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A77411 A brief collection of some memorandums: or, Things humbly offered to the consideration of the members of the great convention and of the succeeding Parliament. 1689 (1689) Wing B4555A; ESTC R173274 9,364 15

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A Brief Collection of some Memorandums OR Things humbly Offered to the Consideration of the Members of the Great Convention and of the succeeding Parliament ADVERTISEMENT This Collection was designed for the Great Convention at their first Sitting but by a Miscarriage was delayed however the worthy Author thought it not altogether unseasonable to offer it to the Consideration of the Members of this present Parliament 1. TOuching the Present State of the Kingdom into which we are brought by the most wonderful works of God lately wrought among us The Design of this Paper permits not to enlarge They who please may peruse Psal 2.10 11 12. Psal 102.15 to v. 23. Psal 118.23 Rev. 19.1 2 c. 2. By general consent of the late printed Papers The two great evils lately feared and to be obviated are Popery and Slavery 3. What then is to be done Quid igitur agendum an old Athenian Question fit in this case to be decided only by the Supreme Authority But some Particulars among many which wiser men may suggest are humbly propounded to consideration In a great Fire kindled every one is allowed to bring his Bucket of water I. As to Popery and for preventing its return may it be considered 1. Whether there should not be a Bill of Exclusion Vide 13 Eliz. c. 13. larger than the former endeavoured in Parliament viz. to render any Papist uncapable of Reigning here If the former Bill had passed some think our late and present dangers had been in a great measure prevented They who opposed that Bill do now see what have been the effects and consequents of it s not passing and the extreme danger of the Kingdom has put them and others upon such a course as seems to some to have out-done all the so often decryed proceedings of 1641. One day teaches another and the latter goes to School to to the former And as a branch of such new Bill were it not meet to provide against the Linsey-Woolsey marriages of our Protestant Princes with Papists The World is wide enough Fit Protestant Matches for them may be found 2. That Papists be rendred uncapable of at least great Offices in the Kingdom 3. That it be made very Penal for Jesuites to come upon English ground It may be Castration might be a better remedy than Death They are the known Boutefeu's of the World And even some Popish Governments suffer them not 4. That Great endeavours be used for instructing the People in the principles of Christian Religion and arming them by sound Doctrine and especially by sincere Conversion to God against the errors of Popery 5. That to this end a Godly Ministry be sought and encouraged 'T is a miserable defect in the Ministry of a Nation where any evidence of Regeneration is not so much as desired in the Ministers nor made any qualification of the Persons admitted If with out Regeneration no man enters into the Kingdom of God i. e. becomes a true Christian which seems a considerable part of the meaning of those words of our Saviour to Nicodemus then surely this should be desired in all Candidates to the Ministry Whereas according to ordinary practices a very small portion of saecular learning procures Admission by Ordination And we have too many Ministers who are not Christians in Christ's sense Yea who do not so much as pretend to any internal Regeneration but are far from the Kingdom of God immersed in Vice haters of persons and things which are good This intends no reflection upon the worthy and good Ministers of the Church of England 6. Many good men wish with the principal Bishops in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign such as Jewel Sands Horn Coxe Grindal and before them Hooper That the Popish Vestments with all the other remnants of Popery might be thrown out of the Churches and out of the minds of the People See Dr. Burnet's Letters First Letter pa. 42 43 44. 7. There is nothing which has a more Natural and Moral tendency to both the evils lately complained of i.e. Popery and Slavery than the abounding of wickedness in the Land It may be questioned whether the Nation was more vitious in the ancient times of Paganism or Popery than it hath been of late under Protestancy though this is the Doctrine of God our Saviour Vice and sensuality prepare men to hate and desert the Gospel which condemns them in all those wicked practices that they resolve to persist in and to embrace Popery which offers them so many Wise Medicines and reliefs against sin and its guilt without troubling them with the harder taks of Faith Repentance and Reformation of Life And it 's not much to be doubted but it has been a piece of Modern Policy to prepare the Kingdom both for Popery and Slavery by an industrious promoting of Vice and Immorality That it hath lately fallen out that the whole Nation good and bad as one Man hath been so unanimous and zealous for Protestant Religion in opposition to Popery doth not evince that Vice prepares not for Popery but is to be considered as a Stupendious and Extraordinary working of the Divine Providence such as 't is hard to parallel out of History And besides this may make even the worst of men stand up for Protestant Religion against Popery viz. because Popery threatens the loss of Church-Lands and other emoluments and is a more costly Religion than Protestancy Priestly Absolution admission to the Sacrament Burial in sure and certain hope c. are to be had among some Protestants upon cheaper terms than the undergoing of imposed Penances and Freedom from an imaginary Purgatory among the Papists Popish Pardons must be well paid for and when purchased what are they worth And then secondly How does Vice debase mens spirits and render a Nation tanquam ad servitutem natam Few generous Thoughts tending to their Country's freedom and good lodge in sensual breasts or arise out of the fumes of a constant Intemperance The wise and good Patriots are virtuous and read somewhat else besides Plays Romances or an Observator And as Debauchery naturally disposes to Slavery so also morally For when men give up themselves to be slaves to their Lusts God if they repent not will make them slaves to Rulers 'T is a Grave Observation of Dr. Burnet concerning the City of Strasburgh See his 4th Let. p. 222. That before they lost their Liberty and fell under the French Yoke Corruption in Morals had overspread the whole City together with a popular Pride and Self-confidence To say We are a most vicious and sinful People is not nor is intended to reproach our Nation It 's too manifest to be denyed we declare our sin as Sodom Vice hath from an Impure Fountain over-spread the whole Nation 1. I have known one of the condition but of a Day-Labourer who with impunity and impudence owned himself to keep a Miss in his Cottage in compliance with Great Examples 2. Such Hellish