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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	great_a	reason_n	1,648	5	4.3830	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61431	Letters and papers concerning some matters in the last Parliament relating to the commou [sic] rights of all the Commnns [sic] of England, fit to be considered in the next, and by all the said Commons in the mean time.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1704 (1704)	Wing S5428C; ESTC T63879	15,509	21

chief Catholick Princes vouchsafed us a happy Peace if we have the Discretion to use it as we ought and as becomes Persons sensible of his Goodness and of the Respect they ought to have for his Instruments in it But I doubt these Politicians do but egregiously befool themselves with a vain Conceit add Presumption of having the Purse of the Nation For certainly the King hath as little need of them as they have of him And by such Politicks they do but provoke the just Indignation not only of a wise Prince but of all honest and faithful Subjects and most of all of those Confederates who if this King should die as he must one day may by the just Judgment of God enter into a Confederacy of themselves to correct their Ingratitude and Folly Nay should the King but dissolve this Parliament and in a Declaration set out such Reasons as he may for that and for Calling of another their little Politicks with themselves might probably be soon in the dirt The Pretence of the There are other more proper natural and effectual Means to remove all Fear of Popery than such Violence of Factions of which the King cannot but know something Growth of Popery hath been made use of to so ill purpose heretofore hath so little ground at this time more than what proceeds from the Negligence of the Clergy in assisting condemned Persons and visiting the Sick and the Obstinacy and Unconcernedness of a Party-of Prudential Latitudinarian Bishops for what does more properly belong to their Charge and particularly for mending their Cause and making that sound which is indefensible at present and is raised I believe so unseasonably to serve and support a lame and tottering Cause that 'tis like to prove the Shame and Confusion both of it and of those who make use of such indirect Means for that purpose Let me but know who were the Composers of that Letter and had the Impudence and Folly to call me as it is commonly understood Madman Convert two Lyes at once and I do not doubt but to give you such Account of the whole Matter as will sufficiently satifie both the House and all honest and wise Men in the Nation What I have more to say I shall reserve till I see what Use is made of this I hope the House will consider what is to be done both to expiate that provoking Wickedness against God and to Correct as they deserve all Indignities done to the King and you shall always find me ready in what belongs to me to serve Both and my Country in the best manner I can Your humble Servant Edward Stephens THE CORRUPTION AND IMPIETY OF THE Common Members OF THE Late House of COMMONS IT is with the Best Governments that all the Wit and Foresight of Man can devise as it is with Material Buildings They are both alike subject to Decays which if not repaired in due time inevitably bring Ruin and Destruction at last The true English Government is both in it self one of the best Constitutions in the World and most accomodate to the Nature and Genius of the English People And the People of this Nation have been heretofore as Famous not only for Courage and Hardiness but also for Wisdom Virtue and Piety as any People in the World But at this present both the Government is fallen into great Decay and the People become so degenerate that they are like to become the Scorn and Odium of all the rest of Mankind if Matters be not speedily amended The whole Nation has seemed to me for some time as under an Enchantment And I have known those who in respect to the Notorious Corruption of the House of Commons have jestingly said They were True Representatives of the People and yet when they themselves have gotten In amongst them have done nothing worthy of the Name of Englishmen toward any Amendment much less of Christians though Professors of Religion of no ordinary Form The Writers of Magick tell us That such as are Initiate and Proficients in the Black Art can by the Assistance of their Familiar Spirits so bind People in some Particulars that in those Particulars they cannot accomplish any thing though in all others they act as other People and divers such have I seen and discoursed with And whole Families have I known brought to Desolation in such manner as seemed very plain to me to be by the secret Operations of some invisible intelligent Powers or some Secret Curse which did adhere to them or both And in some I have known a certain and manifest Cause and I doubt not but there was the like in others but unknown to any but such as would not discover it And this I have great reason to believe is the true Case of this Nation which will appear in time But it is too sober a Subject for so mad a Generation to be farther discoursed at present The Corruptions of the House of Commons is what is at present necessary to be consider'd and is so Notorious as needs not many Words to prove it It hath been a common and known Practice for this Forty Years last past for Men of Confidence and ready Elocution if they could but procure an Election in some little Mercenary Burrough and so get into the House presently to set themselves to oppose the King and the Court that they might be bought off by some good Gratuity Pension or Place and one while to Treat the King with the greatest Insolence and Indignity and another time the whole House of Commons and this either lightly laugh'd at or gravely and prudentially passed by by the rest Have we not seen after sufficient Insolence to the King on one side afterwards the whole House of Commons Adjourned by the same Person their Speaker without nay against their Consent to please him and yet this Gentleman permitted constantly to be a Member to this Day And what a Noise and Clamour had we lately of the Growth of Popery and a most unreasonable Act passed upon it when the Mystery of all was no other than to Lower King William's Reputation with his Confederates beyond Sea and ingratiate themselves with the Abused People at home Whether these things do not tend to the Dissolution of the Government and to introduce a Commonwealth like to end in Anarchy and Confusion as heretofore is not hard to be resolved and deserves to be well consider'd in time And it may be worth the Consideration Whether the Mystery of some Peoples Heat about the Succession be not in the bottom to make that a Step to the Alteration of the Government So that there seems two Dangerous Corruptions in the late Members of the House of Commons the one the Trade of Particular Members of which I have mentioned but little of what is known or upon good grounds believed or suspected whereby the common Interest of the People is bought and sold by these Traders or Traitors if you will the other a

pretended in the present War I began before it broke out again in a Discourse dedicated to the Judges to shew the necessity of mending our Cause in matters of Religion And have so asserted the Truth in several Particulars against four several Parties that not any one of any of them all has yet appear'd publickly to resist it otherwise than by Lies and Calumnies and discouraging the Booksellers from printing or selling my Writings or defend their own Cause against me a thing perhaps never known before since Printing was known and an Attestation to Truth not inferiour to a Miracle being a plain accomplishment of our Saviour's Promise Most of these things have been presented to the Lower House of Convocation where they rest in Peace And I have done the like in Civil Matters by just Representations to our Representatives in Parliament But there not only Truth and Justice has been disregarded but one of our principal fundamental Rights violated by those whose principal Trust and Business it is to take Care to preserve em And several Papers of this sort with others of a Collection intituled A Message of Peace c. being stifled by the former Artifice this Nation seems now in the miserable Condition of the Jews of old lamented by the Prophet Jsa 59.14 15. I could tell you of divers other Maters both Civil and relating to Religion as for the better ordering of the Revenues of the Church in populous Parishes for more Assistants to take care of the Souls of the People for better Provision for the necessary Preparation of condemned Persons for their Execution for better and more reasonable Correction for Criminals than our common Executions and for such Reformation of our Gaols and Prisons which are now the Nurseries of all Vice and Wickedness that they may be made Schools of Virtue All things very necessary which I have endeavour'd to promote but with such Success as with the like in others tempt me to suspect the whole Nation to be in some sort under that wicked Power whose Effigies is plac'd in the Place of the Cross upon the chief Spire of the City especially when I consider what Wickedness has been acted how the Nation has been abus'd and the Judgments of God provok'd by such Mysteries of Iniquity as affront his Omniscience as well as his Justice harden such as are concern'd in them in Aposzacy now call'd Deism and little less than Atheisin and would sill the Minds of all sober People with Horror were they but commonly known and understood But a Spirit of Slumber doth usually precede the greatest Judgments And this Suspicion is the more increas'd in me when I consider how easily our Divisions might be compos'd and the Mischiefs and Confusions which seem coming on like a Torrent be prevented were it not for a Spirit of Faction and Self-Interest but mistaken Interest in all Parties and the Abuses put upon all by the false Pretences of a few Sons of Bichri who do more harm at home than all our foreign Adversaries abroad and were it not for those 'twere easy to break all their measures more effectually than all our Forces both by Sea and Land are like to do But one of the greatest Vnhappinesses of Mankind in the State they are fall'n unto is that they are generally like a Flock of silly Sheep which are either quietly fed and preserv'd in Safety by faithful and careful Shepherds or expos'd or frighted into Danger and Mischief by such as are careless of them but get in among them to serve themselves of them for some Designs of their own For they are very few who act upon sound and solid Judgment but most upon common Opinion receiv'd by Education taken up upon inconsiderate Apprehension or impos'd upon them by the Crast and Subtlety of designing Men who abuse their Hopes and Confidence only to serve themselves Out of Pity therefore for the innocent Flocks that they may beware of such Shepherds and of the Spirit of Faction in all Parties are these Papers now publish'd My Kindness exprest to the honest Quakers may possibly be misconstru'd by some especially of their sharpest Adversaries But besides other reasons the monstrous prevalence of the Spirit of Faction even in such as are in a suffering Case and Persons otherwise of Learning and Ability to consider and yet will not receive the Truths they cannot fairly resist was a special Motive to me to accept the Invitations for farther Conference from a People so despis'd in the sight of the Learned tho I never use to decline to answer any either by Word or Writing whom I find serious and pertinent And I do declare I do it sincerely and heartily and will not be asham'd to assert and maintain whatever Truth there is amongst them or any others against any or all Opposers of it For Truth and Righteousness by the Grace of God I will not desert in what Party soever And if the honest and well-meaning People of this Party will accept of my Advice and Assistance I do not despair thro Divine Assistance but to help them who are now the most despis'd of all Sects to become as truly honourable in real Worth and Virtue as any of them all and to maintain their Cause not only by Principles of Religion but also by the true Principles of the Laws of England But for those Troublers of our Peace and Unity those Roman Catholick Missioners and Quaker Ministers who obstinately resist the Truth they cannot with any sound reason gainsay and notwithstanding continue with their Sophistry and specious Pretences to deceive the People if the State please but to afford me a reasonable Favour and Assistance of the Civil Authority I hope I shall easily demonstrate that they are so justly punishable by the I aws of this Nation antecedent to those made against them in particular as will leave them utterly inexcusable and promote a good Service both to God and Man much more effectually Which might have been put in practice before this time if such as not long since made the last great Clamour against the Growth of Popery had really designed to stop it and not merely to abuse the People to ingratiate themselves with them that they might use them at pleasure for their own Advantage This was undoubtedly the Mystery of the unreasonable be verity of that Act which has hitherto serv'd rather for a Cover than any Restraint of that Growth and possibly might be so intended by such Juglers with all Parties for their own Interest who when once discover'd can never after be safely trusted by any or will easily by such as are wise I know not any greater Service which can be done to this Nation at this time than to undeceive and disabuse the innocent Flocks of this distracted and divided People by detecting the Deceivers and their several Arts and Abuses nor any one who has endeavour'd it upon so clear and certain Principles in all respects or with equal Candour Impartiality and Conviction as I have done And therefore by how much the greater are the Evidences of my Integrity Fidelity and constant Zeal for your Service that is for the Service of my Country so much the more notorious is the Iniquity and evil Dispositions of such as by malicious Defamations have not only grosly abus'd me which I could easily have born had that been all but disabled me from farther Prosecution of that Service hitherto to which I am so heartily and intirely affected and the greater is the Evidence against them that they are no true Friends to our Country but unfaithful treacherous Deceivers who under specious Pretences seek to serve themselves without due regard if any at all to the Service of their Country And they are of two sorts either such as are or have been our Trustees in Parliament or of the Clergy of the Church of England And these latter have not only injur'd me and hinder'd me in your Service but brought a foul Scandal upon the Church of England and therefore the Consideration of that may be left to the supreme Authority so lately asserted in all Causes as well Spiritual as Temporal But for the others who have not only injur'd me and done you that Disservice but moreover foully broken the Trust repos'd in them in betraying one of our principal and most necessary Rights which if once lost our Servants become our Masters and more likely by their Tricking to bring all into Confusion than ever to do any thing truly for the Honor or Safety of this Nation I must therefore recommend that unto you with this FAITHFUL ADMONITION AND ADVICE Neglect no longer your own Interest at your COUNTY COURTS Give there your Instructions well consider'd to your Trustees when you choose them and there confer constantly concerning their Behaviour and as occasion requires from thence admonish them of what you see necessary And at your next Court or as soon as may be assert like true Englishmen that antient fundamental necessary Right of every Commoner of England to have his Petitions for proper matters to be presented to the House of Commons by his Representatives and to be read heard and consider'd and duly answer'd there and the Duty of your Trustees to inquire into the Miscarriages in that respect This may be done also at your General Quarter Sessions and by Cities and Buroughs at their proper Courts June 19. 1704. Your Faithful Friend Fellow-Commoner and ready Servant in all things of Truth and Righteousness Edward Stephens