AN ADMONITION

TO ALL MINISTERS ECCLESIASTICAL.

FOR that the Lord doth require of his Servant, whom he hath set over his household, to shew both faithfulness and prudence in his office; it shall be necessary that ye above all other do behave yourselves most faithfully and diligently in your so high a function: that is, aptly, plainly, and distinctly to read the sacred Scriptures; diligently to instruct the youth in their Catechism; gravely and reverently to minister his most holy Sacraments; prudently also to choose out such Homilies, as be most meet for the time and for the more agreeable instruction of the people committed to your charge, with such discretion, that where the Homily may appear too long for one reading, to divide the same, to be read part in the forenoon, and part in the afternoon and where it may so chance some one or other chapter of the Old Testament to fall in order to be read upon the Sundays or Holydays, which were better to be changed with some other of the New Testament of more edification, it shall be well done to spend your time to consider well of such chapters beforehand: Whereby your prudence and diligence in your office may appear; so that your people may have cause to glorify God for you, and be the readier to embrace your labours, to your better commendation, to the discharge of your consciences and their own.

:

"Our Saviour Jesus Christ, that merciful and mild Lord.... when he seeth the holy house of his heavenly Father profaned.... useth great severity." (See p. 163, and Matt. xxi. &c.)

AN HOMILY

OF THE

WHEREAS there appeareth in these days great Hoм. XIII slackness and negligence of a great sort of people, in resorting to the Church, there to serve God their heavenly Father, according to their most bounden duty; as also much uncomely and unreverent behaviour of many persons in the same, when they be -there assembled; and thereby may just fear arise of the wrath of God, and his dreadful plagues hanging over our heads for our grievous offences in this behalf, amongst other many and great sins which we daily and hourly commit before the Lord; Therefore, for the discharge of all our consciences, and for the avoiding of the common peril and plague hanging over us, let us consider what may be said out of God's holy Book concerning this matter; whereunto I pray you give good audience, for that it is of great weight, and concerneth you all. Al

Isa. lxvi.

HOM. XIII. though the eternal and incomprehensible Majesty of God, the Lord of heaven and earth, whose seat is heaven and the earth his footstool, cannot be inclosed in temples or houses made with man's hand, as in dwelling-places able to receive or contain his Majesty; according as is evidently declared by the Prophet Isaiah, and by the doctrine Acts vii. and of St. Stephen and St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. And where king Solomon, who builded unto the Lord the most glorious temple that ever 1 Kings viii. was made, saith, Who shall be able to build a meet or worthy house for him? If heaven, and the heaven above all heavens, cannot contain him, how much less can that which I have builded? And 2 Chron. ii. further confesseth, What am I, that I should be

xvii.

and vi.

1 Cor. ii.

1 Cor. vi.

John iv.

able to build thee an house, O Lord? But yet for this purpose only it is made, that thou mayest regard the prayer of thy servant, and his humble supplication. Much less then be our churches meet dwelling-places to receive the incomprehensible Majesty of God. And indeed the chief and special temples of God, wherein he hath greatest pleasure, and most delighteth to dwell and continue in, are the bodies and minds of true Christians, and the chosen people of God; according to the doctrine of the Holy Scripture, declared in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: Know ye not, saith St. Paul, that ye be the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which ye are. And again in the same Epistle: Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost dwelling in you, whom ye have given you of God, and that ye be not your own? For ye are dearly bought. Glorify ye now therefore God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And therefore, as our Saviour Christ teacheth in the Gospel of St. John, they that worship God the Father in spirit and truth, in what place soever they do it, worship him aright: for such worshippers doth God the Father look for. For God is a Spirit; and those that worship him

must worship him in spirit and truth, saith our HOM. XIII. Saviour Christ. Yet all this notwithstanding the material church or temple is a place appointed, as well by the usage and continual examples expressed in the Old Testament, as in the New, for the people of God to resort together unto; there to hear God's holy word, to call upon his holy name, to give him thanks for his innumerable and unspeakable benefits bestowed upon us, and duly and truly to celebrate his holy Sacraments-in the unfeigned doing and accomplishing of the which standeth that true and right worshipping of God afore-mentioned and the same church or temple is by the Holy Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and New, called the House and Temple of the Lord, for the peculiar service there done to his Majesty by his people, and for the effectuous presence of his heavenly grace, wherewith he, by his said holy word, endueth his people so there assembled. And to the said House or Temple of God, at all times, by common order appointed, are all people that be godly indeed bound with all diligence to resort; unless by sickness, or other most urgent causes, they be letted therefro. And all the same so resorting thither ought with all quietness and reverence there to behave themselves, in doing their bounden duty and service to Almighty God, in the congregation of his saints. All which things are evident to be proved by God's holy word, as hereafter shall plainly appear.

And first of all, I will declare by the Scriptures, that it is called- as it is indeed-the house of God, and temple of the Lord. He that sweareth by the Matt. xxiii. temple, saith our Saviour Christ, sweareth by it, and him that dwelleth therein, meaning God the Father: which he also expresseth plainly in the Gospel of St. John, saying, Do not make the house John ii. of my Father the house of merchandise. And in the Book of the Psalms the Prophet David saith, I Psalm v. will enter into thine house; I will worship in thy holy temple, in thy fear. And it is in almost infinite places of the Scripture, especially in the Pro

2 Chron. vi.

Isa. lvi.

Matt. xxi. Mark xi. Luke xix.

Luke ii.

Acts iii.

HOM. XIII.phets and Book of Psalms, called the House of God, or the House of the Lord. Sometimes it is Exod. xxv. named the Tabernacle of the Lord; and sometimes Levit. xix. the Sanctuary, that is to say, the holy place, or house of the Lord. And it is likewise called the 1 Kings viii. House of Prayer; as Solomon, who builded the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, doth oft call it the house of the Lord, in the which the Lord's name should be called upon. And Isaiah, in the fifty-sixth chapter, My house shall be called the house of prayer amongst all nations. Which text our Saviour Christ allegeth in the New Testament, as doth appear in three of the Evangelists, and in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, which went to pray: in which parable our Saviour Christ Lnke xviii. saith, They went up into the temple to pray. And Anna, the holy widow and prophetess, served the Lord in fasting and prayer in the temple night and day. And in the story of the Acts it is mentioned, how that Peter and John went up into the temple at the hour of prayer. And St. Paul, praying in the temple at Jerusalem, was wrapt in the Spirit, and did see Jesus speaking unto him. And as in all convenient places prayer may be used of the godly privately; so it is most certain, that the church, or temple, is the due and appointed place for common and public prayer. Now that it is likewise the place of thanksgiving unto the Lord for his innumerable and unspeakable benefits bestowed upon us, appeareth notably at the latter end of the Luke xxiv. Gospel of St. Luke, and the beginning of the story of the Acts; where it is written, that the Apostles and Disciples, after the ascension of the Lord, continued with one accord daily in the temple, always praising and blessing God. And it is likewise declared, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, that the church is the due place appointed for the reverent use of the Sacraments.

Acts xxii.

Acts ii,

1 Cor. xi.

It remaineth now to be declared, that the church, or temple, is the place where the lively word of God-and not man's inventions-ought to he read and taught; and that the people are bound thither