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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50664	Immorality, debauchery, and profaneness, exposed to the reproof of Scripture, and the censure of the law containing a compendium of the penal laws now in force against idleness, profaneness, and drunkenness, houses of unlawful games, profane swearing and cursing, speaking or acting in contempt of the Holy Sacrament, disturbing of ministers, profane jesting with the name of God, absenting form the church, profanation of the Lord's day, debauched incontinency, and bastard-getting : with several texts of Scripture prohibiting such vices : also a brief collection of several signal judgments of God against offenders in the said vices and debaucheries / published for the advancement of reformation of manners, so happily begun and carried on by several societies, by G. Meriton, Gent.	Meriton, George, 1634-1711.	1698 (1698)	Wing M1800; ESTC R16769	67,391	130

Immorality Debauchery and Profaneness Exposed To the Reproof of Scripture and the Censure of the Law Containing a Compendium of the Penal Laws now in Force against Idleness Profaneness and Drunkenness Houses of unlawful Games profane Swearing and Cursing speaking or acting in contempt of the Holy Sacrament disturbing of Ministers profane jesting with the Name of God absenting from the Church profanation of the Lord's Day Debauched Incontinency and Bastard-getting With several Texts of Scripture prohibiting such Vices Also a brief Collection of several signal Judgments of God against Offenders in the said Vices and Debaucheries Published for the Advancement of Reformation of Manners so happily begun and carried on by several Societies By G. MERITON Gent. Righteousness exalteth a Nation but Sin is a Reproach to any People Prov. 14. 34. God will wound the head of his Enemies and the hairy Scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his Wickedness Psal 68. 21. LONDON Printed for John Harris and Andrew Bell at the Harrow in Little Britain and at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhil 1698. To the Honourable PAUL FOLEY Esq SPEAKER OF THE Honourable House of Commons And to the rest of the Honourable and Worthy Members of that High Council of the Realm now assembled in Parliament This COMPENDIUM is humbly dedicated by G. MERITON THE PREFACE TO THE READER Reader OVR Gracious Soveraign King William having observed the spreading growth of profane vitious and profligate Debauchery and Immorality within this Realm out of his devout and pious Zeal for the Honour of God the advancement of true Religion and the Credit and Welfare of this his Kingdom of England in his most gracious Speech to both the Houses of Parliament at the opening of this present Session tells them That he esteems it one of the greatest Advantages of Peace that he shall now have leisure to rectify such Corruptions or Abuses as may have crept into any part of the Administration during the War and effectually to discourage Profaneness and Immorality And to that purpose his Majesty has not only issued out his Proclamation for the discouraging of all Debauchery Profaneness and Immorality and commanded the same to be read in every Church and publick Chappel four times in the year but has also required all his Judges Justices of the Peace and other Magistrates and Officers within their several Limits and Jurisdictions according to their several Powers and Authorities to put the Laws made against Profaneness and Immorality effectually in execution And has likewise recommended the further Care of the more effectual suppressing Debauchery Profaneness and Immorality to the Consideration of the Parliament who have prepared a Bill for that purpose And every good Christian ought devoutly to join with the Church in that Prayer appointed by her Liturgy to be read for the Parliament when sitting That God would be pleased to direct and prosper all their Consultations to the advancement of his Glory the good of his Church the Safety Honour and Welfare of our Soveraign and his Kingdoms that all things may be so ordered and settled by their Endeavours upon the best and surest Foundations that Peace and Happiness Truth and Justice Religion and Piety may be established among us for all Generations And as every one ought thus to pray so also every individual Person within this Realm ought as a Reverend and Grave Divine lately declared in his Pulpit according to his Capacity and the Post he is placed in to contribute his Help and Assistance towards the carrying on this great and pious work of Reformation In compliance wherewith and to manifest my good Will by contributing towards the carrying on this great and good Work I have compil'd this Essay as a Compendium of the Laws now in force against Idleness Profaneness Drunkenness Swearing c. and for the more effectual enforcing the Observation of the same I have after the said Laws set down several Texts of Scripture against such Sins and after them lest some by their long continued wicked Courses be so hardned in their Sins that neither Law nor Gospel will restrain them I have given an Account of several exemplary Judgments of God upon such as have accustomed themselves in the practice of such profane Vices in hopes that upon the perusal thereof such as walk and tread in the same Steps may be brought to a sight and sense of their Sins repent of their Wickedness and resolve to lead a new Course of Life There are some other Laws against suspicious Persons that walk by Night and sleep by Day keep lewd Company and frequent lewd Houses 39 Eliz. Ch. 4. 43 Eliz. Ch. 2. 7 Jac. 1. Ch. 4. and against wandring Rogues 1 Jac. 1. Ch. 7. But the other Vices aforementioned being the customary and provoking Sins of the Nation and these others last mentioned not so common and the Laws made against them not so properly falling under the Title of this Compendium I have therefore purposely omitted the inserting of them And such Readers as are desirous to inform themselves herein may have recourse to the several Statutes as they are here cited But I shall proceed no further only desire that this small Treatise may in some measure effect its intended purpose and prove serviceable to the Publick which is the hearty prayer of G. Meriton A Catalogue of the Authors Names out of whose Works the signal Examples of God's severe Justice mentioned in this ensuing Treatise are excerpted ABbot Anton. de Torquenda Augustinus Baxter Beadle Batman Baker Beard Bernard Beza Bolton Burton Clark Camden Discipulus de Tempore Eusebius Fauconer Fox Gregory Tomonensis German History Heylin Heywood Johan Wierus Johan Fincelius Lonicerus Luther Laertius Maginus Platina Perkins Quintus Curtius Socrates Spotswood Speed Stanley Stow. Teate Theatr. Historiarum Turner Twisden Ward THE Laws against Profaneness CHAP. I. A summary Account of the Laws made against profuse idle customary and expensive Tipling and against sinful customary and profane Drunkenness and against keeping Places or Houses of unlawful Games SOme of our Chronologers tell us that the Danes were the first and principal Introducers and Promoters of the immoderate profuse and sinful Vice of excessive Carousing Quaffing and Drinking which by their Example did so influence the People of this Kingdom that in a small time it arrived to that height of Vanity that Edgar the seventeenth King of the West-Saxons and first sole Saxon Monarch of England in order to the restraining and curbing the growth of the said debauched Vanity and sinful Vice did ordain certain Cups or Pots with Gages Pins or Marks in them and appointed a Penalty to be inflicted upon every one that should presume to drink beyond the limited Gage which Ordinance of his possibly might in some measure abate the exorbitant Practice of this growing Wickedness yet the Practice thereof was never wholly laid aside especially in the times of Peace and Tranquillity And upon the Union of the Kingdoms of

to look upon the Wine when it is red when it sparkles in the Cup or to rise up early in the Morning to follow drink that is strong as appears by the places of Scripture beforecited in the last preceding Chapter And we read that Pitticus the Mitelenian Philosopher and one of the seven wise men of Greece made a Law that whosoever committed a Crime when he was drunk should be punished double both for the Offence committed and also for being drunk And Solon another of the seven wise men of Greece and the famous Law-giver to the Athenians ordained that if any Prince were taken drunk he should be put to death Noah that Holy Patriarch drinking too much Wine not only discovered his own shame but also was the occasion of the cruel Curse which the Lord sent upon the Posterity of Cham which even to this day lieth hard upon them And Lot though he hated the Sin of Sodom and escaped the Punishment thereof yet being overcome with the Wine of the Mountains he committed Incest with his own Daughters and made a new Sodom of his own Family Balthasar rioting and revelling amongst his Whores had the end of his Life and Kingdom denounced against him by a bodiless Hand writing upon the Wall the Lord's Decree And whilst Holofernes besotted his sences with excess of Wine and good Chear Judith found means to cut off his Head Alexander the Great having invited many of his Favourites and Captains to a Supper propounded a Crown in reward to him that should drink most so one in the Company swallowed up four Steans of Wine being in value worth six hundred Crowns and so won the Prize but lost a greater Prize viz. his Life for he survived not three days after and one and forty of the rest that did strive with him for Conquest dyed also to bear him Company at his Death as they had done in the Frolick Alexander also himself was so addicted to the excess of drinking Wine and was oft-times so distempered therewith that sometimes he kill'd his Friends at the Table in his drunken fits whom in sobriety he loved dearest Cyrillus a Citizen of Hippon had a drunken Son who in the midst of his Drunkenness kill'd his own Mother great with Child and his Father also that endeavoured to restrain his drunken Fury and would have ravished his Sister had she not strugled sore and made her escape not without many wounds Three not far from Huntington to my own knowledg saith my Author being overcharged with Drink perished by Drowning when being not able to rule their Horses they were carried by them into the main Stream from whence they never came out again alive but left behind them visible marks of God's Justice for the Terror and Example of others Upon the Coasts of Bohemia Anno 1551. five drunken men quaffing together with horrible Blasphemies profaned the Name of God and the Picture of the Devil being painted on the Wall they caroused Healths to him to which the Devil answered immediately and the next Morning all five were found dead their Necks being broken and squeez'd to pieces as though a Wheel had gone over them Blood running out of their Mouths Nostrils and Ears to the great Astonishment of the Beholders An Alewife in Kesgrave near Ipswich who would needs force three Serving-men that had been drinking in her House and were taking their leaves to stay and drink the three Ou ts before they went that is Wit out of the Head Money out of the Purse and Ale out of the Barrel as she was coming towards them with the Pot in her hand was suddenly taken speechless and sick and her Tongue swoln in her Head and never recovered her Speech but di●d the third day after Two Servants of a Brewer in Ipswich drinking for the Rump of a Turkey and strugling in their Drink for it fell into a scalding Caldron backwards whereof one died presently and the other lingringly and painfully since my coming says Mr. Ward to Ipswich A Man coming home drunk would needs go and swim in the Mill-pond his Wife and Servants knowing he could not swim perswaded him and once got him out of the Water but he going in again was drowned in the Pond In Barnwel near Cambridg a lusty young man living at the sign of the Plough with two of his Neighbours and one Woman in their Company agreed to drink up a Barrel of strong Beer and drinking up the same three of them died within four and twenty Hours and the fourth hardly escaped after great Sickness A Butcher in Haslingfield hearing the Minister inveigh against Drunkenness being at his Cups in the Alehouse fell a scoffing at the Minister and his Sermons and as he was drinking the Drink or something in the Cup got into his Throat and stuck so there that he could neither get it up nor down but was choaked therewith presently At Tillingham in Dengy Hundred in Essex Three young men meeting to drink strong Waters fell by degrees to half Pints and one of them fell down dead in the Room and the other two prevented by Company coming in escaped not without much Sickness At Bungy in Norfolk three coming out of an Ale-house in a dark Evening swore they thought it was not darker in Hell it self one of them fell off the Bridg into the Water and was drowned the second fell off his Horse and the third sleeping on the Ground by the River side was frozen to Death A Bailiff of Hedley being drunk upon the Lord's Day at Melford would needs get upon his Mare to ride through the Street affirming as the report goes says my Author that his Mare would carry him to the Devil and his Mare casting him off broke his neck Company drinking in an Alehouse at Harwich in the Night over against one Mr. Russels Mayor of the Town was by him once or twice desired to depart and at length coming down he took one of them making as if he would carry him to Prison who drawing his Knife fled from him and was three days after taken out of the Sea with the Knife in his hand At Tenby in Pembrokshire a Drunkard being excessive drunk broke himself all to pieces from an high and steep Rock in a most fearful manner and yet the occasion and Circumstances of his fall so ridiculous as I says my Author think not fit to relate lest in so serious a Judgment I should move laughter to the Reader A Glasier in Chancery-lane in London fell to a common course of Drinking and being admonished by his Wife and many of his Friends to leave off his sinful Course yet he presuming much of God's Mercy continued in his sinful practise till upon a time having overcharged his Stomach with Drink he fell a vomiting broke a Vein lay two days in extream pain of Body and sorrow of Mind till in the end recovering a little Comfort he died Four sundry instances of Drunkards wallowing and tumbling in their

will not be altogether improper before I proceed to give an account of the Laws made for the observation of the Lords day to set down an Abstract here of the Statute of E. 6. about the Sacrament and of that of Q. M. about disturbing Ministers likewise the Statute Jac. 1. about profane speaking or jesting with the Name of God c. and then to proceed to the other Laws By the Statute 1 E. 6. Ch. 1. it is Enacted That none shall speak or do any thing in contempt of the most Holy Sacrament in pain of Imprisonment and to make Fine and Ransom at the King 's Will. Three Justices of the Peace Quor unus have power to take Information by the Oaths of two lawful Persons at least concerning the Offence aforesaid and to bind over by Recognizances every Accuser and Witness in five Pound apiece to appear at the next Sessions to give Evidence against the Offendors who are there to be enquired of before three Justices or more by the Oaths of twelve men and also indicted if the matter alledged against them be found true the Offence to be prosecuted within three Months By the Statute 1 M. Sess 2. Ch. 3. it is Enacted That if any shall disturb a Preacher lawfully Licensed in his open Sermon or Collation he shall be by the Constables or Church-wardens of the Parish brought before a Justice of the Peace who upon due Accusation shall commit him to safe Custody and within six days after together with another Justice shall diligently examine the Fact who if they find cause shall commit him to the common Goal there to remain for three Months and from thence to the next Quarter-Sessions at Which upon the parties Reconciliation and entring into Bond for good Behaviour for one whole Year at discretion of the Justices in Sessions he shall be released but if he persist still in his Obstinacy he shall remain in Prison without Bail until he shall reconcile and be penitent for his Offence He that rescues an Offendor in this kind shall suffer like Imprisonment as aforesaid and besides shall forfeit five Pounds to the King The Inhabitants of a Town that suffer such an Offendor to escape shall forfeit five Pounds being presented before the Justices of Peace in Sessions within the County or Corporation where the escape was made Justices of Peace Assize and Oyer and Terminer and Mayors and head Officers of Corporations have power to hear and determin these Offences and to impose the Fines aforesaid This Act shall not restrain the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Laws howbeit none shall be punished here for one Offence By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. Ch. 21. None shall in any Stage-play Shew May game or Pageant profanely use the Name of God Christ Jesus the Holy Ghost or Trinity on pain of ten Pounds to be divided between the King and Prosecutor It 's said that Constantine the Great made Laws for the strict observation of the Lord's Day commanding that through all the Roman Empire all servile Employments should cease on those days he prescribed also a form for the Legions of Soldiers to be used both on the Sabbath-days and other days and himself used to shew much Reverence and Attention to the Word of God so that many times he would stand up all the Sermon time and when some of his Courtiers told him that it would tend to his disparagement he answered that it was in the Service of the great God who was no respecter of Persons By the Statute 1 Eliz. Ch. 2. Every Person is to resort to their Parish Church or upon let thereof to some other every Sunday and Holy-day upon pain to be punished by Censures of the Church and also to forfeit twelve pence for every Default to be levied by the Church-wardens there for the use of the Poor upon the Offendor's Goods by way of Distress and for want of Distress to be committed to some Prison until the same be paid And by the Statute 23 El. Ch. 1. Every Person not repairing to Church according to the Statute aforesaid shall forfeit twenty Pounds for every Month they so make Default and if the Offendor is not able to pay and do not pay within three Months after Judgment then to be committed to Prison and there to remain until he have satisfied the same or shall conform himself and go to the Church By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. Ch. 4. The King may refuse the twenty Pounds a Month for absenting from the Church and take in lieu thereof two third parts of the absenters Lands and Leases but here he shall not include the Recusants Mansion-house nor demise the two third parts to a Recusant or to any other for a Recusants use The Church-wardens and Constables of every Parish or one of them or if there be none such then the High-Constable of the Hundred there shall present once every year at the general Sessions of the Peace the monthly absence from Church of every Popish Recusant and then Children being above the Age of nine years and their Servants together with the Age of their Children as near as they can know them on pain to forfeit respectively for every such default twenty Shillings which Presentment the Clerk of the Peace or Town-Clerk shall record without Fee on pain of forty Shillings If upon such Presentment being the first the Recusant be convicted the Officer that presents him shall have forty Shillings reward to be levied by Warrant upon the Recusants Goods and Estate as the more part of the Justices of Peace shall think fit But Note that his Majesties Protestant Subjects Dissenting from the Church of England and qualified according to the late Statute of Indulgence are exempted from the Penalties of these Statutes The command of the Sabbath hath a special memento prefixed to it which may not only note to us that we are by this Memento Remember thou keep Holy the Sabbath-day to observe the Lord's zeal for the observance thereof but we are thereby put in mind timely to lay aside our worldly Business and get our Hearts into readiness for the entertainment of God into the same And altho nothing is more acceptable to God than the true and sincere Worship and Service of him according to his Holy Will and that the Holy keeping of the Lord's-day is a principal part of the true Worship and Service of God Yet the People of this Kingdom having enjoyed a long continued series of Peace Plenty and Prosperity instead of rendring thanks to Almighty God for this great Blessing and of serving him in Holiness and Righteousness of Life and Conversation they on the contrary like the idolatrous Jews upon the making of their Golden-Calf they sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play Exod. 32. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 7. Nay the people of this Realm were so entirely devoted to Games and Pastimes that they could not or would not forbear them upon the Lord's Day but spent that

England and Scotland by the Accession of King James the First to the Crown of this Realm the Minds and Hearts of the People were so elevated with the prospect and great assurances they propounded to themselves of the future Tranquillity Peace Plenty Happiness and great Prosperity that in all probability was thereby likely to ensue that they thereupon became less industrious and laborious in their several Callings Trades Arts Mysteries Professions and ways of getting their Livelihoods and did much indulge themselves in the pleasant enjoyment of frequent and frolick Society by them call'd Good-fellowship which oft-times happened to be with such expence of Time and Money too that many of their Families became much impoverished thereby And the antient true and principal use of Inns Alehouses and Victualing-houses being for the Receipt Relief and Lodging of such People as are not able by greater quantities to make their Provision of Victuals became common Tipling Houses and places of Entertainment and Harbour of lewd and idle People to spend and consume their Money and their Time in lewd and drunken manner contrary to the true meaning of the principal intended Purposes of such Houses as the Parliament the first Year of King James the First observes It is therefore enacted by the said Parliament 1 Jac. 1. chap. 9. That if any Inn-keeper Victualer or Alehouse-keeper within the Realm of England or Dominion of Wales do permit or suffer any Person or Persons inhabiting or dwelling in any City Town Corporate Village or Hamlet within the said Realm or Dominions where any such Inn Alehouse or Victualing-house is or shall be to remain and continue drinking or tipling in the same other than such as shall be invited by any Traveller and shall accompany him only during his necessary Abode there and other than labouring and Handicrafts-men in Cities and Towns Corporate and Market Towns upon the usual working days for one hour at Dinner-time to take their Diet in an Alehouse and other than Labourers and Workmen which for the following of their Work by the day or by the great in any City Town Corporate Market-Town or Village shall for the time of their said continuing in work there sojourn lodg or victual in any Inn Alehouse or Victualing-house other than for urgent and necessary occasions to be allowed by two Justices of the Peace That then every such Innkeeper Victualer and Alehouse-keeper shall for every such Offence forfeit and lose the Sum of Ten Shillings of current Money of England to the use of the Poor of the Parish where such Offence shall be committed the same Offence being view'd and seen by any Mayor Bailiff or Justice of Peace within their several Limits or proved by the Oaths of two Witnesses to be taken before any Mayor Bailiff or any other head Officer or any one or more Justice or Justices of the Peace who are authorized to administer the same within the Limits of their Commission The said Penalties to be levied by the Constable or Church-wardens of the Parish or Parishes where the Offence or Offences shall be committed by way of Distress to be taken and detain'd for the said Forfeiture and for default of Satisfaction within six days next ensuing the same then to be presently apprized and sold and the Surplusage or Remainder over and above to be deliver'd to the Party distrained and for want of sufficient Distress the Offenders to be by the Mayor Bailiff or other head Officer or Justice or Justices of the Peace aforesaid committed to the common Goal there to remain until the same Penalty be truly paid If the Constable or Church-wardens neglect their Duty in levying or in default of Distress do neglect to certify the default of Distress by the space of twenty days then next ensuing to the Magistrates aforesaid within whose Jurisdiction the Offence is committed then every Person so offending shall forfeit for every such default the Sum of Forty Shillings to the use of the Poor of the Parish where such Offence shall be committed to be levied by Distress and Sale of the Offender's Goods by Warrant from any such Magistrate within the Limits of their Jurisdictions respectively under his Hand and Seal if Payment be not made within six days next ensuing the taking of the said Distress and the Surplusage if any be to be delivered to the Party distrained and for want of sufficient the Constable or Church-wardens so offending to be by such Magistrate committed to the common Goal there to remain until the said Penalty or Penalties be truly paid Notwithstanding the Restraint put upon Inn-keepers Victualers and Alehouse-keepers by the Act of Parliament aforementioned and the Penalty to be incurred by them for suffering Tipling in their Houses the People did still continue their Bowsing Tipling and Carousing which by little and little arrived to that height of Excess that it usually ended and does so still in downright Drunkenness and grew so habitual and practicable that it was and still is even in a manner become an Epidemical Vice through the whole Realm for Punishing and Suppressing of which odious Sin in the fourth year of King James the First an Act of Parliament was made inflicting a Penalty upon Drunkards and such as continue drinking in Ale-houses In the preamble of which Act the Parliament takes notice of several Sins occasioned by and proceeding from Drunkenness as appears by what follows Stat. 4 Jac. 1. Ch. 5. Whereas the loathsom and odious Sin of Drunkenness is of late years grown into common use within this Realm being the Root and Foundation of many other enormous Sins as Bloodshed Stabbing Murder Swearing Fornication Adultery and such like to the great dishonour of God and of the Nation the overthrow of many good Arts and manual Trades the disabling of divers Workmen and the general impoverishing of many good Subjects abusively wasting the good Creatures of God It is therefore Enacted That all and every Person and Persons that shall be drunken and of the same Offence of Drunkenness shall be lawfully Convicted shall for every such Offence forfeit and lose five Shillings to be paid within one Week next after Conviction to the hands of the Church-warden of that Parish where the Offence shall be committed who shall be accountable for it to the use of the said Poor and if the Persons convicted refuse or neglect to pay then the same to be levied of their Goods by Warrant or Precept from the same Court Judg or Justices before whom the said Conviction shall be And if the Offenders be not able to pay the Penalty then to be committed to the Stocks for every Offence there to remain by the space of six Hours And if any Officer of the Place where the Offence shall be committed upon a Precept sent to him shall neglect his Duty in correcting the Offenders or in due Levying the Penalties where Distress may be had then the Officer so offending shall forfeit ten Shillings to the use of the