a Church unmoveable The Spirit of Wickedness shall have no power to trouble it with heretical Doctrines By which passage we learn both how full their Assemblies were wont to be and that the Prayers were understood by all the people who with one voice said the same that the Priest did as we now do in our general confession and that they hoped for great security from their common Supplications to God for his watchful Providence over them And thus our own Church in the second Collect for Morning Prayer by teaching us to look upon our Eternal Life as standing in the knowledge of God and to esteem his service to be perfect freedom inforces our resort unto him continually for our defence in that Service and Knowledge in all assaults of our Enemies The Effect of which it instructs us to hope will be this that we surely trusting in his defence may not fear the power of any Adversaries through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. This St. Chrysostome admirably represents Hom. in S. Lucianum Tom. 1. as his manner is in a Sermon upon an Ancient Martyr As a Man that alwayes stands upon a Rock laughs the Waves to scorn so he that enjoys the dayly Prayers and is moistned with the Divine Words having seated himself as upon the Rock of a right Judgment of things will be carried away with nothing here being raised alost out of the reach of all the Affairs of this Life And that not only from the goâ—â— admonitions he dayly receives but frâ—â—â— the Prayers and from the Paternal Beâ—diction and from the common conventiâ—â—â— and from the Love of the Brethren and from abundance of other things reaping much Benefit and Spiritual Consolatiâ—â— he goes home laden with a thousand Bâ—â—sings Insomuch that a Bride in 〈◊〉 opinion is not so beautiful and amiaâ—â—â— when she sits in her Bridal Chamber 〈◊〉 a Soul is wonderful and glorious whâ—â— it appears in the Church breathing forth Spiritual Graces which he comparâ—â— to fragrant Oyntments For he that iâ— conversant there with Faith and Diligence carries away innumerable Treâ—sures and though never so many dreadful things befall him he will bear them aleasily being sufficiently furnished out oâ— the Holy Scriptures with Patience and Philosophy He means the wise thoughts which the belief of the Gospel puts into us For which reason it was that the Enemies of our Religion bent their Forces not so much against particular persons as against their Assemblies which they indeavoured with all their might to destroy as the Nurseries of the Christian Faith Which being dispersed they doubted not but the Faith it self would be lost in that disorder They no longer lookt upon Christians as a Church when they did not meet together but as so many scattered Limbs of a Body which no longer subsists when the Members are distracted and torn asunder Against these strong holds therefore they laid their Batteries hoping when they were beaten down they should presently triumph over their Religion Which they knew it was hard to overcome whilst a great Body of Men remained knit together continually for its support by many Bonds and Holy Mysteries and the strictest Sacraments For which cause likewise it was that Christian people could not be perswaded to omit their Assemblies no not in time of Persecution when there was the greatest danger if they held them We learn so much from their very Persecutors particularly from the Famous Letter which Pliny wrote to the Emperour Trajan about this matter wherein we are informed that when it was not safe in the day time they met before the Morning Light to sing Hymns to Christ as their God To what shall we impute this Zeal Might they not have served God as well alone No they understood their Religion better than to be of that Opinion and knew it could not stand if they did not thus joyn together to uphold it Their Enemies they knew wisht for nothing more than that these Assemblies might be broken which whilst they continued were the Pillar and Stay of the Christian Truth And do we pretend to be Christians and to love our Religion and to desire nay hope for its safety and prosperity and make so little Account of these Holy Assemblies that the smallest matter will hinder our attendance on them Let us not against the clearest demonstrations persist in such a stupid error But awaken or rather inflame our selves unto such a degree of Zeal as to meet together dayly where we have opportunity for it to give Glory to God in his Church by Christ Jesus and to commend his Church as well as our selves and Families to the protection of his good Providence saying O Lord save thy People and bless thine Inheritance It cannot be imagined what satisfaction we should find herein did we make this our most serious business and instead of the excuses we now make for our negligence give all diligence thus to adorn confirm and secure our most Holy Religion It cannot be denied indeed that this hath been an Error of long standing For when the Church had rest from Persecution her Children began by degrees to grow remiss and wanton Prosperity and ease corrupted them and they cooled so much in their first love that many of them came but seldom to do their Duty unto God their Saviour But this was an extream great grief to their Pastors and brought the heaviest calamities upon Christian people Hear how the often named Father bewails this That the Church having brought forth many Children she could not enjoy their Company S. Chrysost de Baptism Christi Hom. xxiv Tom. 1. every time they assembled to remember our Saviour but only upon a Festival When you are all full of joy to day I alone am full of sorrow and grieved at heart to think that the Church which now hath such multitudes in it will to morrow be empty O how great Spiritual Exultation how great Joy how great Glory to God how great Profit to Souls would there be if every time we assemble we could behold the Church as full as it is at this solemn time Do you not see how the Mariners and Pilots when they are upon the Sea labour all they can to get into their Port And we on the contrary love to be tossed up and down in the Sea of this World ingageinâ— our selves in innumerable Secular Affairs which so take up all our thoughts and our time that here we appear scarce once or twice in the whole year Are ye ignorant that as God made Havens in the Sea so he hath made Churches in Cities that flying from the tumult or tempest rather of secular Affairs we may here enjoy the greatest Tranquillity And for this I may appeal to all your own Consciences whether you find not here such quiet and peace that you may truly call the Church the Spiritual Haven of the Soul For anger here gives no disturbance the storms of Passion cease Lust doth not inflame
expose us to contempt and loathing to harden Mens hearts against a just Reformation to make those who are reformed grow sick and weary and ashamed of the distracted unsetledness and ungovernableness of such people Who like nothing but what is unlike to all the Churches of Christ that have been in the World till this last unhappy Age. This cannot proceed from the Blessed Spirit of Grace which cannot lead Men to destroy the Church which Christ hath purchased by his Blood Which it is evident cannot be preserved much less promoted but by a due regard to those who are over us in the Lord and by adhering closely to such an Authentick Constitution as that of this Church which is the genuine Off-spring of the Apostles declaring nothing to the people but the true sense of the Ancient Apostolick Church throughout the World Which alwayes had such Governours of a superiour Order and Degree to other Ministers as we have such Prayers such Hymns in a word such a Face of Religion as is here seen in this our Church of England And may be seen Blessed be God in other Reformed Churches particularly in those called Lutheran who as Chemnitius tells us have had solemn Prayers every day and much after the same Order that is observed in ours His words are these Populus singulis diebus bis certa hora c. The people assemble every Day twice at a certain hour Exam. Concil Trident. Pars iv cap. ult Morning and Evening and after the singing of some Psalms Lessons are read in order partly out of the Old Testament partly out of the New And the Assembly concludes alwaies with Common Prayers and some Hymn of Thanksgiving And besides the people come together every Week on some certain Day in greater Multitudes to make Publick and Solemn Supplications which are called Letanies And so he proceeds to relate how they Worship God with the greatest Solemnity on the Lord's Dayes and upon special Festivals in memory of the great Benefits we have received on the Nativity Circumcision c. in short on all the Dayes now observed by our Church O that there were such an heart in us as instead of Wrangling and Disputing seriously to set our selves to make the best use we can of such Blessed Opportunities as God still affords unto us of meeting together every Day for his Worship and Service Especially upon Letany Dayes when there ought to be a fuller Congregation and more than ordinary Devotion One of those Dayes at least I should think every Devout Christian may easily see there is great cause to set apart every Week for Fasting and Humiliation together with Supplication and Prayer to the Divine Majesty that he would turn away his Anger from us Men are naturally too backward I know to such Holy Imployments and satisfie themselves that they have an Excellent Religion which they highly value without considering that they have so much the greater Obligation upon them to joyn frequently in the Holy Offices thereof Let that therefore for a conclusion be added to all the motives I have used in this Book to stir you up to the constant performance of this Duty that it will be the greatest shame to us if when they whose Religion is a false Worship have their constant Dayly Service and attend upon it we who have the truest Notions of God and the most Excellent Religion have less regard unto it by which means their Religion how corrupt soever it be is upheld and maintained and for want of this ours though never so pure must needs fall to decay For they that love the Religion they profess though it be not so sincere and perfect as it ought to be yet never fail to reap all the Benefits which it is able to afford and this among the rest that they keep their Religion by their unfeigned Love to it and Diligence in it Whereas the best and soundest Religion professed by those who bear not the like Affection to it yields those who thus retain it little or no benefit as Mr. Hooker hath observed and by degrees is lost for want of a due regard and earnest Affection to it We see this verified in Pagans Turks and Hereticks Who zealously attend upon the Publick Offices of their Religion and so continue their Sect. How comes their Religion to lead them to have frequent Assemblies and ours to make us neglect them But that they keep up their Love to their Religion such as it is and we have lost our first Love and so endanger the loss of our Religion For had we a sincere love to it we should be led by the Natural Dictates of it to attend upon its publick Offices that being the very first thing to which Religion inclines us and there to attend with all seriousness both to the Prayers and Hymns and to the Holy Scriptures which are then read unto us And therefore our Religion hath gone to decay because we have not minded publick Assemblies dayly but where they are kept up they are empty and thin or when they are full there are none of these Natural signs of Devotion in too many people which are among all Nations bended Knees Hands and Eyes lifted up to Heaven nay they do not attend to the Word of God there read but pass it by as a Tale that is told fancying I suppose it is never the Word of God but when it is preached that is spoken without Book These are not the Faults of all nor I hope of most among us But I have observed some of them especially the last of Whispering together all the time the Scriptures are read as if they were nothing but an empty sound in so many Persons from whose Understanding one would expect better things that I could not but take notice of such unbecoming Behaviour in the House of God Where I beseech God to awaken all his Ministers to perform their Duty with careful Diligence And all his People to Accompany them reverently in continual Prayers and Supplications to the Glory of His Great Name the Credit of our Holy Religion the Honour of this Church the Increase of all true Godliness and Vertue among us and the furtherance thereby of our Joyful Account and Happy Meeting in the Day of the Lord Jesus Amen THE END ERRATA PAge 30. l. 24. d. he p. 33. l. 20. for created r. erected p. 53. l. ult for enabled r. enobled p. 59. l. 7. r. 2dly This. p. 65. l. 11. for it r. he p. 106. l. 17. d. also p. 121. l. 3. after yet add p. 123. l. 9. after 19 add p. 168. l. 1. for times r. time p. 170. l. 22. for Rules r. Rule p. 184. l. 25. r. was as well performed any where as in the Church p. 185. l. 3. r. inlarge THE CONTENTS THE Introduction PART I. CHAP. I. OF the Nature of Prayer Page 1 CHAP. II. Of the Necessity of Prayer Page 10 CHAP. III. The sense of all Mankind about this matter especially of our Blessed Saviour Page 22 CHAP. IV. Other Arguments of the great Necessity of Prayer Page 32 CHAP. V. Some Reflections upon the foregoing Considerations Page 39 CHAP. VI. The Honour God doth us in admitting us into his Presence Page 49 CHAP. VII The Pleasure which springs from the serious performance of this Duty Page 61 CHAP. VIII The great Benefits we receive by serious Prayer to God 74 CHAP. IX The Three foregoing Chapters improved Page 85 PART II. CHAP. X. Publick Prayer the most necessary of all other Page 95 CHAP. XI God is most honoured by Publick Prayers Page 99 CHAP. XII Publick Prayers most advantagious unto us Page 115 CHAP. XIII Publick Prayers most sutable to the Nature of Man Page 135 CHAP. XIV The Nature of a Church requires there should be Publick Prayers Page 162 CHAP. XV. Our Blessed Saviour the Founder of the Church teaches us this Doctrine Page 168 CHAP. XVI Which is further confirmed by the Practice of the Apostles and the first Christians Page 177 CHAP. XVII Other Considerations to strengthen this Argument Page 192 CHAP. XVIII A Recapitulation of the four foreing Chapters with some Inferences from thence Page 206 CHAP. XIX Of Dayly Publick Assemblies and of Hours and Gestures of Prayer Page 222 CHAP. XX. Some Objections removed Page 244 THE END
and the Worship of God and a little after that he also appointed stated hours for these Sacrifices to teach us that the Church cannot be without a certain Discipline he then concludes Ac hodie nisi obstaret nimius torpor utile esset quotidiè haberi tales conventus and at this day if too much sluggishness did not hinder it would be useful every day to hold such Assemblies And in his Discourse upon the fourth Commandment L. 2. Institutionum Cap. viii Sect. 32. he not only asserts that Ecclesiastical Assemblies are enjoyned by God's words and that experience sufficiently shows their necessity and that the dayes and times must be stated and set or else they cannot be at all c. but in answer to those who objected Why do we not rather meet every day that distinction of dayes may be taken away He thus replies Vtinam illud quidem daretur c. Would to God we were able so to do For certainly it was a worthy Spiritual Wisdom which spared a little portion of time every day from other business for God's Service But if we cannot obtain from the infirmity of many that dayly Assemblies may be held and respect to Charity doth not permit us to exact more of them Why do we not yield Obedience to that which we see by the Will of God is imposed upon us And he thus concludes his Explication of that Commandment This general Doctrine is especially to be held That Holy Meetings be diligently and Religiously observed and such external helps constantly used as may serve to support and cherish the Worship of God lest Religion either fall to the Ground or languish among us To which I think fit to add what his opinion was concerning set times of Prayer for his Words are very instructive Upon Psal lv 17. his note is That from the mention there of Morning Evening and Noon we may gather that pious Men had stat as hâ—ras set hours for Prayer in those times Which good Men observed in their private Devotions because then the publick Service of the Temple was performed by God's appointment For the daily Sacrifice was offered every Morning and Evening And the mid-Day saith he was appointed for other Sacrifices The reason of which he gives upon the 18th ver Because we are backward to this Duty therefore God in fixing certain hours of Prayer intended to cure this infirmity Which same reason ought to be extended to private Prayer as appears by this place with which the Example of Daniel agrees And upon that practice of Daniel he thus writes in his notes on Dan. vi 10. This Example is worth the noting of praying three times a day because nisi quisque nostrum praefigat sibi certas horas ad precandum facile nobis excidet memoria We easily forget this Duty unless every one of us prescribe to our selves certain hours for Prayer From all which it is apparent that he lookt upon set hours for publick Divine Service as appointed by God and that he also thought the reason of it to be perpetual Because if we be left to our liberty we shall easily forget our Duty and perform that at no time which we imagine may be done at any time as well as at that which is appointed The benefit of which is this among others that where there are no publick Assemblies or Men cannot by reason of sickness or other urgent cause attend them they may at those set times offer some short Prayer to God in private and desire the publick Prayers of the Church where they are continually made may be accepted with him By which means they are in some sort present there and the Prayers they make in private become a part of the publick they praying as Members of that Body which is then met together in the House of God Thus St. Peter prayed privately as I observed above at the sixth hour when they were praying at the Temple and in Christian Assemblies and though alone at that time yet he chose the same hours with theirs that his Prayers might be joyned with the rest and not be single but united desires Thus St. Chrysostome directs his people in answer to those who objected unto his pressing Arguments for attending the publick Prayers how is it possible for a Secular Man ingaged in business 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to pray at the three hours every day Hom. iv de Anna. Tom. 2. and run to Church To which he replies in this manner though it be not easie for every Man to run to the Church so oft yet it is easie for him even when he is in publick business to pray to God unto which not so much the voice is requisite as the mind And therefore let no Man excuse himself by saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the House of Prayer is not near to mine for if we be watchful the Grace of the Holy Spirit will make every one of us a Temple of God She that sits at the Spindle may look up to Heaven in her thoughts and call upon God with fervent desires and so may he that is in the Market or in a Journey or in his Shop making Shoes in like manner a Servant he that buyes Meat he that dresses it and all the rest when it is not possible for them to come to Church they may notwithstanding make fervent and lively Prayers to God who doth not despise the place where they are made but desires alone warm Affections and a serious composed Mind And he concludes thus My meaning in all that I have said is this That we should go to Church as oft as is possible and when we cannot pray at home in great quietness and tranquillity Which counsel if we would all follow that is if as many as can would come to the House of God every day and if they that cannot would let their hearts be there what Blessings might we not expect from God What a flourishing Church and happy Kingdom might we hope to see And there are a great many people I am sure have leisure enough in all Cities and Towns to fill the Churches where there are publick Prayers Nothing but that sluggish dulness Mr. Calviâ— speaks of is the hinderance Which if men would shake off and awakeâ— themselves to serious thoughts of God and the need they have of him and 〈◊〉 constant Prayer to him and such like things as I have represented theâ—â— would be publick Prayers where noâ— there are none and Men would crowâ— every day into the House of Goâ— where there are to Worship him and give him Thanks and beseech hiâ— to be gracious to them As for thâ—â— whose condition and business is such that they cannot possibly attend them nothing can hinder them but their own Wills from going thither in their Wills from going thither in their minds with serious Thoughts and hearty Affections intreating the Father of Mercies to hear the Prayers of those who are there