scudderpage064

cause the mind to be more indisposed to the due performance of holy duties than honest labours do, to which they are subordinate, and with them forbidden to be done that day?

Has not the strict observance of the Sabbath been at least tedious to me, so that I could have wished that it had been gone long before it was ended?

5th. The second table concerns duties of love and righteousness towards man, the performance whereof tends immediately to the good of man; but mediately to the proof of his being truly religious, and to the glory of God.

God made man not to be alone, nor to be only for himself; therefore, for the greater good of mankind, he has endued men with variety of gifts, and degrees of place, some excelling others, both in family, church, and commonwealth; yet so as each is excellent in his gift and place, even the meanest made worthy of respect from the greatest, because of his usefulness for the common good: even as the least member of the natural body is truly useful and to be respected as well, though not so much, as the most honourable.

Now when each member in the body politic does acknowledge the several gifts and mutual use one of another, according to their place, then is there a sweet harmony in the society of man, and there is a sure foundation laid of all good offices of love between man and man.

Wherefore, in the first place, God in the fifth commandment, Exod. xx. 12, provide that the order which he had set amongst men, should inviolably be observed; requiring all inferiors, under the name of children, to honour their superiors, that is, to acknowledge that dignity and excellency which is in them, showing it in giving due respect unto their persons and names; implying that all superiors should walk worthy of honour, and that they should mutually shew good respect to their inferiors, seeking their good, as well as their own.