Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A13317
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De templis, a treatise of temples wherein is discovered the ancient manner of building, consecrating, and adorning of churches.
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R. T.
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1638
(1638)
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STC 23625; ESTC S101632
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37,477
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250
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carried any further Heretiques Pagans Jewes publique robbers and such as committed their offence within the Temple were not suffered to enjoy these priviledges Nor were the Laytie onely prohibited but Clergy men also by an ancient Councell were forbidden to pollute the holy Temple by taking their Servants or Schollers from the Church to which they flew to escape punishment Quod si fecerit saies the Councell à loco cui honorem non dederit segregetur let him bee suspended and cast out from that place which he so lightly esteemed and indeed by this and the like outrages of passionate men the Majesty of the Sacred Temple is not alittle violated this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 21. 28. as the Scripture speakes to he have your selfe in the Church no otherwise than in a common and profane house Other priviledges which Almighty God hath honoured his Church withall far exceed these he has pleased to grant to penitent sinners that come thither confessing and bewailing their sins forgivenesse of them though they come as black as Ravens they shall returne as white as Doves He hath placed in it his holy Angels to be its guard and at the ministration of the holy Communion no man doubteth of their especiall attendance Nay it hath pleased God to honour his Temple with miracles Gregory Nazienzen tels of one wrought upon his owne Orat. 2. in laudē Sororis sister who was a woman saies hee so holy as blessed soules departed shee came into the Church and leaning her head against the Altar her eyes being full of teares uttered these words with a sweet confidence in her God I will never depart one foot from this place unlesse I be healed from my disease and shee was immediatly healed thus he But we must not therefore expect the like miracles to be wrought in ours Divina In Epist ad cler Hipp. voluntas sicut hominibus ita etiam locis pro suo libitu distribuit sanctitates gratias saies Saint Angustin God works miracles when and where hee pleases He hath blessed our Temples with what is greater than a miracle t is a harder thing to have the diseases of the soule than of the body healed Repentance is the greatest cure that can bee wrought It is a far greater miracle for a sinner to be converted than for water to bee turned into wine CHAP. XXIV Of the right use of Temples and how they are abused THose men surely make right good use of the Church who make it the object of their bounty and munificence in building repairing beautifying or adding any ornament unto it And the like doe they who often frequent it confessing and bewailing their sins receive the holy Sacraments heare the Word of God or doe any other Christian and religious duty in it The ancient Christians when they came to any place were wont first of all to visit the Churches into which they entred with all reverent and decent behaviour humbly saluting the God of the Temple by some devout prayer The holy Fathers held their Councels and Synods in the Temples So we read that the Generall Nicen Councell was held in the chief Temple at Nice c. Euseb de vit Const lib. 3. In them also Kings and Emperours receive their Crowns as it were acknowledging their honour to bee immediatly received from God But there is nothing so cleane that we have not polluted nothing so holy that our bold wickednes hath not violated The sacred majesty of the Temple hath experience of this truth which is abused and profaned even by those men who by sacred office are bound to reprove the abuses offered by others Such are they who serve themselves and not the Altar who seek riches honours ease and pleasure in it and not the glory of God and the salvation of the soules committed to their charge And those who whilst they seeme to adorne Churches doe vilely deface them with painting Lions Unicorns c. in such uncivill and unseemely sort that chast and modest eyes dare scarcely looke on them Mehaps the Homily that speakes against outragious decking of Churches meanes this And those also abuse the Temple who suffer it to bee foule and unclean the sacred vessels to be base and vile who seldome come thither as if it were only built for Swallows Sparrows to inhabit who doe not seriously confesse their sins and intend to lead a new life but come to the Church like men that enter into a bath but wash not returning fouler than they came being infected with the soile filth of others Those also are guilty of this sin who come thither to shew their rich sumptuous apparell and new fashions as it were presenting a show in the theater And those who behave not themselves in it with all lowly reverence as the holinesse and majesty of the place requires and the examples of blessed Saints teachs us S. Elizabeth who was a kings daughter is reported to have put off her Crown when she entred into the Temple saying it was not decent for her to weare a crown of gold in that place where her Saviour was presented to her with a crowne of thornes We read of divers whom God hath most severely punished for abusing his Temple S. Chrysostom Orat. in Gentil has this story of Julian and Felix who somtimes were Christians but for the favour of Julian the Emperour forsooke Christ These men by the command of the Emperour entred the Temple built by Constantine at Antioch Julian contumeliously polluted the Altar and with contempt sate down upon the sacred vessels Felix seeing the rich Ornaments of the Church look ye quoth he with what state Maries Son is served But Julians bowels shortly after rotted and his excrements came forth at his mouth and Felix miserably died streames of blood issuing out of his blasphemous mouth Many other lamentable stories might bee recited of others who have wronged and abused the sacred Temples or any way violated them by taking away their possessions So true is that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. Hee that destroyes the Temple him will God destroy CHAP. XXV Of the rewards which such receive who build and adorn Churches IF that man that for Gods sake gives but a cup of cold water shal receive a reward Lord what reward shall they receive whose pious munificence has erected or adorned a Temple Whilst they live here great honours shall seek and find them and sacred History shall for the ioy and delight of all future ages embalme them with the precious oyntment of a good name When the royall deeds of our deere Soveraignes blessed reigne shall be delivered to posterity his magnificent piety his care and religious diligence in building adorning sacred Temples must needs take up a great part in the story Who knowes whether this little Treatise plus uno maneat perenne saeclo may after a long and vile neglect be again brought to light and perpetuate the honorable acts and pious munificence of Sr Paul Pindar at whose sole costs and charges a great part of that ancient structure dedicated to the memory of S. Paul in London was repaired the Quire beautified with guildings and paintings and stately adorned with rich hangings The parish Church where he dwels and other private Churches greatly enriched by his bounty Nor shall the piety of Sr Jo Wolstenholm ever be forgotten who at the pious request of the yong Knight his son hath adorned Stanmore the place of his birth with a beautifull and comely Church erected from the very foundation at his great cost Little did that good Euseb 10. c. 4. Bishop Paulinus Bishop of Tyre by whose meanes and procurement the famous Temple at Tyre in Phenicia was built little I say did he think that the whole current of the Oration should be diverted to him when in the solemne assembly of many other Bishops the Preacher began thus O ye friends and Priests of the most high God which are beautified with holy robes and the heavenly crown of glory And thou the ornament of the new and holy Temple to whom God himselfe hath granted this great honour that thou shouldst on earth build his house well may we call thee another Beseleel chief builder of Gods Tabernacle a Salomon a new Zerobabel who hast added greater glory to the Temple than it had before c. We read of memorable victories obteined by such men as have beene builders of Temples Justinian the Emperor as is by some observed recovered all Asia formerly lost by the Romans shortly after hee had dedicated a Church to the memory of our blessed Lady It may seeme strange to some that we should put riches among the rewards which builders receive for it has ever beene a common opinion that building is the speediest way to waxe poore but it fareth other wise with such as build Temples themselves have confest that their riches have not decreased the more they dedicated to God the richer still they grew The pious Lady Helena mother to the Emperour Constantine built many Churches Yea even in her old age shee undertooke a religious journey to the holy Land for the same purpose and there erected two Temples to the honour of God the one at Bethlem the other upon the Mount of Olives certainly God rewarded her according to her works She lived alwaies in great happinesse and prosperity to the age of 80 years and then in the presence of her son who was the most potent Prince in the whole world amidst her grand-children sprung from Royall blood she expired her blessed soule in such a happy manner that it could not be esteemed a death but rather a changing of a fraile mutable life for eternall and celestiall glory Many more rewards doe they receive in this world as health of body a quiet and happy life adorned with chastity and all other virtues and lastly a most blessed death after which they doe receive eternall and unspeakable joyes THE END
145. 18 God alike in everie place is neere to them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth But surely the former reasons seriously pondered may serve to stirre up in our soules more fervency and devotion in prayer CHAP. IX Of the Rites and Ceremonies used at the Dedication of Heathen Temples THe Dedication makes the edifice a Temple many Palaces and profane buildings have the like situation and figure yet are not Temples because not consecrated to God That we Christians may learne even from the vaine superstition of the Heathen with what reverence the places dedicated to the true God are to be used we intend first to speak of the Dedication of Heathen Temples Before they began to build the limits and bounds of the ground were determined and designed and this they called effari Templum Varro Fest Pomp. vel sistere Fanum all which was most religiously and carefully performed by the supestitious ceremonies of the Augures After this they began to build and when the building was finished the founders dedicated them to some God to whom by vow they had formerly bound themselfes to erect them Lastly followed the Consecration or Inauguration by the Soothsayers after whose auguries they were accounted most sacred and unlesse all their rites and ceremonies had passed they were not called Temples and this is the difference made of Templum and Aedes sacra in Lib. 14. cap. 7. Aulus Gellius Tacitus hath this relation lib 4. of Jupiter Capitolius Temple when it was re-edified by Vespasian The Emperour saith hee committed the whole care of the businesse to Lucius Vestinus a Gentleman in Rome of great note Vestinus diligently consults the Augures they command that all the rubbish of the former Temple bee first carried into the marish grounds then that the Temple be built in the selfe-same limits in which it formerly had stood for the Gods say they love no new fashions All this being done on the eleventh of the Calends of July being a very faire day the space of ground whereon the Temple should stand was all bedecked and adorned with garlands and ribbins and the Souldiers whose names were accounted fortunate and lucky entered in upon it with greene boughes in their hands Then followed the Vestall Nunnes with boyes and girles whose fathers and mothers were then living and all besprinckl'd the ground with faire river waters After these came Plautus Aelian the high Priest whom Helvidius Priscus the Pretor of the City follwed and he Consecrated the ground with Sacrifices of Bulls and Oxen which he offered on an Altar of greene turf imploring Jupiter Juno Pallas and the other Gods which were presidents of the Empire and Tutular of cheir City that they would please to prosper their beginnings and by their divine help assist the piety of mortall men in the erection of their owne house then tooke hee a ribbin into his hands which was tyed to a great stone to which were also fastned many ropes which the Priests the Magistrates Senators Gentlemen and divers of the common people laying hold on with great joy drew the first stone into the foundation after which they cast many great lumps of untried Gold and Silver for the Augures had stricktly commanded that onely the Primitiae Metallorum the oare of metals which never came in the furnace should bee cast in lest the worke should bee profaned by any oblation which had formerly beene destined to any other use Thus farre Tacitus Divers other Authors report the like solemnities at the Dedication of other Lib. 6. cap. 14. Lib. 19. Temples as Alexander ab Alexandro Livie and Dio Cass who tells of Lib. 60 great feasting when the Temple which Tiberius dedicated to Livia was Consecrated Tiberius feasted all the Senators Livia their wives and other matrons of Rome Wee read also in holy Scripture with what solemnity the Golden Statue of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. was erected Others speake of Masques and Playes and other pompeous shewes used by the Heathen at the Consecration of their Temples And they are said to have beene so strict and curious in observing the rites of Dedication that they would rather build the Temple anew than any whit commit an errour in the observance of them CHAP. X. Of the Dedication of the Iewes Temples THe solemnities used by the Jewes at the Dedication of their Altars before the written Law are copiously set downe in the sacred Scriptures In them wee also read of the great gifts and oblations offered by the Hebrew Princes under the Law at the Dedication of their Tabernacle when it was anointed all over with an oyntment of a most fragrant smell In them wee read of Num. 7 the burnt offrings and peace offrings offered by David on the Altar which he built unto the Lord in the threshing floore of Araunah the 2 Sā 24. Jebusite Of the great rejoycing that was at the Dedication of the Temple after it was reedified by Cyrus how they kept the day holy on which it was dedicated Macch. 4. how they adorned the fore-front of the Temple with golden Crownes and Shields and Judas and his brethren and the rest of the Congregation ordained that the dayes of the Dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from yeare to yeare for the space of eight dayes with great mirth and gladnesse which very solemnities were kept and observed in our Saviours time as appeares by Saint Johns Iohn 10. 22. Gospell But above all the rites and solemnities used by the Jewes those used by Salomon at the first Dedication of the Temple are most remarkable When the building 1 Reg 8. was quite finished he first assembled the Elders of Israel and all the heads of the Tribes the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel to bring the Ark of the Covenant out of Sion the City of David Then the Priests tooke up the Ark and brought it and the Tabernacle and the holy vessells into the Temple with all the religious pomp that might be and placed the Arke of the Covenant in the most holy place of the Temple called the Oracle King Salomon himselfe kneeling meekly on his knees prayes to God before the Altar beseeching him to remember the word which hee spake to his servant David that hee would dwell on earth with his people And to heare in Heaven and to forgive the sinnes of his people Israel which should pray and make supplications in that house After this hee rose up and spreading forth his hands to Heaven hee stood and blessed all the Congregation Lastly he offered two and twenty thousand Oxen and an hundred and twentie thousand sheep And God himselfe crowned these religious solemnities with his most sacred presence in a glorious Cloud So that the Priest could not stand to minister because of the Cloud for the glorie of the LORD had filled the house and this glorious splendour all the people beheld as Serm.