Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A61433
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Of humiliation, and the effects of it in relation to the present occasion
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Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing S5431; ESTC R2507
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8,143
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12
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Greediness after the things of the World. This as it deadens the Affections and averts the Soul from God so it so narrows and contracts it that it cannot freely exert its Powers for the Publick Good but is ready upon all occasions to sacrifice that to its insatiable Appetite which I mention here because I take it to be no small Impediment to the course of our affairs at this time But I shall say no more of it now I am so well known to want no Good-Will either to the State or Church of England that I think an Apology for this Plain-dealing needless The matter it self in my Apprehension carries its own Apology and Justification with it And he whose Cause and Service I have undertaken is a better Advocate than either I my self or any Man else can befor me FINIS A POSTSCRIPT To the Paper of HUMILIATION THAT Religion and Vertue do greatly conduce to the Weal and Happiness of Kingdoms States and of all Societies of Men as well as of single Persons and Irreligion Profaneness Vice and Debauchery to their Dissolution and Destruction hath been observed by Philosophers and Wise Men in all Ages And that they have both a Natural Tendancy thereunto and are moreover often directed by a special Providence of God in concurrence with other causes to those Ends I have both by domestict Examples and Reasons as far as I thought necessary in so plain a Case shewed in the Caveat before mentioned In which taking notice of the great Degeneracy and Corruption of the Manners of this Nation I also shewed that our late Extraordinary though undeserved Deliverance did in a more special manner oblige us to a speedy effectual Reformation thereof And that we could not expect but that the Neglect thereof under such special Obligations would be attended with some observable Disappointments or Obstructions in our Councils and the Course of our Affairs as we have seen it hitherto fall out To this our Solemn Thanksgiving added a further special Obligation and the not doing it thereupon doth beyond all question aggravate the Fault of our Neglect whereupon I presumed to represent the Case briefly in a particular Dedication of those Papers to the King. And when we had another Solemn day appointed for Fasting and Praying for God's Blessing upon our Forces in the Warr against the French King which certainly adds another Obligation it was but a reasonable Prosecution of the same honest Design to note briefly the Necessity of making a Publick Reformation a Concomitant of such a Publick Humiliation To all this I will now add these few Considerations They who have any real Love to their Country be their Religion what it will if they will acquit themselves but like men of sense and reason ought certainly to endeavour the promotion of such a Publick Reformation by the promoting of some good and Effectual Laws for that purpose even upon Civil Considerations as a thing tending by a natural Efficacy to make the People much better either for Peace or Warr and for the Common Benefit and Advantage of the whole Society And for an Experiment of the truth of this we need not go far from home or from our own times It will be sufficient but to reflect back and consider well the different Morals of the two Parties in our late Civil Warrs and their different Success And if they have indeed any thing of true Loyalty in them whereof many have made so high Profession this they ought to demonstrate both by abstaining themselves from contemning and affronting the Laws and Government of their Country in things so sacred with all well constituted States as the Religion Publickly professed by them and by a real and active concern as they have occasion that all others be effectually restrained If they have no just conern it is certain their Loyalty is but a Superficial thing a meer pretence for some design or advantage to themselves Nor ever did or ever will such Men prove steddy to any Government but basely betray all and sacrifice them to their own Interest and therefore are by no means to be trusted by any wise Governours notwithstanding any Parts or Abilities for which they ought the more to be suspected And for those who are Men of Religion and more particularly those of the Church of England besides the Obligations and Considerations before mentioned the Common Prayers of the Church which are daily used and in each House of Parliament as they do afford to them who are there present a daily Admonition of their Duty so are they in my apprehension a special and great obligation upon them to it For to pray that God will be pleased to direct and prosper all their Consultations to the Advancement of his Glory c. and never so much as enterinto any Consultation for the effectual restraining the Abominable Profanation of his most holy Name by all sorts of people throughout the whole Nation and most impudent and presumptuous violation of his Laws to pray that all things may be so ordered setled by their Endeavours that Religion Piety may be Established and never use any Endeauours for the suppressing of so common and notorious Impieties in the Nation What is it but to add Impiety to Impiety to turn Religion into meer Formality and insted of procuring a Blessing to help to fill up the Measure of our Sins and pull down the Judgments we have reason to fear the sooner upon us And the like observations may be made upon the occasionall Prayers and Confessions purposely composed for the late Solemnities And for those who perhaps may think better of some separate Churches certainly they would take it amiss if we should question whether they do constantly Pray for God's Direction and Blessing upon this Parliament or less then is expressed in the Common Prayers And if they come not behind in their Prayers and yet are as backward in their Consultations and Endeavours I see not how they are one jot more excusable but must neccessarily fall into the same Condemnation if not greater for having deserted the Church and yet be no better And these few Questions I would propose to them all who pretend to be Christians Whether they can hope for any good success in this Undertaking without God's Blessing unless it be such as God sometimes gives to wicked men whom he useth for the correction of others Whether there be not such Cursed Things and National Sins which may provoke him to withdraw his Presence and withhold his Blessings from Christians as well as from others untill they be removed Whether there be not reason to believe that this Nation is Poluted and defiled and entangled in some such National Sins and Cursed Things which may obstruct the Divine Blessing whether their unaccountable flow or Retrograde Course of our Affairs no less to be admired than the precedent easy Revolution may not with reason be reduced and imputed to some such secret cause And whether a diligent search into that remoter but most prevalent Cause and speedy and effectual Reformation of what is amiss be not the most proper business to begin with if we do indeed depend more upon God's Blessing now under such inviting Circumstances than upon our own shallow and ineffectual Policies to compleat a happy Progress of our Affairs This if it was done to purpose as it easily may and ought to be would soon produce a great Alteration by the Blessing of God in the Course of our Affairs for the better Magnanimity and Courage is the part and duty of a Christian as much as of an upright Judge or a Souldier and if we will ever shew it now is the time If we basely fear the loss of a few debauched Ministers Gentlemen or Souldiers we shall really lose a far greater Number of much better men and be enslaved and betrayed as we well deserve by the Company we choose whereas by a generous doing our Duty we should better secure them better'd by reformation to our Party POssibly in the Perusal of this Paper some who are most attentive to the Importance of the Matter may over-look other things and think it very good and honest but these must be Men who have some relish of such things But others who are not much affected with that will be apt the more to regard the Form and censure it for rude and insolent and that I am well pleased they should do and as severely as they will For I know no better way to convince them of a Fault of their own than to make them judge themselves in the Person of another For If I be rude by plain-dealing with my Fellow-Creatures for their Good who are perhaps but a little above me in some petty accidental transitory Advantage what are they who are not only more rude toward the State but impious against their Creator or can behold such Rudeness and Impiety without any Censure or Endeavour to restrain it Must I be censured for breaking the Laws of Man or but of Civility and out of a good Design And it is equal then that others shall be permitted in impudent Contempt of the Religion of the State and impious violation of the Laws of Almighty God Therefore thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self And thinkest thou O Man that judgest and dost the same that thou shalt escape the Judgment of God Or despisest thou c. FINIS
said very plainly and very truly against Debauchery All was dedicated to the King with a brief Narrative of the causes of the unhappiness of those Kings and the Danger of his involving himself in their Fate and participation in their Judgments and presented to his own Hand March 18. And some time after presented to several of the Lords and many of the Commons But to this day hath not any thing been done to this purpose or so much as mentioned by King Bishop Lord or any one of the Commons nor are we yet awakened to any sence of the Importance of this Matter though we see some things little less than predicted in those Papers already come to pass as particularly the impeding and crossing our Preparations for Ireland and encouraging the Irish pag. 15. of the Caveat And I wish we see not more come to pass as we certainly shall if we go on in this manner Can we think that our verbal Thanksgiving can find acceptance with the Wise and Righteous God without acts of Gratitude when there is occasion It would not with a mortal Man but rather provoke Indignation Nor can we reasonably expect our Fasting and Prayers should ever find favour with him without an actual and speedy Reformation but rather aggravate the fault and provoke some great Cross and Disappointment Sometimes God is pleased in the Government of the World as it were to withdraw himself and wink at the courses of Men and let them go on without check or controul at other times to appear in extraordinary Dispensations of his Providence And this he is now doing not only in these Nations but in a great part of the World. He hath in an admirable manner executed his Judgments against the late King who had filled up the Iniquity of his Fathers by not only courting but espousing the Babylonish Harlot and when we might have expected some severe Judgment gave us a great Deliverance He gave to the Prince an extraordinary Success but withal at the same time led him to a Temptation and Tryal whether after such an Army of Men had stooped to him he would dare in dependance upon that Providence to encounter a Party of Vicious and debauched Nobility and Gentry which had he done all had certainly stooped to him he had kept up his Authority which with a Mixture of Kindness Confidence and such like encouragements would by the Blessing of God have made that Army as debauched as it was entirely at his Service and might have made things go more smoothly in the Parliament than they have done without any Politick Compliance with any Faction whatsoever That he did not do it if it was through Forgetfulness the Fault lies at the Doctor 's Door but if it was upon Politick Considerations he hath stumbled at the very same Stone at which King James the First did and unless he spedily extricate himself will be involved in the Fate of that Family And for the Bishops Lords and Commons the Representatives of the Nation who have been so busie in scuffling for Places and Preferments or carrying on the Interest of some Faction or Party if they neglect to correspond with the present Course of God's Providence in Reformation of the Nation by the Gentle Means of Good Laws and Vigorous Execution by the Civil Sword God will certainly do it by his rougher Ways of the Sword of War and cast out such unprofitable Servants our extraordinary Mercies will aggravate our Crimes may fill up our Measure and the Prophanation of our Fasting and Prayer by neglect of Reformation may seal up our Judgments I am perswaded God will pull down the Pride and Insolence of that wicked Man the French King and great probability there was he would have done it in a great Measure by our Hands had we made our selves fit for his Service but it is now doubtful whether he will not first scourge and purge our wicked Generation by that Rod before he throws it in the Fire For the things which belong to our Peace seem to be hidden from our Eyes as if we were possessed with a Spirit of Slumber and Infatuation Quos perdere vult Jupiter dementat prius If this Solemnity produce no better Effects in our State it remains only that Private Men look to themselves have a care who they associate with and enter into such Courses as 't is probable Almighty God will Bless and Protect them in and perhaps the Condition of Londonderry in their Siege may be more eligible than of the City of London in their Liberty with Licentiousness I am amazed to consider the Supine Negligence and Insensibility of our State in this Respect and the more when I consider that there are some among them who make Profession of Religion and whose sincerity therein I cannot question Possibly some may be of some other Church or Party and look upon all the rest as such as are without and therefore are not concerned for them but this if it be so is a Mistake for they and their Parties being Members of the same Commonwealth may deservedly be involved in the Punishment of those Crimes which they neglect to reform in other Members thereof But for those of the Church of England how they can magnifie this for the best Church in the World and at the same time with Patience see it made a Cage of every Unclean Bird I cannot understand for certain it is That none of the Debauchees do profess themselves to be of any other Church but all of the Church of England and many of them Zealots for it too and reason good for there they are connived at But I cannot mention this Neglect of the Church of England in not reforming its own Members without calling to mind another Neglect by no means to be passed over in Silence upon this Occasion because the Mischiefs thereof do seem very likely to fall heavy upon us And that is of Reclaiming Civilizing and Converting the poor Irish who seem to have been committed to our Care by the Providence of God For we have for a whole Age at least wanted neither Men nor Means nor any thing else but good Hearts sensible of our Duty for that Servicet The Souls of that People and of their Ancestors may cry to Heaven for Vengeance for that Neglect And we may reasonably fear that God in Judgment may make use of that neglected and despised People for a just Scourge and Punishment for it The Wit of Man in his Prosperity may find out Fine Plausible Exccuses but it is time now to consider How far such Excuses are like to pass with Almighty God And certainly it will be more suitable to this Occasion to lay them all aside take the Matter into serious Consideration and make that one of the Motives of our Humiliation Besides the gross Immortalities of the Nation there are many other matters which deserve consideration And among the rest that Root of all Evil Coveteousness and insatiable