A Homily on the Right Use of the Church or Temple of God, and of the Reverence Due to It.
Part One
Since there appears in these days great slackness and negligence in a large number of people in coming to church, there to serve God their heavenly Father according to the duty to which they are most bound; and since there is also much unseemly and irreverent behaviour by many persons in that same place when they are assembled there; and since from this there may justly arise fear of the wrath of God and his dreadful plagues hanging over our heads for our grievous offence in this matter, among the many other great sins we commit daily and hourly before the Lord: therefore, to discharge all our consciences and to avoid the common peril and plague hanging over us, let us consider what may be said out of God's holy book concerning this matter. Give it good attention, I pray you, for it is of great weight and concerns you all.
It is true that the eternal and incomprehensible Majesty of God, the Lord of heaven and earth, whose throne is heaven and the earth his footstool, cannot be enclosed in temples or houses made by human hands, as though in dwelling-places able to receive or contain his Majesty. This is plainly declared by the Prophet Isaiah, and by the teaching of St. Stephen and St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. So too king Solomon, who built for the Lord the most glorious temple that was ever made, says, "Who shall be able to build a fitting or worthy house for him? If heaven, and the heaven above all heavens, cannot contain him, how much less can what I have built!" (2 Chronicles 2:6); and he further confesses, "What am I, that I should be able to build you a house, O Lord? Yet it is made for this purpose only, that you may regard the prayer of your servant and his humble supplication." (2 Chronicles 6:18-19) Much less, then, are our churches fitting dwelling-places to receive the incomprehensible Majesty of God.
And indeed the chief and special temples of God, in which he has greatest pleasure and most delights to dwell and remain, are the bodies and minds of true Christians and the chosen people of God. This is according to the teaching of holy Scripture in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "Do you not know," says St. Paul, "that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, and that temple you are." (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) And again in the same Epistle: "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you are dearly bought: therefore glorify God now in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
And therefore, as our Saviour Christ teaches in the Gospel of St. John, those who worship God the Father in spirit and truth, in whatever place they do it, worship him rightly; for the Father looks for such worshippers. "God is a Spirit; and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth," says our Saviour Christ. (John 4:23-24)
Yet, for all this, the material church or temple is a place appointed, both by the usage and continual examples set out in the Old Testament and in the New, for the people of God to come together, there to hear God's holy word, to call upon his holy Name, to give him thanks for his countless and unspeakable benefits bestowed upon us, and duly and truly to celebrate his holy Sacraments; and in the sincere doing and accomplishing of these things stands that true and right worship of God spoken of above. And this same church or temple is, by the Scriptures both of the Old Testament and the New, called the house and temple of the Lord, because of the special service done there to his Majesty by his people, and because of the effectual presence of his heavenly grace, with which he endows his people gathered there through his holy word. And to this house or temple of God, at times appointed by common order, all people who are truly godly are bound to come with all diligence, unless they are hindered from it[1] by sickness or other most urgent causes. And all who so come there ought to conduct themselves with all quietness and reverence, doing the duty and service they owe to Almighty God in the congregation of his saints. All these things can plainly be proved by God's holy word, as will clearly appear hereafter.
And first of all I will show by the Scriptures that it is called, as it truly is, the house of God and temple of the Lord. "He that swears by the temple," says our Saviour Christ, "swears by it, and by him that dwells in it" (Matthew 23:21), meaning God the Father; which he also expresses plainly in the Gospel of St. John, saying, "Do not make the house of my Father a house of merchandise." (John 2:16) And in the book of the Psalms the Prophet David says, "I will enter into your house; I will worship in your holy temple in your fear." (Psalm 5:7) In almost countless places of Scripture, especially in the Prophets and the book of Psalms, it is called the house of God, or the house of the Lord. Sometimes it is named the tabernacle of the Lord; and sometimes the sanctuary, that is to say, the holy house or place of the Lord. And it is likewise called the house of prayer, as Solomon, who built the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, often calls it the house of the Lord in 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 among all nations." (Isaiah 56:7) Our Saviour Christ cites this text in the New Testament, as appears in three of the Evangelists. And in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector who went to pray, our Saviour Christ says they went up into the temple to pray. And Anna, the holy widow and prophetess, served the Lord with fasting and prayer in the temple night and day. And in the story of the Acts it is mentioned how Peter and John went up into the temple at the hour of prayer. And St. Paul, praying in the temple at Jerusalem, was caught up in spirit and saw Jesus speaking to him. And, just as prayer may be used privately by the godly in all suitable places, so it is most certain that the church or temple is the proper and appointed place for common and public prayer.
Now, that it is likewise the place of thanksgiving to the Lord for his countless and unspeakable benefits bestowed upon us appears notably at the close of the 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 proper place appointed for the reverent use of the Sacraments. It now remains to be shown that the church or temple is the place where the living word of God (and not human inventions) ought to be read and taught, and that the people are bound to come there with all diligence; and this too is to be proved by the Scriptures, as will appear hereafter.
In the story of the Acts of the Apostles we read that Paul and Barnabas preached the word of God in the temples of the Jews at Salamis. And when they came to Antioch, they entered the synagogue or church on the sabbath day and sat down; and after the lesson or reading of the Law and the Prophets, the ruler of the temple sent to them, saying, "You men and brethren, if any of you have any exhortation to make to the people, say it." (Acts 13:15) And so Paul, standing up and making silence with his hand, said, "You men who are Israelites, and you that fear God, give ear" (Acts 13:16), and so on, preaching them a sermon out of the Scriptures, as appears there at length. And in the same story of the Acts, the seventeenth chapter, it is testified how Paul preached Christ out of the Scriptures at Thessalonica. And in the fifteenth chapter James the Apostle, in that holy council and assembly of his fellow Apostles, says: "Moses of old time has in every city those who preach him in the synagogues or temples, where he is read every sabbath day." (Acts 15:21) By these passages you may see the practice of reading the Scriptures of the Old Testament among the Jews in their synagogues every sabbath day, and the sermons usually made upon them. How much more fitting, then, is it that the Scriptures of God, and especially the Gospel of our Saviour Christ, should be read and expounded to us who are Christians in our churches, since our Saviour Christ and his Apostles allowed this most godly and necessary practice, and confirmed it by their own examples!
It is written in various places of the Gospel stories that "Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:23); and in these passages his great diligence in the continual preaching and teaching of the people is most plainly set forth. In Luke you read how Jesus, according to his usual custom, came into the temple, and how the book of Isaiah the Prophet was delivered to him, and how he read a text in it and preached a sermon upon it. And in the nineteenth chapter it is told how he taught daily in the temple. And it is written thus in the eighth of John: "Jesus came again early in the morning into the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them." (John 8:2) And in the eighteenth of John our Saviour testifies before Pilate that he spoke openly to the world, and that he always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews came together, and that he spoke nothing in secret. And in St. Luke: "Jesus taught in the temple, and all the people came early in the morning to him, that they might hear him in the temple." (Luke 21:38) Here you see both the diligence of our Saviour in teaching the word of God in the temple daily, and especially on the sabbath days, and also the readiness of the people in coming all together, and that early in the morning, into the temple to hear him.
You shall find the same example of diligence in preaching the word of God in the temple in the Apostles, and in the people coming to them (Acts, chapter five): how the Apostles, although they had been whipped and scourged the day before, and commanded by the high priest to preach no more in the name of Jesus, yet the next day entered the temple early in the morning and did not cease to teach and declare Jesus Christ. And in various other places of the story of the Acts you shall find the like diligence, both in the Apostles in teaching and in the people in coming to the temple to hear God's word.
And it is testified in the first of Luke that when Zechariah, the holy priest and father of John the Baptist, was offering sacrifice within the temple, all the people stood outside a long time praying: such was their zeal and fervour at that time. And in the second of Luke it appears what great journeys men, women, and even children took to come to the temple on the feast day, there to serve the Lord; and especially the example of Joseph, the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of our Saviour Christ, and of our Saviour Christ himself, while he was yet only a child; whose examples are worthy for us to follow.
So then, if we compare our negligence in coming to the house of the Lord, there to serve him, with the diligence of the Jews in coming daily, very early, and sometimes on great journeys, to their temple, and with the fervent zeal they showed (when the multitude could not be received within the temple) in standing long outside and praying, we may justly, in this comparison, condemn our slothfulness and negligence, indeed our plain contempt, in coming so seldom, and scarcely at noon, to the Lord's house that stands so near us. So far are a great many of us from coming early in the morning, or attending outside, that we disdain even to come into the temple. And yet we loathe the very name of the Jews when we hear it, as of a most wicked and ungodly people. But it is to be feared that in this respect we are far worse than the Jews, and that they shall rise at the day of judgment to our condemnation; for we, compared with them, show such slackness and contempt in coming to the house of the Lord, there to serve him, as we are in duty most bound to do.
And besides this most horrible dread of God's just judgment on the great day, we shall not in this life escape his heavy hand and vengeance for this contempt of the house of the Lord and of his due service in it, just as the Lord himself threatens in the first chapter of his Prophet Haggai, in this manner:
Because you have left my house deserted and without company, says the Lord, and you have each made haste to his own house, therefore the heavens are stayed over you, so that they give no dew, and the earth is forbidden to bring forth its fruit; and I have called for drought upon the earth, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon all things that the earth brings forth, and upon men, and upon beasts, and upon all things that human hands labour for. (Haggai 1:9-11)
See then: if we are such worldlings that we care nothing for the eternal judgments of God (which, of all judgments, are yet the most dreadful and horrible), we shall not escape the punishment of God in this world by drought and famine and the taking away of all worldly benefits[2], which we as worldlings seem to regard and care for above all.
On the other hand, if we would amend this fault of negligence, slothfulness, and contempt of the house of the Lord and of his due service there, and diligently come together to serve the Lord with one accord and consent in all holiness and righteousness before him, we have promises of benefits both heavenly and worldly. "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name," says our Saviour Christ, "there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20) And what can be more blessed than to have our Saviour Christ among us? Or, again, what can be more wretched or ruinous than to drive our Saviour Christ from among us, and to leave a place in the midst of us for his enemy and ours, that most ancient and deadly foe, the old dragon and serpent, Satan the devil?
In the second of Luke it is written how the mother of Christ and Joseph, when they had long sought Christ, whom they had lost and could find nowhere, at last found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers. So if we lack Jesus Christ, that is to say, the Saviour of our souls and bodies, we shall not find him in the market place, or in the guild hall, much less in the alehouse or tavern among "good fellows" (as they call them), as readily as we shall find him in the temple, the Lord's house, among the teachers and preachers of his word, where indeed he is to be found. And as for worldly benefits, we have a sure promise from our Saviour Christ: "Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33)
And so, in the first part of this Homily, we have declared by God's word that the temple or church is the house of the Lord, because the service of the Lord is used there: the teaching and hearing of his holy word, the calling upon his holy Name, the giving of thanks to him for his great and countless benefits, and the due ministering of his Sacraments. And it has likewise already been declared by the Scriptures how all godly and Christian men and women ought, at appointed times, to come with diligence to the house of the Lord, there to serve him and to glorify him, as he is most worthy and we are most bound. To whom be all glory and honour, world without end. Amen.
Part Two
In the first part of this Homily it was declared by God's word that the temple or church is the house of the Lord, because the service of the Lord is used there: the teaching and hearing of his holy word, the calling upon his holy Name, the giving of thanks to him for his great and countless benefits, and the due ministering of his Sacraments. And it has likewise already been declared by the Scriptures how all godly and Christian men and women ought, at appointed times, to come with diligence to the house of the Lord, there to serve him and to glorify him, as he is most worthy and we are most bound. Now it remains, in this second part of the Homily concerning the right use of the temple of God, to be likewise declared by God's word with what quietness, silence, and reverence those who come to the house of the Lord ought to conduct themselves there.
It may sufficiently teach us how fitting it is for us Christian men to use the church and holy house of our prayers reverently, if we consider in how great reverence and veneration the Jews under the old law held their temple; which appears from various places, of which I will note a few for you.
In the twenty-sixth of Matthew, it was laid to our Saviour Christ's charge before a civil judge, by the two false witnesses, as a matter deserving death, that he had said he could destroy the temple of God and build it again in three days; for they did not doubt that if they could make men believe he had said anything against the honour and majesty of the temple, he would seem to all men most worthy of death. And in the twenty-first of the Acts, when the Jews found Paul in the temple, they laid hands on him, crying, "You men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people and the law and against this place; and besides, he has brought Gentiles into the temple, and has profaned this holy place." (Acts 21:28) See how they counted it as great an offence to speak against the temple of God as to speak against the law of God, and how they judged it fitting that none but godly persons and the true worshippers of God should enter the temple of God. And the same fault is charged against Paul by Tertullus, an eloquent man, and by the Jews, in the twenty-fourth of the Acts, before a civil judge, as a matter deserving death, that he had tried to pollute the temple of God. And in the twenty-seventh of Matthew, when the chief priests had received back the pieces of silver from Judas' hand, they said, "It is not lawful to put them into Corban" (which was the treasure house of the temple) "because it is the price of blood." (Matthew 27:6) So they could not endure that not only any unclean person, but even any dead thing judged unclean, should so much as come into the temple or any place belonging to it.
And to this end St. Paul's saying in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the sixth chapter, is to be applied:
What fellowship is there between righteousness and unrighteousness? Or what communion between light and darkness? Or what concord between Christ and Belial? Or what part can the faithful have with the unfaithful? Or what agreement can there be between the temple of God and images? (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)
Although this saying chiefly refers to the temple of the godly mind, yet, since the comparison and force of the argument is drawn from the material temple, it presses home that no ungodliness, especially of images or idols, may be allowed in the temple of God, which is the place for worshipping God, and can therefore no more be allowed to stand there than light can agree with darkness, or Christ with Belial; for the true worshipping of God and the worshipping of images are utterly contrary, and the setting of them up in the place of worship may give great occasion for the worshipping of them.
But to return to the reverence the Jews had for their temple. You will say they honoured it superstitiously and a great deal too much, crying out, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" (Jeremiah 7:4), while being nonetheless most wicked in their lives; and they were therefore most justly rebuked by Jeremiah, the Prophet of the Lord. It is true that they were superstitiously given to the honouring of their temple. But I wish we were not as far short of the due reverence for the Lord's house as they overshot in it. And if the Prophet justly reproved them, listen also to what the Lord requires of us, that we may know whether we are blameworthy or not.
It is written in the fifth chapter[3] of Ecclesiastes:
When you go into the house of God, take heed to your feet; draw near that you may hear, for obedience is worth much more than the sacrifice of fools, who do not know what evil they do. Speak nothing rashly there, nor let your heart be swift to utter words before God; for God is in heaven, and you are on the earth: therefore let your words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2)
Note, well-beloved, what quietness in gesture and behaviour, what silence in talk and words, is required in the house of God, for so he calls it. See whether those take heed to their feet (as they are here warned) who never cease from unseemly walking, strutting up and down and across the church, showing plain evidence of notable contempt both of God and of all good men present there. And see what heed they take to their tongues and speech, who not only speak words swiftly and rashly before the Lord (which they are here forbidden to do), but also often speak filthily, greedily, and ungodly, talking of matters scarcely decent or fit for the alehouse or tavern, in the house of the Lord, little considering that they speak before God, who dwells in heaven (as is here declared), when they are but vermin creeping here upon the earth compared to his eternal Majesty; and regarding still less that they must give an account at the great day for every idle word, wherever it is spoken, much more for the filthy, unclean, or wicked words spoken in the Lord's house, to the great dishonour of his Majesty and the offence of all who hear them.
And indeed, as for the people and the congregation, the temple is prepared for them to be hearers rather than speakers. For the word of God is read or taught there, to which they are bound to give diligent ear with all reverence and silence; and common prayer and thanksgiving are recited and said by the public minister in the name of the people and the whole congregation present, to which they, giving their ready attention, should assent and should say Amen, as St. Paul teaches in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. And in another place he speaks of "glorifying God with one spirit and mouth" (Romans 15:6), which cannot happen when every man and woman, each under his own pretence of devotion, prays privately, one asking, another giving thanks, another reading doctrine, and cares nothing about hearing the common prayer of the minister. And in particular, what due reverence is to be used in the ministering of the Sacraments in the temple the same St. Paul teaches in his Epistle to the Corinthians, rebuking those who behaved irreverently in that matter: "Have you not houses to eat and drink in?" he says. "Do you despise the Church or congregation of God? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I praise you not." (1 Corinthians 11:22)
And God requires not only this outward reverence of behaviour and silence in his house, but also all inward reverence in the cleansing of the thoughts of our hearts; threatening by his Prophet Hosea, in the ninth chapter, that for the malice of the people's inventions and devices he will cast them out of his house, by which is also signified the eternal casting of them out of his heavenly house and kingdom, which is most horrible. And therefore in the nineteenth of Leviticus God says, "Fear my sanctuary with reverence, for I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:30) And in keeping with this the Prophet David says, "I will enter into your house; I will worship in your holy temple in your fear" (Psalm 5:7), showing what inward reverence and humility of mind godly men ought to have in the house of the Lord.
And now let me bring in something on this matter out of the New Testament, concerning how God would have his house or temple honoured, and that by the example of our Saviour Christ, whose authority ought, with good reason, to carry the most weight and esteem with all true Christians. It is recorded by all four Evangelists, as a notable act worthy to be attested by many holy witnesses, how our Saviour Jesus Christ, that merciful and mild Lord, behaved. For his meekness he is compared to a sheep that silently allows its fleece to be shorn from it, and to a lamb led without resistance to the slaughter; he gave his body to those who struck him, did not answer the one who reviled him, nor turned[4] away his face from those who reproached him and spat upon him, and, following his own example, gave his disciples precepts of mildness and forbearance. Yet when he sees the temple and holy house of his heavenly Father disordered, polluted, and profaned, he uses great severity and sharpness: he overturns the tables of the money-changers, overthrows the seats of those who sold doves, makes a whip of cords, and drives out those wicked abusers and profaners of the temple of God, saying, "My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13); and in the second of John, "Do not make the house of my Father a house of merchandise." (John 2:16)
For just as it is the house of God when God's service is duly done in it, so, when we wickedly abuse it with wicked talk or greedy bargaining, we make it a den of thieves or a house of merchandise. Indeed, Christ would have such reverence shown in it that he would not allow any vessel to be carried through the temple. And whereas our Saviour Christ (as was mentioned before, out of St. Luke) could be found nowhere, when he was sought, except only in the temple among the teachers, and now again exercises his authority and jurisdiction not in castles and princely palaces among soldiers, but in the temple; by this you may understand in what place his spiritual kingdom, which he declares is not of this world, is soonest to be found and best known of all places in this world.
And, following this example of our Saviour Christ, in the primitive Church (which was most holy and godly, and in which due discipline was exercised with severity against the wicked) open offenders were not allowed even to enter the house of the Lord, nor admitted to common prayer and the use of the holy Sacraments with other true Christians, until they had done open penance before the whole Church. And this was practised not only upon lowly persons, but also upon the rich, noble, and mighty; indeed, upon Theodosius, that powerful and mighty Emperor, whom St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, sharply rebuked for committing a grievous and wilful murder, and also excommunicated, bringing him to open penance. And those who were so justly excluded and banished (as it were) from the house of the Lord were regarded (as indeed they were) as men divided and separated from Christ's Church and in a most dangerous state; even, as St. Paul says, given over to Satan the devil for a time (1 Corinthians 5:5); and their company was shunned and avoided by all godly men and women, until they were reconciled by repentance and public penance.
Such was the honour of the Lord's house in men's hearts, and such was the outward reverence too, at that time; and so horrible a thing was it to be shut out of the church and house of the Lord in those days, when religion was most pure and nothing near so corrupt as it has been of late. And yet we willingly do one of two things: either, by absenting ourselves from the house of the Lord, we in effect excommunicate ourselves from the Church and fellowship of the saints of God; or else, coming there, by unseemly and irreverent behaviour, and by hasty, rash, indeed unclean and wicked thoughts and words before the Lord our God, we horribly dishonour his holy house, the Church of God, and his holy Name and Majesty, to the great danger of our souls, and to certain damnation too, if we do not speedily and earnestly repent of this wickedness.
Thus you have heard, dearly beloved, out of God's word, what reverence is due to the holy house of the Lord; how all godly persons ought to come there with diligence at appointed times; how they ought to conduct themselves there with reverence and awe before the Lord; and what plagues and punishments, temporal as well as eternal, the Lord in his holy word threatens, both against those who neglect to come to his holy house and against those who, coming there, behave themselves irreverently in gesture or talk.
Therefore, if we desire to have seasonable weather, and thereby to enjoy the good fruits of the earth; if we would avoid drought and barrenness, thirst and hunger, which are the plagues threatened against those who make haste to go to their own houses, to alehouses, and to taverns, and leave the house of the Lord empty and desolate; if we shrink from being scourged, not only with whips made of cords out of the material temple (as our Saviour Christ dealt with the defilers of the house of God in Jerusalem), but also from being beaten and driven out of the eternal temple and house of the Lord (which is his heavenly kingdom) with the iron rod of everlasting damnation, and cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; if we fear, dread, and abhor this, I say, as we have most just cause to do, then let us amend this negligence and contempt of ours in coming to the house of the Lord, and this irreverent behaviour of ours in the house of the Lord. And, coming there diligently together, let us there, with reverent hearing of the Lord's holy word, calling on the Lord's holy Name, giving hearty thanks to the Lord for his manifold and priceless benefits daily and hourly bestowed upon us, and reverently celebrating the Lord's holy Sacraments, serve the Lord in his holy house, as befits the servants of the Lord, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And then we shall be assured, after this life, to rest on his holy hill and to dwell in his tabernacle, there to praise and magnify his holy Name in the congregation of his saints, in the holy house of his eternal kingdom of heaven, which he has purchased for us by the death and shedding of the precious blood of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one immortal Majesty of God, be all honour, glory, praise, and thanksgiving, world without end. Amen.
Original: "letted" (= hindered, prevented).↩︎
Original: "commodities" (= benefits, advantages; not goods for trade).↩︎
The 1859 text reads "the fourth chapter." This passage stands at Ecclesiastes 4:17–5:1 in the older (Vulgate) chapter division, which corresponds to 5:1–2 in modern Bibles; the reference has been modernized to match. The opening verb is also uncertain in the source, the scan having been garbled here: "go" is a reconstruction, and could be "enter" or "come."↩︎
Source reading uncertain here: "reviled, nor turned away his face" was reconstructed from a badly garbled scan (the image echoes Isaiah 50:6).↩︎