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B02593
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A sermon preached at the assises held at York, July the 23d. 1683. Not long after the discovery of the late horrid conspiracy against his Majesties person and government. / By Henry Constantine, M.A.
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Constantine, Henry.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing C947A; ESTC R174230
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15,104
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41
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and old and shrivelled and bowed down with years as the Bodies of Men do No it may flourish still and continue as the Days of Heaven as the Sun and Moon before God if his Wrath be not provoked by their Impieties So that it is not any strange Conjunction of the Planets nor any Malignant Influence of the Stars which bodes the Death of Princes and the ruine of States but the loose Manners and the ungracious Lives of the people these are the surest prognosticks of ruine and if these be but once taken away all is safe This the very Heathens did conclude for when one was demanded what was the strongest Guard to a Kings Throne He answered The Piety and Innocence of his Subjects For if they were vicious an Hundred Brazen Walls would prove too weak for its defence Nay Matchiavel himself owns the wickedness of Men to be the ruine of Kingdoms But we need no such Testimonies finding this Truth confirmed by the Sacred Book of God and by the common experience of Mankind We may Read it in the Ruins of many once flourishing Kingdoms and may find that God hath turned many fruitful Land into Barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwelt therein So evident is it that if Atheisme and Debauchery Faction and Heresy be so common amongst us these Sins like the Traytors in the Trojan Horse will do us more mischief than Thousands of other enemies in many years could ever do The reasonableness of this execution does I hope now appear unto you and you see that men of Seditious spirits and ungodly lives are justly obnoxious to the censures of our Laws they are to be taken away because the forbearance of such is inconsistent with the due settlement of the Kings Throne and the Kingdoms Peace and when this is once done we may expect the Blessing set down in the latter part of my Text where we find a confluence of all those Blessings that can make an happy Prince and a thriving people Here Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other and whatsoever can add to the glory and security of a Nation we find it here summ'd up in one short period For there do the people sit under the kindest influences of Heaven there do they enjoy the greatest favours upon Earth where the Kings Throne is established in Righteousness a Blessing of such an absolute necessity to the common Peace and safety of Mankind that the want of this does not only take away the flourishing but the very being of a Kingdom Take but Government once out of the World and we shall quickly find it run back into a State infinitely more deplored than that of its first confusion the whole Earth would be nothing else but a vast Wilderness but an howling desert of Satyrs and Savages but a Type of Hell and men would be but a more cunning kind of brutes or fiends rather devouring and being devoured one of another and Government it self without Monarchy without the Throne of a King would be a monstrous and confused Body with many Heads whose disorders would be its death it would quickly crumble it self in pieces by its private Factions and interests it would be subdivided into several Parties and Cabals each whereof would strive to bear down their opposers and to raise themselves upon the ruins of those whom they either fear or hate and when they have gain'd a share in the Government they would sooner be drawn to emprove their short liv'd power for their private advantage and might be tempted to take measures from their own coveteousness and ambition rather than from the Publick Good So that no other kind of Government can make so reasonable a provision for the Peace and happiness of a people as Monarchy can do And Monarchy it self the Throne of a King without a due establishment will prove but a tottering and uneasy Seat like old Ely's stool from whence some of the most deserving Princes worthy of a better fate have been thrown headlong down the precipice of an untimely death and even the firmest seeming settlement of a Throne without Righteousness would be nothing else but a medley of Tyranny and Injustice Now here all these inconveniences are avoided and we meet with a concurrence of all the requisites to a Kingdoms Peace and hapiness For here is 1st The best Government 's the Throne of a King 2dly Here is the best Guard the strongest supporter of his Throne and that is good order and due establishment 3dly Here is the best means in the whole world to procure and continue so desirable a settlement and that is Righteousness I have no time to enlarge upon each of these particulars I shall wish that these may not only be matters of Speculation and Discourse but of Experience and Enjoyment We have at present all these Blessings which are the Glory of our Land the grief and envy of our Enemies we have the best of Governments under the best of Princes the best Laws and the best Religion under Heaven May these be continued to us and to our posterity till Time it self be outdated and lost in Eternity by that Favour of that God by whom Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice To whom be all Honour Praise and Glory now and ever Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed and Sold by Isaac Cleave THe second part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Containing an exposition of Magna Charta The third part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Concerning High-Treason and other Pleas of the Crown and Criminal Cause The fourth part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Concerning the Jurisdiction of Courts all three by Ed. Cook Mil. The Reports of that Reverand and Learned Judge the Right Honourable Sir Henry Hobert Knight and Barronet Lord Chief Justice of His Majesties Court of Common-Pleas Offinia Brevium Select and approved forms of Judicial Writs and other Process with their Returns and Entries in the Court of Common-Pleas at Westminster as also Special Pleadings to Writs of Scire facias A Vindication of the true Christian Religion in opposition to the Abomination of Popery in a Sermon upon Exekiel 21. 24 25 26 27. Being the Text appointed for Master Whitebread one of the Popish Consprators to Preach upon the accomplishing their wicked design By J. Thomas Rect. of St. Nicholas Preached at Cardiff before the Bayliffs and Aldermen there The Popes Cabinet unlocked or a Catalogue of all the Popes Indulgences belonging to the Order of St. Mary together with a List of all the Indulgences dayly yearly and for ever Written in Italian by Fr. Arcangelo Tortello of the Order of St. Mary and now translated into English by John Sidway late Seminary Priest but now of the Reformed Religion and Vicar of Selling in Kent and one of the Discoverers of the Horrid Popish Plot with the Cause of his Conversion Whereunto is added an Appendix by the Translator in which the grounds and foundations of the said Indulgences being examined are utterly overthrown and by consequence Indulgences themselves apparently proved to be mear Cheats And also shewing that the Church of Rome doth lay the chief Basis of their Religion on Indulgences The Book of Rates now used in the Sum Custom-House of the Church of Rome Containing the Bulls Dispensations and Pardons for all manner of villanies and wickedness with the several sums of Money given and to be paid for them The second Impression To which is added the New Creed of the Church of Rome and several other Remarkable things not in the former Edition Published by Anthony Egane B. D. late Confessor General of the Kingdom of Ireland but now of the Reformed Religion Englands Improvement Reviv'd in a Treatise of all manner of Husbandry and Trade by Land and Sea plainly discovering the several ways of improving all sorts of waste and barren Grounds and enriching all Earths with the natural quality of all Lands and the several Seeds and Plants which must naturally thrive therein together with the manner of Planting all sorts of Trees and Underwoods with two several Chains to plant Seeds or Sets by with several directions for planting of Hops also the way of ordering Cattel with several observations about Sheep and choice of Cows c. By John Smith Gent.
to list our selves in the number of those Rebels and to become guilty of a notorious Misprision of Treason 'T is a received Maxime Qui non prohibet peccare quum possit jubet He that does not stand up in his place to take away these troublers of our Israel when it it is in his power to discover and prevent their intended Treason does but joyn forces with them and becomes one of that infamous number Nor should the multitudes of those who are concerned in such a Crime make it more pardonable 'T is true these render the Execution of Justice an act of greater difficulty but they make it an act of greater necessity and furnish all Loyal persons with an oppertunity of giving greater Testimonies of their Courage and Fidelity to the World Nor should their former favours be any bar to their present removal Justice knows no Relations and though the dispencers of it may upon any civil account accompany their Friends μâ—χâ—◠Βωμοῦ even unto the Altars yet in criminal matters they can attend them no further than μâ—χâ—â— Î’â—ματος to the judgment Seat where like that God whom they represent they must weigh the merits of the cause without any respect unto the persons and must overlook the sometimes unseasonable considerations of Nature and affection which some of the greatest examples of Justice have so little regarded that they have been ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them when such a victim was absolutely necessary to the publick peace and safety Nor has their eye spared the most intimate of their Friends and Favourites and indeed the Ear and the Tongue are only in the Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Tryal of such causes the one to hear the Evidence the other to pronounce the Sentence the Eye is excluded Hence it is that Justice is painted blind and for this reason the Athenian Judges are said to have kept their great Courts of Judicature in the night only that the sight of the person might not influence them in the determination of the cause and that an inconvenient pity might not encline them to spare and suffer those offenders whom the stronger motives of their own Duty and the common safety did engage them to remove and take away but even in the broad day Treason in a Favourite looks more black and hateful to the World than it does in one of the meaner croud who is decoy'd only into the Conspiracy nay sometimes it appears in such dismal and confounding colours to the Traytor himself that after a serious reflexion upon his own ingratitude and infidelity such pangs of despair and guilt do seize upon him that not waiting for the formalities of the Law he snatches the Sword into his own hand and becomes his own Executioner Say not that it ill becomes an Embassador of the God of Peace to blow the Trumpet of War and sound an Alarm to a fresh persecution for under that invidious name some are resolved to expose the execution of our penal Laws when it s nothing more than a just prosecution of such delinquents whose crimes are inconsistant with the publick peace that I am pleading for And this the prodigious wickedness of some men renders too sadly seasonable and necessary One would think that those who are conscious of their own guilt should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned in themselves and calmly submit to their deserved punishment but if they be truly Innocent they need never fear the penalty of our severest Laws nor did I ever hear the boldest enemies of our Government dare to arraign the publick Justice of our Nation where the greatest Criminals are allow'd the priviledge of their own witness and defence nor is any Sentence given but upon a full Hearing and clear Evidence in the judgment of Twelve unconcerned and impartial persons at the least against whom the Prisoner has the liberty of making his own Exceptions and that sometimes without giving the reasons of such a refusal God forbid that we should make the Righteous as the wicked or that we should so far imitate the cruelties of some former times as to clothe the Innocent in the Skins of Wolves and Bears to represent them to the World as the strangest Monsters of Fanaticisme and Sedition and then should bring them forth to be torn in pieces by the sanguinary Teeth of our penal Laws No Ex ungue leonem the marks of their villanies do betray their guilt and we charge none but such men whose seditious principles and rebellious practices are so notorious that the Kings Throne can never firmly be established unless they be removed and taken away 2. This brings me to the second part of my Text to the Subjects of this act or the Character of those persons against whom the Sword of Justice is to be drawn Should we take out of the Body of a Kingdom what every zealous brain-sick person judges inconsistent with its peace and safety should we change and reform things after the model of some mens extravagant fancies and wild apprehensions we should make it strangely monstrous and mishapen what they prescribe for our Cure would prove our Disease and so many removals would be made that we should have little left but confusion Let but some giddy Libertines have the guidance of this Sword let them but reform and remove at their pleasure and they would quickly take away our Beauties as Blemishes and our Guard as their Grievance they would remove the Kings dearrest Friends under the notion of Evil-Councellors and the supporters of his Throne as the infringers of their Priviledge they would take away our discipline the Fence and Ornament of our Church and the Penal Laws those great securers of the Peace and unity of the State nay some of them would be coming with their repeated crys of No Bishop No King but we hope they shall never have the power of executing their extravagant Fancies The Government cannot suffer such bold attempts and the wise man directs better in the words of my Text where he charges that the wicked should be taken away Which may have either 1. A more proper and restrained or 2. A more large and unlimited signification First then the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked may be taken in a more proper and restrained sence and in this acception it denotes men of a restless and unquiet Spirit of a turbulent and seditious humour fretting like the foaming Sea within themselves and uneasy to the Government Men that know not how to bear the least restraint that 's laid upon their Pride and Ambition but resolve to break the most just and easy Yoke and to purchase their own dear liberty though sometimes it cannot be done at any lower price than their own Blood and the Kingdoms ruine Men that go big with Faction and Discontent and like impregnate Waves swell above the highest Banks of Loyalty and Duty till they break themselves and bring a deluge of miseries where they