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A49444
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A sermon preached before His Majesty at Whitehal, April 5, 1663 by ... B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln, Elect.
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Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing L346; ESTC R6273
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14,637
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36
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A SERMON Preached before HIS MAJESTY at Whitehal April 5. 1663. By the Right Reverend Father in God B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln Elect. Published by His Majesties Special Command London Printed for Timothy Garthwait 1663. Heb. xiii Vers xv By Him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the Fruit of our Lips giving thanks to His Name or Confessing to His Name as the Margin reads more agreeable to the Greek WE have an Altar in the Tenth Verse and in this we have a Sacrifice But what Altar and what Sacrifice for they are scandalous words For the Altar let that fall if the Sacrifice cannot support it But for the Sacrifice whereof we are now to treat it is I confess a word of offence because there goes under the name of a Christian Sacrifice that which our Church calls a blasphemous fable Art 31. and dangerous deceit Should I leave you without any Caution upon that fear and danger in Sacrificing it would be to little purpose to offer at the commending of any For we are too often troubled more with words than what they signifie And therefore as the Orator adviseth when such a case shall happen Mitigandas esse prius aures somewhat must be said beforehand to remove a prejudice that will fall upon all that shall be said after That which the Article speaks of is the Sacrifice of the Mass wherein the Priests of that Sacrifice say That Christ himself is really sacrificed for the quick and dead And for want of this our Church is not by them allowed to have either Priest or Sacrifice 'T is true we pretend not to that Mystical Art and Chymistry to turn the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Natural Body and Blood of Christ by which alone they make themselves Priests and Him the Sacrifice I put in no claim therefore from this Text either to that Priest or this Sacrifice but yet to a right in both but both of another kinde For the Sacrifice the Text is clear and the Priest follows of course there can be no Sacrifice without him And it is as clear too That it is not the Sacrifice of the Mass though Christ himself be in it for 't is he whom we first meet with in the Text By him Here indeed he is but not in the quality of a Sacrifice to be offered as in the Mass whereof he is the Matter but as a Mediator onely It is not Him but By him we are to offer Now seeing we may be secure it is not that we might possibly fear let us see what it is we may safely and must necessarily perform We are first to offer a Sacrifice to God 2. That for the kinde is Eucharistical not Propitiatory 3. The Matter of it is to be not the Fruit of our Fields or of our Flocks but of our Lips 4. Not every fruit that grows upon the lips but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lips Confessing to his i. e. Gods Name 5. This confessing here is not of him though that be otherwise necessary for he that denies him shall be denied by him but To him and that makes it a Sacrifice 6. It must be to Him and not to any Creature Saint or Angel Praise them we may but offer a Sacrifice of praise we must not 7. It is not a Sacrifice to be done at starts and upon occasions but continually a daily Sacrifice 8. It is to be offered by Him that is by Christs merits and mediation 'T is that which gives power and efficacy to this and all our services which would be nothing worth if we came in our own names Lastly You have the Reason why all this Therefore and that sends us back to the Twelfth Verse Wherefore Jesus that he might sanctifie the people by his Blood suffered without the Gate That he suffered for us and that he suffered without the Gate are the reasons why by him and why of us By him because by the sacrificing of himself he made our peace with God By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God for it And why of us Because he suffered without the Gate whither the Jews that were within the Gate must go out and follow him in the next Verse leaving their City and Sanctuary And we the Gentiles that are without the Gate already may finde him in our own Territories that so both Jew and Gentile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyntly together as the word imports May confess to the honor of his Name And as Therefore carries in it the reason of our duty so it doth in that some accommodation it hath to the time For this is Passion Sunday and why so called we learn from Rupertus and others because the Jews on this day met together to consult of and contrive the death of our Lord which not many days after they effected It will not be fit I confess for that reason to anticipate the Meditations proper to that Solemnity Yet as now the Passion was in preparation and conception by them it will be so far a keeping of time with it if we also now shall prepare a Sacrifice of praise for it that we may be fit then to honor God by confessing to his Name the wonderful mercies and unspeakable benefits we receive by the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord. By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the Fruit of our lips confessing to his Name And that we may the better perform our Sacrifice of Praise Let us by him also offer a Sacrifice of Prayer c. THat we are to offer a SACRIFICE to God is here so plainly enjoyned and so punctually described both for matter and manner in every circumstance that one would think it strange it should be neglected and more strange it should be contemned by any But for our selves if we would be clear in this matter as every good man should desire to be it is fit we call our selves to account when and how we perform it The Antient and Frimitive Church of whom this may best be learned did in conscience of their duty herein compose several Liturgies that by them they might have a Publick daily Sacrifice for the honor and worship of God as that of St. James at Jerusalem St. Marks at Alexandria after that St. Chrysostoms at Antioch St. Basils at â—aesaria St. Gregories at Rome and indeed there was no Church without one They that wrote Apologies for the Christians being of the Heathen accused of Atheism because they were never seen to offer sacrifice to the Gods for answer to that had recourse to this Sacrifice of Praise in the Text. The Copies of those Antient Liturgies as they come now to our hands have no doubt suffered the fate of time that is some changes by which the preposterous zeal of some hath overcharged them with numerous and sometimes superstitious Additions yet the substance and intendment of them was to
behinde us I know where the blame must lie But you will say you do not accuse Set Forms for want of life in themselves but that by the continual repetition of the same things they be-dead affection in those that should have it And how I pray should that be If the sense of real wants and blessings which are always the same cannot keep up our affections how should a new set of words do it Can we imagine that God should be taken with variety and shift of phrases or that the affection that takes heat from them will render the service more acceptable to God And therefore when they complain that their devotion is tired with nothing but Almighty and most merciful Father in the Morning and Almighty and most merciful Father in the Evening and the same over and over again every day That complaint did never lie against the Jews daily Sacrifice which was a type of ours that there was a Lamb in the morning and a Lamb again at evening and the same over again every day in the year When our Saviour at his last agony in the Garden three times retired himself from his Disciples to pray he used still the same form of words without any change St. Matth. 26.44 And who dares say he wanted ability to vary his prayer or can say he wanted affection though he did not For as St. Luke relates it He prayed so earnestly St. Luk. 22.44 that his swet was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground and then sure there was no want of affection for when our zeal is at the hottest we do not use to swet at our prayers I go on to a third charge That Set Forms instead of helping us hinder the Spirit by which we should pray The truth is Such as the Spirit may be and too often useth to be it ought rather to be bound with chains then left at liberty under a Form of Praying to Libel their Governors or whom or what they please to bring into hatred with the people But for the true Spirit of Prayer that cannot be tyed with words For they are utterly mistaken that think the Spirit of Prayer supplies any defect of words or phrases for that very Text of St. Paul whereon they ground it confutes them Rom. 8.26 The spirit helpeth our infirmities But in what not in words for what the Spirit supplies are there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not spoken at all or as we translate it which cannot be uttered What then doth it supply It maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered The true Spirit of Prayer consists in groans in zeal and fervency and that where it is will animate and put life into any Form of Prayer They who call Forms of their own making or borrowing con'd without Book Praying by the Spirit do both cheat the people and blaspheme the Holy Ghost A fourth Objection is That it is but a Book-Sacrifice a Reading-Service which any childe may do They complain it seems of ease If God should require a harder thing of us as no doubt there are many harder things to be done do them we must The easiness lays the greater obligation upon us How ridiculous would this exception appear against the Legal Sacrifices A Butcher could kill and dress a Lamb as well as a Priest This is a false deceitful weight Gods service is not to be weighed by the labor of doing but by the relation to him for whom it is done And therefore King Solomon when by the advice of his Father upon his death-bed he call'd to account the chief Leaders in the rebellion of Adoniah as Joab that commanded in chief and Abiathar the High Priest made no question of putting Adoniah and Joab to death but for Abiathar though he deprived him of his office yet he spared his life And why he gives no other reason but this Because he bore the Ark before his Father David But was that a work of such merit and difficulty Could not any Porter do as much it was but carrying of a Chest Solomon did not take his measure by that That Sacred Chest the Ark was a Symbol of Gods presence it had relation to his Service and that he preferred before his own for Adoniah was his Brother of the half-blood and Joab his cosin-german You that are the Kings servants here in Court do not weigh the merit and honor of your places which you justly have by the pains and difficulty of your service which we know in many is little enough but by the greatness of the Master for whom you do it Children may be able to read the Book but not therefore fit to offer the Sacrifice They are troubled with the rude confused noise that is made by the people in answering to the Confessions and Psalms It seems their ears are as tender as their consciences and both alike out of tune For this is a Publick Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text i. e. a Confessing together Now there can be no communication of men together but by speech and therefore of necessity it must be the Fruit of our Lips But while we in obedience to that pray God to open our Lips they teach the people to shut them They take it very ill that they are silenced though they deserve it and yet stick not to silence the whole Congregation without any offence or fault of theirs They say it is an improper and impertinent Service We use such Hymns and Psalms for our Praises and Thanksgivings as are not proper and appliable to us For how can any one that is a Man say in the Magnificat Thou hast regarded the lowliness of thy handmaid Or how can it be seasonable for all especially young men to say in the Nunc dimittas Lord now let thy servant depart in peace For answer to this and the rest of that kinde It is but turning to the Doctrine of the Text as we have done in all the rest The Liturgy is the Churches Publick Sacrifice of Praise and in that we are not onely to give thanks for blessings immediately conferred upon our persons but upon us with the whole Church by the intervention of others For in the Blessed Virgin we do all partake of the grace done to her being taken to be the Mother of our Lord. And in old Simeon we rejoyce at the sight of that salvation which was a Light to us Gentiles as well as a glory to the people of Israel They are offended with the length of the Service which makes it not onely tedious in it self but injurious also by hindring the Sermon To measure the length first If we lay our line to it you will not finde it so It takes up but a very short part of the whole time which God has bestowed upon us of which enough we have and too much we take many times for our rest and sleep enough for our own necessary business