one for worldly self is sinful self and so the membra dividentia are not opposita 1. Sinful self must be denied Till the heart be disengaged and disintangled from sin and freed from the love and dominion of sin a man will never give himself to God so long as there is any one lust predominant let it be what it will there will be a keeping off from God Never did any dedicate himself to God but first sin was subdued in him after this is once done self-dedication follows in course Therefore begin with the heart see that the power of sin be broken there as the Priests in the cleansing of the Temple 2 Chron 29.16 they first began with the inner part of it and fetch'd out all the uncleanness that was there So do you if you would be the Lords by donation and resignation of your selves look into the heart purge out that sin that is there get every corruption mastered put it away with detestation and then you are in your way A man shall find if at any time he doth but think of dedicating himself to God if there be any one sin reigning in him this will make him hang off from God and it will smother all inclinations in him to that which I am upon O therefore down with sinful self as sin goes down God goes up in the soul 2. Farther worldly self must be denied for the carnal worldly part in the sinner always sets it self against God O what suggestions reasonings solicitations doth this follow him with to keep him off from God! Till a man therefore be crucified to the world Gal. 6.14 and that earthly part that is in him be removed there 's nothing to be done The young man in the Gospel did seem to bid fair for this dedication but his heart being unmortified to the world that spoil'd all Luke 18.22 23. God and the world cannot have the heart at the same time the heart cannot be given to God if the world hath the prepossession of it O begin your work at the right end take a right method that you may make something of it Would you set upon dedication-work begin with crucifixion-work Gal. 5.24 let those earthly affections that are in you be crucified get the Moon under your feet Rev. 12.1 be dead to present things Col. 3.3 look upon all here below Philip. 3.8 as dross and dung pull the world off from the throne do this first and then you will certainly surrender up your selves to God This is the second means I am the shorter in it because you have so many helps elsewhere about it 3. The third is Prayer In consideration you plead with your selves in Prayer you plead with God the former will not avail without the latter A man may think and think to eternity and yet be but where he was if God by his mighty power doth not do the work Self-dedication is our act but 't is done in Gods strength Isa 26.12 Thou hast wrought all our works in us The desire of it is of God the actual performance of it is of God He worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Philip. 2.13 As none can come to the Son unless the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 so none can dedicate himself to the Father without the efficacious Almighty drawings and workings of the Spirit First the heart is framed to this by divine grace and then the person gives himself to God The giving self surrendring resolving separating covenanting God-glorifying part of dedication are each of them all of them of God all brought about by a supernatural power Reason may suggest much to further this but it will never produce it in the soul O therefore pray call in Gods help set your selves to beg this frame and you shall prevail The work is as good as done when your hearts in prayer are drawn out after it Go often to the throne of Grace and plead thus with the God of all Grace Blessed Lord I would fain dedicate my self to thee the desire of my soul is that I may live and act that of which here I have read so much I have been my own too long now I would be thine entirely thine everlastingly thine but I 'm a poor weak creature and not only unable to come up to this but naturally I 'm averse to it O do thou help me do thine own work in me give to me that I may give my self to thee draw me and I will run O illuminate my understanding bow my will rectifie my affections work me up to self-denial set in with consideration and fully convince me O for Christs sake do not leave me in my natural non-dedicated condition encline mine heart to an universal subjection to thee Do that in me and for me which all creatures in Heaven and Earth cannot do Let my condition in the world be what thou pleasest but Lord let me be in the number of those few who do sincerely devote themselves to thee O glorifie the riches of thy grace towards me and let the day of thy power arise upon my soul and in spight of all opposition do thy work in me that Personal Dedication may end in eternal glorification Thus Pray and God will hear CHAP. 7. Some things in special urged upon the people of God in reference to their Dedication HItherto I have been speaking to men as they lie in the general lump or mass I will now direct my discourse to the people of God whom he hath singled and called out of this mass I will leave a few things with them and so close up this first Head of Personal Dedication You therefore that are Saints to be sure you have done that which I have been pressing upon others for you are Saints which you could not be without Personal Dedication this being the very forma constituens or that which makes you to be so 'T is observable how Gods people are described and set forth in Scripture by those things which imply and connote Dedication The Temple was dedicated the Saints are the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3.17 2 Cor. 6.16 The first fruits were dedicated the Saints are first fruits Jam. 1.18 Revel 14.4 The Priests were dedicated the Saints in a spiritual sense are such 1 Pet. 2.5 Rev. 1.6 It being thus with you that you are dedicated persons let me commend the ensuing particulars to you 1. First I would have you often to revive upon your thoughts your holy and solemn Dedication 'T is easier to think of it than to do it and it would be of great use and much to the advantage of the people of God if they would often think of this How would this further Humiliation when they come short in their duty How would this excite and quicken them to every thing that is good be it never so hard and difficult How would this engage them to universal holiness this being nothing but what
resolve we also will give up our selves to God as you have done Bernard hath an expression Major est in amore Dei qui plures traxerit ad amorem Dei He is highest in the love of God you may understand it both of active and also of passive or objective love who hath drawn most to the love of God You cannot in an higher way manifest your love to God or procure Gods love to you than by promoting this blessed self-dedication in others O lay out your selves in order to this and let your endeavours extend to all but especially to your near and dear relations do not suffer a child a servant to continue in a state of alienation from God But this I shall have occasion more to dwell upon under the next Head of Domestick dedication Let me conclude this with the words of that Divine Poet Mr. Herbert Pag 96 97. which are very apposite to my purpose My God if writings may Convey a Lordship any way Whither the buyer and the seller please Let it not thee displease If this poor paper do as much as they On it my Heart doth bleed As many Lines as there doth need To pass it self and all it hath to thee To which I do agree And here present it as my special deed If that hereafter Pleasure Cavil and claim her part and measure As if this passed with a reservation Or some such words in fashion I here exclude the wrangler from thy treasure Wherefore I all forego To one word only I say No. Where in the deed there was an intimation Of a gift or donation Lord let it now by way of purchase go He that will pass his land As I have mine may set his hand And heart unto this deed when he hath read And make the purchase spread To both our goods if he to it will stand How happy were my part If some kind man would thrust his heart Into these lines till in Heavens Court of rolls They were by winged souls Entred for both far above their desert 6. Sixthly I have but this farther to say Let Saints take the comfort of their Dedication O what a rich mine of heavenly consolation am I fallen upon if I could but go to the bottom of it but that I cannot do Have you entirely dedicated your selves to God Can you go over all the branches of it and say you find them all in your selves What shall I say what may I not say for the comforting of you You have Grace and Grace indeed for as hath been said what is grace but Personal Dedication You are sometimes much in the dark about your spiritual state you know not what to think of your selves because of the many discouragements which you meet with in the power and prevalency of corruption c. Can you say this of your selves You have entirely unreservedly fixedly heartily devoted and dedicated your selves to God if so you may take the comfort of a saving work in you when other evidences are blotted and blurr'd if this be legible 't is enough this is an abiding discovery of sincerity and the truth of grace How dear and precious are you in the sight of God! The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 His as by his own Election so by their own dedication The Lord knoweth such not with a bare simple intuitive knowledge but with a knowledge of delight and special approbation God hath your heart and you have his You say to God we are thine there 's the sum of duty and God says to you I am yours there 's the sum of mercy God hath your drop and you have his Ocean You think nothing enough for him he thinks nothing too much for you his Self his Son his Spirit his Heaven his own glory he gives it all to you Surely God intends you nothing but good because he hath so graciously accepted of your offering which is your selves I allude to that of Manoah to his wife Judg. 13.23 You may take this and plead it with God upon all occasions Psal 119.94 I am thine save me Are you in dangers plead from this for protection Are you in wants plead from this for provision Lord I have given my self to thee wilt thou not give me food and raiment I desire no more Lord here 's the Covenant on my part I desire to make it good here 's the Covenant on thy part shall not that be made good then give me bread Psal 111.5 And so for higher mercies O it 's a blessed thing ingerere Deo suam syngrapham as Aug. says his mother Monica used to do to in-mind God and to argue with him from his Covenant Are you in straits you may plead from this for direction But alas I cannot speak out half of that blessedness which belongs to you upon this act Let me conclude with that which is the Zenith of all Personal Dedication shall most certainly end in Eternal Salvation That self which is here dedicated shall be hereafter saved and that which is a poor self here shall be a glorious self hereafter If this be not enough for comfort I know not what is And so let me end this first part of my Discourse with that which shall never end The End of the First Part. Domestick Dedication The Second Part. CHAP. I. Of Domestick Dedication in general Some things premised about it I Have at last got over the Dedication of the Person now the Dedication of the House comes next to be spoken to which I must be the shorter upon because I have been so long in coming to it This is that which was chiefly nay only in my eye when I first engaged my thoughts in this work The Text directed me to this for it speaks of House-Dedication only and the present posture business concern of you the Citizens of London directed me to the Text. You are very busie in re-building your Houses which for some considerable time have lay'n in ashes and I pray God to prosper and encourage you therein But my heart's desire is also that you may dedicate as well as build that as your Houses shall be finished for your use and service they may also be devoted to the use and service of God I could not when I have walked in the Streets indeed since the dismal Fire they may rather be called Roads than Streets and saw here and there a few Houses going up but wish and pray Oh that these Houses whenever they are built whosoevers they are might be dedicated to God! My thoughts and desires working much this way I resolved by God's assistance to do something that might further a thing so excellent and so desirable and thereupon I entred upon this Work though with much discouragement partly from the sense of my inward unfitness for such an undertaking and partly from those bodily Infirmities which a late have been upon me and have very much indisposed and disabled me for study To come then to that
Infidels whom you disdain What is it that you think they are so hardly brought to Is it only to be sprinkled or washed with water That is not it do they not daily wash their hands and face And would not any of them be hired for a little to bath themselves in a River in the heat of Summer and to speak as many words as are spoken for you in baptism Alas the difficulty is not here But to take off a sensual sinner from the love of this world and fleshly pleasures and to make him stedfastly believe that there is an endless blessedness in Heaven for believing Saints intended by God procured by Christ and given in the Gospel-covenant and to perswade him to devote himself and all that he hath entirely to God and resolvedly to consent to the terms of that Covenant and to follow his suffering-Saviour to that glory This is the thing that is necessary to salvation and this is it which Heathens and Infidels are so hardly brought to And is it not so with all the rabble of hypocrite-Christians as well as with them If a little water and a few good words can make a man pass for a Christian with God and can charm him into Heaven who either knoweth not what Christianity is or never heartily consented to it himself nor never set his heart on Heaven or denied his fleshly pleasures to obtain it then let the sensual hypocrite hope still to be saved If Christ had set up such a Religion as this it had been no hard matter for the Preachers of it to have procured better quarter with the world and to have brought the generality of drunkards fornicators and worldlings to be Christians in sensu composito when not a hair of the heads of any of their fleshly lusts should perish and then vice versâ as the rabble would have all been Christians the few that are now true Christians would have been the enemies of such a Christianity Dedication to God doth signifie that which is more than ineffectual knowledge and convictions and more than delatory purposes to repent and more than a course of the easie outward duties of Religion and more than a Religiousness which stoopeth to worldly interest and is subordinate to the pleasure and prosperity of the flesh and more than a frightened unsetled resolution to be religious indeed and more than a taking of Christ as upon trial with a reserve to leave him when he calleth you to the cross This Self-Dedication is that act of a convinced humbled penitent sinner by which he doth deliberately soberly and resolvedly consent to the Covenant of God according to the tenor of baptism and dedicated and give up himself entirely and absolutely to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as his Owner to be disposed of by him as his Ruler to obey him and as his Benefactor and chief Good thankfully to depend upon him and so Love him as his ultimate end A person thus Dedicated to God hath the highest preferment the noblest and the safest station the Relation which he entereth into is not an empty unprofitable title as on his part it engageth him to duty so on Gods part it estateth him in mercy And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my jewels or special treasure and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Mal. 3.17 He will say Touch not mine anointed And will be avenged on that sacrilegious violence which laid hands on them who were Dedicated to God For the Lord is our defence and the holy one of Israel is our King Psal 89.18 These vessels of mercy shall dwell in his sanctuary where they shall see Him and his goings Psal 63.2 and 68.24 and shall worship him in the beauty of holiness Psal 29.2 They shall be cloathed with white robes and stand before the Throne of God and before the Lamb Rev. 7.9 They shall be pillars in his Temple and go out no more He will write upon them the name of God and of the city of God the new Jerusalem and his new name Rev. 3.12 Their employment also shall be high and holy even with readiness to do his will to attend him and adore him to praise him in his Sanctuary for Holiness becometh his house for ever Psal 93.5 This entire Dedication of our selves to God is virtually every duty and good work It is the beginning and spring of a holy life it is the root and kernel of Religion and as One habit of every gracious act it is a setled opposition to every sin and a preventing repulse of every temptation the soul hath one answer for every tempter I am Dedicated to God and though it is impossible for creatures to merit commutatively of God because they can give him nothing but his own he taketh this rendition of his own as acceptably as if it were a proper gift And as his mark is engraven on the forehead of his consecrated ones Holiness to the Lord this mark is the sum of all their ascertaining evidences for salvation it is their pledge and earnest for glory and as God himself speaketh as Owning them by this mark so by it they may certainly know themselves to be his peculiars 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are his and Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity and though the World and the Church-visible be like a great house where there are both vessels of honour and of dishonour yet if a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.20 21. For he that redeemed us from all iniquity doth purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 Areal Devotedness to God is a standing witness to the soul of its sincerity though we are conscious of many failings yet if we are also conscious of this it proveth them all to be pardoned faults and proveth our interest in Christ it is the proper mark to know what sins are truly venial or pardoned infirmities when they consist with an unfeigned devotedness to God And when many other signs of grace seem dark and wants and weaknesses cast us into doubts this one is the ordinary certain evidence which may give a constant quietness and comfort to an upright soul when we can truly say I am devoted entirely unto God and it is for his service that I live in the world And if we should deny him this as it would be disingenuous injustice to alienate his own and blasphemous contempt to give our selves rather to a dirty world or a filthy lust than to our Creator and Redeemer so it would be the cruellest enmity to our selves to deny our souls so blessed a condition and to cast them into the sink of sin instead of Dedicating them to God
But let me here intreat the Reader who seriously purposeth this necessary work to be sure to take with him these three or four cautions 1. Take heed lest your dedication should not be unreserved and entire but you should think that resolving upon a religiousness which always saveth the flesh is a true devotedness to God If it be but the hypocrites religion dividing the heart between God and the world which you take for holiness it is not any dedication of your selves to this that will prove a true dedication unto God 2. Offer your selves to God only by the hand of the Mediator there is no coming to the Father but by the Son 3. Understand what is the particular course of service which God is to employ you in and resolve on that and keep an account of your daily performance of it for it is hypocrisie to stick in generals An ungodly man will say I devote my self to God but when it cometh to the particular acts of service he denieth that which in the general he affirmed 4. Content not your selves with the first act of dedication or devotion be it never so serious and resolved for if you keep not up the same deep apprehensions which caused it and live not in the faithful performance of your covenant your heart dedication will by degrees go down and you will fall from God before you know it And this is the undoing of many a self-deceiver that they can remember that once some powerful Sermon or sharp affliction perswaded them to resolved for a holy life and to say Lord I will be wholly thine and therefore they conclude that once they were converted and consequently are still sincere and safe when as that frightened passionate resolution hath sunk down insensibly into a religion which giveth a secret precedency to the world and a covered indulgence and gratification to the flesh And thus the remembrance of a change once made and of a Covenant once entered with high and passionate resolutions doth make many an hypocrite go smoothly and quietly to hell as confidently taking himself for a Saint when it is only he that is entirely unreservedly habitually and setledly resolved for God and keepeth up that resolution and liveth in the practice of it who is sanctified and dedicated to God indeed The Saints as Ambrose saith live as those that know Se non naturae praestantioris esse sed observatiae majoris nec vitia nescisse sed emendasse And as Austin Nullus sanctus justus caret peccato nec tamen ex hoc desinit esse justus vel sanctus cum affectu teneat fanctitatem that is with such an affection as is aforesaid And the second part of this Treatise is very aptly conjoyned to the first For he that is truly devoted to God doth with himself also devote all that he hath not to be all employed in one way but all in that way which God requireth for he that reserveth not himself can reserve nothing because it is for himself that he is supposed to reserve it O what hypocrisie is it for men to say that they believe there is a God whom they are bound to serve and yet to fear being losers by him and refuse his service as too dear If you had foreseen the flames which consumed your wealth and habitations would you not much rather have spent that mass of treasure on works of piety and charity And had you not rather now that it had been so laid out Or would you take it for your loss Why you know that all which is left must shortly be none of yours If those hundred thousand who died of the late Plague had foreseen that death would not most of them rather have desired to die in a holy martyrdom for Christ And would they have taken such a death for a loss And yet all men know that they must shortly die I am glad that the Reverend Author hath taken this seasonable advantage to call you to the Dedication of your Houses to God Verily that Plague which emptied them first and that Fire which did devour them next are so loud a call to this Dedication that it is much to be feared that he that doth not hear and feel it hath the Plague of hardness on his heart and is hastening to the place which will make him feel It is not the height and splendor of your buildings which must restore the glory of this famous City but it must be the Holiness of the inhabitants who devote themselves and theirs to their Preserver If I should perswade you all to write over your doors in capital letters of gold HOLINES TO THE LORD to remember you what your families must be some would deride it as Pharisaical ostentation who yet themselves have received the like mark of God in their baptism and some would turn it into a formal ceremony as they do their baptism it self and as the sign of the Cross is set upon doors among the Papists it is therefore the interior dedication and not the outward ostentation which you are now perswaded to As ever you would have God to be the protector of your habitations and his Angels to be your guards as ever you would have the comfort of the presence of your Redeemer and would have him dwell with you as your daily safety peace and joy give him the Keys and resign up all to his will and interest and make him the governor of your hearts and houses who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell and is the rightful governor of all the world Deliver up your selves and families to Him to whom the Father hath delivered all things Joh. 17.2 Math. 28.18 19. Rom. 14.9 O that men knew what an honor what a joy what a safety it is to have God the absolute master of their families that his name might be there hallowed and his Kingdom there set up and his will there obeyed even with a desire to imitate the pattern in Heaven For ye are the Temples of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 6.16 I will be a father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty verse 18. And O that men knew how much the interest of knowledge and holiness upon earth must be kept up in holy families The two great duties of the wise and holy education of Children and of the right performance of family-instructions and Gods worship there are such as can hardly be too much insisted on O that Ministers would preach of them an hundred times over to you till you were awakened or shamed out of your neglect If you lived among the enemies of Christ and Souls yet there you might catechize and instruct your children and servants and might make your families as Churches of God And if every Parent and Master would do thus the Preachers might be
better spared But while families are neglected alas how is the Preachers work obstructed When people come to the Church as if boys should come to the Vniversities who never were taught in the Country-Schools so much as well to read or write And when the Pastor hath the work of all the Parents and Masters in his Parish to do besides all that which is properly his own It is a self-condemnation and a shame to men to exclaim against those that silence Preachers or against those Pastors who neglect their flocks and at the same time wilfully to silence your selves from family-worship and catechizing and counselling your little charge and to neglect those few who are so near you and always almost in your sight O that men would look to the Eastern and Southern Nations of the Earth that once were famous Churches of Christ and now are turned Mahometan Infidels And to the poor Greeks and Papists the Abassines Armenians and Muscovites where ignorance hath set out Christianity as defiled and cloathed in rags And that they would soberly bethink them whether the gross neglect of Parents and Masters have not been a great cause of this calamity but if you joyn the wilful negligence of Pastors with that of Parents alas what ruins have they wrought even made many famous Churches of Christ more miserable than the flames have made your City Good families are the nurseries from whence most usually spring good Magistrates good Pastors a good Nobility Gentry and Commonalty And if any Nations have been undone by the contrary to any or all of these enquire whether ill or negligent education was not the cause If you say that many such unhappy plants come out of the most religious families I answer it is too true and they are most miserable persons But it is not according to the proportion of prophane and negligent families Though all good Parents are not blessed in their children they are much more commonly so blest than others And I must add with grief that even as many religious Parents do formally baptize their Children and think God must save them only for being theirs and do not consider how much is laid on their believing and serious dedicating them to God and thankful entering them by baptism into his Covenant even so too many of them do exercise so little of that holy prudence and unwearied diligence in the education of their children which their dark and sinful state requireth that they seem still to think that God should make them all wise and godly meerly because they are theirs and that a few formal prayers and words of a Catechism never understood with a few of Eli's gentle rebukes should serve the turn to make them Saints But grace doth not use to encourage laziness So some will tell you that this Fire hath shewed that religious houses speed no better than the rest O but truly religious persons speed better than the rest The Israelites burdens were a lighter suffering than the Egpytians plagues For at last they past safely through that Red Sea where Pharaoh and his Host were drowned To lose your goods and keep yea and increase your holiness and save your souls is much easier than to lose the Idols of your hearts by such flames as foreshew the endless flames and to be turned out of those houses which you loved better than Heaven as to signifie how you shall be turned out of all your wealth and delights and hopes for ever A Seneca or a Plutarch much more a David can tell you of the folly of judging mens happiness or misery by things temporal It is an excellent saying of Socrates which Valerius Maximus reciteth viz. Nil ultra petendum a Diis arbitrabatur quam ut Bona tribuerent Quia ii demum scirent quid unicuique esset utile Nos autem plerumque id votis expetere quod non impetrasse melius foret Etenim densissimis tenebris involuta mortalium mens in quam late patentes errores caecas precationes tuas spargis Divitias appetis quae multis exitio fuerunt honores concupiscis qui complures pessundederunt Regna tecum ipsa volvis quorum exitus saepenumero miserabiles cernuntur Splendidis conjugiis injicis manus ac haec ut aliquando illustrant ita saepe funditus domos evertunt Desine igitur stulte futuris malorum tuorum causis quasi faelicissimis rebus inhiare teque totum caelestium arbitrio permitte Quia qui tribuere bona ex facili solent etiam eligere aptissima possunt It is best to be nearest unto God and riches separate more hearts from him than poverty doth He that as Hierom saith preferreth holy clownishness before sinful eloquence will do as Gregory counselleth Pastors Not to be so much in the houses of great men as of good men It is not the consecrated place which will cause God to love an unhallowed soul As Origen saith Sin separateth you from Saints though you dwell among them for it is manners and not places which make men holy Now the Lord of mercy when he repaireth your ruined Habitations give you all hearts to understand his Judgments and cordially to Dedicate your selves and your houses to his disposal his government and his holy worship That they who shall behold the increased splendor of your City may be witnesses of your increased wisdom obedience righteousness and serious piety And that Holiness to the Lord may be your mark and name And that it may be said of London The Lord bless thee O habitation of Justice and mountain of Holiness Jer. 31.23 And upon all your Glory there may be a sure defence Isa 4.5 Amen April 22. 1668. RICHARD BAXTER Temporis praeteriti fructus est Compunctio futuri flos est Devotio Bernard ELENCHUS CAPITUM First Part. CHapter 1. The Introduction The words of the Text explained From page 1. to pag. 24. Chap. 2 Dedication Personal or Domestick The former opened from p. 24. to p. 59. Chap. 3 Personal Dedication applied The Rarity of it lamented Enquiries about it as to our selves from p. 59. to p. 74. Chap. 4 Personal Dedication pressed First more Generally and then Particularly in the six Branches of it from p. 75. to p. 167. Chap. 5 Directions shewing in what manner Personal Dedication must be managed from p. 167. to p. 188. Chap. 6 Helps to Personal Dedication from p. 188. to p. 197. Chap. 7 Some things in special urged upon Gods People in reference to their Dedication from p. 197. ad finem Second Part. CHap. 1. Of Domestick Dedication in General Some Things premised about it from p. 1. to 13. Chap. 2. The Nature of it opened in four Particulars from p. 13. to p. 22. Chap. 3. The want of it bewailed from p. 22. to p. 32. Chap. 4. Domestick Dedication pressed more Generally from p. 32. to p. 44. Chap. 5. The Three first Branches of it urged from p. 44. to p. 70. Chap. 6. The Third Branch amplified in four
creature holiness for sin Are the things of time to be weighed in the ballance with the things of eternity What is it to secure earth and to lose Heaven Can you secure the soul future blessedness unless you keep steddy to God Why will you forsake that God Hebr. 13.5 who will never forsake you Will you find any where a better master a better friend a better portion a better God Till you can do this pray keep where you are if you be in Gods way and be fixed and resolute Resolve for God and then act resolution in your whole course Herein is your self-dedication He that is not resolved for God come what will come hath not truly dedicated himself to God when a person upon mature deliberation determines for God and then is firm and stedfast hee 's the person who hath dedicated himself in a right manner 4. Fourthly As you desire to dedicate your persons to God set your selves apart for God and carry it as a people who are separated from the world Dedication necessarily implies separation this hath been spoke to I will not actum agere let me only perswade you to live in the world as becomes those who have passed under a solemn dedication or consecration let it be seen you are no ordinary or common persons but such as have separated and set themselves apart for spiritual purposes Impropriate your selves to God self-dedicating persons they profess themselves to be Gods Impropriation they give up themselves to God to be appropriated to his use O Christians that you would do thus Do not prostitute your selves to common uses I do not speak this to take you off from your callings or your lawful affairs in the world but lay out your selves in special for God you must not be as ordinary vessels that are put to any use but you must be as the vessels of the Sanctuary 1 Chron. 22.19 that were dedicated to the service of God You are taken out of the common of the world and are as Gods inclosure and therefore he expects some singular fruit and service from you But I run out upon a truth which is not so much in my eye that which I aim at is the notion of separation to press that upon you And I shall only speak to one branch of it and that is this separation from the sinful course and practises of evil men Self-dedication calls upon you for this If you would indeed dedicate your selves then you must separate your selves from the ordinary ways and courses of graceless men you must not live as they do act as they do be as they are but you must carry it as a separated people I meddle not with separation from Church-communion far be it from me to urge that upon any 't is only separation from mens vices and sins that I am furthering and surely the Scripture will bear me out in this 2 Cor. 6.17 Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you Eph. 5.11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them Eph. 4.17 This I say therefore that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind c. Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this world c. Christians must not walk according to the course of this world Eph. 2.2 Tertullian tells us of a souldier that was a Christian when his fellow souldiers who were Heathens wore Lawrel upon their Heads he would not do so Being asked why O says he I am a Christian and therefore I must in habit in every thing differ from others O Christians where is your zeal for God in holy singularity Would you dedicate your selves to God and yet do as others do O that cannot be Be singular therefore and let there be a real difference betwixt you and others They are swearers drunkards Sabbath-profaners deriders of godliness despisers of holy duties c. you must be quite other men of a different constitution and conversation Especially you who have really dedicated your selves you must set your selves apart Eadè nos faciemus quae caeteri Nihilinter nos illos intererit Plurimum Senec. Ep. 5. and differ from the course of the world Shall there be no difference betwixt Saints and sinners Shall the two seeds be confounded Shall the children of God live just as the children of Satan God forbid You have another spirit as 't is said of Caleb Numb 14.24 and therefore you must live another life you have differing principles profess to walk by a differing rule are invested with differing priviledges and all these call for differing practices You are children of light and must walk as the children of light Eph. 5.8 You must be as the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye should shine as lights in the world Phil. 2.15 When others mind earthly things your conversation must be in Heaven Phil. 3.19 20. when others work all uncleanness with greediness you have not so learned Christ Eph. 4.19 20. O let it appear to the world that you are persons of another make and constitution that those that know not God You are to convince the world 1 Pet. 3.16 to condemn the world Heb. 11.7 how shall you do this but by the holiness and singularity of your conversations Do not do the same which others do in that which is evil do more than others do in that which is good for Christ expects a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something more from you than he doth from others Matth. 5.47 Christians dedicate your selves to God and make good your dedication evidence the reality of it by your being separated from the course of wicked men he that lives the common life is but a common person an unconsecrated person Whereever there is dedication there must be impropriation and separation 5. Fifthly Enter into Covenant with God Give the hand to the Lord as Hezekiah expresses it This is a very weighty point making of covenant and keeping of covenant with God are the summe of all the two poles upon which all religion moves You have many excellent Treatises written by our own Divines upon these two Heads I shall refer you to them for the full and large handling of them for I must contract How shall I speak to men to make them willing to covenant with God to enter into the Bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 and so to bind themselves to the Lord for ever This is the work that I have now before me the Lord prosper me in it O that some poor souls might be wrought upon by what I shall say not only to give up themselves to God but to do this in a federal way that there might be binding as well as giving and stipulation as well as resignation Let me allude to that in the 2 Kings 9.5 you read there
I have respect to all thy Commandments But that I may be more particular in this Head let me say two things to you and I pray that God will make them effectual Cherish no sin Baulk no duty Do nothing I mean willingly allowedly designedly that God forbids Do every thing to the utmost of your strength that God enjoyns 1. Let no sin be cherished by you 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The indefinite is equipollent to the universal he that names the name of Christ and says he hath dedicated himself to Christ he must not allow himself in any one sin he must depart from all iniquity The word is full of prohibitions against every sin and of commands to part with every sin but I need not quote them in so known a thing O if you would indeed dedicate your selves mortifie every corruption put away every sin let not one Agag live not one Dalilah or Herodias lie in your bosoms especially let the right eye be pulled out and the right hand be cut off Matth. 5 29. the Delictum dilectum as Aug. calls it let that go Thou hast not given thy self to God so long as thou hast a Peccatum in deliciis entertained and cherished by thee O what subtile insinuations and pleadings are there in our hearts for sin pray answer them with abhorrence and detestation Their great plea is the smalness of the sin Gen. 19 20. they say as Lot of Zoar Is it not a little one O beloved do not hearken to your naughty hearts can any sin be little that is the violation of an holy Law and committed against a great God Though it be but petty Treason will you make nothing of it will not little sins leave much guilt and so do you much mischief Many little sums make the account swell to a great sum little sands make the great mountains and little drops make the great Ocean Do not little sins make way for great sins Si curare parva negligimus insensibiliter seducti audenter etiam major a perpetramur Gregor Mor. l. 10. c. 14. He that allows himself in a little sin will not long stay there he 'l go on to greater sins If the little Thief get into the house the great ones will not be out long Little sippings end in drunkenness if they be often reiterated as well as full draughts the cloud that is very small at the first in a little time over-spreads the whole Heaven The * See Dr. Taylor of Repent p. 127. less the sin the higher the contempt for this shews that the soul can break with God for a very trifle O do not stand mincing of the matter if it be a sin have nothing to do with it 2. Let no duty be baulked To do all that God commands and therefore because God commands it this is a most certain evidence of a gracious heart And shall it be so with you O the time is hastening when one good evidence of sincerity will be more to you than all your Writings Deeds Evidences for your worldly possessions you cannot have a better than this to conform to the whole will of God in doing all that he requires and therefore labour after it Saul did something but he did not all that was commanded and that lost him his Kingdom How many lose Heaven by their being partial in the law of God As for duties that are easie and safe they can submit to them but as to those that have much of difficulty and danger in them here they shrink and beg Gods excuse As you love your souls take heed of this let the duty be never so painful let flesh and blood never so much oppose it be it never so contrary to your carnal interests and inclinations doth it expose you to never so many hazards losses crosses in the world yet if it hath Gods stamp and impress upon it yield obedience to it O this is dedication indeed Suppose it should be the offering up of an only son suppose it should be pray and die or own a reproached scorned persecuted Christ or taking up the cross of Christ and forsaking all for him I say suppose it should be this or that will you say Lord let it be what it will I will do it according to my strength this is to be a Christian O consider there 's the same authority for all duties that God who enjoyns the one enjoyns the other also There is such a connexion betwixt them that if you leave out one you leave out all * He that customarily c. breaks any one Commandment ventures to violate that Authority which by one and the same ordination made the whole Law equally binding and by consequence is habitually and in praeparatione Animi a transgressâ—r of the whole Law Reyn. Life of Christ p. 507. one allowed omission or commission is a violation of the whole law so you have it expresly Jam. 2.10 11. 'T is a good speech of * De Provid L. 3. Salvian Non est justa causatio cur praeferantur aliqua ubi facienda sunt omnia There can be no just reason of preferring some duties before others when all is to be done And again Quando servus ex Domini sui jussis ea facit tantummodo quae velit jam non Dominicam implet voluntatem sed suam When the servant picks and chuses in his masters commands and only doth what he himself hath a mind to he doth not do his masters will but his own Many such considerations might be alledged but I must contract O fulfil after God let the duty be what it will 't is good the assistance of God shall make it easie and the recompence of God shall make it gainful This is the first thing your dedication must be entire and I have shewn wherein the entireness of it consists 2. Secondly Let your dedication be constant and perpetual or let it be for constancy and perpetuity As it must be entire without reserves so it must be constant or for constancy without limitation of time This is further requisite to the truth and reality of Personal Dedication * Perpetua ac solida sunt quae vera sunt simulata non perseverant Ambros Officior l. 2. c. 22. what is true is lasting what is feigned is not so Paint soon washes off but the colour that is natural abides and is permanent 'T is perseverance and constancy which makes the difference betwixt professor and professor and so betwixt Dedication and Dedication Do you desire to dedicate your selves to the blessed God and to do this to purpose Then do it for for ever let it be for all the days of your life Luke 1.75 Thus David did Psal 119.112 I have enclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway even unto the end And verse 117. I will have respect unto thy statutes continually O blessed David not so much because a
the spirit Galat. 3.3 will you end in the flesh Will you draw back from God to the perdition of your precious souls Hebr. 10.39 I trust you will not 'T is observed both by Papists and Turks also for the latter have their religious Orders as well as the former that persons who have once entred themselves into such Orders and so dedicated themselves to God if they leave these they never prosper O Christians have you dedicated your selves in a regular scriptural way If you relinquish your dedication do you think to prosper Farewel peace joy Heaven farewel all when you forsake God and Apostatize from him That you may be thus faithful and constant and in every thing make good your dedication be much in begging of God the special assistance of his grace Praevenient grace made you true in your dedication Subsequent grace must make you true to your dedication O let none relye upon their own strength we may give resolve covenant but if we be left to our selves we shall soon leave God and undo as much as in us lies all that we have done The heart is deceitful grace is weak corruption strong Voluntate suâ cadit qui cadit voluntate Dei stat qui stat Angust temptations impetuous you need assisting and stablishing grace very much David joyned prayer with his resolution I will keep thy statutes O forsake me not utterly Psal 119.8 You have given the hands to God in stipulation lift up the hands to God in supplication for fidelity for perseverance The God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Jesus Christ after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you 1 Pet. 5.10 Self-dependance doth much endanger self-dedication 3. Thirdly Often renew your dedication though the first sufficiently obliges you yet all obligations are little enough to bind these treacherous hearts of ours the oftner this is renewed the greater awe it leaves upon conscience And though the command of God and the nature of duty are highly obligatory yet fresh and renewed dedications lay a farther superadded obligation upon the person O tye the knot as fast as may be many knots are not so easily loosened After repeated reiterated dedications you 'l be ashamed to be false to God There are some special cases and seasons wherein 't is good for you to renew your dedication Do you fall into some great sin Recover your selves by speedy repentance and renew your dedication These make great wounds and gashes in the soul get them healed presently These endanger the very vitals and strike at the foundation there 's no dallying in this case Great breaches must immediately be made up great sins make a great breach upon conscience upon your dedication and therefore make it up speedily Doubtless David that would renew the dedication of his house after Absaloms sins would also renew the dedication of his person after his own gross and scandalous sins Are you afflicted reduced into great straits Renew your dedication give all again to God at such a time for then you need him most to give to you When Jacob was in great straits and knew not what to do then he said If God will be with me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my Fathers house in peace then shall the Lord be my God Gen. 28.20 21. O be so wise as to renew your gift and your bond in a day of trouble and so ingenious as to make all good in a day of comfort Do you receive some eminent mercy from God Renew your dedication Say Lord thou hast renewed thy mercy and therefore I here renew my duty thou hast given me a very choice and seasonable mercy here I give thee my self for it Do you attend upon the Sacrament before and at and after that ordinance solemnly renew your dedication that 's a duty very proper at this time Indeed in every prayer we virtually do this but in sacramental work we must do it in a more solemn and explicit manner Are you cast upon times wherein there is much Apostacy professors fall off from God like leaves from the trees in Autumn Now renew your dedication that you may bind your selves the faster to God now take up new and stronger resolutions for God saying Though all forsake God you will never forsake him Other cases and seasons might be mentioned but I pass them by 4. Fourthly Adore and admire the infinite goodness of God In your giving your selves to God you do not oblige him but he obliges you when you give most you receive most first grace is given to you and then you are given to God you could not give if first you did not receive O have you devoted your selves to the Lord 'T was he that framed your hearts to this and wrought you up to it Time was when you were just as others are but God who is rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 7. for his great love wherewith he loved you even when you wholly gave up your selves to sin effectually drew you to himself That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards you through Christ Jesus O admire that distinguishing love of God which hath so freely taken hold of you And let this heighten your admiration that the great God is so willing to accept of that poor pitiful self which you tender to him 't is but the paying of a debt and yet God accepts of it as a gift Were you Angels it would be a condescension in God to accept of you but Lord What is man Psal 144.3 that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou so regardest him And that which is highest of all and which may put the soul into extatick admiration that for such a poor self given such a glorious self should be received you give your self to God and in lieu of this God gives his self to you O Saints what have you to do but to lose your selves in the admiring of God 5. Fifthly Further Personal Dedication in others You have done it your selves do what in you lies that others may do so too Do not you rejoyce in your own act Would you have it to do again for millions of worlds Where then is your zeal to further it in others who have not yet dedicated themselves to God Do you not pity such in their state and will you not endeavour to bring them out of it Can you be content to go to Heaven alone Shall the Devils factors be more diligent for him to the ruin of souls than you for God to the salvation of souls O do not let sinners alone till you have been instrumental for conversion and Personal Dedication to them So live that you may win them to God So instruct exhort perswade convince that they may
a little time be remembred no more A Pyramid will not be enough to perpetuate the memorials of this if we be left to our selves I therefore entreat and beseech you the Citizens of London to keep fresh in your memories the late terrible outgoings of Providence both against your selves in particular and against the City in general and in the day of your Praises and in the midst of all your rejoycings for present mercies O remember what is past How that should be remembred and how the remembrance of it is to be improved I cannot here insist upon I desire to shun prolixity and yet I am guilty of it 3dly In your initial Thanksgivings do this also Where God hath blessed you with considerable Estates see that you set something apart for charitable uses Let your Thanksgiving be Thanks-doing Do something towards the relief of them that are in want of them that were great Sufferers by the late Fire and towards others too who are great objects of Charity Hath God yet spared you an Estate O devote it to his glory and the good of his poor necessitous servants Liberality to such is an excellent concomitant to the duty of Praise and a very high Testimony of the reality of your Gratitude I leave this with you and for some reasons I will not further enlarge upon it So much for the enforcing of the First Branch of House-Dedication Secondly In the Dedication of your Houses to God I advise Fiducially commit them to God This implies 1. A casting-off of all Creature-props and dependancies for safety and Preservation 2. A flying to God for his Protection 3. A resting or relying upon God for this mercy Commit your Houses thus to God and if you would do it in a solemn explicit way when you enter into them and then keep the impression of this upon your Spirits all along it would be of great use to you The poor Heathens had their Tutelar Gods upon whom they rely'd for the keeping of their Houses These were the Lares Penates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domestick Gods of whom the Philologers write much The True God must be by you owned and rested upon for the preservation of your Houses Alas where can we be safe or our Houses be safe but under the shadow of the Almighty Psal 91.1 What can secure us but that providence that is always waking and watchful Psal 121.4 look to your persons what a world of accidents are you liable to each of which is enough to make a speedy dispatch of you When you are at home 't is but the breaking of a beam and you are gone when you walk in the Streets 't is but the falling of a Brick or a Tile or a wall or the breaking of a wheel when you are just by a loaden Cart or an hundred such Casualties and contingencies and there is an end put to your Life How many in this City every week are taken away by sad and sudden Accidents and indeed I wonder 't is not more We live inviron'd and surrounded by Deaths that may come upon us in ways that we never dreamt of Little did the Poet Aeschylus when he was sitting in his Yard think that there he should receive his mortal wound but so it was for as the story goes he sitting there with his Hat off an Engle hovering over his bald head and mistaking it for a stone let fall an Oyster hoping by the fall to break the shell which falling upon this poor man's head pierced his skull and so he dy'd And thus it happens in a thousand cases What need have we therefore to live in a constant dependance upon God for his Protection And so as to our Houses how many unseen dangers do hang over them if God do not keep them All your care preventions signifie nothing without this Set your Watches build in Brick look to your Fires and Lights this will not do your work without God's keeping Except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it Except the Lord keep the City the watchman waketh but in vain Psal 127.1 I would not take you off from the use of means for your safety but do not trust here 'T is God only that makes you to dwell in safety Psal 4.8 And therefore dedicate your Houses to God that is commit them to his vigilant and Holy Protection and then fear not I know upon what is past thousands in this City rise up in in the morning lie down at night full of Fears O that we could quiet our hearts by holy Trust what we put into the hands of God is above the reach of man He that hath the Protection of Heaven needs not fear the malice of Hell Saints may encourage themselves in the midst of all dangers and enemies whatsoever from the consideration of that tender and gracious Providence which is over them for the preserving of their Persons Estates Habitations and all that belongs to them Ps 121.3 4. He that keepeth thee will not slumber Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand The Sun shall not smite thee by day nor the Moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy Soul The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for evermore Psal 145.20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him Isa 4.5 Vpon all the glory shall be a defence Job 1.10 Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his House and about all that he hath on every side Prov. 12.7 The House of the Righteous shall stand Read Psalm 91. 'T is an excellent Psalm for the support of Faith as to Personal and House-preservation Now upon such encouragements as these be perswaded to commit your Selves and your All to God Put all into his Hands fiducially rest upon him and you engage him to take care of you and to secure you from all evil Prov. 29.25 Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe Psal 17.7 Shew thy marvellous loving kindness O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them If the Promises of Protection and preservation be not literally accomplished as to the keeping off some particular evils they shall be made good some other way which will be better for you O therefore trust God and do not give way to Fear when you first enter upon your dwellings commit all to God and every morning every night renew this act of trust and it will be well You may be called the House-keepers but in truth God is the House-keeper both as to Provision and also as to Protection and they must needs be well kept if the Almighty God be the keeper of them Men and Devils can neither touch an bair of your Heads nor a tile of your Houses but
and peculiar Reasons for House-Prayer you pray in secret not only because of the Command but because of those special and peculiar reasons which attend that duty Family-prayer hath the same inducements there are such and such cases circumstances considerations which this duty doth best hit and meet with and is best suited to O therefore make conscience of it There are Family-sins to be bewailed Family-miscarriages to be reformed Family-mercies to be acknowledged Family-wants to be supplied Family-undertakings to be blessed Family-afflictions to be sanctified Family-dangers to be prevented Now are there so many cases proper to a Family as a Family and shall there not be Family-prayer to reach to all these O that Masters of Families would consider what I say 4. Mercy and Justice Pity and Fidelity call upon you to call upon God in and with your Families Have you precious souls committed to you will you let them perish where 's your mercy and pity shall so many Children so many Servants be lost for ever for want of Prayer be not so cruel for the Lords sake You feed their bodies it would be cruelty to let them starve for want of food but is not this worser cruelty to starve their souls never to pray with them never to help them onwards in Heaven's way O though you have not the Grace of a Christian yet if you have but the bowels of a man methinks you should pray in your Families to prevent the ruine of those precious souls that are under your roof Besides this consideration which is proper to Mercy Justice requires this of you Family-prayer is a debt which you owe to them who are under you they owe subjection obedience and service to you you owe prayer to them The Apostle having spoke to Masters to give unto their Servants that which is just and equal presently subjoins Continue in prayer as if this was one thing that Masters in justice are to give to their Servants Col. 4.1 2. O 't is a real wrong to your Servants when you do not pray with them you are not only unmerciful but unjust in so doing not only false to God but injurious to them you may better withhold their wages from them than the duties of Religion 5. If this be nothing to you let me add further Self-love requires this of you I mean by this not so much Self-love with respect to your selves at the great day of Account though that be the main but I mean Self-love with respect to your present concerns you would have your Families blessed your Houses secured Self-love puts you upon this and can you hope for this if you neglect Family-prayer Ah you and yours lie open to judgments so long as this is neglected Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name This imprecation is a kind of commination God will pour out his wrath upon Prayerless-families Till Prayer be set up in your Houses judgment hangs over your heads the curse of God is over you and all that belongs to you you live in the midst of dangers every moment you lie down every night liable to some sudden and sore evils O 't is not only thus with you that you are out of God's care and tuition but so long as Prayer is neglected you are under his fierce displeasure which is continually ready to break out against you O where 's your Self-love If there was nothing more than that one would think that should put you upon Family-Prayer Do you love your Selves your Houses your Estates your Relations and yet will you not fall upon the means which are proper to bring down the blessing of God upon them No Prayer no Protection from evil no communication of Good in a Covenant way The unpraying Family is the unblessed Family And are these things so what reason have I then to bewail the too general omission of this duty I speak of what is in this City Is Family-Prayer duely performed in every House in this City If one should go from House to House and ask at every House Is God here called upon Doth the Master of this House pray with his Family Oh I fear it would be answered by too many No God is not here sought unto Here we live here we feed here we trade here we rush into the world as soon as we are up and here we go to bed as soon as our business is over but here 's no Prayer O Lord how sad is this that in a City where the Gospel hath been so long so powerfully preached that in a City which hath passed under such variety of remarkable judgments there should be so many Prayerless Houses O 't is a rocky heart from which this consideration doth not fetch some sighs and tears I beseech you who have any conviction or tenderness upon your Consciences let it be otherwise with you Let the Arguments that have been used prevail with you forthwith to set up Prayer in your Houses if hitherto it hath been omitted How would it rejoice my soul might I but hear upon the reading of this That some Citizen was wrought upon to call his Family together and to say The Lord forgive me hitherto I have liv'd in the omission of Prayer with you but now the Grace of God enabling me I am resolv'd to fall upon it morning and evening we will call upon God together we will not only eat and drink together and work together but we will also pray together The good Lord work this resolution in many of you O if it be not within your doors Lord have mercy upon us there will be too much cause to write upon your doors The Lord have mercy upon you Can you read such motives as have been set down and yet not pray Have you liv'd to see and feel such terrible judgments by Plague and Fire and yet not pray Are you upon such uncertainties for the future and yet not pray I trust in the Lord some will be wrought upon 'T is your own advantage that I aime at 't is only your own souls good and your Families good that I design if you will yet go on in an ungodly course what 's that to me I have done my duty Do I come with things disputable to you do I speak as one that pursues the interest of a Party Surely no that which I urge upon you is as cleer as the light of the day and that which all parties agree in and therefore let not any reasonings or prejudices keep you off from the practise of a duty so clear so universally granted Especially you that are Professors do you pray in your Families what a Professor and not pray in thy House what a shame is this what a contradiction to thy profession what a demonstration of the unsoundness of thy Profession what mischief dost thou do to others by this how many loose and carnal persons are hardned upon thy omission what
with what face will you be able to reprove what is amiss in others when your own guilt shall fly in your faces Let these things be thought of and let the Duty of setting a good example to yours be done by you Seventhly To sum up all in one general Direction Let it be your great design and endeavour in Education to promote and further the conversion and salvation of them that belong to you When the heart is set upon this and all things are carried on in subserviency to this this is Religious Education You have Children what 's the great thing that you must pursue after in the educating of them 't is this that they may be Gods Children as well as yours that as they are near to you they may be near to God that Gods Image may be where your Image is that where the First birth is the Second birth may be also In a word that they may have grace This I say must be the main thing which in your Education you must desire and pursue And so for Servants also To move you to mind this and to lay out your selves with the greatest diligence and ardency to attain this very much might be spoken O consider the misery of your Children till they be converted Are they born believers Do they bring grace with them into the world Fiunt non nascuntur Christiant Hieron surely no! Are they not Children of wrath by Nature Heirs of Hell lying in their blood Ephes 2.3 Will you not make it your first and principal endeavour to get them out of this condition especially considering how accessary you have been to the bringing of them into it Have you convey'd sin and filth and defilement to them and will you not do something that you may convey Grace Sanctification Renovation to them Have you done so much for their hurt will you do nothing for their good you that know what the misery of the Natural state is how can you be quiet till you have got all yours out of it You are to further the Conversion of others 't is a blessed thing to be the Instrument of Coversion Dan. 12 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars forever and ever Jam. 5.20 He which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death Ezek. 18.32 wherefore turn others so some read it and live ye Grace is of a spreading diffusive nature 't is set forth by Light Leaven Oyl and such other resemblances because of this He that is converted himself he will be converting others The Woman of Samaria being wrought upon she would feign bring in all the City to Christ Joh. 4.28 29. The Lepers would not keep the good tidings of the Enemies flight to themselves but they must publish it 2 King 7.9 A gracious heart is for the Conversion of All it comes near to but in an especial manner 't is for the Conversion of near and dear Relations Andrew having found Christ O he runs to his Brother Peter and tells him of it Joh. 1.41 Cornelius calls together his Kinsmen and his near Friends Act. 10.24 The Apostle tells us He that provides not for his own hath deny'd the Faith c. 1 Tim. 5.8 What a monster in Religion he is that doth not especially look after the souls of Relations and endeavour to bring them in to God! will not you then do this for your Children they are near to you they are a part of your self they are your self The Children are but the Father in fractions or the Father multiply'd Shall they be near to you and afar off from God Will you suffer any part of you to be in a state of dis-union from Christ 'T is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Polit. l. 1. c. 1 Natural to all Creatures to desire other things to be like to them you are gracious your selves do you not desire that all yours should be so too you have Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenoph. and you know the worth and excellency of it you would not exchange it for the world Do you know so much of it and will you let your Children be without it When Zacheus closed with Christ Christ told him This day Salvation is come to thine House Luk. 19.9 Why so why is it not to his Person but to his House Ans Not only because Christ and the Gospel bring Salvation to Families where they are entertain'd but also because Zacheus now would make it his business to further the conversion and so consequently the salvation of all in his House Christ is come and Salvation is come to your selves but are they come to your Houses too Are your Children and Servants in a state of Grace and so consequently of Salvation Can you better express your love to them than by helping on Grace in them You are sollicitous about other things alas they are all of them meer Trifles in comparison of this The greatest estate is not to be compared with the least Grace If your Children may fear God here and enjoy God hereafter they are happy Though you can leave them but slender portions if you can leave them in a Covenant state 't is enough How unspeakably will this rejoice your souls at the great day if you can take your Children by the hand and say Lord here am I Hebr. 2.13 and the Children which thou hast given me Whereas if Conversion-work be not done Will it not be a sad parting if that state will admit of sadness when the gracious Parent shall go to Heaven and the graceless child shall go to Hell O dreadful parting indeed I have told you the souls of your Children will be required at your hands O if through your neglect they be found unconverted your * Dt salute eorum qui in domo tuâ sunt sollicitus ac pervigil existas quia pro omnibus tibi subject is rationem Domino reddes August account will be very sad Pray do not think that this Conversion-work is only to be done by Ministers it lies upon you as well as upon them and in some respects you may * See this more fully made out in Dr. Gouge Dom. Duties Tract 6. p. 546. Mr. Baxters Saint ' everl Rest part 3. p. 350. c. better do it than they you better know your Childrens Temper you can speak more particularly to them you have a greater share in their love they have a further dependance upon you and so they will be the more attentive to what you urge upon them I know not how to get off from this Argument Do not think me tedious when I am pleading with you to secure and save the souls of your poor Children If you ask me how this may be done I answer by that which hath been spoken to Instruct them admonish them watch over them win them by a