MAN'S MONITOR, OR The Free-school of VIRTUE; Holding forth the Duties required, and Sins forbidden in the two Tables of the LAW.  
In easy ENGLISH VERS. Fit to be implanted in the memories of all Christian Children.  
By W. BARTON Preacher of God's Word at North-winfield in Derbyshire.  PROV. 22.6. 
Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not departed from it.  
Ovid. Add quod ingenuas didicisse fideliter arts, Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros.  
LONDON: Printed by W. D. for T. Underhill; and are to be sold at the Blue Anchor in Pau'ls Churchyard. 1655.   

THe Author of this little Book was formerly 〈◊〉 Preacher in this City, well known, and much esteemed by his godly brethren in the Ministry. He hath put forth a New Translation of the Psalms, which first and last hath obtained the public Approbation● and attest of four or fivescore eminent Ministers in the City and Country. For my part I do hearty wish that the defects of the Old Psalm-book were now laid to heart, a● that so good a Translation as this Author's might be universally received in the room of it. The design of the ensuing Book is to set down in Verse not only the duties that 〈◊〉 required, but also the Vices which are forbidden in the Te● Commandments. Which thing he hath so well performed, that he hath manifested himself both a g●● Poet and a good Divine. I commend this together with Psalm-book to your perusal, and rest,  
Your servant in the work of the Ministry Edm. Calamy. Sep. 27. 1655.   

THE DEDICATION  

LOrd I present thee on my bended knee  
With that choice vow which I have vowed to thee,  
The prais is thine who gav'st the power to me.   

At first, methoughts, I saw what craggy rocks  
Were in my way, what Labyrinths and locks;  
What shady woods, what mighty bars and blocks.   

But Jacob 's Ladder standing still upright,  
The clue of Scriptures, and thy sunbeams bright  
Made easy all, and open in thy sight.   

But Lord is this the champion? am I come  
To view a vast, a vast and dreadful sum  
Of sin contracted from my Mother's womb?   

So huge an Army marshaled in array  
Against a sinner, sure, must needs dismay,  
For plainly sin portend's a judgement day.   

What wilt thou bate me Lord of this large scroll?  
I ask in vain unless I ask the whole,  
Since one unpardoned sin will slay the soul.   

If one condemned a whole world of men,  
One sin (I say) at first, how much more than  
Shall a whole world of sin one man condemn?   

I thank my God, through Jesus Christ my Lord,  
That, us to Pardon, freely can afford  
To take my sins clean off, clean of record.   

This Lamb of God took worlds of sins away,  
And surely he was God that would defray  
So vast a debt, so rich a ransom pay.   

Doubtless God would without a Mediator  
Forgive our debt, and heal our sinful nature,  
Rather than give that glory to a creature.   

God was in Christ to reconcile mankind,  
He might leave trials, but no curs behind;  
Only men out of Christ no comfort find.   

Yet still to griev my God I also griev,  
Faith work's by fruits; O let me thus believ,  
And labour all good actions to atchiev.   

This gild's again thy grace to thine Elect,  
Who can fulfil the Law in no respect,  
Yet God accepts, and pardon's our defect.   

O let me still upon my pardon look,  
And be the first to practise this my book,  
Sharpening the spur, but shunning bait and hook.   

O let my labours in exactest vers  
The ample praises of my God rehearse,  
And fit all customers with rich commerce.   

Then should I vow another vow as free,  
Of all my Incom a full tenth to thee:  
And this my Will and Testament should be.    

The APOLOGY To the Reverend and Religious Schoolmasters of the English Nation.  

WHat Scholar in the world (most learned Sirs!)  
owes not great honours to his Schoolmasters?  
And which of all the children that we breed  
To your Instructions give's not greatest heed?  
And what instructions can you give so great  
As the Religious letters you repeat?  
And what more likely to be helpful for  
The rivetting of them, than this Monitor?  
Which that it may both profit much and pleas,  
Is interlaced with various sentences,  
That once read over leaves some print behind,  
And, got by heart, will never out of mind;  
But be a sure remembrancer within  
To help on virtue, and to hinder sin;  
And here or there doth comprehend or hint  
More points then usually are put in Print.  
The Creed alone for knowledge yield's a Sea  
Fit to raise questions on extempore;  
An instrument that may not well be missed,  
Or by the Scholar, or the Catechist.  
Let none object 'tis hard to understand,  
You are the sure Interpreters at hand:  
Besides it harp's on scriptures that will show,  
And, if not now, they shall hereafter know.  
Let none object and say, it is too light,  
God's graver servants have brought in more slight:  
By cock a pie and Mous-foot Dent bring's in,  
Examples to express forbidden Sin:  
The Reverend Bishop Usher instanceth  
How some are guilty of untimely death:  
He talks of narrow stairs built to some Room,  
And children smothered in their mother's womb  
By clothing, dancing, or some such disquiet,  
Or by misgoverned and unwholesome diet.  
Besides, the fault's not ours these sins to name,  
Let the Committers of them bear the blame:  
What if the watchman name the bogs and dirt  
The passengers should shun, can this do hurt?  
Conscience of sin may make a sin withstood,  
And by God's blessing do a world of good.  
Some never know what sins and duties are  
Unless we name them in particular.  
Let none object we oft tautologize  
And yet no perfect catalogue comprise;  
Or that we are far too prolix and large;  
For answer to the first part of the charge,  
Our work admit's of augmentation still,  
Let him that finds a hole thrust in his quill:  
As for exuberance, it is no sore,  
And some sins do not break one law, but more.  
And some the oftener inculcation need  
That by more warning men may take more heed  
Happy the Christian that hath that or this  
Always to check him when he doth amiss.  
Nor let them say it is too flat and plain,  
Why should it be a monitor in vain?  
Nor blame's it any man unless he err,  
If guilty, 'tis a good remembrancer.  
If haughty youth or froward age shall spit  
At these Monitions, childhood will submit:  
To these direct your speech, as I my pen,  
And by God's blessing we shall build up men.    

The PREPARATORY. To the Young SCHOLAR at School.  

MY little Child, chief of thy Parent's Goods,  
That growest among the tender plants and buds;  
Harken to me that act a Parent's part  
To discipline thee with Diviner Art.  
Mark how I lead thee quite beyond the Schools  
To prove a man, and practise all my Rules.   

FIrst, Read this Monitor, then get by heart,  
And oft rehearse it as thou dost thy part:  
Then harken to thy Master's Exposition,  
And chief that which suit's with thy Condition.  
As, first abandon negligence and sloth,  
Abhor a lie, and tremble at an oath;  
Eat Faith, and Troth, by ' r Lady, and the Mass,  
'Tis sin and shame to let such speeches pass.  
Eat quarrelling, lest passion should be stirred,  
And scorn to give the least opprobrious word:  
To hear some foul-mouthed Brats would make one gather  
The unclean spirit were their ghostly father.  
Never employ thy wits to scoff and jeer,  
Nor let thy pen in wanton works appear:  
The Ribald Poet is a sordid Swine,  
Because his Art should make him all Divine.  
With honest Recreations whet thy wit,  
But let no baseness prompt or poison it:  
The lord of Misrule with his sports uncivil  
Is fit to make a Bearward for the Devil.  
Esteem of Sundays, not for sport and play  
As Thursdays, but as Repetition day:  
Then do the Sabbath duties with delight,  
A constant Zealot still this way stands right.  
He that is careless and profane herein  
Runs headlong into all excess of sin.  
In secret place by practice learn to pray  
Mere want will teach a beggar what to say:  
Sin yield's confession, for thou knowst thy pranks,  
And blessings teach the grateful to give thanks:  
But he that would be prompt in supplication  
Must oft use practice and premeditation.  
Inquire for Christ, learn who and what he is,  
His double Natures, and his Offices:  
He that, like David, or young Samuel,  
Knows Christ in childhood, shall in age excel:  
A young Saint and a sound, I dare presage,  
Shall shine like to an Angel in his age.  
And now I leave thee with my last advice,  
Hoping to see thee once in Paradise.  
If thou must leave both school and scholarship,  
And taste of learning but a little sip,  
Read godly Books, first Bishop Usher's best  
For Science, and for Conscience Baxter's Rest:  
Dent for the plain man, Hildersham, and Dod;  
And above all books else, the Book of God.   
W. B.   

ERRATA;  
Page 3. line 18. for since read sin. p. 5. l. 17. of r. or. p. 7. l. 15. was r. we. p. 14. l. 26. J●bbled r. Babbled. p. 18. l. 7. Who r. For. l. last Officers r. Officers. p. 19 l. 1. Abitrator r. Arbitrator. p. 30, l. 24. love r. love. p. 31. l. 29. pretenced r. prepensed. p. 33. l. 9 fit r. fills. l. 12. end r. and p. 41. l. 11. beser r. base.   

MAN'S MONITOR;  

DUTIES and TRESPASSES implied in the First COMMANDMENT.  

THe first Command require's the inward Man,  
With all the power that possibly he can,  
To give attendance always on the Lord,  
In Trinity and Unity adored:  
To do each duty in our Saviour's merit,  
And by assistance of his sacred Spirit.  
It binds to blessed Virtues touching God,  
As filial fear, and reverence of his rod:  
Spiritual knowledge, as the only scope  
Of all our skill; and heaven-assuring hope;  
Holy rejoicing, and strong confidence,  
Unwearied patience, and true penitence;  
Zeal for his glory kindled with good will,  
And earnest longing for his presence still;  
Attending for the coming, and the call  
Of Christ our Lord and sovereign judge of all.  
And among virtues (as the very chief)  
It binds unto particular belief  
Of sins remission, and our souls salvation  
By Christ our Saviour's death and mediation.  
To grateful thoughts, and great humility,  
To fervent love without hypocrisy:  
In which affections nothing may partake,  
But always under him, and for his sake.  
It also binds to outward adoration,  
Profession of God's Name, and invocation:  
Our rising and reposing thoughts must be  
Bestowed on God: then must we bow the knee,  
And humbly offer him, with daily care,  
The sacrifices of our solemn prayer.  
Not naming heathenish Gods without disdain,  
Nor any Customs that to them pertain,  
Their temples, altars, images must be  
Abominated in a high degree.  
Only the true God's being ours in Christ  
Should draw up our affections to the highest.  
It binds us to believe what scripture saith  
Touching the pinciples of Christian faith:  
One true eternal God, unchang'able,  
Most holy, wise, just, mighty, merciful;  
Invisible, immense, and infinite,  
And having all things always in his sight,  
Incomprerensible, in persons three,  
For father, son, and holy Ghost they be.  
The fountain of this personality  
Beget's the Word, who work's from his supply;  
Both these produce the Spirit, which proceeds  
And work's from both; & they by him their deed  
So non's afore, but, in this order rare,  
All Coëternal, and Coëqual are.  
Predestination, and foreseen decree,  
How for God's glory every thing shall, be;  
Creätion of the world in six day's space,  
All Angels first, Man in the latest place:  
Perpetual Providence; the helpless fall  
Of sinning Angels; some ne'er sinned at all,  
These were elect, and prais their Maker still,  
And with great quickness execute his will;  
These wait on Saints, and bear them in their arm,  
Those, by permission, tempt, accuse, and harm,  
Reserved in chains of darkness (which dismay)  
Until the judgement of the general day.  
Man's innocence, and happiness at first,  
That Covenant broke; and all therein accursed:  
Original corruption, Actual sin;  
Transgression censured; and thus death came in.  
The law so plainly written in man's heart  
Obliterated for the greater part.  
The earthly paradise quite lost and gone,  
And all mankind slain by the sin of one.  
A better Covenant wrought man's restoration;  
By Christ the second person's incarnation:  
Conceived in Virgin's womb by heavenly powers,  
His manhood (since excepted) just like ours.  
To th' second person joined immediately  
And mediately to the rest thereby;  
Making both natures but one person still,  
Though having both divine and humane will:  
Divine and humane properties distinct,  
Man-God, God-man, both these rogether linked.  
Equal with God in his spiritual Nature,  
Inferior to him as the Mediator:  
Yet in both natures (not in man's alone)  
Far above Angels in the highest throne.  
His perfect life and blessed doctrine taught,  
Backed with a world of wonders which he wrought:  
His judgement, passion, burial, Resurrection,  
Ascension, session (in his bright perfection)  
And intercession, there, at God's right hand,  
And having all things under his Command.  
The universal Churches sure election,  
Calling, adoption, trial, and correction,  
Redounding to their good: Justification,  
Sanctification, and sure preservation.  
The seal of Baptism, and the sacred Cup,  
With many an Ordinance to build them up,  
All to be guided by the Scripture's light,  
Which saints did pen, and God's own spirit indi●  
The common call and gifts of many a one  
Never built up unto perfection.  
Immortal souls of saints celestial bliss,  
Imprisonment of theirs that lived amiss:  
The Resurrection; and great judgement day,  
Where Christ in chief, and all the saints bear sway  
The world that was accursed (for man misled)  
Purged by fire, and reestablished.  
Then reprobates must pack to endless pain,  
And saints in endless glory shall remain.  
He that discerns not these, nor cares to see,  
Condemned of wilful ignorance shall be:  
He that believe's not this, his sin goes higher,  
For unbelievers have made God a liar.  
These than are sins, of which we must repent  
Forbidden by the first Commandment.  
The indigence of virtues here that shine,  
And negligence of duties so divine:  
Original corruption; Atheism, error,  
Benumbed conscience, slavish fear, and terror:  
All bold reposing in security,  
And base revolting by Apostasy;  
Lukewarmness, coldness, ignorance, despair,  
Forgetfulness of God, and carking care:  
Distrust, ingratitude, impatience,  
Presumption, blasphemy, impenitence;  
Profaneness, pride, and virtues counterfeit,  
Rash zeal, and faith upon wrong objects set;  
Spiritual pride must punctually be noted,  
Which steal's God's glory whiles we seem deve  
And that proud thought, which in men's bosom lurks,  
Of being saved by our own good works.  
Inordinate affection, idle mirth,  
And carnal confidence in things on earth,  
For all that steal's our hearts from God most high  
Produceth primitive Idolatry.  
Some trust to the physician for their health;  
For their provision, most men trust their wealth:  
Some trust to prince's favours, and to friends,  
On plots and projects many a soul depends:  
Some trust to strength of horse, and numerous hosts,  
And many of their own strength make their boasts:  
And the chief idols, that do souls devour,  
Are money, beauty, worldly pomp, and power,  
Enchanting pleasure, and there's one more odd,  
The greedy belly every glutton's God.  
Thus falls affiance of affection base  
Set creatures up in the creätors' place.  
Voluptuous riot, sports, and bellie-cheer,  
With sensual feeding, void of God's true fear:  
When men with healths profane, do, at their feasts,  
Make Gods of others, or themselves ●ruit beasts;  
As if at Bacchus or Baal Peor's Table;  
These are Idolatries abominable.  
Sun moon & stars brave Gods have been reported,  
By some the saints and Angels have been courted.  
And mortal Gods are too much worshipped  
By base dependence, flattery, fear and dread.  
And some have been seduced and enticed  
To worship Luciferian Antichrist:  
Bow to his breaden God the mongrel Mass,  
Which doth all other idols far surpass,  
Far worse than pass over or Manna kept,  
Whereon (next morning) crawling Vermin crept:  
He that adore's such Idols as these be  
Break's this Commandment in a high degree.  
As for the heathenish Gods this doth condemn  
The least regard or hanking after them:  
No Christian may be guilty of such evils,  
For they that worship such Gods, worship devils:  
No less do they that practise sorcerie  
And fortune-telling-vain-Astrologie,  
Magicians, witches, charmers, Conjurers,  
For these are very gross Idolaters.  
All that ascribe God's works to such as these,  
As blast, tempests, plagues, and sicknesses  
Or to blind fortune blindly reckon things,  
To cursed speakings, charms, and conjure,  
Or seek to such for succour or supply,  
Or for inquiry, or recovery,  
To know their fortune, or to find out thieus,  
Or get relief when pain or sickness grieves,  
Whether for man or beast, for flock or fold,  
In danger or disttess of young or old,  
To cure disease by paper, spell, or charm,  
To drive out devils, or defend from harm,  
To scape from Gunshot, or, from shore to shore,  
To buy a wind to waft them swiftly o'er.  
(This they call going to wisemen forsooth,  
But is a going to the devil in truth;)  
They greatly derogate from God most high  
And perpetrate most foul idolatry.  
Yet Satan work's, but, while he seems to reign,  
We must adore the power that holds his chain.  
Enthusiastical and and bold pretenders  
To Revelations here are made offenders.  
The Renegado that turns Turk or Papist,  
Quaker, or familist, goes near an Atheist.  
And by his new Religion makes it known  
He either hath another God, or none.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Second Commandment.  

THe Duties of the second sacred Law  
Are hearing of the word with reverend awe:  
Prayer, by Confession to the Everliving,  
Humble petition, and sincere thanksgiving.  
All these to be performed by every one  
In public place, in private, and alone.  
A form of prayer is fit for their advance  
That want extemporary utterance;  
We are to matter, not to method tied,  
The form our Saviour gave must be our guide.  
First setting forth God's glorious Attributes  
Of might and mercy, and their blessed fruits:  
Believing he can help that dwells above,  
And will do as a father out of love,  
That was through Christ (who doth this grace display)  
With reverence and confidence may pray:  
That worthy instruments may still be found  
In Church and State, and God by them renowned,  
Our hearts even filled with heaven: our tongues applied  
To edify, and God be glorified.  
And that our lives before the world may shine  
With glittering beams of graces most divine.  
That Saints be kept, & Satan's kingdom quelled,  
Falls doctrines, errors, Antichrists expelled:  
The Gospel spread, and prospered every where,  
And Christians labouring (each man in his sphere)  
For Jew and Gentiles call, and confirmation,  
Our happy end, and final full salvation.  
That we with wisdom may be all inspired,  
To know God's will in what he hath required:  
Our backword natures, that are dark and dull,  
Inflamed with zeal to do it to the full;  
And what he pleaseth of himself to do  
We may contentedly submit unto.  
That we, depending on God's providence  
By lawful means, and daily diligence,  
Without ambition, avarice, or strife,  
May have all needful comforts of this life  
For us and ours: Not envying great or small  
But helping those that in affliction fall.  
That we confessing our vile sinful nature,  
Acts, and neglects against our great creätor;  
Not having ought to pay, or aught that's good  
But of his gift; may flee to Christ his blood  
For grace, and peace, and pardon, whiles we live  
With peaceful minds addicted to forgive.  
That we be never tried above our strength  
By weal or woe; but may prevail at length,  
That either the temptation-times be missed,  
Or we with graces armed to resist:  
That, ever watchful, we may never fall,  
But grow in grace and be preserved in all.  
That we may ever praise our heavenly King,  
From whom all blessings, friends, and favours spirit  
That all that hear may join with free consent,  
And full assurance of accomplishment;  
Waiting for answers as not begged in vain,  
And so returning to our prayers again.  
Besides it binds too fixed contemplation,  
Serious soulsearching self-examination;  
Often ejaculations to dispatch,  
And careful keeping of our christian watch;  
Bridling the tongue, keeping each seat and since,  
Chief the heart with utmost diligence.  
The holy Sacraments must be attended,  
The faith of Christ religiously defended  
By bold confession, though it chance to come  
To loss of all, or bloody martyrdom.  
Psalmsinging is a duty most divine,  
Christian conversing, and church discipline,  
Mutual confession, prayer, and exhortation,  
Gentler reproof, and stronger consolation;  
Religious conference good things to rehearse,  
This is the way of christians to convers  
Religious fasts, and feasts, lots, covenants, vows,  
As helps to these, God's holy Law allowe's.  
Sound doctrine must be taught, ● still maintained:  
That saints may be confirmed, and converts gained.  
Schools, Counsels, Synagogues where saints may throng,  
The Scriptures published in our mother-tongue,  
And David's Psalms translated into song.  
The public lectures, and solemnities,  
With godly books, must be our exercise;  
Improving many a late and early hour  
In true devotion, to our utmost power.  
And Magistracy is God's ordinance  
(In sacred things God's glory to advance  
The church's peace and happiness to purchase)  
Besides the keys committed to the Churches.  
But these are sins from which we must withdraw  
Condemned by the second sacred Law,  
Neglect of duties mentioned before  
For mere omission set's us on the score;  
Will-worship, which quite alter's or withdrawe's,  
And man's invention adding to the Laws.  
The superstitious use of Images,  
Although we aim at the true God in these:  
Religious honours done in any kind  
To Creatures; shapes of God within our mind.  
All reverencing pictures, or thereby  
To point out any of the Trinity.  
All that in idol-service are partakers;  
All idol-mongers, and all idol-makers.  
All Superstitiousness, when any one  
Doth put religion where the Lord put's none;  
Or when we bind our selus contrarily  
With the falls snares of scrupulosity.  
For all we reckon to our souls propitious  
Without a scripture rule is superstitious.  
As Consecrating or forbidding days,  
Religious places, orders, or arrays,  
Processions, pilgrimages, popish pix.  
Bell, book, or candle, cross, or crucifix,  
Beads, relques, altars, holy waters shed,  
And worlds of superstions towards the dead.  
Rash vows and mock-fasts, yea this Law debar's  
Too near acquaintance with idolaters:  
To let whose monuments go undefaced  
Hath Christian Kings and princes much disgraced.  
Rash vows are such as do from passion spring,  
Or such as offer an unlawful thing,  
O● such as are not in our power to do,  
Yet of all these the saying is most true,  
Vows rashly made may not be rashly broken,  
Though fit to be repent of e'er spoken.  
Affected poverty is much a kin,  
And single life when it occasions sin:  
Defrauding our own families to dwell  
Within a monkish solitary cell;  
The wilful suffering of some hard distress,  
As whips, and haircloth, sores, and raggedness,  
Which seem humility and self denial,  
But pride and popery, when they come to trial.  
Moreover, it condemns all th●se that dare,  
Without commission, sit in Moses chair;  
They that do want endowments, and a call,  
Had best keep to their shopboard and their stall;  
Let Vzzah and Vzziah be example,  
To all that on these sacred orders trample.  
Yea 'tis a sin if such as have desert  
Refuse God's order to be set apart.  
And they that thrust out, by unruly stirr's  
True doctrines, Ordinances, officers,  
And bring in false, or let the Church to fall  
By Anarchy, offend the most of all.  
Christ's seamless coat may not be rend with Schism,  
Nor truth admit of sect or Sectarism;  
Much less of Heresy and wide Division  
Which ruins the foundation of Religion:  
No fictions being fitlier termed, than these,  
Man's own invented graven images.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the third Commandment.  

A Reverend meditation of God's Word  
Titles and attributes take up the third.  
God's works must be observed with diligence,  
Those of Creätion, those of Providence,  
Hearing and reading, prayer and spiritual songs  
Must exercise all awful ears and tongues,  
With understanding, care, and constancy,  
With faith, zeal, gladness, and humility.  
With earnest purpose what we hear to do,  
Adding both prayer and practice thereunto,  
Confessing sin with grief when we offend,  
And with a speedy purpose to amend.  
All weighty business must be ushered in  
With solemn prayer before the work begin.  
Nor may we here pass over or conceal  
The duty of thanksgiving at our meal.  
The very mention of God's Name and Laws  
Must be with reverence, and upon just cause,  
Swearing by God alone when called thereto,  
And knowing what we swear is just and true.  
Using God's blessings in a lawful sort,  
Even food, and raiment, labour, sleep, and sport,  
And joining with Profession of God's name  
A conversation worthy of the same.  
But these are sins, of which we must repent,  
Forbidden by the third Commandment,  
Irreverent words, or thoughts of the most high,  
Or mention of him in hypocrisy.  
Privy hypocrisy is sin though small,  
Worse is the formal Pharisaïcal:  
But gross hypocrisy is worst of all,  
Which under the pretence of piety  
Dares enterprise the greatest villainy.  
Regardless Naming God in salutation,  
In begging, borrowing, or vain admiration,  
God save you, God be with you, O good Lord,  
Oh Christ, Oh Jesus, many a such like word  
May be and should be (in right manner) used,  
But infinitely often are abused;  
Because the Name of God by many a one  
Is used with slightness, or not thought upon.  
So singing psalms and tunes for recreation,  
Not with devotion or due meditation.  
Prayer or praise for small or sinful things,  
Cursing or swearing which from passion spring's,  
From wanton custom, or profane neglect  
Of that great name to which we own respect.  
Thus some in simpleness when at their game  
They pray to win, or praise God for the same,  
Say, God forbidden to that which God will do,  
And God save all when there's a damned crew.  
They say, if God will, when the Lord will not,  
But when they should say so 'tis oft forgot.  
Dreadful is swearing by Christ's humane nature,  
Or the great titles of the great Creätor;  
But when by mortals or base things we swear  
Greater reproach we make God's name to bear,  
Chief by Idols: He commit's a sin  
of highest nature that offends therein.  
Yea vowing and protesting is too much,  
Or calling faith or conscience to avouch,  
Clipped oaths and curses, which few people balk,  
All idle words, and foolish jesting talk;  
And whatsoever phrase of speech bear's sway  
In common meaning more than Yea and Nay.  
To say, I'll swear offend's, and as I live  
Too bold attest for mortal man to give.  
Or when for truth and certainty, we dare  
With God and Gospel make a proud compare,  
Or offer by presumptuous speech or spell  
To prophecy, or work a miracle.  
As vain are any kind of words brought in  
To jest with Scripture sacred things or sin,  
Society with mockers, whose pastimes  
Are oaths, and sport at profanest crimes.  
To hear the voice of swearing and forbear  
To warn reprove or punish them that swear,  
Although it more prophane's the things divine  
To cast away reproofs on dogs and swine,  
Such are those miscreants that care not for  
So rich a pearl, or do the pearl abhor;  
Bold adjurations, to extort and draw  
The truth from others, violate this law:  
So do those prayers that never can be sped,  
Vain repetitions, dirges for the dead,  
To pray for friends deceased is the trade  
Of such as seldom in their life time prayed.  
As vain are prayers for great cures applied  
But in a way God never sanctified.  
So are the prayers and presumptuous praise  
Which fond affection and false rumours raise.  
Abuse of blessings, or a mouth that's dumb  
To give him prais from whence the blessings come.  
Babbling in prayer, or preaching void of reason  
Duties misplaced, and acted out of season:  
As private duties in the public don,  
(More faulty when the public is begun)  
To read when we should hear, or prays a crime,  
For it profane's two duties at one time:  
Prayer in unknown tongues, or ignorance,  
And slubbering over any Ordinance.  
For all irreverence in the things of heaven  
Argue's a heart that is profanely given,  
This mightily condemns the careless mind,  
That moves the lip and leave's the heart behind,  
That heedless is of what we execute,  
In prayer mindeless, and psalmsinging mute,  
Entering on duty with a heart unbent,  
And unprepared receiving Sacrament:  
Being at Baptism as a bare spectator,  
No whit regarding the baptismal water,  
Unreverent posture when they go to pray,  
As if we served an image made of clay:  
Sleepy and lazy prayers in our bed,  
Unless by weakenss so occasioned,  
Creeds, Avemaries, and I know not what  
Jabbled for prayers like the parrot's chat;  
Yea and our Lord's own words to idolise,  
As if the bare rehearsal did suffice;  
Jeering the Saints for their religion's sake,  
All these for heinous profanations take.  
Hearing without affection to apply,  
Feeding our ears but not our hearts thereby,  
Ore-curious questions, wilful cavillation,  
Unreverent gesture, or misapplication,  
Entering the Church, and starting out again,  
When there are holy things to entertain;  
Going to sit and sleep, to muse and gaze,  
To state on Beauty, or where pomp doth blaze,  
To keep our heart or eye without a curb,  
And to do any thing that will disturb:  
And lastly with a wicked life to slain  
A good profession, takes God's name in vain.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Fourth Commandment.  

THe Fourth require's a seventh of all our days  
Spent in religion for our Maker's prais.  
Preparing still against each Sabbath day,  
Then rising early, and avoid delay.  
The chief are public duties, singing Psalms,  
Prayers, sermons, sacraments, and giving alms.  
In private also we must read and pray,  
Discourse, sing Psalms, and meditate that day.  
Repeat the holy lessons we have heard.  
Nor may the works of mercy be deferred,  
We may do needful works of earthly kind,  
Yet should we do them with more heavenly mind,  
Seasoning our corporal food with spiritual salt,  
And all that edifie's we should exalt.  
At baptism we must mind the bath of blood,  
And spirit of grace poured on us as a flood,  
Praying for him or her that is baptised  
That they with us may be Spirituallized.  
Receiving Sacraments with hearts prepared,  
With faith and charity and great regard,  
Noting the breaking of the Corps-like bread,  
The wine poured out as Christ his blood was shed.  
Remembering he was God that could foretell,  
By apt resemblance, what himself befell:  
The giving, taking, and to taste and feed,  
Are all to be applied with careful heed.  
The Parent, master, and the magistrate  
Must look to all that are within their gate.  
But these offences every one of them  
The fourth Commandment doth much condem●  
Not to confess, or not to understand  
The moral nature of the fourth Command.  
Not to prefer redemption to creätion,  
As cause sufficient of the day's translation.  
Forgetfulness of Sabbaths when they come,  
Or, out of slothfulness, to stay at home:  
Preferring duties done in private sort  
Before the place where all the Church resort.  
Neglect of preparation, mere delay,  
Weary attendance haste to get away:  
Leaving of holy things some part behind,  
And suffering loose distractions in our mind.  
A heart that runs, a tongue that talks in vain  
Of worldly toys, and following lures of gain.  
To lay instruction or good things aside,  
Neglecting to become our families guide:  
To be employed in errands, trim attires,  
Or labours which a common day require's.  
Say that on Sabbaths need should chance enfor●  
The hasty burial of a noisome cors;  
Yet can it not compel in any wise  
To keep the funeral solemnities:  
To ring and riot il becomes a hers,  
Much less when men should Christianly convers.  
To crowd the Corpses in the Church that day  
Argue's the buriers are as dead as they.  
Preambulations, chatting, or pastimes,  
Feasts, journeys, visits, or some lewder crimes,  
As dicing, carding: Some are lewder yet,  
Hurrying men headlong to the dreadful pit,  
As Stews, and Stageplays, every day abhorred,  
But much more on the Sabbath of the LORD:  
And lastly, suffering sinners to profane  
The holy Sabbath, when we might restrain.  
Although some sin by scrupulosity,  
Pining poor creatures under misery,  
When sudden sickness or extreme distress  
Calls for a speedy succour and redress:  
As when indeed we cannot come or stay,  
Our will's accepted any hour o'th' day:  
For this rule holds in Sabbath-exercise,  
God will have Mercy, and not Sacrifice.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Fift Commandment.  

HEre are the Duties and Digressions touched  
Which in the fift Commandment are couched;  
First, then, the powers Supreme must, first of all,  
Be sure they have a right, and lawful call:  
Good wholesome Laws they must by counsel frame,  
inferior Powers must execute the same:  
Unrighteous Laws Superiors must repeal,  
And set in order Church and Common-weal.  
Even Kings and Princes daily should convers  
With sacred Scriptures, and those rules rehearse,  
●nd in their proper persons most excel  
〈◊〉 godliness, and guide their Households well:  
Brave men they must promote of able parts;  
Encourage virtue, and reward deserts.  
Judges they must appoint and officers,  
And stir up able teaching Ministers,  
Giving them charge that with alacrity  
They do their several duties faithfully.  
Who, they that prove corrupt and vile, must be  
Removed and censured by severe decree.  
The Judges must give light to every cause,  
Respect no persons, but regard the laws.  
They must maintain true freedom faithfully  
Property, peace, and civil honesty;  
But most of all Religion, that must have  
A sure defence against each storm and wave.  
And thus far doubtless should compulsion go  
To cause to practise what men clearly know.  
Wherefore the Christian magistracy ought  
Take care that people may be truly taught,  
And for that teaching, cause them to maintain  
A learned Ministry to take the pain.  
They are obliged always to suppress  
Strife, whoredom, drunkenness, and Idleness,  
Profaneness, conjuring, witchcraft, blasphemy,  
Idolatry, Heresy, vain astrology,  
And all iniquity, since both tables are  
Committed to their custody and care.  
All public persons that are put in trust  
Must be religious, wise, courageous, just,  
Patiented to hear, and hating covetousness,  
Give good example, and good Counsel press.  
With Justice Equity must go along,  
Else utmost right may prove extremest wrong  
Especially when as the innocent  
Among the guilty suffer punishment.  
This care concerns likewise the Jurie-men  
And Officers, and every one of them  
Umpires and Abitrators are no less  
Obliged to Equity and righteousness.  
But usurpation of the throne one hour,  
Or putting vicious men in place of power,  
Rigour, remissness, partiality,  
Taking of bribes, exaction, tyranny,  
And toleration of those evil things  
The Lord's sure wrath upon the Rulers bring's.  
If Magistrates encourage not the Word,  
And godly people by the civil sword;  
If they reliev not the oppressed with speed,  
And let not fly against an evil deed;  
If they will act no more then for their friends,  
Or for their interests, and worldly ends,  
If they be cold, or take an evil course,  
They hearten sinners, and themselves sin worse.  
'Tis sin to spare when sin affront's the throne,  
This tolerate's God's wrongs and their own:  
'Tis sin to suffer, and much more condemned,  
To make their own authority contemned.  
The Pastor's next and elders of the Church,  
Must watch the flock, and diligently search  
Lest heresy, discord, or presumptuous sin,  
Apostasy or ignorance creep in.  
The public preaching, catechising, prayer,  
With constant study, is the elders care.  
These also privately Instruct, exhort,  
Rebuke, admonish, comfort, and support.  
They must be prime examples in their place,  
And guide their households with especial Grace:  
●n secret prayer they must not come behind,  
For this the flock is to requite in kind.  
●ut negligence in watching, or in teaching,  
erroneous, or unprofitable preaching,  
●earing with such as ought to be restrained,  
●nd letting Ordinances be profaned,  
Rash laying on of hands in ordination,  
Without due trial and examination;  
Hard censures; Not receiving the weak saint;  
And letting souls for lack of comfort faint;  
To Lord it o'er the flock and domineer,  
When the chief shepherd comes, will cost men d●  
Next, Masters must choos servants with good h●  
And teach them chief what their souls do nee●  
Instruct th'Apprentice in his occupation,  
Allowing him all fit accommodation,  
Which must extend unto the sick and lame,  
For then to leave them helpless is a shame;  
Reward their faithful service that stay long,  
And justly pay them wages without wrong,  
Forbear both wrath and threatening in displeasu●  
Although for crimes they should correct in mea●  
But not to care for servants that are good,  
Letting their souls or bodies lack their food,  
Detaining wages, or deserved reward,  
O● suffering crimes to pass without regard,  
Whereby iniquity and vice grows faster,  
Makes us obnoxious to our heavenly master;  
And chief them that teach their striplings fr●●  
To gain by Vice, and do these pranks applauds  
Conjugal love now for the next place striv●  
And pious choice of husbands and of wives,  
Wherein the age and all should correspond  
To bind them fitly in the marriage bond.  
Other endowments always giving place  
To hearty love, fine parts, and gifts of grace,  
Yet should they stay, and never rashly strive  
For that estate, before a means to thrive.  
But more they sin that basely entertain  
A match unmeet for greediness or gain.  
Marriage contrived for unworthy ends  
Neither keep's conscience nor the Consort's f●  
Both own dear love, and due benevolence,  
And in each other mutual confidence,  
Continual aid and prayer, and, last of all,  
A solemn mourning at their funeral.  
By'r want of love, and therefore to discover  
The secrecies or failings of each other,  
Dishabitation, jealousy, and strife,  
Hasty remarriage: These shame man and wife.  
Chief a taunting tongue and over topping,  
Is like a tempest or continual dropping.  
Duties peculiar to the Husband are  
Fit maintenance, protection, honest care  
Of dowry, good exanple, honouring her.  
The Wife should be a living Register,  
Or glass to represent her Husband's worth,  
He should instruct her, and she set him forth:  
But if he should be of a froward spirit,  
Then must she win him by peculiar merit;  
Being obedient, faithful, meek and chaste,  
Thrifty, not spending of his goods in waste,  
Making provision to his best content,  
And let her carriage still be reverend  
●f he be virtuous, he deserves this more,  
However justly she must use his store.  
But disrespect in him, improvidence,  
And bad example breed no small offence;  
And he that hate's and torture's his own flesh  
●s worse than Cannibals of the wilderness.  
●ne bitter word is steeped in too much gall,  
●nd for a Lover too unnatural.  
Irreverence, disobedience, peevishness,  
〈◊〉 sullen carriage, prodigal excess,  
●adding abroad, imbezeling his estate,  
●nd lightness shows her an unworthy mate.  
Next parents must prevent and bless their seed  
●ith godly prayers (a blessed way to speed,)  
Tame them betimes, and bow their stubborn will,  
But with great mildness, and Compassion still;  
Holy example they must ever give,  
And teach them truly in God's fear to live;  
In fit and honest callings train them up,  
For to some good employment all must stoop:  
Give them in marriage in convenient time,  
And portions as ability can climb:  
The Mother, if enabled thereunto,  
Must nurs the newborn babe, than Baptism's du●●  
For blessing whereupon their prayer must strive,  
To name the child is his prerogative:  
The name should some good document import,  
Not being fantastical in any sort.  
Now bad example, and indulgence fond,  
Or in correcting them to go beyond  
Due moderation (Rigorous Tyranny  
Is worse than fond familiarity)  
To train them up in ignorance or sloth,  
Or pampered pride (more hurtful than them bo●)  
And negligence of duties mentioned  
Make parents guilty, and the sons ill bred;  
And worse is the defrauding them of marriage,  
And portion, than the child's worst miscarriage  
To force, for gain, a match against their mind  
Is full as irreligious as unkind.  
Stead-parents next and Guardians must enga●  
To deal as tenderly with tender age;  
Which must not be provoked in any fashion,  
By cruel dealing swayed with furious passion;  
But needs must be allowed, with moderation,  
The sweet encouragement of Recreation.  
And all their education and estate  
The best they can must Guardians regulate.  
The Tutors too, the Schoolmasters likewise,  
And Rulers of the Universities  
Are all obliged (as in parent's room,)  
To tend this tender offspring of the womb.  
Endeavouring, the most delightful way,  
To train them up in learning day by day;  
Kerbing corruption native to the soul,  
(For they have best advantage to control)  
And with compassion, in corruption's place  
Instilling all the principles of grace;  
Preferring them that seem to be designed  
As instruments excelling in their kind.  
But they that dare be careless of their charge  
Are such as are resolved to sin at large:  
As for those Stepdame's that oppress with spite,  
And Guardians that betray the child's right,  
Their seed likewise must look for such success,  
And they the vengeance of the fatherless.  
Lastly Superiors, not in power and place,  
But gifts of providence, nature, art, and grace,  
These must be wise, grave, humble, godly, kind,  
Which gets a great repute in others mind;  
●or lewdness, lightness, and austerity  
●iscredit such Superiors shamefully;  
And chief pride shames them in every place,  
And makes them guilty of their own disgrace.  
Wit, wealth, and learning, birth, and parentage,  
Married estate, and reverend hoary age  
●hould make men in example so to shine  
●s having others under discipline.  
Now equals, next, must equally affect,  
allowing each to other due respect,  
Walking in love, and sweet society,  
●nd each preferring other Courteously.  
But now disdain, ambition, envy, pride,  
●nd treachery (a kind of parricide)  
neglect of mutual prayer, behaviour rude  
●re here condemned, and all ingratitude;  
For love, respect, and prayer, and friendly aid  
Are duties upon all relations laid:  
Though friends, and families, and the near a kin  
Are most engaged and concerned herein.  
The last, though not the least, of requisites  
Is due performance of the funeral rites:  
A good report moreover of the dead  
Whose lives and labours have so merited.  
To wrong the Name, the tomb, the bones, the 〈◊〉  
Of a just man, are actions most unjust.  
Titles and Salutations every where,  
After the fashion, and within our sphere,  
To honour those we send to, see, or meet,  
Is very civil, Christian and discreet,  
Knowing that if we meet unworthy men  
Our salutation turns to us again.  
But who more vile than that vile generation  
That have not grace to own their own relation,  
That call their parents by their common Name,  
And bid their sons and servants do the same:  
No science nor superior they discern,  
But prate, blaspheme, and lie, and scorn to lea●  
These and such Heretics are the men indeed  
To whom (when known) we should not say, spe●  
Now follow several orders of Inferiors,  
And Duties which they own to their superiors.  
First, Subjects must obey the Laws in force.  
Suffering at least though Lords & Laws were 〈◊〉  
Reverence they own, and humble courtesy,  
Suiting with their Superiors dignity.  
Tribute and Custom may they not refuse,  
In legal ways, for these are Ruler's deuce.  
When need require's they humbly must de●  
And seek for justice at their ruler's hand;  
Not letting wicked acts proceed and spread,  
Because the autors go unpunished.  
But disobedience and contempt of Laws,  
Not to seek justice in a needful cause,  
Whereby the wickedness that well succeeds  
May nourish Malefactors in misdeeds,  
Treason, rebellion, fraudful injuries,  
Cursing, and speaking ill of Dignities,  
Or if to pray for lawful powers we grudge  
It is our guilt before the highest judge.  
The Flock must next attend with careful ear  
Their Pastor's charge, and their just censures bear.  
Strong Christians must not seek themselves to pleas,  
But bear with lower Christian's weaknesses;  
They must with care watch over one another,  
Admonish privately the offending brother;  
Then before others, than the Church must know,  
Whom if he hear not, count him half a foe:  
For there is none may think himself exempt  
From the Church-order, nor may show contempt,  
Nor from a soul's assistance may withdraw,  
But he shall violate this sacred Law.  
Yea every family should in a sort  
Become a Church: The Master should exhort,  
Instruct, admonish, censure, pray, and sing,  
With all his house, as prophet, priest, and king.  
Next servants must obediently fulfil  
In every lawful thing their master's will:  
They must be reverend, dutiful, and meek,  
In case of wrong, and remedy to seek  
They may not murmur, neither may they hate,  
But seek for justice by the magistrate.  
They must be faithful, patiented of reproof,  
Harkening to counsel for their souls behoof:  
Industrious, neat and quick they ought to be,  
And may advise, but with humility.  
Endeavouring to be skilful in device,  
Abstemious, sober, temperate, yet not nice,  
Faithful in counsel secrets to conceal:  
And in discovery dangers to reveal.  
For treachery, talebearing, daintiness,  
Sloth, dulness, gluttony, and all excess,  
Disdain, and pride, and prodigality,  
And loathsome drunkenness, and slovenrie,  
Negligence, disobedience, idleness,  
Purloining from their masters more or less,  
Scorning to bear the least rebukes or blows  
(Not scorning to deserv such things as those)  
Doubling their faults (as 'tis the common use)  
By making lies their refuge and excuse,  
Sullen or stubborn carriage, saucy tongues,  
All these are servant's sins and ruler's wrongs.  
Next, Child's duties much like servant's are,  
In all subjection, but in love more rare,  
To be the joyful props of parents' age,  
And theirs to whom they own their parentage.  
Their special duty is not to attempt  
A married state till first their friend's consent,  
Who should be guides, if crossness bear the sway,  
Or covetousness, the civil pa●ent may,  
But the stolen Marriage and unlicensed  
Is like bold robbery where the blood is shed.  
Also to smite or with prodigious breath  
To curs a parent Mose's Law made death:  
All scorning also to be subjugate  
To parent's counsels, wasting their estate,  
Contemtuous carriage, sloth and stubbornness,  
Neglecting to reliev them in distress,  
Mocking at their defects, disdainful laughter  
Are sins too shameful for a son or daughter.  
And lastly, all Inferiors in deserts  
Own their subjection to Superior parts:  
As first to reverence the hoary head,  
And the blessed honours of the Nuptial bed;  
The rare deserts of learning and high birth,  
And least of all the riches of the earth,  
Until some power or place therewith be joined,  
Or the more noble riches of the mind.  
But for the rude and ignominious rabble  
To slight the ancient, learned and honourable;  
When simple men presume, that scarce speak since,  
To teach their betters, 'tis a foul offence;  
To be unlearned and lofty, poor and proud,  
Young and yet saucy, may not be allowed;  
For even the want of manners is a breach  
Of God's Command, and thus the Scriptures teach.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the sixth Commandment.  

THese are the Duties which the Word makes clear  
That in the sixth Commandment appear.  
First that great care which tends to saving souls,  
And godliness which killing lusts control's  
A special heed to that Commandment  
Where life is promised to th' obedient:  
A due preparing of our selus for death,  
Then willingly resigning our last breath,  
(The slavish fear of death is foul offence,  
And scarce permit's a martyr to commence)  
Yet should he first commend what he commands  
As near as may be unto trusty hands,  
And e'er a sudden danger doth surprise,  
Think of his will, and funeral obsequies:  
For he that cares not till his soul be gone  
Loseth two lives, and links two deaths in one.  
As for the body, these things here set down  
Are most effectual, and of great renown.  
A cheerful heart, a temperate sober life,  
A meek and peaceful spirit shuning strife,  
Fit food and physic, mirth and recreation  
Expedient for our health and preservation.  
Yet out of mirth pick all abusiveness,  
Scurrility, profaneness, and excess.  
Weapons sometime are needful, and to crave  
The help of justice, our own selves to save,  
And justice, too, must sometimes put on arms  
To punish sin, and shield from greater harms.  
These also are our duties towards man,  
Peacemaking and peace-keeping, all we can,  
Compassion, patience, and kind neighbourhood,  
And true rejoicing at our neighbour's good,  
Calmness in arguing, lest we should not light  
On peaceful truth, while passion blinde's our sigh●  
To pardon many wrongs, and sympathise  
When good or ill befall's him in our eyes.  
Soft answers, courteous carriage, suffering still,  
Rather than doing, or rewarding ill.  
Yet should we rescue, to our power and might  
The weak and wronged from oppressor's spite.  
And we must visit, comfort, cloth, and feed  
The sick, and sad, and such as stand in need.  
For if thou dost not feed, the Law saith plain,  
For want of yielding succour thou hast slain:  
We should do good to all (as Scripture saith)  
But chief to the family of faith,  
Remembering evermore that charity  
Begins at home and succoureth speedily.  
Nor may we fail of mercy, in the least,  
To strangers, enemies, no, nor to the beast,  
Spiritual aid no neighbour may deny  
To very malefactors that must die.  
On just occasion must a State make war,  
Justly pursue it by the Soldier;  
And he (of all men) is to learn from hence,  
To offer no injurious violence.  
Here also Empyricks own their care and skill,  
Lest by neglect or ignorance they kill.  
Rich Landlords by this rule must have regard  
They wrack not the poor tenant over hard;  
Or if their Rents and rates oppress them nor,  
Hard impositions may not be forgot.  
Or if small faults, or others offering more  
Shall turn a needy Tenant out of door:  
For oftentimes indeed none strike more dead  
Than they that let or take o'er other's head.  
But if the widow, and the fatherless,  
The blind, and lame our charity confess;  
If we give portions unto seven and eight,  
And build up men and families to their height,  
Or if we spend our mite, and would proceed,  
We are entitled to a blessed deed.  
Whereas oppression and depopulation  
Are cruel crimes, that murder up a Nation;  
And either of them, as a deluge, drown's  
Whole generations, families, and towns.  
And where the poor man doth the poor oppress  
'Tis like the creature that is merciless.  
Here then are many sins of large extent  
Forbidden by the fixed Commandment.  
Surfeit for one, and one among the chief,  
Corrupting eas, corroding care and grief,  
Unwholesome food, libidinous delight  
To satiate a wanton appetite.  
Some so addict themselves to pineing cares,  
To gnawing pensiveness, and cold despairs,  
For loss of sweetest babes, and dearest friends  
(Although they know what happiness attends)  
And urge their eager griefs with hearts so willing,  
They make their life time a continual kill.  
Some eat raw gretes and meal, some chalk & coa●  
Thus leanness enters to their very soul,  
Green-sickness, worms, and fevers most unquiet  
Breed of raw fruits, and such unwholesome diet:  
Surfeit of meats hath made its thousands fall,  
Of drink ten thousands, counting souls and all.  
Tampering with Physic is some people's crime,  
But thousands die for want of it in time.  
Some slight good means & bury Neighbours thi●  
By their unskilful handling of the sick:  
Some tyre their bodies with excessive toil,  
And Some the want of exercise doth spoil:  
Uncessant studies drives some from their wits,  
Some swelling pride, some love outrageous fits.  
Many a one by extreme labour dies,  
Some by a proud presumptuous enterprise:  
Yet few of these do think (perhaps) how far  
These deeds give title to a murderer.  
Sadness and passion often bring disease,  
And there is murder much in such as these,  
Wrath, envy, malice, hatred, cruelty,  
Revengeful thoughts, and raging jealousy:  
In big and bloody boastings, Lamech-like,  
To kill for striking, for a word to strike,  
In desperate companions, and pass-times:  
In acting, or alluring to lewd crimes,  
Which slay the idle through their own default,  
That having nought to do must needs do nought  
In waggish sports & tricks, whence mischeiss bree●  
In suffering madmen whom no keeper heeds.  
In keeping harmful beasts and dangerous wa●  
Misleading him whose soul or body straie's  
In curses, cruel mockings, bitter words  
Which sometimes cut more keen than naked swor●  
With what strange poison do these people swell,  
That curs themselves and others unto hell!  
Hang him's a dreadful curs, & much more evil  
Those wicked wishes that take in the Devil,  
Whose horrid name, when anger moves the since  
Is seldom mentioned without offence.  
A thousand maledictions more there be  
That would destroy, should Providence agree,  
For though the causeless curs shall never come  
Yet causeless cursing much impeacheth some.  
Some curs and swear and damn it all day long,  
Hell-fire hath kindled such a wicked tongue:  
The heart that boyl's up wrath in discontent  
Hardly balk's oaths and curses in consent.  
Opprobrious terms and nicknames do both kill,  
And stir up anger to avenge the ill.  
Yet may Superiors rate men for their crimes,  
And Christians safely scoff at sin sometimes,  
When we, but giving men their due deserts,  
Are grieved to see the hardness of their hearts.  
The factious, fierce, and given to debate,  
The busybody, and the obstinate  
Do greatly violate this law of peace,  
And drunkards cups which make the strife increase.  
Some chide, some fight it out, and some go further,  
To wounding, maiming, manslaughter, and murder.  
Some murder by consent of Laws not good:  
That harm the Saints, and shed the martyr's blood.  
Some by concealment of a bloody deed,  
Some suffering wrongful sentence to proceed,  
Some of pretenced malice, like to Cain,  
Some that are always in a quarrelling vein.  
Some frays delight, and fill the aer with shouts,  
Making a sport of blows and bloody bouts;  
Some train their children up to fight and curs,  
Satan himself could tutor them no worse.  
Some like the Pagan Philistine of Gath,  
Fight Duels, out of malice, pride, and wrath,  
But would refrain, had they the least belief  
And savoury sens of future joy and grief.  
Some pinch and pine poor servants as they pleas  
Some wound and maim their poor apprentices.  
Some starv the babe at nurs for lack of food,  
Some keep the pledge the poor man's livelihood:  
Some pine poor prisoners for a trifling debt,  
Sharper on malice than on money set:  
Some out of baseness care not if the poor  
(Neighbour or kinsman) even starv at door.  
Some Tyrant's keener than fierce tigers are  
Burn, spoil, and torture in the time of war.  
And often unprovoked or withstood  
Murder their harmless brethren in cold blood.  
Some hid their whoredoms with far greater sin,  
Even blood of babes their hands are bathed in.  
Some project the untimely death of friends,  
And some by secret poison work their ends.  
Some keen to others children, some are known  
Unnaturally cruel to their own.  
Some by damned witchcraft murder those they h●  
Some to that purpose do assassmate.  
Some act it by themselves, and deeply slain  
Their hands in blood for greediness of gain.  
But most of these foul monsters are designed  
To a hard heart, and reprobated mind,  
For they that can digest the cries of blood  
Under sin's anvil have a long time stood.  
Some set their cocks, dogs, bears and bulls ro fi●  
Baiting poor creatures for their vain delight.  
And some their vain experiments to try  
Use the dumb beast with monstrous cruelty.  
Some load and work them dead, some pine their ti●  
Some beat them blind and lame in frantic fits:  
But God that called Balaam to account,  
Will also them that him in sin surmount.  
am sin contrarily, no less misled,  
●hat feed vile creatures with the child's bread.  
Not killing kill's sometimes, when Governors  
●rill spare the life of wilful murderers:  
●r those that should pursue, or prove, or find,  
●re negligent, or partially inclined.  
●nd Cowardice doth often much more so  
betraying numbers to the slaughtering foe.  
self-murder in more measure fills the scroll,  
●nd most of all the murder of the soul.  
●nce mere chance-medley doth, at least, require  
Sanctuary, end thou fool Hell-fire.  
●m out of passion rashly wish to die,  
●spice of this self-murder certainly;  
●nd wicked Parents, Rulers, Minister's  
●re (out of doubt) the chiefest murderers.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Seventh Commandment.  

THe Seventh sacred Law, which God commands,  
Require's these holy duties at our hands:  
Pure thoughts, and speeches, modest looks, and gestures  
●nd gravity put on in very vestures,  
ebriety in food, and moderate rest,  
crious employment, chief in the best;  
restraint of wanton and lascivious senses,  
●arriage (when needs) and due benevolences.  
●d, to get habits of the chaster soul,  
osting and prayer must fleshly lusts control;  
●d some good end beyond the appetite  
●waies propounded to live pure and right.  
Immodest talk all Christians must debar,  
●d herein bosom friends be singular:  
That every one his vessel may possess  
In perfect honour, and true holiness.  
Of speculative wantonness beware,  
Gaze not on beauty, lest it prove a snare.  
The bait of beauty is to be contemned,  
And these things following are by law condemned  
Unclean imaginations, wanton looks,  
Obscene communications, amorous books,  
Incontinency, and intemperance,  
Brazenfaced impudence, and dalliance.  
Lascivious songs, or pictures, sports, or jests,  
Loose company, and pampering idleness;  
And, that from whence fresh Venus chief spri●  
Fullness of bread, and drunken revel,  
Promiscuous dance, light and garish dresses  
And dangerous lures of glistering nakednesses:  
The plaister-paintings of proud Jezabel,  
Decking the flesh as if it were to sell:  
Potions, and powder used to nourish lust,  
Until the powder do forget the dust.  
In marriage also all immoderation,  
Undue accesses, and vile provocation:  
Polygamy, and all undue divorce,  
Which by desertion some would fain enforce.  
Deformity, or impotence concealed,  
Kindred, or pre-engagements unreveald:  
For those whom kindred in less compass joyn's  
Than two degrees of the same womb or loins,  
Or come their former spouses in less room  
Than two degrees of the same loins or womb,  
Are all debarred by consanguinity,  
Or the strict bands of near affinity.  
But wedlock's safe and from exception free,  
If it keep distance to the third degree.  
And these are sins of a more ugly shape,  
Adultery, fornication, incest, rape,  
Professed whoredom, panderism, and stews,  
And lusts unnatural, o're-vile to use;  
To which vile lusts we fitly may annex  
A garment worn contrary to the Sex.  
And much they venture to defile this bed,  
That with an unbeliever dare to wed.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Eight Commandment.  

THese are the duties of the eight Command,  
A just vocation plied with skilful hand:  
In trading, honest dealing all along,  
And restitution where we have done wrong;  
An equal price, a moderate gain or fee,  
Expenses such as with our state agree;  
Frugality, and laying up in store  
For house and home, the public, and the poor:  
For diligence and thrift must still supply  
The fuel of our liberality,  
To give and gratify, to lend and lose  
As good discretion binds us to dispose;  
For rich men must be rich in all good deeds,  
Else are but robbers while their wealth exceeds.  
Just weights and measures, just accounts & wages,  
Both earned and paid as Equity engage's,  
Borrowing on good occasion, keeping day,  
And every circumstance of honest pay:  
Advised suretyship, and actions just  
In stewardship committed to our trust.  
Restoring pawns, and mortgages of land,  
Without exaction at the borrower's hand;  
Helping true owners ever what we may  
To their lost goods, their stolen, or strayed away.  
But for a man to lead a lazy life,  
To spend in pomp, in luxury, or strife,  
Rash suretyship, and borrowing to spend,  
Or any way defrauding them that lend,  
Lending, or giving gifts to our own sorrow,  
Till we our selus are forced to beg or borrow,  
Expensive gaming, and great wagering,  
All these are to be deemed unlawful things.  
Thus oftentimes the man that gives relief,  
And boast's of bounty, yet may be a thief,  
By giving goods ill got, ill spared, or worse,  
Carving large portions of another's purse.  
Notorious thieus are they whose vast expens  
Bring's on themselves extremest indigence:  
Game is a civil Gunpowder in peace,  
Blowing up houses with their whole encreas:  
He that stake's that from which he may not p●●  
Stake's both his house, his conscience, and his her  
Game may not turn a trade, but is a crime  
When bowls, and bets, and cards consume our ti●  
The rich offend for want of moderation:  
In their expens and time for recreation:  
But more blameworthy are the poorer sort  
To waste their time and means in lavish sport,  
Yea those that suffer them to lie at game  
Are not a little guilty of the blame.  
Soon may the gamester empty all his bags,  
The barretting brabbler cloth himself with rag  
The haunted Alehous, and the harlot's bed  
Bring to a cottage, and a crust of bread.  
It is likewise a great (if wilful) sin  
To have no honest calling to live in,  
To leave our calling for an idle course,  
Though the pretence were piety, is worse.  
The slothful sluggard labouring not at all  
Compareth with the wasteful prodigal.  
These are self-robberies for the greater part,  
The next are wrongs whereby our neighbour's smart.  
As hasting to be rich, excessive rates:  
Beguiling by falls measures, coins, or weights,  
Usurious contracts which do shrewdly by't,  
Unjust detaining of another's right;  
The tithe, or that which from the tithe comes in  
Who can withhold and not commit great sin?  
The next and like to this is to detain  
The poor man's wage, and such dishonest gain:  
To hire the hired from his master's pay  
Before dismission, or the lawful day;  
Or to prevent our neighbour of his price,  
His sale, or servant, by unjust device.  
Dispraising wares to buy them underfoot,  
The love of money (avarice's root,)  
Unjust vexation to our neighbour's cost,  
Detaining goods, lent, left in trust, or lost,  
Removing landmarks and the ancient bounds,  
And wilful trespass on our neighbour's grounds;  
Base parsimony, when our needs require,  
Adulterate wares, and undeserved hire.  
It much concerns the guardians and trusties,  
The Lawyers and Physicians for their fees;  
The soldier for his plunder, spoil and pay,  
The Teacher for his tithes, lest fraud, delay,  
Wrong, ignorance, or negligence should make  
Their actions theft, and done for lucre's sake.  
Thus also sin's the loitering labourer,  
And by the following many people err,  
By cunning arts to cousin and oppress,  
Exaction, and unhospitableness,  
Hoarding up corn, to make, not mend a dearth,  
And to engross to fell things overworth.  
He that exact's a debt where God makes poor,  
Take heed his own debts hang not on the score.  
He that exact's though neither debt nor due  
Hazard's indictment with the damned crew:  
Nor can it be excused to set a price  
And put to sale unlawful merchandise.  
Things sacred, Justice, honesty, and truth  
May not be sold, whatever any doth;  
Nor any thing that is not clear our own,  
Nor the lost goods if th'owner may be known;  
Nor things destructive, such as poisons be,  
And magic books, and popish trumpery.  
To this account the tradesman doth belong,  
That gathers wealth by a deceitful tongue;  
Th'unrighteous steward with his falls accounts,  
The devilish jailer that in sin surmounts,  
And dares exact of felons such a fee,  
Until the thief be honester than he;  
The domineering baylief, that doth squeeze  
The tenant, for enhancing his own fees;  
The knight o'th' post, the sergeant, and the setter  
That often cheat both creditor and debtor.  
What worlds of men live by unlawful shifts!  
The bribe-fed taker of corrupting gifts,  
The prosecutor of unjust decrees,  
To whom the vile extortioner agrees,  
The clipper and embaser of the coin  
(A monstrous theft that doth much treason join)  
Th'exacting Broker, and the highway thief,  
The cous'ning Breaker, one among the chief,  
The cunning cutpurs, and the conjurer,  
The cheater, and the common Barretter,  
The guileful gamester, and his loose partaker,  
The brutish bearward, and the ballad-maker,  
The trifling juggler with his nimble slight,  
The scurrilous fiddler, and the parasite,  
The g●being jester with his wits so quick,  
The ignorant unskilful empiric:  
The bold pretender to some great cures done  
By touch or stroking of the seventh son;  
(He takes his fee, but neither mend's the evil,  
Nor hath the power to do't but from the devil)  
The base purloiner of men's goods and grist;  
The vaporing and deceitful Alchemist:  
The subtle hors-courser inur'd to cheat,  
And he that robs the dumb beast of his meat;  
The tumbler, and the dancer on the rope,  
The spiritual merchants of the Romish Pope,  
And near a kin to him (as Satan's factor)  
Is every simoniacal contractor:  
The exorcismist, and the pardon-seller,  
The figure-caster, and the fortune-teller,  
Th'inveigling preacher whom the truth controll's,  
That for his gain makes merchandise of souls:  
The sturdy rogue that goes from door to door,  
The player, and the mercenary whore,  
And he that set's them on, as many do,  
That serves or feeds them, is a robber too.  
Manstealing, rapine, theft, and piracy,  
Receiving stolen goods, and robbery,  
All these are sins, and heightened when we lurch  
The poor, the weak, the orphan, or the Church.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Ninth Commandment.  

THe Ninth Command appointeth us to try  
To know and judge our selus impartially;  
●o eat the rock of pride, and dangerous shelus  
●f self-conceit, with low thoughts of our selus.  
By virtue to procure our own good Name,  
●nd when there's need we must defend the same:  
Yet this must ever be with modesty,  
And in a sort performed unwillingly.  
It binds us to be sparing in our talk,  
But when we speak the truth we may not bal●  
Where solemn promises and Covenants tie  
We must perform them though we loose thereby  
Yet should they not be rash, lest when compacte●  
'Twere sin to break, or sin to be exacted.  
Our Neighbour's credit we must highly prise  
And should be grieved for his infirmities.  
Casting love's mantle o'er them, without grudging  
Hoping the best with patience, and so judging.  
Commending his deserts and gifts of grace,  
Yet more behind his back than to his face,  
Defending his good name, whose worth we kn●●  
By speech or writing, when requested so.  
Abhorring every idle falls report  
That wounds our Neighbour's Name in any sor●  
But this condem's the wilful promise-break●●  
The brainsick boaster, and the lavish speaker,  
Proud self conceit from whence the boasting sp●●●●●  
And overweening of our own good things,  
Unjust excuses and dissimulation  
Whereby to reap another's commendation.  
Striving for place, or fame to set us forth,  
And bearing of our selus above our worth.  
High titles, buildings, ornaments, array  
Have born falls witness often in a day:  
And so much meaner they that brave and flaun●●●  
So much the greater must the sin be granted.  
Another sort of boasters too there be  
That do good works, but all for men to see,  
Some sooner build a College from the ground,  
Then lend in secret one poor saint a pound,  
'Tis corban said the Pharisee, well achieved,  
And leaves his needy Parents unrelieved.  
But these good works proceeding from vainglory  
Tell not the naked truth of half the story:  
So much falls witness do those structures bear  
Whose stately turrets popish pride doth rear.  
Yet the Pretenders that would pluck them down,  
And proud devotion in base avarice drown  
Have falser conscience, and a cause far worse;  
Those got some prais, but these procure a curs,  
For such hypocrisy and false pretence  
Is to be censured falser evidence.  
Others there are that tell a base lie,  
Having great wealth and pleading poverty:  
A ragged miser idolising pelf  
Both robs, and bear's falls witness of himself:  
Unmanliness, and whining for relief,  
When men by wisdom should by't in their grief.  
'Tis faulty others flattery to embrace,  
But worse it is to do our selus disgrace;  
Sinful is the disclosing of our wants,  
Or weaknesses to carping sycophants.  
Needless disclosing secrets breeds transgression,  
And Popish-like, Auricular Confession.  
Yet to keep Satan's counsel undisclosed  
(Wanting the skill whereby he is opposed)  
Is to receiv fals-witness, and conspire  
Against the truth, to gratify a liar:  
Causeless suspicion also, and to labour  
To bring reproach upon our harmless neighbour,  
Of any man's infirmity to tell  
Unless a just necessity compel:  
Wanting affection to our neighbour's fame,  
Jeering and scorning breed no little blame:  
For contumelious speech their good name tearing  
Is, with a witness, a fals-witness-bearing,  
To think by casting of their dirt so thick  
Some will light on, and some be sure to stick:  
But they that think the worse for such aspersion  
Join with detractors to their own subversion.  
Rash censure's sin, and libels of all sorts,  
And giving ear to scandalous reports:  
Abusive pictures, and the drunkards songs,  
And railing language of falls pens or tongues.  
Deriding jests, not caring where we hit  
With the unruly engine of our wit.  
Deriding gestures, and hard speeches too,  
Hoping to hurt, though speaking ne'er so true.  
Renewing mention of our neighbour's faults  
Which time had buried in forgotten thoughts,  
Rejoicing his infirmities to see,  
Which to provoke is great iniquity.  
To see one drunk's a shame at any time,  
But to make drunk is a most horrid crime;  
When Madman, drunkard, or a babbling fool  
Can make us sport, it makes us break this rule:  
For how much sin and shame on him reflects  
That takes delight in other men's defects!  
But greater sin and shame do none fall in  
Than they that boast, and glory in their sin.  
'Tis sin to violate a private seal,  
Or any trusted secrets to reveal.  
Talebearing, slandering, lying, misrelating,  
Wrongful accusing and equivocating;  
Falls evidence, forgery, and a wrongful sentence  
Are sins that call for very much repentance:  
Yet all concealment cannot blame the tongue,  
But that Which some way tends to other's wron●  
Any falls papers to subscribe or sign  
Makes us to violate this Law divine;  
Or, though the matter happily be true,  
To give our test to what we no way knew.  
To pay without plain witness, note, or book,  
Hazards falls witness if it be mistake.  
keep falls records or accounts in store  
peacheth truth, and break's this Law much more.  
●ie's by hyperbole some scarce forbear,  
●●d he offends that tell's a lie for fear,  
〈◊〉 does't excuse, but aggravate a lie,  
●use it as a stolen for piety:  
●ut monstrous lies, which men devise for sport,  
〈◊〉 a more damnable and sinful sort.  
Romancers, fortune-tellers, ballad-makers,  
〈◊〉 all the weathercock Prognosticators  
〈◊〉 for the most part liars by profession,  
〈◊〉 to defend it, double their transgression.  
Comparisons are odious to resent,  
I bear fals-witness by disparagement,  
defly when spite would cast the righteous down,  
●om God exalt's with honour and renown.  
And there are faults too, on the other side,  
scious lies, and persons deified  
●th flattering compliments of tongue or pen,  
〈◊〉 giving too much honour unto men;  
pretended missions too, and heresies  
〈◊〉 to be ranked among the rankest lies:  
●s also do the simpler sort offend  
●eading books which Heretics have penned,  
●aus there are no falser witnesses  
●ill the Christian world then such as these.  
〈◊〉 may they read them that can well discern  
● make the simple solid truth to learn.  
●ow much fals-witness than falls teachers bear,  
● they that hear them with an itching ear,  
●t as the Serpent once beguiled Eve  
●h flattering speech lie waiting to deceive:  
〈◊〉 devil's pedlars under a disguise  
●k'd with a fardel of deluding lies.    

Duties and Trespasses implied in the Tenth Commandment.  

THe Duties of the last Commandment  
Are grateful thoughts, and full of true con●  
In all things to affect and keep a mean  
Our hearts thereby from fond desires to wean  
Hoping in each condition to be blest,  
And thinking still what God appoint's is best.  
A mind prepared to bear both good and ill,  
And bearing to our neighbours great good wi●  
Mortification, quenching Satan's darts,  
And from temptation turning eyes and hearts,  
Quelling each fond and fleshly appetite  
By spiritual contemplation and delight.  
But here original sin is censurable  
As the springhead against the second table,  
And every vile uncharitable thing  
That issues from, or feeds this poisonous sprin●  
Vain thoughts, and contemplations, could we  
How we would wed, and flourish, live and d●●  
Build, plant, and prosper; things that can't bee●  
Nor, we be nearer when our thoughts are 〈◊〉  
Wishes, and worldly projects how to store  
With worldly goods, and carry all before us.  
Such are lascivious lusts, an evil eye,  
Ambition, avarice, greedy gluttony,  
O're-hastie cares proceeding from distrust,  
Repining envy, jealousies unjust,  
Corrupt self-love, rash anger, discontent,  
Motions of sin before the full consent:  
Secret concupiscence, and sin's first rising,  
Which may be fitly termed sins tenebrizing.  
Some murmur that their body is diseased,  
Some with their house and Calling are displeased  
The loss of chidrens or a barren womb  
●s the perpetual discontent of some:  
●he teeming Rachel too solicitous  
asks discontentedly why am I thus?  
Some corpulence offends, or to be lean,  
●om thinking their estate too poor and mean,  
●om to be undervalued, as they think,  
●om that their high estate begins to sink,  
●heir charge o're-great, their yoke-fellow unfit,  
●heir friends are lost, their projects do not hit.  
Some deafness or deformity doth vex,  
●om hoary age, and some dislike their sex,  
●heir wrongs or trials too extreme some judge,  
●ameness or blindeness makes some people grudge,  
●nd some that their Inferiors, as they deem,  
●et place before them, or have more esteem,  
●nd then for want of grace and sweet submission  
●re ever wishing other men's condition:  
●f all such sinful thoughts must those beware  
●hat would of this Commandment have care.  
The Levelling Doctrine of Community  
●hich doth all civil property deny,  
●nd that which doth Authority confound  
●y Parity, this Level's with the ground,  
because the same a sore infringement is  
●f what our neighbour justly calleth his.     

THE breviary  

I Commandment.  
MAke God thy Hope and Joy, trust all he s●●●●●  
For no Obedience like's him but of Faith.   

TWO Commandment.  
Act always, in Religion, every thing,  
By word and warrant from our heavenly King,   

III Commandment.  
THou mayst be short in duty, never slight,  
Nor use a word of GOD that's vain or light.   

IV Commandment.  
ON Sabbaths always put thy soul to nurs,  
Eat worldly thoughts, occasions, and discourse.   

V Commandment.  
Be sure to carry well in thy Relation,  
For none are good without that commendation.   

VI Commandment.  
Be peaceful, sober, kind, eat wrath, and stri●●  
By all good means preserv and secure life.   

VII Commandment.  
KEep Chastity, all wantonness eschew  
In touch, in talk, in hearing, heart, and view.   

VIII Commandment.  
Eat sloth, and too much game, injustice hate,  
Maintain thy neighbour's and thine own estate.   

IX. Commandment.  
MAintain thy neighbour's and thine own good name,  
Scoffs, flatteries, slanders, lies and brags disclaim.   

X. Commandment.  
DIsband thy throng of thoughts, quell fond desire,  
And let thy heart to true content aspire.   
FINIS.