Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A37437
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Reflections upon the late great revolution written by a lay-hand in the country for the satisfaction of some neighbours.
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Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D844; ESTC R9630
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42,486
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74
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REFLECTIONS Upon the Late GREAT REVOLUTION LICENSED April 9. 1689. James Fraser REFLECTIONS UPON THE Late Great Revolution Written by a LAY-HAND in the COUNTRY For the Satisfaction of some Neighbours LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIX REFLECTIONS Upon the Late GREAT REVOLUTION PRovidence having placed me in so low a Sphere that I have had nothing to do in the great Revolutions of which our Land has lately been the Scene I must not pretend to judge of what has past But altho I have not been an Actor I cannot say I have been altogether an unconcern'd Spectator of the great Changes these last Three Months have produced For what I did not know in the Cause I thought I might yet lawfully admire in the Effects which truly have been so miraculous that 't is as much the Worlds Wonders as ours So that if ever People had cause to apply the Words of the Psalmist Psal. 118. ver 23. we certainly may say This is the Lord 's doing and I 'm sure it ought to be marvellous in our Eyes But alas as if we meant to vie Miracles and to shew that we can be as obstinate as God can be gracious we are so far from admiring that we will neither own nor accept the Wonderful Deliverance that God has wrought for us A sign I fear that we are unworthy of so great a Mercy while we can be so insensible of and so unthankful for it And like the Children of Israel in the Wilderness instead of going on to possess that Canaan God seems to have design'd for us we are for making a Captain to return again into Egypt and to put our Necks into that Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear And I wish our present Murmurings and Discontents do not provoke God to deal with us as he did with the Israelites and swear that we shall not enter into nor enjoy that Rest we so despise But if Passive Obedience be so necessary a Duty and we are indispensibly obliged to obey our Kings whatsoever they be the Children of Israel had certainly a great deal of reason to quarrel with Moses and Aaron for making them Rebels depriving them of the Honour of suffering for a good Cause and making them do so many ill things For certainly the Children of Israel were as much and as truly the Subjects of Pharaoh as any body can be to any of our Modern Kings For they were all born in his Land govern'd by his Laws and he and his Ancestors had reigned over them by a long Prescription of Four hundred Year and if this is not enough to give a King a Title I doubt most of our Monarchs may despair of shewing a better But to that I know it will be answer'd That 't was God Almighty's own Doings and that as Abraham might lawfully sacrifice his Son when God commanded it so they might lawfully Rebel when they had God's Authority for it for God being the Great King may dispose of Kingdoms as he pleases To which I shall make no other Return but humbly offer this Quere which I should be glad to see resolved Whether God can or ever did command an unlawful thingg For his Proposal to Abraham was only for Trial for you see he would not permit him to kill his Son when it came to it But the Children of Israel went through with their Design therefore if in it self it had been so great a Sin he would not have commanded much less assisted the Israelites in the Execution of it To see Men then murmur against God and quarrel with Providence only because it would not suffer them to be opprest as the Israelites were nay destroy'd and ruin'd seems so unaccountable a Ground for Dissatisfaction that it deserves to be examined into And I must own that I have so much both of Esteem and Reverence for some of our Discontents that I cannot think them so weak as to have a Platonick Love of Suffering or so wilful as to oppose the Truth if they are convinced of it Therefore suppose they have at least as it seems to them some good Reason which makes them thus not only deny but resist their own Interest And here Conscience and Zeal both stand up for them the two best Champions in the World when in the right but the most unruly and dangerous when in the wrong and Conscience telling them they cannot comply Zeal tells them they must oppose and declare against such Proceedings But yet for all this how hard a Task soever it seems I should not fear encountring nay overcoming these two had I not two greater Difficulties to contest with that is Prepossession and Prejudice For we daily see by sad experience that People may be as fully perswaded of and as zealous for an Error as 't is possible to be for Truth it self For which I need go no further for an Instance than St. Paul who says Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth Of which he gives us an account in the two following Verses Being as he himself terms it exceedingly Mad against them But that we might not be ignorant what we are to ascribe this extravagant Zeal and extraordinary Fierceness to he tells in the preceding Verses of this 26 th Chap. and also in the 3 d Verse of the 22 th That from his Youth up he had been brought up in Jerusalem at the Feet of Gamaliel taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the Fathers and was zealous towards God as ye all are this day So that 't is very apparent it was his Education that inspired him with his Zeal For the Pharisees were not only the strictest but the most dogmatical Sect among the Jews and while they thought they and only they had the Law of their sides they not only despised but hated all that were not of their Opinion and thought it not enough to instil their own Doctrines and Principles into their Disciples unless at the same time they imprest upon them an absolute Horror and Detestation of all others So that here was Prepossession and Prejudice to the height and we may see the Effects of it in St. Paul for it made him proof against all the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles for living in Jerusalem it cannot be supposed but that he must both see and hear of them so that nothing but a Call from Heaven it self could convince him But I say not this that I intend to apply it particularly to any of our Times but only to shew in general the Unhappiness of such a grounded Prepossession and Prejudice and the difficulty of treating with it because Truth it self will appear unwelcome to such if it contradict their received and admired Opinions But after all this it must be allow'd that never any prejudice was taken up on so justifiable grounds
they having then no power to resist and now no right to do it For all that shall now attempt his restoration are by the Law made actual Traytors and I do not at all question but that he would take care to see they should be treated as such if by their means he should recover the Crown For the resisting of the King de facto is a Treason that not only makes them liable to that Kings punishment whom they oppose but leaves them to the discretion of the King they served for the Law gives him power to execute them for Traytors who should now restore him to the Throne And both the Example and Doctrine of his dear Brother and Ally of France will soon teach him which is the best because much the readiest way of requiting those who should procure his Re-establishment For 't is a dangerous thing to oblige a King of his Principles too much as we may learn from the Barbarous treatment of the poor Hugonots in France who without all dispute gave that King the Power to use them or rather abuse them so And such we have a great deal of reason to believe shall be the requital of those of the Reformed Party who should do the same thing for King James that they did for the now Tres Grand Louis And since we English have no Obligation to our Kings but what the Law lays upon us when we are by that set at Liberty methinks we should not think it our duty to enslave our selves contrary to the Laws and known Constitutions of the Nation especially since there is nothing else required of us but to accept of that Deliverance which God himself hath wrought for us For there is very few that have had any other part to act in this Great Revolution than That of standing still as Moses says to the Israelites and seeing the Salvation of the Lord Exodus 14.13 Of which that we may be worthy pray God make us more sensible of it and more thankful for it and this I suppose may be enough because a great deal more than I at first intended to have said to the third Objection And to the Fourth I hope there will be no great occasion of saying much for certainly no body that can either consider or compare can think the Cases of 1648. and 1688. Parallel For the great I had almost said the only fault of that good King and true Martyr was his complying too much with his People and yielding that to their importunity which both Law and Conscience told him he should not have consented to a fault that I dare say his Son James would never have been guilty of But it must be acknowledged indeed that in the Case of the Ship-money he did assume a Power the Law did not allow him but 't was the only Instance of his doing it in his whole Reign And 't is evident that in that too he did not design his Subjects Wrong for no body was forced to pay it but they that had a mind to contest the thing as some did had liberty so to do For there were Trials in Westminster-hall about it and Sentence given against the King From which we may gather these two things First That the Judges were neither over-aw'd nor turn'd out by the King for doing Justice Secondly That the King did not think himself above the Law but submitted to it so that it seems there was no such thing as the Dispensing Power known in those days but the Rights of the People were preserved inviolate I wish I could have said the Rights of the Crown had been so too and then perhaps we should never have known the vast difference that there was between the Father and the Son But whoever will please to compare the Cases will find full as great difference between the Causes as the Persons For in the former it was the most open and notorions Rebellion that ever was recorded in Story whereas all the Fault that the generality of the English can now be charged with is if it be a Fault the Complying with the Necessity that King James himself laid on them of submitting to the Power he left in Possession and which I am sure they were not in a Condition to resist And now methinks it should hardly bear a Dispute Whether 't is any bodies Duty to make themselves Traytors according to the Rules both of Law and Gospel as I have shew'd above for the Restitution of him that subverted the Laws deserted the Government and I doubt still designs the Destruction of the Nation And truly the Causes and Occasions of those two great Revolutions in 48 and 88 were not more distant than their Designs and Ends were the first intending the Subversion and this latter the Establishment and Preservation of the best and purest Religion in the World. But perhaps some may say This is not the best way of doing it for 't is an Old Saying and a True That the Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church which like a Palm-tree grows fastest when it has the greatest weight upon it And that 't is a very idle Out-cry that some make That they would take their Religion from them for that dwells in the Heart and no body can take that from me unless I please But altho 't is very true that the Heart is the Seat of true Religion yet I think it savors a little too much of Presumption for any body to undertake to preserve it there by their own Strength But suppose that they were and that they were sure their Faith should not fail under the severest Trials yet is the Publick Service of God the Opportunities of going into the House of God and there pouring out our Prayers and Praises before him with the Congregation of the Saints is this I say so despicable a Blessing that 't is not worth keeping if we can We see how holy David bemoans and laments his Banishment from the Temple and how he longs and languishes for the return of those blessed Privileges so that he envies the very Birds that were permitted to nest near the Altar and yet he had as true a sense of God and Religion and as plentiful Effusions of the Spirit to supply such a Want as any of us can pretend to But alas it would not be only a temporary Deprivation that we should bewail for whoever now shall attempt to bring back King James does as much as in him lies to cut off both himself and his Posterity from the solemn Publick Worship of God for ever And altho I know God can support under any Condition yet they will find a great deal of difference between those Sufferings they wilfully bring upon themselves and those which are of God Almighty's laying For I can securely rest upon his Word for I know that he is faithful and will not suffer us to be be tempted above that we are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 But if we will not escape when he affords us the Means What Promise is there either of Support or Deliverance from those Dangers we wilfully bring upon our selves And 't will certainly be very just in God to suffer us fall under that Ruine we have courted in which I doubt we shall have very little comfort for 't is not the Sufferings but the Cause that makes the Martyr Therefore I beg leave to conclude with the Words of St. Paul 2 Cor. 6.1 2 3. and beseech you that you receive not the Grace of God in vain for as God may truly say he has heard us in a time accepted in the day of salvation he hath succour'd us so may I also Behold now is the accepted time Behold now is the day of salvation And let us all be careful that we give no offence in any thing that the Ministry be not blamed But that we may all with one Heart and one Mouth bless God for his wonderful Deliverance and pray for the Prosperity and long Life of King WILLIAM and Queen MARY whom God grantlong to Reign Amen FINIS I. II. III.