one Witness   This Act extends not to dressing of Meat in Cooks-Shops Inns or Victualling-Houses for such as otherwise cannot be provided nor to Hackney Coaches that are Licensed    Every Person must be Impeached upon this Act within Ten Days after the Offence Drunkenness   A Crime from which the Ancient Britains were free therefore the Laws against it are new Co. 3 Instit fol. 200 201. 4 Jac. c. 5. 21 Jac. c. 7. The Offender for the first to pay Five Shillings to the Church-Wardens where c. within one Week after Conviction or else to be Levied by Warrant c. by Distress and Sale and for want of Distress to sit in the Stocks six Hours If any be Convicted for being Drunk by One Witness View or Confession and the Party confessing a good Witness against another Offending at the same time   If any Ale House-Keeper be Convicted of Drunkenness he is disabled for Three Years to keep any Ale-House 7 Jac. c. 10. 21 Jac. c. 7. For the second Offence must be bound in Ten Pounds with Two Sureties to the good Behaviour and for want of Sureties to be sent to Gaol This Conviction of Drunkenness must be within Six Months after the Offence committed  If the Constable levy not the Forfeitures he Forfeits Ten Shillings to the Poor ut supra Inn-Keepers Ale-House-Keepers or Victuallers that suffer any of the same Parish to continue Tipling in their Houses 1 Jac. c. 9. 21 Jac. c. 7. Ten Shillings to be Levied by Distress and Sale after six days and for want of Distress to be committed till Payment and Disabled for 3 Years from keeping any Ale-House c. One Witness View or Confession and the Party confessing a good Witness against another Offending at the same time  If the Constable or Church-Warden do not Levy the Penalty or shall not certifie the want of Distress within Twenty Days he Forfeits Forty Shillings to be levied by Distress and Sale ut supra If any Inn-Keeper Ale-House-Keeper Victualler or Taverner suffer any Person wheresoever his Habitation be to continue Tipling in his House 1 Jac. cap. 9. 21 Jac. C. 7. 1 Car. cap. 4. Ten Shillings to be Levied by Distress and for want of Satisfaction in six days to be sold restoring the Overplus and for want of Distress to be committed till Payment Two Witnesses or View   Townsmen or others which shall remain Tipling in any Inn Ale-House or Victualling-House One Witness View or Confession ut supra 4 Jac. cap. 5. 21 Jac. c. 7. Three Shillings and Four Pence to be Levied by Distress after one Weeks Neglect of Payment or to sit in the Stocks four Hours Constables shall be charged on their Oaths to present Offences committed against these Acts. 1 Car. cap. 4. 21 Jac. c. 7. Dalt cap. 7. The Constable for his Neglect Forfeits Ten Shillings ut supra These Statutes do Prohibit all Quaffing and Drinking of Healths such Houses being solely appointed for the Accommodation of Travellers and for the Relief of the Poor  Every such Taveâ—ner which shall suffer any Person whatsoever to Tiple in his House contrary to the said Statutes shall be adjudged within the Statute 1 Jac. Cap. 9. Swearing Cursing   If any Person shall Prophanely Swear or Curse in the Hearing of a Justice of Peace Mayor c. or be Convicted of such Swearing by One Witness or Confession of the Party 21 Jac. c. 20 3 Car. c. 4. 17 Car. c. 4. 6 7 Guliel Cap. 11. He shall foriâ—â—t for every such Offence to the Use of the Poor the respective Sums following every Servant Day-Labourer common Soldier and common Sâ—â— man One Shilling every other Person Two Shillings If any Person after Conviction shall â—â—end a Second time such Person shall pay Double and if a Third time Trebble the Sum respectively to be paid for the first Offence Every Justice Head-Officer c. may Command the Constables c. 〈◊〉 Levy the same by Distress And for 〈◊〉 of Disâ—râ—ss the Offender being above the Age of Sixteen Years shall be for in the Stocks for every single Offence one Hour for any Number at one and the same time two hours If under sixteen Years old and shall not pay the saiâ— Twelve pence he shall oâ— whipp'd by the Constable by Warrant of the â—â—â—â—â—ce Every Offence against this Act must be proved within Ten Days after the Offence Committed   Every Justice shall Register c. and certifie to the next Quarter-Sessions of Peace all Convictions made before him upon this Act and the time of making thereof and for what Offence  or by the Parent Guardian or Master in the Presence of the Constable Every Justice or chief Magistrate wilfully omitting the Performing of his Duty shall forfeit Five Pounds to be recovered by Action The Act of the Sixth and Seventh of King WILLIAM to be Read four times in the Year in all Churches and Chappels under the pain of Twenty Shillings for Neglect thereof General Issue c. Treble Costs c. None shall in any Stage-Play Shew May game Interlude or Pageant Jestingly or Prophanely speak or use the Holy Name of God Christ Jesus the Holy Ghost or Trinity 3 Jac. C. 21. On pain of Ten Pounds to be divided between the King and the Prosecutor to be recovered by Action c. Blasphemy   If any Person having been Educated in or at any time having made Profession of the Christian Religion within this Realm shall by Writing Printing Teaching or advised Speaking deny any one of the Persons in the Holy Trinity to be God or shall assert or maintain there are more Gods than One or shall deny the Christian Religion to be true or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of Divine Authority and shall upon Indictment or Information in any of His Majesty's Courts at Westminster or at the Assizes be thereof Lawfully Convicted by the Oath of Two or more credible Witnesses 9 10. Gulielm 3. For the first Offence shall be adjudged incapable and disabled in Law to all Intents and Purposes to have or injoy any Office or Imployment Ecclesiastical Civil or Military or any Part in them or any Profit or Advantage appertaining to them and if at the Time of Conviction Possest c. such Office Place or Imployment shall be void Note This Statute punishes not the Error but the Impudence of the Offender  On the second Conviction shall be disabled to Sue Prosecute Plead or use any Action or Information in any Court of Law or Equity or to be a Guardian or an Executor or Administrator or capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gift or of any Office Civil or Military or Benefice Ecclesiastical and shall suffer three Years Imprisonment without Bail from the Time of the Conviction   The Information to a Justice of Peace to be within four Days for Words and the Prosecution
bringing the Offenders to legal Punishment These may have actually suppressed and rooted out about Five Hundred Disorderly Houses and caused to be punished some Thousands of Lewd Persons besides Swearers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lord's-Day as may appear by their Printed Lists of Offenders These Persons by their prudent and legal Management of their Business have received great Countenance and Encouragement in our Courts of Judicature and very particular Encouragement and Assistance for several Years past from the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen who are sensible of the great Service that is done by them which they express upon proper Occasions A Third Society is of Constables of which sort of Officers Care is taken to form Yearly a new Body in this City who meet to consider of the most Effectual way to discharge their Oaths to acquaint one another with the Difficulties they meet with to resolve on proper Remedies to divide themselves in the several Parts of the City so as to take in the whole to the best Advantage for the inspecting of Disorderly Houses taking up of Drunkards Lewd Persons Prophaners of the Lord's-Day and Swearers out of the Streets and Markets and carrying them before the Magistrates and I must observe that this is found a very successful Method for Constables to take for the Suppressing of the abominable Sin of Swearing when Private Persons are negligent in giving of Informations and the Magistrate is careless of his Duty A Fourth Rank of Men who have been so highly Instrumental in this Vndertaking that they may be reckoned a Corner-Stone of it is of such as have made it some part of their Business to give Informations to the Magistrate as they have had Opportunity of such Breaches of the Laws as were before mentioned Many of these Persons have given the World a great and almost unheard-of Example in this corrupt Age of Zeal and Christian Courage having underwent at the beginning more especially of these Proceedings many Abuses and great Reproaches not only from exasperated and hardned Offenders but often from their luke-warm Friends Irreligious Relations and sometimes from Vnfaithful Magistrates by whom they have been Reviled Brow-beaten and Discouraged from performing such important Service so necessary to the Welfare of their Country And herein these brave Men have acted with so great Prudence as well as Zeal that foreseeing it might one day be the Policy of the Enemy of all Goodness and the Business of wicked Men who are his Instruments and who could not generally be brought to Shame and Punishment for their infamous Practices but by their means to raise Prejudices in the Minds of bad and unthinking People against them and to disparage their Proceedings by whispering of Jealousies of their being influenced in what they did by Worldly Considerations That the World may be challenged to make appear That these Societies have been so much as treated with by any Person whatsoever to give Informations with any Promise of a Reward or that they have ever received the least Advantage by any Convictions upon these Statutes against Prophaneness and Debauchery the Money arising thereby being wholly appropriated to the Poor except the third part of the Penalty upon the Statute against Prophanation of the Lord's-Day which in some Cases the Magistrate hath a bare Power to dispose of but was never that we know of received by any one of these Persons which I thought fit to observe as a lasting Answer to any Objection of this kind in Justice to them who have gone through Frowns and Reproaches for the sake of doing so much Good and that all Men may see with how great Reason it is both from the Character of the Persons concerned in the Discharging of this Service to Religion and their Country as well as from the Nature and Necessity of it which I shall hereafter enquire into that the Name of an Informer is now become much more Glorious among wise and good Men than it was grown Contemptible by the ill Practices of some in our days And that it does therefore appear truly Honourable for Persons of the greatest Quality to give Informations in these Cases for the Service of the most High God as some among us of greater Ranks than the World does perhaps think of have of late done and which it hath been observed in divers Discourses lately Published that even Princes under the Jewish Dispensation were not ashamed to do Now when these things were Ezra 9. 1 2. done the Princes came to me saying The people of Israel and the Priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the Lands doing according to their Abominations c. There are Eight other regulated and mixt Bodies of House-keepers and Officers in the several Quarters of London Westminster and Southwark who differ in their Constitution from those before-mentioned but generally agree in the Methods of inspecting the Behaviour of Constables and other Officers and going along with them and assisting them in their Searching of Disorderly Houses in taking up of Offenders and carrying them before the Magistrate and also in giving Imformations themselves as there is Occasion Besides those before-mentioned there are about Nine and Thirty Religious Societies of another kind in and about London and Westminster which are propagated into other Parts of the Nation as Nottingham Gloucester c. and even into Ireland where they have been for some Months since spreading in divers Towns and Cities of that Kingdom as Kilkenny Drogheda Mannouth c. especially in Dublin where there are about Ten of these Societies which are promoted by the Bishops and inferior Clergy there These Persons meet often to Pray Sing Psalms and Read the Holy Scriptures together and to Reprove Exhort and Edifie one another by their Religious Conferences They moreover carry on at their Meetings Designs of Charity of different kinds such as Relieving the Wants of Poor House-keepers maintaining their Children at School setting of Prisoners at Liberty supporting of Lectures and daily Prayers in our Churches These are the SOCIETIES which our late Gracious Queen as the Learned Bishop that hath writ her LIFE tells us took so great Satisfaction in that She inquired often and much about them and was glad they went on and prevailed which thanks be to GOD they continue to do as the Reverend Mr. Woodward who hath obliged the World with a very particular Account of the Rise and Progress of them hath lately acquainted us And these likewise are SOCIETIES that have proved so exeeedingly Serviceable in the Work of REFORMATION that they may be reckoned a chief Support to it as our late Great Primate Arch-Bishop Tillotson declar'd upon several Occasions after he had examined their Orders and inquired into their Lives That he thought they were to the Church of England I might now give an Account of a Society of Ministers of the Church of England for carrying on of this Work and another Agreement of Justices of
the various Obstructions and Discouragements they encountred in the Prosecution of it which those pious Men made such dismal Reflections upon as I shall under our present Circumstances forbear to repeat does demand a particular Acknowledgement in this place and deserves to be transmitted to after-Ages when the Names of such as discourage Endeavours of Reformation may either be forgot or be remembred with Ignominy And I not only submit what I have said on this Head of the Clergy and this whole Discourse to This Reverend Body which I think I shall never obtain of my self to Publish without the Approbation of some of the pious Members of it but out of a sense of my own Defects and the tenderest Regard I would always have to matters of Religion I heartily desire if I am ever prevailed on to Publish it a publick Correction from them of any thing I have said in these Papers through Weakness or Inadvertency which I hope all the Advantages of the World would not have prevailed on me if they could have been offered me to have said knowingly that may not be warranted from the Holy Scriptures or that does give Offence to any but those whom the Representation of their Sin or their Duty to them and Religion it self offends whose Sentiments of this Discourse as I have no reason to ask their Censures of it I may know how to value And I must the rather make this humble and solemn Address to them for a speedy Censure of these Papers if there is any just Occasion for it and that at the same time they would be pleased to put this Glorious Cause that I have here represented with no more skill in a better light which I conceive would well become the most celebrated Writers of the Age to do not only because Errors in general as well as Diseases are better prevented than cured after they are spread but because upon a long Consideration and a full Knowledge I have had of the Vndertaking I have treated of and of the Steps by which it hath been carried on from the very Beginning I cannot but believe that the Virtuous part of the Nation when it is laid before them will conclude that there is abundant Reason for their Concurrence and Assistance in it and will think that either the Happiness or Misery of this Kingdom may with great ground be expected from either the Success or the Discouragement that these and others pious and just Endeavours for a National Reformation meet with My Business in the next place is to consider the Magistrates Obligation to be diligent in the Execution of the Laws against Prophaneness and Debauchery It will I think be allowed That Government is of Divine Appointment and that the Power of Magistrates whether it be that of the Supream or that of those that are Inferior and Subordinate is derived originally from God St. Paul speaking of the Magistrate Rom. 13. 4. says He is the Minister of God to thee for Good There is no Power but of God The Rom. 13. 1. Powers that be are ordained of God And Moses speaking to the Judges of the People of Deut. 1. 16 17. Israel says Hear the Causes between your Brethren and Judge righteously between every Man and his Brother Ye shall not respect Persons in Judgment but you shall hear the Small as well as the Great you shall not be afraid of the Face of Man for the Judgment is God's Take heed 2 Chron. 19. 6. said Jehoshaphat to his Judges what ye do for ye judge not for Man but for the Lord who is with you in the Judgment Wherefore now let the Fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no Iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of Persons nor taking of Gifts Thus shall ye do in the Fear of the Lord Ver. 9. faithfully and with a perfect Heart From whence we may I think conclude without adding any further proof of what is so generally confest that Magistrates do act by God's Authority are his Ministers or Instruments which he maketh what use of he pleases in the Governing the Natural and Rational World that they are to Act for his Honour and the Good of his People and that He will call them to account for their Behaviour in this respect Accordingly for Kings and for all that are 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. in Authority the Apostle does particularly direct That Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty For our King therefore and all sorts of Magistrates does it not behove us to pray That God would be pleased to inspire them with Zeal for his Glory and the Good of his People and particularly to direct and assist them in this necessary and most weighty Affair of Reformation And as the Magistrate's Power is primarily and originally from GOD so is the Office and Power of Subordinate Magistrates immediately and visibly conferred upon them as a weighty Trust by their Prince and their Country which they have an Obligation to the faithful Discharge of in their natural Allegiance and Fidelity but this Obligation rises yet higher they are bound yet closer to the faithful Discharge of their Office by a Solemn Oath relating to their particular Trust as well as by the Oath of Allegiance Now the Obligation being thus great and various must I think necessarily draw the dreadful Guilt of Perjury as well as Breach of Trust upon those who being thus intrusted and obliged to Execute the Laws do wilfully neglect to do their Duty For a Justice of the Peace takes this Solemn Oath at his Entrance into that Office That in the County of in all Articles in the King's Commission to him directed he shall do legal Right to the Poor and to the Rich after his Cunning Wit and Power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and the Statutes thereof made and wherein he is first obliged to do Right which regards very much the Punishment of Offenders as appears more fully in his Commission and this Equally reaches Rich and Poor The whole County is assign'd in the Oath as the Extent of his Jurisdiction and therefore his Authority is not confin'd to a part he is not tied up to act only in any lesser District of it but is to issue out his Warrants against Offenders upon Informations offered him by Persons that live never so remote from him in the County or for Offences committed in any part of it which though 't is so obvious from the very Words both of the Oath and Commission I thought fit to take notice of lest if we should have any Magistrates that should think it too much to give themselves the Trouble to look into the Disorders of any kind that are committed even in their own Parishes to suppress them when they hear or observe them any-where else as
their Interest or Reputation to do so considering I say these things have we not great reason to fear that most Men will continue to go over to the major Party that triumph in Wickedness and that few will have the Courage and Bravery to join with the lesser and too much despised Party of Virtue to go against the Stream of a Debauched Age which for ought I can see there is greater likelihood that it should still grow more strong and furious than that it should abate till frequent and publick Examples of Vice are taken out of publick View by either the Execution of our Civil Laws or by the Revival of the ancient Discipline of the Church Seneca could it seems observe That it was enough to shake the Resolution of a Socrates or a Cato to bear up against and stem Vice when it becomes so general and fashionable that it presses upon us with a kind of publick Authority And tho' Christians have a clearer Revelation than those Heathens had of their Duty higher Obligations nobler Motives and greater Assistances to perform it yet I conceive our Religion does not teach us nor our own Experience of Humane Frailty does not encourage us to make the way to our Duty and Happiness as difficult as we can 'T is true as may be objected that Men are by no means to be supposed Religious who are restrained from their Vices only by sense of Shame or fear of Humane Punishment but yet they must be thought to be in a much fairer way of being so under those Restraints than they would be without them By their being kept by Humane Laws from an Indulgence of their vicious Inclinations they may in time find the Pleasure and the Advantage of the Restraint And bad Examples that abound in most places which I take to be the great Occasion of Sin being by this means taken away Vice will become Scandalous and Virtue will be in proportion esteemed fashionable and thus I think very great Points are gained For when Men that are vicious in their Inclinations and even those that are grown old in Sensuality see that Religion gives Men that Esteem and Advantage as Debauchery and Irreligion hath done within our Memory and they find that the Stream is turned and bears hard against them that they cannot commit their Disorders with Impunity nor without Shame and moreover Temptations to them are very much taken out of the way then they will take some pains to be Virtuous at least to appear in the Dress of Virtue then may we expect that such Men will begin to enquire into the Nature and Reasons of Religion and when they find by a sober Advertence to its Proposals which they will now make without Prejudice and by some Experience they will have of the happy Effects of it by their endeavouring to imitate it that it prohibits us those things that would be most highly injurious to us and allows a Satisfaction to our rational Appetites that it hath such Excellencies as out-bid and put out of countenance all the Advantages that the World can offer that it fortifies us against the cross Occurrences and Calamities the Changes and Storms of Life and the Fears of Death disarms it of its Stings and Terrours to say no more that it silences the bitter Remonstrances and stinging Reproaches of Conscience delivers us from Plagues and Fears Confusion and Sorrow from the tormenting Guilt and the cruel Usurpation and Outrages of our Lusts and Passions and gives us in Exchange the noble Pleasure of the Victory over our selves who are our worst Masters the Joys of Innocence the Triumphs of a good Conscience and the Extasies of Heavenly Hopes and directs us to the Regions of Bliss to Joys unspeakable and everlasting Then may it be that the good Dispositions which we may call the Seeds of Virtue which seemed before as it were choak'd in some with ill Habits may be awakened and revive and that others who had some weak Inclinations to Religion but had not strength enough to bear the Contempt that now too often if not generally attends the sincere Practice of it to go in an untrodden way against the Tyranny of Custom and Example will take courage Then may we hope to see Virtue that hath been so long slighted and oppressed drawn out of its Obscurity delivered from that Contempt which the Prevalency and Insolence of Sin hath flung upon it and imbittered it be admired embraced and enthroned So that the Magistrates taking away out of publick View Examples of Prophaneness and Debauchery by a strict Execution of the Laws seems as proper if not as necessary a means for the keeping of Vice from the further spreading its Contagion and the retrieving of Virtue as the preventing of those that have the Plague upon them from mixing with those that are not infected and shutting of them up is necessary to the stopping the Raging of that Distemper and as it is not to be doubted that where those that have the Plague visibly upon them are allowed to converse promiscuously with the Sound even to walk publickly in the Streets it must be a certain sign that the Distemper is Epidemical that there is little hopes of putting a stop to it or that those whose proper Business it is to shut up and take care of the Diseased are themselves infected with the Distemper so it must in like manner be thought to be when there is no care taken of the moral Diseases of a State when publick Prophaneness and Vice not only go unpunished by the Magistrate but are triumphant From hence therefore 't is evident that such Magistrates as diligently discharge their Office are not only instrumental in doing good to particular Persons but to the Publick and may be so of a General Reformation and do therein what we have ground to believe is highly acceptable to God for thus saith God by the Prophet Them that honour me 1 Sam. â— 30. I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed And accordingly we are told in the Holy Scriptures how acceptable to God the Zeal of Phinehas was in Executing of Judgment upon Zimri and Cosbi Behold I give unto him my Covenant Numb 25. 12 13. of Peace and he shall have it and his Seed after him even the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood because he was Zealous for his God c. And the Psalmist Psal 106. 31. tells us That it was accounted to him for Righteousness unto all Generations for evermore But now since His Majesty's late Proclamation and the Address of the House of Commons to His Majesty do not only give us too great reason to fear that all Magistrates will not duly consider this as they ought but plainly tell our Magistrates That their Negligence and Vnfaithfulness in their Office is the great Cause of the Debauchery and Prophaneness of the Kingdom It may not be indecent or improper in this place to shew in some Instances
to be effectual for these ends If the work is unquestionably good we are told in the Holy Scriptures That 't is good to be zealously affected always in a good Gal. 4. 18. thing That Christ gave himself for us that he Tit. 2. 14. might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works And we are further told by our Blessed Saviour That because his Disciples were not of Joh. 15. 18 19. the World but he had Chosen them out of the World therefore the World hated them as it hated him And by the Apostle That all that will 2 Tim. 3. 12. live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution which I think Christians in this Age experience in some degree as well as they did in the times of Persecution For do we not see the faithfull Servants of God frequently suffering Injuries from wicked Men we see them calummated derided and contemned by them and exposed to many Assaults and Sufferings from them for the sake of their Religion Their holy Lives they are sensible do reproach them which is very grievous to them and for this Cause they often I suppose bear a Hatred to them which put them upon seeking Opportunities which they soon enough find to injure them either in their Goods in their Bodies or in their Reputation of which there is given us in the Book of Wisdom a very lively Description Let us lie in wait for the Righteous because he is Wisd 2. 12. not for our turn and he is clean contrary to our doings he upbraideth us with our offending the Law He was made to reprove our Thoughts He is Ver. 14. grievous unto us even to behold for his Life is not like other Mens his ways are of another fashion We are esteemed of him as Counterfeits he abstaineth from our Ways as from Filthiness he pronounceth the End of the Just to be blessed and maketh his boast that God is his Father Let us see if his Words be true and let us prove what shall happen in the End of him Let us examine Ver. 19. him with Despitefulness and Torture that we may know his Meekness and prove his Patience Let us condemn him with a shameful Death for by his own saying he shall be respected But in the fifth Chapter there is a Representation of the different State of the Righteous and the Ungodly among whom those that are either for or against Reformation will find themselves one day ranked either to their unspeakable Comfort or Misery that may be so much more Encouraging to good Men than the other Account may to any appear uncomfortable that I shall give the Reader at the same time some View likewise of it Then shall the Righteous Man Wisd 5. 1. stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him and made no account of his Labours When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his Salvation so far beyond all that they looked for And they repenting and gâ—â—â—aâ—ing for anguish of Spirit shall say within â—â—â—â—elves This was he whom we had sometimes 〈…〉 sion and a Proverb of Reproach We 〈…〉 ounted his Life Madness and his End 〈…〉 out Honour How is he numbred among 〈…〉 ren of God and his Lot is among the Saints We wearied our selves in the way of Ver. 7. Wickedness and Destruction yea we have gone through Deserts where there lay no way but as for the Way of the Lord we have not known it What hath Pride profited us Or what good hath Riches with our Vaunting brought us All those things are passed away like a Shadow and as a Post that hasted by For the Hope of the Vngodly is like Dust that is blown away with the Wind But Ver. 15. the Righteous live for evermore their Reward also is with the Lord the Care of them is with the most High Therefore they shall receive a Glorious Kingdom c. If then Wicked Men have such an Enmity to the Righteous and do by various ways often injure and oppress them it is no wonder that the giving of Informations should as well as other Christian Offices or Duties sometimes do make Men liable to Opposition and Sufferings from bad Men who desire to indulge themselves quietly in their Vices because this is a downright disturbing and confronting them in their vicious Practices But 't is as hath been said our Business to consider that the Christian Life is a Warfare that Christians are sent into the World as Soldiers into the Field to fight against it the Flesh and the Devil and that as a Captain is tryed in a Battle an expert Seaman in a Storm so a Christian by the Temptations of all kinds that he meets with in his Warfare by which we are disciplined or catechized for a happy Eternity and that therefore he must march on through all Difficulties and Discouragements * Per infamiam bonam famam grassari ad Immortalitatem particularly through Honour and Dishonour through good and bad Report to Immortality and therefore whether the danger of our being exposed to Reproach and Contempt from wicked Men is a sufficient Reason for our having no regard to this Charitable Office I am recommending The Heathen Emperour Marcus Antoninus could tell us That in pursuit of Virtue we must expect Reproaches and Contumelies but that we must have little or no regard to the common Opinions of Men which after Socrates he reckoned as the common Bugbears of the World or the Terrour of Children And Seneca in like manner That Men will sometimes which he thought the last Act of Desperation reproach hate and persecute even Virtue it self †Nemo mihi videtur pluris aestimare virtutem nemo illi magis esse devotus quà m qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet Sen. Epist 81. and that he seemed to have the greatest Value for or devotedness to Virtue that loseth the Reputation of being Virtuous to avoid the being otherwise In truth I think 't is much to be feared but being very unwilling to fall under the too common Errour of not duly considering Humane Frailties and Prejudices or to advance positively any Opinion that may justly bear a dispute with any but those that bring the Reason of Mankind and Religion its self into dispute as I hope will appear throughout these Sheets I submit it to the Judgment of the Casuists That tho' the former general Negligence of good Men in this Matter may and indeed I think must in Charity be supposed to have been very much owing to a Discouragement from Magistrates to private Persons Ignorance of the Methods of performing this Office or single Persons despairing of doing thereby much Service for the Ends before-mentioned under the dismal State this Nation was in the two last Reigns If this Negligence is continu'd
all the Politicians in the World to form a sound Scheme of Government without supposing and securing Religion for the Basis of it And as we never heard of a Government that publickly declared for Immorality so if we could ever suppose there should be any such nay that there were such a one where a considerable Number of such Monsters should obtain and keep the Ascendency in any Government we might conclude what its Fate would sooner or later be †Accidit Magistratuum negligentia vitiis Nobilium cives paulatim à virtute desciscunt variisque malis rempublicam afficiunt quibus inundatis rempublicam fluctuare necesse est For when Religion is despis'd and Virtue is lost in a Nation which as hath been proved would in time be the consequence of a publick Contempt of it how easie a Prey will it prove to its Neighbours Or how unavoidably will it fall into Divisions Confusion and Ruine of it self Of such consequence therefore Religion and Virtue seem plainly to be to a Nation abstracting from the Consideration of a Just God that rules in the Kingdoms of the Earth that rewards Righteous Nations with Prosperity and executes Justice upon those that are Wicked which we must believe if we have any due regard to Sacred or Prophane History to the Experience and Suffrage of all Ages of the World For thus it is said in the Holy Scriptures to this purpose The Nation and Kingdom Isa 60. 12. that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted A fruitfull Psal 107. 34. Land he turneth into Barrenness for the Wickedness of them that dwell therein And by the Account that is given us in the Word of God of the Divine Justice of God's charging Deut. 21. 1 8 9. Guilt upon Nations as well as upon particular Persons and of his Proceeding with the Old World the Jewish Nation c. have we not sufficient Reason to think that in the ordinary Course of God's Providence a Nation that is eminently Righteous should have his Blessing in an eminent Manner and that a Nation that is remarkably Wicked will feel sooner or later the Effects of his Displeasure We are acquainted that before God destroyed the Old World He saw that the Wickedness of Man was great in Gen. 6. 5. Ver. 12. the Earth That all Flesh had corrupted his Way upon Earth And their Sin is given as the Reason of their Destruction And God Ver. 13. said unto Noah The End of all Flesh is come before me for the Earth is filled with Violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the Earth Accordingly we may observe that the Providences of God towards the Jewish Nation were very eminently suited to their Behaviour That though the Jews were the peculiar People of God and highly blessed they were frequently punished by God and at last destroyed for their Sins That their Kings the chief of their Priests and their People did wickedly and after the way of the Heathen before they were led into Captivity and Crucified the Lord of Life whose Mat. 27. 25. Blood they called for upon themselves and their Children before they were finally destroyed And as their Destruction which our Saviour Mat. 24. Mark 13. foretold is I think agreed on all hands to have been one of the most dreadfull instances of Misery that have been known to have befallen any Nation either before or since that time So †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josephus de Bello Judaico Lib. 6. cap. 11. F. 933. Josephus though a Jew a celebrated Historian thus says That as he thought no Nation ever suffered such things so no Nation from the beginning of the World did ever so abound in all manner of Impiety to which Christians in this Age may justly add That by their continuing for so many Hundred Years to be a despised and vagabond People and scattered throughout the World without City or Country without Temple or Altar that we know of no Nation seems ever to have been so terrible and lasting a Monument of God's Displeasure for National Sin as that which this People was guilty of seems to be so much greater and to have higher Aggravations than the Sin of any other Nation The Holy Scriptures give the like Account of the Destruction of Damascus Thus saith the Lord Amos 1. 3. For three Transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the Punishment thereof so of Gaza of Tyrus of Edom and of Ammon Ver. 6. 9 11 13. And inform us that God raised up Cyrus calling him by his Name before he was in being for the Punishment of the Sins of Babylon Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed to Cyrus whose Isa 45. 1. Right-hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him and I will loose the loins of Kings to open before him the two-leaved Gates and the Gates shall not be shut I will go before thee Ver. 2. and make the crooked places straight For Jacob Ver. 4. my Servant's sake and Israel my Elect I have even called thee by thy Name I have surnamed thee though thou hast not known me And does not prophane History tell us among a Multitude of other Instances that might be heaped up That as the Pride and Voluptuousness of the Babylonians so the Lewdness of the Persians and the Luxury of the Greeks seem'd with their other Sins to be the remarkable Causes of the Ruine of those Empires And that the Romans who had been a People so eminent in their Morals that * Non est quod de summi veri Dei justitia conquerantur perceperunt mercedem suam lib. 5. de Civ Dei cap. 15. St. Austin thought that God might allow them the Government of the World for the Reward of their Virtue even under the Advantages of the Christian Religion became so very Degenerate and Debauched before the Devastations and Ruine of their Empire by the poor Goths Vandals and Huns one of whose chief Leaders called himself Flagellum Dei the Scourge of God that gave Occasion to a Father to cry out †In nobis patitur Christus opprobrium in nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum Salvian That the Name of Christ became a Scorn and the Christian Religion was reproached by the Lives of Christians And to take some Notice of our own Country Do not the Historians of it acquaint us that the Britains the ancient Inhabitants of it ‖ Incolae aborigines moribus simplices integrique existunt longè à nostrorum hominum astutia versutiaque remoti Diodorus Siculus who had been remarkable for the Uncorruptness of their Manners were degenerated from the * Incolarum mores quod attinet fuerunt antiqui Britanni religionis disciplinarum cultores maximi Rob. Sheringham de Anglorum gentis â—rigine p. 14. Gildas de Excid Britanniae Simplicity and Sobriety of their Ancestours and