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
Punishments and methinks they should be afraid of them Vic. 'T is true indeed now your Worship has given me a hint of it I remember I have been informed that an Excommunicated person cannot make a will nor recover any debt he not being qualified for a Plaintiff but Defendant only and besides this he lies open not only to the just zeal of true Christians but to the malice and spleen of any one that ows him a grudge Ald. How so Mr. Vicar It seems the Ecclesiastical Authority is armed with greater power than I thought of We must have a care of you our selves for we are liable to this Sentence Vic. And are not we liable to your Justice Our gracious Rulers have a little armed us with a Law who otherwise by reason of our usual poverty should be open to all misfortunes and dangers But let us both do well be loyal and obedient and we shall not only avoid the Penalties of the Law but have praise and encouragement from the law-giver But as to that attendant of an Excommunication that may justly scare even those that seem to fear it least it is as I was saying that they are subject to every man's imprisonment for after they have stood Excommunicate forty daies any one that will address himself may take out a Writ De Excommunicato capiendo and lay them in Prison Ald. And would you have greater power than this 'T is a wonder all Goals are not full of these exorbitant persons Vic. 'T is not to me strange at all because there must be Money in the case the Writ is so chargeable that a few of them would swallow up my poor Vicaridge and no private person out of charity to the Church will contribute any thing to the punishment of those troublers of Israel But what advantage would your Worship get by it if this method were used Ald. Then we should escape their envie and malice that are Justices of the Peace because we should not be the instruments of their punishment Vic. In that Sir you must pardon me if I endeavour to inform you of your mistake in this point of Law and I hope you will not take an advertisement amiss though it is in what your Worship should be acquainted with Ald. Prethee say what thou wilt he is a mad man that will be angry at thy language thou hast an Heart for a Prince although thou hast a Purse but for a Begger Vic. I thank your good Worship and the rest of your Brethren for that liberal maintenance I do enjoy Contentment you know will equal the Vicar to the Alderman But Sir whereas you were saying that if the Fanaticks were proceeded against by the Writ De Excommunicato capiendo you should be free from contributing to their punishment you must needs forget your self For the very Sentence of Excommunication does deliver the Offendor to the Secular Power and all the punishments and inconveniences which succeed that doom as to the body are meerly Temporal nay the very Writ that we are now discoursing of must be directed to Justices of the Peace and by their Power is the Offendor imprisoned so that if the Law be at all executed it must be by your hands or else it will not prove effectual either to restrain those that are contumacious and refractory nor terrifie those who are more ingenuous and pliable Ald. Well then if there be a necessity we must break through the briars and thorns we must encounter with the Lion in the way since our Oaths oblige us and I find by you there is no avoiding the Obligation and indeed it admits not of any other way of effecting the design of restriction to our Adversaries and peace unto our selves Though if I should make an ingenuous confession I would not be troubled with offending my Neighbours nor can I well endure their abuses and clamours Vic. I am sorry to see so little of the Spirit of a couragious Magistrate that should not fear the faces of men much less such poor contemptible nothings as those are and they must not be angry for this expression because 't is their own What should your Worship be afraid of A Religion that is nothing but Shadow and Phrases and Persons that never yet were contented with all the Largesses of most indulgent Princes nay and those too who when in power were themselves the greatest Imposers and most strict in their Punishments against all that did in the least deviate from their established practices and notwithstanding all their canting confessions of their former guilt in this particular now they themselves are liable to Penalties will if ever they shall by ill chance or violence become our Masters be more rigid and severe than ever and we shall certainly find the smart of what you seem so unwilling ever now and then to execute upon them Ald. I cannot think they are for rigour and imposition that so much decry it but if it could appear that they used it in the late times methinks we had reason to suspect it for the future Vic. I am troubled methinks to find you so forgetful of our late miseries which perhaps may make you the less sensible of our present dangers Every one that was loyal to his King and true to his Religion felt the stroke of their severity and malice But to put this out of all controversie I will send you down a little Book newly come to my hands which is called Samaritanism revised that shall fully silence this Objection and convince you from the testimony of their own Authors both forein and domestick that are best approved by their own Party that they are so far against Toleration of any but themselves that they affirm severities and smart punishments the just debt to those which they account Hereticks and Schismaticks I have not yet read over the Book but by what I have perused I see the Author is of a Publick Spirit and wounds the Fanaticks with their own Weapons and because the whole demonstrates the Piety Equity and necessity of putting the Laws in execution both against Popish and Puritan Recusants I must commend the whole to your perusal and it may 't is like prevail more than our present Discourse Ald. Pray be as good as your word and send it me then but I would fain have the Bishops more active Vic. In their places and according to the extent of their Laws and Permission I question not but they are For I am sure their interest as well as every honest mans is equally concerned But 't is the Temporal Sword must cut off these Excrescencies for we see they contemn the Bishops Courts And methinks the method is not so natural for those who must use Rhetorick and perswasion to encline those to a cordial embracement of what severity may drive them to the profession of to be the prime Authors and the immediate Instruments of conveying to them their Mulcts and Penalties If the Temporal Authority would
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
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