Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A61269
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A sermon preached at the temple, the Svnday after the church was opened being then newly repaird, adorned and beautified at the joynt expense of the two honorable societies / by John Standish.
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Standish, John, d. 1686.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing S5219; ESTC R33852
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11,999
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33
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are convicted by the Apostle there not only for lying to the holy Ghost but for keeping back part of the price of the Land given to maintain the Church in the communion of Gods Service From whence it followeth that that which is consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel is Anathema for the same reason as under the Law because the thing is accursed to them that withdraw and rob God thereof And now what remains but that we make some practical Inferences upon this whole matter And 1. From the first Enquiry resolved I infer That if the Temple and the Altar were Dedicated by Judas and his Brethren and commemorated by an Annual Feast and that approved also by our Saviours own presence as it though it pretended to no more than humane Institution then let no man charge us with superstition if we upon occasion follow their Example to maintain and cherish in the minds of men that reverence due to Places consecrated to God Almighties Service and to the holy Offices to be performed therein 2. From the Second I infer That if the piety and Bounty of others have built repaired and adorned Places for our Religious Assemblies we should be beyond parallel Ingratefull to them not to say contemptuous to God should we not remember them concerning this Prov. 31.31 and suffer their own works to praise them in the Gates Say not thou saies Solomon what is the cause that the former daies were better than these Eccles 7.10 for thou enquirest not wisely concerning this Times have sometimes changed for the worse but that they must needs do so always is no good consequence for I must observe in spight of all popular murmurs and clamours to the contrary that the former daies we spoke of P. 1. were far worse than These as in many others so in this respect also that the sober wiser part of men amongst us now do not only abhor Popish Idols but detest Fanatick Sacrilege too They take more solid pleasure and satisfaction in building and adorning Churches than any of those blind Zealots did in plucking them down as cumbering the ground And this Kings Reign is likely to be as famous to after-ages for their Repairing and Restauration as that Rebellion was for their ruine And blessed be the Lord God who hath put it into your Hearts also vindicate the Honour of his House and Name and to Dedicate part of your substance to his Sanctuary of your own meer motion and good will in restoring this Sacred Ancient Curious Pile to yea and beyond its primitive Lustre that your Second Temple also might be more glorious than the first even in the literal sence Hereby all the world may see and know that you have a due and just sence of Gods discriminating Mercy in sparing this his House out of two several consuming Fires that more than threatned it as if He had said to them both thus far shall ye go and no farther and to the destroying Angel It is enough stay now thine hand 2. Sam. 24. And may this goodly Structure be still Armor of proof against all future Casualties to transmit your Praise and Bounty to all posterity but chiefly to preserve Gods Glory and Worship in the beauty of Holiness even till that general Conflagration of all things when this great Machine of the World shall be dissolved and Time it self shall be no more but go out like Fire and be extinguished in the bottomless Ocean of Eternity 3. And lastly from the last Enquiry resolved I infer that if these consecrated Places be Holy then let us beware of polluting or prophaning them in any wise Put off thy shoes from thy feet saies God to Moses for thou standest on holy ground Ex. 3.5 And his Command by Solomon reacheth us also Eccles. 5.1 Keep thy foot when thou goest into the House of God A Motto generally written over the door of the Synagogue saith Buxtorf The very Heathen Idolaters were not without some sence of this for when the Ark of God was by the Philistims set in the Temple of Dagon Dagon fell down and because by that mischance Dagons head and hands were cut off by the threshold of the door therefore neither Priest nor People durst ever tread on that threshold more 1. Sam. 5. And of the many typical precepts in Leviticus that the Israelites should wash and cleanse themselves by divers cenemonies before they enter into the Sanctuary we ought to make this Moral that Christianity requireth us to wash our Souls from all that filch of lust and passion before we presume to enter into the Holy Place Be we therefore more ready to hear says Solemon than to offer the sacrifice of fools Eccle. 5.1 who are rash heady and presumptuous and think their Sin is expiated for though they never think to change their wicked minds For they that come hither with malicious hearts and polluted hands and bring their Gift to the Altar with so little St. Matt. 5. Charity that they are ready like Cain to sprinkle it with their Brothers Blood do make the House of prayer a Den of Thieves indeed and turn the Church of God into the Devils Chappel Revel 3.9 the Lords Sanctuary into the Synagogue of Satan Procul O Procul ite prophani But let us all rather approach the Holy Place with holy and humble hearts and pay our Devotions to Almighty God not in word and tongue only St. John 4.23 but in Spirit and Truth as becometh those who are living Temples of the Holy Ghost that so our daily Sacrifices may be as sweet Incense our Sins pardoned our Prayers Alms and Persons accepted and all our hearty performances Crowned at the last day with an Euge well done good and faithful Servants St. Matt. 25.23 enter ye into the Joy of your Lord even that Sanctum Sanctorum that everlasting Temple not made with hands there to sing eternal Halelujahs to the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all through the mercy and Merits of our only Lord and Saviour JESVS CHRIST to whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be all the Dominion Power and Glory now and ever Amen FINIS
newly finished and Dedicate it to his worship to maintain in the minds of men a due reverence to those sacred Offices which ever after shall be performed therein Quest If it be demanded by what right or title Places and Things after their Dedication and Consecration which are both Acts of Man become presently Holy I answer Answ 1 1. 'T is by the same reason that Persons solemnly deputed to minister and attend upon Holy Offices are thence denominated Holy 2. Places and Things so qualified are holy because thereby the property is altered they are no longer mens but Gods own Houses and Goods we can no longer call our selves Masters of those things we have already passed away freely by deed of Gift If it be urged that all these things were Gods before as he is universal Monarch and we cannot properly be said to give Him what was already his own I Answer 3. That God indeed is absolute Lord of all yet he hath given the Earth to the Sons of Men and granted us a particular propriety to the use of those things and this is that we out of pious ends return to God again receding from that Right and freely and solemnly excluding our selves and all other men from any future title thereunto But 4ly and Lastly as under the Law St. Matt. 23.19 the Gift was sanctified by the Altar so amongst Christians all their acts of Piety and Charily whether publick or private are sanctified and accounted holy by God through the Cross of Christ typified by their Altar but more lively represented and commemorated in our Sacrament of the Eucharist which is the chief part of Gods Service under the Gospel and proper only to Christians and so I pass on to the third and last Enquiry III. How far forth Places so Dedicated ought to be esteemed Holy In answer to which I say 1. There is no man so absurd and ridiculous as to think Churches capable of that Holiness whereby Christian Souls are made Holy For Holiness in men is a part of the Image of God once defaced but since renewed and stamped again upon his reasonable creatures and to imagine Wood and Stone capable of receiving the least Impression of the Divine Image the darkest resemblance of his Infinite Perfections were the ready way to Idolatry And therefore 2. The Holiness we ascribe to the Houses of God common to all other consecrated Things Times and Persons is meerly Relative and Ecclesiastical the formal reason whereof is their deputation to the Holy Ordinances of Divine Service For here daisy Prayers are made to the Father of Mercies here Thanks and Praise are solemnly offered for all his Benefits here his Holy Word is read and preached for our edification and comfort here that Tremendum Evangelii Mysterium as St. Austine calls the Sacrament of our Lords Body and Blood is often celebrated and in reference to these Spiritual Duties the Place it self is deservedly reputed and styled Holy Now this Holiness and Majesty of the Place hath in regard of us great vertue force and efficacy For 1. It requireth of us a negative reverence due thereto that men should abstain from all light vain or secular businesses therein from which it was sequestred by its first Dedication As for things morally evil in themselves such as lying stealing killing blaspheming c. they are unlawfull to be done in any place but most of all in Gods House the profanation whereof adds a new circumstance an eminent aggravation to the Sin One fearful instance of this nature our Saviour chargeth those Jews as answerable for namely the death of Zacharias not only a Priest a holy Person but to add more weight to the fact still slain between the Temple and the Altar too St. Matt. 23.35 in an holy place And I doubt amongst other circumstances of the late Scotish Covenant besides that it was peccant in the matter and substance that will one day be found to be none of the least that it was generally taken in Churches But I must vindicate these sacred places not only from sinfull and unworthy actions but from such as are of an indifferent nature also lawfull enough elsewhere but prophane if done in the House of God set apart for holy offices And our Saviour's own Example is my warrant for it St. Matt. 21.12 who drove all the Buyers and Sellers and Trapezytes out of the Temple thereby intimating that even civil traffique and commerce though in order to sacred ends for the Sheep and Oxen sold there were for Sacrifice defileth his House of Prayer 2. Besides this Negative there is also a positive reverence due to the House of God Our Church hath well provided that by the reverence of our outward gestures at the divine service our inward and hearty duty to God and his ordinances should be expressed and maintained And so much is implied in St. Pauls own precept Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit 1 Cor. 6.20 which are Gods They are a little too superstitious who will allow the Church to be no longer an holy place than whilst the Saints are in it as if they carried away the Holiness thereof home with them Ye know all men stand bare in the Chamber of Presence though the King be absent how much more reason then have we to express our humility and subjection to the supreme MAJESTY of Heaven who is never absent but always present here even in the Intervals of his daily Service To all this I add that the Holiness of consecrated Places and Things is such that it is no less than Sacrilege to apply them to any prophane use Quod semel dicatum est Deo amplius ad profanos usus transferri non debet was once current Law amongst Christians And Things given to the Church were said of old to be consign'd in manus mortuas to intimate that the Clergy had no more power to alienate them de Jure then a dead man hath de Facto Dr. Bas of the Sacr. pag. 86. Hag. 1.6 Dr. Bas p. 118. Sr. H. Spelm. de nov tem Eccles p. 88. Cl. Spelm. to the Reader p. 45. Reyner fol. 127. So that let modern projectors saies one build Babels never so high if they be reared on the ruines of Sion 't is putting their Gains into the Prophets Bag with Holes both Fabrick and Founder will sink together at last and come to nothing And it is observed by Him and other modern Authors that many of those Families who purchased Abbey-Lands are since extinct or their Lands sold to buy Bread However thus much I am assur'd of Levit. 27.28 that men were free by the old Law to devote their Lands to the Lord or keep them to themselves but when once they had devoted them they themselves could not call them back under a Curse Nor can I find any great difference between the sin of Achan Josh 7.21 and that of Ananias Saphira Act. 5.3 for they