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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45334	Funebria floræ the downfall of May-games: wherein is set forth the rudeness, prophaneness, stealing, drinking, fighting, dancing, whoring, mis-rule, mis-spence of precious time, contempt of God, and godly magistrates, ministers and people, which oppose the rascality and rout, in this their open prophanenesse, and heathenish customs. Occasioned by the generall complaint of the rudenesse of people in this kind, in this interval of settlement. Here you have twenty arguments against these prophane sports, and all the cavills made by the belialists for the time refelled and answered. Together with an addition of some verses in the cloze, for the delight of the ingenious reader. By Tho. Hall, B.D. and pastor of Kings-norton.	Hall, Thomas, 1610-1665.	1661 (1661)	Wing H434A; ESTC R177805	36,599	55

goes bare-faced it usually like Harlots paints or puts on the vizzard of profit pleasure frugality good neighbour-hood c. the better to deceive such careless sinners as devour the bait but forget the hook The naked discovery of the danger which attends such licentious practices is half the cure for no man that is well in his wits will run on in such paths when hee plainly sees the mischief and misery that attends them Object 1. Young people must have some Recreations Answ 'T is true modest moderate manly Recreations are fit for them but sinful sensual sordid Recreations such as drinking fighting dancing whoring gaming and debauchery these emasculate mens spirits and make men deboist and unfit for the service of God or man these must bee abolished and abandoned in a Christian Common-wealth such Recreations are meer destructions and such mirth is madness Eccles 2. 2. 'T was a good resolution of a good man I will chuse such Recreations as are of best example and best use seeking those by which I may not onely be merrier but better What Recreations bee unlawful you may see at large in others Object 2. These are Customes of great Antiquity of above eighteen hundred years standing Answ Antiquity without verity is of no validity Christ is Truth not Custome Old Customes if they be evil Customes are better broken than kept and the older they be the worse the more Editions the more Additions The customes of the people are vain and to be abhorred not to be followed by us Levit. 18. 30. Jer. 10. 3. The Heathenish Olympick-Games and the Pagans Saturnalia where they invented sports for the honour of their gods and gave licence to all to be as lewd as they pleased at those seasons these were antient it doth not therefore follow that they were good So Episcopacy is antient but Apostolical simplicity is more antient and the Church flourished most without it Object 3. These May-poles are set up to shew the season of the year this was the plea lately of a fantastick and real fanatick Answ I should think that a green and living tree should minde us of the season of the year better than a dead bush and a living man better set forth the excellency of a man than a dead man 'T is not without cause that the Apostle calls wicked men absurd and unreasonable men 2 Thes 3. 2. Object 4. Our Fore-fathers practised such things Answ Our Fore-fathers were Idolaters it doth not follow that therefore wee must be so too They lived in times of ignorance but wee live in daies of light and therefore must walk like children of the light renouncing the works of darkness Wee must live by Rule not by Example and follow our Fore-fathers no further than they followed Christ hence the Lord so oft forbids us to follow our Forefathers Psal 78. 8. Ezek. 20. 18 19 20. Zach. 7. 4. Object 5. If men bee not thus imployed on Festivals they will bee idle and bee worse imployed and wee have no ill intentions in what wee do Answ There is no necessity that people should bee idle on holy-daies for by the Law of our Land if men will keep holy-daies they must keep them holily spending them only and wholly saith the Statute of 5 and 6. of Edw. 6. chap. 4. in praising God and praying to him hearing his word and meditating on his works c. So that the Statute by those two words Only and Wholly excludes all May-Games revels dancing drinking rioting and misrule 2. They cannot likely bee worse imployed than in such loose lascivious licentious practices amongst rude and deboist company where they shall hear see and learn all manner of vice and villany to the corrupting both of their minds and manners and the undoing of themselves both here and hereafter 3. Whereas you say you have no ill intentions in so doing who can beleeve that you will joyn your self with such prophane company out of a good intention can a man touch pitch and not be defiled with it 2. Admit your Intentions were good yet that will not warrant you to do evil That which is evil per se can never bee made good by any good intentions as I have proved at large else-where Object 6. I can see no hurt in May-Games they are none but a pack of precise fools who are enemies to the King that cry them down Answ Who so blinde as those that will not see Canst thou see no hurt in drunkenness fighting whoring stealing prophanation of the Sabbaths contempt of Religion c. The Devil who is the god of this world hath blinded thine eyes and as blinde men are not fit to judge of colours so thou art unfit to judge in such cases The Devil deals with thee as Elisha did with his enemies hee first smit them with blindness and then brings them into Samaria into the midst of their enemies but as hee prayed for them so shall I for thee Lord open their eyes that they may see and the Lord opened their eyes and behold they were in the midst of Samaria 2 King 6. 18 19 20. So say I Lord open the eyes and awaken the consciences of these blinde secure sinners that they may see and if the Lord shall vouchsafe you this mercy then will you see your selves in the Devils camp on the brink of destruction and thou wilt abhor thy self for thy vile presumption in this kinde if thou doubt of the truth of this ask any gracious awakened inlightened soul that knows the terrours of the Lord and the bitterness of sin and hee will tell you that hee durst not practise such prophaneness to win a world 2. There may be great sin in that which the blinde world counts a small matter To eat an Apple to bow to an Image to pick a few sticks on the Sabbath c. These and many such to a carnal eye seem small things and yet wee know God hath sadly punished such as acted them I have before proved that these practices are sinful now there is no sin simply considered in it self that is small as appears 1. In that there is no small God that wee offend by it 2. No small price was paid for it 3. No small punishment is prepared for it This is a complicated sin as I have proved before and therefore is not to bee so lightly esteemed of 3. Whereas thou sayest that none but a few precise fools oppose this prophaneness thou art much deceived Was David a foolish precisian who would have no familiarity with the wicked but bids them depart from him and prayed the Lord to turn away his eyes from beholding vanity and poured out rivers of tears because men transgressed Gods Laws Was Paul a foolish precisian who commands us to walk precisely and circumspectly to shun the appearance of evil to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them rather and to live

left wee might yet bee an happy people Josh 1. 8. The way to Heaven is like the way over a narrow bridge under which is a great gulf into which a man may fall by going too much on the right hand or too much on the left hand and to say truth the Devil cares not much on which hand men fall into Hell so hee can but get them thither Wee all condemn prophane principles but a man may go to Hell sooner for prophane practices for these generate prophane principles when men lead lewd lives then they invent lewd and licentious Tenents to defend their lewd and loose practices as wee see in Popery and Quakerism and this brings men at last to love and desire prophane Preachers and such as will sing placentia and claw their sensual itch and then they perish without remedy Prov. 29. 18. Isa 30. 9 10. The Prophet Jeremy complains of some in his time that were mad on Idols Jer. 50. 38. and wee have those in our times that are mad on May-poles Morrice-dancing Drinking Healths on their knees yea in their Hats as in the University by Scholars c. doating on old superstitious prophane customes returning with the dogs of the world to lick up that filth which seemingly they had long since vomited up And all this acted presumptuously with an high hand against much light and love against many wooings and warnings against many prayers and vows to the contrary what could the Lord do more for England than hee hath done and what could wee do more against him than wee have done had hee been our deadly enemy wee could not have acted more vilely villanously against him both in our principles and in our practices than many of us have done and if after all Gods cost and care instead of the grapes of obedience we bring forth the wilde grapes of disobedience and rebellion we shall provoke the Lord to pull up the hedge to let in the wilde beasts and to consume us after hee hath done us good and to repent of all the mercies which hee hath bestowed upon us Hee will take away his Gospel with all those blessings which accompany it and then woe unto us when the Lord departs from us Hos 9. 12. When God goes from a people peace goes protection goes comfort goes health wealth and glory goes I do verily beleeve there hath been a greater flood of open prophaneness in ten weeks past than in ten years before Do wee thus requite the Lord O foolish and unwise Is this the thanks wee give him for an hundred years preaching of the Gospel and for those signal mercies in bringing down blasphemers and Anarchical ones without blood shed or almost a blow struck As King Achish said sometimes Have I need of Mad-men So may I say Shall we have Mad-men still shall we never come to our wits again living soberly righteously and religiously When shall wee once be sound in judgement sincere in affection and unspotted in our conversations answering our Gospel light with Gospel lives and our Gospel-principles with Gospel-practices that all our teaching may rise at the last day for our justification not for our confusion This open prophaneness is a great heart-breaking to the faithful Ministers of Christ and makes them cry in the bitterness of their spirits Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed We have laboured in vain and spent our strength in vain If Moses were angry when he saw the people dance about a Golden-calf well may we be angry to see people dancing the Morrice about a post in honor of a whore as you shall see anon The world begins to loathe Gods Mannah they are weary of preaching and sick of Sermons and therefore 't is just with God to ease them of such burdens and to lay upon them the heavy yoak of cruel and tyrannical men that they may know the difference between Gods service and the service of the Nations Men begin to cry out Isaiah is too bold Jeremy too harsh Amos is too plain hee must go further off 'T is these precise Lots that will not let the people go quietly to Hell that are the troublers of Israel if once they could but bee shut of them then they might sing and swear and rant and roar and be as safe as Sodom was when Lot was gone out of it Let such prophane ones know that if the Lord should in judgement once remove his faithful Ministers from an ungrateful world woes and sorrows would soon surprize them The glory would soon depart from England if once the Ark of God were taken 'T is Liberty Liberty Liberty that wicked men long for As many men were lately for Liberty and tolleration of all opinions so many are now for liberty for all licentious practices and if these be not restrained by the Magistrate who must not bear the sword in vain especially towards such sons of Belial God will take the sword into his own hand and will proclaim a Liberty for such Libertines to the sword to the pestilence and to the famine and as hee hath wonderfully brought down those that were for all evil opinions so hee will in his due time bring down those that are for all evil practices Deus dabit his quoque finem funem It hath cost mee some pains to finde out the Original of these prophane revels when people shall understand the sinful rise and tendency of them I beleeve there is no sober man but will abhor them The Lacedaemonians the better to deter their children from drunkenness would bring forth a Drunkard and lay him before them that so they seeing his beastly condition might learn to loathe that sinning sin of Drunkenness I have presented these ●e●e●●icious practices naked to thy view that thou mayest be brought to an utter detestation of them for the very rehearsal of them is a good part of their confutation Haec recitasse est re●●tasse It would be a work well beseeming the Parliament to improve the power which providence hath put into their hands for the stopping of that general prophaneness which hath over-spread the Land and to encourage Religion in the power of it especially considering that noble and princely expression of the King in his Letter to the House of Commons That nothing shall bee proposed by them to manifest his zeal and affection for the advancement of the Protestant Religion to which hee will not readily consent The good Lord at last unite the hearts of King Lords and Commons for the promoting of this work of works without which wee can never expect to prosper Had this rudeness been acted only in some ignorant and obscure parts of the Land I had been silent but when I perceived that the complaints were general from all parts of the Land and that even in Cheap side it self the rude rabble had set up this ensign of prophaneness and had put the

know that the Popish and prophane sort are the Parents and Patrons of these abominations by their pleading for them and promoting of them And as it was some signal good thing which Nero that monster of men hated so it must needs bee some notorious vile thing which such vile men love and plead for Arg. 16. All mis-spence of precious time must bee avoided But in these licentious pastimes there is much mis-spence of precious time What a sad account will these Libertines have to make when the Lord shall demand of them where wast thou such a night why my Lord I was with the prophane rabble stealing May-poles and where wast thou such a day why my Lord I was drinking dancing dallying ranting whoring carousing c. If for every idle hour men must give an account what account will men bee able to give for all those sinful dayes nights Sabbaths c. which they have mis-spent in sensuality and luxury Arg. 17. That which deprives us of Gods Fatherly care and protection must bee avoyded But this frequenting of such prophane meetings deprives us of Gods Fatherly care and protection Hee hath promised to keep us no longer than wee keep his wayes Psal 91. 11. which are the wayes either of our general calling as wee are Christians viz. praying reading meditation good conference c. or else the wayes of our particular calling as wee are superiors or inferiors wee must walk with God in those stations in which hee hath set us If wee go beyond Gods bounds wee cannot expect either his immediate protection or the protection of his Angels Arg. 18. That which breeds in mens hearts an hatred of the power of godliness must bee abandoned But such prophane meetings breed in mens hearts an hatred of the power of godliness When men do evil they hate the light of Piety in others as the Theef hates the light that discovers him and the Judge that condemns him so do these hate the godly because their light condemns their darkness their piety the wicked mans impiety their strictness condemns the worlds dissoluteness and their self denying the worlds self pleasing Wicked men love their lusts as their lives and cannot indure such as hinder them in the pursute of them hence 't is that the prophane rout raise so many lyes slanders and reproachful nick-names against the godly and all because they run not with them into the same excess of riot Arg. 19. That which hardens wicked men in their sins corrupts their minds and manners and indisposeth them for the service of God that ought to bee totally abandoned But these prophane sports do so They infatuate and besot men they darken the understanding and cloze up the eye of the soul so that it takes no notice of Gods judgements either imminent or present These sensual pleasures stupifie and cauterize the conscience so that it cannot repent They expel the fear of God and all godly sorrow for sin out of the soul They estrange the heart from God and his worship and make it burdensome and wearisome to them Mal. 1. 13. 3. 14. Arg. 20. Those prophane practices which are condemned by Scriptures Fathers Councils and other pious men ought in no wise to bee tolerated But these prophane practices are such The Major is undeniable the Minor I shall prove by its parts and because a bare recital of testimonies would be too flat and frigid I shall therefore to quicken and delight the Reader indict and arraign this Floralian Harlot and impannel a Jury against her This way of clearing things cannot justly bee offensive to any since 't is but a kinde of Dialogue and Dialogues have been ever accounted the most lively and delightful the most facile and fruitful●est way of teaching Allusions and similies sink deep and make a better impression upon the spirit A pleasant allusion may do that which a solid Argument sometimes cannot do As in some cases Iron may do that which Gold cannot do Ridiculum acri Fort●us melius magnas pl●rumque secut res Horat. Serm. l. 1. Sat. 20. Quintil. Instit l. 6. c. 34. The Indictment of Flora. Flora hold up thy hand Thou art here indicted by the name of Flora of the City of Rome in the County of Babylon for that thou contrary to the peace of our Soveraign Lord his Crown and Dignity hast brought in a pack of practical Fanaticks viz. Ignorants Atheists Papists Drunkards Swearers Swash-bucklers Maid-marrions Morrice-dancers Maskers Mummers May pole-stealers Health-drinkers together with a rascalian rout of Fidlers Fools Fighters Gamesters Whoremasters Lewd-men Light-women Contemners of Magistracy affronters of Ministery rebellious to Masters disobedient to Parents mis-spenders of time abusers of the creature c. Judg. What sayest thou guilty or not guilty Prisoner Not guilty My Lord. Judg. By whom wilt thou bee tried Pris By the Popes-holiness my Lord. Judg. Hee is thy Patron and Protector and so unfit to bee a Judge in this case Pris Then I appeal to the Prelates and Lord-Bishops my Lord. Judg. This is but a tiffany put off for though some of that rank did let loose the reigns to such prophaneness in causing the book of Sports for the prophaning of Gods Holy-day to bee read in Churches for which God hath spewed them out yet 't is well known that the gravest and most pious of that order have abhorred such prophaneness and mis-rule as B. Babington both the Abbats B. King B. Hall D. Davenant c. Pris Then I appeal to the rout and rabble of the world Judg. These are thy followers and thy favourites and so unfit to bee Judges in their own case Pris My Lord if there bee no remedy I am content to bee tried by a Jury Judg. Thou hast well said thou shalt have a full a fair and a free hearing Cryer Make an O yes and call the Jury Cryer O yes All manner of persons that can give in evidence against the prisoner at the Bar let them come into the Court and they shall bee freely heard Judg. Cryer call in Holy-Scriptures Holy-Scriptures My Lord I cannot get in Judg. Who keeps you out Holy-Scriptures My Lord here is a company of ignorant rude prophane superstitious Atheistical persons that will not suffer mee to come in Judg. Cryer knock those prophane persons and make room for the Holy-Scriptures to come in Cryer Vouz avez Holy-Scriptures Judg. What can you say against the prisoner at the Bar Holy-Scriptures Very much my Lord I have often told them that the night of ignorance is now past and the light of the Gospel is come and therefore they must walk as children of the light denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts living soberly righteously and religiously in this present world I have often told them that they must shun all the appearance of evil and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness nor conform themselves like to the wicked of the world But they must think

estates for their good when such as serve them for their own ends will leave them and forsake them and though for the present the righteous may bee condemned as Traitors and the wicked bee exalted to honour yet in Gods due time hee will clear the innocency of his servants as the light when the names of the wicked shall rot Especially at that great day of Revelation then shall we clearly discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked between him that feareth the Lord him that feareth him not This may comfort us who are faln into the last daies which are called perilous times wherein hee that refrains from evil maketh himself a prey 'T is criminous now adaies amongst many men to bee sober and pious If a man will not drink Healths or give mony to those that will if hee will not rant and roar and run with others into all excess of riot this is enough with some men to make a man an enemy to the State I have a little experience in this kinde my self This last May opposing some Floralians in their prophane practices whom I thought after above twenty years preaching should have learnt better things they gave out that I was little better than a Quaker a Preacher of false Doctrine and an enemy to the King and should be thrown out of my place and why so why because I hindered practical Fanaticks in their frantick practices Grande nefas See how these people who never studied Machiavel yet are natural Machiavelists one of whose Principles is Calumniare audacter saltem aliquid adhaerebit Lye lustily some filth will stick I see sying is coming in fashion apace I shall therefore having this opportunity clear my self and my brethren in the Ministry who are or may bee aspersed in this kinde 1. For Quakerism I have preached prayed practised and printed against it and openly as occasion required opposed them and their blasphemous principles and satanical practices and thus hath every faithful Minister done according to the measure of grace received and therefore for shame forbear such gross slanders 2. For my Doctrine 't is sufficiently known to the world the summ and substance of it is in great part publisht to the world 3. That I am an enemy to the King is as true as all the rest I preach for him I pray for him I print for him I pay to him and command men so to do and am ready to sacrifize my life for him in an honourable way and when I cannot yeeld Active yet I shall readily yeeld Passive obedience and shall say with Bradford the Martyr If the Queen will banish mee I will thank her if shee will imprison mee I will thank her if shee will burn mee I will thank her Or as Chrysostome before him said to the Empresse Eudoxia If the Queen will let her banish mee the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof if shee will let her saw mee asunder Esay suffered the same If shee will let her cast mee into the Sea I will remember Jonah If shee will let her cast mee into a burning fiery furnace or amongst wilde beasts I will remember Daniel and the three children If shee will let her stone mee or cut off my head I have St. Stephen and the Baptist my blest companions If shee will let her take away all my goods Naked came I out of my Mothers womb naked shall I return thither again Thus heroickly hee For my fidelity to the King in refusing the Engagement I lost two hundred pound and ran the hazard of my whole livelihood for I had no Law to recover a penny At two publick Disputations against Sectaries I ran great hazards at the first 1650. there was a great rabble of Sectaries met together who gave out untoward speeches against mee In August 1651. About a week before the King came into Worcester I was called to assist in a Disputation against some Sectaries this falling out at that juncture of time I was look'd upon as an enemy to the Common-wealth and therefore the Constable was commanded to bring mee in prisoner to Worcester to be there secured amongst the Royalists and lately have I been threatned from another coast with an Arrest for opposing the Millenarians and Fifth-Monarchy-men I mention these things not for any sinister ends of fear or favour but to prevent or at lest to blunt the edge of those vile aspersions which are cast upon the Presbyterians as if they were enemies to Caesar when I dare be bold to say and it were easie to make it good that God hath not better servants nor the King better subjects than those of this Judgement Who were it that God made Instruments to bring about the great change which is now wrought in the Land were it not our brethren of Scotland Who were they that petitioned in Print for the life of the late King were they not the Presbyterian Ministers of London one of them losing his head not long after upon a Royal account Who where they that opposed the Engagement with invincible Arguments in Print were they not the Presbyterians of Lancashire who are those that strenuously opposed debauchery and prophaneness on the one hand and Sects and Heresies on the other when others were dumb and did tolerate them were they not the men of this judgement Now those that help to keep sin and errour out of a Land those are the best friends to a Land and the Kings best subjects If any shall ob●ect that wee were for King and Parliament I freely confess it so wee were and so wee are still and so I think is every honest hearted-subject who understands any thing of the frame of this Government To this wee are bound by the Protestation Covenant and other Obligations I look upon him as an enemy to the Land of his Nativity who goes about to separate the King from the Parliament or the Parliament from the King As for the lawfulness of the Parliaments war against those that withdrew the King from the Parliament for there was not the lea●t intent in them to hurt the person of the King and therefore they were imprisoned by the Army that case is very learnedly and modestly cleared by Dr. Austin in his Allegiance not impeached by the Parliaments taking up of Arms though against the Kings personal commands for the just defence of the Kings person the Laws of the Land and Liberties of the Subject yea they are bound by the Oath of Allegiance so to do proved from the words of the Oath from Principles of Law and Nature and other Testimonies of this Judgement is Mr. Pryn Mr. Rutherford in his Lex Rex Yea B. Bilson a man far enough from faction or sedition concurs with them yea so doth Grotius and Barclay Obj. 7. They are many and mighty that approve of such prophane practices and 't is wisdome to go with the tide of the times and the current of the world Answ Indeed if you

That wee will not exercise just severity against any Malefactors sooner than against men of dissolute debauched and prophane lives with what parts soever they may bee otherwise qualified and endowed and wee hope that all persons of honour or in place and authority will so far assist us in discountenancing such men that their discretion and shame will perswade them to reform what their conscience would not and that the displeasure of good men towards them may supply what the Laws have not and it may bee cannot well provide against there being in the licence and corruption of the times and the depraved nature of men many enormities scandals and impieties in practice and manners which Laws cannot well describe and consequently not enough provide against which may by example and severity of vertuous men bee easily discountenanced and by degrees suppressed However for the more effectual reforming these men who are a discredit to the Nation and unto any cause they pretend to favour and wish well to wee require all Mayors Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace to bee very vigilant and strict in the discovery and prosecution of all dissolute and prophane persons and such as blaspheme the name of God by prophane swearing and cursing or revile or disturb Ministers and despise the publick worship of God that being first bound to the good behaviour they may bee further proceeded against and exposed to shame in such a manner as the Laws of the Land and the just and necessary Rules of Government shall direct or permit Judg. Now blessed bee the Lord the King of Kings who hath put such a thing as this into the heart of the King and blessed bee his Anointed and blessed bee his Counsel the good Lord recompence it seven-fold into his bosome and let all the sons of Belial flye before him as the dust before the wind and let the Angel of the Lord scatter them Prison My Lord I and all my retinew are very much deceived in this Charls the Second wee all conceited that hee was for us My Drunkards cryed a Health to the King The Swearers swore a Health to the King so long till they swore themselves out of Health The Papist the Atheist the Roarer and the Ranter they all concluded that now their day was come but alas how are wee deceived Judg. I wish that you and all such as you are may for ever bee deceived in this kinde and that your eyes may rot in your heads before ever you see Idolatry Superstition and Prophaneness countenanced in the Land Such trulypious-frauds are pleasing to God delightful to his people and grievous to none but such as should bee grieved for their villany and licentiousness Judg. But have you no more evidence to produce against these prophane practices Cry Yes my Lord here is an Ordinance of Parliament ready mounted against them Pris My Lord I except against this witness above all the rest for it was not made by a full and a free Parliament of Lords and Commons but by some Rump and relick of a Parliament and so is invalid Judg. Toto erras coelo you are quite deceived for this Ordinance was made by Lords and Commons when the house was full and free and those the best that ever England had for Piety towards God and loyalty to their Soveraign for they were secluded and imprisoned for their loyaly and fidelity Let us hear what they say Ordinan of Parl. My Lord I have plainly told them that since the prophanation of the Lords day hath been heretofore greatly occasioned by May-poles a Heathenish vanity generally abused to superstition and wickedness the Lords and Commons do therefore ordain that all and singular May-poles shall bee taken down and removed by the Constables Borsholders Tything-men Petty-Constables and Church-Wardens of the places and parishes where the same bee and that no May-pole shall bee hereafter set up erected or suffered to bee within this Kingdome of England or the Dominion of Wales and if any of the said Officers shall neglect to do their office in the Premises every of them for such neglect shall forfeit five shillings and so from week to week five shillings weekly till the said May-pole shall bee taken down Judg. This is to the purpose and may pass instead of many Arguments for a Parliament of Lords and Commons so pious so prudent so loyal and faithful to God and the King to condemn these sports as a vanity a Heathenish vanity abused to superstition and wickedness and to be supprest under a penalty This may clearly convince any sober man of the sinfulness of such practices and make them to abhor them for what is forbidden by the Laws of men especially when those Laws are consonant to the Laws of God may not be practised by any person but these prophane sports are forbidden by the Laws of men and are herein consonant to the Laws of God which condemn such sinful pastimes But have you no more evidence besides this Ordinance to batter these Babylonish Towers Cry Yes my Lord here is one that may go for many 'T is the solemn League and Covenant taken in a solemn manner by King Lords and Commons the Assembly of Divines the Renowned City of London the Kingdome of Scotland and by many thousands of Ministers and people throughout this Nation In the second branch of it wee vowed the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall bee found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness Pris My Lord these things are out of date and do not binde now our troubles bee over Judg. The sixth branch of the Covenant will tell you That wee are bound all the daies of our lives to observe these things zealously and constantly against all opposition and I suppose every good man thinks himself bound to preserve the purity of Religion to extirpate Popery and Heresie Superstition and Prophaneness not onely in times of trouble but these are duties to bee practised in our places and callings all our daies Besides the Royalists do plead the Covenant at this day for the preservation of the King and if it bee in force as to that particular as indeed it is then much more doth it binde us still to the observation of those things which do more immediately appertain to the worship of God Since Gods honour is to bee preferred before the honour of any man whatsoever Now if our May-Games and mis-rules do favour of superstition and prophaneness as 't is apparent they do if they bee contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness as to all unprejudiced men they are then by this solemn League and sacred Covenant wee are bound to root them up This is sufficient if there were no more but because men are loath to leave what they dearly love let us see whether you have any further evidence Cry Yes my Lord here is an excellent Order from the Council of State made this