on my part who dare offend who can oppose me For were we so Wise and Valiant as not to afright our selves with our own shadows we shou'd find by the Encouragements of Gods Spirit that he who is with us is mightier than they who are against us Michael and his Angels are not only more Powerful and numerous than the old Dragon and his supposed Strengths but also more loving and careful to do us good Did we not therefore look through the discoloured Mediums of our own polluted Nature Was not the Eye of our Souls tinctured by the suffusions of Lust we should soon find our Strengths greater then we imagine For did we seriously weigh things in their proper ballance we might observe an Heroick Vigour in all Goodness and an Imbecility in Evil only Furthermore if by the assistance of Grace I can't prove my self more than Conqueror over Temptations why should I rejoyce when I fall into a variety and abundance of them Or can I imagine that God who remembers I am but Dust and knows whereof I am made who is better acquainted with my Form and Figure than I my self am wou'd he impose any thing upon me but what he knows is absolutely in my Power to perform Now you may observe both God and his Church bind every Christian at his first Admission into Covenant by the most Solemn Tye to resist Temptations The Substance of which Oath in Baptism is I. N. or M. do here in the presenee of God the Father our Lord Jesus Christ and all the Heavenly Host devote my self to the Services of my God I call Heaven and Earth Angels and Saints the Church Militant and Triumphant to bear witness that I renounce the World Flesh and the Devil and that I will resist their Temptations unto my last breath This I avow to be my Resolution and upon this account and this only I now desire to enter into Covenant with my God and be Initiated and Admitted a Member of his Church and I call my Conscience to Record this day that I will never repent of this Promise nor revoke it but continue Christs Faithful Souldier and Servant unto my Lives end So help me O my God Amen Now this being the form of our Oath in Baptism which we renew at our Confirmation and repeat every time we Communicate at the Lords Table we can certainly conclude it is to be performed for can we fancy to our selves God and his Church would urge us to Impossibilities and engage us to what cannot be effected No certainly for if men be perswaded the Sins they commit are irresistable why do they Sorrow and Repent for what is past Why do they contradict themselves and put a mock upon Heaven by promising Amendment for the future Instead of Confessing why do they not rather Expostulate with God and say 'T is true O Lord I have done many things amiss as I have been Informed by the Parson who calls himself thy Minister and trouble the World by thy Authority which if they be offensive I protest O my God I could not help them I had not Power to resist them If therefore thou wouldst have me for the future perform thy express Words and Commandments and practice those Duties our Preachers inculcate thou must asist me with a greater stock of Grace than hitherto thou hast furnished me withall Now can I presume any so horribly Profane so ridiculously Wicked to Pray after this method and utterly confound those two absolutely necessary parts of Repentance Confession and Contrition If it be thus I dare boldly affirm it the greatest Sins we are tempted to commit are no Sins at all But indeed God will be justified in his sayings and found clear when he is judged for there is no thinking circumspect man if he applyes the Grace of God can be over matched by any Tryal or meet a Temptation that is irresistable For if I can conquer Sin in the Mountains and Strong holds I need not doubt but to baffle him in the Plains and Valleys if I can overcome those great and Gigantick Sins of Idolatry Adultery Fellony Treason and the like why may I not escape those of a lesser magnitude such as Pamphleting the Government and Libelling Authority such as Lying and Slandering Cheating and Cousening Back biting and Speaking evil one of another Shall a Pigmye subdue the Crane or a Dwarfe prove Conquerour of a Gyant Can I go upon the Lyon and the Adder and shall a Frog or a Worm â—lisorder me Did not Christ come to redeem to himself a Church and to present it without Spot or Blemish before the Throne of Grace Now how can We be of this number and not under that qualification Void of Offence towards God and towards Man Thirdly Some may enquire how far we must proceed in Righteousness that we may get a Conquest and Mastery over our Nature and be free from those Imbecilities in saying What I hate that do I. To which I answer There is no set or determinate degree of Endeavour but even as much as we can or are able There is no size or Standard the Excess of which would appear Monstruous But Religion is like unto the flawless Diamond where bigness taxes the value and the unusual bulke both rates and Enhances the Lustre and the Price To give God all that I can is the great command both of the Law and of the Gospel For so noble is the nature of Religion that it admits of failings but by one of the Extremes that of Defect Mediocrity which in other Passions is an Excellency is here an Imperfection It being therefore impossible for us to be too Loyal and Obedient too Religious and Dutyful we must make it the business of our Lives the Care of our Thoughts our only Concern and greatest Imployment in the World To be Holy as God is Holy abstaining from all things whatever that can impede or hinder the promotion and growth of an Holy Life for what is our chiefest righteousness better then Menstruous Raggs if the Lord was extreme to mark what we have done amiss After our very Innocency which otherwise wou'd appear stain'd may through the merits of Christ prove acceptable unto God whatsoever thou findest in thy Heart to do perform it with all thy might and vigour He that will live according to the exact Rules of Christianity must bend his Nerves and Sinews do his utmost towards the demolishing all the Strong-holds of Satan For we can never be clean and free from all Sin until we have done our best and utmost towards the Mortification of it for until that be done how can we be satisfied where the blame and fault resteth or whether it can be effected or not If any man can profess that Purity of Life and strictness of Conversation as to assert that he hath endeavoured to husband and employ his Talent of Grace to the most proper and best advantage that he hath Endur'd as much as is possible
Beauty but indeed God hath commanded me to declare that Prayer must have the most eminent nay only place My House is the House of Prayer This was the Apostles judgement when there was the highest necessity for Preaching for then the Gospel was to be planted in all the World nevertheless though it was then most useful yet Prayer was preferred before it for say the Apostles But we will give our selves continually unto Prayer and to the Ministry of the Word Acts 6.4 First Prayer then the Ministry of the Word now if it was so in their days the Argument is more forcible in ours because the Gospel is propagated and Christianity fully settled among us God forbid that I should in the least derogate from that Honourable Imployment of Preaching the Word yet I am more then convinced we must more strictly account for the neglect of Prayer than of Preaching Yet alas we think we may be remiss in our Duty of coming to Church if our Ears be not first alarm'd with the loud noises of a Sermon Bell as if Religion consisted in this only and went no higher than aurium Tenus To what end serves Preaching and all Learned Discourses but as Instruments and means to instruct us to Pray Thus you may hear St. Paul How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher So that Preaching is the means to direct us to call upon him And I pray tell me if the means ought to be magnified beyond the end The Fathers 't is true were very frequent in such Pious Orations but this did not make Prayer more compendious for in the days of Chrysostom when Preaching was most used there was no part of the Liturgy omitted but now Prayer is slenderly respected we seem desirous of nothing but Preaching Many mens dislike to that incomparable Common Prayer practiced in the Church Pardon me Gentlemen if I impute it to those of our Function for how can we presume the Laity to have Reverence for it when we our selves seem to disown it by cutting it into little shreds and parts either to oblige a Faction or ease our selves But did we all unanimously agree to be obedient to our Rubrick as our Oath requires us men would soon have a greater respect for It and Us for what can create greater Distractions in the minds of men whilst they observe me exactly conformable to the Rules of the Church and another little or nothing regarding it for the same Obligation commands it from him which enjoyns it as my Duty The Roman Devotionals 't is true retain a great part of our Liturgy and do they not also the same Bible Sacraments and other Holy Duties and shall I deny that which is good because it hath sometimes been mixed with Evil The Vessels of the Temple were carried to Babylon and Prophaned by Belshazzar yet were they not restored and Consecrated by Ezra to the Service of God The Common Prayer-Book in like manner was most collected from the Roman Mass Book but what of this There were Liturgies extant in the Church before the Mass had Name or Being and Rome Christian was much Elder than that of Papal When therefore the Mistery of Iniquity began to play its Cards the Old or First Common Prayer was not Abolished only mixed with Errors and Corruptions which blemishes being taken away is it not as Beautiful as ever This then was the Pious Care of our first Reformers to refine it from its Dross and bring it to its Primitive Purity retaining nothing but what is pure Scripture or deducted there-from by the Judegment of our Holy Mother the Church But alas we so much degenerate from their Worthyness that we will not follow the form prescribed by them we are for new Lights and Inventions to guide us to Heaven we deny Common Prayer and magnifie the sudden Raptures of men as the Illuminations of the Spirit when really what are they better than an heap of Non-sense in Crampt words only glazed with the Saint-like Varnishes of a cast up Eye and Canting Tone Their chief Objections against the Liturgy are because it is a Form and enforced by Authority which are so ridiculous they are not worthy Confutation For what Prayers I pray best adorn the Beauty of Holiness those which are shuffled together by Chance or such as be Refined and Polished who Pray most Believingly he who digesteth what he Prays for or he who utters his first Sense and Thoughts Who Prays with fullest assurance to have his Prayers heard and Crown'd with Success He who weighs and ponders his Petitions Or he who either by implicite Devotion gives assent to all that proceed from the mouth of a Gifted Brother or else suspend his Amen when he hears things inconsistent with his reason or rule of Faith So that it cannot be because it is a Form but because commanded by Authority yet that very command layes the highest Obligation for our Obedience thereto Obedience says Samuel is better than Sacrifice The Levitical Law Commanded That the Firstlings of an Ass should be redeemed with a Lamb Now shall we in contempt of this Law break the Lambs neck and think an Ass a more proper Offering for the Temple Return then O Shunamite return return into the Embraces of thy Holy Mother the Church for she is all Fair there is no Spot in her she looked forth as the Morning Fair as the Moon Cleer as the Sun and Terrible as an Army with Banners The Prophanation of the Church Ye have made it c. That which was before phraised the Perfection of Beauty the Joy of the whole Earth whether the Tribes ascended as to the Patern of Heaven When Christ came to visit it it was neither like Heaven nor an House the very Sacrifices therein had need of an Expiation the Sanctuary it self could not be safe from Sacrilegious Cruelty God and Prayer were both driven out by Theeves The Temple was not barely Prophaned but Prophaned in the most hainous nature the greatness of the Offence may be measured by the harshness of the Term in that he calls not an House but a Den Ye have made c. Where I shall consider When the Church is made a Den And then secondly Who are the Theeves First An House receive the first peeping forth of Light all little Rayes and Glimmering will peirce themselves in But as for a Den it is a place of Horrour and Darkness and the Church may well be compared to it if there be wanting in it the Light of Ceremonies the Light of Doctrine and the Light of Life and Conversation in the Priest For First If the Light of Ceremonies be taken out of the Church we blow out the Light that is shining therein Rom. 1.20 is not Sense the guide to the Understanding Do not Visible things direct us to those that are Invisible Can
Penitent People let a poor Bleeding Church let a poor Perishing Nation take shelter under thy Wings Turn in unto us O Repentance and be Thou visible in this Nation who art only able to repair the mischiefs thereof Make us perfect Ninevites that the cry of Blood may not be laid to our Charge give us from henceforth Loyally affected Hearts that we may be subject not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake Cloath us with Sack-cloath that we may not be stript of our Gorgeous Apparel Sprinkle us with Ashes that the Smell of Fire may be no longer in our Dwellings Enjoyn us to Fast for Saul and for Jonathan that we may live in Peace and enjoy the Fruits of our Labour in all Godliness and Honesty make us to Cry mightily that no other Cry may be heard in our Streets than those of Devotion for Blessed are the People that are in such a Case yea Blessed are the People who have the Lord for their God For then shall Peace be within our Walls and Plentiousness within our Pallaces then shall there be no complaining nor leading into Captivity in our Streets Oh! the Happiness we might enjoy if we were thus industrious for our own good and if not now when shall we be Happy When we live under so Gracious a Prince that for Virtue ond Piety he is Second to none but Charles the First but none but Apelles can draw Alexander's Picture I shall conclude therefore Humbly beseeching God to grant Him a long and Prosperous Reign over us to Confound the subtile Conspiracies of His Enemies and that as he hath exprest His Grace and Clemency to us so may we blot out the Infamy of this Day by plentiful returns of our Sincere Loyalty and Affection to Him and let all Loyal and Well Affected Subjects say from the bottom of their Hearts God Save King Charles the Second Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT St. Michael à Plea April 21st 1684. at the General Assembly of the Clergy held there by the Arch-Deacon of Norwich c. Luke 19th v. 46th It is written my House is the House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Theeves THe most convenient Place for Judgement to begin at the House of God for there is no danger of miscarriages in the Commonwealth when there is a concurrence of all things to promote the Beauty and Glory of the Temple For wherein consists the Glory of a Kingdom But in the due Execution of Justice And what is it that Maintains the Queen upon her Throne But the Power of Religion When Religion then begins to faulter no marvail if Justice begins to swerve and what can that presage but he eminent peril and downfal of a State To prevent therefore the ruines and devastations of both God hath intrusted the Royal Office with an Absolute Supreme Power and deposited the Court Rolls of Heaven into his Hands For the same Divine Providence that Anoints Him King Proclaims Him also Defender of the Faith and great Nursing Father of the Church Thus Solomon built the Temple of the Lord and his own Pallace both together but he first Perfected the goodly Fabrick of the former before he began to Erect the latter to hint to us that it is the Temple which fastens the Royal Diadem upon the Princes Brows Though we urge not therefore the great Aid and Assistance to the Crown by those weapons of the Church Praeces lacrimae Yet Heaven hath so provided that Caesar is as much obliged out of kindness to Himself as a Religious respect to promote the Splendour of Religion to take special regard that the House of Prayer be not converted into a den of Theeves For he who will abuse the House of God will even dare to Affront Majesty to His Face If Aaron be disturbed in his Office how can Moses be secure in his Throne or how can Aaron be a Co-adjutor and Prophet unto Moses if he be not a Shield and Defence unto his Brother The Interest of the Crown and Miter Scepter and Crosier is mutually to assist each other for like Twins they thrive and fade live and die together And as the Prosperity of a Kingdom depend on the flourishing of Religion so likewise Religion must use the Rules of Discipline to make it more vigorous and Powerful The Primitive Fathers as well as those of a younger birth imployed all their Industry and Care for the maintainance of it 'T is all one like the Edomite to race and demolish the Church as with Separatists to inveigh against the Discipline thereof The Apostolical Cannons largely evince the Pains and Industry the Apostles used to maintain its Honour and Glory they therefore Decreed that Episcopal Assemblies should be held twice every year which Constitutions were afterwards re-inforced by the Decrees of several Councils For what was more Powerful to preserve Sanctity maintain Purity of Doctrine hinder Heresie and Schism and to encourage the Dispencers of Gods Word to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints 'T is therefore a Duty incumbent on the Bishop to provide that Discipline be preserved in the Church and to Actuate those Laws which otherwise would die Abortive They therefore who declaim against Hierarchy of Bishops strike at the very ground and Foundation of the Church For let us but remove Prelacy and tell me where shall we find Discipline and that being gone what will become of Religion When Anarchy reigned in Israel then every man did what seemed good in his own eyes and where there is no Prelate are there not diversity of Doctrines variety of Judgements and every man professing what Religion he pleaseth But seeing there are Bishops in our Church if there be not a Religious and Orthodox Clergy where lyes the fault but in the Prelate and if there be not a Devout and Conformable People where lyes the Fault but in the Priest For where they are strict and careful in performing the Duties incumbent on them the People would or must of necessity do theirs It was upon this account therefore the Blessed Jesus in this Chapter When he saw the City he wept of over it but being come into the Temple he cast out them who Sold therein In all his time of Converse with mankind on Earth he never executed the Office of a Magistrate till now and indeed what place more fit for Reformation to begin in Were all Erronious Whiggish and half-Conforming persons weeded out of all Ecclesiastical Courts and Imployments we should soon find Religion would have a greater Influence on the Conformity and Lives of Men. May we not well presume Jerusalem to be out of Course and Order when there were such great Disorders in the House of God When Theeves and Robbers had taken the House of God in Possession and Sacriledge installed in the House of Prayer Here then our Saviour begins passing by the Sins and Divisions of the City only weeping over it and pittying it but punishing the
sins of the Temple for he Whipped and Scourged them who had Prophan'd it saying My House shall be called the House of Prayer The words present to us the Institution and Prophanation of the Church of God My House c The Institution will entertain your Meditations with three Particulars What it must be For whom And for what end We resume the First It must be an House First Though the Earth is the Lords and the Fulness thereof Though God be the Supreme Governour of all the World and cannot be circumscribed but replenish every Corner and part thereof with his Presence yet still he hath ever confined himself to some one particular place set apart for his Adoration and Worship Though as St. Paul speaketh Men ought to Pray continually and in every place Nevertheless in all Ages of the World God hath appointed some more peculiar Place for his Royal Court and Refidence on Earth where Men shall offer Sacrifices of Prayer and Praises to him Thus when Religion was but in its Infancy God was resorted to in a remote Mountain or some neighbouring Grove where being absent from the noises of the World men might elevate their Souls in the most pleasant Contemplations of Eternity where they may be freed from all Avocations having no incumbrances to Indispose their Minds from setting their Affections on things above It was in this Melancholly Solitude and Holy Retirement from the World that Abraham Solicited God by Invocation Gen. 21.33 But when Religion began to flourish these Groves being abused by Gentile Superstition God removed himself into a Tabernacle and journey'd along with Moses and the Children of Israel and would not be publickly spoke withall until Solomon's time When these Pilgrims had compleated their Travels God no longer dwelt in a Tabernacle or Travelling Temple but had an House Erected that He and the Ark of his Strength might enter therein and Solomon was the first who built this House where Men should make their Addresses to the Throne of Grace Nor ever read I any denying him a place to rest in till there started up a late Generation of men who would make God but their In-mate and out of Civil Courtesie grant him a Lodging like the poor Levite in Micha's House or the man of God in the Shunamites little Chamber But Sirs God commands me to declare That he who provides us an House to secure us against the ruggedness of the Air and fierceness of Beasts will have an House Dedicated to himself that he may dwell therein yea and Blessed be God we have found out an Habitation for the Lord of Hosts But Thanks to the Devotion of our Fore-fathers For we are more ready to pull down than to build and if so how great is our backwardness to Beautify and Adorn good Works are even Antiquated and that Religion adjudged most acceptable to God which is the least chargable to man 'T is strange men should be so basely nigardly in promoting the Glory of God Either there must be less Religion in the World or not the same Obligation the last is impossible for the Glory of God which prompted our Fore-fathers hath the same force and Argument upon us it must therefore proceed from our low esteem of an Omnipotent Being that we imagine a Granary or Stable or some Spiritual Weavers Parlour spacious enough to entertain the King of Glory and all his retinue of Celestial Courtiers We are censured Superstitious if we be not direct Antipodes to the Pious Sense of former Ages We are presently concluded devoted to the See of Rome if we be but so Curious as to make Gods House Handsomer than our own But if this be Superstition I wish from the bottom of my Soul all men were thus Superstitious and zealous of good Works If this be Superstition how had it over-spread and corrupted Primitive Christianity For they thought no Service so acceptable as to do something for Gods House For what is more plain men have but small respect for Religion who adorn their Houses with Marble and Ivory Cedar and Tapestry and see Gods House lie unprovided for and neglected Whatever men think the Royal Prophet I am sure was of another Judgement and Perswasion For saith he to Nathan see now I dwell in a House of Ceder but the Ark of God resteth within Curtains He thought it great Ir-religion and Impiety that even the Kings Pallace should be more Glorious than Gods House This was the primary reason Antiquity Christened their Churches by the Name of Basilicae not because they there Sacrificed to the King of Heaven and Earth but because of their Beauty and Frame How Magnificent and Noble was the Temple which Constantine Erected and yet how far surpassed by that vast one Constantius his Son built at Alexandria He succeeded his Father not only in possessing the same Religion but also in his great Care and Reverence for the House of God For they two are inseparable Companions he can't have any high regard for Religion who dis-regarded the House of the Lord let that fall and Religion cannot stand let that decay and will not Religion perish He who hath any respect for his Master can't patiently behold his House surmounted by an Hospital or Almes-House for Beauty and Ornament Can my Devotions be Elevated and Pure when I see the place where he dwels more like a Bridewel or Pest-house than the Pallace of my God Can we conceive it the presence-Chamber of Heaven where God and his whole train of Blessed Spirits are more immediately present to hear and observe us when we see it more like a Stye or a Stable rather than the Mansion of so Glorious a Being And this I fear is no small occasion men demean themselves so unhandsomsly and rudely therein because an ordinary Cottage out-vies it in Spruceness and Neatness But indeed the most Graceful Ornament of an House is the Peace and Unity therein And for this Cause I presume the Church is not stiled Curia but Domus not a Court where Divisions and Envy are nourished but an House where Righteousness and Truth meet together and Love and Peace even Kiss each other 'T is no easie Province to maintain perfect Unity in a State but is it so laborious to preserve it in an House The Disturbances and Commotions of a Kingdom may prove Dangerous and Fatal but are not the Divisions of an House far more opprobrious and shameful When men are not of one mind in an House but the Father opposing the Son and the Son studious to controll the Father The Church ought to be an House in respect of the Unity and Order maintained therein but not an House divided against it self where the Pastor is against the People and the People endeavouring to oppose the Shepherd and both joyn hand in hand to oppugne their Bishop and Ordinary They who consented to the perswasion of Pythagoras were of opinion that there was but one God and two Devils because he first