feasting-house, and become partakers of the benefits provided and prepared for you. But see that ye come thither with your holy-day garment, not like hypocrites, not of a custom and for manner's sake, not with loathsomeness, as though ye had rather not come than come, if ye were at your liberty. For God hateth and punisheth such counterfeit hypocrites, as appeareth by Christ's former parable. My friend, saith God, how camest thou in without a wedding-garment? And therefore commanded his servants to bind him hand and foot, and to cast him into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and wailing, and gnashing, of teeth. To the intent that ye may avoid the like danger at God's hand, come to the church on the holy day, and come in your holy-day garment; that is to say, come with a cheerful and a godly mind, come to seek God's glory, and to be thankful unto him, come to be at one with thy neighbour, and to enter in friendship and charity with him. Consider that all thy doings stink before the face of God, if thou be not in charity with thy neighbour. Come with an heart sifted and cleansed from worldly and carnal affections and desires, shake off all vain thoughts which may hinder thee from God's true service. The bird, when she will fly, shaketh her wings: shake and prepare thyself, to fly higher than all the birds in the air, that, after thy duty duly done in this earthly temple and church, thou mayest fly up, and be received into the glorious temple of God in heaven, through Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour. Amen. AN HOMILY, Spiritu et Ani בות WHEREIN IS DECLARED, That Common Prayer and Sacraments ought to be minis tered in a tongue that is understood of the hearers. A MONG the manifold exercises of God's people, dear Christians, there is none more necessary for all estates, and at all times, than is public Prayer, and the due use of Sacraments. For in the first we beg at God's hands all such things, as otherwise we cannot obtain: and in the other he embraceth us, and offereth himself to be embraced of us. Knowing therefore that these two exercises are so necessary for us, let us not think it unmeet to consider, first what Prayer is, and what a Sacrament is; and then, how many sorts of Prayers there be, and how many Sacraments; so shall we the better understand how to use them aright. To know what August. de they be, St. Augustine teacheth us in his book, entitled, Of the Spirit and the Soul: he saith thus of prayer: "Prayer is (saith he) the devotion of the mind, that is to say, the returning to God, through a godly and humble affection, which affection is a certain willing and sweet inclining of the mind itself towards God." And in the August. lib. second Book against the Adversary of the Law and the versarios Legis Prophets, he calleth Sacraments holy signs. And writing gust. ad Bon to Bonifacius of the baptism of infants, he saith, "If Sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things whereof they be Sacraments, they should be no Sacraments at all. And of this similitude they do for the most part receive the names of the self-same things they signify." By these words of St. Augustine it appeareth, that he alloweth the common description of a Sacrament, which is, that it is a visible sign of an invisible grace; that is to say, that setteth out to the eyes and other outward ii. contra Ad et Proph. Au faciuna senses the inward working of God's free mercy, and doth, as it were, seal in our hearts the promises of God. And so was Circumcision a Sacrament, which preached unto the outward senses the inward cutting away of the foreskin of the heart, and sealed and made sure in the hearts of the circumcised the promise of God touching the promised seed that they looked for. Now let us see how many sorts of Prayer, and how many Sacraments there be. In the Scriptures we read of three sorts of Prayer, whereof two are private, and the third is common. The first is that which St. Paul speaketh of in his Epistle to Timothy, saying, I will that men pray in every 1 Tim. iì. place, lifting up pure hands, without wrath or striving. And it is the devout lifting up of the mind to God, without the uttering of the heart's grief or desire by open voice. Of this Prayer we have example in the first Book of Samuel, in Anna the mother of Samuel, when in 1 Sam. i. the heaviness of her heart she prayed in the temple, desiring to be made fruitful. She prayed in her heart, saith the text, but there was no voice heard. After this sort must all Christians pray, not once in a week, or once in a day only; but, as St. Paul writeth to the Thessalonians, 1 Thess. iii. without ceasing. And as St. James writeth, The continual James v. prayer of a just man is of much force. The second sort of Prayer is spoken of in the Gospel of Matthew, where it is said, When thou prayest, enter into thy secret closet; and, Matt. vi, when thou hast shut the door to thee, pray unto thy Father in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret shall reward thee. Of this sort of Prayer there be sundry examples in the Scriptures; but it shall suffice to rehearse one, which is written in the Acts of the Apostles. Cornelius, a devout man, a captain of the Italian army, Acx. saith to Peter, that being in his house in Prayer at the ninth hour, there appeared to him one in a white garment, &c. This man prayed unto God in secret, and was rewarded openly. These be the two private sorts of Prayer: the one mental, that is to say, the devout lifting up of the mind to God; and the other vocal, that is to say, the secret uttering of the griefs and desires of the heart with words, but yet in a secret closet, or some solitary place. The third sort of Prayer is public or common. Of this Prayer speaketh our Saviour Christ, when he saith, If two of you shall agree upon earth upon Matt. xviu any thing, whatsoever ye shall ask, my Father which is in heaven shall do it for you: for wheresoever two or three be gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Psalm. I. James v. Jonah iii. Joel ii. Esther iv. Judith viii. Acts xii. Isai. xxix. Although God hath promised to hear us when we pray privately, so it be done faithfully and devoutly; (for he saith, Cull upon me in the day of thy trouble, and I will hear thee. And Elias, being but a mortal man, saith St. James, prayed, and heaven was shut three years and six months; and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain:) yet by the histories of the Bible it appeareth, that public and common Prayer is most available before God, and therefore is much to be lamented that it is no better esteemed among us, who profess to be but one body in Christ. When the city of Nineveh was threatened to be destroyed within forty days, the prince and the people joined themselves together in public Prayer and fasting, and were preserved. In the Prophet Joel, God commanded a fasting to be proclaimed, and the people to be gathered together, young and old, man and woman, and are taught to say with one voice, Spare us, O Lord, spare thy people, and let not thine inheritance be brought to confusion. When the Jews should have been destroyed all in one day through the malice of Haman, at the commandment of Esther they fasted and prayed, and were preserved. When Holofernes besieged Bethulia, by the advice of Judith they fasted and prayed, and were delivered. When Peter was in prison, the congregation joined themselves together in prayer, and Peter was wonderfully delivered. By these histories it appeareth, that common or public Prayer is of great force to obtain merey and deliverance at our heavenly Father's hand. Therefore, brethren, I beseech you, even for the tender mercies of God, let us no longer be negligent in this behalf: but as the people willing to receive at God's hand such good things as in the common Prayer of the church are craved, let us join ourselves together in the place of common Prayer, and with one voice and one heart beg at our heavenly Father all those things which he knoweth to be necessary for us. I forbid you not private Prayer, but I exhort you to esteem common Prayer, as it is worthy. And before all things, be sure that, in all these' three sorts of Prayer, your minds be devoutly lifted up to God, else are your Prayers to no purpose; and this saying shall be verified in you; This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Thus much for the three sorts of Prayer, whereof we read in the Scriptures. Now with like, or rather more brevity, you shall hear how many Sacraments there be, that were instituted by our Saviour ( Christ, and are to be continued, and received of every Christian in due time and order, and for such purpose as our Saviour Christ willed them to be received. And as for the number of them, if they should be considered according to the exact signification of a Sacrament, namely, for the visible signs, expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sins, and of our holiness and joining in Christ, there be but two; namely, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. For although Absolution hath the promise of forgiveness of sin; yet by the express word of the New Testament it hath not this proanise annexed and tied to the visible sign, which is imposition of hands. For this visible sign (I mean laying on of hands) is not expressly commanded in the New Testament to be used in Absolution, as the visible signs in Baptism and the Lord's Supper are: and therefore Absolution is no such Sacrament as Baptism and the Communion are. And though the ordering of ministers hath this visible sign and promise; yet it lacks the promise of remission of sin, as all other Sacraments besides the two above named do. Therefore neither it, nor any other Sacrament else, be such Sacraments as Baptism and the Communion are. But in a general acception, the name of a Sacrament may be attributed to any thing, whereby an holy thing is signified. In which understanding of the word, the ancient writers have given this name, taken not only to the other five, commonly of late years and used for supplying the number of the seven Sacraments; but also to divers and sundry other ceremonies, as to oil, washing of feet, and such like; not meaning thereby to repute them as Sacraments, in the same signification that the two forenamed Sacraments are. And therefore St. Augustine, weighing the true signification Bernard and the exact meaning of the word, writing to Januarius, et Ablut. Pe and also in the third Book of Christian Doctrine, affirmeth, that the Sacraments of the Christians, as they are most excellent ju signification, so are they most few in number; and in both places maketh mention expressly of two, the Sacrament of Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. And although there are retained by the order of the Church of England, besides these two, certain other rites and ceremonies about the institutions of ministers in the church, Matrimony, Confirmation of the Children, by examining them of their knowledge in the Articles of the Faith, and joining thereto the prayers of the church for them, and Dionysius, Domini |