will be with thee and through the Waters they shall not overflow thee and through the fire it shall not burn thee neither shall the flame kindle upon thee for I am the Lord thy God I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins Blessed be the Poor for theirs is the Kingdome of God Blessed are ye that hunger now for you shall be filled Blessed are ye that weep now for ye shall laugh All things shall work together for good to them that love God If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to what a Man hath with a thousand more This is the Musick that David desired to hear which he calls joy and gladness Such Musick and Dancing there is to it in this House every moment and frequently an expression of spiritual joy and jollity in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual Songs makeing melody in the Heart unto the Lord. And as for Treasures of Gold and Silver there is not one of this House which hath not alway plenty of both Though many of them many a time may say as Peter did Silver and Gold have I none First they have that which is a thousand times better The Word of God which they justly claim as their Heritage for ever Thy Testimonies have I taken as an Heritage for ever as my true Soveraign and peculiar good which I hold from thee as a Child of thy grace The Law of thy Mouth is better unto me than thousands of Gold and Silver More to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold And in that word they have bonds which made by solvent Men are esteemed every whit as good as the sums therein specified Divine Promises One shall suffice for all Thou shalt lay up Gold as Dust and the Gold of Ophir as the Stones of the Brook yea the Almighty shall be thy Gold and thou shalt have plenty of Silver There are a World of goods more wherewith this House is stored the worth whereof is unvaluable the smallest quantity whereof being a thousand times more worth than a thousand such Worlds as this Visible one is The Lord the Lord God gracious merciful long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord thy right Hand is full of Righteousness Touching the Almighty he is excellent in Power and in Judgment and in plenty of Justice Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his glory Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy unto all them that call upon thee the Voice of the Lord is full of Majesty And O the fulness of God manifested in the Flesh We beheld his Glory the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Of his fulness have we all received With him is plenteous Redemption 7. This is a living House other Houses are made of dead Materials Wood and Stone most of them of Clay whose Foundation is in the Dust which are crushed before the Moth. God the Father hath life in himself and he hath given to the Son to have life in himself and to be the cause and giver of life of the life of nature to all Men and of grace and godliness to sinful Men and of comfort to sorrowful Men and of Resurrection to dead Men and of Glory to godly Men. It is God in whom we live and move and have our Beeing and he it is that maintains our life O bless our God ye People and make the voice of his praise to be heard which holdeth our Soul in Life Watching continually to prevent them that seek after it and lay snares for it Men that are Princes Life-Guards are fain sometimes to sleep cannot watch always and Men that dwell in costly Houses are fain to watch their Houses Know this saith our Saviour that if the good Man of the House had known in what Watch the Thief would come he would have watched and not have suffered his House to be broken up But this House watcheth over all that dwell in it that no hurt be at any time done them He that keepeth thee will not slumber saith the Psalmist speaking to himself who dwelt in the secret place of the most High in the spirit Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep This is a new House alwayes new and so needs no repair it is not subject as all other Houses are to age and decay Though some old things are better than new No Man having drunk old Wine straight-way desireth new for he saith the old is better They sacrificed to new Gods that came newly up Yet generally new things are best and so accounted both things of Gods making Behold I make all things new I create new Heavens and a new Earth I will make a new Covenant A new Heart will I give you and a new spirit will I give you thou shalt be called by a new Name which the Mouth of the Lord shall Name And so of Mens Garments and all manner of Utensils when and while new are most set by Especially Houses both themselves live and lodge in and also Out-houses when they are over old they pull them down and build new ones This House is never old but as new at this day as it was when the first holy Man had his habitation in it as full of lustre and glory ten thousand times more glorious than that Palace of the Sun which the Poet describes and it must needs be so because every Inhabitant is not only glorious made so by it but glory it self Upon all the Glory shall be a defence By Glory are meant the Saints of God the abstract put for the concrete to note their eminent shining surpassing transcendent excellency though in this life they are compassed about with many infirmities which makes their glory less conspicuous They are all glorious within Now do but note what kind of defence what manner of covering this House is promised to be to all those glorious ones that dwell in it namely like that of the Israelites when they went out of Egypt The Lord went before them by Day to lead them in a Pillar of a Cloud in the way and by Night in a Pillar of Fire to give them light It shall be though not so visibly conspicuous yet as illustrious and miraculous and that against all manner of evils heat and rain and for all times Day and Night There shall be a Tabernacle for a shaddow in the Day-time from the heat and for a place of refuge from storme and from Rain God hath been ever such a house of defence to all his holy ones is now and ever shall be World without
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
are not straitned in us but you are straitned in your own Bowels 4. It is a House no less lightsome than large God is light and in him is no darkness at all in this light we shall see Light The Lord will be unto thee an everlasting Light When there was a thick darkness in all the Land of Egypt The Israelites had Light in their dwellings All that are Israelites indeed have light in God their dwelling place When all others in the World sit in darkness and the shaddow of Death And they do contemplate the light of his Mercy Truth and Power With open Face beholding his Glory by which they are transformed more and more into his Image Sometimes indeed they are compelled to sit in darkness of dangers and distresses inward and outward Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light He hath led me and brought me into darkness but not into light But even in this darkness they are not altogether without light they have the light of God's Word They Word is a Lamp unto my Feet and a light unto my Path. And in his Word they have the light of his promises that he will bring them out of that darkness whereinto he brought them and turn their grief and afflictions into joy For thou wilt light my Candel the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness Yea even when and all the while I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me God is a Sun ten thousand times more full of Light than this material Sun and it is impossible that he that dwells in the Sun should want Light 5. It is a warm House Light hath heat in it emiently as the Peripateticks say yea it is both warm and cool A Summer and a Winter House both great Men were wont to have several Mansions for these two several Seasons of the Year This House is as some choice Roomes in some great Houses are warm in Winter and cool in Summer Many there are that dwell in God who have more Winters than one every Year scarce one Summers day in many Years I am afflicted and ready to die from my Youth up Yet in the sharpest weather this House of yours keep their hearts warm So that the Spouse said I sleep but my Heart waketh They can say with Paul As sorrowful yet alway rejoycing I am filled with comfort I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations Being justified by faith we have peace with God and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we glory in tribulations also Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Although the Fig-Tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the Fields shall yield no increase the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation If it be objected that this is not alway true that they who dwell in God are alway thus joyful nay many times their hearts have not the least sense of comfort yet in such a case they have a warmth and heat that is far better and includes abundance of comfort in it and in due season will flame forth namely that of love and that both of desire and complacency Set me as a Seal upon thine arm for love is strong as death The Coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame many Waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it This warmth their hearts never want though sometimes the sense of the second motion of it may seem to them as dull as that of their joy Nor is there any time wherein they cannot say with David My Heart was hot within me Yea discouragements from the World are so far from cooling your love to God that they make it hotter as Water cast upon Lime so Michol's scoffs were to David's Zeal such is a flame issuing from the fire of Love If this be to be vile I will yet be more vile than thus Others of God's People have many Summer Days yea almost all their Days all the Year long for many Years together are such Job had such a long Summer all which time God's Candle shined upon his head The secret of God was upon his Tabernacle His most wise Conduct governed his House provided plentifully for it He washed his steps with Butter and the Rock poured him out Rivers of Oyl Hyperbolical termes As if he had said I enjoyed all my goods and pleasures according to mine own desire When the Eare heard him then it blessed him and when the Eye saw him it gave witness unto him He sat chief and dwelt as a King in the Army Was both beloved and feared yet in all these hot Sun-shine Dayes of prosperity this House of his kept his heart cool towards the things of the World He lived in continual fear of loosing them I feared saith he a fear and it came upon me I never all this while gave my self over to carnal security I alway affrighted my heart with the apprehension of the Accidents of this life and contained my self in fear and humility towards God and within the bounds of modesty towards men Hear him making a solemn protestation how cool his heart was kept from evil concupiscence and cursed love to Women I set a watch saith he at the entrance of my sences made a Covenant with mine Eyes That my Soul might not by them receive any vicious enticements to uncleanness Or if my sences had been at any time allured by any object of sin yet my heart which is the seat of God's Spirit hath opposed them It never walked after mine Eyes And as for temporal good Though I had exceeding great store of them and all justly gotten yet was I free from rejoycing carnally or setting my whole delight in them nor did I put any confidence at all in them Thus loose was this holy Man's Soul kept from the things of the World The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life And so was the Soul of Moses who living by faith in God had his affections so cooled to the pleasures of Egypt that with ease he forsook them all and with joy joyned himself to the Ignominious condition of his brethren 6. No House is so full of goods as this is none so stored with all things both for necessity and delight Houses that are high and strong and large and lightsome and warm if they want provision of good and furniture are far from being accounted good Houses These only where there is a fulness of Houshold stuff
particular duties are many in sundry references both to things and Persons The first of the former sort we will dwell awhile upon are Earthly Houses and Habitations Some whose dwelling Place the Lord is have no House on Earth which they can call their own Of those that have some are not suffered to live in them and of them that have this liberty some have very poor Houses with as poor Furniture or other Conveniences Others have convenient Dwellings with an indifferent outward estate and some few have gentile and stately Edifices with riches and honour in abundance 1. To those that have no earthly Houses of their own but are in a state of beggary or next to it of whom some there are who never had any others had comfortable ones but have lost them by Fire or other casualty and so are for the present Housless to these I have this word of Exhortation Let not your hearts be troubled 1. Because you are not without Fellowes and Companions better than your selves that are in the same Housless condition you have heard of some Of whom the World was not worthy Who wandred in Deserts and in Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth And of the blessed Apostle St. Paul Who both hungred thirsted and was naked and had no certain dwelling place And of our blessed Saviour Who had not where to lay his head And you know how little it troubled these holy Ones that they were thus destitute how well pleased with their want it being their Heavenly Fathers good pleasure that it should be with them as it was And how joyfully those believing Hebrews took the spoyling of their Goods knowing that they had in Heaven a better Mansion and a better and an enduring substance 2. You are not without a House which likes you best and which you would not change for the best House in the World You hear God asking you as Elkenah did Hannah Am not I better to thee than Ten Sons Had you not rather enjoy me and do you not finde more comfort in me than in Ten Houses And your Heart answereth truth Lord. And can it then be troubled It may be said of all Houses compared with this of yours as it 's said of all Nations they are as nothing less than nothing and vanity And in truth all Houses and Riches which others inherit are not though they seem to be You only and your fellow Inhabitants inherit that which is Esther had good reason to be content when she was preferred to the best place of the House And so have you who are preferred to live in the best House and in the best place the very heart of it You are not only graven upon the Palmes of God's hands but you are in his heart set as a seal there Yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good with my whole heart and with my whole Soul How then can ye choose but rejoyce exceedingly in the want of all Creature comforts yea though you have to boot the present feeling of the greatest outward evils And say with the holy Prophet Although the Figg-Tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Field shall yield no Meat the Flocks shall be cut off from the Fold And there shall be no Herd in the Stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance The Lines are fallen to me in pleasant places Yea I have a goodly Heritage Having nothing I. possess all things having the Haver of all things 3. You may and ought to take comfort in the promises which God hath made to his People in this case of Poverty which for the present pincheth you He is pleased to bring you to this want of house and maintenance that he might humble and prove you to do you good in the latter end And he is able and no less willing to help you either by inclining the hearts of the rich to shew compassion upon you to receive you into their Houses and feed you at their Tables or if you have but Pulse to eat he can make that nourish you better than Kingly fare yea he can make you go in the strength of one Meal made of a Cake baken on the Coals Forty Dayes Qu. But may we expect God will work Miracles now adayes Yes that we may rather than his promise should faile Is my hand shortned at all This resolve upon that the Eyes of the Lord run too and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him And of this also that all things are possible to him that believeth And therefore with Job resolve to trust in him though he slay you and to dye rather than to help your selves by any unlawful means and cast off all solicitous carking thoughtfulness for your Bodies where to dwell and what to eat and wherewith ye shall be cloathed Ponder those Seven Disswasives from distrustful cutting dividing distracting cares And having Food and Rayment how little how course soever be content therewith Considering that a little that the righteous Man hath is better than the riches of many wicked Nor do you doubt all but if God see that a House with wealth and riches may serve to further your spiritual and eternal good you shall not fail to have them before you dye He hath raised the Poor out of the Dust and lifted the needy out of the Dunghill and set him with Princes And so he will you Hear his express primise Wealth and Riches shall be in his House or if you live and dye poor and mean your Children shall be blessed with abundance His Seed shall be mighty upon Earth And you that were some Years since wealthy but by the rage of the Fire or malice and fraud of Men or other mishaps are become as poor as Job do not despair of recovering your losse but remember what the Man of God said to Amaziah who demanded of him What he should do for the Hundred Talents The Lord is able to give thee much more than this and how he gave Job twice as much as before Wait upon God and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the Land Yee have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is pittiful and of tender Mercy 2. To you that have Houses of your own but may not live in them at least cannot with any safety 1. See and acknowledge the hand of God in your expulsion as in every other Cross so in this you should a Divine Providence It is God that and not Man only that hath thrust you out 2. Examine the cause of
his glory It is the guise and property of too many of you that think you are assured you are the Lords to question whether others be so that dissent from you Yea to pass sentence against some of them as out of God for no other reason but because they are not of your mind and way and to say of them that its love of the World or fear of trouble or some other by-respect and base end that keeps them from embraceing these gospel-Gospel-truths which you hold and whereof they have had sufficient conviction or if indeed they see them not to be such that it is because the God of this World hath blinded their Eyes Nor least of all can you bring your hearts to look upon or love as Brethren these who have been of the same mind and way with you and are apostatized from their principles and practices Turn-Coat-Rogues Have patience and ponder with your selves what rashness you discover in censuring any Man to be Godless because he sees not those truths which you think you do and they may clearly see to be revealed and commanded by God Barnabas was a good Man and full of the Holy Ghost and Faith and yet he could not see that that Paul saw Viz. That it was lawfull and fit for them to converse with the Gentiles even in the presence of the Jewes God bestowes his gifts on his Servants in different measures and degrees None that sees the truth in all things but in some points he is ignorant and erreth Setting aside the Prophets and Apostles who were infallibly guided in penning the Scripture Who almost of all the ancient Fathers but held some gross Errour Justin Martyr besides that he was a millinary held that it was the Angels that begat those Gyants Athenagoras that the Souls of those Gyants were Devils Ireneus that man was not created perfect Clemens Alexandrinus that none were saved by Christ before his Incarnation Tertullian that God was corporeal that Montanus was the Paraclete that a Christian falling twice after Baptism was damned Origen understood much of the Scripture allegorically Hierom that Angels were many Ages before the World that there is no sin in Infants or not deserving punishment Ambrose that the Gospel was preached to Devils Chrysostom that the Fathers were in Hell before Christ that we are justified by works Augustine's Book of retractations witnesseth his manifold Errours for a long time Luther the great Reformer held consubstantiation Not only particular persons but whole Counsels and Churches have erred The reasons of this proneness in Men to erre are 1. Truth is but one Errour manifold there is but one right many by-paths 2. The Seeds of all Errours are naturally in all Mens hearts 3. Errour hath usually on it the Vizard of truth 4. The understandings of the strongest Christians are so weak that it is easie for them to mistake 5. Satan and his Instruments are full of subtilty and cunning craftiness 6. God suffers Errours to spring up in his Church to punish the wicked and for tryal of his own and for cleering of truth Contraries opposed mutually argue each other This consideration should teach you not to be insolent in censuring and not to be stiff in your own Opinions or perswasions Others may be in the right and you in the wrong And if you be in the truth Love them not ye less that erre from it in infirmity but pitty them more and pray for them and though you know it to be passion or prejudice that hath blinded their judgments a greater infirmity than simple ignorance yet believe they may be godly Men for all that and if they be so you are bound to love and reverence them how much soever they differ in Judgement from you And if Men that are as practically godly as your selves hold those to be truths which you hold to be errours seek not to draw them over to you but let them quietly enjoy themselves take the blessed Apostles advice I press toward the mark Let us therefore as many as be thus perfect be thus minded and if any thing be otherwise minded God shall reveal this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained Let us walk by the same Rule Let us mind the same thing So far as you freely can joyn with your dissenting brethren in Duties of Divine Worship And let not them that are without have occasion to say you are of several Religions or to call you by several Names any longer But rather to wonder at your mutual love and peaceable and quiet spirits free from any appearance of raising contention either in Church or State They that do so having the Brand of graceless Men set upon them by the Holy Ghost Now I beseech you Brethren mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Every Man that dwells in God is of a peaceable disposition quiet in the Land As for them that you call Apostates consider that their Apostacy is not from any fundamental point in Religion or substantial worship of God And that love of their callings and the works thereof and of their Peoples Souls and Conscience of obeying the Magistrate in all things not expresly forbidden in the Scripture might move them to do what they have done and charity binds you to make the best construction Finally In reference to those that are of your own mind and way Let brotherly love continue And abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment rejoycing and weeping together and laying out your selves in a special manner in a faithful employment of God's gifts for the good one of another in things temporal Gal. 6. 10. Heb. 13. 16. 2 Cor. 8. 9. Psal 112. 5. and in spirituals by example Rom. 15. 1 2. 1 Cor. 10. 33. by admonition 1 Thes 5. 14. Heb. 3. 13. Prov. 10. 21. by consolation 2 Cor. 1. 4. Esay 54. Prov. 25. 25. Rom. 1. 12. and by prayer Eph. 6. 16. Jam. 5. 15 16. John 16. 24. By thus doing you shall improve that branch of the Communion of Saints which you have among your selves and be the fitter to improve that which you have together with Christ by the Spirit in respect both of substance and Offices and Virtues THE SEVENTH SERMON THere remaineth yet very much of Duty to be performed by and to be pressed upon you whose habitation the Lord is and who know him to be so And first upon the account of the properties of this House wherein you dwell The first whereof is height And the first duty upon this account is to lift up your hearts and voices as high as may be in praises and prayers 1. In praises acknowledge your selves bound to acknowledge 1. As all other