It is objected that the Rest commanded in the fourth Commandement was a figure of Christs rest in the grave and therefore is now banished with the rest of those shadowes We answer this typicall relation to Christ Answer was accidentall to the Sabbath not essentiall That was accidentall to the Sabbath it was a Sabbath before it was a Type for it was a Sabbath before Christ was looked upon as a sacrifice for sin that is before man had fallen and consequently before there was any need of our Saviours resting in the grave Seeing therefore it was a Sabbath before it was a type it may remaine a Sabbath though the type be taken away They will it may be grant that there must be a rest from labour upon the Sabbath day Objection 2 but the strictness of that rest such as the Jews observed The strictnesse of the rest enjoyned the Jewes is taken away is ceremonious and abolished The rest say they to be observed of us Christians is only for publike worship and no longer so that the remainder of the day after publike duties are ended is free and then men are at liberty to make use of the time remaining for recreations or for any secular affaires as occasion shall required In answer hereunto we have shewed already that although publike worship be principally yet it is not solely provided for in this Law which as we have proved out of Esay 58.13 reacheth to our private carriage also And the Law calls the whole day the Sabbath or rest of the Lord that is both commanded by him and consecrated to him For the whole week being distributed into seven parts sixe are allowed for labour and the seventh is consecrated unto God which therefore must be a naturall day as the other sixe are To replie that we are not bound by that Law is to begge the question But why should not Christians be bound to rest the whole day as well as the Jews The Jews not bound to rest but for holy duties Surely if the Sabbath were a type of Christs rest in the grave yet there could be no type in a whole day as there was in Jonas his three daies So the rest of the whole day having no type in it is not abolished for that cause What then was it a part of the burthen of those ceremonious observances from which Christ hath freed us To give the fuller answer hereunto let us examine what rest was enjoyned the Jewes that we may discover wherein the burthensomenesse of that rest consisted First I conceive no man will think that the Jewish rest was a totall cessation from all action like that in the Aegyptian darknesse Exod. 10.23 as if men after the publike exercise were to sit still and to do nothing Was it then a ceasing from labours to follow sports that the Sabbath might be like the feast of the Calfe Exod. 32.6 or was it rest from worldly labours to fit men give them the more leisure to attend holy duties Such a rest indeed the Law requires For which we have as much need of rest as they and the Sabbath to be kept holy Now if this were all that God required of the Jews to rest that they might be exercised in hearing reading praying c. Is this the liberty Christ hath purchased unto us that we may be lesse godly then they lesse frequent in prayer and other holy duties then they For if we are bound at least to equall if not to go beyond them in our exercise in those holy duties we have as much need of rest from ordinary employments as they had This will be made more evident unto us if we lay before us these five particulars First 1. As having a more weighty ground for observing this holy rest our ground of consecrating the Sabbath is as great and weighty and more cleer and evident to us then it was to the Jews seeing Gods mercies towards man are more cleerly represented us in mans redemption then they could be to them in the worlds creation and conservation Secondly 2. And are as much bound to advance Gods majesty as they 3. And more helps then they 4. And as much need to prevent distractions as they 5. And our duties are as many or more then theirs the majesty and greatnesse of God to whom we consecrate this day is as fully manifested to us as to them Thirdly our helps and means for the raising up of our spirits to an holy rejoycing in God are greater and more effectuall then they were unto them Fourthly we need as much as they all helps to prevent the distraction of our minds and to the quickning of our spirits Lastly our exercise in spirituall and holy duties is in all respects as much or more then theirs So that if all be laid together the observing of a whole day of rest for our exercise in holy duties is as usefull and as needfull to us Christians as it was heretofore to the Iews To cleer this point yet more fully 1 Private prayer and reading let us lay before us the right manner and order of performing the duties in which the Sabbath day is to be sanctified First therefore all men must needs grant that the private exercises of prayer reading Gods word and meditation which are constantly to be used on other daies are not to be neglected but ought rather to be enlarged on the Sabbath day 2. Recordation of Gods mercies generall and Particular Again as the Sabbath ought to be a day of gladnesse and rejoycing in God Psalm 118.24 for all his mercies to man in generall so it is a time of recounting his extraordinary favours to our own souls in particular which will be of speciall use to quicken and fill our hearts with the love of God by tasting the sweetnesse of his goodnesse and to carry us on with more cheerfulnesse and life of spirit in the performance of all the duties of that day both private and publike Thirdly 3. Preparation to publique duties for the publike duties themselves they can never be rightly performed without precedent preparation David will wash his hands in innocency and so compasse Gods Altar Psal 26.6 and Solomon tels us we must take heed to our feet when we enter into Gods house Eccles 5.1 and bethink our selves of the majesty and greatnesse of that God before whom we present our selves and of our own vilenesse that are but dust and ashes Gen. 18.27 nay which is worse unclean and filthy persons Isa 64.6 unworthy to stand before a God that hath pure eyes and the Apostle tells us of superfluity of naughtinesse that must be laid aside when we come to hear that we may receive the word with meeknesse Jam. 1.21 into an honest and good heart Luk. 8.15 Meditations by which we must prepare our hearts in our private exercises of reading Gods word and prayer much more in these which are more solemn and publike Again
A VVAy to the Tree of 〈◊〉 Discovered in Sundry DIRECTIONS for the Profitable Reading OF THE SCRIPTVRES Wherein is described occasionally The nature of a Spirituall Man And in a Digression The Morality and Perpetuity of the Fourth Commandment in every circumstance thereof is discovered and cleared BY IOHN WHITE Master of Arts and Preacher of Gods Word in Dorchester in the County of Dorset Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have Eternall life Iohn 5.39 LONDON Printed by M. F. for R. Royston at the signe of the Angel in Ivy-lane 1647. TO The right Worshipfull the Mayor Recorder Bailives Burgesses and the rest of the Inhabitants in the Burrough of Dorchester in the County of Dorset Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ NO man I conceive will wonder Right Worshipfull and Dearely Beloved in the Lord that I present you with this small Treatise being an accompt of some of my labours which I have taken amongst you I know not of whom they are likely to finde nor desire they may have better acceptance then of those of whose love manifested unto me in so many honours and favours by which you have so many waies engaged me now neere these two and fourty yeares wherein I have continued amongst you I have had so aboundant and full experience Besides in presenting you with this poore Treatise I give you of your own as I may truely say with the Prophet David 1 Chron. 29.14 although not altogether in his sense For am not I yours as S. Paul tels the Corinthians that himselfe and Apollo and Cephas were theirs 1 Cor. 3.22 And by consequent the issues of all my weake abilities you may as justly challenge to be your own as the Master might claime the issues of the bondslaves borne in his house to be his and as in true estimation it is such so I desire you to accept it as an acknowledgement although in no proportion a satisfaction of that great Debt which I owe unto you And to speake truth it will be of speciall use to you to accompt this labour of mine such as it is as your own that you may so entertaine and embrace it so use husband and employ it to your best advantage as we use to doe those things that are our own For the chiefe reason wherefore the manifold helps which God is pleased to afford us by the labours of other men usually profit us so little is because men looke not on them as matters wherein themselves have a peculiar interest and so neglect them as we too usually doe those things which are of common and generall concernement As for the matter handled in this short Treatise I desire you to take notice that of all the Truths that I have delivered unto you in so large a time of my Ministery continued amongst you I have chosen this above all other subjects to recommend unto you in a more especiall manner and to leave with you as a memoriall of my tender affection towards you for these two weighty reasons First because this duty of studying the Scriptures whereunto this Treatise is intended as an help is of all others of most generall concernement and of most necessary and common use Secondly because it hath pleased the Lord to cast us into dangerous times wherein some men endeavour what they can to bring the Scriptures into contempt crying down that sacred booke as containing nothing else but a dead letter and being a beggerly element fit for none but the lowest forme of Christians Others that are unstable and unlearned as the Apostle tearmes them 2 Pet. 3.16 wrest them at their pleasure to their own destruction and the endangering of their brethrens soules Let me therefore in the bowels of Christ beseech you Brethren as you ever hope to get any power of grace into your hearts to have your spiritual life quickened your comforts assured and your wayes directed to take heed to this Sure and Infallible word of Truth as to a Light shining in a darke place as the Apostle speakes 2 Pet. 1.19 as containing in it your Food your Physick your Evidences your Comforts your Armes both for offence and defence and in a word which is the very life of your Soules the Light of your Vnderstanding the Director of your Wills and the Moderator of your Affections Study this Word which our Saviour tearmes Searching of the Scriptures Iohn 5.39 which is done not by Reading them over cursorily but by examining them diligently comparing Scripture with Scripture that we may know the full minde of God revealed therein who many times layes not down the whole truth together in one place but leaves us to take in some other clauses out of other places to make up the full of that truth which hee would reveale unto us For want of this care of laying Scripture to Scripture many taking up the truth of God by parts ground thereupon dangerous errours wronging God in making him to speake what he never meant and overthrowing their own Faith to the hazard of their owne Soules Of one thing we must be very carefull that we bring with us our minds free and not prepossest with any Opinion which we have either framed in our owne phantasy or received from others A mind forestalled by an erroneous conceipt is no fit Judge of any Truth or of any Testimony cōcerning Truth but as coloured glasse transmits the light and represents it to the eye infected with the same colour with which it selfe is dyed Or as the taste distempered by some ill humour relisheth all things which it receives according to that humour with which it selfe is infected so happens it with a minde prepossest with any phantasie it apprehends and judgeth of all things according to that opinion which it selfe hath entertained Lastly the Scriptures being in themselves exceeding broad to use the Psalmists expression Psal 119.96 that is of large comprehension and withall very mysterious containing in them wonders as they are tearmed ver 18. there needs together with our reading much Meditation upon what we have read as the same Prophet tells us that he did meditate upon Gods Law all the day Psal 119.97 much conference especially with Ministers and other experienced Christians much use of learned mens writings which give great light to the understanding of darke places in Scripture which wee shall often meet withall But above all fervent and continuall Prayers wherein acknowledging our owne blindnesse and inability of our selves to search into the deep Mysteries revealed in the Word with Agur Prov. 30.2 3. we beg earnestly the assistance of Gods Spirit to open our eyes Psal 119.18 to make us to understand the way of his precepts ver 27. to give us understanding that wee may know his testimonies ver 125. being assured that as there is no other meanes to reveale unto us the mind of God but his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.11 so God will not deny that
but his own Spirit 1 Cor. 2.11 It is true concerning a mans mind seeing it is moved according to reason in order to the end which he proposeth to himself therefore one that knows another mans end may with some probability guesse at his thoughts and purposes tending to that end which Solomon implies in affirming that though counsell be hidden deep in the heart of man yet a man of understanding may draw it out Prov. 20.5 And so a man knowing that Gods main end in all his ways is his own honour may conclude that Gods law must be such as may direct men in those ways in which they may most glorifie God But what those particular directions must be it is impossible for men to guesse till God himself reveal them It is true that the very light of nature which God hath planted in every man will discover unto him some of the chief heads of the duties that he requires of him as to love the Lord with all our hearts and to fear and serve him Deut. 10.12 And to serve one another through love Gal. 5.13 But in what particular services we are to expresse our piety to God or love to men what man can prescribe or imagine For that the ways by which both these main duties may be performed are various and divers it is evident now to which of these different ways God would direct one it was impossible to guesse till God himself had made it manifest in his own word To give instance of this truth in some particulars Especially laws positive must needs bee given by God alone it was impossible for any man to conceive what ceremonies or outward acts God would accept and be best pleased withall in the duties of his worship No man could divine that the tree of life should be a Sacrament to Adam in Paradise or Circumcision to the Jews or Baptisme and the Lords Supper to Christians For ought any man could conceive to the contrary the Priesthood might have been setled upon the Tribe of Simeon as well as Levi. The rest of the Sabbath might have been fixed on the second or sixth day as well as on the seventh and on the first if God had so appointed it And for the duties of the second Table it was not of absolute necessity that God should establish such a kinde of subordination and subjection of one man to another as he hath done or give every man a propriety in his goods to possesse them as severall to himself or limit one man to one wife and ordain marriage for the onely way of propagation of mankinde seeing that although all these are fit and convenient yet God if hee had pleased might have given other rules for the governing and establishing peace amongst men and it was as lawfull for him to give the creatures what laws he pleased as to give them what natures he pleased So that seeing the law for the right ordering of the creatures depends meerly upon Gods will which cannot be known unlesse himself reveal it it must needs be granted which was first proposed that none could give the law to Gods Church but God himself Next if it had been possible 2ly Nor is it convenient that any other then God should give this law 1 For preserving Gods authority it was no way fit either for the advancing of Gods honour or for the furthering of mans good that any other should give that law then God himself Not fit for Gods honour in two respects First Gods authority could be no way so well preserved as by giving his own law to his people seeing all men acknowledge that giving of laws is an honour annexed to the highest power although the execution of them be committed to Magistrates of a lower degree It may be probably guessed that even heathen Law-givers by pretending either consulting with their gods in giving their laws or allowance of them by them acknowledged law-making to be a divine prerogative which yet is more fully manifested by this that we acknowledge no law to bee just that is not either founded on or consonant to Gods law either written in mans heart or delivered in his word So that it was fit that God should give the law to his own people to preserve his own authority amongst them Again it is requisite for Gods honour in another respect 2 And that we might have a perfect mirrour of him Which none could give but himself that none but God himself should give his own law to his people because none is able to give so perfect a mirrour of God as himself As for men we know none of them hath seen God at any time John 1.17 and it is so little a portion that they know of him Job 26.14 that it is impossible they should set him out as he deserves Now it is for Gods honour that hee should be expressed as fully as may be which neither is nor can be performed so exactly by any man as it may be by his law which represents unto us the image of his minde and will and gives us a more distinct knowledge of him then his works can doe Nay his word serves as a Commentary to his works as laying before us the rule according to which God orders all his ways so that by the help thereof we understand the righteousnesse and holinesse of all his acts as David did Psa 73.17 which he could not finde out before It is true indeed that the very works themselves praise God and shew him in his tender mercies Psal 145.5.8 in his mighty power Job 36.22 37.23 Godhead Rō 1.20 yea commonly in his righteousness in rewarding and punishing Psa 58.11 But they neither expresse him so distinctly nor consequently affect the heart so deeply as they doe when they are illustrated by the word as Job confesseth chap. 42.6 that he never saw God so clearly nor abhorred himself so much as when God described unto him his works in that conference Job 38. c. Wherefore seeing the image of God is most exactly expressed unto us in the word it is most fit that the word that represents him to us should be given by God himself who knowing himself best can give us the most perfect draught of his own face Besides these respects unto Gods honour in regard of mans good it was not convenient that the Scriptures which contain Gods law to his Church should be given by any other then God himself For first 3ly For mās good 1. To subdue his heart to obedience mans heart would hardly be brought to stoop to any power but Gods alone whose voice onely prevails upon the conscience and subdues the very thoughts and imaginations of the spirit which the voice of no man can doe Besides 2. To make his services accepted nothing can make our services performed to God or man to be duties of obedience but the undertaking of them upon Gods command which we do when we know the
of holy rest consecrated to the Lord thy God Now things are said to be Gods for the peculiar interest that he hath in them whether by Creation as Psal 100.3 He made us and therefore wee are his people By redemption or purchase so the children of Israel God challengeth to be his own because he had bought them Isa 43.1 By deputation or designation as Christ is called Gods king Psal 2.6 and David a Type of Christ Psal 89.19 20. Or by advancing or honouring so a day may be called Gods because he hath advanced or honoured it above other daies Psal 118.24 Or lastly by consecration and dedication to God so the Priests are the Lords Levit. 20.26 the tythes vessels c. the Lords for his service Now in both these latter respects the day of holy rest is the Lords day as he calls it his Sabbath Exod. 31.13 Both because his works have advanced that above any other day and besides because upon that ground it is consecrated to him and set apart for his service To restrain men from violating of the holy rest of the Sabbath it is sufficient that it is the Lords but to make a deeper impression of it upon mens hearts he thought fit to adde The Lord thy God a dreadfull name to his people Deut. 28.58 This foundation being laid that the Sabbath is the Lords No manner of works that is of thy calling not excluding he hath a sufficient ground to take upon him to dispose of it and therefore in the next ensuing clause strictly enjoyns In it thou shalt do no manner of worke he means none of the works mentioned before properly called our own works 1. Works about Gods service or works of our particular callings As for works about Gods service such as were those about the service of the Tabernacle justified by our Saviour Mat. 12.5 Works of necessity for the creatures preservation which also Christ allows Mat. 12.11 2. Works of necessity from which also God himself ceaseth not Joh. 5.17 Works of mercy 3. Works of mercy though not of absolute necessity such as was the restoring of the mans withered hand Matth. 12.12 13. yea though it be to our selves vers 7. they are not to be accounted among the works forbidden upon this day If there were any stricter rest then this enjoyned the Jews which perhaps will not so easily be proved it is not required by any restraint in this Commandement and therefore not exacted upon us Christians As for the forbidding of the kindling of a fire and dressing of meat Exod. 16.5.13 35.3 they were inhibitions which determined as it is most probable with the Israelites peregrination in the wildernesse and laid upon them by other laws so that hitherto we meet with nothing ceremoniall in this fourth law The last main branch of this law is the reason or confirmation of it No reason annexed to any law but only to this fourth Commandement But before we undertake the opening of the phrases and tearms in which it is penned we cannot but take notice of one thing by the way that we find no reason annexed to any other Commandement of the Decalogue but to this alone We find indeed some Sanctions annexed to the second third and fift Commandements but none save this fourth is confirmed by a reason The cause hereof can be no other but this because whereas the duties commanded in other laws are either laws of nature or at least approvable by naturall reason as soon as they are delivered Because the grounds of other laws are evident in themselves but the ground of this law could not be known unless it had been revealed because the grounds upon which those lawes are founded are evident in themselves the grounds of this fourth Commandement could not have been known unlesse they had been revealed by God himself Indeed that God must be publikely worshipped That a set time must be appointed and that it must be a time of rest from private employments are dictates of naturall reason But why we must observe a weekly Sabbath and not a monthly and why the seventh or first day of the week rather then the third or fourth no man could have found out the reason unlesse God had revealed unto us the Creation of the world in six daies and his resting upon the seventh by the consideration whereof the equity of this law clearly and manifestly appears and upon the manifestation thereof is as easily approved and assented unto even by the light of naturall reason So then the reason alledged in this Commandement shews us not why God ordained a Sabbath which the very light of nature taught even the very heathen as we know but why he commands a weekly Sabbath and why upon such a day of the week rather then upon any other That therefore which we are to search after in the examining of this reason is how the equity of these two particulars is discovered therein that we may acknowledge this Commandement also to be just and good as S. Paul speaks of all the rest Rom. 7.12 yea equall and right concerning all things as the Prophet David speaks Psal 119.128 and thereupon submit unto it not by constraint but by a willing mind 1 Pet. 5.2 Now concerning the former of those two particulars why God allots out such a proportion of time as one day weekly for his Sabbath we have already in a great part discovered the equity thereof in the explication of this law wherein it appears that so much time may be spared without prejudice to our particular callings which if it should be denied God makes farther manifest by this reason annexed which we have before us To make it appear that six daies in the week are sufficient for the dispatch of our secular affairs one ground must be supposed Why we may spare one day of seven for this holy rest which is unquestionable that mens labours about the things of this world are onely for the conservation of the creatures and fitting of them for mans use That ground being laid this reason for the strengthning of our faith laies before us the example of God himself who created the world and all things therein in six daies from whence we may strongly reason that he that without the help of mans labour created the world in six daies can easily by mans labour of six daies support and conserve the world If it be questioned whether he will do it reason will easily conclude that the same goodnesse that moved God to give a being to things that were not will much more move him to conserve and provide for the things that are being all the work of his own hand seeing we know him to be a faithfull Creator as the Apostle calls him 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore we find that the godly for the strengthning of their faith and dependence on God upon any incident occasion usually have recourse to the creation of the world
4. Recordation and application afterward hearing of the word without recordation meditation and particular application after we have heard profits not much more then our meats do without digestion Adde unto all these 5. Instructions to the family 6. Works of mercy instructions to the family Works of mercy in visiting of the sick comforting the afflicted relieving the poor c. and we shall find little spare-time left on the Lords day for other then religious and holy employments As for the objection that the Jews are precisely restrained from going out of their places to gather Manna on the Sabbath day or kindle a fire throughout their habitations on that day Exod. 35.3 For the restraint from going out to gather Manna we know that must needs be taken away when Manna ceased and bound the Jews no longer who had liberty otherwise not only to go out of their places but to go small journies on the Sabbath daies as appears Acts 1.12 As for the inhibition to kindle a fire on the Sabbath day some conceive it respected only the building of the Tabernacle which work though God would have hastned yet he would not have the rest of the Sabbath violated for the furthering thereof nor so much as a fire kindled in any of their tents about that work to which they alleage that charge of building the Tabernacle and of forbidding work on the Sabbath day go both together both Gods direction to Moses Exod. 13.11 13. and in the delivery thereof to the people Exod. 35.2 3 4. Howsoever that inhibition of kindling fire was but temporary during the Israelites peregrination in the wildernesse The reasons by which it appears that this restraint of kindling a fire on the Sabbath day was only temporary Restraint from kindling a fire on the Sabbath was but temporary 1. It hath not the form of a continuing ordinance 2. It crosseth our Saviours rule The Sabbath was made for man 3. The loosing of a beast on the Sabbath allowed 4. Christ was at a great feast on the Sabbath which could not be without a fire are these First we find not the usuall clause which is added in most ordinances which were to continue added in this restraint that it should be observed throughout their generations Secondly this seems to crosse our Saviours generall rule Mark 2.27 That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath he means for mans comfort and refreshing for which kindling of fire and dressing of meat may be and are in a sort necessary Thirdly our Saviour allows the loosing of a beast from the stall and leading of him to the water on the Sabbath day now we know the beast might be provided for by setting water in the stall over-night which would refresh it sufficiently and better then meat dressed overnight could comfort many men Fourthly we find our Saviour present at a great feast Luk. 14.1 where many and it seems persons of quality vers 7.12 were bidden now it is very unlikely that the provisions for that feast were dressed over night and if it were dressed on that day neither would the Pharisee have permitted nor our Saviour have countenanced the dinner with his presence if dressing of meat kindling of fires on the Sabbath day had been forbidden by the law Now why the dressing of Manna while the Israelites were in their peregrination in the wildernesse was forbidden though the dressing of other meats might be allowed afterwards there may be some reason given For Manna it may be might be as good and comfortable eaten cold as hot and the preparing overnight might be no inconvenience at all howsoever it is out of question that in that unsetled condition of the Israelites wandring in the wildernesse when they were enforced to pick up fewell where they could get it baking and boyling must needs be more troublesome and laborious then it was afterwards in Canaan where being setled in their dwellings they had all things whereof they were to make use for such works provided and ready at hand But to conclude suppose the strictnesse of the rest unto which the Iews were bound Howsoever such strictnesse of rest was not required of them by the fourth Commandement to have been as great as they imagine it must needs be granted that there is no clause in the fourth Commandement that enjoyns it which requires no more then a rest from our ordinary secular employments that we may be at leisure to attend wholly upon the duties of religious worship that we consecrate the whole day unto God as the words of that law do cleerly expresse it So the rest of the laws that enjoyn such strictnesse of rest being taken away the fourth Commandement may remain fully in force in every clause of it And as it hath been already intimated it concerns us to take speciall notice of Gods expression Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work by which he can mean nothing else but the works of our particular callings which only may be properly called our works for there be generall works which be proper to all callings and subordinate thereunto as to eat and drink and to cloath our selves and to make use of the rest of the comforts of this life by which we are strengthned and enabled to labour in our particular callings These cannot properly be called our works and are as well to be done on the Sabbath as on other days with this difference only that whereas they are done on other days to enable us to labour they are to be done on the Sabbath to strengthen us to holy duties These reasons which we have laid down before amount to little lesse then a Demonstration that the rest of the Sabbath must be the rest of a whole day or the seventh part of the week which we Christians have both as much cause and as much need to consecrate unto God as ever the Iews had in times past And that we may do it with as little detriment to our selves in our secular affairs and with as much assurance to have our labours of six days so blessed that they shall be sufficient for the dispatch of our needfull employments is evident by the reason which is annexed to that Commandement which proves it by the creation of the world by God in six days a ground of faith which concerns us as well as the Iews Wherefore seeing we have as great reason as great helps and as great encouragements by the assurance of Gods blessing upon our six days labour to sanctifie an entire day of holy rest unto God as the Iews had And seeing the expresse words of the law appoint the whole day to be consecrated unto God why should not we take our selves to be as strongly bound as the Iews were to the keeping of the holy rest of this whole day which we call the Sabbath seeing there appears no sufficient reason why we should judge any jot or title of this law