Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	lord_n	prayer_n	8,302	5	6.0570	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A73301	A sermon preached at Wimondham in Norfolke, at the primary visitation of the Right Honourable and Reverend Father in God, Matthevv, Lord Bishop of Norwich, on the third of Iune, Ann. Dom. 1636. By Richard Tedder.	Tedder, Richard.	1637 (1637)	STC 23857.7; ESTC S125555	16,336	32

to a house than the Master of it Let God be Master in his owne House let not man crosse the end that he hath destined it to for that is as Gamaliel said in the Councill of the Iewes Act. 5.39 to rebell and fight against God Cui dixit aliquar do angelorum saith Saint Paul Heb. 1.5 Vnto which of the Angels said God at any time Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee So say I In quo libro Scriptum est in what place of Scripture is it written My house is the house of preaching If they had such a Text for preaching as wee have for prayer then they might the better desend that preaching which shuts out prayers Saint Iohn inflicts a Curse upon all them S. I. h. 22.18 that shall adde to the Word of God or take from it It is not safe then to wrest the Text to take away prayer and to put in preaching for it is against the scope of the Text. Gods house is recorded for a house of prayer by all foure Evangelists As our saviour told the Scribes and Pharisees when they tithed mint and annise cummin but neglected mercy S. Mat 23.23 judgement and faith These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone So let preaching have a place in the Church but let not Prayer be neglected that ought to have the chiefe place Doxolog●e is a part of prayer but that the Angels doe and We shall ever doe in heaven crying Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth The Temple is then more like Heaven and Wee more like the Angels of Heaven when wee are in the act of prayer God hath commanded that his house on earth have as neare a resemblance as may be to his house in heaven and that is the worke of Prayer It is written My house is the house of Prayer But it was neither like Heaven nor like a House when Christ visited it God and Prayer were both driven out by Theeves and the House was turned into a Denne Vos autem fecistis eam Speluncam The Temple was not onely prophaned but prophaned in a high manner Domus Dei was not made Domus Hominum nor Domus Orationis Domus Negotiationis as it is in Saint Iohn Cap. 2. v. 16. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysos̄tome a In S. Ioh. 2. The greatnesse of the Offence may bee measured by the harshnesse of the terme in that our Lord calls it not a House at all but a Denne A House receives the Light into it but a Denne is a place of Darkenesse Light becomes him who is the Father of Light God is Light saith Saint Iohn and in him is no darkenesse at all His workes are Operalucis his children Filii lucis and his habitation Domus lucis To shut out any light that may bee usefull in Gods house is with the Iewes to make it a Denne as they would doe that would shut out the Ceremonies out of the Church for take away the Ceremonies out of the Church and take away the light that is in it Sense is a guide to the understanding Rom. 1.20 and wee are led to the invisible things by the visible No Religion was ever without Ceremonies all nations not onely Iewes but Gentiles used their Rites and Ceremonies in the time of Worship all meeting in this as a naturall principle that Divine worship cannot bee rightly performed without an outward solemnity God did not forbid the Iewes but commanded them the use of Ceremonies though Heathen Idolaters abounded with them The Morall Law and the Ceremoniall Law were not given one without the other neither can they now be parted nor is there any Ceremonie so bare that is not clothed with some Morality People are instructed as well by what they see as by what they heare and to see the picture of a Saint in a glasse window will preach more Religion to them then to see the picture of a Horse or an Oxe in Gods House the one puts them in mind that it is Gods House the other doth but make it more like a Den. What devotion can that raise in a mans thoughts to behold in the Church Gods Priest like a peasant no habit to difference him from some sordid mechanique and to heare Gods Service slubberd over with as little Ceremony as a Scrivener reades a Bond or Indenture The word Ceremony carries light in it for Ceremoniae tanquam Cerei they are as lights that give a luster to Gods house and his Service in it The Church cannot but bee darke if the light of Ceremonies be wanting but if the light of knowledge be wanting too that is required in the Priests of it it cannot but darken it much more For the most part these two the want of knowledge and the contempt of Ceremonies goe together for none is more apt to stumble at a ceremonie than a blind Priest that cannot see through his grosse ignorance The Tradesmans stall comes not behinde the Divinitie Schoole for that hath brought forth many Divines too that have left sowing of garments and made a ront in the Church And how many bee there that have but slept a time in the Vniversity that have returned immediatly inspired with the gift of Prophesy as he did with the gift of Poetry that dreamt upon Parnassus a Pers. in prol When the Church is filled with such an ignorant Priesthood it may truly be called a Denne The learning of the Clergy is the light of the Church therefore was the Primitive Church so carefull to preserve it None was to bee admitted unto Orders without a strict examination that the Nicene Councell b cap. 9. provided for If any man was sufficient in respect of parts yet if he were a novice hee was not to be promoted to the Priest-hood that was looked after by the Fathers in divers Councills c Conc. Nic. cap. 2. Conc. Laod. cap. 3. No Bishop was to appoint his Successor for that he might doe for some private respect but he was to be chosen by the judgement of a Synod that was determined in the Councills at Antioch d cap. 23. and Laodicea e cap. 12. The election of Priests was not permitted to the People in the same Councill at Laod cea f cap 13. for they might be perhaps competent judges of their life but not of their learning And then too it was ordered that there should be an ascent by degrees to Ecclesiasticall promotions g Cone Sardie cap. 13. that neither ignorance nor indesert might usurpe a seate in Gods house But it is to small purpose to shut Ignorance out of the Temple unlesse Vitiousnesse be shut out too for the Temple is made a Denne both wayes not onely by the ignorance but by the foulenesse of life in the Priest-hood Heresie and schisme get ground in the Church by Ignorance but contempt of Religion comes in by the Priests

Introibimus in Tabernaculum ejus then till Solomons time God was not to be spoken with but in his Tabernacle But when he had given his people rest then he would have a house built him a place to rest in too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philo (a) De viâ Mosis li. 3. They were a travelling people and God appointed them a travelling Temple in imitation whereof blessed Constantine in time of warre had hi● Ecclesia portatilis (b) Socr. lib. 1. cap. 14. The first Sanctuary God was worshipped in was sine tecto the second had tectum but no● fundamentum last of all when God had brought them unto a setled condition and given them possessions and houses God would be allowed a possession and a house among them then and then Solomon built him a House he was sine domo he had no house till then Ever since God hath been the owner of a house though the fanaticall schismatique would allow him none he would make God at best but his Inmate and he should lodge in charity with him Jud. 17. 2. Reg. 4. like the poore Levite in Micahs house or like the man of God in the Shunamites little chamber An house God will have of us to whom we are beholden for ours not a chamber or a parlour a part of a house but a whole house and that not common to others but proper to himself which we may call his owne and say Domus mea Well God cannot complaine for want of an house but he may thanke the devotion of former times for it for we are more forward to pull downe then to set up and thinke much of doing that we do to keepe them up much more of beautifying and adorning them We have stripped Faith naked to be scorned and laughed at by the adversary good works are out of fashion and that Religion likes us best that costs us least The primitive Christians thought it the best service they could do to God to do something to his House that no signe of religion to adorne their own houses with marble and Ivory and cedar and tapestry and pictures and see Gods house neglected and not provided for See now saith David to Nathan I dwell in an house of cedar 2. Sam. 72 but the Arke of God dwelleth within curtains He thought it a dishonour to God that even the Kings palace should be more glorious than Gods house This made Antiquity to christen their Churches by the name of Basilicae not onely because the King of all people was there sacrificed to as Isidorus (a) Li. 15. c. 4. but for the gloriousnesse of their frame as may be gathered out of Ecclesiasticall Histories Eusebius can shew you the magnificence of those Temples that Constantine erected (b) Lib. 3.4 and Athanasius of that vast one which his sonne Constantius built at Alexandria (c) In Apolog. ad Constant who as he succeeded his Father in religion so in the care of Gods house for they go together Let Gods house fall and Religion cannot but be smothered in it whatsoever pretence any schismatique can frame for the neglect of it Little love there is to God where his house is not used like a house no beauty nor ornament in it nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the words of Saint Chrysostome (d) Hom. 36. in 1. Cor. in farre worse condition then a house when the Church is kept more like a hogge-stie then a house and is exceeded in beauty by an Hospitall or an Almes-house and men come with as little devotion to it as to a prison or a pest-house the Chancell staring from the Church as if they were fallen out with one another the windows glazed with lome and morter in stead of painted glasse the wals hung with cobwebs in stead of tapestry and the roofe over-laid with dust in stead of gold And this wretched heape of stones is Domus Dei fit enough for a house to worship God in A house merits not the name of a house if it be not beautified and adorned but that which beautifies a house most is unity For this cause the Temple is stiled not Curia but Domus not a Court where emulation is bred and faction nourished but a House where there is all love and peace Vnity is hardly preserved in a State but may easily in a House Psal 68. Division in that is more dangerous but in this more opprobrious when men are not of one minde in an House but the father against the sonne and the sonne against the father The Church should be Domus for order and unity kept in it but not Domus divisa a house divided against it selfe where the Pastor is against the people and the people against the Pastor and both against their Prelate The devill was the first schismatique whose labour it is ever since he made a division in heaven to sow his seeds of division on earth and though he cannot be able to disquiet heaven any more yet earth cannot be at peace for him He put Coreh Dathan Num. 16. and Abiram upon a schisme in the time of Moses he bred the separation of the Eustasians that caused the Councell at Gangra and a little after kindled the schismaticall fire of the Donatists which did great harme to the Church in the time of Saint Augustine untill a Councell was assembled at Africa to quench it These very schismes are revived in our times for compare the schismatiques that disquiet the Church at this day with them and ye shall finde them both alike save that ours have patched themselves a coat together with some shreds of all the old heresies God purge his Church and make it a House at unity in it selfe to which I adde with Saint Cyprian in his Book De unitate Ecclesiae Opto equidem ut si fieri potest nemo de fratribus pereat consentientis populi corpus unum gremio suo gaudens mater includat Which as it will be great joy to the Church so no lesse honour to God whose House it is The Church is Domus Dei instituted for none but God in which respect the Greeke Fathers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in in the Councel at Laodicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (a) Ca. 28. who condemned even the Feasts of charity made in the Church as a prophanation of it though they were otherwise good signes of Christian unity and strengthened by Apostolicall custome because it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper onely to God Scriptum est Domus Mea. God cals it His as if all the rest were ours but that His and in no case to be made bold with It is written My house Vse our owne houses we may how we will but Gods house as it hath a speciall holinesse so it hath a speciall honour due to it howsoever the unmannerly precisian denies it both But no marvell that he that is so bold to wrest Gods chaine in