wherein it must originally reside and also by which it must be exercised must be determined this once done it presently appears who are subject unto this power and in what degree The partyes who are trusted with the exercise of this supreme and publick power make Lawes constitute Officers for peace and warr and execute the Lawes manage publique businesse and affairs and use all meanes to promote the publique good procure the peace and safety of the Whole and defend the Body from violence without and protect the just from injuries within The Subjects severally and jointly submit themselves and promise fealty and obedience There be many common-wealths and they differ one from another in the manner of their constitution and administration If the power be disposed in one it is called a Monarchy which may be Despotical when it 's absolute and unlimited in one person or Regal when that one is trusted with the administration and the executive power If the power be absolute in some few it 's called an Aristocrasy and so it is if they be onely trusted If it abide in the whole body yet wisely disposed it may be called a free State if so that the basest as well as the best have power of administration especially in highest businesse it 's a Democrasy Tyranny Oligarchy Ochlocrasy are corruptions of these constitutions In a common-wealth thus constituted we have higher powers § XIV and the duty of Subjects is to be subject loyall faithfull and acknowledg them as their Governours under God for the matters of this life For every soul must be subject or submit unto the higher powers which are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. And they must submit themselves to every ordinance of man that is to the government of man over man and the higher powers for the Lords sake Whether it be to the King that is for those times the Emperour as supreme Or unto Governours that is Officers as unto them that are sent that is commissioned by him for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that do well For this is the end of all civill government as ordained of God 1 Pet. 2. 13. 14. This subjection differs from that of Wives to Husbands Children to Parents Servants to Masters for it 's an higher and publick power of the supreme Governours of a State as such And they must be subject not onely for fear but for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. This fear is not only that of Reverence which is the unto them in respect of their honour and dignity but it 's a featr of violating the Lawes or rebelling against the power because the higher powers do not bear the sword in vain They must obey their just Lawes For Titus must put in mind the Christians of Creet to be subject to principallityes and Powers to obey Magistrates and to be ready to do every good work Tit. 3. 1. Yet this obedience unto man is limited and is so farr due as it is agreeable to the Lawes of God They must also pay Tribute Custome and whatsoever Charge shall be justly imposed For seeing they watch over us and take care of the Whole and we enjoy the benefit of their care prudence and pains it 's fit we should maintaine them and be willing to erogate so much as shall be needfull for the preservation of the State For the publick good and safety is the good and safety of every private person They must also be willing and ready to assist their Governours with their persons states and lives for the safety of their Country And this many Princes included and required in their forms of fealty and allegiance And this Fealty if regular and rational is due first unto the State and then unto the Governours To the Kingdom first and then to the King Out of the words of the Apostle § XV 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. we may observe that goverours are supreme or subordinate and amongst the subordinate there be many degrees according to the severall degrees of power derived unto them for their severall imployments in the distinct and different acts of administration And subjection honour obedience are due unto these according to their measure of power and Authority This subjection and obedience unto the higher powers and Magistrates is limitted not onely by the Lawes of God but the constitution of every severall State These Officers are for peace of Warr by Sea or Land and may command those under them and they must be faithfull and obedient I will not in this place enlarge and declare the duties of souldiers nor debate the Question Whether a souldier in pay and yet in Quarters in his own country when there is no visible Enemy be exempt from the power of the civill Magistrate or no It 's certain that the power of Admirals and Captaines by Sea and Generals and Commanders by Land respect souldiers properly as souldiers and is regulated by Martiall Lawes which are different from the civill Lawes for the administration of Justice in a time or place of peace The duties of souldiers as such are to be faithfull and obedient to their Commanders vigilant in their places resolute in service orderly and quiet in their Quarters contented with their pay The Sins of military men except they be kept in order by severe discipline are to be cowards mutinous treacherous Revolters and likewise to plunder murther commit Rapes and many other kind of Villanies Commanders should be faithfull valiant prudent skilfull in Martiall affaires carefull of their Souldiers The Dutyes of higher powers are § XVI to protect their Subjects make good and wholesome Lawes constitute able and just Officers administer Justice and execute the Laws to have a care of provide for the good education of the people in trade learning husbandry to regulate trade and commerce to found Schools Colledges Universityes Corporations and by all lawfull meanes procure and promote the peace safety welfare and prosperity of the People They should be Fathers and such as tender the good of their Subjects as of their Children As they are called gods and are in God's place so in the administration and ordering of their severall Dominions they should be like God in Counsell Wisdome and Integrity And happy are the people to whom God shall vouchsafe such Governours For it is a great mercy Which if any people shall enjoy their duty is to blesse God for them pray for their happinesse and honour them according to their deserts And so much the rather should we do this because it 's so heavy a Judgment and cruell curse to be subjected and exposed to the pride folly oppression Tyranny of wicked Rulers It 's a sad condition when those who hate us rule over us The Sins of Subjects are § XVII secret Treason and Conspiracy open Rebellion Sedition disobedience to the Lawes contempt of the Power and Persons of their Princes murmuring and complaining of Oppression when there is no cause falsely traducing
when we are once in Christ and the Spirit is derived from him to us in him to abide as a constant Spring of Regeneration at the first is that I call Regeneration as a Branch of Justification and as neither before nor after the first judgment of justification 3 This Sanctification active not being perfect in respect of the Subject is continued For we being in Christ as Branches in the Vine derive continual Sap or sanctifying Vigour from him that we may bring forth Fruit. Christ communicating this continually unto us by his Spirit may be said to continue to sanctifie us From all this you may understand a three-fold Sanctification 1 Preparing 2 Initiating us prepared 3 Continued to consummate us For the First Work of the Spirit is to prepare us and ingrast us into CHRIST The Second Is to regenerate and renew us once in CHRIST at the first The Third Is a continuance of the Second to perfect us In the first sense it seems to be taken 2 Thes. 2. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 2. In the second sense Joh. 15. 1 2 3 c. Rom. 6. 4 5 c. 1 Cor. 6. 11. In the third sense 1 Thes. 5. 23. Yet this must be known that Regeneration Sanctification Renovation are taken for the same several times and Sanctification in Scripture is taken for Justification and that we call Sanctification too as Ephes. 5. 26. Heb. 9. 15. 10. 10 14. 13. 12. and many other places Sometimes it 's taken for that purity we acquire by the Works of Sanctification and the constant practise of Righteousness as Rom. 6. 19 22. As for Sanctification Passive it 's easily understood by the Active This Sanctification differs from that of Adam § IX and the Blessed Angels for this finds us unsanctified corrupted unclean perverse and blind Therefore it 's called Regeneration and Renovation and Cleansing the other did not find them such What this doth at first it continues to do it makes us at the first Righteous and holy and imprints God's Image upon us and continued it continues us such and makes us more and more holy And the more we exercise this Active Power the more we are sanctified according to that Promise To him that hath that is useth and exerciseth it shall be given that is more shall be given It 's a Reward given at the first and it 's a Reward continued enabling us to perform Duty that the Reward may be greater and greater For the effect of it is to cause us to walk in God's Statutes and the more our obedience is improved the more our comfort is increased because our estate of Justification and our Title to Eternall Glory is thereby the more evident There is an ablute necessity of the continuance thereof For if God desert us but a moment there presently follows a Relapse The subject of it is the whole man Soul and Body the Soul chiefly and primarily the Body secondarily In the Soul it enlightneth the Understanding more and more and dispelleth the Mists of Ignorance and Errour and rect fies the Heart declining it from sin inclining it to Righteousnesse It fixeth it upon the right Object Christ and Eternal Glory in Him and continues to strengthen and incite us to the performance of Obedience and the practise of those Duties whereby Eternall Life is obtained All the Motions and Inclinations and Dispositions and those we call Affections are by it set in a right order especially the Affections of Love and Hatred which principally move and sway the Soul It limits and directs the Sensitive Appetite and makes the Body and the Members thereof Instruments of Righteousness to Holiness Yet this Sanctification was neither given to expiate sin past nor merit life to come but to prevent sin and bring forth the fruits of Righteousness In respect of Sin and Corruption yet inherent it 's called Mortification in respect of righteousnesse this heavenly active power is called Vivification And by vertue of Christ's death it destroies Sin and by vertue of Christ's Resurrection it quickens us to an heavenly life Yet this Mortification and Vivification are not properly integrall Parts but onely Adjuncts of this Sanctification For take away Corruption wholly there will be no Mortification because there remains nothing to be mortified Because this regenerate power is not consummated at the first § X therefore it will meet with continuall opposition from Corruption within and the Devill and the World without For in every regenerate man there is in this life Flesh and Spirit Corruption and Grace and these two being contrary one unto another have continuall conflicts both habituall and actuall Yet Grace and the Spirit is predominate otherwise Regeneration could not be Regeneration These are Jacob and Esau continually striving in the Bowels and Womb of our Souls The Assistants to the Flesh are the Devill and the World The Assistants of Grace are the Father Son and Holy Ghost the blessed Angels Ministers and sanctified Christians For as God useth the Ministery and Discipline of the Church in the declaring outwardly with the Word the Sentence of Absolution so he useth them to stir up continually to holy Duties to restrain Sin to strengthen us and promote our Sanctification And I cannot see but the blessed Angels should have as much power to help us as the Devill to hurt us For they are ministring Spirits not onely for temporall Safety but spirituall Assistance And from this opposition ariseth that spirituall Warr so much mentioned in Scripture in respect of which all spirituall and heavenly Vertues are called Armour the Armour of God and the more we exercise them with Prayer and Watchfullnesse the more and the faster we gird them upon us the stronger and safer we are Some of these though onely the principall are named Ephes. 6. 11 12 13. c. 1 Thes. 5. 8. Yet all are understood for Sanctification inclines to Obedience and fenceth us against all Sin The event of this War is either intermediate § XI or finall The intermediate from the first Regeneration is often and for the most part Victory yet not without many wounds hurts foils falls and the same sometimes very grievous And though Grace in us be habitually predominant yet actually it is not alwayes so We may neglect our watch be too carelesse and then we suffer Yet the weaker by Humility Prayer Watchfulnesse may stand when the stronger fall And the Victory doth not depend so much upon the eminent degrees of gifts and graces in us as upon divine Assistance from without The more we fight according to the rules of this war the stronger we are by God's Assistance and our Saviours intercession who prayed that Peter's faith and so ours though fearfully sometimes shaken might not fail This war is to be waged not onely by strength but policy and holy prudence whereby we foresee dangers to prevent them and take all opportunities and advantages for our safety and our Enemies ruine Because our weaknesse
and clearly inform man that the World was not from everlasting but had beginning and that God did create it and so became the universal and supream Lord of Heaven and Earth by the Work of six days The seventh day wherein he rested from his work was a fit time for man's rest that on that day man might contemplate the glorious Works of God acknowledge God to be the Creatour and every Sabbath say Thou art worthy Oh Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 11. Besides the example of God's labour rest and Sanctification He knew that six days in the week was a fit proportion of time for man's secular works and one in seven for Diviner Employments And this is given the reason why God sanctified the seventh day and blessed it because that after in six days He had created Heaven and Earth He rested the 7th day And howsoever this great Work of Creation is never to be forgotten by Man yet because to sinful man the Work of Redemption is a greater blessing Therefore the first day of the Week being the day of Christ's Resurrection and the Restauration of Mankind is more to be observed and remembred The Lord said unto Judah Behold the days come when it shall be no more said The Lord liveth which brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Aegypt But the Lord liveth that brought the Children of Israel from the Land of the North c. Jer. 16. 14 15. So it may be said to us Christians since the time of Christ's glorification That it shall be no more said the Lord liveth that in six days made Heaven and Earth and rested the 7th day But the Lord liveth who after His Death and cruel Passion is risen again and hath redeemed sinful man from Hell and Eternal Death For if two great Blessings be received one after the other the latter and the greater is more to be remembred and the time thereof rather to be observed Therefore we do not observe the 7th day wherein God rested from the Work of Creation but the first day wherin Christ rose again and rested from His Work of Humiliation And though therein we do not forget the Work of Creation yet we rather remember the Work of Redemption and glorifie our God for the same From this Explication of the Words of God we may understand § XII what is here commanded and what is here forbidden The things commanded are two 1. Rest For we must remember a Sabbath and in the same we must do no manner of work 2. Sanctification For we must remember the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it Rest is two-fold 1. Of the Body 2. Of the Mind and in both these we must rest 1. The Body must rest from secular works which hinder and disturb us in the service of our God 2. The Soul must cease from such Thoughts Cares Meditations and Affections which as much distract us in the Worship of our God as labours of the Body do Again bodily works of man as man endued with understanding cannot be done without the Soul attending directing and moving it much less can Heavenly Duties be performed without the Soul which in the time of these Services must be drawn off from the World and sixed upon far more excellent Objects And because many Games and Sports which are accounted Recreations do as much toyl the Body and distract and take up the Soul as secular Works do therefore we must needs judge them to be contrary to the Rest here commanded And our very words of Conference and Discourse upon this time may be such as are neither consistent with the Rest nor the Sanctification required in this Precept Yet this Rest is not to be so strictly taken as though all kind of Work and Bodily Labour were unlawful on this day Therefore 1. Works of Necessity may be done this day and which those are the Light of Reason is sufficient to determine as to save Man or Beast in danger to receive harm or pâ—rish if not that day relieved Therefore the very Pharisees who were so precise in the observation of the outward Rest could not deny unto our Saviour but that upon the Sabbath it was lawful to lift a Beast out of a Pit or Ditch into which it was then fallen And upon the same ground it cannot be unlawful on that day to fight and defend our selves against an Enemy 2. Works which tend to the refreshment and ordinary preservation of Man and Beast cannot be unlawful Therefore on this day we cloath our selves and take our ordinary food and repast and a Beast may be watered and fed this day as well as others 3. Works which tend unto the Sanctification of the Day are not prohibited For we may travail unto and return from the places of publick Assemblies for Prayer Reading Preaching and other Divine Services The Priests under the Law did kill their Sacrifices and so prophaned the Sabbath and were blameless Math. 12. 5. And it was thought no prophanation to circumcise an Infant upon that day Joh. 7. 23. Of this nature is the toyl and labour of the Ministers in their several Congregations 4. Neither is any work of mercy as visiting the Sick administring Physick relieving the Poor and such like contrary to this Rest. And the reason of all this is because the Sabbath is for man and not man for the Sabbath and therein God intended our good not our hurt The principal thing required is the sincere Worship of God from an heart seriously bent and inclined thereunto nor the performance of some outward piece of service in such a precise nick of time Yet we must take care always to have a sanctified heart and a desire to sanctifie the same and what we lose one time we must endeavour to recompence at another The second Duty here commanded § XIII is Sanctification of the Day and this is the principal Duty â—o which Rest is subordinate For as there can be no Sanctification without Rest so there can be no Rest acceptable to God but that which tends to Sanctification An Holy Rest is the thing here commanded It must be the Rest of a Man and not of a Beast and the Rest of an Holy Man as Holy Therefore this Commandement presupposeth Man to be habitually sanctified For an unsanctified man cannot sanctifie a Sabbath as God requires it to be sanctified This Sanctification consists in the performance of Holy Duties in the Worship of God The Object of this Worship must be God alone The parts of the Worship must be such as He hath instituted and the acts of Worship must be performed by persons who are sanctified and in an holy manner And to consecrate this 7th Day to these Holy Services is the very thing here prescribed Therefore to this Sanctification is required 1. A knowledge of the day that it 's determined by God 2. A
must fly to the pit Let no man stay him Prov. 28. 17. He that endeavours to save a bloody person must needs be guilty of blood himself Some make bloody lawes to take away most unjustly the lives of their innocent Subjects Some wrest the lawes just in themselves and by unjust Judgement condemn the guiltlesse to death and this is done in time of peace All such as wage unjust wars or manage just wars cruelly and unjustly are great transgressours Such also are all seditious and tumultuous persons and also the Authours of civil Wars and enemies to the administration of justice Some are too remisse in just wars to revenge that blood which was cruelly and causelesly shed by the enemy This was the sin of King Saul in that he destroyed not the Amalekites from under Heaven Besides the former differences § VI and degrees of this sin there be others For even of Wilfull Murders those are most heynous 1. Which are committed out of pure malice or a contempt of the precious life of man Some are so bloody as they make no more account of the life of man then of a beast nor so much Others are so cruel as that they delight in the torment which others suffer and therefore take away the lives of others so as to put them to lingring and extreame paine 2. To Murder Father Mother Children as the Canaanites and after some cursed Israelites did sacrifice their Children to the Devil is most unnaturall grievous and abominable 3. To Murder Magistrates Judges publick Officers and especially Kings and Princes upon whom the publick peace and safety doth much depend is a far more heynous transgression then to slay a private person 4. To Murder innocent persons and such as have done no wrong nor given any cause is far more then to Murder injurious and abusive provoking persons 5. The blood of Abel and the Saints and faithfull Servants of God do cry most loud because the cursed Caines and Perfecutours slay them because their works were good and their own evill and out of an hatred of the power of Godlinesse in them For the more of God is in them the more they hate them The most heynous Murther in respect of the person the injustice the malice the reproach was the crucifying of Christ the Son of God 'T is difficult § VII if not impossible to reckon up all kinds and different ways of murther For the life of man is exposed to a thousand dangers and is easily taken away and the malice of the Devil that old murtherer and of bloudy men is very great So that it 's the great mercy of God that man lives half his days or that any dyeth a natural death And therefore our duty is to be thankful to our God as for other mercies so for the continuance and preservation of our life And every day should we commit our selves into his hands prepare for death set our soules in order desire his protection and the guardance of his Blessed Angels And in this place we might take occasion to speak of self-murther which is certainly unlawful For we have not the absolute propriety but the use of our lives given us of God to use and to make an account to him of the same A man may be unmerciful and unjust unto himself both in respect of life and other things Unto all the former sorts of murther may be added all unjust Punishments and especially such as grant life yet upon such tearms that it is worse then Death as when innocent persons are condemned to cruel Servitude or to the Gallies or to Banishment or the Mines By what hath been said we may in some measure understand what God hath forbidden The Preceptive § VIII and Affirmative part is implied and may be easily understood by the former which is Negative For as the Duty is so our care must be to preserve the life of our Neighbour as our own which is dear and pretious to us To this end 1. We must be humble meek patient peaceable placable and ready to forgive and be reconciled upon reasonable tearms unto our Enemies 2. We must be pittiful kind liberal and ready to give or do what shall be necessary for the preservation of the lives of others and not suffer them through out own default to perish 3. We must be bold resolute couragious and ready to hazard our goods credit liberty and sometimes our own lives to save innocent persons and especially the servants of God and rescue them out of the hands and jaws of wicked and cruel men Open thy mouth saith God by the Wise-woman for the Dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction Prov. 31. 8. 4. We must in a just War be willing to lay down our lives for our Countrey that by the Death of few many may be preserved 5. As our hearts must be well affected so our words must be words of meekness patience love humility peace kindness comfort And as we must avoid the causes and occasions of doing hurt so all our inward affections outward carriage words deeds must be so ordered as shall most tend to the safety of the life of others Neither must our Prayers and Endeavours be wanting to prevent the death of innocent persons Thus Reuben sought to save the life of his Brother Joseph Esther adventured her life to prevent the ruine of her people Esth. 4. 11 12 c. Thus Ebedmeleck delivered the Prophet out of the Dungeon Jer. 38. 7. 8. And God remembred the Work of Mercy to reward it Jerem. 39. 15 16. Besides all this we must not conceal but discover and that betimes all Plots Designs Intentions of Murther known unto us do what we can to prevent the effusion of innocent bloud severely and carefully prosecute all Bloudy Murtherers And herein all Judges Magistrates Higher-Powers who are trusted with the Sword must by the Sword cut off bloudy men and not suffer them to live The Reasons why we should abhor § IX and take heed of this sinne are many For 1. The life of man is precious and the greatest and chiefest Earthly Treasure man can have it 's the best thing under Heaven and in it self the greatest blessing of God in this World 2. It was given of God to serve him and seek a better and more glorious life in the World to come To take it away before the great work be done and Man hath made his peace with God and secured his Title to Heavens Kingdom is a most horrid crime and tends to the destruction of Soul and Body at once and may be a privation and prevention of Eternal Life to be enjoyed in Heaven Therefore it 's no wonder God doth so much detest it And many are so malicious and revengeful as that if it were in their power they would destroy and punish both Body and Soul in Hell fire 'T is reported of a bloudy man of Millain in Italy that when he had suddainly surprized one
kind and such as beaâ— Analogie or have Agreement with it are there by a Synechdoche forbidden Where the effect and the end there the causes and meanes are Prohibited And where the Principall there the Accessory are condemned Where the act or outward fact there the thoughts affections inclinations desires purposes gestures Words are determined to be unlawfull According to these rules besides Adultery many other sins which have some affinity and agreement therewith are here forbidden as fornication incest whoredome rapes deflowring of Virgins Sodomy and Bestiality which two lusts are not to be named but with detestation And all lasciviousnesse uncleannesse and abuse of the body in this kind The reason hereof is because God never gave any â—iberty to use their bodies in this kind out of Marriage For so soon as he had created man and given him a power and blessing of propagation and multiplication He brings the Woman to the Man gives her in marriage unto him before they had any warrant to have carnall knowledge one of another In this respect simple fornication as they term it between single Persons and the keeping of Concubins are unlawfull According to the second Rule of cause and effect because intemperance and excesse in eating § V drinking and pampering of the body and idlenesse are causes as of other sins so of these of uncleannesse therefore in that respect but no otherwise they are prohibited Fulnesse of bread and abundance of Idlenesse were two of the great iniquities of Sodom one of the filthiest and leudest places in the World Ezek. 16. 49. Yet intemperance luxury and excess in bodily pleasures may be reduced to this Commandement understood in a latitude as prohibiting all excessive and inordinate enjoyment of worldly and bodily pleasures And the Jews being as sed horses in the morning neighed after their neighbours wives Jer. 5. 8. Lewd company is also another cause Dinah Jacob's Daughter wanders and gads abroad to see the Daughters of the Land falls into lewd company and is deflowred For which sin the City of Shechem is destroyed To gaze unadvisedly upon beauties may kindle the flames of lust Immodest and wanton Apparrell Carriage Gestures Words filthy Communication Lewd Pictures filthy books too much familiarity of Men with Women or Women with Men who have not the gift of continency and converse with them without any calling especially with the temptations of the Devil who will take all advantages are dangerous Not to reckon up particulars which are many this we must know for certain that whatsoever is a cause or occasion of this sin of uncleannesse and gives advantage or opportunity to Sathan is forbidden as such in this place Yet the beginning of this sin as of all other is in the heart for as out of it evil thoughts and murders so adultery and fornication issue Mat. 15. 19. For whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart Mat. 5. 28. Till temptations come into the heart we are safe But when the heart begins to entertain unclean suggestions conceive and continue unclean thoughts desire unclean pleasures the devil hath insinuated himself and is entered already But if we yeild consent resolve to fulfill our lusts and deliberate how to accomplish our filthy design then he is fortified and will hardly be forced out we become his captives and slaves the sin is conceived and formed in us And this deliberate consent and resolution is the principal part of this sin and most properly contracts the guilt For where there is Reluctancy within and strong temptation without or a suddain surprizall the sin is not so heynous The inward disposition and willing inclination of the heart doth most offend God the outward act and the use of meanes to accomplish our desires do the greatest hurt to man Yet as there are degrees of these sins within so there be also without and that not onely in respect of the severall kinds of filthinesse for some are more abominable then other in their own nature some by complication because in one act Adultery and Incest may concurre but also in respect of the act and habit For the sins of adultery and murder were not habituall in David his constant temper was far different though some make a Constant practise of this sin Besides all these wayes of contracting guilt in this particular some are guilty though not as Principalls yet as Accessory For many are no better then Bawdes and Panders by being subservient and officious unto other in this sin Thus Jonadab contrives a meanes and gives advice to Amon how be might fulfill his lust upon his Sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13. 5. Thus far the negative part whereby we understand what sins are here forbidden and also how hard a thing it is to be pure and innocent from all uncleannesse for few are found who are not in some measure polluted For the causes and occasions are many and the temptations great and our frailty much and we have continuall need of Gods gracious assistance which without our own constant Vigilancy we cannot expect As for Polygamy and the severall cases of conscience and the distance of degrees in consanguinity and affinity to be observed to avoid incest I leave them to Casuists The affirmative part here implied § VI and often expressed in other places of Scripture is the Precept of Chastity for he that forbids impurity commands Chastity which is not a vertue as it ariseth from the constitution of the body or from some naturall or artificiall causes but as it s rooted in the heart and is Regulated by the Word of God For as the sin of uncleannesse is not in the outward Act of carnal knowledge which ordered according to Gods institution and Law is not only lawfull but a meanes ordained by God to propagate mankind and to continue a Church unto the end of the World So likewise Chastity is not the forbearance of the outward act but a right and constant temper of the heart hating the sin of uncleanness and preserving both Body and Mind pure in free obedience unto God And as the proper and principal subject both of all other also of this verâ—ue is the will So all this will avoids all causes and occasions of the sin here forbidden The inward thoughts desires resolutions deliberations are pure the words gestures apparrell and outward acts are modest and sober so that by a chast soul the Vessel and body is kept in Sanctification and honour And this is the duty here commanded But because there are many meanes to preserve Chastity these therefore ought to be used The fear of God which is the beginning of Wisdome and a Principle-generall of all vertues doth first dispose the soul to this particular duty and reigning in the soul commands all temptations to be resisted evil company and filthy persons to be avoided good and chast Society to be observed prayer frequent prayer against this sin to be
of these are of any great force to such as are ignorant of them and know them onely upon the Tradition of others Neither is Universall Tradition the ordinary way whereby men are Converted For most who do believe to salvation hear onely one or a few teachers and the same not immediatly infallible and inspired and by their Doctrine contained in these Scriptures and the power of the Spirit attain to a Divine and saving faith For faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God preached immediatly unto them For so the place is to be understood Rom. 10. 17. And no man can prove that the immediate Proposer of saving truth should be infallible but that the Doctrine taught be infallibly true No rationall man can rationally reject any Doctrine much lesse this except he have some reason for it but there can be no reason of any moment ever alleaged against this Doctrine or any particular thereof rightly understood It seemes strange to me that any Christians especially such as do confesse the holy Scriptures in themselves to be Divine should make a question whether they can be believed to be the word of God any other wayes but by the Tradition of the Church It is indeed some advantage to the Bishop of Rome and his Associates and Vassals to make men believe that their faith and belief of the Divinity of the Scriptures depends upon the Tradition of the Church in their Sense For when all is well examined they understand by Church themselves and their own present Church Yet they cannot well agree amongst themselves what this present Church should be Whether the Pope in his Chair alone as the Visible head or he with a general Council Yet this Church is no wayes universall except so far as she professeth the universall faith as some of their Cardinalls have observed Neither is she any more infallible then other Churches be Yet men will believe that she is the Universall Church infallible and the onely infallible expounder and proposer of the Scriptures and can detain them and Seal them up in an unknown Language so as that the Vulgar shall neither read them nor hear them in a Language understood by them she will have some advantage For by this meanes the people are kept in ignorance and unity and so their unwritten Traditions Doctrines and Practises so directly contrary to expresse Scripture shall not be question'd but received by an implicit Faith This argument of Tradition well examined cannot advantage them of Rome nay it 's a Plain Disadvantage For their Tradition doth prove a Chimera and Some Protestant writers ascribe too much unto it and also speak too loosly and at random of it in this point especially But to return unto those ordinary teachers § XIII and especially the Ministers of the New-Testament Let us examine 1. How they acquire their knowledge 2. How they Communicate it to others 3. How the People must receive it Communicated 4. What God hath promised to do if both Minister and People perform their duty 1. They acquire their knowledge by such meanes which God hath given and ordained for that end They do not receive it by immediate inspiration as the holy Prophets and Apostles did God gives them naturall parts and endowments in the giving of them being and some of them from their Mothers womb are designed for this work But let their naturall parts and endowments be never so excellent yet they must at first be taught and instructed both in the Arts and Languages especially the originalls and after some foundation is layd they may much improve themselves by the Learned works of others their own industry Prayer and Gods blessing Lexicons Concordances Translations are great helps for the attayning the knowledge of the Originall tongues Expositions Commentaries Systems Treatises do conduce much for the understanding the matter of the Scriptures God hath done much for us in this kind but our neglect is great and many have not the benefit of good education and direction at the first And there is a great disparity between Ministers of the higher and lower forms yet no man is fit for this calling who is not furnished with so much knowledge and such a measure of utterance as to be able to declare to others the whole Counsell of God and â—each them all things necessary to Salvation Yet many will take upon them to teach before they have well Learned and will be Masters before they have bin Scollers And the most insufficient will pretend the Spirit to cloak their ignorance After these ordinary teachers have once stored up a treasure they consecrate themselves to Christ and engage to make it their work to do him service in this kind Being rightly qualified § XIV sent and called they begin to teach others and take the charge upon them yet so as that they may be probationers and assistants at the first They instruct others either by Learned Books or treatises of piety or by word of mouth and that severall wayes as by Catechisms Expositions Sermons and other ways The first work is to Catechize the Ignorant and teach them the first principles of the Gospel To this purpose they have our Saviours Creed of faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Commandements of the Moral Law contracted into the Love of God and our Neighbour The Lord's Prayer as we use to call it and the Doctrine of the Sacraments And these few understand yet the ignorant and unlearned and Children should know and that not onely the words but the true and Genuine sense according to their Capacity This though the foundation is too much neglected By Expositions they acquaint the people with the occasion Scope Method and Meaning of severall parts and portions of the Scripture By Sermons they explain and apply some Text of Scripture proposing out of the same some Divine axiom which once unâ—olded and made plain they apply by way of Instruction in the truth Confutation of errour Reproof of the guilty Consolation of the dejected stirring up to duty by exhortation restrayning from sin by Dehortation Their Doctrine should be the Pure word of God made plain dispensed wisely delivered out of an heart sincerely desiring and intending the Salvation of the People and ought to be confirmed by the Teacher's example and the Principall matter must be the Mysteries of Gods Kingdom § XV This is the duty of Teachers which performed by them God exâ—pects also certain Performances from the Persons taught which neglected the word of God cannot enter into the immortal-immortal-soul so as to work effectually and be manifested to be the Word of God indeed For 1. The heart of man must be prepared and that 1. With an high conceit of the Doctrine of the Scriptures taught that it is the word of God revealed from Heaven out of great love and mercy to man that it highly and very much concerns him upon the knowledge and observance whereof depends his eternal estate in the
presupposeth knowledge of the promise and a serious consideration 1. That it's God who promiseth 2. That the thing promised is everlasting life and all things necessarily conducing thereunto 3. The termes upon which it is to be obtayned and enjoyed And the principal is sincerely to submit under the Power and wholly rely upon the mercy of God Redeemer by Christ for remission of sin and eternall Salvation which Christ hath merited and God will give This Remission and eternall life are promised for Christs sake and the Promise it self is made for and in the consideration of his death and these things as promised are a mighty motive and powerfully work upon the heart of man to incline it to submission and if ever they prevayle this submission will follow The promise binds God gives hope moves mans heart and presents unto the soul the unspeakable benefit to follow upon the Performance of the duty and that certainly without any doubt This submission presupposeth certain dutyes antecedent and includes virtually all Particular dutyes following This word as written in a book § VIII or uttered outwardly by man or Angel may represent unto sinfull man both what he must do and what God upon his performance will give and by the senses be conveyed to the soul of man and cause him to understand and approve of the justice of the duty and excellency of the benefit promised and may incline man to some moral submission Yet such is the blindnesse of mans understanding in respect of these heavenly mysteryes and perversenesse and depravation of the will that without some power to pâ—riâ—ie and rectifie the soul this word of calling will prove insufficient Both this blindnesse and depravation are the greater to such as are at age by reason of false notions and errours and the habits of sin Therefore with the word is required the Spirit and divine power not onely to convey the word close unto the soul but also to prepare qualifie and fit it for the reception and entertainment of the Word This is evident by the experience of all times For the very words of our Saviour Christ who spake as never man spake and confirmed his Doctrin not only by his holy life but by such works as never man did or could do proved not effectuall upon the greatest part of his hearers Therefore said he No man can come unto me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. To draw us is a work of power not a meere outward Word or Writing In the new Covenant God doth promise to put his lawes in our minds and write them in our hearts And this is said to be done by putting his Spirit within us and so causing us to walk in his Statutes and keep his judgments to do them Ezek. 36. 27. And before this can be effected he must take away our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh One effect of this Spirit is generally granted to be illumination another to be sanctification of the heart This illumination may not be onely a restoring of a spirituall sight and viâ—ve power but also a more clear representation of the things spoken in the Word and the same more immediate and in an higher light This cannot be done except it free the soul from false notions and errours in matters of Religion This sanctification of the heart doth certainly subdue if not wholly take away predominant lusts and elevate and perfect the rationall appetite by giving and imparting a divine sense and Vigour whereby it more effectually doth relish heavenly things but reject and abhorr evil and sin I will not here dispute whether this Spirit be a distinct thing or power different from the Word of God as spoken immediately by himself to the soul of man or it be the very same No doubt the Word of God as the word of God is power For as it is said of Thunder naturally so its true of this Word spiritually The voyce of the Lord is powerfull the Voyce of the Lord is full of Majesty and it breaketh the Cedars and shaketh the Wildernesse So this word as his is powerfull and full of Majesty able to break the most stony and senslesse stubborn heart and shake it in pieces If it come close unto the soul it cleares the understanding dispels the mists and foggs of errour pierceth the inward parts and makes most lively and lasting impressions upon the same As I will not diâ—pute this point of difference between the word and this power so I will not perplex thâ— Reader nor amaze him with the controversie concerning the manner of conversion the resistibility or irresistibility of grace and the necessitation of the Will of man The manner of conversion is to us unsearchable both because we are ignorant of the nature of the immortall Soul and because much more are we ignorant of the manner of Gods working upon that immortall Spirit As for the resistibility or irresistibility of grace we know that the power of God is Almighty and cannot be resisted by any created strength if he please to exercise it to the full or in some high measure But if God give power to the creature or work by that created power given it may be resisted by a contrary created power And so grace or the power of conversion as a created thing in man may be so given as to be resisted by the Will of man And both the understanding of man will and doth either deny or doubt of divine truths represented to the soul and the Will will wrangle oppose and reject or not sincerely affect and submit unto the divine commands and promises And hence the many conflicts not onely in conversion but after we are converted As for necessitation of the will in this work of divine calling its certaine and granted of all that the illumination of the understanding may be necessary so farr as the soul in respect of the same is onely passive though in the apprehension and judgement concerning the truths represented by the Word it be active Besides God may give an active power to the Will and it may be passive in receiving of it and also necessitated to an act of complacency in generall so that it necessarily may approve by a generall approbation of the justice and equity of the command and the excellency of the good promised For even a wicked Medaea may truly say Video Meliora Proboque And a simple apprehension of a thing as good much morâ— an act of judgement may produce an act of approbation complacency and volition in generall and the good represented may be not onely approved as good in respect of the contrary evill but as better in respect of that good which is apprehended as lesse For it 's not possible to apprehend good as good and not approve it because as Bradwardine saith well in that respect it is not Objectum nolubile Yet notwithstanding this necessary and naturall act of complacency that act of the Will which Buridan
fittest of all others to represent that Priest Jesus Christ who had no Predecessour from whom he might derive his right nor successour because he live in Heaâ—ven a Priest for ever who alone hath right to receive tithes and homage 〈◊〉 his people and blesse them with spiritual and eternall blessings And the Throne and Scepter of David and his successours in his Kingdome did shadow him whose Throne is for ever and ever and his Scepter a right Scepter Faith and obedience to pure morals to be performed to God Redeemer by the power of the renewing Spirit were alwayes required by the Lawes of this Kingdom for the Lawes of Faith and obedience to pure Morals were alwayes the same Yet to these Lawes of Faith and obedience in pure morals were added from the beginning divers positive and ceremoniall precepts especially that of sacrifice And when the promise of the Messias to descend of 〈◊〉 was renewed of Abraham circumcision was instituted as a Seal of the righteousnesse of faith and a solemn right of engagement unto their Saviour and of his admiâ—sion of them into the Church upon their submission And this was by his command to be administred to Infants born in the Church When Israel came out of Aegypt the Passeover was ordained in remembrance of that great deliverance and did continue till that great Paâ—chal Lamb was slain by whose blood we are redeemed from the wrath of God Hell and everlasting death But after that the posterity of Abraham Isacc Jacob being multiplyed into a nation were reduced by God into a Common-Wealth both civil and Ecclesiasticall and presented before God appearing in a glorioâ—s and retrible manner upon Mount Sinai they entred into a solemn Covenant with their God He promiseth to be their God to protect and blesse them and they engage themselves solemnly to be his loyall subjects Upon this Foundation of a Kingdom once layd God proceeds as their Lord and Soverenig to give them morall judiciall ceremoniall Lawes In the morall he reduceth all morall dutyes to certain heads in a brief exact and excellent method in the Ceremonials he reduceth all former rites and ceremonials Instituted by himself into order and adds many more as he saw convenient for that people in that time In the judicials he dilivered them a perfect body of the civill Law These judicials were for direction in judgment and the adminstration of their civil state The moralls and ceremonials were for the Church and looked far higher The moralls tended to give them a more perfect knowledge of morall dutyes to be a rule of moral obedience to let them see their inability to keep it their impossibility to be justified by it to make them sensible of their sin and seek a Saviour who should deliver them from the curse and paenaltyes threatned by the Law and deserved by their disobedience The ceremonial was more mysticall 〈◊〉 therein God did prescribe a Tabernacle a Priest and a solemn 〈◊〉 of service The Tabernacle was a type of the Heavenly Temple the High Priest of the great eternal Universall High Priest and the Services especially that 〈◊〉 Sacrifice and most of all that yearly Sacrifice of expiation to be offered onely by the High Priest the 10th day of the 7th moneth with the blood whereof he ente 〈◊〉 into the most holy place was a type of that sacrifice of Christ by which he obtayned eternal Redemption Besides that these did signifie heavenly things they were given to this people to keep and preserve them pure from Heathenisâ— Idolatry and superstition to continue them seperate especially in Religion and Divine Worship from all other nations of the world Tâ—ey were for the multitude and charge of them a burthen and heavy yoke to keep them undeâ—â— and cause them to long for their Messias who should free them from those dark and mysterious shadows give them a clearer and more glorious light and a perfect liberty and ease from this servitude This time was the time of the infancy and minority of the Church for as the Heyr so long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutours and governours untill the time appointed of the Father So they when they were Children that is under age were in bondage under the elements of the world But when the fullnesse of that time that was appointed by God their Father was come God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law c. Wherefore after that they were no more Servants but sons Gal. 4. 1 2 3 4. 7. The time of the Gospel therefore is a time of emancipation and liberty not onely from the Ceremonials but from the curse and servitude of the law of works which that law of Moses did threaten and could no wayes free them from it For in that law there was no promise of the Spirit to enable them for to obey the morall law nor of pardon though they did transgresse it Neither was there any Sacrifice Priest or Service that could expiate sin and purge the conscience from dead Works For though their expiations lustrations and purifying ceremonyes might free them from legall pollutions yet from sin they could not This covenant was not the same with that of the seed of the Woman § II which should break the Serpents head nor with the same renued more explicitly unto Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed much lesse was it the same with the promises of the Gospel made in Christ exhibited And by the way we may take notice that the Apostle Gal. 3. puts a difference between the Promise the Law Faith The promise looks at Christ to come and was made more particularly to Abraham The Faith is the same with the Gospel and looks at Christ already come This law comes in between along time after the promise and a longer time before the Gospel And one end why it entred in between both was that sin might abound Rom. 5. 20. and it was added because of transgression till the seed that is Christ should come and before Faith that is Christ and the Gospel came they were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed So that the Law was their School-Master or Tutour unto Christ Gal. 3. 19. 23. 24. By all this we may easily understand that this Law and Covenant made onely with the Jew of whom Christ was to come considered as God intended it was neither against the Promise nor the Gospel but subordinate to both And though it was not the same with the Law of works given to Adam innocent yet it had much affinity with it For it 's said Do this and live and Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written and contained in it yet it promised no power to observe it nor pardon if not observed as was said before And the
opposition of these Enemies their cruelty the sufferings of God's People God frustrating of their Designs and confounding of their Counsels His Defence His mâ—ny and strange Deliverances the Valour of God's Saints and their glorious Victories mentioned in the Scripture would require a whole Volume and be an excellent Subject of some Sacred Pen. As this Administration refers to the Church the Subjects of God-Redeemer by Christ the Parts thereof are LAWES And JVDGMENT For as there be two Branches of this Supream Power § II the one of Legislation and the other of Jurisdiction so the Parts of this Administration which is the Exercise of this two-fold Power are Laws or rather giving of Laws or judging according to these Laws For these Laws are the Rules of this Administration of the Subjects Duty and of God's Judgment as the Judgment puts the Laws in execution according to the obedience or disobedience of the Subjects Concerning these Laws we may observe 1. That they bind the Conscience and the Immortal Souls to obedience and make men upon their disobedience liable not onely to Temporal but Spiritual and Eternal Punishments And in Judgment God takes cognizance of all causes even the most secret and spiritual and rewards and punisheth accordingly 2. The Church was never without these Laws since God made the first Promise of Christ. 3. They were made known and promulgate before the Exhibition of Christ by Angels and Men and by men either immediatly inspired as by extraordinary Prophets or by ordinary Prophets Priests and other Teachers The Decalogue which we call the Moral Law was once delivered by God in wonderful manner upon Mount Sinai And after Christ was exhibited they were promulgated by Christ His Apostles Prophets Evangelists and after that by ordinary Pastours and Teachers The Gospel began to be made known by our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. 2. 3. 4. They are delivered to us and reserved in the Church by Word and Writing 5. They are not bare Precepts Prohibitions Threatnings and Promises but have annexed many Admonitions Reproofs Exhortations Dehortations absolute Denunciations of Judgments and Examples The Examples are delivered in the Historical Part and they set before us the Obedience and Vertues of some and their Rewards with the Disobedience Apostacy Rebellions of others and their Punishments And all these are further illustrated by Parables and Similitudes and the same Commands and Prohibitions repeated often in several parts of the Scriptures The final and universal Judgment with many other particulars of this Administration we may read in the Prophetical Part. 6. All these are Laws of God-Redeemer who doth not expect from sinfull man perfect and perpetual Obedience nor promise Eternal Life upon that condition but upon the Faith of Christ's Satisfaction and Merit 7. They presuppose man sinful and destitute of all power to observe them Therefore they require obedience by way of Return to be performed by the power of the Spirit merited by Christ and restored in great mercy unto us And which is strange Obedience as Obedience and performed by us gives us no Title unto everlasting life For it 's derived by the Promise of God from the merit of Jesus Christ from and for which we receive our Faith and Obedience 8. Some of these Laws were Temporary and to stand in force onely for a time Some perpetual and after they were once given to continue unto the Worlds end These Laws must be considered 1. As a Rule of Man's Duty § III 2. Of God's Judgment In respect of the Commands they bind man to duty and are the Rule thereof In respect of the Promises and Threatnings they are the Rule of God's Judgment As they are the Rule of Man's Duty they are either Moral or Positive The Moral require or presuppose Subjection unto God not onely as Creatour but Redeemer in the first place The Moral Law as such is of perpetual obligation and was given to Adam innocent and continues in force for ever yet as it is purely Moral Yet the obligation thereof which followed the Promise of the Redeemer differed much from the former as it bound Adam innocent as shall appear hereafter at large This Law is called Moral not merely because it 's Regula morum a Rule of Humane Actions for so other Laws may be but to distinguish it from Laws Positive as Judicial and Ceremonial be and because the Acts commanded by it are intrinsecally just For we must not so much attend to the proper signification as the use of words And it 's so called not by the Prophets or Apostles but by Latine Christian Writers especially of later times The reason why it is of perpetual obligation is because God having made man righteous and holy never gave him liberty to be unrighteous and unholy and He always bound him to love his God himself his neighbour The Duties thereof arise from the Natural Relation of Man unto God and unto his Neighbour therefore called the Law of Nature The very frame and constitution of his reasonable and immortal Soul and of his Body did dictate the Equity and Justice of this Law Some therefore say that this Law did result from the Image of God wherein Man was created Yet there are degrees of Morality For some acts are more immediately Moral Others derive their Morality from some other and are such at second hand In the Decalogue all the Commandements derive their Morality from the first And all the Precepts of the second Table receive their Morality from the last as that receives Morality from the first of the first Table Some are Moral in this life which shall cease to be so in the life to come And we must diligently consider what Duties are purely Moral and of perpetual continuance Consider the matter of this Law as consisting in so many Rules or Propositions of Divine Wisdom and Justice as abstracted from the Nature of a Law and the commands of God's Legislative Will and the same known unto man if he act according to these Rules he may be capable of reward yet can have no title to it if he act contrary he may be worthy of punishment yet not bound to suffer it But consider the Parts and Branches of it not onely as Rules and Acts of the Understanding but of Gods Legislative Will so they have the form of Laws and such God's Will hath determined them to be unto Man The nature of them as Laws is to bind unto obeâ—ience or upon disobedience unto punishment This is that which they call active obligation which is the essential act of a Law Passive obligation whereby Man is bound flows necessarily from the essence of it That this Law should have a Promise of Eternal Life annexed unto it upon condition of obedience and a threatning of Eternal Death upon Disobedience was accidental unto it That if Man sinned he should actually suffer the punishment threatned was so too That the particular Precepts thereof should be Articles of a Covenant was not
particular dutyes here commanded § XIII we must out of the Scripture observe the particular institutions of God Some of these were required of God in all times as Word and Prayer For the Church did alwayes serve their God in these two neither could it at any time continue a Church without them There be two acts of worship in respect of the word Teaching and Learning it as the onely Doctrine revealed from Heaven to direct man unto eternall life It might be taught by many kind of Persons and many ways The Persons were extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles and such as were immediately inspired from Heaven or ordinary private or publique Every Person and Servant of God endued with the knowledge thereof might instruct one another every man his Brother Parents were bound to instruct their Children and Masters their Servants But the Publique Teachers in Congregations and Assemblies were persons of more eminent knowledge designed for this purpose as ordinary Prophets Levites and Doctours amongst the Israelites Presbyters and Ministers who are called Pastours and Teachers in the time of the Goâ—pel and also Catechists Therefore the Ordination and Publick Approbation of Teachers according to the Rules of the Word of God is hither to be reduced as a part of Worship This Doctrine for the manner is taught by Word or by Writing By word of mouth as by Preaching Expounding Catechizing The learning of this Word is also a part of this Service And to this belongs Hearing Reading Conference and asking and proposing Questions to receive Answers and Instruction Meditation Repetition For the means by which the knowledge of this Heavenly and Saving-Doctrine is either communicated or received are hither to be referred This Teaching and Hearing are Duties as commanded by God and instituted by Him as a part of His Worship Yet such it is not except the Doctrine taught and heard be Divine and from Heaven and as such taught and received by an undoubted assent and acknowledgment of it as infallible In the teaching of this Word Precepts must be delivereâ— as Precepts Prohibitions as Prohibitions Promises as Promises Threatnings as Threatnings Reproofs as Reproofs Exhortations as Exhortations and so of the rest of the distinct parts of this Word To communicate and receive this Word as a means to know God His Works and His Will is a Duty of this Commandement but to communicate and receive it as the Word of the everlasting King and onely Lord with the highest degree of honour and respect is a Duty of the first Commandement And God in His Wisdom ordained this signification of His Mind by Word and Writing as far more excellent and perfect than that by Images and the works of mens hands as not only base and imperâ—ect but dangerous and unsafe This of Word was more sutable unto the Nature and Constitution of Man as a Rational Creature who had a Tongue given him to speak and teach and an Ear to hear and learn and an Eye to read not onely in the Book of Gods gloriouâ— Works but also of His Blessed Writings And when He gave this Law He spake it and did write it but did not represent and signifie it by any Image much less by any work of mens hands This Representation by His Word was the purest and the best for man that this life is capable of Prayer is another principal part § XIV both of publique and private Worship and instituted by God And as it is to be made to God and God alone so it 's to be referred to the first Commandement as a means of our converse and communion with God so it is required in this And by this it 's evident that no man can observe this Commandement except he observe the former And here we must distinguish between the matter the form and the outward expression of Prayer All these must be such as God hath instituted and prescribed to Man in His Word and agreeable to the same There may some circumstances observable in the performance of this Duty be left unto the Reason and Prudence of Man For God hath not determined all the Particulars to be observed in the Method the outward expressions the gestures This Prayer may be in private and in secret the work onely of the Soul But with company and in publique there must be outward expressions and gestures of the body The outward expressions without the inward acts and affections of the Soul are not properly a Prayer but onely a carkass thereof To draw near unto God with the Lips and not with the 〈◊〉 is a poor service and no ways worthy to be called the act of a Man as he is a Rational Creature much less the Worship of God To this head of Prayer may be reduced Praise Thanksgiving Confession of 〈◊〉 singing of Psalms which if they be merely Doctrinal belong unto the Word iâ— any thing of Petition Praise Thanksgiving to be offered to God be in them then they belong to this of Prayer Fasting also and Humiliation is annexed to Petition and especially Deprecation may come under this Head Publick Prayer in an unknown Language is both unprofitable and unwarrantable For the People ignorant of the Language wherein it is expressed cannot say Amen Yet Set-Forms and premeditated Prayers are not unlawful if they be offered to God with Understanding Attention and Affection neither do they as some sonâ—â—ly affirm stint the Spirit of Supplication They may be a great help unto weaker Christians and supply their deâ—ects Yet for men to tye themselves to such or such a form of words with affectation as though there were some greater efficacy in thsoe words and expressions then in others as good and significant as they can be no less then Superstition For so to do is to turn Prayer into a Charm or Inchantment Again to tye our selves to a form 〈…〉 neglect those gifts which God hath given us cannot be excused for it 's ceâ—tainâ—y a â—ault The forms and expressions used in Scripture if rightly applyed 〈◊〉 the best But assectate and curious tearms and the gaudy colours of Rhetorâ—â—â— used by some in their Devotion are not tollerable For we must not compâ—eâ—ent with our great and glorious God To think we cannot so well say Amen â—o the devout and godly Prayers of others which we know not before we heâ—r them as to those Set-Forms which we know and have used before is a Foolery To offer unto God some part of our goods to relieve the Poor or maintain His Worship or for some other Religious Uâ—e is a Duty here required So likewise to give Him some part of our time To consecrate the seventh part of our time belongs unto the â—ourth Commandement as it determines that distinct portion To this Commandement belong all Ceremonies instituted by God and especially Sacraments as Circumcision and the Passover before the Exhibition of Christ and His coming in the flesh and Baptism and the Lords Supper in the times of the Gospel
honour them And whosoever will not perform this duty must needs transgresse against the very light of nature and those principles which God hath imprinted in their Soules So that as Philo saith The offenders are guilty of impiety against God and inhumanity against man and stand liable before the Tribunal both of God and man and those that are undutifull to their Parents are usually prophane and irreligious towards God This duty in respect of Children is generall and binds them all and every one none can be exempted All and every one have Father and Mother too since Adam and Eve were created by God and not procreated by man Therefore Adam is called the Son of God Luke 3. 38. The conception of Jesus Christ and his birth were extraordinary for he had a Mother but no immediate Father therefore he may be excepted Yet it was said that he was subject unto them that is not onely to his Mother Mary but his Father by law Joseph to give example to all Children seeing he the Son of God subjected himself unto them This duty ariseth from the relation as the foundation thereof For by the manner of the receiving and continuing of their being they are inferiours depending upon Parents and under their power The partyes to whom the duty is to be performed are Father and Mother Father who begets them and Mother who conceives beares bring forth nurseth and taketh care of them in their helplesse age In this respect they have propriety superiority of power above them And lest Children should think it sufficient to be subject to their Father he adds and thy Mother For though the Mother be subject as a Wife to her Husband yet she is superiour to her Child as she is a Mother and may command and must in no wiâ—e be neglected or disobeyed The duty it self is expressed in the word Honour which is but single § V yet comprehends severall dutyes as Reverence to their persons in respect of their dignity subjection to their power obedience to their commands maintenance if they be in want and they able to relieve them and covering their infirmityes for maintenance is sometimes called honour and Shem and Japhet honoured their Father when in a modest manner they covered his nakednesse Reverence must be in the heart and expressed in their words their gestures and outward carriage towards them Subjection is a resigning of their own Wills and acknowledgement of their power and superiority and that they themselves are not Sui juris their own Masters but their duty till the time of emancipation is to serve Obedience is to do their just commands and must be regulated by their directions for they must hearken unto their instructions both for the matter to be done and the manner how it ought to be performed and they must execute it freely and with diligence for if it be not free and willing it s no obedience If Parents fall into want grow decrepit and faile not onely in strength but understanding and so cannot help themselves Reason it self much more the Word of God will dictate unto us that Children should not onely cover their infirmities and bear with their imperfections but also help succour relieve them and endeavour to recompence that tender love and kindnesse which their Parents shewed unto them when they were Children And this is to be done unto them with all due respects as unto Parents for in their lowest condition such they are and such they must be accounted And if all these dutyes be not performed how can Children be said to honour Father and Mother as here they are commanded to do And if Heathen Children be bound thus to honour their Parents and some of them by the light of nature have done it how much more are Christian Children of Christian Parents obliged to this duty which should be performed out of knowledge the love of God and Faith in Jesus Christ as a part of Christian obedience and thankfulnesse This is the duty commanded § VI The reward promised is That they may live long in the Land which the Lord their God had given them and that it might go well with them The reward is 1. An enjoyment of that good land God should give them 2. A long life 3. Prosperity and comfort This is said to be the first Commandement with promiâ—e It s the first Commandement and it hath a promise The second Table is called the Law Rom. 13. 8. 10. And all the Law Gal. 5. 14. That is all the Law which prescribes the duty of man to man It hath severall Commandemnents and this is the first of them and it hath a promise and so none of the rest following have It 's neither the first Commandement of the Decalogâ—e nor the first with promise But it 's the first of that Law which prescribeâ— our duty towards man and hath a promise annexed The end of this promâ—â—eâ— to encourage Children For though they are bound by the law of thankfulnesse unto it anâ— by the performance thereof cannot recompence the love and care of their Parâ—nts and they should be very unworthy if they should neglect it yet it was Gods superâ—bundant mercy to add the promise and the Apostle makes the use of it to move Children to obedience The land which the Lord their God should give them was the land of Canaan and therefore it had special reference to the Isralites yet so that all other dutifull Children of all nations have a right in it and especially Christians Why else should the Apostle take it up to move Christian Children to obedience Ephes. 6. 1 2 3. The enjoyment of our own native Country is opposed to captivity banishment dispossession disinheritance and a Vagabond life Long life to an unnatural or a violent death which takes away life even then when natural vigour continues and there be no internal causes of immediate dissolution A prosperous life is opposed to the cuâ—ses and miseryes which others suffer Yea all these mercyes are opposed to all those judgements as inflicted by God and suffered by wicked and undutifull Children for their neglect disobedience contempt and rebellion against their Parents These blessings promised are but temporall not spirituall and Eternal For those are acquired by Faith and derived from Christ and the promises in Christ in whom Christian Children receive not onely this temporal but a spiritual reward upon this obedience performed in Faith Neither doth this promise take effect in all dutifull Children so as that alwayes they enjoy this reward and be free from the like judâ—ements in generall which arâ— contrary to this reward For even dutifull Children many times suffer Captivity banishment untimely death and other miseryes but not for this sin of obedience whereof they are not guilty but for tryall and some other cause best known unto God who will recompence the want or losse of this reward with some far greater mercy There be extraordinary and reserved cases wherein good Children
ungodly wicked and to give them bad example and be patterns of impiety and iniquity unto them 6. To be found indulgent remisse in Discipline and correction and to bring them up idlely or delicately 7. To neglect their education in Religion and take no care of their poor Souls The sins of Tutours Guardians and such as are trusted with Orphans are carelessenesse or unfaithfulnesse And these must know that though these desolate and poor Creatures cannot or may not question them yet God will right them and will certainly call these unjust Stewards to account and severely punish them for their negligence and injustice And as he will blesse godly faithfull carefull parents and such as supply their place and comfort them in their Children or some other way So he will punish the negligent ungodly unfaithfull in their own Children and many other wayes and will require the blood of their Souls at their hands and their last reckoning will be sad and heavy Few Fathers endeavour the Regeneration of their Children Few Mothers travayl again of them that Christ may be formed and born in their hearts And one great cause of the corruption not onely of familyes but Church and state is the neglect of education When Parents do not use the power God hath put into their hands nor take the opportunity he hath given them to instil the principles of religion and piety into them in their tender yeares when they are so ready to receive the first impressions It 's a matter of sorrow and lamentation to consider how much Parents do neglect their duty and to see the sad events thereof For many of them transmit their sin and guilt and derive it to posterity who inherit their iniquity and misery Hitherto of this Commandement § X taken in the plain immediate sense Let 's proceed to those things which are reducible unto it by Analogie or deduction from it by more remote consequence Father and Mother are tearms of relation expresly named in the Text and these imply another Relation Husband and Wife who are the Foundation of a Family and were the beginning and first root of Mankind And after that Woman was once created and man had a fellow the relation of Husband and Wife followed and was the first relation according to God's Institution which requires that man and woman should be Husband and Wife before there be Father and Mother They are 1. Man and Woman of different Sex by Creation 2. Husband and Wife by God's Institution 3. Father and Mother by God's Blessing Yet there be many who violate this Institution and propagate the World with an illegitimate and spurious or incestuous Brood though by Repentance and Faith in Christ this sin may be pardoned and God's Judgment averted both from Parents and Children In this first Society there is an imparity though not so great as that of Parents and Children and the Duties thereof are two Subjection and Love For the Wife must be subject to her Husband and the Husband must love his Wife This is the Command of God by the Apostle Wives submit your selves unto your Husbands as unto the Lord For the Husband is the Head of the Wife c. This is the imparity of Superiour and Inferiour And Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it Ephes. 5. 22 25. This subjection was due from the first Wife to the first Husband even in the estate of Innocency For even then Marriage was instituted and by it was constituted one of the nearest Societies in the World and the same indissoluble except by Death or Adultery and that not onely by Covenant but especially by God's Institution whose Will it was that they should be one flesh and that man should forsake Father and Mother that dear relation and cleave to his Wife This Subjection before the Fall was so a Duty as that it was not a punishment For then Man was the Head a Superiour because made first and Woman was made after Man of Man for Man and man was of the more noble Sex and it was God's Will he should be Superiour in the first Contract according to his Institution But after the Fall it was not onely a Duty to be performed willingly but a Penalty to be suffered patiently And a grievous Penalty it is when a Woman is married to a proud insolent imperious Fool and to such Women who are of the like temper and violently bent to have their own Will though never so unreasonable As the imparity between Man and Wife is less then that between Parents and Children so the subjection of the Wife to the husband is not so great as that which is due from Children to Parents much less then of Servants to their Masters The place of the Wife though inferiour to the Husband is honourable She is Partner with him and shares in the government of the Family and may command both Children and Servants He is the Master she is the Mistress though subordinate to him as her Head as the Body is to the Head The duty of the Husband is to love his Wife and that not with any kind or degree of love but with a dear tender special love He must love her as his Wife as one flesh with him his own body part of himself nearer to him then Father or Mother Yet as obedience of Children so both love of Husband and subjection of Wife is limited and must be in the Lord that is subordinate unto that love and subjection which is due to Christ and agreeable to the Will of His Command and not contrary unto it And both the Duties presuppose other Vertâ—es in both Parties or else they will be not onely imperfect and deficient but unlawful and not in the Lord but against the Will of the Lord. And this subjection of the one and love of the other Evangelically understood are more perfect and noble Vertues in true Christians then in others as the Bond of Marriage doth represent the Union of Christ and His Church who are contracted on Earth and the Marriage it self shall be solemnized in Heaven with great glory and full joy that shall never end The want of this subjection in the one and love in the other much more the contrary sins are forbidden in this Commandement and are the causes of many other sins confusions discomforts miseries ruines of Families And by these two and the contrary may be understood all other Duties here commanded and sins forbidden and all such as depend upon them or are necessarily joyned with them After the Relations and Societies of Husband and Wife § XI Parents and Children follows that of Masters and Servants For after that Mankind was multiplyed in a Family and their Estates and Goods increased their work was the greater and required more hands and the first that did the Work of Servants though they were not Servants were Children and after that besides irrational Servants as the Ox and the Ass there were
congregation in particular From hence ariseth a relation of Pastour and People The Duty of the people is to esteem their Pastours and Teachers highly in love for their works sake 1 Thes. 5. 13. To obey them and submit unto them Obey them saith the Apostle who have rule over you and submit unto them for they watch over your Souls Heb. 13. 17. They must atttend unto their Doctrine and follow their good example Heb. 13. 7. They must maintain them and provide for them For Christ hath ordained that they who preach the Gospell should live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 14. And let him that is taught in the Word communicate to him that teacheth in all his goods Gal. 6. 6. The Duty of Ministers and Pastours amongst others are these To be rightly qualified and also called to their places binding themselves to do Christ service in that Office They must plant and water preach catechize and edifie the people wholly in the saving Doctrine of the Gospel and though they cannot confirm their Doctrine by Miracles yet let them do it by good example They must administer the Sacraments according to Christ's institution pray for the People perform all publick services of Religion and do all things that tend to the conversion confirmation and Salvation of the People The Sins of the People § XIX as subject to their Pastours are many amongst the rest these They neglect and contemn their persons places doctrines reprooâ—s admonitions good example They deny them maintainance have itching ears affect novel opinions are carried away with strange Doctrine They prove schismaticall desert their faithfull Pastours vex them persecute them Ministers offend when not rightly qualified enter upon the place without a due call and in an undue manner when their end is gain not the good of the peoples souls when they neglect their calling or are carelesse or remisse in the discharge of the Ministery preach false or unprofitable Doctrine give bad example corrupt Religion are Authors of Schism Faction Rebellion and so disgrace their calling dishonour Christ and drive multitudes to Hell Many of these are ambitious and insolent domineering over men's Consciences Christians may associate for Discipline § XX and the outward Government of their Society and that in greater and lesser Associations and for this end declare and constitute Canons and Orders chuse and ordain Officers erect several Courts of Jurisdiction Spiritual In these Ecclesiastical States the Supream Power of the Keys or Church-Government is in the whole Combination the delegated Power is in their Officers and in their Representatives This Constitution finished the Superiours and Governours are the Officers and Representatives whereby the whole Church doth exercise her Power and every particular member whether Officer or any other is subject This Constitution should be agreeable to Christ's Institution and it 's no ways safe that the Association should be of too little or too great extent And most certain it is that Christ did never ordain that there should be one Universal Supream Court in any part of the World to which all Christian of all Nations should submit or make Appeals The Duty of the People and Members of this Spiritual Common-wealth and every particular Person Officer or any other is to submit to this Order once established according to the Laws and Rules of Christ obey the Canons acknowledge the Officers receive their Jurisdiction The Duty of the Governours is to consider whether the Constitution be according to the Gospel to have a special care to make good Canons and to constitute able prudent pious and sit Officers to inform the Ignorant reform the Scandalous reprove admonish suspend or excommunicate absolve and in such a manner that Doctrine and Discipline may be preserved pure the People reformed the Church edifyed and Christ glorified And the Civil Magistrate should countenance protect assist them so far as his Civil Power in this particular may be useful The Discipline is easily corrupted hardly reformed the Primitive and Apostolical Order little known And in this point many are our Divisions Men have their several conceits of it Every Party fancy their own way to be the Pattern in the Mount and few are impartial and unprejudiced and though a good Discipline may be proposed yet the greatest part cannot endure it Schools § XXI Colledges Vniversities are a kind of little Common-Wealth wherein we have Ordinem Imperii Subjectionis wherein the Governours have power the governed are subject according to their Charters and Statutes and as there be Duties so there are contrary Offences in both There be also Superiours and Inferiours in respect of excellency and age yet without any power Those who for Wisdom Parts Experience rare Exploits do excel others should according to their eminency benefit others and others should honour them Yet Pride is the usual sinne of the one and Envy of the other Age and the gray-head if accompanied with Wisdom and Vertue should be reverenced and it 's a bad sign of a declining State when the Child shall behave himself proudly against the Ancient and the Base against the Honourable Esa. 3. 5. CHAP. XII The Sixth Commandement GOD § I by the former Commandement determined the right of Persons and in this He begins to define man's right in things which He commands to be observed The first and principal thing which a man hath right unto is his life and therefore after the duty to be performed to our Parents by whom we receive life from Him he takes care and provides for the safety of man's person and the preservation of his life by prohibiting Murder This Commandement presupposeth that God alone according to his absolute propriety hath the absolute power to dispose of man's life and can take it away and that justly at will and pleasure and that no man can do without Warrant extraordinary or ordinary from him Man hath no absolute right to dispose of his own life whereof he hath onely the possession and use but not the propriety and therefore he must not so much as hazard it without Divine Warrant The subject therefore of this Commandement § II is this mortal and bodily life of man which we receive by Conception and Birth and part with by Death It consists in the union of Soul and Body which is not so firm since that sin entred into the World but that it easily may be dissolved For man consists of two parts Soul and Body The Soul in it self is incorruptible and immortal and no man can kill it though man and many things else may separate it from the Body and the Body from it Therefore in the profession of the Gospel we need not fear men who kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul Math. 10. 28. The malice and violence of man may make the Body an unfit Habitation for the Soul to dwell in and no fit Instrument for the Soul to act by and then the Soul no ways able to animate the
made some honest imployment to be used the Scripture and pious books to be read the reasons against this sin in Scripture to be remembered the motives unto chastity to be observed good examples of Chastity as that most excellent one of Joseph to be followed Yet we must know that in respect of persons its twofold 1. Of single persons 2. Of married persons Single persons are such as were never married or widows both these must be chast so as not onely to have pure and sanctified minds but also to forbear all kind of Carnall copulation Married persons may have the use of one anothers bodies without any sin but then they must be faithfull one unto another for onely they that have right unto their bodies must have the use of them And if they transgresse their sin is adultery and greater then that of simple fornication not only because it is an abuse of the body as simple fornication is but because it is against the marriage-contract and they have a remedy which single persons have not and many more mischiefs follow upon it In this condition of marriage many may think themselves safe yet no persons though married must neglect their watch presume upon their own strength contemne temptations for they may fail as well as others as wofull experience hath taught many Their secret carriage must be chast before God their outward behaviour must be modest before men the one that they may have a good conscience the other that they may give good example And single persons that have not the gift of continency must marry yet wisely and in the Lord lest that estate which was ordained for a comfort and help prove a discomfort and a snare They are happy in this respect and a great mercy of God it is who have their education in chast and modest families and fall not into familiarity with lewd persons For many who in chast Company would have been chast and would have abhorred this sin have bin defiled by lewd and ungodly persons Yet if we fear our God and trust in him he can preserve us pure in the most filthy societies as he did Lot in Sodom and deliver them in the strongest temptations as he did Joseph This Commandement certainly requires temperance § VII as an excellent preservation of Chastity And divers of the School-men and Casuists oppose it to Luxury which they make a generall under which they reduce and rank in a certain order 1. Simple fornication to which they referr whoredome and the use of Concubiâ—s 2. Incest 3. Adultery 4. Deflowring of Virgins in their parents power 5. Rapes 6. Uncleannesse against nature as Sodomy and Bestiality all which were mentioned formerly Yet this temperance more properly taken is opposed to luxury taken more strictly for excesse in diet and apparrel and such things as tend to the preservation of the body It 's contrary to drunkennesse and gluttony and all excesse in that kind and may include abstinence and fasting for we must keep the body under and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof The body must not be armed against the soul lest the flesh rebel against the spirit The pampering of it is like the warming a frozen Serpent in our bosome to sting us unto death We are commanded to abstain from fleshly lusts which fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. Yet temperance is properly and strictly here commanded as tending unto Chastity yet it may come under another notion as it doth dispose us to Heavenly duties and prepare us for our last account There are intemperate persons who are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and surfetting and drunkennesse indispose us to divine performances and unprepare us for our latter end And in this respect intemperance is a sin against the first table Drunkennesse absolutely considered is not a sin against this commandement but as inclining and disposing to uncleannesse and in other severall respects against many other For there be divers sins and divers duties reducible to severall parts of this morall Law As there be many disswasives from the sins here forbidden § VIII so there be many Swasives and motives to the duties here Commanded Some are generall motives to Chastity in generall some to Chasity in single life some to Chastity in marriage in particular And every Disswasive in generall and in particular are Swasives either in generall or particular There are disswasives from 〈◊〉 fornication from incest from adultery from rapes and so from the rest whiâ—h are proper The reasons and motives to Chastity in generall especially to Christians are 1. Bâ—cause our bodies are the members of Christ 2. They are the temples of the Holy Ghost 3. We are bought with a price and cannot dispose of our selves as we please but must so use them as our Saviour hath Commanded and we must honour and glorifie him who hath bought them for his they are 4. We have consecrated both soul and body to his service 5. We are Regenerate and sanctified and as in soul so in body and have received a power to perform this duty of Chastity as well as other duties 6. We hope and expect that these bodies shall rise again unto eternall glory and how can we pollute them 7. One Reason in generall to all men Jews Christians Gentiles is that Chaâ—â—ity is the honour of these bodies of ours as uncleannesse is their dishonour For the bodies of all men being tabernacles of the immortall soul and created and redeemed to immortality are far more excellent then the bodies of beasts and therefore must not be abused and made like nay worse and more base then the bodies of brutes There are besides these common reasons others proper to incline married-parties to Conjugall Chastity and fidelity as the honour and Legitimation of our Children the mutuall content and comfort of man and wife the peace and welfare of our Families for the present and of posterity for time to come Gods institution the matrimoniall contract the conâ—inuance of the sacred bond and divers others which may be observed our or Scripture And both the parties must not only be chast and faithfull but wiâ—e in their carriage so as to give no occasion or just suspicion of jealously or be jealous when there is no sufficient cause We should know these things and learn out of Gods word how excellent a virtue Chastity is how pleasing to God how disposing to heavenly duties Out of this knowledge and love to God we should love this duty desire and endeavour to performe it and labour to be chast in our hearts not onely before men but God We must resist temptations and suppresse the first motions unto uncleannesse and with Job make a covenant with our eyes and not think upon a maid Job 31. 1 2 3. unto the 13th In this case if our right eye right hand right â—oot offend us we must cut it off and rather part with our choisest and rarest
For when He was asked Which is the greatest Commandement He answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and great Commandement And the Second is like to this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self To love our Neighbour as our selves is the last Commandement as shall appear anon These two are the Epitome of the whole Law and virtually contain all the Precepts of it The first All of the first Table the last All of the Second Table Therefore they are general Commandements the one of the first part of the Law this other of the Second For after that God had in the four first Precepts of the Second Table determined the right of persons and things out of judgment and in the Ninth given a Rule of judgment In this last He prescribes a general Duty which is the measure and Rule of the rest both out of Judgment and also in Judgment This Commandement is Negative wherein we must consider 1. The Act 2. The Object That so we may understand what the Sin prohibited is The Act is to covet the Object something that is our Neighbours To covet is to desire It presupposeth some knowledge at least of apprehension of the thing desired as good and in some respect good to us It 's an Act of the Will and presupposeth the good desired as absent and not possessed or enjoyed and there are degrees of this Act according as we conceive the good desired less or greater That which is best if we be rightly informed is to be desired most and other things in a certain order and measure as they are nearer unto or further distant from the greatest good We may mistake and conceive many things to be better then they are and so deceive our selves and desire that which is not good at all or that which is least good as though it were the greatest So most men are deluded when they covet Earthly Things more then Heavenly and imagine that in them there is a vertue and power to make them happy and so we prefer the World and love it more then God This is a sin against the first Commandement and it's Idolatry Thus ambitious covetous voluptuous men do We covet things as good to us that we may have them and enjoy them and this coveting may be upon a simple apprehension and before a deliberate consent or it may follow it and then the Soul begins to move and use means to compass it Yet Coveting in it self § II is indifferent neither good nor bad Some things may some things must be coveted some things must not Therefore we must know in what respect Coveting is here forbidden when it 's said Thou shalt not covet and what the things are which we cannot lawfully desire to be our own and that is easily understood by the Object the second thing here determined by God The things not to be coveted are here expressed 1. By a particular Enumeration 2. By a general and comprehensive Term. In this particular Enumeration we have House Wife Man-servant Maid-servant Ox Ass Field Deut. 5. 21. Some reduce this to Utile and Jucundum things pleasant or unprofitable The general and comprehensive Word is ANY THING Thou shalt not covet any thing This was added to include all things and to leave nothing excluded Yet these things may be considered materially and so Wife House Field Cattle may be desired or formally as our Neighbours and so we must not covet them We must not covet his House his Wife his Field c. nor any thing that is his that is our Neighbours That which is not ours but his both by the Laws of God and Men must not be the Object of our Desires We may like them but not covet them as his For if we do it 's an evident sign that we love our Selves too much our Neighbour too little Nay we love his and not him or his more than him And this is a want of that love God requireth He requires a love of his Person as of our Selves it forbids a love of his So this Commandement was given to regulate the very motions of the Heart with the Affections and Inclinations of it in respect of our Neighbour This is the plain and genuine sense of the words § IV which inform us of many things 1. That the Law of God prescribing the Duty of Man to Man doth reach the Heart binds the Conscience and requires a conformity and obedience in the Inner-man 2. That God in Judgment will take Cognizance not onely of men's words and actions but of the motions inclinations and dispositions of the Soul 3. That both God's Laws and also his Judgments are far above the Laws and Judgments of men 4. That this Commandement is the Rule and Measure of the five former Commandements according to which we must understand them 5. It reacheth them all and is the principal and they the conclusions which derive their Morality from it so that in obeying it or disobeying it we obey or disobey the rest Therefore sayes the Apostle It 's the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. And all the Law that is which requires the Duty of Man unto Man is fulfilled in one word Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Gal. 5. 14. 6. That whatsoever Duty we perform to Man is not agreeable to the Will of God if it be not done out of love to our Neighbour as our love to our Neighbour is not regular if it issue not from and be subordinate to the love of God 7. That this with the first of the First Table do more clearly discover Original Corruption and the Root of all Sin in us than any of the rest 8. That if we could perfectly obey these two as we never shall in this life we might perfectly obey all the other and might pluck up by the very Roots all other sins 9. That by this we easily understand what necessity we have of Christ and his sanctifying Spirit without both which we can neither hope for remission of sin past or power to avoid sin and transgressions of this Law for time to come For if our hearts be not renewed they will be ever coveting and coveting will be a continual Spring of dishonour of Superiours Murder Adultery Theft False-Witness as our Saviour teacheth us For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murthers Adulteries Fornications Thefts False-Witness Blasphemies Math. 15. 19. Wars and Fightings are from our Lusts Jam. 4. 1. Achan covets and commits Sacriledge Ahab covets and commits Murder Therefore we must not covet In these words is forbidden all discontentedness with that Estate God hath given us § V â—o as to be any cause or occasion of coveting that which is our Neighbours All Envy likewise must be a sin against this Law but Hatred and Malice in general and Contempt are directly contrary to it In a word the want of Love
or unbelieving Jewes are The distance from God and Salvation of the one is not such or so great as the distance of the other The Apostle puts the Ephesians in mind That before their conversion they were Gentiles in the slesh who were called uncircumcision by that which was called circumcision in the slesh made by hands That at that time they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope without God in the world Ephes. 2. 11 12. It 's not to be understood that they were without God as Creatour or Preserver but without God promising to save them For God did not promise to save them or their Children upon any terms They were excommunicate and banished out of his Kingdome and were denyed the very meanes of conversion Therefore they must needs be without Christ and without hope For where there is no Christ nor promise in Christ there could be no hope But after their conversion they were Subjects of Gods Kingdome fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and if the Parents being the root were holy then their Children the branches were holy and within the Verges of Gods spiritual Kingdom And as the promise in Christ to come was to the Jews and their Children so the promise in Christ already come is to Christians and their Children For the Covenant made to Abraham and his seed is essentially though not accidentally the same with the promise of the Gospel and must necessarily include the Children with the Parents as that did except any man can produce a clause of exclusion which no man to this day ever could When Peter said The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God should call Acts 2. 3. He spake not to the Jews merely as Jews but as Christians believing in Christ already come and the promise was not personal to them alone excluding their Children but to them as such and their Children For their conversion did no wayes limit or straiten the promise made to Abraham but continued it in the same extent it was before And the words imply that if he called the Gentiles who were afar off both they and their Children as he did call them afterward even they should enjoy the promise in the same extent so as to include the Children with the Parents To understand it otherwise is to offer violence to the Text. For the Gentiles once called must enjoy the priviledges for them and theirs in as large and ample manner as the Jew did this onely was the proper and special priviledge of the Jew he must first be called Yet this we must know that Children are in the lowest form of Christs Kingdom whilst they are Children and after they are at age by their actual disobedience may loose the benefit and by Apostacy they may forfeit all their priviledges and their hope These priviledges which these Children enjoy are not ordinarily immediate conversion or justification and the Spirit of Adoption and regeneration and the actuall enjoyment of those blessings but that which they have immediate right unto is the meanes of conversion which he denyes to such as are not of the Church For this was the priviledge which the Jew enjoyed though he did not believe he was trusted with the Oracles of God wherein were precepts of duty promises for mercy and also of power to keep the precepts and the outward confirmation both of precepts and promises This was the Childrens bread which was not given to doggs of the Gentiles and such as were strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel These Children born in the Church and of believing Parents who are Christians are members of the Church subjects of Christs Kingdome and have a special relation to God to Christ to the Church and the same such as no Infants in the world born of Parents out of the Church have or as such can have The summe of this discourse is That as all Children are part of their parents make but one person by the Laws of God and men so Christian Infants are one person with their Christian parents and make but one body with them as the root and branches are but one Tree and this by divine ordination and especially in obligations to dutyes and right unto favours and priviledges spiritual so far as they are capable So that the question so much vexed in our dayes rightly stated is this Whether Christian infants as part of their parents and one person with them have right to Baptism or are subjects immediately capable of baptism according to Divine ordination To this thus stated the Antipaedo-baptists have said nothing to this hour And whereas they alleage that there is no example or precept in the Gospel for Infant-baptism it hath been answered that there is no expresse precept or example for women to receive the Lords Supper and yet they themselves administer it to women But this is but very little if not the least that may be said for infant-baptism For so many precepts and examples as they can find in the New-Testament for the Baptism of such as are at age so many precepts and examples they give us for Baptizing Infants For if the parents or one of the parents may be baptized then the Infant may be baptized For they are one person in respect of Baptism and therefore what right the one hath the other must have Neither can it be upon any sufficient ground alledged that Children are uncapable of Baptism either as it is a Sacrament or as a Sacrament of initiation or as a seale of the righteousnesse by faith For circumcision was 1. A Sacrament 2. A Sacrament of initiation 3. A Seal of the righteousnesse by faith Yet this was administred to Infants and that by Gods Institution which never would have been done by Divine Warrant if they had been uncapable The difference between Baptism and Circumcision was 1. That the signes are different 2. That there was a different modification in the object of faith required in both The signe of the former was the cutting off the foreskin of the â—lesh in the second washing with water in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost The different modification of the object of faith was Christ to come and Christ already come The spirituall thing sealed and signified in both was the same that is righteousnesse by faith in Christ. And as there is no place of Scripture alleaged so I think there can be no reason sufficient given why the covenant being essentially the same the Children included then should be excluded now If the faith profession and promise of the Parents then was sufficient to obtain the sealing of the covenant by the initiating Sacrament why should they not be now For Children are as much one person now with their parents as they were then Neither should any wonder that the Faith of one may
it was in the beginning of civill States and it shall be so unto the end of the World God will have it to be so To all these Punishments must be added the losse of safety peace plenty and all other Blessings and Comforts which God doth usually give to men by good Government In the Execution of these Judgments the great Lord respects no Persons He punisheth many as well as few the mighty Monarchs of the World as well as the meanest Subjects The ruine of so many royall Families of so many large and potent Empires and Kingdomes might teach the Princes of the World to do Justice and to fear this everlasting Judge As there be civill § X so there are spirituall and ecclesiasticall Societies which as such have their proper Sins whereby they make themselves liable to those Punishments which God from Heaven inflicts upon them This Church which we call a spirituall Society began in a Family the first Family in the World of Adam and Eve being penitent and believing in that Seed of the Woman which should break the Serpent's head which was Christ. It encreased and was enlarged in that Family by their Children especially Abel first and then Seth and as mankind was multipled so it multiplied And at length there was a separation of the Sons of men from the Sons of God which Sons of God were in processe of time so degenerate mixed and polluted and the former Worthies and Sons of God translated into a better World that it was reduced again to that one Family of Noah Yet the greatest part of the Posterity of that Family who peopled the Earth did so apostate that a great part of Mankind was ejected and excommunicated out of this blessed Society And out of this great Body God calls Abraham and renews the Promise of Christ unto him more particularly and explicitly then formerly he had done He continues his Church in a more speciall manner in his Family and entailes the great Promise upon his posterity Isaac and Jacob and then in his Children who being multiplied into a Nation he brings out of Egypt and settles them in the Land of Canaan and encloseth them from all Mankind makes them his peculiar People continues the great Promise unto them trusts them with his Oracles and gives them Lawes and Statutes sends them Prophets and takes speciall charge of them till the Son of God was exhibited and incarnate Yet these with the Proselytes had their sins and according to their impenitency besides their temporall their spirituall Punishments But when Christ was once come into the World had finished the work of Humiliation was exalted to the right hand of Glory had powred down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles God calls the Jewes first then the Gentiles and by them commissioned to go into all Nations he begins to gather a Church Christian For they preach the Jewes and Gentiles bear believe professe their faith and so are admitted as Subjects of God's spirituall Kingdom of Grace As Disciples and Professours were multiplied in any City or Country the Apostles or their Assistants and Commissioners appoint Elders and Ministers of the Word over them to take care of their Souls for to conform the converted and build them up and perfect them that were converted and convert others for to enlarge Christ's territories The Officers of Christ were extraordinary and ordinary and some did plant and some did water but God gave the increase And the Elders and ordinary Officers were trusted with the Word and Sacraments for to dispense the one and administer the other according unto their Commission After that not onely People but Ministers were encreased and severall Congregations setled under severall Ministers they begin to associate and combine for Discipline according to their Vicinities and other conveniences This was the beginning of outward Ecclesiasticalâ— Poâ—â—ties Christian The end of this discipline was to preserve the severall societies in unity and Purity of Doctrine an worship to promote Piety to prevent Errours Heresies Schâ—mâ—s Scandall 〈◊〉 erâ—â—â—tion and Idolatry and so preserve them pure according to the first plantation of the Apostles and institution of Christ. The power of this outward discipline was 〈◊〉 Virtually in the whole body of the Church whether greater or lesse associated into one body but delegated for the exercise thereof in an orderly way unto such persons as should be judged most fit and able for that businesse This power did extend to the making of Canons constituting Officers exercising Spirituall jurisdiction in binding and loosing on Earth which should be made good in Heaven All the particular Churches of the World on Earth at one time make up one body § XI and community Spirituall subject unto Jesus Christ their Monarch I say as one Universall body its subject onely to Christ. For as for outward discipline we cannot find that Christ Instituted any Vicar-generall or erected any Court supreme in any one City or place of the World As God never made an Universall King so He never made a Catholick or Vniversall Bishop Men may fancy such a thing But it 's only a fancy not a reall truth nor ever can be proved to be so In the Church of Christ there are some living members Reall Saints who haâ—e a reall communion with their head and derive Heavenly blessings and comforts from him and these make up that which we call the Mysticall Church of which no Prophane or Hypocriticall Wretch can be a member But in the Churches severall which we call Visible and Instituted there are good and bad sincere Believers and bare Professours and Hypocrites And of these visible societies I now intend to speak when I declare the judgments of God inflicted upon the Churches When Ministers and People begin to neglect the duties of worship are remisse in discipline as the Church of Ephesus Corinth Laodicea and many others were fall from their first Love Purity Piety abate in devotion and the fire of their zeal is quenched Tâ—heir punishments spirituall besides their temporall are Persecutions from without Schism and Heresy from within By the one the body is torn asunder and by the other the members are poysoned And as they abate in their duty God abates in the powerfull and comfortable Workings of the Spirit And if they continue in their sins God in the end will wholly take away his spirit and remove the Golden Candlestick as He once threatned the Church of Ephesus and in it all other Churches in the like case And He will send his Word and Messengers unto another People and will let out his Vineyard unto other Husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their season Thus He dealt with the Jew Many times God brings in upon their Cities an their Countries where they professe the Gospel but not Practise it Cruel and Barbarous enemies Thus He gave the Northern and Western Churches and Nations to the Goths and Vandals who like a mighty deluge overflowed them and like an