Accordingly, God hath had two sorts of ministers: one sort for legislation, to reveal new doctrines and laws; and such was Moses under the old administration, and Christ and his com. missioned apostles under the new. These were eminent prophets inspired by God infallibly to record his laws, and God attested their office and work by multitudes of evident, uncontrolled miracles. But the laws being sealed, the second sort of ministers are only to teach and apply these same laws and doctrines, and not to reveal new ones. And such were the priests and Levites under Moses, and all the succeeding ministers and bishops of the churches under Christ and the apostles, who are the foundation on which the church is built. And though all church guides may determine of the undetermined circumstances of holy things, by the general laws which God hath given therein, yet to arrogate a power of making a new word of God, or a law that shall suspend our obedience to his laws, or any law for the universal church, whether it be by pope or council, is treasonable usurpation of a government which none but Christ is capable of: and as if one king or council should claim the civil sovereignty of all the earth, which is most unknown to them.

Q. 12. But I pray you tell me how the creed comes to be of so great authority, seeing I find it not in the Bible?

A. It is the very sum and kernel of the doctrine of the New Testament, and there you may find it all, with much more: but it is older than the writing of the New Testament, save that two or three words were added since.

I told you before, 1. That Christ himself did make the nature and terms of Christianity, commissioning his apostles to make all nations his disciples, baptising them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: this is the sum of the creed first made by Christ himself.

2. The apostles were inspired and commissioned to teach men all that Christ commanded. (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.)

3. To say these three words, 'I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' without understanding them, was easy, but would make no true Christians; therefore, if we had never read more of the apostles' practice, we might justly conclude that those inspired teachers, before they baptised men at age, taught them the meaning of those three articles, and brought them, accordingly, to confess their faith, and this is the creed. And though a man might speak his profession in more or various words, the matter was still the same, and the words made necessary must

not be too many, nor left too much at men's liberty to alter, lest corruption should creep into the common faith. For the baptismal confession was the very symbol, badge, or test by which all Christians were visibly to pass for Christians, and as Christianity must be a known, certain thing, so must its symbol be.

4. And infallible historical tradition assureth us, that accordingly, ever since the apostles' days, before any adults were baptised, they were catechised, and brought to understand and profess these same articles of the faith. And if the Greeks and the Latins used not the same words, they used words of the same signification (two or three words being added since).

Q. 13. Do you not by this set the creed above the Bible?

A. No otherwise than I set the head, heart, liver, and stomach of a man above the whole body, which containeth them and all the rest; or than I set the ten commandments above the whole law of Moses, which includeth them: or than Christ did set, loving God above all, and our neighbour as ourselves, above all that law of which they were the sum. We must not take those for no Christians, nor deny them baptism, who understand and believe not particularly every word in the Bible; as we must those that understand not and believe not the creed.

CHAP. VIII.

Of Believing, what it signifieth in the Creed.

Q. 1. I UNDERSTAND by what you have said, that as man's soul hath three powers, the understanding, the will, and the executive, so religion, being but the true qualifying and guidance of these three powers, must needs consist of three parts. I. Things to be known and believed. II. Things to be willed, loved, and chosen. And III. Things to be done in the practice of our lives; and that the creed is the symbol or sum of so much as is necessary to our Christianity, of the first sort; and the Lord's prayer the rule and summary of the second; and the ten commandments of the third.

I entreat you, therefore, first to expound the creed to me,

9 Heb. xi. 6.

and first the first word of it "I believe," as it belongs to all that followeth.

A. You must first know what the word signifieth in common use. To believe another, signifieth to trust him as true or trusty; and to believe a thing, signifieth to believe that it is true, because a trusty person speaketh it. The things that you must believe to be true, are called the matter, or material object of your faith. The person's trustiness that you believe or trust to, is called the formal object of your faith, for which you trust the person, and believe the thing. The matter is as the body of faith, and the form as its soul. The matter which the church hath believed, hath by God had alterations, and to this day more is revealed to some than to others. But the formal reason of your faith is still and in all the same, even God's fidelity, who, because of his perfection, cannot lie.'

Q. 2. How may I be sure that God cannot lie, who is under no law?

A. His perfection is more than a law. 1. We see that God, who made man in his own image, and reneweth them to it, making lying a hateful vice to human nature and conversation: no man would be counted a liar, and the better any man is, the more he hateth it. s

2. No man lieth but either for want of wisdom to know the truth, or for want of perfect goodness, or for want of power to attain his ends by better means. But the infinite, most perfect God hath none of these defects.

Q. 3. But God speaketh to the world by angels and men, and who knows but they may be permitted to lie?

A. When they speak to man as sent by God, and God attested their credibility by uncontrolled miracles or other evidence, if then they should lie, it would be imputable to God, that attesteth their word: of which I said enough to you before. Q. 4. Proceed to open the formal act of faith, which you

call trust?

A. As you have noted, that man's soul hath three powers, understanding, will, and executive, so our affiance, or trust in God, extendeth to them all and so it is in one an assenting trust, a consenting trust, and a practical trust. By the first, we believe the word to be true, because we trust the fidelity of God.

Tit. i. 2; Rom, iii. 4; Num. xxiii. 29.

• Prov. xii. 22; vl. 17; xix. 5, 9, and xiii. 5; John viii. 44, 55; 1 John v. 10; Rev. xxi. 8; Prov. xiv. 5; Col. iii. 9; Heb. vi. 18.

By the second, we consent to God's covenant, and accept his gifts, by trusting to the truth and goodness of the promiser. By the third, we trustingly venture on the costliest duty. t

Q. 5. I pray you open it to me by some familiar similitude? A. Suppose you are a poor man, in danger of a prison, and a king from India sends his son hither, proclaiming to all the poor in England, that if they will come over with his son, he will make them all princes. Some say, he is a deceiver, and not to be believed: others say, a little in hand with our old acquaintance is better than uncertainty in an unknown land: another saith, I know not but a leaky vessel, storms, or pirates, may prevent my hopes. Here are now three questions: 1. Do you believe that he saith true? 2. Do you so far trust him as to consent to go with him? 3. When it comes to it, do you so far trust him as to venture on all the difficulties, and go?

Again, suppose you have a deadly sickness. There are many unable and deceitful physicians in the world; there is one only that can cure you, and offereth to do it for nothing, but with a medicine made of his own blood. Many tell you he is a deceiver; some say others can do it as well; and some say the medicine is intolerable, or improbable. Here are three questions: 1. Do you trust his word by believing him? 2. Do you trust him so as to consent and take him for your physician? 3. Do you trust him so as to come to him, and take his medicine, forsaking all others? I need not apply it; you can easily do it.

Trust, then, or affiance, is the vital, or formal, act of faith; and assenting, consenting, and practice, are the inseparable effects, in which, as it is a saving grace, it is always found.

Q. 6. But is all this meant in the Creed?

A. Yes: 1. The Creed containeth the necessary matter revealed by God, which we must believe. 2. And it mentioneth him to whom we must trust, in our assent, consent, and practice, even God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Q. 7. But is this the faith by which we are justified? Are we justified by believing in God the Father and the Holy Ghost, and the rest of the articles? Some say it is only by believing in Christ's righteousness as imputed to us.

A. Justification is to be spoken of hereafter. But this one Psalm cxii. 7; Matt. xxvii. 43; Heb. xi.; Eph. i. 12, 13; 2 Tim. i. 12; 1 Tim. iii. 16; Tit. iii. 8; 1 Pet. i. 21; Heb. xi. 39; Acts xxvii. 25.

entire christian faith, is it which God hath made the necessary qualification, or condition, of such as he will justify by and for the merits of Christ's righteousness.

Q. 8. Doth not "I believe," signify that I believe that this God is my God, my Saviour, and my Sanctifier, in particular?

A. It is an applying faith. It signifieth, 1. That you believe his right to be your God. 2. And his offer to be your God. 3. And that you consent to this right and offer, that he may, by special relation, be yours. 4. But it doth not signify that every believer is sure of the sincerity of his own act of believing, and so of his special interest in God, though this is very desirable and attainable.

CHAP. IX.

Of the First Article-" I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.”

Q. 1. SEEING that you before proved that there is a God, from the light of nature, and heathens know it, why is it made an article of faith?

A. The understanding of man is so darkened and corrupted now by sin, that it doth but grope after God, and knoweth him not as revealed in his works alone, so clearly and surely as is needful to bring home the soul to God, in holy love, obedience, and delight but he is more fully revealed to us in the sacred Scripture by Christ and his Spirit, which, therefore, must be herein believed."

Q. 2. What of God doth the Scripture make known better than nature?

A. That there is a God, and what God is, and what are his relations to us, and what are his works, and what are our duties to him, and our hopes from him.*

Q. 3. That there is a God, none but a madman, sure, can doubt but what of God is so clearly revealed in Scripture? A. 1. His essential attributes; and, 2. The Trinity in one

essence.

Q. 4. Which call you his essential attributes?

A. God is, essentially, life, understanding, and will, or vital * Heb. xi. 6; 1 Tim. ii. 5.

John xvii. 3.