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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A67823 Piety's address to the magistrate delivered in a sermon at the assizes held in Winchester, July 11th, 1695 / by E. Young ... Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705. 1695 (1695) Wing Y62; ESTC R34111 14,263 33

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be executed at all And therefore Solomon's Determination may still hold That sin is restrainable by no possible means but that of a Speedy Execution Eccl. 8. 11. Indeed some have pretended to be of Opinion That the Gospel is the only Law and Christ the only Magistrate that is either Needful or Lawful among Christians For this was the Reason why the Anabaptists held Magistracy to be Unlawful because it was a Reproach to the Laws and Government of Christ to presume that Christians had need of any Other But never was Doctrine more effectually confuted than This of Theirs was from their Own Example For never did Magistracy appear to be more necessary in the World than it did at that time to suppress the Impieties of those Men who had decry'd it as Needless and Unlawful The Convictions and Precepts and Motives of the Gospel which is all we can mean by its Internal Power we see daily over-born by the Tide of human Corruption But then It is True 2. That the Gospel has an Assisting Power viz. the Grace of God And where That takes place we may not doubt of a better Issue But in the mean time we ought well to consider What it is we mean by the Grace of God Mean we a power that will ravish men from the bosom of their corrupt Inclinations and force them to be Good in spite of their Reluctancy This indeed would void both Laws and Magistrates and render them Useless But if we will speak true Sense we can mean no other by the Grace of God than a Sanctifying Principle that joyns it self to and cooperates with the Series of Ordinary Means of which Means the Coercive power of the Magistrate is one of the Chief It is an usual Expression concerning flagitious and loose living men that They want the Grace of God Now if we mean thereby that God had debarr'd such men from the distributions of his Grace Our Judgment is Contumelious to God Or if we mean that the Grace of God would Forcibly make such men Good Our Judgment is Erroneous and False All the Truth therefore that can be couched under that Expression is only this That such Men for want of those purging Fears which ought to be wrought in them by their Own Consideration or for want of that by the wholsome Coercion of the Magistrate do extinguish and make void that Grace of God which has been offered to them In and With the dispensation of the Gospel Offered to them I say equally as to others but wanted success because Discipline was wanting to concur with the Operation Whereas therefore in Scripture the Ordinary Means to Goodness are called the Grace of God as well as that Divine Energy which cooperates with these Means So we ought to look upon a Good Magistracy and a Due Execution of the Laws to be a great part of the Grace of God to any people As on the contrary a Remiss Administration is no other than a Judgment which makes all Gods other Grace to be bestowed in vain upon the generality of Mankind Let us see 3. In what measure the Vigilance of the Church may be hoped to supply the Defect in this Case What Influence the Church can have upon the Manners of Men consists in the Methods of Exhorting Rebuking and Censuring All which after once men have wasted their Consciences or taken a loose beyond the Decency of Behaviour become the most Despisable things in the World How weak was that Voice of Old Eli and how Incompetent to restrain a Hophni and Phineas when he cryed Why do you such things Nay my Sons for it is no good Report that I hear of You. Now the Voice of an Ecclesiastick in its proper Elevation scarce amounts to be Louder than This or if it be heightned with the thunder of Gods Menaces yet it will be contemned by a hardy Sinner as easily as that of Eli was But it cannot be so Criminal as that of Eli was because Eli was a Magistrate as well as a Priest and therefore could have spoke with a more Effectual voice and such as would have reached more sensibly home The Power of the Ministry is no more than Persuasive But stubborn Nature will not often be persuaded there is need of Force And say not that Vertue or Religion when Forc'd are nothing worth What is begun in Force may end in Choice What is begun in Fear may end in Love altho without Force and Fear it would have begun But supposing that Vertue thus Forced should never arrive to the State of Choice and Love yet still This Good would follow that the Magistrate had done his Part Besides that it is no small advantage to the common Cause of Virtue That men can be brought to be at least Good Hypocrites I know the Pastors Exemplary Care and Circumspection is always necessary Contempt be upon him that makes Apology for the Defective But still This is a Means insufficient to Reform For where Sense comes to govern more than Conscience there He that comes armed with Mulcts and Corrections is the only Edifying Man To say how Ineffectual the Censures of the Church would be towards this Purpose were only to bring under Your Contemplation a deplorable Scandal Who would care for being turned out of the Church of those who seem Careless whether they are ever In And as for the Farther Process in that Case we have seen enough of its Consequences to make us wish for Any rather than That Invidious and Successless Method As therefore the Publick Cry is for Reformation of Manners to see Godliness and Honesty advanced in common practice and the Fruit of Peace springing out happily from that stable root So we cannot but turn our Eyes upon You that are the Magistrates I mean Expresly You that are the Iustices of Peace as being invested above all other Magistrates with the most competent Means and Power of procuring this End No other Hand can cure our Sore No other hand can reach it but only Yours Without You all our wholsome Laws are like a Box of Medicines well prepared but then locked up while the Diseases spread and reign for want of Application Without You Majesty itself is made Impotent and can only deplore our disorders but not possibly redress them And what is it we may expect from Judges and their Circuits They are necessary indeed so far as their Business extends but utterly unable to reach the Root of our Evil For to what Purpose of Reformation is the Cutting off some Few Signal overgrown Weeds while such multitudes are still growing up in the Nurseries of Idleness Debauchery and Profaneness Here it is in These Nurseries that Vice is to be supprest and Greater Crimes mercifully prevented by Animadversion upon the first Buddings of them in their Remoter Causes 'T is You we pray for in our Common Liturgy That you may have Grace to execute Iustice and to maintain Truth And again That You may truly and