ERRATA.  
THere are Literal faults and mispointings which if the Reader's Curiosity observes it is hoped his Candour will pardon. Such as are most material may be thus amended,  
PAge 28. Line 4. for these read they. p. 29. l. 10. deal and. p. 31. l. 17. for Breath r. Breast. p. 32. l. 17. for & food so r. food, and so. p. 36. l. 6. for Bonds r. Bands. p. 82. l. 3. for Denunciation r. Denomination. p. 95. l. ult. and penult. deal the Tautology. p. 96. l. 11. deal about. p. 100 l. ult. r. Look for. p. 109. l. 20. deal At.   

A PRACTICAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE CHOICE BENEFIT of Communion with GOD in His HOUSE, Witnessed unto by the Experience of Saints as The best Improvement of TIME. Being the Sum of several Sermons on Psal. 84. 10.  
Preached in Boston on lecture-days  
BY JOSHUA MOODY Minister of the Gospel.  Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the Hous● of the Lord all the days of my life etc. Psal. 〈◊〉 To see thy power and thy glory so a● 〈…〉 thee in the Sanctuary. 
●●●●ON IN NEW-ENGLAND Printed by Richard Pierce for Joseph Brunning▪ And are to be sold at his Shop at the Corner of Prison-Lane next the Exchange. 1685.   

To the Reader.  
Christian Reader  
THe Ensuing Sermons are such for the excellent Matter and Usefulness of them that they will sufficiently commend themselves to the judicious: It being of great and universal Concern to Rational and Intelligent Being's to be directed and helped in Improvement of Time to the best Advantage. The Labours of the Reverend Author for the Clearing and Furthering this in the following Discourses upon that, 〈…〉 no Letters of Commendation; He did 〈…〉 Commend himself to the Consciences 〈…〉 the Preaching of them, of whom I 〈…〉 self one, and such an one who is sensible that his Candle-light will not further, nor Contribute any thing to the Clear and powerful Demonstrations and Evidences, you will find in the serious Perusal of them. Yet being desired to say something, I was willing to testify my Esteem of its usefulness and Seasonableness to our present Time, which not only commends things to us for our delightful Use Eccles. 3. 10. by the wise overruling Providence of God, but Instruments tho, as fitted for Ministerial work Isa. 50. 4.  
The great Evil that is most provoking to God among a professing People (especially sincere Christians) even the root-evil whence all other do issue is that which Christ charges upon the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 5. the want of first-Love. Tho' true Converts have not a defect of a principle of Love, which may distinguish them from the most specious Hypocrites; yet may not be so warm and fervent as in their first union to Christ, and Communion with God in their Pardon and Holiness. This is more offensive to Jesus Christ in true Saints than the open out-breaking of those that are profane sinners, and for which he threatens Removing the Candlestick if his Warning and Advice be not attended.  
What can be more suitable than 〈…〉, whose Tendency is to further us in our 〈…〉 with the mind of Christ to such a people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our condition is so like, non ovum ovo similius. As,  
1. To put us in mind whence we are fallen. It is Communion with God in his Ordinances that makes Time there so valuable above all other 1. Pet. 3. 8. This one thing is that the Apostle would not have us ignorant of viz. that one day with God is as a Thousand years, & a 1000 years as one day: It is true there he Speaks of God's Eternity which is not measured by Time, nor is any Time considerable with it; yet it may be improved with respect to Believers being with God, here is such an immense and universal good that we have more true soul-pleasure with God himself in an Hour, than if we had the quintessence of Created Good all our Days, therein we are truly happy, it is our Heaven upon Earth. But if these be Ordinary days and under common Esteem with us, that we go not to his House to enjoy God as our Exceeding Joy, we have lost our Communion with God (and so far our Happiness) that we are herein like other men.  
2. If this were practically remembered, it might have its Influence to promove our Repentance in bewailing those sins and that bitterly that have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beloved to withdraw. It is not that Ordinances are not as precious in themselves as they have been to us and other Saints, nor is it that they are not as suitable means to convey those Blessings, nor is it want of kindness and love in God and Jesus Christ who have the same delight in and desire of Communion with Believers; and the design of his Grace in us, and his Ordinances to us is that he might enjoy us, but our carnally-secure Hearts in withdrawing from him have provoked him to withdraw from us Cant. 5. 2,— 6. It began in our low esteem of Christ & his Fellowship, bemoan it hearty and labour to recover it.  
If this be also attended with suitable Reformation in a diligent Frequenting the HOUSE of God, and pressing after Fellowship with the Father and the Son (the great design of Ordinances) and that we will not be satisfied without Him, then shall we again have our best days returned to us. All these may be furthered by our diligent Perusal of the Sermons here presented us, that show what the benefit is that Saints do experience in Ordinances so improved.  
That it may be accompanied to thee in reading with the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit that breathed in its Delivery, for ends fore mentioned, that so the joy of his Salvation may be restored, and House of God continued to us, is my earnest Prayer, to which I desire thy AMEN, who am thy soul's wellwisher  
JAMES ALLEN.   
Psal. 84. 10. For a day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand:— 
AFter the many Anxious Inquiries and Debates about the Summum Bonum, or Chiefest Good of the rational Creature, in more Ancient and darker Times; It hath been at length, by Him that brought Life and Immortality to light, clearly evinced, and among Christians put beyond dispute, that This is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Joh. 17. 3. Hence in all Ages those with whom this Doctrine hath effectually obtained, have held themselves obliged highly to prize, and conscientiously, constantly and carefully to attend upon all those ways that have been recommended to them by the Stamp of Divine Institution, as means of growing in the knowledge of, or getting, maintaining, and increasing their Communion with this God in Christ, whom they do value as their Happiness. And for this very reason it is that all pious souls have ever had so venerable an Esteem of the House of God, and the Ordinances or Instituted Worship thereof, as ways and Means appointed unto the End proposed: which by their Encomiums of, Joyfulness in, and Thankfulness for while they have had the liberty of enjoying the same, together with vehement Pant, and insatiable Longings-after (when bereft of them) they have plentifully discovered. Insomuch that true Love, and hearty unfeigned Devotion towards the House of God has been looked at as a Mark of Sincerity where it hath been found. Thus David when making his appeal to God about his Integrity Psal. 26. 8. brings this for one Argument, viz. his Love to the habitation of His House, and place where his Honour dwells. And on the other hand the decay of love to God's House appearing either in a total neglect thereof, or Slightiness and Indifferency thereabout, among the Professors of Religion hath been accounted a sad Symptom of the decay of the power of Godliness, a sign of great Degeneracy, and an Introduction of Apostasy; as also an awful Prognostic of great Judgements if not ruinatin●●amity hastening on such a People. This of the most bitter provocations of the Lord's Sons and Daughters when they have lost their Affection to their Father's house, and either care not to come there or if they do, it is with such coldness, formality and Slightiness, and with so little heart and hungering after Fellowship with Himself there, that he accounts himself rather Mocked than honoured by such Spiritless and Truthless Performances. this kindles such a fire in his Anger that nothing but the blood of Christ in a way of unfeigned Repentance and Reformation can put out.  
If I mistake not in mine Observation there seems to be a great falling short in that Love and Zeal for the Worship of God, and that Labour and Frequency of waiting upon Him in his House, both on Sabbath days and Lecture days, that hath been formerly observed in those that have professed Christianlty in Truthmen do not make so great, or Momentous and Necessary a business thereof, as heretofore. A dangerous condition ● both as it intimates a Decay in the very Vitals of Religion, and as it makes way for God's Anger to come upon such a degenerate Generation.  
Our Fathers have told us how precious the Word of God was in their days, and proved their high Esteem thereof by the pains they were wont to take in travelling many a mile to a Sermon in there own Land; as also by their Leaving All to follow the Lord some Thousands of Miles into a Wilderness, that they might freely Enjoy the liberties of his House, and obtain Communion with Him there.  
With what an ill face than it does look, that we should flag in our Affections to, and grow Cold in our Attendance on those high and valuable enjoyments that our Fathers purchased at so dear a Rate, I leave to the sad and serious Consideration of all thinking Christians. Sundry profitable Lectures round about us quite ●aid down! And some who keep up Lectures (especially in Country-Towns, where the Arguments of a Market and other secular Business do not induce People to afford their Attendance) are ready to think whether they were not better lay them down also than preach to bare walls, or at least to such thinn Congregations.  
My Aim in choosing this Text, at this Time, and in this Place of general Resort is to bear my Testimony against this growing and dangerous Evil, and to endeavour the reviveing o● the first Love and ancient Affection to the House and Word of God, as not knowing where in I may do better service for our God, and fo● the People of our God, than by raising the Reputation ●f the House of God among us.  
And the words read furnish me with a suitable Medium unto such an end, taken from the Topick of Gain and Profit that will redound unto the behoof of them that are serious therein. An Argument which if it be Demonstratively urged, and God shall please to set in therewith, we shall not need doubt of some good Success. Gain smells sweet in most men's Nostrils. He that baits his hook with Profit, may expect not to toil in vain, provided it be understood and realized. So sweet and allureing a sound does Gain make, that he who can harp well upon that string may hope for an attentive Auditory. Therefore doth the Lord bait the net of his Gospel which he lets down in his House with a promise of a gre●t Reward unto all that shall be drawn thereinto▪ g Would men be convinced that there is no way of spending Time so much to advantage as in the House of God, it is to be hoped that the end would be answered. When matter of Gain was discoursed by Demetrius and the Craftsmen on the one hand, and Danger of Losing their Religion (tho' indeed it was no Religion) on the other hand (Act. 19 34.) it drew the whole City together, and made them continue for two hours' space in one constant Cry to proclaim their Devotion toward Diana of the Ephesians. Methinks the greater Gain to be gotten by waiting on God in his House, with the danger of losing our Religion (which by the neglect of that duty is eminently endangered,) should have a greater Influence, and oblige us to attendance, and that with all Seriousness and Joyfulness. Why should not the whole City come together, and spend the two hours allotted for this Exercise in the Worship of the true God, with as great readiness and as little weariness as they did in the service of an Idol?  
There needs not much to be said to the Context in order to the clearing of the Text. Briesly, the Psalm seems plainly to have a Reference to some Time wherein the Psalmist was deprived of the Liberties of God's House, which he looks at as a sore Affliction, and does very Pathetically and feelingly bewail the same, adding vehement Soul-longing, even unto fainting, with reiterated and sundry ways enforced Supplications that he might be repossessed of those (at present lost) Privileges.  
Take the Text as related to the Context and it Contains one Reason of the  Long and Cry after the House of God, viz. because he saw it to be a place far more for his advantage to dwell in, it was by many degrees better being there than elsewhere. And there to be where it is best to be, should be every man's desire.  
Take the words separately considered in themselves and they are a comparison between a Day spent in the Courts of God's House, and elsewhere; and the preference is given to a day there, and that by the difference of a Thousand to One.  
A Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand,] Or it may be read A Day is ●ood in thy Courts above a Thousand. The Comparative degree [better] being so rendered good before. Or I know not why it may not be as well read [A good day in thy Courts is before a Thousand.] The House of God is a good place, and all our days there are good days in themselves, and it's our own fault if they be not so to us.  
But I shall not Criticise upon it, the sense comes all to one.  
A day] and by like reason a part of a day when we spend not the whole day there; there being no Necessity of taking [Day] here for a day in propriety of speech, either natural or Artificial: But it may intent any part or portion of Time, less or more that is appointed for that Employment.  
In thy Courts] A Court is a place or space of Ground, more peculiarly impropriated and belonging to the use of an House, sequestered or distinguished from that which lies in Common, and through which we have admittance to the House. Take it as referring and belonging to the Temple, and then it intends that place adjoining to the same, into which the people might come to worship God, and to hear his Word read and expounded, and so the Court by a Metonymy may be put for the Worship there performed, and the Fellowship with God there obtained. So that when David speaks of his f●●●tings for God's Courts, and his long to be there, he intends to intimate his great Affection for, and desire after drawing near to God in the Public Instituted Worship of his House, from which he was now banished. And as their Temple Worship was a Type of our Gospel Worship; So to us it may signify (and we may improve the whole Psalm to teach us) the worth and glory of the Worship of God in his House, how it is to be valueed or esteemed by us.  
Better than a Thousand] i. e. abundantly better, many degrees better, a certain number being put here for an Uncertain, and it is to show that there is a Vast and Inexpressible Difference between them, and that the Preference is by many degrees to be given to the House of God: and that there is no Comparison between spending of time there and elsewhere. He instanceth in a Thousand, and yet tells us that does not reach it, for one day there is  than a Thousand, and if you should Add a Thousand more, it would still hold true.  
The Words then contain this Doctrinal Conclusion, viz.  
Doct. That it is an exceeding profitable way of spending Time, to spend it in the Public Worship of God in his House.  
The best way by a Thousand to one of improving Time, is to Improve it in the way of Public Instituted worship. There is more than a Thousand to one difference between Time spent in God's House, and spent any where else. Excellent is the advantage that we may make of Time by using it in the Public Worship of God, above any other way imaginable.  
Time is one of the rarest Jewels and most precious Talents, with which the Lord is betrusting us in this World, our Felicity both here and hereafter depending upon the well-improving of it, and man's Misery arising from hence, because he does not know his Season.  
Then of excellent use must this Truth needs be, which tells us how to husband our Ti●●●●ter the best manner, so as to make it turn 〈◊〉 to account. They that have but little Time had need inquire how they shall do to make the most of it, why the Doctrine directs in that great Enquiry, Spend as much of it as you can in the House of God, Visit God at his House as o●t as you may, Lose no opportunity of being with God there; Nothing will be so beneficial to you as your so doing.  
And the Doctrine speaks of Public Worship in God's House, for it is that which the Text and Context intent.  
For the proof of this Assertion, there needs the less to be said, because it is so plainly and positively affirmed in the Text, being Commended to our belief not only by the Testimony of David, (a man so able to judge of the worth of a day in God's House, unto which both by the Enjoyment and Want thereof he had been advantaged,) but also coming to us with the stamp of Divine Authority upon it. The Spirit of God in David gives this Price of a Day in God's House, and therefore we may take it so, and be assured it is not overprized.  
Yet because it is so little practically believed it may not be amiss to spend some Time in the Demonstrating thereof.  
Now the Text saith that a day spent in the House of God, is better than a Thousand days, it doth not say where, or how spent, but leaves it indefinitely, and may be understood of so many days spent any where else that we may imagine; and we shall find that Time spent in the House of God is better than any other where.  
We may therefore illustrate and prove this Truth by considering the various ways of Spending Time, and comparing the advantage gained by being in the House of God, above what is to be gotten otherwhere, the difference will appear, and the Preference be found where the Doctrine places it.  
Time is spent either in Idleness or Action, in doing Nothing (if at least it be possible for a man at any time not to do something, as in a sense it is) or Something.  
1. Then, To spend Time in the House of God is a Thousand times better than to spend it in Idleness; For of Idleness comes no goodness. In all Labour there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to Poverty. Prov. 14. 23. And I fear many an hour that should be spent in God's House is spent so. He that is doing nothing, is getting nothing; for of nothing comes nothing. If Conscience tell thee thou hast been standing Idle in the Market place, or doing nothing in thine own house or elsewhere, thou hadst a Thousand times better been at a Sermon, for there thou mightst have done & ●●tten something. A day in the House of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sand times better than doing (and so get●●●●) nothing, there being no Comparison between something and nothing. Tho also it is worse than so, because it is a sin to be Idle, Yea and ●●most pernicious and ruinating evil▪ that which exposes men to Tentation, and is the occasion of any thing that is sinful. Idleness was one of the sins of Sodom (Ezek. 16. 49.)  
2 If men are doing something and not utterly idle, yet if not well employed, it's a Thousand times better to be in the House of God. They may not be Sleeping, Idleing, Sitting still, but very busy, and yet if not a doing good, but evil, the dreadful wages that will surely be paid to such in the issue, will plentifully evince this Truth. Every sinner shall one day say, I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not. Job. 33. 27. Sin may be sweet in the committing, but bitterness in the end. Stolen waters are sweet,— but— the dead are there. (Prov. 9 ult.) Is not much of that Time which is by some spent in the House of God to their great Advantage, by others elsewhere misspent in Drinking, Carrousing, Gaming, in Riotting and Drunkenness, in Chambering and Wantonness? And what profit will you find in these things when your accounted comes to be made up? The Apostle makes that Appeal to them after they were enlightened and sanctified, (and so best able to judge Rom. 6. 20, 21.) What fruit had ye while servants of Sin? what wages for your service? Shame and Death being the end of those ways: Then you had a Thousand times better been in the House of God, seeking Glory and Life.  
3 Time spent in God's House is better t●●● spent about any secular Business or Worldly Concerns. It's Lawful, yea a Duty to be diligent in your particular Callings, God hat● Commanded us in the sweat of our brows to get our Bread, and enjoined us six days ●o labour and do all that we have to do, 〈◊〉 ●e hath promised us if we acknowledge 〈◊〉 i● our ways, to direct our paths, to pro●●●●●s whithersoever we turn ourselves, to bless our Labour in the House and Field etc. In all this our Labour there is Profit, but yet no such Profit or gain as is to be had in the House of God. Let men be in their Fields, Gardens, Orchards, in their Shops & Warehouses, let them be Labouring, Merchandizing there, and have never so many advantages before them to get by their Commodities, let them buy and sell and get gain, and as much gain as they would propose to themselves, or could wish; yet still one day in God's House is better than a Thousand thus improved. God gives greater wages for working in his House than can be gotten with all our paine● and Contrivance in our own. I●●arms and Merchandise interfere with your Call of the Gospel, if worldly Cares and Business 〈◊〉 Thorns to Choke the Word, to deaden your Affections thereto, draw away your Spirits therefrom, and hinder your fruitfulness under the same; they are to be looked upon as Snares and Traps and Cheaters, and to be treated accordingly: But use these things how you will, with never so much Care and Circumspection, still your Time in the House of God will be found your best Time.  
4. I may add, that Time is better spent in God's House, than in Religious duties in a private way; Nor can one spend that Time lawfully, much less profitably in private devotions, which is appointed for public Worship, if God gives him an opportunity of enjoying it.  
Going to the House of God with the Company that keep Holy day, is far more eligible & profitable than tarrying at home tho' a man should read a better Sermon in his own House than he may hear in God's House. Doubtless David had his ways of secret Communion with God while in the Wilderness, but he was so far from being satisfied therewithal, that those Tastes he had there served only to increase his hungerings, pant, breathe after the Sanctnary, and seeing the Glory of God in the beauty of Holiness, which he had seen there. And that is indeed one principal use of private Devotions, to prepare us for, and increase our desires after Public Ordinances and Fellowship with God in them. To take up with them in the Neglect of the other, is cross to one of their main ends, and very injurious to ourselves.  
For the further proveing 
See Gurnals Epist. Dedicat to his Spiritual Armour. pt. 1. pag. 3.  of this Doctrine, I shall give these 2 reasons  
Reas. 1. Because there are a Thousand times better things to be gotten in the House of God than elsewhere; and therefore a Day there, is better than a Thousand.  
Reas. 2. Because the attending on God in his House, is the only sure way to get not only those things so much better in value, but even those other things also ever and above, for the getting of which the House of God is too frequently neglected.  
If these two Things be demonstrated, the Doctrine will be abundantly evinced.  
The former Reason or Argument may be thus framed.  
That place where there are things to be seen and enjoyed that are a Thousand times better than those to be had else where, is the place in which to be one day is better than a Thousand,  
But the House of God is the place where there are things to be seen and enjoyed that are a Thousand times  than those that are to be had elsewhere— Therefore one day there is better than a Thousand.  
Of the former.  
Here be the best things to be seen and gotten; Profit, Pleasures, Honour are the Idols that the world wonders after, that they sacrifice their Time, Strength and spirits unto: Now that which is true Profit or Gain, real Honour, substantial Pleasure is here, and here only to be had.  
Here are true Riches, the Jewel of inestimable value, which he that gets, gets more than the whole world is worth, and this Pearl is hid in the Field of the Gospel, enclosed within the Pale of the Courts of God's House. The product of the Toil and travel of many a day, is only a little earth. let a man search up and down the world, Compass Sea and Land, Ransack the Bowels of the Earth for the hidden Treasures that are there, Tyre out himself in the Multitude of his way, Waste away his Time, and wear away his strength, rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of Carefulness, and when all is done, what hath he gained? why a very small portion, a poor pittance, that which is so far from deserving the Name of profit that it is a mere vanity and vexation of spirit. Solomon looked upon his Houses, Lands, Gardens, Orchards, Man-servants, and Maidservants, with whatever else he had spent so much time about in the world, and finds that there was no profit under the Sun; but in this Market is that rich Commodity to be had which he is a wise Merchant who sells all that he has to purchase. It is the Scope of Christ (Prov. 8.) to prevail with men to hearken to his voice, come to his House, wait daily at his Posts, that being instructed by him they might be followers of him; Now because he knew men would object the necessity of attending their worldly Business, Farms & Merchandise &c He therefore obviates that Objection, that there was more Gain to be gotten at his house than in their own Farms, more profit by hearing his voice than by tilling their Fields, ploughing their Land, or by buying & selling, and lets them know that his Revenues & Merchandise was better than choice Silver or fine Gold, that all the wealth of the world was not to be compared therewith. ver. 10, 11, 12. with Chap. 2. 13, 14, 15. It is Rational that men should lay out their money where they may have the most suitable Commodities & best Pennyworths, then come to me (saith Christ) to my House, the Gospel-market, hear and your souls shall live, do not lay out your money for that which is not bread Isa. 55. 1, 2, etc.  
As for Pleasures and Delights there are none like those that are to be had in God's House. There is more Sweetness in one hour's Fellowship with God in his House than in all the pleasures of sin for a whole Life-time. See what plentiful Provision the Lord makes and invites us to there Isa. 25. ●. fat and marrowed things and wine upon the lees. No Cook dresses such meat, no Tavern sells such drink. The Lord in his House makes such provision as abundantly exceeds what is to be found in any other, and those that seriously attend there, do find abundant satisfaction therein. Psal. 36. 8.— And as for matter of Honour, none like that which God puts ●pon them who honour him, as all diligent conscientious waiters upon him in his House eminently do. It is their glory to come near him and behold his Glory, and there (as in the Context ver. 11.) he gives glory and that is true Honour indeed. It is the Honour and Glory of Angels to be waiting upon God in his upper House of Glory, & of Men to wait upon him in his lower house of the vissble Church, where we may both see, speak of and partake in his Glory. To be admitted unto near approaches to God in his House is a greater Honour & dignity than to be admitted to stand before & converse with the greatest Potentates upon earth. If then account themselves much honoured by the Company of great men, much more Honour is it to be in the Company and dwell in the House of the Great God.  
And that which commends the good things of God's House to ●● above all other, is that they are soul-Blessings, soul-profit, soul-pleasures etc. Now as much as the Soul is better than all the world, so much does soul-profit exceed all other profits whatsoever; A little soul-good is infinitely better than a great deal of worldly good, and consequently soul-loss is the worst loss. Suppose you should gain a little worldly profit or pleasure while you might have been at a Sermon, yet you lose soul-profit & pleasure the while, & then your loss exceeds your gain. Suppose you should be filling your purse by the one, you are thinning your souls by the other; you get bodily refreshment, comfort &c but you lose soul-benefit, and souls-pining will not be recompensed by your estates-thriveing. Isa. 55. 3. hear and your souls shall live▪ work, toil, labour, and your bodies may live (tho' possibly they mayn't neither) but hear and your souls shall certainly, assuredly, everlastingly live. If men would but consider that they have souls, and thereupon study the worth of them till they find the preference of their souls to their bodies, they would then prefer soul-enrichments in God's House above all worldly profit or pleasure in their own, but while men are carnal sensual and brutish, minding only their bodies, and those things that do concern their bodies, this Argument will neither be understood by them nor be prevalent with them.  
Oh pray the Father of spirits, the God that hath made us these souls, that he would also make us to know what our souls be, and what is the Concernment of our souls, above all other Considerations in the world, & then we should realize that the enlightening of the soul, converting of the soul, restoring of the soul, Satisfying the hungerings and thristing of the soul, strengthening us with strength in our soul, communion with the dearly beloved of our souls, and making our souls to rejoice in Him, the universal prosperity of our souls, and Salvation of our souls at last, all which good things are to be attained in God's. House, are the Best of all blessings and consequently the attending on God there the most profitable and delightful of all duties, and by many Thousand degrees eligible before all other Employment whatsoever.  
More particularly these that follow are some of those things to be gotten in the House of God that are a Thousand times better than what are to be had else where. e. g.  
1. Here is the word of God, the powerful enlightening, converting, sanctifying, saving word of God to be heard, and the efficacy of it to be felt and experienced, the Word preached which is the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation. Rom, 1. 16. 1. Cor. 1. 18. 24. The Word by which blind eyes are enlightened, deaf ears opened, dead souls quickened, unconverted one's converted, unbelievers brought to the Faith of Christ, Act. 26▪ 18▪ Days of being in the House of God are days of power, in which God is wont by his Word to speak to the Hearts of poor needy waiters upon him, and makes sinners a willing people, Psal. 110. 3. Here David met with that Word which was more worth to him tha● Thousands of silver and Gold, and more sweet than the Honey and the Honey comb. Psal. 19 10. with 119. 103. He that brings his Heart (not his body only, as many do) to the House of God, and lays it under the droppings of God's Word there, he by so doing lays himself in the way of Light and Life, and puts his soul under the Influence of an Ordinance appointed by God for the conveying of all spiritual good to him, it being the Lord's way to do all by his Word. If any of you come to the House of God on a Sabbath day, and there God meet with you and bring your souls within the Net of the Gospel and save you, than you will say it was the best way of spending Time that ever you met with. If the Lord shall please to draw you off from your worldly Occasions and allure you into his House upon a Lecture-day, and there speak to your Hearts, and by his Spirit work upon you for your souls everlasting Good, you will then be as so many living Monuments of the Truth of this Doctrine, you will have the Witness in yourselves and be able to set your seals to the experienced verity thereof.  
2. Here is the best Company to be had, and such as is a Thousand Times better than what you will meet with else where. And Company is a very attracting thing; for the sake of good-fellowship (falsely so called) is many an hour and many a good day in God's House lost, whereas here is that which is truly and deservedly called Good-fellowship. Here God Father Son and Spirit are to be seen and Conversed with, the Vision of and Fellowship with God are the great things here to be enjoyed. It's ●●ue, God may be seen and conversed with elsewhere, but not in that manner and measure as here, nor at all savingly by those that may but will not wait upon him here. They have seen his go in the Sanctuary Psal. 68 24. and so may we, the sight of that Beauty which David there desired Psal. 27. 4. is free for us also. This is eminently a Place of drawing near to God, and if you engage your hearts to draw ●ear to him there, he will there meet you and bless you Exod. 20. 24. Now if you can far so well in the House of God as to get a light of him, a good look from him, you will account that Time spent unto unparallelled Advantage. The beholding of God's Beauty (not gazing on other vain beauties as too many usually do) ought to be our ●rrand hither, and will be an heart●avishing and transforming sight, and so a blessed sight indeed. Here may you see the Beauty of Jehovah, the manifold and matchless Beauty of the LORD, the beauty of his holiness, this is to be seen in his House which is the Habitation of his Holiness. The Grace, Mercy, Wisdom, Power, Love, and Faithfulness of God are all of them most beautiful things, and these are here to be seen. To see the Lord smiling upon a poor Creature and li●ting up the Light of his Countenance over him, Oh how beautiful! Why this is eminently to be seen in his House, Temple-loving kindness worth seeing, and worth thinking on Psal. 48. 9  
Especially here is the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to be seen 2. Cor. 4. 6. and be sure Christ has a very beautiful face, He is altogether Lovely and every part of him excellent Cant. 5. 10, 16. and in all his Beauty doth he appear in his House, and there is but this one place where he delights in such a glorious manner and in such a measure to show himself. Something of God's Glory and Beauty does appear in the works of Creation and Providence Rom. 1. 20. but above all doth he unveil his Glory in Jesus Christ and in that great work of Redemption wrought out by ●im, in the other we may see his Footsteps, but in this his Face, and this is a sight to be seen at his House. This glorious, beautiful Draught of the great work of Redemption is hung up in his house, his Presence-Chamber▪ & exposed to the view of all comers. Here may you see all the Attributes of God concurring & cooperating in the Contriveing & bringing about man's Salvation through a Redeemer; The Mystery of God manifested in the Flesh which the Angels stoop down to look into (as the Greek word imports 1. Pet. 1. 12.) And this manifold Wisdom of God in Jesus Christ is made manifest unto Principalities and Powers by the Church Ephes. 3. 10, 11▪ there they see it, thence they learn it.  
There be two Seasons when especially men desire to be and appear to be beautiful, and do therefore set forth themselves accordingly viz. in their wooing Time, and on their Espousal or Marriage day; So it is with Jesus Christ: Lords Days and lecture-days, when the Gospel is publicly preached, are Christ's wooing days and therefore doth he then deck and array himself with all his Glory and Beauty that he may allure and prevail with men to have him, that being ravished with his Beauty they may consent to his motion. And Sacrament-dayes are more eminently the days of his Espousals wherein the Covenant that was before secretly made between Christ and the Soul when there was a mutual Consent and promi●● passed between them, is now more solemnly Renewed Sealed and Confirmed▪ Now as a Bride cannot forget her Attire, no more will this great Bridegroom of our Souls neither. This therefore makes being in the Lord's House so much better than being elsewhere, because there is Christ thus to be seen: And a far greater sight it is than that which (tho' great) was but a shadow of this Cant. 3. 11. viz. King Solomon in the day of his Espousals, ● greater than Solomon b●ing here. On those Festival days doth the Lord Jesus put on all the Robes of his Grace, Love, Righteonsness▪ Meekness &c that he may appear in some measure as he is among them. He puts on his red Garments, comes in his Blood and Wound●▪ shows the scars of his Combat with the Enemies of our Salvation, which tho' heart-breaking sights too, yet in these are his Love and  to his people gloriously discovered▪ Thus their eyes are blessed with beholding the King in his Beauty Isa. 33. 17. To ●e● a Church of Christ assembled together in the Excercise of the Ordinances of his House in th●● Temple-Robes, Sanctuary-dress, Holiday 〈◊〉, regular and exact in their 〈◊〉 according to the Order of his House ●hich is far above the Order of Solomon's 〈◊〉 that helped to ravish the Qeen of Sheba 1. King. 10. 4, 5.) And further, to see Christ come in among them according to his promise in the Riches of his glorious Grace manifesting himself to them; I say to see this, is to see the most Glorious sight on this side of Heaven, yea it is Heaven itself, tho' Heaven upon earth. Hence it is that Zion is said to be beautiful Psal. 48. 2. yea and the Perfection of beauty Psal. 50. 2. And we may thank ourselves if when ever we come to the House of God we do not see these matchless Sights, for Jesus Christ has promised his Disciples Mat. 28. 20. to be always with them while preaching, and Consequently with those that are hearing, In the midst of those that are gathered together in his Name. In the Ordinances of God's House doth he bring us to Jesus, and to the blood of sprinkling, one drop of which if it light on thee there, if being called thither thou have Communion with Christ there, no created good can match it. Here also the Spirit of Christ is present who lists to be bearing witness to his own Ordinances, here you may meet with him speaking to you and in you, and helping of you, here you may experience the enlightening, teaching, quickening, sanctifying and comforting presence of the Spirit of Christ. And he that sees and converses with God in Christ in his House, he sees and enjoys even all that is worth seeing and enjoying, he may say to his soul, Return to thy rest— for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Psal. 116. 7. This is such a filling Comprehensive enjoyment that it leaves no room for any thing else. When Christ was disposed to make an eminent discovery of his Glory unto meet witnesses who might afterward give Testimony to the world of what they had seen, he chose Peter (who had made such a Confession of him and was to suffer such great things for him) and James (who was the first of the Apostles that that we read of that laid down his life for Christ Act. 12. 1.) and John the beloved Disciple, who was to Live long and do much service for him, and was favoured with this Vision as a special evidence of his Love to him) I say he took these three and brought them up into the Mount and was transfigured before them Matt. 17. 1, 4. upon the sight of which Excellent glory (as he calls it 2. Pet. 1. 17.) they presently cry out it's good being here, and they might have said (for they meant as much) it's a Thousand times better being here than elsewhere, here let us dwell— (the very Language of David in Psalm 27. 4.) They never concerned themselves about what they should eat or drink or wherewith they should be clothed, had forgotten all their secular business & enjoyments, their Company and Comforts, their Friends & Families, nay they took no care for so much as a place where to lay there Heads, did not once speak of a Tabernacle for themselves, only for Christ and each of the glorious company these would build a Tabernacle, and as for themselves they accounted Christ meat and drink and Tabernacle too, so were they transported and filled with that ineffable Glory of Christ who is all in all. Thus in the Mountain of the House of God doth the Lord Jesus reveal and Communicate himself as the soul-satisfying, all-filling Good. Hence in the close of that Psalm where you have a Record of the Glorious things spoken of in God's House Psal. 87. 8. there is this Epiphonema added [All my springs are in thee] They are either the words of the Spirit of God speaking in his own Name, to show us that in his House are laid up and in the Word and Ordinances of the same are held forth and conveyed the waters of Life, all the springs of Grace, Peace, Comfort, yea of all Good whatsoever are there to be had, All is there, Or they are the words of a gracious Heart spoken by the same Spirit implying thus much, that all the springs of his Edification and Consolation as well as of his Regeneration are there; Or that he hath no Gift or Grace, Joy or Comfort or any Good worthy of his notice or mention sa●● what he has there, and are conveyed to him from thence. Other men have other Comforts, and in other ways, they have other Cisterns and Wells (I cannot call them springs, at least not living springs because they often fail & will utterly fail in their greatest need) but here the sincere believing soul finds all his Springs, & such as yield him all  Good.  
Of this same spirit was devout old Simeon Luk. 2. 25, 30. who when by the Spirit's conduct he was brought to the Temple and there met with Jesus Christ, he took him in his Arms and and blessed God and said now— let me departed in peace etc. As if he had said with Jacob when he heard of Joseph, It is enough, now let me die, I am satisfied, farewell vain world with all the seeming splendour and pretended glory of the same, let me now close mine eyes, after this sight I care for nothing else, nor is there any other object that I can now be willing to lend so much as a look unto, this Glory of the people Israel (as he calls him ver. 32.) hath eclipsed the lustre and stained the beauty of all other glory, I am abundantly replenished with this Sight, so that my full soul loathes all other sweets whatsoever, the whole world, yea & life itself is now nothing to me, let me now go immediately to the place of perfect Vision & Fruition, where I shall everlastingly & uninterruptedly be satisfied with his likeness.  
Here also may you enjoy the Communion of Saints Psa. 122. 4. and you will meet with no such Company else where.  
3. Here is Grace to be gotten, first-Grace, after-Grace, more Grace, renewed Grace, restoring Grace, all manner of Grace, and such measure thereof as the Lord hath in his Infinite Wisdom and Counsel appointed the Subjects of Grace to attain to. The Ordinances of this House of God are ordained and blessed by him both for the gathering in or bringing home of the Elect, and also for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying the mystical body of Christ Ephes. 4. 12, 13.  
Here Faith is infused by the word of Faith (precious Faith as it is called 2. Pet. 1. 1.) & by the same means nourished, strengthened, and increased; the like we might say of Love, Hope, and the rest. Now Grace is the best good, one drop of Grace better than an Ocean of Wealth▪ and consequently a day where Grace is going, better than a Thousand days in the Midst of the Confluence of all other Good things.  
Here are those born that are newborn Psal. 87. 5. Jerusalem is called the Mother Gal. 4. 26. and there God doth the part of a Father to beget souls to Himself; there the Spirit (who breathes where it lists) lists to breathe unto Regeneration Joh. 3. 5, 8. and the place of a man's New-birth is to be preferred before the place of his Birth: men naturally love their Native Soil, but much more doth the spiritual man affect & delight in the place and means of his Conversion. God values the Gates of Sio● beyond all Comparison more than he doth any or all other places, (See Psal. 76. 2. with 87. 2. & 132. 12, 13.) and not without just cause▪ it being dignified with his Presence, beautified with his Grace; and filled with his Glory above all other places. Now the Saints bearing the Image of their Heavenly Father by whom they are there of his own Will by the word of his Truth begotten Jam. 1. 18. have like Affection for and set like price upon the same.  
And being begotten here they are maintained here also. All the good of the world is no better than Husks to the Prodigal, Soul-bread is only to be had in the Father's house. As the Breast is the life of the new born child, and by a natural Instinct he hunts and winds and cries after it; so Word and Ordinances in God's House are the nourishment, the food, the life of the New Creature, which he therefore prizes and desires after 1. Pet. 2. 2, sets his Heart unto, and deservedly because they are his very life Deut 23. 47. And indeed could we but realize that the Word of God is (as most certainly it is) our Life, we need no other conviction of the worth of it above all other things, & consequently that being in the House of God where that is dispensed is many a Thousand times better and more advantageous than to be any where else. The world finds us variety of Business & Avocations, but if the Word preached be seen to be of such Concernment, we have a ready Answer to to give, here is this and that may be done, but we must live, Life is better than food and ●aiment and Estates. Tell an hungry or a thirsty man that's ready to perish never so many fair stories, set off with the highest Rhetorical flourishes, embellished with oratorical Elegancies, & sweetened with the most pleasing strains of Wit, play him a fit of Music, sing him the most pleasant song you can think of, he'll tell you the Belly has no ears, all this is not meat, I must eat and drink or die. The right understanding of the worth of God's Word in his House as it is our appointed & food so our life, would make us dea● to all the Syren-songs that the world or the Devil the prince of it could sing us, whose design is only to delude and destroy us, we should despise and with indignation turn away from that business that would draw ●s away from a Sermon. I am born would the New Creature say and I must be kept, I must have food or I cannot live, much less grow, and I must do both, or never be everlastingly Saved, and in my Father's House is my appointed food prepared for me, and thither must I go that I may feed and live. And hence this is the Return he makes to any petty inconsiderable matters that would take him off from this (and all other secular Affairs are but little things and inconsiderable matters, compared with this) I am going about a great work, about a matter that concerns my life, and that is and must be the Ruleing matter with me, unto which all other things must be subordinate and give place.  
Had it not been a Birthright (which was of a spiritual nature, and preferible to Life itself) or somewhat of like sort, and had the Case been indeed so that he must have purchased that portion of food or immediately have died without any Remedy, Esau would not have been counted a profane person or a fool for letting it go for a mess of Pottage, that being universally owned Skin for skin, yea all that man hath will he give for his life, The life being more than meat, and the body— than raiment. Job. 2. 4. with Luk. 12. 23. But justly will they be accounted fools that for the sake of Food and Raiment or that which is of far less importance part with or slight that which is their Life.  
4. Here are all the Benefits of Christ held forth, the rich Wares not to be matched in all the world freely tendered in this Gospel-market, here is Wine and milk without many and without price Isa. 55. 1. Here is Pardon, Peace, Reconciliation, Adoption and Sanctification Christ made of God to us wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption 1. Cor. 1. 30. Such Commodities as your Ships bring not home, nor are your Shops furnished with. The Sea saith of these things they are not in me, the Earth saith they are not in me Job. 28. 14, 19 You may with much hazard and difficulty go down to the Sea, and dig down into the earth and yet meet with none of these things. That Peace is here preached which all your Estates cannot purchase, that Peace which the world can neither give nor take away.  
5. I may add this further that is to be gotten in the House of God viz. a satisfactory Resolution of those Inquiries▪ an Answer to those Doubts and Scruples which pious, serious, thinking souls are often exercised and puzzled with, but by waiting upon God in his House are enlightened and relieved. Hence David renders this as one of the reasons why he made Dwelling in the House of God his one thing viz. because he accounted it a good Enquiring-place Psal. 27. 4. besides that there was the Lord's Beauty to be seen, there also was a place for enquiring. A child of God is the most inquisitive Creature in the world, something he has seen, but withal he sees that there is a great deal more that he hath not seen, and hence is for enquiring. Persons that are studying for Knowledge meet with many questions that they cannot answer, many Riddles, Knots, Difficulties, that they cannot understand, untie, see through, and therefore choose to live near such persons to whom they may repair for Information. Hence young beginners are trained up in Schools under experienced, knowing Teachers, by whom they may be instructed as there is occasion. Now the House of God is the school where the Lord trains up all his Children, there he teacheth them what they know not, and resolves them in what they are at a stand about. More than a few are the Reasonings that a Believer hath in himself, he lives and walks in the midst of a multitude of Thoughts (especially at sometimes, as Psal. 94. 19) hath many scruples in his mind, spends many a solitary hour in inward doubtings and arguings pro and con, and comes often to an Ordinance with his head full of inquiries, and his Heart full of care and fear thereabout; but when he comes to the House of God (and thither he goes to en●●●re) he is there satisfied, God suits a word to his Case, orders an Answer to that question which he had been long poreing upon to little purpose, speaks to the secrets of his Heart, clears up his doubts and quiets his Spirit; An notable instance whereof we find in Psal. 73. 17. the Psalmist there had been woefully plunged and dangerously soiled, insomuch that he was almost gone, was ready to repent him of all his Religion, and that from the Prosperity of the wicked whom he saw spared, enriched, free from Troubles in their lives and Bonds in their Death, while himself (tho' he had cleansed his Heart and washed his hands in Innocency) was plagued all the day long and chastened every, morning; Now about this he was at an utter loss, could not unriddle this Mystery of Providence, it proved a work too hard for him, to the Sanctuary therefore he goes, & attending upon God there, met with that which answered & settled him. There he learned that no man knows love or hatred by all that is before him. Eccles. 9 1. There he understood that God might out of his absolute Sovereignty, and for other Reasons best known to himself both outwardly prosper the worst, and sorely afflict the best of men, a Truth which probably he had the notional Knowledge of before but had it not born in upon his Heart with particular application to the present Case unto his Satisfaction and Comfort till he came into the Sanctuary. Those that have Christ form in them are often exercised with the like struggle within them as Rebeka had Gen. 25. 21, 22, 23. insomuch that they are ready to say, if it be so, why am I thus? abrupt expressions importing Anxiety and perturbation; But the Word clears up the matter by telling them that there are two men in every new Man, and those painful plunges shall have a comfortable issue in the end▪ By enquiring of God she got her Answer, and s●● may we, and the best place for Enquireing is the House of God. Satan cannot make more doubts, the Old-man raise more storms, the unbelieving Heart cause more perplexities than the Lord in his House can answer, alloy and extricate out of, and the experience of troubled souls will testify that he is wont so to do, without which there would be no carrying on with Comfort.  
In sum then, as much as God is more worth than the Creature, Christ than th● world, Grace than Gold, Pearls than Pebbles▪ Spirituals than Temporals, Wisdom and its Merchandise than all the Traffic on the Earth▪ as much as Heaven is more worth than Vanity, and the House of God which is an Inlet into Heaven exceeds any thing, all-things that this World can produce or afford; so much is a day spent there in and about these more Excellent Things to be rated above a day improved on any other Account, and so the Assertion is proved that One Day in the House of God is better than a Thousand.  
To conclude this Argument, I shall a little further enforce and illustrate it by making this threefold Appeal,  
1. To those that have been and are negligent in giving their attendance in the House of God, cannot spare the Time from their worldly occasions, some keep open their shops at Lecture-time, others come into Town & make their market in the morning and away again before the Sermon, others walk the streets, fit in Taverns or stay in their own Houses while the Sermon is Preaching, and I would ask you what do you gain? what profit do you make of this two Hours Time in a week thus saved from the Public Worship of God, ask yourselves seriously and answer truly what is your gain? how much does it amount to in a day's nay in a year's Time? why one takes a few pence in his shop, another earns a few by a small Jobb of work done the while, another redeems an hour or two from a sermon and gets so much the sooner about his occasions at home, another gets a little ease, a little sleep, a little drink, and idle, vain Chatt together with it, and I beseech you what does it come to? what is your estate advanced or yourselves any way bettered at the years end? Nay are you not losers every manner of way? Did they who neglected God's House whom the Prophet Haggai reproves Chapt. 1. gain any Thing by their labour in or about their own houses, or in their Fields while ploughing sowing or gathering in? No they were cursed in their Employment, blasted in their Labours, the Lord did blow upon their Harvest and the wages they earned was put in a bag with Holes, all that they did turned to little or no Account, nothing succeeded with them. God is the same and the Concerns of his House of as great value as ever, and his Anger as hot now for slighting and neglecting his Ordinances as then; so that could you take an exact account you'd see cause to own yourselves losers even in your outward estate, and if Blast, Mildews, Losses by Sea and Land, Disappointments, Impoverishments many ways were looked at as a just punishment from God for the great Coldness dead-heartedness and indisposedness, to the Worship of God in his House in special, among other sins that are to be found among us, there would be good Scripture warrant for our so reckoning. Men complain Trading is dead, they do not thrive, they go behind hand, cannot make both ends meet, they rise early, go to bed late, eat the bread of Carefulness and all will not do, No wonder while God's House is undervalved and neglected.  
But suppose thou may'st gain a small matter while thou ought'st to have been at a Sermon, and for the gains thereof didst omit an opportunity of seeing and Conversing with Christ in an Ordinance, he judges yourselves in the Case whether you are Gainers or losers. A few pence gained ●s a goodly price that I was valued at will Jesus Christ say: And take this for an everlasting Truth, the same price we put upon the Word of Christ, we put upon Christ himself: We condemn Judas for betraying his Master for Thirty pieces of Silver, But who art thou O man that judgest another and dost the same thing? He that cannot find in his heart to come to a Sermon for fear to miss the taking or earning a little money would sell Jesus Christ himself at a cheaper Rate than ever Judas did, if he had the like Temptation before him, Nay he does part with him, let him go (yea & that for aught he knows irrecoverably & forever) for the love, of that which he proposes to himself to gain in the mean time. If you will not now believe i● a little Time will put it beyond dispute. When an evil day comes, and you want those words to live upon that you might have then heard; and that Instruction and Edification that you might have gained, Conscience will then tell you that you sinned by such Neglect and got no profit. Martha got a severe Reproof by being careful and cumbered with many things, while she should have sat at Christ's ●et and been hearing a Sermon; and such Reproofs shall you have from your own Consciences one day, and should take them now. No man shall ever gain in the winding up by that Time that he pinches out of the Service of God whether Public, Private, or Secret.  
2. My second Appeal is to those that have subordinated all other things to the Service of God, and can make their secular Occasions give way thereunto, and consequently have been and are Careful, Faithful attenders on His Word and Ordinances; and I would ask you, Did you ever lose, did you not ever gain by being so employed? Have you not cause to account those your best Hours? Had you ever any just Cause to repent of your Time so spent? Would you part with what you have met with in the House of God for a Thousand Worlds? Are not all other pleasures and profits most inconsiderable and contemptible things compared with what God's House has afforded you? Say, speak out, that others may be informed and confirmed by your experience. Have you not found that 〈◊〉, that Quickening, that Edifying power 〈◊〉 Grace accompanying Divine Institutions 〈◊〉 was not where else to be found, and that you could never pretend to any thing like thereto from all your Labours about the World?  
Is not this Doctrine true, have you not found and felt it true? cannot you give your Evidence in the Case? Then speak for God and for his House, stand up for the Honour of the same. Tell one another as you have opportunity of the Good things there, discourse together of the rich Entertainment you have met with, and as you meet with others to whom such discourses may be of use, let them know how you have fared there. The world does not believe that the foolishness of Preaching has such virtue in it as the report of the Word attributes to it, any more than Nathaneel could believe that any Good could come out of Nazareth; do you therefore testify to what you have seen, and advise them also to come and see.  
3. My third Appeal is to those that after they have sometimes enjoyed, have again lost the Liberties of God's House (and those that have experienced both the sweetness of the enjoyment and the bitterness of the bereavement are best able to judge in this Case) Now they will all tell you with one month that there is no place to spend Time in like the House of God. And such is the Testimony of David in the Text; He had lived at the Wellhead, been often drinking of the waters of the Sanctuary, and abundantly satisfied with the Good things thereof, he had lived near the green Meadows and still waters, and frequently taken his sweet repast there, he had seen the Lord's Glory and Beauty in the Sanctuary and had been enlightened, quickened and comforted there, for which Favours you have him in sundry Psalms tuneing his Harp and Psaltery and fixing his heart to the Praises of God, and blessing himself and the people in those high enjoyments, in respect of which God had so dealt with Israel as with no other people. But now you find him in quite another Frame, longing, fainting, Crying out like a person in great distress, faring like a poor forlorn, miserable wretch, in a state most sadly afflictive and deplorable, intimating that he could have been glad to change Conditons with the Swallow and Sparrow, when he seems to envy that privilege which they enjoyed and he was bereft of; what was the matter? what ailed him? why alas this was his Case (a. woeful Case indeed!) that sweet, precious, beloved place the House of God he could not come at, those Glorious and gainful days which he had with so much pleasure and advantage spent were now past and gonae with him, and when or how to be recovered he knew not, and he so demeans himself as one that both understood what he said, and said as he meant when he set so high a value upon one of those days.  
Of like nature and scope is Psal. 42. and had you seen him at that Time when he Composed it, you would have found him in a most solemn frame, his eyes weeping and himself making meat of his tears when he had wept them, his Heart beating and panting, his soul fainting and poured out within him, and had you consulted with him he would have told you this lamentable story, I once dwelled in Zion, and had mine Habitation in Jerusalem, that pleasant place where the Lines were befallen me, & where I had a goodly Heritage & had free access to the House of God, & thither was wont to go with the Company that kept Holiday, but now I am an Out-cast from the Temple in the land of Jordan and the Hermonites, I cannot come to Meeting, I cannot hear a Sermon as I was wont, by the loss of which Mercy I have learned (somewhat more than ever) the worth of it, a loss that can by no other attainment be compensated.— This was the cause of his mourning, and the inward disquietment and casting down of his soul, and this also caused him to make that Prayer in the following Psalm ver. 3, 4. that God would conduct him back to his Holy Hill and to his Tabernacles, that he might again go to the Altar of God his exceeding Joy, and promises his praises for the hearing of his prayer, nor would any thing raise up his downcast soul but the Hopes that those prayers should be heard. And it is to be noted in both th●se Psalms (the like also may be observed ●lse where) when bemoaning his Exilement he ●ever once mentions his own House or his Relations or family Concerns all which were (beyond dispute) according to the value of each very dear to him, but this is the matter with him, the House of God And so when he was driven out of Jerusalem, he says nothing of his Kingdom, or Palace, or any Relations he left behind, only the Ark and its Habitation, the House of God where the Lord dwelled and afforded his Presence, This, this I say he thought and discoursed of, and thereby shown what lay at his Heart, and how much he prized them above other Things which he accounted not worthy to be mentioned the same day with these. Thus also when sick Hezekiah had the Sentence of Death (that was upon him) reversed, and an Addition of fifteen Years promised, he asked a sign whereby he might be assured about his going up again to the House of God, as if he had valued his Time of going thither more than all his Time besides, or as if his reprieval from the Grave were therefore principally grateful to him because he might have the liberty of rendering the Lord a further visit there Isa: 38. 22. the fear of seeing the Lord no more (probably he means in his House the chief place for seeing God) having been most grievous to him in his sickness ver. 11. whereupon he engaged that he would not only go up thither but dwell there to praise him all the days of his life.  
And at this day how many just and Righteous ones are there in the world that are begging on their knees with Tears in their eyes that they might enjoy one of these days of the Son of Man that we have plenty of, they would wonder to see the streets and shops so full of people while a Sermon is a preaching which they would gladly leave their very meat to hear. what a Pathetical lecture would they read you of the worth of Sermons and Ordinances! How feelingly would they discourse of these things and tell you that whatever outward good things are left them they do all avail them little or nothing while banished from the House of God, and how affectionately would they exhort and beseech us to know i● this our day the things of our peace, to improve every inch of Hearing-Timé, and that with utmost Seriousness and Intenseness, to believe them while they do give evidence to the Truth of this Doctrine, and in so doing speak what they have seen and felt, lest we also pay dear for our learning (as they have done) that one day in the Courts of the Lord is worth a Thousand.  
So much may serve for the first Reason o● Argument.  
The second follows.  
Reaf. 2. One day in God's House is better than a Thousand, Because serious waiting there is not only the way to have these unparaleld Blessings already mentioned, but also the furest and safest way to obtain all other Good things which we need, and for the getting of which the House of God is too often neglected, yea and to have them sanctified and secured too. This being cleared will evince the Truth of the Doctrine against all Gain-sayers.  
This is the common Objection, M●n cannot come to Meeting on a Lecture-Day because their business will not give leave, this and that work calls for their presence, or else they shall be great sufferers. The Husbandman (especially in seedtime and Harvest) has no leisure, he must get his seed into the Ground and his Harvest into the Barn. The day-Labourer gets his Living by the sweat of his Brows, and has but from hand to mouth, and therefore he can spare no time for the Worship of God. The Handicraft's man has work bespoken, and must keep touch, lest he lose his Custom, The Shopkeeper will tell you Rent is high, Trading dead, he has a Family to maintain and therefore must lose no opportunity of taking Money, and lecture-days are his market-days and he cannot leave his shop, tho' if none did appear to buy (as me thinks none should that did consider that the doors of Christ's House are then open, where better Commodities are to be bought viz. Wine and milk, soul-maintenance, and that without money and without Price) there would be no occasion for him to sit there to sell. Thus when men want an Heart they never want an excuse, those that have no mind to a Duty will find pretences enough to colour over their neglect of it: But it were an easy matter to Retort the Arguments upon themselves & they would argue more strongly the other way. Is not your business for Heaven of as great Concernment and Half? are you so forward, so much before hand therein as that without any considerable Damage you can spare ever and anon a Sermon and not miss it? Is not a Seedtime and an Harvest-time for your meat that endures to eternal Life as busy a time with you as that wherein you are labouring for the meat that perishes? Is not the Lords ●are in rising betimes and sending to you, and that both in season and out of season an Intimation that the Lord sees you need such Dispensations, for he does no needless thing. Have you not as much need to take every season and lay up for endless Eternity as to provide against a long Winter? Especially when you consider that you are going towards, and know not how soon you may come to the place where there is no Work, Device nor Invention Eccles. 9 10. Have you such a measure of knowledge as that it needs no Augmentation? such a stock of Grace lying by you that you need no increase of it? Or are your Graces so active as that you have no occasion for Word and Ordinances to excite them and keep them in exercise? Is not Trading for Heaven very dead also, so that there is much cause for the Lord to complain as of old I have laboured in vain Isa. 49. 4.? and will not the loss of Gospel-offers (as punishments for the slights you put upon them) be a greater Detriment than the loss of a good Customer for want of complying with him? Nay should not your Care and Thoughtfulness, Labour and Diligence about the things of this Life teach you that then much more ought your Activity to show itself about Things of a better? Might not such considerations as these afford you a silencing Answer to such Excuses?  
But let me further add  
That even this is the way to promote your worldly Advantage too, the words immediately following the Text are a proof of it. After the Psalmist had given his judgement upon a day in God's House above a Thousand, and made his Choice of being a doorkeeper there rather than a dweller else where, he gives the reason of his so choosing, and it's taken from the Good things there to be had, viz. Grace and Glory, but lest any should say what shall we do for other things, he adds, No good thing will he withhold etc. Christ speaks the same thing Mat. 6. 33. Seek first the Kingdom of God & his righteousness, & all other things shall be added unto you. Whatever else is wanting shall be given into the Bargain, cast in over and above. That Kingdom which you principally, firstly seek shall be given you, and all other things shall be supplied also. Honouring the Lord with our substance (and by the like reason with our Time spent in his Service as we have an Opportunity) is the way to have the Barn filled with plenty etc. Prov. 3. 8, 10. To promote this search after Wisdom (and waiting at Wisdom's posts is the way to find Wisdom Pro. 8. 34.) he tells us that Riches and Honours are in her left hand Chapt. 3. 16. It is not Labouring or Contriving, but God's blessing that makes Rich. Now the daily Waiter and Watcher ●t Wisdom's Gates to hear Christ is pronounced Blessed, he is the man that is under God's blessing and therefore shall have so much of other things also as is convenient for him. In Commendation of Godliness, & to promote the practice of it, it is said to be great Gain and the promise of the life that now is as well as that which is to come made to it 1. Tim. 4. 8. And he that hath any Good Thing in the Promise is as sure of it as if it were in his hand, yea coming in a Promise it's far more sweet and safe than if it came in the way of common Providence. That known Text Mal. 3. 8, 12. does abundantly answer the Objection and prove the Position before us, they are faulted ver. 8. for Robbery in the matters of God's House, they brought not in their Tithes and Offerings, the reason of their withholding them is hinted at viz. because they accounted the Worship of God to be too chargeable for them, they could not afford to go to the cost of it. Nay (saith the Lord) if that be the Reason, do you fill my House and see if I will not fill yours and abundantly make up to you what Expense soever you shall be at by serving me. While you Robbed me I cursed you, and if you will obey me in the matters of my House I will bless you.  
From this Text these things are Evident  

1. That men are prone to deal very unworthily with God in the Concerns of his House and are apt to be too strait-handed there.  
2. One Reason of their so carrying it is for fear they should lose in their outward Estate thereby, they cannot tend it, they cannot afford it is the pretence, tho' its true they have no heart to it lies at the bottom.  
3. That so to do is in God's account Rob berry, & is punished with a Curse, the Vine casts her fruit, the Devourer eats up their Labours and instead of saving they are great losers thereby.  
4. That the only way to be blest in their Labours and to thrive in the world, is to fill God's House, to give their attendance there with their Tithes and Offerings let them not be wanting in their duty to him, and he would abundantly make up to them what they laid out for him: And tho' the Lord is worthy to be believed upon his word, yet he condescends so far as to put things upon the Trial Prove me saith the Lord, if you will not believe me try me, and you shall find it true, while my House was empty so were yours also, and what you pinched from me you lost, and a great deal more with it, but upon your amending see if I will not proportionably and observably bless you.   
You never knew any man impoverished by spending two hours in a week at a Lecture, nor enriched by the Contrary.  
I have heard of a poor man being asked by a pious Minister why he came not to Lecture, answered not want of will but mere Poverty hindered him, for that day in which he did not work his children must not eat, being advised by the Minister to come to Lecture, and promised to be paid for his day's work he readily came to Meeting, and as constantly for his Pay at Night, but after a little Time being asked the Reason why though at Lecture he came not for his money as formerly, he said that he found God had so blessed him that he could maintain his Family by his labour and spare a Lecture time too.— And if others will try in like manner they shall have the like blessing.  
It is said Money answers all things Eccl. 10. 19 yea but the Blessing of God in the way of serious attending on him in his House will answer money also, will supply that too. God hath many secret ways to bless his servants, and doth abundantly send in what we lay out for him. Our Fathers in this Wilderness experienced this, they came for the sake of God's House, and he soon filled theirs, turned the Wilderness into a fruitful Land, gave them what they denied and left behind them for his and the Gospel's sake. And while the first love and zeal for Christ and the things of his House were kept up they had much outward prosperity; our coldness there has brought▪ thinness and leanness both outward and spiritual upon us.  
This also is the sure way to have all our other good things sanctified to us: By the Word and prayer are all our outward blessings sanctified 1. Tim. 4. 5. and without this they are a snare and Trap. If men would observe, there is none but loses as much and more than he gains by robbing God of his Time, or at least he loses the blessing, and what is the outward enjoyment without a Blessing? why, it is for his hurt rather than for his good, and its better to want such things in mercy than to have them in wrath.  
Thus much may serve for the Confirmation of the Doctrine.  
We come now to the Application or Improvement,  

And this word is profitable for  
Information or Instruction  
Reproof or Correction  
Exhortation & Direction.   
1. by way of Information and Instruction  
1. See here the Wisdom of God in providing so well for the promoting of his own public Worship while he order so much profit to attend the waiters upon him therein, hereby obviating the objections that may be made against it, & that great one especially Mal. 3. 4. what profit is it that we have served God and kept his Ordinance? What profit? more than Cent. per Cent. profit, even a Thousand to one profit, and that is great gain indeed. The Lord out-bids all that ever the world, or the Devil the god of the world can do for his followersReason should teach us to go into his vineyard where we may have the most pleasant work and best wages. Did men understand and believe, there would be no great difficulty in this matter.  
Saul to weaken David's Interest in the people and draw them off from him, intimates that they could not expect much profit or high preferment from the son of Jesse (1. Sam. 22. 7.) insinuating that where there is an expectation of the greatest Reward, there men would be most like to be found. Then God may well expect that we should prefer his House before our own houses, Fields, Ships or Shops, because all of them cannot yield the like profit by more than a Thousand to one Difference. He must needs account God not worthy to be believed, or Fellowship with him in his House not worthy to be enjoyed, that is not persuaded (〈◊〉 pity any should need to be compelled) there to dwell, and to Improve all opportunities of Seeing and Enquiring there. Wisdom invites m●n to her House Prov. 9 and the foolish one calls upon Simple ones that are going right on, to turn in thither, the former invites to beasts slain, Wines mingled and Table furnished, and promises life upon obedience (here and your souls shall live Isa. 55. 3.) The latter speaks only of water and bread, and that stolen and in secret too, concealing in the mean time Death and depths of Hell the punishment of deluded fools. Me thinks none need be at a loss at which house to turn in. Christ would be no way offended for turning our backs upon his Ordinances if we knew any place where to mend ourselves, but to leave him for lying vanities makes him angry.  
There is nothing but Atheism and Unbelief that keeps any poor creature from making this his One thing to dwell in the House of God.  
2. Hence we are further Informed how careful the Lord is of us also & of our Good as well as of the promoting his own service, in that he does not oblige us to do any service for him, nor to spend one day or hour but so as shall be to our own highest advantage. No Worship of God shall interfere with our profit▪ He will dispense with his Worship when works of necessity and mercy for ourselves or others bespeak our Attendance, and he never enjoyn● it but it is best for us and most for our good 〈◊〉 This is great kindness indeed to poor Creatures that He will not be served but when we shall be profited, and has so disposed that it is always for our profit to serve Him. If we were rightly affected towards God we should need no more or other Argument than this to bring us to the House of God and oblige us to the most serious attendance viz. that we are about God's work, doing Hi● service, that he will be glorified thereby, would be enough to us; but the Lord will have us to know that we are then about our own work also, and that which most nearly concerns us and will unspeakably advantage us. Although we must deny ourselves and take much pains to serve God, if we do it acceptably, yet all this while we are working for ourselves, and the Harvest will be our own, and that a Thousand times more than we could have gotten else where. You will say when the Beggars that lay by the Highways and Hedges were invited to the Marriage-feast they were not bidden to their loss, no, nor they that had Farms and Merchandise neither, they never had such Incomes nor made such Bargains as they might have had and made there. Let none think it hard that God requires one day in seven for the more immediate service of Himself, nay if he should require six of the seven and leave us but one, while he gives us the profit of more than a Thousand days in one, there is no colour for any Complaint. The Lord commanded them in the Wilderness to rest on the Sabbath day▪ and gives this as a reason why they should so do, because he had on the sixth day given them the Bread of two day's Exod. 16. 29.. So when he commands us to wait on him in his House on a Lecture-day (and by the way do not account that attending on Lectures is 〈◊〉 a freewill offering, tho' if it were so, God's people should be a willing people, and willing in their freewill Offerings, but that General Rule of taking all Opportunities of 〈◊〉 and consequently of getting Good is not without its Consideration here, and if the Minister be charged to preach— in season and out of season 2. Tim. 4. 1. 2. by like reason the people are obliged to hear) do not think we are hardly dealt with, straitened in our time, abridged of our liberty to labour and do all that we have to do on the six days seeing our own profit is propounded and such profit as has been mentioned, to induce us thereunto.  
If a company of poor indigent people should be ordered by some great Person to wait at his Gate two hours on such a day in the week, there to receive a liberal Dole from his bountiful Hand, they would account themselves bountifully dealt with while they had so much more given them than they could have gotten by▪ their own industry in the mean Time; And that is the Case before us.  
3. This also Informs us how much we stand Debtors in God's Account for every day's Liberty in his House, he sets down a Thousand for One and after that Rate will reckon with us, and therefore we should reckon so also, and hold ourselves engaged to make an Answerable improvement of them that we may render proportionably. This is the choice, the Cream, the Quintessence of all our Time, for this especially are we bound to lift up our eyes and souls and bless the name of the bountiful God, and that a Thousand times more than for any other Time. Thanks are to b●●●● proportion to the quantity of the Kindness received: As they that have much forgiven will love much, so they that have much given should thank much, praise much, which they will do if they love much. We should bless God hearty every morning we rise, for bringing us to the Light of another day, but we should bless him a Thousand times more for a day in his Courts, because it is a Thousand times better. It was an exceeding great and precious Promise that the Lord gave to his People Isa 30. 20. a rich & high Cordial fitted on purpose for an evil day that though their meat should be bread of Adversity and drink water of Affliction yet their eyes shall set their Teachers, they shall have Preaching and Ordinances among them. Alas, how many have bread of Adversity and their Teachers removed too! How should the scarcity of that Best of all Commodities serve to enhance the price of it! All our Time is precious, but this part of our Time much more precious than the rest. Many account sabbath-days lost-dayes, and lecture-days broken days, no, they are good days and full days, days full of Blessing, one of them has the Good of a Thousand days in it. Some had rather sickness or Foul-weather should fall out an a Sabbath-day or on a Lecture-day than any other, & secretly think it is so much Time saved, not considering how much the Wisdom and kindness of God is thereby Reflected upon, and themselves prejudiced.  
4. Hence we may learn what is the best Course to redeem Time, which is a duty incumbent upon all Christians Ephes. 〈◊〉 16▪ The spending as much of it as you may i● 〈◊〉 House of God is the best way of Redeeming 〈◊〉 If men were good Husbands of their Time, it were an easy matter to save ever and anon a Day for the Service of God and yet not strike one stroke the less about their other ordinary Occasions; and one day thus Redeemed, provided it be rightly improved so as to become a good day to them, is more than a Thousand days.  
5. From hence also it follows, that it is a greater Blessing to a People to have the Liberties of God's House than to have a Confluence of all this World's Good flowing in upon them. They are better that enjoy the House of God among them, tho' they are straitened in other outward Things, than they which have the greatest outward Enlargements without it.  
God so order it, that the Richest places in the World (as to Things of the World) are very poor upon this account, while 〈◊〉 People tho' dwelling in a Barren Land have the Riches of Earth and Heaven both, in having the House of God among them. These Gle●●ings of Ephraim are better than the 〈◊〉 of Abiezer. Suppose a Place in ● Temperate Zone, that is an healthy Climate, has a sweet Air, pleasant Situation, fertile Soil, Havens for Ships, a place of great Trade and much Resort, so that what they have not of their own they may bring home (tho' from far) out of other places; Imagine an Eden of all manner of pleasures and Delights, yet under all these Considerations and Circumstances it is a miserable place if the House of God be wanting. That poor solitary Pilgrim Jacob, lying in the open Air, having the cold Earth for his Bed, and a stone for his Pillow yet the place being turned into a Bethel, an House of God he fared better than if he had been acommodated with all the Entertainment that a Prince's Palace could have afforded him. Israel in the Wilderness tho' dwelling in Tents, ●ed with bread and Water without the fleshpots of Egypt and other good things they so much longed for, yet being the Church in the Wilderness, and having God's Tabernacle in the midst of them, were in a far happier Condition than the Canaanites who dwelled in a land flowing with Milk and Honey but no House of God near them.  
Our Father's coming into this Wilderness, and bringing Christ and the Ordinances of his House along with them, never repent them of the Exchange they had made, nor were so mindful of the pleasant Land from whence they came as to return thither again, tho' they had opportunities of so doing See Heb. 11. 15. Nay the Lord prevented them by turning the Wilderness into a fruitful Land, and the House of God set up and attended will make any place so. After the large Description of that great City given by the Prophet Ezekiel, we find its real Glory contained in the name by which it was called viz. Jehovah sh●mma. The Temple of the Lord and his presence in the Temple renders a place glorious. Never complain of Hardships and Difficulties, the Consideration of the Transcendent Goodness of God to be enjoyed in his House should swallow up all Difficulties whatsoever. Dwelling in Tents of wickedness, nay in the Palaces of the World is to be despised in Comparison of dwelling here. He that for Elbow-room in the World removes from under Word & Ordinances makes a very imprudent Choice. It's Religion, not any nor all other things that makes a place. It was the Presence, House and Worship of God in the Land of Canaan principally that made it the Glory of all Lands, the Land of Glory or the glorious Land (as it is called Ezek. 20. 6. Dan. 11. 16, 41.) It's therefore glorious because it is Immanuel's land Isa. 8. 8. This Mount Zion so beautiful a place, because out of Zion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Psal. 50. ●▪  
Prize Gospel-Ordinances and Christ's presence in them as the chiefest Glory of our Land, and evermore pray that such Glory may always dwell in our Land.  
6. Then we should above all other Things fear losing a day in God's House, yea fear losing the House of God and being outed of our Possession thereof. According to the value of a thing is our Love to it, Desire to keep it, Fear to lose it. Now if being in God's House is a Thousand times better than otherwhere; then we should be a Thousand times more afraid about that than any thing else. It is now a Time of Fear with us, some fear they shall lose this thing, some that, and some another, but above all fear and tremble for the Ark, fear for the House & Ordinances of GOD, there is most Cause of Fear, we have a Thousand times more cause to fear for God's House than for our own houses, lands etc.  
And if we are providentially kept from the House of God by Sickness or otherwise, it should afflict us more than being kept from our own business. To have lost a day through any inadvertency or neglect of his own, or through any Adverse Providence that has disappointed him in his Expectation or blasted his Endeavours, is afflictive to an industrious man: but to have lost a day from or in the House of God, should be by many degrees more grievous to a serious soul; nor should our being driven out of our own houses be so irksome to us as the Lord's plucking up stakes, or breaking up house among us. We live in Times of Plucking up and pulling down, to be now seeking great Things for ourselves in the world would be absurd and blame worthy jer. 45. but to be seeking the greater things of God's House, and to be most Thoughtful about the Continuance thereof, and our dwelling therein all the days of our life, is very becoming in us, and will be no less acceptable unto God. The only way to secure what is our own is to be most solicitous about the concerns of God's House; let our Hearts be mainly there, and then we may roll the Burden of all other Cares upon him.  
7. This Doctrine doth intimate to us with what spirit and Frame we should go, when ever we go to the House of God viz. with an high esteem of it, & Expectation of great things in & from it. Value an hour there worth a Thousand, and expect to receive accordingly. They had no more because they ask● no more Jam. 4. 2, 3. and we have no more because we expect● no more. There is ordinarily some proportion between our Receiving and our Expectations; and the Reason is because Expectations arising from the sense of our need and the reallizing that there is a supply to be had, and being accompanied with answerable preparation and Attention, bring us under a promise. The Text tells us there is a Thousand times more to be had in the House of God than elsewhere, than we should expect as much as the Word saith, and the Lord is not wont to fail his people of their Expectations Psal. 9 18. The Expectation of the poor shall not perish. But we may add something further to this in the sequel.  
8. Is one Day in God's House better than a Thousand, than the Lord expects that they who dwell in his House should be better and do better than other men. Where much is given much is required. They who live in His House far better than any others, are known above all the families of the earth Amos 3. 2. He hath not dealt so with any other Nation Psal. 147. 20. Such have better Liberties, better means, better opportunities, (a Thousand times better) than those who are not thus favoured; and therefore their knowledge, their principles, their Hearts and Conversations should be better. If any Heathen have more moral Honesty, Sobriety, Love etc. than we, beware such do not rise up in Judgement against ●s, condemn and triumph over us in the Day of Account. The Lord does (and justly may) look for better Grapes from his Vineyard upon which he had bestowed such costly and careful Husbandry, and in the midst of which Himself dwelled, than he could have expected from the Wilderness Isa, 5. 1,— 4. Hence that chideing and stinging Interrogation, implying great disappointment of just expectation in himself (the Lord speaking there after the manner of men) and unreasonable, unaccountable Ingratitude in them ver. 4. Wherefore when I looked it should bring forth Grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?  
We that have all the Precious and Pleasant things of God's House afforded, and at thi● time continued when it is not so with others, are better dealt with, and at a Thousand times more chargeable rate maintained than they; if our Returns be not somewhat singular, we shall never be able to hold up our Heads whe● God shall thus interrogate us as he did them, and if he should take away our Hedge and break down our stone wall, and leave us to be e●●en up and trodden down, and forbidden the clouds to 〈◊〉 upon us so that in the Issue we be laid waste 〈◊〉 he adds ver. 5, 6. If he should take away the Vineyard from us, and let it out unto others that should render him the fruit in their seasons as Mat. 21. 41. and when he had done all this, refer the matter to our own Judgement as he did to theirs Isa. 5. 3. our Consciences would constrain us to say Righteous art thou O Lord. God was angry with Hezekiah not because he made no Returns at all (that sanctifying Grace he had in him would not let him be altogether unthankful) but it's said Hezekiah rendered not— Accord to the benefits done, and hence was Wrath upon him 2. Chron. 32. 25. His Returns were not according to Expectation so proportionable to his Receiving as they might have been, and there lay the Controversy. We wrong and reflect upon the Name and House of God and the privileges we enjoy there, under so many better days and better things for want of better Conversations, with which though the Lord may bear long, he wil● not always.  
USE. 2. By way of Reproof  
If One day in God's House be worth a Thousand, than they are blame-worthy who in their Judgement or practice, or both, are guilty of Slighting, Undervalueing or Neglecting the same, and what is lightly esteemed will be neglected. Now these are faulty, not only for wan● of due respect to an Institution of God or insti●●ted Worship (which ought always to be observed with 〈◊〉 Veneration, as that about which the Lord is wont more especially to 〈◊〉 himself ● jealous God▪) but they are to be reproved from the Text under that Notion as not consulting their own interest, while they put a slight upon that wherein their greatest Profit & Advantage is concerned, herein they miss it in not doing well for themselves.  
And here we may take notice either of a Total (or at least very frequent) Neglect in some, so as not to come at all, or if they do it's very rarely; or else when they do come it is not in such a manner as they would if they believed there were such profit there. Non-Attendance, rare-Attendance, superficial and slighty Attendance are all of them very unsuitable and unbecoming such a place and such Ordinances.  
There are some whom you shall seldom see at a Sermon, at least upon a Lecture day, are strangers to the House of God, I cannot say do not know, but may say are very rarely found in the way thither. A most unworthy thing! that God should set up an House among us, and promise to afford us his Presence, and give us a meeting there, and men can't find in their Hearts to wait on him at the Time and Place appointed. That God should make such preparation for us in his House, and send to invite us, and tell us he will make us very welcome there to the best he has, and that he is there waiting to entertain us and be gracious to us, and any should send him that Answer that they have no mind to come, or if they do come, it is in such a manner (which the heart-searching and allseeing God observes) as does declare that their whole heart is not in the work.  
To see the Highway to the House of God mourn in a day of Contradiction and treading down in the valley of Vision because men are through Persecution by an Hand of Violence hindered from walking therein, is a great Affliction, & matter of sore Lamentation; but to see the Highway thither mourn in a time of Liberty and Encouragement, either because when they may they will not walk therein, or if they do, it is with much Formality 〈◊〉 Indifferency, this is much more a Lamentation as being the great sin and provocation of the Lords Sons and Daughters. When the way is blocked up by Persecution it is but the Suffering of Professors (tho' the sin of Persecutors) but their own declining when the way is open is the great sin of Professors. If when God sets and holds open the doors of his House (which are the Gate of Heaven) they put away Eternal life from themselves, that is far worse than to have others keep them off from it, and the means of attaining it. For themselves to bid God departed from them is a sorer evil than for others to bid them departed from God. And indeed such do as it were say concerning God, he may be gone from them if he will, they care not for the Knowledge of his ways, nor do they desire to see or be acquainted with him.  
Some do this out of Opinion, pretending to have found a better Rule and greater light within, and thereupon despise external Ordinances, lay them aside as things beneath themselves, calling them Forms which persons of their. Attainments have no need of, tho' it is much to be doubted that while they cast off Instituted Forms (there is a Form of wholesome Words, and a Form of wholesome Worship also) they leave themselves without Form and (its to 〈◊〉 feared) will be found (as the ancient Chaos was) also void, and darkness over the faces of them too, notwithstanding all their pretences to a more-than-ordinary Degree of Light▪  
Of these I shall say little at present, because I presume there are few or none here this day to hear me: Only this word or two viz. That is a false and unfreindly Light within that bereaves men of the Light of the Word and help of Ordinances from without, from whence sincere souls have always found (through the Concurrence of the Spirit) the greatest Qnickning and safest Conduct. If the Light within ●e darkness, (or lead men into darkness, and keep them out of those ways wherein they might meet with enlightening) how great is that darkness! It little avails to dispute with men that are wise in their own eyes, and wedded to their own ways; our best way of Argueing with such is practical, viz. by so Prizeing, Valuing, Using the Ordinances of God's House, as that our Proficiency 〈◊〉 them and Benefit by them may be even in their Consciences a Testimony for them, which will be wanting if we that use them live no better than they that use them not. This only I shall say that David (a man full of Light and Love) desired that he might take a lease of the House of God to dwell in for his Life-time Psal. 27. 4. And Christ pomised that in the way of Preaching & Baptism (and by like reason all other Ordinances of his House) he would be with them to the end of the world; & therefore the Command to wait on him in such Institutions, and the promise of his presence and Blessing upon so waiting concerns us in these days, and will those that shall succeed us so long as the world lasts. Know also that no Christian is or shall be (really and according to Rule I mean, what ever he may through any mistake cenceive) above Ordinances whilst beneath Heaven.  
Others see no Glory in God's House, find no Good, Get no profit thereby, and therefore neglect it, an Objection long ago made by them, and Answered by the Prophet Malachi Chapt. 3. something has been already spoken thereunto, I shall add a few words more. Possibly their own experience may tell them so, they using Ordinances (when they did use them) with their wont slightiness and Formality, found no profit in them, and thereupon gave over; laying the blame upon the Ordinances which was only justly chargeable upon their Formality and Hypocrisy in the use of the Ordinances.  
And here note that Christ himself gives that as the true Reason of their worshipping God in vain Mat. 15. 8, 9 not because it was a vain thing to worship God, but because they did not worship him in a right manner, they were Hypocrites ver. 7. and they did draw nigh him with their mouth and honour him with their lips but their heart was far from him, and therefore did they worship him in v●in. It is no sign that the Things in God's House are not Good Things, best Things, yea a Thousand times better than other things, because they are not so to thee, No, no, it remains an everlasting Truth that there are fat and marrowed Things in the House of God, tho' they may seem to be dry, sapless and unsavoury Things unto thee. There is Divine Glory and Beauty there tho' thou see it not, and if it be hidden from thee thou mayst with trembling Heart and Hands turn to the 2. Cor. 4. 3. and there read thy present Condition at least (however God may in mercy enlighten thee afterwards) If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost. Thou goest up and down the world with the black mark of a lost man upon thee. If that be true that God's word doth Good to them that walk uprightly Mic. 2. 7. what mayst thou judge of thyself to whom it does no good? Do not therefore forbear to come because thou hast hitherto found no profit, rather prepare thyself so to come as that thou mayest find that profit which is there to be had, and which others have experienced.  
Some out of sloth cannot endure to take pains to come, at least if they are at any considerable Distance, or if there be any thing of Difficulty therein. A little Indisposition of body (especially if it meets with a great Indisposition of spirit) shall be excuse enough, and so a little unseasonableness of Wether▪ etc. I know God will have mercy and not sacrifice, but let men beware they do not put a cheat upon themselves: Self-deceivers are the worst Deceivers, and that principally in such momentous matters as these are. Sloth is full of excuses, and Listlessness furnished with pretences. A Sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a Reason. Pro●. 26. 16. Do thus in thy outward Concerns and see if thou be not clothed with rags Prov. 23. 21. Do not blow by reason of the Cold, refuse to sow because of the Wind, and to Reap from regard to the Clouds, or to go to Sea for fear of a Storm and try what will come of it. If tri●●eing excuses shall keep men from the House of God while they can run all Hazards for accomplishing their worldly Designs, think what God now does and an enlightened Conscience one day will judge of such a Frame.  
Others (if they would speak it out, which for shame they dare not in words, tho' their practice speaks it loud enough) love vain Company, Drinking, Gaming, etc. better than a Sermon. Alas for the Atheistical blindness and brutish Sensuality that appears in such an Humour! Is any Company better than that of God Father Son and Spirit? is any Fellowship in the world like the Communion of Saints? Any drink like the wine and milk and Water of Life that is here freely offered to thee? Is there any Game so pleasing and profitable as that Work whereby thou mayst win Christ? Is there not more refreshment and Sweetness in a Sermon than in a Nap? Propound these and such like Questions seriously to thyself, and then see if thine own Conscience will not be thy Reprover and Judge.  
Some plead Business, Farms and Merchandise, they have many things to do and cannot tend to hear the Word of God. We have spoken something to this Objection already, and therefore shall pass it briefly now. Only consider, If a King or chief Ruler should come to our Town, and send for us immediately to come before him, & we should send him word we could not tend to come, think how he would take it; especially if he assured us that he came out of great kindness & respect to us and that he had great preferment & gifts to bestow upon us, tha● he sour for us out of good will, and that our waiting upon him should be unspeakably to our advantage, how should we befool ourselves for losing such an opportunity! Wh● so it is, and infinitely more than so. It would be dreadful if it should be any man's lot under the Gospel to be damned because he could not tend to be saved, and yet undoubtedly it will ●● the case of many who will everlastingly perish because they could not spare the Time from their secular affairs and sensual pleasures to work out their own Salvation by industrious applying themselves to the Use of all means that God has appointed for the same. The promise in the Text of the getting the good of a Thousand days in one does fully answer the Objection, and leave no room for an excuse.  
If a man that were gathering of chips or picking up straws should say he were so busy that he could not afford the Time to come and receive his loading of Gold and Jewels which he might have for the fetching, we should say of him he were penny wise and pound foolish. If you do not believe the Word of God is better than Thousands of Silver and Gold, what do you with your Bibles? why do you hear and read such Books, that ye account full of Fables and Untruths? If they be true why do you not act accordingly? you must deny the Scriptures or you must value and attend upon the Word preached.  
You say you would come ●ut your worldly business will not suffer you; it seems then that if you had a prospect of worldly Profit before you, ●ou would put in for a share. And I verily believe that if every person in Town might be well assured of receiving Ten or Twenty shillings a day that comes to Lecture, and were present before it began, continued till all the Service were over, and kept waking all the Time too, the money to be paid him as soon as he went out of the door, we should have our Houses crammed and Seats crowded, every vacant corner filled, you should scarce find a man in the streets, nor Taverns, nor private houses, nor would men have their Children or servants to play or work at home, if there were such Gain to be gotten in two hours' time here. Now what a low, earthly spirit doth this discover, and how unkindly must Christ needs take it to have his House and Ordinances thus basely undervalved! should not men's Greediness of worldly Gain and Intenseness thereabout convince them of this Duty?  
You open your Shops every day, you rise in the morning (or should do Psal. 104. 22, 23.) and go to your labour until the evening; you go to ' Change every day, and observe your hours there to meet and confer about your Occasions, to inquire News, discourse of Affairs and dispatch Business, and surely your Business for Heaven deserves as much Time and Thoughtfulness.  
And it heightens the matter of Reproof when men will not only not come to a Sermon, but sit in their shops (perhaps in a worse place) and that in view of the place of Worship, will be walking the streets, and driving their Teams to and fro just by the Meetinghouse side, and that in the sight of the Congregation that are assembled to worship God, to the great dishonour of God and Grief of tender Consciences: surely it is not a Thing comely nor of good Report, (and such things we ought to follow Phil. 4. 8.) This casts a Reflection upon our Worship in the sight of the Heathen among whom we dwell, it puts a very low esteem upon it, and is matter of Scandal unto the profane & carnal ones, who are hardened in their evil way and confirmed in their Atheistical Opinions about God and his Worship, when they see us who profess higher to carry it with such unseemliness and disrespect toward the same.  
If there were no open vision among us the Word would be more precious as it was with them 1. Sam. 3. 1. If the Enemy were between us and the water (yea and bread too) of Bethlehem we should long more for it, and take more pains after it. But the Word is commonly preached and so lightly esteemed, easy to be had and therefore low-prized. So was the Manna (tho' Angels food) when reigned about the Camp every day, and called light Manna. The Lord grant that our making so light of it may not provoke Him to send a Famine of Hearing the Word among us Amos 8. 11.  
Obj. I know what some will object here Viz. that I lay more stress upon Lectures than is due, and urge the Attending them with more strictness than is necessary, are they not to attend their particular Callings diligently and laboriously? do they not serve God there as well as in their General Calling? what, may they ●ot upon any account miss a Lecture etc.  
Answ. Do I say more than my Text saith? One day is better than a Thousand, and is not Time best spent where there is such odds in point of profit? will not Prudence direct every man to do the best he can for his own best Advantage? I know there may be just reason to absent from a Lecture, as the Case may be, and would not therefore make that absolutely necessary which God, hath not made so. All that I would i● that men beware they deal not deceitfully with God nor fallaciously with themselves by alleging that for a Cause which is not so, and will not pass with God for a Cause ●ow, nor with their ●●n Conference when it comes to be 〈◊〉. Let all men in these matters so deal as becomes those that make the Knowledge of God in Christ their Life eternal, Communion and Fellowship with Him in all the ways of his appointment their Happiness, that have subordinated all other things to his Glory, and made Dwelling in his House their one thing: and so as they may practically demonstrate that they do unfeignedly believe and realize the Truth of this Text.  
Let them see that under any pretence whatsoever they do not gratify a profane, Atheistical, sensual or covetous spirit in themselves, nor justly grieve the good Spirit of God in themselves or others. Be sure that the House of God and the Concerns thereof have in our Hearts (and let it also be manifest in our Actions) a deserved precedence before our own houses and the Affairs thereof. So live, so act as that it may be evident that God's Worship has the preeminence with us. Keep up the Honour of his House by longing and panting for it, and rejoicing in heart when it shall be said to us Come let us go up thither.  
Do but show such an Affection to and Delight in God's House as God's people have been all along Characterised by, and our Souls good and Edification may be promoted by, and that is the sum of what is intended by this Discourse, and with any thing less than this we shall not be able to approve ourselves to the Heart-searching God that we do truly, cordially love the habitation of his House and the plac● where his Honour dwells Psal. 26. 8.  
Further, here also are to be reproved those that if they do come, they come with their bodies only without their Hearts, let their Hearts run after their Covetousness while with their Bodies they sit like God's people: Such do the Work of the Lord deceitfully and their own unprofitably.  
Such heartless (however they may seem specious) Services will not excuse them from that Denunciation and Curse of Deceivers Mal. 1. 14. who have a Male in the Flock but sacrifice a corrupt thing. The Excellent things that are there deservedly call for all the Soul, Heart, Mind and might to be employed thereabout, and the contrary is very foolish and unworthy.  
Again, If one day in the House of God be worth a Thousand they may not pass without Reprehension who for want of Care and Heed lose any part of this precious Time by coming late, after that so profitable Worship of God is begun. Did men indeed believe and consider that there is so much good to be gotten, the Consideration of the profit should make every one strive to be foremost, to be at the beginning of so good an Exercise. We are all here present before God well became those Hearers Act. 10. 33. and they got well by their ready Attendance, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word ver. 44. To be watching and waiting at Wisdom's gates and posts has a Blessing promised Pro. 8. 34. Not to be at the beginning of a Sermon is a great disadvantage to him that makes Information and Edification his Business: And to be absent from the Prayer before the Sermon is to miss an Ordinance that sits us for Hearing; and by which the Word heard comes to be sanctified to us. If the Whole be so good, he consults ill for himself that loses any part of it.  
Again, Sleeping at a Sermon is hereby condemned, the worth of a Day or an Hour in God's House affords matter of sharp Reproof to them that can sleep away any part of it. What can you not watch with Christ one hour?. Men do not use to sleep when they are receiving money. A man that is standing before the Judge while the Sentence of Absolution or Condemnation is pronouncing will certainly keep his eyes open; why, of no less importance is our being at a Sermon, where we are before God the Judge of all, and hearing those words by which we shall be judged at the Last day. How they can be said to take heed how they hear who hear themselves asleep, would be good for them to consider when they are awake, and might help to keep them so. They that sleep out a Sermon will be like the barren Heath of the Wilderness that does not see when good comes. And it is to be feared that he has but little sense of the Worth of that Ordinance or expectation of benefit by it that can allow himself in such a Deportment under it; a due Esteem of it, with suitable Expectation from it would teach him better. Sitting asleep while the words of eternal life are dispensing is not Sitting like God's people. Men may be awake and yet little the better, but they may conclude that what time was slept away was lost Time. He that gazes or sleeps away some few Sentences, may thereby incapacitate himself for understanding the whole Discourse. However, possibly that word may then be a speaking which would have suited thy case and reached thy Heart if thou hadst been awake to hear it, and such a word it may be thou shalt never have an opportuiny of hearing again. You have or may have in your hands 
* Mr. Mather's Sermon upon Act. 20. 9  an awakening Discourse of God's exemplary Justice upon sleeping 〈◊〉. God may do so by thee, when he finds thee in a deep sleep at a Sermon, he may make it a dead-sleep to thee, and may sufficiently vindicate himself by rendering that Reason I will be sanctified in them that come ●igh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. Levit. 10. 3. How that Word should prove a Savour of life to thee which thou didst sleep at the hearing of I cannot imagine, and if not a Savour of life, whether it is not like to be a Savour of death, do thou consider. Did you ever hear of a poor indigent person, that being sent for by some great rich man to receive some bountiful, liberal Dole at his hands fell fast asleep while takeing it▪ no, the Hopes of a small Alms will make a man w●●●h and look.  
Again those that are quite tired if the Sermon exceed somewhat the usual length, and inwardly think if they do not openly say▪ what a weariness is it! Such do not carry as if they believed and realized this Text.  
If you were brought to an heap of Gold and licenced for an hours time to tell it over, and were so have for your own as much as you could tell, you would not think the Glass too long, nor account yourselves wronged if permitted to take part of another Glass, nay a whole one; is not God's word better than Thousands of silver and Gold? Can you sit hour after hour in vain Company drinking and telling stories and never think the time long, and is a Sermon too long for you? I remember a Solemn Word once delivered by that great man of God, now with God, Mr. Richard Mather, You (said he) that think the Time long at a Sermon, will think the Time long in Hell.  
And hence it is viz. because men are weary, they cannot stay till Sermon be ended, or at least withdraw before the prayer after Sermon, and the Blessing in the close of all. Does this become those that think one day in God's House worth a Thousand? Is Christ speaking to you, and have you not the patience to hear him out? Has Christ procured a liberty for us to come before God and say all that we have to say (which is the import of the Greek word Heb. 4. 16.) and shall we reckon i● enough to hear part of what he has to say? Beware that because he speaks and we regard not, he do not retaliate to us accordingly, that we should speak and call and cry, and he not regard or hear us. Remember the forementioned Example Act. 10. Cornelius and his Company were not only got together and waiting for the coming of Peter ver. 24. But they looked at themselves as Assembled before God, and their Business was to hear all that the Lord had commanded to be spoken.  
It is a great slight put upon a Friend that out of compassion to us, seeing us in a dangerous condition has studied a way for our Relief, and is very seriously discoursing us thereabout, and we tell him he must cut short or else we must be gone, and in the Issue go away before he has done. If a man should be telling a tale of more than an hour long, especially if there be any thing of Wit and pleasure in it, you can't choose but hear out his story; and if a by-stander should add a parallel as much longer many persons would hardly get away till he were gotten to the further end of it. Does not a Discourse of God and Christ and thy great Salvation, deserve the best of thy Attention?  
Or if men make a shift (and an hard shift it is through their uneasiness and weariness) to stay till the Sermon be ended, than what tumbling out of the Meetinghouse, as if it had been a Prison to them, and they were glad of a Goal-delivery! what clattering and noise, to the great disturbance of those that fain would but by your means cannot join in the remaining Exercise!  
To such let me say, What have you no need of a prayer after Sermon that God would write in your hearts what hath been sounding in your ears? Does not God deserve to be acknowledged and praised for the liberty of a Sermon, and do not your souls need a prayer to him that alone is able to teach you to profit▪ that his labour in speaking and yours in hearing may not be in vain? And in special how dare you turn your backs upon the Blessing, has the Lord appointed & Authorized his Ministers to bless you in his Name, and are you in so much haste that you cannot stay to hear it and share in it? Beware lest God say of you (as of him Psal. 109. 17.) because you delighted not in Blessing, so letit be far from you. Why the good of all you have done depends upon a Blessing, and can you be content to go away without that?  
See what a great Thing the Lord makes of the Priest's pronouncing a Blessing Levit. 26. 22. to 28. On this wise shall you bless the Children of Israel saying etc. and after the Blessing adds, They shall put my Name upon them and I will bless them. Note also how Solomon in that great Solemnity 1. King 8. and after prayer stood. and blest— the Congregation, and it's said he blessed all the Congregation, than they did not crowd out as soon as the prayer was ended, but they all stayed to hear and partake in the same, and it was worth their labour. To be commended to the Grace, ●ove and Fellowship of God Father Son and Spirit is certainly worth the staying for, and that minute while you are waiting for and receiving the Blessing will bring them a Thousand times more profit than those that slight and neglect the blessing usually get the while.  
Let me further ask such persons  
What come you to the House of God for? what was your Errand thither? and have you got that you came for, that makes you withdraw before the Worship of God be finishied? Did you come to draw near to God, to see his go in the sanctuary, and to have Fellowship with him there▪ did you see and believe that one day in God's House is worth a Thousand, and have you found it so? why so weary then, why in such Hast to be gone? those that have met with some Tastes would be for more, if the Beginning was sweet you would have stayed to the latter end. He that comes for Christ to an Ordinance, whether he meet him or meet him not at his Entrance thereupon, he will stay by it; if he meet him, the sweetness of the enjoyment will detain him, if he meet him not, the hopes that he may enjoy him will keep him waiting. If Christ appear to him in his glory, he will say it is good being here, if Christ as yet appear not, he will account it worth his Labour to continue his attendance in expectation that he may. The sincere seeker cannot be satisfied without finding, the true finder will think he hath never found enough, and therefore will not go away so long as there is any hope of finding more. He will say with himself, who can tell but the last word in the Sermon, the last clause in the prayer, or the Blessing in the close of the whole may be intended by God as a special Blessing to me? and accordingly during the whole time of the Duty will keep himself in the way of the Blessing.  
Again if any should come to Meeting only for a name, to get and keep a Reputation for Religion, truly if you think you have made your market and done your errand I doubt you will find yourselves mistaken; such a 〈◊〉 and unseasonable Withdrawing will crack your Credit and lessen your Esteem among them that are serious and judicious.  
They are to be Reproved who tho' they pretend to much Devotion, come to the House of God and sit there like God's people, yet while they offer the lame and the blind unto God, reserving the Male in the flock for their better friends, discover their Insincerity unto the Heart-Searching God, who curses such deceivers (Mal. 1. 14.) however cunningly and fairly they may carry it before men. The Lord tells the Prophet Ezekiel Cap. 33. 31. what a sort of Hearers he had, who both looked and sat, spoke and in their outward behaviour carried it like his people, but their Hearts went after their Covetousness. Their Hearts were in their Houses, Fields, Shops, in close pursuit of their worldly Concerns under the Cloak of External Worship. God expects the Heart, if we give him not that, he reckons he hath nothing; if he has the Heart he can overlook many Infirmities and Defects, while the most specious Appearances and fairest Performances without the Heart, are but bodily exercise and Lip-labour, little profitable to themselves, but highly provoking unto God. Such Persons give ●od only the Skin for the Sacrifice, the lame, ●●an, seeming Services instead of the fat of heart-Obedience, and the Lord gives them as good as the● bring, rewarding empty Professions with as empty Expectations. They are deceived that think God will be mocked; he doth not only see men, but see into men and through them, and all those duties will be found too light for his acceptance that have not the heart going with them in the performance.  
It was a pleasant sight Luk. 12. 1. to see the people crowding together to hear the Word of God, insomuch that they trod one upon another (and one would think it should be common among us where the people are so numerous, and the access to the Ordinances so easy) but yet even than it is observable that Christ began with a caution against Hypocrisy. [Beware of Hypocrisy] is a Text fit to be preached on before the most zealous and full Auditory. Look diligently that the snake of Hypocrisy lurk not, lie▪ not hid among the tallest and rankest herbs of a forward Profession. Worshipping of God and coming constantly to his House is like the Apothecary's Ointment, very odoriferous and grateful, only the dead Fly of Hypocrisy will spoil the Savour of it, and make us to lose all that we have wrought thereabout.  
USE 3. In the last place this Doctrine may be improved by way of Exhortation, and we are from hence excited unto these three Duties,  

I. To Prize the House of God after the ra●● given in the Text.  
II. That we thereupon carefully attend the same, and this will follow on the former.  
III. That we so carry it towards and under those Ordinances as that we may find the Truth of this Text in our own Experience, which is the genuine fruit of our being sincere in the two foregoing duties.   
1. Thus prise the Liberties and Privileges of God's House, labour to believe that One day in God's Horse is worth a Thousand, in so doing thou wilt show a David-like heart, an heart after God's own Heart. Indeed David was taught the worth by the want of God's House: the Lord grant we may learn at a cheaper rate, usually our Dullness puts him upon such kind of Discipline. We may well and safely take them at the price God has set them, they are not prized too high.  
2. So prising the House of God, attend it accordingly, Here is most profit to be had and therefore omit no season of being here, Wait daily at Wisdom's posts. You may buy Gold too dear, but the Liberties of God's House you cannot buy to dear, their fruit is better than Gold, and their Reven●e than choice Silver, Prov. 8. 19 with 34. Tho' you should be at great pains and expense you will have a good Pennyworth.  
Let not any Ordinary Business divert you from a Sermon. Make Conscience of taking every Opportunity to work while the Day lasts.  
And here let me say, If that Business hinders you from a Sermon that would not hinder you from a Feast, a merry-meeting, from receiving money, from spending an hour or two with a friend that had sent for you, or come to visit you, from making a good Bargain etc. I say if kept from a Sermon by those occasions which would not have kept you from these, you will not be able to answer it to God nor to your own Judgement and Consciences neither, when they come to be Serious and Considerate.  
Then call upon one another, exhort and encourage one another, say come let us go to the House of God, you that have ever tasted the sweet of God's Wor●▪ o● been made joyful in his House of Prayer tell others what you have found, your Example and Council may be of use to draw others along with you, for which they will thank you, and God will reward you another day.  
3. So attend upon God in his House as that your own Experience may testify to the Truth of this Text and Doctrine, viz. That One day here is worth a Thousand, that you may be able to say as we have heard, so have we seen in the House of God, we have heard that there is great profit and Gain there to be gotten, and we have found it so. Do not content yourselves (as many do) that you have been there, but inquire what you have done and gotten there. To go in a Round of Duties, Secret, Private, Public without making any progress or getting any profit, is in itself irrational and unto God very provoking. You are going up to the House of God to spend a day before him there, now see that it prove a good day to you▪ that you may have the good of it to yourselves, this aught to be every one's Care.  
You would think yourselves much to blame if being in extreme Want you should come to a plentiful market where all manner of supplies are offered you freely, and you carry home nothing with you: And yet how often hath many an Hearer come into God's House and tarried till the Sermon was ended, but carried away not one pennyworth of spiritual good, soul-benefit, and it may be not so much as afflicted or troubled to think on it.  
How did the Spouse behave herself when her Beloved was with-drawn (Cant. 3. 1, to 5. she rises, goes about, seeks, inquires of the Watchmen, never rests till she had found him, and then held him fast and brought him home with her. 'Tis Finding Christ in his House that is the profit of our day's work, that renders Time so advantageously spent, and therefore this should be sincerely aimed at, and strenuously endeavoured by every one that comes thither. This was Mary's Case Joh. 20. 1,— 16. she got up early and her business was not to see the Sepulchre where Jesus was laid, or the linen Clothes and Napkins in which he was wrapped, but to see Jesus himself, her Lord was in her heart, and to see Him was her Errand, hence when others went away with no other sight than the Grave and linen, she waits and weeps and looking into the Grave there sees Angels, unto whom she gives this reason of her weeping because her Lord was carried away, and turning about enquired of the supposed Gardener for her Lord, and being thus earnest and unsatisfied in her Inquiries at last she found him.  
Thus should every one behave himself having realized to himself that the Ordinances of God's House are ways of Communion with Christ and that there lies the good of them, he should make that his business and be contented with nothing unless he attains his end: It should not satisfy him that he hath been at the place where Christ is wont to appear, and that he hath been at the place where Christ is wont to appear, and that he hath been under Ordinances in which Jesus Christ is wont to be conveied, but he must go and wait with an heart fixed for Christ himself, and sadly bemoan himself under a disappointment there, and unto such the Lord will make good that word Isa. 45. 19 I said not to the seed of Jacob seek ye my face in vain.  
In no Duties is the Word of God more solemn than about those of his House. See the dreadful charge to him that preaches 1. Tim. 6. 13. I give th●e charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ etc. So again 2. Tim. 4. 1, 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom, Preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season etc. In obedience to which Command are Lectures set up; and can you think that you which hear are not under a like Charge? Shall they that preach be so charged to preach & so preach as in the sight of him that will judge them for their preaching, and may you that are to hear think to scape the Judgement of God if you hear without Seriousness and Profit? Does not his Strictness with them that preach, more than intimate that he will also be exact with them that hear? If they must take heed to themselves and their Doctrine, you must take heed to yourselves and your Hearing. If they must speak so for matter, and manner, and end, as they that look to answer it at the great and dreadful Day; you must hear upon the like peril.  
There is no serious preacher of the Gospel but goes with an aching heart about his work, and when he has preached is ready to condemn himself for fear lest he hath not so spoken as he ought to have spoken; and I believe that there is no serious Hearer but will see cause to ask himself, and have I so heard as I ought to have heard?  
Let us pray for David spirit, Affection and Experience, of which there is but little now a days to be found.  
Take a few Directions.  
1. Be well acquainted with the Being, Nature, Worth, and Need of your souls.  
Know that you have souls, how many live as if they had none? Consider also they are immortal Existences and must live for ever. Then acquaint yourselves with their Needs, listen to their Cravings, and think of what a necessity they are in of a Supply.  
Your souls are a Thousand times better than your bodies, and therefore Providing for them of a Thousand times more Concernment. Oh, an immortal Soul, eternal Estate, and endless Life are momentous Considerations, and should be attended accordingly.  
2. This being supposed, it will necessarily follow that you are indispensibly bound to attend all means that God has appointed for the Salvation of your Souls. Neglecting means for outward Subsistence, or bodily Maintenance will bring you to Penury; then neglecting means for your soul's maintenance will issue in Ruin and Misery.  
3. Press on your souls the stamp of Divine Authority that is upon the Ordinances of his House. Here God will be found, & if you slight these ways of his appointing, he will not be found elsewhere. And be assured that God will not deceive you. Here, he hath recorded his Name, and ●● you wait here, you wait under a Promise of a blessing, and shall not wait for nothing.  
Then come to the House of God out of Conscience, not out of Custom, nor for any by-Ends, and if you come conscientiously, you will come constantly, I mean as often as God gives you an opportunity.  
To omit one Duty does but make way for our omitting another. Once give way to Hindrances and you will never be without them, but they will come in upon you like 2 ●●od: Make but a Gap once, and you will scarce know how or when to stop it. And who can tell but that season which you lose might have been for your Everlasting Advantage? The diseased persons not knowing when the Angel would come down and move the waters, ●ay there always waiting to prevent the loss of an opportunity; and so should we.  
A pious soul if providentially detained from God's House grows the more hungry after it, the want of one meal sharpens his stomach and increases his Appetite for the next; but a car●al heart who out of sloth and slightiness neglects it, will grow every day more careless and unconcerned than other, like a weak stomach, the more it fasts the more it may.  
4. Get suitable preparations for such a Solemnity. When 〈◊〉 was commanded by God to go to 〈◊〉 to worship, he advises his people to put away the strange Gods, wash their 〈◊〉 and be 〈◊〉 Gen. 35. 1. ●. 3. Every business of moment and Importance bespeaks preparation. A Journey by land, a Voyage by ●ea, Entertainment of a great friend call for preparation; much more than when our work to meet with and entertain the Lord of Glo●● at his House which is appointed for a place of meeting with God Exod. 20. 23. Hence that charge Eccl. 5. 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear etc. When there we must be ready, then there must be some time taken to make ready, and that on penalty of offering the sacrifices of fools. He that has so great a work to do, and does not prepare for it, does egregiously play the fool. They that observe their own Hearts will find that they are not ordinarily so ready for so great a work of drawing near to God as they ought to be; then either we must prepare, or rush in without preparation, and what ill music must that needs be in God's ear where the Instrument is out of tune? the danger of which we had better believe and prevent than experience.  
6. Go thither with answerable Expectations: We 〈◊〉 no better in the House God because we expect no better. Aiming too low is the way to miss the mark. If after humble Preparation our hearts are big with Exqectation the Lord will not suffer our Hopes to b● abortive. The expectation of the poor shall not perish Psal. 9 18. Such profit as you have heard of is to be had in God's House, believe it, prepare for it, carry your empty vessels, open your mouths wide, expect to have them filled and they shall be filled. Look what you need and God promises, and you shall not look in vain.  
7. Let your attendance when there, be proportionable to your expectations in going thither. Serious Preparation and great Expectation will occasion vigorous Attendance. To come with a sense of great need to a place of full supply, with up-raised Expectations, will oblige a man to look diligently lest he go away without his Errand.  
The servants of Benhadad (1. King. 20. 31, 32, 33.) saw what an ill case there master was in, & had heard that Israel's Kings were merciful, this gave them encouragement, they prepared themselves accordingly, in the capacity of humble, perishing, self-judging Suppliants, and in most submassive Language presented their Request before Ahab, and then it's said they did diligently deserve whether any thing would come from him, and did hastily catch it, and accordingly obtained their Desire. Why know that we have far greater encourragement to wait upon God in his House, we have an Invitation which they had not, we have a Promise to 〈◊〉 upon, whereas they went as a 〈◊〉, upon and may be only: Our necessities also are greater 〈◊〉 not for the saveing of our bod●●● lives, but for preservation of the lives of our 〈◊〉 ●ouls, that should be ten Thousand times more dear to us; then let us prepare thoroughly, come expectingly, and then attend diligently, and catch up every word greedily, withal waiting for the breatheing of the Spirit in an Ordinance, and we shall find that the King of Heaven is far more gracious and bountiful than the Kings of Israel were merciful.  
8. Beware how you spend your Time afterward. When men have been warmed in an Ordinance they had need see that they do not catch cold. Watching after Hearing is as needful as Watching unto Hearing. It's noted of the Thorny Hearers Luk. 8. 14. that when they have heard they go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures. Many a precious Sermon is thus lost. As they are like to get but little good by coming to the House of God who come reaking out of their worldly occasions without any praeconsideration or preparation; so they are like to lose or lessen what they have got who rush into the world again without after-consideration of or meditation on what they have met with. The World was ever a great Enemy to the Word. Communing with our own Hearts and Discoursing one with another about what we have heard and seen in God's House, will notably promote our proficiency under the same.  
When the Lord spoke so loud to Pharaoh in that dreadful Judgement of the turning the Water into Blood, it is said, Exod. 7. 23. that he turned and went into the house, and so it never went to his Heart. Had he not turned away his eyes from, but kept them fixed on that solemn object, it might have reached his Heart. And thus often it proves; many a word, many a Conviction, many a good Beginning is lost in the House. From God's House men turn into their own, and there in the Business of the House, in the Cares and Pleasures of the House, in the Company of the House, in the various Diversions that they meet with there and elsewhere, all is lost as tho' it had never been.  
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 doors, shut-up thy shop, and go 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 always, 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 fer●ons you have heard, but also for all those that you might have heard, and nothing but a ca●●al, careless, vain, earthly Heart kept you from. Especially you that have been idleing, ●●●ing still, drinking, ga●●●ing etc. the while; God will assuredly set you down in his Book Debtors 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 f●rni●ted▪ yourselves invited, your Tr●●●er laid▪ your portion carved out for you, and you ●ust pay whether you eat or ●●●; and 〈…〉 then best to attend and take your 〈◊〉 in the ●a●n, 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, at●●●d Him in his.  
4. By this sin we provoke the Lord to shut up the doors 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. Ezel ●●● 〈◊〉 be made dumb to a rebellious people.  
Let us be 〈◊〉, God is threatening to break up House among us, and if ever he so does, our 〈◊〉 of his House will be the cause of ●●. 〈…〉 in God's House which hath been hitherto lest ●s seems to be shake● and 〈◊〉, the Lord looks as if he were the parting from us, there be many awful Symptom● Symptoms of his Departure, and woe unto us if he. departed 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, Judgement 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 carelessly in, he will shut 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 woeful experience does abundantly testify. If we come to lose God's House and the glorious privileges of the same we shall be the 〈◊〉 miserable people under Heaven: As none hav● been so privileged, so none will be so miserable as ourselves.  
It sorely aggravated Jerusalem's misery i● the day of her Affliction Lam. 1. 7. tha● the Enemy mocked at her Sabbaths, and for ou● making a mock of Sabbaths (which we do while we make a light matter of them, undervalue & 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 go●● things of God's house▪ whe● they be lost, is it not better to consider them, love, prize▪ and improve them while they are presem? which they that do rightly shall never have that Occasion to remember them when they are gone.  
God doth not easily give up, or departed from a people that he hath once visibly and signally owned, no although▪ 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 Idolise the House of God, (as Israel did the Ark 1. Sam. 4.) and grow secure and wanton by reason of it, as they did Jer. 7. 8,— 12. or do not prise it as they ought, nor make such Returns as may be expected, but contrariwise profane and pollute it; Then Go to my place at Shilo and see what I did to them, and so will I do to you.  
To be deeply humbled for, and hasten to the blood of sprinkling for pardon and cleansing of these provoking Evils that have been and a●e 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 conclude—  
If one day in God's House here upon Earth ●e▪ so much worth, what is a day, yea the DATES of ETERNITY worth in that up●er House, that Presence-Chamber, that 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 〈◊〉 House? and what soul-delighting 〈◊〉 will be everlastingly s●ng b● th●●● to whom the Lines shall ●all in that pleasant ●lace, when they shall be possessed of that goodly Heritage 〈…〉 where we now are is but the Gate of 〈◊〉 the Porch, the Courts belonging to that 〈◊〉 of Glory, what then is the inmost Room, 〈◊〉 Holy of Holies! If a day in these Courts 〈◊〉 worth a Thousand, how many Thousand 〈◊〉 Millions of days and years is a day, an 〈◊〉 there worth! If this place be so beautiful 〈◊〉 Admirable, oh how Amiable is that Dwelling place! Surely it is good dwelling there. 〈◊〉 obscurer Glimpses of God's Glory in his 〈◊〉 be so precious and pleasant, what will the● holding of him face to face be, and that ●●●●ver and forever too!  
Oh then prise this House as the Gate● that, and as the way that leads us thither, 〈◊〉 attend upon God therein accordingly, until 〈◊〉 can experience the Truth of what David he●● expresses. And be we well assured that Go● will sooner or later give every sincere At-Attender 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.  
FINI●▪   

Books printed for, and Sold by Joseph Bru●●●●● at his Shop at the Corner of the Prison-Lane next the Exchange.  

ADiscourse 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 showed That it is the Duty and should be the C●re of Believers on Christ to live in the constant Exercise of Grace. by Mr. Nathana● Mather, Minister of the Gospel at Dublin in Ireland.  
Self-Employment in S●cret, 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 Rev●●●●d 〈◊〉 Increase Mather.