and find that the Grace of God which bringing Salvation hath appeared to all men teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and withal to live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World and so to look or else we look in vain for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ for if we learn not Graces teaching we shall never enjoy Graces salvation So that it clearly appears that holiness is the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Work and Imployment He is out of his Calling and Element when he is not conversant in holiness 4. God hath provided an House for you hereafter as well as made you his House at present Our Saviour a little before his Ascension comforted his Disciples against all their troubles with this That in his Fathers House were many Mansions and he was going to prepare a place for them John 14.1 2. Yea God hath prepared for them a City Heb. 11.16 and St. Paul assures us upon his knowledge 2 Cor. 5.1 That if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens so that we shall be no losers but gainers by dying and seeing our future house is holy we who profess to be Gods House here should be holy now 5. You study what becomes your outward man and its concerns that not only your persons but your houses and cloths c. may all be neat and handsome and some had almost as lieve be out of their lives as out of the fashion And shall Gods House shall your heart and life be neglected and left to disorder and shameful indecency Are ye for all beauty but that of holiness Shall every thing be adorned but the Gospel and Doctrine of God our Saviour which is adorned by nothing but holiness which is not this or that particular grace but a complication of all graces every one link contributing to make it more glorious than a Chain of Gold about your Neck for ornament as the Proverbs some-where speak by allusion I may reason it and expostulate with you as the Prophet did to them who said the time was not come that the Lords House should be built Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lie waste Oh repair the House of God 6. To pretend to holiness and not to practise it is to be but irreligiously religious to have the Name of a Saint and to be a sinner To say of such or such that they are Saints and not holy is as great a contradiction and absurdity as to say a man is and is not at the same time In Words to confess God and in Works to deny him is to disown their acknowledgement to deny their Confession and to confess their denial of God such an inconsistency is an unholy Saint And on this account it was that St. Paul was so justly severe to sinful professors of holiness that he wrote to the Church of Corinth not to company with Fornicators yet not altogether with the Fornicators of this World or with the Covetous or Extortioners or Idolaters for then must they go out of the World but not to keep company if any man that 's called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. Let not such things be once named among you as becometh Saints Eph. 5.3 Let not any of these be your Name for if you be named or called Drunkards or Unclean though Christians c. When the Drunkard and the Vnclean goes to hell what will become of the Christian The sin will be of more force to damn than the Name will be to save For Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters c. so living and so dying without repentance shall inherit the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. And the same Apostle with the like zeal and fervency asserts it and vehemently urgeth it again Eph. 5.5 6. For this ye know that no Whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words as if you might be saved notwithstanding your being such for because of these things cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience though they may by men be called the children of God Be not ye therefore partakers with them 7. I pray consider this also That though you may own your selves yet if you be not holy God will not own you for his house He delights indeed in the habitable parts of the Earth but which are they not the Temples made with hands as St. Paul Acts 17.24 but the humble the broken the pure in heart as was hinted before and 't is expresly said in that Psalme which speaks of Christ Jesus viz. 16. That his goodness extendeth to the Saints which are upon the Earth and to the excellent in whom is all his delight These you see are the habitable parts of the Earth the houses in which he delights to dwell But if the house of God be defiled he will forsake it as the Temple of old 1 Cor 3.13 If any man defile or destroy the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy let no man deceive himself c. Communion with God is our Heaven upon Earth the only thing that makes it worth our while to live But what communion hath God with Belial If any man say that he hath fellowship with him and walks in darkness he lieth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light then have we fellowship one with another 1 John 1.6 As the Devil is dispossest when persons are converted to the faith the strong man is cast out and such persons are delivered from the power of Satan unto God so when professing persons do wickedly especially if they apostatize from Faith and Holiness God is turn'd out of the house which was called his and will not be an inmate nor lodge or sojourn in an house that is so polluted with leprosie and admits the Devil to re-possession 8. Holiness is an endued Beauty The lovers and admirers of this corporeal and superficial takingness do oftner woe than wed un-endued Beauty for their eye and tongue delight they will complement it and extract the essenses of wit to give it Elogies even to adoration but as Solomon saith of Wisdome so they of Beauty 't is good with an inheritance The poor wise man was so happy as by his wisdom to deliver the City but so unhappy as not be regarded by reason of his poverty Eccl. 9.15 But the Beauty of Holiness cannot want regard nor go un-espoused on this account for the best the greatest and
as God is more ready to promise than threaten and to perform them rather than execute these Psal 103.8 9. 80 He must be of a very weak Understanding or very perverse Will who is so illogical as to conclude from the ill practise of men professing a good Religion that the Religion is bad and will not distinguish between Fact and Faith Practise and Principle and so is he that will give way to such inconsequential reasonings as to conclude from one bad or some bad that all are so That because Judas was a Traytor none of the Disciples were true faithful and honest 'T is impertinent and absurd to say This is their Religion and they are all alike 81 Conscience is a Deputy-God as Moses was made a God to Pharaoh 1. To declare the Will of God 2. To instigate to the doing thereof And 3. To bring Plagues and Terrors if it be not obeyed Rom. 2.15 82 To sin is humane-like to grieve for 't is Saint-like but to persevere in and to boast of it is Devil-like John 8.44 83 Every sin transgresseth Gods Command but they who prefer the Traditions of men before the Commands of God do make his Commands of none effect Math. 15.6 9. and Mark 7.7 13. 84 A man may conceive more in an hour than all the greatest of Kings or Emperours did ever enjoy as Rocks of Diamond Heaps of Pearl Mountains of Gold but 't is impossible to think what God is able to do or to conceive what God will do for them that love him Eph. 3.20 1 Cor. 2.9 85 'T is not the Faith of sense which is seeing nor the Faith of Reason which is knowing but the Faith of Revelation which is believing that the Gospel requires He◠11.1 John 20.31 86 Where there is not quiet in passive Obedience the sincerity of active may be doubted Job 4.3 4 5. 87 We should look to it that we be gracious as well as vertuous and not only be conformable to the dictates of Philosophy but of Divinity We should do good not only for others sake or our own sake or Vertues sake but for Gods sake We then do well and shall hear it said Well done good and faithful servants when the good we do is from the love of God as the Principle 1 John 5.3 by the Will of God as the Rule Gal. 6.16 and to the Glory of God as the End 1 Cor. 10.31 88 Some men are so impudently wicked that though they take Gods Name into their Mouth yet they hate to be reformed and because God is silent they think he gives consent and that he is such an one as themselves Psal 50.16 21. that God is as much a lover of sin as they are for Mal. 2.17 they stick not to say Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or Where is the God of Judgment and Because Judgment is not executed speedily therefore their heart is fully set to do evil Eccles 8.11 God is scarce known or acknowledged but as he is a God of Judgment Psal 9.16 Now seeing nothing else but Judgment will convince them hence it is that David Jeremiah c. do so often pray for Judgment on the wicked viz. that they may know they are but men Psal 9.20 that they may seek thy Name O Lord that they may know that thou whose Name is Jehovah art most High over all the earth Psal 83.16 18. They pray for evil to do them good and seem to curse them that they may be blessed For such cursings are not the imprecations of their spirit but the predictions of Gods Spirit to signifie not what they desire may be but what God threatens shall be their condition if they persist in their sin and what they deserve for having sinned They that call for fire from Heaven know not what spirit they are of Bless and curse not yea bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you and perhaps both they will be and you will speed the better Matth. 5.44 45. To curse any person or thing passionately is an infirmity at least but to do it maliciously is impiety at the best 89 No man can positively and infallibly say what God will do with the Man of Sin as to the particulars of his punishment or the time of it nor how God will recover the World from under the power of Antichristianism 'T is to be wisht it may be and some believe it will be by the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God rather than by the Sword of VVar and the wrath of man by conversion than by confusion by turning hearts than by taking away lives Surely next to sin nothing can be more cross and dreadful to a Christian Genius and Spirit than war 'T is sad to think of fighting and dying but sadder to think of damning I should be very jealous of and angry with my self should I find an inclination to please my self in the ruine the death especially in the damnation of any person and I am pretty confident that if it might pass according to the Votes of good men they would all wish and pray that no one person might sin any more or perish for ever and whatever shakings yet remain for this world till the Judgment Day that they may begin and end only in holiness and be managed with a meek and quiet Spirit Isa 2.4 Hag. 2.6 7. Jam. 3.13 18. 90 To hold Communion with men that are sinners and not to have Communion with their sins is an excellent sociable spirit To extend it where the Rule commands and deny it where the Rule forbids qualifies us to converse with God and Men 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. Eph. 5.6 17. 1 John 1.3 7. 91 If we have not been thankful for great mercies God may and somtime doth take them away that he may bring us to have a great value and to be thankful for the least of mercies Lam. 3.22 2 Kings 20.16 20. 92 The heart may be allowably toucht and feel when objects of 〈◊〉 and grief present themselves to and are upon us God allows us to give Nature its due provided we deny not him his due Our blessed Lord and Saviour was sensible of such things Heb. 4.15 and without it a man should be not only a Stoick but a Stock and 't would be no exercise or tryal of grace if matter of grief and fear were not perceived and felt Heb. 12.11 93 God rested not from his work of Creation till man was made nor can man rest from his pursuits after the Creation till God be enjoyed Psal 73.25 Fecisti nos Domine propter te nec acquiescimus donec ad te perveniamus said St. Austine thou madest us for thy self O Lord and we are not quiet till we come unto thee And 't is only in the God-Man Christ Jesus that God is and we can be well pleased 94 Love is the fulfilling of the Law Faith the
them than God in the face and live As God would astonish us to death with his to us now invisible glorious beauty so sin would fright us to death with its ugly deformity Rom. 7.9 73 Some men have committed such sins not only as they never thought they should but as they have protested against with abhorrency and scorn witness Hazael and Peter 'T is good therefore to watch and pray least we enter into temptation to distrust our selves to be humble least God should leave us as he did Hezekiah to try us that we might know all that is in our hearts There have been men also who have done more for God and acted grace beyond what perhaps they thought they should as Abraham in offering his Son and others who have suffered more than ever they thought they should be able to endure as Mr. Saunders the Martyr so that as 't is good to distrust our selves 't is good to trust God and wait for grace from him to our seasonable relief Heb. 4.16 Phil. 4.11 13. 2 Cor. 12.9 yea his grace is not only sufficient for us but enables us to act more good than we take notice of in many things but God knows it and will make it known Matth. 25.35 40. From whence we may learn this also that the goodness which we shew to them that are Christs extends further than we think for even to Christ himself as he is pleas'd to reckon it so that to Heb. 13.2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares I may add this also some have entertained Christ Jesus though unawares 74 The forwardness of Childrens inclinations to sin appears by their readiness to act it before 't is taught them and by their early learning the sin that 's taught them before they know what 't is how easily they act pride by shewing and by being shewn where they are fine and revenge by giving a blow to strike another with and lying not only by denying but excusing their sin and putting it off as Adam did to others as 't was not I 't was such an one as they are begot and brought forth so they act in the Image of sinful man Psal 58.3 75 There is a kind of omnipotency in grace for it effects the resurrection of them who were dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 6. and not only Christ that strengthens but the person through Christ strengthening of him that is so strengthened can do all things Phil. 4.13 76 How many alas chuse rather to be wicked which is their sin shame and punishment than to be good which is their duty reward and glory Psal 19.11 Phil. 3.19 77 To be wise below what is written is to be but poorly wise but to be wise above what is written is to be richly foolish 1 Cor. 4.6 78 Contentment is the Elixar and Quintessence of Happiness the Philosophers Stone that turns all into Gold The Christians Grace which makes every condition good Phil. 4.11 The poor man is rich with it and the rich man is poor without it This alwayes makes a man as rich as he desires to be and certainly he knows not what he asks that demands more 1 Tim. 6.6 8. 79 Where-ever we live we may and ought to live well though we suffer evil There were Saints in Nero's House Phil. 4.22 And Antipas lived and died well even where Satans Seat was under his very Nose Revel 2.13 80 'T is a clear but a sad sign that though persons sit under the use yet that they are not under the power of Ordinances while they abide under the power of corruption Gal. 4.20 Ezek. 33.31 81 'T is good to be civil to all useful to many known to few enemy to none and friend to what is next to none to one or two or three at the most and they need be wise for Though every thing may love yet 't is a rule He cannot be a Friend that is a Fool. 82 Many have wit enough to use if they had but wit enough to use it well or some men have good wits if wise men had them in keeping but ill-used wit or playing the fool in wit is worse than folly Jerem. 4.22 Isa 5.20 21. 83 In the Creation God is a God without us in providence he is God above us in the Law a God against us in Himself invisible to us but in and only in Christ Jesus he is Immanuel God for us and God with us Matth. 1.23 84 The Spouse of Christ hath the priviledge of being under Covert-barn so that if Satan will enter an Action or commence a Suit against the Spouse it must be entred against Christ her Husband who will certainly Non-suit and Cast the Devil as he hath often done So that though the Devil be the Accuser of the Brethren yet Jesus Christ is their Advocate and his Intercessions and Pleadings for them prevail more with God than the Devils Accusations and Impleadings of them Rom. 8.31 35 85 The King-Prophet David said that he should not be asham'd when he had respect to all Gods Commandments Psal 119.6 but alas of how many may we say that they are asham'd to have or to shew respect to any of his Commandments 86 As Jesus Christ the righteous is the Believers Lord so also he is the Lord their righteousness Jerem. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 87 Nothing but the wounds and the bloud of Jesus can heal the wounds of conscience or a wounded spirit Isa 53.5 Luke 4.18 1 John 1.7 88 Blessedness and Salvation is annexed to many things Matth. 5. Heb. 6.9 because some can better discern one qualification than another but who ever will be blessed or saved must bring his Ticket with him one or other thing to which Salvation is annexed 89 'T is an ill sign not to be chastened and a worse not to bear chastening Heb. 12.7 90 'T is possible for a man by strongth of memory to remember all or most of what he hears at a Sermon and yet to be for all that a forgetful Hearer James 2.22 25. 91 If any man believe he knows enough as yet he knows nothing as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 being ignorant of his own ignorance 't is true we may quickly have knowledge enough to make us inexcusable Rom. 1.20 but never too much to make us better 1 Cor. 8.1 2 3. 92 God though he be absolute Lord yet is pleas'd to annex reasons to his Precepts that he may draw us to obedience with the cords of a man Hos 11.4 and also to teach the most mighty to rule by reason and not by will only for the Almighty God doth so Eph. 1.11 93 Divine Authority is to sway us above our reason yea reason teacheth us that God is to be believ'd and obey'd in the things for which we can see no reason but this which is a great one that he tells us and commands us so and hence it is that the Lord hath so
blush and be ashamed that ever they should so much wrong Religion by giving such occasion to reflect such undeserved reproaches on her Alas how will they answer it to Gods-Deputy their Conscience and if not to that how to God for if our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth more by us than we do by our selves and therefore may much more condemn us With what faces can such persons appear before the Throne of God either here when they pray or hereafter when they must be judged I will say to them as Alexander is said to say to a souldier of his and of his Name Either lay aside thy Name or fight better Either be not Christians in Name or be Christians indeed for if they have a Name to live and yet be dead in sins and trespasses by living in them they may die in their sins and be damned for all their Name He that made them will not save them if they be not new-made and become new-men for t is not being a creature but a new creature that entitles to and assures of Salvation Again 2. Let me say to every House of God by way of dehortation in St. Pauls words which are of God 2 Cor. 6.14 c. Be ye not unequally yoaked with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an Insidel and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwel in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come cut from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father to you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty Having therefore these Promises Dearly Beloved Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Who hath given us these exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of a divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 And you may hear another Voice from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Revel 18.4 Therefore once more in St. Pauls expressions 1 Cor. 10.14 15 c. My dearly beloved flee from Idolatry I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say for why should we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he v. 22. Of old God would not permit his people linsie-woolsie garments nor to plow with an Oxe and an Ass nor to halt between God and Baal Methinks Protestants if they remember the Name should not incline to communion with Papists in their Idolatry which was the ground of our separation from them 3. I would say this by way of caution Let no man counterfeit and dissemble a being holy Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas to be an hypocrite is to be but a rotten post though double gilt 'T is to be not only a sinner but one died in grain Hypocrisie is a word taken from the Stage as is well known and 't is rather a playing than an acting of Religion 'T is personating without being a religious person 'T is an Art not an Act. And in Religion 't is true what they say of faces that painting doth not so much advance beauty to the eye as debase it to the judgement and that handsomness which is only artificial is real deformity 'T is not what is service in the eyes of men or what is celebrated by them for beautiful but what is so in the sight of God as the Apostle Col. 1.22 4. This by way of Exhortation to the House of God be then really zealously and eternally holy not for a day as if ye put on no more but an holy-dayes face and sine cloths but at all times and in all things Whatsoever ye do from the highest duty of Grace to the lowest of Nature whether you eat or drink buy or sell as well as whether you hear or pray do all to the glory of God Jesus Christ hath given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of and in readiness to every good word and work to walk worthy of him to all well-pleasing and to serve him in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of our life to length of dayes or for ever as 't is in the Text and that though the floods lift up their voice and waves as 't is a little before the Text and to which it hath relation We should be ambitious to be as holy as Absalom was fair and to have as glorious a Name as the Old Temple had which was the beauty of the whole Earth and of which it is said That in it every one spake of his glory or as 't is in the Margine every whit of it uttereth glory viz. to God whose due it is I do the rather urge this because the life of Religion lies in living in it and I scarce know any thing more wanting than an holy life professing hearing and praying there is great store but where is holiness alas can we find it in our hearts to live by God and not live to God! Do we love to hear of Christians Dignities and shall we not love to hear of Christian Duties of Priviledges and not of Performances of Consolation and not of Conversation Doctrine Can we lend our ear to hear what God hath done for us and shall we not give that the hearing which is to be done by us Surely our design in being Christians should be like Gods not only to save our selves but to glorifie him If you will please to lend me a little more of your patience I will endeavour to set this Exhortation home by some obliging arguments 1. The Lord of this House the Pater-familias the Father of this Family is holy and as I have already made appear 't is his Name his Work his Will his Image his Nature and Glory therefore be ye also holy 2. Your Profession is holy and we should not only make a good profession but make it good The House of God is as I may call it an Holy Academy where all are to be holy professors as well as professors of holiness Profession is an engaging thing as St. Paul tells us 1 Tim. 6.12 Fight the good fight of Faith c. seeing thou hast made a good Profession before many Witnesses 3. Your Calling is holy 2 Tim. 1.9 He hath called us with an holy calling and 1 Thess 4.7 He hath called us not to uncleanness but to holiness We are indeed saved by Grace but we are to know