say trebly viz. also out of Gratitude for the special Mercies and Favours you have received Nay it is your special Business as much to suppress that as to cast out Popery without which you cannot prosper That God will bless your Majesty and that you may be faithfull to him and to the Trust reposed in You and may flourish in all Grace and Virtue and Prosperity is the hearty Prayer of Your Loyal and Faithfull Subject AN ADMONITION Concerning A PUBLICK FAST TO Implore the Mercy and Favour of GOD for the Averting of his Judgments and the Recovering of his Blessing BEcause I have heard that we are like to have a Proclamation for a Publick Fast or however because I am certain we have great need to have one at least for the use of those who desire to be found Mourners in secret for the Abominations that be done in the Land I have thought fit as an Act of Duty to God and Charity to my Country to publish this brief Admonition concerning the present just Causes we have for it and that manner of Performance of it which must be observed if we expect any good effect thereof I did formerly upon occasion of the Fast Jun. 5. 1689. publish a Paper Of Humiliation of which one of the Scoffers of the latter Times at a Coffee-House scoffingly said He supposed that would do more Service than 20000 Men in Ireland But how long did we afterwards see more than 20000 Men lie near the Enemy there and do nothing at all Not dare to attack them though one would think encouraged enough with so great and easie Success then so lately in England But of the Invisible Powers which attend and interpose in the Affairs of Men such bruitish Animals have little Sense or Apprehension And therefore it is not unlikely that this may meet with the like Entertainment But I am perswaded that they shall proceed no further and that their Impiety will very shortly meet with a due Correction if not before by the Hand of Governors by the Hand of Providence and the Sword of an Enemy in the midst of them And therefore leaving them to their own severe Mistress to proceed There are two great Causes to provoke us to an extraordinary Humiliation at this time 1. The Fulness and Ripeness of Sin 2. The near Approaches of a terrible Judgment Concerning the former to say nothing of other Evidences of its Maturity this one I think is sufficient When it is become past Remedy by Humane Means it must needs be ripe for the Judgments of God And then certainly is it past all Humane Means when it hath either so infected the Governors and Ministers that they will not or is become so prevalent that they cannot or dare not correct it or punish it as it ought And this is plainly our Case Rarely hath any Prince been more plainly admonished of a Special Duty and of the dangerous Consequence of the Neglect of it than King William hath been and in due Time And as rarely any more plainly admonished of his Fault when committed and of the Mischiefs thereby incurred than he bath been again and again Never was Parliament more plainly admonished of a foul Fault in the beginning of so great a Work than our Convention was of that-in their Order for the Thanksgiving which hath proved a Root of Bitterness ever since but so senseless in such matters is this Generation grown that I doubt we have some Doctors who do not understand it to this Day Nor ever were Parliaments more provoked to their Duty by plain-dealing than ours have been again and again Lastly never were Bishops more honestly and plainly told of their Duty nor more justly and homely reproved for their most shameful Neglect than ours have been But alas here 's the Root of all our Evil. Their Unfaithfulness to God whose special Service was their proper business Unfaithfulness to Kings whom they have magnified above measure and more slattered for their own Advantage than faithfully admonished for the Service of God and been more forward to conspire with to subvert the Rights of their Country than to admonish them of their Duty both to God and Man to be Protectors of the Right of the meanest Subject Their Neglect of their Episcopal Authority for Reproof and Correction of the Scandalous Sins especially of Great Men against the Laws of God and on the contrary Abuse of it for punishment of Sober and Conscientious People with the utmost Severity for any breach of their own Canons or Laws made for their Advantage hath been the greatest Inlet of all our Mischief of the Bruitish and Carnal Sins of the Nation And again their earnest and endless pursuit of Preferments and mis-imployment of what they get hath been the great Incentive to those Animal Sins of Covetousness and Ambition which have betrayed the Nation and been the immediate Means to bring the Judgments of God so near to us as they are at this time Nor is this all But besides their Unprositableness in that great Place and Advantage which they had to have done good in the Parliament they have not only heretofore been the Principal Obstructors of many good things which have been proposed and begun in the House of Commons but have of late laid aside a Bill for the necessary Reformation of Manners and preventing the approaching Judgments of God which was drawn at the Request of some of them without offering any other in the place of it And besides some of them have not only in private obstructed the good Effect of those faithful Admonitions which have been given to the King by misrepresenting the Person to him who sent them as if the Truth and Weight of the Admonitions had not been the only thing to be regarded whoever was the Instrument but have at last even from the Pulpit in the Face of the World encouraged the King to Security in Neglect of that great Duty which had been so earnestly pressed in those Admonitions for his own Good and done it in such a manner as never any of the false Prophets of old except only their Pretence of special revelation or the great Enemy of Mankind could have done more subtily and plausibly Which though of sad Consideration in other respects yet may give the more hope of the Kings Case that there is in it so much the less of Fault as there is more of Unhappiness in that he hath been so unfaithfully dealt with by those about him And if with this we take into the Consideration the Bishops Excuse why they did not offer the Bill in the House of Lords viz. Lest a thing of that Nature should be ridicaled and contemned and Religion with it I suppose no serious Man but will acknowledge all this to be sufficient Evidence of the Prevalence and full Maturity of Sin and Wickedness in this Nation And now concerning the near Approaches of God's Judgments upon the Nation Every Affliction or Calamity upon a
AN ADMONITION CONCERNING A Publick FAST The Just CAUSES we have for it from the full Growth of Sin and the near Approaches of God's Judgments AND The MANNER of Performance to obtain the desired Effects thereof Which ought to be other than our Common Forms and with stricter Acts of Mortification than is usual amongst us With an ABSTRACT of Mr. Chillingworth's Judgment of the State of Religion in this Naâ—â—on in his time And of a Letter from the Hague concerning two Sermons Preached there in the Frâ—nch Church at which were present divers of the English Nobility LONDON Printed in the Year M DC XCI To the Queen Madam SInce the Authority of your Majesty hath appeared so particularly in a most Necessary Appointment of a Publick Fast and Humiliation to be Observed in most Devout and Solemn manner for Supplicating Almighty God for Pardon of our Sins and Imploring his Blessing c. not once but every Month during the War It may be presumed that what is sincerely endeavoured that so Necessary and Pious a Command may happily obtain its desired Effects cannot fail of a Favourable and Benign Construction with a person of so much Piety and Sense of Religion though to those Naturals or Animals in whom the God of this World hath blinded their Minds it cannot but seem Foolishness and Canting as must all Truth to those who are both Ignorant and yet Conceited and though to such as are Big with the Wisdom of the World which is Foolishness with God â—ome things in it may seem Rude and Presumptuous For true Piety could bear even the Railing of a Shimei in a time of Humiliation and Christian Wisdom can easily discern and distinguish between Height of Fidelity and Affection in the plain Words of Truth and Soberness and that Malice and Falsehood which are always ingredients of Railing and Presumption Even Civil Prudence considering the irreparable Mischiefs which are daily wrought in the Courts and Councils of Princes by Treacherous Flattery will not only permit and allow but favour and encourage Serious Liberty and Freedom of Speech upon just and necessary occasion in persons of unspotted and undoubted Fidelity and Affection But Christian Wisdom much more and especially in Times of Account which call for Humiliation Repentance Reformation and Judging our Selves and for Publick Humiliation and particular Confession of Publick and known Sins and Offences with their Circumstances of Aggravation and carefull Search to discover them Which is the only way to lay a sure Foundation and to be raised up by the Mighty Hand of God Wherefore Madam presuming that I write to a person more Illustrious by such Great Virtues than any fading earthly Honour or Majesty can make you besides what I have said in Common to all I shall out of Fidelity and great Affection humbly represent to your Royal Consideration some few things more particularly relating to your self I will not here recount the Great Things which God hath done for the Gradual raising of your Glory nor tell you that the Eyes of all the World are upon you and what Great Things they Hope and Expect from you But this I may say in the Name of God That his Eyes are upon you the Eyes of the Lord which run to and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose Heart is perfect towards Him 2 Chron. 16. 8. That to whom much is given of them much shall be required and That if you justly expect from your fellow Creatures whom You imploy Fidelity Zeal and Activity proportionable to the Favours You confer and the Trusts You repose in them much more are You obliged to perform all these to the Soveraign Lord of all in the full Improvement of all tâ—ose Greater Talents of Honour Authority and other Advantages which he hath conferred upon You for His Honour and Service and with so much the more Vigor and Resolution by how much the greater are the Difficulties which occur The Highest pitch of all is the least Sacrifice that you can offer to Him And therefore I will not I may not tell you That the Leisure as well as the Calm of Peace will be necessary for this or That your Resolving on it Inwardly before God will be accepted by Him though you defer the Actual Performance till that Leisure and Calm which you may never see nor are ever like to see while Difficult Duties are declined neglected or deferred For this would be to deceive You after the manner of the False Prophets of old and to expose You and Your Affairs to the Treacheries and Abuses of Dissolute and Depraved men who be always truer to their Vices than to their Masters But on the contrary this I may be bold to affirm that when by actual Discountenancing and Disgracing of Vice and Encouraging of Virtue by distinguishing Marks of your Favour and by a visible beginning of Reforming your Court and your People and particularly that Body which of all others should need it least it is once understood that you are setled in those Noble Purposes this will make the Execution of them Easie to you and detect the Falsity of such dilatory Doctrines and would have done so sooner if more Faithfull Advice had not been withstood by such as perverted the Right Ways of the Lord and mis-led those they should have directed therein For God hath wrought in the midst of us a Mighty Deliverance and was ready to perfect and stablish that which he hath wrought for us But it is now apparent that something there is which doth stop that Course of Blessings that seems I cannot now say but once did seem ready to flow in upon us And we have now another Count to cast up We may and ought to recount the Mercies and Favours of God to us But we have now also an Account of his Judgments and Frowns to reflect upon And this should lead us back to enter into another Account viz. of Our Sins and Provocations For that Course of Blessings which for some time was only stopp'd was afterwards turned to a Course of Crosses and Disappointments or of a Mixture of Mercy and Judgment and is now at last turning it may be feared to severe Judgment Confusion and Destruction unless very speedily prevented by strict and impartial Inquiry into the Causes by truly Noble and Heroick Resolutions thereupon and by a vigilant and vigorous Execution For the King himself if I and many others be not mistaken hath already suffer'd some Diminution in some Essentials of his Majesty Honour and most Prevalent Powers and is in Danger to fall lower from being a Glorious Instrument of God for Good and Happiness to this and many other Nations into the deplorable and despicable condition of being an occasion of Confusion and Misery only there seems a door of Hope still open for him upon one Consideration if the Opportunity be not neglected of which more presently but first I think fit to say
Iniquity thereof in one notorious Part and that is Abuse of Apprentices after great Sums of Mony received with them I my self have had no less than four Sons as soberly Educated and as well esteemed as most before they came to be Apprentices and who behaved themselves afterward without any great Extravagancies placed here to suitable Trades with no little Pains and Charge yet after all ruined and undone by the Iniquity and Wickedness of their Masters and their Partners But I have seen the Judgments of God upon two of them already and to him I have committed my Cause with the other two This I write upon my own sad Experience and could say as much of my own Knowledge in the case of some others Of which I have written heretofore in a Paper Entituled Relief of Apprentices and mention it now as a Common Cause worthy of Consideration amongst others of the Magistrates for averting the Judgments of God from the City And while I write this of a Case wherein I my self have been so much concerned I cannot but be sensible of the case of some others which I often see and hear of and in Faithfulness to God and to the State and Charity to the poor People take notice of it upon this occasion And that is the Pressing of Men and sending them out of the Realm to Sea or beyond Sea by Force and Violence against their Wills I cannot find or learn upon Enquiry that there is any Law or Statute since those made in the Reign of King Charles I. are expired for the Pressing of Mariners and Sailers much less of Land-Men And if there be not I am sure it is contrary to a Principal Fundamental Right of the People whose Goods much less their Persons or Liberty cannot be touched but by Order of Law and their own Consent in Parliament and would frustrate the principal Design and Reason of the Habeas Corpus Act and render it ridiculous and contemptible in Cases of greatest Exigence and most needing its Relief The Rights of the Poor ought to be preserved inviolable as well as of the Greatest And they who can be content to see their own Rights violated in the meanest of their Countrimen while their own Persons and Estates are untouched do not deserve to have them preserved and may expect that they or their Posterity may by the just Judgment of God be deprived of them Nor can I see any Reason why the Poor of the Land who enjoy so little of it should be frighted from their Employments and forced from their Families Friends and the Trades and Labours to which they have been used to hazard their Limbs and their Lives against their own Wills to defend and maintain the Superfluities and Grandeur of the Rich Or how the Death of such in the Service being forced against their Will tho by Law unless they first forfeit their Right by their own ill Behaviour can be excused from Murder in the sight of God Nor Lastly How we can expect that either such should do any Great Service or that the Blessing of God should be with us in the use of such unreasonable Means If we enquire into the Methods of our Ancestors in such Case we shall find them more just and reasonable more prudent and honourable and more prosperous and successful when Men of Honour and Interest covenanted with the King to bring in their several Numbers raised them among their Tenants and Neighbours and led them themselves so that there was a mutual Love and Confidence between the Leaders and Soldiers But this mode of Pressing if I be not much mistaken is a novel Invention a base Project of the Authors of Ship-Mony put on now even while a Parliament is in being to the Prejudice of the King as well as of the Nation to furnish such Officers with prest involuntary Soldiers who have little Interest of themselves to raise Volunteers and whom few are willing to serve under And since it is done while a Parliament is in being which could have given Authority for it it may justly be looked upon as no ordinary Abuse to the King himself but as one of the Treacherous Policies of some Evil Persons to prejudice his Government and Cause make his Government offensive and suspected by the People and his Cause seem absurd while his Authority is abused to violate the Rights of the People which he came to preserve and in a Fundamental Point and contrary to his Coronation Oath and thereby to justifie or excuse the Miscarriages of his Predecessor For all this it plainly and directly tends to It is true there is a Necessity that Men must be had But Necessity will not excuse Injustice to the Poor with so great Violation of Common Right and when without either it may be supplied Let not such be excluded from the Service who are able and willing to serve in their own Persons and have Interest and Reputation to bring in Seamen and Soldier Let the Salaries Pay and Profits of Great Officers especially who sit at home and are out of danger be reduced to Moderation and those who venture all have a proportionable Encouragement both by good Pay while in Service and of Good Provision in case they be disabled and we shall want no Men nor need any Pressing And let but good Discipline be exercised as it ought to be in respect of the Manners of Officers as well as of Soldiers and Seamen and we shall not want God's Blessing But to leave these things to the Consideration of the Parliament and of the City of the Evil Manners before mentioned those which are Secret Sins only by Secrecy in the Commitment and as they are concealed from Men but otherwise are well enough known to all to be Sins though they have not so much of Scandal as those which are openly committed yet may they have other Aggravations which may equal that and require no less Severity of judging our selves if we would not be judged of God As to the rest which either in their own Nature are not so palpable or easily discernible from what is Lawful or by common Opinion and Usage of the World are reputed Lawful and Harmless nay commendable and some perhaps excused and Patronized in opposition to Popery it is to be considered 1. That some are condemned as wholly unlawful not only by the Judgment and Practice of all the ancient Christians for many Ages and comprehended in that ancient Solemn Renunciation required of all admitted into the Society of Christians by Baptism viz. Of the Devil and his Works the World and the Pomps Glory and Vanity thereof and the Flesh and its Lusts and Desires but also by the express Doctrin of the Holy Scripture both under such General Comprehensive Names as the Flesh Gal. 5. 17. Lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5. 16 2 Pet. 2. 18 2 John 2. 16. The Old Man Eph. 4. 24. The Natural Man I Cor. 2. 14. Desires of the Flesh Eph. 2.
they themselves shall judg sufficient-and convenient in others that then they should give over making Purchase after Purchase but with the surplusage of their Revenue beyond their Expence procure as much as lies in them that no Christian remain Miserably Poor c. Where almost are the Men that are or will be persuaded The Gospel of Christ requires of Men Humility like to that of little Children and that under the highest pain of Damnation c. Would it not be strange News to a great many that not only Adultery and Fornication but even Uncleanness and Lasciviousness not only Idolatry and Witchcraft but Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath and Contentions not only Murthers but Envying not Drunkenness only but Revelling are things prohibited to Christians and such as if we forsake them not we cannot Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven c. If I should tell you That all Bitterness and Evil speaking nay such is the Modesty and Gravity which Christianity requires of us Foolish Talk and Jesting are things not allowed to Christians would not many Cry out These are hard and strange sayings who can hear them c. To come a little nearer to the business of our Times They that maintain the King 's Righteous Cause with the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes but by their Oaths and Curses by their Drunkenness and Debauchery by their Irreligion and Prophaneness fight more powerfully against their Party than by all other means they do or can fight for it are not I fear very well acquainted with any part of the Bible But that strict Caution which properly concerns themselves in the Book of Leviticus I much doubt they have scarce ever heard of it When thou goest to War with thine Enemies then take heed there be no wicked thing in thee not only no wickedness in the Cause thou maintainest nor no wickedness in the means by which thou maintainest it but no Personal Impieties in the Persons that maintain it c. I cannot but fear that the Goodness of our Cause may sink under the Burden of our Sins And that God in his Justice because We will not suffer his Judgments to atchieve their prime scope and intention which is our Amendment and Reformation may either deliver us up to the blind Zeal and Fury of our Enemies or else which I rather fear make us Instruments of his Justice each against other and of our own Just and Deserved Confusion 2. An Extract of a Letter from the Hague Concerning two Sermons preached there in the French Church 2 12 Mar. 90 1. I Was yesterday in the French Church where I heard two very good Sermons and such as would have given you great satisfaction one was upon Jonah 1. 5. But Jonah was gon down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep The scope of what was said was to shew That the Church was in as great a storm as ever she had been and that greater security was never seen amongst Professors of Religion than was to be found at this day which threatned greater desolation than our Fathers had ever been witnesses to The other was preached by Monsieur Arnold who is the chief Commander of the Waldenses as well as their Minister There was a great Auditory and amongst others the Bishop of London Earl of Nottingham Earl of Monmouth and Mr. Wharton his Text was 1 Cor. 1. 27. from thence he took occasion to tell us that we were not to expect fine language from him it being that which God seldom made use of for gaining the ends of the Gospel that he was to discourse to us of plain Truths not valuing what should be our Censures of him if he might approve himself to his God that we were not to think that he was afraid before such an Appearance of persons of all ranks to reprove what was amiss for if the King himself were present though he would give him that respect that was due to his Character yet he would speak the truth as became a faithfull Servant of Christ he did with great modesty without mentioning of particulars shew in general how by a few hundreds of the Waldenses God had scattered thousands of proud enemies and from thence took occasion to exhort us above all things to make it our business to have God on our side because it was through his chusing of them that the foolish and weak things were able to confound the wise and strong and withall did shew us that we were not like persons chosen of God to confound the designs and strength of our enemies while irreligion vanity and debauchery did so much abound amongst us and did particularly insist upon the vain Attire of Women and then with great seriousness did exhort us to amend our ways and doings assuring us without taking upon him as he said to be a Prophet of victory over our enemies if we did sincerely set about a Reformation These things I thought would give you some satisfaction as they did not a little to me which hath made me the more particular in my relation I forgot to tell you that all heard him with great attention and particularly those of our Countrey I mean Britain and I did observe that 〈…〉 could not withhold from tears 3. An Abstract of Archbishop Usher 's Prediction concerning a Great Persecution to come upon the Protestant Church to one who supposed it might have been over in his Life time All you have yet seen hath been but the beginning of Sorrows to what is yet to come upon the Protestant Churches of Christ who will e're long fall under a Sharper Persecution than ever yet has been upon them And therefore look ye be not found in the Outward Court but a Worshipper in the Temple before the Altar For Christ will measure all those who profess his Name and call themselves his People and the Outward Worshippers he will leave out to be trodden down by the Gentiles The Outward Court is the Formal Christian whose Religion lies in performing the Outside Duties of Christianity without having an Inward Life and Power of Faith and Love Uniting them to Christ. And these God will leave to be trodden down and swept away by the Gentiles But the Worshippers within the Temple and before the Altar are those who do indeed worship God in Spirit and in Truth whose Souls are made his Temples and he is honoured and adored in the most inward Thoughts of their Hearts and they sacrifice their Lusts and vile Affections yea and their own Wills to him And these God will hide in the Hollow of his Hand and under the Shadow of his Wings And this shall be one great Difference between this last and all the other preceding Persecutions For in the former the most eminent and spiritual Ministers and Christians did generally suffer most and were most violently fallen upon but in this last Persecution these shall be preserved by God as a Seed to partake of that Glory which shall immediately follow and come upon the Church as soon as this Storm shall be over For as it shall be the Sharpest so it shall be the Shortest Persecution of them all and shall only take away the gross Hypocrites and Formal Professors but the true Spiritual Believers shall be preserved till the Calamity be overpassed To this I think very pertinent that other Excellent Passage of his concerning Sanctification in these words We do not well understand what Sanctification and the New Creature are It is no less than for a Man to be brought to an intire Resignation of his Will to the Will of God and to live in the offering up of his Soul continually in the flames of Love as a whole Burnt-Offering to Christ. And how little are many of those who profess Christianity experimentally acquainted with this Work on their Souls FINIS
Kingdom and Blessed Theocracy which shall never be destroyed This was begun and should have been done by the Confederates against that Insolent Tyrant and common Oppressor had they well considered their Business and subjected their Power to Their Sovereign and used their Authority in subservience to this Great Work first by Reformation of themselves and of the People subjected to them But they not considering but neglecting this principal Part the present Posture of things seems to theraten That they may be first suppressed and the Sins and Wickedness of themselves and their People punished by Him and Himself at last for all his Insolence and Wickedness by some extraordinary Judgment Yet possibly there is not any of them all but if they shall in time open their Eyes and without any sinister Designs to set up themselves apply their Power sincerely and by direct and proper Means to promote the Service of GOD in this Great Work they may be received and well rewarded both with Honour here and Happiness hereafter Of all the Confederates none hath been more highly favoured by an Extraordinary Providence than King William but in my apprehension none hath more failed than he considering his circumstances in the Duty incumbent upon him nor is any in greater danger both in that respect and in respect of the present State of his Affairs which I take to be in all respects the Consequence of that Onely there seems to be yet as I said a door of Mercy and Favour open for him in as much as it is now apparent that it was not wholly his Fault but partly his Unhappiness in that he had no better Guides to direct and admonish him and if he yet be carefull and resolute to doe what he ought though now more difficult and therefore to be performed with so much the greater Resolution possibly he may recover in a great measure his former Prosperous Condition though I doubt that He may suffer such loss as may be just matter for a longer Sorrow and Repentance and that he that hath troubled both Him and us shall bear his Judgment whoever he be unless he prevent it by some proper and eminent Works of Repentance Many things more I had to have said but this first Work is of so great Importance that unless it be instantly and effectually provided for it will be in vain to think of farther applications Nay our very Fasting and Humiliation and all the Prayers in the World will avail nothing unless the Troublers of Israel be brought forth and the Accursed thing be removed If this were once well resolved upon and concluded it would not be hard to detect greater Troublers of our Israel than those who are now in danger of their Lives and soon to put things into such a posture of Security as the King need not fear Confusions in his Absence which otherwise may be feared Yet one thing there is most peculiar to your self that however ought not to be omitted upon this oceasion and that is the manifest Judgments of God upon your own Royal Family and upon so near a Relation as a Father and Judgments both Spiritual of strong Delusions and Temporal of just and deserved Exclusion from the Government of these Nations The due Consideration whereof will easily discover several Obligations upon you 1. The Consideration of such Unhappiness of so near a Relation which is matter not onely of particular Humiliation but of continual Grief and Mourning requires great Seriousness in all your behaviour and Circumspection lest Prosperity make you forget it and thereby offend God and so bring Evil upon your self 2. The Consideration of the Provoking Causes requires first your Humiliation under them and that you be content and willing and desirous that they may be plainly and fully detected first that you may avoid them and all participation in them lest you be overtaken and involved in the Judgments of God upon them but secondly and principally for the Glory of God and manifestation of the Righteousness of his Judgments for should you offer to hinder this as it would tend to the Scandal of his Righteous Judgments so it would certainly provoke him to detect all some other way to your greater Shame and Confusion and bring the same Judgments upon your self Secondly It requires your utmost Care and Circumspection all your life long to avoid them that you abhor them come not near them lest they lay hold on you for of all they are the most dangerous for You by reason of the Participation in so great a Store of Guilt and the Warning given you by such Judgements and the special Temptations you are like to meet with There is an Iniquity in that Family which might be traced a great way back into Scotland but King James I came into England by the Favour of Providence in a State of Mercy And therefore we need look no farther back for this purpose By and under the same Favour have all his Successors come to the Throne and your self in particular but they all forseited it and that You may not is this plain Advice written His great Sins which have most ensnared his Posterity were 1. Great Injustice and a very wicked Design by a Mystery of Iniquity to subvert a Noble Constitution of Government which God had intrusted him with and he had sworn to mainian and 2. Abuse and Prophanation of Religion to serve his Unrighteous Design To give a particular account of each of these would be too long for this place But there are two Effects thereof which have ever since been very pernicious to his Posterity and to the Kingdom and at the present are the greatest occasions of Trouble and Danger to Your Government above all other The one is False Notions concerning the Constitution of this Government Prerogative and the Rights of the People which cost your Grandfather his Head and your Father his Crown and at present mislead many worthy and honest Persons to be your Adversaries who would otherwise have been your loyal and faithfull Subjects and would be much more mischievous to you if you should by that Faction Flattery or any Temptation be once possessed with them They are in their original a Mystery of Iniquity a wicked Imposture and such as the Vengeance of the Righteous God has pursued and still will till they be eradicated and it concerns you much to be very carefull to avoid them and that the Occasions and Stumbling-stones be removed by some deliberate Acts of King and Parliament and of a Convocation for they will otherwise prove a Root of Bitterness to the whole race of the Authour Your Government is Just and Rightfull let but the Execution of it be so too and God's Blessing will be upon it The other is the Overspreading of Prophaneness and Formality which all Governours are obliged to use their utmost Care and Endeavours to reform but You doubly that you may also discharge your self of the Guilt of your Ancestors I might
corrupt Manners of the Age and a kind of bearing Witness against them declaring a Disallowance and Abhorrence of them that is by avoiding and abstaining from all Communication either with the scandalous Persons or with the corrupt manners thereof That we should avoid all Conversation with Evil and Scandalous Persons there are divers considerable Reasons Because 1. It may be a Temptation to us to corrupt our Manners in divers respects 2. It may give Advantage to the Evil Powers which reside and rule in them to hurt us For there is a secret Spiritual Impression of Good or Evil in Company such as it is which few Men observe or are sensible of 3. It may be scandalous to us if it be intimate or familiar which is a thing we ought carefully to avoid 4. Our Holy Religion and Profession may be affronted by them in our Presence of which we ought also to avoid all occasions 5. We ought to express and manifest our Resentment and Indignation against their wicked and scandalous Actions and Practices for the Honour of our Religion and to shame them into Repentance and Reformation But familiar Conversation with such is an implicit deserting of our Profession disowning of Christ and prostituting our Religion in an unworthy Compliance and a means to make them secure in their Evil Courses For these and the like Reasons we ought at all times to avoid them unless when we have any hope or design of doing good to them but more especially under such Circumstances lest we be Partakers in their Sin or tainted by them lest we be Partakers in their Punishment and suffer with them and that we may assert and vindicate the Honour of our Religion and shame them into Repentancc and Reformation By this means may the meanest Person many times have opportunity to give a tacit Reproof and such as by the Blessing of God may prove very effectual to the greatest And every one ought to do it as they have occasion without regard to their own worldly Interest or Benefit to be had by them or to the Worldly Dignity of the Person without respect of Persons For to neglect it for Private Interest is to prostitute Religion and apply to the Devils Instruments instead of dependance upon God for Supplies if we really need them and his Blessing And to do otherwise out of respect to any such Person be his Degree what it will is to prefer a wicked Creature before our Creator and Redeemer to prefer external Temporal Honour before real intrinsick and eternal and to shew more respect to the Enemies of God who dishonour him and despise his Laws than to God himself upon whom we depend Both which whatever Men think of them are more wicked and prophane than I can here set out as they deserve and are ready means to provoke God whose Cause is thereby deserted to desert them who do so and leave them to have their part with such Company with Insidels and Unbelievers It is so in the meanest Christian and therefore let those of higher degree look to it how they will answer the Transgression of this Duty to God when they are called to account for it which may be sooner than they expect It is that which every one ought with great Care to observe who desires to be found faithful to God and to be preserved in the Common Calamity by his special Favour The meanest Servants ought to avoid such Masters and Families and if by mistake they fall into them to manifest their Dissatisfaction get leave to be gone and if that cannot be had to fly with Moses into the Wilderness rather than abide with such wicked Egyptians Every Tradesman to despise their Custom and every Artist Mechanick and Labourer their Service or Employment and all to avoid so much as to Salute them or shew them any respect which would be to be Partaker of their Evil Deeds Be they who they will who have so little Discretion or Command of themselves as to contemn and affront even the Laws Government and Religion of the Nation and all the sober People of it they ought to be slighted and despised by the-very Footmen Carmen and all sorts of People and if they offer to draw their Sword or injure any to be trod in the Dirt as the Pests of the Nation and Instruments of all our Unhappiness only Magistrates and Men in Authority which is God's Ordinance must not be affronted but left to the Judgments of God if those who have power over them will not regard it And for the Manners of the Age besides those gross and scandalous sins there are divers others which must be avoided and reformed and cleansed if we would endeavour to purpose to escape the Fire of God's Judgments Such are 1. All secret Sins secret and mean in their Commitment and concealed from the View of Men. God will certainly find these out and manifest his All-seeing Providence in the severe Punishment of them if not prevented by a timely and thorough Repentance and Reformation 2. Such as in their own Nature are not apparent and distinguishable enough to be corrected by Humane Laws Censure or Cognizance which are many and various As Abuse of Aliments in indulgence to the Appetite wherein a great part of the People of this plentiful Nation are guilty of Excess to their own Hurt but especially those bruitish Epicures who glory in their shame and turning their Paunches into Dunghils by a modish Foolish Term of eating Well would recommend a beastly ravenous Action Ease and Luxury Sports and Idle and Unprofitable Employments Loss of Time and divers great Advantages without Benefit to others or to themselves Abuse of the Talents of Estates and Wealth which ought to be employed for the Honor and Service of God and the Good of Men to Vain-glory and Ostentation in Apparel Buildings Furniture Attendants and such like Pomps and Vanities which the ancient Christians solemnly renounced at their Baptism and as carefully avoided ever after and which doubles the Sin even to Emulations beyond proportion which draw many other Mischiefs after them to themselves their Families and many other by the means next to be mentioned Covetousness and Ambition and insatiable Greediness and pursuit of things of the World and the cursed Fruits thereof Frauds Cheats Exactions Extortions Oppressions Breach of Trust Faction and Treacheries against King and Country for Pensions from Foreign Princes and Preferments at home 3. Such as are covered and palliated and patronized by Modes Fashions Customs of the World and pretence of Necessity for the management and promotion of Trade whereof divers are mentioned already in general and need not be repeated These though spread over this Nation to say nothing of other Protestant Countries are most rife and notorious in this Great City which give great Cause to fear some special Judgment upon it And though I have always been a Friend to it yet I think my self obliged to bear my Testimony against the
else of the more Diabolical humours of Pride Malice Revenge and such like c. When we are come to Years capable of Instruction many which is lamentable to consider are so little regarded by themselves or others that they continue little better than Pagans in a Common-wealth of Christians and know little more of God or of Christ than if they had been bred in the Indies A lamentable Case and which will one Day lie heavy upon their account which might have amended it and did not But many I confess are taught to act over this Play of Religion and learned to say Our Father which art in Heaven and I believe in God the Father Almighty But Where are the Men that live so as if they did believe in earnest that God is their Almighty Father Where are they that fear him and trust him and depend upon him only for their whole Happiness and Love him and Obey him as in reason we ought to do to an Almighty Father Who if he be our Father and we be indeed his Children will do for us all the good he can and if he be Almighty can do for us all the good he will and yet how few are there who love him with half that affection as Children usually do their Parents or believe him with half that simplicity or serve him with half that diligence And then for the Lords Prayer the plain truth is we lie unto God for the most part clean through it and for want of desiring indeed what in word we pray for tell him to his Face as many false Tales as we make Petitions For who shews by his endeavours that he desires heartily that God's Name should be hallowed that is holily and religiously Worshipped and Adored by all Men That his Kingdom should be advanced and inlarged That his Blessed Will should be universally Obeyed Who shews by his forsaking sin that he desires so much as he should do the forgiveness of it Nay who doth not revenge upon all occasions the affronts contempts and injuries put upon him and so upon the matter Curse himself as often as he says Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us How few depend upon God only for their daily Bread viz. the good things of this Life as upon the only giver of them so as neither to get nor keep any of them by any means which they know or fear to be offensive unto God How few desire in earnest to avoid Temptation Nay who almost is there that takes not the Devil's Office out of his Hand and is not himself a Tempter both to himself and others Lastly Who almost is there that desires heartily and above all things so much as the thing deserves to be delivered from the greatest Evil Sin I mean and the Anger of God c. And this were ill enough were it in private but we abuse God Almighty also with our Publick and Solemn Formalities we make the Church a Stage whereon to act our parts and play our Pageants there we make a profession every Day of Confessing our Sins with humble lowly and obedient Hearts and yet when we have talked after this manner Twenty Thirty Forty Years together our Hearts for the most part continue proud as impenitent as disobedient as they were at the beginning We make great Protestations When we assemble and meet together to render thanks to God Almighty for the benefits received at his Hands and if this were to be performed with words with Hosanna's and Hallelujahs and Gloria Patri's and Psalms and Hymns and such like outward matters peradventure we should do it very sufficiently But in the mean time with our Lives and Actions we provoke the Almighty and that to his Face with all variety of grievous and bitter Provocations we do Daily and Hourly such things as we know and he hath assured us to be odious unto him and contrary to his nature as any thing in the World is to the nature of any Man in the World and all this upon poor trifling trivial no Temptations c. Our Tongues ingeminate and Cry aloud Hosanna Hosanna but the louder Voice of our Lives and Actions is Crucifie him Crucifie him c. If I should reckon up unto you how many direct Lies every Wicked Man tells to God Almighty as often as he says Amen to this Form of Godliness which our Church hath prescribed if I should present unto you all our acting of Piety and playing of Humiliation and personating of Devotion in the Psalms the Litanies the Collects and generally in the whole Service I should be infinite c. We profess and indeed generally because it is not safe to do otherwise that we believe the Scripture to be true and that it contains the plain and only way to infinite and eternal Happiness But if we did generally believe what we do profess if this were the Language of our Hearts as well as our Tongues How comes it to pass that the Study of it is so generally neglected c. Seeing therefore most of us are so strangely Careless so grosly Negligent of it is there not great reason to fear that though we have Professors and Protestors in abundance yet the Faithful the truly and sincerely Faithful are in a manner failed from the Children of Men What bút this can be the cause that Men are so commonly Ignorant of so many Articles and particular Mandates of it which yet are as manifest in it as if they were written with the Beams of the Sun for example How few of our Ladies and Gentlewomen do or will understand that a Voluptuous Life is Damnable and prohibited to them Yet St. Paul faith so very plainly She that liveth in Pleasure is dead while she liveth c. How few of the Gallants of our time do or will understand that it is not lawful for them to be as Expensive and Costly in Apparel as their Means or perhaps their Credit will extend unto Which is to Sacrifice unto Vanity that which by the Law of Christ is due unto Charity and yet the same St. Paul forbids plainly this Excess even to Women Also let Women he would have said it much rather to the Men Array themselves in comely Apparel with Shamefac'dness and Modesty not with Embroidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or Costly Apparel and to make our Ignorance the more inexcusable the very same Rule is delivered by St. Peter also 1 Epist. 3. 3. How few Rich Men are or will be persuaded That the Law of Christ permits them not to heap up Riches for ever nor perpetually to add House to House and Land to Land though by lawful means but requires of them thus much Charity at least that even while they are providing for their Wives and Children they should out of the Increase wherewith God blesseth their Industry allot the Poor a just and free proportion And when they have provided for them in a convenient manner such as