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B08892 A sermon preach'd at the election of the Governour, at Boston in New-England, May 19th 1669. by John Davenport. Davenport, John, 1597-1670. 1670 (1670) Wing D367A; ESTC W26450 12,827 18

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of courage men fearing God hating covetousness c. as Moses did vers 25. which also Moses gave to the Tribes Deut. 1.13 Motive 1. The choice of good Rulers will be a sign and pledge of Gods intendment to bless their Government and his People thereby For when God gives Rulers whom he intends to make a blessing to his People they shall be such as are blessed of him in Christ for the good of that People Isa 1.25 26. Then I will turn mine hand upon thee and burn out thy dross till it be pure and take away all thy tinn and I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning If this be neglected the Government will not be blessed and the welfare of the People will be ruined But if Christ bless the Governours he shall be our peace whatsoever Enemies come against us or rise up among us And he shall be our peace when Ashur shall come into our Land Mic. 5.5 6. c. he will raise seven Shepherds and eight principal Men that shall be our Relief But you have no Instance in Scripture that ever God was with a People to bless them in a course of special Providence when they that feared not God were their Rulers by their own consent and choice Let Christ therefore have the preheminence in all things and in your choice of Rulers for the Commonwealth and in order thereunto see that they whom you choose to be Rulers be men interressed personally in Christ For when they that are called to Ruling Power cease to exert it in subserviency to the Kingdom of Christ there will be an end of New-England's Glory and Happiness and Safety Mot. 2. You must submit to their Authority and perform all duties to them whom you have chosen to be your Rulers whether they be good or bad by vertue fo the Relation between them and you So Wives to their Husbands though Unbelievers 1 Cor. 7.13 And Servants to their Masters though froward 1 Pet. 2.18 Therefore as this should Caution Women and Youngmen to beware of chusing bad Husbands and Masters so and much more it should Caution you in your choosing publick Rulers if you mind the publick or private good of yours Mot. 3. If men unjust and that fear not God be chosen Rulers of the Common-wealth all the People are in danger of being punished by the wrath of God for the sins of their Rulers Bad men being in publick place will give bad counsel to corrupt Religion Ezek. 11.1 2. Jaazaniah and Palatiah Princes of the People are said to be the men that imagine mischief and devise wicked counsel in the City the end will be ruine See when the men of Shechem chose a bramble Abimelech to be their Ruler see Judg. 9.2 14 15 23 52 53. The sins of Jeroboam and of those that succeded him their corrupting Religion ruined not only their own Families but also all Israel which was threatned 1 King 14.15 For the Lord shall smite Israel as when a Reed is shaken in the Water and he shall weed Israel out of this good Land which he gave to their Fathers and shall scatter them beyond the River because they have made groves provoking the Lord to anger The same befel Judah for the sins of Manasseh Jer. 15.4 And for the sins of other Rulers by corrupting Religion and unrighteous dealings whereof the Prophets complained Exhort 2. To those who by the consent of the Freemen Vse are according to Gods Ordinance to be invested with Magistratical Power and Authority to observe Moses his Charge to the Judges Deut. 1.16 17. And I charged your Judges that same time saying Hear the Controversies between your Brethren and judge righteously c. and Jehoshaphats 2 Chron. 19.9 10. Be wise therefore ye Rulers and consider that your Life and all our Good your Prosperity and Protection lies not in this or that Politick design or whatsoever else under the Sun but alone in Gods gracious Presence with you Psal 4.6 7. Oh! provoke him not to depart from us but seek the continuance of his presence with us and fix your thoughts on the things which tend to assure Gods special providential Presence with us The things incumbent on you in order hereunto are such as respect either Persons or Things my desire is to speak in love to the Truth and Peace 1. For Persons Provide for the Protection Encouragement and Liberty of all those whom God owneth to be his People that fear him take care that they be not trodden under foot nor swallowed up nor exposed to the rage and contempt of men only for those that walk orderly and peaceably not offensively to one or other or to the Church of God though they differ from others in their Apprehensions and Perswasions though misguided yet are willing to receive Light in Gods way and time These are to God as the Apple of his Eye and let their Safety be also to you Be not ready to receive ill reports against them Jer. 20.10 Report say they and we will report c. Psal 15.3 nor receiveth a false report against his neighbour 1 Tim. 1.19 2. For Things They are either the things of God or the things of Men 1. For the things of God the publick Profession and Practice of Religion which is in great danger by two extreams misguided Zeal and Formallity Let the Honourable Court therefore approve themselves to Rule in the fear of God by their personal knowing imbracing and obeying the Gospel of Christ and by their protecting the Churches that are orderly gathered and walk according to Gospel-Rules from the violence and injuries of their opposers remembring that dreadful threatning Isa 60.12 For the Nation and the Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish c. I shall add a few Caveats 1. Take heed of a various management of matters of Religion to the advantage of the present postures and condition of your Civil Affairs The things of Christ should be as Josephs Sheaf to which all other should bow When they are made to cringe and bend to mens Policies they are no longer the things of Christ All Gods Truths are Eternal and Unchangeable by men Give them all at once the soveraignty of your Souls and have not the least thought of making them bend to serve your worldly ends but cleave to the Truth of the Precepts and live by the Truth of the Promises for performance whereof the God of Truth hath engaged his Alsufficiency 2. Take heed and beware that you deprive not any Instituted Christian Church walking according to Gospel Rules of the Power and Priviledges which Christ hath purchased for them by his precious blood and given unto them Mat. 16.19 God calls Civil Rulers to protect and preserve such Churches if he hath given them liberty and you subject them to bondage if he hath given them power in their proper concernments within themselves and you countenance and uphold others to exercise
power over the Churches in such things to whom Christ never gave such puwer you will have a sad reckoning Remember Jeptah's Argument against the encroachments of the Amonites upon the Rights of Israel Judg. 11.14 3. Avoid carefully imposing upon the Churches any thing that Christ hath not put upon them viz. 1. Mens Opinions especially when they are such as prevailed in an hour of Temptation though consented to by the major part of a Topical Synod yet disliked by some of themselves and by other godly Ministers both in this Countrey and in other Countries so that they are things Controverted and under Dispute Impose not such things upon Churches lest Contentions arise in the Churches about Opinions which are no part of the Faith once given to the Saints for which we are called to contend earnestly Jude 3. 2. A standing Council for which we find no warrant in the New-Testament nor Example in the Primitive Churches nor in Succeeding Ages for some hundred years after Christ Nor is it safe for the Churches which are thereby subjected under an undue Power out of the Church which under a pretence of helping the Church with their Light bereave them of their Power in re propriâ binding them to rest in their Decisions and to practise accordingly As for occasional Councils two extreams must be avoided 1. A total rejecting Councils For when the need of any Church requireth such helps through want of Light or of consent within it self in weighty and difficult questions it is their Liberty and Prudence and Duty voluntarily to seek help from others chosen by that Church being approved for their Orthodoxy and Faithfulness to Christ and to his Cause and Interest And when their Counsel is given it is the Duty of the said Church to try it by the Scripture and if it be found to agree with the Oracles of God to acquiesce in it else not according to that Rule 1 Thes 5.21 2. A preferring the Judgment of a Council when it suits with mens own minds wills and ends above any Light for the contrary though it be held forth from the Word of God so as to rest in what the Council saith without considering whether it be according to the holy Mind and Will of God declared in the Scriptures This is an abuse of Councils which hath sharpned the Pens of Godly Learned men in their Writings against it not only against Popish Councils which bind People to receive their Superstitious Devices and Impositions as matters of Faith but against other Councils which have too peremptorily and absolutely obtruded their own Determinations without Scripture-proof Hence Luther affirmed of the first general Council at Nice which was accounted the best That he understood not that the Holy Ghost speak in it and that the Canons and Articles thereof were but Hay and Straw and Stubble And Beza in his Preface to the New-Testament saith That such was the folly ignorance and ambition of many Bishops in the best times that you would have supposed the Devil to have been President in their Assemblies And long before these Nazianzen complained That he never saw good end of any and resolved never to come at them more yet he lived under the good Emperour Theodosius When Councils seek to please themselves and other men more then to serve Christ their Conclusions will be answerable to their scope Hence the German Interim was agreed upon by sundry Ministers to please the Emperour but other Orthodox Ministers dissented and wrote against it The Synod in England under the Prelacy published Superstitious Ceremonies against which many godly learned Ministers wrote and were silenced who are to this day called The good Old Nonconformists The late Reverend Teacher to re-establish a Church published a Catechism for the Children of it wherein he taught them concerning the Power of Councils that the Question is carried to the Council but the Cause still remaineth in and with the Church This shall suffice for the present to have been spoken to the Care that the Honourable Court is to Exercise about the things of God The next things to be spoken to briefly are the things of men they are righteous Administrations of Justice in matters of this Life These wheels also you are to set going 1. If upon revisal of your Body of Laws any one be found to be unjust and oppressing let it be expunged and altered And for those that are good provide for good execution 2. Let the soveraign Dictates of Nature be constantly attended by you which Christ notes to be the sum of all Moral Duties in the two Tables Quod tibi furi non vis alteri ne faeceris Mat. 7.12 Would you enjoy peace and liberty in Professing and Practising according to the Rules of the Word as you are perswaded let others also that fear God and walk orderly and justly and peaceably with them enjoy the like Peace and Civil Liberties lest other Rulers be encouraged by your Example to measure to us again with what measure we mete unto others they accounting as we do them This is threatned in Mat. 7.2 I shall conclude with a brief reminding you of the first beginning of this Colony of the Massachusets which I have the better advantage and more special engagement to do being one of them by whom the Patent which you enjoy was procured and to whom it was committed by King Charles the first and His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My Name was not mentioned in the Patent because I desired it might be left out lest the then Bishop of London who was of the Privy Council should have an ill eye upon me for my appearing so far in that work whereunto he was opposit but in expences for any Helps to promove the Work in the first beginnings of it I bore my part meerly for the service of Christ and for the help of his People I not knowing that ever I should remove unto these parts by vertue of that Patent When it was obtained and committed to us we were made a Corporation for New-England and accordingly acted in sundry Meetings and chose Mr Endicot to be the first Governour and sent him hither and for his encouragement we gave him an House at Salem which was built for the use of the Corporation in London and he carried with him two Ministers The next year the Corporation in London understanding that honourable Mr Winthrope inclined to remove himself and Family to New-England chose him to be Governor who came to Boston and with him we sent the Patent to prevent future inconveniencies and God blessed it to that end as it appeared soon afterward In the first General Court after his Arrival the Civil Order was settled in a Select Company of Free Planters such as were accounted most fit to manage publick Trust to Christ's Ends these choose a Governour and Deputy-Governour and a limited number of Assistants invested with Magistratical Power and Deputies from the respective Plantations according to the Patent which gave liberty to order Civil Affairs as they found best Churches also were gathered in a Congregational way and walked therein according to the Rules of the Gospel with much peace and consent among themselves which that now blessed Servant of Christ Mr John Cotton the first Teacher to this Church so approved that he wrote unto me being then in Holland to encourage my coming to New-England that the Order of the Churches and of the Commonwealth was so settled by common Consent that it brought to his mind the New Heaven and New Earth wherein dwells Righteousness advising me to come hither free from Engagements to others But Satan in a short time stir'd up Strifes and Dissentions to the great disturbance of the Churches and of the Countrey which God at last mercifully quieted nor hath the Gospel come unto you empty handed but hath brought unto you in its right hand Spiritual Good Things through Jesus Christ with Eternal Salvation to those that believe in him And in its lest hand Riches and Honour with Protection and Deliverances from Enemies of all sorts Now therefore take heed and beware that the Lord may not have just cause to complain of us as he did of those in Jer. 2.21 Rev. 2.4 lest you lose by Gods punishing Justice what you received from his free Mercy lest he remove the golden Candlesticks and the burning and shining Lights in them as he hath already done many eminent Lights and wo to them from whom the Gospel is removed for their abusing it and the Messengers of it Would you yet see good dayes and enjoy good things as in times past Obey the counsel that the Spirit gave to the Church at Ephesus Rev. 2.5 And to the Angel of the Church in Sardis Rev. 3.2 3. And take the course that Jehoshaphat took and was blessed therein and all Judah with him 2 Chron. 17.3 The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first wayes of his Father David And see that your fruitfulness in good answereth the cost pains that God hath been at with you in his Vineyard lest the Lord be provoked to deal with us as he did with his ancient Vineyard Isa 5. from the first to the eight verse FINIS