Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	parliament_n	3,205	5	6.3516	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93860	Reflections upon the occurrences of the last year from 5 Nov. 1688 to 5 Nov. 1689. Wherein, the happy progress of the late Revolution, and the unhappy progress of affairs since, are considered; the original of the latter discovered, and the proper means for remedy proposed and recommended.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1689 (1689)	Wing S5437A; ESTC R188769	30,811	50

they call it enough to make him look big and be admired in the World and yet be very unskilful in the other It is a Divine Wisdom a quick Understanding in the Fear of the Lord not to be learned in Schools but taught of God a Divine Ray cast into and kindly received in a well purified Soul which gives it a clear distinct Sight and true Estimate of the different value and worth of things an Abhorrence of what is really Evil a Contempt of what is splendid and gaudy but empty and vain the Pomps and Vanities of the World and a just Esteem of all that is really Good according to their different degrees of God above all and therefore with a great care and concern for his Honour and Service of the blessed Creatures above us that they may be gratified and not grieved or offended and of the Souls of Men that they may be rescued from Perdition but of the Temporal Concerns of Men as they are subservient to this directs it to act as a Child of Light discerning what is acceptable to the Lord and what is displeasing to him It is not to be attained by Men whose affections are intaglned in the things of the World nor constantly enjoyed by such as are immersed in the business of it and yet without it no man let his Natural Parts his acquired Accomplishments his Degree in Holy Orders and his Preferments in the Church be what they will can be a true Divine but is in truth so much the greater Impostor appearing in Habit and External Form what he really is not a carnal sensual or animal man at the best not having the good Spirit but in many things obnoxious to the Impressions and Deceits of the subtle Evil one and therefore most dangerous to Princes and Persons concerned in the great Affairs of the World to be relied on But this I intend only for a general Caution not to reflect upon any particular person much less upon him before mentioned for I do not know how he may have behaved himself But of those about the King they who have been accessary to this Summer's ill Success especially by evil Counsels or Recommendations of evil Men may be best known to himself It is true at his first coming he was under a great disadvantage that he had not so full knowledge of persons as was necessary for the State of his Affairs but such hath been the business which since hath been in agitation as cannot but have given him a competent Experimental Knowledge of those who have been concerned in the most important parts thereof If he do but consider the Success of his Affairs and then recollect by whom and whose Counsel or Recommendation they were managed he may in a good measure perceive the Disposition of the persons and what they designed or aimed at Of the Parliament I have already mentioned some things with respect to the unsuccessful and retarded course of our Proceedings We are now enquiring into the Original and first Cause of this great Change which is not to be imputed to the King only The Parliament also have been Principals in it and that by great and notorious defects of Religion Gratitude and Piety towards God and of Justice Charity Providence and Unanimity and Courage for their Country They are the Representative Body of the Nation To them it belonged to have well considered the admirable Mercy and Favour of God in our late Deliverance and to have made return of real Gratitude and not put off that with a superficial Formality to have well considered the defiled and sinful State of the Nation as well as the State of its Affairs and to have endeavoured the Recovery of the Favour and Blessing of God upon those by an essectual Purgation and Reformation of that and to have begun with some good Orders for correction of the Profaneness and dissolute Manners of their own Members which had been an Act of Charity and Providence for the good of their Country and of themselves as well as of Religion and Gratitude to God. For his Blessing is not to be expected upon their Consultations now till the Impieties and Wickedness of their own Members be reformed or removed And to them it belonged also to have made some Examples by Justice upon the Betrayers of the Rights of their Country as well to assert the Justice of their own Proceedings against the late King as to prevent encouragement to the like Practices for the future by their Connivance And to them it belonged to have made a timely Enquiry into the Mismanagement of Affairs whether by Ministers Counsellors Officers or by the King himself and to have plainly that is faithfully represented the same to the King and desired Redress of what had been done amiss by himself and proceeded against the rest according to their desert This was their Duty This had been like a true English Parliament And this doing we might have expected God's Blessing For he favours not the Wicked nor Fools who mind not their own business But such a Pusillanimity and Baseness has possessed our Parliaments of late since the dissolute Manners were so encouroged by Ch. II. that they have been more apt to complement away the Rights of their Country to gratifie the Humour of the King and the Safety and Honour of the King himself to please his Minions and Favourites than do any honest faithful and generous Act for the preservation and real benefit of either Before I quite leave the Parliament it may be fit to remember the Bishops who make a part thereof and in this case deserve a special Consideration They are the Chief Governours of this Church To them it belongs by their Office to take care of the Manners of the People to be concerned at great common and notorious National Sins to admonish and importune the Civil Magistrate and being moreover Members of Parliament to propose and promote good Laws for the Correction and Reformation thereof And all matters of Religion do so peculiarly belong to their Care that the Neglects before mentioned in the King and in the Parliament are with no less Reason but rather more especially chargeable upon them And it is an ill sign of the great prevalence of Impiety and Wickedness in the State or Parliament it self if they durst not or of Laodicean Coldness and insensibility in themselves if they would not for certain it is they did not do in their station in the House what so singular a Mercy of God the so sinful State of the Nation this late great Change we have suffered in the course of our Affairs and the present cloudy Face of things do so plainly require Such a Neglect at such a time as this may justly move us to reflect upon former times and the many and great Advantages Opportunities Occasions and Provocations they have long had to do Good both at home and abroad and considering notwithstanding how little hath been done to suspect that

neglect the great Duties of Christianity Charity and reasonable condescention in things indifferent or by my Reverence to Ancestors to neglect what is necessary at this time as well for Peace and Unity as for supply and improvement of what they themselves had begun and declare was not then compleat and perfect Or lastly by any partial Loyalty or even Oath of Fidelity to the King which extends but to his just Rights and those too for the benefit of the whole so that he cannot alienate or alter them at his own pleasure to desert the Rights of their Country and the confessed true ancient Constitution of the State and Government And these solid Principles being grounded upon Truth and Justice wherein another great part of the Nation is equally concerned must needs prevail at last against the false pretences of a violent Faction which hath no other support but Ambition Avarice and Animosity animated by the Favour or Compliance of flattered easie and deceived Prince though they create no little disturbance for some time for the enjoyment of their great beloved Diana Besides if we consider the tendency of the Motions of the Divine Providence at this time it is not likely that our Lord will much longer suffer such unprofitable Servants in his Vineyard but spue out the Laodicean Faction out of his mouth unless they speedily mend their manners But to return The Arm of God that is his Divine Providence was not less apparent in that Revolution which restored King Charles II. than in this which hath brought this King to the Throne nor less obliging Nor were the opportunities then less than now which were put into his hands to have made himself and these Kingdoms happy but he insensible of that Illustrious Providence and regardless of his Word gave up himself to Sensuality aery phansies and crafty Policies and most ungratefully by an evil example transfused a torrent of all kind of Vice Fraud Injustice Profaneness Contempt of Religion and all manner of impudent Wickedness all over the Nation And all this descended as a charge upon his Successor either to be expunged and discharged by solemn Humiliation and effectual Reformation or to be answered and born by himself in the Measure of Punishment and Affliction to be laid upon him But this was a matter which had too much of the Influences and Approbation of his own party to be checked or restrained by him On the contrary it was by him aggravated with additions of such violences and bare-fac'd bold illegal attempts and those for so ungrateful an end the restitution of the Romish Abominations as his Brother had either more consideration or less courage than ever to venture upon till the Land cast him out those very Persons who had basely betrayed him into those mischiefs by pretences of Loyalty and magnifying Prerogative above the Law and the Truth and by flatterring Addresses being many as forward as any to conspire against him when their own Interest was touched and others to come into the prevailing Party and will likewise betray whoever they are who shall trust or rely upon them This was the State in which the Prince at his Arrival found this Kingdom And if this was the Marvellous work of God to bring him hither we may easily perceive from hence what was the Princes Work for which he was brought Shall we think it was to drive out Popery and Arbitrariness that we might injoy our Rights and therewith the greater Liberty to profane a purer Religion and by impudent violation of it bring all Religion into contempt No no these were but such accessions of the Principal Evil as made way for the ejection of that unhappy deluded Prince as well for neglect of his Duty in not restraining the over-spreading Impiety and Wickedness of the Nation as for his own additional transgressions And if after all it be not now reformed it will certainly prove such a Canker and Root of bitterness as will soon grow up to produce the like evil fruit again of it self without any such additionals For can any one imagine that the Abominations of Debauchery and Impiety can be less offensive to the most Holy God than the Abominations of Popery Or that the Popish Superstitions Errours and Impostures can be more offensive to him than impudent and presumptious violation and notorious profanation of a purer Religion and open contempt of all If not then the Reformation of those Impieties and Wickedness which have over-spread the Nation but especially the Nobility and Gentry and most of all the Army which soon submitted to him was a special and principal part of his Work which he was conducted and as it were led by the hand to do And therefore plainly without more saying by neglect of this was the Fault committed In this was the stop put to the course of this Work of God This was the Good which might have been done but was not and is therefore to be accounted for both to God and Man This neglect it being one of the great sins of the former Kings was therefore now a Relapse into the same This was a neglect of Care to have God ever on our side And by this was the Interposition raised between the happy influence of Heaven and us A fault committed against a great Duty after so admirable a Divine Conduct to it and so many express and weighty Cautions and Admonitions And yet this is not all for the same Divine Providence which so seasonably gave him these Adminitions by one as seasonably sent him a Specimen of a Delaration against Debauchery by another with no mean Motives closely couched in a short Letter It was Composed according to the Princes Authority and the State of Affairs as it then was the expressions of command directed only to the Armies and Souldiery who were properly subject to his Command what had respect to the Civil Magistrate or future Parliament in expressions only of hope and expectation And as much as this might have been done by any General of an Army but God with the success he had given to him had given him also that Authority and Respect in the minds of all men which would have extended the Effect of such a Declaration to those to whom it was not directed and he would also undoubtedly had the Prince but first declar'd and then shewed his Resolution by destributing his Favours according to mens Conformity thereunto have made all as quietly comply therewith as he made the Army submit to his Power and have made this second atchievement no less Glorious to him than the former not only for confirmation but augmentation also of his Honour and Authority His very Presence should have dispersed the Wickedness of this Nation and the Divine Presence should have continued with him and have given him Rest and Happiness But here was the Fault an unhappy though I hope not yet fatal fault committed The Wise Governour of the World whom he calls out to any special

Constantiue's Poyson hath some Lethargick or Narcotick Vertue in it to benum the Nerves and stupifie the Spirits and Life of Zeal and Devotion in such as taste but a little too deep of it And of this to what is already mentioned I will add Two fresh Instances of my own knowledge the one of a great Clergy-man who having well providod for himself in the World before elsewhere and besides gotten good Preferment here could yet permit though admonish'd of it the Propagation of Religion among his own Countreymen to go a begging here for so small a Relief and Assistance as he himself might very well have supplied The other of some Dignified Persons of considerable Note in the Church who when a well affected Lay-man out of pity to Forty or Fifty Thousand Souls had considered and proposed to have the Care of so great a Parish committed to some man of a Primitive Christian Disposition who contenting himself with a reasonable share of the Profits would have distributed the rest among as many young Curates as it would maintain whereby both the needs of the people might have been better supplied and those Persons by their mutual advices and assistance in such a Work the better fitted and prepared for the Cure of Souls in Parishes of their own yet were pleased to interpose for the Presentation and so far as to obtain it at least from another Competitor in no commendable manner for one who had at that time a good Parsonage a good Lecture and a good Prebend as a Preferment for him Such Scuffling for Preferments in the Church is a great Scandal to many ingenious Lay-Spectators to suspect the Sincerity of those who take upon them to be Preachers of the Gospel and yet discover so little of the Power and Effects thereof in their own Actions And this cannot but greatly obstruct the good effect of all their Preaching upon such It is also a great Temptation to one of the greatest and most common immediate causes of most of our Mischiess both publick and private Over-valuation and Greediness of the Supersluities of the things of this World which all their Preaching can never cure while it is daily confirmed and heightned by such Examples And from the same root doth proceed all that Pharizaical Zeal for the Church and Jealousie and Dread of the least alteration though never so reasonable and necessary in many who shew little sense of Religion in any thing else which hath long disturbed both Church and State and doth at this time expose both to danger These things being observed together with so great coldness in the weighty matters of the Law cannot but cool the affections of their best friends to them and avert the favour both of God and Man from them This therefore we may reasonably look upon as one of the Original and Provoking Causes of this Stop and Change of the late Happy course of Affairs Thou sayest I am rich and increased with Goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind Be zealous therefore and repent Concerning our Judges and Civil Magistrates I have little to say Our Courts of Justice are so well filled with such Persons as the Profession of the Law doth not afford better than most of them are only few of those who are in were more worthily preferred than one whom I need not name was unworthily left out His personal Worth doth well qualifie him for that Service and his singular Merit in his generous appearing for the Service of his Country in occasions of greatest difficulty did most justly claim it and however it came to pass certainly no man of Vertue and Ingenuity would ever oppose it But because Corruption and Abuses in great Places besides other mischiefs are of pernicious consequence by their Example I think fit to take notice of one which deserves Correction because it not only concerns divers great Lords but is obstinately persisted in contrary to the Opinion and Advice of Mr. Atturney himself And if the Lords will pass by such an abuse to themselves I know not what people of inferiour Quality may expect in time It is the needless and illegal Charge they are put to before they can be inserted into the Commission of the Peace of any County for Custos Protulorum I need but name it As to the Army and Navy the Seamen are generally honest and true to their Country and the Protestant Religion and many among them sober and serious people but a great part of their Officers and the Land Army who were nearer the influence of the evil Examples at the Court are generally so dissolute and debauched that it is not to be believed that God will ever be with them or prosper them but rather by degrees waste and consume them till he has wholly purged the Land of them and therefore so unhappy a Company of people amongst us must needs make us unprosperous and unsuccessful till they be either destroyed or reformed Concerning the Body of the People of England though the unhappy effects of the pernicious Examples at Court have reach'd all Ranks and Degrees amongst us yet have they been most prevalent upon such as were nearer in degree or converse to it so that the lower Ranks of men which are most numerous and the strength of the Nation though not wholly escaped have yet been least corrupted by them and were but the Examples of Vertue in our great men now but any way proportionable to what their Examples of Vice have been for so long past I do not doubt but they would soon appear again as considerable as heretofore they have done So that there is little to be noted in them but what is derived from those above them and is plainly to be imputed not more to their neglect of good Examples good Laws and good Execution than to the energy of their wicked profane and impious Examples And these being besides only Passive and concerned only in the Success not in the Management of the Affairs are not so much to be considered in the case Nor shall I say any thing of our Confederates beyond Sea. And therefore to draw up the conclusion The CONCLVSION AS almost all the Wickedness of the former Reigns proceeded originally from those Kings and Judgment hath been begun first to be executed upon them so hath likewise the Fault whereby that great Work whereof this King was called out to be the Glorious Instrument in these Nations hath been hitherto interrupted plainly proceeded from himself For by Neglect through prudential Connivance of the Duty to which he was led and through politick Compliance of the Authority to which he was raised by so manifest a Divine Conduct he did not so much engage to himself as animate against his Interest that party which first opposed his ascent to the Throne and afterward by pernicious Counsels and under-hand Dealings as is believed imposed upon him disappointed his