Sunday 2. Of these things there are fome which I. God hath fo ftamped upon our fouls, that we Of the Light of naturally know them; that is, we fhould Nature. have known them to be our duty, though we had never been told fo by the Scripture. That this is fo, we may fee by those Heathens, who having never heard of either Old or New Testament, do yet acknowledge themselves bound to fome general duties, as to worship God, to be juft, to honour their parents, and the like: And as St. Paul faith, Rom.ii. 15. Their confciences do in those things accufe or excufe them; that is, tell them, whether they have done what they should in thofe particulars, or no. 3. Now though Chrift hath brought greater light into the world, yet he never meant by it to put out any of that natural Light, which God hath fet up in our fouls: Therefore let me here, by the way, advise you, not to walk contrary even to this leffer Light; I mean, not to venture on any of those acts, which mere natural confcience will tell you are fins. 4. It is juft matter of fadnefs to any Chriftian heart, to fee fome in thefe days, who profefs much of religion, and yet live in fuch fins, as a mere Heathen would abhor; men, that pretending to higher degrees of light and holinefs, than their brethren do, yet practife contrary to all the rules of common honefty, and make it part of their Chriftian liberty fo to to do; of whofe feducement it concerns all Sunday that love their fouls to beware: And for that purpose let this be laid as a foundation, That that religion or opinion cannot be of God, which allows men in any wickedness. 5. But though we must not put out this light, which God hath thus put into our fouls, yet this is not the only way whereby God hath revealed his will; and therefore we are not to reft here, but proceed to the knowledge of those other things, which God hath by other means revealed. of Scrip tures. 6. The way for us to come to know them, The Light is by the Scriptures, wherein are fet down thofe feveral commands of God, which he hath given to be the rule of our duty. 7. Of thofe, fome were given before Christ came into the world; fuch are thofe precepts we find scattered throughout the Old Testament, but efpecially contained in the Ten Commandments, and that excellent book of Deuteronomy; others were given by Chrift, who added much, both to the law implanted in us by nature, and that of the Old Teftament; and thofe you fhall find in the New Teftament, in the feveral precepts given by Him and his Apostles, but especially in that divine Sermon on the mount, fet down in the fifth, fixth, and feventh Chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel. 8. All these should be feverally fpoke to; but becaufe that would make the difcourfe Sunday I. The three great of man's Duty. very long, and fo lefs fit for the meaner fort of men, for whose use alone it is intended, I choose to proceed in another manner; by fumming up all thefe together, and fo, as plainly as I can, to lay down what is now the duty of every Christian. 9. This I find briefly contained in the words branches of the Apostle, Tit. ii. 12. That we should live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world; where the word foberly contains our duty to our felves; righteously, our duty to our Neighbour; and godly, our duty to God. These therefore fhall be the heads of my discourse, our DUTY to GOD, OUR SELVES, and our NEIGHBOUR. I begin with that to God, that being the best ground-work whereon to build both the other. Duty to Acknow. him to be God. 10. There are many parts of our DUTY to GOD: The two chief are thefe; first, To acknowledge him to be God; fecondly, To have no other. Under these are contained all thofe particulars, which make up our whole Duty to God; which fhall be fhewed in their order. 11. To acknowledge him to be God, is to ledging believe him to be an infinite glorious Spirit, that was from everlasting, without beginning, and fhall be to everlasting, without end; that he is our Creator, Redeemer, Santifier, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, one God, bleffed for ever, that he is fubject to no alteration, b teration, but is unchangeable; that he is no Sunday bodily fubftance, fuch as our eyes may beI. hold, but fpiritual and invifible, whom no man bath feen, or can fee, as the Apostle tells us, 1 Tim. vi. 16. That he is infinitely great and excellent, beyond all that our wit or conceit can imagine: That he hath received his being from none, and gives being to all things. 12. All this we are to believe of him in regard of his effence and being: But befides this, he is fet forth to us in the Scripture by several excellencies, as that he is of infinite goodness, and mercy, truth, juftice, wisdom, power, all-fufficiency, majefty; that he difpofes and governs all things by his providence; that he knows all things, and is prefent in all pla ces: Thefe are by divines, called the attributes of God, and all these we muft undoubtedly acknowledge; that is, we must firmly believe all these divine excellencies to be in God, and that in the greatest degree; and fo, that they can never cease to be in him: He can never be other than infinitely good, merciful, true, &c. 13. But the acknowledging him for our God fignifies yet more than this; it means, that we fhould perform to him all those feveral parts of duty, which belong from a creature to his God: What thofe are I am now to tell you. B 3 14. The Sunday I. Faith. of his Aft firmations. Commands, 14. The first is FAITH, or Belief, not only that forementioned of his effence and attributes, but of his Word; the believing moft firmly, that all that he faith is perfectly true. This neceffarily arifes from that attribute, his truth; it being natural for us to believe whatfoever is faid of one of whofe truth we are confident. Now the Holy Scriptures being the Word of God, we are therefore to conclude, that all that is contained in them is most true. 15. The things contained in them are of thefe four forts: firft Affirmations, fuch are all the stories of the Bible, when it is faid, fuch and fuch things came fo and fo to pafs; Chrift was born of a virgin, was laid in a manger, &c. And fuch alfo are many points of doctrine; as, That there are Three Perfons in the Godhead; That Chrift is the Son of God, and the like. All things of this fort thus delivered in Scripture we are to believe moft true. And not only fo, but becaufe they are all written for our inftruction, we are to confider them for that purpofe, that is, by them to lay that foundation of Chriftian knowledge, on which we may build a Chriftian life. 17. The fecond fort of things contained in the Scripture, are the Commands, that is, the feveral things enjoyned us by God to perform; thefe we are to believe to come from him, and to be most just and fit for him to command But |