The Duty of Daily frequenting the Publick Service of the Church Recommended in a SERMON Preached in a CHAPEL At Wragby in Lincoln-shire Erected to that Purpose by Sir EDMUND TURNOR Kt. And Consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln the 18th Day of Iuly 1697. By Iohn Adamson M. A. Rector of Burton-Coggles in Lincoln-shire Publish'd at the desire of several Persons then present LONDON Printed by Ben. Griffin for Sam. Keble at the Turk's-Head over against Fetter-lane in Fleet-street 1698. TO Sir Edmund Turnor Kt. SIR AS by manifold great Favours You have a Right to all the Services I am capable of paying You You have yet a more peculiar one to the Dedication of this Sermon in that it was first Preached and is now Published by Your Commands This I hope will in part excuse me to the World for troubling it with so plain a Discourse and the Pious cogent Reason with which You was pleased to enforce Your Commands I cannot doubt will do the rest viz. That You might thereby have Copies of it for those several Parishes where Your exemplary Piety hath effectually provided for the daily Performance of publick Prayer Whilst Sir Your pious Zeal thus worthily Encourages and Promotes the Service of God of which I could give many and great Instances but that I well know Your singular Humility will not permit me I could not I think I ought not decline any thing in my Power which in Your Opinion may contribute something tho' but a little to so excellent an End If this plain Discourse adapted to a plain but honest People may by the blessing of God work upon any such a greater Reverence for the Houses of Prayer and a greater Diligence and Seriousness in frequenting them I shall not regard what Opinion the Nice and Censorious may have of it or of me for Publishing it My first aim therein being to promote the Honor of our Lord the Interest of our Religion and the Good of Souls and a secondary Sir to testifie to the World my ready Obedience and great Obligations to Your self In a deep Sense of which and the much Good You daily do I must ever pray as I am sure great Numbers are obliged that it may please God long to continue so great a Blessing as You are to our Religion to our Church to the worthy Clergy of it to Your Family to the Poor to Your Friends even to all who are any ways deserving and capable of Receiving Advantage from such a Fountain of Exemplary Piety true Goodness and diffusive Charity And that in the other World You may largely receive a Glorious Recompence for all the Good You have so liberally done in this particularly to Honoured SIR Your most Obliged and most Faithful humble Servant Iohn Adamson St. Matthew XXI part of the 13th Verse My House shall be called the House of Prayer THESE Words represent unto us our Blessed Saviour restoring the Temple of God to the Holy Uses to which it had been dedicated and express his Zeal for the Honour due to such Places and his just Indignation against all Prophanations and Abuses of them The Temple at Ierusalem was solemnly dedicated to the Service and Worship of God a practice which has obtain'd in all the Ages of Christianity at leastwise ever since the Reign of Constantine as Eusebius acquaints us in reference to our Churches and Places of Religious Worship But the corrupt Priests amongst the Jews had grosly perverted it to other purposes subservient to their carnal and secular designs The occasion which they took for so doing was this Against the Feast of the Passover the Jews from all Countries resorted to Ierusalem to keep that Solemn Feast there To supply them with Sacrifices which many of them who came from Far could not possibly bring with them a great number of Cattle were slain for that purpose by the Priests which they sold to the Rich no doubt at a great Advantage and for the Poorer sort of People they provided as the Law directed Turtle Doves and Young Pidgeons And because many Strangers could not be provided with those half Shekels in value about 15d of English Coin which by the Law were required to be Yearly offer'd nor with smaller pieces of Mony to make their payments for those Sacrifices which they wanted they therefore set up Money-Changers to supply them in both Cases by way of Exchange either for other Money or with the Poorer sort of People for other things in lieu of Money but in doing this they used great Exaction and are therefore sharply rebuked by our Saviour in the words following the Text under that hainous Character of a Den of Thieves and so they plainly appear guilty of a double crime prophaning the Temple by their Merchandize and grinding the Poor by their Oppression Of these their wicked Practices they had long before been admonished by the Prophets and by our Blessed Saviour himself soon after his entrance upon his Prophetick Office and that in a very mild and gentle manner Take these things hence make not my Father's House an House of Merchandize But still they persisted in their Wickedness as even Christians too often do against all admonitions and perswasions to the contrary and therefore in this place of the Text our Blessed Saviour a little before his Death finding them incorrigible under more gentle Methods he as he was the Son of that God whose Temple was thus prophaned and in a just Zeal for the Honour of his Father Cast the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple overthrew the Tables of the Money-Changers and the Seats of them that sold Doves Reminding them of what before they had often heard but now either had forgotten or else wilfully neglected in the words of the Text My House shall be called i. e. shall be according to the frequent signification of that Phrase in holy Scripture a House of Prayer But how could this be may some say A single Person despised rejected and probably designed by them in a few days to be crucified be able to drive out so great a number of obstinate Men backed by the Powers then in being wedded to their Interest and much exasperated to see it so obstructed and defeated by the so much by them vilified Jesus Whence was it that none of them had Courage enough to resist him or so much as open a Mouth as far as appears to us in their Justification but tamely submitted to his Rebuke and suffer'd themselves to be driven out This must be resolv'd into the Divine Power of our Lord and was one of the miraculous Effects of it Such a Majesty at that time appeared in his Countenance and such an Awe and Dread it wrought upon his most spiteful Adversaries as brought them to an absolute Complyance with his Will and perfect Submission to his Commands Which shews how utterly unable the most daring sinners are to withstand our Lord when he comes in
like those in Malachi Snuff at his Service and say What a weariness is it But certainly that All-seeing Eye which discerns what Multitudes carelesly absent themselves from his Worship cannot but adjudge us most profane Despisers of his Mercy in giving and continuing to us the happy Opportunities of it 1. Obj. But perhaps some may here object and say What need these daily publick Prayers We are careful to worship God at his House on the Lord's Day and this seems to be all that is required of us in the Fourth Commandment which allows us the other six Days for Labour and our own Business and therefore thus to require us to attend the daily publick Worship seems to be an unnecessary Service and an infringement of that Liberty which God has graciously indulged to us But Ans. Let such consider That this Objection is of equal Force against all occasional Days of Fasting and Thansgiving which yet I presume themselves will allow of and acknowledge they are obliged sometimes to observe Let them consider again That the same God who gave the Fourth Commandment to the Iews did also enjoyn them other Days for solemn Worship which were to be observed even upon any of those Six Days of Labour tho' they required strict Rest as the Day of Atonement did Lev. 23. 27 28. And that they had their daily Worship notwithstanding the Fourth Commandment at which our Blessed Saviour was frequently present and thereby gave his Approbation of it And that this is no Violence to Christian Liberty but rather a Duty recommended by Christianity appears in that 't is recorded by St. Luke in commendation of Anna That she departed not from the Temple but served God with Prayers and Fastings Night and Day And of the first Converts of Christianity That they continued daily with one accord in the Temple And of the Disciples of Christ that after his Ascension They returned to Ierusalem and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God That is the Temple was the place not of their continual abode but of their constant daily Performance of their Devotions as the learned Paraphrast glosses upon those Words 2. Obj. Others perhaps may say They are very careful to perform this Duty in private they pray at home every Morning and Night and perhaps sometimes may read a Chapter in the Bible with their Families at the close of the Day And this they hope is sufficient for them who have much Business on their Hands and perhaps Families to provide for by their Labours and they trust their gracious God will accept of what they do and expect no more from them To this I Answer 1. Ans. 'T is much to be wish'd they are so well employ'd as they pretend at Home but as much to be fear'd that they are not for did they make a real Conscience of performing this Duty at their own Houses the same Conscience would bring 'em frequently to God's unless they labour under some unhappy Prejudices against it where I 'm sure they might perform it better For 2. Suppose they do pray and read at Home yet how can this excuse their neglecting the publick Service in the Church where the same Duties are performed with greater Advantage There thou findest many Fires to kindle thy Zeal the Example of others for Reverence and Order the Decency and Suitableness of the Place the more peculiar Presence of God and his gracious Promise that he will have a more especial Regard to those Prayers which are put up to him in his own House in that forequoted place 2 Chron. 7. 15 16. Does it become us to be our own Carvers and when our gracious God calls us to worship him in his House to tell him in effect he must excuse us we 'l do it as we can at our own and that must serve his turn 3. Consider That altho' thou perhaps mayst duely perform these Duties at Home yet others from thy Example may think it needless to come to publick Prayers and wholly omit them in private also and so thou fall under the Guilt of Scandal in its proper Sense against which a Woe is denounced by our Lord St. Matth. 18. 7. Woe be to that Man by whom Offences come 4. Consider That the Apostles and Primitive Christians who surely knew how to pray at Home as well as any of us yet were very constant at the publick Places of Worship tho' to the great hazard of their Lives or Liberties for so doing and left this express Command behind them to all Christians Not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together Not to forsake the publick Religious Assemblies tho' to avoid Persecution as was the unhappy Case of the Christians at that time much less to avoid some small and very tolerable Inconveniency to our secular Affairs as is generally the worst of the Case with us now which that God whom we serve can and certainly will abundantly Recompence to us But then let me add 5. In the last place If any well disposed Christians be so ingaged in some needful Business or have such urgent Necessities to provide for by their Labours that they cannot attend the daily publick Service of our Church without great Inconveniency and yet have really a due Esteem for it and would with all their Hearts be daily present at it did their indispensable Occasions permit them such I will presume to say shall be excused by our gracious Lord who has declared He will have Mercy Mercy to our selves as well as to others rather than Sacrifice St. Matth. 9. 13. Such shall undoubtedly be accepted on the Account of their Wills and real Desires and by the Goodness of our God in a good measure partake of the benefit of our publick Prayers as if themselves had actually been present at them But for all others who have not this Necessity to plead for their Absence who easily might have been present at the daily Service had they been really willing such must not expect to be so excused and therefore I hope and pray they will be prevailed with so to acquit themselves in reference to this Duty that God may be duly Honor'd by them true Piety and Devotion encouraged and advanced their own Comfort and Prosperity promoted in this World and their eternal Happiness by the Mercies of God and the Merits of his Son secur'd to them in the next One word in the close of all To you in particular for whose sakes more immediately your worthy Benefact or has erected this House of Prayer You by his great Bounty are in a more especial manner devoted to and engaged in the Service of God you have not the Necessities of this Life to provide for by your Labours nor the anxious Cares of it to perplex and distract your Thoughts you have a comfortable Provision made you by his Piety and Charity both for your Souls and Bodies Remember always how much you are obliged both to
God and him to answer the great End of this his Bounty to you by living to the Honour of God and your Religion particularly by a constant and devout attendance at the Prayers and Sacraments which will be performed in this Place Be very careful I beseech you to approve your selves Widows indeed that so you may be worthy of ' that Honor i. e. Relief and Maintenance as the Original Word often signifies in Scripture which the Apostle would have to be given to such in 1 Tim. 5. 3. Honor i. e. Relieve Widows that are Widows indeed And who are such he tells us v. 5 7 10. And such I hope and heartily pray All you may be She trusteth in God and continueth in Supplications and Prayers night and day She is blameless and well reported of for good Works and has diligently followed every good Work This is the sum of what your Blessed Saviour and I presume to say your pious Benefactor also expects from you viz. That you be Constant and Serious at Prayers and Sacraments That your Conversation be Blameless and of good Report particularly for Humility Gravity Sobriety Contentedness Weanedness from the World Love and Peaceableness amongst your selves and towards all Men Graces which more especially adorn your Station and that you be diligent Followers of every good Work Then shall you approve your selves Widows indeed in the Apostles Sense to the Honor of your Lord the Reputation of your Religion the great Satisfaction of your Benefactor and the mighty Encouragement of such Pious and Charitable Acts to your own great Comforts whilst you live in this World and to your eternal Happiness in the World to come Which eternal Happiness God in his due time make you and all of us Partakers of for the sake of his dear Son Iesus Christ our Saviour To whom with the Father and Blessed Spirit be ascribed all Obedience Adoration and Praise now and for evermore Amen For the Direction and Assistance of the more Ignorant let me here add 'T is very Adviseable that all Persons when they intend to partake of our publick Prayers hasten to the House of Prayer as soon as the Bell begins to call to it that so they may have some little time before Prayers begin to raise their Devotions and fix their Thoughts upon the Duties before them by considering the Weightiness of them and the Presence of God humbly and earnestly Begging his Assistance in the Performance of them which may be done by those who are not better provided in this or the like short Prayer following Let thy merciful Ears O Lord be open to the Prayers of thy humble Servants And grant that we may now and at all times ask faithfully and obtain effectually through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen Or this Most gracious God who hast commanded us to pray without ceasing Incline my Heart to this Duty and so assist me with thy holy Spirit now and at all times in the Performance of it that I may so ask that I may receive and so hear thy Word that I may practice it and by these Opportunities for which I bless thy Name I may daily more and more improve in Righteousness and true Holiness until I come to thine everlasting Kingdom through Iesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour Amen At the Conclusion of Divine Service and before thou risest from thy Knees say to thy self this or the like short Prayer Lord in Mercy hear our Prayers and relieve all our Wants Continue unto us these means of Grace make me and all that profess thy Name to delight in them with Reverence and godly Fear to approach unto them and always to become better by them through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen Or this Blessed be thy Name O God for this Opportunity of waiting upon thee in thine House Lord pardon the Iniquity of my holy Things and make me a partaker of the Benefit of those Prayers which have been put up unto thee at this time In Mercy continue unto me these Opportunities and fit me more and more for thy Service here and for thy Kingdom hereafter for Iesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS * Hist. Eccles. l. 10. c. 3. †Exod. 30. 15 16. ‖ Godwyn's Jewish Antiq l. 6. c. 10. And Pool's Synopsis in loc * So some interpret Ier. 11. 5. and Isa. 26. 10. †Joh. 2. 16. †Matt. a 1. 12. * So it is to be understood in Isa. 9. 6. Matt. 5. 19. Luke 1. 32 35 36. Rev. 19. 13. See Dr. Hammond on Matt. 2. 23. note l. * 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. †St. Joh. 9. 31. ‖ 1 Tim. 2. 8. * Prov. 15. 8. ‖ Rom. 12. 11. †God win's Jewish Antiquit l. 2. c. 2. ‖ David Psal. 95. 6. Solomon 2 Chron. 6. 13. Daniel c. 6. v. 10. * St. Stephen Acts 7. 60. St. Petër Acts 9. 40. St Paul Acts 20 36. 21. 5. †Dr. Cave's Prim. Christ. part 1. c. 9. Tertull. de Orat. c. 12. p. 134. Contra Scripturam fecerit fi quis in Cathedrâ aut subsellio sederit factum isthud irreligiosum est nisi exprobramus Deo quod nos Ordtio fatigaverit c. * 2 Chron. 6. 8. †St. Luke 7. 5. * St. Jam. 5. 16. †Ver. 17 18. ‖ Apol. 39. A. * St. Matt. 18. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. ad Ephes. p. 122. †St. Matt. 18. 20. * St. Luk 11. ver 9. †Ver. 13. * Exod. 3. 5. †Ioshua 5. 15. ‖ V. Pool's Synopsis on Exod. * Aynsworth on Exod. 30. 19. †Mr. Pcole ut prius Id. ib. †1 Cor. 11. 10. Dr. Hammond in loc note d. ‖ Gen. 18. v. 16 17. * Dr. Cave's Frim Christianity part 1. cap. 6. * 1 Kings 8. * Read the Rules for our more Devout Behaviour in the time of Divine Service in the Church of England Printed in 1695. * The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety By the Author of the VVhole Duty of Man c. 8. * Dr. Cave in his Prim. Christianity Part 1. c. 9. †Hom. 56. tom 1. p. 623. †Psal. 42. v. 2. * Mal. 1. 13. * St. Luke 2. v. 37. †Acts 2. 45. ‖ St. Luke 24. v. 53. * Dr. Hammond Annot. on Acts 1. note d. * Heb. 10. v. 25. †The Widows of the Alms-House adjoyning to the Chapel * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. Dr. Hammond on 1 Tim. c. 5. note d.
of their Guilt or Danger Further by daily Reading or hearing read at the Publick Service of our Church a Portion of the I salms of David so full of Piety and Devotion and some Chapters in the Bible too generally I fear neglected by Christians in private where we have excellent Rules and Examples of Holy Living and powerful Motives to it This must needs be granted to conduce very much to the directing and reforming our Lives If this blessed Effect be not wrought upon all who come daily to the Publick Prayers of our Church more is the Pity But the Fault is in themselves and not in our Prayers If some frequent them only in Formality and Hypocrisie 't is no wonder they are never the better for them Do thou frequent them with Sincerity Devotion and Attention and be assured thou shalt receive great spiritual Improvement by them as I doubt not but thousands of the sincere Members of our Church to their inexpressible Comfort do find 2. This advantage of a good Life by Frequency in Publick Prayer is also and that chiefly to be ascribed to the Blessing of God and the powerful working of his Grace upon us which Blessing is promised to us and to be obtain'd by us only in the serious Use of the Duty of Prayer so qualified as I before hinted Thus our Blessed Saviour instructs us Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find Knock and it shall opened unto you where that he refers particularly to this Blessing of his Grace and Holy Spirit appears from these following words If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him This I acknowledge is spoken of Prayer in in general but it holds true of Publick Prayer with a great advantage as you have already heard If then Frequency in Publick Prayer does thus promote the Honour of God and our Religion if it procures those Blessings we want either for our selves or others and greatly tends to promote a good Life if we have any regard to the Honour of God and our Religion if any real desire to be Happy here or hereafter we shall rejoyce in all Opportunities of Publick Prayer and heartily endeavour so to Order our Affairs that nothing may hinder our constant Attendance at them And if Frequency in Publick Prayer be so needfull a Duty as you have seen the like Frequency and that with the greatest Seriousness in receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which is the highest Solemnity of Prayer is upon the Account of the same and greater Reasons as needful a Duty where there are the happy Opportunities of it And in this also the worthy Founder of your Chapel hath very piously provided for you And as I understand many of you purpose very commendably to Communicate on this day so I hope and earnestly exhort you will do it with that Sincerity in a hearty Repentance for your Sins and serious Resolutions of a Holy Life that you may receive much spiritual Comfort and Improvement by it and then you will even rejoyce in the frequent Opportunities of this Holy Sacrament in this place and make it your constant Care as it is your certain Duty to dispose your selves for a worthy partaking of them Consider well and always bear it in mind how great your Guilt will be how heavy your Condemnation if ye shall slight and neglect or any ways abuse such powerful means of Salvation But I must not insist upon this copious Subject I only crave your Patience whilst I observe unto you three or four practical Inferences from what has been discoursed INFERENCES 1. If these Places be Houses of Prayer and by our Saviour's own direction not to be employ'd in common Uses then let us always treat them with Respect and Reverence considering they are God's Houses Consecrated to his more immediate Service and in which he is pleased to vouchsafe his more peculiar Presence In respect of this his Presence God declares that the Place where he appear'd to Moses was Consecrated and therefore required him to shew Reverence to it Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground The like was commanded to Ioshua upon the same account and this as a Token of Respect Obedience and Humility The Custom being taken as some Conjecture from Captives or Bond-Slaves who used to go barefoot in token of their Subjection Hence arose that Custom amongst the Jews for the Priests to enter into the Temple barefoot The like was observed amongst the very Heathen who had their Nudipedalia Sacra and put off their Shoes when they enter'd the Temple of Apollo So some have observ'd That even amongst the Turks and Aethiopick Christians they go not into their Sacred Assemblies but with their Feet naked That was the ancient way amongst them of expressing their Reverence as uncovering the Head is now amongst us And will not all these rise up in Judgment against us and condemn us if we permit them to shew more Respect and Honour to the Places of their false Worship than we to those of the True Thus we find St. Paul requiring Decency in the Church particularly that Men be uncovered and Women covered there Because of the Angels they being supposed both under the Old and New Testament to be present in the places of God's Publick Service observing the Behaviour of all there present and accusing every Indeceney and Disrespect to God And from this their presence it is that God is said to be peculiarly present in Churches whose presence in one place more than in another in respect of himself is not easily conceivable and so to fit them to be the Houses of God according to the Explication of Iacob who upon the Vision of Angels at Luz awakes and says How venerable is this Place the Lord is in it this is none other but the House of God Upon this Account we read that the Primitive Christians were wont to shew very great Respect and Reverence in the Church as being the solemn Place of Worship and where God did more peculiarly manifest his Presence and are told by a learned Author That they came into the Church as into the Palace of the Great King with Fear and Trembling and that the Emperors themselves who otherwise never went without their Guard about them yet when they came to go into the Church used to lay down their Arms to leave their Guard behind them and to put off their Crowns all as Tokens of that high Respect they bare to those Religious Places Let them always then be esteemed Holy by us as being set a part for holy Uses and in relation to God and to their End I mean not otherwise and let them accordingly be always treated by us 2. If they be Houses of Prayer