to observe those things that even amongst the Learned in the Law are so controverted that they become so doubtful as to be rendred altogether uncertain and 't is not yet determined in which part duty and obedience is expected Yet a Subject ought alwaies to have his will so ready for Submission that as soon as these doubts shall be taken away to subject himself according as Law shall direct his Duty and a full determination regulate his Practice But as to the particular Laws and Customs of a Town because Omissions of some inconsiderable Customs do neither derogate from the honour of the Place nor at all tend to the destruction of the Community there must a Latitude be allowed First Because many of them may be not only frivolous but vicious and no man can be obliged to sin Secondly Because some may now be burdensome and insupportable in the present condition of a Town or Corporation which when established might very well be supported and no man can be bound to be injurious and unjust to that Society which he is sworn to preserve And lastly Many Customs of a Town may either after the Oath be abrogated or by a general Omission nullified and withdrawn and no man can be obliged to support that which has no being or is voided by the same Authority which gave it its first being for it is an old Rule that What institutes may abolish To render the Case therefore plain and practicable we must distinguish of those Priviledges and Customs that are Fundamental and those that are only Accidental and Circumstantial Those that are absolutely necessary to the support of the Corporation and whole Body in their Honour and Power that is essential to preserve the whole Community for the ends and designs for which it was at first instituted you are necessarily obliged to the strict observation of because these being withdrawn the Society will be ruined and fall But secondly there are some By-Laws and Customs that either may be less Fundamental or only tend to the External Pompe and Grandeur of the Community and no way necessary for the Actions of Justice or Execution of Law For the principal end of embodying Towns into Corporations was for the better Government of those Numbers that there usually swarm together not only for their own advantage that they might be capable of protecting themselves having Laws and Justice to defend themselves from malice and violence but that for their ease and convenience they might have Justice speedily executed upon Offendors Now this may be done with an Iron Rod as well as a Golden Mace as well with a Sword as a Gold Chain and in ordinary habit as well as Scarlet but yet because External Pompe and Splendour of Magistrates usually casts a dread upon the People and makes them timerous to offend these things proportionable to the Wealth and Dignity or Populousness of a Town must be had a special respect to lest the Building decay with the Pompe and Ornament and in this Observation common Custom and present Practice of the general body ought to regulate each particular Now even these also must be distinguished into what are for the present practised having already either by decree or usage received their Sanction and what shall for the future be established Those that are present are to be observed no further than by probable tokens you can conclude their first Sanction and establishment did intend so Laws are frequently interpreted according to the intention of them where the sense in the Expression becomes dubious Those that are future to your Oath which you are obliged to the observation of if confirmed by sufficient Authority must alwaies be attended with these Conditions that they are possible that they are honest that they are just for no Oath can oblige either to impossible dishonest or unjust And lastly they must not interfere with any of the Statutes of the Realm For every particular Society is subordinate to a Power that is more general and supreme Thus though your Town is immediately governed by a Mayor and Aldermen yet they themselves are bounded and limited not only by their Charter but also by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm and consequently whatever they act contrary to these is not only ipso facto void but they become responsible for their deportment before a Superiour and more general Tribunal So that any Custom or By-law that contradicts any Publick Statute cannot oblige you to the observation of it by vertue of your Oath not only because your Oath cannot oblige beyond the intention of the first Imposer but because such a Custom or By-law becomes evil and unjust it being opposite to what you were before obliged to a discharge of But yet finally to close this Case which would have taken up too much time had I fully opened it lest you should yet think this Obligation which most Aldermen that are past the servitude and slavery of a Corporation are fond of too much unbended and loose You must have a care lest in any doubtful or confident omission the circumstance of contempt or scandal attends it that is lest in your withdrawing from what others think an Obligation you do act with contempt of that general Society of which you are a particular Member or when you are convinced that your omission is such a prevalent example to others not being fully possessed of the lawfulness of your forbearance that they are thereby induced to practise the same thing with your self not having the same belief and so it becomes a snare to their Souls and a torment to their Consciences To conclude this then He that does faithfully as much as in him lies and without scandal or just offence to others endeavour to observe the Laws and Customs of that Society of which he is a Member so that he will not refractorily and with his full consent violate any thing that tends to the support either of the Being Justice or Honour of his Corporation which he is convinced is his duty to perform in that Place and Station which he possesses and endeavours also to use his utmost diligence to be acquainted with the particulars of his duty does without doubt discharge a good conscience in disburdening himself of that Obligation that lies upon him from his Oath to observe the Customs and Constitutions of his Town and Corporation to which he relates Ald. I thank you Mr. Vicar for stating this duty not only for that I plainly perceive that the failure in some little Punctilio does not make me violate my Oath but also because you seem to be tender not only of the being of the Corporation but of its Pompe and Honour too so that I do not find but that this may be fit to communicate to every Member of our Society and will as well oblige Inferiours to their distance with their Superiours and the dutiful observance of their just Commands as engage Superiours to be content with their
Party have now free liberty by a Law not only to practise mine own Religion by my self and in Society with mine own Family but to meet together with Neighbours also to the number of five For where two or three are gathered together according to our Saviour's appointment and establishment there he has promised to be in the midst of them Ald. Indeed upon that very score and permission I see no reason why the Non-conformists should be so mutinous as still to murmur at their restraints and think not only the Laws cruel but the very Rulers themselves an insupportable burden Vic. That Sir proceeds from their peevish Principle not to be satisfied with any indulgence for if you call to mind their former methods in his late Majesties Reign they were never satisfied with his largest Concessions 'till they forced away both his Crown and Kingdom the continual grant of any Petition being but an encouragement to frame another one Conquest being but the Prologue to another Tragedy and when they began to unveil the Temple and touch its Roof they never put a period to their work as long as one stone was left upon another Ald. Truly I am affraid the method would be the same now for methinks the present attempts look a little like forty and forty one Vic. The more necessity there is of your Worships assistance to break what cannot well be dissolved for as some natures are so ingenuous that lenity and entreaty are the only means to reduce them to sobriety and duty so others are so morose and ill natured that severity can only Hector them to obedience Ald. You have proceeded so far already towards my full conviction that I verily believe I shall not much dispute of the method but act according to the direction of the Laws and obligation of mine Oath But yet that I may be able as well to argue them at least to silence if not satisfaction as to punish their Crimes in such violent and notorious breach of the Laws I must further enquire whether there may not be any more absurdities that are consequential to that bold pretence of these men to the infallible testimony of the blessed Spirit of God which you have already informed me makes their strange Notions to become Canonical and invalidates the great design of the Gospel Vic. This boldness of theirs that has no Miracle at all to confirm it seems to all rational men that preserve their reason untainted by sense to guide them in the midst of such variety and rubbish of Religions at first audit not only to be of such ill consequence but impious too that I needed but only to have repeated the Problem and the very mention of it would have proved its own refutation Yet at your desire I shall mention one more amongst a multitude of absurdities that naturally flows from this strange Doctrine and that is that we must be continual Scepticks in Religion and our way to heaven will be as uncertain as the wind or as our own dreams or conjectures Ald. Pray Sir let me a little desire the explanation of this Vic. Since various complexions are of divers temperaments and the manners of the mind do too strictly attend upon the temperament of the body it must needs be that according to the variety of faces and dispositions the operations of the mind must not only be distinct but divers Thus as in external sense the object differs according to the diversity of those Organs it makes its percussions upon and whatsoever is received is introduced according to the capacity of the recipient so will it be in relation to the mind this will either be guided by sense and so the motions of the understanding will be as fluctuating and uncertain as the vibrations of a trembling or shaking sense or secondly Education may prove the only ground of belief and then our Religion may be as vain as our Education either loose or Fanatical or else capacities admitting an equality of perfection in rational souls may be exceeding different in the proportions of their extent as well as the manner of apprehension and reception the Images of things in some brains being lively and distinct make more exact perceptions of Objects in others being more obscure broken and crumbled into smaller Fragments and diseases and indispositions of body making too great a sickness in the minds of men had they no other Rule than what they conjecture a motion from the Spirit either to confirm or guide their opinions and actions every phansie or conjecture that men were possessed of that made any lasting impression upon the mind would presently become a rule and guide to Religion and thus not only would there be as many Faith 's almost as there are Judgments in the World but as many Religions as men Nay every man would differ from himself and change his faith as often as either the temper of his body should suffer mutation or the figures and shapes in his brains be changed either by the introduction of new objects or mutiny and disorder of the old Images in dreams or diseases Add to all this that divers waies do converses interests and other accidents make strange impressions and mutations on the minds of men And as you will cease to wonder at that variety of fansies which men that espouse such uncertain directors continually not only cherish but vent and propagate so you will sufficiently perceive the great delusion of those that thus pretend the Testimony of the Spirit to raise storms in their own brains and then say that this wind blows Thus making the Spirit of God to whom we owe our everlasting bliss as far as the indictment of Scripture conduces to it not only the Author of variety but contradiction Ald. How so Vic. Your Worship may not ask me this question since you need not ride abroad to a forein Conventicle for an answer to it but you have daily examples at home For you are not ignorant I am sure both by your trade and acquaintance of that diversity of Sects we have within the compass of this Town they all pretend the Spirit 's Testimony as a seal and confirmation of their opinions and practices and yet they differ as much from one another as all together do from us Ald. But methinks they seem lately to be more united courteous and kind to each other therefore I believe their breaches are made up and their differences healed Vic. I cannot Sir obstruct your belief any other way than by perswasion and argument But certainly you cannot possibly make a more visible distinction betwixt us and them than they make betwixt them and themselves For they are different from each other even to a separation and therefore the divers Sects have their divers Teachers and pretended Ministers their Doctrines and Modes of Worship are divers their Churches as they call them and Communion distinct only in their civil converse they are something more courtly and complemental to
Oath is bound if the matter of the Oath be lawful and there be no Error in the Imposition as much as in him lies to perform it Ald. You were as good say that the Mayor and Justices are all forsworn Truly I could find in my heart to acquaint the whole Bench with it and have you punished for talking against Perjury Vic. I hope Mr. Alderman your Worship will not make a Private Discourse of Publick Concernment nor injure me to the whole House for performing my duty in discourse with you But however it shall fare with me in relation to that I think it incumbent upon me as a Minister to endeavour to convince you of the truth of what either Ignorance or Irreligion causes you to mistrust Ald. I hope you will not be so presumptuous as to suppose that men arrived at our Age and Grandeur can be so ignorant as not to know our duty or so vile and Atheistical as not to perform it Vic. I shall neither presume to be accuser or judge of any person in particular but certainly in the general Perjury and contempt of Oaths is no less hainous than damning sin or else the third Commandment will scarce be Moral nor would that be repeated with a solemn Sanction Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths Ald. Well but suppose that granted that there is such a thing as Perjury Yet it may consist only in this when we confirm a false thing by an Oath swearing contrary to what we know or are perswaded to be true And this cannot at all reach us Vic. I do not here speak of Perjury in a Witness but a Judge and since you will not allow mine own Oath of Canonical Obedience to oblige me let us see where you are not perjured when you have sworn to put those Laws in execution that belong to you as Justices of the Peace Ald. It seems then you would suppose us guilty of Perjury for the breach of such Oaths as no body that I know keeps Vic. We are told I am sure that we must not run with the Multitude to do evil and I do not think that the Numbers in Hell do mitigate and abate but rather advance and encrease torments For flames are not the less but more cruel for that they have the more fuel to consume Ald. Truly Sir if you continue and persevere in such Invectives this Town will prove too hot for you and you will sooner for such tart Speeches forfeit all your Welfare than we shall possess misery hereafter And you will sacrifice your bliss in those very flames that your zeal kindles and your breath blows up to devour both our credit and felicity Vic. Sir as to your credit I would not willingly impair that because some of you live upon it but as to your felicity most certain it is if you repent not in time you may chance to forfeit that eternally Ald. Your discourse seems now to be closs and serious and therefore pray arrive at some particulars that I may understand what you drive at that so I may be able to excuse or else at least to retract my fault Vic. You now seem not only to have the port and garbe but the mind and soul of a Pious Magistrate and therefore I shall act friendly with you which is best demonstrated by plain dealing but I hope it shall not prejudice my maintenance Ald. Truly 't is as you behave your self for it is the ancient Custome of this Town to have our Minister alwaies bound to his good behaviour Vic. Truly Sir Your Worship may deal as you please with me and entertain what hard thoughts you will but what I do is out of Conscience to my duty and out of meer charity to your immortal Soul Ald. If what you say be real I see no reason but I may give you leave to go on only have a care that no blot be thrown upon the Grandeur of the Corporation Vic. Your Worship may already perceive not only candour but such respect as is due to your Wisdoms and I well knowing there can be no order where Superiority is not well distinguished from its opposite and that all Government requires subordination you cannot in reason suspect my regard to duty so much as to fear any unhandsome reflections and if there be any thing that may create offence it must be in your own application Ald. I shall thank you Sir for your Doctrine if you will but permit us to make what use we please for we cannot dislike our own actions for that were to recant our justice and proclaime to the World that we were capable of mistake Vic. Though the Articles of our Church forbid us to account any one infallible yet we shall be forced to yield your Power absolute that deems it a derogation to admit either rebuke or controule Ald. We must still maintain the Authority of the Place and not suppose the least blemish visible in the face of Justice for that were to cast dust against the Sun and cover that glorious countenance with a cloud Vic. I readily grant to your good Worship that the Power and Grandeur of the Town is to be maintained and your Orders executed without the least violation for if any Error should be found in you it must needs be a Scarlet Crime and then your Garments themselves would blush for their misfortune Yet as the pale Moon that attempts to rule a dark night is not without some Spots so the Sun hath his maculae too I hope therefore if you should chance through the Glass of my Discourse to see some stains upon your own Garments though you might suspect the Mirrour you would not conclude without due trial that it made those Spots it pretended to discover Ald. I shall be as candid as my Dignity and Office will permit and will endeavour to hide that dirt that my Garment has contracted when it is not violently cast upon it But I think indeed that we are as strict in keeping our Decorum and observing the ancient Customs of the Town as any Corporation in England and indeed we must of necessity be obliget to it since besides that they are both decent and laudable we are sworn to the observation of them Vic. Then it seems your Worship thinks there is Obligation in an Oath Ald. I hope you do not suppose me so Atheistical and irreligious as not to believe that an Oath is a most solemn thing and binds us upon pain of Divine Vengeance to the performance of all those things that are lawful with respect still had to the support of our Authority and Livelihood and therefore we look upon the Obligation so Sacred that although we are not Popish observers of Festivals yet we think it our duty to be punctual in keeping all the stated and publick Feasts of this Town according to Custom not only that we may oblige our Friends at the Town Charges and strengthen the
subjects himself to that Church from which before violently and without cause he made a Schism is no longer liable to the Civil Mulcts of those Penal Laws that concerned him before his Conversion so when these Canaanites or any part of them should relinquish their Idolls and devoutly resign themselves to the Worship of the God of Israel they were no longer concerned in the Penalties of the Laws against the Canaanites but might be capable of a Truce and League And should not the Law have been thus attended with condition there would have been no room left for Repentance and consequently the Almighty would have offered violence to his own Mercy which he has declared to be over all has works and is an Attribute in which he most delights Ald. But the very Action of God is enough at any time to justifie his Attributes and therefore I shall not much trouble my self with that yet methinks a Law so Vniversal must of necessity oblige to such a total destruction of those Nations that the League with the Gibeonites must needs be unlawful Vic. Let not Sir this Universality so much disturbe your Reason since I can easily exhibite an exception of particulars What do you think of Rahab that entertained the Spies was not she a Canaanite And yet she was preserved alive Josh 6.25 And what can you think of those which were not of the Children of Israel which remaining even in Solomons time were not destroyed but brought under Tribute 1 Kings 11. What do you think also of those Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer who inhabited amongst the Ephraimites and served under Tribute Josh 16.10 The same may also be concluded from the Gergasens Mat. 8.28 who continued to be a People even till our Saviours time for being omitted in those particular enumerations of the Adversaries of Israel that were by divine appointment to be rooted out we may rationally conjecture that they yielded at the first Ald. Well Sir that you may not think me alwaies wedded to mine own opinion but that I may by the power of Argument and Reason be sometimes divorced from my belief I must of necessity confess your instances have convinced me that this great Prohibition was Conditional and consequently not so Vniversal as I supposed it But what was the League then which was prohibited Vic. To answer this I must distinguish of a double League there is a Social League such as one Prince makes with another upon honourable and sometimes advantageous terms to both and this was simply forbidden but there is a League with a conquered Enemy as upon the yielding a Town to the Besiegers or a whole Nation becoming Tributary to a Conquerour and such a one might be struck with those that relinquishing their Idolatry were in the nature of Proselytes and submitting themselves would pay Tribute to the Israelites which I take at first to be the case of the Gibeonites Ald. But if you have rightly stated the difference betwixt the Israelites and the Nations methinks 't is somewhat strange that Joshua seemed so much concerned for his surprize and that the whole Congregation should so severely murmur against their Princes for swearing to these Gibeonites Vic. All this may very well be reconcilable with our precedent discourse for the Princes having made this League and bound it by an Oath and not according to their duty enquired of God they might fear a Judgment for than omission and this might be the cause of their discontent and murmuring Ald. But why should Joshua after the League then pronounce them accursed and condemn them to the slavery of the Temple to be Hewers of wood and Drawers of water if the unlawfulness of the League and Oath had not caused a burden to his Conscience Vic. That I hope your Worship will no longer object when you shall understand it to be an effect of Justice It was a punishment for their deceipt and falshood insinuating subtily their remote dwelling when they were indeed their near Neighbours So that by this I hope you discerne how much your canting Objector but malicious Traitor would have imposed upon you in urging this Oath of Israel to the Gibeonites as a motive for you to keep the Covenant when there was not so much as the resemblance of Parallel the Covenant being evidenced to be impious and unlawful but the League and Oath in relation to the Gibeonites has been sufficiently proved valid and good I hope for the future you will be so just to your self as well as your Office to punish such insinuating Cheats that under the pretense of Piety and Religion and winning Souls to Jesus Christ as they call it most scandalously to the ruine both of Church and State instill poysonous Principles into the minds of men that swell them up to Tumult and Rebellion and would as you see if possibly they could infuse their venome into the subordinate Magistrates that they growing big with Saintship should extend beyond their just proportion and their own esteem should render then better than their Prince and consequently he would be so vile in their eyes that his Laws should first appear ridiculous and so not being the effects of Wisdom would be unfit to be executed and then his Person must be first contemned and afterwards set aside or murdered Ald. I hope their Principles are not altogether so bad as you make them I am apt to think that they themselves are convinced by those Arguments which they enforce to others and therefore impute all their miscarriages to their weakness rather than their obstinacy and all may be though it proves unfortunate in the expression and those consequences that are deduced from their Principle the effect of good meaning But to leave such discourse because you know at present they may be bold having almost the same priviledge with your selves Since this Non-conformist has given you this trouble by his Objection I would have you endeavour to requite him by exhibiting an example that may convince the truth of your former Position that an unlawful Oath is not Obligatory and binds to nothing but Repentance by this means you shall discharge your debt to him by putting him to the expense of an answer or for defect of that to be liable to the disparagement of a baffle in his own Trade As also you will by this carry on your main design of confirming and strengthening that belief which you have been a means to raise in me Vic. Although Sir I would evince my self to be more a man than to be at all jealous of anothers affection yet methinks by your discourse I have too much reason to suspect the Non-conformists to be Rivals to the Church of England in relation to the winning your Judgment and Opinion But because I should be injurious to my self in disturbing mine own peace as well as disobedient to you in a denial of my duty should I at all protract an answer to your Commands An example now presents it self to
Vice you can either by your Authority or Connivance gag them to silence You can suffer the King and all the pious Supporters of the Church to be spotted by a perpetual reproach you can quietly and without controule permit Conventicles both of Drunkards and Fanaticks and though they load you with affronts publick and private if they or their Relations are your Customers instead of suppression they shall have the encouragement of your own Society All the Laws both of God and Man though not only undervalued and slighted in discourse but too frequently blasphemed and reproached and with impunity violated by persons of the blackest Character whom a Pencil dipped in the Infernal Lake can scarce decipher you cannot only be Stoical and unconcerned in but oftentimes violate your selves what you ought to punish in others and then they commonly fare the better for your own sakes But if a little Custom of your Town be concerned though it be but playing a Dog amiss at a Bull-baiting or having but a sheeps hinge the less at a publick Feast there is nothing less than thunder and lightning the head is presently shook to see whether he has not lost his brains and the Band is carelesly turned to the Ale-house and all is in such disorder and confusion as if a fire were raging through the midst of our bowels and a present damnation were brought upon the World and all this no doubt from a mistake concerning the Obligation of the Customs of the Town and though your Wisdoms understand Perjury too well to be much concerned at a few Acts yet here you think your selves forsworn if an Aldermans Gown should prove moth-eaten or the Rats should gnaw it for want of victuals so render are men in their own concerns Ald. I see plainly you cannot live unless you are allowed a little liberty which has been the reason of my patience though not without violence to my Place and Grandeur whilest you have too severely reflected upon the Customs of our Town and in my judgment sometimes a little too broad for one that is but a Minister We never used to be served thus but so great a distance did our Aldermen keep with men of your Coat that one of us never came by any of them that belonged to this Town but the Minister was down to the ground to them and looked upon it both as his duty and interest so to do though they perhaps having so much burden upon their shoulders by reason of the Publick Affairs of the Town and other Accidents more private might for the present take no notice of him But not to disturbe or provoke your passion lest respect to you in forbearing the Law should cause my Brethren to censure my lenity where I ought to be severe I shall freely pardon your past Expressions because they were uttered in mine own house if for the future you will discourse only of the Point you have in hand without particular instances in our Customs Vic. Sir I am sorry that my Expressions sometimes prove so unfortunate to offend your Worship I had hoped you would now have suffered me to unbend the Bow But however since your Reputation or at least Greatness is such that your Will is a Law to the whole Town all reason it should be so to me Had I told you that Mr. Mayors door had no greater Mark or Badge of Cognizance than the biggest heap of Oyster shells or that when Qeen Elizabeth came to Town and Mr. Mayor and the Corporation met her on horseback and riding through the River his Worships Horse would have been so bold as to drink in the same Cup with the Queens which he being a well-bred Gentleman repressed the reason being asked he told the Queen in very good Language that he should not be so unmannerly to drink 'till her Majestie 's had done Had I revived such Stories as these your Worship indeed might have justly blamed me for reviling the Corporation and joyning you and your horses together but since I instanced only in a few Customs not much taken notice of abroad in the World and that privately betwixt you and I for an entrance only to the serious state of a useful Problem I hope I shall obtain your forgetfulness and pardon since even that is customary to your good nature for what I have said and then I shall immediately exhibite my present thoughts and reading concerning the Obligation of your Customs in general by vertue of your Oath without reflection upon any particulars Ald. That is it which will make me retract my power and command and use you only with familiarity and entreaty I must now keep you to this promise Vic. I am much engaged to your Worship not only for your former civilities but also for that you manifest so great a present delight in this discourse that though I have not only by unmannerly interruptions but frequent diversions to another Theam that might sometimes prove ungrateful to your Worship attempted to put a period to this present task yet you have so tempted the repetition of my former discourse that by your discreet and wise management there has been a kind of method in what would otherwise have been confused and you have still prompted forward a design that has alwaies been as pleasant unto me as I hope it may be useful to you Ald. I know not yet what use I may make of the design nor do I know what you drive at which makes me willing to provoke you to the end of the discourse that I may be eased of the execution of some of my Oaths which I perceive are so many that they will otherwise at last execute me Vic. That Sir you perceive is the present design and because I find your Town Customs to be very many though perhaps you account none needless and if your Worship would confess sometimes burdensome too and I would instance in some but that I have promised to speak in general It will therefore be no ungrateful attempt if I endeavour to discover an effectual way how to save your Oath entire and yet abate the rigour of your Action in the observation of all particular Customs Ald. I shall be very glad to hear any thing proved though I like our Customs very well and they seem to me to be good and laudable Vic. Observe Sir then if you please that you are to look upon your self in a double capacity as a Subject of the Realm and so a Member of the Great Society that are governed by the Laws of our Supreme Prince and gracious King Or else you are to observe your self as a Member of a particular Society separated from the general body for the discharge of some particular duties and designs As you are a Subject of the Realm you are no doubt obliged to observe and keep as much as in you lies all the Rights which by Law or Custom appear to be just and lawful and yet you are not bound
other Graces but also for the perpetual remembrance of his Death and Passion and that 'till he comes to sit upon his Throne and pass an equitable sentence upon the whole World Ald. Without doubt I must not approach those mysteries with sins upon my Conscience unrepented of Vic. Nor are you invited by the Priest in the words of the Church unless you both repent of your sins and are in charity with the World and intend to lead a new life Ald. Why then should you blame me Vic. Because these qualifications are within the compass of your own attempts assisted by the grace of Almighty God which is never wanting to persons of a sincere endeavour Ald. What would you then advise me to that I may prepare my self against the next Sacrament Vic. Your Worship I presume for the most part are able to give advice to me but since you give leave it will be accounted no unpardonable boldness I hope if I give you some directions and it will be no disparagement to entertain them since they shall be the Churches Rules Ald. But let them reach the particular case in hand that so your resolution may not be more tedious than the canting and length of a Fanaticks Prayer Vic. All my fear has hitherto been that my words have been too quick and short If you find then that Perjury has been your crying sin let repentance attended with faith in Christ's bloud wash away the guilt of your former falshood and omissions be in charity with their persons against whom your Oath obliges you to execute the Law and be resolved for the time to come to be more sedulous and frequent in the discharge of your duty Ald. This indeed is like your self Mr. Vicar short and sweet Vic. It has the greater probability to keep your justice waking and I am sorry the advice is no more like your Worship Ald. But all this while I have led you in a cloud Vic. Let your face Sir then that proportionable to your Estate is bright and rich dispel and scatter it with your beams and raies that so I may have a Rubrick to direct me Ald. You are marvelous witty good Mr Vicar thus to reflect upon my very face Vic. I must confess your Worships Face needs no reflections yet 't is but gratitude to return those raies that before were darted upon mine own body I touched only upon your Face because I would not make a bridge of your nose Ald. You think now you have hit that place where there may be matter enough for discourse Vic. Truly Sir you led me to it and yet I must beg your pardon if I refuse thus to defile my Language Thus 't is alwaies you see when gall and passion begins to stir Ald. Really Sir I am so much sensible of mine own infirmities as not to be altogether averse to the pardoning yours Vic. I thank you heartily for your candour and ingenuity and shall be more obliged to you for your forbearance if you please to antidote your own passion the better to prevent mine Ald. I did not intend any other than a trivial Jest when I seemed to reflect upon the stature of your body Vic. And I intend none other than earnest when I reflect upon the proportions of your mind Ald. But stay Mr. Vicar your late discourse supposes me guilty of Perjury and so I must needs confess I am as far as the case has hitherto been stated but are you sure I can plead nothing for my self in bar of your Accusation and defence of mine Innocency Vic. I shall by no means accuse you lest you brand me with Sathan's Title and call me the Accuser of the Brethren But I cannot imagine how you can excuse or acquit your self from swearing falsly when you do not put in execution the King's Laws that belong to you as a Justice of the Peace Ald. Yes I can exhibite London it self the Metropolis of the Nation for an example of omissions here Vic. London cannot possibly be looked upon as a pattern and exemplar for smaller Towns for because of the populousness and largeness of that City it is impossible the Magistrates can be able to discover those misdemeanours and breach of Laws that are there daily acted and committed Great Cities will be alwaies full of unclean birds but the Cage is so big that the Magistrate knows not how to catch them Ald. But do you think that those unlawful Assemblies as the Statute calls them do never make noise enough to come to the Justice of Peace's ears Vic. I do not at all question that no doubt the meetings are tumultuous enough not only to reach the ears of those but sometimes approach so near them as to leave the guilt at their very doors unless there they have a trick of restraining their Families better than we have in this Town But our question now is matter of right not of fact and we are to follow Precept before Example What ease can it be to any particular mans torment to have a great many more roaring with him And since we are enjoyned in Sacred Writ to perform unto the Lord God our Oaths it will not at all detract from that just misery I must be possessed of for the wilful and constant breach of mine though all the World were also involved in the same guilt Ald. What you say indeed are great truths nor were the Example at all Argumentative unless their forbearance of rigour and execution did perswade us that there was a supreme connivence Vic. I hope Supreme Authority may not only have liberty to wink but sleep when he has both Commissioned and Commanded others and bound them with the Oath of God upon them to look to the general performance of duty and to punish those that play the Truant and violate Laws in contempt of Authority Thus does the Shepherd go to sleep when as he supposes he has with safety folded his sheep Thus does also the Superiour Commander quietly take his rest and repose when he has set his guards and appointed to his Army Quarters The Pilot has given forth his Orders and the Ship may be in danger unless the inferiour Officers in their several Watches steer right and keep the Seamen from mutiny or disorder But you cannot say there is so much as a Supreme Connivence since the same Laws are still in force and the Royal Proclamations have sufficiently been sounded through the whole Nation and the Oath of a Justice is still the same attended with the same force and Obligation Ald But notwithstanding all your reply it 's thought by persons both of interest and parts that there is some countenance given Vic. You are easily made to believe these things that perhaps you may be willing should be accomplished but can you conjecture that God Almighty who has declared to the World that he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain will be satisfied for the breach of your Oath
the Laws you are sworn to are to be your Director and unless you receive a prohibition from him who has the Supreme Executive as well as Legislative Power of the Kingdom your Oath whatever may either through fear self-inteterest or indulgence to others be pleaded to the contrary will oblige you upon no less danger than the ruine of your soul to do what in you lies to discharge it Ald. But our livelihood is in this totally concerned We that are Tradesmen should we be severe in the execution of the Laws against these persons we must of necessity be undone for we should lose a great part of our Custom Vic. Methinks your Worship is just like a person quite shipwracked you catch with such greediness at every little Planke and and Oar and I hope I have almost vanquished all your Arguments and Doubts and hewed down the main Pillars of the House you do so prop up your building with Poles and Faggot-sticks Do you not yet consider that the welfare of your soul is to be preferred before not only your Estate but your Life too What advantage is it that I may put to you our Saviour's Question to gain the whole World and to lose your own soul This is so precious a Jewel that it is not capable of barter or exchange All your torment for the gaining of an Estate here is only to make your Posterity rich and what benefit can you reap from their temporal welfare and prosperity Your body will lie rotting in a grave and that Vault will be too obscure and dark for you to see through and take a prospect of your Families splendour There cannot possibly be the least reflection from their honour and advancement here upon you when lodged in your bed of earth and crumbled into Dust and Vermine And then to have your Soul eternally miserable and to salute your body in fire and flames at the great and glorious Morning of the Resurrection because you have neglected your Obligations here both to God your King and his holy Church only to secure your present Possessions or to heap up Riches for future Generations this is relinquishing the highest Heaven for a poor contemptible spot of Earth Methinks Sir you should be better skilled in your own Trade than to exchange the Pearl of preat price for small contemptible and perishing Commodities to barter Diamonds for Bristol stones and with the Indians to to sell the finest Gold for a small piece of painted Glass If the severest Duties and strictest Obligations of most solemn Oaths may thus be dispensed with when Interest stands in competition with them we then certainly never yet understood our Religion nor is the Gospel of our Saviour the way to Heaven nor will the Gates of that glorious City be ever opened to the Practicers of Christianity For if we make a narrow search into those eternal Precepts of the great Author and Contriver of our Religion as well as Redeemer and Purchaser of our lives and ransom we shall find next to a belief in our Saviour that they consist in mortifying our Appetites Passions and Desires in withdrawing our Affections from too eager a pursuit of this World in a blessed contentation with our present Lot that turns Earth into Heaven and Paradise in a due and constant obedience to our Superiours a strict observation of our Promises and Vows and there must not be with us yea and nay 'T is a wonder to me that St. Peter should be blamed for denying his Master if any interest might dispense with duty or that the Primitive Martyrs had not been more wary than to burn their bodies when they were no acceptable Sacrifice Our Saviour I am sure was obedient to the death and has assured those of their unworthiness of himself or any of those advantages that he has brought to an ungrateful World if they love their Relations better than himself Believe it Sir God and Mammon Christ and Belial cannot both be served and obeyed and if you will obey the Commands of one you must not become a slave to the other I cannot but admire that a person of your Port and Gravity would once mention such an Objection as this that sets a Temporal Interest against a Spiritual advantage as if it were ponderous enough to encline the balance both of Faith and Reason Shall a great and solemn duty be neglected to which you are obliged by the bond of an Oath in which either your laziness or contempt execrates all your own felicity and abandons your everlasting bliss only for the Pelf and glittering Dust of a ruinous and tottering World This is making a God of Mammon prostration before the Golden Image and adoring a pitiful lump of clay But what should I argue thus with a Christian You are baptized and therefore have renounced the World as well as the Flesh and the Devil and therefore I hope this Objection started from you through weakness and inadvertency only and was not the effect of Judgment or Premeditation nor can you conjecture that Private Interest is of that concern with Almighty God as to be potent enough to release you from the least duty much less from the great and most strict Obligation of an Oath And yet that I may endeavour to obviate all Evasions even to those that may not have so deep and prevalent a sense of duty You know by reason of my Residence and Function in this Town I am acquainted with almost all sorts of Tradesmen Ald. I know you are Vic. They tell me then that indulgence of the Justices to Fanaticks does not at all encrease their Custome or support their Trade nor will any Obligation engage those men to buy any where but there where they may have the best bargain And that which enclines me to a belief of this is that prodigious covetousness and Jewish griping that I have observed in the most of them as if it were riveted in their very Religion for they pretend abstinence to save the expenses of hospitality and good neighbourhood and so become in their way religious only that they may save charges Nor can I at all wonder at these mens avarice as long as they have so much of pride and humour to maintain So that as your interest and livelihood were it concerned is not enough to weigh down your duty and Oath even that cannot be much damnified by your Justice and Severity to those persons For somewhere or other they must buy and if your goods be most merchantable and best cheap you will not fail of these Customers If not all the art and skill that you have all the favour and kindness you can shew them shall never be arguments prevalent enough to draw them into your noose and snare For there are no persons under the Canopy of Heaven that are better skill'd in the arts and tricks of cheat and cousenage than themselves and therefore will easily discern the little wiles that you lay for them Ald.
I cannot but return very many thanks to you Mr. Vicar for all your large and pertinent discourses which I must confess have fully convinced me not only of the danger of discontented persons if permitted any longer to meet thus in great numbers to the disturbance of our peace both in Church and State but also of the Obligation of mine Oath as a Justice of the Peace to put in execution the Laws against them And I pray God enable me to deny mine interest rather than so great and solemn an Obligation as an Oath is Vic. Trust God Almighty Sir with your Estate he will never bless you the less for the performance of your duty For if you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the Sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Isa 1.19 20. Trust Sir in God and do good and you need not doubt of being sufficiently fed Not only the welfare of the Church which is as glorious as it is great depends upon your activity courage and diligence but even the King's honour and the Kingdoms prosperity For if Laws that have received their Sanction are not put in execution it must be for one of these three Reasons either because they are imprudent and unjust in themselves and this will subvert the Legislators wisdom Or secondly because he that is to put them in execution has not power enough to accomplish the design and then his force being contemptible fear and dread will be withdrawn from the Subject Or lastly because there is a defect in his will for the accomplishment of what his Power is ready to assist him in and the Justice of the cause enforces the Obligation of the duty and either of these Reasons being granted and believed amongst the multitude will immediately lay a Kingdom waste and reduce Empires into heaps of Ruines For a Prince being thought to want wisdom brings his Person in contempt want of power in time raises his Adversaries and defect of will to resist and withstand them encourages them to proceed to victory and conquest Ald. I have nothing with which I can withstand your conviction God pardon my past neglects and I will be more sedulous for the time to come But methinks it should something abate our rigour to consider that they would tolerate us Vic. I see did not your Oath goad you the welfare of the Church and peace of the Kingdom would scarce prevail Shake off for once all your fear and do not love the honour more than the duty and burden of of your Office And then I will tell you that never any Party yet would plead for Toleration but whilst themselves were under restraint they had another note when the Sun shined different from what they have in a shower To my knowledge Toleration was accursed in their mouths who now thank God for a gracious indulgence The late times will afford you testimonies enough of their tyranny when they wore the Sword of Power and Force and we shall assuredly find their actions contrary to their specious pretensions should Rebellion ever be rampant to a victory Do but read over the Books I lent you and tell me then what hopes you have of an indulgence from them unless you once more turn to their Principles and Opinions But that I may use a Reason that must of necessity silence this Plea shall we suffer our selves to become the conquered Party only that we may experience the civility of our Adversary Will any man in his right senses make over his Lordship and Possessions to another that he may receive a Pension from it We can expect none other than the greatest violence from persons of their Principles and malice and therefore let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Ald. But if they should chance to have their designs accomplished and should either by strength or treachery gain a victory over us and so we should lose the day they would presently fall to pieces again and thrust their Swords in one anothers bowels Vic. This Sir will be readily consented to But as by their former Methods you collect this so by their present attempts you may without the help of Stars Prognosticate their barbarous designs of ruine to our Church And it cannot but be a strange piece of Policy for a Prince to permit the invasion of his Territories and sacrifice both himself and Possessions to the Avarice and Malice of his cruel Adversaries that they wanting an Enemy to encounter may sheath their Swords in one anothers bowels To be sure they will not disagree as long as they have a Common Adversary left alive and it will be strange pleasure for a dead Enemy that his Adversaries rage against each other I hope Sir your Arguments are all now spent for the Vessel I perceive is out by the dregs and Lees that run from it Let me now with all humility beseech your double care for the execution of what has been to our sorrow too long neglected and let a true repentance for your Omissions be evidenced both to God Almighty and the World by your future vigour and Activity The Night has now blotted out the Day and calls for a period to our Discourse The Laws will prove your best Director and your Oath and Duty the greatest Motive Let the gaping wounds of a bleeding Church beg your Charity to bind up the sores and the devastation and misery of former Wars and almost total subversion of Christianity amongst us beseech your endeavour to support that Church which a warm Sun would soon revive and a sovereign Balsam quickly cure That your duty to God may be faithfully discharged and the breach of Oaths may not burden your Conscience That you may prove both an obedient and loyal Subject unto him who gives you your Honour and Authority by your Office a faithful Assertor of his Majesties Power and Supreme Prerogative a stout Champion for the Church's Priviledges a just Fence to Propriety and Enclosures and a charitable Repairer of those breaches that Schism and Sedition have too long made upon us So shall you be a true Fence to the Fold of Christ preserving the enclosed from the mouths of Wolves and be a means of reducing those wandring sheep that through giddiness or wantonness have strayed out of their appointed Pastures amongst the wild beasts of the Forest And God Almighty direct all your undertakings and crown your Pious and Christian endeavours with success that your courageous resolutions and sacred Promises may never terminate or be envalidated through the subtilty of the Adversary or allurements of the World 'till your unwearied Performance publickly testifies that your Promise was not rash nor your Oath in vain Ald. Now Sir that you have answered my scruples and invalidated my reasonings I should be beneath the worth of mankind if I should not thankefully receive my conviction And I hope whatever liberty