2. Which is worse, and that is, For any man to set apart a place so as to think that the very place should sanctify the duty, because the Temple of Jerusalem did so: Now for a man to think that his prayers are sanctified, because they are within such a building as this is,1 is superstition: hence a company of poor ignorant people they must go behind a pillar and pray, as if they were accepted the more because of the place. It's true, when we come and join with the Church, then our prayers are accepted, because it is in a way of Ordinance. So Chrysostom cries out of this superstition, saith he, Jeremiah when he stuck in the mud could pray, and Job when he was upon the dunghill, and Jonah when he was in the belly of the Whale,2 and therefore why should we tie Gods hearing of of prayer to such and such places?3 Besides dedication, they had inchantments: Ab auguribus in augurabantur, suis augariis sanctiorum reddebantur, hoc nisi fieret, Templa esse non poterant (teste Varrone) sed aedes sacrae dicebantur. Men have been very profuse in this,4 both Heathens and Christians, and yet I find in some stories that some of the Heathens were against, they thought God too great to be worshipped in ⟨p. 131⟩any place, the principle it self (that God was great) was true, but that therefore he might not be worshipped in any place that had a cover over the head they thought it too much;5 so it was reported of Zeno the Philosopher, he thought that Temples must not be built. And the Persians that worshipped the Sun, 6they thought that the whole world was the Temple of the Sun, and would have no other Temple.7 And Xerxes, the wise men persuaded him to burn all the Temples of Greece, because they would shut up God within walls, so some of the Heathens had such thoughts of God, though ordinarily the Heathens were very abundant in building of Temples to their false gods: And Josephus reports of Herod that he would seem to honour God by building a glorious Temple,8 in the fifteenth Book of his Antiquity and the fourteenth Chapter, the Temple that was in Christs time it was of Herod's building, saith Herod, this Temple wanteth sixty cubits in height of that which Solomon first built.
2. Which is worse, and that is, For any man to set apart a place so as to think that the very place should sanctifie the duty, because the Temple of Jerusalem did so: Now for a man to think that his prayers are sanctified, because they are within such a building as this is,1 is superstition: hence a company of poor ignorant people they must go behind a piller and pray, as if they were accepted the more because of the place. It's true, when we come and joyn with the Church, then our prayers are accepted, because it is in a way of Ordinance. So Chrysostom cries out of this superstition, saith he, Jeremiah when he stuck in the mud could pray, and Job when he was upon the dunghil, and Jonah when he was in the belly of the Whale,2 and therefore why should we tie Gods hearing of of prayer to such and such places?3 Besides dedication, they had inchantments: Ab auguribus in augurabantur, suis augariis sanctiorum reddebantur, hoc nisi fieret, Templa esse non poterant (teste Varrone) sed aedes sacrae dicebantur. Men have been very profuse in this,4 both Heathens and Christians, and yet I find in some stories that some of the Heathens were against, they thought God too great to be worshiped in ⟨p. 131⟩any place, the principle it self (that God was great) was true, but that therefore he might not be worshiped in any place that had a cover over the head they thought it too much;5 so it was reported of Zeno the Phylosopher, he thought that Temples must not be built. And the Persians that worshiped the Sun, 6they thought that the whol world was the Temple of the Sun, and would have no other Temple.7 And Xerxes, the wise men perswaded him to burn all the Temples of Greece, because they would shut up God within walls, so some of the Heathens had such thoughts of God, though ordinarily the Heathens were very abundant in building of Temples to their false gods: And Josephus reports of Herod that he would seem to honor God by building a glorious Temple,8
- 1Praying in Churches no more accepted, unless with the holy Congregation.
- 2Chrysost.
- 3Hom. 79. ad Populum.
- 4Some Heathens against it.
- 5[Greek or Hebrew].〈non-Latin alphabet〉.
- 6dogm. Zen The Persians.
- 7Xerxes magi.
- 8Josephus l. 15. c. 14.
