himself who knoweth best how far By representments it convenient were To shadow forth his nature did devize As many and as few as might suffize God knew that if mans frailty might not see Some objects whereupon might fixed be His weak Devotion he would either make Vain Fictions or Devotion quite forsake It therefore pleas'd his goodness to prepare Those objects for the Jews which fitting were For them such was the Serpent made of brass Till by Idolators abus'd it was Such were their Temple and the Mercy Seat On which or towards which their eyes were set In their Devotion that the wandring sence There being fixed Faith might raise from thence The safer flight and that Religion may A body have wherein her Soul may stay For doubtless that Religion is untrue Which hath no outward shape for men to view As for the Jews Our weakness tendring too God hath vouchsaft the like for us to do He hath advanc'd for us to look upon The Image of his Crucified Son And limb'd him in his word with such dimensions As may and should employ our Apprehensions Without all vain additions of our own Until the Essence of it may be known Nor of our selves nor to our selves was made This Image But the same from God we had He set it up for us to fall before it To contemplate to honour to adore it This Image he that faithfully shall view Thereby that long left Image may renew Wherein Mankind was framed by God's hand And in that likeness we shall ever stand Still praised be that Image which hath power To perfect such Imperfectness as our And let all those who shall the same despise Be guilty of the worst Idolatries Oh Christ so perfect my renewed will That I this holy precept may fulfil Amen III Thou shalt not take y â— name of y e Lord thy God in vaine c. Curses Blasphemies and Oaths Some can vary as their Cloaths And the Ruffin now begins To seek fashionable sins No more fearing to blaspheme Than to take a praiseful Theme But the Sin they count so small Doth aloud for vengeance call And in Figure here we view What for this offence was due Command III. If thou wilt free be kept from blame Take not in vain GOD's holy NAME TO fright Blasphemers we present them with An Emblem of the Son of Shelomith Who worthily condemned was to dye And Stoned for his daring Blasphemy For 't is a Crime now ripened in excess Though branded with a horrid Guiltiness And of this Blott who ever standeth free All these that follow deeply Guilty be The Common Swearer For his impious tongue Not only to the Godhead offers wrong But to his power he sometime rends and tears Christ's holy Body when he vainly swears He that affecteth cursings groweth foul By what this Law forbids For on the Soul Which loves to Curse these plagues are often brought Which to befall another are besought They are not in a mean degree to blame Who shall prophane the great Almighty's name Through Levity as when him name they shall For trifling Causes or no cause at all He that with Oaths protests in matters vain Or sweares for Truths what he himself doth fain Or tells for certain an uncertain thing Or vows to God what he neglects to bring Or maketh vows of what are not allowed Things lawful or things comely to be vowed Even he who ere he be that shall transgress These ways is tainted with a guiltiness For all these ways Gods name is vainly used And such offences cannot be excused To these we add our Scevites who presume The power of Exorcisms to assume And work by Conjurations of such kind As may no lawful approbation find And much from these those Cheaters differ not Who by confederacy the name have got Of cunning men or women and pretend To know black Arts and Practice to defend Our bodies or to keep our goods from harms By wicked Spels prophaning in the Charms The names of God or portions of his Writ For in such Actions they dishonour it Nor is he better who delights to make Gods Truth a Theam for vain discourses sake Or thence extracteth Jests or reads or hears His Word with heedless Eyes with careless Ears Or unprepared Heart Nor are they less Prophane who to conceal their wickedness Or meerly to be deemed men devout Still at their Girdles bear Gods Book about Or Study holy Scriptures to devise A Cloak for Sins and proofs for Heresies Or truths pervert their falshoods to maintain For all of these assume Gods Name in vain They of the like offence partakers are Who as they term it make a Holy War For Christ And in his name do that pretend Which is for some concealed wicked end All they who pray for these by name of such Do fight Gods Battles do offend as much If they shall know it For accursed is Such bold and bloody policy as this He that plots Treason or invents a Lie The Cause of God or Truth to justifie Doth Stray as wide For to assist his Foes These in Gods Name within his Ensign goes Moreover they are guilty of this Crime Who in undecent manner or ill time Reprove or threat or comfort or apply Gods promises or Judgments or deny Their needful application in Gods Name When time and place for them require the same For of the Service careless they appear Pertaining unto him whose name they bear He breaks this Law who runs ere he be sent And in Gods name speaks what God never meant 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
to go we must confess But yet it shews a way to happiness And they who can but love it when they know it Shall either be vouchsafed strength to go it By mediate help or by immediate Grace Exalted be to their desired place It cannot merit Love But it may shew Whether or no our Love be false or true Though 't is not life It is the death of Sin Whereby the life of grace doth first begin To shew that living Faith wherein consists The truth of their profession who are Christ's And they are not suspected without cause False Christians who conform not to these Laws It is a needful Tutor though it stand With looks still frowning and with Rod in hand 'T is truly Good though Ill thereby we know And at befriends us though it seem a Foe It all condemns not though it puts in fear It brings to Christ and then it leaves us there In brief this Law shall ever be in force Though from Believers God remove the Curse It shall in Essence never fail a jot Although some Accidents continue not And therefore they whose Faith shall them prefer Observe it as a good REMEMBRANCER To these for comfort and encouragement The promise which attends it we present With all the circumstances which may give Assurances of what they well believe Without those Plagues or Terrors which we find Presented to correct a slavish mind For they that love their Founder need no bands But love to keep them true to these commands Love is the Laws fulfilling 't is that end To which both Laws and all good Actions tend And he that Loves unto himself is made A Law whereto we nothing need to add Before the rest our Muse to fright them sets The Tipes of punishments and horrid Threats If either may bring home the Soul that errs God's be the praise the Comfort of it theirs And let me share the prayers and the bliss Of those that shall pe profited by this Amen I. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me c. Pharoh by great wonders wrought To acknowledge God was brought And had Reasons light to see Who his only God should be Had he well that Guift employ'd Special Grace had been enjoy'd But no use thereof he made And so lost the gift he had Stubborn too the Fool did grow And ran headlong to his woe Command I. Serve but one God and let him be That God who made and ransom'd thee TO such as love our God of Love makes known A Duty and a benefit bestown That they might know the object of their Creed And in the way of Righteousness proceed For by the Preface of what follows here A freedom from a Bondage doth appear And by the Substance of this great Command A Duty we may likewise understand To them whom no kind usage may perswade From sinful Paths till they afraid are made We here exhibit Pharoh as a chief Of those who suffered for an Vnbelief Join with contempt of God that such from thence Might moved be to faithful penitence To them that shall with Reverence and fear Receive the holy precept which they hear We shew with love and mercy how they may Observe the Streight and Shun the crooked way There is one God alone That God is he By whom we formed and reformed be And they who serve another or deny His Attributes commit impiety This God that 's God indeed though he might say My will and pleasure is you shall obey Me only as your Lord and unto us No reason render why it should be thus Proceeds not so but hath declared why We should accept him for our Deity And peradventure this vouchsafed he To teach them knowledge who his Viccars be And shew to us by being meek and kind How from false Gods the true one we may find For to be God is to be good and so In Goodness infinite to overflow That all may tast thereof excepting none Such is my God and he is God alone The Egyptian Bondage tipified all The Race of Adam in their native Thrall And as their temporal Saviour Moses than Left not behind one hoof much less a man Inslav'd to Pharoh so the blessed Son Of this Great God hath ransom'd every one From that sad house of Bondage and of pain Where we without Redemption else had lain For which great favour he from us doth crave That we no other God but him should have And that we love him with a Reverent awe Which is the whole fulfilling of this Law This Gracious God by many is rejected And as they understand or stand affected They take or make up New ones of such things As almost to contempt the Godhead brings He of himself would make some Deity Who his own power so much doth magnify As if by that he thought to gain access To present and to future happiness He makes the World his God who thinketh fit To love to follow serve and honour it As many do and they who much incline To love this God are enemies to mine He makes his Lust a God who doth fulfil In every thing his own unbridled Will This Tyrant many serve Yea this is He Who makes them Bondslaves whom God setteth free He makes the worst men Gods who doth obey Their Pleasures in an unapproved way Or their imperious threatning so much feareth As think it from his Duty him deterreth He makes the Devil God who doth believe By evil means good blessings to receive Which very many very often doe Whose words deny him and defie him too But some of us not only Guilty stand Of being breakers of this first Command By serving Gods beside and more than him Who from Death Sin and Hell did us redeem But either we neglect him also quite Or practise works to him so opposite That into worse impieties we fall Than such as yet confess no God at all For by distrust self-love backsliding fear Inconstancy Presumption fruitless Care Impatience Grudging Frowardness or Pride With other such our God we have deny'd More oft than once and oftner fear we shall â—nto this error through our frailty fall This Law in some degree is also broke Unless we to our powers due care have took To Shun each cause of breaking it The Chief â—s Ignorance the ground of misbelief The next is to be oft and willingly Among Professors of Idolatry The Third is Servile fear which many ways The Heart unto Idolatry betrays The last not least is when the sway we give To any Lust or Sin For thus believe Such men to gain the full of their delight Will change their God or leave Religion quite Yea they who hate at first so gross a Sin Are by the Devil this way hooked in This Meditation here had found an end But that there are some others who offend Against this Law in such a high Degree As that they must not quite unmention'd be The truest God confessed is by them Their only God They serve
the Deed We are not yet enabled to proceed With such a Constancy as we desire Nor with such pureness as thou dost require Make perfect what in me thou hast begun Compel me that I after thee may run Let not the world adulterate in me The Love which I have promis'd unto thee Although my waies be crooked in thy sight Preserve thou my affection still upright And let thy Love so keep my heart in awe That I may still be blameless of this Law Amen VIII Thou shalt not steale c. If a Souldier might not thieve No man may as I believe If such measure Achan find For a prey in war purloin'd What on these will Justice bring Who rob Country Church and King With his Children Achan fell Yet I hope their Souls are well But if these do not amend Greater Plagues for them attend Comma VIII What want so e're oppress thee may Steal not anothers goods away LIght fingred Achan here doth figur'd stand Who for infringing of this Eight Command Brought both on him and his a fearful Doom To make it known to every age to come That Sacriledge and pilfring may undo Both such as use it and their Children too So strongly are these Preâ—â—pts knit together And have so much dependance each on other That none of their whole number can be mist Nor virtue perfect without all subsist A Families necessities who can Support aright or honour God or Man With due respects or fully exercise The praiseful work of Christian Charities Unless this righteous Law had been ordain'd Whereby each man his own might have retain'd The painful hand had wrought but for a prey For slothful Drones to spoil and steal away Did not this Law prevent and they should then Possess most wealth who were the strongest men None would have labour'd but for present need And to pocure and keep whereon to feed Would so imploy us that we should not find A leisure hour to rectify the mind By knowledge or by seeking that which is The Essence of our Being and our bliss For as base Poverty hath dwelling there Where lawless living and disorders are So where that Poverty doth much abound A brutish Ignorance is alwayes found For though wealth makes none wiser yet it might Yield means of knowledge being us'd aright And equal are the sins to rob the rich As spoil the poor although they seem not such Since that which makes the difference in the facts Is in the sufferer not in him that Acts. Let no man therefore lay his hand on what Is portion of another mans Estate With purpose to defraud him lest it bring A Gangrene and become a cursed thing Which will devour what he before possessed And stop him in the way of being blessed Rob none But of all other shun the Theft By which poor widdows are of that bereft Which is their lively hood or that whereby The Fatherless compelled are to cry To God for vengeance And be wary too Thou do not willfully thy self undo By execrable things lest Achan's Crime Bring on thee Achan's death in evil time For though Deaths due for every sin that 's done Some louder cry and bring it sooner on There are a thousand Thieveries by which The worldling is advanced to be rich With little sence of sin although they be Infringements of this Law in high degree The Trades-man stealeth by a frequent lying In bargaining in selling and in buying And most he suffers by this fair-tongu'd thief Who entertains of him the best belief Some Courtiers have their pilfrings which they call Their Fees or Vails whereby when dues are small And their expences large they soon grow great And keep their Master also in their Debt Whose Royal name is used to conceal Their frequent robbing of the Common weal. Some steal into Estates by their unjust Abuse by whom they have been put in trust And men so frequently this way misdo That such are counted honest Livers too Some rob the Church and this too is no news By keeping from her Labourers their dues And by assuming as their own Estate What Piety to God did consecrate Some Church-men rob the Layty by taking That Calling on them without conscience making Of those performances for which God gave The portions and the places which they have And doubtless for the sins of such as they The Churches heritage is took away Some by Authority or quirks of Law Raise projects from their neighbours to withdraw Their livelihood Some others do no less By outward shews of strict Religiousness Or cloked honesty the latter sort Make means to Cousin by their good Report Some wantons guilty of no petty wrong Steal Hearts which unto others do belong Some steal both Goods and Persons Thus do they Who take the heirs of mens Estates away Against their Wills And when this theft's begun Most commonly both parties are undone Some steal the wit of others And an Ass To be a witty Creature thus may pass Some stealrewards and praises which are due To other men and these are not a few Some steal preferments I could tell you how But will not lest indanger'd I may grow By babling of it or lest other some May by that means to wealth and greatness come Who do as yet retain their honesties Because they have not learn'd such tricks to rise Some steal mens good opinions by concealing Their own enormities and by revealing Their Neighbours errors with such shews of Ruth As if they were all Charity and Truth Shun all such thievish Paths for he that follows These Tracts may peradventure scape the Gallows But shall not scape unpunish'd though God may Defer his wages till a longer day As those are not excus'd So shall not he From our Infringement of this Law be free Who nourisheth a cause of this offence By Idleness by Prodigal expence By vicious gaming by regardlesness To husband wisely what he doth possess By keeping to himself what was bestown As well for others uses as his own Or by withdrawing through deceit or might The hirelings wages or the poor-mans right Whereby those may be driven to supply By stealth or fraud their griping poverty More such occasions he himself may find Who doth examine with a single mind His private practices and how the end Of one thing on another doth depend Oh Lord vouchsafe me grace to be content With whatsoever thou to me hast lent As long as life on me shall be bestown Let me be fed and cloathed with my own And not with that which being none of mine May make my Neighbour want or else repine If by a wilful or unwitting wrong I have detained ought which doth belong Unto my Neighbour Give me means and will By restitution for my doing ill To make amends or else do thou repay them The dues which I unwillingly delay them Forgive thou also my unrighteousness That it corrupt not that which I possess Or marr my thrift and for he time to come So
Law But let them know for Truth though not for news That all the Feasts and Sabbaths of the Jews Were but the Types of ours and that if they Shall for the Shades the Substance cast away They are unwise and guilty of offence Against this Precept in the moral sense Let those who for the bodies ease and pleasure Part of this time allow preserve the measure That 's justly due and in due manner too Do that which is allowable to do Not for the Soul 's well being caring less Than to prevent the Bodies weariness Let them who of the Soul most heedful seem Remember still the Body to esteem A Portion of that Manhood for whose sake Our Sabbath-maker did all Sabbaths make And give it so much liberty as may Make pleasant all the Duties of the day And since no private Spirit can impose A Rule for all let all be rul'd by those Who by a publick Spirit come to learn What may a publick body best concern Or if among us any one shall deem There is a truer way made known to him So let him walk that he himself approve To be in all his waies a Child of Love For sure I am that if the common peace He keep until humility increase True knowledge in him he then plain will see Who best expounds this Law the Church or He. Come Holy Ghost so sanctify my heart That from this Law I never may depart Amen V. Honor thy Father and thy Mother c. He that sought his Fathers death Sonless yielded up his breath He that would his Prince have slain Had his pardon sent in vain For although the King for gave Justice urg'd her due to have That Rebellious Children may Learn this precept to obey And the Subject stand in awe How he Sins against this Law Command V. On them all honours due bestow Who by the Name of Parents go WHat of Rebelling Subjects will become And graceless Children view in Absolom For whose Offence the Earth did as it were Refusal make his Bodies weight to bear And Heav'n rejects it that they might present Him hanging for a dreadful Monument Through Ages all to warn and keep in awe The sleighters and Infringers of this Law This foremost Precept of the second Table Unto the first in this is answerable They both enjoyn and Honour where 't is due Their differences are these which do ensue Here blessing follows there it went before One Parent that concern'd This many more He that shall break this Precept maketh snares Wherein to hang himself at unawares And overthrows as much as in him lies All Common-weals and all Societes Yet some affect it not but loudly cry For times which may erect a Parity And some who dream they keep it are to blame By being ignorant how far the Name Of Parent reacheth which we briefly show That they might better do and better know We from the Parents of our bodies have A natural being and they justly crave To be obey'd in all things but in those Which either may Superior powers oppose Or to some Being hurries us that shall Be worse than to have never been at all Beside these Parents we to many moe A Duty by this Obligation owe. The Fathers of our Country by this Law First claimeth of us Honour Love and Awe And from himself the same Prerogatives To his Inferiour Magistrates derives There is a Fatherhood in those that be Our Elders and our Betters in degree Our Masters also may have warrant here To challenge from us Reverence and Fear And Husbands also may infer from hence Good proof of right to their preheminence And if a witness wanted thereunto My Wife I know would say the same I do And that I give God thanks for as a blessing That is not founnd in every mans possessing Our Ghostly Fathers by whose careful pain We are anew begot and born again Ev'n to a life more excellent than that Whereto our fleshly Fathers us begat Have Honours due no less than those to whom We Sons and Daughters in the Flesh become Yea and our Fathers in some sort they be Who from Thrall Wants and Death hath set us free All these from us an Honour may command According to the place wherein they stand To some of them we do not owe alone That Honour which may outwardly be done Or that unfain'd respect which doth accord With bare Obedience But we must afford All helps whereby we also may prevent The Want the Shame the Harm or Discontent Which may befall them we should meekly bear Their words and blows ev'n when unjust they are We should not pleasure take in any thought With which dishonour may to them be brought Though they should curse us we must always bless Defend their lives and hide their nakedness We should not hear them wrong'd nor should our tongue To all men tell it when they do us wrong But pray and strive that blameless we might prove How crookedly so ' ere they please to move For he alone who thus obey them shall Hath an Obedience Evangelical Among those many who these Laws do break And pass unheeded any breach to make On this Command who greatly are to blame In being disobedient to the same The first and worst are that ill tutor'd sect Who Magistrates and Rulers contradict They who at all Superiors madly strike And fain would have us honour'd all alike Are deeply guilty and this just command They frustrate make if ought I understand The other sort doth Government forsake Of whom God pleas'd this gracious Law to make Do sometime also grievously transgress Against this Law when they by wilfulness By Pride or Cruelty provoke or stir Those to rebel who Sons or Vassals are For he that wilfully gives cause of ill Shares equal Guilt with him that acts it still By sinning he brings others to be naught Then suffers by them for the Sin he taught For they who Tyrannous Commands do lay Shall find their Servants treacherously obey The Crimes forbidden here as having bin Occasions of a more immediate Sin Against this Law are Envy Self-conceit Licentiousness which thinketh over-streight All tyes of Government Forgetfulness Of those Commodities which we possess By them who Rule us likewise we may add Ingratitude Ill habits sooner had Than lost Gross Rudeness and the Vice Whence most Sins flow insatiate Avarice I now remember that I named not Some other Parents overmuch forgot We have a Heavenly Father unto whom His Children should more dutiful become Than yet they be But what to him we owe The former Table of these Laws doth show We have a Mother too which more our Sin Hath in this Age 'ore much neglected bin Nay worse I would it were untruly said She hath dishonour'd been and disobey'd More like a cruel Step-dame than like her Within whose blessed Womb conceiv'd we were I mean the holy Church the Spouze of Christ For we her wholsome Discipline resist Her comely Ceremonies we
despise Her Government we often Scandalize We slight her Blessings we her Counsels hate We of her Ornaments and her Estate Dispoil her her best Children we betray And when she would embrace we run away In all which things we disobey this Law And vengeance both on Soul and Body draw God grant this wickedness we may repent Before he change into a Punishment The Blessing promis'd For he from the Land Will root the breakers of this great Command That men may know the danger to contemn A good Condition when 't is off'red them Some are already gone And though few see Or will confess that they afflicted be For this offence yea though few think that they Were rooted out because they went away By their own choice Yet God to them hath shew'd Their error by some Plagues which have ensu'd Since their departure that they might perceive How frowardly they did their Mother leave And that the truly penitent might there Enjoy the Blessing they did forfeit here God open so their eyes in their distress And so instruct them in that Wilderness To which they run that though like Sarahs Maid They fly from her with whom they should have staid They may divert our heavy Condemnation And leave a blessing to this Generation Lord Grant thou this and that those may not shame Their Brethren who departed without blame To civilize the Lands which know not yet Their blindness nor what Sins they do commit And gracious God preserve a Heart in me Which to this Law may still obedient be Amen VI Thou shalt do no murder c. Murther leaves a bloody stain Which unpurged will remain Till a Flood of Tears it cost Or till blood for blood be lost Nor old age nor length of time Cleared Joab of this Crime Nor his Power though great it was Nor a priviledged place Could his head from vengeance hide But for this Offence he dy'd Command VI. The Makers Image do not spill Where God commands thee not to kill None had been safe unless the bloody sin Forbidden here had both restrained been And still pursued mischiefs to prevent With open and with secret punishment Therefore Almighty God who hath decreed That he who sheds his Brothers blood shall bleed Attends it still with vengeance and the Sword According to the dreadful sounding word Pronounc'd long since to David shall not leave Him or his house who doth of life bereave A guiltless man till for that crying guilt Some Blood of his untimely shall be split For though like him whom here we represent Men may by greatness keep off punishment Till they are old it will their heels pursue And give them at the last their bloody due For I have rarely heeded one in ten Of those rash-headed and fool-hardy men Who as they fondly term it fairly kill But they or their have either suffered still Deaths violent or died in their prime Or Issueless fo this Blood-spilling Cirme Yea and for ougit is known the self-same Doom On those who yet escape e're long may come And if the fair done Murthers have these Fates How shall he scape that foul ones perpetrates Of this offence let all men conscience make For their own weal or for their Childrens sake Whom they beget For in the same degree Wherein they murther it repaid shall be Or their own persons or on some of those By whom her due just vengeance may not lose If thou hast took away the life of Fame From any thou shall suffer in thy Name If by unchristian Anger or by hate Thou shalt occasion what may ruinate Anothers Being in thy Generation Or in thy self expect retaliation Unless Repentance in a Fount of tears Shall cleanse that stain which nothing else outwears Oppression makes the Poor his life to leese Like Poysons which destroy men by degrees With lingring Deaths and in an age or two That Sin doth all those Families undo Which were enrich'd thereby yea I have seen Their Sons who by oppression rais'd have been To fall from large Estates by some and some Till they to such base poverty have come As brought them to the Gallows Therefore they Act murthers who take means of life away By an oppressing hand and murther not The poor alone but those whom they begot He is in Heart a Murtherer who prays For others deaths and in effect he slays Who can but will not save it to afford Deliverance with Justice will accord Nor from this error are they counted free Who wittingly shall an occasion be To other men of that which may intice By word or by example to this vice Such are those Hacksters who themselves don me Men of the Sword but sure enough I am Men of a base Condition these are they Who flesh our blooming Gentry in the way Of brutish Quarrels and their minds possess With Rage instead of sober Manliness Just of their stamp are they who shall provoke Their Friends unto Revenge for what was spoke In drink or passion making them believe They were disgraced if they should forgive And so the Fools are urged to pursue Those wicked Counsels which at last they rue Another way as faulty are those men Who publish by the tongue or by the pen Those Heresies and Fancies which undo Here and for aye themselves and others too These last are out of question deeply dy'd In this red Crime though some of them can hide Their Guilt with holy shews The former sort Though well esteem'd and such as none report Or take for Murtherers would soon be cast If an impartial verdict should be past There is a murthering poyson in some words And Flatteries are otherwhile the Swords That Kill their hearers though when they infect They do not murther by a line direct Moreover other while unkindness may Strike dead a Gentle heart and such as play False play in Love as when they do allure And causlesly reject may soon procure Untimely Death But such like youthful Crimes Though jested at bring vengeance many times He that by lawful means doth blood require For blood unjustly Spilt with more desire To satisfy his rage than to prefer True Justice is a parcel Murtherer And so are such who practise to encrease A publick Concord or mens private peace In some degree of Murtherers are they Who to their might remove not for away All such occasionings as may begin Or help to perfect this inhumane Sin And therefore by this Law we are forbidden To keep an Enmity in secret hidden That may provoke Revenge which to prevent A Duty doth precede the Sacrament Of Christian Vnity and they commit Against this Law who fail to practise it Pride Wrath Scorn Avarice Wine in excess Wrongs Jeers Neglects and Jests with bitterness With other such which either are or draw Occasions on to violate this Law Are breaches of it And though few suspect Because these are but breaches indirect That such enormities unpunish't be For that but seldom they inflicted see Immediate
one The Father's equal and his only Son That ever-blessed and incarnate Word Which our Redeemer is our life Our Lord For when by Sathans guile we were deceived Christ was that means of help which was conceived Yea when we were in danger to be lost Conceived for us by the Holy Ghost And that we might not ever be forlorn For our eternal safety he was Born Born as a Man that Man might not miscarry Even of the substance of the Virgin Mary And loe a greater mercy and a wonder He that can make All suffer suffered under The Jewish spite which all the world revile at And Cruel tyrannies of Pontius Pilate In him do I believe who was envied Who with extreamest hate was Crucified Who being life it self to make assured Our souls of safety was both dead and buried And that no servile fear in us might dwell To conquer He descended into Hell Where no infernal Power had power to lay Command upon him but on the third day The force of Death and Hell he did constrain And so in Triumph He arose again Yea the Almighty power advanc'd his head Aswel above all things as from the dead Then that from thence gifts might to men be given With glory He ascended into Heaven Where that supream and everlasting throne Which was prepar'd he clim'd and sittcth on That blessed feat where he shall make abode To plead for us at the right hand of God And no where should he be enthroned rather Than there for he is God as is the Father And therefore with an equal love delight I To praise and serve them both as one Almighty Yet in their office there 's a difference And I believe that Jesus Christ from thence Shall in the great and universal doom Return and that with Angels He shall come To question such as at his Empire grudge Even those who have presumed him to judge And that black day shall be so Catholick As I believe not only that that the quick To that assise shall all be summoned But he will both adjudge them and the dead Moreover in the Godhead I conceive Another Person in whom I believe For all my hope of blessedness were lost If I believ'd not in the Holy Ghost And though vain Schismaticks through pride and folly Contemn her power I do believe the holy Chast Spouse of Christ for whom so many search By marks uncertain the true Catholick Church I do believe God keep us in this union That there shall be for ever the Communion Of Gods Elect and that he still acquaints His Children in the fellowship of Saints Though damned be Mans natural condition By grace in Christ I look for the remission Of all my foul misdeeds for there begins Deaths end which is the punishment of sins Moreover I the Sadduces infection Abhor and do believe the Resurrection Yea though I turn to dust yet through God I Expect a glorious rising of the body And that exempted from the cares here rife I shall enjoy perfection and the life That is not subject unto change or wasting But ever-blessed and for ever-lasting This is my Faith which that it fail not when It most should steed me let God say Amen To whom that he so much vouchsafe we may Thus as a member of his Church I pray A Metrical Paraphrase Upon the LORD'S PRAYER LOrd at thy Mercy-seat our selves we gather To do our duties unto thee Our Father To whom all praise all honour should be given For thou art that great God which art in Heaven Thou by thy wisdom rul'st the worlds whole frame For ever therefore Hallowed be thy Name Let never more delayes divide us from Thy glories view but let Thy Kingdom come Let thy commands opposed be by none But thy good pleasure and Thy will done And let our promptness to obey be even The very same in earth as 't is in heaven Then for our selves O Lord we also pray Thou wouldst be pleased to Give us this day That food of life wherewith our souls are fed Contented raiment and our daily bread With needful thing do thou relieve us And of thy mercy pitty And forgive us All our misdeeds in him whom thou didst please To take in offering for our trespasses And for as much O Lord as we believe Thou so wilt pardon us as we forgive Let that love teach us wherewith thou acquaints us To pardon all them that trespass against us And though sometime thou find'st we have forgot This Love or thee yet help And lead us not Though Soul or bodies want to desperation Nor let abundance drive into temptation Let not the soul of any true Believer Fall in the time of tryal But deliver Yea save him from the malice of the Devil And both in life and death keep us from evil Thus pray we Lord And but of thee from whom Can this be had For thine is the Kingdom The world is of thy works the graven story To thee belongs the power and the glory And this thy happiness hath ending never But shall remain for ever and for ever This we confess and will confess agen Till we shall say eternally Amen Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and upon thy Gates Deut. 6. 9. FINIS Job 33. 14. See Pro. 30. 8 9.
above To look upon the Vassals here below Our Nature and distempers tempring so And so providing that the blessing lost Is purchas'd for us at anothers cost And may by every Soul enjoyed be Who shall accept the means ordain'd by thee Though as did once the Jews some Christians grudge As if the Childrens teeth were set on edge By what their Fathers eat and doubtful grow Although thou makest Oath it is not so That most of those which are or which have bin Since time began shall die in Adam's sin And are in him rejected without place Or means of hope of truly saving Grace Yea though this be an error whereby such As err that way have urg'd thy Justice much Yet we who fear and trust thee and to whom The knowledge of thy secrets therefore come Remember well and therefore heed have took That Thou the general Covenant being broke Which first was made in Adam pleas'd hast bin To tell us of a new one since brought in And made with all men so particularly That no man for anothers Crime can die A Covenant in Christ from whom both Will And Power we have receiv'd to fulfil So much as shall to thee be acceptable If we endeavour as thou dost enable And whereas when this knowledge we did want We dreamed that thy New made Covenant Concern'd but few we doubtless did aver A Doctrine which from Truth did widely err For that which we did ignorantly call A Covenant is no such thing at all Because we then supposed nothing done Nor ought believ'd but on one side alone A Covenant as men of Judgment know Is that which is contracted betwixt two But thou by that which some of us do say Dost all thy self and giv'st nor power nor way To Act or will what absolutely can Be said to be the Act or Will of Man We stand for nothing thou alone believ'st Thou actest all thou givest and receivest Yea if we this assertion must allow None truly worketh good or ill but thou Man's but a sufferer whatsoe're he does He doth because he can nor will nor chose Lord let us know the better and so know What powers and faculties thou doest bestow On us to fear and serve thee that we might In work and word and thought still do thee right For thou so equally hast all things done And shew'st such mercy unto every one That ev'n by those who shall thy wrath abide In every thing thou shalt be justifi'd And none shall truly say when call'd they are Before thy Throne of Judgment to appear That thou hast more exacted any way From any man than he had power to pay Till by forsaking thee he forfeit made Of that enabling Grace which once he had This Law of thine which an appearance hath Of Terror of Severity and Wrath To those dull naturalists who have not weighed How by the Law of Grace it is allay'd Even this fear'd Law when first the same was made No other end but Man's well being had Nor hath as yet except it be to those Who sleight thy kindness and believe thy foes The former Table which we weakly fain Doth only to thy glory appertain Concerneth in the points of highest nature The Welfare and the glory of thy Creature To thee what is it whether we adore Thee for our God or none or twenty more Thine Honour was at full e're we were made And would be so though we no being had 'T is our Advantage that thou let 's us know To whom in our necessities to go And leav'st us not as when we Gentiles were To wander all our life times out in fear In Darkness and in Error yet to find Nor ease of Body neither peace of mind 'T is our advantage that we may be bold To scorn those Bugbears which in times of old Men trembled at and that the power and fame Of what was nothing but an empty Name Enslav'd us not to come with vows and praise To worship it as in our Heathen daies Which benefit we by this Law obtain'd And which without this Law we have not gain'd 'T is our avail that such a God we have Who lets us know that he hath power to save And that when we our selves to him apply We need not fear a Rival Deity Will angry grow and do us in despight A greater Wrong than thou hast power to right Or that a Jealous Juno can make void The hopes which in thy Love we have enjoy'd It is our gain to honour thee alone And that we need not now go Cyprus run To worship Venus then to seek Apollo At Delphos and from thence a course to follow As far as famous Ephesus to see If great Diana in her Temple be And thence again to post in hope to meet With Jove inshrined in the Isle of Creet Our Times and Substance wasting to receive That from them which they had not power to give What were it unto thee but that our peace Thou lovest if we dayly shall increase Our vain will-worshippings till we devise As many Superstitious Fopperies As we have sensless Dreams Or if our daies We spend on Idols forging Puppet plays And false Ideas till all truth be lost And then which is effected now almost Fight brawl and preach to make up Sects and Factions To help maintain the Whimsies and Distractions Which fool us till we find some Chrotchets new Unknown to Christian Heathen Turk and Jew Moreover but that our own harm it were To know no power whereof we stood in fear And were it not a merciful prevention Of miseries of mischiefs and contention Which else would rage among us if we had No name in which with Reverence might be made Vows Oaths and Protestations Or if we Should not believe a Will and Power in thee To heed and punish it when wrong were done What benefit to thee ensu'd thereon For which thou shouldst vouchsafe to make a Law To keep the damn'd For-swearers hearts in awe What suff'rest thou when mad Blasphemers rave Against thy holy Name that thou need'st have A law to curb them Or what have they done More than those Dogs which bark against the Moon If they themselves or others of their kind No damage by those Blasphemies did find And but that sweetly provident thou art Ev'n for the meanest and least worthy part Of all thy Creatures what was that daies rest To thee which thou ordain'st for Man and Beast Their pain or ease Thy Rest augmented not Nor profit by the Sabbaths hast thou got Or by the Festivals ordain'd by thee For they not thine but mans advantage be Our Essence being of a double Nature And thou best knowing what best fits the Creature Requirest all men so their time to use That Soul and Body may receive their dues But what misfalls to thee if any spends His Times in vain or to preposterous ends Some of us peradventure fancy may That thou hast honour by the Sabbath day And that it adds to thy
contentment then To hear and see great multitudes of men Assemblies make to invocate thy Name And in their songs to magnifie the same Indeed this is our Duty and when this Upon thy days by some performed is â—â—ou tak'st it as a honour done to thee â—â—â—t in such Dutys we might serious be Yet still the benefit is all our own Thy praise is neither more nor farther blown To thy avail nor doth our holiness Conduce to ought but out own happiness The days on which we memorize thy Graces And meet together in thy holy places Are much for our avail for then and there Thou teachest us our Crosses how to bear What to believe and hope there we may learn How we 'twixt Good and Evil may discern How Truth from cursed Error we may know What Path to shun or take what work to do And how and whom to love which is the Sun And height of all whereto on Earth we come Which manifests that only for our sake It pleased thee some days of Rest to make Sure ev'ry mean capacity is able To understand that in the second Table Mans welfare is immediately intended And that therefore those Laws be recommended To universal practice so to stay Our minds from running out another way For if our lives ambitiously we spend In brawls for honour If we set an end To all our kind by Murthers If we please To plague our selves with ev'ry soul disease And ev'ry grief of Heart which will arise From Fornications and Adulterys If all our Labours should be made a prey To Thieves till want had worn us quite away If we should plague each other by our Lies By slanders or in humane Perjurys Or if our hearts upon the Rack were set By lusting after what we could not get These madnesses our mischiefs only be But neither harm nor discontent to thee Except in this respect that having took Our Nature thy Compassion cannot brook To see thy Members injur'd by the Sin Which lawless people are delighted in Thou hast affirm'd the better to apply Thy workings to our mean Capacity That all things for thy Glory thou hast wrought And yet it is not therefore to be thought Thou wantest Glory and didst work for more Or that it gain'd ought wanting heretofore Nor may we think a power so truly wise Should work for that which we are bid despise But rather than thou honour dost expect To be to thee ascrib'd as an effect Of fruitfulness belonging to the Natures And undespis'd condition of thy Creature Yea I believe unfainedly oh God By what I from thy self have understood Thou wrought'st for Love Not meerly to attain Thy Creatures love for that had been as vain Because indeed as little need thou hast Of their imperfect love as of the blast Of their weak praise Oh Lord thy love it was Thy Love essentail which did bring to pass The works thou mad'st That blessed love of thine Which is thy Self Oh Essence most Divine For being All and all at full possessing In thy Self-being thou conceiv'st a blessing To be conferr'd on others not to add Ought to that Blessedness thy Essence had Thy wisedom infinite a passage found By thy eternal Power which hath no bound Distinct and finite Natures forth to bring without impairing or deminishing Thy perfect Essence which of thy perfection Should give some Demonstration by reflection Among the rest one Creature thou did'st name Compos'd of all which th' universal Frame Therein contained And the same did'st make Not only so as that it might partake Of all Created things and also be A certain Medium 'twixt them and thee But which is to the honour of it more Thine Image in it self it likewise bore And had a possiblity to be United undivisibly to thee A Species of this Creature Lord I am And for what end created we became As I conceive it here I mean to tell Oh teach me better If I say not well Thou being Love it self and therefore kind It was thy gracious and eternal mind Mankind a Sharer in thy bliss to make And grant him License also to partake That Glory which thou didst enjoy alone Before all other Beings were begun And this great favour Lord thou pleased wert As well became thy Wisdom to impart By Means Degrees and on the same condition Through which we best might gain the best fruition Of what was purposed and come to be United as I said before to thee To Adam this great Mystery appear'd Till disobedience Foggs in him had rear'd Which dull'd his Reason and his heart declin'd From Thee within himself this bliss to find The Law thou gav'st him was not as is thought By some of us that proof might so be sought Of his Obedience For thou knowest all Before it is and what shall still 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 Vnity 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'rewhile unclean Should be re-purifi'd and so perfum'd That personally it might be then assum'd Unto thyself 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