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Sect. 1. That magistracy is an ordi-
nance of God: that by him magis-
trates are advanced to office: the
titles given to them.

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COMMON-PLACE-BOOK

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THE HOLY BIBLE.

CHAPTER I.

SECTION 1. Shewing what Religion is, and how the knowledge of it is to be obtained.

UNDER the name of Religion is comprehended all that worship and service which is due from men to God: whatever we ought or are bound to do in obedience to him; whatever he will reward us for doing, or punish us for not doing.

In order, therefore, to worship and serve God as we ought to do, we must first believe that he is; that he hath given us laws and commandments to keep; that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him, and of such as do according to all that he hath commanded them: and that he taketh vengeance on them that obey him not. And for the better understanding the nature and extent of our duty, in all respects, together with the grounds and reasons of our obligations; it behoves us in the next place to inform ourselves as truly and particularly as we can, who the Lord is whom we are to serve; what attributes and perfections belong to him, and what works he hath wrought; as also, what manner of beings we ourselves are, who are commanded to serve him; what capacities and inclinations we have; what state and condition we are in, and in what relation we stand to God. After which it will be necessary for as to inquire, how and in what manner

those laws and ordinances are, which God is to be worshipped, and what he hath commanded us to observe.

And then, for our greater encouragement to serve God, in all such things as we shall find to be enjoined us, and to persevere in our obedience to him; it is requisite for us to know what happiness God hath prepared for them who love and obey him, and what misery he hath provided for such as transgress his commandments. How great, how certain, and of what continuance, both the joy and the terror of the Lord are.

SECT. II. The Necessity of Searching the Scriptures.

THESE are the things in which every man is concerned to be well instructed; and the truest and shortest way of attaining such knowledge as this, is, by searching the Scriptures:

For they are they which testify of God; which show us what is good, and what the Lord doth require of us; which set before us the way of life, and the way of death; and which, teach us what we must do to be saved from the wrath to come, and to inherit eternal life,

The way of man is not now in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Though we can by nature do many things contained in the law of God; and though we can in many cases, even of ourselves, judge what

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