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A47758
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Remarks on some late sermons, and in particular on Dr. Sherlock's sermon at the Temple, Decemb. 30, 1694 in a letter to a friend.
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Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing L1148; ESTC R2124
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59,686
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64
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Characters they designed for another Prince will I doubt much better become one nearer home In the first Place they tell us This mighty Prince usurps upon the Liberties of Europe But methinks they might let Usurpation alone it is a very rank Word and they all smell strongly of it For what hath this mighty Prince done to merit this Glorious Title Why if you consult Fact He hath been a little uncivil to the German and Spaniard and hath taken some Towns from them But then if it be Usurpation to take a few Towns What is it I pray to take Three whole Kingdoms This I suppose may deserve some Supereminent Character And if these Gentlemen will try their Faculty they have Epithets enough ready to dignify and distinguish it The French King had no Father to usurp upon and therefore his Case is not altogether so meritorious Besides he hath offered to restore the Towns upon honourable Conditions which as yet I do not hear the Other is disposed to do So that it seems this great Leviathan in this Point hath not an Equal indeed but it is because there is one in the World much Greater and as Great as he is he must be forced to come behind him by many Degrees And therefore I must needs subscribe to Dr. Tillotson when he tells us That a Greater than he is here For whatsoever it may be with respect to other Vertues it is most certain That he far exceeds him in the Point of Usurpation It must be confessed indeed That these Gentlemen have given a tolerable Account of Usurpation and have Stigmatized it too in their way but then they have mistaken the the Subject by puzzling their Brains to find him in foreign Countries when at the same they had him in their Eye as if the Vices of Travellers had been transplanted to the Pulpit to talk of every Trifle abroad and neglect Things greater and more remarkable at our own Doors Our own Country is fruitful enough and surely in these days we need not go to France to look for an Usurper But perhaps it is not Usurpation in general that these Men are offended with and it is plain they love it as their Eyes and have strein'd their Wits their Pens and their Consciences to procure and support it But Usurpation limited to a particular Case as they call it Usurping upon the Liberties of Europe And this the same Reverend Doctor calls The Liberties of Mankind and all the rest have it over and over So that it seems let the People have Liberties enough and then the Usurping upon Fathers and Thrones is a very innocent nay a very just and honourable Undertaking By this Doctrine if the French King had borrowed half the Provinces of Germany from the Empire and Catalonia and Flanders from the King of Spain and at the same time had preserved the Peoples legal Liberties or given them greater he might have been reconciled to these Gentlemens good Grace and have been called a Saviour and Deliverer too Whereas I always thought That so far as one Prince seized and deteined the Rights of another he was so far an Usurper and so far guilty of Injustice and whosoever join'd with him in the Acquiring or supported him in the Possession was involv'd in the Guilt what use soever he made of his Power But it seems if the People can make advantage of Usurpation and share in the Spoil 't is very Holy and Glorious and there is no Guilt sticks to a fat Morsel if these Gentlemen may but have their Parts of it So that 't is plain by all their Harangues of Liberty They mean their Liberty of being Bishops and Deans the Liberty of fatning and warming themselves under the Shadow of Usurpation But if this be the Glorious Liberty they talk of 't is confin'd to themselves the collective Body of the People are perfect Strangers to it All the Liberty this Nation enjoys under this blessed Revolution is a Liberty of giving Seven or Eight millions Year after Year and a Liberty of losing as much more a Liberty of being first made Poor and then Famished and Starved a Liberty of having our Brethren and Country-men sent into foreign Countries to be knockt on the Head a Liberty of being Scorn'd by all Mankind as the most Treacherous and Perfidious Nation in the World and last of all a Liberty of being Impoverished beyond Repair and of being Ruin'd for ever These and such as these are now our Glorious Liberties and I defy the Pertest of them all to shew me any other Liberty besides as the direct and immediate Fruits of the Revolution which every one of these certainly is and which no Man can have the Face to deny Another goodly Character they bestow on the Grand Oppressor as they call him is as Dr. Patrick hath it That he advanceth himself by breaketh his Faith and violating Leagues and Solemn Treaties Now this is certainly sufficiently Evil in whomsoever it is All the Doctor 's Expressions of Perfidious Fraud Forgery Robbery and I know not how many more do not sufficiently intimate the Vileness of it only he hath a little mistaken his Man as he is very apt to do but if he had pleas'd he might have found a much fitter Subject For 't is plain That this saps the very Foundation of the Revolution and in the first Conduct and Management of it There never was in the World and no History can parallel such a perfidious and notorious Violation of Faith Leagues and Solemn Treaties For I pray good Sir was not King James at that time in perfect Peace and Amity with the States of the United Provinces And this in pursuance of former Leagues and fresh Ratifications So that if the Doctor please he may take his Perfidious and Fraud again and lay them on the right Horse But this is not all The King had then an Embassador residing among them and when he heard of their vast Preparations he remonstrated to them his Suspicion by his Embassador and to give him Satisfaction they gave him Solemn Assurance that they were not design'd against England So that here we have both Solemn Leagues and Solemn Assurances and yet immediately after and at the first Opportunity I suppose to shew how they could keep these Sacred Bonds they sent over an Army to hunt him from his Throne and Kingdom If therefore you are for the Violation of Leagues and Treaties this is a Master-piece here you have it in the fowlest and most aggravating Circumstances and all the Records of Villany cannot shew us such another The Revolution is the Issue and Off-spring of it It was begoâ— upon breach of Faith and in good Truth it fully resembles its Parent and hath all the Features and Lineaments of the basest Perfidiousness and Treachery the World ever saw The Father of it was breach of Leagues and of the publick Faith of Nations and the Mother was Rebellion and Perjury and from these is sprung a
reflect on the Stile of modern Sermons which will be no Digression but a proper Preface and Introduction to what follows Now Sermons Sir you know are or ought to be very serious Things and when Men are supposed to speak the Mind of God to the People and to direct their Consciences they ought to confine themselves to the Rules of strict and sober Truth Lavish and extravagant Expressions and the Liberty of Poets and Orators very ill become the Character of those who Serve at the Altar And however some may Pride themselves in it it equally dishonours God and shames their Profession But this Practice is never worse and more fulsom than when the Subject of it is frail and fallible Man And when they find or make Occasion to discourse of Men in their Sermons one would think the subject Matter should teach them Moderation and Temperance Decorum and Decency For Man is a weak wilful peevish and proud Creature and when they see those Qualities Deify'd by vile and paltry Encomiums every Man who hath Eyes in his Head sees through it and laughs at it Men are known well enough and their Vices notorious and it is not all the Harangues of a pert Flatterer that can make Men believe one Word of it no more than he believes it himself A little Discretion without any other Vertue would be apt to teach Men Caution on this Account For the World is mutable and the many Changes which we have seen with our Eyes make it not impossible but there may be one more and it would be a terrible piece of Mortification that these Men must be forced to Cry down what they now hastily Cry up to translate their Heroes and Phoenix's into Tigers and Birds of Prey But Men of limber and pliable Consciences can easily do this and the same Topicks and Common Places where there is no Honour nor Conscience to suit them to their proper Subjects will fit all Cases and Panegyricks and Eulogies and Satyrs and Invectives will agree to the same Subjects and Persons if there be Providence in the Case and as Dr. Sherlock wisely observes (a) Pref. to the Case of Allegiance No Man is forbid to grow wiser I know Sir you have heard of a certain Person that was to have a Statue made the Statuary said That he had the Statue of Cromwell and it was but putting a new Head to it and it would do very well And just so are these Men's Encomiums the glorious Epithets of Illustrious Deliverer Saviour if the Tide turns may be Cap'd with Barbarous Unnatural Destroyer Alas Sir it is the same Man still the Difference only lies in a few Words which mean nothing nor never were intended to mean any thing And I will venture all the Skill I have in Men That there is not one of these Men who are now so flush with their Oratory but if the Scene alters will change their Note too and load their new Saint with all the hard Names they can think of For Words you know are voluble Things and if a Man hath a Stock of them if there be not a steddy Principle to guide them they will fly out upon all Occasions and serve all Purposes And so Sir if you please you may transfer the Allusion of the Statue hither also he will be the same Man still only his Mouth will be a little alter'd He was an Artist that made a Picture which upon a small turn was both an Angel and a Devil but he was not the only Artist For you shall see the same Thing done over again by the Grave the Judicious the Wise as they call one another Turn the Picture to one Side to the Side of the Sun with Prosperity and Greatness on the back of it and 't is an Angel a Hero a Hercules and all the fine Things a Man can think on but turn it the other way and then 't is a Devil a Nero a Monster And to make it yet more piquant put Dutch to all these 't is a Dutch Devil a Dutch Nero a Dutch Monster and if there be any thing worse 't is even that too And as Swearing Allegiance the Name King mean one Thing in a State of Usurpation and the clean contrary under a Lawful Government so I suppose for the same prudent Reason does Glorious Happy Valiant Deliverance These and such like you are not to understand in their proper Signification but in the Dress and Language of the Times They are only Expressions de Facto and if you think they mean any more by them you are much deceived For why I wonder should not they Speak as they Swear and their Words as well as their Oaths have a temporary Meaning However Sir you know that antiently Heroes and Doemons were Synonimous and Terms convertible And why may not these Gentlemen call them by which they please as they find occasion and according to the Season In the mean time let us if you please a little consider the fine Knack these Gentlemen have got at Representation and Character which you will find so luscious and termagant as would shame even the Modesty of the Stage But here I must caution you not to extend what is said to all nor to apply it to any Persons to whom it does not belong For I must tell you there is a Distinction to be made and all wise Men dâ—stinguish them between the old Church of England Men who have taken the Oaths and Comply and think they can acquit themselves by the Constâ—aint and Force that is put upon them but still retain their old Principles relating to the Monarchy and the Church who are far the Best the Wisest the Honestest and the most Numâ—â—â—â—â— of the Compliers These though they satisfy themselves in a compulsive Submission yet are too generous and honest to Deify their Chains and Glory in their Bondage A Man who hath got a heavy Load on his Back must bear it as well as he can but that is no Reason to celebrate the Burthen and extol it to the Skies and give immortal Honour to that which cripples him These therefore you must pretermit and they are particularly and expresly Excepted as no way Concerned in what follows But then for your St A phs your Til ns Ten ns B t s your Sh ks Pat cks W ks Fl ds These are the fine Sparks that do all the Feats we are speaking of who first themselves swallow the Morsels of Usurpation and then dress it up with all the gawdy and ridiculous Floâ—rishes that an Apostate Eloquence can put upon it I shall not ransack all their Sermons if you have a mind to such Stuff you may find them all on the Stalls or among the Hawkers But to give you a Taste there are Two ways which they all take in order to accomplish their End The one is to blacken all they can whom they think are not in their ungodly Interest or obstruct it the other is to