The Collect. Observation. Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, andworthily magnify thy holy Name, thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Rubrick. Observation. Then * shall the We see with what great Priest, turning to the Judgment these Commandments were appointed to be People, rehearse dis- read in this Service, since by tinctly all the Ten Com- the Law is the Knowledge of mandments, and the Sin: And when we are convinced in own Conscience, People still kneeling, that we have not kept a Law, shall, after every Com- which is Holy, Just, and Good, mandment, ask God we shall then see the NEED, Mercy for their Trans- and the BLESSING of a REgression thereof for the DEEMER; and how earnestly Sake, to have Mercy upon us; and to incline our Hearts to we ought to beg God, for his Time past, and Grace * When it is considered how many People there are who have no other Way of coming to the Knowledge of their Duty; it will appear with what great Reason the Priest is required to read these Commands of God distinctly; and how religiously this Rubrick ought to be observed. OBSER OBSERVATIONS AND DIRECTIONS. THAT you may obey the following Commands of God with Cheerfulness, you ought to be firmly persuaded, -That God, who standeth in no need of our Obedience and Service, hath given us these Laws merely for our own Good, to restrain the Disorders we are subject to, and to hinder us from ruining ourselves. Consider these Commands in this View, and as they are the Effect of the great Love of God for his poor Creatures; or else you will look upon them as a Burden, and obey them with - an unwilling Mind. Prepare therefore to hear them with an Attention and Reverence suitable to Him whose Commands they are; and then you will be more sensible what a Blessing it is, that Jesus Christ hath by his Death delivered us from the Curse and Punishment due to those that break them; having prevailed with God to accept of our Repentance, and to enable us by his Grace to observe them better for the Time to come. Com apt every Man is to have his Idol-something which he admires, or loves, or fears, or trusts in, or adores, more than the God who made and redeemed him, you will see the Reason and the Ne People. Lord, have Mercy cessity of this Command; and will most heartily beg upon us, and incline our of God to keep you from Hearts to keep this Law. such Idolatry, and that you Minister. may love him with all your Heart, and above all Things. The Proneness of all Na Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven tions to the vile Idolatry Image, nor the Like- of making and worshipping ness of any Thing that is in Heaven above, or in the Earth beneath, or in the Water under the Earth. Thou shalt not Images, and the Creatures they represent, shews the absolute Necessityof the Authority of God, to prevent so great a Sin and Contempt of the Divine Majesty; and the judgments that would follow. At * The Law of Nature and right Reason, being the Law of Man in the State of Innocence, would still have been a sufficient Guide, had it not been much obscured, and almost blotted out, and rendered ineffectual, by the Transgression of our first Parents, and the Wickedness of their Posterity. It was then that God republished these Laws by Moses in Writing, to awaken Men, and to be a standing Witness against all such as would not consult their own Consciences, and the Law written in their Hearts. Com Communion. not bow down to them, nor worship them: For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children, unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me, and shew Mercy unto Thousands in them that love me, and keep my Commandments. Observations. At the same Time, God has given us the greatest Encouragement to obey this, and all his Commands; assuring us, that both we and our Children's Childrenshall reap the Blessing of our Obedience. Communion. Observations. Minister. When we consider how backward we are to learn our Duty, how apt to forget it, and unwilling to put it in Practice, we cannot but ac Kindness of this Command; Remember that thou keep holy the SabbathDay. Six Days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; knowledge the Necessity and but the seventh Day is which obliges every Man, the Sabbath of the Lord who loves and Fears God, to thy God: in it thou keep one Day in seven holy shalt do no Manner of to the Lord; in order to preserve the Knowledge of the Work, thou, and thy true God, and his glorious Son, and thy Daugh-Perfections, and of our Creater, thy Man-servant, tion and Redemption, that we may fear, and love, and adore and thy Maid-servant him as we ought to do. The thy Cattle, and the Neglect of this Duty, comStranger that is within manded from the beginning, thy Gates. For in six having, in all probability, Days the Lord made plorable State of Ignorance Heaven and Earth, the fand Idolatry in the Heathen Sea, and all that in World; as it has been of themis; and rested the very remarkable Judgments upon many of those among seventh Day: Where- Christians, that have pro fore the Lord blessed faned this Day. the seventh Day, and hallowed it. People. Lord, have Mercy upon us, and incline our Hearts to keep this Law. Com been the Occasion And indeed to profane the Lord's Day, is, in a Manner, to deny the God that made Us, and the World. Obser |