there used testified an awfull veneration of the Deity Reason though but little improved instructed them in that Religious Practice And indeed however they fatally erred concerning the Nature of God whose Essence they destroyed by dividing it and many of their Mysteries were most profane greater more bare-fac'd Impurities being countenanced and practised to appease Heavens Wrath than had been before acted to provoke it however their Sacred Offices were always ill directed often wickedly performed yet their beautifull Structures in Honour of false Gods will rise up in judgment against some slovenly Worshippers of the true One. Those Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel in this the highest outward expression of Reverence as far might be acted up suitably to the Circumstances of feeble Manhood and the Majesty of the inconceivable God-head Nay which is very remarkable their Idolatry did not so far desecrate the Places polluted by it but that the Lord of Hosts did sometimes shew himself terrible in his vengeance towards those which Sacrilegiously destroyed or rudely defiled them Alexander ab Alexandro and others give particular accounts of the Heathen Temples and the manner of their solemn Consecrations But leaving them I rather proceed to trace the more authentick practice of the Worshippers of the true God Reason and Religion though the one weakned the other decayed by Adam's Fall gave early Instructions to his Posterity that they should present their Bodies also a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God in his Holy Places Such is that by learned Men supposed to have been whither Cain and Abel brought their Offerings Gen. 4. The Patriarchs to whom God miraculously made known his Will by Visions Dreams the Ministery of Angels and in other extraordinary Manners thought it fittest to serve him upon Consecrated Mountains Altars and Groves To Iacob particularly the Stone in Bethel which himself erected by Divine Inspiration was the House of God And so all along 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the days of emptiness as the Iews style the times before the Mosaick Dispensation the Sons of Men were taught by Laws natural impressed upon all positive given to Adam Noah and Abraham whereby they and their Off-spring thought themselves obliged with joint Forces to besiege Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Basil and other Greek Fathers speak with holy violence to straiten God that he could not but hear when they assembled together and Worshipped him in the Beauty of Holiness Afterwards when out of all the Families of the Earth God had chosen him a peculiar Inheritance and led them through the Wilderness with a mighty Hand and an out-stretched Arm his Servant Moses immediately before he went up into the Mount where he saw God Face to Face built an Altar and twelve Pillars according to the twelve Tribes of Israel to sacrifice unto the Lord Ex. 24. And he took an Offering of all the People to make a Sanctuary that the Lord might dwell amongst them Ex. 25. The Cloud the Pillar of Fire the Thundrings the Lightnings the Earthquake the Mountain smoaking the still Voice these and the like at sundry times were occasional Symbols of the Divine Presence in the midst of them But the constant Seat of God's Residence was the Tabernacle of the Congregation in which the Priests when Sanctified were to give attendance to Minister in the Holy Place Ex. 29. This was the Place of Worship the Safe-guard and the Glory of Israel till the building of the Temple Before the raising of which Glorious Edifice the high Places also for Sacrifice before and after the Synagogues for Prayer and hearing the Law read were set apart of the latter many in every City five hundred in Ierusalem say the Rabbins So zealous was David for the Holy One of Israel that he professes Ps. 132. I will not give sleep to mine Eyes or slumber to mine Eye-lids untill I find out a place for the Lord an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. He had it in his Heart to build an House unto the Lord exceeding Magnificent of Fame and of Glory throughout all Countries and God applauded his Design but he being a Man of Bloud ordered him to put off the prosecution of it to his Son That Son whose Greatness and Wisdom for which he is renowned in all the World were most signally evidenced by his carrying on that glorious Work which was the Royal Palace of the King of Kings the Wonder of the Earth and the Transcript of Heaven There was the daily Worship performed thither all the Tribes the Tribes of the Lord went up thrice every year to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Towards that at whatever distance they offered their constant Devotions and since the destruction of it towards the Holy Land They heretofore had and still have private Oratories at the top of their Houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ascending to them Nay the very Turks the Ceremonial part of whose Religion is much according to the Jewish Plat-form at first Worshipped towards the Temple of Ierusalem since towards that of Meccha These Aliens from the Faith though they deny the Lord that bought them build stately Moschs to the Glory of him that made them So firmly rooted is it in the Minds of all Men but a company of proud stubborn factious Zealots that God accounts the Honour double which is paid him in his own House Let these things be duly laid to Heart by those who with a Pharisaical Haughtiness thank God that they are not as other Men who are too much Spiritualiz'd and Seraphick to sink their Thoughts below the Fellowship of the Heavenly Quire and therefore cannot stoop to be charitable to and hold Communion with their Brethren but for their sakes cast off and abhor the Houses of the Lord where his Glory is shadowed and his favour more plentifully dispenc'd Let them remember that the Pharisee and the Publican the one a Type of themselves the other of those they scorn and abominate went up together to the Temple to pray And let them take notice moreover that notwithstanding the Religious Pride of the former the latter onely went home justified To give farther strength to what has been hitherto urged we may consider the practice of Christ's Followers as for his own I shall speak of it under another Head They when as to outward Direction left to themselves after our Redeemer's Passion the time that the Law purely Mosaical ceased yet did not forsake the chief Glory of that foregoing Dispensation The Temple was still their House of Prayer They continued daily with one Accord in the Temple Acts 2. And being forced to abandon it by the great Persecution at Ierusalem Acts 8. when in the Infancy of Christianity God permitted the Heathen to rage the Kings of the Earth to set themselves and the Rulers to take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Doctrine being now debarred from the publick solemn Profession of
A SERMON PREACHED AVGVST the 19 th 1684. AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE Lord VVeymouth's Chapel IN LONG-LEAT By RICHARD RODERICK B. D. Vicar of Blandford-Forum in Dorsetshire LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Henry Clements Bookseller in Oxford And Sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner in London 1684. TO The Right Honourable THOMAS Lord Thynne BARON of Warmister VISCOUNT Weymouth c. My Lord THough Conscious to my self that the bare Seasonableness of the following Discourse and the accidentally-straitned Preparation of him that spake it might to a Candid Audience palliate the Faults of the hasty Composure and render that acceptable from the Pulpit which may justly be exploded when coming from the Press yet having broke thorough these and other Discouragements I now humbly present to your Lordship this mean Attendant at the Consecration of your Chappel at Long Leat That your Lordship should command me upon so solemn an Occasion to Preach the Sermon was an amazing Honour That the Publication of it should be thought of was a greater Astonishment to me But I perceive that the Favours of the truly great and the Divinely good have always something of Transcendency in them like the Influences of Heaven are freely and unexpectedly showred down not poorly barter'd for While others require them which are imbarked in their Dependance to study their Passions not their Honour to be more solicitous to consider their Nature to feed their Humours than to doe them any real Advantage and always rack and often defeat the most reasonable expectations or perhaps at length hardly part with their Kindnesses to those that have dearly bought them Your Lordship and your Relations I speak experimentally surprize with your Favours scorn to have them at all much less thus basely earn'd but liberally bestow before any particular Service hath deserved them Hence the utmost Performances of your Dependants are already overpaid sooner than begun aâ—e but the unequal return of a strict Debt which no future Endeavours can fully discharge since the Circumstance of un-engaged and first obliging will ever be only on your Parts That God would enable those which share your Bounties to answer the Designs of them to be usefull in their Stations and that he would be pleased both Temporally and Eternally to bless your Lordship and your Family is the Hearty Prayer of Your Lordships Most Devoted Servant Richard Roderick A SERMON Preached at LONG-LEAT IN WILT-SHIRE August 19. 1684. 2. Chron. 7. 16. Now have I chosen and sanctified this House that my Name may be there for ever and mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually GOD spake these words in a Vision to Solomon presently after his building and Dedication of the Temple at Ierusalem A mighty work designed by King David but the Honour of effecting it was reserved for the greatest and wisest of Men. Only the chief Ornament of his Father's House is fit and singled out to lay the Foundation of the Lord's But will God in very deed dwell with Men upon the Earth Behold Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him how much less an Earthly Tabernacle The most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as saith the Prophet Heaven is my Throne and Earth is my Foot-stool what House will ye build me saith the Lord Or what is the Place of my Rest 'T is true the Almighty fills all Places is circumscribed by none His Divinity cannot be pent up yet he vouchsafes to stoop his Glorious Majesty and after a peculiar manner to be present in the Congregation of his Saints The God-Head cannot be shrunk up within any Dimensions but his Honour is said especially to dwell in the Temple the Place set a part for his more immediate service on which is engraven as upon the Plate on the fore-front of Aaron's Mitre Holiness unto the Lord. And of every such Place separated for God's publick Worship himself speaks Now have I chosen and sanctified this House that my Name may be there for ever and mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually Which words I humbly conceive may be thus paraphrased I accept and approve of this House which according to my will and by my secret suggestion is Chosen and Sanctified or separated from common Uses to the Honour of my Name to be mine for ever and I promise that mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually that I will have a particular regard to the Devotions there paid and be affectionately gratious to each Votary that religiously offers them For your present Meditation be pleased to consider 1. That through all Ages Men out of a sense of Duty have Chosen and Sanctified that is separated from common Uses and solemnly set apart Places for the publick Worship of God 2. That God allows yea requires such Places to be Chosen and Sanctified or solemnly set apart for his publick Worship to the Honour of his Name 3. That if Men will be sincerely devout in such Places but not otherwise God promises that his Eyes and his Heart shall be there perpetually He will have a particular Regard to the Devotions there paid and be affectionately gratious to each Votary that religiously offers them These Particulars discust I shall make a very brief Application Of the two former jointly to raise our Devotion when we come into the Lord's House Of the last to quicken our Faith that he will hear and answer the devout Petitions which we there make 1. Through all Ages Men out of a sense of Duty have Chosen and Sanctified that is separated from common Uses and solemnly set apart Places for the publick Worship of God Whoever own the Being of a God must acknowledge that he ought to be Worshipped He that made sustains and preserves us has a Right to the utmost services we can pay him And since it is hard for Earthly-minded Men to be taken off their sensual Delights and to fix their scattered Thoughts upon Religious Duties the best Expedient to dismiss the World for a time the Concerns and Love of it is to have recourse to Holy Places which being separated from common Uses will represent nothing to interrupt Acts of Piety and being dedicated to the Almighty's Honour will in some measure display his Majesty stamp in Men lasting Impressions of Reverence and heighten Devotion A Truth this so certain so clear that the Light of Nature taught it The Notices of a God and of his being to be thus publickly Worshipt were imbibed together Men sometimes were not fully perswaded of a great Super-intendent over the Creation were pleased with the Fancy that Chance threw the World into and continues it in this curious Order but the Creature proving the Creator and successive precarious insufficient Beings inferring a first independent and Almighty as soon as convinced that there was a God the very Heathens built Altars erected Temples many whereof very famous and magnificent and by their Sacrifices Purgations and other Rites
meek the gentle Christ Iesus Behold ye Despisers and wonder and be afraid after such an Instance as this wonder at the awfull Presence which extorted so warm a Concern from Dove-like Innocence and fills the Holy Places and be afraid of the graceless stupidity of those that defile or but slightly regard them To countenance their unmannerly Profaneness who deny the least Honour where double is due some plead that however it were under the Jewish Economy when God dealt with his People according to the hardness of their Hearts yet now since the Establishment of a purer and more Spiritual Religion he enjoins by his Apostle St. Paul that men should pray every where and our Saviour tells the Samaritan Woman the Hour was coming when neither in that Mountain Mount Ephraim at Shiloh where Anciently the Tabernacle and the Ark were nor yet at Jerusalem Men should Worship the Father but should Worship him in Spirit and in Truth By way of reply we may note here that St. Paul speaks of private not of publick Prayer and besides if the latter were meant his appointing it to be made every where or in every place does not forbid a particular separation to Pious Uses does only extend the more solemn Worship of God through the whole World beyond the narrow compass of Ierusalem within which it was before circumscribed This will be an answer to both the forecited Objections which do no more prove the common indifferent Use of Places in the Service of the Lord than that all shall be Priests of God does expose the Ministerial Function to every presumptuous Intruder The sum of the matter is Under the Law the Priesthood was confined to one Tribe the true Worship to one Nation but now under the Gospel both are laid in common that is free for all yet that is not to be invaded by Persons uncalled nor this ordinarily to be performed in publick in Places unsanctified neither to be exercised without preceding Consecrations After these have solemnly set apart Places for Divine Service as in my third Particular I shall endeavour to make out 3. If Men will be sincerely devout in such Places but not otherwise God promises that his Eyes and his Heart shall be there perpetually he will have a particular regard to the Devotions there paid and be affectionately gratious to each Votary that religiously offers them The Happiness of the Almighty is essential and immutable not to be increased by our imperfect Righteousness or diminished by our impotent Iniquities Our most sincere Devotions delight the Lord indeed but affect our selves we only receive the Benefit The Sacrifices of a broken Spirit go up as Incense with a sweet-smelling savour to the Lord but showres of Mercies are return'd for them especially when offered in Places set apart for his Service There hath he promised his Blessing and life for evermore If in our Distresses we flie for Refuge to the Altar if under the apprehension of Punishment which our sins most righteously deserve we take Sanctuary at the House of God our Strength our Redemption will not fail us Thither does God oblige us to repair and he will certainly bless the means which himself prescribes 'T is true when Men draw nigh to God with their Mouths and honour him with their Lips while their Heart is far from and does despite unto him he rejects such their Hypocritical Addresses and angrily demands who hath required these things at your Hands to tread my Courts Oblations are vain Incense an Abomination to him when not Sanctified by Affection Faith and Devotion Whatever sturdy Conceit some Men entertain that being once chosen for God's People they cannot be forsaken by him that he is bound by stronger ties to reside among and protect them constrained with more lasting Cords than those with which the fond madness of certain Heathens shackled the Images of their Gods thereby to secure the charm'd Inhabitants however with the Iews Ier. 7. after notorious Provocations they come and stand before the Lord in the House which is called by his Name and say we are delivered to doe all these Abominations yet let them know that if not averted Iudgment must begin at the House of God and will be most severely executed upon them that profane his Glory by their wicked Approaches The repeated Transgressions of unrighteous Worshippers force the Lord to an abhorrence even of his own Sanctuaries So in punishment to the stubborn Iews he permitted the Ark where he had put his Name and more Majestick Presence to be taken Captive and notwithstanding their frequent Boasts of the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord he gave way for Antiochus to profane for Titus totally to destroy it Though Iacob were his Portion and Israel the Lot of his Inheritance yet they the living Temple of the Lord by unsincere Worship provoked him after sundry manners to set himself in array against them to stir up all his Wrath and make a Way to his Anger clear the Passage that nothing should obstruct the full course of it Nay he proceeded so far as to laugh at the Calamities which he brought upon them to mock when their fear came and sarcastically bid them prepare to meet thy God O Israel Alas what preparation can Dust and Ashes make wherewith to meet and withstand an angry God Lord what is Man impotent Man that he should contend with an Almighty Creator Wherewithall shall we come before and meet him except as Iacob met Esau Gen. 32. with Prayers and Supplications that we may find favour in his sight Thus onely thus may we imitate that Patriarch wrestle with God and prevail Come then and let us reverently Worship the Lord in the midst of the Congregation being assured that for his Goodness sake he will not for his Promise sake he cannot refuse to hear and be gratious to sincere Devotions Holiness becometh and Goodness dwells in his House for ever How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts here Mercy and Truth meet together when Truth fluorisheth out of the Earth Mercy looks down from Heaven As a sensible Instance of God's favourable acceptance of supplicatory Addresses at the Temple when the Iews went up to Ierusalem to make them their Concerns were safe at home though left without a Guard neither incident Calamities befell them nor the Philistines or other bitter Enemies could then molest them the Lord was a Shield the God of Iacob a Defence to them while employed in his Worship Hannah's Womb was opened and she delivered of the Child Samuel in return of her Vow at the yearly Sacrifice in Shiloh and by devoting him to the Service of the Altar she that had been called Barren became a joyfull Mother of five Children more The Promise of Iohn Baptist's Birth was made to Zacharias when he gave attendance in the Temple So certain it is that God will be found