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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A40099 A vindication of a late undertaking of certain gentlemen in order to the suppressing of debauchery and profaneness. Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714. 1692 (1692) Wing F1726; ESTC R27990 9,926 24

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A Vindication Of a Late UNDERTAKING OF Certain Gentlemen In Order to the Suppressing of DEBAUCHERY AND PROFANENESS LONDON Printed in the YEAR 1692. THE PREFACE THat which follows had for the substance of it appeared abroad before now but for the strange Imprudence of a Printer and base Treachery of a certain Licenser who was intrusted by him wholly unawares to the Writer with an imperfect Copy and as to the latter Part a first Draught which was promised to be returned home again to have added or altered what should be thought fit And whosoever shall be offended at what is here Published as taking themselves to be disobliged by it I assure them it is not written from the least Ill-Will to any Person in the World but from the greatest Good-Will and that not onely to the best of Causes but also to those Men who are most like to be incensed Methinks I hear now our cautious Politico's asking What ayls this Person to be thus Busily Interposing in the behalf of those who must needs by their extraordinary Zeal be Exposing themselves to the high Displeasure of some and the Censures of others as a sort of Hot-headed and Rash Men But if they 'll vouchsafe to read what is here written I hope they 'll see no just C●use to Accuse him of being Over-Busy But indeed tho' the Apostle saith It is good to be always zealously affected in a good thing And tho' their cool Wisdomships can be as Hot as their Neighbours in their own Concerns yet 't is ordinary with many of them to pass sly Reflexions upon all Religious Zeal But why Zeal should not best become a Cause wherein the Honour of Almighty God is most highly concerned and our Country-Mens Happiness in the World to come and this World too they are too Wise to offer at a Reason But they 'll Object That the Ill-timeing of a Good thing will make it Chargeable with Indiscretion And who knows not this But how can Zeal for so good a thing as the Reformation of our Manners be ever Ill-timed What is Absolutely necessary 't is impossible should be set about Unseasonably And it Argues a mighty Distrust of the Divine Providence to fear from the Angering of the Vicious Part of the Kingdom any Evil that can be greater than the Good of suppressing Vice or so great Nay this savours of downright Infidelity and Irreligion Nor seems it much less Culpable to think That the disobliging of Wicked Men will be a weakning of this Government For 't is so far from being true that the Governments giving all possible Discouragement to Vice may be a Means to endanger it that nothing can conduce more to the strengthening and securing thereof nor so much neither and that naturally as well as through the Blessing of God Almighty H●nest Tully hath told us as much as this comes to The Offence which profane and vicious Men may take at the Government is a meer Scare-Crow For so long as they see it for their Interest to Adhere to it there is no Fear but they will and they 'll put on a shew of being Reformed nay and Ape a Zeal too for Reformation rather than hazard their Preferments under it or their Prince's Favour And 't is certain that the Government can be secure of such no longer than their Interest holds them fast to it tho' their Vices should be never so much connived at But it hath been much observed both in City and Country that those whose Conversations are none of the strictest did upon the late Execution of the Laws with some Briskness express great liking of it in hopes of having for the future their Children and Servants under better Government And the Truth is the Height of Viciousness to which the Youth of this Nation and especially of this City are arrived is a most Melancholly Subject to reflect upon but not to be Wondred at any more that that bad Examples should be more powerful than good Precepts And this presents us with as sad a Prospect of the Age's being still more and more Corrupted and of the next Ages proving worse than this if more Time should be lost and the setting in great earnest on the Work of Reformation be longer delayed And I need not add that the longer it is so the Work will every Year be the more difficult A Vindication Of a Late Undertaking of Certain Gentlemen c. THE most deplorable Degeneracy of this Nation in its Morals occasioned by the Encouragement which for many years together for a well-known Reason was given to Vice raised in the minds of serious People very strong Apprehensions of approaching Judgments and accordingly very great ones came down upon us and Two such as no Age hath parallel'd in these Kingdoms within a few years after the Return of King Charles But those having produced nothing of Reformation they were followed with others from time to time and these likewise being lost upon us at length we had all the reason in the World to look for the heaviest Calamities that could befal us viz. Popery and Slavery but when these were at the door and just entering so infinitely Merciful was He to us Whose ways are not as our ways nor whose thoughts as ours as strangely to surprize us with a happy Deliverance And the blessed Instrument thereof with His most Virtuous Consort being by God's wonderful Providence plac'd on the Throne never were so great Hopes conceived as now of an Effectual Reformation But alas in a short time it was too apparent that this Deliverance came too soon to be much valued by such a People as generally We were It found us miserably unqualified to receive it and the Returns we have made to the DIVINE Goodness for it speak us no less unworthy of the continuance of it For neither hath the First Part of the Deliverance nor the many amazing things God Almighty hath since done both at home and abroad towards the perfecting and securing thereof had any visible good Effect upon us But those Vices which before reigned and cryed to Heaven for Vengeance do reign still as much as ever and those who were filthy before let God use never so powerful Means for the cleansing of them will be filthy still as if to speak in the Prophets Language They had made a Covenant with Death and were at an Agreement with Hell And whereas we have very good Laws for the suppressing of Vice I will not say how very few have hitherto shewed any thing of Zeal or an hearty Concern notwithstanding the highest Obligation for the Execution of them Nor from how many nothing is to be expected but an extream Averseness to a Reformation But to come to the Business of these Papers Certain pious Gentlemen all of the Church of England laying greatly to heart these things resolved to make Tryal whether any thing could be done towards the giving a Check to Debauchery and Profaneness and joyntly pitch't upon this