see The Essence whole and so distinct to be From what is meerly Jewish that no Doubt Shall give the weaker conscience thereabout For that which is essential may be ' spide From what should only for a time abide As evidently as our bodies are Discerned from the ground which once we were It is the Abstract of the Law of Nature And that which every Reasonable Creature Which hath a Body must submit unto With Incorporials we have nought to do Nor us to search concerns it any way What Law they are obliged to obey Salvation comes not by this Law indeed Yet knowledge of our Sin and that we need A Saviour for it by this Law is taught Till which be known no safety can be wrought T is true we can keep it yet it may Keep us from running quite out of the way Or keep us humble That the works of Grace May in our hearts the better take their place It maketh no man pure Yet 't is a Glass By which the fairest of old Adams race May view themselves deform'd and also see In what defects they should repaired be It makes not streight and yet it may supply A helpful means our selves to rectify It gives not sight but they that see may find It yieldeth light to those who grow not blind By wilful faults and Stubbornly contemn Those Beams of Grace which might enlighten them It gives not strength to go we must confess But yet it shews a way to happiness And they who can but love it when they know it Shall either be vouchsafed strength to go it By mediate help or by immediate Grace Exalted be to their desired place It cannot merit Love But it may shew Whether or no our Love be false or true Though 't is not life It is the death of Sin Whereby the life of grace doth first begin To shew that living Faith wherein consists The truth of their profession who are Christ's And they are not suspected without cause False Christians who conform not to these Laws It is a needful Tutor though it stand With looks still frowning and with Rod in hand 'T is truly Good though Ill thereby we know And oft befriends us though it seem a Foe It all condemns not though it puts in fear It brings to Christ and then it leaves us there In brief this Law shall ever be in force Though from Believers God remove the Curse It shall in Essence never fail a jot Although some Accidents continue not And therefore they whose Faith shall them prefer Observe it as a good REMEMBRANCER To these for comfort and encouragement The promise which attends it we present With all the circumstances which may give Assurances of what they well believe Without those Plagues or Terrors which we find Presented to correct a slavish mind For they that love their Founder need no bands But love to keep them true to these commands Love is the Laws fulfilling 't is that end To which both Laws and all good Actions tend And he that Loves unto himself is made A Law whereto we nothing need to add Before the rest our Muse to fright them sets The Tipes of punishments and horrid Threats If either may bring home the Soul that errs God's be the praise the Comfort of it theirs And let me share the prayers and the bliss Of those that shall pe profited by this Amen Commandment I. I Thou shalt have none other Gods but me c. Pharoh by great wonders wrought To acknowledge God was brought And had Reasons light to see Who his only God should be Had he well that Guift employ'd Special Grace had been enjoy'd But no use thereof he made And so lost the gift he had Stubborn too the Fool did grow And ran headlong to his woe Command I. Serve but one God and let him be That God who made and ransom'd thee TO such as love our God of Love makes known A Duty and a benefit bestown That they might know the object of their Creed And in the way of Righteousness proceed For by the Preface of what follows here A freedom from a Bondage doth appear And by the Substance of this great Command A Duty we may likewise understand To them whom no kind usage may perswade From sinful Paths till they afraid are made We here exhibit Pharoh as a chief Of those who suffered for an Unbelief Join with contempt of God that such from thence Might moved be to faithful penitence To them that shall with Reverence and fear Receive the holy precept which they hear We shew with love and mercy how they may Observe the Streight and Shun the crooked way There is one God alone That God is he By whom we formed and reformed be And they who serve another or deny His Attributes commit impiety This God that 's God indeed though he might say My will and pleasure is you shall obey Me only as your Lord and unto us No reason render why it should be thus Proceeds not so but hath declared why We should accept him for our Deity And peradventure this vouchsafed he To teach them knowledge who his Viccars be And shew to us by being meek and kind How from false Gods the true one we may find For to be God is to be good and so In Goodness infinite to overflow That all may tast thereof excepting none Such is my God and he is God alone The Egyptian Bondage tipified all The Race of Adam in their native Thrall And as their temporal Saviour Moses than Left not behind one hoof much less a man Inslav'd to Pharoh so the blessed Son Of this Great God hath ransom'd every one From that sad house of Bondage and of pain Where we without Redemption else had lain For which great favour he from us doth crave That we no other God but him should have And that we love him with a Reverent awe Which is the whole fulfilling of this Law This Gracious God by many is rejected And as they understand or stand affected They take or make up New ones of such things As almost to contempt the Godhead brings He of himself would make some Deity Who his own power so much doth magnify As if by that he thought to gain access To present and to future happiness He makes the World his God who thinketh fit To love to follow serve and honour it As many do and they who much incline To love this God are enemies to mine He makes his Lust a God who doth fulfil In every thing his own unbridled Will This Tyrant many serve Yea this is He Who makes them Bondslaves whom God setteth free He makes the worst men Gods who doth obey Their Pleasures in an unapproved way Or their imperious threatning so much feareth As think it from his Duty him deterreth He makes the Devil God who doth believe By evil means good blessings to receive Which very many very often doe Whose words deny him and defie him too But some
of us not only Guilty stand Of being breakers of this first Command By serving Gods beside and more than him Who from Death Sin and Hell did us redeem But either we neglect him also quite Or practise works to him so opposite That into worse impieties we fall Than such as yet confess no God at all For by distrust self-love backsliding fear Inconstancy Presumption fruitless Care Impatience Grudging Frowardness or Pride With other such our God we have deny'd More oft than once and oftner fear we shall Into this error through our frailty fall This Law in some degree is also broke Unless we to our powers due care have took To Shun each cause of breaking it The Chief Is Ignorance the ground of misbelief The next is to be oft and willingly Among Professors of Idolatry The Third is Servile fear which many ways The Heart unto Idolatry betrays The last not least is when the sway we give To any Lust or Sin For thus believe Such men to gain the full of their delight Will change their God or leave Religion quite Yea they who hate at first so gross a Sin Are by the Devil this way hooked in This Meditation here had found an end But that there are some others who offend Against this Law in such a high Degree As that they must not quite unmention'd be The truest God confessed is by them Their only God They serve and honour him In outward shew and if believe we may What they themselves have pleased been to say They love him too But either they mistake him Or by their own Invention so new Make him That though they speak him by a gracious Name The goodness of his nature they defame By making him the Authour to have bin And cause original of every Sin For in affirming that the fall of Man And Sin and Death from Gods meer will began They say no less although they praise him much For being good to them and some few such To say of these I am no whit afraid As of old Idol-Makers hath been said Their God and they are like for on their Will They ground their practices which must be still Supposed Just and some perchance of them Would be as cruel as they fancy him But that their Finite Natures cannot reach The Tyranies which they of him do preach Let us of such impieties beware What we conceive of God let us have care And not with foolish Hereticks suppose By teaching common truths and making shows Of holy piety to keep Gods eye From seeing when we wrong his Majesty For if he be displeas'd with such as make Good Creatures of his Godhead to partake How much more cause have they his wrath to fear Who make him worse than his worst Creatures are And that prime Attribute have overthrown By which he chiefly to be God is known For none are bound to serve him by this Law But such as he did out of bondage draw For if he drew not all then some there be Who though they have a God ours is not he At least in such a manner as may give These Unbelievers courage to believe Their God they say did some unhappy make To shew his power and for his Glorys sake My God is he who pittied their Estates Whom these do fancy hopeless Reprobates An Issue leaving out of that temptation In which they lying to their Just damnation And for the day of wrath no sinners made But such as do abuse the Grace they had Their God is he who forc'd mankind to fall And mine is he who did Redeem us all My sweet Redeemer so my heart incline That I may always keep this Law of thine Amen Commandment II. Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any Graven image c. Superstition here is free If her Idols rais'd may be And with Zeal the same pursues If will worship she may use When she should obey or hear Sacrifice she doth prepare Such Religion to profess Is but irreligeousness And for that presumptions vain Many Israelites were slain Command II. Let every Hand and Heart refrain An Image of our God to fain THree thousand suffered by their brethrens hand For offering violence to this Command And for committing of the same offence The Sword hath been in action ever since Some where or other to the devastation Of many a powerful and renowned Nation For to adore one Godhead and no moe Save him to whom such Duty all men owe Sufficeth not unless our adoration Be such as may obtain his approbation A forged worship meriteth a Rod As truly as a falsified God And such as do their own Religion frame Serve but their Fancies though God bear the name When humane wit had fool'd away the notion Of Gods true Being and of true Devotion She calling to remembrance that each Creature Had in it some impression of his nature Did blindly seek him by that couz'ning light And lost at last the knowledge of him quite For some did make him Figures like their own Some like to beasts and some like forms unknown Then by degrees the Devil screwed in To seem a God and made the foulest Sin Thought pious worship For though vile it be To picture him whose form we cannot see And to ascribe to him imperfect features Who gave their bodies to the fairest Creatures And in whose Essence all perfections are Yet in their wickedness they staid not there By wicked Ceremonies they invited The world to think the Godhead was delighted With hellish actions for their living seed In horrid wise to death did often bleed As acceptable offerings murtherous hands Were thought the Actors of his just Commands And drunken Riots with lascivious Games Seem'd holy Duties and had holy Names Nor did the Gentiles only thus misdo But many Jews and many Christians too The self same sins in Essence did commit Though with new Vizzards they had covered it For how much better are their Festivals Then Bacchanalian Riots in whose Halls And Parlours are assembled in the stead Of those poor Souls whom Charity should feed A Rout of Roaring Ruffins who are there For nothing but to drink or game and swear Except it be that they might soon undo Those fools which do abuse Gods bounty so Mens follies make them frequently to err And then they Vice for Vertue do prefer Their Superstition makes them think amiss Of God And then their service of him is Accordingly devis'd they favour not That worship which their wit hath not begot They fear him Tyrant-like and dream that he Is pleas'd with such like works as Tyrants be For Carnal wisdom cannot be content Unless it may be suffered to invent The Scoenes which make her Stage Religion seem To Superarrogate in her esteem Some tho' they Scoff Idolatry are hardly brought To serve a God of whom they have not thought A circumscribed Form to which they may Address themselves in that corporeal way Which they affect and therefore up they rear Such Calves
Of whom God pleas'd this gracious Law to make Do sometime also grievously transgress Against this Law when they by wilfulness By Pride or Cruelty provoke or stir Those to rebel who Sons or Vassals are For he that wilfully gives cause of ill Shares equal Guilt with him that acts it still By sinning he brings others to be naught Then suffers by them for the Sin he taught For they who Tyrannous Commands do lay Shall find their Servants treacherously obey The Crimes forbidden here as having bin Occasions of a more immediate Sin Against this Law are Envy Self-conceit Licentiousness which thinketh over streight All tyes of Government Forgetfulness Of those Commodities which we possess By them who Rule us likewise we may add Ingratitude Ill habits sooner had Than lost Gross Rudeness and the Vice Whence most Sins flow insatiate Avarice I now remember that I named not Some other Parents overmuch forgot We have a Heavenly Father unto whom His Children should more dutiful become Than yet they be But what to him we owe The former Table of these Laws doth show We have a Mother too which more our Sin Hath in this Age 'ore much neglected bin Nay worse I would it were untruly said She hath dishonour'd been and disobey'd More like a cruel Step-dame than like her Within whose blessed Womb conceiv'd we were I mean the holy Church the Spouze of Christ For we her wholsome Discipline resist Her comely Ceremonies we despise Her Government we often Scandalize We slight her Blessings we her Counsels hate We of her Ornaments and her Estate Dispoil her her best Children we betray And when she would embrace we run away In all which things we disobey this Law And vengeance both on Soul and Body draw God grant this wickedness we may repent Before he change into a Punishment The Blessing promis'd For he from the Land Will root the breakers of this great Command That men may know the danger to contemn A good Condition when 't is off'red them Some are already gone And though few see Or will confess that they afflicted be For this offence yea though few think that they Were rooted out because they went away By their own choice Yet God to them hath shew'd Their error by some Plagues which have ensu'd Since their departure that they might perceive How frowardly they did their Mother leave And that the truly penitent might there Enjoy the Blessing they did forfeit here God open so their eyes in their distress And so instruct them in that Wilderness To which they run that though like Sarahs Maid They fly from her with whom they should have staid They may divert our heavy Condemnation And leave a blessing to this Generation Lord Grant thou this and that those may not shame Their Brethren who departed without blame To civilize the Lands which know not yet Their blindness nor what Sins they do commit And gracious God preserve a Heart in me Which to this Law may still obedient be Amen Commandment VI. VI Thou shalt do no murder c. Murther leaves a bloody stain Which unpurged will remain Till a Flood of Tears it cost Or till blood for blood be lost Nor old age nor length of time Cleared Joab of this Crime Nor his Power though great it was Nor a priviledged place Could his head from vengeance hide But for this Offence he dy'd Command VI. Thy Makers Image do not spill Where God commands thee not to kill NOne had been safe unless the bloody sin Forbidden here had both restrained been And still pursued mischiefs to prevent With open and with secret punishment Therefore Almighty God who hath decreed That he who sheds his Brothers blood shall bleed Attends it still with vengeance and the Sword According to the dreadful sounding word Pronounc'd long since to David shall not leave Him or his house who doth of life bereave A guiltless man till for that crying guilt Some Blood of his untimely shall be spilt For though like him whom here we represent Men may by greatness keep off punishment Till they are old it will their heels pursue And give them at the last their bloody due For I have rarely heeded one in ten Of those rash-headed and fool-hardy men Who as they fondly term it fairly kill But they or theirs have either suffered still Deaths violent or died in their prime Or Issueless for this Blood-spilling Crime Yea and for ought is known the self-same Doom On those who yet escape e're long may come And if the fair done Murthers have these Fates How shall he scape that foul ones perpetrates Of this offence let all men conscience make For their own weal or for their Childrens sake Whom they beget For in the same degree Wherein they murther it repaid shall be On their own persons or on some of those By whom her due just vengeance may not lose If thou hast took away the life of Fame From any thou shall suffer in thy Name If by unchristian Anger or by hate Thou shalt occasion what may ruinate Anothers Being in thy Generation Or in thy self expect retaliation Unless Repentance in a Fount of tears Shall cleanse that stain which nothing else out-wears Oppression makes the Poor his life to leese Like Poysons which destroy men by degrees With lingring Deaths and in an age or two That Sin doth all those Families undo Which were enrich'd thereby yea I have seen Their Sons who by oppression rais'd have been To fall from large Estates by some and some Till they to such base poverty have come As brought them to the Gallows Therefore they Act murthers who take means of life away By an oppressing hand and murther not The poor alone but those whom they begot He is in Heart a Murtherer who prays For others deaths and in effect he slays Who can but will not save if to afford Deliverance with Justice will accord Nor from this error are they counted free Who wittingly shall an occasion be To other men of that which may intice By word or by example to this vice Such are those Hacksters who themselves do name Men of the Sword but sure enough I am Men of a base Condition these are they Who flesh our blooming Gentry in the way Of brutish Quarrels and their minds possess With Rage instead of sober Manliness Just of their stamp are they who shall provoke Their Friends unto Revenge for what was spoke In drink or passion making them believe They were disgraced if they should forgive And so the Fools are urged to pursue Those wicked Counsels which at last they rue Another way as faulty are those men Who publish by the tongue or by the pen Those Heresies and Fancies which undo Here and for aye themselves and others too These last are out of question deeply dy'd In this red Crime though some of them can hide Their Guilt with holy shews The former sort Though well esteem'd and such as none report Or take for
and intercourse between Each other but to see or to be seen Ev'n these things blow the Flame and many a one By such impertinencies is undone The faring delicately in excess The common sin of beastly Drunkenness Are here Attatch'd Arraign'd and Sentenced For often causing an Adulterous Bed. Constrained marriages made up by Friends For Honour Wealth or such improper ends Both partys very frequently undo And cause Adulterys and Murthers too Where Youth and Age of too unequal years Together match both Jealousies and Fears Are Guests and rarely have such weddings bin Without occasions of this filthy sin If therefore of this Crime we would be clear Let us endeavour alwaies to forbear All such as these as well as to eschew A gross Adultery and so pursue Each means which may be helpful to acquire A blameless practice and a clean desire That we may Soul and Body beautify With every flower of Spotless Chastity For carnal whoredom was long since a gin By Satan forged for the bringing in Of Ghostly Fornications most impure And frequent Testimonies may assure That they who love strange flesh as many do Will change their God with small perswasions too LORD from these vanities direct our eyes Which may at unawares the Heart surprize The Law within our members we do find Doth cross the Law that 's grafted in our mind That which we hate we are intic'd unto And what we love we often fail to do Our Will thou hast renew'd but in the Deed We are not yet enabled to proceed With such a Constancy as we desire Nor with such pureness as thou dost require Make perfect what in me thou hast begun Compel me that I after thee may run â—et not the world adulterate in me The Love which I have promis'd unto thee Although my waies be crooked in thy sight â— reserve thou my affection still upright And let thy Love so keep my heart in awe That I may still be blameless of this Law. Amen Commandment VIII VIII Thou shalt not steale c. If a Souldier might not thieve No man may as I believe If such measure Achan find For a prey in war purloin'd What on these will Justice bring Who rob Country Church and King With his Children Achan fell Yet I hope their Souls are well But if these do not amend Greater Plagues for them attend Comma VIII What want so e're oppress thee may Steal not anothers goods away LIght fingred Achan here doth figur'd stand Who for infringing of this Eight Command Brought both on him and his a fearful Doom To make it known to every age to come That Sacriledge and pilfring may undo Both such as use it and their Children too So strongly are these Precepts knit together And have so much dependance each on other That none of their whole number can be mist Nor virtue perfect without all subsist A Families necessities who can Support aright or honour God or Man With due respects or fully exercise The praiseful work of Christian Charities Unless this righteous Law had been ordain'd Whereby each man his own might have retain'd The painful hand had wrought but for a prey For slothful Drones to spoil and steal away Did not this Law prevent and they should then Possess most wealth who were the strongest men None would have labour'd but for present need And to procure and keep whereon to feed Would so imploy us that we should not find A leisure hour to rectify the mind By knowledge or by seeking that which is The Essence of our Being and our bliss For as base Poverty hath dwelling there Where lawless living and disorders are So where that Poverty doth much abound A brutish Ignorance is alwayes found For though wealth makes none wiser yet it might Yield means of knowledge being us'd aright And equal are the sins to rob the rich As spoil the poor although they seem not such Since that which makes the difference in the facts Is in the sufferer not in him that Acts. Let no man therefore lay his hand on what Is portion of another mans Estate With purpose to defraud him lest it bring A Gangrene and become a cursed thing Which will devour what he before possessed And stop him in the way of being blessed Rob none But of all other shun the Theft By which poor widdows are of that bereft Which is their lively hood or that whereby The Fatherless compelled are to cry To God for vengeance And be wary too Thou do not willfully thy self undo By execrable things lest Achan's Crime Bring on thee Achan's death in evil time For though Deaths due for every sin that 's done Some louder cry and bring it sooner on There are a thousand Thieveries by which The worldling is advanced to be rich With little sence of sin although they be Infringements of this Law in high degree The Trades-man stealeth by a frequent lying In bargaining in selling and in buying And most he suffers by this fair-tongu'd thief Who entertains of him the best belief Some Courtiers have their pilfrings which they call Their Fees or Vails whereby when dues are small And their expences large they soon grow great And keep their Master also in their Debt Whose Royal name is used to conceal Their frequent robbing of the Common weal. Some steal into Estates by their unjust Abuse by whom they have been put in trust And men so frequently this way misdo That such are counted honest Livers too Some rob the Church and this too is no news By keeping from her Labourers their dues And by assuming as their own Estate What Piety to God did consecrate Some Church-men rob the Layty by taking That Calling on them without conscience making Of those performances for which God gave The portions and the places which they have And doubtless for the sins of such as they The Churches heritage is took away Some by Authority or quirks of Law Raise projects from their neighbours to withdraw Their livelihood Some others do no less By outward shews of strict Religiousness Or cloked honesty the latter sort Make means to Cousin by their good Report Some wantons guilty of no petty wrong Steal Hearts which unto others do belong Some steal both Goods and Persons Thus do they Who take the heirs of mens Estates away Against their Wills And when this theft's begun Most commonly both parties are undone Some steal the wit of others And an Ass To be a witty Creature thus may pass Some steal rewards and praises which are due To other men and these are not a few Some steal preferments I could tell you how But will not lest indanger'd I may grow By babling of it or lest other some May by that means to wealth and greatness come Who do as yet retain their honesties Because they have not learn'd such tricks to rise Some steal mens good opinions by concealing Their own enormities and by revealing Their Neighbours errors with such shews of Ruth As if