whether the villany of so cursed a design or the mercy of our deliverance be the greater miracle we may justly raise a Pillar for the monument of our thankfulness and may engrave it with Samuel's Motto 1. Sam. 7. 12. Hitherto the Lord hath helped us We have long sailed in the Straits between the Popish Scylla an the Fanatical Charibdis and whilst some feared that our care to avoid the one would insensibly cast us upon the other we have not hitherto split upon either of those Rocks which threaten our Ruine the Sun is still in our Firmament the light of our Eyes is not darkned nor is the breath of our Nostrils expired nor is the Crown fallen from our Heads Which wonderful deliverance we owe chiefly to the watchful care of Almighty God who when the wretches went big with Treason made the burthen prove abortive and crushed those Cockatrices Eggs e're they had time to turn Serpents or to exert their Stings We owe it also to the Wisdom of our dear and dread Soveraign the tutelar Angel of the Kingdoms peace to the faithfulness of his Councellors and to the dilligence of his Ministers nor should any one of us at such a critical time as this in our respective places be wanting to the defence of his Sacred Person and the security of his Government we should set banks to that deluge which threatens us with an innundation of Blood Ministers should Preach Loyalty People should practice Obedience and they to whom the Sword of Justice is committed should Take away the Wicked from before the King Solomon's Throne was nearer Heaven than the Thrones of his Neighbouring Princes he had a clearer eye to find out those who are the bane of Government and a more impartial hand to punish them and upon this account was left by David's last Will and Testament the Executor of that Vengeance which was to be inflicted on the remnant of those Rebels who were concern'd in Absolom's and in Achitophels Conspiracy and having by such an execution secured the Peace of his own he prescribes it as the most effectual means for the establishment of all other Kingdoms and lays it down as the great Maxime of Pollicy and Government in the words of my Text where he proceeds a Remotione Mali from the removal of those evils that are so inconsistant with the Kings safety and the Kingdoms peace Ad positionem boni to the determining of that Blessing wherein the great happiness of a Society does consist which is the establishing of the Kings Throne in Righteousness the preserving and delivering down of Monarchy in its Right-Line to succeeding Ages that they also may sit safely rejoicing under the shadow of that best of Governments which now is and may it ever be our Glory and Protection a fit Pattern for the Repairers of our breaches who should first remove the Rubbish should first take away the bane and burthen of Government and then may better lay the Foundation and raise the Fabrick of our Kingdoms Peace I shall observe the same Method and shall begin a remotione mali with the removal of that which is so absolutely inconsistent with the just Establishment of the Regal Throne Take away the Wicked from before the King Where we may find these three things 1. An act of Justice Take away 2. The subjects of this act or the Character of those persons who are to be taken away they are the Wicked 3. The Reason of this removal because the suffering of such is not consistent with the safety of his person nor with the due settlement of his Throne therefore must they be taken away from before the King And of these three parts in their order 1st Then we have an act of Justice Take away Had but Mankind retained their primitive innocence there would have been no need of such a separation the Earth would have been filled with Righteousness and the whole World with Truth then would Faction Treason War and Murther have been such strangers that even their hateful names would never have been so much as heard in our Streets then would there have been such an universal conformity of all things and persons to the great design and end of their Creation that no crime nor errour would have been committed therefore no punishment could have been deserved The wickedness of men first caused the Sword of Justice to be drawn and has sound employment for it ever since Sin breeds and feeds those bad humours in the Bowels of a Nation which must either be removed or they will quickly tend to its dissolution This gives many wounds to the Body pollitick and causes it to break out into those Wens and Excresencies of Government which must be taken away least they should grow more spreading and infectious Sufference is but a bad Chyrurgion which instead of healing does but widen our Wounds and Breaches The greatest offenders grow more bold and impudent when they are buoy'd up with the hopes of a forbearance and make the most desperate attempts when they can work under the protection of an indulgence Lay but the Reins in the Neck of some Head-strong Creatures and they 'l immediatly throw their Burthens will tread down the Laws of Heaven and Earth and will violate all civil and sacred Rights Let such tares grow still amongst us and our Land will in a little time be like the Sluggards Field the Weeds would suck all the fatness and sweetness to themselves would over-top and bear down all before them would make our Kingdom a Map of Misery and would quickly turn it into an Aceldama a Field of Blood Execution is the very life of the Law without which it will prove but an insignificant Scare-crow not able to keep the dullest sort of Mortals within the compass of their duty like that dead log which every Frog in the Marsh could despise and leap on at his pleasure The discovery of an evil without the power to remove it is but an addition to our misery and makes the blow more deep and dreadful Nature therefore for our own preservation has given us as many hands to take away what 's hurtful to us as it has given eyes to find it out nor will the greatest offender ever fear the eyes of the Jurors in their enquiries after his crimes if he never feels the hands of the Judge in the execution of those Laws that are made for his punishment Pity to some sort of persons is cruelty to the rest of the Kingdom and whilst we become their advocates we become our own Traytors and lay open our naked Breasts to the stroke of those Weapons which our forbearance has unhappily put into their hands so that by this means we may make that sad Exchange which Ahab was threatned with 1 Kings 20. 42. our Life may go for their Life and our people for their people Thus to suffer the known Enemies of our Church and State tamely to compleat their intended villanies were but
A SERMON Preached at the ASSISES HELD AT YORK JVLY the 23 d. 1683. Not long after the Discovery of the late Horrid Conspiracy against His Majesties Person and Government By HENRY CONSTANTINE M. A. PROVERBS XXV 5. Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in Righteousness LONDON Printed by J. Grantham for Isaac Cleave at the Star next to Serjeants-Inn in Chancery-Lane 1683. To the Right Worshipful AMBROSE PVDSAY Esq High-Sheriff of the County of YORK AS this short Sermon ows its Birth unto you so it seeks its Patronage from you you commanded it to the Pulpit and advised it to the Press so that both the nature of the Subject and your interest in the Preacher have made it wholly yours and though its hasty Birth denyed it that just proportion and those Lineaments which a longer time would have given yet I hope the Honesty of the design will attone for the defects of the Discourse I have added little to what I then spoke and have omitted nothing but a forward Parenthesis which had given some disgust None can justly Quarrel with the Character which is laid down but such as are Conscious to themselves how much they deserve it and no great wonder if these having over-lived their Duty and Allegiance like aged Lais strive to break the Glass which shows them their own Deformity but I shall more easily bear the severest of their Censures when I have gained your approbation whose Eminent Zeal and Faithfulness to His Majesties Service renders you fit for that great trust which he has now reposed in you and shows how much you inherit the Vertue and untainted Loyalty of your Antient Family the prosperity and continuance whereof is desired and hoped for by all that have the Honour and Happiness of being known unto you but by no man with greater Zeal than by him who is SIR The most Humble and most Faithful of your Servants HENRY CONSTANTINE A SERMON Preached at the Assises held at YORK July the 23 d. 1683. Not long after the Discovery of the late Horrid Conspiracy against His Majesties Person and Government PROV XXV 5. Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in Righteousness HEaven alone is that happy place where we can promise to our selves the enjoyment of an undisturbed Peace nor can any other Throne than the Throne of God receive so firm an Establishment as to secure it from the bold attempts of malicious and Blood-thirsty men and from those miserable revolutions which have buried many flourishing Kingdoms in the saddest heaps of their own Ruins Thunders happen only in the lower Regions of the Air whilst the Orbs above are calm and clear thus we who are left to people this lower Vale of Tears lye more open to the strokes of Violence and Sedition whilst the Blessed Inhabitants of the Mansions above are set out of the reach of those Blows and are secured from the very fears of such a fatal change Once indeed Lucifer the Grand-sire of all this Modern brood of Rebels durst design a Change even in Heaven it self but being thrown Head-long down from thence he rises full of rage and finding himself too short handed to reach the Throne of God he turns his revenge against the Thrones of Princes he strives to wound the Almighty in Effigie in the most noble part of his Image and to strike him through the Sides of those that are his Vicegerents and Representatives here on Earth To this end he Musters up all his Legionary Forces he Trains them in his close Cabals where they sit brooding over that Spawn of Treason which he has infus'd till they be ready to March upon some fatal Service He taught Cain in the worlds Infancy not to take it well that his Brother Abel should be the greater Favourite in the Court of Heaven and when he lodg'd so much Envy in his Heart he found it more easy to put the Weapon into his hand insomuch that he who thought it an unreasonable thing at Gods Demand to be his Brothers Keeper was drawn at the Devils instigation to be his Murtherer It had fared better with all after Ages if the crimes of Envy and Ambition had been buried in the Brothers Graves beyond the possibility of a Resurrection but alass they grew rather to a greater height with the growing world the corrupted nature of Man becomeing but too fruitful a Seed-plot of those vices which in time gathered so much strength that they turn'd Usurpers snatch'd the Scepters out of the hands of many Princes hurl'd the World into confusion filling every Kingdom with Sedition and every corner with Blood No Body Politick can be found which has not sometimes groan'd and bled under the blows which these Crimes have given and if it have surviv'd a civil death yet has it long after felt the smart and seen the Scars of its former wounds Nor is there any Crown upon Earth which has not received a deeper Tincture of Red from the Blood of those that contended for it than its own Gold could ever give But where any Kingdom for the Excellency of its Constitution for the Purity of its Religion and for the Prudence of its Governour becomes a nearer Type of Heaven and conduces more to the happiness of Men there it lies more expos'd to the rage and malice of Hell and there all the Devils Engines are at work for its destruction No wonder then if so many Pioneers of his have been employed to undermine the foundation of our established Government which justly deserves the highest Character Africa shall no longer boast of her strange productions since our own Land is every age nay every lustre almost teeming with such Black Monsters of Ingratitude and Rebellion as are a shame to our Kingdom a scandal to Religion and a reproach unto Manknd It has been put in the Catalogue of our English Blessings that by the care of our Princes we are now free from Wolves and other Beasts of Prey which in the former times were so numerous and burthensome but now as if their Savageness and Cruelty had by a strange kind of μετεμψÏχωσις past into some of the Inhabitants themselves we may complain of it as the Misery and Grievance of our Nation that we are over-stock'd with a company of degenerate Creatures who lye covered in their Clubs and Conventicles those Dens of Treason and are more inconsistant with the publick Peace and safety than those wild Beasts ever were Cant. 2. 15. Cunning Foxes such as would break down the Strongest Fence and spoil the choicest Fruits of our Vineyard cruel Wolves such as would not only tear in pieces some of the meaner Flock and glut themselves with the Slaughter of the common Herd but would strike the Shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Prince is called and would quench their unnatural and ambitious thirst in streams of Royal Blood Nor is it easy to determine
to list our selves in the number of those Rebels and to become guilty of a notorious Misprision of Treason 'T is a received Maxime Qui non prohibet peccare quum possit jubet He that does not stand up in his place to take away these troublers of our Israel when it it is in his power to discover and prevent their intended Treason does but joyn forces with them and becomes one of that infamous number Nor should the multitudes of those who are concerned in such a Crime make it more pardonable 'T is true these render the Execution of Justice an act of greater difficulty but they make it an act of greater necessity and furnish all Loyal persons with an oppertunity of giving greater Testimonies of their Courage and Fidelity to the World Nor should their former favours be any bar to their present removal Justice knows no Relations and though the dispencers of it may upon any civil account accompany their Friends μâ—χâ—◠Βωμοῦ even unto the Altars yet in criminal matters they can attend them no further than μâ—χâ—â— Î’â—ματος to the judgment Seat where like that God whom they represent they must weigh the merits of the cause without any respect unto the persons and must overlook the sometimes unseasonable considerations of Nature and affection which some of the greatest examples of Justice have so little regarded that they have been ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them when such a victim was absolutely necessary to the publick peace and safety Nor has their eye spared the most intimate of their Friends and Favourites and indeed the Ear and the Tongue are only in the Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Tryal of such causes the one to hear the Evidence the other to pronounce the Sentence the Eye is excluded Hence it is that Justice is painted blind and for this reason the Athenian Judges are said to have kept their great Courts of Judicature in the night only that the sight of the person might not influence them in the determination of the cause and that an inconvenient pity might not encline them to spare and suffer those offenders whom the stronger motives of their own Duty and the common safety did engage them to remove and take away but even in the broad day Treason in a Favourite looks more black and hateful to the World than it does in one of the meaner croud who is decoy'd only into the Conspiracy nay sometimes it appears in such dismal and confounding colours to the Traytor himself that after a serious reflexion upon his own ingratitude and infidelity such pangs of despair and guilt do seize upon him that not waiting for the formalities of the Law he snatches the Sword into his own hand and becomes his own Executioner Say not that it ill becomes an Embassador of the God of Peace to blow the Trumpet of War and sound an Alarm to a fresh persecution for under that invidious name some are resolved to expose the execution of our penal Laws when it s nothing more than a just prosecution of such delinquents whose crimes are inconsistant with the publick peace that I am pleading for And this the prodigious wickedness of some men renders too sadly seasonable and necessary One would think that those who are conscious of their own guilt should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned in themselves and calmly submit to their deserved punishment but if they be truly Innocent they need never fear the penalty of our severest Laws nor did I ever hear the boldest enemies of our Government dare to arraign the publick Justice of our Nation where the greatest Criminals are allow'd the priviledge of their own witness and defence nor is any Sentence given but upon a full Hearing and clear Evidence in the judgment of Twelve unconcerned and impartial persons at the least against whom the Prisoner has the liberty of making his own Exceptions and that sometimes without giving the reasons of such a refusal God forbid that we should make the Righteous as the wicked or that we should so far imitate the cruelties of some former times as to clothe the Innocent in the Skins of Wolves and Bears to represent them to the World as the strangest Monsters of Fanaticisme and Sedition and then should bring them forth to be torn in pieces by the sanguinary Teeth of our penal Laws No Ex ungue leonem the marks of their villanies do betray their guilt and we charge none but such men whose seditious principles and rebellious practices are so notorious that the Kings Throne can never firmly be established unless they be removed and taken away 2. This brings me to the second part of my Text to the Subjects of this act or the Character of those persons against whom the Sword of Justice is to be drawn Should we take out of the Body of a Kingdom what every zealous brain-sick person judges inconsistent with its peace and safety should we change and reform things after the model of some mens extravagant fancies and wild apprehensions we should make it strangely monstrous and mishapen what they prescribe for our Cure would prove our Disease and so many removals would be made that we should have little left but confusion Let but some giddy Libertines have the guidance of this Sword let them but reform and remove at their pleasure and they would quickly take away our Beauties as Blemishes and our Guard as their Grievance they would remove the Kings dearrest Friends under the notion of Evil-Councellors and the supporters of his Throne as the infringers of their Priviledge they would take away our discipline the Fence and Ornament of our Church and the Penal Laws those great securers of the Peace and unity of the State nay some of them would be coming with their repeated crys of No Bishop No King but we hope they shall never have the power of executing their extravagant Fancies The Government cannot suffer such bold attempts and the wise man directs better in the words of my Text where he charges that the wicked should be taken away Which may have either 1. A more proper and restrained or 2. A more large and unlimited signification First then the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked may be taken in a more proper and restrained sence and in this acception it denotes men of a restless and unquiet Spirit of a turbulent and seditious humour fretting like the foaming Sea within themselves and uneasy to the Government Men that know not how to bear the least restraint that 's laid upon their Pride and Ambition but resolve to break the most just and easy Yoke and to purchase their own dear liberty though sometimes it cannot be done at any lower price than their own Blood and the Kingdoms ruine Men that go big with Faction and Discontent and like impregnate Waves swell above the highest Banks of Loyalty and Duty till they break themselves and bring a deluge of miseries where they
and old and shrivelled and bowed down with years as the Bodies of Men do No it may flourish still and continue as the Days of Heaven as the Sun and Moon before God if his Wrath be not provoked by their Impieties So that it is not any strange Conjunction of the Planets nor any Malignant Influence of the Stars which bodes the Death of Princes and the ruine of States but the loose Manners and the ungracious Lives of the people these are the surest prognosticks of ruine and if these be but once taken away all is safe This the very Heathens did conclude for when one was demanded what was the strongest Guard to a Kings Throne He answered The Piety and Innocence of his Subjects For if they were vicious an Hundred Brazen Walls would prove too weak for its defence Nay Matchiavel himself owns the wickedness of Men to be the ruine of Kingdoms But we need no such Testimonies finding this Truth confirmed by the Sacred Book of God and by the common experience of Mankind We may Read it in the Ruins of many once flourishing Kingdoms and may find that God hath turned many fruitful Land into Barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwelt therein So evident is it that if Atheisme and Debauchery Faction and Heresy be so common amongst us these Sins like the Traytors in the Trojan Horse will do us more mischief than Thousands of other enemies in many years could ever do The reasonableness of this execution does I hope now appear unto you and you see that men of Seditious spirits and ungodly lives are justly obnoxious to the censures of our Laws they are to be taken away because the forbearance of such is inconsistent with the due settlement of the Kings Throne and the Kingdoms Peace and when this is once done we may expect the Blessing set down in the latter part of my Text where we find a confluence of all those Blessings that can make an happy Prince and a thriving people Here Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other and whatsoever can add to the glory and security of a Nation we find it here summ'd up in one short period For there do the people sit under the kindest influences of Heaven there do they enjoy the greatest favours upon Earth where the Kings Throne is established in Righteousness a Blessing of such an absolute necessity to the common Peace and safety of Mankind that the want of this does not only take away the flourishing but the very being of a Kingdom Take but Government once out of the World and we shall quickly find it run back into a State infinitely more deplored than that of its first confusion the whole Earth would be nothing else but a vast Wilderness but an howling desert of Satyrs and Savages but a Type of Hell and men would be but a more cunning kind of brutes or fiends rather devouring and being devoured one of another and Government it self without Monarchy without the Throne of a King would be a monstrous and confused Body with many Heads whose disorders would be its death it would quickly crumble it self in pieces by its private Factions and interests it would be subdivided into several Parties and Cabals each whereof would strive to bear down their opposers and to raise themselves upon the ruins of those whom they either fear or hate and when they have gain'd a share in the Government they would sooner be drawn to emprove their short liv'd power for their private advantage and might be tempted to take measures from their own coveteousness and ambition rather than from the Publick Good So that no other kind of Government can make so reasonable a provision for the Peace and happiness of a people as Monarchy can do And Monarchy it self the Throne of a King without a due establishment will prove but a tottering and uneasy Seat like old Ely's stool from whence some of the most deserving Princes worthy of a better fate have been thrown headlong down the precipice of an untimely death and even the firmest seeming settlement of a Throne without Righteousness would be nothing else but a medley of Tyranny and Injustice Now here all these inconveniences are avoided and we meet with a concurrence of all the requisites to a Kingdoms Peace and hapiness For here is 1st The best Government 's the Throne of a King 2dly Here is the best Guard the strongest supporter of his Throne and that is good order and due establishment 3dly Here is the best means in the whole world to procure and continue so desirable a settlement and that is Righteousness I have no time to enlarge upon each of these particulars I shall wish that these may not only be matters of Speculation and Discourse but of Experience and Enjoyment We have at present all these Blessings which are the Glory of our Land the grief and envy of our Enemies we have the best of Governments under the best of Princes the best Laws and the best Religion under Heaven May these be continued to us and to our posterity till Time it self be outdated and lost in Eternity by that Favour of that God by whom Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice To whom be all Honour Praise and Glory now and ever Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed and Sold by Isaac Cleave THe second part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Containing an exposition of Magna Charta The third part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Concerning High-Treason and other Pleas of the Crown and Criminal Cause The fourth part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Concerning the Jurisdiction of Courts all three by Ed. Cook Mil. The Reports of that Reverand and Learned Judge the Right Honourable Sir Henry Hobert Knight and Barronet Lord Chief Justice of His Majesties Court of Common-Pleas Offinia Brevium Select and approved forms of Judicial Writs and other Process with their Returns and Entries in the Court of Common-Pleas at Westminster as also Special Pleadings to Writs of Scire facias A Vindication of the true Christian Religion in opposition to the Abomination of Popery in a Sermon upon Exekiel 21. 24 25 26 27. Being the Text appointed for Master Whitebread one of the Popish Consprators to Preach upon the accomplishing their wicked design By J. Thomas Rect. of St. Nicholas Preached at Cardiff before the Bayliffs and Aldermen there The Popes Cabinet unlocked or a Catalogue of all the Popes Indulgences belonging to the Order of St. Mary together with a List of all the Indulgences dayly yearly and for ever Written in Italian by Fr. Arcangelo Tortello of the Order of St. Mary and now translated into English by John Sidway late Seminary Priest but now of the Reformed Religion and Vicar of Selling in Kent and one of the Discoverers of the Horrid Popish Plot with the Cause of his Conversion Whereunto is added an Appendix by the Translator in which the grounds and foundations of the said Indulgences being examined are utterly overthrown and by consequence Indulgences themselves apparently proved to be mear Cheats And also shewing that the Church of Rome doth lay the chief Basis of their Religion on Indulgences The Book of Rates now used in the Sum Custom-House of the Church of Rome Containing the Bulls Dispensations and Pardons for all manner of villanies and wickedness with the several sums of Money given and to be paid for them The second Impression To which is added the New Creed of the Church of Rome and several other Remarkable things not in the former Edition Published by Anthony Egane B. D. late Confessor General of the Kingdom of Ireland but now of the Reformed Religion Englands Improvement Reviv'd in a Treatise of all manner of Husbandry and Trade by Land and Sea plainly discovering the several ways of improving all sorts of waste and barren Grounds and enriching all Earths with the natural quality of all Lands and the several Seeds and Plants which must naturally thrive therein together with the manner of Planting all sorts of Trees and Underwoods with two several Chains to plant Seeds or Sets by with several directions for planting of Hops also the way of ordering Cattel with several observations about Sheep and choice of Cows c. By John Smith Gent.