there used testified an awfull veneration of the Deity Reason though but little improved instructed them in that Religious Practice And indeed however they fatally erred concerning the Nature of God whose Essence they destroyed by dividing it and many of their Mysteries were most profane greater more bare-fac'd Impurities being countenanced and practised to appease Heavens Wrath than had been before acted to provoke it however their Sacred Offices were always ill directed often wickedly performed yet their beautifull Structures in Honour of false Gods will rise up in judgment against some slovenly Worshippers of the true One. Those Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel in this the highest outward expression of Reverence as far might be acted up suitably to the Circumstances of feeble Manhood and the Majesty of the inconceivable God-head Nay which is very remarkable their Idolatry did not so far desecrate the Places polluted by it but that the Lord of Hosts did sometimes shew himself terrible in his vengeance towards those which Sacrilegiously destroyed or rudely defiled them Alexander ab Alexandro and others give particular accounts of the Heathen Temples and the manner of their solemn Consecrations But leaving them I rather proceed to trace the more authentick practice of the Worshippers of the true God Reason and Religion though the one weakned the other decayed by Adam's Fall gave early Instructions to his Posterity that they should present their Bodies also a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God in his Holy Places Such is that by learned Men supposed to have been whither Cain and Abel brought their Offerings Gen. 4. The Patriarchs to whom God miraculously made known his Will by Visions Dreams the Ministery of Angels and in other extraordinary Manners thought it fittest to serve him upon Consecrated Mountains Altars and Groves To Iacob particularly the Stone in Bethel which himself erected by Divine Inspiration was the House of God And so all along 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the days of emptiness as the Iews style the times before the Mosaick Dispensation the Sons of Men were taught by Laws natural impressed upon all positive given to Adam Noah and Abraham whereby they and their Off-spring thought themselves obliged with joint Forces to besiege Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Basil and other Greek Fathers speak with holy violence to straiten God that he could not but hear when they assembled together and Worshipped him in the Beauty of Holiness Afterwards when out of all the Families of the Earth God had chosen him a peculiar Inheritance and led them through the Wilderness with a mighty Hand and an out-stretched Arm his Servant Moses immediately before he went up into the Mount where he saw God Face to Face built an Altar and twelve Pillars according to the twelve Tribes of Israel to sacrifice unto the Lord Ex. 24. And he took an Offering of all the People to make a Sanctuary that the Lord might dwell amongst them Ex. 25. The Cloud the Pillar of Fire the Thundrings the Lightnings the Earthquake the Mountain smoaking the still Voice these and the like at sundry times were occasional Symbols of the Divine Presence in the midst of them But the constant Seat of God's Residence was the Tabernacle of the Congregation in which the Priests when Sanctified were to give attendance to Minister in the Holy Place Ex. 29. This was the Place of Worship the Safe-guard and the Glory of Israel till the building of the Temple Before the raising of which Glorious Edifice the high Places also for Sacrifice before and after the Synagogues for Prayer and hearing the Law read were set apart of the latter many in every City five hundred in Ierusalem say the Rabbins So zealous was David for the Holy One of Israel that he professes Ps. 132. I will not give sleep to mine Eyes or slumber to mine Eye-lids untill I find out a place for the Lord an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. He had it in his Heart to build an House unto the Lord exceeding Magnificent of Fame and of Glory throughout all Countries and God applauded his Design but he being a Man of Bloud ordered him to put off the prosecution of it to his Son That Son whose Greatness and Wisdom for which he is renowned in all the World were most signally evidenced by his carrying on that glorious Work which was the Royal Palace of the King of Kings the Wonder of the Earth and the Transcript of Heaven There was the daily Worship performed thither all the Tribes the Tribes of the Lord went up thrice every year to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Towards that at whatever distance they offered their constant Devotions and since the destruction of it towards the Holy Land They heretofore had and still have private Oratories at the top of their Houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from ascending to them Nay the very Turks the Ceremonial part of whose Religion is much according to the Jewish Plat-form at first Worshipped towards the Temple of Ierusalem since towards that of Meccha These Aliens from the Faith though they deny the Lord that bought them build stately Moschs to the Glory of him that made them So firmly rooted is it in the Minds of all Men but a company of proud stubborn factious Zealots that God accounts the Honour double which is paid him in his own House Let these things be duly laid to Heart by those who with a Pharisaical Haughtiness thank God that they are not as other Men who are too much Spiritualiz'd and Seraphick to sink their Thoughts below the Fellowship of the Heavenly Quire and therefore cannot stoop to be charitable to and hold Communion with their Brethren but for their sakes cast off and abhor the Houses of the Lord where his Glory is shadowed and his favour more plentifully dispenc'd Let them remember that the Pharisee and the Publican the one a Type of themselves the other of those they scorn and abominate went up together to the Temple to pray And let them take notice moreover that notwithstanding the Religious Pride of the former the latter onely went home justified To give farther strength to what has been hitherto urged we may consider the practice of Christ's Followers as for his own I shall speak of it under another Head They when as to outward Direction left to themselves after our Redeemer's Passion the time that the Law purely Mosaical ceased yet did not forsake the chief Glory of that foregoing Dispensation The Temple was still their House of Prayer They continued daily with one Accord in the Temple Acts 2. And being forced to abandon it by the great Persecution at Ierusalem Acts 8. when in the Infancy of Christianity God permitted the Heathen to rage the Kings of the Earth to set themselves and the Rulers to take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Doctrine being now debarred from the publick solemn Profession of
A SERMON PREACHED AVGVST the 19 th 1684. AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE Lord VVeymouth's Chapel IN LONG-LEAT By RICHARD RODERICK B. D. Vicar of Blandford-Forum in Dorsetshire LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Henry Clements Bookseller in Oxford And Sold by Walter Davis in Amen-Corner in London 1684. TO The Right Honourable THOMAS Lord Thynne BARON of Warmister VISCOUNT Weymouth c. My Lord THough Conscious to my self that the bare Seasonableness of the following Discourse and the accidentally-straitned Preparation of him that spake it might to a Candid Audience palliate the Faults of the hasty Composure and render that acceptable from the Pulpit which may justly be exploded when coming from the Press yet having broke thorough these and other Discouragements I now humbly present to your Lordship this mean Attendant at the Consecration of your Chappel at Long Leat That your Lordship should command me upon so solemn an Occasion to Preach the Sermon was an amazing Honour That the Publication of it should be thought of was a greater Astonishment to me But I perceive that the Favours of the truly great and the Divinely good have always something of Transcendency in them like the Influences of Heaven are freely and unexpectedly showred down not poorly barter'd for While others require them which are imbarked in their Dependance to study their Passions not their Honour to be more solicitous to consider their Nature to feed their Humours than to doe them any real Advantage and always rack and often defeat the most reasonable expectations or perhaps at length hardly part with their Kindnesses to those that have dearly bought them Your Lordship and your Relations I speak experimentally surprize with your Favours scorn to have them at all much less thus basely earn'd but liberally bestow before any particular Service hath deserved them Hence the utmost Performances of your Dependants are already overpaid sooner than begun aâ—e but the unequal return of a strict Debt which no future Endeavours can fully discharge since the Circumstance of un-engaged and first obliging will ever be only on your Parts That God would enable those which share your Bounties to answer the Designs of them to be usefull in their Stations and that he would be pleased both Temporally and Eternally to bless your Lordship and your Family is the Hearty Prayer of Your Lordships Most Devoted Servant Richard Roderick A SERMON Preached at LONG-LEAT IN WILT-SHIRE August 19. 1684. 2. Chron. 7. 16. Now have I chosen and sanctified this House that my Name may be there for ever and mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually GOD spake these words in a Vision to Solomon presently after his building and Dedication of the Temple at Ierusalem A mighty work designed by King David but the Honour of effecting it was reserved for the greatest and wisest of Men. Only the chief Ornament of his Father's House is fit and singled out to lay the Foundation of the Lord's But will God in very deed dwell with Men upon the Earth Behold Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him how much less an Earthly Tabernacle The most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands as saith the Prophet Heaven is my Throne and Earth is my Foot-stool what House will ye build me saith the Lord Or what is the Place of my Rest 'T is true the Almighty fills all Places is circumscribed by none His Divinity cannot be pent up yet he vouchsafes to stoop his Glorious Majesty and after a peculiar manner to be present in the Congregation of his Saints The God-Head cannot be shrunk up within any Dimensions but his Honour is said especially to dwell in the Temple the Place set a part for his more immediate service on which is engraven as upon the Plate on the fore-front of Aaron's Mitre Holiness unto the Lord. And of every such Place separated for God's publick Worship himself speaks Now have I chosen and sanctified this House that my Name may be there for ever and mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually Which words I humbly conceive may be thus paraphrased I accept and approve of this House which according to my will and by my secret suggestion is Chosen and Sanctified or separated from common Uses to the Honour of my Name to be mine for ever and I promise that mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually that I will have a particular regard to the Devotions there paid and be affectionately gratious to each Votary that religiously offers them For your present Meditation be pleased to consider 1. That through all Ages Men out of a sense of Duty have Chosen and Sanctified that is separated from common Uses and solemnly set apart Places for the publick Worship of God 2. That God allows yea requires such Places to be Chosen and Sanctified or solemnly set apart for his publick Worship to the Honour of his Name 3. That if Men will be sincerely devout in such Places but not otherwise God promises that his Eyes and his Heart shall be there perpetually He will have a particular Regard to the Devotions there paid and be affectionately gratious to each Votary that religiously offers them These Particulars discust I shall make a very brief Application Of the two former jointly to raise our Devotion when we come into the Lord's House Of the last to quicken our Faith that he will hear and answer the devout Petitions which we there make 1. Through all Ages Men out of a sense of Duty have Chosen and Sanctified that is separated from common Uses and solemnly set apart Places for the publick Worship of God Whoever own the Being of a God must acknowledge that he ought to be Worshipped He that made sustains and preserves us has a Right to the utmost services we can pay him And since it is hard for Earthly-minded Men to be taken off their sensual Delights and to fix their scattered Thoughts upon Religious Duties the best Expedient to dismiss the World for a time the Concerns and Love of it is to have recourse to Holy Places which being separated from common Uses will represent nothing to interrupt Acts of Piety and being dedicated to the Almighty's Honour will in some measure display his Majesty stamp in Men lasting Impressions of Reverence and heighten Devotion A Truth this so certain so clear that the Light of Nature taught it The Notices of a God and of his being to be thus publickly Worshipt were imbibed together Men sometimes were not fully perswaded of a great Super-intendent over the Creation were pleased with the Fancy that Chance threw the World into and continues it in this curious Order but the Creature proving the Creator and successive precarious insufficient Beings inferring a first independent and Almighty as soon as convinced that there was a God the very Heathens built Altars erected Temples many whereof very famous and magnificent and by their Sacrifices Purgations and other Rites
the Faith they held it as they could set apart for Religious Duties their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upper Rooms in their Houses and resolved not to serve the Lord as with any thing so neither in any Place that was common or unclean Those and the Sepulchres of Saints and Martyrs were their chosen however mean Oratories neither applied to any other Uses But when the Gospel like it's Author buried in weakness had imitated him by rising again in Glory and the true Professors breath'd freely and plentifully after their late Oppressions they presently fell to honouring of God with their Substance which he increased and as their Circumstances would permit adorned his Worship By the Favour of Constantine the Great and other Christian Princes they founded Churches every where costly and magnificent Expences of that Nature deservedly went under the name of Piety Nor indeed can any who have a due sense of Religion think it fit to put off God cheaply to serve him with that which costs them nothing Devotion ought not to lie groveling in a Cottage while Luxury vaunts it splendidly in a Palace 'T was the Traitor Iudas who bore the Bag and thought every thing lost which went beside it that murmured at the Cost laid out in Honour of our Saviour 'T was the Apostate Iulian's Treasurer who expected to share in the Sacrilegious Booty of the Churches that complained the Vessels of them were too rich for the Carpenters Son Let such profligate Men tremble and be horribly afraid how they pollute the Lord's Altars or offer the least Indignity to the Habitation of his Holiness For as I am to shew secondly 2. God allows yea requires such Places to be Chosen and Sanctified or solemnly set apart for his publick Worship to the Honour of his Name Among the many gross Conceptions which the Temptations of Satan suggest or the Impulse of a deluded Imagination frames concerning Almighty God there is scarce any which more detracts from him than that of those who to avoid Superstition turn unmannerly and profane lest they should run upon a servile Dread refuse to pay the Duty which becomes a filial Fear But God will not be thus mocked He requires a peculiar Worship and that in Places religiously set apart for the solemnizing of it He will not have his Services to be prostituted is jealous of his Honour and will not share it in common with any of his Creatures Indeed all Places are alike till sacred Rites have separated some to be the Lord 's Holy Habitation Holy not essentially so only himself is not by Participation so are only Angels Saints and good Men but relatively as devoted to his especial Service and Means to quicken the Devotion of them that repair thither Here he challenges an unalienable Propriety and signalizeth his being delighted with his Chosen and Sanctified Inheritance by the Judgments that he executeth upon them which defile it by pouring out his Fury and accomplishing his Anger upon those who out of a misplac'd Abhorrence of Idols commit Sacrilege Sacrilege that most daring Impiety which with an affected Frenzy bids Defyance to an All-knowing and an Omnipotent God and however the impudently wicked Rage of these latter Times hath made it appear slight in some Neighbouring Nations because common not only Acted but Established by a Law yet is the unhappy Occasion which forceth a jealous God to become a consuming Fire and always bequeaths a Curse that most detestable Legacy to the third and fourth Generation Nay exemplary Vengeance seldom passeth by the immediate Offendor of this kind When Nebuchadnezzar had robbed the Temple the Invader of God's Honour lost his own he who by Atheistical Profanations affronted the Creator was degraded into the condition of the lowest and the most stupid of the Creatures And while his Son Belshazzer triumph'd in the Spoils of the Temple was Carouzing in the Consecrated Vessels the Hand-writing out of the Wall did strike a Palsie into his Joints trembling into his Knees Anguish and Horrour into his Soul and plainly evidenced that the slaughter of the Sacrilegious Wretch the night following was from the direct Appointment of the Lord enraged by the Injuries done to the Place where his Honour dwelt Some of these Places God expresly commanded to be Built and Sanctified Such was the Tabernacle of the Congregation which when first set up he so filled with his Glory that Moses himself the Mediator at that time between the Lord and his People was not able to enter into it When for forty years in the Wilderness the Iews had been guided and fed with frequent Miracles and were about to enter into the Promised Land God directly orders Take heed to thy self that thou offer not thy Burnt-Offerings in every Place that thou seest but in the Place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy Tribes there thou shalt offer thy Burnt-Offerings and there thou shalt doe all that I command thee A Text this clear enough one would think to beat down the Humour and overthrow the Credit of many amongst us who flie off from Chosen and Sanctified to common Unhallowed Houses notwithstanding the United Obligations of Interest Reputation Peace Loyalty and Religion to the contrary who run away to Field-Conventicles those Nurseries of Faction and Schism where the uncommissioned Bigots presume to make and endeavour to obtrude Articles of Apostasie and Principles of Rebellion But to return when the Ark of God had long dwelt within Curtains he put it into the Heart of his Servant David to design of Solomon to build the glorious Temple of Ierusalem which in so eminent a manner became Holy to the Almighty by his Presence there at the Consecration of it that the Priests could not stand to Minister and that the Children of Israel otherwhiles a stubborn People then reverently bowed themselves with their Faces to the ground and Worshipped and Praised the Lord saying for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever Again when by Divine Permission for the Sins of the Iews the Chaldeans had burnt this Temple God by his Prophets Haggai and Zachariah stirred up Zorobabel to build another which though not so magnificent as the former though not filled with so large a Portion of the Divine Presence though wanting the Urim and Thummim the Ark of the Covenant and the Sacred Fire that consumed the Sacrifices yet the Glory of the second Temple far exceeded that of the first because under it the Messiah came The Messiah who being God blessed for ever frequently visited and gave a lustre to this Seat of his Holiness called and made it his House of Prayer and was present at the Feast of the Dedication Wisdom become incarnate taught and disputed in it He who often submitted to our other Infirmities was never known to be angry but when he saw the Profanation of it The Zeal of his House ate him up the unsanctifying the putting it to common Uses incensed the