Of the service of God.

Our duty towards God is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, to worship him, and to give him thanks, to put our whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honor his holy Name and his word, and to serve him truly all the days of our life.

In all our necessities we ought to have recourse unto God by prayer: assuring ourselves that whatsoever we ask of the Father in the name of his Son (our only mediator and intercessor) Christ Jesus, and according to his will, he will undoubtedly grant it.

We ought to prepare our hearts before we pray, and understand the things that we ask when we pray: that both our hearts and voices may together sound in the ears of God’s Majesty.

When almighty God smiteth us with affliction, of some great calamity hangeth over us, or any other weighty cause so requireth; it is our duty to humble ourselves in fasting, to bewail our sins with a sorrowful heart, and to addict ourselves to earnest prayer, that it might please God to turn his wrath from us, or supply us with such graces as we greatly stand in need of.

Fasting is a with-holding of meat, drink, and all natural food, with other outward delights, from the body for the determined time of fasting. As for those abstinences which are appointed by public order of our state, for eating of fish and forbearing of flesh at certain times and days appointed, they are no way meant to be religious fasts, nor intended for the maintenance of any superstition in the choice of meats, but are grounded merely upon politic considerations for provision of things tending to the better preservation of the Commonwealth.

We must not fast with this persuasion of mind, that our fasting can bring us to heaven, or ascribe holiness to the outward work wrought. For God alloweth not our fast for the work’s sake (which of itself is a thing merely indifferent), but chiefly respecteth the heart, how it is affected therein. It is therefore requisite that first before all things we cleanse our hearts from sin, and then direct our fast to such ends as God will allow to be good: that the flesh may thereby be chastised, the spirit may be more fervent in prayer, and that our fasting may be a testimony of our humble submission to God’s majesty, when we acknowledge our sins unto him, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, bewailing the same in the affliction of our bodies.

All worship devised by man’s fantasy, besides or contrary to the Scripture (as wandering on Pilgrimages, setting up of Candles, Stations, and Jubilees, Pharisaical sects and feigned religions, praying upon Beads, and such like superstition) hath not only no promise of reward in Scripture, but contrariwise threatenings and maledictions.

All manner of expressing God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in an outward form is utterly unlawful. As also all other images devised or made by man to the use of Religion.

All religious worship ought to be given to God alone; from whom all goodness, health, and grace ought to be both asked and looked for, as from the very author and giver of the same, and from none other.

The name of God is to be used with all reverence and holy respect: and therefore all vain and rash swearing is utterly to be condemned. Yet notwithstanding upon lawful occasions, an oath may be given and taken according to the word of God, justice, judgment, and truth.

The first day of the week, which is the Lord’s day, is wholly to be dedicated unto the service of God: and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business, and to bestow that leisure upon holy exercises, both public and private.