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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	church_n	word_n	2,212	5	4.2793	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

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

Power of Government is originally in the People and that Three Wayes 1. Radically and vertually as in the first Subject For these Reasons 1. Because if living Creatures have radically in them a power of self-preservation to defend themselves from violence and wrongs men united in Societies being reasonable Creatures must have that power in a more reasonable and honourable way to put this power into the hands of Civil Rulers nor doth a Community in chusing Civil Rulers surrender so much their right and liberty to their Rulers as their Power both Active to do and Passive to suffer unjust violence so as the People shall not have Moral Power to do or avenge injuries proprio marte without punishment 2. Because if men United in a Civil Society may give Magistratical Power to such and such leaving out others then this Power was in this united Society but it was not in them formally for then all should be Rulers therefore this Power was in them only virtually for Nemo dat quod non habet None can give that which they have not either formally or virtually in themselves 2. Communciatively By way of free Donation the People giving to this or that man and not to others the Ruling Power over them For 1. In regular actings of the creature God is the first Agent there are not two several and distinct actings one God another of the People but in one and the same action God by the Peoples suffrages makes such an one Governour or Magistrate and not another 2. God regulateth his People exercising their Power in chusing such and such and not others to Rule over them therefore they have Power from God's Ordinance to do it for none can regulate a Non Ens nor will God by his Word regulate unwarrantable actions as he doth this Exod 18.21 Moreover provide thou among all the People men of courage fearing God men dealing truly hating covetousness and appoint such over them to be Rulers over thousands Rulers over hundreds c. Deut. 1.16 17. And I charged your Judges that same time saying Hear the Controversies between your Brethren and judge righteously between every Man and his Brother and the Stranger that is with him ye shall have no respect of persons in judgment but shall hear the small as well as the great ye shall not fear the face of man for the judgement is Gods c. 3. Limitively For the People so give Magistratical Power unto some as that still they retain in themselves these Three Acts 1. That they may measure out so much Civil Power as God in his Word alloweth to them and no more nor less 2. That they may set bounds and banks to the exercise of that Power so as it may not be exuberant above the Laws and due Rights and Liberties of the People 3. That they give it out conditionally upon this or that condition so as if the condition be violated they may resume their power of chusing another Thus you see the first part of God's Ordinance concerning Civil Rule and Government in Commonwealths by some orderly chosen thereunto The second part of God's Ordinance in this matter followeth which is concerning the qualifications of such Rulers over men 2. That as to the qualifications of Rulers over other men it is God's Ordinance that they be just ruling in the fear of the Lord. 1. They must be just They are to be termed just in the sense of this Text whose wills are sanctified and inclined by the Spirit of God to perform to men whatsoever is due to them according to the Rules of the Word 1. The principal and efficient hereof is the sanctifying Spirit therefore it is said Eph. 5.9 the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth 2. The proper subject recipient of this gift of Grace is the sanctified will into which it puts a bent and inclination unto righteosness For the faculties of the Soul are not by nature bent to that which is good but contrary Gen. 4.5 But unto Cain and his Offering he had no regard wherefore Cain was exceeding wroth and his countenance fell down There may be light in the understanding shewing what is good but that which inclineth to good must be in the will Rom. 7.18 22. For to will is present with me but I find no means to perform that which is good for I delight in the Law of God concerning the inner-man He is truly just who acteth justly out of love to Righteousness unjust men may do just actions upon other motives as Absolom pretended 2 Sam. 15.4 O that I were made Judge in the Land that every man which hath any matter of Controversie might come to me that I might do him right And the unjust Judge acted in Luke 18.4 5. Though I neither fear God nor love man yet because this Widow troubleth me I will do her right 3. The effect of it is the performance of whatsoever is due to men Hence Children doing their duties to their Parents is said to be just Eph. 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right And of Servants to their Masters is said to be just and equal Col. 4.1 And all things due to men are performed by living righteously Tit. 2.12 Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 4. The Rule is not mans corrupt Reasons and Affections but the Scripture Mich. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Justice and Judgment and to walk humbly with thy God 2 Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration from God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness Thus Rulers over men must be just 1. In their personal Conversation else that may be applyed to them in Rom. 2.1 3. Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that condemnest for in that thou condemnest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that condemnest dost the same things and thinkest thou this O man that condemnest them which do such things and dost the same things that thou shalt escape the judgment of God 2. In their administration of Justice and Judgment towards all men impartially and promised Psal 72.2 Then shall he judge thy People in righteousness and thy Poor with equity This God required Exod. 18.21 Moreover provide thou among all the People men of courage fearing God men dealing truly hating covetousness c. And Job practised Job 29.14 and Samuel pleaded when the People would alter the frame of Civil Government Deut. 1.16 17. 1 Sam. 12.3 Behold here I am bear record of me before the Lord and before his Anointed whose Ox have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith c. to the 6th vers Wherein he shewed 1. His Integrity in that he