Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	commit_v	person_n	say_a	3,727	5	7.2574	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09809	The liues of Epaminondas, of Philip of Macedon, of Dionysius the Elder, and of Octauius Cæsar Augustus: collected out of good authors. Also the liues of nine excellent chieftaines of warre, taken out of Latine from Emylius Probus, by S.G. S. By whom also are added the liues of Plutarch and of Seneca: gathered together, disposed, and enriched as the others. And now translated into English by Sir Thomas North Knight	Nepos, Cornelius. Vitae excellentium imperatorum. English. Selections.; Goulart, Simon, 1543-1628.; North, Thomas, Sir, 1535-1601?	1602 (1602)	STC 20071; ESTC S111836	1,193,680	142

Enterludes should be banished upon Sabbath dayes and not long after many godly Cittizens and wel-disposed Gentlemen of London considering that Play-houses and Dicing-houses were traps for yong Gentlemen and others and perceiving the many inconveniences and great damage that would ensue upon the long suffring of the same not onely to particular persons but to the whole Citty and that it would also be a great disparagement unto the Governours and a dishonour to the government of this honourable Citty if they should any longer continue acquainted some pious Magistrates therewith desiring them to take some speedy course for the suppression of common Play-houses and Dicing-houses within the Citty of London and Liberties thereof Who thereupon made humble suite to Queene Elizabeth and her Privy Councell and obtained leave from her Maiesty to thrust the Players out of the Citty and to pull downe all Play-houses and Dicing-houses within their Liberties which accordingly was effected and the Play-houses in Gracious-street Bishops-gate-street that ni●h Pauls that on Ludgate-hill and the White-Friers were quite put downe and suppressed by the care of these religious Senators And surely writes my Author had all their Successors followed their worthy steps sinne would not at this day have beene so powerfull and raigning as it is This memorable Act of suppressing Play-houses by our London Magistrates by Authority from our vertuous Queene Elizabeth and her most Sage Privy Counsell as intolerable grievances and annoyances to our chiefe Christian Metropolis is an infallible argument that they all reputed them unsufferable corruptions in a Christian State Now as these pious Magistrates demolished Play-houses and thrust out all Players from within their Liberties which now have taken sanctuary in some priviledged places without their Iurisdiction so divers sage and pious Iustices of Peace and Magistrates in sundry Citties and Counties of our Realme have from time to time punished all wandring Stage-players as Rogues notwithstanding the Master of the Revels or other mens allowance who have no legall authority to license vagrant Players and in cases where they have had Commissions to act they have oft denyed them liberty so to doe within their Iurisdictions lest their lascivious prophane and filthy Playes should corrupt the people and draw them on to vice All which sufficiently demonstrates what our Magistrates thinke of Players and Stage-playes which our whole State and Kingdome have condemned as I shall now make evident by some Acts of Parliament In 4. of Henry the IV. cap. 27. I finde this Act of Parliament made Item to eschew many diseases and mischiefes which hath hapned before this time in the Land of Wales by many Wasters Rimours Minstrels and other Vacabonds It is ordained and stablished that no Master-rimour Minstrill nor Vacabond be in any wise sustained in the Land of Wales to make commo●thes nor gathering upon the people there Loe here an ancient Statute banishing all Players Rimours and Minstrels out of Wales as the Authors of many commotions disorders and mischiefes In 3. Henry 8. cap. 9. there was this Law enacted against Mummers For as much as lately within this Realme divers persons have disguised and apparelled themselves and covered their faces with Visours or other things in such manner as they should not be knowne and divers of them in a company together naming themselves Mummers have come to the dwelling place of divers men of honour and substantiall persons and so departed unknowne whereupon murthers felony rape and other great hurts and inconveniences have afore-time growne and hereafter be like to come by the colour thereof if the said disorder should continue not reformed Wherefore be it enacted by the King our Soveraigne Lord c. that if any persons hereafter disguise or apparell them with Visours or otherwise upon their faces and so disguised or apparelled as Mummers or persons unknowne by reason of their apparell associate or accompany them together or apart and attempt to enter into the house of any person or persons or assault or affrayes make upon any person or persons in the Kings high-way or any other place in forme afore disguised that then the said Mummers or disguised persons and every of them shall be arrested by any of the Kings leige people as suspects or Vacabonds and be committed to the Kings Gaole there to be imprisoned by the space of 3. monethes without bayle or mainprise and then to make fine to the King by the discretion of the Iustices by whom they shall be delivered out of prison And also it is ordained and enacted by the said Authority that if any person or persons sell or keepe any Visours or Visour in his house or in any other place within this Realme af●er the feast of Easter next comming and after this Act proclaimed that the said person that keepeth the said Visour or Visours shall forfeit to the King our Soveraigne Lord for every Visour 22. s. And further shall suffer imprisonment and make fine after the discretion of the Iustices afore whom he is thereof convicted by examination or by inquisition after the course of the Common-law Vpon the consideration of which Statute Polydor Virgil writing of Stage-playes and Mummers records That onely England of all other Countries did not as yet behold these personated beasts neither truely will she see them since among the English who in this thing are farre wiser then others there is this law that it shall be ca●itall for any person to put on a Visour or Players habit Which Statute as may be collected from Polydor who wrote about some 10. yeeres after it extends as well to Players as Mumme●s In 2. 3. of Philip and Mary cap. 9. intituled An Act to avoyd divers licenses of houses wherein unlawfull games be used upon the humble Petition of the Commons to the Queene in Parliament it was inacted That whereas by reason of sundry Licences heretofore granted to divers persons as well within the Citty of London and the Suburbs of the same as also in divers other places of the Realme for the having maintaining and keeping of Houses Gardens places for Bowling Tennise and Dicing a game prohibited as unlawfull by sundry other of our Statutes viz. By 12. Richard 2. c. 6.11 Henry 4. cap. 4. 17. Edward 4. cap. 3.11 Henry 7. cap. 2.19 Henry 7. cap. 12. 33. Henry 8. cap. 9. where Dice-play is stiled an unlawfull unprofitable ungracious and incommendable game whereby divers are utterly undone and impoverished of their goods and by meanes whereof divers and many murthers robberies and other hainous felonies were oftentimes committed in divers parts of the Realme See 17. Edw. 4. c. 3. and thereupon it is severely condemned under great mulcts and punishments the Dice-players being to forfeit ten pound a peece and to suffer two yeeres imprisonment and such as keepe any Dicing-houses to forfeit twenty pound a peece and to suffer 3. yeeres imprisonment c. for white and

harboured or beheld them heretofore But likewise the patterns of Constantine Theodosius Leo Anthemius Iustinian Valentinian Valens Gratian Charles the Great Theodoricus Henry the 3. Emperour of that name Philip Augustus King of France our famous Queen Elizabeth her Counsel with our London Magistrates and Vniversities in her raigne who all suppressed inhibited Stage-playes Sword-playes and Actors as unsufferable mischiefes in any Christian State or City To these I might adde Lodovicus the Emperour who by his publike Edicts agreeing verbatim with the the 7. 8. forequoted Canons of Synodus Turon●nsis 3. p. 589 590. inhibited all Ministers all Clergy men from Stage-playes hunting hauking c. Together with Charles the 9. and Henry 3. of France who by their solemne Lawes and Edicts prohibited all Stage-playes all dancing on Lords-dayes or other solemne annuall festivals ●nder paine of imprison●ment and other penalties to be inflicted by the Magistrates and our owne most gracious Soveraigne Lord King CHARLES who together with the whole Court of Parliament in the first yeare of his Hignesse Raigne enacted this most pious Play-condemning Law intituled An Act for publishing of divers abuses committed on the Lords day called Sunday Forasmuch as there is nothing more acceptable to God than the true and sincere worship of him according to his holy will and that the holy keeping of the Lords day is a principall part of the true service of God which in very many places of this Realme hath beene and now is profaned and neglected by a disorderly sort of people in exercising and frequenting Beare-baiting Bull-baiting ENTERLVDES COMMON PLAYES and other unlawfull exercises and pastimes upon the Lords day And for that many quarrells bloodsheds and other great inconveniences have growne by the resort and concourse of people going out of their owne parishes to such disordered and unlawfull exercises and pastimes neglecting Devine service both in their owne parishes and elsewhere Be it enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from and after 40 dayes next after the end of this Session of Parliament assembled there shall be no meetings assemblies or concourse of people out of their owne parishes on the Lords day within this Realme of England or any the Dominions thereof for any sports or pastimes whatsoever nor any Bull-baiting Beare-baiting ENTERLVDES COMMON PLAYES or other unlawfull exercises or pastimes used by any person or persons within their owne parishes and that every person or persons offending in any the premises shall forfeit for every offence 3 shillings 4 pence the same to be employed and converted to the use of the poore of the Parish where such offences shall be committed And that any one Iustice of the peace of the County● or the chiefe Officer or Officers of any Citie Borough or Towne Corporate where such offence shall be comitted upon his or their view or confession of the partie or proofe of any one or more witnesse by oath which the said Iustice or chiefe Officer or Officers by vertue of this act shall hav● authority to minister shall finde any person offending in the premises the said Iustice or chiefe Officer or Officers shall give warrant under his or their hand and seale to the Constables or Church-wardens of the Parish or Parishes where such offence shall bee committed to levie the said penalty so to bee assessed by way of distresse and sale of the goods of every such offendor rendring to the said offendors the overplus of the monie raised of the said goods so to be solde And in default of such distresse that the party offending be se● publikely in the stockes by the space of three houres Which Act being to continue unto the end of the first Session of the next Parliamēt only was since recontinued by the Statute of 3. Caroli cap. 4. and so it remaineth still in force So that if it were as diligently executed as it was piously enacted it would suppresse many great abuses both within the letter and intent which is very large that are yet continuing among us to Gods dishonour and good Christians griefe in too many places of our Kingdome which our Iustices our inferiour Magistrates might soone reforme would they but set themselves seriously about it as some here and there have done If then all these Pagan these Christian Nations Republickes Emperors Princes Magistrates have thus abandoned censured suppressed Playes and Players from time to time as most intollerable pernicious evi●s in any State or City how can how dare we now to justify thē as harmelesse cōmendable or usefull recreations What are we wiser are we better than all these Pagan Sages than all these judicious Christian Worthies who have thus abandoned suppressed Playes and Actors out of a long experimentall knowledge of their many vitious lewd effects Or are we ashamed to be like our ancestors in judgement in opinion as wee are in tonsure complement habit and attire in this age of Novelties which likes of nothing that is old or common though such things commonly are the best of all that wee thus undervalue the resolutions of all former ages in this ca●e of Playes and Players preferring our owne wits and lusts before them● O let us ashamed now at last to countenance to pleade for that which the very best the wisest Heathen yea Christian Nations States and Magistrates of all sorts have thus branded and cast out as lewd as vitious as abominable in the very highest degree let us now submit our judgments our practise lusts and foolish fansies to their deliberate mature experimentall censures abominating condemning Playes and Players if not exiling them our Cities coasts and Countrey as all these have done arming our selves with peremptory resolutions against all future Stage-playes with this 52 Play-oppugning Syllogisme with which I shall terminate this Scene That which the ancient Lacedemonians Athenians Graecians Romans Germanes Massilienses Barbarians Gothes and Vandals● the whole Iewish Nation of old divers Christian Countries and Citties since together with many Pagan many Christian Republickes Magistrates Emperours Princes in severall ages and places have censured abandoned rejected suppressed as a most pernicious evill as a very seminary of all vice and wickednesse must certainly be sinfull execrable and altogether unlawfull unto Christians Witnesse Rom. 13.6 c. 13.1 to 8. 1 Pet. 2.13 14. But such is the case and condition of Stage-playes as the premises and Act. 6. Scene 5. c. most plentifully evidence Therefore they must certainly be sinfull execrable and altogether unlawfull unto Christians CHORVS YOV have seene now Courteous Readers 7 severall Squadrons of unanswerable Authorities encountering Stage-playes and Actors and giving them such an onset as I hope will put them with their Patrons quite to route so that they shall never be able to make head againe their forces

iudge them to be of the crew of ●he wicked and ungodly The most honest wi●e is the soonest assaulted and hath such snares l●id to en●rap her as if God ●ss●st h●r not she m●st●●eds be ●●ken When I gave my s●lfe fi●st to 〈◊〉 the abuse o● common ●layes ● found my heart so ● smitten with s●rr●w sinne ●●d there so abound and was so op●●ly commi●ted that I lo●ked wh●n God in iustice would have presently in his wrath h●ve confounded the beholders The Theater I found to be an appointed place of Bawdery● mine owne eares have heard honest women allured with abominable speeches Sometime I have seene two knaves at once importunate upon one light huswife wher●by much quarrell hath growne to the disquieting of many The servants as it is manifestly to be proved have consented to rob their Maste●s to supply the want of their Harlots there is the practising of married wi●es to traine them from their husbands and places appointed for meeting and conference When I had taken notice of these abuses and saw that the Theater was be●ome the Consultory-house of Satan I concluded with my selfe never to impl●y my pen to so vile a purpose nor to be an instrument of gathering the wicked together It may seeme I am overlavish of spee●h and that which I have publikely expressed of others by mine owne knowledge might have beene dissembled But I have learned that he who dissembles the evill that he knowes in other men is as guilty before God of the offence as the offenders themselves And the Lord hath expresly commanded in Exodus that wee should not follow a multitude to doe evill neither agree in a controversie to decline after many and overthrow the truth I cannot therefore but r●sist such wickednesses lest I might seeme to maintaine them For he that dissembles ungodlinesse is a traytor to God Since therefore that the cause is Gods I dare pr●sse forth my selfe to be an Advocate against Satan unto the rooting ●ut of sinne Are not our eyes at Playes carryed away with the pride of vanity our ●ar●s abused with amorous that is lecherous abominable and filthy speech Is not our tong●e which is given us onely to glorifie God withall there imployed to the blaspheming of Gods holy Name or the commendation of that is wicked Are not our heart● through the pleasure of the fl●sh the delight of the eye and the fond motions of the minde withdrawne from the service of the Lord and the meditation of his goodnesse No zealous heart but m●st needs bleed to see how many Christian soules are there swall●wed up in the whirlpoole of Devillish impudency Whosoever shall visit the Chappell of Satan I meane the Theater shall finds there no want of young Ruffians not lacke of Harlots utterly past all shame who presse to the forefront of the Scaffold to the end to shew their impudency and to be as an obiect to all mens eyes Yea such is their open shamelesse be●aviour as every man may perceive by their wanton gestures wher●unto they are given yea they seeme there to be like Brothels of the Stewes For often without respect of the place and company which behold them they commit that filthinesse openly which is horrible to be done in secret as if whatsoever they did were warranted for neither reverence iustice nor any thing beside can governe them Alas that Youth should become so devillish and voyd of the feare of God Let Magistrates assure themselves that without speedy redresse all things will grow so farre out of order that they will be past remedy Shamefulnesse and modesty is quite banished from yong men they are utterly shamelesse stubbo●n● and impudent It was well said of Calvin that a man setled in evill will make but a mocke of Religion He preacheth in vaine that preacheth unto the deafe Tell many of these men of the Scripture they will scoffe and turne it into a iest Rebuke them for breaking the Sabbath day they will say you are a man of the Sabbath you are very precise you will allow us nothing you will have nothing but the Word of God you will permit us no recreation but have men like Asses who never rest but when they are eating Seeke to withdraw these fellowes from the Theater unto a Sermon they will say By the Preacher they may be edified but by the Player both edified and delighted So that in them the saying of Saint Paul is ●●rified where he saith That the wisedome of the flesh is nothing but enmity against God How small heed take they of themselves which suffer their owne wicked affections to withdraw them from God and his Word We need not voluntarily seek● our owne destruction For he that is vertuously disposed shall finde lewde persons enow to withdraw him from well-doing by the promise of pleasure and delightfull pastime whereunto we are naturally inclined unto the Schoole-house of Satan and Chappell of ill counsell where he shall see so much iniquity and loosenesse and so gr●at outrage and scope of sinne that it is a wonder if he returne not either wounded in conscience or changed in life I would wish therefore all Masters not onely to withdraw themselves but their Servants also from such wicked assembl●●s● For it is alwayes wisedome to shunne the occasions of evill Youth will be withdrawne by company if they be not restrained of their liberty They need not seeke out for Schoole-masters they can learne evill too fast of themselves and are pregnant enough at home to learne unhappinesse Many of nature honest and tractable have beene altered by these sh●wes and spectacles and become monsterous Mans minde which of it selfe is pro●e unto vice is not to be pricked forward unto vice but brideled if it be left unto it selfe it hardly standeth if it be driven forth it runneth headlong Flee farre from Babylon yee that carry the Lords Vessels Forsomuch as you are baptised into Christ it standeth you upon to be holy both of body and minde and to dedicate your selves to his service which ye shall never doe unlesse you withdraw your selves from the inticements of vanity and eschue the occasions of evill which that ye may the better doe you are to fasten your eyes upon God by whom ye are sanctified Let not the examples of the wicked be a president unto us neither let us be drawne away to evill with the multitude Custome shall but make us bold in sinne and the company of scorners make us more impudent of life It is not enough for us to excuse our selves by the doings of other men it will not be taken for an excuse although we could alleage that every man doth as we doe For it is no meanes to acquite us before God to say that others be no better then our selves I would rather wish that the evill conversation of others might be an occasion to draw us backe lest perhaps

iudgements with pestilences civill dissentions tyranny forraigne invasions exactions mundations earthquakes fires and the like as in the raignes of Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Heliogabalus Commodus Carinus and these other flagitious Histrionicall Emperours in whose raignes both Playes and Players were in most request as well with Prince as people whose sinnes were nourished and intended by them and so by consequence Gods iudgements on them too When ever their Playes and Theaters went up their manners vertues prosperity and Common-wealth went downe and all Gods iudgements fell upon them as their Historians declare at large When Herod brought in Playes among the Iewes then went their manners their State their whole Nation unto wrecke and Gods iudgements seised on them more fatally then before To come neerer to our times Franciscus Petrarcha M. Northbrooke M. Stubs and others certifie us That Stage-playes draw downe Gods vengeance not onely on their Actors and Spectators for which they recite some precedents but likewise on those States and Cities which allow them Master Brinsly a reverend Divine informes us That such who frequent Play-houses must needs bring faggots and firebrands to set in the gates of our Hierusalem The very Title of the second and third Blast of Retrait from Playes and Theaters published by Authority in the yeere of our Lord 1●80 instructs us That that Common-weale is nigh unto the curse of God wherein either Players be made of or Theaters maintained And the Author of the third of these Blasts being once a Play-poet writes That sinne did so abound at Stage-playes and was there so openly committed that when he gave himselfe first to observe the abuse of common Playes he looked whe● God in iustice should presently in his wrath have confounded the beholders And I am verily perswaded saith hee that if Players may bee still permitted to make sale of sinne wee shall pull on our heads Gods vengeance and to our Realme bring an utter confusion And no wonder that it should bee so For where ever sinne goes before Gods wrath and vengeance will certainely follow after where all wickednesse and prophanesse super-abound Gods Iudgements cannot but abound at last Now Playes and Play-houses as the precedent Scenes doe manifest are the fruitfull nurseries and fomenters of all wickednesse all lewdnesse whatsoever they likewise harden mens hearts thorow the deceitfulnesse of sinne and undispose them to repentance they so ripen and prepare men for Gods judgements that they have neither providence to foresee nor any spirituall wisedome to prevent them no wonder therefore if Gods judgements seise upon them to their just destruction even in the ruffe of all their carnall iolity and fearelesse security You have now seene a short survay of Gods tragicall judgements upon Play-poets Players Play-haunters and those States and Cities wherein they are tolerated and approved together with the reason of it which must needs stand firme as long as God is just to punish sinne These few examples therefore of Gods iudgements which should be warnings unto all should lesson all Play-poets to give over their composing all common Actors to renounce the acting all voluptuous Play-haunters to abandon the sight and hearing of all Theatricall Enterludes all Christian Princes Cities States and Magistrates whose connivency at any evils that they might suppresse doth make them deepely guilty of them for ever to exile all Playes and demolish all Play-houses whatsoever for feare they pull Gods judgements downe upon them as they have done on others Alas why should any Christian Play-poet Player or Spectator any Christian State or City where Playes have publike countenance be so desperately secure as to conceit that though Playes have brought Gods judgements upon others yet they shall scape unpunished his wrath shall never seise on them what ground what warrant is there for any such unchristian surmise Is not Gods avenging justice towards sinne and sinners still the same and are not Stage-playes Play-poets Actors Play-haunters and those places where they are tolerated as execrably vitious as sinfull as odious now to God as ever Is not the selfesame punishment alwayes due unto the selfesame sinnes and sinners and is not the selfesame sinne as sinfull as peccable yea more execrable more damnable in Christians then in Pagans God hath most severely punished Pagan yea and Christian Play-poets Stage-players Play-haunters and such States as tolerated them for Stage-playes heretofore as the forequoted examples testifie and shall hee not much more avenge himselfe on such like Christians for their Stage-playes now And yet alas such is the infidelity such the security of mens obdurate hearts that not onely when they heare but likewise when they visibly behold Gods vengeance seising upon others for composing acting frequenting countenancing these vaine delights of sinne yet they really believe not either that these have perished or that themselves shall perish for the selfesame things unlesse they likewise see themselves destroyed too neither are they any whit affected with the sudden fearefull deaths of others till such a death hath seised on themselves O therefore now at last as wee tender our owne private or the publike safety let other mens wounds bee our cautions let these mens deaths prove our life let their judgements be our medicines Hee saith Saint Cyprian is too audacious who strives to passe over there where he hath seene another to have fallen he is outragiously unruly who is not strucke with feare when he sees another perish in that course which he is running He onely is a lover of his owne safety who takes warning by anothers death And he onely is a provident man who is made solicitous by the ruines of other men which Solomon approveth saying The prudent seeing the evill man punished is greatly instructed And againe When wicked men fall the iust will bee much affrighted It is an adverse hurtfull confidence which certainely commits its life to dangers as to a certaine thing● And that is but a slippery hope which presumes it shall be safe amids the fomentations of sinne It is an uncertaine victory to fight amidest the enemies weapons and it is an impossible deliverance to be compassed about with flames and not to burne Wherefore let not a peradventure that we may escape Gods judgements though we still resort to Stage-playes overpoyse a peradventure that they may seise upon us as they have done on others Neither let Gods long-suffring towards Play-poets Players Play-haunters and such Republikes as approve them which in truth should lead them to repentance make all or any of them or us secure against the feare of his avenging hand For the longer Gods iudgements are delayed the greater will they be at last That punishment is most troublesome which is deferred with a foregoing terror that torment is more grievous more intolerable which is delayed for this onely purpose that it may strike the