6.1
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.
6.2
Of the Service of God
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.
6.3
Of the Service of God
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.
6.4
Of the Service of God
When almighty God smiteth us with affliction, or 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.
6.5
Of the Service of God
Fasting is a withholding 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 noways 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.
6.6
Of the Service of God
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 sake (which of itself is a thing merely indifferent), but simply 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.
6.7
Of the Service of God
All worship devised by man's phantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures (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.
6.8
Of the Service of God
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.
6.9
Of the Service of God
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.
6.10
Of the Service of God
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.
6.11
Of the Service of God
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.
6.12
Of the Civil Magistrate
The King's majesty under God hath the sovereign and chief power within his realms and dominions, over all manner of persons, of what estate, either ecclesiastical or civil, soever they be; so as no other foreign power hath, or ought to have, any superiority over them.
6.13
Of the Civil Magistrate
We do profess that the supreme government of all estates within the said realms and dominions, in all cases, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, doth of right appertain to the King's highness. Neither do we give unto him hereby the administration of the Word and Sacraments, or the power of the Keys, but that prerogative only which we see to have been always given unto all godly princes in holy Scripture by God himself; that is, that he should contain all estates and degree committed to his charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, within their duty, and restrain the stubborn and evildoers with the power of the civil sword.
6.14
Of the Civil Magistrate
The Pope, neither of himself, nor by any authority of the Church or See of Rome, or by any other means with any other, hath any power or authority to depose the King, or dispose any of his kingdoms or dominions; or to authorize any other prince to invade or annoy him or his countries; or to discharge any of his subjects of their allegiance and obedience to his Majesty; or to give license or leave to any of them to bear arms, raise tumult, or to offer any violence or hurt to his royal person, state, or government, or to any of his subjects within his Majesty's dominions.
6.15
Of the Civil Magistrate
That princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever, is impious doctrine.
6.16
Of the Civil Magistrate
The laws of the realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offenses.
6.17
Of the Civil Magistrate
It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, to bear arms and to serve in just wars.
6.18
Of Our Duty towards Our Neighbors
Our duty towards our neighbors is, to love them as ourselves, and to do to all men as we would they should do to us; to honor and obey our superiors; to preserve the safety of men's persons, as also their chastity, goods, and good names; to bear no malice nor hatred in our hearts; to keep our bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity; to be true and just in all our doings; not to covet other men's goods, but labor truly to get our own living, and to do our duty in that estate of life unto which it pleaseth God to call us.
6.19
Of Our Duty towards Our Neighbors
For the preservation of the chastity of men's persons, wedlock is commanded unto all men that stand in need thereof. Neither is there any prohibition by the Word of God but that the ministers of the Church may enter into the state of matrimony: they being nowhere commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life or to abstain from marriage. Therefore it is lawful also for them, as well as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness.
6.20
Of Our Duty towards Our Neighbors
The riches and goods of Christians are not common, as touching the right, title, and possession of the same: as certain Anabaptists falsely affirm. Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability.
6.21
Of Our Duty towards Our Neighbors
Faith given, is to be kept, even with heretics and infidels.
6.22
Of Our Duty towards Our Neighbors
The Popish doctrine of Equivocation and Mental Reservation is ungodly, and tendeth plainly to the subversion of all human society.