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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A67823 Piety's address to the magistrate delivered in a sermon at the assizes held in Winchester, July 11th, 1695 / by E. Young ... Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705. 1695 (1695) Wing Y62; ESTC R34111 14,263 33

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indifferently minister Iustice to the Punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the Maintenance of Gods true Religion and Vertue What we pray that You may do suffer us to pray to do Lend Your best Assistance to this Cause of Vertue and Religion Which is God's Service and Your Charge and Every man's Blessing As for Vertue You are able to serve it in the whole latitude of its Province Because the Laws have made Every Vice obnoxious to Your Censure All formal Crimes have their punishment assigned and all smaller Misdemeanours are submitted to your Discretion Insomuch that the first Seeds of Crimes whether they appear in Laziness Lavishness Petulancy Sauciness Lying Contumely or any other kind of Offensive Behaviour may stand in just awe of Your Authority It is not simply from Punishments Pecuniary or Corporal that we expect the Success Your very Frowns and Rebukes as on the other hand Your Countenance and Favour when distributed respectively and joyned with Your Exemplary Steadiness will do the greatest part of the Work Religion implores your Care especially in This That there be no Mockers of holy things no Contempt of Religious Worship no bold Profanation of the Lords Name or Day Which are Crimes that necessarily wast and harden Mens Consciences and take off all Awe and respect of Duty from their minds In my mention of Religious Worship I spoke not restrainedly to That of our Established Church because there are other Allowances by Law But yet I am not blamable if I chiefly intended That I hope You are all of Opinion that there is no false Reasoning in his Majesty's Preface to his Late Injunctions where he says We are sensible that nothing can more effectually conduce to the Honour and Glory of God and to the support of the Protestant Religion than the Protecting and Maintaining of the Church of England as it is by Law established which we are therefore resolved to do to the utmost of our Power This Reasoning is certainly sound as well as it is Authoritative Nor yet could any Magistrate tho he were otherwise persuaded be less than Perfidious to the Government if he did not shew more regard to that which is Established than to that which is barely Tolerated Nevertheless since whatsoever be the Arguments of Preference between the particular Ways of Worship the Main Point is to be Religious Whosoever is not so Tros Tyriúsve let him be made sensible of Your Displeasure And if there be any Love of Christ have a Watch upon the Socinian Poyson Suffer it not to creep into Houses and lead Captive should I say Silly Women it would be too much beneath the haughty pretences of their Scheme and therefore I shall choose to say Silly Wits And if there seem to be any Contradiction in the Terms let Them answer for it who think there be Wit in Blaspheming For so it is that the Wits such of them as are Profligate run into this Hypothesis as well as the Ignorant and Unstable Not that They can have any Concern for Religion but because they look upon this Hypothesis as a Battery raised to beat down all Religion For what Article is there in Religion wherein we may not deny the Sense or Authority of the Scriptures with as much Reason as we can deny the Divinity of Christ Which I desire You to observe that it carries in it a Double Blasphemy the First in Asserting that Christ is not God and The Second in Implying That though he be not God yet he had an Ambition to be Thought to be so For since the whole Stile of the Scripture points plainly as it does This is a Consequence which the Socinians can never evade by all their boasted Happiness of Interpretation Because the more Happy their Interpretations are the more they demonstrate This Consequence And now laying These Two Imputations together let any one tell me how they can be Tolerable How the First when charged upon Him who thought it not Robbery to be Equal with God or How the Second when charged upon Him Who made himself of no Reputation and was the Humblest of Men. But if You will serve either Vertue or Religion It is necessary that You be Vigilant and Active However Justice ought to be Blind the Justitiary ought like those Ministring Spirits about the Throne of God to be Full of Eyes i.e. he ought to be sedulous in Inspection and Enquiry into the Matters of his Charge In Offences that happen betwixt Man and Man it is Rational and fit to stay for a Complaint Because the Offended Party is so much a Friend to himself that he will be sure either to Complain or to Forgive which generally speaking is the Better Issue But in Offences where God and Piety are barely concerned there be the Facts never so Notorious 't is possible the Complaints may be none at all And therefore He who will not proceed upon Notoriety in these Cases without the Formality of a Complainant will leave himself very little Opportunity to discharge his Trust. Some there are that deliberate Whether a Magistrate should Choose to be Loved or to be Feared But let not That come under Your deliberation For he that Chooses Either has given himself a Byass that will certainly draw him from being Just. A Magistrate ought to have no other Prospect than simply That of doing Justice And He that does So may be contented with what will follow For he shall be Feared by Ill men as he should Wish to be And he shall be Loved by God and Good men Which is all the Love that is Desirable 'T is a Noble Work that I presume to admonish You of and the Incitement is no Less So which offers itself to You from the Conscience of serving God from the Glory of serving Your Country and from the Felicity of serving Your selves when You consider what That great Magistrate and Prophet Daniel has told us Chap. xii 3. They that turn many to Righteousness shall shine like the Stars for ever and ever Grant O Lord we beseech Thee that the Course of this World may be so peaceably ordered by thy Governance that thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all Godly Quietness through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS