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cause_n	king_n	people_n	power_n	4,914	5	5.4287	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61415	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 moritication than is usual amongst us : with an abstract of Mr. Chillingworth's judgement of the state of religion in this nation in his time : and of a letter from the Hague concerning two sermons preached there in the French church at which were present divers of the English nobility.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.	1691 (1691)	Wing S5415; ESTC R19528	31,813	42

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.

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 Na●●on in his time And of a Letter from the Hague concerning two Sermons Preached there in the Fr●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 ●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 t●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

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