of the Adversary let us run into God's House embrace his Mercy embrace his Ordinances honour his Holy Name and his Word obey his Commands fulfill all Righteousness and sanctifie his most Holy Day Let us break off our Sins by Repentance and stop those Judgements which threaten us who knows but the Lord will have Mercy and will repent him of the Evil that he hath designed against us that he will dispel the Clouds and make the Sun of Peace and Righteousness to break out upon us making us rejoyce for the time wherein we have suffered Adversity To this End it would not be amiss to cry out From Hardness of Heart from Contempt of thy Holy Word and Commandments from Fornication and all other Deadly Sin from Intemperance and Prophaning of thy most holy Day from all the Judgments which we have most righteously deserved from Lightning and Tempest from Plague Pestilence and Famine from Battle and Murder and from sudden Death Good Lord Deliver us And O Blessed Adorable and Glorious Trinity Remember not our Offences nor the Offences of our Fathers neither take thou Vengance of our sins but Spare us Good Lord Spare thy People whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious Blood and be not angry with us for ever Have mercy upon us Have mercy upon us Have Mercy upon us most Merciful Father Save and Deliver us from all our Sins Confirm and Strengthen us in all Goodness and bring us at length to Life Eternal Amen Amen! A Modest Advice to the Ministers and Civil Magistrates TO make the preceding Discourse the more Effectual it might perhaps be expected that I should add something to the Ministers and Civil Magistrates of this Church and Kingdom and that I should shew how far both of them are obliged in their several Stations the one by the Sword of the spirit the other by that of Justice to do what in them lies to suppress the Reigning Immoralities of the present Age Of which the Vices spoken against in the foregoing Treatise are not the least in Reality tho they may be so in all outward appearance by reason of that little notice the unthinking World takes of them To the Ministers of our Church there is a very little need to say any thing For besides those Worthy and Reverend Prelates whom God's Providence and the Care and Piety of our Princes has placed at the Helm there is a Clergy under them that for Learning Virtue and Sincere not meerly formal Devotion we may dare all the Churches in Christendom to shew its equal Our whole Nation and especially the Metropolis thereof has many of those pious Souls whose Lives and Doctrines go hand in hand to stem that torrent of Atheism and Prophaness which has of late years been so Impetuously breaking in upon us Their Practical Preaching and Moral but withall most Excellent Discourse◠now in Print concerning the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion the Loveliness of all that is Good and Virtuous and the Deformity of all that is Bad and Vicious with the like is sufficient proof of their Zeal for the Honour of God and the Good of His Church so that we should wrong them if we thought they stood in need of Instructions to Direct them or of Motives to Incite them to do a Duty which is so Incumbent upon them as to press home for a Reformation of this Degenerate Kingdom when the Glory of their Great Master is so nearly Concerned therein But amidst these Excellent Persons there are it must be Confessed some others that give too open a Scandal to our Holy Religion by their Vile Principles and their Viler Practices Some of these are notoriously Bad and live in Direct Opposition to what they are bound to Preach to others Whilst Others spend their time in dry Notions and insipid Controversies which profit their Congregations but very little if any thing at all As for the first if the Common Obligations they lie under as Men endued with Reasonable Souls if the ordinary Ties of Christianity they are bound with in their Baptism or if the extraordinary Ones they are obliged with in their Ordination are not of force to put them upon mending these their Irregularities yet 't is hoped the Example of the more Strict and Conscientious will shame them to some degree of fervour and cause them to put on the Form at least if they will hot the Power of Godliness But if that will do no good upon them yet 't is presumed the Worthy Fathers of the Church will by their Care and Inspection either remove those that are a Publick Shame unto it or else prevent the Like Mischief for the future by admitting none into Holy Orders but such as they have sufficient Testimony of that they will not by their unsanctified Lives give cause for the contempt of the Clergy I say 't is presumed the Bishops will in their several Diocesses take care of those things which Confidence I ground upon those many excellent Charges which have of late been given in many Visitations After all this I cannot but wonder how any one can so far offer violence to his Reason and Conscience as to live in the Wilfull Breach of any known Duty when he has so many upbraidings from all hands to check him and stare his sins out of Countenance What a dreadful Account they must give of their Cure and that Charge of Souls which is committed to them Sacred Writ will sufficiently inform them and what a weight lies upon their shoulders tho at present so little regarded by them Bishop Burnets Pastoral Care lately published will put them in mind of if they can give themselves but time to read it over and calmly to consider thereon As for those who busie themselves about unprofitable Speculations and matters meerly Controvertal 't were to be wished they would leave off their Heats and Animosities throw aside all Prejudice and Faction for this Sect or that Party and give over Quarreling and Disputing about Modes and Figures about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion the Knowledge or Ignorance of which would neither promote nor hinder our Great Concern 'T were to be wished I say that they would lay aside all such Curious Niceties and Disputable Points fit for none but Schoolmen and wrangling Sophisters to employ their parts upon and that they would reason of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Preach up with the Primitive Christians the necessity and usefulness of a Holy Life lashing Vice and protecting Virtue where e're they find it tho their very Patrons were guilty of the one and their greatest Enemies Masters of the other Such profitable Rules of Morality would better become the Gravity of the Preacher as well as suit with the Capacity and Regulate the Lives and Practices of the Audience than an unintilligible Discourse of an Hour or two long about the Particular Tenets of Calvin Arminius or some other Learned Sophister of the Church which can neither
and the Entring into the Tabernacle and they were punished with Death who were rash and Unprepared in their Approaches How much more should we provide our selves for the partaking of the Holy Mysteries under the Gospel Dispensation And how dangerously Guilty are those who heedlesly and rashly run into those Holy Ordinances Keep thy foot when thou goest into the House of the Lord is Solomon's advice and it was not the not Washing of the Hands but the unclean unpurified Heart that our Saviour condemned in the Pharisees He that so uses the world as tho' he used it not and has God always before his Eyes is a continual Sacrifice and needs not much blowing to raise up his Soul into a Flame But the Carking Worlding who all the Week is fastned to this Earth should take some time to disintangle his thoughts and make them ready for Spiritual Objects He would do well to leave off his Business as early as conveniently he can on the Eve of every Lords-Day to call himself to account and see how cases stand betwixt God and his own Soul He would do well to retire into his Chamber to commune with his own Heart to search it throughly and to examine whether he be sensible of that Majesty before whom he must on the Morrow appear 'T is for want of this Premeditation that the Heart relishes Spirituals so ill on the Day they are offered to it that it is so soon cloyed and glutted with sacred things which had the Mind been prepared would have lain well upon and been easily digested by the Soul 19. Having thus provided for the Approaching Solemnity and made His Addresses in His Closet to the God who hears in Secret Secondly Frequenting the Publick Ordinances of the Church He will find it no such Difficult matter to be present at and demean himself decently and devoutly in the Publick Ordinances of the Church and to stay them out were they something longer than they are And here the Devout Soul needs not to be admonished tho' the Lazy unprepared and unsanctified Hearts should be put in Mind to consider in whose presence it is that they then appear that they may be struck with an awful Reverence and an humble Fear of that Majesty with whom they then and there more immediately converse It is the Assembly of the Saints the Congregation of the Faithful the Confluence of God's Elect a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Peculiar People a Holy Nation that they then and there represent to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called them out of Darkness into his marvellous Light 1 Pet. 2.9 Oh how should such thoughts inflame them to lift up pure Hands to cast up pure Eyes to dart up pure Affections to lift up a clean Heart and to pour out Holy Prayers before the Throne of Grace How should such thoughts make them joyn with the Minister in that admirable Form of Morning and Evening Prayer the Church in her Liturgy has prepared to their Hands the Excellency of which appears to none more than to the truly Pious Fixed Warm and attentive Soul How should they be inflamed with Love and not only offer up their Prayers but their Praises also to that Being who gives them the Cause the Power and the Faculty to Praise How should they run out to meet God in his Ordinances to Hearken to his Messengers shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace How would they be Enamoured with the Mercies supported by the Promises and forewarned by the Judgments and Threatnings of the most High How will their Instructed Minds and Informed Wills breath after a Spiritual Participation of the Bread of Life and the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant And in this Mysterious Solemnity a Devout Communicant would not come to offer but to receive his Crucified Master he would sacrifice his Sins and offer up himself a Living sacrifice Holy and Acceptable unto God which is his reasonable service He would offer up his Vnderstanding his Will his Affections his Passions his All to be directed governed and guided by the Royal Will and Pleasure of Heaven 20. Were every Christian that goes to Church thus affected as in some degree all must be that will sanctifie the Lords-Day aright He would not find it so difficult to consecrate the Remainder thereof at Home Thirdly By Family Duties and in his Closet He would not then think it Puritanical or a business Indifferent but absolutely necessary and indispensable to take care that He and his House serve the Lord not only in the publick Solemnities of the Church but in the more retired Duties of the Family He would not then be ashamed nor esteem it tedious and irksom to spend the Close in Reading Exhorting Meditating and Contemplating in Praying to and Praising of the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity But would think it his Happiness his Joy and his Delight For this inward Spiritual and Caelestial Pleasure I appeal to those who have tasted what a Sweet and Pleasant thing it is to be thankful Holy and Zealously Religious on this Day Motives for the keeping of the Lords-Day Hoâ—y â—rawn from the the Consideration of the Benefits of Observing it and the Mischiefs of Profaning it both to privâ—te Persons and to thâ— Publick 21. And if the Charms of this Festivity rightly observed be not of force enough to prevail with the Profane to come in and joyn with the strictly Pious yet the Consideration of the Benefits that Redound from a Due observation of the Lords-Day â—nd the Mischiefs of Profaning it that Infest every individual Person as well as the Publick will I hope perswade him to think it his Interest as well as Duty to be strict and exact in remembring a Seventh Day to keep it Holy 22. The first Benefit that naturally flows from the due Observance of the Lords-Day is the upholding a sence of Religion in the Person that thus Observes it The first Benefit of sanctifying the Lords-Day is the upholding a sence of Religion in us It is on this Day that we are taught our particular Duties of Living Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World It is then Grace is administred to the Hearers Grace to assist them in performing what is commanded and Grace to resist and avoid the Temptations of doing Evil. Then are we told of a Heaven and the joys thereof laid up in store for all such as truly Love Fear Obey and Believe in God and are acquainted with a Hell that is prepared for the Unbelievers and Profane There we have the faculties of our Souls enlightened our Understandings cleared our Wills rectified our passions subjected to our Reasons and our Outward in all things made subservient to our Inward Man It is then we have our Faith Hope and Charity Our Love Patience Meekness and Humility Our Sobriety Temperance and Chastity and all the other Virtues of a Christian and Holy Life revived renewed enlarged regulated and
Notion to the very Heart For who can believe he is throughly perswaded that there is no God when at every Sentence he speaks he Mutters out the very Name O that he denies a Saviour when ever and anon he uses Wounds and Blood to make his Discourse Emphatical Or that he thinks there is no Hell or Devils when in every turn of Passion he calls upon the one to take his fellow Creatures and heartily wishes them in the Torments of the other Sure I am the Swearing Atheist confounds hâ—mself overthrows his own Principles and demonstrates the impossibility of being thorow-paced in such Opinions If he would uphold Atheisme he should refrain from taking that Sacred Name into his Mouth the bare mention whereof is argument sufficient against him and he should invoke his Almighty Chance and Swear by those All powerful Atoms which by their own Magnetick Force jumbled themselves out of a Chaos into this curious Globe and he should adjure those Empty Nothings to which he imagines all material Beings will at last be reduced 8. Nor is there any thing of reason in a profane Oath Those Arguments the Devil makes use of to work upon a rational Man 2. Nothing in reason to induce the Sin and to induce him to Sin are in this quite laid aside Pleasure Profit and Fear the common Byasses of the Will and Corrupters of the Understanding there are none to be pleaded as a Temptation in this Sin as it may in others Here the Devil has a cheap Bargain and Men sell their Heaven for Nothing and their Souls they barter away and take no Money for them 10. But farther yet the unreasonableness of this Vice appears in that how fond soever we are of it our selves and are affronted when any Body reprove us for it The folly of this Sin farther illustrated in that we love it not in those whom we love or esteem yet tho' we love the Treason we hate the Traitors and abhor a rash Oath in those we either Love or Honour If a Wife a Child a near Relation or but a Servant whom we have a kindness for Swear in our Presence how apt are we to check and rebuke them But should a Judge a Bishop or a Prince Curse and Blaspheme in our hearing How would our Blood rise And how unseemly ungenerous and intolerable would it seem in them And is not the offence as unbecoming us and as notorious as if the best Friend or worthiest Nobleman of them all were guilty thereof It remains then that we charge the prevalency of this Sin to Custom 11. 'T is Custom that English Law that English Tyrant that Obstacle to a Holy Life That Custom is the chiefest Plea for it all the rest proved to be trivial which is the chiefest Plea Men do or can use to palliate so great an Offence Those other excuses made for it such as the being provoked to Anger The creating Belief thereby it s being an Ornament of the Speech and a gentile Accomplishment are but thin and empty sounds For 11. Can any Man of Sense think that the Commission of one unlawful Act can excuse the falling into another The First Plea Refuted Yet so absurd is he that imagines the being carried beyond his Reason will any thing at all lessen the Fault of transgressing his Duty No certainly it is a great Aggravation thus to add Sin to Sin For is it not enough Vile Criminal to incense thy God by falling into an unallowable Passion and frantick Fury but thou must at the same time provoke him yet more by taking his most holy Name into thy profane and unclean Lips Thou hadst no Warrant for thy mad Frenzie let the Temptation thereto be never so strong so as to forget thy self much less not to remember him whose Wounds thou settest to bleed afresh by thy piercing Oaths and abominable Cursings Whatever thou mayst imagine yet the being guilty of one Sin will not in the least alleviate the Commission of another tho' the latter be occasioned by the former but as thy Guilt so will thy Condemnation and Punishment be double too 12. The Second Plea Refuted And no better a Refuge will the next Excuse be to the common Swearer For will any Man believe him the more for his dreadful Asseverations No certainly this is a way of creating Belief so praeposterous that it is the ready road to raise up Diffidence where there was none before If thou art Honest and reputed a Man of thy Word none will desire thy Oath for a small matter whatever they may do in a weighty concern But if thou art known to be false or untrue all thy Imprecations and Execrations will avail thee nothing for Men will think as we say their own Thoughts A Liar and Swearer are so near a kin having one common Father of them both that whoever has a Swearing has Ten to One a Lying Vein too 13. Then as to the next thing which Men use to extenuate the guilt of rash Oaths withal The Third Plea Refuted Ask some I blush to say of even the better rank of Men why they vent many almost in one breath And they 'll tell you it sets off their Speech with a boon Grace and adorns their periods with a lovely Decorum A strange and unheard-of Art of Rhetorick this An Eloquence not much known in former Ages That Oaths should be so Elegant that Cursings should be so Emphatical and all Discourses insipid and flat that are not stuffed with them is such a new Notion as makes me call it The Start-up Idiom of the English Tongue I know not how this blasphemous Bombast sounds in some Ears but so far is this disagreeing Harmony from affecting any sober Man that he would I presume prefer the Croaking of Toads the Hollowing of Owls and the Cries of Ravens far before it And I am apt to believe Pliny's Panegyricks and Cicero's Encomiums have more Oratorical strokes in them than the Harangues of our Modern Vitiosoes with all their blustering Parenthesies of Damâ—'yees Sink'yees By their Maker and the like can ever boast of Let those Oaths be never so graceful in the speaking yet I am of opinion that were they penned down so that the Speaker himself might see them tho' he might not blush at the sight of his Sin yet he would no doubt at that of his folly in uttering such unaccountably bombastical Nonsense And as taking as it is with most we never heard of any that recommended himself or his Friend to the Favour of any Prince or Potentate by an Address of Oaths Neither did we ever hear of any Council in a Trial at Bar that ever carried the Cause by Swearing to the purpose Whatever the Lawyer may do in his Chambers yet at Westminster-Hall he has the Manners or at least the Prudence to bridle his Tongue from those exorbitant Expressions Thus have we taken a short account of this Chop-Logick this Swearing in
his own Friend to be sure for he not only exposes himself to the Penalties of Human Laws if his Rnavery should be found out but imprecates upon himself all the Punishments and Curses which God usually inflicts upon the Wretch even in this Life and which without Repentance will be his Portion in the next And how great those Judgments are is next to be considered The Second Motive from the Greatness of the punishment which is either Human or Divine 29. So far is the Profligate Criminal from escaping punishment that all the Laws both Human and Divine are ready to lay hold of him How strict our Constitutions are against this Impiety if any one will consult * 5 Eliz. Cap. 9. Made perpetual 29. Eliz. Cap. 5. those Statutes made and Provided in this case will be manifest The Heathen when willing to express a Religious Man would Title him only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man of his Word And when they described a Wicked Man did think him fully delineated when they called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perjurious No milder a Brand does the Wretch receive from the Law according to our general Acceptation of the thing For besides Fines Imprisonments and the Pillory he has as Ignominious a Character as a Heretick or Infidel being as uncapable as them of bearing any Office of assisting at any honourable Court or giving his Evidence in any Cause 30. But admit he may escape undiscerned by Mortal Eyes Gods Judgments upon the Perjurious in this Life or if found out that he is so hardned in his Impiety that thâ—â—asest stigma cannot shame him that Fines and Penalties that the Prison and Pillory cannot startle him to his Amendment yet I trust he is not so past Cure that the Judgments of the Lord cannot prevail upon him And herein God glorifies and signalizes his Justice in a Wonderful Manner He doth not will not hold them Guiltless that take his Name in Vain He pays them home in their own Coyn as the Common expression is even in this Life Instances of this truth there are enough even within the Compass of a short review and there is no need to run over any other Annals but our own Experience and knowledge for satisfaction in this point How many I will forbear mentioning particular Names have there been whom God's hand has smitten in a more immediate manner punishing the Offence in the very Moment of its Commission How many dreadful spectacles have there been of those whom Divine Vengeance has not hurried away but left according to their Wishes standing Monuments of his Justice to die by a fearful and lingring Disease by some plague or another which has consumed them as it were piece-meal How many others are there who carry in their own Breasts their Hell upon Earth And on those I cannot forbear bestowing a Melancholy thought or two and Commiserate their most miserable Condition Whatsoever the Heathens might relate of the Perjured's being visited by the Furies every fifth day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that of Hesiod Whatever Poets feign of Prometheus Vultur or Ixions Wheel are even on this side the Stygian Lake verified with a Witness These poor Wretches are lashed with the Twinges of a self accusing Conscience whose strokes are more piercing then all the snaky Whips and pointed Scorpions are This Worm gnaws with a greater Appetite and makes a Deeper Impression in the Sinners Bosom then the Devouring Fowl could ever upon the others Bowels And the continual round of endless Despair leaves him in such a Labyrinth that every step he advances towards the Ridding himself out of it intricates him the more therein Nor does the punishment always terminate in the Person but his Posterity more or less feel the sad Effects of their Predecessors perfidiousness This is too Visible to need any farther Illustration saving from the Example of that Great Man who entailed a Curse to his Family for the non-performance of a Thing he had engaged himself by an Oath to have done He was I presume more a Christian then that we should doubt of his not repenting of the thing himself yet the Misfortunes of his Posterity loudly proclaim the Almighties Displeasure at that Offence 31. Thus far of the Miserie 's incident to the perjurious in this Life God's Judgments upon the Perjured in another Life but what will his Portion be in that Lake of Fire and Brimstone I am struck with horror at the very thoughts thereof Methinks I see him ranked there with the most Black Infernal Devils howling and shrieking through the very anguish of his Spirits There is he Convinced tho' too late of God's Justice towards such profane Wretches There he is Sensible how damnable a false Heart a double Tongue and unhallowed Lips are There he would wish those torments were but Notion and the Fire were but Painted and the flames but Visionary as he often has thought while on Earth but to his Cost he finds the Reality of them and will for ever acknowledge the Eternity of them too In that Prison that Dungeon of Everlasting misery he has a full view of the Black Kalendar of Criminals and sees the Catalogue of offences of which Profane Swearing and Cursing Blasphemy and Perjury are not the Last nor least not with Repenting but eternally despairing Eyes 32. And are not these thoughts terrible enough in all Conscience to melt down the most Adamantine Heart Can it be imagined that men are so flinty and Obdurate as that neither a Sense of their Guilt nor an Esteem they may have for their Reputation nor the fear of Human punishments much more of God's Temporal and Eternal Judgments can win upon them to repent of their Evil ways He is certainly possessed with a stupidity beyond that of Lethargy who can live and forswear himself with Hell Flames about his Ears notwithstanding the insupportable Wrath of a justly incensed and provoked Judge is ready to seize him and hale him before the Judgment Seat of that strict Tribunal who will leave no Sin unpunished tho' never so much palliated and glossed over with the thin Varnish of weak human Excuses and Evasions Repent then oh Man whosoever thou art and perjure thy self no more Let the time past suffice that thou hast broken thy Vows and Promises and for the future make thy Vows unto the Lord of an Amendment of thy Life and be sure to see them performed Of Drunkenness CHAP. II. The Origine of this Sin traced How and wherein 〈◊〉 Difficulty of exactly defining it consists Drunkennâ— described by its Effects and the reasonableness such a Description considered in four Particulaâ— The false Ends of Drinking Answered A Debâ—tation drawn from the Effects of this Sin which 〈◊〉 1. The Breach of that Duty we owe to God our Neigâ—bour and our selves 2. The advancing Satans Kinâ—dom thereby 3. The cause of many other Sins Aâ— 4. The making us Obnoxious to the Woes in Holy
even to abstain from what is Physically as well as Morally Evil but Even our allowed and warrantable Enjoyments must like Physick be taken moderately and with caution lest our Remedy prove our Poyson He that thinks because he is in lawful Circumstances he may give his Lusts their full Swing deceives himself for that in Marriage a Man may be guilty of Sensuality is past dispute 'T is unquestionably true that whoever transgresseth the Principal end of Marriage viz. of Glorifying God and subservient thereto those of Propagating our kind of maintaining Mutual Society and avoiding of Unlawful Lusts has passed the boundaries of Nature Reason and Religion all at once In the entring upon such a Sacred Rite there are many things to be observed and seriously considered both by the betrothed Parties and their Friends in order to have the Marriage successfull and made in Heaven first before the striking of Hands and the Plighting of Troths here on Earth and for want of the due Consideration whereof arises so many Unhappy Matches Family Disturbances and Civil Broils so frequent Separations from and Pollutions of the Conjugal Bed which every day happen afresh in the World I shall but just touch upon these Necessary Precautions and so conclude this particular of Uncleanness As for you who have Adult Children of your own or else are Guardians to such Beware of debarring them from entring into the state of Matrimony when either their Years their Inclinations their Affections and their other Circumstances require the same Consult your Pupils in all respects and be not more than prudently urgent in disswading them from their own or in perswading them into an Approbation of your Choice In disposing of them have an Eye more upon their Temporal Happiness and their Eternal Good than upon the Flattering Prospect of their being Noble Rich or Great Covet not to Marry your Sons or Daughters or any other Relations committed to your Trust into Families of a Higher Rank than your selves and despise not to Match them with those of a Degree lower than you especially where the Virtue and Generosity of the person can toss your lighter Scale of Birth and Fortune up to the Beam As for the Young parties I desire they would not take ill the following Advice before they put on the Wedding Suit which will not cost them so much and perhaps do them more Service Be sure then to avoid all Hasty sudden and Unpremeditated fits of Passion Love not for Lusts sake and Idolize none for their Beauty Wit Strength and Fortune lest your Affection be no more than Skin-deep call in Wiser Heads to advise in so Weighty a Cause and if your Modesty or any other reason will not admit you to ask your Friends advice therein yet be pleased to think God worthy to be of your Council In a word let no Object Charm you but what has the Lineaments of Virtue and the Endowments of a Noble Mind which with or without the outward Qualifications are of force only to Captivate our Souls Hence it is that we perceive the Love grounded upon these External Objects only to be short-liv'd and Transient soon Hot and soon Cold lasting no longer than the Object appears to be Beautiful Strong Witty and Wealthy and growing Nauseous when Impotency Wither'd Age or Poverty over-takes them and often before whilst the more substantial Love founded upon and raised by the inward Ornament of the Mind gives Life to the Love of outward and maintains its own Flame within when all the Fuel administred from without is taken away This Noble Intellectual Love Unites and Consolidates the Parties tho' in Rags and Poverty tho' in Gray-Hairs and Wrinkles and breaths after a Union beyond this and the Grave This is that Love we should be all inflamed with and desire to Contract with each other not because we have Painted Faces and a handsomer piece of Clay for our Share than others are Moulded into or because we have more of Giddy Fortunes Favours but because of those inward Ornaments of Piety and Devotion of Sobriety and Temperance of Modesty and Humility of Chastity and Charity of Meekness and Affability which set off the subject in which they are inherent with such invincible and irresistible Charms as no being above a Brute can forbear to be inamoured with Of the Profanation of the Lord's Day CHAP. IV. The Reasons of keeping Holy the first Day of the Week instead of the Seventh The Lord's Day How and by whom profaned viz. I. By neglecting the Publick Ordinances of the Church II. The Private Duties of the Family III. By Exercising our ordinary Callings thereon whether by our selves our Servants or our Beasts IV. By publickly Exposing to Sale An Objection answered and what Works are Lawful to be done V. By works of the Flesh such as 1. Tipling 2. Feasting 3. Gaming 4. Dancing and Singing 5. Country Revellings and Riots And earnest Expostulation and Exhortation for Celebrating the Lord's Day Rules for it viz. 1. Preparation on the Eve 2. Frequenting the Publick Ordinances of the Church 3. Family Duties Motives thereto drawn from the benefits of observing it and the Mischiefs of Profaning it both to Private Persons and to the Publick THat to serve the Invisible God by whom we Live Move and have our Being in the whole course of our Lives is a main End for which we were Created That every Day and Hour should be Holy unto the Lord that we should have the Fear of Him always before our Eyes That every Moment of our time is truely His is indisputable But forasmuch as we are but Men in a little lower degree then those Blessed Spirits whose task and Happiness it is to be employed continually in Contemplating Adoring and Praising their great Creator and whereas since the Fall we are placed in such circumstances as require the sweat of our Brows and the Expence of a great part of our time in the procuring the Necessaries of this Life we cannot so readily bestow all our hours on Religious Exercises Nor doth God require we should but dispenses with the greatest part of our Lives and only appoints a seventh part of the whole for the more Solemn and Immediate Acts of Divine Worship and is pleased so to Order it that every Action in our Ordinary Callings may be such as may Glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Our Fields and Gardens Our Shops and Studies Our Dining-Rooms and Closets may be all Sanctified by a Religious and Holy Life Sobriety and Modesty Temperance and Moderation may make our very Diversions and Recreations Holy But then we are not to stick here our walking with God in the Private Duties of our several stations Exempts us not from the Publick Adoration of Him in the Congregation of the Faithful For as the Lord of Hosts has been nearly conceâ—ned in appointing the Persons by Whom the Manner How and the Place Where so has he shewed no less Regard in assigning the Time When
frequented Oratories Will the Churches contain the confluence of Auditors Will our Absence or Presence lessen or augment the number of the Faithful Had not we better tarry away than go with unprepared Hearts to fleep or stare away the time Such as these are the Evasions made now a-days by many but Poor Creatures little do they consider who it is that suggests those Idle Reasonings into them else they would see clearly that 't is Gods Command that we by keeping Holy this His blessed Day might meditate on his Glorious Works of our Creation and Redemption and learn how to know and to keep all the rest of his Holy Laws and Commandments This is the Market-Day of our Souls and where should we go to buy the Food of Angels and the Waters of Life the Wine of the Sacrament and the Milk of the Word of God to feed our drooping Souls but at those Ordinances where they are to be had without Money and without Price Where should we receive the precious Eye-salve to Unscale our benighted Eyes and heal our Spiritual Blindness but from those Spiritual Physitians How can our wounded Consciences and troubled Spirits and broken Hearts be cured of their Maladies unless we come there where the Balm of Gilead drops from the Lips of the Preacher Besides in this publick Ordinance of the Church we own God to be not only the Lord and Maker of every Individual person but to be the Head of the Mystical Body to be the Sovereign over the Universal World 6. There are others who are constant in the Publick Congregation Secondly By neglecting the Private Duties of the Family make as it were a Conscience of going Morning and Evening to Church but then this is all they think is required at their Hands If you should tell them of Repetition Meditation family-Family-Duties Catechising Exhorting c. They must beg your Pardon there They do not design to make the Lord's Day a Burden to them They will not turn their Houses into Conventicles They will not be Righteous over much they must be excused from being singular And they will not differ from their Neighbours This and the like Language you shall be sure to find from most For God knows to the shame of Christianity Men are so stupid and cold so Luke-warm and indifferent in their Great Concern that it is well if a Prayer be said in a Private Family Once a Week And what is more to be lamented That is wanting also in most Houses And when the Master of the House is so remiss no wonder if the Servants and Children trifle away the Remainder of the Day and after His Example grow as unconcerned in their Private and Closet Duties as he was in the more publick Ones of His Family Nay more it is to be feared he himself is as seldom in Secret as he cares to be Openly Good and Pious I would not be thought Uncharitable and therefore leave the Judging of their retired Thoughts to Him whose only Jurisdiction it is to know and discern the Secrets of all Hearts and pass on to the Consideration of the next way by which men may be said to profane this Holy Day viz. 7. By following the Works of their Ordinary callings either by themselves their Servants Thirdly The Lords-Day profaned by following our Ordinary Callings by Our selves Servants or Beasts or their Beasts If the neglect of Sanctifying the Lords-Day by our Publick and Private Duties be a Profanation thereof How much more then is it profane to violate it by any servile Labour or forbidden vocation It is the Express Letter of the Command that on this Day we should do no manner of Work neither we nor our Sons nor our Daughters nor our Men-Servants nor our Maid-Servants nor our Cattel nor the Stranger that is within our Gates How then shall they Answer the Outfacing of so strict a Command who shall presume contrary to both God's and Humane Laws to follow their Ordinary Imployment thereon whether by Themselves their Servants or their Beasts And with these I must beg leave to Expostulate a while Are not six Days enough to bestow on this World and the Concerns thereof Cannot you spare one day in Seven to cease from your Labours Will you be so cruel as to give your selves no respite from the fatigues of Toyl and Business Shall the Ten Commandments and the Constitutions of a Christian Government be kinder to your Nature and more Compassionate thereto than you your selves And is it not enough to afflict your own Bodies and rob your own Souls of that Spiritual Nourishment but you must lay burthens upon your Servants and deprive them of that Advantage which they might reap by the Religious Observation of this Day 'T is sad to reflect upon the many Unfortunate Servants who are Articled under such Pagan-Christian Masters and I cannot forbear bestowing a Sigh and a Tear or two at their unalterable Calamity For this our Metropolitan City without looking further can furnish us with many Hundreds I wish I could not say Thousands of those Unsanctified Wretches who having not the fear of God before their Own Eyes care not how little those that do belong to them are instructed in the Points of Religion And as they are for cutting off all other Opportunities of their growing in Grace so are they carefull to debar them of This season of improving themselves therein by Sanctifying the Lords Day Thus is the Miserable Young-man by a Seven Years irreligious Course of Life become at last as Stupid and Profane a Person as his Master before him And when out of his Time it is seldom that ever he recollects himself but deals as hardly with his own Apprentice And can we expect the Profane Wretch would be more merciful to his Beasts No certainly He would use them as hardly as his Servants were not the Laws of our Land strict in the restraining of such unaccountable Cruelties And truly it is as much as the Magistrate can do to keep the Traveller from his unnecessary Journeys and to debar the Hackney-Coaches from plying in our very Streets on the Lords-Day 8. And Here I cannot but wish the Gentry would forbear their visiting the Churches in State and contrive a better way of going thither then in their Ceremonial Chariots 'T is true their Beasts may not be put to hard Service but then their Coachmen who have Souls as precious in the Eyes of the Lord as any others lose the Priviledge of the Publick Ordinances by being forced to attend and look to their Coach and Horses at the Church doors I speak not this to affront any but only to put them in mind of contriving ways if they must be Coached to Church so to dispose of their Coach and Horses that their Servants as well as Themselves may have the Benefit of serving their Common and Great Master 9. But to return there is besides this of Labour another way by which the Lords-Day is
that none be punished but what are convicted within the space of six months after the Offence is committed This Statute made perpetual 21 Jac. 1. Cap. 7. Against the Prophanation of the Lords-Day commonly called Sunday 29 Car. 2. ALL Laws in force concerning the Observation of the Lord's Day are to be put in execution This day is by every one 1 Will. and Mary to be sanctified and kept holy and all Persons must be careful herein to exercise themselves in the Duties of Piety and true Religion publickly and every one on this day not having a reasonable Excuse must diligently resort to some publick place where the service of God is exercised or must be present at some other place allowed of by Law in the Practice of some Religious Duty either of Prayer Preaching Reading or Expounding of the Scriptures or Conference upon the same as also privately Such as repair not to Church c. on Sundays and Holy-days one Witness Twelve Pence for every default to be levied by destress or to be committed to some Prison until the same be paid 1 Eliz. 23 Eliz. 3 Jac. Cap. 1. 19 Eliz. Cap. 1. Absenting for a Month If a twelve month or more twenty pounds per month and forfeiture of two parts in three of their Estates If any come not to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper once a year Their Names and Surnames to be presented Forty Shillings reward to such as present them 3 Jac. Cap. 4. None shall speak or do any thing in Contempt of the most Holy Sacrament By Oath of two lawful Witnesses by three Iustices Quorum un to be bound over and prosecuted in Sessions 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 1. Whosoever shall disturb any Preacher allowed in his open Sermon or Collation or be procuring or abetting thereunto or shall rescue c. any Offender c. Accusation must by two Witnesses or Confession To be committed by any Iustice of the County to safe Custody and within six days the said committing Iustice with one other Iustice if the Offender upon examination shall be found Guilty shall commit him to Goal without Bail c. for three Months and farther to the next Quarter Sessions 1 M. Cap. 3. Such as meet or assemble out of their own Parish upon the Lord's Day for any Sports or Pastimes whatsoever or such as shal use any unlawful Exercise or Pastime in their own Parish upon the Lord's day three shillings and four pence to the Poor where c. to be levied by distress and sale restoring the Overplus c. and for want of distress to be sent to the Stocks for three hours but they must be questioned within a month 1 Car. Cap. 1. 3 Car. Cap. 4. If any Carrier Waggoner c. with Horse Wain or Cart or Drover with Cattle shall travel upon the Lord's Day by themselves or any other for them twenty shillings for every offence to be levied by distress and sale to the use of the poor 3 Car. Cap. 1. If any Butcher or any other for him shall kill or sell any Victuals upon the Sunday one Witness view or Confession He shall forfeit six shillings and eight pence if questioned within six months to be levied c. or may be sued for in Sessions c. 3 Car. Cap. 1. If any Shoe-maker shall go with intent to sell any Boots Shoes c. on the Sunday He shall forfeit such Goods and three shillings and four pence for every pair 1 Jac. Cap. 22. If any person of the age of fourteen shall on the Lord's Day or any part thereof do any worldly labour c. except works of Nececessity and Charity shall forfeit five shillings for every offence 29 Car 2. Cap. 7. If any person shall cry shew forth or put to sale any Wares Fruit Goods c. except Milk only before the hours of nine in the morning and after four in the afternoon He shall forfeit the said Wares Fruite Goods c. to the use of the poor 29 Car. 2. Cap. 7. No Drover Horse-courser Waggoner Butcher Higler or any of their servants shall travel or come to their Inns on the Lord's Day shall forfeit twenty shillings for every offence 29 Car. 2. Cap. 6. No person shall use to travel upon the Lord's Day with any Horse Boat Wherry c. except allowed by one Iustice of Peace so to do by View Confession or one witness the fofeitvre is five shillings for every offence The Conviction upon this Statute must be before any Iustice of the County c. who shall give warrant to the Constables c. to seize the Goods shewed c. and to levy the Forfeitures by distress and for want of distress to put the Offender in the Stocks for two hours the Iustices c. may reward the Informer out of the Forfeitures not exceeding the third part 29 Car. 2. Cap. 7. This Act extends not to dressing of Meat inn Cooks Shops Inns or Victualing-Houses The Queens Letter TRusty and Well-beloved We Greet you well Considering the great and indispensible Duty incumbent upon us and to promote and encourage a Reformation of the Manners of all our Subjects that so the Service of God may be advanced and those Blessings be procured to these Nations which always attend a Conscientious Discharge of our respective Duties according to our several Relations We think it necessary in order to the obtaining of this Publick Good to recommend unto you the putting in Execution with all Fidelity and Impartiality those Laws which have been made and are still in force against the Prophanation of the Lords-Day Prophane Swearing and Cursing Drunkenness and all other lewd enormous and disorderly Practices which by a long conntinued Neglect and Connivance of the Magistrates and Officers concerned have universally spread themselves to the Dishonour of God and the Scandal of our Holy Religion wherby it is now become the more necessary for all Persons in Authority to apply themselves with all possible Care and Diligence to the suppressing of the same We do therefore hereby charge and require you to take the most effectual Methods for putting the Laws in Execution against the Crimes above-menioned and all other Sins and Vices particularly those which are most prevailing in this Realm and that especially in such cases where any Officers of Justice shall be guilty of any of those Offences or refuse or neglect to discharge the Duty of his place for the suppressing them that so such Officer by his Punishment may serve for an Example to others And to this end we would have you be careful and diligent in encouraging all Constables Church-wardens Headborroughs and all other Officers and Persons whatsoever to do their part in their several Stations by timely and impartial Informations and Prosecutions against all such Offenders for preventing those Judgments which are solemnly denounced against the Sins above-mentioned We cannot doubt of your performance hereof since it is a Duty to which you are obliged by Oath
and are likewise engaged to the discharge of it as you tender the Honour of Almighty God the flourishing condition of his Church in this Kingdom the continuance of his Holy Religion among us and the Prosperity of the Country And so we bid you farewell Given at our Court at Whitehall the 9th day of July in the Third Year of our Reign By Her Majesties Command Nottingham To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Justices of the Peace for our County of Middlesex at Hick's Hall The Late Order of the Justices of Middlesex for suppressing Prophaness and Debauchery WHereas their Majesties both by their several Letters and Proclamations have from time to time been graciously pleased to declare their earnest desire That all the Laws against Vice and Prophaness be duly Executed and have expresly Commanded us Tneir Majesties Justices of the Peace of this County to take the most effectual Care for the due Execution thereof And whereas this Court in persuance of Their Majesties Commands have by their Order bearing date the Tenth Day of July last Commanded all High Constables Petty Constables Headburroughs Church-Wardens and other Officers within this County to Use their utmost Diligence for bringing to condign Punishment all the Offenders against the said Laws which upon the Oaths of divers credible Winesses as we are informed hath through the diligence of the Offcers in divers parts of this County had this good effect that many Houses of disorderly Tipling Debauchery and Gaming have been suppressed and very great Numbers of Bawds Whores and other Lewd Persons prophane Swearers Cursers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lords day have been Convicted and Punished according to Law Yet notwithstanding in some other parts of this County through the Negligence Connivance and Evil Practices of the Constables Headburroughs Church Wardens and other inferior Officers of such Places the Offences aforesaid have received great incouragement and such Lewd Offenders as had been so suppressed have been yet received and permitted there to continue such their Lewd Practices This COURT therefore taking the same into their serious consideration and being stedfast in their Resolutions effectually to carry on a Reformation of manners by the due punishment of the several Offences aforesaid in all parts of this County the same being a Work acceptable to Almighty God and so earnestly and piously recommended by Their Majesties Doth Order and strictly Require all High Constables Petty Constables Headburoughs Church-Wardens and all other Officers to be diligent in making more frequent searches after such as keep Houses of disorderly Tipling Debauchery and Gaming and such as haunt the same and of the said Offenders and of all prophane Swearers Cursers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lords Day and to give due information thereof from time to time to some One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace of this County That no Partiality Connivance or underhand Practices by Private Notice to Offenders of any other ways by such Officers may prevent the conviction or Detection of them but that the several Offenders may be punished according to Law And whereas the publick Sports and playing of Boys and others on the Lords Day in Church-yards and else where is a great Contempt to the Worship of God and tends to the Corruption of Youth The said Officers are therefore hereby Ordered and Required to take notice on the said days of such disorders and to disperse such Prophaners of the Lords day or to apprehend them and to bring them before One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace for â—his County that they may be proceeded against according to Law And we being resolved to proceed with all due strictnesâ— against all such Officers as shall be found faulty in the due observance of this our Order do recommend it to all persons who shall at any time hereafter have Knowledge of any of the Offences aforesaid or of any neglect or undue Practice of any Officers aforesaid whereby the Conviction or Punishment of any of the said Offences shall be hindred or avoided that they will give timely Information thereof to some One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace of the said County from whom they shalâ— reâ—eive all due Incouragement And whereas the keeping of Musick Houses of late practised in several publick Taverns and Ale-Houses within this County to which there is a great Resort of Idle and Dissolute Persons is of verâ— ill Consequence and tendâ— to the Debauching and Ruin especially of the younger sort of people of both Sexes and doth also occasion many Quarrels and Riots to the great distâ—rbance of the publick Peace It is hereby further Ordered that the several Officers aforesaid do make a due Return to some Justice of the Pâ—ace in their respective Division of the Christian Name Sir-name and Place of abode of all Persons keeping the said Musick Houses and of such as frequent the same to the end they may be prosecuted according to Law And it is further Ordered by this Court that the Clerk of the Peace for this County do forthwith cause this Order to be Printed and Affixed upon the great Gates of Hick's-Hall the Church Doors and all other publick Places of each Pâ—rish within this County and distributed to the several High-Constables within this County who are Ordered by this Court forthwith to send the same to the several Petty Constables Church-wardens and Head-buroughs within their several Divisions to the end Publick Notice may be taken thereof By the King and Queen a Proclamation against Vitious Debauched and Prophane Persons AS we cannot but be deeply sensible of the great goodness and mercy of Almighty God by whom Kings Reign in giving so happy sâ—ccess to our endeavours for the rescuing these Kingdoms from Popish Tyranny and Superstition and in preserving our Royal Persons supporting our Government and uniting the Arms of most of the â—rinces and States in Christendom against our Common Enemy so we are not less touched with a Resentment that notwithstanding the these great Deliverances Impiety and Vice do still abound in this our Kingdom And that the Execution of many good Laws which have been made for suppressing and punishing thereof have been grosly neglected to the great dishonour of God and our Holy Religion Wherefore and for that we cannot expect increase or continuance of the Blessings we and our subjects enjoy without providing Remedies to prevent the like Evils for the future we judge our selves bound by the duty we owe to God and the care we have of the people committed to our Charge to proceed in taking some effectual Course therein And being thereunto moved by the pious Address of our Arch Bishops we have thought fit by the advice of our Privy Council to issue this our our Royal Proclamation and to declare our princely intention and resolution to discountenance all manner of Vice and Immorality in all persons from the highest to the lowest degree in this our Realm And we do hereby for that purpose