ready to depart on tlio morrow ; and continued liis speecli initil mid- night;' ver. 8, 'And liere were many liglit.s' {G)'. many lamps) ' in the upper chamber, whither they were gathered together ; ' ver. 9, * And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being IhHen inlo a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down witli sleej>, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead ; ' ver. 10, ' And Paul went down, and fell on him, and, embracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him;' ver. 11, 'When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed ; ' ver. 12, And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted ; ' Acts v. 42, ' And daily in the tem^jle, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ ; ' Acts xii. 12,1 'And when he had considered the things, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying' — or where many thronged to pray, as it runs in the original ; Acts xx. 20, ' And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto j'ou, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house ; ' Acts xxviii. 30, 31, ' And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and re- ceived all that came in unto him : preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him;' Luke x. 38, 39, 'Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village : and a certain woman, named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Maiy, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.' Beloved, by these scriptures it is most evident and clear that our Lord Jesus Christ, and his disciples and apostles, and those Christians that lived in their times, did fro(piently meet in private houses, and there performed acts of i)ublic worship — viz., such as preach- ing, hearing, praying, breaking of bread, &c. How the primitive Christians in those hot times of jiersecution met in the nights, and in woods, and houses, and obscure places, they best understand who have read the writings of Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Austin, Eusebius, Justin Martyr, Pliny, &c. But this to some being an un])leasing theme, I shall not enlarge myself upon it. Only remember this, that there was never yet any town, city, or country, kingdom or commonwealth, that did ever fare the worse for a holy praying people. Frequent and fervent prayer, be it in public or in private, in a synagogue or in an upper room, never did, nor never will, bring misery or mischief ujwn those places where such exercises are kept u}), James v. 17, 18. Such conventicles of good fellowship, as Rome call them, where there is nothing but swearing and cursing, and carousing and gaming, and all manner of filthiness and profaneness, are the only conventicles that bring desolating judgments upon princes, people, and nations, as is most evident throughout the scriptures.2
' See Dr Hammond on the words and the English Annotations ; I'ide Dr Hammond of Acts xxviii. 30, 31.
* Several hnndrcd scriptures might be produced to make good the assertion. Remem- ber what one Achan did, and what one Manasseii did, 2 Kings xxi. 11, 12; Ecclcs. ix. 18. 'One sinner destroycth much good.' Oh, then, wliat a world of good will a rabble of-sinners destroy !
ISA. XLII. 24, 25,] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 223
Take two texts for all : 1 Sam. i. 12, 25, ' But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your kings.' When princes and people continue to do wickedly together, then they sliall be consumed together. Zeph. i. 12, ' I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees : that say in their heart. The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil;' ver. 13, ' Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation ;' ver. 17, ' And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they sinned against the Lord ; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung ; ' ver. 18, ' Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath : but the whole land shall be devoured by. the fire of his jealousy : for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.' Now, if any of you whose houses are laid desolate, have had your spirits imbittered and engaged against the poor people of God, for practising as Christ and his apostles did, then lay your hands upon your mouths, and say, The Lord is righteous, though he has turned us out of house and home, and laid all our pleasant things desolate. Certainly all that legal and ceremonial holiness of places which we read of in the Old Testanient did quite vanish and expire with the types, when Christ, who is the substance at which all those shadows pointed, came into the world. I have neither faith to believe, nor any reason to see that there is in any separated or consecrated places for divine worship, any such legal or ceremonial kind of holiness which renders duties performed there more acceptable unto God, than if performed by the same persons and in the like manner in any other places. i Doubtless Cln-ist by his coming in the flesh hath removed all distinction of places through legal holiness. This is clear by the speech of our Saviour to the Samaritan woman, concerning the abolishing of all distinction of places for worship through a ceremonial holiness : John iv. 21, ' Jesus saith unto her. Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.' The public worship of God was now to be restrained to no place, as formerly it was to the temple at Jerusalem — that is, to no place for its ceremonial holiness, which may render the parts of divine worship more acceptable to God than if performed elsewhere ; because those types which sanctioned the places formerly, were now to be taken away, when Christ the substance was come ; and the body of the cere- monial worship being now to expire, and the partition-wall taken down, that the Gentiles might be admitted to worship God in spirit and in truth. It could not possibly be, for these reasons, that the true worship of God should be tied and fixed to any one such temple as was at Jerusalem, anymore. The temple at Jerusalem was a mean of God's worship, and part of their ceremonial service, and a type of Christ ; but our temples, saith my author,"^ are not a part of the wor- ship of God, nor types of the body of Christ. Neither are we bound when we pray to set our faces towards them. They are called places of prayer only, because the saints meet there ; and if the saints' meet-
^ Merc[erus] in Had. ti^lp