gratae and for singing in Churches which in that place of Caluin cannot be only meant of Psalmes for it was of that manner of singing which being formerly in vse in the Easterne churches S. Ambrose in his time brought into the Church of Millan and so it was deriud ouer the Western churches which was the modulation and singing of Versicles and Antiphons and the like this singing sayes Caluin was in vse amongst the Apostles themselues Et sanctissimum saluberimum est institutum l. 3.20 § 32. It was a most holy and most profitable Institution Still consider Consecration to be a Christning of the place and though we find them often called Templa propter Sacrificia for our sacrifices of praier and of praise of the merits of Christ and often called Ecclesiae ad conciones Churches in respect of congregations for preaching and often call'd Martyria for preseruing with respect and honor the bodies of Martyrs and other Saints of God there buried often often by other names Dominica Basilica and the like yet the name that God gaue to his house is not Concionatorium nor Sacramentarium but Oratorium the House of Prayer And therefore without preiudice to the other functions too for as there is a vae vpon me Si non Euangelizauero If I preach not my selfe so may that vae be multiplied vpon any who would draw that holy ordinance of God into a dis-estimatiō or into a slacknesse let vs neuer intermit that dutie to present our selues to God in these places though in these places there bee then no other Seruice but Common prayer For then doth the House answere to that name which God hath giuen it if it be a house of Prayer Modus Thus then were these places to receiue a double Dedication a Dedication which was a Donation from the Patron a Dedication which was a consecration from the Bishop for to his person and to that ranke in the Hierarchy of the Church the most ancient Canons limited it and to those purposes which wee haue spoken of of which Prayer is so farre from being none as that there is none aboue it A little should be said before wee shut vp this part of the manner the forme of Consecrations In which in the Primitiue Church assoone as Consecrations came into free vse they were full of Ceremonies And many of those Ceremonies deriu'd from the Iewes and not vnlawfull for that The Ceremonies of the Iewes which had their foundation in the prefiguration of Christ and were types of him were vnlawfull after Christ was come because the vse of them then implyed a deniall or a doubt of his being come But those Ceremonies which though the Iewes vsed them had their foundation in Nature as bowing of the knee lifting vp the eyes and hands and many very many others which either testified their deuotion that did them or exalted their deuotion that sawe them done are not therefore excluded the Church because they were in vse amongst the Iewes That Pope whom we named before Hyginus the eighth after Saint Peter he instituted Ne Basilica sine Missa consecretur That no Church bee consecrated without a Masse If this must binde vs to a Masse of the present Romane Church it were hard and yet not very hard truely for they are easily had But that word Masse is in Saint Ambrose in Saint Augustine in some very ancient Councels and surely intends nothing to this purpose but the Seruice the Common Prayer of the Church then in vse there And when the Bishop Panigarola sayes in his Sermon vpon Whitsunday that the Holy Ghost found the blessed Virgin and the Apostles at Masse I presume hee meanes no more then that they were mett at such publique Prayer as at those times they might make Sure Pope Clemens and Pope Hyginus meane the same thing when one sayes Missa consecretur and the other Diuinis Precibus One sayes Let the Consecration bee with a Masse the other with Diuine Seruice the Liturgie the Diuine Seruice was then the Masse In a word a constant forme of Consecrations wee finde none that goes through our Ritualls the Ceremonies were still more or lesse as they were more or lesse obnoxious or might bee subiect to scandalize or to be mis-interpreted And therefore I am not heere either to direct or so much as to remember that which appertaines to the manner of these Consecrations onely in concurring in that which is the Soule of all humble and heartie prayer that God will heare his Seruants in this place I shall not offend to say that I am sure my zeale is inferiour to none And more I say not of the first Part The Holy place and but a little more of the other though at first it were proposed for an equall part The Holy Person That at the Feast of the Dedication Iesus walked in the Temple in Salomons Porch 2. Part. In this second part wee did not spread the words nor shed our considerations vpon many particulars the first was Jesus in Templo that euen Iesus himselfe had recourse to this Holy place In the new Ierusalem in Heauen there is no Temple Apo. 21.22 I saw no Temple there sayes Saint Iohn for the Lord God Almightie and the Lambe are the Temple of it In Heauen where there is no danger of falling there is no need of assistance Heere the Temple is called Gnazar 2. Paral. 4.9 that is Auxilium A Helper the strongest that is needs the helpe of the Church And it is called Sanctificium by Saint Hierom Psal 78.69 a place that is not onely made holy by Consecration but that makes others holy by GOD in it And therefore Christ himselfe whose person and presence might consecrate the Sanctum Sanctorum would yet make his often repayre to this Holy place not that hee needed this subsidie of Locall holinesse in himselfe but that his example might bring others who did neede it and those who did not and that euen his owne Preaching might haue the benefite and the blessing of Gods Ordinance in that place hee sayes of himselfe Math. 26. Quotidie apud vos sedebam docens in Templo and Semper docui in Synagoga in Templo as in the Actes the Angell that had deliuered the Apostles out of prison sends them to Church Actes 5. Stantes in Templo loquimini plebi The Apostles were sent to preach but to preach in the Temple in the place appropriated and consecrated for that holy vse and employment Tempus He came to this place and he came at those times which no immediate command of God but the Church had instituted Facta sunt Encaenia sayes the Text It was the Feast of the Dedication Wee know what Dedication this was That of Salomon was much greater A Temple built where none was before That of Esdras at the returne was much greater then this An intire reedification of that demolished Temple where it
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
was before This was but a zealous restoring of an Altar in the Temple which hauing beene prophaned by the Gentiles the Iewes themselues threw downe and erected a new and dedicated that Salomons Dedication is called a Feast 2 Chr. 5.3 a Holy day by the very same name that the Feast of vnleauened bread and the Feast of the Tabernacle is called so often in Scripture Ezra 6.16 which is Kag The Dedication of Ezra is sufficiently declared to bee a solemne Feast too But neither of these Feastes though of farre greater Dedications were Anniuersarie neither commanded to be kept euery yeare and yet this which was so much lesser then the others the Church had put vnder that Obligation to bee kept euery yeare and Christ himselfe contemnes not condemnes not disputes not the institution of the Church But as for matter of doctrine hee sends euen his owne Disciples to them who sate in Moses Chayre so for matter of Ceremony he brings euen his owne person to the celebrating to the authorizing to the countenancing of the Institutions of the Church and rests in that Now it was Winter sayes the Text Etsi Hyeme Christ came et si Hyems though it were Winter so small an inconuenience kept him not off Beloued it is not alway colder vpon Sunday then vpon Satterday nor at any time colder in the Chappell then in Westminster Hall A thrust keepes some off in Summer and colde in Winter and there are more of both these in other places where for all that they are more content to be Remember that Peter was warming himselfe and hee denyed Christ They who loue a warme bed let it bee a warme Studie let it bee a warme profit better then this place they deny CHRIST in his Institution That therefore which CHRIST sayes Pray that your flight bee not in the Winter Mat. 24.20 nor vpon the Sabboth we may apply thus Pray that vpon the Sabboth I tolde you at first what were Sabboths the Winter make you not flie not abstaine from this place Put off thy shooes Exod. 35. sayes God to Moses for the place is holy ground When Gods ordinance by his Church call you to this holy place put off those shoes all those earthly respects of ease or profit Christ came Et si Hyems But then Quia Hyems Quia Hyems Because it was Winter Hee did walke in Salomons Porch which was couered not in Atrio in that part of the Temple which was open and expos'd to the weather We doe not say that infirme and weak men may not fauour themselues in a due care of their health in these places That he who is not able to raise himselfe must alwayes stand at the Gospell or bow the knee at the name of Iesus or stay some whole houres altogether vncouered heere if that increase infirmities of that kinde And yet Courts of Princes are strange Bethesdaes how quickly they recouer any man that is brought into that Poole How much a little change of ayre does and how well they can stand and stand bare many houres in the Priuy Chamber that would melt and flowe out into Rhumes and Catarrs in a long Gospell heere But Citra Scandalum a man may fauour himselfe in these places but yet this excuses not the irreuerent manner which hath ouertaken vs in all these places That any Master may thinke himselfe to haue the same libertie heere as in his owne house or that that Seruant that neuer puts on his hat in his Masters presence all the weeke on Sunday when hee and his Master are in Gods presence should haue his hat on perchance before his Masters Christ shall make Master and Seruant equall but not yet not heere nor euer equall to himselfe how euer they become equall to one another Gods seruice is not a continuall Martyrdome that a man must bee heere and here in such a posture and such a manner though hee dye for it but Gods House is no Ordinary neither where any man may pretend to doe what he will and euery man may doe what any man does Christ slept in a storme I dare not make that generall let all doe so Christ fauoured himselfe in the Church I dare not make that generall neither to make all places equall or all persons equall in any place T is time to end Basil Saint Basill himselfe as acceptable as hee was to his Auditory in his second Sermon vpon the 14. Psalme takes knowledge that hee had preached an houre and therefore broke off I see it is a Compasse that all Ages haue thought sufficient But as we haue contracted the consideration of great Temples to this lesser Chappell so let vs contract the Chappell to our selues Et facta sint Encaenia nostra let this be the Feast of the Dedication of our selues to God Christ calls himselfe a Temple Soluite templum hoc Iohn 2.19 Destroy this Temple And Saint Paul calls vs so twice 1 Cor. 3.16 6.19 Know ye not that ye are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Facta sint Encaenia nostra Encaenia signifies Renouationem a renewing Aug. and Saint Augustine sayes that in his time Si quis noua tunica indueretur Encaeniare diceretur If any man put on a new garment hee called it by that name Encaenia sua Much more is it so if wee renew in our selues the Image of God and put off the Olde man and put on the Lord Iesus Christ This is truly Encaeniare to dedicate to renew our selues NaZian and so Nazian in a Sermon or Oration vpon the like occasion as this calls Conuersionem nostram Encaenia our turning to God in a true repentance or renewing our dedication Let mee charge your memories but with this note more That when God forbad Dauid the building of an House Because hee was a man of blood at that time Dauid had not embrued his hands in Vriahs blood nor shed any blood but lawfully in iust warres yet euen that made him vncapable of this fauour to prouide God a house Some callings are in their nature more obnoxious and more exposed to sinne then others are accompanied with more tentations so retard vs more in holy duties And therefore as there are particular sinnes that attend certaine places certaine ages certaine complexions and certaine vocations let vs watch our selues in all those and remember that not only the highest degrees of those sinns but any thing that conduces therunto prophanes the Consecration and Dedication of this Temple our selues to the seruice of God it annihilates our repentance and frustrates our former reconciliations to him Almighty God worke in you a perfit dedication of your selues at this time that so receiuing it from hands dedicated to God hee whose holy Office this is may present acceptably this House to God in your behalfes and establish an assurance to you that God will be alwayes present with you and your Succession in this place Amen