THese words were a Sermon, the Text was taken out of Isay, the Sermon was preached at a Visitation time: the Visitor himself preached it, and the place, which he visited, was the Temple.

Iudicia à domo Dei: the fittest place for Iudgement to begin at, is the House of God: 1. Ep. S. Pet. c. 4. v. 17. set but all right in the Temple, and all will go well enough with the Common-wealth. The Common-wealth is sustained by Iu­stice, but, Iustice it self is upheld by Religion, that Plato puts down for a maxime in his Alcib. If Religion falter, then Iustice cannot but swerve; and the swerving of Iu­stice cannot be without danger, if not without the down­fall of a State:

Domus Dei, and Domus Regis, Gods House, and the Kings House stood together; so Solomon built them: 1. Reg. c. 6, 7. but first Solomon built Gods house, and then His own: for it is [...]he Temple, that doth, and must ever establish the Throne.

The safety of the King and State, and the life of Iustice are derived from Religion: but Religion too will fall into pieces, if it be not continually cemented and repaired by Discipline. Hence the Fathers in the Primitive times, and since, have bestowed all their care, and directed all their endeavours to this one end, that is Discipline. As good pull down the Church with the Edomite, as cry down the Discipline of it with the Separatist. To keep this up, the Apostles themselves laboured, like wise work-men, ordaining in their Canons two times in the yeare for Episcopall Assemblies Cap. 38.; which Constitution was afterward quickened again by the Generall Councels: for this was thought the way to correct the vitiousnesse of the Clergy, and to preserve sanctity of life among them, in the Councell at Chalcedon Cap. 19.; to root out heresie, and maintaine purity of Doctrine, in the Councell at Antioch Cap. 20.; to hinder oppression of inferiour Clergy-men, and settle ju­stice among the Prelates, in the Nicene Councell Cap. 5.: to re­move schisme, and to plant unity and conspiration, in the Canons of the Apostles Cap. 38..

It is the Prelates part to see to Discipline, and to actu­ate the Laws by seeing them obeyed, which otherwise would come to no birth, but dye abortive. They strike at the very foundation of the Church, that speak against the Hierarchy of Bishops: for remove the Prelacy, and re­move Discipline: and discipline being thrust out, Religio [...] fals flat upon the ground. Where there is no King, a [...] once it was in Israel, Jud. 21.25. there every man did what seeme good in his own eyes: where there is no Prelate, as it is now in some Cities beyond the seas, there all sorts of schisma­ticks broach all sorts of doctrines, every man professin [...] what Religion he pleases. But with us if there be not [Page 3] good Clergy, it is the neglect of the Prelate; and if there be not a religious and conformable people, it is the fault of the Priest: for it the Priest would but do his duty, the peo­ple would, or must do theirs.

Hence it is, that our Lord in this his Visitation, when he saw the Citie, the Text saith, Flevit super illam, Ver. 41. He wept over it: but when he came into the Temple, Coepit ejicere, He began to cast out them that were in it: Ver. 45. He never acted the Magistrate till now in the Temple. There Reformation is to begin: Cleanse but the Church of ignorant, errone­ous, schismaticall, and vitious Priests, and then Religion will take more place among the people. No marvell, that all Ierusalem was out of order, when Gods house was so too, when Domus Dei was converted into spelunca latro­num, when theeves had taken the house of God in posses­sion, and sacriledge was installed in the seat of prayer. There our great Visitor begins, passing by the sinnes of the City, he onely wept over that, and pitied it; but pu­nishing the sinnes of the Temple, for he scourged and cast out them that prophaned it, saying unto them: It is written, S. Joh. 2.15. My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a denne of theeves.

I In these words of the Text, there is, 1. The Temples institution. 2. The prophanation of it. In the institution, 1. What it must be, Domus. 2. For whom, God, Domus Mea. 3. To what end, Prayer, Domus mea, domus Orationis. 4. The unalterablenesse of that end, it is not fuit, or erit, out est, Domus mea Est domus orationis. 5. The reason, or ground, and that is, because God himselfe hath institu­ed it so, Scriptum est, Domus mea est domus orati­nis.

II The prophanation of it is aggravated. 1. From what [Page 4]it was made, Spelunca. 2. From the persons that were en­tertained in it, Theeves, spelunca Latronum. 3. From the persons, that made it so, the Iews, yea, the Scribes and Pharises, Vos autem fecistis eam speluncam latronum. 4. From the continuance of time, it is not Vos Facitis eam, but which is more, Vos Fecistis eam speluncam latronum.

I Though, as David saith, Domini est terra, and as Saint Paul saith, Psal. 24.1. 1. Tim. 2.8. Volo viros orare in omni loco: though God be the immense inhabitant of the whole earth, and every place in it may, and should be our Oratory; yet he hath ever confined his presence to some particular places to be adored in.

I At first God was resorted to in a remote Mountaine, or a neighbouring Grove, places fit for silence and contem­plation, where there might be no avocation of the mind from God: there Abraham was a sollicitor of God by invocation. Gen. 21.

When Groves were abused by Gentile superstition, then God removed himself into a Tabernacle, Exod. 25. and be­came a fellow-traveller with Moses, and the children of Israel. Psal. 132. It was Introibimus in Tabernaculum ejus then, till Solomons time, God was not to be spoken with but in his Tabernacle.

But when he had given his people rest, then he would have a house built him, a place to rest in too: [...], saith Philo De viâ Mosis, li. 3.. They were a travelling people, and God appointed them a travelling Temple; in imita­tion whereof blessed Constantine in time of warre had hi [...] Ecclesia portatilis Socr. lib. 1. cap. 14.. The first Sanctuary God was wor­shipped in, was sine tecto: the second had tectum, but no [...] fundamentum: last of all, when God had brought them [Page 5]unto a setled condition, and given them possessions, and houses, God would be allowed a possession, and a house among them then; and then Solomon built him a House: he was sine domo, he had no house till then.

Ever since God hath been the owner of a house, though the fanaticall schismatique would allow him none, he would make God at best but his Inmate, and he should lodge in charity with him, Jud. 17. 2. Reg. 4. like the poore Levite in Micahs house, or like the man of God in the Shunamites little cham­ber. An house God will have of us, to whom we are be­holden for ours; not a chamber, or a parlour, a part of a house, but a whole house, and that not common to others, but proper to himself, which we may call his owne, and say, Domus mea.

2 Well, God cannot complaine for want of an house, but he may thanke the devotion of former times for it: for we are more forward to pull downe, then to set up, and thinke much of doing that we do, to keepe them up, much more of beautifying and adorning them. We have stripped Faith naked to be scorned and laughed at by the adversary, good works are out of fashion, and that Religion likes us best, that costs us least. The primitive Christians thought it the best service they could do to God, to do something to his House: that no signe of re­ligion, to adorne their own houses with marble, and Ivory, and cedar, and tapestry, and pictures, and see Gods house neglected, and not provided for. See now, saith David to Nathan, I dwell in an house of cedar, 2. Sam. 72 but the Arke of God dwelleth within curtains. He thought it a dishonour to God, that even the Kings palace should be more glori­ous than Gods house. This made Antiquity to christen their Churches by the name of Basilicae, not onely, be­cause [Page 6]the King of all people was there sacrificed to, as Isi­dorus Li. 15. c. 4.; but for the gloriousnesse of their frame, as may be gathered out of Ecclesiasticall Histories. Eusebius can shew you the magnificence of those Temples, that Con­stantine erected Lib. 3.4.; and Athanasius of that vast one, which his sonne Constantius built at Alexandria In Apolog. ad Constant., who as he succeeded his Father in religion, so in the care of Gods house; for they go together: Let Gods house fall, and Re­ligion cannot but be smothered in it, whatsoever pre­tence any schismatique can frame for the neglect of it.

Little love there is to God, where his house is not used like a house, no beauty, nor ornament in it, nay, [...], to use the words of Saint Chrysostome Hom. 36. in 1. Cor., in farre worse condition then a house: when the Church is kept more like a hogge-stie then a house, and is exceeded in beauty by an Hospitall or an Almes-house, and men come with as little devotion to it, as to a prison or a pest-house; the Chancell staring from the Church, as if they were fal­len out with one another; the windows glazed with lome and morter in stead of painted glasse; the wals hung with cobwebs in stead of tapestry, and the roofe over-laid with dust in stead of gold. And this wretched heape of stones is Domus Dei, fit enough for a house to worship God in.

2 A house merits not the name of a house, if it be not beautified and adorned: but that which beautifies a house most, is unity. For this cause the Temple is stiled not Cu­ria, but Domus; not a Court, where emulation is bred, and faction nourished, but a House, where there is all love and peace. Vnity is hardly preserved in a State, but may easi­ly in a House: Psal. 68. Division in that is more dangerous, but in this more opprobrious, when men are not of one minde in an House, but the father against the sonne, and the sonne [Page 7]against the father. The Church should be Domus, for or­der and unity kept in it: but not Domus divisa, a house di­vided against it selfe, where the Pastor is against the peo­ple, and the people against the Pastor, and both against their Prelate.

The devill was the first schismatique, whose labour it is, ever since he made a division in heaven, to sow his seeds of division on earth; and though he cannot be able to disquiet heaven any more, yet earth cannot be at peace for him. He put Coreh, Dathan, Num. 16. and Abiram upon a schisme in the time of Moses; he bred the separation of the Eusta­sians, that caused the Councell at Gangra; and a little af­ter kindled the schismaticall fire of the Donatists, which did great harme to the Church in the time of Saint Au­gustine, untill a Councell was assembled at Africa to quench it.

These very schismes are revived in our times: for com­pare the schismatiques that disquiet the Church at this day with them, and ye shall finde them both alike, save that ours have patched themselves a coat together with some shreds of all the old heresies. God purge his Church, and make it a House at unity in it selfe: to which I adde with Saint Cyprian in his Book De unitate Ecclesiae, Opto equidem, ut si fieri potest, nemo de fratribus pereat, & con­sentientis populi corpus unum gremio suo gaudens mater in­cludat. Which as it will be great joy to the Church, so no lesse honour to God, whose House it is.

2 The Church is Domus Dei, instituted for none but God, in which respect the Greeke Fathers call it [...] in in the Councel at Laodicea, [...] Ca. 28.; who condemned even the Feasts of charity made in the Church, as a prophanation of it, [Page 8]though they were otherwise good signes of Christian uni­ty, and strengthened by Apostolicall custome, because it was [...], proper onely to God, Scriptum est, Domus Mea.

God cals it His, as if all the rest were ours, but that His, and in no case to be made bold with, It is written, My house. Vse our owne houses we may, how we will, but Gods house, as it hath a speciall holinesse, so it hath a spe­ciall honour due to it, howsoever the unmannerly preci­sian denies it both. But no marvell, that he that is so bold to wrest Gods chaine in heaven out of his hand, dare en­trench here upon the sanctity of his house, and maintaine that any other place is as much his, and as much holy; if which be true, I know not how our Lord could accuse them of sacriledge, that bought and sold in it, as he doth in the Text. It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it, &c.

I The Consecration and Dedication of Churches unto God, is no new thing, no nor yet superstitious: who thinke it so, they cast durt into the face of all holy Antiquity, yea even of God himselfe, who hath ever accepted, and ho­noured them. It is the Consecration, that makes them ho­ly, and makes God esteeme them so; which though they be not capable of grace, yet receive by their Consecration a spirituall power, whereby they are made fit for divine service D. Them. 3. q. 83.3.. And being consecrated, there is no danger in ascribing a Holinesse unto them, if we may beleeve Saint Bernard. Quis parietes ejus sanctos dicere vereatur, saith he, quos manus sacratae pontificum tantis sanctificavere my­steriis? Ex tunc quoque & deinceps sanctarum inibi lectio­num resultare frequentia, sanctarum onationum devota mur­murare susurra, sanctarum reliquiarum honorari beata prae­sentia, sanctorum spirituum indefessa noscitur custodia vigi­lare In Dedic. Eccles. Ser. 4..

Whence comes such slovenly behaviour in the Church that there is no difference made between the Temple and the Theatre, but from an hereticall opinion, which was condemned in the Eustasian and Messalian Hereticks, that there is no more holinesse in the one, than the other? The prophane usage of it, proceeds from the prophane opini­on of it: and he that hath a prophane opinion of it, is an Atheist, or an Heretique at least. For let us have but an ho­nourable opinion of God, and we must have an honoura­ble opinion of Gods House too: honour him, and honour his house.

When we come to Church, saith a holy Father of the Devotion of those primitive times, Corpora humi sterni­mus, mixtis cum sletu gaudiis supplicamus Salv. li. 7. de prov. Dei.. They that shewed the least devotion, that did not prostrate their bo­dies upon the ground in Daniels posture, yet they bowed them in Solomons posture, and worshipped God toward the East, both Priest D. Chrys. in Liturg. and people D. Basil. de Sp. S. ca. 27., assoone as they presented themselves in Gods House. All the time that they were there, they behaved themselves with such modesty, silence, reverence, and attention, that it looked like Gods house indeed, and they more like a quire of An­gels, than of men; all upon their knees at the Prayers, all upon their feet at the Sermon, none presumed so much as to sit, as being too bold and lazy a posture in Gods house, but only such, as for infirmity, Li. Hom. 50. Hom. 26. or some other cause were dispensed with; as may be observed out of S. Augustine.

There were some that did nudipedes incedere in tem­plum Raynaud. Theol. nat., in imitation of Moses, that would not have their shoes on their feet in the Temple; a shame to them that have their hats on their heads in Gods House, where He, and his Angels look upon them; [...], [Page 10]saith S. Chrysost. Hom. 36. in 1 Cor.. It was the maine thing, that the Fathers laboured among the people, to maintaine the Honour of Gods house; that they might put a difference betweene a common meeting place in the market, and that which was the place of Angels and Archangels, yea the very presence-chamber of the King of heaven.

The Priest hath no way to maintaine his owne honour, but by keeping up the honour of the Temple: for if there be no reverence to the Temple, there will be no reverence to the Priest; Domus Dei will soone be made Spelunca la­tronum; there will be they that will rob both Temple and Priest too: as some have robd already even the Apostles themselves, giving more honour and title to a Master of a Sect, than to a Disciple of Christ. But in memory of those blessed Saints, we have Churches beare their Names, which is no diminution of Gods glory, but a provocation of our zeale.

2 Domus Dei may be called justly enough Domus Sancti Petri, or Domus Sancti Pauli; though our peevish adver­saries cavill at it. For as S. Augustine saies, Nec tamen nos eisdem Martyribus Templa, sacerdotia, sacra, & sacrificia constituimus; quoniam non ipsi, sed Deus eorum nobis est De­us De Civit. Dei. l. 8. c. ult.. Churches are not erected to them, but to their and our God in memory of them; and that for very good rea­sons, which you may reade in Hooker Polit. Ec­cles. li. 5.. There is one memorable place in S. Augustine, Sanctorum corpora, & praecipuè beatorum Martyrum reliquias, tanquam Christi mē ­bra sincerissimè honoranda, & Basilicas eorum nominibus ap­pellatas, velut loca sancta divino cultui mancipata, affectu piissimo & devotione fidelissimâ adeundas credimus: siquis contra hanc sententiam venerit, non Christianus, sed Euno­mianus, [Page 11]& Vigilantianus creditur De Eccles. dogmat. c. 73.. Where he denyes him to be a Christian, and marks him for an Eunomian, or a Vigilantian, that will not frequent Gods houses that are called by Saints names. For by this means the Saints are honoured; God honoured the more, not rob'd; for the House is his, and Prayer is his, so that neither his House, nor his Service is taken from him; though they that quarrell a­bout this, have done what they could to take from him both. God should neither say the former part of the Text, Domus Mea, nor the latter part, Domus Orationis est, which is the next part to be handled.

3 Prayer is the End, to which Gods house is erected, Do­mus mea, Domus Orationis est. Though there be many o­ther religious duties to be exercised in Gods House, yet there is none other mentioned, but Prayer. God sayes, Domus Precationis, not domus Praedicationis, not excluding preaching by commending Prayer, but preferring Prayer before Preaching. Preaching is good, and so is Prayer; but of these two, though both good, yet one is better than another. Prayer hath the onely place with Christ: it hath the first place with the Apostles, even in the presence of Preaching. Nos autem Orationi, Act. 6.4. & Ministerio verbi instantes erimus: first Prayer, then the Ministery of the Word; and yet the ministery of the Word was never of so much use as then in the times of the Apostles, when they were to plant the Gospell in all the world. Preaching was at high­est then; and yet then prayer took place of it. Oratio was before Ministerium verbi. Now there is not so much need of preaching, as there was in the first times of the Church: but it is still needfull as in other regards, so for the weeding out of Schisme and Heresie.

Preaching is the common way, that leads to Faith: but how the more preaching, the lesse faith. Inopem me copia [Page 12]fecit. Never was there such a Sermon-age as this is, and never was there such a leannesse in Religion: We have turned all our Members into Eares, & we are for nothing else but Hearing of Sermons, as if in Religion we were to go no higher, then Aurium tenus, up to the eares. Preaching is but the Means to bring us to Prayer: Rom. 10.14. Quomodo invoca­bunt, in quem non credidêrunt? aut quomodo credent ei, quem non audiêrunt? saith S. Paul. Prayer is the End of preach­ing: and the means is not to be magnified before the end.

The frequent Sermons of the Fathers can be no justifi­cation of some of our Lectures: for their Sermons were not like those of these times, which were measured not by their length, but their goodnesse; and their goodnesse lay not in an indigested multitude of words, but in a perti­nency and fitnesse of speech; & then too Prayer lost nothing of her prerogative, for even in S. Chrysostomes time, when preaching was most plentiful, no part of the Liturgie was any day omitted; Preaching did not cut off Prayer with the Priest, yet, I must tell you, it began to lessen the digni­ty of prayer with the people: which he complained of in his third Homily, [...]. But now prayer is grown to such a slender respect, that we do what we can to have nothing else but preaching in the Church, and no prayer at all. Witnesse the corrupt custome of ringing Sermon-bels in some Churches, which could for no other end be brought in, but to bring schisme into the Church with it. For let a Sermon-bell ring, and then people are tolled to the Church like a swarme of Bees together: but let a bell toll onely unto prayers, Nemo hercule, nemo, None comes then, none at all, as if prayer were of no force, preaching did all; as if Christ would take it well at their hands to correct his words, to put Praeier out of the Text, and to put in preaching, My house is the house of preaching. [Page 13]Saint Chrysostom heard what some such Idoll-sermonists did say; and it is even the same, which the Schismatiques of our dayes have sucked from them, [...] [...].. They could pray at home, but they could not meete with a Sermon, unlesse they met at Church. Hee calls it [...], a cold apology; and yet it proceeded from a hot zeale. [...]. Pray at home wee may, but wee cannot pray at home as at Church, where there is a reverend assembly of Fathers, an unanimous supplication unto God, where there is amongst us all but one mind, and one voice, and the bond of charity, and the prayers of the Priest; to which I adde, the Absolution and Blessing of the Priest.

This the cause of so little growth in Religion, that there is so little profit made of so many Sermons, because there is a contempt of Church-prayer, that should blesse them. Prayer is not utterly justled out of the Church; the Divell never laboured to bring that to passe: but private prayer is brought in, that was never warranted to have a roome in publique. How is it then, brethren? saith Saint Paul, when yee come together, 1. Cor. 14.26. every one of you hath a psalme, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a reve­lation, hath an interpretation. Nay now, every one of you hath a Prayer by himselfe; so many Priests in the Pul­pit, so many sundry prayers; and when the publique [Page 14]prayers of the Church are ended, every one begins a new, and places more vertue (it may be) in an extempo­rall prayer of his owne invention, then in what the Church hath in her mature judgement appointed; so that his comes to conclude with, like the Lords prayer, as if it perfected all the rest.

It was forbidden in divers Councills, Conc. Carth. 3. can. 23. Conc. Asiic. cap. 70. that any prayers should bee rashly powred out unto God in the Church, but onely such as were before approoved in the Councills, or by the learned Fathers of the Church, Ne fortè aliquid contra fidē, vel per ignorantiam, vel per minus studium sit compositum, as it is expressed in the Milevitan Councill under Innocent 1. Can. 12. It is not left to every man to use what prayers he please, for they may smell of ignorance, or idlenesse, and may serve to convey to the people schismaticall and hereticall do­ctrines. Our Lord commanded his Apostles to use a forme of prayer; S. Mat. 6.7. and the Church hath appointed us one too; to prevent the profanation of his House by tauto­logies, inconsequences, tediousnesse, rawnesse, and other absurdities in extemporall prayer, which our Lord di­rects his speech against, and calls it babling, and not praying. Gods house is not to bee made a house of babling, but a house of prayer: And the prayers that are authorized in the Church are called Collects, but not private prayers, because they were approoved in an Ecclesiasticall Assembly; or â Collectione populi, as Al­cuinus de divinis offic. cap. de cele­brat. Missae. because we Assemble together to that end, which is, to pray.

It is Common prayer, that hath obtained the name of the service of God, as if that were the summe of all Re­ligion. [Page 15]And indeede Religion never grew to such a height, as when Common prayer was set by: and never was it brought into such a consumption, as when raw and extemporary preaching came into the roome of it; for thence came factions, schis­mes, and perturbations of the Churches peace. If wee would have Religion live amongst us, Prayer must be seated in Gods house. Domus mea, domus Orationis est.

4 Prayer must nevēr be turned out; for if the End, for which Gods house was instituted, be altered, then the property is altered, and it is Gods house no longer. God sayes, Domus mea, Est domus oratio­nis, not Fuit, or Erit; Is the house of prayer, to sig­nifie the perpetuation of the same End. It is here in Saint Luke, Domus orationis est, but in Saint Mat­thew, S. Mat. 21.13 Domus orationis vocabitur, to make it more full. The House of God is the house of prayer, both [...]: it is both the name, and the nature of Gods house, The house of prayer; either of them of authority sufficient to give prayer the chiefest place in it.

5 Howsoever if reason will not prevaile for prayer, yet God himselfe must; here is his Scriptum est, to take off all cavill, preaching must give place to prayer in the Temple. God himselfe hath sayd it; and Christ hath said it againe, It is written, My house is the house of prayer. Who fitter to order and impose Lawes to a house, than the Master of it? Let God be Master in his owne House: let not man crosse the end, that he hath destined it to; for that is, as Gamaliel [Page 16]said in the Councill of the Iewes, Act. 5.39. to rebell and fight against God. Cui dixit aliquar do angelorum, saith Saint Paul, Heb. 1.5. Vnto which of the Angels said God at any time, Thou art my Sonne, this day have I begotten thee? So say I, In quo libro Scriptum est, in what place of Scripture is it written, My house is the house of preach­ing? If they had such a Text for preaching as wee have for prayer, then they might the better desend that preaching which shuts out prayers. Saint Iohn in­flicts a Curse upon all them, S. I. h. 22.18. that shall adde to the Word of God, or take from it. It is not safe then to wrest the Text, to take away prayer, and to put in preaching, for it is against the scope of the Text. Gods house is recorded for a house of prayer by all foure Evangelists. As our saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees, when they tithed mint, and annise, & cum­min, but neglected mercy, S. Mat 23.23. judgement and faith, These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other un­done. So let preaching have a place in the Church, but let not Prayer be neglected, that ought to have the chiefe place.

Doxolog [...]e is a part of prayer; but that the Angels doe, and We shall ever doe in heaven, crying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. The Temple is then more like Heaven, and Wee more like the Angels of Heaven, when wee are in the act of prayer. God hath commanded that his house on earth have as neare a resemblance as may be to his house in hea­ven, and that is the worke of Prayer, It is written, My house is the house of Prayer.

II But it was neither like Heaven, nor like a House, [Page 17]when Christ visited it: God and Prayer were both driven out by Theeves, and the House was turned into a Denne. Vos autem fecistis eam Spe­luncam.

1 The Temple was not onely prophaned, but pro­phaned in a high manner. Domus Dei was not made Domus Hominum; nor Domus Orationis, Domus Negotiationis, as it is in Saint Iohn, Cap. 2. v. 16. but [...] saith Saint Chry­sos̄tome. In S. Ioh. 2. The greatnesse of the Offence may bee measured by the harshnesse of the terme, in that our Lord calls it not a House at all, but a Denne.

I A House receives the Light into it, but a Denne is a place of Darkenesse. Light becomes him, who is the Father of Light: God is Light, saith Saint Iohn, and in him is no darkenesse at all. I His workes are Opera­lucis, his children Filii lucis, and his habitation Domus lucis. To shut out any light, that may bee usefull in Gods house, is with the Iewes to make it a Denne; as they would doe, that would shut out the Ceremonies out of the Church: for take away the Ceremonies out of the Church, and take away the light that is in it. Sense is a guide to the understanding; Rom. 1.20. and wee are led to the invisible things by the visible. No Re­ligion was ever without Ceremonies; all nations, not onely Iewes, but Gentiles, used their Rites and Cere­monies in the time of Worship, all meeting in this, as a naturall principle, that Divine worship cannot bee rightly performed without an outward solemnity. God did not forbid the Iewes, but commanded them [Page 18]the use of Ceremonies, though Heathen Idolaters abounded with them.

The Morall Law, and the Ceremoniall Law were not given one without the other, neither can they now be parted; nor is there any Ceremonie so bare, that is not clothed with some Morality. People are instructed as well by what they see, as by what they heare; and to see the picture of a Saint in a glasse window will preach more Religion to them, then to see the picture of a Horse or an Oxe in Gods House; the one puts them in mind, that it is Gods House, the other doth but make it more like a Den.

What devotion can that raise in a mans thoughts, to behold in the Church Gods Priest like a peasant, no habit to difference him from some sordid me­chanique? and to heare Gods Service slubberd over with as little Ceremony, as a Scrivener reades a Bond or Indenture?

The word Ceremony carries light in it; for Cere­moniae tanquam Cerei, they are as lights, that give a luster to Gods house, and his Service in it.

2 The Church cannot but bee darke, if the light of Ceremonies be wanting: but if the light of knowledge be wanting too, that is required in the Priests of it; it cannot but darken it much more. For the most part these two, the want of knowledge, and the contempt of Ceremonies goe together: for none is more apt to stumble at a ceremonie, than a blind Priest that cannot see through his grosse ignorance.

The Tradesmans stall comes not behinde the Di­vinitie Schoole; for that hath brought forth ma­ny [Page 19] Divines too, that have left sowing of garments and made a ront in the Church. And how many bee there that have but slept a time in the Vniversity, that have returned immediatly inspired with the gift of Prophesy, as he did with the gift of Poetry, that dreamt upon Parnassus. Pers. in prol. When the Church is filled with such an ignorant Priesthood, it may truly be cal­led a Denne.

The learning of the Clergy is the light of the Church; therefore was the Primitive Church so care­full to preserve it. None was to bee admitted unto Orders without a strict examination, that the Nicene Councell cap. 9. provided for. If any man was sufficient in respect of parts, yet if he were a novice, hee was not to be promoted to the Priest-hood, that was looked after by the Fathers in divers Councills. Conc. Nic. cap. 2. Conc. Laod. cap. 3. No Bishop was to appoint his Successor, for that he might doe for some private respect, but he was to be cho­sen by the judgement of a Synod; that was deter­mined in the Councills at Antioch, cap. 23. and Laodicea. cap. 12. The election of Priests was not permitted to the People in the same Councill at Laod cea; cap 13. for they might be perhaps competent judges of their life, but not of their learning. And then too, it was ordered, that there should be an ascent by degrees to Ecclesiasticall promotions, Cone Sardie. cap. 13. that neither ignorance, nor indesert might usurpe a seate in Gods house.

2 But it is to small purpose to shut Ignorance out of the Temple, unlesse Vitiousnesse be shut out too; for the Temple is made a Denne both wayes, not onely by the ignorance, but by the foulenesse of life in the [Page 20] Priest-hood. Heresie and schisme get ground in the Church by Ignorance; but contempt of Religion comes in by the Priests prophanenes. When they, that serve at the Altar, 1 Sam. 2.12.17. are sonnes of Belial, like Elies sonnes, they make men to abhorre the sacrifice of the Lord, yea God himselfe to abhorre his owne sa­crifice.

The Vrim and the Thummim were put in Aarons Breast-plate, Exod. 28.30. that he might not onely shine before the people in soundnesse of Doctrine, but in perfection of life. He that hath the Vrim and not the Thummim, whose Life doth not go together with his Doctrine, with Penelope he undoes all againe, and pulls downe more with the one, than he builds up with the other. Debet praeponderare vita sacerdotis, sicut praeponderat gratia. Nam qui alios praeceptis suis ligat, debet ipse legitima praecepta in se custodire, saith Saint Am­brose. Epist. lib. 3. Vercellensi Ecclesiae epist. 25. The people will be the more ready to keepe the Law, if the Priest keepes it himselfe; for they are guided more by a good example, then by a good Sermon. Levit. 21.18. God would not admit a man to his Altar that wanted an eye, or a hand, or a foote, or had any blemish in his body; much lesse then in his soule, as Philo observes, A [...] [...].

Holinesse becomes Gods house; Vice pollutes it, and makes it a Denne, especially the vice of the Cler­gy: for that which is but a single sinne in the people, Chrysologus Serm. 26. counts sacriledge in the Priest; and so [Page 21]doe the Schooles, Ʋtg. de [...]a­cr [...]. in that regard He is a sacred person that commits it.

The Person doth much aggravate the crime, when he is not an ordinary person, but one of greater emi­nency. Vos autem fecistis eam speluncam, makes the prophanation of Gods house of a higher quality; It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but Yee have made it a denne of theeves.

The Iewes should have maintained the honour of Gods house, howsoever any prophane Edomites might have laid sacrilegious hands upon it: but they did worse then even the Edomites would have done: for they would have made it no house at all, but these made it a Denne of Theeves; they would have put it to ruine, but these put it to infamy. Quid est, quòd Dilectus meus in Domo meá fecit scelera multa. Ier. 12.15. God complaines in Ieremie, that it was not onely his owne house, that was prophaned; but that they were his owne people that prophaned it; nay, they that were his owne Priests too: The nearer to God the offender is, the nearer the offence goes to Gods heart. Christ is more offended at the Vos, then at the Spelunca: And this would be thought on among us, whom God hath invested in the Priests office, that the sinnes of the Priests are not onely more dangerous in respect of the people, but also more beynous in respect of themselves.

2 The Vos stands not idle in the Text; the Persons that made Gods house a Denne, made that sinne the greater; but so much the greater, in that they made it not onely a Denne, but a Denne of Theeves. [Page 22]Christ saies not, Vos fecistis illam speluncam Bellua­rum, but speluncam Latronum, as if that were a de­gree higher, and Theeves were worse than Beasts; for nature inforceth the one, but the will mooveth the other to rapine. They are both for prey; but the Thiefe is the more insatiable: the Beast followes his prey but for necessity.

1 Our Lord was crucified betweene Two theeves; S Mat. 27.38. and he suffers betweene two kind of Theeves still to this day, betweene the Secret, and the Open thiefe.

1 The Heretique and the Schismatique convey them­selves in a sneaking manner into Gods house under the covert of holinesse. Vers. 4. These Saint Iude compares to Creepers, there are, saith he, certaine men crept in unawares. 2 Tim, 3.6. So Saint Paul, These are they that creepe into mens houses, leading captive silly women: and from thence feeding upon Silly Soules, they have Crept into Gods house too, eating the shewbread which none but the Priest should eate: for men care not how they rob the parish-priest of his patrimonie, so they give a benevolence to a crept in Sect-maker: Their Creeping discovers them to be Wormes; and where they come, they are as bad a plague as the Lice in Aegypt, for they gnaw upon Gods people, till at length they die the death of Herod, Act. 12. who was ea­ten of wormes. There was a secret politie thought on, when schisme nourished a presumption of sway­ing in the Church; and the destiny of Gods house was, to be made a Denne of Theeves. There were secret persons assigned for benefices, and secret orders made, and secret oathes taken, and secret reserva­tions [Page 23]with the doners. But this secret plot was brought to light; and the plotters were reprooved, as Christ reprooved them in the Text, Vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum.

2 There is another kind of Theefe, that doth not enter in by the doore, S. Iob. 10.1. but climbes up another way by a private contract with a Simoniacall patron. Such a Priest, and Patron are like Simeon and Levi, they conspired together to slay the Sichemites; these contract together to slay the soules of a multitude. They make Gods house betweene them a Farme, and it is sold to him that gives most for it. Gods House is bought and sold by these two at a farre dearer rate, than our Lord himselfe was sold and bought by Iudas and the Pharisees: but as the Shepheard then; so now the Flock is bought and sold for mony. By this back-doore, insufficiency in the Priest-hood, ig­norance, impiety, oppression, covetousnesse, neglect of the peoples soules, yea all kind of sinne enters in. Hence the people are fed with huskes, unlesse a dish bee stolne from anothers table; and hee that cannot make a Sermon, steales one, which is like a Tailors suite made up of sundry remnants, that he hath stolne from others; and he himselfe is like the Crow in Horace, Epist. lib. 1. that was plumed with other birds feathers. Hence comes not the feeding of the flocke, but the feeding of himselfe, of which God com­plaines, Lac comedebatis, & lanis operiebamini, Ezech. 34.2. & quod crassum erat occidebatis: gregem autem meum non pascebatis. And no marvaile, that they looke after nothing but gaine, that have bought so deare. Gods [Page 24]house is sold as Ioseph was unto the Midianitish mer­chants, Gen. 37. that made sale of him againe; which was the very intention of Simon Magus, as Saint Augustine speakes, In S. Ioh. 2. Simon ideo volebat emere Spiritum sanctum, quia vendere volebat Spiritum sanctum. But let them remember, that all this is pretium sanguinis, that they put into their treasury, and that they doe non tam patrimonium facultatum, quàm thesaurum crimi­num congregare, saith Saint Ambrose. In S. Luc. 4. All the Fathers comment upon these Theeves, that these are the Theeves that are meant by the Ementes, and Ven­dentes in the Temple, the Buyers & Sellers of Church-livings. The Apostles, Can. Apost. cap. 30. and succeeding Councills Conc. Chat. ced. cap. 2. provided against these by sharpe sentence of depositi­on and excommunication; therefore they are secret theeves.

2 But there be open theeves too; the one undermine, the other offer violence to Gods house; that the more dangerous, this the more bold sinne.

1 There was once a Statute to stint the devotion of men, they brought so freely to Gods House: but now there needs a Counter-statute, for that devotion was not in so short a time raised, as it was pulled downe; and men thought it no robbery to robbe God. God hath all the best of his Houses and Lands impropria­ted, the meanest and of smallest value fit enough for the Priesthood; and herein Saul is the more righte­ous, for he spared the fattest of the flocke for Sacrifice. God hath ordained, that He that serves at the Altar, should live on the Altar, saith Saint Paul; and they live on it now that have no right to eate of it. No [Page 25]meere Lay-man ever was dispensed with to receive Gods Rents; that belonged to the Priesthood. [...], saith Philo. Lib. de prae­miis Sacerd. & honorib.

The very name of Impropriation excluds a proper title to them: for the Founders gave them to God never to be alienated from the Church, but to be His during his Life: till God dies then, and bequeathes them away by Will, they must be His. Their reli­gious Founders fenced them with a Curse, that they might not be easily intrenched upon; and wished that whosoever did take any thing from the Church, he might receive the doome at the last day, which is due to Sacriledge against God. Iuel. apol. pa. 439.

2 As these rob God of his Lands and Endowments; So others rob him of his Tithes. Hooker. lib. 5. Pol. Eccles. God lookes to have the Tithe of every thing in kind, no custome can pre­vaile against him. God takes the Priests part in Ti­thes and Offerings, because the Priest is but his De­puty, or Collector. Will a man rob God? Mal. 3.8. yet yee have robbed me: but ye say, Wherein have wee robbed thee? In tithes & offerings. And there God avouches, that the reason he allowed them no raine from hea­ven was, because they allowed him no tithes of the fruites, where with hee had blessed them on earth. Noluimus partiricum Deo Decimas, nunc autem To­tum tollitur Scrm. de Temp. 219.. Saint Austine told his Auditors so in a time of dearth, yee would not give God the tenth, and now God hath given you none. Nine for one is faire: let God have that at least.

3 As it is a sinne to rob God of his Tithes, so is it a sin to rob God of his Service. The Priest robs the peo­ple by not affording them the Divine Service, as the [Page 26] people doth the Priest by not paying him the Tithes. Either the Church-prayers be not read at all, or if they be read, they are shortned. Nay let God have all his Prayers, as you would have all his Tithes. They that shorten God of his Prayers, would shorten him of any thing else too.

4 They that be the Guardians of the Church, are the greatest Theeves of all, for the Church trusts them to present abuses, and they present nothing at all; and hence it is that the Church is made Spelunca latro­num, a Denne of theeves.

4 If this crime were but new, it might be the more easily reformed; but the growth of time makes it the more difficult. It is not Vos facitis, as if it were be­gun but now, but Vos fecistis, that implies a long continuance. The Church hath beene made a Denne of theeves, too long: God grant, that every man in his place may endeavour the reformation of it, that it may be Domus orationis againe, not Spelunca latro­num, the House of Prayer againe, and no longer a Denne of theeves.