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cause_n	good_a	life_n	see_v	2,826	5	3.2572	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34430	A sermon preached at Islington upon the 26th day of July, 1685, in the afternoon being the day of solemn thanksgiving to almighty God for His Majestie's late victories over the rebels / by Shadrach Cooke.	Cooke, Shadrach, 1655?-1724?	1685 (1685)	Wing C6038; ESTC R29331	10,001	32

actions but of mortal and damnable sins and does it prompt them to suitable acknowledgments and expressions in Mourning Sorrow and Lamentation for this which is to us a good day a day of Joy and rejoycing to such as these should be a day of sorrow and humiliation not as some may make it because the mischief did not succeed but for their being any ways concern'd or instrumental in it for it will be your most aggravated crime and condemnation if you yet continue your obstinacy And ye when ye had seen it repented not afterwards So that this great goodness of God in our present most gracious deliverance should now at length prevail upon such who were concern'd in the Rebellion or any ways favourable to it to be sincerely penitent for their great sin in this case Though God knows and with sorrow we speak it their obstinacy appears even yet to be very great and almost incorrigible And ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward In speaking on this Subject I shall consider I. What it is in the case before us that should prevail with men to repent where we shall remember the great mercy and goodness of God in some of our late Deliverances II. The persons that yet continue Impenitent III. The little or no grounds or reasons we have to believe them Penitent Notwithstanding IV. The great cause they have to be so at this time or occasion V. We shall lay down the more particular signs or tokens of their Repentance which we may and do justly expect from them I. Were we to consider the several mercies favours and deliverances God has bestowed upon us the time would fail us to speak of them However we may very usefully for a while entertain our selves on this point by representing to you some short account of those many and great deliverances God has given us from these Phanatical Republican Spirits that are near at hand or fresh in our remembrance 1. And here we might in the first place bring to Your minds the Great Rebellion which some of you have known or been concerned in which cannot but call to our minds the dismal Scene of a most distrest and unhappy Nation overwhelm'd with Blood Ruin and Confusion both in Church and State and will be evermore black and remarkable for that most horrid murder of the best of Kings But how good and gracious was God towards us even in the midst of this great Calamity for that good Prince who is lately gone to his long home and our present Soveraign that were the great sufferers in those times and chiefly aimed at were wonderfully preserv'd in great dangers by land and by water and at length brought to succeed and sit in their rightful Inheritance And indeed when we consider the present we have great reason to call to mind and bewail those rebellious times for These among us have been some of the very same men that were then notorious for this villany and is no doubt the self-same Phanatical Spirit that runs through all these designs which is and ever will be addicted to Treachery and Rebellion So that we do in a great measure owe all or most of our present Sects Factions or Parties to those times These being the Tares now grown up that the Devil did then sow among the Wheat 2. The next remarkable deliverance from this sort of men is very legible in that impious design of Excluding our present Prince from What was inviolable by the strictest laws of God and Nature A design full of Ingratitude and Irreligion Therein more resembling a Fanatick contrivance He that had suffer'd such hard things for his Countries good and was banish'd from his own home He that had ventur'd his own life and lost his dear Royal Father in the defence of Truth and a good Cause He who when restor'd to his own Country and native soil would yet again resolutely hazard himself in a most dangerous Naval fight He that has often ventured his life for the defence of this Nation must now for a requital be debar'd from that his most undoubted and inviolable Right in it What an unparallell'd baseness and ingratitude is this and such as will be a lasting shame to the Impenitent Promoters and Abettors of it in all ages Being withal most unchristian prophane and impious contrary to our Solemn Oaths and all the obligations both of Scripture and Conscience So that for the honour of our Nation and Religion too all honest Loyal Churchmen must look upon and bless God for our deliverance from that impious unchristian and truly Fanatick Conspiracy 3 Which brings us to consider a Third Instance of their wicked designs and our great deliverance That of the Rye Conspiracy being the result of their disappointment in their former design for when the pretence of Law would not effect their business now comes out That their black hellish contrivance of Murdering the Royal pair after a most dismal and horrid manner which when one of the design'd Actors in it did openly confess He acknowledgeth himself to be a Hearer of the Baptists Independents and Presbyterians Now we cannot but look upon this to be a most Providential and remarkable Instance of Gods wonderful mercy and deliverance towards us A sudden fire hastning Their return before the Villans were ripe and prepar'd for that horrid execution 4 And now as a branch and consummation of that and all their other Plots let us as behoves us consider and reflect upon our deliverance from their late horrid traiterous Conspiracy that unnatural open Rebellion for which we are now especially to magnifie the Lord and exalt his Name together I shall not need surely to spend much time in shewing you the heinousness of all Rebellion and this in particular having done it already in some late Discourses only let us remember that our Religion our Prince the lives of all honest men and whatever is dear to us in this world were in danger by the designs of these ambitious restless and bloud thirsty men To whom had God given us over as a prey as our sins most justly deserved our bloud would have been spilt like water upon the ground we must have lost all that is dear to us in this world and we should have been overwhelmed in a deluge of Sects and Heresies of wars and confusions of which we could not have expected to see any other issue than the final ruin and destruction of this Kingdom and God's Church among us This is in short the account of our deliverance or the grounds of our Joy for it and certainly if any thing can make us truly chearful and pleasant and heartily thankful to God we have abundant reason to be so for this his present mercy and goodness towards us Who has so graciously rescu'd us from these most accursed and damnable designs contriv'd and carried on by the several Sects and Parties of pretended Religion the known and avowed enemies to the present

Government and Constitution both in Church and State Which brings us to consider our second Particular II. The several Sects Parties and Divisions among us being the great Authors Incouragers and Promoters of these most impious designs and practices as being most agreeable to the Principles or Sentiments of these men for nothing can be more plain and demonstrable than that they have all of them made it almost their constant endeavour in all their discourses publick and private especially such as have been managed in a pretended religious way to set themselves all they could against the present Government and Constitution both in Church and State And were I at leisure to manifest this from what is the usual way and method of proving mens Principles I could abundantly confirm it from their numerous writings and professions in this kind the main drift of all or most of them as to this particular being to destroy the Church disturb the Kingdom debauch mens Principles and pervert the Scriptures so that I the less wonder at these practices which are but agreeable to their Profession and the very constant design and natural result of these Schisms and Factions for a man cannot be a Fanatick or Schismatick but he does and must actually forfeit his duty to the Church and the King Nor is this any more than what is agreeable to former and present experience That they have been the constant disturbers of our Israel is I think already manifest and might be more largely proved were there occasion for it And look now into the very late Rebellion and then tell me what you think of it whether it was not purely and solely Fanatical that the several Sects and Separatists from our Church were not chiefly or only concern'd and ingag'd in it some of their pretended Ministers were actually in it and most or all of them knew of it And as we before intimated I do verily believe that they did not act inconsistently to their own Ways or Principles if they have any And had I been one of the Party or Separatists I do not see how I could have acted congruously to my own pretences or that Schism or Separation had not I consented conspired or acted in these designs for promoting their True Protestant Cause against pretended Popery and Arbitrary Power Wherefore I do more wonder that any should be exempted from it than that all should be in it for I cannot see how a man could be a Fanatick and could tolerably excuse himself in this case Nor do I think but that every one of them did as much carry on the Rebellion as all Loyal honest men were against it III. But did this need further proof 't is too plain and manifest from their continued impenitency Which is our Third particular Which is too evident either first from their own Profession or secondly their excuses for it or thirdly their continuance in their former ways and practices A greater sin than that which these men have been guilty of can hardly be imagin'd being as I have shew'd you very lately a complication of almost all kinds of wickedness bearing in it Treason Sacrilege Murder and what not And now when such as are thus guilty come to reflect upon themselves one would expect and hope for in this case a most profound humility and strict repentance but whether most or any of those that so justly suffer'd for this Cause have given sufficient demonstration of their extraordinary sorrow for their designs and practices let any impartial man consider When men come to dye especially in their strength and vigour they have then more abundant advantages to consider and understand their Case and Condition but have you known them then to deal plainly and freely as becomes such a state and circumstances 2 or do we not find in the Second place Excuses and Palliations instead of true sorrow and Repentance and as is said of a great one among them we find enough from them to shew their guilt but not their repentance Now seeing that many or most of them are so industrious in excusing themselves or others and take hold of any little opportunity either to justifie or extenuate their crimes This is too great a sign of an impenitent or relentless heart For the true and sincere penitent is more industrious to discover and aggravate than to hide or lessen his sin in This consists the true nature and comfort of Repentance If therefore you are Conscious to your selves or we find any to be given to the covering or extenuating these sins or the promoters of such horrid practices this I think is an undeniable proof to any sober judicious man of their continu'd impenitency 3 Especially if we add to this in the Third place The continuance in their former ways and practices Such people are not and cannot be accounted truly penitent who yet persevere and continue in their former courses which did really and actually encourage and promote these rebellious designs Whoever therefore are glad of any occasion or opportunity to vilifie the Church and reproach Government to discourage such that do their hearty endeavours for discountenancing Schism Faction and Rebellion that do herd among or can think or speak well of such that are known and profest enemies to the constitution both in Church and State This is a sign that such are so far from being penitent that they are rather harden'd and obstinate in their impieties IV. Though in the Fourth place we shall find that now especially they have great cause to be truly Penitent Considering I. First That by these late actions there is 1. given to the world a plain demonstration of such mens guilt and impiety Grant that some or many of them did follow these people or had a kindness for them out of a presumption of the goodness of their Cause or the strict piety of their persons Now upon this discovery and defeat of their Villany Men of any sence or reason cannot but have other Sentiments and must look upon themselves to be miserably deluded or mistaken in them so that now upon this better knowledge this thorow and indeed plain demonstration you may recede very justly and honourably and not suffer your selves to be any longer deceiv'd by them We may hope therefore and do expect that such who in the simplicity of their hearts were led away and seduc'd by them will now if ever come to themselves and if after such plain conviction and undoubted proof against them as this is they will still continue in the ways and courses of Faction and Sedition they can be accounted no better than incorrigible Rebels 2. Seeing withal in the Second place the Result of their Designs which is not any longer as some have been made to believe for the love or fear of God the Protestant Religion Tenderness of Conscience Christian Liberty and the like But as you have heard and seen the main drift and tendency of all is to imbrue a Nation