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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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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
Point I have done with the Act and the Object Worship the Lord onely remember I beseech you How vve must worship and how the Lord it followes Where the Lord vvill be vvorshipped O worship the Lord in the beautie of holinesse In his holy Courts in his holy Sanctuarie in his glorious magnificent Sanctuarie Thus Interpreters varie But Vatablus joynes with the Chaldee and our Translation followes both In decore sanctitatis in the beautie of holinesse And the Scripture calls the Sanctuarie it selfe the beautie of holinesse because it was full of beautie and holinesse So if yee marke it the Points are three The Lord will be worshipped in a certaine place proper for his worship And the most proper place is a sacred place or a place of Holinesse And a place of Beautie as well as Holinesse O worship the Lord in the beautie of holinesse And it is well we are directed to a certaine Place for should the Place be uncertaine our Service would be as uncertain as the Place Time and Place have beene ever of singular moment in Gods Service Were no Time prescribed It were much to be doubted When and were no Place appointed it were hard to say where we would worship Wee may justly feare it were no place assigned adorate Dominum would bee soone out of Date For who would thinke to worship when hee saw not where We may note it successively in all ages never any tooke upon them to worship the Lord but the place was resolved on Can we imagine but Cain and Abel had where to bring their sacrifices And they that called on the name of the Lord Gen. 4. had a place for their meetings a meete place After the flood Noah had his Altar where to adore Gen. 8. And so had Abraham his even where the Lord appeared unto him Gen. 12. expresly called the place of the Altar Gen. 13. Isaac also erected an Altar and there he called on the name of the Lord Gen. 26. And when we reade that Rebeckah went to enquire of the Lord quò perrexit whither went shee may wee thinke even to the place of his holy worship where the Lord would answer her Gen. 25. And had not father Iacob his Bethel named by himselfe the house of God and the gate of heaven Gen. 28. When afterward the Children of Israel were upon often remooves in the wildernesse the Lord ordained them a mooveable Tabernacle to which every one resorted that sought the Lord Exod. 33.7 and it was therefore called The Tabernacle of the Congregation But when the Church began to be happy in a setled state in the dayes of King David his religious heart could no longer endure the Arke should abide within Curtaines when he dwelt himselfe in a house of Cedar 2 Sam. 7 And thereupon he vowed a vowe unto the mightie God of Iacob Psal 132. But Salomon built him an house Act. 7.47 And now the Lords people come hither all whether to receive instruction or expresse devotion Here they addresse their vowes commence their prayers present their oblations before the Lord And this was the manner till Christ came in the flesh And what when our Lord was incarnate did he ever disallow of this locall Adoration no but in his infancie it pleased him to bee presented in the Temple And at twelve yeeres old to dispute in the Temple Luk. 2. And after his baptisme he daily taught in the Temple and preached in the Synagogues After his ascention where were his Apostles but continually in the Temple Luk. 24. Or where were the faithfull but daily with one accord in the Temple Act. 2.46 Now when the Temple was demolished by Titus Vespatian not a stone left upon a stone as our Saviour had foretold Then Christian Churches began to be frequent which yet were extant afore in Saint Pauls time for see I pray you what disparitie hee puts betwixt ordinary houses and the house of God What have yee not houses to eate and to drinke in or despise yee the Church of God 1. Cor. 11. Againe Let your women keepe silence in the Churches and let them aske their husbands at home 1. Cor. 14. Now let Saint Ignatius speak for the next Generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All to one place all to the Temple of God in his undoubted Epistle to the Magnesians As for succeding Ages all testimonies are superfluous the furious edicts of persecuting Tyrants for rasing and ruinating Churches abundantly shew how Churches did abound And is not this enough to put to silence those unreasonable men with their sectaries that survive who in the height of malice and sacriledge endeavoured presumptuously this last age to lay desolate and wast all the Synagogues of God in the land What should the Prophet have said to such a generation O worship the Lord Where no matter where in a Barne or a Shop or a Wood no but the Prophet hath told us where and the practise of the Saints make it manifest that before the Law under the Law and under the Gospell there have beene ever due to the celebration of Gods worship sequestred places either Altars or Tabernacles or Temples or Churches or Chappels or the like that wee are justly directed by the Prophet here to a proper place Let us now descend to the properties of the place And an holy place it is a place of Holinesse and a beautifull place the very beautie of Holinesse O worship c. In atrio Sancto or in Sanctuario In his holy Courts or in his holy Sanctuary for who can doubt but the beautie of Holinesse must needs bee holy And that apparantly in a double regard First because the place of Gods worship was hallowed ever and set apart to holy uses for so were Altars afore the Law and after them the Tabernacle and after that the Temple And by the same right Churches and Chappels at this Day The dedication of the Tabernacle we have at large let down Numb 7. The dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8. And it stands with all good reason and religion that houses of God be sequestred now by solemne consecration as well as heretofore For wherefore I pray you did Salomon dedicate the Temple and after him Ezra the Priest upon the restauration And the Priests againe under Iudas Maccabeus when it had beene polluted Or wherefore did Iacob consecrate a pillar of stone by powring oyle upon it Gen. 28. Did the Lord command him or Salomon or any of them all where it will no where be found It was rectified reason and godly wisedome which directed them by a publique dedication as it were by a publique declaration to manifest to the world the religious conveiance of Sacred places to Sacred uses And then it followes that as Bethel of old and the Sanctuary so likewise our Bethels are holy being solemnly hallowed and devoted in the name of God and to the glory of God as they were Holy againe because our