one Generation to another or That thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness in so much that we may justly repeat unto thee this complaint of thy Prophet David Lord it is time for thee to lay to thine hand for they have destroyed thy Law Hear my prayer O Lord and though I am small and of no reputation yet since I would not forget thy Law deliver me from mine Oppressors and so teach me thy Statutes that I may keep them unto the end yea though the proud have me in derision and almost made an end of me upon Earth yet let my heart be made so upright in thy Statutes that I may not be ashamed to remember thy promise made to thy Servant even that wherein thou hast caused me to trust Let it quicken me and be my comfort in my troubles For thou art all my portion and I have determined to keep thy word Before I was afflicted I went so much astray that it was good for me to have some troubles O let me hereafter be always exercised in thy Law Let it be a Lanthorn unto my feet and a Light unto my path Look upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to be unto those who love thy name Let the proud be ashamed that they have dealt falsly with me Let such as fear thee be turned unto me and comfort thou me according to the years wherein I have been afflicted that they who see it may glorifie thy name for mine eyes have almost failed with waiting for thy assurance Though I have gone astray like a Sheep yet seek thy Servant and deal with me according to thy mercy Let all these my Supplications come before thee that my Soul may live that my Lips may praise thee and that my Tongue may sing of thy Goodness and Mercy for ever and ever Amen Sir among other kindnesses vouchsafed â—n your Neighbourhood I received from â—ou the Copper Plates which are now â—ade use of in this Book The words which I have added unto those dumb Figures will make them I hope much more profitable and cause them to be a means of publishing those Caveats and â—niversal Duties which are pertinent as â—ell to the General well-being of Mankind as to the Glory of God which two things were the proper ends of our Creaâ—ion and ought also to be the chief care of our life To those ends therefore and that your â—ost might not be unprofitably bestowed I have returned the Coppies of those Figures which you gave me illustrated with such Meditations as my leisure and ability could afford And they do now as well speak as make signs what is prepared for wilful Transgressors of these Laws whereby if God may receive any honour or his Children profit I desire it may be some honour and advantage which is the desire of Your Hearty and Well-wishing Friend GEO. WITHER The Decalogue Happy shall that man become Who this Law departs not from Blessings will descend on him From the Mount of Gerizim But from Ebal they shall hear Curses who rebellious are Death for them attending stands Who shall break these just Commands And to those who them obey God proposeth life for aye THE Prologue Let All these following Lessons learn For all Mankind these Laws concern ALL you who Sons by Grace or Nature be Give ear to what my Muses preach to me For what I now do purpose to declare No less than Vniversal Statutes are Which every-Child of Adam here beneath Must keep in person on the pain of Death Or by a faithful Penitence procure An able Pledge to pay his Forfeiture You who by Nature had the means to know What Duties Creatures to their Maker owe Read here what by God's Finger once was writ Within your hearts that you may practise it And having lost that Light which Nature gave Take what you may by Grace's tender have On fleshly Tables once again renew Tha fair impression which at first he drew For 't was your Sin which thence Gods Law did blot And Ignorance therefore excuseth not You whom the special grace of our Creator Brought by his power Almighty thro' the Water Of sound Baptism and within the Flood Of his dear Sons most pure and pretious Blood Drown'd all that Hoast of Sins which our Grand Foe Had mustred for our final overthrow Observe you also this renowned Law To keep it with a loving filial awe Lest though you scap'd enraged Pharoh's Hoast Your entrance to the promis'd Rest be crost And lest your following what your Lust deviz'd You in your lawless wandrings be surpriz'd By those yet living Tyrants who possess The passages of this Lifes Wilderness For though in Act we cannot keep entire So strict a Law we may in our desire And where Desire is not perverted quite We have a ready means to set it right If any say or think this Obligation Pertaineth only to the Jewish Nation They are deceiv'd for if they well compare These Precepts to those Laws which written are Within our hearts it will be out of doubt That these are but the same transcribed out In Stone they were engraven long ago Lest all the World should quite forgetful grow Of these their Duties To the Jews God gave them To be preserv'd from loss From them we have them Distinguish'd by Two Tables to be known From Laws that were peculiars of their own And though some literal circumstance be found Appearing to oblige beyond the Bound Of Legal Ceremonies which to some A means of stumbling and offence become Yet they that meekly minded are shall 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 at 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 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 Vnbelief 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 â—nto 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 â—s 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
stripes yet questionless by such Those troubles are brought on that shorten much The life of Man and thereby finish'd are His numbred years before he is aware The Souldier whom I had almost forgot Is very peaceful if he murther not To kill is his profession yet I say He murthers if his Prisner he shall slay The battel being past The Voluntary Whom an ambitious Avarice doth carry To hostle Actions when his lawful Prince Nor sends nor calls him nor the just defence Of his own person or his Countries good Engageth to become a man of blood Ev'n he may be suspected not to tread A path so noble and so warranted As he conceives yet neither praise I them Nor do I peremptorily condemn Their practice but refer what I have said In their own conscience to be rightly weigh'd Lord give us eyes our Secret sins to see While time and place to us vouchsafed be That we may leave them and that Love embrace Which will conceal them with her vail of grace For it with Joab we grow old in Sin Which hath not really repented bin Till thou growst angry vengeance will not tarry But stimes us dead ev'n in thy Sanctuary Thrice holy Trinity my Heart possess And I this Precept never shall transgress Amen VII Thou shalt not Commit advlterie c. When this Figure thou hastey'd Think how these two Wantons dy'd And what horror was therein When Death took them in their Sin Hurrying them from their delight To an Everlasting Night Mind it well and mind it so That thou still may'st careful grow From those evils to be free Which this Law forbids to thee Comman VII Commâ—â— thou â—o such Act unclean As 〈◊〉 Adultery doth mean BEhold this Figure you who take delight To give the Reins to wanton Appetite And say within your selves why may not we Struck suddenly in our Polutions be As well as these and others who have bin Atâ—â—â—ched in the very Act of Sin Consider this and tremble For no year Wheels round but we of one or other hear Thus taken That you might forsake the snare And others be forwarn'd of coming there Permit Adultery and none shall breed Without a Mungrel and a mingled seed Allow such mixtures and none then shall know On whom the dues of birth-right to bestow Save a blest Faction And what havoke then Will Trecherys and Murthers make of Men And who will careful be to foster that Which no man owns and Brutish Lust begat So needful was this Law that here to dwell Without it were to live the life of Hell With Fiends incarnate whose licentiousness Their own and others mischiefs would increase Be therefore thankful for it and declare Your thankfulness with diligence and care In keeping of it that you may have rest From sorrows here and be hereafter blest And lest your Duties from you may be hidden Observe that by this Precept is forbidden Not only such uncleanness as polluteth A Married Bed but that it those reputeth Offenders too who simply fornicate Or in a married or unmarried state Abuse their Members in the wanton fact Of any lawless or uncomely Act Which appertaineth to that fleshly sin Which by the Law hath interdicted bin No breach of Wedlock was perchance in that Bold Zimri did with Cosbi perpetrate Yet vengeance followed on it to affright All those who in Laciviousness delight Young Onan climed not his neighbours bed Yet God for his transgression struck him dead And let the shameless wantons of our days Who boast as of a deed that merits praise How many untouch't Virgins they deflowr'd Lest by a sudden Plague they be devour'd For less than that of which these villanies boast Full Three and Twenty Thousand lives did cost In one days round and it may forfeit them Their freedom in the new Jerusalem To shun gross wantonness will not suffice Unless the wandrings of Adulterous eyes Lascivious touches intermixt among The temptings of a lust provoking tongue Bewiching smiles And Gestures which intice Both mind and body to embrace this Vice With such like Cycean Charmings be supprest Which help transform a Man into a Beast Nay if the secret longings of the Heart We labour not with all our strength to thwart When they incline to Lust we thereby shall Be guilty though in Act we never fall If therefore blameless we would still abide We must some precious Antidotes provide Against this Poyson We must careful prove Far from us all occasions to remove Which may allure And they are such as these Vain Songs and Poems which are made to please A wanton ear and movingly express The longings and the acts of Wantonness Obscaen Discourse Lascivious Company The giving of an opportunity That may be shunn'd to such as we do know Are not so bashful as to let it go These are occasions of especial note As Bounds to this Offence not so remote But that they bring it easily to pass Yea other while before it purpos'd was And for that Cause this Law commands doth lay That we remove those from us far away Nor are those all the temptings unto lust But there be otherswhich avoid we must As much as these Fantastical attires And wanton dressings kindle lustful Fires This makes them so esteemed and so sought That other while they are full dearly bought That some to play the Harlot have been fain Those various costly Dressings to maintain Oft visitings and spending of the day With such as trifle half their time away In Complements 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 Touth 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 intie'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 Let not the world adulterate in me The Love which I have promis'd unto thee Although my waies be crooked in thy sight Preserve 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 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 Preâ—â—pts 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 pocure 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 stealrewards 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 they were all Charity and Truth Shun all such thievish Paths for he that follows These Tracts may peradventure scape the Gallows But shall not scape unpunish'd though God may Defer his wages till a longer day As those are not excus'd So shall not he From our Infringement of this Law be free Who nourisheth a cause of this offence By Idleness by Prodigal expence By vicious gaming by regardlesness To husband wisely what he doth possess By keeping to himself what was bestown As well for others uses as his own Or by withdrawing through deceit or might The hirelings wages or the poor-mans right Whereby those may be driven to supply By stealth or fraud their griping poverty More such occasions he himself may find Who doth examine with a single mind His private practices and how the end Of one thing on another doth depend Oh Lord vouchsafe me grace to be content With whatsoever thou to me hast lent As long as life on me shall be bestown Let me be fed and cloathed with my own And not with that which being none of mine May make my Neighbour want or else repine If by a wilful or unwitting wrong I have detained ought which doth belong Unto my Neighbour Give me means and will By restitution for my doing ill To make amends or else do thou repay them The dues which I unwillingly delay them Forgive thou also my unrighteousness That it corrupt not that which I possess Or marr my thrift and for he time to come So
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 stilâ— 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 â—f holy piety to keep Gods eye from seeing when we wrong his Majesty For if he be displeas'd with such as make â—ood Creatures of his Godhead to partake â—ow much more cause have they his wrath to fear Who make him worse than his worst Creatures are â—nd that prime Attribute have overthrown â—y which he chiefly to be God is known â—or none are bound to serve him by this Law â—ut such as he did out of bondage draw â—or if he drew not all then some there be Who though they have a God ours is not he â—t least in such a manner as may give These Unbelievers courage to believe Their God they say did some unhappy make â—o shew his power and for his Glorys sake My God is he who pittied their Estates Whom these do fancy hopeless Reprobates â—n Issue leaving out of that temptation 〈◊〉 which they lying to their Just damnation â—nd for the day of wrath no sinners made â—ut such as do abuse the Grace they had â—heir God is he who forc'd mankind to fall â—nd 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 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 nless 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 Scaenes 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 as to their Fancies do appear Yea sometime such Ideas they devise As Piety would hate and wit despise Some others are too homely and too bold Another way and no man layeth hold Upon the Truth who thinks to seize thereon By searcâ—ing for it in himself alone These Sins against this Precept justly blam'd As thereto accessary have been nam'd In what we mused on the Law before To which are added here three other more Vain Curiosity blind Superstition Prophaneness and a changeable Condition By these we are perverted yea by these Our God is formed as our fancies please Sometime like those of whom the Psalmist speaks The God which to it self mans Fancy makes Is either blind or careless God says one Beholdeth not those evils that are done Tush God regardeth not another says The folly or perverseness of our waies Some others make unto themselves a God So mild as if he never us'd a Rod. And some again do fancy him to be So cruel that their God appears to me To be that Saturn now set up again Who as the ancient heathen Poets fain Devour'd his Children And they fain him for That which the God-like nature doth abhor These Evils to prevent This Law divine The wandring humane Fancy doth confine All men in Sacred worshipings restraining As well from Intellectual Objects faining As from Corporeal forms And him God threats Who due performance of this Law forgets For God
Law But let them know for Truth though not for news That all the Feasts and Sabbaths of the Jews Were but the Types of ours and that if they Shall for the Shades the Substance cast away They are unwise and guilty of offence Against this Precept in the moral sense Let those who for the bodies ease and pleasure Part of this time allow preserve the measure That 's justly due and in due manner too Do that which is allowable to do Not for the Soul 's well being caring less Than to prevent the Bodies weariness Let them who of the Soul most heedful seem Remember still the Body to esteem A Portion of that Manhood for whose sake Our Sabbath-maker did all Sabbaths make And give it so much liberty as may Make pleasant all the Duties of the day And since no private Spirit can impose A Rule for all let all be rul'd by those Who by a publick Spirit come to learn What may a publick body best concern Or if among us any one shall deem There is a truer way made known to him So let him walk that he himself approve To be in all his waies a Child of Love For sure I am that if the common peace He keep until humility increase True knowledge in him he then plain will see Who best expounds this Law the Church or He. Come Holy Ghost so sanctify my heart That from this Law I never may depart Amen V. Honor thy Father and thy Mother c. He that sought his Fathers death Sonless yielded up his breath He that would his Prince have slain Had his pardon sent in vain For although the King for gave Justice urg'd her due to have That Rebellious Children may Learn this precept to obey And the Subject stand in awe How he Sins against this Law Command V. On them all honours due bestow Who by the Name of Parents go WHat of Rebelling Subjects will become And graceless Children view in Absolom For whose Offence the Earth did as it were Refusal make his Bodies weight to bear And Heav'n rejects it that they might present Him hanging for a dreadful Monument Through Ages all to warn and keep in awe The sleighters and Infringers of this Law This foremost Precept of the second Table Unto the first in this is answerable They both enjoyn and Honour where 't is due Their differences are these which do ensue Here blessing follows there it went before One Parent that concern'd This many more He that shall break this Precept maketh snares Wherein to hang himself at unawares And overthrows as much as in him lies All Common-weals and all Societes Yet some affect it not but loudly cry For times which may erect a Parity And some who dream they keep it are to blame By being ignorant how far the Name Of Parent reacheth which we briefly show That they might better do and better know We from the Parents of our bodies have A natural being and they justly crave To be obey'd in all things but in those Which either may Superior powers oppose Or to some Being hurries us that shall Be worse than to have never been at all Beside these Parents we to many moe A Duty by this Obligation owe. The Fathers of our Country by this Law First claimeth of us Honour Love and Awe And from himself the same Prerogatives To his Inferiour Magistrates derives There is a Fatherhood in those that be Our Elders and our Betters in degree Our Masters also may have warrant here To challenge from us Reverence and Fear And Husbands also may infer from hence Good proof of right to their preheminence And if a witness wanted thereunto My Wife I know would say the same I do And that I give God thanks for as a blessing That is not founnd in every mans possessing Our Ghostly Fathers by whose careful pain We are anew begot and born again Ev'n to a life more excellent than that Whereto our fleshly Fathers us begat Have Honours due no less than those to whom We Sons and Daughters in the Flesh become Yea and our Fathers in some sort they be Who from Thrall Wants and Death hath set us free All these from us an Honour may command According to the place wherein they stand To some of them we do not owe alone That Honour which may outwardly be done Or that unfain'd respect which doth accord With bare Obedience But we must afford All helps whereby we also may prevent The Want the Shame the Harm or Discontent Which may befall them we should meekly bear Their words and blows ev'n when unjust they are We should not pleasure take in any thought With which dishonour may to them be brought Though they should curse us we must always bless Defend their lives and hide their nakedness We should not hear them wrong'd nor should our tongue To all men tell it when they do us wrong But pray and strive that blameless we might prove How crookedly so ' ere they please to move For he alone who thus obey them shall Hath an Obedience Evangelical Among those many who these Laws do break And pass unheeded any breach to make On this Command who greatly are to blame In being disobedient to the same The first and worst are that ill tutor'd sect Who Magistrates and Rulers contradict They who at all Superiors madly strike And fain would have us honour'd all alike Are deeply guilty and this just command They frustrate make if ought I understand The other sort doth Government forsake 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 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. The 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 split 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 their have either suffered still Deaths violent or died in their prime Or Issueless fo this Blood-spilling Cirme Yea and for ougit 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 Or 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 outwears 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 it 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 don me 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 Murtherers would soon be cast If an impartial verdict should be past There is a murthering poyson in some words And Flatteries are otherwhile the Swords That Kill their hearers though when they infect They do not murther by a line direct Moreover other while unkindness may Strike dead a Gentle heart and such as play False play in Love as when they do allure And causlesly reject may soon procure Untimely Death But such like youthful Crimes Though jested at bring vengeance many times He that by lawful means doth blood require For blood unjustly Spilt with more desire To satisfy his rage than to prefer True Justice is a parcel Murtherer And so are such who practise to encrease A publick Concord or mens private peace In some degree of Murtherers are they Who to their might remove not for away All such occasionings as may begin Or help to perfect this inhumane Sin And therefore by this Law we are forbidden To keep an Enmity in secret hidden That may provoke Revenge which to prevent A Duty doth precede the Sacrament Of Christian Vnity and they commit Against this Law who fail to practise it Pride Wrath Scorn Avarice Wine in excess Wrongs Jeers Neglects and Jests with bitterness With other such which either are or draw Occasions on to violate this Law Are breaches of it And though few suspect Because these are but breaches indirect That such enormities unpunish't be For that but seldom they inflicted see Immediate
And I a worker now desire to be Who may if thou enable to proceed Improve my willingness unto the Deed Deny it not Oh God! but from this day Ev'n to the latest moment of my stay Vouchsafe unto me thy assisting Grace That I may run a warrantable Race And keep this Law and all thy Laws entire In work in word and also in desire Amen Though no flesh this Law obey In it self In Christ it may Though it frighteth us for sin Yet our peace it ushers in And in us prepareth place For the saving Law of Grace When this Grace hath taught to Love Hardest works will easy prove And that sin we shall abhor Which we doted on before THE Epilogue The Law from God's meer love proceeds Though strict it seems and Terror breeds NOW having well observ'd this glorious Law A Creature cloath'd with Majesty and awe Methinks the Body of it seems to me Compos'd of such essential parts to be That he may find who rightly from them shall All as but one each one of them as all And that who ever breaks or keepeth one Observes or breaketh all in what is done As will appear to him who well attends How ev'ry Precept on the rest depends He cannot possibly or love or fear One God aright who willfully doth err In Idol worshippings in vainly using God's holy Name In holy Times abusing Or in permitting so perverse a nature As to abuse Himself or any Creature Belonging to this God with such a mind As may Contentment in such evils find And what is of this Law averr'd we may In ev'ry other Precept boldly say Moreover I conceive it cannot be Of less impossibility that he Who gives the Creature ev'ry way his right Should in his heart his good Creator slight Or actually offend him without sense And sorrow for so hainous an offence He that right Conscience makes to keep one Law Of breaking all the other stands in awe He that is Parents honours as he ought Can never favour Murther in his thought Or thirst for Vengeance never will his eyes Or heart or members act Adulterys No due from any Creature will he take He dares of none conceive receive or speak Vntruths or slanders He will never crave Or by a secret longing wish to have What may net be desir'd Nor ought commit Which his profession may not ill befit But penitence will smite him for the deed And in his heart a faithful sorrow breed Much less will he grow wilfully to blame In Prophanation of Gods Days his Name His Worship or his Essence For in one Well doing all good Dutys will be done And this which from one Law is here exprest May really be said of all the rest The like we may as doubtlesly averr Of them who ' gainst one Law perversly err Begin at which you please they so are chain'd All sins are in the breach of one contain'd One wickedness contracts another still And that another either to fulfill Or hide the first until all guilt comes in And wheels him round the cursed Orbe of Sin For what hath he to bar him from the rest Who but in one hath wilfully transgrest What other sin would he have left undone Which might have hindred his beloved one Or if perpetually he do not act All wickedness and ev'ry filthy Fact Why is it so unless perchance because His finite Nature cannot break all Laws At once in Act Nor his desires extend To ev'ry thing wherein he might offend For ev'ry sacred Law is in his Will Inclusively at least infringed still And Guiltiness would actually appear If power and fit occasions present were For as the Laws fair Body is compos'd Of portions qualified and dispos'd In such a manner that we planily see The perfect Essence of the whole to be In ev'ry part so likewise hath our Sin An ugle Body and each Limb therein Containeth whether it be great or small Essentially the perfect Guilt of all And by this Body Death a means hath found To give to all Mankind a mortal wound But prais'd be God his Grace provided hath A Light a Guard an Armour and a Path By which we may be quite delivered from The Body of this Death and also come To walk the way of life which else had bin For ever barr'd against us by our sin The Lamb of God by whom we do possess Redemption Wisdom Justice Holiness With ev'ry matchless token of his Love The Guilt of that transgression doth remove Which woundeth first our Nature and from him We have a cure for ev'ry actual Crime He hath fulfilled what we could not keep He gives us power to walk who could not creep He paid the price of that which we had bought He got our Pardon e're the same we sought He bore the stripes for us which we did merit He purchas'd Crowns that we might them inherit Our Fears he doth prevent our loss restore And to the true Believers tendreth more Than Adam lost Yea he doth freely give To ev'ry Soul a power which may believe And persevere if well he shall employ The Talents and the Grace he doth enjoy And with a mind in all Temptations meek This power in Christ not in her self doth seek Ev'n they that perish till they do contemn God's profer'd Love potentially in them Retain this power by God's Free grace until Their Flesh seduc'd like Eve doth move their Will Like Adam to consent and then to Act A wickedness and to approved the Fact Against their Conscience For then God departs From their polluted and rebellious Hearts And back returneth not until from thence That Guilt be washed by true penitence The means whereof he also must bestow Or else into obdurateness they grow Affirm we may not that God will not come To any whom he so departeth from Twice thrice or oftner For we cannot know How far the limits of his Mercys go Nor by what measure or by what degree Of wilfulness he so displeas'd shall be As to forsake for ever since he may Shew mercy where he pleaseth while the day Of life-time lasteth there is hope of Grace Fore every sinful Soul of Adams race Just Job confesseth that God oft assaysr To draw the sinner from delicious ways Job 33. 14. The raising up of lazarus from death When he had four days yeilded up his breath Inferreth also that some few obtain God's mercy who had dead and stinking lain In their transgressions till there was no place For help by outward means or common grace But this his mercy is the highest pitch And if a God who is in mercy rich Vouchsafe it any where he doth afford Much more than he hath promis'd in his word For though he may confer it when he please Yet to have left such promises as these Had better'd none but made those worse by far Who for the Grace obtained thankless are Oh who enough can praise thy matchless Love Most gracious God! Who pleasest from
one The Father's equal and his only Son That ever-blessed and incarnate Word Which our Redeemer is our life Our Lord For when by Sathans guile we were deceived Christ was that means of help which was conceived Yea when we were in danger to be lost Conceived for us by the Holy Ghost And that we might not ever be forlorn For our eternal safety he was Born Born as a Man that Man might not miscarry Even of the substance of the Virgin Mary And loe a greater mercy and a wonder He that can make All suffer suffered under The Jewish spite which all the world revile at And Cruel tyrannies of Pontius Pilate In him do I believe who was envied Who with extreamest hate was Crucified Who being life it self to make assured Our souls of safety was both dead and buried And that no servile fear in us might dwell To conquer He descended into Hell Where no infernal Power had power to lay Command upon him but on the third day The force of Death and Hell he did constrain And so in Triumph He arose again Yea the Almighty power advanc'd his head Aswel above all things as from the dead Then that from thence gifts might to men be given With glory He ascended into Heaven Where that supream and everlasting throne Which was prepar'd he clim'd and sittcth on That blessed feat where he shall make abode To plead for us at the right hand of God And no where should he be enthroned rather Than there for he is God as is the Father And therefore with an equal love delight I To praise and serve them both as one Almighty Yet in their office there 's a difference And I believe that Jesus Christ from thence Shall in the great and universal doom Return and that with Angels He shall come To question such as at his Empire grudge Even those who have presumed him to judge And that black day shall be so Catholick As I believe not only that that the quick To that assise shall all be summoned But he will both adjudge them and the dead Moreover in the Godhead I conceive Another Person in whom I believe For all my hope of blessedness were lost If I believ'd not in the Holy Ghost And though vain Schismaticks through pride and folly Contemn her power I do believe the holy Chast Spouse of Christ for whom so many search By marks uncertain the true Catholick Church I do believe God keep us in this union That there shall be for ever the Communion Of Gods Elect and that he still acquaints His Children in the fellowship of Saints Though damned be Mans natural condition By grace in Christ I look for the remission Of all my foul misdeeds for there begins Deaths end which is the punishment of sins Moreover I the Sadduces infection Abhor and do believe the Resurrection Yea though I turn to dust yet through God I Expect a glorious rising of the body And that exempted from the cares here rife I shall enjoy perfection and the life That is not subject unto change or wasting But ever-blessed and for ever-lasting This is my Faith which that it fail not when It most should steed me let God say Amen To whom that he so much vouchsafe we may Thus as a member of his Church I pray A Metrical Paraphrase Upon the LORD'S PRAYER LOrd at thy Mercy-seat our selves we gather To do our duties unto thee Our Father To whom all praise all honour should be given For thou art that great God which art in Heaven Thou by thy wisdom rul'st the worlds whole frame For ever therefore Hallowed be thy Name Let never more delayes divide us from Thy glories view but let Thy Kingdom come Let thy commands opposed be by none But thy good pleasure and Thy will done And let our promptness to obey be even The very same in earth as 't is in heaven Then for our selves O Lord we also pray Thou wouldst be pleased to Give us this day That food of life wherewith our souls are fed Contented raiment and our daily bread With needful thing do thou relieve us And of thy mercy pitty And forgive us All our misdeeds in him whom thou didst please To take in offering for our trespasses And for as much O Lord as we believe Thou so wilt pardon us as we forgive Let that love teach us wherewith thou acquaints us To pardon all them that trespass against us And though sometime thou find'st we have forgot This Love or thee yet help And lead us not Though Soul or bodies want to desperation Nor let abundance drive into temptation Let not the soul of any true Believer Fall in the time of tryal But deliver Yea save him from the malice of the Devil And both in life and death keep us from evil Thus pray we Lord And but of thee from whom Can this be had For thine is the Kingdom The world is of thy works the graven story To thee belongs the power and the glory And this thy happiness hath ending never But shall remain for ever and for ever This we confess and will confess agen Till we shall say eternally Amen Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and upon thy Gates Deut. 6. 9. FINIS Job 33. 14. See Pro. 30. 8 9.