and are likewise engaged to the discharge of it as you tender the Honour of Almighty God the flourishing condition of his Church in this Kingdom the continuance of his Holy Religion among us and the Prosperity of the Country And so we bid you farewell Given at our Court at Whitehall the 9th day of July in the Third Year of our Reign By Her Majesties Command Nottingham To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Justices of the Peace for our County of Middlesex at Hick's Hall The Late Order of the Justices of Middlesex for suppressing Prophaness and Debauchery WHereas their Majesties both by their several Letters and Proclamations have from time to time been graciously pleased to declare their earnest desire That all the Laws against Vice and Prophaness be duly Executed and have expresly Commanded us Tneir Majesties Justices of the Peace of this County to take the most effectual Care for the due Execution thereof And whereas this Court in persuance of Their Majesties Commands have by their Order bearing date the Tenth Day of July last Commanded all High Constables Petty Constables Headburroughs Church-Wardens and other Officers within this County to Use their utmost Diligence for bringing to condign Punishment all the Offenders against the said Laws which upon the Oaths of divers credible Winesses as we are informed hath through the diligence of the Offcers in divers parts of this County had this good effect that many Houses of disorderly Tipling Debauchery and Gaming have been suppressed and very great Numbers of Bawds Whores and other Lewd Persons prophane Swearers Cursers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lords day have been Convicted and Punished according to Law Yet notwithstanding in some other parts of this County through the Negligence Connivance and Evil Practices of the Constables Headburroughs Church Wardens and other inferior Officers of such Places the Offences aforesaid have received great incouragement and such Lewd Offenders as had been so suppressed have been yet received and permitted there to continue such their Lewd Practices This COURT therefore taking the same into their serious consideration and being stedfast in their Resolutions effectually to carry on a Reformation of manners by the due punishment of the several Offences aforesaid in all parts of this County the same being a Work acceptable to Almighty God and so earnestly and piously recommended by Their Majesties Doth Order and strictly Require all High Constables Petty Constables Headburoughs Church-Wardens and all other Officers to be diligent in making more frequent searches after such as keep Houses of disorderly Tipling Debauchery and Gaming and such as haunt the same and of the said Offenders and of all prophane Swearers Cursers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lords Day and to give due information thereof from time to time to some One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace of this County That no Partiality Connivance or underhand Practices by Private Notice to Offenders of any other ways by such Officers may prevent the conviction or Detection of them but that the several Offenders may be punished according to Law And whereas the publick Sports and playing of Boys and others on the Lords Day in Church-yards and else where is a great Contempt to the Worship of God and tends to the Corruption of Youth The said Officers are therefore hereby Ordered and Required to take notice on the said days of such disorders and to disperse such Prophaners of the Lords day or to apprehend them and to bring them before One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace for â—his County that they may be proceeded against according to Law And we being resolved to proceed with all due strictnesâ— against all such Officers as shall be found faulty in the due observance of this our Order do recommend it to all persons who shall at any time hereafter have Knowledge of any of the Offences aforesaid or of any neglect or undue Practice of any Officers aforesaid whereby the Conviction or Punishment of any of the said Offences shall be hindred or avoided that they will give timely Information thereof to some One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace of the said County from whom they shalâ— reâ—eive all due Incouragement And whereas the keeping of Musick Houses of late practised in several publick Taverns and Ale-Houses within this County to which there is a great Resort of Idle and Dissolute Persons is of verâ— ill Consequence and tendâ— to the Debauching and Ruin especially of the younger sort of people of both Sexes and doth also occasion many Quarrels and Riots to the great distâ—rbance of the publick Peace It is hereby further Ordered that the several Officers aforesaid do make a due Return to some Justice of the Pâ—ace in their respective Division of the Christian Name Sir-name and Place of abode of all Persons keeping the said Musick Houses and of such as frequent the same to the end they may be prosecuted according to Law And it is further Ordered by this Court that the Clerk of the Peace for this County do forthwith cause this Order to be Printed and Affixed upon the great Gates of Hick's-Hall the Church Doors and all other publick Places of each Pâ—rish within this County and distributed to the several High-Constables within this County who are Ordered by this Court forthwith to send the same to the several Petty Constables Church-wardens and Head-buroughs within their several Divisions to the end Publick Notice may be taken thereof By the King and Queen a Proclamation against Vitious Debauched and Prophane Persons AS we cannot but be deeply sensible of the great goodness and mercy of Almighty God by whom Kings Reign in giving so happy sâ—ccess to our endeavours for the rescuing these Kingdoms from Popish Tyranny and Superstition and in preserving our Royal Persons supporting our Government and uniting the Arms of most of the â—rinces and States in Christendom against our Common Enemy so we are not less touched with a Resentment that notwithstanding the these great Deliverances Impiety and Vice do still abound in this our Kingdom And that the Execution of many good Laws which have been made for suppressing and punishing thereof have been grosly neglected to the great dishonour of God and our Holy Religion Wherefore and for that we cannot expect increase or continuance of the Blessings we and our subjects enjoy without providing Remedies to prevent the like Evils for the future we judge our selves bound by the duty we owe to God and the care we have of the people committed to our Charge to proceed in taking some effectual Course therein And being thereunto moved by the pious Address of our Arch Bishops we have thought fit by the advice of our Privy Council to issue this our our Royal Proclamation and to declare our princely intention and resolution to discountenance all manner of Vice and Immorality in all persons from the highest to the lowest degree in this our Realm And we do hereby for that purpose
Religion bearing so great a Love to Sin and the Author of it as tho' they were willing to live their Votaries and to dye their Martyrs This is the sad lamentable and too true account of the present State of Apostatizing Mankind And how great a shâ—re this our Island contributes to the Vniversal Deluge of Debauchery is too evident to need any further Demonstration than that of Ocular Inspection We are all of us too apt upon the Commission of a Sin Adam-like to lay the blame far enough from our own Doors to charge it upon the strength of the Temptation upon the weakness of our Constitution upon the Custom of the Place whâ—rein we live upon our own Ignorance upon Surprize and the like But alass none of all these Salvoes will serve the Turn but for all these things GOD will bring us into Judgment 9. And who can chuse but grieve to observe that most I may say All the open Debauchées of the Age are of impudent as to profess themselves Church of England men The little reason wicked Men have to pretend themselves of any much less of the Church of England whose Canon as well as Civil Laws are against them hoping that under that pretence for I can call it no otherwise to escape the Censures of Man here and the Sentence of God hereafter They cry as loud as any The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord But all the while remain in the outward Court and will lose the priviledge of being saved with thâ—se which are within the inner Rail For how unreasonable as well as unchristian is it to think or expect so pure and undefiled a Church should indulge any of her Members in those horrid Debaucheries which a sober Heathen would Blush to committ No for certain she does not for all her Canons and Constitutions as well as Doctrines tend to the Establishing of a Holy and Vnblameable Life in the World and the Restraining of most of those reigning Vices of our Corrupted Age. Nor is the Civil Magistrate less armed against them having severeal Penal Statutes to empower him to put a stop to their Exorbitancies so that whoever will continue in those open sins is so far from being a Son of the Church of England or a Friend to any much less to this Government that he is the greatest disturber of the One and the most professed Enemy of the Other 10. And what an Aggravation is it of the guilt of this Nation in general that it bates to be Reform'd The Guilt of this Land in general aggravated in that neither the Mercies nor the Judgements of God have had any influence over it to work a Reformation Which neither Judgments can terrifie nor Mercies allure to Repentance For what People have tasted more of the Divine displeasure What Land has received greater Favour from Heaven than this our Island within the short compass of this last Century has Was not the Reformation form Popish Errors and Superstitious Tenets matter of great Joy to this our Israel Did not that wonderful Deliverance from the Invincible Armada in Eighty Eight make glad the City of God Did not God's Goodness Triumphantly manifest it self in the discovery of the Horrid Powder-Plot Were not the Restauration of the Royal Family after 12 years Banishment and the re-establishing Monarchy after so long an Anarchy marks of Divine Love And not to speak of the frustration of many Plots in the late Reigns Was not the late Revolution and the Deliverance we received from those dismal Apprehensions and Fears we lay under matter of great Comfort and Satisfaction to all that were well-wishers to our Sion But what Returns have we made to God for all his Benefits How have we imbraced those Invitations to be Good and Happy Base Ungrateful Wretches that we are We have turned the Grace of GOD into wantonness frustrated the very designs of Gods Blessings and turned them by our Abuses into Cursings Our Debaucheries are as many as ever and our Animosities and Divisions as high on all sides as if there had been no opportunities for a Reconcilement 11. And now let us look back upon the Judgments God has inflicted upon the Land and observe whether they have prevailed any more than his Mercies Did not a long abused Peace at last involve Three Kingdoms in Civil War Fill the Nation with Devastations and Ruins Turn our Waters into Blood Cover every place with the dead Bodies of the slain Expose the best Religion in the World naked to the Affronts and Contumelies of Sects and Parties And provoke the fury and madness of the People so far as at last ignominiously to Arraign unaccountably to Condemn and barbarously to Murder the Noblest of Kings tho' the most unfortunate of Princes And to come a little lower how smartly has this one * London Metropolitan City suffered by Plague and Fire How did the Pestilence triumph within these Walls killing her Thousands and Ten Thousands in our Streets How did the insulting Flames like the sweeeping Rain carry all down before it As the Plague made no distinction between Sexes and Degrees so neither did the devouring Fire take any notice of Sacred or Prophane Structures but levelled all alike to the ground and buried them in one common beap of Ashes To sum up all and come nigher home What Dangers did our Fears suggest unto us from the Insolency of the Romish Tyranny in the last Reign How was the Liberty and Property of the Subject the Rights and Priviledges of the Church ready to be Sacrificed to the Will and Pleasure of an Arbitrary Power And if we look abroad How has God visited in his Wrath most of the Europâ—an Churches and put a Cup of Trembling and Aâ—tonishment into their hands How deeply for three years together has our Neighbouring Island tasted of it And how do we know but the next Draught may be ours One would think these â—fflictions we have felt and those we have just reason to fear are hanging over us were enough in all Reason to bring us nearer unto God and to startle us into our Duty But alass we are never the better and have great reason to apply the Psalmist Words to our selves That tho' all these things Sword Pestilence and Fire Fears Dangers and Calamities have befallen us yet are we still the same we do still forget God 12. But shall not God visit for these things shall be not be avenged on such a Nation as this Yes doubtless he will For tho' he seems to Wink and Connive at these Enormities for the present and may spare the Publick a while for the Righteous Man's sake yet God's Spirit will not always strive with Man but taking the Good from the Wrath to come he will rain down his Plagues of Fire and Sword of War and Pestilence and root out the Wicked Doers from the Face of the Earth In this World the Vnrighteous Communities shall suffer there being no
I 'll tell you what you are The Society whereof you are has a great Prevalence over you to make you of the same Mould with the whole If that he good you cannot but in Complaisance be or seem to be so too if That be Evil it would he no false Logick to conclude the Parts to be of the same Marke with the whole This is too evident to need Demonstration and were it to be doubted in other Vices yet in this of Uncleanness the Influence which one Debauch'd Companion has upon another to render him so too proves the Consequence to be too true A Loose Libertine and Licentious Conversation does easily incline a man to Joyn with the Multitude in one Common way of Lewdness and Debauchery Familiarity and Example Fear and Shame private Obligations and publick Engagements are as great Inducements to depraved Nature to comply with those to whom one stands Obliged in any of the former Respects And here I cannot chuse but blame such as out of a Frolick to see the Tricks of the Town and to experience the truth of what they Hear associate themselves with Lewd and Profligate persons running from Bandy-House to Baudy House from one Brothel to another 'till at last they carry the Coals of Fire so long that they are inflamed by Lust in good earnest 6ly To employ your Eyes and Thoughts and to help you to better Company I shall advise you in the next place to be frequent in reading and Meditating the Holy Scriptures for wherewithall shall a Young Man cleanse his way says the Royal Psalmist but by taking Heed thereto according to thy Word Herein you will see Life and Death Blessings and Cursings Promises and Threatnings Mercies and Judgments The one a Royal Priviledge appropriated to the Upright and Clean the other as a Punishment to the Man of Unclean Lips and a Lewd Conversation Herein you will see a Generously Chast and Continent Joseph exalted from a Dungeon to a Throne whilst the Incestuous Reuben is put by his Fathers Blessing Herein you will read of 24000 Israelites being killed in one day amidst their Whoredoms Numb 5. whilst Phineas for his Zeal in punishing the Delinquents atones for the Rest and obtains for himself a Covenant of Peace the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood Herein you will see the Cause of the Massacre of Schechem and his People who were for Dinab's Rape cut off Root and Branch in one day Herein you will have a view of the Untimely ends of Hophni and Phineas of Amnon and Absalom of Incontinent Jezebel and and many others who by their Whoredoms Adulteries and Incestuous Embraces provoked the Merciful God to plague them with sundry Diseases and divers kind of Deaths 7ly When you have done your utmost to resist and find notwithstanding the Carnal part to be predominant Mortify as St. Paul advises your Members which are upon the Earth Keep under your unruly Body and bring it into Subjection that you do not become Cast-aways As Drunkenness and Gluttony increase so do Temperance and Sobriety take away the Oyl from the Flames To feed low and abstain from rich and delicious fare to Eat and Drink only to satisfie Nature without endeavouring to humour your Palats or satiate your Appetite will by degrees moderate your Lusts Fasting for whole Days and then to return to a full Table and Excess is not the way to cast out this Devil for it is as a Worthy * Bishop Taylor Prelate of our Church observes a Flatulent airy Spirit which an Empty Windy Stomach gives Life and Motion to It must be a constant Abstinence in the moderate use of coarse and homely Fare such as will not be prejudicial to your Health that will be of greatest Force to subdue your Corrupt Natures and to beat down those Insurrections which ever and anon arise and raise a Civil War between your outward and your inward Man 8ly To that of Fasting and all the other forementioned Helps add that of Frequent Prayer All the rest without this are but as dead Letters Herein the Soul owns its weakness and acknowledgeth that 't is not in Man to direct his ways sensible whereof it sends up this winged Messenger of Prayer to crave for Assistance from above and never leaves intreating till some such Answer as this be given My Grace is sufficient for thee Be you instant therefore in imploring for the Spirit of Purity for Chast Thoughts and Temperate Reins Make such as these your daily and hourly requests Create in us a Clean Heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us wash us throughly from our Wickedness and cleanse us from our Sin Purge us with Hysop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter than Snow Purifie our Hearts and search throughly if there be any Wickedness in us And since your Prayers have no express promises of a success unless your own Endeavours back them take up Holy Job's Resolution of making a Covenant with your Eyes that you will not look upon a Maid And with David keep your Mouth as with a Bridle that you offend not with your Tongue Let your Hearts be filled with Chast desires and your Minds employed in Contemplating on the Goodness and the Mercy of the Lord which should lead you to repentance Let your hands be pure and so lift them up to the Throne of Grace and turn your Feet into the ways of Righteousness Eph. 6.13 14 15 16.17 Thus being Arm'd with the whole Armour of God your Loins girded about with the Truth and having the Breastplate of Righteousness being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and taking above all things the Shield of Faith whereby you will be able to withstand the fiery Darts of the Devil and the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit you will be the better able to grapple against your Lusts and be guarded against a Relapse which oft proves more dangerous and desperate than the disease 9thly The Last Antidote commonly prescribed against Uncleanness is Marriage By this holy Ordinance God has taken off all reason of Complaint and the Oppression Tyranny Injustice and all other Invectives cast upon the Deity for implanting in Man such Naturals which must be satisfied and for prohibiting the fullfilling of these by Express Laws are quite wiped away the Murmurings and Imputations of Cruelty Severity and the like are here silenced And if the Letcher after such a Liberty granted shall continue in his Unlawful Amours if he shall forsake his own to Climb up into an Adulterous Bed He has no plea drawn from the strength of Inclination the bent of his Constitution or the like to excuse himself withal not can he Charge the Sin any where but upon his own Corrupted and Vitiated Will St. Paul seems to intimate as much and declares this Honourable Institute was appointed to avoid Fornication Not is it enough to forbear all unlawful and forbidden Embraces nor
frequented Oratories Will the Churches contain the confluence of Auditors Will our Absence or Presence lessen or augment the number of the Faithful Had not we better tarry away than go with unprepared Hearts to fleep or stare away the time Such as these are the Evasions made now a-days by many but Poor Creatures little do they consider who it is that suggests those Idle Reasonings into them else they would see clearly that 't is Gods Command that we by keeping Holy this His blessed Day might meditate on his Glorious Works of our Creation and Redemption and learn how to know and to keep all the rest of his Holy Laws and Commandments This is the Market-Day of our Souls and where should we go to buy the Food of Angels and the Waters of Life the Wine of the Sacrament and the Milk of the Word of God to feed our drooping Souls but at those Ordinances where they are to be had without Money and without Price Where should we receive the precious Eye-salve to Unscale our benighted Eyes and heal our Spiritual Blindness but from those Spiritual Physitians How can our wounded Consciences and troubled Spirits and broken Hearts be cured of their Maladies unless we come there where the Balm of Gilead drops from the Lips of the Preacher Besides in this publick Ordinance of the Church we own God to be not only the Lord and Maker of every Individual person but to be the Head of the Mystical Body to be the Sovereign over the Universal World 6. There are others who are constant in the Publick Congregation Secondly By neglecting the Private Duties of the Family make as it were a Conscience of going Morning and Evening to Church but then this is all they think is required at their Hands If you should tell them of Repetition Meditation Family-Duties Catechising Exhorting c. They must beg your Pardon there They do not design to make the Lord's Day a Burden to them They will not turn their Houses into Conventicles They will not be Righteous over much they must be excused from being singular And they will not differ from their Neighbours This and the like Language you shall be sure to find from most For God knows to the shame of Christianity Men are so stupid and cold so Luke-warm and indifferent in their Great Concern that it is well if a Prayer be said in a Private Family Once a Week And what is more to be lamented That is wanting also in most Houses And when the Master of the House is so remiss no wonder if the Servants and Children trifle away the Remainder of the Day and after His Example grow as unconcerned in their Private and Closet Duties as he was in the more publick Ones of His Family Nay more it is to be feared he himself is as seldom in Secret as he cares to be Openly Good and Pious I would not be thought Uncharitable and therefore leave the Judging of their retired Thoughts to Him whose only Jurisdiction it is to know and discern the Secrets of all Hearts and pass on to the Consideration of the next way by which men may be said to profane this Holy Day viz. 7. By following the Works of their Ordinary callings either by themselves their Servants Thirdly The Lords-Day profaned by following our Ordinary Callings by Our selves Servants or Beasts or their Beasts If the neglect of Sanctifying the Lords-Day by our Publick and Private Duties be a Profanation thereof How much more then is it profane to violate it by any servile Labour or forbidden vocation It is the Express Letter of the Command that on this Day we should do no manner of Work neither we nor our Sons nor our Daughters nor our Men-Servants nor our Maid-Servants nor our Cattel nor the Stranger that is within our Gates How then shall they Answer the Outfacing of so strict a Command who shall presume contrary to both God's and Humane Laws to follow their Ordinary Imployment thereon whether by Themselves their Servants or their Beasts And with these I must beg leave to Expostulate a while Are not six Days enough to bestow on this World and the Concerns thereof Cannot you spare one day in Seven to cease from your Labours Will you be so cruel as to give your selves no respite from the fatigues of Toyl and Business Shall the Ten Commandments and the Constitutions of a Christian Government be kinder to your Nature and more Compassionate thereto than you your selves And is it not enough to afflict your own Bodies and rob your own Souls of that Spiritual Nourishment but you must lay burthens upon your Servants and deprive them of that Advantage which they might reap by the Religious Observation of this Day 'T is sad to reflect upon the many Unfortunate Servants who are Articled under such Pagan-Christian Masters and I cannot forbear bestowing a Sigh and a Tear or two at their unalterable Calamity For this our Metropolitan City without looking further can furnish us with many Hundreds I wish I could not say Thousands of those Unsanctified Wretches who having not the fear of God before their Own Eyes care not how little those that do belong to them are instructed in the Points of Religion And as they are for cutting off all other Opportunities of their growing in Grace so are they carefull to debar them of This season of improving themselves therein by Sanctifying the Lords Day Thus is the Miserable Young-man by a Seven Years irreligious Course of Life become at last as Stupid and Profane a Person as his Master before him And when out of his Time it is seldom that ever he recollects himself but deals as hardly with his own Apprentice And can we expect the Profane Wretch would be more merciful to his Beasts No certainly He would use them as hardly as his Servants were not the Laws of our Land strict in the restraining of such unaccountable Cruelties And truly it is as much as the Magistrate can do to keep the Traveller from his unnecessary Journeys and to debar the Hackney-Coaches from plying in our very Streets on the Lords-Day 8. And Here I cannot but wish the Gentry would forbear their visiting the Churches in State and contrive a better way of going thither then in their Ceremonial Chariots 'T is true their Beasts may not be put to hard Service but then their Coachmen who have Souls as precious in the Eyes of the Lord as any others lose the Priviledge of the Publick Ordinances by being forced to attend and look to their Coach and Horses at the Church doors I speak not this to affront any but only to put them in mind of contriving ways if they must be Coached to Church so to dispose of their Coach and Horses that their Servants as well as Themselves may have the Benefit of serving their Common and Great Master 9. But to return there is besides this of Labour another way by which the Lords-Day is
of the Adversary let us run into God's House embrace his Mercy embrace his Ordinances honour his Holy Name and his Word obey his Commands fulfill all Righteousness and sanctifie his most Holy Day Let us break off our Sins by Repentance and stop those Judgements which threaten us who knows but the Lord will have Mercy and will repent him of the Evil that he hath designed against us that he will dispel the Clouds and make the Sun of Peace and Righteousness to break out upon us making us rejoyce for the time wherein we have suffered Adversity To this End it would not be amiss to cry out From Hardness of Heart from Contempt of thy Holy Word and Commandments from Fornication and all other Deadly Sin from Intemperance and Prophaning of thy most holy Day from all the Judgments which we have most righteously deserved from Lightning and Tempest from Plague Pestilence and Famine from Battle and Murder and from sudden Death Good Lord Deliver us And O Blessed Adorable and Glorious Trinity Remember not our Offences nor the Offences of our Fathers neither take thou Vengance of our sins but Spare us Good Lord Spare thy People whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious Blood and be not angry with us for ever Have mercy upon us Have mercy upon us Have Mercy upon us most Merciful Father Save and Deliver us from all our Sins Confirm and Strengthen us in all Goodness and bring us at length to Life Eternal Amen Amen! A Modest Advice to the Ministers and Civil Magistrates TO make the preceding Discourse the more Effectual it might perhaps be expected that I should add something to the Ministers and Civil Magistrates of this Church and Kingdom and that I should shew how far both of them are obliged in their several Stations the one by the Sword of the spirit the other by that of Justice to do what in them lies to suppress the Reigning Immoralities of the present Age Of which the Vices spoken against in the foregoing Treatise are not the least in Reality tho they may be so in all outward appearance by reason of that little notice the unthinking World takes of them To the Ministers of our Church there is a very little need to say any thing For besides those Worthy and Reverend Prelates whom God's Providence and the Care and Piety of our Princes has placed at the Helm there is a Clergy under them that for Learning Virtue and Sincere not meerly formal Devotion we may dare all the Churches in Christendom to shew its equal Our whole Nation and especially the Metropolis thereof has many of those pious Souls whose Lives and Doctrines go hand in hand to stem that torrent of Atheism and Prophaness which has of late years been so Impetuously breaking in upon us Their Practical Preaching and Moral but withall most Excellent Discourse◠now in Print concerning the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion the Loveliness of all that is Good and Virtuous and the Deformity of all that is Bad and Vicious with the like is sufficient proof of their Zeal for the Honour of God and the Good of His Church so that we should wrong them if we thought they stood in need of Instructions to Direct them or of Motives to Incite them to do a Duty which is so Incumbent upon them as to press home for a Reformation of this Degenerate Kingdom when the Glory of their Great Master is so nearly Concerned therein But amidst these Excellent Persons there are it must be Confessed some others that give too open a Scandal to our Holy Religion by their Vile Principles and their Viler Practices Some of these are notoriously Bad and live in Direct Opposition to what they are bound to Preach to others Whilst Others spend their time in dry Notions and insipid Controversies which profit their Congregations but very little if any thing at all As for the first if the Common Obligations they lie under as Men endued with Reasonable Souls if the ordinary Ties of Christianity they are bound with in their Baptism or if the extraordinary Ones they are obliged with in their Ordination are not of force to put them upon mending these their Irregularities yet 't is hoped the Example of the more Strict and Conscientious will shame them to some degree of fervour and cause them to put on the Form at least if they will hot the Power of Godliness But if that will do no good upon them yet 't is presumed the Worthy Fathers of the Church will by their Care and Inspection either remove those that are a Publick Shame unto it or else prevent the Like Mischief for the future by admitting none into Holy Orders but such as they have sufficient Testimony of that they will not by their unsanctified Lives give cause for the contempt of the Clergy I say 't is presumed the Bishops will in their several Diocesses take care of those things which Confidence I ground upon those many excellent Charges which have of late been given in many Visitations After all this I cannot but wonder how any one can so far offer violence to his Reason and Conscience as to live in the Wilfull Breach of any known Duty when he has so many upbraidings from all hands to check him and stare his sins out of Countenance What a dreadful Account they must give of their Cure and that Charge of Souls which is committed to them Sacred Writ will sufficiently inform them and what a weight lies upon their shoulders tho at present so little regarded by them Bishop Burnets Pastoral Care lately published will put them in mind of if they can give themselves but time to read it over and calmly to consider thereon As for those who busie themselves about unprofitable Speculations and matters meerly Controvertal 't were to be wished they would leave off their Heats and Animosities throw aside all Prejudice and Faction for this Sect or that Party and give over Quarreling and Disputing about Modes and Figures about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion the Knowledge or Ignorance of which would neither promote nor hinder our Great Concern 'T were to be wished I say that they would lay aside all such Curious Niceties and Disputable Points fit for none but Schoolmen and wrangling Sophisters to employ their parts upon and that they would reason of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Preach up with the Primitive Christians the necessity and usefulness of a Holy Life lashing Vice and protecting Virtue where e're they find it tho their very Patrons were guilty of the one and their greatest Enemies Masters of the other Such profitable Rules of Morality would better become the Gravity of the Preacher as well as suit with the Capacity and Regulate the Lives and Practices of the Audience than an unintilligible Discourse of an Hour or two long about the Particular Tenets of Calvin Arminius or some other Learned Sophister of the Church which can neither
Inform our Judgment nor Influence our Manners but only help us to call Names and to cast Dirt into one anothers Faces How much better would it be for all sides to forbear those Opprobrious Titles of Calvinist and Arminian of Antinomian and Antisidian and the like and endeavour to do that which might make us worthy of that one Glorious Name of Christian Could I but see that Spirit of Unity and Concord maintained in the Bond of Peace could I but see the Primitive Golden days return once more upou the Stage I should with a Chearful Heart like Old Simeon sing my nunc Dimittis too One that knows what Laws we have against Prophane Swearing and Cursing against Drunkenness and Prophanation of the Lords-Day made with such Care by the Legislators of former Ages and Commanded to be put in Execution by the Zealous Princes of This would wonder that the Civil Magistrate should need one Word more to put him in Mind of Discharging his Duty But notwithstanding they have Statutes made to their very hands and have had as much Incitements from Above as Injunctions and a Royal Command comes to yet we find matters at the same stand they were in when we had no such Opportunities put into our Hands To think any Justice of Peace ignorant of his Duty would be to charge him with want of Common Prudence an affront I would not lay at any Mans Door But I am more inclined to think that 't is want of Zeal which makes so many remiss and negligent in the Discharge of that Trust which the Higher Power has Committed to them To such therefore as are Backward in their Offfice I shall beg leave to offer some few Considerations which perhaps may prove Motives to stir them up to a Vigorous Execution of the Laws now in force against that horrid Prophaness and Debauchery which has overspread this unhappy Church and Nation And first consider what 't is God and Religion requires at your Hands He that raiseth up whom he will and casteth them down again at his pleasure has not placed you in those Posts to make a great Figure of you and for nothing else He requires you should be as much concerned for the Advancing of his Glory as you are for your own private Interests 'T is as much your Duty to punish an Offence against God as to punish a Crime against the Publick and yet we see the one Connived at whilst the other is prosecuted with the utmost Râ—gor But is it not a burning shame that the daily Affronts and Blasphemies offered against Heaven should be passed by with silence when at the same time a Lessening Expression against a Prince a single Calumny against your selves or a Scurrilous Reflection cast upon a Private Person shall meet with all the Severity the Law in its Largest Extent will allow of But Secondly Consider what 't is you owe your Princes from whence you derive your Authority The Commission they have given you extends to the offences mentioned in the foregoing Treatise as well as to any other whatsoever And as if that were not sufficient how carâ—ful have they been by Letters and Proclamations to put you in mind of your Duty in this Particular And can you Affront their Authority by slighting and contemning their Orders and Injunctions Think what a base reflection you cast upon them and how uncivil to say no worse you have been by your Connivance and Neglect Thirdly Consider what 't is your Country requires of you She expects you should not stand as Cyphers nor bear the Sword of Justice in Vain but that you should administer it to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintenance of true Religion and Virtue Those who among the Romans Rescued the Common-wealth from Tyranny and Oppression were justly stiled Fathers of their Country our Kingdom is at present overawed with the Tyranny of Prophaness and Debauchery and none but God knows what the fatal consequences of it may prove Now if you would Gentlemen undertake an Enterprize worthy English Men and Christians if you desire the Peace and Tranquility of your Country and would do something that might render your Memories famous to succeeding Generations you can do nothing better than in your several Stations to Redeem the Nation from the Thraldom of those Pernicious Vices under which it lies and so Divert those Judgements we have just cause to fear will fall upon us if we continue Obstinate and Rebellious But Lastly that it may not be too long Consider what 't is your Oaths taken with all the Solemnity Imaginable oblige you to I shall not here repeat at length all that a Justice of Peace is bound to do it may suffice to take notice that he is engaged to Convict all Offenders against the known Statutes of the Realm of which he shall have any Cognizance and not to refuse upon Due and Lawful Information to bring any Offender to Condign Punishment out of Fear Partiality Prejudice or Interest I hope there is scarce a Gentleman in the Commission of the Peace but will lay these things to heart and will not when he Considers seriously what it is that God their Majesties his Country and his own Conscience exacts from him be any more negligent in the Discharge of that Trust which is reposed in him I have been warm in this point but withall as short and as modest as possible I hope the Gentlemen will pardon the little sallies of a well grounded and well-intended Zeal since my Design was not to affront any but purely to excite those who have been hitherto Remiss to be more vigorous in Executing the Laws against Prophaness and Debauchery for the future So that not one Tittle of this Discourse is directed to such Worthy Persons who tho too few in number are in the Commission of the Peace all over the Kingdom and have given sufficient Testimony of their Prudence and Zeal by those excellent Orders of Sessions which here and there have been issued out in those Places where the Good have been the Prevailing Party But how can the Justices of Peace suppress those Immoralities since let them be never so forward 't is impossible for them to know of every offence unless the under Officers whose Duty it is to make enquiry after the Breach of the Laws give in their Informations And that tho they may issue out their Warrants yet if the Constable or Overseer or any other Officer be negligent in executing them what will their Care signifie To which I answer that 't is too notorious how Careless and Remiss all under Officers are as well in giving in their Informations as in executing the Warrants and Levying the Penalties accordingly and 't is no wonder they should be so since they are like to get nothing by their Office but hard Words and a few Curses which is but a small Encouragement to those little hearted Creatures who for the most part know not what the