2. As to dedication, I mean so lawfully to dedicate a place, which is of our own right to dispose of; so to dedicate it, as not again to be able to revoke it, or call it back from such a use and purpose. It is lawful and commendable for a rich man to dedicate so much ground, or money, for building a House for a Free-School, or for the poor, and to give it away from our selves, and from our own right and power: and if so be that a man hath power or propriety over a place or thing, it is lawful for a man to alienate such a thing. And yet this you must know by the way, that this Dedication that now is in the time of the Gospel, doth very much differ ⟨image 36⟩from that dedication of Free-will-offering unto God in the time of the Law; for they were dedicated to God in the time of the Law immediately, that is, to his immediate Worship; it was part of Gods Worship, it was a part of Religion to do that thing: whereas it is not now dedicated to the immediate Worship of God, but it is dedicated immediately to such a Priest, or Minister, or Place, or company of people, that we have a good will to gratify; and so it more remotely redounds to Gods glory not immediately. For God hath not declared in his Word the same acceptation in the Gospel of things done in an immediate way, as he had in the time of the Law, of which acceptation now we have no such promise. And therefore it is observable, as one speaks concerning that Benefactor in the Gospel to the Jews, He hath loved our Nation, and builded us a Synagogue; it is not said, for God, but for us: This man out of love to us hath bestowed these things to God; which though a giving our selves out of our own power, yet it doth differ from the Free-will-offering in the time of the Law. Ay, but now, Sirs, ye must know, that sanctification, or consecration, that is a great deal more; when we sanctify a thing, or consecrate a thing, this thing that is so consecrated, it is so holy, that there must nothing at all of unholiness, or of a civil or secular employment and concernment be done in it. Now we do not dedicate a thing, but there may be secular things in an ordinary and civil way done in them; and our services are not more acceptable for the place, nor the places less holy because of those civil employments.
2. As to dedication, I mean so lawfully to dedicate a place, which is of our own right to dispose of; so to dedicate it, as not again to be able to revoke it, or call it back from such a use and purpose. It is lawful and commendable for a rich man to dedicate so much ground, or money, for building a House for a Free-School, or for the poor, and to give it away from our selves, and from our own right and power: and if so be that a man hath power or propriety over a place or thing, it is lawful for a man to alienate such a thing. And yet this you must know by the way, that this Dedication that now is in the time of the Gospel, doth very much differ ⟨image 36⟩from that dedication of Free-will-offering unto God in the time of the Law; for they were dedicated to God in the time of the Law immediately, that is, to his immediate Worship; it was part of Gods Worship, it was a part of Religion to do that thing: whereas it is not now dedicated to the immediate Worship of God, but it is dedicated immediately to such a Priest, or Minister, or Place, or company of people, that we have a good will to gratifie; and so it more remotely redounds to Gods glory not immediately. For God hath not declared in his Word the same acceptation in the Gospel of things done in an immediate way, as he had in the time of the Law, of which acceptation now we have no such promise. And therefore it is observable, as one speaks concerning that Benefactor in the Gospel to the Jews, He hath loved our Nation, and builded us a Synagogue; it is not said, for God, but for us: This man out of love to us hath bestowed these things to God; which though a giving our selves out of our own power, yet it doth differ from the Free-will-offering in the time of the Law. Ay, but now, Sirs, ye must know, that sanctification, or consecration, that is a great deal more; when we sanctifie a thing, or consecrate a thing, this thing that is so consecrated, it is so holy, that there must nothing at all of unholiness, or of a civil or secular employment and concernment be done in it. Now we do not dedicate a thing, but there may be secular things in an ordinary and civil way done in them; and our services are not more acceptable for the place, nor the places less holy because of those civil employments.
