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A23818 The reform'd samaritan, or, The worship of God by the measures of spirit and truth preached for a visitation-sermon at the convention of the clergy, by the reverend Arch-Deacon of Coventry, in Coventry, April the sixth, 1676 : to which is annexed, a review of a short discourse printed in 1649, about the necessity and expediency of worshipping God by set forms / by John Allington ... Allington, John, d. 1682. 1678 (1678) Wing A1213; ESTC R2327 57,253 87

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Under the Law we all know the ordinary and outward Worship it was Sacrifice and Burnt-offerings and yet mercy and the knowledge of God Spiritual and Evangelical acts were even then most acceptable and even then upon this very account you shall finde both David and the people going up to worship Psal 122. 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord. Now what did the people go into the House of the Lord for or for what did David so rejoyce to go up with them was it think you to hear a Sermon No but it was to worship or as it is v. 4. To give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. And Psal 42. 4. What is it the Prophet David there so sadly remembreth and in bitterness poureth forth his Soul for the want of it but onely this I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God What to do onely to hear No but to worship and to give praise to God For it followeth I went up with the voyce of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy-day He was a great Worshipper and delighted to go up with them who went to worship And it seems to me worth observation and to our present purpose that from the beginning of the world all along in Scripture we never read of any erection raised to God but the first and prime intention of it was Worship For The first holy erections we read of they were Altars and those we know were for Sacrisice which was then Worship The second we read of was the Tabernacle and at the Door of this Moses and Aaron they went up to worship Thirdly we read of a glorious Temple built by Solomon of a second built by Zerubbabel a third by Herod all devoted and built for Worship Yea saith God by his Prophet My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations and what is that but the house of Evangelical worship And indeed we finde to that very use the blessed Apostles did put the Temple Peter and John they went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer Yea the very first Houses that the holy Christians after them built they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oratories or Houses of Prayer And indeed what is Heaven it self and the glorious presence of our God but a place of worship Rev. 4. 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sate on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Yea if that Argument of St. Paul upon which he prefers Charity before Faith and Hope be concluding if Charity because it abideth when Faith and Hope shall be no more is therefore the more excellent gift certainly then since we finde Worship where Preaching shall not be since we finde Worship the employment of Angels and the everlasting exercise of beatified Saints and Souls to worship God must needs be a duty of no mean concern specially if we consider how we are taught to pray Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven for the will of God there is an incessant and an everlasting worship Now certainly either we minde not what we pray believe not we are to do as well as to say our Prayers or else we could not conceive our selves bound to worship upon Earth even him who is incessantly worshipped in the Heavens And being I have shewed unto you how all holy places that were ever erected either by Commandment from God or by the instinct or motion of the Spirit of God were all chiefly designed for worship that is for offering up unto God either Sacrifice or Prayers Praises Confession of Sins Professions of Faith Hymns Psalms and spiritual Songs therefore such places they ought to be frequented by us and that purely upon the account of these performances that is upon the account of Worship For He that enters into this House of Prayer and devoutly as did the Publican shall smite his Breast and say no more than God be merciful to me a sinner he doth God more honour than is done by the rude and ordinary hearing of a Sermon He who shall humbly fall upon his Knees and sincerely offer up unto the Father the Prayer of his own Son those two Knees do God more honour than a thousand Hats upon a thousand Heads Yea being it is the charge of our blessed Lord and Master Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven It is impossible any example should be visible unless the Reverence be sensible and the outward Expressions such as may move others to fall down and worship that is reverendly to confess to praise to bless and to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven It is an old saying and a true Occultae Musicae nullum encomium Of concealed Musick there is no praise For let an Artist have in him the sense and habit of Musick never so well be he able in his Spirit to lodge the comprehensions of all Harmony yet unless he either sing or play unless he either by Voice or Instrument discover this hidden skill he can neither give delight to the Hearer or get any praise or respect unto himself Even so it is in Religion and holy Duties let men have in Spirit the habits of Faith Hope Charity and all Graces whatsoever all this whilst but in the Spirit it onely is Occulta Musica undiscerned Piety invisible goodness nothing at all either edifying others or advancing God's glory So that whether it be Conversation or Worship Spirit without Truth inward Religion without outward Evidence Faith within without Works without they may be Arguments of a Fanatick by no means of an holy Spirit So that I shall conclude this whole Discourse with that of our Saviour Matth. 19. 6. Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder Whether it be in our converse with God or Men whether it be in God's Service or in God's Worship whether what we do hath respect to the Person of God or to the Commands of God Spirit and Truth whom God hath joyned together they must never be put asunder What Graces soever we have in the Spirit the truth of their being there must be evidenced by our outward carriage what Reverence what Fear what Awe and what Esteem soever the Spirit hath of the Majesty Presence and Greatness of our God that must be verified seen and proved by our outward Worship For If God in Heaven will not that Angels and Spirits worship within themselves and as some take the Notion in Spirit onely If to him all the Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the powers therein If to him Cherubin and
them Lastly Forasmuch as the muniments of Religion are preservers of the dearest thing imaginable Gods glory and our Souls welfare I do not know what I should suffer in defence of if not of these I lately reading as it fell proper to the day the fifth of Esay when I came to those dreadful words I will take away thy hedge and it shall be eaten up break down the wall and it shall be trodden down it made my Heart even ake to think how applicable this methodical destruction is to our ungrateful Vineyard I will take away the hedge I will break down the wall Take the Hedge and the Wall away cut up the Fence and the Vineyard will soon be waste the Government the Discipline the Liturgy which as a Hedge or a Wall ever since our Reformation preserved the Vineyard since I see it hath pleased God to suffer this Hedge and the Wall to be trodden down I can but fear confusion and desolation to be the sequel For since the worldly wise man verily believes where the Fence is wanting spoil and waste inevitably followeth and therefore his main care is to tend it Even so where the muniments of any Profession or Religion are slighted and taken away where Liturgy this thirteen hundred years without controversie held the Hedge and mound of Faith and God's Worship in a national Church where I say this is pull'd down and taken away there is imminent and evident fear a gap is opened to let in whatever will come be it the beast of the field be it the little Foxes be it the wilde Boar of the Forest come what will there is no muniment no provision no fence against it so that in my poor conceptions the Hedge the Fence the Muniment of the Church they are matters of such necessary consequence that Ministers I conceive had better lay themselves and all their Fortunes in the Gap than for want of fence to suffer the destroyer to come in Indeed I have been told by some who wish very well unto me that humane inventions and things merely circumstantial ought not to be thus stood upon I thank them heartily for their affection and bless them for their good will but our judgements yet must differ For if no suffering for humane invention if life it self may not be exposed to hazard in defence of humane constitutions certainly then no fighting for the Laws of the Land nor no taking up arms for Priviledge of Parliament for these sure are humane and political institutions and as these are necessary for the preservation of a State even some such are also necessary for the preservation of a Church and of such Church-men cannot be too chary Again whereas Liturgy in genere or ours in specie is counted but a circumstantial business I believe I may finde out such circumstantials in a Christian Church as will hazard the whole if they perish In the tenth Persecution under the Tyranny of Dioclesian a Decree pass'd ut Templa libri delerentur that Christians should deliver up their Books and destroy or at least permit the destruction of their Churches Books and Churches I conceive are but circumstantials to Religion for the world was more than 2400 years old before there was any Scripture in it yea the Christian Church it was from the birth of Christ more than 90 years before the Canon of the New Testament was compleated yea after the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour there is supposing his passion at 31 ten years numbred before any Gospel at all was committed unto writing twice ten before the second thrice ten before the third and more than three twenties before the last a plain argument that Books and Writings are but circumstantial to Religion for one may live and die a very good Christian and know never a Letter on the Book Suppose now the Pope and Popery should so far prevail as to have power under the notion of Books heretical for so they will not stick to call our Bibles to call in and under pain of death to deliver up our Bibles even to the fire could any conscientious Protestant satisfie his Soul with this poor evasion Alas the Bible is but circumstantial the Doctrine and Religion of it I can preserve though the Bible be gone Without all peradventure it is most true a learned and well-grounded Christian he may preserve the faith he may deliver and hold fast the form of sound words though among Turks where a Bible is not to be looked upon and yet for my particular I should scarce look upon that man as a Christian who to save his Purse yea his Body should deliver up his Bible to the fire In the Roman Martyrology there is a commemoration made of many holy Martyrs who despising the sacrilegious Edict of Dioclesian 7. Quo tradi sacros codices jubebantur potiùs corpora carnificibus quàm sancta dare canibus maluerint chose rather to deliver their Bodies to the Executioner than holy things to Dogs or holy Books unto the fire And truely I should rather honour these as Martyrs than those for good Christians who under pretence of things circumstantial should deliver those to save themselves so highly I conceive God would be dishonoured in the betraying of so great a preserver and muniment of his honour Again as Books even so to some much more clearly Churches Oratories Temples they are mere circumstantials Now suppose the Independent and Congregational Brother-hood should so far overpower as to command the demolition as they call them of our Steeple-houses the destruction and levelling of our Churches I would very fain know whether in point of conscience I were not rather bound to suffer than in any measure to appear willing to so high a Sacriledge I who am Flesh and Blood as well as other men could finde pretty evasions and glosses to fool my Soul withal I could say as I hear is not a Sermon as well in a Parlour as in a Church Did not Christ preach in a Ship Paul pray upon the Sands and shall I suffer in defence of so unnecessary a trifle as an heap of Stones a popish Relique a sorry Meeting-house For my particular I am afraid many things are daily called circumstantial not with consideration whether so or no but because these are the things in question these the points which I must either dissemble desert or suffer for I pray let me as a close to this present you with the example of one who though a Bishop was ever reverenced as a Saint and a good man I mean that great Doctor St. Ambrose who being once tempted and provoked even in this very point and that by no less than the Emperour to deliver up his Church though it pleased the Emperour in a fair way to send Earls and Tribunes to him ut Basilicae fieret matura traditio that there might be a seasonable deliverance of that Royal Palace for so his piety terms