pandorize the Sabbath to our lusts and vanities what is it but to make God serve with our sins Or as our Saviour phraseth it To turn the house of prayer into a den of thieves Mat. 21. 13. Is it fit for the witch of Endor to put the Devil into Samuels mantle 1 Sam. 28. 12. And for wicked Ahaz to put the Idols Altar into Gods temple 2 Kings 16. 14 15. Indeed the same wickedness they act who make the Lords day vile and cheap by sinfull abominations which should be honourable Isa 58. 13. in holy worship and service and those adorations which become the Lord of the Mark 2. 28. Sabbath To vitiate the Sabbath by visible prophaneness opens a way to all licentiousness and will be bitterness in the latter end Sabbath-breaking is usually the preface to other sins The 2 Sam. 2. 26. breaking of the two tables commonly begins at the fourth Commandment we first make bold with Gods day and then with Gods name and so break the third Commandment and then we can trinkle in his worship and so violate the second and by degrees we can slide into thefts adulteries Deut. 5. 21. and murders and so dash all the Commandments in Isa 28. 8. pieces he will easily covet his neighbours Wife for wantonness Claudius Tiberius Nero vocatus fuit Claudius Biberius Mero propter ebrietatem intemperantiam Sueton. who will sacrilegiously arrest Gods holy day for his excess and drunkenness It is the observation of an ingenuous person That he hath heard many malefactors at their execution bitterly bewail their prophanation of the Lords day and humbly acknowledge that sin was the leading cause of all ensuing mischiefs and miseries At the Gallows their Conscience hath pointed at the very sin which had been the chief actor in their wofull tragedy When Satan hath prevailed with us to violate Gods holy day he hath got his head in and he will easily draw in his whole body Prophanation Gulones nihil faciunt nisi ingerere digerere et egerere Bern. of the Sabbath is the gates of Hell the foundation upon which all other sins are erected Indeed the carefull observation of this day is a chain upon the soul and ties it up from sinfull vagaries it casts an awe upon the heart that it cannot presently startle but when the chain is filed off there is no end of licentious ranges as Cattle when they are got out of the pound they run into every ones field This sin of Sabbath-breaking it is like a Serpent whose sting is in its tail Indeed sanctified afflictions turn a Serpent into a rod but Sabbath-prophanation turns a rod into a Serpent and brings the most prosperous sinner into unexpected calamity It is observable of the people of Israel that sighs and groans Exod. 3. 7. brought them out of Egypt and Songs and Vanities on Gods day brought them into Babylon The Hebrew phrase Ezek. 23. 38. in Ezek. 20. 13. is very expressive the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalal which is rendred to pollute and prophane viz. the Ezek. 20. 13. Sabbath signifies likewise to tripudiate and dance as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daughters of Shiloh did Judges 21. 21. where the same word is used to denote unto us one method of the Jews in prophaning the Sabbath viz. They passed it away jocularly Psal 87. 7. in sinful frolicks and immodest vanities and this was one of the chief sins they might sit down by the waters of Babylon Psal 137. 1. Cyril and weep over It is undeniable that the prostituting of the Sabbath by prophane practices both hath and will ruine Gaudâ—ntius c. Judaei non deo sed sibi die Sabbati ociantur Muscul Nations Families Persons and dig the grave to bury all comforts in It was generally complained of by holy and devout men in the primitive times that the Jews neglecting spiritual duties which God commanded abused the Sabbath The Jews which were killed at Hierusalem by the command of Florus were 630. By the Inhabitants of Caesarea were 20000. at Scithopolis 30000. at Ptolemais 2000. at Alexandria 50000. at Joppa 8400. at Askelon 1000. at Aâ—haca 15000. at Garizâ—m 11600. at Jotopata 30000. at Gamala 9000. at the siâ—ge of Hierusalem 1100000 c. 1 Cor. 10. 11. to case and luxury and wasted that holy day in gluttony and idleness and idle delicacies and this accusation in the first times of the Gospel became proverbial so that to keep the Sabbath loosly was to keep it after the manner of the fews And what judgments God brought upon them in those dayes how he did scatter them unchurch them unpeople them and leave them to be a vagabond Generation to all successive ages who knows not is a great stranger to Antiquity It would fill a Volume to relate the several slaughters of them and their exiles from Nations France Spain England and other places so that even at this day their mask is their best security and their veil is their only safety The Quotations in the margin give in some evidence of the infinite slaughters which were made of them they were a prey even to all Nations as if they were only fit to glut the Sword of an enraged enemy Let us therefore observe the Apostolicall advice and take these perishing Jews for an ensample of Gods heavy displeasure against debauched practices on Gods holy day To serve our lusts upon a Sabbath is to throw off Jehovah and to serve other Gods The person who is intemperate on a Sabbath doth he not serve Bacchus The effeminate person doth he not serve the Goddesse Venus And Phil. 3. 19. the luxurious person he makes his belly his god He that In nostris ecclesiis diebus dominicis carnis voluptatibus profusissime absque ullâ dissimulatione servitur quemadmodum Judaei qui die Sabbati ociantur et libidinantur acta verò et studia carnis Baccho et Veneri luxui et sastui omninò deputanâ—ur Muscul prates away a Sabbath doth his devotion to Mercurius he that plays at Cudgels and wrestles in a seeming valour acts his service to Mars he that sports away the Sabbath in Courtships and caresses offers his sacrifice to Jupiter that wanton God whose effeminacies are the best part of the Legend we have repored by Pagan Historians Strict and holy communion only becomes a holy God on a holy day Musculus very piously and gravely cryes out Let us throw off all cloaks of dissimulation and if we spend our Sabbaths in the pleasures of the flesh let us never say we keep a day to the Lord Jesus but let us say we will worship Bacchus and Venus or some Idol God who is the Patron of such wickedness And indeed a Tavern or Alehouse on the Lords day is a fit temple for Bacchus a Stews or Whore-house is a fit Sanctuary for Priapus a Table full of vain chat is a fit
nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari Leo Anthemius Imper à Baldwino allegati in judgment or wariness in practice in reference to the Lords day But our Apostacy began to be too notorious when sports were allowed on that day which are the births of fancy and the Nurses of corruption Nay even at this day notwithstanding all pretences to reformation how wofully is Gods Sabbath neglected and ecclipsed by all manner of abomination so that we may say with Bishop Babington The people of Israel might not gather Manna upon the Sabbath-day and may we go to Fairs and Markets to Wakes and wantonness to Dancings and Drinkings upon the Lords day Are these works for the Sabbath Is O melior fides nationum in suam sect am quae nullam christianorum solennitatem sibi vendicat non etiam diem dominicum etiamsi cognossent nobis communicarent ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciaremur non veremur Tertul. de Idol cap. 14. this to keep the holy day Can this be answered to God No surely we shall never be able to endure his wrath for these things one day Thus this learned and reverend Person I may a little invert Tertullian O the faith of the Nations better then ours towards their own Sect as who challenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity no not that of the Lords day had they known it they would not communicate with us least they should seem Christians and we Christians fear not to be accounted Heathens All the Invectives of former times may justly be levelled against England upon this account What is the Sabbath among us but our leisure day for sin and vanity The covetous person is imployed in his works and he follows his secular affairs only more covertly the Formalist is buried in his sloth the Youth of the Nation are frisking and pleasing themselves with sports and dalliances with carnal delights and sensual pleasures as if they offered Acts 14. 13. at the Shrine of Venus or calculated their Sacrifices for a Acts 19. 28. wanton Jupiter the carnal Gospellers are refreshing themselves in their Recreations and their walks and how few on the Mount of God in sacred and heavenly duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jovialiter vivere Surely Plutarch had an eye to England when he derived Sabbath a Sabbos which signifies to live riotously Indeed the Sabbath of our Nation seems to have some such derivation Gods Sabbath cannot travel up and down England but it falls among Thieves who rob and wound it some wound it by prophane and loose actions others by sinful omissions and the most by sloth and recreations And thus Luke 10. 30. this blessed day lies bleeding and where are any good Samaritans Abominanda christiano nomine indigna diei dominicâ— vâ—olatio quae sâ—nctâ—ssimum Dei Omnipotenâ—is cultum imâ—iorum exponit ludibrio hinc omnis miseriae quae obscuratum ecclesiae deâ—us evertit â—inc calamitatis effluxit inundatio to pour Oyl in to its wounds And have we not found it by experience that scarlet sins and crimson transgressions overflow the Nation because the Sabbath lies under disuse and is covered with scorn and contempt The holy observation of the Sabbath is that which brings on all duties of godliness and the Sabbath being slighted and neglected the Cataracts of prophaneness break in upon us and we are lead to all methods of wickedness And this is Englands skar Gods presence was never less discerned and what is the reason Gods day was never more contemned Our Palladium is gone and what can be expected but an entry of ruine and desolation And this as Ezekiel speaks Ezek. 19. 14. Is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation A learned man observes That the prophaning of Gods day is sin unbecoming the name of a Christian and is the spring of all those calamities which over-flow a Nation And yet this is Lam. 1. 7. Quis talia fande temperet à laâ—hâ—ymis Virg. Englands Ichabod and in this it hath betrayed its trust when the treasure of Gods Sabbath was committed to it And this is Englands Apostacy from all the pious Proclamations Psal 74. 9. of those noble Princes who have sate in its Throne How did many of the Royal Princes who have swayed the Scepter of this Nation lay out their Authority for the suppressing King Ina a Weâ—t Saxon K. Alured K. Canutus K Edw. the sixth Q. Elizabeth King James King Charles the first of prophaneness and promoting of godliness upon Gods holy day which was their glory and the splendor of our Nation But the prophaneness of the present age upon this sacred day hath pluckt this Pearl out of their Crowns and hath put an ecclipse upon that glory of our Kingdom wherein we much out-vied the tendreyes of other Nations England formerly in this branch of holiness out-shining the most reformed Churches And this is the sin at this day which is the troubler of our Israel and seems to be a Cloud bigger than a mans hand 1 King 18. 44. which threatens a great deal of ruine not of water but of wrath not showers to drench the ground but to drown the Inhabitant We may bewail the formall worship of Englands Sabbaths this blessed day suffers in this Nation not only by open Enemies Ceremonia crebrò repetitae but by cold Suitors This is the Errour of England on her Sabbaths we more mind the bending of the knee than Deo nauseam pariunt quia peccatores impuro corde plenâ—que offensis illas offerunt Alap in Isaiam the bowing of the heart our Decency hides our Beauty our Ceremony drowneth our Substance and our Gesture swallows up our Godliness In some places of this Nation the Organ is the most pleasing Oracle and the cringing to an Altar is the onely Embleme of humility and the pleasing of the Ear stifles the devotion of the Soul And is this to keep a Sabbath What do we more than the Jews against whom God poured out his complaints To tread Gods Courts Isa 1. 12. To cry up the Temple of the Lord Jer. 7. 4. And to celebrate a Sabbath with a bare appearance before God or the nimble activity of a geniculation Is not this to offer the Case instead of the Jewel to give the bark of a service and the paring onely of a solemnity Ignatius could tell us in the very Vnusquisque nostrum Sabbatizet spiritualiter meditatione legis gaudens non in corporis refocillatione Ignat. Epist 6. ad Magn. infancy of the Gospel That we are to keep Gods day spiritually in the meditation of Gods Law not in the refreshings of the outward man c. And Chrysostom speaks much of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual works and exercises on the Lords day Is not the turn of an eye the action of the body or the suppleness of the knee not the sweetness of the voice or the
splendour of England was defaced How deformed is the body without the head And was not London the head of England as Damascus of A Hierusalem plaga dei incipit tum quia illa cognoscens et colens deum plus caeteris gentibus peccavit tum quia caeteris statuitur in exemplum ut ex eâ suum quisque plagam metiatur similemque expectet Alap Syria Isa 7. 8. Nay London was not only the head of England but of the three Nations the two chief Cities of Scotland and Ireland easily yielding to the Glory and Renown of London What the face is to the body that London was to England the beauty and the loveliness of it Londons glory was the sweet complexion of the Land which made strangers and forreigners fall in love with it But now God hath given a scar to Englands face and that must needs be a great blemish Look upon England as Rich and London was the Exchequer of it the Mine to feed that Exchequer Look upon England as Potent London was the Arsenal of it and the Tower was not so much an Honourable Prison as a well furnished Armoury for all military provisions London was a City which could raise an Army and pay it when it had done This Glorious City was the sword and the sinnews of war the very right hand of all publick undertakings But now we are as Samson with his hair cut off enfeebled for want of strength Now England is like the Sichemites Gen. 34. 25. unfit for any invasion Our strength is fallen Lam. 1. 14. The Head of England is made bald both of strength and ornament London the Crown of England hath lost its Jewels of wealth and beauty Now London is rowling in its ashes and we may write Ichabod upon poor despicable England If our Father spit in our face saith God to Moses ought we not to be ashamed seven dayes Numb 12. 14. Ah! God hath spit fire into the face of England London like Job lies on its dung-hill Job 2. 8. and with the afflicted Jews Esth 4. 3. makes its abode in its ashes From the Daughter of Zion beauty is departed Lam. 1. 6. The honour of Renowned England is laid in the dust In Londons fire is observable the greatness of the wind at that time The Lord seemed to prepare bellows to blow this fire that it might not go out till it had accomplished its Execution Winds they are the fan of Nature to cool and purge the Air to maturate and ripen the Corn but here God brought the winds out of his treasury to scatter the flames of his indignation they served only to speed our ruine so that the helps of nature became the hurts of London The fire Psal 18 10. did ride upon the wings of the wind that it might sooner Luke 8. 25. come to its journeys end The Apostle James speaks of Christus loquitur mari et ventis quia majestas dei habet absolutum imperium in creaturas rationales et irrationales Par. fierce winds Jam. 3. 6. And such were these to scatter the fire and so make the destruction Epidemical He that commands the winds now gave them a Commission in wrath for the purposes of his severe vengeance the winds indeed were high and that raised the storm which shipwrackt famous and renowned London It was very remarkable That the season should be so hot and dry at the time of this fire God seemed to make the houses of the City like tinder before he struck fire that it might be sure to take and that intemperate heat as it fitted our dwellings for sudden waste so it dried up the springs insomuch Vt sâ—lis venustas gloria dâ—pingatur solem Jovis oculum appellavit antiquitas that little water could be had where usually there was the greatest plenty This parching season fought against London with a two-edged sword it prepared the houses for fuel and it kept back the remedy those needfull streams which should have grapled with this devouring fire This is worthy Macrob. our observation In the time of our need we have a burning sun instead of a moistning showre That Sun which rules the day guilds the world guides man and fructifies the earth was an an open enemy to London so that we may say that when London was on fire it was not a pleasant Eccles 11. 7. thing to behold the sun That glorious luminary in which at other times we see the glory of God Psal 19. 4 at this time Psal 19. â— we might see the wrath of God That which was observable in Londons fire was That the waâ—eâ—-house which served much of the City with water was onâ— of the first things which was set on fire O tremendous wrath Our help was removed that our hurt might be amplified God betimes in the very first commencing of this O lachryma hâ—miâ—is â—â—a est potentia si sola intres non râ—libis vaâ—uâ— â—â— vincis inviâ—cibilem et ligâ—s omnipotenâ—eâ— et filium vâ—ginis incliâ—as in misericordiam Just judgement took away our relief We had nothing to quench our flames but our tears and if they before had been seasonably poured forth happily the first flames had been prevented When God was highly incensed against Israel he took away their weapons they must go down to the Philistines to sharâ—en â— Coulter 1 Sam. 13. 20. They had enemies to assault but no swords to defend And in this judgement God took away our remedy we had fire to devoure but no water to quench the Lord threw fire upon our houses and he broke our Buckets We may read Gods heavy displeasure in the very preface of this judgement The fire licked up our 1 Kings 18. 38. water as in Elijahs sacrifice but with this difference that was a sign of Gods favour but this the token of his wrath God stripâ— us as soon as he struck us and took away our defence that his judgement might fall with the greater force The infatuation of the people in not being industrious to quench the fire was most remarkable When formerly fire seized upon the City every one was an instrument to suppress it and every passenger an Engine to quench it there was labour in the hand and meltings in the heart of every person to put a stop to the devouring flames But in this tremendous fire the question of the Angel to the Disciples was very seasonable Acts 1. 12. Why stand ye gazing The feebleness of a Samson when he had lost his hair the distraction Judg 16. 19. Dan. 5. 6 7. Acts 24. 25. of a Belshazzar when he had lost his wits and the trembling of a Foelix when he had lost his design seized upon the inhabitants of London their frights were great but their help was small and they knew better how to weep then to work Magistrates themselves were wrapt up in confusion and their Authority did only accent their misery that they