143 Fasting in what sense a part of Gods worship 69 Seâ—eral grounds of fasting ibid. Twelve ordinary sins that goes before fasting 70 71 Twenty ordinary sins in fasting ennumeratâ—d 71 72 Thirteen Instances of ordinary failings after fasting 72 Father how to be understood in the fifth command 191 Whâ—â— Loâ—e the Father owes to the Son and what the Son to the Father 104 Whether the Father or the Magistrate should be obeyed when commanding contrary things ib. Fornication the several sorts of it with its aggravations 217 Frugality what it is Eight Characters of it 255 G. GAin when lawful and honest 250 251 Several wayes of dishonest gain â—nnumâ—rated 241 Gâ—ds Who make unto themselves other Gods beside the Lord. 26 Gluttony how against the 7 Command 226 Divers considerations tending to discover when we sin in eating 227. to 229. Diver's necessary Rules for râ—gulâ—ting our eating and drinking 22â— H. HAtred of God how a breach of the first Command 3â— Hâ—â— every sin is interpreted hâ—â—red and every â—â—enâ—r a hatred of God 75. 76 How â—orrupting of Gods worship is reckoned hatred of God in a special manner 76 Hair how sinfully abused 223 Honour what mentioned in the fifth Commandment imports 192 193 Why Honouring our neighbour is commanded before other dutiâ—s of the second table 197 Whâ—râ—in honouring our neigâ—bour câ—nsists and what it imports ibid. Hâ—w honour differeth from love ibid. Whether outward expressions of honour be alwayes necessary ibid. What is centrary to this â—â—nour we owe to our neighbour 198. 199 Whether wicked men may be honoured 199. 200 Whether rich men fâ—ould be honoured 200 The place Jam â— 1 2. explained ibid. How the honour we owe in a good man differs from that we owe to others alike in outward respects ibid. Whether we may seek our own honour and how 201 How we should prefer another to our selves 201. 202 Humility required by the fifth Command a threefold Consideration of it How the Pagan moralists were strangers to it The advantages of it In what things its most necessary The opposites of it 205. to 208 I. IDleness the sinfulness of it 181 182 Idolatry 7. distinctions of it 19 20 Five wayes of more subtile heart idolatry 20 How to discover each of these 20 21 The ordinary objects of this great idolatry Instanced in 11. particulars 22 What be the most subtile Idols shewed in six particulars 24 A Twofold Idolatry especially forbidden to the Israelites and condemned in them 34 The Idolatry forbidden in the second command in six particulars 43. 44 Jealousie what it importeth and how attributed to God 72 73 Ignorance of the Law The sad effects of it 1. 2 How a breach of the first Command 28 Several distinctions of it explained ibid. How it exâ—useth and how not 29 Images of any of the 3 Persons in the blâ—ssed Triniâ—â— proved to be unlawful 35 Objections answered 35 â—6 The Command forbidding Images proved to be distinct from the first 34 What Images may be â—awfully made ibid. When are Images of creatures abused 36 Images of Heathen Gods as Mâ—rs Cupid c. prohibited 37 Impatience â—ow it appears and how a breach of the first Command 31 Imprecations whether lawful or not 83 Incest when committed and wherein the unnaturalness of it stands 216 K. KNowledge of God required in the first Command 18. See ignorance L. LAw the excellency and usefulness of it 1 How the moral Law obligeth â—s now 2 The distinction of the decalogue as a Law and as a Covenant cleared 4 How the Law was given to Adam in innocency how to Israel and how is Believers now 10 The extent of the Law shewed in seven respects 9 Several wayes of abusing the Law 11 Some directions for right using of it ibid. Like-makes and drâ—gies the sinfulness of them 47 Lots or Lotting defined 106 How the use of them concerns the third Command 107 Several divisions of Lots and which of them are lawful which not 107. 108 What is necessary to lawful Lotting 1 8 Cautions for preventing abuse of them 108 109 Lusory Lots proved unlawful 109 110 111 Some objection an wered ibid. Love to God why called the first and great commandment 188 What Love may be allowed to the Creature without breath of the first Command 25 Whether we ought to Love all man alike 194 In what respects may we make a difference ibid. What are the grounds of a lawful difference in our Love 195 How Love to the Godly differeth from common Love to others ibid. How we may love wicked men ibid. What self love is lawful what not 196 Lust how early it entred into the world 214 Several degrees of unnatural Lusts 216 See Concupiscence Lye what it is and when one is guilty of it 263 Four sorts of Lyes 264 How many wayes we wrong our neighbour by Lying 264. 265 Of Lying in Court of Justice how the Judge and how the Advocate may be guilty as well â—s a false witness 267 Life the taking away of our own cleared to be forbidden in the sixth Command 209 How many wayes one may be guilty of this ibid. How we may sin against the bodily Life of others 210 How against the Life of their souls 210 211 How against their Life of contentment 211 M. MArriage how many wayes men sin in Contracting of it 218 How one may sin against the seventh Command even in a Married state ibid. How one may sin in dissolving of Marriage 218 219 Mother vvhy mentioned in the first Command 192 Moral all the precepts in the decalogue not moral in the same sense 5 See Sabbath Murther several distinctions of it 212 How its committed in the heart how iâ— words gestures deeds 212 213 How Magistrates may be guilty of it ibid. Self Murder how forbidden 109 See Life N. NAme what is meant by the Name of God 77 What it is to take this Name in vain 78 What is necessary to the reverent mentioning of the Name of God ibid. Why the taking of this Name in vain is so peremptorily prohibited 79 Eight ordinary wayes of taking the Lords Name in vain 102. 103 How the Name of God is taken in vain in ordinances and duties 103 How to prevent this sin in duties 104 How â—oâ— know vvhen guilty of it 104 106 Why the taking of God Name in vain iâ— so threatened and punished even beyond other sins 115. 116 How it comes that this sin is so ordinary 116 117 Directions for the prevention of it ibid. Neighbour to be honoured and loved 191 How vve should love and honour our neighbour 193. 194 See honour and love O. OAth five things to be considered in it 80 How one Oath differs from an asseveration 81 That its unlawful to swear by Angels Saints or other Creatures proved ibid. The difference between promissory and assertory Oaths and between promissory Oaths and Vows shewed 83 84 A threefold matter of an Oath and a threefold occasion of swearing ibid. Of expresse
Superiours their due yet so as that it teacheth them also how to carry toward their Inferiours that is to be Fathers to them and that the relation necessarily implyeth a mutual tye therefore this Command doth not only direct inferiours in their duty towards Superiours but also Superiours in their duty to their Inferiours 2. They get this name to make their subjection to each other and their mutual relations and duties the more sweet and kindly when the subjection is to be given as by a Son to a Father and when it is exacted and expected as by a Father from a Son which consideration should be a kindly motive to all mutual duties and also an inducement to hide infirmities and to construct tenderly of failings And thus the denomination of the natural relation seems to be borrowed to establish and strengthen the positive Relation which of its self is noâ— so binding of the Conscience by Nature's light So much for the Object of thus Duty The Duty it self here called for is honour which is also largely to be understood both as it taketh in the inward esteem of others in our heart and also the evidencing of this in outward expresions in our conversation For by this Command it appeareth that there is 1. Some eminencie in every man 2. That every one should observe that and honour it in another What is it then to honour them It is not to complement them and only seemingly to reverence them but it consisteth especially in these 1. In observing and acknowledging what is eminent in any for nature grace station or other accidental things and if there appear no more in a man yet as he beareth any thing of Gods Image or is a Christian and Member of Christs Church he is thus to be honoured 2. There ought to be an esteem of him and we should really have an honourable account of him and that in some respect beyond our selves in some one thing or other 3. It lyeth much in love and kindly or affectionate reverence as is hinted Rom. 12. 10. 4. It taketh in obedience according to our stations flowing from a disposition of heart to obey Heb. 13 17. 5. It reacheth both to the thought of the heart and to our secret carriage there should not be in our secret chamber any despising or wishing ill to him Eccles 10 20. 6. It comprehendeth a holy fear and aw that should be joyned with it Lev. 19. 3. Honour being thus fixed in the heart it is to be expressed 1. In words by respective and reverent speaking and giving answers or making suits Sarah called her Husband Lord 1. Pet 3. 6. 2. It is expressed in gestures by bowing rising up keeping silence sometimes before others Job 29. not answering again Tit. 2. 9. saluting c. Col. 4. 15. 3. In deeds by obedience and testifying respect that way which is generally called gratitude therefore obedience to Parents Eph. 6. 1. is drawn from this Command which presseth obedience upon men according to their relations 4. In our means communicating thereof when it is called for so tribute to whom tribute is due Rom. 13. 7. and double honour to the Elders that rule well 1 Tim 5. 17. acording to the acceptation of honour used in that precept Honour the Lord with thy substance Prov. 3. 9. 5. In our prayers for them 2 Tim. 2. 1. 6. In covering their infirmities Gen. 9. 21. 22. As the breaches of this Command may be easily gathered hence as being opposite to these so this rule is alwayes to be carried along in practice that this honour and obedience must be still in the Lord that is there must be a reserving to the Lord his due for God is the supreme Father and all our respect to under-fathers of the flesh is to be subordinate to the Father of Spirits Heb. 12. 9. so as he may have the first place for whose cause we give reverence to them so that word is still true Acts 4 19. It is better to obey God then man man is only to be obeyed in the Lord Ephes 6. 1. And thus refusing to comply with unjust commands is not disobedience to Parents but high obedience to God the refusal being conveyed respectfully and after the due manner Again the branches of this Command are exceeding large two things by it are especially called for 1. Love 2 Honour and whatever is opposite to and inconsistent with these is a breach of this Command wherein we are to observe 1. The object of our love and respect it is all men 1 Pet. 2. 17. Honour all men love the Brotherhood our Neighbour here in the largest sense comprehending all men 2. Consider that the act of love and honour that is required is most intense we must love onr Neighbour as our self and this reacheth far 3. Consider that it taketh in all that is our Neighbours his name fame credit and estate c. but especially love to his salvation because in this mostly doth his concernment lye 4. It taketh in all midses or means that are for his true honouring â—r the vindicating of of his name when he is defamed hence Psalm 15. it is the property of an accurate walker nâ—t to takâ— up an evil report against his Neighbour even when it is brought to him and laid before him 5. Yet there is a difference to be observed in the putting forth of our love and testifying of our respect for we should love him as our selves but in giving respect and honour we are to prefer others to our selves to love our Neighbours as our selves importeth the kind and reality of our love we are to love him no less truly then our selves for we also come in here as the objects of our own love but we are some way to honour him beyond our selves If it be asked How can that be 1. That one should love all men Should we love them all alike and equally And 2. ought we to prefer every man to our selves To the former we say 1. This Command requireth as to the object that we love all men excluding none from our love good or bad while they are within the roll of men capable to be prayed for friend or enemy for we should love them that hate us and bless them that curse us 2. As to the main things destred or the subject matter of our wishes for them our love should be alike toward all our love being a willing of good to others we should desire the greatest good to all men that is peace with God Christ Heaven Sanctification Repentance c. that lead to it there is here no inequality nor two Heavens a greater and a lesser to be the subject matter of our wishes and desires 3. If we consider our love as to the act of loving in the kind of it it is equal we being called to love sincerely cordialy and with the whole heart perfectly every man If ye ask then Wherein is there any difference allowed Answ If
we consider 1. The effects of this Love they may and ought to be more manifested towards one then another we are to pray more for one then another to communicate and to distribute more to one then to another according to the opportunities we have and according to the particulare relations and callings that God putteth us in for beside our general relation to all men we have particular relations to some beyond others hence may a man do more for his Children and these of his own house then for others so may we pray for some men more and oftner as their necessity is concerned and as they may be more useful 2. In respect of frequencie our Love may and ought to vent it self more frequently towards some then others and so it differeth from that general Love we owe to all 3. In respect of sympathy we are to be more touched with the hurt and hazard of some and more sensibly desirous of their good then of that of others and so our love ought to affect us more and stir more sensibly in reference to some then others as in the case of a woman toward her Child and of one dear friend to another such was the sympathy between Jonathan and David who thought they loved many others yet was there a more peculiar sympathy betwixt themselves as to all things that concerned them good and evil thus may arise from natural relalions particular obligations mutual familiarity and others special grounds 4 According to the diversity of concurrent circumstances we may sometimes wish temporal good to one and sometimes temporal rods to another providing alwayes it be out of a true desire of and respect to their spiritual good 5 In respect of complacencie and delight accompanying the Act of loving there may be a difference for there may be much more delight and satisfaction in loving one then another as there appeareth more of holiness in one then another so godly men love even natural men if of good parts civil and friendly more then others that are destitute of such qualifications but it men be also gracious they not only love them the more but also acquiesce the more and have the greater complacencie in them on that account If it be asked from whence these differences as to the effects of our love do flow Answ They may arise 1. From natural relations 2. From the difference that is among men in their carriages humours and such like as they are less or more ingaging 3. From external circumstances of acquaintance familiarity or particular ingagements 4. From favours so men may love their benefactors more in the forementioned sense then others 5. From civil relations and intrests 6 They may arise from a religious and christian interest and relation so we are to love the godly not only more then other men in the world but also we are to love them 1. on another account than we love others to wit because they are such because they are true members of the same body are loved of God and have his Image shining in them 2. With more delight and acquieseing complacencie as David doth Psal 16. 3. 3. There should be another way of venting our love to them then to others both in spiritual and temporal things thus loving the Brotherhood is distinguished 1 Pet. 2. 17. from loving or honouring all men so also the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10 is especially to be considered in our love If it be asked then How differeth love to the godly from common love Answ That there is a difference is clear from the forcited Scriptures Psal 16. 3. 1 Pet 2. 17. and from 2 Pet. 1. 7. where brotherly kindness is distinguished from charity In a word then it differeth 1. In it's acquiescing complacencie though there may be some sort of complacencie comparatively in others yet simply and properly it is to be exercised toward the godly 2. It is on another account as is said to wit as they are loved of God love to them runneth in another channel and hath another spring and rise Matth. 10 ult 3. It should be in a more high and intense degree as to its exercise because God is more concerned in them and though good should be done to all yet especially to this houshold of Faith And the manifestation of our love even towards the godly may be less or more according as less or more of God appeareth in them or in their way If it be further asked How we can love wicked men and if their being such should not marr our love to them Answ We speak not here of such as are debarred from the prayers of the people of God and who are known to have sinned the sin which is against the Holy Ghost nor do we speak indefinitely of final enemies these according to all being excluded from our love But we say that other particular wicked men as to their persons whatever hatred we may bear to their evil deeds are to be loved in the forementioned sense yet their wickedness may 1. marr complacencie in them that they cannot nor ought not to be delighted in nor with pleasure conversed with 2. It may marr the effects of love in the evidences and manifestations of them for that Christians may yea and sometimes should keep up all or most testimonies of it from some is clear from the Apostles direction enjoyning the noticing of some that they may be ashamed 2 Thess 3. 14. 3. It may marr love in ordering its exercises yea and occasion the seemingly contrary effects as their wishing for and doing of some things temporally adverse and cross to them for their greater shame and humiliation as is evident in the Psalmists prayer Psalm 83. 16. Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord so some out of love are to be corrected ye punished temporally yet with a desire of and respect to their eternal wealfare If it be yet asked If and how one is to love himself Answ self-Self-love is so connatural to us that in effect it is the mediate result of our sense of life and consequently the very relish endearment of all enjoyments the spring of self preservation and the best measure pointed out by our Lord himself of the love and duty that we owe to others which as it is the mean whereby we taste and see that God is good and how great his goodness is to us so it ought principally to refer it self and all its pleasing objects to him as the fountain of all who is indeed Love but yet it is that wherein ordinarly men do much exceed as especially these following wayes 1. They exceed in it when themselves are proposed as the end of their own actions as it is â— Tim. 3. 2. when their own things sway more with them and are sought more by them then 1. the things of God to which the first place is alwayes due and 2. then publick things and the things of
others even in the cases wherein these do require the preference 2. When it is terminated on the wrong object as when they run out in the immoderate pursuit of bodily and temporal things caring more if not only for the body neglecting the better part 3. When it is laid out for the pleasing of corrupt self and the making of provision for the Flesh to fulfil its Lusts Rom. 13. 14. Self love under these considerations is corrupt and to be guarded against Answ 2. Self love or love to our self is allowable when qualified with the following properties 1. When it is subservient and subordinate to higher ends and can hazard it self and deny it self for Gods honour for a publick good yea and in some cases out of respect to the good of others also so a righteous man should and when at himself will do much though with his own hazard for a Christian friend for the safety or edification of the Godly or in defence of the inte rest of Christ 2. When it is drawen out after spiritual things and it 's on these mostly that pains are taken as how to grow in grace to have a good conscience to have the soul saved sin mortified c. 3. when outward things are desired for the former ends as when we pray Give us this day our daily bread that we may promove these ends being willing to want them when they may not stand with these ends and desiring life means c. in so far only as they may be useful for the attainment of them As the first self-love marreth duties to God and thwarteth with them so the second advanceth them and sweyeth strongly yet sweetly to them Again This Command is the first in order of the second Table and is peculiarly backed with a promise to shew the concernment of the duty called for the scope of it being to regulate that respect which each on oweth to another that they may give each other due honour as the first effect of love and the great band of all the other commands and enjoyned duties of the second Table God being pleased to provide for that respect and honour that is due from one man to another as well as for the security of their persons and estates yea in some respect he preferreth this Command to wit that one hurt not another in their honour and estimation to these other relating to their persons and estates and therefore he requireth honour in the first place and afterward injoyneth the duties of not killing not stealing c. And although every man doth love respect and estimation among others yet there is nothing wherein more liberally and even prodigally men incroach upon one another then by the neglect and denyal of this duty and by the contrary sin though it be most directly op posite to love and that general equity commanded whereby we should Do to others as we would have them to do to us Therefore we conceive the Lord hath preferred this to the other five Commands and hath so backed it with a promise and also set it down positively Honour thy Father c. for this end that we may know it is not enough not to despise them if they be not also positively honoured by us even as it is not enough not to prophane the Lords day by common and unnecessary works if we do not positively sanctifie it And it is not for nought that this duty is so much pressed being a main bond of Christian and Civil Fellowship keeping folks within the just bounds and limits which God hath set unto them If it be asked What this duty of honouring our Neighbour doth include Answ It doth include these five things 1. Respect to our Neighbours person 2. to his place 3. to his qualifications either as he is furnished with natural or moral abilities or as he is gracious 4. to his accidental furniture in externals a riches credit with others c. so David honoured Nabal 5. in respect of mens actions as they deserve or as they have done or atchieved any thing where by good cometh or may come to the Church or Commonwealth Honour includeth the giving respect to onr Neighbour in all these If it be asked If and how honour differeth from love Answ It differeth from love in that love properly considereth men more generally as they are capable of good which we wish unto them but this considereth them more particularly as so and so qualified and having such and such things in them deserving respect for honour being bearing of testimony to something worthy of respect in such a one it doth first consider what is worthy of honour in the person that so it may bear a testimony truly according as it findeth ground If it be asked Whether ontward expressive evidences of honour are alwayes to be given to the persons honoured Answ Although indeed in honouring of God there needeth not alwayes an external expressive evidence of it as for instance a man may in the croud of Company honour God by ejaculatory Prayer without such external expression as Nehemiah did in the presence of the King and Queen cap. 2. v. 4. yet honour given to others must not only have the acknowledging of something worthy of estimation within that it degenerate not into dissimulation as the ordinary complementing strain doth but must also have expressions without to bear witness unto that which is within in gesture words or other wayes as men are called to the giving of them If it be asked What honour doth import and what may be comprehended under it Answ Under honour are comprehended 1 Charitable constructions of mens actions whereby what is doubtful is exponed to the best It will not nor ought not I grant determin a man to esteem every man gracious whom he knoweth not to be prophane nor every thing to be truth spoken by him which he knoweth not to be false But 1. it will keep a man from running into the extream of contrary judging of him as wicked false carnal natural graceless a lamentable ill amongst even good people too ready often to give such designations and epithes to their Neighbours whether inferiour or superiour to them on very little ground and sometimes to persons who without breach of charity may be supposed for true Religion not to be much if any thing at all short of themselves or such an one as some may call him even though he know nothing of his goodness yet because he knoweth not his evil he forbeareth to conclude so harshly of him 2. It will make him live with him as to him at least negatively gracious and accept of what he saith for truth not knowing any thing to the contrary in so far as Christian prudence will permit him and thus far a charitable construction will lead us in reference to our Neighbour for we are not bound positively without ground to determine a thing to be right or wrong or a man gracious or wicked when
when we declare a thing otherwayes then we know or think it to be and as no man can lye for himself for his own safety so can he not for anothers thus to lye even for God is a fault and accounted to be talking deceitfully and wickedly for him when â—o keep off what we account dishonourable to him we will assert that he may or may not do such a thing when yet the contrary is true Job 13. 4. 7. 3. There is jâ—cosâ—m mendacium when it is for sport to make others laugh and be merry which being sinful in it self can be no matter of lawful sport to make others laugh 4. We may add one more and that is mendacium temerarium when men lye and have no end before them but through inadvertency and customary loosness speak otherwayes then the thing is this is called the way oâ— lying Psal 119. 29. and is certainly sinful as when they told David when Aâ—non was killed that all the Kings sons were killed being too hasty in concluding before they had tryed 3. Consider lyes or untruths either in things doctrinal or in matters of fact In things doctrinal so false Teachers and their followers are guilty who teach and believe lies so such Teachers are said 1 Tim. 4. â— to speak lyes and so when they foretel vain events this is a high degree of lend lying on the Lord to say he meaneth or sayeth another thing then ever he thought or then ever came into his heart and to pretend a commission from him when he giveth no such commission In matters of fact men are guilty when things are said to be done when they are not done or otherwayes done then they are done indeed 4. We may consider this sin in mens practise either in reference to God so hypocrisie and unanswerableness to our profession is lying Psal â—8 36. and Isa â—9 13. or we may consider it as betwixt man and man which is more properly the scope here Again we may consider the wronging of a man three wayes 1. By false reports speaking what is indeed untruth 2. By â—aiâ— reports which tend to his shame so Deut. 5. 20. this Command is repeated in these words Thou shalt not take up any witness as it is in the original against thy neighbour 3. When the reports are malicious whether they be true or false and intended for that end that our neighbour may lose his good name Further consider it in reference to the person guilty either as he is 1. the raiser or carrier of a tale true or false yet tending to the prejudice of his neighbour thus he is the maker of a lye or 2. as he is a hearer or receiver of tales Prov. 17. 4. Thus he is to lying as a resetter is to theft and would not men hear tales few would carry them whereas when men will hearken to lyes especially great men all their servants ordinarily become wicked tale-bearers and whisperers or 3. as he is the sufferer albeit he be not the venter of a lying tale to pass on his neighbour so he loveth a lye as it is Revel 22. 8. or but faintly purgeth him of it but letteth it either lye on him or possibly taketh it up and repeateth it again which is condemned Psalm 15. 3. where a man that taketh up an evil report of his neighbour even when others possibly have laid it down is looked upon as a person who shall never dwell with God Thus one inventeth alye another venteth and outeth it and a third resetteth it like coyners spreaders and resetters of false money for that one said such a thing will not warrant our repeating of it again 5. We may consider wrongs done to our Neighbour by words as unjust and without all ground and so a lye is a caluâ—â—ty as was that of Zâ—ba made of his Master Mephibosheth this is in Latin calumnia or when there is ground yet when they are spoken to his prejudice this is convitium if especially in this they suffer for the truths sake or if after repentance former faults be cast up to a person as if one should have called Paul a blasphemer shall even after his conversion and repentance of this was Sâ—imei guilty by railing on David 6. Both these sorts of lyes are either spoken or received and not afterward rejected as David too hastily received that false report made of Mephibosheth by his servant Ziba and thinking it not unlikely because the reporter made it seem to be so did therefore conclude it was truth and did not reject it afterwards or when at first received yet after upon better information it is rejected 7. Again this wronging of our neighbour by words is either of him when absent and this is backbiting which often is done under pretence of much respect that the report may stick the faster in such like words as these He is one I wiâ—h well and should be loath â—o have him evil reported of but this is too evident this is the truth c. this is susurrare to whisper Or it is of him when present so it is a reproach and indignity or upbraiding 8. Again this backbiting and reproaching is either direct so that men may easily know we hate such persons or it is indirect granting some what to his commendation and using such prefaces as in shew bear out much love but are purposely designed to make the wound given by the tongue the deeper such persons are as butter in their words but as sharp swords in their hearts this is that dissembling love which David complaineth of 9. Sometimes this reproaching and slandering of our Neighbour is out of spleen against him and is malicious sometimes out of envy to raise and exalt ones self on the ruines of another this is grassari in famam proximi sometimes it is out of design thereby to insinuate upon them whom we speak unto as to signifie our freedom unto them to please them or praise them by crying down another that is to serve the itching humour of such who love the praise of others when it may be we know no faults of those we speak to yet never open our mouth to them of one of these nor are we free with them anent them if the things be true 10. We may break this Command by speaking truth 1. For an evil end as Doeg did Psal 52. 2. 2. by telling something that is truth out of revenge 3 When it is done without discretion so it shameth more then edifieth Christs word is Matth. 18. 15. Tell him his fault betwixt thee and him alone and we on the contrary make it an upcast to him this certainly is not right 4. When it is minced and all not told which if told might alleviate or construed and wrested to a wrong end as did the witnesses who deponed against Christ 11. We may break this Command and fall in the extremity of speaking too much good of or to our neighbour as well as by
the Spiritual Holy Just and good Law the Royal Law binding uâ—to the Obedience of God our King the Law which Jesus Christ came not to destroy but to fulfil whereof he is the end for Righteousness to every on that believeth which doth as a School moster lead to Him by discovering the holy nature will of God and mens duty to walk conformly to it by convincing of the most sinful pollution of our nature heart and life of universal disconformity to it and innumerable transgressions of it of the obligation to the wrath and curse of God because of the same of uâ—â—er inability to keep it and to help our selves out of this sinful and wrathful estate by humbling under the conviction and sense of both by putting on to the Renunciation of self-righteousness or righteousness according to this Law And finally by convincing of the absolute and indiâ—â—â—nsable necessity of an other righteousness and so of this imputed righteousnesâ— the law that is so very necessary to all men in common and to every Regenerate and unrâ—generate man in particular from which â—re one jote or title can pass unfulfilled Heaven and Earth must pass and which the Prince of Pastors infinitely skilful to pitch pertiâ—â—nt subjects of Preaching amongst many others made choice of to be a main subject of that solemn Sermon of his on the Mount wherein he did not as many would â—ave expectâ—d soar alost in abstruse contemplations but graciously stooped and condescended to our câ—â—â—â—ity for catching of us by a plain familiar and practical exposition of the Commands as indeed Religion lyeth not in high flown notions and curious speculations nor in great swellings of words but in the single and sedulous practise of these things that are generally looked on 〈◊〉 low and common as the great art of Preaching lyeth in the powerful pressing thereof infinâ—â—ting of how much moment the right uuderstanding of them is and how much Religion lyâ—â—â— in the serious study of suitable obedience thereto not in order to justification but for glorifying God who justifieth freely by his grate through the Redemption that is in Jesus without which Obedience or holiness no man shall see the Lord. And if the Treatise bear but any tolereable proportion to such a Text and Theam it cannot but have its own excellency and that thou maâ—st be induced to think it doth I shall need only to tell thee that it is though alass posthumous and for any thing I know never by him intended for the Press otherwise it had been much more full for â—e is much shorter on the commands of the second Table then on these of the first touching only on some chief heads not judging it fit belike at that time and in that exercise to wit Sabbath-day-morning Lectures before Sermon to dwell long on that subject which a particular prosecution would have necessitated him to especially since he was at that same time to the same auditory Preaching Sabbath afternoons on the third chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians a subject much of the same nature but what he saith is material and excellent great Mr. Durhams who had some excellency peculiar to himself in what he spoke or writ as appeareth by his singular and some way Sâ—raphick comment on the Revelation wherein with Aquiline-sharp-sightedness from the top of the high mountain of fellowship with God he hath deeply pryed into and struck up a great light in several mysterious things much hid even from many wise and sagacious men before And by his most sweet and savoury yet most solid exposition of the Song of Solomon smelling strong of morâ— than ordinary acquaintance with and experience of thâ—se several influxes of the love of Jesus Christ upon the Soul and effluxes of its love the fruit and effect of His towards Him wherewith that delightful discourse is richly as it were imbroydered The greatest realities though indeed sublime spiritualities most plainly asserted by God and most powerfully experienced by the Godly whose Souls are more livelily affected with them than their very external senses are by the rarest and most remarkable objects and no wonder since every thing the more spiritual it is hath in it tâ—â— greater reality and worketh the more strongly and efficaciously however of late by an unparalieledly-bold black mouthed blasphemous Scribler nefariously neck named Fine Romances oâ— the secret Amouts betwixt the Lord Christ and the believing Soul told by the Non-conformists-preachers What are these and the like Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than Wine Thy name is as an Oyntment poured forth therefore the Virgins love thee We will remember thy love more than Wine the upright love thee Behold thou art fair my beloved yea pleasant also our bed is green A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me he shall lye all night betwixt my breasts I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste He brought me to the Banqueting-house and his Banner â—ver me was love Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples for I am sick of love His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth imbrace me My beloved is mine and I am his I am my beloveds and his desire is towards me I found him whom my Soul loved I held him and would not let him go Set me as a seal upon thy heart and as a seal on thine arm Love is strong as death many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it I charge you O Daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved that ye tell him I am sick of love Come my beloved let us go up early to the Vine-yards let 〈◊〉 see if the Vines flourish there will I give the my loves make hast my beloved be thou like to a Râ—e or to a young Heart on the Mountains of Spices How fair and how pleasant art thâ—â— O love for delights O my Dove let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely thou hast ravished my â—eart my Sister my Spouse with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck turn away thine eyes from me for they have over come me He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love If ye keep my Commandements ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandements and abide in his love The love of Christ constraineth us we love him because he first loved 〈◊〉 the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us whom â—aving not seen ye love whom though now ye see him
by Titus Livius lib. 7. In the Consulship of C. Sulpitius Petieus and C. Lucinius Stole Anno ab urb cond 390. in the time of the great and raging pestilence wherein Furius Camillus Dictator and Deliverer of Rome from the Gaules died wherein for procuring the mercy of the Gods there was a lectisterne but when by no device of man nor help of the Gods the violence of the plague could be asswaged their minds were so possest with superstition that the Stage-playes were as men say first invented that is belike Playes in that pompous ludicrous effeminate and luxurious mode on the Stage which had never before been used in the City for several Playes they had ere this time a strange device for a martial people who before time for most part at least accustomed to behold games of activity and strength in the great lift called Circus and from this small beginning sayes he in a second and wholsome State this folly grew to such a height of madness as is untolerable to the most opulent States and Empires and yet these Playes so brought in and set forth called by Florus in his Breviary on that Book new and strange Religions imployed about a religious business did neither rid mens minds of scruple and superstition nor ease their bodies Thus they are condemned as superstition and an innovation of their old Religion by these two famous Heathen Historians The fourth may be that which is made mention of by Tit. Livius also towards the end of his 40-Book concerning Fulvius Flaccus fellow-Consul with his own German-brother L. Manlius Occidinus Ann. ab urb cond 575. Who declared that before he would meddle with his Office he would discharge both himself and the City of duty towards the Gods in paying the Vows that he had made on that same day that he had his last battel with the Celtiberians anent the celebraeting Playes to the honour of the most mighty and gracious God Jupiter and to build a Temple to Fortuna Aequestris and accordingly levied a great Tax for that end which behoved to be retrenched because of the exorbitancy of it The fifth and last shall be that which is touched by Pol. Virg. ubi prius pag. 377. concerning the Romans their taking care for Apollo his Playes which were first dedicated to him in the time of the second punick War for obtaining Victory from him to drive Hannibal out of Italy To these may be added what Spondanus in his Eccles Annal. pag. 263. reports from Zozimus concerning Constantine the Great when he returned victorious over the Germans to Millan That he quite neglected and contemned such Playes to the great grief of the Heathens who alledged that these Playes were instituted by the Gods for the cure of the pestilence and other diseases and for averting of wars From all which it is manifest that the original of these Stage-playes and such others was from the Devil and celebrated by the Heathens to the honour and worship of their Devil-Gods in way of religious Sacrifices to them either as pacificatory or gratificatory with whom in their Idolatries and superstitions the Scriptures forbid all symbolizing and fellowship Let us hear now in the next place some more of these Fathers speak their own and the Churches thoughts a little more particularly of Stage-playes with respect to such grounds having heard some of them already Clem. Alex. orat adhort adv Gentes calls Stage-playes Comedies and amorous Poems teachers of Adultery and defilers of mens ears with Fornications and sayes That not onely the use the sight the hearing but the very memory of Stage-playes should be abolished And else-where for I do here purposely forbear very particular citations because ordinary Readers will not much if at all search after them and the Learned that have a mind to it will easily find them out tells Christian youths That their Paedagogues must not lead them to Playes or Theaters that may not unfitly be called the chairs of Pestilence because these Conventicles where men and women meet together promiscuously to behold one another are the occasion of leudness and there they give or plot wicked counsel Cyprian de spect stiles Theaters the stewes of publick Chastity the mastership of obscenity which teach these sins in publick that men may more usually and easily commit them in private he learneth to commit who accustometh himself to behold the theatrical representations of uncleanness It is not lawful for faithful Christians yea it is altogether unlawful to be present at these Playes And elsewhere he saith She that perchance came a chast Matron to the Playes goes away a Strumpet from the Play-house We may here notice what the Satyrical Poet Juvenal sayes to this purpose Sat. 6. That a man in his time could not pick one chast woman whom he might safely love as his wife out of the whole Play-house and that all women who frequent Stage-playes are infamous and forfeit their good names It were good that our women who love and haunt such Playes would consider this as also what is reported of Sempronius Sophus a noble Roman who divorced from his Wife for this alone cause that she frequented Stage-playes without his knowledge which might make her an Adulteress which Divorce the whole Roman Senate did approve though it was the very first they did approve as being a mean to keep women chaste So great an enemy to chastity were these Playes judged to be which is touched by Rhodiginus amongst others in his Antique Lections lib. 28. cap. 16. Tertullian calls the Play-house the Chappel of Venery the House of Letchery the Consistory of uncleanness And in his Apol. adv Gent. We renounce your Spectacles and Stage-playes even as we reject their original which we know to have had their conception from Superstition we have nothing at all to do with the fury of your Circus with the dishonesty of the Theater we come not at all to your Playes Origen in Epist ad Rom. sayes That Christians must not lift up their eyes to Stage-playes the pleasurable delights of polluted eyes lest their lusts be inflamed by them Lactantius de vero cultu sayes That these Interludes with which men are delighted and whereat they are willingly present because they are the greatest instigations to Vice and the most powerful instrument to corrupt mens minds are wholly to be abolished from amongst us Greg. Naz. de rect educ calls Stage-players the Servants of lewdness and Stage-playes the dishonest unseemly instructions of lascivious men who repute nothing filthy but modesty and Play-houses the Lascivious chops of all filthiness and impurity Ambrose in Psal 118. stiles Stage-playes spectacles of vanity by which the Devil conveys incentives of pleasure to mens hearts Let us therefore sayes he turn away our eyes from these vanities and Stage-playes Hierom. Epist ad Salvinam Have nothing to do with Stage-playes because they are the pleasing incendiaries of mens lusts Augustine de Civ Dei brands Stage-playes with this black mark
subtil and dangerous Idols 5. Give some rules whereby ye may try this sin of Idolatry even when it is most subtil And 1. Idolatry may be distinguished 1. Into Idolatry against the first Commandment when worship is not directed to the right but to the wrong object and Idolatry against the second Commandment which striketh against the prescribed manner of worshipping God We are now to speak to the first 2. This Idolatry is either 1. Doctrinal or Idolatry in the Judgement when one professedly believeth such a thing beside God to have some Divinity in it as Heathens do of their Mars and Jupiter and Papists do of their Saints Or 2. It is practical when men believe no such thing and will not own any such Opinion yet on the matter they are guilty of the same thing as covetous men c. The first taketh in all Heathens Turks Hereticks that by their Doctrines and Opinions wrong the true God or his worship The second taketh in all self-seeking ambitious covetous and voluptuous persons c. who fall in with the former in their practise though not in Opinion 3. It may be distinguished into Idolatry that hath something for its object as the Egyptians worshipped Beasts and the Persians the Sun or Fire and that which has nothing but mens imaginations for its object as these who worship feigned Gods in which respect the Apostle saith an Idol is nothing 1 Cor. 8. 4. 4. We would distinguish betwixt the objects of Idolatry and they are either such as are in themselves simply sinful as Devils prophane men or they are such as are good in themselves but abused and wronged when they are made objects of Idolatry as Angels Saints Sun Moon c. 5. Distinguish betwixt Idolatry that is more gross and professed and that which is more latent subtil and denied This distinction is like that before mentioned into Opinion and practise and much coincideth with it 6. Distinguish betwixt Heart-Idolatry Ezek. 14. Exod. 14. 11. 12. and 16 2 3. and external Idolatry the former consisteth in an inward heart-respect to some Idol as this tumultuous people were inslaved to their case and bellies in the last two fore-cited places the other in some external Idolatrous gesture or action In practical Idolatry we are to distinguish betwixt the letting out of our affections upon simply sinful objects and the letting them out excessively upon lawful objects Thus men are guilty of Idolatry with sinful objects when they love and covet another mans House Wife or Goods when things unlawful and forbidden have the heart Again men are guilty of Idolatry in making lawful objects Idols as when by excess or inordinateness of love to their own Means Wife House c. they put them in Gods room as Nebuchadnezzar did with Babylon Dan. 4. 30. So then in the former sense men make their lusts or sins whatever they be their Idols Gluttons that serve their appetite Drunkards their drunkenness make their Bellies and Appetite their Idol for to whatever men yield themselves to obey they are servants unto that which they obey Rom. 6. 16. An Idol is something excessively esteemed of and Idolatry is the transferring of Gods due outwardly or inwardly to what is not God whether we esteem it God or not We shall first speak of practical Heart-Idolatry especially when lawful things are made Idols which is the most subtil kind of Idolatry and that which men most ordinarily fall into And it may be cleared these five wayes by all which men give that which is due to God unto Creatures There are five things that are incontrovertibly due to God to wit 1. Estimation and honour above all 2. Love with all the heart 3. Confidence and trust 4. Fear and reverence 5. Service and obedience First then men commit Idolatry when any thing even any lawful thing getteth too much respect from them so that their happiness is placed in it and they can less abide to want it in effect whatever they may say in words then Communion with God himself When men have such an excessive esteem of Wife Children Houses Lands great Places c. and when they are taken from them they cry as Micah Judge 18. 24. Ye have taken away my Gods from me and what have I more When all the other contentments a man hath yea all the Promises and God himself also proveth but of little value to him in respect of some particular he is deprived of by some cross Despensation it is a token it had too much of his heart Try this by two things 1. When any beloved thing is threatned to be removed it then appeareth how it is affected and stuck unto 2. What is made use of to make up that see a notable difference betwixt David and his men or most of them 1 Sam. 30. 6. when he wanted asmuch as they they know no way to make it up therefore they think of stoning him but he incourageth himself in the Lord his God they had no more left at all its like he hath his God abiding in whom he may yet be comforted The second way whereby men commit Idolatry with Creatures is in their love which is due to God with all the heart but men ordinarily give away their hearts to Creatures in being addicted to them in their desires seeking excessively after them in their doating on them or sorrowing immoderately for want of them Hence the covetous man who loveth the world 1 John 2. 15. is called an Idolater Coloss 3. 5. Ephes 5. 5. Thus it discovered it self in Achab who so loved Naboths Vineyard that he could not rest without it So Demas idolized the World when for love of it he forsook his service with the Apostle though it had been but for a time 2 Tim. 4. 10. Mens love to Creatures is excessive 1. When their contentment so dependeth upon them as they fret when they cannot come at the enjoyment of them as we may see in Achab when he cannot get Naboths Vineyard and in Rachel for want of Children 2. When it stands in competition with God and duty to him is shufled out from respect and love to the World or any thing in it as we see in Demas 2 Tim. 4. 10. 3. Though duty be not altogether thrust out yet when love to these things marreth us in that zealous way of performing duty to God as it did in Eli 1 Sam. 2. 24. who is said to honour and love his Children above God vers 29. not that he forbore them altogether but because his sharpness was not such as it should have been and as it is like it would have been had not they been his own Sons whom he too much loved whereas to the contrary it is spoken to Abrahams commendadation that he loved God because he with-held not his only Son when God called for him 3. The third is when confidence and trust is placed in any thing beside God to wit excessively as before we said of
is not consistent with his absolute Perfection Purity and Holiness as that he doth or can do wrong change not keep his Promises or not guide the World wisely that he hath any bodily shape or may be comprehended 3. When what is due to God as Faith Hope Love Fear c. is given to Creatures whether to Idols litterally or to Men to Saints Angels Ordinances as the Sacraments Stars Herbs Gold Physicians c. when too much weight is laid on them or any thing not agreeing to them is ascribed to them by which Witchcraft Charming Covetousness Judicial Astrology c. are reproved as drawing the hearts of men away from the living God If it be asked May not some things in the World be loved and may not some confidence be placed in men means c. I answer Love may be given to some things and naturally is called for to some things but 1. Not simply but with subordination to God not for themselves but out of obedience to God and as they may be usefull to us in helping us to honour him and as they are his gifts 2. We are not excessively to love or rest on these but so as from love to God we be ready to quit yea to hate them as Christ speaketh of Father and Mother Luke 14. 26. Again there may be some kind of confidence given to some things but 1. Not simply nor 2. For themselves 3. Nor alwayes 4. Nor in all things but 1. This confidence must be subordinate to Gods appointment 2. It must be with dependance on his blessing for making means effectual and so may we expect health from Meat Drink Physick c. for they are looked on as means conducing to such an end and yet it is the Lord alone that must be rested on 3. There may be comparative confidence whereby men lean more to one mean then to another as more to a skillful Physician then to an unskillfull and more to an Army as to overcoming an Enemy then when it is wanting because that confidence is in some external thing and concerneth not Salvation and but compareth means amongst themselves as they are ordinarily made use of by God for attaining these ends but in this case the means are not simply confided in Next we are to consider that this Command may be broken all these ways in four respects 1. In Doctrine as when men maintain such things as dishonour God or give his due to Creatures and do teach them Matth. 5 33. to 38. 2. By Opinion or Judgement as suppose men should not vent and publish such things yet if they in their heart think or believe so Psal 14. v. 1. 3. Though it come not to a setled judgement but only reacheth the imaginations so that loose unbecoming thought of God or misapprehensions derogatory to him are entertained as Psal 50. 21. Acts 17. 29. 4. In practise when men live as if there were no God Psal 36. v. 1. as if he were not omniscient just c. these do indeed deny him whatever be their profession to the contrary Tit. 1. 16. Thus all propane men who live loosly are guilty as also formal Hypocrites who rest on the out-side of duties Therefore in the third place we are to consider that this Commandment in the extent thereof doth condemn 1. All gross Idolaters of any sort who usually are mentioned under the name of Heathens 2. Jews who worship not the true God in his Son Jesus Christ 3. All Hereticks that deny the Godhead of any of the Persons as Sabellians who make but one Person Arrians who make Christ a Made-God Photinians who make him a pure Man and all that make a plurality of Gods or that lessen the Divine Attributes and give to Saints Gods due in Adoration or Invocation or in a word whoever contradict any Truth or maintain any Errour for thereby they fasten it upon God and his Word and wrong him who owneth no such thing And to these may be added all ignorant persons who know not God 4. All prophane men whether Atheists in heart or in practise disobedient persons indeed denying God and not giving him his due which is obedience whatever in words they profess concerning him 5. All Hypocrites who give him but an an outside service and so are not in their obedience sinćere and perfect as before him 6. All Compacters with the Devil who consult him or who leave Gods way and seek to come to the knowledge of any thing by an unlawful way which is 1. To meddle with Gods Secrets when he has not revealed them 2. It is to be beholden to Gods Enemy the Devil for revealing such things 3. It is a making use of an unwarrantable mean which has no blessing Promised to it therefore cannot be used as a mean with subordination to God even though the matter enquired after by such means or by the Devil be such as he may know 7. All charming by words herbs or such means as God hath not appointed for that end or which have no Natural and Physical Efficacy for bringing it forth as in seeking health from Witches when there must be words so often repeated or they must be said fasting or going backward c. all laying weight on these or the like circumstances without any reason 8. All Spells fearing of events and using superstitious means to prevent these as laying bits of Timber at doors carrying a Bible meerly for a Charm without using it esteeming dayes and times unlucky and unfortunate these draw men off from God to some other thing Of this sort is all Divining by Lots Stars Rods or any other way not having a Warrant to find out some secret or to know something that is to come it being Gods Property and Prerogative to declare what is to come Isai 41. for when there is no Efficacy no Reason in the mean used the Effect must be looked for either from God or from the Devil Now when God has neither put it naturally in the mean nor by his revealed Will any way warranted it as sometimes he doth as when he appointed Washing in Jordan for curing Naamans Leprosie and Anointing in the Primitive times for healing the Sick it cannot be from him Hence sometimes one Charm or word to one at one time will do what it never doth to another These means have alway some circumstance in word or action immediately and explicitly or implicitly flowing from the Devil which may be good in it self yet has no force for the end and so draweth men to own the Devils Institution which is exceeding derogatory to the honour of God 4. We gather the breaches of this Commandment from the duties that are required in it such as Faith Love Obedience Hope Fear Knowledge c. in which we may fail these ways in the general 1. When we want these Graces or perform not these duties required 2. When they are counterfeited and not real as when our humility is not real our prayers
love to Creatures hatred of God not as he is good but as he is averse from sinful men prohibiting what they love and punishing them for committing sin for it is impossible for men to serve two Masters as Sin and God but the one must be loved and the other hated And is there any thing more ordinary then love to sin which is evil and hatred of God which is the great Good which appeareth in little zeal for him and little reverencing of him 5. Consider what is opposite to Fear and Reverence and there you will find much carnal security and vain confidence in it obstinacy stout-heartedness little trembling at his Word not being affected with his Judgments rashness and irreverence in his Service whereas there is a general fear in all our walk called for Prov. 23. 17. We ought to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long and there is a peculiar fear called for in the Ordinances of his Worship Eccles 12. 23. Mal. 1. 6. which was commended in Levi Mal. 2. 5. On the other hand opposite to this is that carnal fear and anxiety which is commonly called servile and slavish fear and the fear of man which bringeth a snare Prov. 29. 25. 6. Look after the breaches of this Commandment by considering what is contrary to the obedience we owe to him as God and our God Now internal and external obedience may both be comprehended in this every man ought wholly to give away himself and the use of all his faculties and members for the Glory of God and to him only and to none other And this requireth a practise that is compleat both as to the inward bent of the will and heart and also as to all the external parts thereof which being seriously pondered O! how often will we find this Commandment broken as the particular comparing of our life with the Word and the explication of the rest of the Commandments may easily clear and discover 7. The sin of impatience which is opposite to that patience and submission we owe to God in his wayes and Dispensations is one of the special breaches of this Commandment it is very broad and doth many wayes discover it self As 1. In fretting at Events which befall us 2. In not submitting chearfully to Gods way with us but repining against it 3. In wishing things had fallen out otherwise then God hath disposed 4. In limiting God and prescribing to him thinking that things might have been better otherwise 5. In not behaving himself thankfully for what he doth even when his Dispensations and cross and afflicting 8. This Commandment is broken by the many sins which are opposite to that Adoration and high esteem that we should have of God in our hearts he ought to have the Throne and be set far up in our minds and affections but oh how many are there that will not have one serious thought of him in many dayes and are far from being taken up with him or wondering at him and his way with sinners c. Lastly When Invocation and Prayer is slighted this Commandment is broken when he is not by calling upon him acknowledging in every thing and particularly when internal prayer in frequent ejaculations to God as Nehemiah 2. 4. is neglected Now if all these were extended to our selves and these we have interest in and that in thoughts words and deeds according to all the former general rules what guilt would be found to lye upon every one of us in reference to his Attributes Relations to us and Works for us and as these hold him forth to be worshipped as such so when that is slighted or neglected it cannot but infer great guilt especially when his due is not given by such as we are to such as he is it maketh us exceedingly guilty and though the same thing be oâ—ten mentioned yet it is under a divers consideration for as one thing may break more Commandments then one so may one thing divers ways break one and the same Commandment as it opposeth or marreth divers Graces and Duties The second Commandment Exod. 20. 4 5 6. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in he Earth beneath or that is in the Waters under the Earth Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and â—he wing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments THis Commandment is more largely set down then the former partly to clear the Mandatory part of it and partly to press it in which two it may be taken up The preceptive or commanding part is expressed in two things v. 4. and v. 5. at the beginning 1. That no Image be made And 2. That it be not worshipped Next it is pressed three wayes 1. From a reason 2. By a threatning 3. By a Promise The words are multiplied that they may the more fully and clearly express what is intended 1. That this Commandment is against all making of Images for Religious service is clear from a threefold extent mentioned in the Prohibition 1. The Image of nothing in Heaven above or the Earth beneath or under the Earth that is the similitude of no Creature is allowed for this end 2. Men are forbidden to make either similitude or likeness that is no sort of Image whether that which is ingrave in or hewn out of stone wood silver c. or that which is made by painting all kinds are discharged 3. No sort of worship or service religious is to be given to them whether mediate or immediate whether primarily as to themselves or secondarily with respect to that which they represent This is understood under the second part of the Commandment Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve or worship them under which two all external reverence is discharged which is clear from the reason adjoyned because God is jealous and he will not only not endure Idolatry but whatever may look like it as a jealous Husband will not abide any suspicious-like carriage in his Wife That we may have the clearer access to the meaning use of this Commandment let us see 1. What is the scope of it 2. Wherein it is different from the former The scope of this Commandment is not meeâ—ly and only to forbid making and worshipping of Images which is the most gross way of abusing the worship of God but under that to forbid all manner of grosness in the external worship of God and to command exactness and preciseness in it as well as internal worship according to the Rule prescribed there anent by the Lord and so this Commandment includeth all externals commanded in the Ceremonial Law and doth forbid all will-worship and superstition in the worship of God
men if he deal with them in Justice may expect from Him Yet it is still so to be understood as the Son of a wicked Person may be found to be an Elect and the Son of a Godly Person rejected that he may continue his Plagues longer then the third or fourth Generation or break them off sooner when he thinketh good For though by this He would restrain Parents from sin yet hath he a Door open to many such Children for mercy even as the contrary promise hath many exceptions as to the Children of Godly Parents that walk not in the paths of their Parents going before them as many known instances of both in Scripture do make out The third Question is How God doth execute this threatning or How he doth reach Children with eternal plagues for their Parants sins Answ 1. He doth it certainly and he doth it Justly therefore the Children must not only be considered as guilty but as guilty of the sins of their Parents which we may thus coâ—ceive 1. As to the Child of a wicked Parent lying in natural Corruption God denyeth and with holdeth his renewing and restraining Grace which he is not obliged to confer and the Lord in this may respect the Parents guilt Justly 2. When grace is denyed then followeth the temptation of the Parents practise the Devil stirring up to the like sin and they furthering their Children to wickedness by their example advice authority c. So that it cometh to pass in Gods justice that they are given up to vent their natural corruption in these ways and so come as it is Psal 49. 13. to approve their Parents sayings 3. Upon this followeth God's casting the Child now guilty of his Parents faults into eternal Perdition with him and that this is the meaning of the threatning will appear by the examples of Gods justice in this matter when wicked Parents have Children that are not so much miserable in regard of temporal things as they are wicked cursed and plagued with Ungodliness so was Cains Children so were the Children of Cham and so were Esaâ—'â— who were all for a long time prosperous in the world but following their Fathers sins a main part of their Curse God afterward visited them on them with sad temporal judgments also 4. If it be asked Why God thus plagueth and threatneth the Children of wicked Parents Answ 1. God doth it to make sin hateful seeing it bringeth often a forfeiture of spiritual blessings yea of blessings of all sorts upon whole Generations and Families 2. To strike the more terrour into others who by this may be scared from sin and made to stand in awe of God who is so dreadful as to put a mark of Infamy on the race and posterity of his Enemies 3. The more to effect and weight the Sinner it is a part of his punishmen to know that by his sin he has not only made himself miserable but all his Posterity And these may be the Reasons why as it were by the light of nature all Nations in some cases are led not only to punish the persons of some Malefactors but to fore fault and put a note of Infamy on their Posterity for some kind of faults 4 This becometh Gods greatness that men may know how soveraign he is and how Treason against the most high is to be accounted of 5. It is to commend holiness and the necessity of it to God's people and to put them to enrich themselves and their Children in God and a good Conscience rather then in all temporal riches These same Questions and Answers may serve to clear what concerneth the Promise also they being suitably applyed to it It is further to be observed that the Lord expresseth wicked men under that notion Thâ—â— that â—aâ—e me to shew what indeed and on the matter Sin even the least sin amounteth unto its hatred of God as being done as it were in despight of him and preferring some lust to him for there is no question but were God loved Holiness which is his Image would be loved also and where it iâ— universally hated so must He be for a man cannot serve two Masters wher their commands and actings are contrary but he must hate the one and love the other And seeing it is certain that Sinners make sin their Master and do not hate it therefore they must hate God who giveth contrary Commands and so sometimes Sinners wiâ—h that there were not such Commands Again he expresseth the Godly in the Promise under these two designations 1. Those that love me that is the inward Fountain and comprehensive sum of all duties 2. Those that keep my Comm ndments that looketh to the outward effects of Love and is the proofo it so that there is no mid's betwixt these two to love God and keep his Commandments and to hate him and slight or break his Commandments and so no mid's betwixt Gods gracious promise to Parents and Children and his Curse on both Lastly It would be in a particular way observed that though every sin hath hatred to God in it yet he putteth this name of hating him in a special way upon the sin of corrupting his Worship and Service to shew that there is a special enmity against God in that sin and that it is in a special way hateful to him as upon the other hand he taketh Zeal for the purity of his Worship as a singular evidence of love to him Let us close this Command with some words of use and 1. Ye may see what good or evil to us and ours and that eternally there is in Disobedience or in Holiness O Parents what mercy is it to you your selves and to your Children that you be Godly Alace this Curse here threatned is too palpable upon many Children who are cursed with profanity from the Womb upward Why do you that are Parents wrong your poor Infants and why neglect ye that which is best for them Here also there is matter of much comfort to Parents fearing God this Promise is a standing portion to a thousand Generations which though it be not peremptory as to all individual persons yet 1. It secludeth none 2. It comprehendeth many 3. It giveth ground for us to be quiet for all our Posterity till they by their own carriage disclaim that Covenant wherein this Promise is included 4. It giveth Warrant for a Believer to expect that God may make up his Election amongst his Seed rather then amongst others It is true sometimes he chooseth some of the Posterity of wicked Parents yet oft-times the Election of Grace falleth upon the Posterity of the Godly 5. It is a ground upon which we may quiet our selves for temporal things needful to our Children certainly these promises are not for nought Psalm 37. 26 and 102. ult 112. 2. Prov. 20. 17. 2 Be humble O be humble before God for he is jealous 3. Abhor sin for it is hateful 4. Love holiness for it is useful
said the second is like unto the first because he would have it in our careful observance going along with the first And the Apostles as well as the Lord in pressing holiness do ordainarily instance in the duties of the second Table as Luke 10. 26. What is written in the Law how readest thou Math. 5. 27 thou shalt not commit Adultery c. Rom. 13. 8. 9. 10. Jam. 2. 8. 11. c. And the reasons of it may be these 1. To teach his people that it is his will that they should be holy in all manner of conversation therefore there is no piece of duty called for but it is comprehended in a command even the least thing eating drinking and whatsoever they do 1 Cor 10. 31. 1 Pet. 1. 15. 16. he would have them careful to be holy not only in the Church but also in the Market in the shop at home abroad not only in prayer but at the plough c. 2. To hold out the great extent of holiness or what holiness he requireth in his people It was a great mistake in the Pharisees that they placed the main part of Religion in the performance of external duties of the first Table whereas the Lord layeth both Tables together to tell that they must march up together in our practise and that it will not be Holiness in it's self and in Gods account to perform the one without the other 3. Because the Lord would have his Law a perfect Rule that the man of God might be perfect throughly furnished to every good word and work 2 Tim. 3. 17. therefore is the second Table given that we may know how to walk towards others as well as towards God that Masters may know their duty Servants theirs c. and that none are left to an arbitrariness therein but that all are tyed to a Rule 4. Because men are ready to slight holiness in reference to the second Table hence there will be some kind of awe of God on men in reference to the duties of the first Table so that they dare not altogether neglect prayer hearing the word c. and yet they will make little or no conscience of loving their neighbour or of shewing mercy as we see in the Pharisees 5. Because it is no less necessary for Christians living together as to their Being and well being and mutual thriving that they do duty one of them to another with respect to the command then that they all do their duty to him how else can folks live well together in a Family or other Societies if each therein do not duty to another the neglect of this makes them as a house divided against it self which cannot stand 6. That the Lord may have the more clear and convincing ground of challenge against such as slight these commands and live in envy malice oppression c. for none can say he knew not these to be sins Mic. 6. 7. The Lord hath shewed thee O man what is good that thou do Justice and love Mercy c. and he beginneth at the Duties of the second Table the more to stop their mouths If they should say they knew not that they should be holy or how to be holy in these he had it to say that he had told them For these and such like reasons the Lord hath been so particular in and hath added his Authority unto the commands of the second Table as well as to these of the first that we may lay the greater weight on them From the Connection of the two Tables we may observe these three generals first That there is no part of a mans conversation in reference to his walk with others as well as God what ever be his Calling or Station but he ought to be Religious and holy in it God hath directed men how to carry in all things 2. That it is a necessary part of Religion in respect of the command of God enjoyning it and in order to our thriving in holiness to be conscientious in duties to others as well as in immediate duties to God who in his Law requireth both 3. That where kindly and true Obedience is given to the first Table Obedience will be given to the second also where Conscience putteth to pray and keep the Sabbath it will also put to do duty to our Neighbour he purposely putteth these together in the Gospel when the Pharisees would separate them and what God hath conjoyned let no man put asunder It may be here inquired what it is to be religious in these common duties we owe to others Answ Though we cannot instance in any thing wherein Religion hath not it`s place yet we shal pitch on a few things that it more especially implyeth And 1. It is necessary that the matter of the duty be commanded and 2. That respect be had to the command in the doing of it a man must not only provide for his Family but he must do it religiously a Master must not use his Servants as he pleaseth the Servant must not abuse the Masters simplicity but obey in fear and trembling c. Ephes 6. 5. Col. 3. 22. in which places the Apostle presseth Servants to look to these things while many of them had Heathen Masters and what is spoken to them may be applyed to all in all Callings and Stations and serve to direct how to be religious in common duties And 1. As to the end it is required that they serve not men only but the Lord and so eye his glory the adornning of the Gospel the edification of others there being nothing we do wherein we ought not to have an higher end then our selves or men 2. That they have a religious Motive in their Service implyed in these words not with eye Service as men pleasers but as doing Service to the Lord in obedience to him and not to men not so much because their Masters command as because God commandeth not for the fashion nor meerly for profit but because commanded of God 3. That for the manner it be in singleness of heart chearfully and readily 4. That respect be had to the promise as well as to the command for their through bearing in their Service and for their Encouragement in the Faith of their being accepted through Christ as it is Ephes 6. 8. Coll. 3. 24. else it were a sad thing for a Christian servant to be in hard Service and have no more to expect but a but of meat and a penny-hire from men but Christian servants may eye the heavenly reward in sweeping the house as well as in the religious duties of Gods immediate worship For helps to understand the commands of the second Table we may consider these four Scriptures which will hold out so many rules for that end The 1. and principal one is Mat. 22. 39. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self which sheweth that there should be a warmness of affection in us to our neighbour opposite to hatred
love Thus when a mans protection is placed in men though Princes Psalm 146. 3. or in Multitudes or in Horses and Armies it is idolizing of them Thus rich men may make as it is Joh 31 24. gold their confidence and fine gold their hope that is when men account themselves secure not because God hath a Providence but because they have such means as Aâ—a trusted to the Physicians and not to God namely in that particular the cure of his disease or as the rich man Luke 12. 19. who founded his taking rest to his Soul on his full Barns and so some trust their standing to such a great Man who is their Friend And this is known 1. By the means to which men betake them in a strait as when they stand not to make use of sinful means 2. By what noise they make when they are disappointed 3. It is known by this when their leaning on such a Creature marreth their resting on God and on his Providence Hence it is hard for men to be rich and not to place their confidence in riches and so Christ speaketh of the difficulty of rich mens being saved 4. Then men trust in their riches when the having of them maketh them to think themselves the more secure and maketh them proud and jolly as if they added some worth to those who possess them which could not be if they were not something too much thought of 4. The fourth way how Creatures are idolized by men is in their fear when men or events are feared more then God and fear maketh men sin or at least keepeth them back from duty in less or more like those Professors who for fear of the Jews Ioh. 12. 42. did not confess Christ Thus men may idolize their very Enemies whom they hate when they fear more him that can kill the body then him that can destâ—oy both soul and body Thus great men and powerful in the World are often idolized and good and well-qualified men may be made Idols also when men become so addicted and devoted to them as to call them Rabbi and to be as it were sworn to their words and Opinions as the Sectaries in Corinth were and such at all times for the most part are to their Leaders when it is not the matter or reason that swayeth but the person that teacheth such Doctrine or holdeth such an Opinion 5. The fifth way of committing this Idolatry is by service when a man is brought under the power of any thing so whatever a man serveth this way is an Idol every predominant every person or humour that a man setteth himself thus to please is an Idol in this respect it is said men cannot serve two Masters God and Maâ—mon and if we yet serve men we are not the Servants of Christ Gal. 1. 10. This may be known 1. By what men are most excessively taken up with and most careful to fullfil and accomplish 2. By looking to what it is for which they will take most pains that they may attain it 3. By what getteth most of their time and labour 4. By what overswayeth and overcometh or overaweth them most so that they cannot resist it though it thrust by duties to God and when they are ne ver so taken up with Gods service but it indisposeth them when ever they come to immediate worship it is an evident token that such a thing is the mans â—dol These be the most ordinary wayes how men fall in this sin of Idolatry it were hard to speak of all the several Idols which may be loved feared rested on too much and so put in Gods room I shall instance in a few The first is the World this is the great Clay-Idol that both covetous and voluptuous men hunt after crying Who will shew us any good Psalm 4. 6. By this thousands are kept in bondage and turned head long An excessive desire to have the World's Goods and to have by these a name in the Earth is many a mans Idol A second is the Belly Philip. 3. 19. a shameful God yet worshipped by the most part of men who travel for no more but for a portion in this life to fill the Belly Psalm 17. 14. to win their living and provide for their Families To this sort also belongeth Gluttons Drunkards Palate-pleasers who are lookâ— upon as the dainty men in the World abounding alace in our dayes being according to Satans Maxime ready to give skin for skin and all they have for their life and aiming at no more Job 2. 4. Thus Satan thought to have found out Job when his riches were quite gone thus he tempted the Lord Christ to provide Bread in an anxious way and thus fear of want captivateth many 3. The third great Idol which is comprehensive some way of all is a mans life his Honour Credit Reputation good Name and Applause in the World his own Will Opinion Tenets Judgements whereof men are most tenacious and will not quite sometimes as the Proverb is an inch of their will for a span of their thrift Thus men are said to live to themselves 2 Cor. 5. 15. in opposition to living unto God when self-respect swayeth them to be lovers of themselves â— Tim. 3. vers 2. 4. and lovers of their pleasures more then God and self-wiâ—â—ed Tit. 1. â—â— Pet. 2. 10. Ah who are free of this The fourth is Men of Parts c. who have done or may do some considerable good or evil to one or have something in them eminent beyond others These oft-times in regard of the fear love or trust men place in them are made great Idols The fifth is Lawful Contentments as Houses Wives Children unto which men are often too much addicted and with which they are often too much taken up even sometimes with that which is in it self very little and so they prove their Idols A sixth is Self-righteousness mens prayers their repentance blameless walking c. these may get and often get more of their confidence and weight of their Eternal Peace then they should So the Jews laid the great stress and weight of their Salvation upon this Idol Rom. 10. 3. The seventh may be outward Ordinances in purity external forms and profession of Religion when men rest upon these and press not after the Power as the Jews who cryed up the Temple of the Lord the Covenant betwixt him and them and their external relation to him Jer. 7. 4. c. The eighth is any gift of God which he hath bestowed on men such as Beauty Strength Wit Learning when men who have them lay too much weight on them or think too much of them yea Grace it self the sense of Gods love and inward peace may be put in Christs room and more sought for sometimes then Christ himself Now when these are rested on delighted in and he slighted or when they are missed and he not delighted in then they are Idols Ninthly Ease quietness and a mans own
Levit. 19. 17. 18. revenge malice inward grudging and no doubt this warmness of love making a man measure his duty to others by the love he hath to himself will notably help to understand and observe all the duties of the second Table The 2. is Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them which is a rule of general equity and is opposite to partiality and self-love which undermineth all the duties of the second Table and this is of a general and universal extent to all persons and things such as buying and selling to duties betwixt man and wife neighbour and neighbour Master and Servant c. The 3. is Philip. 2. 4. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others a notable effect of love not only to wish well to our neighbours but to seek and procure their good and it is opposite to selfishness and regardlesness of the good of others if we be well our selves The 4. is Rom. 12. 10. Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another be kindly to and manifest your esteem of your Neighbour not in a complementing way but really and heartily which by James is called the fulfilling of the Law and by the Apostle John the old and new commandement wherein there is more Religion then many are aware of more then in knowledg speculations and empty notions but oh How short are we in these more common duties that lye as it were among our feet We come now to the Fifth command which is the first of the second Table and it containeth 1. a precept 2. a Promise and so it is called by the Apostle Ephes 6. 2. the first Command with promise which must be upon one of these grounds either 1 because it is the first command that hath a particular promise that promise in the Second command being general applicable as it is actually applyed there to all the commands or 2. because this is the first command of the second Table and often in the new Testament the commands are recknoned and instanced by that Table especially when duties betwixt man and man are pressed And if it be said that it is the only command of the second Table that hath a promise it is answered it is the only command that hath an express promise Beside it is not absurd to read it thus it is the first command i. e. of the second Table and to press it the more the promise added to it is mentioned so that to urâ—e obedience to it the more strongly it is not only the first Command saith the Apostle of the second Table but it hath a promise also added to it And this certainly is the Apostles scope to press its observation In the precept we are 1 To consider the Object Father and Mother 2. The Duty honour 1. Again concerning the first it is to be considered that this Command in its scope respecteth the duty that we owe to all Relations whether they be above us inferiour to us or equal with us This is clear from Christs summing all the second Table and consequently this command with the rest in that comprehensive general Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self and therefore our Neighbour in general must be the object of this Command as well as of the rest and so it taketh in all the duties of honour that every one oweth to another whatever be their place there is a duty of honour and respect called for from every one to every one And so Eph. 5. 22. it is pressed upon Wives toward their Husbands and 1 Pet. 3. 7. upon Husbands towards their Wives which must be comprehended here Thus Father and Mother are hear to be largely and synecdochically understood one sort of Relations being in a figurative manner put for all the rest 2. Under them are comprehended all Superiours for place in Church or Common-wealth who in Scripture get the Title of Fathers as Magistrates Supreme and Subltern Ministers and all Church-Officers Teachers Overseers and all in the place of Fathers 1 Cor. 4. 15. yea they who are to be esteemed as such for gifts of Learning Wisdom Grace and Piety Acts 7. 2. or for their worldly means and outward estate as Josepb was Gen. 45 8. or for their age and the reverence due to them on that account 2 Kings 2. 12. in a word any sort of emenencie putteth one in that roll of Fathers largely taken though they be not properly such 3. We are called in the first place to look to the duties of this relation as it is domestick such as of a Master over the Servant of a Husband over the Wife c. and then cometh the carriage of one toward another in general and though most properly the duties of Parents mediate or immediate over their Children or Nephews be here pointed at which is most literal yet the former also is included all particulars of that kind being by a figure comprehended under one If it be asked here Why the mother is added Answ 1. Because although the mother be not so qualified for the rule and government of the Children yet she is no less intituled to their acknowledgment and this parental honour by the labour toil and tenderness of their birth and education and in this as well as in the disposition of the members of the body mentioned 1. Cor. 12. v. 22. 23 and 24. the excellent attemperation of God wisdom is very conspicuous by ballancing the greater authority of the Father with the greater pains and care of the Mother that the Childrens duty of love honour and gratitude may return to both with a suitable equality 2. She is added to shew that it is not only the most eminent Superiour or Neighbour to whom honour is due but even these who have more weakness and especially the Mother Hence it is that alwayes almost in the Proverbs where duty to the Father is pressed the Mother is also named with him to shew that Children should not think that less respect is due to the Mother then to the Father yea sometimes the Mother is prefixed to the Father as Lev. 19. 3. Ye shall fear every man his Mother and his Father which is done to meet with the humour of many who are ready to lessen their duty to their Mother and therefore we are called to it even in her old age Prov 23 22. and to guard against despising of her then which is too readily and frequently incident Thus doth the Lord provide in his word against our corruption which is ready to take advantage of debording and outbreaking at the weakest part If it be further asked Why all Superiours yea all Neighbours are spoken of as Fathers and Mothers Answ These reasons are obvious from the scope Iâ— is 1. to shew that the duties of this Command are mutual amongst all relations it giveth