to bring them Informations of the Breaches of the Laws against Prophaneness and Immorality and tell them 't is their Duty to do it and promise to give them Encouragement And now lastly His Majesty by His Proclamation does command all Judges Mayors Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all other Officers and Ministers both Ecclesiastical and Civil and all his Subjects whom it may concern to be very Vigilant and Strict in the Discovery and the effectual Prosecution and Punishment of all Persons who shall be guilty of Excessive Drinking Blasphemy Prophane Swearing and Cursing Lewdness Prophanation of the Lord's-Day c. as they will answer it to Almighty God and upon pain of his highest Displeasure So that those who oppose the giving of Informations in these Cases not only seem directly to strike at the Foundation of our Constitution but do oppose Reformation and confront the Government which are Enormities that demand a due Resentment from all that are concerned for the honour of our Government our Laws or our Religion And if any Magistrates should discourage those that bring them Informations on this occasion by giving them hard words making their work as difficult to them as they can by wilfully forcing them to long and unnecessary Attendance on them in this Business or not sheltring them from the insults of obstinate Offenders if any should be so insolent and daring as to offer them 't is I think evident that they not only act therein contrary to their Duty as Christians but to their Oaths and Trust as Magistrates and to their Pretensions of Loyalty and Obedience to the Government as Subjects And now is it possible to conceive that any Magistrates can desire the execution of those Laws nay that any that are not the greatest Enemies to it and are lost to all sense of true Honour as well as Conscience should in defiance of all their Obligations and in full Contradiction to their printed Orders with their Names to them publickly set up by their direction on Churches and other publick Places not treat with respect and give the greatest Encouragement to those excellent Persons particularly by making this business as easie to them as they can by protecting them from any kind of Affronts and Assaults from wicked Men and giving them all possible dispatch who in such a profligate Age do for the preventing the Indignities that are offered to the great God and the ruin of their Country bring them generally with trouble and sometimes with great difficulty Informations of such Offences And on the other hand I do not see generally speaking how those that are convinced that the giving of Informations to Magistrates of these Offences is a Christian Office a likely and proper if not a necessary means of Reformation of Manners and yet wholly neglect the doing it at a time when they see their Fellow-Christians engaging successfully in it can in ordinary cases easily satisfie themselves that they have a due Zeal for God's Honour or Charity to their Neighbours 'T is allowed that this will be sometimes done with some Danger and Inconvenience * Dulce est periculum sequi Deum but so much the more laudable is the doing of it A brave Man who refuses to live under the slavish Dominion of Custom and Example who frequently works against Wind and Tide and steers in the Teeth of Danger must expect to be sometimes tost and batter'd but Dangers and Difficulties do often invite rather than discourage such a one from doing that which becomes him Virtue could I think be hardly distinguished from a kind of Sensuality if it were gained without any Labour Every mean Soul can do such things as require no Resolution or Courage that are not attended with any trouble or inconvenience but though there has never been so general a corruption in any Age or Nation as that there have not been some conspicuous for their Piety yet the number of those wise and happy persons have in most Ages of the World been too few who have preferr'd their Duty to all other Considerations If 't is not generally thought fashionable shionable to inform let it be consider'd whether 't is fashionable to be Religious Don't Men usually meet with the reproachfull Names of Hypocrites Fools Enthusiasts Phanaticks or formal and precise Persons who lead Christian or but modest and regular Lives But those Men that understand what Religion is do not surely think this a sufficient Dispensation for them to be Libertines They know that Elisha and St. Paul were called Mad-men that Holy David was derided by the People that Christ his Apostles and the Christians in the firâ—â— Ages were treated accordingly Wise Men and Christians are not so much afraid of ill Names as of wicked Actions And our Judgment of Actions must not be taken from the opinions of Men but from the Nature of them otherwise the Notions of Good and Evil will be soon confounded Those Actions are dishonourable that carry in their Nature a Repugnancy to Reason and Religion but if those Actions that directly tend to preserve and strengthen Government to promote Religion and the good of Mankind be honourable then the giving of Informations upon these occasions that are so much countenanced and encouraged by the Government and the Laws are I conceive truly honourable though corrupt Men judge otherwise * Apud quos virtus insania furor esse dicitur such for instance who think it more honourable to resent an Affront with the loss of their own or their Fellow-Christians Lives and reckon in short Temperance and Chastity Meekness and Humility Zeal for God and Heavenly-mindedness contemptible Qualities and fit for mean and base Souls Let it be remembred that Christians are to walk by Faith and not by Sight * Non Exemplis sed Legibus judicandum 1 Cor. 3. 19. by Precepts and not by Examples that 't is to the most high GOD Who judgeth righteously and with whom the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness and not to a sinfull Generation that in divers Instances that might be mentioned calls Evil Good and Good Evil that we are to approve our selves So that putting this Case at that Disadvantage as the cowardly and formal Christian who will not fail to raise Objections and start difficulties on such an occasion would have it and will be sure himself to do supposing that the giving of Informations of these Offences should sometimes expose Men to reproachfull Words or rude Treatment from an ill Magistrate or a prosligate Offender which it will not be for the honour of any Government to countenance 't is the business I think of Christians to consider whether they ought not to suffer Shame and undergo some Trouble and Loss for the Exercising an Act of Charity to their Neighbours Souls for the suppressing of National Sins the preventing of God's Dishonour and the ruin of their Country now especially that their Endeavours of this kind will be so very likely
quis convictus furti esset apud Locrenses effodiebantur ei oculi Contigit autem ut Zaleuci filius furti reus convitiaretur cui quum Locrenses poenam remitterent non tulit id pater sed sibi unum filio alterum voluit erui oculum Legem quandam Tenediis tulit Tennes quâ licebat Adulterum deprehensum securi necare Quum itaque silius ejus esset captus interrogante regem qui coeperat Quid ei faciendum Respondebat Lege utendum quapropter nummo ejus ab una parte securis excusa ab altera facies viri mulieris uno collo juncta If History can tell us of Heathens that could do and suffer so much for the Maintenance of the Laws of their Country shall it be supposed that the Fear of disobliging a Man of Interest that hath a swelling Title one that is I doubt improperly called a Man of Honour who affronts and contemns Religion should keep Christian Magistrates from Executing the Laws of their Country that are made for the Support of Religion and to which they are Sworn And yet as unworthy and unaccountable as such a Behaviour may appear to be even by the Light of Nature it were well if for the Honour of Christian Magistrates nay even of Humane Nature that it could be denied †Pudet haec opprobria nobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli that many I am unwilling to say most of the Magistrates in the late Reigns lived and died with their Commissions without putting any one of the Laws that our more virtuous Ancestors had left us against Prophaneness and Debauchery in Execution which some of the worthy Magistrates of this Reign making a Conscience of Discharging the Oaths they have taken and the Trust that is reposed in them by their Personal Watchfulnss and Diligence as well as by their giving due Encouragement to those who without having Oaths to oblige them or Rewards to encourage them bring them Informations of the Breaches of those Laws which were grown almost obsolete and useless have to their great Honour so successfully done with such Opposition and Difficulty and not only with greater Clamour from hardned Offenders but with more Reflection from too many others than they might have met with if they had been breaking them in the most impudent manner had been making Attempts to destroy them To prevent therefore for the future the Mischief that this Nation may otherwise fall under as it hath done by the Vnfaithfulness of Magistrates it may deserve Consideration whether it would not be highly advisable that * Cogunt eos qui Magistratu abierint apud Censores edere exprimere quid in Magistratu gesserint Gothofredus de duodecim Tabularum Fragmentis p. 66 67. as we are told the Romans for this reason ordered their Magistrates to give an Account of their Diligence for the Maintenance of the Laws to their †Censorum Officium erat describere facultates cujusque Civis observare singulorum hominum mores vitam tollere quoque omnia quae probitati morum pestem perniciem illatura videbantur Rosinus de Antiquitatibus Romanis fol. 520 Censores mores populi regunto Haec detur cura Censoribus quandoquidem eos in Republica semper volumus esse Cicero de Legibus fol. 340. Censors a chief part of whose Office it was to look to a Reformation of Manners and as our Magistrates are by the late Act of Parliament against Swearing and Cursing required to keep Lists of those Persons that they have convicted of those Offences and to return them to the Sessions our Magistrates should be likewise further obliged to bring in to our Judges of Assize or to the Quarter-Sessions Lists of such as they have convicted upon all the Statutes against Prophaneness and Debauchery which Method will I humbly conceive not only be effectual for the quickening the Diligence of Magistrates but give a just Terror to Offenders and will afford the Government a means of knowing what Magistrates are Unfaithful in their Office and deserve Discountenance and Punishment and on the contrary who they are that most Honourably discharge their Trusts do the greatest Service to their Country and deserve the highest Regard from it * His autem duobus praemiis poena salus Reipublicae quamplurimum continetur And can any unless they are faithful and zealous Ministers of the Gospel be supposed to deserve more Respect than those Magistrates that conscientiously apply themselves to the Suppressing of Vice and Prophaneness and to the Promoting of Religion As the doing of this is I conceive the greatest Benefit of Magistracy and may be supposed as hath been shewn to be a great End for which it was appointed so it can't I think be doubted but God's Blessing may attend his Ordinance the Magistrates zealous and united Endeavours for this purpose so that they may succeed to the Spiritual good of particular Persons as well as to the good of the Publick that as Afflictions are often sent by Him to awaken Men out of their Lethargy in their vicious Courses and in the nature of them tend to that end the legal Corrections of Offenders which may be looked on as Afflictions may with God's Blessing work the same happy Effect upon them and the rather since they are the immediate and sensible Effects of their Sins and of this we are told there hath been so many happy Instances since the beginning of these Transactions as may be sufficient without other Considerations to encourage the Magistrates Diligence But when this fails of the desired Success upon particular Persons yet it is a vast Advantage to the Cause of Religion in general to keep the Multitude by the strict and exemplary Punishment of some Offenders from the publick Commission of such Scandalous Sins as wast the Conscience affront Religion and directly tend to bring it into Contempt that as the Scripture expresses it All Israel may hear and fear Deut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and do no more any such Wickedness For considering the Original Corruption of our Nature which is generally more depraved by our Education in a degenerate Age that being thus depraved and weakned we find it no very easie work to resist Temptations to Sins to which we have either habituated our selves or have a natural propensity when they are naked and alone and that 't is much more difficult to encounter those Sins when Temptations to them are made stronger by the bad and eminent Examples which are almost every-where to be seen in our Commerce with the World there being but few that we meet with that do not recommend one Vice or other by their Example to our Imitation and which is I think still worse most of those not such as profess themselves Enemies of Religion but that pretend themselves Christians entertain hopes of receiving the Benefits of Religion and attend its Ordinances with Allowance as often as they think it for
after this Matter is plainly laid before us the giving of Informations is now more generally insisted on by our Clergy in their Sermons especially at those stated times that they are required to read the Act of Parliament against Swearing and Cursing with the other Statutes against Prophaneness and Vice by His Majesty's Letter and His late Gracious Proclamation for the enforcing the Execution of them and we have moreover such a change of Circumstances and such favourable Occurrences as that our Diligence in giving Informations will at this time so effectually promote a National Reformation as it is evident it will do from what is already done by it that it will be found notwithstanding the Objections and plausible Pretences that will be made on this Occasion by many for their being excused from it to proceed frequently if not generally from worse Causes that we are either afraid or ashamed of discharging it from a want of Faith or of Love to God and our Neighbour not duly considering the Admonition Fear ye not the Reproach of Men neither be afraid of his Revilings That the Fearful and Vnbelieving are joined together with Rev. 21. 8. those who shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone nor the Extent of our Saviour's Threatning Whosoever Mar. 8. 38. therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Nor lastly the great Encouragement given in the Word of God to those that suffer for discharging of their Duty Blessed are they Matt 5. 10. which are Persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Our light 2 Cor. 4. 17. Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory If any Man suffer as a Christian 1 Pet. 4. 16. let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf Wherefore let them 1 Pet. 4. 19. that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour And now if notwithstanding what hath been said or that may be urged by our Clergy with more Advantage in their Discourses for our giving Informations against prophane and vicious Men and the Magistrate's Diligence and Faithfulness that was before insisted on this criminal Fear and Shame shall so generally prevail as to keep private Persons from giving Informations in these Cases and shall likewise keep Magistrates who have less Colour of Excuse for their Unfaithfulness they being under the Obligations of Oaths and Trusts super-added to those they have as Christians from using their Diligence in the Execution of the Laws and particularly from giving all Countenance and just Encouragement to those who bring them Informations at the same time that Prophaneness and Debauchery do appear so shameless and fearless among us what a weight of Guilt may be supposed to lie upon this Nation And in how great danger of Misery and Destruction may it be apprehended to be which I do not see with what Reason we can expect will so likely be pervented by any other Means as by the close Conjunction the zealous and united Endeavours of good Men for the Retrieving of Religion and the Morals of the Nation by all Christian and Prudent Methods For Religion in general and the Practice of every Moral Virtue in particular do in their own Nature tend not only to the Felicity of every Man 's private Life but do also conduce to the Peace Order and Welfare of all publick Societies and good Government over Men as it hath the greatest Influence for these Ends upon Magistrates and Subjects Religion teaches and obliges Governours to over-rule their Subjects in the Fear of God to his Glory and for the Safety and Prosperity of those that are in Subjection to them and therefore I think to endeavour to support and encourage them in the Exercise of Religion and Virtue and this as well by the Use of their Authority which may for instance be expressed by their Personally Countenancing and Promoting Men of Virtue and Discountenancing vicious Men by their taking Care that good Laws be made for the Security of Religion and that the Laws that are made for the Promotion of Christian Virtues and the Suppression of Vice be put in Execution as by their own Exemplary Behaviour * Non si inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentis Qui Macedoniae regem erudit omnes etiam subditos erudit Delirant reges plectuntur Achivi which hath a wonderfull force is as it were a living Law and Religion instills in Subjects such Principles and Dispositions as in their own nature tend to make themselves happy as well as a Government strong and prosperous It instructs and obliges them to obey Magistrates not only for Fear but out of Conscience And as Piety and Virtue do thus evidently conduce to the Stability and Happiness of any Kingdom and Government so Vice and Irreligion in the natural consequences of them tend to bring Decay and Ruine upon them as they unqualifie Magistrates for Government and make †Homo sine Religione sicut equus sine fraenc Subjects unfit for Commands averse to all good Order and destructive instead of helpfull Members of a Community from whence ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch might justly esteem it the Foundation or Cement of Humane Society * In Magistratuum institutione prima sit cura de Religione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato conclude That in the Institution of Magistracy the first and chief Care should be of Religion and the Famous †Sine maenibus Civitas potest stare sine virtute nullo mode potest Scipio observe That it was impossible any City should stand if their Manners were depraved tho' their Walls were never so firm Accordingly I conceive there have been but few if any amongst the ancient and celebrated Legislators and Statesmen whatever there have been among our Modern who have not had the greatest Regard to Religion in the Modelling and Governing of Civil Societies for how is it possible to conceive that any State should long stand and be prosperous without Honesty or Peace * Religio neglecta maximam pestem in Civitatem insert omnium scelerum fenestram aperit Or that it should either enjoy a lasting Peace or have a general Honesty without Religion And therefore it was no weak tho' a wicked Piece of Policy which they tell us of a King of Assyria who chose rather to endeavour to overcome the City of Babylon by sending in of Players Lewd Women c. to debauch it by which means he effectually did it and at last obtained his End than to invade it with a powerfull Army Upon the whole Matter We may dare to challenge
Love to God any Charity to Man any Concern for their Country or Regard to their Posterity to engage them in it consider that we have herein the Laws of God and the Nation the Commands of the King the Concurrence of a late Representative Body of the Nation the Prayers of good Men the Pretences of those that carry but a Form and Profession of Religion and the Consciences that are not hardned even of bad Men on our side and moreover the great Success that hath already attended these Attempts to animate and encourage our Zeal and Diligence in it So that if we acquit our selves herein like Men and Christians if God is on our side we know there is as Solomon says no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding Prov. 21. 30. nor Counsel against him we need not much fear the Strength or Policy of the World or the Powers of Darkness we may with God's Blessing see Prophaneness and Debauchery every day more and more fly into dark Corners as Idolatry of old did at the appearance of Christianity Vice be branded and confounded Virtue embraced Religion prevail England flourish and give such an Example as may provoke succeeding Ages and other Nations to an Imitation and give perhaps Occasion to reform Christendom and Mankind But what Triumph of Soul which neither Riches nor Honours nor the Flesh can give such happy Souls may Living or Dying have who have undergone Shame and Sufferings in the faithfull Discharge of their Duty and for the Cause of God who have been his Instruments in bringing about such blessed Effects nay in discharging their Duty herein and in other respects sincerely tho' Success which is not in our Power and will not be required of us should not attend it And on the contrary what severe Reflections they may hereafter make on their Behaviour who after this Matter is plainly laid before them and a publick Reformation of Manners seems to be put as it were into their hands will either openly oppose or secretly undermine the just Endeavours of it or that will not be prevail'd upon either to concur in the Methods that are already laid or to engage in any other that they can suppose may be more effectual for the carrying on a National Reformation that can contentedly look on and see their Fellow-Christians suffer in any kind by their brave Opposition to the declared Enemies of God and the Devil's Kingdom the Cause of Religion to be injured and depressed and their Country so much endangered for want of their giving their seasonable and zealous Assistance to it I will not undertake to describe I will only add That if the Attempts of Reformation which were began with so great Disadvantage have born up under so many Difficulties which are carried on by the united Endeavours of such Bodies of Men in the several Parts of this City are spreading through the Cities and Corporations of the Kingdom and are propagating in those of Ireland who have a Communication with one another are governed by Methods that have been approved by Persons of great Wisdom and consummated Judgment and which have been so highly successfull should be defeated by the Industry and Power the Number and Interest of its Enemies If I say we should suffer Debauchery and Prophaneness to regain their ground and to carry the Victory after the Advances that are thus made towards the Suppressing of them and the Encouragements and Advantages we have for the Carrying of them on to so glorious an Issue have we not very great reason to fear that we may never again have such an Opportunity put into our Hands Can it be thought easie humanely speaking to bring the Body of Men together that are now engaged in it to rally and reassume a Baffled Cause wherein they may perhaps be apt to think they may have made a full and dismal experiment of the desperate Aversion and Opposition of this Generation to Reformation have if they have acted therein and in other parts of their Duty sincerely kept the Guilt of publick Wickedness from lying on them and may have delivered their own Souls Or is there any probability that this Cause will be revived and successfully retrieved by those whom no Arguments will now prevail on to concur in the present Methods or to give any other zealous Assistance to it And who is there that believes that there is a Righteous God that governs the World that will not fear how sanguine soever some Men may be upon the firmness of our present Peace and Settlement that notwithstanding our Councils and Confederacies we shall feel the Effects of the high Displeasure of Almighty God upon whose Blessing the Stability of our present Peace and outward Prosperity does depend that He will be avenged on such a Nation as this And if Jer. 6. 9. this should prove to be our dismal Case might it not then be said over us O ungratefull and rebellious Nation that wouldest so provoke infinite Patience and Forbearance wouldest obstinately refuse so many gracious Offers contemn such various Methods of Mercy as if thou had'st been desperately resolved upon Destruction O England England To what Misery have thy Sins brought thee But the Cause of Reformation is God's Cause His Providence hath seemed to me to favour the poor Endeavours of it which are represented in these Papers and therefore I hope they will with his Blessing so prosper and prevail that such a National Reformation may be effected as may prevent His heavy Judgments falling upon us And may Almighty God who is pleased to magnifie his Power in Weakness for this end mercifully direct and support those who are sincerely engaged in this Glorious Work give what is said herein agreeable to his Will some Success in the furthering of it and graciously pardon any thing in it that may not be acceptable to Him for the Lord Jesus Christ's Sake All Glory to God ERRATA Pag. 5. lin 23. for evil read wicked p. 21. l. 3. for Interest r. Interests p. 26. l. 6. dele and. p. 41. l. 6. for know r. knew p. ibid. l. 26. for hath r. have p. 47. at the end of the Marginal Note dele p. 66 67. p. 57. l. 5. for do r. doth p. 5â— l. 4. for hath r. have p. 84. l. 2. for seems r. seem p. 98. l. 15. for pervented r. prevented p. 113. l. 16. for hath r. have p. 115. l. 7. for have r. hath Advertisement ABstracts of the Laws against Prophaneness and Debauchery Blank Warrants against prophane Swearing and Cursing Drunkenness and Prophanation of the Lord's-day by Tipling in Publick Houses and Exercising of Trade Blank Registers of such Warrants for the Magistrates calling of Constables Church-Wardens Overseers of the Poor c. to account at the Sessions or otherwise for the Execution of them and the application of the Mony thereby levied to the use of the Poor Prudential Rules for the giving of Informations to Magistrates in these cases Printed for the ease of