comparison of that we ought to have unto God should be as no love at all comparatively for he is to have all our heart soul strength mind yet 2. Our love to our selves must have the next place for though our love of charity to others must be real yet this charity must begin at home However 3. We are to love our neighbour as our selves not for the degree but for the kind of our love it must be real and hearty and without dissimulation A. 43. The Preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage To. 2. Hom. II. Before he came to the matter that he would specially warn them of and as it were for a Preface to make them to take the better heed unto it Hom. xxi p. 6. The Bishop of Rome left the poor people should know too much he would not let them have as much of Gods word as the Ten Commandments wholly and perfectly withdrawing from the Second Commandment that bewrayeth his impiety by a subtile Sacriledg Expl. 43. Whereas in this Preface God makes use of rational motives to the obedience of his Commands this doth discover 1. The infinite condescention of God who is pleased to inform our judgments of the reasonableness of his Commands before he lays his Commands upon our persons 2. That men should not be unreasonable in their Commands as suppose Parents or other Governours sith God is here pleased to add Reason to his Soveraignty A. 44. The Preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us That because God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer therefore we are bound to keep all his Commandments To. 1. Hom. V. p. 2. Christ reprov'd the Laws and Traditions made by the Scribes and Pharisees which were not only for good order of the people as the Civil Laws were but they were set up so high that they were made to be right and pure worshipping of God as they had been equal with Gods Laws or above them for many of Gods Laws could not be kept but were fain to give way unto them This arrogancy God detested that man should so advance his Laws to make them equal with Gods Laws wherein the true honouring and right worshipping of God standeth to make his Laws for them to be left off God hath appointed his Laws whereby his pleasure is to be honoured They were not content to have them called by the name of other Temporal Laws but called them holy and godly Traditions and would have them not only esteem'd for a right and true worshipping of God as Gods Laws be indeed but also for the most high honouring of God to which the Commandments of God should give place And for this cause did Christ so vehemently speak against them Expl. 44. In the matter of the Preface we have these things observable 1. That God is therefore the supreme Lawgiver because he is the supreme Lord of the whole Creation As God by vertue of his Soveraignty may himself do with his Creatures what he will by the same right he may command them to do what he will 2. That God can easily enable men to do what he commands them for that very power that commands his creatures into being can also command them into action 3 That the bonds of the Covenant should be as the cords of love and the bands of a man sweetly to draw men to obedience when once we are listed into the number of Gods people by Baptism we are under a more special obligation to obey God not only as our Creator but as our Father 4. That deliverances call for duties and if a corporal deliverance of the Israelites was an obligation upon them to obey the God of Israel much more should that spiritual deliverance from the Egyptian slavery of sin be an obligation upon them to obey God Rules to be observed for the understanding of the Moral Law or the Ten Commandments 1 Rule That Christ the Lawgiver is the best Interpreter of Moses or that the Gospel is the fullest and clearest Interpreter of the Law The Writings of the Prophets are many times good Expositions of the Law of Moses But the Writings of Christ and his Apostles are far more clear and full In reference to Christ we have a known instance in the 5 th of Mat. passim And the Apostles frequently in their Epistles as when we are commanded to shun all occasions of evil to love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and our neighbour without dissimulation and not to defraud him any way c. 2 Rule That the Law is perfect Psal. 19.7 as 1. In it self not admitting of any additional Precepts in the Gospel which are generally obliging to all Christians which were not obliging before that Christ came in the flesh For as for those three Precepts of the Gospel for a man 1. To deny himself 2. To take up his Cross and 3. To follow Christ they are rather interpretations and instances of that honour and love we are to have for Christ as God which is required in the First Command than any additions obliging which did not oblige before nay David himself did in some respect deny himself take up his Cross and follow Christ the middle of these had place when he said The reproaches of those who reproached thee are faln upon me and so Moses deny'd himself and Caleb and Ioshuah followed the Lord fully 2. The Law is perfect in its extent and comprehension in regard of the subject for it doth command the whole Soul in all its powers and faculties for it doth require the understanding to know the judgment to approve that which is good the will to chuse it the memory to retain it and the affections to pursue and enjoy it and upon this account it is said that the Law is spiritual 3 Rule Whatever the Law commands it doth forbid the contrary as when it commands us to honour our Parents it doth forbid us to dishonour them and whatever the Law forbids it commands the contrary as when it forbids us to take the name of God in vain it requires us to use any of the names or titles or ordinances of God with reverence 4 Rule When the Law commandeth a duty as suppose to worship God it doth require us to make use of means occasions motives and encouragements to it and when the Law forbids ex gr worshipping of Images it doth also forbid the occasions appearances and inducements of any evil 5 Rule Where a promise is annexed ex gr that the days may be long in the Land c. there the contrary threatning is included and where a threatning is annexed there the contrary promise is included 6 Rule That the duties of the second table must give place to the indispensable and necessary duties of the first table when they cannot both be performed together as the love of
gage or pledg of thy salvation Rising with him by our faith we shall have our bodies likewise raised again from death to have them glorified in immortality and joined to his glorious body having in the mean while his holy Spirit in our hearts as a seal and pledg of our everlasting inheritance Expl. 38. At the resurrection of a Believer 1. There is a re-union of a soul which is free from corruption or sin to a glorified body that is incorruptible 2. These two parts being thus re-united in the very same individual person to whom they did belong before death will be actually capable at the resurrection of all that eternal bliss which Christ hath purchased and prepared for them 3. Then Christ will openly acknowledg own and approve every true Christian to be a part of his body mystical and that before his Father and all the holy Angels 4. The Believer then shall receive his general discharge and acquitment in a most solemn publick and triumphant manner from all manner of guilt whatsoever so as that none shall be able to lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect For though a Believer does receive his private discharge from all his sins at his death and as it were under the privy Seal yet his discharge is ratified confirmed and as it were enter'd into the publick Records at the day of Judgment CHAP. II. Of things to be done in the Ten Commandments with a short Explanation of 46 A. from 38 to 85. A. 39. THE duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed Will. To. 1. Hom. V. The good works God hath commanded his people to walk in are such as he hath commanded in the holy Scripture and not such works as men have studied out of their own brain of a blind zeal and devotion without the word of God And by mistaking the nature of good works man hath most highly displeased God and hath gone from his Will and Commandments To. 2. Hom. X. p. 3. Mark diligently what his Will is you should do and with all your endeavour apply your selves to follow the same Expl. 39. By obedience to the revealed Will of God we are in the general to understand the conformity of our wills affections words and actions to the preceptive or commanding Will of God for all this is comprehended in that one Scripture Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man It is the will of Gods command which doth declare and require what is our duty but as for the secret will of Gods eternal purpose though it be a rule to himself whereby he acts yet it neither is nor can be the rule of our actions because not known to us nor indeed curiously to be enquired after nor is it barely the revelation of Gods will that makes it our duty to observe it but the revelation of it to this very end and purpose that man do willingly conform to it A. 40. The Rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the Moral Law To. 2. Hom. X. Let us esteem the holy Table of Gods Word appointed by him to instruct us in all necessary works so that we may be perfect before him in the whole course of our life To. 1. Hom. 1. p. 3. Such hath been the corrupt inclination of man ever superstitiously given to make new honouring of God of his own head and then to have more affection and devotion to keep that than to search out Gods holy Commandments and to keep them Which we should know to separate or sever Gods Commandments from the commandments of men In keeping the Commandments of God standeth the pure principal right honour of God and which wrought in faith God hath ordained to be the right trade and pathway to heaven Expl. 40. When it is here said that the Moral Law was at first i. e. in a state of innocency revealed to man i. e. to our first Parents in Paradise we are not to understand that this revelation was visible to the eye as afterwards the writing of it was in two Tables of Stone nor to be heard by the ear as when it was first given by God in Mount Sinai But it was at first revealed inwardly i. e. it was imprinted in the hearts and minds of our first Parents except that positive prohibition of eating the forbidden fruit yet being in a great part blotted out was afterwards written in two Tables of Stone A. 41. The Moral Law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments Ham. V. Christ rehearsing the Commandments declared that the Laws of God be the very way that doth lead to everlasting life and not the Traditions and Laws of men So that the works of the Moral Commandments of God be the very true works of Faith which lead to the blessed life to come To. 2. Hom. II. Containing the immutable Law and Ordinances of God in no age or time to be altered nor of any persons of any Nation of any age to be disobey'd Expl. 41. By a Law in the general we are to understand the Will of the Lawgiver requiring duty But here by the Moral Law we are to understand 1. More generally the revealed Will of God of what man is to believe and do in order to salvation 2. More particularly the Decalogue which is the sum of all Moral Laws which are scattered up and down in the Scripture And this Decalogue or Ten Words or Ten Commandments may be called Moral 1. Because of the universality of it for the Decalogue doth oblige all mankind it being that very Law for substance which was written in very legible Characters in the heart of Adam and is not quite blotted out of the minds of the veryest Gentiles in the world 2. It doth oblige at all times 3. The whole man for it requires as well the internal obedience of the soul and all its powers and faculties as outward obedience of the body A. 42. The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul with all our strength and with all our mind and our neighbour as our selves Hom. 5. p. 3. Mark diligently what Gods will is that you should do and with all your endeavour apply your selves to follow the same 〈◊〉 You must have assured faith in God and give your selves wholly unto him love him in prosperity and adversity and dread to offend him ever more Then for his sake love all men Cast in your mind how you may do good unto all men to your power and hurt no man Expl. 42. The sum of these Ten Commandments or Ten Words we may take in one Word and 't is Love for Love is the fulfilling of the Law and this Love is threefold 1. To God and this must be in the highest degree or more than we are to love either our selves or neighbours yea this later love in
Parents must yield to the love of God but in things ceremonial the duties of the first table must yield to the moral duties of the second as sacrificing to works of mercy towards man A. 45. The first Commandment is Thou shalt have no other Gods before me Expl. 45. These words are the first command and not those I am the Lord thy God as some would have them in which there is nothing commanded but only a declaration who and what that God is who does command A. 46. The first Commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God and our God and to worship and glorifie him accordingly Homil. II. p. 3. Let us take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and let us have no strange Gods but one only God who made us when we were nothing the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us when we were lost and with his Holy Spirit doth sanctifie us Homil. V. p. 3. Have an assured Faith in God and give your selves wholly unto him love him in prosperity and adversity and dread to offend him ever-more To. II. Hom. xvij What availeth it the wisemen of the world to have knowledg of the Power and Divinity of God where they did not honour and glorifie him in their knowledges as God Hom. VI. whom we are to love with all our heart i. e. that our heart mind and study be set to believe his Word to trust in him and to love him above all other things that we love best in Heaven or on Earth Expl. 46. In the first Commandment there are these 4 things required 1. Knowledg of God as namely that he is the Creator and Governor of the world being the supream Lord and Law giver as also that he is infinitely perfect in his Nature Attributes Word and Works 2. Faith which doth consist in our owning and acknowledging him to be such a God as he is held forth in his Word and in a relyance upon him as such 3. Obedience which in reference to this command doth principally consist in the conformity of Man's will to the Will of God 4. Love to God implyed in these words before me A. 47. The first Commandment forbiddeth the denying or not worshipping and glorifying the true God as God and our God and the giving that worship and glory to any other which is due to him alone To. 1. Hom. VIII Whoever in time of reading Gods Word studieth for the glory and honour of this World is turned from God and hath not a special mind to that which is commanded and taught of God is turned from God although he doth things of his own devotion and mind which to him seem better and more to Gods honour To. 2. Hom. xvi p. 2. It may be boldly and with a safe conscience pronounc'd of the Bishops of Rome namely that they have forsaken and daily do forsake the Commandments of God to erect and set up their own Constitutions Expl. 47. More particular this Commandment doth forbid these and the like sins as 1. Ignorance of God when men either do not know or will not consider who God is and what he would have them do 2. Atheism both in judgment when men are wavering and doubting about the Being of God and therefore disputing against it and in practise when men live as if there were no God 3. Idolatry which consists either in the worship of a false God or in worshipping the true God in a false manner by mingling the corrupt traditions or fancies of men in the worship of God or in worshipping more Gods than that one God who made the world and is Father Son and Holy Ghost God blessed for ever 4. Mens being ashamed of or being negligent in the profession of the true Religion 5. The wilful omission of any known duties of Religion as prayer meditation praising God c. 6. Wilful infidelity when men do not believe God or take him upon his word or do reject and contemn his commands promises or threatnings 7. All blasphemous and misbecoming thoughts of God whatsoever as also all errors and misapprehensions concerning God or any of those revelations he has given of himself 8. All disobedience to his revealed Will. 9. All unsuitable affections to himself or any thing that bears his stamp as his Ordinances Day Providences and People 10. All unmindfulness and forgetfulness of God 11. All carnal presumption pride tempting of God relyance upon and seeking to unlawful means for help in any distress this being accompany'd with the forsaking of and apostacy from the true God 12. All impatience and discontent under any evil as also mens ascribing that which is good to any thing besides himself who is the fountain of all good A. 48. These words before me in the first Commandment teach us that God who seeth all things taketh notice of and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God To. 2. Hom. I. The eternal and incomprehensible Maiesly of God the Lord of Heaven and Earth whose seat is in Heaven and the Earth is his footstool calleth upon his people to mark and take heed and that upon the peril of their souls to the charge which he giveth them Thou shalt worship the Lord God and him only shalt thou serve Adjoining penalty to the transgressors and reward to the obedient to move to obedience and observing this the Lords great Law which might ingender fear in our hearts of disobedience herein being in the Lords sight so great an offence and abomination Expl. 48. Here is further clearly intimated 1. That God would have the first room in our estimation 2. In our affections i. e. that we prize and love him above all A. 49. The second Commandment is Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thy self unto them nor serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments To. 2. Hom. I. The Scriptures use the two words Idols and Images indifferently for one thing alway They be words of divers things Gr. Lat. but one in sense and signification in the Scriptures and matters of of Religion Wherefore our Images if publickly suffer'd in Temples and Churches be indeed none other but Idols as unto which Idolatry hath been is and ever will be committed Hath it not been preach'd unto you since the beginning c. How by the Creation of the World and the greatness of the work they might understand the Majesty of God the Creator and Maker of all to be greater than that
his indignation P. 2. And though such perjur'd mens falshood he now kept secret yet it shall be open'd at the last day when the secrets of all mens hearts shall be open'd to all the world Almighty God will be a swift witness against them and the curse shall enter into the house of the false and perjur'd man Expl. 56. In the reason of the command 't is intimated 1. That God in a special manner is the avenger of those that abuse his name 2. The certainly of this vengeance 3. That men are apt to be remiss in punishing this Sin A. 57. The fourth Commandment is Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger that is within thy gate For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it Expl. 57. This command being the fourth in order is the last of the first Table or of those commands which do concern piety towards God and in the amplification of it doth require charity and mercy towards man especially towards inferiours as Son Daughter Servant c. and therefore in requiring both duties of piety and mercy it doth as it were glew both the Tables of the Law together As to the matter of the Command 1. Here is a Preface to be noted Remember as if God should have said though you should forget all the other Nine Commands which I would not have you to do neither yet be sure you forget not this In which Remember there is imply'd 1. The importance of the Command that it doth import no less than the whole Religion and duty of man towards God and therefore to be remembred 2. The aptness of men to forget this Command both because the doctrine of it is not to be learnt from the light of nature at least not so clearly as the other Commands and because the duties of it do much cross the grain with corrupt nature 2 dly The thing to be remembred is the Sabbath-day or that day of Rest which God has appointed from all manner of employment and business except works of duty to God charity to man and of absolute necessity relief or mercy towards the inferiour creatures How it is to be remembred we have in the next A. A. 58. The fourth Commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set-times as he hath appointed in his Word expresly one whole day in seven to be a holy Sabbath unto himself To. 2. Hom. VIII It appeareth to be Gods good-will and pleasure that we should at special times and in special places gather our selves together to the intent his name might be renowned and his glory set forth in the Congregation and Assembly of his Saints And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful works Expl. 58. 'T is in this A. expressed in the general how the Sabbath is to be kept holy as also any other day as suppose of Fasting or Thanksgiving which man doth appoint according to Gods will Now to sanctifie a day and particularly the Sabbath is to employ it wholly and solely to that use for which it is sanctified or set apart by God whether it be in reference to the publick or private exercises of Religion And it must be the whole Sabbath-day yet with a merciful respect to nature and the constitution of mens bodies for God will have mercy and not sacrifice beginning at the dawning of the day because Christ the Sun of Righteousness then rose and it is to continue till midnight for so long was Paul engaged in Sabbath-exercises Act. 20. 7 10. This is the time required by this Law but if men have not strength of body to continue so long so there be in them a willing mind God will accept of what strength they have and not what they have not A. 59. From the beginning of the world to the Resurrection of Christ God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath and the first day of the week ever since to continue to the end of the World which is the Christian Sabbath To. 2. Hom. VIII Remember saith God that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day upon which day as it is plain in Act. 13. the people accustomably resorted together and heard diligently the Law and the Prophets read among them And albeit this Commandment doth not bind Christian people as touching the precise keeping the seventh day after the manner of the Iews for we keep now the first day which is our Sunday Dominical or Lords-day and make that our Sabbath i. e. our day of rest in honour of our Saviour Christ who as upon that day rose from death conquering it triumphantly yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Commandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of Gods glory it ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people If we will be children of our heavenly Father we must be careful to keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday i. e. Dominical or Lords-day not only for that it is Gods express Commandment but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father This Example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ chusing a standing day not the Seventh which the Iews kept but the Lords-day the day of the Lords Resurrection the day after the Seventh day which is the First day of the week Expl. 59. The old Sabbath as we see by this A. was the seventh day of the week in order that is the Iews did observe our Saturday for their seventh-day-Sabbath and the reason of it is expressed in the command sc. God rested from Creation-work that day But the morality or indispensable and perpetual obligation of this command doth not necessarily require the seventh in order for that is Ceremonious and abrogated together with the Iewish Sabbath but it doth necessarily require the keeping holy of a seventh day for number or a seventh part of the week to be spent in Sabbath-duties which seventh part is now by the Resurrection of Christ upon the first day and by his own immediate authority or by that which he gave to his Apostles fixt upon that first day now commonly called our Sunday or Dominical i. e. Lords-day and no other even to the end of the world Though there be no express mention made of this change from the last to the first