any way from it, either to the right hand or to

Mast. Into what chief parts dost thou divide all this word of God?

Scho, Into the Law and the Gospel.

Mast. How be these two known the one from the other?

Scho. The Law setteth out our duties both of godliness towards God, that is, the true worshipping of God, and of charity toward our neighbour, and severely requireth and exacteth our precise obedience, and to the obedient promiseth everlasting life, but to the disobedient pronounceth threatenings and pains, yea, and eternal death. The Gospel containeth the promises of God; and to the offenders of the Law; so that they repent them of their offence, it promiseth that God will be merciful through faith in Christ.

REFORMATIO LEGUM, &c.

Of the Holy Trinity and Catholic Faith. All Things out of the Canonical Scriptures are to be believed. Chap. 9.

This, therefore, is, generally, the Holy Scripture, in which we believe that all things to be believed as necessary to salvation, are fully and perfectly contained; so that whatever is not read or found in it, nor lastly either follows or is to be proved clearly from it, is not to be required of any one that he should believe it as an Article of Faith.

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The Authority of Holy Scripture is supreme in the Church. Cap. 10.

The authority of Holy Scripture is believed to be so great, that no excellence of any creature is to be preferred before it, or to be placed upon an equality with it.

Recourse is to be had to Hebrew Versions of the Old Testament, and to Greek ones of the New. Cap. 12.

But in the reading of the Holy Scriptures, if any passages occur which are ambiguous or obscure in the Old Testament, their interpretation is to be sought at the fountain of Hebrew truth; but in the New Testament the Greek Versions are to be consulted.

The Creeds are useful in the Interpretation of Scripture. Cap. 13.

Moreover the chief heads of faith (which we call Articles) taken from the plainest texts of Holy Scripture, and briefly comprehended in the Creeds, are always to be kept in view in expounding the Sacred Writings, lest we should ever interpret or define any thing inconsistently with them.

CHAPTER II.

Of the Nature and Attributes of God.

SECTION I.

FROM the Holy Scriptures, and by the exercise of Reason, we obtain such a Knowledge of the Divine Nature and Attributes (or qualities), as is necessary to us in the present life. Our finite faculties cannot comprehend that which is infinite: it is, therefore, presumptuous and in vain to enquire into the mysterious Essence of the Deity, or his Secret Counsels, beyond what is written as his word, or manifested by the works of his hands. The Knowledge of God, however, which is thus supplied, is the foundation of Religion; and, for this cause, it is to be sought with humility and diligence.

§ 2. GOD, entitled in the Old Testament, JEHOVAH, is One God, self-existing, supreme, simple, indivisible;-a Spirit, immaterial, invisible, without body, parts or passions ;-eternal, immutable, incorruptible;-infiuite, omnipresent;-the fountain of life ;omniscient, all-wise;-omnipotent;-perfectly happy, holy, good, just, true, and glorious.

§ 3. The first of those Attributes, which are denominated incommunicable, or peculiar to the Divine Essence, is that of-Unity. That God is One undi

víded Being, is plainly declared in Scripture, and attested by reason, which unitedly instruct us that necessary self-existence, perfection of nature, omnipotence, consistency of willing, and concord of action, are incompatible with a plurality of gods, or that these properties, which are essential to the Divine Nature, cannot subsist in more gods than one.

§ 4. Spirituality,-the being, in a peculiar manner, a pure immaterial Essence, invisible and incapable of representation. God is known to be a Spirit, because a Spirit is of the highest order of existence, and He who created the Angelic Spirits cannot be their inferior. The invisible God was pleased to manifest himself in former times by assumed appearances, such as those of the Shecinah, the forms of Angels, the human Figure; and in Dreams and Visions.

§ 5. The Eternity of God implies, not only his infinite duration, his being without beginning and without end, but also his immutability, or being incapable of change, and his perfect independence. He who exists of himself, must have existed from all eternity, and must still continue to do so without end, as there is no cause of termination in his nature. From God all things are derived, and on him all things depend.

§ 6. Immensity, Omnipresence, or that infinite, unlimited property, by which God fills all space, and is every where, at all times and in all places, is a necessary Attribute; because, wherever his power or providence extends, there is his inseparable Essence : and the whole created universe is subject to his guidance, and upheld by his support; as it was originally called into existence by the Word of his Power.

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§ 7. Of the Communicable Pro which inferior beings may pa ascribed to God is that of Life the Divine Nature, in consequenc not only himself pre-eminently a liv ble Being, but is also the Autho Life to all beings which are endue

§ 8. The Omniscience, or infi God, is that faculty by which he derstands all things absolutely an faculty intimately connected with tributes, especially those of Omn presence. God gives knowledge, fers he must himself possess in an

As Knowledge is the speculative practical act of the Divine Mind. application of the former to certai Wisdom directs the fittest means t such means and purpose as are s Knowledge. The works of Creat and of Redemption, afford abund exercise of consummate Wisdom.

§ 9. The Omnipotence, or Migl is capable of effecting all things w dict his other Attributes, or imply themselves. God is the origin must, therefore, excel in power all so as to be irresistible, uncontroulal out effort, to execute the sentenc Without this Omnipotent Authority Knowledge and unerring Wisdom availed in the construction and sup Universe.