people might fill their hands and become Priests to a Tyrant's interest when prosperous villany has been bless'd in the Name of the Lord and suffering Innocence has been impleaded as guilty when swearing is in so much credit is look'd on as the Character of Greatness and rash oaths have the reputation of Gallantry when we that have the Name of God call'd upon us live unworthy of that calling make his Name be evill spoken of O! let us pray as the Church has taught us Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law The fourth Commandement The third was the rule of our words the fourth of our works and that which is consequent to them rest That teaches us holy talk This instructs us in holy walking for so our Church-Catechism has resolv'd the sense of this Command to serve God faithfully all the dayes of our life so that 't is not the seaventh day onely but all seaven that we are to serve God in He that would serve God well on the Sabbath in a holy rest must first serve him in his week's labour and doing the work of the six dayes well The second and third concern the Manner of his worship This more especially the Time It hath also as the other two had two parts the Precept and the Reason of the precept The precept is attended with a large explication what is meant by Sabbath and what meant by Keeping it Holy First we may take notice of the extraordinary manner wherein it is deliver'd 't is usher'd in with a Memento Then what is to be remember'd the Sabbath and the Sanctification of it Then follows the explication What is the Sabbath by Opposition first to our dayes of work the other dayes of the week six dayes shalt thou labour and doe all thy work which indeed is precept too as well as concession no less a Command to oblige us to diligence in our calling then a Grant to give us leave to follow it And the injunction is twofold that we labour take pains in our imployment set our selves a work and that we finish and make an end of our business and doe all that we have to doe Then secondly by Position which punctually sets down the day But the seaventh day is the Sabbath What is it next to Sanctify the Sabbath or keep it holy To doe no work on that day nothing of our ordinary imployment wherein the strictness of the Command appears that all of the family as well as the Master all of the city as well as the Magistrate are concern'd being set down here by name Thou master and mistress or magistrate or whatever governour and thy natural dependencies thy son and thy daughter and thy acquired relations whether by Covenant or hire thy manâ—servant and thy maid servant or by purchase and possession thy cattle or by sojourning the stranger that is within thy gates The reason is taken from God's own example whereof we have first the Narration how he made all things in six dayes and rested the seaventh and then the Design of his so doing that he might appoint the Sabbath wherefore he blessed the Sabbath-day or as the Septuagint have it the seaventh day and hallowed it REMEMBER We are too apt all over to forget our duty wordlings especially in the pursuit of their earthly concernments would scarce make a stop at the Sabbath and therefore this Command summons them with a particular Alarum a word of much weight in the Hebrew Idiom where the Verb should be twice repeated Remember to remember i.e. be sure by all means to remember and denotes the former old custom of keeping the Sabbath even from the beginning of the world and therefore presents it here as an ancient institution to be remembred And it quickens our care not only for the observation of the day when it comes but for our preparation for it before it comes we must think of it all the week afore hand and provide for it that nothing may divert us from the celebration of it THE SABBATH-DAY A day of rest and leisure from the works of our ordinary calling that ceasing thus from our earthly affairs we may have opportunity to meditate on heavenly things and lift up our souls from the cares of this life to the contemplation of those joyes gloryes which those that serve God shall have in the world to come where there shall be an everlasting Sabbath TO KEEP IT HOLY To set it aside wholly for the service of God in publick by Prayer reading and hearing God's Word serving God in the solemn assembly in private by meditation and study of God's Book and other holy exercises We are to remember both the day and the keeping the day holy some are ready enough to remember the Sabbath as a time of leisure out of carnal indulgence but they are not so ready to remember the duty of the day to keep it holy and improve it for spiritual advantage SIX DAYES THOU SHALT LABOUR This as it declares the precept so it shews the equity of it if God allow us six we should not grudge him the seaventh Besides it has the force of a command and is deliver'd in the same manner as the other Commandements Thou shalt labour He that 's idle all the week has no right to the Sabbath-rest He that 's careless in doing his own work on the six dayes is unfit to be imployed in God's service on the seaventh The word many times hath a peculiar signification for the service of God and thus it will inferr that every day is a Christian's Sabbath and he is to be doing God's work even when he is doing his own AND SHALT DOE ALL THAT THOU HAST TO DOE Dispatch all thy business and leave nothing undone against the Sabbath that thou mayst be wholly vacant and have thy thoughts as well as thy body at rest and thy mind free from all distractions of worldly cares thou mayst have nothing else to think upon but the worship of God This calls upon us for diligence in our callings that we must not doe our work by halves but go thorough with it And it gives a Typical intimation too that we would in this week of our mortality set upon and accomplish the necessary work of Repentance Faith and Obedience that we may have all our accounts clear'd e're the eternal Sabbath come upon us when if we have left that work undone we shall have no time allow'd us to go on with it and bring it to an end BUT THE SEAVENTH DAY This is the Ceremonial part of the Command but that a seaventh should be kept is Moral For the Iews in memory of the Creation were to observe the seaventh Day which with us is Saturday as their Sabbath whereon God having made all things rested But Christians in memory of a greater work of Redemption led by Apostolical practise have constantly observ'd the first day of the week to wit
desire of heavenly things How should we slight and trample upon earth and all earthly concernments in comparison of Heaven where our Father hath many mansions of glory and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore How should our appetites be flatted to the relish of all sensual contents when we think of those good things which the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation hath laid up for us in heaven What a mean esteem should we have for all the glittering vanities the paltry preferments deceivable riches the guilded hopes and pleasures as false as base of this lower world when we think of the glories and the joyes above How should these ravish our soules and make them impatient till they have weighed anchor and be with Christ How highly should we prize our spiritual birth-right and heavenly inheritance How should we now indeavour to have our conversation already in heaven How should we fear the displeasure of so great so good a Father more then hell How careful should we be of disparaging our high birth and heavenly calling by any indecency or foul miscarriage How should we strive to be like our Father which is in heaven holy as he is holy merciful as he is merciful perfect as he is perfect that we may be known by our conversation to be the children of God children of the highest the children of light to whon belongs the Kingdom of Heaven For 't is God's presence and favour makes heaven Heaven would not be heaven unless he were there Where ever grace is there 's heaven for God dwels there entertaining himself in an humble heart as much in the highest heavens To make short how should we admire him worship him fear him and love him and joy in him with a holy ecstasy of affections and heavenly reptures of devotion that have leave to use these words Our Father which art in Heaven This appellation with the other title of Father assures and makes up our confidence compleat For being our Father he will do us all the good he can and being in Heaven he can do what he will so that the goodness of a Father and the power of heaven stand ingaged for us as the two pillars of our hope and two sureties that all our petitions following will be granted and made good unto us Amongst which as 't was fit those which belong to his own glory have the first place and God having made all things for himself cannot be unmindfull of providing for that But he loves to be ask'd to do even what he means of himself to do that man's will may be brought into a compliance with God's and the execution of decrees become the return of prayers Thus he delights to oblige where he can force and that which he hath with an unchangeable purpose from all eternity resolv'd with himself makes it the product of his creatures will as if he had more kindness for the desires of men then for his own resolv's and would not perform his own eternal decrees unless man first consent and make it his request And indeed it is man's concernment that is driven throughout the prayer for 't is not for God's sake that we pray but for our own What advantage gets God by our prayers unless giving be getting His name is holy his Kingdom is everlasting and his will irresistible whether we pray or no. But we pray that all this may be order'd for our good and we are as much concern'd in this as in our daily bread God so ordering all the administrations of his providence and grace that his glory and man's salvation go hand in hand and that all things may work together as for his glory so for our good the good of those that love and fear his name HALLOWED BE THY NAME The name is the first thing we enquire after about any thing we desire to know as Moses when he talked with God at his first appearance to him told him the Israelites would ask him who sent him and what was his name There hath alwayes been taken great care for the imposition of names that they might be suitable and proper to the nature of things For things are distinguished and known from one another by their names Wherefore God himself named the greater pieces of his work which being of vast unruly bulk were to be under his own immediate government as Heaven and Earth and the Sea and 't is said he calls the stars all by their names c. But those creatures which he meant to put under mans feet he brought to him to name The like care hath been constantly taken by parents and others in providing fit names for their children that families and persons may be sufficiently distinguished for which purpose the day on which the child was circumcised amongst the Iews which was the eighth day from his birth and about the same time among the heathens but amongst us Christians at the baptisme this solemnity of naming the child is perform'd a thing of such concernment that it hath been delivered sometimes by the message of Angels other while by miracle And that was a signal token in the prophecie wherein he calls his anointed Cyrus by name four hundred years before he was in being 'T is a nice consideration but there may be something in it and of more then ordinary consequence that God should take such care about names that he should think fit to give and change them either in favour or displeasure as in the instance of Abraham Conjah Peter c. and that he is said to write the names of his elect in the book of life and to give them a new name and to blot out the names of the wicked and to threaten that their names i.e. their memory shall perish Let them take heed that forbear to Christen their children and give them names least they design their childrens ruin God finding no names they have in the church-roll to copy into his book Is not he rightly named Iacob saith Esau for he hath supplanted me this twice And Nabal was as very a churl as his name gave him for and very many scripture-names are thus signicant And Melchizedeck whose true name if 't were Shem was Name according to the signification of the Hebrew word denotes as the Apostle explains it the character of the person King of righteousness who was also King of Salem that is King of peace God out of a familiar love to mankind is pleased to dress himself as 't were and set forth his nature by those wayes which are usual amongst men and therefore hath made himself a name Now the name of God is any thing by which God hath made himself known and hath in the Scripture-language several acceptions For sometimes the name is taken for the person himself whose name it is as in reckoning so many names And so we say of God to call upon the name of the Lord i.e.
which we must not expect forgiveness and to a new obedience which is the surest sign and evidence that we are forgiven THIS DOE YE AS OFT AS YE DRINK IT IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME. That is this sacred Rite I thought fit to appoint and leave behind with you as a memorial of me and a monument of my love towards you who took upon me your nature that I might dye for you and shall shortly powr out my soul to death even as you have seen the wine which you now drink powred into the cup that your souls may live being refresh'd with the virtue of my blood as your bodyes are strengthned and your hearts cheared by the use of wine This ordinance after my departure from you shall serve to represent my death and my love which is as strong as death and the benefits thereof wherefore I charge you and all others which shall profess my name that if you expect to enjoy those blessings which my death is intended to procure for mankind and which will certainly befall those that doe truly believe in me they would not fail to testify their Faith in the use of this Sacrament and apply to themselves the Salvation wrought by my death this mystery being appointed as a means of conveying assurance and sealing pardon Do you then in your assemblyes hereafter as you have seen me doe now amongst you And let all Christians with reverence and due preparation attend and partake of these holy mysteryes knowing 't is not an ordinary and slight business but a matter of great concernment both to the honour of my name and to their souls health It being appointed for my remembrance their spiritual growth Nor shall it be enough once as in the other Sacrament of Baptism or some few times as a thing at your own choice to partake of this holy Supper but it is a thing must be often done and you are frequently in this to commemorate my death as oft as ever occasion shall be given that so the memory of me may be continually celebrated in the Church and you may be drawing virtue continually from me grow up from grace to grace from strength to strength And accordingly the primitive Saints communicated every day going about from house to house and breaking bread And how can we call our selves Christians that far unlike them neglect so great Salvation and regard not the Blood of the Covenant but to the disparagement of Christianity intermit the use of this sacred mystery as of late we have done in very many congregations for several years through the fondness of some whose ill temper'd zeal had well neer eaten up the house of God 'T is true Baptism needs not indeed ought not to be reiterated it being the laver of regeneration Now it suffices once to be born But the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is call'd and is a Supper Now he that sups once hungers and thirsts again We cannot if we have a true spiritual hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ but come to his Table and present our selves before him often at least at the three great Festivals of the Church wherein the Birth the Passion Resurrection of Christ the Descent of the Holy Ghost are remembred as the Iews custom was at their three great Feasts to come up to Hierusalem if not every month nay every week that every Lord's day the Lord's Supper also might be administred and we considering our frequent relapses into sin might be often renewing our vows Nay it were to be wished that our lives were so pure and our minds so taken up with heavenly things and our feet our affections I mean were so shod with the preparation of the Gospel that we might with the ancient Christians make it our every day-meal and say that Prayer in this sense Give us this day our dayly Bread FINIS Courteous Reader THis whole Treatise having been taken by several al young pens from the Author's mouth He doth not conceive himself oblig'd to maintain the Orthography every where seeing 't would have been an infinite task to have corrected all over to his own judgement Truth is scarce any language has greater variety or indeed irregularity of pronouncing spelling the same syllables then our English hath which is some reason of the difficulty of it to strangers I shall instance in some words diversly written School and Schole Vertue and Virtue Common and Commune c. the one being the Vulgar the other the Scholastic Orthography Again a different meaning sometimes diversifies the letter though pronounc'd alike as to lie down and to tell a lye foul dirty and a fowl a bird c. But of this He shall have occasion to discourse more largely in his Tables of the English Tongue wherein he hopes to give satisfaction to the Critic and the Scholar At present he thinks it his main concern to be Vnderstood and therefore takes no notice of any faults escaped but such as may disturb the sense and scandalize an Ordinanary Reader and for the rest trusts himself to the candour of the Judicious ERRATA Pag. 8. l. 7. Deity r. duty p. 14. l. 3. affection r. effusion p 21. l. 3. master r. maker p. 39. l. 21. r. as much as p. 44. l. 19. signicant r. significant p. 48. l. 12. del up even p. 69. l. 10. r. their designs p. 71. l. 18. r. our destiny p. 97. l. 14. lift r. lighted p. 106. l. 14. use r. use p. 111. l. 5. meeted r. meted p. 118. l. 3. serety r. serenity p. 130. l. 7. doing r. doings p. 135. l. 18. For r. So that p. 157. l. 10. metonymical r. metaphorical p. 182. l. 11. he that r. that he p. 192. l. 10. soul r. soul p. 233. l. 8. government r. garment p. 439. l. 19. yet not r. not yet a Qui singit sacros auro vel marmore vultus Non facit ille Deos qui rogat ille facit Mart. b Non tam praedari quam precari c 1 Thess. 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the precept in Cornelius his practise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 10. 2. d Gen. 18. 25. e Matt. 7. 7. f Ioh. 14. 13 14. g Iam. 4. 3. h Psal. 19. 14. i Psal. 5. 5. k Psal. 10. 17. l Gen. 15. 11. m Iam. 1. 6 7. n Psal. 31. 16. o Isa. 28. 16. p Rom. 10. 11. q Heb. 11. 6. r Heb. 11. 6. s Psal. 112. 10. t Psal. 1. 6. v Iam. 5. 16. u Rev. 8. 3. x Iugiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y 1 Sam. 1. 13. z Rom. 13. 4. a 1 Tim. 11. 1. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Luk. 11. 2 d Thus saith the Lord i.e. 〈…〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. f Rev. 1. 4. g Psal. 148. 5. h Longin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Deut. 33. 27. i Isa. 49 15. k Ps. 133. l Ps. 44. 4. m Ps. 2◠n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o
Sunday as their Sabbath whereon our Saviour rose again from the dead and shew'd himself to his Disciples Another difference betwixt us is that we are not obliged to that Iudaïcal strictness but are allow'd a chearfull freedom yet not so as to make it a day of pastime for it follows that it is THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD as appointed by him or To the Lord thy God as dedicated to his especial service a day wherein thou art to contemplate the works of the Lord wrought in the Creation and the mercyes of thy God shown forth in thy Redemption a time set apart not for thy business much less for thy sport but for God's glory and publick worship to be spent wholly in performances of holy dutyes IN IT THOU SHALT DO NO MANNER OF WORK Nothing of common drudgery of thy ordinary vocation of thy weeks work none of thy work for it 't is not meant that we should sit still and doe nothing but works of piety as going to Church and the Priest's offering their Sacrifices in the Old Law c. are God's work and works of necessity as provision of food c. are the works of Nature and works of Charity as healing the sick taking the oxe or ass out of the pit c. are works of Grace And these must and may be done without any violation of the Sabbath THOU God here cals all the family to an account so careful he is of his own day And whereas in the other Commandements Thou is directed to every body here it carryes a special warrant to the superiour seeming to require of him that he not onely keep it himself in his own person but take care also that all in his charge keep it too Thou whether thou art magistrate master or mistress of the house father tutor or whatever governour imploy thy authority to see my Sabbath duely observ'd Yet not so as that the superiours negligence shall be an excuse for the inferior's for they are all spoken too here by name AND THY SON Children are naturally more apt to neglect their duty then able to perform it or indeed willing to understand it They must be taught it then and kept to it Acquaint thy son therefore with my wayes and instruct him in my fear Train him up in good courses that he may not be prepossess'd with vicious customs Bring him to Church let him be couversant in Scripture and learn the principles of Religion and seek me early that he may grow up as in stature so in wisedom and grace and favour with God and good men AND THY DAUGHTER No age nor sex priviledg'd from Sabbath-duty And these two words include all inferiours who are not in a servile condition all children pupils scholars citizens subjects whose respective governours are particularly to heed their observance of this day THY MAN-SERVANT AND THY MAID SERVANT All thy servants whether hired or bought all that doe thee work and receive thy wages Neither thy Avarice nor their own lust shall imploy them and cause them to absent themselves from my service Servants that day 〈◊〉 God's servants and their master's fellow-servants yet to be commanded and overlook'd by their masters that they do serve God And indeed it is the master's great interest to see that this day be well observ'd in his family since he cannot well expect that his own work should prosper if God's work be neglected or that those servants will be faithfull in his service who doe not care to serve God THY CATTLE The Greek reads here as 't is express'd in Deuteronomie and thy oxe and thy ass and thy cattle i.e. all labouring beasts which man makes use of for tillage of the ground for carriage of burdens for going of journeys c. that they also may rest from their usual labour and may have a time of refreshment for there is a charity too due to these brute-servants and the good man is mercifull to his beast But does God take care of oxen Though they have a share in his providence yet what are they concern'd in his Law which is spiritual and holy 'T is for man's sake whom they serve in whose charge they are that they are here mention'd And indeed should the cattle have been left out it might have look'd like an allowance to worldly-minded men to have set them on work the attendance of that would have prov'd the imployment of men too for that beasts will hardly work alone without the direction oversight of men NOR THY STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES He that sojourns with thee within thy city so the Magistrate is concern'd or thy guest in thy house and so 't is the duty of the Master of the family to see that strangers of what countrey or religion soever comply with this Law and doe not violate the Sabbath-rest by travell keeping market following their merchandise or any other worldly occasions The Hebrew words are sometimes taken in a special strict sense so as that the stranger means one of another countrey converted to the Iewish profession and observances call'd otherwise a Proselyte and the Gates being the place of session or assize where the Iudges and Magistrates met for the tryall and decision of causes mean the civil power and jurisdiction But they are here questionless to be taken in the larger and more common sense FOR IN SIX DAYES THE LORD This is the reason of the Command and shews farther the equity of it that we would not think much to doe as God himself did and indeed the morality of it too for this reason concerns all mankind Heathen as well as Iew wherefore to intimate the universal obligation it hath it sayes not the Lord thy God as before but only the Lord. MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH THE SEA AND ALL THAT IN THEM IS He finish'd the work of creation and did all which he had to do in that first week of the world And it would be worth our imitation to consider how God takes a review of every day's work and it would be well for us that we could every night before we take our natural rest take account of our actions and see that they are good and at the weeks end before we enter upon this spiritual rest survey the work of the whole week and say of it not that it were exceeding good but that at least it were not exceeding evil Two things in the method of God's working may be worth our particular notice that the evening is mention'd still before the morning as if God had taken counsel o're night what he should doe next day and that God made man last on the very Sabbath-eve as if he had made him for no other purpose then to keep the Sabbath in the admiration of his works and the celebration of his praise AND RESTED THE SEAVENTH DAY God might have been working on still and set forth his power in new productions for Omnipotence cannot be