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
plenty of meat and drink and cloaths and Silver and Gold and Armor for defence and offence have the denomination given them by the generality of People and are only cryed up empty ones have no bodies good word Take notice of some passages of Scripture to this purpose from the mouths both of Prophane and Divine Pen-men yea of Divinity it self How many hired Servants in my Fathers House have Bread enough and to spare We shall finde all precious substance we shall fill our Houses with spoyle If Balak would give me his House full of Silver and Gold Through wisdome is a House builded and by knowledge shall the Chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches Thou shalt save Goats milk enough for thy food for the food of thy Houshold and for the food of thy Maidens Thy Barnes shall be filled with plenty and thy Presses shall burst out with new Wine Wealth and Riches shall be in his House They possessed Houses full of all good the Floors shall be full of Wheat and the Fat 's shall overflow with Corn and Oyle Some very good People who had House-room enough have had therein next to nothing The Widdow of Zarephath going into her House to fetch the Prophet Elijah a little Water in a Vessel which he begged of her to drink makes this answer to him craving that she would also bring him a morsel of Bread in her Hand As the Lord thy God liveth I have not a Cake but a handful of Meal in a Barrel and a little Oyl in a Cruse this was all her store Such an answer gave a certain Woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets unto Elisha Tell me said he What hast thou in the House Thy Hand-maid said she hath not any thing in the House save a Pot of Oyle In this House which we have in hand there is not only No want of any thing which is on the Earth the good report given of Laish by the five Searchers But here is also all the good things that Heaven it self is able to afford Witness him that was caught up thither and saw what was in those Mansions Blessing God for blessing him and all his fellow-Members of this blessed Family withall spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Begin we with Provisions of food They to whom it is given to dwell in God shall be sure not to want either Corporal or Spiritual sustenance but enjoy both in abundance 1. For their bodies this is one of the encouragements given to the Saints of God to fear and seek him O fear the Lord O ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing in the Day of Famine they shall be satisfied The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his Soul but the belly of the wicked shall want They shall alway have Bread and Water enough As those hundred Prophets had in that time of great dearth whom Obediah fed by fifty in a Cave Bread shall be given them their Waters shall be sure Likened unto Men that dwell in an unpregnable Fort well provided with Victuals to hold out a Siege And there Bread and Water is sure as is not else-where to be found For there is a blessing in both which are also of the choicest and God himself feeds them therewith I should have fed them saith the Lord to his professing People had they hearkened unto me to come and live in him but they would not with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied them No courser Bread than wheaten doth every hinde or Servant of this House eat That which is materially pulse beanes pease which some of them are fain sometimes to feed upon is virtually the fat of wheat So it was to Daniel and his three Companions whose countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the Children which did eat the portion of the Kings meat Nor can they be scanted He whos 's the Earth is and the fulness thereof having said Thou shalt eat thy Bread without scarceness I will abundantly bless her Provision I will satisfie her Poor with Bread In case they have but an handful of Meal He can make it suffice them and theirs many Days yea enable them to go in the strength of one Cake baken on the Coales forty Days yea to make five Loaves feed no fewer than five thousand Men besides Women and Children nor shall there want a concurence of his will with his power if need be Though Miracles are said to be ceased every one of the House shall have their Daily bread according as they are taught to pray And as Agar prayed in faith nothing doubting nor were ever any of them in David's observation put to the Trade of begging their bread Though some of them have in all Ages been constrained to live of Almes for exercise and tryal which is a noble way of living And so the Waters given them to drink they are not like these of Marah and Jericho bitter and naught but sweet and wholsome If they be otherwise naturally they are by a Tree or Salt cast in presently sweetned and healed with which as with Honey distilled out of the Rock their thirst is wonderfully quenched 2. As for their Souls there is in this House abundantly more and better Provision of all manner of Food for all sorts of Persons that are of the Family Nehemiah tells us of what a great Table he kept and what was provided for him daily Viz. one Oxe and six choice Sheep also Fowles and once in ten Dayes store of all sorts of Wine Solomon's Provisions for one Day was thirty Measures of fine flower and threescore Measures of Meal ten fat Oxen out of the Pasture and an hundred Sheep beside Harts and Roe-bucks and fallow Deer and fatted Fowle But all his great store is but as a drop to the Ocean in comparison of the spiritual Provision prepared every day for the Saints to feed upon in this House The Word of God and God the Word are a million of times more in quantity and virtue to nourish and cheer How sweet are thy Words unto my Taste Sweeter than honey unto my mouth Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my Heart O Book insinite sweetness Let my heart Suck every Letter and a honey gain Precious for every Greif in any part To cheer the brest to mollifie all pain Thou aut all health health thriving 'till it make A full Eternity Thou art a Mass Of strange delights where we may wish and take Here is milk for Babes the first Principles of the Oracles of God and strong
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
against themselves that they are without God are many Two of them we will mention and answer in which the rest are included and comprehended Obj. 1. They never entered in by the Door this they make out and put it on thus No Man can dwell in God in whose heart Christ dwels not by faith coming to Christ and believing in him are all one He that cometh unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst No Man is called to come to Christ that is not throughly and truly humbled for sin The Universal is restrained Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden You that labour in the Souls and Consciences by a lively feeling of your sins and terrour of God's Judgments due unto you for them Such are intended who being deeply sensible of their sins and Satans Yoak by panting and groaning under it Now they never had any such deep humiliation and therefore have reason to question Christ's dwelling in them and consequently theirs in God they never had this preparatory work To these Objections against themselves and the work of God's Grace in them I have these things to say 1. By way of Concession that sound humiliation arising from the sight and sense of sin and apprehension of Divine wrath is necessary to qualifie Men for coming to Christ They that be whole need not the Physician but they that be sick I came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance sensible Heart-smitten affrighted Soul afflicted-sinners The Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost Them who see and feel themselves quite undone and lost by reason of their sins The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek He hath sent me to binde up the broken hearted to Proclaim liberty to the Captives The opening of the Prison to them that are bound to comfort them that mourn Till Men be thus humbled they will not care to come to Christ nor have desire of him nor prize him and be willing to part with any thing for him Paul profest he was willing to part with all to win him counted all loss and dung for him What alone was this Paul one that had so deep a sense of his sins that he counted himself the chiefest sinner in the World No Man can believe the Gospel till the Law hath wrought Repentance in him the foundation whereof is a deep sense and sorrow for sin Nor will Men hold Christ with any retentiveness if this were not first wrought in them If Men be not weary of Sathans Yoak they will soon be weary of Christs Want of humiliation is the cause of all Apostacy And therefore there is great need that Ministers preach and press the Law to bring Men to a sight and sense of their sins Which is so far forth a blessing as it is necessary to drive us to Christ To shew us how wretched we are without him to make us pant and groan and mourn after him They erre that hold that Men are fit enough without any such legal terrors preceding that never felt their hearts broken to come to Christ to dwell in God As there is no natural birth without some precedent pains of travel in the Mother So neither is there any spiritual birth without some such in the Child God hath ever used to take this course to cast down sinners to lay them as low as Hell convincing them of their dark and damned condition giving them the spirit of bondage to fear the Vengeance of Eternal Fire due to them and then to erect and comfort them And so by the Suburbs of Hell to bring them to Heaven Thus he dealt with our first Parents and all along downward to this Day As the great and strong Wind renting the Mountains breaking in pieces the Rocks and the Earth-quake and Fire went before the still small Voice And the noise and shaking before the Resurrection of the dry bones and a Voice from Heaven as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of a great Thunder more terrifying and distinct before the Voice of Harpers harping with their Harps and as plowing precedes sowing and the Needle the Thread and melting the Mettle before the casting of it into a new form So must humiliation precede regeneration Woe to them that being laden with many sins feel them light as a Grass-hopper that have sworn a thousand Oaths in their ordinary discourse have told a thousand lies in their ordinary jesting officious pernicious committed prodigious filthiness frequently with themselves and others Have made the Lord's days the Devil 's by going their own wayes Finding their own pleasure speaking their own words and can carry all these with a thousand more Omissions as well as Commissions with as much ease as Sampson did the Gates of Gaza When light outward crosses are heavy to them and make them howle yea they can make a sport of sin delight to act it Make themselves and others merry by boasting of it glorying in their shame These Men shall finde one Day every of their sins which they feel so light to be heavier than a Mountain of Lead when they shall call to the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover them and the more pleasure they have felt in any sin the more sorrow and torment shall be given them Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things but now thou art tormented Every idle and much more every evil word shall be an unsufferable load upon their Consciences to all Eternity Unless voluntary humiliation before they come into that place of torments prevent it As for you that feel your sins pressing you as low as Hell take comfort in this that you are in the way to conversion And I may say unto you as the People to the blind Man be of good comfort Christ calleth thee There is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness for them that can mourn over him whom they have pierced 2. By way of Correction though all before Conversion are humbled yet all are not so in a like degree They that have been notorious wicked livers Such as Manasseh was must be humbled greatly as he was So they that killed the Lord of Life were punctually pierced So the Jaylor and Mary Magdalen and those whom God means to bestow more than ordinary gifts upon or to employ in great business for him he humbleth deeply Others that have been civilly educated never guilty of any hainous hideous crimes but alway lived unblameable moral lives These have the grace of Regeneration dropt insensibly into them never feel such pangs and terrors and heart-breaks nor know the time when God began to work upon them These fearful doubting Christians that
I am dealing with may and ought to take comfort in this that they cannot deny but that they have been truly humbled though in a lower degree It being the truth and not the measure that warrants sinners to come to Christ and qualifie them for faith in him He saith not come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden in such a degree But all that labour and are heavy laden in a true degree Qu. What is the lowest degree of true Humiliation Answ It is that which brings him into the Beggars case Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the c. When is a Man so Answ When out of a sense of his own emptiness and apprehension of Divine Justice to which they are indebted he is wrought upon by God's gracious promises to seek supply from Christ's fulness As when a Man is extream poor and knows himself to be so having never a Penny in all the World and owes a very great Summe and that to such a one as will not abate one farthing of the Debt but exact the whole and for default of payment will cast him into Prison there to lye and rot nor has he a friend in all the World to help him only he hears of a rich Man that is able to pay all he owes who hath discharged the Debts of many in his case but alass he dares not adventure for a good while to go and speak with him because he hath no interest in him In this case he is exceedingly cast down not knowing what to do yet at last necessity forcing he is resolved to go to him and seek supply from him relying wholly upon his goodness having heard how mercifully he hath dealt with all that have so done Is not this thy case poor despondent Christian Hast thou not seen thy Soul totally empty of Grace yet indebted to God Ten Thousand Talents whose Justice thou knowest will exact the utmost Mite do'st not thou see fulness in Christ and all-sufficiency that he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him to discharge their debt were it ten thousand times greater Though thou did'st not dare to go to him for a while yet at last did'st adventure being encouraged by what others in as bad a condition have found and by sundry gracious invitations and promises excluding none that have an heart to come Upon which promises thou do'st in great humility roll thy Soul and resolvest therein to rest Thus the Prodigal saw an emptiness in himself knew there was fulness in his Fathers House was moved to go to him trusting in his gracious disposition So the Syrians Behold now we have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are merciful Kings Let us put Sack-cloath upon our Loynes and Ropes upon our Heads and go to the King of Israel peradventure he will save thy Life So they put Sack-cloath upon their Loynes and Ropes upon their heads and begged their Masters Life Qu. How shall I know I have this poverty of Spirit Answ By the signes of a poor Beggar He is full of complaints to such as can relieve him full of requests No need to teach him rhetorick Industrious to get maintenance out he will though the Law be against it The Belly hath no Eares If he be blind he will get some to lead him if lame he will get a Crutch to uphold him He is more-over meek patiently bearing checks and reproaches content to stay his leisure of whom he begs and expects an Almes full of observance also towards him ready to obey his commands trembling at his frownes and greatly thankful if he give him but a Crumb And if he hath offended is at no rest till his anger against him be appeased and his favour and good will regained Thou canst not but finde all these signes in thy self in reference unto God and therefore mayest take comfort in thy poverty Add unto this another sure evidence of true humiliation namely thou esteemest sin the greatest evil and Jesus Christ the greatest good put naked Christ in one Scale and all the pomp and glory of the World in the other and whether of these would weigh the most in thy judgment and valuation Obj. But thou knowest not the time when thy heart was broken and humbled Ans Suppose thou sawest a good Crop of Corn upon a piece of Ground wouldst thou not think it had tillage good enough though thou sawest not when it was broken up Nor how deep the Plow went The fruits thou bringest forth of holiness righteousness sobriety and charity argue the fallow ground of thy heart to have had sufficient plowing Though thou know not the time when nor the means whereby this was done Thou walkest not in the counsel of the ungodly much less standest in the way of sinners least of all sittest in the seat of the scornful But thy delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law thou meditatest Day and Night As thy affections are such are thy words seasoned with salt such as discover Grace in the Speaker Minister Grace to the hearers and thy conversation accordingly and actions such as become the Gospel Herein thou exercisest thy self to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and toward Men. Thou dost good to all especially to the houshold of faith Art ready to distribute willing to communicate Ye shall know others by their fruits do Men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figges of Thistles even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit Thou mayest and oughtest to pass judgment upon thy self that certainly the Root of the matter is in thee That thou art a Tree of righteousness the planting of the Lord wherein he is glorified Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much Fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Ye shall shew your selves to be truly such doing acts worthy of such a Title And if you be indeed Christ's Disciples you need not question your dwelling in God Obj. 2. These Godly doubting Christians are so far from acknowledging any such fruits or taking comfort in them that they deny there is any good in them any good fruit brought forth by them They believe themselves would have you believe so too That their Vine is of the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah Their Grapes are Grapes of Gall. Their Clusters are bitter their Wine of the poyson of Dragons and the cruel Venome of Asps instead of good fruits They will tell you your hearts and tongues and lives are full of evil fruits Vain and vile thoughts and idle and ungracious words unprofitable impious and unrighteous actions Fruits not tending to Life but Death That they are Trees not for fruit but for the Fire Corrupt Trees at best whose fruit withereth which have neither life nor sap to bring forth any fruit unto God Even like Trees after Autome Yea quite pluckt up by the Roots
your Ejection if it be so Why am I thus That you may be sure your cause is good and your heart sincere in that which you suffer for 3. If you had a doubting Conscience indeed against which it is unlawful and damnable to act and not a meer scruple against which Men may act yet you may finde cause enough why God should cast you out of his House and out of your own For you honour'd God in neither as you might have done And therefore ought to acknowledge with David Righteous art thou O God and just in thy Judgments I know O Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me 4. When you have humbled your Souls and made your peace with God by repenting of your neglect to husband time and talent while a price was in your hand Resolve to bear with humility and patience the Indignation of the Lord because you have sinned against him until he plead your cause and execute Judgment for you and believe that he will bring you forth again to the Light and you shall behold his righteousness i. e. his deliverance the effect of his faithfulness and love towards you and of his just severity against your and his enemies who intended not to execute his judgments for your sins whatever their pretence was and bless God that you are still permitted to live in the Land of your Nativity And that there are any who are willing to receive you into their Houses as Laban did Jacob when he was compelled to leave his Fathers House and Jethro Moses and the Shulamite Elisha and Lydia Paul And that none can drive you out of your divine habitation nor shall be ever able to separate you from his love in Jesus Christ wherein you lodge 3. To you that have convenient Houses and a competency of means to live upon Be perswaded to think your condition better than if you had fairer buildings and more abundant income and revenues Agar thought a mean estate best as appeares by his Prayer against riches as well as poverty Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me As much as I shall need from Day to Day So we are taught to pray by our Saviour Give us this Day our Daily Bread The word signifies such a kind or quality as is fitting for our sustenance or beeing So much as is needful to be added thereto and no more Such a measure of goods of body and fortune so Men use to speak as is necessary comprehended by the Apostle under Food and Rayment This was all that Jacob desired of God If God will give me Bread to eat and Rayment to put on If the Query be What may be counted needful Answ 1. That which Nature requireth enough only to hold Life and Soul together from Hand to Mouth as they say 2. That which is meet for the state wherein God hath set us 3. That which is requisite for the charge committed to us 4. That which is apparently needful for the time to come If any provide not for his own especially those of his own House he hath denyed the faith and is worse than an Infidel No Mans desire must go beyond this Labour not to be rich Superfluity coveted is very dangerous They that will be Rich fall into Temptation and a Snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in destruction and perdition A moderate estate hath little danger and trouble much ease and comfort a plentiful one little or nothing of these much of those and therefore thank God that it is with you as it is nor do you or can you want plenty abiding in God for in him there is all fulness and enjoying him you possess all things yea you would do so if you had nothing as was said 4. To you who dwell in earthly Houses and have all earthly good things in abundance I have this word of exhortation Let your hearts be lift up with thankful acknowledgment of God's goodness in giving besides himself these outward blessings richly to enjoy When others nothing inferiour to you in grace and goodness are glad to dwell in poor Cottages and to feed on scraps yea to beg their Bread Who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto Thou preparest a Table before me thou anointest my Head with Oyle my Cup runneth over I am not worthy of all the Mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my Staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two Bands But let not your hearts be lifted up with pride because of your abundance Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-minded Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly Houses and dwelt therein and when thy Herds and thy Flocks multiply and thy Silver and thy Gold is multiplyed and all that thou hast is multiplyed then thy Heart be lifted up See God in your fair edifices and sumptuous Furniture and large Revenues esteeming them as a beam of the bright Sun-shine of his favour you being enabled by his Grace to make them instrumental for his glory in the refreshing the bowels of his Saints and so to enjoy the good of them as to avoid the snare To use them not as hindrances but helps to a better life Consider withall how easie and quickly all you have may be brought to nothing Job this Morning the greatest Man for wealth of all the Men of the East and by Night was brought to poverty to a Proverb and therefore look upon all as transitory keeping your affections loose and all off from them And if they make themselves Wings and flie away as an Eagle towards Heaven let it trouble you as little as the sight of a Flock of Foul out of your Ground flying thitherward would do and rejoyce that with Mary You have chosen that good part that shall not be taken from you 5. To you who having dwelt in fair and goodly Houses which the Fire consumed are in your thought and purpose if not actually building as or more fair and goodly to dwell in in the same places where the former stood or else-where be exhorted 1. To bless the Lord your everlasting Habitation which preserved yours and all the Persons of your Families and so much of the movable Goods in your Houses and Shops from that raging Element That you have still wherewith to subsist comfortably and are in a condition of Rebuilding Acknowledge it to be of the Lord's Mercies that your selves and all yours Persons and things were not consumed That so many lives and so much substance is given to you for a Prey 2. To take heed to your selves that none of these evils no degree of them which are
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