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
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
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
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
9 10. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the most High thy Habitation there shall no evil befall thee neither shall any Plague come nigh thy dwelling IT is as natural for all Men to desire happiness as it is For the sparks to flie upwards To make them happy there is required an absence of all oppressing evils and a concurrence of all things necessary convenient and decent Among and above many other things an habitation or resting place for their bodies is needful to their outward happiness without which they cannot but be miserable whatever other good things they may enjoy Herein our blessed Saviour seems to prefer the felicity of Foxes and Fowles before his own The Foxes have Holes and the Birds of the Aire have Nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head The better House any Man hath the more happy he is in that He that hath the best is happiest Now that House is best that is higher stronger larger more lightsome warm and better furnished with provisions and all desirable accommodations than any other That is not subject to any casualties and which secures its Inhabitants from all manner of evil present and future And withall is a resting place for their Souls They that have such an habitation cannot but be acknowledged by all the World to be the only happy People in the World If the Question be where such an habitation can be found Where such a People And by what means they become thus superlatively happy This Text resolveth it The habitation is the Lord who was David's refuge even the most High Find him and this habitation is found The People are such as he to whom David directs his Speech whom the Lord himself describes and ownes a little after He hath set his love upon me he hath known my Name The meanes whereby this People come to be possessed of this happiness it is by their own making Because thou hast made the Lord c. Who the Lord is it is well known even Israel's God the same whom we Christians own and worship One in Essence Three in Subsistence the Father the Son the Holy Ghost What and what a One he is his Name Jehovah in part imports an Absolute Simple Infinite Independent and Immutable Beeing That he is a real habitation appears by all those places of Scripture where Men are said to Dwell in God whereof we shall have occasion hereafter He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall lodge under the shaddow of the Almighty He that keepeth his Commandements dwelleth in him Hereby we know that we dwell in him because he hath given us of his Spirit Whoso shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God he dwelleth in God He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God That he is such an Habitation as hath been formerly mentioned and consequently the best as far surpassing all others even the choicest under Heaven as the stateliest Pallace in the World doth the poorest Cottage or Heaven Earth and infinitely more is now to be proved And hereby the Conclusion asserted will be evinced to be a truth That all and only they are the most yea the only happy People upon Earth whose Habitation the Lord Jehovah is 1. Begin we with the Properties of this House The first whereof is Height expressed in the Text. The Scituation of it is exceeding high The Babel-builders designed to erect a Tower whose top might reach unto Heaven This is far above it They that are in it are out of danger of any deluge beyond the reach of Men or Devils David calleth God his high Tower And he that can as David could prove God to be his Habitation is said to dwell in height 2. It is also a non-such for strength Hear that holy Man of God thankfully acknowledging what God had been for him in times past Thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong Tower from the Enemy And what he was at present Thou art my strong refuge And he not only prayeth that God would still be his strong habitation whereunto he might continually resort his strong Rock for an house of defence to save him But frequently declares his confidence that as God was so he would ever be as he wished and how oft doth he call him his strength His Son tells us he is the same to every one that is as he was The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous runneth to it and is safe And the Prophet Esay praiseth God for this Thou hast been a strength to the Poor a strength to the needy in his distress a refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the Wall The greatest Canon-bullets shot against the Walls of this House make no more Impression do no more execution than Paper-pellets shot against a Wall of Brass or Marble 3. It is a House exceeding large this is accounted a great commodity of a House to have Roomes enow and Room enough Solomon intimates as much when he saith it is better to dwell in a Corner of the House top than with a brawling Woman in a wide House To have any thing we use too narrow or too streight is very troublesome The Bed is shorter than that a Man can stretch himself on it and the Covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it In God there is Room more than enough both for the understanding and affections of Man to expatiate themselves in Canst thou by searching finde out God Canst thou by searching finde out the Almighty to perfection 'T is as high as Heaven What canst thou do deeper than Hell What canst thou know the measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea His Commandements are exceeding broad How much more are his Attributes Absolute and Relative proper and figurative God bid Abraham to walk through the Land of Canaan which is called a good Land and a large good because large in the length of it and in the breadth of it And he bids every Child of Abraham to whom he gives himself for a possession as he gave that Land to Abraham to walk within and pass through all his Divine Properties going out of one Room into another as also his great and precious promises Nor shall they have cause to complain of straitness as the Churches Children do in their Mothers eares The place is too strait for me give place to me that I may dwell To whom we may conceive her giving them this Answer Children though your bodies may be present in your Earthly dwellings the faculties of your souls have space enough abundantly more than your faculties can conceive in God who saith to every Saint of his dwelling in him apt to make the like complaint as Paul to the Corinthians Ye
meat for those that are of full age profounder and more mysterious Doctrines The Stewards of the House appointed to dispense both to both as they are able to bear them As the head of the House taught them to do by his practice every part and particle of the Holy Scriptures Histories Precepts Prohibitions Promises threatnings are all of them choice Viands wherewith holy Souls are satisfied as with marrow and fatness Nor are they only meat but Medicinal also and therefore called wholsome words that have a healing property in them The Spirit of God accompanying his word is called by our Saviour the Water of Life Hadst thou asked of me said he to the Woman of Samaria that denyed to give him of her Water I would have given thee a better and far more excellent kind of Water than this is that I have desired of thee Whosoever drinketh of this Water shall thirst again but whoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst Of this living Water they that dwell in God do drink continually whereby the thirst of their Souls after earthly things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is quenched And their consciences are satisfied and quieted against the sense and apprehension of Gods wrath due for their fins And the sense of his love affected by this Water is better than Wine whose property is to comfort the heart beget new Spirits purge warm refine and waken them Yea this House is a House of Wine And the graces and fruits of the Spirit are delightful to them as Wine with which they being spiritually drunk have inward spiritual joy bred in them testified in the private and publick praises of God by Psalmes Hymns and spiritual Songs Their hearts being merry and chearful They make a rejoyce as if they were set on fire with Wine But here is another food which every one of this House have for commons every Day The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed Note well that spiritual things have their truth and reality as much and beyond comparison in their kind as corporal ones have theirs This meat and drink surpasseth all other upon a manifold account 1. Of the place from whence it comes This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven Not out of the middle Region of the Aire as Manna did but from the highest Heaven 2. The Variety of Viands in it for all things are in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption Let our wants be what they will let our wills be what they can to feed on this or that dish Nothing can be imagin'd nourishing or cheering which is not to be found in Christ Manna which was but a type of this true bread is said to have had all sorts of good tasts in it 3. Of the sufficiency of it for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily The whole Mass and gathering together of all Divine and everlasting goods Whereof the parcels and streams do issue out upon the Church They are in him not in shaddows and figures as in the Old Testament but in reality and substance And of his fulness have we all received grace for grace Not a fulness of abundance only but a fulness of redundance also out of which a sufficient portion is distributed to every of his Members There can be no want in him where Riches are unsearchable As he is able to save them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him and so to satisfie them that feed upon him as it is said of those four thousand Men beside Women and Children They did all eat and were filled 4. Of the powerful efficacy that is in it I am the Bread of Life That is there remains in me received and applyed by a lively faith power to quicken the Soul that is dead in sin separated from God the true Spring of Life and to preserve it alive by a communicative and continual influence of Divine grace and to give it also the life of joy and comfort yea and to cure not only all the Maladies that molest the Life of Grace but of Nature also 5. Of the permanency of it this is not like other Food and Physick that perisheth it self and is not able to keep the body into which it is received from perishing Upon which account we are forbidden to labour for it Labour not for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of Man shall give unto you What is that The Bread that I will give is my Flesh If any Man eat of this Flesh he shall live for ever This Meat and Drink is every Day received by this whole Houshold not after a corporal and carnal manner as those Capernaites conceived Christs meaning How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat But by believing that it was given for them and is the Price of their sins to God He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst As Meat is received into the stomack by eating so is Christ into the Soul by believing He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him that is to say is inseparably united to me and I to him even as food is with him that eats it This and no other way is this meat and drink received in the Holy Supper wherein here is or ought to be a frequent communicating where and when every Communicant by eating and drinking the consecrated Bread and Wine being Sacramentally Christ's body and blood Signes to represent it Seals to confirm aud Instruments really to exhibit them doth acknowledge and preach the benefits of the Lord's Death and protesteth to take part thereof by a lively faith which is as the Eye and Hand to the Mouth and Stomack of the Soul taking Christ into and uniting him to them even as corporal Food is by eating and digesting united to the Body 6. This is that Feast of fat things of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined which the Lord of Hosts promised to all Nations gathered together in his Church to some of all veiling Heavenly things under Earthly condescending so low as to enter into the inward Man by the outward our apprehensions being so weak and narrow that we cannot otherwise be acquainted with them while our Souls are in our Bodies They are much guided by our fancy and then spiritual things are conveyed to them this way only we must remember that there is a far greater excellency in the things themselves than in their representations For what is
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
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
his Hypocrisie Qu. What was wanting in these Chapmen that bid thus fairly for this House and went without it Answ Three things which you must bring to make up the Price of this Purchase or fare as they did Namely 1. Poverty of Spirit they came with Money You must come without or go without Come buy without Money and without Price He that hath no Money Come apprehend your selves in the prodigals condition in extream want of grace and in debt to divine Justice ten thousand Talents and utterly unable to pay one Unite To such a Chapman will the Lord look and hearken For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of an humble spirit And to be sure he dwelleth in God in whom God dwelleth Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven 2. Self-denyal If any Man will come after me let him deny himself Christ was going unto his Fathers Bosome he was there always they that go after him must needs go in thither this only self-denyers do who forsake the motions of their own corrupt reason and will loath whatsoever is lovely to Nature that will hinder them in the course of godliness mortifie the old Man crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts yea dispose themselves to hate even their neerest kindred in case the love of them be incompatible with the love that is due â—o Jesus Christ Nor is their life â—ear to them nor dare they do that which they do but suspect is â—ispleasing to God Many have written divinely upon this subject Mr. Baxter incomparably 4. An intire resignation of the whole heart to Jesus Christ Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and you shall finde rest for your Souls Yield and submit our selves we must both actively and passively 5. Get into the way that leads unto this House I am the way saith Christ No Man cometh unto the Father but by me The way to get into Christ is by a lively faith denying our own righteousness and rolling our Persons Souls and Bodies upon the Person of Christ God and Man and upon his merits and righteousness and upon the promises made in him for remission of sins and salvation receiving him not only as a Savior but also as a Lord as willing to be ruled by him as well as to be saved If you finde it difficult to do this do as that poor Man did Who cryed out and said with tears I believe Lord help my unbelief 6. You that are yet in a state of nature blind and lame and worse cloathed than with Sack cloath and so unmeet to be admitted into this House Anoint your Eyes with Eye-Salve that you may see You know of whom you may have it and have faith to be heal'd of your lameness as that Cripple from his Mothers Womb had in whom the Spirit of God had infused some seeds of Faith which Paul conceived by Revelation And cast away those filthy Garments that are upon you as menstruous Clothes saying get you hence and put on other Apparel The new Man which after God is Created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth 7. Nor do you stick at any engagements or obligations or oaths required of you but freely enter into any that shall be put upon you by him who cannot impose any thing but what is holy just and good And resolve to keep them I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Thus do and you shall not fail to finde the Lord to be what a House and all desirable Furniture and Conveniencies can be unto you THE THIRD SERMON THere is yet one thing more required of you that would make God your habitation viz. That you make your selves his habitation He will not suffer any to dwell in him who freely do not suffer him to dwell in them in all the Scriptures we quoted out of the Apostle John's first Epistle Characterizing them that dwell in God We finde the dwelling to be mutual If therefore you desire to dwell in God serve his desire which is that he may enter and dwell in you in your whole Man in all the faculties of your souls mind will affections memory and conscience and in all the senses and members of your Bodies Eyes Ears Mouths Hands Feet But especially he craves the heart My Son give me thy Heart and let thine Eyes observe my Ways The heart first and then the Eyes Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lift up O ye everlasting Doors that the King of Glory may come in Mens hearts are compared to Trap-doors the lifting them up is the opening of them They must be lift off from things of the World from the things below and be lift up to things above Set your affections on things above not on things on the Earth See how earnest the Lord Jesus is with you to give him entrance Behold I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Read Cant. 5. 2 7. and observe the several degrees by which this Door comes to be opened unto him Now because it is not every heart that is fit to entertain God The heart of the Wicked is little worth The Query will be what manner of heart it is that God is willing and desirous to dwell in Our Saviour resolves the Query It is an honest and good heart For only such a heart is good soyle fit for the good Seed of the Word to fall into and God comes into the heart with his Word Qu. What is an honest heart and what makes it so Answ That is an honest heart That provides for things comely before God and Men. It was honestly said of those Israelites to Moses Go thou neer and hear all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it They have well said saith God all that they have spoken but O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me The fear of God is the principal grace that makes the heart honest And then a Man fears God when distrustful of his own insufficiency to do any thing that God requires he is studious and willing to give up himself to Christ to be taught of him and enabled by him to do all the will of God A good heart is described and set forth in Scripture by sundry Names and Epithites namely new broken single whole pure perfect And although it be true that he that hath one of these in truth hath all they are all one Yet because each of them requires a several notion to open it and because some can
quite cut off from the spiritual communion with Christ the true foundation of life and grace Or if they have brought forth any fruit at any time materially good the root and manner and end have been all naught stark naught worse than naught They never did any thing for God in obedience and out of love to him or with an intent to honour and please him thereby Take them at the best and it may be said of them what was said of Israel Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit unto himself They have been self-seekers and selfdependers and self-ascribers in all that ever they have seemed to do for God Answ To this Objection I have these two things to say 1. That it is possible for a Man to be in God and yet to see no goodness at all in himself nothing but evil nothing at all to commend him to God nothing but what may make him odious in his sight The Centurion saw nothing of worth in himself why Christ should come to him or he to Christ Though others thought him to be a worthy Man and so reported him to be to Christ And Christ himself gives testimony not only he had true faith but a great measure of it I have not found so great faith no not in Israel No more did the Woman of Canaan see any goodness in her self she confesseth her self to be an unclean Person but Christ both graceth and gratifieth her gives a very high commendation of her Heroical Faith And what goodness saw Paul in himself when he said I am a carnal Man sold under sin Hear the Confession of our Holy Mother and all her Genuine Children We are all an unclean thing all our righteousness is as filthy rags We acknowledge that our Persons and all our actions even the most praise worthy of them namely those wherewith we did thy service are all contaminated with abominable filth 2. That it is an Argument of true goodness to see little goodness much evil in thy self If thou canst and dost bewail the absence of that the presence of this findest a disallowance and deep detestation of it in thy heart and makest continual resistance against it Mourning for the want and absence of a friend argues truth of affection and love to him Thou wouldst not couldst not grieve because thou art not good if there were not in thee a love of goodness And the sight of so much sin in thy Soul proves thee to have light in it For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light And thy sensibleness of the burden of thy sins tells thee that thou livest much more thy stirring and strugling to be rid of them and the War thou makest against them A dead man can neither feel nor stir nor strive there is therefore spirit in thee as well as flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Every new Man is two Men. The two Armies in the Shulamite maintain civil broyles within her as the two Babes did in Rebecca's Womb. This Combate with Corruption may comfort thee Though still I must grant that as there is natural life and conscience in the wicked so common Grace may strive uneffectually in them And the Spirit in the Godly does conquer their reigning sin as well as strive but not all their infirmities Saint Paul doth comfort himself with this raising up his Soul even to an holy insultation and triumphing For after he had described the two contrary principles the Combatants within him the unregenerate and regenerate part and the combate or conflict it self between them That hindering from the evil which he would do and putting him upon the evil he would not do This disapproving and hating the evil which he did and approving the good which he did not he comforts himself in this that he consented to the Law of God delighted in it that to will to keep it perfectly was present with him and although he found a foyl given to the new man captivated which makes him make a miserable out-cry Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death that is tyed to me and which I am compelled to carry about with me tired with the luggage and poysoned with the stench Yet through the Grace of God in Jesus Christ I am filled with comfort rejoyce and triumph as more than a Conqueror I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin I bless God for his Grace in Christ who doth not impute this corruption unto me to condemnation But still that it is only sins of infirmity and not such as are inconsistent with spiritual life which were in Paul and are in all the Godly So though thou seest nothing but Flesh in thy self if a Man may believe thee yet thou walkest not after it for though thou walkest in the Flesh yet thou dost not fulfill the lusts of the flesh followest not with consent the motions of thy own natural corruption Thou sowest not to the Flesh taking no other care but to please thy carnal appetite but on the contrary thou sowest to thy Spirit imploying thy care and labour in obedience to the motions of the Holy Spirit that thy will is to do so thou canst say in sincerity and this may be thy rejoycing as it was Paul's Obj. But I am full of hypocrisie which Paul was free from all the signes of hypocrisie that I finde in the Bible I finde in my self not one sign of sincerity Answ What the Apostle saith of Sin in general If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves may be said of this sin of hypocrisie if we say we have no hypocrisie the truth of Grace is not in us Obj. But it 's said of Israelites indeed that there is no guile in them And they only are blessed in whose Spirit there is no guile therefore I have cause to conclude my self cursed Answ These places must be understood as those where it is said Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God They also do no iniquity The meaning is they give not themselves over to sin they sin not with full consent they fall not into the purpose though sometimes into the act of Sin Sin reigns not in their mortal Bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof It hath not Dominion over them Obj. But this Sin of Hypocrisie Reignes in me Answ But that it doth not is evident by this because thou discernest it and art so troubled with it complainest to God and Men of it and judgest thy self for it and hatest it
also as a joyful witness both clearing our evidences and opening our minds to discern them The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Sons of God Hereby we come to have boldness confidence and a perspicuous manifestation of Divine love shed abroad in our heart and certain knowledge and full assurance of knowledge and hope of Faith Let us draw near with all full assurance of Faith The word imports a carrying on with full Saile like a Ship that hath Wind and Tyde and all the Sailes spread to the Wind. Those three parts of God's Kingdome Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost are consequents and effects of these three Applications The first namely that of adherence hath Wind and Tide against it The second hath Wind carrying it on but without Tide The third hath both Wind and Tide and all the affections like spread Sailes filled with the Gales of the Spirit causing joy unspeakable and full of Glory In the Church of Rome this Doctrine of full assurance is cryed down and an impossibility of attaining it by any ordinary Christians asserted and the main reason they render for the Confirmation of this Doctrine especially as to the subjective certainty of perseverance whereof Paul speaks when he saith I am sure that nothing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God in Jesus Christ Is the mutability of Man's will but the assurance of Christians depends not upon Man's mutable but upon the immutable will of God and upon his infallible truth who hath promised to keep them whom he receives in him by his strongest power if there can be conceived any degree in Omnipotency we are kept by the Guard of God's Power through Faith unto Salvation They askt what ground hath any ordinary Christian for special faith when there is no special promise nor any Divine testimony by audible Voice such as some choice Persons have had as Gen. 15. 1. Mat. 9. 2. Luk. 5. 20. 47. 48. 23. 42. 43. They are answered we will not contend about bare words whether it be better called special faith or assurance gathered from two promises the one in Scripture the other in our hearts so participating of Faith for that is our sence of special Faith but as to the matter 1. There are general promises with a command to apply them 2. Special Faith is gathered by argumentation thus whoever hath God's Spirit confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God that Man dwelleth in God But so have I so do I therefore I dwell in God 3. Sacraments give ground for special Faith wherein is made special application to the receivers 4. The Spirit is given for this end to believers as a seal and earnest and witness to assure them that God is their Habitation and Salvation And that it 's possible for a Christian in ordinary course to attain this grace if he do what in him lyeth We have God's express promise to this purpose Thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and Redeemer and a charge is laid upon every Christian to make his calling sure and not to come without full assurance when they draw nigh to him in Prayer and other duties of his Worship Let us draw neer him in full assurance of Faith And we have the experience of God's People in all ages for it And though they that profess they had it as Job David Paul were rare Persons Yet the Faith of the meanest Christian is of the same Nature with theirs though not in the same degree This is the Doctrine of the reformed Churches who yet deny not the difficulty of attaining the highest degree and that very few there are that attain it and fewer that have it at all times alike nor any in that perfection but that there is some mixture of doubting And this is one sign of the truth and goodness of it when it is attained with difficulty and assaulted with infidelity For there are many whom Satan and their own heart have deluded in this point who are strongly perswaded that God is theirs never doubted of their interest in him make no question but the Lord is their Habitation who entered not in by the Door never received the spirit of bondage to fear have no fear of offending God no care to please him but live in known sin against the light of knowledge and checks of Conscience which evinceth them to be in the gall of bitterness Now these who in their own conceits have taken up their dwelling in God like those buyers and sellers that took up their seats in the Temple without the Warrant against the consent of the Owner of that House must be dealt with by the Ministers of Christ as those Intruders by Christ were driven out with a scourge And as Nehemiah dealt with Tobiah who had got a Chamber in the Court of the House of God who cast both him and his stuff out of it Avoid prophaneness come not here nothing but holy pure and clear or that which groaneth to be so may enter or abide one Moment at his peril To you who can prove your assurance that you are in God to be of God by the qualification of your Persons as having formerly been humbled for your living without God in the World and at present humble your selves to walk with your God and resolve so to do to the end of your life Unto you I am sent with a manifold Word of Exhortation 1. To prize this as the greatest blessing and rejoyce in it more than in all other blessings and accordingly to praise God for it that he hath given you to know that he is your Habitation Lifting up the Light of his Countenance upon you and giving you Eyes to see that Light There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their Corn and Wine increased because thy loving kindness is better than life my Lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I live Because thou hast caused me to feel the effects of thy Grace at full even as the Sun shooteth out his Beames at Mid-Day And because I finde this to be the life of my life without which every Day would be more bitter to me than Death Therefore for this above all Mercies will I bless thee every Day and I will praise thy Name for ever 2. To hold fast what you have and be alway adding to it as worldly Men do by their Earthly substance How oft are Christians exhorted to hold fast every good spiritual thing that they have gotten Hold fast as with Tooth and Nail the faithful Word The pure and sincere Doctrine of the Gospel against those Gain-sayers that would snatch it from you and not only the matter but the forme
having this Seal the Lord knoweth them that are his that the purpose according to Election might stand Even so at this present also there is a remnant according to the election of grace All that the Father giveth me shall come to me I know my Sheep and I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish Ye are come to the Church of the first born which are inrolled in Heaven rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire Insomuch if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. So that howsoever Salvation in the execution of it depends upon the conditional use of the means yet the will of God is not conditional incompleat or mutable because God hath absolutely purposed to give his Elect both will and power to perform those very conditions required namely Repentance Faith and Perseverance For the Decree of God predestinating must not be considered after this form I will choose Peter to Eternal Life if it shall so happen that he doth believe but rather thus I do choose Peter to Eternal Life which that he may infallibly obtain I will give him faith As many as were ordained to eternal life believed according to the faith of God's Elect. Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation All gifts of grace leading into the habitation of holiness and whom to salvation are the fruits and effects of Eternal Election Neither is it true that we are Elected for faith and holiness for we are Elected unto both according as he hath chosen us in him that we should be holy Election therefore is before the spiritual blessings both in order and time Ye have not chosen me but I haven chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God As for this only General Election of all and every Man to salvation upon condition of faith it is indeed alone no Election because it predestinates no Man actually severs no one from another writes no Name in the Book of Life ordains no individual to have his habitation in God but only prescribes the manner of coming to salvation promiscuously to all neither by it is it decreed who shall be saved but what manner of Men. Moreover who holds this Universal Election alone must also grant an Universal reprobation For if God will only have all to be saved indefinitely if they will believe he willeth likewise that all shall be damned that do not believe and so God neither chooseth or refuseth any antecedently Finally this opinion makes Man's will to over-rule God's counsel Nor can you believe God's equal love to all Men when you hear him professing that he did not equally love two who were equal by Nature nor that he desires the salvation of all alike because all are not converted and saved it being as easie for him to effect as desire and by his effectual Grace to make Men of unwilling willing without destroying their voluntary liberty 3. Touching the efficacy of God the Holy Ghost working Conversion that it is not to be restrained to moral perswasion only which Man 's will may embrace or reject and finally resist is abundantly evinced by that one Text where the Apostle heaps up so many emphatical and significant words on purpose to declare the power of the spirit of God put forth in the conversion of a sinner That they may know what is the hyberbolical greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead To which many more may be added and that it depends not upon Man's free-will which can neither convert it self nor overcome divine grace to put forth for his conversion The Scripture every where plainly and expresly teacheth I mean that grace which is given with an absolute purpose to convert See 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. Col. 2. 12. 2 Thes 1. 11. Luk. 11. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 3. Next to the principal efficient causes of their happiness the instrumental are to be owned and thanked Those from whom you had your natural beeing without which you had not been capable of this or any other good Honour is due to natural Parents how poor how bad soever nor must they be despised for any default of body or mind and it is a point of piety to relieve them if they be in want Nor can you ever sufficiently requite them though it must be your study so to do Let them learn first to shew piety at home and requite their Parents for this is acceptable before God Your spiritual Parents are much more to be honoured and much less to be contemned for as much as they have been instruments of your better beeing your being in Christ in God without which you had better to have been Dogs or Toads Yea good had it been for you if you had never been born In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Think nothing too dear for these I bear you record that if it had been possible ye would have pluckt out your own Eyes and have given them unto me Time was when you held your selves happy in me and blessed the time that ever you saw and heard me Howbeit I do not say unto thee how thou owest me even thine own self Bless also all those who have been fellow-helpers with these by informing convincing reproving instructing advising comforting you against despair All these call for thankfull acknowledgment Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this Day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me from avenging my self Let the Righteous smite me reprove and chide me It shall be a kindness I will thank him for it and God for him for it and God for him The next sort of Persons to whom you owe duty to the performance whereof I shall earnestly exhort you are they who as yet are without God in the World to whom it may be said They have neither part nor lot in this matter but are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity And that not only without the Pale of the Church Twenty-Six parts of the World divided into Thirty-One having not so much as the Name of Christians and of those Five that are Christians in Name What a World of Papists are there besides Hereticks that cut off themselves from the true Church But even in the reformed Churches and even in this Land of light and Valley of Vision there are six sorts and a great number of them who dwell not
longest to be freed from it It 's Grace certainly that makes thee able to discern so hidden and close a Corruption and to hate it And as sense and feeling is a certain sign of a living Man as was now said So thy sense of hypocrisie with a hatred of it is a sure note and token of thy sincerity So that thou art not in the Flesh but in the Spirit Nor matters it so much what evil motions thou findest in thy self as how thou standest affected to them There are and will be filthy scums rising up in thy heart continually while thou livest here But while thou castest it off as it riseth by confession and self-condemnation it shall never hurt thee God will not condemn but absolve and acquit thee of it Thou mayest and oughtest to take comfort in the allowance of the Law of God in thy judgment and in thy will consenting to do it having an unfeigned desire purpose and endeavour to please God and to do his will this being the work of God's sanctifying Spirit and a special fruit of Christ's purchase as real comfort therefore herein as if thou wast perfect in obedience For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath nor shall he be rejected for that he hath not In this God's choicest Servants have comforted themselves against all their imperfections and falls and failings Obj. But I question the truth of my desires Answ That thou need'st not do as long as thou esteemest God's grace and favour above all things Seeking by prayer and other means every Day to grow less sinful and more holy and mournest for thy Daily miscarriages lamenting after the Lord. Obj. But my Conscience condemns me for an Hypocrite Ans O spiteful bitter thought bitterly spiteful thought Thou hast reason to discredit thy Conscience if it be opposite to the Word of God and not to regard it against the Word of God If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things He knowes the way thou takest that it is right And his word which is the Judge of Conscience hath given Sentence on the right side And therefore thou art bound in this case to check and condemn thy Conscience for troubling thee causlesly So did David and Job Let me give thee one caution take heed of making inherent Grace the only and chief ground of thy comfort Though it is indeed the only evidence of thy title to comfort For in so doing thou shalt commit two great evils one against thy self in leaning upon a bruised Reed for thine own Spirit may fail thee and be overwhelmed and thy heart may reproach thee another against the Lord making an Idol of that gift of his which cannot be so trusted in without sin Rely more upon God's Grace without thee than that which is within thee Yet cherish also inherent Holiness as thy only evidence of Life Eternal and the beginning of it Finally give not credit to thy misgiving heart that would perswade thee thou hast no assurance that God is thy Habitation For thou hast that degree of assurance which is necessary to the beeing of Grace the lowest degree of certainty which is in every true believer consisting in an application of adherence Whereby the Soul of a penitent sinner casts it self upon Jesus Christ with a resolved humble recumbency cleaving to him as the Ivy doth to the Oak Eagle to the Carkass goes out of it self renouncing its own Merits and relying upon the Person and Merits of Christ his active and passive obedience for forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation This is the act of Faith and every one that thus receiveth him with an Obediential affiance knows that and that through him dwelling in his heart he hath his dwelling in God You therefore as yet that have not any comfortable assurance cease hence-forth to doubt and fear and assay to joyn your selves with them that have with whom we are next to deal as Saul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples at Jerusalem Who will not at all as they were awhile of him be afraid of you but receive you joyfully into their blessed Society And when thou hast told despair Divine Herbert's strange story Say to it as he doth Hark Despair away THE FOURTH SERMON HAving dealt with those of this Divine Houshold that have as yet no comfortable assurance that the Lord is their Habitation we proceed to deal with them that have higher degrees of assurance which carry sensible comfort with them one is the Application of Experience when a Christian discerns in himself Divine impressions effects of regenerating Grace two or three whereof we will mention The prime and most general is a real change of the whole Man from evil to good This is a sure evidence of our being in Christ If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away all things are become new Whoever is changed in all his senses motions and affections speeches and actions is certainly ingrafted into the Body of Christ by his spirit The substance of the Soul and Body is the same the qualities and operations altered Another is walking in the light as God is the light Living and conversing following that light of God which is conferred upon us by Grace evidenceth us to be partakers of the Divine Nature Purifying our selves as he is pure Hereby we know we have fellowship one with another God with us and we with him that he dwells in us and we in him Love to the Brethren Christ's whole spiritual kindred who are knit to him to the bond of Faith and among themselves by that of love another infallible note We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren When a Christian's faith in lively exercise reflects upon its own acts receptive of Christ and operative by him having withall a sanctified Conscience witnessing sincerity in the actings he gathers by discourse and reasoning his own spiritual estate as Paul did Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the World and now abundantly to you-ward Such an application of experience had Thomas upon his Faith not quite exquisit before but very weak was raised and renewed by beholding touching and feeling The other application is that of evidence when the testimony of God's spirit comes and concurs with ours when we finde the Holy Ghost in us not only as a seal imprinting the graces of Christ upon our Souls nor only as an earnest giving us the first Fruits and as it were handle of Heaven Those holy and Heavenly Gift conferred in this life being a pledg of the perfection which shall be in the next but
please as shape a Coat for the Moon So also the necessity of the obedience of Mankind to the Moral Law 'T is as inseparable as it s very being it being impossible to receive a being and not with it a bond of obligation Men when they sin spurn not only against Moses but against very Nature He that owns the ground owns the Fruit also We are not our own in any of our actions And how easie a way Men have to choak temptations to Atheisme Let them take leave to deny Moses and trample him under-foot yet in their Souls they finde written in very legible Letters every Commandment of this Law 't was born with them and suckt from Natures own instruction Why then should they suspect the Law of Moses and think it a trick foysted upon them to deprive them of their pleasures Nature bearing witness that Moses is no Deceiver Finally How inexcusable Men are that live in such an Age wherein they have both these Laws One to confirm the other Two witnesses if both accuse us at the last Day how shall we escape condemnation Manifold are the uses this written Law of God doth serve unto Some common to the Elect and Reprobate Viz. to shew the excellency of Man's Nature before the Fall when he had power perfectly to keep it and the excellency of that supernatural condition in the life to come when there shall be the same yea a more glorious power and the corruption of our present condition how short we come of due perfection and the Lord 's right notwithstanding to require perfect obedience of us and to punish us for default in the least point It serves also to illustrate the Law of Nature obtenebrated by the Fall the Law of incorrupted Nature being the same in substance with the Decalogue also to discover and convince all Men of sin and their obnoxiousness to eternal Death to be a Bridle to restrain them from gross sins and finally Men are taught thereby what a one God is and how he ought to be worshipped either proper and peculiar to the Elect it serves as a guide to point thèm to Christ the Mediator and to kindle a desire in them to seek eternal righteousness and salvation by him and when they are in Christ to be a Rule of Thankfulness for the Redemption purchased by him Every Man should be thankful in the best manner he can for a benefit received What better Rule can a Christian have than that which God hath made He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord thy God Micah 6. 8. Tit. 2. 11 12. Qu. Why have you dwelt so long upon this point Answ To work in you whose dwelling the Lord is a detestation of the Antinomian Errours Many have cut off some uses of the moral Law or falsly glossed upon it but few would ever wholly abrogate it but this unhappy Sect. Like Nero who wished Rome had but one Neck that he might cut it off at one blow So these would deal with this Law of Moses It follows not the Gospel is come in therefore the Law must go out Hagar so long as she is obedient may dwell in Abraham's House To make it clear to you that the decalogue pertains to Christians consider 1. That it is confirmed by Christ 2. Commanded to Christians by the Apostle 3. Established by the Gospel how it teacheth Christ to be the end of the Law and that Justification cannot be had without that perfect righteousness which the Law requires or satisfaction for unrighteousness and that Men ought to study and endeavour it and that the observation of it is a testimony of our communion with God that he dwelleth in us and we in him as you heard in a former discourse Obj. Christians are not justified by the Law neither do they receive the promise by it therefore it pertains not at all to them Ans The consequence is false unless they could prove there were no other necessary uses of the Law but we have shewed many and there 's a number more Obj. 2d If believers are not under the Law but under Grace to them the Law doth not pertain but the former is true Ergo the latter Ans 'T is a fallacy termed from ambiguous or that which may be taken more wayes than one Not to be under the Law is not to be freed from it as a rule of life for we are inclined and disposed by God's free Spirit to the willing obedience of it but to be delivered from the burden of the Law exacting in our own Persons perfect obedience as necessary to life and from the malediction of it due to disobedience these we are freed from by Christ To be under grace is to be justified and regenerate Obj. Christians are mortified and dead to the Law Ans The same fallacy and the same solution Believers are moreover freed from that irratation to sin which is effected in unregenerate Men by the Law Obj. 4th But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held Ans The same again and the Apostle opens his meaning in the words that follow declaring our manumission from the servitude of the Law from its rigorous exaction and curse and that we have a spirit of ingenuity to obey willingly Obj. 5. Gospel-Ministers are Ministers of the Spirit not of the Letter Ans The meaning is no more but this that their Ministry is more efficacious than the Ministry of the Old Testament Obj. 6. If the Law pertain to Christians then they are under the curse of it but the latter is false Ergo the former Answ The meaning of those words of the Apostle upon which the consequence of the Connexion is grounded is plainly this that they that think Righteousness to come by the works of the Law and promise themselves Eternal life thereby are under the curse of it Obj. Christians are no longer under a School-Master Ans 1. The place is impertinent for it speaks of the Ceremonial Law mainly if not only 2. If at all of the moral the consequence is denyed for though they be not under a School-Master as the faithful under the Old Testament were yet it follows not that obligation to obedience is taken away Obj. 8. Christians are redeemed from the Laws subjection Ans Not simply as if they owed no more obedience but so far forth that they are not bound to a perfect fulfilling of it but that unfeigned assent and consent shall be accepted Obj. 9. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Ans From the Ceremonial Law Obj. 10. Against Spiritual Men there is no Law Ans To hold their Consciences under guilt yet they must be taught their duty by this holy and just and good Law Obj. 11. The Law is not made for a righteous Man Ans The meaning is
believers and those that are regenerate by God's spirit apply themselves to the obedience of the Law without constraint or terrifying having the habit of righteousness and holiness in themselves as an inward and living Law They have no need of the horror and constraint of it and also being justified by Christ they are freed from the condemnation of it seeing that a Soveraign pardon stayeth and endeth all Actions and Condemnations grounded upon the Law Great Houses with the Gardens Orchards Parks and Grounds belonging to them have their bounds and limits made by Walls Pales and Hedges That great glorious House which Ezekiah saw in a Vision had its limit This is the Law of the House upon the top of the Mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most Holy God is said to have determined the bounds of all Mens Habitations upon Earth The Ten Commandments of the Moral Law are the Bounds Walls Pales and Hedges set round about the House wherein you that are Saints on Earth inhabit beyond which you may not pass but must keep within this compass As the Waters dwelling within the great Channel have their bounds which they are commanded to keep and forbidden to transgress pass or go over I establish saith God to Job my Decree upon it speaking of the Sea break up for it my Decreed place set Bars and Doors to it Figurative terms to express the concavities wherein the Sea is enclosed and said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed You are commanded in like manner to keep within the bounds of your Decreed place and you are bound to keep within them under a greater penalty than that which was laid upon Shimei when he was confined to his House by Solomon and to the City of Hierusalem the Walls whereof were his utmost limits The King sent and called for Shimei and said unto him build thee an House in Hierusalem and dwell there and go not forth thence any whether For it shall be that on the Day thou goest out and passest over the Brook Kidron that thou shalt surely dye Abide within So long as you do so you abide with God Cursed be the Man whose Heart departeth from the Lord. As a Bird that wandereth from her Nest so is a Man that wandereth from his place Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed who do erre from thy Commandements Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy Statutes Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Every Sin small and great is a transgression of the Law Exceeds the bounds which God by his Law hath appointed unto Men for the moderating regulating of their thoughts words and actions And every transgression and disobedience every commission and omission received a just recompence of reward If at any time through frailty or violence of temptation you pass these bounds If at any time said I Alass who doth not every Day both in thought word and deed There is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not In many things we offend all David a Man after God's own heart passed these bounds oft through infirmity once most abominably Well consider what is to be done after such excursions Consider your wayes in your hearts Bend your minds very diligently weigh ponder think seriously with your selves what you have done Most Men are guilty of this neglect No Man repenteth of his wickedness saying What have I done Remember this and shew your selves Men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Be ashamed and confounded to have been found out of the bounds of your House Then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Let it not be said of you as of the generality of the Jewes in Jeremyah's time Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not at all ashamed neither Let the review remembrance and thought of every ordinary sinful digression by rash anger or any bitter expression against Wife Husband Childe Servant Neighbour by vain empty idle unprofitable conference at any time by intemperance in Eating or Drinking though never so little beyond necessity or honest delight making you unfit for divine service in either of your Callings by immoderate sleeping or not being up as early for God as for your selves or spending more time in dressing your Bodies than your Souls by wanton glances of your Eyes or lusting after strange Flesh or abusing the lawful duty of Marriage by envying and grieving at the outward welfare of others or discontentment with your own health wealth credit or carking distrustful caring for to morrow or hasting to be rich by passing rash censure upon the spiritual estate of others or speaking of their faults and follies with mirth by silence at the unsavory speeches of any or conniving at their miscarriages not reproving them at least by discountenance for fear of giving them offence by having too great a hankering of heart after things not evil in themselves Tobacco Hunting Hawking Angling Gameing though not for gain but sport by suffering buying and selling thoughts and vile distractions to have incursions and lodging within you in holy Duties Let the thoughts I say of these and numberless other sinful digressions fill your Souls with shame and blushing ing and sinful abhorrence Much more if you call to mind grosser crimes Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Nor let your shame for taking so many steps out of your Heavenly Fathers House or sense of selfloathsomeness hinder your return thither but say as that unclean spirit for it is lawful and stands with godliness honesty and reason to learn of an enemy I will return unto my House from whence I came out And as that penitent Wife that had stept aside from her Husband I will go and return unto my first Husband for then was it better with me than now So did the Prodigal resolve to do I will arise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity Go and knock at the Door of Divine Mercy confess your folly accusing and judging your selves Surely it is meet to be said unto God who hath revealed himself not only in his Law by commanding and threatning but also in his promises of grace to comfort and encourage by the remission of sins so the Italian reads the word following I