XII And the life everlasting Amen Q. What dost thou chiefly learn in these Articles of thy belief A. First I learn to believe in God the Father who hath made me and all the world Secondly in God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankind Thirdly In God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect people of God Q. What is the method of the Creed A. The Creed teaches me to believe in God and to believe his Church Q. How in God A. It teaches me to believe in God with respect to his Unity and then to the Trinity of Persons in that Unity Father Son and holy Ghost Q. How does it teach you to believe the Church A. It teaches me to believe the Church with regard to its two different states either Militant below or Triumphant above Q. How are the Articles of the Creed Motives of Love A. Every Article includes a Blessing as well as a Mystery and is as proper to excite our Love as to engage our Faith Q. Give me such a Paraphrase on the Creed that throughout the whole your Faith may work by Love A. I shall doe it to the best of my power in such Instructive and Pathetical Aspirations as follow I Believe My Lord and my God with a full free and firm assent I believe all the Articles of my Creed because thou hast revealed them I know thou art infallible Truth and canst not thou art infinite Love and wilt not deceive me Glory be to thee With all my heart O my God do I love and praise thee who art so infinitely amiable in thy self and so full of love to us that all I can know or believe of thee excites me to love thee Lord daily increase my Faith make it active and fruitfull that I may believe and love thee as entirely as becomes one entirely devoted to thee In God I believe O my God that thou art One and that there is no other God besides thee thou art that One infinite and independent Being that One onely true God whom all Men and all Angels are to Adore All glory be to thee O Lord God help me to love and to praise thee with God-like affections and a sutable Devotion I believe O my God that in the Unity of thy Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons I believe in thee O Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Name I was baptized to whose Service I am religiously devoted All glory be to thee I believe I admire I love I praise I adore thee O most blessed and glorious Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost for being the joint Authours of our Salvation All glory be to thee O sacred and dreadfull and mysterious Trinity though I cannot conceive thee yet let me daily experiment thy goodness Let thy Grace O Lord Iesus let thy Love O God the Father let thy Communications O Holy Spirit be ever with me The Father I believe and love and praise thee O my God the first Person in the most Adorable Trinity the Fountain of the Godhead the Eternal Father of thy coeternal Son Jesus my Saviour Glory be to thee O God the Father for so loving the world as to give thy onely begotten Son to redeem us Glory be to thee O Heavenly Father for first loving us and giving the dearest thing thou hadst for us O help me to love again and to think nothing too dear for thee Almighty I believe O my God that thou art a Spirit most pure and holy and infinite in all perfections in Power and Knowledge and Goodness that thou art Eternal Immutable and Omnipresent all love all glory be to thee I believe O Lord that thou art most wise and just most happy and glorious and all-sufficient most gratious and mercifull and tender and benign and liberal and beneficent all love all glory be to thee I believe thy Divine Nature O my God to be in all respects amiable to be Amiableness it self to be Love it self and therefore I love I admire I praise and fear and adore thee Thou Lord art my Hope my Trust my Life my Joy my Glory my God my All my Love Maker of Heaven and Earth I believe that thou O Father Almighty didst create Heaven and Earth the whole World and all things in it visible and invisible out of nothing and by thy Word onely All glory be to thee I believe O thou great Creatour that thy Divine Love made thee communicate Being to thy Creatures that thou lovest all things and hatest nothing thou hast made Glory be to thee I believe O God that thou art the sole Lord and Proprietour of all things thou hast made that all things do necessarily depend on thee that 't is in thee onely we live and move and have our Being All Love all Glory be to thee I believe O thou Communicative Goodness that thou dost preserve and sustain and protect and bless all things thou hast made sutably to the Natures thou hast given them All Love all Glory be to thee I believe O mighty Wisedom that thou dost most sweetly order and govern and dispose all things even the most minute even the very sins of men to conspire in thy Glory O do thou conduct my whole life steer every motion of my soul towards the great End of our Creation to love and to glorifie thee I believe O Lord that thy Love was more illustrious in the Creation of Man than in all the rest of the visible World thou wert pleased to make him in thy own Image and after thy own divine likeness All Love all Glory be to thee Thou Lord didst make Man for thy self and all things visible for Man Thou designedst all creatures for his use and didst subject them to his Dominion the very Angels thou didst charge to keep him in all his ways All Love all Glory be to thee Thy Works O Lord are wonderfull and amiable I love and admire and praise thy Universal Providence over the whole World the perpetual flux of thy Goodness on every Creature All glory be to thee I love and praise thee O my God for all the particular vouchsafements of thy love to me for all thy deliverances and blessings either to my body or to my soul known or unknown for all that I do not remember or did not consider All Love all Glory be to thee The longer I live O my God the more reason I have to love thee because every day supplies me with fresh experiments and new motives of thy manifold love to me and therefore all Love all Glory be to thee And in Iesus I believe in thee O Jesus and I rejoice in that dear Name which is so full
and expressive of thy Love Thou art Iesus our Saviour because thou camest into the World on purpose to save us from our sins All Love all Glory be to thee O be thou ever Jesus to me O let me feel the kind force of that sweet name in which I and all sinners do reade our danger and our deliverance our guilt and our salvation O most benign Jesu He well deserves to be accursed that does not love thee Who Lord can ever hope to share in thy Salvation who does not love thee his Saviour Christ. I believe O mercifull Jesus that thou art Christ the true Messias the Anointed of the Lord the promised seed which was to bruise the Serpent's head long expected by the Fathers foretold by the Prophets represented by Types which were all fulfilled in thee O thou the desire of all Nations All Love all Glory be to thee I believe that thou O Jesus wert Anointed with the Holy Spirit that all his Gifts and Graces were poured out and diffused like a sweet ointment on thy soul without measure thou art altogether lovely O Christ and of thy fulness we all receive All Love all Glory be to thee I believe O thou Anointed of God that as Kings and Priests and Prophets were heretofore anointed with Material oil so by thy Heavenly Anointing thou wast Consecrated to be our Prophet our King and our Priest and in all those three Offices to manifest thy love to us and therefore all Love all Glory be to thee Glory be to thee O Christ our Prophet who didst teach and reveal and interpret thy Father's Will and all saâ—ing truth to the World Glory be to thee O Christ our King who dost give Laws to thy People dost govern and protect us and hast subdued all our Ghostly Enemies Glory be to thee O Christ our Priest who dost bless us who didst offer thy self a sacrifice and dost still make intercession for us Our Redemption our Illumination our Support is wholly from thy Love O thou Anointed of God All Love all Glory be to thee His onely Son I believe that thou O most Adorable Jesus art the Son of God by ineffable generation thou didst from Eternity derive thy Godhead from the Father thou art the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person All Love all Glory be to thee Thou O blessed Jesu art the onely Son of God the onely begotten Son full of Grace and Truth Thou art the onely beloved Son in whom thy Father is well pleased 't is onely in thee and for thee that Sinners have Hope and therefore all Love all Glory be to thee Thou art equal to thy Father O Jesu in amiableness and in love to us and art equally to be loved by us and therefore all Love and Praise be to the Father that eternally begat and to the Son eternally begotten Our Lord. I believe O thou eternal Son of the Father that thou art the great and true God Iehovah our Righteousness God above all blessed for ever and mighty to save All love all Glory be to thee I believe O Lord Jesus that thou didst make and dost sustain all things by thy Power and that thou art to be honoured by Men and by Angels as thy Father is honoured All Love all Glory be to thee I believe O thou King of Kings and Lord of Lords that thou art the Lord and the Authour of the new Creation as well as of the old that thou art more peculiarly Lord of us Sinners by purchase O that I and all that own thy Dominion may for ever love and revere and obey so powerfull and gratious a Lord Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost I believe O most condescending Majesty that when thou didst stoop so low as to assume our frail Nature the Holy Ghost came on thy sacred Mother and that the Power of the Highest did overshadow her and that she did conceive and lodge thee in her Womb where thou who fillest Heaven and Earth wert about nine months for our sakes imprison'd and therefore all love all glory be to thee Born of the Uirgin Mary I believe O most adorable Humility that thou wast at last born into the World that thou having onely God for thy Father and Mary a pure Virgin for thy Mother whom all Generations do call Blessed both thy Conception and Birth were perfectly immaculate that being without sin thy self thou mightest be a fit sacrifice to attone for us Sinners who being born of unclean Parents were all by nature unclean and therefore all love all glory be to thee O immaculate Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the World I believe O blessed Saviour that the two Natures of God and of Man were in thee so mysteriously united without either change or confusion that they made in thee but one Person but one Mediatour one Lord Thou O Eternal Word didst become flesh and didst dwell among us on purpose to save us and therefore all love all glory be to thee Suffered I believe O adorable Love that thy whole life was made up of sufferings and that for sinfull men and in particular for me O let me never cease to adore and love thee It was for us Sinners O tenderest Love that in thy very infancy thou wast circumcis'd and design'd by Herod for slaughter and forc't to fly into Egypt and therefore I praise and love thee It was for us Sinners that thou O afflicted Love wert all thy life-long a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief that thou wast persecuted and revil'd despis'd and rejected and hadst not where to lay thy head and therefore I am bound to praise and love thee It was for us Sinners that thou O compassionate Love when thou tookest on thee our nature wast toucht with a feeling of our infirmities and wast in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin that thou mightest the more affectionately pity the weak and succour the tempted and therefore I praise and love thee It was for us Sinners that thou O beneficent Love didst go about doing good preaching repentance publishing the glad tidings of salvation sending thy Disciples confirming thy heavenly Doctrine by many glorious Miracles and illustrating it by a God-like example all thy life is full of attractives of sweetest love and pity to us Sinners which kindly and forcibly constrain us to praise and love thee O most exuberant Love how amiable are all thy Graces O fill my heart with thy love and transform me into thy likeness that I may all my life-long imitate thy perfect obedience unspotted Holiness unchangeable Resolution universal Charity uninterrupted Devotion contempt of the
to thee O Love enthron'd thy Resurrection Ascension and Session are all signal instances of thy love and earnests of our future felicity the entire purchase of thy love All our hopes of Heaven our Resurrection Ascension and Glorification depend on and are derived from thine and are all the trophies of thy love to us and therefore I will ever praise and love thee From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I believe O Glorified Love that from thy Throne at God's right hand where thou now sittest thou wilt come again to judge the world attended with thy holy Angels All glory be to thee I believe O thou adorable Judge that all mankind shall be summon'd before thy awfull Tribunal All the Dâ—ad who shall be wak'd out of their Graves when the Angel shall blow the last Trump and all that are then Quick and alive shall then appear before thee All glory be to thee I believe Lord that I and all the world shall give a strict account of all our thoughts and words and actions that the Books will be then opened that out of those dreadfull Registers we shall be judged that Satan and our own Consciences will be our accusers O let the last Trump be ever sounding in my ears that I may ever be mindfull of my great accounts and that I may neither speak nor doe nor think any thing that may wound my own Conscience or provoke thy Anger or make me tremble at the awfull day I know O thou adorable Judge that Love onely shall then endure that terrible Test that Love onely shall be acquitted that love onely shall be eternally blest and therefore I will ever praise and love thee Glory be to thee O thou beloved Son of God to whom the Father has committed all Iudgment How can they that love thee O Jesu ever despond though their love in this life is always imperfect when at last they shall have love for their Judge Love that hath felt and will compassionate all their infirmities and therefore all love all glory be to thee I believe in the Holy Ghost I believe in thee O thou Spirit of God the third Person in the most adorable Trinity I believe O blessed Spirit that thou art the Lord that thou art God eternal and omniscient a Person distinct from both the Father and the Son eternally proceeding from both and equally sent by both and joint-authour with both of our Salvation and therefore all love all glory be to thee I believe O blessed Spirit that thou art Holy essentially Holy in respect of thy own Divine Nature and being essentially Holy art infinitely Amiable and therefore all love all glory be to thee I believe O blessed Spirit that thou art personally Holy that thou art the Authour of all internal Holiness and all internal and sanctifying Grace that thou art the principle of all spiritual life in us and therefore all love all glory be to thee Glory be to thee O Love Incarnate for sending the Spirit in thy stead and for promising it to our Prayers all love all glory be to thee Glory be to thee O Spirit of Love for shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts for filling all that love thee with exuberance of joy and consolation all love all glory be to thee O thou blessed Spirit the Comforter purifie my Soul and infuse thy love into it and consecrate it to be thy Temple and fix thy Throne immovably there and set all my affections on fire that my heart may be a continual Sacrifice of Love offer'd up to thee and the flame may be ever aspiring towards thee The Holy Catholick Church I believe O blessed and adorable Mediatour that the Church is a Society of persons founded by thy love to Sinners united into one Body of which thou art the Head initiated by Baptism nourish't by the Eucharist govern'd by Pastours commission'd by thee and endow'd with the power of the Keys professing the Doctrine taught by thee and deliver'd to the Saints and devoted to praise and to love thee I believe O holy Jesus that thy Church is holy like thee its authour holy by the original design of its Institution holy by baptismal dedication holy in all its administrations which tend to produce holiness and though there will be always a mixture of good and bad in it in this world yet that it has always many real Saints in it and therefore all love all glory be to thee I believe Lord this Church to be Catholick or Universal made up of the collection of all particular Churches I believe it to be Catholick in respect of time comprehending all ages to the worlds end to which it is to endure Catholick in respect of all places out of which Believers are to be gather'd Catholick in respect of all saving Faith of which this Creed contains the substance which shall in it always be taught Catholick in respect of all Graces which shall in it be practised and Catholick in respect of that Catholick War it is to wage against all its ghostly enemies for which it is called Militant O preserve me always a true Member of thy Catholick Church that I may always inseparably adhere to thee that I may always devoutly praise and love thee Glory be to thee O Lord my God who hast made me a member of the particular Church of England whose Faith and Government and Worship are Holy and Catholick and Apostolick and free from the extremes of Irreverence or Superstition and which I firmly believe to be a sound part of thy Church Universal and which teaches me Charity to those who dissent from me and therefore all love all glory be to thee O my God give me grace to continue stedfast in her bosome to improve all those helps to true Piety all those means of Grace all those incentives of thy Love thou hast mercifully indulged me in her Communion that I may with primitive affections and fervour praise and love thee The Communion of Saints I believe O King of Saints that among the Saints on Earth whether real or in outward profession onely there ought to be a mutual catholick participation of all good things which is the immediate effect of catholick Love Thou O God of Love restore it to thy Church I believe O thou God of Love that all the Saints on Earth by profession ought to communicate one with another in evangelical Worship and the same holy Sacraments in the same Divine and Apostolical Faith in all Offices of corporal and spiritual Charity in reciprocal delight in each others Salvation and in tender sympathy as members of one and the same Body O God of Peace restore in thy good time this catholick Communion that with one heart and one mouth
AN EXPOSITION ON THE Church-Catechism OR THE PRACTICE OF Divine Love COMPOSED For the Diocese of Bath Wells LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the West-end of St. Paul's and William Clarke in Winchester 1685 Imprimatur Io. Battely RR mo P. D no. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris domesticis Ex Aedibus Lamb. Aug. 9. 1685. To the Inhabitants within the Diocese of Bath and Wells THOMAS their Unworthy Bishop wisheth the Knowledge and the Love of God Dearly Beloved in our Lord THE Church has provided this short Catechism or Instruction to be learn'd of every person before he be brought to be Confirm'd by the Bishop wherein she teaches all things that a Christian ought to know and believe for his Soul's health and she has enjoyn'd All Fathers and Mothers Masters and Dames to cause their Children and Servants and Prentices to come to the Church at the time appointed and obediently to hear and be ordered by the Curate untill such time as they have learn'd all that is here appointed to be learn'd How seasonable and necessary this Injunction is in these days our wofull experience does sufficiently convince us when we reflect on the gross Ignorance and Irreligion of persons in those places where Catechizing is neglâ—cted which all sober Christians do sadly deplore Since then the Providence of God who is wont to glorifie his strength in the weakness of the Instruments he uses has caught me up from among the meanest Herdmen into the Pastoral Throne and has been pleased to commit you to my care The Love I ought to pay to the chief Shepherd obliges me to feed all his Lambs and his Sheep that belong to my flock and according to my poor abilities to teach them the Knowledge and the Love of God and how they may make them both their daily study and practice One thing onely I most earnestly beg of you all whether old or young that ye would help me to save your own Souls that ye would learn and seriously consider again and again the terms on which your Salvation is to be had As for you who have Families I beseech you to instill into your Children and Servants their Duty both by your Teaching and your Example In good earnest it is less cruel and unnatural to deny them Bread for their mortal Bodies than saving Knowledge for their immortal Souls Ye that are Fathers or Masters I exhort you to tread in the steps of Abraham the Father of the faithfull and the friend of God and like him to command your Children and Housholds to keep the way of the Lord. Ye that are Mothers or Mistresses I exhort you to imitate that unfeigned Faith which dwelt in young Timothy's Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice who taught him from a Child to know the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to Salvation and like them to bring up your Children and Servants in the nurture and admonition of the Lord I passionately exhort and beseech you all of either Sex never to cease your conscientious zeal for their instruction till you bring them to Confirmation To renew their Baptismal vow To make open profession of their Christianity To discharge their Godfathers and Godmothers To receive the solemn Benediction of the Bishop To share in the publick Intercessions of the Church and to partake of all the Graces of God's Holy Spirit implor'd on their behalf that God who has begun a good work in them may perfect it till the day of Christ and that I my self at that dreadfull day may render an account of you with joy How much the Catechism of our Church may conduce to so desirable an end you will in some measure judge by the following Explication as imperfect as it is and which by God's gratious assistence I have so contriv'd that at one and the same time it may both inform your understanding and raise your affections and that it might the better sute with every ones leisure and infirmities it is Pen'd in short Forms of Devotion to be us'd in whole or in part in separate Collects or Ejaculations or occasionally as your Spiritual necessities shall require God of his infinite mercy bless the whole to his own Glory and to your Edification through Iesus the Beloved Amen Amen AN EXPOSITION ON THE Church-Catechism c. Question WHAT is your Name Answer N. or M. Q. Why do you answer by that Name rather than by your Sirname A. Because it is my Christian Name and was given me when I was made a Christian and puts me in mind both of the Happiness and duty of a Christian. Q. Where do you learn the Happiness and the Duty of a Christian A. The very next answer teaches me the Happiness and all the rest of the Catechism the Duty of a Christian. Q. Who gave you this Name A. My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism wherein I was made a Member of Christ the Child of God and an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven Q. Shew me from hence the Happiness of a Christian. A. The Happiness of a good Christian is altogether unutterable he is one who has Christ for his Head God for his Father and Heaven with all its joys and glories which are all eternal for his Inheritance Q. Shew me on the contrary the condition of a bad Christian. A. The misery of a bad Christian is altogether insupportable He has Christ for his Enemy the Devil for his Father and Hell with all its miseries and torments and despair which are all eternal for his Doom Q. Which of these Conditions do you chuse A. I adore the goodness of God who has set before me life and death blessing and cursing and in great compassion to my Soul has bid me chuse life and with all my heart I chuse life even life eternal Q. Are there not many in the World that chuse death A. It is too too visible there are such is the extreme madness and folly of obstinate Sinners that they chuse the Service of the Devil before the Service of God and Hell before Heaven the damnation of such men is wholly from themselves and having chosen death even death eternal it is most just with God to give them their choice Q. Blessed be God who has given you grace to make a right choice Tell me what you must doe to obtain that which you have chosen life eternal A. All that I am to doe is reduc'd to one word onely and that is Love This is the first and the great Command which comprehends all others the proper Evangelical Grace and eternal Truth has assured me This doe and thou shalt live So that if I truly love God I shall live beloved by God to all eternity Q. Tell me wherein the love of God doth consist A. The love of God is a grace rather to be felt than defin'd So that I can doe no
deny'st me deny me not a broken and a contrite heart O that my head were waters and my eyes fountains of tears that I might weep much and love much having much to be forgiven Lord hear me help me save me for thy own gratious promise sake for thy own tender mercies sake for the merits and sufferings of Iesus thy beloved in whom thou hast made Penitents accepted Amen Amen Q. Having repented of the violations of your Baptismal Vow shew me how you will renew it A. I shall doe it after this manner I have sinned O Lord God I have sinned and done evil in thy sight but I repent I turn to thee I confess and forsake my wickedness and am sorry for my sins It grieves me O most amiable Goodness it grieves me that ever I offended thee With all my heart O my God do I now renew the Sacred vow which alas alas I have so often violated O Lord God I do for the future Renounce the devil that Arch-rebel against thee with all his Apostate-Angels I renounce all his worship all his impious suggestions delusions and temptations for which he is called the tempter and all the ways of consulting him which ungodly men have taken I renounce all his works all those sins of the Spirit all pride and malice and envy all treachery and lying revenge and cruelty all tempting others to Sin hatred to Holiness and Apostasie which are his daily practice and are truly diabolical I utterly renounce O Lord God the pomps and vanity of this wicked world all covetous desires of honour riches and pleasure all sinfull excesses in things lawfull I renounce Lord all evil customs all evil companions all that is vain or wicked in the world all that friendship with the world which is enmity with thee all things that may alienate my heart from thee I renounce O Lord God all worldly comforts and possessions all my natural relations and my own life whenever they stand in competition with my duty to thee I utterly renounce O Lord God all the sinfull lusts of the flesh all the inordinate desires of my own corrupt nature of my own carnal mind which is enmity with thee I Renounce Lord all fleshly lusts which war against thee and against my own Soul all sloth and idleness and intemperance and lasciviouâ—ness all filthiness of flesh and spirit which render us unclean in thy sight O Lord God I utterly Renounce all things that may any way displease thee from them all let it be thy good pleasure to deliver me I know Lord that Sin is the utmost abomination to thy purity the most audacious outrage to thy Adorable Majesty the perfect contradiction to thy Deity and therefore I utterly renounce and abhor it I know Lord that Sin exposes us to all the Vials of thy wrath and to vengeance eternal I know it sets the Sinner at the extremest distance and opposition and defiance to thee and therefore I utterly renounce and abhor it I know Lord I cannot love thee but I must hate evil and therefore I renounce and detest it Turn thou me O Lord God and so shall I be turned Turn O Lord the whole stream of my affections from sensual love to the love of thee O my God let thy heavenly love be the constant byass of my Soul O may it be the natural spring and weight of my heart that it may always move towards thee Thy love O my God shall hereafter be the sole rule and guide of my life I will love thee and love whatever thou lovest and hate whatever thou hatest I will believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith and I will keep thy Holy Will and Commandments and waâ—â— in the same all the days of my life All this O my God I own my self bound to believe and doe and though of my self I am impotent to all good yet by thy help I will perform it and I heartily thank thee O heavenly Father who out of mere compassion to my Soul hast call'd me to this state of salvation through Iesus Christ our Lord. Glory be to thee O Lord who hast indulg'd me this opportunity of repentance Glory be to thee who hast wrought in me this Will to renew my Baptismal vow O my God I humbly I earnestly pray unto thee to give me continual supplies of thy grace that I may continue in thy love unto my lives end that being faithfull to death I may receive the Crown of life O Lord God I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments My heart is empty and disengag'd and longs for thee my heart is entirely devoted to thee Enter O my God possess it with thy gratious presence and fill it with thy love Lord for thy tender mercies sake restore me to thy favour to all the graces and privileges of my Baptism of which I have been spoil'd by my sins Lord make me a living member of thy Church the mystical body of thy Son O my God unite me inseparably to Christ my Head and from thence let his gratious influences be ever streaming into my soul Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son But I return with the Prodigal O let thy paternal bowels yearn on me and gratiously receive me Lord send thy Spirit of Adoption into my heart to instill true filial affections that I may again be own'd by thee for thy Child and call thee Father and share in the blessings of thy Children and at last become an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven O heavenly Father accept my imperfect repentance compassionate my infirmities forgive my wickedness purifie my uncleanness strengthen my weakness fix my unstableness and let thy love ever rule in my heart through the merits and sufferings and love of the Son of thy love in whom thou art always infinitely pleas'd Amen This Office may be us'd in times of devout Retirement or on the Lord's day or in Affliction or Sickness but especially before the Holy Eucharist Q. Rehearse the Articles of your Belief A. I. I Believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth II. And in Iesus Christ his onely Son our Lord III. Who was Conceived by the Holy Ghost Born of the Uirgin Mary IV. Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead and Buried He descended into Hell V. The third day He rose again from the Dead VI. He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty VII From thence he shall come to iudge the quick and the dead VIII I believe in the Holy Ghost IX The Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints X. The Forgiveness of Sins XI The resurrection of the body
my heart shall ever be jealous of thy Name I can have no true love no real concern for thee if I do not to the utmost of my power assert and vindicate the Name of my Beloved whenever I hear it dishonour'd O my God O my Love fix in my Soul an habitual pure intention of thy glory in all my actions that whether I eat or drink or whatever I doe I may doe all to the glory of my Beloved Oaths O my God O my Love fill me with a religious awe of Oaths in which the honour of thy beloved Name is so highly concern'd I know O great Iehovah that in an Oath I solemnly invoke thee as a Witness to attest the truth of what I swear as a Judge to punish me if I swear falsly Far be it from me O Lord God ever to swear and in swearing to invoke thee unless upon inducements lawfull and important when thy Glory the Command of my Superiours the visible good of my Neighbour the ending of strife or my own Innocence obliges me to it O Lord God whenever I am duly call'd to an Assertory Oath grant I may swear in truth in righteousness and in judgment Whatever lawfâ—â—â— Promissory Oaths I â—â—ke Lord give me grace 〈◊〉 iously to perform them though to my own hinâ—â—ance Uows The glory of thy most beloved Name O great Iehovah next to the truth of our Oaths we invoke thee to attest is câ—â—cern'd in the sincerity of those Vows we oâ—â—er thee â—o accept O do thou therefore create in me a serious sense of the religiousness of Vows that my Vows may not dishonour thee O my God O my Love whenever I voluntarily vow a Vow to thee give me grace to vow with all the due caution I can that I may vow those things onely which are lawfull and acceptable to thee and which thou hast put in my power that I may vow with deliberation and ghostly advice and on weighty and considerable occasions onely and with a design of glory and thankfulness and love to thee O my God O my Love give me grace faithfully to perform all the Vows I make to thee especially my Baptismal Vow and all my repeated Vows of amendment in which I have so often vow'd to glorify and love thy Name O my God O my Love let thy All-powerfull Love abound in my heart and in the hearts of all that profess thy name that in all these and in all other possible instances of thy Love our Souls may be continually employed to praise and to love thee O my God O my Love who is there that knows thy great thy beloved Name can ever in the least dishonour it O my God O my Love I renounce and detest and bewail as odious and offensive to thee as directly opposite to thy love and to thy glory All taking of thâ— Name in vain All use of it on trivial occasions and without holy awe All abuse of it in impious Jests in Charms or Curses or Imprecations or telling Fortunes or exploratory Lots all irreverent thoughts of thy Name profaneness and blasphemy All denying thee by my works or refusing publickly to confess thee when call'd to it or tamely enduring to hear thee dishonour'd All heathenish or customary or rash Oaths or swearing in ordinary communication or by any Creature All breaking of lawfull Oaths Perjury false-swearing and invoking thee O God of truth to attest a lye sins most destructive to publick Faith and Society and to our own Souls and most dishonourable and hatefull to thee All hasty or unlawfull or superstitious or impossible Vows all breaking those that are regularly made All the least tendencies to any of these impieties From all these and the like hatefull violations of thy Love and from that vengeance they justly deserve O my God O my Love deliver me and deliver all faithfull People O great Iehovah thou art jealous for thy glorious and beloved Name and without a particular and serious repentance thou wilt not hold him guiltless that taketh it in vain thou wilt pour on him the vials of thy wrath thy wrath eternal and yet thy ever blessed Name is alas alas daily hourly blasphemed O Apostate Infamous World wherein Infinite Goodness is so oft blasphem'd were not thy Name Love O Lord as well as Iehovah thou hadst long agoe aveng'd thy self of the blasphemous World with a vengeance worthy of God Glory be to thee O Long-suffering Love for thy forbearance efficacious of its self to convert the whole World did the World but seriously consider it O Almighty Love thou canst as easily diffuse thy Love over the World as thou didst at first diffuse Light O let thy Fear and thy Love so universally affect the Age that thy great and beloved Name may be universally ador'd and lov'd The Fourth Commandment Glory be to thee O my God O my Love who in compassion to humane weakness which is not capable of an uninterrupted contemplation of thee such as the Saints have above hast appointed a solemn day on purpose for thy remembrance Glory be to thee O my God my Love for proportioning a seventh part of our time to thy self and liberally indulging the remainder to our own use O my God O my Love let me ever esteem it my privilege and my happiness to have a day of rest set apart for thy service and the concerns of my own Soul to have a day free from distractions disengaged from the World wherein I have nothing to doe but to praise and to love thee Lord grant that I may not onely on thy day give thee due worship my self but may give rest and leisure also to my Family to all under my charge to serve thee also to indulge ease to my very Beasts since good men are mercifull even to them Glory be to thee O blessed Spirit who on the first day of the week didst descend in miraculous gifts and graces on the Apostles O descend upon me that I may be always in the spirit on the Lord's day O my God O my Love give me grace on thy day to worship thee in my Closet and in the Congregation to spend it in doing good in works of necessity devotion and charity in prayer and praise and meditation O let it ever be to me a day sacred to Divine Love a day of heavenly rest and refreshment Thou O my God O my Love didst ordain the Jewdaical Sabbath as a shadow of the true Gospel-sabbath O may I every day keep an Evangelical Sabbath and rest from my sins which are my own works while I live here and may I celebrate an eternal Sabbath with thee in Heaven hereafter O my God O my Love for the like purposes of Piety and of thy Glory give me grace to sanctify the Feasts