Holy places 1. Part. Festa wee looke first vpon the times of our meeting there Holy dayes The root of all those is the Sabboth that God planted himselfe euen in himselfe in his owne rest from the Creation But the root and those branches which grow from that root are of the same nature and the same name And therefore as well of the flower as of the root of a Rose or of a Violet we would say This is a Violet this is a Rose so as well to other Feasts of Gods institution as to the first Sabboth God giues that name hee cals those seuerall Feasts which he instituted Sabboths enioynes the same things to be done vpon them inflicts the same punishments vpon them that breake them Leuit. 23. So that there is one Moralitie that is the soule of all Sabboths of all Festiualls howsoeuer all Sabboths haue a ceremoniall part in them yet there is a Morall part that inanimates them all they are elemented of Ceremonie but they animated with Moralitie And that Moralitie is in them all Rest for if Adam could name creatures according to their nature God could name his Sabboth according to the nature of it and Sabboth is Rest It is a Rest of two kindes our rest and Gods rest Our rest is the cessation from labour on those dayes Gods rest is our sanctifying of the day for so in the religious sacrifice of Noah when hee was come out of the Arke Genes 8. God is said to haue smelt Odorem quietis the sauour of rest vpon those dayes we rest from seruing the world and God rests in our seruing of him And as God takes a tenth part of our goods in Tythes but yet he takes more too he takes Sacrifices so though he take a seuenth part of our time in the Sabboth yet he takes more too he appoints other Sabboths other Festiualls that he may haue more glory and we more Rest for all wherin those two concurre are Sabboths Vacate videte quoniam ego sum Dominus sayes God First vacate Psal 46.10 rest from your bodily labours distinguish the day and then videte come hither into the Lords presence and worship the Lord your God sanctifie the day And in all the Sabboths there is still a Cessate Leuit. 23. and a Humiliate animas bodily rest and spirituall sanctifying of the day Holy dayes then that is dayes seposed for holy vses and for the outward publike seruice of God are in Nature and in that Morall Law which is written in the heart of man That such dayes there must be is Morall and this is Morall too that all things in the seruice of God bee done in order and this also that obedience be giuen to Superiours in those things wherein they are Superiors And therfore it was to the Iewes as well Morall to obserue the certaine dayes which God had determined as to obserue any at all Not that Gods commandement limitting the dayes infused a Moralitie into those particular dayes for Moralitie is perpetuall and if that had been Morall it must haue been so before and it must bee so still Gods determining the dayes did not infuse not induce a Moralitie there but it awakened a former Moralitie that is an obedience to the commandement for that time which God had appoynted that for them for this Obedience and Order is perpetuall and so Morall We depart therfore from that error which those ancient Heretiques the Ebionites begun and some laboured to refresh in Saint Gregories time and which continues in practise in some places of the world still To obserue both the Iewes Sabbath and the Christians Satterday and Sunday too because the Sabboth is called Pactum sempiternum Exod. 31. for to that any of Saint Augustines Answeres will serue either that it is called euerlasting because it signified an euerlasting rest where be pleased to note by the way that Holy dayes Sabbaths are not onely instituted for Order but they haue their Mystery and their Signification for Holy dayes as the Text calls them there and New Moones Col. 2.16 and the Sabboth were but shadowes of things to come or else the Sabboth was called euerlasting to them because it bound them euerlastingly and they might neuer intermit it as some other ceremonies they might But their Sabboths bind not vs we depart from them who thinke so and so we doe from them who think we are bound to no Festiualls at all or at least to none but the Sabboth For God requires as much seruice from vs as from the Iewes and to them hee enlarged his Sabboths and made them diuers But those were of Gods immediat institution but all that the Iewes obserued were not so and that 's our next consideration Festiualls instituted by the Church Sine Mandato At first when God was alone it is but Faciamus let vs vs the Trinity make man This was when God was as we may say in Coelibatu But after God hath taken his spouse maried the Church then it is Cadite nobis vulpes Cant. 2.15 doe you take the little Foxes you the Church for our vines haue grapes the vines are ours yours and mine sayes Christ to the Church and therfore do you looke to them as well as I. The Tables of the law God himselfe writ and gaue them written to Moses he left none of that to him not a power to make other Lawes like those lawes but for the Tabernacle which concern'd the outward worship of God that was to be made by Moses Exod Iuxta similitudinem according to the paterne which God had shewed him God hath giuen the Church a paterne of Holy dayes in those Sabboths which hee himselfe instituted and according to the paterne the Church hath instituted more and Recte festa Ecclesiae colunt Aug. qui se Ecclesiae filios recognoscunt They who disdaine not the name of sonnes of the Church refuse not to celebrate the daies which are of the Churches institution There was no immediate commandement of God for that Holy day which Mordechai by his letters establish'd Ester 9.23 but yet the Iewes vndertooke to do as Mordechai had written to them There was no such commandement for this Holy day in the Text and yet that was obserued as long as they had any beeing And where the reason remaines the practise may The Iewes did we may institute new Holy dayes And not onely transitory daies for a present thanks giuing for a present benefit but Anniuersaries perpetuall memorials of Gods deliuerances And that 's our next step Anniuersaria Both the Holy dayes which we named before which were instituted with out speciall Commaundement from God were so That of Mordechai he commanded to be kept euery yeare for two dayes and this in the Text Iudas Maccabeus commanded to be kept yearely for eight dayes which was more then was appoynted to any of the Holy dayes instituted by God himselfe for
Encaenia THE FEAST OF DEDICATION CELEBRATED AT LINCOLNES INNE in a Sermon there vpon Ascension day 1623. At the Dedication of a new Chappell there Consecrated by the Right Reuerend Father in God the Bishop of LONDON Preached by IOHN DONNE Deane of St. PAVLS LONDON Printed by AVG. MAT. for THOMAS IONES and are to bee sold at his Shop in the Strand at the blacke Rauen neere vnto Saint Clements Church 1623. TO THE MASTERS OF THE BENCH AND the rest of the Honourable Societie of LINCOLNES INNE IT pleased you to exercise your interest in me and to expresse your fauour to mee in inuiting mee to preach this Sermon and it hath pleased you to doe both ouer againe in inuiting me to publish it To this latter seruice I was the more inclinable because though in it I had no occasion to handle any matter of Controuersie betweene vs and those of the Romane Perswasion yet the whole body and frame of the Sermon is opposed against one pestilent calumny of theirs that wee haue cast off all distinction of places and of dayes and all outward meanes of assisting the deuotion of the Congregation For this vse I am not sorry that it is made publique for I shall neuer bee sorry to appeare plainly and openly and directly without disguise or modification in the vindicating of our Church from the imputations and calumnies of that Aduersary If it had no publique vse yet I should satisfie my selfe in this that it is done in obedience to that which you may call your Request but I shall call your Commandement vpon Your very humble Seruant in Christ Iesus IOHN DONNE The Prayer before the Sermon O Eternall and most gracious God Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and in him of all those that are his As thou diddest make him so much ours as that he became like vs in all things sinne onely excepted make vs so much his as that we may be like him euen without the exception of sinne that all our sinnes may bee buryed in his wounds and drowned in his Blood And as this day wee celebrate his Ascension to thee bee pleased to accept our endeauour of conforming our selues to his patterne in raysing this place for our Ascension to him Leane vpon these Pinnacles O Lord as thou diddist vpon Iacobs Ladder and hearken after vs. Bee this thine Arke and let thy Doue thy blessed Spirit come in and out at these Windowes and let a full pot of thy Manna a good measure of thy Word and an effectuall preaching thereof bee euermore preserued and euermore bee distributed in this place Let the Leprosie of Superstition neuer enter within these Walles nor the hand of Sacriledge euer fall vpon them And in these walles to them that loue Profit and Gaine manifest thou thy selfe as a Treasure and fill them so To them that loue Pleasure manifest thy selfe as Marrow and Fatnesse and fill them so And to them that loue Preferment manifest thy selfe as a Kingdome and fill them so that so thou mayest bee all vnto all giue thy selfe wholly to vs all and make vs all wholly thine Accept our humble thanks for all c. IOHN 10.22 And it was at Ierusalem the Feast of the Dedication and it was Winter and Iesus walked in the Temple in Salomons Porch SAint Basill in a Sermon vpon the 114. Psalme Basill vpon the like occasion as drawes vs together now The consecration of a Church makes this the reason and the excuse of his late comming thither to doe that Seruice that he stayd by the way to consecrate another Church I hope euery person heere hath done so consecrated himselfe who is a Temple of the Holy Ghost before hee came to assist or to testifie the consecration of this place of the Seruice of God Bern. Ser. 1. Nostra festiuitas haec est quia de Ecclesia nostra sayes Saint Bernard This Festiuall belongs to vs because it is the consecration of that place which is ours Magis autem nostra quia de nobis ipsis But it is more properly our Festiuall because it is the consecration of our selues to Gods seruice For Sanctae Animae propter inhabitantem Spiritum your Soules are holy by the inhabitation of Gods holy spirit who dwells in them Sancta corpora propter inhabitantem animam Your Bodies are holy by the inhabitation of those sanctified Soules Sancti parietes propter Corpora Sanctorum These walles are holy because the Saints of God meet here within these walls to glorifie him But yet these places are not onely consecrated sanctified by your comming but to bee sanctified also for your comming that so as the Congregation sanctifies the place the place may sanctifie the Congregation too They must accompany one another holy persons and holy places If men would wash sheep in the Baptisterie in the Font those sheep were not christned If prophane men or idolatrous men pray here after their way their prayers are not sanctified by the place Neither if it be after polluted doth the place retain that sanctitie which is this day to be deriued vpon it and to bee imprinted in it Our Text settles vs vpon both these considerations The holy place Diuisie and the holy person It was the Feast of the Dedication there 's the holinesse of the place And the holy person was holinesse it selfe in the person of Christ Iesus who walked in the Temple in Salomons Porch These two will bee our two parts And the first of these wee shall make vp of these pieces First we shall see a lawfull vse of Feasts of Festiuall dayes And then of other Feasts then were instituted by God himselfe diuers were so this was not And thirdly not only a festiuall solemnizing of some one thing at some one time for the present but an Anniuersary returning to that solemnitie euery yeare And lastly in that first part this Festiuall in particular The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple that sanctified the place that shall determine that part In the second part The holinesse of the person we shall carry your thoughts no farther but vpon this That euen this holy person Iesus himselfe would haue recourse to this place thus dedicated thus sanctified And vpon this that hee would doe that especially at such times as hee might countenance and authorise the Ordinances and Institutions of the Church which had appointed this Festiuall And this sayes the Text he did in the Winter First Et si Hiems though it were Winter hee came and walked in the Porch a little inconuenience kept him not off And Quia Hiems because it was Winter he walked in the Porch which was couered not in the Temple which was open So that heere with modestie and without scandall he condemned not the fauouring of a mans health euen in the Temple And it was at Ierusalem the Feast of the Dedication and it was Winter and Iesus walked in the Temple in Salomons Porch In our first part
the Festiuall alone According to which paterne Felix one Bishop of Rome ordained that the Festiuals of the Dedication of Churches should bee yearely celebrated in those places Greg. and another extended the Festiuall to eight dayes at least at the first dedication thereof if not euery yeare that God might not onely be put into the possession of the place but setled in it God by Moses made the children of Israel a Song because as hee sayes Deut. 31.19 howsoeuer they did by the Law they would neuer forget that Song that Song should be his witnesse against them Therefore would God haue vs institute solemne memorialls of his great deliuerances that if when those dayes come about we doe not glorifie him that might aggrauate our condemnation Euery fift of August the Lord rises vp to hearken whether we meet to glorifie him for his great deliuerance of his Maiesty before he blest vs with his presence in this Kingdome and when he finds vs zealous in our thankes for that he giues vs farther blessings Certainly he is vp as early euery fift of Nouember to hearken if we meet to glorifie him for that deliuerance still and if hee should finde our zeale lesse then heretofore hee would wonder why Gods principall his radicall Holy day the Sabboth had a weekly returne his other Sabbaths instituted by himselfe and those which were instituted by those paternes that of Mordechai that of the Maccabees those of the Christian Church They all return once a yeare God would keepe his Courts once a yeare and see whether wee make our apparances as heeretofore that if not hee may know it Feastes in generall Feastes instituted by the Church alone Feasts in their yearely returne and obseruation haue their vse and particularly those Feasts of the Dedication of Churches which was properly and literally the Feast of this Text. It was the Feast of Dedication Encaeuia As it diminishes not preiudices not Gods Eternitie that wee giue him his Quando certaine times of Inuocation God is not the lesse yesterday Temple and to day and the same for euer because wee meet here to day and not yesterday so it diminishes not preiudices not Gods Vbiquitie and Omnipresence that wee giue him his Vbi certaine places for Inuocation That 's not the lesse true that the most High dwells not in Temples made with handes Acts 7.48 though God accept at our hands our dedication of certaine places to his seruice manifest his working more effectually more energetically in those places then in any other for when we pray Our Father which art in Heauen It is not sayes Saint Chrysostome that wee deny him to bee heere Chrysostome where wee kneele when we say that Prayer but it is that we acknowledge him to be there where he can graunt and accomplish our prayer It is as Origen hath very well expressed it Origen Vt in melioribus mundi requiramus Deum That still wee looke for God in the best places looke for him as he heares our petitions here in the best places of this world in his House in the Church looke for him as he graunts our petition in the best place of the next world at the right hand and in the bosome of the Father Deut. 30.13 When Moses sayes that the word of God is not beyond Sea he addes It is not so beyond Sea as that thou must not haue it without sending thither When he sayes there it is not in heauen he adds not so in heauen as that one must goe vp before hee can haue it The word of God is beyond Sea the true word truly preached in many true Churches there but yet we haue it here within these Seas too God is in Heauen but yet hee is here within these walles too And therefore the impietie of the Manicheans exceeded all the Gentiles who concluded the God of the Old Testament to be an impotent an vnperfect God because hee commaunded Moses first to make him a Tabernacle and then Salomon to make him a Temple as though he needed a House God does not need a house but man does need that God should haue a House And therefore the first question that Christs first Disciples asked of him was Magister vbi habitas they would know his standing house where he hath promised to bee alwaies within and where at the ringing of the Bell some body comes to answere you to take your errand to offer your Prayers to God to returne his pleasure in the preaching of his Word to you The many and heauy Lawes with which sacred and secular stories abound against the prophanation of places appropriated to Gods seruice and that religious custome that passed almost through all ciuill Nations that an oath which was the bond between man and man had the stronger Obligation if that were taken in the Church in the presence of God for such was the practise of Rome towards her enemies Tango aras mediosque ignes to make their vowes of hostility in the Church and at time of diuine Seruice and such is their practise still they seale their Treasons in the Sacrament such was Romes practise towards others and such was the practise of others towards Rome for so Anniball sayes that his father Amilcar swore him at the Altar that he should neuer bee reconciled to Rome And such is your practise still as often as you meet here you renew your band to God that you will neuer bee reconciled to the Superstitions of Rome all these and all such as these and such as these are infinite heap vp testimonies that euen in Nature there is a disposition to apply and appropriate certaine places to Gods seruice And this impression in nature is illustrated in the Law as the time so the place is distinguished Yee shall keepe my Sabboths Leui. 19.30 there is the time and you shall reuerence my Sanctuary there is the place But that they may be reuerenced that they may bee Sanctuaries they are to be sanctified and that 's the Encaenia the Dedication Euen in those things which accrue vnto God and become his Encaenia by another title then as he is Lord of all by Creation that is by appropriation by dedication to his vse and Seruice There is a Lay Dedication and an Ecclesiasticall Dedication I hope the distinction of Laytie and Clergie the words scandalize no man Luther and Caluin too might haue iust cause to decline the words as they did when so much was ouer-attributed to that Clergie which they intend as that they were so Sors Domini the Lords portion as that the world had no portion in them and yet they had the greatest portion of the world and howe little soeuer they had to doe with God yet no State no King might haue any thing to doe with them But as long as we declare that by the Layetie we intend the people glorifying God in their secular callings