and thankfulnesse of the Elders Sibi victorias non attribuunt sed totum Deo ascribunt qui vires ipsis ad vincendum suggessit They do not attribute their victories to themselves but ascribe all to God who gave them strength to overcome Plinie reports that the Roman Generall after a Victory brought in his Garland and laid it in Jupiters lap in the Capitoll David doth the like speaking of his great preparations for the building of Gods Temple Who am I and what is my People that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee 1 Chron. 29.14 He ascribes all to the true God Non magnum est humilâ—m esse in abjestione sed magna prorsus rara virtus humilitas honorata Bern. in Cant. Ser. 33. It is no great matter to be humble in a low estate but it is certainly a great and a rare vertue for men in honor to be humble Non mirum est si ventus pulverem secum ferat rapiat Nos pulvis sumus Anselm de solitudine No wonder if the wind carry and snatch away the dust with it We are dust 4. Doct. A good man must seek for strength from God not in some of his actions alone but in all even in the least Without me ye can do nothing Ioh. 15.5 Reason The strength to do the least things is from God even to breath He giveth to all life and breath and all things Act. 17.25 And he can take it away when he please and so spoile all our actions His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Psal 146.4 Use It reproves those who pray not to God for a blessing on their ordinary labours Onely they seek unto him in difficult cases when they are at their wits end as Seamen pray in a storm Psal 107.27 28. It may be they pray not before they work and therefore God lets them be forty years as the Israelites in the Wildernesse about that which might be done in fourty daies 5. Doct. Such as seek for Gods help may expect Gods blessing Cail upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee Psal 50.14 Jabez called on the God of Israel saying Oh that thou wouldest blesse me indeed and enlarge my coast and that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldest keep me from evil that it may not grieve me And God granted him that which he requested 1 Chron. 4.10 Reason 1. He will make thy waies right 2. He will make them full and compleat 3. He will make them successefull Use See the reason why many mens waies prosper not They go on in their own strength God is not in all their thoughts Ps 10.4 So Pharaoh went desperately into the Sea and was drowned Ps 136.15 They seek not for strength from God and God will not blesse them 6. Doct. The chief director of our waies for good is God I have raised him up in righteousnesse and I will direct his waies he shall build my City Isa 45.13 I will direct their work in truth Isa 61.8 Reason 1. Because the wisest man in the world canot direct his own waies so as to make them alwaies succeed well O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himselfe it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Ier. 10.23 2. God hath wisdom enough to guide us through all difficulties Use Do nothing without Gods direction in his word A man that had an house to build would in all things follow the direction of a skilfull workman lest he lose his cost So let us follow Gods guidance Else all our labour is lost None desires to go astray out of his way except he be first gone out of his wits Every man will rather take a guide to directhim the right way and give money to that end If we be careful to acknowledge God in our waies we shal not wander out of them for we shal have a trusty guide who offereth himselfe freely in the Text to direct our paths God led the Israelites through the wildernesse not the shortest but the safest way So wil God do for all them that make him their guide The Athenians conceived that their Goddess Minerva turned all their evil counsels into good to them the Romans thought their Goddesse Videlia set them again in the right way when at any time they were out All this and more then is undoubtedly done by the true God for all that commit their waies unto him and depend upon him for direction and successe Then may we conclude This God is our God for ever and ever he wil be our guide even unto death Psal 48.14 VER 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil IN this verse is a scale of duties consisting of three steps Mans forsaking his own wisdome leads him to the fear of God and the fear of God keeps him from sin A promise of health followes in the next verse for the words Be not wise See on Chap. 1.5 In thine own eyes See on Chap. 1.17 on the word sight For the phrase being wise in our own eyes is being so in our own conceit as the Doway Bible reads it and it comprehends these particulars under it that a man should not think himselfe sufficiently wise so as by that he should be able to guide himselfe in all his actions to know what is right what wrong what successe will follow good or bad and that he hath a deeper reach then other men and is able to dive into the greatest matters Solomon doth not say be not wise for then should he contradict other scriptures and himselfe too that bid us labour for wisdome his meaning is not then that we should not seek to understand scripture and to be able to give a reason of all we do and know when we judge aright of things and when not for that were to make a man a beast but that he should not think himselfe wiser then other godly men nor at any time oppose his own wisdom to God take heed alwaies that his judgment be not blinded by natural ignorance or selfe-love it differs a little from leaning to our own understanding Verse 5. This is the cause that the effect we lean to our own understanding because we are wise in our own eyes This is in the judgment that in the affection of confidence this is Theorical that is Practical There may also be a Meiofis in it think meanly of thy selfe take notice of thine own ignorance and think other men wiser then thy selfe fear the Lord. See on Chap. 1.7 And depart The word signifies to turn away from a thing which a man dislikes From evil It is put 1. for evil of sin which is the cause 2. of trouble which is the effect He that avoides the first shal escape the last the first is
had if it had a being and who can alter the form of that which is eternall And so by consequence God made not the world And scoffers will grow more bold and say All things continne not as they were from the beginning of the Creation 2 Pet. 3.3 4. But as they were before the Creation from eternity 2. Doct. The wolrd was made by God Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Job 38.4 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth Ps 33.6 Reason 1. Because it was not from eternity as appears by the changes in it 2. It made not iâ— self That were a contradiction It could not be in fieri facto made and to be made both at one time It must then work before it be 3. There was none else before the world was to make it but God onely If an house be found in an Island wherein never any man but one was hee must needs build that house 4. None else had wisdom enough to do such a work if there had been men or Angells before the world As no beast could build the foresaid house if there had been many in the Island Use Give God the glory of it and of all the comforts ye enjoy here or shall in heaven 3. Doct. God sheweth wonderfull wisdom in making the world O Lord how manifold are thy workes in wisdom hast thou made them all Psal 104.24 To him that by wisdom made the Heaven Ps 136.5 Reason 1. Because he made this spacious world out of nothing The wisest man in the world or Angell in Heaven cannot work without matter But God made the whole world of nothing Onely his infinite wisdome could doe such a work 2. That excellency that is in the world shews the Makers infinite wisdom What is the most curious picture of a man beast tree star to the thing it self Like a dark shadow to the shining Sun So low do mens best works lie below Gods This shews that the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men 1 Cor. 1.25 For that work of God in which he shews least wisdom argues more then that wherein the wisest man in the world shews most 3. Because of the variety of these excellent workes both of severall kinds and of severall dispositions in each kind Stars Rivers Trees Beasts Men Angells Hills Vallies what thosands of each No created wisdom can number them much lesse make them How many thousands of men are in the world yet every face differs from one another 4. Because of their excellent order The stars are above our heads to give light the air about us to breath in the Earth under us to tread on Severall grounds for corn pasture gardens orchards What not Vse 1. Let us in the view of the creatures not onely take delight in the fight and use of them but also take notice of the wisdome of the Creatour and praise him for it The Earth is a Colledge built by God that in it we may study his wisdom The Heavens a Common-wealth or Kingdom established by him The Sun the King the Moon the Queen the Starrs the Nobility Clouds the commons Spheres the Provinces So we see a mans wisdom in his workes and books and God shews us his in the Heavens and in his Law Psal 19.1 7. Comparata omnia creata ad Deum sicut artificia ad artificem Recuperus All created things compared to God are as artificiall works to the cunning workman As they shew the workmans wisdom so do these Gods Yea much more For if we admire a watch made by the art of man for the rare workmanship and frame of the wheels and their motions how much more should we admire the wisdom of God in making the glorious lights of Heaven with their revolutions without which no watch could exactly measure time And in the variety of earthly creatures without which our lives could afford us no comfort 2. Use Take heed of finding any faults in the workes of God They were all made in wisdom though thy shallow brain cannot reach them 4. Doct. God upholds the Earth strangely The world is established that it cannot be moved Ps 93.1 No man can tell whereupon the Foundations of the Earth are fastned God poses Job with this question Iob 38.6 and may pose all the world They must answer with him God hangeth the Earth upon nothing Job 26.1 And that 1. Because there is nothing above it or under it to uphold it It is the lowest Element and the Heavens above cannot uphold it 2. Because it is above the power of nature to do it or to know how it is done Use When we tread on the earth let us take notice who upholds it and makes it able to uphold us No creature can do it The earth would sink under us if God did not strangely uphold it for us Give God the glory then of your sustentation 5. Doct. God preserves the heavens and heavenly creatures in their motion It is God that in them hath set a Tabernacle for the Sun to run a race Psal 19.4 5. Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and of the evening to rejoyce Psal 65.8 Reason 1. Because the Heavens and the Sun Moon and stars have no principle of life in them whereby to move themselves much lesse of reason to direct them in their various courses 2. Because no creature either man or angell hath wisdom or power enough to do it Use Take occasion from the daily motion of the heavenly bodies to blesse God our spirits are comforted and bodies directed by them they are watches to keep time for us God keeps them in their motion else would they deceive us and deprive us of their light and comfort Doct 6. All manner of wisdom is in God It is expressed by divers words in the Text Wisdome and Vnderstanding We may well cry out with the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 Reas 1. His word shews it to us in which are the grounds of all arts and sciences and higher things then they 2. His works shew it none hath wisdom to do the like Use Be humble and see thine own folly be thou never so wise thou art but a fool in respect of God thou wantest some wisdome he hath all Thou mayest say of thy wisdom as David of his age Psal 39.5 My wisdome is nothing before thee Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity Selah VER 20. By his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew GODS infinite wisdome was set out in the former verse by the higher parts of the world the heavens and by the lower the earth or as was mentioned in the former verse by setling solid substances there and liquid ones here and by ordering the two middle elements aire and water For the words By his knowledge Not by
body businesse and societie of friends yea and in Soul also for the Soul hath a fellow-feeling of the bodies joy or sorrow in regard of the neer conjunction of them 2. From the contrary because sicknesses and diseases are threatned as crosses and sometimes as curses See Deut. 28.29 c. The leprosie of Naeman shall sleave unto thee and unto thy seed for evers 2 Kings 5.27 3. Because health fits us for duty to God and men sicknesse makes us unserviceable to both Use To inform us that we may lawfully pray for health because in it self it is a blessing Spirituall blessings are best worth asking yet temporall not to be despised 5. Doct. Prosperity also is a blessing in it self the Devill confesses it to be so to Iob. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands his substance is encreased in the land Job 1.10 Abraham's servant confesses it in his Master The Lord hath blessed my Master greatly and he is become great and he hath given him flocks and heards and silver and gold and men-servants and maid-servants and Camells and Asses Gen 24.35 Reason 1. Because it is a gift of God I will give thee riches and wealth and honor 2 Chron. 1.12 2. He hath given it to some of his choisest servants as to Abraham Joseph David Solomon Use Abuse it not to luxury or oppression To be naught thy self more freely or to hurt others more powerfully Remember outward prosperity is Gods gift use it then to Gods honor and bless him for it Take heed it proves not as Tertullian calls it Campus quo ambitio decurrat A field in which ambition may run his course 6. Doct. Long life health prosperity are sometimes the rewards of well doing and obedience If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land Isa 1.19 O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy peace been as a river Isa 48.18 That is thy prosperity as was shewed in the exposition of the Text. Reason 1. Because of Gods bounty who besides Heaven often gives comforts to his here 2. Because of mans frailty who is by prosperity much encouraged to obedience and discouraged by the contrary 1. Object Godly men oftentimes live but a while and in much pain and and poverty Answ Besides what was said before on the third Doctrine I answer 1. That their obedience is but in part and the reward is answerable 2. Promises of outward things are but conditionall And God by short life or sorrows keeps them from corruption or persecution and trouble 3. God gives them a longer and better life in Heaven So God verifies his promise with advantage As if a man should promise twenty shilling a week for a year and at the first months end void the bargain and give the party a thousand pound What cause had the receiver to complain either of falshood in the promiser or of losse to himself 4. Their short life have more sun-shiny daies and true and spirituall comforts there then any wicked mans long life Summer fruit may be as ripe as winter fruit though gathered some months before Use 1. It blames those who think that the study of wisdom and piety shortens their childrens daies They say they are too wise or too good to live long Such bring up their children foolishly and impiously and so shorten their daies which they would prolong 2. It encourages us to get wisdom and obedience Ungodly men think there is no better way in the world to make them live long then to be merry and to put away sorrow by letting slip the bridle to all manner of concupiscence but let us remember that a long healthfull prosperous life is the reward of obedience and live accordingly VERSE 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee bind them about thy neck write them upon the Table of thine heart NOw follow particular duties to bee performed to God and Man enterlarded with many excellent promises and rewards for encouragement to obedience And first the wise man begins with two duties to men setting the Exhortation to mercy and truth in this Verse and the encouraging promise in the next For the words Let not mercy and truth These two are oft enjoyned together in Scripture and it is pitty that they being so nearly joyned in themselves should ever be separated Sometimes they are jointly attributed to God His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Psal 100.5 His merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord eudureth for ever 117.2 Sometimes to man Mercy and truth preserve the King Chap. 20.28 When they are attributed to God then Gods mercy is shewed in promising or giving man any good that deserves nothing but ill of him His truh is shewed in performance of his promises When they are spoken of man then is mercy seen in giving freely to the poor who deserve nothing of us yea to enemies who deserve ill of us Truth is manifested in doing what we owe by promise or debt to men Misericordia est gratia qua ex nostro libero animo benefacimus alteri non ex debito non ex passione Veritas quâ exclusa omni fictione adaequamus facta dictis verba cordi cordebitis Gratia qua gratuita veritas qua debita exhibemus Cajeetan Mercy is favour whereby out of our own free mind we doe good to another man not out of debt not out of passion Truth is that vertue whereby shutting out all feigning we do equall our deeds to our words our words to our haart our heart to our debts Grace or mercy is whereby we give free things Truth whereby we pay or restore things due to others Some interpret the Text here of Gods mercy and truth and that two waies 1. So carry thy self that God may deal mercifully and truly with thee But this cannot be the sense For though a man may so carry himself that God will not deal mercifully with him yet he cannot carry himself so badly that God will not deal truly with him for that were a blemish to God If he be upright God will perform his promises to him if not God will execute his threatnings upon him whichsoever God doth he shewes forth his truth 2. By way of promise not of exhortation And they read it Mercy and truth shall not forsake thee And they tie it to the former words if thou forget not my Law c. then God wil deal mercifully with thee and perform all his promises to thee But 1. This crosses the ordinary sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a prohibition and that without need 2. The words following are imperative 3. In the first and second Verses ye have a prohibition and promise This method is also observed in the verses following and most likly so here in this Verse and the next The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 1. Mercy or favour All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth Psal
eyes stand out with fatnesse Psal 73.7 c. Yet he saw they were set on slippery places c. verse 18. There is great odds between a Bullock kept wel for labour and an Oxe fatted for the slaughter and between a body fat and flourishing by good meat and an other swelled with tumours by bad So Joshua and Caleb died in Canaan in a good old age who obeyed God when thousands of Rebels died in the Wildernesse Use 1. To reprove those that spend much money in Physick and yet overthrow the health and strength of their bodies by sinful courses they forget the Text A godly life is health to the navil c. 2. To perswade us to use this new prescript for bodily health Most men love to try new medicines yet this new perhaps to us is as old as Solomon and hath found many a probatum est both in Scripture and in after times Physicians need not be angry with me for this prescript for God would have their art used also but this never to be neglected There is none of us but if we were assured the Physicians potion would heal would take it though troublesome and hard We are wont to say There is nothing but I will do it so I may recover health Use this direction and thou shalt be sure either to have health here or happinesse in heaven Doct. 2. Health is a great blessing It is the first question we ask concerning our friends Art thou in health my brother 2 Sam. 20.9 Is he wel Gen. 29.6 It is the answer to the same question Thy servant our father is in good health Gen. 43.28 Reason 1. No other earthly comfort is pleasing without it Wee take no content in friends children wealth in sicknesse 2. The contrary shews it Great and lasting diseases are very burdensome Use Praise God for it that thou liest not groning in thy bed sick of the stone or gout or some other painfull disease but art able to goe about thy businesse and take comfort in thine Remember it is a great mercy and undeserved be thankfull for it and walk worthy of it 3. Doct. Bodily strength is a great blessing It is commended in Davids worthies and in Sampson Reason 1. It serves for a mans own defence The weakest goes to the wall 2. For the defence of our Country which would bee over-run by cruel enemies if stout souldiers did not defend it Use It is then lawfull to pray for strength of body so it bee with submission to the will of God 4. Doct. The more full our health and strength is the greater is the blessing His hand was restored whole as the other Mar. 3.5 Immedintely the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked Ioh. 5.9 Are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day Ioh. 7.23 Reason Because it is so in all blessings spirituall and corporeall The greater measure the greater blessing if not abused Use Let such as have compleat health and strength endeavour to do God more and greater service then weaker men Else have they a greater account to give of these Talents VERSE 9. Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase IN this Verse is a costly commandment for the maintenance of Gods worship more heavy then the former because it toucheth the purse And lest men should think that the way to beggar themselves as many doe he addes a suitable reward Verse 10. a great and unlooked for increase So much doth Gods judgements differ from mans For the words Honor. Shew that due respect thou owest to God Our cost for Gods worship must not be done for by-ends or that wee may get glory but that God may be honoured And indeed though God need it not nor wee can adde nothing to him thereby yet God counts himself honoured not onely by our humble confession of our own folly and confidence in his bounty spoken of before but also by using those outward means which God gives us to maintain his worship and service In maintaining whereof seek his praise not thine else hee accounts thou dost not honour him but thy self The Lord. See on Chap. 1.7 With thy substance With thy wealth For the word see on Chap. 1.13 Bain an English man a Cambridge Scholer but professour at Paris accurately distinguishes betweene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 increase The former signifies Wealth as Gold and Silver which we do not use immediately for food or apparell and increase intends the yearly income of corne cattell fruit All these are Gods blessings and God must bee honoured with them all But it must be thy substance not other mens gotten by thy labour or by gift or inheritance not by defrauding or oppressing others And with the first fruits See on Chap. 1.7 on the word Beginning It is the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the originall It may be taken for the first or for the best of our crops or Harvest Of all Not of some See on Chap. 1.13 Thy increase For the word see on the words before in this Verse With thy substance Some bring in here giving to the poor and the vulgar Bible very boldly addes it in the Text Dapauperibus Give to the poor of the first of all thy corn or fruits But the translator forgot that all the first fruits were for Aaron and his sons and for them to eat Numb 18.9 10. And the poor might no more eat of them then the rich And here it is worth the noting that the Doway Popish English translation the Ape of the vulgar for the most part here leaves it and reads Give to him that is to the Lord. Here it is meant of Leviticall dues at the time of the writing of it as tithes in the beginning of the Verse and first fruits in the end of it And by the rule of equity requires cost for the maintenance of Gods worship and the furtherances of it under the new Testament For by these is God more immediately honoured then by giving to the poor Thus men doe homage to God in paying dues to Gods Ministers required by the Laws where they live and by gifts to pious uses in their life or at their death Figures none Note 1. An Act. Honour 2. The Object The Lord. 3. The matter wherewith God is to be honoured which is double 1. With thy substance 2. With the first fruits of all thine increase In which observe 1. The Subject Of thine increase 2. The Adjuncts 1. Of quality With the first fruits 2. Of Quantity All. 1. Doct. Men must bee at cost to maintain the service God Bring ye all the tiths into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house Mal. 3.10 See Davids resolution I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing 2 Sam. 24.24 Reason 1. Because we owe so
good we are corrected Doct. 6. We must not be weary of afflictions though they be great and frequent Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners lest ye be weary and faint in your minds ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin Heb. 3.4 Thou hast born and hast patience and for my names-sake hast laboured and hast not fainted Rev. 2.3 Reas 1. Because we are Gods creatures He hath supream and absolute power over us and therefore may lay on us what he will Say with the Jews We are the clay and thou our potter Isa 64.8 2. Fainting makes us unfit for all good duties either of religion or of our callings we can do nothing truly good or acceptable to God without cheerfulnesse A weary man cannot walk or work with comfort his spirits are spent already Use 1. To reprove such as are weary and faint under afflictions some bear little ones or great ones a while and then give over some utterly despair of help and conclude they are quite undone others mur mur against God others seek freedome by unlawfull meanes as Saul by a Witch All these faint under Gods hand and sin against him This is the other extream we heard before that some made light of afflictions and sleighted them now we see that others despair sink under them Non quia dura sed quia molles patimur Not because the things are hard but because we that suffer are tender Seneca Though it be profitable for us to be arflicted yet our flesh is impatient and desires nothing but pleasure and ease and so discourages us under affliction as if God intended to destroy us the Devill tells us as much and we are ready to believe him But we should not forget the exhortation which speaketh unto us as unto children My son despise not thou the chastning of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Heb. 12.5 2. Resolve still to bear while God afflicts remember it is for correction not for confusion And that we are naturally impatient and had need of patience which as Nazianzen calls it is Nervus animae the sinew of the soul Say with Tertullian Totus mundus mihi pereat dum modo patientiam lueis faciam Let me lose all the world so I may get patience Lib. de patientia If that shrinks all failes if afflictions like waves of the sea come rouling one in the neck of another expostulate not with God but pray and wait for deliverance be such as the Apostle bids you to be Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 VER 12. For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father the son in whum he delighteth BEcause as it is a hard thing to part with our substance for God so it is as hard if not harder to endure Gods correcting hand which we are alwaies ready to suspect to come out of hatred therefore Solomon takes away that thought and assures us that such corrections come from Gods love and tend to our good For the words For. See on Chap. 1.9 Whom the Lord. See on Chap. 1.7 Loveth See on Chap. 1.22 He correcteth The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 1. To reason a case by arguments and answers How forcible are right words But what doth your arguing reprove Job 6.25 Should he reason with unprofitable talk Job 15.3 2. To convince confute or reprove such as are in the wrong Do ye imagine to reprove words Job 6.26 3. To correct or scourge one for sin O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure Psal 6.1 And in that sense it is taken here See more on Chap. 9.7 Even as a father See on Chap. 1.8 The son See on Chap. 1.1.8 In whom he delighteth With whom he is wel pleased The sum of the verse is as if Solomon had said Thou must not despise nor be weary of Gods correction because it comes not out of anger but from abundance of love For as a godly Father seeks by correction to amend his child or a wise Physitian to cure his patient by bitter potions so doth God use by afflictions to keep every one in order whom hee loves or to call him back if he have sinned lest he grow worse and lose the comfortable sense of Gods favour For as Parents according to the flesh use to correct their children according to their offence when they neglect their duty or do evill so doth God exercise his children with crosses that they may not be proud or live loosely but more warily and wisely for time to come Figures none Note 1. The truth nakedly set down 2. By Smilitude In the former note 1. The word of coherence For. 2. The Agent The Lord. 3. The Act. Correcteth 4. The Patient Whom he loveth In the latter note 1. The Note of similitude Even as 2. The Corrector The Father 3. The corrected set out 1. By his relation The Son Not the servant onely 2. By his Fathers affection In whom he delighteth Abraham must offer Isaac whom he loves Gen. 22.2 God offers up his Son Christ in whom he is well pleased Math. 3.17 Though God chastise his children sorely yet he takes pleasure in them 1. Doct. God gives reasons of his proceedings that need not give any at all So in the preface to the commandemens Exod. 20.1 c. Ye must obey for I am Jehovah that gave you your being I am your God in convenant with you and I shewed my love to you in bringing you out of Aegypt In the second Commandment God reasons from his jealousie to idolaters and his kindnesse to true worshippers and their posterity long after them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me And she wing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments In the third Commandement hee argues from his judgements on such as abuse his name For the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vain In the fourth from his liberall allowance of six daies to us for our own occasions who may well therefore afford him one in seven Six daies maist thou labour do all thy work For so indeed it should be translated being a permission not a command for labour in our callings belongs to the eighth Commandement And from his own example who after six daies worke rested one day For in six daies the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it In the fifth Commandment from the good that comes by honouring Parents A long and comfortable life which all men desire That thy daies may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee There are no reasons given for the rest because mans reason can