Acts 2. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They continued in breaking of Bread and in Prayers As for bodily expressions by gestures and postures as standing kneeling bowing and the like our Blessed Saviour himself lift up his sacred eyes to heaven when he prayed for Lazarus fell on his face when he prayed in his agony S. Paul as himself saith bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ He and S. Peter and the rest of the Believers do the like more than once in the Acts of the Apostles What was Imposition of hands but an external gesture in an act of invocation for conferring a blessing and that perhaps sometimes without any vocal expression joyned therewith Besides I cannot conceive any reason why in this point of Evangelical worship Gesture should be more scrupled at than Voice Is not confessing praising praying and glorifying God by Voice an external and bodily worship as well as that of Gesture why should then the one derogate from the worship of the Father in Spirit and Truth and not the other To conclude There was never any society of men in the world that worshipped the Father in such a manner as this interpretation would imply and therefore cannot this be our Saviour's meaning but some other Let us see if we can find out what it is There may be two senses given of these words both of them agreeable to Reason and the analogy of Scripture let us take our choice The one is That to worship God in Spirit and Truth is to worship him not with Types and shadows of things to come as in the Old Testament but according to the verity of the things exhibited in Christ according to that The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Whence the Mystery of the Gospel is elsewhere by our Saviour in this Evangelist termed Truth as Chap. 17. ver 17. and the Doctrine thereof by S. Paul the word of Truth See Ephes. Chap. 1. ver 13. Rom. 15. 8. The time therefore is now at hand said our Saviour when the true worshippers shall worship the Father no longer with bloudy Sacrifices and the Rites and Ordinances depending thereon but in and according to the verity of that which these Ordinances figured For all these were Types of Christ in whom being now exhibited the true worshippers shall henceforth worship the Father This sense hath good warrant from the state of the Question between the Iews and Samaritans to which our Saviour here makes answer which was not about worship in general but about the kind of worship in special which was confessed by both sides to be tied to one certain place only that is of worship by Sacrifice and the appendages in a word of the Typical worship proper to the first Covenant of which see a description Heb. 9. This Iosephus expresly testifies Lib. 12. Antiq. cap. 1. speaking of the Iews and Samaritans which dwelt together at Alexandria They lived saith he in perpetual discord one with the other whilst each laboured to maintain their Country customs those of Ierusalem affirming their Temple to be the sacred place whither sacrifices were to be sent the Samaritans on the other side contending they ought to be sent to Mount Garizim For otherwise who knows not that both Iews and Samaritans had other places of worship besides either of these namely their Proseucha's and Synagogues wherein they worshipped God not with internal only but external worship though not with Sacrifice which might be offered but in one place only And this also may seem to have been a Type of Christ as well as the rest namely that he was to be that one and only Mediator of the Church in the Temple of whose sacred body we have access unto the Father and in whom he accepts our service and devotions according to that Destroy this Temple and I will rear it up again in three days He spake saith the Text of the Temple of his Body This sense divers of the Ancients hit upon Eusebius Demon. Evang. Lib. 1. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not by Symbols and Types but as our Saviour saith in Spirit and Truth Not that in the New Testament men should worship God without all external services For the New Testament was to have external and visible services as well as the Old but such as should imply the verity of the promises already exhibited not be Types and shadows of them yet to come We know the Holy Ghost is wont to call the figured Face of the Law the Letter and the Verity thereby signified the Spirit As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Spirit and Truth both together they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once found in holy Writ to wit only in this place and so no light can be borrowed by comparing of the like expression any where else to expound them Besides nothing hinders but they may be here taken one for the exposition of the other namely that to worship the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with to worship him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But howsoever this exposition be fair and plausible yet methinks the reason which our Saviour gives in the words following should argue another meaning God saith he is a Spirit therefore they that worship him must worship in Spirit and Truth But God was a Spirit from the beginning If therefore for this reason he must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth he was so to be worshipped in the Old Testament as well as in the New Let us therefore seek another meaning For the finding whereof let us take notice that the Samaritans at whom our Saviour here aimeth were the off-spring of those Nations which the King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria when he had carried away the Ten Tribes captive These as we may read in the second Book of the Kings at their first coming thither worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came wherefore he sent Lions amongst them which slew them Which they apprehending either from the information of some Israelite or otherwise to be because they knew not the worship of the God of the Country they informed the King of Assyria thereof desiring that some of the captiv'd Priests might be sent unto them to teach them the manner and rites of his worship which being accordingly done they thenceforth as the Text tells us worshipped the Lord yet feared their own Gods too and so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostome speaks mingle things not to be mingled In this medley they continued about three hundred years till toward the end of the Persian Monarchy At what time it chanced that Manasse brother to Iaddo the High Priest of the returned Iews married the daughter of Sanballat then Governour of Samaria for which being expelled from Ierusalem by Nehemiah he fled to Sanballat his Father in Law and after his
the first we be guilty of Imprudence in the other of Uncharitableness in miscensuring others And in this particular Information is so much the more needful because many scruple at this kind of posture in God's Worship esteeming it little better than Idolatry as being of like nature with worshipping God by an Image wherein how much they are deceived I shall make now to appear Know therefore That to worship God by an Image and to worship him towards some place or monument of his Presence are things of a differing nature For the first is absolutely forbidden by the Divine Law the latter we find continually practised by the people of God in the Old Testament and that with his allowance and approbation Thus in the Wilderness they worshipped him towards the Cloud as the sign or monument of his Presence going with them Exod. 34. 5 8. In the Tabernacle and Temple they directed their posture toward the Ark of the Covenant or most Holy place as my Text and that parallel place now alledged out of Psalm 28. for confirmation witnesseth namely as to the place of his Throne and Footstool Unto which I add for a third Testimony that of Psalm 99. 5. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship towards his Footstool There goes before it in the beginning of the Psalm The Lord reigneth let the people tremble he sitteth between or upon the Cherubims The same thing is meant or implied by that expression of worshipping the Lord toward his holy Temple in the 5. and 138. Psalms in the first whereof v. 7. I will come into thine House saith David in the multitude of thy mercy and in thy fear will I worship toward thy Holy Temple Mark I will come into thine House and then worship c. This form the Iews at this day are wont to pronounce in the Adoration which they make at their entrance into their Synagogues turning themselves at the same time toward an Ark or Cabinet wherein they lay the Book of the Law made and placed in imitation of the Ark of the Covenant with the Two Tables In the other Psalm likewise v. 1 2. the Psalmist saith Before the Gods that is the Angels will I sing praise unto thee I will worship towards thy holy Temple that is toward the place of the Ark or Mercy-seat For we are to take notice that the people or Layety came no nearer than into the Courts of the Temple only and the Priests themselves entred no farther but when they were to order the Lamps and burn Incense evening and morning or renew the Shew-bread otherwise they also stood and officiated without in the Court appointed for them called the Priests Court so that both the people especially standing in the Courtâ— when they worshipped they directed their faces toward the Temple or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strictly so called where the Ark and Mercy-seat were Hence comes this expression of worshipping the Lord toward his holy Temple as much as to say We will come into thy Courts and worship thee toward the place where thy memorâ— or monument of thy Presence is With these places may be compared that of the 134. Psalm where the Levites standing namely in the Priests Court are exhoâ—â—â—d to lift up their hands toward the Sanctuary LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Targ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toward his holy seat and to bless the Lord. Besides this when they were absent from the Temple yea though in a strange and forein Country and that far remote yet when they prayed or worshipped they turned their faces thitherward as appears by 1 Kings 8. 44 c. in the prayer of Solomon at the dedication thereof and the example of Daniel Dan. 6. 10. who opened his windows towards Ierusalem and kneeling upon his knees three times a day prayed and gave thanks before his God as he was wont yea even then when the Temple and holy City were burnt and destroyed and the Ark of the Testimony not then there but only the place where it was wont to be Zorobabel also 3 Esd. 4. 58. lifted up his face to heaven toward Ierusalem and praised the King of Heaven And this custom the Iews in their devotions still observe unto this day Yea all this may seem for ought that can be shewed to the contrary to have been done out of the use of mankind without any special Precept to that purpose which is no where to be shewn For as for the prayer of Solomon besides that Precepts are not wont to be given in prayers it is there presupposed only as a rite of custom Nature it seems having taught mankind as in their addresses unto men to look unto their Face so in their addresses unto the Divine Majesty to look that way or toward that place where his Presence is more demonstrated than elsewhere whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so speak as in the Heavens or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Temples and like sacred places where his Name and Presence either is or is wont to be recorded Hence it appears that to worship God versùs locum praesentiae towards the place where any sign or specification of his Presence is is no Idolatry nor forbidden by the Second Commandment For surely that which was no Idolatry in the Old Testament is no Idolatry in the New whatsoever fault otherwise it might have The reason of this difference between worshipping God by an Image and worshipping him towards some place where his Presence is specified is this Because in the first the Creature is used objectively to the act of Divine worship that is as the thing worshipped but in the other as a local circumstance of worship only For we are to know that a Creature may be used in the act of Divine worship by way of Object by way of Local circumstance or by way of Instrument The first by way of Object that is as that to which the Act of worship is directed and terminated upon without question is Idolatry For the Lord our God is a jealous God and cannot endure that any created thing should partake with him by way of Object in the Act of his worship But he that useth an Image in the act of Divine worship as an Image that is interposing it in the same as the representation of that he worshippeth makes it not the term of his posture only as any other Creature might be and some always will be but the Butt as I may so speak or Object of his Act. For in the act of worship to look or attend unto any thing as that which representeth unto him the Object unto which he is tendering his act is to make it an Object representative and consequently such as in part and as by way of intervention receiveth the Act which by it is tendred to the Prototype Which although it be no more but to be only relatively worshipped and for the examples sake and not absolutely and for it self yet is
riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Yea the 24. Elders which are the Christian Presbytery expressing ch 4. 11. the very argument and sum of that Hymnologie which the Primitive Church used at the offering of Bread and Wine for the Eucharist worship God saying Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created TAKING therefore for granted that which the Practice of the Church of God in all ages yea I think I may say the Consent of mankind from the beginning of the world beareth witness to that among those duties of the Sanctification of God's Name wherewith his Divine Majesty is immediately and personally glorified of which I have before spoken this is one and a principal one to agnize and confess his peerless Soveraignty and dominion over the creature by yielding him some part thereof toward his worship and service of which we renounce the propriety our selves and that accordingly there are both Things and Persons now in the Gospel as well as were before the Law was given in this manner lawfully and acceptably set apart and separated by the devotion of men unto the Divine Majesty and consequently relatively Holy which is nothing else but to be God's by a peculiar right I say that these are likewise to be done to according to their degree of sanctity in honour of him whose they are not to be worshipped with divine worship or the worship which we give unto God communicated to them far be it from us to defer to any creature the Honour due unto the Divine Majesty either together with him or without him but yet habenda cum discrimine to be regarded with a worthy and discriminative usance that is used with a select and differing respect from other things as namely if Places not as other places if Times not as other times if Things by way of distinction so called not as other things if Persons set apart unto the service and worship of God neither to be used by others nor they to carry themselves in their fashion of life as other persons for that which in other things sacred is their use in persons sacred is their conversation demeanour or carriage of themselves But all to be sanctified with a select appropriate or uncommon usage that as they are God's by peculiar relation and have his Name called upon them so to be separate as far as they are capable from common use and imployed as instruments and circumstances of his worship and service which is the highest and most singular honour that any creature is capable of Nay as I have said before even this is to the honour of God That as himself is that singular incommunicable and absolutely Holy One and his service and worship therefore incommunicable so should that also which hath his Name thereon or is coasecrated to his service be in some proportion incommunicably used and not promiscuously and commonly as other things are They are the words of Maimonides the Iew but such as will not misbecome a Christian to make use of concerning that Law Levit. 5. 15. If a soul commit a trespass and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord then he shall bring unto the Lord for his â—respass a Ram c. Behold saith he how great weight there is in the Law touching sacrilegious transgression And what though they be wood and stone and dust and ashes when the Name of the Lord of all the world is called upon things they are sanctified that is made holy And whoso useth them to common use he transgresseth therein and though he do it through ignorance he must needs bring his atonement Yea it is a thing worthy to be taken special notice of that that so presumptuous and most dreadfully vindicated sin of Korah Dathan Abiram and their company in offering Incense unto the Lord being not called thereunto did not discharge their Censers of this discriminative respect due unto things Sacred For thus the Lord said unto Moses after that fire from heaven had consumed them for their impiety Speak unto Eleazar the Son of Aaron the Priest that he take up the Censers out of the burning and scatter thou the fire yonder for they are hallowed The Censers of these Sinners against their own souls let them make them broad plates for a covering of the Altar for they offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed or holy Now that by this discriminative usance or sanctification of Things sacred the Name of God is honoured and sanctified according to the tenor of our petition is apparent not only from Reason which tells us that the honour and respect had unto ought that belongs unto another because it is his redounds unto the owner and Master but from Scripture which tells us that by the contrary use of them his Name is prophaned Hear himself Lev. 22. 2. Speak unto Aaron saith he and his sons that they separate themselves from the Holy things of the children of Israel and that they prophane not my Holy Name in the things which they hallow unto me Also in the Chapter next before v. 6. the Priest that should not discriminate himself according to those singular observations or differing rules there prescribed him is said to prophane the Name of his God Again Ezek. 22. 26. when the Priests prophaned God's holy things by putting no difference between the Holy and Prophane I saith the Lord am prophaned amongst them Likewise chap. 43. 7. Together with other abominations there mentioned the Lord saith that his Holy Name had been polluted or prophaned by the carkasses of their Kings that is of Manasseh and Amon buried in the King's Garden hard by the walls of the Temple for so by the Hebrews and others that place is understood See 2 Kings 21. 18 26. By the pollution of the Temple the Lord esteemed his own Name prophaned Take in also if you will that of Malachi ch 1. where the Lord saies of those who despised and dishonoured his Table or Altar by offering thereon for sacrifice the lame blind and sick which the Law had made unclean and polluted that they had prophaned his Holy Name But if the Name of God be prophaned by the disesteem and misusage of the things it is called upon then surely it is sanctified when the same are worthily and discriminatively used that is as becometh the relation they have to him I HAVE already specified the several Kinds of Sacred things which are thus to be sanctified yet lest something contained under some of them might not be taken notice of by so general an intimation it will not be amiss a little more fully and particularly to explicate them than I have yet done Remember therefore that I ranged all Sacred things under four heads First of Persons Sacred such as were the Priests and Levites in the Old Testament and now in the
at Thessalonica and proving out of the Scriptures that Messiah or Christ was to suffer and to rise again from the dead and that Iesus was that Christ it is said that some of them which heard believed and that there associated themselves to them a great multitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the worshipping Greeks Of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is elsewhere mention in the Acts of the Apostles more than once but what they were our Commentators do not so fully inform us nor can it be understood without some delibation of Iewish Antiquity The explication whereof will give some light not to this passage only but to the whole Story of the Primitive Conversion of the Gentiles to the Faith recorded in that Book We must know therefore that of those Gentiles which embraced the worship of the God of Israel commonly term'd Proselytes there were two sorts One of such as were circumcised and took upon them the observation of the whole Law of Moses These were accounted as Iews to wit facti non nati made not born so bound to the like observances with them conversed with as freely as if they had been so born neither might the one eat drink or keep company with a Gentile more than the other lest they became unclean They worshipped in the same Court of the Temple where the Israelites did whither others might not come They were partakers with them in all things both divine and humane In a word they differed nothing from Iews but only that they were of Gentile race This kind the Iewish Doctors call◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of Righteousness or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of the Covenant namely because they took upon them the sign thereof Circumcision In the New Testament they are called simply Proselytes without addition Of which Order was Vriah the Hittite Achior in the Book of Iudith Herod the Idumaean Onkelos the Chaldee Paraphrast and many others both before and in our Saviour's time But besides these there was a second kind of Gentiles admitted likewise to the worship of the true God the God of Israel and the hope of the life to come which were not circumcised nor conformed themselves to the Mosaical rites and ordinances but were only tied to the observation of those Precepts which the Hebrew Doctors call The Precepts of the sons of Noah namely such as all the sons of Noah were bound to observe These Precepts are in number Seven recorded in the Talmud Maimonides and others under these following titles First the precept of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to renounce Idols and all Idolatrous worship Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blood-shed to wit to commit no Murther Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detectio nuditatum not to be desiled with Fornication Incest or other unlawful conjunction Fifthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rapine against Theft and robbery Sixthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning administration of Iustice The seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Membrum de vivo so they call the Precept of not eating the flesh with the bloud in it given to Noah when he came out of the Ark as Maimonides expresly expounds it and adds besides Whosoever shall take upon him the observation of the Seven precepts of the sons of Noah he is to be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the pious men of the nations of the world and shall have a portion in the world to come Note that he saith one of the pious men of the nations of the world or of the pious Gentiles for this kind were still esteemed Gentiles and so called because of their uncircumcision in respect whereof though no Idolaters they were according to the Law unclean and such as no Iew might converse with wherefore they came not to worship into the Sacred Courts of the Temple whither the Iews and circumcised Proselytes came but only into the outmost Court called Atrium Gentium immundorum the Court of the Gentiles and of the unclean which in the second Temple surrounded the second or great Court whereinto the Israelites came being divided there-from by a low wall of stone made battlement-wise not above three Cubits high called saith Iosephus from whom I have it in the Hebrew Dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lorica close by which stood certain little pillars whereon was written in Greek and Latin letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In atrium sanctum transâ—re alienigenam non debere That no alien or stranger might go into the inner or holy Court. And this I make no question is that which S. Paul Ephes. 2. 14. alludeth unto when he saith that Christ had broken down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the partition-wall namely that Lorica which separated the Court of the Gentiles from that of the Circumcision and so laying both Courts into one hath made the Iews and Gentiles Intercommoners whereby those that were sometime far off were now made nigh and as near as the other unto the Throne of God But in Solomon's Temple this Court of the Gentiles seems not to have been but in the second Temple only the Gentiles formerly worshipping without at the door and not coming within the Septs of the Temple at all This second kind of Proselites the Talmudists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of the Gate or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselyte-inhabitants namely because they were under the same condition with those Gentile-strangers which lived as Inquilini in the Land of Israel For all Gentiles dwelling within the Gates of Israel whether they were as servants taken in war or otherwise were bound to renounce their false Gods and to worship the God of Israel but not to be circumcised unless they would nor farther bound to keep the Law of Moses than was contained in those Precepts of the sons of Noah These are those mentioned as often elsewhere in the Law so in the fourth Commandment by the name of the Stranger within thy gates whereby it might seem probable that the observation of the Sabbath-day so far as concerneth one day in seven was included in some one or other of those Precepts of the sons of Noah namely in that of worshipping for their God the Creator of Heaven and earth and no other whereof this consecration of a seventh day after six days labour was a badge or livery according to that The Sabbath is a sign between me and you that I Iehovah am your God because in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day See Exod. 31. 16 17. Ezek. 20. 20. But this obiter and by the way From the example of these Inquilini all other Gentiles wheresoever living admitted to the worship of the God of Israel upon the same termes were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
make thereof was with out Blessed Saviour Alpha and Omega the first and last of his care ubi incipit ibi desinit The consideration of which how momentous it is I leave to your selves to judge Thus much by way of Preface NOW for understanding the words I have chosen I will divide my Discourse into a Question and an Observation The Question is In what part of the Temple this Market was kept A thing not commonly by Expositors enquired after much less defined The Observation is That this fact of our Saviour more particularly concerns us of the Gentiles than we take notice of For the first In what part of the Temple this Market was kept The Iews Religion and scrupulosity to keep their Temple from prophanation was such as might seem to make this story incredible Those who were so chary that no uncircumcised or unclean person should come therein who trod the pavement thereof with so much religious observance and curiosity who would not suffer as Iosephus relates any other building no not the Palace of Agrippa their King to have any prospect into it lest it should be polluted by a prophane look how unlikely is it they would endure it to be made a place of buying selling and bartering yea a Market for sheep and oxen as Iohn 2. 14. it is expresly said to have been Neither will it serve the turn to excuse it by saying it was to furnish such as came thither with offerings For the sheep and oxen whilst they were yet to be bought to that purpose were not sacred but prophane and so not to come within the sacred limits You see the difficulty But I answer that this Market was kept in the Third or Gentiles Court which was the outmost of the Temple For the Temple in our Saviour's time had Three Courts each surrounding one another First the inmost or Priests Court wherein stood the Temple and the Altar of burnt-offering Into this none but the Priests and Levites came Secondly the middle or great Court which surrounded that of the Priests whereinto the Iews of all sorts and circumcised Proselytes came to worship Without this was a third Court for the Gentiles which surrounded the Israelites Court as that did the Court of the Priests The two first Courts they accounted sacred calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which therefore none might enter but such as were circumcised and clean according to the Law The third was without the sacred limits and so accounted prophane and common which may be learned out of Iosephus who tells us of certain little pillars or columns placed by the Lorica or Septum which severed this Court from the rest whereon was inscribed in Greek and Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Atrium sanctum transire alienigenam non debere That no stranger pass within the sacred limits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the second part of the Temple was called Holy implying that the Outmost was not so Into this Court therefore which had no legal sanctity and was without the 〈◊〉 limits the Gentiles were admitted and had their station together with such 〈◊〉 Iews as were in their uncleanness further they might not go By Gentiles 〈…〉 mean such which though uncircumcised yet worshipped the God of Israel and were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as I have told you heretofore the Iews had two sorts of Proselytes which worshipped their God and frequented his Temple One of such as were circumcised and took upon them the observation of the whole Law of Moses These were accounted as Iews bound to the same observances and partakers of the same priviledges with them they worshipped together in the same Court and differed nothing from Iews but that they were not so born But besides these there was a second sort of Gentiles which embraced the worship of the God of Israel and the hope of the life to come which were not circumcised nor conformed to the Ordinances of the Mosaical Law but were tied only to the observation of those commandments which the Iewish Doctors call The Precepts of the Sons of Noah Of this Order was Cornelius and divers other mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles where they are known by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Worshippers and though they were true worshippers yet were they still but Gentiles and such as no Iew might converse with as we see in the example of Cornelius These were those that came no further than the Outmost Court not accounted within the limits of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sacred Septs as themselves were accounted Vnclean because Uncircumcised and so no members of the Commonwealth of Israel In this Court therefore the Iews made no scruple of doing prophane and secular acts being in their opinion no better than a common place Nay it is very probable that to shew their despiciency of the poor Gentiles according to that in the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without are Dogs and to pride themselves in their prerogative and discretion from them they affected to have such acts there done And hence it came to pass that they permitted a Market of Oxen and Sheep Doves and other bartery to be kept there for the use of the Temple and those who came thither to worship And thus the poor Gentiles or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were stabled amongst Oxen Sheep and stalls of Money-changers and in that tumultuous place fain to offer up their devotions and prayers unto the most High God whom they had chosen But our Blessed Saviour who came to redeem not the Iews only but the Gentiles also and to make them a principal part of his sold would not suffer them to be thus neglected but in this act of his gave them a praeludium of his further favour intended toward them and he that was to vindicate their Souls from death and take away the partition-wall between them and the Iews first vindicates their Oratory from prophanation alledging for his warrant this place of the Prophet Esay concerning the same Oratory My House shall be called a House of Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He did not say My Father's House is holy for the Iews would soon have replied that the Gentiles Court was without the sacred limits But It is written saith he My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all the Nations Ergo The place of Prayer for all Nations is a part of my Father's House If my Father's House then holy and not to be thus prophaned For whatsoever is his is holy Relative Holiness being nothing else but the peculiarity a thing hath to God-ward Of this if any man doubt that Quotation by S. Luke concerning that which first openeth the womb will put him out of doubt For whenas the Law saith Every male that openeth the womb is mine that is the Lord's S. Luke utters it chap. 2. v. 23. Every male that
openeth the womb shall be called Holy unto the Lord Ergo To be the Lord's and to be Holy are Synonyma's Though therefore the Gentiles Court had no sanctity of legal distinction yet had it the sanctity of peculiarity to God-ward and therefore not to be used as a common place The Illation proceeds by way of Conversion My House shall be called the House of Prayer to all Nations or People Ergo The House of Prayer for all Nations is my Father's House And the Emphasis lies in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators were not so well advised of when following Beza too close they render the words thus My House shall be called of all Nations the House of Prayer as if the Dative Case here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not Acquisitive but as it is sometimes with passive verbs in stead of the Ablative of the Agent for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which sense is clean from the scope and purpose of the place whence it is taken as he that compares them will easily see and I shall make fully to appear in the next part of my Discourse which I tendred by the name of an Observation To wit That this fact of our Saviour more particularly concerns us of the Gentiles than we take notice of Namely we are taught thereby what reverent esteem we ought to have of our Gentile Oratories and Churches howsoever not endued with such legal sanctity in every respect as was the Temple of the Iews yet Houses of Prayer as well as theirs This Observation will be made good by a threefold Consideration First of the Story as I have related it secondly from the Text here alledged for warrant thereof and thirdly from the circumstance of Time For the Story I have shewed it was acted in the Gentiles Court and not in that of the Iews because it is not credible that was thus prophaned It cannot therefore be alledged that this was a place of legal sanctity for according to legal sanctity it was held by the Iews as common only it was the place for the Gentiles to worship the God of Israel in and seems to have been proper to the second Temple the Gentiles in the first worshipping without at the Temple-door in the holy Mountain only Secondly The place alledged to avow the Fact speaks expresly of Gentile-worshippers not in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only but in the whole body of the context Hear the Prophet speak Esay chap. 56. ver 6 7. and then judge The sons of the stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the Name of the Lord to be his servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant namely that I alone shall be his God Even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer their burnt-offerings and sacrifices accepted upon mine Altar Then follow the words of my Text For my House shall be called that is shall be it is an Hebraism a House of Prayer for all People What is this but a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentile-worshippers And this place alone makes good all that I have said before viz. That this vindication was of the Gentiles Court Otherwise the allegation of this Scripture had been impertinent for the Gentiles of whom the Prophet speaks worshipped in no place but this Hence also appears to what purpose our Evangelist expressed the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely as that which shewed wherein the force of the accommodation to this occasion lay which the rest of the Evangelists omitted as referring to the place of the Prophet whence it was taken those who heard it being not ignorant of whom the Prophet spake Thirdly the circumstance of Time argues the same thing if we consider that this was done but a few days before our Saviour suffered to wit when he came to his last Passeover How unseasonable had it been to vindicate the violation of Legal and typical sanctity which within so few days after he was utterly to abolish by his Cross unless he had meant thereby to leave his Church a lasting lesson what reverence and respect he would have accounted due to such places as this was which he vindicated DISCOURSE XII S. IOHN 4. 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him THEY are the words of our Blessed Saviour to the Woman of Samaria who perceiving him by his discourse to be a Prophet desired to be resolved by him of that great controverted point between the Iews and Samaritans Whether Mount Garizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrificed or Ierusalem were the true place of worship Our Saviour tells her that this Question was not now of much moment For that the hour or time was near at hand when they should neither worship the Father in Mount Garizim nor at Ierusalem But that there was a greater difference between the Iews and them than this of Place namely even about That which was worshipped For ye saith he worship that ye know not but we Iews worship that we know Then follow the words premised But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth It is an abused Text being commonly alledged to prove that God now in the Gospel either requires not or regards not External worship but that of the Spirit only and this to be a characteristical difference between the worship of the Old Testament and the New If at any time we talk of external decency in rites and bodily expressions as sit to be used in the service of God this is the usual Buckler to repel whatsoever may be said in that kind It is true indeed that the worship of the Gospel is much more spiritual than that of the Law But that the worship of the Gospel should be only spiritual and no external worship required therein as the Text according to some meus sense and allegation thereof would imply is repugnant not only to the practice and experience of the Christian Religion in all Ages but also to the express Ordinances of the Gospel it self For what are the Sacraments of the New Testament are they not Rites wherein and wherewith God is served and worshipped The consideration of the holy Eucharist alone will consute this Gloss For is not the commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ's death upon the Cross unto his Father in the Symbols of Bread and Wine an external worship And yet with this Rite hath the Church in all Ages used to make her solemn address of Prayer and Supplication unto the Divine Majesty as the Iews in the Old Testament did by Sacrifice When I say in all Ages I include also that of the Apostles For so much S. Luke testifieth of that first Christian society
22. 8. and so he did indeed I shall need gather no more Examples Let no man therefore be discouraged for fear of danger to do his duty in that calling and vocation wherein God hath set him If God hath bid thee hope thou likewiâ—e he will protect thee But if thou neglect his commandment so to avoid what thou fearest be sure then that thou fearest or a worse will come upon thee take heed thou goest not out of God's blessing into the warm Sun Let Saul's example be our warning who to prevent as he thought the scattering of the people from him and the evil which longer delay might occasion if he should stay for Samuel presumed to offer Sacrifice himself but he was called a fool for his labour and made to know at length that Obedience was better than Sacrifice And so shall every one that makes so ungodly an experience find his policy in the end plain foolery and Obedience to God's Commandment better than all the Policy in the world AND thus I come to the third thing considerable viz. The place where every Male was to appear In the place the Lord shall chuse namely in the place where the Ark and Tabernacle of God should be which at the first was at Shiloh in the Country of Samaria and Tribe of Ephraim afterwards at Ierusalem in the Tribe of Iudah where David first pitched a new Tabernacle for the Ark of the Covenant after it had been taken by the Philistins and returned home again and in the same place his son Solomon built that glorious Temple which was the Beauty of the whole earth Of these two places spake the Samaritan woman in the Gospel to our Saviour Iohn 4. 20. Our Fathers said she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship By Our Fathers she means the old Ephraimites from whom the Samaritans falsly vaunted they were descended upon which ground she likewise calls Iacob Our Father Iacob v. 12. For they were indeed the off-spring of those strange Nations which Shalmaneser transplanted into the Cities of Samaria when he had carried Ephraim and the rest of Israel captives into Assyria as we read 2 Kings 17. 24. By this Mountain she means Mount Ephraim where Shiloh was and the Ark and Tabernacle of God in ancient time had been For when Manasses the brother of Iaddus the High Priest was excommunicated and driven from the Priesthood because he had married the daughter of Sanball at the Horonite as it is in the last of Nehemiah v. 28. he with his faction to vex his own Nation procured a Temple to be built in Gerizim on Mount Ephraim whereof himself was the High Priest and to draw a company of Transgressors like himself from the Temple at Ierusalem unto this it was coloured as if this were the only place which the Lord had chosen because the Tabernacle was first pitched at Shiloh in Mount Ephraim and not at Sion on Mount Moriah and this was the bone of everlasting division and capital hatred between the Iews and Samaritans Thus we have seen where This place was first and last which the Lord had chosen Now let us further consider why it is thus called The place which the Lord shall chuse First therefore these words imply That the place for holy Assemblies was a select place For they were not to assemble in every place as occasion and opportunity served but to have a choice and select place for that purpose Secondly This place for Legal worship was to be one only place and no more and therefore here the singular number is used I say there was but one only place for Legal worship meaning Sacrifices and the Service accompanying them for otherwise they had many Synagogues for heaâ—ing the Law read and expounded Ierusalem it self had four hundred and in those the Scribes bore rule as the Priests did in the Temple But the reason why there was but one Temple and place of Sacrifice and Prayer was for a Type of that one only Mediator Iesus Christ in whom alone our sins are expiated and our prayers and thanksgivings accepted before God So that in the time of the Law to build an holy Altar or offer Sacrifices any where but here though it were unto the true God was a Typical Idolatry because it implied a multiplicity of Mediators of whose Oneness the one only place of worship and the one Altar was a sign which was the reason why it was so unlawful to sacrifice in the high places though it were unto the Lord their God And yet because it was but a ceremonial sin God did in the confused times of that Church sometimes pass by it as it were because of the hardness of their hearts as our Saviour saith in another kind But he that did dispense with an irregularity in figure because of the state of the times will never allow Idolatry in deed such as is that of the Church of Rome who fulfil the very substance of that whereof the Iewish sin was but a Type whose Mediators are so many that they are not easily numbred and though they for excuse subordinate them all to Christ as the chief and derive their Mediatorship from the virtue of his merits yet is this but like unto that of the erring Church of the Law which notwithstanding God's commandment to the contrary had a conceit that they might sacrifice in any high place so it were unto the Lord their God only The third and last thing which these words imply is That this select and only place should be of the Lord 's own chusing The place he shall chuse But how should the Lord chuse it it seems by giving some extraordinary sign of his allowance in accepting their Sacrifice or it may be they did consult him in this case by the Oracle of Vrim and Thummim For of the first place in Shiloh we have nothing expressed but only read Ioshua 18. 1. That the whole Congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation there But of the second place in Mount Sion we read That the Angel of God commanded Gad to say to David that he should set up an Altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan and that when David offered thereon burnt-offerings and peace-offerings the Lord answered him from heaven by fire upon the Altar of burnt-offering and that David hereupon designed that place for the Tabernacle and future Temple saying This is the house of the Lord God and this is the Altar of the burnt-offering for Israel 1 Chron. 22. 1. Now to make some application of this to the times of the Gospel The two last circumstances of this place concern us not For that of one place was a Type and so is gone the second of God's immediate choice seems to be so also and to be a figure of that which the Angel Gabriel said to the blessed Virgin
Hail thou highly favoured the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst Women where God chuses the womb of Mary wherein to erect that pure Altar and Temple whereof the Legal were but shadows Thus these two circumstances seem no ways to bind us But the first That there should be select places for holy Assemblies and the publick worship of God this is that which was before the Law was given and yet remains in force now the Law is ended As long as it is required of the Church to appear before the Lord in publick Assemblies so long is it also required to have chosen and select places for that purpose Adam and his Sons had places whither to bring their Sacrifices the Patriarchs used Altars Mountains and Groves to the self-same purpose from the very beginning of Christianity Christians have had their select Oratories 1 Cor. 11. 22. S. Paul speaking of the Assemblies of the Church and some abuses therein as eating and drinking Have ye not saith he Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God Here it appears that the place of holy Assemblies was not an ordinary place where men eat and drink but a place select and set apart for holier purposes which he yet more confirms when he addeth v. 34. If any man hunger let him eat at home It follows hence That the place of Holy Assemblies was no man's home but a place hallowed unto God for the common use of the Church howsoever these in the times of persecution so secret as not to be discovered by the Gentiles What hath been the practice since in all Ages he hath no eyes that sees not and if there be any who cannot behold them without a desire to have them levelled it were better their eyes were plucked out than so many monuments of our Forefathers piety should be thrown down and ruined and God so unseemly and disorderly served as he should be if as Beggers do for lodging so his Assemblies were every week or month to seek a place of entertainment We are therefore as well as the Israelites to appear before the Lord in a chosen place But here is the difference that they were to have but one we have liberty to have many there God chose a place for himself but we in the Gospel have liberty to chuse a place for God where we will Nevertheless it is to be observed that the Leaders of the Primitive Church howsoever they acknowledged this liberty yet they used to select for their Assemblies such Places as God had any way dignified or honoured either by some work of mercy or the glorious sufferings of his Martyrs whereupon the most ancient Monuments of the Christian Churches do mention the Assemblies of Christians In Coemeteriis Martyrum at the Coemeteries and Monuments of their Martyrs For howsoever God did not immediately select the place of his worship then as he did in the time of the Law yet they thought he had made these places of a choicer fitness than other though none of necessary obligation which I for my part would be loth to condemn as an error seeing to follow the order of the Church of Israel byâ— way of direction and not obligation is no abridgment to Christian liberty so it be only so far and in those things only whereof Christianity is capable as I think this we speak of was though I know it was afterward an occasion of damnable Idolatry use of erecting Temples unto Saints and Angels But what is there which the corrupt nature of man will not make an occasion of sin Even as an unclean body of the best nourishment will breed evil humors So out of the most wholsome ordinances our wicked hearts will contrive superstition DISCOURSE XLVIII DEUTERONOMY 16. 16 17. In the Feast of Vnleavened bread and in the Feast of Weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles and they shall not appear before the Lord empty Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee IN these words being a commandment for the observation of the three solemn and principal Feasts of the Law were Four things considerable 1. The Work or action To appear before the Lord 2. The Persons who All Males 3. The Place where In the place the Lord shall chuse 4. The Time when Thrice in the Year In the Feast of unleavened bread In the Feast of Weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles Of the three first the Action the Persons and Place I have spoken Now therefore I come to speak of the Time The Feast of unleavened bread c. The Feast of unleavened Bread is that which is otherwise called The Feast of the Passeover consisting of seven days from the fifteenth of March until the twenty first On the Even before this solemn Feast the fourteenth day of the first month was killed and eaten the Paschal Lamb on the seven days following were offered the Paschal Sacrifices and no other Bread but unleavened eaten the first and last days being days of holy Assemblies or Convocations The Feast of Weeks was a Feast kept at the end of seven Weeks or a Week of Weeks after the second day of the Passeover or fifty days after the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread and therefore called The Feast of Weeks that is a Feast to be kept a Week of Weeks after the Passeover and Pentecost because the first day thereof was the fiftieth day after the first of the Passeover as now our Whitsunâ—ide is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fiftieth day after Easter This Feast was likewise of seven days continuance all spent in multitude of Sacrifices but the first and last specially in keeping of holy Assemblies The Feast of Tabernacles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Feast of eight days continuance in the seventh month or September from the fifteenth day thereof to the two and twentieth all whereof had their proper Sacrifices and the first seven days they dwelt in Booths or Tabernacles made of Willow Palm Myrtle and Citron boughs whence it hath the name of the Feast of Tabernacles The first and the last or eighth day were here also days of an holy Convocation wherein no servile work might be done Thus having in brief described the Time Continuance and Service of these Three solemn Feasts now let us also see what was the End of their institution The End of these Feasts was partly for Remembrance of things past and partly for Types and Figures of things to come which I will shew in them severally The Feast of the Passeover was for a thankful Remembrance of their great deliverance out of Egypt when for hast they were forced to carry their dough unleavened upon their shoulders and the evening before the Lord having slain all the first-born of Egypt yet passed by them because of the bloud of the Paschal Lamb which he saw upon the door-posts of their houses For this
Eleemosyna or Alms. The first is done to God immediately and is when we give ought to the use and maintenance of his Worship The Second is done to our Neighbour immediately as when we supply his wants out of our abundance and this is done to God only mediately unless it be done unto the stranger fatherless and widow for they in the old Law were in a special manner Cura Dei God's care together with the Levite Of these two kinds I have hitherto extended the first though I exclude not Alms so far as God is worshipped by the good we do unto our brother I COME now unto the last point I proposed namely The Practice of the ancient Church in the use of this Offering or Oblatory Praise and Thanksgiving at the celebration of the Lord's Supper and here I will shew first What their custom was secondly What ground and reason they had for the same To begin with the first Among the ancient Christians the whole Office of this Sacrament I mean the whole Body of Rites and Actions about the same consisted of three parts namely as they are distinguished by Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was an act of Oblatory praise and prayer by addressing or applying Bread and Wine unto the use of the Sacrament and other Gifts to the use of God's service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sacrifice the consecration or mystical changing of Bread and Wine thus sanctified into the Body and Bloud of our Lord Iesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the eating or receiving of the same in sign of Communion with Christ and all the fruits of his Incarnation whence Nazianzen defines this Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Communion of the Incarnation of God To these three acts answer three words To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Oblation hallowed Bread and hallowed Wine but no more To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Consecration the Body and Bloud of the Lord To the third the Communion of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. The first act of common Bread and Wine made holy and sanctified Bread and Wine called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Bread and Wine of Blessing and Thanksgiving The second act of holy Bread and Wine made most holy that is holy signs of the Lord's Body and Bloud The third of holy signs in general holy signs in special applied to the soul of each receiver The first was done by being used to Prayer and Thanksgiving The second by pronouncing the words of Institution at the breaking of the Bread and pouring of the Wine The third by receiving it with Amen or So be it The first and last were acts of Priest and People the second of the Priest alone Thus was there as it were a mutual commerce between God and the People the People giving unto God and God again unto his People the People giving a small Thanksgiving but receiving a great Blessing offering Bread but receiving the Body offering Wine but receiving the mystical Bloud of Christ Iesus I know that the names of these are often confounded all being used for the whole and often one for another but especially the Sacrament it self is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Oblation or Offering by a Metonymic of the matter because the matter was offered Bread and offered Wine For the same reason is it called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eucharist because the matter of it was Eucharistia Bread of Blessing and Thanksgiving not as some think because the End thereof is Thanksgiving It is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sacrifice I think of the matter also which was taken out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though some will have it so called because it was a sign of Christ's sacrifice But I return again unto the Oblation which as you have seen was as it were a Prologue unto the Sacrament and had the full nature of the Heave-offering which I have so long spoken of First it was in every part complete having all the degrees or parts of a true offering namely of the Heart of the Tongue and of the Hand all formally expressed in the ancient Liturgies For when the people began to bring their Offering unto the Altar the Priest was to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lift up your hearts to which they answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We lift them up unto the Lord This was the use of those Versicles in ancient time When this was done then came the calves of their lips offered both to Praise and Prayer 1. To Praise and Thanksgiving When the Priest cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us give thanks unto the Lord the people answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is meet and just we should do so and so they went on to give God thanks or to make a thankful remembrance of the Creation of the World and all things therein for the use of man for the Providence of God in governing the same for the Oeconomy of his Church afore the Law and in the Law recounting in brief as they went the principal Histories of the Bible in all these particulars This part of Oblatory Thanksgiving is now called the Preface in the Mass though something diverse from the ancient But because Christ had commanded that in this service they should chiefly remember him they made in the next place a large Thanksgiving unto God that he so loved the world as to give his own Son for the same that the Son of God would abase himself so low as to take upon him the nature of sinful man and by his death and passion to redeem us out of the jaws of death and pit of hell And this is now for the greater part called The Hymn and here ended The offering of Praise and Thanksgiving 2. Next comes the Offering of Prayer or Prayer with an Offering for Kings and Princes the whole Catholick Church and so along as we have it in our Litany or in the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church both which are beaten out of that mint And our Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church is yet Oblatory if the Rubrick were observed which enjoyns the Church-wardens to gather the Alms of the people and then to make this Vniversal Prayer and in the very beginning thereof we desire Almighty God to accept our Alms and to receive our Prayers In no other sense did the ancient Church use their word Offer so often repeated in those Prayers but that God would accept of their Obedience in thus honouring him and so according to his promise in Christ to hear their Prayers And hence it is that sometimes they say We offer sometimes We beseech thee one expounding the meaning of the other But this is now made to be the Canon of the Mass and all this Offering of Prayer is turned into an Offering of Expiation for the quick and the dead For this offering of
Rom. 12. 11. 3. Zeal is that which carries our Devotions up to Heaven As Wings to a Fowl Wheels to a Chariot Sails to a Ship so is Zeal to the Soul of Man Without Zeal our Devotions can no more ascend than Vapours from a Still without fire put under it Prayer if it be fervent availeth much but a cold Sute will never get to Heaven In brief Zeal is the Chariot wherein our Alms our Offerings and all the good works we do are brought before the Throne of God in Heaven No Sacrifice in the Law could be offered without fire no more in the Gospel is any Service rightly performed without Zeal Be zealous therefore lest all thy works all thy endeavours be else unprofitable Rouze up thy dull and heavy Spirit serve God with earnestness and fervency and pray unto him that he would send us this fire from his Altar which is in Heaven whereby all our Sacrifices may become acceptable and pleasing unto him AND thus I come to the next thing in my Text Repentance Be zealous and repent Repentance is the changing of our course from the old way of Sin unto the new way of Righteousness or more briefly A changing of the course of sin for the course of Righteousness It is called also Conversion Turning and Returning unto God This matter would ask a long discourse but I will describe it briefly in five degrees which are as five steps in a Ladder by which we ascend up to Heaven 1. The first step is the Sight of Sin and the punishment due unto it for how can the Soul be possessed with fear and sorrow except he Understanding do first apprehend the danger for that which the Eye sees not the Heart rues not If Satan can keep sin from the Eye he will easily keep sorrow from the Heart It is impossible for a man to repent of his wickedness except the reflect and say What have I done The serious Penitent must be like the wary Factor he must retire himself look into his Books and turn over the leaves of his life he must consider the expence of his Time the employment of his Talent the debt of his Sin and the strictness of his Account 2. And so he shall ascend unto the next step which is Sorrow for sin For he that seriously considers how he hath grieved the Spirit of God and endangered his own Soul by his sins cannot but have his Spirit grieved with remorse The Sacrifices of God are a contrite Spirit Neither must we sorrow only but look unto the quality of our Sorrow that it be Godly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the quantity of it that it be Great We must fit the plaister to the wound and proportion our sorrow to our Sins He that with Peter hath sinned heinously or with Mary Magdalen frequently must with them weep bitterly and abundantly 3. The Third step of this Ladder is the Loathing of sin A Surfiet of Meats how dainty and delicate soever will afterwards make them loathsome He that hath taken his fill of sin and committed iniquity with greediness and is sensible of his supersinity or abundance of naughtiness and hath a great Sorrow for it he will the more loath his sins though they have been never so full of delight Yea it will make him loath himself and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. The fourth step is the leaving off Sin For as Amnon hating Tamar shut her out of doors So he that loaths and hates his Sins the sight the thought the remembrance of them will be grievous unto him and he will labour by all good means to expel them For true Repentance must be the consuming of sin To what purpose doth the Physician evacuate ill humors if the Patient still distempers himself with ill diet What shall it avail a man to endure the launcing searching and tenting of a wound if he stay not for the cure So in vain also is the Sight of sin and the Sorrow for and Loathing of Sin if the works of darkness still remain and the Soul is impatient of a through-cure And therefore as Amnon not only put out his loathed Sister but bolted the door after her as it is said in the forequoted place So must we keep out our sins with the Bolts of Resolution and Circumspection Noah pitched the Ark within and without Gen. 6. 14. So to keep out the waters and a Christian must be watchful to secure all his Senses External and Internal to keep out sin 5. The Fifth and last step is the Cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart to walk before him in newness of life All the former Degrees of Repentance were for the putting off of the Old man this is for the putting on of the New For ubi Emendatio nulla Poenitentia necessariò vana saith Tertullian de Poenit. c. 2. Where there is no Reformation there the Repentance must needs be vain and fruitless for as he goes on caret fructu suo eui eam Deus sevit i. e. hominis saluti it hath not its fruit unto holiness nor the end everlasting life Rom. 6. 22. And thus have I let you see briefly What Repentance is Will you have me say any more to make you to affect it as earnestly as I hope by this time you understand it clearly Know then that this is that which opens Heaven and leads into Paradise This is that Ladder without which no man can climb thither and therefore as S. Austin saith Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam Let us change our life here if we look for the Life of Glory hereafter Let us leave the old way of sin for the new way of righteousness and to apply all to my Text Let us change our course of Lukewarmness for a course of fervency in God's service our dull and drowsie Devotions for a course of Zeal Be zealous and Repent AND thus I come to the Third thing I propounded namely the Connexion and dependance of these latter words Be zealous therefore and Repent upon the former As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Many things might be here observed but I will name but one which is this That Repentance is the means to avoid and prevent God's Iudgments For as Tertullian in his de Poenitentia observes * Qui poenam per judicium destinavit idem veniam per poenitentiam spospondit He that hath decreed to punish by Iustice hath promised to grant pardon by Repentance And so we read in Ieremy 18. 7. When I shall speak saith the Lord there concerning a Nation or Kingdom to pluck up to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And in Ezekiel 18. Repent and turn
house of God before the holy Angels For note that the word Angel may be taken collectively for more than one For this cause all the curtains of the Tabernacle were filled with the pictures of Cherubims and the walls of Solomon's Temple within with carved Cherubims the Ark of the Testimony overspread and covered with two nighty Cherubims having their faces looking towards it and the Mercy-seat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their wings stretched forth on high called Heb. 9. 5. The Cherubims of glory that is of the Divine Presence All to signifie that where God's sacred Memorial is the enâ—ign of his Covenant and commerce with men there the blessed Angels out of duty give their attendance Nor is it to be over-passed that the Iews at this day continue the like opinion of their modern Places of worship namely that the blessed Angels frequent their assemblies and praise and laud God with them in their Synagogues notwithstanding they have no other Memorial of his there than an imitative one only to wit a Chest with a Volume or Roll of the Law therein in stead of the Ark with the two Tables For thus speaks the Seder Tephilloth or Form of prayer used by the Iews of Portugal O Lord our God the Angels that supernal company gathered together with thy people Israel here below do crown thee with praises and altogether do thrice redouble and cry that spoken of by the Prophet Holy Holy Holy Lord God of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory They allude to Esay's Vision of the Glory of God above mentioned You will say Such a presence of Angels perhaps there was in that Temple under the Law but there is no such thing in the Gospel No why Are the Memorials of God's Covenant his Insignia in the Gospel less worthy of their attendance than those of the Law or have the Angels since the nature of man Iesus Christ our Lord became their Head and King gotten an exemption from this service Surely not S. Paul if we will understand and believe him supposes the contrary in his first Epistle to the Corinthians chap. 11. verse 10. where treating of a comely and decent accommodation to be observed in Church-assemblies and in particular of womens being covered or veiled there he enforces it from this presence of Angels For this cause saith he ought the woman to have a covering on her head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels namely which are there present For otherwise the reason holds not that she should more be covered in the Place of Prayer than any where else unless the Angels be more there than elsewhere This place much troubleth the Expositors but see what it is to admit a truth for now there is no difficulty in it And that the ancient Fathers conceived no less venerably of their Christian Oratories in this particular than the Iews did of their Temple appears by S. Chrysostomâ— who is very frequent in urging an awful and reverent behaviour in God's house from this motive of Angelical presence As in his Homily 36. in 1 Corinth where reproving the irreverent behaviour of his Auditory in that Church in talking walking saluting and the like which he saith was peculiar unto them and such as no Christians elsewhere in the world presumed to do he enforces his reproof with words that come home to our purpose Non tonstrina inquit neque unguentaria officina neque ulla alia opiâ—icum qui sunt in â—oro taberna est Ecclesia sed Locus Angelorum Locus Archangelorum Regia Dei ipsum Coelum The Church saith he is no Barber 's or Drug-seller's shop nor any other crafts-mans or merchants workhouse or warehouse in the market-place but the place of Angels the place of Archangels the Palace of God Heaven it self And in his 4. Homily De incomprehensibili Dei natura towards the end Cogiâ—a apud quem proximè stas quibuscum invoces Deum sâ—il cum Cherubim cum Seraphim cum omnibus coeli Virtutibus animadverte quos habeas socios satis hoc tibi sit ad sobrietatem cùm recorderis te corpore constantem carne coagmentatum admitti cum Virtutibus incorporeis celebrare omnium Dominum Think near whom thou standest with whom thou invocatest God namely with Cherubims and Seraphims and all the Powers of Heaven consider but what companions thou hast let it be sufficient to perswade thee to sobriety when thou remembrest that thou who art compounded of flesh and bloud art admitted with the incorporeal Powers to celebrate the common Lord of all But all this you will say the Angels may do in Heaven Well let it be so yet is it not altogether out of our way but the next places I shall bring will not be so eluded Namely that in his 15. Homily upon the Epistle to the Hebrews against those that laughed in the Church Regiam quidem ingrediens habitu aspectu incessu omnibus aliis te ornas componis Hîc autem verè est Regia planè hîc talia qualia coelestia rides Atque scio quidem quòd tu non vides Audi autem quòd ubique adsunt Angeli maximè in Domo Dei adsistunt Regi omnia sunt impleta incorporeis illis Potestatibus When thou goest into a King's Palace thou composest thy self to a comeliness in thy habit in thy look in thy gate and in all thy whole guise But here is indeed the Palace of a King and the like attendance to that in Heaven and dost thou laugh I know well enough thou seest it not But hear thou me and know that Angels are every where and that chiefly in the House of God they attend upon their King where all is â—illed with these incorporeal Powers The like unto this you shall find in his 24. Homily upon the Acts of the Apostles Knowest thou not that thou standest here with Angels that with them thou singest with them thou landest God with Hymns and dost thou laugh See the rest I will alledge but one passage more of his lest I should grow tedious and that is out of his 6. Book de Sacerdotio not very far from the beginning where speaking of the time when the holy Eucharist is celebrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then the Angels stand by the Priest and the whole Quire resounds with celestial Powers and the place about the Altar is filled with them in honour of him who is laid thereon that is of his Memorial Compare with it a like passage in his 3. Hom. De incomprehensibili Dei natura Item Hom. 1. De verbis Isaiae S. Ambrose acknowledgeth the same in c. 1. Luc. Non dubites assistere Angelum quando Christus assistit Christus immolatur Yea Tertullian in whose time which was within two hundred years after Christ some will scarcely believe that Christians had any such Places as Churches
the Iacobite sect may have the like custom as it is certain that in most of their Rites they agree with them Now the religious guise of the Iews and other Nations of the Orient having anciently been and still being such as you have heard when they entered into their Temples or remained in them the words of my Text Look to thy Foot or feet being taken for an expression borrowed from and alluding thereto will have the same sense as if we inflecting them to our manners should say Look unto thy Head that is have a care thy Head be fitted as it ought to be when thou comest into the House of God meaning that he should put off his hat or be uncovered when he comes thither and use such other reverence as is wont to accompany it For know that the Holy Ghost mentioning or specifying but one Rite is yet so to be understood as implying therewith the rest of the same order accustomed to go with it according to that usual Trope of Scripture by a part or that which is more notable or obvious in any kind or rank of things to imply the rest the rule whereby we interpret the Decalogue and is the more fitly appliable here because this guise of Discalceation was a leading Ceremonie to the other gestures of Sacred veneration then used as that of putting off the hat in civil use at least is wont to be with us Nor as if Solomon or the Holy Ghost in this Admonition intended the outward Ceremonie only and no no more that were ridiculous to imagine but the whole act of Sacred reverence commenced in the heart and affection whereof this was the accustomed and leading gesture to wit the very same and all that which the Lord commandeth in that original law Lev. 19. 30. Sanctuarium meum reveremini Reverence my Sanctuary which Ionathan's Targum explaineth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye shall go to the House of my Sanctuary with reverence Solomon paralleleth here with Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God For so is the manner of Scripture almost every where under the name of the Gesture only to understand and imply the whole dutie of Veneration which such Gesture representeth and importeth But as this is most true so is it on the other side as false if any shall from hence collect That therefore the Outward worship may securely be neglected in Time and Place where and when it may be done so the Inward be performed Nay the contrary follows For if the Inward worship be chiefly intended when the Outward or Bodily is only named as it is granted is it not then absurd to imagine that where that which is not expresly named is meant there that which is only mentioned should be excluded Nay surely where the Outward is mentioned as here in my Text there no doubt but the Outward in one kind or other is a part of the dutie commanded whatsoever besides it be intended And because it is a disease almost proper to our time for our forefathers were mostly sick of the other extreme so far to slight and disesteem that I may not say disdain the worship of God by the Body as to think it may be omitted and neglected even in Time and Place convenient as in God's House and publick service without all guilt of sin give me therefore leave to propound a few Considerations for the Cure of such as are sick of that maladie For as that which seems but some lighter Symptome at the first if the cure thereof be neglected and contemned oftentimes proves fatal and destroys life it self so may this I would have them therefore consider 1. That we all look not only for the Glorification of our Souls but of our Bodies in the life to come Now a Reward presupposeth a Work It is meet and right therefore we should worship and glorifie God here in this life with the Body as well as the Soul if we look that God should one day glorifie both 2. That as the Outward worship without the Inward is dead so the Inward without the Outward is not complete even as the Glorification of the Soul separate from the Bodie is not nor shall be consummate till the Body be again united unto it 3. That those who derogate so much from Bodily worship in the service of the true God as kneeling bowing and the like make by consequent Idolatrie a sin far less hainous in degree than it is For is not Idolatrie to communicate that honour with a creature which is due unto the Creator alone By how much therefore the worship of gesture and posture is less due unto God when we do our homage unto him by so much is the sin the less hainous and grievous when the same is given unto an Idol For I believe they will not deny but part of the sin of Idolatrie consists even in the outward worship given unto an Idol as kneeling bowing and falling down before it and the like 4. Lastly That although Bodily worship being considered in it self be one of the minora Legis of the lesser things of the Law and the honour done unto God thereby of no great value though not of none in his sight yet may a voluntary and presumptuous neglect even of so small a duty be a great and hainous sin because such a neglect proceeds from a prophane disposition and election of the heart For a sin is not always to be esteemed according to the value of the duty omitted but from the heart's election in omitting it Non est bonum per se saith Seneca munda vestis sed mundae vestis electio quia non in rebonum est sed in electione that is A clean garment hath no goodness of it self but it is the election of a clean garment which is commended because the goodness consists not in the thing but in the election thereof So say I here It is not the value or merit of the work which aggravates the sin in omitting the doing thereof but the Election not to do it Now therefore to return to my Hypothesis By that which hath been delivered it appears That it is not only lawful to use some Reverential gesture when we come into God's House which yet some think they are very liberal if they grant but that it is a duty commanded by God himself and so no will-Will-worship as namely in that Divine admonition given first to Moses and afterward to Iosua Put thy shoes from off thy feet c. in that Law Reverence my Sanctuary in this Instruction by Solomon Look to thy feet when thou comest to the house of God That the Saints and people of God in the Old Testament and Christians in the New have used such Reverence That the neglect thereof is condemned of Prophaneness by the practice of Iews Gentiles Pagans Mahumetans all Religions whatsoever if any be to be excepted proh pudor dolor it is our selves But without doubt in
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow c. and that in Esay the last To this man will I look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit He that killeth an ox namely otherwise is as if he slew a man he that Sacrificeth a lamb unless he comes with this disposition as if he cut off a dog's neck he that offereth an oblation as if he offered bloud he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol And surely he that blesseth an Idol is so far from renewing a Covenant with the Lord his God that he breaks it So did they who without conscience of Repentance presumed to come before him with a Sacrifice not procure atonement but aggravate their breach According to one of these three senses are all passages in the Old Testament disparaging and rejecting Sacrifices literally to be understood namely when men preferred them before the greater things of the Law valued them out of their degree as an antecedent duty or placed their efficacy in the naked Rite as if ought accrued to God thereby God would no longer own them for any ordinance of his nor indeed in that disguise put upon them were they I will except only one Passage out of the number which I suppose to have a singular meaning to wit that of David in the 51. Psalm v. 16 17. which the ancient translations thus express Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium dedissem utique sed holocaustis non oblectaberis vel holocaustum non acceptabis Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus c. If thou wouldst have had a Sacrifice I would have offered it but thou wilt accept no burnt-offering c. For this seems to be meant of that special case of Adulterie and Murther which David here deploreth for which Sins the Lord had provided no Sacrifice in his Law Wherefore David in this his Penitential confession tells him That if he had appointed any Sacrifice for expiation of this kind of sin he would have given it him but he had ordained none save only a broken spirit and a contrite heart which thou O God saith he wilt not despise but accept that alone for a Sacrifice in this case without which Sacrifice in no case is accepted Now out of this Discourse we are sufficiently furnished for the understanding of this Caution of Solomon in my Text Be more ready to obey than to offer the Sacrifice of fools or as the words in the Original import Be more approaching God with a purpose and resolution of obedience to his Commandments than with the Sacrifice of fools that is Have a care rather to approach the Divine Majesty with an offering of an obediential disposition than with the bare and naked Rite But the sense is still the same namely The House of God at Ierusalem was an House of sacrifice which they who came thither to worship offered unto the Divine Majesty to make way for their prayers and supplications unto him or to find favour in his sight Solomon therefore gives them here a caveat not to place their Religion either only or chiefly in the external Rite but in their readiness to hear and keep the Commandments of God without which that Rite alone would avail them nothing but be no better than the sacrifice of fools who when they do evil think they do well For without this readiness to obey this purpose of heart to live according to his Commandments God accepts of no Sacrifice from those who approach him nor will pardon their transgressions when they come before him He therefore that makes no conscience of sinning against God and yet thinks to be expiate by Sacrifice is an ignorant fool how wise and religious soever he may think himself to be or appear unto men by the multitude or greatness of his Sacrifices The reason Because the Lord requires Obedience antecedently and absolutely but Sacrifice consequently only and then too not primariò or chiefly and for it self but secondarily only as a testimony of Coutrition and a ready desire and purpose in the offerer to continue in his favour by Obedience This is Solomon's the Preacher's meaning Wherein behold as in a glass the condition of all external Service of God in general as that which he accepteth no otherwise than secondarily namely as issuing from a Heart respectively affected with that devotion it importeth For God as he is a living God so he requires a living worship But as the Body without the Soul is but a carkass so is all external and bodily worship wherein the pulse of the Heart's devotion beats not But if this be so you will say it were better to use no external worship at all of course as we do the worship of the Body in the gestures of bowing kneeling standing and the like than to incur this danger of serving God with a dead and hypocritical service because it is not like the Heart will be always duly affected when the outward worship shall be required I answer Where there is a true and real intent to honour God with outward and bodily worship there the act is not Hypocrisie though accompanied with many defects and imperfections Here therefore that Rule of our Saviour touching the greater and lesser things of the Law must have place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things that is the greater things of the Law we ought to do and not to leave the other though the lesser undone For otherwise if this reasoning were admitted a man might upon the same ground absent himself from coming to Church upon the days and times appointed or come thither but now and then alledging the indisposition of his Heart to joyn with the Church in her publick worship at other times or if he came thither act a mute and when others sing and praise God be altogether silent and not open his mouth nor say Amen when others do For all these are external services and the service of the voice and gesture are in this respect all one there is no difference But who would not think this to be very absurd We should rather upon every such occasion rouse and stir up our Affections with fit and seasonable meditations that what the order and decency of ◠Church-assembly requires to be done of every member outwardly we may likewise do devoutly and acceptably These things we ought to do and not leave the other undone But you will say What if I cannot bring my Heart unto that religious fear and devotion which the outward worship I should perform requireth I could say that some of the outward worship which a man performs in a Church-assembly he does not as a singular man but as a member of the Congregation But howsoever I answer Let the worship of thy Body in such a case be at least a confession and acknowledgment before God of that love fear and esteem of his Divine Majesty thou oughtest to have but hast not For though to come
it more than the jealousie of God can endure as is manifest by his so strict prohibition and frequent detestation thereof But as for the two other ways of using a creature in the act of God's worship by way of Instrument only or Local circumstance neither of them is impious or unlawful First Not to use it therein as or by way of an Instrument whereby it is performed For then it would be unlawful to use a Table or a Chalice in the celebration of the holy Eucharist or the like to use a Book when we pray sing or give thanks unto God to praise him with Instruments of Musick as David ordained to use a Book to swear upon when we take an oath for to swear is as much an Act or Religious worship and as much appropriated unto God in Scripture as any other worship due unto him Wherefore the Rites used therein as to turn toward lay our hands upon and kiss the Book of the holy Gospels as the Tables of the new Covenant of God with men in Christ if they be well examined will afford much light toward the decision of this Question of posture in our adoration of God in the Church especially if it be considered that the very same Rites for the same purpose have been anciently used upon an Altar But this by the way Secondly Neither is it impious or unlawful in God's worship to use a creature in way of a Local circumstance thereof namely as that whereby the place of our worship is determined for then it would be unlawful to use Temples or Churches to worship God in or to have any designed place there accommodated for the Priest to minister or officiate at But this our practice shews we esteem and acknowledge lawful Now if it be lawful to make use of a creature for the Vbi or place where of the worship we give unto God why not as well for the place WHICH-WARD or which-way we worship him VBI QVO Where and Which-way being both alike differences and relations of Place and the worship of God no more communicated thereby with the Creature whereby we determine the one than whereby we determine the other Indeed the Creature by this means is honoured and dignified but that honour the Creature receiveth lies only in this in being chosen and preferred before any other for such sacred use Which honour I trow is of no other or higher nature than what any Sacred thing according to the fitness and propriety it hath may be respected with Moreover if it should not be lawful in Divine worship to direct our posture towards a Creature and that too in great regard of some special relation it hath to God-ward it would be unlawful to set our faces and lift up our hands and eyes to Heaven in our prayers and invocations tendered unto the Divine Majesty which I know not any that makes scruple of And yet if the determination of our posture only by a creature in Divine worship be Idolatry why might we not justly scruple lest this posture of our hands and faces to Heaven-ward at such a time might make us guilty of worshipping the Host of Heaven that is the Sun Moon Starrs and Planets as the Gentiles and Israelitish Idolaters did But for our warrant herein our Blessed Saviour in that Prayer he hath left unto his Church hath taught us to say Our Father which art in heaven For without doubt if we may without impiety determine the Divine presence thus in our speech we may also yea fit I think we should do the like at the same time with our posture which is no more but to express that visibly by our gesture which we utter vocally wâ—th our mouths For not that which is before us only in our posture but that which is the terminus of our Act is the Object of our Worship Nor to determine our posture only by a creature but to communicate the Worship we give unto God therewith is that which the Divine Law forbiddeth And that this difference must be admitted is evinced by the severe and peremptory prohibition of the one and the frequent examples of the other practised by holy men in Scripture Besides that the admission thereof openeth the true way how to answer our adversaries when they alledge the aforementioned places of Scripture in patronage of their Idolatrous worship Now then to apply all this to the Hypothesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the HOLY TABLE or ALTAR for the difference is but verbal in our Christian Churches answers unto the Ark or Mercy-seat in the Iewish Temple being Solium Christi and in the language of Antiquity the Christian Sanctum Sanctorum where the Book of the Gospels by ancient custom laid thereon parallels the two Tables the holy Eucharist the golden Pot of Manna that is the sacred Monuments and Symbols of the new Covenant those of the old Why may not then a like respect be had to it in the posture of our Christian adoration which the Iews in their worship had not only to the Ark of the Testimony but to the Altars which stood before it yea even to the Temple it self when they could not come to perform their devotions therein and that too as I have already observed when that Ark which Moses made by Godâ—s appointment with those two sacred Symbols the two Tables and Pot of Manna were no more there as in the Second Temple they were not but only the place ordained for them or at the most if that some imitative Ark only with a Roll of the Law put therein such as the Iews at this day are known to have in their Synagogues and to direct their posture toward it when they worship as formerly they did to that in the Temple See Buxtorf Synagog Iudaic. cap. 5. Lastly all Nations and Religions have been wont to use some reverential gesture when they enter into their Temples And our Blessed Saviour in the Gospel would not have his Disciples to enter into a man's house without some salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when ye enter into an house salute it Why should we not think it to be a part of Religious manners to do as much when we come into the house of God Now of all Gestures Adoration or bowing of the Body seems to be the most comely and ready for that purpose and of all postures in the doing thereof and some posture there must needs be that which is directed towards that which is the most sacred and of most preeminent relation to God in the Church that namely where he is commemorated and the blessed Symbols of his Body and Bloud reached forth unto us who is our Propitiatory through faith in his Bloud and by whom alone and whose Sacrifice we have access unto his Father the HOLY TABLE or ALTAR What place then so fit to be both in our eye and mind when we make our addresses
35 Schism the evil and danger of it 876 Scripture The Holy Scripture is not to be kept in an unknown tongue 190. whether the silence of Scripture be an argument sufficient to conclude against matter of fact 840. an account of some Idioms or Forms of speech in Scripture 161 and 347 349 380 285 and 352 Sea what it signifies in the Prophetick style 462 The Sealing of the 144000 in Apocal. 7. what it means 584 Seed of the Woman meant of Christ's person and Christ mystical 236 Serpent why the Devil took this shape 223 289. the Curse was pronounced upon both the Serpent and the Devil 229. what kind of Serpent was accursed 230. how God could in Iustice punish the brute Serpent 229 230 his Curse was To go upon his Breast and not only on his Belly 231 232. as also To feed on dust 233 234. Enmity between Man and the Serpent 234. The Serpents Seed meant of the Devil and wicked men 236. The Serpents Head or Headship is Principatus mortis 237 Set Forms See Prayer Seven eyes of the Lord are the seven Archangels 41 43 Seven Heads of the Beast signifie both 7 Hiâ—s and 7 Successions of different sorts of Governours 524 Seven Seals in Apocal. 6. what is meant thereby 441 917 c. Seven Trumpets See Trumpets Seven Vials See Vials Seventy Weeks See Daniels Weeks Seventy years See Years Shechinah or Gods special presence in a place is where the Angels keep their station 343 c. Sheep set at Christs right hand 841 Shiloh the name of Messiah 34 it signifies a Peace-maker 35 Silence in holy offices was a point of Religion 458 Simeon Metaphrastes his fabulous Legends 682 c. his design therein 683 c. Sin compared in Scripture to an Heavy Burthen in respect of the Weight of Punishment and of Loathsomness 151. the reason of Sins Loathsomness 152. Conformity between the Sin and Punishment in 4 particulars 144. the hainousness of a Sin to be estimated from the hearts election 350. Commission of one Sin makes way for another 135. what it is to forsake Sin 207. Rules to know whether our purpose to forsake Sin be real 152 153 Sin-offering what 287 Sincerity of Heart what it is how it may be known and attain'd 217 218 Sitting at Gods right hand what it signifies 638 639. that it is a priviledge appropriate to Christ. ibid. Some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word doth not always in Scripture imply a small number 648 c. Socinian Tenets censured 869 883 Son of man whence Christ is so called 764 788 Spirit sometimes in Scripture signifies Doctrine 626 Spirit and truth See Worship in spirit and truth Spirits Good or Evil how they appear and converse with men 223 224 Spiritual blessings were veiled in Earthly Promises under the Law 249 250 Stealing is either by Force or by Fraud both forbidden in the 8 Commandment 132. See more in Theft Sun Moon and Stars what they are according to the Prophetick style in the Political world 449 450 466 615 Synagogues how they differ'd from Proseucha's 66. their antiquity 839 Synchronisms what 491. their usefulness 431 581 T. TAbernack of meetingâ— so call'd from God's meeting there with men 343. Feast of Tabernacles wherein it was a Figure of Christ 266. how it was neglected to be kept from Iosua's time to Nehemiah's 268. what this Omission may seem to imply 268 Table sometimes in Scripture put for Epulum or the Meat it self 386. Table of the Lord in 1 Cor. 10. why so called 375. the name Table not used in any Ecclesiastical Writer before 200 years after Christ 860. Table and Altar how they differ 389 Holy Table Name and Thing 844 Temple what the Gentiles Notion of a Temple was 335 336. why the primitive Christians for the most part abstain'd from the name Temple 336 337 Temple at Ierusalem it s 3 Courts in our Saviours time 44 45. it was the Third or Gentiles Court that was prophaned by the Iews and vndicated by our Saviour 45 46. This Temple is called in Scripture Gods Throne 438 439 917. In what respects it was a Type of Christ. 48 407 263 Temples of the Heathen why they are said by the ancient Fathers to be nothing else but the Sepulchres of dead men 633 Ten Horns signifie in Dan. and the Apocal. Ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was shivered 661. that they belong to the Seventh or Vppermost Head of the Beast 499 737 Ten Kings See Ten Horns Teraphim what they were and how they answered to Vrim and Thummim 183 Terumah or Heave-offering defined 288 the Terumoth or Heave-offerings were either First-fruits or Tithes or Frâ—e-will-offerings 290 Theft in no case lawful 133. the trial of it in doubtful cases was in the Iewish Polity by the parties Oath Hence Perjury and Theft are forbidden together in Scripture 133 Three Kings whom the Little Horn should depress to advance himself 779 Throne to be taken up to Gods Throne what 494 Thummim See Vrim Thunder See Bath Kol Time Times and half a Time what 497 656 744. Times of the Gentiles 753. Times put for Things done in time 737 Tithes How the question of the due of Tithes is to be stated 120 Tituls why Houses and Churches were so called 5 327 328 Tobit's prophesie of the Iews Captivity and Restauration explain'd 579 Transubstantiation promoted by lying Miracles 688 Trees what they signifie in the Prophetick style 460 Trespass-offering how it differed from the Sin-offering 287 Tribes why the 12 Tribes are in Apocal 7. reckoned in a different order than elsewhere in Scripture 455 c. Tribute See Rent Trumpets Seven Trumpets their meaning 595 Turks why described in Apocal. 9. by the army of Horsemen 473 Twelve why each of the 24 Courses or Quires of Singers in the Temple consisted of Twelve 3 Typical speeches often true in the Type and Antitype 285. when what is attributed to the Type belongs to the thing typified 468 V. VEspers See Even-song Vials Seven Vials their meaning 585 923. the agreement between the 7 Vials and 7 Trumpets 585 Vintage what it means in the Propherick style 521 c. Visions Apocalyptick whether represented in the Seven-sealed Book to be seen or to be read by S. Iohn 787 An Vnrepentant Sinner is an Insidel 153 Vnworthy receiving See Sacraments Vows The 3 Vows common to all Monks viz. Vow of Chastity Poverty and Abstaining from meats the Fourth Vew viz. of Obedience not common to all nor so old 689 Vrim and Thummim what they signifie 183. they were a Divine Oracle ibid. the Matter thereof and the Manner of enquiring thereby 184 185. How Vrim and Thummim did typisie something in Christ. 185 186 W. WAldenses See Albigenses White To walk in white To be clothed with white raiment what meant thereby in the Apocalyps 909 Whore and Whoredom meant according to the Prophetick style of Idolatry 645 646. Whoe of Babylon in Apocal. 17. why this Vision only of all
before me Shall not the Observation of our Christian Sabbath continue after Christ's coming with his Saints amongst the Nations that are saved from that Deluge of fire though it be Irenaeus his phrase yet I learnt it from you wherewith the Earth and all the works thereof shall be burnt up And if it be urged that by the same reason the Festivities of the New-moons shall have their place in Christâ—s Kingdom as well as Sabbaths and by consequence the Ceremonies of the Iews be restored I answer it followeth not the words may be rendred From month to month as the Geneva doth If we read it From New-moon c. with our last English yet it is not necessary to understand it of any peculiar Festivity denoted thereby least of all Iewish And we Christians in Cathedrals Colleges and great Towns have our Monthly Communions all the year over And seeing I am upon it what think you of Matth. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day We know Dr. Andrews B. of Winchester as well as Mr. Dod apply it to our Christian Sabbath And to my judgment it is a strange fiction to apply it to unconverted Iews that our Saviour should stir them up to pray who scorned the Gospel whereby alone we come acquainted with such an Admonition and certainly scorned Christ's Instructions and how can we think that God would hear the prayers of such and was it fit that our Saviour should lay such a ground for the countenancing of their prayers yea and their Iewish Sabbath too And now truly Sir there is no Book that I desire to study more than your self I have found great freeness and acceptance with you hitherto I hope I shall do so still I heartily desire God's blessing upon your person and studies as upon my self and mine I shall ever rest Newbury April 5. 1636. Yours in my best respects exceedingly obliged Will. Twisse EPISTLE LXVI Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Twisse's 7 Quaere's viz. about the antiquity of Synagogues among Iews the and of Even-song in the Christian Church as also about the meaning of some difficult places of Scripture viz. Matth. 24. 20. Matth. 25. 31 c. Isa. 66. 23 c. SIR I Turned over the leaves both of the Bishop's and D. Heylin's Book when they came newly out that I might see their Principles and the way they went further I am not acquainted with them because I took no pleasure neither in their Conclusions nor their Grounds which if they be urged would overthrow a great deal more than they are aware of 1. If there be any such Author the Dr. opposeth for affirming the Sabbath to have been comprehended under one of the 7 Commandments of the Sons of Noah I suppose it is Godwyn in his Moses and â—aron Lib. 1. cap. 3. 2. That of Aben Ezra upon Exod. 20. 10. seems to me to be very evident for that Opinion For though it be as much as I can do to understand a piece of Rabbinism yet methinks this passage if it be translated will sound thus Ecce non dubium est quin dictio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tu comprehend 〈◊〉 unumquemque qui est silius praecepti Ideirco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filius tuus Filia tua sunt parvidi quorum requies est super te tibique incumbit officium custodiendi eos ne quicquamfaciant quod tibi vetitum sit Similiter de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Servo tuo Ancillâ tuâ quoniam in potâ— state tua est tui est officii custodire eum neque sinere eum ut serviat alteri Sin minùs tu transgredieris praeceptum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non facies quòd eo spectat ut quiescat Servus tuus Ancilla tua perinde ut tu ipse sunt exposult Moses Dominus noster viâ quam commemoravi Et secundùm hunc Doctorem vovebii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peregrinus qui est intra portas tuas quod non facturus sit opus in Die Sabbati neque in Die Expiationum Propterea scriptum est secundò Peregrinus Similiter atque de praecepto Nuditatis cùm secundùm hunc Doctorem vovebit quòd custoditurus sit praeceptum Nuditatis eodémque modo de Comestione sanguinis This Dominus Moses he here cites I take to be Rabbi Moses Haddarschan who lived an hundred years before him and was Master to R. Solomon Iarchi Maimonides whom Ainsworth cites for the contrary opinion and Aben Ezra were both of an age and contemporaries 3. For Synagogues I am inclined to believe they were before the Captivity and not first taken up there as the more common opinion is But how to evict it against him that shall obstinately maintain the contrary I confess I know not That in Act. 15. 21. Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day will not reach so far yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I should allege that of Psal 74. 8. They have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the land they would say as Iunius doth that this Psalm was composed under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes and indeed that which follows We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither any among us that knoweth how long may seem to argue it cannot be meant of that vastation by Nebuchadnezzar for then there were both Prophets and those that knew how long But if this be granted there will arise another difficulty viz. That either this Psalm is no Canonical Scripture or That some part of the Canonical Scripture was written long after Malachy when there was no Prophet and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had ceased And if this why not the first Book of Maccabees There remains but yours Lev. 23. 3. which to me hath appearance of probability but he that were refractory would pick some hole or other either in the word translated Convocation or in dwellings especially in the first See Vulgat and LXX But did not the Levites shall we think teach the people out of Ierusalem in the places abroad where they dwelt And did not the people use to resort to such as could teach them on Sabbath-days and New-moons What doth that of the Shunamite argue else 2 Kings 4. 23 where her husband saith unto her Wherefore wilt thou go to him the man of God to day It is neither New-moon nor Sabbath If this had they not some place where to resort and assemble Besides were there not then Colleges of Prophets and Prophets Sons in Israel In the same chapter we shall find they had and an hundred men in a place vers 43. and in chap. 6. initio that they had Houses where they lived together Did not the Israelites erect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Houses of false worship too may Could they think of building Places to transgress God's commandment
in and never of Places wherein to be instructed in his Law But the Scripture is silent I answer If the silence of Scripture be an argument sufficient to conclude against matter of Fact in the times preceding for the use whereof we have testimony enough in the times following without any express intimation of Novelty then must we not think that the Iews paid Tithes from Ioshua's time to Hezekiah's for there is no tittle intimating they did nor that ever they kept the year of Iubilee for where is it mentioned they did and so of other the like 4. For Even-song publick in the Church there is very little to be produced out of the Monuments remaining of those First Ages That the Monks used it in their Monasteries it is granted because affirmed that it was from their example derived into the Church That in their private Devotions devout Christians observed the ninth hour as well as the first third and sixth in those elder times may be proved out of Tertullian de Iejunio cap. 10. and S. Cyprian de Oratione Dominica But for Vespers in ortu Ecclesiae neither of them mentions them Yet Tertullian in his Apology together with Pliny ad Trajanum hath antelucani coetus and in his Lib. 2. ad Vxorem cap. 4. Nocturnae convocationes But as those seem not to have been properly those we call Mattins so neither these our Vespertinae And in this inquisition notice is to be taken that both Mattins and Even-song were distinct from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or solemn address of the Church to God in the holy Eucharist which they termed Sacrificium Christianum Well the most ancient Testimony to be found of Vespertinae in coetu Ecclesiae is with the Author of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though it be an Apocryphal writing and of a false inscription yet is the most ancient Record of Ecclesiastical Antiquity by way of purposed Collection that is at this day extant and not younger than 200 years after Christ at the most The Author whosoever he were seeming to have gathered this Rhapsodie out of the Customes and Ceremonies he found then in use in the Churches founded by the Apostles and supposing them to have been derived from their institution accordingly fathered them upon them and where there was any singularity or difference brings in that Apostle whose Church he found it in as speaking in Council c It is put by Eusebius in his Catalogue of Sacred Books amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is often quoted by Epiphanius by the name we give it In this Rhapsody Lib. 8. cap. 35. is not only mention but the Form of Evening Prayer with the solemn dismissing at the beginning thereof of the Catechumeni c. as at the Eucharist ascribed to Iames the Brother of our Lord in particular Whence it may seem according to my former supposition not to have been common at first to all Churches but peculiar to that of Ierusalem whereof this Iames was the first Bishop whence also the Liturgy of that Church though the greatest part thereof as now it is were afterward at several times added bears the name of S. Iames his Liturgy The next Testimony for antiquity is that of the Council of Laodicea which if Baronius his arguments be good was before the first Council of Nice the 17. and 18. Canons whereof are Quòd non oportet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalmos contexere sed interjecto inter unumquemque Psalmum spatio Lectionem fieri The next Idem ministerium Precum semper in nonis vesperis fieri debere Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though I cite both Canons yet I suppose not the latter to have reference to the former for what had the Evening to do with the Synaxis but the meaning to be that one and the same Form of Prayer should be used both at the ninth hour and at the Vespers 5. Concerning that in Matth. 24. Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day I conceive thus That the believing and Christian Iews even the Apostles themselves were to observe the Rites and Ordinances of Moses and consequently that of the Sabbath together with the Lord's-day until their Temple and Politie founded and constituted by God himâ—elf should be actually and fully dissolved And do we not find they did so yea even S. Paul himself who was so great a Vindex of the liberty of the believing Gentiles that they should be tied no farther than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Proselytes of the Gate were Therefore Acts 21. it is accounted a slander or calumnie which was reported of S. Paul that he should teach the Iews which were among the Gentiles to forsake Moses and that they ought not to circumcise their children nor walk after the customs For neither he nor any other of the Apostles taught that the Iews should do so either abroad among the Gentiles or at home in Iudaea For the Gentiles indeed they did and S. Paul whose charge they were more zealously than the rest that they should have no such imposed upon them according to the decree of the Sâ—nod Acts 15. Consider it with that Story Acts 21. à vers 20. deinceps This therefore being to be the condition of the believing Iews when their City should be compassed with an Army by Cestius Gallus at which time they were admonished to flee to save themselves with all speed into the mountains of Petraea as soon as Cestius by withdrawing a little his Army should give them that liberty our Saviour saith here Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath-day For he speaks not of any flight to be when the City should be taken or when it should be once besieged by Titus for both would be too late but of a warning beleaguering to precede it 6. Concerning that in Matth. 25. when our Blessed Saviour shall sit upon his Throne of Royalty to judge the world I conceive a Figure to be in that expression of placing the Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on the left borrowed from the custome of the Iews in their Tribunals to place such as were to be absolved on the right hand where stood the Scribe who took the Votes for Absolution and those who were to receive the sentence of Condemnation on the left hand where stood the Scribe which took the Votes for Condemnation Such a custom of theirs Drusius in his Notes upon that place observes out of Moses de Kotsi That therefore nothing else is meant thereby but that our Saviour should distinguish the world of men into two Orders one of such as should receive the Sentence of bliss and Absolution the other of such as should receive the Sentence of Condemnation That he should first pronounce the Sentence of Absolution upon such as are to be absolved and that once finished