The Choice Benefit of Communion with God in his House, Sermon · Considerations
By way of motive take A few Considerations.
1. Consider whether thy own Judgement and Conscience be not convicted of the Truth of this Doctrine. Doth not Conscience proclaim aloud (or at least secretly whisper in thine ears) that all this is is true? Is not God better than the world, and Communion with him than any worldly Gain? And then is it not better for thee to lock up thy doores, shutt up thy shop, and goe to the House of God in the season of it, yea and carry thy people with thee too, and if they gain thou wilt gain too, if they gain not thou shalt not lose because thou hast done thy Duty. Now if thou art convinced, think how it will look in an evil day, to have gone on in the neglect of a duty of which thou hast been convinced, especially so profitable a duty as this. Thou mayst possibly silence Conscience for a while, but canst not alwaies; it will one day cry like a travailing woman, and all the worldly Gain thou hast gotten the while will not stop the mouth of it.
2. Know that God will call us to a Reckoning for all the Opportunities that we have had, and for all that we might have had, whether we took them or no. You shall be accountable not only for all the sermons you have heard, but also for all those that you might have heard, and nothing but a carnal, careless, vain, earthly Heart kept you from. Especially you that have been idleing, fitting still, drinking, gameing &c. the while; God will assuredly set you down in his Book Debitors for such a Sermon, & he will be sure to reckon with you when the Books come to be opened. Here is the Provision made, the Table furnished, your selves invited, your Trencher laid, your portion carved out for you, and you must pay whether you eat or no; and is it not then best to attend and take your share in the Gain, seeing you must bear your part of the Loss?
3. Contempt of God's House and the precious Ordinances of the same will be very grievous and offensive unto God, and such neglect will be called Contempt.
For God to set up his House among us, and be at the charge of continuing to us the Ordinances of the same, and yet for us to despise and under value them will be highly provokeing. Indeed it is a sin that has all other sins in it, or attending on it. No duty is well done if this be omitted: You cannot rightly serve God in your own Houses if you do not while and when you may, attend Him in his.
4. By this sin we provoke the Lord to shut up the doores of his House among us, to pluck up stakes and be gone from the midst of us. If you refuse to hear, God may justly refuse to speak. Ezekiel shall be made dumb to a rebellious people.
Let us be awakened, God is threatening to break up House among us, and if ever he so does, our undervaluing of his House will be the cause of it. That Nail in God's House which hath been hitherto left us seems to be shaken and loosened, the Lord looks as if he were de parting from us, there be many awful Symptoms of his Departure, and … unto us if he depart from us Hos. 9, 12.
Our Father's Love to the House of God above their own houses and all outward Concerns, Occasioned the bringing of his Tabernacle into this Wilderness; see that the coldness of our Affection thereto does not prevail with him to remove it again. There is a beginning made among us already, Judgment is begun at the House of God, let us take warning and receive Instruction. the master of the House is risen from his place, and hath begun to shut the door, and if men either care not to come in, or venture to come carelesly in, he … shutt▪ it quite.
New-England's Name and Glory has been Jehovah-Shammah [the Lord is there] His House and Ordinance in a place give that name to a place. But what if he should take away the Vineyard from us for our want of rendering him the fruit of it? Why then call them Ichabod, for the Glory is departed from Israel. The Glory of the Lord seems to be standing at the Threshold of the door. To look upon God and see him going, upon Ordinances and see them going is a most awful sight, for when they go the true glory of a place goes, nor will our other good things stay behind, as wof…l experience does abundantly testifie. If we come … lose God's House and the glorious priviledges of the same we shall be the most miserable people under Heaven: As none have been so priviledged, so none will be so miserable as our selves.
It sorely aggravated Jerusalem's misery in the day of her Affliction Lam. 1. 7. that the Enemy …mockt at her Sabbaths, and for our making a mock of Sabbaths (which we do whi… we make a light matter of them, under-value & get no good by them) God may justly leave the Adversary to mock at our Sabbaths. Surely the Lord hath been long threatening, but now he is in the way of Execution it's high time for us to awake, and awaken one another.
And if it will be so bitter to remember the good things of God's house when they be lost, i… it not better to consider them, love, prize, and improve them while they are present? which they that do rightly shall never have that Occasion to remember them when they are gone.
God doth not easily give up, or depart from a people that he hath once visibly and signally owned; no altho' he may observe a great deal of sin and backsliding among them Hos. 11. 8, 9. Where he has once built his House God delights to dwell, and is not for removing till there be no other remedy 2. Chron. 36. 15, 16, 17. But if they either Idolize the House of God, (as Israel did the Ark 1. Sam. 4.) and grow secure and wanton by reason of it, a… they did Jer. 7. 8,—12. or do not prize it as they ought, nor make such Returns as may be expected, but contrariwise profane and pollute it; Then Goe to my place at Shile and see what I did to them, and so will I doe to you.
To be deeply humbled for, and hasten to the …lo…d of sprinkling for pardon and cleansing of these provoking Evils that have been and are among us, and to get an up-raised Esteem of & Affection to the House of God is the only way in which we may hopefully and comfortably meet the Lord while he is yet in the way.
To conlude—
If one day in God's House here upon Earth be so much worth, what is a day, yea the DAYES of ETERNITY worth in that upper House, that Presence Chamber, … Father's House, where the Lord will exhibit all his Glory before and solace himself with his Children for ever! Think what a sweet time that will be. If now and then a Glimpse of his Glory be so takeing and ravishing, what will near, intimate, familiar, uninterrupted & endless Fellowship with Father and Son be! If they be blest that may dwell in this House, and should still praise him for the same, how will they be blest that shall for ever dwell in that House? and what soul-delighting Hallelujahs will be everlastingly sung by those to whom the Lines shall fall in that pleasant place, when they shall be possess'd of that goodly Heritage! This where we now are is but the Gate of Heaven, the Porch, the Courts belonging to that House of Glory, what then is the inmost Room, the Holy of Holies! If a day in these Courts be worth a Thousand, how many Thousand yea Millions of dayes and years is a day, an hour there worth! If this place be so beautifull and Admirable, oh how Amiable is that Dwellingplace! Surely it is good dwelling there. If obscurer Glimpses of God's Glory in his House be so precious and pleasant, what will the Beholding of him face to face be, and that for ever and forever too!
Oh then prize this House as the Gate of that, and as the way that leads us thither, and attend upon God therein accordingly, until we can experience the Truth of what David here expresses. And be we well assured that God will sooner or later give every sincere AtAttender on him here just cause to set his hand and Seal to this great Truth One day in thy House is better than a THOUSAND.
FINIS.
Books printed for, and Sold by Joseph Brunning at his Shop at the Corner of the Prison-Lane next the Exhange.
A Discourse concerning Comets, wherein the Nature of Blazing Stars is enquired into, by Mr. Increase Mather.
—An Essay for the Recording Illustrious Providences.
—The Doctrine of Divine Providences opened and Applied. To which is Annexed
A Sermon wherein is shewed That it is the … and should be the Cars of Believers on Christ to live in the constant Exercise of Grace. by Mr. Nathanael Mather, Minister of the Gospel at Dublin in Ireland.
Self-Employment in Secret, containing Evidences upon Self-examination, Thoughts upon Painful Afflictions, Memorials for Practice. by Mr. John Corbet.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THere is intended for the Press a Discourse Concerning the Person, Offices, and Glory of Jesus Christ; being Sacramental Meditations on Christ: by the Reverend Mr. Increase Mather.
End of the text · Joshua Moodey, The Choice Benefit of Communion with God in his House (1685)