subjoyn'd as So help me God according as what I affirm is true so where it is not express'd it is always understood to be meant and God call'd upon not onely as a Witness but an Avenger By swearing therefore by the Name of God we give an evident Testimony of our acknowledging him for such and particularly that he is True and Wise and Powerful This onely would be added what is evident from the nature of the thing it self That though an Oath be an Acknowledgment of those glorious Attributes before-mentioned yet it is not to be made but where the thing in controversie is not otherwise to be made out and the Knot is worthy of his untying And more than this I shall not need to say concerning Swearing by the Name of God because I must afterwards resume it when I come to entreat of the Third Commandment 4. Lastly As we acknowledge the Divine Majesty by Swearing by his Name so also by Vowing to him in whatsoever may be the proper Matter of it such as is the yielding Obedience to all his Commands in general or the performing of any particular one For as by so doing we acknowledge God to be conscious to our Resolutions and because Vows are always made upon condition of God's giving us some Boon that he is conscious also to our Wants so for the same Reason that he is able to supply them and deliver us either from our Fears or from our Dangers Which acknowledgment is so much the more valuable because Vows are seldom made but when Men are encompassed with the greatest Dangers and there is little hopes of escaping but by some signal Providence for he that in such cases vows any thing to God for his deliverance sheweth he looks upon him to be of an Almighty Power and that he can act not onely in concurrence with Natural Causes but without and against them But because the nature of Vows will also fall in more fitly afterwards when I come to entreat of the Third Commandment it shall suffice me to have observ'd That this is one way of acknowledging him whom we are requir'd to own for our God II. Of acknowledging God by yielding Obedience to his Commands I have spoken hitherto and particularly by yielding Obedience to such Commands as have a more immediate aspect upon himself It remains that we entreat of our presenting him with some outward Note or Sign of our Submission which is the second way of owning him with our Bodies For inasmuch as God hath commanded us to glorifie him with our Bodies as well as with our Souls inasmuch as external Reverence is the most immediate expression of it it follows that to own him for our God we are to add external Reverence to our Obedience and present him with our Respects as well as Submission to his Commands Now there are two sorts of Notes or Signs whereby we are to express our Reverence to the Divine Majesty 1. The former whereof are perform'd within the Body 2. The latter reaches to things without it 1. Of the former sort are all those humble postures of Body wherewith we find devout Men to have honour'd their Maker such as are in particular Kneeling or Falling down before him Bowing down the Head or uncovering it in fine the standing at a distance from the Place of his more especial Presence as we read the penitent Publican did or casting our pensive Eyes upon the ground All which as we find to have been us'd by Holy Men so if we consult the Scriptures not to have been without the Command of God for the use of some or other of them For thus when the Devil would have woo'd our Saviour by the proffer of the Kingdoms of the World so to fall down and worship him our Saviour not onely rejected the Motion but made him answer out of the Scriptures Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve In which place we do not onely find God claiming the Homage of our Service and Obedience but the paying also of our Respects in falling down and worshipping our Creator Neither let any Man say as there are those who are like enough to do it how little ground soever there be for such an Answer let not any Man I say make answer That by Worship in that place we are to understand an inward one For as that was not it the Devil ask'd but the falling down before him and consequently no way agreeable to such an Interpretation so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies External Adoration and is accordingly by Hesychius explain'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling at ones Feet And though it be true that in the Original of the Old Testament from whence this Text is borrowed it be not Thou shalt worship but Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God which is an Act of inward Adoration yet inasmuch as what the Devil ask'd was the outward one and our Saviour himself in his citation of it apply'd it to that kind of Worship it is manifest we are to understand both the one and other Adoration our inward Fear and the outward Expressions of it But so that I may put this past all doubt God hath given us yet more clearly to understand in the Words of the next Commandment For forbidding in that the bowing down before an Image because he is a jealous God he thereby plainly sheweth that he challeng'd that Honour to himself the Worship of the outward as well as of the inward Man And indeed provided that this Reverence do not degenerate into a Theatrical one nor swallow up that inward regard which we ought especially to intend I know not how we can more approve our selves to him whom we pretend to adore than by making every Member some way contribute thereto For how grateful must our Service needs be when all that is within and without conspires to it and whilst the Tongue is doing its Devotions the Knee is bowing to the Divine Majesty or which was the Custom of the Jews and is still of all the Eastern Nations the whole Body in token of its and the Souls subjection lies prostrate upon the Ground Again What is there which may be thought to engage the Soul's Obedience that doth not in like manner concur to the Adoration of the other Is the Soul of God's creation So is the Body as being not onely formed by him in its Protoplast Adam but curiously wrought by God in that Womb that immediately conceiv'd it Is the Soul redeem'd by the Holy Jesus So also is the Body and shall be hereafter to much better purposes For ye are bought with a price saith the Apostle therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are so his Lastly Hath the Soul a share in the Graces of the Spirit So also hath the Body as is evident from the Prayer of the fore-nam'd Apostle where he not onely beseecheth God to sanctifie them wholly but
performed without the knowledge of the nature and attributes of God and I have before said that what is prerequired to any thing enjoined is to be supposed to be enjoined by the same Commandment therefore before I proceed to shew what respect is due unto him I must shew 1. What the nature and attributes of God are 2. How the knowledge thereof is to be attained and 3. And lastly the necessity thereof 1. I begin with the last of these because the first in order to be known even the necessity of our knowledge of God which will appear from what was before intimated concerning the impossibility of our giving him that honour which is due without it For all honour being founded in the apprehension of those excellencies which we behold in another if the excellencies of the divine nature be either not at all or but superficially known our honour of it must be accordingly and consequently no way suitable to the Divine Majesty And hence Joh. 17.3 the knowledge of God and Christ is set to denote all that which is necessary to eternal life For this saith that Evangelist is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Not that this alone is sufficient to qualifie us for Heaven for Faith and Love and all other Graces of the Spirit are necessary to the attaining of it but that this is the basis and foundation of all the rest neither can we either love or trust in him or adore him if we have not a due knowledg of him 2. The necessity of the knowledge of God being thus evinced pass we in the second place to the means whereby that knowledge is to be attained which is either 1. the light of Reason and Nature or 2. of Revelation and Scripture That God may be known by the former of these ways S. Paul evidently declares Rom. 1.19 20. For that saith he which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead It is true indeed what through the present weakness of humane nature and Gods just desertion of it because of our many provocations we cannot so easily or so perfectly attain to the knowledge of him by the light of reason and nature But as this hinders not but that God may be knowable by it because the eyes of our understandings are become less apt to discern it so he that shall seriously set himself to contemplate the works of nature will find no contemptible footsteps of the Deity upon them But because I have * Explication of the Apostles Creed elsewhere given a specimen of what is knowable by this light in my discourse upon that Article of the Creed concerning God the Father and because it is most certain that whatever may be knowable by it the best of us find it difficult enough to deduce the nature of God from it therefore consider we in the second place that more certain one even the light of Revelation and Scripture For as no one can be supposed to give us a more perfect account of the nature of God than he himself can and consequently that which comes immediately from him must be preferred before all other ways of knowing him so cannot that account but be thought the most easy and intelligible because added in consideration of our inability to discern it by the help of our own reason For after that * 1 Cor. 1.21 in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe Besides when that which may be known of God from the works of the Creation cannot be deduced but by a long train of consequences the Scriptures give us direct and manifest notices of it they present him to us not as in a glass that is to say by reflexion and obscurely but as I may so speak face to face And therefore being now to set before you the nature and attributes of God so far forth as shall be necessary to let us know what regard we ought to have for him I will borrow my description of it from the Scripture which is more exact and intelligible rather than from the light of nature which is both more imperfect and obscure This only would be premised as well to set bounds to our own enquiries as to enhance that respect which we ought to have for the Divine Majesty that being infinite in his nature and attributes according as hath been elsewhere * Explication of the Apostles Creed shewn and shall be farther in the conclusion of this discourse whatsoever knowledge we or any other creature may have of him yet we cannot hope to comprehend him in which sense some have with great probability understood that of S. Paul that he dwelleth in that light to which no man can approach and that no man either hath seen him or can 1 Tim. 6.16 Now if it should be demanded which ought to be the end of all our enquiries in this matter what this incomprehensibility of God exacts of us and by what means we may own him as such I answer by an humble and silent admiration of this his unintelligible perfection For as that Painter who drew a veil over the face of a sad Mother did thereby better express the passion he was to represent than he could have done by the saddest aspect he could have delineated because that veil which he drew over it did tacitly insinuate that the grief was not capable of being expressed so cannot we give a greater evidence of our owning the immensity of the Divine Nature than by our silent admiration of it For this shews the Divine Nature to be such as we can never hope to conceive and much less be able to express 3. Having premised thus much as a limit to our own enquiries and as a supplement to those imperfect discoveries we shall be able to make of the Divine Majesty proceed we according to our proposed method to the observation of so much as is knowable from the Scriptures concerning the Nature and Attributes of God And 1. First of all for the Nature of God the Scripture is express that it is spiritual for so our Saviour Joh. 4.24 God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth that is to say for this is the best description we can give of a spirutal nature he is such a substance as is exempt from the Laws and affections of bodies he is not capable of being divided or circumscribed Neither doth it make ought against this assertion that we find God frequently described with Eyes and Ears and Hands and other the parts of a body For as he who would explain any thing to a child or other weak person must
suit his discourse to the capacity of him whom he hath taken upon him to instruct so God being to instruct mankind and particularly the common sort of it who understand nothing beyond what they see and feel was necessarily to make known his own Nature and Attributes not by such discoveries as were most proper to declare it but by such things as the capacity of them whom he was to instruct was best able to apprehend Now as no man would inferr from the explication that is made of any thing to a child that the thing it self is altogether such as it is described to him because such a one is rather to be instructed by such things as are most obvious to him than by the proper notices thereof so neither can any from the bodily representation that is made of God that God hath indeed such parts and members as he is there described withal because the weakness of the common sort requires that the nature of God be represented by the things of sense which alone they have any knowledge of Besides as there was a necessity of Gods describing his power and providence by Hands and Eyes as in like manner other Attributes of his by such parts of humane bodies which hold most correspondence with them and consequently nothing of corporeity to be attributed to him because of it so God himself hath given us sufficiently to understand that he would have those descriptions interpreted rather as Emblems and Pictures than as rigid definitions of his nature For beside the express affirmation of his being a spirit with which the affections of bodies are not consistent he frequently asks the makers of Images To whom they will liken God or what likeness they will compare unto him and this too as you may see Isa 40.17 upon the account of that vast distance that is between him and all the Nations of the World Which kind of questions being tantamount to a negation it follows that however God be sometime described as a humane body yet he hath no affinity with them nor with any other how glorious soever 2. From the nature of God pass we to his Attributes which for our more orderly proceeding may be reduced to these two heads to wit 1. Either such as are radicated in his nature or 2. As result from his operations 1. The former of these are again double commonly called Incommunicable or Communicable that is to say such of which there is no resemblance in the creatures or such of which there is Of the former of these sorts are these four his independency his unchangeableness his omnipresence and eternity each of which hath the astipulation of the Scripture and therefore to be considered by us That God is independent of any other either as to his being or subsistance S. Paul evidently declares Act. 17.25 for inasmuch as he giveth to all life and breath and all things he himself cannot depend upon them for his own and consequently is independent of any other There is the same evidence from Scripture concerning Gods unchangeableness either in his nature or resolutions For they saith the Psalmist shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as doth a garment but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end Psal 102.26 27. And again with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning saith S. James c. 1.17 Lastly as God is independent and unchangeable so is he omnipresent and eternal witness for the former that known place of the Psalmist Psal 139.7 and so on Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea Even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me For the latter the same Psalmist Plal. 90.2 For from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Next to his incommunicable Attributes consider we his Communicable ones that is to say such of which there is some image in the creatures in each of which we shall find the same consent of Scripture as we found before in his incommunicable ones To begin with his Mercy and Goodness because the Scripture itself tells us that that is above all his works how did he himself triumph in it when he proclaimed his own Glory For thus Exod. 34.6 when he passed before Moses he proclaimed himself to be the Lord even the Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Keeping mercy for thou sands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Next to his mercy consider we his Justice because proclaimed in the same breath he himself there adding that he was one that would by no means clear the guilty but visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children v. 7. of that chapter As in like manner though more fully elsewhere for all his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32.4 Where we have not only a declaration of his Justice in the largest acception of the word but a declaration also of his Truth another Attribute of his and therefore to be considered by us But because this as others of them are so frequently mentioned in Scripture that no man can be supposed to be ignorant of it I will add only for a confirmation of it that he is so much a God of truth that he is by S. Paul said to be The God that cannot lye Tit. 1.2 Lastly for these things are so notorious from the Scripture that it will be but lost labour to go about to prove them as he is a God of Mercy and Justice and Truth so he is a God of Glory and Power and Wisdom And more than this I shall not need to add concerning such Attributes as are radicated in the Divine Nature unless it be that whereas in created beings they are finite and limited in God they are infinite and unlimited But so that they are the Scripture gives us to understand either in express terms or such as do necessarily inferr it that affirming in one place * Psal 147.5 that his understanding is infinite as in another ‖ Isai 40.17 that all nations and their several excellencies are before him as nothing yea less than nothing and vanity which is in effect to say that God himself is infinite They being not to be said to be as nothing yea less than nothing in comparison of him who hold any proportion to him as they must be said to do if God himself were finite 2. One only Attribute remains even that which we have said to flow from his operations I mean his Sovereignty and Dominion Concerning which to omit others that of S. Paul may suffice Act. 17.24 where we have not only the world and all things therein
removed by considering both how unworthy they are of rational creatures and with what evil consequences they are usually attended For as the pleasures before spoken of are more the pleasures of beasts than men and by them more fully and exquisitely enjoyed so the effect of them is no other than to produce in us low and abject minds crazy diseased and at length putrid bodies The heart being thus purged from all earthly and sensual affections towards which I have over and above represented the most effectual expedients we are in the next place to lift up our minds or thoughts from the contemplation of corporeal beings to the consideration of spiritual ones For as it is not to be expected that they who accustom themselves to look no farther than their senses should ever conceive rightly of a spiritual object it being impossible for mens apprehensions to rise higher than the fountain from which they proceed so that depraved custom was no doubt the first original of the Heathens believing God to have a body like themselves with the infirmities and accidents thereof They inured themselves to consider of nothing but what they saw and felt they chained their thoughts to the things and occurrences of the world and having no knowledge of God but from the Traditions of their fathers they were thereby tempted to conceive of him as corporeal also and that he was only a more glorious one After the same manner as one hath happily compared it that people always bred in Country Towns and Villages judge of those Cities they never saw by proportion to the Market-Town to which they resort or of the Palaces of Princes by the houses of their Landlords Now as to undeceive such people the only way would be to lead them from their own homes and shew them some more glorious Town or House than any they had formerly been acquainted with so I know not a more proper expedient to regulate mens apprehensions concerning God than by inuring them to the consideration of spiritual things such as are for example the nature of our own Understanding and Will the Sciences which perfect the one and the Moral excellencies of the other For as these are the things by which we most resemble him whom we are commanded to own for our God so by the serious consideration thereof we should at length disentangle our selves from the things of sense by which we are fastned to the earth and make both a more free and prosperous flight to Heaven Lastly as it is necessary to have our thoughts lifted up from the contemplation of corporeal beings to the consideration of more refined ones so also if we would attain a right apprehension of God to apply our selves to a serious and deliberate consideration of his immense nature and perfections For as few things are rightly apprehended when either superficially considered or looked upon with a transient eye so much less may we think the nature of God will which cannot be comprehended by us though we should employ our whole life in the consideration of it 2. Having thus dispatched what we have said to be first implied in the owning of God in our Vnderstandings even a right apprehension of his nature and perfections I proceed unto a second which is the recalling of those perfections to our mind and both seriously and frequently contemplating them Which duty I do the rather inculcate as because it is a tribute which God has expresly exacted * Eccl. 12.1 Remember now thy Creatour c. and concerning which therefore there cannot be the least doubt but that we are thus to own him in our Vnderstandings so because the neglect of it seems to me to be the great cause of that irreligion which is in the Christian world For as what through the translation of the Scripture into our own tongue and the constant explication of it it is hardly possible for us to avoid a competent knowledge of our duty so we cannot but in our own thoughts assent to the practice of it and adjudge it both reasonable and profitable to be performed But to what then can we attribute our neglect of what we are so perswaded of but to our own want of consideration For the will naturally and almost necessarily following the dictates of our understanding what should hinder men from doing that which they know to be both reasonable and useful if they kept their eye upon it and contemplated what they could not choose but know And accordingly S. Peter in the first Chapter of his second Epistle doth not only affirm that he would not be negligent to put those he wrote to in remembrance of some things though they knew them and were established in the present truth v. 12. of that chapter but in the 13. verse again that he thought it meet as long as he was in this tabernacle to stir them up by putting them in remembrance and yet a third time v. 15. that he would endeavour that they might be able after his decease to have the same things always in remembrance plainly implying by his so frequent inculcating of the duty of remembrance that it was through the want of that that men apostatized from their duty and neglected those things they were not only perswaded to be just but necessary to their own eternal welfare And indeed as men may learn many things from their own practise no less than from the proper rule of truth the Scriptures wherefore do the profane ones of the world so carefully avoid the conversing with their own thoughts or listning to the advices of religious persons but that they find the revolving them in their minds would even constrain them to their duty and make them abandon those lusts that are inconsistent with it Thus whether we do reflect upon our own practice or Scripture or reason we shall find the great cause of mens irreligion to be the want of such a consideration and consequently that it is no more than necessary to call the things of Religion to our mind and particularly him who is both the object and the Author of it These two things only seem necessary to be added for our more advantageous performing of it 1. That though all the Attributes of God call for our remembrance and accordingly are to have it in their turn yet we are especially to call those to our mind by which our affections are most likely to be influenced and our hearts incited to embrace him For though God do also require to be owned by us in our Vnderstandings yet more especially in our hearts and consequently those Attributes to have the greatest share in our thoughts by which our hearts and affections are most apt to be inflamed 2. Again though all the Attributes of God are to have a share in our remembrance and particularly those which are most operative upon our affections so such of them especially as are most sutable to our present necessities and temper because those are
God supposing that other to be self-sufficient as he who desires and expects it against the will of God that he is able to controul Him Neither will it avail to say which yet is commonly pretended That all who make use of such Arts have not any intention or suspicion of making any Application to the Devil For though I am willing enough to believe that many of them have not and cannot therefore but acquit them from the purpose of it yet it is past either my skill or theirs to acquit them from the thing it self or from being look'd upon as chargeable with it Men being justly chargeable with making Applications to the Devil who make use of such Means for the attaining of their Purpose the Success whereof cannot rationally be expected from any other especially when God himself hath caution'd Men against the use of them and represented them as detestable and abominable yea to such a Degree as to occasion the casting out those Nations who possess'd the Land of Canaan before the Israelites Which how they should be thought to do if they were rather vain Curiosities than secret or open Transactions with the Devil will I think be very difficult to determine And indeed as some of those Persons have the Title of Dealers with Familiar Spirits and all of them are represented under the same Guilt and obnoxious to the same Penalties so it is strange to observe that some Men should be so highly unreasonable as to question that Diabolical Commerce after so many Authentick Stories which have been publish'd to the World concerning it the free Confession of the accused Parties and the Sentences of grave and sober Judges but especially after what the Scriptures of the New Testament have declar'd concerning the Devil and his Angels They representing the Devil and his Ministers as encompassing the earth to procure mischief as the God of this world and ruling in the children of disobedience as entring through the Divine Permission into men and speaking in and by them in fine for so we read Acts 16.16 divining as well as using other Speeches by them and suggesting those Soothsayings for which such kind of Persons are resorted to After all which to question either the possibility or truth of a Diabolical Commerce is not onely to be unreasonably scrupulous but to be impudently unbelieving because contradicting the general Sense and Experience of the World and the clear Declarations of the Scriptures I will conclude this Affair with a Passage in Leviticus * Chap. 20.6 because both expressing God's detestation of all Magical Practises and his accounting of them as Idolatry or the giving of his Glory unto another And the Soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people For representing such Addresses under the term of going a whoring which in the Language of the Old Testament is no other than the espousing of other Deities he thereby giveth us to understand that they are in effect an Abrenunciation of himself and an espousing of other Deities in stead of him THE SECOND COMMANDMENT THE SECOND COMMANDMENT Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow down to them nor Worship * or serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the sins †or iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my commandments PART I. The Contents That what we reckon as the Second Commandment is really such and not an Appendix of the First This evidenc'd by several Reasons as also that it respects the Manner and not the Object of our Worship The Commandment divided into a Precept and a Sanction as that again into an Affirmative and Negative one The Affirmative That we worship God after a due manner which also is there specified and particularly That we worship God in Spirit and Truth the purport whereof is at large declar'd Among other things the Questions concerning Will-worship and worshipping God with Ceremonies discussed and stated I Am now arriv'd at the Second Commandment for so I hope I may have leave to call it after the Travels of our Divines upon that Argument For though the Papists represent it as an Appendix onely to the First and which is much worse have upon that pretence raz'd it quite out of their Catechisms yet is there so little reason for their way of Reckoning and so much for ours that I doubt not all impartial Men will cast it on their sides who look upon it as distinct from the former Precept For beside that all Antiquity * Joseph Antiqu. Judaic lib. 3. cap. 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sulpit. Sever. Sacrae hist li. 1. Non erunt tibi dei alieni praeter me Non facies tibi Idolum Non sumes nomen Dei tui in vanum c. See more upon this Head in D. Taylor 's Duct Dubit Book 2. Chap. 2. Rule 6. generally have so accounted of it or at least have united it to the First upon different grounds beside that it seem'd but requisite that provision should be made for the manner of our Worship as well as for the Object of it beside lastly that the worshipping of the True God by an Image is elsewhere as expresly forbidden as the substituting of False Gods in his room beside all these things I say which yet are very material Considerations the very words of the Commandment to a diligent Observer shew the Manner of our Worship to be the thing aimed at in them For forbidding to make or worship the likeness of any thing either in the upper or lower World he thereby plainly declared his meaning to be not to caution them against an undue Object but against that kind of Adoration he who worshippeth the likeness of any thing making not that his God before which he so falls down but that which it was designed to represent Which is so true that the Papists themselves are forc'd to alledge it in behalf of their own Idololatrical Worship Neither will it suffice to say as I find it is by them That what we call the Second Commandment did therefore descend to instance in Images because those were the chief Gods among the Heathen For as the generality of the Heathen were undoubtedly too wise to terminate their Worship there the very Name of an Image directing Men to that of which it is so an Image so it is not easie to conceive save of the very Beasts of the People that they should believe a Stone or a piece of Wood to be a God From our own Account pass we to that of our
But beside the Perjury which unnecessary Swearing doth naturally draw after it and for which cause therefore if there were no other it were in reason to be avoided it offers an affront both to God and to his Name which we do thus take in vain For can it be other than an affront to the Divine Majesty to call him to witness to every Trifle to interpose his Testimony in every slight and impertinent Affair That is to say in such wherein it would scarcely be decent to call in a Man of any Repute to witness Beside when we call God to witness to the truth of what we affirm our meaning is because there is no other way of witnessing it that he would either witness to the truth of what we say by some extraordinary Accident or to our falseness by some remarkable Judgment upon our selves Now can any Man think it other than an affront thus unnecessarily to call upon God to shew Miracles and alter the common Course of his Providence when even God himself makes not any such alteration but in Matters of importance and to evidence the truth of a Revelation or other such like Affair If a Heathen could affirm of his Deity That he was not at leisure to intend small matters we may very well think that the True will not be well pleas'd to be call'd to witness in Matters that are neither serious nor important It is true indeed where the Matter is weighty and important and the Glory of God some way concern'd in the clearing of it such as is the doing Right between Man and Man or the procuring Credit to that Doctrine which he himself hath commanded us to promulge in those I say and such like Cases especially when we have the Warrant both of his Word and Apostles Practice we may well presume it not unacceptable to God to call him to bear witness to them But to do it as is commonly done upon every slight and trifling occasion when the question is onely Whether we have thrown so much at Dice or which of the Bowls lie nearest to the Jack in such Cases I say to call in God to Umpire the Difference must argue a mean Opinion of him and may seem more proper for those Dice we sport withal and for those Reeds we are wont to measure the difference that is between the other But be it that there were nothing of all this in an Oath which yet is the very Formality of it yet is it not some affront to the Divine Majesty thus unnecessarily to make mention of the Name of God and to interlard every Sentence we speak with it For though his Name be not his Person yet as shall be elsewhere * On that Petition of the Lord's Prayer Hallowed be thy Name observ'd there is some Respect due to it for the relation it hath to him and accordingly not either slightly or regardlesly to be mentioned But because where I shall make this Observation I shall say enough to confirm it and the unlawfulness of unnecessary and trifling mention of the Divine Names in stead of prosecuting it or the matter of Swearing any further I will see if I can provoke your Emulation by what I find observ'd by Philo * De Decalog de specialibus legibus concerning some of the more sober Jews Which is That in case necessity prompted Men to it they should not presently have recourse to the First Cause and swear by the Name of God but rather by Heaven or Earth or some other Creature That in case they swore by God they should rather do it tacitely than expresly as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By the leaving the Name of God by whom they swore to be understood That they should shew some kind of backwardness and aversation to it even where there seem'd to be some necessity for an Oath That they should consider well before they made Oath of any thing whether it were a matter of importance whether it were true and such as they had sufficient knowledge of whether they themselves were pure in Soul in Body and in Tongue it being a great Impiety to let any thing of filthiness pass through that mouth which made mention of the Name of God Lastly That they should take care not to swear in any profane and impure Places in which it seem'd hardly decent to make mention of our earthly Parents For is it possible after all this for Christians who have been so much more oblig'd and better instructed by God to have less regard to it nay to profane and blaspheme that holy Name to call him to witness to every Impertinence to vouch his Authority for a Throw or a Card If it be it is a sign we have as little of Emulation as Religion and are equally regardless of our own Honour and that of God Lastly which is a Consideration by no means to be forgotten because made use of by God himself to dehort us from it As there is little of Honour or Religion in thus taking the Name of God in vain so there is all the reason in the World to believe though we had not the Scripture to assure us that God will not hold him guilt less that doth it For who can think but that he who hath been so often summon'd to come down among us and witness to our Extravagances and Impertinencies will at length come down though to a quite different purpose and make us feel the dreadfulness of that Name which we do either trifle with or blaspheme PART II. Concerning false Oaths and the Impiety thereof which is evidenced from the affront they offer to the Divine Majesty and the prejudice they bring to Humane Society This last evidenced at large both in Assertory and Promissory Oaths Of Swearing by a Creature and whether or no and in what sense it may be lawful That it is unlawful to make a Creature the Term of our Oath or the Thing we swear by but not so to make mention of them in an Oath though in the common Form of one when intended onely as relating to the Divine Majesty or devoted unto him as Pledges of our Fidelity That it is lawful for the Magistrate to exact an Oath of his Subjects This evidenced in part from the nature of an Oath which becometh so much the more lawful for being extorted from the Practice of Holy Men in Scripture who have requir'd an Oath from their Children and Servants and in fine from the necessity there is oftentimes of it for the securing both the Magistrate and the Common-wealth 3. THAT all Oaths in common Converse are unlawful that all vain and unnecessary ones are so you have seen already Proceed we now to the consideration of False ones or such as are applied to a Lie For that these also are unlawful the Letter of the Commandment shews and may à fortiori be concluded from our Saviour's Prohibition of the other The former of these
I shall now take for granted as having sufficiently establish'd it in the foregoing Discourse It remains therefore that I evidence the truth of the latter which will not cost me much time or pains to manifest For if we are to have an Oath in such veneration as not to use it in common Converse nor indeed where there is not a great necessity how cautious ought we to be in setting it to a Lie which this very Decalogue hath forbidden and which beside that God doth elsewhere profess to have a great abhorrence of To all which if we add that of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 1.9 10. so there will not remain any the least doubt I do not say of the unlawfulness but of the great enormity of setting the Oath of God unto a Lie because not onely affirming the Law to have been made for perjur'd Persons but reckoning them among Parricides and other such Monsters in Nature as their Crime together with those of their Associates among the things that are contrary to sound doctrine Now though this might suffice at least amongst reasonable Men to evince the unlawfulness of setting the Oath of God unto a Lie yet because as was but now intimated it is a Crime of a very high nature and yet by many Men as little scrupled as vain and unnecessary ones I think it not amiss a little to explain the Nature of it and the fatal Consequences wherewith it is attended I have before shewn and shall therefore now take it for granted that an Oath is a Religious Affirmation wherein God is invok'd as a Witness and by consequence also as a Revenger if we be found to falsifie in it From whence it will follow That whosoever swears falsly calls God to witness to a Lie Now that no Man can do without believing God to have no regard at all to Humane Affairs or that he is false and a Patron of those that are so neither the one nor the other of which can be entertain'd into our thoughts without the highest Impiety in the World Not the former because not onely denying an Article of our Faith but striking at the Root of all Religion He that cometh unto God as the Author to the Hebrews * 11.6 instructs us being not onely to believe that he is but that he is a rewarder of such as diligently seek him which implies a more than ordinary Regard But let us suppose him that swears falsely to believe God to have a regard to Humane Affairs though I am sure he that doth so will in the end give us no thanks for the Supposition yet can it not be deny'd but that he must believe God to be such as himself even a Liar and a Patron of those that are so For will any Man call those to witness to a Lie of whom he hath not a strong presumption that they are false themselves Nay will he be so unmindful of his own Interest or rather take so much pains to ruine it For if the Party whom he invites to give Testimony be no false or deceitful Person he will undoubtedly give Testimony rather against than for him and discover his falshood to the World Now forasmuch as it cannot be suppos'd any Man will be so far an Enemy to himself as to seek a Testimony which shall onely make against him he who thus calls God to witness must be presum'd to believe that God will witness for him and consequently because a Lie is that he is call'd to witness to that God is false and a Patron of those that are so But what Impiety can be greater than such a Belief or more dishonourable to the Divine Majesty who hath every where represented himself as True and Faithful who hath in several places affirm'd Lying to be one of those things to which his Power though Almighty cannot reach lastly whose Veracity is the stay of all those that trust in him of all that come unto Christ by him For let God's Veracity be destroy'd and all Trust in him must perish with it and he be accounted as vain a Confidence as any which himself decries From the Affront which false swearing offers to the Divine Majesty pass we to the Consequences thereof and the harm it doth to Humane Society which will appear if we reflect upon the several sorts of Oaths which are either Assertory or Promissory For Assertory Oaths such I mean as are brought to witness the Truth of any thing that is past or present the Author to the Hebrews tells us and we may learn it from our own Experience that they are an end of strifes between Parties at variance this being that by which all Controversies are voided and without which it is impossible they should ever be For as it is not to be presum'd they who judge between Man and Man should have cognisance of their respective Interests but from the report of others so the bare Affirmations of Men are generally too fallacious to ground a sound Decision on there being nothing more usual even for those who make some conscience of speaking Truth than to stretch it beyond its bounds to serve the Necessity or Interest of their Friends Either therefore Differences must never have an end which Religion as well as the Interest of the World forbids or they must be ended by that which the Scripture hath represented as the proper way to terminate and which all the World hath made use of to compose them Now forasmuch as the Welfare of Mankind depends upon the Composure of Differences as that again upon the Religion of an Oath he must needs be a great Enemy to Humane Society who shall subvert this surest Prop of it and call God to witness to a Lie For what were this but to bring a scandal upon those so necessary means of deciding Controversies and consequently to leave Men either to differ without hopes of accord or what was sometime in use in our Forefathers days to decide their Differences by the Sword Which as it is in it self a very unequal Umpire of Differences so serves onely to create greater and precipitate Men into that confusion which they sought to avoid by it The like is to be said of Promissory Oaths such I mean as are brought to assure Men that they who make them will perform what they promise For let these once be vitiated and disgrac'd and there can be no assurance to any Man of any thing that is yet to come For if an Oath will not hold a Man much less will a bare promise because that contains a Promise in it and beside that an Appeal to the Judge of Heaven and Earth If it be said as it may That the Laws and the Punishments annex'd may make them perform their Oaths whom the Religion of an Oath cannot I answer first That there were such Oaths made must be confirm'd by another to those to whom the execution of the Laws is committed If therefore Oaths do once become
whose Education and Birth seems not well to correspond to those meaner Labours to which the greater part of Mankind are oblig'd it seems but reasonable to allot them such a Labour as is suitable to that better State in which the Almighty hath plac'd them Lastly Forasmuch as though both the Curse and Precept of Labour be laid upon all Mankind yet it is in the power of God to release it forasmuch as those Persons to whom God hath given more liberal Fortunes are in reason to be look'd upon as in part releas'd because without those Necessities for the redress whereof Labour was principally enjoyn'd it seems but reasonable to infer that they are neither oblig'd to the same degree of Labour with Persons of meaner Fortune nor to the same Species or Kind And more than this if those whom the old Saxon Tongue stiles ydlemen but our present Dialect by a Name more suitable to their Quality did not challenge I know not what any reasonable Man could oppose against their way of living or endeavour to reduce them to the Condition of meaner Persons consideration being always to be had of the Condition of the Persons in order to the adjustment of the Obligations that lie upon them It is a known Observation and therefore I shall not fear to have the truth of it call'd in Question That among the Turks Persons * Busbeq Tursic Epist of the Noblest Quality and most ingenuous Education are yet brought up to some Manual Art in which they ever after employ some portion of their Time the Great Turk himself amidst his most important Affairs yet allotting some portion of his Time to the intending of it I do not pretend to lay this Burthen upon any ingenious Person and much less to represent him as unuseful in the World who should not think fit to follow their example but certainly it must be a great reproach to those who are far better instructed so far to forget either the Design of their Being or Descent from Adam as to think themselves privileg'd to live in ease and spend that Patrimony in Sloth and Luxury which their Renowned Ancestors acquir'd either by their Wits or by their Swords It may be enough to such that they are freed from all servile Labours that they have an Education and Parts answerable to those glorious Heroes from whom they derive both their Fortunes and their Blood And certainly where they are well employ'd as they will be no less useful to the World so neither less acceptable to God than the sweat of the others brows But because Scripture no less than Reason would be inquir'd into there where the Obligation whose Relaxation we seek hath its principal Foundation in it therefore it may not be amiss that I say not in some measure necessary to inquire whether the Scripture affords any ground for the qualifying of that severer Precept which God laid upon Mankind for its disobedience Now that it doth will sufficiently appear from that Question which St. Paul put concerning himself and Barnabas 1 Cor. 9.6 For demanding as he does whether he and Barnabas onely had not power to forbear working as well as other Apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas for so the Word onely and the connexion of that Demand with the former Words oblige us to supply it he both supposeth that other of the Apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas abstain'd from Manual Labours and that it was alike in his power to do so if he pleas'd to make use of it that so he might the better intend that more noble Work of the Conversion of Souls And indeed as the Labour of the Brain whereby that is to be done is no less useful to Humane Society nor which makes it approach nearer to that Curse upon which it is founded less wearisom to the flesh if we may give credit to Solomon * Eccl. 12.12 who was more than ordinarily exercis'd in it so they who would reduce us to that toilsom estate of St. Paul and others who stuck not to addict themselves even to the meanest Artifices must also bring back again into the World those miraculous Gifts and Graces whereby St. Paul and other such like Persons were enabled to discharge their several Provinces the Work of converting Souls as it is now to be managed requiring all that Labour and Industry which the Necessities of the World will suffer us to afford it The same is to be said and upon the strength of the forementioned Demand concerning all those whose Brains are employ'd in the management of State-affairs or are any other way useful to the conservation of Mens Persons or Estates For St. Paul pleading his Exemption from Bodily Labour from his diligence in his Apostleship and the good he thereby did to those Persons who were under his inspection to which he thought it but just that at least a Maintenance should be allow'd insinuating moreover in the ninth and tenth Verses by his comparing his Labour to the oxes treading out the corn and to plowing and reaping that it was not unfitly stil'd a Labour and such a Labour which privileg'd him to partake of carnal Things no less than that which is attended with Sweat and Toil he thereby gave us sufficiently to understand that as the Labours of the Mind are no less properly such than those which are exercised by the Hands so where they are conducible to the Benefit of Humane Kind they give a Man the same Privilege to the enjoyment of this Worlds Goods and consequently satisfie the intent of the Commandment 4. Being now according to my proposed Method to inquire about what things this Labour of ours is to be conversant I shall propose first such Directions as concern the Labours of Men in general and then those which relate to the Labours of particular Persons As to the former of these we shall need no other Instruction than that which St. Paul gives in the fore-quoted place to the Ephesians to wit that it be about those things that are good By which I mean first such things as have no moral obliquity in them nor are instrumental to them Of the former sort in particular is the Trade of Harlots who prostitute their Bodies to furnish themselves with a Support the Arts of Witches and Wizzards who inquire into things secret and such as are not onely knowable to God alone but * See Deut. 29.29 challeng'd to himself Of the latter all those which are instrumental to Uncleanness or to any other Sin whatsoever such as are to the former the Trade of Bauds and Panders to Drunkenness the keeping of Houses not for the covenience of Travellers or the moderate refreshment of others but to invite and cherish intemperance in fine to Idolatry the making of those Images which are to be the Object of it Whence it is that the Fathers inveigh so much against it and as I have before shewn †Explicat
of the Church in a Christian State cap. 1. pag. 37. c. upon it Which whilst the Emperours continued Heathen decided Differences in matters of Estate between those of their own Body and after that and when therefore there was not the like Reason of making the Church a Judge in matters of that nature continu'd so to do in some measure by the Indulgence of Christian Princes All which things I have laid together not to give countenance to Contentions from which I know our Religion is most averse but to shew that as Suits of Law may be sometime necessary to the conserving of our Properties so where they are so in any great measure they are no way contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel which however it may disallow of scandalous vexatious and trifling Suits yet doth not disapprove inoffensive charitable and important ones 4. But because the Properties of Men may not onely perish to the Owners but in themselves and consequently put Men upon a necessity of seeking a new Supply therefore it may not be amiss to subjoyn the Means of effecting that also which where ordinary Means fail is no other than that of Asking our Saviour both supposing as much when he requires us to give to them that ask and that Order which God hath established in the World confirming it For though as I before * See Explic. of this Commandment Part 1. observ'd all Men have a Natural Right to such a Portion of this Worlds Goods as is necessary to their Support by means of that Grant of them which was made to Adam and his Posterity yet inasmuch as particular Properties stand by the same Divine Will by which that general Charter did which was made to Adam and his Posterity no Man is ordinarily to supply his Wants but by making suit to those Persons into whose Hands God hath by his Providence put the possession of this Worlds Conveniences But so that we are to proceed the Scripture gives us sufficiently to understand even where it doth most strongly assert the Right of the Poor to a Subsistence For though Solomon where he requires the not withholding of good from the necessitous as both the Septuagint Version * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the following Words oblige us to explain it though he I say Prov. 3.27 calls those necessitous ones such to whom that good is due or as it is in the Hebrew †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords or Owners of it yet advising afterwards as he does that we should not say to them Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee he plainly shews that that Right of the necessitous is to be su'd out by Entreaties and not either clancularly withdrawn or extorted That which is properly a Gift depending upon the good will of him that is to bestow it and consequently not to be attain'd without the use of such Means as may make that Will of his propitious to us PART VII Concerning the contributing what in us lies to the procuring conserving or enlarging our Neighbours Property which is the Second Branch of the Affirmative part of the Commandment The Means of effecting that the Liberality of our Endeavours or of our Purses The former whereof is recommended upon the score of its both general practicableness and use the latter for its immediate subserviency to the advantaging of our Neighbour The Liberality of the Purse more particularly consider'd and shewn to imply the remitting of what is due or at least not exacting it with rigour the giving of what we are actually possess'd or lending and in fine an Hospitable Entertainment Inquiry is next made whether the use of the formentioned Means be to be extended unto all and in what order and manner and proportion For the resolution whereof the Reader is in part remanded to the Affirmative part of the Sixth Commandment and in part afforded Satisfaction here In order thereunto the several Liberalities before spoken of are resum'd and such Remarques made upon each of them as were before omitted Concerning the Liberality of Mens Endeavours is noted That inasmuch as it takes little from our own Properties we ought to be the more free of it but yet not so free as for the sake of one to offer any Injustice unto others Concerning the remitting of what is due which is the first Species of the other Liberality That it cannot be omitted without a manifest resistance of the Divine Will where the Person concern'd becomes insolvent by the sole disposition of his Providence provided that the Remission be not prejudicial to others nor draw after it any intolerable prejudice to our selves The Explication more particular in the Liberality of Giving as observing concerning the Objects of it that they are such and such onely who are under any need of it and are beside that in an incapacity to provide for themselves by which means all wealthy or slothful Persons are excluded from any share of it concerning the Order which it ought to observe that though those of the Houshold of Faith ought caeteris paribus to be preferr'd before other Men yet not before those of a Man 's own Family and Kindred as moreover that where the necessitous Persons are many the preference ought to be given to those whose Necessities are most pressing concerning the Proportion this Liberality is to observe that it ought to be according to Mens Ability and that no one ought to value that at less than the Thirtieth part of his yearly Income that where the Necessities of those that are about us cannot otherwise be provided for we ought to give above our Ability if we understand thereby an Ability to provide for our selves according to that Condition wherein God hath placed us concerning the Manner of our Giving that it ought to be without superciliousness and contempt as also with chearfulness speed and secrecie A Transition to the Liberality of Lending and of Hospitality concerning the former whereof is observ'd That though there be no necessity of lending gratis to such as borrow onely for the Improvement of their Fortunes yet that we ought so to do where those that borrow borrow onely to procure or continue to themselves a bare Subsistence Concerning the latter That it ought to be extended to Strangers as well as to those of our own Neighbourhood yea to all whom we are in a capacity so to minister to That though it minister to Mens Necessities yet it ought not to minister to their Intemperance where also the means of retrenching that is described The Conclusion of the whole with the Promises that are made to the Charitable Man and that his own Property is more likely to be improved than any way diminished by his Liberality II. IT having been often said and largely prov'd that every Negative in the Decalogue includes an Affirmative and that that Affirmative is Love it is easie to infer That the Negative we are
always within the bounds of temperance and sometimes also which yet were no hard task to abstain wholly from the enjoyment of their plenty they would not then find it so uneasie to content themselves with a more moderate Fortune or repine and murmur at it when it befalls them he who can be without these external things even when he hath them being much more likely to bear the want of them when they are not to be had and bring his mind to acquiesce in it But when Men will not only not abstain at any time from lawful Delights but allow themselves in such as are exorbitant when instead of denying and mortifying their appetites they will afford them the utmost satisfaction they are capable of though with the hazard of their health and which is of much more consideration of their eternal welfare then no wonder if a meaner Fortune appear strange and irksom and the inconveniences wherewith it is attended insupportable the difference between their former enjoyments and their present straits appearing so vastly great that it may well stagger a resolved Understanding and make Men sink under their Calamity though they were otherwise well enough disposed to bear it and made use of all their Reason to reconcile themselves to the undergoing of it Whence it is that where such a change hath sometime hapned they who have been the unhappy subjects thereof have needed no other Malady to oblige them to quit the World and exchange this miserable life I will not say for a better but what may reasonably enough be feared for one that exceeds it as much in sadness as it doth in the duration of it But let us suppose as God knows that opportunity of learning Contentment doth often pass by us unobserved let us suppose I say that we have not been careful to use our affluence with sobriety and much less to abridge our selves in the lawful use of it yet even so there will not want means to bring us to a contented mind if we will but be so wise as to make use of them Such as is in the next place the consideration of our own vileness and what our former plenty may well suggest to us our past riots and intemperances For how can he think much to stoop to a mean Fortune who hath made so ill use of a more splendid one yea who it may be hath been the Author of his own pressures and brought himself to penury by a prodigal wasting of his former Fortunes It being but reasonable that every Man should acquiesce in that which hath been rather his choice than his misfortune And though it be true that all who have thus fallen are not conscious to themselves of the like Prodigality nor it may be of any Crimes which may be looked upon as equal to them yet is there none who will not find enough in himself to make him acknowledge his Calamity to have been deserved and accordingly to prompt him rather to thank God for what he hath than to repine that it is no greater than it is especially if he do also consider that there are many in the world who are more necessitous than himself and it may be too who have in all things more approved themselves to the Divine Majesty than he himself if he judge impartially will think himself to have done And though it were but an odd consideration which Diogenes * Aelian Var. hist l. 13. c. 26. solaced himself with in the extremity of his poverty that the Mice which plaid about him pleased themselves with those crums that did either fall from or were wiped off by him yet it may suggest to us another which is more likely to be attended to and where it is so to induce Men to Contentment For certainly notwithstanding the murmurings of discontented Men there are some in the world who do not yet repine whose Fortunes are as disproportionable to those of the discontented person as those of the Mice were to the condition of the Cynick What should I tell you what Experience no less than the Scripture assures us That our life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that we possess That Contentment is as rarely yea more rarely to be found in a splendid Fortune than in a moderate or humble one That those gayeties which we so much desire and without which it is so hard for us to be contented are attended with a proportionable number of inconveniences That more cares and fears and dangers wait upon the Scepter than upon the Spade That those pleasures which are the Concomitants of greater Fortunes appear more amiable at a distance than when they come to be enjoyed which no Man who hath ever tasted any earthly pleasure but will find himself obliged to confess That they are of no certain continuance even when we think our selves most sure of them That we our selves may be taken from them as well as they from us In fine That we may be taken from them even whilst we continue in and with them It being no rare thing for Men to lose the sense of them by stupidity or an exquisite pain and want them even when they are possessed of them All which things whosoever shall duly ponder in his mind and allow them that weight which they deserve will I doubt not be easily induced to content himself with an humble Fortune and not only suffer but embrace it But of all the means whereby Contentment may be procured and which therefore it will concern us to make use of because there can be no happiness without it there are certainly none more efficacious than such as are purely Religious and for which we are beholden rather to the Book of God than that of Nature In the number of which I reckon first Those many assurances the Scripture hath given us of Gods supporting us under our humble Fortunes or delivering us out of them or making them advantageous to us Such as are those that inform us that God will never leave us nor forsake us for so what was spoken to Joshua in particular is by the Author to the Hebrews extended unto all that his eyes are upon them that fear him Psal 33.18.19 34.10 Rom. 8.28 Heb. 13.5 to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of dearth that though the Lyons do lack and suffer hunger yet they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and in fine that all things shall work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose For who can well be discontented with his outward condition which he is assured shall be made supportable or mended and which is more rendered advantageous to him The like is to be said yea with much more reason of the Promises of a better life of being satisfied however we may now hunger when we awake with Gods likeness of being advanced to an abiding City