you find in these things when your acâ—â—unt comes to be made up The Apostle makes that Appeal to them after they were enlightened and sanctified and so best able to judge Rom. 6. 20 21. What fruit had yee while servants of Sin what wages for your service Shame and Death being the end of those waies Then you had a Thousand times better been in the House of God seeking Glory and Life 3 Time spent in God's House is better tâ—â—â— spent about any secular Business or Worldly Concerns It 's Lawful yea a Duty to be diligent in your particular Callings God hatâ— Commanded us in the sweat of our brows to get our Bread and enjoyned us six dayes â—o labour and doe all that we have to doe 〈◊〉 â—e hath promised us if we acknowledge 〈◊〉 iâ— our waies to direct our pathes to proâ—â—â—â—â—s whithersoever we turn our selves to bless our Labour in the House and Field c. In all this our Labour there is Profit but yet no such Profit or gain as is to be had in the House of God Let men be in their Fields Gardens Orchards in their Shops Ware-houses let them be Labouring Merchandizing there and have never so many advantages before them to get by their Commodities let them buy and sell and get gain and as much gain as they would propose to themselves or could wish yet still one day in God's House is better than a Thousand thus improved God gives greater wages for working in his House than can be gotten with all our paineâ— and Contrivance in our own Iâ—â—arms and Merchandize interfere with your Call of the Gospel if worldly Cares and Business 〈◊〉 Thorns to Choak the Word to dâ—aden your Affections thereto draw away your Spirits therefrom and hinder your fruitfulness under the same they are to be lookt upon as Snares and Traps and Cheaters and to be treated accordingly But use these things how you will with never so much Care and Circumspection still your Time in the House of God will be found your best Time 4. I may add that Time is better spent in God's House than in Religious duties in a private way Nor can one spend that Time lawfully much less profitably in private devotions which is appointed for publick Worship if God gives him an opportunity of enjoying it Going to the House of God with the Company that keep Holy day is far more eligible profitable than tarrying at home tho' a man should read a better Sermon in his own House than he may hear in God's House Doubtless David had his waies of secret Communion with God while in the Wilderness but he was so far from being satisfied therewithal that those Tasts he had there served only to increase his hungerings pantings breathings after the Sanctnary and seeing the Glory of God in the beauty of Holiness which he had seen there And that is indeed one principal use of private Devotions to prepare us for and increase our desires after Publique Ordinances and Fellowship with God in them To take up with them in the Neglect of the other is crosse to one of their main ends and very injurious to our selves For the further proveing See Gurnal's Epist Dedicat to his Spiritual Armour pt 1. pag. 3. of this Doctrine I shal give these 2 reasons Reas 1. Because there are a Thousand times better things to be gotten in the House of God than els-where and therefore a Day there is better than a Thousand Reas 2. Because the attending on God in his House is the only sure way to get not only those things so much better in value but even those other things also ever and above for the getting of which the House of God is too frequently neglected If these two Things be demonstrated the Doctrine will be abundantly evinced The former Reason or Argument may be thus framed That place where there are things to be seen and enjoyed that are a Thousand times better than those to be had else where is the place in which to be one day is better than a Thousand But the House of God is the place where there are things to be seen and enjoyed that are a Thousand times beter than those that are to be had elsewhere Therefore one day there is better than a Thousand Of the former Here be the best things to be seen and gotten Profit Pleasures Honour are the Idols that the world wonders after that they sacrifice their Time Strength and spirits unto Now that which is true Profit or Gain real Honour substantial Pleasure is here and here only to be had Here are true Riches the Jewel of inestimable value which he that gets gets more than the whole world is worth and this Pearl is hid in the Field of the Gospel inclosed within the Pale of the Courts of Gods House The product of the Toyl and travel of many a day is only a little earth let a man search up and down the world Compass Sea and Land Ransack the Bowels of the Earth for the hidden Treasures that are there Tire out himself in the Multitude of his way Waste away his Time and wear away his strength rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of Carefulness and when all is done what hath he gained why a very small portion a poor pittance that which is so far from deserving the Name of profit that it is a meer vanity and vexation of spirit Solomon look'd upon his Houses Lands Gardens Orchards Men-servants and Maid-servants with whatever else he had spent so much time about in the world and finds that there was no profit under the Sun but in this Market is that rich Commodity to be had which he is a wise Merchant who sells all that he has to purchase It is the Scope of Christ Prov. 8. to prevail with men to hearken to his voice come to his House wait dayly at his Posts that being instructed by him they might be followers of him NÌ„ow because he knew men would object the necessity of attending their worldly Business Farmes Merchandize c He therefore obviates that Objection that there was more Gain to be gotten at his house than in their own Farmes more profit by hearing his voice than by tilling their Fields plowing their Land or by buying selling and lets them know that his Revenues Merchandize was better than choice Silver or fine Gold that all the wealth of the world was not to be compared therewith ver 10 11 12. with Chap. 2. 13 14 15. It is Rational that men should lay out their mony where they may have the most suitable Commodities best Peniworths then come to me saith Christ to my House the Gospel-market hear and your souls shall live do not lay out your mony for that which is not bread Isa 55. 1 2 c. As for Pleasures and Delights there are none like those that are to be had in God's House There is
more Sweetness in one hour's Fellowship with God in his House than in all the pleasures of sin for a whole Life-time See what plentiful Provision the Lord makes and invites us to there Isa 25. â— fat and marrowed things and wine upon the lees No Cook dresses such meat no Tavern sells such drink The Lord in his House makes such provision as abundantly exceeds what is to be found in any other and those that seriously attend there do find abundant satisfaction therein Psal 36. 8. And as for matter of Honour none like that which God puts â—pon them who honour him as all diligent conscientious waiters upon him in his House eminently do It is their glory to come near him and behold his Glory and there as in the Context ver 11. he gives glory and that is true Honour indeed It is the Honour and Glory of Angels to be waiting upon God in his upper House of Glory of Men to wait upon him in his lower house of the vissble Church where we may both see speak of and partake in his Glory To be admitted unto near approaches to God in his House is a greater Honour dignity than to be admitted to stand before converse with the greatest Potentates upon earth If then account themselvs much honour'd by the Company of great men much more Honour is it to be in the Company and dwell in the House of the Great God And that which commends the good things of God's House to â—â— above all other is that they are soul-Blessings soul-profit soul-pleasures c. Now as much as the Soul is better than all the world so much does soul-profit exceed all other profits whatsoever A little soul-good is infinitly better than a great deal of worldly good and consequently soul-loss is the worst loss Suppose you should gain a little worldly profit or pleasure while you might have been at a Sermon yet you lose soul-profit pleasure the while then your loss exceeds your gain Suppose you should be filling your purse by the one you are thinning your souls by the other you get bodily refreshment comfort c but you lose soul-benefit and souls-pining will not be recompensed by your estates-thriveing Isa 55. 3. hear and your souls shall live work toyl labour and your bodies may live tho' possibly they mayn't neither but hear and your souls shall certainly assuredly everlastingly live If men would but consider that they have souls and thereupon study the worth of them til they find the preference of their souls to their bodies they would then prefer soul-enrichments in God's House above all worldly profit or pleasure in their own but while men are carnal sensual and bruitish minding only their bodies and those things that do concern their bodies this Argument will neither be understood by them nor be prevalent with them Oh pray the Father of spirits the God that hath made us these souls that he would also make us to know what our souls be and what is the Concernment of our souls above all other Considerations in the world then we should realize that the enlightning of the soul converting of the soul restoring of the soul Satisfying the hungerings and thristings of the soul strengthening us with strength in our soul communion with the dearly beloved of our souls and making our souls to rejoyce in Him the universal prosperity of our souls and Salvation of our souls at last all which good things are to be attained in God's House are the Best of all blessings and consequently the attending on God there the most profitable and delightful of all duties and by many Thousand degrees eligible before all other Imployment whatsoever More particularly these that follow are some of those things to be gotten in the House of God that are a Thousand times better than what are to be had else where e. g. 1. Here is the word of God the powerful enlightening converting sanctifying saving word of God to be heard and the efficacy of it to be felt and experienced the Word preached which is the wisdome of God and the power of God to salvation Rom 1. 16. 1. Cor. 1. 18. 24. The Word by which blind eies are enlightened deaf ears opened dead souls quickned unconverted ones converted unbelievers brought to the Faith of Christ Act. 26 18 Dayes of being in the House of God are dayes of power in which God is wont by his Word to speak to the Hearts of poor needy waiters upon him and makes sinners a willing people Psal 110. 3. Here David met with that Word which was more worth to him thaâ— Thousands of silver and Gold and more sweet than the Honey and the Honey comb Psal 19. 10. with 119. 103. He that brings his Heart not his body only as many do to the House of God and laies it under the droppings of God's Word there he by so doing laies himself in the way of Light and Life and puts his soul under the Influence of an Ordinance appointed by God for the conveying of all spiritual good to him it being the Lord's way to do all by his Word If any of you come to the House of God on a Sabbath day and there God meet with you and bring your souls within the Net of the Gospel and save you then you will say it was the best way of spending Time that ever you met with If the Lord shall please to draw you off from your worldly Occasions and allure you into his House upon a Lecture-day and there speak to your Hearts and by his Spirit work upon you for your souls everlasting Good you will then be as so many living Monuments of the Truth of this Doctrine you will have the Witness in your selves and be able to set your seals to the experienced verity thereof 2. Here is the best Company to be had and such as is a Thousand Times better than what you will meet with else where And Company is a very attracting thing for the sake of good-fellowship falsly so called is many an hour and many a good day in God's House lost whereas here is that which is truly and deservedly called Good-fellowship Here God Father Son and Spirit are to be seen and Conversed with the Vision of and Fellowship with God are the great things here to be enjoyed It s â—â—ue God may be seen and conversed with elswhere but not in that manner and measure as here nor at all savingly by those that may but will not wait upon him here They have seen his goings in the Sanctuary Psal 68. 24. and so may we the sight of that Beauty which David there desired Psal 27. 4. is free for us also This is eminently a Place of drawing near to God and if you engage your hearts to draw â—ear to him there he will there meet you and bless you Exod. 20. 24. Now if you can fare so well in the House of God as to get a light of him
alwayes dwell in our Land 6. Then we should above all other Things fear losing a day in God's House yea fear losing the House of God and being outed of our Possession thereof According to the value of a thing is our Love to it Desire to keep it Fear to lose it Now if being in God's House is a Thousand times better than other-where then we should be a Thousand times more afraid about that than any thing else It is now a Time of Fear with us some fear they shall lose this thing some that and some another but above all fear and tremble for the Ark fear for the House Ordinances of GOD there is most Cause of Fear we have a Thousand times more cause to fear for God's House than for our own houses lands c. And if we are providentially kept from the House of God by Sickness or otherwise it should afflict us more than being kept from our own business To have lost a day through any inadvertency or neglect of his own or through any Adverse Providence that has disappointed him in his Expectation or blasted his Endeavours is afflictive to an industrious man but to have lost a day from or in the House of God should be by many degrees more grievous to a serious soul nor should our being driven out of our own houses be so yrksome to us as the Lord 's plucking up stakes or breaking up house among us We live in Times of Plucking up and pulling down to be now seeking great Things for our selves in the world would be absurd and blame worthy Ier. 45. but to be seeking the greater things of God's House and to be most Thoughtful about the Continuance thereof and our dwelling therein all the dayes of our life is very becoming in us and will be no less acceptable unto God The only way to secure what is our own is to be most solicitous about the concerns of God's House let our Hearts be mainly there and then we may roul the Burden of all other Cares upon him 7. This Doctrine doth intimate to us with what spirit and Frame we should go when ever we go to the House of God viz. with an high esteem of it Expectation of great things in from it Value an hour there worth a Thousand and expect to receive accordingly They had no more because they askâ— no more Jam. 4. 2 3. and we have no more because we expectâ— no more There is ordinarily some proportion between our Receivings and our Expectations and the Reason is because Expectations arising from the sence of our need and the reallizing that there is a supply to be had and being accompanied with answerable preparation and Attention bring us under a promise The Text tells us there is a Thousand times more to be had in the House of God than else-where then we should expect as much as the Word saith and the Lord is not wont to fail his people of their Expectations Psal 9. 18. The Expectation of the poor shall not perish But we may add something further to this in the sequel 8. Is one Day in God's House better than a Thousand then the Lord expects that they who dwell in his House should be better and doe better than other men Where much is given much is required They who live in His House fare better than any others are known above all the families of the earth Amos 3. 2. He hath not dealt so with any other Nation Psal 147. 20. Such have better Liberties better meanes better opportunities a Thousand times better than those who are not thus favoured and therefore their knowledge their principles their Hearts and Conversations should be better If any Heathen have more moral Honesty Sobriety Love c. than we beware such do not rise up in Judgment against â—s condemn and triumph over us in the Day of Account The Lord does and justly may look for better Grapes from his Vineyard upon which he had bestowed such costly and careful Husbandry and in the midst of which Himself dwelt than he could have expected from the Wilderness Isa 5. 1 4. Hence that chideing and stinging Interrogation implying great disappointment of just expectation in himself the Lord speaking there after the manner of men and unreasonable unaccountable Ingratitude in them ver 4. Wherefore when I looked it should bring forth Grapes brought it forth wild grapes We that have all the Precious and Pleasant things of God's House afforded and at thiâ— time continued when it is not so with others are better dealt with and at a Thousand times more chargeable rate maintained than they if our Returns be not somewhat singular we shall never be able to hold up our Heads wheâ— God shall thus interrogate us as he did them and if he should take away our Hedge and break down our stone wall and leave us to be eâ—â—en up and trodden down and forbid the clouds to 〈◊〉 upon us so that in the Issue we be laid waste 〈◊〉 he adds ver 5 6. If he should take away the Vineyard from us and let it out unto others that should render him the fruit in their seasons as Mat. 21. 41. and when he had done all this refer the matter to our own Judgment as he did to theirs Isa 5. 3. our Consciences would constrain us to say Righteous art thou O Lord. God was angry with Hezekiah not because he made no Returns at all that sanctifying Grace he had in him would not let him be altogether unthankful but it 's said Hezekiah rendered not According to the benefits done and hence was Wrath upon him 2. Chron. 32. 25. His Returns were not according to Expectation so proportionable to his Receivings as they might have been and there lay the Controversy We wrong and reflect upon the Name and House of God and the priviledges we enjoy there under so many better dayes and better things for want of better Conversations with which tho the Lord may bear long he wilâ— not alwaies USE 2. By way of Reproof If One day in God's House be worth a Thousand then they are blame-worthy who in their Judgement or practice or both are guilty of Slighting Undervalueing or Neglecting the same and what is lightly esteemed will be neglected Now these are faulty not only for wanâ— of due respect to an Institution of God or instiâ—â—ted Worship which ought alwaies to be observed with 〈◊〉 Veneration as that about which the Lord is wont more especially to 〈◊〉 himself â— jealous God but they are to be reproved from the Text under that Notion as not consulting their own interest while they put a slight upon that wherein their greatest Profit Advantage is concerned herein they miss it in not doing well for themselves And here we may take notice either of a Total or at least very frequent Neglect in some so as not to come at all or if they do it s very rarely or else when
they do come it is not in such a manner as they would if they believed there were such profit there Non-Attendance rare-Attendance superficial and slighty Attendance are all of them very unsuitable and unbecoming such a place and such Ordinances There are some whom you shall seldom see at a Sermon at least upon a Lecture day are strangers to the House of God I cannot say do not know but may say are very rarely found in the way thither A most unworthy thing that God should set up an House among us and promise to afford us his Presence and give us a meeting there and men cann't find in their Hearts to wait on him at the Time and Place appointed That God should make such preparation for us in his House and send to invite us and tell us he will make us very welcome there to the best he has and that he is there waiting to entertain us and be gracious to us and any should send him that Answer that they have no mind to come or if they do come it is in such a manner which the heart-searching and all-seeing God observes as does declare that their whole heart is not in the work To see the High-way to the House of God mourn in a day of Contradiction and treading down in the valley of Vision because men are through Persecution by an Hand of Violence hindred from walking therein is a great Affliction matter of sore Lamentation but to see the High-way thither mourn in a time of Liberty and Encouragement either because when they may they will not walk therein or if they do it is with much Formality 〈◊〉 Indifferency this is much more a Lamentation as being the great sin and provocation of the Lords Sons and Daughters When the way is blockt up by Persecution it is but the Suffering of Professors tho' the sin of Persecutors but their own declining when the way is open is the great sin of Professors If when God sets and holds open the doors of his House which are the Gate of Heaven they put away Eternal life from themselves that is far worse than to have others keep them off from it and the meanes of attaining it For themselvs to bid God depart from them is a sorer evil than for others to bid them depart from God And indeed such do as it were say concerning God he may be gone from them if he will they care not for the Knowledge of his wayes nor do they desire to see or be acquainted with him Some do this out of Opinion pretending to have found a better Rule and greater light within and thereupon despise external Ordinances lay them aside as things beneath themselves calling them Forms which persons of their Attainments have no need of tho' it is much to be doubted that while they cast off Instituted Forms there is a Form of wholesome Words and a Form of wholsome Worship also they leave themselves without Form and its to 〈◊〉 feared will be found as the ancient Chaos was also void and darkness over the faces of them too notwithstanding all their pretences to a more-than-ordinary Degree of Light Of these I shall say little at present because I presume there are few or none here this day to hear me Only this word or two viz. That is a false and unfreindly Light within that bereaves men of the Light of the Word and help of Ordinances from without from whence sincere souls have alwayes found through the Concurrence of the Spirit the greatest Qnicknings and safest Conduct If the Light within â—e darkness or lead men into darkness and keep them out of those wayes wherein they might meet with enlightening how great is that darkness It little availes to dispute with men that are wise in their own eyes and wedded to their own wayes our best way of Argueing with such is practical viz. by so Prizeing Valuing Using the Ordinances of God's House as that our Proficiency 〈◊〉 them and Benefit by them may be even in their Consciences a Testimony for them which will be wanting if we that use them live no better than they that use them not This only I shall say that David a man full of Light and Love desired that he might take a lease of the House of God to dwell in for his Life-time Psal 27. 4. And Christ pomised that in the way of Preaching Baptism and by like reason all other Ordinances of his House he would be with them to the end of the world therefore the Command to wait on him in such Institutions and the promise of his presence and Blessing upon so waiting concerns us in these daies and will those that shall succeed us so long as the world lasts Know also that no Christian is or shall be really and according to Rule I mean what ever he may through any mistake cenceive above Ordinances whilst beneath Heaven Others see no Glory in God's House find no Good Get no profit thereby and therefore neglect it an Objection long agone made by them and Answered by the Prophet Malachi Chapt. 3. something has been already spoken thereunto I shall add a few words more Possibly their own experience may tel them so they using Ordinances when they did use them with their wonted slightiness and Formality found no profit in them and thereupon gave over laying the blame upon the Ordinances which was only justly chargeable upon their Formality and Hypocrisie in the use of the Ordinances And here note that Christ himself gives that as the true Reason of their worshiping God in vain Mat. 15. 8 9. not because it was a vain thing to worship God but because they did not worship him in a right manner they were Hypocrites ver 7. and they did draw nigh him with their mouth and honour him with their lips but their heart was far from him and therefore did they worship him in vâ—in It is no sign that the Things in God's House are not Good Things best Things yea a Thousand times better than other things because they are not so to thee No no it remains an everlasting Truth that there are fat and marrowed Things in the House of God tho' they may seem to be dry sapless and unsavory Things unto thee There is Divine Glory and Beauty there tho' thou see it not and if it be hidden from thee thou mayst with trembling Heart and Hands turn to the 2. Cor. 4. 3. and there read thy present Condition at least however God may in mercy enlighten thee afterwards If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Thou goest up and down the world with the black mark of a lost man upon thee If that be true that God's word doeth Good to them that walk uprightly Mic. 2. 7. what mayst thou judge of thy self to whom it does no good Do not therefore forbear to come because thou hast hitherto found no profit rather prepare thy self so to come as that