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A36453 A sermon preached before the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor of the city of London and the court of Aldermen at Bow-Church, on the feast of S. Michael, 1682 : the day for election of a Lord Mayor / by Henry Dove ... Dove, Henry, 1640-1695. 1682 (1682) Wing D2049; ESTC R31365 14,854 36

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A SERMON Preached before the Right Honorable The Lord Mayor Of the CITY of LONDON AND THE Court of ALDERMEN At BOW-CHVRCH on the FEAST of S. MICHAEL 1682. The Day for the Election of a Lord Mayor By HENRY DOVE D. D. One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXII To the Right Honorable Sir JOHN MOORE Kt. Lord Mayor of the City of London And to the COURT of ALDERMEN MY LORD MY design in Preaching this Sermon was to recommend the Duty of Obedience and lest I should confute it first my self it is now Printed I could easily have declined both with the ordinary excuses The difficulty of the task and of the times The censoriousness of the Age or my own unfitness and might slily seek applause by framing an Apology But as Obedience makes no delays so it admits of no Excuses especially where the Authority is good and the thing not unreasonable And therefore such as it is I have exposed it to Publick View under your Patronage hoping it may in some measure edifie the Readers as it pleased the Hearers And I am bold to prefix your Lordships Name to it because you countenance the Doctrine by your Example being Eminent in those Virtues which commend a Pious Christian an Vpright Magistrate and a Loyal Subject That the King may never want such Faithful Subjects nor this Famous City such Magistrates as are true to the real Interest of the People by their Immovable Fidelity to the Crown and Conformity to the Established Laws is the hearty Prayer of Your Lordships most Obedient Servant HEN. DOVE A SERMON ON TITUS III. 1. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates VVHen S. Paul had converted the Cretians to the Faith of Christ and was constrained to leave the Island that he might Preach the Gospel to other Countries he left Titus behind him with full Commission to set such things in order as his short stay there would not allow him to reform and to ordain Presbyters in every City that so the whole Island might be furnished with able Pastors chap. 1. 5. And to the end both He and They might discharge their duty to the benefit of the Church he gives him instructions in this Epistle how he should govern himself and those committed to his charge what Doctrine he should Preach and what Discipline he should use throughout his Province and that not only with an eye to the general duties of the Gospel which are here compendiously laid down for all orders and degrees of men but with a special regard to those errors and vices which the Apostle had observ'd most rise among ' em There are many says he unruly and vain talkers and deceivers who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucres sake And their mouths must be stopt chap. 1. 10. There are others notorious for Lying Luxury and Sloth for which they are branded by one of their own Poets and I am also able to attest the same from the little experience I had of 'em This witness is true wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the Faith ver 13. There are some that give heed to Jewish Fables and Pharisaical Traditions teaching the commandments of men for the doctrines of God and so turning themselves and others from the Truth ver 14. men of defiled minds and consciences Christians in name but Heathens in manners filling up their iniquity with the leven of Hypocrisie For they profess indeed that they know God but in works they deny him ver 16. There are others given to brawling contention and evil speaking chap. 3. 2. and they were probably such as were taxed before for idleness such as spent their time like the men of Athens in hearing or talking of some new matter idle in their own and busie in other mens affairs doing any thing but what they should or nothing to the purpose or that which is worse than nothing For idleness we know is the teeming mother of Vice and Mischief and was indeed the epidemical sin of that people and therefore he charges 'em again and again that they take upon themselves some honest profession and abide in the station allotted to them and perform the duties of their own calling which is the importance of those phrases Be careful to maintain good works ver 8. and let ours learn to maintain good works for necessary uses ver 14. This is the way to preserve Unity in the Church and Peace in the State and 't will dispose 'em in time to maintain the works of their heavenly calling too For when men keep to their own station and do the works of their proper calling they are in God's way and have the promise of his blessing But when they are idle they lie open to all the wiles of Satan and hence they are usually contentious turbulent and mischievous when they will needs be medling where they have nothing to do and thrusting an Oar into every Boat when they leave their own station and invade an other mans office there is confusion and every evil work there is railing and reviling slander and back-biting rancor and spite there the heart is fill'd with malice and the tongue with deadly poison and the hand with violence or blood And to name no more for the Country was full of the like disorders there were others addicted to Faction and Sedition especially those of the Jewish party repining at the Government under which they liv'd and ready upon every occasion to stir and foment tumults For of all the Nations under heaven the Jews were most impatient of a Forein Yoke and having been once Gods peculiar people under his immediate government and care though by the just judgment of God upon 'em they had now forfeited that high Prerogative they could not endure to think of submitting themselves to Strangers nor brook subjection unto Heathen Governors Nay there was one Sect among 'em infatuated with the error of Judas of Galilee Acts 5. 37. who in the days of taxing had drawn away much people under this pretence that the children of Abraham ought not to be subject to the Pagan Emperors because they were aliens from the loins of Abraham and the Commonwealth of Israel These were scatter'd up and down in most quarters of the Empire and doubtless they swarm'd in that rich and populous Island renowned for no less than an hundred Cities since they were likely to gain most Proselytes and Abettors in such places Hence S. Hierom tells us that the reason why the Apostle so often inculcates the doctrine of subjection and obedience and particularly here in the Text was to cure the scandal which the seditious practices of these men had brought upon other Christians who were generally traduc'd as evil doers and sometimes suffer'd Persecution upon this score and to vindicate the honor of Christianity it self