is indeed an excellent Portion or if that will not suffice or be not suitable to their Condition that they lay up for them that which Solomon tells us answers all things Otherwise they will leave them unprovided for as to that state which stands most in need of it Neither will it avail to say there is no reason the Fathers care should reach beyond his own life when we have before said that the Child's obedience generally ought not For as I have before shewn that the Honour of a Parent ought to abide after his death and Obedience to his Commands also so far as that is concerned in it so it is but requisite that answerably to that a Fathers care should extend beyond his own time and not only provide for his Children during his own life but as much as in him lies afterwards especially when the necessities of his Child which is the ground of making provision for them is then likely to be greater than before The only thing to be enquired into in this affair is after what proportion a Father is to provide for them For the resolution whereof though I might have referr'd you to what was said before concerning making provision for them in the Parents life time because giving us to understand that both the one and the other ought to be according to the condition of the Father yet I thought it not amiss to bring it anew before you if it were only to add this necessary limitation to a Fathers care to wit that he ought not so to see to the providing for his Children as to forget to minister of his substance to the more publick concernments of Church or State or the pressing and instant necessities of those charitable Objects he hath before him For as both the one and the other ought rather to be regarded than the leaving to our Children a pompous and glorious Estate so he that forgets not to do good and to communicate provides much better for his Children than he who will not suffer any the least part of his Estate to pass away from them Money lent to God as all that is so employ'd is * Pro. 19.17 being as Master Herbert hath well observ'd ‖ Country Parson chap. 10. plac'd surer for the Childs advantage than if it were given to the Chamber of London which was in his time the best security in the world 2. The second duty of Parents follows even the institution of their Children in Life and Manners which is a provision for their better part their Souls concerning which therefore I will shew first the Authority by which it stands the Duties it contains and the Inconveniences that attend the omission of it And first if we enquire by what Authority the Institution of Children stands we shall find it to be by the same whereby all other moral Duties do that is to say by the Law of Nature and Revelation both the one and the other binding it upon the Consciences of Parents and that too more stronger than the former That the Law of Nature doth the Argument before alledg'd for Parents making provision for their Subsistence is to me an abundant Evidence For the design of God in our Birth being the happiness of those to whom he gives a Being he must consequently be supposed to have enjoyn'd the adding of those things which may serve for the procuring of it Which being in an especial manner to be understood of a holy Institution because our Eternal happiness doth depend upon it will make the addition of that even by Natures Law more incumbent upon Parents than the providing for their Temporal one The same is no less evident from the positive Laws of God as well those of the Old Testament as the New in the former whereof * Deut. 6.7.11.19 we find Parents commanded to teach Gods Commandments diligently unto their Children and to talk to them of them when they sit in their House and when they walk by the way when they lie down and when they rise up in the latter ‖ Eph 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod significat institutionem per poenas vid. Grot. in loc which is tantamount though expressed in fewer words that they should bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. From the Authority by which this Duty stands pass we to the particulars it contains which may be reduced to these Three Heads Instruction Command and Example the first to shew them how they ought to Live and Act the two latter to induce them to the practice of it For as it is impossible for Children to live well till they know what it is to do so or know it without a precedent Institution they neither bringing with them into the world a knowledge of their Duty nor being able through the tenderness of their Understandings to find it without the help of others so the pravity of their Natures makes it but necessary that they should be Oblig'd as well as Instructed and Encourag'd as well as Oblig'd The former whereof as it is best done by the Parents commands which till the minds of Children come to be debauch'd have a mighty influence upon them so the latter by the Parents shewing themselves a Pattern of those things which they bind upon them by their Instruction and Commands nothing prevailing more with Children than Example doth nor any Example more than that of a Father Which therefore as it is but necessary that Parents should superadd to compleat the Institution of their Children so woful experience shews that the want of that alone makes all other ways of Institution fruitless it being rare to find a Child who is not more debauch'd by his Fathers ill Example than regulated by his wholesome Instruction and Commands Having thus shewn as well what the Institution of Children implies as by what Authority it stands it remains only to give it so much the more weight that I represent some of those inconveniencies which attend the omission of it For to say nothing at all that that Father is like to be ill serv'd himself who hath not taught his Children to revere his and their common parent God nor yet that the omission of a Holy Institution may expose them to the taking such Courses as will bring little comfort either to their Children or themselves I shall desire such Parents to consider how they will be able at that great day to look those Children in the face whom they have begotten only to Eternal Torments For as if they have the bowels of a Father it cannot but be an infinite affliction to them to see those who are a part of themselves plung'd in Eternal Torments so if they have any the least shame it will be an equal confusion to them to consider that they became so by their means even by theirs who ought in reason to have done their utmost to make them happy and enstate them in Gods Kingdom as well
thy duty towards God Answ My duty towards God is to believe in him to fear him and to love him with all my heart with all my mind with all my soul and with all my strength to worship him to give him thanks to put my whole trust in him to call upon him to honour his holy Name and his Word and to serve him truly all the days of my life Quest What is thy duty towards thy Neighbour Answ My duty towards my Neighbour is to love him as my self and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me To love honour and succour my Father and Mother To honour and obey the King and all that are put in authority under him To submit my self to all my Governours Teachers Spiritual Pastors and Masters To order my self lowly and reverently to all my betters To hurt no body by word or deed To be true and just in all my dealings To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart To keep my hands from picking and stealing and my tongue from evil speaking lying and slandering To keep my body in temperance soberness and chastity Not to covet nor desire other mens goods but to learn and labour truly to get mine own living and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPLICATION OF THE DECALOGUE DISCOURSE I. Of the Law of NATVRE How it doth appear that there is such a Law What the general Contents of that Law are And of what continuance its obligation is A digression concerning mens misapprehensions in the matter of Nature's Law and from whence those misapprehensions do proceed Of what use the knowledge of Nature's Law is after the superinducing the Laws of Moses and of Christ PRoposing to my self to entreat of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments according as the Catechism of the Church of England hath understood them I foresee it necessary to premise somewhat concerning the Divine Laws in general and then of the Ten Commandments in particular For as that Catechism though it restrains Gods holy will to the Ten Commandments yet doth it upon supposition of their containing in them all other his Laws and Commandments so before we descend to the Explication of those Ten it will be necessary to enquire By what Authority they stand how they come to oblige us and what measures we are to proceed by in the Interpretation of them Now the Laws of God are of two sorts to wit either Natural or Positive by the former whereof I understand such a Law or Laws as are founded upon natural principles and investigable by them by the latter such as have no other visible foundation at least than the meer good pleasure of God and are therefore to be known only by revelation from himself The Law of Nature again hath these four things to be enquired into which accordingly shall be the boundaries of my discourse concerning it 1. How it doth appear that there is such a Law 2. What the general Contents of that Law are 3. Of what continuance the obligation thereof is 4. Of what use the knowledge thereof is after the superinducing the Laws of Moses and Christ I. It is very well observed by the judicious Hooker and will be evident to any man that shall consult his own understanding that all knowledge is at length resolved into such things as are clear and evident of themselves for all knowledge of things obscure being made by such things as are more known than the things we seek after either it must terminate in such things as are clear and evident of themselves or we can have no certain knowledge of any thing That by which we endeavour to know any thing requiring still something to manifest it and so on in infinitum Now though a resolution into things clear and evident of themselves be not always actually made nor indeed necessary to be so the intermediate principles of any Science coming by discourse to be as well known as those things which are clear and evident of themselves yet being now to penetrate as it were into the very bottom of all Moral Truths it will be requisite for us to dig so much the deeper and deduce the being of the Law of Nature if not from such principles as are the lowest in their kind yet from such as are nearest to them I have * Explic. of the Apostles Creed elsewhere shewn and shall therefore now take it for granted that there is such a thing as an Alwise and good God that that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the world and all things in it which being granted it will follow that there is a right in God to give Laws to his Creatures in such things as are in their power and suitable to their nature to execute For what can be more rational than that every one should have the disposal of those things which he is the Author of and consequently if God be the Author of all things that he himself should have the command of them All therefore that will be requisite for us to enquire into is whether as God hath the power of giving Laws to his Creatures and to man in particular so he hath actually done it and consigned him to the obedience of them Now for this we shall need no other proof than that freedom of will which God hath given to humane nature for being man is not carried by any inevitable necessity as other Creatures are but left to the guidance of his own reason and will either he must have a Rule set him to proceed by or it shall be in his power even by the consent of the Almighty to disturb the order of Nature Now forasmuch as it can be no way suitable to the wisdom of any one to put Creatures into a power that I say not into a kind of necessity to disturb his own orders and designs therefore God being Alwise must necessarily have prevented this inconvenience and given him a Rule to direct his will and operations Again being it appears not that man at the first had any other revealed Law of God than that of not eating the forbidden Fruit and many Nations of the World have no opportunity to know those Revelations he hath since made it follows that God hath implanted in the soul of each particular man a Law by which he is to act or at least such principles from which he may deduce it Lastly forasmuch as there is in all men a conscience excusing or commending them when they have done any thing they apprehend to be good but disapproving and condemning them if they have done any thing which they believe to be evil it follows undeniably that there is a Rule whereby our actions are to be guided For if mankind were left at large what ground could there be of his either applauding or condemning himself for any supposed either virtuous or vitious actions Neither is
Services and Homages by which they hold their respective Emoluments The Duty of the Lord to afford them again that Protection Assistance and Redress which the Laws of the Land the Custom of the Place or the Nature of their Dominion doth require Of the Honour of Masters and what the Grounds thereof are In order whereunto inquiry is first made concerning such of their Servants as become so by Constraint and particularly by Conquest by Sentence or by Purchase Where the Servants become such either by Conquest or a Condemnatory Sentence those to whom they do belong have for the Ground of their Honour their giving them that Life which it was in their power to have taken away Where Servants become such by Purchase there is the Title of those whether Conquerors or Princes to whom they did originally belong and that Valuable Consideration which the Purchaser paid for it If the Servant become such by his own free Consent as it is in Days-men Menial Servants and Apprentices there is not onely his own free Consent to entitle his Master to Honour from him but those Wages and Nourishment which the two former receive and that Skill or Craft which the latter is instructed in An Address to the Declaration of what Honours are due from Servants to their Masters and in what measure and proportion Where entrance is made with the Consideration of such Servants as become so by constraint and all sort of Honour shewn to be due from them which they are in a capacity to pay This evidenc'd both from Scripture and the Life which they receive from their Masters A Digression concerning the Abolition of Servitude in the Christian World where is shewn That it was neither founded upon any just Reason nor is much for the Commodity of it Of the Honours that are due from such as become Servants by Consent which are shewn to be in a great measure determinable by their own Compacts Certain Rules laid down for the more certain investigation of them such as are That they shew respect to their several Masters in Gesture and Language That they yield Obedience to their Commands and particularly in all such things as are expresly covenanted or are by Law or Custom impos'd upon them yea even when the matter of the Command is harsh provided it be not eminently such An Account of the Qualifications wherewith this Obedience of theirs is to be attended which are Singleness of Heart and a Chearful Mind Submission to the Censures of the Master another part of the Servants Duty even where they are rather frowardly than justly inflicted provided they be not often repeated nor prove intolerable An Appeal to the Magistrate in that case allowable but no violent Resistance in that or any other Of the Duty of Masters to their Servants and particularly to such as are Servants by Constraint or Slaves Where is shewn first That they ought to furnish them with Food and Rayment in such a proportion as may suffice the Necessities of Nature Secondly That they impose such Tasks upon them as are not above their Strength to undergo Thirdly Not to punish them above the demerit of their Crime or above what their Strength will bear And in sine That neither their Commands nor Punishments be extended any farther than the Laws of the Place give leave or Equity and Christian Charity permit It is however necessary for such Servants to submit to whatever is impos'd provided it be not above the proportion of their Strength partly upon the account of St. Paul's commanding Subjection to the Froward and partly upon the Account of that Life which is indulg'd them Of the Duty of Masters to Servants by Consent which to be sure comprehends 1. All things that are owing from them to Slaves 2. What they expresly covenant to afford them whether that be Wages or Instruction 3. To treat them agreeably to the Nature of that Service into which they are admitted 4. The exacting of due Labour from them and where they fail Chastisement 5. The restraining them from Vicious Courses and both prompting and obliging them to the Practice of Religious Duties Where both the Ground and Vsefulness of the Master 's so doing is declar'd WHAT Honour is due from us to those that have any thing of Dignity to commend them hath been already declar'd together with the Grounds upon which it stands It remains onely that we entreat of the Honour of such as are also in Authority and may command our Obedience as well as Respect I do not mean by vertue of any Publick Employment for what Honour is due to such hath been before sufficiently declar'd but by vertue of some Private Dominion such as is that of a Lord of a Mannor over his Tenants or of a Master of a Family over his Servants Of the former of these much need not be said whether as to the Necessity or the Kinds of Honour that are to be paid For holding their Lands from them upon condition of certain Rents Services and Homages to which they do moreover by Promise and Oath oblige themselves at their several Admissions to them the Benefit they enjoy by them and their own Compact shews the necessity of honouring them as the latter because particularly expressing them the Kinds of Honour they are to pay In consideration whereof as no Man of Conscience can pretend to withhold them were it onely for the Oath of God by which the Payment thereof is bound upon them so those who challenge this Honour from them are in reason to afford them that Protection Assistance and Redress which the Laws of the Land the Custom of the Place or the Nature of their Dominion doth require From this first Dominion pass we to that which is more general I mean that of the Master over his Servants Where first of all 1. I shall shew the Duty of Servants honouring their Masters 2. The Grounds upon which the Honour of them is built 3. What Kinds and Measure and Quality of Honour is due unto them 4. And lastly What is due from them again to their Servants 1. I begin with the first of these even the Duty of Servants honouring their Masters concerning which the Scriptures of the New Testament speak much and often as to that part of Honour which consists in Obedience and Submission But because when I descend to shew the Kinds of Honour they are to give them there will be a necessity of producing those Texts anew I shall content my self at present with that general Proof which St. Paul gives us in his First to Timothy and with that which this Commandment if well considered will be found to do For though the Letter of it specifie onely the Honour of Parents yet it sufficiently implies the Honour of other Superiours and particularly that Honour which is due from Servants to their Masters there being certainly a far greater Preeminence of a Master over his Servant than there is of a Father over his Child
that they would if duly observed not only not abridge our own Properties but preserve us from the temptation of invading those of others which the Negative part of the Commandment doth forbid It being not to be thought especially after such glorious Promises * See Prov. 11.25 Prov. 19.17 Prov. 28.27 as are made to the charitable man that he should be under any necessity of invading the Properties of others who in obedience to the Divine Command hath been so liberal of his own THE NINTH COMMANDMENT THE NINTH COMMANDMENT Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour PART I. The Contents This Ninth Commandment both refers to and supposeth Humane Judicatories upon occasion whereof inquiry is made 1. By what Divine Right they now stand 2. What Persons intervene in them and what their respective Duties are The former of these evidenced from the necessity there is of determining Controversies from the Precept given to Noah of shedding the Blood of the Murtherer and from the Divine Right of Regal Power of which the Power of Judicature is a part The latter of the forementioned Questions brought under consideration where both the Parties that intervene in them are enumerated and their respective Duties described Those of the Plaintiff shewn to be not to raise a false Report not to mix untrue Reports with true nor prosecute even a true one in trifling Instances Those of the Defendent to own justly imputed Crimes not to charge his Adversary with the same or the like Calumnies nor shew himself morose in his Deportment to him The Duties of the Advocate not to espouse such Causes as are apparently evil though probable ones they may nor yet to make choice of them meerly by the Purses of those that present them as after they have espous'd them to manage them with all fidelity and diligence and dispatch in fine to content themselves with a simple Narration of the Cause and neither to be lavish in the commendation of their own Clients nor in the reproach of the Adversary A more large Account concerning Witnesses where after a Declaration of the use of them in Judgment their requisite Number and necessary Qualifications their Duty is shewn to be not to deliver any thing that is false not to conceal or transpose any thing that is true as in fine not to deliver what they deem to be so with any greatâ—r assurance than they themselves are perswaded of in their own Bosom A Conclusion of the whole with a Reflection upon the Duty of Judges whether they be Judges of Right or of Fact where among other things is shewn 1. That they ought to pass Sentence according to the Proofs that are made before them whatsoever jealousie or private knowledge they may have of the thing in controversie 2. That in doubtful Cases they ought to incline to such Determinations as are favourable to the Accused Party THAT it may the better appear what that is which is here forbidden what Crimes are comprised under it and what Duties enjoyned by it I foresee it necessary to premise something concerning Humane Judicatories which this Commandment doth both refer to and suppose not onely the use of Witnesses so perswading which every one knows to have been introduc'd to decide Controversies between Man and Man before a competent Judge but that Phrase which the Hebrew makes use of to express the bearing of false Witness and the manner of the Jews Procedure in their several Courts of Judicature For it appearing from Lev. 5.1 that Witnesses were interrogated upon Oath concerning that particular Affair which they were call'd to bear witness to it is but reasonable to think especially when the Hebrew Phrase * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the not answering falsly that the intent of the Commandment was to forbid the bearing of false witness before a Judge in any Controversie that should occur Which as it plainly supposeth the being of such Judicatories among the Jews and God's approbation of them so makes it but necessary to inquire because otherwise the Prohibition would be null 1. By what Divine Right they now stand 2. What Persons intervene in them and what their respective Duties are 1. For the evidencing the first whereof even the Divine Right of Humane Judicatories I shall alledge in the first place that which is antecedent to and the Foundation of all other Laws even the Law of Nature For that perswading the determination of all Controversies between Man and Man as without which Humane Society could not subsist it must consequently be supposed to enjoyn because there is no other way of ending them the constituting of some indifferent Persons to do it no Man being to be thought a competent Judge in his own Case and much less likely to be thought so by him with whom he hath to do Upon which as there will follow a necessity of referring them to the determination of another which is that for which Humane Judicatories were appointed so also which makes them properly such the furnishing them with a Power to constrain the Parties at variance to submit to their Determination and Sentence Otherwise among contentious Persons at least the Controversie would recur and involve them in new and greater Heats To the Law of Nature and its Dictates subjoyn we that which is call'd the Law of Noah or rather that which was given by God to him and his Posterity concerning which though saving in the * Vid. Selden de Jure Nat. Gent. l. 7. c. 4. Tradition of the Jews there be no express mention as to any Precept which imports the constituting of Humane Judicatories yet as a Tradition so receiv'd as that is not lightly to be despis'd especially when as to some Precepts it hath a certain Foundation in Scripture so that it is not without ground even there as to this Precept whereof we speak may be competently evidenced from Gen. chap. 9. vers 6. Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed For God not onely decrying there the shedding of Mans blood but requiring the shedding of his that did it by another he seems to me plainly to intimate the constituting of a Magistrate which should both take cognisance of and punish it as because otherwise the Blood of Men might continue unreveng'd if he who were the next of kin whom Grotius * In locum De jure belli c. lib. 1. cap. 2. sect 5. supposeth to have been impower'd should have wanted Courage or Ability to execute it so because Murther being for the most part secretly committed there was a kind of necessity of authorizing some to make inquisition after it and draw both the suspected person and others to their Tribunal Otherwise it should have been lawful for the avenger of blood to have followed his own uncertain conjectures which it is not very likely God would ever have permitted or the Fact must have continued unreveng'd which the Precept before mentioned was
it any prejudice to this inference that mens consciences do oftentimes condemn them for those things that are no parts of the Law of Nature or any other For as we pretend not to infer the goodness or evil of any action in it self from the consciences either acquitting or condemning the person that doth it but only that there is such a thing as good or evil so cannot any reason be assigned of our consciences either accusing or condemning us if the notion of good and evil were not planted in the soul of man by that God who formed it For though tradition and education may perswade us to believe many things to be evil which are in themselves not so and consequently incline the conscience of him that committeth them to condemn or disquiet him for so doing yet could they not unless they could build without a foundation incline the man to be troubled for it but upon supposition that there is such a thing as evil Again when the main trouble of conscience proceeds from hence even from the doing of those things which that assures us to be evil what reason can be assigned of that trouble if it were not a truth implanted in our hearts that we ought not to do those things which our conscience assureth us to be bad For as it is evident no man could be troubled for acting against his conscience but upon supposition of his being bound to follow the dictates of it so is it not to be imagined that that supposition could have any other root than Nature For as for all frightful stories of Hell and the like which men who would be thought wise would have the ground of all Religion even those themselves if it be duly considered will be found to receive their force and efficacy from the conscience's foreperswasion of good and evil and particularly of its own obligation For setting aside the nature of good and evil as meer fancies and my conscience shall not so much be affrighted at the stories of vengeance as at the shaking of a reed because conscious of nothing that may deserve it I conclude therefore with S. Paul in that excellent discourse of his upon this argument Rom. 2.14 That though the Gentiles have not the Law that is to say no revealed one yet they are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another II. The being of the Law of Nature being thus demonstrated enquire we in the second place what the Precepts thereof are I do not mean to give account of every particular one for that were both an infinite and needless task but of the more general ones from which the other may be easily deduced Now there are two ways of investigating any truths as the forementioned Hooker hath well observed the one by the causes which constitute it the other by the signs and tokens which attend it The latter of these is without doubt the most easie but withall the most fallible and therefore quitting that at present I shall chuse rather to pitch upon the former and exemplifie the Precepts of this Law by it Now there are three things wherein our duty is comprehended according to those several relations we stand in our duty to God our Neighbour and our selves I begin with the last of these because nearest to us and therefore in all probability most easie to be discerned by us where the first capital Precept that presents it self to us is the preservation of our selves Now that this is a Precept of that Law which we call the Law of Nature beside our own natural propension to it will appear from God's giving us a being and means to support it For as the destruction of our being is a direct contradiction to that order which he hath set in Nature so our neglect to preserve it is though not a direct yet a consequential contradiction to that provision which he hath made for us in the world For what design can we suppose God to have had principally and chiefly I mean in those good things he hath given us but the support of our being by them If then it were the design of the Almighty in the good things of this world that we should receive support and comfort by them if this design of his appear from the nature of the things themselves the preservation of our selves is a branch of that Law and we consequently transgressors of it if we neglect it But from hence we may collect what we are to think of all self-murthers excesses or neglects for if the preservation of our selves be a duty incumbent on us by the Law of our Creation then must that be a sin which either destroys or impairs or neglects it and consequently all laying violent hands upon our selves all intemperance and sloth and idleness From the duty we owe to our selves ascend we to that which is terminated in God and see whether there be any footsteps of such a one in that Law whereof we are speaking Now there are two things wherein our duty to God may be comprehended our honouring him and obeying him The former of these is evident from that excellency which the soul assisted with the bare light of reason may discern in God For being it is a clear dictate of the light of reason that whatsoever is excellent is to be honoured God as being the most excellent essence yea the fountain of all others excellencies must be much more so by how much he transcends all others But from hence it is evident what we are to think not only of all manifest contempts of him but of adopting any thing else into equal honour with him for being God is not only to be honoured but to be honoured also above all other beings because so far surpassing them the adopting of any other into the like honour must be a diminution of his and consequently a breach of this fundamental Law as well as of that which saith Thou shalt have no other Gods beside me The same is no less evident concerning that other branch of our duty to God even our yielding obedience to all his commands for being as was before shown God is our maker and sustainer he has a right to our obedience and consequently we a necessity of obeying him But from hence will follow not only our yielding obedience to all other the Laws of Nature but to all positive and revealed ones for being the command of God is that which challenges our obedience and not the manner whereby it is made known to us whatsoever appears to be such must be equally our duty whether engraven in Tables of stone as that of Moses was or in the more noble Tables of our heart as this of Nature The only thing now remaining to be proved is what we commonly call our duty to our Neighbour and may be comprised in these
not that by this means the faith of Christ is manifestly discarded and they deny that in their opinions and assertions which in words they profess to believe For if my faith shall not carry me any farther than my own judgment doth it is a sign that is the thing that moveth me and that I walk rather by sight or to speak more properly by an over-weening conceit than by the conduct of a solid faith Either therefore let men bid defiance to Christianity as that honest Heathen did because they would believe nothing but what they could understand or let them give up their belief to the doctrines of it I do not say irrationally but without any immediate assent of their reason to the doctrines themselves For though the forementioned doctrines have not sufficient evidence to make them known yet they have reason enough to make them be believed it being the highest reason in the world to believe God especially concerning his own nature as who neither can deceive nor be deceived 3. Having thus given you an account of the extent of faith in God and moreover shewn how congruous or rather how essential it is to the oeconomy of the Gospel it remains only that I explain how we own God for ours by it For the evidencing whereof the first thing I shall alledge is our owning the truth of God by it For inasmuch as we neither do nor can give up our belief but where we are in some measure assured of the veracity of him whom we believe by believing whatsoever God affirms we apparently acknowledge him to be true and as it were set our seal to it But this is especially visible when we give up our assent to things unlikely and such which it may be have a greater appearance of falshood than truth because then there is nothing in the thing it self to engage our assent but on the contrary very much to stagger or supplant it Which notwithstanding therefore if our belief be firm and unshaken it is a sign that it hath a just apprehension of the veracity of the Almighty and receives it with an assent commensurate to its greatness so far as humane nature is able to proportion it Now though this be the only direct acknowledgment of the divine Majesty which the believing what he affirms presents him withall yet because what he affirms doth sometime require other Attributes to establish it hence it comes to pass that indirectly and by consequence we acknowledge those Attributes also For thus we acknowledge Gods power when like Abraham and the Virgin Mary we believe God in such things as are above the power of nature to produce such as are the making a barren woman to conceive by one who was equally unapt or a Virgin to conceive and bring forth a Son In like manner when we believe God assuring us that notwithstanding our many errours he will for the sake of his Son both pardon and accept us because that cannot have place without an excess of mercy in him that promiseth it we do by our belief give a testimony to that mercy of his upon which our pardon and acceptance doth depend Such are the wayes whereby our Vnderstanding gives proof of our owning the Lord for our God and therefore if we would have ours thought to do so we our selves must take the same course and not only endeavour to have a right apprehension of God but have him often in our thoughts and stedfastly believe whatsoever he affirms PART III. What it is to owne God in our Wills and in the proper or Elicite acts thereof This performed either by making Gods Glory the ultimate end of all our actions and acquiescing in it when obtained or making his will ours both in our Actions and Sufferings The former whereof imports our chusing to act agreeably to his will our making that will of his the ground of our choice and our delighting in it The latter our submitting to and embracing whatsoever he is pleased to lay upon us All the other powers of Soul and Body in some measure under the Empire of the Will for which cause it cannot be thought to discharge its own duty unless it incline them to own God for their God A discourse in the close concerning Trust in God wherein is shewn in what faculties it is seated what the nature thereof is and how we own God for our God by it BY what ways and after what manner we are to owne God in our Vnderstandings you have seen already let us in the next place enquire 2. What is due unto him from our Wills and how they ought to be constituted to owne him as our God For the resolution whereof we are to consider of the diverse acts of the Will which are either 1. Elicite or 2. Imperate that is to say such as proceed immediately from the Will or such as proceed immediately from some other power but are excited by the command of it The Elicite acts of the Will are again double according to the different objects about which they are employed For 1. Either they respect the end and are called volition or fruition or 2. The means as election and consent Now concerning each of these I shall enquire how they ought to be constituted so as that we may thereby owne the Lord for our God This only would be premised in the general that to owne God in our Wills is to conform them unto his that is to say to that which he Wills in himself or is the result of his Will concerning us For as the greatest testimony we can give of our subjection to another is the conforming our Wills to his the Will being of all the faculties the most free from the command of others and the most difficult to be brought to a compliance with them so nothing less than the greatest testimony of our subjection can be supposed to be due to God to whom we have so many reasons to submit our selves and particularly because our Wills are no less his than any other faculty All therefore that will be requisite for us to do will be to resume each of the acts before remembred and to shew both what Gods own volitions are and what he wills concerning us 1. I begin with the first of these even that of Volition whereby we will that which is the end which in the present case can be no other than the Glory of God and accordingly is the first thing we are taught to ask of God in the prayer of our Saviour For as God who is the supremest good cannot be thought to have any higher end than that of shewing forth his own glory whence it is that the Wise man affirms he hath made all things for himself Pro. 16.4 So being as was before observed to conform our Wills to that of God we are accordingly to make that glory of his the ultimate end of all our actions and be carried towards it with the utmost of our desires
Spirits and that too in an especial manner For as it is but requisite that he who is a Spirit should have the worship of ours because most agreeable to his own Nature so also that we should for that reason intend that Worship especially and make it the chief of our Study and Design And accordingly though under the Law for the grosness of the Jews God appointed them a Worship which consisted much in Rites and Ceremonies yet he gave them sufficiently to understand that the spiritual Worship or the Worship of the Soul was that which he principally requir'd Witness one for all that of the Prophet David Psal 51.16 17. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee thou delightest not in burnt-offering The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise The result of the Premises is this That to worship God in Spirit and consequently to worship him after a due manner is especially to intend the worshipping him with ours that is to say by entertaining honourable thoughts of him by endeavouring to conform our Wills to his most holy one and lastly by suiting our Affections to his several Attributes by fearing and loving and trusting in him But beside the Worshipping of God with our Spirits and that too in a more especial manner to worship God in Spirit doth also imply the worshipping him without an Image or any Corporeal Representation For beside that this is the very thing here forbidden and therefore in reason to be suppos'd to be excluded by worshipping God in spirit and in truth to worship God by an Image is so far from being consistent with a spiritual Worship that it is but a dishonouring of him because resembling him to things to which he is no way like and which indeed are infinitely below the Excellencies of his Nature 2. Of the Natural or Moral Sense of Worshipping God in Spirit I have spoken hitherto and shewn both the Ground and Importance of it Let us now consider the Evangelical one according as was before insinuated For that such a one was also intended is evident from that Story to which this Passage is subjoyn'd If you please to consult the Verse preceding that which I have chosen for the Ground-work of this Argument you will there find a Woman of Samaria demanding of our Saviour whether Mount Gerizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrific'd or Jerusalem were the true Place of Worship In answer to which after our Saviour had told her That that Question was not now of much moment because ere long they should neither worship in the one or the other for a farther proof of that his Assertion he adds that the time was coming and even then was Mr. Mede on Joh. 4.23 that the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth Which being compar'd with the foregoing Words and the State of the Controversie to which they do relate will shew that by worshipping in spirit and in truth is meant no other than the worshipping of God with a spiritual Worship as that is oppos'd to the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law For the Question being not whether Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem were the place of Publick Prayer because both Jews and Samaritans had particular Places for them but which of the two was the proper Place to send their Sacrifices to and our Saviour making answer That in a little time neither of them should be because the Father sought such to worship him as should worship him in spirit and in truth he thereby plainly shews his meaning to be That to worship God in spirit and in truth was not to worship him with Sacrifices and other such Figures but in spiritual and substantial Worship such as are the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise with other the like Natural Expressions of our Devotion But from hence it will follow not onely that we are to worship God without those Legal Rites wherewith it was before sufficiently clogg'd but also that we are not to clog it with other Rites than Decency and Order shall require For our Saviour not onely excluding the Rites and Sacrifices of the Law but affirming the Worship which his Father sought to be a spiritual one he doth thereby cut off the affixing of all other Rites as being alike contrary thereto save what Decency and Order shall require But so the Church of England hath declar'd it self to understand the Worshipping of God in spirit and in truth telling us in one of its Prefaces to our Liturgy That Christ's Gospel is not a Ceremonial Law as much of Moses Law was but it is a Religion to serve God not in bondage of the Figure or Shadow but in the freedom of the Spirit contenting it self onely with those Ceremonies which do serve to a decent Order and comely Discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of Man to the remembrance of his Duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified In conformity whereto as she her self hath proceeded injoyning neither many nor trifling ones so what she hath done is sufficiently warranted not onely by that Solemnity which Experience shews Things of that nature to add to all Matters of Importance but which is of more avail from the Institution of our Saviour and the Practice of the Church in the Apostles days For if all Rites are to be excluded what shall become of the Sacraments themselves But how shall we any way excuse the Apostolical Church for that holy Kiss wherewith they were wont to conclude their Prayers the laying on of hands in admitting Ministers to the Church or shaking off the dust of their feet against those that should not receive them in testimony of their rejection of them For that all those things were then in use even with the allowance of the Apostles themselves the Scripture is our Witness to which therefore if Men will exclude all things of that nature they must first oppose themselves Such is the Practice of that Church to which we relate such the Grounds upon which she proceeds but as farther than that she neither goes nor pretends to do so if she did there is no doubt she would offend against that Precept which requires the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth For how can they be said to do so whose Devotion spends it self in outward Ceremonies Which as they are of no value in themselves so have this ill property of the Ivy that where they are suffer'd to grow too luxuriant they eat out the Heart of that Religion about which they twine PART II. A Transition to the Negative part of the Precept and therein first to that part of it which forbids the making any Graven Image or other Corporeal Representation That all Images are not forbidden but such onely as are made with a design to represent the Divine Majesty or to bow down to and
Creatures to witness to the sincerity of his Intentions which he himself is perswaded of not to have the least sense of any thing Nay would not the so doing give Men cause to suspect that he himself was as stupid as they It is true indeed we read in Genesis of Jacob and Laban's rearing a Pillar and heap of Stones for a Witness of the League between them Gen. 31.48 Nay we read further which is of more consideration of Laban's addressing himself to them after this manner This heap be witness and this pillar be witness that I will not pass over this heap to thee and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar to me for harm vers 52. of that Chapter But as the meaning thereof can be no other than that they should serve for a Memorial of the League then made which is quite different from the business of an Oath so that Laban had no other intention may appear from his own Words immediately before it For if saith he vers 50. thou shalt afflict my daughters or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters no man is with us see God is witness betwixt me and thee Which Words do not onely shew him to refer the Matter to the Testimony of God but so as to exclude all other Witnesses because professing to refer it unto God for that there was no other to attest it I conclude therefore That where there is mention of a Creature in an Oath the design thereof is not in the least to call that Creature to witness but God to whom it doth belong Which as it is no way like the swearing by the Saints departed who are presum'd by the Papists to have knowledge of what we swear so shews the swearing by Heaven or the like according as was before understood to have nothing at all of unlawfulness in it because not so much the Term of our Oaths or That we swear by as the Adjuncts of it and onely inserted in it to represent the more strongly to our minds the Majesty of that God by whom we swear or our own extreme danger in case we falsifie in them And accordingly as in the Old Testament we find Jacob * Gen. 31.53 swearing by the fear of his Fahter Isaac and Elisha †2 Kings 2.2 by the life of his master so ‖ Apol. cap 32. Sed juramus sicut non per Genios Caesarum ita per salutem eorum quae est auguslior omnibus Geniis Tertullian tells us of the Christians of his time and such too as would rather die than swear by the Genius of the Emperour because apprehended by them to be an Heathenish Deity that they would not refuse to swear by the safety of their Lord which was more August than all Genii The result of the Premises is this That as it is not lawful to make a Creature the Term of our Oath because so giving Divine Honour to them so it is not unlawful to make mention of them in our Oath when they are represented as Adjuncts of the Deity or devoted unto God as Pledges of the Truth of what we affirm III. The Order of my Discourse now leads me to inquire Whether the Magistrate may not exact an Oath of his Subjects A Question to be wondred at if it had not been also made a Question Whether there ought to be any Magistrates or those Magistrates ought to be obey'd For 1. First Whereas other Acts of Adoration by how much the more voluntary they are the more acceptable they are to the Divine Majesty an Oath on the contrary requires something of a necessity to make it onely lawful and how much more then to make it acceptable to the Divine Majesty And accordingly as it is a Proverb * Andrew's Determin Theolog de jure-jurando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks That Oaths and War are evil when spontaneous and onely good when they are extorted from us so that Proverb of theirs stands confirm'd as to an Oath by the Veneration we ought to have for it and the end for which it is given For Scripture and Reason requiring that Oaths should not be lightly us'd and the end thereof being for the satisfaction of those to whom it is given it follows that they become good onely when they are extorted from us by the hardness of those Mens belief whose satisfaction is intended in them If therefore an Oath become so much the more legitimate by being extorted if it may be extorted from us by the incredulity of the Party to whom we give it how much more when there is just cause for it by the Command of the Magistrate to whom God hath commanded every Soul to submit it self 2. My second Argument for the lawfulness of the Magistrates exacting an Oath shall be taken from the Practice of Holy Men toward those who were subject to their Commands and that too where there was less Authority to constrain For thus Abraham made his Servant swear that he would not take a wife unto his son of the daughters of the Canaanites but of his own Kindred and Country Gen. 24.3 4. and Jacob made his Son Joseph swear that he would carry his body out of Egypt and bury him in the Burying-place of his Fathers Gen. 47.29 and so on In fine thus Jacob made Esau swear to part with his birthright Gen. 25.33 Now if as Bishop Andrews * Determinat Theolog. supra citat well argues it were lawful for the Master to put his Servant to an Oath as it was to Abraham if to a Father toward his Son as in the case of Jacob and Joseph if to a Brother over a Brother as to the same Jacob over Esau how much more shall it be lawful for him to require an Oath of his Subjects whose Empire is more excellent than all other Empires To all which if we add 3. In the third place the necessity there is of his so doing in order to the Security of himself and the Commonwealth so no doubt can remain of the Power of the Magistrate to exact and consequently of the Subjects Duty to comply with his Commands For is it any thing less than necessary to the Security of the Magistrate to require an Oath of Allegiance to himself when Men through the pride and perverseness of their Nature are so hardly brought to afford it Especially when in his Honour and Security the Security of the Common-wealth is bound up neither can that be safe unless his Person and Authority be preserv'd inviolate The same is to be said of that other sort of Oaths which the Magistrate tenders to decide Controversies between Man and Man For being it is for the Interest yea Being of the Commonwealth that Controversies be determin'd being as I have before shewn those are not to be determin'd without an Oath it remains That either the Magistrate is not furnish'd with full Power to determine Controversies between Man
these we have not onely the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Witness which signifies equally a Prayer and a Vow but also the most if not all those Vows which we meet with in the Old Testament For thus Gen. 28.20 we find Jacob vowing a Vow and saying If God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again in peace Then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee Of the same nature is that Vow of the Israelites concerning the destruction of the Canaanites Numb 21.2 as in like manner that of Hannah concerning the dedicating unto the Lord that Child which should be born to her 1 Sam. 1.11 the former being upon condition of God's delivering the Canaanites into their hands the other upon God's giving her a Man-child Again As a Vow may be made to obtain some Blessing of the Lord so also in acknowledgment of some already receiv'd to wit when it is not in the power of him who makes it to make that return of Gratitude to God which it is no less his desire than duty to perform For otherwise no doubt the receipt of a Blessing is a more proper ground of paying our Vows than of making any such unto the Lord. 2. The Nature of a Vow being thus explain'd in the general pass we to a more particular Explication which will best be perform'd by inquiring into the Matter of it the second thing propos'd to be discours'd of For the resolution whereof 1. The first thing I shall offer is That things under command no less than those that are not are a proper matter for our Vows For though those things which are under command do oblige us by being so and consequently may seem no way proper to be the matter of a Vow yet as nothing hinders but one Bond may be added to another whence it is that we see Positive Laws every day made for the observation of that which was before commanded by the Law of Nature so the superinducing of a Vow binds it so much the faster upon our Consciences and therefore a thing under Command no way improper for the matter of a Vow Again though a Command oblige to the performance of what it doth so yet inasmuch as it takes not away our Natural Liberty of acting contrary to it it may seem but reasonable the more to oblige us to Obedience to add to it the Bond of a Vow and tie our selves by Promise to what we are otherwise oblig'd to perform Now the Matter of such a Vow is again double that is to say General or Particular or to speak yet more plainly Obedience to the whole Law of God or onely to some Particular one Of the former sort is first the Vow of Baptism whereby we oblige our selves to the whole Duty of Man For as this is actually done by all that are initiated into Christianity at least where Baptism is rightly administred so that it is the Design of Baptism it self is evident from St. Peter who entitles it the Answer * 1 Pet. 3.21 or rather Stipulation of a good Conscience toward God Of the same nature is secondly as I shall afterward shew more largely that other Sacrament of the Supper of our Lord. And accordingly as for this Reason both the one and the other have the name of a Sacrament which in the proper acception of the Word is no other than a Military Oath whereby Soldiers bound themselves to their General so that it was really look'd upon as such or rather as a Vow to God to whom they so oblig'd themselves is evident from that Account which Pliny * Li. 10. ep 97. gave to Trajan of what was done in the Meetings of the Christians Where among other things he tells him That he had been inform'd by some of them that when they met together they oblig'd themselves by a Sacrament not to perpetrate any Villany but that they would not commit Thefts Robberies or Adultery that they would not falsisie their Trust nor when examin'd deny any thing that had been deposited with them Which Passage as it is a manifest evidence of their making such general Vows so also that it was their Design in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Word Sacrament not onely so perswading but the Celebration of the Lord's Supper being always an Attendant of their Publick Service and the no mention there is in Ecclesiastical Story of any other such general Vow in it Again As a Vow may have the whole Law of God for its Object so also some particular one And is not unusual with good Men when they find themselves press'd with the Conscience of some particular Sin committed by them in order to the appeasing of God's wrath and the security of their own Souls binding themselves with a Vow to the avoiding of it and practising the contrary Vertues 2. Having thus shewn a thing under Command to be no less the Matter of a Vow than that which is not enjoyn'd by any for the further explication thereof I shall add secondly That it ought to be something morally good or conducing to it For the Design of a Vow being to please God to whom all Vows are directed that can be no proper Matter of a Vow which is not morally good or conducing to the promoting of it But from hence it will follow first That we ought not to make Vows of any thing sinful such as was that of Jeptha who bound himself by a Vow to offer up to God whatsoever came forth of the Doors of his House to meet him Judg. 11.31 This being in effect to promise we will break his Laws which is certainly a very improper way to please him or obtain any Blessing at his Hand It will follow secondly That we ought not to make a Vow of any thing that may expose us to the Commission of a Sin Of which nature in particular is the Vow of Single Life especially in younger Persons For so doing they vow that which may expose them to the danger of Fornication without remedy which is certainly no proper way to please God when he himself hath appointed Marriage for it and oblig'd those that cannot contain to enter into it Lastly it will follow That we ought not to make Vows of any thing light or trifling such as are * See Balduin de Casib Consc lib. 2. c. 8. cas 4. the Vows of not eating the Heads of any Animal in honour of John the Baptist or of abstaining from broyled Flesh in respect to St. Laurence who was so used For beside that such things as these are not much conducing to Piety they are too light to become the Matter of a Vow and involve the Maker of them in the
God in general or with respect to the Publick one For inasmuch as the Worship of God as well as all other Actions requires some Time for the performance of it and Experience shews that what is left at large for the Time is either very rarely or perfunctorily perform'd there ariseth from thence a necessity of appointing a certain Time that it may not be either altogether omitted or carelesly celebrated when it is not And accordingly as all Nations have agreed in the owning of a God and in their own Obligation to worship him so we find them also universally to have set apart certain Times for the Adoration of that Deity they profess'd to own Not perhaps without some hint from the Tradition of better Times or from the Example of God's peculiar People for even in Natural Precepts the dull Mind of Man may sometime need to be excited by the instigation of others but without doubt for the main out of their own consciousness of the necessity of fixing a certain Time that so it might not either be omitted or carelesly perform'd There is yet another Reason of setting apart a certain Time if we consider it with respect to the Publick Worship and that is That they who are so to worship may know when they are to meet for that purpose For if * 1 Cor. 14.8 the trumpet give none or an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battel or know when as Tertullian ‖ Apol. c. 39. Coimus ad deum quasi manu facta precationibus ambiamus Haec vis deo grata est speaks they are to meet to besiege God and extort from him those Blessings which they need 4. But beside the setting apart of a certain Time for the Celebration of the Worship of God there is also requisite such a Rest from our Employments as may give us the leisure to intend it and free us from distraction in the performance of it For as the Mind of Man cannot at the same time intend Things of so distant a nature as Sacred and Civil are so if there be not some Interval between our Employments and our Devotions the Businesses of the World will be apt to insinuate themselves into our Thoughts and thereby divert us from intending of the other Such are the Substantial Parts of this Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue such their Nature and the Obligation which they induce What the Circumstances thereof are and what their Nature and Obligation is another Question and will therefore require a distinct Consideration PART II. Concerning such Duties as are onely Circumstances of the Precept which do either respect the determination of the Time wherein we are to worship or the manner of the Observation of it That there is no Obligation upon us either from Nature or the present Precept to observe a Just day a Seventh day or that Seventh day which is here prescrib'd The Ancient Christians Observation of the Jewish Sabbath together with their own Lord's-day considered and answered A Transition to the Observation of the Lord's-day where is shewn That much less than a whole day cannot be deem'd a competent Time for the solemn performance of God's Private and Publick Worship That since God exacted of the Jews a Seventh part of their Time we cannot give less who have far greater Obligations to the Almighty and That Christ's Resurrection upon the Lord's-day is as just a Motive to consecrate it unto God as that of God's Resting the Jewish Sabbath The Observation of the Lord's-day founded in the Vniversal Practice of the Church which is there also deduced from the days of the Apostles down to the Times of Tertullian That such a Practice is of force to infer an Obligation partly because declaring the Consent of that Body wherein it is and to which therefore it is but reasonable that particular Men should subject themselves and partly because an Argument of its having been instituted by the Apostles According to that known Rule of St. Augustine That what the Universal Church holdeth and always hath if it appear not that the same was first decreed by Councils is most rightly believ'd to have been delivered by the Authority of the Holy Apostles The Reason why when God gave the Jews so clear a Precept for the Observation of their Sabbath he should leave us who live at so great a distance from the Institution of ours rather to collect it from the Practice of the Apostles and the Church than to read it in some express Declaration II. HAVING shewn in the foregoing Discourse what the Substantial Parts of this Precept are together with the Morality thereof it remains that I proceed to those which are Circumstantial which may be reduc'd to two Heads 1. The Determination of the Time wherein we are to Worship And 2. The Manner of the Observation of it 1. In the handling of the former whereof I will proceed in this Method 1. I will inquire whether the Determination of the Time according as it is here fix'd be directly obligatory to us Christians 2. Whether if not any thing may be inferr'd from it toward the establishing of the Lord's-day and by what it is further to be strengthned 3. To which I shall add in the third place an Account of other Christian Festivals and shew their Lawfulness Usefulness and the Esteem wherein they ought to be held 1. Now there are three things which this Commandment prescribes concerning the Time of the Solemn Worship of God That it be a Day That it be a Seventh day and That it be that Seventh day on which the Jewish Sabbath fell or Saturday Concerning each of which I will particularly inquire Whether they are morally or otherwise obligatory to us Christians And first If the Question be concerning a Day according as the Jews reckon'd it and as they were commanded to observe their Sabbaths * Lev. 23.32 that is to say of that space of Time which is between the Evening of the foregoing Artificial Day and the Evening of the following one so no Reason appears either from Nature or otherwise why such a Day should be look'd upon as obligatory to us Christians For be it that that Account is most agreeable to the Order of Nature in which as the first Chapter of Genesis assures us Darkness had the precedency of Light and accordingly had the precedency both in the Scriptures and the Jews Account Be it secondly as was before insinuated that the Jews were oblig'd so to reckon their Sabbaths as the foremention'd Precept and their own Practice shew Yet as no Reason in Nature can be given why the Worship of God should begin rather with the Evening than the Morning according as it constantly doth with us so that this Commandment binds not such a Day upon us the perpetual Practice of the Church and the Occasion of that Festival we weekly observe shew For the First day of the Week or Lord's-day being set apart by the Church in
several Correlatives are describ'd so it will be no hard matter for Superiours to read it in that Honour which is commanded to be paid unto themselves For though as I shall afterwards shew their very begetting of us require our having them in esteem yet if it be not also accompanied with a Paternal Care over us it must needs be a great Stumbling-block to us and if not destroy yet very much diminish their Esteem Again Forasmuch as our Honour though built in part upon their giving us a Being yet is also founded by the Scriptures themselves upon their lending us their Assistance to support it hence it comes to pass that to obtain a complete Honour from us they must shew us the way by their Kindness and feed us with the same Kindness that the Stork doth her Young ones that Emblem both of Paternal Affection and Filial Duty It being impossible for Children to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 requite their Parents as the Young ones of the Stork do theirs where the Parents have not shew'd themselves Storks before Having thus given you a general Scheme both of this Commandment and my Design and shewn both who and to what they are oblig'd I intend now to present them to you a second time and allow them a more distinct Consideration In order whereunto I will begin with Parents because express'd in the Commandment and shew both 1. What is due from their Children unto them And 2. What is due from them unto their Children I. Now there are Five things within the resolution whereof all that is necessary to be known concerning the former of these Obligations is comprehended 1. The Grounds of our Honour 2. The Kinds of it 3. With what variety it is to be exhibited to either Parent 4. Whether or no and how far a Child may be freed from it 5. To which I shall subjoyn in the fifth place somewhat concerning Fear and Love which I have said to be a part of Childrens Duties 1. And here though I very well might not to establish it upon this Commandment nor yet upon that Strength which Christianity hath added to it by its own I will make it my Business to inquire whether Nature it self hath not afforded Grounds enough to establish that Obligation upon Now there are two things upon which the honouring our Parents is grounded and which indeed do each of them evince its necessity how much more then when as for the most part conjoyn'd The former whereof is their being under God the Authors of ours and secondly the Maintainers of it That they are the Authors of our Being is too evident from Experience to admit of any the least doubt That as such they ought to be honour'd will be no less evident if we consider either the Excellency thereof or the Authority that it naturally infers For inasmuch as Excellency is a just Object of Honour Honour as was before observ'd being a just Valuation of that which is so inasmuch as there is a peculiar Excellency in being the Author of anothers Being he who is so thereby partaking of one of the great Prerogatives of the Divine Nature it follows because our Parents are Partakers of that Prerogative that they are to be look'd upon as the Objects of Honour and next to him to be regarded by us And accordingly as some have not stuck to call them visible * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de Decal Gods in respect of that resemblance which they have to the Great Creatour of us all so if it be cautiously understood it is not without Warrant even from the Scriptures themselves God himself so stiling both the Angels and Magistrates for that Image they have of his Nature and Authority However it be there is a great Resemblance between our Earthly Parents and God as being each in their measure the Authors of our Being and if so there can be little doubt of their being the just Objects of our Honour if God may be allow'd to be a just Object of it But then if we add moreover That the Authors of our Being have eo ipso a Natural Authority over those to whom they are so Nature and Reason dictating that the Maker of any thing should have the disposal of it so there will not onely follow a necessity of honouring them but of giving them such an Honour as includes Obedience to their Commands But besides the Resemblance there is between our Parents and God in that particular and that Authority which it naturally infers we are also to consider according as was before insinuated that they are God's Instruments in the producing of us For if so they cannot be neglected without casting a contempt upon God ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de Decalog whose Instruments and Ministers they are the Vertue of an Instrument being not so much its own as that Causes by which it is manag'd And accordingly as among Men what is done or not done unto an Agent is by the Prince and all others interpreted as done or not done unto himself so there have not wanted even among the Heathen who saw the legitimateness of making such an Interpretation of the Dishonour that is done to God's Instruments our Earthly Parents Menander †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in particular affirming of him who reproacheth his Father That though his Words go no farther than him yet he aims at the Divine Nature The same is no less evident in that the Honour of Parents hath even in the New Testament the Title of * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5.4 Piety For that being the proper Word to express our Duty to our Maker shews the thing to which it is attributed to have a peculiar aspect upon him and that it is Sacrilege as well as Injustice to deny it I have insisted so much the longer upon this Head as because the Scripture seems to found our Obligation upon it when it requires us to hearken to the father that begat us Prov. 23.22 so also because it cuts off all Pretences of doing dishonour to those whom this Commandment obliges us to revere For be it first that thy Parents may prove unnatural and thereby so far devest themselves of that Honour which is due from other Children unto theirs yet so long as that which is past cannot be recall'd they cannot cease to be thy Parents and it is eternally true that the one is thy Father that begat thee and the other thy Mother that conceiv'd thee Be it secondly which is another Pretence of Disobedience that though they gave Being to thee yet they design'd not that so much as the gratification of their own Appetites which will consequently cut off all Moral Right to that Honour which they exact of thee yet inasmuch as they were the Authors of thy Being they have a Natural Right to it and therefore ought not to be deny'd it any more than we may deny Honour to a Man of Natural
are to have a proportionable Love and Honour from us so if we have a Respect and Kindness for them we must have a Love for those who are equally descended from them with our selves 4. Lastly If Love and Honour do naturally diffuse themselves from those that are the immediate Objects of it to those that are their Relations and Dependents if we have a Respect for our Parents we shall shew some portion of it to those whether Friends or Servants whom they made the Object of theirs PART IV. A Discourse of what is owing by Parents to their Children which is shewn to be first the providing for their Subsistence This evidenc'd from the common Consent of Mankind that Natural Affection which God hath implanted in Parents and from the Scripture The same farther evidenc'd from the Intention of God and Nature in that Being which he conferreth upon Children by them from that Dignity to which Parents are advanc'd and from that Self-love which God hath implanted in their Hearts That the Provision Parents are to make for their Children ought to be as large as their Necessities till they come of Years to provide for themselves yea to continue always such if they prove impotent or foolish The like not to be affirm'd where there is no such Inability Consideration onely to be had whether the Ability of Children can reach to such a Provision as is suitable to their Condition for otherwise it ought to be supplied by the Parents That the Provision of Parents ought to extend beyond their own Times and they accordingly either to lay up for them or put them into a Vocation whereby they may provide for themselves A Caution against Parents suffering their Care for them to entrench upon the Duties of Justice or Charity because these are alike incumbent on them and the best Legacies they can bequeath their Children Institution of Children in Life and Manners a second Duty of a Parent as is made appear both from Nature and Scripture The particular Duties implied in it Instruction Command and Example the first being necessary to teach them how to live the two latter to oblige them to the Practice of it Chastising of Children a third Duty of a Parent and therefore also largely insisted on That it extends not now to Death or the cutting off a Limb as neither to a total Disinheriting or the setting a lasting Note of Infamy upon them Because either the Peculiar of Princes upon whom a great part of the Parents Authority is deriv'd or not so agreeable to Paternal Affection or tending rather to provoke than amend the Parties chastised Corporal Punishments less than those within the power of Parents but yet not to be inflicted upon those of riper Years or not in the same manner wherein they are upon younger Persons Of the Measure in which Chastisements are to be inflicted upon Children That a principal Regard ought to be had that they be within the Quality of the Offence and how they may be known so to be The Strength of the Child another Measure of Chastisement and that that and that alone can be look'd upon to be within it which doth not disable the Child from the performance of those several Offices which Nature or Religion doth exact The Relation of the Chastiser another Measure and what that Relation leads to which is either first the reforming of the Party chastised or the deterring other Children from the like Offences To correct either for ones own Pleasure or Revenge not suitable to a Parent That all possible Submission is due to those Chastisements which are within the forementioned Bounds but however no other Resistance to be made than by Flight or an Appeal to the Magistrate An Inquiry into the supposed Obligation of the Mothers Nursing her own Child and the Arguments for it propos'd and answered II. OF the Duty of Children to their Parents what hath been said may suffice proceed we therefore to consider the Duty of Parents towards them or rather unto God concerning them Where 1. First I shall consider those that are common to each Parent And 2. After that inquire Whether there be any peculiar to the Mother 1. Now there are three things incumbent upon Parents in order to the Welfare of their Children 1. Providing for their Subsistence 2. Institution of them in Life and Manners And 3. Chastisement 1. I begin with the first of these even Parents providing for their Childrens Subsistence where again these three things would be inquir'd into 1. How it appears to be a Duty 2. Whence the Obligation thereof ariseth And 3. What Provision they are to make 1. Now though the Duty of Parents in this Affair would most naturally be made out by pointing at the Grounds from whence it ariseth yet because there are other ways to make the necessity thereof to appear and such too as are more intelligible to the Common sort of Men I think it not amiss to begin with them whereof the first I shall alledge is the Common Consent of Mankind concerning it For it appearing not how all Mankind should so unanimously agree upon the Necessity of Parents providing for their Children if there were not some Principle in Nature to lead them to it it is in reason to be presum'd to be a part of Natural Duty and such as Reason no less than Revelation doth tie upon them From the Consent of Mankind pass we to that Natural Affection which God hath implanted in the Breasts of Parents For as that doth naturally lead Men to make Provision for those toward whom they have so strong an Affection so it is a sufficient Proof of the Intention of the Almighty to oblige Parents to the Practice of it no other account being to be given why God should implant in them so strong an affection but to be as a Spur to them to make Provision for them But so that Parents are naturally obliged St. Paul declares in his Epistle to the Romans and the Second to the Corinthians Witness for the former his charging upon the Heathen among other things the * Text. Graecus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod propriè significat expertes naturalis affectâ—â— erga liberos want of natural affection to their Children Rom. 1.31 for the latter his express Affirmation that Parents ought to lay up for them 2 Cor. 12.14 For inasmuch as nothing but a Sin could be the matter of a Charge as nothing could be a Sin to the Gentiles which was not a breach of Nature's Law by charging the want of natural affection upon the Heathen he manifestly implies it to have been a transgression of Nature's Law and consequently that the contrary was commanded by it The same is yet more evident from that other place where he affirms in express terms That Parents ought to lay up for them for though as a Learned Man * Sanderson Two Caser of Conscience pag. 72 hath observ'd St. Paul speaks it but upon the By and by
way of illustration of another Argument yet is that so far from lessening the importance of it that on the contrary it adds a greater Force to it such illustrations as the forequoted Person remarks being ever taken à notiori and from such common notions as are granted and consented unto by all reasonable men 2. Having thus shewn it to be a natural duty of Parents to provide for their Childrens subsistence which is the first of those things we proposed to consider proceed we in the second place according to the method before laid down to shew from whence the Obligation thereto ariseth which is first of all from the intention of God and Nature in that Being which he conferrs upon Children by them For the Intention of God and Nature being to make those to whom he gives it happy he must consequently be supposed to have enjoin'd the adding of those things which may serve for the procuring of it Otherwise our Birth would have been rather an Infelicity than a Benefit because exposing us to those Evils which but for our Birth we should never have receiv'd Now forasmuch as God intended our Birth for our benefit forasmuch as that cannot be where the conveniencies of Life are wanting he must consequently be supposed to have enjoin'd the adding of them also so far as it is in the power of Parents to procure them From the intention of God and Nature in our Birth pass we to that dignity which we have before said Parents to be advanc'd to that is to say to be as Gods to those whom they were the Authors of For as that dignity of theirs doth oblige those who are their Children to look upon and revere them as such so it doth no less oblige the Parents to do things becoming that divine dignity to which he hath advanc'd them Otherwise they shall not only bring a scandal upon themselves but upon him whose Images they are Now forasmuch as it is no way becoming that dignity to which they are advanc'd to cast off those creatures which they have produc'd God whose Image they bear no less providing for his Creatures when made than contributing to the Being of them at first it follows that as Parents are a kind of Gods to us by the Being which they gave us so they ought to shew themselves to be farther such by preserving what they have made and continuing what they before gave Lastly forasmuch as Children are not only the workmanship of their Parents but also like that of the Spider woven out of their own Bowels Hence there ariseth another Obligation of making provision for them so far as they may stand in need of them For inasmuch as no man yet either did or could without a great unnaturalness hate his own flesh no man can without the like unnaturalness withold nourishment from those who are no other than a portion of it 3. That Parents ought to make provision for their Children together with the grounds of that Obligation we have seen already proceed we now to consider the provision they are to make In order whereunto I will consider their several stages through which their Children are to pass And first of all If the question be concerning Children before they have either Ability or Reason to provide for themselves so there is no doubt the provision of Parents ought to be as large as the necessities of their Children For as the weakness of Children in that state takes away all pretence of putting any part of it upon them so the same reason which obliges Parents to provide for their Children at all obliges them to provide for them altogether where there is a like necessity of it The same is to be said of Children who however of years of strength and discretion are yet by reason of some defect in Nature either impotent or foolish these being as much Children as those of younger years and therefore to have a like Interest in our care and providence From Children which have not arriv'd to Ability and Discretion pass we to those that have but continue still in their Fathers Family or at least have the opportunity of their Fathers Assistance and Advice Where first I shall not stick to affirm that there is no necessity the provision should be as large as for Children of a lower state For the general ground of making provision for others being the necessities of those we provide for our obligation to make provision must so far cease as we see their necessities do And therefore if a Child be in some measure able to provide for himself there is no doubt but a Father may oblige him to it and substract so much of his own providence But to those very creatures whom God hath sent us to learn Providence of have taught us by their example to proceed For how great soever their affection to their young ones is yet they generally leave them to their own conduct when they are able to shift for themselves This only would be added which hath no place in other creatures that consideration ought to be had of the quality of Children or rather of those from whom they are descended For as the provision Parents ought to make for their Children ought to be answerable to the condition both of themselves and of their Children so if the ability of their Children will not reach to such a provision the Parent is to supply it by his care and providence and not only furnish him with such things as are necessary for a Son but for the Son of such a Father For by the same reason a man is to provide more for a Child as being of a nobler Nature than we find other Creatures do for their young Ones by the same a Man of more noble Condition is to provide more largely for his Child than if he were the Son of a more Inferiour Person But because what hath been hitherto said doth rather concern the making provision for a Child in his Fathers House or at least during his Life then after his Fathers decease and because St. Paul hath represented this last as no less the Duty of Parents where he tells us that they ought to lay up for them therefore inquire we in the third place Whether or no Parents are oblig'd to do it and after what proportion Now that so they are which is the first thing to be shewn beside what was alledged out of St. Paul will appear from the necessity Children generally stand in of it For beside that after their Parents decease they must needs be less able than before to attain to such a condition of life as is suitable to their respective qualities they wanting in that state that Advice and Assistance of their Parents which might have facilitated their way to it so it is but requisite that to supply that defect Parents should either train up their Children to some Calling by which they may be able to provide for themselves which
be angry if the greater be preferr'd before it Again If the Proconsul does command one thing and the Emperour does command another is there any doubt but that contemning the one we are to serve the other I observe thirdly That as the Honour of Inferiour Magistrates is to be with subordination to that of the Supreme so also as was before noted out of St. Augustine with subordination to such Powers as are in higher place than the other the lesser being in reason to give place to the greater and consequently the honour of the former to be limited by that of the other Lastly which will upon the matter acquaint us with the full measure of our duty We are to honour Inferiour Magistrates according to the measure of that Authority which is imparted to them and according to the pleasure of him by whom it is so imparted For inasmuch as they are to be honour'd as persons that are sent by the Prince they are consequently to receive honour from us according to that Authority which they receive from him and according to his pleasure from whom they do But from hence it will follow First That if the Inferiour Magistrate command us any thing which is not within the power of his Commission to do in that case I may without sin withdraw my obedience from him because so far he hath no Authority to command It will follow Secondly That if I think I have receiv'd hard measure from the Inferiour Magistrate I may without breach of submission appeal from him unto the Superiour even as we find St. Paul to have done from the Provincial Governour to Caesar Because he by whom those Inferiour Magistrates are commissionated does not ordinarily commissionate them so far as not to leave an appeal from them unto himself Care only would be taken that we appeal not from them but upon just cause and where it appears to us they exceed the bounds of their Commission and the Law For otherwise we shew our selves refractory to that supreme Authority by which they are constituted and consequently also unto God Lastly it will follow from the premises That as they who are invested with a greater Authority are to have a greater honour and they who are invested with a less Authority a less so the precise measures both of the one and others honour will be best learn'd from the Laws because most evidently declaring the pleasure of the Prince that constituted them And more than this I shall not need to say concerning the honour of Princes or of those who are commissionated by them 5. The order of my Discourse now leads me to enquire of the duty of Princes toward their Subjects and of Inferiour Magistrates toward those over whom they are appointed to preside the Commandment as was before shewn being intended no less for their regulation than of those who are subjected to their commands But because I have to do not with Princes but with Subjects and but little with Inferiour Magistrates and because too for the most part they are too intelligent to stand in need of an Instructour and have more than enough of Monitors even among those who ought rather to obey than to advise it shall suffice me to address this general exhortation to all those who have any Authority in the Commonwealth That they would remember themselves to be Gods Ministers and act with respect to his glory the Princes Ministers and make use of their Authority for and with him That they would remember they are the Ministers of both for the encouragement of the good and not make use of their Authority to vex and worry those that are so the Ministers of both for the punishing of evil-doers and therefore neither to connive at or protect them That they would remember the Oath they have taken which binds their duty so much the faster on them and for the violation whereof if the Prince does not God whose name is invok'd in it will call them to a severe account Lastly That they would remember that all profanation of Gods day by Tipling and Idleness all profanations of his Name by vain Oaths and Execrations In fine That much of the violation of the Laws of God and Man will lie at their doors if they suffer them to go unpunished For inasmuch as all that the Prince can do is to look after the great affairs of State and the appointing of Inferiour Magistrates for the punishing of Offenders the whole of the guilt of private mens Offences must be chargeable upon them who are appointed to take cognizance thereof Which however those men may now make light of because considering not to what judgment it doth expose them yet will appear to be of more importance when God shall render to every man according to his works and particularly to those to whom he hath committed the Sword of Justice For where shall they appear who beside their own personal miscarriages shall have to answer for so many and great miscarriages of other men PART VIII Of the honour of Spiritual Parents which is shewn to be their due from Reason and Scripture The Grounds of that Honour their begetting us unto God and being appointed by God as his Ministers in things pertaining to the Conscience All power in Spirituals vested in our Saviour and from him therefore to be derived through those to whom he transmitted it The kinds of Honours either such as are more peculiar to their Function or such as are common to them with other Parents Of the former sort are 1. The resorting to the place where they Teach and attending both to them and to their Doctrine 2. The yeilding Obedience to their Commands so far as the nature of their Function and the measure of their Office doth require This evidenced from Scripture and from the nature of their Authority which is shewn at large to be Imperative as well as Doctrinal That that Authority of theirs extends no firther than to matters of Religion and is bounded as to them also within the discipline of our Saviour and the edification of the Church 3. The deferring to them in their Decrees concerning matters of Faith whether it be by aquieseing in them so far as to make no publick opposition to them which is the duty of all or by contenting our selves to be debarr'd any publick employment in it unless we declare our cordial assent to such Articles of Religion as they shall judge expedient to be publickly Profess'd and Taught 4. Submission to their respective Censures where the Churches power of inflicting such is also shewn An enquiry concerning such Honours as are common to them with other Parents which also are shewn from Scripture to be their due and particularly an honourable maintenance The like evidenc'd from the impossibility of their being otherwise in any esteem with the generality of men and from the improbability of drawing Men of Worth and Parts into that Function The whole concluded with a short Prayer
commands Submission to the Froward for Servants to oppose themselves so if they should be allow'd to do so it would introduce a greater confusion in Families than either the Peace of them or of the State would be consistent with 4. What Honour is due from Servants to their Masters hath been at large declar'd and thereby so far as this particular is concern'd the main intendment of the Commandment discharg'd But because I have often said that the Commandment which is now before us was intended also to comprehend the duty of Superiours toward Inferiours as well as of Inferiours toward them I think it not amiss to speak somewhat of the duty of Masters toward their Servants and the rather because oftentimes they stand as much in need of an admonition as the other In order whereunto following the division before laid down I will consider the duties of Masters toward their Slaves and and then of their duties toward such as though their Servants yet are so in a more ingenuous way Now though the Authority of Masters over Slaves be undoubtedly much greater than that over other Servants though anciently as Justinian * Institut tells us they had the power of Life and Death and were not accountable for it though they put them to death unjustly yet as the Roman Laws * Lib. 1. tit 8. sect 2 3. set bounds to that exorbitant Power of theirs and our own hath yet more retrench'd it so if we consult the Laws of Nature and Christianity we shall find there is more owing from them unto their Slaves than is ordinarily thought fit to be paid Of this Nature is first Furnishing them with Food and Rayment in such a proportion as may suffice the necessities of Nature this being absolutely necessary to enable them to the performance of that Service and Labour which they exact Of the same nature is secondly The imposing such Tasks upon them as is not above their strength to perform this being no more than common humanity requires of which Slaves are equally partakers with our selves But such also is it thirdly Not to punish them above the demerit of their Crime nor above what their Strength will bear Justice requiring that the Punishment do not exceed the Proportion of the Offence and common humanity that it pass not the bounds of their Natural Abilities In fine for so St. Paul plainly intimates where he commands Masters to give unto their Servants that which is just and equal their Commands and Punishments ought to extend no farther than the Laws of the place give leave or Equity and Christian Charity permit which to be sure will not only exclude all Cruelty and Injustice toward them but impose a necessity upon the Master of shewing such Compassion to them as their Weakness or Necessities may at any time require In the mean time though I no way doubt but Masters are to give unto their Slaves that which is just and equal and consequently to abstain from all Cruelty either in their Commands or Censures yet I think it necessary for them to submit both to the one and the other where the burthen which is impos'd is not above the proportion of their strength partly because St. Peter commands subjection to the froward and difficult and partly because that they have so much as their life is owing either to the mercy of their present Masters or of those from whom they were purchas'd From the duties of Masters to their Slaves pass we to the duties of the same to their Servants such I mean as are so in a more ingenuous way Where first of all I shall make no difficulty to affirm as I suppose neither will any man so grant that all those things are undoubtedly owing to Servants which are from a Master to his Slave the condition of Servants being much better than that of Slaves and therefore to be sure not to require less of their Masters than the other As little difficulty can be made that all that is owing to them from their Masters which at the entrance upon their service they do expresly covenant to afford them a Promise even where there is no other Obligation making the party promising a Debter and how much more then where there is a valuable consideration to engage him But from hence it will follow first Where there is any such thing covenanted that they are to give them the promised reward or wages and that too at or near the time wherein they become due to them he paying less than he ought who pays not at or near the the time because depriving the party to whom he owes it of that use and advantage which he might and which because it is his own it is fit he should receive by it It will follow secondly where that is a part of the Contract that Masters carefully and faithfully teach their Servants that Trade for the Learning whereof they become Servants to them which is the rather to be observ'd because it is oftentimes through sloathfulness omitted or basely and invidiously conceal'd at least as to the cheifest Mysteries thereof as if a Contract could be satisfied by paying one half the thing contracted for and it may be too the less considerable one I observe thirdly That in such Servants as are by Contract to receive their whole maintenance from their Masters a regard is to be had not only of what necessity but what the condition of that Service into which they are assum'd requires For by how much the more Ingenuous the Service is so much the more free in reason ought to be the entertainment of those that are in it especially when as it mostly happens paying accordingly to their Masters for it Whence it is that no Man of reason doubts but that the Apprentice of a Merchant or other such more liberal Profession should be treated in a better fashion than one of a man of a more inferiour one or an ordinary Serving Man to the same I observe fourthly That as care is to be taken on the one hand that they afflict not their Servants with immoderate Labours or Punishments so also on the other hand that they suffer them not to be Idle nor be sparing of just Chastisements when they deserve them the omission of that not only proving the bane of their Servants but being a falsification of that Trust which is reposed in them by their Servants Parents and an injury to the Commonwealth which by their slothfulness or cowardise is like to have so much the worse Subjects Fifthly and Lastly more than which I shall not need to say unless it be to exhort them to the practise of what they are thus bound to It is incumbent upon all Masters of Families to restrain their Servants from all Vitious Courses and both prompt and oblige them to the practise of Religious Duties not indeed by any direct obligation upon them from their Authority which reacheth rather to Temporal than Spiritual matters
Jews and if not in what That it appertains not to us in the same manner and measure is evident first from hence that it particularly refers to the Land of Canaan the Promise being not onely of a long and happy Life but of a long and happy Life in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee which we know to have been the Land of Canaan Whence it is that the Septuagint which oftentimes act the part rather of Paraphrasts than strict Translators add to the Name of Land the Title of Good which we know from Deut. 8.7 to have been the peculiar Elogie of the Land of Canaan Now forasmuch as the Land of Canaan was particularly promis'd to the Jews forasmuch as it doth not appear that it was ever intended for Christians nor was capable of containing the thousandth part of those who have or do give obedience to this Commandment it follows that so far at least we have no concernment in the Promise and must therefore look out for other ways of the completion of it But so St. Paul gives us plainly enough to understand in the place before quoted out of the Ephesians that Apostle though he represent the Promise yet * Ephes 6.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving out that Clause of it which the Lord thy God giveth thee But neither is it less evident but that abstracting from the Land of Canaan the Jews to whom it was first made had a far greater Title to it if it be strictly and literally understood partly because those earthly Promises which were made unto the Jews were not clogg'd with those Exceptions which we find those of the New Testament to be and partly because they are represented by the Writers of it and particularly by St. Paul as the Shadows of those things to come which the Gospel exhibited Which reason alone if well considered will be found to make a great difference between the Times of the Law and the Gospel For the Substance being come it was but reasonable to think the Shadow was to disappear or at least not so to prevail as it did before the appearing of it All therefore that remains to inquire is in what manner and measure this and other such Promises are to be constru'd to appertain to us and what kind of Completion we are to expect Where first no doubt can be made that this and other such like Promises appertain to us in the Mystery or Substance For the Gospel proposing to exhibit that of which the Law was a Type or Shadow those Temporal Promises which the Law propos'd must consequently be suppos'd to be fulfill'd in the Mystery or Substance to all those which are under its Oeconomy Which by the way will not onely confirm the truth of those Promises belonging to us but moreover take off from those discontents we are apt to conceive upon the difference there often is between us and the Jews as to Temporal Promises The former because the main Intendment of all Symbolical things is the Mystery which is represented under them the latter because exhibiting a more substantial Good though less apparent than that which the Law doth For what just ground of complaint can there be if the Gospel though it provide not alike for our Temporal welfare yet provides much more for our Spiritual one and exhibits the Substance of that of which the other had but the Shadow Which said nothing remains to do but to point out the Mystery or Substance of those Earthly Promises which were by God in this Commandment made to the Honourers of their Parents But such is first Heaven in respect of that Land which was to be the Seat of their Life who among the Jews were due Observers of this Commandment the Author to the Hebrews not onely stiling it a better and a heavenly Country in respect of the Land of Promise but affirming moreover that Abraham and Sarah look'd through that Land of Promise to the Heavenly Country and set up their Rest in it and in that City which God hath there prepar'd which shews that this Heavenly Country was figur'd in the Land of Promise and consequently to be bestow'd upon all such under the Gospel who should shew themselves faithful Observers of this Commandment The Mystery will be yet more easie to be discovered as to the residue of that Promise which is here made to the Religious Honourers of their Parents For as in order to that nothing more can be necessary than to instance in such Evangelical Blessings as bear a perfect resemblance to the promis'd ones an Antitype being nothing else either in the Literal or Christian sense than that which bears the same Signatures with its Type so it will be no hard matter to point out such of the Evangelical Blessings as do exactly accord with those which the Law promised For as that Heavenly Country which the Gospel promiseth hath not onely the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Patria but our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Citizenship affirmed to be there Phil. 3.20 because as is elsewhere affirm'd that New Birth which we have is from thence and our Original is not Earthly but Heavenly so correspondently to that long and happy Life which the Law proposeth we have the promise of a Life which doth infinitely surpass it in both because devoid of any thing which may interrupt our Happiness and beside that not onely simply long but of such a duration as shall never have an end From the Blessings typified by Earthly Promises pass we to those Earthly ones themselves and inquire whether or no and how far they appertain to us Christians For the resolution of the former whereof we shall not be long to seek because so distinctly stated by St. Paul he expresly affirming 1 Tim. 4.8 That Godliness hath the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come The onely thing of difficulty is in what measure they belong to us which accordingly I come now to resolve In order whereunto the first thing I shall offer is That however the Jews might expect a perfect Completion of them upon the performance of their Duty yet the like is not to be expected by us as being propos'd with an exception of Persecution Our Saviour where he makes the largest Promise of things of that nature yet forgetting not to add that Allay to it 'T is in Mark 10.29 30. And Jesus answered and said Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath lest house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life From which place as it is manifest that a Christian may be sometime oblig'd to part with all Earthly Blessings so that though he may hope to retrive them with
and all the Mischiefs that attend them but obliging Superiours for their own safety and that of the Commonwealth to cut those off which shall be found to withdraw Obedience from them And though it sometime happen that the Peaceable and Obedient meet with a Fate no way answerable to their Merit yet as generally speaking they are more likely to be successful than turbulent and seditious Men so where they are not they have the Conscience of their own Goodness to support them and the certain expectation of a Reward in another World That being a Blessing which as no Violence of Men can obstruct so God hath without any Exceptions oblig'd himself to bestow THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT Thou shalt * or not kill do no murther PART I. The Contents Of the Duty we owe to each other as Men and particularly to each others Persons and Lives the violation whereof this Commandment forbids The Affirmative part of the Commandment the shewing Humanity or Benevolence unto all the Grounds whereof are also declar'd Those either first our descending originally from the same Common Parents the ignorance whereof was probably the cause of the Heathens not extending their Humanity usually beyond their own Nation Or secondly our descending from the same Coelestial Parent God and being created by him in his own Image Or thirdly that Natural Compassion which God hath implanted in all our Hearts that necessity we stand in of one anothers Help and that Ability which we have by means of Reason and Speech to afford it The particular Duties this Humanity includes an inward Affection to Praying for and doing all those things which may promote each others Happiness Of which nature are the assisting one another with our Advice lending one another the Assistance either of our Persons or Fortunes and where there is a necessity of punishing using moderation in it This Humanity to extend in some measure to all unless where there is a Command of God to the contrary which is not to be suppos'd under the Gospel Of the Measure wherein this Humanity is to be extended where is shewn first That it ought to be extended even to evil and unjust Persons so far as is consistent with the Glory of God the Publick Good and the Good of our own Souls What the Result of that Determination is and that it no way hinders but Offenders may be brought to condign Punishment because Glemency to them is Cruelty to the Innocent Inquiry is next made in what proportion this Humanity is to be extended to the several sorts and degrees of Men where is shewn That where it cannot or not alike be afforded unto all those of the same True Religion with us are to be preferr'd before those of a False as those who are nearly related to us before those who are more remote Our selves caeteris paribus to be preferr'd before other Men but not so where there is an Inequality our own Pleasure being to be postpos'd to the necessary Support of a Neighbour and our own Welfare as well as Pleasure to that of the Society whereof we are WHAT is owing from us to each other upon the account of any near Relation was the Business of that Commandment to shew which entreats of the Honour of Parents It remains that we inquire what we owe to one another as Men which is the purport of the following ones In the investigation whereof following the Order of the Decalogue and Nature we will inquire first of all what is owing from us to each others Persons and Lives Now though if we look no farther than the Letter of the Commandment that is now before us the Whole of what is requir'd of us may seem to be no other than the not invading each others Lives or at least offering no violence to them yet because it is certain from the Laws of God and Nature that a positive Benevolence is also requir'd and because both our Saviour and St. Paul reduce the whole of the Law to Love which could not be done with any congruity if Benevolence had not a portion in it therefore I think it not amiss to allot it a place in my Discourse and inquire 1. Upon what Grounds it stands 2. What Duties it contains 3. To whom and 4. In what measure it is to be extended 1. And here not to tell you that Benevolence to all Mankind is so confessedly a Duty that it hath obtained the name of Humanity because though that be a proof of the Worlds believing it to be such and consequently that it hath a foundation in Nature yet it gives no account of the Grounds upon which it stands I shall without more ado apply my self to the investigation of those Principles from which both so general a Perswasion and the Obligation thereof doth arise Now the first Obligation we have of shewing Humanity to each other ariseth from hence that all of us though at at a greater distance descend from the same Common Parents For being by the former Precept oblig'd to give Honour to our Parents as well those which are farther remov'd from us as those which are more immediate to us See Explicat of the Fifth Commandm Part 1. in the beginning of it and Part 3. towards the end being also as was there observ'd we cannot give Honour to them unless we have a regard to those that are alike descended from them it follows that if we are all descended from the same Common Parents we are to look upon one another as of the same Family and consequently to afford one another a share in our Affections And though in tract of Time the Tradition of our Descent from the same Common Parents was in a manner quite forgotten among the Heathen which is probably the reason why they shew'd so little Humanity out of their own Nation yet as where there was a perswasion of descending from the same Common Stock there was always a Religious Friendship between them yea though Necessity or some other Cause had separated them as to the place of their abode so Josephus * Antiqu. Judaic lib. 12. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. tells us That when the Lacedemonians found by a certain Writing that they and the Jews descended from the same Stock as being both of the Posterity of Abraham they did in a Letter of their Kings to Onias the High Priest both offer and require a mutual Friendship as the result of that Cognation that was between them It being but just as the Words ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph ibid. of their Letter are that since you are our Brethren you should send to us for such things as you desire as in like manner we shall do and both look upon your Possessions as our own and have our own in common with you From which Ratiocination of theirs it is apparent that though the Heathen had not the knowledge of all Mens descending from the same Common
there is a Tie of Fidelity as well as of Love the purport whereof is also declar'd That the Married Parties are to give each other Honour and particularly what that Honour is which is due from the Husband to the Wife In fine That in respect to God whose Institution Marriage is they ought to possess their Vessels in Sanctification and Honour as well between themselves as toward others An Address to the declaration of such Laws as concern the Married Parties severally where is shewn upon the part of the Husband that the Authority he hath over the Wife is not coercive but directive that accordingly it ought to proceed rather by the way of Love than Empire as lastly to restrain it self to such things as are within the Bounds of Religion and to such as are suitable to that Fellowship whereinto she is admitted where the Management of Houshold Affairs is shewn to be the Womans Province On the part of the Wife is shewn That she ought not in any measure to usurp Authority over the Man but endeavour rather to gain him by Meekness and Compliance That she ought to do him Honour both in Language and Gesture and obey him in all things that are not contrary to Religion or to that Condition of Life into which she is admitted by him A more particular Declaration of the Duty of the Wife in the matter of Obedience where is shewn That though she hath no Tie upon her as to such things as are contrary to Religion yet she ought to be directed by her Husband in judging of Religious Matters and where they are not manifestly contrary to the Scriptute to submit to and follow his Advices That though she be not under obedience as to such things as are sitter for a Servant than a Wife yet what is fit or not fit for a Wife to do ought not to be judg'd of by the Deportment of the most and much less by the Caprichio's of her own Brain but by the Example of Godly Matrons That though the Management of Houshold Affairs be the Wifes peculiar Province and therefore no proper matter generally for the Husband to interpose his Commands in yet she ought to comply with him even there where there is any just fear of his being discredited or undone by her evil Management An Exhortation to the Married Parties to perform their respective Duties II. IT being so rare for Popular Discourses to entreat of the Duties of Married Persons that it is almost become an Absurdity to mention them I may perhaps fall under the Censure of Indiscretion for going about to make them the Subject of mine though the Design I am now upon do naturally lead me to it But because I cannot give a satisfactory Account of the Nature of Adultery and much less of the due Importance of that Commandment which forbids it without entreating of the Laws of Marriage which Adultery is a Violation of and because how nice soever Men are now grown and how fearful soever of incurring the Censure of Indiscretion St. Paul made no difficulty of interlacing almost all his Epistles with Discourses of it lastly because there is neither that Fidelity between some Married Persons which the Divine Institution and their own Covenants nor that Accord between others which so intimate a Relation doth require I hope it will not be look'd upon by sober Persons as any Imprudence if as I have in the former Discourse shewn what is necessary to the legitimate Contracting of Marriage so I make it the business of this to demonstrate what is requisite to preserve it inviolable after it is so contracted In order whereunto I will represent 1. Such Duties as are common to the Married Parties And after that descend to 2. Those which are peculiar to each of them Now though what both the one and the other are be competently evident from those Covenants into which the Parties enter at the Solemnization of Matrimony between them yet because it is not impossible some Duties may be more obscurely express'd there than will be requisite to give each of them a due understanding of them and because those which are more clearly set down will be look'd upon as more forcible if it can be made appear that they have the Obligation of the Divine Command as well as of their own Contract to bind them on them therefore I think it but necessary to investigate them by the purport of the Divine Commands as well as by the tenor of their own Compacts 1. To begin with those which are common to the Married Parties because the most natural Results of that intimate Conjunction into which they enter Where 1. First I shall represent the Parties loving of each other as both their own Compacts and the Divine Commands bind them For though Love be most usually made the Duty of the Husband to the Wife as on the other side Obedience and Reverence that of the Wife toward the Husband yet as it is evident from St. Paul's enjoyning the aged Women to teach the younger to love their Husbands that Love is no less due from them than it is from the Husband to them Tit. 2.4 so the ground which he elsewhere assigns for the Husbands loving of the Wife inferrs equally the returning of it by her For the Love of the Husband to the Wife being founded by him in that Unity or Identity rather which Marriage conciliates between the Parties Ephes 5.28 and so on if the Wife be one with him as well as he with her there must be the same tie of Love upon her as there is upon the Husband to her Here onely is the difference that whereas the Husband by the Prerogative of his Sex hath no other tie than that of Love which is the reason why the Duty of Love is in a manner appropriated to him the Wife because subjected to the Husband is to temper hers with Reverence and Obedience for which cause we hear so little of any Love to be paid by her and so much of Reverence and Obedience It being thus evident that Love how peculiar soever it may seem unto the Man is yet alike the Duty of them both proceed we to inquire what is the due Importance of it Where first no doubt can be made but that it implies an inward Affection as because Love in propriety of Speech denotes the Affection of the Heart so because all Effects without it are but Hypocrisie and Dissimulation As little doubt is to be made secondly but that that inward Affection of Love is to exert it self in suitable Effects partly because Love is naturally operative and partly because St. Paul where he exhorts Husbands to love their Wives proposeth Christ's Love to the Church for the Pattern of it which as it was not without an inward Affection so shew'd it self in effect because as the same St. Paul observes prompting him to give himself for it The onely thing of difficulty in this matter is What is
possible for those who have any great love for each other not to desire and endeavour each others Welfare in that which most especially concerns them so they who remember Marriage to have been intended as a Figure of that Mystical Vnion that is between Christ and his Church will not think they have paid a just Respect to that Mystery which it adumbrates unless they endeavour to their power to make the Conversation of each other approach as near as may be to it Lastly Forasmuch as there is nothing more contrary to Love or to that Union from which it results than Strife and Contention between the Married Parties it will follow that it is their Duty as well as Interest to prevent them what they may or if they happen at any time to break out to suppress them The former whereof will be done by avoiding all occasion of Offence the latter by a mutual forgiving and forbearance where such Offences do arise Which whilst some Persons have imprudently neglected they have but help'd to make themselves miserable and made the Yoke of Marriage as uneasie to themselves as to those whom they design'd to revenge themselves upon It being not to be thought they should reap any advantage to themselves who either kindle or maintain a War within their own House and Bowels 2. To the Duty of Love subjoyn we that of Fidelity which is another necessary Result of that Union which Marriage conciliates he or she no less violating that Unity who bestow their Affections upon a Stranger than they who deny it to the proper Object of it Upon which account as Adultery must needs be look'd upon as highly criminal because violating it in that particular for which it was especially ordain'd so also though in a lower degree the frequenting the Company of others more than their own Consorts or using more familiarity with them than the Laws of Decency and Modesty do allow in fine the spending upon others any considerable part of their Estates to the prejudice or without the consent of the other Party he who joyn'd them so closely to one another as to make them one Flesh consequently forbidding all Commerce with Strangers which either exceeds or rivals or prejudiceth that Commerce which the Society into which they enter obligeth the Married Persons to 3. Thirdly As Love and Fidelity to each other are the indispensible Duties of the Married Parties so also though in a different measure the giving each other Honour according as they expresly stipulate For the evidencing whereof we shall need onely to instance in the Deportment of the Husband to the Wife because as I shall afterward shew there cannot be the least doubt of Honours being to be paid to the Husband by her Now that the Husband is to give Honour to his Wife is evident from that of St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.17 where he exhorts the Husband not onely to dwell with his Wife according to knowledge but to give honour to her as to the weaker vessel Which Words as they are a convincing proof of that Honour which we have affirm'd to be due to her from her Husband so shew the Honour that is to be given her because the Honour of the weaker Vessel to be such as is proper to that State in which God hath plac'd her under her Husband The purport whereof is not that the Husband should subject himself to her who is but in some respects his Equal and much less his Superiour but that inasmuch as she is assum'd into a Copartnership with him he should treat her not as a Servant but a Companion and not onely so neither but as the Companion of such a Person and according to his own Quality or Dignity that he should permit her as in reason he ought to bear her self as a Mother over his Family and not either subject her to or abridge her the exercise of her Authority over it in fine that he should permit her whilst she lives to partake of his Worldly Goods and after her and his Decease to permit her Children to succeed into them For though I know even among us there are other kind of Bargains made and such as do in truth make the Woman rather a Concubine than a Wife as shall hereafter be more at large declar'd though I know also that in Germany there is a sort of Marriage wherein the Husband gives the Wife the Left Hand in stead of the Right that is to say expresly stipulates with her not to take her as a Wife of equal Condition by means of which as * Vid Mylerum in Gamologia seu de matrimonio Personarum Imperii illustrium c citat in le Journal de Scavans parte 1. Mylerus observes neither hath she all the Rights of a Wife neither do her Children succeed either to the Fathers Name or Arms or full Inheritance Yet as I cannot but look upon such Matches among us as a contradiction in adjecto because the Husband in Marriage endows her with all his Worldly Goods so upon all such whether here or elsewhere as contrary to the Divine Institution of Marriage and particularly to that Honour which St. Peter requires Men to exhibit to them For how are they either one with their Husbands or in the esteem of Wives which are set at so great a distance from them I will conclude this part of my Discourse with a Duty that is indeed alike common with the former to each of the Married parties but which hath not themselves but God for the object of it And that is that forasmuch as God is the Author of Marriage they would in respect to him whose institution it is possess their Vessels in Sanctification and Honour as well among themselves as toward others Which they shall do if to give themselves to Fasting and Prayer they shall for a time defraud one another with consent as at all times use that moderation in their enjoyments as may shew them studious of more refined ones and that reservedness and modesty in their outward deportment which may neither tempt others to any impurity nor censure the Divine Institution because of them 2. I have hitherto insisted upon such Duties as are common to the Married parties and which for that reason it is to be hoped will not be distasteful to either of them It remains that I entreat of those that are peculiar to each of them and where if any where I must expect a censure from my Readers But as that rarely happens to a Teacher from the Sober and the Vertuous where his own indiscrete managery thereof gives not occasion to it so he must very much forget his own duty and the dignity of his Employment who shall value any thing of that nature when coming from the Ignorant and Profane Setting aside therefore any farther discourse concerning that I will betake my self to my Task and first of all to 1. Those Duties which are peculiar to the Husband I have heretofore shewn and
not onely nothing in it peculiar to the Man as that which was laid upon the Female Sex had but is of equal necessity to the Support of both And though they that shall but superficially consider the Character that Solomon gives of a Virtuous Woman Prov. 31.10 and so on where among other things he describeth her as one that seeketh wooll and flax and worketh willingly with her hands though they I say that shall but superficially consider these and the like Passages may imagine they hear that grave King reading a Lecture of Oeconomicks and rather admonishing what may make for their Husbands Profit than for the Interest of Religion and the Peace of their own Souls yet as that Imagination will be in part remov'd by considering that the Book of Proverbs is no less a part of Scripture than any other so also by adverting that he pretends not to describe a Thrifty but a Virtuous Person and as it is in the thirtieth Verse a woman that feareth the Lord. For if so such Works as those must be Works of Duty and Religion and concern the Consciences as well as the Profits of those to whom they do belong And indeed so far is the Industriousness of that Sex from being a part of Oeconomicks onely that St. Paul who certainly never dream'd of any thing of that nature insists upon the same thing calling upon those whose Age gave them Ability for it to intend their Houshold Affairs and reproving such as were idle and negligent in it 1 Tim. 5.13 14 Which with what reason he could do so earnestly as he does if it were not of Divine Obligation I am not able to conjecture and I suppose better Wits cannot You will pardon me you of the Female Sex if I have beside my wont thus seem'd to trespass on your Affairs For as I knew not how to avoid it without giving countenance to the Practice of those Women who amidst all their Pretensions to Religion seem to have little consideration of this Affair so I have insisted the rather on it to encourage the Diligence and establish the Consciences of those who are more industrious in it For if St. Paul may be believ'd it is not the idle and busie-body and wanderer from house to house that is the Religious Person but she that diligently guides her own and though there be other more immediate Acts of Religion yet they serve God in these also if they do them with respect to the Divine Command and shall no doubt receive a Reward for them This onely would be added because understood in all Laws That the Obligation to Labour reacheth no farther to either Sex than where there is an Ability to discharge it Upon which account all sick and impotent and aged Persons are to be look'd upon as exempted so far as their respective Indispositions make them unapt for it Which last Restriction I do therefore subjoyn because even those though not apt for the severer sorts of Labour are yet oftentimes well enough qualified for casier ones And I cannot but upon this occasion call to mind a Story which Busbequius * Turcic Epist 8. tells us of a certain Spaniard who had been a Commander among those of his own Nation and was by himself redeem'd from a Turkish Master to whom he was a Slave For though by reason of the Wounds he had receiv'd he was miserably impotent in all his Limbs and one who therefore seem'd more proper for an Hospital than an Employment yet his Turkish Master found a way to set him on work and receiv'd a considerable Emolument by him For passing him over into Asia where great Flocks of Geese are kept he made use of him as the same Busbequius tells us for the feeding of them and receiv'd no contemptible Benefit by it But be that as it will because I hasten to other Matter and such as will more deserve our consideration as other Persons than those before remembred it will be hard or rather impossible to find who can plead an Exemption from the common condition of Mankind so the search will be look'd upon as unprofitable by those who consider that of St. Paul that if any man would not labour neither should he eat 2 Thess 3.10 3. From the Persons therefore that are under this Obligation pass we to the Kinds of Labour to which they are oblig'd or rather to inquire whether that of the Body be incumbent upon all A Question which is not of so easie a resolution as the former if we consider either the several States and Degrees of Men or the Tenor of those Precepts by which Labour is bound upon us For as on the one hand to oblige all Men to the Labour of the Body would overthrow those several Orders which God hath set in the World and which is more take off the better sort from intending the Labours of the Mind which are of no less necessity to the Support of Humane Society so on the other to exempt any from it seems equally repugnant to that Primitive Law by which we have said Labour to be bound upon us and the several Precepts of St. Paul The former importing the eating of our bread in the sweat of our face the latter working with our own hands for it But as it would be consider'd that it is no way unreasonable for a Law to be express'd in such Terms as have a more peculiar Aspect upon the major part the major part as it is most to be consider'd so standing in need of a more particular direction so the Law of Labour as it is worded both by God and St. Paul though not holding in all Particulars is yet accommodable to the greater part of Humane Kind The common Supports of Nature being not to be procur'd where the greater part of those that are concern'd do not contribute to it with the Work of their own Hands From whence as it will follow that there is no necessity of understanding the Laws before-mentioned in that strictness of sense wherein they seem to be delivered so especially if either Reason or Scripture do perswade an Enlargement of it Which that they do will appear if we consider them apart and first of all that which Reason offers to us For inasmuch as all are not qualified by Nature for Bodily Labour or at least not so much as for the Labour of the Mind and they who are are not yet at leisure to intend it by means of much more important Concerns inasmuch as the Labour of the Mind is no less necessary to the Support of Humane Society nor less an Instance of that Travel which God hath laid as a Burthen upon Humane Nature it seems but reasonable to infer That the Command of God is no less satisfied with that kind of Labour than it is by the sweat of our face or working with our hands Forasmuch secondly as even by God's appointment there are Men of High Degree as well as Low and such
with it For the reconciling of which two together and thereby the discovering yet more fully the nature of Contentment I shall desire it may be considered first that inasmuch as Contentedness is nothing else than an Acquiescency in the present nothing hinders but a man may be at the same time contented with the present and yet desire an enlargement for the future because that Acquiescency and Desire have respect to different times which takes away all contradiction between them The contented man of whom we speak doth indeed desire an enlargement of his condition for the future he prays to God for it and is not wanting in his endeavours to procure it but in the mean time he quiets himself with what he hath and repines not in the least at the smalness of it But because the present time in strictness of Speech reacherh no farther than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or present moment within which to confine the duty of Contentment were to pen it up in a narrower room than I conceive Christianity and Nature intended it and because the same Will of God which obligeth us to be content with the portion of the present minute will equally oblige us to continue our Contentment to the next if God be pleased to continue the other for these Reasons I say as I deem it but just to understand by the present time all that time of what continuance soever to which God shall be pleased to annex the same humble Fortune so I conceive it alike necessary to shew that those Desires and Endeavours which we spake of are no way inconsistent with that acquiescency which is commensurate to it Now that so they are not or at least need not to be will appear if these two Conditions be admitted which no contented Man either did or can refuse 1. That whilst the Will of God is yet unknown he submit his Desires to it and resolve to abide by the determination of it And 2. That he lay aside all Desires of an enlargement after it shall appear to him that it is the Will of God he should abide in that mean condition wherein he is For acquiescency not so much importing an exclusion of our Desires as the quieting of them and bringing them into subjection to the Will of the Divine Majesty which as I shall afterwards shew is the principal ground of Contentment he may very well be said to acquiesce in his present Fortune who submits his Desires to the Will of God whilst it is yet uncertain and causeth them to cease utterly where that Will of God is made known The only difficulty in my opinion which though of no concernment as to the present Dispute to resolve is yet to the understanding of the nature of Contentment the only difficulty I say in my opinion is how to come to understand whether it be the Will of God we should abide in that condition we are in Now though nothing herein can certainly be defined without a Revelation from Heaven partly because the Scripture which is one way of knowing Gods Will is silent in this particular and partly because his Providence which is the only one beside is a mysterious Book and not very easie to be unriddled yet I think we may probably conjecture it to be his Will that we should so abide or at least that we should do so till we have a very fair invitation from his Providence to stir if after many and various attempts to amend our condition we do yet prove unsuccessful in it It being not lightly to be thought especially where our Desires are moderate and Attempts honest that God by whose Providence they are frustrated would so often do so if it were not his Will we should at least for some time abide in the condition we are in The result of the Premises is this The contented Man as such acquiesceth in his present Fortune and is willing because it is God's Will to be what he is He is moreover as willing to continue so to be so long as it shall please God to have him so In conformity whereto though he do desire and it may be endeavour an amendment yet as he doth not do so even when the Will of God is uncertain without a submission of his Will to God's and a resolvedness to acquiesce in the determination of it so those Desires and Endeavours of his cease altogether where it either certainly or probably appears to him to be the Will of God that he should abide in that condition wherein he is I say nothing at all at present of the entertaining of immoderate or anxious Desires or using any unlawful means to compass them these being so apparently inconsistent with that acquiescency of mind whereof we speak and that Will of God which I shall afterwards shew to be the ground of it that it may suffice to have mentioned them without either Proof or Explication For how can he be said to acquiesce in his present Portion and much more in the Will of God concerning it whose mind is not only like the troubled Sea in that it cannot rest but is ever casting out mire and dirt both in its speeches and actions neither knowing how to express it self without murmuring and complaining nor to prosecute the Object of its Desires without violent or fraudulent actions which that God in whose Will they ought to acquiesce hath distinctly and severely forbidden From that acquiescency wherein we have said contentedness to consist pass we to that in which it obligeth us to acquiesce which I have said to be that Portion of outward things we are possessed of Where again we are to consider it as it imports the presence of some portion of outward things and as it imports that portion which we have as well low as high to be equally the Object of it Now though to begin with the first it be generally necessary to Contentment that a Man be furnished with such things as are ordinarily necessary for his support and particularly with Food and Rayment upon which account I have shewn it * See Explic. of the Eighth Com. Part 3. to be lawful in the case of extreme necessity to withdraw so much from other Men as will serve to supply it yet I must also add that we both may and ought to be content even when we are without those necessary things where it appears to be Gods Will that so we should be because though Food and Rayment be generally necessary to Contentment yet they are not absolutely nor universally such Man as our Saviour argues out of the Law living not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God The only difficulty is how we may discover that Will of God which I suppose may be these two ways 1. When he giveth us any assurance of an extraordinary support and 2. When he placeth us in such a condition as we cannot compass an ordinary one After either of