befall Much less as other some conceited are Was that Command intended as a Snare Those to entrap whom thy eternal Hate Had fore-decreed Oh God! to reprobate Far it is from the Goodness of thy Nature To be a God so Cruel to thy Creature And far far be it from thy Creatures too To their kind Maker so great wrong to do This rather seems the cause there could not be A possibility that Thou and We Should make a perfect Unity unless Our Nature had Essential Righteousness For otherwise thy Justice would abhor That which thy Mercy did endeavour for And from uniting us become so far That thine own Attributes would be at War. When therefore Man seduced fail'd in that Which might have perfected his blest Estate And that perform'd not whereby Justice might In our Advancement take a full delight Behold thy powerful Mercy did prevent Our total ruin by a Wonderment Beyond the Worlds Creation out of nought For when by Sin we further off were brought From what thou had'st intended us then by The not obtaining of an Entity Thy all-inventing wisdom found a mean Through which our Essence made e're while unclean Should be re-purifi'd and so perfum'd That personally it might be then assum'd Unto thy self and Man thereby attain A Happiness not to be lost again If some few easy Duties he will do When Grace enables Nature thereunto And doubtless every Man shall one day know That thou on him such portions didst bestow Ev'n pers'nally that if he be undone It was not Adams but his fault alone This Mystery thy goodness brought to pass And for no other end Oh Lord it was But for our good for neither dost thou need Our Praise or Love nor is it for the deed Of Love or Praise or Worship or of ought Which by our faculties to pass is brought That thou requirest them of us but that we Should not unto our selves defective be In doing our endeavours to attain So much as lieth in our power to gain Lest it indamage us and in the way Unto our true perfections stops may lay Essential goodness hath essential peace Without all diminution or increase And therefore he who blessedness desires To that above all other thing aspires To love and give due praise is better far Than to be lov'd or to be praised are To him that hath subsistance of his own Ev'n I my self whose heart is overgrown With imperfections love without respect Of any end but meerly to affect Those whom I love and rather would have done Ten thousand kindnesses than sought for one And Lord if such a failing love as mine May reach to this how infinite is thine And Oh how far art thou from things so vain As loving meerly to be lov'd again By such poor worms as we whose best affection Is but a passion full of imperfection Indeed thou bid'st us love thee but for what Save to preserve us capable of that Which we receive and that we might not miss The comfort which in Virtue placed is And of whose hapless want he cannot chuse But feel the loss whose conscience doth accuse Yea thou commandest love that love may make Our nature of thy nature to partake Without which quality there cannot be The true Communion 'twixt us and thee Which is the very height of all our bliss Or which indeed the Essence of it is For could we be of thee Oh God! approv'd Or could we of all creatures be belov'd Tho' we no love return'd nor had in us An object for the love conferred thus Which were impossible we ne'retheless Should suffer by our own unworthiness An inward Hell and to our selves invent Occasions of continual discontent As to those envious men it may appear Who causlesly injurious often are To those their honest neighbours whom they find To them as friendly as they are unkind For outward plagues pursueth so this sin Nay also so affects him still within And till his nature be depraved quite His own Injustice will his heart affright Yea they whose Crimes are pardon'd are not free From suff'rings though they well assured be That neither God nor Man will blame them for The passed Frailties which they do abhor For then our hearts will grieve do what we can If they have injur'd either God or Man. And then more favour is vouchsaf'd to them The more themselves they censure and condemn Therefore although I can forgive my Friend Yet I would have him wary to offend Lest when he finds his error griev'd he be Within himself that he hath wronged me And in his heart a torment suffer should From which my love would keep him if I could Ev'n so oh Lord my God though in degree More infinite than can conceived be And in a manner which I am not able By any Figure to make demonstrable In meer Good-will to Man thou pleased art To preach unto his ear or to his Heart Those Dutys which to thee from him belong That he unto himself may do no wrong Because we seem a great esteem to have Of Love and Praise and thereby to receive Content and profit thou dost oft propose By us to be perform'd such things as those As Dutys which are much of thee desired And at our hand for thy avail required But doubtless thou dost only seem to be Like us that thou might'st make us like to thee And that if thee we love we might be won To do as for thy sake what should be done For our own Good As Parents kind and wise Have dealt with Children in their Infancies And whereas Lord it hath been said by thee That thou wilt of thine honour Jealous be Thou only Jealous art lest our neglect Of thee our own perdition may effect Thou dost things Honourable and though none Did praise thee for them they should still be done Thine honour is essential That we give And which from us thou pleasest to receive Is but an accident which ever may Without thy loss be present or away And when thou either thanks or praise requirest To perfect us those Dutys thou desirest This we long time have so misunderstood As if we did conceive thou wert a God Affected with Self-Love or Fruitless Fame Although we mannerly express the same Yea we have dream'd that thou this world did'st make And us and all things for thy Glorys sake In such a sense and for such praises too As we effect when our best works we do I would we thought no worse or would we knew What damnable absurdities ensue Our groundless Fancies For by them thou gain'st Some fear but little hearty love obtain'st By these false thoughts of thee we do encrease Our own self Love and all vain gloriousness Within our selves hence is all we intend Our whole endeavours for a private end And that a froward peevishness is own'd In most of all our actions to be found For who can possibly be just or wise Who to his God imputes absurdities Lord now we better
quite forgotten That thy Truth remaineth from one Generation to another or That thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness in so much that we may justly repeat unto thee this complaint of thy Prophet David Lord it is time for thee to lay to thine hand for they have destroyed thy Law. Hear my prayer O Lord and though I am small and of no reputation yet since I would not forget thy Law deliver me from mine Oppressors and so teach me thy Statutes that I may keep them unto the end yea though the proud have me in derision and almost made an end of me upon Earth yet let my heart be made so upright in thy Statutes that I may not be ashmed to remember thy promise made to thy Servant even that wherein thou hast caused me to trust Let it quicken me and be my comfort in my troubles For thou art all my portion and I have determined to keep thy word Before I was afflicted I went so much astray that it was good for me to have some troubles O let me hereafter be always exercised in thy Law Let it be a Lanthorn unto my feet and a Light unto my path Look upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to be unto those who love thy name Let the proud be ashamed that they have dealt falsly with me Let such as fear thee be turned unto me and comfort thou me according to the years wherein I have been afflicted that they who see it may glorifie thy name for mine eyes have almost failed with waiting for thy assurance Though I have gone astray like a Sheep yet seek thy Servant and deal with me according to thy mercy Let all these my Supplications come before thee that my Soul may live that my Lips may praise thee and that my Tongue may sing of thy Goodness and Mercy for ever and ever Amen Sir among other kindnesses vouchsafed in your Neighbourhood I received from you the Copper Plates which are now made use of in this Book The words which I have added unto those dumb Figures will make them I hope much more profitable and cause them to be a means of publishing those Caveats and Universal Duties which are pertinent as well to the General well-being of Mankind as to the Glory of God which two things were the proper ends of our Creation and ought also to be the chief care of our life To those ends therefore and that your cost might not be unprofitably bestowed I have returned the Coppies of those Figures which you gave me illustrated with such Meditations as my leisure and ability could afford And they do now as well speak as make signs what is prepared for wilful Transgressors of these Laws whereby if God may receive any honour or his Children profit I desire it may be some honour and advantage which is the desire of Your Hearty and Well-wishing Friend GEO. WITHER The Decalogue And these wordes which I Command thâ— this day shal be in thine heart And thou shall rehearse them Continually unto thy children and shalt talke of them when thou 〈◊〉 in thine house and as thou walkest by the way and when thou liest downe when thou risest up And thou shalt binde them for a signe vpon 〈…〉 they Shal be as 〈…〉 thine eies Also thou shalt write them vpon the postes of thine house and vpon thy gateâ— 6 Deut 6 7-8.9 I THOV SHALT HAVE NONE OTHER GODS BVT ME II THOV SHALT NOT MAKE TO THY SELFE ANY GRAVEN YMAGE III THOV SHALT NOT TAKE Y e NAME OF Y e LORD THY GOD IN VAINE IIII REMEMBER THAT THOV KEEP HOLY Y e SABBOTH DAY V HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER VI THOV SHALT DO NO MVRDER VII THOV SHALT NOT COMMIT ADVLTERIE VIII THOV SHALT NOT STEALE IX THOV SHALT NOT BEARE FALSE WITNESSE X THOV SHALT NOT COVET Beholde I see before you this day a blessing and a Curse The blessing if ye Obey the Comaundements of the Lord your GOD which I CoÌ„mand you this day And the Curse if ye wil not obey y â— Commandements of y e Lord your GOD but tâ—â—ne Out of the way which I Command you this day to go after other gods which ye haue not known â—â— Deut 26 27 28 Optimum â—â—t aliena frui insania Happy shall that man become Who this Law departs not from Blessings will descend on him From the Mount of Gerizim But from Ebal they shall hear Curses who rebellious are Death for them attending stands Who shall break these just Commands And to those who them obey God proposeth life for aye THE Prologue Let All these following Lessons learn For all Mankind these Laws concern ALL you who Sons by Grace or Nature be Give ear to what my Muses preach to me For what I now do purpose to declare No less than Universal Statutes are Which every Child of Adam here beneath Must keep in person on the pain of Death Or by a faithful Penitence procure An able Pledge to pay his Forfeiture You who by Nature had the means to know What Duties Creatures to their Maker owe Read here what by God's Finger once was writ Within your hearts that you may practise it And having lost that Light which Nature gave Take what you may by Grace's tender have On fleshly Tables once again renew The fair impression which at first he drew For 't was your Sin which thence Gods Law did blot And Ignorance therefore excuseth not You whom the special grace of our Creator Brought by his power Almighty thro' the Water Of sound Baptism and within the Flood Of his dear Sons most pure and pretious Blood Drown'd all that Hoast of Sins which our Grand Foe Had mustred for our final overthrow Observe you also this renowned Law To keep it with a loving filial awe Lest though you scap'd enraged Pharoh's Hoast Your entrance to the promis'd Rest be crost And lest your following what your Lust deviz'd You in your lawless wandrings be surpriz'd By those yet living Tyrants who possess The passages of this Lifes Wilderness For though in Act we cannot keep entire So strict a Law we may in our desire And where Desire is not perverted quite We have a ready means to set it right If any say or think this Obligation Pertaineth only to the Jewish Nation They are deceiv'd for if they well compare These Precepts to those Laws which written are Within our hearts it will be out of doubt That these are but the same transcribed out In Stone they were engraven long ago Lest all the World should quite forgetful grow Of these their Duties To the Jews God gave them To be preserv'd from loss From them we have them Distinguish'd by two Tables to be known From Laws that were peculiars of their own And though some literal circumstance be found Appearing to oblige beyond the Bound Of Legal Ceremonies which to some A means of stumbling and offence become Yet they that meekly minded are shall
He that from Holy Orders goeth back And by his Idleness becometh slack In Duties of his Calling or grown rich By Church promotions thinks it overmuch To execute that Function as he ought To which with wealth and honour he is brought Even he what fair excuse so ere he make Is justly said Gods name in vain to take For if he proveth guiltless he receiv'd A dispensation more than I believ'd A Prayer without Faith a formal mention Of Gods due praise without a due intention Yea vain or complemental Salutations Without Sincerity are prophanations Against this Law though many men have thought That these are signs of persons better taught Dissembling Fasts Thanksgivings mumbled out With babling Repititions and devout In nought but feigned Term or length of Time Do make men guilty likewise of this Crime Nay many Sermons of the vulgar strain Are taking of the Name of God in vain He that his Church or Chappel hath bedeckt And yet Gods living Temples doth neglect He that a love to those doth seem to carry Yet leaves defac'd his outward Sanctuary He that to bend his body is asham'd When he shall here his blessed Saviour nam'd He that without an inward Adoration Bows outwardly or with an Affectation To mimick Gestures or performs the same Unto the vocal sounding of the Name Or either practiseth or leaves undone Such Duties in Contempt of any one Even He though to be guiltless he pretends Against this Third Commandement offends But none this holy precept more have broke Than they who on themselves Christs name have took Yet live like Infidels excepting those Who guild Hypocrisy with Godly shows And under pious habits use to prey On those who being more sincere than they Are threatned and suppose all well bestown While these will take till nothing is their own God keep his Lambs from these as from the worst Of all Dissembers and the most accurst The Faults condemn'd seem nothing to have bin To this abhorred Hell begotten Sin Are Drunken Jollities vnbridled passion A wicked Custom Slight consideration And evil Narture but much blame is cast On Tutors and some Parents for the last All these must therefore shunned be by him That would not Swear For-swear Curse nor Blaspheme This must be likewise heeded that unless We still on all occasions do confess The Name of God and Sanctifie it too By such good Duties as we ought to do As in Relieving those who in his Name Shall ask without abusing of the same In swearing by it when just cause requires In suffering for it though by Sword and Fires When God may be dishonour'd by a base Forsaking of our Faith or of our Place Yea if we be not ready to our might In all Gods Attributes to do him right And honour him in Deed in Word and Thought In what we can although not as we ought We faulter in our Duty and 't is plain We do profess to bear Gods name in vain My Heart LORD GOD so settle in thy way That I this Law may never disobey Amen Commandment IV. IIII. Remember that thou keep holy y e Sabbath day c. 'T is not in the Common Creed That he gather'd Sticks for need Who for Sabbath breaking dy'd For all wants were so supply'd That it seems he did transgress By Contempt or Carelessness He commits the same offence ' Gainst this Precepts moral sence Who the Christian Sabbaths wrongs And a Plague to him belongs Command IV. To hallow do not thou forget Those times which God apart hath set YOu that our Christian Sabbath do despise Behold this Figure with regardful eyes For though on us this Precept doth not lay The Ceremonial service of the day Or to a Jewish Sabbath us confine It n'retheless a Duty doth enjoin Which no man living can be freed from Till to the general Judgment Christ shall come For Nature urges that convenient Rest Should be allowed both to Man and Beast Lest their corporeal substance should miscarry Before the time And 't is as necessary The Soul should have some leisure to attend His will on whom her being doth depend Freemen may rest their bodies when they please And Wise men know how for to take their ease But lab'ring Beasts and Men who are depraved Or they whom wants or Tyrants have enslaved Had restless lived till their life time ended Unless this holy Law had them befriended And they who to the flesh most favour show For Soul affairs but little time allow This God at first foresaw and for that cause Though in Mans heart he then ingrav'd his Laws Essential and long oblig'd him not To such additions as time since begot Yet when he found that error and transgression Had wholly rased out the first impression To stop Corruptions Growth he afterward To Rites to times and places had regard All men at first had liberty to take What daies they pleased holydaies to make Or for convenient Rest Nor did from all This freedom cease when God the Jews did call To keep their Sabbaths For to one set day No Nation were oblig'd save only they Nor had the Gentiles any other ties Save to observe it in a moral wise So far as might preserve unto the Creature The freedom and well being of its nature A Law concerning Rest and holy Dues Confin'd indeed the people of the Jews To one set day even one set day in seven To them were Ceremonies also given Concerning it which no man might transgress Save in great need without much guiltiness That Law which nature simply had received At our first being was to them derived With such like Accidents as might be best To keep them firm and bring in all the rest In Gods appointed season to embrace The Law of Nature in the Law of Grace Their Customs and their Ceremonial day With Christ was buried and so swept away When he arose from death that to renew And celebrate the Sabbath of the Jew We are no more obliged than to rear Their Temple and to build their Altar here And yet lest man's corruption and the lack Of Accidents might bring the Substance back Even to the first neglect Christ dist instate His Church with power to change or abrogate The Circumstances of this Law so far As needful seem'd Provided that it were Essentially preserved and in this She hath performed what required is For though the time be changed it retains The same proportion It for use remains The same in Essence and that being so The same obedience is now due thereto And to what Circumstance the Church thinks fit To help continue the right use of it Now therefore though that every day be free For works which truly necessary be And though those Worshipers which are sincere May worship any day or any where Yet none can without guiltiness despise The Places Rites or Times of Sacrifice Appointed by the Church while they accord What may be authorized by the word This Law is therefore broke
is arriv'd at this contentedness And if to get this Grace our mind we set By Gods assistance we may compass it In that degree whereby attain we may To what we call perfection of the way But flesh and blood no further can aspire Until that Kingdom comes which we desire Strive what thou mayst affections to withdraw According to the straightness of this Law Thy Neighbours wife desire not then from him Though kind wise rich chast good fair she seem For most who have this way their longings gain'd Instead of Blessings Curses have obtain'd By coveting the goods to others due The beggary of many doth ensue And Servants gotten by anothers wrong Are seldom gainful to such Masters long Because by being lawlesly possest They either prove unfaithful or unblest But he that with his own remains content Shall gain much Bliss and many sins prevent That which doth give occasion to transgress Against this Law is want of watchfulness To heed the baits which our betrayer lays In every object and in all our ways The want of meditating in our thought What inconveniences are dayly brought On such as make no covenants with their eyes Nor bound these longings which in them arise For such as this way do their best endeavour May stumble but they shall not fall for ever Lord in my self I could not find the Will Much less the Power Thy statutes to fulfil But I now feel my heart to entertain A willingness Oh! be it not in vain Thy Grace alone renew'd this Will in me And I a worker now desire to be Who may if thou enable to proceed Improve my willingness unto the Deed Deny it not Oh God! but from this day Ev'n to the latest moment of my stay Vouchsafe unto me thy assisting Grace That I may run a warrantable Race And keep this Law and all thy Laws entire In work in word and also in desire Amen The Epilogue CHRIST IESVS Who is made vnto us Wisedome Rightousnesse Sanctification Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30 the whole World lieth in Wickednesse 1. Ioh. 5. 19 Rom. 7. 24. O Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from y e body of this death Behold the Lambe of GOD which taketh away y e sin of y e world Ioh. 1 29 Deliuer him from going down to the pit I haue found a ransome Iob. 33. 24. Rom. 6. 23. the Wages of sinne is Death ii Timo. 2. 26. That they may recouer themselues out of y e snare of the deuil who are taken captiue by him at his will Though no flesh this Law obey In it self In Christ it may Though it frighteth us for sin Yet our peace it ushers in And in us prepareth place For the saving Law of Grace When this Grace hath taught to Love Hardest works will easy prove And that sin we shall abhor Which we doted on before THE Epilogue The Law from God 's meer love proceeds Though strict it seems and Terror breeds NOW having well observ'd this glorious Law A Creature cloath'd with Majesty and awe Methinks the Body of it seems to me Compos'd of such essential parts to be That he may find who rightly from them shall All as but one each one of them as all And that who ever breaks or keepeth one Observes or breaketh all in what is done As will appear to him who well attends How ev'ry Precept on the rest depends He cannot possibly or love or fear One God aright who willfully doth err In Idol worshippings in vainly using God's holy Name In holy Times abusing Or in permitting so perverse a nature As to abuse Himself or any Creature Belonging to this God with such a mind As may Contentment in such evils find And what is of this Law averr'd we may In ev'ry other Precept boldly say Moreover I conceive it cannot be Of less impossibility that he Who gives the Creature ev'ry way his right Should in his heart his good Creator slight Or actually offend him without sense And sorrow for so hainous an offence He that right Conscience makes to keep one Law Of breaking all the other stands in awe He that his Parents honours as he ought Can never favour Murther in his thought Or thirst for Vengeance never will his eyes Or heart or members act Adulterys No due from any Creature will he take He dares of none conceive receive or speak Untruths or slanders He will never crave Or by a secret longing wish to have What may not be desir'd Nor ought commit Which his profession may not ill befit But penitence will smite him for the deed And in his heart a faithful sorrow breed Much less will he grow wilfully to blame In Prophanation of Gods Days his Name His Worship or his Essence For in one Well doing all good Dutys will be done And this which from one Law is here exprest May really be said of all the rest The like we may as doubtlesly averr Of them who ' gainst one Law perversly err Begin at which you please they so are chain'd All sins are in the breach of one contain'd One wickedness contracts another still And that another either to fulfill Or hide the first until all guilt comes in And wheels him round the cursed Orbe of Sin. For what hath he to bar him from the rest Who but in one hath wilfully transgrest What other sin would he have left undone Which might have hindred his beloved one Or if perpetually he do not act All wickedness and ev'ry filthy Fact Why is it so unless perchance because His finite Nature cannot break all Laws At once in Act Nor his desires extend To ev'ry thing wherein he might offend For ev'ry sacred Law is in his Will Inclusively at least infringed still And Guiltiness would actually appear If power and fit occasions present were For as the Laws fair Body is compos'd Of portions qualified and dispos'd In such a manner that we plainly see The perfect Essence of the whole to be In ev'ry part so likewise hath our Sin An ugle Body and each Limb therein Containeth whether it be great or small Essentially the perfect Guilt of all And by this Body Death a means hath found To give to all Mankind a mortal wound But prais'd be God his Grace provided hath A Light a Guard an Armour and a Path By which we may be quite delivered from The Body of this Death and also come To walk the way of life which else had bin For ever barr'd against us by our sin The Lamb of God by whom we do possess Redemption Wisdom Justice Holiness With ev'ry matchless token of his Love The Guilt of that transgression doth remove Which woundeth first our Nature and from him We have a cure for ev'ry actual Crime He hath fulfilled what we could not keep He gives us power to walk who could not creep He paid the price of that which we had bought He got our Pardon e're the same we sought He bore the stripes