Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A41803
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An admonition for the fifth of November
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Grascome, Samuel, 1641-1708?; Grascome, Samuel, 1641-1708?
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1690
(1690)
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Wing G1565; ESTC R28672
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4,749
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12
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AN ADMONITION FOR THE Fifth of NOVEMBER Let us search and try our Ways and turn again unto the Lord. DID one know how to retrieve that open Simplicity and downright Honesty which was once the Character and Glory of the English Nation one would think nothing too much to do or suffer in order to it We have lost our Innocence and with it our Honour and what have we got in Exchange Conscience violated for the sake of the Church and the Church still in Danger Millions expended to secure our Property and Property still precarious at the Mercy of Men in Red both those within and those without St. Stephen's Chapel The Lives of English-men prodigally thrown away to Enslave us under the Name of Liberty And all that is dear to us Temporal and Eternal sacrific'd to Foreigners in the Service of our Enemies to bind us down for ever with the Chains of our own making What worse could have befallen us had the Gunpowder-Treason took Effect than has follow'd from the pretended Deliverance we tack to it Our King and Royal Family had perish'd by the Hands of Miscreants not by our own Our Laws had been violated by profess'd Adversaries not tamely given up by our selves into the Hands of treacherous Friends Our Nobility had perish'd gloriously with their Prince in a common Ruin not meanly liv'd upon the Surrender of their Privileges and Honour not degraded themselves by submitting to the Scum of Foreign Countries The English Commoners had died Freemen not basely betray'd their Liberties and their Country for a Share in the Booty Providence was pleased to protect us and deliver us from the former Attempt by the Wisdom of its Vice-gerent our Lawful King But when we took the Matter into our own Hand and impiously blasphem'd the Righteous God by ascribing our Wickedness to his Providence we were left to the Fruits of our own Folly We feel the sad Effects and have worse to fear till we be no more a Nation but become an exhausted Province to a petty Dukedom and the Scorn of the whole Earth A melancholly Subject But if we have any sense of Religion left if under a Cry of Moderation and Liberty of Conscience the Hardships put upon the Reverend Clergy oblig'd to Swear or Starve and the inconsistent Oaths which Men of no Conscience forc'd upon them that once had some if these Measures have not deprived us of the Sense of Good and Evil Religion and Moral Honesty the Danger of our immortal Souls is a Consideration of much greater Consequence than any temporal Calamity be it what it may nor is there indeed so sure a Way of averting or removing temporal Evils or at least making them turn to our Advantage as by a speedy and real Repentance If we are sensible of our Sins and forsake them who can tell but God will yet be gracious to us as a Nation To be sure he will pardon every particular Person who thus repents But to wipe our Mouths and say we have done no Wickedness is very distant from Repentance To profess with our Lips what our Heart cannot but condemn to do it in the House of God and in our very Addresses to him to ascribe to the God of Holiness and essential Justice what is abhorrent to his Nature and solemnly to thank him for prosperous Wickedness is a most outrageous Profanation I will not I cannot aggravate it may it never be remembred but in a penitent Way and therefore may it never be again repeated To which Purpose let me entreat the Reverend Clergy who are Examples to their Flocks seriously to read over the Service for the Fifth of November in private before they come to read it in the House of God and in his Name and for his sake and their own I beg them to consider how opposite it is to his essential Attributes how inconsistent with the Principles and Professions os many of them and how fatal such profane and hypocritical Addresses must be to the Souls of those who make them One would be glad to know what Season we refer to by the Time that afflicted us It cannot be the Reigns of King Charles and King James the Second in which Trade flourished we enjoy'd Peace and Pleâ—ty our Churches were better frequented than they have been since our Clergy in higher Reputation Religion more reverenced and more at Heart the few that had some Cause to complain were treated in a more humane and generous Manner than the many who have suffered since OATES whose Character every body knows was whipp'd severely 't is true but not to Death Seven Bishops were confin'd for a while in the Tower and were allowed a speedy and fair Tryal but they were not Depriv'd as five of those very Bishops were by their pretended Deliverer and not so much as allowed a small Subsistence The Magdalen College Business was much outdone by the many Nonjurors left to starve with their Wives and Children There is nothing in King James's Reign parallel to the GLENCOE MASSACRE nor to the Desolation of the Church of Scotland a Prelude to that of England For what is it then that we are to offer up our unfeigned Thanks What is it what can it be that fills our Hearts with Joy and Gladness when we remember the Revolution Is it that our Hereditary Monarchy was changed into an Elective That we drove away our native and lawful Princes indued with an inborn Hereditary Clemency to set up a FOREIGN RACE who neither understand our Laws nor Constitution nor so much as our Language Is it that our once groundless and unreasonable Fears are really brought upon us by the unrighteous Methods we took to be rid of them For Popery can never obtain in this Island but Atheism and Irreligion not only may but do Do we rejoice that our Plenty and Peace are exchanged for War and Misery That the Nation is involved in a Debt which in the Way we are must inevitably sink it That Multitudes of Families are reduced to extreme Necessity that the Betrayers of their Country may enrich themselves with its Spoils Do we who were so afraid of suffering any thing for Conscience sake that we chose Iniquity rather than Affliction rejoice that instead of a few Martyrs for the Truth a Tryal we may safely say we should never have been put to by King James so many Thousand Lives and Souls have perished in an unjust and ambitious War Do we presume to thank God for a Deliverance from those Grievances we complained of in our Petition of Right at a Time when we labour under the same or greater in Consequence of that pretended Deliverance Grievances which are not lessened but increased by being bound upon us by those who call themselves our Representatives the Corruption of a Parliament being the greatest of all Grievances as depriving us of all peaceable Means of Redress changing and suspending our Laws and even destroying our Constitution as their Managers are pleased
to direct Tyranny is hateful from whatever Hand it proceeds it is not the better but the worse for being Protestant the Insult is greater and the Indignation ought to be so when we see our selves oppress'd by those who declare the loudest against Oppressions and depriv'd of our Rights and Liberties by those who pretended to defend them Providence is always just and wise even when the Success does not answer our Expectation but we are neither if we judge by Events Time has convinc'd us of our Want of Wisdom it were happy for us had we as lively a Sense of our Injustice With what Face can we speak to an All-knowing God of our extreme Dangers since they who raised the Alarm and made the loudest Noise with their Fears allow now their Turn is served that the Stories which gave us those Apprehensions were most of them Forgeries and the real Dangers were brought upon us by the treacherous Counsels of the Men whom OUR PRETENDED DELIVERER afterwards employ'd and rewarded for betraying their too honest and credulous Master Had we then a Foreigner for our L d and King one who kept up not a chimerical but a real separate Interest from ours who had other Subjects and Dominions more belov'd amongst whom our Treasure was exhausted No K. James made his Subjects rich as well as himself and lost his Crown because he wou'd not enter into Alliances to the Detriment of his own People If we had a Standing Army it did not consist of FOREIGN MERCENARY TROOPS but of natural born Subjects Foreign Soldiers were not maintain'd at home whilst our Countrymen were sent abroad to perish in our Neighbours Quarrels A French League was then only pretended we are bound in it now with a Vengeance to the utter Ruin of our Trade and tamely contribute to the exorbitant Power both of France and Germany The design of our Enemies did indeed succeed SUNDERLAND and others had the Reward of betraying their Country as well as their Prince and Benefactor The Confederates also had theirs in drawing us in to bear the Expence and Burthen of their Quarrels Whatever Attempts were made or pretended to be made formerly by our Enemies to bereave us of our Religion and Laws sure I am the Nation feels by sad Experience that we are not at present delivered from such sort of Attempts which are but too likely to succeed in the Hands of our PRETENDED FRIENDS But to wave Facts and come to Principles The Doctrine of the Cross or Patient Submission to our Lawful Sovereign when unlawfully oppress'd without daring to resist tho' it shou'd be in our Power to do it succesfully lest we incur Damnation as it is a Christian Doctrine in fpite of all the Sophistry and Scurrility of profane Wits the Gates of Hell can never prevail against it The Reformed Church of England is peculiarly distinguish'd from other MODERN CHURCHES as yet under Corruption or more imperfectly reform'd by teaching and inculcating this Doctrine as ancient as Christianity it self And tho' some of her Members like St. Peter may have fallen thro' Weakness and violent Temptations it is to be hoped they will like him recover themselves and rather part with their Transgressions than their Principles For alass who can say I am free from Sin The Weakness of human Nature renders us Objects of the divine Compassion and mutual Forbearance But it is the Property of Devils and those whom they have hardned to persist in their Iniquity and add Sin to Sin Now that Resistance was used at the REVOLUTION cannot well be deny'd it was contended for by the famous Managers and is gloried in by the greatest Advocates of the Revolution And whatever Schemes they may proceed upon whatever Arguments they may urge in their own Defence who would not be thought to relinquish their Passive Principles by complying or if they please submitting to what was tranfacted by other Hands tho' the learned may think themselves able 't is certain the common People even the more intelligent Part of the Congregation know not how to reconcile that Doctrine with the Prayers for the 5th of November Can we think it unlawful to resist King James in private among our Friends and thank God that we had no Hand in dethroning him and yet in publick bless God for the safe Arrival of the Man who did it and for making as we say all Opposition fall before him till he by the Assistance of rebellious Subjects had possess'd himself of our lawful Sovereign's Throne and so became our King and Governour Is not this as solemn an Approbation of the Revolution and all the Methods that were taken to accomplish it as can be made and such as is utterly inconsistent with the Doctrine of Passive Obedience Let us lay our Hands upon our Hearts and seriously consider what Service our Excuses and Evasions will do us at the dreadful Tribunal of the righteous God Can we excuse our selves from being Partakers at least in other Mens Sins and from giving Countenance and Encouragement to a Wickedness which we profess to abhor But if Principles of Religion will not perswade us to juster Measures if the Honour of our Church and Nation has no Effect upon us let us at least regard our mere temporal Interest which drew us at first into the Snare and consider how the just Judgment of God has pursu'd us in our own Way and punished us by our very iniquity Do but allow Atheism Arianism c. as bad as Popery and we must needs own 't is too notorious to be deny'd that the very Evils we were at a Distance afraid of are by our Methods of Prevention brought upon us Our Impatience wou'd not bear any thing from our Lawful Prince to whom we owed Subjection and we tamely bear every thing from an Us r whom in Duty Honor and Interest we are oblig'd to oppose The Necessity we formerly pretended in Breach of the Laws our Oaths and Duty is now real and urgent and the Measures it puts us upon tho' ever so extraordinary are even Lawful too inasmuch as they are enter'd on in our own Just and necessary Defence against Thieves and Robbers against unlawful Usurpation We have all the Reason in the World to throw off our Stupidity and Cowardice and Manfully to exert our selves to deliver our Church and Nation from impending Ruin our selves and our Posterity from those Evils which are so much the more shameful and intolerable in that we brought them by our Transgressions upon our own Heads Now is there any Way to escape but by returning to our Duty to God and the King FINIS