means 4. Observe the rules for getting and using of riches CHAP. X. page 488 Rules to be observed 1. in just getting 1. By Donation 2. By Industry 3. By Contracts wherein must be considered 1. The need we have of the thing sold. 2. The use Three degrees of a just price 1. Pium. 2. Moderatum 3. Rigidum 2. In just using wherein are rules 1. Concerning our selves 1. For preserving our estate 2. For laying it out 2. Concerning others giving 1. to God from whom we receive all 2. to the poor Rules for the measure and manner of giving Motives to stir us up to give to the poor Of procuring the keeping of this Commandment by others The Exposition of the Ninth Commandment CHAP. I. Page 493 The words expounded What is mean tby Non respondebis in the Original Addition 34. about the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respondere What is meant by witnesse Four witnesses 1. God 2. The Conscience 3. Men and Angels 4. The Creatures What is meant by false what by contra against what by Proximum Neighbour The coherence and dependance of this Commandment The scope and use of it 1. In respect of God 2. Of the Church 3. Of the Common-wealth 4. Of private persons CHAP. II. Page 498 The necessity of a good name The sin forbidden in general Wherein 1. The root of it 2. The suppuration or rankling of it 〈◊〉 by false surmises and suspitions 3. The fitting of the soyl by readinesse to hear false reports 4. The watering of the soyl by busying our selves in other ones affairs CHAP. III. Page 501 The outward act of which two branches 1. False words 2. Idle and vain words Of false speaking in general this is two fold 1. In judgement 2. Out of judgement In judgement by false witnesse Of lyes in general Six persons in every judgement who may be guilty of false witnessing 1. The Judge 1. By cherishing Law suits 2. By deferring justice 3. If his judgement be 1. usurped 2. rash 3. perverse 2. The Register by making false records 3. The Accuser 1. by accusing falsly 2. upon uncertain grounds 3. by prevaricating 4. The defendant 1. by not confessing the truth 2. by appealing without cause 3. by not submitting to the sentence 5. The Witnesse 1. by not declaring all the truth when he is lawfully called 2. by not delivering the innocent though he be not called 3. by delivering the wicked by false testimony 6. The Advocate 1. by undertaking an evil cause 2. by perverting the Law Of giving false testimony in Elections CHAP. IIII. Page 507 Of false witnessing out of judgement Four things to which the tongue may do harme The branches of this kinde of false witnessing 1. Contumelious speaking 2. Taunting 3. Backbiting which is 1. By words 2. By letters 3. By deeds 4. In all these a may be false witnesse though he speak the truth CHAP. V. Page 509 Of reproof or fraternal correption the vertue opposite to flattery Of flattery which is 1. In things uncertain 2. In things certain and those either good or evil Of boasting and vaunting a mans self and its extream CHAP. VI. Page 512 Of a rash lie an officious lye a merry lye Four cases wherein a man seems to speak contrary to the truth but doth not Of Mendacium Facti the real lye by 〈◊〉 CHAP. VII Page 514 The second general branch of the sin forbidden viz. Vain speech Three ends of speech 1. Edification 2. Profit 3. Grace and delight Of the means whereby this Commandment may be kept Of suspition Rules about it 1. For the manner The Exposition of the Tenth Commandment CHAP. I. Page 521 Reasons against the dividing of this Commandment into two The dependance of it The scope and end of it CHAP. II. Page 523 The thing prohibited Concupiscence which is two fold 1. Arising from our selves 2. From the spirit of God The first is either 1. from nature or 2. from corruption of nature Corrupt desires of two sorts 1. vain and foolish 2. hurtful or noisome The danger of being given up to a mans own lusts CHAP. III. Page 525 How a man comes to be given up to his own desires Thoughts of two sorts 1. Ascending from our own hearts 2. Injected by the Devil The manner how we come to be infected Six degrees in sin 1. The receiving of the seed 2. The retaining of it 3. The conception 4. The forming of the parts 5. The quickning 6. The travel or birth CHAP. IV. Page 528 The wayes whereby a man is tempted of his own lust 1. There is a bait 2. A hook The same wayes used by the Devil and the World The affirmative part of this precept Renewing the heart and minde The necessity of this Renovation The meanes of Renovation A Table of the Supplements or Additions Wherein the sence of the Author is cleered in some places where it was obscure or doubtful and some things are handled more fully which were omitted or but briefly touched c. Introduct CHAP. XIII 1. Concerning points cleer and controverted p 52 2. Of peoples submitting to the judgement of the Church p 55 3. Of the Churches power to interpret the Scriptures p 57 CHAP. XIV 4. That the Moral Law is an essential part of the Gospel or second Covenant p 58 CHAP. XVII 5. About mans ability to keep the Law of Christ by his Grace p 71 Com. 1. CHAP. I. 6. That the 4 fundamental articles of all Religion are implyed in the four first Precepts p 88 CHAP. III. 7. Of the force of Church Customs p 95 CHAP. IIII. 8. About the distinction of inward and outward worship p 100 CHAP. VII 9. Concerning the evidence of faith and freedom of assent p 111 10. Concerning the nature of Faith p 115 CHAP. VIII 11. Of the seat of faith p 121 Com. 2. CHAP. I. 12. That the making of Images was absolutely forbidden the Jews and in that respect that the precept was partly positive and reached onely to them p 193 13. Whether all voluntary and free worship be forbidden under the name of will-worship p 194 CHAP. III. 14. Of S. Chrysostomes Liturgie p 202 15. Of the second Councel of Nice p 203 CHAP. IV. 16. How preaching is a part of Gods worship p 205 17. About the Eucharist whether it may be called a Sacrifice p 207 CHAP. V. 18. Concerning customs and traditions of the Church p 210 19. Of Images for memories sake p 214 Com. 3. CHAP. I. 20. What is litterally meant by taking Gods Name in vain p 231 CHAP. IV. 21. Concerning the nature of a vow p 250 Com. 4. CHAP. II. 22 The Jewish sabbath ceremonial the Lords day unchangeable p. 263 23 Of ceremonies p. 265 CHAP. III. 24 The whole doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords day largly handled in seven conclusions p. 268 CHAP. IIII. 25 That moral reasons are sometimes given of ceremonial precepts p. 279 CHAP. IX 26 Of adorning Churches p. 299 27 Of
be placed among the ten Commandments One of the Fathers upon the words Nunquid Saul 〈◊〉 inter Prophetas Is Saul also among the Prophets saith that Saul being no Prophet by profession est heterogeneus of another kinde and an irregular person among the Prophets so it will fall out to be against order for a meer ceremonial Precept to stand in the midst of moral Commandments For every ceremony or type of the Law is as it was a foretelling of something in the Gospel so it must be referred to the Gospel as the shadow to the body And indeed no typical ceremonies are in their own nature for the type or ceremony is to cease when the substance comes as the shadow when the body appears But this Commandment for the substance of it continues in the time of the Gospel 3. Thirdly this being a principle that the Law of Moses expressed in the Decalogue is nothing but the Law of nature revived and the Law of nature being a resemblance of Gods image If we say this precept is in its substance ceremonial then we must also say that in the image of God something is ceremonial not to abide but for a time onely but all things in him and in his image are eternal according to his Nature 4. In the Law of grace Christ delivering the sum of the ten Commandments to the Scribes and Pharisees Thou shalt love the Lord c. there 's no question but that it is the sum of the Decalogue and therefore therein is included the religious observation of the Sabbath and so it will be for the substance moral as the love of God is in which it is contained or else our Saviour had delivered an imperfect sum 5. Again it is dangerous to hold that any precept in the Decalogue is ceremonial for by this the Papists as Parisius and Politianus will bring another of them to be so and will say that the second Commandment concerning images is ceremonial and then why not three as well as two and so four and five and all The best way therefore to hold the duties eternall and to keep them without blemish is to deny that any of these ten precepts is ceremonial in the substance or nature of the Commandment but that they are plainly moral 6. To come to the time of the Gospel We hold that all typical ceremonies of the law are ended and abrogated by Christs death Then if the day of rest be not abrogated by his death it is not a meer Ceremony or ceremonial And that it is not is plain by our Saviour himself for his denouncing the destruction of Jerusalem bids them pray that their calamity fall not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day Now we know that Jerusalem was destroyed many years after Christs death when all ceremonies were ended Therefore if Christ knew that the Sabbath as a ceremony should be wholly abrogated by his death his counsel might well have bin spared that they should pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day Matth. 24. 20. which if it had been quite abolished should have been no day Again in things meerly ceremonia ' there is not commutatio a change but abrogatio an abrogating of them wholly but we see in this matter of the Sabbath there is commutatio not abrogatio the Lords day is appointed instead of the Sabbath but no total abrogation of the Sabbath Thus the seals of the Covenant though they had something typical yet being in their general nature moral therefore they are changed but not quite abrogated whereas in things meerly typical there 's no maner of commutation but they are clean taken away for Christ having broken down the partition wall Ephes. 2. 14 15. hath wholly taken away the law of ordinances c. But it is manifest that instead of the Jews seventh day another seventh day was ordained in the Apostles dayes therefore as the ministery and seals of the Covenant and the chief place of it to wit the Temple were not abolished but changed as having a moral 〈◊〉 in them so also was the day of the Covenant for we read Acts 20. 7. that the 〈◊〉 and Disciples came together on the first day of the week to hear the word and to break bread and in 1 Corin. 16. 2. the Apostle wills them in their meetings on the first day of the week to lay aside for the poor and Revel 1. 10. it is plainly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day So that we see in the whole time of the Apostles it was not taken away but changed by them and therefore cannot be a meere ceremonie nor of the nature of the types of the Law But when the old Covenant ceased then ceased the Ministery thereof the Priesthood of Levi was changed and given to choice men of all Tribes and instead of it is our Ministery And as the seals of the Covenant ceased as of Circumcision and the Paschal lamb and in place thereof came our Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords supper so the day of the old Covenant is taken away and instead thereof is put the Lords day none of them in the first end being ceremonial but having a continual use and to last as long as the Church militant The reasons which might seem to have moved the Apostles to change this day may be fitly taken from the Institution of the Sabbath in the time of the law For as then nothing was more memorable then the day of the creation so when it pleased God that old things should cease and that there should be a new creation and that there was a benefit that did overshadow the former the benefit of redemption therefore when that was accomplished by Christs resurrection from that day we celebrate the memorial of it on the first day of the week and whereas that other great work of the sending the holy Ghost which was fifty dayes after concurd on the same day whereby that inestimable benefit of sanctification and speaking with strange tongues was conferred upon the Church and because the memory of the benefit of the creation may also be kept on the first day of the week as well as on the last Hence we may see upon what great reasons this day is establisht wherein do concur the three special works and benefits of the three persons to be for ever thankfully remembred viz. that of Creation by the Father Redemption by the Son and Sanctification by the holy Ghost And so much for the clearing of that point ¶ CHAP. III. Additionall considerations upon the doctrine of the Sabbath laid down in seven conclusions 1. It is certain some time is to be set apart for publick worship 〈◊〉 by School-men Canonists and reasons 2. Certain that the law of nature doth not dictate the proportion of seven or any other in particular 3. It is most probable that the seventh day was appointed by God from the beginning as a day of publick worship in
them Exod. 31. 13. of which opinion seem to be Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 30. and Euseb. hist. 1. cap 4. And thus that of Genesis 2. of Gods blessing and sanctifying the seventh day may be expounded cleerly and litterally without any forced interpretation that God did then sanctifie and appoint that day to be kept holy by a joyful remembrance of the creation and by other holy duties solemnly to be performed to him as Creator of all that being the birth day of the world which God the Lord of all would have observed as Princes who appoint the birth-day of their sons to be kept by their subjects For though I know diverse learned men both ancient and modern do otherwise expound the words either of Gods sanctifying the day in himself by a rest or cessation from those emanations of his power and goodnesse or by destinating the day to be observed afterwards or that the words are spoken by anticipation viz. that Moses writing that history after the Sabbath was given saith that Gods resting on the seventh day was the cause why afterwards viz. when the Law was given he sanctified that day yet the other exposition seems to be more cleer and genuine that the sanctification by holy duties was commanded then and that the rest from all labours was one of the ceremonies given afterwards to the Jews And to this those words of Moses Deuter. 5. 12. seem to relate when after the Commandment of sanctifying the Sabbath day he addes As the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to wit long before from the beginning of the world and in Exod. 20. 10 I take the same to be the meaning of the words the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God that is the day consecrated to God from the beginning Therefore 〈◊〉 collects from those words in Job 38. 4. 7. where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth when the morning stars sung together and all the sons of God shouted for joy that upon the seventh day when the world was finisht the Angels who who are stiled the sons of God kept the sabbath And though I will not peremptorily affirme that the Angels kept it yet I take it to be very probable that the people of God the Patriarches and other holy men as they had publick sacrifices and forms of worship so they had some set times for the ordinary performance thereof which is most likely to have been on this day it is hardly credible that in the time of Enoch men should separate themselves from the sons of Cain by calling upon the name of the Lord that is by some publick worship and as learned Drusius thinks by some publick forms or liturgies without some set and solemn time for the performance thereof And Calvin himself though far from the sabbatarian errors yet thinks that the frequent sacrifices performed by Abraham and the other Patriarches were usually upon this day and therefore concludes it probable that the sanctification of it was before the Law And seeing there never was any nation in the world but had some certain and set dayes for their religious exercises can it be imagined that the people of God for those many hundred years before the flood and after even when they were grown into great multitudes in Egypt when they lived for divers hundred years should all that time be without any certain time when to worship God that they should have their sacrifices their priests viz the eldest of the family their altars and consecrated places their tithes which was Gods portion appointed by divine positive law from the beginning as may be elswhere proved and yet have no certain dayes for solemne worship this seemes to me altogether incredible especially if we consider that it is morally impossible that religion should long continue and be preserved among any people without some certain time for the publick exercise thereof And therefore though there be no expresse mention of any such dayes yet I make no question but they observed some and if any then surely this day Besides the ceasing of the manna to fall upon the seventh day for some time before the Law was given is an argument that the sabbath was known before as a day sacred to God though it begun then first to be kept as a day of rest which was afterwards prescribed by a law And hence it was that some relicks of this day were found among the Heathen though much obliterated because not written in their hearts by nature and a high esteeme they had of the seventh day as appears by Clem. Strom. 5. Euseb. praepar l. 13. c. 12. who out of Hesiod mencions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lux septuma sancta 10 Septius Adv. Appi. l. 2. circa finem Philo de die septimo shew that there was no nation so barbarous but that they honoured the seventh day and that it was the holy day not for one nation but for all the world The same is gathered from Homer and Callimachus by Clem. Alex. Strom. 5. The like we finde in Theophilus Ant. lib. 2. ad Autolicum Suetonius in Tiberio 32. Philostratus l. 3. c. 13. Dion Carthus l. 33. Lucian Tibullus and others And wheras Iustine Martyr Tertullian and others of the fathers say often that before the law holy men pleased God without keeping the sabbath they understand by sabbatizing not the publick praise and worship of God but the Jewish rest upon the sabbath which its true was proper to them and symbolical and was not observed by the Patriarchs And that they mean this may gathered from Tertull. l. 4. contra Marcion Hoc priviliigium donatum sabbato a primordio quo dies ipse compertus est veniam jeiunii dico where we see he derives the sabbath as a day of rejoycing from the beginning of the world and thereupon grounds the custom of not fasting on that day and yet the same man denies that the Patriarchs kept the sabbath that is the Jewish symbolical 〈◊〉 4. The fourth conclusion which I shall propound likewise as probable at least is that the Lords day which the Christian Church observes instead of the sabbath is of divine institution that as the seventh day from the Creation was instituted by God himself by a positive law obliging all the world so the Lords day is by positive Law obliging all Christians to the end of all the world instituted by authority from Christ who changed the day by his resurrection from the seventh to the first day of the week and that the Apostles published and ordained it not as ordinary rulers and gouernours of the Church but as speciall extraordinary legates of Christ by order from him and therefore the Church now hath no power to alter this day This assertion follows upon the former for if the sabbath was instituted by God before the Law and did oblige all mankinde as we have shewed already for
of Brabourn and 〈◊〉 who were censured the one in the high Commission the other in Star-chamber and were learnedly confuted by two learned Bishops of Winchester and Eli the one in a speech in Star-Chamber now extant the other in a full tract of this subject But though the day be altered from the last to the first day of the week yet I do not therefore say that the seventh day from the Creation was ceremonial or expired as a ceremony at Christs death as is commonly said by some Divines for wherein could the keeping of a seventh day typifie Christ or his benefits but it was observed as a positive Law yet of divine institution and being no natural Law but depending upon Gods will and pleasure might therefore by the same authority when the new creation was finished by Christs resurrection which overshadowed the first creation be altered to another day in memory of that greater benefit and so accordingly it was 6. Concerning the rest observed by the Jews it is certain t was partly moral and partly ceremonial moral in regard that the duties of publick worship cannot be performed without a cessation from other labours and ceremonial as it looked backward and forward backward as a signe of Gods rest after the creation and of their deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude forward as a type of Christs rest in the grave Hebrews 4. of our rest from the servile works of sin in the time of grace as S. Augustine faith and of the eternal rest in heaven 〈◊〉 4. Besides all which it was also a signe to distinguish them from other people Exodus 20. 12. Now for the rest required of us on the Lords day it is not the same with that of the Iews but differs 1. Because rest is now required onely in reference to the holy duties which cannot otherwise be performed not for it self as if it were pleasing to God or the works of mens callings unlawfull but that they might give way to works of a higher nature to sacred duties which if they be not performed the rest is a meere mockery Sabbatum asinorum whereas the rest of the Iewish Sabbath was required for it self they were to rest in their rest and hence it was that the Iewish sabbath is reckoned by S. Paul among the shadows that vanisht at Christs coming and the Fathers generally make the Commandment of the sabbath ceremonial which if any should now observe he should thereby revive Judaisme and in effect deny that Christ the body is come as S. Augustine in the place alledged and elsewhere Quisquis diem illum 〈◊〉 observat 〈◊〉 litera sonat carnaliter sapit whosoever observes that day according to the flesh is carnally wise and hence it is that generally the Fathers 〈◊〉 to call the Lords day by the the name of sabbath for we shall hardly finde in any ancient writers the Lords day called the sabbath till some of late in our Church sprung up who usually stile it by that name against all antiquity and reason whom some others of learning have 〈◊〉 followed being carried by the stream and not foreseeing the evils that have since followed and were then intended by those men 2. Another difference which follows from the former is that because the rest now is not required for it self but as it may further holy duties therefore it is not so strictly required of us as of them They might not do some works which were neither against 〈◊〉 or charity they might not kindle a fire or dresse meat or bury the dead on that day which no doubt are now lawful and the reason is because their rest was symbolical and figurative and therefore that it might the more exactly answer to the thing figured must be the more exact for as Bellar. saith Figurae 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 alioquin non bone significant figures must be exact else they do not well represent the thing signified Now if any shall ask what labours and works we must abstain from and how long seeing to rest onely in the time of publick worship may seem to be enough in reference to the performance of holy duties I conceive it the most probable answer that herein we must be directed in particular by the Laws Canons and Customes of the Church wherein we live and that by divine Law as the sanctifying of the day is required in general so the resting from our ordinary labours in reference to that end is onely required in general by the Law of God but the particular determination of what works and how long and in what manner with 〈◊〉 circumstances of which no general Law could be so fitly given is left to the Bishops and Pastors of the Church for as God hath commanded publique worship by prayer and praises c in general but the modification of it for form order time and manner of performance hath been left to the Church who hath alwayes ordered these things and altered them as there was occasion so for the abstinence from labours what rest may be necessary not onely in the time of publick duties but before and after as preparatives thereto and means of better profiting thereby by meditations and other exercises and for the more solemnity of the day for these and the like I do not finde that Christ hath given any particular rules but that every one is herein to submit to the Canons and orders of the Church and to conform himself thereto and that this conformity in obedience to God who requires us to hear the Church and obey our Pastors is acceptable to God and therefore those that will not rest herein but look for particular directions out of Scripture for every thing which indeed they cannot finde by writing what ever they finde about the Sabbath and applying it to the Lords day do unawares sall into Judaisme and perplex mens consciences into inextricable Laborynths as daily experience shews whereas the constant practise of the Church of Christ in all ages shews that in these things she did use that authority which Christ hath given her as appears by the several constitutions both Ecclesiastical and Civil sometimes enlarging and sometimes restraining the liberty of people in these matters And hence it is that though the Fathers usually say that all the glory of the Sabbath is transferred to the Lords day and though it be commonly said that the Lords day succeeds the Sabbath yet the truth is that it succeeds not properly as the Heir doth his Father at least it is not Heres ex asse as Civilians speak but as the light follows darknes and the substance the shadow in regard that the rest of the Jews Sabbath as it was symbolical is expired and onely what was grounded upon moral equity in it is continued in the Lords day in which for the particular manner of observing we must look to the canons and customs of the Church which are of such force in these things
that though by the common Canon-law all festivals are from evening to evening Cap. 1. 2. de Feriis 〈◊〉 cap. 13. n. 5. Covar in 4. variar resol cap. 19. n. 9. yet where the custom is to observe them from midnight to midnight or from morning to morning such custom ought to be kept if there be lawful prescription for it as Panorm resolves 7. Before we conclude this observation about the Sabbath it may be fit to consider why it was so long observed after our Saviour together with the Lords day for we finde that for many years after the Apostles times the Sabbath was kept as well as the Lords day until the Councel of Laodicea which was not long before the Councel of Nice and that it is still observed among the Abyssines and that Balsam saith that the holy Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did in a manner equall the Sabbath with the Lords day Gregory Nyssen calls those two dayes fratres brethren Clem. constit l. 7. cap. 24. Diem Sabbati Diem Dominicam festas habete quoniam illa creationis altera resurrectionis memoria dicata est observe those two festivals the sabbath and the Lords day the one in memory of the creation the other of the resurrection hence was that old Custome of not fasting upon the sabbath or Saturday because it was a day of rejoycing and therefore those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 festival dayes in the 53 Canon of the Apostles are expounded by Zonaras to be the Sabbath or Saturday and the Lords day and in the 65 Canon it is prohibited to fast either on the Sabbath or Lords day 〈◊〉 onely the Sabbath before Easter Ignatius in Epist. ad Philadelph saith If any fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Lords day or on the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is a murderer of Christ. Tertul de jejuniis saith Sabbatum nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum est none must fast on the Sabbath or Saturday save before Easter And from this cause it was that Constantine whose Edict we may read in Eusebius for the free exercise of Christian Religion forbids that they should be impleaded on the Sabbath or Saturday as well as on the Sunday because both dayes were observed with publick meetings And in the Synod of Laodicea it was appointed that besides the Law which was anciently read upon the Saturdayes the Gospel should be also read on that day By all which it may seem that the Jewish Sabbath and the Lords day are both to be kept and by some learned men it is hence urged that the sunday doth not succeed the 〈◊〉 but wassuperadded to the sabbath But to this I answer 1. That the sabbath was for some time used as a thing indifferent as were some other legal rites in favour of the Jews and that they might be the lesse offended and more easily gained to the Christian Church as S. Paul circumcised timothy and S. Peter abstained from some meats c. not as things necessary but 〈◊〉 2. That though the legal rites were void at 〈◊〉 death and then expired yet as S. Augustine saith some time was required for their decent burial 3. That though holy duties were performed in public on the Saturday for many years yet the symbolical and typical rest which was proper to the Jewish sabbath was not allowed or practised in the Church and therefore when some began to 〈◊〉 on the Saturday by resting on that day it was forbid by several Councels as that of Laodicea cap. 29. the Councel of Lyons in cap. 1. de consecr d. 3. and the Sabbatarians were generally condemned for Hereticks And therfore the observing of Saturday as a half holy day as it is still in a manner kept in many places with us was not with reference to the Jewish sabbath but for the more honour of the Lords day as a preparative to that great festival and therefore though the Church did allow some publick meetings on that day in the Church yet we never finde that the symbolical rest which is the proper and characteristical difference of the Jewish sabbath from Christian festivals was ever allowed but generally condemned And thus I have done with these observations and positions which I conceived necessary to insert concerning the 〈◊〉 to give some light if possible to this so much agitated question submitting all to the judgement of my superiours in the Church and ready to yield to what any judicious and learned man shall upon better reasons propound CHAP. IIII. Reasons of this Commandment 1. Gods liberality in allowing 〈◊〉 six dayes and requiring but one for himself 2 The seventh is his own proper day Who are comprehended in the prohibition 1. The Master of the family 2. Children 3. Servants 4. Cattel 5 Srangers The general reasons of this precept 1. Gods rest from the creation Addition 22. Moral reasons sometimes given of a ceremonial precept The reason why a rest and why on this day are different things out of Maimon Abenezra 2. Reason the benefit coming to mankinde by the creation 3. Reason God blessed the seventh day IN the three next verses namely the ninth tenth and eleventh God first explaineth his meaning or gives an explication or further exposition of this Commandment verse 9. 10. and then gives a reason of the Commandment verse 11 why they should yield obedience to it In the explication there is order taken as well concerning works as persons First for works Six dayes shalt thou labour c. verse 9. Secondly for persons Thou and thy son c. verse 10. And again in the same verses there is 1. An Affirmative Six dayes thou shalt labour c. verse 9. and 2. secondly A Negative Thou shalt do no manner of work c. verse 10. Again there is 1. a Permission Six dayes God hath given thee wherein thou mayest labour and do all that thou hast to do 2. And secondly an Opposition or Antithesis But the seventh day he hath reserved to himself Six dayes are thine but the seventh his He hath bestowed six dayes on thee but the seventh he hath reserved to himself In the six dayes thou shalt do all but on the seventh no manner of work Now in the opposition there are two by-reasons included for the main reason is in the 11. verse for in six dayes c. The first is That because God hath dealt so liberally with us as to give us six dayes for our selves and to reserve onely one to himself therefore we should be the more ready to give him that day for by right of Creation we and all ours are the Lords for he made us of nothing and in that regard he might justly challenge 〈◊〉 and our service all our dayes and we being but his Creatures could not justly challenge to our selves one day In so much as if it had pleased God to have given us but one day and reserved the other six to himself we should
an exemption the Lord hath resigned his right into our hands but not upon an imminent peril or necessity which may be prevented or avoided On the other side we are to observe another Proviso We must be careful that because God seeth the heart and we are to deal with him we be sure the danger could not be prevented nor the work be deferred but that present danger and necessity enforceth us to it For we must not draw a necessity upon our selves or pretend a necessity when there is none because God will not be mocked though we may delude the eyes of men This is to be remembred because of the practise of some who Inne their harvest on the Sunday pretending that it is not Gods will that any of his creatures should perish which is true and might lessen the offence if they did it onely for preserving the creature and not for their own gain and profit which if they pretend let them know that God sees their hearts and knows their intentions Therefore for tryal of men in this case it were good if to put a dfference between their works on that day and upon other dayes they would do as they did 1 Cor. 16. 2. lay up on the first day of the week whatsoever they gain or save by their work on that day and give it to the poor by this means it would appear with what hearts they wrought on this day whether onely to save the Creature or out of a desire of lucre and gain Thus we see what rest is commanded and how these cases may be resolved 3. But here ariseth another question When we have rested is that all we are to do Surely no. It is not sufficient that we rest if we do not sanctifie too Leo said of the people of his time that on this day their care was bene vestiri nibil agere keep holy day by wearing gay clothes and doing nothing Now as S. Paul said of bodily labour that it profitteth little so we may say of bodily rest that it profiteth lesse This rest is to holinesse and not to idlenesse We must not be 〈◊〉 on that day of rest To keep a Sabbath therefore and not be able to give accompt of some good thing done by us in it is that which the Fathers call Sabbatum boum asinorum the oxen and asses keep as good a sabbath as such do Besides these Idle sabbath keepers there are two other sorts of people that are neither idle nor well imployed 1. Of the first sort Augustine speaks and they were either 1. such as did vacare 〈◊〉 theatris spectaculis choreis spend their time in pastimes shewes stage-playes and dancing or else those that 2. gave themselves on the Sabbath venationi to hunting To which Leo addes such as did vacare chartis rationibus commessationibus passed the day in playing at Cards and in revelling and so addicted were they to these things as that they were not at al occupied in any work ofsanctification These mens Sabbath as Augustine well observeth is like that of the people in Exodus Cras observabimus 〈◊〉 Jebovae To morrow shall be a sabbath to the Lord they would keep a sabbath to him but it should be as in the next verse to eat and drink and play this sabbath I say was kept to the Calf and therefore he calleth it Sabbatum vituli 〈◊〉 the sabbath of the golden Calf For as we may not keep open markets go to plough or to Law on that day so neither should we spend the time in hunting nor yet in dancing and sporting Nor spend our time ordained for sanctification in beholding sights stageplaies and the like Not because these are in themselves evil or unlawful but in that they hinder our sanctification against such prophanation of this day severe order was taken by diverse councels as Concil Gangr 5. Can. 8. Concil Agath 38. Can. 1. Some christians in the primitive times were so far from this that they would sit in the oratory all the Lords day praying and hearing without eating or drinking insomuch as by their long fasting diverse diseases grew among them wherupon the same council of Gangra in Paphlagonia held 〈◊〉 Dom. 327. Was forced to make a Canon with an Anathema annexed to it against those who thenceforward should fast upon the Lords day But though we shall not need to fear such zeal in our times yet it sheweth to us the great and excellent examples of abstinence used in the Primitive Church to make them more fit for the service of God 1. The other sort are they that spend their time this day in gluttony Lust drunkennesse and such like vices which ought not at any time much lesse on that day be practised For if the affaires of our calling or the sports lawful on another day must not be used on this day much lesse any vice which is unlawful at any time for hereby a double iniquity is committed 1. first because the commandment is violated and this day seemes to be picked and singled out of all other dayes despitefully against the Majesty of God 2. Secondly because it is an abuse of the Creatures of God and a breach of other commandments And therefore as the other was Sabbatum Tyri so these do celebrare sabbatum 〈◊〉 keep a sabbath to the devil CHAP. VI. The second thing commanded is sanctification which is the end of the 〈◊〉 The kindes of sanctification publick and private How the holy Ghost works in 〈◊〉 sanctification The special acts wherein the sanctification of the day consists 1. prayer 2. The word read and preached 3. Meditation of what we have heard and upon the works of God out of Psal. 92. 4. Conference 5. Praise 6. Sacraments and discipline at special times The end of these means our sanctification and Gods glory TO what end then must this rest be why to holines we must apply it to that end to which God hath appointed it and use that holily which God hath sanctified The right sabbath is called Deliciae 〈◊〉 the delight of the Lord wherein he taketh pleasure and that is truly observed when we not onely cease from our own work as those of our calling but of those of our corrupt nature and will by ceasing from that which is pleasant in our own eyes this is to keep Sabbatum 〈◊〉 a sabbath the delight of the Lord to make it a day honour God and to learn Gods wil and having learnt it to practise it whereby he may blesse us and bring us to the inheritance of our heavenly rest Whereas on the contrary if the high-wayes of Sion complain that none come to her sanctuary or that if we come we so behave our selves in it that the adversary mock at her sabbaths Then God himself will take acourse as the prophet speakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrarum he will cast dong upun our faces even the
by 1. his power 2. his jealousie How jealousie is ascribed to God Why humane affections are ascribed to God CHAP. IX page 224 Of the Commination wherein 1. The censure of the sin 2. The punishment 1. In the censure The sin viz. of Idolatry Is called 1. Hatred of God How God can be hated 2. Iniquity The punishment visitation upon the children The 〈◊〉 of this punishment by 1. The greatnesse 2. The multiplicity 3. The continuance Of Gods justice in punishing the sins of the fathers upon the children That it is not unjust in respect of the father nor 2. of the sin The use of all CHAP. X. page 228 The third part of the sanction a promise of mercy Gods rewards proceed from mercy which is the fountain of all our happinesse His mercy is promised to the 1000 generation the threatning extends onely to the third and fourth The object of his mercy such as love him Our love must be manifested by keeping his Commandements How they must be kept The benefit they will keep and preserve us The Exposition of the third Commandement CHAP. I. page 231 The general scope of the third Commandement Of glorifying the name of God by praise The manner how it must be done Several motives to stir men up to the duty CHAP. II. page 234 What is meant by Gods name The use of names 1. To distinguish 2. To dignifie Gods name in respect of his Essence Attributes and works and how they are to be reverenced What it is to take his Name as glorious as necessary Glorifying his Name inwardly outwardly by confessing defending it remembring it honourable mention of it threefold it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerable Applyed to our own actions by prayer and to others by blessing c. Of glorifying it in our lives What it is to take Gods Name in vain in respect of 1. the end 2. agent 3. the work CHAP. III. page 239 Of taking Gods Name by an oath The causes and grounds of an oath The parts of it Contestation Execration How God is glorified by an oath What is here commanded 1. To swear In what cases For Gods glory Mans necessity For the publick good The Oath Ex Officio whether lawful or no. Of private and voluntary oathes 2. To swear by God not by Idols or Creatures 3. Not to take his Name in vain but to swear in 1. Truth in oathes assertorie promissorie 2. Judgement 3. Justice Against voluntary oathes whether lawful Of swearing from the heart The means to be used against vain swearing The signes of keeping this Commandement Of drawing others to keep it CHAP. IV. page 250 What a vow is Whether a bare purpose without a promise Whether a thing commanded may be the matter of a vow The necessity and use of vows in respect of God of our selves What things a man may vow se suos sua Vows in the times of the Gospel Of performing vows Qualifications in a vow for the person the matter The time of vowing Of paying our vows CHAP. V. page 255 Of glorifying Gods Name from the heart The means of glorifying it The signes Of causing others to glorifie it The second part of this precept the Commination Reasons why such a threatning is here denounced Gods punishing the breach of this Commandment by visible judgements God is jealous of his Name The Exposition of the Fourth Commandement CHAP. I. page 259 The excellent order of the Commandements Why God himself appointed a set time for publick worship Why this Commandement is larger then the rest Six special things to be observed in this Commandement which are not in the rest The general parts of it 1. The precept 2. The reasons In the precept 1. The affirmative part what is meant by Sabbath what by sanctifying How things sanctified differ from other things God sanctified it not for himself but for us We must sanctifie it 1. In our estimation of it 2. In our use of it CHAP. II. page 262 What is commanded here 1. A rest 2. Sanctification Rest is required not for it self but for the duties of sanctification Reasons that the Sabbath is not wholly nor principally remonial Addition 21. out of the Authors other works declaring his meaning in two things 1. That the Lords day is Jure Divino 2. That the Jewish Sabbath is abolisht by Christs death proved by him at large out of Scriptures and Antiquity in his Speech against Trask in Star-Chamber CHAP. III. page 268 Additional considerations upon the doctrine of the Sabbath laid down in seven conclusions 1. It is certain some time is to be set apart for publick worship proved by Schoolmen Canonists and Reasons 2. Certain that the law of Nature doth not dictate the proportion of seven or any other in particular 3. It is most probable that the seventh day was appointed by God from the beginning as a day of publick worship in memory of the creation and did oblige all mankinde though the symbolical or typical rest afterwards was enjoyned to the Jews onely This proved from Scripture Fathers Jewish Doctors late Divines reasons c. How the Fathers are to be understood that deny Sabbatizing before the Mosaical Law 4. The Lords day is of divine institution proved by Scripture Fathers publick Declarations of the Church Edicts of Princes Canonists some Schoolmen late Divines 5. The fourth Commandement is in force for the moral equity that at least a seventh part be given to God literally it requires onely the seventh day from the creation not a seventh day The day altered by the Apostles by special authority 6. The rest of the Iewish-sabbath partly moral which continues still partly symbolical which is expired How the rest of the Lords day differs from the rest of the Sabbath rest from ordinary labours forbidden by God but the special determination left to the Church How the Lords day succeeds the Sabbath 7. The Sabbath kept with the Lords day by the Primitive Christians till the Councel of Laodicea was not in a Jewish manner CHAP. IV. page 276 Reasons of this Commandement 1. Gods liberality in allowing us six dayes and requiring but one for himself 2. The seventh is his own proper day Who are comprehended in the prohibition 1. The Master of the family 2. Children 3. Servants 4. Cattel 5. Strangers The general reasons of this precept 1. Gods rest from the creation Addition 22. Moral reasons sometimes given of a ceremonial precept The reason why a rest and why on this day are different things out of Maimon Abenezra 2. Reason the benefit coming to mankinde by the creation 3. Reason God blessed the seventh day CHAP. V. page 280 How far this rest is to be kept Why this word remember is prefixed Such work to be forborn which may be done before or after Necessity of a vacation from other works that we may attend holy duties Mans opposition to God when
this will appear more plainly by comparing the circumstances in the delivery of the Law with the day of judgement 1. That which is first mentioned is a thick and dark cloud And the Prophet speaking of the day of judgement saith The day of the Lord is darknesse and no light S. Jude cals it the blacknesse of darknesse And the Prophet Joel gives the reason because the Sun and Moon shall be darkned and the stars shall withdraw their light 2. The second there were thunder-claps And S. Peter saith that when the day of the Lord shall come the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with servent heat and the Earth shall be burnt up And no man doubts but these things are more terrible to the eye and the ear then the noise of a thunder-clap 3. The third is lightning or fire which then was but upon the mount of Sinai only but at the last day it shall be all over the Earth This fire was but as that in the Bush which was not consumed by it nor Sinai by this But our God is a consuming fire and such a fire as will torment for ever S. John saith the smoke of it shall ascend for ever and the fire shall never be quenched 4. The fourth is the sound of a trumpet that pierced the ears of the living onely but there shall be a more shrill trumpet that shall be heard not by the living onely but by the dead in their graves The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised saith S. Paul 5. Another thing which was an effect of the former was the shaking of the Earth there but one mountain quaked but at the last day it is said Yet once more I shake not the Earth but also Heaven This removed not the mountain but that shall remove both Heaven and Earth Thus we see the circumstances of both conferred now let us compare the effects of them The giving of the Law made onely Moses to shake and tremble but at requiring of an account of it there shall be like trembling of all the very just shall tremble too but the wicked they shall smite their knees together They shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth And as our Saviour quoting the words of the Prophet speaks They shall say to the mountains coverus and to the hils fall on us and that to hide them from the wrath of the angry Judge So that we see by these comparisons that the delivery did in some sort prefigure the requiring of it but the terriblenesse of that day cannot be expressed This sound may awake us now and therefore let us say as the people said here to Moses let us hear it by the ministery of man and as the Apostle saith let us have grace to serve God with reverence and fear For no doubt when Christ shall come from Heaven he will bring with him a fiery Law even fire and brimstone like to the Law mentioned and foretold by Moses So much for the circumstances and effects in the manner of delivering the Law CHAP XX. The end of the Law as given by Moses 1. It brings none to perfection and that by reason of mans corruption as appears 1. by the place a barren wildernesse a mountain which none might touch 2. By the mediatour Moses 3. By the breaking of the tables c. 2. It brings us to Christ because given by Angels in the hand of a Mediatour It was to be put into the ark Given fifty dayes after the Passeover Moses had a veyl The fiery Serpent Our use of the Law to know our debts as by a book of accounts then to drive us to seek a surety to pay the debt viz. Christ and to be thankful and take heed of running further into debt THere is yet one thing to be considered namely the use and end of the Law which we will collect from the words of the Author to the Hebrews It bringeth no man to perfection The Law that is the Mosaical Law or the Covenant of works but not the moral Law considered as it is a part of the Covenant of grace made nothing perfect but it was the bringing in of a better thing So that 1. It brings no man to perfection 2. It brings us to a better thing that is as it is in another place the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ but the principal end of the Law as it is delivered by Christ and become a part of the Gospel is to be a rule to direct us and the way to leade us by walking therein to life and salvation Mat. 5. 6. 7. 1. For the first end Though it be a Law which carrieth with it the character of the Lawgiver as those of Solon did which was mildenesle and of Draco which was cruelty So this of God holinesse justice goodnesse c. And though it be mandatum sanctum an holy Law in respect of the duties to God and justum 〈◊〉 in respect of the duties to men and bonum good in respect of our selves yet by occasion of our corruption and transgression it bringeth no perfection with it which appears by seven circumstances 1. The first is of the place where it was given That was a vast and barren Wildernesse yeelding no fruit to signifie that the Law should be so barren of fruits that it should not yeeld one soul unto God 2. The second is of the Mountain which was Sinai And this S. Paul acknowledgeth to have relation by way of allegory to Agar It is a mountain in Arabia and therefore holdeth of Ishmael the son of Agar the bondwoman and therefore to be cast out with her children and not to receive the inheritance with Isaac So they which think to bring forth fruit by their own righteousnesse are like Ishmael who was born by nature not by promise as Isaac was whose birth was supernatural therefore the children of the Law are to be cast out with their mother because they cannot be perfected by it 3. Thirdly none might go up to this mountain none might touch it And so concerning the Law none hath gone up to it none could so much as ever touch it as he should But the condition of grace the Gospel is otherwise We must ascend to Sion the hill of grace and that with boldnesse And many have gone up to it The Prophet speaking of the Gospel of grace saith Many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord c. 4. The fourth is of the person that was minister of it Moses And if any man should have received perfection by the Law no doubt but he that gave
So much for the Preparation THE EXPOSITION OF THE First Commandement CHAP. I. Of the Preface to the Decalogue Two things required in a Lawgiver 1. Wisdom 2. Authority Both appear here Gods authority declared 1. By his name Jehovah which implyes 1. that being himself and that all other things come from him 2. His absolute dominion over all the creatures From which flow two attributes 1. His Eternity 2. His veracity or truth 2. By his jurisdiction thy God by creation and by covenant 3. By a late benefit Their deliverance out of Egypt How all this belongs to us THe Lord spake c. From the second to the eighteenth verse of this Chapter the words which inded are the body of the Law contain in them two things 1. The Stile I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage 2. The Charge Thou 〈◊〉 have no other gods before me c. To the perfect enabling of every Law-giver to make Laws is required 1. Wisdom 2. Authority 1. For the wisdom of God it appears in the Laws themselves Moses justifieth it and challengeth all the Nations of the earth to match them What Nation saith he is there so great that hath statutes and judgements so righteous as all this Law And the wisdom of a Law is best seen in the equity of it But a little before to shew more plainly his wisdom he tels them that it was their wisdom to keep them for the Nations which should see that they were kept would presently conclude and say Surely this Nation is a wise and understanding people which they would never do if they had not conceived wisdom in the framing of them So that certainly we must needs confesse with the Prophet that it came from the Lord who is wonderfull in counsel 2. For his Authority which is rerum agendarum telum it is plainly demonstrated by God himself in the second verse and manifested by the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt by strong hand In every Edict and Law proclaimed the beginning is with the stile of the Prince intimating thereby his Prerogative Royal to make Laws and to publish and see them obeyed And therefore his authority is annexed as to the Law in general so to those particular Laws which have a reason annexed As to the second For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God c. To the third For the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse c. To the fourth For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth c. and it is the Sabbath of the Lord. Now if it be true that men expect no reason to perswade them to lay hold of a benefit then there needs none to make them observe the Law because it is a benefit for the Psalmist so accounts it He hath not dealt so with any Nation neither have the Heathen knowledge of his Laws Yet it pleased God to adde his reason from his own person though indeed profit be a sufficient Orator And thus doth God in divers places as Levit. 21. 8. 12. 15. 23. As also S. Paul mentioneth it for the New Testament As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse to God which words are taken out of the Prophet In this stile or authority are three points according to the titles 1. Of name Jehovah Thy God which brought thee c. the last benefit they had received out of Egypt 2. Of jurisdiction Jehovah Thy God which brought thee c. the last benefit they had received out of Egypt 3. Of benefit Jehovah Thy God which brought thee c. the last benefit they had received out of Egypt And such Prefaces do earthly Princes use in their writings 1. Of Name as Caius Caesar. 2. Of jurisdiction Imperator 3. Of the last benefit Caesar Germanicus for conquering Germany the last triumph obscuring the former 1. For the title of his Name it is I Jehovah not I am Jehovah which argueth 1. His Nature 2. His Power 1. That it is the name of his Nature it cannot be denied They shall know saith the Psalmist that thou whose name is Jehovah art onely the most highest over all the Earth Concerning the word Jehovah which is Tetragrammaton consisting of four letters much hath been written and many speculations have been gathered from it As namely that there are three distinct letters according to the number of persons in the Trinity and of these three the first signifieth power the proper adjunct of the Father the second wisdom and knowledge proper to the Son and the third love the proper adjunct of the Holy Ghost And that the second letter is doubled to denote the two natures of the second Person But this may be sufficient for us that it is a name from being or a name of existence and that he is of himself and from none 〈◊〉 but that all things are through and from him Omnia beneficio illius ipse beneficio nullius Bern. And as it 〈◊〉 his being of himself so his absolute dominion and power over all and therefore we translate it Lord following the Septuagint who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. And as there is no exception in his title as to be commanded of or by any other All earthly Princes derive their power from him as his Delegates by commission As our Prince hath in his title Dei gratia Angliae By the grace of God King of England c. and is ab aliq from another viz. from God Onely God rules without commission from any but is within and of himself a supream head commandeth simply and absolutely hath no dependance upon any other either of being or power but all things depend on him as their essence powers or faculties and operations This the Prophet sheweth forcibly that streams proceed from him to every creature which being stopped they perish When thou hidest thy face saith he they are troubled when thou takest away their breath they dye and are turned again to their dust And in the next verse he saith that he is the onely breath of the world his breath giveth life When thou lettest thy breath go forth they shall be made Now if we did conceive that any man in the world had our life at such an advantage that with his very countenance he could make or destroy us certainly we would be marvellously cautelous to offend him and very obsequious to please and observe him Yet such is our dependance upon God The word Jehovah as it hath these two significations so hath it two consectaries that follow thereupon in Scripture 1. The eternity of God 2. The truth of God in giving a being to his promises by his performance of them 1. For his Eternity he calleth himself I am Say I am Ero hath sent thee unto them and howsoever there
prayer word c. As a thing may be said to be holy as the place where Moses stood as also all that belonged to the Tabernacle because they were applied to the means of holines 2. Effective in regard of the fruit of holines which is wrought in us on that day and practized in our selves Sanctificamini et sancti estote Be sanctified and be holy So that all which hath bin said amounteth to thus much God hath set apart or sanctified this day to the end that it may be applied wholly either to the means of sanctification as hearing the word prayer meditation and other religious duties or to the practize of sanctification by these means wrought in us And he sanctified it or gave it a blessing that what means we use this day of sanctification shall be two fold blessed and of more effect and force to us then what we do upon another day not sanctified and set apart as this is Now seeing God hath so sanctified it it is our duties that as he hath sanctified it with is blessing we must do the like and sanctifie it too which consists in two things 1. In our estimation and accompt of it which is for our judgement 2. Secondly in the use of it which is for our Practize 1. We must account of it in our judgement as a day holy unto God not as a common day but as a Prince is sacred among men so this is to be reputed holy among dayes a day of dayes that of God to S. Peter must be our Rule What God hath sanctified make not thou common 2. For use that we so use it This use is well set down by the Prophet We must not do our own work No common thoughts are to exercise our brains and as our thoughts must be taken up with common affairs so neither must our communication be of such things nor our practise but our thoughts words and actions must be sanctified and such as tend to the practise of holinesse For according to that of the Prophet If that which is sanctified touch that which is common it imparteth not holines to the thing prophane or common but the common polluteth the thing which is sanctified so that the touching or dealing in any unholy action that day is a polluting of the day This we must take heed of else as our Saviour saith in another case A woman may be chast yet adultery may be committed if a wicked eye look upon her to lust after her so though holy things remain holy in themselves yet we may pollute them and make them unholy as much as in us lieth by our polluted actions CHAP. II. What is commanded here 1. A rest 2. Sanctification Rest is required not for it self but for the duties of sanctification Reasons that the Sabbath is not wholly nor principally ceremonial Addition 21. out of the Authors other works declaring his meaning in two things 1. That the Lords day is jure divino 2. That the 〈◊〉 Sabbath is abolisht by Christs death proved by him at large out of Scriptures and Antiquity in his speech against Trask in Star-Chamber NOw here are two things and both commanded but not alike or equally but the one for the other 1. The first is Sanctification which is the last end and drift of God in this commandment and that which is required for it self 2. The other which is the means subordinate to it is Rest without which sanctification of the day cannot be had as God requireth To make it plain The heathen by the light of nature could see that every thing is then best ordered when it hath but one Office and is ordained to do but one thing at once for whatsoever would be throughly done would be done alone the reason is because we are res 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creatures and if two things be done at once and together one will be done imperfectly because our thoughts will be distracted between both for part of our thoughts will be taken of when they are set upon several objects so that we cannot wholly intend two things at once It was Adams case in the state of Inno cency for he having a natural soul and finite was not able to intend the dressing of the garden commanded him and the sanctification of the sabbath together and therefore God would have him imploy six dayes upon the first and blessed the seventh day to be bestowed in his worship And this was the end why God instituted blessed and sanctified the seventh day for a remedy against distraction especially in the solemne worship of God which is enough to take up the whole man and ought to be without all distractions and therefore permitteth none to be intent to any other thing during the performance of it Now if Adam in that estate could not be free from distraction much more have we need of remedy against it And therefore is this rest and ceasing from servile work commanded to free us from it and to further our sanctification and thus cometh in this rest because this total sanctification cannot be performed without ceasing from labour and doing our own works for without rest we cannot sanctifie and if our rest should hinder our sanctification it ought to be taken away and omitted And indeed our Saviour Christ acknowledgeth that man was not made for the rest but for sanctification Sanctification was his end and man was created and made for that Rest is but a subordinate end and man was not made for it but rather rest was made for man Rest is but the means to attain to sanctification which is mans end and that for which he was made For as the Apostle saith of bodily exercise it profiteth 〈◊〉 so it may be said of bodily rest that bodily rest profiteth little or indeed nothing at all except it be applied to sanctification which is the end nor doth God approve of it without this but wholly disliketh it The scope of this reverend Author is not here to prove that the command of the sabbath is wholly Moral and in no part ceremonial but to prove against the Anabaptists Familists aud other sectaries who denie all distinction of dayes under the Gospel that it is not wholly or principally ceremonial as his reasons do plainly shew for that it is so in part is confessed afterwards where the Author saith that the strict rest enjoyned the jews of not 〈◊〉 a fire nor dressing meat on the sabbath was ceremonial and obliged onely the jews Nor can it be imagined but that he know very well that as the sabbath was a type of Christs rest in the grave of our daily rest from sinne and of our eternal rest Heb. 4. And as it signified a rest from the Egyptian servitude Deut. 5. That in these respects it was ceremonial and is abolisht And although his opinion seems to be that the Lords day which we observe instead of the sabbath is
jure divino in which point learned men do differ and of which we shall speak something hereafter yet that the 〈◊〉 sabbath which as it concerned the jews in a perculiar manner is litterally injoyned by the fourth Commandment is abolisht by the death of Christ is his opinion clearly expressed elswhere Of the 〈◊〉 he speaks in one of his sermons of the resurrection on 1 Cor. 11. 16. where labouring to prove the feast of Easter to be as ancient as the Apostles among other arguments he brings one from the Lords day in these words But we have a more sure ground then all these The Lords day hath testimony in Scripture I insist upon that that Easter day must needs be as ancient as it For how came it to be the Lords day but that as it is in the Psalm The Lord made it And why made he it but because the stone cast aside that is Christ was made the head of the corner that is because then the Lord rose because his resurrection fell upon it Where he plainly affirmes the Lords day to be so made by the Lord himself and that because Christ rose upon that day Now for the other point that the jews sabbath was ceremonial and abrogated by Christs death is proved at large by his speech in star-chamber against Trask published inter opera posthuma where among other things he speaks 〈◊〉 The Apostle inter alia reckoning up diverse others concludes with the sabbath and immediately upon it addes Which all are but shadows of things to come Sabbath and all but the body is Christ. The body had the shadow to vanish that which was to come when it is come to what end any figure of it it ceaseth too That to hold the shadow of the Sabbath is to continue is to hold Christ the bodie is not yet come It hath been ever the Churches doctrine That Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath was the last of them and that the Lords day came presently in place of it Dominicus dies Christi resurrectione declaratus est Christianis ex illo caepit habere festivitatem suam saith Augustine The Lords day was by the resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians day and from that very time of Christs resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans festival For the Sabbath had reference to the old creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new creation by him and so to have a new Sabbath and vetera transierunt no reference to the old We. By whom he made the world saith the Apostle of Christ. So two worlds there were The first that ended at Christs Passion saith Athanasius And therefore then the Sun without any eclypse went out of it self The second which began with Christs resurrection and that day initium novae creaturae the beginning and so the feast of them that are in Christ a new creature It is diduced plainly The Gospels keep one word all four and tell us Christ arose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 una sabbatorum that is after the Hebrew phrase the first day of the week The Apostles they kept their meetings on that day and S. Luke keeps the very same word exactly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to exclude all errour on that day they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is held their synaxes their solemn assemblies to preach to pray to break bread to celebrate the Lords supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords supper on the Lords day for these two onely the day and the supper have the Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicum in the scriptures to shew that Dominicum is alike to be taken in both This for the practise then If you will have it in precept The Apostle gives it and in the same word still that against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of their assembly every one should lay apart what God should move him to offer to the collection of the Saints and then offer it which was so ever in use that the day of oblations so have we it in practise and 〈◊〉 both even till Socrates time who keeps the same word still 〈◊〉 5. cap. 22. This day this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came to have the name of Dies Dominicus in the Apostles times and is so expressely called then by Saint John in the Revelation Revel 1. 10. And that name from that day to this hath holden still which continuance of it from the Apostles age may be deduced down from father to father even to the Council of Nice and lower I trust we need not to follow it no doubt is made of it since then by any that hath read any thing I should hold you to long too cite them in particular I avow it on my credit there is not any ecclesiastical writer in whom it is not to be found Ignatius whom I would not name but that I finde his words in Nazianzen Justin. Martyr Dion sius Bishop of Corinth in Euseb. lib. 4. Irenaeus Clemens Alexandr Tertull Origen Cyprian every one And that we may put it past all question Justine Martyr who lived in the very next age to the Apostles and Tertullian who lived the next age to him both say directly 〈◊〉 solemn assemblies of the Christians were that day ever on Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine die solis saith 〈◊〉 and leave the 〈◊〉 to their Saturn either in their Apologies offered by them to the Emperours Justine made two in his second Tertullian but one the sixteenth chapter of his that of the true day there can be no manner of doubt A thing so 〈◊〉 so well known even to the Heathen themselves as it was in the Acts of the Martyrs ever an usual question of theirs even of course in their examining What Dominicum servasti Hold you the Sunday and their answer known they all aver it Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian I cannot intermit it not the Lords day in any wise These are examples enough I will adde but an authority and a censure and so end The authority I will refer you to is of the great Athanasius great for his learning for his vertue for his labour and for his sufferings but above all great for his Creed Tertullian had written a book de cibis Judaicis which we have so another de 〈◊〉 Judaico which we have lost but it is supplied by Athanasius his book de sabbato circumcisione for he puts them and so they must go together Circumcision and the Sabbath In which he is so clear and so full for the abolishing of the 〈◊〉 day and the succeeding of the Lords day in place of it as no man can wish more and the treatise is no long one neither Now as in the other of meats so in this will I end with censure It is
of the Councel of Laodicea more ancient then the first of Nice and of so special account as we finde it cited by S. Basil nay as we finde four of the Canons made in this Council taken out of it and transferd and made four of the Canons of the great Council of Nice such was the Authority it was had in It is in the twenty ninth Canon and of the authentical great book acknowledged in that of 〈◊〉 the 133. Thus it is That Christen men may not 〈◊〉 or grow 〈◊〉 that is not make the Sabbath or Saturday their day of rest but they are to work that day this comes home giving their honour of celebration to the Lords day And if any in this point be found to 〈◊〉 let them be Anathema a Deo christo to God and Christ both Thus far this learned 〈◊〉 by which discourse made and penned in his latter years it appears fully what his opinion was in this point of the Sabbath and how his meaning is to be expounded in this point of the morality of the day See more of this subject in the third Chapter per totum There is here besides in the Commandment another word Remember which because it is properly of a thing past it referreth us to some time or place before and there is no mention of the sabbath but in two places before the one of them is in Exodus but that is not the place here meant for God in the end of the Commandment adding God 〈◊〉 it c. referreth us to that other place where those words are namely to Genesis 2. 3. And by this occasion falleth in that first question about the morality of the day many think the sabbath is meerly a ceremony and are perswaded that it is so and therefore hold that men are not bound to sanctifie it since Christs time it being abrogated by him In answer whereto we are to follow our Saviours rule who in the case of Polygamie bids us inquire how it was ab initio from the beginning to call it to the first institution for the first institution is that which will inform our judgements best and the first end which appears by the institution is the true end A thing is not said to be meerly ceremonial if a ceremonial use or end be annexed to it for then scarce any of the ten Commandments but should be ceremonial for they have many of them some ceremony annexed to them But that is to be accounted ceremonial whose first and principal end is to be a ceremony and to type out something which this day of rest cannot be said to do The reason is because Paradise and mans perfection cannot consist with ceremonies a ceremony cannot agree to the state of mans innocency This is to be understood of such Ceremonies as had reference to Christ as a Redeemer and so the ensuing words expound these for otherwise ceremonies which have a moral signification or were instituted for other ends might stand with mans estate in Paradise for what was the tree of life but a ceremony And the reason of that is because that before there was a Saviour there could not be a type of a Saviour as ceremonies were and before there was sin there needed no Saviour and so consequently needing no Saviour there needed no ceremony and needing no Saviour nor ceremony it could not be ceremonial But this was it that Adam having in the six dayes a natural use in his body of the creatures should for the glory of God on the seventh day have a spiritual use and consideration of them in a more special manner And although there might be a worship performed to God on other dayes yet that it might be more solemn publick and universal and the heart of man more free from distraction and wordly avocations God therefore would have a speciall day dedicated to his honour and service wherein the Creature should solemnly performe his homage to the Creator and this was the first generall end though other ends were after added as in Deuteronomie it pleased God to adde this reason that the People should remember their Delivery out of Egypt but this was but finis posterior a particular and after end and accessory And it were well if we might adde to our dayes of rest the memory of benefits received And in Exodus God yieldeth a reason taken from a politick end that our family and cattel may rest and return more fresh to their labour And if any will say that besides these ends there was prefigured by this rest that rest we shall have from sin It s true but yet that is but an accessory end As in the Sacraments of Circumcision and Passeover besides the general ends of their institution which were to seal and signify Gods preventing and following grace there were other ends typical and accessory as that of Circumcision did signifie the Circumcision of the heart and the Passover the sacrifice of Christ offered upon the cross In which respects though those two Sacraments are abolisht yet the Sacrament of initiation and another of our confirmation in grace are still continued to wit Baptism and the Lords supper according to the general ends of the two former Sacraments which ends do still remain So though the Sabbath or seventh day from the Creation be ceased yet there is another day still remaining because the end of keeping a day is immutable from the beginning to wit that God might be honoured by a solemne and publick worship This reason of it self is so forcible and plain that without bringing in a manifest absurdity it cannot be denyed and avoided When they see these ends carry us to the Institution and that in Paradise where no type or Ceremony was they seek to avoid it by saying It s true that God sanctified it in Paradise but Adam never kept it neither was it kept till immediately before the Law was given which may seem to be a very absurd thing that God should sanctifie a thing two thousand years before it was to be put in practise This is like to that assertion of those Hereticks that held the materia prima to be made by God many years before the world it self and that it abode by him till the world was made But they are confuted by the Fathers thus That no wise man will make any thing to be many years by him before he shall have occasion to put it to any use And therefore much lesse would God bless this day before there should be any use of it to make rem ante usum 1. We must understand that God in Deuteronomy seemeth to make a distinction between Ceremonies and the Moral Law Deuteronomy 4. 13 14. as that the one proceeded from himself immediately the other by the ministery of Moses so also Deuteronomie 5. 31. 2. Again it breeds confusion and breaks order a thing which God misliketh if any thing meerly ceremonial and not in some sort moral should
memory of the creation and did oblige all mankinde though the symbolical or typical rest afterwards was enjoyned to the Jews onely this proved from Scripture Fathers Jewish Doctors late Divines reasons c. How the Fathers are to be understood that deny Sabbatizing before the Mosaical Law 4. The Lords day is of divine institution proved by Scripture Fathers publick declarations of the Church Edicts of Princes Canonists some School-men late Divines 5 The fourth Commandment is in force for the moral equity that at least a seventh part be given to God literally it requires onely the seventh day from the creation not a seventh day The day altered by the Apostles by special authority 6. The rest of the Jewish sabbath partly moral which continues still partly symbolical which is expir'd How the rest of the Lords day differs from the rest of Iewish sabbath rest from ordinary labours forbidden by God but the special determination left to the Church How the Lords day succeeds the sabbath 7. The sabbath kept with the Lords day by the Primitive Christians till the Council of Laodicea was not in a Jewish manner The whole doctrine of the sabbath and Lords day handled in seven conclusions FOr the more cleare understanding of this point of the sabbath and of the reasons which are here produced and of this discourse upon that subject I shall briefly lay down that which I conceive most agreeable to the truth in certain propositions or conclusions distinguishing things certain from such as are onely probable and submitting all to the iudicious and learned reader 1. It is certain that some time ought to be set apart for publick worship and that this is required by the law of nature which dictates to every one that as God ought to be worshipped so some special time must be set apart for that imployment and therefore as when God created the world he is said to have concreated time with it so when he commands a publick worship he commands withall some time for that use without which it cannot be performed and therefore it is confessed by all divines ancient and modern and by men of all professions except familists and such fanatick spirits that some time ought to be set apart for holy duties as due by the immutable law of nature morale est quantum ad hoc quod homo 〈◊〉 aliquod tempus ad vacandum divinis c. saith Aquinas secunda secundae q. 112. It is moral that every man depute some time for religious duties and with him joyntly agree all the rest of the Schoolmen modern divines and others The very law of nature saith our learned Hooker requires no lesse the sanctification of times then of places persons and things for which cause it hath plased God heretofore as of the rest so of times likewise to exact some part by way of perpetual homage And so we finde the Heathen which had no other then the law of nature to direct them had their solemne feasts and set dayes appointed for the worship of their supposed deities This therefore I lay down as certain because questionedby none 2. I conceive it to be likewise certain that the law of nature doth not in particular dictate what day or time ought to be set apart for publick worship but that the determination of the time or dayes in special is from positive laws either of God or men and therefore that the limitation of a seventh day or the 7 th day from the creation or any other particular proportion cannot be deduced necessarily from any natural principle but must be referrd to some positive law either divine or humane This appears in that there can no natural reason be given why one day more then another or why a seventh rather then a sixth or eighth should necessarily be consecrated to God all dayes being in themselves alike and none in themselves more excellent then others those things which are natural and simply or purely moral are evident to all by the light of nature or may by necessary consequence be deduced from some principle which is evident such laws concern things good or evil in themselves and therefore do immutably binde all persons in all places alike but the limitation of a special day is not it is neither a principle evident in it self nor can by necessary consequence be derived from any such principle and therefore cannot be referred to any natural law or dictate of reason Therefore not only the schoolmen generally nemine contradicente with the Casuists and Canonists but the most modern divines some few excepted do generally agree in this as well as in the former conclusion and though some make the observation of the Lords day under the Gospel to be unchangable and so in some sort moral as the sabbath was under the law yet this they ground not upon any natural law but upon positive divine Law and those that seem to make it a dictate of nature mean nothing else but that there is a congruity in reason and that this time being fixt by Christ is unalterable by any humane power The reason given by some why a memento is prefixed before the fourth Commmandement and none else is because that Nature doth not dictate any particular day and therefore men need to be put in minde of the day appointed by God Filencius tract 27. cap. 1. n. 4. Ex Thom. 1. 2. q. 100. a. 7. 2. 2. q. 122. a. 4. ad 3. Bonavent Richard aliis in 3. Sent. Dist. 37. and before them S. Chrysost. saith that the Sabbath is a precept not made known to us by our Consciences as the other precepts are and that God therefore gives reasons of this as because he rested the seventh day and because they were servants in Egypt c. whereas in those that are purely moral as Thou shalt do no murther c. he gives the Precept barely without any reason at all and that because our consciences had taught us this before and because he speaks to those that knew reason sufficient Tom. 6. p. 542. Edit Savil. 3. It is probable that the seventh day was appointed by positive divine law from the begining as the day for publick worship to praise God for the creation of the world c. and so did oblige all mankinde though as a Sabbath or day of symbolical rest it was afterward particularly given to the Jews by Moses For it is the opinion not only of some Jewish Doctors but of learned men among our selves that in the 4 h Commandment the sanctifying of the seventh day and the rest then commanded are several distinct things and that the first refer to the creation of the world as the cause the other to the Egyptian bondage out of which they were delivered and that therefore the one belonged to all men the other onely to the Jews for which cause the Sabbath is said to be a signe between God and
the essential part of it as a day of publick worship and praise to the honour of the Creator and that the ceremonial and symbolical part by a typicall rest from labour was that ' which properly concerned the Jews then it wil necessarily follow that the sabbath onely in this latter respect expired at the death of Christ and that the other part which was the observation of the seventh day as a day of publick praise in honour of the Creatour of all having no reference to Christ for wherein did the observation of a certain day for divine worship typifie Christ or his benefits but being grounded upon moral reasons and not given onely to the Jews ought to continue still unlesse it were altered by the same authority to wit divine and therefore the day being altered de facto as appears by the perpetual practise of the Christian Church to the first day of the week it will clearly follow that this could be done by no lesse then divine authority and so the observation of the Lords day may be truely said to be Jure divino as enjoyned by him who is Lord of the sabbath and therefore had power to alter the day which he did by his Apostles Neither is it needful which some vrge that a cleere precept of Christ should be brought for this out of the new testament It is sufficient if by necessary consequence it can be deduced from scripture and though in matters of faith which are of absolute necessity to salvation for all to know it may be granted that they are all expressed in scripture yet for other matters that concern the discipline order and government of the Church it was not necessary to have them expressed in writing though many of them be occasionally mentioned it was sufficient that they might be known by the daily practise of the Church wherein every one might read them written in large and Capital letters which universal practise and traditio of the Church in these matters he that shall denie or question may by the like reason question the authors and number of the books of Canonical scripture and whether they were written by men divinely inspired and so by consequence may question the authority of the scripture it self which is conveyed to us no otherwise then by the universal and Catholick tradition of the Church Besides how dangerous it is that the publick exercise of Christian religion should depend upon so week a foundation as authority humane wch may alter its own constitutions is subject to manifold errours I leave to the prudent and judicious Christian to consider The Lords day then I conceive to be grounded upon divine authority not onely in regard that all authority is from God and so divine for so all humane laws might be said to be by divine authority for it is true which learned Breerewood saith there may be divine authority for humane decrees and as Molina saith well Licet quae a regia aliis legitimis inferioribus potestatibus rite praecipiuntur sunt de jure positivo quod tamen illis post quam it a constitutae sunt pareatur est de jure divino cum legitime omnes potestates a Deo sunt Deique vices suo ordine tenent dumque illis obedimus earumque precepta servamus Deo pariter in illis paremus Deique praeceptum voluntatem exequimur though the commands of Kings and other inferiour lawful powers are onely by positive law yet that their constitutions be obeyed is by divine law for all lawful powers are from God and are his Deputies in their order so that when we obey them and keep their Commandments we do also obey God in them and fulfill his will and Commandment But I mean by divine authority that which is immediately divine in regard of the subject God or Christ himself who ordained and appointed this day though it were publisht to the world by the Apostles as the messengers of Christ as they publisht the Gospel and those things for which they had commission from Christ. It is true that the Apostles instituted other things as ordinary governours of the Church which are in themselves changeable as cannot be denied as their orders about widows saluting with a holy kisse and the like which are now antiquated But that the Lords day was not of this latter sort but of the former besides the former reasons which are stronger then any I have seen to the contrary may be likewise evinced by the testimony of the Church and of the most learned and eminent Doctors of it in several ages whose testimony in matters of fact and things of this nature is the best way that I know to prove what is not cleerely and evidently set down in scriptures and that wherein the conscience may most safely rest That text of Psal. 118 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made let us reioyce and beglad in it is generally by the fathers applied to the Lords day as made or instituted by the Lord so among others Athanasius Ambrose Chrysostom Augustine expound it Justin Martyr in 2 Aponl Antonim saith Apostolus a Christo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 celebritatem accepisse That the Apostles received from Christ himself the celebrity of this day Athanasius saith 〈◊〉 sabbati Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit that the Lord himself hath transferred the solemnity of the sabbath to the Lords day Hom. de semente and in the forementioned Hom. upon these words all things are delivered to me by my father Infers the Lords day to be of divine institution Cyrill l. 12 in John Cap. 58. speaking of the apparitions of Christ upon this day saith that Christ thereby sanctified this day for solemne assemblies Chrysostom on Gen. 2. 3. saith here God from the beginning intimates this doctrine to us to lay aside and separate one day in every week for spiritual exercises Saint Augustine Epist. 119. seems to say the same that the Lords day was declared by the resurrection of Christ ab illo not ab illa caepit habere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from him that is from Christ it began to be made a festival Lactantius and others tell us that the primitive Christians expected Christs returne to judgement on that day by general tradition which shews they thought it unalterable and so no humane constitution Besides particular testimonies we have the publick testimony of the Church in her canons generally received in the the Christian world Cap. 〈◊〉 Feriis where it is said tam veteris quam 〈◊〉 testamenti pagina septimum diem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that both the old and new Testament have appointed the seventh day for mans rest In that famous constitution of Leo the Emperor 〈◊〉 54. for the keeping of the Lords day it is said we ought not to encroach upon that one day which God hath chosen for his own honour Among the canonists some of the chief are expressly for the divine right
of the Lords day as Abbas Panormit in c. 3 de Feriis Anchor and others and of the latter canonists 〈◊〉 at large proves the festivtiy of the Lords day ab Apostolis divina institutione edoctis 〈◊〉 fuisse that it was appointed by the 〈◊〉 instructed therein by divine institution Variar 〈◊〉 l. 4. c. 19. n. 5. and that to make it a humane institution were nimis indecorum wch he makes to be the opinion of some men and not generally received And though most of the Schoolmen following Aquinas herein make it onely an ecclesiastical constitution of the Apostles which they do upon this ground that Christ gave no special precepts but onely about faith and the sacraments which if it could be here insisted upon might ealsiy be proved false yet even of them some are for the divine right as Augr. l de verbo Feri e. ss 3. and Sylvest verb. Dominica who affirmes it to be the common opinon in his time and for the rest who are for the jus ecclesiasticum diverse of them say that though the day be absolutely alterable yet morally and practically it is immutable because this change can never be put in practise as Suarez saith and that it is so fixed and deeply rooted and so agreeable to right reason that it can never be changed ob defectum causae because there be no such cause to change it as there was to fix it on this day and that therfore the holy Ghost would never permit the Church to change it because such a change could not be for edification so Fileucius tract ' 3. cap. 2. n. 16. 17. and Ballarmine saith 〈◊〉 divinum requirebat ut 〈◊〉 dies Hebdomadis dicaretur cultui divino that by divine right one day of the week ought to be consecrated to divine worship Decultu sanct lib. 3. cap. 11. de die Dominico If we come lower down divers eminent divines of the reformed Churches go this way though its true that both of Luthers and Calvins followers some seeme to encline to the other opinion as Peter Martyr loco citato Junius in his notes upon 〈◊〉 in cap. 16. Apol. And in his lectures on Gen 23. Piscator in Apoc. 1. 10. Tylnus syntag loc 44. p. 276. to whom diverse others may be added If we come to our own church The homily of the time and place of prayer is full and copious expressely affirming and that often that God hath commanded the observation of the Sunday or Lords day which being the publike voice of the Church ought in points doubtful to have so much weight with every son of the Church as to turn the scale when it hangs in aequilibrio to which we may adde our learned Author that great light of this Church in the places forequoted and that judicious and 〈◊〉 Hooker that Malleus Schismatieorum who is very peremptory in the point as having studied it throughly Eccles. Polit. lib. 5. n. 17. to whom may be added Doctor Fullk on Revelation 1. Doctor Hackwell 〈◊〉 with many others of great learning and judgement not to mention that Rabble of our disaffected Clergie whose Schismatical and factious practises together with that ignorance and pride which is generally seen in most of them and their Jewish principles which they go upon may justly render their judgements suspected so that their authority can be of little weight with judicious pious and peaceable men and therefore I should suspect this opinion if it were not 〈◊〉 by better reasons and authority then these men bring Now to these reasons and testimonies if we adde How Christ honoured that day with his resurrection his apparitions to his Disciples after and sending the Holy Ghost on that day the practise of the Apostles and the first Christians having their religious meetings on that day the title of the Lords day which it had given in S. Johns time together with those high titles and encomiums of the day given by Ignatius Chrysostome Athanasius 〈◊〉 S. Augustine Leo and others of the Fathers calling it the Queen and Princesse of dayes the Royal day the most holy Festival the first and chief of all dayes the venerable day c. we may well conclude both that it was the will of Christ that day should be kept holy to him and that the Church esteemed it no lesse then divine not a humane constitution 5. Fiftly concerning the fourth Commandment whether it be in force or what we are tied to by vertue of the fourth Commandment I answer 1. It is certain there is a moral equity in the fourth Commandment which extends to us under the Gospel viz. that some time be set apart for publick worship and that not lesse then a seventh part for if God thought it fit in his wisdom to require a seventh part before Christs coming in all reason we that live now after his coming ought to give him as much at least we having received greater benefits then they that lived before Christ by Christ now exhibited and having better and clearer promises with a greater measure of the 〈◊〉 now ordinarily given so that a greater measure of mortification to the world is now required and therefore we ought as little or rather far lesse then they to minde worldly affairs and to have our thoughts more raised up to heavenly things In regard of which moral equity this precept extends to all times and persons and is therefore put among the other Commandements which are purely moral and so retaines its power of obligation and therefore the Church hath just cause to retain it in the Liturgie and by that usuall Antiphona at the end of this Commandment as well as of the rest to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law 2. Secondly in regard of the particular day litterally enjoyned by this Commandment it is certain it doth not oblige any since Christ for the special day here required is the seventh from the Creation not a seventh day in general as some without any ground affirme but that seventh day in special which was then observed which was no other then the seventh from the Creation for though the first part of the Commandement specifies not the day but requires onely to sanctifie the Sabbath yet the reason added doth plainly limit the day to the seventh day from the Creation and cannot be extended to the Lords day without manifest absurdity for who would not think this reason ridiculous God made heaven and earth in six dayes and rested on the seventh therefore we ought in imitation of him to rest on the first day when he began to work besides that the text saith expressely that the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it that is not a seventh day but that seventh day viz. the seventh from the Creation And therefore those who would ground the Lords day upon the letter of the fourth Commandment must of necessity fall into Judaisme and observe the Saturday Sabbath which was the errour
our fast is such as God accepts And thus much concerning the second rule for expounding the Commandments extending to Homogenea The third rule tells us according to our former method that the love of God is spiritual and so aswell the fast as the observation of the festival ought to be spiritual as hath been partly handled already The Prophet Esay knew the necessity hereof and therefore urges both in one Chapter Esay 58. he reprooves their fast because they rested in outward abstinence neglecting the spiritual duties without which it is of no value verse 3 4 c. and ver 13. he tells them they must not do their pleasure on Gods holy day but call it a delight not doing their own wayes nor finding their own pleasure c. Thus we must sanctifie the Lord in our hearts as S. Peter requires 1 Pet. 3. 15 and so we shall sanctifie the day to him in an acceptable manner CHAP. IX The fourth rule of the means and helps to keep this Commandment viz. 1. Places 2. Persons 3. Maintenance 1 Of publick places for divine worship The place as well as the time holy and both to be reverenced Add. 25. out of the Authors other works concerning the Adorning of Gods house and against sacriledge in prophaning it Addition 26. Further Additions concerning Churches or places of Gods worship set places used from the beginning the necessity of them from natural instinct Their dedication and the use of it God is sole proprietor as of places so of all the Churches patrimony All humane propriety extinct by dedication the Clergy have onely usum ac fructum no fee-simple by the Law Civil or municipal in any man but a quasi feudum onely IN the next place according to the former rules of exposition we are to proceed to those things which help and conduce to the keeping of this Commandment which we usually call the means for where the end is commanded there those things are also Commanded without which the end cannot be attained Now whereas the solemn duties of this day cannot be performed in a publick manner without a place set apart and persons enabled to perform such high and sacred actions and because those persons must be trained up that they may be fit for such great and weighty imployments and not taken up ex 〈◊〉 grege out of the common rout which cannot be without cost and charge Therefore both places and persons sanctified to these purposes and maintenance also for the persons and for the universities and schools of learning when they are to be prepared for the work are commanded by God and included in this precept and so of these we are to speak in the next place viz of 1. Places 2. Persons 3. Maintenance 1. For the place we finde it joyned with the day in several places Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuarie Where the observation of the day is joyned with the reverence of the place in one verse making them thereby to be of one Nature This should be observed by those men among us who are so strict and punctual about the day urging it even to Jewish superstition and yet are 〈◊〉 negligent of the place and prophane it most of all when as it is most certain that the time and 〈◊〉 do pari passu ambulare and that there is no more ceremony in the one then in the other but that both are of the like moral use and both alike capable of sanctification and the place the more capable of the two as a thing permanent whereas the time is transient The day is the day of rest and when we hallow it it is called the Lords rest and the same name is given by God himself to the place when it is consecrated to him This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein saith God of Sion concerning which as the Apostles took order that the exteriour part of Gods worship should be performed decently and in order so also that the place of worship should not be prophaned but decently kept and reverently esteemed and therefore the Apostle reproves the Corinthians for their irreverent carriage in the place whereby they despised the Church of God Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise 〈◊〉 the Church of God But if he had lived in these times what would he have said to see the 〈◊〉 of God and places of worship so highly prophaned and abused and so homely and poorly kept that the Table of the Lord where as S. Chrysostome saith Tremenda Dei mysteria the dreadful mysteries of God are celebrated looks more like an oyster board or a table to eat oysters on then the holy Table fit for Gods Sanctuary This is so far from Pompa outward pomp which is the extream that some men pretend to be against that it comes far short of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that decency which is required in Gods house This is a thing to be thought on and though it may seem to some not to be inter graviora legis yet I am sure it is not to be neglected as we see it is now adayes for as by travelling working c. we shew that we esteem not the day so the very walls and windows and other parts neglected shew we esteem not Gods sanctuary Concerning the adorning of the house of God the Author as here briefly so more fully in other places expresseth himself Serm. on Mark 14 4 5 6. page 295. If oyntment might be spent on Aarons head under the Law seeing a greater then Aaron is here why not on his too I finde that neither under the Law he liked of their motion What should the Temple do with Cedar neither under the Gospel of theirs What should Christs head do with Nardus but that to his praise it is recorded in the old Testament that said Shall I dwell in my cieled house and the Ark of God remain under goats skins and she in the new that thought not her best ointment too good for Christs head Surely they in Egypt had their service of God it may be in a barn or in some other corner of an house yet when Moses moved a costly Tabernacle no man was found that once said our Fathers served God well enough without one ut quid perditio haec After that many Prophets and righteous men were well when they might worship before the Ark yet when Solomon moved a stately Temple never was any found that would grudge and say Why the Ark is enough I pray God we serve God no worse then they that knew nothing but a tent Ut quid perditio haec Onely in the dayes of the Gospel which of all others least should there steps up Judas and dareth to lay that against Christs Church that no man durst ever either against Moses Tent or Solomons Temple c. In the same sermon a
Creation by positive Divine Law obliging all mankinde Instead whereof the Lords day is set apart for the day of publick worship by the Apostles as extraordinary Legats of Christ in memory of the Resurrection which is to continue unchangeable to the end of the World This as it is shewed out of the Authors other writings so for the more full clearing of all questions upon this subject there is added a large discourse containing the whole Doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords day laid down in seven Conclusions Chap. 7. in Com. 4. wherein I conceive there is some thing offered which may givc some satisfaction to those that are moderate of both sides 5. For the better help of the Reader every Commandment is divided into Chapters and the Sum or Contents of each Chapter with the method how they stand are prefixt to every Chapter or Section All which Contents together with the Supplements or Additions are set together at the beginning of the Book that so the Reader may at once have a general Idaea of the whole Book and of what is handled in each Precept and so may the more easily finde any thing he desires to read without much Labour or enquiry Thus the Reader may in part conceive what is done to render this work the more useful to him And if the stile be not so accurate and exact as in the Authors other sermons he must consider that as it was not polisht by the Author nor fitted by him for the Presse and that in the revising thereof there was more regard had to the matter then to words so having passed through diverse hands it cannot seem strange if some incongruities of speech do still remain Errours we know of one concoction are not easily corrected in an other and waters will contract some tincture from the Minerals through which they passe besides that the errours and mistakes of the Printer which could not easily be prevented may in many places obscure or pervert the sence Let this therefore be taken in good part which is intended for the publick good and what shall be found needful to be corrected as who can walk in so rough a path and never stumble shall God willing be rectified in the next Edition in the mean time make use of this and if it shall contribute any thing to promote the practise of Religion which is the scope of the work the Publisher hath the fruit of his Indeavours and ends of his Desires who desires further the benefit of their Prayers that shall reap any benefit by his Labours AN INTRODVCTION To the Exposition Of the DECALOGUE Containing certain Generall pracognita about Catechizing Religion the Law c. CHAP. I. 1 That Children are to be taught and instructed in Religion proved out of Heathen Philosophers out of the Law the Gospel 2 That this instruction ought to be by way of Catechism What catechizing is How it differs from Preaching Reasons for abridgements or 〈◊〉 of Religion Catechizing used in all ages Before the flood After the flood Vnder the Law Vnder the Gospel After the Apostles In the Primitive Church Reasons for this custome of Catechizing BEfore we proceed to the ensuing Catechism we will first premise something concerning the necessity of Catechizing Youth and the duties of the catechised by way of preface And for this we have sufficient warrant not onely humane but divine also Clemens Alexandrinus Tutor to Origen intending to write his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or three books of Pedagogy or instruction of Children prefixed before it his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or admonitory Oration And Cyrill Bishop of Jerusalem writing twenty four several Catechisms in the front of them hath a preface which maketh up the twenty fift which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Introduction or Preface And both these are built upon the example of King David who being at one time among others determined to catechize Children calls them to him saying Come ye children and hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord a plain preface before catechizing The like introduction did his Son make Hear O ye children the Instruction of a father and give ear to learn understanding So that you see our warrant for an introduction or preface Now out of these texts three points naturally arise 1. That it is a thing not onely pleasing to the Lord but also commanded by him that children be instructed in the fear of God 2. That their teaching must be by way of catechizing 3. What is required of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the catechized that the catechizing may be fruitful and not in vaine viz. to come and hearken or giue eare There have been some of opinion as may be seen as well in the writings of the Heathen as in the story of the Bible that Religion should not descend so low as to children but that they are to be brought up licentiously and allowed liberty while they are young and not to be instructed before they come to riper years and then they should be instructed in Religion 1. The heathen tell us of that 〈◊〉 is in the beginning of the Philosophers moral 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a young man is not a proper and fit Auditor of Moral Philosophy And it was the Orators opinion in his defence of Caelius Dandum est aliquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deferbuerit Liberty is to be given to Youth till its heat be abated And one of their Poets Qui deos voluptuarios contempsit juvenis is aut amabit aut 〈◊〉 senex He that despiseth pleasure while he is young will either dote or be mad when he comes to be old To answer this we say that if there were any weight or moment in the authority of the Heathen the whole consent and practise of them in general were to be preferred before some few mens opinions And for their practise it is certain that catechism or instruction of youth was ever in use among the Gentiles for we finde in Porphiries questions upon Homer this saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things we understand by the instruction of our childehood And Salons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacred admonitions learn't by Eschines shewed that it was usual in Athens for youth to be taught The history also of the Heathen makes it plain that their children were instructed and so dealt with for it was a custome among them not to poll their childrens heads till they were instructed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sacred admonitions from which time they were allowed to carry tapers in their shows and festival solemnities then were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torch or Taper-bearers Phocylides also saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is necessary to teach a childe while he is young to doe well And 〈◊〉 in his golden verses and Plutarch in his booke of the education of youth and Plato in Euthym. are all of the same opinion
doctoribus intelligentiae dona tribuuntur 〈◊〉 enim Doctori verbum Dominus pro gratia tribuit auditoris When hearers come with a good appetite to heare the word the teachers are enabled with 〈◊〉 gifts of understanding For ost-times God gives his word to the teacher in favour of the hearers CHAP. II. The duty of the catechized 1. To come and that 1. with a right intent 2. willingly 3. with preparation which must be 1. in fear 2. by prayer Other rules for coming 1. with fervency 2. with purity of heart 3. in faith 4. frequently The second duty to hear or hearken The necessity of hearing The manner 1. with reverence 2. with fervour of spirit 3 with silence 4. without gazing 5. heare to keep How the word must be kept in our hearts 1. by examination 2. by meditation 3. by conference Now that it may be the more fruitful two duties in this text are required of them 〈◊〉 et auscultare To come and to heare or hearken It is the nature of the Holy Ghost to comprehend and comprize many things in few words much matter in short speech 〈◊〉 come The first duty required is to come to Church Our presence must be the first part of our Christian obedience I was glad saith the Psalmist when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. And the Prophet saith many people shall go and say Come and 〈◊〉 us go up into the mountain of the Lord. The Jews have a proverb Blessed is he that dusteth himself with the dust of the Temple Alledging that of the Psalmist One day in Gods Court is better then a thousand 1 And yet our coming to Church will availe us little if we come as they did of whom the Prophet speakes that is for fashions sake feare of punishment disfavour or the like rather then for any good will we have to come thither For to such the word shall be as the same Prophet tells us as a sealed book that cannot be opened Therefore if it stood in our election and that all censures and rubs were removed that we might be at liberty to come or stay at home yet are we to come and to come well affected because the Holy Ghost hath said Venite come For to come onely at Gods call and not well qualified is no more then the Centurions servant did at his command therefore in so coming we shall do God no great service The people went three dayes journey into the wildernesse after Christ. And there were some that heard Saint Paul while he continued preaching till midnight But our coming and hearing will little avail us if it be not with a good intent for even the flies lice grashoppers and caterpillars came at Gods commandment 2 But we are not only to come but to come Libenter with a willing minde to be bettered by our coming not to heare newes as the Athenians nor as 〈◊〉 to Christ hoping to see some miracles done but diligenter ardenter with diligence and zeale Saint Augustine calls the peoples act of following Christ three dayes in the wildernesse Monstrum diligentiae a diligence more then ordinary We must be like those that to heare the Apostles resorted daily and with gladnesse to the Temple and in Solomons phrase wait daily at his gates and at the posts of his doors to hear that is without wearinesse or intermission 〈◊〉 saith Non sunt istae institutiones sicut homiliae These Catechizings are not as Homilies for if we misse a sermon we may redeeme it again but if we misse this exercise we loose much benefit It is compared to a building of which if any one part be wanting the whole edifice must 〈◊〉 be unperfect Therefore we must follow the Apostles counsail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and redeem the time for the neglect of this duty cannot be excused by multiplicity of businesse for though a provident care be lawful yet when it hinders us from coming to God it 〈◊〉 sin Nor can pastime priviledge us for there 's no other reason given that Esau was evil but that he was a man of the field or lived in the fields and loved his game and pleasures And it was the Israelites fault Sedebat populus edere surrexit autem ludere the people sat down to eat and rose up to play This was spoken to their reproach and infamy And therefore it is well said of One Mens otiosa nihil aliud cogitare novit quam de escis aut quam de ventre an idle man thinks of nothing but his belly And another Nihil in sancto proposito otio deterius est nothing hinders holy intentions more then 〈◊〉 Nor the spirit of sloth The Prophet tells the Jews The Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes If a man have not a minde to go to this exercise it will not excuse him he must rouse up himself and remove all impediments But if sicknesse seiz upon us or some extraordinary occasion that cannot be avoided necessitates us and keeps us back at any time from this duty we are to follow the Apostles rule before mentioned and redeem the time by our better future diligence 3 Now forasmuch as we know that every comer is not welcome but he that cometh in his wedding garment that comes prepared as he ought and that we 〈◊〉 King Hezekiah would not proclaim a solemn passeover til the Priests and Levites were prepared and that King David though he had taken as good order as he could yet not confident of the abilities of himself 〈◊〉 his people betook himself to prayer that God would prepare their hearts And that in the gospel the office of John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the Lord and to make his paths straight Lastly that the servant which prepared not himself was severely punished We ought to fit our selves to this duty by way of preparation for certainly this is a most necessary duty required in every one that desireth to know God Prepare to meet thy God saith the Prophet And Barnabas in his sermon to the Antiochians the first that were called 〈◊〉 exhorted them that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord And this every one ought firmly to beleeve that whosoever intends to be an Auditor must hear upon this consideration to make use of his hearing in the course of his life and put in practise what he hears The Psalmist saith That a young man must rule himself according to the word to the end that he may cleanse his wayes And he that practiseth not what he heareth faileth in the first point Our Saviour called the doctrine of the Pharisees Leaven and Christian doctrine may be called fermentum Christianum Christian Leaven whose property is to change the whole lump into
outward so in some sence that commandment which requires the one requires the other for every precept is given to the whole man though chiefly to the soul and to the body as the instrument of the soul yet in regard that worwip may be performed either by the heart alone or by the whole man therefore that distinction may be in some sort admitted and so it may be said that the first commandment looks chiefly to the heart though not excluding 〈◊〉 outward man and that the second looks more immediately at the outward manner of performance yet not excluding the heart CHAP. V. In the first Commandment three things are contained 1. We must have a God 2. We must have the Lord for our God 3. We must have him alone for our God The sin opposite to the first is profanenesse to the second is false religion to the third mixt religion How our nature is 〈◊〉 to those sins Reasons against them THis first precept is primae necessitatis and therfore first to be regarded it was never dispensed withal nor ever shall be And according to the first Rule of extension Praeceptum faciens non faciens It being a negative implyeth an affirmative The negative is Thou shalt have no other Gods The affirmative our Saviour quoteth to the Devil out of 〈◊〉 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve There are three propositions which naturally arise out of this Commandment 1. That a God we must have 2. That we must have the Lord for our God 3. That we must have him alone for our God 1. The meaning of the first is that we should not be Gods our selves which was the beginning of all mischief Dii eritis ye shall be Gods in judging good and evil at our own election but to acknowledge a superiour power from whence we are to take our rules and directions both in following good and abstaining from evil and not to be led by our own affections And to this superiour power so instructing us and promising to bring us to the full fruition of the chiefest good we should submit our selves acknowledge him and tye our selves to him which acknowledging and tying our selves to him is the proper act of Religion which is therefore called 〈◊〉 a religando as S. Augustine derlves it this is in the first place to have a God and a Religion and consequently to worship him as God 2. The meaning of the second is to inform us that the Gods of the Nations are but Idols no Gods and therefore the service and worship done to them is false and Idolatrous But 〈◊〉 our God who hath manifested himself many wayes to be the true God is the onely God and his religion true religion and therefore we are to shake off all worship and service to others and 〈◊〉 our selves wholly to him and his service 3. This third teaches us that there are no Idols nor Gods that can do as he doth either in rewards or punishments none can reveal or bestow eternall happinesse but he none can joyn with him or help him therein but he alone is both able and willing and therefore he alone will have all the glory to himself he will have none to participate with him Gloriam meam 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 my glory will I not give to another 1. Now the opposite sinne to the first is called Prophanesse when a man will be carried by his own affections in every thing and do that which seemeth good in his own eyes when he will be under no yoke or bands but breake them giving credit to nothing but what his own God corrupt reason 〈◊〉 him to doing nothing but by his own direction and what his own will stands affected to 2. The sinne contrary to the second is false worship and 〈◊〉 religion The holy Ghost is pleased here to call it the having of other Gods as in the Scripture he 〈◊〉 evill by the name of strange as a strange woman a harlot so strange worship Idolatry strange Gods false Gods And this is forbidden in the second proposition 3. The sinne against the third is that which Elias called mixt worship halting between two opinions mingling Gods religion with others following both God and Baal Like the Samaritans that feared the Lord when he sent lions among them and yet served the Gods of the nations whence they came they sware by the Lord and by Miclcom A sinne that divers of the kings of Israel and Judah were taxed with 2 Kings 13. 1 Now these are three things which the devil aymeth at and hath helps in our nature to set forward and bring to effect his purpose According to his own name Belial he is without yoke so would he have others to be also His argument in the first temptation was to have Adam cast off his yoke and be under no director Tast but the apple and thou shalt be a director to thy self and be able of thy selfe without any other guide to judge of good and evil And this vain desire of licentiousnesse whereby men by corruption of nature delight dissolutly to follow their concupiscence and in all things to sit Judge in defining good and evil is the high way which leads to the greatest transgression opening the door to prophanesse and Atheisme 2. So in the second place there is a marvilous itching desire in us of change which the Devil also nourisheth Stollen bread matters of secrecy strange flesh c. And where once prophanes 〈◊〉 he faileth not to adde a curious longing to search beyond the truth till at last he causeth them to finde a lie in stead thereof for there was never any error broached but it sprang from a desire of innovation and a wandring out of the beaten path And this he brought Solomon to who having the knowledge of true Religion as much as any yet not content fell to enquiring after forrein Religions mystries and conceits and so fell to 〈◊〉 3. In the third there is also a great desire in us to reconcile God and Mammon And though our Saviour said it was impossible to serve both yet are we desirous beyond measure to heape up temporal things and get eternal too to have a Paradise here and else where there is a desire in us to communicate our selves to all and to use a like freedom to good and bad thinking that while we are in the world the world will do us good and when we come to heaven God will do us good too And this the devil misliketh not for he runs not upon soli or 〈◊〉 for when he tempted Christ with promise to give him all the kingdoms of the earth it was not upon so strict a condition to worship him onely but to joyne him with God in his worship and service 1. Now the reasons whereby these are forbidden are these We must confesse that the nature of man hath recieved a great wound insomuch
is not accomplished they are said to groan and desire to be delivered Now the onely remedy for this is the consideration expressed by S. Augustine Sustine illum sustinuit te si sustinuit te dum mutares vitam malam sustine tu illum dum coronat vitam bonam bear with him that hath born with thee if he have forborne thee whilst thou alterest thy ill life forbear him whiles he crowns a good life This hath great reason for it which shall be afterwards shewed when we come to treat of patience S. Basil compareth the Gospel to a net and fear to the lead which makes it sink and keeps it fast and hope to the cork which keeps it alwayes above without the lead of fear it would be carried hither and thither and without the cork of hope it would sink down under water and the Apostle shewes a joy in hope and therefore wills us to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering and he gives a sufficient reason for he is faithful that hath promised And so all these are necessarily to be observed in this command of hope Another thing commanded is hope for earthly things For as our Saviour saith of faith he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much God exerciseth our faith in heavenly things by a faith in earthly things so it may be said of hope If a man can hope for heavenly things can he not hope for earthly And he that will not hope in God for the lesse will not hope for the more Our Saviour argueth from the greater to the lesse God having given us a soul providing food to preserve life how much more will he provide food and raiment for our bodies and if he cause his sun to shine and the rain to fall upon the wicked and ungodly will he not provide for his servants Qui pascit contemnents non pascet colentes He that feeds them that despise him will he not feed them that love him And our Saviour prosecuteth his argument that if God provide for the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field shall he not do it much more for man for whose use all things are made and preserved Therefore must we cast our selves upon God and not trust to the proud and such as go about with lies The care for temporal things is lawful so it be restrained within its limits that is within the lawful means and wayes which God alloweth For terrena bene curantur nil male agendo contra illa so bene contemnuntur nil male agendo propter illa we are careful enough for the things of this life if we do not waste them and carelesse enough of them if we use no ill means to get them We come now to that which is forbidden The object of hope is bonum and not every bonum neither but that good which we see not as the Apostle speaks it must be futurum Spes quae videtur non est spes as it is in faith and besides that it is futurum it must also be possibile and arduum possible to be had yet not with ease but with some difficulty to make us the better to esteem of it for if we could obtain it presently we need not hope for it And out of these two arise two extreams of hope which are here forbidden 1. Presumption 2. Despair Whereas eternal life is propounded as a thing possible arduum tamen not to be attained without difficulty there ariseth in our minde an affection called Presumption whereby we apprehend it as possible and easy and so neglect to labour for it as a thing of difficulty and thus presumption hopeth without hope But to avoid this we must know that the Lords delight is in them that fear him and hope in his mercy This hope must be mixed with fear in regard of the hardness of attaining ne forte reprobi fiamus as S. Paul though he had been taken up into the third heaven yet feared afterward lest he should become a cast away So then as there ought to be hope in regard of the possibility so in respect of the difficulty we must not presume we are not to presume of our selves or of others 1. Not of our selves For we are to know that of our selves we can do nothing unlesse there be Gratia praeveniens subsequens preventing and following grace which is divinum auxilium the divine aid if these be wanting our hope is meer presumption and folly Sine me nihil potest is facere without me ye can do nothing is sufficient to correct this humour and S. Bernard saith of the first Quaerere Deum non potest anima nisi praeveniatur ut quaerat The soul cannot seek God without this preventing grace And for the last the Psalmist saith Thy loving kindenesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life So that whatsoever we do all must be attributed to Gods grace Gratiae divinae ascribitur omne quod prospere a nobis geritur saith S. Gregory whatsoever is well done of us is all and wholly ascribed to Gods grace 2. We are not to presume upon the help of others our hope and trust must not be put in man Put not your trust in Princes saith the Psalmist nor in any childe of man and why Because there is no help in them Not in Abraham or Israel for they know not nor in Saints or Angels for they are not clean in his sight And therefore S. Augustine saith Solus siduciam praestat homini apud Deum Deus homo it is onely God the man that gives man confidence with God for he is onely Clypeus sperantium in eum a buckler to all them that trust in him God hath his ax in his hand ready to strike us no creature is able to ward off the blow it is onely this Deus homo Christ Jesus God and man that is able to bear it off from us 3. As a man may not presume of himself nor others so neither may he presume upon God further then his word gives warrant The word of God begetteth faith and faith hope so that there can be no hope without faith nor faith without a promise in the word whereupon to build David went no further Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope And therefore it were a point of high presumption for a man to continue in sin in hope of Gods mercies without repentance and amendment of life whereas there is no promise of God that unrepentant sinners should finde mercy The other extream is Desperation which is opposite and flat contrary to Presumption and hope too for whereas true hope conceiveth a thing possible though it be hard and presumption takes it to be possible but not hard Despair thinketh it to be so hard that it is impossible Despair is
God and held his hands Quis tenet te Domine saith one Lord who holds thee that thou sayest let me alone Moses his prayer did in a manner binde the hands of God There is an almighty power in prayer because it overcomes him that is almighty But it may be objected that how dare miserable men dust and ashes presume to speak to God being so excellent and omnipotent and as Jacob confessed now being lesse then the least of his blessings This is answered thus by one non presumptione tua sed promissione et permissione sua God not onely permitteth it but addeth a promise to them that use it and commands us to call upon him In the Psalm before alledged call upon me in the time of trouble and I will hear thee And Saint Peter and Saint Paul both confirm the truth of this when they quote this of the Prophet Joel whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved And the joyning of two places in the Gospels will make us call on God with great confidence Every one that asketh saith Saint Matthew receiveth and that in Saint John whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you There can be no more said then that every one that asketh shall have and whatsoever you aske you shall have whereas on the contrary Gods sury will be powred upon them that call not upon his name And as God is ready to promise so is he also to perform yea so ready is he on his part that he saith before they call I will hear To testifie this he erected a mercy seat in the Tabernacle and when the temple was built he gives it a name from this duty of prayer The House of prayer to shew how ready he would be to hear the prayers there put up and that not onely by his own people but even by strangers too for whom Solomon prayed at the consecration of the Temple and this was acknowledged by the Persian King who calls it the house of the God of Heaven Herein was the mercy seat placed and the first part of the service was incense which as we shewed before is often interpreted to signifie prayer and so it is intimated in the Gospel when we read that the people were without praying while the Priest was within at the typical worship burning of incense And as God had a seat of mercy then on earth so hath he now erected a throne of grace in Heaven from whence si ascendat 〈◊〉 descendet gratia if prayer ascend grace descends And because that we cannot have accesse by our selves by reason of our sins therefore order is taken that we may have accesse per alium by another even by Christ who to assure us the more of the efficacie of our prayers not onely in his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears but still makes intercession for us and therefore in the Revelation he is figured by an Angel that receives the prayers of the Saints in golden censures mingles them with incense to make them acceptable and so offers them up to his Father So that as he prayeth for us himself so he makes our prayers acceptable and therefore he makes us Priests to God to offer this spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praises and as it was promised to pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplication so it is performed by Gods sending the spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father which spirit helpeth our infirmities and when we know not how to pray makes intercession for us with sighes and groans that cannot be expressed So that we have no reason to doubt of the 〈◊〉 of our prayers with God but to rest assured that God is highly pleased with them and is ready and willing to hear us and to grant what we ask according to his will Thus we see all is performed on Gods part Now for the duty it self This duty of Invocation here commanded contains in it two things 1. A lifting up of our soul a fixing of the minde upon God as the Authour and giver of all good 2. A pouring out of our soul a full declaration of our desires and meditations or what it is we require of God Invocation or prayer is divided into 1. Petition and that either for ourselves which also is subdivided into Deprecation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the removal of some evil Precation for the obtaining of some good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for others which we call Intercession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Thanksgiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. The first part of Petition is Deprecation that evil felt or feared may be removed and this is most properly and usually the matter of our prayer Is any man afflicted saith S. James let him pray and though hope apprehends nothing but good yet the removal of evil hath rationem boni and so may be the object of hope and the subject of prayer And this consists in three points 1. Vt malum avertatur that evil may be turned away before it come I beseech thee O Lord saith the Prophet let thine anger and fury be turned away That Gods wrath may be turned away before it come upon us 2. Vt malum anferatur that evil may be taken away after it hath seized upon us Deliver Israel O Lord out of all his troubles 〈◊〉 being in trouble we may be delivered out of it and this is called 〈◊〉 deliverance 3. Vt malum minuatur that evil may be 〈◊〉 Let thine anger cease from us saith the Psalmist mitiga iram tuam when we pray for a diminution that so we may be able to bear it But as a necessary preparative to this the Saints have ever used Confession and acknowledgment of sins The Prophet in sundry Psalms runneth first over all his sins sins of omission and commission of thought word and deed against God his brethren or himself by instigation of others or of his own accord For Prov. 28. 13. He that covereth his sins shal not prosper that 's a dangerous saying and in Psal. 32. 3 4. 〈◊〉 dangerous example till he had 〈◊〉 his sins his bones consumed and his moysture was turned into the drought of summer So likewise did Daniel make confession before he comes to petition 1. The chief thing to be prayed against maxime deprecandum is to be kept from falling into sin by temptation That we may not be winnowed by Sathan Not to wish as commonly we do I would I were out of the world but as our Saviours prayer for his Disciples I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil And we desiring but thus certainly Gods promise will not be unperformed for he is faithful who will not
of the friend that called up his neighbor at midnight by both telling us how much importunity prevails with God 4. A fourth is God though he gives not quod petimus what we ask yet he will give quod novit utilius what he knows to be more profitable for us as in the case of S. Paul My grace shall be sufficient for thee 5. Some things we pray for may be hurtful to us as knives for children so as that non accipiendo accepimus we are better by wanting then possessing them Chrysostome calls prayers for such things childish and aguish prayers as S. Aug. male usurus eo quod vnlt accipere Deo potius miserante non accepit God in compassion lets not him receive that which he meant to use ill And therefore sometime to misse that which we conceive to be a benefit is a blessing And therfore we will conclude this point with a saying of S. Aug. fideliter supplicans Deo pro necessitatibus hujus vitae 〈◊〉 auditur misecorditer non auditur quid enim infirmo sit utilius magis 〈◊〉 medicus quam aegrotus God in mercy hears and in mercy hears not a faithful suppliant for the necestities of this life for the Physitian knows what is profitable for the sick man better then himself These reasons are from the matter of our prayers others taken from the manner of our asking may be mentioned hereafter The third part of Invocation is Interpellation or Intercession which is prayer either for the prosperity or against the crosses of others The Fathers seldome quote the Fathers but in this S. Aug. cites S. Ambrose Frater mi si pro te rogas tantum pro te unus orabit si autem pro omnibus rogas omnes pro te rogabunt My brother if thou only pray for thy self one shall pray alone for thy self but if thou pray for all men all men will pray for thee And S. Gregory saith Quisquis pro aliis intercedere nititur sibi potius ex charitate suffragat pro semet ipso tanto citius audiri meretur quanto magis devote pro aliis intercedit whosoever prayes for others doth the rather pray for himself and by so much the sooner deserves to be heard for himself by how much the more devoutly he intercedes for others S. Chrysostome hath an excellent speech to this purpose Pro se orare necessitas cogit pro aliis charitas fraternitatis hortatur dulcior autem ante Deum est oratio non quam necessitas transmittit sed quam charitas fraternitatis commendat it is meere necessity that compels a man to pray for himself but it is a brotherly affection that draws a man to pray for others and that prayer is more acceptable to God which is caused by love then necessity This part of invocation hath divers branches As we are to pray for all men 1. For sinners that have not sinned unto death and there is a promise that prayer shall be heard In which respect there is a prayer in our Liturgie first for them that are without the Church for their conversion as Heathens Jews Turks Hereticks Schismaticks then for those that are in the Church which are with us and yet not of us but are still in blindnesse and ignorance or know but practise not 2. We are to pray for them that not onely are oppressed with outward afflictions but inward temptations and the 〈◊〉 of their sins 3. For those that stand that they fall not but persevere 4. For them that are our enemies and persecute us And for this we have not onely our Saviours percept but the practise of holy men Saint Gregory Hum. 27. in Evang. upon that place in Jeremiah 15. 1. where God saith though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my heart could not be towards this people c. asks the question why Moses and Samuel are especially named and gives this reason Because the prayers of such are most powerful with God who having received an injury can presently pray for those that wronged them Now such are Moses and Samuel For Moses when the people were ready to stone him presently prayeth for them Samuel though the people desired to cast off his government yet saith God forbid that I should cease to pray for you And of these prayers it is said that they shall return into our own bosome They are very effectuall for in these cases Qui pro aliis orat prose laborat he that prayes for others labours for himself 5. For Kings and Magistrates as the Apostle adviseth 6. Lastly but most especially for the peace and good of the Church O pray for the peace of Jerusalem saith the Psalmist who also wished that his tongue might cleave to the roof of his mouth if he forgate to pray for it The fourth branch of Invocation is Thanksgiving Invocation is for that we want and desire Thanksgiving is for that we have received So that whether we be answered before we call as the Prophet speaks when God gives before we ask or whether it be given us when we ask in both cases we have cause to enter into this consideration Quid retribuam Domino what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits And indeed the chief end of all should be the glory of God For for his glory all things that are made were created the seventh day when he had finished his work of creation was instituted for his praise and glory And for this purpose man was placed in Paradise to praise him and after his fall mankinde had perished and all things had been again reduced to nothing but that God might have some to glorifie him Now it is plain that God takes and accepts of thanks as a great part of his glory And therefore were the thank-offerings among other sacrifices for Gods service and glory instituted of old and he that offereth me thanks saith God by the Prophet giveth me glory and the Apostle All things are for your sakes that the aboundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God That which the Heathen said is true Gratus animus est meta benignitatis gratitude is the end of bounty And it is the condition of our obligation to God and of Gods to us Call upon me in i me of trouble and I will hear you there is Gods and thou shalt glorifie me there is ours The Hebrews make Thanksgiving to consist of four parts according to the four words used by thankful persons in Scripture 1. Confession or acknowledgement Confitebor I will confesse that we have nothing but that we have received from God That our help cometh from the hills from no inferiour creature from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Father of lights Nor must we conceal what we have received Saint
Bonum non amatur as the School-men say quod non cognoscitur the good that is not known cannot be loved For if it were known it being the natural desire of all to be better we should love it to be the better by it It is therefore well said That good things have no greater enemy then ignorance Knowledge and faith then as is said shewing us this good love will be stirred up in us and then follows unio affectus the union of the affection all that we can have here and in the life to come instead of this fruition by faith fruition by cleer vision There are two sorts of love 1. Amor mercenarius a mercenary love 2. Amor gratuitus a free love They are distinguished thus when a man loves his meat and drink and when he loves his friend or brother it is certain these loves are not all one in the one there is a desire to have the thing loved that he may make use of it for his own benefit for the present not caring what becomes of it after but his love to his friend is to do him good for himself or for his own sake and it includes in it bene velle bene facere to wish him good and to do him good in the former á man looks at himself and his own good onely in the other at his good whom he loves the first is amor concupiscentiae the other amor amicitiae The Philosopher distinguishes them by Vnde Quo whence and whither In the first love the question is made by Quo in the other by Vnde In the first we ask what good comes to us by it in the other what good it hath in it self though it be no benefit to us The one hath an eye that looks inward on our selves the other outward upon others Yet these two though they may be distinguished yet are not alwayes divided for the one oft-times is the beginning of the other both in our loves to God and man for those that have been beneficial to us though we love them at first for the benefits we receive by them yet afterwards we come to love them for themselves 1. The first ariseth from hope Because a man being cast down by fear conceives hope upon Gods promises then sending forth prayer receiveth fruit and saith Praised be the Lord for he hath heard the voice of my humble petition And thou hast given me my hearts desire which fruit stirreth up the first love and this amor concupiscentiae the love of concupiscence which goes before 〈◊〉 gratuitum free love for as the Apostle saith that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural or carnal and then that which is spiritual so free love of God for himself is not first but first we love him for his benefits and then for himself and this is true love Therefore it is said that 〈◊〉 vertues of clemency affability liberality c. were greater then Cato's of justice and fidelity in his dealings because the former looked at the good of others these reflected upon himself and his own good That which is natural will be first 〈◊〉 before amicitia or benevolentia and this is the inchoation of the other Perfect love is not attained at first for nemo repente fit summus now S. Chrysostome wondreth how men can slip themselves out of this love for if they will love any for his benefits none bids fairer for this amor mercenarius then God for he offereth for it the kingdom of heaven The Fathers compare fear to the wildernesse and these two degrees of love to the land of promise this mercenary love to that part of it which lay beyond Jordan and the other to that part upon which Sion and Jerusalem stood For amor gratuitus which looks not at reward Saint Bernard saith that Deus nunquam sine praemio diligitur our love to God is never unrewarded though sine intuitu praemii diligendus est he ought to be loved without looking at the reward The Apostle respected his own commodity so little that he wished himself accursed that the glory of God might shine in the salvation of Israel It is lawful to love God for his benefits for God uses them as motives to stir us up to love him and the best of Gods servants have so practised Moses looked at the recompence Hebrews 11. but we must not rest there nor love him onely or chiefly for them but for himself otherwise we love not him but our selves ratio diligendi est Deus ipse modus sine modo the cause of our love must be God himself and the measure without measure saith S. Bernard Some divide love into Quoniam Tametsi Because and Although 1. The first is that which is called mercenarius I love the Lord saith the Psalmist and why He is my defence Psalm 18. 1. And in another place Because he heard my voice yet seeing David did not love God onely or chiefly for his benefits his love was not properly mercenary but true though not perfect To shew the excellency of love S. Paul hath a whole chapter wherein he prefers it above all other vertues and saith in effect If a man for his knowledge and elocution might be compared with Angels and by his faith were able to remove mountains and by his liberality had relieved the poor with all his estate and for his constancy had suffered martyrdome yet were all these vertues little worth except they were joyned with the love of God And in the end of the Chapter after this general commendation of love he prefers it in particular above Faith and Hope 1. If we take the dimension of it it is greatest both in breadth and length of all other For whereas Faith and Hope are restrained within the bounds of mens persons and to singulars this dilateth it self and extendeth both to God and man in general to our selves our friends yea to our enemies S. Augustine saith Beatus qui amat te amicum in te inimicum propter te blessed is he that loves thee and his friend in thee and his enemy for thee And this is the latitude 2. In longitude also For whereas the other are but in us in the nature of a lease but for terme of life the gift of love shall be as a free hold and continue for ever in heaven Our Saviour maketh both the Law and Prophets to consist of one Commandment namely Love And the Apostle reduceth all to one head and if there were any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this of love And it is our Saviours mandatum novum admit that all the old Commandments were cancelcelled yet this new commandment ties us to the duties of all And indeed S. John saith commending this duty Brethren I write no new commandment unto you but an old Commandment for both the old and new are all one There is both in the
Christs punishment for our sins which may inform us how highly sin displeases God And although the main punishment fell on the Son of God and this Passio Christi this suffering of Christ was the greatest signe of the love of God to us yet he loves us not so as to exempt us from all punishment there must be a visitation for his Church It is a great part of that league and covenant made long since that though his mercy shall not be withdrawn from us yet if we forsake his Law he will visit our trespasses with the rod c. this is a signe of his love too as well as his punishing the Son for us therefore we must still be subject to his fatherly correction though his children and servants Judgement must begin at the house of God saith S. Peter But he will punish the wicked more grievously for as our Saviour speaks If this be done in me that am a green tree what shall become of the dry If I bring evil upon mine own city where my Name is called upon saith God shall you go unpunished And it is certain that the Lord chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth and as many as he loveth he rebuketh and chasteneth S. Augustine saith Si huc non tibi magis malum videtur exhaeredari quam non castigari hoc elige If to be disinherited seem not to thee to be a greater evil then not to be chastised choose that 2. As the first was a reason of the declaration of Gods justice so this second is for our own benefit Vexatio dat intellectum trouble brings understanding It was good for David that he had been afflicted many men cannot be without it S. Aug. saith that when he followed this world by pleasures with a full stream a pain in his breast pectoris dolor was the first means of his recalling S. Pauls unhorsing and smiting blinde was his initiation to God Sepiam vias tuas saith God I will hedge up thy wayes with thorns If thou wilt go out of the way the thorns shall prick thee and keep thee in Nazianzen reporteth of S. Basil that being subject to infirmities and sicknesse he petitioned God for recovery of his health and when he had obtained it he remembred that he had left out a condition that lest he should grow proud God would by afflictions put him in minde by sicknesse again which he did as the same Father reports Thus in these two respects its necessary we bear correction with patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The tryal is of two sorts 1. There is either Delatio boni a deferring of good touched before in hope which ever hath rationem mali a shew of evill Hope deferred maketh the heart sicke the bearing of it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 longanimity though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come saith the Prophet Wait patiently for the Lord will come saith the Psalmist This is the onely patience which is in God who waits ut misereatur nostri that he may have mercy on us for as S. Augustine saith Dominus patitur neglectus patitur contemptus patitur negatus the Lord though we neglect despise deny him yet still bears with us with what patience then should we wait upon him and not to make this conclusion by infidelity Because that we wait for is long in coming therefore it will never come or to say with them in Saint Peter Where is the promise of his coming 2. The second tryal indeed is the bearing of some real affliction not for sin as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for righteousnesse sake To whom more is given of him more shall be required The Devil shall have a larger liberty to tempt him The Philosopher saith very well Deus non habet amorem maternum erga filios sed paternum that is he will not dandle his children in his lap and rock them as a mother but put them to tryal as a father And he tryes them by this if they will rather pati malum quam facere suffer evil then do evil or as S. Augustine saith utrum velint malum non patiendo facere or non faciendo pati whether they will rather do evil without suffering or suffer evil without doing any And this is as S. Peter saith That the tryal of our faith may be more precious in the sight of God then gold And the reasons are four 1. Because we commonly see that res prosperae are mare mortuum the dead sea or the lake Asphaltites in Judea where Sodom and Gomorrah stood that corrupteth all that is put into it Noverca virtutis prosperitas prosperity is the stepmother of vertue saith one And Seneca Ipsa foelicitas nisi temperetur premit felicity it self if it be not qualified is a pressure We settle upon our lees if we be not poured out from vessel to vessel standing water putrifies armour not used contracts rust a full body ill humours unfallowed ground brings forth weeds but by exercise our graces grow bright the stirring them up makes them burn which else would die in us 2. The second is that as the Apostle saith there may be a conformity between Christ and us Romans 8. 29. Christ hath his inheritance in heaven by two rights one as he is the first begotten son of God and the other by his obedience Ye see he saith of himself Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to have entred into heaven Now in respect of the first we can have no conformity with him but the right we must claim by is the other which is suffering and if we claim the inheritance by Christ we must have it by his title viz. by suffering In mans Law it is a principle that inheritance which descends from one to another must be held by no other title then by that which he that was formerly possessed of it held it by And therfore the Apostle pleads that through much tribulat on we must enter into the kingdom of God This is the tenure and lest any should think himself exempted he tells us All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution none excepted And for this cause whereas the Church militant hath six resemblances 1. To a Camp 2. to a ship 3. to a building 4. to com 5. to wine 6. to a flock The nature of all these imports patience 1. A souldiers life is nothing else but agere sub dio abroad in the open air much patience is required in them that follow the camp 2. A ship we see is subject to winde and storms to be tost with the waves of the sea 3. 4. The resemblance to these two One well describeth Forsitan te temporaliter punit ut aeternae mortis ardores poena redimat temporalis In edificatione enim temporali omnes lapides prius malleis
and four footed beasts and creeping things of birds as the Ibis among the Egyptians the golden calf among the Israelites the Owl among the wise Graecians and the Eagle with the Romans and Belus in the shape of a Dragon with the Babylonians and worms with the Trogloditi 4. Plants as the Dodonean Grove to Jupiter Nay they descended even to garlike 5. They worshipped also things made by art as a Piece of Red cloth as Strabo relates of Nations in the North East 3. In the waters They worshipped Syrens and Dagon as it is in the first of Samuel who was resembled by a water snake and dragons and Crocodiles fishes as the Dolphin as also 〈◊〉 whom they adored as God of Physick in the shape of a water Serpent So that God seeing what had bin done to his dishonour and foreseeing what would be done and that men had and would abuse all his creatures in this kinde interdicebat 〈◊〉 gave a straight injunction against them all allowing neither similitude nor pattern God would be resembled by none of them And therefore 〈◊〉 making as it were a comment upon this Commandment and letting them know that they must not account of Gods worship as a ceremonial thing puts them in minde that when God spake to them out of the midst of the fire they heard a voice but saw no similitude but onely a voice and therefore a voice say the Rabbins because a voice cannot be drawn into any shape and so was not likely to deprive God of any part of his honour and he bids them therefore take heed that they attempted not to make any likenesse of any thing as you may read there at large for if God had bin willing they should have made any certailny he would have represented himself to them in some forme or shape when he came unto the mount Let us take heed therefore that we take not upon us to frame to our selves any representation of God and to make Images to his dishonour It is the nature of faith to beleeve things not visible and therefore to make invisible things become visible in religion is the next way to dishonour God and to overthrow faith and consequently religion it self Our Saviour tells the woman of Samaria that the time was coming when the true worshippers should worship God in spirit and truth and in Images there is no truth but 〈◊〉 veritatis a resemblance of truth the very Temple of Jerusalem as a type should not be accepted It is objected if all similitudes be condemned how came it to passe that God himself prescribed the making of Cherubins and they were resemblances There was no such resemblance in them as their definition of an Image imports which is as they say quod habet exemplar in rerum natura that is like some natural thing but Cherubins were not so for they were made like boyes without armes instead thereof were two great wings which we cannot paralel in nature But it is plain that God caused them not to be made to the entent to be worshipped for then he would not have put them into the darkest places in the sanctum sanctorum whither 〈◊〉 came but the high priest and he but once a year And indeed God sheweth wherfore he made them that the Priest might know from whence to receive his answer and to signify the readinesse of the angels to execute the will of God And Tertullian answereth this fully God saith not that an Image should not be made but non facies tibi thou shalt not make it to thy self God commanded these to be made by Moses God might dispense with his own precept so far as it was positive as the prohibition of making any Image is but to worship or give any divine honour to it which is malum inse simply evil though it were not forbidden this God never allowed or dispen'ed with the other is onely malum quia prohibitum this is prohibitum quia malum It is said also why then did God command the image of the fiery serpent to be made This was not ut coleretur sed ut mederetur not that it should be worshipped but that it should be as a means to heal the people that had bin plagued for their murmuring And indeed Tertullian hath the same objection and answereth it thus Quod idemDeus vetuit lege similitudinem fieri 〈◊〉 prescripto aeneum serpentem 〈◊〉 fecit si tu eandem legem 〈◊〉 legem habes eam observa si 〈◊〉 preceptum factum 〈◊〉 feceris tu imitare Mosen idest ne sacias tibi simulachrum nisi Deus te 〈◊〉 that the same God did both forbid by his law the making of images and yet by an extraordinary command caused the brasen serpent to be made if thou observe the same law thou hast a law keep it if thou be afterward commanded to make an image imitate Moses that is make none except God command thee Concerning this point we have shewed what moved God to make this restraint on his own part Now it followeth to shew why he did it on our part in regard of our corruption 1. Tertullian saith in the booke before quoted that before the flood even in the dayes of Seth the worship of God was corrupted with images and that Enochs instauration was nothing but the restoring of pure religion again and that therefore he is said to have walked with God Again we see that after the flood Jacob by being in 〈◊〉 house had learnt to take Teraphim Images of gods and to mingle them in Gods worship Now the reason of this God himselfe gives Man is but flesh Though he consists of two parts flesh and spirit yet the grossnesse of the flesh overgrows the purenesse of the spirit and corrupt it turning that other part of man the spirit into flesh insomuch as the Apostles many times in their writings call the soul and minde by the name of flesh and Saint Paul gives us warning to take heed of the flesh of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hence it is that we have an affection in us which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire to feel or see This was the disease of Saint Thomas that would not beleeve except he might feel Christs wounds and see him himself 〈◊〉 of Mary Magdalen and Martha about their dead brother both told Christ. Lord if thou hadst bin here my brother had not died and not theirs alone but of all the Apostles they were desirous that Christ might stay and be with them alwayes to erect an earthly kingdom insomuch that he was fain to tell them that if he went not away the Comforter would not come unto them And such a thing there is in religion Moses had bin in the mount but three dayes and the Israelites cry out to Aaron fac nobis Deos visibiles make us gods which shall go before us Upon
Lastly we have a set form of prayer composed by our Saviour upon the petition of the disciples 2. The other Thanksgiving We see it vsed also before the flood by Abrahams servant when he had finished his busines successefully And we finde this duty commanded by God himself afterwards Moses had a set form of thanksgiving after the deliverance of the people from the Egyptians And King David in many places commends this part of prayer highly and penned a set form of it in a psalm which he entituleth a 〈◊〉 or song for the sabbath day Solomon his son in the time of the first Temple practized it and so did the people vsing one of King Davids psalms the burden whereof as we may so speak was for his mercy endureth for ever Ezra also vsed it after the building of the second Temple together with the priests and people So did our Saviour I thank thee o father c. In the time of the Gospel they sung a psalm Lastly it was not onely practized by the Apostle as you may see in many places I thank God through Jesus Christ and thanks be to God c. but commended by him to others speak to your selves in psalms and Hymns c. as unto the Philippians where he joyns both 〈◊〉 of this duty in one verse in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God And to omit many others in the Epistle to the Hebrews giving thanks i called the sacrifice of praise 3. As the word is Gods speech to us and Invocation ours to him so the sacraments are the Covenants between God and us Such are the type of circumcision instead whereof Baptism succeded and the type of the Passeover instead whereof we have the Lords supper And these two only we receive as sacraments generally necessarily for all But for our justification in thispoint S. Augustine saith upon the words of Saint John cited out of the institution of the Passeover A bone of him shall not be broken vnus emilitibus c. A souldier with a speare pierced his side and forthwith came out of it water and blood which are the two Sacraments of the church our mother And in another place Quedam pauca pro multis c. The Lord and Apostilical doctrine hath left to us a few in stead of many and those easy to be kept most excellent to the understanding and most pious to be observed the Sacrament of Baptisme and the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord. 1. The first Baptisme is so necessary a Badg for a Christian that he cannot be without it Saint Augustine saith sic accipiendum est c. That which the Apostle saith is thus to be understood that by the lavacre of 〈◊〉 and the word of sanctificational former sinns of the regenerate are cleansed and healed and not onely all sinns are remitted in Baptisme but those also which are afterward contracted by humane ignorance and infirmity and in another place Dimittitur eis regeneratione spirituli quod traxerunt ut 〈◊〉 dixi ex adami generatione carnali By this spiritual regeneration as I have often said whatsoever they have drawn from Adams carnal generation is forgiven them And this Sacrament is a service of faith For though children baptized cannot be properly said to beleeve of themselves by reason of their minority yet are they beleevers by their fidejussores or Godfathers and Godmothers and parents who present them and desire to have them baptized in the faith of Christ and received into the Church as were the Jews children by circumcision Inter credentes saith Saint Augustine 〈◊〉 populos baptizatos 〈◊〉 nec judicare aliter ullo modo audebis si nonvis esse apertus haereticus Thou art to repute little children that are Christened among beleevers nor must thou dare to judge otherwise if thou wilt not be an open heretick And in the same place Absit ut dicam non credentes infantes c. God forbid that I should call Infants unbeleevers I have disputed it before They beleeved by another and offended by another It is said They beleeve and it is enough to make them of the number of the faithful that are baptized This hath the authority of the Church and the Canon founded upon the truth obtained 2. The other the Lords supper is a substantial part of our servicetoo For in it is a whole Oblation of our selves souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice to God as we acknowledge in our liturgy In it we acknowledge confesse bewaile and repent us of our sinnes which cost our Saviour his most precious blood to make attonement for them And in it we professe that we are in love with God and our Neighbours which is the fulfilling of the Law Herein is a commemoration of that sacrifice which Christ offered for us upon the Crosse in which respect it may be called a sacrifice for as our reverend author else where speaks The Eucharist ever was and by us is considered both as a sacrament and a sacrifice A sacrifice is onely proper and appliable to 〈◊〉 worship c. In a word we hold with Saint Augustine de Civit. lib. 17. Chap. 20. Hujus sacrificii caro et sanguis ante adventum Christi per victimas similitudine promittebatur in passione Christi per ipsam veritatem reddebatur post adventum Christi per sacramentum memoriae celebratur Answer to Card. Perron p. 6. 7. And lastly by it we offer a most acceptable sacrifice and service to God of thanksgiving this Sacrament being called Eucharistia which signifies so much for bestowing so great a blessing upon u whereby every faithful Communicant is strengthened in the faith of Christ. Therefore Accedens debet esse plenus sanctitate he that comes to it ought to be as holy as he may for all our services to God are to be done in purity which is true internal worship and with decency which is external and both these make that compleat holinesse which becometh Gods house 4. The last part of the substance in the external wórship of God is Discipline by which men are regulated in the fear and service of God This we finde commanded Mat. 18. 15. 16. c. John 20. 22. Executed extraordinarily Act. 5. 4. By Saint Peter ordnarily 1 Cor. 5. 3. By S. Paul and Rules set down for the ordering of it 1 Tim. 5. It is as Barnard saith the yoke to keep us within the bounds of Order and as Cyprian Custos spei et retinaculnm fidei a preserver of hope and stay of faith Saint Augustine affirmes that it brings delinquents to repentance whereby they recover that which they had lost by their 〈◊〉 For it is sure enough that the Church of God hath in it of all sorts
head this we may remember by these things but the especiall pains and torments which inwardly he suffered his being sorrowful unto death his anguish of heart for the Jews obstinacy and rejection the bitternesse of the cup which his not onely most perfect bodie was most sensible of and his holy soul apprehended and suffered these are forgotten these cannot be depicted so the greatest part of his passion is un expressible 4. The last evasion of theirs is that by Images we remember or are put in minde of the Angels and Saints To this in breif may be answered that Saints are no better then Angels and seeing that an Angel would not suffer John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship him it is not to be vsed to them Saint Augustine hath a zealous wish vtinam velletis discere ab Angelis tum enim disceretis eos non adorare I could wish you would learn of Angels for then you would learn not to worship them And Saint Pauls charge was Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels c. And thus much of the controversy betwixt the Papists and us as it had dependance upon the former part of this commandment concerning Images These reasons shew that there are other means better and more effectual then pictures to instruct men in the knowledge of Christ viz. The scripture and the preaching of the gospel but they are not meant to prove it unlawful to paint or make any pourtraiture of Christ in his humane nature as at his passion c. Provided no religious worship be given to it that which is of 〈◊〉 use is not therefore unlawful or of no use at all So the author in his answer to Porron cap 18. p. 17. To have a story painted for memories sake we hold not unlawful but that it might be well enough done if the church found it not inconvenient for her children CHAP. VII The affirmative part of this precept concerning the manner of outward worship 3. Reasons for outward bodily worship Outward honour consists 1. in the signe 2. in the 〈◊〉 Of the signe by 1. uncovering the 〈◊〉 2. bowing the body Of the act or deed 1. By being at Gods command 2. By doing his worke or service Of the gesture of Reverence 1. in publick and private prayer 2. At 〈◊〉 the word 3. At the administration of sacraments 4. At discpline The sins against these In publick worship must be 1. uniformity 2. Fear 3. The heart must be present 4. Silence 5. constancy to tarry till all be done The 〈◊〉 outward worship The signes VVE are now to take a view of the affirmative part of this precept that is how we are to behave our selves in the external worship of God The worship enjoyned in the first Commandment as hath bin said is internal this in the second is outward or external honour or worship Honour being a testimony of excellency given by outward signe or deed and praise by word The honour of the signe is expressed by the word 〈◊〉 in bowing down and of the deed by the word 〈◊〉 in serving For the first as the negative was thou shalt not bow down to them the affirmative is thou shalt bow down to me And for the other as in the Negative thou shalt not worship or serve them the affirmative is thou shalt serve me 1. For the outward worship first in general Christ tells us that a candle is not lighted to be put under a bushel upon which the fathers have raised this note or Maxime that Bono debetur manifestatio our good must be made manifest and therefore candles that have bonum lucis the goodnesse of light must not be thrust sub 〈◊〉 tenebrarum under the evil of darknesse So then if the candle of light be in our soules that is if we inwardly worship God we must set it upon a candlestick our inward religion must apear in our outward worship and it must not be onely in a Chamber as our private Religion a close godlinesse that cannot be seen 2. The next reason for this point the Apostle gives Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and spirit glory being nothing else but an effect of conspicucu nesse the fair spreading and enlarging of honour and praise and therefore containeth honour in it Now in conjunctions copulative the rule is In copulativis non sufficit alterum In things that are coupled one is not sufficient but vtrumque faciendum both are to be performed And the Apostles conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in body and spirit sheweth that this honour must be done in both The devil knoweth this that God requireth both and therefore asked of our Saviour but one a little glorifying of him but the bowing of the body because he knew that if God have not the copulative body and spirit both he will have neither God will have all or none The third thing is that seeing God every where almost through the Scripture hath put a distinction and difference between his house and private houses as being in more special manner there then in other places and that as the psalmist speaketh holines becometh Gods house for ever therefore he will not onely have a manifestation of our worship towards him and that to be in body as well as Spirit but he assignes his house for the place where he will have this honour exhibited to him You shall keep my sabbaths saith God and reverence my sanctuary And therefore it is that the preacher gives us this rule when thou goest into the house of God observa pedem vtrunque Look to thy foot and if God have a care how we serve him in our inferior members in that place no question but he hath much more how we imploy our eyes ears and hearts there our external worship must be apparent and it must not be by halves and it must be in the house of God in themidst of the congregation 1. The outward worship of God according to the former division consists 1. In Signe 2. In deed And this Honor signi is twofold which the Apostle setts down in the example of Christ 1. Exinanivit se. He emptied himself or made himself of no reputation 2. 〈◊〉 se. He humbled himself 1. The empting of ones self is that which is called deponere magnificentiam to lay a side all titles ofhonour which holy Job expounds and calls spoliavit me honore a stripping one of glory it is that which the Elders did cast down their crowns before God King David laid aside his robes and made himself vile before the Lord in his service The Apostle tels us there must be Nudatio capitis our heads must be uncovered The wearing of a cap pileo donari among the Romans was peculiar to free men onely and an Hieroglyphick of honour for once if a man cepisset
pileum he was free and when he laid aside his cap he was said deponere magnificentiam to lay aside his honour and priviledge whereby he was distinguished from a servant So then as servants are to be uncovered in their masters service so are we to be in Gods and therefore Saint Paul in the place before cited tells us that it is a shame for a man to have his head covered at that time That 's the first signe 2. The other signe is humiliare nosmetipsos to humble our selves which is nothing else but to make a man neerer the ground to bow himself as low as he can and this was it which the devill required of Christ and it is a posture which God expects at our hands and was vsed from the beginning We may see it by that which God said to Elias I have yet left me 7000. in Israel all the knees which have not bowed to Baal by which he signified that bowing was a signe of them that worshipped him aright and it was his quarrel against them that bowed themselves to Idols for which he would not forgive them 2. But Honor signi is not enough there must be Honor facti too The first was Reverence this is service and worship which we call properly devotion or the devoutnes and readines of the will to serve God And this Honor exhibitus facto hath also two parts 1. To come and go at Gods command 2. To do his worke 1. Both of these we have in the Centurions servant approved by Christ himself 1. In going and coming when he is bidden I say go and he goeth come and he cometh 2. In doing his Masters will or service Do this and he doeth it And in these two respects it is that Christ will say to some Nescio vos I know you not 1. Either for not comming at all to his house so that he cannot take notice of them for his servants 2. or for coming unwillingly with an ill will to do his work and so they do not perform service to him and in this respect are not known to him neither We see that Gods servants did both Abraham was no sooner spoken to by God but he was presently at his call and answered Ecce ego behold here I am The kingly Prophet before he was called had a longing desire to go into Gods house but when he was called he presently answered Lo I come It is Gods threat-Because I called and ye refused c. I will laugh at your calamity And in the Gospel they which were invited to the Supper and came not were thought unworthy none of them shall tast of it And as we are to come so in our coming two things are required to make us welcome 1. The first is we must come mature betimes they that seek me early shall finde me and secondly we must come quotidie daily Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates We must wait and be desirous to be called 2. The second 〈◊〉 the Act. Service to do his will It is the property of a good servant to do his masters work and to preferr it before his own We see the practize of it in Abrahams servant he refused to eat before his masters work was done and here falls under this the commandment of the great service the service of the altar which that we may think it no dishonour to be Gods servants we finde that he chose the Tribe of Levi to serve him at the altar so that this service is the service of choice and howsoever some account but lightly of it yet it was the greatest honour to be chosen to perform this service Now to apply these things to the point in hand There is in the 95. Psalm which is vsed as an antipsalm or Introduction as it were to the service of God by our Church 1. A coming 2. A worshipping 3. A falling down and 4. a kneeling before the Lord whereby we may see that in the precept of worship in the substantial parts of the service of God prayer preaching the Sacraments and discipline especially in the former there is a due gesture and behaviour required And in this we are to follow the rule prescribed by Saint James which is to take the Patriarchs and prophts for our guides and directors and it is Saint Peters rule too for women to follow the steps of holy women of old So that laying this for our ground and withal taking the approved practise of the Church with it we cannot go amisse Now we shall finde in this outward worship of God that they never came together to serve the Lord nor departed from it without exhibiting some reverend external worship and behaviour both in 〈◊〉 recessu in coming in and going out In accessu in their coming together it is plaine Solomon in the consecration of his Temple at the beginning before his prayer kneeled upon his knees And in recessu we see that when Hezekiah and his people had ended their service they bowed their heads and worshipped We have seen what our gesture must be in accessu and recessu Let us now see what it must be while we are present at Gods service in the particulars of it 1. First for our outward gesture in prayer which is either publick or private And in both these since we are to remember that they are to proceed partly from Humility partly from hope our external signes must be answerable to both these 1. In publick prayer the signes are first that which we called before depositionem magnificentiae with our heads 〈◊〉 2. The other which we called Humiliation by bowing our selves to the ground or kneeling as Abraham did and his servant too bowed and worshipped the Lord. So did the people at the institution of the 〈◊〉 So did king Solomon praying upon his knees The Prophets Daniel 6. 10. After the first temple Ezra 9. 6. Our Saviour himself upon the mount of Olives kneeled down and prayed lastly Saint Paul and the whole Church prayed kneeling Saint Peter Act. 9. 40. Thus we see our pattern if we look at the 〈◊〉 or Prophets at Christ or his Apostles or at the whole church True it is because we onely kneeling but also standing before another is a signe 〈◊〉 service and reverence therefore we read in many places that the gesture in prayer was standing and that some prayed standing as Gehezi stood before his master Elisha So Abraham stood before the Lord and Abrahams servant stood by the well of water when he prayed The people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent door 〈◊〉 said to 〈◊〉 stand by thy burnt 〈◊〉 and I will go c. Thus Samuel stood before the Lord and the Psalmist saith Ye that stand in the house of the Lord c. The king stood by
holy Ghost in respect of man his weaknes is stronger then man and is called by Pharoah Magicians the finger of God which if it do but touch the mountains they will smoak yea at the breath of his nostrils hils were overturned and the foundations of them are discovere d. And not onely thi positive but privative too For if he doe but hold in his breath the Creaturs die all things shall perish It brings those effects as the Ecclype of the sun doth in the world all are darkned And therefore it is that the Psalmist sayth of God in respect of this first Thou hast a mighty arme strong is thy hand c. 2. The second is Potentia His external strength his Ammnnition or weapons This word is like to a fire and hammer as the Prophet speaks He hath a sword and a bow too for as the Psalmist saith he whets the one and bends the other He is stiled Dominus Exercituum The Lord of hosts in many places king David saith that his chariots and Angels are 20000. The Prophet Daniel reckoneth more Thousands of thousands and ten thousand thousands The holy Ghost in Saint Lukes Gospel calls them a multitude our capacity or arithmetick not being able to conceive them And what God is able to do by all these we may imagine by that which we read was done by one of them who in one night slew 185000 of the Assyrian host And as he hath heavenly so hath he earthly souldiours too by which he hath done mighty acts even against great Princes as lice frogs flies Caterpillers Locusts and the like And therefore there 's no doubt to be made but that he is fortis of power enough and what he threatens he can and will bring to passe Secondly for his 〈◊〉 And this is well added by God for there are not many that will question whether he be able to punish or no but it may be thought that it is all one to God whether we afford him the true outward worship or not and that he regardeth not how we behave our selves in his service and therefore conceiveth no displeasure against them that fail therein But to remove this doubt he expressely declares that he is a regarder and that a zealous regarder And whereas the wicked as it is in the Psalm say Tush God regardeth not here we see he regardeth it and that in the highest degree in jealousy which is a narrow searcher of that it suspects Jealousy is the excesse or extremity of love zelotypia amor est reduplicatus Many waters cannot quench it It endures no Corrival but is impatiens consortis it must be alone and have no companion Nemo praeter nemo cum None besides nor none with it And God is not onely impatiens consortis but equalitatis of equality too he will not have any to be equal with him nor to partake the least unequal share with him in our service but he will have totum affectum we see he calls for the whole heart Saint Paul saith I am jealous over you with a Godly jealousie for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ. And the Psalmist zelus domus tuae devoravit me The zeal of thine house hath even devoured me which the Disciples applied to Christ. It is such an affection as must take up the whole man such a regard hath God to his outward worship This affection in it self is good else God would not have taken order that he that was led by the spirit of jealousy might make proof of his suspected wife but upon some occasions it many times falleth out to be mingled with other affections as in the case which Saint James calles zelum amarum a bitter zeal ex laesa concupiscentia from an offended concupiscence which brings not onely greef but stirreth us up ad vindictam to revenge and this is anger such as we finde in the Prophet God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious c. and the wiseman calleth it a raging revenge Now if this affection fall where there is power as with God it will not onely smoke but it will kindle and burn like fire as the psalmist hath it and that not like a spark in a stack ofstraw which flameth and vanisheth a way but like fire in a barrel of gunpouder bearing all before it For pro potentia ira According to a mans strength so is his anger The wiseman tells us The wrath of a king is death and of the eternal king eternal death of body and soul. Now to avoid the errour touching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether according to the manner of men affections fall into God or no We are to distinguish for if we speak simply and not by Metaphors there doth not Why then saith Saint Augustine 〈◊〉 est ista de deo affirmare it is an indignity to affirme such things of God but he answers himself Indignum certe si aliquod dignum quod de Deo diceretur inveniretur It is certainly if we could finde any thing to speak that were worthy of him but we cannot For the most glorious termes of Majesty and magnificence which we give him magis congruunt humanae imbecillitati quam divinae Majestati they agree better with mans weaknesse 〈◊〉 Gods divine majesty And whereas it is said in Scripture both that God is not as man that he should repent and in another place that it repented God that he had made man upon earth these places and the like are to be reconciled by these rules 1. Cum negantur de Deo affectiones humanae naturae infirmitatitribuuntur cum affirmantur divinae naturae efficaciae When these affections are denied to be in God they are attributed to the infirmity of humane nature but when they are affirmed of him it is to shew the power of the divine nature It betokeneth that he will work as effectually as men do when they have the like affections upon them not that he hath such affections for he is impassibilis not to be moved with any kinde of perturbation but that he produceth such effects ad modum hominis 〈◊〉 affecti as they do in whom such affections are 2. Secondly Augustine saith that these things though they are affirmed of God and man Eodem verbo expressed in the same words yet are they not eodem modo performed by the same manner For 1. Jealousy in man oftentimes ariseth out of error either out of a false or light cause but in God is no errour he doth all out of judgement 2. Mans jealousy is suddenly provoked but Gods cometh lente longanimiter slowly and after much and long suffering 3. Mans is immodice sine fine immoderate raging and endlesse but Gods is Sedate temperatly it is
And when God would exalt Abraham from being father to the children of a bond woman Agar by whom he had Ismael to be the father of Isaac and the faithful and thereby to establish the Church in his house then because he was more glorious he gives him a more glorious name Thou shalt no more be called Abram but Abraham And the like we see in Jacob whose name was changed to Israel a name of more dignity when he had prevailed with God Now if a good name or good report be among private men so highly valued that as Solomon saith it is better then a precious ointment which was in great esteme for pleasure in those dayes yea then silver or gold or any precious treasure which was most esteemed for profit and if it be true which the Heathen said interesse famae est majus omni alio interesse that the weight and interest of a good name goeth 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 yea further as a Father saith Fama pari passu ambulat cum vita it goeth cheek by joul with life it self Of how pretious and high esteem ought the name of God to be and how highly ought we to reverence and esteem it seeing as the Psalmist saith God hath magnified his name and word above all things Therefore his glory and name is the chief thing we should look unto Thus we see what 's meant by the name of God The second is what is understood by taking the Name of God Non assumes c. The barrennesse of the English language makes the expression of the Original short for the word whence it comes signifies to take up and hath a double use to which may be referred whatsoever is borrowed in this sence 1. It is applyed to a standard or banner and hence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nose Armiger 2. To a heavy thing as a burden whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 massae pondus and these two kinde of things we take up or remove if a thing be glorious as a standard we take it and lift it up and if a thing be necessary and useful to us though it be heavy and weighty we take it up so that the one is in rebus gloriosis the other in rebus necessariis and if a thing be neither glorious nor necessary we let it lie the first includes the duties of praise in all that take Gods name upon them the second refers to the duty of swearing which is a weighty thing and under these two are comprehended all other takings of his name 1. It is in gloriosis as Moses called his Altar erected and set up Jehovah-nissi that is the Lord my banner or standard from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ness vexillum Or as the plate made for Aaron wherein was to be graven Sanctitas Jehovae Holinesse to the Lord was to be taken up and placed upon Aarons forehead visible as a thing glorious as the badge of a noble man is lifted up upon the shoulder of a servant to be seen This lifting or taking up of Gods name is a thing glorious As the taking of a name by a childe from a father is honourable It was an honour and a priviledge to Ephraim and 〈◊〉 to be called after their grand-father Jacobs name so is it an honor to a woman to have her husbands name It was all the ambition of the women in the Prophet that desired one husband to be called by his name And we see still that in marriage the woman taketh her husbands name and it is such a glory to her that she is content to loose her own name for his And it is our own glory that from Gentiles we are called Christians Of which Esay in sundry places foretold Every one shal be called by my name saith God for I have created him for my glory And Thou shalt be called by a new name And again And shall call his servants by another name All which was fulfilled in the primitive Church when the Disciples were first called Christians The glory of Christ was taken up by Christians when they were called by his name Now being Gods servants and servants taken up his banner or badg the duty commanded is that we must like good servants do all to his glory as the Apostle speaks God can receive no profit by us but glory we may give him and therefore all our actions must refer to it We must not be so ambitious as they were in the dayes of Peleg that sought by building Babels tower to get themselves a name for that is Gigantomachia which is bellare cum Deo to fight with God It is not good to contest with him in this kinde You may read the successe of their enterprise God overthrew their plot even by the confusion of that which should have gotten them their names the tongue Nor must we set a face or false colour upon our own evil acts under pretence of Gods glory as did Absalom If the Lord will bring me again to Jerusalem I will serve him here was a fair pretence when treason lay hid in heart against his own father So 〈◊〉 makes religion a 〈◊〉 proclaims a fast for the murder of Naboth These are so far from the glory of Gods name that they are wicked abuses of it Thus Gods name is to be glorified within us now for the outward duties 1. Having taken this name upon us we must not be ashamed of it nor afraid to confesse it Judah of whom came the name to the Jews was so called the word signifying praise because his mother said she would confesse or praise God so must we wear our name of Christians and Gods servants to the glory of God and Christ and not be ashamed of it The reason Christ himself giveth Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my father And though the Church of Philadelphia was but of small strength and its works were not great yet because it had not denyed his name Christ promiseth to set open a door for it and other things as you may read But any that shall receive the name and mark of the beast wear any others livery he shall drink of the wrath of God and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone 2. There is another degree beyond that of not denying his Masters name which every good servant is bound to and which his master expects from him that is standing for his name when it is blasphemed consessing and defending it to the death as the Martyrs have done Because there was none that offered to defend Gods name when judgement was turned backward and justice stood afarr of truth was fallen in the streets and equity could not enter therefore he thereatens terrible judgement he puts on the garments of vengeance saith the 〈◊〉 3. Lastly we must not forget Gods name but often make mention of it The Prophet David threatens a
terrible punishment to such The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the people that forget God Take heed saith Moses that you forget not the Lord. Deut. 4. 9. A man would think it were impossible that any should forget him but Saint Jerome tells us how a man may forget him if we behave our selves so in our speech that nothing comes from us that savoureth of God then we may be truly said to forget him A man is said to forget Gods name when he breaketh the first Commandment as it is in Jeremy Their fathers have forgoten my name for Baal and so for the rest And therefore they that truly take up this banner meditate day and night how they may do that which shall be to their masters glory They speak as king David did of his glorious honour and majesty Solomon saith that a just mans mouth doth 〈◊〉 sapientiam speak of wisdom he speaks something which may redound to the glory of Gods name and therefore he calls the tongue of the wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsam salutem a vein of life and health it self out of which comes glory to God and health to himself but we may now say Rarum est nomen 〈◊〉 the reverend mention of Gods name is 〈◊〉 in some mens mouths they seldome speak of him unlesse it be to dishonour him by prophane swearing and cursing Or else they do like Solomons fools ebullire 〈◊〉 belch out folly or babble and some out vanity The p actise of king David was to shew forth Gods righteousnes and make mention of it and of it onely And in the Prophet Esays song ye shall finde We will make mention onely of thy Name God would execute his Judgements upon Pharoah that he might get him a name or that his name might be declared or spoken of through all the world This mention this honorifica mentio is of three sorts 1. In speaking often of it of which hath been formerly spoken 2. In speaking well of his Name 3. In speaking reverently of it 1. We must speak often of it his name must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often and much to be talked of this is the end of all his great wonders to have his name famous and spoken of in the world as is already shewed 2. His name must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessed or well spoken of The speaking well or blessing of Gods name we have a pattern from the 〈◊〉 and Saints of God It was their Epiphonema or close after mercies and judgements They shall say alway saith the Psalmist The Lord be praised as himself saith elsewhere Blessed be his glorious name for ever 〈◊〉 for the deliverance of Moses and the Israelites from 〈◊〉 Blessed be the Lord who hath delivered you c. And of King David Blessed be the Lord that hath not given us over for a prey So for Gods favour as the women to Naomi Blessed be the Lord which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman So was Davids thankfulnesse Blessed be the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications and blessed be the Lord from everlasting And Nehemiah and the people Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise As also for his preservation from sinning as David being prevented by Abigail from shedding Nabals blood Blessed be the Lord God of Israel And lastly for Gods chastisements and crosses as Job The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. This speaking well of God and converting his blessings and judgements into an honourable mention of his name is commanded Contrary to this it is when a man receiving some mercy thinks it not great enough and therefore grudges and is unthankful or being under some affliction or judgement thinks it too great and so murmurs and complains and converts all to the dispraise of God 3. His name must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverend and venerable We must speak reverently of Gods name not make it common as if we did account of it no better then a stone in the street and of his service as that of a common person Ye shall not prophane my holy name saith God that is not use it commonly for to the sanctifying of his name is opposite the prophaning of it or making it common Thus when men speak of Gods nature of his decrees and judgements and of the great mysteries of Religion without fear and rerevence as if they were discoursing of ordinary matters they do not reverence his name much lesse when it is abused and prophaned as Witches do in sorcery and evil arts or as blasphemers that use it irreverently or by way of execration when men ascribe to God what is contrary to his nature as to make him unjust cruel the author of sin c. Besides these there is another way of applying Gods name to our actions and that both to our own and other mens 1. To our own for this we have a precept Whatsoever ye do saith the Apostle in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord and how is that by calling upon his name for a blessing when we say with the Psalmist our help standeth in the name of the Lord. 2. To others thus God commanded the Levites to put his name upon the people and blesse them How that is the Psalmist sheweth by wishing them good luck in the name of the Lord. The contrary to this is to curse when with the same tongue as S. James saith we blesse God the Father and curse men This is a terrible abuse to use the name of God as a curse to our selves or others which is given for a blessing onely as when men wish that God would confound them and so as S. Augustine saith faciunt Deum carnificem suum they make God their own executioner whereas God hath given his name for a strong tower of defence Thus much for sanctifying his name in our words now for our actions We must make his name glorious in our actions which is 1. when our actions are such that men seeing our good works may glorify our father which is in heaven Therefore the Apostles precept is Let every one that calleth upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity Gods name is polluted and prophaned by the wickednesse of them that professe it The wickednesse of the childe pollutes the father The Law saith If the daughter of a Priest commit fornication she polluteth her father Now God is our Father when we take his name upon us and if we do not glorifie him in our actions nor depart from iniquity we do what we can to make him polluted Therefore God threatens those that take his law into their mouths and yet hate to be reformed that he will set their sins in order
all strife And although God be not so much glorified in this as in the other yet in regard of our necessary use of an oath this hath in a manner taken up the whole Commandment there being little mention of the other Concerning which we must shew first the nature of the duty and then proceed according to the former rules given for expounding the several commandments Concerning the nature of an oath this will appear if we consider 1. The necessity or the causes and grounds of an oath 2. The parts of it 3. How it tends to Gods glory 1. For the first It is expedient and necessary that all strises and controversies should have an end and not be continued which cannot be unlesse the one part of the matter in controversie be confirmed above the other And therefore we finde that before God would proceed to judgement against Sodom he would go down first ut certo cognoscat that he may know the certainty and proceed upon a 〈◊〉 ground Now the best way of proceeding to finde out the truth is by arguments and reasons where they may be had which course Joseph took to know the truth whether his brethren were spies or no by bringing with them their brother Benjamin when they returned for thereby it would certainly appear that they were no spies But when Arguments or reasons are wanting then are we to come to the second cause which is by witnesses a way approved by God himself who appointed that in the mouths of two or three witnesses every truth should be established And because that many times not onely proof by arguments but by witnesses also is wanting there is a necessity of calling God to witnesse which is by an oath So God appointed that in case of jealousie or suspition of a womans honestie by her husband though she were not taken in the deed nor the act could be proved yet she should clear her self by oath and swear she had not defiled her self Now this necessity of appealing to God by an oath as it is sometimes in regard of the action which is hid from others so likewise it is needful in two other cases as when assurance or certainty is to be had De occultis cordium of the secret thoughts and purposes of the heart which canot be known by external proof for who knows the heart saith the Prophet save God alone who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of the heart and secondly when it is to be concerning things to come for as the Wise man saith who knoweth what shall be No man is omniscient he cannot know the heart nor foresee future contingents In these cases therefore when the fact is hidden or not evident or when the intention of the heart must be made appear or a thing future must be ascertained there can be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no confirmation but by oath other proofs do here fail and come short And here if the matter of the oath be de facte or relate to what is past it is called Juramentum assertorium an oath of Assertion if it be de futuro of something to come it is called Juramentum promissorium an oath promissory or of promise And in both these when other arguments or testimonies fail there is no other way but to fly to God to make him a witnes and not onely a witnes but a judge and an avenger also if we call him to witnes an untruth for an oath is nothing else but a calling of God to witnes the truth of what we say and to be avenged on us if we speak an untruth or perform not what we say And here in the next place comes to be considered the two parts of an oath according to these two For first 1. God is called as a 〈◊〉 whether the thing be true and 2. he is called forth as an avenger if the thing be false 1. The first is sub Deo teste a contestation or taking God to witnes vsed by God himself As I live saith the Lord and by the fathers and holy men in the old testament who used to say vivit Dominus As the Lord liveth I will do this or that c. 2. The second is sub Deo vindice which is called execration that is the calling of a curse upon themselves if it be not true which they speak And what these curses are we may read in Levit 26. and Deut. 28. Where there are whole catalogues of threatenings of revenge The 〈◊〉 therefore was in the old testament Sic faciat mihi dominus et addat God do so to me and more also if this be not truth c. Let God adde to the first plague the second also This form was vsed by Eli to Samuel God do so to thee and more if thou hide any thing from me Now when one is brought to this that he hath called God to witnes the truth of what he speaks and to be an avenger if he have called him to witnes an untruth then according to to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an oath which properly signifies a hedge or inclosure he hath hedged in and inclosed himself with Gods truth and justice to performe it and so he that swears is holden and bound persistere in dicto 〈◊〉 pollicito to persist in his saying and to perform his promise And as an cath is an hedge to him that sweares so to him to whom the oath is made or given it is a satisfying or satisfaction according to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shebugnah juramentum or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shibegnah saturitas which comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabagn saturari to be filled or satisfied because the party to whom one swears ought to be satisfied herewith to which agrees the Latine translation of Saint Hierome pro jure habere that is now that I have put him to an oath I have bound my self as it were by a law to rest therein And thus an oath coms to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an end of controversy And thus we see the causes which make an oath necessary in respect of men but because our necessity is not enough to make it an act good and lawful unlesse God have glory by it therfore we must know in the next place that an oath duely made brings much glory to God 1. For first it is a rule in reason that nihil confirmatur nisi per certius a thing cannot be confirmed but by what is more certain this then brings great honour to God that when all other purposes and demonstrations fail his name is acknowledged to be Turris Fortissima a most strong tower that his testimonie is more certain then all reasons and testimonies of men When we hereby account of it as the wiseman saying The name of the Lord is a strong tower of defence the righteous run to it and are exalted The very
the Angel saith Saint John sware by him that liveth for ever and ever And God himself in his promise of blessing to Abraham by my self I have sworn saith the Lord. And in Esay I have sworne by my self And in his denuntiation of vengeance upon Eli and his house I have sworn unto the house of Eli c. And in his promise to David I have sworn to David my servant And I have sworn once by my holines that I will not fail David with diverse other And all these make against the vain conceit of the Anabaptists and if there be any other of that fond opinion that hold it unlawfull to sweare at all upon that speech of our Saviour sweare not at all When as his meaning in that place was not to abrogate the Law for he testified that he came not to take it a way but to fullfil it but to give them the true interpretation and meaning of it and to reduce them to the true and sound sence of it If his meaning had been to forbid swearing upon any occasion he would have said Non assumes nomen ei 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord at al but as he forbids all rash vain and unnecessary and voluntary oathes so he confutes the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharifees who thought that if one sware by any thing but the name of God as by heaven and earth c. That such oathes did not binde nor were to be regarded when our Saviour teaches that to swear by any of the creatures of God is to swear by God himself The first thing then commanded is to swear and the contrary practise of Anabaptists is here forbidden 2. The second thing commanded in the affirmative part may be gathered from the next word nomen 〈◊〉 Dei tui the name of the Lord thy God which implies that we ought to swear by the name of God and by no other name I have sworn saith God that every tongue shall swear by me It is his prerogative royal one of his priviledges and it is therefore often called Jusjurandum Jehovae An oath of the Lord shall be between them And the oath of the Lord thy God and the preacher I advise the to keep the kings commandment and that in regard of the oath of God Therefore 〈◊〉 vouchsafe this honour to others or to transfer this prerogative to others is prohibited and this is done two wayes 1. When men leave out the name of God in their oathes and swear by other things for a wofull vengeance is threatened to such by the Prophet They that swear by the sinne of 〈◊〉 and forget God c. even they shall fall and never rise up again 2. When we joyne any other thing or name with it For God threatens to cut off them that shall swear by the Lord and by Malcham And Joseph is discommended by many for swearing by the life of Pharoah this joyning others with God whether it be a false god or any creature both are forbidden 1. We must not swear by them that are no gods Idols it was Josuahs charge to the people upon his death-bed that when they should come among other nations they should not so much as mention the names of their gods nor cause any to swear by them king David observed this rule He would not mention their names within his lips It was Gods expresse command ye shall make no mention of their gods neither shall it be heard out of thy mouth And for the breach of this God thought himself so disparaged by Judah that he knew not how to let them go unpunished How saith he should I spare thee for this Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no Gods The Psalmist saith that they which run after other gods shall have great trouble and that he would not offer their drink-offerings and sacrifices nor make mention of their names within his lips and God threatens that he would take the name of Baalim out of their mouth that they should forget him 2. And for the second to swear by any creature though such oaths being made do binde because of the relation to God yet they ought not to be for if any swear by that which is not God it is an abomination The reason why we should not joyn any other thing in an oath with Gods name is in respect of a threefold injury that will arise by it 1. To God himself who requireth this honour to be exhibited to him alone and being his prerogative is not to be communicated to others He hath magnified his name above all things 2. To our selves for he that sweareth sweareth by him that is greater then himself Now he that sweareth by the Creature preferreth it before himself 3. To the Creature that is content with that place that honour which God hath placed it in and if it could would be avenged of us for giving to it the honour due to its Creator 3. The third thing comanded may be gathered from the next words In vain viz. that we ought to swear in a right manner otherwise we take Gods name in vain though we swear onely by the name of God And this dutie of swearing aright with due qualifications in an oath is gathered by S. Jerome out of Jeremy 4. 2. and after him by other expositors where the Prophet saith of a people that should swear aright They should swear in veritate judicio justitia in truth in judgement and in righteousnesse Animadvertendum saith he quod jusjurandum hos habet comites veritatem judicium atque justitiam si ista defuerint nequaquam erit juramentum sed perjurium we are to observe that an oath hath these Concomitants Truth Judgement and Righteousnesse if these be wanting we cannot any way call it an oath but perjury 1. Against transgressing the first you may see Gods absolute Prohibition Ye shall not swear by my name falsly and S. Augustine saith that he that sweareth falsly seemeth to be a man but indeed is no better then a beast yea detestanda 〈◊〉 a beast to be detested Diodor. Siculus the Heathen Historian saith Perjuri poena capitis plectuntur doth he swear falsly let him loose his head And the Wise man saith If a man swear in vain falsly he shall not be innocent but his house shall be full of plagues And God himself commanding that he that sweareth should swear by the God of truth seemeth to intimate that we are not to swear but in truth 1. A man may swear falsly either in juramento assertorio or promissorio 1. In assertion when either in re cognita upon our certain knowledge we testifie a falshood or in re dubia when we doubt the matter will fall out otherwise then we swear yet we will affirm it upon oath for we
whereby they invred themselves to take occasion from every action or creature they saw to raise matter of glory to God that nothing could be done or spoken or heard of but they would make use of it thereby to return glory to God a Christ upon occasion of the brightnes of the Sun when he was early in the Temple took occasion to fall into a discourse of the spiritual light of the world viz. himself and the natural darknes of man and upon enquirie of his followers how he came to the other side of the sea and upon his answer that they sought him rather for his loaves for another dinner then for the miracle they saw and upon mentioning of Manna he takes occasion to enter into that large and excellent sermon of the Eucharist and the bread of life But most notably in the fourteenth of S. Luke where at one dinner he takes occasion 1. from the striving of the guests for the upper places 2. From their inviting rich men rather then the poor 3. From one at the table that said blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God he takes occasion I say to enter into three very 〈◊〉 exhortations and admonitions tending much to the glory of God So the Prophet Esay going down to the vineyards Jeremie going into the potters shop Saint Paul from the altar at Athens set up to the unknown God they take occasion the Prophets to convince the Jews and Saint Paul to convert the Gentiles Thus when we shall studie to atain to this art by daily practise we may come to that aptnes that nothing can be offered but some wholsome meditation may be drawn from it whereby God may be daily glorified 4. A fourth means to glorifie his name is a reverend vsage not onely of his name but of his word which he hath given us as a means to glorifie his name for therefore is his word called his name as when Saint Paul is said to carry the name of Christ before the Gentiles that is in the judgement of the best expositors his word and the Prophet saith They shall walk up and down in the name of the Lord that is in his word His word is the special means to magnifie his name his name is in a special manner printed upon it Therefore that abominable and cursed practise of sundry ungracious persons of applying sundry sentences of his holy word to prophane libells and jests is condemned and anathematized by all the sacred councells in former times yea even by the councel of Trent it self What shall we say saith Saint Augustine but that these men put themselves in a way by disesteeming Gods word to have a sleight esteeme of his name and by abasing and prophaning his word to come to abuse and blaspheme his name According to the fifth rule the signes of glorifying Gods name come in the next place which may be taken from the consideration of what it is compared to We shewed before that to take his name was vsed in a double sence either as a burden or as a standard or a glorious thing to take it as a burden in necessariis in case of necessity by an oath but when our necessity is not urged but Gods glory then we take it up as a Banner or standard and so by the behaviour of men towards that we may know whether we stand rightly affected towards Gods name 1. In the Host they followed the standard they stood still when it stood and moved when it moved so here if we make Gods name and glory our standard we stand affected in our actions meditations and enterprises to go so far as Gods glory calls and no further to be lead by it to go when it goes and to stand when it stands and this when flesh and blood and worldly powers and reasons would allure us to the contrary If his glory commands all our actions it s a good signe we ayme at the glory of his name whereas many when Gods glory bids stand they go and when that calls back go further and when it calls on them to go they sit still 2. It was a part of the Roman and Graecian discipline among the souldiers when they entered into the camp they sware Pugnabo solus et cum aliis they would fight for their banner alone and with company now this applied shews that the greatest part of the world doth not seek his glory for it is cum aliis that gets God the glory a solis he shall have little If the rest shrink away there are few that will keep that part of the oath to stand soil by the standard when the Realm shall run to Apostacie 3. Thirdly whosoever belonged to our standard and had once professed himself of that band it was present death if he had either in his mouth hostile symbolum or about him hostilem 〈◊〉 if he had either the enemies watch-word or the enemies badg it was death Now if we apply this we may see there are many among us that in their outwad carriage professe to fight under Christs banner yet their actions their apparel c. are T 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 badges of the enemie and their speeches are the right watch-word of the Devil worldly speeches and worldly signs which we daily wear do prove that we do carni et sanguini militari fight for flesh and blood and not for Gods glory 4. The fourth signe is the perishing of a righteous man in his righteousnes to die for the name of God It was the manner of the Lacedemonians at the delivery of the standard to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either bring this home or be brought home upon it So when Gods gives us his name we must fight for it and either bring it home or be brought home upon it we must confesse the name of Christ and either bring this shield of faith sound to God or die for it rather then lose it as Saint Paul was resolved who said he was ready not onely to be bound at Ierusalem but to die for the name of Jesus The sixt rule requires that not onely we gloryfie his name our selves but that we procure others to do it our speech must be such as may minister grace to the hearers such for which they may glorifie God and not our speech onely but our works too as our Saviour exhorts that when men see our good works they may glorify our father which is in heaven otherwise if our lives be unreformed we cause the name of God to be evil spoken of and blasphemed we open the mouthes of wicked men and make them say the words we professe hath no power our religion is a doctrine of licentiousnes in which the power of Godlines doth not appear And thus much for the first part of this commandment The Prohibition The second part of this precept is the Commination or penalty threatened God will not hold him guiltlesse c. And
other Imperat suadet it both commands and intreats 4. And whereas the reasons of the former Commandments are terrible fearful and threatning in this they are easy and reasonable the main reason of this being that no more is required to be done by us then was done by God himself we ought to do it because God hath done it 5. Whereas none of the rest have above one reason to perswade and move us to the duty this hath besides one principal tria statumina three other props or reasons so that it exceeds them all in the multitude of reasons to perswade us to the observance of it 6. Lastly to move and stir up our regard to this Commandment in a more especial manner and that it might not be thought a light matter either to break or keep it as we are apt to think God hath in the very 〈◊〉 of it set notas non leves no slight notes Recordare remember and observa keep it We must have a special care of the keeping of it and to that end we must remember it The Commandment hath two parts 1. A Precept 2. The Aetimologie that is the Reasons or the perswasions to keep it The Precept contains in it an affirmative part and a negative The affirmative in the eighth verse Remember the sabbath day to keep it 〈◊〉 The Negative in the ninth and tenth verses in it thou shalt do no manner c. For the first that we may understand it the better we must know what is meant by sabbath and what by sanctifying 1. Sabbath in the original signifieth rest and such a rest which some labour hath gone before a rest after labour 〈◊〉 a ceasing or intermission from labour Such a rest is described in the law When the land had been laboured and tilled six years before God gave the people charge that it should lie fallow and rest the seaventh year and this was a politick law So after the labour of six dayes God requireth here a cessation from work the seventh day let that be a day set apart rest on that day 2. The word Sanctifie is twice used in this commandment in the beginning and in the end and is applied to two 1. To God in the end verse 11. The Lord blessed and sanctified it 2. To man vers 8. remember the sabbath to sanctifie it Now it is a rule in divinity that when any word is given to God and man both it is to be applied in a different respect and so here this word ascribed to God is to be understood sub modo destinandi by way of appointing it so to be and to man sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of applying it to that it was appointed So when God appointeth any thing to an holy vse he is said to sanctifie it and when man applieth it to the use to which God hath so appointed it he is said also to sanctifie it As it is sure that by nature all men are alike before God and differ not by nature so may it be said of bread water wine dayes c. by nature all are alike and one is not more holy then another Yet in the law saith God concerning the Israelites I have separated you from other people that you should be mine When God setteth man a part that he should be his either as a minister in the Church or as a Magistrate in the commonwealth then this his separation or putting a part is the beginning of his sanctifying So water which is separated from common uses and destinated to 〈◊〉 and the Creatures of Bread and wine in the administration of the Lords supper there is naturally no more in them then in the other of the like kinde till they be so separated and set apart from the other and appropriated to God and holy vses So may we likewise say of dayes naturally there is no more holines in one then in another onely Gods ordinance by separating one day from another for himself makes it to be more holy then the rest Now it is the nature of such things whether it be man or beast so separated from common vse and thereby sanctified to the Lord that they must continue so and be neither bought nor sold nor other wayes alienated Therefore we finde that under the Law the Tabernacle and whatsoever was vsed in it about the service of God must be put to no other use the fire-pans flesh-hooks 〈◊〉 made for the sacrifice yea the basest instruments to stir the fire and the meat in the caldron whereof a libamen or offering was to be should not be put into any other nor the pots on no other fire nor the snuffers to any other lamp but to these in the Tabernacle So this is the nature of a thing sanctified and it therein differeth from other things that what is sanctified or separate for God must not be converted or applied to any other use and so for dayes such as are sanctified or set apart for God must be applied to no other use unlesse God himself or his church by authority from him and that upon grounds warranted by God dispence therein in some special cases Other things may bedone in part upon other dayes but not upon this The Psalmist as before saith he will meditate every day and night and every day he wil praise God and give thanks to him and in the evening morning and at noon day thrice a day he will pray Nay seven times a day he will praise God yet all these are but on part of the day for in the six dayes other things may be joyntly done with those holy exercises and may lawfully take up a part of the day but this day being a most holy day as separated to Gods use and service must be sanctified not in part or joyntly with other imployments but must solely be kept to his service and use Now a question may arise whether God sanctified this day to himself or to us Certainly the Apostle tells us that omnia munda mundis all things are cleane to the clean and God is most pure and holy and therefore needs nothing to be sanctified to him therefore this sanctifying must needs be for us And the same Apostle 〈◊〉 this is the will of God even your not his sanctification for without holines none shall see God and therefore to the end that we might be holy did he sanctifie this day his word and other things c. And so by the second part of sanctification by annexing a blessing to this day he blessed it and made it holy as in the Sacrament of the Eucharist he blessed the bread and his dicere is facere he gave it power to increase holines in us And as to the bread there so to this day here he hath annexed a special blessing whereby it is sanctified to us and that in a twofold respect 1. Relative as applied to the means of holines
possunt which cannot be performed by those that are busied with worldly or secular affairs So many of the Fathers that write upon this place vacate videte quia ego sum Dominus Be still and know that I am God shew that by the rule of natural wisdom the Philosophers held Postulandum esse secessum ut melius intendamus a vacation from worldly affairs is necessary that we may the better intend contemplate on heavenly things Our heads must not be occupied with worldly thoughts when we are about the affairs of the soul not that the works of the other six dayes are evil in themselves but because they are apt to distract the minde from that which is proper to this day Now Otium Rest being the first part it is a very strange thing that the nature of man should be altogether so averse from Gods will that when the Precept is difficult and laborious requiring some pains and travail then they will be idle and where this precept is not laborious but easy as this to rest they will rather then not break the Commandment take pains that is they will even against their nature make themselvs businesse and pick out that day of all the dayes of the week that he hath chosen so that it shall be a kinde of policy to make advantage of that day and to finde out some labour on that day on which he hath forbid us to labour And so much for the easinesse of the Commandment and the perversenesse of man We finde in Scripture six several kindes of prohibitions from working on this day 1. Before the Law given when the people departed from Elim and came to the wildernesse of Sin there was a prohibition from gathering Manna there was better food to gather of which he that eateth shall live for ever The Lord is to be tasted 2. A second is As there must be no gathering of Manna nor going out to gather it that day so there must be no buying of it though it should be brought to us So Nehemiah protested against buying and selling which sheweth the unlawfulnesse of it because on that day is Mercatura animae it is the market day of the soul buying and selling on that day is forbidden 3. A third is that which the Prophet Jerem. mentions that is the carrying of burthens on that day and the better to dissuade the people from that kinde of work the Prophet promiseth in the person of God great blessings to them if they forbear and threatneth great plagues upon them if they did not for if they made that their day of 〈◊〉 God would send upon them a burden which they should sink under viz. Captivity and desolation by the Enemy he would kindle a fire in Jerusalem and burn up the gates and palaces thereof verse ult 4. Another thing prohibited by the Law is working in harvest time because the inning of harvest and gathering of grapes might seem to be a matter of great necessity Six dayes shalt thou work but on the seventh day thou shalt rest in earing time and in harvest time thou shalt rest so that the provision for the whole common-wealth must give place unto the rest of this day 5. A fifth thing prohibited is Travailing or Journeying on the Sabbath day Cras erit Sabbatum jehovae maneat quisque in loco suo neque egrediatur quisquam die septimo to morrow is the Sabbath of the Lord Abide ye every man in his place let no man go out of his place the seventh day 6. The last is above the rest For whereas God in the three Chapters before had given Moses a platform for the building of a Tabernacle and taken order that he should go presently in hand with it yet in the 31 Chapter he saith notwithstanding Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep whosever worketh on that day the same person shall be surely put to death Which is as much as if he had said Though that work may seem most lawful and tending most to my glory of all other yet ye shall not break the Sabbath to do it and so verse 15 he gives an universal restraint whosoever doth any manner of work on that day shall be put to death any manner of work an universal prohibition and the penalty threatned was accordingly executed upon him that gathered sticks Numb 6. 15. 35. he was stoned to death by Gods special appointment And the Lord tells the people that if they pollute the Sabbath by bearing burdens he would kindle such a fire in the gates of Jerusalem that should devour the palaces of it and not be quenched The Prophets generally urge the observation of this Commandment above the rest And we may observe that there hath seldom been any strange visitation by fire but where there hath some notorious prophanation of the Sabbath gone before So that when it shall please God to visit us with the like judgement we may conjecture what hath been the cause of it Concerning the rest now required on the Lords day and the difference thereof from the Jewish symbolical rest which was therefore more strict see the former Additional observation observation 6. Therefore to conclude this point let them that go out to gather Manna carry burdens buy and sell gather harvest journey and travail up and down or do any the most lawful work not think these things to be otium sanctum or Sabbatum Jehovae a holy rest or the Sabbath of the Lord but as Leo saith Sabbatum Tyri the Sabbath of Tyre The Councel of Mentz held in the time of Charlemain Anno Dom. 813 hath this Canon Omnes 〈◊〉 Dominicos cum omni veneratione decrevimus observari a servili opere abstineri ut 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 minime sit nec placitum ubi aliquis ad mortem vel poenam judicetur we have decreed that all the Lords dayes be observed with all reverence and that servile labour shall be forborne and that no market be kept on those dayes nor that any Courts be kept either to condemn men to death or punish them Those that offend are to be deprived of the communion for three years And the Council of Tyburis Anno 895. in the time of the Emperor Arnulph hath one Canon to the like purpose as well for the observation of other holy dayes as the Lords day In the second Council of Mascon held anno 582 severe punishments were to be inflicted upon those that should not observe the Lords day and that toto die all the day long As it was larger for the fault so it was milder for the punishment for they suspended those that violated this Canon from the Communion but for half a year so strict were they for the sanctifying of this day and that as one saith because God requires the rest not for the rest it self sed quia hoc die Deo tantummodo vacandum because we must this
witnes of the truth Sain Paul attributeth sanctification of every thing to prayer premised and therefore it is termed the preparative to all the duties of a Christian more plainly Our Saviour very early before day went out into a solitary place and there prayed and afterward came and preached in the Synagogue which is very probable to have been on the sabbath day whereby we may observe that Christ himself took prayer to be the first means of sanctification 1. Now for the times of this exercise of prayer on the Lords day they are two 1. Before the other publick duties and 2 After 1. That before is either private as of a master and his family 2. Or else in the congregation which is publick Both which the psalmist comprehendeth in one verse I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful there 's the first And in the congregation there 's the last 1. Concerning the first we see in the place before quoted that our Saviour went out into a solitary place as also elsewhere As soon as he had sent the multitude away he departed into a mountain to pray 2. For the other we may gather out of that place in the Acts that amongst the very Heathen the religious Hellinists which were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were a kinde of proselytes that worshipped the God of Israel vsed to assemble themselves to pray by a rivers side But more plainly the Apostle saith that to the prayers of the congregation every one should joyn his own Amen Again prayer is to be vsed after For as we are not fit to receive any spiritual grace before without it so neither to keep it after the devil will take the word out of our hearts after we have heard it unlesse we desire of God that it may remain with us and seek his blessing that the seed may fructify And this was in the law to come from the Priests mouth The Lord blesse thee and keep thee By vertue whereof the devil wil lose his power in taking the word out of our hearts but it shall continue with us and fructifie in us 2. The second is the word which is magnified or sanctified by God for our sanctification for as the prophet saith God hath magnified the law that is his word and made it honorable and else where plainly the hearing of the word is made one end of publick assemblyes gather me the people together saith God and I will makethem hear my words Now the word upon the sabbath hath a double use 1. First as it is read and heard read onely 2. And secondly as it preached or heard preached 1. For the first the Church in great wisdome alwayes thought it most convenient and necessary that reading should precede preaching that when it should be preached it might not seem strange to them that heard it But as that is thought a thing fit by the Church so would it be no lesse expedient that before we come to church we would meditate on it yet such is our wretchlessenesse in matters spiritual that we think we have done enough if we can apprehend it when it is read whereas if we would meditate on it before hand we might make the better 〈◊〉 of it when it is read and be the better confirmed in what we hear preached The Jews had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to the sabbath and about the ninth houre of it which is our three of the clock in the after-noon they usually met and spent their time in reading of the scriptures that they might be the better fitted against the sabbath The publick reading of the word in the congregation on the sabbath day is warranted by diverse passages in holy writ as by that in the Acts of the Apostles where it is said that when Paul and his company came into the synagogue at Antioch on the sabbath day the rulers of the Synagogue after the 〈◊〉 of the Law and the Prophets sent to them saying ye men and brethren if ye have any word of exhortation say on And by another passage in the same Chapter where it is said that the Prophets were read every sabbath day And by another a little after which saith thus that Moses that is the law was read in the Synagogue every sabbath day And lastly Saint Paul gives a special charge by the Lord to the Thessalonians thathis Epistle to them be read unto all the holy brethren There is a vse also of private reading and that of great consequence for Christ saith plainly that his witnesses be the Scriptures and therefore will he have them searched because they testified and prophecied of him That this exercise is profitable the prophet maketh plain by a question Should not a people enquire at their God which he explains in the next verse by seeking To the law and to the Testimony And again Seek in the book of the Law and read And therefore we see that the Bereans were much commended and storied for wiser and nobler 〈◊〉 other people why because they searched the Scriptures daily to confirm their faith in the points preached to them There are other vses also in reading In the Revelation there is a blessing pronounced to those that read or heare the words of that prophecy because it might excite men to praise God when they see all fulfilled Man seeing the prophecies fulfilled may thereby give him praise And for this cause there were anciently Monuments kept in Churches which preserved and set forth the accomplishing of Gods promises or threatnings As the memorials of the warres of God on the behalf of the Israelites which was called liber bellorum Dei the book of the battels of the Lord and their verba 〈◊〉 or Chronicl es of Nathan Gad Shemaiah c. these they permitted in a holy use to be privately read that seeing his promises and his threatning denounced in them to have been fulfilled men might the better be stirred up to the praise and fear of God 2. Another use was the understanding of hard places in the Scripture It is recorded of Daniel that while hs was reading the book of 〈◊〉 about the accomplishment of the number of the 70 years captivity mentioned by the same prophet God sent an Angel to him to informe him in that great 〈◊〉 about the time of Christs sufferings So the Eunuch while he was reading in the book of Esay had the exposition of Christs sufferings from the Apostle Philip sent for that purpose by God and because God doth not now by such extraordinary means informe us in the true sence of Scriptures therefore we are to read such as have written 〈◊〉 upon such places and so no doubt but if Philip had written any thing at that time upon Esay that the Eunuch would have read it and made use of
Testimonium excellentiae a testimony of that excellency which we acknowledge in him above our selves of this Solomon speaks when 〈◊〉 adviseth not to meddle with a strang woman lest we lose our honour that is lest we lose the good reputation and esteeme we have in the 〈◊〉 of others and in another case he tells us that a peaceable man shall have honour and good respect with men for by a good opinion of men we testifie there is an excellency in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have some what more then we have and both the Apostles 〈◊〉 Paul and Saint Peter expresse this duty by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subjection or submission to be subject as we see Christ was subject to this father and mother in respect of his manhood acknowledging himself to be a child and so consequently thought some thing to be in them to receive this honour which was not in himself The 〈◊〉 will make this more plain In the case of Corah and his company they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron they would not give them honour God calls it afterwards a dishonouring of him and their 〈◊〉 was They were not more excellent then others all the congregation was holy and the Lord was amongst them Their thesis was All men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Lord and therefore Moses and Aaron had no more excellency then the rest of the congregation But we see how God by a special miracle confuted their position for the example of all that in future times should exalt themselves against their superiours The contrary to this sinne of theirs is when men do acknowledge and confesse that there is not an equality but that some do excel them and that this excellency above them is not as the Poet speaks by chance but by the appointment of God that as in creation and generation he is the special father that gives us being so for our well by government that he is our special governour and that those above us are his instruments appointed for our preservation when we acknowledge this exellency in others and that it comes from God who hath imparted his gifts to them This is the first and the inward part of honour But now as God told Samuel concerning 〈◊〉 God and man look several waves for God looks on the 〈◊〉 which man cannot see it is onely the excellency which outwardly apears which we can take notice of and honour and so likewise the inward honour of the heart of which we have spoken is seen onely by God man cannot behold it and therefore besides the inward esteeme or estimate of anothers excellency there must be also some exteriour signe or testimony whereby we acknowledge it to be others and this makes the second part of honour 〈◊〉 honour Such was that which 〈◊〉 desired of Samuel though the kingdom were taken from him as Samuel well knew yet honour me saith he before the Elders of the people and before 〈◊〉 c. And such was that which the 〈◊〉 looked after viz. The 〈◊〉 places at 〈◊〉 the uppermost 〈◊〉 and greeting in the market place This is the second part of honour What this exteriour honour is and after what manner it is to be exhibited in particular is best known by the manner of the countrey where men live because it is not alike in all places every countrey hath not the same signes of honour Holy men in scripture have exhibited outward honour by several gestures or ceremonies which may be reduced to these seven heads 1. To rise up when a person of excellency which either by nature or analogie and proportion is our 〈◊〉 in presence Job accounted it as an honour done to him when the aged arose and stood up when he was in presence And Solomon a king thought fit to expresse his duty to his mother Bathsheba by rising up to her when she came before him 2. The uncovering or making the head bear was accounted a token of honour in use with the Saints and a dishonour to keep it covered as we may gather by the words of the Apostle 3. The bowing of the knee or all or part of the body When 〈◊〉 would have 〈◊〉 honoured he thought no way better for the people to expresse it then by bowing their 〈◊〉 to him He caused them to 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 Abrech that is bow the knee King 〈◊〉 in the place before quoted to adde the greater honour 〈◊〉 his mother bowed himself to her Jacob meeting his brother Esau bowed himself 〈◊〉 times to the ground a great expression of this duty And Ruth no doubt thought she honoured 〈◊〉 when she bowed her self to the ground before him So for the bowing of the head it is mentioned in diverse places in scripture to set forth this duty The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 when they came before him bowed their heads and made obeysance These were signes of honour at the first meeting or salutation 4. A fourth expression is standing up not onely to rise before them we prefer in excellency but to stand up too we see the practize of it in the people of Israel Moses 〈◊〉 as a judge among 〈◊〉 but it is said that the people stood by him from morning till evening And 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 mayd when she went to attend upon king David was to stand before him The like did 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 And indeed it is the common expression of service 5. The next is to be silent in the presence of them we account our betters Job tells us that when he was in prosperity the Princes refrained talking in his presence and laid their hand upon their mouth Ths Nobles held their peace c. And in the same Chapter he saith unto me men gave eare and waited and kept 〈◊〉 at my counsel 6. The sixth is that when of necessity we are to speak we use words of submission It is Saint Peters note of Sarah her submissive speech to her husband she called him Lord. And the speech of Rachel to her father 〈◊〉 is a president of this kind for children to their parents 〈◊〉 it not displease my Lord that I cannot rise up before thee And of Josephs brethren for inferiours to men in authority Thy servant our father is in good health 7. The last is dispersed throughout the scriptures and comprehended under the word ministrare to minister and wait Luc. 17. 7. And it comprehendeth all such other duties of outward honour as are to be vsed by servants to their masters As our Saviour expresseth one in the masters command to his servant to make ready that he may sup And the maid waited on Naamans ' wife And so king Davids Generals are said to wait on him And Job in the place before mentioned saith that men waited on him in token of reverence and service to him so that when we
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a just thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is due by the rule of justice to superiours so that it cannot be forborn without injurie and injustice to authority we cannot keep this honour and obedience from them without injurie And therefore it is that Christ saith to the Pharisees Reddite Caesari quae sunt Caesaris render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars He uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reddite render or restore to shew that it is his own God hath imparted it if you keep it back if you give it him not you do injustice and wrong to him 6. The last is in regard of the expedience of it for your own good expedit vobis it stands you in hand so to do The Apostle saith They watch over your souls Now where honour is detracted and withheld there the care of preservation is also diminished and by reason thereof the power of wickednes and the impudence of naughty men is increased and the more our estate is troubled the greater is our unquiet and vexation Therefore better it is that due honour be given to them the better to encourage them to apply themselves to our preservation Besides they that deny this to them that are of right invested with it and take it to themselves set themselves against God and go about to build another Babel which is nothing but bringing in of Anarchie and confusion This dothargue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a giant like nature such as was in them that would build a tower whose top might reach to heaven such do indicere bellum Deo bid defiance to God and therefore the Apostle saith expressely that such as resist lawful powers do resist the ordinance of God and so do fight against God himself and thereby bring damnation upon themselves So that by weighing these reasons we may happily be brought to obedience CHAP. IIII. The duties of superiours in four things Addition 29. Of the end of government and whether the people be above their governours The manner how they must govern whether honour be due to one that is evil Whether he must be obeyed in malo Of disobeying the unlawful commands of a Superiour Add. 30. Of Obedience in things doubtful VVE will now handle the duties of superiours in general These two things are alwayes joyned together in Gods Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have worth and to be honoured or esteemed worthy and therefore S. Chrysostome makes it an axiome upon that place 1 Tim. 5. 17. They that rule well are worthy of double honour The Honour as he saith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reward of the service they perform Therefore that honour may be due to them they must mereri be worthy and deserving men and worthy they are if they perform the part of fathers and mothers The neernesse of the two significations of the word in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cabed which signifieth both weight and heavinesse and honour and of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is honor and 〈◊〉 or múlct and of the Latine word honoro and 〈◊〉 to honour and lay a burden sheweth that God would not that any should have honour unlesse they have meritum desert nor this meritum desert without a charge therefore they must have meritum and by consequent honour may be justly required by them at our hands 1. They are to know that they are Gods ministers for so S. Paul calls them and S. Peter saith They are sent by God And that as they are his Ministers and that he imparted some of his power and honour to them so they must know that their office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Lord and that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministers of God And therefore David saith Tibi canam Jehovah I will sing unto the Lord of mercy and judgement as they have received power from God and part of his honour which he hath put upon them so they must do all for God and their care must be that those under them may be Domini the Lords people as they are his Vicegerents They must follow the rule which Jehosaphat made for his Judges Take heed what ye do for ye judge not for man but for the Lord. Therefore whatsoever they do must not be for their own will and ends but in and for the Lord. We must not be of Jezebels opinion that Ahab could not be a king if he could not command and have what he should desire though it were wrongfully for this is a wicked maxime and semen omnium 〈◊〉 the seed of all evil Nor of Ahabs that hated Michaiah the son of Imlah the Prophet becavse he prophecied nothing good concerning him though it were the will of God that he should so do When men do not acknowledge that their authority is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God but blot that out and look onely at their own will then breaks in all injustice But they must know that God is not so unwise as to give them authoritie against himself and therefore they must not have an eye to their own but to Gods will for they are but his Ministers 2. Superiours must know that one end of their authority is the good and benefit of those that are under them as they are first to look to God and his honor whose Ministers they are so in the next place they must look to the good of those over whom God hath set them Their honour is conferred upon them not meerly for themselves and their own benefit but also for those that are under them not onely 〈◊〉 praesint but ut prosint to profit them that are under them as well as to be over and above them and this is it that makes their place the more weighty King David was taken from the sheepfold to be king and why ad pascendum Israel that he might feed and govern the word imports both Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance So children are not for parents but parents for their children The Heathen by the light of nature onely saw this that superiority was 〈◊〉 for inferiority and the Prince for the benefit of the people For God at the first considering that children were unable to help themselves by reason of their inability and defects when they are young and the danger that might befall them not onely in their infancy but even before they are born ordained a duty to be shown and an office to be done for them even before they are born there is a care of them to be taken by parents when they are in the womb before they are able to give them honour and for this care of parents they are afterwards to exhibit honour to them when they are able And under this head is that the Apostle mentioneth They must nourish and cherish and account them that are under
them as their own flesh as Moses who carried the people in his bosom as a nurse and made their welfare his scope and as our Saviour snews the example of an hen who gathereth her chickens under her wings to defend them from ravening and strong fowls And this loving nourishing and defending are special ends why superiours were ordained And therefore the reason is added to the Commandment in Exodus 20. and enlarged in Deuter. 5. 16. That thy dayes may be prolonged c. and that it may go well with thee which as was mentioned before is expounded by some not as a promise but as the duty and end of superiours viz. That they under God prolong mens dayes and are or ought to be means that it may go well with them This is one end of their superiority They are not set over the people colligere auream messem to scrape gold and silver for themselves their own profit and ease is not the end of their authority though many times rulers look at nothing else It was the sin of the Princes in Ezekiels time They accounted the city as a cauldron and the people the flesh to be sod in Evil Rulers take their own ease and security while the profit of the people and inferiours is no whit regarded Therefore not without cause are the two heads before named of defending and nourishing inferiours special duties of superiours towards them This which is commonly affirmed that the end of government is the good of the inferiours must be understood cum grano salis for from this principle misunderstood some have collected that because the end is above the means and more noble therefore subjects are above their governours and so may call them to account for their misgovernment and judge or punish them and remove them if they see cause from which false collections made by seditious and turbulent persons infinite troubles confusions rebellions and desolations have followed We must know therefore 1. That to procure the good of inferiours is indeed the duty of superiours and one end why God committed the people to them but not the sole or principal end of their authority for princes receive their power onely from God and are by him constituted and intrusted with government of others chiefly for his own glory and honour as his Deputies and Vicegerents upon earth for they are his Ministers Rom. 13. so that the principal end of their government is the advancement of Gods honour who is the supream King and Lord of all the world and therefore if they fail in performance of this trust they are accountable onely to him who intrusted them and not to the people whom he hath put under them and whom he never authorized to call them to account but to appeal onely to him 2. It is not generally true that all government is onely for the benefit of those that are governed for some government there is meerly for the benefit of the superiour as that of a Lord or Master over his servant for the profit of the servant is herein meerely extrinsicall and advantitious some governments are for mutual good of both as that of a husband over his wife and so some kingdoms may be for the benefit of kings as when they are obtained by a just conquest which are not to be accounted tyrannical because they are just for their may be a just title by conquest when the war is upon just grounds whereas all tyranny is essentially unjust and some kingdoms may respect the profit both of Prince and people as when a people not able to defend themselves commit themselves to a potent prince for protection and safety against potent enemies and so become his subjects 3. Although it be true that in some kingdoms especially elective the benefit of the people is principally regarded and as Cicero saith Fruendae justitiae causa Reges conftituti that kings are appointed for administring of justice yet it follows not hence that the people are above their king for the Tutor or Guardian is for the good of the Pupil and yet the Guardian or Tutor hath power and authority over the Pupil and if any say that the Guardian may be removed if he fail in his trust and therefore the same may be done in Princes L answer that this holds in Guardians because they have some above them but in kingdoms because there cannot be a progresse in infinitum there must of necessity be a stop in some who because they have no superior must if they offend be lest only to God who will either punish them if he see it needful or else suffer them for the punishment and tryal of his people for as Tacitus saith as we bear with the barrennes of the earth or intemperate seasons and the like natural accidents which cannot be avoyded so must they bear with the avarice and lust of rulers Vitia erunt donec homines sed nec haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur there will be faults in government so long as there are men but they are not alwayes nor lasting and besides they are ballanced by the change of good 〈◊〉 intervening And therefore M. Aurelius said that as Magistrates are to judge of private persons so are Princes to judge of Magistrates and God alone of Princes To which purpose is that speech of a French Bishop to their King mentioned in Greg. Turon Si quis de nobis O Rex justitiae tramites transcendere voluerit a te corripi potest si tu vero excesseris quis te corripiet loquimur enim tili sed si volueris audis si autem nolueris quis te damnabit nisi quise pronunciavit esse justitiam If any of us offend O King thou mayest correct us but if thou shalt exceed who shall correct thee we may speak unto thee and if thou wilt thou mayst hear us but if thou wilt not none can condemn thee but he who is justice it self And that of 〈◊〉 is as excellent as common Cujus jussu nascuntur homines hujus jussu Reges 〈◊〉 by whose command or appointment they are born men by his appointment are Kings constituted Nor doth it make against this that the people are sometimes punished for the sins of their Princes as 1 Kings 4. 16. 2 Kings 10. 17. for this was not because the people did not punish or restrain the exorbitances of their Kings but because by tacite consent or otherwise they did communicate in their sins and besides God having supream dominion over the lives of all may make use of it thereby to punish Kings by taking away their Subjects 3. Because God hath made by his Commandment a distinction and 〈◊〉 of degrees as some to be parents some children some superiours and some inferiours Superiours must take heed that none 〈◊〉 this order nor suffer a parity or equality or to submit to those whom God hath placed in a lower rank But why did not
the fig-leaves were sowed together The cause is that after they had sinned the inferiour parts as the appetite grew to be irregular and unruly Whereupon as the Apostle speaks the devil takes occasion to tempt to 〈◊〉 and therefore he advises that to avoyd fornication every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband that so they may have Thorum immaculatum the bed undefiled This Solomon calls the avoyding of a strange woman which he accounts a special part of wisdom and so this end includes that duty of fidelity which the one owes to the other for unlesse fornication be avoyded there can be no mutual fidelity Therefore the Apostle saith that the one of the married persons hath not power over their own body but the other the third end then of this Nuptiae is to avoyd fornication So that the three general ends of this duty are first Mutuum auxilium mutual help denoted by conjugium secondly Proles yssue signified by Matrimonium thirdly The avoyding of 〈◊〉 implied in Nuptiae which includes fides 〈◊〉 to each other specified by Nuptiae This for the general ends Now for the particular duties of man and wife 1. Now for the particular duties the first duty of the husband to the wife is expressed in these word by Saint Peter to live with her according to knowledge he must know how to govern her Because as we see in the case of the first wife she was beguiled by the serpent and seduced her husband therefore in the sixteenth verse of that chapter God told her that her desire should be subject to her husband and that he should have the government and rule over her therefore she must never follow her own will hereafter but must be subiect to her husband His duty therefore is to govern her yet so that he must 〈◊〉 with her being the weaker vessel and not to be bitter to her as being heire with him of the grace of life that their prayers be not hindred and that thereby he may enjoy his own peace for who would trouble his own flesh That he may rule and govern he must be able to instruct her for when the Apostle saith that if the wives would learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home it is to be taken for granted that they must be able to teach them lest such as creep into houses and beguile silly women 2 Tim. 3. 6. Intrap the wife And if she shall be carried away with blinde zeale or affection or otherwise go astray he must be able by wise exhortations to rectify her We have an example for this of Elkanah when Hannah his wife murmured and took on for her barrennes he pacified her with this wise speech Am not I better to thee then ten sons withal he must so strengthen himself that he be not seduced as Adam was by Eve nor be too credulous of her reports as Potiphar was when he put Joseph in prison upon a false accusation of his wife nor omit any necessary duty required by God though she be offended at it as Zipporah the wife of Moses was at the 〈◊〉 of her son Nor hearken to her in a bad cause as 〈◊〉 did to Jezebel Or if she be like 〈◊〉 that scoffed at David for his zeal in dancing before the 〈◊〉 of God he must by his knowledge and wisdom be able to instruct and reform her in the spirit of meekenes And as in the first place government with knowledge is required in the 〈◊〉 so submission consequently belongeth to the wife not to stand upon her own wil or wit but to submit her self to her husband For seeing by her own confession she was not wife enough to resist the serpent but was first in the transgression therefore justly was it laid upon her that she should not stand upon her own will hereafter but should be subject to her husband and be governed and advised by him This the Apostle Saint Peter calls subjection and Saint Paul submission which must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Lord and in the same chapter he calls it fear let the wife fear or reverence her husband which shews that as he hath the government so he hath power and authority which she must fear and this Saint Peter vrgeth by the example of Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him Lord. And this reason is given because as God is head of Christ and Christ the head of the man so man is the head of the wife Whereupon Saint Augustine saith that as the sense of seeing is by the head so a woman ought to seeby her husband who is her head yet withal he is to remember that as she was not taken out of his head because she must not be above him as his master so neither out of his feet because she is not to be his servant but out of his side a latere that she might be semper illi a latere as his fellow and companion almost his equal The Heathen king Ahasuerus and his counsellers saw this duty of wives by the light of nature when for 〈◊〉 disobedience they decreed that she should be put from her royal estate and see the kings face no more and that her 〈◊〉 should be given to another and that no woman should presume to do the like al this should be published by a royal decree and that every man should beare rule in his own house c. This for the first duty 2. The second duty though it concur with the general affection of love and be in effect nothing else yet it hath a peculiar respect whereby it differeth from all other love and therfore is to be specially mentioned It is described in Gen. by three things 1. That this conjugal love must make one abandon and leave those to whom he is most bound or which are otherwise most neer and dear to him viz comparatively for this cause shall a man leave father and mother 2. That as they must leave all others so they must constantly cleave and adhere to one another as is expressed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aahasit conglutinatus est to cleave or be glued together 3. This adhering must be such a neare union as makes them one yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one flesh of two so that the love and affection appropriate to this conjunction must exceed all other In all love there is a kinde of union but all other union must give way to this none so neer as this Neither must this love be onley carnal and outward of which Solomon speaks Rejoyce with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving hind and pleasant Roe let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ever ravisht with her love but also spiritual according to the Apostles rule to love her as Christ loved the Church whose love as it resembled
professing that she would not forsake her till death And for the shame of those that shall neglect this duty we have an example of Caiaphas who though he were a wicked man yet honored his father in law giving him the preheminence in examining our Saviour first though he were the high Priest The second combination is between the father and the son the parent and the child And as the first duty of parents is generatio prolis the begetting of yssue so the first end of it is for the propagation of Gods church that there may be semen sanctum an holy seed a constant succession of Godly posterity to praise and glorifie God for as the Psalmist saith God appointed his laws in Israel that the fathers might make them known to their children that the generations to come might know them even the children that should be born and that they also arise and declare them to their children A second and subordinate end the wise man describes that children might be corona senum gloria patrum the crown of their age and the glory of their fathers that they may have comfort in their age We may observe divers excellent children in the Scripture when the parents looked up to God and regarded that first end of generation Isaac was born by promise as the Apostle speaks and his elder brother was but the son of nature In the next generation Joseph who was the blessing of Jacob was better then the rest of his brethren And so Samuel being vowed to the Lord and begot in his mothers lamentation was endued with wisdom and became a comfort to all Israel Solomon in all qualities the wisest of all none was ever like him among the sons of men And we may consider his birth David after he had composed the 51 Psalm in 〈◊〉 for his sins God bles'd him with this seed So that it is not generation but regeneration w ch is to be respected not the brutish appetite but the propagation of Gods Church which is principally to be regarded in begetting of children and the nurture and bringing them up being born in the fear of the Lord for there are other generations mentioned by Solomon of which parents can have little comfort if the end be neglected Now for the duty of children answering this they cannot paralel that of the parents in this point for the father begets the son the son cannot beget the father quoniam nisi per eos non fuissent because they had not had their being but for their fathers Therefore because they cannot perform any duty answerable to that of their parents in their procreation they must honour them as instruments of their being both by hearkning to their instruction as the Wise man counsels Hearken to the instruction of thy father and 〈◊〉 not the law of thy mother and by honouring them tanquam 〈◊〉 The father must be honoured in what low condition or estate soever he be We see the disobedient son called his father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir or Lord. And the obedient son like wise professed how obedient and dutiful he had been to his father for many years though he had not done so much for him as for his prodigall brother Wicked Absalom coming to his father bowed himself on his face to the ground and King Solomon rose up and bowed to his mother And the reason why they are to perform the greatest honour to them next after God is because the greatest part of excellency is esse causam to be a cause of our being Now if any shall be so far gone as to reject his parents as ashamed at them or mock at his father and despise to obey his mother if he look with a scornful eye or with a crabbed countenance if he do vultu laedere pietatem mark what punishment the Wise man saith shall be fall such The ravens of the valley shall pick out his eyes and the young eagles shall eat them We may see this in the heavy punishment of Cham for deriding his father Noah a great curse was laid upon him The curse reached not onely to himself but to all his posterity being cast out of Gods favour for the blessings both of this life and the life to come If any shall go further and give evil language and reproach or curse them His lamp shall be put out in obscure darknesse that is he is filius mortis but a dead man It was Gods will by a special law enacted by him in this very case and much more he deserves to die if he be one that smites father or mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a person was accounted by the very Heathen to be a greater malefactor then a murderer of others 2. The second duty of parents is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to nourish them continually as the word signifies and not as beasts for a moneths space They are not onely to take heed of procuring abortive births which was a capital crime under the Law but if after the birth there be expositio an exposing of the childe to the world which Hagar was about to do when she cast the childe under a tree the bottle of water being spent if the Angel had not recalled her If through negligence it happen to die as the womans son which was overlaid in the night or if it come to be lame or to lose any limb as Mephibosheth who was lame of his feet by a fall of his nurse it is a sin contrary to that duty which parents owe to their children for nature teacheth every one to nourish their own flesh as the Apostle hath it which is implyed in that which he urgeth in another place of providing for their family and not be so unnatural as when they ask them bread to give them a stone which our Saviour counted an unnatural thing Not is this nourishment all that is required of them but they must also provide for them for the future according to that of the Apostle Children lay not up for the parents but parents for the children There is an inheritance mentioned under the law If a man be not able to leave an inheritance or means when he dies he must take order to leave him an Art which as S. Augustine saith is all one with an inheritance In the choice and fitting the children to which the discretion of the father must discern and judge of the 〈◊〉 of his children to what art or profession they are most apt and fit by nature as Jacob did when he 〈◊〉 his sons with this proviso 〈◊〉 that they allot not the 〈◊〉 to God who in his Law commanded the first-born to be sanctified to him which Hannah performed in her vow of Samuel The duty of a childe answerable to this is remuneratio requital of benefits This the Apostle 〈◊〉
great benefit to them for when he himself had received the seal of the covenant the Sacrament of Circumcision the very same day he made all his servants partakers of it So that though their bodies were in subjection their sculs were made free and were set at liberty by it and therefore it was a good exchange for them And in this respect it was that it was prohibited the Jews to take any bond-servants of the Isiaelites but out of the heathen that thereby more might be brought into Gods covenant Afterwards this kinde of service was established upon other respects which drew Godly men to it and made it lawful for though that other servitude by war whereby one is forced to be a servant may be unjust so that such servants if they can escape they may with a safe conscience especially when they are taken in an unjust war and have not bound themselves by a free promise as those that are slaves to the Turkes yet no doubt but a man may by his voluntary Covenant make himself a servant and this Covenant binds him as Jacob was by covenant to serve Laban seven years for his wife and seven years for sheep and cattel Thus in 〈◊〉 of poverty a man may make himself a servant that he may have a subsistence and in case of ignorance he may serve to learne an art or trade it being all one as was said before to have an art and to have a portion and thus did God allow servants among the Jews even of their brethren And thus came service into the world first by the justice of God as a punishment of sinne though afterwards this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Gods goodnes become a benefit and vseful for mankinde and therefore God hath taken order for duties to be performed both by Masters and Servants In general the Apostle speaking of servants requires every man to abide in that vocation wherein he is called and at the 21. Verse he comes to speak of servants and gives this rule art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free vse it rather yet let it not trouble thee be willing to heare the yoke of this service A servant if he be a Christian is the Lords freeman 1. Cor. 7. 22. And Jew and Gentile bond and free are all one in Christ. Gal 3. 28. They that do service to their masters in the Lord therein serve the Lord who hath placed them in that calling yea though the masters were not beleeving yet they must think them worthy of all honour and obedience Yet in the Epistle to Philemon Saint Paul having sent Onesimus whom he had converted back to his master Philemon whose servant he was and from whom he had run away he exhorts his master to receive him now not as a servant 〈◊〉 above a servant as a brother beloved c. Shewing the unfitnes and inequality of that servitude introduced at first by war among beleevers and hence it was that as the Gospel prevailed in any kingdom because Christians were all brethren and among the Jews none were forced to be bondmen to their brethren therefore this state of bondmen began to weare out and vanish among Christians though the other two services by nature and covenant still remained Now for the particular duties of master and servant and first of the Master 1. The first is that he have artem 〈◊〉 Skill in governing art to enjoyne his servants what they should do This Skil the fathers have placed and limited to these four heads His commandments must be 1. Lawful 2. Possible 3. Profitable 4. Proportionable to their abilitie 1. They must be lawful according to the will of God as the Apostle speaks No obedience must be commanded preposterous for as there is Pater in Coelis as well as in terris a Heavenly and an Earthly father so ther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Masters according to the flesh and according to the spirit as Saint Paul distinguishes a master in Heaven as well as masters on earth a spiritual as a temporal master and the last ought not to command any thing derogatory to the first for if he depart out of his line his series therein he is not to be obeyed we have an example of this in Joseph who refused to performe the command of his Mistris when she tempted him to lie with her How can I do this and sin against God not against 〈◊〉 but against God And therefore Davids conditions with his servants were that they that were to be his servants must lead a godly life and walk in a perfect way This is to be observed for we see that in the worship of God the fourth Commandment requires obedience from the master as well as the servant Thou and thy servant it makes them pares in this the servant hath an interest as well as the master and the master no priviledge or exemption in Gods worship above the servant Though they be subordinate and under one another in the Civil society yet in respect of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Heavenly Commonwealth they are both equal 2. Their Commandments must not onely be lawful but possible too A thing may be lawful yet not possible for a servant to effect The command of Abraham to his servant to get a wife for his son was lawful but the servant wisely objected to his master how if she will not come and therefore Abraham in that case acquits him in these words If the woman will not be willing to follow thee then thou shalt be cleare of this oath 3 Their commands ought to be profitable or useful not vain and impertinent It is said that David being in war against the Philistims longed for water in Bethlehem and it could not be obtained but by breaking through the host of his enemies Now there were three of his host so ready upon this bare intimation of his desire which they took for a kinde of command that they ventured through the enemies camp and brought him water but he considering what an unprofitable thing he had commanded and how dangerous also because there was no profit in it and yet it was gotten with the price of blood would not drink it but powred it out before the Lord acknowledging thereby that it had been better he had 〈◊〉 disobeyed 4. They must be proportionable that nothing be commanded above his servants strength above that which they are able to do nor any thing that is prejudicial to their health or at unseasonable times It was a great fault in Pharoah and his Taskmasters to enjoyne the Israelites their tale of bricks which was hard enough of it self for they were opprest with that but a greater it was to force them to performe that and yet they must finde straw themselves which was wont to be brought to them The 〈◊〉 duty answerable to this consists of two
parts 1. fide in faith or fidelity 2. Prudentia discretion Both these vertues are joyned together by our Saviour in that question who is a faithful and wise servant whom his master may make vuler over his houshold c. 1. The command of the master is to be performed faithfully the servant must frame himself thereto The Heathen man could say that he which is a servant is totus alterius wholly his whom he serveth Whatsoever he is able to do he must do it for his masters good The fathers upon the words of our Saviour No man can serve to masters give this for one reason of that speech Quia servi officium est infinitum Because the servants duty is infinite It is as much as he can do to serve one master as he should and he is totus heri wholly that masters whom he serves also his time all his strength is his masters and he cannot divide it to another He shall work all day in the field and at night his service is not ended the master saith not to the servant gird thy self and dresse thine own supper but gird thy self and make ready my supper and serve me according to the example of Abrahams servant who though he had travelled far and had meat set before him yet he would not eat till he had done his masters busines Opposite to this faithfulnes in a servant are two ill qualities 1. Purloyning 2 Lying For which servants heare ill in the Comedian 1. Saint Bernard saith De Domini substantia ne 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 sed transeant per te ne aliquid haereat in digitis Let not thy masters goods passe from but by thee left something stick to thy fingers This purloyning is utterly condemned by the Apostle And so is wasting of that which is committed to a servants charge and the ordinary means of it is set down by our Saviour eating drinking and keeping ill company 2. The other opposite is lying We see that the false suggestion of Ziba was very prejudic al to his Master Mephibosheth and though the first lie of Gehazi which he made to Naaman got him somewhat yet the last to his Master Elisha brought a leprosy upon him and his 〈◊〉 ever The Prophet tells us that God will destroy all them that speak leazing And therefore he would keep no servant in his house that should tell lies There are three other opposites from which the Apostles S. Paul and S. Peter would have servants free 1. Slothfulnesse 2. unwillingnesse 3. eye-service 1. And the first of these is a part of the first unfaithfulnesse 〈◊〉 he that is idle not faithful in using all his strength and mispending his time is a kinde of robbery And therefore it is that S. Paul counsels men not to be slothful in businesse The Heathen man would not have a servant to be glis a 〈◊〉 but acurate agere to do their work accuratcly as the word in Hebrew imports they must follow Jacobs example in his service The sleep departed from his eyes he could not sleep for the care he had to his Masters businesse as the careful woman that lets not her candle go out that is she sits up late upon action to do her Master service And therefore we know that the Master called that servant evil and flothfull that used not his talent well To 〈◊〉 up this take the Wise mans judgement upon both diligent and slothful The hand of the diligent shall bear rule but the slothful shall be under tribute 2. The second thing that a servant should be free from is an unwillingnesse to do his duty For there are some that serve indeed but how they serve with an ill will and so do their work by halves And in so doing they do very unwisely for seeing that serve they must it bing not every mans 〈◊〉 to be a Master they were better to do it cheerfully then to be forced to it and so lose their just reward and commendation Therefore it ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a cheerful will and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the heart as the Apostle counselleth as if they served the Lord not being responsores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerers again or replying or giving word for word but be like the Centurions servant that when his Master said to him do this and he did it 3. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-service or a deceitful diligence which must be far from servants Not to do their work but while their master stands over them and no longer assoon as their Masters back is turned then to give over This the Apostle calls eye-service and condemns it exhorting servants to obey with singlenesse of heart 〈◊〉 fearing God and he gives diverse reasons for it as that they shall by this means adorn the Gospel and that they shall receive from the Lord according to what they do whether they be bond or free and lastly that besides their reward by 〈◊〉 with their Master they shall by their hearty service receive the reward of an inheritance in heaven So much of their sidelity Now to their discretion 2. The Philosopher makes a distinction of two sorts of servants one that can do nothing but what his Master dictates him can go no further then he is directed and the other that hath forecast in himself to know what is to be done and can prevent his Masters commandments The first are but as lippi oculi blear eyes and but that they must see by them their Masters had as good be without such as have them The other are such as the Psalmist speaks of their eyes are upon their Masters hands they can perceive to what their Masters will enclineth to they know their Masters will and what he is best pleased with and what his humour is most enclined to And though he have this wit yet if either with him that had the Talent and knew his Masters humour he neglecteth to do his businesse or with the wicked Steward he employ his wit to his own advantage and not to his Masters benefit in either of these cases he breaks the rule of obedience They follow not the examples of prudent servants such as were Jacob to Laban and Joseph to 〈◊〉 they do not prudenter with discretion It is said of Joseph that all he did prospered under his hands The Hebrew word is significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prudenter egit or 〈◊〉 intelligentia he did all with prudence and wisdom and so all prospered for of wisdom comes prospering and therefore the same word signifies both 2. The 2 d rule or duty of the Master is not to govern aspere 〈◊〉 or rigerously but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to justice and equity It was Gods command under the law to Masters Thou shalt not rule over thy servants with rigour and
be made where is that judgment we look for And if wholly upon the godly we should be apt to say 〈◊〉 non respicit nos God regards us not his providence failes And therefore to let us see that his providence continues he will give to his children some good things here and to let us know that he hath judgement in store he imparts some of them to the wicked Nor will he bestow all upon the ungodly because then they would be 〈◊〉 to conceive that they were not at Gods dispose but would sacrifice to their own net and attribute all to outward means nor all upon his children lest the devil and his instruments say as he did concerning Job doth Job serve God for nought But how then shall we acquit God of injustice and how is his promise of long life to them that honour their superiours performed 1. The distinction of bene and male will acquit him A promise must carry a benefit with it if not it were better to be without it then to have it Now long life without that blessing of going well with a man is a displeasure It is the comfort and delight which we enjoy in our life which is here promised as a blessing For Saint Augustine saith non est vera vita ubi non seliciter vivitur that cannot be called a true life which brings not content and happines with it Eliah being persecuted by Jexebel thought his life not a benefit and therefore quits God of his promise Now O Lord take away my life And indeed long life may be no benefit in two respects 1. In regard of the evil times 〈◊〉 was a good king but the times began to be evil Jerusalem was 〈◊〉 long to be destroyed Therefore Huldah the prophetesse sends him word that God would gather him to his fathers and that he should go to his grave in peace and his eyes should not see the evil that God would bring upon that city God shortned his dayes to free him from a further evil he being but 39 years old when he died 2. In regard of himself lest he should be corrupted The righteous is taken away from the evil to come It is said that 〈◊〉 was raptus a facie malitiae taken away from seeing wickednes lest either he should have been infected or grieved at it and so the pleasure of his long life here would have been a displeasure to him by the danger of eternal death 2. The second answer is to that which is secondly objected that though God takes them out of this life in these respects yet the compensation is more then equivalent he makes them amends and that fully For as when 〈◊〉 promised 〈◊〉 half his kingdom if he had given her all it had been no breach of promise in him so 〈◊〉 God give to those that honour their parents vitam perpetuam everlasting life instead of 〈◊〉 a long life he performes his promise to the full so he that promises ten pieces of silver and gives ten pieces of gold and he that promiseth an hogshed of beer and giveth as much wine breaks not his promise 3. But the 〈◊〉 and most sufficient answer is this There is no temporal thing that doth cadere in promissum Dei come within Gods promise further then it shall be conducing to the life to come for this life is but via ad vitam the way to the other and better life And therefore whatsoever God promiseth in the way it is but as it furthereth to the end 〈◊〉 pars perfectae 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 foelicitas earthly felicity is no happines unlesse it dispose us to eternal felicity because as it was said before all things must 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 work together for good 〈◊〉 it a disponatur de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the lesse blessings may be so disposed that they may agree with the chief good or at least ne periculum fiat de maximo the greatest good may not be hazarded by it And in this respect it is certain that as it is not prejudicial to the life to come God keepeth his promise Therefore as one saith our lives may be ventured pro Rege lege grege for the King the law the flock 1. Pro Rege for the king Thus when David was in danger of being stain by 〈◊〉 Benob one of the sons of the Giants 〈◊〉 hazarded his own life to save Davids and so rescued David and slew the Philistim 2. Pro lege for religion For thy sake saith the prophet we are killed all the day long Contend earnestly for the common faith saith Saint Jude 3. Pro grege As the prophets were examples so must we In these cases if a man should be desirous of life he may live but this life will prove derogatory to the life to come But if in the same cases we shall lose our lives God doth not onely reward us with 〈◊〉 the life of glory in the other world but with vita memoriae we shall have an everlasting memory and honour in this world The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance saith the father and the memory of the just is blessed saith the son and men shall say Praised be the Lord that ever such a man was born and say 〈◊〉 mortuus est iste how bravely died such a man Now 〈◊〉 are some reasons also why God prolongeth the lives of the ungodly and though they cannot expect it by vertue of his promise as the godly may for no promise is made to the wicked 1. To give them time to repent that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil as the Apostle speaks And this we see in Saint Paul by his conversion and the not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Solomon when he had forsaken God and followed strange women and false Gods was the cause sine qua non of his returning to God 2. Secondly God hath thereby a respect to the progenie of the wicked If God had cut of 〈◊〉 while he had been yong good Josiah had not been born and if Ahaz had not been suffered to live 〈◊〉 had been lost 3. Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked 〈◊〉 to live that they may be rods and scouges for the exercise and 〈◊〉 of his Church The prophet in the person of God calls Ashur the rod of his anger 4. The last reason may serve as an universal 〈◊〉 God 〈◊〉 such men to live long to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long suffering by his patience and long suffering The Apostle 〈◊〉 the same when he saith what if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath But as the Prophet tells them God will not suffer them to escape for ever 1. The godly shall come out and look upon their carkasses and in the meane time they shall be but as condemned persons nay they shall condemn
disability of the party for as God in this case accepts of a willing minde so oughtman but this excuses onely so long as he is not able 2. The cession or giving up of all his estate to satisfie his Creditors this frees him by the Civil Law provided that if he be able afterward he satisfie to the full 3. The expresse or tacit consent of the Creditor provided that this forgiving be 1. by him that hath lawful authority 2. that it be free and not extorted 4. When the present restitution might endanger a mans life or damnifie him more then the other should have benefit thereby this for a time may be a just cause to defer restitution 5. Ignorance not of the Law of restitution for this noman ought to be ignorant of and if he be he ought not to take advantage by his own negligence but of the fact when a man knows not that he hath damnified another provided it be not grosse 〈◊〉 wilful and affected ignorance 6. If there be a compensation made to the party wronged some other way either by moneys commodities in trading c. or by something equivalent to the damage this frees him in foro conscientiae The larger explication of these particulars must be had from the Casuists CHAP. VIII Of the second general viz. unjust keeping The right use of riches is 1. in respect of a mans self the sins opposite 1. Parsimony 2. prodigality two degrees of it 1. to spend unreasonably 2. Above ones means 2. Inrespect of others viz. the poor where we are to know two things 1. How we hold our riches or by what tenure 2. What we are to conceive of the poor A threefold necessity 1. of nature 2. of our person 3. of our estate and condition Several motives to communicate to the poor HItherto we have spoken of the right getting of riches which is when we have not encreased our estate either by detaining from others that which is none of ours or by taking away from others that which they have right to but want power to retain or by that which they call generatio pecuniae the encrease of money by usury when our gettings are by none of these wayes then are we just Lords and owners of what we have It is well said 〈◊〉 justitia est condus ibi Christus est Dominus where justice is the layerup there Christ is Lord of those goods and of such we have a good tenure but the devil is the Lord of what is got otherwise S. Augustine upon the parable of the seed saith that worldly gains are thorns and a thorn non 〈◊〉 sine laesione is not gathered without danger of 〈◊〉 it may run into ones hands and hereupon comes that proverb Omnis dives iniquus aut haeres iniqui every rich man is either an unjust man or the heir of an unjust man But now when a mans estate is justly got then in the next place he is to take care about the use of it which is the second thing to be considered This use respects either a mans self or others Of the first the Wise man speaks when he saith that all the labour of a man is for his mouth that is for his own necessities Of the second the Apostle when he exhorts the Corinthians to be rich in liberality by considering the necessities of others He offends against the first who when God hath given him riches wealth and honour so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desireth yet God gives him not the power to rule thereof but a stranger eateth it this is vanity and an evil disease And he offends against the second who looks onely at himself and wants bowels of compassion to wards others These two uses are both comprehended by Solomon in two verses Drink waters of thy own cistern there is our own use and then what follows let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the street here is the use of others The Apostle speaks of a double sowing answerable to this two fold use of riches a sowing to the flesh and a sowing to the spirit whether it be propter piosusus ecclesiasticos for pious uses that concern the Church and the Ministery or propter usus civiles for pious uses which concern the Common-wealth as the relief of the poor c. Both uses may be best and plainlyest seen in Christs practise who when he bade Judas dispatch the rest thought that because he bore the bag that Christs meaning was either that he should he buy such things as were needful that is for their own use or else that he should give something to the poor which is the second use so that by the words of the Disciples it appears that those were the two uses of our Saviours purse first to provide things needful for themselves and secondly to contribute to the necessities others of these two uses we are now to speak severally For the first use which concerns our selves we must know that here is a double extream to be avoided 1. Niggardlinesse or parsimony 2. Profusenesse or prodigality 1. For the first of these As a man may kill himself and thereby become felo de se and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncleannesse may be committed with a mans self so there may be furtum in se theft against a mans self for as the Preacher saith there is one alone c. for whom do I labour and bereave or defraud my self of good quare defraudo animam meam 〈◊〉 is a fraud and theft committed against a mans self S. James tells such men their doom Their rust shall be a witnesse against them and shall eat their flesh as it were fire upon which place S. Ambrose saith Esurentium est cibus c. it is the bread of the hungry that grows mouldy by thee and the drink of the thirsty that sowres by thee so that he is guilty of a double theft against himself and against the poor Of this man by the consent of Interpreters 〈◊〉 the Prophet Hosea when he saith that he soweth to the winde and reaps the whirlwinde the stranger shall reap the fruit of his labours The common plague of this sin as the Heathen man observed is that Quod profunda hausit avaritia when the prosound avarice of one hath gathered much together there shall come another qui luxu pejore retundet whose profuse vanity shall scatter it And the hand of the Lord is often upon such men by disappointing them of their ends for wherea their sparing is either 1. that they may enjoy their riches in their latter dayes when they are old as the rich fool in the Gospel who said Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry thou hast much goods laid up for many years c. God disappoints them as it is in the next verse this night they shall take
and temporal Preservers of kingdoms Humane laws and policies not sufficient without a teaching priest c. examples in diverse monarchies and kingdoms COncerning whom we know that God hath said of him that he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts he is appointed by God to stand between God and man and Saint Paul saith of himself and other ministers of God that they are the Ambassadors of Christ to deliver Gods message to men of all sorts aswell to the highest Prince as to the lowest of the people They are sent with a commission they come not of themselves mittam te I will send thee saith God to Moses and vade ad populum go to the people saith God to Esay And this custome of sending by commission was continued by Christ and his Apostles and by their successors in all ages of the Church As my Father sent me so send I you saith Christ to his Apostles And though God by the Prophet calleth these 〈◊〉 thus sent his own mouth and that the message they deliver to us is not 〈◊〉 own but Gods yet it falleth out with them oft times as with the day and 〈◊〉 they are disesteemed and neglected 〈◊〉 as in former times wicked Princes thought meanly of them as that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but to burn in cense and make ready sacrifices and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appointed to their office the lowest of the people such as would fill their hands insomuch as the Priests office grew into contempt in like 〈◊〉 there are now some that think the office of a minister of God to be nothing but the reading of a few prayers and going up into a pulpit and speaking there an hour which some do without sence or reason and without any reverence or regard to the dignity of the worke and high place to which they are called Therefore God himself takes order for procuring the more honour to the calling and that for the peoples good that they shall not onely teach and instruct the people set Jacob to school and learn Israel his lesson but they shall teach even kings and princes themselves they must give Joshua his charge and the highest on earth must not 〈◊〉 to be directed and instructed by them in things concerning God and their own salvation Princes have need of such to assist them as in other acts of government so especially in matters of religion and in particular for sanctifying the Lords day They may by their statutes and penall laws enjoyne the external rest on that day but the works of sanctification wherein the celebration of the day chiefly consists are the proper work of the priest he it is that must teach the Laws of God which reach to the soul and inward man It is the duty of Princes who are custodes utriusque tabulae keepers of both tables 〈◊〉 they cannot perform the work of sanctification themselves to take care that fit persons be provided and encouraged in this work It s true if a Prince were onely as the Heathen man said Tanquam subulcus like a herdsman that keepeth cattel to take care of mens bodies and of their outward estate onely and that they wrong not one another by fraud or force and had no charge of mens souls nor of Religion he might neglect this work but seeing it is otherwise and that the care of the Church is committed to him and that the soul is the principal part therefore it his duty to see that fit and able persons be provided for this work such as may be Doctores Gentium Teachers of the Nations Therefore God would not have such as were to do his work to be chosen ex tumultuario grege out of the common people hand over head but out of those that had been trained up in the knowledge of the Law for which purpose they had their several Schools or Universities as at * Kirjath-Sepher ‖ Ramoth-Sophim and †Naioth Nor were they to do Gods work till they were well studied and able to give reasons for that they did or said by Gods own order they were under the law to be from thirty years old and upward to do the work in the Tabernacle of the congregation And as good care was to be taken in the choice of them so ought there be as great in the cherishing and esteem of them To esteem them very highly in love for their worke sake As Saint Paul speaketh We should receive them as Angels of God as the Galatians did Saint Paul and cleave to them as his Auditours did to him and use them as honorably and as with as much respect as Princes receive and entertain forreign Ambassadors otherwise they will neither profit us we shall receive no benefit by them nor they be encouraged to go on cheerfully in their calling Besides which is worst of all if we disesteem of them and despise them God will take it as an affront done to himself He that despiseth you saith Christ despiseth me It is a despight done to God not to the minister onely and God will take it to heart and avenge his own quarrel Corah and the rest that murmured against Gods servants felt his heavy indignation for it Miriam Moses own sister was made a Leper for the like offence we see what became of them that scorned Elisha though their age might have pleaded some excuse for them And not to trouble you with many presidents it is said of the Jews that they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words how long until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy But it is objected what if the minister be of bad life and conversation we finde that those that were polluted were put from the Priesthood To this we answer many times it falls out that either for a small cause or sometime upon no just one the Minister may be accounted scandalous If the offence be given really and that without hope of the parties reclaiming that gives it there is a legal course yet with charity to be taken against him the censures of the Church must be exercised against him but in the mean time we must carry a fair respect to them for his sake by whom they are sent for the word we hear of them is not the word of men but of God Health is not refused though it come to us by the prescription of a sick man Elias refused not his food though brought to him by Ravens Nor was Christs almes one jote the worse though distributed by the hands of Judas Indeed it cannot be 〈◊〉 that Gods intent was to have them all lights all holy for he brought them neer to himself and therefore are called men of God they should be like the Baptist burning and shining lights and if we well consider the work they are to undergo we shall finde
they had need to be both holy and well qualified 1. They are to stand between the Lord and his people to shew them his word and what he required them to do 2. They are not onely to read it but to instruct them in it to make men wise to salvation and not onely the common people but the king also as was shewed before 3. They are to blesse the people in the name of the Lord. 4. They are to offer prayers to God for them upon all occasions as 1. In time of Pestilence when the plague raged among them 2. in time of war when the enemy threatened their destruction 3. In time of famine when the land yeelded not increase 4. In time of sicknes not onely for the life of the King or Prince bnt also when sicknesse laied hold on private men And lastly 5. They wereto be instead of Captains to encourage the people their souldiers to fight manfully and to resist the assaults of the Devill their Ghostly enemy these and many other things belong to the priests function Now as the Apostle speaks who is sufficient for these things surely if he that was so plentifully endued with the spirit of God doubted of his own sufficiency what may we in these times when many take liberty without the emission the Apostle had to themselves unsent to undertake this high calling certainly great care ought to be taken by those in authority especially by the Church governours that none should performe this office of themselves and that they who are ordained be able to undergo so great a work For if they that fight against us were onely bodily enemies as French and Spaniards there were no such great need of such men but seeing that as the Apostle tells us we are to fight a spiritual combat we must combat with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore such are necessary as can oppose spiritual wickednes such are Currus Aurigae Israelis the charriots and horsemen of Israel who must beat back this spiritual host The holy Ghost hath left it upon record that the life of 〈◊〉 the priest and his wisdom were the means to keep both king and people from Idolatry and consequently the whole kingdom from destruction And as the 〈◊〉 tells us that in his time the want of knowledge brought the foundations of the earth both of Church and commonwealth out of frame al humane laws were defective So as the wise man speaketh it is wisdome and knowledge of Gods law which is to be sought at the priests mouth that doth servare gregem ab interitu preserve the people from perishing And where there is no vision the people decay For if we will look backward into the estate of mighty commonwealthes we shall finde that though the wisdome and policy of them have been great for want of Prophets and priests to reclaim the vices of the soul they have all fallen to decay As fi st in the Assyrian monarchy what was the ruin of it but Gluttony and intemperance which brought diseased bodies and weaknes and Adultery which bred bastardslip as the prophet speaks and mingling of kindreds where by the Empire was translated out of the right line and so ruined and all this for want of good instruction Again looke into the 〈◊〉 monarchy and you shall see that Idlenes neglect of tillage mechanick arts and merchandise every one thereby becoming 〈◊〉 a gentleman caused the ruin of that Empire Nor did the Grecian Monarchy come to its period till Alexander for want of knowing God would himself be reputed a God and till his successours fell to covetousnesse whereby a needles dearth fell upon it and the greater began to oppresse the inferiour and the Prince to burthen his subjects And Lastly the Roman Monarchy came to that we see it is at this day from the most flourishing of all the former by their own pride envy emulation and heart-burning And these miseries befel al these four Monarchies by reason of these vices which the laws of God would not have suffered if there had been any to teach them and the laws of the Heathen could not correct If we come to our own nation in the time of the Brittains the often and frequent wrongs and injuries of great persons the perverting of the Laws which were made to be Cobwebs to catch onely the small flies while the great ones break through The Corruptions of Lawyers maintaining causes and suits for their fee by which the land was overrun with oppression Gods law being not heard in the mean time brought destruction upon the land Nor is it possible by any Act of Parliament Law or Statute to provide or take order that a man shall not be covetous or that there be no Idlenesse Ryot Pride Envy or the like sins in the soul though these as is said were the chief causes that these Monarchies and other Countryes came to destruction For Sobriety and all vertues must be begotten in the minde and that by such persons as shall be able to reach and instill them out of the Law of God otherwise politick justice will never continue among men Civil Acts are of no force except Religion be joyned with them We read that in the time of the Judges every man did that which was good in his own eyes Men could assure themselves of nothing they possessed Six hundred men of Dan came into Micahs house and took away his graven Image his Ephod his molten Image his Teraphim and his Priest And in the next Chapter what an unheard of example of lust have we and all this is attributed to the want of knowledge of Gods Law in those dayes And when the Priesthood was setled and they had a Judge yet the Children of Israel were brought under the yoak of the Philistins because that calling was corrupted by Hophni and Phinees the sons of Eli. In the time of the kings of Israel when that kingdome had been diverse years without the true God and without the Priest to teach the law in no nation can be found seaven such notable changes in so short a time as you may read in the book of the kings and this was ascribed to the want of the priest and the Law of God Therefore it was before that time the wish and desire of Moses that all the Lords people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit up-them And this was the desire of Saint Paul too that they could speak all with tongues but rather that all al could prophecie we see by experience that our adversaries take occasion to invade us in those places where the people are least instructed and most ignorant in the word of God All manner of sinne most aboundeth where least care is taken for their instruction in the wayes of God and the knowledge of his Laws It is our