prayers, which in type intimates the same thing which is involved in the expression of the next words, "My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations;" now and for ever, to the Jews and to the Gentiles, in all circumstances and variety of time and nation, God's houses are holy in order to holy uses; the time as unlimited as the nations were indefinite and universal". Which is the more observable, because it was of the outward courts, not whither Moses' rites alone were admitted, but the natural devotion of Jews and Gentile proselytes, that Christ affirmed it to be holy, to be the house of God, and the place of prayer. So that the religion of public places of prayer is not a rite of Levi, but a natural and prudent circumstance, and advantage of religion, in which all wise men agree, who therefore must have some common principle, with influence upon all the world, which must be the univocal cause of the consent of all men: which common principle must either be a dictate of natural or prime reason, or else some tradition from the first parents of mankind; which, because it had order in it, beauty, religion, and confirmation from Heaven, and no reason to contest against it, it hath surprised the understanding and practices of all nations. And indeed we find, that, even in Paradise, God had that which is analogical to a church, a distinct place where he manifested himself present in proper manner: for Adam and Eve, when they had sinned, "hid themselves from the presence of the Lord;" and this was the word in all descent of the church, for the being of God in holy places, "the presence of the Lord was there." And probably, when Adam, from this intimation, or a greater direction, had taught Cain and Abel to offer sacrifice to God in a certain place, where they were observed of each in their several offerings, it became one of the rules of religion which was derived to their posterity by tradition, the only way they had to communicate the dictates of Divine commandment. 8. There is no more necessary to be added in behalf of holy places, and to assert them into the family and relatives m Quod ab omnibus gentibus observatum est, id non nisi à Deo sancitum est. Socrates. Χρόνῳ κρατηθὲν ἔθος γένους καὶ θρησκείας ἰσχυρότερον.-Nicet. Τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀσφαλέστατα τούτους οἰκεῖν, οἳ ἂν τοῖς παροῦσιν ἤθεσι καὶ νόμοις, ἄν καὶ χείρω ἦ, ἥκιστα διαφόρως πολιτέυωσι.-Alcibiad. apud Thucyd. lib. vi. of religion; our estimate and deportment towards them is matter of practice, and therefore of proper consideration. To which purpose I consider, that holy places being the residence of God's name upon earth, there where he hath put it, that, by fiction of law, it may be the sanctuary" and the last resort in all calamities and need, God hath sent his agents to possess them in person for him. Churches and oratories are regions and courts of angels, and they are there not only to minister to the saints, but also they possess them in the right of God. There they are: so the greatest and Prince of Spirits tells us, the Holy Ghost; "I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and his train filled the temple°; above it stood the seraphim ;" that was God's train, and therefore holy David knew that his addresses to God were in the presence of angels: "I will praise thee with my whole heart, before the gods will I sing praise unto thee?:" before the angels, so it is in the Septuagint. And that we might know where or how the kingly worshipper would pay this adoration, he adds, "I will worship towards thy holy temple." And this was so known by him, that it became expressive of God's manner of presence in heaven: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, and the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place';" God in the midst of angels, and the angels in the midst of "the holy place;" and God in heaven in the midst of that holy circle, as sure as he is amongst angels in the recesses of his sanctuary. Were the rudiments of the law worthy of an attendance of angels? and are the memorials of the Gospel destitute of so brave a retinue? Did the beatified spirits wait upon the types? and do they decline the office at the ministration of the substance? Is the nature of man made worse since the incarnation of the Son of God? and have the angels purchased an exemption from their ministry since Christ became our brother? We have little reason to think so: and therefore St. Paul still makes use of the argument to press women to modesty and humility in churches," because of the angels." n Psalm xxvii. 4, 5, 6. • Isaiah, vi. 1. P Psalm cxxxviii. 1, 2. Μαρτύρομαι δὲ ἐγὼ μὲν ὑμῶν τὰ ἅγια, καὶ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ayyέrous Toũ ☺EOũ.- Orat. Agrip. apud Joseph. lib. ii. c. 16. de Bello Judaic, r Psalm lxviii. 17. And upon the same stock St. Chrysostom chides the people of his diocese for walking, and laughing, and prating in churches: "The church is not a shop of manufactures or merchandise; but the place of angels and of archangels, the court of God, and the image or representment of heaven itself." 9. For if we consider that Christianity is something more than ordinary, that there are mysteries in our religion, and in none else, that God's "angels are ministering spirits for our good," and especially about the conveyances of our prayers; either we must think very low of Christianity, or that greater things are in it than the presence of angels in our churches: and yet if there were no more, we should do well to behave ourselves there with the thoughts and apprehensions of Heaven about us; always remembering, that our business there is an errand of religion, and God is the object of our worshippings; and therefore, although by our weakness we are fixed in the lowness of men, yet because God's infinity is our object, it were very happy if our actions did bear some few degrees of a proportionable and commensurate address. 10. Now that the angels are there in the right of God, and are a manner and an exhibition of the Divine presence, is therefore certain, because, whenever it is said in the Old Testament that God appeared, it was by an angel; and the law itself, in the midst of all the glorious terrors of its manifestation," was ordained by angels," and "a word spoken by angels;" and yet God is said to have descended upon the mount and in the greatest glory that ever shall be revealed till the consummation of all things, the instrument of the Divine splendour is the apparition of angels; for when the holy Jesus" shall come in the glory of his Father," it is added, by way of explication, that is, "with an host of angels." 11. The result is those words of God to his people, "Re • Τότε καὶ ἄγγελοι παρεστήκασι τῷ ἱερεῖ, &c. Sacerd. Homil. 16. in 1 Cor. et de Non dubites assistere angelum quando Christus_assistit, Christus immolatur.-S. Ambros. in cap. i. Lucæ. Angeli siquidem circumfusi sacra custodiunt, et divinâ freti potentiâ sacerdoti subserviant. R. Canutus in Leg. Ecc. c. 4. VOL. II. E E verence my sanctuary'. For what God loves in an especial manner, it is most fit we should esteem accordingly. "God loves the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob"." The least turf of hallowed glebe is, with God himself, of more value than all the champaign of common possession; it is better in all senses: The temple is better than gold," said our blessed Saviour; and therefore it were well we should do that which is expressed in the command, of giving reverence to it, for we are too apt to pay undue devotions to gold. Which precept the holiest of that nation expressed by worshipping towards the sanctuary, by pulling off their shoes when they went into it, by making it the determination of their religious addresses, by falling down low upon the earth in their accesses, by opening their windows towards it in their private devotions, by calling it the glory of their nation: as is certain in the instances of David, Daniel, and the wife of Phinehas. I shall not need to say, that the devouter Christians, in the first ages, did worship God with solemnities of address whenever they entered into their oratories. It was a civility Jesus commanded his disciples to use to common houses, "When ye enter into a house, salute it:" I suppose he means the dwellers in it. And it is certain, whatever those devouter people did in their religious approaches, they designed it to God, who was the major-domo, the master of those assemblies: and thus did the convinced Christian in St. Paul's discourse, when he came into the church where they were prophesying in a known language; "The secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God." 12. It was no unhandsome expression of reverencing God's sanctuary, that pious people ever used in bestowing costly and fair ornaments upon it: for so all the Christians u Psalm lxxxvii. 2. x Matt. xxiii. 17. t Lev. xix. 30. * ̓Ανυποδήτους θύειν καὶ προσκυνεῖν, dixit Pythagoras. Maimonides ait nefas fuisse Judæis calceatis ingredi sanctuarium, aut vestitis vestibus opificum. Justin. Martyr. ait gentes in sacris àλovai. Intramus templa compositi, ad sacrificium accessuri vultum submittimus, togam adducimus, in omne argumentum modestiæ fingimur.- Sen. Extemplò illò te ducam ubi non despuas.- Nævius in Triphallo. Quo ore Thurarius Christianus, si per templa transibit, fumantes aras despuet?- Tert. de Idol. c. 1. Con. Gang. C. 5. * 1 Cor. xiv. 25. did; as soon as themselves came from contempt and scorn, they raised Christian oratories to an equal portion of their honour; and by this way they thought they did honour to God, who was the Numen of the place. Not that a rich house, or costly offertory, is better in respect of God"; for to him all is alike, save that, in equal abilities, our devotion is distinguished by them; and be the offering never so contemptible, it is a rich devotion that gives the best we have: because, although, if all the wealth of the Levant were united into a present, it were short of God's infinity; yet such an offertory, or any best we have, makes demonstration, that if we had an offering infinitely better, we should give it, to express our love and our belief of God's infinite merit and perfection. And, therefore, let not " the widow's two mites" become a precedent to the instance and value of our donation; and because she, who gave no more, was accepted, think that two farthings is as fit to be cast into the corban as two thousand pounds. For the reason why our blessed Saviour commended the widow's oblation was for the greatness of it, not the smallness; "she gave all she had, even all her living ;' therefore she was accepted. And indeed, since God gives to us more than enough, beyond our necessities, much for our conveniency, much for ease, much for repute, much for public compliances, for variety, for content, for pleasure, for ornament; we should deal unworthily with God Almighty, if we limit and restrain our returns to him, by confining them within the narrow bounds of mere necessity. Certainly beggarly services and cheapness is not more pleasing to God than a rich and magnificent address. To the best of essences, the best * Πρὸς γὰρ τὸν ἑκατόμβας θύσαντα μὴ μετ ̓ εὐσεβοῦς γνώμης, καὶ πυνθανόμενον πῶς εἴη προσδεδεγμένος τὰ παρ αὐτοῦ δῶρα, ἀποκρίνεται [Πύθιος,] ̓Αλλά μοι ἔυαδε χόνδρος ἀγακλυτοῦ Ερμιονῆος. Τὸ εὐτελέστατον προκρίνων τῆς τοσαύτης πολυτελείας, ὅτι δὲ Θεοσεβείας γνώμῃ κεκόσμητο μετ' αυτῆς γὰρ πάντα Θεοφιλῆ, καὶ ἄνευ ταύτης οὐδὲν Θεῷ φίλον ἂν πότε γένοιτο. — Hieroc. in Pyth. Plebs devota veni, perque hæc commercia disce Terreno censu regna superna peti. Simplicius P. in Expositione Ecclesiæ S. Andreana in Roma. Delicta majorum immeritus lnes, Romane, donec templa refeceris, Ædesque labentes deorum, et Fœda nigro simulachra fumo.-Hor. lib. iii. od. 6. Impietatis notatur Zeno, quòd dixerit iɛgà dɛãv μn oinodoμev. Et barbararum gentium mos erat aras diis ponere in lucis, nemoribus, et montium jugis, eò quòd deos templis includendos non esse dixerant. |