excellencies and transcendent perfections of God So this especially of sublimity that he is most high This did David I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart I will sing praise to thy Name O thou most high I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praises to the most high As he did himself so he stirreth up all others to do so O clap your hands all People shout unto God with the voice of Tryumph for the Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over the Earth Let the Saints sing aloud upon their Beds Let the high praises of God be in their Mouth And this he tells us is a good thing at all times especially on the Sabbath Dayes It is a good thing to sing praises unto thy holy Name O most High His Universal Regiment is to be acknowledged This matter is by the Decree of the Watchers and the demand by the Word of the holy One to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdome of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basest of Men. 2. His wonderful humility and condescention The Lord is high above all Nations and his glory above the Heavens Who is like the Lord our God who is most High who humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in the Heaven and in the Earth He doth not disdain from his High Seat of Glory to provide for all Creatures both Terrestrial and Coelestial He hath a gracious and loving care of vile Wormes and grievous sinners yea vouchsafes to make their hearts if humbled and contrite for their sins his dwelling place For thus saith the High and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is high and holy I dwell in the high and holy Places with him also that is of an humble and contrite Spirit The humility of the Son of the most high God being the same in substance with him and equal in power and glory condescended to match with a Maid of our Family that had neither beauty nor dowry A greater condescention than if the greatest Emperor on Earth should marry the poorest and most deformed Virgin upon Earth assuming a humane Nature with his Divine Person In all things like unto Man excepting sin and in that nature to suffer poverty hunger thirst weariness and other humiliations even unto Death Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation Annihilated himself and brought himself as it were to nothing Took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the habit of Men And being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross 3. Consider the exceeding high honour he hath done you to be Servants in such a House to himself whom you have made your House by choosing him and cleaving to him Nebucadnezar could not desire a higher honour for the Three Worthies whom he saw walking in the midst of the Fire than to call them Servants of the most high God Nor the Angel that appeared to Daniel in the Vision of the Four Beasts and interpreted it to him for the Subjects of God's Kingdom than to call them Saints of the most high Yea the Angels themselves glory in this title I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren And James stiles himself not the Lords Brother but the Servant of the Lord. And God himself Moses not King in Jesuran but my Servant My Servant Moses 2. In Prayers I will cry unto God most high Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights We are commanded to pray to God as being above in Heaven to teach us among many other things that our Prayers should be sent forth with such fervencies that they may reach and pierce Heaven where God is to cry as David did O my God I cry in the Day time in the day time and in the Night season He heard my cry My most earnest desires in Prayer arising from feeling and fear of misery And so did Moses Wherefore cryest thou unto me God seeming to chide him for so doing but it was not for his fervent praying but for his fearing and fainting his Faith beginning to fail and to let him know that he was more ready to hear than he to pray 2. Learn humility of the most high God Be ye followers of God as dear Children Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another So if God have condescended unto us we ought to do the like to our Inferiours there being infinitely more distance and disproportion between God and us than there is between us were we the highest Princes on Earth and they poorest Beggars For they are all our Brethren Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us Be not therefore high-minded but condescend to Men of low Estate And learn of me saith the Son of the most High for I am meek and lowly in heart Lowliness of mind will make you high with God and meekness of word shall make you sink into the hearts of Men. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus You that are higher than others in gifts wealth or dignity disdain them not but demean your selves humbly toward them and honour shall uphold you 3. Take heed of provoking the most High or of contemning his Counsels least you provoke your selves to the confusion of your own Faces as the Israelites did of whom it is said That they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the Wilderness Yea they tempted and provoked the most high God kept not his testimonies They contemned the Counsel of the most High Therefore he brought down their heart with labour they fell down and there was none to help 4. If you have provoked him to anger against you as David did when Satan provoked him to number the People enquire and desire to know the true means to appease him and to be reconciled unto him Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God And turn ye to him with all your heart to him I say and not as Ephraim of whom it is said They returned but not to the most High Renew your purposes and resolutions and vowes of more wary walking for the future and when upon your humiliation and reformation he is returned unto you with mercies offer unto him thanks giving and pay your vowes unto the most High 5. Comfort your selves against all the injustice and disorders of the World and against all the Plots and Conspiracies of wicked Men against the Church and People of God Marvel not at it but look higher and expect seasonable relief
plenty of meat and drink and cloaths and Silver and Gold and Armor for defence and offence have the denomination given them by the generality of People and are only cryed up empty ones have no bodies good word Take notice of some passages of Scripture to this purpose from the mouths both of Prophane and Divine Pen-men yea of Divinity it self How many hired Servants in my Fathers House have Bread enough and to spare We shall finde all precious substance we shall fill our Houses with spoyle If Balak would give me his House full of Silver and Gold Through wisdome is a House builded and by knowledge shall the Chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches Thou shalt save Goats milk enough for thy food for the food of thy Houshold and for the food of thy Maidens Thy Barnes shall be filled with plenty and thy Presses shall burst out with new Wine Wealth and Riches shall be in his House They possessed Houses full of all good the Floors shall be full of Wheat and the Fat 's shall overflow with Corn and Oyle Some very good People who had House-room enough have had therein next to nothing The Widdow of Zarephath going into her House to fetch the Prophet Elijah a little Water in a Vessel which he begged of her to drink makes this answer to him craving that she would also bring him a morsel of Bread in her Hand As the Lord thy God liveth I have not a Cake but a handful of Meal in a Barrel and a little Oyl in a Cruse this was all her store Such an answer gave a certain Woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets unto Elisha Tell me said he What hast thou in the House Thy Hand-maid said she hath not any thing in the House save a Pot of Oyle In this House which we have in hand there is not only No want of any thing which is on the Earth the good report given of Laish by the five Searchers But here is also all the good things that Heaven it self is able to afford Witness him that was caught up thither and saw what was in those Mansions Blessing God for blessing him and all his fellow-Members of this blessed Family withall spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Begin we with Provisions of food They to whom it is given to dwell in God shall be sure not to want either Corporal or Spiritual sustenance but enjoy both in abundance 1. For their bodies this is one of the encouragements given to the Saints of God to fear and seek him O fear the Lord O ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing in the Day of Famine they shall be satisfied The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his Soul but the belly of the wicked shall want They shall alway have Bread and Water enough As those hundred Prophets had in that time of great dearth whom Obediah fed by fifty in a Cave Bread shall be given them their Waters shall be sure Likened unto Men that dwell in an unpregnable Fort well provided with Victuals to hold out a Siege And there Bread and Water is sure as is not else-where to be found For there is a blessing in both which are also of the choicest and God himself feeds them therewith I should have fed them saith the Lord to his professing People had they hearkened unto me to come and live in him but they would not with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied them No courser Bread than wheaten doth every hinde or Servant of this House eat That which is materially pulse beanes pease which some of them are fain sometimes to feed upon is virtually the fat of wheat So it was to Daniel and his three Companions whose countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the Children which did eat the portion of the Kings meat Nor can they be scanted He whos 's the Earth is and the fulness thereof having said Thou shalt eat thy Bread without scarceness I will abundantly bless her Provision I will satisfie her Poor with Bread In case they have but an handful of Meal He can make it suffice them and theirs many Days yea enable them to go in the strength of one Cake baken on the Coales forty Days yea to make five Loaves feed no fewer than five thousand Men besides Women and Children nor shall there want a concurence of his will with his power if need be Though Miracles are said to be ceased every one of the House shall have their Daily bread according as they are taught to pray And as Agar prayed in faith nothing doubting nor were ever any of them in David's observation put to the Trade of begging their bread Though some of them have in all Ages been constrained to live of Almes for exercise and tryal which is a noble way of living And so the Waters given them to drink they are not like these of Marah and Jericho bitter and naught but sweet and wholsome If they be otherwise naturally they are by a Tree or Salt cast in presently sweetned and healed with which as with Honey distilled out of the Rock their thirst is wonderfully quenched 2. As for their Souls there is in this House abundantly more and better Provision of all manner of Food for all sorts of Persons that are of the Family Nehemiah tells us of what a great Table he kept and what was provided for him daily Viz. one Oxe and six choice Sheep also Fowles and once in ten Dayes store of all sorts of Wine Solomon's Provisions for one Day was thirty Measures of fine flower and threescore Measures of Meal ten fat Oxen out of the Pasture and an hundred Sheep beside Harts and Roe-bucks and fallow Deer and fatted Fowle But all his great store is but as a drop to the Ocean in comparison of the spiritual Provision prepared every day for the Saints to feed upon in this House The Word of God and God the Word are a million of times more in quantity and virtue to nourish and cheer How sweet are thy Words unto my Taste Sweeter than honey unto my mouth Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my Heart O Book insinite sweetness Let my heart Suck every Letter and a honey gain Precious for every Greif in any part To cheer the brest to mollifie all pain Thou aut all health health thriving 'till it make A full Eternity Thou art a Mass Of strange delights where we may wish and take Here is milk for Babes the first Principles of the Oracles of God and strong
sitting with him presented Him with the exercise of her Virtues And of his sitting down with his Twelve Disciples to eat the Passover and before this with many Publicans and Sinners All penitent Sinners whose habitation the Lord is ever had still have and ever shall have this Priviledge to sit with Christ in Heavenly places which are no other than the Loves of God in Christ from which Seats neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to seperate them Nor any such Beds to take rest in which the now named Loves make Herb. Evens My God thou art all Love Not one poor Minute scapes thy Breast But brings a favour from above And in this Love more than in Bed I rest The softest down Beds compared to these are harder than stones on which as little true rest can be taken as Ahasuerus took the Day before Mordecai was to be hanged on that Night could not the King sleep or as Job had when he wanted the sense of these Divine Loves When I say my Bed shall ease me my Couch shall ease my Complaints then thou scarest me with Dreames and terrifiest me with Visions In this Bed of assurance of Divine Love Jacob slept sweetly comforted by a Vision made by a Sign namely a Ladder set upon the Earth the top whereof reached unto Heaven c. and in words promising the Land whereon he slept a numerous posterity and protection in his going out and coming home when his Body lay on the cold Ground and his Head on a Stone And in the same Bed David slept securely when surrounded with Enemies I laid me down and slept and I will not be afraid of ten thousand of People that have set themselves against me round about Yea when their Bodies are upon Sick-beds God himself twines them makes them soft stirring up Feathers of Consolation under them The Lord will strengthen him upon the Bed of languishing Thou wilt make all his Bed in his Sickness Nor is there in any House such Linnen for Bed and Board which is spread and used as oft as rest or repast is taken and hath an influence into both making them comfortable yea into the very Dishes and Vessels wherein the Meat and Drink is served up making them precious and permanent and into the Couches or places of repose corporal as well as spiritual without which those would have no grateful relish nor these any refreshing sweetness Such as Jeremy found wrapped therein upon this I awaked and beheld and my sleep was sweet unto me But especially this Linnen serves for the cloathing this Houshold imparting not only warmth to which sufficient hath been spoken but also Ornament beyond compare To her speaking of the Church the Lamb's Wife was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the Righteousness of Saints Of old great and honourable Persons were cloathed with fine Linnen Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in Vestures of fine Linnen Mordecai went out from the presence of the King in Royal Apparel and with a Garment of fine Linnen Dives was cloathed in Purple and fine Linnen The High Priests Garments were made of Gold and of Blue and of Purple Scarlet and of fine Linnen The Ephod and the curious Girdle the Coat and the Miter and so were the Vestures of his Sons which are said to be for Glory and for Beauty that is to make them Venerable and Majestick in the executing of their Office Every faithful Christian Man or Woman is a sacred King a Royal Priest hath Royal blood running in his Veins Was born not of blood is not such by natural Generation nor of the will of the flesh But of God by the power of his Spirit unto his own Image and so is higher than the Kings of the Earth hath Power as a King to subdue and keep under the rebellious motions and lusts of his own corrupt reason and will and is by faith partaker of Christs royal Dignity and Will being with him annexed Heir of an Heavenly Kingdome He is also made partaker of the Dignity of Christ's Priesthood better than the Levitical Priesthood which was not after the Order of Melchisedeck having God propitious to him by his Death having access to God by Prayer through his intercession and to offer spiritual sacrifices to him the Sacrifice of Prayer that is the fruit of the Lips giving thanks to his Name To do good also and to communicate for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased The Linnen wherewith these spiritual Kings and Priests are apparelled being the Righteousness of Christ's humane Nature called the Righteousness of God Because he is the Supream Author of it and appointed his Son who was true God for to fulfil and to acquire it out of his meer grace and imputes it to the Elect and accepts it for their absolution as far surpasseth in fineness purity and whiteness that wherewith Earthly Princes and Priests were arrayed as the finest Flax doth the coursest Sack or Hair-cloath For it is Angelical yea more pure and bright and transcendently glorious and makes them appear so The Kings Daughter is all glorious within Yea Glory it self in the abstract yea they do appear so not only in the Eyes of God but even in the Eyes of the Nations of the World as appeares by these words of admiration uttered by them Who is she that looketh forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners And this by reason of those gorgeous outward Garments and Jewels that cast a shining lustre wherewith they are invested and adorned Cap a pe like Herod in his Cloath of Silver which being beaten by the Sun-beames dazled the Peoples Eyes The exercise and exerting of those glorious Virtues mentioned by the Apostle Bowels of Mercies kindness meekness of mind long-suffering and charity which is the Bond of Perfection make them to shine as lights in the World He that will look into the Wardroab of this House shall finde besides these very many changes of rich Rayment fitted for all Sexes and Ages which being put on and worn abroad must needs make them glorious in the Eyes of all beholders And as there is no such Vestry in any House as this so neither is there any such Armony In the Tower of David which was builded for an Armory there hang a Thousand Bucklers all Shields of Mighty Men. There is in this one Shield of more worth to all intents and purposes than all those a thousand times told over The Shield of Faith a spiritual Shield serving to beat back and bear off all the fierce Temptations of Satan To quench all his Fiery Darts to hinder their pernicious working By
removed and carryed too and fro God himself sends word to David since the Day he brought up Israel unto that Day he had not dwelt in a fixed setled House But had been from Tent to Tent from one Tabernacle to another But I have been with thee saith he whither soever thou hast walked Yea though I walk through the Valley of the shaddow of Death saith David unto God I will fear no evil for thou art with me While I sleep and when I awake I am still with thee Jacob had this assurance given him that God would accompany him and go too and fro with him when he fled from the face of his Brother Behold I am with thee and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will come back again with thee I will not leave thee And so when he went to see his Son Joseph I will go down with thee into Egypt As the Wheeles accompanyed closely the living Creatures exactly following their motion and their rest resting with them When the living Creatures went the Wheels went when the living Creatures were lift up the Wheels were lift up when those went these went and when those stood these stood This living House as closely accompanies the living Creatures in it and as punctually attends their motions up and down and resteth with them in their resting place every where 11. Nor is this House capable of or subject to any such casualties as other houses are The houses of some poor Creatures which they bear about with them are so brittle that a foot that treadeth on them or a Cart-Wheel going over them may crush and destroy them The best built houses may be burnt with Fire or blown down with Tempests or rent with Meteors or broken up with Thieves Job's Sons and Daughters were eating and drinking Wine in their eldest Brothers House and behold there came a Wind from the Wilderness and it fell upon the young Men and killed them The Hold whereinto a thousand Men and Women of the Tower of Shechem entered was set on Fire and consumed with all the Persons in it Nebuzaradan burnt in one Day the House of the Lord and the Kings Houses and all the Houses of Jerusalem and every great Mans House burnt he with Fire I will gather all Nations against Jerusalem and the City shall be taken and the Houses rifled The Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed up Korah Dathan and Abiram and their Houses and all their goods But there is no fear of any such accident to this House what Plots or conspiracies soever are made to harm it or them that live in it there shall not a hair of their heads perish nor their Treasures be touched True it is this House is it self a Consuming Fire Infinitely hoter than that in Nebuchadnezar's Furnace the Flame whereof consumed those Men that took up Shedrach Meshach and Abednigo but it is only so to them that are without and dare to come nigh to pillage it or hurt any in it who walk as comfortably in this Fire as those three Children did in the burning Furnace upon whose Bodies the Fire had no Power nor was an Hair of their Heads singed neither were their Coats changed nor had the smell of Fire passed on them 12. It is a holding House as it holds the Souls of the Inhabitants in Life so it suffers not their feet to be moved out of it but it keepeth them constantly and perseveringly in Nor is it in the Power of Men or Devils to eject them no nor of the old Man that hath still a Beeing in them and perswades them to depart and make a change for though they may do both if they will yet they cannot will to do either for God hath promised that all whom he receiveth within himself shall not have a heart to leave him But to abide for ever in him I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me And he hath power to perform what he has promised he is able to keep you from falling and to preserve you blameless before the presence of his glory is exceeding joy We are kept by the Guard of Gods Power his strongest if degrees be in Omnipotency through faith unto salvation There were never any that went into this House by the Door Such as Jesus Christ is I am the Door By him an abundant entrance is made into the Church and consequently unto God No Man cometh unto the Father but by me by him we have access with confidence that ever apostatized finally or totally Some that have seemed unto themselves and others to be real Members of this Family Demas for example that went out but they were never truly in as appears by their going out Hear the testimony of one of the houshold the truth of whom is without question They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be manifest that they were not all of us the servant abideth not in the House for ever but the Son abideth ever The righteous is an everlasting Foundation True it is he may set one Foot out of Doors David did so when he committed Adultery and practiced the Death of Uriah and Peter did so when he forsware his Master and with such direful curses denyed that he knew him But this was through the violence of temptation The purpose and resolution of both their hearts was not to take a step out but to keep close within Door I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Though all Men should be offended because of thee yet I will not be offended Though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee How fell they then into so foul sins Surely they were suddenly overtaken the one with a passion of lust the other with a passion of fear and so they fell But even then both of them had one Foot still within the House which stai'd while the other stept They had sanctifying grace still in their hearts whose essential property is constancy called therefore immortal Seed And it appeared like sparks of Fire when the ashes covering them are blown away as soon as they came to themselves David yielded to the reproof of Nathan presently And Peter when the Lord turned and looked upon him went out and wept bitterly Each drew his Foot back into the House again and kept close in unto the end of their lives 13. It is a House held by the best tenure none like it 't is held in such a head as is non-such Jesus Christ whom God hath made head of the Church in a singular and eminent manner far above the domination which he hath
life long no good be done yet you may take that Comfort your Master did Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the Eyes of the Lord. And in the Verse before I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength in naught in vain Yet surely my Judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God God knoweth with what uprightness I have done his work and therefore I know he will Crown me with Glory though my labour hath been lost as to the most part of the People THE SIXTH SERMON THe next sort of Persons in reference to whom Duty lies upon you are Christian Societies Assemblies that profess the Christian Religion and joyn together in the worship of the true God These are called Churches and of these there are two sorts false and true and your duty is to separate from those and hold fellowship with these Three things are required to the constituting of true Churches 1. That the Word of God and Doctrine of Salvation be truly taught in them ye are of the houshold of God and are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets upon this Rock this truth confessed by thee I will build my Church the Church is God's Register that keeps his Records faithfully the Pillar and ground of Truth where the Doctrine of the Law and Gospel is truly taught God dwells with that People and Salvation may be there had 2. That there be Pastors and Ministers lawfully called How shall they preach except they be sent pray the Lord of the Harvest that he will send sorth Labourers into his Harvest Christ hath given his Ministry to his own Church 3. That the People receive and embrace the Doctrine and Religion of Christ and submit to and joyn together in the Worship of God Then they that gladly received the Word were Baptized and they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayers Hereby may be discerned which are false Churches and which true The Roman Political Church as the Constitution of it is false and of Man's Invention Obj. They have the Apostles Creed the Books of Canonical Scripture and Baptisme Answ They acknowledge the Creed in profession and word but overthrow much of the sense by their superadded Articles and false expositions They retain the words of Scripture though in much not the sense of the Holy Ghost nor can Baptism though for substance according to the first Institution prove them a true Church more than Circumcision could Samaria to be so or a Seal pulled from the Writing and set to the bare paper A Thief may shew a true Man's Purse but that proves him not to be a true Man and they overthrow inward Baptisme the life of that Sacrament imputed righteousness and holiness which in Gods Church must go together with the outward Element 2dly As Papists they have no true Ministers the Romish Priest as such is no Minister of Christ not only because of the Anti-Christian Doctrines which he teacheth overthrowing the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles but also in that he offereth Christ a real Sacrifice for quick and dead wherein chiefly stands his Office and because as a Papist-Priest he receives his very Power from the Pope whose Office is not of Christ Qu. Why then should not one Baptized by a Mass Priest be Rebaptized Answ Because the action of a lawful Calling done by one that is not lawfully called is not a nullity the Ministry is lawful though as corrupted by them is bad 3dly Their People oppose God's true Worship and live in palpable Idolatry and profess themselves the Members of a usurping trayterous head the Pope Obj. Anti-Christ sitteth in the Temple of God therefore the Church of Rome is God's Church Answ In the Popish Church there is the hidden Church of God mingled as a little Wheat with much Chaff as a little Gold with much Dross So that though the Church of God be where Anti-Christ sitteth yet the Church whereof he is Head is no Church of God for there are no means there to beget or preserve spiritual life whether we regard Doctrine or Worship To speak plainly it is a part of the Universal Visible Church of Christians so far as they profess Christianity acknowledge Christ their Head but it is the Visible Society of Trayterous Usurpers so far as they profess the Pope to be their Head just as if a Traytor should make himself Deputy of Ireland against the King's will and all the People believe he is so and so profess themselves Subjects to the King as their Soveraign and to him as his Deputy Here it is a true Kingdome as it is still under the King and yet a Kingdom of Traytors or Rebels Secundum quid or so far as they adhere to the Usurping Deputy against the King's command From this Church therefore which is spiritual Babylon the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth no Spouse of Christ but a Strumpet no House of God but an Habitation of Devils once indeed a famous Church but now dead and buryed and as is the Mother so is the Daughters God's People are bound to separate Come out of her my people and yet not from such therein who mean well in the general and secretly discent from her damnable Corruptions is this Obligation of Separation upon you Rom. 18. 4. Much less ought you to separate from Churches which have made separation from Rome as the reformed Protestant Churches in France Germany and other Countreys and these of Great Britain and Ireland have done in whose Congregations is found truth of Doctrine a lawful Ministry and a People professing the true Religion submitting to and joyning together in the true Worship of God I am not ignorant that many of you whose Habitation I question not but the Lord is who have your Habitations in all the several Countries of this Kingdom have drunkin a deep prejudice against all the Parochical Congregations whereof you are legal Members and where all you were baptized and thereby were made the Members of Christ the Children of God and Heires of his Kingdome I fear some of you will startle at these expressions found in the Common-Prayer-Book But if you consult the Holy Scripture you will finde them warranted in a Sacramental sense and your prejudice hath so far wrought upon you that you have forsaken the assembling of your selves together with your Neighbours in the publick Meeting Places I know with whom I am dealing Persons that have a comfortable assurance that they dwell in God and therefore are willing to hear any thing that may tend to the increase of their comfort and unwilling to retain any errour in their judgments or practice that may defile and dishonour their dwelling place or cause it to be evil spoken of by them that are without whose mouthes you know your absenting your selves from all the Solemn Assemblies open wide to cast a scandal upon your