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A63880
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A sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen at Guild-Hall Chappel on the 7th of May 1682 / by Francis Turner ...
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Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing T3281; ESTC R1763
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16,172
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40
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Moore Mayor Jovis xi die Maii 1682. Annoque Regis CAROLI Secundi Angl. c. xxxiiij THis Court doth desire Dr Turner to Print his Sermon Preached on Sunday Morning last at the Guild-Hall Chappel before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe A SERMON Preached before the Lord Mayor AND The COURT of ALDERMEN At Guild-Hall Chappel on the 7th of May 1682. By FRANCIS TURNER D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Macock for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty 1682. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir JOHN MOORE Knight Lord Mayor OF THE CITY of LONDON And to the Right Worshipful the ALDERMEN his Brethren My Lord WHEN I delivered this mean discourse in so solemn an Audience where the King's Ministers of Justice with others of the long Robe met the worthy Magistrates of this Great City to begin the Term at the Church with imploring the Blessing of God upon that excellent Government which you and they joyntly support I was much encourag'd to see so many Noble Persons and so numerous an Assembly practising so Religiously beforehand the Doctrine I came to Preach joyning in the Publick Supplications and Common-Prayers Your devout Appearance and hearty Concurrence in the Divine Service gave me some Idaea of those times a gallant Loyal Citizen describes in a Speech of his which for it's Eloquence might have flow'd from the Mouth of any Roman or Grecian Orator and for it's Piety might have become the Tongue of the gravest Divine There have been Times says See Alderman Garro-way's lately reprinted speech spoken at a Common-Hall in the Year 1642. he that he that should speak against the Book of Common-Prayer in this City should not have been put to the patience of a Legal Tryal We were wont to look upon it as the greatest Treasure and Jewel of our Religion and he that should have told us he wished well to our Religion and yet would take away the Book of Common-Prayer would never have gotten Credit I have been says he in all the parts of Christendom and have conversed with Christians in Turky Why in all the Reformed Churches there is not any thing of more Reverence than the English Liturgy not our Royal Exchange or the Name of Q. Elizabeth so famous In Geneva it self I have heard it extolled to the Skies I have been three Months together by Sea not a Day without hearing it read twice The honest Mariners then despised all the World but the King and the Common-Prayer-Book he that should have been suspected to wish ill to either of them would have made an ill Voyage But though so goodly a Congregation as yours whose Devotions I had the Honour to serve that Day was one of the best sights I had ever seen yet I live in hopes of seeing a better one Day I mean the same Honourable Assembly translated from your Lordship's Chappel to our Church of St. Paul's which begins to lift up its head and to beg for its self from every Charitable Hand especially from those within the Walls of the City its Fellow-sufferer Now I should forget my self and the Duty to which I Exhorted others if I should not give this proof of my obedience to You that are in Authority and I do it the more cheerfully to You that imploy your Authority so well and wisely as Fearing God Honouring the King and not medling with them that are given to change I should not be true to my Text if I should not submit my self and this plain Sermon to be dispos'd of as you have been pleas'd to Order My Lord I am your Lordship's most humble and most obedient Servant FRAN. TURNER A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor c. 1 TIMOTHY 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 I Exhort therefore first of all And I be-beseech you Brethren to suffer the word of Exhortation So the same blessed Apostle that exhorts us here addresses himself to his Brethren of the House of Israel Heb. 13. 22. No question this in my Text is an Exhortation to the greatest of all Duties which the Divine Writer thinks so necessary to recommend at the highest rate I exhort therefore first of all Indeed here are two of our most important Duties joyn'd together or as it were interwoven and we are exhorted to them both First To the due performance of the publick Worship and Service of God for which there is all this Provision that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men Secondly These Offices of the Church are most particularly directed to secure the Honour and Obedience due to the Civil Magistrate whether supreme or subordinate for Kings and for all that are in Authority Thirdly The use of these good means is referr'd to these two great Ends the first of which most concerns our Temporal welfare that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life the second reaches even our Eternal Condition that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty 1. And first we are exhorted to the care of Gods publick Worship and Service on which we are now attending to which the Apostle presses us elsewhere that we should all of us be either Preachers or at least not hearers only but doers of this word of Exhortation not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another For I must observe to you that St. Paul is not writing instructions here to his beloved Son and Disciple Timothy for his private Devotions but from his way of speaking not barely I exhort thee to pray but I exhort first of all that Prayers be made that is be prepared appointed establisht 't is probable that he is dictating as the great Apostle of the Gentiles and as Paul the Aged directing this Apostolical young Man to whom this Charge is committed that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God For Timothy whom he besought to abide still at Ephesus was this Church's Angel Therefore St. Paul enjoyns him what was convenient for ordering the pure Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth for settling it in the Church where the Holy Ghost had made him a Bishop And it may farther appear what kind of publick Worship is prescrib'd to this Church of Ephesus from what was practis'd in the most flourishing Churches in the first and the best Ages the greatest Lights of the Ancient Church undoubtedly left behind them the plainest Commentaries on my Text in the pious Offices they compos'd for Divine Worship True indeed what they left so well devis'd and design'd has been corrupted since with Letanies to Saints and Angels and many false Doctrines are crept into their
restoring of publick Worship is avow'd to be this that they may offer Sacrifices of sweet Savour to the God of Heaven and pray for the Life of the King and of his Sons So Artaxerxes another mighty Monarch but a Pagan still had the same veneration for these Divine Offices the same sollicitude that Intercessions should be made to God for him and his Posterity not without dreadful Apprehensions of a judgment worthy of God if his solemn and decent service were neglected Ezra 7. 23. Whatsoever is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done for the house of the God of Heaven for why should there be wrath against the King and his Sons But then this Duty of praying for our Governours is so well establisht by the Apostle's express direction here and by the constant practice of the most Apostolical times as makes it a most indispensable Office in the Christian Church and methinks 't is very observable how St. Paul here has fenc'd and guarded this Duty of ours so as to leave no room for any to evade it as if he had foreseen there would be a sort of Men and they liv'd within our Memories Men who instead of praying for their King would learn to pray against him But then if all Kings according to the rule in my Text ought to be prayed for they who suppos'd their King was not to be prayed for any longer no wonder if they advanc'd to the next immediate Consequence to make him no King at all nor is it strange if those in the Neighbour Kingdom who of late had the hardiness openly to excommunicate his Majesty and many others in Authority under him delivering them over to Satan instead of praying for them as their Governours forthwith proceeded to refuse them all manner of Allegiance and Obedience but now allowing such Men all their most unjust prejudices against the persons of their Governours yet does St. Paul in this place oblige both them and us to make Intercessions for Kings as Kings for all in Authority as lawful Magistrates whether just men or no he binds them to whom he writes to pray for the conversion of wicked unconverted Heathen Potentates for it follows immediately upon my Text For this that is this praying for all Men for Kings and all in Authority this is good and acceptable in the sight of God and our Saviour who will have all men to be sav'd and come to the knowledge of the Truth where the Duty of praying for the Conversion and Salvation of those at the Helm of State who all were arrant Pagans is repeated and reinforc'd Again in the 8th verse St. Paul is pleased to rivet this Injunction I will therefore that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting methinks the Apostle forbids the Christians here to be either censorious or scrupulous as if their Prayers for the worst of Heathens whether publick or private persons should not be accepted as he hath told them before that this is good and acceptable and in my Text he expresses himself in such terms as may best secure his precept of praying for Kings from the most perverse disputings as if he had taken it for granted that some might in time arrive at that height of uncharitable Insolence as to determine of Christian Princes that they were in that case wherein St. John seems to dispense with St. Pauls precept here of praying for all men there is a Sin unto Death saith St. John I do not say ye shall pray for it but St. Paul in my Text has provided even against this supposition though the Charity that hopeth all things were overcome so that the Spiritual welfare of a Nero or some other cruel Pagan and most malicious Persecutor of the Christian Faith were not only doubted but in a manner despair'd of yet such a temper is found as no wonder if the Apostle has bounded and limited these great things exactly such provision is made that as their Prince he was to be pray'd for still That they might lead a quiet and peaceable life Thus it was in the case of that impious wretch Licinius Colleague and Partner of the Empire with the Glorious Constantine that same Licinius who became a bloody Tyrant a Ravisher of Christian Virgins a Murderer of holy Bishops a most violent Persecutor of the Church when he first broke out upon the Christians the first thing he did saith Eusebius was to turn all the Christians Eccles Hist lib. 10. cap. 8. out of his family so as much as in Him lay miserably stripping and depriving himself of the help of their Prayers which they according to the institution of our Fathers us'd to pour forth to God for him and for all men no doubt it refers to my Text and to this Apostolical Constitution and the same Eusebius speaking of this wicked Licinius now grown to the height of impiety He pulled down divers Churches saith that Historian and shut up others that none of those who us'd to frequent them might assemble there and perform Divine Service to the most high God for he was of opinion saith he that they made no Prayers for him there being induc'd to that opinion as being conscious to himself of his own crimes which implies sufficiently that they did make Prayers for him still though he thought the contrary But Secondly we are not only to pray for Kings but for all in Authority under them in which how the Ancient Church behav'd her self let one of the Fathers inform us We pray saith he for all Emperours for their long life for the peace of their Empire for the safety of the Royal Family for valiant Souldiers under them for a faithful Senate an honest Commonalty a quiet World and whatsoever else ought to be the subject of our Prayers as he is a man whom we pray for or as he is Caesar But is it enough that we pray for Kings and for all in Authority some have been praying for them after a fashion that have at the same time been fighting against them We must all pray to this end and with this design that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life which is my Third particular Now if the Church of Christ be so indispensably bound to Pray for Peace and if our lives ought to be answerable to our Prayers since praying for Peace is but mocking of God without keeping the King's Peace too then let not any pretend to be good Christians and sound members of Christ's Church unless they be also good Subjects Let none lay any claim to Godliness nor yet to Honesty whose heart is not set to lead a quiet and peaceable Life let all Ecclesiastical Power that exalts it self above the Civil for its Destruction instead of its Edification be lookt upon as a mere Antichristian Imposture My aim is first against the Power of Deposing Kings that has been often claim'd by the Bishop of Rome maintain'd by his flattering