above To look upon the Vassals here below Our Nature and distempers tempring so And so providing that the blessing lost Is purchas'd for us at anothers cost And may by every Soul enjoyed be Who shall accept the means ordain'd by thee Though as did once the Jews some Christians grudge As if the Childrens teeth were set on edge By what their Fathers eat and doubtful grow Although thou makest Oath it is not so That most of those which are or which have bin Since time began shall die in Adam's sin And are in him rejected without place Or means of hope of truly saving Grace Yea though this be an error whereby such As err that way have urg'd thy Justice much Yet we who fear and trust thee and to whom The knowledge of thy secrets therefore come Remember well and therefore heed have took That Thou the general Covenant being broke Which first was made in Adam pleas'd hast bin To tell us of a new one since brought in And made with all men so particularly That no man for anothers Crime can die A Covenant in Christ from whom both Will And Power we have receiv'd to fulfil So much as shall to thee be acceptable If we endeavour as thou dost enable And whereas when this knowledge we did want We dreamed that thy New made Covenant Concern'd but few we doubtless did aver A Doctrine which from Truth did widely err For that which we did ignorantly call A Covenant is no such thing at all Because we then supposed nothing done Nor ought believ'd but on one side alone A Covenant as men of Judgment know Is that which is contracted betwixt two But thou by that which some of us do say Dost all thy self and giv'st nor power nor way To Act or will what absolutely can Be said to be the Act or Will of Man We stand for nothing thou alone believ'st Thou actest all thou givest and receivest Yea if we this assertion must allow None truly worketh good or ill but thou Man's but a sufferer whatsoe're he does He doth because he can nor will nor chose Lord let us know the better and so know What powers and faculties thou doest bestow On us to fear and serve thee that we might In work and word and thought still do thee right For thou so equally hast all things done And shew'st such mercy unto every one That ev'n by those who shall thy wrath abide In every thing thou shalt be justifi'd And none shall truly say when call'd they are Before thy Throne of Judgment to appear That thou hast more exacted any way From any man than he had power to pay Till by forsaking thee he forfeit made Of that enabling Grace which once he had This Law of thine which an appearance hath Of Terror of Severity and Wrath To those dull naturalists who have not weighed How by the Law of Grace it is allay'd Even this fear'd Law when first the same was made No other end but Man's well being had Nor hath as yet except it be to those Who sleight thy kindness and believe thy foes The former Table which we weakly fain Doth only to thy glory appertain Concerneth in the points of highest nature The Welfare and the glory of thy Creature To thee what is it whether we adore Thee for our God or none or twenty more Thine Honour was at full e're we were made And would be so though we no being had 'T is our Advantage that thou let 's us know To whom in our necessities to go And leav'st us not as when we Gentiles were To wander all our life times out in fear In Darkness and in Error yet to find Nor ease of Body neither peace of mind 'T is our advantage that we may be bold To scorn those Bugbears which in times of old Men trembled at and that the power and fame Of what was nothing but an empty Name Enslav'd us not to come with vows and praise To worship it as in our Heathen daies Which benefit we by this Law obtain'd And which without this Law we have not gain'd 'T is our avail that such a God we have Who lets us know that he hath power to save And that when we our selves to him apply We need not fear a Rival Deity Will angry grow and do us in despight A greater Wrong than thou hast power to right Or that a Jealous Juno can make void The hopes which in thy Love we have enjoy'd It is our gain to honour thee alone And that we need not now go Cyprus run To worship Venus then to seek Apollo At Delphos and from thence a course to follow As far as famous Ephesus to see If great Diana in her Temple be And thence again to post in hope to meet With Jove inshrined in the Isle of Creet Our Times and Substance wasting to receive That from them which they had not power to give What were it unto thee but that our peace Thou lovest if we dayly shall increase Our vain will-worshippings till we devise As many Superstitious Fopperies As we have sensless Dreams Or if our daies We spend on Idols forging Puppet plays And false Ideas till all truth be lost And then which is effected now almost Fight brawl and preach to make up Sects and Factions To help maintain the Whimsies and Distractions Which fool us till we find some Chrotchets new Unknown to Christian Heathen Turk and Jew Moreover but that our own harm it were To know no power whereof we stood in fear And were it not a merciful prevention Of miseries of mischiefs and contention Which else would rage among us if we had No name in which with Reverence might be made Vows Oaths and Protestations Or if we Should not believe a Will and Power in thee To heed and punish it when wrong were done What benefit to thee ensu'd thereon For which thou shouldst vouchsafe to make a Law To keep the damn'd For-swearers hearts in awe What suff'rest thou when mad Blasphemers rave Against thy holy Name that thou need'st have A law to curb them Or what have they done More than those Dogs which bark against the Moon If they themselves or others of their kind No damage by those Blasphemies did find And but that sweetly provident thou art Ev'n for the meanest and least worthy part Of all thy Creatures what was that daies rest To thee which thou ordain'st for Man and Beast Their pain or ease Thy Rest augmented not Nor profit by the Sabbaths hast thou got Or by the Festivals ordain'd by thee For they not thine but mans advantage be Our Essence being of a double Nature And thou best knowing what best fits the Creature Requirest all men so their time to use That Soul and Body may receive their dues But what misfalls to thee if any spends His Times in vain or to preposterous ends Some of us peradventure fancy may That thou hast honour by the Sabbath day And that it adds to thy
pretends Against this Third Commandement offends But none this holy precept more have broke Than they who on themselves Christs name have took Yet live like Infidels excepting those Who guild Hypocrisy with Godly shows And under pious habits use to prey On those who being more sincere than they Are threatned and suppose all well bestown While these will take till nothing is their own God keep his Lambs form these as from the worst Of all Dissembers and the most accurst The Faults condemn'd seem nothing to have bin To this abhorred Hell begotten Sin Are Drunken Jollities unbridled passion A wicked Custom Slight consideration And evil Nurture but much blame is cast On Tutors and some Parents for the last All these must therefore shunned be by him That would not Swear For-swear Curse nor Blaspheme This must be likewise heeded that unless We still on all occasions de confess The Name of God and Sanctifie it too By such good Duties as we ought to do As in Relieving those who in his Name Shall ask without abusing of the same In swearing by it when just cause requires In suffering for it though by Sword and Fires When God may be dishonour'd by a base Forsaking of our Faith or of our Place Yea if we be not ready to our might In all Gods Attributes to do him right And honour him in Deed in Word and Thought In what we can although not as we ought We faulter in our Duty and 't is plain We do profess to bear Gods name in vain My Heart LORD GOD so settle in thy way That I this Law may never disobey Amen IIII Remember that thou keep holy y e Sabboth day c. 'T is not in the Common Creed That he gather'd Sticks for need Who for Sabbath breaking dy'd For all wants were so supply'd That it seems he did transgress By Contempt or Carelessness He commits the same offence ' Gainst this Precepts moral sence Who the Christian Sabbaths wrongs And a Plague to him belongs Command IV. To hallow do not thou forget Those times which God apart hath set YOu that our christian Sabbath do despise Behold this Figure with regardful eyes For though on us this Precept doth not lay The Ceremonial service of the day Or to a Jewish Sabbath us confine It n'retheless a Duty doth enjoin Which no man living can be freed from Till to the general Judgment Christ shall come For Nature urges that convenient Rest Should be allowed both no Man and Beast Lest their corporeal substance should miscarry Before the time And 't is as necessary The Soul should have some leisure to attend His will on whom her being doth depend Freemen may rest their bodies when they please And Wise men know how for to take their ease But lab'ring Beasts and Men who are depraved Or they whom wants or Tyrants have enslaved Had restless lived till their life time ended Unless this holy Law had them befriended And they who to the flesh most â—avour show For Soul affairs but little time allow This God at first foresaw and for that cause Though in Mans heart he then ingrav'd his Laws Essential and long oblig'd him not To such additions as time since begot Yet when he found that error and transgression Had wholly rased out the first impression To stop Corruptions Growth he afterward To Rites to times and places had regard All men at first had liberty to take What daies they pleased holydaies to make Or for convenient Rest Nor did from all This freedom cease when God the Jews did call To keep their Sabbaths For to one set day No Nation were oblig'd save only they Nor had the Gentiles any other ties Save to observe it in a moral wise So far as might preserve unto the Creature The freedom and well being of its nature A Law concerning Rest and holy Dues Confin'd indeed the people of the Jews To one set day even one set day in seven To them were Ceremonies also given Concerning it which no man might transgress Save in great need without much guiltiness That Law which nature simply had received At our first being was to them derived With such like Accidents as might be best To keep them firm and bring in all the rest In Gods appointed season to embrace The Law of Nature in the Law of Grace Their Customs and their Ceremonial day With Christ was buried and so swept away When he arose from death that to renew And celebrate the Sabbath of the Jew We are no more obliged than to rear Their Temple and to build their Altar here And yet lest man's corruption and the lack Of Accidents might bring the Substance back Even to the first neglect Christ dist instate His Church with power to change or abrogate The Cirumstances of this Law so far As needful seem'd Provided that it were Essentially preserved and in this She hath performed what required is For though the time be changed it retains The same proportion It for use remains The same in Essence and that being so The same obedience is now due thereto And to what Circumstance the Church thinks fit To help continue the right use of it Now therefore though that every day be free For works which truly necessary be And though those Worshipers which are sincere May worship any day or any where Yet none can without guiltiness despise The Places Rites or Times of Sacrifice Appointed by the Church while they accord What may be authorized by the word This Law is therefore broke when we despise The Fastings Feastings or Solemnities The Church appoints or if we shall deny Such daies to honour and to sanctify By rest from Common Labours whensoere We may without much damage them forbear Or if we vilify those Christian Rites Whereto the publick discipline invites Or them perform not on their proper day As often as conveniently we may This Law is broke if to our lab ring Beast Or Servant we allow not so much rest As nature shall require and may conduce To keep them able for our lawful use Or if we shun not all occasious too Whereby we may against this Law misdo And they are these A hardned heart a mind Prophane and unto Greediness inclin'd A false belief false liberty false knowledge Frequenting of the Company and Colledge Off false believers From whom self will pride And Superstition no man can divide Let no man then that lawless Freedom take Which may occasion strife or scandals make By needless Labours nor mis-censure them Who take some liberties which they condemn In things indifferent and shall not move In such ' gainst which their Governors approve And in their manners let them peaceful be Though they in their opinions disagree Let not those times the Church hath set apart To rest the body to instruct the heart And to preserve a due Commemoration Of every blessed means of our Salvation Be judged vain or that they do not draw Authority sufficient for this
contentment then To hear and see great multitudes of men Assemblies make to invocate thy Name And in their songs to magnifie the same Indeed this is our Duty and when this Upon thy days by some performed is â—â—ou tak'st it as a honour done to thee â—â—â—t in such Dutys we might serious be Yet still the benefit is all our own Thy praise is neither more nor farther blown To thy avail nor doth our holiness Conduce to ought but out own happiness The days on which we memorize thy Graces And meet together in thy holy places Are much for our avail for then and there Thou teachest us our Crosses how to bear What to believe and hope there we may learn How we 'twixt Good and Evil may discern How Truth from cursed Error we may know What Path to shun or take what work to do And how and whom to love which is the Sun And height of all whereto on Earth we come Which manifests that only for our sake It pleased thee some days of Rest to make Sure ev'ry mean capacity is able To understand that in the second Table Mans welfare is immediately intended And that therefore those Laws be recommended To universal practice so to stay Our minds from running out another way For if our lives ambitiously we spend In brawls for honour If we set an end To all our kind by Murthers If we please To plague our selves with ev'ry soul disease And ev'ry grief of Heart which will arise From Fornications and Adulterys If all our Labours should be made a prey To Thieves till want had worn us quite away If we should plague each other by our Lies By slanders or in humane Perjurys Or if our hearts upon the Rack were set By lusting after what we could not get These madnesses our mischiefs only be But neither harm nor discontent to thee Except in this respect that having took Our Nature thy Compassion cannot brook To see thy Members injur'd by the Sin Which lawless people are delighted in Thou hast affirm'd the better to apply Thy workings to our mean Capacity That all things for thy Glory thou hast wrought And yet it is not therefore to be thought Thou wantest Glory and didst work for more Or that it gain'd ought wanting heretofore Nor may we think a power so truly wise Should work for that which we are bid despise But rather than thou honour dost expect To be to thee ascrib'd as an effect Of fruitfulness belonging to the Natures And undespis'd condition of thy Creature Yea I believe unfainedly oh God By what I from thy self have understood Thou wrought'st for Love Not meerly to attain Thy Creatures love for that had been as vain Because indeed as little need thou hast Of their imperfect love as of the blast Of their weak praise Oh Lord thy love it was Thy Love essentail which did bring to pass The works thou mad'st That blessed love of thine Which is thy Self Oh Essence most Divine For being All and all at full possessing In thy Self-being thou conceiv'st a blessing To be conferr'd on others not to add Ought to that Blessedness thy Essence had Thy wisedom infinite a passage found By thy eternal Power which hath no bound Distinct and finite Natures forth to bring without impairing or deminishing Thy perfect Essence which of thy perfection Should give some Demonstration by reflection Among the rest one Creature thou did'st name Compos'd of all which th' universal Frame Therein contained And the same did'st make Not only so as that it might partake Of all Created things and also be A certain Medium 'twixt them and thee But which is to the honour of it more Thine Image in it self it likewise bore And had a possiblity to be United undivisibly to thee A Species of this Creature Lord I am And for what end created we became As I conceive it here I mean to tell Oh teach me better If I say not well Thou being Love it self and therefore kind It was thy gracious and eternal mind Mankind a Sharer in thy bliss to make And grant him License also to partake That Glory which thou didst enjoy alone Before all other Beings were begun And this great favour Lord thou pleased wert As well became thy Wisdom to impart By Means Degrees and on the same condition Through which we best might gain the best fruition Of what was purposed and come to be United as I said before to thee To Adam this great Mystery appear'd Till disobedience Foggs in him had rear'd Which dull'd his Reason and his heart declin'd From Thee within himself this bliss to find The Law thou gav'st him was not as is thought By some of us that proof might so be sought Of his Obedience For thou knowest all Before it is and what shall still befall Much less as other some conceited are Was that Command intended as a Snare Those to entrap whom thy eternal Hate Had fore-decreed Oh God! to reprobate Far it is from the Goodness of thy Nature To be a God so Cruel to thy Creature And far far be it from thy Creatures too To their kind Maker so great wrong to do This rather seems the cause there could not be A possibility that Thou and We Should make a perfect Vnity unless Our Nature had Essential Righteousness For otherwise thy Justice would abhor That which thy Mercy did endeavour for And from uniting us become so far That thine own Attributes would be at War When therefore Man seduced fail'd in that Which might have perfected his blest Estate And that perform'd not whereby Justice might In our Advancement take a full delight Behold thy powerful Mercy did prevent Our total ruin by a Wonderment Beyond the Worlds Creation out of nought For when by Sin we further off were brought From what thou had'st intended us then by The not obtaining of an Entity Thy all-inventing wisdom found a mean Through which our Essence made e'rewhile unclean Should be re-purifi'd and so perfum'd That personally it might be then assum'd Unto thyself and Man thereby attain A Happiness not to be lost again If some few easy Duties he will do When Grace enables Nature thereunto And doubtless every Man shall one day know That thou on him such portions didst bestow Ev'n pers'nally that if he be undone It was not Adams but his fault alone This Mystery thy goodness brought to pass And for no other end Oh Lord it was But for our good for neither dost thou need Our Praise or Love nor is it for the deed Of Love or Praise or Worship or of ought Which by our faculties to pass is brought That thou requirest them of us but that we Should not unto our selves defective be In doing our endeavours to attain So much as lieth in our power to gain Lest it indamage us and in the way Unto our true perfections stops may lay Essential goodness hath essential peace Without all diminution or increase And therefore
And I a worker now desire to be Who may if thou enable to proceed Improve my willingness unto the Deed Deny it not Oh God! but from this day Ev'n to the latest moment of my stay Vouchsafe unto me thy assisting Grace That I may run a warrantable Race And keep this Law and all thy Laws entire In work in word and also in desire Amen Though no flesh this Law obey In it self In Christ it may Though it frighteth us for sin Yet our peace it ushers in And in us prepareth place For the saving Law of Grace When this Grace hath taught to Love Hardest works will easy prove And that sin we shall abhor Which we doted on before THE Epilogue The Law from God's meer love proceeds Though strict it seems and Terror breeds NOW having well observ'd this glorious Law A Creature cloath'd with Majesty and awe Methinks the Body of it seems to me Compos'd of such essential parts to be That he may find who rightly from them shall All as but one each one of them as all And that who ever breaks or keepeth one Observes or breaketh all in what is done As will appear to him who well attends How ev'ry Precept on the rest depends He cannot possibly or love or fear One God aright who willfully doth err In Idol worshippings in vainly using God's holy Name In holy Times abusing Or in permitting so perverse a nature As to abuse Himself or any Creature Belonging to this God with such a mind As may Contentment in such evils find And what is of this Law averr'd we may In ev'ry other Precept boldly say Moreover I conceive it cannot be Of less impossibility that he Who gives the Creature ev'ry way his right Should in his heart his good Creator slight Or actually offend him without sense And sorrow for so hainous an offence He that right Conscience makes to keep one Law Of breaking all the other stands in awe He that is Parents honours as he ought Can never favour Murther in his thought Or thirst for Vengeance never will his eyes Or heart or members act Adulterys No due from any Creature will he take He dares of none conceive receive or speak Vntruths or slanders He will never crave Or by a secret longing wish to have What may net be desir'd Nor ought commit Which his profession may not ill befit But penitence will smite him for the deed And in his heart a faithful sorrow breed Much less will he grow wilfully to blame In Prophanation of Gods Days his Name His Worship or his Essence For in one Well doing all good Dutys will be done And this which from one Law is here exprest May really be said of all the rest The like we may as doubtlesly averr Of them who ' gainst one Law perversly err Begin at which you please they so are chain'd All sins are in the breach of one contain'd One wickedness contracts another still And that another either to fulfill Or hide the first until all guilt comes in And wheels him round the cursed Orbe of Sin For what hath he to bar him from the rest Who but in one hath wilfully transgrest What other sin would he have left undone Which might have hindred his beloved one Or if perpetually he do not act All wickedness and ev'ry filthy Fact Why is it so unless perchance because His finite Nature cannot break all Laws At once in Act Nor his desires extend To ev'ry thing wherein he might offend For ev'ry sacred Law is in his Will Inclusively at least infringed still And Guiltiness would actually appear If power and fit occasions present were For as the Laws fair Body is compos'd Of portions qualified and dispos'd In such a manner that we planily see The perfect Essence of the whole to be In ev'ry part so likewise hath our Sin An ugle Body and each Limb therein Containeth whether it be great or small Essentially the perfect Guilt of all And by this Body Death a means hath found To give to all Mankind a mortal wound But prais'd be God his Grace provided hath A Light a Guard an Armour and a Path By which we may be quite delivered from The Body of this Death and also come To walk the way of life which else had bin For ever barr'd against us by our sin The Lamb of God by whom we do possess Redemption Wisdom Justice Holiness With ev'ry matchless token of his Love The Guilt of that transgression doth remove Which woundeth first our Nature and from him We have a cure for ev'ry actual Crime He hath fulfilled what we could not keep He gives us power to walk who could not creep He paid the price of that which we had bought He got our Pardon e're the same we sought He bore the stripes for us which we did merit He purchas'd Crowns that we might them inherit Our Fears he doth prevent our loss restore And to the true Believers tendreth more Than Adam lost Yea he doth freely give To ev'ry Soul a power which may believe And persevere if well he shall employ The Talents and the Grace he doth enjoy And with a mind in all Temptations meek This power in Christ not in her self doth seek Ev'n they that perish till they do contemn God's profer'd Love potentially in them Retain this power by God's Free grace until Their Flesh seduc'd like Eve doth move their Will Like Adam to consent and then to Act A wickedness and to approved the Fact Against their Conscience For then God departs From their polluted and rebellious Hearts And back returneth not until from thence That Guilt be washed by true penitence The means whereof he also must bestow Or else into obdurateness they grow Affirm we may not that God will not come To any whom he so departeth from Twice thrice or oftner For we cannot know How far the limits of his Mercys go Nor by what measure or by what degree Of wilfulness he so displeas'd shall be As to forsake for ever since he may Shew mercy where he pleaseth while the day Of life-time lasteth there is hope of Grace Fore every sinful Soul of Adams race Just Job confesseth that God oft assaysr To draw the sinner from delicious ways Job 33. 14. The raising up of lazarus from death When he had four days yeilded up his breath Inferreth also that some few obtain God's mercy who had dead and stinking lain In their transgressions till there was no place For help by outward means or common grace But this his mercy is the highest pitch And if a God who is in mercy rich Vouchsafe it any where he doth afford Much more than he hath promis'd in his word For though he may confer it when he please Yet to have left such promises as these Had better'd none but made those worse by far Who for the Grace obtained thankless are Oh who enough can praise thy matchless Love Most gracious God! Who pleasest from