and redress how high soever their rage doth rise and how low soever they lay the Saints of the most High If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth those that are high He is the Soveraign Lord and Judge of the World above all Power and Greatness Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right He worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will And his will is the absolute Rule of all Righteousness Thy righteousness also O God is very high Who hast done great things â—ear not O Land be glad and rejoyce for the Lord will do great things Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly them that are of a poor and abject condition and trodden upon by the Foot of imperious contempt But the proud he knoweth afar off and they shall know when they have spent all their strength spit out all their malice and done their worst That thou whose Name alone is Jehovah are the most high over all the Earth From the Second property of this your Habitation Viz. Strength learn in your Prayers which you Daily make to God for your selves and fellow-servants in the House who are all weakness to say Stir up thy strength and come for Salvation to us Shew it make use of it stand in the front of thy feeble Army as a Leader to defend them from their Potent Enemies And let it appear that thy Prayer is not idle Give thy strength unto thy Servants Awake awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord awake as in the ancient Days in the Generations of old Art thou it that hath cut off Rahab and wounded the Dragon Art not thou it which hath dryed the Sea the Waters of the great Deep which hath made the depth of the Seas and way for the ransomed to pass over Display thy Soveraign Power for the deliverance of thy Children as thou formerly didst in Egypt and at the Red-Sea Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels When you have thus prayed cast off all slavish fear of what the might or malice of Men or Devils can do Who art thou O my poor weak faint-hearted Church that thou shouldst be afraid of a Man that shall dye and be made as Grass Take now good courage setting before thee thine Enemies approaching and certain destruction Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee with the right hand of my righteousness That is with mine Omnipotence I have and will put forth in righting thee of thine Enemies The Lord is my Light and my Salvation Whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life and of whom shall I be afraid He it is that will dissolve all my inward darkness of trouble and confusion and external ones of dangers and calamities In this will I be confident namely in this that the Lord is my Light Salvation and Strength My God shall be my strength thou hast girded me with strength The Lord will give strength unto his People He delivered me from my strong Enemy And from them that hated me for they were too strong for me Thou hast guided thy People in thy strength to thy holy Habitation Thou wilt do so still and not forsake them when their strength faileth My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever Be not discouraged at all for the weakness or absence of outward meanes Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts When Men and meanes and hopes and helps and Hearts and all fail Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he encreaseth strength They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength They go from strength to strength The righteous shall hold on his way and be stronger and stronger I will go in the strength of the Lord God I shall never faint but always even every step I take gather new strength and courage Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine Heart Despair not like her that said My strength and hope is perished If thou chance to do so recover quickly as she did This I recall to my mind and therefore have I hope Be fully perswaded that what God hath promised he is able also to perform Acknowledge as your Father Abraham did as his Soveraign truth so his infinite power above all inferiour order or contrary difficulty Yea he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think Neither do you despair of any Man's Salvation for whom you pray No not of the Jewes whom you are bound every Day to remember in your Prayers For God is able to graft them in again When you are tempted to any sin think thus with your selves Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he that we should not fear to provoke him Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong in the Days that I shall deal with Thee Wilt thou have courage or strength enough to endure or withstand my Judgments I say unto you my Friends be not afraid of them that can kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will fore-warm you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell If Men should be in danger of present Death by any Mens unjust Decrees in case they refuse actively to obey them They must say if it be so Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us but if not we will not serve any false Gods Nor the true otherwise than he hath appointed in his Word And in the midst of the most desperate dangers serve the Lord with sweet security knowing that your good Shepheard Jesus Christ is alway doing his Office standing still on Foot and watching for the safeguard of his employing for their safety his Fathers Divine Power whereby they shall rest secure having the King of the Universe for their Protection He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord his God and they shall abide When you shall be cast upon your sick Beds doubt not but he will both turn and stir and make them easie but strengthen you upon them His everlasting Armes shall be
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 D. D. late Pastor in Coventry LONDON Printed by T. M. for James Allestry at the Sign of the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1670. To the Right Honourable ARTHUR Lord CHICHESTER Viscount CARRICKFERGUS AND Governour Earl of Donegal One of his Majesties most honourable Privy Council in the Kingdom of Ireland And to the Right Honourable and truly Religious LATITIA Countess of Donegal Right Honourable and my good Lord and Lady MAny and great are the obligations that lye upon me to your Honours as upon many other so upon the account of my yongest Son Noah many Years since Minister in Stafford since for the space of more than Seven Years your Chaplain whom while he lived in your Noble and Religious Family you loved dearly and prized highly and whose Death you take heavily So that all that my self and my two surviving Sons can do in way of thankfulness should we live Methusalem's Days will come short of what You have deserved of us And therefore we must and shall make it our Daily Prayer while we are in the Land of the living to Him who is All-sufficient to give to your Honours a full reward Mean time these poor low Meditations of mine upon the richest and highest subject I most humbly present to your Honours as a token of my gratitude beseeching your acceptance of it as that great Prince did of the poor Man's handful of Water who had no better thing at hand to offer beseeching God to bless it to You and to all into whose Hands it shall come for the furtherance of your and their spiritual and eternal good and that he will grant you according to the Riches of his Glory that as you have been and still are very great Props and Encouragements to the profession and practice of Piety Loyalty and Charity in that Kingdom where you now live and were so in this while you lived here so you may live long and long to promote both in both till you be translated into his everlasting rest Your Honours most humble bounden Servant John Bryan TO THE READER Courteous Reader IT is GOD Himself who is the substantial Object of Science and Religion Though we would not erre with them who too much dishonour and vilifie Creatures lest we reflect dishonour on the Creator and tempt Men to think basely of the Author as we do of the Work yet we must say that compared with Him they are a very little thing yea as nothing yea less than nothing and vanity Isa 40. 15 17. And what they are they are in that dependence on him and relation to him without which they would be strictly nothing Though the old Philosophers did many of them think that so fair a Structure deserved to be esteemed as Corpus Deitatis yet Christians are more wise and reverent than to approve the more modest assertion of them who call it Vestimentum numinis or Accidentia Divina yet the notion of an Accident is thus far apt to tell us that all the Creature 's being is in its dependence on the Creator and that it is nothing but what it is in him For of him and through him and to him are all things Rom 11. 36. And in him we live and move and be Act. 17. 28. To think therefore or treat of any Creatures abstractedly leaving out the knowledge of the Creator is not properly to know but to dote or erre He that does annihilate them or deny their very being doth not know it nor cannot teach it Such fooleries are all the busiest and most learned enquiries of those Formalists who separate Philosophy from Theology and think they have done fairly when they have once confest that God gave the World a being and first motion as if he had then left it to its self or made it a separate self-subsisting thing or as if they might then proceed to treat of it without any further thoughts or mention of that God who is more to it than a Soul and without whom it cannot be truly defined no more than the beams without mentioning the Sun or the Accidents without the Substance And as the true Natural Philosopher doth see GOD as all in all in Physicks so doth the true Moralist in Ethicks Well may our Religious Science be called Divinity because GOD is in it the beginning the middle and the end the life the substance of it and all in all And as this is true of the Theory it is as true of the Practice For it is one and the same Religion or Theology which is essentially in the three constitutive faculties of Man and must be defined as Scientia affectiva practica It is a very apt and instructing expression which is used Heb. 4. 13. All things are naked and opened to the Eyes of him with whom we have to do It is most intimately pertinent to our Religion to know GOD as Him with whom we have to do and to know how much we have to do with him to know that we have more to do with him than with all the Creatures in the World Yea that we have nothing to do with any Creature but as in him and with him and for him and as that which is less than an Accident of GOD That we have nothing to do with Men or Angels high or low rich or poor animate or inanimate no not our selves as separate from God or from his presence interest and will nor as co-ordinate in subsistence or intention with him but only as absolutely dependent on him and subordinate and subservient to him And that we have nothing to do in the World but his service and the fulfilling of his will And to know how Great and of what unspeakable importance our Daily and Hourly business is in which we have to do with God This will first fix us in the Positive part of our Religion which is properly called GODLINESS And then it will most effectually accomplish the Negative part in calling off our minds from every Idol and killing our bruitish and unchast affections While our hearts are seriously taken up with GOD the Creature will seem less to us comparatively than a Fly compared to a City or an Atome to a Kingdom or a Candle to the Sun Overvaluing and overloving and overdoing for the World is a certain Sign of our undervaluing and underloving and neglect of GOD. For if GOD have his due he will have all And if he had all the World and all things in it would have none unless as it is sent to GOD by them And so excellent is this converse with GOD that the nature of it may much convince us that GRACE and GLORY are but as the Seed and the Plant as infancy and manhood and that Life Eternal is begun on Earth Joh. 17. 3. One being but the work
plenty of meat and drink and cloaths and Silver and Gold and Armor for defence and offence have the denomination given them by the generality of People and are only cryed up empty ones have no bodies good word Take notice of some passages of Scripture to this purpose from the mouths both of Prophane and Divine Pen-men yea of Divinity it self How many hired Servants in my Fathers House have Bread enough and to spare We shall finde all precious substance we shall fill our Houses with spoyle If Balak would give me his House full of Silver and Gold Through wisdome is a House builded and by knowledge shall the Chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches Thou shalt save Goats milk enough for thy food for the food of thy Houshold and for the food of thy Maidens Thy Barnes shall be filled with plenty and thy Presses shall burst out with new Wine Wealth and Riches shall be in his House They possessed Houses full of all good the Floors shall be full of Wheat and the Fat 's shall overflow with Corn and Oyle Some very good People who had House-room enough have had therein next to nothing The Widdow of Zarephath going into her House to fetch the Prophet Elijah a little Water in a Vessel which he begged of her to drink makes this answer to him craving that she would also bring him a morsel of Bread in her Hand As the Lord thy God liveth I have not a Cake but a handful of Meal in a Barrel and a little Oyl in a Cruse this was all her store Such an answer gave a certain Woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets unto Elisha Tell me said he What hast thou in the House Thy Hand-maid said she hath not any thing in the House save a Pot of Oyle In this House which we have in hand there is not only No want of any thing which is on the Earth the good report given of Laish by the five Searchers But here is also all the good things that Heaven it self is able to afford Witness him that was caught up thither and saw what was in those Mansions Blessing God for blessing him and all his fellow-Members of this blessed Family withall spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Begin we with Provisions of food They to whom it is given to dwell in God shall be sure not to want either Corporal or Spiritual sustenance but enjoy both in abundance 1. For their bodies this is one of the encouragements given to the Saints of God to fear and seek him O fear the Lord O ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing in the Day of Famine they shall be satisfied The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his Soul but the belly of the wicked shall want They shall alway have Bread and Water enough As those hundred Prophets had in that time of great dearth whom Obediah fed by fifty in a Cave Bread shall be given them their Waters shall be sure Likened unto Men that dwell in an unpregnable Fort well provided with Victuals to hold out a Siege And there Bread and Water is sure as is not else-where to be found For there is a blessing in both which are also of the choicest and God himself feeds them therewith I should have fed them saith the Lord to his professing People had they hearkened unto me to come and live in him but they would not with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied them No courser Bread than wheaten doth every hinde or Servant of this House eat That which is materially pulse beanes pease which some of them are fain sometimes to feed upon is virtually the fat of wheat So it was to Daniel and his three Companions whose countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the Children which did eat the portion of the Kings meat Nor can they be scanted He whos 's the Earth is and the fulness thereof having said Thou shalt eat thy Bread without scarceness I will abundantly bless her Provision I will satisfie her Poor with Bread In case they have but an handful of Meal He can make it suffice them and theirs many Days yea enable them to go in the strength of one Cake baken on the Coales forty Days yea to make five Loaves feed no fewer than five thousand Men besides Women and Children nor shall there want a concurence of his will with his power if need be Though Miracles are said to be ceased every one of the House shall have their Daily bread according as they are taught to pray And as Agar prayed in faith nothing doubting nor were ever any of them in David's observation put to the Trade of begging their bread Though some of them have in all Ages been constrained to live of Almes for exercise and tryal which is a noble way of living And so the Waters given them to drink they are not like these of Marah and Jericho bitter and naught but sweet and wholsome If they be otherwise naturally they are by a Tree or Salt cast in presently sweetned and healed with which as with Honey distilled out of the Rock their thirst is wonderfully quenched 2. As for their Souls there is in this House abundantly more and better Provision of all manner of Food for all sorts of Persons that are of the Family Nehemiah tells us of what a great Table he kept and what was provided for him daily Viz. one Oxe and six choice Sheep also Fowles and once in ten Dayes store of all sorts of Wine Solomon's Provisions for one Day was thirty Measures of fine flower and threescore Measures of Meal ten fat Oxen out of the Pasture and an hundred Sheep beside Harts and Roe-bucks and fallow Deer and fatted Fowle But all his great store is but as a drop to the Ocean in comparison of the spiritual Provision prepared every day for the Saints to feed upon in this House The Word of God and God the Word are a million of times more in quantity and virtue to nourish and cheer How sweet are thy Words unto my Taste Sweeter than honey unto my mouth Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my Heart O Book insinite sweetness Let my heart Suck every Letter and a honey gain Precious for every Greif in any part To cheer the brest to mollifie all pain Thou aut all health health thriving 'till it make A full Eternity Thou art a Mass Of strange delights where we may wish and take Here is milk for Babes the first Principles of the Oracles of God and strong
all fulness with marrow What is Wines on the Lees what are all earthly royal dainties to these rich graces and Divine special favours and blessings offered and bestowed and participated of in the Sacraments At which sumptuous and delicious banquet every worthy receiver that has made due preparation by self examination is or should be much affected and ravished As the Divine Poet was who thus expresseth himself First as to the manner of Importation and submission Herb. H. Com. Not in rich Ornament or fine Aray Nor in a Wedge of Gold Thou who for me wast sold To me dost now thy self convey For so thou should'st without me stil have been Leaving within me Sin But by the way of nourishment strength Thou creepest into my Breast Making thy Way my Rest And thy small quantities my length Which spread their Forces into every part Meeting Sins force and art Yet can these not get over to my Soul Leaping the Wall that parts Our Souls and fleshly Hearts But as the out-works they may controll My Rebel-flesh and carrying thy Name Affright both sin and shame Only thy grace which with these Elements comes Knoweth the ready way And hath the Privy Key Op'ning the Souls most subtile Roomes While those to Spirits refin'd at Door attend Dispatches from their Friend Give me my Captive Soul or take My Body also thither Another life like this will make Them both to be together Before that Sin turn'd Flesh to stone And all our Lump to leaven A fervent sigh might well have blown Our innocent Earth to Heaven For sure when Adam did not know To sin or sin to smother He might to Heav'n from Paradise go As from one Room to another Thou hast restor'd us to this ease By this thy Heavenly blood Which I can go to when I please And leave the Earth to their food When he was pleased to go to this Heavenly Banquet and he was so pleased as oft as might be and so should every godly Christian hear him warbling this Divine Rapture Idem the Banquet Welcome sweet and sacred cheer Welcome deer With me in me live and dwell For thy neatness passeth sight Thy delight Passeth Tongue to taste or tell O what sweetness from the Bowl Fills my Soul Such as is and makes Divine Is some Star fled from the Sphere Melted there As we Sugar melt in Wine Or hath sweetness in the Bread Made a head To subdue the smell of Sin Flow'rs and gums and powders giving All their living Lest the Enemy should win Doubtless neither Star nor Flower Hath the Power Such a sweetness to impart Only God who gives perfumes Flesh assumes And with it perfumes my heart But as Pomanders and sweet Wood Still are good Yet being bruised are better sented God to shew how far his love Could improve Here as broken is presented c. Let the wonder of this pitty Be my ditty And take up my lines and life Hearken under pain of Death Hands and breath Strive in this and love the strife Nor found he this food beyond all degrees of comparison nourishing and strengthning but he feeleth it also most effectually healing Physick as appeares by what he speaks to his pratling Conscience which call'd every fair look sowl every sweet Dish sower If thou persist I will tell thee That I have Physick to expell thee And the Receipt shall be My Saviours Blood when ever at his board I do but taste it straight it cleanseth me And leaves thee not a Word No not a Tooth or Nail to scratch And at my actions carp or catch Here is therefore no such provision of food no such sumptuous fair in any House as this Solomon's so much admired was as Husks yea and stark hunger compared to this and each of the Houshold fares alike And they have both Dinner and Supper every Day of the same delicates that which Matthew calls a Dinner Luke calls a Supper And they are called upon to feed heartrly Eat O Friends Drink yea drink abnndantly O well-beloved Nor are there any such fellow-Commoners to Dine and Sup with any where as here These are all Noble Honourable Persons The choicest and most excellent Kings and Priests A chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation a peculiar People Yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Dines and Sups with them Mephibosheth thought it no small honour that David set him among them that did eat at his own Table How great honour must it then be to sit at Christs Table who is David's Lord And to increase their comfort they have assurance of the same Session with him in the Kingdome of Glory I appoint you saith he a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed me that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome Nor are there any such servitures in any House as in this to wit the Holy Angels Are they not all Ministering Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall he Heirs of Salvation There are that make them both Cooks and Butlers that dress and dish up and bring in the provision of this continual Feast attend at Table and Minister Cups of Consolation And moreover wait upon every Member of this Family when they go abroad about the works of their Callings and in all the changes of their life who have care of them besides this common attendance a peculiar Guardian of Angels from their new birth at least as some probably gather from sundry Scriptures Nor are there any such Vessels in any House to serve up the Meat and Drink in as are in this The Dishes Spoons Covers and Bowles belonging to the Sanctuary were all of pure Gold so were all the Vessels of the pure Table All the drinking Vessels of King Solomon were of Gold and all the Vessels of the House of the forrest of Lebanon were of pure Gold At that Royal Feast which Ahasuerus made to all his Princes and Servants That lasted an hundred and fourscore Days They gave them Drink in Vessels of Gold The Vessels of this House wherein the Saints dwell and wherein they have their Meat and Drink served up are much more precious than the Gold that perisheth which is corruptible how pure soever even great and precious promises in which are contained all the choicest Viands that Earth and Heaven can yield both for the nourishment of Soul and Body For Godliness is profitable for all things having the promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come Nor are there any such Seats to rest both Souls and Bodies on in taking repast in any House as in this Kings have had their Seats for themselves and by them for their Children and Favorites on which they sate down to eat meat they were terrestrial these coelestial places We read of the great King sitting at his Table with his Spouse
this the Fathers of old time Of whom the World was not worthy quenched the violence of Fire and turned to Flight the Armies of the Aliens Faith is of that force that it is able to hold Argument even against the wrath of God to quench the fierceness of his Arrowes Though he slay me yet will I trust in him It s termed a Shield every faculty of the Soul is defended by it against all manner of temptations A Shield serves for defence of the whole Body and every part of it Other pieces of spiritual Armor the Girdle of Truth the Brest-plate of Righteousness the shews of Patience the Helmet of Hope are for particular parts and serve against particular sins and temptations but faith puts by and blunts all blows and as if this grace were all in all a Christians whole warfare is called the Fight of Faith This with the other now named are defensive only or mainly like to which none can be found in any other Armory And for offence here is a Sword of which it may be said as David did of Goliah's There is none like that the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God So called because the Holy Ghost hath framed it and put it into Believers hands and is of a Divine strength and temper to pierce and overthrow the spiritual Enemies With this Word which is sharper than any two edged Sword Christ himself defended himself against the Devil and with the invincible force thereof foyl'd him fulfilling in part that Prophesie In that Day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Word shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even Leviathan the crooked Serpent and in that Day he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea Moreover Princes and great Mens Houses are stored with goods for Ornament as well as for necessity and conveniency serving to delight and please the outward Senses of Seeing Hearing Smelling and Feeling that of Tasting hath been spoken to Rich Hangings Curtains Carpets Images and pleasant Pictures Pourtrayed upon the Walls Instruments of Musick Oyntments Perfumes Treasures of Gold and Silver and precious Stone Hezekiah shewed the King of Babylon's Embassadors his House of precious things the Silver and the Gold and the Spices and the precious Ornaments and all that was found in his Treasures In Solomon's House were Hangings of Purple a rich and a beautiful Stuff of a red and bloody hue a dye of great esteem And in Ahasuerus's Palace where he feasted his Princes and Servants There were white green and violet Hangings fastned with Cords of fine Linnen and Purple to Silver Rings and Pillars of Marble The Beds were of Gold and of Silver upon a Pavement of red and blew and white and black Marble In the Houses of those unnatural sensuality we finde Women that wore Hangings to make them more delightful No less is implyed in that passage Let them stretch forth the Curtains of thine Habitation What Lamentation is made when these are harmed Suddenly are my Tents spoyled and my Curtains in a moment Or when they are not handsomely set up There is none to set up my Curtains The Tabernacle had great store of costly Hangings and Curtains to make it beautiful and glorious of cunning work woven but wrought to the Life with a Needle in manner of Pictures like Arras work or other Tapistry Solomon carved all the Walls of the Temple round about with Figures of Cherubims and Palm-Trees and open Flowers within and without Nor was hardly any goodly House without its pleasant Pictures Images of Men pourtrayed upon the Walls with Vermilion Nor without Musical Instruments The Viol the Tabret and Pipe are in their Feasts As the Prodigals Elder Brother drew nigh to the House he heard Musick and Dancing But money answereth all things By this Men furnish their Houses with all the foresaid Ornament and their Feasts with variety of all delights Thrice happy is that habitation thought to be where there is no want of this and blessed are those Children thought whose Parents go to the Devil to procure and leave them bags of theirs in abundance What shall we say to these things If God be ours how shall not all these things be ours They whose House the Lord is have all these and infinitely more to please and delight their inward Senses yea their outward also That one sight of Jesus Christ hanging upon the Cross with his hands stretched abroad to embrace them and his Head bowed down to kiss them and his pierced Side streaming forth blood to wash them from the guilt and filth of their sins evidently set forth lively and naturally represented unto them with his Death and Passion and the Virtue and use thereof is a Picture most pleasant to their Eyes So are the Portraictures of his holy Apostles and Martyrs with the description and history of their acts and passions seen and read of them And to please your Sense of Smelling the House is filled with the savour of Christs good Oyntments as that House was with the Odour of that Oyntment of Spiknard wherewith Mary anointed his Feet Those gifts of the holy Ghost wherewith the Father hath anointed him and which he poureth upon them by the preaching of the Gospel whereof take a taste only of two words and hereby judge of the rest Herb. Ch. the Odour How sweetly doth my Master sound my Master As Ambergrease leaves a rich sent Unto the Taster So doth these words a sweet content An Oriental fragrancy My Master With these all Day I do perfume my mind My mind even thrust into them both That I might find What Cordials make this curious broth This broth of smels that feeds fats my mind And farther for the Sense of Hearing if the Musick made by Organs in the Church so sounded in the Eares of that Divine Poet that drew a Song of Thanks-giving to it from his Tongue and Pen. Id. Ch. Mus Sweetest of sweets I thank you when displeasure Did through my Body wound my mind You took me thence in your house of pleasure A dainty Lodging me assign'd Now I in you without a Body move Rising and falling with your Wings We both together sweetly live and love Yet say sometimes God help poor Kings Comfort I le dye for if you post from me Sure I shall do so and much more But if I travail in your Company You know the way to Heavens Door How infinitely sweeter must that Musick be to the Eares of this Houshold which the Organ of the Holy Scripture the Keys whereof are stricken with the hand of the holy spirit makes with such strains as these Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee with the right hand of my Righteousness When thou passest through the Waters I
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
removed and carryed too and fro God himself sends word to David since the Day he brought up Israel unto that Day he had not dwelt in a fixed setled House But had been from Tent to Tent from one Tabernacle to another But I have been with thee saith he whither soever thou hast walked Yea though I walk through the Valley of the shaddow of Death saith David unto God I will fear no evil for thou art with me While I sleep and when I awake I am still with thee Jacob had this assurance given him that God would accompany him and go too and fro with him when he fled from the face of his Brother Behold I am with thee and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will come back again with thee I will not leave thee And so when he went to see his Son Joseph I will go down with thee into Egypt As the Wheeles accompanyed closely the living Creatures exactly following their motion and their rest resting with them When the living Creatures went the Wheels went when the living Creatures were lift up the Wheels were lift up when those went these went and when those stood these stood This living House as closely accompanies the living Creatures in it and as punctually attends their motions up and down and resteth with them in their resting place every where 11. Nor is this House capable of or subject to any such casualties as other houses are The houses of some poor Creatures which they bear about with them are so brittle that a foot that treadeth on them or a Cart-Wheel going over them may crush and destroy them The best built houses may be burnt with Fire or blown down with Tempests or rent with Meteors or broken up with Thieves Job's Sons and Daughters were eating and drinking Wine in their eldest Brothers House and behold there came a Wind from the Wilderness and it fell upon the young Men and killed them The Hold whereinto a thousand Men and Women of the Tower of Shechem entered was set on Fire and consumed with all the Persons in it Nebuzaradan burnt in one Day the House of the Lord and the Kings Houses and all the Houses of Jerusalem and every great Mans House burnt he with Fire I will gather all Nations against Jerusalem and the City shall be taken and the Houses rifled The Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed up Korah Dathan and Abiram and their Houses and all their goods But there is no fear of any such accident to this House what Plots or conspiracies soever are made to harm it or them that live in it there shall not a hair of their heads perish nor their Treasures be touched True it is this House is it self a Consuming Fire Infinitely hoter than that in Nebuchadnezar's Furnace the Flame whereof consumed those Men that took up Shedrach Meshach and Abednigo but it is only so to them that are without and dare to come nigh to pillage it or hurt any in it who walk as comfortably in this Fire as those three Children did in the burning Furnace upon whose Bodies the Fire had no Power nor was an Hair of their Heads singed neither were their Coats changed nor had the smell of Fire passed on them 12. It is a holding House as it holds the Souls of the Inhabitants in Life so it suffers not their feet to be moved out of it but it keepeth them constantly and perseveringly in Nor is it in the Power of Men or Devils to eject them no nor of the old Man that hath still a Beeing in them and perswades them to depart and make a change for though they may do both if they will yet they cannot will to do either for God hath promised that all whom he receiveth within himself shall not have a heart to leave him But to abide for ever in him I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me And he hath power to perform what he has promised he is able to keep you from falling and to preserve you blameless before the presence of his glory is exceeding joy We are kept by the Guard of Gods Power his strongest if degrees be in Omnipotency through faith unto salvation There were never any that went into this House by the Door Such as Jesus Christ is I am the Door By him an abundant entrance is made into the Church and consequently unto God No Man cometh unto the Father but by me by him we have access with confidence that ever apostatized finally or totally Some that have seemed unto themselves and others to be real Members of this Family Demas for example that went out but they were never truly in as appears by their going out Hear the testimony of one of the houshold the truth of whom is without question They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be manifest that they were not all of us the servant abideth not in the House for ever but the Son abideth ever The righteous is an everlasting Foundation True it is he may set one Foot out of Doors David did so when he committed Adultery and practiced the Death of Uriah and Peter did so when he forsware his Master and with such direful curses denyed that he knew him But this was through the violence of temptation The purpose and resolution of both their hearts was not to take a step out but to keep close within Door I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Though all Men should be offended because of thee yet I will not be offended Though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee How fell they then into so foul sins Surely they were suddenly overtaken the one with a passion of lust the other with a passion of fear and so they fell But even then both of them had one Foot still within the House which stai'd while the other stept They had sanctifying grace still in their hearts whose essential property is constancy called therefore immortal Seed And it appeared like sparks of Fire when the ashes covering them are blown away as soon as they came to themselves David yielded to the reproof of Nathan presently And Peter when the Lord turned and looked upon him went out and wept bitterly Each drew his Foot back into the House again and kept close in unto the end of their lives 13. It is a House held by the best tenure none like it 't is held in such a head as is non-such Jesus Christ whom God hath made head of the Church in a singular and eminent manner far above the domination which he hath
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
is by closing with him Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of them This joyning makes this natural dwelling Neither let the Son of the Stranger that hath tyed himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord hath utterly separated me from his People Also the Sons of the Stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and love the Name of the Lord to be his servants even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and their Sacrifices shall be accepted He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit United with Christ and so to God the Father in Body and Soul as by a Bond of spiritual Matrimony in the Communion of the Spirit of Holiness This actual closing with God is especially by faith which is a trusting in his mercy through the mediation of his Son with an obediential affiance I have trusted in thy mercy and by this means made thee my Habitation and Salvation wherein I take no small Consolation Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rely with hearty confidence upon his faithful promises and most powerful wise and good providence for preventing and removing of evils and obtaining all good spiritual temporal and eternal The want of this is noted in that wicked mighty Man Loe this is the Man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness By repenting whereof and closing with God by a religious trust he might have made him his dwelling place for not doing so he is threatned to be pluckt out of his own dwelling place 3. God is made our Habitation by cleaving to him thus closed with persevering in faith and holiness adhearing constantly and abiding faithfully to God Seeking and expecting all our safety from his sole protection and accordingly qualifying our selves for a capacity thereof keeping in the way to which he hath promised his safeguard This is the meaning of the subject of this proposition in the first Verse of this Psalm He that dwelleth in the secret Place of the most High The same with making the Lord even the most High our Habitation Sticking fast also to him with the affections of the heart especially that of Love which hath the Nature of Glew The Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own Soul Ruth clave to Naoimi intreat me not says she to hear thee or to return from following after thee For whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge where thou dyest will I dye and there will I be buried Hezekiah cleave unto the Lord and departed not from him but kept his Commandments him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave thus thou shalt make him thy habitation To the later Branch of the Question I answer in the words of the Apostle John in his first Epistle where he gives among others these four Characters of Persons dwelling in God 1. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Commandments of the moral Law are meant which whosoever keepeth approves himself to God and Men and to his own Conscience that he hath his dwelling in God He that lives in the breach of them evidenceth that he hath not his abiding in God Nor will obedience to some of these Commandments be any comfort to a Mans conscience that God is his habitation That young Man in the Gospel could say to Christ who bad him if he would enter into life keep the Commandments and mentions sundry of them All these things have I kept from my Youth up The proud Pharisee thanked God he was not as other Men were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers that he fasted twice a Week and gave Tithes of all that he possessed Herod did many things Obedience must be Universal Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet is guilty in one point offendeth in all David did according to all that God commanded him Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Conscience must be made of every sin great and small They only are blessed that do no iniquity I have refrained my Feet from every evil way I hate every false way Darling sins must be abandoned and abominated sins of constitution calling company I kept my self from mine iniquity So must every secret sin even of thought Why should I think upon a Maid Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments shall be excluded out of Heaven yea all appearance of evil must be abstain'd from And conscience must be made of every duty how costly dangerous or difficult soever 2 Cor. 8. 7. Phil. 4. 8 9. Dan. 6. 10. Rom. 12. 19 20. True it is we must be most careful of such duties that God hath laid a charge upon us especially to perform namely substantial duties of Piety and Charity and the duties of our particular Callings and Relations Mat. 22. 38 39 23. 23 24. 1 Sam. 15. 22. Hos 6. 6. Luk. 3. 13 14. 1 Tim. 6. 1 2. Tit. 2. 15. Eph. 5. 22. Not that it is expected that we should legally keep all these Commandments for this is impossible while we are in these earthly Tabernacles Evangelical obedience will be accepted which stands in five things 1. That we approve of all the Commandments of God I esteem all thy Commandments to be right the Law is holy the Commandment is holy just and good 2. That we unfeignedly will and earnestly endeavour to keep the whole Law We trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly O that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes Let now thine Ear be attentive to the Prayer of thy Servants who desire to fear thy Name 3. That there be in us as earnest an endeavour Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man 4. That we unfeignedly repent as oft as we fall or fail Grieving that we have done amiss and resolve to do so no more If thy Brother Sin against Thee seven times in a Day and seven times in a Day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out I gave her space to repent of her Fornication and she repented not They repented not to give him glory neither repented they of their murders or of their Sorceries nor of their thefts no Man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done There was under the Law a Sacrifice even for Perjury whereby a Man seals himself to the Devil 5. That we believe in the Lord
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
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
shall hunt the Violent Man to overthrow him The punishment which he hath deserved for his persecution shall persecute him until such time as like unto a Beast forced to some City he fall and perish Be sure your sin will finde you out The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who hold the truth in unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the People that forget God Upon the wicked he shall rain snares Fire and Brimstone and an horrible Tempest this shall be the Portion of their Cup. Say to thy self Is this my portion O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me out of this dark and damned estate If Paul cryed out so lamentably because of the remnant of natural corruption which was as grievous to him as if a dead-body had been tyed to him and he compelled continually to carry it about with him What cause have I to lament that am in the state of corrupt nature and gall of bitterness Till Men have this knowledge and sense of their misery in being out of God they are not so much as called to come into him 2. See and apprehend how happy you should be transcendently happy had you a God to dwell in David's Refuge the most high The Psalmist having signified the happiness of those People that were to enjoy health of Body abundance of Fruit Heards and Flocks of strong Cattel and publick Peace Corrects himself concluding his enumeration with this gratulatory Epiphonema or pleasant ending Yea happy is that People whose God is the Lord. And so Moses after celebration of Gods great goodness to Israel in being a most glorious and powerful protection unto them In dispossessing their Enemies and bringing them into their Land He elevates their happiness and celebrates their exaltation above all other People in having the Lord for their God and Habitation If God be for us he is so far for all them that are in him his houshold of faith the Lord taketh my part with them that help me Who can be against us None to hurt us all things co-operate for our good Afflictions Sin Satan All. If it sounds harsh to say sin turnes to our good certainly it turnes to our good if the Christian riseth with greater shame and hatred of it after his fall Put not your trust in Princes nor in the Son of Man in whom there is no Salvation happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God who hath him for his Habitation Blessed is the Man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto Thee that he may dwell in thy Courts We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy House Let your judgments be throughly convinced that the happiness of Man lies in the enjoyment of God and that it can never be well with you till you have possession of this resting place and that then your happiness will be superlative 3. Let your desires be carryed after God vehemently and constantly like the desires of a hungry thirsty Man after Meat and moysture whom nothing of any other kind will satisfie And like the desire of an Infant after the Milk of its Nurses Breasts who will cry it self to Death if it be kept from it Many promises are made to such desires Such an affection we finde to have been in the People The desire of our Soul is to thy Name or to the remembrance of Thee with my Soul have I desired Thee in the Night As the Hart panteth after the Water brooks so panteth my Soul for thee O God! My Soul thirsteth for the living God When shall I come and appear before God Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Let the same inward earnest constant affection be in you and express your desires asking the way to this House as those returning Captives did with their Faces thitherward And as those punctually pierced sinners did Men and Brethren c. And as the terrified Jaylor Sirs what must I do to be saved Yea do as Simon Magus did pray them that have interest in the Lord to pray for you Yea your selves take with you words and turn unto the Lord saying take away all iniquity and receive us graciously 4. Because this House cannot be had but by buying nor any of the goods of it Take our Saviour's advice I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the Fire that thou mayest be rich and white Rayment that thou mayest be cloathed Come ye buy and eat yea come buy Wine and Milk to buy is properly to get a Commodity by giving the due price of it thus this House cannot be bought nor any spiritual gift Thy Money perish with thee because that thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with Silver But to obtain a thing by other means as to part with something for it or by pains and labour is in Scripture phrase buying Thus Paul was contented to part with any thing how dear soever and to be at any pains to gain Jesus Christ and so must you if you would gain the most High for your Habitation Many there are that think this House not worth the cheaping bid nothing for it God is not in all their thoughts They will part with nothing no not with the beastliest lusts be at no pains at all for God If he and Heaven will be had for nothing without any labour perhaps they would accept thereof but upon any harder termâ— you may hear them bidding God depart from them Others there are that bid seeming fair but will not come up to the price This did that young Ruler he yielded obedience to the Commandments of the second Table and his Obedience was Universal and constant and more than this he proffereth his desire to know and do more The five foolish Virgins did more than he they kept themselves undefiled from the World made open profession of Christ had faith and convictions to keep their profession alive nor was their profession idle they performed Christian duties frequented Gospel-Ordinances their Companions were Christ's whom as they owned so sought after and finally expressed their earnest desire of saving grace Those Hypocrites of old seem to bid more than these They sought God diligently and constantly delighted to know his ways practiced good were stedfast to their Principles faithful to their profession desired to be guided and counselled by God took delight in approaching to him afflicted their Souls with fasting Judas left all to follow Christ continued long with him in his temptation preached the Gospel zealously and so demeaned himself that none of his followers had any suspicion of
against themselves that they are without God are many Two of them we will mention and answer in which the rest are included and comprehended Obj. 1. They never entered in by the Door this they make out and put it on thus No Man can dwell in God in whose heart Christ dwels not by faith coming to Christ and believing in him are all one He that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst No Man is called to come to Christ that is not throughly and truly humbled for sin The Universal is restrained Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden You that labour in the Souls and Consciences by a lively feeling of your sins and terrour of God's Judgments due unto you for them Such are intended who being deeply sensible of their sins and Satans Yoak by panting and groaning under it Now they never had any such deep humiliation and therefore have reason to question Christ's dwelling in them and consequently theirs in God they never had this preparatory work To these Objections against themselves and the work of God's Grace in them I have these things to say 1. By way of Concession that sound humiliation arising from the sight and sense of sin and apprehension of Divine wrath is necessary to qualifie Men for coming to Christ They that be whole need not the Physician but they that be sick I came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance sensible Heart-smitten affrighted Soul afflicted-sinners The Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost Them who see and feel themselves quite undone and lost by reason of their sins The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek He hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted to Proclaim liberty to the Captives The opening of the Prison to them that are bound to comfort them that mourn Till Men be thus humbled they will not care to come to Christ nor have desire of him nor prize him and be willing to part with any thing for him Paul profest he was willing to part with all to win him counted all loss and dung for him What alone was this Paul one that had so deep a sense of his sins that he counted himself the chiefest sinner in the World No Man can believe the Gospel till the Law hath wrought Repentance in him the foundation whereof is a deep sense and sorrow for sin Nor will Men hold Christ with any retentiveness if this were not first wrought in them If Men be not weary of Sathans Yoak they will soon be weary of Christs Want of humiliation is the cause of all Apostacy And therefore there is great need that Ministers preach and press the Law to bring Men to a sight and sense of their sins Which is so far forth a blessing as it is necessary to drive us to Christ To shew us how wretched we are without him to make us pant and groan and mourn after him They erre that hold that Men are fit enough without any such legal terrors preceding that never felt their hearts broken to come to Christ to dwell in God As there is no natural birth without some precedent pains of travel in the Mother So neither is there any spiritual birth without some such in the Child God hath ever used to take this course to cast down sinners to lay them as low as Hell convincing them of their dark and damned condition giving them the spirit of bondage to fear the Vengeance of Eternal Fire due to them and then to erect and comfort them And so by the Suburbs of Hell to bring them to Heaven Thus he dealt with our first Parents and all along downward to this Day As the great and strong Wind renting the Mountains breaking in pieces the Rocks and the Earth-quake and Fire went before the still small Voice And the noise and shaking before the Resurrection of the dry bones and a Voice from Heaven as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of a great Thunder more terrifying and distinct before the Voice of Harpers harping with their Harps and as plowing precedes sowing and the Needle the Thread and melting the Mettle before the casting of it into a new form So must humiliation precede regeneration Woe to them that being laden with many sins feel them light as a Grass-hopper that have sworn a thousand Oaths in their ordinary discourse have told a thousand lies in their ordinary jesting officious pernicious committed prodigious filthiness frequently with themselves and others Have made the Lord's days the Devil 's by going their own wayes Finding their own pleasure speaking their own words and can carry all these with a thousand more Omissions as well as Commissions with as much ease as Sampson did the Gates of Gaza When light outward crosses are heavy to them and make them howle yea they can make a sport of sin delight to act it Make themselves and others merry by boasting of it glorying in their shame These Men shall finde one Day every of their sins which they feel so light to be heavier than a Mountain of Lead when they shall call to the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover them and the more pleasure they have felt in any sin the more sorrow and torment shall be given them Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things but now thou art tormented Every idle and much more every evil word shall be an unsufferable load upon their Consciences to all Eternity Unless voluntary humiliation before they come into that place of torments prevent it As for you that feel your sins pressing you as low as Hell take comfort in this that you are in the way to conversion And I may say unto you as the People to the blind Man be of good comfort Christ calleth thee There is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness for them that can mourn over him whom they have pierced 2. By way of Correction though all before Conversion are humbled yet all are not so in a like degree They that have been notorious wicked livers Such as Manasseh was must be humbled greatly as he was So they that killed the Lord of Life were punctually pierced So the Jaylor and Mary Magdalen and those whom God means to bestow more than ordinary gifts upon or to employ in great business for him he humbleth deeply Others that have been civilly educated never guilty of any hainous hideous crimes but alway lived unblameable moral lives These have the grace of Regeneration dropt insensibly into them never feel such pangs and terrors and heart-breaks nor know the time when God began to work upon them These fearful doubting Christians that
of sound words Let us hold fast our profession of Christian Faith and Religion in words and deeds That which ye have already hold fast till I come Especially this grace and gift of assurance which is a Jewel of the greatest worth in the World For as the happiness of having it so the misery of wanting it is unspeakable We cannot love God heartily when we doubt whether he loves us We can have little heart to pray our spiritual fight will be uncomfortable our peace unsetled our patience heartless all heat to holy duties will be utterly dampt in us This is made an effect of lively Faith and an assured mark of those who are living Members of Christ namely to hold fast that degree of assurance Christ was faithful as a Son over his own House whose House are we If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end See an example of this fast holding and keeping this Pearl of Price in the Spouse of Christ how servent her desires were how forcible her endeavours to make his singular presence with her familiar with her alwayes It was but a little that I passed from the Watchmen great worldly wise Men but I found him whom my Soul loveth I held him and would not let him go We are as oft exhorted to add unto those good things which we have and hold to increase our spiritual store to grow in all Graces Besides this giving all diligence add to your Faith Virtue to Virtue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly Kindness and to brotherly Kindness Charity Grow in Grace We beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God So ye would abound more and more That ye would increase more and more with the increase of God Grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ This will be both for our comfort and credit profit Lord thy Pound hath gained other Five Pounds be thou over Five Cities Especially we should desire and add degrees to our Faith as of adherence so of experience and evidence make it our Prayer Lord increase our Faith and this will bind others praises of God on our behalf We are bound to thank God alwayes for you Brethren as it is meet because that your Faith groweth exceedingly The great benefit and necessity of this knowledge of assurance may be motive sufficient to perswade you to give all diligence in the use of all means to preserve and increase it You will be sure to meet with temptations to doubt of your interest in God of your being in him to question whether you are Children of this Family Christ himself was thus assaulted though dwelling in the bosome of his Father If thou be the Son of God You must all dye shortly you may presently For what is your life it is even a Vapour which appeareth for a little Moment and vanisheth away Now if you be without assurance that you dwell in this heavenly House when Death drives you out of your Earthly How full of Horror and Torment must your Hearts needs be not knowing whether Heaven or Hell must be your dwelling place to all Eternity Whereas if you knew you were in the same House with Christ this would quiet your heart from all fear As soon as Christ was come into the Ship wherein the Disciples were tossed the Wind presently ceased God through Christ being your Habitation your Light and Salvation whom or what should you fear while you live and when you die God is our refuge therefore we will not fear And this and this only is able to make and keep your hearts lightsome in every condition Yea knowledge of your abiding in God will give a sweet relish as to every comfort So to every cross I have lost a dear Husband Wife Child Friend a comfortable dwelling but not my dear God And the more assurance the less fearful and more chearful Now the means to preserve and increase assurance are the same wherby you gained it The outward are those Ordinances of God and exercises of his holy Religion which he hath sanctified to this end to bring us unto and into himself and to work in us a comfortable assurance thereof especially the Word Sacrament and Prayer The more inward and spiritual are care to keep a good Conscience Diligent observation of your own ways Consideration of the experiments you have had of God's favour towards you renouncing your selves Resting only upon the free Grace of God in performance of the conditions required on our part looking oft over your evidences and holding the Conclusion To learn by heart and put in practice all those duties that are incumbent upon all those to whom the Lord even the most High vouchsafeth this high Prerogative of admission to and possession of his blessed Self to be your proper Habitation The general duty is to walk worthy of the Lord who hath effectually called you out of the World and out of your selves into himself and hath justified you and partly glorified you with glorious priviledges graces and comforts For whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified This the Apostle Paul frequently presseth I beseech you that you walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called You know how we exhorted and charged every one of you that ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you into his Kingdom of Glory Of God whose Livery you wear whose Image you bear of whose Houshold you are To walk worthy of your Vocation is to walk holily for the general Vocation of all Christians is to be holy as God is holy unto whom they are called in Jesus Christ As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation And as he presseth them to this worthy walking So he presseth God by Prayer for them that they might by his grace be enabled to walk declaring withall sundry Ingredients and Concurrents that make these paces and steps they take regular and graceful and the end of the course joyful We cease not to pray for you and to desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthned with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness Let knowledge shew you the wayes you should walk and sanctification carry you on an end therein and patience uphold you till you come to the end of your Journey when you shall receive the end of your Faith even the salvation of your Souls The
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
they that have goodly Houses with superfluity how they may yet have more wealth and honour The mind of Man being like the Hors-leech which hath two Daughters crying give give the two Forks in the Tongue of that blood-sucker setting forth the two passions in the mind of Man the one a burning desire of getting beyond measure the other an unquietness through sense of want when more than enough is gotten and like those four things that are never satisfyed the Grave a barren Womb the Earth that is not filled with Water and the Fire and they that are building are apt to be in earnest expectation that they shall be well and warm in those new Nests I think this one consideration needful to be suggested to them all namely what power God's grace useth to have in all them that dwell in him to take off their hearts from minding earthly things in that manner they used to do before they were in God namely though not to forsake the World quite and give over worldly business and spend their whole time in private Devotions nor having found this House and Treasure to cast away their wordly Goods For Religion bindeth Men and Women to be good Husbands to seek to preserve and encrease their estates that God hath given them yet to make them willing to part with Houses and Lands and whatsoever is dearest to them in the World if they cannot hold them with Gods favour To lose all things and count them but dung in comparison of it This made God's people in the Ten Tribes to leave their dwellings and possessions and to come to Hierusalem where God was purely worshipped This made Moses to leave Pharaoh's Court and to joyn himself to God's afflicted despised Church and to moderate their affections to use them with more sobriety and indifferency It being all one to them whether they had little or much I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and suffer need Yea so to take up their hearts as to be more careless and forgetful of these things than they were formerly For they having found a better House and a better Treasure There their hearts must needs be most if not altogether Nor can the heart be divided between the love of God and the World But one of them will and must have all No Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him THE FIFTH SERMON THe second Sort of Spiritual duties incumbent upon you who have assurance that the Lord is your Habitation is in reference to Persons 1. Those who were the efficient cause of this your superlative Happiness both principle and instrumental The principle are the three sacred Persons of the glorious Deity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 1. Admire the goodness of God in electing you to this happiness Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath chosen us in Him before the Foundation of the World and in conferring upon you by the grace of Adoption the right of inheriting his Light here and hereafter Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 2. The love of God the Son which passeth knowledge who purchased for us this dwelling place with the price of his blood The blood of God Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich When he was in the possession of a perfect Happiness and Glory in his Divine Nature that he might bring you into the same possession He took upon him your Nature with all its miseries wants and obligements to gain you the Treasures of God's Grace Righteousness and Eternal Life in Him here and with Him hereafter He would be without a House where to lay his head and without any civil propriety of Earthly Goods and without any peace or rest in the World that you might have a resting place in God and a spiritual right to all this and actual enjoyment of as much as needs and is good for you 3. The powerful Operation of the Holy Ghost in imprinting upon your Souls those Divine Graces which are certain signs and tokens of your real interest in and present possession of this super-coelestial Mansion and witnessing with your spirits that you are truly Gods Children and being such shall abide in the House for ever for so Sons do To provoke and quicken you the more to thanksgiving for this inestimiable happiness Consider how infinitely you are bound to these Three Persons above innumerable others whom God the Father did not choose to have their dwelling in him and whom the Holy Ghost never wrought upon to accept this as he hath upon you There are who would perswade you otherwise that is that God the Father hath in his decree of Election done no more for you than he hath for other Men whom he from Eternity choose to be partakers of his happiness conditionally that is if they would as you have done accept it offered to them as it was to you because he fore-saw that you would receive Christ into your hearts by faith he therfore determined to receive you into himself to make you eternally happy because he fore-saw others would not he therefore passed them by and rejected them and decreed to damn them for he loves all Men equally desires and wills the Conversion and Salvation of every Man alike unfeignedly and earnestly that God the Son manifested in the World who came in the World to save sinners dyed for all without difference intended to give himself a ransom for all and every one equally that the efficacy of the Holy Ghost and his Cooperation accompanying the Word calling Men out of the state of nature into the state of Grace is only by moral perswasion and that it is in the power of every Mans free-will to accept or reject this grace These are plausible but pernicious Errors against which I shall bring a few Scriptures to antidote and fortifie your judgments and establish them in the contrary truths 1. Touching the Decrees of God the Father's predestination the Scripture makes it absolute definite and irrevocable So as the number of the Elect can neither be increased or diminished The Foundation of the Lord standeth sure
it is for Brethren both by nature and grace to dwell together in Unity both of judgment and affection Next he expounds and so proves the pleasure and the profit of this two-fold Unity First by parable and similitude which is double to shew the pleasure he compares it to that odoriferous anointing Oyl which God commanded to be made and compounded after the Art of the Apothecary which when it was poured upon Aaron's head ran down upon his Beard and thence went to his Skirts So this sweet communion of spiritual grace cunningly composed of united minds and affections passeth down from Christ our Head not only upon the stronger Professours which are as great an Ornament to the Church as a Beard is on the Face of a Man but also to the meanest and weakest Christian Members To set forth the pleasure of it he compares it to Dew which is a special blessing sent upon the Earth for the refreshing thereof which falls freely and therefore is said to be begotten of God and finely distilled down in so small drops that it cannot be perceived till it be laid and fully it falls into lowest Valleys as well as highest Hills and fitly in Spring for growth in Harvest for ripening and fruitfully making the Ground bring forth abundantly So it is in all these respects with spiritual graces especially with this And then he proves it by plain strong and binding demonstration where this Unity is God commandeth the blessing and life for ever-more that is promiseth and fully performes it in this life spiritually and corporally and hereafter Eternally I hinted this Unity to be twofold and will speak a little to both First of mind and judgment it is a thing greatly to be wished and sought after that all God's Children and Servants dwelling together in the same House might be of one mind and judgment in all points The Apostle oft earnestly presseth this frequently striketh upon this String Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment be of one mind for matter of Opinion If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort and love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercy fulfill ye my joy that ye may be like-minded being of one accord and of one mind A most passionate obtestation importing a most vehement desire of their good agreement whereunto he conjures them by all the bonds of love between him and them Perswasion it self could not speak more perswasively Here are so many words so many Weapons able to pierce and work upon any heart that had not an Iron sinew How many Arguments doth he take from one to inforce his Exhortation with all possible carefulness To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace One Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all The Apostle well knew the neerer they were agreed in Judgment the faster their affections would be knit one to another and beside the great advantage that all wicked Men take at the disagreement of God's People should make them desirous to be all of one mind and to compose all the differences that are between them Let there be I pray thee no strife between thee me between c. for we are brethren not only upon this account but because the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwell in the Land and because of our dissention we shall give them occasion to speak evil of our holy Religion and alienate their hearts more from it How oft have you had this cast in your Dish by enemies both to the form power of godliness when you have perswaded them to embrace both Agree first among your selves There is no such stumbling Block at this Day in this Land laid in the way of ungodly Men through God's just Judgment indeed and it is necessary there should be such offences but woe unto you if you become occasions of such offences if you repent not that you are so and labour not to take away the stumbling Block out of your way by endeavouring to be all of one mind But because perfect Unity is not to be expected till the Church be come to her perfection There must be Heresies among you Sects and Dissentions concerning Tenets and Grounds of Doctrine and wayes of Worship It is a thing unavoidable by reason of the Devil's malice Men's wickedness and God's most wise counsel and according to the frequent predictions of the Holy Ghost God indeed hath promised to give his People One Heart and one Way But the meaning is that they shall all agree in all Fundamental points of Doctrine and in all substantial ways of Worship in which they should joyntly and conformably serve him but in points of Religion and Circumstances of divine Worship that are of inferiour moment there will be Brethren different in Opinion and practice from you towards whom you are bound to bear brotherly love which is of a bearing and forbearing nature and not suffer difference in judgment to work in you the least alienation of affection towards them What a deal of pains does the Apostle take to work Christians to a charitable Toleration each of other 1. Disswading them from censuring one another for or in the use of things indifferent the parties that dissented were weak and strong Christians the things wherein were Meats and Days the strong thought all difference of Meates prohibited by the Law to be abolished by Christ and therefore did not forbear to feed on any and they conceived all Jewish Festivals to be abrogated by God and so observed them not The weak not seeing their own liberty in the case of Meates choose rather to eat Herbs than with a doubting Conscience to feed upon Meats forbidden and conceiving the Festivals not to be abrogated still observed them In both these cases the Apostle gives negative directions and exhortations to both sorts of Christians Viz. That in the case of Meates the strong should not contemn the weak as superstitious for abstaining Nor the weak censure the strong as prophane for neglecting the observation of distinction of them And in the case of Dayes that neither of them should do any thing with a gain-saying or doubting Conscience pressing these directions with sundry Arguments and that by no means the strong should give the least offence to their weak brethren by abuse of their liberty 2. And he perswades every one to study not to please himself but his Neighbour to edification for his good by the example of Christ who did not only not please himself but sought the good of others and so saith he must we bearing one with another receiving one another as he received us to be partakers of
excellencies and transcendent perfections of God So this especially of sublimity that he is most high This did David I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart I will sing praise to thy Name O thou most high I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praises to the most high As he did himself so he stirreth up all others to do so O clap your hands all People shout unto God with the voice of Tryumph for the Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over the Earth Let the Saints sing aloud upon their Beds Let the high praises of God be in their Mouth And this he tells us is a good thing at all times especially on the Sabbath Dayes It is a good thing to sing praises unto thy holy Name O most High His Universal Regiment is to be acknowledged This matter is by the Decree of the Watchers and the demand by the Word of the holy One to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdome of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basest of Men. 2. His wonderful humility and condescention The Lord is high above all Nations and his glory above the Heavens Who is like the Lord our God who is most High who humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in the Heaven and in the Earth He doth not disdain from his High Seat of Glory to provide for all Creatures both Terrestrial and Coelestial He hath a gracious and loving care of vile Wormes and grievous sinners yea vouchsafes to make their hearts if humbled and contrite for their sins his dwelling place For thus saith the High and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is high and holy I dwell in the high and holy Places with him also that is of an humble and contrite Spirit The humility of the Son of the most high God being the same in substance with him and equal in power and glory condescended to match with a Maid of our Family that had neither beauty nor dowry A greater condescention than if the greatest Emperor on Earth should marry the poorest and most deformed Virgin upon Earth assuming a humane Nature with his Divine Person In all things like unto Man excepting sin and in that nature to suffer poverty hunger thirst weariness and other humiliations even unto Death Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation Annihilated himself and brought himself as it were to nothing Took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the habit of Men And being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross 3. Consider the exceeding high honour he hath done you to be Servants in such a House to himself whom you have made your House by choosing him and cleaving to him Nebucadnezar could not desire a higher honour for the Three Worthies whom he saw walking in the midst of the Fire than to call them Servants of the most high God Nor the Angel that appeared to Daniel in the Vision of the Four Beasts and interpreted it to him for the Subjects of God's Kingdom than to call them Saints of the most high Yea the Angels themselves glory in this title I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren And James stiles himself not the Lords Brother but the Servant of the Lord. And God himself Moses not King in Jesuran but my Servant My Servant Moses 2. In Prayers I will cry unto God most high Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights We are commanded to pray to God as being above in Heaven to teach us among many other things that our Prayers should be sent forth with such fervencies that they may reach and pierce Heaven where God is to cry as David did O my God I cry in the Day time in the day time and in the Night season He heard my cry My most earnest desires in Prayer arising from feeling and fear of misery And so did Moses Wherefore cryest thou unto me God seeming to chide him for so doing but it was not for his fervent praying but for his fearing and fainting his Faith beginning to fail and to let him know that he was more ready to hear than he to pray 2. Learn humility of the most high God Be ye followers of God as dear Children Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another So if God have condescended unto us we ought to do the like to our Inferiours there being infinitely more distance and disproportion between God and us than there is between us were we the highest Princes on Earth and they poorest Beggars For they are all our Brethren Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us Be not therefore high-minded but condescend to Men of low Estate And learn of me saith the Son of the most High for I am meek and lowly in heart Lowliness of mind will make you high with God and meekness of word shall make you sink into the hearts of Men. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus You that are higher than others in gifts wealth or dignity disdain them not but demean your selves humbly toward them and honour shall uphold you 3. Take heed of provoking the most High or of contemning his Counsels least you provoke your selves to the confusion of your own Faces as the Israelites did of whom it is said That they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the Wilderness Yea they tempted and provoked the most high God kept not his testimonies They contemned the Counsel of the most High Therefore he brought down their heart with labour they fell down and there was none to help 4. If you have provoked him to anger against you as David did when Satan provoked him to number the People enquire and desire to know the true means to appease him and to be reconciled unto him Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God And turn ye to him with all your heart to him I say and not as Ephraim of whom it is said They returned but not to the most High Renew your purposes and resolutions and vowes of more wary walking for the future and when upon your humiliation and reformation he is returned unto you with mercies offer unto him thanks giving and pay your vowes unto the most High 5. Comfort your selves against all the injustice and disorders of the World and against all the Plots and Conspiracies of wicked Men against the Church and People of God Marvel not at it but look higher and expect seasonable relief
underneath you and you shall be able both to do and suffer all things through him that strengthneth you Upon all these and many more accounts Ascribe the strength unto God his excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the Heavens The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his People Blessed be God From the third property of your Habitation Viz. Largeness Learn rightly to conceive of this property holding forth the infiniteness immensness and omnipresence of God being without quantity and measure every where both within and without the World filling all places with his essence as the whole Soul is said to be in the whole Body and in every part of it so is God whole and wholly in every part of the World Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee His greatness is unsearchable infinite and incomprehensible The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off Can any hide himself in secret Places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Yea and Hell too If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there This must teach us to banish all gross conceits of God out of our mind and to detest the making any Picture of him by which he is denyed to be incomprehensible and to see him though invisible to be present with you where ever you are his Eye beholding whatsoever you are doing This Consideration filled David's heart with shame and sorrow for his sin and made it to lye so heavy upon his Conscience I have done this evil in thy sight All my care was to be secret to hide my sin from the Eyes of Men but all this while thine Eye was upon me There is no Man but would be restrained from many sins if they knew of any body that was by them to see what they did The Murderer Adulterer are brought in by Job imboldening themselves No Eye shall see me As if he had said if they knew there was any Eye to see them they durst not do it Moreover in all their Meditations Contemplations of God take as full a view of him as you can Hear him saying behold me behold me Especially take notice of the largeness and greatness of his goodness and bounty All the dimensions of its breadth length depth and heighth with admiration O how great is thy goodness which thou hast for them that fear thee As high as the Heaven is above the Earth as the space is between the East and West I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord his great goodness the multitude of his mercies And labour for largeness of heart in some sort answerable From the rest of the properties of this your habitation and from all the furniture in it and from each of the conveniencies belonging to it I shall leave you to gather comforts and duties in abundance having this one thing only more to do Namely to acquaint you with some of the Statutes Lawes and Ordinances of the House and earnestly to press upon you the Observation of them by promises and penalties annexed The general Laws of this House binding all that live in it are partly natural and partly supernatural The natural are Ten in Number called in Scripture Ten Words and some where One Word The Divine Law teaching and commanding Moral good and forbidding evil known by the Name of Moses Law Uttered and promulgate with God's own Mouth by his immediate Voice delivered in Fire and therefore termed a Fiery Law in the hearing of all Israel Afterwards written with his own Finger by a mere and miraculous divine Operation in Two Tables of Stone to signifie the perpetual use and continuance of it to the end of the World and so published and committed to the Church for all Ages as the Moral Law for Obedience to God our Soveraign Lord and King This self same Law did God engrave in Man's heart even when he created him For that before the written Law of Moses there was an unwritten Law of Nature must needs be granted because needs must they be bound to God who had their Beeing from him Nor could they have sinned against him if they had had no Law from him For where no Law is there is no transgression Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law But sin Men did all this space of time and were punished with a witness Witness Cain the old World Sodom Onan and innumerable of others and they were punished for the sins forbidden in Moses Law and the Apostle expresly teacheth that the Gentiles who never had the written Law of Moses had their Natural Law even this Law though less perfect imprinted in their Souls by which they were instructed and bound to do well and debarred from doing evil which are the two properties of all Lawes And these two properties called The work of the Law written in their Hearts they shewed their Conscience bearing witness their Hearts accusing or excusing one another The Conscience being but a correspondency and relation of a Man's Spirit unto the Law to bind or unbind condemn or absolve him Moreover the good Laws the Heathen made to punish the evils forbidden and to draw People to practice the good commanded in the Law of Moses and the endeavour of many of them to act accordingly argues the Unity of both Laws The reason of which unity is the unchangeableness of God who is alway the same Qu. What need was there of the repetition and renovation of this Law Or if there was need Why was it not sooner Answ To the former Branch though Nature brought the same things yet it did it very weakly and many conclusions were obliterated and others much obscured and all Mens hearts were weakly drawn to obey this Law very strong to obey the Law of sin And although the Law of Nature could scarce never have been extinguished in Principles and Grounds yet it might and was and would have been more in Applications Men took evil for good and good for evil and grew more and more vain in their imaginations To the latter Branch Man's heart was not after his Fall throughly humbled but thought his own reason sufficient for his Guide therefore God would leave the World a while to try them and let them see their own weakness Besides sin was not come quickly to such a pitch and height as afterward it did and yet we finde that God did by peece-meal and occasionally teach them this Law presently and almost equipollently before its solemn Proclamation The Unity of these two Laws lets you see as the constancy and Immutability of your God who is not as other Law-givers who build and pull down and whom a Man knows as well how to
of the Day we are not of the Night nor of Darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others There is a twofold waking literal and metaphorical the former is sometimes a punishment Thou holdest mine Eyes waking It is alwayes a duty to with-hold your Eyes from immoderate and unseasonable sleep How long will thou sleep O sluggard when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep Too many Christians willingly suffer this Thief to steal away the best and feed upon the very fat of their time which are a shame to the House they live in It was thought in Austin's time to be an undecent thing for a Christian at any time of the Year to have the Sun beames finde him in Bed How early every Morning was David up at his Devotions My Voice shalt thou hear in the Morning O Lord. In the Morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee Awake up my Glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early yea mine Eyes prevent the Night Watches that I might meditate on thy Word I have awaked of my self in the Night before I have been called upon by the Watchmen who give warning of the seasons of the Night Yea at Mid-night will I arise to give thanks unto thee This was ordinary for the Servants of this House to do their Master service as well by Night as Day Behold bless ye the Lord all ye Servants of the Lord which by Night stand in the House of the Lord. Nothing was more ordinary in Primitive times in the House of godly great Men than to have Vigils Paul says of himself that he was oft in voluntary fastings which he undertook to fit himself the better for Supplications and Prayer So oft in such Watchings It 's said of our blessed Saviour that He continued all Night in Prayer to God Come lye all Night in Sackcloth ye Ministers of my God David fasted and went in and lay all Night upon the Earth This was extraordinary literal watching for spiritual ends and for our imitation upon like occasions time allow'd to spend in sleep must sometimes be set apart for religious Duties And every Night of of our life when we are awake we must take care to spend piously â—is the Character of a godly Man His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate Day and Night When I remember Thee upon my Bed and meditate on Thee in the Night Watches With my Soul have I desired Thee in the Night Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own Heart upon your Bed But it is the latter wakeing and watching which the Apostle chiefly intends when he saith let us not sleep as do others that is through carelesness slacking giving over acts of faith and piety or doing them listlesly or perfunctorily sluggishly or by being lull'd asleep and over-burthened by worldly desires cares or pleasures 't is an heedful observation of our selves in all things and a serious careful and diligent circumspection over all our thoughts words and ways that we may please God by doing his will and neither commit any sin nor omit any duty This Christian heedfulness is very frequently and earnestly urged upon God's People no duty more Take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently take heed unto your selves lest ye forget the Covenant take diligent heed to do the Commandment and the Law take heed then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh at Evening or at Mid-night or at the Cock crowing or in the Morning lest coming suddenly he finde you sleeping and what I say unto you I say unto all Watch. This watchfulness must be in all things what Saint Paul saith unto Timothy who was as all Gospel-Ministers should be religious faithful Watch-men warning their People of spiritual dangers and enemies as God's Prophets of old were somewere then as too many are now careless Guids Watch-men in Name but not in truth wretched or rather wretchless and scarce Watch-men he saith to every private Christian Watch thou in all things Evil civil good Take heed how ye hear read pray give Almes How you do the works of your particular Calling and even natural actions eat drink play and watch over all the powers and parts both of your Souls and Bodies your outward Senses Eyes and Eares and tast and touch Job 31. 1. Mat. 5. 28. Psal 119. 37. Esay 33. 15. Pro. 23. 1 2 3. Your Tongues especially Psal 39. 1. 37. 30. Pro. 15. 4. 7. 23. 18. 20. 25. 11. 1 Cor. 15. 31. Jam. 3. 2. Mat. 12. 34-38 Psal 45. 1. Eph. 4. 29. Col. 4. 6. But above all your hearts must be watched over Pro. 4. 23. Heb. 3. 12. And you must watch especially against those sins that are most dangerous and whereto you are naturally most inclined Luk. 3. 12 13 14. 12. 15. The Pathes of your Feet must also be pondered Pro. 4. 26. And this must be in all places and at all times all the days of your lives Deut. 4. 9. Nor must you only watch over your selves but over your Brethren also Heb. 10. 24. 3. 13. Gen. 4. 9. Lev. 19. 17. A great many reasons may quicken you to this duty besides the many Precepts that press it in reference to your selves 1. The estate and condition wherein you stand 1. You are weak at best full of infirmities Mat. 26. 41. As they that have weak sickly Bodies observe a strickt Dyet so should you much more be careful and fearful whose Souls are so 1 Cor. 10. 12. Phil. 2. 12. Pro. 28. 14. 2. You are naturally drowsie and therefore had need to do as the Nightingal that is said to set her Brest against a Thorn to keep her self from sleeping Mat. 25. 5. Cant. 5. 2. Eph. 5. 14. The wise as well as foolish Virgins slept your hearts are naturally wicked and deceitful and desperatly wicked Jer. 17. 10. Psal 18. 57. Deut. 11. 16. Heb. 3. 12. 1. You are extreamly apt to relapse into your former condition Rev. 2. 5. Mat. 12. 45. 2 Pet. 2. 21 22. 2. You have many mighty and subtile and malicious and dangerous enemies Eph. 16. 12. 1 Pet. 5. 8. 3. Great are the benefits of this continual watchfulness You will hereby tame your Flesh The wildest Beasts are tamed by watching This will be a great furtherance to your Prayers and hereby you will be kept from being foiled by temptations Mat. 26. 41. 4. Great is the danger of neglecting this one Moment There is no sin but may be sowne in you while you sleep Mat. 13. 24. witness David 2 Sam. 11. and so you hazard your salvation Means enabling you to the performance of this duty are 1. Sobriety in the