Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A12309
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A sermon preached before the King at VVhite-Hall, the third of December. By Robert Skinner chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiestie. Published by His Maiesties command
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Skinner, Robert, 1591-1670.
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1634
(1634)
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STC 22628; ESTC S121771
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14,611
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48
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the Lord our God is holy Psal 99. There can be no question all are to worship à vermiculo ad Angelum from the basest worme to the most glorious Angell from him that sitteth on the throne to her that grindeth at the Mill all come under Adorate Dominum And know they must in adoring the Lord they honour themselves approaching thereby and drawing neere unto the Lord for if to be neere about a gracious King bee iustly counted a singular grace what an honor must it needs be to be joyned to the Lord 1 Cor. 6. to adhere and cleave to the King of Kings to goe boldly to the throne of grace and all this is daily done by adoring Wee see then the dutie is generall All are to worship the Lord all and that because he is Lord of all A chiefe point will be for the manner how for we may not imagine when the Prophet enjoynes us to worship the Lord that his meaning is wee should worship him ad libitum every one his owne way according to his owne fancie Indeed wee would have it so are strangely taken with our owne inventions and were wee at a Loose what a various prodigious worship would be found amongst us For the manner one sitting another standing a third kneeling a fourth walking a fifth leaning For the matter when their tongues were their owne once one seditious a second ridiculous a third blasphemous and yet if yee beleeve them all true worshippers for all that No but Dominus the Lord the very Name puts us in minde how he will be worshipped with what preparation and with what devotion Doe but remember what a Lord and then resolve what kinde of vvorship vvill sute him best If such a Lord as none like him fit his vvorship should be such as none the like As no Lord equall to him so no vvorship equall to his No but as we are praise him so vve are to vvorship him both according to his excellent greatnesse Psal 150. All Lords have one sort of vvorship or other Soveraigne Lords ad terram usque downe to the ground Thus to the King and thus to the man whom the King will honour Hest 6. But when all is done all is but bodily worship and that too Civilly intended in Civill re-respects because indeed their highest Iurisdiction jus vitae necis extends no further is confined to the body They have power only saith our Saviour to kill the body and after that have no more that they can doe Luk. 12.4 But the Lord here hath absolute power over soule and body and all we have and so we to worship him with all our soule he inspired our body hee ordained our worldly goods vvhat vve have he gave unto us and our worship should bee answerable shall I shew you how As briefely then as may be God is a spirit saith Saint Iohn and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth Ioh. 4. and looke vve vvell unto it there is no deceiving him for He searcheth the heart and tryeth the spirits Ier. 17. He is styled by Moses the god of all spirits and all spirituall worship is due unto him So peculiar is it to the Creatour as uncommunicable to any creature Nor Saints nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers have any Dominion over the soule to save or to destroy it and therefore the bowings and bendings of the soule belong not to them Nay but all religious Divine devout Adoration of the spirit or in the spirit is entirely to be offered to the Father of spirits If imparted to any other sive humilitate nimiâ De C. D. lib. 10. cap. 4. sive adulatione pestiferâ as Saint Augustine speaks whether by too much humilitie or too much flattery cleere it is they that doe it rob God of his honour vvhich he tels us he vvill not endure I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven Images Esai 42.8 And when vve vvorship God vvith our bodies is it not also in a singular vvay else it is not as it should be for Nathan to bow himselfe before the Lord and to bow before the King was it all one thinke vve True his body vvas the same and his bowing much alike but infinite ods in his Adoration Before the King as the Lords anointed as the supreme minister of God for the Common good In our Churches phrase In thee and for thee according to thy blessed word and ordinance But before the Lord as the work of his hands and that by a word of his mouth in a plenary subjection as well for being as well being Before the King within certaine circumscriptions of time and place and occasion But before the Lord unrestrainedly in all places at all times upon all occasions whereby we confesse his illimited power his eternall essence his ubiquitary presence when we worship the Lord without bodies it ought to bee with a speciall Adoration Quoniam si honos idem tribuitur allis Lib. a. Instit ipse omnino non colitur A good rule it is in Lactatius If the same worship be given to any other God is not worshipped at all What King will admit of a sharer or co-partner in his tribute or Homage and what saith the Prophet I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1.14 It were sacriledge them to offer him a sharer Now for our Temporall estate Adorate Dominum extends and comes up to that also Honour the Lord with thy substance so vve are commanded Pro. 3.9 and good reason for it for the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich Pro. 10. And vvithout this blessing in vaine vvere it to rise up early and sit up late and eate the bread of carefulnesse And though the World be unapt to beleeve it incredulous ever in vvhat is chargeable the Lord expecteth vve honour him as vvell vvith our personall estates as vvith our persons And how may that bee By giving to the Lord in a proper way by devoting some part of your plentie and superfluitie to those sacred uses vvhich redound immediately to Gods glory The truth is the Prophet chiefely intends it here the vvords immediately afore my Text are Bring an offering and come into his Courts an Oblation vvas ever of old accounted a part of Adoration but I forbeare Bring and offer are no pleasing vvords I know though it be to the Lord Take away and hold fast vvithout any thought of restitution this is the manner of too many that yet vvould bee thought to deale very worshipfully too to vvorship God as vvell as the best vvhen they spoyle him of that should maintaine his vvorship And will a man rob God Mal. 3. Yes and make the World beleeve they doe it for his honour but their doome followes vvithout repentance Cursed with a curse vers 9. But I leave them to the mercie of God And it is high time I left this
beyond all discovery Holinesse hath had her habitation As for Tatnai and Shetherbosnai and Sanballat open or clandestine enemies to the beauty of Holinesse Fill their faces with shame that they may seeke thy name O Lord That we and they and all that lay claime to true Holinesse may preferre the beauty of Holinesse before all other beauties and with cleane hands and pure hearts delight to worship the Lord in the proper place of his Worship the beauty of Holinesse I haue done at last with the properties of the place Holy and beautifull Now followes the Prophets entreaty which I shall treate of in very few words and so conclude O worship the Lord in the beauty of Holinesse Take it joyntly together and it is not more a Precept than a Prayer a very emphaticall obsecration full of holy importunitie and which argues in our Princely Prophet an extraordinarie love to the Place and the Service here commended that his chiefe delight was there For How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts Ps 84. And how disconsolate when hee was driven thence Woe is mee that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech and to have my habitation among the Tents of Kedar Ps 120. seemes to envie the filly Birds The Sparrowes and Swallowes may lay their young even by thine Altars O Lord of Hosts my King and my God nor so desirous though to be there alone but there with his people I was glad when they said unto me We will goe into the House of the Lord Ps 122. It joyed him to be seene In medio Ecclesiae in the midst of the Congregation will I prayse thee Ps 22. Hee would pay his Vowes in an exemplarie way in the presence of all his people Ps 116. And wee cannot otherwise understand him here Come children hearken unto me doe as yee see mee doe adorate and adorabo went together we may be sure And a blessed sight it was to see Religion countenanced and the people religious not more by his Regall Precepts and Edicts than his Presence and Practice Now blessed are the people that be in such a case Looke we then to the practice of King David what he was wont to doe in Gods House and wee shall soone discerne why hee is so earnest to send us thither Thither went David as well for resolution as devotion and his religious attention was a good part of his adoration there I will hearken what the Lord God will say Psal 85. Et quaeram in Templo ejus and I will enquire in his Temple Psal 27. And he tells us hee could not be satisfied till hee went into the Sanctuary of God Psal 73. For the Sanctuary of old was the set place for satisfaction in doubtfull cases even from Moses to David omnis populus qui habebat aliquam quaestionem Exod. 33. All that had ought to say any doubt to bee resolved resorted thither for expedition Prince and People all without exception And now it is a cleere case it might vvell import him as a King to be earnest in this point that his people vvould goe and receive instruction in publique in the place appointed the right place because Conventicles and private meetings under colour of Religion too often serve unto dangerous practises Seditious opinions and turbulent positions have beene ever first invented and vented in private There it is that peremptory pens and sawcie tongues are thought consciencious because audacious and hee commonly reputed the best man that is the worst subject Or consider him if yee please as a Prophet so I am sure he could not be too earnest for worship in publique For the only way this to preserve Religion and the truth untainted to have Holinesse duely taught in the beautie of Holinesse Your intermingling and adulterate doctrines have beene still begotten in private and have passed by peece-meale from the Chamber to the Chappell and so to Church For when or where I pray you did the envious man sowe his tares it was dormientibus hominibus while men slept in all likelihood in some private meeting about midnight when the watchmen of Israel were asleepe Wee may not doubt but peace and truth both depend upon it that we assemble to worship the Lord in the proper place of his worship But David they will say though a King and a Prophet was under the Law and is he a fit president for professours of the Gospell Let them appeale then if they will from David to the sonne of David our blessed Saviour And how stood he affected That he was all in all for the publique most manifest it is by the good confession which he made Ioh. 18.20 I spake openly to the world I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Iewes daily resort and in secret have I said nothing Heare this you that love to whisper it in a corner that stand so much for Privatus aliquis a private spirit or a private brother in a private place how directly contrary are you to Christ you for omnia Christ for nihil in occulto good Christians in the meane while For that our Saviour could not away with this Parlour-preaching and these Chamber-congregations plaine it seemes by that charge which he left to his Church Matt. 24.26 If they shall say unto you behold hee is in the desart goe not forth behold he is in the secret chambers beleeve them not For I beseech you where hath beene the meeting place of our Anti-Canonicall Canonists and where have they enacted their Antisynodicall Sanctions but in deserto or in Cubiculo there is therefore no beleeving them Alas when they have set up once in private the great idoll of their own imaginations have consulted their grand Oracle I was saying at the Idols table they will not sticke to say and decree any thing No appealing then from David to the son of David in this case both are for the publique for the solemne assembly both for the Temple and the holy place the beautie of Holinesse And now represent we David to our thoughts as a King or a Prophet we must needs confesse that this entreatie here is to singular good purpose that it makes very much for truth and unitie and pietie Now the God of peace and truth leade us into all truth and bring us unto that peace which passeth all understandding bring us all in mercy from the beautie of Holinesse in the kingdome of Grace to the Holy of Holies in the kingdome of Glory Amen FINIS