Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A51230
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A sermon preach'd before the House of Lords in the abby-church at Westminster, upon Monday January 31, 1697 / by John Lord Bishop of Norwich.
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Moore, John, 1646-1714.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing M2555; ESTC R26202
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18,373
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42
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THE Bishop of NORWICH's SERMON Preach'd before the House of LORDS On JANUARY 31. 1697. Die Lunae 7 o Februarii 1697. IT is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled That the Thanks of this House be and are hereby given to the Lord Bishop of Norwich for his Sermon Preach'd before this House the One and Thirtieth Day of January last in the Abby-Church and he is hereby desir'd to Print and Publish the same MATTH JOHNSON Cler ' Parlamentor ' A SERMON Preach'd before the House of Lords IN THE Abby-Church at Westminster UPON Monday January 31. 1697. By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of NORWICH LONDON Printed by R. R. for W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCVII 1 TIM II. 1 2. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty NOtwithstanding the Care at first which was taken in planting the Gospel of Christ and that the Doctrines and Precepts thereof were publish'd by Men divinely inspired yet Errors of a dangerous nature did early creep into the Church Two of which are opposed by St. Paul in the Text the one concerned the Extent of the Christian Religion and the other related to the Subjection due to the Civil Magistrate It was a prevailing Opinion among the Jews who were the first Converts to Jesus Christ That his Gospel was only to be preached to themselves and that the Infinite Happiness promised in it should be limited to the People of their own Nation They were puff'd up with the long Course of Favours God had been pleas'd to vouchsafe unto them and could not endure with patience to hear and think that under the Dispensation of the Gospel the Gentiles should stand on a Level with them and become equally capable of the hopes and means of Salvation And as the Epicureans would have shut the Providence of God out of the World so They would have confined the illustrious Manifestations of it by Jesus Christ to the Seed of Abraham While indeed the Jews were under the peculiar Care of God the Laws he made to govern them were chiefly Political and had regard to their Publick Good and Safety as a Nation and Community like the Civil Laws of other Countries and Submission to them was enforced by Temporal Rewards and Punishments But when it pleased him to enact Laws which were for the Reformation of the Minds and Affections as well as the Manners of Men and which would not only advance their general Good in this Life but procure their Eternal Welfare in the next it seemed agreeable to his boundless Goodness and Wisdom that what he intended for the Advancement of Human Nature and the Reparation of his own Image in the Souls of Men which was defaced by Adam's Fall and Man 's own wilful Transgressions should reach to all who did partake of that Nature And this being the highest Favour his poor revolted Creatures were capable of receiving it was his merciful Resolution not to deny any of them the Means to obtain it Insomuch that the Merit of Christ's Death was to extend not only to the Seed of Abraham but to the whole Posterity of Adam That as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive And that God's designed Bounty by the coming of the Messiah should comprehend all Nations the Jews had sufficient notice from the Inspired Writers of their own Country And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth And in support of this great Truth St. Paul doth exhort Timothy That Supplications be made for all Men Whether Jews or Gentiles Believers or Infidels of what Country of what Rank or Quality soever they be But the Occasion of our being at this time assembled will not permit me longer to insist upon the Refutation of this first Mistake of the Jewish Christians against which St. Paul's Exhortation is here directed I proceed therefore to the Consideration of the other immediately following which was Their Averseness to live in Subjection to the Civil Magistrate Their Untractableness and Disrespect to Rulers had appeared on several occasions especially since they were brought under the Roman Yoke and may probably be in some measure imputed to a wrong Interpretation which they had put upon a Precept that God gave them by Moses God had required them to make no King but of their own People One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother This made them unwilling to submit to any Foreign Power It is true while a liberty of Election continued they were to chuse a King of their own Nation but after God for the hardness of their hearts did suffer them to be subdued by their Neighbours and to be carried Captive into a strange Land it became their Duty to be subject to them who had brought them under their Power and to conform themselves to the Laws of the Emperors and Kings who protected them Now St. Paul having some cause to suspect since their Conversion to the Christian Religion that they had not quitted all their Prejudices and false Notions about Obedience and Submission to the higher Powers which they held under the Mosaick Dispensation does in the Text exhort and desire Timothy that as Prayers should be made for all kinds of Men so chiefly and in the first place for Kings and all that are in Authority In treating of which Argument I shall endeavour to shew 1. That it is not foreign to the Office of the Ministers of the Christian Church to remind the People of their Duty to the Civil Power 2. That the People are bound by the Laws of God and Nature to pray for those in Authority and to live in due Subjection to them 1. That it is not foreign to the Office of the Ministers of the Christian Church to remind the People of their Duty to the Civil Power Which Proposition may be grounded on the Exhortation of St. Paul to Timothy The Apostle did not think it sufficient when he writ to whole Churches to injoyn them to render Tribute 〈◊〉 and Service to Chief Governors and all in Authority under them but in his Epistle to Timothy who being made Bishop of Ephesus was about to order and establish the Worship of God in the Assemblies of the New Christians he does exhort and beseech him that their Publick Service should begin with Prayers for all Men and particularly for Kings And with equal Care and Zeal to preserve Christians from Seditious Designs and Plots against the Magistrate in his Letter to