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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	know_v	see_v	5,667	5	3.1576	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39736	A sermon against clipping, preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and court of aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, on Decemb. 16. 1694 by W. Fleetwood.	Fleetwood, William, 1656-1723.	1694 (1694)	Wing F1248; ESTC R5389	14,722	37

and Coining generally speaking as High-Treason See at the end A They made exact enquiries after these Offenders They tortured Men to confess their Accomplices They allowed Rewards and Privileges to such as would Impeach if they were Slaves they were set at Liberty and the Exchequer paid their Ransom to their Masters If one of these Offenders escap'd out of Custody his Keeper if privy to it certainly died for him If the Master or Owner of the House or Place where such Offence was committed were conscious to the thing altho' not actually employ'd himself he forfeited his House Goods and Estate and was himself Transported and if he knew nothing of the matter yet he Forfeited his House unless he made himself the first discovery to the Magistrate to oblige them I suppose to greater caution whom they trusted in their Houses All Servants Helpers and Assistants were also Condemn'd to dye as well as the principal Agent And the Death they often underwent was being burnt And yet the Romans See B were as sparing of Blood and as merciful in their Executions as any Nation whatever The Laws of the Wisigoths punished these kind of Offenders if they were Slaves with the loss of their Right-hand if they were Freemen with the loss of half their Estates and being made Slaves to whom the King pleas'd The Laws of our own Country in King Athelstan's time punished them as above with the cutting off their Right-hands and fixing them over the place where they committed the Offence In King Ethelred's days they were to undergo the Treble Ordeal i. e. to carry a Red-hot Iron of three pound weight in their hands such a determined space of Ground and if they miscarried there they were to dye In Henry I. time they were Condemned to lose some their Hands and some their Eyes And some in allusion to the Word who were found to adulterate the Kings Coin were so punish'd as if the Laws intended to prevent Adultery it self As appears in our Histories of those Times These Punishments were after chang'd into the Modern Executions and have so continued ever since altho' 't is probable that Punishments of greater Pain and constant Shame such as they heretofore were would secure us better than putting Men to a short and easie Death Thus much I think may suffice to vindicate our Laws from the reproach of being Cruel or Unjust and if Men will but well consider to wean them from that soft pernicious tenderness that sometimes certainly restrains the hand of Justice slackens the care and vigilance of Mastrates keeps back the Under Officers corrupts the Juries for Passions and Affections bribe as well as Gifts and with-holds the Evidence both from appearing and from speaking out when they appear These are the ill effects of a weak and undue compassion shewn especially to these kind of Offenders which help 't is more than likely to encrease their number and the Misery of honest People and therefore should be better thought upon by such as are so concern'd And now if I have shewn you as I thought to do That this Offence is fruitful of Mischiefs that it dishonours the Kingdom and does apparently damnifie every particular Man and will do more and more so and fall at last with a most deadly weight somewhere or other and to be sure with greater violence on the Poor and Mean who are least able to endure it if this be manifest our Laws and Executions are not only clear'd from all their Imputations but I have also found out for these Wretches a sufficient Ground and Bottom for Repentance which they it seems are generally ignorant of They can see they have offended against the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom and can acknowledge that their other Sins and Offences have betray'd them to these Practices but they cannot see the justice of those Laws nor the wickedness of these Practices They can be sorry for their great Misfortune but they know not how to repent of Clipping and Coining as Sins against God or their Neighbour and therefore however guilty they may be in other respects yet the sense of these Offences affects them little or nothing All this pretended Innocence depends as I have shewn on this mistake that No one is Injur'd hereby and they presume that no one is Injur'd because they design the Injury of no particular one nor know of any that is Injur'd by it The Evil that is done is unfix'd and undetermin'd to Time or Place or Person and therefore they conclude that none is truly done If these were not their private conceits why should not they conclude themselves as guilty of Theft and Fraud and of Injustice as much as any other Robbers and consequently repent as throughly and sincerely of them But it will not follow that because a Man either forgets or knows not whom he has Injur'd that he has therefore Injur'd none nor needs to repent or make amends For if a Man should in the course of his Calling set aside the fear of God and all regard to Honesty and Justice and make his advantage of People's Ignorance and Simplicity their Easiness or want of Understanding and Cheat them all he could without intending to Cheat any one particular more than another it will not follow that he has Cheated none because he intended to Cheat no particular nor will it follow that he has Cheated no more than he remembers to have Cheated nor will it follow that he is obliged to repent of no more Injustice than he can call to mind done to Particulars nor will it follow that he is not obliged to Restitution and Amendment because he has Cheated more than he remembers The Man knows very well that he design'd his own advantage all the while and had no consideration of the Means and knows that a great deal of wrong must needs be done and that He did it and knows that a great deal of Wrong calls for a great deal of Sorrow and a great deal of Satisfaction And this is certainly the Coiners and the Clippers Case which requires as full and true Repentance as any other Robbery whatsoever in as much as it is equal to any Theft of the same Value with respect to private People and with respect to the Publick much above it And what is said of these as Principals is also true in its proportion of all that are Accessaries all that are any ways concern'd in this Affair such as knowingly provide or make their proper Instruments such as go up and down whether in City or Country to procure broad Money such as sell these People broad Money for great Gain which cannot possibly be done without a strong suspicion of the Purchaser and such as are employed to vend and put off these pieces so corrupted and debas'd and lastly such as easily receive and purchase the Clippings and Filings of Silver at the Hands of justly-to-be-suspected Sellers I know not how they can any of them acquit

then have will not go for more than its just weight and be convinc'd by Hunger and Thirst that Clippers are as truly Thieves and Robbers as those they find upon the High-ways or breaking up their Houses and do as well deserve their Chains and Halters And who can tell whether every single Person must not bear his own Burthen and stand to the loss of all that is wanting of due Weight of all the Money he is Master of And if he must the Cry will be like that of Egypt loud and universal for every Family will be a loser But it will fall severest on the Poor who from a little can spare none One of our Historians W. Hemingford Anno 1180. tells us That in H. the Second's time the Money of the Kingdom was so corrupt that it was fain to be chang'd and call'd in It was indeed necessary but it fell exceeding hard upon the Poor and Country-People So it was also in the time of Hen. III. upon calling in the old and clip'd Money M. Paris Anno 1248. by Proclamation the People were more distress'd than if Corn had been at Half a Crown a Bushel which was then I believe equal to Twelve or Fourfteen Shillings now for the new Money was not yet come to their great Towns and when it was they receiv'd no more new than their old came to by weight paying also over and above Thirteen Pence in the Pound for Coinage so that besides the loss of Time and the great Charge they were at to come to the several Places of Exchange they were sent away with hardly Twenty Shillings for every Thirty that they brought along with them Arctabatur Populus non mediocriter damnificatus The People were straitned and receiv'd no small dammage they lost you see one Third The Poor still suffered most and so it will always be for a small Weight is heavy to the Weak and Faint and a little Loss grievous to such as have but little Neither Lastly Is the Evil far remov'd altho' the Publick bear the Loss for every Man is Part and Parcel of the Publick And if the Mint receive the little Money in and deliver out good and full yet must it needs be that these Particulars must fill the Exchequer in return for what they have receiv'd of new Money That is a general Tax must answer for the Robberies of these Villains the Good and Innocent the Careful and Industrious People must contribute to the making up the loss the Publick sustains by the Injustice and Theft of Clippers And how soon this will be no one can tell but by the haste that is made to make it necessary it cannot well be far off I have spoken exceeding modestly and moderately when I supposed we were only cheated of one Third I did it to make the Case plain for every one sees that near to half is taken away which opens the Passage to a Suspicion that Covetousness as well as Luxury is at the bottom in the Crime of Clipping and that some People will grow Rich thereby as well as others feed their Vices and Necessities for it does not seem very probable that so much Money should be spent by those poor and mean Wretches who are commonly discovered to live by this unjust and wicked Practice The Summ is much too big for them and one cannot well account how almost all the old Silver that circles round the Nation should come into these Clippers Hands in the compass of a few Years But with this I have little to do It is enough to answer my Design and Purpose if I have shewn you with any clearness the Mischiefs of corrupting and debasing Money the Coining bad Metal and the clipping and stealing from good for then the way is open to the justification of the Laws that are made to punish such Offenders which was the Third and last Particular III. Nothing can justifie the severity of Legal Punishments but their Necessity and nothing evidences this Necessity like the sight and knowledge of those Evils and Mischiefs the Laws design to prevent as well as punish And therefore the laying open the Injuries and Mischiefs of Clipping and Coining is the readiest way to clear the Reason and Justice of such Laws as doom to Death such Malefactors This I have been already trying to do and tho' there is no doubt but the Men of Skill and Experience in Trade and Money-matters can see more Mischiefs than I mention rising from these Practices yet certainly these mentioned are sufficient to acquit our Laws from being Cruel or Unjust for what can Laws do less than secure the Honour of the Nation which is much concern'd in the Goodness and Weight of its currant Coin with respect to Foreigners and just and righteous Dealing with one another at home And if nothing less than Death will serve to these good Ends then putting Men to Death for Clipping and Coining is neither Cruel nor Unjust And tho' more Pity usually attends these Criminals than others yet the Laws have not therefore less of Reason and Equity that condemn them nor is their Fault less heinous in it self or mischievous to others But our Pity arises from hence That we see Men going to suffer Death for a Crime by which we know of none that are undone or greatly injur'd the Evil is unfix'd and undetermin'd and we cannot put our selves into their Condition who are hurt by these Offenders as we can and do in other Cases which excites our Indignation Thus when a Thief breaks in upon a House and steals we are immediately sensible both of the Fright and Injury which a particular Person feels and the Concern we have for him and his Family that may be undone by the Robbery counter-balances our Pity for the Criminal Self is more nearly touched for this may be the Case of every honest Man and therefore fear for our Selves and Families as in danger of being ruin'd by the like Villany out-weighs our Pity to a Felon But in the Case of false Coinage or Clipping we think immediately only of a Dammage to the Treasury which we esteem above our Pity Or we conceive a Dammage publick and general which excites no pitiful Resentments in us because we have our Eye on no particular Man as ruin'd or undone thereby But the remembrance of what hath been above-said of the Mischiefs that are truly done both to the Publick and to almost all Particulars will change this ill-plac'd and mistaken Pity and transferr it to those that suffer Want and Misery by these ill Practices altho' we do not know them in particular for 't is impossible that so much Mischief should be done but some or other must suffer by it But to shew you that our Laws are neither cruel nor unjust in this Affair it is sufficient to say that they agree with the Laws of almost all Nations which seldom do conspire in bloody and inhumane Executions The Romans considered this Crime of Clipping