the Judgment of any of the Afflicted Prov. 31.4 5. From this Consideration was it that in the famous Cities of Lacedemon Crete and Carthage Wine was totally forbidden to Magistrates Alex ab Alex. and whoever came into their Senate-House over-charged with Excess were turned out and degraded from that Dignity with Ignominy and Reproach And from this was it that the Prudential Solon made it a Law at Athens That Drunkenness in one bearing Authority should be punished with Death It were to be wished some such Law were made in another Constitution and then there would not be wanting such Magistrates as would punish the Excess in an Inferior having no such thing as a Consciousness of being guilty of the same to put them out of Countenance or to check the Proceeding Nor can the Drunken Subject be said to be a Friend to any much less to our English Constitution since besides the Riots and Routs the many Immoralities and Tumults he is commonly the Author of The Drunken Subject an Enemy to the Publick he violates and acts in down-right Contradiction to the several * 4 Jac. 1. Cap. 5. 21 Jac. 1. Cap. 7. Statutes of the Realm in that Case made and Provided And by the way he is a profound Loyalist who shall under a pretence to inhance the Royal Income make bold to affront the Law by the manifest and notorious breach thereof But look we at home and behold the intemperate Wretch in his own Family and we shall find him a Tyrannical Master A Drunkard an Enemy to his own House an Unnatural Father as well as an abusive Husband He is so far from being a Friend to his own House that he is the greatest Enemy it has For waving those many unmanly Actions he is guilty of there to wit his beating and kicking his Servants his Unrelenting and Unconcernedness at his Childrens Cries the intolerable Heart-breakings he gives to the pensive Wife of his Bosom and the like He undermines and ruines his own Walls by his extravagant Expences and brings himself and His to Poverty and Rags For has he a plâ—ntiful Estate descended from frugal Ancestors 't is no wonder to hear he lives beyond it and by his frequent prodigal Excesses to run it into such Incumbrances and Drown it with so many Mortgages that the next Heir is seldom the better for it But if he is one of an inferior capacity how usual is it to have the indigent Wife and Children feed upon Bread and Water and turned over at last to be a Charge to the Parish which might have been prevented had the thrifty Husband gone less to the Alehouse or Tavern Neither in the last place can the Drunkard be said to be his own Friend for thereby he injures both his Baser and his Nobler Self separately and conjunctly too He injures his Body by the many manifest Mortal distempers which Excess and Surfeitings naturally produce The Drunkard a Self-hater injuring his Body and Soul separately and conjunctly and tho' his Constitution may be never so strong yet insensibly it impairs his Vitals by degrees and at length destroys his whole Frame The Body feels immediate discomposures at the very time of the debauch as is evident from the gripes and vomitings the yawning and reachings the giddiness of the Head and the Rawness of the Stomach which attend it But manifold are the Maladies that follow a long contracted course of irregular intemperate Drinking Of all the Diseases we find in our Weekly Bills of Mortality none swell the number of the Deceased more than those occasioned by Luxury and Excess 'T is Intemperance shortens our days and cuts the Thread before it be spun out to half the length of our long-lived Fathers and from thence our youth are cropt in the flower of their Age hurried away oftimes in the midst of a Debauch and like Lamps are extinguished before they are half spent by reason of the superfluous Humors poured in which drown that which maintains the vital Flame And as he endangers the Destruction of his Body by indulging the Transient pleasure of Taste so by his continual Swinish Immoralities he degrades that Noble Heaven-born Being his Immortal Soul I mean The Intellectual as well as the Animal Faculties whereof are hereby clouded The Understanding the Will the Affections whereof are corrupted and depraved infatuated and insnared Nor are these Considerations of such moment as that in the last place he injures both Soul and Body Conjunctly in making them obnoxious to Hell flames For the Apostle assures us among the rest of the Damning Sins that neither shall Drunkards inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor 6.10 And where else their Inheritance will be is no hard matter for those to guess who know no Medium no Purgatory between Heaven and Hell which is a sad Thought that for the fulfilling of one Lust and the gratifying one Sense Men should hazard the irrecoverable Loss of their Immortal Souls I know not what they think that are guilty of this Impiety but 't is a startling Consideration to any sober Man that the Wine they are thus enamoured with should cost them so dear not only the expence of their Estates and Time the decay and overthrow of whole Families the impairing and debilitating their Bodies but also what is the greatest Expence viz. The price of an Immortal Soul 21. But to stir up Men if possible to their Wits and Senses let them consider in the next place The Second ill effect of Iâ—â—n deâ—ate drinking is the adâ—â—nâ—â—â—g of Sâ—tans Kingdom thereby whose Friends and Servants they have hitherto been They are of their Father the Devil and his Works not their own do they execute they can please him in nothing more than by this Brutal Immorrality Be Drunk and you give him all he can ask or desire When Satan has steeped Men in Liquor he moulds them like soft Clay to what Form he pleaseth and 't is no hard matter to make them his Instruments to do just even what he would have them If he has a Rape to commit none fitter for the Amour than the Drunkard If he has a Life to take away no weapon like a Drunken Fury and inebriated Passion If he would rail against Heaven or Blaspheme him that is Higher than the Highest the Wine inflamed Wretch will Belch out Oaths and Curses Blasphemies and Execrations as fast as he can desire So that if to humor the Devil and please him if to be his Friend and Servant be what you desire rather than the pleasing of God the being kind to your Neighbors and your Selves you can invent no properer a Method than by being a most accomplished refined and complaisant Drunkard 22. Which brings me to the next Consideration the fatality as it were of falling into more sins at the same time The Third ill Effect of Drunkenness that it is the cause of many other Sins You must as I said before if you
your Impieties Are you able with the Salamander to live in Fire Can you dwell in everlasting Burnings Do you know what the Worm that never dies is And can you tell what the Fire unquenchable means If these things be not fictitious and imaginary if you are sensible that there is really a Heaven for the Good and a Hell for the Bad and are desirous to escape the one and be blessed in the other Leave off then pleading for your Vices and argue not the prevalency of any Temptation or the strength of Custom for your persevering in your Impieties Be no longer fond of your Disease your Fetters your Calamities But shake off your shackles wherewith you have been so long confined and break off your Sins by Repentance Let that Mouth which has Blasphemed Blaspheme no more but praise and magnifie the Name of the Lord for ever for his Name only is excellent and his Glory above the Earth and the Heaven 25. And here I cannot but take notice of the madness of those who seem to be fearful of taking God's Blessed Name in vain themselves The guilt of such as Swear not themselves but delight to hear others Swear and yet delight to hear others Swear and Blaspheme I blush to say that now-a days 't is the Gusto of company to have one prophane Wretch or other by his horrid Imprecations and unaccountable Oaths to move the rest to a fit of Laughter And there 's scarce any pleasant Harmony in Society without fearful sounding Execrations to fill up the Chorus But know Oh wretched Man whosoever thou art that makest as it were a Conscience of not Swearing thy self and yet takest pleasure in hearing others Blaspheme that thou art under the same Condemnation For they all shall be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness A bare Connivance and Misprision as I may so say of this horrid High Treason against Heaven is enough to make thee a Traitor How much more then shall thy consenting to it in thy Will and countenancing it openly by thy complacency therein add to thy Guilt and Condemnation too Hate not then thy Brother in thy Heart by suffering and encouraging so great a Sin upon him but correct and hinder it if thou canst Or if 't is out of thy Power to do that yet be not of that Devillish Society which makes that a matter of Sport which should be the Cause of their greatest Humiliation and Rejoyce Triumph and Laugh at that which makes the Damned in Hell shed Rivers of Tears 26. I proceed to the last Species of Profaning God's Name 4ly Perjury considered whether by Circumvention or by Subornation viz. by that horrid Sin of Perjury And now I could wish with all my Soul there were no reason to cry aloud and exclaim mightily against this Wickedness I could wish none were guilty of it but Rash Swearers but we find that how much soever they may by a fatal Consequence slip into it yet there are too many who do it out of design and have their ends to serve therein 'T is too visible how common Circumventions and Over-reachings are and those Ushered in too frequently with the solemnity of an Oath 'T is a Mystery belonging to each Man's trade to be upon the sharp and tho' they Lie and Aequivocate Swear and Forswear themselves yet they are paid well enough they think can they get but the least gains imaginable thereby Nor is Profit the only Loadstone that draws men to the committing this great Impiety but the Gratifying the humours of Malice and Revenge works upon them altogether as much Hence do we often see Subornations and False-witnesses sinister Tricks and unlawful Quibbles so much in use in those times Can they but betray the Innocent to the severity of the Laws retaliate an Injury and expose the object of their hatred to the Censures of either church or State can they but procure either Sequestration or Excommunication against him how do they triumph and rejoyce in their inhuman Proceedings and proudly boast of their Malicious success But let such Impudent out-daring Knights of the Post know that this stretching of their Faith and Consciences tho' it has cast a Mist before the Inferiour Courts of Justice yet they cannot corrupt the Righteous Judge of all the World who will do right He will unmask their false Evidences Reverse the Decrees issued out against the Innocent and fix the Judgment where it should be upon the Perjurious Creatures head He will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear Cometh when their fear cometh as a desolation and their Destruction as a Whirlewind Prov. 1.26 27. 27. So common is this Wickedness The Difficulty of persuading men to leave this Sin of Perjury and so advantageous is it grown to carry on Mens Trades and Designs that 't is almost morally impossible to dissuade them from it You will seem to do them the greatest Injury imaginable should you be so impertinent to advise them to be men of their Words to speak the truth in sincerity and to be conscientious in their Calling You would destroy the greatest Pillar of their Trade take away the very support of their Merchandizing should you go about to straitlace their Conscience as they call it and keep them off from an Advantageous straining their Faiths when occasion requires The whole World are turned Sharpers and shall we say they be so scrupulous as to be afraid of uâ—â—ng the same Methods of advancing our Interest as is genenerally used Fallere Fallentem non est Frans To Deceive the Deceiver is too well known a Maxim and too often practised by our Wicked Generation But to reclaim if possible those vile Exorbitancies I shall offer two Motives drawn 1. from the Consideration of the very Nature of the Crime and 2ly also from the greatness of the Punishment subsequent on the Guilt 28. Of what a Crimson Dye and Scarlet Grain this Sin is in its own Nature will appear First Motive to leave off this Sin is drawn from the greatness of it in its own Nature if we consider that the Offender incurs the guilt of breaking the whole Law and transgressing that general Duty he owes to God his Neighbour and Himself 1. He offers the greatest affront possible to God either in his ordinary Calling or in a more solemn manner when called to a Court of Judicature when he invokes the Father of Spirits and a Being that cannot Lie to be a Witness to his untruth and Malicious Falshoods 2. He commits a piece of Injustice against the whole Community of Mankind as well as deceives circumvents or fasly accuses any Particular person He not only injures the Object of his Revenge but perverts the Current and turns the stream of the Laws of Nations Blinds the Jury Corrupts the Judge puts the trick upon the whole Bench and makes Justice stand as a Blank or rather as a Mask to cover his Knaves Face withall 3. He is not
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
profaned Fourthly The Lords-Dâ—y profaned by publickly Exposing to sale and that is by publickly Exposing Goods to sale thereon This is that which Righteous Nehemiah could not endure when he contended with the Rulers of Israel and would not suffer the Carriers nor the Merchants of the Land to bring up their Wares to Jerusalem on the Sabbath-Day Neh. 13. And how small a Matter soever it may seem to some in our times yet by Him it was reckoned the cause for which God plagued Israel and suffered them to be led Captive intO a strange Land And without doubt our Legislators of the Last Age and the Beginning * Statute 29. Car. 2. of this were of Opinion that the suffering the least Ware to be sold off on the Lords-Day would prove an Introduction to a greater Profaneness which made them prohibit the Exposing of any Commodity to sale thereon upon the Forfeiture of all so Exposed be it of never so great a value which was to be sold and the Money converted to the use of the Poor And truly they who now take it ill should they for the selling of a Trifle be forced to pay the Penalty which the Statutes of our Land require will hereafter think that Punishment easie and Light to what they shall then feel from the great Lawgiver when they shall give up their Last accounts 10. And here some one may say An Objection Answered and what Works may Lawfully be done on the Lords-Day Sure this must be some Puritan How strict he is What will be allow nothing to be done this Day Must we do no manner of Work thereon Does God require we should be tyed up from all Motion and Action but that of the Soul and Spirit Is it not better to Work than Sin on this Day To which I reply Ex Confesso it must be granted that there are three sorts of Works which the strictest Christian may on this Day perform viz. Works of absolute Necessity not fained or which might have been done the Day before or may be done the Day after Works of Charity and lastly Works of Piety Beyond these none may lawfully use his Christian Liberty Nor did our Saviour relax any thing of the strictness save in these respects As to that whether it is not better to Work than to Sin on this Day True it is Saint * In tit Ps 91. Austin's Opinion is so affirming that it is better to Plough than to Dance on the Lords-Day But then it is not thence to be concluded that the Greater destroys the Less or that the Guilt of Profaning this Holy and Blessed Day by our Ordinary calling is less in its own Nature because it can be Violated by a more Horrid and aggravated Sin 11. But to proceed if the doing that upon this Day Fifthly The Lords-Day profaned by the Works of the Flesh such as are first Tipling thereon which at another time is both Lawful and Necessary to be done be so great an Offence as certainly it is How extreamly must the Crime be aggravated when we do that thereon which is Unlawful or at least Unnecessary to be done at any other Time Such as the Works of the Flesh to wit Carousing Feasting Dancing Singing Gaming Rioting and the like Tho' the Naming of these is abominable to any serious Man yet the Practise of them is so Universal and Common that there is a Necessity as it were of insisting some time upon each of them 12. 'T is strange methinks that Men should be so absurd as to imagine the small service they pay to God by an Hour or two upon a Sunday should tolerate them in serving of Sin and Satan all the Day and all the Week after Yet it is too true to need any Demonstration that most especially of the Inferiour Rank of Men are no sooner out of a Church but strait you find them in an Alehouse or a Tavern where they do not as they pretend go only to satisfie their Natures but to spend on that their Idle Day all the Profit and Gain of the foregoing Week An Intolerable thing this And a Profanation not to be endured in any Civil much less in a Christian Society notwithstanding the Cry of all the Ale-House-keepers and Vintners to the Contrary Who will give out where their Complaints can be admitted the Hearing that the Suppressing of Tipling on the Lords-Day would tend Immediately to their Ruin and Destruction But better it is they should Murmur than that the whole Land Mourn better they should lose the taking of Pounds than so many Wives and Children should be undone and Perish by reason of the Extravagancie of the Man Will those Inn-keepers and Vintners supply the wants of the Indigent Wife and Children when they are by their means reduced to beggery Will the Host or Hostess exchange their draughts of cold Water for a Cup of small Beer No it is certain the Man himself shall not be welcom without Money in his Pocket tho' he has spent his All to Enrich them and Mortgaged his Estate to the Tap and Tankard 13. Another sort of Profanation of this Holy Ordinance is by Luxurious Feastings A second Work of the Fâ—esh is Feasting on the Lords Day and Voluptuous Entertainments too common on this Day It is true this Day is a Festival but such a One as ought not to be Dedicated to any but to the Memory of a Crucified Redeemer A Festival indeed it is in which the Soul not the Body should be Glutted with good things in which we should strive not for the Meat which perisheth but for that which endureth to Everlasting Life in which we should thirst after the Living Water and Hunger after the Bread of Life which is able to make us Live for ever The sincere Milk of the Word the Flesh and Blood of a Dying Saviour are indeed Dainties and Repasts which every faithful Soul is satisfied with and Breatheth after But Gluttony and Gormandizing Pampering and High-feeding are but pitiful subsequents of a Morning Sermon and worse Preparatives for an Afternoons Lecture Were Hospitality and feeding the Poor at the Bottom of those Feasts there might be something said in Excuse thereof But forasmuch as the Cost and Luxury of the Treats is but barely to keep up Mutual Correspondence and to return former Entertainments they might be very well let alone till some more seasonable Time All that I can conceive may be alledged in favour hereof is that the Sanctity of the Day may have some Influence upon the Guests to keep them within the Bounds of Sobriety and Temperance But alass there is no such Notice taken nor has it any Influence to with-hold the Epicure from his Excess as is evident enough to any who have been at those Luxurious Tables And what is the mind after such Repletions good for Can the full fraught Stomach forbear sending up its fumes into the Drouzie Head which cannot hold from sleeping one single
Kindreds of the Earth which then began to increase did not God chuse any save faithful Abraham and his Seed to place his Name among them 'T was Jacob was his Chosen and Israel the Lot of his Inheritance 't was in the Tents of the Sanctified Tribes that the Glory of his Presence shone and by his Servant Moses he implanted the Rudiments of a Typified Religion which hereafter was to be refin'd and confirmed by his Successor and Master the LORD JESVS 4. Thus the knowledge of the Divinity was as it were confined within the Borders of Juda and Palestine was more happy then her Neighbours In Judah was God known and his Name was great in Israel in Salem also was his Tabernacle and his dwelling place at Sion Ps 76.1 2. Whilst the greatest part of the World remained in Darkness and sate under the shaddow of Death and groped through their Ignorance at Noon-day Whilst they changed the truth of God into a Lie became vain in their Imaginations and Worshipped the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Rom. 1. True it is the Wiser sort of Heathens guided by their Natural Light made some steps towards the raising the Soul from the Bondage of the Body and gave great Pulls to set fallen Man once more upon his Legs But alas their Endeavours fell infinitely short of that End their glimmering Light proved but a false one to them and their Intricate Reasonings and dry Speculations were so far above the reach of Vulgar heads and so uncapable of doing them any good that they have oftimes bewildred the Philosopher himself who after all his search has been forced to confess himself to be in the Dark So that tho' those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made some Advances towards the Civilizing the Barbarous Nations and preached up Morality to their Disciples yet all the Religion they could ingraft in the World was but Delusion and the best of their Altars wore no other Inscription then to the UNKNOWN GOD 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17 23. whom ignorantly they Worshipped and of whom they could have no certain knowledge till the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in his Wings and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Becoming as Old Simeon expresses himself a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as the Glory of his People Israel Luke 2.32 Bringing the glad tidings of Salvation to the Greek and the Barbarian to the Bond and Free and Preaching Repentance and Remission of Sins among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 5. This Abstract of Mercy This Over-flowing Quintessence of Compassion By a mysterious Incarnation condescended to to take upon himself not the Nature of Angels 3. Man considered in his state of Regeneration but the Seed of Abraham Hebr. 2.16 Who being in the form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men And being sound in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross Phil. 2.6 7 8. And by that Expiatory Sacrifice of his he satisfied his Fathers Justice offering himself up once for all In this hopeful way of Recovery did that Blessed one leave Mankind upon his Departure hence and intrusted the farther Cure to faithful hands who were not wanting to transmit the Sovereign Balsom Christ Crucified to Posterity 6. And now began that Fevor and Warmness for Religion to appear in the World A short view of the Christian Church from the Primitive to our times All Places Ecchoed with this New Doctrine and every Mouth uttered the Gospel and Glad Tidings of Peace Innocence and sincerity began to be Visible in Mens Lives and Manners and those who could not dispute could die for their Pure and Vndefiled Religion This was the Case of that Flourishing Palm-Tree the Primitive Church which spread its Branches so far under the hottest Persecutions That most of the Dark Corners of the Civilized Nations were enlightened with the Piercing and Resplendent Beams of the Truth And the Earth began to be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Is ch 11. ver 9. 7. But alass this was too good to last long For no sooner had the Christian World so I might then call it enjoyed a Requiem from thè continual Harasses of Pagan Tyranny and Persecution No sooner was ChristianityVniversally Embraced throughout the Roman Empire No sooner had it the Protection of Emperours and the favour of Complaisant Courtiers who weary of the Pagan Worship became of the same Religion with their Princes No sooner was it Established by the Edicts of Constantine and confirmed by Theodosius and his Successors in the Imperial Throne But it became the Subject of its own fewds and Animosities So that what all the Vnited force of Hell and Earth had in vain endeavoured by open Violence to destroy was Over-whelm'd with its own Ruines and lay buried under its own Heaps Heresie upon Heresie Schism upâ—n Schism Rent the Vnion of the Church on the one Hand The Arrians and Donatists the Pelagians and Nestorians some Questioning the Divinity others the Humane Nature of Christ some Quarrelling about the Procession others about the Divinity of the Holy Ghost set the Professors of Christianity together by the Ears and involved all in Flames for two or three Centuries together But then on the other hand Superstition Blind Zeal False Principles and Interest draw'd a veil quite over the Truth and for many Ages after Believing as the Church believed Outward Pomp and a Continual Round of Mysterious splendid Ceremony was all the Religion the Indulgence of the Papal Chair required at Mens hands If they could with an Implicite Faith own Infallibility Purgatory Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass and a hundred such like Whimsioal Notions of Human Inventions were their Lives never so Wicked and their Manners never so Debauched yet they might be assured of Heaven and Eternal Happiness 8. But tho' all these sad Afflictions happened to Christianity in the successive Ages of the Church A view of the degeneracy of the present Age. yet it was free from that generall inundation of Impiety wherewith this lâ—st and degenerate Age is at present so overwhelmed wherein even the dregs of Sin and Pollution are as it were sunk and setled down to the very bottom Was ever Wickedness more open-faced Waâ— it ever more immodest than in these worst of times And truly I cannot wonder that it is so that it struts thus bâ—l lâ— unmâ—sked and fears no contradiction since not only Pagans but Christians not only Papists but Protestants are its Abettors Men now-a-days not only practise but plead for their Vices and maintain a Dispute for any beloved Lust with as hot a Zeal as the best of Christians would stand up for the cause of Christ and his
Religion bearing so great a Love to Sin and the Author of it as tho' they were willing to live their Votaries and to dye their Martyrs This is the sad lamentable and too true account of the present State of Apostatizing Mankind And how great a shâ—re this our Island contributes to the Vniversal Deluge of Debauchery is too evident to need any further Demonstration than that of Ocular Inspection We are all of us too apt upon the Commission of a Sin Adam-like to lay the blame far enough from our own Doors to charge it upon the strength of the Temptation upon the weakness of our Constitution upon the Custom of the Place whâ—rein we live upon our own Ignorance upon Surprize and the like But alass none of all these Salvoes will serve the Turn but for all these things GOD will bring us into Judgment 9. And who can chuse but grieve to observe that most I may say All the open Debauchées of the Age are of impudent as to profess themselves Church of England men The little reason wicked Men have to pretend themselves of any much less of the Church of England whose Canon as well as Civil Laws are against them hoping that under that pretence for I can call it no otherwise to escape the Censures of Man here and the Sentence of God hereafter They cry as loud as any The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord But all the while remain in the outward Court and will lose the priviledge of being saved with thâ—se which are within the inner Rail For how unreasonable as well as unchristian is it to think or expect so pure and undefiled a Church should indulge any of her Members in those horrid Debaucheries which a sober Heathen would Blush to committ No for certain she does not for all her Canons and Constitutions as well as Doctrines tend to the Establishing of a Holy and Vnblameable Life in the World and the Restraining of most of those reigning Vices of our Corrupted Age. Nor is the Civil Magistrate less armed against them having severeal Penal Statutes to empower him to put a stop to their Exorbitancies so that whoever will continue in those open sins is so far from being a Son of the Church of England or a Friend to any much less to this Government that he is the greatest disturber of the One and the most professed Enemy of the Other 10. And what an Aggravation is it of the guilt of this Nation in general that it bates to be Reform'd The Guilt of this Land in general aggravated in that neither the Mercies nor the Judgements of God have had any influence over it to work a Reformation Which neither Judgments can terrifie nor Mercies allure to Repentance For what People have tasted more of the Divine displeasure What Land has received greater Favour from Heaven than this our Island within the short compass of this last Century has Was not the Reformation form Popish Errors and Superstitious Tenets matter of great Joy to this our Israel Did not that wonderful Deliverance from the Invincible Armada in Eighty Eight make glad the City of God Did not God's Goodness Triumphantly manifest it self in the discovery of the Horrid Powder-Plot Were not the Restauration of the Royal Family after 12 years Banishment and the re-establishing Monarchy after so long an Anarchy marks of Divine Love And not to speak of the frustration of many Plots in the late Reigns Was not the late Revolution and the Deliverance we received from those dismal Apprehensions and Fears we lay under matter of great Comfort and Satisfaction to all that were well-wishers to our Sion But what Returns have we made to God for all his Benefits How have we imbraced those Invitations to be Good and Happy Base Ungrateful Wretches that we are We have turned the Grace of GOD into wantonness frustrated the very designs of Gods Blessings and turned them by our Abuses into Cursings Our Debaucheries are as many as ever and our Animosities and Divisions as high on all sides as if there had been no opportunities for a Reconcilement 11. And now let us look back upon the Judgments God has inflicted upon the Land and observe whether they have prevailed any more than his Mercies Did not a long abused Peace at last involve Three Kingdoms in Civil War Fill the Nation with Devastations and Ruins Turn our Waters into Blood Cover every place with the dead Bodies of the slain Expose the best Religion in the World naked to the Affronts and Contumelies of Sects and Parties And provoke the fury and madness of the People so far as at last ignominiously to Arraign unaccountably to Condemn and barbarously to Murder the Noblest of Kings tho' the most unfortunate of Princes And to come a little lower how smartly has this one * London Metropolitan City suffered by Plague and Fire How did the Pestilence triumph within these Walls killing her Thousands and Ten Thousands in our Streets How did the insulting Flames like the sweeeping Rain carry all down before it As the Plague made no distinction between Sexes and Degrees so neither did the devouring Fire take any notice of Sacred or Prophane Structures but levelled all alike to the ground and buried them in one common beap of Ashes To sum up all and come nigher home What Dangers did our Fears suggest unto us from the Insolency of the Romish Tyranny in the last Reign How was the Liberty and Property of the Subject the Rights and Priviledges of the Church ready to be Sacrificed to the Will and Pleasure of an Arbitrary Power And if we look abroad How has God visited in his Wrath most of the Europâ—an Churches and put a Cup of Trembling and Aâ—tonishment into their hands How deeply for three years together has our Neighbouring Island tasted of it And how do we know but the next Draught may be ours One would think these â—fflictions we have felt and those we have just reason to fear are hanging over us were enough in all Reason to bring us nearer unto God and to startle us into our Duty But alass we are never the better and have great reason to apply the Psalmist Words to our selves That tho' all these things Sword Pestilence and Fire Fears Dangers and Calamities have befallen us yet are we still the same we do still forget God 12. But shall not God visit for these things shall be not be avenged on such a Nation as this Yes doubtless he will For tho' he seems to Wink and Connive at these Enormities for the present and may spare the Publick a while for the Righteous Man's sake yet God's Spirit will not always strive with Man but taking the Good from the Wrath to come he will rain down his Plagues of Fire and Sword of War and Pestilence and root out the Wicked Doers from the Face of the Earth In this World the Vnrighteous Communities shall suffer there being no
the great Support and Pillar thereof There is no need to go far for Demonstration the quarrels and frequent disturbances which happen among the Prophane Sabbath-breakers and commonly on this very day declare how great the Combustion would be were the Kingdom swallowed up in Irreligion and become thereby its own Incendiary 32. To wind up all and draw to a Conclusion the celebration of the Lords-Day The second Benefit and Mischief considered together as it entitles the particular Observers thereof to the more peculiar Eye and favour of God so it puts the whole Community of People that call upon his Name nuder his more immediate Care and Providence The Ark of God where-e're it came was sacred and brought to a Religious * 2 Sam. vi 11. Obed-Edom and his godly family Blessings Plenty and Success and to the Sacrilegious Idolatrous and Prophane * 1 Sam. v. Philistins it sent the plague of Emerods and sores The inquisitive prying †Chap. vi Bethshemites were smitten for looking thereinto and the rude unsanctified * 2 Sam. vi Vzzah for his familiar touching the Seat of Gods Holiness was punished with immediate death The Parallel will hold good in the consideration of the Keeping or not Keeping Holy the Lords-Day The Lord of Hosts has in all ages of the World been jealous for his Honour and has declared that them that Honour him he will Honour but those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. ii 30. But in nothing is he abused at this time more than in his Name and Day What the result of the first is I have already shewed and what the Effect of the Last is the Jews to look no further will sufficiently demonstrate As long as they received God's Ordinances and hallowed his Sabbaths and obeyed the Voice of the Lord their God and hearkened to his Precepts to do them He was their God and they were his People He went out with them and fought their Battles He delivered them from the Hands of their Enemies and Oppressors and setled them at length in a Land that flowed with Milk and Hony and became a Wall and a Hedge of Defence on the Right Hand and on the Left to keep them from them that lived round about them * Psal xci 5 6. That they might not be afraid for the terror by Night nor for the Arrow that sleeth by Day Nor for the Pestilence that walketh Darkness nor for the Destruction that wasteth at Noon Day But no sooner did they go a Whoring after their own Inventions serving strange Gods No sooner did they violate the Statutes of the Lord and defile his Sanctuary and pollute his Sabbaths but he left them to dye in the Wilderness to be led away into Captivity and at the last in his Wrath cut them off from being a People * Cap. xx 13. Ezekiel testifies that because the House of Israel in the Wilderness rebelled against the Lord their God and walked not in his Statutes and despised his Judgments and greatly polluted his Sabbaths therefore he poured out his fury in the Wilderdness to consume them And tho they were setled in the Promised Land yet because they were a backsliding People apt to abuse their Great God in his Worship and Day he leaves Cnnaanites in the Land to prove them as Thorns in their Flesh and Goads in their Sides For ever and anon upon their Revolt from the Holy One of Israel he leaves them to be oppressed by the Kings of Mesopotamia by the Moabites Canaanites Midianites Philistines and Ammonites to the Incursions of the Amalekites Syrians Egyptians and Edomites to be carryed away at last into Captivity the Ten Tribes by Shalmanaser into Assyria where we lose the very Memory of them and Juda by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon That the Prophanation of the Sabbath was a Principal Cause of all this their Calamity none will doubt that believes what Nehemiah says Chap. xiii 17 18. What eâ—il thing is this that ye do and prophane the Sabbath Did not your Fathers thus and did not God bring all this evil upon us and upon our City Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by prophaning the Sabbath And it is more than probable that for this very sin as well as for many others God rejected the Remnant of Juda and permitted them to be dispersed by the Romans and suffered their Sanctum Santorum and their Holy City to be laid level to the Dust and not one Stone left upon another 33. What remains then but that we take warning hence to be more Religiously Observant of this Sacred Day that we may like the Obedient Israelites be the Darlings and Favourites of Heaven that we may attract the Divine Overshadowing and win God himself to be our Sheild our Buckler our Refuge our Defence and our Invincible Rock on every side of us But if we should which God forbid persist in our Impieties and continue in prophaning the Lords-Day can we expect to escape better than the beloved people of God did Can we expect he will be more favourable to the Ingrafted than to the Natural Branches They were his chosen People his pecu iar Flock and the Lot of his Inheritance and did he write such bitter things against them and can we imagine He will be partial to Vs No certainly our Crimes are Equal and so will our Punishments be too He will add greater Plagues to what we have already felt and make our Punishment as Vniversal and General as is our Guilt This Land has already met with particular Judgments which have reigned in those Places where the Lords Day has been most prophaned The Plague the Fire and the Sword have already been our Portion Divisions and Schisms Factions and Rebellions have already been the Whips and Scorpions wherewith we have been scourged and wounded What remains but that for our Obstinate Perseverance in this as given as in other Crying Sins our Goodly Land be given over as a Prey unto our Enemies that our Heritage as it is defiled become also full of Devastations that our Candlestick should be removed that our Churches should be thrown down and that we should be forced in a Strange Land to wander from Sea to Sea Amos viii 12. and from the North even to the East to seek the Word of God and shall not find it Oh let the terror of these thoughts afrighten us to our Duty and if we have any regard for our selves and are not concerned whether we are saved or damned whether we prosper or go backward in our Affairs whether our Minds are spiritualized or no whether the sence of Religion be upheld or lost in us Yet as we regard the Welfare Peace and Tranquility of the Society wherein we live as we would not have that involved in a Common Heap of Ruin and Destruction as we would not willingly be the Cause of our Posterities Misfortune nor expose our innocent Babes to the rage
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