Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
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A52086
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A sermon of simony & sacriledge by Edward Marston.
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Marston, Edward.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing M814; ESTC R26803
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14,579
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26
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Truth Prayer testifieth that we acknowledge his Goodness to be the only Fountain of all Blessings Preaching bringeth Knowledge without which Devotion is Blind Prayer exerciseth Devotion without which Knowledge is Lame and Unprofitable The own soweth the Seed the other fetcheth a shower of Graces from Heaven to make it grow By Preaching God doth serve us with that Heavenly Manna the Food of our Souls by Prayer we do serve God which is the End of all our Preaching Be it far from us then to make a Divorce between these two which can so well agree Secondly That these Sacred means might take effect in working Holiness in the Church of God he hath Sanctify'd and set apart in the second Rank Time Place and Person for the Ministry of the Word Prayer and Sacraments For Time he hath selected the Lord's Day for Place the Temple for Persons the Clergy 1. The Lord's Day Sanctify'd or set apart from common use to God's Service is then devour'd when it is Prophan'd by weekly Business or lewd Sports The Ends why the Lord's Day was Ordain'd are these 1. For the Exercise of all Duties of Piety in Publick especially 2. For the Practice of all Duties of Charity and Piety 3. To remember the great Works of God especially of the Creation and Redemption of the World And if in every Week or Month or Year we should set some time apart to Commemorate God's Mercy in all his other Acts of Gracious Providence belonging to our Preservation it would be no Superstition but an Act of Piety in any single Christian or if Authority should think good in any Publick Society of them So likewise the Birth Passion Ascension of Christ the Descent of the Spirit the Birth or Martyrdom of the Apostles and Saints of Scripture and any remarkable temporal Deliverance or by proportion also any matter of Humiliation any Sin or Judgment on a Kingdom will by the example of God himself both in this Fourth Commandment and in other Feasts and Fasts of the Church prescribed by him be resolv'd to be fit Seasons and Opportunities to Consecrate some considerable part of our time to God 2. The Holiness of the Place is devoured when the Temple of God is made an Exchange John 2.16 I mean not only the Temple at Hierusalem but every place Consecrated to God's Worship is Holy and therefore saith the Apostle not to be Prophan'd by common Employments 1 Cor. 11.22 Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God 3. Sanctify'd Persons set apart for the Ministry of the Gospel are devour'd a thousand ways yea rather than fail we our selves will devour our selves That unhappy Faction amongst us about Mint and Annice had brought such a Snare upon this Church as if God's especial Providence had not preserved us the Papist on the one side and the prophane Atheist on the other had devour'd both sides with open Mouth Verily 't is a Snare to devour any thing that is Sanctified But yet I am not come to the chief part of my Text. As the Sacred Ordinance of God the Word and Sacraments cannot be Ministred without convenient Time Place and Person set apart for that purpose So neither can Place nor Person be fit for that Ministry without convenient Maintenance Wherefore God of his Goodness out of those Temporal Blessings in abundance bestowed upon the Sons of Men hath resum'd a Portion for this purpose Which Portion is said in my Text to be Sanctified because 't is set apart from common use to the Maintenance of God's Service For 't is laid down for a Principle in Levit. 27.28 Every thing separate from common use is holy to the Lord So that where the Scripture speaketh of this Portion there to be separate and to be Holy be Synonima diverse Terms expressing one and the self-same thing These ly open to be devour'd by Covetous and Needy Persons these be alluring Baits to entice a Man to devour them but Solomon giveth us a Caveat that under this Bait there lieth an Hook to ensnare the Conscience of the Devourer so as he may swallow the Bait and wound himself Win the World and lose his Soul Be it far from me to ensnare the Judgment of the Weak or any ways to darken the Truth by Ceremonial or Levitical Shadows I know where I speak in the Presence of God and of those who are able to discern and judge what I say Give me leave to enlighten my self in the unfolding of this Text so far only as the Moral Law of God which is perpetual and the Evidence of his Gospel do second the same That Precept of Wisdom to her Son in this Book Chap. 3. ver 9. Honour God with thy substance albeit she had written it in the Hearts of Men by Nature Yet she had need to renew it since many endeavour to blot it out For 't is a conceit commonly conceiv'd that for those Temporal Blessings we possess if we use them soberly without excess justly without oppression of others and charitably with some portion relieve the Poor we are thereby discharged as if no part thereof was due to God or did any wise appertain to the first Table The Nicodemites were content to become Christians thus far that they would give their Hearts unto Christ so they might dispose of their Bodies as occasion serv'd These go a degree farther They will Worship God in Soul and Body both That of the abundance of the heart the Mouth may speak the Knee bow the Hands and Eyes be lifted up But for Honouring God in their Riches they think 't is more than needs They will offer to God the Oblations of their Hearts and Calves of their Lips too but not of their Stalls We will go with the Wise Men saith St. Bernard to seek Christ from the East yea we will fall down and worship him but we be grown too wise to open our Treasuries that is the renting of our Hearts we cannot endure to be ty'd unto it If St. Paul therefore will make Agrippa a Christian he must except these Bands too But God will not release us For as God is the owner and giver of all Sacrum vectigal Calvin in Heb. 1.4 so he will be acknowledged by a Sacred Rent to be Lord of all He gave Blessing to Abraham Abraham repay'd part in acknowledgment of that gift Gen. 14.20 The Land of Canaan was given unto his Posterity but that Sacred Tribute was reserv'd as Holy to the Lord. For want of the payment whereof God doth often distrain and re-enter upon his own restraining the influence of the Heaven and the sap of the Earth as Mal. 3.10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing c. Therefore the Windows of Heaven were shut before because this Duty
A SERMON OF Simony Sacriledge 'T is not to be forgotten tho' it be forgotten that whoever gave any Lands or Endowments to the Service of God gave it in a formal Writing as now adays betwixt Man and Man Sealed and Witnessed and the tender of the Gift was Super Altare by the Donor on his Knees Deo Ecclesiae Bp. Andrew 's Notes upon the Liturgy By EDWARD MARSTON an unworthy Priest of the Church of England sometime of Whitby in York-shire Ne diutina injustitiae impunitas amplius inolesceret accingam me viriliter stabo pro Castris Ecclesiae Clamare non cessabo quasi Tuba exaltabo vocem meam annunciabo populo scelera eorum raptoribus Ecclesiasticarum Possessionum peccata eorum Sanctus Theodardus Episcopus Trajectensis Martyr c. LONDON Printed for the Author 1699. PROVERBS XX. Verse XXV It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make enquiry MY Author telleth me in the Twentyfifth Chapter of this Book and the Eleventh Verse That A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver That is as the outside is Beautiful so the inside is far more precious as Gold excelleth Silver So are the words of Wisdom every where glorious yet being fitted with Time and Season they have an inward and secret Operation far more forceable and effectual than otherwise they would They be apples of gold with pictures of silver Now as these Silver Pictures I mean the Ornaments of Speech are not to be neglected so the Golden Substance which by a secret Opperation is directed to the Heart and Conscience is every where to be preferr'd Wherefore when I gave all diligence to speak unto you not only things profitable for Christians but seasonable for the Times we live in I was directed to this Choice concerning the Profanation of things Hallow'd and the dangers thereupon ensuing Towards the unfolding whereof I am depriv'd of that usual help which other Scriptures do afford Namely that current of Speech and sequel of Argument whereby one Sentence doth follow upon another in so good Consequence that the occasion and premises of the place do serve for a Key to open our Text But these Proverbs be certain Drops of Divine Wisdom or Golden Apples you may call them each making an entire Globe or Ball within it self whereof this is one We may divide it in the midst First The one half compasseth him in the Snare of Destruction who spoileth God of his Right in Hallowed things The Second Catcheth him who seeketh occasion to unwind himself out of those Vows which are solemnly made before unto God wherein the more he struggleth the faster he tieth himself For the first word is indifferently apply'd unto both parts and so make a double snare Laqueus est devorare sacrum Laqueus est post vota inquirere This kind of sanctify'd things intended by Solomon is by consent of all Expositors taken to be an inferior Degree whereunto we may descend by these few steps 1. That Sacred Majesty of God which is Holiness it self in the Abstract is then prophan'd by Man as much as in him lieth and injur'd in the highest degree when 't is Blasphem'd This is Destruction in it self with God who raineth Snairs upon such for their Portion and their Arrows shot against Heaven fall back upon their own pates And it were to be wished that this was also a snare of Destruction amongst Men. For Nature hath so prescribed and graven it in the Hearts of Men from the Beginning that Blasphemy is punishable by Death That Cursed Speech of Job's Wife Curse God and dye Job 2.9 was grounded upon a common receiv'd Maxim in that time of Nature that a Blasphemer must not live And that Heathenish King Nebuchadnezzar had no sooner acknowledg'd the Love of God but made a Decree that whosoever Blasphemed should die a violent Death But admit there be no such Law establisht and that upon this Charitable supposition that a Christian Kingdom will breed no such Monsters Shall this be imputed for a Want Not until those Monsters appear For in the Commonwealth of Israel there was no positive Law against Blasphemy until such time as a Blasphemer was discover'd Levit. 24.14 and then upon that occasion the Law was made So if this wicked Age wherein we live shall bring forth such Miscreants and execrable Wretches as shall dare to breath direct Blasphemy against the God of Heaven to the utter dividing and deing of him then I take it to be a thing not unworthy the highest Consultation whether that Judicial Law of God be a Pattern for us in this Kind For if we add to the Law of God concerning Theft for the better preservation of the Publick Peace let us not diminish the Law of the same God for the preservation of that Sacred Name whereupon the Publick Good both of Church and State doth immediately depend If the Civil Magistrate doth carry a Sword and not in vain not a Rod for Correction only but a Sword to punish with Death then let not that Sin which by the general consent of all Divines is of all Sins absolutely the greatest escape the edge of the Sword Thus much is inferr'd upon neccessary implication That 't is destruction in the highest degree to Prophane Holiness it self Yet this is not intended by the direct meaning of this Text. 2. As God is Holiness in himself so hath it pleas'd him to Communicate the same to his Church to make her not only a Catholick but an Holy Church To this end hath he Sanctify'd special Means that is separated them or set them apart from common use to effect Holiness in the Hearts of the People whereof there be Three Degrees First The Word and Prayer together with the Administration of the Sacraments have the first place wherefore the Arch-Ministers of the Gospel the Twelve Apostles leaving all other Business gave themselves to Prayer and the Administration of the Word Act. 6.4 To devour these is apparent Destruction For where these be wanting the People must needs perish Prov. 29.8 Yet such is the Malice and subtilty of the Serpent that rather than this shall stand entire he will so work that one shall devour another The time was when Prayer being turn'd into a Mass and the Mass into an Idol did swallow up the Preaching of the Word The time is that Preaching hath well-nigh swallow'd up Prayer as if there was nothing Holy in the Church but a Sermon Such is the Peevishness of our Corrupt Nature that where God hath combined such a lovely pair of Vertues together we cannot lean to the one but we must despise the other Whereas indeed there is such a sweet Concord and Harmony between them that whoso despiseth the one shall be depriv'd of the Comfort of the other They be the Ascending and Descending Angels of Commerce between God and us The Word teacheth us to know his