the Lord blessed the * or Sabbath day seventh day and hallowed it PART I. The Contents The general Design of the Fourth Commandment the setting apart a Portion of our Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one The particular Duties either suh as appertain to the Substance of the Precept or such as are onely Circumstances thereof Of the former sort are 1. The Worshipping of God in private and by our selves the Morality whereof is evidenced from the particular Obligation each individual Person hath to the Divine Majesty 2. The Worshipping of him in consort with others which is also at large establish'd upon Principles of Nature and Christianity 3. The setting apart a Time for the more solemn performance of each As without which Religious Duties will be either omitted or carelesly perform'd but to be sure no Publick Worship can be because Men cannot know when they shall meet in order to it 4. Such a Rest from our ordinary Labours as will give us the leisure to intend them and free us from distraction in the performance of them BEING now to enter upon the Fourth Commandment about the Nature whereof there hath been so much Contention in the Church of England I cannot forbear to say There is all the reason in the World to believe it to be Moral in the main as having a place among those Commandments which contain nothing in them which is not confessedly Moral But because when we come to understand its general Design and particular Precepts we shall be much better able to judge whether or no and how far the Matter thereof is Moral I will without more ado apply my self to the investigation of them and shew to what Duties it oblig'd Now the general Design of this Fourth Commandment is the setting apart a Portion of our Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one That it designs the setting apart some Portion of our Time the very Words of the Commandment shew as not onely acquainting us with God's sanctifying a Seventh part but obliging the Jews in conformity thereto to rest from their ordinary Labours and observe it as holy unto the Lord. The onely difficulty is Whether it designs the setting apart of that Time for the Worship of God and particularly for the Publick one For the proof of the former part whereof though I cannot say we have the same clearness of Evidence from the Letter of the Commandment it self yet I shall not scruple to affirm That it may be inferr'd from thence by necessary consequence and not onely be prov'd to be a part of the Precept but the principal one For how is that day kept as holy which hath nothing holy performed in it Or what reference can it have to God as the Word holy implies where God is not at all honour'd in it Neither will it suffice to say That the very Resting on that day is of it self a Consecration of it unto God For as it becomes a Consecration onely by the Parties so resting in compliance with the Command and Ends of God so it supposeth at least that they should on that day order their Thoughts to him and rest from their ordinary Labours in contemplation of his Command and in remembrance of his resting from that great Work of the Creation Again Though to rest from their ordinary Labours especially as was before understood were a kind of devoting it unto God yet there being other and more acceptable ways of keeping it holy than by a simple Rest from them it is but reasonable to think when God caution'd the Jews so to remember it he design'd no less to be honour'd other ways Lastly Forasmuch as God not onely commanded to keep it holy but in this very Precept represents it as his own * But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God as in Isaiah ‖ Isa 58.13 under the Title of his holy day and the holy of the Lord he thereby manifestly implies that it should be dedicated to his Worship and not onely not be profan'd by ordinary Service but hallowed by his own For how is it God's Holy day but by being dedicated to his Service or how observ'd as such but by giving him his proper Service in it Whence it is that where the Prophet Isaiah gives it those Elogies he insers our honouring him from them as well as the not pleasuring of our selves Though therefore so much be not directly and in terminis express'd yet it is clearly enough imply'd that God design'd his own Honour and Service in it and commanded it to be set apart for the performance of it Lastly As God design'd the setting apart of a certain Time for his own Worship so more especially for the Publick one Of which though there be no Indication in the Commandment it self yet there is proof sufficient in the 23d Chapter of Levitious where we find not onely the forementioned Rest required but the day it self appointed for an holy Convocation as you may see ver 2. of that Chapter And accordingly though the Jews did generally look no farther than the Letter of the Law and some of them as is probable here content themselves with an outward Rest as by which they thought to satisfie the Commandment yet the generality of them have in all times look'd upon the Service of God as the End for which they were commanded to keep the Sabbath For thus Josephus in his second Book against Appion tells us Thorndike of Religious Assemblies ch 2. where this of Josephus and that of Philo are quoted That Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary Learning of the Law not by hearing it once or twice but every seventh day laying aside their Works he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law and throughly and exactly to learn it As in like manner Philo in his Third Book of the Life of Moses That the Custom was always when occasion gave way but principally on the seventh day to be exercis'd in Knowledge the Chief going before and teaching the rest increasing in goodness and bettering in Life and Manners I will conclude this Particular with that of St. James Acts 15.21 where to fortifie his Opinion concerning the prohibiting of Blood to the Gentile Christians he alledgeth for a Reason That Moses had in old time them that preach'd him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day From all which put together it is evident that the Service of God and particularly the Publick one was the Thing designed in this Commandment The Jews themselves who were none of the most quick-sighted being able to discern it and accordingly both of old and in latter days framing their Practice after it The general Design of the Commandment being thus unfolded proceed we to the Particular Things under Command which for my more orderly proceeding in this Affair I will rank under two Heads to wit 1. Such as appertain to
AN EXPLICATION OF THE DECALOGUE OR Ten Commandments WITH REFERENCE TO THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND To which are premised by way of Introduction Several GENERAL DISCOURSES concerning GOD'S both NATURAL and POSITIVE LAWS By Gabriel Towerson sometimes Fellow of All-Souls College in Oxford and now Rector of Wellwyn in Hertfordshire Philo in Praefat. ad Librum de Decalogo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΔΙ ' ΑΥΤΟΥ ΜΟÎΟΥ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ÎΟΜΟΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΠΟΜΩΠ〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΔΙΑ ΤΟΥΠΡΟΦΗΤΟ Î¥ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΕΠ' ΕΚΕΙÎΟΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Macock for John Martyn at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXVI TO The Most Reverend FATHER in God GILBERT By Divine Providence LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. May it please Your Grace I Have here attempted an Explication of that part of our Church-Catechism which respects the Decalogue or Ten Commandments Not out of any great opinion of mine own Abilities for such an undertaking of which they who know me know me to be sufficiently diffident but out of a due sense of the want of a just Discourse upon this Argument which by no Man that I know of hath been handled according to its worth It was once in my thoughts to have suppressed it till I could have finished an Explication of the whole Catechism as conceiving that that would have been more compleat and more acceptable to the World But considering with my self that it would require some time to revise what I have already done and much more to add to and perfect it and since what is now offered to Your Grace and with Your Graces Leave to the Publick view also is entire enough if I have acquitted my self in it as I ought I thought I should no way disoblige my Readers if I sent this part of it before the rest to try the Judgment of the World Especially since it is not impossible but that I may entertain a better opinion of my own Labours than they shall be found by more competent Judges to deserve If any thing may seem with Reason to make such a procedure improper it is that I have referr'd my self to those Parts that are not yet published for the proof of some things asserted here But as it is only for such things as have been abundantly proved by others and which therefore especially in loco non suo I might the better wave the confirmation of so they are for the most part if not only such as by the Laws of Discourse are to be supposed by all that will entreat of this Argument However if what is now tendred find acceptance that blot shall not long lye upon it and if not the imperfectness thereof will be the most pardonable quality of my Discourse or at least will be more excusable than my troubling the World with more In this Treatise I have endeavoured out of that heap which so copious a subject presents to select such matter as is most considerable and pertinent to deliver my sense concerning it in proper and intelligible expressions and lastly to confirm that by solid Reasons For other things I have not been much sollicitous and much less as Solomon speaks to find out acceptable words as conceiving such more proper to perswade than inform which is or ought to be the Design of an Explication If any taking occasion from this rude Discourse of mine shall oblige the World with a more perfect one he shall find me among the foremost to return him thanks for it Both because of the benefit I shall reap in common with others from it and also because I shall have the satisfaction of considering that if I have not been my self so fortunate in Explaining the Ten Commandments yet I have stirred up those that are and thereby have fulfilled a Commandment the observation whereof is of more advantage than the most accurate Explication of them all In the mean time as I hope these my Labours will not be altogether unuseful so I lay them at Your Grace's feet as a Recognition of those many favours You have been pleased to confer upon me and of that Duty I owe to the Church of England for the safe-guard whereof as Your Grace hath with great prudence and conduct happily presided in an Age wherein You have met with more than ordinary Discouragements so that God will still preserve Your Grace for the farther benefit thereof is the hearty Prayer of Your Grace's in all bounden Duty and Service GABRIEL TOWERSON THE DECALOGUE OR TEN COMMANDMENTS As they are described and explained by the Catechism of the Church of ENGLAND Quest YOV said that your Godfathers and Godmothers did promise for you that you should keep Gods Commandments Tell me how many there be Answ Ten. Quest Which be they Answ The same which God spake in the Twentieth Chapter of Exodus saying I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage I. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me II. Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my Commandments III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain IV. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt do no manner of work thou and thy Son and thy Daughter thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant thy Cattel and the Stranger that is within thy Gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed seventh day and hallowed it V. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee VI. Thou shalt do no murther VII Thou shalt not commit adultery VIII Thou shalt not steal IX Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife nor his Servant nor his Maid nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is his Quest What dost thou chiefly learn by these Commandments Answ I learn two things my duty towards God and my duty towards my Neighbour Quest What is
Commemoration of the Resurrection of our Saviour it is in reason to begin when that Resurrection did which we find to have been when it began to dawn towards day All therefore that can be meant in respect of us must be the Observation of such a portion of Time as their Day amounted to which is the space of Twenty four Hours or the Natural Day But even here it will be a hard matter to find any thing in Nature to evince our Obligation to it For though Nature it self perswade that a competent time be appointed for the Publick Worship of God yet that the Time so appointed should consist of just so many Hours this no Principle in Nature teacheth so far as I have been acquainted with them The onely thing that can found the Observation of such a Time is that Positive Law which is now before us But as I have already shewn the Letter thereof not to concern us as to the Day here requir'd so Christianity being apparently not so nice as to the observation of Circumstances we are in reason to measure our own Obligation as to the time of our Worship rather by the Equity than Letter of the Commandment which what that is I shall in due place declare Now though from what hath been said a Judgment may be made what we are to think of the Observation of a Seventh day and particularly of that Seventh day which was the Jewish Sabbath yet to make my Discourse so much the more compleat and because there want not particular Arguments to propugn my Opinion in those Particulars I will make it my Business to shew That there is no Obligation upon us Christians either from the Law of Nature or this particular Precept to observe either a precise Seventh day or that Seventh day which the Jews observ'd To begin with the former of these even the Observation of a Seventh which hath by some Men been pleaded for with so great earnestness concerning which I shall shew first That it hath no Foundation in the Law of Nature and secondly That it hath as little in this if consider'd in respect of us That it hath not in the former this one Character of the Law of Nature may suffice any sober Man to conclude For the Law of Nature prescribing onely such things to our Observation as are in their own Nature good before the superinducing of any Positive Law it would follow that the Observation of a Seventh day had a peculiar Goodness in it and that it ought to be observ'd though God had by no Positive Law enjoyn'd it But what Goodness can even they who profess to believe it Moral shew in a Seventh day more than in a Sixth or Eighth or any other Day whatsoever unless it be that God rested upon it from the Works of the Creation which is the Reason here alledg'd for its observance But first of all if God's resting upon it gave it any peculiar Goodness what need was there of his adding his Blessing and Command to oblige Men to the Observance of it For the Day being Holy without and before it it would have suffic'd to have declar'd That that was the Day on which he rested Again Forasmuch as Blessing and Sanctifying supposeth that which is so blessed and sanctified to have been before in the common condition of Things God's so blessing and sanctifying of the Seventh day supposeth that to have been of the nature of other Days and consequently not to be consecrated by his bare Resting on it Lastly Forasmuch as whatsoever Goodness there is in any thing it must be suppos'd to descend upon it by the Influence of the Divine if we suppose the Seventh day to have had any peculiar Goodness and Holiness we must also suppose it to have receiv'd it from the same Influx which cannot be affirm'd in the present case because that to which it is ascrib'd is not any Influence of the Divine Goodness but onely the Suspension of it I conclude therefore That God's Rest upon it did not give the Seventh day any peculiar Holiness and consequently because that is the onely Reason alledg'd that there is nothing of Morality in the Observance of it From Nature and Morality therefore pass we to the present Precept and inquire whether that induceth any Obligation upon us to observe it Give me leave onely to premise That the Question is not as is commonly deem'd Whether One in Seven be of necessity to be observ'd but Whether a Seventh day after Six days of Labour For though it be true that he who requires a Seventh day requires One in Seven yet requiring it with reference to God's Rest from his Six days of Creation he determines it to the last of those Seven because no other beside the last can answer it Which said I shall not stick to affirm That there is no Obligation upon us as to a Seventh because the Precept so considered related onely to the Jews For the evidencing whereof I will alledge that of Exodus chap. 31.16 17. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed For as it is sufficiently known that the Covenant between God and the Israelites left no place for any that was not of their Nation or Religion so the Sabbath being for a Sign of that Covenant was consequently to extend no farther than the Covenant did and therefore also to no other than themselves The onely difficulty is Whether what is affirm'd of the Sabbath in particular be to be understood also of a Seventh day in the general For the resolution whereof we shall need to go no further than the close of that Place we have now before us For affirming the Sabbath whereof he speaks to be a Sign between him and the Children of Israel as it was an Image of his own Rest after his Six days work of Creation he thereby appropriates to them though not the Remembrance of the Creation yet the keeping such a Memorial of it and consequently of a Seventh day And indeed however some Men contend eagerly for a Seventh day as supposing thereby to advance the Authority of that which we Christians think our selves obliged to observe yet the granting of it to them would serve onely to discredit that Day for which they so contend For though the Lord's-day be One of Seven yet it is the First of those Seven and is not preceded by Six days of Labour but followed By which means it holds no analogy with the Design of the Institution because intended to commemorate the Six days of the Creation and that Rest which followed Neither will it suffice to say as perhaps it may be That the Analogy between it and that Rest it is propos'd to imitate may be salved
Avenger of those that do evil yet it is of such onely as continue in it and as he delights not in their death so he invites them to live and makes a tender both of his own Grace and the Merits of his Son to instate them in it From the extreme in defect pass we to the extreme in excess which is an over-familiarity with our Maker For as Love among Men doth either find the Parties equal or make them such according to that known Saying of Minutius Foelix Amicitia pares semper aut accipit aut facit so unwary Men not considering the distance that is between them and God have copied out this mode of Love in themselves and made it pass into an indecent familiarity being thereto farther tempted by God's giving his Children the name of Friends and by his speaking with Abraham as a Man speaketh with his friend But as it followeth not from God's speaking to us as Friends that therefore we are to use the same Modes of Speech so we shall find those to whom God hath shewn the greatest condescention to have proceeded always with the greatest reverence and respect for thus that Friend and Favourite of God Abraham still observ'd his distance towards him and address'd himself to God as his Superiour and Maker in the 23d Verse of the 18th Chapter of Genesis where he seems most to expostulate with him stiling him the Judge of all the earth and himself vers 27. but dust and ashes in comparison of him and in the 30th Verse of the same Chapter beseeching God not to be angry with him though he spake and in Verse 31. confessing it a kind of presumption that he had taken upon him to speak unto God in the 32d again begging of him not to be angry and he would speak but once more for the sinful Sodomites Which demeanour of his shews evidently that our Friendship must be mix'd with Reverence and we look upon God as our Superiour as well as our Friend In like manner though it be said of Moses That God spake to him face to face as a man speaketh to his friend yet even then we find Moses demeaning himself as a Subject and speaking to him in the Language of one for what else means his so often inserting If I have found grace in thy sight as you may see in the sequel of that Chapter It is true indeed for I am willing to obviate any thing that can with any shew of reason be objected it is true I say there is some difference between their case and ours I mean in respect of God as well as us that God who spake to Abraham and Moses in his own likeness or at least in that of an Angel having since assum'd our Nature to become more equal to us and dispensing all his Graces through it But as he who assum'd our Nature doth not therefore cease to be God and consequently neither our Lord and Master so by becoming Man he became our Lord after a more peculiar manner and thereby gain'd a new Title to our Obedience which as there is therefore just cause for us to own so our Saviour himself inculcates it as the onely means to attain his Friendship telling us Joh. 15.14 That we are his friends if we do whatsoever he commands us This onely would be added for the preservation of this Friendship on our part That we look upon the Commands God lays upon us as the Commands of a Friend as well as of our Lord and Master of one who loveth us as well as of one that hath Authority to command us So shall we at the same time preserve both our Friendship and Obedience be Confidents and yet Servants of the Almighty For it is not our yielding Obedience to God which makes our Works servile but our looking upon him as a Tyrant or at least as one who is not our Friend as well as our Lord. For as the Text before-quoted insinuateth that we cannot be Friends without having respect to our Superiours Commands so if we have respect to them for the kindness of the Party that enjoyns them we do rather the part of Friends than of such as are either Servants or Vassals But neither is this all which our Friendship with God privilegeth yea though an over-familiarity be discarded For it also licenceth us to come with assurance before the Throne of Grace and both lay open our wants before him and beg a proportionable supply God himself having not onely permitted but call'd upon us to do it and that too with earnestness and importunity giving us farther to understand that this violence is grateful to him and that the more importunate we are provided it be mix'd with Reverence the more ready he will be to receive us In fine such as is the behaviour of a Favourite toward his Prince such ought to be the behaviour of a Friend of God toward the Monarch of the World so tempering our Respect and Confidence as neither to forget our distance on the one hand nor on the other that Interest which he hath given us in his Love But if our Love be so qualified the more intense it is the more acceptable and the more likely to advance us to a more intimate Communion with himself Being now to put a period to my Discourse concerning the Passions of the Soul and that Acknowledgment which is due from each of them to him whom we are to own for our God it remains onely that I admonish you That to own him for your God in them is not onely to have your Affections suited to his several Attributes but also to the infiniteness thereof this being in truth to own him for a God and pay him that Acknowledgment which is due unto him as such But from hence it will follow 1. That we are to fear and love him with all our might that we are to separate all coldness from the one all security and presumption from the other For beside that the Almighty requires so to be lov'd even where that Love as was before observ'd is set to denote the whole Adoration of the Soul it is no more than his own immense Nature as well as our Obligations to him call for the greatest Loveliness and Majesty such as those of God's undoubtedly are requiring the greatest Fear and Love It is no less evident 2. That we are to fear and love him above all things how much soever in themselves the just Objects of them both because God whom we are required to own in them transcends all other Beings in Majesty and Goodness or whatsoever else is the proper Object of our several Affections Whence it is that our Blessed Saviour speaking of the Passion of Fear doth not onely forbid the exerting of it toward those that can kill the Body but in a manner confine it to him who after he hath kill'd hath power to cast into Hell 3. Lastly Forasmuch as God doth not onely transcend all other
Beings but is the Fountain of whatsoever is either dreadful or lovely in them hence it comes to pass that to own him for our God we are consequently to fear and love all other things with respect to the Divine Majesty from whom they derive their several Excellencies at the same time we fear or love them looking up to the Almighty and regarding them not so much for themselves as for that Majesty and Goodness which it pleas'd the Almighty to imprint upon them PART VI. How we may and ought to own God in our Bodies This done first by yielding Obedience to his Commands and particularly to such as have a more immediate aspect upon him Of which number are those concerning Invocation Praise Swearing by or Vowing to him The like effected by presenting God with external Notes of our Submission whether they be such as are performed within the Body as Bowing Kneeling and the like or such as though the Body be instrumental to yet pass from thence to other things Such as are the Building or Adorning of Temples and the setting apart certain Times for God's Worship and Service the Consecrating of certain Persons to preside in it and respecting them when they are so HAving shewn in the foregoing Discourses what Tribute is due to God from our Souls and particularly from our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections which are the several Faculties thereof it remains that we inquire 2. What Tribute is due to him from our Bodies and how we are to own him for our God in them Which is either 1. By yielding Obedience to his Commands and particularly to such as have a more immediate aspect upon him or 2. By presenting him with some external Note or Sign of our Submission The former whereof is by some call'd the Honour of the Deed the latter the Honour of the Sign I. Of the former of these there cannot be the least doubt that it is requir'd of us toward the owning him for our God For beside that the Name of God is a Name of Authority as well as Eminency and consequently implieth a necessity of Obedience in those to whom he hath that Relation God himself doth here make use of it as an Obligation to all those Commandments which we are now upon the consideration of he requiring our having no other Gods besides himself with other the Duties that follow upon the score of his being the Lord our God according as was before observ'd in his Preface to the Imposition of them But so that I may not stand upon a thing so plain doth that Lord of ours expresly require us to own him our Saviour putting by the Temptations of Satan to fall down before himself by saying It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him yea him onely shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 Now though what hath been said extend to all God's Commands because they all bear the stamp of his Authority yet is it especially to be understood of yielding Obedience to such Commands as have a more immediate aspect upon God these more immediately implying the owning of that Authority he hath over the Sons of Men. For the fuller declaration therefore of our own Duty in this behalf I will now set those Commands before you and shew how we own him for our God by yielding Obedience to them 1. To begin with Invocation or Praeyer one of the prime Acts of God's Worship and which therefore is of all others the most frequently and earnestly inculcated concerning which it is easie to shew how necessary it is to pay him the acknowledgment of a God For inasmuch as all Men desire the Preservation of their own Being inasmuch as that desire necessarily prompts them to look abroad for it if they think not themselves able to procure it in case any Man do not thus seek it of God it must be because he doth not believe it to come from him but either from himself or from meer Natural Causes But what other is this than to deny that God from whom every good and perfect gift cometh and to make a God either of ones self or Nature There being nothing more essential to the Divine Nature than the being the Author of all those Blessings by which the whole Creation is either maintain'd or adorn'd The same is to be said of that which is sometime reckon'd as a part of Prayer because a necessary attendant of it that is to say of giving Thanks to him for those Blessings by which we are at any time made happy He who refuseth thus to honour God in effect denying the coming of them from him because Nature it self hath taught us to make this return wheresoever we have been oblig'd If there be any thing farther to be observ'd concerning these two Acknowledgments it will fall in more pertinently when we come to entreat of The Prayer of our Lord to which therefore I shall reserve the consideration of it 2. From Prayer and Thanksgiving therefore pass we to Praise another Act of Adoration and no less frequently enjoyn'd And no wonder if we consider either the end for which the Tongue was given or its aptness to set forth the Excellencies of the Almighty For as if we consider the practice of Holy Men it may seem to have been given for nothing more than for commemorating the Excellencies of the Divine Nature so by the variety of its Expressions it is fitted to set forth all those Excellencies of which the Divine Nature is compos'd as neither wanting Words to express his Justice and Mercy and the like nor yet that which makes them more Divine the Infiniteness thereof 3. To Praising the Divine Majesty subjoyn we Swearing by him another Act of Adoration and no less expresly requir'd for so we find the Prophet Moses distinctly commanding and that too in the same Period where he prescribes his Fear and Service for thou shalt fear the Lord thy God saith he and serve him and swear by his Name Deut. 6.13 And indeed if we consider the nature of an Oath we shall not in the least doubt of the manner of our owning him for our God by it For an Oath being nothing else than the calling God to witness to the Truth of what we affirm he that swears by him doth not onely acknowledge God to be superior to himself but also to be a Witness of infallible Truth a Searcher of our Hearts and a most just and powerful Avenger of all Perjury and Falshood no one appealing to a Witness that is not of greater Authority than himself and with much less reason for the sincerity of his own Affirmations but where that sincerity may be known or any deviation from it be punish'd if he transgress it For what satisfaction could an Oath be to any Man if Men did not presume God to be an Avenger of Perjury and Falshood as well as a Discerner of the Truth And accordingly as for the most part such Clauses as this are generally
Reason of his Fact onely the tediousness of the Journey to Jerusalem and moreover representing his Calves as the gods that brought them out of the land of Egypt which was a known Periphrasis of the God of Israel And accordingly though Jehu who was one of his Successors departed not from the sin of Jeroboam as the Scripture observes of him 2 Kings 10.29 yet is his zeal in the destruction of Baal's Priests stil'd by himself a zeal for the Lord ver 16. and which is of much more consideration he himself intimated by the Scripture to have walked in the law of the Lord God of Israel save onely in the matter of the calves ver 31. of the same Which could in no wise be affirm'd if he and those of his Sect had renounc'd the God of Israel and worshipp'd either the Calves themselves or some Foreign Deity in them To all which if we add That Ahab is said to have offended more heinously than all that went before him because serving Baal and worshipping him 1 Kings 16.31 so we shall not in the least doubt but that the setting up of the Calf was intended onely to worship the True God in it For wherein had the great aggravation of Ahab's sin been if they that were before him had worshipp'd either the Calf it self or some of the Heathen Gods in it The onely thing remaining to be shewn is That their Worship of the Calves was Idolatry which will be no very hard Task to evince For though their Worship is no where expresly stil'd so yet are they call'd Idols which is enough to make the Worship of them Idolatry But so that they are that of Hosea is an abundant Testimony chap. 13.4 For having premis'd the Israelites making them molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding all of them the work of the craftsmen to let us know what Idols he means he subjoyns They say of them Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves Forasmuch therefore as the Calves were no other than Idols forasmuch as one Egg cannot be more like unto another than the Calves of Jeroboam were to that of Aaron it must needs be because they were such and the Worshipping that of Aaron reputed Idolatry that that of Jeroboam's was so also and consequently that it is Idolatry to worship even the True God in an Image Two things there are which are commonly alledg'd against the foregoing Arguments to prove the Idolatry of the Israelites not to have had the True God for its Object 1. That what they sacrific'd to their Idols they are said to sacrifice to devils and not to God And 2. That the Prophets are frequent in inculcating That the Gods they worshipp'd were gold and silver that they could neither see nor hear nor understand which may seem to import their looking upon the Images themselves as Gods And indeed if onely one of these things had been objected possibly it might have serv'd in some measure to shroud an evil Cause but urging them both they do but help to destroy it because urging such things as taken in the strictness of the Letter are inconsistent with each other For if the Israelites worshipp'd Evil Spirits in all their Images then did they not worship the Images themselves and if they held the Images themselves for Gods then did they not worship Evil Spirits in them The onely thing remaining to be said is That some Images they look'd upon as Gods themselves and others as Representations of Evil Spirits both of which being granted will contribute little to the proving any thing against us For nothing hinders all this while but they might look upon some Images and particularly upon the Calves as Representations of the God of Israel But let us a little more particularly consider both the one and the other Allegation and see how little force there is in either It is alledg'd out of Deuteronomy chap. 32.17 That they sacrific'd unto devils and not to God But doth it follow from thence that they did so in sacrificing to Aaron's Calf when there is not onely no particular mention of it but it is also sufficiently known that they worshipp'd many of the Heathen Deities besides But be it that the Calf of Aaron were there included as well as their other Idols Yet will it follow from thence that they directly and intentionally worshipp'd an Evil Spirit in them For may not a Man serve the Devil unless after the Custom of the Indians he fall down and worship him But how then could the Widows that forsook the Faith be said to be turned after Satan for onely breaking that Faith they had plighted unto God Beside when the Devil is consessedly the Author and Promoter of all false Worship what impropriety is there in affirming those who comply with his Suggestions in it to sacrifice rather to him than to God whom they design to honour Otherwise what shall we say to reconcile what the Scripture in several places affirmeth concerning the Idols of the Heathen to wit That what the Gentiles sacrifice to Idols they sacrifice to Devils and not to God for so St. Paul tells us and again That the gods of the heathen are silver and gold the work of mens hands as the Psalmist It being impossible that both should be true in the Letter and therefore a Qualification to be admitted The onely thing therefore to be accounted for is the Scriptures so often inculcating That their Idols were but Silver and Gold that they could not either see or hear or understand which may seem to import that the Hebrews look'd upon the Images themselves as Gods But neither will this serve their turn or enervate the Conclusion before laid down because it is certain 1. They worshipp'd the Host of Heaven and erected Images to them It is no less certain 2. That the Heathen who are in like manner charg'd with the same sottish Worship look'd upon not their Images but several Dead Men as Gods whom they represented by them From both which put together it is manifest That when we find both the one and the other faulted for making Gold and Silver their Gods as those Gold and Silver Gods again decry'd for not being able to see or hear or understand we are to understand thereby that they dealt foolishly not in looking upon their Images as Gods for this few or none were so sottish as to believe but for thinking such Representations as those to be either proper Representations of the Divine Nature or fit Passports of his Worship which could neither see nor hear nor understand What remains then especially since God hath both licenc'd and commanded us so to do but that we go immediately to himself but that we fall down and kneel not before his Image but before the Lord our Maker or if we will needs worship him in an Image but that we worship him in his Son who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of
guiltless to a sense more severe than the Words do of themselves import The forementioned Story shewing it to be alike or rather more severe than the visiting of the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation with which the former Commandment is enforc'd From the Business of the Gibeonites pass we to a no less famous Instance of God's displeasure against Zedekiah who after he had given an Oath of Fidelity to the King of Babylon yet no less impiously than foolishly brake it by rebelling against him For Shall he saith God by the Prophet Ezekiel prosper Shall he escape that doth such things or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered As I live saith the Lord God surely in the place where the King dwelleth that made him King whose Oath he despised even with him in Babylon shall he die Ezek. 17.15 16. And again vers 18. and so on Seeing he despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant when loe he had given his hand and hath done all these things he shall not escape Therefore thus saith the Lord God As I live surely mine Oath that he hath despised and my Covenant that he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his own head And I will spread my net upon him and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespass'd against me Which accordingly we find to have come to pass For the same Scripture informs us That because Zedekiah rebell'd against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God God brought upon him the Army of the King of Babylon which took him and brought him to their Master where he had Judgment given upon him and after he had had his Sons slain before his Eyes had those miserable Eyes of his put out as you may see in Jeremiah chap. 39. Such was the displeasure of God against King Zedekiah for violating the Oath of God And if so we may be sure God will not hold any Man guiltless that so taketh his Name in vain The onely thing remaining to be prov'd is That God will not hold him guiltless who dishonoureth his Name in a Vow which accordingly I come now to evince In order whereunto I will consider first those who make unlawful or trifling Vows and then those who violate what they have made That God will not hold him guiltless who sins in Vowing will manifestly appear if we reflect upon his displeasure against the Profaner of his Name in an Oath For inasmuch as a Vow is more Sacred than an Oath because whilst in the latter God is onely cited as a Witness in a Vow we contract with him as a Party he who holds the Swearer guilty must be thought to do so much more to him who profanes his Name in a Vow and doth not onely apply it to a Sin or to an Impertinence but as I may so speak doth it to his face The Reason is the same in him who breaks the Vow he hath made and acts contrary to what he hath most solemnly promis'd to the Almighty he that so does as he contracted with God as with a Party so falsifying to him directly and immediately and consequently because so much the more dishonouring him the more liable to the severity of his displeasure And accordingly when Ananias and Saphira had agreeably to the Custom of those Times by a Vow dedicated the Price of their Possessions unto God God for a partial breach of that their Vow inflicted a sudden death upon them and made them feel the dreadfulness of that Name which they had profan'd So true is that of Solomon * Prov. 20.25 even in the Times of the Gospel That it is a snare to a man to devour that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry The forementioned Offenders having not onely been taken in the Snare but made to feel the Hands of the Fowler Thus which way soever Men take the Name of God in vain they incur the displeasure of the Almighty and though they are not always immediately punish'd yet they are so often enough to shew that God doth not hold any of them guiltless and that whom he now spares he will punish so much the more hereafter when he comes to render to every Man according to his Works What remains then but that I admonish if not for the Sacredness of the Name of God yet that at least for the security of their own Souls and Persons Men would not take that Name of his in vain For if either the Threat of God or the Exemplifications of it in those that have offended may be credited the taking of his Name in vain however such as to what it is apply'd to yet will not be vain as to the Consequences thereof For as it shall be with effect so a very direful one to those who are the Authors of it They shall not as they do often with Men find Commendation and Applause they shall not be look'd upon as so much the better bred or the greater Wits for it lastly they shall not as they do for the most part here find an Excuse for their Profanations and be absolv'd either from all Offence or all that is notorious God whose Name they take in vain and who is the most competent Judge of their Actings having promis'd or rather threatned that he will look upon them under another notion and not onely not hold them guiltless but look upon them as notorious Offenders And indeed thus far the Judgment of the World hath concurr'd with that of God as to condemn the taking of it to a Lie False Swearing and Perjury having not onely been branded with reproachful Punishments but the Authors thereof excluded from giving Testimony in any Courts of Judicature If other Profanations of God's Name have not found the like Censure it is not so much because they imagin'd them specifically different but because they are not so immediately destructive to Humane Society which Humane Judicatures are more particularly oblig'd to preserve But as that is accidental to the taking of God's Name in vain or at least makes the Crime to which it adheres onely gradually different from the other so the Judgment-seat of God takes notice of all that entrencheth upon his Honour and will therefore be sure not to hold them guiltless who any way take his Name in vain THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT Remember that thou keép holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt do no manner of work thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man-servant and thy maid-servant thy cattel and the stranger that is within thy gates For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore
design of Christianity to establish Natural Religion and oblige us to be pious and just and temperate which are the general Heads of it whatsoever is a part of Natural Religion is eo nomine to be look'd upon as a part of the Christian one though it be not expresly commanded The confirmation of Natural Religion inferring the confirmation of all those Duties which are clear and undoubted Portions of it The same is yet more evident from the confirmation of those Grounds upon which the Publick Worship of God is founded such as are the making our Piety to shine before others and the need each of us stand in of one anothers help in Prayer For our Saviour in express Terms injoyning the observation of the former and St. Paul giving testimony to the truth of the latter where he affirms us to be members of each other they do thereby consequently establish the necessity of Publick Worship because as was before shewn naturally arising from them But because what hath been hitherto alledg'd from Christianity is rather constructive of the Morality of the Publick Worship of God than any immediate or direct proof of its own enjoyning it for the fuller declaration of our Duty in this Affair I will proceed to more immediate Proofs and such as are properly Christian. 1. Now the first that I shall alledge shall be taken from those Spiritual Gifts which God bestow'd upon his Church and particularly the Word of Wisdom the Word of Knowledge Prophesieing Interpretation of Tongues and Praying by the Spirit or Immediate Inspiration For these being given to those that had them to * 1 Cor. 12.7 profit withal or as the same St. Paul elsewhere ‖ Ephes 4.12 more expresly declares for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ suppose the meeting of that Body to receive profit by them and consequently because that is the End of those Gifts for Publick Instruction and Prayer 2. My second Argument for the necessity of the Publick Worship of God shall be taken from the Rules St. Paul often gives for the right management of Christian Assemblies such as are That no man should speak in an unknown tongue if there were not one by to interpret That when they spake they should do it by two or at the most by three and in fine That all things should be done decently and in order For what need were there of all this stir about the management of Christian Assemblies if the Author of our Religion had not at all enjoyn'd them but left Men to their own Private Worship Neither will it avail to reply as possibly it may be That the Rules laid down for the management of Assemblies do rather suppose them useful than necessary to be held For as what is so hugely useful cannot be suppos'd to be other than necessary if we consider the many Precepts that enjoyn us the edifying of one another so he that shall consider St. Paul's Accuracy in laying down Rules concerning Christian Assemblies will not doubt of their being necessary to be held it being not to be thought that he who is so careful elsewhere to distinguish between his own * 1 Cor. 7.8 c. Advices and the Commands of the Lord would take so much pains in prescribing Rules for the management of Christian Assemblies without so much as taking notice that those Assemblies concerning which he gave Rules were no other than Advices of his own Add hereunto 3. The perpetual Practice of the Church and that too at such times when those Assemblies were perillous to those that held them For that shews plainly that the holding of Assemblies had some higher Original than onely the usefulness thereof It being not to be thought that the Christians of all Times and even of the most dangerous ones would have held such Assemblies if they had not look'd upon themselves as straitly obliged to them 4. But to come up yet more closely to the Ground of holding Assemblies which I think I may not without cause establish in that of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 18.20 to wit That where two or three were gathered together in his Name he would be in the midst of them For as those Words of his are an assurance to those who should be so gathered that Christ would be in the midst of them that is to say as the foregoing Words import to grant them the Petitions they should ask and more particularly such as were of Publick concern * For he speaks before of Men that neglect to hear the Church and of God's confirmation of the Churches Censure of them so the same Words do imply that he would not be so present to those who should not so assemble together Otherwise the Reason wherewith he recommends the Assembling in his Name would be weak and null because so it might be affirm'd that they might have Christ present to them without Now forasmuch as Christ not onely promises that he would be in the midst of those who should so assemble but insinuates also and that clearly enough that he would not be so present to those that did not he thereby lays a necessity upon Christians of so meeting in his Name for the welfare of the Church and particularly for the imploring of such Blessings as are necessary for it I will conclude this Particular with that of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 10.23 Where having exhorted in the foregoing Verses that they should hold fast the profession of the faith themselves and provoke others to the same love and good works which are undoubted Precepts of the Gospel he adds in the same breath and by way of explication not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some then was but exhorting one another and so much the more as they saw the day approaching Which Words as they are a manifest condemnation of the neglect of Assemblies and consequently an establishment of the necessity of Worshipping God in them so such a condemnation of the forsaking of them as to make it in effect not onely a breach of Charity but a renouncing the Profession of our Faith However it be most certain it is that Apostle manifestly condemns the forsaking the assembling of our selves together and if so we may be sure the serving God in the Solemn Assemblies is a part of a Christians Duty and therefore the Fourth Commandment wherein it is enjoyn'd so far obligatory 3. I am now arriv'd at the third of those Things which I said before to appertain to the Substance of this Commandment and that is The setting apart some portion of our Time for the more solemn performance of Gods Worship this being so much of the Substance of the Commandment that it is the onely thing clearly express'd in it and may seem at first sight not onely to be the Main but the Whole Now that this also is Moral will appear if we consider it with respect to the Worship of
the Reading and Hearing thereof to be no improper Parts of God's Worship He that reads or listens to them as to the Word of God no less acknowledging his Authority over us than he who either prays to or praises him And accordingly as Prayer and Praise as being immediate Parts of God's Worship were always accompanied with some outward Testimony of Respect so we find also that the Reading of the Law and the Prophets sometime was as is evident from a Passage in each Testament The former giving us to understand that when Ezra opened the Book of the Law not onely he himself but all the People stood up Nehem. 8.4 5. the latter that our Saviour us'd the same Posture at the Reading of the Prophet Isaiah and sate not down till he clos'd it both the one and the other thereby declaring their Acknowledgment of his Authority by whose Spirit each of those Books was dictated Whilst therefore the Scriptures are thus attended to we do no less worship God than learn how to do it and the Reading and Hearing of them is not onely the way to but a part of that very Worship to which it leads But because there are some who though they question not the Reading of the Scriptures upon that account yet reject it either as unedifying or at least not very proper for the Publick Assemblies in stead of prosecuting the former Argument we will consider each of these Pretensions and first that which excludes it as no way proper for the Publick For be it which is commonly alledg'd that Men may read the Scriptures at home as well as at the Publick Assemblies yet as there are a great number of Men who cannot read at all and others who have no leisure for it though they could by means whereof they must have been ignorant of the Scripture unless God had provided for them by the Publick Reading of it so it is apparent that they who both can read and have leisure for it are too apt to omit it and consequently were it not for the Publick Reading of it would have had no farther knowledge of it than they should have receiv'd from the Discourses of their Instructers By which means they might not onely have suck'd in their Infirmities together with it but sometimes also their Errours and Extravagancies Again If the Scriptures had been confin'd to Closets and no more of them produc'd in Publick than what might serve either for the Subject or strengthning of a Sermon it had been no hard matter especially before Printing came in use to have corrupted the Scriptures without remedy as to the Common sort and made them speak not what they ought but what every perfidious Heretick would have had them for so those that are unlearned would have had no means to inform themselves whether that which was suggested to them as Scripture were genuine or no. But when the Scriptures were not onely in the hands of Private Persons but preserv'd in Churches and which is more publickly read in them as there was not the like encouragement to evil Men to corrupt private Copies as knowing that their Corruptions might be detected by those Books which were in the custody of and publickly read by the Church so if they had been so bold what was read in the Assemblies would have help'd Men to have discover'd the Fraud and preserv'd them from the Attaque of it This onely would be added That though there be not the like danger since Printing came in use and Men were appointed by Authority to preside over it yet there would be danger enough if the same Custom were not continued of Reading the Scriptures in the Assemblies For as corrupt Copies may come abroad notwithstanding all the diligence of those who have the Charge of the Press so if they should the Common sort of Men would have nothing left to fence themselves against them if the Reading of the Scriptures were banish'd out of the Assemblies Add hereunto which though but an Argument ad hominem may perhaps prove more prevalent than those that speak to the Thing it self and that is the abhorrency that even they who would not have the Scriptures publickly read profess to have for the Papists robbing the People of it For what do they less who would have them banish'd from the Publick Assemblies where alone the Ignorant sort are in a capacity of receiving them So slight or rather so dangerous are the Pretensions of those who would have the Reading of the Scriptures appropriated to Mens Closets How much more then the rejecting of the Reading of them as if when onely read they were not able to convert a Soul unto God For as whatsoever force there is in Sermons is for the substance of them deriv'd from the Scriptures and therefore the Power of converting Souls to lie chiefly there so if those Scriptures have not lost their credit as well as their converting Faculty the bare Reading of them through God's Blessing may be a means to convert Souls unto God Otherwise why should God as he did command the Reading of the Law that the children of Israel might hear and learn and fear the Lord their God and observe to do all the words of this Law Deut. 32.11 12. or St. John affirm of his Gospel that it was written that we might believe and that believing we might have Life through his Name For if it was written that Men might believe there is no doubt it is able to effect it when read because that is enough to let Men into the Sense of it And indeed as if Sermons prove more effectual it is oftentimes because they are more attended to their novelty and spruceness engaging our attention whilst the plainness of the other makes it less regarded so if they have any advantage in themselves it is not so much for the Arguments they alledge which are the same in both but by the order wherein they are dispos'd and the manner of application Having thus shewn the Reading of the Scriptures to be one part of the Publick Service and thereby asserted it from that Contempt into which it is now fallen I proceed to inquire Whether as in the Service of the Jewish Sabbath so also in the Christian the Explication of the Scriptures is to have a part Now that so it is will appear if we look into the Service of the Church as it was in the first Institution of it And here not to tell you that the first Account we have of the Publick Service presents us with the mention of the Apostles Doctrine I shall begin my Proofs with that of Acts 20.7 because speaking of the First day of the Week or Sunday For there we are told That among other the Exercises of that Day the Disciples had a Sermon from that excellent Preacher St. Paul All the difficulty is what kind of Sermon that was and whether it were not made rather in regard to his being to depart the next day than
Day 2. BY what Publick Exercises of Religion the Christian Sabbath is to be celebrated hath been at large declar'd both from the Precepts and Practice of the Apostles It remains that we inquire how it is to be sanctified in Private which is a Duty no less incumbent upon us than the former For the multitude of our Affairs not permitting us on other Days to intend the Matters of Religion with that freedom and solemnity which becomes them there ariseth a necessity when we have both leisure and so fair an Invitation to it to apply our selves to the performance of it and supply those Defects which the Necessities of the World have made Taking it therefore for granted that such a Sanctification is requir'd I will make it my business to inquire wherein it doth consist and what particular Duties it exacts Onely because I have not told you how we are to intend the Publick Exercises of Religion I will mix that with the Consideration of the other and so give you a kind of History of the due Observation of the Day The Lord's-day saluting our Horizon and admonishing us both of the Blessings and Duties which it brings it is but reasonable where the Labours of the foregoing Day have not made it necessary to do otherwise that we should be up betimes to meet them and pay them that Regard which they deserve as remembring that the Christian Sabbath is rather a Day of Business than of Rest though of an easie and a gracious one Now the first Business that presents it self on that Sacred Day is the offering up our Sacrifice of Praise for the Resurrection of our Lord and the Opportunity we our selves have to celebrate it And herein it becomes us to be so much the more hearty because it is the Ground of its Institution and that which gives it both its Being and its Name Next to the Sacrifice of Praise subjoyn we that of Prayer for the Assistance of God in the due Celebration of it not onely our own unaptness so requiring but the importance of the Business we are to intend and particularly of the Publick one For now we are not as upon other Days barely to worship God but to do it with a more than ordinary fervour as being thereby to supply the Defects of our past Piety and lay a firm foundation of our future one The Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise being thus offer'd up to God and thereby an entrance made into the Sanctification of the Day there is then place for those Businesses which our own Necessities or Conveniences invite to the performance of but so as that we remember we have a weightier Business to intend and particularly our looking back into our past Impieties For inasmuch as we are assur'd that God heareth not sinners such I mean who continue in them without remorse we are in reason before we address our selves to the Duty of Publick Prayer to break off our sins by repentance and like the Prophet Moses to put off our shoes before we tread upon holy ground Not that it were not convenient that this should be done at other times and we to inquire every Night as Pythagoras his Scholars were oblig'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein have I offended what good have I done and what omitted and accordingly as that Philosopher * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adviseth either to afflict or chear our selves But that howsoever it should either through the necessity of our Affairs or inadvertency be omitted at other times we should not fail to do it then when we are to address our selves to Publick Prayer by which if by any thing we must hope to obtain God's Favour Imagine now the Bell calling you to the Publick Assemblies or rather because both the Jewish Sabbath and ours was instituted for the holding of them that you hear God himself doing it In answer to which Call you are to bring both your selves and your Dependents and that too at the Beginning of God's Publick Worship The former because though other Persons may sanctifie the Sabbath by their own single Piety yet they who have Children and Servants are to see to the Observation of it in them as being under their direction and command Though were they not so oblig'd the Advantage that might arise from the doing of it might be a sufficient inducement to endeavour it that which made Abraham so great a Confident of God being that God knew he would command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord as you may see Gen. 18.19 But neither is there less reason that the Beginning of God's Service should have both their Company and ours than there is that it should have it at all an imperfect Service arguing a slight esteem of him and that we are no farther his Servants than we our selves please And it calls to my mind that Expostulation of God in Malachi chap. 1.8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour Will he be pleas'd with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of hosts For what is that but a blind and a lame Service where it may be the best part of it is wanting or how can we think God will be pleas'd with that which an Earthly Prince would disdain to accept We may suppose by this time the Man who desires to sanctifie the Lord's-day aright entred the Church where having prostrated himself before the Divine Majesty and implor'd his Blessing upon his Endeavours he will need little other direction than to mind that which he comes about and not either drowsily or irreverently to perform it Onely that I may set the better edge upon his Devotions I will apply my Instructions to some of those particular Duties which the Day and the Order of our Service doth require With admirable reason doth our Church and almost * Thorndike Rel. Assembl ch 10. all the Reformed ones begin their Service with Confession of Sins as knowing how likely they are whilst thus bewail'd to separate between us and God And there is the same reason we should bring to the Rehearsing of it that due Remorse and Sorrow which the consideration of our several Offences call for otherwise we rather dare God to avenge himself upon us than take the way to appease or please him But when we who are vile enough in the eyes of God make our selves such both in our own esteem and expression when we frankly lay open the Errors we have committed and acknowledge them to be such by our inward Contrition and outward Sorrow then our Confession is no less sure to be follow'd by the Absolution of God than it is by that of the Priest or rather that God will confirm that which the Priest pronounceth it being not certainly for nothing that our Saviour hath said Whosesoever
that day as God had prosper'd them toward the relief of the poor Saints at Jerusalem The same is to be said of reconciling Parties at variance of endeavouring to beget or maintain Friendship as by other ways so by a kind and neighbourly treating of each other witness those Feasts of Charity of which St. Jude speaks which were anciently an Appendix of the Lord's Supper as that was of this Sacred Day Care onely would be taken that whilst these have their due Regard we forget not those higher Purposes for which the Day was set apart such as are the Reading of the Scriptures and other such Books of Instruction and Devotion our instilling into those who are under our respective Charges the Precepts of a Holy Life and in fine the Commending both of our selves and them by Prayer to the Protection of that God to whose Service this Day was set apart AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLICATION OF THE FOLLOWING Commandments IN A DISCOURSE Concerning that Most Excellent RULE OF Life and Manners Which prescribes The doing as we would be done by And is moreover Represented by OUR SAVIOUR AS The LAW and the PROPHETS LONDON Printed for John Martyn at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard M.DC.LXXV AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLICATION OF THE FOLLOWING COMMANDMENTS In a DISCOURSE concerning that Most Excellent RULE of Life and Manners Which prescribes The doing as we would be done by The Contents Of the Nature of the present Rule and that it is neither the Primary nor an Absolute Rule of Humane Actions The former hereof evidenced from our Saviour's recommending it as the Sum of the Law and the Prophets but more especially from that Divine Law 's being the Primary Rule of them The latter from the possibility of our Desires becoming irregular and so far therefore no legitimate Measure of our Actions Inquiry is next made into the Sense and Importance of it where is shewn first both from the Nature of the Rule and particular Instances That we are to understand thereby The doing unto others what we our selves can lawfully desire to be done unto our selves by them An Objection against this Limitation answered It is shewn secondly That we are to understand by it The doing unto others what we should desire to be done unto our selves if we were in their place and condition As thirdly That we should do to others what we should desire to be done unto our selves by those particular Persons or any other A Transition to the Consideration of the Equitableness thereof which is evinced first from the Reputation it hath either procur'd to it self or met with among Natural Men from its being so esteem'd of even by those who do most transgress it and from the Equality of all Men both in their Nature and Obligation to the Divine Laws Of the Comprehensiveness of the present Rule and in what sense it may be affirmed to be the Law and the Prophets In order whereunto is shewn first That it is not to be understood as an Abstract of that Part of the Law and the Prophets which contains our Duty to God as which the present Rule is neither any proper Measure of nor intended by our Saviour as such Secondly That it comprehends in it the whole of our Duty to our Neighbour and particularly all those which are compris'd in the following Commandments A Conclusion of the whole with a Reflexion upon that more usual Rule of Humane Actions even of doing to Men as they have done to us the Iniquity whereof is noted and censured THOUGH Abridgments where they are rightly order'd do onely pare off unnecessary Things and like Pictures in little present us with all the Lineaments of that Work they pretend to abridge without taking notice of its Dress or the Embellishments thereof yet they are for the most part so ill manag'd that they do rather maim than contract it and in stead of giving us a just Prospect of the Whole present us with no one Part entire But as we cannot lightly presume those Abridgments to be such which have the Wisdom of the Father for their Author so if we carefully survey the Abridgment that is now before us we shall find it to be as comprehensive as our Saviour hath represented it and not onely a Compendium of but the very Law and the Prophets There being no one Precept of the Second Table to which this Great Rule of Life and Manners will not reach and lead us both to understand and practice Onely as in reason Men ought to have a distinct knowledge of the Rule it self before they proceed to consider it as the Abstract of others so I intend accordingly to inquire into its Nature Importance and Equity before I attempt to shew the Comprehensiveness thereof 1. That the Rule we have now under consideration is no primary Rule of Humane Actions is evident both from that Argument whereby our Saviour hath enforc'd it and the Measure from which Humane Actions receive their Rectitude or Obliquity For our Saviour pressing upon his Disciples The doing as they would be done by upon the score of its being the Sum of what the Law and the Prophets taught he gives us thereby to understand That the Law and the Prophets are the Measure of that also no less than of our Conversation and Obedience And though to Minds not prepossess'd this one Consideration might suffice to perswade that the Rule now before us is no Primary Rule of Humane Actions yet I cannot forbear to say it will become much more apparent if we consider from whence Humane Actions receive their respective Rectitude or Obliquity For receiving both their Denomination and Quality from the Law and Will of God to whom as being our Lord and Maker we are in reason to conform the doing as we would be done by can be no farther a Rule of our Deportment than as those Desires of ours shall appear to be conformable to his Laws and consequently those Laws of his and not our own Desires the Primary Rule of Humane Actions Of what use this Observation is will hereafter appear more clearly when I come to declare the due Importance of the Rule now before us It may suffice here to note That being no Primary Rule of Humane Actions it cannot have place but either in the want of some express Law or where we are under any prejudices against it For the Law and Will of God being the Primary Rule of Humane Actions there is no doubt but if that give us information we ought to be guided by it and not seek direction elsewhere Otherwise we do like those who take directions from a Clock at the same that the Sun stares them in the Face and by a Language that is easie to be understood calls upon them to look up to him or upon those Dials whereon he shines For as it would be absurd for any Man to take his Directions from such Helps when he may know the Hour of the Day from
there is not the same reason where the thing commanded is not evidently against the Law of God but only doubted of whether it be so or no. For it being certainly a duty to obey the Magistrate in all things not forbidden and but uncertain whether the thing commanded by him be forbidden reason would that that which is the more certain should be preferr'd before that which is uncertain and consequently a clear and express Command before an uncertain scruple But as where the thing commanded by Princes is apparently against that of God there cannot be the least pretence of yeilding Obedience to it so other limits of our Obedience I know none saving those before-mentioned * Vid. Part 2. of the Explic. of this Commandment where we entreated of the Obedience due to Parents and which are no less appliable here unless it be where the Prince hath set bounds to his own Power by Laws or accepted of them when tendred by others In which case because the Princes Laws are the most Authentick declarations of his Will it is to be presum'd that he wills not my obedience in any thing which is contrary thereto and consequently that in those things it is no sin to refuse it Now though what hath been already said concerning the measure of our Obedience may suffice any reasonable man in civil matters yet because Princes do also challenge to themselves an Authority in Religious ones and we of this Nation in particular are oblig'd under an Oath to acknowledge it it will be necessary to enquire farther whether they have any such Authority and what obedience is due from us to it Now the Authority of Princes in Religious matters may be two-fold indirect or direct by the former whereof we are to understand that which pretends to have an oversight of them only in relation to the State by the latter that which pretends to have an Interest in Religious matters as such If the question be whether Princes are invested with such an Authority as pretends to an oversight of them in relation to the State so no doubt can be made by those who shall consider the influence Religious matters may have upon the State For inasmuch as on the one hand the powers of the world were before the Church and the Church it self is by the command of God oblig'd to revere them and on the other hand the things of Religion according as they are constituted may be profitable or hurtful to the State which is committed to their custody those Powers must of necessity be invested with such an Authority therein as may preserve the peace of the State entire But from hence it will follow That Princes have a power so far of calling or limiting Religious Assemblies of appointing who shall serve at the Altars in them or putting by those that are For inasmuch as the Peace of the State may be concern'd in all these particulars they are of necessity so far to fall under the cognizance of those to whom the Government of the State doth appertain And accordingly as all Princes of what perswasion soever in Religion have in Profession or Fact arrogated such an Authority to themselves so provided they do not entrench upon the Laws of Christianity they cannot in the least be faulted for the exercise thereof nor be disobey'd without a violation of the Ordinance of God that constitutes them Because what they do is no more than necessary for the preservation of that State which God hath committed to their charge Thus for instance inasmuch as by means of the Assemblies of discontented Persons there may arise great prejudice to the State no man in his right wits can deny but it may be lawful for a Prince to retrench the number or appoint the manner of the holding of them For though Christianity enjoin upon Christians the assembling of themselves for Religious Worship yet no Law of Christianity appoints that they should meet by Thousands but on the contrary assures them that where even two or three meet together in his name there Christ is in the midst of them From the indirect Authority of Princes in Religious matters pass we to that which we call direct which interests it self in Religious matters as such For the establishing whereof I shall desire you in the first place to reflect upon that of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 2. from Verse 1. to 4. I exhort therefore first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men For Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth From which words as it is evident that it is acceptable to God that Kings become Christians this as will appear by comparing the first Verse and the fourth being the thing he instructs Timothy to beg of God for them so also that being made Christians they should by their Authority procure to other Christians a peaceable exercise of that Religion whereunto they are called The reason assign'd by the Apostle for praying for their Conversion being that under them and by their Arbitriment they might lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all godliness and honesty From the exhortation of St. Paul pass we to that of David which will both lend light to the former Exhortation and more clearly discover to us that Authority wich we seek Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little For herein as St. Augustine observes do Kings serve the Lord as Kings if in their Kingdom they command those things that are good and forbid evil and that not only such as appertain to Humane Society but such as appertain also to the Religion of God And elsewhere Wherein then doth Kings serve the Lord in fear but by forbidding and punishing with a Religious severity those things which are done against the commands of the Lord Jesus For one way doth a King serve the Lord as a man and another way as a King And a little after to the same purpose though yet more closely Herein therefore do Kings serve the Lord as Kings when they do those things to serve him which they could not do unless they were Kings Add hereunto that known Prophecy of Isa 49.23 where speaking of the times of the Church he affirms that Kings should be its nursing Fathers and Queens its nursing Mothers Which what other is it than that the Church should be taken care of by them and consequently that it should be committed to their trust But from hence we may collect what the Authority of Princes in Religious matters is and wherein
Services and Homages by which they hold their respective Emoluments The Duty of the Lord to afford them again that Protection Assistance and Redress which the Laws of the Land the Custom of the Place or the Nature of their Dominion doth require Of the Honour of Masters and what the Grounds thereof are In order whereunto inquiry is first made concerning such of their Servants as become so by Constraint and particularly by Conquest by Sentence or by Purchase Where the Servants become such either by Conquest or a Condemnatory Sentence those to whom they do belong have for the Ground of their Honour their giving them that Life which it was in their power to have taken away Where Servants become such by Purchase there is the Title of those whether Conquerors or Princes to whom they did originally belong and that Valuable Consideration which the Purchaser paid for it If the Servant become such by his own free Consent as it is in Days-men Menial Servants and Apprentices there is not onely his own free Consent to entitle his Master to Honour from him but those Wages and Nourishment which the two former receive and that Skill or Craft which the latter is instructed in An Address to the Declaration of what Honours are due from Servants to their Masters and in what measure and proportion Where entrance is made with the Consideration of such Servants as become so by constraint and all sort of Honour shewn to be due from them which they are in a capacity to pay This evidenc'd both from Scripture and the Life which they receive from their Masters A Digression concerning the Abolition of Servitude in the Christian World where is shewn That it was neither founded upon any just Reason nor is much for the Commodity of it Of the Honours that are due from such as become Servants by Consent which are shewn to be in a great measure determinable by their own Compacts Certain Rules laid down for the more certain investigation of them such as are That they shew respect to their several Masters in Gesture and Language That they yield Obedience to their Commands and particularly in all such things as are expresly covenanted or are by Law or Custom impos'd upon them yea even when the matter of the Command is harsh provided it be not eminently such An Account of the Qualifications wherewith this Obedience of theirs is to be attended which are Singleness of Heart and a Chearful Mind Submission to the Censures of the Master another part of the Servants Duty even where they are rather frowardly than justly inflicted provided they be not often repeated nor prove intolerable An Appeal to the Magistrate in that case allowable but no violent Resistance in that or any other Of the Duty of Masters to their Servants and particularly to such as are Servants by Constraint or Slaves Where is shewn first That they ought to furnish them with Food and Rayment in such a proportion as may suffice the Necessities of Nature Secondly That they impose such Tasks upon them as are not above their Strength to undergo Thirdly Not to punish them above the demerit of their Crime or above what their Strength will bear And in sine That neither their Commands nor Punishments be extended any farther than the Laws of the Place give leave or Equity and Christian Charity permit It is however necessary for such Servants to submit to whatever is impos'd provided it be not above the proportion of their Strength partly upon the account of St. Paul's commanding Subjection to the Froward and partly upon the Account of that Life which is indulg'd them Of the Duty of Masters to Servants by Consent which to be sure comprehends 1. All things that are owing from them to Slaves 2. What they expresly covenant to afford them whether that be Wages or Instruction 3. To treat them agreeably to the Nature of that Service into which they are admitted 4. The exacting of due Labour from them and where they fail Chastisement 5. The restraining them from Vicious Courses and both prompting and obliging them to the Practice of Religious Duties Where both the Ground and Vsefulness of the Master 's so doing is declar'd WHAT Honour is due from us to those that have any thing of Dignity to commend them hath been already declar'd together with the Grounds upon which it stands It remains onely that we entreat of the Honour of such as are also in Authority and may command our Obedience as well as Respect I do not mean by vertue of any Publick Employment for what Honour is due to such hath been before sufficiently declar'd but by vertue of some Private Dominion such as is that of a Lord of a Mannor over his Tenants or of a Master of a Family over his Servants Of the former of these much need not be said whether as to the Necessity or the Kinds of Honour that are to be paid For holding their Lands from them upon condition of certain Rents Services and Homages to which they do moreover by Promise and Oath oblige themselves at their several Admissions to them the Benefit they enjoy by them and their own Compact shews the necessity of honouring them as the latter because particularly expressing them the Kinds of Honour they are to pay In consideration whereof as no Man of Conscience can pretend to withhold them were it onely for the Oath of God by which the Payment thereof is bound upon them so those who challenge this Honour from them are in reason to afford them that Protection Assistance and Redress which the Laws of the Land the Custom of the Place or the Nature of their Dominion doth require From this first Dominion pass we to that which is more general I mean that of the Master over his Servants Where first of all 1. I shall shew the Duty of Servants honouring their Masters 2. The Grounds upon which the Honour of them is built 3. What Kinds and Measure and Quality of Honour is due unto them 4. And lastly What is due from them again to their Servants 1. I begin with the first of these even the Duty of Servants honouring their Masters concerning which the Scriptures of the New Testament speak much and often as to that part of Honour which consists in Obedience and Submission But because when I descend to shew the Kinds of Honour they are to give them there will be a necessity of producing those Texts anew I shall content my self at present with that general Proof which St. Paul gives us in his First to Timothy and with that which this Commandment if well considered will be found to do For though the Letter of it specifie onely the Honour of Parents yet it sufficiently implies the Honour of other Superiours and particularly that Honour which is due from Servants to their Masters there being certainly a far greater Preeminence of a Master over his Servant than there is of a Father over his Child
at the receit of some Letters Into the contents whereof when they had with some curiosity enquired the Prince with a seeming great sorrow told them that he had received certain intelligence that the Archangel Gabriel was dead They to comfort him told him that certainly it could not be true and for their parts they did believe it to be impossible O Fathers replyed the Prince can you think it to be impossible for an Archangel to dye when you affirm the Godhead of Christ did By that Fiction of his plainly convincing them of that Errour which they had taken up concerning the Nature of our Saviour But why do we look into Ecclesiastical History which is less known and less approved when the like Instance occurs in the Sacred Scriptures and that too both in divinely inspired Men and in the delivery of their Message That I mean which it acquaints us with concerning Nathan's address to David and the address of one of the Sons of the Prophets to King Ahab For though a Parable when delivered as such that is to say as an Emblem of some concealed Truth have not the nature of a Falsity because it delivers nothing disagreeable to the mind of him that useth it nor yet with the Custom of the World by which such forms of expression are agreed upon as declarers of it no less than simple and natural ones yet the like cannot be said of a Parable when it is represented as a thing really acted and as such endeavoured to be imposed upon the hearers He who so doth speaking dissonantly both to Truth and his own Thoughts because convinced that that was not real which he suggests as such Which notwithstanding we shall find that even such have been used and upon such occasions also as will put the lawfulness thereof past all question For did not Nathan when sent to David to make him sensible of his sin in the matter of Vriah's Wife did not he I say upon that occasion begin a Story to David of two Men in one City the one rich and the other poor The former whereof when a Traveller came to him spared to take of his own Flocks but took the others only Ewe-lamb which lay in his bosom and was unto him as a Daughter and dressed it for the way-faring Man that was come unto him Nay did he not all along deliver it rather as a thing really acted than as a Parable and so that he convinced King David of the truth of it he immediately subjoining in agreement with Nathan's Story that the Person who had so done should restore the Lamb fourfold according to a Provision made in that behalf by the Levitical Law And indeed otherwise the Prophet Nathan's design might have been frustrated in making David so sensible of his guilt For if he had delivered it to him as a Parable the guilty conscience of David might have been more shye in condemning the action of the rich Person whom Nathan spoke of lest as it after hapned he should be forced to condemn himself But of all the instances which either Sacred or Profane Story suggest concerning the telling of Falsities to insinuate thereby some useful Truth there is certainly none more plain than that Story which was told by a young Prophet to Ahab upon occasion of letting go Benhadad King of Syria the sum of which in short is this One of the Sons of the Prophets being so instructed by God puts on the person and guise of a Man that had been ingaged in the Battel and that he might the better appear so for that in my opinion is the best account of that action commands first one and then another by the word of the Lord to smite him which accordingly that second did and wounded him as you may see 1 King 20.35 That done as the Story doth farther instruct us the Prophet departeth and having disguised himself farther with ashes upon his face waits for the King by the way At length the King comes and this concealed Prophet cryes out to him and tells him that when he went into the midst of the Battel behold a man turned aside and brought a Prisoner to him and said keep this man if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life or else thou shalt pay a Talent of Silver But it happened afterwards saith he that whilst I was busie here and there the man was gone and I thereby lyable to the Penalty Than which what more apparent instance can we desire of the telling of a Falsity thereby to insinuate some useful Truth It appearing both from the Antecedents and Consequents that this whole Story was not only a Fiction of the Prophets which all Parables are but which makes it a perfect Falsity represented not as the cover of some concealed Truth but as a Truth in it self and all the art imaginable used to make it appear so to be Neither will it avail to say as I find it is by some Learned Men that it ought not to be looked upon as such or at least not as a Lye because the intention thereof was not to deceive but to teach with the more elegancy and effectualness For beside that it is to me pretty apparent from a former Discourse of the nature of Truth and Falshood that to deceive is no essential part of the definition of a Lye though it be an inseparable accident of it even this Fiction of the Prophets can no more be acquitted from the design of deceiving than any other Officious Falsities For though the ultimate design of it was to bring the King to the sense of his sin in letting Benhadad go contrary to the Command of God yet the intermediate design of it was to deceive the King and make him believe what he told him to be a real Truth as without which he could not so easily have brought him to condemn his own action in that supposed action of the Prophet But what shall we then say to acquit this and the like actions from being to be looked upon as a sin Even that which was before said to acquit some others to wit That it was neither pernicious to the party to whom it was told which is one ground of the Prohibition of Falsities nor any way destructive of the significancy of those external marks which are agreed upon as the declarers of Mens minds All pretence of that being taken away by the Prophets immediately discovering it to be a Story and that he had no other end in it than to convince the King of his miscarriage He who not only detects the falseness of his own Story but gives an account of the Reason he made use of it leaving no pretence to Men to doubt of his sincere speaking in matters of another nature nor giving any countenance to the insincerity of theirs 3. Lastly As an Officious Falsity cannot be thought to prejudice the Authority and significancy of words where it is both made use of
from others For if that were a matter of rejoycing why should we make it a matter of Sorrow and when God calls so loudly to Joy and Gladness present him with all the Expressions of Grief And it calls to my mind that known Passage of the Book of Nehemiah where the People of Israel wept sore at the hearing of the Law for in stead of encouraging them in it Ezra who read the Law bad them go their way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing was prepar'd because that day was holy to the Lord Nehem. 8.9 plainly intimating that such a Return was no way becoming a Day of Gladness and if so neither a Christian one Sure I am as the Ancient Church * Tertull. de Coronâ Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus vel de geniculis adorare religiously abstain'd from fasting on the Lord's-day as no way suitable to the Business of it so the Apostles and the Church in their time not onely held their Lord's-Supper on it but those Feasts of Charity also which were the Attendants of it But neither is it less unreasonable if Men would consider it without prejudice to enjoyn Men so to keep up their Intention of Sacred Things as not to allow a Relaxation of it at their Meals For as it is absolutely impossible so long as we carry about us the Infirmities of Humane Nature to have our Thoughts always fix'd upon Heaven and Heavenly Things so by imposing it either upon our selves or others we make our selves the more unapt for the Publick Worship of God when we are call'd to the Celebration of it our preceding Intention taking off from that Vigour and Spriteliness which is requisite to the performance of it On the contrary if we would but for some time unbend our Cares or divert them to less serious purposes like those who run back to make the more advantageous Leap we should come on with the greater vigour and not onely not dishonour this Sacred Day but sanctifie it the more Having thus given our selves some respite from Religious Exercises and thereby fitted our selves for the more advantageous performance of it it will be time for us both to look back to the Duties we have pass'd and forward to the Duties that remain the former that if any thing have been amiss in them we may retract and bewail it the latter that we may come prepar'd to the due performance of them But of all the Duties that are to take up our Thoughts between the Morning and the Evening Sacrifice there is none which is more incumbent on us than a serious Reflexion upon those we have receiv'd from the Mouth of our Instructer For as otherwise they will be apt to slip out of our Minds and thereby deprive us of those Advantages which might otherwise accrue so unless we meditate upon them like Meat unchew'd they will contribute little to our Nourishment in those Spiritual Graces wherein we are to grow From a Reflexion upon what is past pass we to a Consideration of that which is to come even those several Publick Duties we are again to pass Where setting aside all other Thoughts we should endeavour to imprint in our Minds how much it concerns us to intend them For as by so doing we should be the more excited to implore the Divine Assistance without which it is impossible to be done so we should be much more apt to pay them that Regard which the Importance thereof doth require It being no slight Consideration where it is well inculcated that our Eternal Welfare doth depend upon it and that as we observe this Temporal Sabbath we may either attain or come short of that Eternal Sabbath in the Heavens For as there is no doubt our Eternal Welfare depends upon the performance of Religious Actions and particularly of those wherein the Honour of God is immediately concern'd so there will be little likelihood of our intending them at other times if we slight them over then when we have both leisure and all other requisite means to help us in the performance of them By these and such like Considerations if we arm our selves we shall be in a good disposition to offer up the Evening-Sacrifice which suppos'd we shall neither need any Incitement to the performance of it nor Direction after what manner we are to doit it being not hard especially after what was said concerning the Morning-Service to read our own Qualifications in those Duties which we are summoned to perform Suppose we now having laid down Rules for the Observation of it so far that the Religious Man hath assisted at the Evening Sacrifice and thereby acquitted himself of the Publick Duties of the Day yet even so there will not want wherewith to exercise himself till he commit himself to his Rest and unto God Not but that there is place for necessary Occasions and a moderate Relaxation of himself but that his Heart ought to be in a disposition to embrace all Occasions to do Honour to God and to the Day Among which I reckon chiefly the Meditating upon what he hath heard and Applying it to his own Soul it being for want of this that so many Souls perish which might otherwise have prov'd glorified ones They hear indeed what they ought and what they ought not to do they listen to the Judgments which God denounceth against the one to the Promises whereby he encourageth the performance of the other but taking no care afterwards to consider how far they are concern'd in either both the one and the other quickly vanish and they go on as securely as if they had nothing to fault in themselves or there were no other World to punish them though they had But not any longer to entertain the Mind of the Religious Man with such Things wherein God's Glory is immediately concern'd let us see whether he may not find Matter enough for his Lord's-day Service in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction in which St. James makes Religion in part to consist For though it be true that those are no part of the Worship of God or Christ for which especially this Day is set apart yet they draw so near towards it that they may not onely be thought to be a part of the Business of it but a considerable one our Saviour having told us that what is done unto the Sick and the Distressed he takes as done unto himself And accordingly as Justin Martyr * Apol. 2. p. 98. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us that Charity had a constant place even in their Publick Assemblies upon it the Rich according as they saw good contributing to that Stock out of which the Poor and the Necessitous were to be reliev'd so that that and other such like Works were no way improper to the Day St. Paul shews where he commands the Corinthians as he had before the Churches of Galatia to lay by them on