judgement mercy and Faith Math. 23. 23. Where he intimates 1. That there be lesse and greater dutyes 2. That to pay Tyth of our goods and fruites is a duty of the first Table and judgement mercy and Faith of the second 3. That payment of Tythes though a duty of the first Table is inferiour to Judgement Mercy and Faith duties of the second Table In the time of the Law Sacrifice New-Moones Sabbath Solemn-Feasts and prayers were duties of the first rank and form to be performed to God yet then God required justice and mercy to Man before them as appeares Esay 1. from verse 11. to the 18. And he desires Mercy more then Sacrifice Hos. 6. 6. And if any except and say that Sacrifices and Sabbaths were part of the Ceremonial not the moral Law I answer that the Weekly Sabbath and so prayer were dutyes required in the moral Law and all the Ceremonies of worship were branches thereof in those times After the difference § II and inequality the order is to be considered and that is either general of the whole in respect of the former part of the Law or of the parts amongst themselves The order of the whole is either of dignity or nature The former precepts and dutyes considered comparatively with the later are more excellent and terminated upon a more noble object and the performance of them conduced more immediately to the supreme end and communion with our God and so deserve the first place which God hath given them As for the order of nature its evident that we have relation first to God our Creatour Redeemer Lord and King before we have relation unto man our fellow-subject and the love of our God is before the love of our Neighbour because we cannot love our Neighbour aright except we first love our God The latter depends upon and issues from the former which doth regulate and rightly qualifie the later and besides the morality of the later is derived from the morality of the former as you heard before As the object of the dutyes required in the former precept was God so the object of these latter are Men with whom we do converse We must love and honour Saints departed and the blessed Angels yet the Persons here principally understood are men living upon earth with whom we have ordinary Communion For these Commandements do refer unto this life and respect men living in this vale of teares and therefore much of this Law shall cease to bind in Heaven To do as we would be done unto and to love our Neighbours as our selves do virtually containe all the particulars of this part and are the brief abridgement of the whole To leave every man unto his liberty in the distribution and digesting of these later Commandements unto a method and to unfold the excellency of that order which God hath observed I will at this time deliver mine own apprehensions of the same Upon consideration I find that these six last precepts may be distinguished into two sorts 1. Such as receive or 2. Such as give morality § III Such as receive their morality are the V. VI. VII VIII IX the five first of the second Table That which gives morality is the Last which is the measure and foundation of the five former For you must note that in the former Table God did begin with the greatest and the principall and so proceeded to the lesse and inferiour but in this part he proceeds in another order and reserves the greatest to the last Of the five which derive their morality from the last some prescribe the rule of justice to be observed Some a rule oâ— judgement Those which prescribe a rule of justice do determine Jus Personarum aut Rerum the right of persons or things belonging to perâ—ons The fifth determins the right of persons the rest the right of things which are life wise goods or estate The 6th is concerning life The 7th concerning our Neighbours Wife The 8th concerning mens goods In the 9th we have the rule of judgement Gods order and method if we can observe it is most accurate and excellent The last which gives morality to the former five commands the love of our Neighbours as of our selves as you shall heare hereafter And this is the root and rule of all the rest For as our Saviour comprized all the foure first Commandements in the love of God so he collected and included all the latter precepts in the love of our Neighbour These things first observed § IIII let us enter upon the explication of the 5th Commandement which as Philo saith had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was placed in the confines of both the two Tables and joynes them together Whether it was the last in the first Table as some conceive or the first in the second or part of it in the former and part in the latter I will not dispute This is certain they were all written in two Tables this of necessity is next to those which concern our duty to God Parents and superiours represent God and yet are men and so that Commandement hath some affinity with the former though more agreement with the latter This Commandement determins the right of persons who are superiours inferiours equals To Equals the offices of love and humanity are due but no honour for its the â—ight which inferiours must give to superiours as superiours and of them it is principally intended For God did so order it that though all men as men are subjects fellow-subjects amongst themselves and under the power of God as their Lord and Soveraign yet there should be an imparity not onely of excellency and dignity but of power amongst them for without imparity there can be no order The first imparity is naturall wherein Parents are superiour to their Children and that in po-wer And I will consider and understand the Commandement first of natural Parents and their Children and afterwards proceed to the imparity which is by institution and which may be reduced Analogically to this Commandement Wherein we have 1. The duty Commanded 2. The reward promised In the duty we may observe 1. The persons who are bound to perform it 2. The persons to whom it s to be performed 3. The duty it self The persons bound to perform it are not expressed but easily understood 1. To be inferiours 2. To be Children who onely have relation to Father and Mother as such for Children are such as have Father and Mother and Father and Mother are such as have Children who receive their life and being from God by them For they are both begotten and preserved by them Parents are in Gods place and his deputies and instruments and the benefit which we receive by them except they be unnaturall is such as cannot be requited It was Gods will to bring us into the world in this manner and to make us so much depend upon our Parents that we might see what great reason we have to
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
may suffer and have a share in publick and general calamityes and ruins and sometimes may bear the sins of their Parents The performance of the promise doth most appear either in the times of peace and prosperity or in deliverances and comforts in the time of misery or in those fearfull curses which fall upon such as have been disobedient stubborn and undutifull Children who are punished sometimes with penâ—ry and want sometimes with crosses and discomforts in their own Children Sometimes with losse of their estates and banishment from their native soyl and place of inheritance sometimes with a violent and shamefull death or an ignominious life and all this for the violation of this precept besides other temporall and eternall punishments for their other sins Examples of those rewards and punishments we may read in Scripture and in other Historyes Hitherto I have explained the expresse words of the Commandement § VII There is something further implyed and that 's the duty of parents in respect of their Children For if they be in Gods place and must be honoured then they must be like unto God do good be beneficial to inferiours so as to deserve honour which unnatuall and carelesse parents cannot so much expect As God by the Apostle exhorts Children to obey their Parents so he forbids Parents to provoke their Children Ephes. 6. 4. Where we may observe that in duties the inferiour must be first The Wife must be subject to the Husband first The Children must be obedient to their Parents first Servants to their Mâ—sters first Subjects to the higher Powers first Yet so that superiours have their dutyes which they are bound to perform The dutyes of Parents are either negative or affirmative Negative are many as opposed to the Affirmative The Apostle in the former place expresseth onely one They must not provoke them This is done when they deny that which is necessary and convenient for them in respect of theiâ— ability and estate when they command them unjust or unreasonable things when in their rash passion they revile them and give them ignominious terms though they deserve them not When they use too much severity and sometimes plain cruelty not so much out of a desire to amend them as for to satisfie their own humours and fury as though they would revenge themselves upon them as enemyes To this purpose the Reverend and Learned Bishop Dâ—venant expounds those words Col. 3. 21. Parents must know that there is a great difference between Children and Slaves and a greaâ—er between Children and Enemyes If they will punish them they must be Judges not partyes know the cause and the merit of it be just and not cruel Correct them not Confound them The affirmative dutyes may be reduced to two 1. Preservation 2. Education 1. They must preserve them have a tender care of them maintayn them and provide for them according to their ability lest that life which God by them hath given be miserable or perish They must have a care of their education and bring them up for this life and that which is to come For this life they must train them and teach them or cause them to be taught in some honest kind of proâ—ession as in Husbandry trade or Merchandiâ—e or Learning according to their inclination and capacity Thus Adam and Eve brought up their Children Cain to be an Husband-man and tiâ—â—er of the ground and Abel to be a Shepherd They must not be suffered to spend their time in idlenesse playes sports and Vanity but must exercise themselves in some honest profession whereby they might benefit them and be usefull to their Countrey For the life to come so they must bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and learn them betimes even in their tender yeares so far as they shall be capable to serve their God know their Saviour and seek Eternall Life Ephes. 6. 4. Children have Souls as well as Bodyes and are capable not onely of a temporal but an eternal estate And Parents should endeavour to provide for both especially for the better that their Children might be the Sons and Daughters of the Living God and Heires of Eternall glory What comfort can it be to have Children miserable in this life or if in this life happy eternally miserable in the life to come as it often falls out through want of education To this education belong instruction example correction Familyes should be nurseryes and Seminaryes of Religion And if Parents for want of knowledge or leasure cannot thus educate them let them commit them to School-Masters Trades-men Ministers and others who are fit for that purpose What Parents in this Particular should do Tutours Guardians and such as are trusted with Orphans are bound to perform By this discourse we may easily understand § VIII what the sins both of Children and Parents against this Commandement be For they are contrary to the dutyes here commanded The sins of Children are disobedience to their Parents commands irreverence to their persons rebellion against their power ingratitude and neglect of them in their weaknesse want and misery when they shall take bad courses so as to be a shame grief and discomfort to their Parents who did carefully endeavour and seek their good God will surely punish them For the promise of life peace and prosperity to good Children implyes a commination of a curse against wicked and grace-lesse wretches who cannot be obedient to God when they are disobedient to Parents God high displeasure against incorrigible Children is signified by that law he gave to Israel If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voyce of his Father or the voyce of his Mother and that when they have chastned him will not hearken unto them Then shall his Father and Mother lay hold on him and bring him out to the Elders of his City unto the gates of his place and they shall say unto the Elders of his City this our son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voyce He is a glutton and a Drunkard And all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he dye So shalt thou put evil away from amongst you And all Israel shall hear and fear Deut. 21. 18 19 20 21. These are the sins of Parents § IX as Parents 1. To be unnatural Of this sin many Fornicatours and Adulterers are guilty For fearing shame or some other punishment from men more then from God they murder their Children either before or after their birth or desert them being born and leave them to perish 2. To take no care to maintayn them and provide for them or prodigally to wast that which should relieve them 3. To discourage them dul their Spirits provoke them use them as slaves or beasts or enemyes 4. To be ignorant or negligent so that they either cannot or will not instruct them or cause them to be instructed 5. To be prophane
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
from his Father because his Father was a Roman If a man for his merits be invested with a Fee or estate of honour and juridiction adherent and the same investiture include him and his Heires then his Heir after his decease from that first investiture of his Father or his father first invested the estate with the honour and jurisdiction is one person with him If a Peer be convicted and condemned for high treason his estate is confiscate and the blood tainted and the Children and Family suffer as one with the person guilty These instances though others more clear and fit may be given may suffice to manifest in things civil and by humane Laws the Father or the Parents and Children to be one person I might further shew that in many cases Prince and People and also the whole State may be considered as one person and are so taken both by God and Men. Let 's inquire whether it be so in matters of Religion and by the Laws of Gods Kingdome That it is so I have made it evident out of the second Commandement of the Law morall both in punishments and blessings For not onely temporall but spirituall judgments lye upon the Children for their Fathers sins which could not be just except they be some ways one person with their Parents And all true believers derive their right unto spirituall and eternall rewards as one person with Christ and in some sort from Abraham since his time as the Father of Believers But the principal thing to be cleared is that Parents and Children are one person in religious obligations spiritual priviledges favours For obligation unto obedience to Gods Laws all Orthodox and understanding Christians will grant that Adam and all mankind were one person as Father and Children insomuch that in Adam sinning we all sinned and in him dying we all dye This could never have bin so if God both in his Laws and Judgments had not considered and accounted that in Adam bound all his were bound But this was under the government of God Creator not Redeemer Yet Abraham was under the government of Redemption and the Kingdom of grace And in him God binds his seed and Posterity yea his bought and born-servants male For thus it is written And God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keep my Covenant Thou and thy seed after thee in their generations Gen. 17. 9. Where we must note 1. That this was the first institution of Circumcision 2. That this was immediately and personally given as a Law at this time only to Abraham 3. That it did not onely bind Abraham himself but his posterity to many generations 4. That the obligation in respect of the Children was so strict that the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his fore-kin was not Circumcised that soul should be cut off from his people He had broken the Covenant ibid. vers 14. 5. That this Sacrament was a Sign and Seal of the righteousnesse by faith Rom. 4. 2. And was to continue till the time of the Gospel when the Sign of the Covenant was to be changed into that of washing with water and the faith confirmed then was in Christ to come and by that Abraham was justified but after that time the Gospel-justification was by faith in Christ already come From all this it 's evident that the obligation of the Father was the obligation of the Child And it 's further remarkable that 1. That Covenant did expresly include the Children with the Parents 2. That it was the Covenant of Righteousnesse by faith in Christ. 3. That there is no exception or exclusion nor clause to that purpose in all the Gospel as that God should contract his mercy and not extend it so far even to Christian Children in the times of the Gospel as he did in the times of the Old Testament No man that shall seriously consider this matter but will confesse that Parents are bound not onely for themselves but also for their Children too And therefore they are so oft not onely under the Law but under the Gospel to teach their Children so soon as they are capable and the Children are bound to receive their instruction and to observe the condition of the Covenant into which their Parents entred for them and theirs Therefore God saith that Abraham would command his Children and houshold after him Gen. 18. 19. Which command of Abraham had been of little force except his Children and houshold had been bound by that command which was given to him and in him to them God considering both as one person God hath so far subjected Children to their Parents Servants to their Masters and the houshold or family to the Master or Mistris of a family that neither Servants nor Children are Sui juris or in their own power but in the power of Parents and Masters so that they may command them and not onely in matters of this life but especially in religion And if they were not so much in their power and bound in them it was strange that when the Centution believed his whole houshold became believers John 4. 53. and that Lydia and her houshold the Jaylour and all his or all his house should be baptized at one time Acts 16. 15. 33 34. And surely the Child of Christian Parents is bound in his Christian Parents unto the conditions of the Covenant so as no Child of any Mahumetan Pagan or unbelieving Jew is But the principal point to be cleared in this particular is § XX How Parents and Children are one person by the Laws of God in spiritual favours and priviledges so that what the right of the Parents is the same may be the right of the Children And what these rites and priviledges are which are communicable from the Parents to the Children And here this is a certain rule that so far as God binds Children in their parents to duty so far he binds himself to Children in their Parents by his promise The Apostle saith That if the root be holy so are the branches Rom. 11. 16. Where we may observe 1. That the root are the Parents and the branches are the Children 2. That the root and branches make but one tree So parents and Children make but one body one person Politick 3. That if the root be holy the branches are holy and to be holy is a Spirituall priviledge 4. That as the branches derive their naturall Being from the root so the Children derive their spiritual priviledges to be holy from their holy Parents Yet this holinesse is not either justification or inherent righteousnesse and immediate sanctification of the Spirit For when the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband it cannot be meant of any such sanctification neither is the holinesse of the Children of such sanctified parents any such thing It 's something whereby they are nearer the Kingdome of God then the Children of Apostate heathens Mahumetans
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
of this subjection especially after Christ's Exaltation Men are reduced by Calling Of the nature of Calling whereby Predestination begins to be put in execution What Predestination is considered as a Model or Idea in God Of this special Government and Ordination of Man to His Eternal Estate CHAP. V. The Exercise of this New Power acquired in the Administration considered first in general How this Kingdom was administred from the times of Adam till the Call of Abraham and God's Covenant with him How from his time till Moses How from Moses till John the Baptist. The Covenant made at Mount Sinai The Bondage of the Church under that Covenant according to the Promise in her minority Some alteration begun by John the Baptist. The exaltation of Christ to be Administrator-General The great alteration that followed thereupon in Administration both in Heaven and Earth CHAP. VI. The Administration of the Kingdom of God-Redeemer in particular by Laws Moral Positive as a Rule of Obedience in Precepts and Prohibitions Conscience what it is The Moral Laws of perpetual Obligation The different manner of Obligation to Adam Innocent from that which followed after the first Promise of Christ. The more perfect knowledge of it always continued in the Church which hath its use to the Gentile to the Jew to the Church-Christian How to be understood Evangelically The inequality of the Morality of several Commandments CHAP. VII The First Commandment The Preface of Moses and the Preface of God The meaning of the words How to be understood and how observed Evangelically The sins forbidden reduced to Atheism and Idolatry The Duties commanded and how to be performed to God-Redeemer alone as Supream and that in the highest degree CHAP. VIII The Second Commandment The Analysis of the whole shewing the sinne prohibited the Reasons why it must be avoided the particular and distinct Explication of the whole Commandement and every part what is expresly and in proper sense forbidden what by consequence and analogy The Duties commanded both under the Law and the Gospel both by consequence and analogy CHAP. IX The third Commandement The Order and Connexion of this with the former as of the former with the first The Analysis the proper and immediate sense the sins forbidden and the Duties commanded by consequence and analogy CHAP. X. The Fourth Commandement The order and relation of this Commandement to the former The reason why God instituted a Sabbath and the end of it the Analysis of the words the Explication of every part the Duties commanded the sins forbidden the Reasons to perswade to Sanctification the Jewish Sabbath ceased the Lord Day substituted and both upon sufficient grounds plain in Scripture CHAP. XI The Fifth Commandement The order the difference the inequality of the former and this latter part of the Law This with the four following derive their Morality from the last as that receives Morality from the first of the first Table the Analysis the Explication the Duties commanded the sins forbidden expresly by consequence and analogy as they concern persons in Families States Churches according to their several Relations CHAP. XII The Sixth Commandement The Subject man's life the absolute propriety whereof is in God the use onely in Man and it cannot be taken away without Warrant and Commission from God What Murther is what the degrees thereof what sins are here forbidden what Duties commanded Reasons against Murther CHAP. XIII The Seventh Commandement Adultery presupposeth Marriage what Adultery it is how many ways committed the heynousness of the sin and the Reasons against it what sins here implicitly according to certain Rules are reducible to this Commandement and forbidden The degrees of uncleanness the Causes the Duty in general commanded Chastity inward outward in Marrriage Single life the disswasives from Uncleanness the swasives to Chastity with the means to preserve it CHAP. XIV The Eighth Commandment Which presupposeth Propriety absolute in God derivative and limited in Man The several ways of acquiring it the degrees of it What Theft is The distinction of Thieves and Theft according as it is more or less palpable and as goods are publike or private or sacred committed by such as are trusted by others or have contracted with others The several kinds of Thefts in respect of Contracts The degrees of Theft The Causes What is commanded The meanes whereby Justice in this kind is preserved The reasons perswading to the observation of it CHAP. XV. The Ninth Commandement This Commandement presupposing Laws and the power of Jurisdiction aymes at just Judgment The former determines the right of Persons in the fifth of things as Wife-life Goods in the sixth seventh eighth and this to be observed before Judgment This prescribes our Neighbours right in Judgment The words explained The end why Witnesses are onely mentioned The Duties and Offences judicial of Jnformers Plaintiffs Defendants Sollicitors Atturneys Witnesses Notaries Counsellours Iurors delatory and judicial Judges Executioners The Disswasives from Disobedience Swasives to Obedience of this Commandement CHAP. XVI The Tenth Commandement This Commandement derives morality unto and is the rule root and measure of the five former Commandements and is explained Certain Rules and Observations upon the words explained The sins forbidden the Duties commanded the principal and intended duty which is To love our Neighbour as our selves What love in general is What the love of our Neighbour What the measure and what the end of it is Certain Rules added to give light to understand and use the Moral Law of Moses's Ten Commandements CHAP. XVII Of Positive and Ceremonial Laws of God-Redeemer as a Rule of Obedience The Name and Nature of Ceremonial and Positive Laws The Ceremonials and Positives especially Sacrifices and Sacraments instituted before the Exhibition of Christ and the Revelation of the Gospel The nature of Sacraments in general and their Accidents The Sacraments of the New Testament The Institution of Baptism by Christ in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost The definition of it the Institution of the Eucharist with the definition of it the Explication of the Elements Actions Words mentioned in the Institution who may administer these Sacraments To whom this may be administred Whether Christian Infants as one person with their Parents who are members of the Church and joyned with them in obligations and priviledges may not be baptized Whether the Faith as well as Prayers of one may not profit another Whether these Sacraments ought to be administred upon a divine infallible or humane fallible Judgment CHAP. XVIII Of Prayer Of the nature of Prayer The Lord's Prayer The Preface directing 1 Who must pray 2 For whom 3 To whom 4 In what manner And that since Christ's Glorification all Prayers even the Lord's Prayer is to be offered in the name of Christ and so to God-Redeemer The body of the Prayer contracting the matter of all Prayer to a few Petitions disposed in a most excellent order That which is first matter of
World to come According to it he must be judged and sent to Heaven or Hell and made eternally happy or miserable All errours and false notions contrary unto it must be rased out of the mind All inordinate affections and unruly passions must be subdued For we must lay apart all filthinesse and Superfluity of naughtinesse and receive with meeknesse the pure and genuine word of God which is able to save our souls Jam. 1. 24. And we must lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings and as New-born babes desire the Sincere milk of the Word c. 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. We must make our minds like blank Paper and in our hearts we must be like little Children otherwise the Heavenly Doctrine cannot make so liâ—ely impressions upon us 2. When the heart is thus prepared we must hear and read attentively consider what is heard or read that we may understand it We must apply it and lay it close unto our own hearts and pray for the Spirit to make it powerful and effectual within us As it is Wisdom first to teach so it is first to learn the Principles and to understand them well and being once in these well grounded they will not be so subject either to be seduced or waveâ—ing in their judgment and it will be a great advantage to improve their knowledge And when once they understand the truth it will discover their woful condition to humble them and their Saviour to raise them up again It 's a part of the duty of every one that is a Scholler in this School not onely to understand the truth but also to endeavour the practise thereof out of an earnest desire of Salvation And if a man neglect the means use not the power that God hath given him and seriously intend the principal end it will be just with God to desert him and deny his grace unto him Practice must be the principal design and Knowledge so far as conducing thereunto If the man being taught § XVI be diligent and willing for to learn both to know and do that which is known and that with a prepared heart and desire of God's Blessed Spirit to teach him inwardly and effectually then God will remember his Promise and will give him a new Heart and a new Spirit he will put in him and will take the stoney heart out of his flesh and give him an heart of flesh He will put his Spirit within him and cause him to walk in his Statutes and keep his Judgments to do them Ezek. 36. 26 27. For this is a Promise of the Gospel and the New Covenant I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And as man teacheth outwardly God teacheth inwardly yet he never writes his Word in an unprepared heart neither doth he write any thing within but that which is taught outwardly out of the Scriptures And as the Minister must teach so the People must hear and heed otherwise God will deny his Spirit Man cannot speak unto the Soul immediatly but by the outward and inward Senses God speaks immediatly unto the Soul pierceth deeply into it writes clear and lively Characters upon the mind and makes strong impressions upon the heart When the Ministers Doctrine is thus accompanied with the Power of God and brought home not onely unto but also into the Soul then the Teacher is a Minister not onely of the Letter but also of the Spirit and the Word is the Word of God indeed formally and properly when God thus speaks it immediatly himself and it will manifest it self by the Heavenly Light Power of Sanctification and Consolation following thereupon And then man knows the Word read or heard preached out of the Scripture to be from Heaven and God's Voyce and that upon better grounds then any Tradition possibly can be By the same Word we are begotten and born anew By the same we must grow and tend unto perfection the Spirit concurring with it And the Spirit by Divine Institution and God's Promise goes along with it except man by his neglect of the means or some other demeâ—it give caâ—â—e to God to deny it The sum of all this is § XVII 1. That the Doctrine of the Scriptures is the Rule whereby we are directed in the knowledge of God's Kingdome 2. This Doctrine was in the mind of God and known onely to himself before he communicated it to Men and Angels 3. He did make this known by immediate Inspiration to the Holy Prophets and Apostles 4. By them he communicated it to others both by Word and Writing in both which they were directed by him infallibly 5. The Originals therefore were immediatly of Divine Authority and most worthy to be believed and the Transcripts and Translations so far as they agreed with the Originals 6. The Tradition or Testimony of the Church may declare this yet as a Testimony it can satisfie no man fully 7. God communicates this Doctrine unto men by ordinary Teachers not immediatly inspired 8. The Scripture is the standing Rule to direct these ordinary Teachers And so far as they follow this Rule so far their Doctrine is good and no further 9. The people taught are bound to hear those Teachers with prepared hearts and in that manner as God requireth 10. If they hear in this manner God according to his Promise will make it effectual to convert justifie and comfort them 11. This Spirit testifying by real effects the matter of the Scripture to be Divine is not a private Spirit but the publique Spirit of Christ in the Universal Church and the thing testified by this Spirit is the Publique Doctrine believed and professed by the Vniversal Church It 's true that it 's testified to a private Man and in that respect it is not Publique 12 By this manner of ordinary teaching with the concurrence of the sanctifying Spirit God works ordinarily a Divine Faith in the hearts of men and not by the Vniversal Tradition of the Church 13. The Tradition of the Church so far as it may be known concerning the Divine Authority of the whole Canon is a ground of a probable Faith against which No rational man as rational can except CHAP. III. Concerning the ancient Creeds and Confessions and of Faith in general HItherto § I of the Original the Nature and Qualities of the Holy Scriptures which must be the Rule of the ensuing Discourse concerning God's Kingdom But before I proceed to the particular Explication of this excellent Subject it will not be amiss to enquire Whether the principal subject of the Scripture may not be reduced to a method or Whether some parts or passages of Scripture will not give a sufficient light and direction to this method if there be any such thing Many School-men and some Modern Authors of Theological Systems following the Rules of the great Philosopher have attempted to reduce the Doctrine contained in God's Book into
assumed and so sent how elâ—e could he pray and make intercession For God cannot pray or desire any thing of a Superiour And his Prayer is directed to his Father as God and the supream Cause and Fountain of all those mercies desired in that Prayer and as such he canot be personally considered And it cannot any ways follow that because he to whom flesh assumed did pray was the onely true God that therefore the Word assuming flesh which was in the Beginning before there was any flesh to be assumed and the same with God so that he was God is not God The Text Joh. 1. 1. expresly saith He was God and that God by whom all things were made But he that makes the Holy Ghost to be a Quality and Vertue residing in God and issuing from God upon man as Crellius doth can hardly be reckoned amongst sober Christians The Master of the Sentences and the School-men following him out of Austin § V make the Soul of man an Image of the Trinity And Bacon is resolute according to his Title Doctor Resolutus and saith that the Trinity is Deus intellectus et amatus à Seipso God understood and beloved of himself Yet they agree not in what respect the Soul is this Image Whether in respect of the Substance or the Faculties or the Substance and two Acts as Cameracensis and others do determine which is most probably the sense of St. Austin If the Soul understand and love it Self understood it 's the same one individual Substance which understandeth which is understoood which is loved Yet the Soul as Understanding differs from it Self as understood and as understanding and understood from it self as loving and loved yet this Image and Representation is very imperfect not so much for Peter Lombard's Reasons But 1. Because we do not understand how the Eternal and infinite Deity doth act upon it self 2. The Soul hath no perfect Knowledge of it self as God hath of himself 3. Man's Soul as the Object of it self known and loved is but the Soul intentionally and so the Productions are not real but imperfect but the Divine Productions are perfect But it 's our Duty to be wise and sober and restrain our inclination and propension to curious Speculations in these great Mysteries And we must know that the Predications and Expressions used in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost transcend the Rules of Humane Logick Grammar Rhetorick And I am verily perswaded that the mystery of the Trinity is more fully and clearly delivered in Scripture then we understand it By all this § VI we may clearly understand that there is a vast yea an infinite distance between God and all other Beings and he is infinitely more glorious and excellent then the best For 1. He is absolutely and every way most perfect so that there is no imperfection nor possibility of imperfection in him 2. That he knowing and enjoying himself fully and for ever must needs be infinitely and eternally delighted with himself and fully for ever content in himself 3. That he is the most noble Object of the Vnderstanding and Will of Men and Angels 4. His Beauty is such that if we could see but some little of it it would enamour and ravish our hearts and wrap us into such an Admiration that all other things even the most excellent would appear to be base and vile in comparison of him He is that Fountain whence the streams of everlasting joy perpetually issue His Majesty is so excellent as that he is worthy to be adored with the greatest humility and reverence But oh How little of his Excellency do we know How seldome do our choicest Contemplations fix upon him How frozen and congealed are our hearts and affections towards Him Oh! Let us improve our knowledge of him that our love may be more ardent our desires of him more quick and lively our Longings after him more vehement our Hearts more purified that we may hasten to the full enjoyment of him in Eternal Glory The great business in this life we have to do is to be cleansed in the blood of Christ that in the end we may be fully consecrated and so fit to enter the Temple of Heaven and see the brightness of his glory that so we may be fully and for ever happy in the presence of this Great and everlasting King All his Perfections do inform us § VII how worthy He alone is to be an Universal Supream Eternal Lord and King For his most perfect Being tends to make him a most Perfect King His absolute Unity is such that there can be no Competitour to lay claim unto the Soveraignty and so it 's a Foundation of perpetual Peace His Immensity is such that he can be and is personally present in all places of his Dominion His Eternity makes him King in all times as his Immensity makes him Lord in all places His Knowledge and Wisdom are such as that he alone can contrive and model the best Government and administer it in the best manner His Integrity and Rectitude is absolute so that his Laws and Judgments must need be just and he cannot possibly do any wrong This is his proper Prerogative His Power is Almighty and irresistible and always regulated most exactly by his Wisdom and Justice So that he alone is able to give absolute and perpetual Protection and render unto his loyal and obedient Subjects Eternal glory and afflict his Enemies and the Wicked with Eternal Punishments So that He and He alone is worthy to reign as He and He alone is able to make us for ever Blessed CHAP. VIII Concerning the Regal Power of God and how it is acquired AFter the Declaration of the absolute Perfection of the glorious and Eternal God in himself § I whereof we know but little Order requires that we next consider him in his Regal Capacity as he is a King That which essentially constitutes a King or Govenour is his Power And Supream and Absolute Power inherent in one Person makes a Supream and Absolute Monarch and such God is and moreâ— Therefore he must needs have not onely an absolute and Supream but an Vniversal and Eternal Power Seeing he must rule and reign universally and Eternally the Nature and Qualities of this Power will be more easily understood after that we know how he doth acquire and exercise it Therefore we must examine How it is Acquired Exercised It 's Acquired by Creation Continued by Preservation Power must be had and possessed before it can be exercised and therefore God first acquired his Power It was indeed virtually in him from everlasting and he was from everlasting worthy of all Power Honour and Dominion yet â—overning power actually he had not before he had Subjects For Power is a Relative Subjects he had not before the Creation And the beginning of his Creation was the beginning of his Actual Power For the Creatures were no sooner made but they were
for an Act of Divine Power as it is a cause of subjection which must â—o before admission To understand this we must consider the Subject of it and that is Man as sub alienâ potestate under the power of Sin and Sathan and so out of God's Kingâ—om and as an Alien to this Heavenly Common-wealth and such is every one by Nature as he is out of Jesus Christ. Yet there are degrees of this distance some are further off some nearer to this Kingdom This is evident from the condition of Jews and Gentiles in former times and always especially since the times of the Gospel Because all men are either in the visible Church or out of it And men may be out of the Church two ways 1. As never admitted into the same Or 2. Such as being in the Church prove Apostates The Gentiles once were not Gentiles For their first Apostate Fathers were in the Church and the Jews in former times were God's people but for their unbelief are cast out and continue LO-AMMI none of God's people and this shall be their condition till such time as the fulness of the Gentiles be come in And we must distinguish of such as are in the visible Church for some are sincerely subjected unto God-Redeemer according to their Allegiance Some are Subjects onely by Name and Profession and by their ignorance unbelief disobedience are little better then Heathens and Aliens Some are subject in some measure but come short of that degree which is required to admission All these excepting one sort are out of this Kingdome as it consists of reall Saints and living members of Christ. Apostates shall never be called much lesse admitted if they be personally and wilfully such For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10. 26. and if no more Sacrifice then calling is in vain and to no purpose Yet the posterity of Apostates may be and have been called And if once God vouchsafe the meanes of conversion to Idolators who have forsaken not only God as their Redeemer but as Creatour and Preserver he requires of them to renounce the Devil and turn from their Idols to the living God first and then unto him as Redeemer by Jesus Christ. They which have forsaken Jesus Christ or deny him as their Saviour and yet acknowledge and worship God alone as the Creatour of Heaven and Earth the Preserver and Governour of the World as Turks all Mahumetans and the unbelieving Jews do at this day are bound to acknowledge Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer and sure his incarnation and glorification as already come into the World The case of the Jew in the times of Christ and the Apostles was singular For the sincere Proselyte and Jew had onely this to do to believe in Christ already come as before they believed in him to come and so they became compleat members of the Church Christian and perfectly subjects of the Kingdome of Christ glorified The Ignorant and Prophane as also the Hypocrits must forsake their wicked wayes and sincerely submit themselves Yet none of these things can be done without a power from Heaven and a Vocation which is a gracious work of God Redeemer wherein he by his Word and Spirit reduceth man to subjection so that he is fitted to be a subject of his Blessed Kingdome For by Calling we are delivered from the power of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of His Dear Son Col. 1. 13. Therefore said to be called out of darknesse into his marveylous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. And upon this they who were not a people are made the people of God verse 10. For God will put his lawes into their mind and write them in their hearts and thereupon He will be their God and they shall be to him a People Heb. 8. 10. In all these Passages and many more it 's evident 1. That by nature and as born of sinfull Adam we are in darknesse out of Gods Kingdome none of Gods People 2. That we passe out of darknesse into light and into Christs Kingdom 3. This is not a work of our own merit or power For it 's God that delivers us translates us writes his lawes in our hearts and this of his free mercy and by his great and wonderfull power 4. By this we become Gods people and subjects of Christ's Kingdom And all this is said to be by calling For he called us out of darknesse into his marvaylous light All these particulars are expressed or implyed in those words of the Apostle who signifies that God would send him to the Gentiles to open their eves and to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and as inheritance among them which are sanctifyed by saith in Christ Act. 26. 17 18. This Vocation § VII as it is an act of power and great mercy and free grace for by grace we are saved so it s a work which is effected by the Word and Spirit For as we are regenerate so we are called and we are regenerate 1. By the Word 2. By the Spirit By the Word For of his own will he begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By the Spirit For except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 5. In the Word God commands and promiseth The command binds man to submit The promise is a motive to enforce the performance of the precept This we maâ— understand and observe in the Call of Abraham For 1. He is commanded to get him out of his Countrey and from his kindred and from his Fathers house unto a land that God would shew him and to perswade him God promiseth to make him a great nation and to blesse him c. But the principall promise was that in him all the familyes of the earth should be blessed Gen. 12. 1. 2 3. This precept implyes that man is under the domiâ—ion of sin and Sathan and therefore commands him to forsake his sin and Sathan and turn from Satan unto God In this God makes use of the Doctrine of the fall of Adam and the Morall Law as given unto him and binding him to perfect and perpetual obedience and upon disobedience threatning Death And by the precept is discovered mans sin and by threatning his misery to humble him break his heart make him weary of sin and desirous of deliverance and willing upon any termes to accept a Saviour Yet this gives him no Comfort nor any Power to do that which is his duty though God make use of it to prepare mans heart The first dutyes commanded are 1. A sight of sin as sin in our selves whereby we are miserable The 2. Is saith whereby we believe that God being satisfyed and attoned by the blood of Christ will be mercifull and pardon sin This faith
Himself wherein we have both His absolute and relative Titles whereby He asserts both His own absolute and supream Power and their dependence upon Him The Titles are three The first is absolute I am the Lord which signifies His absolute and most perfect Being in Himself who is worthy of all glory honour power and subjection for evermore For all glorious and most excellent perfections agree to Him who is so glorious and so excellent in Himself and the Basis and immovable Foundation of the World and of all created Beings which issue from His infinite and Almighty Power and without His sustentation return to nothing From this we understand that this Lord and Law-giver is onely one and there can be no other For He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings The second Title which together with the third being relative is Thy God To be the God of Israel was not onely to be creatour preserver and governour in generall for so he was the God of all mankind but it iâ—cludes some speciall relation to them For he was their God and in such a manner as He was to none others He was their God by Election Promise and their voluntary submission and engagement so that they were his Peculiar People By this also we understand their total dependence upon him his absolute power over them and that whatsoever degree of subjection and duty he should require it was justly due unto him and that not onely by vertue of his Power but their solemn engagement Exod. 19. 8. The third Title is Who have brought thee out of the land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage This doth put them in mind of their Bondage and sad condition in Aegypt and deliverance out of the same If we consider their condition before this deliverance We shall find 1. They were but Sojourners in that Idolatrous nation had no Countrey or habitation hereditary of their own in any place under heaven 2. They were under a cruel bloody Tyrant and had neither governours nor governments independent of themselves 3. Their male Children were born to be murdered and to lose their life so soon as they began to enjoy it in the light of the World 4. They were made absolute slaves and drudges and bound to base and hard service which they were no wayes able to perform and yet liable to grievous punishments if they performed it not Yet out of this sad condition God did deliver them in a wonderfull and glorious manner For 1. God fearfully plagued and punished their enemyes and took vengeance on them for their cruel oppression 2. Brought them out with an high hand 3. They were no sooner departed out of that cursed Kingdome but God took them into his special Protection A Cloud must cover them by day and be a guide and Pillar of fire and light by night The Angels of Heaven not onely going before them but bringing up the reare 4. When Pharoah with the power of Egypt pursued them and took them in the straites he divided the Sea and made way for them through the deep wherein he drowned the host and strength of Egypt with their King pursuing them 5. His Providence over them being a continued course of Miracles had brought them thus far towards that goodly land wherein he intended to settle them and give them peace and prosperity till their Saviour and Redeemer should come and be exhibited And as that land was a type of their heavenly inheritance so this deliverance was of their spirituall and eternall redemption by Jesus Christ. So that as Gods benefits were unspeakable so their engagements unto God were high and very great and so great as they could never be sufficiently thankfull And if he should give them any lawes they were bound in the highest degree to observe them not onely for his glory but their own happinesse For God had delivered them out of the hands of their enemyes that they might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all their dayes Luk. 1. 74 75. This preface was of greatest force to engage them and the fittest that possibly could be to prepare them for this law and perswade them to obedience And to this end it includes a multitude of most powerfull motives and though it hath speciall reference to the first and great commandement yet it referrs to all the rest as depending upon it And seeing this law was given 430 yeares after the promise of the Blessed seed made to their Father Abraham they might have understood that it was not given for justification and life but to be a School-Master or Tutour to order and direct unto Christ in whom they were to seek Remission of their sins and eternal life Though many of them understood it not in this manner Yet we Christians who have a clearer light can have no excuse if we be ignorant hereof These Commandements were written in two Tables and 1. Are reducible to two heads Such as determine 1. Our duty towards God 2. Our duty towards our Neighbour 2. These bind the conscience and reach the very will and heart of man and not onely acts inward or outward issuing from the heart 3. As they are delivered unto us Exod. 20. They were given to Israel in particular and the word Thou used in every Commandement signifies that God in them spake unto that Israel whom he brought up out of Aegypt and stood before Mount Sinai when God spake these words and it signifies all Israel joyntly as one person collective and every one of them severally in particular 4. As given then at that time to Israel it did neither promise Pardon of any sin nor power of the Spirit to keep it Both these were to be expected from the promise made to Abraham and annexed to that promise it did serve to discover sin and to direct to Christ promised 5. When we find the dutyes of the law pressed upon Believers in Christ we must know that they are to be performed to God Redeemer by the power of the Spirit of Christ as hath been said before 6. There are some dutyes mentioned in Scripture which are so generall as to comprehend all the Commandements Some that extend to all the first table and some to all the second as we use to speak Some are expresly delivered in the severall Commandements Some deducible from the express words Some onely reducible unto these heads by way of analogie or some trope in Rhetorick yet expresly mentioned in other Scriptures and one and the same thing may in severall respects be commanded or forbidden in severall commandements 7. This law is distinct both from the Judicial and Ceremonial yet both are reducible to it The first commandement virtually includes all the rest and is purely morall in the first place as the last is morall in the second place and all the rest derive their Morality from these two as was before hinted Other rules delivered by severall authours for the better understanding of
many rational Servants properly so called Of these be many kinds 1. Such as have little use of Reason and are onely fit to be governed and not to govern yet having health and strength are able to do good service by the direction of others 2. Some through want and penury or a competent Estate or Family of their own became mercenary hired servants who otherwise were free Such are most of our Servants 3 Some for Debt â—ell their Children and sometimes themselves for Servants and Bond-slaves These might be called Vendititii who sold their children and themselves 4. After that a greater multiplication of Mankind into greater Societies as Cities and Civil States They waged War one against another and by the Law and general consent of Nations the goods of the Conquered became a lawful spoyl and the persons captives and slaves to the Conquerours and so Servants were increased These were Servi Capti Servants taken in War who had their life for a prey and their maintainance for their service 5. And if these or any others were detained as servants in a Family and suffered to marry and had children these children were servants called in Latine Verâ—ae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Septuagint Gen. 17. 13. 6. If any were bought they were called in that respect EMPTITII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bought with money Yet these being Servants before by this Act became Servants to those who bought them 7. Many were brought into Servitude most unjustly by Men-stealers who are called Plagiarii 8. Amongst these may be reckoned Apprentices who in some Trade or Profession serve under their Masters till the time of manumission and liberty The Duty of all Servants § XII as such is to do service to their Masters willingly faithfully diligently as in the presence of God the great Master of Heaven Their aym must be to preserve and improve their Masters Estate whose work they do and they must know that they are not Sui juris either free or their own Masters and that their Masters Will must be their Will because they are under their Power and Command These two Duties of Faithfulness and Diligence are proper and though they be bound to Reverence Subjection Obedience yet these are common Duties which all Inferiours under the power of another are bound to perform Let all Servants hearken to the Doctrine of the Apostles and practise it They must be obedient to their own Masters in the flesh with fear and trembling in singlenesse of heart as unto Christ not with Eye-service as men pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service to the Lord and not to men Knowing that what good thing any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Eph. 6. 5 6 7 8. Knowing that of the Lord yee shall receive the inheritance for ye serve the Lord. But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong he hath done and there is no respect of persons Col. 3. 24 25. They must not purloin but shew all fidelity Tit. 2. 10. And they must honour not onely their Christian but their unbelieving Masters 1 Tim. 6. 1. and not onely the gentle and good but the froward 1 Pet. 2. 18. In all which places we may observe the Dutyes the Sins the Rewards the Punishments of servants Their Dutyes are fidelity and diligence in their Service Their Sins murmuring purloining unfaithfulnesse negligence The Reward of good servants is not onely maintenance and wages on earth but God's blessing and a reward in heaven The Punishment of bad servants is not onely such as the severity of their Masters shall inflict but the curse of God here and hereafter Amongst servants may be reckoned Factours and such as undertake the businesse of others for wages and thereupon because they are trusted are bound to account Under this head may be reduced all such as are hired to do work for others Besides all these there are in a family such as neither be children nor servants but such as sojourn and dwell with the Master of the family and are in some sort under his power as strangers and sojourners in a forreign State may be said to be unperfectly subjects to the power of the State where they live for a time The Duty of Masters is to give unto their servants that which is just and equal knowing that they also have a Master in Heaven Col. 4. 1. They must not oppress them abuse them or deny unto them any thing which the Lawes of God the just Lawes of men and their own contract doth allow them If it be a sin to be unmercifull to a Beast much more is it to be unmercifull to a man And though servants cannot right themselves yet God will hear their cry and judge their cause Before I conclude this point of the Duty of Servants and Masters one thing is to be observed That christian Masters should be of all others most just unto their meanest servants because they professe their belief of that Master in heaven and as he is mercifull and just to them so they should be unto their servants Christian servants also should remember that they do service not onely unto man but God and to God not onely as Creator but to him as Redeemer and to Jesus Christ who is exalted at the right hand of God and though they be Servants to men yet if they truly believe they are Sons of God and may expect an inheritance in heaven And besides their other sins this is grievous if they run from their Masters as Onesimus did from Philemon A family is the seminary both of the Church § XIII and civil State And as a State or Church may be said to be a great family so a family well ordered may be called a little common-wealth civill or ecclesiastical Therefore I proceed from oeconomical to politick dutyes which by analogy are reducible to this 5th commandement A family which seems to be onely a private society may multiply into severall familyes and they into Vicinityes and greater multitudes And though every family hath an order of superiority and subjection yet the severall families and Vicinityes being distinct have no power one over another but in that respect are equall Yet these may associate and unite themselves into a community and become one body not onely by confederation for friendship and mutuall help commerce and defence but may enter into a stricter bond of Union and become politick and establish an order of superiority and subjection either for matters of this life or for Religion or for both as Israel set at liberty by God and brought out of Egypt was incorporate into one common-wealth civil and ecclesiastical For in the constitution of a common-wealth the community is the subject and matter the order of superiority and subjection is the form There must be a supreme power one universall Will and Power and the subject
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
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