seldom read the Scriptures nay many live in a total neglect and omission of the service of God they are swallowed up in a sensual brutish worldly life for religious exercises they seldom or never mind them nay O that there were not too many that did deride and scoff at these what shall I say to these Is this to be Christians Surely these are flat Atheists not Christians have these dedicated themselves to God that live as though they believed there was no God Have these resigned up themselves to his will who act in such an open contradiction to it How will Heathens and Turks rise up in judgment against these The Heathens when they had dedicated themselves to their Gods they would worship them according to their light The * See Mr. Rycauts History of the Ottoman c. B. 2. Chap. 1. p. 98. Chap. 23. p. 158. Turks pray five times every 24 hours Mahomet that villanous Impostor in his Alchoran speaks honourably of prayer he calls it the key of Paradise the pillar of religion and many such Elogiums he gives to it And he strictly enjoyned all his disciples to pray five times a day and the Turks are very careful in the observing of this injunction they have five great fundamentals in their religion and this is one to pray so often as I have said every day Lord what a sort of men are we Christians who have so many strict peremptory commands from our blessed Saviour for prayer and other holy exercises and yet we make no conscience of them O that men would either alter their course or abandon their Title they are a shame a reproach to Christianity what a Christian and not pray not read the Bible c. 't is a contradiction Well let these go I beseech you whoever you are that shall cast your eyes upon these lines to enter upon a constant course of duty comply with Gods will be religious pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 come up to all acts of worship no time so well spent as time thus spent you will never repent of time thus spent you may and you will of that which is wasted in idleness drunkenness immoderate pleasures worldly pursuits but your praying-time hearing-time meditating-time Scripture-reading-time you will never repent of that or wish you had spent it otherwise And let me tell you there is that sweetness delight complacency refreshment in holy duties duly managed that if you did but experimentally feel it you would never be averse from them you would prefer duty before all carnal delights O let such especially who profess God be much in these let your hearts readily Eccho to Gods command as Davids did Psal 27.8 When thou saidst seek ye my face my heart said unto thee presently immediately as soon as ever the word was out of Gods mouth Thy face O Lord I will seek Do you not only yield a bare subjection to this will but let it be a willing chearful affectionate subjection pray and love prayer hear and love hearing receive the Sacrament and love receiving Let holy duties be naturalized to you so that you cannot live without them let them be to you more necessary than your daily food as the word was to Job Job 23.12 or than any thing that sustains the natural life let nothing part you duty be not diverted or taken off from it Daniel would rather cease to live than cease to pray Dan. 6.10 2. Surrender up your selves to the will of God as this refers to the life and the whole life so as to live in an obediential conformity to it especially where it refers to things moral that do eternally and indispensably oblige the creature This is holiness Complying with the will of God under the former Head is Religion under this 't is holiness for the nature of holiness consists in conformity to the will of God the standard measure rule of all righteousness O that you would act in an universal compliance with this will 'T is a great piece of Gods goodness that he hath given us so full so plain a revelation of his will in the word how we are to think speak live what we are to do what we are to shun how to trade converse eat drink how we are to order the whole conversation we have clear express discoveries of Gods will for all these now if you would resign up your selves to this will to order thoughts words actions the whole conversation conformably to it this would be self-dedication indeed real holiness And what a blessed thing is holiness let the world take heed how they disparage or deride holiness 't is Gods own glory he is glorious in holiness Exod. 15.11 and holiness is his glory Joh. 12.41 These things said Esaias when he saw his glory when was this when he heard the Seraphims crying one unto another Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Isa 6.3 'T is a beautiful thing 't is called the beauty of holiness Psal 110.3 Nothing puts such a beauty and glory upon the creature as holiness 'T is that which is necessary to the future glory without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 But I must not lanch out into so vast an Ocean the summ of all is this in your whole course consult the will of God and give obedience to it walk by this rule square all your actions by it and mercy and peace shall be upon you Gal 6.16 live not according to the * Eph. 2.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wills of the flesh or the wills of men but live according to the will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 c. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us c. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the wil of the Gentiles c. In all your ways ask this question what would God have me to do And when you know this O see that you act accordingly Ah and like this will of God say just thus I would have it I would not have it otherwise I do not desire a better will or a better law only I desire a better heart Do thus and you are a people dedicated to God so much for self-surrender to the Preceptive will of God 2. There 's the Providential will of God you must resign up your selves to this will also A Christian carries it like himself when in every condition and in all occurrences he says with Pauls friends The will of the Lord be done Acts 21.14 when he is heartily willing that God should have his will and there is a kind of annihilation or exinanition of his own will when he speaks to God as once the Martyr Lord there shall be but one will betwixt thee and me and that shall be thy will And the truth is
pray They that do make conscience of these if they sin other-ways God will punish them also though they pray I would not put you upon this duty as if this would secure you do what you will in other respects but do you pray walk in all things answerably to your prayers and see if God doth not even visibly bless you in this world 5ly Though praying Houses are not always preserved from external and common judgments yet often they are Polanus tells us of a Town in the Territory of Bern Out of Mr. Gurnal 3d. Par. ch 37 p. 413. consisting of ninty Houses which was in the year 1584 destroyed by an Earthquake all of it except the half of one House where the Master of the Family was earnestly praying with his Wife and Children upon their bended knees to God this was preserved And I question not but that many such Instances might be found out if I had time to make search O pray in your Houses peradventure God will secure them from outward evils but however if this be not done you shall not lose by what you do you your selves shall be secured from Hell intitled to spiritual and eternal blessings you may lose your Houses but your Souls are safe And why now should any say What Profit is there in serving God and in setting up Prayer in our Houses This objection though I have often had it in my thoughts yet here it came in suddenly and unexpectedly upon me and taking me when I was in haste I could not speak so fully to it as the nature of the thing requires Truly I fear the late Judgment instead of being improved to further Holiness and the fear and worship of God it hardens many in Atheism and Irreligion 4. Obj. I come to a fourth objection Say Some We would with all our hearts pray in our Families but our businesses are so many we have no time for it Ans No Time a most pitiful pretence I can scarce hear it with patience what no time to serve your God who gives you all your time to save your own and the souls of all the rest in your Families what no leisure for this Do you say no time that 's a meer pretence indeed it is No heart if you had but an heart for the duty you would find time enough for it O I beseech you set up Prayer in your Families morning and evening you have time enough for it Men * Non exiguum Temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Senec. V Non inopes ejus sed prodigi sumus Id. prodigally throw away their time and then they complain they have too little of it They can spend so much in dressing eating recreation sitting at an Alehouse or a Tavern and yet they want time for holy attendance upon God As if the Miller should pretend want of Water to make his Mill go when he lets it run wast O will this excuse you at the great day Lord we would have pray'd in our Families but we had no time for it you will be ashamed to make use of this excuse then and yet how is Conscience baffled with it here O that I might prevail with you to lay aside this objection and presently to set upon the duty what hath the world so many Hours from you every day and do you grudg God one hath God given you such a liberal proportion for the minding your affairs and will you not spare him a little morning and night what so much taken up with your Trade on Earth as to neglect your Trade with Heaven Shall the particular calling swallow up all and the general calling have nothing Shall the Servant shut the Master out of doors Luk. 10.41 42. Martha-like will you be cumbred with many things and neglect the one thing needful that which is of so great importance Is there any business to be compared with the Salvation of Souls and you have many Souls to mind Will that ever profit either you or yours which is gained by the neglect of God and duty 'T is not an hinderance but an help to you to begin the day with Prayer Melch. Adam in Vitâ Luth. Luther us'd to say Benè orasse est bene studuisse To have pray'd well it is to have study'd well And therefore 't is said of him That he spent three hours every day in Prayer and Meditation Easque studiis aptissimas Your business will go on the better for praying A whet is no let is our Proverb The Traveller doth not lose by his baiting Bishop Bromrigge Serm. 1. p. 6. In Gerson's time the Friers had a foolish opinion that no man was the older for the time he spent at hearing of Mass Nemo senescit pro tempore quo quis Missam audit 'T is true in my case though 't is false in theirs Time spent in the service and worship of God is no loss to a man You pretend business what abundance of business did lie upon the hands of Job a person so rich that had so vast an estate to manage who also was a Magistrate Job 1.5 and yet every day he rose up early in the morning and offered burnt-offerings for his Children And so Joshuah he was a General a Ruler doubtless his business was very great yet this would not take him off from Family-Worship Josh 24.15 I and my House c 'T is but rising-early as Job did and you 'l get time enough for Secret and Family-Prayer Why do we complain of the want of Time when we snort it away upon a bed of Idleness O Sluggard rise and call upon God be at thy Closet and House-devotions betimes The poor birds are chirping and singing their Mattens very early and wilt thou sleep and sleep away thy praying time O do not so I 'le shut up this Head with that advice of the old Rabbins Minue negotia ut vaces legi O whoever thou art if thy businesses be indeed unmanageable with an holy course lessen them ut vaces Deo that thou mayst have the more time and leisure to wait upon thy God 5 Obj. One Objection more and I have done Some plead inability They would pray but alas they cannot Ans Cannot pray that 's a sad word indeed But is it so Hast thou liv'd so long in the world and hast thou not learned yet to pray Canst thou govern thy Family provide for thy Family train them up in their several Arts and occupations and do all things that are proper and is this the only thing which thou canst not do thou canst not pray Canst thou tell the Physician how 't is with thy self and with thy relations and canst thou not tell God humbly and reverently how the case stands as to thy self and thine Surely if this be so 't is very sad and know that this inability is thy sin and therefore will be no excuse to thee O labour after a praying spirit for the time to
is the Prayer and according to his power shall be the Endeavour of him Who desires to devote himself first to God and then to your service THO. JACOMB To the Afflicted Citizens OF LONDON And to every READER THe marvellous industry of the Devil and his Angels in all generations in hindring the preaching and knowledge of that sacred truth which God hath sealed for the sanctifying and saving of mens souls would rise up in judgment against the Ministers of Christ to their condemnation if they should not with resolution and unwearied industry subserve the lover of truth and souls in so happy a work which none but the fiends and friends of darkness do malign Therefore allow me to contribute this poor assistance for thy good by putting into thy hand this paper-Lanthorn in which the Reverend Author hath set up so seasonable a light for the use of the reedified houses of this City The very great number of excellent Books which perished in the flames doth now make some of us retract our repentance for scribling so much and may convince the censurer that it should not be taken as a needless work to endeavour something towards the reparation of so unvaluable a loss The subject of this Treatise is nothing Novel indifferent dark or doubtful but the compendium or summe of all Religion the same thing which is proclaimed as necessary to salvation under various names and titles in the sacred Scripture the very title of Dedication to God methinks should command attention from the Reader and strike his heart with an holy awe as speaking a thing so high and holy what is it but that reverend title which is the mark of God on all that he will own and which he hath commanded his servants to assume Holiness to the Lord. The first part is of Self-Dedication the second of House-Dedication in which is comprehended the Dedicating of All that we have to God of which I may say alluding to Christs words the One is the first and great Commandment and the second is like to it And it is all neither more nor less than the exposition of our Baptismal Covenant that is of our Christianity it self in which we did all by a solemn Vow Dedicate and give up our selves and all that we should have to God I will not so far digress as to give you the reasons of all the other appellations of this same act or state it is called by the name of Vocation Repentance Regeneration the new birth renewing quickening conversion or turning unto God the new creature putting off the old man and putting on the new sanctification grace the spirit translation from death to life the Divine nature life eternal religion godliness the reconciling of man to God righteousness and under most of these names it is ordinarily treated of by Divines but there is no name which more clearly informeth man of the true nature of this work as on his part than these three remaining which all are of the like importance that is Dedicating our selves Devoting our selves and Covenanting with God And therefore I wish that hereafter Divines will more frequently handle it under these most plain and explicit notions which will need least exposition to the more ignorant sort and contain in them their proper perswasives to the work To Sanctifie or Consecrate or Dedicate a person unto God is to separate him from all other common inconsistent uses to the service of his Maker and Redeemer And as Gods service is either that which is common to all Christians or that which is proper to some office of Ministry so there is a double dedication and sanctification one is our separation to God in a holy Christian state of life and the other is a separation to the sacred office of the Gospel-ministery which ought to presuppose the former for none should be more personally holy than those that have a holy office but yet they are too often separated for he may have all that is essential to that office which is to promote the salvation of others who yet shall never be saved himself Holiness to the Lord was the mark of God which Aaron was to wear on his forehead on the fore-front of his Mitre engraven on a plate of pure gold like the engravings of a Signet Exod. 28.36 Holiness to the Lord was Gods mark upon Israel as his sanctified separated people Jer. 2.3 Holiness to the Lord was the title of those things which were dedicated to his Temple-service Isa 23.18 which signifieth no more than Holy to the Lord And Holiness to the Lord is the mark of God on all the possessions and utensils of his servants in the Kingdom of the Mediator as is foretold in Zech. 14.20 21. In that day shall there be upon the bells or bridles of the horses Holiness to the Lord Yea every Pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be Holiness to the Lord and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them and seeth therein All which is but the same in sense with that which is said of true Believers in the Gospel As he which hath called you is Holy so be ye Holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 16. An holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you 2 Pet 2.5 9. To the pure all things are pure Tit. 1.15 It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer 1 Tim. 4.5 It is a sad case and the greatest scandal to the Anabaptists that twenty or thirty or forty years after persons are Baptized and solemnly dedicated to God in the holy Covenant we must be fain to preach to them as the Ancients were wont to do to the Catechumens and must spend most of our time and labour in teaching them what this Covenant-dedication is and in perswading them to a true consent and confuting their prejudice and driving them from the entanglements and security which cause their unwillingness and delays as if we were but preparing them for Baptism And O how happy should we think our selves if after all this we could but find them in that case as all the adult-expectants of baptism should be in even truly penitent believing-consenters to the covenant of God that is true Christians If we lived in a land where the greater part were Heathens and should be so long in preaching our preparatory Lectures to make them Christians and when we had all done could prevail but with a few to be baptized how compassionately or contemptuously would you speak of such wretched obdurate men But sirs would you not thereby condemn your selves Nay are you not under an aggravated condemnation who after you are solemnly listed to Christ in the sacred Vow and Covenant are yet no more perswaded to the thing it self which you have vowed than those Heathens and
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
few that are acquainted with it this makes the number of self-devoting Christians to sink and fall like the souldiers of Gideon God speaks to the Jews Jer. 5.1 to run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem to seek in the broad places thereof to see if they could find a man that did execute judgment and sought the truth and he would pardon it May not we run to and fro to find out a man who doth intirely give up himself to God who lives in a blessed surrender of himself to the will of God who is fixed and resolved for God and so I might go over all the other branches of self-dedication and scarce be able to find such an one Every man in the world dedicates himself to something but O 't is the sin and folly of men they mis-object and mis-place their dedication 't is self sin the world that the generality dedicate themselves to 't is but here and there a man who doth this to the holy ever living ever blessed God O that the practices of men did not too visibly proclaim this O that this sad truth was not too legible in the courses and conversations of besotted sinners Even where they have made their renunciation even there they make their dedication instead of renouncing the world the flesh the Devil they devote themselves to these No tears are sufficient to bewail this folly and wickedness that is so manifest to every observing eye Pray lay it to heart and mourn much over it before the Lord you that have any sense of Gods honour of the value and preciousness of immortal souls Did I not fear that this discourse would too much swell upon my Hands as I would speak much more to further Humiliation upon the account of such as are unregenerate so I would also speak something to further humiliation in the Saints themselves upon their own account I hope many such may happen to read what here in the sincerity of my heart I offer to their serious consideration thus then very briefly You have dedicated your selves to God but was there not a time when you were just as others are when you did just as others do when you walked according to the course of this world Eâ—h 2 2. when you lay in the common state and lived the common life was there not a time when you your selves also were foolish disobedient Tit. 3 3. deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Did you not spend many years Rom. 8.7 under the power of the natural enmity to God Was it not long before you would be perswaded to yield up your selves to him Did you not long withstand Gods claim and title Was not God fain to put forth his Almighty power Eph. 1.19 to conquer the renitency and reluctancy of corruption If God had left you to your selves had ye to this very day given up your selves to him Did you not side with Satan and Sin and the world for many years against God And now you have dedicated your selves to the Lord being over-powred by the holy violence of his grace Ne arbitreris istam asperam molestdmque violentiam dulcis est suavis est ipsa suavitas te trahit Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Non cogit nolentem sed volentem trahit Aug. is your dedication so full so entire so ingenious so Evangelical so fixed as it should be Have you been true to it and walked answerably to it Ask your selves these questions and deal in secret with your own souls and I assure you you will find matter of deep humiliation even as to your selves as well as to others who yet stand it out against God and have done nothing in personal dedication Secondly Vse 2 Are there so few who have dedicated themselves to God Then it concerns every one to enquire whether he be in the number of these few whether he be one of the Herd or one of the little flock whether he hath pass'd under this Holy Dedication or not O call your selves ad scrutinium enter upon the most solemn and serious enquiry about this let there be self-examination about self-dedication Gal. 6.4 let every man prove his own work and so too his own dedication then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another This is a question worthy of the most serious thoughts of men professing the Gospel Have I dedicated my self to God Have I in good earnest dedicated my self to God Am I not mistaken in this upon which all Religion here salvation hereafter doth depend I am a Christian no farther than as this is done by me and therefore is it in reality done by me I beseech you look your faces a little in the glass of the word and suffer conscience to bring in its verdict and judge accordingly Methinks it might be easie to convince some and these some are too many the Lord knows that they have not dedicated themselves to God As to them 't is not a doubtful case there 's scarce any ground of examination for 't is as clear as the light of the Sun at mid-day that they are altogether strangers to this Act I speak to you who give up your selves to the fancies humors opinions examples lusts of men who care not how you displease God if you may but please man who can dispense with the commands of God if you may but gratifie the lusts of men nay who can add sin to sin if you see it doth but please man this was Herods case Acts 12.3 Have you dedicated your selves to God To you that are temporizers who are what the times are when they are good you are good when they are bad you are bad you that calculate your Religion by the times wherein you live and set your Watch not by the Sun the divine and infallible rule of the word but by the fashions of the Age upon which you are cast you that have a fides Ephemeris as Tertullian calls it a Religion for every day which you can put on and off as you do your clothes you that are meer Polypusses in the things of God Polypus mutat colorem ad similitudinem loci Plin. Hist Nat. l. 9. c. 29. to receive the colour and tincture of what is next let it be what it will you that are of a Samaritane spirit to be Jews and ally'd to them when they flourish and enemies to them when they are low you that are like to those of whom our Histories report they were Protestants in King Edwards days Papists in Queen Maries days and Protestants again in Queen Elizabeths days you that can sail and turn with every wind meer Weather-cocks in Religion surviving Ecebolii Have you dedicated your selves to God To you who are all for self for self ease self love self pleasing self interest self advancement you that terminate all in self and make that your centre you that instead of making self the matter of your
of youth in this City O the cursing swearing taking God's name in vain that is to be heard from Children in this City How doth it sometimes affect me as I go along to hear young ones with Oaths and Curses in their mouths how soon are they pregnant in sin and ripe for Hell they can no sooner speak almost but they are venting wickedness and when they arrive at some further growth how do they flock to Ale-houses and Taverns O the early drunkards that London is full of O the lying gaming drinking scoffing at what is good c. that our Youth is tainted with in this place O Citizens doth not this proclaim to the world that good Education is too much neglected by you Is not that the cause of all this Would Children Servants be so bad abroad if you did do your duty at home Indeed I must charge that abundance of sin that is amongst the Youth chiefly upon the want of Religious Education And O that many even of those who profess God and Godliness were not herein too remiss and careless They pray in their Families and keep up duties in their Families but as to constant and faithful endeavours for the well educating of those under them therein they come very short Surely Professors are not now as to strict holy pious Education what formerly Professors were one might with much more of comfort have placed a child with old Professors than he can with present Professors It being thus I cannot but speak something to excite you to a further care and faithfulness in the well-educating of those who are under your Authority be they Children or Apprentices The Commands of God are very express and positive Prov. 22.6 Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Root from which the Word in my Text rendred by Dedication is derived Children must be initiated or dedicated for the Septuagint translate it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how by good and religious education by training them up in the way of Duty So Eph. 6.4 And ye Fathers provoke not your Children but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Parents you see what God requires of you those that you have brought forth you must bring up in the nurture c. You must not only take care that your Children be able to * Non tantum curare debenâ— Parentes us liberi sui vivant sedetiam ut Deo bene vivant Ames Cas Cons l. 5. c 22. live as to the world but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may live well fearing God and doing his will The Scripture is very full both of Precepts and also of Presidents for this religious Education if it was necessary here to enlarge but I will pass them by here because they will better fall under the Particular Directions that I shall give presently Let me only use some powerful motives and inducements the better to excite you to the Duty First Motive 1 Your Children and others under you they are a trust which you must give an account for to the great God you stand intrusted with the Souls of these the care of their Souls lies upon you and therefore you must be accountable for them for where-ever there is a trust there will be an account taken Where you trust your Servants you will expect an account Hath God trusted you with precious souls so many Children so many Servants so many Trusts and will he not have an account whether you are faithful to your Trust 'T is a mistake to think that the Cura animarum doth only lie upon Ministers though indeed eminently it doth Ezek. 3.18 19. it lies also upon you who are Parents and Masters if you let the Souls of Children and Servants to perish for want of good Education their blood shall be required at your Hands Let me allude to that of the Prophet to Ahab 1 King 20.39 Behold a man turned aside and brought a man unto me and said Keep this man if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life So here God says this to you Here 's a child keep this Child for me if he miscarry and be lost through thy neglect thy life shall go for his If men did but consider this certainly they would be more careful and conscientious in their Education You must answer for the Souls for the sins of those under your charge Do not think that I speak my own private thoughts only to affright you I say nothing but what others have said before me * Omnia quae deliquerint filii à Parentibus requirentur qui non erudierint filios suos Orig. in â—ob Origen tells us That all the faults of Children shall be required of their Parents who have not instructed them And we read in the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constit. Ap. Lib. 4. Cap. 10. in Zonaras pag. 909. Constitutions that go under the name of the Apostles If Children through the carelesness of Parents shall fall into sinful courses those Parents should be guilty of the souls of those Children and that not only the children shall be punished themselves but the Parents also for their sake That look as children sometimes in this life are punished for the Parents sake so Parents in the life to come shall be punished for the childrens sake O what an awakening consideration is this 'T is the affliction of many that they have no Children they have none of these arrows in their quiver Psal 127.4 5. 't will be the affliction of others at the great day that ever they had children O when they shall come to witness against them and say Lord here 's my Father that let me lie steal swear play away the Sabbath and he never regarded me my sin was the fruit of his bad Education will not this fall heavy upon the negligent Parent will not such a child be an arrow indeed to pierce him to his very heart Pray therefore think of this in time that you may prevent these tremendous consequences You take delight in your children but do you consider O I must answer for the soul of every child You imploy your Servants about your business but do you consider I must answer for the souls of these Servants If you did you would not carry it as you do Second Motive 2 Religious Education carries much of Good along with it you cannot imagin how much good you do when you do this First you do good to your selves for by this you discharge your duty and acquit your selves from the guilt of souls and however things go liberâ tis animam you have freed your selves in the sight of God What if after all your care pains prayers faithfulness your children should yet miscarry O this would be matter of comfort to you 't is not upon your default or neglect
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
endanger you for ever Do you desire the prosperity of your Houses your Families and yet connive at sin and permit sin there O let your souls be all on fire with an holy zeal against sin Do not suffer your nearest and dearest Relations to sin improve your Authority against sin if you suffer it you must suffer for it you may let it alone but it will not let you alone Omissions here are Commissions Thus I would have you to keep sin out of your Houses and instead thereof let there be even steddy fixed Vniversal Holiness kept up and practised in them Holiness becomes God's House Psal 93.5 Ah and it becomes your Houses too O that your Common Houses might be Holiness to the Lord Zach. 14.21 21. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the Horses HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD and the pots in the Lords House shall be like the bowles before the Altar Yea every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be Holiness unto the Lord of Hosts c. That which I drive at is this Let you and yours be Holy carry it in all things as a people consecrated to the Lord Let Piety be liv'd by your selves and by all that belong to you Let nothing be seen in your Houses but what becomes the Gospel and savours of God and Religion How are Houses bless'd when a trade of Godliness is driven on in them when Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants all set themselves as with one shoulder to an Holy Course it cannot go amiss with such Houses But no more of this CHAP. X. The last Branch of House-Dedication urged IN long Chases Doggs are apt to lose the Scent Reader that thou mayst not think in this long Discourse we have lost our Matter and Method let me tell thee where we are The Dedication of the House I made to consist in four things In a Religious Entrance upon it by Prayer and Praise In the solemn commitment of it to God's Protection In the setting up of Religion in it In a right carriage under Domestick mercies Hitherto I have been speaking to the Three first of these and I have very largely insisted upon the Third Head because of its vastness and comprehensiveness and also because of its special reference to the Duty in hand namely House-Dedication I come now to the fourth and last thing to stir you up to a right deportment and carriage under Domestick mercies I told you that House here is not to be limited to the bare walls to the external structure but 't is to be considered as it includes those several blessings mercies comforts accomodations that are enjoy'd there Now all these must be dedicated to God I need not tell yon that a fixed Habitation to have an House to dwell in is a great mercy 'T is that mercy which Christ himself had not Math. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head He that made the world and was Lord of all things had not an House to be in He that went to Heaven Joh. 14.2 3. to prepare a place for us there had not a place here on Earth prepared for himself 'T is that mercy which the Apostles and Primitive Saints had not for they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins being destitute c. Heb. 11.38 Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffetted and have no certain dwelling place 1 Cor. 4.11 Blessed be God it is not thus with you yon have your Houses to dwell in and some of you very convenient beautiful Houses too Is not this mercy I hope you do not forget how it was lately with you when you had not an House to be in if God had not in your straights graciously provided for you And further your Houses are full of Mercy God fills them with good things as 't is Job 22.18 they are richly furnished with all kinds of Mercies Personal and Relative Spiritual and Temporal c. There 's good food to nourish you good apparel to cloath you good beds to ease yon good Relations in whom you take much comfort every day your Tables are spread mercies are new upon you every morning Lam. 3.21 God loadeth you daily with his benefits Psal 68.19 you live under a constant succession of mercies My God thou art all Love Not one poor minute ' scapes thy breast But brings a favour from above You have Mercies not only ultra merita Bernard but also supra vota such as are not only undeserved but undesired and unexpected too Your enjoyments are above what you could well have looked for As Jacob said to Joseph I had not thought to see thy face and lo God hath shewed me thy Seed also Gen. 48.11 I appeal to many of you when you first came up to this City did you then expect such Estates as God hath now blessed you with your beginnings were very low and now you are greatly advanced as to wordly possessions Shall not all now be dedicated to God Shall not Domestick mercies pass under this holy Dedication If you ask me How is this to be done Take a short account of that in three things 1. Let God be owned and acknowledged in all your Mercies Ascribe all to Him as the proper Fountain from which all doth flow Thus David did Psal 87.7 All my springs are in thee And so your All it is of God The Wife that lies in your bosom that is the desire of your eyes Ezek. 24.16 God gave her to you Prov. 19.14 Houses and riches are the inheritance of Fathers and a prudent wife is from the Lord. The Children that are so dear to you are the gift of God Psal 127.3 Lo Children are an Heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Psal 128.2 3 4. The estate you possess is not so much the fruit of your own industry as of God's blessing Prov. 10.22 The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich Instance in what mercy you will you may say of it what Jacob said of his Children this is that which the Lord hath graciously given to me Gen. 33.5 O let your eye be upon God in every comfort 't is the property of gracious persons to do this as the bird hath no sooner sipp'd a little water but it looks upwards and falls a chirping And here 's one great difference betwixt a godly man and a wicked man The latter looks no higher than Self he ascribes all to Self Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty The former ascribes all to God and admires God in all O the different language of David from that of Nebuchadnezzar 2 Sam. 7.18 19. Who am I O Lord God and what is my House that thou hast
and there I speak to them the others I must pass over that I may not offend with too much prolixitie You perceive in this Dedicatory discourse I go no higher than to you who have Authority in and over your own Private Houses As to your Magistrates who have a greater and a more extensive Authority I could not judge it so convenient considering the present circumstances wherein I stand to make my Application to them otherwise I would 1. have been verie earnest with them to come up to Holy Dedication for who are more under the obligation of this than they They have not only a single person or a bare house but they have also interest power authority to devote to and improve for God O what publick blessings are Magistrates when they do this What abundance of good do they do by their pious example and holy zeal They being as Planets fixed in a publick Orb how is their light and influence diffused amongst verie many If they give themselves to God in an holy life if they advance Religion Godliness the worship of God in their families how doth their pattern provoke and excite others to do the same 2. I would humbly have recommended two things to them the first of which refers to the present attempts of rebuilding this desolate City and 't is this That they would endeavour as their wisdom shall direct them to further and procure the setting of a Day apart for solemn Prayer in order to the obtaining of Gods blessing upon us in this great undertaking Methinks so great a work should not be engaged in without solemn seeking of God the foundation of all our Buildings should be first laid in Prayer The happy issue and success of such an enterprise as the rebuilding of a City so much depending upon Gods blessing for except the Lord build the House and much more the City they labour in vain that build it Psal 127.1 Surely he should be sought unto for this in a verie solemn and serious manner I find this piece of Religion amongst the verie Heathens that whenever they entred upon the building of their Cities and eminent places they always began with the invocation of their Deities of this many instances might be given out of History if it was needful Shall Christians come short of Heathens Shall darkness out-shine light Shall Nature outstrip Grace Shall Idolaters carry it better to a false God than we to the true God This is the first thing and that which is proper to our entrance upon the work and we are but there as yet But then secondly in time I hope it will be finished we are now but laying the foundation as it were but I trust in some years the fewer the better the Top-stone will be laid and we shall cry Grace Grace Zech. 4.7 we have as yet but the Embryo of a City but I hope this will go on to a full and compleat birth If it so be which God grant then I would humbly recommend this to the present Magistrates or to those who shall live to see the finishing of what is now but begun that this City may be dedicated that is in a publick and solemn way committed to Gods protection Did Nehemiah thus dedicate the walls of Jerusalem and why should not we have for this City the Metropolis of our Nation upon the safety and welfare of which the whole Nation both in Temporal's and Spiritual's doth so much depend and which is always like to be environed with many dangers and enemies I say why should not we have for this City as soon as it shall be built a general express solemn religious Dedication answerable to that of Jerusalem in Nehemiahs time of which you read Nehem. 12.27 ad sin cap. But these are things only proper to our Magistrates and I not presuming to prefix their Names before this Dedication it would be improper for me to say more upon them If I may not be so happy as to prevail with them for a Day of Prayer yet let me prevail with you to be much in private seeking the Lord in order to your particular and the general concerns of this City Building-work and praying-work should always go together where many hands are imployed in the one many hearts should be imployed in the other In every business and undertaking God should be called upon how much more should this be done in so great and weighty a business as that is wherein you are now engaging I trust God hath gracious and merciful designs towards you and towards the whole City that he will bless and prosper you in what you are about as 't is said of Judah they built and prospered 2 Chron. 14.7 I hope he hath not said that of London which once he did of Tyrus I will make thee like the top of a rock thou shalt be a place to spread Nets upon thou shalt be built no more Ezek. 26.14 And as the Prophet concerning Babylon according to some Interpreters Thou hast made of a City an heap of a defenced City a ruin a palace of strangers to be no City it shall never be built Isa 25.2 But now if God hath gracious designs towards us they must have their effect and accomplishment in the way of Prayer That Scripture hath been much upon my thoughts in Ezek. 36. verse 10. The Cities shall be inhabited and the wastes shall be builded and ver 33 c. In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities pray observe that I will also cause you to dwell in the Cities and the wastes shall be builded And the desolate land shall be tilled whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by And they shall say This land that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden and the waste and desolate and ruined Cities are become fenced and inhabited Then the Heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruinous places and plant that that was desolate I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it Here are gracious promises made to Jerusalem whose case and ours do too well agree in the late judgment but how shall they be made good It follows verse 37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them c. You see by this that though God designs mercie and that particular mercy too which suits with your present state yet he will not actually bestow that mercie without prayer so that let Gods intentions and purposes be never so merciful towards us in this City for the building up of the wastes thereof yet if he be not sought unto and called upon we cannot expect any gracious execution of them And is not this enough to quicken you to prayer The Jews in the rebuilding of Jerusalem whenever they met with any dangers or difficulties and they met with many still they applied themselves to Prayer Nehem.
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
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
is building to the end but at the resurrection 't is dedicated when it shall enter upon immortality The Title contains in it the voice of Christ who by the resurrection of his body hath dedicated the Church the Mother of us all to his own name and glory Thus August (b) Psalmus laetitiae resurrectionis atque in immortalem statum mutationis atque innovationis corporis c. Nam superiori Psalmo Tabernaculum consummatum est ubi habitamus belli tempore nunc autem domus dedicatur quae in sempiternum pace permanebit Aug. in Psal t. 8. A Psalm of joy upon the resurrection and the changing of our bodies into an immortal state in the Psalm foregoing the Tabernacle is finished where we live in the time of war Here the house is dedicated which shall abide in everlasting peace Thus Theodoret (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoder 1.1 P. 504. He calls says he the dedication of the house the restauration of the Humane Nature which Christ perfected when he dy'd for us and overcame death and gave us the hope of resurrection Thus Cyrill Nyssene Basil do also Allegorize upon the words I will not further recite their words for I shall crave leave with all submission to so great persons rather to embrace and pursue the literal than the mystical and Allegorical sense And that leads me to speak of house-dedication such as this of holy David was The poor Heathens had some blind notions of dedication-work hence they had their solemn days which they dedicated to their Gods their Temples which were for their Idolatrous worship they were dedicated their private houses also passed under some kind of dedication Multa alia sacrificia locdque sacris faciendis dedicavi Liv. 1. ab urbe Vid. 34. ab urbe c. 52. Templum pecuniâ meâ extruxi cujus dedicationem cum sit paratum differre longius irreligiosum est Plin. Ep. lib. 4. passim of the dedication of private Houses see many things in Tull. Or at pro domo suâ versus finem but what was this to the dedication that David here makes and to what others of the people of God make in imitation of his example this doth not lye in some foolish Rites and Ceremonies which was all the dedication of the poor Heathens but 't is an holy solemn religious dedication as will appear in that which follows CHAP. 2. Dedication Personal or Domestick The former opened THese things being premised in order to the Explication of the words I shall now fasten upon that which I design from them viz. a little to treat of holy dedication Now this is twofold personal and domestick there 's the dedicating of a mans self to God and the dedicating of a mans house to God I know other branches might be assigned but these two wili be as much as I shall be able to grasp and therefore I name no more And in strictness of method I should only speak to domestick or house-dedication for the words only mention that but I shall desire the Readers pardon in the handling of personal and self-dedication also The excellency of the subject will be some Apology for the violation of the strict rules of method And indeed 't is necessary that I should speak to this before I come to the other 1. because self-dedication is the ground of house-dedication I take this for an unquestionable maxime That he who doth not dedicate himself to God will never dedicate his house to God 't is certain the dedication of the House must begin with the dedication of the Person 2. Suppose a man should dedicate his House which yet cannot well be imagin'd yet if he doth not dedicate himself this would not profit him as to Gods acceptation and his own salvation Let him enter upon his habitation in a religious manner by prayer and praise and let him set up the worship of God in his Family and make conscience of all religious exercises if withal he doth not devote and dedicate his Person to God he is but a gilded hypocrite in Gods account 1 Cor. 13.1 2 Cor. 5.9 Heb. 6.9 but as sounding brass or a tinkling Gimbal So that that you may be accepted of the Lord and that you may come up to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that have salvation 't is necessary that I should urge upon you personal as well as domestick dedication The Text speaks of Davids dedicating his House else where you find him dedicating his self to God Psal 119.38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted so we fill it up in our translation to thy fear Verse 94. I am thine save me Thine not only as to Gods claim and special interest in him but also as to his own act of dedication he had solemnly dedicated himself to God and so he was his So verse 25. I am thy servant give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies 'T is as if he had said Blessed God I have given up my self to thy service let me but know thy will and pleasure and I will do it for I have dedicated my self to thee I pass by other Scriptures that might be cited for this purpose I shall begin with this personal dedication which is a great duty and indeed the great duty lying upon every man You have it not in so many letters and syllables commanded or commended in the word but you have the thing or that which is equivalent very often 2 Chron. 29.31 Now ye have consecrated your selves unto the Lord come near and bring sacrifices Rom. 12.1 I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service This in effect Nihil est aliud quod dicit corpora vestra quam vos ipsos Muscul is personal dedication by Bodies the Apostle means the whole Person 't is a Synecdoche usuall both amongst Jews and Greeks as in the following Chap. verse 1. by soul he understands the person so here by bodies he aims at the same thing He alludes to the legal sacrifices which believers under the Gospel must exceed then God took up with the bodies of Beasts that were sacrificed to him but now he will have the Saints to offer up themselves then a dead sacrifice was accepted but now God stands upon living sacrifices But I say this presenting of our bodies Poter at propriis verbis dicere Rogo ut vos vitámque vestram Deo consecretis Pareas Vt nos Deo tetos ad ipsius voluntatem dedamus Muscul 't is the dedicating or consecrating of the whole self to God So Pareus The Apostle saith he might have said plainly I beseech you that you will consecrate your selves and your life to God And Musculus the meaning of the words is this That we should give up our whole selves to the will of God and all Expositors speak to the same
down before thee I resign up my self to thee do with me what seems good unto thee not my will but thy will be done Let my work be what it will I 'll submit Let my rank and station be what it will I 'll submit Let my condition be what it will I 'll submit Be it health or sickness fulness or want relations or no relations mercy or affliction this or that I 'll submit I say this we do in effect speak whenever we enter upon this dedication and without this either we are not true in our dedication or not true to our dedication O the blessed examples that we have in the word of the excellent carriage of dedicated persons in this particular if the Lord would help us who profess the same dedication to practise the same submission what a dreadful message was sent to good old Eli 1 Sam 3.18 but saith he It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good What grievous trials did holy * Quanta adversus eum jacula missa Quanta admota tormenta Iaclur a rei familla◠is infligitur numerosae sobolis orbitas irrogatur c. Nec Dcminus repentè nec Paterest Accedit vulnerum vastitas c. Nec tamen Job gravibus densi◠conflictationibus frangitur quò minus inter illas anguscias pressur as suas Dei benedictio victrice patientiâ praedicetur Cvpr de Bono Patient Nihil in dcmo remanserat c. Certè pauper est certe nihil haber si nihil remansit de quo thesauro istae gemmae laudis Dei proferuntur O virum putrem integram O foedum pulchrum c. Aug. Serm. 105. de Temp. Job undergo but how submissively nay how thankfully did he carry it Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. David had his smarting afflictions too Psal 39 9. but saith he I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou Lord didst it When he fled from Absalom 2 Sam. 15 25 26. he was in great straits but though his son rebels against him he quietly refers himself to God And the King said unto Zadok carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation but if he thus say I have no delight in thee a sad word for God to speak if he speaks this word will not David fret and murmur O no Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Isa 39. ult 'T was a dismal message that the Prophet brought to Hezekiah but he receives it with much calmness Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken The highest of all was our precious Lord and Saviour 't was a bitter Cup indeed that he was to drink of and he prayed earnestly to be freed from it Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible c. yet he submits his will to his Fathers will Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done Here are excellent copies God enables us to write after them To close up this Head subjection to Gods preceptive will submission to his providential will are great ingredients into self-dedication Do you say to God with respect to his preceptive will 2 Kings 10.5 what once the rulers of Jezreel and the Elders said to Jehu We are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us And do you also say to God with respect to his providential will what once Hezekiah said to the King of Assyria 2 Kings 18.14 What thou puttest upon me I will bear If this be the frame of your souls then surely you are sincere in your self-dedication and know what it is to be a people dedicated to God and are not now to enter upon this great work 3. Self-dedication is the firmness and fixedness of resolution for God and his ways This act of the will is essentially requisite to it the dedication is false when the resolution is not firm when the soul is once come to this to be fixed resolved for God and holiness against sin the world the flesh and all opposers there is the truth of dedication That subjection which I spoke to under the former Head is indeed the act of the will and that is very good but that is not enough there must be resolution also here the will is peremptory here it acts with the greatest intenseness and vehemence and this is brought about by the understanding this is the leading faculty it lays before the will such and such dictates then the will resolves O says the understanding God is good then says the will I 'll love him cleave to him pursue after him never forsake him The ways of God are good then says the will I 'll walk in them and I will not depart from them sin is evil then says the will I 'll shun it I 'll have nothing to do with it and so in other things the intellective faculty presents its dictates then the will frames its practical and peremptory decrees Now I say this is our dedication to God when the will thus resolves for God when we are set for God and duty never to be altered our hearts are fixed as David said his was Psal 57.7 let Satan and the world do what they can to take us off from an holy God and an holy course yet they shall not do it O happy souls with whom 't is thus Self-dedication makes a person unmovable 1 Cor. 13.58 he is not to be altered his purpose and resolution is so high Ruth would not leave her mother Naomi Ruth 1.14 16 17. whatever came on 't Orpah was soon taken off she kisses her mother and parts from her but Ruth clave to her O says she Intreat me not to leave thee whither thou goest I will go where thou lodgest I will lodge where thou diest I will die c. All the Kings dainties were nothing to Daniel Dan. 1.8 He had purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the Kings meat c. Thus 't is with a man as to God and Christ and godliness when he hath sincerely dedicated himself to God Self-dedication is always attended with firmness of resolution nay indeed the very essence of it lies in this I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress Psal 17.3 Psal 119.8 106. I will keep thy statutes I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments Moses had dedicated himself to Christ Hebr. 11.24 26. and therefore he was resolved for Christ He refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt All this is come upon us Psal 44.17 yet have we not forgotten thee nor dealt falsly in thy Covenant Here
dedication make it the term and object of your dedication instead of the dedicating of it to God you dedicate all to it Have you dedicated your selves to God To you that readily prostitute your selves to a course of sin to all vicious and unholy practices 1 King 21.20 you that sell your selves to wickedness Eph. 4.19 that give your selves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness you that do in effect say to sin we are thine you that are drunkards swearers cursers Adulterers Sabbath-profaners c. Have you dedicated your selves to God To you who are immers'd in the world you that steep your selves in pleasures and sensual delights who mind nothing but eating drinking gaming c. and with-hold not your heart from any joy let it be what it will Eccles 2.10 you that mind earthly things Phil. 3.19 that let the fervor of your spirits the torrent of your desires the strength of your endeavours run out after riches profits honors preferments worldly accomodations you that instead of forsaking the world for God can forsake God for the world as Demas did 2 Tim. 4.10 you that place your happiness in these sublunary things Have you dedicated your selves to God To you who give up your selves to Satan may be you are not by the Church given up to Satan which is usually interpreted of excommunication 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1. ult But which is much worse as the disease is worse than the remedy you give up your selves to him you readily obey this Prince of the power of the air Ephes 2.2 that ruleth in the chidren of disobedience 2 Tim. 2.26 you are taken captive by him at his will he bids you go and you go come and you come no sooner doth he tempt but you fall in with the temptation all the day long you are doing his work and promoting his interest in the world Have you dedicated your selves to God To you who go to the Church on the Lords day and attend upon the worship of God on the Lords day Non est vera Religio quae cum Templo relinquitur Lactant. and all the week after neglect God scarce a word of God unless it be in taking his name in vain scarce a secret prayer scarce the reading of one Chapter in the Bible all the week after Have you dedicated your selves to God Away away for shame do not pretend to this high and holy Dedication your case is so evident that you scarce are within the verge or compass of self-examination 't is notorious you have not dedicated your selves pray never pretend to it But there are others who are spun of a finer thread who bid fairer for Heaven they are free from those works of the flesh which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifest Gal. 5.19 and which proclaim to all the world Non-dedication they make a fair profession are unblamable in their conversation make Conscience of performing holy duties and many good things are done by them surely these have dedicated themselves to God O that it was so indeed O that all who carry it fairly in the sight of men were sincere in their self-dedication to God! But are there not thousands that come up to this and are professors and live under Church-priviledges and are well thought of by the people of God and yet for all this their dedication is not hearty and thorough and upon this defect they shall miscarry to all eternity How should this awaken all plausible out-side-Christians with the utmost diligence to search how things stand betwixt God and them as to this matter As to evidences for the help of such as shall desire to fall upon examination I shall not need to expatiate upon that Argument having shown what self-dedication is by that every man may know whether he be come up to it yea or no. Read over the particulars in which it lies and as you go along make such reflexions as these are O my soul tell me have I given my self to God Have I ever by a deed of gift signed and sealed made over my self to God Have I given him my heart my love joy delight desires ah and my life too Is my will melted into his will Is there an obediential submissive frame of spirit in me Am I upon serious deliberation come to an issue to resolve for God Is my resolution like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Esth 1.19 never to be altered Do I carry it as a person who is impropriated set apart for God and his service Have I entred into covenant with God and bound my self to the performance of all the conditions thereof Is the glory of God dear to me â—s this the great end of my life that the great God may be honoured by such a worm as I am O my soul farther I ask thee do I value God more than all and set an higher rate upon him than upon all the world besides Is his favour more to me than life do I dread his anger more than death Is this my greatest ambition to live in the fruition of God and in constant communion with him And for other things can I be content to have them or to want them as God shall see best Do I fear every sin be it never so little Do I baulk no duty be it never so hard Do I shun no cross be it never so heavy when God calls me to it Is it the will of God that hath the regency and superiority in me Will I suffer nothing to stand in competition with my Lord and Master Have I got victory over all my spiritual enemies Is sin mortified self dethroned the world laid low in my heart Can I be do suffer any thing for God and my dear Redeemer Do I like salvation in Gods way and upon his terms Do I cleave to God with full purpose of heart Do I love whatever I see of God and all that belong to God Have I been savingly convinced of the excellency of God and of his ways Have I made over my self to him personally considered to the Father to be commanded governed by him to the Son to be redeemed justified saved by him in the way of faith and obedience to the Holy Ghost to be renewed sanctified guided led acted by him I say thus deal with your souls upon these interrogatories and by the answer of Conscience you will be able to say something 1 Pet. 3.21 as to the thing enquired after whether you have indeed dedicated your selves to God I beg pardon that I pass over these things thus briefly and may be too I have not spoke so distinctly to them as I should have done as to the first I would fain shorten this works as much as I can and I shall have occasion more to enlarge in some other Heads as to the second the enquiring serious awakened Christian minds matter more than Method CHAP. 4. Personal Dedication pressed first
more generally and then more particularly in the several branches of it THirdly I come to fall upon that Vse 3 where I must make a longer stay than I have done in what goes before I would most earnestly and O that I might do it effectually exhort perswade urge men entirely heartily sincerely to devote and dedicate themselves to God this I would press upon all be they high or low rich or poor noble or ignoble learned or unlearned young or old for God requires it of all and none are exempted from this self-dedication Shall I not prevail with some amongst these many to come in to God and to give up themselves to him Shall the net be cast in the midst of so many and shall none be caught â—s the duty which I am to press in it self so reasonable so unquestionable so attractive and yet shall I not succeed in the pressing of it May I gain but one soul to God in the discharge of this duty that one soul would be a sufficient recompence for my pains in this discourse but surely I shall gain more I would promise to my self that many will be wrought upon did I not remember that the old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon The old Adam and the old Serpent are great opposers of self-dedication Rev. 12 9. Satan sets himself with all his might to hinder it if he might have his will not a soul should come up to it 2 Cor. 4.4 he is the God of this world and therefore would have all dedications made unto himself he knows the sinners dedication to God is his dethroning and therefore no wonder he is so much against it And besides this opposition ab extra there is also abundance of opposition ab intra the old Adam the corrupt nature within cannot brook or submit to this that a man should resign devote himself to God Self-dedication meets with self-opposition Men are not willing to alienate their estates to others naturally they are more averse to alienate and make over themselves to God they say in their hearts to him what Nabal said to David Who is David c. 1 Sam. 25.10 11. Shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my Shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be Thus depraved reason argues against God who is the Lord What saith the poor unconverted sinner shall I take my self my whole self my heart my estate my parts my love my life and give it all to God whom I do not know Or so far as I do know him I do not like him This is the entertainment that Gods gracious messages for self-resignation and self-dedication do find in the world And indeed was it not for that Almighty grace which it pleases the Lord sometimes to exert thereby to conquer all this opposition from Satan and self there would be no such thing as personal dedication not a man would thus do We might Preach Print urge the duty with the most rational convincing pressing considerations and yet all be in vain And therefore I must lay the stress of my hopes for success in the pursuing of this exhortation wholly upon God and the efficacy of his grace The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God 2 Cor. 10.4 5. to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ It being so before I speak to man let me with all humility and holy fervor thus speak to the divine Majesty O blessed God accompany bless make effectual that word of advice that a poor worm is now to give let thine own spirit and the power of thy grace set it home upon the Conscience and let the stubborn hardened sinner yield to it and to thee by it It is designed for thee let it be blessed by thee O let the day of thy * Psal 110.3 power dawn upon men that they may be willing to surrender up themselves to thee Give special grace to them that they may give whole self to thee Work what thou requirest and require what thou wilt Destroy all hellish idolatrous cursed Dedications to sin the flesh the world and bring the soul to the Heavenly Holy dedication of it self to thee O so work upon the wills of them that shall read these lines that they may immediately peremptorily resolve for thee and say others have had propriety in us and dominion over us but now Isa 26.13 from this day forward for ever we will be the Lords O let not me press this upon others and yet be a stranger to it my own self These are some of the inward breathings of my soul that God knows to whom I here speak I come to the exhortation Dedicate your selves to God 'T is requisite that I should open this and then enforce it upon you Self-dedication is either common and outward or special and inward The first is done in Baptism this is Baptismal dedication all that are baptized visibly profess that they have dedicated themselves to God I am not to press this upon you because 't is done already The second is either habitual or actual Habitual is that which is implanted in the soul in the work of conversion in the participation of the divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 in the New creature 2 Cor. 5.17 whereever grace is and as soon as ever grace is wrought the man doth habitually or virtually dedicate himself to God Much of the Nature of grace lies in this for what is grace but personal dedication Actual is that which results from the habit as the branch from the root or the stream from the fountain when that which was latent in the habit is drawn forth into Act this is Actual self-dedication And this further is either more implicit or more explicit implicit which lies in the more inward and imminent acts of the soul as a man in the secret acts of his heart devotes himself to God explicit when a man in a more open and discernible manner doth thus do either by writing or word of mouth or some such open way he dedicates himself to the Lord. Now 't is this Actual dedication that I mainly drive at in order to which there must be habitual dedication for we cannot suppose the act without a previous habit the act flowing from the habit And I might too by several weighty Arguments put you upon Actual explicit self-dedication but because I would not set things too high at first I shall go no higher than Actual implicit heart-dedication I call it implicit only in contra-distinction to what is done by writing or word of mouth for otherwise 't is explicit too This necessarily must be the truth of grace requires it the grown Christian may be perswaded to the former but whoever will be a
we are no farther fit to live than as we can surrender up our selves to God and in all things submit to his good pleasure I told you this submission relates either to that which is past or present or to that which is to come the former is Patience the latter is an humble referring our selves to Gods dispose 1. You must resign up your selves to Gods will as to what is past or present that is you must with an holy patience bear whatever evils trials troubles afflictions it pleases him to lay upon you This is included in self-dedication and is one of the most difficult parts of it We are not so obstinately set against Gods preceptive will but we are as peevish fretful discontented under his providential will Now are you afflicted or may affliction hereafter befal you Do you suffer for God or from God Doth he put any bitter cup into your hands as sickness want loss of relations c. look to this Luke 21.19 Jam. 1.4 that in patience you possess your souls Let patience have its perfect work Be still and quiet and silent however things go take heed of murmuring repining fretting under Gods hand keep the heart * Patientia est malorum cum aequanimitate perlatio Lact. l. 5. cap. 22. Est virtus conservans bonum rationis contra tristitiam Aquin. 22. Qu. 128. sedate calm let your condition be what it will That I may help you on in this great duty of patience I will only hint a few things Gods will is in every trial affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Job 5.9 it comes not by chance or only by second causes but by Gods appointment and ordination he hath an hand in the inflicting of all evils who is the fountain of all good Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 He that measures out our comforts doth also measure out our crosses Should not this quiet us It did so in those great examples of patience which you read of in the word 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seems him good saith Ely I was dumb and opened not my mouth Psal 39.9 because thou Lord didst it saith David The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Job 1.21 blessed be the name of the Lord saith Job what a strange inference was that This evil is of the Lord 1 Kings 6.33 why should I wait on him any longer When God was in the premisses that impatience should be in the conclusion nothing could be more absurd nothing more sinful If all our troubles be the issues of Gods will there 's all the reason in the world we should be patient under them Considering farther what a kind of will this will of God is 'T is a soveraign righteous wise faithful gracious will shall not poor creatures submit to such a will O the soveraignty of God should awe us who shall say unto him what dost thou Job 9.12 Should it be according to thy mind Job 34.33 Nay but O man Nisi Deus hominibus placuerit non erit Deus Tertull. who art thou that repliest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Rom. 9.21 The righteousness of God should keep down all passion and perturbation Afflictions may be sharp but they are always just and God is righteous in them He will not lay upon man more than right that he should enter into judgment with God Job 34.23 The Lord is holy in all his works and righteous in all his ways Psal 145.17 The wisdom of God should further patience he never afflicts but 't is in wisdom and he never acts his wisdom more than when he is afflicting he 's a God of judgment Isa 30.18 Let the trial be what it will the faithfulness of God is in it Psal 119.75 In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me Ah and there 's mercy in it too an afflicting God is a gracious God Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.6 We are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.32 He for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin Isa 27.9 If the will of God be not sufficient to keep down all storms in the soul then look into your afflictions are they not deserved I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Mic. 7.9 Why doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Are they not less than what you deserve Ezra 9.13 Could ye be without them 1 Pet. 1.6 Will they continue for ever 2 Cor. 4.16 Will not God do you good by them Rom. 8.28 Have they not been the common lot of all the people of God Joh. 16.33 O that men would * Eccles 7.14 consider when 't is a day of adversity and patiently rest in Gods will and quietly resign up themselves to it What an * Magna praecipua virtus â—st patientia Lactant. Vidâ— â—ypr de Bono Patientiae p. 362. c. excellent grace is this patience there 's a complication connexion of many graces in it speak patience you speak faith humility self-denial love and several others It argues not only the truth of grace but the strength of grace The Christian that hath this is perfect and entire Jam. 1.4 'T is the ballast of the mind that which keeps a man steddy in the greatest storms 't is the soul at rest it gives inward serenity under outward troubles it shortens and * Leve fit quod bene fertur onus Ovid. Levius fit patientia quòd corrigere est nefas Vide Plutarch Mor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lessens affliction no affliction is great where patience is nothing can much trouble that man who resolves to acquiesce in Gods will what pleases God shall please him That which makes afflictions to be so heavy is the clashing and jarring of our wills against Gods will These things which I have here hinted might fill up a volume the subject is vast but I must take up Will you now endeavour to live this self-surrender to the will of God Doth not your dedication to God call for this Do you not in that profess the submitting of your wills to the will of God and that you will quietly undergo all crosses troubles that he shall think good to lay upon you that you will give no way to the sin folly madness of impatience or any entertainment to aestuations discomposures of spirit mutinous thoughts against God that sin only shall be the object of your passion O what * O virum putrem integrum o foedum pulchrum O vulneratum sanum O in
of a Prophet coming to the Captains of the Host and he said I have an errand to thee O Captain And Jehu said unto which of all us And he said to thee O Captain I a poor Minister bring a message from the Lord to sinners namely that God would have them to enter into Covenant with him Now will these ask me To which of them I bring this message I answer To thee O sinner whoever thou art that hast not yet engaged thy self to God This is every mans duty and let men think what they please till they have done this they have done just nothing in religion The Scripture speaking of the conversion of the Gentiles sets it forth by this Psal 68.31 Princes shall come out of Egypt Aethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God h. e. they shall enter into Covenant with God Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord. Zech. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people O that in these days we might see more of the accomplishment of these Prophesies that the poor Heathens might be brought to joyn themselves to the Lord and that Christians living under the Gospel they also might subscribe with hand and heart to God and enter into the obligation of the Covenant 'T was prophesied of the Jews upon their coming out of Babylon they should be so affected with this great mercy that they would renew and heighten their Covenant obligations Jer. 50.5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Sinners will you speak this as to your selves and make it good will you joyn your selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant God incline your hearts thus to dedicate your selves to him I will press this upon you by a few Arguments 1. 'T is an unspeakable mercy that God will deal with the Creature in the way of a Covenant As he is our Soveraign he might have imposed a Law upon us and dealt with us only in that way But such is his mercy and condescension he will deal with us also by a covenant A Law obliges the creature whether he consent to it or not but now a covenant presupposes consent Man being a free and rational agent God deals accordingly with him and sets a covenant before him which if he will consent to he shall be happy for ever Doth not this hold forth infinite goodness in the great God that he will thus treat with us And after all this shall not we be willing to enter into covenant with him Besides this consider the Nature of a Covenant 'T is as the * Pactum est duorum pluriumve consensus in idem placitum Civilians define it the consent of two or more to something that is agreed upon but this is a very imperfect description More fully therefore A * Vide Zanch. in Hos 2.21 Cloppenb in Syntag. Disput Selec de Foedere Coccei de Foedere Camer de Tripl Foedere Wendelin Theolog Christ l. 1. c. 19. Tilenum p. 2. Disput 54. Ames Med. l. 1. câ— 38. 39. quamplures alios de Foedere inter Deum Creaturain tâ— actantes Covenant is a mutual stipulation or compact between two parties as to something wherein they do agree upon which they are mutually obliged each to the other Such a Covenant there is betwixt God and the Creature these two do interchangeably indent and stipulate each to the other the one for mercy the other for duty and so there a mutual obligation passes upon both Says God here is pardon reconciliation eternal life which I offer upon such and such terms and I am willing upon those terms to engage to give out these mercies Says the Creature I accept of those terms and I solemnly bind my self to make them good according to the utmost of my strength Then says God 't is a Covenant betwixt us I bind my self to thee and thou bindest thy self to me be thou faithful to me I will be faithful to thee What an Ocean or Treasury of love and goodness doth God manifest in this federal transacting of things that he should be willing to stipulate with us and to enter into an obligation to us O the heights bredths depths lengths of this love Here 's another difference betwixt a Law and a Covenant a Law binds the subject but it doth not bind the Lawgiver quatenus Lawgiver the obligation there is but to one party but now a Covenant binds both there the * Mutua foederatarum partium obligatio est forma foederis so all express it Foedus propriâ— obligationem duarum partium certis utrinque conditionibus complecti certum est Gomar Haec est mutua reciproca conventio foederis ut homo intuitu promissae mercedis alacrius operetur Deus intuitu operis det mercedem Cloppenb Disp 1. Th. 7. obligation is reciprocal It hath pleased God to deal with man this way and so he binds himself As to his Law we only are bound but as to the Covenant he out of the riches of his grace is willing to be bound as well as we How should the consideration of this immense love of God engage the Creature to Covenant with him 2. The matter of the Covenant on Gods part is very high the terms or conditions on our part are very just and equitable If this be so surely then men will be willing to enter into Covenant with God one would think this should carry it against all opposition and frivolous objections In every Covenant there is something promised and something demanded in order to the making good of what is promised In this Covenant that which is promised is on Gods part and this is the matter of it what is that No less than that God will be your God O admirable transcendent mercy what can be higher than this I will open it under the next particular The terms or conditions are on the Creatures part what are they That the sinner will break off all his leagues covenants with sin and Satan and the world and that he will enter into a league of friendship with and subjection to the blessed God Surely these are very fair and reasonable terms the sinner cannot well object against them God offers very high he goes no lower than the making over of himself whatever I am saith God it shall be all yours but the terms spoil all God stands upon too high conditions and that keeps us of doth he so that would be something indeed for he that promises something upon impossible and unreasonable conditions promises nothing But can you make good what you say Take heed of belying God what doth he require of you Is it to burn in Hell a
thousand years or some such conditions as this O there 's no such thing All that God requires is but this that you will be his as he is willing to be yours that you will own him for your God that you will be subject to his laws and government that you will break off all your confederacies with his and your own enemies is not all this most reasonable Are you not bound to this whether you enter into Covenant or not what more high than this that God will be ours what more equitable than this that we should be his The Covenant holds forth the highest of mercies on Gods part and lays them upon the fairest conditions on our part O therefore shall we not enter into it 3. Upon your entring into Covenant with God he enters into Covenant with you At the same moment of time in which we cordially engage to him he doth graciously engage to us What is Gods covenanting with the Creature 'T is this he makes over his self his whole self to the Creature gives him a special interest and propriety in himself God is as much and as truly the faithful Covenanters as any thing is his that he hath in the world He hath no sooner entred into Covenant but he hath a real claim and title to God Jer. 30.21 Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord There 's entring into Covenant and then immediately it follows verse 22. And ye shall be my people and I will be your God Deut. 26.17 c. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his ways c. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people c. The Covenant makes the interest reciprocal Zech. 13.9 I will say It is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God So also in Ezek. 11.20 Jer. 31.30 And this interest in God is the very * Anima foederis Paraeus in Gen 17. Substantia foederis Jun. Caput foederis Musc soul and spirit of the Covenant of all blessings 't is the highest 't is indeed the radical fundamental blessing for all other grow upon this and are built upon this I will be thy God O who can express the greatness of this mercy when God makes over himself to a poor Creature To have all God to be mine 'T is mercy too big to be set forth by the tongue or pen of man Psal 50.7 I am God even thy God God cannot go higher than this What an inducement then is this to you to enter into Covenant with God As soon as you have done this God is yours His All-sufficiency wisdom power truth holiness mercy all is yours Whatever God is 't is all yours Deus quantus quantus est totus noster est saith Luther O if I could open this to you in the fulness comprehensiveness glory of this priviledge it would make you to stand and wonder at the infinite grace of God Well 't is very great but 't is yours if you will but in this Covenant-way dedicate your selves and bind your selves to God The wife upon the conjugal covenant hath an interest in the person estate goods of her Husband all is hers This Covenant betwixt God and believers is a Conjugal Covenant Hos 2.20 and therefore upon this they have a right to all that God is or hath or doth O blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God Psal 144 ult When they cannot say Perdider at omnia illa quae dederat Deus sed habebat ipsum qui omnia dederat Deum Aug. of Job 1. Serm. de Temp. 105. this or that is mine all is made up in this God is mine Do they want the Creature they have all in God Do they lose the Creature their God they shall never lose Are they brought into great straits they have their God to go to David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 Might you have the whole world 't is all nothing in comparison of my God May you have this upon engaging with God and will you not do it There 's little sweetness in a God but my God is inexpressibly sweet The highest word that a Creature can speak is my God 4. God deals with men according to their Covenant-state or according to the Covenant under which they stand The rule that he goes by is not particular acts but the Covenant-state you may do many good things but if you be not in Covenant with God they will not profit you Would you be accepted by him or blessed by him Then be a Covenant-people for God judges of men and gives out his blessings to men according to this O saith God have they struck up a Covenant with me then here 's my self pardon Heaven all they can desire but without this I have nothing for them Here lies the misery of unbelievers they are strangers from the covenants of promise and so they have no hope and are without God in the world as 't is set forth Eph. 2.12 They have no plea for mercy in their non-covenanting condition they are excluded from all happiness He that will not consent to the covenant-relation or obligation cannot expect the covenant-advantages God dispensing his blessings by his Covenant till men enter into it they cannot expect them at Gods hand All depends upon this and therefore look that you do it 5. Every man as he comes into the world is under the covenant of works as to the condemnation or penalty of it though his case by Christ is made remediable and grace is offered in a better covenant The Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace divide all mankind every man is under one of these covenants We are born under the first and that 's a dreadful covenant for it makes the condition of the Creature desperate it lays mercy upon those terms viz. personal perfect universal obedience which are now impossible He that is under this covenant if he fail never so little as to what the law requires he 's undone 'T is here Do or Dye there 's no mercy upon the least failure not a dram of mercy can be found in that covenant Who would live a moment under this covenant But let me tell you * Ita antiquatum est vetus legale soedus operum cum restipulatione vitae aeternae sancitum ut solutâ cum Deo spirituali agglutinatione extinctâ spe vitae aeternae ex illo foe dere acquirendae maneat tamen sub lege obligatio nexus damnationem trahens donec Deo per Christum agglutinemur novo foedere Cocceius de Foed Disp 7. Th. 71. till you enter into covenant with God that new covenant of grace which succeeds in the room of the covenant of works you are yet under that covenant till a new bond be made and new conditions put in the old remains in force I might set several other motives
is in the compass and tenor of their dedication How would this fortifie against all the arguings reasonings solicitations of the flesh and make a person to say to the flesh O let me alone I must not hearken to thee for I have given my self to God How would this if it was but duly thought of make Christians to be above the world so as not to be allured by its good nor affrighted by its evil How would this ennoble and greaten the spirits of such did they but consider who they are by vertue of their Dedication The Orator tells us He that knows himself Qui se novit primùm aliquid se habere sentiet Divinum ingenium in se suum sicut simulachrum aliquod Dedicatum putabit Tull. de Leg. l. 2. will perceive there is something divine in him he will esteem his wit parts to be like some Image under a solemn dedication O if the Saints did but aright know themselves they would judge of themselves as having something divine in them their persons parts graces comforts their All being in a manner sacred because dedicated O that you that are Saints would often remember your Dedication this would produce excellent effects many more than what I can here mention 'T is not now to be made but 't is now to be thought of Did we but think of our dedication we should not carry it as we do I speak it with much confidence How doth the power and obligation of the first dedication insensibly abate in us because we do so seldom revive it upon our thoughts 2. Secondly Be true to your Dedication You are true in it you are not as those who flatter God with their mouth and lye unto him with their tongue for their heart is not right with him they are not stedfast in his covenant as 't is Psal 78.36 37. This is not a thing that you speak of or talk of or profess to come up to but you have indeed heartily unfeignedly dedicated your selves to God O as you are true in it be true to it as you are sincere in your entrance be so in your performance Take heed of being false to God and to your Dedication 'T is recorded of the persons whom Hezekiah imployed that they brought in the Offerings the Tithes and the Dedicate things faithfully 2 Chron. 31.12 I do but allude to it you and yours are dedicate things O deal faithfully with God about them Wherein Answ Do not go about to rescind or recal your Dedication Under the Law things dedicated or devoted to the Lord were not to be alienated 'T is very expresly prohibited Levit. 27.28.29 You are so devoted to God will you go about to null or alter or revoke this Would you be free again to prostitute your selves to sin and to the world Would you get off from the bonds that you have entred into I know you would not Keep up your Dedication and walk answerably to it As the Apostle exhorts the Philippians Only saith he let your conversation be as becomes the Gospel Philip. 1.27 So let me say to you O let your conversation be as becomes your Dedication Let there be a suitableness 'twixt your actings and it often put this question to your selves doth this and that become my dedication This is that which I must order my actings by Let the consideration of this put you upon holiness both in the negative and also in the positive part thereof What Shall I sin I that have given my self to God shall I sin Shall sin be lodg'd in that heart committed in that life which I have set apart for God Shall I weaken and falsifie my solemn dedication O sin thou hast nothing to do with me I will have nothing to do with thee for I am wholly the Lords I hâ—ve too often made a breach upon my solemn engagements and have been too false to my God but I will be so no more I will rather break with thee than with God and therefore let me alone O that we could vigorously resist sin and all temptations thereunto because of our Dedication Deut. 27.9 10. Take heed and hearken O Israel this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God and do his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day Josh 24.22 23. And Joshua said unto the people Ye are witnesses against your selves that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him And they said we are witnesses now therefore put away said he the strange Gods which are amongst you and encline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel You read of the sons of Athaliah that they broke up the house of God and also all the dedicate things of the house of the Lord they bestowed upon Baalim 2 Chron. 24.7 was not this great wickedness What will you do less if you take your dedicate persons and imploy them in the service of a base lust If you harbour any known sin you are not true to your Baptismal and Actual dedication Can that woman be look'd upon as true to her conjugal obligation that admits of corrivals and competitors with her Husband and deflowers his bed Are you faithful to God if you love any thing in comparison of him or in competition to him and suffer some hellish lust to defile you O put away sin keep close to God be holy then you act like your selves a proud sensual worldly barren sinful conversation is very unbecoming such as you are I have plainly set before you the things in which your dedication doth consist will you live up to every one of them Let me add but this further If you would be true to your dedication stand to it be fixed and stedfast as to what you have done God is firm to you be you firm to him Have you not made a good choice O stick to it Have you not put your selves into good hands and disposed very well of your selves in giving them to God Can you be better than where you are Can you mend your selves by leaving God Joh. 6.67 68. Will ye also go away Lord saith Peter to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Have you met with any thing in God or in his ways to give you any just occasion of repenting as to what you have done Jer. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me Did you indent with God for but such a time and is that expired that you will call in your Indentures or did you enter upon his ways as Actors come upon the Stage to act a part for an hour or two and then all is over or did you take him upon trial as masters do their servants that in case you liked him not you might put him off again Will you turn Apostates Having laid your hands upon the Plough Luke 9.62 will you look back Having begun in
God Psal 76.10 who restrained the remainder of wrath 'T was mercy that he provided other Habitations for you in your great straights That so much of the City was spared to be an Harbour to you That many of you who have been thrust into very incommodious places have yet enjoy'd as much health as ever you did in the midst of your best accommodations that after a long and sad war it hath pleased God to restore again the blessing of Peace to us without which this poor City must yet have continued in its ashes That so good and so full an Act hath been passed by the Supream Authority of the Nation to further the repairing of our breaches That God hath blessed you with such a proportion of estate that you are in a capacity either to build or to take new Houses that after a short ejectment out of your old Houses God hath provided others for you and brought you into them as your true * Of the Roman's Domiducus Deus vid. Dempsterum Antiq. Rom. C. 2. f. 187. Domiducus Deus There are many other mercies that I am sure do occur to your thoughts O let God in your Re-entrys have some solemn acknowledgment of these signal blessings And when you are upon this duty I would commend three things to you 1. Seriously enquire whether in that great distress that was upon you in the late Fire you did not make some solemn Vows and Promises to God in case he should do thus and thus for you If so be sure without delay you make them good * Sacrificium seu Hostiam Pacificorum Hebraei vocant Se bach Shelamim Sacrificium Pacis ac Salutis Eratque nunc spontaneum quod exanimi devotione nullâ urgente necessitate offerebatur nunc Votivum quod reddebatur ex pacto i. e. quod quis in periculis I necessitatibus constitutus Deo se in Ecclesiâ oblaturum siliberaretur promiserat Gualt in Mar. 12.33 O do not forget the vows that you made in the day of your distress Psal 76.11 Vow and pay unto the Lord your God Psal 66.13 14. I will go into thy House with Burnt-offerings I will pay thee my Vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Eccles 5.4 5. When thou vowest a Vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in Fools pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is that thou should'st not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay My Friends I leave it with you in your own Consciences to consider whether under the late amazing terrible Providence you did not enter upon some solemn Vows and Promises to the great God if you did do not forget or falsifie them Sincerity in vowing lies in fidelity in performing When the Emperor Sigismund being in a sore fit of sickness and making then high Promises of Reformation in case he should recover asked his Confessor how he might know Whether he was sincere or not in his Repentance the Confessor answered him If saith he you be as careful to make good in your health what you now promise as you are forward now in your extremity to promise then your Repentance is right So here I say should any of you ask me we had great convictions and terrors upon our spirits when the City was in flames O we vow'd and promis'd thus and thus to God such sins we would leave such duties we would perform Were we sincere in all this Ans If you now make good what then you engaged to do then you were but otherwise not Men are very forward to promise in a day of affliction but very backward to perform in a day of comfort 'T was Pliny's wish Vtinam tales esse sani perseveraremus Epist 26.1.7 quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi And 't is mine O that we were the same under mercies that we are under judgments that we were as good at performing under the former as we are at promising under the later I did not think to have said so much upon this but I fearthere's need of all this and of much more O do not think that God will be put off with your Praise and Thanks when you enter into your new Houses if you do not pay what you vowed when you were in trouble 2dly When you are blessing God for what is present do not forget what is past whilst you acknowledg his goodness in your New Habitations do not forget his severitie in what befell your Old Habitations As Judgments must not jostle out the remembrance of Mercies so Mercies must not jostle out the remembrance of Judgments Israel's forgetfulness of the works of God is often charged upon them Psal 106.13 They soon forgat his works passim Are not we herein too guilty also O the great things that God hath done in our Age an Age made up of wonders but how soon are they forgotten by us That his gracious works should be forgotten that is not so much to be wondred at our cursed Natures being so apt to forget mercies but that judicial and such judicial works of God should so presently be out of our thoughts and memories this is very strange I will instance only in the late Plague and Fire Good God! How many persons were swept away by the one how many Houses laid desolate by the other and yet how soon are both forgot These were Judgments very hardly to be parallel'd either at Home or abroad God scarce ever did the like before and I trust will never do the like again but they are past and gone and men scarce ever think of them O that London ' s Flames that were so hardly extinguished and put out with so much of difficulty should so easily be put out of the thoughts and memories of the most 'T is but yesterday since this poor City was nothing but a furnace of Fire and Smoke since this raging Element wasted all before it scorning all checks and controuls laughing at our poor Ladders and Buckets since it came upon us and went on with that fury as if our Tides of Water had been turn'd into Tides of Fire O the beautiful Churches the magnificent Buildings the convenient Houses that it with the greatest impartiality laid desolate in a few dayes O the many Families that were utterly undone O the hurries and distractions that it caused amongst us O the dreadful prospects that I had then in my eye the dreadful noises that I had then in my ear by the crackling of the Tiles the falling and blowing up of Houses shall I ever forget them O the ringing of Hands the paleness of Faces the weeping eyes the great distress of poor Citizens that then I saw shall I ever forget it I believe you saw the same too and yet we do forget Ah if London was built again and the Ruines and Rubbish but a little out of our eye I fear all that God hath done would in
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
this all the days of your life Are you to take an Apprentice go by Religion I am not against prudence in your considering of Parts Capacity Natural temper but withal let your eye be much nay most upon Religious Inclination and Religious Education You cannot expect much from Plants that are of no further growth but this you may satisfie your selves in how do they stand inclined Are they pliable and tractable as to what is good Have they been piously educated Do not vitious Habits already discover themselves in lying stealing taking God's name in vain pride vanity averseness to Family-duties O Citizens do you not sometimes smart upon your taking Apprentices without having that respect to Religion herein which lies upon you Such and such Friends mediate thus much you are offered and he that offers most carries it the Youth is ingenious can write well cast accounts well is of good strength and the like Upon this the business is concluded you look no further let his inclination as to the best things be what it will or his Education be what it will that 's scarce thought of Is this well Surely no! Is not this a trespass commited against House-dedication do you not in a little time see cause to repent of what you have done when you have taken in one that proves a thorn in your foot a spear in your side a pest and a plague to your Family Is not God afterwards much dishonoured and you your selves much wronged by these persons Do not bad Apprentices often prove the bane of your own Children And doth not infection spread from some one Apprentice to all the rest The mischievous consequences of this are not to be reckoned up O that therefore you would be very careful in this matter to take in such who either are religious or at least religiously inclin'd and religiously educated 'T is true you may be deceived and Youth may miscarry after good Education the more is the pity and the greater is the grief of godly Parents but 't is good to go as far as you may to pitch upon the most probable means for your security and then if things fall out contrary to your Hopes yet this will be your comfort you did your duty you minded the main though events do not answer your desires Are you to take an ordinary Servant Let him be one that fears God such as serve God are the best to serve you Religion makes the best in every relation * It is certainly the duty of every Ruler to endeavor to advance piety and godliness among all those that are under his charge and that as well in this lesser dominion of a Family as in the greater of a Realm or Nation Of this David wasso careful so much he thought himself bound to provide that his Family might be a kind of Church an Assembly of Godly Persons And if Masters would endeavour to have theirs so they would besides the eternal reward of it hereafter find a present benefit by it their worldly business would thrive much the better for if their Servants were brought to make conscience of their ways they would then not dare to be either negligent or false Whole Duty of Man p. 315. None so diligent so faithful in this relation as those that have an inward principle of Grace certainly that will make them to be what I say I know some make a Profession and yet are none of the best Servants I have much ado to forbear from a sharp Digression as to these but I must Well 't is but some and these do but profess they do not walk answerably to their profession Think not the worse of Religion because of the miscarriages of some who do profess it for all this get religious Servants into your Houses O they 'l be faithful to you and they 'l bring a blessing with them to the place where they come God blesses the Master for such Servants sake I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake said Laban to Jacob Gen. 30.27 The Lord blessed the Aegyptian's House for Joseph's sake Gen. 39.5 They will not only work for you but they will also pray for you and if you put them upon business they will pray for success in it So Abraham's Servant did Gen. 24.12 O what a Treasure is a praying Servant Every man is to be valued by this The praying Physician is the best Physician the praying Friend is the best Friend the praying Parent is the best Parent the praying Servant is the best Servant O the difference betwixt a praying Servant and a cursing Servant The one procures blessings upon the House the other judgments the one is the Instrument of doing much good the other of doing much hurt Take heed of wicked Servants they are infectious they carry the Plague about with them Will you let your Houses be as so many Pest-houses God forbid O the hurt that one bad Servant doth in a Family he may infect all the rest as one scab'd sheep infects the whole flock and one rotten apple spoils the whole heap Eccles 9.18 One sinner destroyeth much good And do you think that they will ever be * Frugi atque integer Nemo vel ipse sibi vel aliis esse potest qui probâ Religione non tenetur Masius in Josh 24.15 true to you who are false to God Be careful therefore also in this respect Now you are building your Houses you strive to get the best materials when you furnish your Houses you are for the best furniture and why not the best Wife the best Servant also When Pharaoh would pitch upon one for that great imployment to be set over the land of Aegypt says he Can we find such a one as this is a man in whom the spirit of God is Gen. 41.38 So here when you are to make choice of persons for such and such relations can you find any such as they that have the Spirit of God in them Let those dwell with you and be admitted into your Houses who know and fear God for others either do not take them in or if the nature of the Relation will bear it presently cast them out This is to dedicate your Houses to God and if you do not look to this never speak of House-dedication or of your desires to advance Religion there CHAP. VII The Second Branch enforced concerning the Performance of Holy Duties SEcondly If you would set up Religion in your Houses and so dedicate them to the Lord see that God be Worshipped and Holy Duties be duely and daily performed in them Religion though it lie not only in these yet it lies very much in these No Worship no Religion Now therefore let it be thus with you O that your Houses might be thus consecrated that they might be as so many little Temples or Sanctuaries wherein God might be worshipped as so many Oratories wherein God might be daily called upon House-worship or
Family-worship is a duty incumbent upon every Master or Governour he is to take care of it to see that the blessed God in his House have that Religious respect and homage which is due unto him Indeed this is the main the first thing that he is to look after The Jews besides their Temple-worship had also their Family-worship which the Master of the House was to perform The Paschal-Lamb was to be eaten in every Family there was to be a Lamb for an House Exod. 12.3 this was Family-worship in part You read of David 2 Sam. 6.20 He returned to bless his Houshold Upon the bringing of the Ark into the Tabernacle O his heart was full of joy and this he had made great discoveries of before the people now he 'l go to his own Family and bless them and spiritually rejoyce with them in Prayer and Praise in the sense of this great mercy O that every day your Housholds might be blessed by you by the administration and performance of Worship and Duty in them I will not any longer insist upon Generals but presently come to those particular Family-duties which I would press upon you The first is Prayer Family-Prayer for I intend not to meddle with the other kinds of Prayer but only to limit my self to this Set up Prayer in your Houses let your Families be praying Families O if it was the Lords will that we might not have in all this City one Non-praying Family God will have his House to be an House of Prayer Mat. 21.13 My House shall be called the House of Prayer Isa 56.7 Even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer u. Let it be so with you let your Houses be Houses of Prayer then they will resemble the House of God You must enter upon them by Prayer that I have spoke to but besides this there must be a constant course of Prayer maintained and carried on in them 'T is true we have not any positive or express Command in the Word in which this duty of Family-Prayer is in so many Letters and Syllables enjoined but we have enough in it to ground solid Inferences upon which are sufficient to evince and prove the duty Eph. 6.18 we are commanded to pray with all Prayer and Supplication i. e. with all kinds of Prayer Family-Prayer is one kind of Prayer and therefore we are bound to the performance of it The Prophet imprecates wrath upon the Families that do not call upon God Jer. 10.25 Therefore 't is a duty lying upon Families so to do for it can only be the omission of an unquestionable duty that exposes a person to wrath Many such things might be insisted upon but I shall wave them my business being rather to exhort than to argue That I may prevail with you to set up Prayer in your Houses consider the following Motives 1. This is that which the people of God have always done Where Grace hath been in the heart prayer hath been in the House as Personal Prayer so Family Prayer hath always accompany'd the work of regeneration The Scripture sets many examples before us for the proof of this Mention is often made of Abraham's calling upon God as Gen. 12.8 Gen. 13.4 Gen. 21.33 26.25 We may well suppose that this was done sometimes in conjunction with his family they being with him in his intinerant posture Esther the Queen fasted and pray'd with her Maidens Esth 4.16 Job that offered Sacrifice continually for his Children as 't is Job 1.5 doubtless he did not omit the offering of Sacrifices with his Children What was David's blessing of his Houshold mentioned but now but his praying and praising with his family 'T is said of Cornelius He feared God with all his House and he prayed to God alway Act. 10.2 The connexion seems chiefly to refer to family-prayer If these places of Scripture and examples be not so convincing and cogent as to the duty in hand and its inseparable conjunction with the truth of Grace then you may add what your observation and experience doth readily offer to you Look abroad a little into the world observe how it is with men upon Conversion As soon as ever God hath wrought a saving work in them Behold they pray Acts 9.11 and that in their Families too Before this work alas they pray'd not in their Houses from week to week from year to year but no sooner did God seise upon them in a saving manner but immediately they set up Prayer in their Houses Vniversal experience offers it self for the proof of this Well then let this quicken you to this practise Pray in your Families for if you be gracious renewed sanctified you will do thus this is to carry it as regenerate persons this will be a good evidence that you are really God's people whereas the neglect of this will be a sad evidence that you are none of them I will trust a godly man for Family-prayer He may indeed for sometime being under the power of some Temptation or having taken in some erronious principle omit this duty but if he be a truly godly man he will come to it again 2. Family-prayer hath much excellency in it Prayer in all the kinds of it is very excellent There 's Secret-prayer that 's excellent O for the Soul to be with God alone treating with him in private about its everlasting concernments spreading its more special and particular wants corruptions temptations burdens before him Gen. 32.24 Jacob-like wrestling with him for this and that blessing surely this is excellent There 's publick Prayer when the Saints go together in a * Coimus ad Deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus Haec vis Deo grata est Tertul. Apolog c. 39. body and offer an holy violence to the Kingdom of Heaven join all their force and strength together for the obtaining of mercy this is excellent Family-prayer comes betwixt these 't is private and yet in part 't is publick 't is publick and yet in part 't is private this is excellent too In respect of its general Nature 't is excellent for 't is Prayer and all Prayer hath excellency stampt upon it in respect of its usefulness benefits precious effects 't is excellent it procures mercies keeps off judgments sanctifies all enjoyments preserves an holy awe of God in the Soul puts a savour and rellish upon all comforts furthers Grace here Glory hereafter All this is done by Family-prayer duely performed is it not excellent will you live in your Houses without it will you lose so great a part of Religion and that too which is so much to your own advantage and to the advantage also of all that co-habit with you Fire is good you 'l have it Food is good you 'l have it Air is good you 'l have it Prayer is good too nay better than all these will you not have that also 3. There are proper
will men say What need we to trouble our selves about Prayer in our Houses when such a neighbour or such a neighbour who go for Professors omit it as well as we And will not the sad effects of this reach to thyself too will not the fervor of thy affections towards God very much abate will not grace insensibly decline will not the power of Godliness languish wilt thou not be at a stand nay wilt thou not go backwards in Heavens way canst thou do any thing more to gratifie Satan Do but observe how it is with persons who cast off Family-prayer or perform it very seldom and in a careless negligent manner and tell me then whether I speak truth or not We read of one Baldwyn Archbishop of Canterbury Pope Vrban writing to him he stiles him Girald Itiner Camb. L. 2. C. 14. Monachum ferventissimum Abbatem calidum Episcopum tepidum Archiepiscopum remissum He was whilst a Monk very fervent when an Abbot then but hot when a Bishop then but lukewarm when an Archbishop then he was key-cold That effect which preferment had upon this person the neglect of secret and Family-prayer hath upon Christians it makes them by little and little to cool in their spiritual heat and in time to come to just nothing you that profess God do not you live what ever others do without this Heavenly duty This in General to urge Family-Prayer It will be asked How often are men to pray in their Families I answer Every day morning and evening The Jews they offered burnt-offerings unto the Lord according to the custom as the duty of every day required Ezra 3.4 that is they offered burnt-offerings morning and evening See v. 3. They had their morning and their evening Sacrifice every day that 's clear from 2 Chron. 31.3 and from several other Scriptures So here you that are Masters of Families * See Whole Duty of Man p. 110. morning and evening in your Houses there must be Prayer oftner if you please but to be sure not seldomer This must be the Alpha and the Omega of every day you must begin and end all with God Hinc omne Principium huc refer exitum Horat. Prayer as one expresses it must be the key to open all in the morning and the Bar to shut up all at night Sit oratio Clavis Diei Sera Noctis 'T is not enough now and then to give God a prayer under some sudden pang of devotion but there must be a daily constant performance of it As to * Morning Prayer I cannot ope mine eyes But thou art ready there to catch My morning soul and sacrifice Then we must needs for that day make a match Herb. Poem p. 54. is it not sweet Is it not good when the body hath been refreshed by sleep in the night to get by prayer in the morning some refreshment for the Soul to begin so as to get an heavenly tincture and savour upon the heart all the day after Have not mercies been received in the night must they not be acknowledged Do not renewed mercies call for renewed praises Do not you need God in the day in sundry respects and will you not therefore go to him and plead with him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V Ch rond in Pythag. Fragm p. 205. Is it not reason that God should have the precedency will you serve the world before you serve God what a preposterous thing is that Is not this the way to prosper in your enterprizes to be blessed in your undertakings all the day Is not this true that work on earth is done best when work with Heaven is done first as one says Psal 5.3 O in the morning let God hear your voice in the morning do you direct your prayer to Him both alone and also with your Family 'T is the custome of some in this City they pray in their Houses at Night but not at the morning Surely this is an omission God appointed the morning as well as the Evening sacrifice Is there not reason for the one as well as the other Shall we say of Prayer what bloody Gardiner once said of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith that it was good Supper-doctrine but not so good to break fast on I say shall we say this of Prayer And then as to Prayer at Night O do not dare to lie down at night before you have sued out the pardon of the sins of the day past acknowledged mercies received and solemnly put you and yours under God's Almighty Protection Who knows what a Night may bring forth O how many amazing Accidents may fall out before the morning and therefore first commit your selves to God by fervent prayer and then lie down to take your rest I put in Fervent prayer for this indeed is the only prayer God will not be put off with dull dead sleepy devotions he will have you pray in prayer you do nothing if you do not pray with holy fervour Jam. 5.17 As neglects of Prayer are very evil so negligences in prayer are very evil also When you are about God's work take heed of doing it negligently lest you meet with a curse instead of a blessing Jerem. 48.10 I cannot dismiss this Exhortation to Family-prayer though I have been long upon it before I answer a few Objections that many are too ready to make against it 1. Object Say some We pray in secret for our selves and for our Families must we pray with them too Ans Yes Secret prayer is very good a great evidence of sincerity you do very well in making conscience of it but withal you must make conscience too of Family-prayer both are of divine Institution and the one must not thrust out the other Indeed I can hardly believe that you pray in secret See Guâ—n Christ. Arm. 3d. part ch 40. pag. 421. unless you pray in your Houses also He that is sincere in one duty will be sincere in every duty You may do your Relations much good when you are alone in praying for them but probably you will do them more good when 't is not only praying for them but praying for them and with them too for now they too are in God's way and so more capable of Divine impressions and Divine blessings 2. Obj. Others say We go to Church on the Lord's day with our Families and there we pray is not this enough Ans No That-God who requires publick prayer requires Family-prayer also and the whole will of God must be observed O how soon are men cloy'd with duty They never think they have enough of the world but they soon think they have enough of duty You do not give God all of his Sacred Time will you give him no part of your Common Time Will you be Christians on the Lords day and Heathens all the week after And wherein are you better than Heathens in your Families if no religious exercises be there performed
and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Parallel to which is that Col. 3.16 Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Here are three words Psalms Hymns and Songs concerning the * vid. Gatak Adver Sacra l. 1 c. 10 p 124. difference or distinct notions of which Divines do somewhat differ Hierome goes one way Beza another Grotius a third Zanchy a fourth He that pleases may look into them or peruse Bodius Davenant and other Interpreters upon the Places cited for 't is not my intention to stay upon this Clearly the Apostle alludes to the Hebrew Titles or Divisions of David's Psalms They were divided into Mizmorim Tehillim and Shirim which Titles the Septuagint render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the words used here by the Apostle and therefore the inference is good that David's Psalms were in his eye and that he directs Christians under the Gospel to the singing of David's Psalms when he enjoines them to speak to themselves in Psalms and Hymns and Songs these being the Titles commonly applied to those Psalmes and by which they were usually understood You have another Precept for the Duty Jam. 5.13 Is any afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalms So that you see we have an Institution to ground our practise upon upon which the singing of Psalms becomes not only a thing lawful but also matter of duty And what the * Affirmabaâ—â— hane fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo quafi Deo dicere secum invicem Pliny in that most remarkable Epist Lib. 10. Epist Ep. 97. Tertul. speaks of Hymni antelucani Apol. c. 2. c. 39. Vt quisque de Scripturis sanctis vel de propriâ— ingenio potest provocatur in medium Deo canere This as to the manner was something extraordinary vid. Just. Mart. in Quaest. Resp ad Orthod Quaest. 107. p 462. practise of the Primitive Christians was in their Assemblies as to this is very well known out of Pliny Tertullian Justine Martyr and others I should very much swell up this Discourse should I fall upon the drawing out of the full strength of the Scriptures alledged upon the vindicating of them from all those cavils by which some would evade them upon the answering of all objections made against the duty and the explication of all difficulties about it for brevity sake I will pass by all this and only refer you for fuller satisfaction in all these things to those who have to very good purpose written upon this Argument as Mr. Cotton Ford Sydenham Dr. Manton upon James 5.13 with several others That this Singing of David's Psalms was used in the Temple-worship cannot be deny'd for 't is said 2 Chron. 29.30 Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the Seer That 't is now to be used in publick Worship as a part of it cannot be denied neither David in Psal 95. reckoning up the parts of publick Worship he instances in Prayer v. 6. in Hearing v. 7. in Singing v. 1. c. That it ought to be used in Family-Worship also cannot be deny'd neither Surely they that grant the duty must grant also that 't is very necessary proper useful in private as well as in publick O therefore let me desire you to setup this holy exercise in your Houses Pray there read the Scriptures there and sing Psalms too there The general omission of this is much to be lamented what through profaneness in some and groundless scruples in others how few Families are there in this City in which 't is practis'd How many Houses may a man pass by upon a Lord's day before he come to one where he hears this Heavenly Musick You that are Masters of Families be perswaded to make Conscience of this duty let the praises of the most High God be sung in your Families O what a blessed duty is this how is Heaven delighted with it how is the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And much he adds touching the excellent effects of this Ordinance Just Martyr ut suprà heart raised the affections excited and warmed by it how doth it please God to come in upon the soul in this as well as in other ordinances O the sweetness delight that the sincere Christian finds in it and the profit advantage that he reaps by it To my thinking saith one there is not a more lively resemblance of Heaven upon Earth than a company of godly Christians singing a Psalm together You rejoice in God you rejoice in those many mercies you receive from God Singing is the best expression of your rejoycing Are you merry let not your mirth run out in vain frothy things but in the singing of Psalms Paul and Silas were full of joy and they fall upon singing The Church upon the receipt of eminent Mercy vented her joy this way Psal 126.2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Let it be thus with you The holy Spirit of God puts men upon this rejoicing That of the Apostle in the connexion is very observable He had dehorted from drunkenness with Wine Eph. 5.18 by way of opposition he exhorts to be filled with the spirit what will follow upon this He tells you ver 19. Speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns c. Where any are full of the Holy Ghost this will certainly put them upon holy expressions of their joy in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs Look as men that are full of Wine or Drink they 'l be singing and venting their mirth in their carnal and sinful way so they that are full of God they 'l be singing too but 't is Psalms and spiritual Songs 't is not chanting to the viol Amos 3.5 't is not Songs that God will turn into lamentation as he threatens Amos 8.10 but 't is that which is spiritual in which their holy joy doth run out It would grieve a man as he walks in your streets by your Taverns and Alehouses Lord what tearing ranting cursing singing in a scurrilous and filthy manner may he there hear from day to day 'Pray let something else be heard in your Houses you that profess God and have any sense of Religion O let men hear you singing of Psalms and therein celebrating the memorials of God's mercies to you If you be filled with the spirit you will as certainly do this as men that have drunk to excess do the other And especially upon the Lord's day let this duty be performed in your Houses this is work very proper to to the Sabbath See Psal 92. The title of it is A Psalm for the Sabbath day And how doth it begin thus It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and
After bitter Pills let there be something to sweeten the mouth 'T is Plutarch's similitude Plut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1.9 After the Nurse hath made the Child cry she falls a kissing of it These are some prudential hints and yet there is much of Religion in them too which I leave with you So much for the exercise of your Authority as it refers to Religious Education Fourthly Keep a watchfuleye and astrict hand over those who are committed to you Here is great need of all possible care and vigilancy and you will find that all is little enough How soon is the garden over-grown with weeds if the keeper thereof doth not tend it and look to it every day how soon is Childhood and Youth tainted with sin if it be not narrowly observed The Masters eye in other things doth very much and surely it hath its influence in that which I am treating of your Instruction Admonition interposure of Authority will be ineffectual as to the attaining of your great end without this constant vigilance and inspection How many Children and Servants are irrecoverably lost for want of this daily experience shows and therefore let me apply that of Solomon to you Prov. 27.23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds Now here I would commend two or three things to you First Be watchful in observing what the Natural Temper is of those under you A wise man will be sure to satisfie himself in this and to make the best observations he can in order to the finding out of this for when this is known he will the better be able to apply himself in advice reproof correction or any other way By the knowing of this he will the better also be able to judg of the Inclinations Propensions of those with whom he hath to do How weakly and unsuccessfully do some manage their Education upon their not understanding of this which certainly might with much ease be found out upon a little observation Satan will be sure to assault them with his Temptations according to their Natural Temper for he always takes the advantage of that and therefore if you do not know this how will you be able to obviate and countermine him in his Temptations Secondly Be watchful in observing the first sproutings out or buddings forth of what is either good or evil Are there some blossoms of what is good O encourage and cherish them all that you can Doth the child sometimes go aside and begin to pray Doth he take the Bible or some good Books into his hands and seem to desire to read them Or doth the Servant of riper years make some offers towards what is Religious Pray set in with this and give all encouragement to them Far be it from any of you to check or discountenance or hinder yours in what is good this is to be an Elymas Act. 13.10 a child of the Devil to act his part If ever a man acts like a Devil 't is when he sets himself against that which is good To encourage excite animate any to wickedness to discourage hinder check any as to acts of Piety and Godliness this is to be a very Devil When Moses would have had Pharaoh to let Israel go he instead of doing this gives this answer Wherefore do ye let the people from their works get you unto your burdens And the tale c. for they be idle therefore they cry saying Let us go and sacrifice to our God Let there be more work laid upon the men that they may labour therein Exod. 5.5.8 9. O that we had not too many Masters and Parents of this spirit Do they see Servants and Children to begin to look Heaven-ward and especially do these desire a little time some relaxation in order to secret duties how do they snubbe and curb them and frown upon them and tell them they are idle or Hypocritical and they will turn melancholy and twenty such replies are made by them to take them off from what is good The Lord rebuke this spirit for 't is a cursed spirit I would not have these mens guilt upon me for all the world What to endeavour to blast the blossomings of Godliness to put back the throws of the New Birth to give a check to the breathings of the Holy Spirit O 't is a sin out of measure sinful I warn you all of it and I beseech you do you carry it quite otherwise What ever is of God or tends to God let it be helped on by you let the buddings of Grace be furthered and ripened by the beams of your influence Do not discourage or despise the day of small things in any of yours Zach. 4.10 Math 12.20 God doth not do so and will you do so Do you observe some putings forth of what is good cherish them Do you observe some good though it be but some good own it and take notice of it In Jeroboam's child there was found some good 1 King 14.13 and God observed it so as to reward it O though Children and Servants be not altogether what you desire yet if there be some good found in them let that be taken notice of you must so punish what is evil as also to observe what is good On the other hand do ye see the sproutings out of that which is evil interpose presently for the prevention of their further growth Do they begin to take God's name in vain to be careless in attending upon holy Duties do they nibble at a lie doth pride in apparel peep forth set in with serious counsel immediately that these things may not grow upon them 'T is good to suppress the very initials of sin to kill the Viper or Serpent in the very egg The disease taken in time is easily cured which by delays proves mortal the Fire at the first might be quenched with ease which afterwards will admit of no stop O that we had not known this to be true The Vices and faults of young ones by timely applications might be prevented but being let alone they take such a rooting in them that their case is desperate O that many were not undone by Parents and Masters unfaithfulness and invigilancy in this 'T is good advice that which Hierome gave to Laeta He bids her speedily to reform whatever she should see amiss in her Daughter for Aegrè reprehendas quod sinis consuescere difficulter eraditur quod rudes animi perbiberunt Thirdly Watchfully observe what company they keep If you do not look to this you do nothing O be sure you keep those under you from bad society Plutarch in his excellent Discourse upon the Education of Children much insists upon this as a special direction to be practised in order to good Education What more fatal more dangerous than evil company The Spartans would rather suffer their City to be taken than give their Children for Hostages for fear of
true Christian he must come up to the latter Though there be no formal overt-acts yet in the inward actings of the heart there must be this devoting of self to God this therefore is the lowest that I can go and so this however must be urged upon you This being premised I will now fall upon the exhortation which I shall speak to first more generally and then in the several particulars or branches which make up self-dedication In the general notion of it I will enforce it upon you by the ensuing motives which I judge to have much strength in them 1. The truth of Christianity lies in this Personal Dedication You are Christians but are you true Christians You have the external Name and Title and badge but are you so indeed Baptism makes you Christians but 't is self-dedication that makes you true Christians without this you may be accounted Christians by men but you are no better than Heathens than Infidels in the account of God This is Christianity for a man to devote himself to God to love and serve him and to live to him all the days of his life here is the very soul and pith and kernel and spirit of Christianity this is the summe quintessence marrow of Religion When I put you upon self-dedication I do but put you upon being true Christians This and Christianity are Termini convertibiles the true Christian dedicates his self to God and he that doth thus is the true Christian this is the Characteristical note of one that is truly what he professeth himself to be Doth it not concern you therefore to see that this be done O take heed of the name without the thing Many a man stands much upon his Christianity he cannot bear that any should so much as question his being a Christian But let him be who he will if he hath not dedicated himself to God in an holy course he may be a nominal Christian but he is no more and at the great day it will be better for him that he had not been so much if he be no more He that wears Christs livery professes Christ to be his master and knows what his masters will is and yet doth it not he shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12.47 Profession without hearty and answerable practice will aggravate condemnation The Heathens shall mitius ardere have a cooler fire than such as are called Christians and yet do not sincerely dedicate themselves to God 2. Besides the obligation of your general profession your Baptism in special binds you to this self-dedication You own your Baptismal covenant do you not I presume you will not deny it then I beseech you consider what is the purport intent matter end of this Covenant is it not this To renounce the world the flesh the Devil and all his works and to dedicate your selves to the service work will and glory of God Was not this the first and principal intent of that Covenant namely self-renunciation and self-dedication Then if you do not do this you are false to your Baptismal Covenant and to the obligation that then you entred into And is this a matter to be trifled with Are the * Psal 56.12 vows of God upon you and will you not make them good Prov. 20.25 Is it dangerous to enquire after the making of a vow what is it then to falsifie a vow Will you not perform what you have solemnly engaged your selves to Can you break Covenant with God and prosper Ezek. 17 15. Deceive not your selves God is not mocked he will not be mocked Gal. 6.7 he hath your bonds by him and he will sue them out in his own time and if you perform not the conditions of them God will have reparation some other way and that can only be in your eternal ruin O how many will perish for ever for the violation of their Baptismal obligation And is it not sad that that which puts a glory upon us here upon our non-performance of conditions should deprive us of glory hereafter and expose us to the wrath of God to all eternity And yet thus it is and thus too many will find it to be Be serious I beseech you in the consideration of this and certainly it will prevail with you to dedicate your selves to God Is it I that put you upon this duty Is this something that is but the fancy of some precise or over-righteous person Is it some new thing which a Minister would lay upon you Is it not that very thing which you your selves have sworn to in your Baptism Is not your obligation to it very ancient and yet in full force at this very day Can any time wear out this obligation Though Baptism doth not leave characterem indelebilem yet it doth leave obligationem indispensabilem though there be no * Of this controversie vid. Chamier t. 4. de Sacram. l. 2. c. 12. Gerhard t. 4. de Sacram. p. 335 c. and many others indelible character in the Popish sense yet there is an indispensable obligation And further have you not often owned and renewed this at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Nay have you not heightned and superadded a further obligation upon your selves to be the Lords at that ordinance Do you not say in effect at every Sacrament you receive Lord I here dedicate my self to thee I here seal to be thine I vouch thee for my God and I will be thy servant And after all this will you be false to God I tremble at the thoughts of this perfidiousness Herod would rather be guilty of murder than of perjury Matth. 14.9 for his oaths sake John Baptists Head must go off Many a time thou hast sworn to God and what doth God require upon this but the life of thy lusts the * Rom. 6.6 destroying of the body of sin the blood of thy bosome-corruptions shall not this be done for thy Oaths sake O saith David I have sworn and I will perform it Psal 119.106 that I will keep thy righteous judgments Do you so speak and so do as you love your souls 'T was a great trial to Jepthah to offer up his daughter Judg. 11.31 35. his only child but he had made such a vow and he could not recede whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me c. shall surely be the Lords c. Though it happened that his daughter met him yet she must be offered up for says he I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go back This is your case as to your selves and as to your sins In Baptism at the Lords Table you have said that you would be the Lords that you would offer up your beloved sins having thus bound your selves to the Lord you cannot go back Sacramental obligations call for self-dedication 3. God is such a God as that he deserves this at your hands Look upon him as
he is in himself Infinite incomprehensible the supream and absolute being holy wise gracious merciful unchangeable just righteous c. Will you not dedicate your selves to such a God What a base thing is sin what a vain thing is the world in comparison of this God What a shame is it that men should chuse rather to give up themselves to these than to the ever blessed God! Something we must dedicate our selves to doth any object so deserve our love delight service zeal as God doth And then look upon him in what he is to you your Creator the fountain of your beings your preserver your benefactor your Lord and Soveraign your Judge he in whose hands your * Dan. 5.23 life breath and all your concerns are he that protects you from all dangers supplies you in all wants supports you under all burdens directs you in all straights rewards you in all services will you not dedicate your selves to this God He that alone can make you happy or miserable he that alone can save or damn he that alone can give you satisfaction inward peace and joy will you not be his He that is your good God your friend that desires your well-fare will you not surrender up your selves to him I am not pleading with you for dedition but for dedication the * Damus amicis dedimus Hostibus Stephan Vrbem agrum aras focos seque uti dederent Plaut in Amphitr Such as yielded upon the prevailing strength of their Enemy vvere called Dedititii Quum ex dedititiis Delgis complures Caesarem secuti Caes Comm. former is proper for an enemy the latter for a friend O 't is mens ignorance of God that keeps them from dedicating themselves to him surely did they but know him he should have their All. 4. Self-dedication to God is the Creatures advancement it puts an honour and excellency upon a person self is advanced and dignified when 't is thus dedicated as there pass'd a glory upon the first fruits by their being dedicated to God And therefore the excellency of the Saints is set forth by this allusion to the first fruits Of his own will begat he us Jam. 1.18 with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures Jer. 2.3 Israel was holiness unto the Lord the first fruits of his increase Rev. 14.4 These were redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God I say one thing intended in these expressions is to hold forth the excellency of the people of God as they are dedicated to him Self-dedication will make you as first fruits it will put a glory and excellency upon you Psal 16.3 dedicated persons are the excellent in the earth Take the whole crop there was not much in it but the first fruits being set apart for God there was an excellency in them take mankind in the lump and mass there is no such great worth in it but take those few that are singled out of this mass and set apart for God O they are excellent persons The pride of man puts him upon the affectation of excellency and advancement would you from an holy pride be ambitious of true excellency and advancement be a people separated for God devoted to him no honour like to that 5. I will add but one Consideration more 't is this as grace so glory as Christianity here so felicity hereafter depend upon self-dedication Would you not be saved Do you not desire Heaven and blessedness Would you not be happy in the world to come Surely you would then pray take the right way and course in order to this what 's that Dedicate your selves to God no dedication no salvation self must be dedicated or self cannot be saved Non-dedication must needs end in destruction How can he expect that God will give himself in the beatifick vision to him who is not willing to give his self to God here in holy dedication Did ever any arrive at the sight of God who had not first devoted themselves to holiness without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 O what a comfortable plea is this for a dying man for Heaven Lord I am thine save me Psal 119.94 I have been a doer of thy will upon earth let me now enter into the Kingdom Matth. 7.21 I have withheld nothing from thee do not thou now withhold glory from me Psal 84.11 Thus much I have said to urge the Exhortation in general That I may yet further drive the nail to the very Head that this advice may be yet more piercing and effectual I shall go over the particular branches of self-dedication and enforce each of them upon you by those considerations which are respectively proper to them 1. First therefore Give your selves to God Self is a gift that is only fit for a God 't is indeed too little for him but 't is too much for any thing besides him 't is not good enough for God 't is too good for any thing else O whilest others give themselves to low vain undeserving evil objects let us give our selves to the Lord. I shall desire the Reader throughly to weigh a few motives to induce him unto this 1. Nothing more equitable than that the Creature should give himself to God The Apostle urges this very duty by this he calls it a reasonable service Rom. 12.1 the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word imports giving or dedicating to God see Luke 2.22 Now this self-presenting or self-giving to God 't is a thing that is most reasonable 't is that which is grounded upon the highest reason Reason it self will tell a man he ought to give himself to God this * Prov. 20.27 candle of the Lord gives a light clear enough to direct a creature to this I know depraved reason opposes it but rectifi'd reason furthers it Your reason will tell you that you are bound to give to every one what is his right and due this is one of the undoubted maximes and principles of reason In the case I am upon reason lays down the proposition Scripture-revelation sets in with it to make the assumption and then grace makes the conclusion and so the syllogism is framed betwixt them I must give to every one what is his due there 's reason my person my all is Gods due there 's partly reason and partly revelation therefore I will give my self to God there 's grace Let me speak a little to that foundation upon which the reasonableness of the duty in hand is built and that is whatever I am or have 't is all Gods due God hath a fuller better right to a man than he hath to himself he is Gods more than he is or can be his own in the fall of Adam we lost our right and title to God but he did not lose his right and title to us this is eternal alteration or any such thing If you ask
proud waves Job 26.10 Job 38.10 11. and saying to them Thus far shall yee go and no farther You have seen God's bounding of the proud flames when they were most fierce and raging Now did you ever dedicate these Houses to God if not be entreated now to set upon the duty O 't is sad that you have neglected it thus long be sure you neglect it no longer You are not now to enter upon new Houses but yet you must enter upon a new course whether the House be new or old that 's all one it must be dedicated As a late repentance so a late dedication is better than none May not God well expect that Houses so eminently preserved by him should faithfully be dedicated to him There are others of you upon whom the late judicial Providence did fall very heavy you were fired out of your Houses but you are now full of the Hopes of new Habitations This poor City for almost two years hath ly'ne as dead and buried in its own ruines but there seems to be at present some hope of its revival and resurrection it begins to discover a little breathing I trust in God it will come to it self again I have sometimes fancyed to my self when I have seen the few new Buildings that are scattered up and down in the Ruines that this is like to the fruits of the Earth after a sharp and tedious Winter the Spring comes and then here and there you may see a blade of Corn or Grass growing up which gives an encouragement to the beholder of a further growth So here we have something pardon the expression like the springing up of a City here and there an House is finished But I hope if the Lord hath so great a mercy for us in time all will be compleated as 't is but a blade or two at the first but in a little time the whole field is covered all over This Summer if God continue peace to us we encourage our selves to expect a good and considerable progress in the rebuilding of our desolate places and if so then many of you will be Hous'd again Now if it shall please God to give you your desires to succeed you in your building work and to put you into new Houses O this is that which I would earnestly press upon you Dedicate them to God This is the General Exhortation in the enforcing of which I will offer a few things 1. Do this not only at your first entrance but in the whole course of your life for this dedication is a continued act and it will be a good evidence of your Personal-dedication if you have dedicated your self to God which if you have not done your condition is sad you will certainly dedicate your House to God As no man can do the latter unless he do the former so whoever doth the former he will do the latter This will evidence also the Truth of Grace and the very power of godliness O where grace is in the heart God shall be in the House where the person is converted the House shall be dedicated and I scarce know any one thing wherein you have a better discovery of a man whether he be gracious or not godly or not than his carriage and deportment in and towards his House and Family Doth he own God there advance God there devote Persons Estate Interest All to God surely he 's a godly man Abraham acted like himself not only when he was willing to offer up his Son but also when he was commanding his Children and his Houshold to keep the way of the Lord. Gen. 18.19 2. This is to do something that is singular this is more than what others do I mean such as have no supernatural work in them To get a convenient House to live in and there to drive on a trade for the World and to enjoy Creature-blessings this is ordinary and this is all that the most do mind and therefore if you carry it otherwise viz. you no sooner have an House but God shall have that House you are no sooner served your selves but God shall be served by you where you are gratified God shall be glorified This I say is to do something that hath a Blessed singularity in it 3. This is the way to enjoy the presence of God in your Houses to have him to dwell with you I hope you will look after this What 's the House if God be not in it What 's the most convenient habitation the confluence of all external comforts and accommodations if God be absent What difference would there be betwixt the Palace and the Dungeon if the Sun should withdraw and so all be covered in darkness And so here Make sure of God's Presence and every Habitation will be sweet O do not take up with good rooms good furniture good relations good trading but get a good God to dwell with you and he 'l be better than all He says of his Church that Psal 132.1.1 He hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it The name of the City is Jehovah-Shammah Ezek. 48.3 Would you have the great God to own your habitations for his Habitation to take up his rest with you Would you have your Houses to be called Jehovah-Shammah then dedicate them to the Lord. As you desire the presence of God in you in a special and gracious manner dedicate your persons then you shall be as the Temple of the living God and God shall dwell in you and walk in you as 't is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatically expressed 2 Cor. 6.16 As you desire the presence of God with you in a more common and providential way dedicate your Houses 4. Would you enjoy your Houses when you have built them let them be dedicated It would be sad after all your care costs pains that you should not possess what you lay out so much upon 'T is a severe threatning that in Deut. 28.30 Thou shall build an House and thou shalt not dwell therein So also Zeph. 1.13 Their Goods shall become a booty and their Houses a desolation that you have felt already and 't is further threatned they shall also build Houses but not inhabit them O that this also may not be executed upon you And Amos 5.11 Ye have built Houses of hewn stone but ye shall not dwell in them As you desire to be freed from this sharp affliction be faithful in the discharge of the duty which I am upon then you are in the way of the Promise Isa 65.20 21. They shall build Houses and inhabit them and they shall plant Vineyards and cat the fruit of them They shall not build and another inhabit they shall not plant and another eat for as the days of a tree are the days of my people and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands They shall not labour in vain nor
bring forth for trouble The good Lord accomplish this word to you in this City 5. Life is very uncertain He that was to go out to fight with the enemy he especially was to dedicate his House because of the uncertainty of his Life Deut. 20.5 I hope this will not be be your case but however your Life is very uncertain you live to day Can you say that you shall live to morrow who knows how soon this poor thred of Life may break in pieces Every man at his best state is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 Life and all the Comforts of it are fluid transitory uncertain Here we have no abiding City Hebr. 13.14 Nihil in hac vitâ possidemus quod di cere possumus futurum diu nostrum Quae uolis videmur firmissimè tenere ea quoties Deo libuit temporis momento nobis è manibus offluunt Omnia nos relinquunt vel à nobis relinquuntur J. Capel in Hebr. 13.14 Linquenda Tellus Domus placens Vxor Horat but we seek one to come O enter upon your Houses as those who have death in your eye They are built of Brick and firm materials and may stand long but you your selves are made but of brittle things you are but earthly Tabernacles a little breathing clay you would fall every moment if God did not underprop you Suppose it should please God to send such a plague as we had a few years ago we have had a strange unusual Winter what it may produce I know not would you be impenetrable against the arrows that fly and wast at noon-day Psal 91.5 6. Can you build your new Houses so that the destroying Angel shall not be able to get into them If you can secure them from Fire cannot God kindle a fire in your Bodies send a Fever upon you that shall consume you presently O what an uncertain thing is Life how many ways hath God to put a period to it Surely therefore it lies upon us to dedicate our selves our Houses to God to advance him in our Hearts and Families to improve all we have to his glory to be faithful in the matters of Religion for we know not how soon Death will come and what shall we do in a dying hour if we have liv'd in the neglect of these things Thou that hast not given thy House to God and set it apart for him Canst thou expect that he will give thee that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that House which is not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 6. House-dedication is the best Housesecurity Would you have your Houses safe dedicate them to God thereby you prevent God's Anger and entitle what is yours to God's Protection You have liv'd to see dreadful things God of his infinite mercy grant you may never see the like again A City burnt this City burnt this City burnt with such Circumstances Many Thousands of Houses in the space of three days utterly consum'd O What was it that kindled this fierce anger of God against us What shall we do that the like may never again befall us Surely these are two Questions which with the greatest seriousness we are often to propound to our selves I shall go no further than that which I am upon for an Answer to them One cause I fear I dare not be peremptory in assigning the causes of a judgment so unsearchable was our not-dedicating of our Houses to God Non-dedication brings desolation Had Religion the power of Godliness been set up and kept up in your Houses they might have stood to this day for ought I know This as to the first Question As to the second I say only this If you would not drink of this bitter cup again dedicate your Houses to God Do not think your walls and bricks will secure you if sin be harboured and God kept out of doors If there should be no malicious men or rather incarnate Devils here upon earth there is a just and jealous God in Heaven This duty will be your best security Do you dedicate and God will protect I always submit to God's Soveraignty and to his secret Reserves which are best known to Himself and how much there was of these as to the dealings of God with many Families in this City in the late judgment I cannot determine But as to the ordinary methods of God and as to his revealed will we have great encouragement to hope for Protection and Preservation whilst we sincerely desire to come up to House-dedicating duty O my Brethren be not offended either at my largeness or plainness in this my advice you have not my Pen but my heart in what I write And I shall think though I am sensible of many defects that I have wrote well if I may but see you to do well All that I aim at is success in bringing you to Dedication-work Lib. 6. c. 31. * Vt se diceret quasi hominem tandem habitare coepisse Suetonius tells us a passage of Nero which I shall make use of When he had built him a brave Palace and had dedicated it he said Now he began to live like a man I allude not to his sense for that was naught but to his words You are now preparing new Houses and e're long you hope to dwell in them Oh when ever it shall be so dedicate them to God then you 'l live and act like true Christians 'T is better to be without an House than without an Heart to dedicate it to God 'T is never right ordered and managed till it be dedicated * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cognationem habet cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rectus nam initiare aliquid est illud recté disponere Aven This in General but I must not leave the Exhortation thus I will go over the Particulars that make up this House-dedication and press them upon you distinctly CHAP. V. The Particular Branches of House-Dedication urged 1. FIrst therefore Enter upon your Houses by solemn Prayer and Praise These two are as it were the staple Duties of Religion In the One we acknowledg what we want in the other what we have In the one we testifie our own emptiness in the other God's goodness In the one we take from God in the other we give to God But 't is not for me to run out upon these in the general nature or notion of them I am only to speak to them according to the present consideration That which I have to do is this to exhort you as the good Providence of God shall fix you in New Habitations that you would make your Entrance by Solemn Prayer and Praise You know what I mean by Solemn Prayer and Praise that hath been already opened You must have the foundations of your Houses twice laid they are first laid by your workmen in a common and literal sense then they must be laid by your selves again in a spiritual and religious sense