Cap. 5. That the Scriptures containe all things necessary to salvation Pag. 63 Cap. 6. Of the scope of the Scriptures which is Gods Glory and mans Salvation Pag. 70 Cap. 7. That they which read the Scriptures must be men of spirituall mindes Pag. 76 Sect. 1. The description of a spirituall man Pag. 78 Sect. 2. Of the spirituall mans operations Pag. 86 Sect. 3. Of Faith and the two sorts of Faith Historicall and Iustifying Pag. 90 Sect. 4. Of Spirituall experience other meanes of comprehending things spirituall Pag. 115 Cap. 8 Of the choice of fit times for reading the Scriptures Pag. 125 Cap. 9. Of particular preparation before reading Pag. 133 Cap. 10. Of reverend attention and heedfull observation in reading the Scriptures Pag. 141 Cap. 11. Of duties after reading the Scriptures especially Meditation and Prayer Pag. 149 Cap. 12. Directions for the right interpretation of the Scriptures Pag. 160 Cap. 13. Directions for raising observations out of the Scriptures for our owne instruction and edification Pag. 169 Sect. 1. Of the Subject matters handled in the Scripture and first of workes Pag. 172 Sect. 2. Of the Laws given by God to his Church and recorded in Scripture Pag. 197 Concerning the Morality of the fourth Commandement Sect. I. That the Law of the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement is Morall and therefore perpetuall Pag. 213 Sect. II. Answer to the Arguments against the institution of the Sabbath in Paradise Pag. 133 Sect. III. The morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath proved out of the fourth Commandement Pag. 253 Sect. IV A continuation of the consideration of the rest of the Laws recorded in the Scripture with such instructions as may be drawn from them Pag. 300 DIRECTIONS FOR THE PROFITABLE Reading of the Scriptures CAP. I. Of the necessity of preparation thereunto THat the reading of the Scriptures is nothing else but a kind of holy conference with God Preparation in the reading of the Scriptures wherein we enquire after and he reveals unto us himself and his will we shall manifest more fully hereafter when we shall shew that these holy writings are the Word of God himself who speaks unto us in and by them 1. Inforced 1 t Frō the presence of God with whom we confer in reading Wherefore when we take in hand the Book of the Scriptures we cannot otherwise conceive of our selves then as standing in Gods presence to hear what he will say unto us So much the Prophet seems to imply Psal 73.17 when he expresseth his consulting with Gods Word by that phrase of going into the Sanctuary of God for there indeed was Gods Word kept that is going in unto God as going into the Sanctuary is tearmed 2 Sam. 7.18 these kinds of expression seem to imply that when we betake our selves to the reading of the Scriptures we come in unto God or stand in his presence to enquire at his mouth Now with what reverence it becomes us to stand in Gods presence Requiring therefore of us due reverence in performing that duty 1. From the Majesty of God appears not onely by Jacobs fear after he knew God was in the place where he lay Gen. 28.16 17. but farther by the caveat given by Solomon to take heed to our feet when we enter into Gods house Eccles 5.1 and that upon a double ground partly because God is in heaven ver 2. that is high and full of Majesty and consequently to be attended with reverence 2. From the sense of our defilements and inabilities and fear and partly because we have shooes on our feet which God warns Moses to put off Exod. 3.5 when he stood in his presence that is to speak in S. James his phrase we have filthinesse and superfluity of naughtinesse in our hearts which must be laid aside that when we come unto God to be taught by him we may receive his word with meeknesse James 1.21 So that both the Majesty and Holinesse of God whose eyes are purer then to behold evill Hab. 1.13 and the corruptions and defilements of our own hearts necessarily require an heedfull 2ly Frō the inconveniences that follow neglect of such preparation and carefull preparation of our selves before we enter into Gods presence to enquire at his mouth and look into his word The necessity of this preparation when we read the Scriptures will be yet more evident if we observe the ill consequents which follow the neglect of this duty in such persons as either wholly or too often omit it who boldly entring into Gods presence 1 Unfruitfulnesse in our selves and handling the holy things of God with unwashen hands that is reading his word with unsanctified and unprepared hearts as they come unto the work without due reverence so they return for the most part without fruit 2 Discredit of the word it self and by that means bring up an ill report upon the sacred ordinance of God as if it were a dead letter without any quickning power at all unsavoury food without nourishment unfruitfull seed that yeelds no encrease Secondly 3 Discouragement to others by the same means they weaken the hearts of such as might be encouraged to undertake this holy exercise from the use whereof they are much deterred when they observe some of those that are frequent in the practise of this duty remain still ignorant unfruitfull dead-hearted and disconsolate And lastly 4 Discomfort to our selves they occasion discomfort to themselves when notwithstanding the use of this means they finde themselves ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth remaining still either in ignorance or in disobedience of heart at least in much deadnesse of spirit without zeal life or activity in holy duties Thus we cannot but observe with grief of heart an exercise in it self every way usefull fruitfull and comfortable if it be duly and conscionably performed by the neglect of carefull preparation become not onely unfruitfull and unprofitable but besides by necessary consequent unpleasant distastefull and burthensome to those that use it To manifest the necessity of due preparation in reading the Scriptures much more might be spoken and many more ill consequents might be observed that are occasioned by the neglect thereof But the considerations already mentioned are sufficient to evince the usefulnesse and necessity of such a preparation Taking that therefore for granted that this duty of preparation when we undertake the reading of holy Scriptures must be performed our next work must be to give directions for the manner and order how the Readers heart must be fitted to the performance of this task which cannot well be done without taking knowledge of the nature of that word which is to be read and of the end and scope at which it aims That the observation of the nature of Gods word which we read 2 Directed by considering 1. the nature of the Scriptures may much farther us in this duty of preparation to the reading
us to doe or in his dispensations towards us what he would have us to be ought to be the ground of our submission both to doe what he commands and to be what he ordaines concerning us in the course of his Providence Upon this ground it is that as well those glorious works For want whereof all works though never so specious are abominable done according to the rules of morall honesty by the heathen who neither knew God nor his Law As also the like actions done upon the same grounds by many amongst us that carry the name of Christians cannot possibly be accepted by God because though those things done be the same that he commands in his Law yet the will and command of God is not the ground upon which they are done but rather a respect to civill honesty and often a desire to honour our selves by conforming thereunto so that to speak truth we doe therein not so much the will of God as our own will Seventhly the method and order in which God delivers his Law unto us must not be neglected For instance in the preface of the Law Rule 7 Take notice of the method of the Law God before he gives any one Commandement laies before us the interest that he hath in us that he hath purchased us to himselfe and therefore we are his and consequently to be ordered and disposed by him according to his own will This method teaches us a leston without which no service of ours is accepted that all our services must be tendred unto God as duties as we are taught to doe by our Saviour himselfe Luk. 17.10 which as it reserves unto God the honour of his free grace when he rewards our services for which he owes us nothing seeing they are all but debts and duties so withall it takes away all our boasting even in our best services Againe when God begins his Law with that Commandement to have the Lord for our God it teacheth us to lay that for the foundation of all duties of obedience that we have avouched the Lord to be our God This method Joshua observes in renewing the Covenant betwixt God and his people immediately before his death Iosh 24.15 putting them first to choose what God they will serve which when they had done then he presseth them with the duties of his service verse 22.23 And indeed this is the most effectuall of all motives both to draw us on to all duties of obedience and to hold us fast to continue therein that they are services to that God whom we have chosen and set up to our selves for our God Neither can there be an higher aggravation of any sinne against God and his Law then this that we have thereby in a sort cast off Gods yoke and denied the Lord to be our God This foundation being once laid that we have advanced and set up the Lord to be our God the Lords next care was in the second Commandement to prescribe the meanes by which we may hold communion and fellowship with him which he appoints to be only in such ordinances as himselfe hath established and no other way expecting blessings from him and rendring our services to him in them alone In the third Commandement God requires us to make publike profession of this Covenant that we have made with God but still in sincerity and uprightnesse of heart alwaies mentioning his name whether by way of attestation in an oath or upon any other occasion with such reverence and feare as becomes the Majesty of so great and holy a God The fourth Commandement appoints the time not only of meeting together in publike for Gods worship but besides that of sequestring our selves from al worldly employments that we may enjoy an holy communion with God in those things that are spirituall and heavenly The same method that the Lord useth in setting down the Commandements of the first Table he observeth in ranking the Laws of the second First he establisheth authority which is the bond and foundation of civill society in the fifth Commandement Secondly he provides for the safety of mens persons forbidding murther or any wrong or hurt tending thereunto in the sixth Thirdly in the seventh Commandement under the name of adultery besides the prohibiting of all uncleannesse in the propagation of posterity the Lord forbids the inordinate use of any creature as meats and drinks c. Fourthly the eight Commandement provides for the support of community by honest labour and discreet and charitable distribution after the necessities of our selves and ours are supplied of the profits of our labours for the reliefe of our neighbours wants Fifthly in the ninth Cōmandement God establisheth truth among men without which commerce in civill society cannot stand Lastly in the tenth he settles propriety in such things as God by his dispensation hath shared and allotted out unto every man apart so that no man may so much as in his thoughts reach out after any thing that an other man possesseth by a just title but may content himselfe with his own portion Eightly whereas the Laws of men bind us only by the power of the authority that commands or though to that indeed for conscience sake of that Law of God Rule 8 by which authority is established the Laws of God bind the conscience immediately by themselves The Laws of God and they only bind the conscience and not only by the power of the commander So that those Laws which are given by God being once made known unto us we are bound to acknowledge them to be just holy as the Psalmist doth Ps 119.39.128 140. as manifesting the will of God which is the rule of righteousness and holines upon that ground to embrace them and submit unto thē to esteem our selves unrighteous and wicked if we swerve from them But as for the laws of men though we are bound to submit unto them because they have upon them the stampe of that authority which God hath established and set over us yet neither are we bound to judge the Laws themselves to be righteous and holy nor consequently to esteeme our selves unholy and wicked if we yeeld not obedience unto them unlesse withall we despise that authority that commāds them or be an occasion of disturbing the publike peace for the conservation whereof the authority and power of the Magistrate was ordained Lastly the obedience which the Lord requires of us unto this Law of his which we call Morall Rule 9 Our subjection to the law must be 1. Voluntary 2. Upon knowledge must necessarily have these foure conditions In the first place our subjection therunto must be every way free and voluntary such as the Prophet David professes his was Psal 119.30 173. In the second place that it may be so this free choice of ours must bee firmely grounded upon the cleare and distinct knowledge of the justice and equity Psal 119.128 of the purity and holinesse Psal
cannot but extend unto us that are Christians And seeing that charge was part of the office of the Leviticall Priesthood unto which our Ministery under the Gospel succeeds how can we deny that the care of keeping our Sacraments and other ordinances from pollution by the promiscuous admission of unworthy persons to partake of them with us ought to be a speciall part of the care of the Ministers under the Gospel as it was of the Priests under the law Having then hitherto discovered what instructions we may draw out unto our selves from the consideration of the ceremoniall Law in generall we shall forbear to descend to the scanning of the particular ceremonies prescribed therein as being a work not altogether so necessary nor altogether sutable to that brevity that we aime at in this short Treatise Thus much only is fit to be intimated by the way that where the signification of those ceremonious shadows is plain and evident it will be both a delightfull and profitable exercise to take speciall notice both of the things signified by them and of the shadows themselves that represent them In the last place we are to take into consideration those laws which we call Judiciall Of the Judicial laws given by Moses given by God unto the Iews for the ordering of their civill State which are but deductions out of the morall law applied and fitted to the present State of the Iews and by consequence binding no other State to the observation of them but that alone yea now Which by the dissolution of the Jewish State are made void that State to which they were given is utterly dissolved quite made void and taken away Notwithstanding seeing these laws as well as the ceremoniall are left upon record unto the Church of God Yet being left upon record unto us we may draw from them some directions for our selves we are to judge of those as well as we have done of them that they are preserved unto us for some speciall use as the Apostle tells us that whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning Rom. 15.4 the rather because we know that God hath suffered some writings of holy men as Iddoes History 2 Chron. 13.22 and Henochs Prophesie Jude 14. to perish as not esteeming them so necessary for the use of the Church as those books which are preserved and left unto us to this day Let us therefore enquire what instructions we may gather unto our selves out of the reading and considering of those laws which we call Iudiciall or rules for the ordering of the civill state of the Iews 1. We must acknowledge that God hath a speciall hand in civill government Not to insist upon particulars out of the consideration of them in generall there will arise these foure observations First in that God took so much care for his own people as not only to give them rules for his own worship but besides to leave with them directions and laws for the ordering of their civill affairs we may take notice that even the disposing of civill government belongs unto the Lord himself by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice Prov. 8.15 16. and the Apostle tels us that the powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 Neither are the rulers onely from him but the government also as they judge by him so he judgeth among them Psal 82. and howsoever men seek the Rulers favour yet every mans Iudgement comes from the Lord Prov. 29.26 It is true that in this the Jews had a peculiar priviledge above any nation on the earth that they had the whole frame of their Civill government laid out unto them by God himselfe they had not only his Laws but his Statutes and his Judgements too Psal 147.20 under which name Moses comprehends both the Judiciall and Ceremomiall Law Deut. 5.31 Notwithstanding we have sufficient warrant that the Lord hath the same care of his Church in any State that he had of the Jews then so that the Laws in any Nation as farre as they are just and equall are to be esteemed the Laws of God and the judgements executed by them come from the Lord. Whence we are taught as to pray unto God for those that are in authority that we may lead a peaceable life under them 1 Tim. 2.2 So when Rulers so governe that the righteous may flourish in abundance of Peace as it shall be in Christs Kingdome Psal 72.7 that they that doe well may have praise and wrath may be executed upon those that doe evill Rom. 13.3 4. the honour and praise for such agreement must be returned to God alone A Second Rule that we may frame unto our selves out of the consideration of the judiciall Law 2. All law-makers must ground their laws upon Morall Precepts as God doth his ariseth from the precedent that God himselfe hath given us in the framing of that Law the precepts whereof are but so many deductions out of the Morall law applied unto that state of the Jews Whence all law-makers may take a patterne in making their laws to square them out by no other rule then that which God himselfe observed in the making of his Laws for his own people So that although States in making their Laws may make use of Christian Prudence in applying them to times places persons and emergent occasions yet we must be sure that all such laws must have the Morall law for their foundation which being right and equall in all things Psal 119.128 is withall the fountaine of all justice and equity A Third use which we may make of the consideration of the Judiciall Law 3. Though those laws bind us not in particular yet they doe in the generall grounds of equity on which they are founded is to set it before us as a Rule to guide us by although not in the particulars thereof in which it is applied to the Jewish state yet in the generall grounds of equity whence those particulars are deduced and whereat they aime For example the Lord commands his people to make battlements about their houses Deut. 22.8 the reason whereof he expresseth in the same place was the preventing of danger to mens lives if any should fall from thence in walking upon the roofe thereof unlesse there were some such meanes to prevent it Now although we have no cause in building our houses to build such battlements about them seeing our houses being not slat-roofed as theirs were have no such walkes on the tops of them from which men falling might endanger their lives yet we are by the scope and end at which the law aimes taught in generall to use the best meanes to prevent all danger to our neighbours person which our care and providence might foresee Lastly seeing we must needs acknowledg that there cannot be found so exact a Pattern to follow in establishing Government as is that which the Lord himselfe framed for his own people we