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a perfect heart.' There his domestical carriage is described, and how he would purge his house from all impurity : Ps. xxx, the title, ' A psalm of David at the dedication of his house/ We should enter upon our houses in a religious manner, and consecrate ourselves and houses to him. It is good to observe the different carriage of men in their houses. Nebuchadnezzar, when he walked in the palace of Babylon, Dan. iv. 30, ' Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? ' Pride of heart came upon him. Those Jews that dwelt in ceiled houses were well and at ease, therefore neglected God : Hag. i. 2, ' This people say. The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.' David : 2 Sam. vii. 2, ' See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.' Nebu- chadnezzar was proud, the Jews careless, David zealous. Say then. What have I done for God, who hath done so much for me ? It was a saying of Parisiensis, Qui majores terras possident, minores census tulerunt — Those that possessed great estates paid the least taxes. In many great houses how little is God owned ! God hath many times more prayers from a smoky cottage than from great men's houses. The revenues of heaven do more arise from a few poor broken-hearted christians, that have little in the world, than from great ones, that have altogether broken the yoke.
3. We must inure the soul to the thoughts of a change, and live in the midst of the abundance of worldly comforts with greater weaned- ness and looseness of heart, as remembering that temporal enjoyments are not our happiness, that here God will exercise us with much uncer- tainty, and that * surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5. When we seem most settled, to rest secure upon temporal things is but to raise a fabric or structure upon the ice. God can soon remove us, not only by the great remove of death, but by many intervening accidents during life. When we have surest tenures, strongest dwellings, clearest air, best accommodations, how soon can the Lord blast all these things, and break in upon us by his judgments ! There were two types, leaven in their thank-offerings, and dwelling in booths at the feast of tabernacles, Deut. xvi. 13, 14, with Lev. xxiii. 42. After they had gathered in their corn and wine, and their houses were full of all the blessings of the earth, then they were to dwell in tents. They that are secure, as if above changes, God will soon show them the vanity of all earthly enjoyments : Ps. xxx. 6, 7, ' In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong ; thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.' No man ever slept well on a carnal pillow, but his rest was disturbed before his night was spent.
4. Be content with God's allowance. God is our habitation, and doth appoint to us how much or how little we shall have of these com- forts. He is, as to temporal things, a larger habitation to some than to others. If he be but an hiding-place to us, though not a palace, we must be contented: Ps. cxix. 114, 'Thou art my shield and my hiding-place.' David took notice of that as a great mercy. We are not to seek great things for ourselves. If we have any tolerable safety, or any tolerable condition of life, and opportunity of service, it is
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enough. The degree of enjoying these comforts must be left to God himself. Promises were not made to suffice covetousness, but to encourage us in our want: Heb. xiii. 5, 'Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have ; for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' Purge the soul from worldly desires, and then there will be room and place for the exercise of faith.
5. If God be our habitation, the heart must not be fixed in the creature, nor diverted from the everlasting enjoyment of him. For the present, your dwelling is in God himself. Now God is enjoyed three ways — in the creature, in the ordinances, and in heaven. These three ways of enjoying God must not clash one with another, but be subordinate. To be satisfied in the enjoyment of God, so far as the creature or outward things can let him out to us, is a sign of a carnal heart. David was otherwise minded ; his great thing in this world was to enjoy God in his ordinances. See Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple ; ' that is, to enjoy God in the ordinances. Now those that desire thus to enjoy God in the ordinances will long to see his face in heaven ; for these are but part of his ways, a taste, to make us long for more. Besides, God is never so much, so truly an house to us, as in heaven : 2 Cor. V. 1, ' For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' That house should be mainly desired. Therefore all that we enjoy here should but quicken our desires after more in heaven ; for if God be our habitation, he is there all in all : Heb. xi. 14, ' For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country ; ' and ver. 16, 'Now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly.' There is our inheritance, which is immortal, eternal, and undefiled ; there is our Father, and the best of our kindred. If the creature were only our habitation, then it were good to be here still ; but since God is, we must strive to be there where we shall have most of him. And therefore, as to the creature, and any outward comforts resulting from thence, we must carry ourselves as strangers and pilgrims. The life of faith is heaven anticipated, and heaven is but the life of faith perfected. Here we must be contented to be strangers and pilgrims. So was Abraham, who had the best right: Heb. xi. 9, ' By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country.' So was David, who had most possession : Ps. xxxix. 12, ' 1 am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were,' He that had so full a right to an opulent powerful kingdom ; not only when he was chased like a flea or partridge on the mountains, but in his full glory and prosperity, when he offered many cart-loads of gold and silver : 1 Chron. xxix. 15, * For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers.' Jesus Christ, who was Lord paramount, complains, Ps. Ixix. 8, ' I am become a stianger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother's children.' He that was Lord of all had neither house nor home. He telleth us, John xvii. 16, ' I am not of this world.' He passed through the world to sanctify it as a place of service, but his heart and constant residence was not here, to