doubt not but we are now as much over spread with Pharisnism except the best part of it as were the Jews in our Saviours time And what may be the Cause into which all this may be truly resolved Certainly nothing but after an ill and inconsiderate Education the false Appearances of the World and the great Preferments which are attainable by compliance with the pleasure of those who have the disposing of them This is it which hath betrayed both King and Country as I shall presently shew more particularly I do not impute it to the Greatness of the Preferments which are Talents whereof a good Man may make a good use though few have been made better men by them so much as to want of good Education and the unhappy course which was taken in the disposal of many of them Great Preferments are Temptations and Allurements to Covetous and Ambitious Men to use any means to obtain them These being all at the Disposal of the King and King James I. dividing the Common Interest by setting up pretended Prorogative against the Laws made use of this Power to encrease and strengthen his party And though this course proved very unsuccessful to Him and his Son yet King Charles II. fell likewise into the same Error forgetting his Solemn Promises from Bredah he industriously as some say fomented differences between the two parties of the Clergy however he too easily consented to that mischievious Act of Vniformity which made an actual Division and was therefore as it is believed secretly promoted by the Papists By this means were many good and useful men excluded from all Preferments and Employments in the Church And though of those who conformed there were many too eminent for their Worth to be passed by yet generally Prerogative Men were the Men who were preferred And this was it which filled the Church with Covetous Proud Ambitious Worldly Men and Court Flatterers And to note it by the way that cursed Dividing of the Church and Nation by that mischievous Act of Uniformty no less contrary to Christian Prudence then Christian Charity proved another great Error in Policy and Government no less inconsistent with civil than Christian Prudence and made his Government uneasie which might otherwise by performance of his Word have been made most easie through a general Unanimity and mutual Emulations for his Service and the Common Good. Flattery the other immediate and apparent cause of the Evils aforesaid is the natural product and off-spring of those Debaucheries of Covetousness and Ambition whereof I have been speaking For the Gratification of these is the only or most common End it aims at And its natural Effects are that it subtilly dangerously and perniciously abuseth deceives and betrays under the specious pretence of great Affection Respect and Service and so much the more dangerously and perniciously by how much the more subtilly and therefore is in men of greatest parts Clergy men especially if once found Unsincere Covetous or Ambitious with so much the greater Caution to be suspected and avoided even by the wisest of Men who otherwise may be subject to its insinuations and imposed on by it King James the First was certainly a Man of no mean or ordinary Wit and parts in other respects but his Affectation of an uncontrolable Absoluteness and his Timorousness exposed him to the crafts of evil Men. He knew well enough that he was bound and obliged by Laws that was too plain to be denied and therefore he made no scruple to profess as much in general in Parliament But under the umbrage of that Profession took liberty to transgress his bounds in many Particulars upon pretence of Law and Prorogative To make this pass the more clearly it was necessary he should incline two sorts of Men the Bishops and the Judges as much as might be to his Service which could not better and more craftily be effected than by setting up the Authority of both as high as might be For this carried an appearance of Favour to them and moreover made them the more serviceable to him he having the choice of the persons Upon this the Judges were apt to strain the Law to comply with his desires but the Bishops and their dependants the Chancellors and Civilians and the Episcopal Clergy were generally for magnifying the Prorogative without consideration of or regard to the bounds prescribed by the Laws and Constitution of the Government partly as the common Interest of their party but more especially as the direct way to gain the Kings Favour and Preferments This produced Flatterers in abundance who strained their Wits by plausible Arguments grounded upon ambiguous Words and false Principles to represent the state of this Government such as the King affected to have it By this means was King James himself in part imposed upon for Quicquid volumus facile credimus but his posterity more and a great part of the Clergy and others who adherd to them in so much that they could never since tell how to extricate themselves out of those false Notions into which the craft and knavery of these Flatters had mislead them especially under the Byass and Prejudice of a supposed Interest This tempted and encouraged the King many times upon occasion to exercise his supposed Prerogative But the people of England being an understanding people and well knowing their own Rights could not so easily be imposed upon by Fallacies contrary to their Interest And hence arose the fatal difference between King and People and between the People themselves while part to maintain their illegal Assertions to get Preferments or being misled sided with the King and part and that the greatest and most considerable part stood firm to the Laws and for maintenance of their Rights And certain it is that those very matters wherein King James and his Successors thus unhappily transgressed the Laws were not at all for their benefit but did meerly gratify insinuateing Courtiers and pernitious Flatterers to the alienation of the minds of the greatest and best part of the people So that their cause in these Differences was both unjust unprofitable and pernitious to themselves And this was their Case in King Charles I. and ever since But of all the matters wherein they transgressed the Laws none was more pernitious even to themselves than Intermissions and unseasonable Prorogations and Dissolutions of Parliaments contrary to the Laws For certain it is and very apparent in the very Constitution of our Government and constant Practice that the People of England have as much Right to inspect the Administration as the King to exercise it And had these Kings exercised this part in summoning Parliaments and permiting them to sit and act according to the Laws which they are sworn to observe this would certainly have prevented the mischiefs which have befaln not only the Nation but themselves more especially For the Majesty Honour and Prosperity of the King is for the benefit of the Nation and therefore
rather a greater Provocation to turn all our so favourable a Deliverance into a severer Judgment if there be not a speedy check and effectual stop put to these Abominations which hath been too long neglected and over-looked already Let any man consider especially a Prince or man in great Authority how he would resent it to be publickly affronted and have his Laws or Orders openly contemned And though the transcendent Majesty of God be far above the reach of hurt or benefit by any actions of so despicable beings as mortal men yet such is his Goodness and Benignity to his poor Creatures that what ever is done which tends to the real good or hurt of them he reputes as Service or Disservice to himself and what is ill and presumptuously so done as an affront to himself And therefore he is no good Christian who is not far more moved and concerned for the Honour of God and of his Laws that they be not publickly affronted and contemned by wicked men than for any thing which may touch his own Person or Dignity That excellent Being doth not frequently and openly in an extraordinary way inflict his Divine Judgments upon notorious Malefactors because by his Providence he sets up Majestrates to do it in ordinary way as his Deputies and he expects it from them But he hath in part lately done it in this Nation in very extraordinary manner he hath sent his Fear and Dread upon our Adversaries driven out the Heathen the Cananites the Authors and Promotors of these abominations before us and brought us into their places of Authority and Power and expects that we now apply our selves to carry on this great Work and utterly exterminate these relicts and old companions of Idolatry and false Worship And shall we notwithstanding sit down to eat and to drink and rise up to play Set to build Houses for our selves to get Offices and Preferments or at best to provide for our common Rights and Properties and let the House of God his Temples in a Spiritual sense be defiled and run to ruin in our Land He hath so turned the Hearts of a formidable Army that they all have either come in and joined with us submitted to us or fled from us And shall we now after this make such doubt of his further Divine Assistance and Blessing as not dare to attempt the Conquering of a few blustering Debauches when God and the best part of the Nation expect it from us and are ready to approve and concur with us in it Shall we fool our selves in such a case as this with that base and narrow-sould Worldly Wisdom Let them still out face us and if not basely comply yet which is next to it connive at and dissemble what we cannot be ignorant of Nay by partial and unworthy recommendations set up in great place in a Christian State such scandalous persons and evil Examples as true Christian Discipline would humble and cast out of the Church and so cross the Providence of God by setting up such as he is pulling down Such Politicoes who have no more sense of the Honour of God may possibly meet with their deserved correction in an Eclipse of their own But it concerns all that we do not by neglect or further delay of so great a Duty to which we are lead in so special a manner provoake a change of the course of this propitious Providence so as to bring in the Philistines again upon us or correct our laziness with some new difficulties or unexpected impediments But so much for this There is one thing more in relation to Religion of great in portance wherein have been no small mistakes heretofore committed and that is Vnanimity in Religion This hath been greatly disturbed and interrupted by inconsiderate affectation of Vniformity and improper and preposterous means for that purpose The most natural and proper means to promote both are 1. To remove all Force which is contrary to the nature of Religion as the Ancient Christians generally agree and Secular Punishments upon Ecclesiastical Censures 2. To remove all needless occasions of Difference and unnecessary Terms of Conformity especially under Oaths and Subscriptions 3. To reform the Liturgy so as might most conduce to Edification and to gratifie and satisfie the Devotion of the most Sober and Religious Christians Against this last I have not known any thing Objected but what are the plain Principles and usual Arguments of the Papists against the Reformation of their Religion and their Missal This belongs to the Clergy to do but they must be ordered and commissionated to do it the other two may be done by a short Act of Parliament to repeal the Penal Statutes against Protestant Dissenters the Act of Uniformity 14. C. 2. c. and with them some others inconsistent with the true Constitution of the English Government and promoted by Popish Counsels to alter the same for their advantage As for Civil Matters the Fundamental Error of King James and his Successors hitherto which it is very probable was promoted by the craft of the Romish Emissaries that they might strike in with one party was that by setting up for Prerogative against the Law he divided the common Intrest for the King and the People have a mutual Intrest in each other so that what is for the real good of either is for the common good of both as in a natural body what is pernitious to any Member damnifies the whole The true Constitution of the English Government was built upon solid Principles of Wisdom to give to each all that could be without prejudice to the other to the King all the Honour and Majesty that might be which was the Honour and Majesty of the whole the actual Administration but by Officers authorised by Law and sworn faithfully to perform their Duty large Revenues but to use for the publick good not to alienate at his Pleasure and all things to be done in his Name as the head of the Society but so as he cannot stay the ordinary course of Justice at his pleasure without violation of the Law And to the people an Inspection into the Administration and Power to Enquire and Determine concerning the Miscariages of it All which being apparent and undeniable in practice is a certain argument that the Regal Administration was designed for the Common Good of the whole of King and People both as one Body The Preservation therefore of this Constitution doth necessarily tend to the security of the King as well as of the People and there can be no better means for this Preservation than frequent Sessions of Parliament according to the Laws that is Annual though to prevent the so frequent trouble of Elections it might be enacted that they should be chosen but once in three Years and sit at certain times and when the business is done be adjourned or prorogued but not dissolved till the last Year of the three A good Act to settle some such
desireable and actually desired by the English as much as any people in the World. But these Intermissions and Interruptions of Parliaments as they served only for the security of Malefactors and evil Councellors from condign Punishment and were for that end procured by them so did they expose those Kings to their Knavery and to be misled by them to their own ruin The Consideration of the Causes of the Unhappiness of the last race of Kings gives us a clear Prospect into the necessary Means to make the next and the Nation under them more happy Of which the first and principal is a constant care and endeavour by all proper means to promote the Honour and Esteem and the sincere and cordial profession and practice of TRUE RELIGION AND VERTUE and a resolved suppression with a generous indignation of all Vice and Debauchery even those in maskarade sordid Covetousnes and empty Ambition This is the most direct and powerful Means both for the common good of all and for the private good of each particular as its natural effect and for obtaining the Divine Favour and Blessing which alone gives life to all as is plain from what I have said before And the proper meanes to do this are good Example Acts of Grace and Favour or of Displeasure and Indignation as occasion requires Provident choice of Ministers Officers and Servants and strict execution of good and effectual Laws Of the great power of Examples when set upon the Beacons of high Places in a State which makes them if good as real Lights and favourable Stars to stear by if bad as an Ignis fatuns to mislead poor blinded wandring Souls we of this Nation cannot be insensible who have seen and felt so great unhappy effects of ill ones But it is not sufficient for a Prince to give good Example in his own person and actions unless he take great care also that the force of his own be not enervated baffled and affronted through his connivance or remisness by the ill examples of those about him but especially of his Ministers Officers and Servants that there be not an Ignis fatuus among them but that the whole state may be like a clear Heaven free from clouds and adorned with illustrious radiant Stars that by a favourable aspect and benign Influence he encourage such but with the Storms of Indignation disperse all noxious Meteors And to this not only the great Importance but even Easiness of the work is no mean Obligation For DEBAUCHERY is a base unmanly degenerate thing a composition of Folly Inconsiderateness Impotence Rashness Madness a mere Imposture nothing less than what it most affects to be thought nothing but frothy Wit or knavish Craft instead of true Wisdom and solid Judgment Impudence and Rashness instead of true generous Courage nay many times mere Peusillanimity and Baseness or foolish fear of the Imputation of Cowardize and Censure of vain men under the greatest appearance of Courage and Magnanimity in some a greater Monster among Rational creatures than ever Nature produced among Animals Nor is it less base degenerate and unmanly in persons of a higher rank in State Office or Employment than in the meanest but on the contrary a Degeneracy so much the greater and more monstrous A debauched Lord a Scandalous Judge a Covetous Proud and Haughty Clergy-man immersed in secular business are all gross Absurdities It makes a Title of Honour to become a Lye and the person who bears it an Impostor such a person effectuually abdicates the Nobility of his Ancessors is no longer a real object of Honour or Respect but of Indignation and Contempt and deserves to be treated as such by all men Such a Judge is worse But such a Clergyman worst of all And therefore as it renders them unfit to be trusted or imployed in great and weighty business so doth it expose them to the contempt of all but more especially to the just Indignation of a Virtuous Prince Besides though Debauchery and Lycentiousness hath long raigned under Impunity and be grown to a great height of Impudence yet hath it not yet so far spread and prevailed but that a generous correction and suppression of a thing so odious in its own nature would be very gratefull to the best and greatest part of the Nation And thus much upon a civil Consideration but we ought not to rest here it is a matter of greater importance than so We ought to consider the greatness of that Majesty which is concerned in it in comparison of whom the whole Earth is but a Mole-hill but as the dust of the Ballance and all mankind are nothing We ought to consider the State of the Nation polluted and defiled with Presumptious and Impudent sin with open contempt of Religion and of the precepts of the Gospel We ought to consider the Extraordinary Judgments of God upon some of the chief Authors and Promoters at least by Example and Connivance of all this Wickedness how they have been blown away with a puff like chaff before the Wind. We ought to consider the admirable Mercy Patience Long-suffering and Clemency of God in granting us so extraordinary a Deliverance when in humane probability and consideration of our own demerit and monstrous sins of the Nation we had more reason to have expected nothing but Confusion and some severe Judgments upon us We ought also to consider the Manner and Circumstances of all this how God hath therein made bare his Arm made his effectual Interposition so manifest and apparent as is sufficient for the conviction of all who are not hardned and blinded And when we have done all this we ought farther to consider what all this calls to us for what Obligations it lays upon us what God expects from us and what we have further to expect from him according as we behave our selves The abominable abuses of Popery have run the Reformed Churches into some contrary Errors and Mistakes in several particulars and among the rest concerning external Acts of Repentance if I mistake not For publick sins by which the Holy Majesty of God is publickly dishonoured a publick Satisfaction in the sense of the Antient Christians is to be made both by particular persons and by whole Nations when the sins are National as they may be by publick Connivance and other ways When a Land is so polluted and defiled it must be purged by putting away the evil by Severity upon the criminals and by some publick Act of Repentance giving Glory to God and if it do not thus judg it self it may expect to be judged of the Lord and the more severely by how much the longer it is deferred This is notoriously the case of this Nation at this time but what in particular is to be done in it belongs to others to consider I mean as to such publick Satisfaction putting away the Evil and giving Glory to God. But certainly whatever else be done it will be to no good purpose but