An exposition on the church-catechism, or, The practice of divine love composed for the Diocese of Bath & Wells.

The Fifth Commandment.

Let thy reverential Love, O my God, teach and incline me, to shew respectfull Love to all my su∣periours,

in my inward esteem, in my outward speech and behaviour a.

Glory be to thee, O Lord, who hast compre∣hended all that are above me, under the tender and venerable Names of Father and Mother, that I looking on them as Resemblances and Instruments of thy Sovereign Power and Paternal Providence to me, may be the more effectually engaged for thy sake to reverence and love them.

O my God, give me grace to imitate thy Pater∣nal Goodness, and for the sake of thy Love; to love and cherish, and provide for; to educate and in∣struct, and pray for my Children b; to take con∣scientious care to give them medicinal correction and good example, and to make them thy chil∣dren, that they may truly love thee.

O my God, give me grace for the sake of thy love, to Honour my Father and Mother, to render them all love, and reverence, and thankfulness▪ and all that regard which is due from a Child c, that I may pay obedience to their commands, submission to their corrections, attention to their instructions, and succour to their necessities d, and may daily pray for their welfare.

Thou, O Lord, hast set our most Gratious King over us e, as our Political Parent, as thy Supreme Minister, to govern and protect us, and to be a terrour to those that doe ill: O grant Him a long and happy Reign, that we may all live a peaceable and quiet life under Him, in all godliness and honesty f. Defend Him from all His Enemies; let Him be ever beloved by thee, and let Him ever love thee, and ever promote thy love.

Multiply, O Lord God, the blessings of thy love on our most Gratious Queen Mary, Catharine the Queen Dowager, their Royal Highnesses Mary Prin∣cess of Orange, and the Princess Anne of Denmark, and on all the Royal Family: Give them grace to exceed others, as much in Goodness as in Great∣ness, and make them signal instruments of thy Glo∣ry, and examples of thy Love.

O my God, give grace to me and all my fellow-subjects, next to thy own infinite self, to love and honour, to fear and obey our Sovereign Lord the King, thy own Vicegerent, for Conscience sake g, and for thy own sake, who hast placed Him over us;

O may we ever faithfully render Him his due tri∣bute; O may we ever pray for His prosperity, sa∣crifice our fortunes and our lives in His defence, and be always ready rather to suffer than resist.

Glory be to thee, O Lord, who hast ordained Pastours, and hast given them the Power of the Keys; to be our Ecclesiastical Parents; to watch over our Souls; to instruct us in saving Know∣ledge h; to guide us by their Examples; to pray for, and to bless us; to administer spiritual disci∣pline in thy Church, and to manage all the conveyan∣ces of thy Divine Love.

O my God, for thy Love's sake, let me ever ho∣nour and love the Ministers of thy Love, the Am∣bassadours thou dost send in thy stead, to beseech us sinners to be reconciled to thee i, to offer thy Enemies conditions of Love, of love eternal; O may I ever hear them attentively, practise their heavenly doc∣trine, imitate their holy examples, pay them their dues, and revere their censures k.

O my God, for the sake of thy love, grant I may ever love, and provide for my Servants [ser∣vant,] and may treat them like Brethren; let me never exact from them immoderate work; O may I always give them just wages, and equitable com∣mands, and good example, and mercifull correcti∣on: Grant, Lord, I may daily allow them time for their prayers, indulge them due refreshments, and may take care of their souls, and persuade them to love thee; remembring, that I also have a Ma∣ster in Heaven l.

Give me grace, O my God, for the sake of thy Love, to honour, and love, and obey my Master [and Mistress] and to serve him [her] with dili∣gence and faithfulness, and readiness to please m, and to pray for him [her] them; and whatever I doe, to doe heartily as to thee, O Lord, and not to him, [her] them▪]

O my God, let thy love incline me to love, and to honour all whom thou hast any way made my superiours, sutably to their quality, n or age, or gifts, or learning, or wisedom, or gravity, or goodness.

O my God, grant that for thy sake, I may ever love and honour all that are, or have been, instru∣ments of thy love to me, in doing me good; O

may I reverence my teachers o, be gratefull to my benefactours, and may I have always a peculiar re∣spect to my particular Pastour.

O my God, let thy love engage me to love those whom thou hast obliged to love me; to shew con∣stancy, and fidelity, and sympathy, and love, and communicativeness to my Friend; to be affectionate to my Brethren and Sisters; to be kind and affable to my Equals; condescending to my Inferiours; to be all the possible ways I can, universally help∣full and obliging, and loving to all p

O my God, O my Love, let thy All-powerfull Love abound in my heart, and in the hearts of all that profess thy Name, that in all these, and in all other possible instances of duty, our lives may be continually employed to love thee, and for thy sake to love our Neighbour, and to excite our Neigh∣bour to love thee.

The several Forms which contain the Duties of Pa∣rent and Child, of Master and Servant, &c. are to be used by every one, according as may sute with his Circumstances, or as he stands in any of those Relations.

O my God, O my Love, I renounce, and derest, and bewa••l, as odious and offensive to thee, as di∣rectly opposite to thy love, and the love of my neighbour, for thy sake,

All dishonour to our Superiours, in either de∣spising them, speaking evil of them, or in irreve∣rent behaviour.

All unnaturalness to Children.

All undutifulness, or stubbornness, or disobedi∣ence, or disrespect to Parents q.

All rebelling, or reviling, or murmuring against the King, or against his Ministers r.

All defrauding, undervaluing or rejecting law∣full Pastours .

All Schism †, and contempt of their regular cen∣sures.

All falseness or negligence, or refractariness to Masters or Mistresses s.

All rudeness, ingratitude, treachery, want of brotherly love and unfaithfulness.

All the least tendencies to any of these impie∣ties.

From all these and the like hatefull violatious of thy love, and of the love of my neighbour, and from the vengeance they justly deserve, O my God, O my Love, deliver me and all faithfull people.

O my God, O my Love, I earnestly pray, that thy love, and the love of our neighbour may so prevail over our hearts, that we may sadly lament and abhor all these abominations, and may never more provoke thee.

Glory be to thee, O Lord, who to teach us the importance of this duty of subjection, hast placed it the first of all the second Table, of all that re∣late to our neighbour, and hast made it the first Commandment with a promise t to every soul that conscientiously keeps it, that thy days shall be ••••ng in the ••and which the Lord thy God gi∣veth thee.

Who would not love and obey thee, O my God, and for thy sake his Superiours, when thou hast promised to reward our Duty with a long happy life here, or if thou seest it best for us, and to take us away from the evil to come v by living a long tract of Holiness in a little time, and at last by prolonging our bliss to all eternity in Heaven; for which gratious promise, all love, all glory be to thee.

Notes

• Duties com∣manded in general.
• a

  1 Pet. 2.17.
• In particu∣lar, Of Na∣tural Pa∣rents.
• b

  Deut. 6.6, 7. Ephes. 6.4. Col. 3.21. 2 Cor. 12.14.
• Of Children.
• c

  Ephes. 6.1▪ 2, 3. Col. 3.20.
• d

  Matt. 16.4, &c.
• Of Political Parents. The King.
• e

  Prov. 8.15.
• f

  1 Tim. 2.1, 2.
• The Queen and Royal Family.
• Of Subjects.
• g

  Rom. 13.1, &c. 1 Pet. 2.13. Tit. 3.1.
• Of Ecclesia∣stical Pa∣rents.
• h

  Mal. 2.7.
• Of the Peo∣ple under their care.
• i

  2 Cor. 5.20.
• k

  Heb. 13.7, 17. 1 Tim. 5.17.
• Of Oecono∣mical Pa∣rents, Ma∣ster and Mi∣stress.
• l

  Col. 4.1. Ephes. 6.9.
• Of Ser∣vants.
• m

  1 Tim. 6.1, 2. Col. 3.22, 23, 24. Eph. 6.5, 6, 7, 8.
• Of other Su∣periours.
• n

  Lev. 19.32. 1 Tim. 5.1, 2, 3. 1 Pet. 5.5.
• o

  Gal. 6.6.
• Of Equals and Inferi∣ours.
• p

  Rom. 14.10. 1 Pet. 3.8.
• Sins forbid∣den.
• q

  2 Tim. 3.2, 3, 4.
• r

  1 Sam. 26.9 Eccl. 10.20. Act. 23.5.
• Mat. 10.14.
• †

  1 Cor. 1.10. 3 Epist. Iohn 9.
• s

  2 Tit. 9.10. Mal. 2.10.
• Promise an∣nex'd to the Command∣ment.
• t

  Ephes. 6.2.
• v

  Isa. 57.1.