13.

undeniably abfolute dominion over us, and confequently there must be due unto him the most exact and complete obedience from us. Which reason

will appear more convincing, if we confider of all the creatures which have been derived from the fame fountain of God's goodness, none ever difIfa. xlviii. obeyed his voice but the Devil and Man. Mine hand, faith he, hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens; when I call unto them, they stand up together. The most loyal and obedient fervants which ftand continually before the most illuftrious Prince are not fo ready to receive and execute the commands of their fovereign Lord, as all the Hofts of Heaven and Earth to Ma. xl. 26. attend upon the will of their Creator. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their hofts by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is ftrong in power, not one faileth, but every one maketh his appearance, ready preffed to obferve the defigns of their Commander in chief. Thus Judg. v. 20. the Lord commanded, and they fought from heaven, the ftars in their courfes fought against Sifera. He Kings xvii. commanded the ravens to feed Elias, and they brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and fo one Prophet lived merely upon the obedience of the fowls of the air. He Jonah ii. fpake to the devouring whale, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land; and fo another Prophet was delivered from the jaws of death by the obedience of the fishes of the fea. Do we not read of Pfal. cxlvii. fire and hail, fnow and vapour, formy wind fulfilling his word? Shall there be a greater coldness in Man than in the fnow? more vanity in us than in a vapour? more inconftancy than in the wind? If the univerfal obedience of the creature to the will of the Creator cannot move us to the fame affection and defire to serve and please him, they will all confpire to teftify against us and condemn us, when

4, 6.

10.

8.

God

God fhall call unto them; faying, Hear, O heavens, Ifai. i. 2. and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath Spoken: I bave nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Laftly, The Creation of the World is of most neceffary meditation for the confolation of the fervants of God in all the variety of their conditions: Happy is he whofe hope is in the Lord his God, which Pfal. cxlvi. made heaven and earth, the fea and all that therein is. 56. This happiness confifteth partly in a full affurance of his power to fecure us, his ability to fatisfy us. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the Pfal. xxiv. world and they that dwell therein. For he hath found- 1, a. ed it upon the feas, and established it upon the floods. By virtue of the first production he hath a perpetual right unto, and power to dispose of all things and he which can order and difpofe of all, muft neceffarily be esteemed able to fecure and fatisfy any creature. Haft thou not known, haft thou Ifa. xl. 28. not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no external refistance or oppofition where Omnipotency worketh, no internal weakness or defection of power where the Almighty is the agent; and confequently there remaineth a full and firm perfuafion of his ability in all conditions to preferve us. Again, this happiness confifteth partly in a comfortable affurance, arifing from this meditation, of the will of God to protect and fuccour us, of his defire to preferve and bless us. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven Pfal. cxxi. and earth: he will not fuffer thy foot to be moved, faith 2, 3. the Prophet David; at once expreffing the foundation of his own expectancy and our fecurity. God will not defpife the work of his hands, neither Job x. 3. will he fuffer the rest of his creatures to do the least injury to his own image. Behold, faith he, I have Ifa, liv. 16, created the fmith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and 17. that bringeth forth an inftrument for his work. No

weapon

weapon that is formed against thee fhall profper. This is the heritage of the fervants of the Lord.

Wherefore to conclude our explication of the firft Article, and to render a clear account of the laft part thereof; that every one may understand what it is I intend, when I make confeffion of my faith in the Maker of heaven and earth, I do truly profess, that I really believe, and am fully perfuaded, that both heaven and earth and all things contained in them have not their being of themselves, but were made in the beginning; that the manner by which all things were made was by mediate or immediate creation; fo that antecedently to all things befide, there was at first nothing but God, who produced moft part of the World merely out of nothing, and the reft out of that which was formerly made of nothing. This I believe was done by the most free and voluntary act of the will of God, of which no reafon can be alledged, no motive affigned, but his goodnefs; performed by the determination of his will at that time which pleafed him, moft probably within one hundred and thirty generations of men, moft certainly within not more than fix, or at fartheft seven, thoufand years. I acknowledge this God Creator of the World to be the fame God who is the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift: and in this full latitude, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

ARTICLE

And in Jefus Chrift, his only Son, our Lord.

HE fecond Article of the Creed prefents unto

TH

us, as the object of our Faith, the fecond Perfon of the bleffed Trinity; that as in the Divinity there is nothing intervening between the Father and the Son, fo that immediate union might be perpetually expreffed by a conftant conjunction in our Chriftian confeffion. And that upon no less authority than of the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who in the perfons of the Apostles gave this command to us, Ye believe in God, believe alfo in me. Joh. xiv. 1. Nor fpeaketh he this of himfelf, but from the Father which fent him; for this is his commandment, 1 John iii. that we should believe on the name of his Son Jefus 23. Chrift. According therefore to the Son's prefcription, the Father's injunction, and the Sacramental inftitution, as we are baptized, fo do we (e) believe in the name of the Father, and the Son.

Our bleffed Saviour is here reprefented under a threefold description: firft, by his Nomination, as Jefus Chrift; fecondly, by his Generation, as the only Son of God; thirdly, by his Dominion, as our Lord.

But when I refer Jefus Chrift to the nomination of our Saviour, because he is in the Scriptures promifcuously and indifferently fometimes called Jefus, fometimes Chrift, I would be understood fo as not to make each of them equally, or in like propriety,

his name.

I

His name was called Jefus, which was fo Luke ii. 21. named of the Angel before he was conceived in the womb: who is alfo called Chrift, not by (f) name, Mat. i. 16. but by office and title. Which obfervation, feemingly trivial, is neceffary for the full explication of this part of the Article; for by this distinction we are led unto a double notion, and fo refolve our

Faith into these two propofitions, I believe there was and is a Man, whofe name was actually, and is truly in the moft high importance, Jefus, the Saviour of the world. I believe the Man who bare that name to be the Chrift, that is, the Meffias promised of old by God, and expected by the Jews.

For the first, it is undoubtedly the proper name of our Saviour given unto him, according to the cuftom of the Jews, at his circumcifion and as the Baptift was called John, even fo the Christ was called Jefus. Befide, as the impofition was after the vulgar manner, fo was the name itself of ordiCol. iv. 11. nary use. We read in the Scriptures of Jefus which was called fuftus, a fellow-worker with St. Paul, and Acts xiii, 6. of a certain Sorcerer, a few, whose name was (g) Bar-jefus, that is, the Son of Jefus. Jofephus, in his History, mentioneth one Jefus the fon of Ananus, another the fon of Saphates, a third, the fon of Judas, flain in the Temple: and many of the HighPriests, or Priests were called by that name; as the fon of Damnæus, of Gamaliel, of Onias, of Phabes, and of Thebuth. Ecclefiafticus is called the Wisdom of Jefus the fon of Sirach, and that Sirach As vii.45. the fon of another Jefus. St. Stephen fpeaks of the

Tabernacle of witnefs brought in with Jefus into the poffeffion of the Gentiles; and the Apostle in his explication of those words of David, To-day if you will Heb. iv.8. hear his voice, obferveth that, if Jefus had given them reft, then would be not afterwards have spoken of another day. Which two Scriptures being undoubtedly understood of Joshua, the fon of Nun, teach us as infallibly that Jefus is the fame name with Joshua. Which being at the first (b) impofition in the full extent of pronunciation Fehoshua, in process of time contracted to Jeshuah, by the omiffion of the laft letter, (ftrange and difficult to other languages) and the addition of the Greek termination, became Jefus.

Wherefore