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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	ground_n	pillar_n	16,417	5	10.6783	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85443	Zerubbabels encouragement to finish the temple. A sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons, at their late solemne fast, Apr. 27. 1642. By Tho. Goodwin, B.D. Published by order from that House.	Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1642 (1642)	Wing G1268; Thomason E147_13; ESTC R1423	34,286	63

break in pieces the gates of brasse and cut in sunder the bars of iron all difficulties flew ope and nothing could stand in his way and I will give thee the treasures of darknesse the hidden riches of secret places And why did God doe all this for him For Jacob my servants sake and Israel mine elect For otherwise sayes God of this Cyrus thou hast not known me so ver. 4. All this which God did for him was that he might performe Gods pleasure saying to Jerusalem Be built and to the Temple Thy foundation shall be laid as you had it out of the last ver. of the foregoing Chapter And then again when the foundation thereof was thus happily laid there stood as you see in the Text another Mountaine in the way to the finishing and perfecting of it namely this Samaritan Faction who gained the power of that Persian Monarchy to be against it of which Mountain the Prophet here in like manner sayes that it should be made a Plaine And if the Persian Monarch Dartus had not come off too as he did EZra 6. from the 1. ver. to the end of the Chap. God would have served him as he had done Babylon Be ye wise therefore now O Kings and instructed O ye Judges of the Earth The Reason of all this lies but in three words which God hath spoken once yea twice Aedificabo Ecclesiā meam I will build my Church which have more force in them then all the created power of Heaven Earth or Hell He had said it in the Old Testament as you heard Isai. 44. 28. saying to Hierusalem Thou shalt be built and to the Temple Thy foundation shall be laid And Christ said it over again in the New Testament Mat. 16. 18. I will build my Church He speakes of that Church under the New Testament which in future ages was to come And what follows The Gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it You heard before in the Old Testament that the Brasse Gates were opened to make way for the building of that Temple Isai. 45. 2. But here in the New Testament there are stronger Gates then of Brasse here are the Gates of Hell which yet Christ like another Sampson flings off their hinges As whilst the Devill is god of the world Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam shall be sure to be hindered if he can so whilst Christ is King of this world and hath all power committed to him both in heaven and earth most certainly the Gates of Hell shall never prevaile against it It is this same Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam I will build my Church that hath made all the stirre in the world I remember in the yeare 1619. or 20. or thereabouts when the Wars in Germany began it was reported that a great Brasse Image of the Apostle Peter which had that pretended claime by which Rome would hold her Keyes fairely embossed upon a Roll that hung downe upon the Image in these wordst Tu es Petrus super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam tibi dabo Claves c. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and I will give to thee the Keyes c. standing as I take it in S. Peters Church at Rome there was a great massie stone fell downe upon it and so shattered it to pieces that not a letter of all that sentence whereon Rome founds her claime was left whole so as to be read saving this one piece of that sentence aedificabo Ecclesiam meam I will build my Church which was left faire and entire That Promise I will build my Church is the Magna Charta yea the Prima Charta the Great and First Charter of the Saints in the New Testament those words in the 16. of Mat. being the first that Christ uttered about it and so contain within them all lesser Promises of all sorts that follow that concerne the building of his Church or any piece of it Now all that concerne the Building of his Church are reducible unto these two heads First the preservation and enlarging of his Church Mysticall and of his Saints on earth and thus considering them personally although they should be scattered each from other or secondly the Building up his Church as gathered in Assemblies to hold forth his publique worship in the world as that place forementioned is apparently to be understood by the next words For he speakes of the Keyes in the following verse whereby are meant all Media cultus all Ordinances of worship whereby his Church is built So then this Reason taken from aedificabo Ecclesiam branches it selfe into two Parts The first is taken from his love to his Church Mysticall on his Saints simply considered as such The second is from his interest in his owne worship for which he loves his Churches that are the Seat of it more then all the world 1. His Love to his Church Mysticall is such that no Mountain of opposition can stand before it to hinder the enlargement building of it up This Reason you have Isai. 43. 3 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Seba for thee since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give Men for thee and People for thy life It is put upon this Reason Quia amavi te because I have loved thee and that more then all the world Or if you will have it exprest in the language of this similitude here in the Text Mountains shall depart and Hills be removed but my kindnesse shall not depart from thee sayes God Isai. 54. 10. It is such a kind of speech as that of Christs Heaven and earth shall passe away but not a tittle of my word c. 2. His love to his Churches holding forth his Name and worship in the world is such as nothing shall withstand the repairing and perfecting of them and of that his worship and every parcell of it If God had not such Assemblies in the world he should have no worship Therefore these Churches are called the Ground and Pillar of Truth both where it growes and where it is held forth 1 Tim. 3. 15. he there speakes of Church assemblies as wherein Timothy was to learne how as an Euangelist to behave himselfe in the ordering and governing of them as you have it in the words immediately fore-going Th●● thou mightest know how to behave thy selfe in the House of God c. And the truth is that that building of the House of God of which only Zachary here gives us occasion to speak was but the compleating all the ordinances of worship It was not so much the building up the Nation of the Jews that was here directly intended but the building of their Temple the seat of worship and introducing the Candlestick c. And their Assemblings there to worship according to Gods owne prescription was more to him and is so still then

ZERVBBABELS ENCOVRAGEMENT TO Finish the Temple A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS at their late Solemne Fast Apr. 27. 1642. By THO. GOODWIN B. D. Published by Order from that House REVEL. 11. 4. These are the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth c. LONDON Printed for R. DAWLMAN 1642. TO THE HONORABLE HOVSE OF COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT YOur Command giving me the opportunity I took the boldnesse to urge and encourage you to Church-Reformation which is the maine scope of this Sermon a subject which otherwise and in all other Auditories I have beene silent in and am no whit sorry for it For I account it the most fit and happy season to utter things of this nature unto Authority it selfe although the people likewise are to know their duty My comfort is that what I have spoken herein I have for the generall and I have spoken but generalls long beleeved and have therefore spoken You were pleased so far to owne me as to betrust me with this Service to be Gods mouth in publique unto you and also this Sermon of mine as to command the publishing of it Wherefore as in propriety it is now become yours more then mine or all the worlds So let it be in the use of it If it shall adde the least strengthening to your resolutions to keepe this purpose for ever in the thoughts of your hearts I have what I aimed at Goe on worthy Fathers and Elders of this people and prosper in yea by this work without which nothing that you doe will prosper But the rest I shall speak to God for you Let me be known to you by no other thing then this To be one whose greatest desires and constant prayers are and have been and utmost endeavours in my spheare shall be for the making up the divisions of the Church in these distracted times with love of Truth and Peace And therein to use Davids words am Wholly at your commandment Tho Goodwin ZECH. 4. VER. 6 7 8 9. Ver. 6. Then he answered and spake unto me saying This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts 7. Who art thou O great mountaine before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plaine and he shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it 8. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto mee saying 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house his hands shall also finish it and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you THese words are part of the interpretation of a stately Vision of a Candlestick and two Olive trees standing thereby and pouring Oyle into it made to the Prophet Zechariah in the 2. and 3. verses the scope and matter both of that Vision and of this Interpretation is to encourage Zerubbabel their Prince and with him the Priests and Elders of the Jewes to finish the building and make compleat the ornaments of the Temple whereof the foundation had many yeeres before been laid but was left imperfect and was left dis-furnished And this his scope is plainly and without a Parable held forth in the 9. ver. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house his hands shall also finish it And indeed to stir him and them up unto this perfecting Gods house unto which work they had been too backward as appeares by Hag. 1 2 3 and 4. verses The people say The time is not come that the Lords house should be built was the principall end why God sent unto them no lesse then two Prophets Haggai and Zachary as two extraordinary Ambassadours from heaven on purpose to put them on upon it for the finishing of the Temple is a businesse of that moment as is worth two Prophets at any time And this appeares not onely by both their Prophecies but also by the story Ezra 5. 1 2. THEN the Prophet Haggai and Zachariah prophecyed unto the Jews that were in Judah in the name of the God of Israel Then rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the Prophets of God helping them That same particle or circumstance of time Then doth refer us to the story of those times recorded in the book of Ezra as that which is necessary for the full understanding of their two prophecies what is recorded there being the occasion of them but more especially for the understanding of this piece of our Prophet Zachary his Prophecie which I have read unto you which wholly concernes the finishing of the Temple I must necessarily therefore as a preparative Introduction to the exposition of these words set you downe in and give you a prospect of those times and the occurrences thereof which were the occasion of these words here Who art thou O great mountaine c. And if Zachary himselfe a Prophet and that lived in those times knew not at the first the meaning of the Vision in this Chapter ver. 5. Knowest thou what these be And I said No my Lord much lesse shall we be able to know the interpretation thereof and how fitted to this vision nor what this mountaine here is c. without being pre-possest of the knowledge of this story which in briefe is this The Babilonian Monarchy Romes Type had trod downe the holy City and laid waste the Temple and worship of God for seventy yeares which being expired the Jews had liberty and authority from the first Persian King Cyrus to build the Temple and restore Gods worship according to their Law This is the summe of the first and second Chapters of Ezra In the third Chapter you have an Altar set up Sacrifices renewed Feasts kept and the foundation of the Temple laid which was as true a Type of that great Reformation from under Popery But after this work had been begun and fairely carryed on in all the Fundamentals of it there started up a company of Samaritans that were adversaries to the Jewes as we read Chap. 4. Samaritans they were as appears by ver. 10. They were the Nations seated in the City of Samaria brought thither ver. 2. in the roome of the ten Tribes A generation of men who were not heathens in their profession for they professed the same Religion with the Jewes So they alledge for and arrogate to themselves in the afore-said verse We seeke your God as you doe and we sacrifice unto him and have done so long from the dayes of Esar Haddon who brought us up hither And yet they were not true Jews neither nor perfectly of the same Religion but of a mungrell and mixt kind betweene the Religion of the Heathen and of the Jews intermingling Heathenish Idolatries with Jewish worship So 2 Kings 17. ver. 33. and 41. compared it is said These Nations feared

what ever else was or is done in the world In the 87. Psal. ver. 2. The Lord loves the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob The gates of Sion were the gates of the Temple that stood upon mount Sion set open for the Jews to worship in and these he loves more then other Societies or Assemblings though of Jacob and this more then them All take them all together whether civill in their Cities and families or religious in their Synagogues where they were capable but of some few not of all the Ordinances that were in the Temple And the reason of this his love is the great concernment that his publique worship is of unto him God hath but three things deare unto him in this world his Saints his Worship and his Truth and it is hard to say which of these is dearest unto him they are mutuò sibi fines God therefore ordained Saints to be in the world that he might be worshipt and reciprocally appointed these Ordinances of worship as meanes to build up his Saints In the Commandements the Epitome of the Old Testament the institutions of Gods worship have the second place The second Commandment is wholly spent thereon and therein how jealous doth God professe himselfe of any aberration or swerving from his own rules now jealousie you know proceeds from the deepest love Yea the third and fourth Commandements are taken up about it also the one about the manner that his Name for so his worship is called Micah 4. the 5. ver. compared with ver. 2. and 3. might not be taken in vaine the other about the time And then in the Lords Prayer which is the Epitome of the New Testament in the second Petition if not the first the worship and government of his Church comes in for his Worship is his Name as was said and we desire that to be Hallowed nothing is more properly Christs visible Kingdome here then the right administration of Ordinances in his Church which doe set him up as King of Saints To this purpose I shall open that in the 15. of the Revelation where when the Saints had got a Temple over their heads ver. 6. as was before hinted then they call for a true and right worshipping of Christ and this because he was King of Saints They sing Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy and all nations shall come and worship before thee c. There are three paires or conjugata which harmoniously answer one to another First here is a double title and Kingdome given unto Christ 1 Lord Almighty 2 King of Saints or if you will He is King of Nations and King of Saints 1 King of Nations for so in that parallel place Jerem. 10. 7. from whence these words here uttered are evidently taken and therefore it is quoted in the margent he is called so is all one with that expression here Lord God Almighty unto which 2 they adde this other Thou King of Saints And so these two are distinct and both His titles Then secondly here is a double duty sutably due unto him according to these his titles to fear him and to worship him both which are expressed by this generall to glorifie his Name Thirdly here is a double declaration of the justnesse of these titles the ground that calls for both these duties his great and marvellous works in the world declaring him to be Lord God Almighty or King of Nations and therefore Feare is due unto him and accordingly in Jeremy we onely read Who would not feare thee O King of Nations and then there are his just and true wayes declaring him to be King of Saints which these here in their song adde unto that of Jeremy and this calls for Worship from us unto him Who shall not worship thee O King of Saints for true and righteous are thy wayes and judgements In fine here is Christs supremacie acknowledged both in matters Civill and Ecclesiasticall in his government of the world and of his Church And as he is knowne to be King of Nations by his works of Providence abroad in the world so to be King of Saints by those true and righteous wayes wherein his Churches are to walk And a parallel place unto this latter as that of Jeremy was unto the former is that in Psal. 68. 24. where the Psalmist speaking of this worship of Christ sayes They have seene thy goings O God even the goings of my King in the Sanctuary Mark it the goings he speaks of are restrained to his goings in the Sanctuary and spoken of him also as the Churches King My King And so the words are the very same in sense that they in the Temple here doe utter Just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints And the Psalmist evidently speaks of his waies of worship in the Church as appeares by the very next words ver. 25. The singers went before the players on instruments followed after c. expressing the worship of him in his Church in the language of the Old Testament and he as their King in the midst of them going in his greatest state And yet more clearly ver. 26. Blesse ye God in the congregations Yea and all this proves to be New Testament too and a prophecie thereof though uttered in the phrase of and in a prophecy of the Old For what is said in the 18. ver. before of this their King is by the Apostle in Ephes. 4. 8. applyed unto Christs Ascension Thou hast Ascended up on high thou hast led Captivity captive and hast received gifts for men namely the gifts for building of his Church and directing of his worship under the New Testament as it is expounded by the Apostle in the following verses And therefore that which I have even now cited out of that Psal. ver. 24 25 26 c. is to be understood as meant of the worship of the Gospell in the congregations thereof erected after Christs Ascension I shall adde but this These waies are called just and true in opposition to wayes invented by men which on the contrary are unrighteous and false Psal. 119. 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way There is certainly a right Rule or way chalked out for every administration in Gods Sanctuary if we could finde it out To illustrate all this by a similitude from other Kings Two thinges manifest a King to be a King shew forth the glory of his Majesty 1. His power and rule abroad throughout all his Dominions 2. The observance the worship and State ceremonies that are at Court and these shew him to be King as much as the former This we may see in Solomon whose Royalty and Majesty was held forth thereby as much as by his power 2 Chron. 9. 4. When the