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A50544
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Major and aldermen, &c. at Guild-Hall Chappel, January the 30th 1673/4 by Richard Meggott ...
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Meggott, Richard, d. 1692.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing M1621; ESTC R19569
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17,210
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52
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A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable THE Lord Major AND Aldermen c. AT GVILD-HALL Chappel January the 30th 1673 4. By RICHARD MEGGOTT D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Brooke at the Sign of the Angel in Corn-hill near the Royal Exchange HOOKER Major CVria Specialis tenta die Veneris xxx die Januarii 1673. Annoque Regni Regis Caroli Secundi Angliae c. xxvi ORdered by this Court that Dr. Meggott be desired to Print his Sermon this day Preached before this Court at the Guild-hall Chappel Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable Sr. WILLIAM HOOKER Lord MAJOR of LONDON and Court of ALDERMEN Right Honourable OF all the sound Doctrines which in the times that are come men will not endure there is not any that fareth harder than that which respecteth Kings So that it is plain you have not consulted the Palats of the People it could be only their Healths in desiring this Discourse to be made publick It is a Truth as evident as it is severe that so many as there are among us of Dissenters from the Church of England 〈◊〉 many there are who are more or less unsound in Tenents concerning Magistracy And then how is it possible to speak of such a Matter faithfully though never so tenderly without the offence and regret of many The apprehension of it usually on this day keepeth those who have most need of such Lessons farther from the places in which they are taught than to receive any Vertue from them If now you have ordered this to come to them at their homes putting its Mouth upon their Mouths and its Eyes upon their Eyes it shall be instrumental to cause the departed Spirit of Loyalty and Obedience Humility and Sobriety to return into any of them I shall account it a happiness that by this instance of Submission I have shown my self Your humble Servant Rich. Meggot Psalms 11.3 If the Foundations be destroyed what can the Righteous do THat the Doctrine of Obedience to the Civil Magistrate might not be misconstrued an Encroachment upon the Rights of Humane Nature but received as the rest of the Precepts of Christ for a reasonable and prudent Service St. Paul declareth to the jealous Murmurer Rom. 13.4 That he is the Minister of God to men for Good The Institution was not for the Politick Advancement of some to be Princes that they might enjoy themselves in incommunicable Pomps and Splendours but for the Benefit and Security of every individual Subject that they might not vex and mischieve one another with remediless wrongs and injuries It is true there are other Creatures as Ants and Bees live sociably together without any Coercive Power to command and overawe them but no argument can be drawn from these to our more troublesom and untoward Species Their Appetites are limited by their Real Needs but ours are retched by Emulation Pride and Envy from whence if there be nothing to restrain them will arise Hatreds and Strifes Fears and perpetual Violences With them there is no publick Good that doth enterfere with the private Good of any one in particular but with men there is a General Good of the Society which cannot always be promoted or maintained without the damage of several single Members in it Although they make Sounds among themselves sufficient to express a simple instance yet they have not the artifice of disguising words whereby we put false colours upon things to the fomenting of Discontents and causless Quarrels From these and such like differences it is that though the Agreement of inferiour Animals when they flock and herd together being Natural there needeth no such Ordinance as a Supreme Authority to preserve their Peace and Unity yet that of Men being Artificial it is necessarily required to make theirs firm and lasting There are no Nations People or Languages that are not convinced of it Could we ride Post upon the Back of the Sun and thence look down upon all the Inhabitants on the Surface of this Globe we live on we might find some People Naked without the Modesty of Cloaths some Poor without the Gayeties of Wealth some Rude without the Culture of Arts and Sciences but none so Barbarous but that they have some to Rule and Govern them This is the Foundation which all Order and Equity Quiet and Property among Corrupted men is built upon which if it fail they all fall into Ruines And then it is easie to foresee what a Miserable and Distressed Case all Meek and Honest Harmless and Sober People must be in what Preys and Sacrifices to the Sons of Craft and Fraud of Cruelty and Oppression These are conceived to be the Psalmists Melancholy Thoughts and Expostulations with Almighty God upon such Occasion the Danger of his own Destruction as King of Israel in the Text. As the great Gresor was wont to say That it was not so much his own Interest as the Common-wealths that he should be preserved safe so seemeth holy David to reflect upon it here and not so much for his own sake as his poor Subjects to be concerned at his present Condition What will become of the Flock if they have no Shepherd to look after them How will the Children be wronged when the Father is gone that did provide for them Where will the Building be if the Foundation be undermined that did uphold it If the Foundations be destroyed what can the Righteous do While you are yet but at the door of the Text before you enter further I cannot but take notice that some of the Learned Languages have rendred it very differently from that Sence which it carrieth in our Translation The most ancient Version out of the Hebrew the Septuagint hath it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have destroyed what thou hast prepared and what hath the Righteous done And the other Interpreters that follow them the Syriack Arabick and Vulgar although a little varying the phrase in substance altogether to the same purpose These make them part of the words of David's distrustful friends who perswaded him in the first Verse to retire in this his Exigence to some fortified place of strength Fly as a bird to the mountains And then it is the Motive with which they back their Counsel His Arms and Militia were seised on or otherwise become useless his Forces and war like Preparations scattered or else revolted notwithstanding that Justice and Right he had on his side and did so much depend upon If we take them so there is this sad Truth to be gathered from them That a good Cause may have had success Although it be not so clear what was the particular occasion of his penning this Psalm whether the persecution of Saul when he was fain to leave his Country and live as an Exile in the Land of the Philistines or the Rebellion of Absalon when he withdrew himself from his Metropolis at Hierusalem for the preservation of his Person to
made of them but they will do well enough it may be best of all then others Ruines shall be their Raisings others Losses shall be their Gains What if the Waters are troubled they know how to catch Fish in them What if the Kingdom be in a Flame they take the advantage of warming their own hands at it They can sail with the Wind that bloweth and with the Hedgehog be sure to open to the Sunny side They that can dispense with their Oaths and comply with Usurpers be Instruments of the illegal Innovations and zealous for the statutes of Omri may receive some wages for their unrighteousness and ravish to themselves Fortunes unexpected as ignominious But for those that dare not debauch their Consciences nor be pertakers of other mens sins that will retain their Integrity and rather than do would suffer evil what can these do These are they that are here so pitied as in a lamentable and wofull case and that in all which concerneth them either as men or good men I mean both Their Religion and Their Property First consider them in their Religious Concernments Religion indeed consider'd in an abstracted Notion standeth upon a Foundation that cannot be destroyed It is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone So it dependeth not upon the Will or breath of any mortal Man how great soever It was the same as much deserving to be believed as necessary to be obeyed yesterday under the most furious heathen Persecutions as it is to day that Kings are become its Nursing-fathers But though as it is a divine Revelation it standeth upon another bottom and leaneth not at all upon the Civil Power yet as it is a visible Profession so it is a most desirable and strong Support to it As long as this holy Vine hath the benefit of such a wall to grow up by it spreadeth its orderly and thriving Branches secure both from the Boar and Foxes but when this is undermined and falleth how may we see its weak and feeble parts unable to sustain themselves ruinously drooping upon the same deceitful earth rotted by that and tangled within it self God grant them as much Grace as they have Cause to repent of their ingratitude that if the Magistrate doth not humour them in all the odd punctilio's of their disputable and troublesome perswasions still are murmuring sad times and persecution O how thankful both to God and them would the better primitive Christians have been if they could have been blessed with such Defendors of the Faith who would but have encouraged them in the Profession of its great Substantials Call to mind the days of old when the Potentates of the earth took counsel against the Lord how Christians could not go to the Temple without danger of being sacrificed at the Altar not put up their prayers but others were ready to pour out their Souls for it How as soon as they were discovered to follow the Lamb they were condemned to be cast to the Lyons and might not partake the Riches of the Gospel without utter undoing of themselves and Families and see in that Looking-glass the rueful Countenance Religion hath when the Civil Power is averse to it Nay though he be not a Nero that is in the Throne if he be but a Gallio how much doth the Church of God suffer what Contradictions what Schisms what Scandals what Disorders what Animosities from among their own perverse and wanton selves where there is no restraint on them Ammianus Marcellinus maketh this excuse to his fellow-heathen for Julian's not persecuting the Christians as did some preceding Emperours That it was not from any Inclination he had to them but from an Observation he had made on them that no savage Beasts are so cruel and quarrelsom among one another as they when they are at liberty and that therefore he did indulge them that slily he might undo them This having always since been found the sad Effect of it the destruction of a pious and prudent Magistrate must by all be concluded a dreadful Blow to the Righteous upon the account of Religion Nor are they likely to suffer less by it in the Second place upon the account of Property If there be no King in Israel every one will do that which is good in his own eyes and though this seemeth pretty and desirable if a man could enjoy it alone yet when every other hath it besides himself he being but one to so many the pleasure will not near counterpoise the danger Where each Individual sets up for an Ishmael his hand is against every man and every Mans hand against him O the Insolencies the Oppressions the Cruelties the Crimes of all sorts that such a Land must be covered with How will the Hawks prey upon the Doves The hungry Sharks devour the more helpless Fry Where there is no Law there will be nothing but Transgression It was discreetly answered of the Child when disswaded from taking on so for his dead Father because he was severe and harsh to him That though he was a severe and harsh Father yet he was a Father still It is so here the Commodities of Government are so great that a very froward and rigid Father of the Country is better than none at all For whereas in a corrupt Monarchy there may be one Tyrant in an Oligarchy a few Tyrants in a Democracy many Tyrants in an Anarchy they are all Tyrants Not that the Throne doth any where long stand empty One passeth away and another cometh but the poor Subjects as earth abide so and are under one or anothers foot for ever But if we should suppose that upon the downfal of one in process of time another building more fair and goodly than the former should be erected yet when the Foundations fail this is undeniable the several parts of the present Superstructure that stand upon it will be generally spoiled and broken and that one would think should be consideration enough to them to be chary of it To strip the argument of David's Metaphor none can reasonably hope that their lines should fall in such an Eutopia where there shall be nothing amiss in the Publick Administrations but for them to determine upon resisting and pulling down their Governours because they are sensible of some Failures and Miscarriages in their Government is much such wise contrivance as he that resolved to have his Head cut off that he might be eased of the Tooth-ach For certain it is that among the greatest Tyrants the Earth hath ever groaned under the Caligula's Nero's Domitian's there cannot one be named that ever shed so much blood or did so much wrong to a place as a Rebellion or Civil War doth No where they have slain or undone their thousands these have their ten thousands Down then down to the place of Darkness from whence it came with that Antichristian Principle That it is lawful for the People upon