Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	justice_n	peace_n	session_n	1,454	5	10.8701	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50664	Immorality, debauchery, and profaneness, exposed to the reproof of Scripture, and the censure of the law containing a compendium of the penal laws now in force against idleness, profaneness, and drunkenness, houses of unlawful games, profane swearing and cursing, speaking or acting in contempt of the Holy Sacrament, disturbing of ministers, profane jesting with the name of God, absenting form the church, profanation of the Lord's day, debauched incontinency, and bastard-getting : with several texts of Scripture prohibiting such vices : also a brief collection of several signal judgments of God against offenders in the said vices and debaucheries / published for the advancement of reformation of manners, so happily begun and carried on by several societies, by G. Meriton, Gent.	Meriton, George, 1634-1711.	1698 (1698)	Wing M1800; ESTC R16769	67,391	130

will not be altogether improper before I proceed to give an account of the Laws made for the observation of the Lords day to set down an Abstract here of the Statute of E. 6. about the Sacrament and of that of Q. M. about disturbing Ministers likewise the Statute Jac. 1. about profane speaking or jesting with the Name of God c. and then to proceed to the other Laws By the Statute 1 E. 6. Ch. 1. it is Enacted That none shall speak or do any thing in contempt of the most Holy Sacrament in pain of Imprisonment and to make Fine and Ransom at the King 's Will. Three Justices of the Peace Quor unus have power to take Information by the Oaths of two lawful Persons at least concerning the Offence aforesaid and to bind over by Recognizances every Accuser and Witness in five Pound apiece to appear at the next Sessions to give Evidence against the Offendors who are there to be enquired of before three Justices or more by the Oaths of twelve men and also indicted if the matter alledged against them be found true the Offence to be prosecuted within three Months By the Statute 1 M. Sess 2. Ch. 3. it is Enacted That if any shall disturb a Preacher lawfully Licensed in his open Sermon or Collation he shall be by the Constables or Church-wardens of the Parish brought before a Justice of the Peace who upon due Accusation shall commit him to safe Custody and within six days after together with another Justice shall diligently examine the Fact who if they find cause shall commit him to the common Goal there to remain for three Months and from thence to the next quarter-Quarter-Sessions at Which upon the parties Reconciliation and entring into Bond for good Behaviour for one whole Year at discretion of the Justices in Sessions he shall be released but if he persist still in his Obstinacy he shall remain in Prison without Bail until he shall reconcile and be penitent for his Offence He that rescues an Offendor in this kind shall suffer like Imprisonment as aforesaid and besides shall forfeit five Pounds to the King The Inhabitants of a Town that suffer such an Offendor to escape shall forfeit five Pounds being presented before the Justices of Peace in Sessions within the County or Corporation where the escape was made Justices of Peace Assize and Oyer and Terminer and Mayors and head Officers of Corporations have power to hear and determin these Offences and to impose the Fines aforesaid This Act shall not restrain the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Laws howbeit none shall be punished here for one Offence By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. Ch. 21. None shall in any Stage-play Shew May game or Pageant profanely use the Name of God Christ Jesus the Holy Ghost or Trinity on pain of ten Pounds to be divided between the King and Prosecutor It 's said that Constantine the Great made Laws for the strict observation of the Lord's Day commanding that through all the Roman Empire all servile Employments should cease on those days he prescribed also a form for the Legions of Soldiers to be used both on the Sabbath-days and other days and himself used to shew much Reverence and Attention to the Word of God so that many times he would stand up all the Sermon time and when some of his Courtiers told him that it would tend to his disparagement he answered that it was in the Service of the great God who was no respecter of Persons By the Statute 1 Eliz. Ch. 2. Every Person is to resort to their Parish Church or upon let thereof to some other every Sunday and Holy-day upon pain to be punished by Censures of the Church and also to forfeit twelve pence for every Default to be levied by the Church-wardens there for the use of the Poor upon the Offendor's Goods by way of Distress and for want of Distress to be committed to some Prison until the same be paid And by the Statute 23 El. Ch. 1. Every Person not repairing to Church according to the Statute aforesaid shall forfeit twenty Pounds for every Month they so make Default and if the Offendor is not able to pay and do not pay within three Months after Judgment then to be committed to Prison and there to remain until he have satisfied the same or shall conform himself and go to the Church By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. Ch. 4. The King may refuse the twenty Pounds a Month for absenting from the Church and take in lieu thereof two third parts of the absenters Lands and Leases but here he shall not include the Recusants Mansion-house nor demise the two third parts to a Recusant or to any other for a Recusants use The Church-wardens and Constables of every Parish or one of them or if there be none such then the High-Constable of the Hundred there shall present once every year at the general Sessions of the Peace the monthly absence from Church of every Popish Recusant and then Children being above the Age of nine years and their Servants together with the Age of their Children as near as they can know them on pain to forfeit respectively for every such default twenty Shillings which Presentment the Clerk of the Peace or Town-Clerk shall record without Fee on pain of forty Shillings If upon such Presentment being the first the Recusant be convicted the Officer that presents him shall have forty Shillings reward to be levied by Warrant upon the Recusants Goods and Estate as the more part of the Justices of Peace shall think fit But Note that his Majesties Protestant Subjects Dissenting from the Church of England and qualified according to the late Statute of Indulgence are exempted from the Penalties of these Statutes The command of the Sabbath hath a special memento prefixed to it which may not only note to us that we are by this Memento Remember thou keep Holy the Sabbath-day to observe the Lord's zeal for the observance thereof but we are thereby put in mind timely to lay aside our worldly Business and get our Hearts into readiness for the entertainment of God into the same And altho nothing is more acceptable to God than the true and sincere Worship and Service of him according to his Holy Will and that the Holy keeping of the Lord's-day is a principal part of the true Worship and Service of God Yet the People of this Kingdom having enjoyed a long continued series of Peace Plenty and Prosperity instead of rendring thanks to Almighty God for this great Blessing and of serving him in Holiness and Righteousness of Life and Conversation they on the contrary like the idolatrous Jews upon the making of their Golden-Calf they sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play Exod. 32. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 7. Nay the people of this Realm were so entirely devoted to Games and Pastimes that they could not or would not forbear them upon the Lord's Day but spent that

let not such an one therefore procrastinate and put off Repentance but let him watch for he knows neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh For he shall come in an hour that he is not aware of and if he find him in the daring provoking pursuit of his unrepented of Prafaness shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his Portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Math. 24. 50 51. and 25. 13. Luke 12. 46. CHAP. X. A brief Account of the Laws made against vitious and debauched Men and lew'd Women about getting Bastards NOte that before the Raign of K. H. 7. there were eighteen infamous Stews or Brothel-houses and H. 7. for a time forbad them but afterwards twelve only were permitted and had Signs painted on their Walls as a Boars-Head the Cross-Keys the Gun the Castle the Cardinals-Hat the Bell the Swan c. But afterwards H. 8. in the 37 th Year of his Raign by Proclamation under the great Seal dated 30 March Anno 37. aforesaid suppressed all the Stews and Brothel-houses on the Bank-side in Southwark for that they were against the Law of God and the Law of the Land And those Infamous Women were not buried in Christian Burial when they were dead nor permitted to receive the Rites of the Church whilst they lived And the Keeper He or She of such Houses is punishable by Indictment at the Common Law by Fine and Imprisonment for altho Adultery and Fornication be punishable by the Ecclesiastical Law yet the keeping of Bawdy or Stews or Brothel-houses being as it were a Common Nusance is punishable by the Common Law and is the cause of-many Mischiefs not only to the overthrowing of their Bodies but to the indangering of their Souls By the Custom of London as appears by the 1 H. 7. Fol. 6. c. If a Constable c. has Notice that a Woman is in Adultery with a Man that a Man or Woman of Evil Fame is gone to a suspected House he may take help with him and enter the House and if he find them so he may arrest them and carry them to Prison or to a Justice of the Peace to be bound over and prosecuted Bastards begotten and born out of lawful Matrimony being an Offence against God's Law and Man's Law It is by the Statute 18 Eliz. Chap. 3. Enacted That two Justices of the Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum in or next to the Limits where the Parish Church is within which Parish a Bastard shall be born that may be chargeable to the Parish upon Examination of the Cause and Circumstances shall by their discretion take order as well for the punishment of the Mother and reputed Father of such Bastard Child as also for the relief of every such Parish in part or in all and for the keeping of every such Bastard Child by charging such Mother or reputed Father with the Payment of Money weekly or other Sustentation for the relief of such Child in such wise as they shall think meet and convenient And if after the same Order by them subscribed under their Hands the Mother or reputed Father upon notice thereof shall not observe and perform the same that then every such Party so making Default in the non-performance thereof to be committed to the Common Goal without Bail except they give sufficient Surety to perform the same or to appear Personally at the next General Sessions of the Peace to be holden for the same County where such Order shall be taken and also to abide such Order as the Justices there or the more part of them shall take in that Behalf if they take any and if they take none at the Sessions then to abide and perform the Order before made as is abovesaid And by the Statute 7 Jas. 1. Ch. 4. It is Enacted That every lewd Woman which shall have any Bastard Child which may be chargeable to the Parish the Justice of Peace shall commit such lewd Woman to the House of Correction there to be punished and set on work during the term of one whole Year and if afterwards she offend again then to be committed to the House of Correction as aforesaid and to remain there until she can put in good Sureties for her good Behaviour not to offend so again And by the Statute 3 Car. 1. Ch. 4. It is Enacted That all Justices of the Peace within their several Limits and Precincts and in their several Sessions may do and execute all things concerning that part of the Statute 18 Eliz. Ch. 3. aforementioned that by Justices of the Peace in the several Counties are by the said Statute limited to be done The Punishment appointed by these Statutes being gentle and easy we see by every days Experience that Bastards are very frequently begotten I shall therefore inform such vitious profane and sinful Persons in the next Chapter what Punishments the Scripture has appointed for such Persons of such profligate and debauched Lives that they may not be ignorant of the great Anger and Displeasure conceived by Almighty God against such profane sinful Courses and of the great Hazard and Danger they involve their precious Souls in if they forsake not their vitious way of living and by hearty Repentance cleanse their Souls putting away the Filth of the Flesh 1 Pet. 2. 3. 21. And perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. For he that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit neap Life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. CHAP. XI Of the several Places of Scripture threatning Judgments or forbidding Adultery Fornication Incontinency Lasoiviousness and Whoredom and shewing God's Anger and Displeasure against such profane Wickedness THou shalt not commit Adultery Exod. 20. 14. Deut. 5. 18. Do not prostitute thy Daughter to cause her to be a VV●●re lest the Land fall to VVhoredom and the Land become full of VVickedness Lev. 19. 29. 〈◊〉 the Ma● that committeth Adultery with another Mans VVife even he that committeth Adultery with his Neighbours VVife the and the Adulteress shall surely put to death Lev. 20. 10. And the Daughter of any Priest if she profane her self by playing the Whore she profaneth her Father she shall be hurnt with Fire Levit. 21. 9. If a Man be found lying with a Woman married to an Husband then they shall both of them die both the Man that lay with the VVoman and the VVoman So shalt thou put away Evil from Israel Deut. 22. 22. The Eye also of the Adulterer waiteth for the ●●ilight saying No Eye shall see me and disg●iseth his Face Job 24. 15. VVhen thou sawest a Thief thou consented'st unto him and hast been Partaker with the Adulterers Psal 50. 18. By the means of a VVhorish VVoman a Man is brought to a piece of Bread and the Adulteress will hunt for the precious Life Prov. 6. 26. Who so