Sacras holy or Sacred houses For Euseb de vit const l. 3. c. 1. they are set a part from common use they are assigned to Gods Worship they are consecrated with solemne and speciall rites and given up into Gods possession and their Dedications have long beene commemorated with yearely solemnites whereupon it was decreed in the Councell of Gangra Si quis docet domum Dei Contemp ibilem esse vel congregationes quae in ea fiant Anathema Cap. 5. fit i. If any man teach that the house of God or the Congregations there assembled are to be contemned or slighted let him be accursed And further the words in that Councell are Domos Cap. 21. Dei honoramus conventus qui in iis fiunt tanquam sanctos utiles suscipimus non claudentes pietatem in domibus sed omnem locum in Dei nomine aedificatum honoramus i. Wee doe honour the houses of God and embrace the assemblies there as holy and good Not that we shut up Pietie in houses but that wee honour all places which are built to the name of God So then the Pietie of those times reputed Churches holy places and yet no otherwise holy than by a Relative holinesse viz. in regard of their consecration and the use whereto they are thereby assigned which yet giveth no man liberty ever the more to slight the Church For though creatures beneath the reasonable be capable of no other holinesse than this Relative holinesse yet have they soundly smarted who have dared to prophane such holy things Nabuchadonosor 2 King 25. burnt up the houses of the Lord and the Pillars of the basesse and the brazen Sea did the Caldaeans breake in peeces c. But then marke what followed it is not long before that Nabuchadonosor is called to his account for all this when his Kingdome is departed from him and he driven Dan. 4. from men doth eate grasse as Oxen hath his body wet with the dew of heaven his haire grow like Eagles feathers and his nailes like the birds talons Baltasar will needes prophane the holy vessels and command them from the house of Dan. 5. God for himselfe to carouse in among his Concubines But the wrath of God doth quickely powre him out a Cup of vengeance and sad newes that night he lost his life and the Medes and Persians possessed his Kingdome Antiochus 1 Mac. 1. maketh the like havocke in the Temple and the holy things thereof as Nabuchadonosor had done before and not long after he is met withall by the hand of God which smote him with an invisible and incureable plague tormenting his bowels and inward parts his flesh rotting his carkasse swarming with Lice and stinking so grievously as not to be endured and in this wretched case he dyed miserably on the wilde Mountaines And one maine motive stirring God to expose the Iewes to the fury of the Chaldaeans was for that 2 Chro. 36. 14. they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Ierusalem Doth not the fearefull death of Vzzah tell us how wary we must be and what heede we must take of medling with things hallowed or Consecrated for what did he but onely touch the Arke with his hand in no contempt or evill meaning but with a good respect to keepe it from falling But the Arke was holy and Vzza his hand was not to meddle therewith he therefore dyed for this presumption and yet the holinesse of the Arke was but relative holinesse What should I say of the Sabboth day among the Iewes or of the Lords day among the Christians was the one Or is the other holy otherwise than by a relative holinesse And yet wee know how severely they have beene punished which violated the holinesse of the Sabboth in the Old Testament and we have knowne of many terrible judgements which have overtaken such as have abused the other Ierusalem is the holy Citty and heaven it selfe is an holy place yet no otherwise holy than in relation to God there specially present If then heaven be holy Ierusalem holy the Lords day holy the Sabboth was holy then the Church or place consecrated for Christians to assemble in for the publicke worship of Almighty God is therefore holy because being so consecrated it hath such relation to God and his worship CAP. VI. Names whereby Churches under the Gospell have beene called OUr English word Church which in Scotland is sounded Kyrke commeth of the Greeke word ΚυÏιακὴ of the word ΚÏÏιοσ a Lord so ΚυÏιακὴ or Church is as if you should say belonging to the Lord answerable whereto is the Latine name Dominicum by which the Church was anciently called of the word Dominus a Lord so wee have it Ruffin l. 1. c. 3. Sequere me ad Dominicum i. De verbis dominii Ser. 15. Follow me to the Church Saint Augustine telleth us the reason why the Church is so called Quemadmodum tempus Deo sacrum dicitur dies Dominicus Ita locus Deo dicatus dicitur Dominicum i. As the time which is holy unto God is called the Lords day so the place which is dedicated unto God is called Dominicum i. The Lords house And thus the Church in the new Testament agreeth in phrase with our forefathers in the Old Testament who usually call the Temple and places of Gods Worship the house of the Lord. Places of Christian and Religious meetings have had the names of Cryptae i. hiding places For sometimes in the heate of persecution the Christians though sincere yet either timorous or rather provident not to be disturbed at their holy meetings did assemble in Caves in the earth in Woods and desarts as the Apostles themselves Iuel apol part 2. art 3. Ioh. 20. 19. 1 King 18. 13. when they assembled in the night with the doores shut for feare of the Iewes and as the Prophets were hidden by fifty in a Cave by the good Obediah But O! the goodnesse of our mercifull God who hath placed unto us our Churches in most open view and made both the way thither and our being there safe and comfortable We neede not with Nicodemus goe to Christ by night The Church doores are open at noone day wee are in no danger in going to or being at Church but expose our selves to punishment by keeping away Happy are the eyes which see the things which we see And God give us grace to make good use of so great blessings Churches have also the names of Oratories of the Latine Word Orare to pray For that Christians in all their meetings used to prayse God and to pray unto him Eusebius writing of the joyfull L. 8. c. 1. dayes with the zeale and devotion of the Christians before the persecution began under Dioclesian saith Quis aggregationes multitudinis insignesque concursus ad oratoria describeret i. who was able to describe the gathering together of the multitude and their goodly flocking to the
GODS HOLY HOVSE AND SERVICE According to the primitive and most Christian forme thereof described by Foulke Robarts Batchelor of Divinity and Prebendary of NORVVICH Psal 26. 8. I have loved the habitation of thine house and the place where thine honour dwelleth LONDON Printed by Tho. Cotes and are to be sold at the Grey-hound in Saint Pauls Church yard 1639. To all such as through weakenesse of judgement with some superstitious feare and not by any malevolent spirit of opposition and schisme are offended at the Decency of our Churches and the Reverend demeanure of our outward expressions in Gods publique Worship Loving Brethren THe worship of God hath of late yeares beene so carried in many places among us as if therein men were not about any businesse relating unto God The places of meetings being so ruinous and sordid the people in the act of prayers and praises demeaning themselves so as if they sate in counsell with God a gesture of which Tertulian saith that in prayer it is irreligiosissimum a most irreligious L. de orat thing rather than devoute and humble worships Much irreverence was in administring and receiving the holy Communion I have often conceived hereupon that either Papist Turke or Pagan observing our fashion would thinke that either our Churches were not the houses of the holy God or that the people in them were not about Gods worship Our present most reverend Metropolian hath in his Metropoliticall visitation layd those grounds which have already reformed much and I trust will by Gods mercy soone reduce all things in Gods worship to due decency and reverence all England over Not doubting of the like successe in other places which we finde in the Diocesse of Norwich For while the right reverend Father now Lord Bishop of Elie for the time his Lordship was our Diocesan as an other Elishaeus in the spirit of Elias his Lordship so proceeded in this pious worke as that the worke of the Lord prospered in his hands The house and service of God shineth among us in the primitive splendor to the great good liking of all sober Christians But as when S. Paul preached of the resurrection Some beleeved others mocked Act. 17. So upon sight of this good worke so happily begunne and so effectually followed some joyfully conformed others frowardly opposed The one encouraged the other exasperated my poore zeale first by preaching and private communications now by printing this slender treatise to put forth my selfe a weak labourer under such Aholiabs Bezaliels master workemen I doe not in all this little treatise frame any one proposition which I doe not in my conscience conceive to be the truth of God Nor doe Iuse any argument or reason but such as I apprehend naturally to inferre the conclusion My desire herein God knoweth is your satisfaction and right information in that which not a little concerneth Gods glory and your good Thinke not that I would reduce all Gods worship to bodily gestures Neither imagine that it belongeth to the soule alone The soule is the most excellent part whose intentions recommend the expressions of the body unto God But the body is a part and an essentiall part of the man and must beare his part with the soule in Gods worship If the body act alone then doth God say Man where is thy soule If the soule alone take all upon it then saith God where is or what doth thy body Where are thine eyes thy hands thy knees thy legges to declare and accompany the lifting up the humility and the confidence of thy soule Thy whole man is to be imployed in my worship It is for God and for his glory that I do pleade thus earnestly with my bretheren How decent a thing is it in the eye of man to behold bodies and soules accord and joyne together in the holy worke How doth the visible and expressive devotion of one Christian beget and encrease the same in an other And how powerfully shall the reverend behaviours and gestures of an whole Congregation together worke one upon an other Is not God the more glorified when our devotion is quickned and advanced O my bretheren be not froward but meeke and tractable Boy strous men in a spirit of error or opposition or both have made too much stirre troubled and affrighted honest hearts On the other side some men expressing devotion outwardly give too much scandall through want of probity But I beseech you turne away your eyes from men turne them upon God and then turne them home upon your selves And then tell me doe you not perceive the Majesty of God to be so great as that it becommeth the whole man soule and body to demeane himselfe in all points of humility and reverence inward and outward when he is in Gods speciall presence Is not the excellent goodnesse of God such as drawes all mens eyes upon him and feedes them all with expectation Is not his bounty such as filleth every living thing with plenty of his goodnesse Shall not the eye then looke up towards God in admiration and hope Shall not the hand be lifted up shewing the heart ready to receive the blessing and to reach out thankes Speake to God with the intention judgement and fervency of the soule Speake also by the expressions of the members of thy body Speake by thy tongue Speake by thine eyes Speake by thine hands and by thy knees The tongue interpreteth the meaning of the soule by words The eyes and hands interpret the confident expectation of the soule by their elevation The knees interpret the humilitie of the soule by bowing And so the rest of our decent gestures doe interpret the soule every one in its owne language which God intendeth understandeth and accepteth when they truly declare outwardly what the soule conceiveth inwardly But I am asked what neede these gestures and postures more now than heretofore Whereto I answer that there is no more neede to use these decent and reverend gestures and expressions in the worship of God now than heretofore And that if heretofore wee have been defective in what was requisite it is time that now we be reformed Againe if by heretofore yee understand the space of 40. or 50. yeares last passed I confesse that what we performe now may seeme a novelty But if by heretofore you meane the best and primitive times of the ages next the Apostles and before the dayes superstition crept on then I say that there is no more required now than what was in use in the practise of Christians heretofore God therefore give us grace to discerne truth from error and light from darkenesse and not to bee put out of the way of true devotion through a panike feare of a supposed superstition heartily prayeth At my Study in Norwich March 4. 1638. Your loving brother Fowlke Robarts The Contents Cap. 1. OF Holinesse 2 Of the holy place 3 Of the consecration of Churches 4 Consecration of Churches is
well disposed doth as I have said ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due to Soveraigne Majesty and power which those whom the use thereof cannot perswade unto would easily by the want thereof be brougbt to confesse for which cause I crave leave to be excused by them herein if in zeale to the common Lord of all I choose rather to coÌ„mend the vertue of an enemy then to flatter the vice and imbecillity of a friend Finally I know not any that dissallow the adorning of Churches except Anabaptists and Brownistes into whose schisme and faction too many of our bretheren seem to be too much inclining Indeede Theod. l. 3. c. 12. the unfaithfull disciple afore mentioned did grudge at what was bestowed on Christ and came not into the bagge which he had in keeping And wee read of one Felix an apostate and great treasurer to the apostate Emperour Julian who beholding the goodly vessels which the piety of the good Constantine and Constantius had bestowed upon the Church sayd in the bitternesse of his malice en quibus vasiâ—s ministratur Mariae filio i. Behold what goodly vessels the sonne of Mary is served in But as the history relateth this sonne of Beltal quickly came to a shamefull end To adorne Churches is not Superstitious but to deprive them of their ornaments to hinder their endowments and to repine thereat are all no better then sacrilegious And now me thinks I heare some of our bretheren call upon me to listen to the sounde that is made in our Churches by voices of singers by Organes and other instruments of musique and to tell how I can cleare this from being Popish or superstitious But God be thanked as there is no law to prohibit the use of musique even in the Church Service so withall being rightly used it is very usefull and profitable for the spirituall man in that it stirreth up his christian affection the more chearefully to prayse God Pet. Mart. saith that in Musique rightly â—nd judic 5. ordered tria bonorum genera concurrunt honestum utile jueundum i. three good things concur viz. comely profitable and pleasant When God had brought his people through the red sea therein whelmed the Aegyptians The Israelites as they expresse their gladnesse by their songs so to proportion their joy the best they can to the measure of their hapynesse do set their ditty to an instrument of Musique The like is done by devoute Deborah For when God had given the life of Siserah into the hands of Jael and peace to Israel in the confusion of Jabin Then sung Deborah and Barak prayse yee the Lord for a venging Israel But this was done once upon speciall occasion at the red Sea not above once more in nere two hundred Object yeares in the dayes of the Judges what is this then to the standing use of musique in the publique worship of God But this was done in the publique worship of God Ans by the people of god without any breach of any law of God therfore it is stil lawful to be done again as well twice as once as well coÌ„stantly as sometimes And therefore the King and prophet David the only man ever Chronicled to have been a man after Gods owne heart and well might he so be being so zealous as he was for the house and honour of God as Ps 69. 9. he composed his Psalmes to be tuned and sung to severall instruments of Musique for Gods honor so he brought that musique into the Church and erected 1 Chro. ea 16. Ca. 25. the most glorious Quire that ever was under the cope of Heaven for song in the house of the Lord with Cymballs Psalteries and Harpes for the Service of the house of God But this was in the old Testement and therefore Object is like to have beene some Leviticall Ceremony The is no such Institution among all the Leviticall Ans ceremonies which were all delivered by God to Moses and by Moses to the people 400 yeeres before David was borne Yea the text telleth us 1 Chro. 25. 6. playnely that this was according to the Kings order And therefore it is no Leviticall ceremony in that there was no institution thereof before the dayes of David And then I hope here is no feare of Popery to be in the use of the Church Musique because it had the first Institution in the dayes of David 1500 yeares before any Popery began And therefore Eph. as it were in approbation of so good a practise Colos our Saviour Christ with his Disciples sing a Psalme at the end of the Sacred Supper And S. Paul adviseth the use of the Psalmes hymnes and spirituall Comm. Judic c. 5. N. 1. Songs Pet. Mart. proveth that musique hath beene of use in the Christian Church from the dayes of the Apostles because Plinius secundus writeth unto Trajan euseb l. 3. l. 30 that the Christians did hymnos antelucanos Christo suo canere i. Sing Psalmes to their Christ before day light They found themselves thereby charged in Gods worship And I do assure my selfe that man who shal bring to the Church where Musique is rightly used a devout hart not perverted with prejudice and attend unto the Prayses of God which are set out with Musique cannot choose but feele his thoughts therewith elevated and enlarged the more pathetically and feelingly the more amplie and fervently to acknowledge and magnifie the goodnesse of God It is true that some of the antient Fathers do find fault with the abuse of Musique in Gods Worship but that condemneth not the right use thereof any more then the holy Supper is condemned by St. Paul whilest he blameth those who shamefully prophaned it In the right use therefore of church Musique there is good profit and edification to the affection but no Superstition CAP. VIII Gods Servants are Holy and not Superstitious HOuses are usually framed to suit their owners especially when they build them for their owne habitation And such masters such men Salomon had not only builded an house answeareable to the wisdome and state of so great a King but was also sorted with servants suitable to the wisedome Levit. 19. 2. of their prince and to the order and magnificence of his house and throne And God whose house and habitation the Church is is holy The Church also being Gods house is holy So the holy God hath an holy house as is suitable Neither will he want answerable servants who by their holy demenure shall manifest it to the world that they are the Servants of the holy God The true servants of God must be holy For the Lord God their master is holy And St. Peter telleth us that we are an holy Nation And here we do not meane only a relative holinesse such as times places garments and the like are capable of but such an holinesse as is wrought