consciences by stirring them up to avoid all sin and to live to God in all holy duties Conscience is like a closet being locked up none sees what is in it but the Owners conscience may like Jonah in the Ship lye fast asleep in the midst of the greatest dangers till it be rouzed up but being awakened 't will shew the danger of their condition It is the Candle of the Lord in man Prov. 20.27 Psal 18.28 Job 21.17 While it is shut up none sees its light but expose it and then it is splendent to keep out the cold and wholsom Diet is healthful for the Body and so to keep sin out of the conscience and feed it with the wholesome food of the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 This is the best Medicine for Souls health but withall remember that conscience or the light within is not the only means of Salvation if we heed it never so much as that fond People called Quakers do imagine or dote upon calling Conscience or the Light within God Christ and the Holy Spirit Know this that conscience is a principle in every man of Knowledge Wisdom Justice and Purity it is common to all all are endowed with it by the Lord it is like the weight of a clock the which being down all the wheels stop so conscience lyeth quiet in man till the Lord by his Goodness Justice Mercy or Threatnings of Judgment and by his Word and Spirit doth â—ouze it up and then 't is in quick motion and the Tongue confesseth sin to the Lord the Eyes weep the Hands wring the Knees smite together the Heart acheth the Voice crieth to the Lord all parts are moving no part can be at ease 1st It s Office is when by knowledge man's eyes are opened to cheek and reprove for all sin John 8.9 2dly Being purged of sin it will excuse a man that he may look God in the Face through a Mediator Acts 23.1 Chap. 24.17 3dly Being sanctified it is said to be good such was St. Paul's conscience which was void of Offence Acts 24.16 4thly It will bear witness to our Actions both to God and Man Rom. 9.1 5thly It will accuse a man when he knows by the word he has not done well Rom. 2.15 6thly Yet know that it may be defiled with sin Tit. 1.15 7thly Being made truly sensible that man continueth in sin it will as it were fly in his face and convict him John 8.9 8thly The power of sin is such that by it some have mortified conscience so that it has lain in them as it were dead which the Apostle calls putting away a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.5 Sin hath such powerful dominion over it if yielded unto that it will become altogether without the sence of feeling of Gods Goodness Justice Mercies or Judgments having their conscience seared with an hot iron 1 Tim. 4.2 9thly It is of that uncertain nature in it self that it may be led and guided in a wrong way and yet a man may believe think and be perswaded by his conscience that he is right when he is in the midst of a Sea of Superstition Sedition Errors and Heresies 1 Cor. 10.28 29. 10thly It is of that lenity and facility to be wrought upon that by the grace of God and true Faith in his word it may be purged from dead works Heb. 9.14 1 Tim. 3.9 Acts 15.9 11thly It is unconstant sometimes quiet 1 Pet. 3.4 sometimes stirred and troubled Job 3.26 sometimes doubtful Rom. 14.23 sometimes erroneous 1 Tim. 6.21 sometimes wounded Prov. 18.14 sometimes evil Heb. 10.22 and sometimes good 1 Tim. 1.5 But how this faculty which is so uncertain unsettled and unconstant in man that may be led to this to day and to that to morrow and a third the next day can be called God Christ or the Holy Spirit or a sure Guide I see not but shall leave it to the men that refuse the Law and Testament to be their Guide to call conscience or the light within what they please but the day of the general Judgment after the resurrection of our Bodies out of the Graves of the Earth will awaken these Mens consciences and testifie to them the whole Truth of the matter whom at present I do fear and believe that they are now in a wide wilderness of gross and blasphemous Errors and Heresies But Parents for all this you must not neglect to stir your children up to keep the light within alive and quicken them in their duties so far as it is guided by the Scriptures of Truth and not one step short or beyond that 22. Direction You must and ought in conscience to god and love to your children make your daily Prayers for them you are to pray for a blessing on them in spirituals and temporals as also by your godly Exhortations Informations and Loving Instructions together with your protecting care of them and bowels of kindness towards them in all Godly Examples and it will be a blessing to them when you are dead and gone Isaac blessed Jacob Gen. 27.27 Laban Jacob's Children Gen. 31.55 Jacob blessed his Sons Gen. 49.28 Be as good Patterns to your Children and the most High will bless both them and you 23 Direction Sweeten all your carriages to your children with true love and bowels of affection The Apostle saith Teach your young Women to be sober and to love their Children Tit. 2.4 It seems by this Exhortation that some Parents may want love to their natural children Love is that oyl that sets all the wheels in a free posture and motion for by it Parents will be moved to nourish educate instruct direct exhort perswade dehort restrain protect correct and continually pray for and endeavour after their conversion and holy walking before the Lord and what not 24 Direction is As you must pray for them so you must daily also pray with them Be careful for nothing saith the Apostle but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God Phil. 4.6 Praying always with all prayers and supplications in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverence and supplication Ephes 6.18 Every thing is sanctified by the word of God and prayer 1 Tim. 4.5 Pray continually 1 Thes 5.17 Pray one for another James 5.16 Daniel prayed three times a day Dan. 6.10 Evening Morning and at Noon I will pray and cry aloud saith David Psal 55.17 Paul seems to exhort to it as a family Exercise Continue in prayer Col. 4.2 Though there be no positive rule to go by in this Gospel dispensation yet the Lords Prayer intimates to us that it is and ought to be our daily Exercise from these words Luke 11.3 Give us day by day our daily Bread Implying that this duty should be still performed day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 panem necessitatis nostrae Our necessary bread or every day bread which doth imply that we should pray with our family dayly
have instructed many Job 4.3 It were well if only learned sober and christian-like religious Persons were sound in the exercise of this weighty Vocation 28 Directiom is Allow them those things that are necessary in their Condition That it be not a hindrance of their Advancement in Learning allow them suitable Books and other things so far as your ability will permit but let not your Money be bestowed upon Romances Plays Prophane Histories Ballads and Lying Pamphlets for they teach Youth Debauchery and Vice but not Truth and Piety Provide them things that are honest in the sight of all men Rom. 12.17 29 Direction is Be often visiting them and endeavour to know their condition in what capacity they are and how they profit in Learning Here you must encourage your children by loving perswasions or loving and heart-winning Letters and Invitations with supplying them with Moneys and such things as they stand in need of according to their degree and your own Abilities provided they are virtuous Let ours saith Paul also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful Tit. 3.14 As much as if he had said be diligent in an honest Employment to procure necessaries both for you and yours 30 Direction is You must study their Abilities and natural Condition If they are stubborn and will not yield you must give them due correction but not in anger for then perhaps you will correct them too immoderately and the child may then justly think that it is corrected to appease its Parents wrath and evil passion more than for the fault it has committed you should make your child as sensible of its fault by words to the purpose as of the smart by the rod of correction and then you may bow their stubborn heart Prov. 22.15 Also if they be dull and slow of capacity you must not be too fierce hasty and violent upon them it will hurry them beyond or out of themselves that they will be capable of just nothing at all if they be wild you must be fierce but if they be mild you must use all the lenity and mildness that is possible Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the spirit is gentleness 31 Direction is You must let them have some liberty not to tie them up altogether like a Horse in a Mill At School a quarter of an hours time in the Forenoon or Afternoon refresheth youth and they will be the better capable to go through their lesson when their veins are stirred and brains are quickned by far than they are to fit half a day congealed like Momes it does but hinder their Learning So likewise if you keep them at work from morning till night when young it dulls them much and especially if their Vocation be matter of art then a small Journey of a quarter of an hour on an Erand or some other little business will refresh quicken and do them abundance of good Moreover you ought to let them have some time to read and to pray if they be capable Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.7 But use not this liberty as an occasion to the flesh Gal. 5.13 32 direction is You must if it be possible preserve and increase your estate that your children may have something to live on comfortably when you are dead and gone Saith the Wise Man A good man leaveth an inberitance to his Childrens children Prov. 13.22 St. Paul informs us That the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children 2 Cor. 12.14 But they unparent themselves who give away their Estates from their children for want of love Such are destitute of true grace and others love their name better than their children who give their Estates from their daughters It is much better to obey the Lord and to give your Estates to your own children if Daughters than to give it to one that is no kin to you though they be of your name more especially if he should prove wicked that possesseth it it would be but a grand blot to your name and a perpetual stain for your wicked Act Their inward thoughts is that their houses shall continue for ever this their way is their folly Psal 49.11 13. 33 Direction is When your children are capable of holy Duty you ought to instruct them to pray with the spirit and with their understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 Humane Traditions are not always good Mat. 15.3 Nor yet a stinted form 2 Tim. 3.5 1st Stinted Forms made and imposed seems to put an affront upon the Dignity and Free-grace of the Almighty which freely giveth the gift of his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 If they ask in Faith 〈◊〉 teach them to pray John 14. 26. Rom. 8.15 16. Ephes 6.18 1 John 2.27 2dly It quencheth the Spirit contrary to 1 Thes 5.19 Man is sometimes sensible of his great wants and would pour forth his Soul to the Lord in a very vehement and large measure and manner But in a form his Wants it may be are not expressed or he knows not where to get a prayer suitable and if he doth yet 't is a doubt whether it agree with his Spirit in all cases and conditions and before he hath learned it the through sence of his wants which formerly he had are damped cold and flat that now the fiery zeal of his spirit and good desires are altogether quenched as fire is quenched by the want of fuel and the continual powring on of water 3ly We are commanded in every thing by prayer and supplication to let our request be made known to God Phil. 4.6 Now if this command to the Church of Philippi do extend to all persons I am apt to think that there is not one of an hundred that hath a memory to contain forms of Prayers that have Words in them suitable to pray for every thing so that this Precept cannot extend it self in any sence to the using of stinted forms of Prayers but altogether to the Exercise of Spiritual Prayer Tutius ex puro fonte bibuntur aquae Waters are drank more safely out of the purest fountain 4ly stinted Forms destroy Divine Meditation and the Study of our Wants and Conditions Divine Meditation made David fervent in holy duty Psal 63.6 7. 119.93 94. and St. Paul exhorts thereunto Phil. 4.8 Abimo omnia tecum peragere Choose to ponder all things well in thine own mind 5ly As our Wants are various and many so are the Temptations of Satan the World and our own Heats that it is impossible to have stinted forms suitable in all conditions of Mans life Ephes 6.11 Prov. 7.27 1 John 2.15 16 17. Ardua via virtutis the way to Vertue is very difficult painful and perilous 6ly Stinted Forms hinder those that daily use them from seeking after the help of the Spirit in this holy duty which the Apostle saith Helpeth our infirmities with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom.
8.26 7ly Stinted Forms keeps Persons in a lame stupid dead and lukewarm posture so long as they do continue in the use of it they are neither hot nor cold Revel 3.15 16. What the Fruits and Benefits that forms do conduce I leave it to those that have received it if any have to declare but this is certain that the Letter kills but it is the Spirit that giveth life 2 Cor. 3.6 John 3.63 8ly By spiritual Prayer we have access unto the Throne of Grace Ephes 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 1st Accessus 2ly Manuductionem A drawing near by leading by the hand to God as Persons are led or conducted into Kings Courts but I do not find any promise in all the Holy Scriptures that any shall have access to God by reading or saying over of stinted forms of Prayer 9ly There are many good Presidents in Scripture that the faithful in all ages have poured out their Souls to the Lord omnipotent in Spiritual Prayer It is said Isaac went out into the field to meditate Gen. 24.63 The Margin reads it to pray agreeing with Ainsworth in loc David poured out his soul to the Lord Psal 142.1 to 7. Jehoshephat was fervent in this duty 2 Chron. 20.12 Hezekiah prayed against Senacherib's Blasphemy 2 Kings 19.15 It will be too tedious to set forth one quarter of the instances of this kind Take St. Paul for your Example who saith He will pray with his Spirit and with his understanding also 1 Cor. 14.15 Epaphras is said to be fervent in this duty Col. 4.12 10ly Spiritual Prayer is commanded Praying always with all prayers and supplication in the Spirit Ephes 6.18 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and suplication let your request be made known to God Phil. 4.6 I will that men pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 Pray for them that despitefully use you Mat. 5.44 Luke 6.28 Pray ye the Lord of the Harvest Mat. 9.38 Pray one for another James 5.16 If ye sow to the spirit ye shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.8 34 Direction is Be often minding of them that they let the love of God in Christ be the principal Motive upon their Hearts to perswade them to love God above all to uphold them from being dashed in pieces upon that rock of Despair about Personal Election and Reprobation Know for certain that as all were brought into a state of Condemnation by the first Adam's Sin so all that believe are in a state of justification by the death of Christ Rom. 5.18 For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved John 3.16 17. There is Salvation open to every Soul that believeth the Lord hath taken such care for every mans Salvation 1st That he hath commanded the Gospel to be Preached to every Creature Mark 16.15 16 2dly That Prayers and Supplications be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 to 6. 3dly The Lord would have all men come to the Knowledge of the Truth that they might be Saved 1 Tim. 2.4 as touching those that are Elected they are Elected thro' the Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes 2.13 to believe on Christ is the first step to enjoy the promise of Eternal Salvation Heb. 3.9 Revel 22.14 Heb. 10.36 Jam. 1.25 2dly True Faith is the spring of true love to God in Christ which is also the true and only ground of our Obedience Rom. 6.17 18. 3dly A right Knowledge of Gods love in justification by his Son is the chief ground of our love to God 1 John 4.19 4thly True Faith is that hand whereby we receive Christ and Christ's Righteousness is the matter or material Cause of our Justification as Gods Imputation of it to us is the formal Cause and Faith I think I may say without any blame may be said to be the Instrumental Cause thereof but no procuring Cause or meriting Condition of our Justification for Faith is in the Covenant of Grace as it is the Gift of God and therefore not a procuring Condition of it Rom. 3.28 Gal. 2.16 Rom. 5.1 Gal. 3.24 5thly Preaching the Gospel thro' the working of Gods Spirit is the cause of Faith Rom. 10.17 6thly The love of God in Christs Death and Resurrection is the ground and cause of the Gospels being Preached 1 Cor. 15.1 to 23. 7thly The love of God to those he gave to Christ is the only ground and cause why he sent his Son to dye John 3.16 17. Heb. 2.9 So on the other hand Sin is the cause that any are reprobated it is for the Sin of their Nature which they love and for Unbelief Rom. 11.23 all which remains they do not will not hear the Word so as to set their hearts to ponder on the same their understandings are blinded their wills rebellious their affections are carnal their hearts are immoderately set upon Earthly things If any man loveth the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 Because they believe not the Word of Life they remain in a state of Condemnation the Scripture holds forth that mans Destruction is of himself Mat. 23.37 Hosea 13.9 35 Direction is Teach your Children to avoid the Seeing Hearing Receiving doing or Allowing of those things that are directly prohibited or forbid in Scripture First You must Teach them the Ten Commandments recorded in Exod. 20. Deut. 5. the Lord by these Precepts hath prohibited all from gross and capital Sins to teach men Morrality and Divine Adoration and Invocation having called him from all Corruption unto the integrity he first Created him in And therefore 1st Man is denied to have any other object of Divine Adoration beside his Creator 2dly Man must not have the least shew of any kind of Worship in Expression Gesture or Habit not so much as in affections too nor towards any Image or the likeness of any Creature Made Ingraven or Portraied of any Mass or resemblance whatsoever no not so much as to go into the place where an Idol is nor to eat of the Meat that has been offered to an Idol Acts 15.20.29 Chap. 21.25 keep your selves from Idols 1 John 5.21 Flee from Idolatry 1 Cor. 10.14 Levit. 19.4 Any thing that is set up in our Hearts and extolled above our Maker which we take all care possible to please our selves in to admire and set our Chief Love upon that we give more Service Love and Adoration too then is properly due to a meer Creature is by us made an Idol and though it be no God yet we make it a God unto our selves Fourteen several ways Men may make to themselves Gods and Serve Love and Adore them more then they do their Creator And 1st some make their Bellys their God they lay up all
unnatural as to send it out of Doors so soon as it was born not regarding it as though it were none of her own as some Women do who are worse to their young than the savage beasts of the field that will not take care to nurse preserve and protect their young ones it is looked on as a judgment by the Prophet Hosea 9.14 What saith he wilt thou them give a miscarrying womb and dry breasts most Women are much troubled if they cannot bare Children then why not much more if they do not let them suck of that Milk which nature has provided for the Childs nourishment it is a small sign of remorse when they are not troubled for that which is their own proper faults Fouthly All Children do naturally love those Parents most whom they sucked to take care for assist and help in their necessities when old if there be a kind of an Affection in Nurses to those they nurse and a peculiar love in the Child to the Nurse whom it sucked till death much more the Natural Affections of a Child to its Natural Parents who bore it and nourished it with their own milk what other Benefits arise thereby I leave it to your Experience to witness in length of time Nurse your Children your selves do not as t is said of the Deer that they repulse and separate those that are impotent do not turn your Children out of doors least they in time have the same Opportunity and you your selves share of the like fare from them 't is the sin of the last times to be without natural Affections therefore take away the cause that the effect may cease 3 Direction is Dedicate your Children to the most High offer them up in your Prayers Wishes and Desires to the Lords omnipotent Care and Protection Hannah dedicated Samuel unto the Lord 1 Sam. 1.28 Every First born was to be offered to the Lord Exod. 13.12 O that Ishmael might live before thee saith Abraham Gen. 17.18 How excellently did Zathariah yield up John to the Service of the Lord Luke 1.76 So Parents should do and pray continually with good Job for their Conversion and offer daily Sacrifice for them do not forget to offer your Souls in Prayer with and for them that they may be sensible how great care you have of their Souls eternal well-being Job 1.5 4 Direction Parents be sure you agree together in your Commads Let not the Father command one thing and the Mother presently contradict it before the Child this will harden them in Disobedience the first Precept to the Woman after the transgression was to be subject to her Husband and he should rule over her Gen. 3.16 But that Woman is very impudent that is so far from obeying her Husband that she will Lord it over him by contradicting his Authority in just commands and more especially when so much evil attends it as in this case Parents should both take great care not to oppose each other before their Children but chiefly when it is about their Childrens duty but to take another fit Opportunity in cool Blood in Love and in their Childrens absence to dispute the lawfulness of the matter 5 Direction Keep your Children in due subjection before they be too stubborn He that spareth the rod hateth his Son but he that loveth him chastneth him betimes Prov. 13.24 Chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying Prov. 19.18 Rods and Reproof give Wisdom but a Child left to himself brings his Mother to shame Prov. 29.15 Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest and delight unto thy soul Prov. 29.17 A Bishop is commanded to have his Children in subjection with all gravity 1 Tim. 3.4 6 Direction Let your Children be your chiefest joy in this World Rejoyce in them as they are the gift of the Lord but do not idolize them good Job took delight enough in his Children as himself expresseth Job 19.17 Chap. 29.5 Yea when the Lord hath permitted their death by a great wind he seems to rejoyce that as the Lord gave them so he hath now taken them away and saith he blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1.19 without sorrow repining and murmuring he seems to joy in this affliction hopeing they were gone to a better Father All the Patriarchs did take delight in their Sons and Daughters except when they sinned Gen. 34.30 7 Direction You must reprove and rebuke your Children if they sin This Work must not be done to halves as Old Eli did 1 Sam. 3.13 If they sin against the Lord and no Reproof nor Rebuke will prevent them they must be restrained with due severity Folly is bound up in the heart of a Child but the rod of Correction driveth it away Prov. 22.15 Withhold not Correction from thy Child for if thou beatest him with rods he shall not die Prov. 23.13 St. Paul saith We had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Heb. 13.9 This Duty must 1st be done with Love because it is God Ordinance to restrain them from iniquity Deut. 8.5 2dly You must shew them their sin for which you rebuke or correct them Saying with the holy God O Do not this abominable thing which I bate Jer. 44.4 3dly Tell them that thou dost correct them out of Conscience to God and Love to their precious souls Prov. 11.30 4thly Reprove and Corect them with pitty telling them if good Words would have restrained them you would not have used Blows Psal 103.13 5thly Shew them by some place of Scripture How much the Lord is offended with them for this their sin Deut. 29.20 6thly Keep them from evil Company that are the Inducements to sin 1 Cor. 15.33 7thly Correct them not in anger but with fair and loving words as it were with severity according to the Fact but all in a Cool Blood Jer. 30.11 8thly Be often in Prayer with and for them that if all other means fail that this may work upon them for their Souls eternal good thus rebuke and correction may be rightly performed and the Child not provoked to anger but love 1 Thes 5.17 9thly Be sure that the Sin that thou correct thy Child for be not an evil which he has seen thee often guilty of then 't is to be feared that thy Correction will do no good 1 John 3.20 10thly Forbear many chiding Words and Threatning Expressions Ephes 6.9 11thly Smile not on them in their sin nor use no shew of approbation towards them in it for this will harden them Solomon saith a flattering Tongue worketh ruin Prov. 26.28 12thly Do not rail on them nor miscall them when you correct them This does not become a Servant of Christ 1 Pet. 3.9 8 Direction is Be sure look well to it that at all times your Children obey your lawful Commands do not let them run at full length of Reins See that they speedily and duely perform what you order
Preserver of all things in Heaven above and in the Earth beneath substantial and sublunary visible and invisible Who was is and ever will be omnipotent omniscient omniparent and omnipresent who is incomparable invisible incomprehensible unchangeable immutable infallible and immortal who hath all Strength Wisdom Vnderstanding Iustice Life Will Power and Majesty whose Iudgments and Wrath is terrible and Love unspeakable his Favour and Mercy unmeasurable glorious in Holiness out Defence in Trouble and Adversity who is all Goodness Support and Everlasting Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed for ever Amen c. His most Sacred Name must not be expressed at all in common Discourse Deut. 5.11 It must be used with as great care and reverence as possible in Prayer and other Divine Service for fear of using it as a vain repetition which Christ positively forbids Matt. 6.7 and when he prescribes the manner of prayer he seems to forbid the use of that sacred Name First By saying When ye pray say after this manner Our father Secondly By teaching them to sanctifie his holy Name Hallowed be thy Name Thirdly By his omitting that Sacred Name in all that prayer of Direction and using only the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy and thine four times in that short but ample Petition and Direction fignifying the eternal Being by it Surely then Preachers ought to be very cautious how they express that Sacred Name with too often repeating it in many sentences in their Sermons when they have so done and broken the third Commandment by it their Doctrine would have been much better set forth by other expressions and much better accepted by an Auditory whose hearts are in dread to hear that Sacred Name so numerously and needlesly expressed And in the Confession of our Faith we ought to use it with great Reverence and Zeal Oh! how should our hearts dread and fear when we speak or hear that holy Name mentioned by which the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit is signified The Jews hold it is not lawful to use the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all but by the Priest in the Sanctuary only and that but once a year they use the Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord to express it by yea they are so very careful in their Names of Numbers when they express the number fifteen which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Names of the Most High they always use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being nine and six is fifteen as is seen in the numbers of the Chapters and Verses in the Hebrew Bibles Coles in his Expositor saith JEHOVAH is never pronounced by the Jews on pain of death only by the Priest in the Sanctum Sanctorum and that on the Day of Expiation being but once a year Most Sacred should the Name of the infinite Being be whose Residence is in Eternal Glory who is continually Adored by the Celestial Angels who is worshipped daily by Terrestial Creatures Men and wicked infernal Spirits fear and tremble at his most terrible Majesty yea the Beasts of the Field dread when they hear his voice in the Clouds and no Creature but is under the dread of Divine Power which is the true object of our Faith To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things 1 Cor. 8 6. Psalm 86.10 Isaiah 37.16 44.8 45.22 By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in the earth visible and invisible Col. 1.16 Article the second And in one Lord Iesus Christ the only begotten Son of God begotten or the father before all Worlds c. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God John 1.1 And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth John 1.14 Jesus said unto them Verily Verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am John 8.58 And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was John 17.5 He had on his Vesture and on his Thigh a Name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revel 19.16 1 Tim. 6.16 Rev. 17.14 Then spake Jesus unto them saying I am the light of the World John 8.12 He was in the world and the world was made by him and the World knew him not John 1.10 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world John 16.28 Read Heb. 1.1 to 13. Col. 1.14 to 18. For in him viz. Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 The Scripture is very full and clear against the ancient Ebionetes Marcionists and Arrian and Socinian Hereticks which once abounded and too much spread it self in these days to the great trouble of the Churches here in England and in these parts of the World which said detestable errours lead men to deny the eternal Divinity of Christ as though Christ were not the most high God and of the same Essence with the Father according to his deity but a meer Creature Article the third Who for us Men and for our Salvation descended from the Heavens and was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost and became Man c. For I saith Christ came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me John 6.38 Ephes 4.10 And the Angel answered and said unto her the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshaddow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Luke 1.35 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might believe through him 1 John 4.9 Here 1st He is said to be begotten John 1.14 18. 3.16 18. 2ly To be born of the Virgin Mary Now when Jesus was born Herod demanded of the chief Priests and Scribes where Christ should be born and they said in Bethlehem of Judea Mat. 2.1 4 5. And unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Luke 2.11 To this end saith Christ was I born to bear witness unto the truth John 18.37 3ly Christ had a Body A body hast thou prepared me Heb. 10.5 The Women beheld the Sepulchre and how his Body was laid Luke 23.55 Joseph went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus Mat. 27.58 Mark 15.43 Luke 23.52 and he gave the body to Joseph Mark 15.45 Mat. 27.58 59. 4ly Christ is said to have flesh for as much then as Children are partakers of flesh and blood be himself likewise took part of he same Heb. 2.14 Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me to have Luke 24.39 He was of the seed of David according to the flesh Acts 2.30