all fulness with marrow What is Wines on the Lees what are all earthly royal dainties to these rich graces and Divine special favours and blessings offered and bestowed and participated of in the Sacraments At which sumptuous and delicious banquet every worthy receiver that has made due preparation by self examination is or should be much affected and ravished As the Divine Poet was who thus expresseth himself First as to the manner of Importation and submission Herb. H. Com. Not in rich Ornament or fine Aray Nor in a Wedge of Gold Thou who for me wast sold To me dost now thy self convey For so thou should'st without me stil have been Leaving within me Sin But by the way of nourishment strength Thou creepest into my Breast Making thy Way my Rest And thy small quantities my length Which spread their Forces into every part Meeting Sins force and art Yet can these not get over to my Soul Leaping the Wall that parts Our Souls and fleshly Hearts But as the out-works they may controll My Rebel-flesh and carrying thy Name Affright both sin and shame Only thy grace which with these Elements comes Knoweth the ready way And hath the Privy Key Op'ning the Souls most subtile Roomes While those to Spirits refin'd at Door attend Dispatches from their Friend Give me my Captive Soul or take My Body also thither Another life like this will make Them both to be together Before that Sin turn'd Flesh to stone And all our Lump to leaven A fervent sigh might well have blown Our innocent Earth to Heaven For sure when Adam did not know To sin or sin to smother He might to Heav'n from Paradise go As from one Room to another Thou hast restor'd us to this ease By this thy Heavenly blood Which I can go to when I please And leave the Earth to their food When he was pleased to go to this Heavenly Banquet and he was so pleased as oft as might be and so should every godly Christian hear him warbling this Divine Rapture Idem the Banquet Welcome sweet and sacred cheer Welcome deer With me in me live and dwell For thy neatness passeth sight Thy delight Passeth Tongue to taste or tell O what sweetness from the Bowl Fills my Soul Such as is and makes Divine Is some Star fled from the Sphere Melted there As we Sugar melt in Wine Or hath sweetness in the Bread Made a head To subdue the smell of Sin Flow'rs and gums and powders giving All their living Lest the Enemy should win Doubtless neither Star nor Flower Hath the Power Such a sweetness to impart Only God who gives perfumes Flesh assumes And with it perfumes my heart But as Pomanders and sweet Wood Still are good Yet being bruised are better sented God to shew how far his love Could improve Here as broken is presented c. Let the wonder of this pitty Be my ditty And take up my lines and life Hearken under pain of Death Hands and breath Strive in this and love the strife Nor found he this food beyond all degrees of comparison nourishing and strengthning but he feeleth it also most effectually healing Physick as appeares by what he speaks to his pratling Conscience which call'd every fair look sowl every sweet Dish sower If thou persist I will tell thee That I have Physick to expell thee And the Receipt shall be My Saviours Blood when ever at his board I do but taste it straight it cleanseth me And leaves thee not a Word No not a Tooth or Nail to scratch And at my actions carp or catch Here is therefore no such provision of food no such sumptuous fair in any House as this Solomon's so much admired was as Husks yea and stark hunger compared to this and each of the Houshold fares alike And they have both Dinner and Supper every Day of the same delicates that which Matthew calls a Dinner Luke calls a Supper And they are called upon to feed heartrly Eat O Friends Drink yea drink abnndantly O well-beloved Nor are there any such fellow-Commoners to Dine and Sup with any where as here These are all Noble Honourable Persons The choicest and most excellent Kings and Priests A chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation a peculiar People Yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Dines and Sups with them Mephibosheth thought it no small honour that David set him among them that did eat at his own Table How great honour must it then be to sit at Christs Table who is David's Lord And to increase their comfort they have assurance of the same Session with him in the Kingdome of Glory I appoint you saith he a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed me that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome Nor are there any such servitures in any House as in this to wit the Holy Angels Are they not all Ministering Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall he Heirs of Salvation There are that make them both Cooks and Butlers that dress and dish up and bring in the provision of this continual Feast attend at Table and Minister Cups of Consolation And moreover wait upon every Member of this Family when they go abroad about the works of their Callings and in all the changes of their life who have care of them besides this common attendance a peculiar Guardian of Angels from their new birth at least as some probably gather from sundry Scriptures Nor are there any such Vessels in any House to serve up the Meat and Drink in as are in this The Dishes Spoons Covers and Bowles belonging to the Sanctuary were all of pure Gold so were all the Vessels of the pure Table All the drinking Vessels of King Solomon were of Gold and all the Vessels of the House of the forrest of Lebanon were of pure Gold At that Royal Feast which Ahasuerus made to all his Princes and Servants That lasted an hundred and fourscore Days They gave them Drink in Vessels of Gold The Vessels of this House wherein the Saints dwell and wherein they have their Meat and Drink served up are much more precious than the Gold that perisheth which is corruptible how pure soever even great and precious promises in which are contained all the choicest Viands that Earth and Heaven can yield both for the nourishment of Soul and Body For Godliness is profitable for all things having the promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come Nor are there any such Seats to rest both Souls and Bodies on in taking repast in any House as in this Kings have had their Seats for themselves and by them for their Children and Favorites on which they sate down to eat meat they were terrestrial these coelestial places We read of the great King sitting at his Table with his Spouse
DWELLING WITH GOD THE INTEREST and DUTY OF BELIEVERS In Opposition To the Complemental Heartless and Reserved Religion of the Hypocrite Opened in Eight Sermons By JOHN BRYAN D. D. late Pastor in Coventry LONDON Printed by T. M. for James Allestry at the Sign of the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1670. To the Right Honourable ARTHUR Lord CHICHESTER Viscount CARRICKFERGUS AND Governour Earl of Donegal One of his Majesties most honourable Privy Council in the Kingdom of Ireland And to the Right Honourable and truly Religious LATITIA Countess of Donegal Right Honourable and my good Lord and Lady MAny and great are the obligations that lye upon me to your Honours as upon many other so upon the account of my yongest Son Noah many Years since Minister in Stafford since for the space of more than Seven Years your Chaplain whom while he lived in your Noble and Religious Family you loved dearly and prized highly and whose Death you take heavily So that all that my self and my two surviving Sons can do in way of thankfulness should we live Methusalem's Days will come short of what You have deserved of us And therefore we must and shall make it our Daily Prayer while we are in the Land of the living to Him who is All-sufficient to give to your Honours a full reward Mean time these poor low Meditations of mine upon the richest and highest subject I most humbly present to your Honours as a token of my gratitude beseeching your acceptance of it as that great Prince did of the poor Man's handful of Water who had no better thing at hand to offer beseeching God to bless it to You and to all into whose Hands it shall come for the furtherance of your and their spiritual and eternal good and that he will grant you according to the Riches of his Glory that as you have been and still are very great Props and Encouragements to the profession and practice of Piety Loyalty and Charity in that Kingdom where you now live and were so in this while you lived here so you may live long and long to promote both in both till you be translated into his everlasting rest Your Honours most humble bounden Servant John Bryan TO THE READER Courteous Reader IT is GOD Himself who is the substantial Object of Science and Religion Though we would not erre with them who too much dishonour and vilifie Creatures lest we reflect dishonour on the Creator and tempt Men to think basely of the Author as we do of the Work yet we must say that compared with Him they are a very little thing yea as nothing yea less than nothing and vanity Isa 40. 15 17. And what they are they are in that dependence on him and relation to him without which they would be strictly nothing Though the old Philosophers did many of them think that so fair a Structure deserved to be esteemed as Corpus Deitatis yet Christians are more wise and reverent than to approve the more modest assertion of them who call it Vestimentum numinis or Accidentia Divina yet the notion of an Accident is thus far apt to tell us that all the Creature 's being is in its dependence on the Creator and that it is nothing but what it is in him For of him and through him and to him are all things Rom 11. 36. And in him we live and move and be Act. 17. 28. To think therefore or treat of any Creatures abstractedly leaving out the knowledge of the Creator is not properly to know but to dote or erre He that does annihilate them or deny their very being doth not know it nor cannot teach it Such fooleries are all the busiest and most learned enquiries of those Formalists who separate Philosophy from Theology and think they have done fairly when they have once confest that God gave the World a being and first motion as if he had then left it to its self or made it a separate self-subsisting thing or as if they might then proceed to treat of it without any further thoughts or mention of that God who is more to it than a Soul and without whom it cannot be truly defined no more than the beams without mentioning the Sun or the Accidents without the Substance And as the true Natural Philosopher doth see GOD as all in all in Physicks so doth the true Moralist in Ethicks Well may our Religious Science be called Divinity because GOD is in it the beginning the middle and the end the life the substance of it and all in all And as this is true of the Theory it is as true of the Practice For it is one and the same Religion or Theology which is essentially in the three constitutive faculties of Man and must be defined as Scientia affectiva practica It is a very apt and instructing expression which is used Heb. 4. 13. All things are naked and opened to the Eyes of him with whom we have to do It is most intimately pertinent to our Religion to know GOD as Him with whom we have to do and to know how much we have to do with him to know that we have more to do with him than with all the Creatures in the World Yea that we have nothing to do with any Creature but as in him and with him and for him and as that which is less than an Accident of GOD That we have nothing to do with Men or Angels high or low rich or poor animate or inanimate no not our selves as separate from God or from his presence interest and will nor as co-ordinate in subsistence or intention with him but only as absolutely dependent on him and subordinate and subservient to him And that we have nothing to do in the World but his service and the fulfilling of his will And to know how Great and of what unspeakable importance our Daily and Hourly business is in which we have to do with God This will first fix us in the Positive part of our Religion which is properly called GODLINESS And then it will most effectually accomplish the Negative part in calling off our minds from every Idol and killing our bruitish and unchast affections While our hearts are seriously taken up with GOD the Creature will seem less to us comparatively than a Fly compared to a City or an Atome to a Kingdom or a Candle to the Sun Overvaluing and overloving and overdoing for the World is a certain Sign of our undervaluing and underloving and neglect of GOD. For if GOD have his due he will have all And if he had all the World and all things in it would have none unless as it is sent to GOD by them And so excellent is this converse with GOD that the nature of it may much convince us that GRACE and GLORY are but as the Seed and the Plant as infancy and manhood and that Life Eternal is begun on Earth Joh. 17. 3. One being but the work
better discern of one than of another it will be needful to speak a word or two to each of them That is a New heart which is furnished with a new spirit that is to say new dispositions inclinations and habits It 's called new because it 's opposed to the old spirit that of the World and of the Devil who by breathing on Men makes them go an end into old courses And because it s ever fresh and green and comfortable to them that have it That is a Broken heart which is smitten and pierced with remorse for sin broken down and brought low all high thoughts laid flat and level Broken off from the wayes of sin and stubborness in pursuit of those wayes Broken up as fallow ground made soft and tender as Josiahs was That 's an open heart which is enlightned to see our estate by nature and bewail it And to see comfort in Christ and rejoyce in it To have it also enlarged towards God's faithful Ministers as Lydia's was towards Paul and his fellow-labourers who constrained them to come into her House and abide there as also to run the way of God's Commandments A Single heart is opposed to eye-service and to carnal wisdom and to double mindedness and to guile A Whole heart is a willing heart when we are willing to a thing we use to say with all our hearts It 's opposed to a heart withdrawing it self and to a heart divided willing to lay hold on God and the World too and that fulfilleth not to walk after God That heart is pure that suffers no sin to abide in it without disallowance It being both against the judgment and will and when after falling into sin there is a speedy rising again with self-abhorring 1. A Perfect heart includes integrity and uprightness The heart is then intire when it is sanctified throughout and when there is a study and desire to attain perfection of degrees and a readiness to do all whatsoever God calls for and a constant holding unto God Following hard after him Keeping race with him And it is then upright when it is solid and true great just and when it is led by a right rule and aimes at a right end Such a heart as this God loves and dwells in and if you provide such a dwelling place for God he will be your dwelling place Qu. But is all this or any of this in the power of meer natural Men Such as you have been all this while perswading and advising to do Is it not severally taught and held that no Man can do any thing to help forward or further his own conversion Is it not a truth that no natural Man hath any desire of grace or of the means of grace never thinks of it because he is dead in trespasses and sins and how can a dead Man desire Life or use any means to attain it Nor when God by his Word makes offer of his grace can he perceive it Nor when he doth by God's Word and Spirit beginning to enlighten him in some measure to perceive it is he able to imbrace it Because wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God and because he is under the power of Satan And is not the Religion of the Papists convinced of gross error for teaching that the natural man is able both by his free-will to prepare himself for grace and to accept of grace when it is offered Yea to desire it like the Man that lay in the way to Jericho half dead yea and to do some good works If all this were true yet it hinders not but that God's Ministers may and ought to call upon natural Men to do what they can to reach forth their utmost towards grace for the obtaining of it Hear ye deaf and look ye blind that ye may see Some power they had which they are commanded to exaert and act and they are reproved for not doing what they could Ye Hypocrites ye can discern the face of the Skie and how is it that ye cannot discern this time Yea and why even of your selves That is your own Conscience dictates to you so many proofs of God's truth and God's Kingdom being set forth so clearly unto you by so many marks and tokens Judge ye not what is right that is to say that I am the Messias you have so long looked for They had therefore power to judge of the Visitation of Grace and God's Kingdom and in the Verses following they are told they neglected the time of God's patience It would befall them as a Debtor who suffers himself to be imprisoned after wearying out his Creditor namely that they should finde no more grace or pardon at his hands Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neer Nor ought Nature to be laid over-low Grace is Nature's perction what does it but repair the decayes of Nature Nature is the matter and Grace the Forme of God's Kingdom both in Earth and Heaven It Figures and Formeth Nature to the Image of God Moreover this is the way of God's exhibiting grace there is a necessity of Natures concurrence First this must precede as we are taught to pray for our daily bread before forgiveness of sins God cannot save an unwilling Man the will being uncapable of force and violence and all possibilities divine are carried on in an ordinary way of Man's industry who must therefore carry on himself as far as he can which whoso doth not hath no ground to expect common grace He that doth may expect to receive supernaturals common And he that abides with God in these may probably expect supernaturals special Qu. What are the abilities which Nature may and must reach forth in the pursuit of saving grace Answ She may and must approve the good ways of God More purity of Principles being left in Mans mind and conscience than in his will and affections That devilish Sorceress could say I see and allow and like that which is good and honest though I pursue and practice the contrary That sentence and principle pressed by our Saviour All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye unto them was the Posie of an Heathen Emperour 2. She may and must assay and make after Lift at the Commandments of God as a blind Horse having heard a noise hath been seen to lift up his head and turn that way where the noise came And a Child being commanded by his Father to reach a thing which he cannot will put to the little strength it hath and tug at it to remove bear and bring it 3. Matter of duty and obedience may be done by a natural Man They did well that took heed to the Word as to a light shining in a dark place though the Day-star was not yet risen in their hearts There is no outward exercise of Religion but we finde graceless
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