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fit to reveal.] As it is proved from the New Testament, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are one God, not three Gods, should we not believe it? [Ans. Yes.]

Instruction.---In the first part of this Creed, you profess to believe in God the Father Almighty, the creator of all things, who made you and all mankind. In the next you profess to believe in God the Son, who redeemed you and all mankind from eternal death, by laying down his life. In the last part, you profess to believe in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth, or makes holy, you, and all the elect people of God. By sanctifying, is meant cleansing from the defilement of sin. The elect people of God, mean the members of the Christian Church, who keep to the terms of the Christian Covenant; these are reckoned heirs to eternal glory through Christ.

Questions.---What did God the Father do? [Ans. Made you and all the world.] What has God the Son done? [Ans. Redeemed you and all mankind:] What does God the Holy Ghost do for the elect people of God? [Ans. Sanctifieth them.] What is meant by sanctifying them? [Ans. Cleansing them from the deflement of sin.] Who are the elect people of God? [Ans. Those who keep true to the Christian covenant.] What does the Christian covenant require them to renounce or give up? [Ans. The devil and all his works, and the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. Shall we be reckoned amongst the elect people of God, if we do not renounce them? [Ans. No.] Shall we be reckoned amongst them if we do not believe all the articles of the Christian Faith? [Ans, No.]

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LECTURE III.

On the Commandments:

Question. You said that your Godfathers andGodmothers did promise for you, that you should keep God's Commandments: Tell me how many.

there be?

Answer.-Ter.

Question. Which be they?

Answer-The same which God spake in the twentieth chapter of Exodus-saying-I am the Lord thy God-who brought thee out of the land of Egypt-out of the house of bondage.

Explanation.---These commandments were spoken by God himself. The account of God's speaking them is writin the Bible, in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and it is amongst your Scripture Lessons. These commandments your godfathers and godmothers promised you should keep. The house of bondage signifies Egypt, which was a place of slavery to them. It was to the Israelites, whom he had brought out of the land of Egypt, that God spake these commandments; but they were designed for the Church of God to the end of the world. They were written by God himself upon two tables, or pieces of stone, and given to Moses: and they were afterwards written by Moses and are now in the Bible. The first table contained the four first commandments; the second table contained the other six.

Questions.---By whom were the ten commandments spoken? [Ans. By God.] In what part of Scripture are they written? [Ans. The twentieth chapter of Exodus.] To whom did God first speak the commandments? [Ans. To the Israelites.] Where did God speak them? [Ans. At mount Sinai.] What had God done for the Israelites? [Ans. Brought them out of the land of Egypt.] What did God say of himself before he spoke the commandments? [Ans. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.] Who were these commandments designed for? [Ans. The people of God to the end of the world.] Who wrote the commandments at first? [Ans. God.] What were they written upon? [Ans.. Two tables or pieces of stone.] How many were upon the first table? [Ans. Four.] How many were upon the second? [Ans. Six.] Who was ordered to write them in a book? [Ans. Moses.] Where are they now? [Ans. In the Bible.] Question.-What is the first commandment?

Answer.-Thou shalt have none other. Gods but

me..

Explanation.---To have no other Gods, signifies not to believe in false Gods, as the heathens did, but to believe God to be the Lord, and not to honour any other as God. To have no other God as a Christian, is to believe in the Holy Trinity, and to worship Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as one God.

Questions.---What are Christians to believe in, and worship? [Ans. The Holy Trinity.] What do you mean by the Holy Trinity? Ans. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.] Is there any other God? [Ans. Na.]

Question.—What is the second commandment? Answer.-Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image-nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above-or in the earth beneath;-or in the water under the carth.--Thou shalt not bow down to them,—nor worship them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,-and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children,-unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,-and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me,—and keep my commandments.

Explanation.---Graven images signify idols made of wood and stone, and other things, which the heathen nations worshipped and bowed down to as Gods, by which they dishonoured the Creator.---There are many, heathen nation in the world now, who worship idols, and there are Christians who make use of images and pictures of Christ, and the Virgin Mary, and Saints, in their worship; but this is very wrong, and forbidden by our church, as contrary to God's commandment.

By God's calling himself a jealous God, we are to understand that he will be angry with those who make idols for God's, and that he will visit them, that is, punish them.

Questions.---What are we commanded not to make to ourselves, to how down to as Gods? [dns. Graven images.] What are they? [Ans. Idols.] What do those that worship them call them? [Ans. Gods.] What does God call himself, to make us afraid of worshipping idols? [Ans. A jealous God.] What are we to understand by this? [Ans. That God will be angry with those who do so.] What will God do to them? [Ans. Punish them.] What will God do to those who love him and keep his commandments? [Ans. Shew mercy unto thousands.]

Question. What is the third Commandment? Answer.-Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain:-for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Explanation.---To take God's name in vain, signifies to use the words Lord God, Jesus Christ, and other names which belong to the Holy Trinity alone, as common words, or to swear falsely by the name of God. By God's saying. that he will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in

vain, we may understand that God will look upon them as sinners, and punish them. We should never use the holy names of God but when we say our prayers, or are talking about God seriously. Whenever you come to the name of God in reading, or repeating any thing by heart, you should speak it slowly and distinctly, and not so as to make a different name of it, or as a common word.

Questions.---What does God command us in this commandment? [Ans. Not to take his name in vain.] Is it not taking God's name in vain to say, O Lord, O God, O Christ, in common conversation? [Ans. Yes.] Do not those take it most shockingly in vain who swear and curse, and wish evil to others by his name? [Ans. Yes.] Do not those take it dreadfully in vain who swear falsely by it? [Ans. Yes.] When only should we speak the name of God? [Ans. When we pray or talk seriously of God.] How should we speak it [Ans. Slowly, or distinctly.] Will God hold those guiltless, or look upon them as good people, who take his name in vain? [Ans. No.] What will he do to them? [Ans. Punish them.] Question. What is the fourth Commandment?

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Answer.-Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day-six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do;-but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:-In it thou shalt do no manner of work,- thou,—and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant,-and thy maid-servant, thy cattle,-aid the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,-and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day,-and hallowed it.

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Explanation.---The meaning of the word Sabbath is rest; a Sabbath Day is a day of holy rest, in which we are to lay aside our usual worldly business to serve God. To remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy, signifies to keep in mind that the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and to devote it to God, or to spend it in the service of God. The commandment says, "thou shalt do no manner of work;" but when our Lord Jesus Christ was upon earth, he explained this to mean common work, and shewed that works of mercy and charity might be done on the Sabbath day; but we must not do on the Sabbath day any work that can be let alone to another day. God himself tells us, at the latter part of the

commandment, why the Sabbath is to be kept holy. God blessed the Sabbath, that it might be a day of rest and comfort to man and beast; and he hallowed it, or set it apart as a holy day, that mankind might have time to think of his works, and learn their duty. The Jews kept what we now call Saturday as the Sabbath, and they still observe it as such; but Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, for the day has been changed, because our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on that day.

Questions---What is the meaning of the word Sabbath? [Ans. Rest.] What is the Sabbath day? [Ans. A day of holy Rest.] Which day in the week is the Christian Šabbath? [Ans. Sunday.] What day is the Jewish Sabbath? [Ans. Saturday.] May we work on the Sabbath as we do on other days? [Ans. No.] What work may be done on the Sabbath? [Ans. Works of mercy and charity.] What does God command us to remember? [Ans. The Sabbath day to keep it holy.] In how many days did God make the heavens and the earth, and all things in them? [Ans. Six.] What did he do on the seventh day? [Ans. God rested.] How did God rest? [Ans. He left off creating.] What was the Sabbath at first kept in remembrance of? [Ans. God's creating all things in six days.] What besides is it now kept in remembrance of? Ans. Christ's rising from the dead? What did God do in respect to the seventh day? Ans. He blessed and hallowed it.] Why did God bless it? [Ans. That it might be a day of rest and comfort to man and beast.] Why did he hallow it, or make it a holy day? [Ans. That mankind might have time to think of his works and learn their duty.] Should children spend the Sabbath in idleness and play? [Ans. No.] Where should they go in order to learn their duty? [Ans. To church.]

Instruction.---What we have now explained to you are the commandments of the first table; we will now consider those of the second table.

Question. What is the fifth commandment? Answer.-Honour thy father and thy mother-that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Explanation.---To honour your father and mother, is to love and obey them, and try all you can to make them happy: this you have been taught in former Lectures.* The land * See Lectures on the Practice of Religious and Moral Duties, in Vol. I.

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