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A29932 Dwelling with God, the interest and duty of believers in opposition to the complemental, heartless, and reserved religion of the hypocrite / opened in eight sermons by John Bryan ... Bryan, John, d. 1676.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1670 (1670) Wing B5243; ESTC R31994 149,472 465

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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
Jesus Christ apprehending and applying the promises of pardon made in his blood Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 2. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit By spirit are meant the gifts or workings of the Holy Ghost which are twofold one inferiour once slightly enlightning Mens mindes this is common to the Elect with many reprobates who are said to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost All that before God are rightfully baptized receive the Holy Ghost according to the promise No Man being able to say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The other is a supream gift peculiar to the Elect only a new quality of Holiness infused into the Soul transforming the whole Man effecting a real change and alteration of the whole Man from evil to good enabling him to make a good confession and to walk in Love which are the two next Characters 3. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God This confession includes and comprehends in it four things 1. A distinct and cordial knowledge of this and all other fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith which are inseparable in their own Nature For if Jesus Christ be the Son of God all his Doctrine must be a Divine and everlasting truth Especially of that which the Gospel reveals concerning Christ namely that he is an alsufficient Saviour and offered indefinitely to every reasonable Creature that will receive him in a Matrimonial Covenant as a Wife receives her Husband to be governed by him and to cleave unto him in every condition 2. A lively assent of the mind to all this is an undoubted truth with a free and full consent of the will to this blessed offer for the incomparable goodness of it rolling and relying upon his Person and merits for the obtaining of remission of sins and everlasting life after Death According to that of the Apostle This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners 3. A Verbal acknowledgment of these and all other known and believed Gospel Verities with an open profession of them before the face of the World That this is necessary to be found in every one that would approve himself to have Interest in God and possession of him as his Habitation appeares belike in God's grace by Christ is by faith in the heart as in a lively Spring and in confession as a continual respiration both which are promised in the Gospel For what saith Moses The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the Word of Faith which we Preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart Man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth confession is made unto Salvation Nor can the one be without the other For when God hath once said unto any Mans heart I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine That Mans heart cannot but answer and say Lord I am thine O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant And what he hath heard in the Ear he cannot but declare in the hearing of others One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand and surname himself by the Name of Israel All manner of Persons that shall joyn themselves to me with my Church shall make open profession of my faith and service and therefore he that is ashamed of Christ and his Words in an adulterous and sinful Generation that would hate and reproach and persecute him for a strict profession thereof or is affrighted hereby from making such a profession God will never own nor Christ acknowledge such a one Their hidden faith shall not hide them from the wrath of God who will take Eternal Vengeance on them for their Cowardize They who through carnal fear shall not dare to make profession of my truth saith Christ shall have their part fixed in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone These lead the Van in the rout of Reprobates marching thitherward Among the Chief Rulers many believed on Christ but did not make publick profession of believing in him for fear of excommunication this faith of theirs was properly no faith For a true and lively faith confesseth that with the Mouth which is believed in the Heart This duty of confessing God was figured under the Law by the shaking of things offered waving them to and fro before the Lord which signified the shaking of our Lips as in uttering and speaking forth his praise By him let us offer the Sacrifice to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name So the telling forth frankly and boldly what we hold in matter of Religion 4. A Vital confession joyned to a Verbal There are some whose lives give their Mouths the lye They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable disobedient and unto every good work Reprobate Unto the wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my statutes seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him This is a sure note and character of our dwelling in God when we finde that we love God for himself and our Neighbour for his sake In obedience to his Command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And because of his Image which is more or less visible in every Man by this we may try the truth of the first note for the love of God is the root of all true obedience to his Commandments Nothing we do is good in his sight unless we do it out of love to him When our Saviour gives the sum of the precepts of the first Table he does it in these words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Giving us thereby to understand what makes all the service there required to be acceptable unto God The same makes the duties of the second Table so Let all your things be done in love Follow the truth in love Above all these things put on Love This makes them all lovely Love is the fulfilling of the Law Qu. How may we know we have this love to God and Men Answ Where there is true love to God the heart is softned The sight and sence of sin will fill it with sorrow for offending God thereby Zech. 12. 10. Psal 51. 3. Luk. 7. 38 47. and there will be a Daily increase of hatred of sin a greater desire after and delight in the