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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
day_n	keep_v	sabbath_n	saturday_n	4,059	5	11.9658	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50664	Immorality, debauchery, and profaneness, exposed to the reproof of Scripture, and the censure of the law containing a compendium of the penal laws now in force against idleness, profaneness, and drunkenness, houses of unlawful games, profane swearing and cursing, speaking or acting in contempt of the Holy Sacrament, disturbing of ministers, profane jesting with the name of God, absenting form the church, profanation of the Lord's day, debauched incontinency, and bastard-getting : with several texts of Scripture prohibiting such vices : also a brief collection of several signal judgments of God against offenders in the said vices and debaucheries / published for the advancement of reformation of manners, so happily begun and carried on by several societies, by G. Meriton, Gent.	Meriton, George, 1634-1711.	1698 (1698)	Wing M1800; ESTC R16769	67,391	130

will not be altogether improper before I proceed to give an account of the Laws made for the observation of the Lords day to set down an Abstract here of the Statute of E. 6. about the Sacrament and of that of Q. M. about disturbing Ministers likewise the Statute Jac. 1. about profane speaking or jesting with the Name of God c. and then to proceed to the other Laws By the Statute 1 E. 6. Ch. 1. it is Enacted That none shall speak or do any thing in contempt of the most Holy Sacrament in pain of Imprisonment and to make Fine and Ransom at the King 's Will. Three Justices of the Peace Quor unus have power to take Information by the Oaths of two lawful Persons at least concerning the Offence aforesaid and to bind over by Recognizances every Accuser and Witness in five Pound apiece to appear at the next Sessions to give Evidence against the Offendors who are there to be enquired of before three Justices or more by the Oaths of twelve men and also indicted if the matter alledged against them be found true the Offence to be prosecuted within three Months By the Statute 1 M. Sess 2. Ch. 3. it is Enacted That if any shall disturb a Preacher lawfully Licensed in his open Sermon or Collation he shall be by the Constables or Church-wardens of the Parish brought before a Justice of the Peace who upon due Accusation shall commit him to safe Custody and within six days after together with another Justice shall diligently examine the Fact who if they find cause shall commit him to the common Goal there to remain for three Months and from thence to the next Quarter-Sessions at Which upon the parties Reconciliation and entring into Bond for good Behaviour for one whole Year at discretion of the Justices in Sessions he shall be released but if he persist still in his Obstinacy he shall remain in Prison without Bail until he shall reconcile and be penitent for his Offence He that rescues an Offendor in this kind shall suffer like Imprisonment as aforesaid and besides shall forfeit five Pounds to the King The Inhabitants of a Town that suffer such an Offendor to escape shall forfeit five Pounds being presented before the Justices of Peace in Sessions within the County or Corporation where the escape was made Justices of Peace Assize and Oyer and Terminer and Mayors and head Officers of Corporations have power to hear and determin these Offences and to impose the Fines aforesaid This Act shall not restrain the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Laws howbeit none shall be punished here for one Offence By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. Ch. 21. None shall in any Stage-play Shew May game or Pageant profanely use the Name of God Christ Jesus the Holy Ghost or Trinity on pain of ten Pounds to be divided between the King and Prosecutor It 's said that Constantine the Great made Laws for the strict observation of the Lord's Day commanding that through all the Roman Empire all servile Employments should cease on those days he prescribed also a form for the Legions of Soldiers to be used both on the Sabbath-days and other days and himself used to shew much Reverence and Attention to the Word of God so that many times he would stand up all the Sermon time and when some of his Courtiers told him that it would tend to his disparagement he answered that it was in the Service of the great God who was no respecter of Persons By the Statute 1 Eliz. Ch. 2. Every Person is to resort to their Parish Church or upon let thereof to some other every Sunday and Holy-day upon pain to be punished by Censures of the Church and also to forfeit twelve pence for every Default to be levied by the Church-wardens there for the use of the Poor upon the Offendor's Goods by way of Distress and for want of Distress to be committed to some Prison until the same be paid And by the Statute 23 El. Ch. 1. Every Person not repairing to Church according to the Statute aforesaid shall forfeit twenty Pounds for every Month they so make Default and if the Offendor is not able to pay and do not pay within three Months after Judgment then to be committed to Prison and there to remain until he have satisfied the same or shall conform himself and go to the Church By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. Ch. 4. The King may refuse the twenty Pounds a Month for absenting from the Church and take in lieu thereof two third parts of the absenters Lands and Leases but here he shall not include the Recusants Mansion-house nor demise the two third parts to a Recusant or to any other for a Recusants use The Church-wardens and Constables of every Parish or one of them or if there be none such then the High-Constable of the Hundred there shall present once every year at the general Sessions of the Peace the monthly absence from Church of every Popish Recusant and then Children being above the Age of nine years and their Servants together with the Age of their Children as near as they can know them on pain to forfeit respectively for every such default twenty Shillings which Presentment the Clerk of the Peace or Town-Clerk shall record without Fee on pain of forty Shillings If upon such Presentment being the first the Recusant be convicted the Officer that presents him shall have forty Shillings reward to be levied by Warrant upon the Recusants Goods and Estate as the more part of the Justices of Peace shall think fit But Note that his Majesties Protestant Subjects Dissenting from the Church of England and qualified according to the late Statute of Indulgence are exempted from the Penalties of these Statutes The command of the Sabbath hath a special memento prefixed to it which may not only note to us that we are by this Memento Remember thou keep Holy the sabbath-Sabbath-day to observe the Lord's zeal for the observance thereof but we are thereby put in mind timely to lay aside our worldly Business and get our Hearts into readiness for the entertainment of God into the same And altho nothing is more acceptable to God than the true and sincere Worship and Service of him according to his Holy Will and that the Holy keeping of the Lord's-day is a principal part of the true Worship and Service of God Yet the People of this Kingdom having enjoyed a long continued series of Peace Plenty and Prosperity instead of rendring thanks to Almighty God for this great Blessing and of serving him in Holiness and Righteousness of Life and Conversation they on the contrary like the idolatrous Jews upon the making of their Golden-Calf they sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play Exod. 32. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 7. Nay the people of this Realm were so entirely devoted to Games and Pastimes that they could not or would not forbear them upon the Lord's Day but spent that

unless it be within ten Days after the Offence committed And if any Person shall travel upon the Lord's Day and be robbed the Inhabitants of the Hundred shall not answer for the Robbery but upon notice of such Robbery to them or some of them given or Hue and Cry for the same to be made they shall make or cause to be made fresh pursuit after the said Offenders with Horsemen and Footmen according to the Statute 27 Eliz. upon pain to forfeit as much Money to the King's Majesty as might have been recovered against them by the Party robbed And no Person or Persons whatsoever upon the Lord's Day shall serve or execute any Writ Process Warrant Order Judgment or Decree except in Cases of Treason Felony or Breach of the Peace but that the Service thereof shall be utterly void and the Person or Persons so serving or executing the same shall be as liable to the Suit of the Party grieved and to answer Damages to him for doing thereof as if he or they had done the same without any Writ Process Warrant Order Judgment or Decree at all Having shewed what Provision the Law makes for the Observation of the Lord's Day I shall proceed in the next Chapter to give an Account what some Texts of Holy Writ command in such Case to be observed Note that by the Statute 1 Jac. 1. Ch. 22. No Shoe-maker shall put his Wares to sale upon Sundays on pain of three Shillings and four Pence and also to forfeit the full value of the Wares sold CHAP. VIII Of the several Texts or Places of Scripture relating to the due Observation and Sanctifying of the Sabbath REmember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of thy Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work Thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy Man Servant nor thy Maid Servant nor thy Cattel nor thy Stranger that is within thy Gates For in Six Days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and 〈◊〉 that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Exod. 20. 8 9 10 11. Six days thou shalt do thy work and on the seventh day thou shalt rest that thine Ox and thine Ass may rest and the Son of thy Handmaid and the Stranger may be refreshed Exod. 23. 12. Speak thou also unto the Children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that Soul shall be cut off from amongst the People Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any work in the Sabbath day he shall surely be put to death Exod. 31. 13 14 15. Six days thou shalt work but on the seventh day thou shalt rest in Earing-time and in Harvest thou shalt rest Exod. 34. 21. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary I am the Lord Levit. 19. 30. 26. 2. And while the Children of Israel were in the Wilderness they found a Man that gathered Sticks upon the sabbath-Sabbath-day and they that found him gathering Sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the Congregation And they put him in Ward because it was not declared what should be done to him And the Lord said unto Moses the Man shall surely be put to death all the Congregation shall stone him with Stones and all the Congregation brought him without the Gamp and stoned him with Stones and he died as the Lord commanded Moses Num. 15. 32 33 34 35 36. Keep the sabbath-Sabbath-day to sanctify it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee six days thou shalt labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any Work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter nor thy Man servant nor thy Maid-servant nor thine Ox nor thine Ass nor any of thy Cattel nor thy Stranger that is within thy Gates that thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant may rest as well as thou Deut. 5. 12 13 14. Six days shall Work be done but on the seventh day there shall be to you an Holy day a Sabbath of Rest to the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death Exod. 35. 2. Blessed is the Man that doth this and the Son of Man that layeth hold on it that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and keepeth his hand from doing any Evil. Isa 56. 2. If thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath from doing thy Pleasure on my Holy day and call the Sabbath a Delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasures nor speaking thine own words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob thy Father for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Isa 58. 13 14. And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy Convocation ye shall do no servile Work Num. 38. 25. Thus saith the Lord Take heed to your selves and hear no Burden on the Sabbath day nor bring it in by the Gates of Jerusalem Neither carry forth a Burden out of your Houses on the Sabbath-day neither do ye any work but hallow the Sabbath-day as I commanded your Fathers But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath-day and not to bear a Burden even entring in at the Gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day Then will I kindle a Fire in the Gates thereof and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched Jer. 17. 21 22 and 27. Thou hast despised mine Holy things and hast profaned my Sabbaths Ezek. 22. 8. Moreover this they have done unto me they have defiled my Sanctuary in the same day and have profaned my Sabbaths Ezek. 23. 38. And the Lord said unto Moses How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two days abide ye every Man in his place let no Man go out of his place on the seventh day So the People rested on the seventh day Exod. 16. 28 29 30. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them But the House of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness they walked not in my Statutes and they despised my Judgments which if a Man keep he shall even live

in them And my Sabbaths they greatly polluted then I said I would pour out my Fury upon them in the Wilderness to consume them Ezek. 20. 12 13. In those days I saw in Judah some treading Wine-presses on the Sabbath and bringing in Sheaves and lading Asses also Wine Grapes and Figs and all manner of Burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold Victuals There dwelt Men of Tyre also therein which brought Fish and all manner of Wares and sold on the Sabbath unto the Children of Judah and in Jerusalem Then I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them what Evil thing is that ye do and profane the Sabbath day Did not your Fathers thus and did not God bring all this Evil upon us and upon this City Yet ye bring more Wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath Nehem. 13. 15 16 17 18. Several other Places of Scripture might be here inserted to this purpose but it being plain and obvious that many Persons are so emboldned by their customary and continued Practice in the Prophanation of the Lord's Day that to the great grief of every good Christian they contemn the Law neglect God's House and despise his Holy Ordinances ridicule all good Counsel and Advice and stop their Ears to all Godly Perswasions I shall therefore for the Terror of such obstinate Sinners in this next Chapter set down several Examples of God's Indignation and Wrath poured down upon the Heads of customary and presumptuous Profaners of the Lord's Day in hopes that thereby they may be brought to take notice of that Saying of the Poet Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum An happy Man is he that can beware Of others harms and of himself take care And so intitle themselves to that promise of God When the wicked man turneth away from his Wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his Soul alive Ezek. 18. 27. And by turning to the Lord and forsaking their wicked Courses prevent the like Judgments from falling upon their own Heads For to the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgivenesses tho we have rebelled against him Neither have we obeyed the Voice of the Lord our God to walk in his Laws which be set before us Dan. 9. 9 10. CHAP. IX An Account of several Instances of God's severe Justice and Punishments that have befaln presumptuous customary Profaners of the Lord's Day commonly called Sunday IT has been observed and still taken notice of that most of those Criminals that make their Ignominious Exit at the Gallows who come to a sight and sence of their Sins and make Confession of their Wickedness and beg pardon at God's Hands for their sinful course of Life do bewail their neglect of the due Observation of the Lord's Day and warn others by their Example to forsake such Wickedness and of the sad Consequences that attend those that make a practice of prophaning the Lord's Day This is the Market-day of the Soul wherein the Lord in a more special manner useth to meet his People to dispense his Blessings and Graces in and by his holy Ordinances to those that humbly and reverently attend upon him therein The careful Sanctification of it keeps up the Power of Godliness in our Hearts and Lives and the Prophaners thereof have often been punished with signal Judgments of God's severe Justice as may partly appear by the following Examples In Bedfordshire a Match at Foot-ball being made and appointed on the sabbath-Sabbath-day in the Afternoon whilst two were in the Belfry toling of the Bell to call the Company together there was suddenly heard a Clap of Thunder and a Flash of Lightning was seen by some that sate in the Church-Porch coming through a dark Lane and flashing in their Faces which much terrified them and passing through the Porch into the Belfry it tripp'd up his Heels that was toling the Bell and struck him stark dead and the other that was with him was so sorely blasted therewith that shortly after he died also At a place called Tidworth on the Sabbath-day many being met together to play at Foot-ball in the Church-yard one of them had his Leg broken which presently gangreenizing he forthwith died thereof At Alecester in Warwickshire a lusty young Women went to a Green not far off where she said she would dance as long as she could stand but while she was dancing it being upon the Sabbath day God struck her with a violent Disease whereof within two days after she died Also in the same Place not long after a young Man presently after the Evening Service was ended brought a pair of Cudgels into the Street near to the Minister's House calling upon divers to play with him but they all refusing at length came one who took them up saying tho I never play'd in my Life yet I will play one Bout now but shortly after he was jesting with a young Maid he took up a Birding Piece which was charged saying Have at thee and the Piece going off shot her in the Face whereof she immediatly died for which Act he forfeited all his Goods and Chattels and underwent the Law At Wooton in the same County a Miller going forth on the Sabbath-day to a Wake when he came Home at Night found his House Mill and all he had burnt down to the Ground And at Woolston in the same County many loose Persons kept a Whitson-Ale and had a Maurice-dancing on the sabbath-Sabbath-day in a Smith's Barn to the great Grief of the Godly Minister there who used his utmost endeavour to restrain them from such Profaneness but in vain so as it pleased God shortly after a Fire kindled in that Smith's Shop which burnt it down with his House and Barn and raging furiously going some-times with the Wind and sometimes against it it burnt down many others Houses most of which were those of the prime Actors in that Profanation of the Lord's Day Anno 1634 On a Lord's Day in the time of a great Frost Fourteen young Men while they were playing at Foot-ball upon the Ice on the River Trent near to Gain●borough meeting all together in a scuffle the Ice suddenly broke and they were all drowned In the Edg of Essex near Brinckly two Fellows working in a Chalk-Pit the one was boasting to his Companion how he had angred his Mistress with staying so late at their Sports the last Sunday Night but he said he would anger her worse the next Sunday Night but he had no sooner said this but suddenly the Earth fell down upon him and kill'd him outright with the Fall whereof his Fellow's Limbs was broken who had been also Partner with him in his Jollity on the Lord's Day In the County of Devon one Edward Ameridith a Gentleman being pained in his Feet a long time and being somewhat recovered one said to him he was glad to see

bring forth a Child with a Head like a Dog that seeing he preserred his Dogs before the Service of God he might have one of his own getting to make much of At Kimstat a Town in France in the Year 1559 there lived a certain covetous Women that was so greedy of Gain that she would neither frequent the Church her self to hear the Word of God not suffer any of her Family to go but continually stay'd labouring and toyling about drying and pilling Flax and doing other domestick Businesses and could not be reclaimed by her Neighbours and one Sabbath day Fire seemed to run among the Flax without doing any harm the next Sabbath day it took Fire indeed but was quickly extinct all this would give her no warning but she continued obstinate in her Profaneness the third Sabbath day the Flax again taking Fire could not be quenched till it burnt her and two of her Children to death for tho they were taken out alive yet the next day they all three died and that which was most to be wondered at says the Reporter a young Infant in the Cradle was taken out of the mid'st of the Flames without any hurt thus God uses to exercise his Judgments upon the Contemners of his Commandments In the Year 1583 at London at the Bear-Garden a great number of People being gathered together on a Sabbath day to see the Sport the Lord that he might chasten them in some sort and show his dislike of the profaning the Sabbath caused the Scaffolds suddenly to break the Beholders to tumble down headlong so that eight Persons Men and Women were slain besides many others were sore hurt and bruifed to the shorthing of their Lives The like Judgment happened at a Town in Bedfordshire called Risley in the Year 1607 where the Floor of a Chamber wherein a great number were gathered together to see a Play on the Sabbath day fell down and many by the Fall thereof sore hurt and some killed In May 1629 one John Bow of Ely Coachman to one Mr. Batnum of Beenham a Fellow very vitious and exceeding in these two Evils of Profane Swearing and Drunkenness on the Sabbath day in the Sermon time drank himself drunk so that when he was to sit in the Coach-box to drive the Coach he fell from it under the Horses Feet and was trodden to death or so hurt at least that he died shortly after In November 1621 one Richard Burn Servant to Jasper Burch Gardiner of Ely accustomed to travel on the Lord's Day and making no reckoning of the Sabbath seldom or never coming to the Church on that day but went onwards to St. Ives Market and so spent the day and being drunk was at length overtaken by the just Judgment of God for going up the Stream in his Boat which he had loaden with Marketable Wares he fell into the River and was drowned Mr. Hugh Clark preaching about Oundle in Northamptonshire where the People were generally very ignorant and much addicted to the Profanation of the Lord's Day by Whitson-Ales Maurice-Dances c. which he much set himself against endeavouring to evince their and to draw them from the Evil and Danger o● the Sin denouncing God's Judgments in case of their obstinate Perseverance but they being train'd up in those Courses and hardned by custom persisted still in their Wickedness At last on a Lord's Day the Leader of the Dance a Lusty young Man in the mid'st of their Profane Pastimes fell down suddenly and died but they soon shaking off their Fear returned to their Vomit again the Lord's Day following Mr. Clark took occasion from this sad dispensation to quote that Text Jer. 17. 27. If thou wilt not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day c. then will I kindle a Fire in the Gates thereof c. The People still kick'd against these Admonitions and the Eve following returned to their Sports again among whom was a Smith that was a chief Ring-leader but it pleased God the very next day two Husbandmen coming to sharpen their Plow-shares at his Shop a spark from the red hot Iron as he was beating it upon the Anvil flew into the Thatch which both the Smith and the Neighbours saw but had no power to move towards it which presently burnt down the Shop House and all the Smith had This Mr. Clark pressed upon their Consciences but nothing would prevail till at last upon a Sabbath day at Night when they were return'd to their several Homes there was heard a great noise and ratling of Chains up and down the Town which was accompanied with such a smell and stink of Fire and Brimstone that many of their guilty Consciences suggested to them that the Devil was come to fetch them away quick into Hell and now and not till now they began to think in good earnest of a Reformation Edmond Kirke Vintner executed July 11. 1684 for murthering his Wife in his Confession acknowledged himself frequently guilty of profaning the Lord's Day upon which Holy Day saith he I committed the heinous Sin of murthering my Wife Thus Sin was punished with Sin a less with a greater and the greater with the Gallows and that greater committed near the same Gallows and himself confessed that he had to his Wife asking whilst she passed by what place that was told her it was Tyburn where John Gower was lately hang'd for killing his Wife O Lord how dear to me thy Counsels are but how just and terrible thy Judgments Mr. Smythies Curate of St. Giles's Cripple-gate in the Confession and Discovery of a condemned Prisoner executed for Theft May 25 1687 saith as Mr. Burton reports that it was his earnest desire that all young Men should take care not to mispend the Lord's Day And I do not know says Mr. Smythies that ever I observed any Repentance in a condemned Malefactor who did not bitterly lament his neglect of his duty to God on that day In a Convocation of the Clergy at Perth in Scotland Anno 1188 for the better Sanctification of the Sabbath day it was ordained as Arch-Bishop Spotswood tells us that every Saturday from twelve of the Clock should be set apart for preparation thereunto and that all People at the sound of the Bell should address themselves to hear Prayers and abstain from worldly Labours till Monday Morning If nothing that is here shewed can prevail or any ways induce the presumptuous obstinate Prosaners of the Lord's Day to forsake their sinful and provoking Wickedness then let him that is young observe what Solomon says Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the ways of thy Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment Eccles 11. 9. And he that is old let him know that death is at his Heels ready to trip them up and gives no warning of his coming

Penalty inflicted by the aforementioned Act upon the Inn-keeper Alehouse-keeper or Victualler that suffers Foreigners to Tipple in their Houses It is therefore 1 Car. 1. Ch. 4. Enacted That every Inn-keeper Alehouse-keeper or Victualler that shall permit or suffer any Person or Persons not inhabiting in the City Town Corporate Market-Town Village or Hamlet where such Inn Ale-house or Victualling-house is to Tipple in the said Inn Ale-house or Victualling-house contrary to the true intent of any or either of the aforesaid Statutes the said Inn-keeper Alehouse-keeper and Victualler so offending shall incur the same Penalty and in such manner to be proved levied and disposed as in the former Statute 1 Jac. 1. Ch. 9. is appointed for permitting such to tipple as dwell in the same City Town Corporate Market-Town Village or Hamlet And it is also Enacted That the keepers of Taverns and such as do sell Wine in their Houses and do also keep Inns or Victualling-houses shall be taken to be within the said two former Statutes and also within this Statute If these Laws against inordinate and customary Tippling and Drunkenness were duly and effectually put in Execution it would not only be greatly to the Honour of God but tend much to the Honour and Credit of this Realm And might also prove very instrumental in the preventing many Families from Ruin and becoming burdensom and chargeable to the Places where they live and are settled for many ingenious Handicraft-men and other laborious and working Persons are so bewitch'd and charm'd with the love of strong Drink that what they earn with hard Labour all the day having neither regard to their own Credit nor any Charity Love or Kindness for their poor Wives and Families they embezle and spend at Night in profuse idle and insatiable Tipling and Drunkenness amongst their debauched Comrades when at the same time perhaps their poor Families at home are ready to starve for want of Bread I shall therefore in the next Chapter acquaint these obstinate presumptuous and vitious Persons with some Texts of Scripture against these their sinful Courses in hopes that the perusal and serious Consideration of them may bring them to a sight and sense of their Wickedness and work some Reformation in them But before I proceed to the next Chapter I think it will not be amiss if we give a brief Account here of the Laws made against Keepers of Play-houses and unlawful Games of which Offences many Inn-keepers Alehouse-keepers and Victuallers ' are guilty By the Statute 33 H. 8. Ch. 9. it is Enacted That none shall keep or maintain any House or Place of unlawful Games on pain of forty Shillings every day And none shall use or haunt such places on pain of six Shillings and eight Pence every time And it shall be lawful for every Justice of the Peace in every County and for head Officers in Corporations as well within the Liberties as without to enter and resort into all such Houses and Places where such unlawful Games are suspected to be used and as well the Keepers thereof as the Resorters thereto to arrest and imprison until they shall severally give good Security at the discretion of the said Justices or Officers not to keep such Games any more Every Mayor Sheriff Bailiff Constable and other head Officer within every City Borough or Town shall make due Search as aforesaid once every Month at least on pain to forfeit 40 s. for every such Default No Artificer or Journey-man nor Husbandman Apprentice Labourer Servant at Husbandry Mariner Fisherman Waterman or Serving-man shall play at Tables Tenis Dice Cards Bowls Clash Goyting Logating or any other unlawful Game out of Christmass or then out of his Master's House or Presence on pain of twenty Shillings and none shall play at Bowls in open Places out of his Garden or Orchard on pain of six Shillings and eight Pence All Informations or Suits upon this Statute shall be prosecuted within one year and the Forfeitures thereof which happen within a Leet or Liberty shall be divided between the King and the Lord thereof and in all other Places betwixt the King and the Prosecutor Proclamation of this Act shall be made quarterly in every Market-Town as also at every Goal-delivery Assize and Sessions Then lastly there is a Proviso that this Act shall not restrain a Servant by his Master's License to play at Cards Dice or Tables with the Master himself or other Gentlemen resorting to his Master's House and if the Master have Freehold of an hundred Pounds per Annum he may also license his Servant to play at Bowls or Tenis By the Statute 2 3 Ph. Ma. Ch. 9. All Licences to keep Houses or Places of unlawful Games shall be void Before this Statute several Persons used to obtain Placards or Licences to keep common Gaming so that by this Statute all such Licences are made void CHAP. II. An Account of some Texts of Scripture shewing the sad Consequences and Effects that attend the customary sinful and profane practice of profuse Quaffing and Drunkenness SUCH Persons as neither the fear of the Law respect to their own Credit nor love to their Families will reclaim or deter from their obstinate and presumptuous sinful Progress in their profane Courses of customary expensive and profuse excessive Tipling and inordinate Drinking upon the perusal of these several Scripture-sentences following may I hope be thereby induced and excited to follow a more frugal vertuous and godly course of Living and to abandon the charming Delilahof their beloved sinful Vice And they shall say unto the Elders of his City This our Son is stubborn and rebellions he will not obey our Voice he is a Glutton and a Drunkard And all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear Deut. 21. 20 21. Wine is a Mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. 20. 1. Be not among Wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of Flesh For the Drunkard and the Glutton shall come to Poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man with Rags Prov. 23. 20 21. Who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath bablings who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of Eyes They that tarry long at the Wine they that go to seek mixt Wine Look not thou upon the Wine when it is red when it giveth his colour in the Cup when it moveth it self aright At the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adder Prov. 23. 29 30 31 32. Wo unto them that rise up early in the Morning that they may follow strong Drink that continue until Night till Wine inflame them And the Harp and the Viol the Tabret and Pipe and Wine are in their Feasts but they regard not the Work of the Lord neither consider the Operation of his Hands Isa 5. 11 12. Wo unto

Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birth-right Heb. 12. 16. Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judg Heb. 13. 4. Wherefore lay aside all Filthiness and supersluity of Naughtiness and receive with Meekness the engrafied Word which is able to save your Souls Jam. 1. 21. Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of the World is Enmity with God Jam. 4. 4. Having Eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from Sin beguiling unstable Souls 2 Pet. 2. 14. For all that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh and the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but of the World 1 Joh. 2. 16. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to Fornication and going after strange Flesh are set forth for an Example suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Jude ver 7. But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and Muderers and Wboremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death Rev. 21. 8. More Places of Scripture might be cited to this purpose but I suppose these may be sufficient to convince any sober rational Christian of the Dangers that attend the sinful Wickedness of incontinency and Whoring I shall therefore proceed to the next Chapter and acquaint the Reader with some few signal Marks of God's Justice in the punishment of Persons guilty of such profane Wickedness and so shall conclude this Treatise CHAP. XII An Account of some Persons signally punished by Almighty God for the Profane and Wicked Vice of Whoring and Lustful Incontinency WE read in Scripture that the Sons of Ely were Sons of Belial they knew not the Lord. And when their Father heard all that his Sons did unto all Israel and how they lay with the Women that assembled at the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation Their Father Ely reprov'd them saying ye make the Lord's People to transgress If one Man sin against another the Judg shall judg him but if a Man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him Notwithstanding they hearkned not to the Voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them Which accordingly came to pass For the Philistines fighting against Israel made a great Slaughter of them for there fell of Israel thirty thousand Footmen And the Ark of God was taken and the two Sons of Eli Hophni and Phineas were slain 1 Sam. 2. 12 22 24 25. and 4. 10 11. And David having committed Adultery with Bathsheba the Wife of Vriah and caused her Husband to be slain The Lord thereupon caused Absalom David's own Son to rebel against him so that he was forced to flie from Jerusalem for foar of his Son and had his Head covered and went barefoot and wept when he went up by the Ascent of Mount Olivet As appears by the Story in the 2 Sam. Ch. 11. and 15. In Germany a Gentleman of Note finding his Wife in Bed with another Man slew first the Adulterer and then his own Wife A Nobleman in Thuringia being taken in Adultery the Husband of the Adulteress bound him Hand and Foot cast him into Prison kept him fasting only causing daily hot Dishes of Meat to be set before him to tantalize him with the smell in this Torture the Letcher continued till he gnawed off the Flesh from his own Shoulders and on the eleventh day he died Mary of Arragon Wife to the Emperor Otho the 3d carry'd a young Fornicatour along with her in Womans Habit But he being discovered was burnt to death Afterwards soliciting the Count of Mutina and not able to draw him to her Lure she accused him to the Emperor of attempting a Rape upon her for which he was Beheaded But the Emperor at last finding out his Wife's Wickedness caused her to be burnt at a Stake Luther tells us of a great Man in his Country so besotted with the Sin of Whoredom that he was not ashamed to say that if he might live for ever here and be carried from one Whore-house to another there to satisfy his Lusts he would never desire any other Heaven this Vile Fellow afterwards breathed out his wretched Soul betwixt two notorious Harlots Joan Queen of Naples was insatiable for her Lust which caused her to hang her first Husband which was Andrew second Son to the King of Hungary at her Window for insufficiency Her second Husband was Lewis of Tarentum who died with the over-straining himself to satisfy her Lustful Appetite Her third Husband James of Tarracon a gallant Gentleman she Beheaded for lying with another Woman Her fourth Husband was Otho Duke of Brunswick in whose time the King of Hungary drew her out of her Kingdom and having taken her hung her out of the same Window where she had hang'd her first Husband An ancient Gentleman of good Account marrying a beautiful young Gentlewoman but having no Issue he took into his House a young Gentleman a Neighbours Son and compleatly qualified purposing to make him a sharer in his Estate This Gentleman grows familiar with his Wife which gave so much occasion of Suspicion and caus'd such a Rumour in the Country that his Father requires him to return home again He doth so but at parting promiseth Marriage to the Gentlewoman in case of her Old Husbands decease and she to him both with Oaths The Old Gentleman's Maid meeting with this young Gallant over a Glass of Wine tells him in private how much his Company was missed at her Master's House and his Return desired But withal tho she knew the Familiarities between him and her Mistress yet it was all feigned for another enjoyed both her Heart and Body naming the Person the Gentleman is startled but incredulous And after some time the Old Gentleman sends for him again he goes in the Night but very privily having before by Letter desired that the Garden Door might be left open for him and tells the Old Gentleman the reason of his absence But before he went back he goes softly to the Gentlewoman's Bed-chamber Door who often lay by her self and hears the Whispers of two distinct Voices Upon which in a sudden Passion he resolves to break in upon them and run them through with a Sword but relenting with tenderness he departs softly to his own home grows melancholy and distemper'd but recovering he resolved to travel The Old Gentleman sends for him to take an unwilling Farewel At the importunity of his Father he goes After Dinner the Gentlewoman singles him out for a Farewel weeping in his Bosom and beseeching him to have care of his Safety but especially of his Vow and Promise Instead of a Reply he gave her a Letter which he desired her to peruse in his Absence She opens the Letter and reads there all the Story of her Lust laid