of the Trinitie This Picture sometime ferues them for a god in their Churches and somtime for a signe at thir tap-houses so that it is a common saying in many of their Cities Such a Gentleman lyes at the Trinity and his seruants at Gods head This they seeme to doe as if they would in some sort requite their Maker because God made man according to his Image therfore they by way of recompence will make God according to mans Image But this certainly they durst not doe without putting the second Commandement out of their Catechismes and the whole Decalogue out of their Consciences I intend no polemicall discourse of this poynt by examining their Arguments that businesse is fitter for the Schoole then the Pulpit And O God that either Schoole or Pulpit in Christendome should be troubled about it that any man should dare to make that a question which the Lord hath so plainely and punctually forbidden Beside the Iniquity how grieuous is the absurdity How is a body without a spirit like to a spirit without a body A visible picture like an inuisible nature How would the King take it in scorne to haue his picture made like a Wesell or a Hedgehog And yet the difference betwixt the greatest Monarch and the least Emmet is nothing to the distance betwixt a finite an infinite If they alledge with the Anthropomorphites that the Scripture attributes to God hands and feet and eyes why therefore may they not represent him in the same formes But we say the Scripture also speaks of his couering vs with the shadow of his wings why therfore do they not paint him like a Bird with feathers If they say that he appeared to Daniel in this forme because hee is there called the Ancient of dayes wee answere that Gods Commandements and not his apparitions be rules to vs by the former we shall be iudged and not by the latter It is mad Religion to neglect what he bids vs doe and to imitate what he hath done as if we should despise his Lawes and goe about to counterfeit his thunder God is too infinite for the comprehension of our soules why should we then labour to bring him into the narrow compasse of bords stones Certenly that should not be Imaged which cannot be Imagined But Christ was a man why may not his Image be made Some answer that no man can make an Image of Christ without leauing out the chiefe part of him which is his Diuinitie It was the Godhead vnited to the manhood that makes him Christ sure this cannot be painted But why should wee make Christs Image without Christs warrant The Lord hath forbidden the making of any Image whether of things in heauen where Christ is or of things on earth where Christ was to worship them Now till God reuoke that precept what can authorise this practice Their Images of the Saints employed to such religious purposes make them no lesse then Idolaâ—ers It is a silly shift to say the honor done to the Images reflects vpon the represented Saints When they cloath an Image is the Saint ere the gayer or warmer when they offer to an Image is the Saint ere the richer When they kneele to an Image the Saint esteemes himselfe no more worshipped then the King holds himselfe honoured when a man speaks to his picture be fore his face Therefore some of them are driuen to confesse plainly that the Image is worshipped for it selfe But could the Saints in heauen be heard speak vpon earth they would disclaime that honour which is preiudiciall to their Maker As Caluin is not afraid to say of the blessed Virgin that shee would hold it lesse despite done to her if they should pull her by the haire of the head or trample her in the dirt then to set her in riuality with her Sonne and God and Sauiour But they tell vs that they worship not the Images of false Gods as did the Pagans but onely the Images of Gods owne seruants and choise friends But will the iealous God endure this that his honor be taken from him vpon condition it be not bestowed vpon his enemies but on his friends Idolatry is called Adultery in the Scriptures and shall a woman quit her selfe from offence because though she doe commit adultery yet it is with none but her husbands friends Is this done in a good meaning or in loue to Christ It is but a bad excuse of a wife to say that shee exceedingly loues her husband therefore must haue some other man to kisse and embrace in his absence and all this in loue to her husband Wee are all by nature prone to Idolatrie when we were little children we loued babies and being growne men we are apt to loue Images And as Babies be childrens Idols so Idols Images be mens Babies It seemes that Idols are fittest for Babes therefore so the Apostle fits his caution 1 Iohn 5.21 Babes keepe your selues from Idols As all our knowledge comes by sense so we naturally desire a sensible obiect of deuotion finding it easier to see Pictures then to comprehend Doctrines and to forme prayers to the Images of men then to forme man to the Image of God Nor can they excuse themselues from Idolatry by saying they put their confidence in God not in the Images of God For when the Israelites had made their golden Calfe and danced about it one calfe about another they were not such beasts as to thinke that beast their God But so can Superstition besot the mind that it makes vs not men before it can wake vs Idolaters What doe they say Exod. 32.1 Make vs gods that shall go before vs. Euery word is wicked absurd sensles 1. They had seene the power of God in many miraculous deliuerances before their eyes the voice of God had scarce yet done thundering in their eares he had said I am Iehouah thou shalt haue no other gods and this they trembling heard him speake out of the midst of the flames and yet they dare speake of another god 2. The singular number would not serue them make vs gods How many gods would they haue Is there any more then one 3. Make vs gods and were not they strange gods that could bee made In stead of acknowledging God their Maker they command the making of gods 4. This charge they put vpon Aaron as if he were able to make a god Aaron might helpe to spoyle a man either himselfe or them but hee could not make a man not one haire of a man much lesse a god and yet they say to him Make vs gods 5. And what should these gods doe Goe before vs Alas how should they goe that were not able to stand how goe before others that could not moue themselues Oh the blockishnes of men that make blocks to worship Otherwise how could they that are the Images of God fall downe before the Images of creatures Wisd 13.18 For health they call vpon
not rather go home to his house Peter and Iohn went vp into the Temple at the houre of Prayer Actes 3.1 they thought it not sufficient to pray in their priuate chambers but ioyne themselues with the Congregation as a Nauy Royall to transport their holy Merchandise to heauen Psalm 134.2 Lift vp your hands in the Sanctuary and blesse the Lord. Pure hands are accepted in euery place but especially in the Sanctuary What followes The Lord that made heauen and earth blesse thee out of Sion Hee sayes not the Lord that made heauen blesse thee vpon earth nor the Lord that made earth blesse thee out of heauen but the Lord that made heauen and earth blesse thee out of Sion Blessings come originally from heauen mediately through Sion In the Temple let vs seeke in the Temple wee shall finde those precious treasures and comforts of Iesus Christ This Temple is not without some enemies Besides those prophane Polititians that thinke with one Eustathius that there is no vse of Temples or those Massilians who as Damascen reports did adde to other Heresies Templorum contemptum or those Pseudo-Apostoli that laughed at a Temple full of Suppliants as a house full of fooles Or those that bee of Ieroboams mind who to settle himselfe in the kingdome of Israel diuerts the people from Gods house at Ierusalem In stead of that snowy glittering Temple they shall haue two golden representations Sion is too farre off these shall bee neere home that is a tedious way of deuotion these both compendious and plausible Antiqu. lib. 8. cap. 3. As Iosephus brings him in perswading them My good people and friends you cannot but know that no place is without God and that no place doth containe God wheresoeuer we pray he can heare vs wheresoeuer we worship hee can see vs therefore the Temple is superfluous the iourney needlesse God is better able to come to you then you are to goe to him Beside these the Temple of God hath two kinds of foes 1. The Anabaptists tell vs that the old superstition hath made those houses fitter for Stables then for Churches that they ought no more to be called Templa Dei but Templa Idolorum as they pretend the Passeouer was called in those corrupt times Iohn 2.13 not Pascha Dei but Pascha Iudaeorum By the same reason they would haue remoued all Princes because some haue abused their gouernments But we say though euill men abuse good things yet if a kingdome were not a lawfull State Dauid and Iosias would neuer haue been Kings for good men doe not vse euill things The Temple in Christs time was become a denne of theeues yet euen then and there did hee send vp deuout and holy Prayers It is a grosse ignorance that cannot distinguish betwixt a fault that proceeds ex natura facti Th. 1. qu. 41. art 6. and that which proceeds ex abusu boni the former is malum simpliciter the other is but malum per accidens No man pulles downe his house because vncleannesse hath been committed in one of the chambers Let offenders be remoued from the Temple not the Temple demolished because of offences The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you Math. 21.43 saith Christ not quite taken away but onely taken from the Iewes When GOD threatned the like to Saul 1 Sam. 15.28 he did not meane to haue no more Kings or to reduce it to the former state of Iudges no onely the kingdome shall lose Saul but Israel shall not lose the kingdome It is a Maxime in nature Things dedicated to God are not to bee transferred to the vses of men a principle in Philosophy Plato Quae rectè data sunt eripi non licet and a prouerbe among our children To giue a thing and take a thing is fit for the Deuils darling 2. The Sacrilegious to whom God is beholding if they let his Temple stand but for the maintenance of it they will bee so bold with him as either to share halfe or leaue him none There bee many that pray in the Temple who yet also prey on the Temple as if a thiefe should doe homage to that house in the day which hee meanes to robbe in the night But alas why should I touch that sore which is all dead flesh or speake against Sacriledge In orbe sacrilego among them that delight in it Where Lawyers are feeed hired bribed to maintaine Sacriledge God and his poore Ministers may euen hold their peace Something would be spoken for Sions sake but I take this place and time for neither the right Vbi nor Quando We know Abigail would not tell Nabal of his drunkennesse till hee was awoke from his wine Whensoeuer it shall please God to awake you from this intoxication we may then find a season to speak to you But God keepe you from Nabals destiny 1 Sam. 25.37 that when this sinne shall bee obiected to your Consciences on your death-beds your hearts doe not then die in you like a stone One thing let me beg of you in the Name of him whom you thus wrong Howsoeuer you persist to robbe the Temple of the due Salary yet doe not stand to iustifie it By imploring mercy perhaps you may bee saued but by iustifying the Iniury you cannot but be lost As the French King Francis the first said to a woman kneeling and crying to him for Iustice Stand vp woman for Iustice Iowe thee if thou beg'st any thing beg mercy So if you request any thing of God let it bee mercy for he owes you Iustice and in this poynt God be mercifull to you all It was Dauids earnest prayer One thing haue I desired of the Lord Psalm 27.7 and that will I seeke after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beautie of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple There are many that pray Dauids words but not with Dauids heart Vnum petij one thing I haue desired De praeterito for the time past hoc requiram this I will still seeke after de futuro for the time to come I haue required it long and this suite I will vrge till I haue obtained it What to dwell in some of the houses of God all the dayes of my life and to leaue them to my children after me not to serue him there with deuotion but to make the place mine owne possession These loue the House of God too well they loue it to Haue and to Hold but because the Conueyance is made by the Lawyer and not by the Minister their Title will bee found naught in the end and if there bee not a Nifi prius to preuent them yet at the great day of vniuersall Audite the Iudge of all the world shal condemne them By this way the neerer to the Church the further from God The Lords Temple is ordained to gaine vs to him not for vs
externall and internall Idols there bee ordinary and extraordinary Souldiers Euery Christian as hee is a Temple of God so not without the assault of Idols there is a ciuill warre a Rebellion within him wherewith hee is continually exercised In this militant estate of the Church none are free onely he that giues full allowance to his owne corruptions is not a Temple of God but a Synagogue of Satan a sinke of vncleannesse rather then a Sanctuary of holinesse Thus from one generall arise many particulars and you will say Behold a company Gene. 30.11 as Leah said of her sonne Gad a Troupe commeth Yet all these branches haue but one root they are but like the wheeles of a Clocke taken a little in sunder to view then to bee put together againe Let not their number discourage your attention When a wealthy fauourite of the world sent his seruant to bespeake lodging for him he told the Host Here will come to night the Lord of such a Mannor the Land-lord of such a Town the Keeper of such a Forrest the Master of such an Office the Lay-parson of such a Parish a Knight a Iustice of Peace a Gentleman an Vsurer and my Master Alas answeres the Host I haue not lodging for halfe so many Bee content replies the seruant for all these are but one man So if you distrust your memories for roome to entertaine so many obseruations yet be comforted for all haue but this one Summe There is no agreement betwixt the Temple of God and Idols The Temple That which was built by Salomon was iustly called the Wonder of the world a white and glorious Monument set on the hill of Sion inuiting passengers to see it and amazing their eyes when they beheld it It was of white Marble without of Cedar and Gold within all of the best all beautifull precious durable So magnificent was that holy Structure that al nations haue admired it Psalm 48.2 all times celebrated it Beautifull for situation the ioy of the whole earth is Mount Sion While the fauour of heauen was set vpon Ierusalem the ioy of the whole earth was mount Sion It is fit hee that made the world a house for Man should haue a house in this world made for himselfe neither could it be too costly seeing all the materialls that went to it were his owne Euery rotten Cottage is too good for Satan no Fabricke could be too sumptuous for God While his people dwelt in Tents Himselfe was content to dwell in a Tabernacle in the flitting condition of Israel hee would haue his owne house a moueable that they might neuer remoue without him But when their residence was setled in the promised Land he would haue his Tabernacle turned into a Temple that they dwelling where he appoynted them Hee might also dwell among them The former was for motion the latter for rest the one for progresse the other his standing house All this while God had but one House at once first the Tabernacle then that gaue place to the Temple and Salomons Temple being defaced was supplied by Zorobabels Now he hath many houses euen so many as there bee nations as there bee congregations as there bee persons professing Christ Wee haue houses of our owne why should not God haue his A Prince hath more houses then one why should the King of Heauen be abridg'd A King in his owne person can dwell but in one house at once let God haue neuer so many hee can at once fill them all Hee hath a house of flesh so euery Beleeuer is his Temple a house of stone so this materiall one is his Temple a house neither of flesh nor stone but immateriall immortall in the heauens And as Christ sayes Iohn 14. that in his Fathers House there are many Mansions so in his Fathers militant Church there are many houses It were vaine to aske what God should doe with a house when wee consider what we do with our owne what but dwell in it But how God doth dwell in it seemes to be a question seeing the Apostle saith that hee dwells not in Temples made with hands Actes 17.24 Indeed he dwels not in them as wee dwell in ours Our house defends vs God defends his house our house comprehends vs God comprehends his house Wee are onely within our houses and they are without vs God is so within his house that hee is also without it elsewhere euery where yea his house is within him When we are abroad we cannot keepe our houses yea when wee are in them asleepe they serue to keepe vs. God can neuer be absent from his nor doth the keeper of this Temple euer sleepe Now euery materiall Temple wherein the Saints are assembled the truth of the Gospell is preached and professed the holy Sacraments duely administred and the Lords Name is inuocated and worshipped is the Temple of God Why is it called His Temple but for the testification of his presence When Cain stood excommunicated for murdering his brother and might not come to the place appointed for Gods seruice he is said to be cast out from the presence of the Lord. Genes 4.16 Some haue interpreted the like of Ionahs flying from his presence Ionah 1.3 that he fled from the place where the Prophets vsed to stand ready to besent of God Leuit. 10.2 Nadab and Abihu dyed before the Lord that is before the Altar of the Lord. That which was done before the Arke or Altar in the Tabernacle or Temple was said to be done coram Domino And yet too many come to the Temple with so little reuerence as if they thought God were not at home or did not dwell in his owne house But the Lord is present in his Temple in vaine shall wee hope to finde him elsewhere if we do not seek him here Math 18.20 I will bee in the midst of you gathered together in my Name not any where not euery where but here Indeed no place excludes him but this place is sure of him hee fills all places with his presence hee fills this with his gracious presence Heere hee both heares vs and is heard of vs Bern. Audit orantes docet audientes hee heares our prayers and teacheth vs our lessons No place sends vp faithfull prayers in vaine no place hath such a promise of hearing as the Temple It is the Lords Court of Audience his Highnesse Court of Requests There humble soules open their grieuances from thence they returne loaden with graces Why are many so voyd of goodnesse but because they are negligent of the publike deuotions They seek not the Lord where hee may bee found therefore deserue to misse him where they pretend to seek him Why should they thinke to finde God in their Closets while they care not to seeke him in his Temples When wee need the helpe of our friend do we tarry till we meet him by chance or till hee come to vs or shall wee