one Place neither to the Temple of Ierusalem nor Samaria but it should be free all the World over to erect Houses of Prayer and Worship where God would be as present with them as in the Temple of Ierusalem for there should be an end now put to that Typical State and Typical Worship which was confined to the Temple and the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth and this Spiritual Worship is confined to no one Place but will find God present all the World over which is so far from abrogating all peculiar Places of Worship such as the Temple at Ierusalem and Samaria were that it makes every Church whatever part of the World it be in in a truer Sense the House of God than ever the Temple at Ierusalem was And there is one thing more of great consequence which we learn from this that we now want no new Appearance of God to consecrate a Place for his Worship as it was in the Days of the Patriarchs nor any new Command to appoint us where to build a House for God as it was under the Law Our Saviour has consecrated every part of the World where Christians live to be such Holy Ground as is fit to receive a Temple and House of God and his Promise to be in the midst of the Assemblies of Christians gives us as great an Assurance of a Divine Presence in such Places as if like the Tabernacle and Temple we saw them again filled with a Cloud and a visible Glory Having thus shewn you that God who fills all Places is yet peculiarly present in some Places and what this peculiar Presence is that God is present as the Object of our Worship to hear our Prayers and to receive our Praises and Thanksgivings our Alms and Oblations let us now consider the Exhortation of my Text which is the natural Improvement of this O worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness 1st And here first I observe that the very External Beauty and Ornament of God's House is one Part of Homage which we owe to him The Riches and visible Glory of Solomon's Temple was one of the Wonders of the World a Divine Art and Nature conspired to build a House as fit as Art and Nature could make it to signifie the incommunicable Majesty and Glory of that God who dwelt there And this Nature taught all Mankind the Magnificence of their Temples did not only shew their Devotion but what their Art and what their Riches were And the Primitive Christians when they enjoyed Peace and Plenty under Christian Emperors were so far from thinking this a Piece of Pagan or Iewish Superstition that their first Care was to erect Beautiful and Stately Churches to rival and out-do all the External Glory of Pagan Temples and it was always accounted a great Instance of the Piety of Princes to encourage and promote such Works But you 'll say what is all this to God Can we think that he who has made the World with such unimitable Art and Beauty can be pleas'd with any House we can build for him whatever Art or Riches we bestow on it But this very Objection answers it self For God has made this Beautiful World for his Temple and has chose the most Glorious Part of it for his Throne which shews that though he be an infinite pure Spirit he does not despise an External Glory for thus he must represent his invisible Greatness and Majesty to his Creatures And therefore when he thinks fit to vouchsafe his Presence with us on Earth we must provide the most honourable Reception for him that we can and when we have done all that Art and Nature can do we have so far express'd our Devotion and Reverence for the Divine Presence This Objection lay against the Temple at Ierusalem as well as against Christian Churches and yet David thought it very undecent and a want of a just Reverence for God that he himself should dwell in a House of Cedar and the Ark of God dwell within Curtains 2 Sam. 7. 2. which should be considered by those Men who think all that is bestowed upon Beautifying and Adorning God's House a vain and superfluous Expence when they think no Cost too great to adorn their own 2dly The House of God too must be used as God's House that is must be separated from common Uses and appropriated to the Worship of God It must not be a Place of Trade and Commerce and ordinary Conversation as we learn from our Saviour's Zeal in driving those who sold Oxen and Sheep and Doves and the Changers of Money out of the Temple which he did at two several times the first immediately upon his entrance on his Ministry Ioh 2. 13 14 15 16. the second immediately before his Crucifixion Matth. 21. 12 13. Some learned Men observe that the Place of this Merchandise in the Temple was the Court of the Gentiles and from hence conclude that our Saviour's Zeal was not confined to the Iewish Temple but concerned all Christian Churches to which the Court of the Gentiles bore a greater Analogy but whatever Force there may be in this I think the Reasons our Saviour gives do much better explain his meaning Make not my Father's House a House of Merchandise John 2. 16. and it is written My House shall be called a House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Thieves Matth. 21. 13. Which Reasons have no relation to the typical State of the Iewish Temple but equally concern all Places which are the House of God and the House of Prayer that is where God vouchsafes his peculiar Presence to hear our Prayers And indeed when Christ expressed so much Zeal for the House of God when the typical Glory of the Iewish Temple was at an end having received its Accomplishment in his own Person it is a very good Reason to believe that he intended this as a standing Rule for the Religious Use of all Christian Churches and Oratories I am sure the Reason is universal and unanswerable that the House of God which is a House of Prayer ought not to be prophaned by any common Uses 3dly Let us worship in the Beauty of Holiness that is let us resort to the House of God to the House of Prayer there to offer up our Prayers and Thanksgivings to him For if God have a House where he has promised his peculiar Presence to hear our Prayers that is the proper and peculiar Place of Worship The Scripture makes it a very material Circumstance of Worship to approach God's House to enter into his Courts to come into his Presence to own our selves his Servants and Worshippers and without disparaging private Prayers or Closet and Family Devotions there is no reason to think God will own those for his Worshippers who deny him this publick Homage There is no doubt but God knows our Prayers where-ever we make them for he knows our very Thoughts but to hear Prayers
considering what they do I might name many but shall content my self with some few at present which are least observed and which prove Snares to good Men as for instance To impose upon our selves constant Tasks of Religion that we will Read and Pray so much and so often every Day and observe voluntary Fasts and abstain from such innocent Diversions c. which Men commonly resolve in some great Heats and Fits of Devotion which they fancy will continue in the same fervour but never do and then these Tasks grow very uneasie as every thing of Religion does when it grows a Task and then they degenerate into dulness and formality and then Men either leave them off and with that are tempted to leave off Religion it self or they are so very cold that they fancy themselves spiritually dead and fall into Melancholly into Desertions into Despair it self It is a dangerous thing for Men by rash and arbitrary Vows to tye themselves up from doing that which otherwise they might very innocently do and which they will be strongly tempted to do when they have vowed not to do it The Guides of Souls know that this is no imaginary Case but what they so often meet with and see such ill effects of that it is very fit to warn Men of the Snare Were there no other reason against the Monkish Vows of Celibacy Poverty and Obedience I should think this sufficient that considered only as perpetual Vows they are a dangerous State of Temptation and for my own part I would never advise any Man to make a perpetual Vow to do or not to do any thing which it is not perpetually his Duty to do or not to do Thus to marry with Persons of a disagreeable Age or a disagreeable Humour or a contrary Religion is to put our selves into a state of Temptation but such particular Instances would be endless and therefore I forbear If God lead us into Temptation he will give us sufficient strength to resist if we improve his Grace if we lead â—…ur selves into Temptation and God â—…eave us to the power and subtilty of â—…he Tempter the sin and the folly is our own 5thly I observe by what means our Saviour conquered the Devil's Temptations and that was by the Authority and by the Word of God It is written Man shall not live by bread alone It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve These are such Answers as would admit of no Reply for the Authority of God can never be answered And thus we must conquer also if ever we will conquer by a firm Faith in God and Belief of his Word Faith is our Shield and the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit and we have no other sure Defence against all Temptations This ruined our first Parents in Paradise when their Reason and Natural Powers were in their greatest Vigour Perfection and Integrity that instead of insisting on God's Authority they ventured to reason the Case with the Tempter Set aside the Authority of God and the Devil will quickly out-wit and out-reason us he is skilled in all the Arts of Deceit and Methods of Perswasions and without God's Authority our Courage our Resolution our Honour our Reason it self even all the Rants and triumphant Speculations of Philosophy will fail us in the Day of Trial to Tempt is either to deceive or to perswade and there is no other secure defence against either but the Authority and the Word of God The wisest Reasoner may be imposed on by so artificial a Tempter but God can neither deceive nor be deceived and then while we believe God and have regard to his Commands we cannot be deceived neither And what is able to resist all the Terrors and Flatteries of the World and the Flesh but the Authority of that God who is our Maker and our Judge What insignificant Names are Virtue and Vice how weak and feeble is the sense of Decency and Honour and the Dignity of Human Nature and of a Life of Reason after we have read or writ so many Volumes about it when we feel the soft Charms of Pleasure and our Eyes are filled with visible Glories Who would not part with a fine Thought or two with some pretty Notions of Moral Beauty and Intellectual Pleasures for a Happiness which may be seen and felt But the Authority of GOD the firm belief of his Promises and Threatnings the hopes and fears of another World are beyond all other Perswasions unless any thing can perswade a Man to be eternally miserable This may suffice to be spoke in General concerning our Saviour's Temptation We come now to consider II. The particular Temptations wherewith our Saviour was Assaulted and they are Three 1. The first was to relieve his Hunger after his long fasting by working a Miracle And when the Tempter came to him he said If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread This was a very artificial Temptation which it may be none but Christ himself would have been aware of For what hurt was it for the Son of God to work a Miracle What hurt was it for a Man who was Hungry to relieve his Hunger For here was no Temptation to excess but to satisfy the necessities of Nature What hurt was it for him who afterwards fed so many Thousands by Miracles in this great Distress to have wrought a Miracle to satisfy his own Hunger This was very plausible and looked like very charitable Advice but yet there was a secret Snare in it 1st For this was made a Trial whether he were the Son of God or not If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread Now had he complied with this it had argued a distrust of his Relation to God and of the Love of his Father and this was a Temptation to Sin Thus the Tempter dealt with our first Parents made them jealous of God's good Intentions towards them and by that Tempted them to Disobedience The Serpent said unto the Woman Ye shall not surely die For God knoweth that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil That is God envies your Happiness and therefore has forbid you to Eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus the Devil suggested to our Saviour that he had great reason to question whether he were the Son of God because he was destitute of all the Comforts and Supports of Life and after forty Days fasting had nothing in the Wilderness to Eat unless he would turn Stones into Bread And though this part of the Temptation our Saviour takes no notice of in his Answer but scorns it yet we find it makes a very powerful Impression upon other Men who are apt to measure God's Love or Hatred by present things when they
will observe a just proportion Let no Man then enquire how much he must give the proper enquiry is how much he must love Let no man satisfy himself with some small trifling Presents which bear no proportion to what he has upon pretence that God has prescribed no proportion of giving but let him ask himself Whether in his own Conscience what he gives bears any proportion to that love and charity to the poor and miserable which God requires and let him remember that though God has not fixt the proportions of giving he requires great degrees of Charity and though Men may give liberally without Charity yet not to give in some due proportion is a certain sign of want of Charity when there wants no ability to give Give me leave to observe by the way that what I have now said of Charity is true of all other Christian Graces and Virtues that it is the principle which both must and will give laws and measures to the external acts of such Graces and Virtues As to instance at present only in the Acts of Religious Worship the measures and proportions of which are as much disputed and no more determined and limited by the Laws of our Saviour than those of Charity We are commanded to fast and pray and to communicate at the Lord's Table and to read and meditate on the Holy Scriptures and such other acts of Religion but we are not told how often we must fast and pray and receive the Lord's Supper nor how much time we must spend in our publick or private Devotions for though all the publick Exercises of Religion must be regulated by the publick Authority of the Church which as to time and place and other external circumstances is the safest rule yet our private Devotions are free and both publick and private Devotions have a great latitude and thus as it is in the case of Charity some men think they can never spend time enough in the publick and private â—…xercises of Religion and others â—…hink a very little will serve the turn â—…nd any trifling pretence is sufficient to â—…xcuse them from their Closets or the Church and especially from the Lord's Table And the resolution of this is the same â—…s in the case of Charity We are commanded to be devout Worshippers of God and the true spirit of Devotion â—…aturally prescribes the external meaâ—…ures and proportions Devout minds who have a true sense of God and of their constant dependance on him That they owe all temporal and spiritual Blessings to him and daily need the pardon of their Sins the ptotection of his Providence and the supplies of his Grace will never fail to worship God whom they inwardly reverence and adore and as our devout sense of God encreases in strength and vigour the external expressions of devotion will be more frequent more lively and affecting for nature will exert it self and will exert it self in proportion to its strength and vigour But to return 3. The third thing I proposed I must at present wave that where there is a willing mind with a fit proportion according to our abilities which as you have heard there will be where there is a truly willing and charitable mind whether it be more or less that we give it is equally acceptable to God Such a man is accepted according to what he hath not according to what he hath not and indeed there is no great occasion to insist on it for it is self-evident that God will not exact that from us which we have not Only we must observe that this does not excuse any man from Charity though he have nothing to give he must have a willing charitable mind to make him accepted nor does it excuse those from Charity who have but little to give for they must give according to what they have nor does it excuse those who have nothing to give from other acts of Charity which require the giving nothing and a great many such acts of real charity there are which poor people may do for each other though they have not a penny in their purse But it is time now to turn my Discourse to the proper business of this great Solemnity Publick Charities are always reckoned amongst the greatest Ornaments of any Country and make up the most lovely and charming part of their Characters Stately and magnificent Buildings shew great Art and great Riches and a gallant and noble Genius but great Charities have something divine and strike the Mind with a Religious Veneration There may be much more magnificent Shows than this Day 's Procession but none which affect wise and good Men with a sincerer Pleasure To follow a great number of Orphans in the mean but decent Dress of Charity singing the Praises of God and praying for their Benefactors is beyond all the Roman Triumphs however adorned with a pompous Equipage and great numbers of Royal Slaves These present us with nothing but the miserable Spectacles of Spoil and Rapine the uncertain Changes and Viâ—…issitudes of Fortune the lamentable Fate of conquered Princes and People and the Pride and Insolence of Conquerors but here are the Triumphs of a generous Goodness and divine Charity Triumphs without Blood and Spoil without Slaves and Captives unless redeem'd Slaves rescued from the Jaws of Poverty and all the Injuries and Miseries of a ruined Fortune That to me this great City and this honourable Train never looks greater than in this humble Pomp. A Pomp not for Vanity and Ostentation but to endear and recommend Charity by shewing the visible and blessed Fruits of it and to the same End I must give you an account of the present State of these publick Charities The Report was here Read THAT these are all great Charities I need not tell you indeed all so great that it is hard to know to which to give the Preference and what occasion all these Charities have of fresh liberal and constant Supplies the Report acquaints you But I cannot pass over one thing I observe in this Report and which I fear many necessitous People feel that there have been no Orphans taken into Christ's Hospital this Year nor as I remember for two Years last past I do not mention this by way of Reflection as any fault in the administration and government but to put you in mind how much that excellent Foundation needs your Supply and though I do not love to compare Charities they being all of great use and necessity in their kind yet I think this Foundation has something to plead for it self beyond any other A helpless Age destitute of Friends â—…nd all means of Support will plead â—…or it self without saying any thing â—…t is a pitiable Sight to see poor â—…nnocent Children turned helpless inâ—…o the wide World to starve or beg or steal or to suffer all imaginable Difficulties and Necessities at home without Education without Government or Discipline without being used â—…o labour or taught any honest
spell out from the visible Creation And on the other hand though we must not urge the Authority of Revelation to prove a God which would â—…e to beg the Question yet the being of a Revelation we may for whatever proves a Divine Revelation proves a God The wisest and acutest Philosophers among the Heathens thought this the best and most sensible Proof of a God Balbus the Stoick having begun his Cicero de natura Deorum Proof of the Being of a God from â—…his visible Creation and the univerâ—…al Consent of Mankind in this Belief â—…e resolves the Firmness and Stability of this Perswasion into those visible Signs which their Gods oftentimes gave of their own Power and Presence Quòd presentiam soepe Divi suam declarant And the Argument is certainly a very good one though the Particular Instances he gives of it may be vain and fictitious and want sufficient attestation to gain belief But had Balbus instead of the Apparitions of Castor and Pollux and their ridiculous Rites of Divination seen the Miracles of Moses and of Christ the familiar Conversation of God with Abraham and Moses the terrible Appearance of Mount Sinai when God delivered the Law in an audible Voice and the infallible Accomplishment of Prophesies that is had his Proofs of a Divine Power and Presence been as undeniable as his reasoning from such Divine Appearances to the Being of a God is unanswerable all the Wit and Sophistry in the World could never have evaded this Argument for it would be impossible to perswade Men there is no God when they do little less than see him in such present and sensible Effects as can have no other Cause but a God However thus much we learn from this dispute that according to the Sense of the wisest Men such visible Effects of a Divine Power and Presence are the most irresistible Argument for the Being of God that the wisest Men did believe that if there is a God he would give some undeniable Proofs of his own Being in the Acts of Government and Providence as well as of Creation And that if there never had been any such sensible Appearances of such a Divine Power and Presence it would at least have rendred the Being of God very doubtfull This should make all those who heartily believe a God to think and speak more honourably of Revelation for the Belief of a God and of Revelation will stand and fall together that a Deist who ridicules all Revelation takes a very ill Course to perswade the World that he believes a God Secondly The unreasonableness of Deism will further appear if we consider that to acknowledge the Being of a God makes it highly reasonable to believe a Revelation I do not say that to believe a God obliges us to believe every pretended Revelation for the truth of any particular Revelation depends on those peculiar Marks of Divinity and Credibility which it bears on it but whoever beleives that there is a God cannot think it incredible that God should reveal himself and his Will to Mankind nay will see great reason to believe that he has done so as the State of the World in the different Ages and Dispensations of it did require and would admit For First No Man who believes that there is a God can question whether God can if he so pleases make a more perfect manifestation of himself and his Will to Mankind than he has done by the Works of Nature for what can't he do who made the World and is infinite in Wisdom and Power as to consider particularly some of those ways whereby God is supposed to reveal himself to Mankind God is a pure and infinite Mind who cannot be seen by Mortal Eyes and yet will any Man say that God cannot by some visible Appearances convince Men of his immediate Presence beyond all possibility of Doubt that he cannot either with or without such visible Appearances speak to them and talk as familiarly with them as one Man converses with another And then whatever Truth there be in the Story which is another Enquiry there is nothing in its own Nature incredible in those Relations we have of God's appearing to Adam and conversing with him in Paradise of his appearing to Abraham and Iacob who saw God face to face Gen. 32. 30. Of his speaking to Moses face to face as a Man talketh with his Friend Exod. 33. 11. Cannot God who formed our Minds and knows all the Springs of Thoughts draw such clear and bright Scenes and Pictures of things on our Fancy and Imagination whether sleeping or waking as shall need no other proof of their Divinity but themselves As Light is known by it self and the first Principles and Maxims of Reason by their own Evidence Cannot the Son of God who made the World and made Man if he so pleases cloath himself with Humane Nature and appear and converse in the World as a Man and familiarly instruct Mankind in the Will of God and the Way to Heaven There is no question then but God can if he pleases inspire Men with the Knowledge of his Will either by Dreams and Visions or by an audible Voice and a familiar Conversation oâ—… by an immediate Impression upon the higher Faculties of Reason and Understanding so that if there be a God there may be Prophets inspired by God to reveal his Will to Men And therefore the Pretences to Prophesie must not be laugh'd out of the World but examined The thing is not incredible because it is what God can do but the Prophet must be tried because there may be Cheats and Impostures Now the trial of a Prophet whether he come from God is by such Works as no Man can do except God be with him that is in short by what we call Miracles and foretelling things to come And here again he who believes that there is a God cannot think either Miracles or a Prediction of future Events impossible For what cannot that God do and know whose Power and Knowledge are infinite What cannot that God do who made the World Is it such a Difficulty to him who framed our Bodies out of the â—…ust to give Health to the Sick or Sight to the Blind to make the Deaf to Hear and the Lame to Walk and to â—…aise the Dead We all know this is above Humane Power and therefore if â—…uch things be done they must be done by the Power of God and we know â—…hat God can do them and therefore Miracles are not impossible or incredible to him who believes a God Thus far the Deist must agree with me unless he have a very mean Opinion of his God For a God who cannot reveal his Will to Mankind who cannot inspire Prophets nor work Miracles nor foretel things to come is no God has not the Wisdom and the Power of a God Now this is a great Point gained for if God can do all this then there is no Objection against the Nature of
that can be made concerning the Presence of an omnipresent Being God is present in Heaven in Earth and in Hell but he manifests himself very differently in each and these different Manifestations are a different kind of presence As to keep to my present Subject God is present in all the Earth as the Supreme Lord Governour and Preserver of all things but in some Places he was peculiarly present to reveal his Will to Men and to receive their Homage and Adorations And this is that which is peculiarly called the Presencâ—… of God in Scripture as is evident froâ—… all the instances which I have already given But is not God present in all placeâ—… to hear the Prayers of good Men whâ—… call upon him Yes most certainly and so he was both before and under thâ—… Law and yet we see that he sanctifieâ—… some places with his more peculiar preâ—… sence for the Publick and Solemn Acts of Worship A Prince may receive 〈◊〉 private Petition from a private Hand 〈◊〉 wherever he is present but yet may think it very fitting to appoint a Presence of State to receive the publicâ—… Homage and Addresses of his Subjects 〈◊〉 thus in fact it was in the Iewish Temple and was as reasonable as the publick Solemnities of worship are without which Religion it self would be banished the World For did Men once believe that they could worship God as well at home as at Church that God is no more present in religious Assemblies than in their private Closets there were an end of Publick Worship and of Religion with it This is too visible in those who have entertained this Opinion they eitâ—… quite desert the Publick Worship and grow careless and unconcerned for Religion or if they do sometimes come to Church it is to comply with Popular Custom and Opinion or only to gratifie an itching Ear and Athenian like to hear some new thing But when God who has his Throne in Heaven has his Footstool and Presence on Earth where he commands us to pay our Homage this preserves the Sense of God and of Religion alive in the World and gives a just awe and reverence for God when we approach his Presence This is a very Sensible Reason for appropriated places of Worship where God vouchsafes his more peculiar Presence if this were not originally a Divine Institution as the Instances I have already given fairly intimate it was then meer natural Reason taught it all Mankind for there never was any Nation which worshipped any God but they erected Temples for their Worship The Poverty and persecuted State of the Christian Church for the three first Centuries have made some think that they had no Churches or appropriated Places of Worship but a learned Man of our own Mr. Mede has proved beyond all contradiction that this is a mistake and the Zeal oâ—… Christians in building Magnificent Churches in the Reign of Constantine the firsâ—… Christian Emperor shews plainly whaâ—… their Sense was of this matter And it is as evident that all Nations did believe that the Gods they worshipped were peculiarly present in their Temples The Pagans did not believâ—… their Gods to be Omnipresent and therefore endeavoured by Magical Spellâ—… and Charms to shut them up in theiâ—… Images and Temples that they mighâ—… know where to find them and in thiâ—… Notion the ancient Christians abominated the thoughts of Temples and Images since they worshipped a God whâ—… fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence this indeed was a corruption oâ—… Natural Religion as Polytheism and 〈◊〉 dolatry was but shews how necessary they thought a Divine Presence to 〈◊〉 place of Worship The Iews understood better thaâ—… God could not be confined to any placeâ—… that the Heaven and Heaven of Heavenâ—… could not contain him as Solomon owns in his Prayer of Dedication but yet begs that God would be graciously pleased to be present to hear and answer the Prayers and Supplications which should be made to him in that House which is all the peculiar Presence he prays for which is necessary to make a House of Prayer the name God himself gives to the Iewish Temple My House shall be called a House of Prayer Now if this be the proper notion of God's House that it is a House of Prayer a House where God is peculiarly present to hear our Prayers we must own that every Christian Church is as much the House of God as the Temple at Ierusalem was unless we will deny that God is as present in Christian Assemblies and in places dedicated to Christian Worship as he was in the Iewish Temple which is to make Christianity a more imperfect Dispensation than Iudaism for that is certainly the most perfect state of the Church where God is most peculiarly present There is indeed a great difference between the Iewish Temple and Christian Churches but as to the Presence of God which only makes a Temple the advantage is greatly on the Christian side The Ark of the Covenant the Tabernacle and Temple contained many Types and Figures of Christ but these Types were not the Presence of God nor the Object of their Religious Worship which had been Idolatry against the Second Commandment but for the sake of these Types God chose that place for his peculiar Presence Now instead of these Types we have the Antetype it self the Son of God made Flesh who though ascended into Heaven has promised his peculiar Presence in all the Assemblies of Christians which is such a Presence of God as never filled the Iewish Temple till Christ appeared for which Reason God tells them that the Second Temple though it fell vastly short of the External Beauty and Magnificence of the First yet should excel in Glory by the personal Appearance of Christ in it Haggai 2. 3 7. Malach. 3. 1. So that Christ having promised that wherever two or three are gathered together in his Name he will be in the midst of them every Christian Church has a Divine Presence greater than the Temple For though we should grant that this Promise extends to all the occasional Meetings of Christians whatever the Place be yet it much more extends to all the Solemn and Publick Places and Acts of Worship Thus there was but one Temple in the whole Land of Canaan God for Mystical Reasons confining his more peculiar Presence to that House where he had placed the Types and Figures of Christ through whom only we have Access to God but now this blessed Jesus who is greater than the Temple is in all Christian Assemblies and makes every Christian Church greater than the Temple In this Sense our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria Woman believe me the Hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Ierusalem worship the Father Iohn 4. 21. which does not signifie that hereafter there should be no peculiar and appropriate Places of Worship but that the Presence and Worship of God should no longer be confined to any