of the Commandment were not to forbid the taking of God's Name unto a lie In the mean time though I affirm the Swearing falsely to be the principal thing struck at my meaning is not to deny but that vain Oaths may also be condemned with them partly because that is the prime importance of the Word shave and partly because I have before laid it for a Ground That under the greater Sins the less also of the same species are forbid But then thirdly if we look upon the Commandment as all Christians ought to do as either explain'd or enlarg'd by our Saviour so no doubt can remain of the unlawfulness of other Oaths beside false ones our Saviour's Words after his rehearsal of the Doctrine of the Law being But I say unto you Swear not at all For the elucidation of which Doctrine and together therewith of our own Obligation from this Commandment I will proceed in this method 1. I shall inquire what Oaths are simply and absolutely forbidden 2. Whether it be lawful in any case to swear by a Creature 3. Whether the Magistrate hath power to exact an Oath 4. Whether and how far he may exact one of the Accused Party 5. What is the Obligation of Oaths 6. And lastly because that is of kin to them and therefore in reason to have a place here entreat of the Nature and Obligation of Vows I. There are a sort of Men who minding more the Letter than the meaning of the Scripture have profess'd to believe themselves and endeavour'd to perswade others that all Oaths are now forbidden What the ground of their Scrupulosity is shall by and by be declar'd This onely would be observ'd in passing That they who in this matter are so tenacious of the Letter are in other things as regardless both of the Letter and the Sense For what hath more the astipulation both of the one and the other than Obedience to Magistrates which yet these scrupulous Persons do as irreligiously cast off But because it matters not much what the Persons are that propugn the Opinion if it have any Foundation in Scripture leaving the Persons of the Objectors we will descend to the Texts on which they relie which are especially that of our Saviour and of St. James The purport of the former whereof is That they should not swear at all but that their communication should be yea yea nay nay the latter That they should not swear neither by heaven nor earth nor any other Oath but simply affirm or deny whatsoever fell into discourse For the clearing of which Texts or rather of the former thereof for every body may see that that of St. James is borrowed from the other I shall first of all propose the contrary Example of St. Paul in those Scriptures which God handed to the Church by him For who can think it our Saviour's intention to forbid all Swearing whatsoever when we find such a one as St. Paul doing so in those Writings wherein he was Divinely inspir'd Now for the Practice of St. Paul in this particular we have several Instances in those Epistles that bear his Name Thus Rom. 1.9 we find him vouching God for a Witness which is the very Formality of an Oath that he did without ceasing make mention of them always in his prayers For God saith he is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you in my prayers as in like manner Gal. 1.20 where he gives an account of his Conversion and calling to be an Apostle Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not Lastly Where he speaks of the several Persecutions and Troubles which he suffer'd for the Gospels sake he doth appeal to the same God for the truth of what he said For the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ saith he which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not 2 Cor. 11.31 Which Texts are plain and evident Proofs of St. Paul's swearing and consequently that our Blessed Saviour hath not universally forbidden it Let it remain therefore for a certain truth That all Swearing whatsoever is not forbidden by our Saviour which is the first thing proposed to be proved But as on the one side we are not to think all Oaths whatsoever forbidden so neither onely such which may perhaps be the Refuge of some Men that are made rather by Creatures than by God the opposition in that fore-alledged place being not between swearing by a Creature and by God but between Swearing and a naked Affirmation and Denial For I say unto you saith our Saviour swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool c. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil And accordingly as St. James where he enforceth the same Prohibition to the mention of swearing neither by heaven nor by earth adds neither by any other Oath so it is easie to assign a Reason of our Saviour's instancing in such kind of Oaths without restraining the Prohibition to them even because such kind of Asseverations were less scrupled by the Jews as may appear from a Tract * Lib. de specialibus legibus of Philo Where dehorting Men from swearing at all he yet adds That in case they did they should not swear by the Name of God but by the Health or Memory of their Parents the Sun the Earth and the like these being in his Opinion much more excusable than swearing by the Name of God Whatsoever therefore is the meaning of those Words Swear not at all something more is meant than that we should not swear by the Creatures which what that is I come now more directly to shew 1. And here in the first place I shall not doubt to reckon because the thing principally forbidden all Oaths in our common Conversation For what less can we think meant thereby unless we would have our Saviour's Words signifie just nothing Especially when he himself adds by way of explication Let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil And here give me leave to take up a Lamentation especially in an Age which seems to bid defiance to our Saviour's Precept and that August Name which it would preserve inviolate For as if I do not say Christ had given no Command concerning it but our lips were our own and we had no Superior to controul us every Man almost from the oldest to the youngest calls God to witness in the most trivial and impertinent Affairs at a Game at Tables at a Deal of Cards when a Health is passing about and it may be Intemperance together with it For let the least question be made of any thing that is then acting and an Oath shall presently be brought to confirm it and God be call'd to witness that we
worship their Gods without Images he adds as from the same Varro * Quod si adhuc inquit mansisset castiùs dii observarentur Cujus sententiae suae testem adhibet inter caetera etiam gentem Judaeam nec dubitat eum locum ita concludere ut dicat qui primi simulachra deorum populis Posuerunt eos civitatibus suis metum dempsisse errorem addidisse prudenter existimans deos facile posse in simulachrorum stoliditate contemni That if it had so continued the Gods would have been more chastly observ'd They who first set up Images of their Gods for the Peoples use having taken away from their Cities that fear which they ought to have of them and involv'd them in erroneous Conceits concerning the Divine Nature Prudently judging as St. Augustine there tells us that the Gods might easily come to be despis'd in the foolishness of Images Forasmuch therefore as the Light of Reason furnisheth us with Arguments against the making an Image of God forasmuch as the Scripture chargeth it upon the Heathen as a Sin and the wiser Heathen consent with them in the disallowance of it we may very well look upon the Prohibition now before us as a part of the Law of Nature and therefore also because the Law of Nature is such of eternal obligation Now though what hath been said might to Minds not prepossess'd sufficiently evidence the unlawfulness of such Images yet because those Prejudices have taught Men to frame certain nice Distinctions to evade the force of the former Arguments I will for a conclusion of this Discourse oppose to them some more particular Assertions answerable to their several Distinctions Whereof the first shall be 1. That painted Images and such as are describ'd upon a Plane are unlawful as well as engraven and protuberant ones Contrary to the Opinions of the Greek and Moscovitish Church and some of our own Western Writers For the evidencing whereof I shall alledge first the Words of that Commandment we are now upon For forbidding as it doth not onely any graven Image but any likeness of any thing that is in heaven or earth it thereby makes other Representations alike unlawful with carved or protuberant ones The same is no less evident from the Reason of the Prohibition in Deuteronomy even because they saw no similitude For a Picture being no less a similitude than a Carved Image that must be supposed to be equally unlawful when it is design'd to represent the Divine Nature Lastly Forasmuch as there is the same or a greater disproportion between the Divine Nature and a Picture if Carved Images be unlawful these also must be suppos'd to be so when they are intended to represent the Deity This onely would be added That the making of Graven Images or other such protuberant ones are most frequently forbidden in the Scripture Not that others were not unlawful as well as they for the general Reason of the Prohibition even the likening him to any thing doth equally strike at all other ways of Representation but because those Images were most in use among the Heathen and because by their Figure they were most apt to make the Simple believe that they were those very things they were design'd to represent or at least that they were impregnated with a Divine Spirit 2. I observe secondly That as Pictures as well as graven Images were forbidden so the Pictures or Images of any Being whatsoever For what other can we rationally deem to be the sense of those Words or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth Which caution I the rather add to confront an Opinion of Grotius and the Jews who would have the Figures of Living Creatures onely forbidden For though the Images of Living Creatures were mostly in use and most dangerous and therefore probably no other enumerated in the Fourth of Deuteronomy where this matter of Images is entreated of yet as the Expression in the Commandment is too general to admit of such a limitation so if we admit of it we must exclude the Images of the Stars which are certainly no Living Creatures but are notwithstanding faulted by God Amos 5.26 But I have yet another Reason of making the present Observation and without which indeed I should not have troubled you or my self with it And that is the asserting further against the Greeks and those that follow them in this Particular the unlawfulness of Painted as well as Graven Images For whereas it had been urged as it hath been before by us That not onely all Graven Images but all other Likenesses were forbidden according as the Letter of the Commandment imports it is answered by * Explic. Decal praec 2. Grotius That though the Particle we render or be in the Hebrew Text of this place yet it is not in the parallel place in Deuteronomy nor in the Chaldee Paraphrase here Whence saith he it hath hapned that the Hebrews generally thought that of any likeness to be no new Prohibition but to be added by way of explication that we should understand not all graven images to be forbidden such as was that of the Golden Vine in the Temple but such as resembled Living Creatures But to this I have many things to say and such as I think will make it appear to be very vain For first It is not true however Grotius came to say so that the Particle we render or is not in the * Chald. Paraphras verba 1. in Bibl. Polygl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaldee Paraphrase upon this place as may appear to any that shall consult it That which I suppose occasion'd his mistake was that it is not there in Deuteronomy as neither in the Hebrew Text. I say secondly That the Reading in this place ought in reason to be look'd upon as more entire than that of Deuteronomy and consequently where there is occasion to give Law to it Because the Twentieth Chapter of Exodus is an Account of the Law as deliver'd by God whereas that in the Book of Deuteronomy is onely a Repetition of it which therefore needed not to be exact as having been before set down I say thirdly That if after the Word likeness there had been onely an enumeration of the Living Creatures of Heaven and Earth and the Waters under the Earth so there might have been some pretence to make the Temunah or likeness not comprehensive of all Similitudes but onely a determination of the general Word of Carved Images to such as represented Living Creatures But the Words are general of all things in heaven and earth c. and so no doubt ought to be understood I observe fourthly that as it is not unusual for such a Particle as the Hebrew 1 to be understood even where it is not express'd so the * Sept. Deut. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuagint have represented the force of it in that place
mercy to those of a different profession the scope of our Saviours answer as appears from the question proposed being not to declare the necessity of shewing mercy but the persons to whom we are to do it But as Schismaticks and Samaritans by the Discipline of our Saviour are to have a share of that love which we are to shew to enemies so also Pagans and Infidels men who are not only Separatists from but perfect strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel Witness one for all that known place of S. Paul 1 Tim. 2.1 where he exhorts that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty For as it is evident from the stories of those times as well as from the words that follow that the Powers that then were had not attained the knowledge of the truth so it is no less that they were the Christians enemies and made use of that authority which God put into their hands for the repressing of evil doers to discountenance and extirpate them In the love therefore of enemies it is manifest that Christ includes the Heathen and the Samaritan as well as the Christian and the Orthodox professor But though such as these are to be lov'd whatsoever their enmity may be to us yet certainly not when enemies to us upon the account of Christianity and thereby to the Authour of it Indeed the present practice of Christians would so perswade a man that were not studied in the doctrine of our Saviour there being generally no hatred accounted too great to shew to those that are the enemies of our Religion But what the will of our Saviour was his behaviour toward the Samaritans when they denyed him entertainment snews plainly enough and his own words in his Sermon upon the Mount for it was not upon any particular grudge to his person that they denied him entertainment that they refused him that civility which seems due to all strangers the text it self tells us Luke 9.53 that the reason of their not receiving him was because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem thereby professing that he looked upon that City as the place appointed for Gods publick worship which was the chief controversie between the Jews and the Samaritans And yet notwithstanding this their rudeness to our Saviour upon the account of the true Religion our Saviour would by no means hear of calling for fire from Heaven upon them and checked his Disciples for the motion intimating withall that they were to be of a different temper from him whose fiery zeal they commended to him But let us view our Saviour's own words in his Sermon upon the Mount and see whether our love be not to take in such persons as are enemies to us for his name sake But I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse your do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you even to those especially which persecute you for righteousness sake which speak all manner of evil against you for mine For beside that these are the persecutors and revilers spoken of in the former verses and therefore in all probability to be understood here S. Luke hath subjoined the Precept of loving enemies immediately after that beatitude which pronounces a blessing upon those that are persecuted for Christs sake and the woe that is opposed to it thereby plainly shewing that they who persecute us for Christs sake are in the number of those enemies whom he obliges us to love and pray for For after he had said c. 6.22 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of mans sake as on the other side Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets vers 26. he adds in the very next verse to wit the 27. But I say unto you Love your enemies do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you by which enemies what other can be meant than those who were so because they were Christians and hated them not for their own sake but the Son of man's We have seen the intent of this Precept under the Gospel let us now look upon it as prescribed by the Law and the Prophets which if we do we shall soon discern that the Precepts thereof fall short of those of our blessed Saviour For first of all whereas Christianity makes no difference between a sound Christian and a Schismatick or an Infidel the Law though enjoining the same love of enemies yet restrains it to such as were of the Jewish Nation or Religion If he who opposeth thee be of thy own blood or profession if he be a natural son of Abraham or one adopted into his family then thou oughtest to look upon him as thy neighbour and shew thy self benevolent to him Say I this of my self or saith not the Law the same For is not neighbour and children of thy people made synonymous even where this very argument is intreated of for thou shalt not saith Moses Lev. 19.18 avenge or bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Nay doth not our Saviour intimate this to have been the meaning of the Law when in pursuance of this most excellent Precept he adds Mat. 5.47 If ye salute your brethren only what do ye more than others Again to resume that place which we before made use of to shew the Jews obligation to this Precept at all doth not the book of Deuteronomy sufficiently declare the enemy whom they were there obliged to assist to be one of their own Nation or profession If you take the pains to compare them together you will easily discern that that is the due meaning of it If saith Moses in the book of Exodus thou meet thine enemies oxe or ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Exod. 23.4 5. But in Deut. c. 22.1 Thou shalt not see thy brothers oxe or his sheep going astray and hide thy self from them thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother and v. 4. Thou shalt not see thy brothers ass or his oxe fall down by the way and hide thy self from them thou shalt surely help with him to lift them up plainly shewing that the enemy they were forbidden to hide themselves from was such an one as was also a brother which in the Hebrew phrase was an Israelite by Nation or Religion I observe secondly that as the love the Jews were obliged
in them as being bound upon us by an inevitable necessity so being the will of God no less than his precepts they are at least to have the sufferance of ours and be consented to as well as undergone But so we find that old Eli how blameworthy soever as to the doing of Gods will yet thought himself obliged to submit to the sufferance of it 1 Sam. 3.18 For though the message that was brought him was no other than the utter extirpation of his house and which is more delivered in the most heart-breaking terms yet he made no other reply than It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Now though this to some persons at least may seem a harder task than flesh and bloud can readily undergo yet it is not all which the making Gods Will ours importeth and consequently neither all that is required of us towards the owning of God in them For as Seneca words it if we will do that we must non tantum deo parere sed assentiri embracing as well as submitting to whatsoever it layes upon us and receiving it how sad soever with alacrity and cheerfulness For otherwise as was before observed we give God but a part of our Wills and choose it not because we will it but because we cannot avoid it Neither let any man say that this is above the proportion of humane strength and therefore not to be thought to be any part of our duty to the Almighty For as I readily grant it to be above the proportion of humane strength when considered without the assistance of the Divine Grace so that it is not so when accompanied with it is manifest enough from the practice of Job c. 1.21 That holy man notwithstanding all the sad tidings that were brought him blessing God for the loss of his Cattel Servants and Children as well as for his former bestowing of them In the mean time as it is not to be denied to be a very hard task and such to which we had need have some other incentive beside that of our own duty so I shall not be unmindful of supplying you when I come to entreat of that petition of the Lords prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven 2. Having thus entreated of the elicite acts of the Will that is to say of such as proceed immediately from it and withal shewn what tribute is due from each of them to him whom we are commanded to owne for our God it remains we descend to those which are called imperate ones or rather to the Empire of the Will over them For though the acts before remembred are the only immediate acts of the Will yet all the acts of the body and mind are under its controul and move by the guidance of it Thus for instance it is from our Wills that our understandings apply themselves to the consideration of Heaven and Heavenly things from the same Wills that our affections are stirred up to tend to their proper objects Lastly from the same Wills it is that we perform all outward actions whether of Religion or Civility In consideration whereof as it is but necessary they themselves should be rightly disposed and pay the Almighty that tribute which is due from each act of them so to the compleatly owning of God for their God that they make use of that Empire of theirs to bring our other faculties to pay God that Homage and Obedience which he requires For the Will being as it were the Vicegerent of God over this little world of man how can it discharge that trust which is reposed in it if it do not lay its commands upon those subjects of its own and Gods to give him that Honour and Obedience that he requires But from hence it will follow that the Will is to incite the understanding to meditate upon God and the affections to embrace and revere him that it is to lay its commands upon the tongue to chaunt forth his praises and upon the knee to bow down to him and adore him In fine as its Empire extends to the whole man to see that each of them perform their several duties and particularly those of Piety and Devotion In the mean time you may see how much they are deceived who upon a surmise of their hearts being right with God take occasion either wholly to neglect or but perfunctorily perform the outward actions of Religion For if the Heart or Will be Gods Vicegerent over all our other faculties and powers it cannot be right with him if it do not stir them up to pay God that service which he requires of each of them I have but one thing more to add concerning this Empire of the Will but it is such as if attended to may be of excellent use in the conduct of our lives and that is that as this Empire of the Will is very great so it will prove very effectual if it be resolute in what it doth propose Nothing almost being too hard for a mind so resolved especially when accompanied with the divine assistance By vertue of this resolution it is that men overcome many and great difficulties by the same that they put themselves upon matters of the greatest hazard by this that they encounter with enemies that are superiour to them both in number and strength by the same that they oftentimes get the victory of them that resolution of theirs not only making them to exert their own strength to the uttermost but damping the courage of their opponents But so that it fareth with our Spiritual enemies the Scripture hath given us plainly enough to understand because assuring us that however the Devil may press upon the weak and irresolute yet he will flie from us if we have the courage to resist him Being now to pass from the Vnderstanding and Will to the Affections and to shew what tribute each of them is to pay to the Almighty I have been somewhat retarded by the consideration of a duty which the Scriptures often call for I mean Trust in God For beside that it is generally expressed in Metaphorical terms such as depending resting or staying our selves upon God which though they may sometime illustrate that to which they are applied yet do no less often serve to obscure it it may seem somewhat difficult to those who do more intimately consider it to what power of the Soul to referr it or rather whether it do not some way appertain to each of them And indeed upon a serious consideration of the whole matter I am apt to believe it doth which is the reason I have chosen this place for it That the Vnderstanding hath a share in it is evident to me from that belief which it manifestly implies and by which it is oftentimes expressed he that trusts to or upon any person doing it upon the account of that credit which he gives to the affirmation of him upon whom he doth so rely But
but him Now there are three things which are either imply'd or expresly contain'd in the not having any other gods beside the True 1. That we should not substitute any other in his room 2. That we should not receive any other gods into copartnership with him And 3. Thirdly and lastly That we should not attribute to any thing else any part of that Honour which is due unto him 1. The first of these is rather imply'd than express'd but so strongly imply'd that there cannot be any the least doubt of it For beside that the One True God doth here declare himself to be so and not onely so but call upon us to yield Obedience to all those Commands which we are now upon the consideration of the very Words wherein this Commandment is express'd do à fortiori imply the not substituting any other in his room For if we may not have any other before or beside him much less may we admit of any to the utter exclusion of him and build their Honour upon the Ruines of the other's But such Transgressors were the Heathen or at least a great part of them after God had for their sins given them over to vain imaginations as worshipping in stead of him all the Host of Heaven such Men by whom their several Nations had receiv'd any great advantage particularly Kings and Princes and in fine the brute Beasts yea Inanimate Creatures But how much they acted against the light of their own Reason as well as the Precepts of this great Lawgiver will easily appear if we survey the several Objects of their Worship To begin with the Host of Heaven even the Sun Moon and Stars because thought by Learned Men * Vid. Grot. Explic. Decal Job 31.26 to be the first Instances of Idolatry in the World Concerning which it is easie to shew how unreasonable it was to substitute them in the place of God For though it be not to be doubted but that great Benefits come from thence particularly from the Sun by whose Influence this lower World is actuated yet is there nothing in that glorious Body which can tempt a considering Man to pay Divine Honours to it it being evident to our sense that it moves and acts necessarily neither can do any other than it doth Which one thing duly weigh'd will to all impartial Understandings evince it not to have the Nature or deserve the Honour of a God For beside that the Nature of God implieth the most Perfect One and consequently such as is not ty'd up to Rules but is free in its Motions and Operations all the Honour of God as the Author to the Hebrews observes is built upon this great Principle That he is a rewarder of such as diligently seek him Which Principle can have no place where there is no freedom in acting and the supposed Deity is oblig'd not onely to shine alike upon the evil and the good but either to afford or withhold its shining as the Laws of its Creation admonish yea as it pleaseth those Clouds that are below it From the Host of Heaven pass we to Men such as many of those were whom the Heathen worshipp'd Where again we shall see how little reason there was to substitute them in the place of God For as even these could not save themselves from death but were fain to pass through that to their suppos'd Divinity so many of them were such as may be suppos'd rather to have fallen into the state of Devils to whose nature they bear so great a resemblance than to be advanc'd to the Honour of Gods To say nothing at all that it appeareth not they had any knowledge of things below and much less any Power either to reward or punish As little yea far less reason was there for the Worship of Beasts and Inanimate Creatures which was the particular Error of the Egyptians and the lowest to which Humane Nature could fall these having not so much as the Reason of a Man and much less the Understanding to know the Necessities of those that pray'd to them or the Power to relieve and redress them 2. But because the not substituting False Gods in the place of the True is rather suppos'd by than directly contain'd in the present Prohibition proceed we to that which the Words do clearly and plainly import even the not receiving any other into Copartnership with him Which as it probably was the Error of the wiser Heathen so to be sure is that which this Commandment doth more immediately strike at he that requireth the not having any other gods before or beside himself both supposing the having of himself and forbidding the superinducing any other And in this notion it was that the Samaritans became Offenders against it as you may see 2 Kings 17.33 it being there remark'd concerning them That they feared the Lord and served their own Gods after the manner of the Nations whom God carried away from thence From which Passage compar'd with the present Prohibition it is manifest That to admit any Being into a Copartnership with the True God is enough to make a Man a Transgressor the Law at the same time it forbids the having of other Gods supposing in some measure the having of the True Which said I shall now inquire Whether those of the Church of Rome are not justly chargeable with the breach of it in that Honour which they give both to Saints and Angels To begin with the Honour of Saints departed because most stood upon by them and which indeed makes up a great part of their Religion Concerning which I shall propose to consideration Whether the Prayers they make to them be not in effect to set up other Gods For is not Prayer a great part of Religious Worship nay is it not so considerable as to give a denomination to the Place of God's Worship yea to be an Ingredient in his Titles He himself calling his House the House of Prayer and the Psalmist him that inhabiteth it the God that heareth it And is it then any other than the setting up other Gods to make Saints departed the Objects of it But it will be said it may be That they do not pray to them or at least not in that manner they do to God only imploring their Intercession with our Maker and theirs but begging no Blessing from themselves But first of all Quid verba audio facta cum videam What will Words avail when their Practice is oftentimes so contrary Neither is there any real difference between their Prayers to them and those to God I instance in that which the Rosary of the Virgin Mary presents us with where we have this very Prayer to the Mother of our Lord Virgo singularis Vid. Jacks of the Original of Unbelief c. cap. 28. Intrae omnes mitis Nos culpis solutos Mites fac castos Vitam praesta puram Iter para tutum That is to say O thou who art the chief
of Deuteronomy as well as Exodus All which put together will make the Observation of Grotius to be a meer Nicety and consequently that all kind of Images as well as of all sorts of Things are forbidden by this Commandment 3. From that first and second Assertion therefore pass we to a third answerable to a nice distinction devised by the Papists to wit That we are to understand such Images forbidden as pretend to represent the Essence or Person not the Properties of the Divine Nature But beside that the Essence of any thing cannot be depicted because it cannot be seen but by some proper Representment which makes that Distinction perfectly groundless beside that secondly it cannot be thought they intend any other than the Representation of the Persons of the Godhead who describe the Father in the shape of an Old Man and have a peculiar Picture to represent the Trinity there is as great a disproportion between the Properties of God and an Image as there is between that and the Divine Nature For as the Properties of God are not different at all from his Essence but onely in our manner of conception so all those Properties of his are Spiritual and Infinite and therefore not to be debas'd by Material and Finite Representations 4. Lastly Whereas it is said by the Papists That they intend not those Images they make of God as perfect immediate and proper Representations of the Divine Nature but imperfect mediate and metaphorical ones upon which account they hope to avoid the Charge of offending against this Commandment I shall oppose in the fourth place That such imperfect Images are as well forbidden as any other For beside that the Law makes no such Distinction but forbids all Images and all Similitudes and must therefore be thought to proscribe those imperfect ones unless the Law had otherwise provided it s descending to forbid not onely the making the Images of any thing in heaven or earth but particularly in Deuteronomy the making the Images of beasts and fowls and creeping things sheweth the former Distinction to be perfectly vain and groundless For though it may be thought that some of the Heathen deem'd a Humane Shape to be no improper Representation of the Divine Majesty yet who can think them so vain as to conceive a Beast or a Creeping thing to be a perfect Resemblance of their Gods However it be most certain it is the Jews could not be so foolish as to think the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt to be like unto a calf that eateth hay which notwithstanding we find they not onely represented God under such an Image but were charg'd by the Psalmist with changing the Glory of God into such a Similitude and by St. Paul with Idolatry for holding a Feast to it So vain are the Imaginations of the Defenders of Images as well as of the Makers of them and will prove alike deceitful when the Judge of all the World shall call both the one and the other to an account I have done with that part of the Prohibition which concerneth the making an Image of God and asserted the unlawfulness thereof It remains onely to make it so much the more advantageous that I address this following Exhortation to the Protestant wherein he will find himself more immediately concern'd That inasmuch as the Prohibition of Images is grounded upon the disproportion that is between God and all Corporeal Beings he who pretendeth for that reason to disapprove of all Corporeal Representations would in like manner remove from his thoughts all Corporeal Conceptions of him That he would not think God like Bodies to be confin'd to a certain Place and neither to know nor act any thing beyond his own Heaven That he would not think his arm like that of ours to be shortned that it cannot save nor his ear so dull of hearing that he cannot hear the softest whispers That he would not think his Eyes like those of ours to be blinded by the darkness of the Night or impos'd upon by those specious Outsides by which his own are apt to be deceiv'd in fine That when for the help of his dull Apprehensions he conceiveth of Him under Bodily Representations he remember that He is above them and separate those Corporeal Phantasms again by thinking him to be a Spirit of infinite Purity and Perfection Otherwise though in another way he falleth into that Crime which he condemneth and sets up the same Images of God in his Imagination which the Heathen heretofore and the Idolatrous Christians now set up to him in their Temples PART III. Of the unlawfulness of making an Image with a design to worship it where moreover is shewn out of Tertullian the unlawfulness of making any such to be worshipped by others The second Part of the Negative Precept propos'd wherein is shewn the unlawfulness of worshipping an Image whether of God or of Christ or of his Saints The Allegation of the Romanists That they worship not the Image of God but God in and by it shewn to be both untrue and insufficient The former because there are not a few who defend the Worshipping of the Image it self yea with a Divine Worship and because the Common sort terminate their Worship there The latter because first the Heathen themselves generally were not guilty of any other Idolatry where another Objection of the Papists is propos'd and answered The like evidenc'd secondly from the Idolatry of the Israelites in Aaron's and Jeroboam's Calves which is shewn to have been no other than the Worshipping of the True God in and by them The Objections against the foregoing Argument considered and Answered A farther Argument against the Worshipping of God by an Image drawn from Natures Law where again some Objections are propos'd and answered Of the Images of Christ and his Saints Whether or no and in what cases they may be tolerated as also what Honour may be given to them That all Divine Adoration of them is unlawful yea that all such is so which onely bordereth on it HAVING shewn in the foregoing Discourse that we are not to make an Image with a design to represent the Divine Majesty proceed we now to shew 2. That neither are we to make any Image at all with a design to bow down to it or serve it which I have said to be the second Part of the first Prohibition in this Commandment Now that so we are not is competently evident from the Commandment it self but much more abundantly from an Explication of it in Leviticus For as after the Prohibition of making any graven Image c. it is immediately added Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them so the Prophet Moses who was certainly the best Interpreter of his own Law doth more plainly and expresly declare it Lev. 26.1 For ye shall not saith he make you any idol or graven image neither rear you up a standing image neither shall ye set up any
cheap and vile that also may be suspected of falshood and consequently render the Proceedings of all Courts of Judicature suspected because directed by them Again What security can we have that Judgment shall be rightly administred if Oaths have not their due regard For inasmuch as Judges are subject to the same Infirmities and Passions with our selves and the Laws by which they proceed neither are nor can be so made but they may notwithstanding them injure some Persons in their Cause what security can there be of their not actually doing so if that Oath restrain them not which they gave to him whose Vicegerents they are Sure I am nothing else can restrain the Prince himself because he is obnoxious to no Tribunal but that of God And therefore the condition of the World must needs be bad if those Oaths become contemptible by which alone their Exorbitances can be bounded So pernicious to Humane Society is the setting an Oath to a Lie so destructive to the Honour of God and the Being of Religion And having said and evinc'd so much I shall not need to say any thing more to aggravate the Criminalness thereof because transforming the perjur'd Person into the Cruelty of a Wild Beast and the gross Irreligion of an Atheist II. Having thus shewn what Oaths are simply and absolutely unlawful that is to say all Oaths in common Converse all unnecessary and false ones I come now to inquire Whether it be in any case lawful to swear by a Creature the second thing propos'd to be discours'd of For the resolution whereof 1. The first thing I shall propose is That it is not lawful in the least to make them the Term of our Oath or the things which we swear by in strict and proper speech that being to give them the Honour which is due to God and consequently to look upon them as such For inasmuch as the Scripture requires the swearing by his Name Deut. 6.13 and which is more imputes to the Israelites for a Crime their swearing by them that were no gods Jer. 5.7 inasmuch as an Oath is in its own nature the calling him to witness who is of infallible Truth a Searcher of Hearts and a most just and powerful Avenger of Falshood which cannot be affirm'd of any but God he that in strictness of speech swears by any Creature must consequently be suppos'd to give it the Honour that is due to God or rather look upon it as such A thing which it is manifest many of the Heathen did and accordingly swore by them Thus Euripides brings in Aegeus swearing after Medea in these following Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say I swear by the Earth and the bright Light of the Sun and all the Gods whatsoever that I will be constant to what you enjoyn me And an Assyrian Astrologer as a Learned Man * Joh. Selden Prolegom ad Synt. De DIS Syris cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own Nation informs us binds his Readers not to prostitute the Secrets of it under this following Oath I adjure all those that light upon this Book by the holy Circle of the Sun and the irregular Courses of the Moon by the Vertues of the other Stars and the Zodiack to keep these things secret and not either impart them to the unlearned and such as have not been entred into them or be unmindful of paying Respect to the Memory of me their Instructer Let the forenamed Gods be propitious to those that keep this Oath but contrary to them that break it From both which Passages it is manifest that many of the Heathen look'd upon the Powers of Heaven and Earth as Gods and accordingly swore by them And therefore as some pious Men have through the fear of such like Idolatry advis'd wholly to forbear the use of such Oaths wherein there is mention of Created Beings so I shall so far concur with them as to advise the same where there is any danger of our own falling or drawing others into the like Crime it being one of the highest Impieties to give Divine Honour to the Creatures and swear by them as if they were Gods themselves But from hence we may guess what is to be thought of the Practice of the Papists who beside the erecting of Temples making Prayers and other such Acts of Adoration do not infrequently swear by the Saints also For what other is this than to give them that Honour which in all other Mens opinion and even in their own is proper to the Almighty Neither will it suffice to say That they do it not for themselves but with respect to him to whom they do belong For still it will follow because Swearing is a part of it that they give them that Adoration which the Almighty hath challeng'd to himself and which unless they were Searchers of Hearts can in no wise belong to them As little is to be said in its defence from those common Oaths by Heaven our own Life and the like For though these as we learn from our Saviour have the Nature of Oaths though the Expressions themselves may seem to perswade those Things to be the Things we swear by yet as they are not in the least invok'd as Witnesses but God to whom they do belong or are devoted by us so they are made use of onely to express either some Attribute of God's or our own readiness to resign them up to his Vindictive Justice if we be found to falsifie in them 2. For the evidencing whereof and together with it in what sense it may be said to be lawful to swear by a Creature I shall instance first of all in those forms of Oaths which have in them the force of an Execration as By our Health Vpon our Salvation and the like The meaning whereof in the general estimate of the World is no other than this So let God grant me Health and Salvation as I speak what I think or mean to perform what I promise and consequently is but an abbreviation of that Oath of St. Paul 2 Cor. 1.23 Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth Which doth manifestly make God the Term of our Oath and not either our Soul or any thing else that appertains to it The same is to be said of those Forms of Oaths which are made by our Hand Hands or any other Part of the Body the intention thereof being onely to devote them unto God as Pledges of the Truth of what we swear In like manner secondly for those Oaths that are made by Heaven or any other Thing wherein the Power or Truth of God is conspicuous the meaning thereof in the intendment of Christians can be no other than to call him to witness whose Glory shines forth in them as may appear both from Reason and Practice For can any Man be so senseless as to call those
months and times and years but so far as to affirm he was afraid he had bestowed upon them labour in vain As if the very Observation of such things were inconsistent with Christianity or at least were in the way to destroy it And indeed if as is pretended those Words of his were to be construed of the Observation of all Days whatsoever there is no doubt the Observation of those I am now speaking of were to be look'd upon as inconsistent with Christianity But he that shall seriously compare these Words of the Apostle with the foregoing and following ones will find them to strike either at the Jewish onely or at their Manner of Observation of them For asserting as he doth in the beginning of the Chapter their having been in bondage under the Law and the Son of God's Redemption of them from it asserting moreover ver 21. That they were desirous to be under the Law and remitting them to the Law for their satisfaction what can we in reason think meant by their turning again to the weak and beggarly elements wherein they desir'd again to be in bondage but their return to the beggarly Elements of the Law and consequently because that is given as an Instance of it either to the Observation of such Days and Times as were laid upon them by the Law or observing them after the manner prescribed by it The Case is yet more plain in that other commonly alledged Text Let no man judge you in meat and drink or in respect of an Holy-day or of the New-moon or of the Sabbath-days Col. 2.16 Not onely the mention of Sabbaths which every one knows to have been peculiar to the Jewish Nation determining it to their Fasts and Feasts but St. Paul's affirming moreover that they were shadows of things to come which is to be affirm'd onely of Legal ones To make these Texts therefore of any force it must be prov'd either that ours are the same or at least of the same nature with the Jewish or that a like Observation is requir'd But as the Festivals of the Church are so far from being the same with the Jewish that on the contrary they proclaim the actual exhibition of those things which the other did onely foreshew so there is nothing either in our Canons or Practice which can minister an occasion of suspicion that a Judaical Observation is requir'd For beside that the Offices thereof are all purely Christian and not mix'd with Incensing as the Jewish were and the Popish are neither is their number so great as to be a burden to the Observers nor those few that are impos'd impos'd upon them as Divine Commands In fine neither is the Duty of the Day so appropriated to it as to make it unacceptable upon others nor yet exacted with so much rigour on it as not to leave place for necessary Occasions All therefore that can be suppos'd to lie against the Festivals of the Church must be drawn from their being instituted by Men and that Will-worship which it is conceiv'd to involve But as I have heretofore said enough to take off that Charge even as to this particular Affair so having done so I shall in stead thereof set before you the Practice of the Jews which in this Particular deserves hugely to be consider'd For if it were lawful for the Jews notwithstanding the many Festivals God had instituted among them to add others thereto upon occasion how much more for Christians where setting aside the Lord's-day there is not any thing to determine the Time of their Solemn Worship Now that this was their Practice is evident first from that of Esther chap. 9. and 27. where upon occasion of their great Deliverance from the Mischiefs intended against them by Haman Mordecai wrote to the Jews and accordingly they ordained and took upon them and upon their seed and upon all such as joyn'd themselves to them that they would keep those Days in which they rested from their Enemies according to their Writing and according to their appointed Time every Year In like manner when the Altar of God had been polluted by the Heathen but was repair'd and dedicated again by Judas Maccabeus the same Judas and his Brethren with the whole Congregation ordain'd That the Days of the Dedication of the Altar should be kept in their Season from Year to Year 1 Mac. 4.59 Which as accordingly we find to have been observ'd even to the days of our Saviour so which is more to have been graced by his presence as you may see Joh. 10.22 As to the Lawfulness therefore either of the Institution or Observation of Festivals there is not the least doubt to be made and much less can we suppose there will if they be also useful which accordingly I come now to shew 2. For the evidencing whereof the first thing I shall alledge is that Instruction which might thereby accrue to the weaker sort if they were but attended to as they ought For the Church having appointed particular Days for the Commemoration of the Chief Things that either were performed by or hapned to our Saviour if the Plain Man as a Reverend Person hath express'd it would but ply his Almanack well that alone * Bishop Hall's Remains Serm. on 1 Joh. 1.5 would teach him so much Gospel as to shew him the History of his Saviour For there even upon the Feast of the Annunciation might he see his Saviour's Conception declar'd by an Angel and him Born forty Weeks after upon the Feast of the Nativity He should see him eight days after that Circumcis'd on New-years-day then Visited and Ador'd by the Wisemen in the Epiphany He should see him presented to God in the Temple on the Day of Purification then Tempted and Fasting forty days in Lent He should see him usher'd in by his Forerunner John the Baptist six Months before his Birth attended by his Twelve Apostles in their several Ranks and Thomas the last for his Unbelief And at last after infinite and beneficial Miracles he should see him crucified upon Good-fryday Rising from the Dead on Easter Ascending to Heaven on Holy-Thursday and to supply the want of his Presence the Holy Ghost descending upon the Apostles and the Church In fine there he should see the Belief of all these summ'd up in the Celebration of the Blessed Trinity on that Sunday which bears its Name All which whosoever shall duely consider will not think such Institutions unuseful nor the Church much beholden to them who have endeavour'd to remove them For as it is apparent the foregoing Days carry Marks upon them of the principal things which it is necessary for a Christian to understand so by their separation from other days they do naturally prompt those that are ignorant to inquire into the Occasion of them By which means they who fly other ways of Instruction would be in a manner constrain'd to receive it here and either be wrought upon to glorifie God for the
reward of our Father which is in Heaven And indeed as to give secretly hath Reason as well as the Precept of our Saviour to oblige us to the observation of it so there wanted not among the Heathen who saw the reasonableness of it and inculcated it almost in the same terms Marcus Antoninus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 li. 5. sect 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only insinuating the so giving that we our selves may not know what we our selves have done but resembling the benesicent person among other things to a Vine which is neither sensible of its own fruitfulness nor makes any noise of it chusing rather to superadd in their proper season new clusters to its former and to continue its truitfulness than to be esteemed for it Of the Liberality of giving what hath been said may suffice proceed we to that of lending a Liberality which I have already shewn to be no less necessary in its self than the other and might also be no less incumbent upon us by the Precept of our great Master Christ in the very same breath * Mat. 5.42 wherein he commands the giving to every one that asks forbidding to turn away from him that would borrow of us Now there are two things observable concerning this Liberality proportionably to the twosorts of persons with whom we have to do For either they may be such who want it for the improving of their Fortunes or such as borrow it of us to procure or continue to themselves a bare subsistence Now though I doubt not as hath been before declared but that he who lends to the former persons may require what he does so with a valuable Consideration for it especially where the money lent is needful enough to a Man's self yet as such persons may sometime prove unfortunate in the management of it in which case it may be but requisite to remit somewhat of our own demands so it cannot at all be accounted lawful where we our selves can possibly be without it to take the like Use of those who borrow what they do meerly to procure themselves a subsistence not only the Law of Moses forbidding so to lend to a poor Brother but the Law of Nature and Christ He who lends to such a person upon Use being so far commonly from advantaging him which is the end of Charity that he only helps to plunge him so much the deeper in necessity and calamity The same is to be said of the taking of Gifts of such persons or making any other advantages of them it mattering not at all under what notion it comes so a Consideration be paid which changeth it from Liberality into a Contract and in the present case an unmerciful one I am now arrived at the last species of Liberality best known by the name of Hospitality concerning which as the Scripture hath not been wanting in furnishing us with Examples * Gen. 18.3 Gen. 19.2 Judg. 19 20. so neither in inculcating the Fractice thereof upon us S. Paul in his Exhortations joining Hospitality with distributing to the Necessities of the Saints Rom. 12.13 as S. Peter †1 Pet. 4.9 with that Charity which covers a multitude of sins And not without Reason if we consider I do not say how much it immediately conduceth to the conserving of the Properties of meaner persons but to the encouraging of them to undergo that labour and travel which God hath been pleased to lay upon them Now though even here that Caution is to have place which refers the Benevolence of Men to the measure of their several abilities yet I cannot forbear to say that provided it keeps within those bounds it ought not to content it self with extending to a few or indeed to those of its own Neighbourhood as because the word which we render Hospitality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the entertaining of Strangers so because it is a Vertue of those whom God hath blessed with more liberal Fortunes and from whom therefore he expects a more than ordinarily comprehensive Charity And I cannot but upon this occasion call to mind the Story of Henry * Spotiswood's History of the Ch. of Scotl. l. 2. p. 57. Wardlow sometime Archbishop of S. Andrews in Scotland who agreeably to his own Function and the Precept of the Apostle employed that Revenue which God had given him in the entertainment of other persons For being prevailed with for the ease of his Servants to make a Bill of Houshold that they might know who were to be served by them when he was asked whom he would first name he answered Fise and Angus which are two large Countries in Scotland containing many millions of People By which answer of his as he wisely freed himself from their importunity who would for their own ease have retrenched that good Man's Hospitality so he gave an evident testimony of a truly Christian and generous mind and such as it will concern those of the richer sort but especially of the Clergy to shew themselves diligent imitators of That and no other being truly Christian Charity which so far as in it lyes extends it self to all I do not say that are the Children of the holy Jesus though that be a large Family but the Descendants of our common Parent Adam Care only would be taken as being in a manner the only blemish which adheres to this most excellent Vertue that that which is intended by the hospitable person for the refreshment of Strangers and others be not converted into luxury and intemperance that as it often happens not only proving no Charity to their Bodies but the destruction of their Soulls which is the greatest cruelty we can be guilty of And indeed as those times which were most famous for Hospitality found a way both to prevent and retrench all such intemperances so if we could live to see the simplicity and plainness of those ancient days recalled there is no doubt we might live to see their Hospitality also recalled without any of those inconveniences which do now attend it they arising for the most part from that which hath been also the bane of Hospitality even a desire of gratifying our Palates with curious and costly Entertainments For as those things which are most plain are also procured at the easiest rates by which means men may be better fitted to be liberal towards other men so at the same time they gratifie the appetite they do also satiate it and not like the curiosities of latter time produce a thirst which is equal to the other and which nothing but intemperance can aslake Such are the means whereby we may contribute to the subsistence of others and to the procuring or conserving or improving of those Properties from which they derive it in which as I have often said and I hope sufficiently proved that the Affirmative part of the Commandment doth consist so they have this farther to commend them to our consideration and use