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cause_n	good_a	great_a	think_v	4,338	5	3.9369	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93860	Reflections upon the occurrences of the last year from 5 Nov. 1688 to 5 Nov. 1689. Wherein, the happy progress of the late Revolution, and the unhappy progress of affairs since, are considered; the original of the latter discovered, and the proper means for remedy proposed and recommended.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1689 (1689)	Wing S5437A; ESTC R188769	30,811	50

in these Words P. 20. If this WORK OF GOD possess us with the Veneration which is due to it We ought NOT TO STOP THE COURSE OF IT till it has had its full Effect nor to DAUB matters by slight and palliating Remedies We see now before us the most GLORIOUS BEGINNING of a noble Change of the whole face of Affairs both with relation to Religion and the Peace of Europe that we could have wish'd for It is so far beyond our Hopes that we durst scarce let our Wishes go so far We may if we are not wanting to our selves and to the Conjunctures before us hope to see that which may be according to the Prophetick Stile termed a New Heaven and a New Earth But if a Spirit of Jealousie and Murmuring of Impatience and Faction and of returning back to that out of which God has so signally extricated us grows up so that instead of reaping the Fruits that we have now in Prospect we have not Souls big enough nor Hearts good enough to carry this on to Perfection then we may justly fear our being DEIVERED UP to all those Evils from which we will not be healed c. And a little after There is scarce any INDICATION more certain of the Sins of a Nation being grown up to that height that it must be destroyed than the MISCARRIAGE of so great a Deliverance as God has wrought for us which will be an Eternal Blot on the Wisdom of the Nation c. Again P. 24. In order to the preventing the return of the like Evils We must avoid the RELAPSING into the like Sins It is neither the Vnion nor Wisdom of Councils nor the Strength of Fleets or Armies that will secure us from the Judgments of God which we may expect will fall upon us with an extraordinary redoubling of seven times heavier than any thing that we have yet seen or known if those that are filthy will be filthy still If Men think that their Fears are over and that therefore they may give themselves up to work Wickedness without Restraint then we may justly expect a return of the like if not of greater Miseries And toward the Conclusion P. 31. If in all that we do we take not Care to have God ever on our Sides it will be easie for him to blast all Councils and to defeat even the greatest and best laid Designs We have now before our Eyes one of the signallest Instances that is in any History of the Instability of all humane things c. Perhaps some may imagine that we are safe because we cannot be dashed on the same Rock about which we see so great a Shipwreck But alas If we provoke God to hide his Face and to withdraw his Protection from us his Ways are past finding out He can bring Ruine and Destruction on us from that Hand from which perhaps we apprehend the least If Prosperity and Success blow any up and make them forget God and all the Vows that they made to him he will never want Means and Methods to make them return to themselves and to remember him To these I will subjoyn one more delivered by the same Person upon the solemn Occasion of the Coronation in these Words Page 3. Those who are raised up to a high Eminence of Dignity are so much the more accountable both to God and Man not only for all the Ill which either they themselves or others acting in their Name or by their Example may have done but likewise for all the Good which they might have done but did not And as they have much to answer for to God so likewise men expect much from them c. These are all truths and so plain truths that there needed no extraordinary Spirit of Prophesie to reveal them and yet I doubt not but we may say truly This spake he not of himself but being ordered to preach on such occasion he prophesied If we believe that this great work was the work of God in whose hand are the hearts of all men why should we question but he who directed the Wind at Sea directed also now at their arrival here the motions of this mans heart to so seasonable and necessary Admonitions for the farther promotion of that work which he had so eminently favoured hitherto And the great change in the progress of affairs which we have since seen confirms the same inasmuch as it shews the Admonitions to have been not a little necessary And if that be so it is the more likely that some Miscarriage there hath been contrary not only to certain Duties but to some such particular express Admonition which is a great aggravation of that fault which hath had the unhappy effect to raise up such an Interposition between the happy Influence of Heaven and us The next thing then to be enquired is whose and what this Miscarriage may be The persons concerned in the Success and Management both were the Prince himself his Counsellors Ministers and those about him and among them he especially who gave those Admonitions the Convention the Army and the Navy in the Success alone the people of these Nations the Church of England and the Confederates beyond Sea whose Design is as much affected with it as the concern of any other But whoever else might be concerned in the Fault because the Prince was not only principally concerned in the Success and Management both but had before been made so glorious an Instrument that nothing could stop his Advance it is not reasonable to believe that he should have been at all deserted by the propitious Powers of Heaven without some Offence given by himself either by his own Act or Neglect or by Participation with some other And to discover that what it might be is a matter of great importance and requires no less Fidelity in any man to endeavour it than Skill to do it effectually Fidelity to God to himself now King to his Country and Good Will to a most just and honourable Cause and to all concerned in it And all this I hope is ground enough for plain dealing I cannot think of this King without thinking also of his Predecessors in the Throne of these Kingdoms from whom he is personally descended and now succeeds in their Estate Had he been only personally descended from them he had not been so far concerned in the Fate of their Family but having now accepted their Seat and Right he thereby succeeds in their Obligations and must either discharge their Debt by Reformation of what they have in that Capacity done amiss or bear their Iniquity and succeed also in their Punishment They had all the Favour of Providence in their access to the Throne and some of them in a special manner even beyond their Expectation or Hope but none more than this But they all deserted imprudently the Conduct and ungratefully the Service of that benign Providence and following their own ways were thereupon deserted by it and

Constantiue's Poyson hath some Lethargick or Narcotick Vertue in it to benum the Nerves and stupifie the Spirits and Life of Zeal and Devotion in such as taste but a little too deep of it And of this to what is already mentioned I will add Two fresh Instances of my own knowledge the one of a great Clergy-man who having well providod for himself in the World before elsewhere and besides gotten good Preferment here could yet permit though admonish'd of it the Propagation of Religion among his own Countreymen to go a begging here for so small a Relief and Assistance as he himself might very well have supplied The other of some Dignified Persons of considerable Note in the Church who when a well affected Lay-man out of pity to Forty or Fifty Thousand Souls had considered and proposed to have the Care of so great a Parish committed to some man of a Primitive Christian Disposition who contenting himself with a reasonable share of the Profits would have distributed the rest among as many young Curates as it would maintain whereby both the needs of the people might have been better supplied and those Persons by their mutual advices and assistance in such a Work the better fitted and prepared for the Cure of Souls in Parishes of their own yet were pleased to interpose for the Presentation and so far as to obtain it at least from another Competitor in no commendable manner for one who had at that time a good Parsonage a good Lecture and a good Prebend as a Preferment for him Such Scuffling for Preferments in the Church is a great Scandal to many ingenious Lay-Spectators to suspect the Sincerity of those who take upon them to be Preachers of the Gospel and yet discover so little of the Power and Effects thereof in their own Actions And this cannot but greatly obstruct the good effect of all their Preaching upon such It is also a great Temptation to one of the greatest and most common immediate causes of most of our Mischiess both publick and private Over-valuation and Greediness of the Supersluities of the things of this World which all their Preaching can never cure while it is daily confirmed and heightned by such Examples And from the same root doth proceed all that Pharizaical Zeal for the Church and Jealousie and Dread of the least alteration though never so reasonable and necessary in many who shew little sense of Religion in any thing else which hath long disturbed both Church and State and doth at this time expose both to danger These things being observed together with so great coldness in the weighty matters of the Law cannot but cool the affections of their best friends to them and avert the favour both of God and Man from them This therefore we may reasonably look upon as one of the Original and Provoking Causes of this Stop and Change of the late Happy course of Affairs Thou sayest I am rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind Be zealous therefore and repent Concerning our Judges and Civil Magistrates I have little to say Our Courts of Justice are so well filled with such Persons as the Profession of the Law doth not afford better than most of them are only few of those who are in were more worthily preferred than one whom I need not name was unworthily left out His personal Worth doth well qualifie him for that Service and his singular Merit in his generous appearing for the Service of his Country in occasions of greatest difficulty did most justly claim it and however it came to pass certainly no man of Vertue and Ingenuity would ever oppose it But because Corruption and Abuses in great Places besides other mischiefs are of pernicious consequence by their Example I think fit to take notice of one which deserves Correction because it not only concerns divers great Lords but is obstinately persisted in contrary to the Opinion and Advice of Mr. Atturney himself And if the Lords will pass by such an abuse to themselves I know not what people of inferiour Quality may expect in time It is the needless and illegal Charge they are put to before they can be inserted into the Commission of the Peace of any County for Custos Protulorum I need but name it As to the Army and Navy the Seamen are generally honest and true to their Country and the Protestant Religion and many among them sober and serious people but a great part of their Officers and the Land Army who were nearer the influence of the evil Examples at the Court are generally so dissolute and debauched that it is not to be believed that God will ever be with them or prosper them but rather by degrees waste and consume them till he has wholly purged the Land of them and therefore so unhappy a Company of people amongst us must needs make us unprosperous and unsuccessful till they be either destroyed or reformed Concerning the Body of the People of England though the unhappy effects of the pernicious Examples at Court have reach'd all Ranks and Degrees amongst us yet have they been most prevalent upon such as were nearer in degree or converse to it so that the lower Ranks of men which are most numerous and the strength of the Nation though not wholly escaped have yet been least corrupted by them and were but the Examples of Vertue in our great men now but any way proportionable to what their Examples of Vice have been for so long past I do not doubt but they would soon appear again as considerable as heretofore they have done So that there is little to be noted in them but what is derived from those above them and is plainly to be imputed not more to their neglect of good Examples good Laws and good Execution than to the energy of their wicked profane and impious Examples And these being besides only Passive and concerned only in the Success not in the Management of the Affairs are not so much to be considered in the case Nor shall I say any thing of our Confederates beyond Sea. And therefore to draw up the conclusion The CONCLVSION AS almost all the Wickedness of the former Reigns proceeded originally from those Kings and Judgment hath been begun first to be executed upon them so hath likewise the Fault whereby that great Work whereof this King was called out to be the Glorious Instrument in these Nations hath been hitherto interrupted plainly proceeded from himself For by Neglect through prudential Connivance of the Duty to which he was led and through politick Compliance of the Authority to which he was raised by so manifest a Divine Conduct he did not so much engage to himself as animate against his Interest that party which first opposed his ascent to the Throne and afterward by pernicious Counsels and under-hand Dealings as is believed imposed upon him disappointed his

they call it enough to make him look big and be admired in the World and yet be very unskilful in the other It is a Divine Wisdom a quick Understanding in the Fear of the Lord not to be learned in Schools but taught of God a Divine Ray cast into and kindly received in a well purified Soul which gives it a clear distinct Sight and true Estimate of the different value and worth of things an Abhorrence of what is really Evil a Contempt of what is splendid and gaudy but empty and vain the Pomps and Vanities of the World and a just Esteem of all that is really Good according to their different degrees of God above all and therefore with a great care and concern for his Honour and Service of the blessed Creatures above us that they may be gratified and not grieved or offended and of the Souls of Men that they may be rescued from Perdition but of the Temporal Concerns of Men as they are subservient to this directs it to act as a Child of Light discerning what is acceptable to the Lord and what is displeasing to him It is not to be attained by Men whose affections are intaglned in the things of the World nor constantly enjoyed by such as are immersed in the business of it and yet without it no man let his Natural Parts his acquired Accomplishments his Degree in Holy Orders and his Preferments in the Church be what they will can be a true Divine but is in truth so much the greater Impostor appearing in Habit and External Form what he really is not a carnal sensual or animal man at the best not having the good Spirit but in many things obnoxious to the Impressions and Deceits of the subtle Evil one and therefore most dangerous to Princes and Persons concerned in the great Affairs of the World to be relied on But this I intend only for a general Caution not to reflect upon any particular person much less upon him before mentioned for I do not know how he may have behaved himself But of those about the King they who have been accessary to this Summer's ill Success especially by evil Counsels or Recommendations of evil Men may be best known to himself It is true at his first coming he was under a great disadvantage that he had not so full knowledge of persons as was necessary for the State of his Affairs but such hath been the business which since hath been in agitation as cannot but have given him a competent Experimental Knowledge of those who have been concerned in the most important parts thereof If he do but consider the Success of his Affairs and then recollect by whom and whose Counsel or Recommendation they were managed he may in a good measure perceive the Disposition of the persons and what they designed or aimed at Of the Parliament I have already mentioned some things with respect to the unsuccessful and retarded course of our Proceedings We are now enquiring into the Original and first Cause of this great Change which is not to be imputed to the King only The Parliament also have been Principals in it and that by great and notorious defects of Religion Gratitude and Piety towards God and of Justice Charity Providence and Unanimity and Courage for their Country They are the Representative Body of the Nation To them it belonged to have well considered the admirable Mercy and Favour of God in our late Deliverance and to have made return of real Gratitude and not put off that with a superficial Formality to have well considered the defiled and sinful State of the Nation as well as the State of its Affairs and to have endeavoured the Recovery of the Favour and Blessing of God upon those by an essectual Purgation and Reformation of that and to have begun with some good Orders for correction of the Profaneness and dissolute Manners of their own Members which had been an Act of Charity and Providence for the good of their Country and of themselves as well as of Religion and Gratitude to God. For his Blessing is not to be expected upon their Consultations now till the Impieties and Wickedness of their own Members be reformed or removed And to them it belonged also to have made some Examples by Justice upon the Betrayers of the Rights of their Country as well to assert the Justice of their own Proceedings against the late King as to prevent encouragement to the like Practices for the future by their Connivance And to them it belonged to have made a timely Enquiry into the Mismanagement of Affairs whether by Ministers Counsellors Officers or by the King himself and to have plainly that is faithfully represented the same to the King and desired Redress of what had been done amiss by himself and proceeded against the rest according to their desert This was their Duty This had been like a true English Parliament And this doing we might have expected God's Blessing For he favours not the Wicked nor Fools who mind not their own business But such a Pusillanimity and Baseness has possessed our Parliaments of late since the dissolute Manners were so encouroged by Ch. II. that they have been more apt to complement away the Rights of their Country to gratifie the Humour of the King and the Safety and Honour of the King himself to please his Minions and Favourites than do any honest faithful and generous Act for the preservation and real benefit of either Before I quite leave the Parliament it may be fit to remember the Bishops who make a part thereof and in this case deserve a special Consideration They are the Chief Governours of this Church To them it belongs by their Office to take care of the Manners of the People to be concerned at great common and notorious National Sins to admonish and importune the Civil Magistrate and being moreover Members of Parliament to propose and promote good Laws for the Correction and Reformation thereof And all matters of Religion do so peculiarly belong to their Care that the Neglects before mentioned in the King and in the Parliament are with no less Reason but rather more especially chargeable upon them And it is an ill sign of the great prevalence of Impiety and Wickedness in the State or Parliament it self if they durst not or of Laodicean Coldness and insensibility in themselves if they would not for certain it is they did not do in their station in the House what so singular a Mercy of God the so sinful State of the Nation this late great Change we have suffered in the course of our Affairs and the present cloudy Face of things do so plainly require Such a Neglect at such a time as this may justly move us to reflect upon former times and the many and great Advantages Opportunities Occasions and Provocations they have long had to do Good both at home and abroad and considering notwithstanding how little hath been done to suspect that

Proceedings weakened his Reputation and intangled him in their Snares which yet had he steadily followed the Divine Conduct must have stooped and quietly submitted to him And now if we look forward there are but two ways before him one plain and direct the other devious dangerous full of precipices and certain mischiefs Via Lucis Via Tenebrarum the Right Way which he left and this which he hath unhappily chosen wherein if he proceeds he is like to fall into one of these Inconveniencies Either to be dangerously undermined by K. James his Party of which are many of the Faction before mentioned tho they have sworn Fidelity to him or else to be irrecoverably engaged with the old Instruments of Arbitrariness who considering how ill they have deserved of their Country can think of no better expedient to cover their own former illegal Projects then drawing the present King into a participation with themselves in the like The natural tendency of this Way to those ends is very apparent upon a humane consideration and if we consider it with respect to the Divine Providence as we have great reason to expect upon the considerations before mentioned some Divine Judgment upon it so none can be more agreeable to the Divine Methods in such a case than one of those I have now mentioned that is either to give him up to those Rehoboam-Counsels which have been so pernicious to his Predecessors in this Throne or to permit things to be brought to an aequilibrium between the two Princes and by the one way or other put an end to that Family and Government which notwithstanding all the methods which have been used to reduce them to a sence of their Duty do still continue so unprositable to his Service as some of them have before been Obstacles and pernicious Adversaries to it which yet stands undischarged upon account against their Successors But I hope and doubt not but the other direct and safe way is still open for him to return unto only being now somewhat more difficult it will require and deservedly so much the greater Resolution And this I take to be the way First to be careful to use all approv'd means for the Recovery af the Divine Favour and then to apply to the use of such Humane Means as true Wisdom and solid Policy direct and require But it must be in this Order or else he will never recover the like prosperous Success but whatever alterations in Ministers or Politicks he shall make without that will either prove unsuccessful or prove so to him he shall have but little enjoyment of it For the Recovery of the Divine Favour in this case it will be absolutely necessary 1. To settle by good consideration of the many express Declarations and parallel Examples in the Sa. Scripture a right and firm Judgment 1. That whatever were the immediate apparent Causes of the former happy Success and of the ill success since yet that the Principal hegemonical Cause in both was from God. 2. That the Provoking Cause of this great Change must have been no small Sin. 3. That there can be no hope of recovery of the Divine Favour and former Prosperous Condition but by effectual removal of that Sin whatever it be 4. That of all the Sins which have been noted for the greatest Provocations of the like Judgements heretofore there are none so likely to have had such unhappy effect in this case at that which is so often expressed in the Sacred Scripture by the phrase of the Heart being lifted up with its consequence of forgetting God. As in those great Cautions Deut. 8.14 17.10 and in those remarkable Examples even of Hezechiah 2 Chr. 32.25 that he rendred not again to the Lord according to the Benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up therefore there was Wrath upon him and upon Juda and Jerusalem And of Vzziah 2 Chr. 26.16 When he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction and Desertion or Neglect of the Special Work wherein one is employed of which Saul is a remarkable Example Lastly that there can be no removal of these Sins without great Humiliation upon contemplation of the Ingratitude and dangerous consequence thereof and a Resolute Return to the deserted or neglected Duty and therefore 2. To set resolvedly to the Work of an Effectual Reformation of this People whom God hath subjected to him and committed to his Charge to be delivered from the Slavery of their Souls to Satan by impudent Sins as well as of their Persons and Estates to Tyrants by Usurpation Which may by the same Divine Favour which will not then be wanting to his own Work be easily effected 1. By a plain Declaration of his Resolution commanding a strict Execution of the Laws in force for that purpose Which is one great part of the Regal Office. 2. By a steady use of his own immediate Authority excluding and rejecting from his Counsels Service and Presence all such as obstinately refuse Obedience and Conformity to so just reasonable and necessary Commands and Resolutions And this must be done not superficially but with great Resolution and Constancy and the greater by reason of the Failure before committed even to the hazard of his Kingdom if there was occasion for his sake who hath raised him to the Throne and can when he pleaseth as soon remove him from it and lay him and his Honour in the Dust Such a Resolution once declared will half do the Work But it must be steadily pursued and impartial without Indulgence to any for that would be to prefer a Creature before the Creator and would prove very pernicious Besides such Fools and Mad-men as are profane or glory in their Shame and such impotent Bruits as have not the Command of themselves to abstain from scandalous Sins are not fit to be admittend into the Service or Favour of a vertuous and generous Prince 3. By passing and even recommending such other good Laws as are necessary for supply of the Defects of those we have already This is the way to recover God's Blessing and this will strengthen him with the Hearts and Hands of the best and most considerable part of the Nation And this being done he may with Confidence and without Delay proceed to 2. The Proper Human Means and 1. Such as are and always will be necessary to strengthen his Kingdom at home in the Hearts of the People Which is to be done by good Government and avoiding those known Inconveniences into which his late Predecessors of this Age so unhappily fell But more particularly 1. By Justice a great part of that Righteousness by which the Throne is established both to the Community and to each Individual without Usurpation Encroachments or Oppression either by himself or his Favourites or Officers 2. By Faithfulness in the Discharge of the Regal Office directing all his Counsels and Actions for the common Interest of the Nation as his End and according to