life long no good be done yet you may take that Comfort your Master did Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the Eyes of the Lord. And in the Verse before I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength in naught in vain Yet surely my Judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God God knoweth with what uprightness I have done his work and therefore I know he will Crown me with Glory though my labour hath been lost as to the most part of the People THE SIXTH SERMON THe next sort of Persons in reference to whom Duty lies upon you are Christian Societies Assemblies that profess the Christian Religion and joyn together in the worship of the true God These are called Churches and of these there are two sorts false and true and your duty is to separate from those and hold fellowship with these Three things are required to the constituting of true Churches 1. That the Word of God and Doctrine of Salvation be truly taught in them ye are of the houshold of God and are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets upon this Rock this truth confessed by thee I will build my Church the Church is God's Register that keeps his Records faithfully the Pillar and ground of Truth where the Doctrine of the Law and Gospel is truly taught God dwells with that People and Salvation may be there had 2. That there be Pastors and Ministers lawfully called How shall they preach except they be sent pray the Lord of the Harvest that he will send sorth Labourers into his Harvest Christ hath given his Ministry to his own Church 3. That the People receive and embrace the Doctrine and Religion of Christ and submit to and joyn together in the Worship of God Then they that gladly received the Word were Baptized and they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayers Hereby may be discerned which are false Churches and which true The Roman Political Church as the Constitution of it is false and of Man's Invention Obj. They have the Apostles Creed the Books of Canonical Scripture and Baptisme Answ They acknowledge the Creed in profession and word but overthrow much of the sense by their superadded Articles and false expositions They retain the words of Scripture though in much not the sense of the Holy Ghost nor can Baptism though for substance according to the first Institution prove them a true Church more than Circumcision could Samaria to be so or a Seal pulled from the Writing and set to the bare paper A Thief may shew a true Man's Purse but that proves him not to be a true Man and they overthrow inward Baptisme the life of that Sacrament imputed righteousness and holiness which in Gods Church must go together with the outward Element 2dly As Papists they have no true Ministers the Romish Priest as such is no Minister of Christ not only because of the Anti-Christian Doctrines which he teacheth overthrowing the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles but also in that he offereth Christ a real Sacrifice for quick and dead wherein chiefly stands his Office and because as a Papist-Priest he receives his very Power from the Pope whose Office is not of Christ Qu. Why then should not one Baptized by a Mass Priest be Rebaptized Answ Because the action of a lawful Calling done by one that is not lawfully called is not a nullity the Ministry is lawful though as corrupted by them is bad 3dly Their People oppose God's true Worship and live in palpable Idolatry and profess themselves the Members of a usurping trayterous head the Pope Obj. Anti-Christ sitteth in the Temple of God therefore the Church of Rome is God's Church Answ In the Popish Church there is the hidden Church of God mingled as a little Wheat with much Chaff as a little Gold with much Dross So that though the Church of God be where Anti-Christ sitteth yet the Church whereof he is Head is no Church of God for there are no means there to beget or preserve spiritual life whether we regard Doctrine or Worship To speak plainly it is a part of the Universal Visible Church of Christians so far as they profess Christianity acknowledge Christ their Head but it is the Visible Society of Trayterous Usurpers so far as they profess the Pope to be their Head just as if a Traytor should make himself Deputy of Ireland against the King's will and all the People believe he is so and so profess themselves Subjects to the King as their Soveraign and to him as his Deputy Here it is a true Kingdome as it is still under the King and yet a Kingdom of Traytors or Rebels Secundum quid or so far as they adhere to the Usurping Deputy against the King's command From this Church therefore which is spiritual Babylon the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth no Spouse of Christ but a Strumpet no House of God but an Habitation of Devils once indeed a famous Church but now dead and buryed and as is the Mother so is the Daughters God's People are bound to separate Come out of her my people and yet not from such therein who mean well in the general and secretly discent from her damnable Corruptions is this Obligation of Separation upon you Rom. 18. 4. Much less ought you to separate from Churches which have made separation from Rome as the reformed Protestant Churches in France Germany and other Countreys and these of Great Britain and Ireland have done in whose Congregations is found truth of Doctrine a lawful Ministry and a People professing the true Religion submitting to and joyning together in the true Worship of God I am not ignorant that many of you whose Habitation I question not but the Lord is who have your Habitations in all the several Countries of this Kingdom have drunkin a deep prejudice against all the Parochical Congregations whereof you are legal Members and where all you were baptized and thereby were made the Members of Christ the Children of God and Heires of his Kingdome I fear some of you will startle at these expressions found in the Common-Prayer-Book But if you consult the Holy Scripture you will finde them warranted in a Sacramental sense and your prejudice hath so far wrought upon you that you have forsaken the assembling of your selves together with your Neighbours in the publick Meeting Places I know with whom I am dealing Persons that have a comfortable assurance that they dwell in God and therefore are willing to hear any thing that may tend to the increase of their comfort and unwilling to retain any errour in their judgments or practice that may defile and dishonour their dwelling place or cause it to be evil spoken of by them that are without whose mouthes you know your absenting your selves from all the Solemn Assemblies open wide to cast a scandal upon your
of seeking love and the other of fullenjoying-love and both being the Dwelling of the Soul in GOD in several manners and degrees Do not wonder therefore if the Reverend Author of this Treatise my deservedly-much valued and honoured Friend and long a laborious Servant of Christ have chosen this Subject for his own delight and for his Readers benefit For however perhaps the burning of the City and the removal of many Ministers from their setled habitations might be some occasion of his choice yet the great reason no doubt was the Greatness and Necessity of this truth as suited to the greatest edification of Mens souls I foresee that there are some that will say that this running of Allegories so far doth carry away the mind from the just conceptions of the thing and hinder and delude the understanding by drawing it into the by-paths of improper notions and is the way of injudicious superficial Teachers And I confess it is so in several Cases As 1. When metaphors are chosen needlesly instead of more plain significant termes 2. And when they are chosen unaptly and are not fitted to the matter signified 3. When they are insisted on too far to the exclusion of the proper notions and tend indeed to seduce and carry away the mind 4. When they are run up so high as to infer any false conclusions or to introduce any groundless confectaries or applications But if you consider of the Allegory insisted on in this Treatise you will have better thoughts and censures of it upon these reasons following 1. It is not about a created subject where we have store of proper notions but about the Creator and our communion with Him where we must have improper thoughts and borrowed notions or none at all It is a controversie between the Thomists and the Scotists whether one syllable Ens be spoken Univocally of GOD and of the Creatures But that no other word is spoken Univocally of them they are agreed And the Scotists do not without reason maintain that Analogical Attribution is not a third member betwixt Univocal and Equivocal but is truly Equivocal as Metaphors are Talk not then against all Allegorical expressions about God till you would forbid Mortals to talk of God at all 2. Note that it is not so much the matter of our communion with GOD as the manner of it which the Allegory is used to express For the matter on our part I here tell you once for all that it is not any Fryar like fanatical notion of deification by an indwelling in GOD nor Andr. Osâ—anders conceit of Essential Righteousness nor the Platonists fancy of the Union of the Intellect with the thing understood which the Reverend Author doth assert But it is only the communion of the Three Essential faculties of the Soul with GOD the Vital and Executive Power the Intellect and Will partly receptively and partly operatively which is meant And the Allegory of Dwelling signifieth the Permanency Fixedness Constancy Familiarness c. Of these 3. And consider how apt and significant it is How fitly it expresseth the Habits of Grace the Souls fidelity the course of duty the contents and comforts of a Believer in his GOD c. as is here fully opened to you And how fitly it differenceth a Christian indeed who dwelleth habitually and devotedly in GOD from all sorts of Hypocrites who do but complement with him as a stranger or step aside out of their ordinary way to speak now and then with him either in formality or in their extremity and cast an Eye towards him sometimes on the by And that it is not a barren notion but most practical directing the thoughts of a Christian to a constant spiritual holy life yea that it is a very Consolatory notion speaking the beginning of Heaven on Earth and suited both to Grace and Glory and apt to lead up our Desires to the everlasting Mansions which we have scarce a more familiar conception of than by Dwelling with GOD And who would not be at Home that hath such a Home prepared for him when once He is prepared for it 4. And lastly consider that it is a Scripture metaphore yea frequently there used And what words of Scripture can seem more important to us than 1 John 4. 16 GOD is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in GOD and GOD in Him And V. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of GOD God dwelleth in Him and He in GOD. And V. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in Us and his Love is perfected in Us. 1 Joh. 3. 24. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in Him and He in Him 2 Cor. 6. 16. For ye are the Temple 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 And there is another sort that I foresee will be offended because the Author hath said so much against separation from the publick Assemblies and Worship as now managed seeing he is silenced for Non-conformity Himself To these I shall only say 1. Why do they not wonder as much at the old Non-conformists Hildersham Paget Brightman Bradshaw Ball with many more who said much more against separation long ago 2. Consider that the Author is an ancient experienced Divine who hath lived to see the fruits of all extreams and in particular what the Love-killing and separating Spirit hath done in these Kingdoms these Thirty Years He hath been the Tutor and Father of more faithful Teachers in the Church than many other worthy Pastors have been of converted serious Christians And if the young unexperienced censures will but stay till they come to his age and experience and to half his Learning Wisdom and Grace and till they have done God's Church but the twentieth part of the service that he hath done it 's like they will be themselves of the same mind that he is But I could wish for their own sakes they would not do by him as they do by Mr. Tombes who having written a Book against Separation which none of them can confute with truth and reason they commonly and confidently affirm that he conformeth and then cast by his Book through prejudice and few that I hear of who most need it do read it Though he is so far from Ministerial Conformity that in the Epistle to that Book he still declareth his old opinion against Infant Baptism Partiality is a forfeiture of truth and contemptuously shuts the Door against it It will suffer Men to receive no instruction from those that differ from them And those that differ not can scarce instruct them because their Opinions are but the same which they hold already Alas then what will become of the understandings of this Generation wherein there are so few that are not in one Faction or other possest with partiality and unreasonable prejudice against the rest Reader the way to escape this Soul-perverting
meat for those that are of full age profounder and more mysterious Doctrines The Stewards of the House appointed to dispense both to both as they are able to bear them As the head of the House taught them to do by his practice every part and particle of the Holy Scriptures Histories Precepts Prohibitions Promises threatnings are all of them choice Viands wherewith holy Souls are satisfied as with marrow and fatness Nor are they only meat but Medicinal also and therefore called wholsome words that have a healing property in them The Spirit of God accompanying his word is called by our Saviour the Water of Life Hadst thou asked of me said he to the Woman of Samaria that denyed to give him of her Water I would have given thee a better and far more excellent kind of Water than this is that I have desired of thee Whosoever drinketh of this Water shall thirst again but whoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst Of this living Water they that dwell in God do drink continually whereby the thirst of their Souls after earthly things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is quenched And their consciences are satisfied and quieted against the sense and apprehension of Gods wrath due for their fins And the sense of his love affected by this Water is better than Wine whose property is to comfort the heart beget new Spirits purge warm refine and waken them Yea this House is a House of Wine And the graces and fruits of the Spirit are delightful to them as Wine with which they being spiritually drunk have inward spiritual joy bred in them testified in the private and publick praises of God by Psalmes Hymns and spiritual Songs Their hearts being merry and chearful They make a rejoyce as if they were set on fire with Wine But here is another food which every one of this House have for commons every Day The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed Note well that spiritual things have their truth and reality as much and beyond comparison in their kind as corporal ones have theirs This meat and drink surpasseth all other upon a manifold account 1. Of the place from whence it comes This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven Not out of the middle Region of the Aire as Manna did but from the highest Heaven 2. The Variety of Viands in it for all things are in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption Let our wants be what they will let our wills be what they can to feed on this or that dish Nothing can be imagin'd nourishing or cheering which is not to be found in Christ Manna which was but a type of this true bread is said to have had all sorts of good tasts in it 3. Of the sufficiency of it for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily The whole Mass and gathering together of all Divine and everlasting goods Whereof the parcels and streams do issue out upon the Church They are in him not in shaddows and figures as in the Old Testament but in reality and substance And of his fulness have we all received grace for grace Not a fulness of abundance only but a fulness of redundance also out of which a sufficient portion is distributed to every of his Members There can be no want in him where Riches are unsearchable As he is able to save them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him and so to satisfie them that feed upon him as it is said of those four thousand Men beside Women and Children They did all eat and were filled 4. Of the powerful efficacy that is in it I am the Bread of Life That is there remains in me received and applyed by a lively faith power to quicken the Soul that is dead in sin separated from God the true Spring of Life and to preserve it alive by a communicative and continual influence of Divine grace and to give it also the life of joy and comfort yea and to cure not only all the Maladies that molest the Life of Grace but of Nature also 5. Of the permanency of it this is not like other Food and Physick that perisheth it self and is not able to keep the body into which it is received from perishing Upon which account we are forbidden to labour for it Labour not for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of Man shall give unto you What is that The Bread that I will give is my Flesh If any Man eat of this Flesh he shall live for ever This Meat and Drink is every Day received by this whole Houshold not after a corporal and carnal manner as those Capernaites conceived Christs meaning How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat But by believing that it was given for them and is the Price of their sins to God He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst As Meat is received into the stomack by eating so is Christ into the Soul by believing He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him that is to say is inseparably united to me and I to him even as food is with him that eats it This and no other way is this meat and drink received in the Holy Supper wherein here is or ought to be a frequent communicating where and when every Communicant by eating and drinking the consecrated Bread and Wine being Sacramentally Christ's body and blood Signes to represent it Seals to confirm aud Instruments really to exhibit them doth acknowledge and preach the benefits of the Lord's Death and protesteth to take part thereof by a lively faith which is as the Eye and Hand to the Mouth and Stomack of the Soul taking Christ into and uniting him to them even as corporal Food is by eating and digesting united to the Body 6. This is that Feast of fat things of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined which the Lord of Hosts promised to all Nations gathered together in his Church to some of all veiling Heavenly things under Earthly condescending so low as to enter into the inward Man by the outward our apprehensions being so weak and narrow that we cannot otherwise be acquainted with them while our Souls are in our Bodies They are much guided by our fancy and then spiritual things are conveyed to them this way only we must remember that there is a far greater excellency in the things themselves than in their representations For what is
to draw them from Perdition without any vain respects or considerations as Men draw things out of the Fire in any fashion or what way they can First Them that you finde grosly ignorant instruct in Fundamental Truths without the distinct knowledge whereof no Man can have any entrance into this House Especially you that have Children and Servants take pains in Catechising them till they be as able and ready to render a reason of their Faith as to answer to their Names These words which I command thee this Day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up and ye Fathers bring up your Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But you must not neglect to instruct strangers also even Beggars that come to your Doors they have precious immortal Souls which you should be as willing to relieve as your Bodies You that are godly Women as well as Men must perform this duty We finde Women not only teaching their Husbands Manoah's Wife said unto her husband concluding the Death of himself and her If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these and their Children and Servants What my Son and what the Son of my Womb and what the Son of my vow give not thy strength unto Women nor thy wayes unto that which destroyeth Kings She openeth her Mouth in wisdome among her Maidens and in her Tongue is the Law of Kindness sweet and gracious speeches sounding to edification in knowledge and holinesse but expounding the way of God to others also Aquila and Priscilla took Apollos to them and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly Seeing godly Women may and should be private patterns and may have a gift of expounding Scripture and much more private Men and use that gift in the presence of Ministers for the edification of others yea of Ministers themselves 2. Those you finde led away with the Errour of the wicked holding any points in Religion contrary to sound Doctrine denying directly or by consequence any Fundamental Verity Such was that of Hymoeneus and Philetus and that false Doctrine which the Galatians held namely that to be justified before God it was necessary together with faith in Christ strictly to observe the Mosaical Ceremonies as a part of Man's righteousness and holiness appointed by the Law and that of the Nicolaitans who permitted the community of Women held it a thing indifferent to commit Adultry and eating Meats sacrificed to Idols and Popish and Pelagian Errours when ever you have occasion to converse with any such as these or that hold any point not consonant to Scripture though having less filth and danger do your endeavour to recover them by soft words and hard Arguments So you are taught by the Apostle James's Practice who calls a damnable blasphemy by the gentle name of errour and useth a loving compellation Do not erre my beloved brethren But observe what powerful Arguments he useth both before and after his dehortation and by the Apostle Paul's precept In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil Two things especially should move you to endeavour to convert souls from errour especially if Fundamental The one from the nature of such an errour it is like a Canker or Gangreen a Malady so contagious that it presently spreads it self into the next Members and so by degrees destroyes the whole Body being once admitted into the soul it will glide into it to the total extinguishing of the spiritual life thereof And having possessed it self in one of the Members of the Church will spread over all the Body of it if it be not withstood in time Another is the great reward promised to this endeavour if it prove successful if not the will as it is accepted so it shall be equally rewarded 3. Such as are prophane Persons the shew of whose Countenance doth witness against them and declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not that draw iniquity with Cords of Vanity and sin as it were with a Cart-rope and that live in the neglect and contempt of divine Ordinances and religious exercises publick domestick or secret professing by their practice that they are the Children of Belial and rank Atheists If you finde that any of these have not as yet commenced Dogs and Swine but are as yet Undergraduates and in the Devil's Academy and that you shall not provoke them to Blasphemie nor aggravate their rage against you thereby allure them to go with you into Divine Herbert's Church Porch and then sprinkle them with his Holy Water-stick Beware of Lust it doth pollute and fowle Whom God in Baptisme washt with his own blood Drink not the third Glass which thou canst not tame When once it is within thee Take not his name who made thy mouth in vain It gets thee nothing and hath no excuse Lye not but let thy heart be true to God Thy Mouth to it thy actions to them both Flie idleness which yet thou canst not flie By dressing Mistrissing and Complement Look at thy Mouth Diseases enter there Slight those who say among thy sickly health Thou livest by rule Be thrifty but not covetous Play not for gain but sport Be sweet to all Catch not at Quarrels Laugh not too much Pick out of mirth Prophaneness filthiness abusiveness Be useful where thou livest Restore to God his due in tith and time Resort to Sermons Sum up at Night what thou hast done by Day And in the Morning what thou hast to do Take heed lest through fear or too much respect towards any whom you hear speaking or see acting prophanely you become by your connivance or silence guilty of want of Zeal towards God's glory and of Charity towards your Neighbours Souls and Salvation Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Not but regard must be had to Person time and place and the manner of reproving which sometimes may be by discountenancing as well as by discourse and alway so that the party reproved may see it proceeds from love 4. Them that are civil have a care to keep their good word deal justly with all that are meek merciful ready to help such as stand in need of them when you meet and converse with such commend these and all other good things in them as being such as God loves and will reward but labour to convince them that
wills the reformation whereof is the absolute and adaequate end of all punishments and of the exercise of all Political Power but punishments were never ordained for the information of the understanding To return to satisfie the Objection It is not necessarily nor generally true of all Members of the Visible Church that they be called by the word if this be granted which cannot be denyed that as among the Jewes Men were incorporated into the Church by Circumcision so they are under the Gospel by Baptisme Col. 2. 11 12. and that as in those times many for by-ends and through fear joyned themselves to the Church Est 8. 17. so it may be and hath been under the Gospel Obj. But the greatest part of our people are ignorant and unsanctified yea prophane Persons Answ Ignorant and prophane Persons have alway been in the Church It was so in the Church's Infancy and so in her perpetual growth and so shall be to the end of the World at least till Christ come the second time but these are not of the Church which hath its denomination of the better part Obj. But open and prophane Persons are not cast out Answ The Law takes Order they shall be The fault is in the Governors We are not no Church or a false one because such are suffered 1 Cor. 5. Rev. 2. Obj. But we want the Form of a true Church Viz. a Covenant Answ It appeares not in the Apostles times any thing more was required to make Church-members of the Church-Universal than assenting to Evangelical truths embracing and professing Christian Religion and receiving Baptisme wherein all in our Church enter into a Solemn Covenant and confirm it when they come to years of understanding And moreover to settle them in particular Church-order the Apostle made Bishops or Elders over them in every Church Acts 14. 23. and required the People to obey them hear and honour them 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7. 17. 24. 1 Tim. 5. 17. And those that consented to this and did so were Members of that particular Church so that we confess as a Man cannot be a Member of the Universal Church if at age without his own consent so neither can he be of a particular Church however he may be antecedently obliged to consent But that this consent was wont to be signified by any express Covenant between the Pastors and the Flocks no Scripture mentioneth It is consent signified only which God requireth But whether this consent be signified 1. By the Peoples Election of the Pastors 2. Or by a Covenant 3. Or by lifting up the hands or any such sign 4. Or only by constant attendance with the Church on all God's Ordinances there God hath no where determined save only as circumstances may make one of these more fit than another and so oblige us to it in prudence And he which maketh Duties which God hath not made is a maker of superstition and a false Teacher or Speaker of God and his Lawes and addeth to them As to that you say you cannot joyn with our Congregations because they stand under a Devilish Anti-christian Government and the Worship in them by a number of Common-prayers is a devised Worship All that I desire of you is only this that laying aside passion you will but pause and ponder what is alledged to give satisfaction to this Objection which may cool at least the fierceness of your Spirits and abate that desperate prejudice you have conceived against the Government and Worship established in these Churches Touching the exercise of Ecclesiastical Government in general you know it is not of absolute necessity to the Constitution of a Church and as to the Government of the Churches by Bishops speaking of it only as they are Superiour to Presbyters without medling with the extent of their Diocesses c. when you finde so much written with so much confidence that Episcopacy is the true ancient Apostolical Government of the Christian Church That it was received in profession and practice in all Ages and is so far Divine that Bishops were in the very time of the Apostles that they were ordained and appointed by the Apostles themselves That there was an approved succession of them in the Apostolical Churches That in all the following Ages all the Churches in the World were governed by them for more than Fifteen Hundred Yeares without any opposition save by the Arrian Aerius who was therefore cryed down as an Heretick by the ancient Fathers That the first reformed Protestant Churches cast not off Episcopacy with any aversness to the Order as appeares by the History of the Augustane confession to which Calvin himself signed That some of those Churches are governed by Superintendents the same with Bishops That there was long since a challenge made to them that have aversness to the degree or order in these words We require you to finde out but one Church upon the Face of the Earth that hath not been ordered by Episcopal Regiment which to this Day as they say is not answered These allegations may me-thinks so far allay your heat as to restrain your thoughts and Tongues from passing so sore a censure upon the Government that it is Devilish and Antichristian till you can solidly absolve all these Arguments though notwithstanding all that hath been said you are perswaded that another Church Government may be better And that there is no cause why you should refuse communion with these Churches upon this account because Bishops are chief Rulers there Touching the devised Worship objected do but ruminate upon what you have frequently heard and read and you will see little reason to condemn stinted Prayers because invented and devised by Men. For how many inventions of Men are there of the same nature in God's worship which you approve of namely set-formes of Catechising studyed Sermons Interpretations of Scripture division of it into Chapters and Verses Contents of Chapters Marginal references putting Psalms into Meeter with a multitude more True it is invented or devised worship is unlawful yet it is lawful to serve God in a Form of words devised For the Form is not worship but the Prayer tendered in that Form And therefore they do not well that say a stinted Form of Prayer is a means of Divine Worship not ordained of God and that there is no warrant for it in the Word of God For God's Word warrants things not only by special Institution as all substantial means of Worship and by necessary consequence so the Translation of the Scripture is warranted because it must be read to edification and edifie it cannot unless it be understood but also by the Light of Nature and Reason according to the general Rules of Scripture And thus accidental means of Gods Worship which are only circumstances of the Celebration as time places order method phrase and sorme of words in the administration of holy things of God yea Pulpit to preach in and Bells to call
underneath you and you shall be able both to do and suffer all things through him that strengthneth you Upon all these and many more accounts Ascribe the strength unto God his excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the Heavens The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his People Blessed be God From the third property of your Habitation Viz. Largeness Learn rightly to conceive of this property holding forth the infiniteness immensness and omnipresence of God being without quantity and measure every where both within and without the World filling all places with his essence as the whole Soul is said to be in the whole Body and in every part of it so is God whole and wholly in every part of the World Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee His greatness is unsearchable infinite and incomprehensible The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off Can any hide himself in secret Places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Yea and Hell too If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there This must teach us to banish all gross conceits of God out of our mind and to detest the making any Picture of him by which he is denyed to be incomprehensible and to see him though invisible to be present with you where ever you are his Eye beholding whatsoever you are doing This Consideration filled David's heart with shame and sorrow for his sin and made it to lye so heavy upon his Conscience I have done this evil in thy sight All my care was to be secret to hide my sin from the Eyes of Men but all this while thine Eye was upon me There is no Man but would be restrained from many sins if they knew of any body that was by them to see what they did The Murderer Adulterer are brought in by Job imboldening themselves No Eye shall see me As if he had said if they knew there was any Eye to see them they durst not do it Moreover in all their Meditations Contemplations of God take as full a view of him as you can Hear him saying behold me behold me Especially take notice of the largeness and greatness of his goodness and bounty All the dimensions of its breadth length depth and heighth with admiration O how great is thy goodness which thou hast for them that fear thee As high as the Heaven is above the Earth as the space is between the East and West I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord his great goodness the multitude of his mercies And labour for largeness of heart in some sort answerable From the rest of the properties of this your habitation and from all the furniture in it and from each of the conveniencies belonging to it I shall leave you to gather comforts and duties in abundance having this one thing only more to do Namely to acquaint you with some of the Statutes Lawes and Ordinances of the House and earnestly to press upon you the Observation of them by promises and penalties annexed The general Laws of this House binding all that live in it are partly natural and partly supernatural The natural are Ten in Number called in Scripture Ten Words and some where One Word The Divine Law teaching and commanding Moral good and forbidding evil known by the Name of Moses Law Uttered and promulgate with God's own Mouth by his immediate Voice delivered in Fire and therefore termed a Fiery Law in the hearing of all Israel Afterwards written with his own Finger by a mere and miraculous divine Operation in Two Tables of Stone to signifie the perpetual use and continuance of it to the end of the World and so published and committed to the Church for all Ages as the Moral Law for Obedience to God our Soveraign Lord and King This self same Law did God engrave in Man's heart even when he created him For that before the written Law of Moses there was an unwritten Law of Nature must needs be granted because needs must they be bound to God who had their Beeing from him Nor could they have sinned against him if they had had no Law from him For where no Law is there is no transgression Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law But sin Men did all this space of time and were punished with a witness Witness Cain the old World Sodom Onan and innumerable of others and they were punished for the sins forbidden in Moses Law and the Apostle expresly teacheth that the Gentiles who never had the written Law of Moses had their Natural Law even this Law though less perfect imprinted in their Souls by which they were instructed and bound to do well and debarred from doing evil which are the two properties of all Lawes And these two properties called The work of the Law written in their Hearts they shewed their Conscience bearing witness their Hearts accusing or excusing one another The Conscience being but a correspondency and relation of a Man's Spirit unto the Law to bind or unbind condemn or absolve him Moreover the good Laws the Heathen made to punish the evils forbidden and to draw People to practice the good commanded in the Law of Moses and the endeavour of many of them to act accordingly argues the Unity of both Laws The reason of which unity is the unchangeableness of God who is alway the same Qu. What need was there of the repetition and renovation of this Law Or if there was need Why was it not sooner Answ To the former Branch though Nature brought the same things yet it did it very weakly and many conclusions were obliterated and others much obscured and all Mens hearts were weakly drawn to obey this Law very strong to obey the Law of sin And although the Law of Nature could scarce never have been extinguished in Principles and Grounds yet it might and was and would have been more in Applications Men took evil for good and good for evil and grew more and more vain in their imaginations To the latter Branch Man's heart was not after his Fall throughly humbled but thought his own reason sufficient for his Guide therefore God would leave the World a while to try them and let them see their own weakness Besides sin was not come quickly to such a pitch and height as afterward it did and yet we finde that God did by peece-meal and occasionally teach them this Law presently and almost equipollently before its solemn Proclamation The Unity of these two Laws lets you see as the constancy and Immutability of your God who is not as other Law-givers who build and pull down and whom a Man knows as well how to
use of lawful things 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. 1 Thes 5. 5 6. Luke 21. 34. 2. Filial fear of God Pro. 14. 16. Rom. 14. 16. 16. 6. Psal 4. 4. 130. 4. Gen. 20. 11. Psal 36. 1. Jer. 32. 42. 3. Remembrance of God's Judgments Mat. 24. 37 38 42. Es 47. 8 9. Rev. 3. 3. Luke 21. 34 35 c. 1 Cor. 10. 15. 12. especially of the last Judgment 2. Cor. 5. 10. There are other notable helps Viz. Growing in knowledge a blind Man is unfit to make a Watch-man A spirit of mistrust-fulness a Master that mistrusts a Servant will watch to catch him Living under a powerful Ministry a Trumpet continually sounding is a good meanes to keep a Man from sleeping Desiring Friends to admonish you when ever you nod They that are inclined to sleep mortally are desirous that others should pinch them to keep them waking Sobriety and temperance in eating and drinking A Drunkard will make an ill Watch-man If you will know what are the signs of a truly watchful Christian they are such as these He discovers the secret windings and turnings of his own heart the least stirring there and much more if the Fire of any Lust begin to kindle there If there be any Fray there he presently stifles it And if need be he calls for help If any good news comes he takes present notice of it and makes it known Psal 66. 16. No blessing of God towards himself or the Church that he does not take thankful notice of If there be Lightning or Thunder or any dreadful Apparition of God's judgment he trembles at it loves and delights in the Morning light And for that reason feares not Death the immediate antecedent of it Qu. Are all of God's holy houshold alway thus waking and watching Ans The Holy Spouse of Christ acknowledgeth that there was a time when she slept having eaten and drank largely of her heavenly Husbands blessings She began to remit her Zeal and neglect the works of Faith and Love Wanting the pretence of her Husband and being pressed with the remnants of the Flesh she gave Eare to carnal ease and security occasioned further hereunto by the time of the Night and by the weather which was Rainy that is by ignorance and errour prevailing and by the opposition and persecution of Enemies Her sleep was neither that dead sleep that all Men are in by nature nor that judicial sleep the spirit of slumber a farther degree of that natural sleep to which God gives up some as a Seal of their desperate condition but it was a sleep arising from the reliques of natural corruption unsubdued prevailing over the regenerate part yet was her heart all this while awake I sleep but my heart waketh Though she had a little laid aside her divine thoughts and meditations yet she still kept the eye of Faith open and the eare of her Heart attentive When the Lord had returned Thus the wise Virgins slumbered and slept but they had their Lamps burning by them which the foolish had not Their hearts waked Mat. 25. 5. They were provided in them with instructions in faith and piety and with the gift of the spirit which is the Oyl that alway burneth in all good hearts howsoever not alwayes in actual exercise But O! the dreadful danger that good Christians are in when it is not so through the letting down of their spiritual watch and giving way to sluggishness there being no sin no temptation no judgment but a secure drowsie Christian is open for Which is the reason of so often inforcing watchfulness by the spirit of God in the Scriptures And therefore I beseech you suffer a word of exhortation to the next special duty incumbent upon all whose habitation the Lord is Namely to be always working God will not have one idle or sloathful Person in his House Every one must have a particular honest Calling The Light of Nature taught the Heathens this as appeares by Pharaoh's question to Joseph's Brethren What is your occupation Gen. 47. 3. And the Marriners to Jonas What is thy occupation Forty Years was Moses a Courtier and Forty Yeares more a Shepheard that great Men may not be ashamed of honest Vocations the greatest that ever have been content to take up with mean Trades The contempt of honest Callings in those that are well born argues pride without wit How constantly did Moses stick to his Shepherds Hook and yet a Man of great learning excellent spirit good education I presume all you that dwell in God are in lawful Callings wherein you may be serviceable to the Church or Common-wealth or private Families In these the Apostle forbids you to be sloathful Not sloathful in business To be sloathful is to be loath to work willing and desirous to shift it off Pro. 21. 25. 24. 23. To be negligent in working taking up more time than needs or not to endeavour to do it well Not to be sloathful is to be ready and forward to be employed Esay 6. 8. and to be diligent and expeditious and industrious to do business in the best manner Gen. 31. 6. That every Christian Man and Womans duty is to be thus employed continually appears because God prohibits sloathfulness and commands diligence Heb. 6. 12. Pro. 6. 9. Gen. 3. 19. Mark 13. 34. 1 Thes 4. 11. Curseth sloathfulness and blessed diligence Pro. 10. 47. 23. 21. 24. 30. to the end Jer. 48. 10. Pro. 13. 11. 28. 19. Eccl. 5. 12. Mat. 25. 16 17 21 23. O that every one would look upon idleness and sloth as a great sin as theft 2 Thes 3. 10 11 12. Prodigality Pro. 18. 9. Sodomy a sin that disposeth a Man to all manner of sin and which shall be punished with the vengeance of Eternal Fire Mat. 25. 26 30. And Heathens and Bruits shall rise up in Judgment against idle sloathful Christians You therefore that are sure you dwell in God take heed of damping your assurance and blurring your evidence by giving the least way to idleness or sloathfulness in your Callings Are you Magistrates be continually imploying and applying your power and authority to the uttermost for the ends for which God hath given it to you Rom. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 2. 2. 2 Chr. 19. 6. to the end Consider God's wrath declared against you if you be slothful to execute Judgment even upon your dearest Relations that deserve it In the example of Eli 1 Sam. 3. 13 14. On the other side the pleasure he will take in you and delight to do you good if you be faithful and severe Jer. 22. 15 16. Numb 25. 11 12 13. 2 King 10. 30. If you be Ministers let the weightiness of the work and glorious reward promised to laboriousness therein and the Plagues threatned against loyterers move you 1 Cor. 4. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 15. 4. 1 2. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Es 58. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 16. Dan. 12. 3. Jer. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 9. 16. If you