Word of God and all other meanes of grace and in the Saints of God and a more fervent zeal against sin in our selves and others and for advancement of God's glory For zeal is nothing else but a flame issuing from the Fire of Love And because there is a zeal which is not according to knowledge the five requisites in the exerting of our zeal ought to be examined namely whether we have a good cause and calling and a good Conscience and use only good meanes and aim at a good end Where there is true love to Men it will be extensive to all and manifest it self by unfeigned desire of their salvation and an earnest desire to procure them all the goods their necessities require according to our ability and even to our greatest Enemies compassionate affection towards them pitying and grieving for any evil that befalls them with a gentle usage of them in speech and action Thus are we commanded to deal with our Enemies Oxe or Ass Moreover we are bound to pray for the pardon of their sins and conversion of their minds and manners and readily to relieve them But especially we prove our dwelling in God by Love to the Brethren Christs whole spiritual Kindred that are knit to him by the bond of faith and among themselves by that of love Those on whom we discern the new Man put on which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness though different from us in judgment in points of faith that are not fundamental Our love to these must not only be unfeigned So it must be to all others and with a pure heart free from Lust and evil surmising but with extraordinary heat of affection Having thus proved the Doctrine and resolved the Question we proceed to Application And there are three sorts of Persons to be dealt with 1. Such as are or may be sure they have not yet made God their Habitation 2. Such whose Habitation the Lord is sure enough but they have no comfortable assurance that he is so 3. Such as have this assurance The first of these are the greatest part of the Visible Church as for the rest of the World which are 28. or 31. by computation they are without doubt without God in the World wherein there are no less than one and thirty sorts of Hypocrites of whom eleven come not up so high as the profession of the true Religion The other 20. Persons the true Religion without being truly Religious Affecting the Name Religion but dis-affecting the thing The description of each of these are legible in Crook's Characters Now an Hypocrite shall not come before God cannot subsist in his presence much less have his abode in him Many of them have confidence in Gods mercies But the Hypocrites hopes shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a Spiders Web their hopes shall be as the giving up of the Ghost For what is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul Will God hear his cryes when trouble cometh upon him There is no hope of mercy for them no though the fittest objects of mercy The Lord shall have no joy in their young Men. Neither shall have mercy on their Fatherless and Widdows for every one is an Hypocrite Nothing but woe is their Portion as appeares by those 8. woes pronounced against them by our Saviour in one Chapter And he makes them as it were the Free-holders of Hell All others but as Inmates holding under them And he hath given 14. Notes together whereby they may be known any one of which raigning in any Man proves him to have nothing to do in God that God is not his Habitation but that he is a Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness It is too manifest alas that most among us are out of God by what hath been spoken in answer to the Question 1. There are none in comparison that will be perswaded to make choice of God Not only the whole World out of the Church lyeth in wickedness as in a deep puddle have chosen to live under the power and command of the wicked one and with the Swine to wallow in the mire and filth of Sin but also the whole Multitude that is within the Body and Kingdome of Christ Yea they have chosen their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations When I called none did answer when I spake none did hear but they did evil before mine Eyes and chose that wherein I delighted not They hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord they would have none of my counsel My People would not hearken unto my Voice and Israel would have none of me No for I have loved strangers and after them will I go Strange Nations and Gods their Idolatries Superstitions and Customes They choose new Gods that came newly up whom their Fathers feared not From the least of them even to the greatest every one is given to Covetousness from the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealeth deceitfully They have chosen the Tongue of the Crafty Such a choice most of the sacred stock and Members of the Church of old made The Sons of God saw that the Daughters of Men were fair and they took them Wives of all which they chose Without making any distinction for spiritual matters or Religion did intimate was to be done and such a perverse choice the Jews long after made who were the only Visible Church For Salvation is of the Jews They cryed all not this Man but Barabbas They denyed the holy One and the just and desired a Murderer to be granted unto them And no other choice do the generality of the World among us at this day make The World hath three Daughters The lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life One of which every one chooseth before God the Voluptuous the first the Covetous the second the Ambitious the third And who or where is he or she that is not one of these Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are Enemies of the Cross of Christ Whose God is their Belly whose Glory is their shame who mind Earthly things 2. There are as few that lay hold on God joyn themselves to him close with him There is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Where are there any that do as those Children returning to Judea did the Children of Israel and the Children of Judah together of whom it is said They shall go and seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their Faces thither-ward Saying come let us joyn our selves unto the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be
is by closing with him Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of them This joyning makes this natural dwelling Neither let the Son of the Stranger that hath tyed himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord hath utterly separated me from his People Also the Sons of the Stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and love the Name of the Lord to be his servants even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and their Sacrifices shall be accepted He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit United with Christ and so to God the Father in Body and Soul as by a Bond of spiritual Matrimony in the Communion of the Spirit of Holiness This actual closing with God is especially by faith which is a trusting in his mercy through the mediation of his Son with an obediential affiance I have trusted in thy mercy and by this means made thee my Habitation and Salvation wherein I take no small Consolation Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rely with hearty confidence upon his faithful promises and most powerful wise and good providence for preventing and removing of evils and obtaining all good spiritual temporal and eternal The want of this is noted in that wicked mighty Man Loe this is the Man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness By repenting whereof and closing with God by a religious trust he might have made him his dwelling place for not doing so he is threatned to be pluckt out of his own dwelling place 3. God is made our Habitation by cleaving to him thus closed with persevering in faith and holiness adhearing constantly and abiding faithfully to God Seeking and expecting all our safety from his sole protection and accordingly qualifying our selves for a capacity thereof keeping in the way to which he hath promised his safeguard This is the meaning of the subject of this proposition in the first Verse of this Psalm He that dwelleth in the secret Place of the most High The same with making the Lord even the most High our Habitation Sticking fast also to him with the affections of the heart especially that of Love which hath the Nature of Glew The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own Soul Ruth clave to Naoimi intreat me not says she to hear thee or to return from following after thee For whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge where thou dyest will I dye and there will I be buried Hezekiah cleave unto the Lord and departed not from him but kept his Commandments him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave thus thou shalt make him thy habitation To the later Branch of the Question I answer in the words of the Apostle John in his first Epistle where he gives among others these four Characters of Persons dwelling in God 1. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Commandments of the moral Law are meant which whosoever keepeth approves himself to God and Men and to his own Conscience that he hath his dwelling in God He that lives in the breach of them evidenceth that he hath not his abiding in God Nor will obedience to some of these Commandments be any comfort to a Mans conscience that God is his habitation That young Man in the Gospel could say to Christ who bad him if he would enter into life keep the Commandments and mentions sundry of them All these things have I kept from my Youth up The proud Pharisee thanked God he was not as other Men were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers that he fasted twice a Week and gave Tithes of all that he possessed Herod did many things Obedience must be Universal Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet is guilty in one point offendeth in all David did according to all that God commanded him Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Conscience must be made of every sin great and small They only are blessed that do no iniquity I have refrained my Feet from every evil way I hate every false way Darling sins must be abandoned and abominated sins of constitution calling company I kept my self from mine iniquity So must every secret sin even of thought Why should I think upon a Maid Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments shall be excluded out of Heaven yea all appearance of evil must be abstain'd from And conscience must be made of every duty how costly dangerous or difficult soever 2 Cor. 8. 7. Phil. 4. 8 9. Dan. 6. 10. Rom. 12. 19 20. True it is we must be most careful of such duties that God hath laid a charge upon us especially to perform namely substantial duties of Piety and Charity and the duties of our particular Callings and Relations Mat. 22. 38 39 23. 23 24. 1 Sam. 15. 22. Hos 6. 6. Luk. 3. 13 14. 1 Tim. 6. 1 2. Tit. 2. 15. Eph. 5. 22. Not that it is expected that we should legally keep all these Commandments for this is impossible while we are in these earthly Tabernacles Evangelical obedience will be accepted which stands in five things 1. That we approve of all the Commandments of God I esteem all thy Commandments to be right the Law is holy the Commandment is holy just and good 2. That we unfeignedly will and earnestly endeavour to keep the whole Law We trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes Let now thine Ear be attentive to the Prayer of thy Servants who desire to fear thy Name 3. That there be in us as earnest an endeavour Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man 4. That we unfeignedly repent as oft as we fall or fail Grieving that we have done amiss and resolve to do so no more If thy Brother Sin against Thee seven times in a Day and seven times in a Day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out I gave her space to repent of her Fornication and she repented not They repented not to give him glory neither repented they of their murders or of their Sorceries nor of their thefts no Man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done There was under the Law a Sacrifice even for Perjury whereby a Man seals himself to the Devil 5. That we believe in the Lord
get not your selves and them timely into this House where and no where else there is safety The general means is implyed in the word making which speaks stirring and action As God the Father hath made his Son Jesus Christ unto believers wisdom righteousness and sanctification and redemption So he that by faith in Christ which works by Love makes God unto himself all that to him which in all estates may give him comfort and satisfaction his King Lord Husband Father Sheapherd Son Shield Comfortress Hiding-place Habitation and Portion You that have as yet no such portion in God arise and be doing The Soul of the Sluggard desireth and hath nothing because his hands refuse to labour but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat Such shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's House and he shall make them drink of the Rivers of his pleasures Wherefore do they spend Money for that which is not Bread and their labour for that which satisfieth not Heathens were wont to say the Gods sell good things to Men for Labours True it is all Men are alwayes making We read of many that have made and do make wofull work They made a Calf in Horeb. Ephraim hath made many Altars to Sin They have made goodly Imamages Molton Images of their Silver and Idols according to your own understanding Their Feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood They have made their hearts as an Adamant Stone Woe to thee that puttest thy Bottle to thy Neighbour and makest him drunken We have made Lies our refuge Ye have made the Commandment of God of none effect By the Tradition ye have made my House a Den of Thieves Some having put away Faith and a good Conscience concerning faith have made shipwrack Fools make a mock of sin Such kind of making makes Men meet to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Devil and his Angels in blackness of darkness for ever Another manner of making is required of them that would have God to become their Habitation Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make ye a new heart and a new spirit return ye now every one from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his Path streight Make straight Paths for your Feet Make the way of the Gospel easie for you By the diligent Obedience give diligence to make your Calling and your Election sure More particularly consider what they that want a House and hear of a good one to be had do and do likewise 1. They are sensible of and lay sadly to heart their misery thereby What comfort can that Man have that hath Meat Drink and Cloaths and Silver and Gold and Jewels if with these he hath not a House to live in And such a House as can keep him and what he hath dry A Housless Man is exposed to unsufferable evils to all the injuries of Heaven and Earth in the Day the draught consumes him and the frost by Night and all his Sleep departeth from his Eyes 2. They consider how happy they are that have a House and such an one as hath been described for properties furniture conveniences and how happy themselves should be if they had the same 3. The desire of your Soul is carryed earnestly after this Happiness and they express their desires both by enquiring of them that have how the House they have heard of may be had and requesting them that have interest in the owner and disposer of it to befriend them in speaking a good word for them and also making and putting up their supplication themselves to him to vouchsafe this favour to them 4. They are contented to purchase or take it at any rate within their power are willing to come up to the full price or rent demanded 5. They put themselves into the way that leads to this House with the Price in their hands as those Lords are said to go to Delilah 6. They are careful to qualifie themselves so as to be made meet to enter into the House and dwell there We read of a prohibition to suffer any that are blind and lame to come into the House of David Nor might any enter into Ahasuerus Gate cloathed in Sack-Cloath 7. They are ready to enter into Covenants and Bonds and an Oath too if need be to perform Conditions that are required by him that owns the House and must give them possession of it 1. All this must be done by you that are out of God that he may become your Habitation See and know that it is an evil and a bitter thing to be without God in the World You have no Union nor Communion with Christ the Spring of all spiritual and everlasting blessings You are separate from his body in which only he communicates his grace You have no Interest nor Portion in the goods promised by the Covenant of grace are without all hope of salvation while in that condition You are subject to the wrath and curse of God your very blessings are curses your Table is a snare and that which should be for your welfare is a trap Not only the corporal but spiritual food even the consecrated Elements which you receive Every Creature is your enemy and seeks your ruine yea all things work together to effect it You are every moment in danger of dropping into Hell out of which there is no Redemption And what will ye do in the Day of Visitation to whom will ye flee for help There is no help for you out of me They shall be bound up and tyed together as bundles and cast into the Furnace of Fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth You may seem to your selves and others to be in a good condition because you have the World at will and are perhaps civil and honest yea and formally religious like the Laodicean Angel Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art poor and blind and naked Apprehend these as the Officers of the Children of Israel did when Pharaoh denyed them Straw To be in evil case be afflicted make these miserable so the word signifies Go too now ye rich Men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you Though a sinner do evil an Hundred times and prolong his Days yet surely I know that it shall go well with them that fear the Lord which dwell in him But it shall not be well with the wicked whose Habitation the Devil is whom they serve and with whom they shall shortly dwell in his infernal House to all Eternity Mean time their judgment lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not but is coming Post-haste to meet them Evil
better discern of one than of another it will be needful to speak a word or two to each of them That is a New heart which is furnished with a new spirit that is to say new dispositions inclinations and habits It 's called new because it 's opposed to the old spirit that of the World and of the Devil who by breathing on Men makes them go an end into old courses And because it s ever fresh and green and comfortable to them that have it That is a Broken heart which is smitten and pierced with remorse for sin broken down and brought low all high thoughts laid flat and level Broken off from the wayes of sin and stubborness in pursuit of those wayes Broken up as fallow ground made soft and tender as Josiahs was That 's an open heart which is enlightned to see our estate by nature and bewail it And to see comfort in Christ and rejoyce in it To have it also enlarged towards God's faithful Ministers as Lydia's was towards Paul and his fellow-labourers who constrained them to come into her House and abide there as also to run the way of God's Commandments A Single heart is opposed to eye-service and to carnal wisdom and to double mindedness and to guile A Whole heart is a willing heart when we are willing to a thing we use to say with all our hearts It 's opposed to a heart withdrawing it self and to a heart divided willing to lay hold on God and the World too and that fulfilleth not to walk after God That heart is pure that suffers no sin to abide in it without disallowance It being both against the judgment and will and when after falling into sin there is a speedy rising again with self-abhorring 1. A Perfect heart includes integrity and uprightness The heart is then intire when it is sanctified throughout and when there is a study and desire to attain perfection of degrees and a readiness to do all whatsoever God calls for and a constant holding unto God Following hard after him Keeping race with him And it is then upright when it is solid and true great just and when it is led by a right rule and aimes at a right end Such a heart as this God loves and dwells in and if you provide such a dwelling place for God he will be your dwelling place Qu. But is all this or any of this in the power of meer natural Men Such as you have been all this while perswading and advising to do Is it not severally taught and held that no Man can do any thing to help forward or further his own conversion Is it not a truth that no natural Man hath any desire of grace or of the means of grace never thinks of it because he is dead in trespasses and sins and how can a dead Man desire Life or use any means to attain it Nor when God by his Word makes offer of his grace can he perceive it Nor when he doth by God's Word and Spirit beginning to enlighten him in some measure to perceive it is he able to imbrace it Because wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God and because he is under the power of Satan And is not the Religion of the Papists convinced of gross error for teaching that the natural man is able both by his free-will to prepare himself for grace and to accept of grace when it is offered Yea to desire it like the Man that lay in the way to Jericho half dead yea and to do some good works If all this were true yet it hinders not but that God's Ministers may and ought to call upon natural Men to do what they can to reach forth their utmost towards grace for the obtaining of it Hear ye deaf and look ye blind that ye may see Some power they had which they are commanded to exaert and act and they are reproved for not doing what they could Ye Hypocrites ye can discern the face of the Skie and how is it that ye cannot discern this time Yea and why even of your selves That is your own Conscience dictates to you so many proofs of God's truth and God's Kingdom being set forth so clearly unto you by so many marks and tokens Judge ye not what is right that is to say that I am the Messias you have so long looked for They had therefore power to judge of the Visitation of Grace and God's Kingdom and in the Verses following they are told they neglected the time of God's patience It would befall them as a Debtor who suffers himself to be imprisoned after wearying out his Creditor namely that they should finde no more grace or pardon at his hands Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neer Nor ought Nature to be laid over-low Grace is Nature's perction what does it but repair the decayes of Nature Nature is the matter and Grace the Forme of God's Kingdom both in Earth and Heaven It Figures and Formeth Nature to the Image of God Moreover this is the way of God's exhibiting grace there is a necessity of Natures concurrence First this must precede as we are taught to pray for our daily bread before forgiveness of sins God cannot save an unwilling Man the will being uncapable of force and violence and all possibilities divine are carried on in an ordinary way of Man's industry who must therefore carry on himself as far as he can which whoso doth not hath no ground to expect common grace He that doth may expect to receive supernaturals common And he that abides with God in these may probably expect supernaturals special Qu. What are the abilities which Nature may and must reach forth in the pursuit of saving grace Answ She may and must approve the good ways of God More purity of Principles being left in Mans mind and conscience than in his will and affections That devilish Sorceress could say I see and allow and like that which is good and honest though I pursue and practice the contrary That sentence and principle pressed by our Saviour All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye unto them was the Posie of an Heathen Emperour 2. She may and must assay and make after Lift at the Commandments of God as a blind Horse having heard a noise hath been seen to lift up his head and turn that way where the noise came And a Child being commanded by his Father to reach a thing which he cannot will put to the little strength it hath and tug at it to remove bear and bring it 3. Matter of duty and obedience may be done by a natural Man They did well that took heed to the Word as to a light shining in a dark place though the Day-star was not yet risen in their hearts There is no outward exercise of Religion but we finde graceless
against themselves that they are without God are many Two of them we will mention and answer in which the rest are included and comprehended Obj. 1. They never entered in by the Door this they make out and put it on thus No Man can dwell in God in whose heart Christ dwels not by faith coming to Christ and believing in him are all one He that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst No Man is called to come to Christ that is not throughly and truly humbled for sin The Universal is restrained Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden You that labour in the Souls and Consciences by a lively feeling of your sins and terrour of God's Judgments due unto you for them Such are intended who being deeply sensible of their sins and Satans Yoak by panting and groaning under it Now they never had any such deep humiliation and therefore have reason to question Christ's dwelling in them and consequently theirs in God they never had this preparatory work To these Objections against themselves and the work of God's Grace in them I have these things to say 1. By way of Concession that sound humiliation arising from the sight and sense of sin and apprehension of Divine wrath is necessary to qualifie Men for coming to Christ They that be whole need not the Physician but they that be sick I came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance sensible Heart-smitten affrighted Soul afflicted-sinners The Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost Them who see and feel themselves quite undone and lost by reason of their sins The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek He hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted to Proclaim liberty to the Captives The opening of the Prison to them that are bound to comfort them that mourn Till Men be thus humbled they will not care to come to Christ nor have desire of him nor prize him and be willing to part with any thing for him Paul profest he was willing to part with all to win him counted all loss and dung for him What alone was this Paul one that had so deep a sense of his sins that he counted himself the chiefest sinner in the World No Man can believe the Gospel till the Law hath wrought Repentance in him the foundation whereof is a deep sense and sorrow for sin Nor will Men hold Christ with any retentiveness if this were not first wrought in them If Men be not weary of Sathans Yoak they will soon be weary of Christs Want of humiliation is the cause of all Apostacy And therefore there is great need that Ministers preach and press the Law to bring Men to a sight and sense of their sins Which is so far forth a blessing as it is necessary to drive us to Christ To shew us how wretched we are without him to make us pant and groan and mourn after him They erre that hold that Men are fit enough without any such legal terrors preceding that never felt their hearts broken to come to Christ to dwell in God As there is no natural birth without some precedent pains of travel in the Mother So neither is there any spiritual birth without some such in the Child God hath ever used to take this course to cast down sinners to lay them as low as Hell convincing them of their dark and damned condition giving them the spirit of bondage to fear the Vengeance of Eternal Fire due to them and then to erect and comfort them And so by the Suburbs of Hell to bring them to Heaven Thus he dealt with our first Parents and all along downward to this Day As the great and strong Wind renting the Mountains breaking in pieces the Rocks and the Earth-quake and Fire went before the still small Voice And the noise and shaking before the Resurrection of the dry bones and a Voice from Heaven as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of a great Thunder more terrifying and distinct before the Voice of Harpers harping with their Harps and as plowing precedes sowing and the Needle the Thread and melting the Mettle before the casting of it into a new form So must humiliation precede regeneration Woe to them that being laden with many sins feel them light as a Grass-hopper that have sworn a thousand Oaths in their ordinary discourse have told a thousand lies in their ordinary jesting officious pernicious committed prodigious filthiness frequently with themselves and others Have made the Lord's days the Devil 's by going their own wayes Finding their own pleasure speaking their own words and can carry all these with a thousand more Omissions as well as Commissions with as much ease as Sampson did the Gates of Gaza When light outward crosses are heavy to them and make them howle yea they can make a sport of sin delight to act it Make themselves and others merry by boasting of it glorying in their shame These Men shall finde one Day every of their sins which they feel so light to be heavier than a Mountain of Lead when they shall call to the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover them and the more pleasure they have felt in any sin the more sorrow and torment shall be given them Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things but now thou art tormented Every idle and much more every evil word shall be an unsufferable load upon their Consciences to all Eternity Unless voluntary humiliation before they come into that place of torments prevent it As for you that feel your sins pressing you as low as Hell take comfort in this that you are in the way to conversion And I may say unto you as the People to the blind Man be of good comfort Christ calleth thee There is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness for them that can mourn over him whom they have pierced 2. By way of Correction though all before Conversion are humbled yet all are not so in a like degree They that have been notorious wicked livers Such as Manasseh was must be humbled greatly as he was So they that killed the Lord of Life were punctually pierced So the Jaylor and Mary Magdalen and those whom God means to bestow more than ordinary gifts upon or to employ in great business for him he humbleth deeply Others that have been civilly educated never guilty of any hainous hideous crimes but alway lived unblameable moral lives These have the grace of Regeneration dropt insensibly into them never feel such pangs and terrors and heart-breaks nor know the time when God began to work upon them These fearful doubting Christians that
of sound words Let us hold fast our profession of Christian Faith and Religion in words and deeds That which ye have already hold fast till I come Especially this grace and gift of assurance which is a Jewel of the greatest worth in the World For as the happiness of having it so the misery of wanting it is unspeakable We cannot love God heartily when we doubt whether he loves us We can have little heart to pray our spiritual fight will be uncomfortable our peace unsetled our patience heartless all heat to holy duties will be utterly dampt in us This is made an effect of lively Faith and an assured mark of those who are living Members of Christ namely to hold fast that degree of assurance Christ was faithful as a Son over his own House whose House are we If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end See an example of this fast holding and keeping this Pearl of Price in the Spouse of Christ how servent her desires were how forcible her endeavours to make his singular presence with her familiar with her alwayes It was but a little that I passed from the Watchmen great worldly wise Men but I found him whom my Soul loveth I held him and would not let him go We are as oft exhorted to add unto those good things which we have and hold to increase our spiritual store to grow in all Graces Besides this giving all diligence add to your Faith Virtue to Virtue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly Kindness and to brotherly Kindness Charity Grow in Grace We beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God So ye would abound more and more That ye would increase more and more with the increase of God Grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ This will be both for our comfort and credit profit Lord thy Pound hath gained other Five Pounds be thou over Five Cities Especially we should desire and add degrees to our Faith as of adherence so of experience and evidence make it our Prayer Lord increase our Faith and this will bind others praises of God on our behalf We are bound to thank God alwayes for you Brethren as it is meet because that your Faith groweth exceedingly The great benefit and necessity of this knowledge of assurance may be motive sufficient to perswade you to give all diligence in the use of all means to preserve and increase it You will be sure to meet with temptations to doubt of your interest in God of your being in him to question whether you are Children of this Family Christ himself was thus assaulted though dwelling in the bosome of his Father If thou be the Son of God You must all dye shortly you may presently For what is your life it is even a Vapour which appeareth for a little Moment and vanisheth away Now if you be without assurance that you dwell in this heavenly House when Death drives you out of your Earthly How full of Horror and Torment must your Hearts needs be not knowing whether Heaven or Hell must be your dwelling place to all Eternity Whereas if you knew you were in the same House with Christ this would quiet your heart from all fear As soon as Christ was come into the Ship wherein the Disciples were tossed the Wind presently ceased God through Christ being your Habitation your Light and Salvation whom or what should you fear while you live and when you die God is our refuge therefore we will not fear And this and this only is able to make and keep your hearts lightsome in every condition Yea knowledge of your abiding in God will give a sweet relish as to every comfort So to every cross I have lost a dear Husband Wife Child Friend a comfortable dwelling but not my dear God And the more assurance the less fearful and more chearful Now the means to preserve and increase assurance are the same wherby you gained it The outward are those Ordinances of God and exercises of his holy Religion which he hath sanctified to this end to bring us unto and into himself and to work in us a comfortable assurance thereof especially the Word Sacrament and Prayer The more inward and spiritual are care to keep a good Conscience Diligent observation of your own ways Consideration of the experiments you have had of God's favour towards you renouncing your selves Resting only upon the free Grace of God in performance of the conditions required on our part looking oft over your evidences and holding the Conclusion To learn by heart and put in practice all those duties that are incumbent upon all those to whom the Lord even the most High vouchsafeth this high Prerogative of admission to and possession of his blessed Self to be your proper Habitation The general duty is to walk worthy of the Lord who hath effectually called you out of the World and out of your selves into himself and hath justified you and partly glorified you with glorious priviledges graces and comforts For whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified This the Apostle Paul frequently presseth I beseech you that you walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called You know how we exhorted and charged every one of you that ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you into his Kingdom of Glory Of God whose Livery you wear whose Image you bear of whose Houshold you are To walk worthy of your Vocation is to walk holily for the general Vocation of all Christians is to be holy as God is holy unto whom they are called in Jesus Christ As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation And as he presseth them to this worthy walking So he presseth God by Prayer for them that they might by his grace be enabled to walk declaring withall sundry Ingredients and Concurrents that make these paces and steps they take regular and graceful and the end of the course joyful We cease not to pray for you and to desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness Let knowledge shew you the wayes you should walk and sanctification carry you on an end therein and patience uphold you till you come to the end of your Journey when you shall receive the end of your Faith even the salvation of your Souls The
your Ejection if it be so Why am I thus That you may be sure your cause is good and your heart sincere in that which you suffer for 3. If you had a doubting Conscience indeed against which it is unlawful and damnable to act and not a meer scruple against which Men may act yet you may finde cause enough why God should cast you out of his House and out of your own For you honour'd God in neither as you might have done And therefore ought to acknowledge with David Righteous art thou O God and just in thy Judgments I know O Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me 4. When you have humbled your Souls and made your peace with God by repenting of your neglect to husband time and talent while a price was in your hand Resolve to bear with humility and patience the Indignation of the Lord because you have sinned against him until he plead your cause and execute Judgment for you and believe that he will bring you forth again to the Light and you shall behold his righteousness i. e. his deliverance the effect of his faithfulness and love towards you and of his just severity against your and his enemies who intended not to execute his judgments for your sins whatever their pretence was and bless God that you are still permitted to live in the Land of your Nativity And that there are any who are willing to receive you into their Houses as Laban did Jacob when he was compelled to leave his Fathers House and Jethro Moses and the Shulamite Elisha and Lydia Paul And that none can drive you out of your divine habitation nor shall be ever able to separate you from his love in Jesus Christ wherein you lodge 3. To you that have convenient Houses and a competency of means to live upon Be perswaded to think your condition better than if you had fairer buildings and more abundant income and revenues Agar thought a mean estate best as appeares by his Prayer against riches as well as poverty Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me As much as I shall need from Day to Day So we are taught to pray by our Saviour Give us this Day our Daily Bread The word signifies such a kind or quality as is fitting for our sustenance or beeing So much as is needful to be added thereto and no more Such a measure of goods of body and fortune so Men use to speak as is necessary comprehended by the Apostle under Food and Rayment This was all that Jacob desired of God If God will give me Bread to eat and Rayment to put on If the Query be What may be counted needful Answ 1. That which Nature requireth enough only to hold Life and Soul together from Hand to Mouth as they say 2. That which is meet for the state wherein God hath set us 3. That which is requisite for the charge committed to us 4. That which is apparently needful for the time to come If any provide not for his own especially those of his own House he hath denyed the faith and is worse than an Infidel No Mans desire must go beyond this Labour not to be rich Superfluity coveted is very dangerous They that will be Rich fall into Temptation and a Snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in destruction and perdition A moderate estate hath little danger and trouble much ease and comfort a plentiful one little or nothing of these much of those and therefore thank God that it is with you as it is nor do you or can you want plenty abiding in God for in him there is all fulness and enjoying him you possess all things yea you would do so if you had nothing as was said 4. To you who dwell in earthly Houses and have all earthly good things in abundance I have this word of exhortation Let your hearts be lift up with thankful acknowledgment of God's goodness in giving besides himself these outward blessings richly to enjoy When others nothing inferiour to you in grace and goodness are glad to dwell in poor Cottages and to feed on scraps yea to beg their Bread Who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Thou preparest a Table before me thou anointest my Head with Oyle my Cup runneth over I am not worthy of all the Mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my Staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two Bands But let not your hearts be lifted up with pride because of your abundance Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-minded Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly Houses and dwelt therein and when thy Herds and thy Flocks multiply and thy Silver and thy Gold is multiplyed and all that thou hast is multiplyed then thy Heart be lifted up See God in your fair edifices and sumptuous Furniture and large Revenues esteeming them as a beam of the bright Sun-shine of his favour you being enabled by his Grace to make them instrumental for his glory in the refreshing the bowels of his Saints and so to enjoy the good of them as to avoid the snare To use them not as hindrances but helps to a better life Consider withall how easie and quickly all you have may be brought to nothing Job this Morning the greatest Man for wealth of all the Men of the East and by Night was brought to poverty to a Proverb and therefore look upon all as transitory keeping your affections loose and all off from them And if they make themselves Wings and flie away as an Eagle towards Heaven let it trouble you as little as the sight of a Flock of Foul out of your Ground flying thitherward would do and rejoyce that with Mary You have chosen that good part that shall not be taken from you 5. To you who having dwelt in fair and goodly Houses which the Fire consumed are in your thought and purpose if not actually building as or more fair and goodly to dwell in in the same places where the former stood or else-where be exhorted 1. To bless the Lord your everlasting Habitation which preserved yours and all the Persons of your Families and so much of the movable Goods in your Houses and Shops from that raging Element That you have still wherewith to subsist comfortably and are in a condition of Rebuilding Acknowledge it to be of the Lord's Mercies that your selves and all yours Persons and things were not consumed That so many lives and so much substance is given to you for a Prey 2. To take heed to your selves that none of these evils no degree of them which are