A SERMON PREACHED AT WIMONDHAM, In Norfolk, at the Primary Visitation of the Right Honourable and Reverend Father in God, MATTHEW, Lord Bishop of NORWICH, on the third of june, Ann. Dom. 1636. By RICHARD TEDDER. LONDON, Printed by Thomas Harper, and are to be sold by Godfrey Emerson, and are to be sold at his shop in little Britain. 1637. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, MATTHEW,. Lord Bishop of Norwich, and Deane of the King's Majesty's Chapel Royal. My LORD, I Present this Sermon unto you with all humbleness, which was preached at your Lordshps' Visitation. The Time, the Place, the Occasion, yea Myself bear such a relation to you, that they move me to sue to your Lordship for the patronage of it. God grant your Lordship increase of days, and honour, that both God and the Church may receive an increase of honour by them both. This is the daily prayer of him who is, and will be Your Lordships in all humble duty, RICHARD TEDDER. S. LUKE Chap. 19 Vers. 46. It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thiefs. 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. judicia à domo Dei: the fittest place for judgement 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 Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is sustained by justice, but, justice itself is upheld by Religion, that Plato puts down for a maxim in his Alcib. If Religion falter, than justice cannot but swerve; and the swerving of justice cannot be without danger, if not without the downfall of a State: Domus Dei, and Domus Regis, God's House, and the King's House stood together; so Solomon built them: 1. Reg. c. 6, 7. but first Solomon built God's 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 justice 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 workmen, ordaining in their Canons two times in the year for Episcopal Assemblies (a) Cap. 38. ; which Constitution was afterward quickened again by the General Counsels: for this was thought the way to correct the viciousness of the Clergy, and to preserve sanctity of life among them, in the Council at Chalcedon (b) Cap. 19 ; to root out heresy, and maintain purity of Doctrine, in the Council at Antioch (c) Cap. 20. ; to hinder oppression of inferior Clergymen, and settle justice among the Prelates, in the Nicene Council (d) Cap. 5. : to remove schism, and to plant unity and conspiration, in the Canons of the Apostles (e) Cap. 38. . It is the Prelate's 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, Religion falls flat upon the ground. Where there is no King, a● once it was in Israel, Jud. 21.25. there every man did what seem good in his own eyes: where there is no Prelate, as it is now in some Cities beyond the seas, there all sorts of schismatics broach all sorts of doctrines, every man professing what Religion he pleases. But with us if there be not 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 City, 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, schismatical, and vicious Priests, and then Religion will take more place among the people. No marvel, that all jerusalem was out of order, when God's house was so too, when Domus Dei was converted into spelunca latronum, when thiefs had taken the house of God in possession, and sacrilege was installed in the seat of prayer. There our great Visitor gins, passing by the sins of the City, he only wept over that, and pitied it; but punishing the sins of the Temple, for he scourged and cast out them that profaned it, saying unto them: It is written, S. Joh. 2.15. My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thiefs. In these words of the Text, there is, 1. The Temple's institution. 2. The profanation 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 unalterableness 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 himself hath institued it so, Scriptum est, Domus mea est domus oratinis. The profanation of it is aggravated. 1. From what it was made, Spelunca. 2. From the persons that were entertained in it, Thiefs, spelunca Latronum. 3. From the persons, that made it so, the jews, 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. 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. At first God was resorted to in a remote Mountain, 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 solicitor of God by invocation. Gen. 21. When Groves were abused by Gentile superstition, than 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 Solomon's time, God was not to be spoken with but in his Tabernacle. But when he had given his people rest, than he would have a house built him, a place to rest in too: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Philo (a) 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 war had hi● Ecclesia portatilis (b) 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 unto a settled condition, and given them possessions, and houses, God would be allowed a possession, and a house among them then; and than 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 fanatical 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 poor 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 own, and say, Domus mea. Well, God cannot complain for want of an house, but he may thank the devotion of former times for it: for we are more forward to pull down, then to set up, and think much of doing that we do, to keep 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 sign of religion, to adorn their own houses with marble, and Ivory, and cedar, and tapestry, and pictures, and see God's house neglected, and not provided for. See now, saith David to Nathan, I dwell in an house of cedar, 2. Sam. 72 but the Ark of God dwelleth within curtains. He thought it a dishonour to God, that even the King's palace should be more glorious than God's house. This made Antiquity to christian their Churches by the name of Basilicae, not only, because the King of all people was there sacrificed to, as Isidorus (a) Li. 15. c. 4. ; but for the gloriousness of their frame, as may be gathered out of Ecclesiastical Histories. Eusebius can show you the magnificence of those Temples, that Constantine erected (b) Lib. 3.4. ; and Athanasius of that vast one, which his son Constantius built at Alexandria (c) In Apolog. ad Constant. , who as he succeeded his Father in religion, so in the care of God's house; for they go together: Let God's house fall, and Religion cannot but be smothered in it, whatsoever pretence any schismatic 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 chrysostom (d) Hom. 36. in 1. Cor. , in fare worse condition than a house: when the Church is kept more like a hogge-stie than a house, and is exceeded in beauty by an Hospital or an Almshouse, and men come with as little devotion to it, as to a prison or a pest-house; the Chancel staring from the Church, as if they were fallen out with one another; the windows glazed with lome and mortar in stead of painted glass; the walls hung with cobwebs in stead of tapestry, and the roof over-laid with dust in stead of gold. And this wretched heap of stones is Domus Dei, fit enough for a house to worship God in. 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 styled not Curia, but Domus; not a Court, where emulation is bred, and faction nourished, but a House, where there is all love and peace. Unity 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 mind in an House, but the father against the son, and the son against the father. The Church should be Domus, for order and unity kept in it: but not Domus divisa, a house divided against itself, where the Pastor is against the people, and the people against the Pastor, and both against their Prelate. The devil 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 schism in the time of Moses; he bred the separation of the Eustasians, that caused the Council at Gangra; and a little after kindled the schismatical fire of the Donatists, which did great harm to the Church in the time of Saint Augustine, until a Council was assembled at Africa to quench it. These very schisms are revived in our times: for compare the schismatics that disquiet the Church at this day with them, and ye shall find 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 itself: to which I add 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 matter includat. Which as it will be great joy to the Church, so no less honour to God, whose House it is. The Church is Domus Dei, instituted for none but God, in which respect the Greek Fathers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in in the Council at Laodicea, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (a) Ca 28. ; who condemned even the Feasts of charity made in the Church, as a profanation of it, though they were otherwise good signs of Christian unity, and strengthened by Apostolical custom, because it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, proper only to God, Scriptum est, Domus Mea. God calls 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. Use our own houses we may, how we will, but God's house, as it hath a special holiness, so it hath a special honour due to it, howsoever the unmannerly precisian denies it both. But no marvel, that he that is so bold to wrest God's chain in heaven out of his hand, dare entrench here upon the sanctity of his house, and maintain 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 sacrilege, 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, etc. The Consecration and Dedication of Churches unto God, is no new thing, no nor yet superstitious: who think it so, they cast dirt into the face of all holy Antiquity, yea even of God himself, who hath ever accepted, and honoured them. It is the Consecration, that makes them holy, and makes God esteem them so; which though they be not capable of grace, yet receive by their Consecration a spiritual power, whereby they are made fit for divine service (a) D. Them. 3. q. 83.3. . And being consecrated, there is no danger in ascribing a Holiness unto them, if we may believe 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 (b) 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 heretical opinion, which was condemned in the Eustasian and Messalian Heretics, that there is no more holiness in the one, than the other? The profane usage of it, proceeds from the profane opinion of it: and he that hath a profane opinion of it, is an Atheist, or an Heretic at least. For let us have but an honourable opinion of God, and we must have an honourable opinion of God's 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 (c) Salu. li. 7. de prov. Dei. . They that shown the least devotion, that did not prostrate their bodies upon the ground in daniel's posture, yet they bowed them in Solomon's posture, and worshipped God toward the East, both Priest (d) D. Chrys. in Liturg. and people (e) D. Basil. de Sp. S. ca 27. , as soon as they presented themselves in God's House. All the time that they were there, they behaved themselves with such modesty, silence, reverence, and attention, that it looked like God's house indeed, and they more like a choir 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 God's 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 (f) 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 God's House, where He, and his Angels look upon them; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith S. Chrysost. (f) Hom. 36. in 1 Cor. . It was the main thing, that the Fathers laboured among the people, to maintain the Honour of God's house; that they might put a difference between 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 maintain his own 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 soon be made Spelunca latronum; there will be they that will rob both Temple and Priest too: as some have robbed 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 bear their Names, which is no diminution of God's glory, but a provocation of our zeal. Domus Dei may be called justly enough Domus Sancti Petri, or Domus Sancti Pauli; though our peevish adversaries cavil at it. For as S. Augustine says, Nec tamen nos eisdem Martyribus Templa, sacerdotia, sacra, & sacrificia constituimus; quoniam non ipsi, sed Deus eorum nobis est Deus (g) 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 read in Hooker (h) Polit. Eccles. li. 5. . There is one memorable place in S. Augustine, Sanctorum corpora, & praecipuè beatorum Martyrum reliquias, tanquam Christi membra 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, & Vigilantianus creditur (i) De Eccles. dogmat. c. 73. . Where he denies 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 robbed; for the House is his, and Prayer is his, so that neither his House, nor his Service is taken from him; though they that quarrel 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. 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 God's House, yet there is none other mentioned, but Prayer. God says, 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 only 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, than the Ministry of the Word; and yet the ministry of the Word was never of so much use as then in the times of the Apostles, when they were to plant the Gospel 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 needful as in other regards, so for the weeding out of Schism and Heresy. Preaching is the common way, that leads to Faith: but how the more preaching, the less faith. Inopem me copia fecit. Never was there such a Sermon-age as this is, and never was there such a leanness in Religion: We have turned all our Members into Ears, & 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 ears. 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 goodness; and their goodness lay not in an indigested multitude of words, but in a pertinency and fitness of speech; & then too Prayer lost nothing of her prerogative, for even in S. Chrysostom's time, when preaching was most plentiful, no part of the Liturgy 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. Witness the corrupt custom of ringing Sermon-bels in some Churches, which could for no other end be brought in, but to bring schism into the Church with it. For let a Sermon-bell ring, and then people are tolled to the Church like a swarm of Bees together: but let a bell toll only 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. Saint Chrysostom heard what some such Idoll-sermonists did say; and it is even the same, which the Schismatics of our days have sucked from them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. . They could pray at home, but they could not meet with a Sermon, unless they met at Church. He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a cold apology; and yet it proceeded from a hot zeal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pray at home we may, but we 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 add, 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 bless them. Prayer is not utterly justled out of the Church; the Devil never laboured to bring that to pass: but private prayer is brought in, that was never warranted to have a room in public. How is it then, brethren? saith Saint Paul, when ye come together, 1. Cor. 14.26. every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Nay now, every one of you hath a Prayer by himself; so many Priests in the Pulpit, so many sundry prayers; and when the public prayers of the Church are ended, every one gins a new, and places more virtue (it may be) in an extemporal prayer of his own 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 diverse Councils, a Conc. Carth. 3. can. 23. Conc. Asiic. cap. 70. that any prayers should be rashly poured out unto God in the Church, but only such as were before approved in the Councils, or by the learned Fathers of the Church, Ne fortè aliquid contra fidem, vel per ignorantiam, vel per minus studium sit compositum, as it is expressed in the Milevitan Council under Innocent 1. b Can. 12. It is not left to every man to use what prayers he please, for they may smell of ignorance, or idleness, and may serve to convey to the people schismatical and heretical doctrines. Our Lord commanded his Apostles to use a form of prayer; S. Mat. 6.7. and the Church hath appointed us one too; to prevent the profanation of his House by tautologies, inconsequences, tediousness, rawness, and other absurdities in extemporal prayer, which our Lord directs his speech against, and calls it babbling, and not praying. God's house is not to be made a house of babbling, but a house of prayer: And the prayers that are authorized in the Church are called Collects, but not private prayers, because they were approved in an Ecclesiastical Assembly; or â Collectione populi, as Alcuinus de divinis office. a 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 sum of all Religion. And indeed 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 room of it; for thence came factions, schisms, and perturbations of the Church's peace. If we would have Religion live amongst us, Prayer must be seated in God's house. Domus mea, domus Orationis est. Prayer must nevenr be turned out; for if the End, for which Gods house was instituted, be altered, than the property is altered, and it is God's house no longer. God says, Domus mea, Est domus orationis, not Fuit, or Erit; Is the house of prayer, to signify 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 God's house, The house of prayer; either of them of authority sufficient to give prayer the chiefest place in it. Howsoever if reason will not prevail for prayer, yet God himself must; here is his Scriptum est, to take off all cavil, preaching must give place to prayer in the Temple. God himself hath said it; and Christ hath said it again, It is written, My house is the house of prayer. Who fit to order and impose Laws to a house, than the Master of it? Let God be Master in his own House: let not man cross the end, that he hath destined it to; for that is, as Gamaliel said in the Council of the jews, Act. 5.39. to rebel and fight against God. Cui dixit aliquar do angelorum, saith Saint Paul, Heb. 1.5. Unto which of the Angels said God at any time, Thou art my Son, 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 we have for prayer, than they might the better descend that preaching which shuts out prayers. Saint john inflicts a Curse upon all them, S. I. h. 22.18. that shall add 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. God's house is recorded for a house of prayer by all four Evangelists. As our saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees, when they tithed mint, and anise, & cummin, but neglected mercy, S. Mat 23.23. judgement and faith, These aught 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 aught to have the chief place. Doxology is a part of prayer; but that the Angels do, and We shall ever do in heaven, crying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth. The Temple is then more like Heaven, and We more like the Angels of Heaven, when we are in the act of prayer. God hath commanded that his house on earth have as near a resemblance as may be to his house in heaven, and that is the work of Prayer, It is written, My house is the house of Prayer. But it was neither like Heaven, nor like a House, when Christ visited it: God and Prayer were both driven out by Thiefs, and the House was turned into a Den. Vos autem fecistis eam Speluncam. The Temple was not only profaned, but profaned in a high manner. Domus Dei was not made Domus Hominum; nor Domus Orationis, Domus Negotiationis, as it is in Saint john, Cap. 2. v. 16. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysosntome. a In S. joh. 2. The greatness of the Offence may be measured by the harshness of the term, in that our Lord calls it not a House at all, but a Den. A House receives the Light into it, but a Den is a place of Darkness. Light becomes him, who is the Father of Light: God is Light, saith Saint john, and in him is no darkness at all. His works are Operalucis, his children Filii lucis, and his habitation Domus lucis. To shut out any light, that may be useful in God's house, is with the jews to make it a Den; as they would do, 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 we are led to the invisible things by the visible. No Religion was ever without Ceremonies; all nations, not only jews, but Gentiles, used their Rites and Ceremonies in the time of Worship, all meeting in this, as a natural principle, that Divine worship cannot be rightly performed without an outward solemnity. God did not forbid the jews, but commanded them the use of Ceremonies, though Heathen Idolaters abounded with them. The Moral Law, and the Ceremonial Law were not given one without the other, neither can they now be parted; nor is there any Ceremony so bare, that is not clothed with some Morality. People are instructed as well by what they see, as by what they hear; and to see the picture of a Saint in a glass window will preach more Religion to them, then to see the picture of a Horse or an Ox in God's House; the one puts them in mind, that it is God's House, the other doth but make it more like a Den. What devotion can that raise in a man's thoughts, to behold in the Church God's Priest like a peasant, no habit to difference him from some sordid mechanic? and to hear God's Service slubbered over with as little Ceremony, as a Scrivener reads a Bond or Indenture? The word Ceremony carries light in it; for Ceremoniae tanquam Cerei, they are as lights, that give a lustre to God's house, and his Service in it. The Church cannot but be dark, 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 go together: for none is more apt to stumble at a ceremony, than a blind Priest that cannot see through his gross ignorance. The Tradesman's stall comes not behind the Divinity School; for that hath brought forth many Divines too, that have left sowing of garments and made a ront in the Church. And how many be there that have but slept a time in the University, that have returned immediately inspired with the gift of Prophecy, as he did with the gift of Poetry, that dreamt upon Parnassus. a Pers. in prol. When the Church is filled with such an ignorant Priesthood, it may truly be called a Den. The learning of the Clergy is the light of the Church; therefore was the Primitive Church so careful to preserve it. None was to be admitted unto Orders without a strict examination, that the Nicene Council b cap. 9 provided for. If any man was sufficient in respect of parts, yet if he were a novice, he was not to be promoted to the Priesthood, that was looked after by the Fathers in diverse Councils. c Conc. Nic. cap. 2. Conc. Laod. cap. 3. No Bishop was to appoint his Successor, for that he might do for some private respect, but he was to be chosen by the judgement of a Synod; that was determined in the Councils at Antioch, d cap. 23. and Laodicea. e cap. 12. The election of Priests was not permitted to the People in the same Council at Laod cea; f 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 Ecclesiastical promotions, g Cone Sardie. cap. 13. that neither ignorance, nor indesert might usurp a seat in God's house. But it is to small purpose to shut Ignorance out of the Temple, unless Viciousness be shut out too; for the Temple is made a Den both ways, not only by the ignorance, but by the foulness of life in the Priesthood. Heresy and schism get ground in the Church by Ignorance; but contempt of Religion comes in by the Priest's profaneness. When they, that serve at the Altar, 1 Sam. 2.12.17. are sons of Belial, like Elies' sons, they make men to abhor the sacrifice of the Lord, yea God himself to abhor his own sacrifice. The Vrim and the Thummim were put in Aaron's Breastplate, Exod. 28.30. that he might not only shine before the people in soundness of Doctrine, but in perfection of life. He that hath the Urim and not the Thummim, whose Life doth not go together with his Doctrine, with Penelope he undoes all again, and pulls down 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. a Epist. lib. 3. Vercellensi Ecclesiae epist. 25. The people will be the more ready to keep the Law, if the Priest keeps it himself; 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 foot, or had any blemish in his body; much less than in his soul, as Philo observes, A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Holiness becomes God's house; Vice pollutes it, and makes it a Den, especially the vice of the Clergy: for that which is but a single sin in the people, Chrysologus b Serm. 26. counts sacrilege in the Priest; and so do the Schools, c Vtg. 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 profanation of God's house of a higher quality; It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but Ye have made it a den of thiefs. The jews should have maintained the honour of God's house, howsoever any profane Edomites might have laid sacrilegious hands upon it: but they did worse than even the Edomites would have done: for they would have made it no house at all, but these made it a Den of Thiefs; they would have put it to ruin, but these put it to infamy. Quid est, quòd Dilectus meus in Domo meá fecit scelera multa. jer. 12.15. God complains in jeremy, that it was not only his own house, that was profaned; but that they were his own people that profaned it; nay, they that were his own Priests too: The nearer to God the offender is, the nearer the offence goes to God's 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 Priest's office, that the sins of the Priests are not only more dangerous in respect of the people, but also more beynous in respect of themselves. The Vos stands not idle in the Text; the Persons that made God's house a Den, made that sin the greater; but so much the greater, in that they made it not only a Den, but a Den of Thiefs. Christ says not, Vos fecistis illam speluncam Belluarum, but speluncam Latronum, as if that were a degree higher, and Thiefs were worse than Beasts; for nature enforceth the one, but the will moveth the other to rapine. They are both for prey; but the Thief is the more insatiable: the Beast follows his prey but for necessity. Our Lord was crucified between Two thiefs; S Mat. 27.38. and he suffers between two kind of Thiefs still to this day, between the Secret, and the Open thief. The Heretic and the Schismatique convey themselves in a sneaking manner into God's house under the covert of holiness. Vers. 4. These Saint jude compares to Creepers, there are, saith he, certain men crept in unawares. 2 Tim, 3.6. So Saint Paul, These are they that creep into men's houses, leading captive silly women: and from thence feeding upon Silly Souls, they have Crept into God's house too, eating the shewbread which none but the Priest should eat: for men care not how they rob the parish-priest of his patrimony, so they give a benevolence to a crept in Sect-maker: Their Creeping discovers them to be Worms; and where they come, they are as bad a plague as the Lice in Egypt, for they gnaw upon God's people, till at length they die the death of Herod, Act. 12. who was eaten of worms. There was a secret polity thought on, when schism nourished a presumption of swaying in the Church; and the destiny of God's house was, to be made a Den of Thiefs. There were secret persons assigned for benefices, and secret orders made, and secret oaths taken, and secret reservations with the doners. But this secret plot was brought to light; and the plotters were reproved, as Christ reproved them in the Text, Vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum. There is another kind of Thief, that doth not enter in by the door, S. job. 10.1. but climbs up another way by a private contract with a Simoniacal patron. Such a Priest, and Patron are like Simeon and Levi, they conspired together to slay the Sichemites; these contract together to slay the souls of a multitude. They make God's house between them a Farm, and it is sold to him that gives most for it. God's House is bought and sold by these two at a fare dearer rate, than our Lord himself was sold and bought by judas and the Pharisees: but as the Shepherd then; so now the Flock is bought and sold for money. By this backdoor, insufficiency in the Priesthood, ignorance, impiety, oppression, covetousness, neglect of the people's souls, yea all kind of sin enters in. Hence the people are fed with husks, unless a dish be stolen from another's table; and he that cannot make a Sermon, steals one, which is like a Tailor's suit made up of sundry remnants, that he hath stolen from others; and he himself is like the Crow in Horace, a Epist. lib. 1. that was plumed with other birds feathers. Hence comes not the feeding of the flock, but the feeding of himself, of which God complains, Lac comedebatis, & lanis operiebamini, Ezech. 34.2. & quod crassum erat occidebatis: gregem autem meum non pascebatis. And no marvel, that they look after nothing but gain, that have bought so dear. God's house is sold as joseph was unto the Midianitish merchants, Gen. 37. that made sale of him again; which was the very intention of Simon Magus, as Saint Augustine speaks, a In S. joh. 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 do non tam patrimonium facultatum, quàm thesaurum criminum congregare, saith Saint Ambrose. b In S. Luc. 4. All the Father's comment upon these Thiefs, that these are the Thiefs that are meant by the Ementes, and Vendentes in the Temple, the Buyers & Sellers of Church-livings. The Apostles, c Can. Apost. cap. 30. and succeeding Councils d Conc. Chat. ced. cap. 2. provided against these by sharp sentence of deposition and excommunication; therefore they are secret thiefs. But there be open thiefs too; the one undermine, the other offer violence to God's house; that the more dangerous, this the more bold sin. There was once a Statute to stint the devotion of men, they brought so freely to God's House: but now there needs a Counter-statute, for that devotion was not in so short a time raised, as it was pulled down; and men thought it no robbery to rob 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 flock 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 eat of it. No mere Layman ever was dispensed with to receive God's Rents; that belonged to the Priesthood. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Philo. a 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 entrenched upon; and wished that whosoever did take any thing from the Church, he might receive the doom at the last day, which is due to Sacrilege against God. b jewel. apol. pa. 439. As these rob God of his Lands and Endowments; So others rob him of his Tithes. Hooker. lib. 5. Pol. Eccles. God looks to have the Tithe of every thing in kind, no custom can prevail against him. God takes the Priest's part in Tithes and Offerings, because the Priest is but his Deputy, or Collector. Will a man rob God? Mal. 3.8. yet ye have rob me: but ye say, Wherein have we rob thee? In tithes & offerings. And there God avouches, that the reason he allowed them no rain from heaven was, because they allowed him no tithes of the fruits, where with he had blessed them on earth. Noluimus partiricum Deo Decimas, nunc autem Totum tollitur a Scrm. de Temp. 219. . Saint Austin told his Auditors so in a time of dearth, ye would not give God the tenth, and now God hath given you none. Nine for one is fair: let God have that at least. As it is a sin 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 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 shortened. 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. They that be the Guardians of the Church, are the greatest Thiefs 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 Den of thiefs. If this crime were but new, it might be the more easily reform; 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 been made a Den of thiefs, too long: God grant, that every man in his place may endeavour the reformation of it, that it may be Domus orationis again, not Spelunca latronum, the House of Prayer again, and no longer a Den of thiefs. FINIS. Perlegi Concionem hanc cui titulus est (A Sermon preached at Wimondham, etc.) eamque typis mandari permitto. Feb. 6. 1636. Sa. Baker.