he will be more peculiarly Worshipped This He did at the very first Creation sanctifie the Seventh Day resting thereon from all His Works which he had made and to the Jews he appointed a Seventh Day to be kept Holy So great a Veneration was 〈◊〉 bâ— the Mâ—saiâ— Law bestowed on that Mystical 〈◊〉 that every Seventh Year was appointed for a Sabbath of rest and every Seventh of these Sababaths of Rest was a Jubilee unto the People o Israel 2. The Reasons for keeping the First Day of the Week Holy instead of the Seventh considered I shall not here run into needless Disputes about the Changing of the Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of the Week Reasons for it in a Christian Nation are superfluous and it is to be observed none cavil so much about it as those that would be glad if there were no time at all allotted for those Sacred Solemnities 'T is true there was some Scuffle in the Primitive Times in the Eastern and Western Churches about this Matter One keeping the Jewish on the Seventh Day of the Week the Others observing the Christian Sabbath on the Lord's Day the first of the Week but the general Assent that was given by all the Church soon after shewed the Celebration of the Lord's Day to be of Apostolical Institution and not ordained by Human Tradition For a scrupulous Conscience if any such there be in this Profane Age it may be sufficient to consider that the very Jews did not observe the precise Numerical Seventh Day from the Creation but a Seventh counting from the Day of their Deliverance from the Land of Aegypt Nor could they be so strict in Sanctifying precisely their own Seventh Day since after the Commandment was written the Sun stood still for the space of a whole Day on Gibeon and went back 10 Degrees in the time of Hezekiah But besides the uncertainty the Jews were in themselves of keeping their Sabbath on a precise Day there is another Consideration which renders it impossible for all Nations to keep the same Sabbath all the World over at one instant of Time and that is the Diversity of Meridians and the inequality of the Rising and Setting of the Sun which causeth the Days in one place to vary from what they are in another in some 6 in others 12 Hours difference The reasonableness of Translating the Sabbath from one Day to another will appear more if we consider the many Memorable Passages of the Old Testament which shadow out this Change unto us as well as those Remarkable Instances of the New which all happened on this first day of the Week On this Day God began the work of Creation to build the curious Fabrick of the World and to Form all Beings out of that Chaos in which they were at first involved and it is very probable he designed as much Honour should be paid to the Memory of this great Day as of That in which he had finished all On this Day as a Hebrew Author Observes the Cloud of God's Glorious Majesty sat first upon his People then did Aaron and his Children first enter upon and Execute their Priesthood and thereon did God first solemnly Bless his People Israel This is the Day as David Prophesying of the Resurrection of Christ testifies which the Lord has made let us rejoyce and be glad therein And how great wondrous and astonishing things were done on this Day under the Gospel dispensation It was on This day that Christ finished the Glorious Work of our Redemption and rose again from the Dead for our Justification On this first Day of the Week did He appear after his Resurrection to his Disciples several times On this Day fell the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles as they were assembled together and at the same time upon St. Peter's Sermon were there added no less than three thousand Souls to the Church On this Day was it that the Disciples afterwards met frequently together to break Bread and to lay up their Charitable Contributions for the use of the Poor 3. The Lord's day How and by whom Profaned These things being premised I proceed to consider how Shamefully and Odiously the Solemnities of this Day are slighted derided and Profaned by this our Corrupt and Dissolute Age. And herein I could wish the Openly Debauched and Licentious person were the only Delinquent But alas if we deal Impartially we shall find many of those who seem to look Wisely and would be angry if you called them by any other Name than that of Christian to be deficient enough in this respect They tell you Judaism only required so strict an Observation of the Sabbath that Christ the Lord of the Sabbath has remitted that rigour with which the Mosaic Law obliged its followers That it is Puritanical Enthusiastick Zeal which spurs on some to be so Religiously given on this Day This is no invented Account grounded upon a mere Hypothesis but what is to be seen by every Days Experience And if none else can bear me Witness of the truth hereof yet I might appeal to some Judicious Mens Opinions who have declared the Suppressing of the Profanation of the Lords-Day to be triffling Nugatory and little less than a Grievance to the Subject So little is the Concern which Men now a-days have for God and Religion and such slighting thoughts do they bear to the Divinity of the Lord's Day I know not what Church allows so much Licentiousness thereon sure I am the Church of England is far from it in her Doctrines and Discipline let her pretended Followers use their Christian Liberty for a Cloak of Wickedness as long as they please 4. Who can forbear lamenting the sad Degeneracy and Apostacy of the Age wherein to reform from Superstition is to run upon the other Extream and be Profane wherein the Cure of Pharisaical Hypocrisie consists in being openly loose and Debauched wherein to plead for the Keeping holy the Lords-Day is Malepertness in the Minister Cant Impertinencie and Presbyterianism in a Private Person But notwithstanding all this I shall pursue my design in tracing the Profane and Irreligious in all His By-Paths and transgressions to lay open the several Ways by which he Violates this Holy Institution and drive him or shame him if possible into the Power as well as the Form of Godliness 5. One would think in Complaisance to the fashion and in Conformity to the Custom of the Country wherein they Live The Lords-Day is profaned First by neglecting to câ—me to the publick Ordinances of the Church there should be none but what went to one Assembly or another but we have too many who neither go to Church nor to any other place of Divine Worship tolerated by Law on that Day Can't God say they be served as well at Home as in the Publick Congregation Will not our Reading a good Book profit as well in our own Houses as the Hearing of a Sermon in the more
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
since his Actions are Diametrically contrary to the Royal Will and Pleasure specified at first by his Majesties Letter to the Bishop of London which was ordered to be Communicated to the rest of the Clergy and afterwards signified to the Civil Magistrate By the Queens most Gracious Message to the Justices of Middlesex and Lastly by a more forcing Proclamation in which they Recommended the suppressing Profane Swearing and Cursing as the first and chiefest of those Offences which were accounted more especially to hasten and bring down God's Judgments upon this Unfortunate Kingdom 21 But Thirdly there are many of those Profligate Wretches who dare own themselves Church-men and if they pretend to any Religion it is the Reformed Orthodox and Protestant Faith they are of The third Motive drawn from the Obedience due to the Church They appear openly in our Congregations and shew a bold Face in the most solemn of our Assemblies and intrude into the most Sacred of our Ordinances the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper But let those Profaners of all that is good and sacred be assured that the Church is not their Mother that within her Bosom there are cherished no such Vipers that her Sanctuary is no Asylum for such Vermine to have recourse to For her Doctrine's drawn out of the Pure fountain of God's Word (a) Article 39. her Articles (b) Homily 7. her Homilies and her whole Constitutions are directly Opposite to the Profane and gives no manner of Encouragement for him to persevere in his Extravagancies However the lewd World may esteem of things now yet when the Last Day comes no Question but the Church will say to those her Hangers on I know you not You would have none of my Counsel but despised all my reproof therefore Eat ye of the Fruit of your own way and be filled with your own devices If therefore any Man has any Zeal to stand up for her and to promote her Cause and to enlarge her Borders He cannot do it better than by a Sober and Conscientious Conversation to let his Communication be Yea Yea and Nay Nay 22. Come we now to consider the last Motive The fourth Motive drawn from the Judgments of God which if all the rest fail may prove strong enough to work upon the most obdurate and hardned Conscience unless it be Judgment Hell and Damnation-proof Men may be so brazen faced as not to blush at their being worse than Heathens they may be so resractory as not to be reduced by the strictest Humane Laws They may be so unchristian and so unnatural as to chuse to be disowned by their Mother the Church rather than part with their customary Vices But I hope they are not so much in the power of Devil as that the terrors of the Lord against such Offenders both in this Life and in another can make no impression upon them 23. Let those Wretches be never so free from the Laws of the Kingdom and the Censures of the Church 1. Judgments upon Swearers in this life yet the Hand of the Lord will find them out and even on this side the Grave pay them home for their rash Oaths and blasphemous Execrations We have some tho' not many fresh Instances of God's signalizing his Vengeance on such horrid Criminals For what was the reason of the small company of the Israelites killing 100000 Aramites in one day 1 Kings 20.20 If you consult Holy Writ you will find it was for Blaspheming God And what was the cause of Sennacherib's meeting with such an Unnatural and barbarous Death Was it not the Blaspheming the Lord Jehovah both by his General Rabshekab and by his own Hand-writing in a Letter he sent to Hezekiah And doth not God in our times take the Sinner at his word and cut him off in an Instant with the damnable Execration in his Mouth True it is such Instances of God's immediate Vengeance in this World are very rare and few examples of this nature are upon Record But let us take a view of the impenitent Blasphemer lying upon his Death-bed in his last Agonies and ready to give up his polluted Breath at his last gasp Let us there examine him what Fruitor Profit he has in those things whereof he is now ashamed Can you think his gentile Oaths and accomplished Execrations will now do him any advantage in that Eternity into which he is just ready to Launch No I am perswaded you will hear him tell you another story and if the Devil has not quite gagged his Conscience you will hear him in the bitterness of his Soul utter out this or some such complaint Damned Caitif that I am In what an unavoidably miserable condition am I involved What a lamentable prospect of endless Wo have I now in my sight What a horrible Scene is just ready to open and deliver me up to the devouring Flames Ob cursed Tongue How hast thou been employed for thine own Ruine Heaven thou canst not appeal to for the power thereof thou hast often defied God thou can'st not call upon whose Name thou hast often and shamefully prophaned by thine unclean Lips Oh Heavens Drop down upon me and crush me into nothing Oh Mountains fall upon me and cover me from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb Oh Earth Let thy Bowels gape and hide me in thy dark Caverns But alas in vain do I vent my wishes to those who cannot will not help me Come then ye Infernal Furies and hurry my accursed Soul to its deserved Mansions Come ye bewitching and infatuating Spirits and take your cheap Bargain home to your fiery Habitations Thus raving and despairing railing and cursing himself he ends his abominable odious and sinful Life 24. But if this is not melancholy enough to strike Horror into the Adamantine Heart 2. Eternal Judgments upon Swearers yet let him his prospect beyond this and the Grave For admit he may escape the thunderbolts of Divine Wrath tho' the Lightning may not devour him nor the Arrows of the Lord take hold of him in this life yet can he expect to escape the Judgment of God for ever Shall not Hell be his Portion and Eternall Misery his stipend for all his Blasphemies Shall he not with Dives lift up his Eyes in Hell being in Torments and roar out in vain for one drop of water to cool his inflamed Tongue That Fire that world of iniquity which delighted in venting out its Curses and Oaths here on Earth Will not the punishment be adaequate and suitable to the Crime And is it not fit that That Member suffer most which was chiefly instrumental in plucking down the misery upon the whole Consider this then ye that forget God that forget your selves and forgoe your own Interest both Temporal and Eternal for what vanishes like Smoke into empty Air consider ye that Glory in your Shame that Triumph in your wickedness that Out-dare Heaven with
of Death that inflames heedless Youth with Wine and then sends him a Temptation to prey upon his Chastity that robs a Man of his Senses and then takes an Advantage either of Exposing or of making gain of his Infirmities that takes the Bridle from his Tongue and the Reins from his Passion and then leaves him to be carried headlong by the Unruliness of the One and torn in pieces through the headstrong Impetuosity of the other That such Profligate Offenders deserve a Curse and a Woe with a Vengeance none will doubt and the Curse the Woe is cut out for them in the next Verse Thou art filled with shame for Glory drink thou also and let thy fore-skin be uncovered the Cup of the Lords Right hand shall be turned unto thee and shamefull Spewing shall be on thy Glory 25. To sum up all Let me advise all who have been guilty of the least Degree of Intemperance to lay these things seriously to heart If you have been hitherto carried away with your Carnal Appetites to obey them in fulfilling the Lust thereof be so no more Consider whether the Sin in its own Nature or in its Effects be so Charming as to deserve your further Pursuit or Love Survey it well and see whether it has any such lovely Features as to Captivate a Generous Mind Think with your selves whether God must be thus affronted for Religion is always forgotten where Reason is lost your Neighbour in all the Relations thus Abus'd and your selves in all Respects thus injur'd and that only for the sake of gratifying one single Sense and indulging one beastly desire Be not so Mad be not so Desperate as to humour the Devil by laying your selves open to all his Snares and Inticements and by exposing your selves to all the Woes Miseries and Calamities incident to Intemperance in this Life and to the Wrath of God in an Eternity of Torments hereafter ' Tho you may not value your Health your Estates and your Worldly Concern yet remember you have Souls which must be either Eternally happy or Eternalâ—y miserable 'T is not a Disease or two that will wreck you nor Want Poverty or Distress that will grind you nor all the Adversity you meet with here can torment you so much as one moments pain in the World to come will afflict you 26. 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober therefore be vigilant for your Adversary the Devil goes about seeking whom he may devour Rom. 13.13 14. Walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof To these of the Apostles take also that advice our Saviour gives Luke 21.24 Take heed to your selves lest aâ— any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and so that day that great and notable day of his appearing come upon you unawares and seize upon you in that unprovided beastly condition A condition which few would care to appear in before an earthly Magistrate how much less before the Tribunal of that just Judge whose Eyes cannot behold any thing impure or unclean Let me prevail upon you especially you who bear any Authority in your Persons as you are either Magistrates or Ministers as you are either Fathers or Masters to abstain altogether from this Swinish Immorality For you are answerable not only for the excess you fall into your selves but are sharers in the offence which others by your example more prevalent than your Perswasions and Advice to the contrary do commit and are encouraged to be guilty of 27. If you would know when you should set aboâ— this regular course of Life Enter upon it this very mâ—ment Better and easier 't is to do it to day than to morrow Defer it not off till this Club or that Societâ— shall be laid down perhaps you must be summoneâ— hence long before that your very next meeting may be your last I know when you think but of a change the Devil has more than one thing to suggest The difficulty of becoming sober and the safety of returning betimes considered He has sollicitations from your old companions to inveigle you He has their Reproaches and Revilings ready if you deny the former to force you He has the remembrance of the former pleasures you took in those Debauches whereby to allure you and a long Custom and contracted evil Habit to inchant you He has the variety and deliciousness of Liquors to charm you to return to your old beloved Vice But if you shake off all these Fetters and bind your selves with Resolutions of Temperance and Sobriety If you can by the assistance of God's Grace to which in all your Trials you must have recourse but hold out against the first shock of your Temptations and resist the Onset with Courage and a resolved Denial at the beginning of the Siege you will find all the Assailants desert their Batteries quit their Intrenchments and despairing of success retreat with a Curse or two at your obstinate Refusal The Devil perhaps may now and then send out his Scouts to allarm you but finding all the Passes safe and a careful Watch kept at every Sense and vigorous Sallies made against his Incursions He himself will fly from you and leave you to the Tutelage of Sobriety and Temperance Innocency and Peace Sedateness of Mind and Health of Body and to reap all the satisfactions of an unclouded Reason an unmasked Understanding an unerring Will and uncorrupted Affections an as the Result of all to enjoy the unspeakable Pleasures of an uncondemning Conscience here and to drink of those inexhaustible Rivers of Pleasure prepared for the Sober Temperate and Faithful Soul in the Paradise of the Blessed hereafter CHAP. III. Of Uncleanness The Vniversality of this Sin considered and lamented The Danger of Treating upon it The particular kinds thereof The miserable Effects of Fornication Adultery Incest and Rape separately considered A Caution to the Chast with an Advice to the Vnchaste Nine Rules whereby to attain to and preserve that admirable Virtue of Chastity 1. AND now let us survey that vast Ocean of Impiety which with no small success has spread it self for some years over the face of this Island The Vniversality of this Sin considered and lamented and see if we can ken one point or corner of the Land which is not overwhelmed with this dreadful Inundation Let us try if we can find one spot of ground which we cannot call Sodom or one single City which is not worse by far than Gomorrab Should the destroying Angel come among us which no Man knows how soon he may he would have a large Field of Tares to cut down and a plentiful crop of Uncleanness to employ his Sickle We can cry out against the tolerated Stews of Italy and the Tributary Whores of Venice We can rail against the Lasciviousness
even to abstain from what is Physically as well as Morally Evil but Even our allowed and warrantable Enjoyments must like Physick be taken moderately and with caution lest our Remedy prove our Poyson He that thinks because he is in lawful Circumstances he may give his Lusts their full Swing deceives himself for that in Marriage a Man may be guilty of Sensuality is past dispute 'T is unquestionably true that whoever transgresseth the Principal end of Marriage viz. of Glorifying God and subservient thereto those of Propagating our kind of maintaining Mutual Society and avoiding of Unlawful Lusts has passed the boundaries of Nature Reason and Religion all at once In the entring upon such a Sacred Rite there are many things to be observed and seriously considered both by the betrothed Parties and their Friends in order to have the Marriage successfull and made in Heaven first before the striking of Hands and the Plighting of Troths here on Earth and for want of the due Consideration whereof arises so many Unhappy Matches Family Disturbances and Civil Broils so frequent Separations from and Pollutions of the Conjugal Bed which every day happen afresh in the World I shall but just touch upon these Necessary Precautions and so conclude this particular of Uncleanness As for you who have Adult Children of your own or else are Guardians to such Beware of debarring them from entring into the state of Matrimony when either their Years their Inclinations their Affections and their other Circumstances require the same Consult your Pupils in all respects and be not more than prudently urgent in disswading them from their own or in perswading them into an Approbation of your Choice In disposing of them have an Eye more upon their Temporal Happiness and their Eternal Good than upon the Flattering Prospect of their being Noble Rich or Great Covet not to Marry your Sons or Daughters or any other Relations committed to your Trust into Families of a Higher Rank than your selves and despise not to Match them with those of a Degree lower than you especially where the Virtue and Generosity of the person can toss your lighter Scale of Birth and Fortune up to the Beam As for the Young parties I desire they would not take ill the following Advice before they put on the Wedding Suit which will not cost them so much and perhaps do them more Service Be sure then to avoid all Hasty sudden and Unpremeditated fits of Passion Love not for Lusts sake and Idolize none for their Beauty Wit Strength and Fortune lest your Affection be no more than Skin-deep call in Wiser Heads to advise in so Weighty a Cause and if your Modesty or any other reason will not admit you to ask your Friends advice therein yet be pleased to think God worthy to be of your Council In a word let no Object Charm you but what has the Lineaments of Virtue and the Endowments of a Noble Mind which with or without the outward Qualifications are of force only to Captivate our Souls Hence it is that we perceive the Love grounded upon these External Objects only to be short-liv'd and Transient soon Hot and soon Cold lasting no longer than the Object appears to be Beautiful Strong Witty and Wealthy and growing Nauseous when Impotency Wither'd Age or Poverty over-takes them and often before whilst the more substantial Love founded upon and raised by the inward Ornament of the Mind gives Life to the Love of outward and maintains its own Flame within when all the Fuel administred from without is taken away This Noble Intellectual Love Unites and Consolidates the Parties tho' in Rags and Poverty tho' in Gray-Hairs and Wrinkles and breaths after a Union beyond this and the Grave This is that Love we should be all inflamed with and desire to Contract with each other not because we have Painted Faces and a handsomer piece of Clay for our Share than others are Moulded into or because we have more of Giddy Fortunes Favours but because of those inward Ornaments of Piety and Devotion of Sobriety and Temperance of Modesty and Humility of Chastity and Charity of Meekness and Affability which set off the subject in which they are inherent with such invincible and irresistible Charms as no being above a Brute can forbear to be inamoured with Of the Profanation of the Lord's Day CHAP. IV. The Reasons of keeping Holy the first Day of the Week instead of the Seventh The Lord's Day How and by whom profaned viz. I. By neglecting the Publick Ordinances of the Church II. The Private Duties of the Family III. By Exercising our ordinary Callings thereon whether by our selves our Servants or our Beasts IV. By publickly Exposing to Sale An Objection answered and what Works are Lawful to be done V. By works of the Flesh such as 1. Tipling 2. Feasting 3. Gaming 4. Dancing and Singing 5. Country Revellings and Riots And earnest Expostulation and Exhortation for Celebrating the Lord's Day Rules for it viz. 1. Preparation on the Eve 2. Frequenting the Publick Ordinances of the Church 3. Family Duties Motives thereto drawn from the benefits of observing it and the Mischiefs of Profaning it both to Private Persons and to the Publick THat to serve the Invisible God by whom we Live Move and have our Being in the whole course of our Lives is a main End for which we were Created That every Day and Hour should be Holy unto the Lord that we should have the Fear of Him always before our Eyes That every Moment of our time is truely His is indisputable But forasmuch as we are but Men in a little lower degree then those Blessed Spirits whose task and Happiness it is to be employed continually in Contemplating Adoring and Praising their great Creator and whereas since the Fall we are placed in such circumstances as require the sweat of our Brows and the Expence of a great part of our time in the procuring the Necessaries of this Life we cannot so readily bestow all our hours on Religious Exercises Nor doth God require we should but dispenses with the greatest part of our Lives and only appoints a seventh part of the whole for the more Solemn and Immediate Acts of Divine Worship and is pleased so to Order it that every Action in our Ordinary Callings may be such as may Glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Our Fields and Gardens Our Shops and Studies Our Dining-Rooms and Closets may be all Sanctified by a Religious and Holy Life Sobriety and Modesty Temperance and Moderation may make our very Diversions and Recreations Holy But then we are not to stick here our walking with God in the Private Duties of our several stations Exempts us not from the Publick Adoration of Him in the Congregation of the Faithful For as the Lord of Hosts has been nearly conceâ—ned in appointing the Persons by Whom the Manner How and the Place Where so has he shewed no less Regard in assigning the Time When
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
Hour No certainly we find the Unhappy Creature tho' he has so much grace left to come to Church after his Epicurean Dinner yet overtaken with sleep before Prayers be half said and in his Slumbers before the Minister has named his Text twice over And can we think God is well pleased with such a Man's Sacrifice Can the most Charitable Christian now living allow such a stupid Soul to have Sanctified the Lords-Day aright 14. But to prevent this Others are so cautious as not to go to Church at all A Third work of the flesh is Gaming on this Day and the Cloth removed they betake themselves to what they then are most fit for to Softness and Effeminacy to Gaming and Dancing to Singing and telling of Idle Stories 'T is very well known how many I wish I could not say of the Higher Rank of Men spend the Close if not the greatest part of the Lords-Day Not in Reading and Meditating not in Instructing and Praying with their Families but at Chess or Tables at Cards or Dice I would very willingly know whether their Time is so much Employed on other Days that they are so forward to set this Day apart too for their Sports and Pastimes Shall the Devil not only Engross the Week-Days but have the Sunday spent in his Service too Strange and Horrible this That Men should be so Insatuated and Enslaved so Bewitched and Inveigled to their Idle Pleasures as to bestow all their time both secular and sacred upon them 15. But this is not all to fill up the measure of Iniquity they must have their Anticks and their Merry strains on this Holy Day A fourth Work of the Flesh is Dancing and Profane Singing on this Day They cannot go to Bed without a Song or a Dance to refresh their drooping Spirits Poor Hearts They have been fatigued with the long and tedious Duties of the Day have with patience undergone the Burthen thereof and attended till they were weary to Mr. Parsons Discourse of an Hour long And must they be debarred from a harmless Diversion which hurts no body and is an Offence to none but meddling Fools and unaccountably-scrupulous Puritans Perhaps this might be tolerable were it not attended as is most commonly with Masqueradings and Balls of half a Nights Continuance But shall such Farce and Sonnetting go down Shall such Fooleries and Apishness make up the Conclusion of the Sunday Shall Singing of Divine Anthems Hymns and Spiritual Songs so much recommended by St. James and so much in use among the truly merry-hearted Primitive Christians be abus'd ridicul'd and laid aside by most And shall the Melodious Harmony of the Saints and the Consort we may hold with the Heavenly Host be Converted into Obscene Modern Songs which would not take at any other time were it not for the Pandarism of a Musical Composure 16. But as yet we have seen but the best part the foulest is still behind what I have said of the two last ways by which the Lords-Day is profaned to wit The last way wâ—ereby the Lords-day is profaned viz. By Country Revellings and Riots by Singing and Dancing is what the Civilized Citizens and more Gentile Courtiers are guilty of But if you step into the Country you will see Franticks as well as Anticks on this Sacred Day No sooner is the Evening-service over but you would think Hell it self were broke loose and that every Parish and Village were a Universal Bedlam They are Sober indeed who keep House and pass away the time in some idle Romantick Discourse and are not seen with the more Licentious Multitude But good God! What Routs and Disorders what Cudgel-playing and Wrest-ling what Races and Foot-Ball Matches are set on foot in their open Fields on this Great Solemnity Dancings and Râ—vellings May-games and Wakes are so Customary that if you offer to suppress them you incroach upon the Priviledge to the Subject Nor is this their Practise only on a Licentious Carnival or a Jovial Whitsuntide but on every Sunday in the Year Not is it the Custom of any peculiar Place but almost of every Village Division Hundred and County in the whole Kingdom This Pest reigns in every Air this Plague is Predominant in every Clyme and this Profane Infection has taken hold of every Quarter and Corner of the Nation 17. But Brutes that you are How unreasonably do you style your selves Christians An earnest Expostulation and Exhortation for the duly Celebrating the Lords Day when as you do that on the Lords-Day which a Modest Heathen would blush to do at any time Are there any Pagans in Nature worse than your selves in Practise What is it you think of Are your Sports and Pastimes your Routs and Revellings all the Evening Sacrifice God is like to have at your Hands Will those be an Incense of a sweet savour unto his Nostrils Is God the Master of your time and are you accountable to him for All and must the more precious Minutes thereof be Squandered away at this Rate Can you find no leisure Hours from your Business to recreate your Bodies but the day which the Lord has set apart for himself Must that be your Vacation your Play-day Vngrateful Wretches that you are Had God desired some Great thing at your Hands could you have denied him since your Breath your Lives your All are of and from him And can you when he only bids you remember the Seventh Day to keep it Holy find tricks and ways how to rob him of his right in that too Monsters of Ingratitude Where is your Love where is your Duâ—y where is your Thankfulness and where is your Obedience to that Being by whose Permission alone it is that you breath out of Hell one Moment What hinders but you may be Zealous in Observing this Sacred Day Are you afraid the Church will disown you for being righteous overmuch Are there any stronger Encouragements to be Zealous unto good Works than what are to be found within her Bosom Is it a disgrace for a Church of England-Man to be strict in obeying God's Commands Is the Name of Precisian Singular or Puritan so powerful to frighten you from walking according to the Precepts of our Blessed Saviour Are you afraid or ashamed to be His followers Why than do you affix His Name before yours And take it as an affront if you are called by any other Name than that of Christian Be persuaded than to be Christians indeed to bear a Reverential Zeal and Fear to all that belongs to God to his Attributes to his Name to his Word to his Works and to his Day For the Celebration of the Last of which take these following Rules 18. Some Rules laid down for the right Observation of the Sabbath First Preparation on the Eve Prepare thy Heart for this Great Solemnity If there was so much Devotion and Decorum so much Preparation and Cleansing requisite for the Receiving the Law the Approaching the Ark
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
that none be punished but what are convicted within the space of six months after the Offence is committed This Statute made perpetual 21 Jac. 1. Cap. 7. Against the Prophanation of the Lords-Day commonly called Sunday 29 Car. 2. ALL Laws in force concerning the Observation of the Lord's Day are to be put in execution This day is by every one 1 Will. and Mary to be sanctified and kept holy and all Persons must be careful herein to exercise themselves in the Duties of Piety and true Religion publickly and every one on this day not having a reasonable Excuse must diligently resort to some publick place where the service of God is exercised or must be present at some other place allowed of by Law in the Practice of some Religious Duty either of Prayer Preaching Reading or Expounding of the Scriptures or Conference upon the same as also privately Such as repair not to Church c. on Sundays and Holy-days one Witness Twelve Pence for every default to be levied by destress or to be committed to some Prison until the same be paid 1 Eliz. 23 Eliz. 3 Jac. Cap. 1. 19 Eliz. Cap. 1. Absenting for a Month If a twelve month or more twenty pounds per month and forfeiture of two parts in three of their Estates If any come not to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper once a year Their Names and Surnames to be presented Forty Shillings reward to such as present them 3 Jac. Cap. 4. None shall speak or do any thing in Contempt of the most Holy Sacrament By Oath of two lawful Witnesses by three Iustices Quorum un to be bound over and prosecuted in Sessions 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 1. Whosoever shall disturb any Preacher allowed in his open Sermon or Collation or be procuring or abetting thereunto or shall rescue c. any Offender c. Accusation must by two Witnesses or Confession To be committed by any Iustice of the County to safe Custody and within six days the said committing Iustice with one other Iustice if the Offender upon examination shall be found Guilty shall commit him to Goal without Bail c. for three Months and farther to the next Quarter Sessions 1 M. Cap. 3. Such as meet or assemble out of their own Parish upon the Lord's Day for any Sports or Pastimes whatsoever or such as shal use any unlawful Exercise or Pastime in their own Parish upon the Lord's day three shillings and four pence to the Poor where c. to be levied by distress and sale restoring the Overplus c. and for want of distress to be sent to the Stocks for three hours but they must be questioned within a month 1 Car. Cap. 1. 3 Car. Cap. 4. If any Carrier Waggoner c. with Horse Wain or Cart or Drover with Cattle shall travel upon the Lord's Day by themselves or any other for them twenty shillings for every offence to be levied by distress and sale to the use of the poor 3 Car. Cap. 1. If any Butcher or any other for him shall kill or sell any Victuals upon the Sunday one Witness view or Confession He shall forfeit six shillings and eight pence if questioned within six months to be levied c. or may be sued for in Sessions c. 3 Car. Cap. 1. If any Shoe-maker shall go with intent to sell any Boots Shoes c. on the Sunday He shall forfeit such Goods and three shillings and four pence for every pair 1 Jac. Cap. 22. If any person of the age of fourteen shall on the Lord's Day or any part thereof do any worldly labour c. except works of Nececessity and Charity shall forfeit five shillings for every offence 29 Car 2. Cap. 7. If any person shall cry shew forth or put to sale any Wares Fruit Goods c. except Milk only before the hours of nine in the morning and after four in the afternoon He shall forfeit the said Wares Fruite Goods c. to the use of the poor 29 Car. 2. Cap. 7. No Drover Horse-courser Waggoner Butcher Higler or any of their servants shall travel or come to their Inns on the Lord's Day shall forfeit twenty shillings for every offence 29 Car. 2. Cap. 6. No person shall use to travel upon the Lord's Day with any Horse Boat Wherry c. except allowed by one Iustice of Peace so to do by View Confession or one witness the fofeitvre is five shillings for every offence The Conviction upon this Statute must be before any Iustice of the County c. who shall give warrant to the Constables c. to seize the Goods shewed c. and to levy the Forfeitures by distress and for want of distress to put the Offender in the Stocks for two hours the Iustices c. may reward the Informer out of the Forfeitures not exceeding the third part 29 Car. 2. Cap. 7. This Act extends not to dressing of Meat inn Cooks Shops Inns or Victualing-Houses The Queens Letter TRusty and Well-beloved We Greet you well Considering the great and indispensible Duty incumbent upon us and to promote and encourage a Reformation of the Manners of all our Subjects that so the Service of God may be advanced and those Blessings be procured to these Nations which always attend a Conscientious Discharge of our respective Duties according to our several Relations We think it necessary in order to the obtaining of this Publick Good to recommend unto you the putting in Execution with all Fidelity and Impartiality those Laws which have been made and are still in force against the Prophanation of the Lords-Day Prophane Swearing and Cursing Drunkenness and all other lewd enormous and disorderly Practices which by a long conntinued Neglect and Connivance of the Magistrates and Officers concerned have universally spread themselves to the Dishonour of God and the Scandal of our Holy Religion wherby it is now become the more necessary for all Persons in Authority to apply themselves with all possible Care and Diligence to the suppressing of the same We do therefore hereby charge and require you to take the most effectual Methods for putting the Laws in Execution against the Crimes above-menioned and all other Sins and Vices particularly those which are most prevailing in this Realm and that especially in such cases where any Officers of Justice shall be guilty of any of those Offences or refuse or neglect to discharge the Duty of his place for the suppressing them that so such Officer by his Punishment may serve for an Example to others And to this end we would have you be careful and diligent in encouraging all Constables Church-wardens Headborroughs and all other Officers and Persons whatsoever to do their part in their several Stations by timely and impartial Informations and Prosecutions against all such Offenders for preventing those Judgments which are solemnly denounced against the Sins above-mentioned We cannot doubt of your performance hereof since it is a Duty to which you are obliged by Oath
and are likewise engaged to the discharge of it as you tender the Honour of Almighty God the flourishing condition of his Church in this Kingdom the continuance of his Holy Religion among us and the Prosperity of the Country And so we bid you farewell Given at our Court at Whitehall the 9th day of July in the Third Year of our Reign By Her Majesties Command Nottingham To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Justices of the Peace for our County of Middlesex at Hick's Hall The Late Order of the Justices of Middlesex for suppressing Prophaness and Debauchery WHereas their Majesties both by their several Letters and Proclamations have from time to time been graciously pleased to declare their earnest desire That all the Laws against Vice and Prophaness be duly Executed and have expresly Commanded us Tneir Majesties Justices of the Peace of this County to take the most effectual Care for the due Execution thereof And whereas this Court in persuance of Their Majesties Commands have by their Order bearing date the Tenth Day of July last Commanded all High Constables Petty Constables Headburroughs Church-Wardens and other Officers within this County to Use their utmost Diligence for bringing to condign Punishment all the Offenders against the said Laws which upon the Oaths of divers credible Winesses as we are informed hath through the diligence of the Offcers in divers parts of this County had this good effect that many Houses of disorderly Tipling Debauchery and Gaming have been suppressed and very great Numbers of Bawds Whores and other Lewd Persons prophane Swearers Cursers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lords day have been Convicted and Punished according to Law Yet notwithstanding in some other parts of this County through the Negligence Connivance and Evil Practices of the Constables Headburroughs Church Wardens and other inferior Officers of such Places the Offences aforesaid have received great incouragement and such Lewd Offenders as had been so suppressed have been yet received and permitted there to continue such their Lewd Practices This COURT therefore taking the same into their serious consideration and being stedfast in their Resolutions effectually to carry on a Reformation of manners by the due punishment of the several Offences aforesaid in all parts of this County the same being a Work acceptable to Almighty God and so earnestly and piously recommended by Their Majesties Doth Order and strictly Require all High Constables Petty Constables Headburoughs Church-Wardens and all other Officers to be diligent in making more frequent searches after such as keep Houses of disorderly Tipling Debauchery and Gaming and such as haunt the same and of the said Offenders and of all prophane Swearers Cursers Drunkards and Prophaners of the Lords Day and to give due information thereof from time to time to some One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace of this County That no Partiality Connivance or underhand Practices by Private Notice to Offenders of any other ways by such Officers may prevent the conviction or Detection of them but that the several Offenders may be punished according to Law And whereas the publick Sports and playing of Boys and others on the Lords Day in Church-yards and else where is a great Contempt to the Worship of God and tends to the Corruption of Youth The said Officers are therefore hereby Ordered and Required to take notice on the said days of such disorders and to disperse such Prophaners of the Lords day or to apprehend them and to bring them before One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace for â—his County that they may be proceeded against according to Law And we being resolved to proceed with all due strictnesâ— against all such Officers as shall be found faulty in the due observance of this our Order do recommend it to all persons who shall at any time hereafter have Knowledge of any of the Offences aforesaid or of any neglect or undue Practice of any Officers aforesaid whereby the Conviction or Punishment of any of the said Offences shall be hindred or avoided that they will give timely Information thereof to some One of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace of the said County from whom they shalâ— reâ—eive all due Incouragement And whereas the keeping of Musick Houses of late practised in several publick Taverns and Ale-Houses within this County to which there is a great Resort of Idle and Dissolute Persons is of verâ— ill Consequence and tendâ— to the Debauching and Ruin especially of the younger sort of people of both Sexes and doth also occasion many Quarrels and Riots to the great distâ—rbance of the publick Peace It is hereby further Ordered that the several Officers aforesaid do make a due Return to some Justice of the Pâ—ace in their respective Division of the Christian Name Sir-name and Place of abode of all Persons keeping the said Musick Houses and of such as frequent the same to the end they may be prosecuted according to Law And it is further Ordered by this Court that the Clerk of the Peace for this County do forthwith cause this Order to be Printed and Affixed upon the great Gates of Hick's-Hall the Church Doors and all other publick Places of each Pâ—rish within this County and distributed to the several High-Constables within this County who are Ordered by this Court forthwith to send the same to the several Petty Constables Church-wardens and Head-buroughs within their several Divisions to the end Publick Notice may be taken thereof By the King and Queen a Proclamation against Vitious Debauched and Prophane Persons AS we cannot but be deeply sensible of the great goodness and mercy of Almighty God by whom Kings Reign in giving so happy sâ—ccess to our endeavours for the rescuing these Kingdoms from Popish Tyranny and Superstition and in preserving our Royal Persons supporting our Government and uniting the Arms of most of the â—rinces and States in Christendom against our Common Enemy so we are not less touched with a Resentment that notwithstanding the these great Deliverances Impiety and Vice do still abound in this our Kingdom And that the Execution of many good Laws which have been made for suppressing and punishing thereof have been grosly neglected to the great dishonour of God and our Holy Religion Wherefore and for that we cannot expect increase or continuance of the Blessings we and our subjects enjoy without providing Remedies to prevent the like Evils for the future we judge our selves bound by the duty we owe to God and the care we have of the people committed to our Charge to proceed in taking some effectual Course therein And being thereunto moved by the pious Address of our Arch Bishops we have thought fit by the advice of our Privy Council to issue this our our Royal Proclamation and to declare our princely intention and resolution to discountenance all manner of Vice and Immorality in all persons from the highest to the lowest degree in this our Realm And we do hereby for that purpose