4.9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God c. If you be free from these dangers and difficulties yet the very nature and importance of the work it self calls upon you to call upon your God O will you build and not pray this is in effect to say you will build whether God will or not and is not this highly sinful He burnt your Houses whether you would or no will you build them up again whether he will or no O take God along with you as I said before and by humble prayer engage him in the work and then undoubtedly it shall go on and prosper If he be with you and undertake for you the business is done I will build thee and thou shalt be built Jer. 31.4 I will work and who shall let it Isa 43.13 The work may stick upon your hands and miscarrie in your hands but it will go on smoothly and shall certainly succeed in the hands of the Almighty Why may not we go now to God and with submission to his will and with a due consideration of the Nature of the mercy and of different circumstances plead with him old promises Isa 61.4 They shall build the old wastes they shall raise up the former desolations and they shall repair the waste Cities the desolations of many generations Jer. 30.18 Thus saith the Lord Behold I will bring again the captivity of Jacobs tents and have mercy on his dwelling places and the City shall be builded upon her own heap and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof c. Amos 9.14 They shall build the waste Cities and inhabit them I say why may not we in the present juncture of affairs plead these promises to God in the case of London Dear Citizens Let us do our duty to God and then let us be above all discouragements which may arise either from men or from the work it self which lies before us It would not be amiss if in your circumstances you would often read over the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah where you have an Historical account of the re-edifying of Jerusalem and of the Temple in which you will meet with many things that will exactly suit and parallel your present case for this City in many respects is Jerusalems Counterpart That famous City you know was taken and burnt by the Babylonians and so it lay in its ashes and ruines for seventy years And I will not meddle with that enquiry which is much more proper for persons far higher than I am whether the Babylonians had not an hand in the firing of our City also Well when this time was expired the Jews fall upon the rebuilding of Jerusalem but good Lord what pauses interruptions oppositions discouragements difficulties did they meet withal in that undertaking Ezra 4.4 The people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building And hired Counsellors against them c. And several of them wrote a most malicious letter to Artaxerxes the King of Persia designing by their cursed insinuations to put a stop to the work verse 12. Be it known unto thee O King that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem building the rebellious and the bad City and have set up the walls thereof c. These Samaritans and Others too did all that ever they could to hinder the progress of the Jews in the repairing of Jerusalems breaches Sometimes they deride them Nehem. 4.2 sometimes they conspire to fall upon them by force of Arms Nehem 4.8 and then Nehemiah set a watch against them night and day verse 9. Sometimes they endeavour to dishearten them Nehem. 6.9 For they all made us afraid saying Their hands shall be weakened from the work that it be not done Besides all this from enemies the Jews were much discouraged as you read in the History in these Books from the work it self O it was so difficult they should never be able to carrie it on Nehem. 4.10 Yet good Nehemiah notwithstanding all this would not have the Jews discouraged but he animates them to the work and in the work Nehem. 2.17 18. Ye see the distress that we are in how Jerusalem lieth waste and the Gates thereof are burnt with fire Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me as also the Kings words that he had spoken unto me And they said Let us rise up and build So they strengthened their hands for this good work I pass by other places which refer to his encouraging of them in the work what the issue was you know notwithstanding all these oppositions and difficulties the City was built and finished to the grief and consternation of all enemies Nehem. 6.16 And it came to pass that when all our enemies heard thereof and all the Heathen that were about us saw these things they were much cast down in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God The times in which all this was done were full of distraction yet the Jews were not dispirited they set upon the business and did it even in these times according to what was prophesied in Daniel Chap. 9.25 The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times Now Gentlemen some of these discouragements or some others I fear lie upon you and I heartily lament it but yet be not disheartened set upon your work and say The God of Heaven he will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build Nehem. 2.20 I rejoyce with all my heart to see that done which is done but O that I could see our Citizens more vigorously carrying on the rebuilding of this City Jerusalems wall went on apace for the people had a mind to work so 't is said Nehem. 4.6 Surely if persons amongst us had but a mind to build the City might be finished in a few years But some have got good Accommodations elsewhere and there they intend to fix some are discouraged by the distractions of the Times some are taken off upon one account some upon another and so that which was destroyed and ruined in three days is not like to be raised up again in many years 'T is not so proper for me a Minister of the Gospel to be earnest with you in stirring you up to build Houses a thing of a Civil nature and if affection to the City and your own interest do not lead you to this all that I can say will signifie but little but it would be the joy of my soul if I might see London to recover its pristine glorie and in a word to be London again And I hope you will excuse my hinting of these things to you which is occasioned by my cordial affection to that place the verie dust and ashes of which is precious to me I return to that which
I was upon and I shall add but this Let us with fervent prayer apply our selves often to the Throne of Grace let us unfeignedly humble our selves before the Lord let us sincerely reform what is amiss let us put away sin there there is the greatest discouragement let us thus do and then let the work be never so difficult enemies never so malicious the times never so bad we may engage in what lies before us and God will bless us in it Supplication Humiliation and Reformation will carrie all before them As for me I shall not cease to pray for you it shall be my daily request to God for you that he will direct you to do that which may most tend to his glory the good of this City your own comfort and the benefit of succeeding Generations and then that he will be pleased to encourage and prosper you herein and crown your undertakings with good success The Lord bless everie one of you in your persons relations estates employments habitations in all that concerns you the Lord carry on the work now upon your hands and then hide and defend you continually And as for thee dear London let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I forget thee O that thou Phoenix-like mayest grow out of thy ashes more glorious than ever thou wast that as 't is with mettals new cast it may be better with thee than before that as it was with the person of Job thy latter end may be blessed more than thy beginning that as it was with the Temple the glorie of second London may be greater than the glorie of the first The Lord say concerning thee Though I have afflicted thee I will afflict thee no more Nehem. 1.12 That it may be said of thee The Lord hath taken away thy judgments he hath cast out thine enemies the King of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evil any more Zeph. 5.15 O let not God any more contend with thee by Fire Plague or any other judgment O Lord God cease I beseech thee by whom shall Jacob arise for he is small Amos 7.4 5. O that the punishment of thine iniquity may be accomplished O daughter of Zion and that God will visit the iniquity of the daughter of Edom and discover her sins Lam. 4.22 The Lord make thee a quiet habitation a Tabernacle that shall not be taken down that not one of thy stakes may be removed nor one of thy cords broken Isa 33.20 The Lord bless thee and make thee an Habitation of Justice and Mountain of Holiness Jer. 31.23 That thou mayest be called the City of righteousness the faithful City Isa 1.26 That thou mayest be as mount Zion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so let the Lord be round about thee from henceforth even for ever Psal 125.1 2. Amen Amen I have now but a few words to add concerning this mean Tractate and I will free you from the further trouble of a tedious Preface If I should fall upon Apologizing for my self and for it many words would be requisite 'T is best for me to forbear that though I acknowledge great need of it and without more ado humbly to cast it first upon Gods blessing and then upon your candor and kind acceptance If it may please the Lord by it to do good to any of you he he only shall have the glory and may I but see that I shall not much regard the censures which it may please some to pass upon me I tell you beforehand that you may not expect and look for that which is not here to be found here 's no high strains of Rhetorick or humane eloquence no fine and curious Metaphors no compt and florid expressions to gratifie your fancy here 's no Margent stuffed with Citations to give me the reputation of an hard student or well-read person here 's no New notions or Novel matter to satisfie such as like nothing but what is so here 's something which may suit with the humble serious hungry Christian and which I hope such an one may receive benefit by but as for others alas here is nothing to answer their expectations The style and language is e'en as plain as your fourth-rate-Buildings yet pray let not the Book be confined to Allies and Lanes but let it be admitted into your Streets also And the matter treated of is common and usual that which several of our worthy Divines under other Heads and in another method have verie fully insisted upon All therefore that I can pretend to to give you encouragement to peruse this Discourse is the seasonableness of it with respect to your present affair of Building upon that I take the advantage of urging old and known Truths upon you and had it not been for that special occasion I had not given you the trouble of Reading or my self the trouble of writing I had no sooner resolved upon this work and made a little Provision for it but it pleased the Soveraign disposer of all things to lay his afflictive hand upon me in a verie acute and dangerous distemper And O that I could say I was yet freed from it but for ought I can see this distemper is like to be to me like Iacobs bruise upon his thigh I must halt of it all my days As soon as my merciful Father gave me some relaxation of my violent Pains I began to pen what here I now publish but God knows the remainders of my disease did verie much unfit me for such an undertaking and I was fain to hasten over things because I feared everie day and so do yet the return of former Paroxisms Had it not been for this possibly I might have tendred you this Treatise somewhat more elaborate but now you must accept of it as it is I intended a Third Branch of Holy Dedication viz. the Dedication of Time but I am prevented and hindred as to that at present 1. The state of my bodie will not bear a studious and sedentary course and I am fain to spend the most of my Afternoon-time in Motion and Exercise for the recoverie of my Health 2. That 's a subject somewhat large according to the method that I have propounded to my self and if I should annex that to these two I fear it would make this Volume too big and bulky If God be pleased to continue Life and to restore Health and if I find that this Piece be in any measure useful I may hereafter publish what I design upon that Argument And now Brethren as to your Building-work I commit it to God and to his Blessing and as to your Selves I commend you to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified That you may heartily sincerely dedicate and devote Person House Estate All to God
by Prayer and Praise And indeed the first laying is not safe or firm without this In our entrings upon New Houses we have several civil rites and customs there are * Many open House-Dedication by these Feastings See Mariana and others cited in Lorinus upon Deut. 20.5 Dedicari res dicitur quan do cum solenni aliquo ritu vel convivio rei usus inchoaatur Menoch Feastings great Entertainments Friends come and rejoice with us and send in their Provisions to be merry with us and this they call House-airing or House-warming I have nothing to say against this usage provided 1. That this be soberly and temperately managed 2. That the main duty to God be not neglected But the misery of it is this we have these external expressions of Love and Joy when the religious part is omitted This I find former * Nos hodie Conviviis Domos nostras Dedicamus parum expenden tes divinum beneficium Muscul Nunc ferè res tota versa est in luxum Conviviorum plurimas Helluationes Moller Writers much lamenting O let not your Dedications lie in eating and drinking much less in intemperance and insobriety but in Prayer and Praise 'T is observed of the * Hoc etiamnum fit à Judais sed helluando pergraecando ludendo aliisque oblectamentis potius festum agitant quà m seriâ ad Deum gratiarum actione ob reportatam ab bostibus victoriam Buxtorf Synag Judaic cap. 23. Jews that they yet keep the Feast of Dedication but how do they keep it In swilling drinking immoderate use of the Creatures and the like but as for the serious remembrance of God's mercy vouchsafed to their Nation upon which that Feast was grounded that is lost O that it was not thus amongst Christians upon other Accounts what feasting are we like to have in this City as persons shall come into their New Habitations Pray take heed of excess do not so soon forget Gods punishing of you for this which I look upon as one of the Cities sins and withall make Conscience of the main As soon as you are setled in your Houses dedicate them by Prayer and Praise David here as soon as his House was built for so I told you some Expositors time the words he falls upon the dedication of it by Prayer and Praise I beseech you do you do as he did A word to each of these First for Prayer That 's a duty always seasonable but in the present case very seasonable Howshall our dwellings be * Peccatis polluuntur precibus sanctificantur aedes Scultet sanctified but by Prayer This is the Sanctifying Ordinance 1 Tim. 4.5 As sin defiles the House Prayer sanctifies it How will you testifie your dependance upon God for mercy in your Houses but by Prayer How will you own God to be your Chief Landlord Dei se inquilinos esse fatebantur Calv. that you hold all from him that you are his and your House is his and your All is his I say how will you own God thus if you do not enter with Prayer Will you settle upon your Houses and not ask God's leave You will not enter into your Neighbours House but you will say first By your leave Is not your House Estate Goods All the Lord's and will you invade his Blessings without his Leave Do you expect Protection from God that he will keep your Houses day and night and will you not in a solemn and special manner pray for this Can you look for any blessing but in the way of Prayer O set some time apart for the solemn performance of this duty Oh let your Prayers enter Heaven as soon as you enter into your Houses and plead with God thus Lord I justifie thee in thy judicial dispensations thou wast just in turning me out of my former Habitation for I did not pay thee my rent for it I did not only deserve to have my House in Flames but to have my Soul to burn in Hell for evermore Notwithstanding former forfeitures present unworthiness thou hast provided another House for me and mine Lord I am less than the least of all thy mercies but since out of thy free mercy thou hast made this provision for me help me to own thee in it to carry it better than formerly I have done Let my House and Heart and all be sanctified let me live and walk in it with a perfect heart Let me devote it and all in it to thy glory let thy special presence be with me and thy special providence over me Secure me from all evil and from mischievous men who are set on fire with Hell Let not my House be good and my Heart naught As my House is new let my Heart be new also Lord I here dedicate my House to thee I and my House will serve thee But I must break off from this the Spirit of God will direct you and assist you when with sincerity you set upon the Duty And then as to Praise In antient Dedications they used to give gifts and to offer Sacrifices In the dedicating of your Houses to God let your Gift and Sacrifices be Praise this is more to God than all Legal or Mosaical Sacrifices Psal 50.13.14 Psal 69.30 31. 'T is of great advantage for men to enter upon their Comforts with Thanksgiving * Non potest fieri utqui Donum Dei gratus agnoscit illo abutatur Muscul Minemur hinc pro omnibus rebus pracipuè cum primùm quid in usum venit Gratias Deo agere inde sane mens amore Dei as ita ad oinnem magis pietatem accenditur simulqueadmonemur at Deâ—Ì„ Donis quà m castissim utatur Quis enim re abutatur ad luxum pro quo jam Deo gratias egit Bucer We do not so easily abuse mercies which we solemnly bless God for Get such a sense of the goodness of God upon your hearts as to call upon your selves to bless God Ah and to call in others too to bless God for you and with you This was David's practise as I might show you in several places and in the managing of this I would have you in a special manner to fix upon those mercies which have a more immediate reference to the occasion As for example your Houses were burnt but as to the most of you a considerable part of your Estates was preserved however your Lifes were not touch'd Indeed this was admirable that in so fierce so terrible a fire the Life 's of more were not destroy'd It might have been with us as with Sodom our persons as well as our Houses and Estates might have bin consumed but the merciful God ordered it otherwise Lot own'd it as a singular mercy though he lost much that his Life was spared when Sodom was burnt Gen. 19.19 'T was mercy that when we were in flames we were not in blood too that 't was not killing and murdering as well as burning Blessed be
behave myself wisely in a perfect way O when wilt thou come unto me I will walk within my House with a perfect heart And then he sets down his Resolution as to the Member◠of his House he would have such about him as were godly and as for wicked and irreligious persons he would have nothing to do with them they should not dwell in his House nor tarry in his sight v. 7. O that we had more of David's spirit to be for House-dedication and thus to pursue and make it good But how few are there that write after this Copy The most are altogether regardless of this they take in any into their Houses the precious and the vile are all alike to them let them be Swearers Sabbath-profaners enemies to God and his ways that 's all one to them if some poor worldly Interest may be but served if their work and business may be but done they are satisfy'd and look no farther whether the person have any sense or savour of Religion that they never regard Nay O that there were not some who are only shy of taking in such into their Houses who make profession of God the worser the Servant is the fitter he is for their turn These are perfect Antipodes to holy David And as their sin here is very great so their account hereafter will be very sad I hope better things of the most of you in this City yet I think it necessary to stir you up to the greatest zeal and care and circumspection that is possible in this matter Assuredly it will never go well as to private Houses and this Dedication-work will be altogether insignificant till men be more conscientious and careful about the several Branches and Members of their Families Let me be earnest with you to fill up your Houses with such as are religious Let not your Houses be like Noah's Ark wherein the clean and the unclean were strangely jumbled together but let them be like little Churches wherein there is no such mixture O what a blessed thing would it be if every Family was as a little Church It hath been thus and might be so again if men would but do their duty There was a Church in the House of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16.5 1 Cor. 16.19 Salute the Brethren which are in Laodicea and Nymphas and the Church which is in his House Col. 4.15 So Philem. 2. And to the Church in thy House It may be asked What were these Churches in these Houses Some make them to be the Saints who in those times of Persecution did there privately meet Vid. Engl. Annot upon Gen. 18.19 for the Worship of their God Others make them to be the Body of the Families of these persons which were called Churches partly for those holy Duties that were there performed and partly for the religiousness and holiness of the members thereof Surely this latter sense is not to be rejected though I will not say that it is primarily and mainly intended in these expressions Now will you endeavour in this respect to have your Houses to be little Churches Will you fill up your Families with such as fear God Will you in taking persons into your Houses steer your course by Religion and religious considerations Let me draw this out plainly in particular Instances Are you to Marry to take an Husband or a Wife Make your choice and fix your resolution by Religion let piety have the decisive and casting voice in this grand Affair Other things may be ey'd and considered in their proper place and bounds as Birth Parentage comeliness of person sweetness of Nature suitableness But the great thing that must weigh down the ballance is this Doth he or she fear the Lord This is that which must preponderate and which must chiefly be in your eye Beauty and Portion and Honour are poor things to go by 't is Religion Grace Piety that must regulate and determine the Choice This is to marry in the Lord as the Apostle exhorts 1 Cor. 7.39 When we do it not upon any by-respects or external motives as preponderating or being considered apart from the main but the great inducement is something that is spiritual this is Marrying in the Lord. O that this might be the rule which you would go by If Religion be any other than a Cypher how dare we not regard it in our most important choice says that * Bishop Hall Contempl. p. 1020. excellent Bishop Without this all Matches are miserable though they should be made up with hoards of wealth and heaps of Gold as high as Heaven crowned with Honours transcendent to the Stars Prepar before Death p. 47. says eminent Mr. Bolton Let me a little argue with you will you make those the objects of your dearest Love who have no share in the Love of God will you take those into intimate union and conjunction with your selves who have no union with Christ will you lay those in your bosome whom God will cast out of his sight for ever what agreement can there be 'twixt light and darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 In tantâ morum discordiâ Hieron ad Nepot quae potest esse concordia The one is for Holiness the other for Sin the one draws one way the other another this is the bane of that oneness and harmony that should be betwixt persons in this relation O the mischiefs that follow upon being unequally yoked how doth this imbitter all To have a religious David and a scoffing Michal a blessing Job and a cursing Wife a good Sampson and a treacherous Dalilah this must needs be very sad 'T is possible the unbelieving Husband may be sanctified by the believing Wife 1 Cor. 7.14 and so the unbelieving Wife by the believing Husband but we must not run our selves upon so great a snare upon presumption of a possibility See the Answer in Just. Mart. to the 90 Quest p. 447. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They need much grace who will not rather in this case receive hurt than do good the latter is but possible but the former is too probable Near Relations have a great influence upon men No wonder that Ahab sold himself to work wickedness when Jezabel his Wife stirred him up thereunto 1 King 21.25 And this is rendred as the reason why Jehoram did as the House of Ahab for the daughter of Ahab was his Wife 2 King 8.18 And for the most part it so falls out that the good are rather prejudic'd by the bad than the bad advantag'd by the good O you that are yet to dispose of your selves in Marriage look to your choice as near as you can pitch where the fear of God is Are not such to be found Judg. 14 3. Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy Brethren or among all my people that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistins 'T is sad so to marry in one day as to repent of