his credit and good name, as in his other goods, (for they perhaps may be as much valued by him, may really be of as much consequence to him, as any thing that he

hath;) which bindeth us to abstain from hurting him, as Prov. x. 12. well in word as in deed; how oppofite they are to cha1 Cor. xiii. rity, which obligeth us to think the best of our neigh

5,7.

28.

bour, and to endeavour that others also may do fo; to conceal his real faults and blemishes; much more not to devise and affix false ones to him, not to gather and difperse ill reports to his prejudice; of how mischievous consequence also they are, breeding ill-will, and fowing

Prov. xvi. ftrife in all focieties both public and private, (even Separating chief friends, as the Wife Man telleth us,) common sense and experience do shew: they confequently must be very odious in the fight of God, who loveth the peace and welfare of men; and very offenfive to men, who do the mischiefs springing from them.

To this law may be reduced our obligations to be candid in our opinions and discourses concerning others, (ac1 Cor, xiii. cording to St. Paul's excellent description of charity ;) to forbear all rafh and harsh cenfure, as you know our Saviour in his most divine fermon on the Mount chargeth us; to be veracious, fincere, and faithful in all our con

11.

Pfal. xv. 2.

versation; which duties are so often taught and pressed Levit. xix. in both Testaments: Ye shall not, faith the Law, steal, nor deal falfely, nor lie one to another; and, To walk uprightly, and work righteousness, and speak the truth from his heart, are the first lineaments in the good man's character Zech. viii. drawn by the Pfalmist; and, These are the things ye shall do, faith God in the Prophet; Speak ye every man the

16.

truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and Eph. iv. 25. peace in your gates: and in the New Testament, To lay Col. iii. 9. afide lying, to speak the truth every man with his neigh1 Pet. ii. 1. bour; to lay afide all malice, all guile, all hypocrifies, envyings, and backbitings, are apoftolical commands.

mandment.

Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House; thoux. Comhalt not cover thy Neighbour's Wife; nor his Pan-servant, nor his Paid-lervant, noz His Dr, noz his Ass, nor any thing that is thy Neighbour's.

THIS law is comprehenfive and recapitulatory, as it were, of the rest concerning our neighbour, prescribing universal justice toward him; (whence St. Mark, it seems, meaneth to render it in one word, by μὴ ἀποστερήσῃς, de- Mark x. 19. prive not, or bereave not your neighbour of any thing;) and this not only in outward deed and dealing, but in inward thought and defire, the spring whence they do issue forth, (for, from the heart, as our Saviour teacheth, do proceed Matt. xv. evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, falfe-19. witness, blafphemies;) we are obliged to be so far from depriving our neighbour of any good thing belonging to him, that we are not so much as to wish or defire it; not only to abstain from injurious action, but to repress covetous inclinations: wherein is also implied, that we should have a delight and complacence in our neighbour's good; not envying him any enjoyment; being in our minds content with the portion God pleaseth to vouchsafe us; and entirely trusting in him, that he will supply us with what is needful or befitting to us, without the damage of our neighbour. Thus God's law is, as St. Paul observed, spi- Rom. vii. ritual; not only restraining exterior acts, but regulating7, 14. our inmost thoughts, quelling all inordinate appetites and affections of heart within us; the which may be extended so as to respect not only matters of justice toward our neighbour, but all objects whatever of our practice; so as to import that which in the Christian law is so frequently enjoined us, as the life of our religion, circum- Phil. iii. 3. cifing our hearts, crucifying the flesh with its passions and Col. ii. 11. defires, mortifying our earthly members, putting to death Rom. vi. 6. by the Spirit the deeds of the body, putting off the old man, ii. 11. which is corrupted according to the deceitful lufts: Οὐκ ἐπι- Εph. iv. 22.

Rom. ii. 29.

Gal. v. 24.

Col. iii. 5.

Rom. viii.

θυμήσεις, Thou shalt not unlawfully or irregularly defire,
doth, according to the spiritual intent, import all this.

I have done; and shall only add, that the fun and end
of these, and all other good laws, of all religion, and all
our duty, is (as we often are taught in the New Testa-

1 Tim. i. 5. ment) comprised in those two rules, of loving God with all our heart, and loving our neighbour as ourselves; feriously and honestly attending unto which, we can hardly fail of knowing what in any case our duty is: it remains that we employ our best care and endeavour on the conscientious practice thereof; imploring therewith the affistance of God's grace, and that good Spirit, which God hath most graciously promised to those who duly ask it, by which alone we can be enabled to keep God's commandments: to him be all glory and praise. Amen.

1

1 THE

DOCTRINE

OF

THE SACRAMENTS.

76.

It is a peculiar excellency of our religion, that it doth Cypr. Ep. not much employ men's care, pains, and time, about matters of ceremonial observance; but doth chiefly (and in a manner wholly) exercise them in works of substantial duty, agreeable to reason, perfective of man's nature, productive of true glory to God, and folid benefit to men. Its defign is not to amuse our fancies with empty shows, nor to take up our endeavours in fruitless performances; but to render us truly good, and like unto God; first in interior disposition of mind, then in exterior practice; full of hearty love and reverence to God, of tender charity and goodwill toward men; of moderation and purity in the enjoyment of these things; of all true piety and virtue; whereby we may become qualified for that life of bliss which it tendereth and promiseth; for conversation in that holy fociety above, to which it designeth and calleth

Yet because fancy is naturally a medium, and an It hath, effectual instrument of action; and because sensible ob- especially upon vuljects are apt strongly to affect our minds; it hath pleased gar and the divine Wisdom to apply them, in fit measure, and to minds, a sanctify them to those good purposes, by appointing some strong effifew folemn and significant rites to be observed by us, being in their own nature proper and useful, and by God defigned to declare his mind and gracious intents to us; to confign and convey his grace into our fouls, to confirm

our faith in him, to raise our devotion toward him, to quicken our refolutions of obeying his will; to enable and excite us to the practice of those great duties which he requireth of us; a Our Lord Jesus Christ, faith St. Austin, hath fubjected us to his gentle yoke and light burden; whence, with facraments most few in number, most easy for obfervance, most excellent in fignification, he bound together the Society of new people: and, The mercy of God, faith he again, would have religion free, by the celebration of a most few and most clear facraments.

Of these there appear two (and St. Austin in the place cited could instance in no more) of general and principal use, instituted by our Lord himself; which, because they represent to us somewhat not fubject to sense, and have a fecret influence upon us; because what is intended by them is not immediately difcernible by what is done, without fome explication, (their fignificancy being not wholly grounded in the nature, but depending upon arbitrary institution, as that of words, which is of kin to them; whence St. Austin calls a facrament, Verbum vifibile,) have usually been called mysteries, (that is, actions of a close and occult importance, of deeper meaning and design than is obvious to ordinary perception ;) and thence are also called facraments, for no other reafon, I conceive, than because the ancientest translators of the Bible into Latin did usually render the word μυςήριον by the word Sacramentum; whence every thing containing under it fomewhat of abstruse meaning is by ancient writers termExod. xii. ed a sacrament. (So Tertullian calls all Chriftianity the facrament of Christian religion; and Elisha's ax he calls natura di- the sacrament of wood; and St. Austin speaks of the facrament of bread, of fish, of numbers, of the rock, &c. In primitur. short, he says of all figns, that when they belong to divine