after this Matter is plainly laid before us the giving of Informations is now more generally insisted on by our Clergy in their Sermons especially at those stated times that they are required to read the Act of Parliament against Swearing and Cursing with the other Statutes against Prophaneness and Vice by His Majesty's Letter and His late Gracious Proclamation for the enforcing the Execution of them and we have moreover such a change of Circumstances and such favourable Occurrences as that our Diligence in giving Informations will at this time so effectually promote a National Reformation as it is evident it will do from what is already done by it that it will be found notwithstanding the Objections and plausible Pretences that will be made on this Occasion by many for their being excused from it to proceed frequently if not generally from worse Causes that we are either afraid or ashamed of discharging it from a want of Faith or of Love to God and our Neighbour not duly considering the Admonition Fear ye not the Reproach of Men neither be afraid of his Revilings That the Fearful and Vnbelieving are joined together with Rev. 21. 8. those who shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone nor the Extent of our Saviour's Threatning Whosoever Mar. 8. 38. therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels Nor lastly the great Encouragement given in the Word of God to those that suffer for discharging of their Duty Blessed are they Matt 5. 10. which are Persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Our light 2 Cor. 4. 17. Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory If any Man suffer as a Christian 1 Pet. 4. 16. let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf Wherefore let them 1 Pet. 4. 19. that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour And now if notwithstanding what hath been said or that may be urged by our Clergy with more Advantage in their Discourses for our giving Informations against prophane and vicious Men and the Magistrate's Diligence and Faithfulness that was before insisted on this criminal Fear and Shame shall so generally prevail as to keep private Persons from giving Informations in these Cases and shall likewise keep Magistrates who have less Colour of Excuse for their Unfaithfulness they being under the Obligations of Oaths and Trusts super-added to those they have as Christians from using their Diligence in the Execution of the Laws and particularly from giving all Countenance and just Encouragement to those who bring them Informations at the same time that Prophaneness and Debauchery do appear so shameless and fearless among us what a weight of Guilt may be supposed to lie upon this Nation And in how great danger of Misery and Destruction may it be apprehended to be which I do not see with what Reason we can expect will so likely be pervented by any other Means as by the close Conjunction the zealous and united Endeavours of good Men for the Retrieving of Religion and the Morals of the Nation by all Christian and Prudent Methods For Religion in general and the Practice of every Moral Virtue in particular do in their own Nature tend not only to the Felicity of every Man 's private Life but do also conduce to the Peace Order and Welfare of all publick Societies and good Government over Men as it hath the greatest Influence for these Ends upon Magistrates and Subjects Religion teaches and obliges Governours to over-rule their Subjects in the Fear of God to his Glory and for the Safety and Prosperity of those that are in Subjection to them and therefore I think to endeavour to support and encourage them in the Exercise of Religion and Virtue and this as well by the Use of their Authority which may for instance be expressed by their Personally Countenancing and Promoting Men of Virtue and Discountenancing vicious Men by their taking Care that good Laws be made for the Security of Religion and that the Laws that are made for the Promotion of Christian Virtues and the Suppression of Vice be put in Execution as by their own Exemplary Behaviour * Non si inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentis Qui Macedoniae regem erudit omnes etiam subditos erudit Delirant reges plectuntur Achivi which hath a wonderfull force is as it were a living Law and Religion instills in Subjects such Principles and Dispositions as in their own nature tend to make themselves happy as well as a Government strong and prosperous It instructs and obliges them to obey Magistrates not only for Fear but out of Conscience And as Piety and Virtue do thus evidently conduce to the Stability and Happiness of any Kingdom and Government so Vice and Irreligion in the natural consequences of them tend to bring Decay and Ruine upon them as they unqualifie Magistrates for Government and make †Homo sine Religione sicut equus sine fraenc Subjects unfit for Commands averse to all good Order and destructive instead of helpfull Members of a Community from whence ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch might justly esteem it the Foundation or Cement of Humane Society * In Magistratuum institutione prima sit cura de Religione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato conclude That in the Institution of Magistracy the first and chief Care should be of Religion and the Famous †Sine maenibus Civitas potest stare sine virtute nullo mode potest Scipio observe That it was impossible any City should stand if their Manners were depraved tho' their Walls were never so firm Accordingly I conceive there have been but few if any amongst the ancient and celebrated Legislators and Statesmen whatever there have been among our Modern who have not had the greatest Regard to Religion in the Modelling and Governing of Civil Societies for how is it possible to conceive that any State should long stand and be prosperous without Honesty or Peace * Religio neglecta maximam pestem in Civitatem insert omnium scelerum fenestram aperit Or that it should either enjoy a lasting Peace or have a general Honesty without Religion And therefore it was no weak tho' a wicked Piece of Policy which they tell us of a King of Assyria who chose rather to endeavour to overcome the City of Babylon by sending in of Players Lewd Women c. to debauch it by which means he effectually did it and at last obtained his End than to invade it with a powerfull Army Upon the whole Matter We may dare to challenge
false Friends suffering cruel Mockings unkind Censures and unjust Reproaches and yet not giving way We have seen them surmounting their greatest Difficulties so that the main brunt seems now near over and going on with that Resolution and Success that the Deluge of publick Wickedness is visibly abated We are told that many Thousands have been brought to Punishment for Swearing and Cursing by their means Seventy or Eighty Warrants a Week having been executed on these Offenders in and about this City only since the late Act of Parliament against Swearing and Cursing was made which hath given so great and remarkable a Check to those Scandalous Sins that our Constables sometimes of late have found it difficult to take up a Swearer in divers of our Streets and Markets where within a few years past horrid Oaths Curses and Imprecations were heard Day and Night that a multitude of Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lord's Day some of whom kept as it were open Markets within a few Years past have been made Examples by their means that Hundreds of Disorderly Houses which were little better than Stews and Nests for Thieves Clippers and Coiners c. have been rooted out and suppressed and that some Thousands of Lewd Persons have been Imprisoned Fined and Whipt so that the Tower-End of the Town and many of our Streets have been much purg'd of that pestilent Generation of Night-Walkers that used to infest them which were a Reproach to this Noble City and a Scandal to Christianity Forty or Fifty of them having been sent in a Week to Bridewell where they have of late received such Discipline that a considerable Number of them hath chose rather to be Transported to our Plantations to work there for an honest Subsistence than to expose themselves by their lewd way of Living to Shame and Punishment to Poverty and Disease to all sorts of wicked Practices and the Danger of the Gallows to which in the Conclusion they are often if not generally brought And I may justly add That far greater Things by the Application of the Original Society of Gentlemen have been accomplished than what have yet been mentioned and such as I am not permitted at this time to discover But thus much may be said That the Endeavours of those Gentlemen have not been consined to this City and Kingdom but have extended as far as Ireland where they have had an Influence very little I think to the Honour of that Kingdom from whence it had its first Rise of which since a more particular Account may be expected I may satisfy my self at present with saying in general of my own Knowledge That the Transactions of Reformation here having been near Two Years since laid before some few Persons in Ireland and most of those I must again observe private Persons and of the lower Rank of Men with proper Considerations to move 'em to unite in the same Design and Methods to pursue it with Advantage it determined them to engage heartily in it and they have prosecuted it with so much Vigour that there are now several Societies for Reformation in the City of Dublin which I am assured by divers Accounts that I have in my Hands from thence are spreading into several Parts of the Kingdom and are encouraged by his Excellency the Earl of Galloway one of the Lords Justices of Ireland the Right Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Dublin many of the Clergy and the best of the Magistrates and Gentlemen of that City In One of which Societies most of the Parish-Ministers of Dublin several of the pious Bishops particularly the celebrated Arch-Bishop and divers other Persons of Quality are Members some of whom have shewn a Zeal which if it prevailed the Three Kingdoms over might soon produce a Glorious Reverse of the State they are now in and which in less than Two Years space hath succeeded tho' not without such various Oppositions as might be expected from Combinations of bad Men to that degree in Dublin that the Prophanation of the Lord's Day by Tipling in publick Houses by Exercising of Trade and Exposing of Goods to Sale is almost supprest that Lewd Women are so strictly enquired after and severely punished that they have Transported themselves as in England to our Plantations and that Swearing is so run down that an Oath is rarely heard in their Streets so that publick Disorders are remarkably cured and in short Vice is afraid and ashamed to shew its head where within a few Years past it was daring and Triumphant We are likewise assured That Scotland hath concurred in these Matters where His Majesty's Proclamation against Prophaneness and Debauchery hath been issued out in very strict terms and His late Gracious Letter to the Parliament of that Kingdom takes notice of the Progress that they have made in the Forming of Methods for the Discouraging of Vice and Irreligion and assures them That 't is a WORK most acceptable to him But to return to our own Nation We are made acquainted That many Societies and Bodies of Men of different Ranks and Perswasions are ingaged in this Work to which Men of Virtue of Temper and unblemished Reputation may either join themselves according to their Quality Circumstances or Opportunities or may form themselves into new Bodies That the publick Opposition that was made to it which our Posterity may blush to read of is at an end which 't is to be hoped will be the last that we shall hear of in a Christian State and under a Protestant Government That the City of London espouses it where there are Two Sermons Quarterly Preached and divers of them Printed to make Men sensible of their Obligations in this respect And it 's true also That Swearing is much lessened as we have reason to believe by the Accounts we receive in most if not in all Parts of the Kingdom as other publick Disorders are in many and that Societies for Reformation have been in divers Places already actually form'd and are going on in many others as particularly in Gloucester Leicester Coventry Shrewsbury Hull Nottingham Tamworth Newcastle Leverpool Chester and several other Corporations so that in a few Months time by the Methods that are now taking there is reason to believe that we shall hear of a very considerable Progress in this Work from all Parts of the Nation And now is this a Time for Men that would be reckoned Christians to stand Neuters in an Affair wherein their Religion their Country and their Posterity are so deeply concerned Let the Men who can contentedly see the Laws of GOD trampled upon who can in their ordinary Conversation in the Streets and even at their own Tables hear horrid Oaths and Curses nay Men calling upon GOD for Damnation upon themselves and others in a word offering high Indignities to the Glorious Majesty of their Great Creator consider whether the very Heathens who would not suffer their Artificial Deities to be affronted or their Religion to be despis'd who in
quis convictus furti esset apud Locrenses effodiebantur ei oculi Contigit autem ut Zaleuci filius furti reus convitiaretur cui quum Locrenses poenam remitterent non tulit id pater sed sibi unum filio alterum voluit erui oculum Legem quandam Tenediis tulit Tennes quâ licebat Adulterum deprehensum securi necare Quum itaque silius ejus esset captus interrogante regem qui coeperat Quid ei faciendum Respondebat Lege utendum quapropter nummo ejus ab una parte securis excusa ab altera facies viri mulieris uno collo juncta If History can tell us of Heathens that could do and suffer so much for the Maintenance of the Laws of their Country shall it be supposed that the Fear of disobliging a Man of Interest that hath a swelling Title one that is I doubt improperly called a Man of Honour who affronts and contemns Religion should keep Christian Magistrates from Executing the Laws of their Country that are made for the Support of Religion and to which they are Sworn And yet as unworthy and unaccountable as such a Behaviour may appear to be even by the Light of Nature it were well if for the Honour of Christian Magistrates nay even of Humane Nature that it could be denied †Pudet haec opprobria nobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli that many I am unwilling to say most of the Magistrates in the late Reigns lived and died with their Commissions without putting any one of the Laws that our more virtuous Ancestors had left us against Prophaneness and Debauchery in Execution which some of the worthy Magistrates of this Reign making a Conscience of Discharging the Oaths they have taken and the Trust that is reposed in them by their Personal Watchfulnss and Diligence as well as by their giving due Encouragement to those who without having Oaths to oblige them or Rewards to encourage them bring them Informations of the Breaches of those Laws which were grown almost obsolete and useless have to their great Honour so successfully done with such Opposition and Difficulty and not only with greater Clamour from hardned Offenders but with more Reflection from too many others than they might have met with if they had been breaking them in the most impudent manner had been making Attempts to destroy them To prevent therefore for the future the Mischief that this Nation may otherwise fall under as it hath done by the Vnfaithfulness of Magistrates it may deserve Consideration whether it would not be highly advisable that * Cogunt eos qui Magistratu abierint apud Censores edere exprimere quid in Magistratu gesserint Gothofredus de duodecim Tabularum Fragmentis p. 66 67. as we are told the Romans for this reason ordered their Magistrates to give an Account of their Diligence for the Maintenance of the Laws to their †Censorum Officium erat describere facultates cujusque Civis observare singulorum hominum mores vitam tollere quoque omnia quae probitati morum pestem perniciem illatura videbantur Rosinus de Antiquitatibus Romanis fol. 520 Censores mores populi regunto Haec detur cura Censoribus quandoquidem eos in Republica semper volumus esse Cicero de Legibus fol. 340. Censors a chief part of whose Office it was to look to a Reformation of Manners and as our Magistrates are by the late Act of Parliament against Swearing and Cursing required to keep Lists of those Persons that they have convicted of those Offences and to return them to the Sessions our Magistrates should be likewise further obliged to bring in to our Judges of Assize or to the Quarter-Sessions Lists of such as they have convicted upon all the Statutes against Prophaneness and Debauchery which Method will I humbly conceive not only be effectual for the quickening the Diligence of Magistrates but give a just Terror to Offenders and will afford the Government a means of knowing what Magistrates are Unfaithful in their Office and deserve Discountenance and Punishment and on the contrary who they are that most Honourably discharge their Trusts do the greatest Service to their Country and deserve the highest Regard from it * His autem duobus praemiis poena salus Reipublicae quamplurimum continetur And can any unless they are faithful and zealous Ministers of the Gospel be supposed to deserve more Respect than those Magistrates that conscientiously apply themselves to the Suppressing of Vice and Prophaneness and to the Promoting of Religion As the doing of this is I conceive the greatest Benefit of Magistracy and may be supposed as hath been shewn to be a great End for which it was appointed so it can't I think be doubted but God's Blessing may attend his Ordinance the Magistrates zealous and united Endeavours for this purpose so that they may succeed to the Spiritual good of particular Persons as well as to the good of the Publick that as Afflictions are often sent by Him to awaken Men out of their Lethargy in their vicious Courses and in the nature of them tend to that end the legal Corrections of Offenders which may be looked on as Afflictions may with God's Blessing work the same happy Effect upon them and the rather since they are the immediate and sensible Effects of their Sins and of this we are told there hath been so many happy Instances since the beginning of these Transactions as may be sufficient without other Considerations to encourage the Magistrates Diligence But when this fails of the desired Success upon particular Persons yet it is a vast Advantage to the Cause of Religion in general to keep the Multitude by the strict and exemplary Punishment of some Offenders from the publick Commission of such Scandalous Sins as wast the Conscience affront Religion and directly tend to bring it into Contempt that as the Scripture expresses it All Israel may hear and fear Deut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and do no more any such Wickedness For considering the Original Corruption of our Nature which is generally more depraved by our Education in a degenerate Age that being thus depraved and weakned we find it no very easie work to resist Temptations to Sins to which we have either habituated our selves or have a natural propensity when they are naked and alone and that 't is much more difficult to encounter those Sins when Temptations to them are made stronger by the bad and eminent Examples which are almost every-where to be seen in our Commerce with the World there being but few that we meet with that do not recommend one Vice or other by their Example to our Imitation and which is I think still worse most of those not such as profess themselves Enemies of Religion but that pretend themselves Christians entertain hopes of receiving the Benefits of Religion and attend its Ordinances with Allowance as often as they think it for