Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	day_n	lord_n	word_n	2,869	5	3.9037	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87056	Gods judgements upon drunkards, swearers, and sabbath-breakers. In a collection of the most remarkable examples of Gods revealed wrath upon these sins with their aggravations, as well from scripture, as reason. And a caution to authority, lest the impunity of these evils bring a scourge upon the whole nation. By W. L.	Hammond, Samuel, d. 1665.	1659 (1659)	Wing H623bA; ESTC R230554	59,944	204

know that what is lawful on other dayes are sins on this day and such of you as need not by Gods blessings in a full estate toil all the week whereby you cannot plead a wearinesse to waite on God upon his own day you turn his blessings into a curse if you prophane it you play all the six dayes it s a sin with a witnesse if you play away the seventh also You that cannot close this Holy Day without an evening sacrifice to Bacchus instead of prayers to the Lord that made Heaven and Earth Gods Judgements sleep not you are preparing your selves as fuell for the fire of Gods vengeance and displeasure Nextly to you that sit idly at home never dreaming how to escape that wrath to come methinks I read your sad conditions in your conversations That never think of God all the week you cannot for your callings you will not for your pleasures on the Lords Day if there be any difference betwixt you and Heathens it is that you know your condemnation before it come you will be at the Great Day witnesses for God against your selves To see so many idly sit at home and never mind to hear the Word methinks I am amongst the Indians It s a very heavy thing to consider in some places half the Parish at home in idlenesse or walking abroad in Sermon-time nay I have heard it credibly affirmed from the mouth of a Minister in this County that of some thousands in a Parish there hath not been sometimes a hundred at a Sermon nay not fifty nay not twenty shall I say not ten Is not this a sad case to be in a Christian Common-wealth Nay it s the sad experience of this place where I live and I may speak it to my own knowledge that three quarters of the people able to come of this populous place do idly stay at home or walk abroad not a family of ten but the most of them are at home in idlenesse if not at play or drinking Upon this account I would conclude with one word Good people let me perswade you to serve God rather than gratifie the Devil with your own damnation Is your labour lesse to sit at home than in the Congregation Do you think you have no souls to save nor to lose you had better be working than idle for that is a sin in it self and is made greater on this day You live more like the brute beasts that are fed by the senses onely How can you be saved if you will not come unto him that you may have life Are you Christians or Infidels Do you professe to worship God or Mahomet How shall you believe on him of whom you have not heard how can you hear without a Preacher not to hear that Blessed Gospel which Christ hath sent into our Coasts our Houses is to do as the Gadereans did drive Christ from our Habitations Such as followed Christ and his Apostles were converted I read of few else and such onely as lay at the Pool were healed To see people flocking to hear the Word like Doves to the windows it is a blessed sight But instead hereof we have some that entertain Quakers meetings in their houses on the Lords Day They have a sad account to give I hear some excusing their staying at home sometimes by their going other times these are common excuses But thou knowest not but that day thou stayest from the Ministery of the Word God may have intended thy eternal salvation and that with Zacheus God might have said This day salvation is come into thy house But I read good books That thou mayest do when thou canst not hear good Sermons and though it be good to read yet here its a sin and a temptation because thou neglect'sta greater good The Word stirs the soul under it and commonly cometh with power and demonstration of the Spirit and I know ther 's great difference between hearing and reading and the later is no lesse an evil thus used than the ejection of different thoughts in prayer from the subject and nature of the duty is an evil by consequence But I do no body hurt I am not playing nor drinking nor swearing so that I need not fear Gods judgements What judgement dost thou think a hard heart is which commonly is the fruit of the neglect of Gods Ordinances is it not the worst of judgements for thou mayst be destroyed with bodily punishment as Eli and others were and yet thy soul be saved but thou canst not have a judicial hardnesse of heart upon thee and be saved therefore take heed of this sin and fear lest a worse judgement befal thee than an outward destruction for how canst thou escape if thou neglect so great salvation My design is not to direct others to the keeping this day so much as to keep from prophaning it yet if any be perswaded to look to the keeping of it by way of sanctifying it I refer them to such Learned Divines as have spent their labour in it To those that are not moved by reason nor perswaded by their own advantages from polluting this Holy day by their wickednesse debauchednesse idlenesse or playing at Cards c. Read Gods threatnings that his judgements may appear to be more just by his forewarning us from the sin as well as the punishment If you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath then will I kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem and it shall devour the Palaces thereof and shall not be quenched Fire in the Palace sayes a Divine is ment fire in the seats of Justice and the ornaments of a City fire in the Palace no going in fire in the Gates no going out because Justice was not executed upon Sabbath-breakes therefore the place of Justice shall be destroyed those gates that suffered any co come in to profane the Lords day must be now on fire that none shall escape his Judgements If we should see our Towns flaming with the wrath of God and the fire of his indignation taking hold of our habitations it is then in vain to offer to quench it it hath been thus in our Nation as in the examples following If such a judgment be threatned against such as keep not this day what must be the fearful looking for of Judgment by the profaners of it Did not God bring all this upon us in this City yet bring you more wrath upon Judah by profaning the Sabbath sayes the Prophet Ezekiel mentions the sin of the Sabbath and therefore have I powred my indignation upon them I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath and in the 23. Chapter is threatned Plagues and Judgements and v. 18. the Reason for they have profaned my Sabbaths If these serve not the end intended take a prospect of Gods terrible examples which stand as Beacons to warn us from the like sins The poor man that did but gather sticks on the Sabbath day may

the truth of this at my first coming to Sarum and very many godly persons in my hearing attested it to be true upon their own sight and knowledge And further Doctor Teate he gives a second example upon his knowledge thus To my knowledge at Compton-Chamberlin in VViltshire at the house of Sir J. Penruddock a dancing match was held on the Lords Day where a stranger ushers in to act his part and after a few turns about and a few capers he in the midst of the sin falls dead to the ground before all the company Here was a sad dispensation of Providence from Gods immediate hand as many else besides are here was no instrument to take off any of the most severe vengeance of God and such examples in my mind should be taken as pregnant testimonies to let all men know this day ought to be kept as Holy Oh take heed of slighting this day that God so severely punishes in his sore displeasure And Mr. Clark upon his own testimony brings in a sad relation thus When I lived in Cheshire there was one Sir T. S. a Papist and at that time a Favorite at Court who at his appearance in the Country was very much feasted and entertained by the Gentry once amongst the rest he was invited to a Knights house on the Lords day where many accompanied him towards evening the proper time for the deeds of darknesse they fell to dancing but look to the finger of God and see what fell upon their sinful prophanesse In the midst of their sport there was one Sir J.D. had a blow given him on his leg by some invisible hand for none was seen to touch him as was attested by all the company and thus he went lame for a good while after It may be it set him upright in his practise and conversation ever after if it did it was a good providence that saved him from a more severe Judgement One Sabbath day in the afternoon a match at Football was made in Bedfordshire as two of the company was tolling a Bell to summon the rest together some that sat in the Porch of the Church suddenly hear a terrible clap of Thunder and saw a flash of Lightning coming through an obscure lane which flasht in their faces to their great terrour and fear so passing on to these that were tolling it trips up the heels of the one and leaves him stark dead the other so blasted that he died also in few dayes These are the swift Messengers of God which overtake poor sinners in the way of their sins before resolution can be proud of any actions God will be seen in his wrath and terrour to all wilfull and impenitent sinners At Tidworth on the Lords day many were met in the Church-yard to play at football where one of this wicked company had his legge broken which by a secret judgment of the Lord so fester'd that it turned to a Gangrene in despight of all means whereof he speedily died Stratford upon Sluon was no lesse then twice consumed by the fire of Gods wrath for this sin of Sabbath-breaking and on one and the same day twelve-moneth besides they were great contemners and slighters of the Word of God by his Minister A sin that is commonly followed with hardnesse of heart if no visible judgement get before it It is recorded of Pompey that he shrunk under the depression of Gods sore displeasure for profaning Gods Sabbath and Sanctuary That which God consecrates must be kept holy or woe to the profaners of it And of Herod who profaned Gods name by his wickednesse and that when for some treasure which he supposed to be hid he caused the Sepulcher of Gods Saints to be pluckt up The Lord in Judgement caused a fire to breake forth of the earth and destroyed those that he imployed which when he saw he desisted and durst go no further Nov. 26. 1621. One Richard Bourn servant to Gasper Burch of Ely was so accustomed to travell on the Lords day that he made no conscience of it seldom or never coming to the Assembly to hear the Word of God on that day but went to St. Ives Market where he stayed and spent the day wher being drunk he was overtaken by Gods Justice for coming home fraught with commodities he fell into the River and was drowned a just reward of other sinnes in the punishment of one In the year 1635. A Miller at Church-down nigh Gloucester would needs make a Whitsun-Ale notwithstanding the private and publick admonitions of the Ministers and of his Christian friends large provision was made and musick was set out as the Minister and people in the afternoon went to Church when prayer and Sermon was ended the Drum beat up Musick played and the people fell a dancing till evening at which time they all resorted to the Mill but O the Justice of God! before they had supped at 9 of the clock a sudden fire seized on the house which was so sharp that it burned down his House and Mill and the most of all his other provision and houshold-stuffe At Baunton in Dorcetshire some being at Bowles on the Lords day one threw his Bowle at his fellow and hit him on the ear whereupon blood issuing out at the other ear he died he that threw it fled At Simsburg in Dorsetshire one rejoycing at the erection of a Summer-pole on the Lords day said He would go see it though he went through a quickset hedge A Proverb here Going with wood in his arms to cast into the Bonfire profanely uttered these words Heaven and earth are full of thy glory O Lord He was immediately smitten by the stroak of God and in two or three days died and his wife also At Dover the same day that the Book of sports was read in St. James Parish one profanely went to play upon a Kit which drew a rude multitude of the younger sort together But oh the terrour of the Lord He was struck with a divine hand and in two dayes died Two Boyes of St. Albans going into Verolans pond to swim upon the Lords day one of them was drowned the other narrowly escaped as a warning to others Two young men of St Dunstans in the West London going to swim on the Lords day in September 1635 were both drowned A fellow in Sommerset-shire being to make a Tent on the Lords day for a Fair which was to be on the day following said on the Satterday that he would make it on the morrow which was the Lords day and being drunk he died the same day roaring One Mr. Prince Chyrurgion of the of the Tower of London did on the Lords day ride upon his horse to pace him for a Chapman but see the justice yet mercy of God he broke his leg and lay in great pain and anguish eight weeks His son had disswaded him from so great a sin which now he acknowledged as

a judgement of God upon him for prophanation of his day and ever after he became a more frequent resorter to the congregation and hearing Gods word At Thornton nigh Worcester upon the publishing of the book of sports on the Lords day the people prepared for a solemn prophanation by ordering purveyors on purpose to provide things fit for it A proper maid went to the Mill on Satterday to fetch home the meal on the Lords day the maid passing by a hedge with the meal upon her head was overtaken with a sudden and sad stroak of Divine Justice for she fell down dead into a ditch there she lay all Sabbath day on Munday she was carried to her grave where all their intended mirth was buried with her c. such a terrour it wrought in the people and such Reformation in the place that no more Summer-Ales were kept they took down the May-pole and none durst set it up again or have to do with the publick prophanation of that day One at Ham nigh Kingstone a scoffer of goodnesse and a common prophaner of the Lords day did on that holy day presume to visit his grounds where finding some cattle grazing which were not his own running to drive them out he fell down and suddenly died upon the place Upon May day being the Lords day a maid in Cripple-gate London being married to one that had three children one of them being at nurse in the Country they did on the Lords day spend the whole afternoon in feasting and dancing but God is just and will be seen in his judgements to warn others for a week after the plague began in the Parish the first house it entered into is this new married couples with which both himself wife and two children were swept away by death These things are not to be scoffed at they are not things of chance or blind fortune no no they are providence and though they are judgements in themselves yet in the issue I hope they will be mercifull warnings to others Not far from Dorchester lived one widow Jones whose Son Richard upon the Lords day notwithstanding her admonitions and perswasions did with his companions go to Stoak to play where after they had done and drank somewhat freely they return home and by the way fell out whereupon John Edwards one of his consorts stabbed him under the left side vvhereof at seven a clock the next night he died One David Price a servant to T. Hill a Grasier offering to drive his cattel from Banbury was dissvvaded by his Landlord and told him he vvould be stopped and forced to satisfie the Lavv to vvhich he replied let me see who will hinder In the morning he set out and not yet out of the Tovvnes end one met him and said What David to day to day he ansvvered not but passed on and although he never complained nor any other saw any signes of the least sicknesse yet in a stones cast of the Town he fell down dead suddenly and was buried in Banbury Church-yard the next day after At Wicks betwixt Colchester Harwich upon Whitsunday last in the after-noon two fellowes meeting at the Foot-ball the one killed the other At Oxford one Lords day one Hawkes a Butcher would needs mend his ditch his wife disswaded him from it on that day but he would and did go but behold the remarkable justice of God! he is struck dead in the ditch a sad example amongst other of Gods terrible Judgements One Mr. Powel upon the Lords day did at Lemster serve a Writ of Sub poena upon one Mr. Shuit a Gentleman which he did on purpose upon that day as is credibly reported as soon as he came out of the Church into the Church-yard to whom Mr. Shuit said I thought you had been an honester man than to do so upon this day who replied I hope I am never a whit the more dishonest which he had no sooner spake but suddenly he fell down dead and never spake word more his wife seeing it was immediately struck with sicknesse May 31. 1635. being the Lords day one Rich. Clark Apprentice to Timothy Donorell of Sherston in Wiltshire was drunk in company with one H. Parrum to whom he said he vvould hang or drown himself desiring to know which was the best who replied that he hoped he would do neither But oh the judgements of the Lord upon the prophaners of this day and upon the sin of Drunkennsse for on Monday morning he was seen going thorough the Town as if he were going about his Masters businesse and having got up upon the midst of a Tree without the Town he there did hang himself At Billericay in Essex one Theo. Pease the Ministers son would needs ring the Bells on the Sabbath day but was hindred by the Officers the next Lords day he had gathered many together and in despite of any would ring and whilst he was ringing a giddinesse surprized him like one drunk of which he fell sick and in three dayes died The Tapster and Chamberlain of Queens Head Southwark rode upon the Lords day to be merry and having been too bold with drink one of them riding homewards fell off his horse and broke his neck Being the Lords day an Apothecaries man in Lime-street London rid with another to Barnet to be merry and being drunk upon their return they met with a man travelling to whom offering some abuse the man strikes one of their horses one of them bid the other run him through which with his Rapier he did through the left breast so that he fell down dead and being both apprehended they confessed and were sent to New-gate At Baildon in Yorkshire two men sitting drinking at a Wake they quarrelled with one another but being parted and one of them sitting by the fire side the other presently falls upon him with a Hatchet and cleaves him down the back insomuch as his bowels fell forth the murderer being hotly pursued leapt into a River and drowned himself Four travelling from London to Maidenhead one of them would needs travel on the Lords day the rest refused spending the Sabbath there this man rode in the morning to Henly and there heard a Sermon after that travelled again in the afternoon and on his way leading his horse down a smooth descent his horse suddenly fell and broke both his fore legs He was suddenly amazed at so strange and unexpected a Providence and could not but attribute it to the immediate hand of God whereupon seeing him past recovery he knockt his horse on the head and so left him The next day being overtaken at Abington by his fellow-travellers they wondering demanded the reason how it came to passe he was no further on his way He smote his breast and related the strange Providence of God towards him saying He had heard many a good Sermon but none of them ever wrought so much upon