190 THE ADVANCEMENT OP LEAENING. 



exhortations and applications thereupon) had been set down 

 in a continuance, it had been the best work in divinity which 

 had been written since the Apostles times. 



(19) The matter informed by divinity is of two kinds : matter 

 of belief and truth of opinion, and matter of service and adora 

 tion ; which is also judged and directed by the former the 

 one being as the internal soul of religion, and the other as the 

 external body thereof. And, therefore, the heathen religion 

 was not only a worship of idols, but the whole religion was an 

 idol in itself ; for it had no soul ; that is, no certainty of belief 

 or confession : as a man may well think, considering the chief 

 doctors of their church were the poets ; and the reason was 

 because the heathen gods were no jealous gods, but were glad 

 to be admitted into part, as they had reason. Neither did 

 they respect the pureness of heart, so they might have external 

 honour and rites. 



(20) But out of these two do result and issue four main 

 branches of divinity : faith, manners, liturgy, and government. 

 Faith containeth the doctrine of the nature of God, of the 

 attributes of God, and of the works of God. The nature of 

 God consisteth of three persons in unity of Godhead. The 

 attributes of God are either common to the Deity, or respec 

 tive to the persons. The works of God summary are two, that 

 of the creation and that of the redemption ; and both these 

 works, as in total they appertain to the unity of the Godhead, 

 so in their parts they refer to the three persons : that of the 

 creation, in the mass of the matter, to the Father ; in the dis 

 position of the form, to the Son ; and in the continuance and 

 conservation of the being, to the Holy Spirit. So that of the 

 redemption, in the election and counsel, to the Father ; in the 

 whole act and consummation, to the Son ; and in the applica 

 tion, to the Holy Spirit ; for by the Holy Ghost was Christ 

 conceived in flesh, and by the Holy Ghost are the elect re 

 generate in spirit. This work likewise we consider either 

 effectually, in the elect; or privately, in the reprobate; or 

 according to appearance, in the visible Church. 



(23 ) For manners, the doctrine thereof is contained in the 

 law, which discloseth sin. The law itself is divided, according 

 to the edition thereof, into the law of nature, the law moral, 

 and the law positive ; and according to the style, into nega 

 tive and affirmative, prohibitions and commandments. Sin, in 

 the matter and subject thereof, is divided according to the 

 commandments ; in the form thereof it referreth to the three 

 persons in Deity : sins of infirmity against the Father, whose 

 more special attribute is power ; sins of ignorance against the 



