers Abraham and Isaac Here for named he renders it invocated which makes nothing for
And does that sign agree to that Sect who absurdly call themselvos Romane Catholicks A. Less than to any other Sect whatever for they are bound by the definitions of Popes Councils which if they contradict they cannot be Papists to judge all men damn'd that are not of their Sect thereby condemning many millions of Christians far better than themselves which horrid uncharitableness is enough to keep wise men from amongst them Q. Are the Churches which be reformed from Popish innovations parts of the Catholick Church of Christ A. Yes and the best and soundest parts thereof agreeing in all matters of substance with the Church of Christ in all ages and nations of the world Q. How prove you that A. In that these reformed Churches as particularly our Church of England do profess to hold nothing as necessary to salvation which is not contained in the holy Scriptures which same Scriptures are received and believ'd by all other Christian Churches who do thereby approve of all that we hold as necessary Q. But why did these reformed Churches at first depart from Communion with the Church of Rome A. Because the Romish Church imposed such new fangled doctrines and practises as were plainly contrary to the word of God and therefore it was in those things to be departed from by all those who would conform themselves to the ancient Church as it was settled by Christ and his Apostles Q. What mean you by Communion of Saints A. That Communion which Saints have with God and Christ their Head by partaking of his Holy Spirit and with one another in their mutual likeness and love and in their assembling together for the worship of God Q. What mean you by saying you believe the Forgiveness of Sins A. I hereby profess to believe that they who repent of their sins trust in and obey the Lord Jesus shall for his sake find God so gracious to them as to free them from that condemnation and punishment to which their sins made them liable Q. What mean you by Resurrection of the Body A. I hereby profess to believe that at the last day God will raise up all that were dead and change those that are then alive and that they shall appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ. Q. What mean you by Life everlasting A. I do hereby profess my belief of a future state after this life wherein the Righteous shall enjoy everlasting happiness and the wicked shall be sentenced into everlasting torments Q. But does it not seem very harsh to think that God should punish any the worst of sinners with everlasting torments A. No not when we consider what graciou terms were proposed to them for their obtaining of glory and escaping of this misery and how they themselves did wilfully refuse the offers of grace when they knew this misery would follow upon that refusal Q. What then is safest for us all to do in this case A. So to believe and fear these terrible threatnings of Christ as to take the only sure way to escape them by obeying his commands rather than to quarrel with them or presume they will prove false So much for the Articles of your Belief HAve you also a brief Summary of the whole duty of man in reference to is practice A. Yes the ten commandments Q. Rehearse the first A. I am the Lord thy God which brought the out of the land of AEgypt out of the house of bondage Thou shalt have no other Gods before me Q. What learn you from the first commandment and the Preface set before it A. I hence learn that we are bound to acknowledge that God who is our Maker Owner and the giver of all our mercies to be the only true and living God and to behave our selves toward him accordingly Q. How doth it beseem us creatures to behave our selves toward this our God A. We are bound to love him with our highest love to put our whole confidence in him to reverence admire and rejoyce in him to pray to him and praise him to obey all his commands without grudging and to submit to all his providences without murmuring or repining Q. Which is the second Commandment A. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor 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 Q. What are we taught in the second Commandment A. The second Commandment teacheth us to worship God according to his own appointment and to take special heed that we make not any image or picture of him nor give religious worship to an Image upon any pretence whatsoever Q. What reason do you find given for the engaging our obedience to this Command A. The reason here given is that God is a jealous God who therefore will not suffer himself to be dishonoured by mens making and worshipping any thing as an Image of him but will severely punish such idolaters and their posterity whilst the true lovers and worshippers of him shall be plenteously rewarded even to many generations Q. What other reason do you find given in the repetition of the Law Deut. 4. 12 15 16. c. A. We there find this farther added that when God spake to the children of Israel they only heard a voice but saw no similitude or bodily shape and therefore it is unreasonable to make any image or resemblance of him Q. How ought we then to conceive of God when we worship him A. We ought not to conceive of him under any bodily shape but as a spiritual Being infinitely wise and powerful holy just and good who fills both heaven and earth with his presence and in his essence is unsearchable Q. What is the third commandment A. 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 Q. What are we taught in the third Commandment A. The third Commandment enjoyns us to have so great reverence for God as not to take his name in vain Q. Who are they that take Gods name in vain A. Chiefly they who dare swear falsly by the name of God and they also who in their passion or ordinary discourse break forth into swearing Q. What Rule hath Christ given for our ordinary communication that we may avoid swearing A. That we should barely affirm or deny a thing using yes or no or the like expressions without oaths or imprecations Q. Is it enough to justifie these common oaths that some men will not as is pretended believe others except