AN EXPLICATION OF THE DECALOGUE OR Ten Commandments WITH REFERENCE TO THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND To which are premised by way of Introduction Several GENERAL DISCOURSES concerning GOD'S both NATURAL and POSITIVE LAWS By Gabriel Towerson sometimes Fellow of All-Souls College in Oxford and now Rector of Wellwyn in Hertfordshire Philo in Praefat. ad Librum de Decalogo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΔΙ ' ΑΥΤΟΥ ΜΟÎΟΥ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ÎΟΜΟΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΠΟΜΩΠ〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΔΙΑ ΤΟΥΠΡΟΦΗΤΟ Î¥ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΕΠ' ΕΚΕΙÎΟΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Macock for John Martyn at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXVI TO The Most Reverend FATHER in God GILBERT By Divine Providence LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please Your Grace I Have here attempted an Explication of that part of our Church-Catechism which respects the Decalogue or Ten Commandments Not out of any great opinion of mine own Abilities for such an undertaking of which they who know me know me to be sufficiently diffident but out of a due sense of the want of a just Discourse upon this Argument which by no Man that I know of hath been handled according to its worth It was once in my thoughts to have suppressed it till I could have finished an Explication of the whole Catechism as conceiving that that would have been more compleat and more acceptable to the World But considering with my self that it would require some time to revise what I have already done and much more to add to and perfect it and since what is now offered to Your Grace and with Your Graces Leave to the Publick view also is entire enough if I have acquitted my self in it as I ought I thought I should no way disoblige my Readers if I sent this part of it before the rest to try the Judgment of the World Especially since it is not impossible but that I may entertain a better opinion of my own Labours than they shall be found by more competent Judges to deserve If any thing may seem with Reason to make such a procedure improper it is that I have referr'd my self to those Parts that are not yet published for the proof of some things asserted here But as it is only for such things as have been abundantly proved by others and which therefore especially in loco non suo I might the better wave the confirmation of so they are for the most part if not only such as by the Laws of Discourse are to be supposed by all that will entreat of this Argument However if what is now tendred find acceptance that blot shall not long lye upon it and if not the imperfectness thereof will be the most pardonable quality of my Discourse or at least will be more excusable than my troubling the World with more In this Treatise I have endeavoured out of that heap which so copious a subject presents to select such matter as is most considerable and pertinent to deliver my sense concerning it in proper and intelligible expressions and lastly to confirm that by solid Reasons For other things I have not been much sollicitous and much less as Solomon speaks to find out acceptable words as conceiving such more proper to perswade than inform which is or ought to be the Design of an Explication If any taking occasion from this rude Discourse of mine shall oblige the World with a more perfect one he shall find me among the foremost to return him thanks for it Both because of the benefit I shall reap in common with others from it and also because I shall have the satisfaction of considering that if I have not been my self so fortunate in Explaining the Ten Commandments yet I have stirred up those that are and thereby have fulfilled a Commandment the observation whereof is of more advantage than the most accurate Explication of them all In the mean time as I hope these my Labours will not be altogether unuseful so I lay them at Your Grace's feet as a Recognition of those many favours You have been pleased to confer upon me and of that Duty I owe to the Church of England for the safe-guard whereof as Your Grace hath with great prudence and conduct happily presided in an Age wherein You have met with more than ordinary Discouragements so that God will still preserve Your Grace for the farther benefit thereof is the hearty Prayer of Your Grace's in all bounden Duty and Service GABRIEL TOWERSON THE DECALOGUE OR TEN COMMANDMENTS As they are described and explained by the Catechism of the Church of ENGLAND Quest YOV said that your Godfathers and Godmothers did promise for you that you should keep Gods Commandments Tell me how many there be Answ Ten. Quest Which be they Answ The same which God spake in the Twentieth Chapter of Exodus saying I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage I. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me II. Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my Commandments III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain IV. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt do no manner of work thou and thy Son and thy Daughter thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant thy Cattel and the Stranger that is within thy Gates 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 seventh day and hallowed it V. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee VI. Thou shalt do no murther VII Thou shalt not commit adultery VIII Thou shalt not steal IX Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Servant nor his Maid nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is his Quest What dost thou chiefly learn by these Commandments Answ I learn two things my duty towards God and my duty towards my Neighbour Quest What is
covet thy neighbours wife nor his servant nor his maid nor his ox nor his ass nor any thing that is his PART I. The Contents That the Commandment we have now before us is not two but one as also that it strikes not at those first stirrings or motions of Sin which we call Concupiscence but at the coveting of that which is the property of another By which account the Negative part of the Commandment is resolved to be The not coveting of that which is another as the Affirmative The contenting our selves with that which is our own An address to a general explication of the former where is shewn that the thing forbidden to be coveted is any thing of our Neighbours how small or inconsiderable soever as also that the Covetousness which is prohibited is not such an one as includes in it a desire or resolution to use unlawful means to compass the object of it but such as abideth in the Mind or at least doth not prompt it to the other An Objection out of Mark 10.19 answered A more particular explication of the Negative part of the Commandment where is shewn that all coveting of that which is anothers is not forbidden but either 1. Such as is peccant in the Object of which nature are the coveting of such things as are not lawful for the Proprietor to part with as his Wife or cannot be quitted by him without disadvantage or are the object of his affection no less than of ours Or 2. Such covetings as are peccant in their quality Of which number are those Covetings that are not with submission to the will both of God and the Proprietor that are not accompanied with a like desire of gratifying our Neighbour or breed perturbation in us The criminalness of these and such like Covetings their implying a dissatisfaction with the Divine Providence which hath bestowed what we covet upon another IT being sufficiently known that to blend the Second Commandment with the First the Patrons of Image-worship have divided this Commandment into two I made it my business in my entrance upon the Second to shew the unreasonableness of this Division as well as of that conjunction or confusion To which therefore all I shall now add is that as they who divide this Commandment into two might with as much reason divide it into more even into as many as there are things which are forbidden in it to covet the formal reason of the prohibition being one and the same in all even the propriety thereof being vested in another so St. Paul in two places of his Epistle * Rom. 7.7 13.9 to the Romans sets it down in those general terms of Thou shalt not covet and so makes it but one Commandment If there be any force in the repeating of the word covet which some it seems though unadvisedly enough have laid some stress upon it might be rather to shew the earnestness of the Lawgiver in forbidding them than to prompt men to look upon the covetousness there decryed as distinct prohibitions of the Almighty The way being thus cleared to the Explication of the Commandment proceed we to the subject matter of it the purport whereof is commonly conceived to be the prohibition of those first motions or stirrings of sin which we call Concupiscence arising in the sensual appetite corrupted by Adam 's Fall as all other the faculties of the Soul are before any actual deliberation of the Vnderstanding thereabout or actual consent of the Will thereunto But beside that there is no necessity as Dr. Sanderson * Serm. on Phil. 4.11 Part. 1. hath well observed for the affixing of such a sense to it because those motions or stirrings supposing them sinful are aptly enough referrable according to their respective objects to those several Commandments wherein they are forbidden the general reason of the Commandment and the place it hath in the Decalogue oblige rather to understand it of the not coveting of that the property whereof is vested in another For the Commandment being in the number of those which regard our duty to our Neighbour and moreover as appears both by the whole contexture of it and the last clause in it desinged by the Giver of it to take men off from the desire of that which is anothers it is in reason to be construed of such irregular desires as become so rather upon the Object upon which they are fixed than by that corrupt Fountain from which they flow Upon which account as the same Learned Man †Sanderson ibid. hath observed the words of the Authour to the Hebrews chap. 13. 5. may serve for a short but full Commentary upon this last Commandment both in the Negative and affirmative part thereof Let your conversation be without covetousness the Negative and be content with such things as you have the Affirmative In the mean time though I thus depart from the received explication of the Commandment in obedience to a greater Authority even that of Reason as well as of our own Church which delivers * Church Catechism Answer to What is thy duty towards thy Neighbour Not to covet or desire other mens goods but to learn c. the self-same explication yet I shall not fail to consider of the thing it self when I come to entreat of Original sin which will fall in pertinently enough in the Discourse of that Sacrament which was intended for its expiation and its cure Now there are two things in the Negative part of the Commandment Negative part which will require a general explication before I descend to a more particular one the due importance of the object which the Commandment forbids us to covet and the general nature of that Covetousness which it condemns Of the first of these much need not be said if we consider either that general clause in the end of the Commandment or that account which is given of it in the parallâ—l place of Deuteronomy For though the Commandment we have now before us specifie only our Neighbours House Wife Servant Maid Ox and Ass yet as that parallel place in Deuteronomy adds also the coveting of his Field as well as of those other things before mentioned so both the one and the other annex the coveting of any thing that is our Neighbours which will comprehend within the compass of it the coveting of his Farm his Office his Honour yea of the most inconsiderable things which appertain to him Whether it be as the Ellipsis * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Intelligendum enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut maneat eadem constructio per Accusativum Grot. in Decalog in the Septuagint version of this Commandment intimates any portion of his Ox Ass or other Cattel or that which is yet more inconsiderable than they according to that of the Greek Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not thy desires extend themselves even to the Needle of another or as
moment to be opposed to this arguing and that is what followes in the 10. verse Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law for if love be the fulfilling of the Law in that it works no ill then may the whole tenour of the Law seem to be comprehended in the not doing of any harm to our neighbour But to this I answer first that when the Apostle saith Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law his meaning may be not that love is the fulfilling of the Law meerly because it doth no harm but because of its opposition to all those evils and harms such as Adultery Theft and the like whereby our neighbour is incommodated Love is a stranger to Murther Adultery and Theft and to whatsoever else whereby our neighbour is incommodated and being a stranger to all such practises it doth not only extend it self to this or that Commandment but to all the Commandments of the second Table I say secondly with Esthius that though the Apostle say less yet it was his intention to have more understood even not only that love worketh no ill but that it worketh all good to its neighbour Which beside the usual forms of Speech in Scripture and other books where under negative expressions such as I am not ashamed great boasting is often signified is evident from the verse before For being it is there said not only that the Precepts Thou shalt not kill and the like but if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in that saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self and consequently that the command of honouring our Parents is because that is a Precept of the same Decalogue the Law cannot be fulfilled by abstaining meerly from evil because that of Honouring our Parents is more than so When therefore it is here said that love worketh no ill to his Neighbour and therefore is the fulfilling of the Law we are not only to understand that it worketh no ill but that it procureth all the good that can be In the mean time if any deem the positive love of our Neighbour to be the fulfilling of the Law in the same sense in which I have shewn the word fulfil is to be understood in the 5. Chapter of S. Matthew that is to say as an addition made by Christ to it to make up its former wants it will come all to one as to our present purpose For being the subjects of that Christ who hath fulfilled it we are necessarily to look upon the Law in that latitude wherein it is proposed by him and consequently to believe the Commandments of the Decalogue not only to require us to abstain from doing evil but to pursue the contrary good The argument is much more strong from the affirmative to the negative that is to say from the command of any positive duty to the forbidding of the contrary vice For though for instance I may abstain from dishonouring my Parents and yet never give them honour yet I cannot honour and dishonour them at once and therefore that Commandment which enjoins me honour must consequently be thought to forbid all dishonour and contempt Thus far therefore we have already attained toward the importance of the Ten Commandments that though some of them and those the most seem satisfied with abstaining from evil and others with the sole pursuing of good yet both the one and the other are to be understood as obliging to both to eschew that which is evil and to follow after that which is good and vertuous 2. The second thing observable concerning the Ten Commandments is that though the grosser sort of sins only be there expresly forbidden such as Adultery Murther and the like yet under them are contained also all the lesser ones of the same species Thus for example Though the Decalogue take notice only of Murther and Adultery in the sins of Malice and Unchastity yet considering those Precepts as proposed by Christ in which capacity there is no doubt all Christians are to look upon them so we are to understand all sins of the same kind to be included how much soever inferiour to the other For I say unto you saith our Saviour that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Mat. 5.28 And again not only that he who kills his Brother but that whosoever is angry without a cause especially if he proceed to reproachful language shall be in danger of the same judgment to which the murtherer is obnoxious v. 22. of the same Chapter And indeed though there appear not any clear indications in the Commandments themselves of their descending to those lesser sins yet forasmuch as we find the Tenth Commandment descending so low as to forbid the very roveting that which is another man's and again the other parts of the Law and the Prophets forbidding the lower degrees of unchastity and malice as hath been before shewn there is reason enough to believe those lower degrees were intended to be forbidden by it as well as the higher ones For the other parts of the Law and the Prophets being but as Comments upon the Decalogue as appears by Gods laying that as the foundation of all the rest and its own containing in it the general heads of our obedience whatsoever is forbidden by the other parts of the Law and the Prophets must be supposed to be included in those grosser fins of the same kind which the Decalogue takes notice of 3. The third thing observable concerning the Ten Commandments is that though all of them except the last take no notice of any other than the outward actions yet the actions of the inward man or the heart are no less comprised in the several Precepts and Prohibitions of it For beside that as was before said the Law of God is by the Psalmist said to be a law converting the soul Psal 17.9 and by S. Paul term'd spiritual Rom. 7.14 That first and great Commandment in which all our duty to God is comprehended is expressed by our loving God with all our heart and soul as well as with all our might and strength Mat. 22.38 And though the second be not expressed in like manner to wit that of loving our Neighbours as our selves yet as the affection of the heart is manifestly included in the word love which is the proper act of it so the Law is express that we should not hate our brother in our heart nor bear a grudge against the children of our people But because this argument hath been sufficiently exemplified in the several Precepts of the Decalogue I will proceed to my 4. Rule which is That not only the sins here mentioned are forbidden but all those things that lead to them as on the other side not only that the duties there expressed are under command but all those means that naturally tend
without it who beget us to an infinitely better Being To all which if we add that the Decalogue is a Summary of all Moral Duties as well those which respect our Neighbour as those which have an aspect upon God so there can be no doubt not onely that the former are included but all other our Superiours whether in Authority or Dignity or Age Because as the Honour of these may be fairly reduc'd to this Commandment as I shall shew more at large when I come to handle them apart so there is no other Commandment to which they can if you except onely the Honour of Husbands which may have a place in that Commandment which forbids violation of it 2. Having thus shewn what is meant by that Father and Mother which this Commandment requires us to honour I come now to inquire what is the importance of that Honour which we are under an Obligation to exhibit it being likely enough where the Objects thereof are so various that there is some variety in that Honour which is due To find out therefore the full importance of it I will inquire 1. Whether under the Affection of Honour any other be understood And 2. Whether the Expressions thereof be not equally due with the Affections themselves For the Resolution of the former whereof the first thing I shall offer is the primary Notion of the Hebrew Word we render Honour which the Masters of that Language inform us signifies to be heavy or weigh so and consequently in Piel not to account lightly of to esteem of as a thing of weight and moment Now though in the common acception of the Phrase that be most accommodable to that Honour by which we have chosen to express it yet it contains within the compass of it all other Respects which arise from any considerable Quality of the Thing we so value that is to say as well those which arise from its loveliness or terribleness as from the eminency of its Nature and Authority For if we give any Thing or Person its due weight and moment we must also if they be lovely afford them as great and intense a Love or if terrible fear them proportionably to it Whence it is that what is here Honour thy father and mother is in Lev. 19.3 express'd by fear or reverence them and accordingly is no less usually set to denote the Duty we owe to our Parents than that which is here made use of to express it But beside the Comprehensiveness of the Hebrew Word with the Addition of God's expressing our Duty as well by Fear as Honour it is to be observ'd that there is not in Parents a greater ground for any thing than Love witness the tenderness they have over us and particularly that which the Mother hath For if so Love must be suppos'd to be as much a Duty as any thing and consequently to be included in that Affection which is requir'd To all which if we add That it is not unusual under one Species to understand all of the same Genus so no doubt can remain but under the Name of Honour all the former Requisites are contain'd For the Commandment we have now before us being one of those which were intended as an Abstract of the whole Duty of Man it is in reason to comprehend the whole of our Duty to our Superiours and therefore also because not otherwise to be done to set that Species of our Duty for all the rest But beside that the Affection of Honour includes all the rest that are due from us to our Parents they are in like manner to be suppos'd to include the Expressions of them and particularly the Expressions of Honour of which beside the usual acceptation of the Word Honour which together with the Esteem of the Mind connotes the Expressions of it we may fetch a Proof from the Nature of the Affections of the Soul and the necessity of their exerting themselves in outward Acts For as the Affections of the Soul are naturally operative and seek out proper ways to express themselves so unless they do they are of little or rather of no use to whom they are commanded to be exhibited For what avails Charity to a distressed Person if it shew not it self in Alms and other such like Expressions of it Or what satisfaction can an honourable Esteem bring to our Parents if it contains it self in the Mind where it is neither to be discern'd nor can produce any Advantage to them But because to make it evident that the Expressions of Honour are requir'd no better way can be taken than by instancing in the Expressions themselves before I leave this Head I will attempt the Probation of it in each beginning with the Expression of it in Outward Gestures For thus Lev. 19.32 we are commanded to rise up before the hoary head and to honour the face of the old man For if we are to do that before the Face of the Old Man much more before the Face of our Natural Parent or him that is the Father of our Country From Reverence in Gesture pass we to the same testified in Words which we shall find to be no less a Duty than the former witness the several Cautions that are given against cursing our Natural or speaking evil of our Civil Parent For that shews our Words to be under a Law as to that particular and consequently because they are equally capable of honouring our Parents that they ought to be employ'd to that purpose The same is much more evident concerning our Actions and particularly concerning yielding Obedience to their Commands For as a due apprehension of their Authority doth naturally lead us to yield Obedience to those Commands that have their Authority stamp'd upon them so that this Expression of our Honour was intended St. Paul plainly shews Ephes 6.1 2. For inferring as he doth the Justice of Obeying our Parents from this very Commandment we have now before us he supposes Obedience to their Commands to be a part of that Honour which this Commandment requires us to give In like manner forasmuch as where submission to chastisement is not there can be no due apprehension of their Authority the opposing our selves thereto being a denial of it and therewith of the Justice of their Proceedings it follows that to honour our Parents includes that Expression also and we are not onely to be obedient to their Will but suffer without murmuring under the Inflictions of it Such are the Superiours whom we are requir'd to honour such the Honour and other Duties which we are by the same Commandment enjoyn'd to pay Nothing remains toward a general Explication of it but to inquire 3. Whether Superiours may not read their Duty also in it Which Question is the rather to be ask'd because setting aside this Commandment there is no other to which it can be reduc'd But as for that cause it is but reasonable to seek it here where the Duties of their
thy duty towards God Answ My duty towards God is to believe in him to fear him and to love him with all my heart with all my mind with all my soul and with all my strength to worship him to give him thanks to put my whole trust in him to call upon him to honour his holy Name and his Word and to serve him truly all the days of my life Quest What is thy duty towards thy Neighbour Answ My duty towards my Neighbour is to love him as my self and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me To love honour and succour my Father and Mother To honour and obey the King and all that are put in authority under him To submit my self to all my Governours Teachers Spiritual Pastors and Masters To order my self lowly and reverently to all my betters To hurt no body by word or deed To be true and just in all my dealings To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart To keep my hands from picking and stealing and my tongue from evil speaking lying and slandering To keep my body in temperance soberness and chastity Not to covet nor desire other mens goods but to learn and labour truly to get mine own living and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLICATION OF THE DECALOGUE DISCOURSE I. Of the Law of NATVRE How it doth appear that there is such a Law What the general Contents of that Law are And of what continuance its obligation is A digression concerning mens misapprehensions in the matter of Nature's Law and from whence those misapprehensions do proceed Of what use the knowledge of Nature's Law is after the superinducing the Laws of Moses and of Christ PRoposing to my self to entreat of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments according as the Catechism of the Church of England hath understood them I foresee it necessary to premise somewhat concerning the Divine Laws in general and then of the Ten Commandments in particular For as that Catechism though it restrains Gods holy will to the Ten Commandments yet doth it upon supposition of their containing in them all other his Laws and Commandments so before we descend to the Explication of those Ten it will be necessary to enquire By what Authority they stand how they come to oblige us and what measures we are to proceed by in the Interpretation of them Now the Laws of God are of two sorts to wit either Natural or Positive by the former whereof I understand such a Law or Laws as are founded upon natural principles and investigable by them by the latter such as have no other visible foundation at least than the meer good pleasure of God and are therefore to be known only by revelation from himself The Law of Nature again hath these four things to be enquired into which accordingly shall be the boundaries of my discourse concerning it 1. How it doth appear that there is such a Law 2. What the general Contents of that Law are 3. Of what continuance the obligation thereof is 4. Of what use the knowledge thereof is after the superinducing the Laws of Moses and Christ I. It is very well observed by the judicious Hooker and will be evident to any man that shall consult his own understanding that all knowledge is at length resolved into such things as are clear and evident of themselves for all knowledge of things obscure being made by such things as are more known than the things we seek after either it must terminate in such things as are clear and evident of themselves or we can have no certain knowledge of any thing That by which we endeavour to know any thing requiring still something to manifest it and so on in infinitum Now though a resolution into things clear and evident of themselves be not always actually made nor indeed necessary to be so the intermediate principles of any Science coming by discourse to be as well known as those things which are clear and evident of themselves yet being now to penetrate as it were into the very bottom of all Moral Truths it will be requisite for us to dig so much the deeper and deduce the being of the Law of Nature if not from such principles as are the lowest in their kind yet from such as are nearest to them I have * Explic. of the Apostles Creed elsewhere shewn and shall therefore now take it for granted that there is such a thing as an Alwise and good God that that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the world and all things in it which being granted it will follow that there is a right in God to give Laws to his Creatures in such things as are in their power and suitable to their nature to execute For what can be more rational than that every one should have the disposal of those things which he is the Author of and consequently if God be the Author of all things that he himself should have the command of them All therefore that will be requisite for us to enquire into is whether as God hath the power of giving Laws to his Creatures and to man in particular so he hath actually done it and consigned him to the obedience of them Now for this we shall need no other proof than that freedom of will which God hath given to humane nature for being man is not carried by any inevitable necessity as other Creatures are but left to the guidance of his own reason and will either he must have a Rule set him to proceed by or it shall be in his power even by the consent of the Almighty to disturb the order of Nature Now forasmuch as it can be no way suitable to the wisdom of any one to put Creatures into a power that I say not into a kind of necessity to disturb his own orders and designs therefore God being Alwise must necessarily have prevented this inconvenience and given him a Rule to direct his will and operations Again being it appears not that man at the first had any other revealed Law of God than that of not eating the forbidden Fruit and many Nations of the World have no opportunity to know those Revelations he hath since made it follows that God hath implanted in the soul of each particular man a Law by which he is to act or at least such principles from which he may deduce it Lastly forasmuch as there is in all men a conscience excusing or commending them when they have done any thing they apprehend to be good but disapproving and condemning them if they have done any thing which they believe to be evil it follows undeniably that there is a Rule whereby our actions are to be guided For if mankind were left at large what ground could there be of his either applauding or condemning himself for any supposed either virtuous or vitious actions Neither is
it any prejudice to this inference that mens consciences do oftentimes condemn them for those things that are no parts of the Law of Nature or any other For as we pretend not to infer the goodness or evil of any action in it self from the consciences either acquitting or condemning the person that doth it but only that there is such a thing as good or evil so cannot any reason be assigned of our consciences either accusing or condemning us if the notion of good and evil were not planted in the soul of man by that God who formed it For though tradition and education may perswade us to believe many things to be evil which are in themselves not so and consequently incline the conscience of him that committeth them to condemn or disquiet him for so doing yet could they not unless they could build without a foundation incline the man to be troubled for it but upon supposition that there is such a thing as evil Again when the main trouble of conscience proceeds from hence even from the doing of those things which that assures us to be evil what reason can be assigned of that trouble if it were not a truth implanted in our hearts that we ought not to do those things which our conscience assureth us to be bad For as it is evident no man could be troubled for acting against his conscience but upon supposition of his being bound to follow the dictates of it so is it not to be imagined that that supposition could have any other root than Nature For as for all frightful stories of Hell and the like which men who would be thought wise would have the ground of all Religion even those themselves if it be duly considered will be found to receive their force and efficacy from the conscience's foreperswasion of good and evil and particularly of its own obligation For setting aside the nature of good and evil as meer fancies and my conscience shall not so much be affrighted at the stories of vengeance as at the shaking of a reed because conscious of nothing that may deserve it I conclude therefore with S. Paul in that excellent discourse of his upon this argument Rom. 2.14 That though the Gentiles have not the Law that is to say no revealed one yet they are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another II. The being of the Law of Nature being thus demonstrated enquire we in the second place what the Precepts thereof are I do not mean to give account of every particular one for that were both an infinite and needless task but of the more general ones from which the other may be easily deduced Now there are two ways of investigating any truths as the forementioned Hooker hath well observed the one by the causes which constitute it the other by the signs and tokens which attend it The latter of these is without doubt the most easie but withall the most fallible and therefore quitting that at present I shall chuse rather to pitch upon the former and exemplifie the Precepts of this Law by it Now there are three things wherein our duty is comprehended according to those several relations we stand in our duty to God our Neighbour and our selves I begin with the last of these because nearest to us and therefore in all probability most easie to be discerned by us where the first capital Precept that presents it self to us is the preservation of our selves Now that this is a Precept of that Law which we call the Law of Nature beside our own natural propension to it will appear from God's giving us a being and means to support it For as the destruction of our being is a direct contradiction to that order which he hath set in Nature so our neglect to preserve it is though not a direct yet a consequential contradiction to that provision which he hath made for us in the world For what design can we suppose God to have had principally and chiefly I mean in those good things he hath given us but the support of our being by them If then it were the design of the Almighty in the good things of this world that we should receive support and comfort by them if this design of his appear from the nature of the things themselves the preservation of our selves is a branch of that Law and we consequently transgressors of it if we neglect it But from hence we may collect what we are to think of all self-murthers excesses or neglects for if the preservation of our selves be a duty incumbent on us by the Law of our Creation then must that be a sin which either destroys or impairs or neglects it and consequently all laying violent hands upon our selves all intemperance and sloth and idleness From the duty we owe to our selves ascend we to that which is terminated in God and see whether there be any footsteps of such a one in that Law whereof we are speaking Now there are two things wherein our duty to God may be comprehended our honouring him and obeying him The former of these is evident from that excellency which the soul assisted with the bare light of reason may discern in God For being it is a clear dictate of the light of reason that whatsoever is excellent is to be honoured God as being the most excellent essence yea the fountain of all others excellencies must be much more so by how much he transcends all others But from hence it is evident what we are to think not only of all manifest contempts of him but of adopting any thing else into equal honour with him for being God is not only to be honoured but to be honoured also above all other beings because so far surpassing them the adopting of any other into the like honour must be a diminution of his and consequently a breach of this fundamental Law as well as of that which saith Thou shalt have no other Gods beside me The same is no less evident concerning that other branch of our duty to God even our yielding obedience to all his commands for being as was before shown God is our maker and sustainer he has a right to our obedience and consequently we a necessity of obeying him But from hence will follow not only our yielding obedience to all other the Laws of Nature but to all positive and revealed ones for being the command of God is that which challenges our obedience and not the manner whereby it is made known to us whatsoever appears to be such must be equally our duty whether engraven in Tables of stone as that of Moses was or in the more noble Tables of our heart as this of Nature The only thing now remaining to be proved is what we commonly call our duty to our Neighbour and may be comprised in these
only arguing as S. Paul there doth from a Ceremonial Precept to a Christian duty but affirming expresly concerning that Precept that it was written for the times of the Gospel he thereby plainly shews that though the force thereof were evacuated as to the Ceremony yet it is obligatory as to the Moral which it was chiefly designed to consign and intended by God so to do And therefore if I were to prove in like manner the necessity of purifying our souls before we betake our selves to the solemn Worship of God as it is evident from this of S. Paul that it were enough to alledge a Precept out of the Law because written for us as well as for the Jews so particularly from Gods frequent enjoining the Jews to wash themselves and their clothes before they appeared before him for doth God take care of clean attire or a smooth skin any more than he doth of Oxen and if not may not I as well conclude that for our sakes no doubt this was written that he that presents himself before the Lord should appear with a clean heart with a soul no way stained by any unrepented sin Now if even Ceremonial Precepts were some way intended for us much more those of a higher rank the second thing to be demonstrated For the further evidencing whereof the first thing that I shall alledge is that of the same S. Paul Eph. 6.1 and so on Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth For pressing upon the Ephesians not only the duty of honouring Parents but also upon the account of the fifth Commandment he thereby plainly sheweth that it was intended to oblige them also and in them because they were Gentiles all other Christians In like manner the same Apostle dehorting the Romans from the avenging of themselves inforceth that dehortation from the Law of Moses Deut. 32.35 for it is written saith he Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. And not contented with that he backs it with another out of the Proverbs c. 25.21 where it is written in like manner If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee To all which if we add the same Apostles affirming that whatsoever was written aforetime by way of comfort was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 as in like manner that what is storied of Gods judgments upon the Israelites was written for our admonition to the intent we should not offend as they also did so we shall not need to doubt but that the Precepts of their Law were intended for our direction and obedience For if Gods mercies and judgments upon them were written for our learning no doubt but his Precepts were as which the other were designed to inforce Fourthly and lastly though the Law of Moses did not oblige us by being given to the Israelites though in the primary intention thereof it were designed for the Israelites only and consequently could not so induce an obligation upon any other yet as it was secondarily intended for the Gentile world so soon as God should bring it into the Church so which excludes all doubt of our obligation to it it was adopted by our Saviour into his Law and by him both confirmed and fulfilled But because that is too copious as well as too important an argument to find a room here I will respite the handling thereof to the following Discourses where I will fully and distinctly consider it These two things only would be added here to prevent all mistakes concerning our obligation to the Law of Moses 1. That when I say it was intended to oblige us and accordingly adopted by our Saviour into his Law we understand it so far as it had no peculiar reference to Gods dispensation under the Law or the Polity of the Jewish state For as upon the account of the former I have discarded all ceremonial Rites as which were intended only to serve to the administration of the Law so I must also upon the account of the latter discard all those Precepts which concerned the regulation of their State 2. Again when I say the Law of Moses was though secondarily intended to oblige us and as such adopted by our Saviour my meaning is not to affirm an obligation to a perfect obedience but to a sincere and earnest endeavour and where we fail a due repentance and amendment For though the first Covenant left no place for repentance and pardon yet the Gospel doth and hath accordingly as hath been elsewhere * Explication of the Apostles Creed shewn made forgiveness of sins one of the capital Articles of our Belief DISC. III. That Christ came not to destroy but to confirm the Law of Moses This evidenced in part in the Ceremonial Law from Christs confirming of that which was the main intendment of it and from his retaining some of its usances and transferring them into his own Religion The like in the Moral Law from Christs Sermon upon the Mount and from the evidence there is both there and elsewhere of Christs establishing and inculcating the great Precepts of Piety Sobriety and Justice WHat may seem to have been our Saviours fear concerning himself and Doctrine where he so studiously averts * Mat. 5.17 any design of destroying the Law and the Prophets in process of time came to be fulfilled The Jews representing the Author of it as a friend of Publicans and Sinners as the Heathen did the Religion it self as a Sanctuary of all impious persons For whereas saith Celsus * Vid. Orig. contr Celsum l. 3. p. 147. that great Enemy of Christianity all other Religions were wont to use such addresses as these when they invited men to initiate themselves in their respective Rites Whosoever is pure in hands and wise in tongue and again Whosoever is pure from all impiety that hath a soul conscious to it self of no evil and hath lived well and justly let him come and initiate himself in these mysteries but procul ô procul este profani Christianity on the contrary bespeaks the world after this manner Whosoever is a sinner or a fool childish or any way unhappy let him come for the Kingdom of God stands open to receive him the unjust and the thief the breaker up of Houses and the Wizzard the sacrilegious and the defacer of the monuments of the dead Indeed these are the men whom our Saviour came chiefly to call For I came not saith he to call the righteous but sinners Mat. 9.13 But it was as he himself there telleth us because those had more need of a Physician and to invite them not to continue in their impieties but to
them to put away their wives for a lesser cause Mat. 19.8 In fine the Jews were then but in the state of children as S. Paul tells us Gal. 4.2 they had the weakness and peevishness of children and being such God as was but requisite dealt with them as with children keeping them as that Apostle goes on under the elements of the world and permitting them to think and speak and act as such But now that the world is grown man now that our Blessed Saviour hath brought abundance of Grace and Truth into it giving men more wise and understanding heads more pliant hearts or at least more grace to make them so as it was but reasonable he should raise the standards of obedience and fulfil both the Law and the Prophets so it will be but necessary for us to make our piety answer them and fulfil that Law and the Prophets over again in our conversation DISC. V. Of the measures by which we are to proceed in the interpretation of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments That the Ten Commandments comprehend more in them than is expressed and how we may come to investigate the full importance of them Several rules laid down to direct us in that affair What tyes we have upon us to yield obedience to them above what the Jews to whom they were first given had A comparison between the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt by which their obedience is enforced and our far better deliverance from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law and Sin and Death HAving by way of preparation to our main design entreated of the nature and obligations of the Laws of God and particularly of that Law which we are now about to explain shewing the authority by which it stands the means whereby it comes to oblige us and the pitch to which our Saviour hath raised it it remains only that we enquire what measures we are to proceed by in giving the full importance of the several precepts of it For as when Solomon's Temple was to be built all things were so fitted and prepared before-hand that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the building of it so in every methodical discourse care ought to be taken that the materials be first squared and fitted before we proceed to the rearing of it lest the deferring it till then do not only prove a retarding of it but the noises of axes and hammers disturb and confound us in it Now there are two things within the explication of which the resolution of this question will be comprehended 1. Whether the Ten Commandments comprehend no more in them than is expressed And 2. If they do what those things are which they comprehend I. It is commonly supposed both by Jewish and Christian writers that the Decalogue or Ten Commandments is a summary or abstract of the whole Duty of Man I will not at the first either take so much for granted or attempt the probation of it whatsoever is to be said concerning this particular being best to be learned by a leisurely and gradual procedure It shall suffice now in the entrance of my discourse to affirm that more is comprehended in the Decalogue or Ten Commandments than is expressed in the letter of it For first all that must be supposed to be comprehended in it which is either implyed in it or necessarily deducible from it Thus though the letter of the first Commandment doth directly import no more than the rejecting of false Gods yet inasmuch as God prefaces this prohibition with I am the Lord thy God and the prohibition it self manifestly implies the having of him for our God it is evident that when God saves Thou shalt have no other Gods before me his meaning is as well that we should have him for our God as that we should not have any other God besides Again when the having of any one for our God implies the fearing and loving and honouring him that is so according to his several attributes at the same time he commands us to have him and no other for our God he must be supposed to command also that we should fear and love and honour him and him alone though neither of these be expressed in it But then if the Law be considered not only as proposed by Moses but as illustrated and enlarged by our Saviour in the Sermon on the Mount in which capacity there is no doubt we ought to look upon it because as such a part of the Christian Law so there is no doubt but many things are comprehended in it which are not expressed in the letter of it But because when I shew what things are comprehended in the Ten Commandments beside what is expressed in the letter I shall at the same time shew that something else is therefore superseding any farther proof of that as altogether unnecessary I will proceed to the resolution of the other II. It is commonly supposed and not without reason though that reason be not often made appear that when our Saviour reduceth the Law to those two great Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self he means that principally of the Law of Moses contained in the Ten Commandments Which if true it will follow 1. That the negative in every Commandment doth include the affirmative and that when God saith Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal and the like his meaning is not only that we should do no injury to our neighbours person or estate but that we should love and do him good in both Now that our Saviour intended those great Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and Thy neighbour as thy self as an abstract of the Ten Commandments and consequently that what is contained in them is also comprised in the Ten Commandments will appear from Rom. 13.8 9. where S. Paul doth not only affirm love to be the fulfilling of the Law according as his Master had done but particularly of the Ten Commandments For this saith he Thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other Commandment it is * Verba sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Now forasmuch as Love is the fulfilling of this Law forasmuch as the several Precepts of it are comprehended in it as in a recapitulation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat propriè variarum sum marum in unam collectionem per translationem antè dictorum repetitionem per capita Hammond in Eph. 1.10 or summary that Law of which it is a summary must comprehend love in it and consequently not only forbid the doing of any injury to our neighbour but the doing him all good offices and services There is but one thing of
to them for being the end doth depend upon the means and either follows or follows not according as they are made use of or omitted he that commands any end must necessarily be thought to command the means as on the other side he that forbids the end to forbid the other Thus forasmuch as drunkenness leads to lust and immoderate anger to murther were there no other Precepts to make them unlawful those of Murther and Adultery would because intemperance and immoderate anger naturally lead to them 5. For to enumerate more particulars would perhaps serve rather to forestall the ensuing discourse than to clear our way to it Whatsoever either the Old or New Testament proposeth concerning piety and vertue as it may fairly enough be reduced to some Precept or other of the Decalogue as will appear when we come to discuss them so considering it as our Catechism doth as an abstract of all moral duties it will be necessary to take that course in the explication of it 6. Lastly for though matter of duty be the principal thing here intended yet that duty hath promises annexed to it Whatsoever is here annexed by way of promise though more peculiarly concerning the Jews doth yet appertain to us also For being whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 being the Author to the Hebrews applies that promise to all Christians which was spoken particularly to Joshua and upon a particular occasion Heb. 13.5 it is much more reasonable to believe those promises to belong to us which are annexed to the Ten Commandments because they are no less our duty than those to whom they were first given And therefore as S. Paul when to shew the equity of Christian children's obedience to parents alledged the words of the fifth Commandment Ephe. 6.2 so he forgot not to add the promise annexed of its being well with us and living long upon the earth all which had been very impertinent if the promise as well as duty had not been our concernment as well as the Jews Allowance only would be made for the difference there is between the Law and the Gospel as to temporal promises but what that difference is and what allowance ought to be made for it will fall in more seasonably when I come to intreat of the fifth Commandment to which therefore I shall reserve the distinct handling of it Having thus prepared my way to the explication of the Ten Commandments by shewing the nature and obligation of the divine Laws and particularly of this with the measure whereby we are to proceed in the explication of them it remains that we descend to the Commandments themselves and consider the several duties that are wrapped up in them But because the Law-giver himself before he proceeds to the several Precepts of the Decalogue labours to stir up the Israelites to yield obedience to them by the consideration of that great mercy of Gods toward them in bringing them out of the Land of Egypt I will for a conclusion of this discourse shew what like tyes he hath upon us to the performance of the same duties And here in the first place it is not to be forgotten because that is the first root and foundation of all our obligation to him that he who exacts our obedience is he that made us he from whom we receive our life and breath and all things conducing to the support of it For as it is but reasonable in it self that God should exact the obedience of those who are made and sustained by him so it is no less reasonable that we should pay him that obedience who receive so great a favour from him But not to insist upon so remote an obligation who have so many that are much more near and pressing to us Christians consider we in the second place that he who immediately bound this Law upon us hath bought us with his most precious blood An argument I the rather insist upon because it carries with it an exact correspondency to that mercy which God made use of to perswade his own people to obedience For as the deliverance of the Jews out of Egypt was a deliverance from a cruel bondage and such as neither before nor since any Nation groaned under so our redemption by Christ was a deliverance from a more cruel bondage because from a spiritual one We were in bondage to our own hearts lusts we were in bondage to Satan and his instruments a Master who after all our toil would have paid us no other wages than death and an eternal separation from God Again whereas the Jewish Law-giver delivered them from their bondage by the bloud of the Paschal Lamb and of their enemies he who bound the same Law upon us purchased us not indeed by the bloud of Lambs or of other men but which is much more considerable by his own Now if a deliverance out of Egypt were so strong an obligation to obedience that God himself should lay the stress of the whole Law of Moses on it how great a one may we suppose it to be to be delivered from sin and Satan and death and that too by the bloud of him by whom that Law was imposed on us Certainly if any redemption be a just incentive to obedience a redemption from such a servitude and in such a manner must be and we who are so bought obliged to glorisie God both in our bodies and in our spirits which are his We are not as yet at an end of the obligations the divine goodness hath laid upon us to yield obedience to these his Laws For whereas God though he delivered the Jess from their Egyptian bondage yet brought them into another from a servitude in making bricks to a servitude in observing many unprofitable Rites and Ceremonies our Law-giver on the contrary hath delivered us from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God that is to say for what Son is there that is not under obedience to the obedience of Sons to a service which is both easy and ingenuous We are not now as they under a yoke of ceremonial rites and ordinances we are not treated as slaves nor indeed as servants what becomes a Son to do and a Father to exact what is just and equitable and ingenuous that and that alone is the rule of our obedience Which yet neither doth he so exact as to cast us off for every transgression of it for every weak or indeed wilful deviation from it but after the manner of tender Fathers passeth by our lesser errours and upon our repentance and amendment receives us into favour after grosser ones Lastly as our Law-giver admits us to an ingenuous and easy service as he is moreover gracious and merciful in the exacting of it so he furnisheth us with ability to perform all those things which he doth so mercifully exact For of his
affirmed to be made by him but he himself for that reason styled the Lord of heaven and earth that is to say for so both the term of heaven and earth and the procedure of that argument shew the Lord of all the world and of all things therein contained PART II. That to have the One true God for our God is to owne him as such both in Soul and Body and in all the faculties and powers of each An account of what acknowledgment is due to God from the Soul and particularly from that great faculty thereof the Vnderstanding Which is shewn to consist first in a right apprehension of his Nature and Attributes secondly in a serious and frequent reflection on them and thirdly in a firm belief of what he affirmeth An enquiry thereupon into the just object of Faith the Congruity or rather essentiality thereof to the Oeconomy of the Gospel and how we owne God for our God by it HAving given you an account in the foregoing discourse of the Nature and Attributes of God together with the infiniteness thereof as also shewn that to have him for our God is no other than to owne him as such it remains only that we enquire how that is to be done and what respect is due unto him as a God For the resolution whereof 1. The first thing I shall return is that we are to owne him both in the inward and outward man For beside that Soul and Body are equally his by right of creation preservation and redemption and consequently an acknowledgement to be made by each we are expresly required by S. Paul to glorifie God in our body and in our spirit which are his 1 Cor. 6.20 But from hence it will follow 2. That we are to owne him for our God in all the faculties and powers both of the one and the other Which is farther confirmed as to the Soul especially by Gods requiring us to love him with all our heart and soul and might Deut. 6.5 Neither let any man say that this concerns only the passion of love and therefore not to be extended to other expresses of it For as we are elsewhere required to fear and trust in the same God which shews that the other are not excluded our Saviour assuring us as he doth * Mat. 22.27 c. that upon that great Commandment hangs all the Law and the Prophets as to our duty to our Maker it is evident it was intended to comprehend all other ways and means whereby we are in a capacity to honour him The only remaining difficulty is what acknowledgment each faculty is to make which accordingly I come now to consider 1. To begin with the Soul because the chief seat of piety and all other vertues and because God professeth especially to require it Where following the usual division of its faculties I will enquire 1. What is due to God from our understanding 2. What is due unto him from our wills and 3. And lastly what is due unto him from our affections 1. Now to owne God in our Vnderstandings which is the first of the faculties before remembred implieth in it these three thing 1. A right apprehension of his Nature and Attributes 2. A serious and frequent reflection on them and 3. And lastly a firm belief of what he affirms 1. Of the first of these there cannot be the least doubt that it is required of us towards the owning him for our God For beside that that is one of the prime acts of our Understanding and therefore to pay God its acknowledgment the neglect thereof casts us unavoidably upon that errour against which this first Commandment was principally intended to fail in our apprehension of God being not to own the nature of God but a fancy and imagination of our own And accordingly as S. Paul stuck not to tell the Athenians that they ought not to think the Godhead was like unto Gold or Silver or stone graven by art and mans device Act. 17.29 So he charges upon the heathen in general the vanity of their imaginations concerning him and which is more makes that the ground of Gods giving them over to those abominable crimes into which they fell Rom. 1.29 Taking it therefore for granted as we very well may that we ought to have a right apprehension of Gods nature and Attributes nothing remains to be enquired into but what that apprehension is from what measures it is to be taken and what is to be done by us toward the attaining and preserving of it Of the two former of these I have discoursed already in the foregoing discourse and must therefore remand you thither for your satisfaction it shall content me and may you to insist upon the last and shew what is to be done by us toward the attaining or preserving it And here very opportunely comes in that which is generally recommended by the Pythagoreans toward the attaining of Philosophical knowledge even the purifying our minds from all those earthly and sensual affections to which we are so fatally inclined For our understandings being apt to judge of things not according as they are in themselves but as they best suit with our corrupt affections till the mind be well purged from these it is impossible we should entertain any apprehensions of God which are not some way or other vitiated by them And accordingly as some of the Heathen because led thereto by their own necessities and appetites have been so stupid as to think the immortal Gods did eat and drink like us so others so depraved in their conceptions as to believe them tainted with the lusts of humane nature to have the same sinful passions and affections with themselves Witness their reporting them to descend from heaven to enjoy female beauties to maintain animosities among themselves and espouse those of men their making some of them the Patrons of fraud and cousenage and others again of intemperance and debauchery their appointing a third sort to preside over the Amours of men and both to kindle and maintain their loose and sometimes unnatural flames Of all which misapprehensions the great if not only cause was the passion they themselves had for them and that esteem and value they were wont to set upon them the Heathen no less fondly than impiously conceiting because these things gratifyed their own corrupt inclinations that they afforded the same gusto to the powers above and were the object of their affections and desires Forasmuch therefore as the minds of men are so apt to be debauched by their corrupt affections it is but necessary towards a right apprehension of God that our hearts should be first purged from them and we become if not wholly spiritual yet less sensual in our desires Now though that may seem a hard task to effect as I doubt not it may prove so at the first to those who have been accustomed to indulge them yet the difficulty will be much diminished and in fine wholly
Beings but is the Fountain of whatsoever is either dreadful or lovely in them hence it comes to pass that to own him for our God we are consequently to fear and love all other things with respect to the Divine Majesty from whom they derive their several Excellencies at the same time we fear or love them looking up to the Almighty and regarding them not so much for themselves as for that Majesty and Goodness which it pleas'd the Almighty to imprint upon them PART VI. How we may and ought to own God in our Bodies This done first by yielding Obedience to his Commands and particularly to such as have a more immediate aspect upon him Of which number are those concerning Invocation Praise Swearing by or Vowing to him The like effected by presenting God with external Notes of our Submission whether they be such as are performed within the Body as Bowing Kneeling and the like or such as though the Body be instrumental to yet pass from thence to other things Such as are the Building or Adorning of Temples and the setting apart certain Times for God's Worship and Service the Consecrating of certain Persons to preside in it and respecting them when they are so HAving shewn in the foregoing Discourses what Tribute is due to God from our Souls and particularly from our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections which are the several Faculties thereof it remains that we inquire 2. What Tribute is due to him from our Bodies and how we are to own him for our God in them Which is either 1. By yielding Obedience to his Commands and particularly to such as have a more immediate aspect upon him or 2. By presenting him with some external Note or Sign of our Submission The former whereof is by some call'd the Honour of the Deed the latter the Honour of the Sign I. Of the former of these there cannot be the least doubt that it is requir'd of us toward the owning him for our God For beside that the Name of God is a Name of Authority as well as Eminency and consequently implieth a necessity of Obedience in those to whom he hath that Relation God himself doth here make use of it as an Obligation to all those Commandments which we are now upon the consideration of he requiring our having no other Gods besides himself with other the Duties that follow upon the score of his being the Lord our God according as was before observ'd in his Preface to the Imposition of them But so that I may not stand upon a thing so plain doth that Lord of ours expresly require us to own him our Saviour putting by the Temptations of Satan to fall down before himself by saying It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him yea him onely shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 Now though what hath been said extend to all God's Commands because they all bear the stamp of his Authority yet is it especially to be understood of yielding Obedience to such Commands as have a more immediate aspect upon God these more immediately implying the owning of that Authority he hath over the Sons of Men. For the fuller declaration therefore of our own Duty in this behalf I will now set those Commands before you and shew how we own him for our God by yielding Obedience to them 1. To begin with Invocation or Praeyer one of the prime Acts of God's Worship and which therefore is of all others the most frequently and earnestly inculcated concerning which it is easie to shew how necessary it is to pay him the acknowledgment of a God For inasmuch as all Men desire the Preservation of their own Being inasmuch as that desire necessarily prompts them to look abroad for it if they think not themselves able to procure it in case any Man do not thus seek it of God it must be because he doth not believe it to come from him but either from himself or from meer Natural Causes But what other is this than to deny that God from whom every good and perfect gift cometh and to make a God either of ones self or Nature There being nothing more essential to the Divine Nature than the being the Author of all those Blessings by which the whole Creation is either maintain'd or adorn'd The same is to be said of that which is sometime reckon'd as a part of Prayer because a necessary attendant of it that is to say of giving Thanks to him for those Blessings by which we are at any time made happy He who refuseth thus to honour God in effect denying the coming of them from him because Nature it self hath taught us to make this return wheresoever we have been oblig'd If there be any thing farther to be observ'd concerning these two Acknowledgments it will fall in more pertinently when we come to entreat of The Prayer of our Lord to which therefore I shall reserve the consideration of it 2. From Prayer and Thanksgiving therefore pass we to Praise another Act of Adoration and no less frequently enjoyn'd And no wonder if we consider either the end for which the Tongue was given or its aptness to set forth the Excellencies of the Almighty For as if we consider the practice of Holy Men it may seem to have been given for nothing more than for commemorating the Excellencies of the Divine Nature so by the variety of its Expressions it is fitted to set forth all those Excellencies of which the Divine Nature is compos'd as neither wanting Words to express his Justice and Mercy and the like nor yet that which makes them more Divine the Infiniteness thereof 3. To Praising the Divine Majesty subjoyn we Swearing by him another Act of Adoration and no less expresly requir'd for so we find the Prophet Moses distinctly commanding and that too in the same Period where he prescribes his Fear and Service for thou shalt fear the Lord thy God saith he and serve him and swear by his Name Deut. 6.13 And indeed if we consider the nature of an Oath we shall not in the least doubt of the manner of our owning him for our God by it For an Oath being nothing else than the calling God to witness to the Truth of what we affirm he that swears by him doth not onely acknowledge God to be superior to himself but also to be a Witness of infallible Truth a Searcher of our Hearts and a most just and powerful Avenger of all Perjury and Falshood no one appealing to a Witness that is not of greater Authority than himself and with much less reason for the sincerity of his own Affirmations but where that sincerity may be known or any deviation from it be punish'd if he transgress it For what satisfaction could an Oath be to any Man if Men did not presume God to be an Avenger of Perjury and Falshood as well as a Discerner of the Truth And accordingly as for the most part such Clauses as this are generally
the Lord blessed the * or Sabbath day seventh day and hallowed it PART I. The Contents The general Design of the Fourth Commandment the setting apart a Portion of our Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one The particular Duties either suh as appertain to the Substance of the Precept or such as are onely Circumstances thereof Of the former sort are 1. The Worshipping of God in private and by our selves the Morality whereof is evidenced from the particular Obligation each individual Person hath to the Divine Majesty 2. The Worshipping of him in consort with others which is also at large establish'd upon Principles of Nature and Christianity 3. The setting apart a Time for the more solemn performance of each As without which Religious Duties will be either omitted or carelesly perform'd but to be sure no Publick Worship can be because Men cannot know when they shall meet in order to it 4. Such a Rest from our ordinary Labours as will give us the leisure to intend them and free us from distraction in the performance of them BEING now to enter upon the Fourth Commandment about the Nature whereof there hath been so much Contention in the Church of England I cannot forbear to say There is all the reason in the World to believe it to be Moral in the main as having a place among those Commandments which contain nothing in them which is not confessedly Moral But because when we come to understand its general Design and particular Precepts we shall be much better able to judge whether or no and how far the Matter thereof is Moral I will without more ado apply my self to the investigation of them and shew to what Duties it oblig'd Now the general Design of this Fourth Commandment is the setting apart a Portion of our Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one That it designs the setting apart some Portion of our Time the very Words of the Commandment shew as not onely acquainting us with God's sanctifying a Seventh part but obliging the Jews in conformity thereto to rest from their ordinary Labours and observe it as holy unto the Lord. The onely difficulty is Whether it designs the setting apart of that Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one For the proof of the former part whereof though I cannot say we have the same clearness of Evidence from the Letter of the Commandment it self yet I shall not scruple to affirm That it may be inferr'd from thence by necessary consequence and not onely be prov'd to be a part of the Precept but the principal one For how is that day kept as holy which hath nothing holy performed in it Or what reference can it have to God as the Word holy implies where God is not at all honour'd in it Neither will it suffice to say That the very Resting on that day is of it self a Consecration of it unto God For as it becomes a Consecration onely by the Parties so resting in compliance with the Command and Ends of God so it supposeth at least that they should on that day order their Thoughts to him and rest from their ordinary Labours in contemplation of his Command and in remembrance of his resting from that great Work of the Creation Again Though to rest from their ordinary Labours especially as was before understood were a kind of devoting it unto God yet there being other and more acceptable ways of keeping it holy than by a simple Rest from them it is but reasonable to think when God caution'd the Jews so to remember it he design'd no less to be honour'd other ways Lastly Forasmuch as God not onely commanded to keep it holy but in this very Precept represents it as his own * But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God as in Isaiah ‖ Isa 58.13 under the Title of his holy day and the holy of the Lord he thereby manifestly implies that it should be dedicated to his Worship and not onely not be profan'd by ordinary Service but hallowed by his own For how is it God's Holy day but by being dedicated to his Service or how observ'd as such but by giving him his proper Service in it Whence it is that where the Prophet Isaiah gives it those Elogies he insers our honouring him from them as well as the not pleasuring of our selves Though therefore so much be not directly and in terminis express'd yet it is clearly enough imply'd that God design'd his own Honour and Service in it and commanded it to be set apart for the performance of it Lastly As God design'd the setting apart of a certain Time for his own Worship so more especially for the Publick one Of which though there be no Indication in the Commandment it self yet there is proof sufficient in the 23d Chapter of Levitious where we find not onely the forementioned Rest required but the day it self appointed for an holy Convocation as you may see ver 2. of that Chapter And accordingly though the Jews did generally look no farther than the Letter of the Law and some of them as is probable here content themselves with an outward Rest as by which they thought to satisfie the Commandment yet the generality of them have in all times look'd upon the Service of God as the End for which they were commanded to keep the Sabbath For thus Josephus in his second Book against Appion tells us Thorndike of Religious Assemblies ch 2. where this of Josephus and that of Philo are quoted That Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary Learning of the Law not by hearing it once or twice but every seventh day laying aside their Works he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law and throughly and exactly to learn it As in like manner Philo in his Third Book of the Life of Moses That the Custom was always when occasion gave way but principally on the seventh day to be exercis'd in Knowledge the Chief going before and teaching the rest increasing in goodness and bettering in Life and Manners I will conclude this Particular with that of St. James Acts 15.21 where to fortifie his Opinion concerning the prohibiting of Blood to the Gentile Christians he alledgeth for a Reason That Moses had in old time them that preach'd him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day From all which put together it is evident that the Service of God and particularly the Publick one was the Thing designed in this Commandment The Jews themselves who were none of the most quick-sighted being able to discern it and accordingly both of old and in latter days framing their Practice after it The general Design of the Commandment being thus unfolded proceed we to the Particular Things under Command which for my more orderly proceeding in this Affair I will rank under two Heads to wit 1. Such as appertain to
the Substance of the Precept Or 2. Such as are onely Circumstances thereof I. Of the former sort again are these four things 1. The Worshipping of God in private and by our selves 2. The Worshipping of him in consort with others 3. The setting apart a Time for the more solemn performance of each And 4. Lastly Such a Rest from our ordinary Labours as may give us the leisure to intend them and free us from distraction in the performance of them Now concerning each of these there cannot be the least doubt of their being Moral and consequently of Universal Obligation 1. That so it is to Worship God in private the Obligation each of us have to the Divine Majesty and the Words of the First Commandment shew For being he is the Creator and Sustainer of each Individual as well as of Humane Nature being there is no individual Person which hath not some peculiar Obligation to the Divine Majesty whether in respect of some Blessing receiv'd or Evil averted from him lastly being as was before shewn those Expresses of the Divine Goodness lay a necessity upon the Person that hath receiv'd them to honour the Author of them it follows because each individual Person hath been so oblig'd that each of them do for himself acknowledge those Obligations and pay God that Service and Adoration which is due because of them Again Forasmuch as the First Commandment doth not onely exclude the having of other Gods but injoyn the having and owning of the True forasmuch as it requires that of every individual Person as the expressing it in the Singular Number shews lastly forasmuch as the Matter of that Commandment is Moral it follows That to worship God in private and by our selves is a Moral Duty Which was the first thing to be prov'd 2. From the Private Worship of God or that which is due from each particular Person pass we to the Worshipping him in Publick which we have before shewn to be the Design of this Commandment Where first of all I shall shew it to be a Moral Duty and secondly a Christian one To worship God in consort with others being generally look'd upon as so much a Duty that no Sect of Christians for ought I know have ever made a question of it I have often wondred with my self whence so general a Perswasion should arise since the New Testament hath said so little by way of Precept concerning it But considering with my self that the same Perswasion hath prevail'd whereever the Worship of God hath taken place I entred into a suspicion that the same Common Principles had been the Author of it in both even those which Reason and Nature teacheth And indeed that there is enough in them to oblige Men to a Publick Worship will appear to any that shall consider 1. Not onely that God hath made Man a Sociable Creature but that Men have actually entred themselves into Societies For as it was but reasonable that those whom God had made Sociable Creatures should in return for so great a Blessing give a proof of it in his Service and with joynt Forces worship him who had both inclin'd and fitted them so to associate so actually entring into Societies they thereby became Sharers of the good or evil Fortune of those respective Societies which they espous'd In consideration whereof as they were oblig'd either to pray or give thanks according to the several Fortunes which befel them so to do both those Duties not onely apart and by themselves but in conjunction with those to whom they were so associated common Sense requiring that where the Blessing obtain'd relates to any Body that Body to which it so relates should pay its Thanks for it as on the other side that where the Evil either threatned or undergone relates to a Community that that Community to which it doth so should offer up its joynt Prayers to God to avert that Evil from it My second Argument for the Morality of Worshipping God in Publick shall be taken from the Obligation that lies upon us to provoke each other to the Adoration of him For being by the Design of our Creation not onely to glorifie God in our own Persons but as much as in us lies to procure the Glorification of him by other Men we are accordingly as our Saviour speaks so to make that light of ours to shine before men that they seeing our works of piety may glorifie our Father which is in heaven Now forasmuch as it is no way proper that our Personal Devotions should be so laid open because of necessity containing such Petitions as are not fit to be communicated to the World Reason requires that there be a Publick Worship instituted by our diligent attendance whereof we may provoke each other to the more devout Adoration of our Maker Which Argumentation I do the rather make use of because the Author to the Hebrews useth the same where he speaks of the Publick Service in pursuance of his exhorting to * Heb. 10.24.25 consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works adding not forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some then was but exhorting one another and so much the more as they saw the day approaching Lastly Forasmuch as on the one hand there is a necessity of instructing the Generality in the Duty they owe to God and every one that stands in need of Instruction cannot have a particular Teacher assign'd him as on the other all of us do stand in need of each others help in promoting our Petitions unto God it is but necessary we should sometimes meet together that they who stand in need of Instruction may receive it and both Teacher and Taught put to the utmost of their Endeavours to obtain of God those Blessings which they need For as God knows our Devotion is at best but weak and consequently may well require the twisting of some others with it so there is none of us which may not be sometime indispos'd to ask as we ought or unlikely by reason of some Sin to prevail though we should By which means as our own Prayers must needs be very defective so that defect naturally prompts us to adjoyn our selves to other Men as by whom it will be best supply'd What St. Paul spake concerning Charity being no less true in the matter of Devotion That the abundance of such or such particular Persons may be a supply for the want of others as on the other side that when their abundance fails the abundance of the other may be their supply and so by turns be assisting to each other The Morality of Publick Worship being thus establish'd proceed we according to our proposed Method to shew it to be a part of Christianity which will bind it so much the faster upon our Consciences In order whereunto I shall alledge first its being a part of Moral or Natural Religion according as was but now declar'd For it being the
God in general or with respect to the Publick one For inasmuch as the Worship of God as well as all other Actions requires some Time for the performance of it and Experience shews that what is left at large for the Time is either very rarely or perfunctorily perform'd there ariseth from thence a necessity of appointing a certain Time that it may not be either altogether omitted or carelesly celebrated when it is not And accordingly as all Nations have agreed in the owning of a God and in their own Obligation to worship him so we find them also universally to have set apart certain Times for the Adoration of that Deity they profess'd to own Not perhaps without some hint from the Tradition of better Times or from the Example of God's peculiar People for even in Natural Precepts the dull Mind of Man may sometime need to be excited by the instigation of others but without doubt for the main out of their own consciousness of the necessity of fixing a certain Time that so it might not either be omitted or carelesly perform'd There is yet another Reason of setting apart a certain Time if we consider it with respect to the Publick Worship and that is That they who are so to worship may know when they are to meet for that purpose For if * 1 Cor. 14.8 the trumpet give none or an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battel or know when as Tertullian ‖ Apol. c. 39. Coimus ad deum quasi manu facta precationibus ambiamus Haec vis deo grata est speaks they are to meet to besiege God and extort from him those Blessings which they need 4. But beside the setting apart of a certain Time for the Celebration of the Worship of God there is also requisite such a Rest from our Employments as may give us the leisure to intend it and free us from distraction in the performance of it For as the Mind of Man cannot at the same time intend Things of so distant a nature as Sacred and Civil are so if there be not some Interval between our Employments and our Devotions the Businesses of the World will be apt to insinuate themselves into our Thoughts and thereby divert us from intending of the other Such are the Substantial Parts of this Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue such their Nature and the Obligation which they induce What the Circumstances thereof are and what their Nature and Obligation is another Question and will therefore require a distinct Consideration PART II. Concerning such Duties as are onely Circumstances of the Precept which do either respect the determination of the Time wherein we are to worship or the manner of the Observation of it That there is no Obligation upon us either from Nature or the present Precept to observe a Just day a Seventh day or that Seventh day which is here prescrib'd The Ancient Christians Observation of the Jewish Sabbath together with their own Lord's-day considered and answered A Transition to the Observation of the Lord's-day where is shewn That much less than a whole day cannot be deem'd a competent Time for the solemn performance of God's Private and Publick Worship That since God exacted of the Jews a Seventh part of their Time we cannot give less who have far greater Obligations to the Almighty and That Christ's Resurrection upon the Lord's-day is as just a Motive to consecrate it unto God as that of God's Resting the Jewish Sabbath The Observation of the Lord's-day founded in the Vniversal Practice of the Church which is there also deduced from the days of the Apostles down to the Times of Tertullian That such a Practice is of force to infer an Obligation partly because declaring the Consent of that Body wherein it is and to which therefore it is but reasonable that particular Men should subject themselves and partly because an Argument of its having been instituted by the Apostles According to that known Rule of St. Augustine That what the Universal Church holdeth and always hath if it appear not that the same was first decreed by Councils is most rightly believ'd to have been delivered by the Authority of the Holy Apostles The Reason why when God gave the Jews so clear a Precept for the Observation of their Sabbath he should leave us who live at so great a distance from the Institution of ours rather to collect it from the Practice of the Apostles and the Church than to read it in some express Declaration II. HAVING shewn in the foregoing Discourse what the Substantial Parts of this Precept are together with the Morality thereof it remains that I proceed to those which are Circumstantial which may be reduc'd to two Heads 1. The Determination of the Time wherein we are to Worship And 2. The Manner of the Observation of it 1. In the handling of the former whereof I will proceed in this Method 1. I will inquire whether the Determination of the Time according as it is here fix'd be directly obligatory to us Christians 2. Whether if not any thing may be inferr'd from it toward the establishing of the Lord's-day and by what it is further to be strengthned 3. To which I shall add in the third place an Account of other Christian Festivals and shew their Lawfulness Usefulness and the Esteem wherein they ought to be held 1. Now there are three things which this Commandment prescribes concerning the Time of the Solemn Worship of God That it be a Day That it be a Seventh day and That it be that Seventh day on which the Jewish Sabbath fell or Saturday Concerning each of which I will particularly inquire Whether they are morally or otherwise obligatory to us Christians And first If the Question be concerning a Day according as the Jews reckon'd it and as they were commanded to observe their Sabbaths * Lev. 23.32 that is to say of that space of Time which is between the Evening of the foregoing Artificial Day and the Evening of the following one so no Reason appears either from Nature or otherwise why such a Day should be look'd upon as obligatory to us Christians For be it that that Account is most agreeable to the Order of Nature in which as the first Chapter of Genesis assures us Darkness had the precedency of Light and accordingly had the precedency both in the Scriptures and the Jews Account Be it secondly as was before insinuated that the Jews were oblig'd so to reckon their Sabbaths as the foremention'd Precept and their own Practice shew Yet as no Reason in Nature can be given why the Worship of God should begin rather with the Evening than the Morning according as it constantly doth with us so that this Commandment binds not such a Day upon us the perpetual Practice of the Church and the Occasion of that Festival we weekly observe shew For the First day of the Week or Lord's-day being set apart by the Church in
that day as God had prosper'd them toward the relief of the poor Saints at Jerusalem The same is to be said of reconciling Parties at variance of endeavouring to beget or maintain Friendship as by other ways so by a kind and neighbourly treating of each other witness those Feasts of Charity of which St. Jude speaks which were anciently an Appendix of the Lord's Supper as that was of this Sacred Day Care onely would be taken that whilst these have their due Regard we forget not those higher Purposes for which the Day was set apart such as are the Reading of the Scriptures and other such Books of Instruction and Devotion our instilling into those who are under our respective Charges the Precepts of a Holy Life and in fine the Commending both of our selves and them by Prayer to the Protection of that God to whose Service this Day was set apart AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLICATION OF THE FOLLOWING Commandments IN A DISCOURSE Concerning that Most Excellent RULE OF Life and Manners Which prescribes The doing as we would be done by And is moreover Represented by OUR SAVIOUR AS The LAW and the PROPHETS LONDON Printed for John Martyn at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard M.DC.LXXV AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLICATION OF THE FOLLOWING COMMANDMENTS In a DISCOURSE concerning that Most Excellent RULE of Life and Manners Which prescribes The doing as we would be done by The Contents Of the Nature of the present Rule and that it is neither the Primary nor an Absolute Rule of Humane Actions The former hereof evidenced from our Saviour's recommending it as the Sum of the Law and the Prophets but more especially from that Divine Law 's being the Primary Rule of them The latter from the possibility of our Desires becoming irregular and so far therefore no legitimate Measure of our Actions Inquiry is next made into the Sense and Importance of it where is shewn first both from the Nature of the Rule and particular Instances That we are to understand thereby The doing unto others what we our selves can lawfully desire to be done unto our selves by them An Objection against this Limitation answered It is shewn secondly That we are to understand by it The doing unto others what we should desire to be done unto our selves if we were in their place and condition As thirdly That we should do to others what we should desire to be done unto our selves by those particular Persons or any other A Transition to the Consideration of the Equitableness thereof which is evinced first from the Reputation it hath either procur'd to it self or met with among Natural Men from its being so esteem'd of even by those who do most transgress it and from the Equality of all Men both in their Nature and Obligation to the Divine Laws Of the Comprehensiveness of the present Rule and in what sense it may be affirmed to be the Law and the Prophets In order whereunto is shewn first That it is not to be understood as an Abstract of that Part of the Law and the Prophets which contains our Duty to God as which the present Rule is neither any proper Measure of nor intended by our Saviour as such Secondly That it comprehends in it the whole of our Duty to our Neighbour and particularly all those which are compris'd in the following Commandments A Conclusion of the whole with a Reflexion upon that more usual Rule of Humane Actions even of doing to Men as they have done to us the Iniquity whereof is noted and censured THOUGH Abridgments where they are rightly order'd do onely pare off unnecessary Things and like Pictures in little present us with all the Lineaments of that Work they pretend to abridge without taking notice of its Dress or the Embellishments thereof yet they are for the most part so ill manag'd that they do rather maim than contract it and in stead of giving us a just Prospect of the Whole present us with no one Part entire But as we cannot lightly presume those Abridgments to be such which have the Wisdom of the Father for their Author so if we carefully survey the Abridgment that is now before us we shall find it to be as comprehensive as our Saviour hath represented it and not onely a Compendium of but the very Law and the Prophets There being no one Precept of the Second Table to which this Great Rule of Life and Manners will not reach and lead us both to understand and practice Onely as in reason Men ought to have a distinct knowledge of the Rule it self before they proceed to consider it as the Abstract of others so I intend accordingly to inquire into its Nature Importance and Equity before I attempt to shew the Comprehensiveness thereof 1. That the Rule we have now under consideration is no primary Rule of Humane Actions is evident both from that Argument whereby our Saviour hath enforc'd it and the Measure from which Humane Actions receive their Rectitude or Obliquity For our Saviour pressing upon his Disciples The doing as they would be done by upon the score of its being the Sum of what the Law and the Prophets taught he gives us thereby to understand That the Law and the Prophets are the Measure of that also no less than of our Conversation and Obedience And though to Minds not prepossess'd this one Consideration might suffice to perswade that the Rule now before us is no Primary Rule of Humane Actions yet I cannot forbear to say it will become much more apparent if we consider from whence Humane Actions receive their respective Rectitude or Obliquity For receiving both their Denomination and Quality from the Law and Will of God to whom as being our Lord and Maker we are in reason to conform the doing as we would be done by can be no farther a Rule of our Deportment than as those Desires of ours shall appear to be conformable to his Laws and consequently those Laws of his and not our own Desires the Primary Rule of Humane Actions Of what use this Observation is will hereafter appear more clearly when I come to declare the due Importance of the Rule now before us It may suffice here to note That being no Primary Rule of Humane Actions it cannot have place but either in the want of some express Law or where we are under any prejudices against it For the Law and Will of God being the Primary Rule of Humane Actions there is no doubt but if that give us information we ought to be guided by it and not seek direction elsewhere Otherwise we do like those who take directions from a Clock at the same that the Sun stares them in the Face and by a Language that is easie to be understood calls upon them to look up to him or upon those Dials whereon he shines For as it would be absurd for any Man to take his Directions from such Helps when he may know the Hour of the Day from
the other so it would be no less for us to investigate our Duty to our Neighbour by what we our selves would desire to be done to us when at the same time we may read that Duty in God's express Declarations concerning it Onely as it may sometime happen and I wish I could say it doth not often do so that what is clearly enough reveal'd may yet be obscure to us or at least difficult to be practis'd through the Prejudices we have against it so in that case I should no way doubt the foremention'd Rule may be made use of to instruct us in our Deportment to our Neighbour He who in such a case considers what he himself could be content to have done unto himself if he were in the same Circumstances with his Neighbour making use of it not so much to detract from the Honour of the Primary Rule of Vertue which so far as he understands it he faileth not to consider but in compliance with his own Infirmities and that he may be the more easily induced to yield Obedience to it Men being more apt to see what is just and equitable when their own Concernments are interwoven with it than they are in the condition of a Stranger 2. It is to be observ'd secondly That as to do as we would be done by is no Primary Rule of Humane Actions so neither is it though in a secondary sense an absolute and unlimited one Because though we cannot desire any thing which comes not unto us under the notion of Good yet we may take that for Good which is far from being such and consequently make it the Object of our Desires For what through the weakness or rather crazedness of our Understandings what through the Power our Affections have to corrupt and debauch their Sentence it happens not infrequently that even these also do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and prophesie rather what is suitable to the corrupt temper of those that ask than what is agreeable to Truth and Equity Upon which as there will necessarily follow a like Irregularity in our Desires because moulded and fashioned by our Understandings so those Desires of ours therefore can no more be an absolute Rule of our Deportment than they can be suppos'd to be the Primary one But from hence it will also follow that when we make the present Rule our own we understand the doing unto others as we our selves can fairly desire to have done unto us by others For to do as we would be done by being not the Primary Rule of Humane Actions nor yet an absolute and unlimited one it is in reason to be bounded by that Law of God which is the Primary Rule both of our Desires and Actions and therefore also the Measure of this Rule no less than of our Conversation and Obedience It being thus evident of what nature the Rule before us is that is to say a Secondary and a Limited one inquire we in the next place into the due Importance of it Where 1. First The Premises so perswading we are necessarily to understand the doing unto others what we our selves can Lawfully desire to be done unto our selves by them For if our desires be irregular those Actions will be also such which receive their Measure from them and consequently cannot be supposed to be any part of our Saviour's meaning Thus for instance if a Woman should consent to comply with anothers Lust upon the score of her own desiring that that other should so comply with hers we are not to think that Action of hers to be therefore legitimate or indeed to admit of any Excuse because her Desire being sinful that Action must also be so which is influenc'd and directed by it In like manner if it should be pleaded as it sometimes is by those who call for Liberty of Conscience That we our selves if we were in their Circumstances would not be well pleas'd to be restrain'd I should think it no hard matter to prescribe against that Plea from the Limitation before laid down For the Question is not Whether we our selves if we were in their Circumstances should not desire a freedom from Punishment for what Malefactor doth not how obnoxious soever to the stroke of it but Whether we can lawfully desire it and whether the Supreme Magistrate ought not to punish those who seem to him to transgress the Rules of Christianity whatsoever their Pretences be Which if true that other Plea will come to nothing For as it ceaseth not to be lawful for the Magistrate to inflict a Punishment upon Malefactors because it is not unlikely that if he were in their Condition he would not be over-willing to suffer it so neither for the same Person supposing as was before suppos'd to restrain those who live in disobedience to the Laws of Christianity because if he were so affected he would be desirous to be freed from it It is indeed an excellent Rule to do as we would be done by it is of great advantage to the right ordering of our Lives and of like necessity to be considered But as it is not either the Primary or an Absolute Rule of Humane Actions so there is no doubt it is a much more excellent Rule to do to other Men what God hath particularly directed us to do and what we our selves if we were well advised would desire they should do to us This onely would be added That when I say we are to understand by doing as we would be done by the doing what we our selves can lawfully desire to be done unto us by others we understand this Limitation onely where some particular Rule may appear to judge of the Lawfulness of the Action by For though there may and no doubt ought to be place for the consideration of the Lawfulness of our Desire where any such Rule appeareth yet there is no necessity at all for such a Consideration where no such particular Rule appeareth partly because in that case we may reasonably presume the Desire to be lawful and therefore need not make any scrupulous Inquisition into it and partly because the Rule now before us having place especially in the want of a more particular one it is in reason to have its full force in the directing of our Actions where no such particular Law appeareth to controul it But because it may be said That if the foresaid Limitation be at all admitted the Rule we have now before us will be so far forth of no use it seeming as easie to discover what we ought to do unto others as what we may lawfully desire to have done unto our selves Therefore before I proceed to any new Limitations I will endeavour to remove that Umbrage which the following Considerations will effect For though it may be as easie in it self to discover what we ought to do unto others as what we may lawfully desire to have done unto our selves yet it is not so considering the Prejudices we lie under
against the Improvement of their Happiness what we do toward the Improvement of their Happiness for the most part detracting from our own and therefore not likely to be very favourably considered by us Again Though it should be as easie to discover what we ought to do to others as what we our selves may lawfully desire from them yet will not the former Discovery be of equal force to incline us to the doing of it because whilst that hath meer Duty to bind it on us this hath Self-interest also to recommend it which is one of the most potent Incentives to Obedience And indeed as Experience sheweth that we do never with greater advantage consider the Concernments of other Men than when we do consider what we in the like case should desire to be done unto our selves so we do not infrequently take that course not so much to satisfie our selves concerning our Duty to them as which is oftentimes apparent enough but the better to inculcate the Practice thereof upon us In which case the bounding of our Duty to our Neighbour by what we our selves may lawfully desire will be no hinderance to its use because there can be no doubt that what we ought to do unto others may lawfully enough be desired by our selves Thus without leaving the Rule in that generality wherein it is delivered it may be of signal use to us in directing our Deportment to our Neighbour he who makes his Neighbour's Case his own as the present Rule obligeth being both most likely to discern the Equitableness of what he demands and most likely to be prevail'd upon to comply with it 2. I observe secondly That when question is made concerning the Importance of the present Rule we are to understand the doing unto others what we would should be done to us if we were in their place and condition For it being manifestly its intention that we should take our measure of doing to others from what we our selves should desire to have done unto our selves it doth consequently suppose that their Case and ours be brought to an equality because otherwise there could be no equality in the Measure Thus for example if a Man be well provided of this Worlds Goods and consequently neither needeth nor desireth to borrow ought from others yet it will not follow from thence that he may lawfully hold his hand from the dispensing of those Goods to the Necessitous because the Question is not Whether a Rich Man as such would content himself without any Contribution from others but Whether or no he would be so contented if his Case were as necessitous as theirs who address themselves to him for Relief On the other side if a Man be of mean and private Condition and agreeably thereto content himself with it and neither aspire after Honour and Obedience from others yet it will not follow from thence that he may withhold that Respect and Obedience from those who are his Superiours in Birth or Place because the Question is not Whether under the present Circumstances he can content himself without them but Whether if he were in the Quality and Condition of those that are above him he would not expect that Respect and Obedience which is due to their Place and Birth A thing which is not hard to be divin'd by those who have seen the World or made any Observations in that Part of it in which they live themselves For thus we have seen Men who when low walk'd with down-cast Looks and breath'd nothing but Mortification and Self-denial but being advanc'd to Places of Eminency look'd as high as those whom they before condemn'd and call'd for that Respect and Obedience which before they thought it so indifferent to shew 3. Lastly When it is said for so our Saviour whose this Rule is hath express'd it Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them the meaning thereof is not Whatsoever ye would that this or that particular Person should do to you do you also to those particular Persons but Whatsoever you would should be done to you by whomsoever do you also do to all in the like Circumstances For the force of our Saviour's Words consisting in this that we should make our own Desires the Rule of our Deportment unto others it matters not whether we desire the Thing in question of this or that particular Person so we desire it at all under the same Condition And therefore if there be any so fond as not to afford Relief to a distressed Enemy because he himself would it may be be so haughty as not to desire it from any such he is not therefore to think himself to be disoblig'd from this Rule of doing as he would be done by For if he could not but desire to be reliev'd under the same distressed Condition the Rule obligeth to the affording of it because making our own Desires to be the Measure of giving unto others And more than this I shall not need to say concerning the Importance of the present Rule and may therefore go on to shew the Equity thereof the third Thing propos'd to be discours'd of Now the first thing that I shall alledge for the Equity of this Rule is the Reputation it hath either procur'd to it self or met with among Natural Men and such as had no other Light than their own Reason to direct them For though it be apparent that the Heathen borrowed many of their Sayings from the Scriptures and we therefore not lightly to look upon every thing that proceedeth from them as a pure Dictate of Reason and Nature yet I know not how we can avoid the looking upon this Rule as such because us'd by a Heathen long before our Saviour's time and indeed before there was any clear mention of it in the Scripture For thus we are told by Diogenes Laertius * Lib. 5. in vita Arist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Aristotle That when he was ask'd how we ought to carry our selves towards our Friends he made answer That we are so to carry our selves towards them as we our selves could wish they should carry themselves to us And though the Emperour Severus who had this Saying often in his Mouth Whatsoever thou wouldest not should be done unto thy self do not thou unto another though he I say be known to have borrowed that Saying either from the Jews or Christians yet the great esteem he though a Heathen had of it shew'd that it was agreeable to Reason and though his own Understanding help'd him not to discover it yet it taught him to approve it I alledge secondly For in things of this nature such kind of Proofs are allowable partly because things so clear will hardly admit of any other Proof and partly because the last Appeal in things of Reason and Morality must be made to the Consciences and Perswasions of Men. I alledge I say for the Equitableness of the present Rule That it is so esteem'd of
by all sorts of Persons yea even by those who do most transgress it For as Tertullian * De testimoniâ— animae cap. 2. concluded it to be the Testimony of a Soul naturally Christian That there is but One True God because they who worshipp'd Many could not yet forbear in their common Discourse to say God grant and If God will and God seeth all things so may we That this Precept is a Dictate of Nature because even those who transgress it themselves do yet acknowledge the Equity thereof For though in the Concernments of others such Persons cannot or will not see it yet when the Tables come to be turn'd and their Adversaries deal more harshly with them than they think themselves to have deserv'd there is nothing more usual than to object That they themselves would not be contented to be so used if they were in the same Circumstances with them Lastly For I am unwilling to let any thing pass without a more direct Proof which may be suppos'd to be capable thereof I alledge for the Equity of the present Rule the Equality of all Men both in their Nature and Obligation to the Divine Laws For being there is no difference between one Man and another in their Nature and much less in their Obligation to the Divine Laws being whatsoever difference there is between us in Condition is by God's setting one above another and placing him in a higher State and Degree if that Difference set apart as the present Rule supposeth and the Change that hapneth in Humane Affairs obligeth us to do if I say that Difference set apart I could not but desire that he who is better furnished with this Worlds Goods should afford some Relief to me in my necessity I cannot but think it just to afford the same Relief to him who is under the like Circumstances For it being but reasonable that those things which are equal should have an equal measure If I who am but equal to my Brother in Nature and by my own supposition now equal to him in Condition could not yet but desire Relief my self from those that are able to afford it there is the same reason for his desire of it and consequently the same necessity of his being gratified in it by me or any Man else that is in a Capacity to afford it The last thing comes now to be spoken to even the Comprehensiveness of the Rule now before us a thing which our Catechism doth not obscurely insinuate when it premiseth it to those Duties we owe unto our Neighbours but our Saviour much more clearly when he affirms it to be the Law and the Prophets Now there are two sorts of Duties which the Law and the Prophets contain and to one or both of which therefore this Rule is to be suppos'd to have a regard the Duties we owe to the Great Creator of the World or the Duties which are owing by us to our Neighbour The former of these are no way pertinent to the present Rule or at least not in those Terms wherein it is delivered by our Saviour because the Persons from whom we expect a favourable deportment and to whom accordingly we ought to be ready to afford it are by our Saviour * Mat. 7.12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them suppos'd to be Men or rather in express Terms declar'd so to be Not to tell you that it would be a kind of arrogancy to apply it to the Duty we owe to God or attempt to judge of that Duty by it because so we could not do without seating our selves in the Place of God which is too great a Presumption to do even by a Supposition If the doing as we would be done by may with any propriety be referr'd to God it is onely as the desire of his dealing favourably with us is considered as an Argument to prompt us to the like deportment towards our Brethren And in this sense there is no doubt it hath the countenance of Equity as well as the Suffrage of the Almighty For as God hath not allow'd us to expect Mercy from him upon any other Terms than the shewing the like Mercy to our Brethren so they who consider the little reason we have otherwise to expect it will think it but equitable to afford it For if we would that God who is no way oblig'd to us yea who is many ways disoblig'd by us should yet afford some Relief to our Necessities how much more reasonable must we think it to be to allow the same unto our Brethren to whom we are even by that God oblig'd But not to insist any longer upon so remote a Sense especially after that we our selves have declared it so to be proceed we to consider it with reference to the Duty we owe to our Neighbour and as the Sum of the Law and the Prophets concerning it For my more advantageous Explication whereof I will apply it to all those Precepts of the Decalogue which respect the Welfare of our Neighbour To begin with that which gives beginning to them even that which calls upon us to Honour our Father and Mother whether as that imports the Honour that is due unto Superiours or as it doth also connote that Fatherly and gentle Usage which those Superiours are to shew to those that are under their command For who that carries about him I do not say the common Infirmities of Humane Nature but even the most innocent Affections of it who I say that is onely such but would expect Honour and Obedience if he were advanced to that Dignity to which his envied Neighbour is Shall we suppose the lowliness of his Mind to repress such Desires But as that requires no more than such an humble Opinion of a Mans self as is answerable to his own Quality and Condition so we see but too frequently that a change of Fortune produceth a change also in the Mind yea such a change as is also superiour to the other Shall we then say and indeed more than that we cannot say that the present lowness both of his Fortune and Mind may keep him at least from thinking that he should give entertainment to more lofty Desires But even that will not be a bar to the discovery of other Inclinations if he will but advert to his present Demeanour under it For as there are few so low who have not some also under them whether in the relation of Children or Servants so we see but too apparently that even they cannot without regret receive from the other any Disrespect or Disobedience Now forasmuch as it is impossible for any Man not to desire Respect and Obedience supposing himself advanc'd to that Dignity which doth require it forasmuch as that Impossibility will easily discover it self to him who shall but reflect upon his own Demeanour toward those that are below him it will not be hard to collect That
as the Scripture which is more to be credited hath taught us another Lesson because forbidding us to say ‖ Prov. 24.29 I will do to my Neighbour as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his works so it hath elsewhere assign'd such Reasons of it as both shew the unlawfulness of such a Procedure and take off from the force of its Pretensions For giving us to understand that God to whom Vengeance originally belongeth reserveth that part of Justice to himself †Rom. 12.19 and to those whom he hath entrusted * Rom. 13.4 with his Authority it doth consequently make it unlawful to any other than such to assume to themselves the Execution of it and therefore also to do to Men as they have before dealt with them If he who hath his own Injuries return'd upon him receive no more than he doth deserve yet will not that warrant our retaliating them because we have no Authority to chastise him The more Equitable as well as more Christian Rule is certainly Do to other Men as ye would they should do to you as you your selves if you were in their Circumstances would be forward enough to desire from them So doing you will not onely not usurp upon the Prerogative of God or of his Vicegerent but comply with the Sentiments of Nature and Revelation with the several Precepts and Intimations of the one with the Law and the Prophets and Gospels of the other THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth theé PART I. The Contents A Transition to the Duty we owe to each other whether consider'd onely as Men or under a more near Relation The latter of these provided for in this Fifth Commandment which is divided into a Duty and a Promise An Essay toward a general Explication of the Duty where is shewn That under Father and Mother are comprehended 1. Grandfather and Grandmother and other the Ancestors from whom we came because though at a distance Authors of our Being 2. Kings and all that are in Authority partly because in the place of Parents to their People and partly because their Authority is a Branch of the Paternal one and succeeded into the place of it 3. Our Spiritual Pastors because begetting us to a better Birth And in fine All that are our Superiours whether in Authority Dignity or Age. The like Comprehensiveness evinc'd in the Honour that is requir'd which is shewn also to include Fear and Love together with the Expressions of them and Honour The Duty of Superiours connoted in the Honour that is to be paid to them and how that Duty may be inferr'd An Address to a more particular Explication of the Duty where the Honour of Parents is resum'd and the Grounds thereof shewn to be first Their being under God the Authors of ours and secondly the Maintainers of it The Consequences of the former Ground propos'd and shewn to preclude all Pretences of Disrespect OUR Duty to God being provided for in the first place as which is both the Foundation and Limitation of all others proceed we according as the Decalogue invites to consider the Duty we owe to each other which may be reduc'd to two Heads that is to say such as we owe to one another as Men or such as arise from some more intimate Relation between us The latter of these is my Task at this time because the Design of the Commandment that is now before us for the Explication whereof I will consider 1. The Duty enjoyn'd And 2. The Promise wherewith it is enforc'd I. Now though if we look no further than the Letter we could not be long to seek what that is which is here bound upon us yet because I have before shewn that many things are contain'd in a Commandment beside what is express'd in it to attain the full importance of this we must enter into the very Bowels of it and extract that Sense which is wrapp'd up in it as well as that which is apparent In order whereunto I will inquire 1. Whether any Superiours are here meant besides Fathers and Mothers 2. What is the importance of that Honour which is here requir'd 3. Whether the Commandment provide for the Behaviour of Superiours towards Inferiours as well as of Inferiours towards them 1. And first of all though Father and Mother be the onely Persons express'd to whom we are requir'd to give Honour yet the general Reason of the Commandment obligeth us to extend it to Grandfathers and Grandmothers and other the Ancestors from whom we are descended because though they contributed not immediately to our Birth yet mediately they did as being the Authors of those from whom we deriv'd it Whence it is that in the Scripture they have often the Name of Fathers as Your Father Abraham rejoyc'd to see my day and was glad But beside that Grandfathers and Grandmothers are to be understood and other the Stocks from whence we came there is no doubt but Kings and all that are in Authority are included in the same general Names Witness first their being in the place of Fathers to those who are under their Dominion For though as Moses sometime told God they do not beget their People if we understand it with reference to their Natural one yet as their Civil Birth is from them so they carry them in their bosom as a nursing Father beareth the sucking Child as the same God commanded the angry Moses Num. 11.12 Again As Kings are in the place of Fathers to their People especially in respect of their Tuition so the Authority of Kings is a Branch of the Paternal one and succeeded into the Place of it Of which beside the Testimony * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Sanders de Oblig Conscient Praelect 7. sect 16. of Aristotle who was no Friend of Kingly Government and the great number of Kings that was anciently in every little Country and particularly in the Land of Canaan we may discern evident Marks in the Authority of Fathers even after the Empire was otherwise dispos'd of these having anciently the Power of Life and Death which is one of the principal Flowers of the Regal Diadem Now forasmuch as Kings are not onely in the place of Fathers to their People but vested in that Authority which was originally and naturally theirs it is but reasonable to think that when God commanded to honour these his Intention was to include the other as who beside their resemblance to them had also the best part of their Authority Next to Kings and Princes consider we our Spiritual Fathers even those who beget us to Piety and to God concerning whom there can be no place for doubt that they ought to be understood in those Fathers we are here commanded to revere For if our Earthly Father is to have Honour those certainly ought not to go
and Behaviour For as Nature it self hath prompted us to such an Acknowledgment because inclining us to shew forth in the Behaviour of our Bodies those Affections and Passions we have within so the Custom of the World which is the most proper Judge of Affairs of this nature hath made it a necessary part of that Acknowledgment I say not onely in respect of the Esteem of the World but also in respect of God For requiring as he doth an Acknowledgment of our inward Esteem and such a one as may satisfie the World concerning it he doth consequently leave it to the Judgment of the World to determine after what manner it is to be done Now forasmuch as the Judgment of the World hath determin'd the shewing our Respects by our outward Gesture and Behaviour it follows that to the due honouring of our Parents we are to take that course and make our outward Behaviour bespeak our inward Reverence and Esteem But from hence it will follow that according as the Custom of the Country is we are to rise up or bow before our Natural Parents Which is the rather to be represented because a Generation of Men have sprung up with whom all these things are either superfluous or superstitious never considering in the mean while that they not onely run counter to the Judgment of the World which yet as was before observ'd is the most proper Judge of Affairs of this nature but also to the Judgment and Practice of the best of Men and such whose Carriage is not lightly to be despis'd among whom we find nothing more usual than bowing down before their Superiours and sometimes throwing themselves as low as the Earth they trod on Now though the omission of such like Expressions of Reverence be a sufficient breach of this Commandment which enjoyns us the honouring of our Superiours and particularly of our Parents yet certainly that is much more because contrary to it which presents them with contemptuous ones Of which nature is the receiving their Advices with Laughter or a less composed Countenance pointing at them with the Finger or winking with the Eye there being no doubt a Child may be as undutiful in his Looks as either in his Words or Actions That of Solomon * Prov. 30.17 shall serve both for a Proof and a Conclusion of this Affair because shewing both the undutifulness of such a Behaviour and the displeasure of God against it The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it 2. Next to honouring our Parents in our outward Gesture proceed we to the honouring of them with our Tongues which is another requisite Expression of it the Tongue being of all the other Members the most apt to express our inward Conceits and therefore not to be wanting in this Now this the Tongue may do by speaking honourably to or of them by proclaiming their Vertues and our own Obligations to them by extenuating as much as may be their suppos'd Defects by taking off the several Objections that are made against them in fine by not suffering any thing to fall from it for even such a Silence is expressive which may any way offend or grieve them Agreeable hereto is that excellent Advice of the Hebrew Masters * Vid. Seld. de Jure Nat. Gent. l. 7. c. 2. when the Children had occasion to represent to their Parents any of their Miscarriages For in such a case say they a Man was not to say to his Father You transgress the words of the Law but rather It is written in the Law thus or thus and so as if he meant rather to consult them about the meaning of it than to admonish them of their Transgression But so which is of much more force St. Paul insinuates 1 Tim. 5.1 For requiring Timothy not to rebuke an elder but to entreat him as a father he plainly supposes that Fathers ought to be treated with respectful Language even when they do offend and how much more then when they are not guilty of any Miscarriage 3. From Respectfulness in our Language pass we to Respectfulness in our Actions which is another Requisite to the honouring of our Parents as because they are the most effectual Expressions of our Thoughts so because they are the clearest Acknowledgments of that Authority which God hath vested in them and of our own readiness to comply with it The onely thing worthy our pains will be to point out those Actions whereby we may do Honour to them Now there are two sorts of Actions whereby we may and ought to do Honour to our Parents the former whereof minister directly and immediately to it the latter indirectly and by consequence that is to say as they are Instances of our Compliance with their Will and Pleasure I. Of the former sort is first the administring to them in their wants and furnishing them with all things necessary to their support For beside that the Law of Gratitude requires this of us and therefore in reason to be suppos'd to be included in that Commandment which entreats of our Duty to our Parents it is by the Jewish Masters * Vid. Seld. de Jure Nat. Gent. l. 7. c. 2. p. 834. resolv'd to be the very Formality of that Honour which here we are requir'd to exhibit Wherein though perhaps they too much over-lash'd because the Word is of a more general signification yet that they thought not amiss when they made it a principal part of Honour the language both of the New Testament and Heathen Writers shew St. Paul expressing the relieving of Widows by the Title of honouring them and Hierocles * In Carm. Pyth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. declaring that we shall then honour our Parents exceedingly when we afford them the ministry of our Bodies and the assistance of our Wealth But so when our Saviour recommended the Virgin Mary to St. John saying Behold thy Mother St. John as knowing that to be a part of the honour that is due unto a Parent express'd his Obedience to it by taking her to his own home Joh. 19.27 And indeed however the notion of Honour may seem no way to agree to this affair because maintenance of it self contributes little honour to him that receives it yet if we look more narrowly into it we shall find it oftentimes to be a mark rather of Honour than Contempt For first of all Though Kings are of all others the greatest Almsmen if we should judge of their Quality by their Receipts yet inasmuch as what they so receive they receive by way of Homage and as an Acknowledgment of their Authority over their respective Kingdoms the maintenance they receive is not only no lessening of their esteem but on the contrary an aggrandizing of it The case is much the same as to those of whom we are discoursing and to whom we are
commands Submission to the Froward for Servants to oppose themselves so if they should be allow'd to do so it would introduce a greater confusion in Families than either the Peace of them or of the State would be consistent with 4. What Honour is due from Servants to their Masters hath been at large declar'd and thereby so far as this particular is concern'd the main intendment of the Commandment discharg'd But because I have often said that the Commandment which is now before us was intended also to comprehend the duty of Superiours toward Inferiours as well as of Inferiours toward them I think it not amiss to speak somewhat of the duty of Masters toward their Servants and the rather because oftentimes they stand as much in need of an admonition as the other In order whereunto following the division before laid down I will consider the duties of Masters toward their Slaves and and then of their duties toward such as though their Servants yet are so in a more ingenuous way Now though the Authority of Masters over Slaves be undoubtedly much greater than that over other Servants though anciently as Justinian * Institut tells us they had the power of Life and Death and were not accountable for it though they put them to death unjustly yet as the Roman Laws * Lib. 1. tit 8. sect 2 3. set bounds to that exorbitant Power of theirs and our own hath yet more retrench'd it so if we consult the Laws of Nature and Christianity we shall find there is more owing from them unto their Slaves than is ordinarily thought fit to be paid Of this Nature is first Furnishing them with Food and Rayment in such a proportion as may suffice the necessities of Nature this being absolutely necessary to enable them to the performance of that Service and Labour which they exact Of the same nature is secondly The imposing such Tasks upon them as is not above their strength to perform this being no more than common humanity requires of which Slaves are equally partakers with our selves But such also is it thirdly Not to punish them above the demerit of their Crime nor above what their Strength will bear Justice requiring that the Punishment do not exceed the Proportion of the Offence and common humanity that it pass not the bounds of their Natural Abilities In fine for so St. Paul plainly intimates where he commands Masters to give unto their Servants that which is just and equal their Commands and Punishments ought to extend no farther than the Laws of the place give leave or Equity and Christian Charity permit which to be sure will not only exclude all Cruelty and Injustice toward them but impose a necessity upon the Master of shewing such Compassion to them as their Weakness or Necessities may at any time require In the mean time though I no way doubt but Masters are to give unto their Slaves that which is just and equal and consequently to abstain from all Cruelty either in their Commands or Censures yet I think it necessary for them to submit both to the one and the other where the burthen which is impos'd is not above the proportion of their strength partly because St. Peter commands subjection to the froward and difficult and partly because that they have so much as their life is owing either to the mercy of their present Masters or of those from whom they were purchas'd From the duties of Masters to their Slaves pass we to the duties of the same to their Servants such I mean as are so in a more ingenuous way Where first of all I shall make no difficulty to affirm as I suppose neither will any man so grant that all those things are undoubtedly owing to Servants which are from a Master to his Slave the condition of Servants being much better than that of Slaves and therefore to be sure not to require less of their Masters than the other As little difficulty can be made that all that is owing to them from their Masters which at the entrance upon their service they do expresly covenant to afford them a Promise even where there is no other Obligation making the party promising a Debter and how much more then where there is a valuable consideration to engage him But from hence it will follow first Where there is any such thing covenanted that they are to give them the promised reward or wages and that too at or near the time wherein they become due to them he paying less than he ought who pays not at or near the the time because depriving the party to whom he owes it of that use and advantage which he might and which because it is his own it is fit he should receive by it It will follow secondly where that is a part of the Contract that Masters carefully and faithfully teach their Servants that Trade for the Learning whereof they become Servants to them which is the rather to be observ'd because it is oftentimes through sloathfulness omitted or basely and invidiously conceal'd at least as to the cheifest Mysteries thereof as if a Contract could be satisfied by paying one half the thing contracted for and it may be too the less considerable one I observe thirdly That in such Servants as are by Contract to receive their whole maintenance from their Masters a regard is to be had not only of what necessity but what the condition of that Service into which they are assum'd requires For by how much the more Ingenuous the Service is so much the more free in reason ought to be the entertainment of those that are in it especially when as it mostly happens paying accordingly to their Masters for it Whence it is that no Man of reason doubts but that the Apprentice of a Merchant or other such more liberal Profession should be treated in a better fashion than one of a man of a more inferiour one or an ordinary Serving Man to the same I observe fourthly That as care is to be taken on the one hand that they afflict not their Servants with immoderate Labours or Punishments so also on the other hand that they suffer them not to be Idle nor be sparing of just Chastisements when they deserve them the omission of that not only proving the bane of their Servants but being a falsification of that Trust which is reposed in them by their Servants Parents and an injury to the Commonwealth which by their slothfulness or cowardise is like to have so much the worse Subjects Fifthly and Lastly more than which I shall not need to say unless it be to exhort them to the practise of what they are thus bound to It is incumbent upon all Masters of Families to restrain their Servants from all Vitious Courses and both prompt and oblige them to the practise of Religious Duties not indeed by any direct obligation upon them from their Authority which reacheth rather to Temporal than Spiritual matters
whence it is that they are call'd Masters according to the Flesh but by virtue of that Great Law of Christianity which commands Men as much as in them lies to promote the business of Religion Which lying more in Masters powers than in other Mens by means of that Authority they have over them there doth from thence arise an Obligation upon them to promote Religion by their commands in all those which are subjected to their Dominion And indeed as that which is honest will very rarely be found to be separate from profitable if Men would estimate the advantageousness of a thing by that which is most certainly and lastingly so so there cannot be a more compendious way to promote our Interest in the World than by endeavouring as much as in us lies to make those Religious whom we employ Because as what such do is most faithfully and diligently done so it is most likely to be prosper'd by the Divine Providence from whom as all other good Gifts so this Worlds Wealth will be found to come PART XI Of the Promise wherewith the Duty of this Commandment is enforced and what the due importance of it is Where is shewn 1. That the Blessing here promis'd is a long and happy Life and particularly in the Land of Canaan 2. That that Blessing is to be expected from our Parents as well as from God partly by that sustenance and encouragement which our Honour will prompt them to afford and partly by their Intercession with God for us Vpon occasion whereof the efficacy of a Parent 's blessing is declar'd and the reasonableness of Children's desiring it of them is asserted 3. That the Blessing here promised implies a contrary Curse to the Violators of the Commandment as is evident both from the ineffectualness of a single Promise to perswade and the denunciations of God elsewhere Whether or no and how far the promise belongs to us Christians Evidence of its belonging to us from the obligation of that Duty to which it is annexed and from St. Paul's making use of it to perswade the Ephesians to the performance of the other An Essay toward the shewing in what manner and measure it appertains to us Where first is made appear that it appertains not to us in the same manner and measure wherein it did unto the Jews Evidence hereof from its referring to the Land of Canaan which was the proper Portion of the Jews and from the nature of those earthly promises that were made to them those as they were not clogg'd with the same exceptions wherewith they are now so intended in a great measure as shadows of more substantial Blessings That this and other such like Promises appertain to us First and chiefly in the Mystery or Substance where withal is shewn what the Mystery here adumbrated is even a Happy and Immortal Life in Heaven That they appertain to us also in the Letter but not without the exception of Persecutions nor yet any farther than they shall be found to be subservient to our Spiritual welfare and the Glory of God and of his Gospel Enquiry is next made whether or no and in what proportion the present Promise doth belong to the Observers of the several Duties of this Commandment That it belongs in some measure to all is evidenced from the extensiveness of the Duty which the Promise is in reason to answer But first and principally to the Honourers of Parents because that is the only Duty expressed and because that tye which Parents have upon us approacheth nearest unto that whereby the Honour of God is bound upon us The honourers of other Superiours more or less entitled to it according as those Superiours approach neerer to or are farther removed from our Natural Parents The consequence whereof is that it belongs more to the honourers of our Civil and Spiritual Parents than to other Superiours as again more to the honourers of our Civil than Spiritual ones because the former have a greater Interest in our Temporal Being The Explication concludes with enquiring what appearance there is of the literal completion of this promise Evidence hereof in the Honourers of our Natural Parents from the observations both of Greeks and Jews As in the Honourers of other Superiours and particularly of our Civil or Spiritual Parents partly from the orderliness of their behaviour which is more likely to be successful than Turbulent and Seditious ones and and partly from their preventing those Wars and Confusions which do principally occasion the shortning of Mens days II. HAVING entreated at large in several Discourses of the Duty here enjoin'd as well that which we owe to our Civil and Spiritual Parents together with all other kinds of Superiours as that which we owe unto our Natural ones it remains that we proceed to the Promise wherewith it is inforc'd of the prolongation of our days For though the words wherein it is express'd look rather like a Motive drawn from the Consequents of our Honour than a Promise of what God will bestow upon it yet as that Law-giver who proposeth any thing under the Notion of a Motive must if he Act like a Law-giver both represent that which is advantageous and moreover if the thing depend upon his Will an assurance of his own readiness to contribute towards it which is the very formality of a Promise so that that which God proposeth under that Notion was intended as a Promise St. Paul gives us to understand Ephes 6.2 He there stiling this Commandment a Commandment with a Promise and the first of that Nature meaning thereby the first of the Decalogue to which there was any express and special one Taking it therefore for granted that the words now before us have the nature of a Promise to the due observers of this Commandment I will make it my business to enquire 1. What is the due importance of it and 2. Whether or no and how far it appertains to us Christians upon the performance of the duty enjoin'd 3. Whether and in what proportion it belongs to the several duties therein contain'd I. Now there are three things within the resolution whereof the answer to the first of these will be comprehended 1. What the Blessing here promised is 2. From whom it is to be expected And 3. Whether it implies any thing of a Curse to the violators of the Commandment 1. What the Blessing promised is we shall not be long to seek because so particularly expressed in this place and in the parallel one of Deuteronomy chap. 5. 6. it being evident from them both that a long life is promised from that of Deuteronomy * And that it may go well with thee that that life shall be happy as well as long and from both again that that long and happy life should be spent in their own Country and particularly in the Land of Canaan that being the Land promised by God unto the Israelites and to which this Promise and in a
and all the Mischiefs that attend them but obliging Superiours for their own safety and that of the Commonwealth to cut those off which shall be found to withdraw Obedience from them And though it sometime happen that the Peaceable and Obedient meet with a Fate no way answerable to their Merit yet as generally speaking they are more likely to be successful than turbulent and seditious Men so where they are not they have the Conscience of their own Goodness to support them and the certain expectation of a Reward in another World That being a Blessing which as no Violence of Men can obstruct so God hath without any Exceptions oblig'd himself to bestow THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT Thou shalt * or not kill do no murther PART I. The Contents Of the Duty we owe to each other as Men and particularly to each others Persons and Lives the violation whereof this Commandment forbids The Affirmative part of the Commandment the shewing Humanity or Benevolence unto all the Grounds whereof are also declar'd Those either first our descending originally from the same Common Parents the ignorance whereof was probably the cause of the Heathens not extending their Humanity usually beyond their own Nation Or secondly our descending from the same Coelestial Parent God and being created by him in his own Image Or thirdly that Natural Compassion which God hath implanted in all our Hearts that necessity we stand in of one anothers Help and that Ability which we have by means of Reason and Speech to afford it The particular Duties this Humanity includes an inward Affection to Praying for and doing all those things which may promote each others Happiness Of which nature are the assisting one another with our Advice lending one another the Assistance either of our Persons or Fortunes and where there is a necessity of punishing using moderation in it This Humanity to extend in some measure to all unless where there is a Command of God to the contrary which is not to be suppos'd under the Gospel Of the Measure wherein this Humanity is to be extended where is shewn first That it ought to be extended even to evil and unjust Persons so far as is consistent with the Glory of God the Publick Good and the Good of our own Souls What the Result of that Determination is and that it no way hinders but Offenders may be brought to condign Punishment because Glemency to them is Cruelty to the Innocent Inquiry is next made in what proportion this Humanity is to be extended to the several sorts and degrees of Men where is shewn That where it cannot or not alike be afforded unto all those of the same True Religion with us are to be preferr'd before those of a False as those who are nearly related to us before those who are more remote Our selves caeteris paribus to be preferr'd before other Men but not so where there is an Inequality our own Pleasure being to be postpos'd to the necessary Support of a Neighbour and our own Welfare as well as Pleasure to that of the Society whereof we are WHAT is owing from us to each other upon the account of any near Relation was the Business of that Commandment to shew which entreats of the Honour of Parents It remains that we inquire what we owe to one another as Men which is the purport of the following ones In the investigation whereof following the Order of the Decalogue and Nature we will inquire first of all what is owing from us to each others Persons and Lives Now though if we look no farther than the Letter of the Commandment that is now before us the Whole of what is requir'd of us may seem to be no other than the not invading each others Lives or at least offering no violence to them yet because it is certain from the Laws of God and Nature that a positive Benevolence is also requir'd and because both our Saviour and St. Paul reduce the whole of the Law to Love which could not be done with any congruity if Benevolence had not a portion in it therefore I think it not amiss to allot it a place in my Discourse and inquire 1. Upon what Grounds it stands 2. What Duties it contains 3. To whom and 4. In what measure it is to be extended 1. And here not to tell you that Benevolence to all Mankind is so confessedly a Duty that it hath obtained the name of Humanity because though that be a proof of the Worlds believing it to be such and consequently that it hath a foundation in Nature yet it gives no account of the Grounds upon which it stands I shall without more ado apply my self to the investigation of those Principles from which both so general a Perswasion and the Obligation thereof doth arise Now the first Obligation we have of shewing Humanity to each other ariseth from hence that all of us though at at a greater distance descend from the same Common Parents For being by the former Precept oblig'd to give Honour to our Parents as well those which are farther remov'd from us as those which are more immediate to us See Explicat of the Fifth Commandm Part 1. in the beginning of it and Part 3. towards the end being also as was there observ'd we cannot give Honour to them unless we have a regard to those that are alike descended from them it follows that if we are all descended from the same Common Parents we are to look upon one another as of the same Family and consequently to afford one another a share in our Affections And though in tract of Time the Tradition of our Descent from the same Common Parents was in a manner quite forgotten among the Heathen which is probably the reason why they shew'd so little Humanity out of their own Nation yet as where there was a perswasion of descending from the same Common Stock there was always a Religious Friendship between them yea though Necessity or some other Cause had separated them as to the place of their abode so Josephus * Antiqu. Judaic lib. 12. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. tells us That when the Lacedemonians found by a certain Writing that they and the Jews descended from the same Stock as being both of the Posterity of Abraham they did in a Letter of their Kings to Onias the High Priest both offer and require a mutual Friendship as the result of that Cognation that was between them It being but just as the Words ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph ibid. of their Letter are that since you are our Brethren you should send to us for such things as you desire as in like manner we shall do and both look upon your Possessions as our own and have our own in common with you From which Ratiocination of theirs it is apparent that though the Heathen had not the knowledge of all Mens descending from the same Common
Stock yet they judg'd it so far as it could be prov'd a just Foundation of Humanity and accordingly where they discerned any such look'd upon themselves as oblig'd to afford it In the mean time you may see with what reason God premiseth the Precept of Honouring our Parents before those others of shewing Kindness to the generality of Mankind that being not onely a straiter Obligation but the Fountain and Foundation of the other But because as was now intimated how rational soever it may seem to be to shew Humanity to each other upon the account of our descending from the same Common Stock yet that Reason could not appear to all who were perswaded of the Obligation of it because the Tradition of that Descent was almost obliterated among the Gentiles Therefore it may not be amiss to inquire whether there be not some other ground of it and such too as was more discernable to the Heathen Of which nature I reckon our descending from the same Coelestial Parent God and being created by him in his own Image Which Ground is the more to be stood upon because God himself assigns it for the Reason of the Prohibition that is now before us For thus after the signification of his displeasure against the shedding the Blood of Man he assigns for the Reason of it and of that Vengeance which he inculcates that in the image of God made he man Gen. 9.6 Neither will it suffice to say That this is a sufficient ground of Humanity to those to whom the Scripture where it is recorded was made known the Honour and much less Love of God being by no means to be salv'd where a Regard is not had to those that are both of his Off-spring and his Image For as the same Truth is deducible from Natural Principles even from those which evince God to be the Creator of the World and the worth of those Souls of ours in which his Image doth most shine forth so that the Heathen were not without the knowledge of it is evident from several Passages of their Writings * Aristides dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manilim An quoqu im genites nisi coelo credere far est Esse homines Idem de animâ humanâ Coelo scrutatur in alto Cognatúmque sequens corpus se quaerit in aliris Vid. plura apud Pricaeum in Act. 17.28 and particularly from that which St. Paul quotes out of one of their own Poets For we are also his off-spring Now forasmuch as even by the confession of the Heathen we are all the Off-spring of God and that too to such a Degree as to have his Image plainly shining on us it cannot but be look'd upon as a dishonour to Almighty God not to have a regard to those who are both descended from him and of the same glorious Image with him But what speak I of the Heathens acknowledging all to be the Sons of the same God when it is evident from Arrian that they did no less acknowledge the conclusion we have deduced from it and the reasonableness of that Humanity which we commend For what saith he in the person of Epictetus to a Master who was more than ordinarily displeased with his Slave wilt * Arrian in Epictet lib. 1. cap. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. Antoninus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. s 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou not bear with him who is thy Brother who hath God no less than thy self for his Ancestor who as a Son is procreated of the same Seeds of the same Coelestial Emission But what if thou wert plac'd in the supremest dignity wouldst thou therefore presently make thy self a Tyrant and not rather remember what thou art and over whom thou rulest that thou rulest over thy Kinsmen thy Brethren and the Offspring of God From all which it is evident both that the Heathen themselves look'd upon all Mankind as the Off-spring of God and upon that account the just object of their Humanity Add hereunto that natural compassion which Nature hath implanted in the hearts of all men that necessity which they stand in of one anothers help and that ability which they have by means of their Reason and Speech to afford it For inasmuch as all those things must be acknowledg'd to be from God inasmuch as they naturally prompt men to the shewing of that humanity which it is the design of my present Discourse to establish it must be look'd upon as the intention of God who makes nothing in vain to oblige us to exert it to all those who are partakers of the same Nature and Infirmities with our selves And though having establish'd the former grounds there lies no necessity upon me to reflect upon those other Hypotheses upon which the Ignorant and the Atheistical have thought fit to erect the frame of Humane Society and those actions that tend to the conservation of it yet even so we should not find our selves without a proof of that humanity which this Commandment was intended to suggest For be it that at first Men lived a wandring and a savage Life and had no Bond either of Laws or Speech to conjoin them Be it that their own danger whether from Wild Beasts or as Wild Men oblig'd them to have recourse to others and by dumb Signs at first and afterwards by Speech which necessity put them upon the invention of both to implore the assistance of others and promise them their own Yet even so as Lactantius * Lactant. l. 6. c. 10. observes no contemptible proof might be found of shewing kindness and humanity to one another For if according to that hypothesis men entred into and establish'd a Society with one another for their mutual assistance and support it must be look'd upon as the highest wickedness either to violate or not observe those compacts whereby from the beginning of their Being Mankind was so link'd together 2. Having thus shewn upon what grounds that Benevolence or Humanity stands which we are oblig'd to shew to all mankind proceed we to enquire what duties it contains so far at least as this Commandment is concern'd in it Where first of all no doubt can be made but we are to have an inward affection for them and to begin our benevolence to them in our souls not only the word Benevolence so perswading but that abstract of the second Table which we learn both from our Saviour and St. Paul for both the one and the other summing up the duties of that Table in the loving of our Neighbour as our selves it is apparent we cannot satisfie the several precepts of it unless we have an inward affection for those who are the objects of them As little doubt can be made but we are to wish well to them and employ our Prayers to God on their behalf this being not only a natural result of Love but a duty which is particularly bound upon us by Christianity by which we at least are to
hyperbolically express'd there being no place for Murther there where there is not a Life to take away yet as what he saith is proof enough of the Ancient Christians believing it to be included in this Prohibition because here and all along pretending not so much to deliver his own Sense as theirs so the Reason by him insinuated is a sufficient Argument that they were not out in their Belief For though that be not a Man which is onely in a disposition to become so yet it is the Rudiments of one and consequently also of the Image of God To which therefore whilst Violence is offer'd a Violence must be suppos'd to be so far offer'd to the Image of God which is the Fundamental Reason of the Prohibition Now forasmuch as the Fundamental Reason of the Prohibition hath place in Abortions as well as in perfect Murthers it is to be suppos'd though not express'd yet to be understood in it especially being one of those Preceps which were intended as General Heads of Moral Duties In like manner because one great Reason of the Prohibition of Murther is the great Injury it doth to Humane Society by robbing it of one of its Members it is but just to think it to have been the same God's intention to forbid those Abortions by which Humane Society is though in another way depriv'd of those which should help to maintain and propagate it 2. But because beside Murther or what approacheth very near to it there are other things pernicious to the Lives of Men such as wounding maiming and the like which are commonly reduc'd to this Commandment therefore inquire we in the second place what ground there is to believe that these also are forbidden by it In order whereunto I shall alledge first That those do oftentimes procure that very Murther which is here forbidden In consideration whereof as they are to be look'd upon as no other than Murther where they have that effect upon whom they fall so it is but reasonable to believe that God who professeth to hold Murther in such detestation himself and forbids it so severely to others intended the Prohibition of such Violences by which they do often ensue 2. And though the same cannot be said of all Violences that are offer'd which will oblige us to look out for some other Reason of the Prohibition of them yet inasmuch as all Violences whatsoever are contrary to that Love which I have before shewn we ought to have for the Persons of Men even by the force of this Commandment it will follow that those also are to be thought to be forbidden by it and consequently that it is our Duty to avoid them Which Inference is to be look'd upon as of so much the more force because he who in this Commandment forbids onely to kill if we understand it strictly and literally doth in the very next Chapter forbid the doing of lesser Mischiefs such as Burning Wounding Stripes and Mutilating and gives command that they who are guilty of them should suffer the like in their own Persons Exod. 21.24 and so on Now though what hath been said upon this Argument may seem to suffice because shewing lesser Violences to be equally forbidden with Mortal ones yet because when we discours'd before concerning Killing we excepted that from the number of forbidden ones which is done in a Man 's own necessary defence therefore it may not be amiss to inquire whether even in those lesser Violences some exception be not to be made in the like case and whether or no because such Courses are commonly look'd upon as lawful it be lawful to retaliate those Injuries we have before receiv'd Of the former of these much need not be said I mean as to the Case of a Man 's own necessary defence For as where such Violences are not resisted a Man's Life may sometime come to be endanger'd by them in which case no Man thinks it unlawful to resist so more encouragement would thereby be given to violent Persons than is consistent with the Peace and Advantage of Humane Society Because however the Law have provided Punishments against such Violences yet they are long before they can be procur'd and oftentimes are too weak to deter Men from the like Practices This onely would be added That when we affirm it to be lawful to use Violence to defend a Mans self from the Violences of others we are necessarily to understand where no more is us'd on our part than is necessary to defend our selves because by this Rule made onely lawful in our own defence and therefore not to proceed beyond what is necessary to it For as for that Exception which may be made from out Saviour's forbidding us to resist evil it is nothing at all to the present purpose because as Grotius * Annot. in Mat. 5.39 hath observ'd the opposition being made between that and Moses's his Assertion of an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth we are necessarily to understand by the not resisting of Evil the not returning of Evil by way of Punishment because that of Moses was manifestly such The Case of a Man 's own necessary Defence being thus dispatch'd proceed we to inquire whether it be lawful to retaliate by way of Punishment and return those Evils we have receiv'd Concerning which I say first That no question can be made of the unlawfulness of retaliating with our own hands partly because Vengeance is by God claim'd to himself and to the Magistrate and partly because a private retaliating was not permitted even to the Jews the Law of an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth being left to the Execution of the Judges upon complaint made to them thereof as you may see Exod. 21.22 and so on and Deut. 19.16 and the following Verses The onely thing of difficulty is whether a Man may seek a retaliation from the Magistrate because our Saviour opposes his Doctrine to that of the Law which gave such a permission to the injur'd Party And indeed if we speak of a Retaliation properly so call'd that is to say of seeking the avenging of our selves of the injurious Party by procuring to him the like Evils he hath inflicted so no doubt can remain but that it is absolutely unlawful to a Christian and that not onely because of the former Prohibition of our Saviour but because the Scripture hath forbid us the returning Evil for Evil and enjoyn'd us to be patient under it and ready to forgive which that Man can in no sense be said to do who shall seek to avenge himself either by himself or the Magistrate The onely thing that can be lawful to a Christian in this Affair is 1. To seek a Reparation of the Damage he hath sustain'd which yet must be in greater Instances and such as cannot well be born of which nature are those Injuries which either disable the Body or bring any considerable Pain to it For what place can there
bring him within the compass of the Commandment Of Murther properly so called and of the Sins included in it what hath been said may suffice and therefore I will supersede all farther consideration of it But because the Scripture makes mention of another Murther even the murther of the Soul by which though it be not altogether depriv'd of Life yet it is of the comforts of it and thereby made much more miserable than if it were not at all therefore it may not be amiss to enquire whether that also have not a place in the prohibition and how men become guilty of it Now there are two things which perswade the Murder whereof we speak to come within the compass of the prohibition now before us 1. That what we call the murther of the Soul is properly enough such and 2. That it is a more pernicious one than the other That the Murther whereof we speak is properly enough such is evident not only from the Scriptures giving that State the name of death into which this Murder brings men but also from the very nature of it For as Murder properly so call'd becomes such not by the taking away of all Life for the Soul which is the chiefest part of Man lives no less after that than before but by the destruction of that natural Life which he from whom we take it enioy'd as to the present World so the murder of the Soul as we commonly express it though it introduce not a perfect insensibility yet it despoils it of that spiritual Life which it enioys in this present state and which is more of that also of which it is capable in the next It is no less evident Secondly That supposing what we speak of to be a Murder it is a much more pernicious one than the other because as that Life which it takes away is a much better one than the other so it draws after it an eternity of torment Now forasmuch as the Murder whereof we speak is not only properly enough such but a much more pernicious one than the other it is easie to suppose or rather impossible to suppose otherwise than that he who forbad the one intended also the avoiding of the other especially having before shewn that the Commandments of which this is one were intended as a summary of the whole Duty of Man All therefore that remains to enquire into upon this head is how men become guilty of it which will require no very accurate consideration to resolve For to say nothing of those who have the cure of Souls though of all others the most obnoxious to it partly because they are not under mine and partly because they are better able to inform themselves I shall content my self at present with pointing out those ways whereby private persons may come to be guilty of it which is 1. By prompting men to or encouraging them in those sinful courses which draw after them the destruction of the Soul That which gave the Devil the title of a murderer from the beginning as he is called Joh. 8.44 being no other than that as the story of Genesis informs us he sollicited our first Parents to eat of that Fruit from which both their temporal and spiritual Death ensu'd 2. The same is to be said of giving an ill example and thereby drawing other Men into the commission of the like Crimes an evil Example not onely having the Nature of a Temptation but being also of greater force than any other inasmuch as it doth more undiscernably instill its Poyson and finds Men more ready to receive it It being a known and undoubted Truth that Men regard not so much what they ought or what they are advis'd to as what they see others do before them 3. Add hereunto because of near affinity with the other the doing any thing how innocent soever whereby our weak brother may be tempted to do the like against his own Conscience Such as was for example the eating of Meats sacrificed to Idols in the presence of those who were not so well inform'd of their Christian Liberty For though as St. Paul spake concerning it 1 Cor. 8.4 there was no unlawfulness in the thing it self and consequently therefore nothing in it but the Conscience of the Idol to unhallow it yet might the doing thereof by a strong Christian be a temptation to a weak one to do the like if not against yet without a due assurance of his own Conscience Which as St. Paul hath elsewhere * Rom. 14.23 pronounc'd to be damnable and so destructive of that Soul which is guilty of it so both there †Rom. ver 15.20 and here ‖ 1 Cor. 8.11 he chargeth the guilt of its destruction upon those who should so embolden it to offend 4. And though the like care of other Men be not incumbent upon private Christians as is upon those Persons whom God hath more particularly intrusted with the inspection of them yet inasmuch as by the Laws both of Nature and Christianity they are commanded to reprove an offending Brother and not suffer sin to be upon him he that shall suffer such a one to perish for want of a seasonable and just admonition shall be so far chargeable with his destruction whom he did not endeavour to reclaim What is meant by Thou shalt not kill as that is to be understood of the killing another hath been at large declar'd together with the several Sins that are included in it Nothing remains toward the compleating of my Discourse but to shew what Sins are included in the killing of our selves Where 1. First of all I shall reckon the neglect of our Health because a step to that Self-murther which is here forbidden For though that for the most part be look'd upon as an Imprudence rather than any violation of the Commandments of our Maker yet it is because Men consider not that there is a Duty owing by them to themselves or rather unto God concerning them They are as I have before remark'd plac'd in this World by God they are put into a capacity of and enjoyn'd the serving of their Maker in it and being so are in reason to intend the performance of it and because that cannot otherwise be procur'd to intend also the preservation of themselves the neglect of that not onely making Men more unapt for it whilst they live but cutting them off before their time 2. To the neglect of our Health subjoyn we the exposing our selves to unnecessary dangers and where nothing but vain-glory or the desire of filthy Lucre prompts us to it such as are many of those Dangers which they who profess Feats of Activity do without the least scruple involve themselves in For as it is rare for such Persons to what Agility soever they may have attain'd not to procure their own destruction in the end so many of the Dangers to which they expose themselves are so imminent that they must always be thought
Principles I shall not onely wave the arguing the generality of the Prohibition from the Latitude wherein the Word Stealing is sometimes taken but profess my self to agree with those who understand no other by Stealing than the clancular taking away of that which is another Mans that being the proper signification of the Word and so understood by all the Translators of the Decalogue And indeed as I shall by and by shew that there is no necessity at all of understanding it in a more general sense so that we ought to take it in a more restrained one the Stile of the Declalogue and particularly of the two foregoing Precepts shews For making use of Murther and Adultery which are onely particular Species of Injuriousness and Uncleanness to denote all those which are of the same Genus it is but reasonable to think especially when the Hebrew phrase inclines us to it that the Commandment we are now upon made use of one particular Crime in the matter of Injustice to express all those that are of the same nature with it Which Observation as it establisheth the proper Notion of the Word Steal for which it was primarily produc'd so withal affords no contemptible Argument of Gods intention to forbid in it all Vsurpations whatsoever or diminutions of the Properties of our Neighbours especially if we add thereto the general Design of the Precepts of the Decalogue and the Agreement of others with that which is here expresly forbidden For with what shadow of Reason can any Man think God intended no other Injustice than that which is expressed in the Commandment when beside the general Design of the Decalogue which I have shewn to have been intended as an Abstract of the whole Duty of Man and the Comprehensiveness of the two foregoing Prohibitions those Injustices which are not mentioned are alike Usurpations upon or Diminutions of Mens Properties which is the Fundamental Reason of the Prohibition I will conclude this Particular with that of Philo * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prope finem in his Tract De Decalogo where he makes this short Remarque upon the present Precept The Third Commandment saith he for so it is in his account of those of the Second Table is of not stealing under which is to be rank'd whatsoever hath the estimate of defrauding of Creditors or denying those things that have been deposited with us of medling with those things which belong to the Publick and which consequently ought not to be shar'd between Private Men as also of shameless Rapines in fine of such Covetousnesses whereby Men are induc'd either openly or privily to withdraw those things which belong to others II. Now though what hath been said may give us a competent understanding of those things which are forbidden by the Commandment it appearing from the Premises that all such are whereby the Properties of our Neighbours are any way impair'd yet because Men are seldom so wise as to apply any general Direction to their own particular Concernments or at least are not over faithful in the doing of it I think it not amiss to draw it down to particular Instances and shew the several Crimes which are here included For my more orderly enumeration whereof I will represent first of all such Usurpations or Diminutions of the Properties of Men as are distinguish'd from each other by the manner of their commission and after that proceed to those which receive their denomination and distinction from those Objects about which they are conversant And here in 1. The first place I shall not doubt to reckon as included in the Prohibition that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Covetousness whereby as Philo speaks the Heart of Man is inclin'd to usurp upon the Property of his Neighbour For though the bare coveting of that which is another Mans be the Subject of another Commandment and shall accordingly be there considered by us yet when it includes in it a Desire or Resolution to get from another that which is his by any fraudulent oppressive or any other unjust Proceeding it is in reason to be reckon'd to that Commandment which we are now upon as because the Heart is that which God principally looks after and which strikes the greatest stroke in absolving or condemning our outward Actions so because our Saviour hath reckon'd to the Prohibitions of Murther and Adultery those injurious or unclean Purposes that are in it For by the same reason that a Man of malicious or unclean Desires is to be look'd upon as a Murtherer or an Adulterer he who hath either a desire or purpose to defraud his Neighbour is to be look'd upon as a Thief and consequently within the compass of the Commandment But so that they who were Strangers yea Enemies to the Christian Faith were also perswaded is evident from a Saying of Julian's * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grot. d. l. Annot. ad c. 1. which is recorded by Grotius in his First Book de jure Belli ac Pacis The second Law saith he and which is no less Divine than that which enjoyns the acknowledging and worshipping of a God is that which commands wholly to abstain from the Properties of other Men and permits not to confound them either in Word or Work or in the secret Operations of the Heart Words worthy of a better Mouth than that from which they proceeded but however not rendred unworthy of our regard by that blasphemous one from which they came there being nothing which the best of Religions even our own stands more commended for than the restraining of the Heart of Man from all irregular Purposes or Desires 2. But because as Julian intimates in the place before-quoted there is a Theft or Usurpation which the Tongue is an Instrument in therefore it may not be amiss to shew by what ways and means this little Member prejudiceth the Properties of its Neighbour For the more distinct explication whereof I shall consider 1. First of all of its Silence and then 2. Of its Words or Expressions 1. There is a famous Question in Tully's Book de Officiis * Lib. 3. a Book indeed read by Boys but worthy if we may believe the Learned of the consideration of the wisest Men yea of the gravest Theologues as being stil'd ‖ Le Journal des Scavans vol. 1. p. 249. by Monsieur le Fevre Master to the late King of France His Casuist and by Monsieur de Hayes and eminent Advocate of that Kingdom The Gospel of the Law of Nature But there I say there is a Question whether a Man be bound to reveal the Faults of the thing he sells On the one side there is Profit and some shew of Reason also For what saith the same Tully can be so absurd as for the Master of any House to make a publick Proclamation by the Cryer that he sells an infected one On the other side there is a greater appearance of Ingenuity and Clearness and Simplicity which
now upon forbidding the invading of others Properties the Affirmative doth principally suggest the contributing what in us lies toward the procuring conserving or enlarging them For then and then onely can we be said to love our Neighbour in the Instance that is now before us when we do not onely abstain from the invading of his Property but endeavour to procure him one if he wants or to conserve and add to it if he hath Taking it therefore for granted that so to do is in part the Affirmative of this Commandment I will make it my Business to inquire 1. By what means it may and ought to be effected 2. Whether our Endeavours of thus doing good to others ought to extend to all sorts of Persons and in what Order and Manner and Proportion 1. Now there are two ways as Tully * De Officiis l. 2. well observes whereby Men may become useful to others as to the procuring or conserving or enlarging of their several Properties the Assistance of their Endeavours or of their Purses Whereof though the latter be most taken notice of and so far as in a manner to appropriate to it self the Name of Liberality yet the other doth no doubt alike deserve our consideration and regard that I say not also more importunately require it As being 1. in the power of the Poorer as well as the Richer sort of those whose Properties are as strait as theirs whom they desire to enlarge or conserve For though as St. Peter sometime spake concerning himself Gold and silver have they none yet they are not oftentimes without an Ability of giving that Advice and Encouragement and Assistance which may be alike useful to the procuring improving or conserving of others Properties Solomon * Eccl. 9.14 15. having told us of a poor man who however he was not afterwards regarded for it yet by his wisdom delivered the City wherein he dwelt from the Power of a Great Monarch who had us'd no contemptible means to make himself Master of it But neither 2. as was but now intimated is the Liberality of our Persons less to be considered for the use it is of toward the forementioned purposes as will appear if we consider it with reference to Mens Labours or the conciliating the Favours of other Persons towards them For Labour as was before said being not onely appointed by God for the procuring of this Worlds Happiness but not without a natural aptitude to it he must be look'd upon as no unuseful Person who shall either direct Men in the management of it which in all Employments is of great weight or encourage and assist them in the performance of it In like manner when as it often doth the Properties of Men depend either as to their being or well-being upon the Benevolence of others it is easie to see that he who is no Niggard of his Person and Endeavours may by his Authority or Intercession procure the Favour of those who have the collation of Benefits or by his Wisdom and Eloquence if those Properties Men have be attempted by others defend them from their Rapine or recommend them to those by whom they may All which Beneficences as they are undoubtedly of great use toward the advantaging of our Brothers Properties so they have this farther to commend them to us that whilst the Liberalities of the Purse as Tully * De Officiis lib. 2. speaks exhaust the Fountain of it and make Men less able to be liberal for the future that Liberality which exerts it self in our Endeavours doth not onely suffer no detriment by its being often us'd but gains so much the more by it because making Men both more apt for the exercise thereof and more ready to intend it From the Liberality of our Persons and Endeavours pass we to that of our Purses as being more immediately subservient to the advantaging of our Brothers Property and therefore no doubt more especially requir'd Now there are four ways whereby we may be thus liberal by remitting of what is due or at least not exacting it with rigour by giving of what we are actually possess'd of or lending and lastly by a Hospitable entertainment Of the first of these much need not be said whether we consider it as a Duty or as a Means to procure or conserve our Neighbours Property For as the latter of these is so apparent that it seems not to stand in need of any Proof Men being often undone where they who are their Creditors will neither remit ought of what is due to them nor allow them a competent time to discharge the Debt so the latter needs no other proof than that Love and Benevolence wherein our Saviour hath summ'd up this and other the Precepts of the Second Table For though the exacting of what is due in its full proportion be no way contrary to the Precept of Justice yet it may be sufficiently repugnant to that of Love especially as urg'd upon us by the Gospel Love prompting Men to forgive as well as give to remit of what it may require as well as to part with what it is possess'd of And not without Reason he who forgives giving away what he doth so because it is in his power to exact it To the Liberality of Remitting or Forgiving subjoyn we that of giving a Duty no less necessary to the forementioned purposes nor less necessary to be observed whether we do respect that subserviency of it to the advantaging of our Neighbour's Properties or that right we have often said the necessitous person to have to such a portion of this worlds goods as may afford him a subsistence for it being apparently the intention of God and so declared in his first grant of Dominion that each of the Sons of Men should have a share in them it is of necessity to be looked upon as the duty of those into whose hands God hath put the possession of them to communicate them to such as shall be found to stand in need of them he who refuseth so to do as much as in him lyes defeating God of his intention and men of that right which accrues to them by it Whence it is no doubt that Almsgiving both ‖ See for the Old Deut. 24.13 Where the Septuagint render the word righteousness by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also Psal 112.9 For the New Mat. 6.1 according to some Greek Copies in the Old and New Testament hath so frequently the name of Righteousness that being not improperly stiled Righteousness which he who is the Object of it hath the original grant of Dominion to warrant his title to Thirdly as there is a liberality in forgiving and giving so there may be a liberality in lending that no less than either of the other tending to the advantaging of Mens Properties and oftentimes much more to the welfare of their Souls For whereas giving many times relieves Mens idleness as well as wants and makes them careless
that they would if duly observed not only not abridge our own Properties but preserve us from the temptation of invading those of others which the Negative part of the Commandment doth forbid It being not to be thought especially after such glorious Promises * See Prov. 11.25 Prov. 19.17 Prov. 28.27 as are made to the charitable man that he should be under any necessity of invading the Properties of others who in obedience to the Divine Command hath been so liberal of his own THE NINTH COMMANDMENT THE NINTH COMMANDMENT Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour PART I. The Contents This Ninth Commandment both refers to and supposeth Humane Judicatories upon occasion whereof inquiry is made 1. By what Divine Right they now stand 2. What Persons intervene in them and what their respective Duties are The former of these evidenced from the necessity there is of determining Controversies from the Precept given to Noah of shedding the Blood of the Murtherer and from the Divine Right of Regal Power of which the Power of Judicature is a part The latter of the forementioned Questions brought under consideration where both the Parties that intervene in them are enumerated and their respective Duties described Those of the Plaintiff shewn to be not to raise a false Report not to mix untrue Reports with true nor prosecute even a true one in trifling Instances Those of the Defendent to own justly imputed Crimes not to charge his Adversary with the same or the like Calumnies nor shew himself morose in his Deportment to him The Duties of the Advocate not to espouse such Causes as are apparently evil though probable ones they may nor yet to make choice of them meerly by the Purses of those that present them as after they have espous'd them to manage them with all fidelity and diligence and dispatch in fine to content themselves with a simple Narration of the Cause and neither to be lavish in the commendation of their own Clients nor in the reproach of the Adversary A more large Account concerning Witnesses where after a Declaration of the use of them in Judgment their requisite Number and necessary Qualifications their Duty is shewn to be not to deliver any thing that is false not to conceal or transpose any thing that is true as in fine not to deliver what they deem to be so with any greatâ—r assurance than they themselves are perswaded of in their own Bosom A Conclusion of the whole with a Reflection upon the Duty of Judges whether they be Judges of Right or of Fact where among other things is shewn 1. That they ought to pass Sentence according to the Proofs that are made before them whatsoever jealousie or private knowledge they may have of the thing in controversie 2. That in doubtful Cases they ought to incline to such Determinations as are favourable to the Accused Party THAT it may the better appear what that is which is here forbidden what Crimes are comprised under it and what Duties enjoyned by it I foresee it necessary to premise something concerning Humane Judicatories which this Commandment doth both refer to and suppose not onely the use of Witnesses so perswading which every one knows to have been introduc'd to decide Controversies between Man and Man before a competent Judge but that Phrase which the Hebrew makes use of to express the bearing of false Witness and the manner of the Jews Procedure in their several Courts of Judicature For it appearing from Lev. 5.1 that Witnesses were interrogated upon Oath concerning that particular Affair which they were call'd to bear witness to it is but reasonable to think especially when the Hebrew Phrase * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the not answering falsly that the intent of the Commandment was to forbid the bearing of false witness before a Judge in any Controversie that should occur Which as it plainly supposeth the being of such Judicatories among the Jews and God's approbation of them so makes it but necessary to inquire because otherwise the Prohibition would be null 1. By what Divine Right they now stand 2. What Persons intervene in them and what their respective Duties are 1. For the evidencing the first whereof even the Divine Right of Humane Judicatories I shall alledge in the first place that which is antecedent to and the Foundation of all other Laws even the Law of Nature For that perswading the determination of all Controversies between Man and Man as without which Humane Society could not subsist it must consequently be supposed to enjoyn because there is no other way of ending them the constituting of some indifferent Persons to do it no Man being to be thought a competent Judge in his own Case and much less likely to be thought so by him with whom he hath to do Upon which as there will follow a necessity of referring them to the determination of another which is that for which Humane Judicatories were appointed so also which makes them properly such the furnishing them with a Power to constrain the Parties at variance to submit to their Determination and Sentence Otherwise among contentious Persons at least the Controversie would recur and involve them in new and greater Heats To the Law of Nature and its Dictates subjoyn we that which is call'd the Law of Noah or rather that which was given by God to him and his Posterity concerning which though saving in the * Vid. Selden de Jure Nat. Gent. l. 7. c. 4. Tradition of the Jews there be no express mention as to any Precept which imports the constituting of Humane Judicatories yet as a Tradition so receiv'd as that is not lightly to be despis'd especially when as to some Precepts it hath a certain Foundation in Scripture so that it is not without ground even there as to this Precept whereof we speak may be competently evidenced from Gen. chap. 9. vers 6. Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed For God not onely decrying there the shedding of Mans blood but requiring the shedding of his that did it by another he seems to me plainly to intimate the constituting of a Magistrate which should both take cognisance of and punish it as because otherwise the Blood of Men might continue unreveng'd if he who were the next of kin whom Grotius * In locum De jure belli c. lib. 1. cap. 2. sect 5. supposeth to have been impower'd should have wanted Courage or Ability to execute it so because Murther being for the most part secretly committed there was a kind of necessity of authorizing some to make inquisition after it and draw both the suspected person and others to their Tribunal Otherwise it should have been lawful for the avenger of blood to have followed his own uncertain conjectures which it is not very likely God would ever have permitted or the Fact must have continued unreveng'd which the Precept before mentioned was
so conceal is no way pertinent to it that which appears to us to be inconsiderable being oftentimes of moment if it be judged of by more competent understandings 3. From the concealing of a Truth pass we to the transposing of it the third thing affirmed by us to be forbidden by the Commandment and not without cause if we consider how much greater affinity it hath with that falshood which it expresly condemns for falshood as was before said consisting in the disagreement of our words with the nature of the thing we speak of or at least with our apprehension of it he who shall give in an account of any Fact in any other order than he knows the fact to have been committed shall be as guilty of falshood as he who adds fictions of his own and it may be too no less prejudicial to his Neighbour It may seem ludicrous but it was a sad truth of a noble English Gentleman sent Ambassadour into Foreign Parts and with him an honourable Espy under the notion of a Companion By whom he was accused at his return to have spoken such and such things and at such and such times The Gentleman pleaded ingeniously for himself that it might be he had spoken some of those things or it might be all those things but never any of them in that order nor in that sense I have said he several suits of Apparel of Purple Cloath of Green Velvet of White and Black Sattin If one should put my two Purple Sleeves to my Green Velvet Doublet and make my Hose the one of White Sattin the other of Black and then swear that it was my Apparel they who did not know me would think me a strange man I cannot tell how this Plea fitted the Person of whom we speak because as his charge so his name is altogether unknown to me having borrowed the forementioned story in the generality wherein I have delivered it from Bishop Bramhal * Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon touching Schism pag. 46 but certainly the Plea was reasonable in it self and extremely pertinent to the case we speak of For it being notorious to all men that the good or evil of any action depends much upon the circumstances wherewith it is clad he that shall go about in his testimony to confound the order wherein they came may make as unseemly an alteration as he who should so piece together the parts of different coloured Garments 4. Lastly As it is unlawful by this Commandment to conceal or transpose any truth as well as to utter that which is contrary to it so it must be looked upon as alike forbidden by it to affirm that which we deem to be so with any greater degree of assurance than we our selves are perswaded of it As because by so doing we shall fall into the crime of falshood inasmuch as the words we make use of exceed the measure of our own perswasions in the disagreement wherewith I have shewn falshood to consist so because by this means we may bring that condemnation upon our Neighbour which otherwise neither would nor ought to be inflicted on him confident asseverations leaving no place for presumptions of the accused's innocency which are of force under fainter ones A familiar instance will clear my meaning and shew the necessity of this caution For suppose we what doth not infrequently happen that a company of honest men are set upon in the Road by Robbers and one of them in the fray murder'd by them And suppose we also which is alike common that though the Robbers escape for the present yet some one or more persons are taken upon suspicion for them In this case I say it will concern those who were present at the fact not to affirm those suspected persons to be the men with any greater degree of assurance than they themselves are perswaded of in their own bosomes For as by too confident an asseveration they may bring condemnation upon a person who it may be is no way worthy of it so they will undoubtedly cut off from the accused party that which is the birthright of all men living who are not convicted of any Crime even the alledging for himself the former orderliness of his life and other such like presumptions of his innocency For though these may be of force where they who are produced as Witnesses do only attest their own suspicion of those being the criminal parties yet they are of no force nor ought to be where the Witnesses shall swear peremptorily that they know them to be the men that set upon them By which means as it hath sometime happened that persons wholly innocent have undergone an unjust sentence so they who consider how hainous a thing it is to take away the life of an Innocent will beware by their example how they affirm any thing in Judgment with any greater degree of assurance than they themselves are perswaded of in their own bosoms II. Having thus given an account of the Falsities and other Errours which the Commandment we have now before us cautions Witnesses against my proposed method obliges me to enquire what Falsities are comprised under them whether in or out of Judicial Proceedings The ground of which Question is that latitude which I have often shewn the Commandments we have now before us ought to be construed in For inasmuch as the Decalogue was intended as an Abstract of the whole Duty of Man or at least of so much of it as concerns the regulation of our Manners inasmuch as all the foregoing Precepts have been shewn to extend to the commanding or forbidding of several other things beside what they particularly express it is but reasonable to think that what we are now in the Explication of is of the same comprehensive nature and extends to the forbidding of other Falsities beside those of Witnesses which what they are I come now to declare In order whereunto 1. The first thing that I shall offer is That little doubt can be made but all other Falsities in Judicial Proceedings are alike condemned with those of Witnesses Partly because it is usual in the Decalogue to set one particular Species to denote all that are of the same Genus and partly because other Falsities in Judgment are alike prejudicial to our Neighbour with those that are expresly forbidden But from hence it will follow 1. That it is alike forbidden to the Plaintiff by it to raise a false Report or mix untrue Reports with true these as they are alike Falsities and prejudicial ones so giving occasion shall I say or rather producing those Falsities which the Commandment doth expresly condemn For were it not for false Accusers false Witnesses could have no place as being only abettors of what the other raise Now forasmuch as in Reason that is to be looked upon as forbidden by a Commandment which is if I may so speak the Cause of what it doth if False Witnesses be forbidden by it False Accusations
to be estimated by those things only which can declare our conceptions to the Hearers Which since those Reservations which are in the Mind cannot do in judging of the Truth of any Speech account is to be made of those things only that are expressed and not of mental Reservations Of Pernicious and Officious Falsities what hath been said may suffice proceed we therefore to such as have the name of Jesting ones By which Title I mean not all Fictions of the brain which are devised to delight for so all Parables of the Scripture are and though not invented for delight only yet to delight as well as profit But I mean such Fictions as are represented as real Truths contrary to the mind and knowledge of the Utterer Now concerning these much need not be said to shew them to be generally unlawful and as such to be eschewed and avoided as because the observation of Truth is of much more concernment than our delight so because the Scriptures of the New Testament have not only imposed upon us the simplicity of the Dove * Matt. 10.16 that guileless Creature but moreover forbidden to us the speaking of a vain ‖ Matt. 12.36 or idle word If there be any case wherein these kind of Falsities are allowable it must be where they are in a manner detected as soon as told and neither our own sincerity made lyable thereby to exception nor the signification of those external marks by which we are to communicate our Thoughts to each other brought into uncertainty with the World That of S. Paul shall put an end to this Argument and the Negative part of the Commandment Ephes 4.25 Wherefore putting away Lying speak every man Truth with his Neighbour for we are members one of another All Pernicious Lyes being simply and universally unlawful all Officious ones unless in those few cases before excepted and all Jesting ones unless in the case but now mentioned if yet that may be excepted out of the number And here a fair opportunity is ministred to me Affirmative part of the Commandment of entring upon the Affirmative part of the Commandment which I shall gladly embrace though in the close as you see of this Discourse because I have in a great measure dispatched it already as knowing not well how to entreat of the other without it Where first of all I shall represent because Judicial Matters are principally referred to the doing what in us lyes to advantage a just Cause which that love in which our Saviour sums up this and other the Precepts of the Second Table doth manifestly require Now this a Witness will do yea cannot otherwise discharge himself of the tye of love if he voluntarily present himself to attest his knowledge where either the matter in debate requires it or he can think it will be acceptable to the party concerned If when thus presenting himself or called to it by others he shall duly recollect himself that so he may omit no material part of his Evidence Lastly if having thus recollected himself he clearly and fully declare it and speak the truth and the whole truth as well as nothing contrary to it The Plaintiff shall do his duty if he shall prefer only such Enditements as are true and material and prosecute them with candor and moderation as the Defendant his if he shall own justly imputed Crimes particularly in matter of Estate and fence only against such as he is falsly aspersed with The Advocate shall fulfil his part if he espouse just or at least probable Causes and prosecute them with that fairness and civility which becomes men and Christians and particularly that awful Assembly before which he speaks As the Judge his if he lend a patient ear to the Evidence that is given help out and encourage weak but honest Witnesses and narrowly sift crafty and reserved ones if having so done he shall duly weigh all circumstances and if that be all he hath to do as in our Common-Law Courts it is recapitulate the whole and deliver his own sense clearly and impartially The Jury shall do their part if after a like serious consideration of the matter in debate they shall guide themselves in their Verdict by the opinion of the Judge in matter of Law and by the Evidence that is given as to matter of Fact In fine those to whom the power of Registring is committed theirs if they shall faithfully record the Sentence that is passed upon the whole by the Judge as they and all others to whom the power of the execution of it belongs if they set their helping hand to a speedy and faithful and full execution of it All which Duties I have thus shortly laid together without the addition of their respective Proofs partly because they carry their own conviction in their foreheads and partly because those that seem to stand in need of any have already had them in the foregoing Discourses to which therefore it is but reasonable to refer you From Judicial Matters pass we to Extrajudicial ones where agreeably to those several Falsities which I have shewn to be forbidden in the Negative our Duty as well as the Affirmative part of the Commandment must be to prosecute those Truths that are contrary to them particularly that whereas Pernicious Lyes strike at our Neighbours Reputation or Estate we on the contrary in compliance with that Truth which is opposite to them should endeavour to advantage him in both as the Precept of Love doth manifestly enjoin To advantage him in his Reputation by giving him his due commendation by ascribing to him those Parts or Vertues or Endowments which he is really possessed of and remembring them where ere we come with all the expressions of respect and honour To advantage him again in his Reputation by taking off those Calumnies wherewith he is aspersed and shewing the either falsness or improbability thereof To advantage him in his Estate by a religious observation of our own Promises or Compacts or by causing those of others to be strictly and faithfully observed To have a regard to Truth in our Discourses with our Neighbour even when the contrary thereof may be advantageous to our selves and others unless it be in such cases where the common consent of mankind the saving of an innocent persons life or a speedy detection of the falshood licenseth a departure from it But above all that we intend the prosecution of Truth above our own meer delight and against the temptation of those baits which the pleasure of imposing upon others gives Truth as it is a Duty which is owing to our Neighbours Vnderstanding no less than Good-will is to his Will from ours so being the foundation of all pleasurable and useful Commerce the band of Societies and of those several Compacts by which they are confederated and in fine the fulfilling of this Commandment THE TENTH COMMANDMENT THE TENTH COMMANDMENT Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house thou shalt not