A Looking-Glass (or Warning-piece) for all such as Profane Churches, and neglect Prayer, against the Laws of GOD, expressed in his Holy Word, The Sacred SCRIPTURES.  

In the reading hereof, I. pray observe the A, B, C, etc. first look on your left hand for A.  
A. Holy Scriptures against the heinous sins of these Times, in Profaning Godsholy House the Church.  
Remember God saith, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my Sanctuary: I am the Lord, Leu. 19 30. Chap. 26. 2. And the Lord said (unto wise Solomon) I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this House which thou hast built, to put my Name there for ever, and mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually, 1 Kings 9 3. Cham 8. 29.  
Mark here God's Punishments for the sins of the Priests and People.  
The Chief of the Priests, and the People transgressed very much, after all the Abominations of the Heathen and polluted the House of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Caldees, who slew their young Men with the Sword, in the House of their Sanctuary, and had no Compassion upon young Man or Maiden, old Man, or him that stoops for Age: He gave them all into his hand, 2 Chron. 36. 14, & 17 ver. (Look up to the Top of the Steeple for B.)  
B. Holy Ground,  
Put off thy shoes (saith God) from off thy Feet, for the Place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground: Ex. 3. 5. Act 7. 33, Sec 1 Cor. 11. 4. (Take heedto thy Foot) or, Keep thy foot when thou interest into the house of God, Ecl. 5. 1. see 1 Tim. 3. 15: look on your right hand for C  
C. God's House.  
How dreadful is this Place, this is none other but the House of God, etc. Gen. 28. 17. Ye look for Much, and lo it came to Little: and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it: Why, saith the Lord of Hosts? Because of mine House that is waste, and ye Run every Man unto his own house. Hag. 1. 9 Look again up to your right hand for D.  
D. (Mark here, I beseech you, mark) Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them that Sold and Bought in the Temple, and overthrew the Tables of the Money-Changers, and the seats of them that sold Doves, And said unto them, It is written, My House shall be called a House of Prayer, but ye have made it a Den of Thiefs. Mat. 21. 12, 13. Mar. 11. 15, 16, 17. Luke 19 45, 46.  
(Now mark) here Christ did not pull down the Temples, or Churches, for the sins of the Priests and People. But, than he made a scourge of small Cords, and drove them all out of the Temple, with the Sheep and Oxen, and poured out the Changers money, and overthrew the Tables, And said unto them that sold Doves, Take these things hence: Make not my Father's House an House of Merchandise, And his Disciples remembered that it was written, The Zeal of thine Hous● hath eaten me up, Joh. 2. 15, 16, 17. See for E.  
E And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not, and he was afraid, G●n. 28. 16.    

DEar Brother, the Psalmist saith, Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever, Psal. 93. 5. And the Almighty God saith, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my Sanctuary, I am the Lord, Levit. 19 30. Answerable to which his Saints and Servants have ever carried themselves, esteeming the place of God's worship holier than other places. So jacob did before the Law, Gen. 28. 16, 17. and said, How fearful is this place, this is no other but the House of God: And for the people of God under the Law, they did so respect the place of God's worship that David said, Psal. 26. 8. Lord I have loved the habitation of thy House, & thy place where thine Honour dwelleth: And moreover said, as one that had been ravished therewith, How amiable are thy Tabernacles, thou Lord of hosts, Psal. 84. And in his absence, said, My soul longeth, yea, and sainteth for the Courts of the Lord: And esteems even the Swallows and the Sparrows happy that might make their nests near it, vers. 3. And in the time of the Gospel, while our Lord was on earth, he shown more wrath and jealousy against such as profaned the place of God's worship, than he did about any other thing; for he made a whip, and drove the  that were for sacrifice out of the Court-yard, overturned the Tables that they told money on, and said, Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise: And he would not suffer that any should carry any vessel thorough the Temple, joh. 2. 14, 15, 16. Mar. 11. 16. And after our Lord was ascended, before Churches were built, having only some ●ooms dedicated to that use, S. Paul sharply reproveth the profaners thereof. What (saith he) have ye not houses to eat and drink in, but despise ye the Church of God? 1 Cor. 11. 22. This being so, it showeth plainly, that those which put no difference between a Church and a dwelling house, are not of God; for his people neither before the Law, or under the Law, in the days that Christ was upon the earth, nor after his ascension, never did so: and whose example such do follow, I know not, except it be King Belshazar, Dan. 5. that made the vessels of the Temple common drinking bowls, he is the father of such wretches, and let them expect to inherit his shame, either here or hereafter. But some will say, How can there be difference in days, in places, in vessels, in persons, in vestments, etc. For the light of every day is of the Sun, and he hath made of one blood all Nations, Act. 17. 26. The son of Sirach gives answer, Ecclus. 33. By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished: Some he hath made high days, and hallowed them, and some of them he hath made ordinary days; though all men be from the same earth, yet in much knowledge hath he divided them; some of them hath he blessed, and exalted, and made Kings, and some of them hath he sanctified, and set near himself, made Priests; of whom he saith in another place, Touch not mine Anointed, nor do my Prophets no harm. And therefore I will conclude and say, he that regards not these distinctions, is a most profane wretch to his God, and in his mind little better than a enemy to the Commonwealth.  
Now Peter and John went up together into the Temple, at the hour of Prayer, being the ninth hour, Act, 3. 1.   

Postscript.  
ONe thing I prayed you to consider, that if we must have no set-form of Prayer, no solemn worship of God, no evening and morning sacrifice, but that which every man in his fancy, extemporarily poureth forth, in what condition then will this English Church be in, and if it once be so, whether it may not then be truly said, The glory thereof is departed: for the stream will be as the fountain, what is in the heart will out at the mouth, and then may we truly say, Good Lord what stuff shall we have: One man though zealous, yet but silly, ye shall have from him a great deal of nonsense and vain repetitions, O Lord, O God, O, Oh: and another, he affects words & ostentations, by which he ofttimes appears to his auditor like one preaching or acting a part upon a stage; another, his memory being not good, especially being out of his method, he hackers and hammers, but brings forth nothing readily: another, being given to stzife and contention, let's fall passages tending to anger and wrath, exclaiming against such, as he supposeth, hath done him wrong: another, being affected with superstitious customs, his affections and words in prayers will be byased thereafter: another, being a Schismatic, prays against the Customs of that Church whereof himself is a member, and he cries out for reformation, and removing of such things, as in his profound judgement should not be, he also prays for vengeance upon such as are the hinderers of his supposed reformation: another, being an heretic, his sacrifice tends to heresy & blasphemy: another, being seditious, as his mind runs upon state business, so answerable thereto, his prayer is interlaced, sometimes with matter no better than treason itself: in this woeful condition should we be in, if for our sins God should cause our daily sacrifice to cease, and suffer the idle fancies of men's brains to be offered in stead thereof. From the which good Lord deliver us.   

LONDON, Printed for Richard Burton at the sign of the Horseshooe in Smithfield, 1652.