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(four) first Commandments, pertaining to God, which teach us how we should behave ourselves towards God, as well inwardly in heart and mind, as outwardly in words and deeds. In the other table were graven seven (six) precepts, pertaining to our neighbours, which teach us how we ought to order ourselves towards our princes, magistrates, and rulers, towards our wives, children, and servants, and towards all states of men, teaching us that we should not be disobedient, that we do wrong to no man, that we hurt no man, that we lie not in wait to kill any man, that we deflour not other men's wives, and, to be in short, that we hurt not our neighbours, neither in body, goods, nor good name.

KING EDWARD THE SIXTH'S CATECHISM.

Master. First, tell me somewhat, what thou thinkest of the Law, and then afterward of the Creed, or symbol.

Scholar. I shall do, good master, with a good will, as you command me. The Lord God hath charged us by Moses, that we have none other God at all, but him; that is to say, that we take him alone, for our one only God, our Maker, and Saviour. That we reverence not, nor worship any portraiture, or any image whatsoever, whether it be painted, carved, graven, or by any mean fashioned, howsoever it be. That we take not

the name of our Lord God in vain: that is, either in a matter of no weight, or of no truth. Last of all, this ought we to hold stedfastly and with devout conscience that we keep holily and religiously the Sabbath-day; which was appointed out from the other, for rest and service of God.

Mast. Very well. Now hast thou rehearsed unto me the laws of the first table; wherein is, in a sum, contained the knowledge, and true service of God. Go forward, and tell me, which be the duties of charity, and our love toward

men.

Scho. Do you ask me, master, what I think of the other part of the Law, which is commonly called the second table?

Mast. Thou sayest true, my son: that is it indeed, that I would fain hear of.

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Scho. I will in few words dispatch it, as my simple wit will serve me. Moses hath knit it up in a short sum: that is, that with all loving affection, we honour and reverence our father and mother. That we kill no man. That we commit no adultery. That we steal nothing. That we bear false-witness against none. Last of all, that we covet nothing that is our neighbour's.......

Mast. Thou hast shortly set out the Ten Commandments. Now, then tell me, how all these things, that thou hast particularly declared, Christ hath in few words contained, setting forth unto us in a sum, the whole pith of the law?

Scho. Will..

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Will you that I knit up in a brief

abridgment, all that belongeth both to God and

to men?

Mast. Yea. Scho. Christ saith thus: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the greatest Commandment in the Law. The other is like unto this. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Upon these two Commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets."

Mast. I will now, that thou tell me further, what Law is that, which thou speakest of: that which we call the Law of Nature, or some other besides ?

Scho. I remember, master, that I learned that of you long ago: that it was ingrafted by God in the nature of man, while nature was yet sound and uncorrupted. But after the entrance of sin, although the wise were somewhat, after a sort, not utterly ignorant of that light of nature: yet was it by that time so hid from the greatest part of men, that they scarce perceived any shadow thereof.

Mast. What is the cause, that God willed it to be written out in tables: and that it should be privately appointed to one people alone?

Scho. I will shew you. By original sin and evil custom, the image of God in man was so at the beginning darkened, and the judgment of nature so corrupted, that man himself doth not

sufficiently understand, what difference is between honesty and dishonesty, right and wrong. The bountiful God, therefore minding to renew that image in us, first wrought this by the Law written in tables, that we might know ourselves, and therein, as it were in a glass, behold the filth and spots of our soul, and stubborn hardness of a corrupted heart: that by this mean, yet acknowledging our sin, and perceiving the weakness of our flesh, and the wrath of God fiercely bent against us for sin; we might the more fervently long for our Saviour Christ Jesus: which by his death and precious sprinkling of his blood, hath cleansed and washed away our sins; pacified the wrath of the Almighty Father; by the holy breath of his Spirit createth new hearts in us; and reneweth our minds after the image and likeness of their Creator, in true righteousness and holiness. Which thing neither the justice of the Law, nor any sacrifices of Moses were able to perform.

And that no man is made righteous by the Law, it is evident; not only thereby, that the righteous liveth by faith: but also hereby, that no mortal man is able to fulfil all that the Law of both the tables commandeth. For we have hindrances that strive against the Law: as the weakness of the flesh, froward appetite, and lust naturally engendered. As for sacrifices, cleansings, washings, and other ceremonies of the Law; they were but shadows, likenesses, images,

and figures of the true and everlasting sacrifice of Jesus Christ, done upon the cross. By the benefit whereof alone, all the sins of all believers, even from the beginning of the world, are pardoned by the only mercy of God, and by no desert of ours.

Mast. I hear not yet, why the Almighty God's will was, to declare his secret pleasure to one people alone which was the Israelites.

Scho. Forsooth, that I had almost forgotten. I suppose it was not done for this intent, as though the Law of the Ten Commandments did not belong generally to all men forasmuch as the Lord our God is not only the God of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. But rather, this was meant thereby, that the true Messiah, which is our Christ, might be known at his coming into the world: who must needs have been born of that nation, and none other, for true performance of the promise. For the which cause, God's pleasure was to appoint out for himself one certain people, holy, sundered from the rest, and, as it were, peculiarly his own: that by this means his divine Word might be continually kept holy, pure, and uncorrupted.

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