were in Atrio came the penitents such as did penance but no further the third place was the body of the Church which we may call Sanctum and whither the people came to bee partakers of Gods worship and the fourth was as it were the Sanctum Sanctorum the inclosed place where the Altar or Communion-Table stood into which none did enter but such as were in holy Orders and had power to consecrate the blessed Elements so great followers were the Primitive Christians of antiquity rather than incliners unto novelty Now to move our times in which some pull down as fast as our Fathers built and deface as much as they did decke a little to looke to Gods houses and buildings I shall briefly offer two things to your consideration First the great estimation which God hath of these houses next the high esteeme in which men have had them so that if we either feare God or reverence men there can no argument be wanting God his estimation of Temples appeareth by his delivering unto Moses the patterne of the Tabernacle even to the least pin which was to be but a patterne of the Temple by not giving way to David his building of the Temple although a man according to Gods owne heart onely for that exception of bloud which God had against him and not of bloud unlawfully shed but in lawfull warres and undertaken by God his owne commandement for this exception was laid against David before the matter of Vriah by his accepting the Temple at Salomons hands in the very time of the dedication of it filling it so with his presence in the cloud that the Priests were interrupted in performing the rites of consecration by promising to put his name there for ever and to fix his eyes and heart there perpetually by performing this his promise of presence for many times he appeared betweene the Cherubins and in that Temple did inspire diverse with the spirit of prophesie by ordering that the most precious and holy things should be kept in it the Arke of the Testament the Tables of the Law Aarons rod the heavenly fire Vrim and Thummim c. By threatning the destruction of that Temple as the greatest judgement that should ever befall them as indeed it was for after the destruction of that Temple they ceased to be any more a people And as by God so by men this Temple of all buildings had in the highest esteeme Hierusalem in regard of it counted the joy of the whole earth to this Temple came all the people once in the yeare and when they did not come they powred forth their supplications with their faces towards it you know David his one wish although it was not granted him that All his life long he might dwell in the house of the Lord and visit the beauty of his holy Temple he accounted the Sparrowes happy which might but hop and sing and lay their young about the Altars of it he accounted the meanest officer even a doore-keeper in it happier than they that lived in the Pallaces of Princes In a word consider the revenge which Christ who was God taketh here upon the profaners of the Temple and the vast expence laid out upon it by David and Salomon who were men and we must needs see that high esteeme in which that Temple was had both by God and men But what is all this will you say to our Christian Churches Very much for they are come in place of that Temple as the Christian Religion is come in place of the Iewish that Temple was but a type of our Churches as all that service was a type of our Christ We have an Altar saith the Apostle and therefore a Priesthood as that Temple had there was the Arke of the Testament our Churches are the Arkes of two Testaments of theirs which was the old Testament and of another better than theirs the new Testament in our Churches are the daily sacrifices of praise and prayer the two Tables of the Law and they expounded and vindicated from false gloses and interpretations by our Saviour in the 5 of Math. which that Temple had not in our Churches is Aarons rod that is Ecclesiasticall discipline Vrim and Thummim in our Priests and above all in our Churches is celebrated the commemorative sacrifice of the most precious body and bloud of the Sonne of God no doubt then to be made of Gods high esteeme of Christian Churches built unto him Now how they have beene honoured by men witnesse the infinite cost bestowed by our fore-fathers in fabricke and maintenance of them the infinite priviledges granted by Christian Princes unto them although the beginning of our age did scatter as fast as the former age did gather and the later lawes of taking no more from the Church were farre more necessary than those former lawes for giving no more to it Whose charity then can bee straitned when a house of God is to be inlarged when either it is to be built or being built is to be kept from ruine Can men have summer and winter houses and the Temple of God lie so as it keepeth out neither summer Sun nor winter weather the Temple of God I say a name so glorious that even the most glorious all the persons of the Trinity delight to be called by it God the Father Revel 21. 22. Iohn saw no Temple in the holy City For the Lord God Almighty and the Lambe are the Temple of it God the Sonne his person the Lambe in that place is called a Temple by Saint Iohn his body by himselfe Destroy this Temple and I will build it up againe in three dayes The Holy Ghost although he be not called a Temple yet Temples he hath and delighteth to dwell in them even our bodies Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost The summe of all is houses are to be built unto God and being built are highly to be honoured because they are his houses by propriety which I told you was the second particular in the Church its name and is now the next point to be spoken of My house My house that is mine by propriety and if so then we must looke to three things First if the Church be Gods house then Take heed to thy foot when thou enterest into it Eccles. 4. 17. do not rush rudely nor rashly into it but be sure you keep your distance els you may be turned back with shame enough and sent home unjustified as the Pharisiâ— was because he kept not the Publican his distance who stood afarre off and would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven How fearefull saith Iacob is this place the Lord was in it and I knew it not it is nothing els but the house of God and the very gate of heaven The truth then is if the Church be my house that is Gods we must observe a reverend distance in all our approaches which we make to
have crumbled their houses to nothing and sunke their estates irrecoverably Now they who pervert Gods house and turne it to any secular use do deny it to be my house that is Gods as much as they who evert it and pull it downe It is a notable cunning of the Divell as to make us believe that God is a good-fellow and that we may retaine him in our hearts with our sinnes so to make us believe that his house is a house of good-fellowship and that it may serve for other uses besides the service of God to lay lumber in or things out of the way in a Progresse time to serve for a Wardrobe in the countrey for Iuries of Leets to sit in and consult about their verdicts and most commonly at the Communion-Table to make their Sesses not onely for the poore which is a Church-duty but also for all other compositions where they seldome meet without wrangling and I am afraid many times not without swearing But if it be Gods house he must and will have it alone or not at all That passage of the Philistims setting the Arke of God in the Temple of Dagon is very remarkable one would wonder why God should plague the Philistims for it for I am perswaded the Philistims made account they had done the Arke the greatest honour that they could imagine by setting it in the Temple of their owne god yet God tumbled downe Dagon smote the Philistims and would have consumed them if they had not dismissed his Arke What meant this Onely to tell the world that with God it is all one to be turned out of doores and to be lodged by an Idoll Let God have his house alone there he will dwell make it thine as well as mine that is make it serve for thine use and the service of God too thou diseasest God and turnest him out of doores The reason is because houses built to God are only to be consecrated to him and his service which is now the next point to be spoken of I called it the Churches surname shal be called the house of prayer In it I told you of two particulars First Gods house is to be called or as it were christened that is consecrated and dedicated to God and his service my house shal be called Secondly among all the parts of Gods service it is especially to be consecrated to prayer shal be called the house of prayer For the first that the consecraâ—ion and solemne dedication of Temples and Churches is very ancient it is argument enough that in all the three languages we have a proper word for it in the Hebrew Chanucah from Chanac which signifieth to dedicate a thing when it is finished in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 encoenia from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an initiation or making of a thing new the word used by Iohn 10. 22. for that feast of dedication at which Christ was present and then the Latine words dedicatio and consecratio Consecration or setting apart persons or things to God both by God himselfe and men is very ancient God consecrated to himselfe our first parents and made their mariage a kind of Sacrament of the union and spirituall mariage betweene Christ and his Church as the Apostle testifieth Ephes. 5. so he consecrated to himselfe the posterity of Seth of Iacob every male which first opened the wombe at last the Iewes had delivered unto them among other parts of the Ceremoniall Law the rites of dedication of certaine persons vessels vestures Now for the solemne dedication of the houses of God we have first the dedication of the Tabernacle which was but the patterne of the Temple Exod. 40. then of the Temple it selfe we have three solemne dedications recorded in Scripture the first by Salomon Kings 1. 8. the second by Zorobabel and others Ezra 6. and related by Iosephus antiq lib. 11. cap. 4. the last by Iudas Macchabeus after the defeat of Antiochus which was indeed especially of the Altar of which we read Mach. 1. 4. and Ioseph antiq lib. 12. cap. 10. and this last was the feast of dedication which Christ honoured with his presence Iohn 10. for it is plaine by the text both that it was in winter and anniversarie neither of which is true of the two former dedications Among Christians their Churches used ever to be consecrated Euseb. lib. 9. cap. 10. of his Historie and in the life of Constantine describeth unto us the dedication of that Church which Constantine first built at Hierusalem When Churches at the first were rare the authority of consecration came from the Prince and Magistrate but the rites of consecration in the Iewish Church were ever performed by the Priests in the Christian by the Bishops the first dedication of the Temple of Hierusalem done by the authority of Salomon the second of Zorobabel the third of Iudas Macchabeus but all of them performed by the Priests so among Christians the first Christian Church at Hierusalem consecrated by the authority of Constantine but by the ministery of Eusebius that of Alexandria by the same authority but by the ministerie of Athanasius The rites of consecration are left to the Church and her Bishops onely there be some of them of the Quorum without which there cannot well be any consecration as first Churches ought to be consecrated by prayer for Salomon his dedication is conceived in the very forme of a prayer next Churches are to be consecrated by reading of the Word for at the dedication of the Temple the law was ever read Thirdly Churches are to be dedicated with the celebration of the Sacrament of our Saviour his most precious body and bloud as in all the three dedications of the Temple ever sacrifice was offered But above all Churches must onely be consecrated and dedicated to God not to Saints Angels or any created Patrons But may not the Churches of Christians be called by the names of Saints and Martyrs as S. Maries S. Peters c Yes they may be patrini but not patres godfathers but not fathers of our Churches as men are contented their children should be called by the names of their friends whom they chuse for godfathers but will have themselves still onely acknowledged for fathers so God alloweth that his Saints and Martyrs should be susceptores godfathers of Christian Churches especially if it shall not be done as now it is in the Church of Rome to derogate from God his Patronage and no particular office or service shall be allowed to be said in the Church to that Saint after which it is named The truth is in the Primitive Church Christian Churches were called by the names of Saints and Martyrs for two reasons the equity of both which holdeth still First to testifie their thankfulnesse to God for the benefits which the Church had received by the ministerie of these Saints Secondly and principally God in the infancy of the Church did
appeareth by his prayer in the Garden which he powred forth in a private place a garden at a private time in the night privately and alone by himselfe for he was separated not onely from the rest of his Disciples but even from the three Disciples that entred with him by the space of a stones cast Sure none can speake against private prayer but they who never felt that sweetnesse which the soule of a Christian findeth in her private retirement familiarity and conversation with God You who do use it use it still for besides many other you shall find these three great conveniences in it First an easie ravishing of the mind of a Christian for if that definition of prayer which the Fathers give us be true that prayer is nothing els but the lifting up or ravishing of a mans mind from all worldly things towards God how can the mind of man be more easily lifted up from worldly things than when being alone with his God he is remooved from the sight and sense of them Secondly in private prayer we find greater security from vaine-glory which though perhaps in publike prayer we do not affect yet we do not know how the Divell may spice our prayers with pride when we thinke that every one is looking upon us Thirdly in private prayer we may use greater freedome and liberty with God in expressing of our wants as broken words crying ejaculatorie voices confused sighs c. which though they be acceptable to God yet are not seemly nor decent before men and therefore may be used with greater freedome in private than they can be in publike prayer For these and many more such reasons follow Christ his counsell Enter into thy chamber and shut the doore behind thee that is give your selves to private prayer But much more be sure never to neglect publike prayer to which we find likewise that our Saviour was so much addicted take for instance those prayers which he powred forth publikely at his death for they were made at a publike time the time of the Passeover when untill that time twelvemoneth there was not so great a confluxe of people to be at Hierusalem to heare in a publike place the place of execution large and able to receive great multitudes and that they might yet be heard the better made upon the top of a hill Mount Calvarie nay yet upon the top of a beacon which stood upon the top of that hill nay yet that they might be the better heard as it is said in the Gospell that he spake his last word consummatum est with a loud voice so saith the Apostle Heb. 5. 7. that he offered up his prayers there clamore validâ— Who offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and tears which place the Fathers expound of his prayers upon the Crosse among the rest and here I think publike prayer is sufficiently warranted And if you shall say what is all this to publike prayer in the Temple I answer very much for that place in which our Lord dying prayed was a Temple the reason is this sacrifice was onely to be offered up in the Temple Christ therefore in this place offering up the sacrifice of his owne body made it truly to be a Temple truly I say because the Temple of Hierusalem in which the daily sacrifice was offered up was nothing els but a type of this very place in which was to be offered this perfect sacrifice once for all as therefore Christ called his body a Temple Destroy this Temple and I will build it up in three dayes so offering up the sacrifice of his body in this place he might challenge God to heare the prayers which he should make in this place by vertue of that promise which he had made to heare the prayers which should be made in the Temple And Christ praying in this place was quit with the Iewes in my text for this place was Golgotha the place of dead mens sculs that is the place where lay the bodies of executed malefactors and theeves so that looke how much the Iewes had dishonoured the Temple in my text so much did Christ honour Mount Calvarie As they had made the house of God which was the house of prayer to be a den of theeves so Christ made Golgotha which was a den for the dead bodies of theeves to become the house of prayer The excellency of publike prayer is well set forth by our Saviour Math. 18. in that excellent rule which he giveth for publike prayer for that rule includeth three reasons why we should give our selves to it The first is the consent and agreement of Christian minds in prayer a thing most acceptable to God Vers. 18. If two of you shall agree upon any thing in earth it shal be given unto you Secondly because of the assembling of the Saints together in one place which meeting even of their bodies is a thing most delightfull unto God in the next verse For where two or three are gathered together there will I be in the middest of them Thirdly because of the unity of faith which is most pleasant unto God the people assembling themselves in the name of Christ in the same verse where two or three are gathered together in my name there will I be in the middest of them to these reasons we may add this that the publike prayers of the Church are far more excellently conceived and penned than any private extemporary prayers can be for there is more pith in one of the well conceived Collects of the Church than in many of those pitifull fellowes more pitifull bablings and idle repetitions in which as our Saviour speaketh they think to be heard for their length whereas prayer consisteth not in length but strength which is to be had in the well compacted Collects of the Church Have you not heard some of these men in their extemporary exclamations or declamations rather for sometimes their prayers are libels talke to God not onely with that familiarity but homelinesse that you would not have indured them to talke to you And perhaps they who stand now so much onely for extemporary prayer and preaching too in the Church ere it be long for I see no reason why it may not hold in this as well as in the other two will venture and put in for extemporary singing in the Church and then they will make themselves ridiculous indeed The summe of all is although thou givest thy selfe never so much to private prayer which is well done yet do not neglect the publike prayers of the Church in the Church which is here called the house not of knowledge righteousnesse mercy preaching hearing c. although it be all these but the house of prayer So that those men who do wilfully excommunicate themselves by not comming to the prayers of the Church but onely to the Sermon or usually go out of it before the blessing or last prayer be pronounced since the Church is called the house of prayer they are like them who come unto a schoole but will not learne to a battell but will not fight to a bed but will not sleep to a feast but will not feed all which tendeth nothing to any derogation from private prayer For as God dispersed the places of refuge throughout the land to his people so thicke and at such distances as the offenders might reach some of them by night lest they should be over-taken by the avengers of their bloud but yet appointed the Temple for the only place whither afterwards the offenders were to resort and to expiate their offence by sacrifice so for our sinnes which we daily and hourely commit God alloweth and requireth us daily to have refuge to him by private prayer but so that we neglect not to reconcile our selves to him for these sinnes by our publike prayers in the Temple which is the house of prayer for whosoever robbeth God and his Temple of this honor which is due unto him in it doth what in him lieth in some sense to make the house of prayer a den of theeves which is now the next point to be spoken of I called it the Churches nicke-name but you have made it a den of theeves In unfolding of which part if time had suffered me many would have been found theeves and robbers who passe for vertuous and honest men Hardly would any pretence have served their turne For the money-changers and dove-sellers and the Priests suffering them to sell in the Court for it was in the Atrium or Court only that they sold not in the Temple it selfe although it be here called so because it was consecrated and holy ground as the Temple was had as specious a pretence for this their merchandizing as might be even the pretence of that Law Deut. 14. 24. whereby it was permitted to the people for the more easie cariage to change their tythes and offerings into money and with that money at Hierusalem to buy the like Now for this purpose to fit such people with sacrifices and offerings did the Priests pretend that they suffered the money-changers and dove-sellers to set up their shops there although indeed they did it to get money for their standing and the shop-keepers to make gaine of the people and therefore our Saviour here cals their getting plaine thee very and robbery But the time will not give me leave to arraigne these theeves now To God the Father God the Sonne God the Holy Ghost bee ascribed all honour and praise now and ever Amen FINIS