Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	place_n	scripture_n	3,179	5	5.3996	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02233	The honour of Christian churches and the necessitie of frequenting of divine service and publike prayers in them. Delivered in a sermon at VVite-Hall before the Kings most excellent Majestie on the eight day of December last being Sunday, by Walter Bancanquall ...	Balcanquhall, Walter, 1586?-1645.	1633 (1633)	STC 1237; ESTC S100539	18,198	32

THE HONOUR OF CHRISTIAN CHVRCHES AND THE NECESSITIE OF frequenting of Divine Service and Publike Prayers in them Delivered in a Sermon at White-Hall before the Kings most excellent Majestie on the eight day of December last being Sunday BY WALTER BALCANQVALL Doctor of Divinity and Deane of Rochester being then in his ordinarie attendance And now published by his Majesties speciall commandement LONDON Printed by George Miller for Robert Allot at the blacke Beare in Pauls Church-yard 1633. MATH 21. Ver. 13. It is written my house shal be called the house of prayer but you have made it a den of theeves THe occasion of which words was briefly this Kings at the first entry unto their Raignes do use to begin with the reformation of abuses crept into the Church and Service of God so did David Iosias Ezekiah before Christ so did the Christian Emperours and Princes after Christ as appeareth in their first rescripts so do yet all Christian Kings their first Acts of State or Parliament take rise at the threshold of the Sanctuarie and begin with confirmation or if need be reformation of the Church Now the Sonne of God in this Chapter making his solemne entrie like a King into Hierusalem and so received by the people he first getteth him to the Temple and finding it most lewdly profaned both by secular and spirituall or Simoniacall negotiation he falleth upon them with both hands as a King with his secular arme he whippeth out the profaners as a Priest he useth the spirituall arme It is written and these words It is written be all the words of this text which may properly be said to be Christs own words the rest are but cited by him from others the first sentence my house shall be called the house of prayer from Isaiah 56. 7. the other but you have made it a den of theeves from Iere. 7. 11. But both of them so rehearsed and withall applied by him that they are now become his own for as well quem benè as quem malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus And as these two sentences when they were first spoken of by these two Prophets were a Prophesie of Christ his times and the iniquitie of the Iewes in his time fulfilled them so as they are now rehearsed by Christ they seeme to have beene a Prophesie of our times which have fulfilled them by repeating the same profanations In which regard I should not perhaps divide these words much amisse if I should divide them into an Appropriation and an Impropriation an Appropriation or the proper use for which God appointed his Temple my house shal be called the house of prayer an Impropriation or the abuse of the Temple whereby men disappoint God of his appointment but you have made it a den of theeves And this division is much about one with our Proverbe wheresoever God hath a Church the Divell hath a Chappell my house shall be called the house of prayer there is Gods Church but you have made it a den of theeves there the Divell goeth about presently to turne it into his Chappell Or these words being spoken of the Materiall Temple of Hierusalem may be divided as in some sort that Temple might have beene divided amongst diverse gates in the Temple there were these two afore-gate and a backe-gate the fore-gate at which the people entred called the Beautifull gate where the diseased lay and begged almes Acts 3. 2. The backe-gate called Shallecheth or the dung-gate out of which was carried all the filth or sulledge of the Temple now betweene these two gates stood the Temple it selfe so here first you have the preface or fore-gate to the text it is written and we may call it the beautifull gate for it pointeth to the very beauty of holinesse that is the Scripture next the Temple it selfe which is the maine structure and building of the text my house shal be called the house of prayer and lastly the backe or dung-gate at which Christ throweth out the profaners of the Temple who had made it a dunghill or a den of theeves but you have made it a den of theeves But there is one word in the text from whence I meane to fetch that division of the words which at this time I purpose to pursue and that is the word appellabitur shal be called since the text is of the right naming calling or as it were christening of the Temple I shall pray you to take notice of these foure particulars First of the Churches name my house and we may call it the proper name of the Church for it giveth God a propriety in it Secondly the Churches surname or appellative name by which it shal be called the house of prayer my house shal be called the house of prayer Thirdly the Churches nicke-name by which in regard of the great abuse offered unto it Christ miscalleth it a den of theeves but you have made it a den of theeves Fourthly the Church-booke or register in which all these names are recorded the name and surname in Isaiah the nick-name in Ieremiah it is written Neither need we doubt but that all these names are very significant for if Adam by that originall wisdome wherewith God indued him was able to give names to all the creatures according to their natures much more is God himselfe able to do so when he will name any thing Now in each of these foure there be two particulars in the first that is the name my house these two First It is fit God should have houses built to him on earth as well as men my house Secondly These houses built unto God become God his houses by propriety so his that they may never be taken from him my house In the second that is the surname of the Church shal be called the house of prayer these two First Houses built unto God are to be solemnly called or as it were christened that is consecrated and dedicated to the service of God shal be called Secondly As they are to be dedicated to all the parts of God his service so especially they are to be consecrated to prayer shal be called the house of prayer In the third that is the Churches nicke-name but you have made it a den of theeves these two First God his Church may become the Divels Chappell Bethel may become Bethaven the house of prayer a den of theeves Secondly The theeves and robbers who make it so are principally the Priests but in their owne place the people too for both are here meant by you the Priests for letting out the shop-keepers standings and the Lay-people for selling in those shops being upon holy ground In the fourth that is the church-Church-booke or Register It is written these two First The authority by which the proper use for the Temple for prayer is to be proved by Scripture next the authority by which the abuse of the Temple is to be reproved by Scripture too Christ indeed who was a King as

well as a Priest besides the text useth the whip too but Church-mens best whip is Scriptum est It is written in the old Testament in the new Testament and in their owne place in the Canons of the Church a threefold cord is not easily broken this three-stringed whip will hold upon the consciences of men or nothing will if not the Prince then must use the secular whip indeed As Christ used the Divell sometimes throwing him by maine force out of them that were possessed sometimes throwing him upon his back by force of Scripture It is written as in his temptations so here he useth these divellish men as a King he drives them out of the Temple with a whip as a Priest with the text It is written my house shal be called the house of prayer but you have made it a den of theeves And of so many of these parts in this order which I have now propounded as the time and your royall patience shall give me leave And first of the Church its name my house and in it of the first particular which is this It is fit God should have houses built unto him upon earth as well as men for though the heaven of heavens cannot containe him much lesse this house which is made with hands as Salomon speaketh at the Dedication of his Temple and the Almighty dwelleth not in houses made with hands as Peter speaketh in the Acts yet since God hath given to man the whole surface of the earth to build upon for himselfe he expecteth that man by way of gratitude should find out some corner wherupon to build to his God as when God requireth of us to give some of our goods to the poore it is not that he could not provide for the poore without us If I were hungry saith the Lord I would not tell thee for all the beasts of the field are mine and the flockes upon a thousand mountaines but since he hath given unto us all that we have he expecteth that by way of thankfulnesse wee should give backe unto him for what we give to the poore he accounteth given to himselfe a little of that all Even so having given man the whole earth to build upon for himselfe he looketh that man should set out some part of that whole whereupon to build and be at some cost with his God that was a noble strife betweene a King and his subject David and Araunah the Iebusite Sam. 2. 24. concerning the threshing floore upon which David was commanded to build an Altar to God Araunah would have given it freely because it was for God but David scorned to build unto his God upon that ground which should cost him nothing Now these houses built by men unto God were of old called Temples now Churches and though they were of mens building yet were they not of mens devising but of God his owne institution Moses is the auncientest writer we have extant and in him we have the first mention of a Temple for God delivered unto him in the patterne of the Tabernacle the modell of the Temple It is true indeed that the Gentiles by instigation of the Divell who is God his ape in imitation hereof did erect Temples to false gods but first wee have mention of God his Temple as truth is more ancient than a lie And even before either that Tabernacle or Temple we find that there were Analogicall Temples that is places set apart and consecrated to the service of God Abel though he sacrificed abroad and in an open place yet was it a place prepared Noah offered sacrifice upon an Altar Iacob upon a stone turned to the forme of a Pillar and annointed with oyle which he called by the very name in the text my house Bethel the house of God Genes 28. The same custome was no question observed by the Patriarkes downe to Moses unto whom God himselfe delivered the patterne of the Tabernacle which should be a patterne of the Temple and then came the Temple of Hierusalem it selfe the most glorious structure the Sun did ever behold To this Temple under the Gospell succeeded the Churches of Christians at first indeed but meane the Church being under persecution but when the Emperours and Princes became Christians most glorious so magnificent for structure so rich for indowments that as Moses was glad by sound of trumpet to make proclamation throughout the Campe that the people should bring no more materials for the furnishing of the Tabernacle so Christian Princes were over-ruled by their subjects to make Edicts of restraint for giving any more to the Church From whence appeareth the vanity and ignorance of those humorists who ask what needeth all this cost of oyntment upon Christ his head all this cost upon the building and ornaments of Churches since the first and best Christians were not acquainted with them They may as well aske what silly men were David to provide such a masse of mony and materials and Salomon to spend them all and many millions more upon the Temple of Hierusalem since God before was well enough worshipped and sacrificed unto by Abel and Noah perhaps upon a turfe by Iacob upon a stone But when God had given to his people the blessing of a magnificent Monarchie he would not have them dwell in houses of Cedar and his house remaine within curtaines but would haue the house where his honour was to dwell for state and magnificence to be the beauty of the whole earth so while Christians at the first had much ado to live and breathe under their persecutions God was contented to be worshipped by them in such mean places as they could provide for him but when Emperours and Princes became Christian and Christians under them enjoyed peace and plenty he expected from them glorious and sumptuous Churches neither was his expectation deceived for though they were not able to reach the beauty of the Temple of Hierusalem the Iewes themselves not being able to match the first Temple yet we find that Christians in building their first Churches had an eye to that Temple for though our novelists if they chance to build a Church as they do sometime beyond the seas will take any modell perhaps of a great hall or barne rather than of the ancient Christian Churches yet the first builders of Christian Churches even for the forme of fabricke did in some sort imitate that Temple of Hierusalem For as in that Temple there were foure distinctions the Porch which was called Salomons Atrium or the Court whither the people came Sanctum the holy place whither the Priests came and the Sanctum Sanctorum the holy of holiests into which onely the high Priests were to enter So in the old Christian Churches though not for the same uses were foure distinctions the outmost place of all answerable to the Porch unto which infidels or such as were excommunicate and cast out of the Church might come but no further into the next place as it