end I am the Lord I change not Jesus Christ yesterday to Day and the same for ever His works indeed of the first Creation are changable to the worse and weaker but so is not he of old hast thou laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they all of them shall wax old like a Garment but thou art the same And so are all his works of the second Creation The renewing graces of his holy Spirit the older they are the newer and fresher and more flourishing they grow They that are partakers of them can say as Caleb did to Joshua Forty Years old was I when Moses sent me to espie the Land I am this Day fourscore and five Years old as yet I am as strong this Day as I was the Day when Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for War both to go out and to come in So it is said of Moses who was an hundred and twenty Years old when he dyed yet his Eye was not dim nor his natural force abated How much more may it be said of the everlasting Lord God that his Eyes are as sharp sighted as ever nor is his Divine force abated The Eyes of the Lord run too and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him Is his hand shortned that it cannot redeem Or have I no power to deliver Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his Eare heavy that it cannot hear And as his Power is so is his Mercy and Truth The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto Childrens Children Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations This House therefore with all its Furniture is alway new and fresh which can be said of no other nor is it new formally only but also effectively Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary His strength never decayeth nor doth his will ever alter towards his who by a never failing Power of the Holy Spirit are carryed as it were upon Eagles Wings to Heaven to the mark of their supernal Calling Yea their Wings grow like unto Eagles that is they grow young and renew in spiritual Vigour 9. It is a dwelling house dwelling in as well as dwelt in an habitation inhabiting in each of its Inhabitants which no other house is God is oft said to dwell in Heaven Unto thee will I lift up mine Eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory I dwell in the High and Holy Place The Heaven is my Throne We must not understand this placing God in Heaven as if he were totally circumscribed there for this is contrary to his infinite greatness Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord. Nor must we think he is so in Heaven as if his sight of things below were hindered by Heaven as a Curtain drawn before him as those great Fools thought for this is contrary to his Omnisciency But he is said to be in Heaven because he doth there most immediatly and visibly manifest his Majesty and exhibit the fulness of his Glory and because from thence he doth most manifest his powerful providence wisdome justice and mercy we are commanded when we pray to him to conceive of him as being in Heaven to teach us to raise our Souls as high in praise as possibly we can above the Earth beyond Heaven our thoughts cannot soar As also how to make Prayers pleasing to God both for matter and manner God is as oft said to dwell on Earth to have his Residence among his ancient People in the Land wherein they dwelt Defile not the Land which ye shall inhabit wherein I dwell for I the Lord dwell among the Children of Israel The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem I have surely built thee an House to dwell in A setled place for thee to abide in for ever In that place as in the flitting Tabernacle which Moses made he caused his Name to dwell that is he made manifest and known in those places the sacred Signs of his Presence as it were by his own proper name His Majesty and Glory in singular and wonderful effects of Grace and Power Every regenerate and faithful Man and Woman hath ever been is and will be owned and acknowledged the Temple of the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God These things are signifyed by this dwelling of the Spirit in Believers 1. That his Spirit is effectual and mighty to possess and govern them enlightning their minds to know and powerfully guiding them to do the known will of God 2. That his Presence is continual not as of a Guest who lodgeth for a Night at an Inne and is gone next Day nor as a Sojourner but as an owner and Possessor to abide for ever I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abâ—de with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth he dwelleth in you and shall be in you 3. The manner of his Presence not by Infiniteness of Power as he is present to all Creatures to sustain them but by his grace and healthful effects If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall quicken your immortal Souls and mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you 10. It is a movable Habitation according to the motion of those that dwell in it accompanying them whithersoever they go covering them where-soever they are Some Creatures carry their Houses about with them So doth every new Creature They are never out of this their own House The Israelites during their abode in the Wilderness dwelt in Tents Forty Years The Arabians and other People do so constantly having no firm Habitations In time of War and in travelling these moveable Houses were and still are in use Places to dwell in so made as they might be
forgotten Going and weeping for repentance for their former sins for grief to behold their miserable Estate Where have we any that have any such mind to joyn themselves unto the Lord To become one spirit with him We have too many that joyn themselves to Harlots making one Body with them Like the Israelites that committed Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab and then joyned themselves with Baal Peor and that joyne together with Thieves and Drunkards and Enemies to God and goodness Saying Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the Innocent without cause though they have done us no wrong Come let us devise devices against Jeremiah let us smite him with the Tongue lay accusations and calumnies against him 3. There are fewer that cleave unto the Lord. How many visible Members of the Church joyned a Covenant with God by Baptisme and in fellowship with his People have fearfully apostatized yea some that have been eminent for knowledge profession and practice of piety are fallen from their holy principles and practices Some to scandalous and foul sins some to Popery and other Heresies some to Prophaneness and some to Worldliness like Demas who forsook Paul Having loved this present World The eases commodities and carnal securities thereof How many are there in whom we may see as in him that fulfilled which our Saviour speaketh Many that were the first the forwardest in their love to the Word in the work of God in publick domestical and secret duties are now become the last the backwardest of all others After they had escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ They are again intangled therein and overcome by the Devil Again in some manner and for some time they fought whereby he hath for ever possessed himself of them To whom it is happened according to the true Proverb The Dog is turned to his own Vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire 4. How few have any care to keep the Commandments of God How many give that answer to his Prophets pressing obedience which those Jews did to Jeremy As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord We will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own Mouth willingly walking after the Commandments of Men. 5. Where almost shall we finde such a one as Joshua a Man in whom is the Spirit to whom God hath given his good Spirit upon whom the Spirit of the Lord resteth as it did upon Christ the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord the spirit of grace and of supplication the spirit of sanctification of meekness of faith of love and of a sound mind Such a Spirit as Caleb had fulfilling to follow God No such spirit appears in many in our Days In most there is the evil spirit the spirit that worketh in the Children of disobedience A perverse spirit The Lord hath mingled a spirit of perversness in the Land He hath taken away the understanding and troubled them as if they had drunk some stupifying Drink A Spirit of deep sleep The Lord hath punished their voluntary blindness with a greater astonishment depriving them quite of the light of his spirit against whom they rebelled giving themselves over to the spirit of darkness The spirit of the World such a spirit as hath no proportion nor correspondency but only with worldly things which it only values and affects If Men had thâ— holy spirit of God given them they would be led by him follow his directions and good motions for the guide and Governor of their life they would live in the spirit and walk in the spirit and strive in the newness of the spirit and give and offer unto God a spiritual worship according to his nature Bring forth the fruit of the spirit which is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness faith meekness temperance but the clean contrary But none of all this they do and therefore God hath not given them his spirit and consequently they do not dwell in God 6. Very few confess truly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God They know nothing of him and his Gospel as they ought to know distinctly humbly â—avourly practically They give not their unfeigned assent and consent unto his Holy Liturgy that all in it is truth and goodness nor do they own and acknowledge him with their Lips and Lives 7. Most Men are so far from dwelling in Love that the hatred both of God and Men dwells in them They are haters of God could wish there were no God Though with their Tongue some shew much love yet with their hearts they hate him and his Laws and wayes And so they do his People as Cain did Abel and Ahab Micaiah wishing evil to them out of a rooted and setled malice and that for their Holiness though they pretend it is for their hypocrisie and if any wrong them they bear implacable spirits towards them by this it appears they dwell not in God Now my business with all these is to advise them to give all diligence to give themselves no rest till they have gained the Lord even the most High to be their habitation and to instruct them in the means conducing to this end Motives many might be given but sufficient hath been spoken in the beginning of this Discourse concerning the desirableness and excellency of Rest in general and of the Souls rest which is to be found only in this House To which I shall add that in no other a Man that takes his rest can be secure and safe but in this he may I will both lay me down and sleep for thou Lord makest me dwell in safety If thou preparest thy heart makest thy self fit to lodge under the shaddow of the Almighty Thou shalt take thy rest in safety Also thou shalt lye down and none shall make thee afraid Whoso harkneth to me useth means to have his abiding in me shall dwell safely and be quiet from the fear of evil God sayes to every one whom he sends his Ministers unto to come and take their Rest in him As David to Abiathan Abide thou with me fear not for thou shalt be in safe-guard Those Egyptians that feared the Word of the Lord threatning a direful hayle which should come on the morrow and should destroy all Men and Beasts which were out of Houses Made their Servants and their Cattel flee into Houses He that regarded not the word of the Lord left his Servants and his Cattel in the Field to their destruction It will be the destruction of you and yours to Eternity if you
noted and taxed and threatned in many new builders of old and which it is to be feared will be found in too many of your fellow builders whose Houses will be contiguous with your selves what those crimes are may be gathered from such Scriptures as these Woe unto him that buildeth his House by unrighteousness and his Chambers by wrong that saith I will build me a wide House and large Chambers and cutteth him out Windowes and it is ceited with Cedar and painted with Vermilion Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his House that he may set his Nest on High Thou hast consulted shame to thy House for the Stone shall cry out of the Wall and the Beam out of the Timber shall answer it That shall say I was laid here by biting Usury and this shall answer I lye here by cheating and violence extortion and oppression All the people shall know that say in the pride and stoutness of Heart the Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stone The Sycomores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars We will raise up our Houses in greater splendour and Glory than ever they were Their Goods shall become a booty and their Houses a desolation they shall build Houses but not inhabit them Whereas Edom saith we are impoverished but we will return and build the desolated places Thus saith the Lord of Hosts they shall build but I will throw down For as much as their treading is upon the Poor and ye take from him burdens of Wheat ye shall build Houses of Hewen Stone but ye shall not dwell in them Ye planted pleasant Vineyards but ye shall not drink Wine of them For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins They afflict the just they take a bribe and turn aside the Poor in the Gate from their sight They build up Zion with blood and Hierusalem with iniquity the Heads thereof judge for a reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets thereof Divine for money Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us no evil shall befall us Therefore shall Zion for their sakes be plowed as a Field and Hierusalem shall become heaps I will smite the Winter Houses with the Summer House and the House of Ivory shall perish and the great Houses shall have an end saith the Lord. For behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great Houses with breaches and the little House with clefts Woe unto them that joyn House to House He will destroy the House of evil doers Whoso rewardeth evil for good evil shall not depart from his House Though you with whom I am dealing are not of the number of these wicked Men that are building with you yet it is your part and duty to take good notice of the Lord 's just punishments which he hath threatned to inflict upon them and take warning thereby not to follow their foot-steps nor to tread in one of them The righteous Man wisely considereth the House of the wicked which being wholly built and filled with Goods gotten by evil means shall bring them to fall into ruine so far shall it be from being any stay unto them Take heed of partaking of their sins that ye receive not of their Plagues See that terrible and flaming place I will bring the curse forth and it shall enter into the House of the Thief legal as well as illegal and into the House of him that sweareth falsly by my Name and of him that sweareth vainly as well as falsly that sweareth by the inch as well as by the Ell by his faith and troth as well as by his Maker Petty as well as bloody Oaths and it shall remain in the midst of his House and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the Stones thereof 3. If you have not yet begun to build take the wise Man's advice 't is the loving advice of your living House Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thy self in the Field and afterwards build thine House Regulate your self and your Building according to thy Purse Cast the cost before-hand Which of you intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it lest happily after he hath laid the Foundation and is not able to finish it all that behold it begin to mock him They will do as much and worse if you finish with other Mens Money which you owing are unable to repay By no means run in debt take thine own measure Owe no Man any thing but love 4. In carrying on this work as in all others of your particular calling approve your selves to God and Men to be good Men by doing all things according to the rule and guidance of well instructed natural reason A good Man will guide his affaires with judgment Through wisdom is an House builded and by knowledge shall the Chambers be filled with all precious pleasant riches I need not tell you what is the prime means in order to this end namely prayer For the Lord giveth wisdome out of his Mouth cometh knowledge and understanding He is the Author of reason in Men and in the guiding of their actions even in all manual matters If any of you lack wisdome let him ask it of God Your God will direct you to order your Buildings that there may be a prevention of deadly mishaps as he directed his People of old in theirs When thou buildest a new House thou shalt make a Battlement for thy Roof that thou bring not Blood upon thine House if any Man fall from thence In all other points of prudence and fore-sight you shall finde him your Instructer 5. When then the work is done and your Houses fit for Habitation remember and imitate God's people in ancient times in dedication of their new-built Houses solemnly blessing the first enjoying of them by Prayers and holy Hymns consecrating them to God to be Houses of Prayer and little Churches wherein Duties of Religion should be performed every Day and all things done therein even natural actions to the glory of God by Governours and governed according to that of the Apostle Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God This was Josuas religious resolution I and my House we will serve the Lord. Now because all these Five Divine Domesticks are apt to have their mindes too much upon the things of the World they that are Housless and Landless to be solicitous how to get a House and livelihood they that have Houses of their own but are prohibited to live in them to have a hankring desire after Liberty they that have their Houses free to live in and sufficiency how they may add house to house increase their substance
in the Light but sit in Darkness and in the shaddow of Death Namely 1. Grosly ignorant ones that are utterly unacquainted with the first Principles of the Oracles of God These are in Satan's Power under his Government who is the Ruler of the Darkness of this World against these is the wrath of God revealed from Heaven in temporal and spiritual and Eternal Judgments Knowledgè being the Foundation and Seed of all saving Grace they must needs be graceless that want it 2. Wickedly erroneous ones those who hold in their judgments Doctrines overthrowing the Christian Faith these are not many Doors from Death For every fundamental Errour hath a damnable defilement being a Leprosie in the Head the worst of that kinde of Plague 3. Openly prophane ones that live in the omission of known duties and in the practice of known gross sins Who for the pleasures of the Flesh renounce the Heavenly blessings as Esau did who for a Morsel of Meat sold his birth-right Fornicators Thieves Drunkards Revilers Swearers Sabbath-breakers c. This ye know that no such have any abiding in God but dwell in the Devil whose they are and whom they serve and with whom they shall abide eternally without Repentance 4 Meer civil ones who live not in any open offence against the Second Table but are utterly regardless of the First which are of absolute necessity to prove Man's being in God The Gospel teaching us to live godly as well as righteously and soberly Nor without holiness shall any Man ever see God 5. Hypocrites who though they seem to have a prime respect to the First Table which Christ calls the First and great Commandement yet they make little or no Conscience of the Second Table duties love not their Wives are cruel to their Children and Servants will lie and cheat and cozen tipple c. The damnable estate of these hath been sufficiently discovered and that the lowest place of Torments in the burning Lake is assigned for them 6tly Haters and Blasphemers and Persecutors of the ways of Godliness and of them that walk in those wayes by word or deed This is an evident token of Perdition and the wrath of God shall come upon such to the utter-most if they perish in their malice The duty we owe to all these is to mourn for their undone condition and to desire and strive earnestly to convert them That they may be in capacity to live and lodge with you under the same Roof and partake of the same glorious Priviledges and Graces and Comforts So you ought to do by these when you have occasion to converse with any of them as Lydia by Paul and Silas constrained them to come into her House and abide there at least by earnest invitation and perswasion as Jael did Sisera with another manner of mind Turn in my Lord turn into me fear not You are bound to have the same tender and cordial affection towards all these that are out of God's grace that Saint Paul had towards the Galatians that were fallen from grace My little Children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you 1. Be in pain for them as a Woman in travel is Grieve and groan and sigh and weep bitterly for them as Lot did for the Sodomites With whose filthy conversation he was vexed for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing hearing vexed his righteous soul from Day to Day with their unlawful deeds I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Teares that I might weep Day and Night as well for the sins as the slain of the Daughters of my People For they be all Adulterers an Assembly of treacherous Men and bend their Tongue like their Bow for Lies They proceed from evil to worse Samuel mourned for Soul Even mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carryed away Jesus grieved for the hardness of the Heart of the Jews Beheld their City and wept over it Out of much affliction and languish of heart I wrote unto you with many teares Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their Belly whose Glory is their shame who mind Earthly things For loves sake love to God who is dishonour'd and your Countrey which is endangered and to these poor Creatures that are destroying their poor Souls and your own Souls which you will preserve from infection by this means lay sadly to heart and grieve affectionately for the sad dark doleful damnable condition so many thousands in this Land are in Should you come into Houses full of dead Men that had slain themselves would not your Eyes affect your Hearts could you forbear tears You can scarce come into any House where some are not spiritually dead and destroying their own Souls which is a thousand times worse 2. Pray for them Brethren my Hearts desire and prayer for Israel is that they may be saved O that I shmael might live before thee If any Man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall ask and he shall give him life God shall pardon him and by that means free him from everlasting Death Father forgive them for they know not what they do Lord lay not this sin to their charge There are none you know or meet with worse than these for whom Stephen thus prayed they were stiff necked so hard that they were not to be made plyable uncircumcised in Heart and Eares as prophane inwardly and wicked as the Heathen themselves though they outwardly in their Bodies carryed the Seal of God's Covenant They always resisted the Holy Ghost by whom God's truth was not only propounded but the truth of it likewise so powerfully demonstrated that they could not contradict it but only by obstinate malice They gnashed upon that Holy-man with their Teeth from madness and malice which they bear to the Evangelical Doctrine which he preached and they stoned him with Stones to Death Pray also that God would work a change in their mindes and manners draw them by a merciful Violence out of Satan into Christ 3. To your mourning and prayers add utmost endeavours using every one according as his Nature and Condition shall require Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire The simple weak and seduced deal gently with Those that are hardned and perverse and corrupters of others be as much as in you lyeth Instruments of their Salvation by more severity Save them with fear namely by a lively denuntiation of God's Judgments darted into your Consciences pulling them out of the Fire that is doing what you can
over all other Creatures He dearly bought and purchased this Habitation for all the Elect which they had forfeited by their first offence and hereupon were outed of it He gave himself a Ransome for them all a Price fully answerable to their Souls and to this Inheritance In him they may have been said to have received at the Lords hand double for all their sins And for them it were and not for himself only that He fulfilled all Righteousness and thereby paid the whole debt of obedience to the Law which they did owe to God All spiritual blessings whereby they are made meet to be made partakers of this blessed Mansion Faith Repentance and Holiness though they be Gospel Gifts of God and obtained meerly through his Mercy yet is this mercy obtained from God only through Jesus Christ Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ in him we have Redemption through his Blood Which also purgeth our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God and thereby we have boldness to enter into the holyest and through his Intercession it is that we have our abiding there Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Or bring a Writ of Ejection to them Who is he that condemneth Or who is he that passeth Sentence that they must avoid their House It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us He dyed for and in their name and stead whereby they are absolved from all their forfeits He is risen again for their Justification to acquit them as it were by manner of solemn Judgment His Resurrection was a certain argument that God was reconciled and that this habitation was regained for them which could not have been if he had remained dead For the continuation of the Payment would alwayes have shewed the Imperfection of it And as he is at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Glory fully manifested so they are at his right hand Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen And there he maketh Intercession for them by continually representing himself his Righteousness Merit and Love before the face of his Father and so preserves them in his favour and love from which nothing shall be ever able to seperate them by him they have and hold possession 14. It is a habitation best accommodated of any other The conveniences belonging to it are numberless and matchless The excellency of the meanest of them cannot be worthily uttered nor sufficiently magnified by the tongue of Men and Angels No such passage into any House as this When the Queen of Sheba had seen the House that King Solomon had built And his ascent by which he went up to the House of the Lord that most stately Bridge and great terrace born up with exceeding strong Walls which he set upon that hollow place and deep praecipice which divided Mount Zion from Mount Moriah by which they went from the royal Palace to the Temple There was no more Spirit in her she was ravished beyond her self How insinitely more ravished would she have been had she seen by the eye of faith as probably she did and so was the ascent and passage into this house which is the Lord. The Apostle tells us that he by his blood hath made a new and living way of entrance into the holiest for all believers who by a lively faith represent unto themselves his humane nature with all that he hath done in it for them and hereby get into the innermost fruition of Gods grace and glory He in his own Person is the way and passage into this super coelestial Pallace I am the way no Man cometh unto the Father but by me Nor is there any house that hath such Air. Kings have had a care of this especially that the edifice when erected might have fresh Air and cooling Gales of Wind continually Jehoiakim whose pride in building is blamed is brought in thus expressing his purpose I will build me a high house Chambers through Aired the Hebrew hath it so and so the Septuagint exposed to blasts on every side No house hath such continual refreshing Gales as this Christ breaths upon his proper houshold for an external sign of the Internal operation of his spirit He still doth so upon his whole houshold of faith shedding the love of God abroad in their hearts by his holy spirit to whom their common Mother makes this Prayer each is heard and granted Awake O North Wind and come O South and blow upon my Garden By these two Winds of contrary qualities is signified the same spirit working either coolness and refreshing of Comfort or heat and fervency of Zeal And Moreover that every Wind shall blow profit to every one that loveth God as every one doth that to him that dwelleth in him Nor hath any House such Gardens and Orchards with Variety of Flowers and Fruits and fresh Springs therein nor such Walks and Arbours belonging and adjoyning to it as this hath The loss of this parcel of Ground which was stored with such excellent Plants and Trees and enriched with more fruitfulness and beauty than any other part of the Earth called Paradise and the Garden of the Lord made for Mans use and delight and out of which he was excluded and to which he might no more come neer because of his sin is abundantly made up to all that dwell in God Who have liberty to eat of the fruit of every Tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food Yea Of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God and to drink of the Water of Life freely and to walk at liberty Yea themselves are the Gardens and Orchards of this House wherein he walks and delights to feed Nor have any Gardens and Orchards and Springs such Fences and Guards about them as these A Garden inclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed in that Day sing ye unto her a Vineyard of red Wine I the Lord do keep it I will Water it every moment Lest any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day I saith the Lord will be unto her a Wall of Fire round about Nor is there any House that hath such Lands and Revenues such a stock belonging to it The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Every Beast of the Forrest is mine and the Cattel upon a thousand Hills I know all the Fowles upon the Mountains They are all before me ready at my service The World is mine and the fulness thereof of the upper as well as lower World Every one that dwells in this house may say truly all these are mine The Apostle says so All things are yours Entirely refinedly
common judgments with evil ones yea it is observed that when God brings any common judgments he usually begins with his own the dearly beloved of his Soul Yea that his stroaks are sorer upon them than upon any others Yea and when wicked Men whose habitation the Devil is as they are his for he dwells in them yea they are incarnate Devils when these I say are free from all manner of outward evils pious Men who have made God their habitation have immunity from none And that they are more-over obnoxious to inward afflictions terror of Conscience and wounds of Spirit which is an intolerable pressure and therefore the promise must be understood of their freedome from the form of poenal evils which is the revenging wrath of God and the power such evils have to separate the Soul from the Love of God And the meaning is they never have any dram of God's revenging justice on them A little of his chastising wrath some afflictions may have for a little moment nor shall any of them singly or all of them joyntly be able to separate them from his Love in Christ Nay they shall all co-operate for the furtherance of their spiritual and eternal good They believe as they are taught to pray that God would deliver them from all evil That is that he will either keep away evil imminent that it come not at all or that he will so assist in suffering as that they shall not sink under the burden or that he will take away the force and strength of the Instrument that it shall not be able to act according to its Nature or that he will remove the evil clean away or finally that he will take them away from the evil to come or that he will alter the nature of the evil and turn it to good One of these ways God will deliver them whose habitation he is and any of these ways is this promise made good to them No more need to be said to prove the Lord the best Habitation and them to be the most yea the only happy ones who have made him their habitation THE SECOND SERMON THe Question will be what it is to make God our Habitation And how may we know that we dwell in him To the first part of the Question I answer it is to make choice of him to close with him and to cleave unto him 1. To make choice of God as the sole Seat of our Souls rest and the only object of the Worship and Service of our whole Man The chief end and use of a House is well known to be rest Where is the House that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest Every Man's House is the place of his rest My People shall dwell in a peaceable Habitation and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places I Nebucadnezar was at rest in my House Rest is both the Privation and a perfection of motion That in respect of the acquisition of the end of motion For therefore things move that they may rest Rest is deservedly esteemed a choice and chief good We may say of it what the Preacher doth of Light Truly Light is sweet Truly rest is sweet It was no deception of sight in Issachar when he saw that rest was good The truth is it is the good of goods It may be said of it as David did of Goliah's sword There is none like that give it me No good like this of rest all other good things without it availe nothing All Creatures desire rest the wild Beasts of the Desart and of the Island the Satyr and the screetch-Owle seek and finde for themselves a place of Rest It 's noted as a comfortable priviledge which Foxes and the Birds of the Air had above our Saviour that they had Holes and Nests to rest in The Dove sent out of the Ark sought but found no rest for the soal of her foot therefore returned again to that place of her rest Special Order is taken for the Oxe and the Ass that they should have One Day of Rest in Seven It kils the heart of the Earth to be alwayes tilled and therefore the Country-man lets it lye sometimes fallow that by taking rest it may get heart The very Devils affect a House upon this account The unclean Spirit gone out of a Man walked through dry places seeking rest and finding none I will he says return unto my House where I came out where I had rest Yea God himself seems to be joyed when a House of rest was builded for him to dwell in Arise O Lord unto thy rest the Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it for a Habitation and he blessed the seventh Day because that he rested thereon from all his Work The best thing one friend can wish to another or procure for another is rest The Lord grant that you may finde rest my Daughter Shall I not seek rest for thee that it may be well with thee And the worst mischief one can do his Neighbour is to spoyle his rest Lay not wait O wicked Man against the dwelling place of the righteous spoyle not his resting place The goodness and badness of every Mans condition is measured by rest This hath more rest than the other Yea for rest Death it self is desirable Why dyed I not from the Womb Why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly Then had I been at rest There the weary be at rest There the Prisoners rest together Though bodily rest be a great good and promised as a blessing Thou shalt take thy rest in safety Israel shall be in rest and quiet yet it is not to be compared to the rest of the Soul which indeed is the Soul of rest And without which the best resting places with the greatest conveniencies that the whole World can yield can give no content witness Haman And the transcendent excellency of this rest is evidenced by its contrary a restless unquiet mind is a burden importable Let the Question be put concerning this rest which Job propounds But where shall wisdome be found and where is the place of Understanding Where may we finde the Souls Rest and what is the place of its repose The Answer is given negatively that it is not to be found in any Creatures They will each of them give the same answer which the depth of the Sea doth It is not in me the Depth saith and the Sea saith it is not in me Herb. Ch. Peace Sweet peace where dost thou dwell I humbly crave Let me once know I sought thee in a secret Cave And ask'd if peace were there A hollow Wind did seem to answer no. Go seek else
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
believers and those that are regenerate by God's spirit apply themselves to the obedience of the Law without constraint or terrifying having the habit of righteousness and holiness in themselves as an inward and living Law They have no need of the horror and constraint of it and also being justified by Christ they are freed from the condemnation of it seeing that a Soveraign pardon stayeth and endeth all Actions and Condemnations grounded upon the Law Great Houses with the Gardens Orchards Parks and Grounds belonging to them have their bounds and limits made by Walls Pales and Hedges That great glorious House which Ezekiah saw in a Vision had its limit This is the Law of the House upon the top of the Mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most Holy God is said to have determined the bounds of all Mens Habitations upon Earth The Ten Commandments of the Moral Law are the Bounds Walls Pales and Hedges set round about the House wherein you that are Saints on Earth inhabit beyond which you may not pass but must keep within this compass As the Waters dwelling within the great Channel have their bounds which they are commanded to keep and forbidden to transgress pass or go over I establish saith God to Job my Decree upon it speaking of the Sea break up for it my Decreed place set Bars and Doors to it Figurative terms to express the concavities wherein the Sea is enclosed and said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed You are commanded in like manner to keep within the bounds of your Decreed place and you are bound to keep within them under a greater penalty than that which was laid upon Shimei when he was confined to his House by Solomon and to the City of Hierusalem the Walls whereof were his utmost limits The King sent and called for Shimei and said unto him build thee an House in Hierusalem and dwell there and go not forth thence any whether For it shall be that on the Day thou goest out and passest over the Brook Kidron that thou shalt surely dye Abide within So long as you do so you abide with God Cursed be the Man whose Heart departeth from the Lord. As a Bird that wandereth from her Nest so is a Man that wandereth from his place Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed who do erre from thy Commandements Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy Statutes Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Every Sin small and great is a transgression of the Law Exceeds the bounds which God by his Law hath appointed unto Men for the moderating regulating of their thoughts words and actions And every transgression and disobedience every commission and omission received a just recompence of reward If at any time through frailty or violence of temptation you pass these bounds If at any time said I Alass who doth not every Day both in thought word and deed There is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not In many things we offend all David a Man after God's own heart passed these bounds oft through infirmity once most abominably Well consider what is to be done after such excursions Consider your wayes in your hearts Bend your minds very diligently weigh ponder think seriously with your selves what you have done Most Men are guilty of this neglect No Man repenteth of his wickedness saying What have I done Remember this and shew your selves Men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Be ashamed and confounded to have been found out of the bounds of your House Then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Let it not be said of you as of the generality of the Jewes in Jeremyah's time Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not at all ashamed neither Let the review remembrance and thought of every ordinary sinful digression by rash anger or any bitter expression against Wife Husband Childe Servant Neighbour by vain empty idle unprofitable conference at any time by intemperance in Eating or Drinking though never so little beyond necessity or honest delight making you unfit for divine service in either of your Callings by immoderate sleeping or not being up as early for God as for your selves or spending more time in dressing your Bodies than your Souls by wanton glances of your Eyes or lusting after strange Flesh or abusing the lawful duty of Marriage by envying and grieving at the outward welfare of others or discontentment with your own health wealth credit or carking distrustful caring for to morrow or hasting to be rich by passing rash censure upon the spiritual estate of others or speaking of their faults and follies with mirth by silence at the unsavory speeches of any or conniving at their miscarriages not reproving them at least by discountenance for fear of giving them offence by having too great a hankering of heart after things not evil in themselves Tobacco Hunting Hawking Angling Gameing though not for gain but sport by suffering buying and selling thoughts and vile distractions to have incursions and lodging within you in holy Duties Let the thoughts I say of these and numberless other sinful digressions fill your Souls with shame and blushing ing and sinful abhorrence Much more if you call to mind grosser crimes Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Nor let your shame for taking so many steps out of your Heavenly Fathers House or sense of selfloathsomeness hinder your return thither but say as that unclean spirit for it is lawful and stands with godliness honesty and reason to learn of an enemy I will return unto my House from whence I came out And as that penitent Wife that had stept aside from her Husband I will go and return unto my first Husband for then was it better with me than now So did the Prodigal resolve to do I will arise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity Go and knock at the Door of Divine Mercy confess your folly accusing and judging your selves Surely it is meet to be said unto God who hath revealed himself not only in his Law by commanding and threatning but also in his promises of grace to comfort and encourage by the remission of sins so the Italian reads the word following I
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