diligently hearken unto me, faith the Lord, to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein, then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes fitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots, and this city fhall remain for ever :" i. e. The nation and city fhall be bleffed with all fecular and civil advantages. Accordingly the people of God have found the hallowing of the Lord's day fenfibly profperous to them with respect to their fecular affairs: When they have difcharged the duties of this day with a good confcience, it hath fared the better with them all the week after. In teftimony whereof, I fhall here narrate the experi ence of that excellent perfon, Sir Mathew Hale, lord chief justice of the king's bench in the reign of king Charles II., who was both an eminent lawyer, and a great divine. In his book, called Contemplations, moral and divine, he hath these words; "I have found (faith he) by a strict and diligent obfervation, that a due obferving the duty of the Lord's day, hath ever had joined to it a bleffing upon the rest of my time; and the week that hath been fo begun, hath been bleffed and profperous to me: And, on the other fide, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week hath been unfuccefsful and unhappy to my fecular employments; fo that I could easily make an eftimate of my fucceffes in my own fecular employments the week following, by the manner of my paffing this day: And this I do not write lightly or inconfiderately, but upon a long and found obfervation and experience." Again, in another place, he faith, "I thank God, I ever found that, in the ftricteft obfervation of the times of his worship, I ever met with the best advantage to my worldly occafions; and that, whenever my worldly occafions encroached upon thofe times, I ever met with disappointment, though in things of the moft probable fuccefs: and ever let it be fo with me. It hath been and ever fhall be to me, a conviction beyond all argument and demonftration whatsoever, that God expects the observation of his times: and that, while I find myself thus dealt with, God hath not given over his care of me. It would be a fad prefage unto me, of the fevere anger of my Maker, if my inadver tance tance fhould caft me upon a temporal undertaking upon this day, and that it fhould profper" Thus the learned and pious judge Hale, who fpake from his own experi ence, after long and critical observation of divine provi dence. Again. the judgments which often follow upon the violation of this day, do give teftimony to its divine authority. How fad are the fpiritual ftrokes, though little noticed, which God inflicts upon the fighters of his holy day, by giving them up to hardness of heart, fearednefs of confcience, and vile affections; fo that commonly they fall into scandalous out breakings, and notorious crimes, proceeding from evil to worfe, till they at length run them felves into fome fatal mischief! And, when men neglect to punish the profanation of this day, the Lord usually takes the fword into his own hand, and, by visible temporal judgments, plagues the profaners of it If the violation of the Jewifh Sabbath was, by a divine order, punished with death, under the law, Exod. xxxi 15. furely the breach of the Chriftian Sabbath shall not efcape without fome fignal marks of the divine vengeance, according to the fcripture-threatenings, which are levelled against the one as well as the other, as I fhewed before. Let us not forget that terrible denunciation of judgment, which we have in Jer xvii. 27. "But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerufalem, on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it fhall devour the palaces of Jerufalem, and it shall not be quenched." The Jews (as Auguftine obferves) fell generally into this grievous fin of profaning the Sabbath: For though they pretended to hallow it, by forbearing fervile labour upon it; yet upon that day above all days, they ufed to pamper the flesh with carnal delights, and run into the exceffes of gluttony and drunkenness. Against these fins did our Saviour warn them; but, they perfifting, the forefaid direful threatening was at length exactly fulfilled: For upon that very day, fo abufed by them, their regal city Jerufalem, the glory and mafter piece of the whole earth, was burnt down to the ground by the Ro mans mans. And this Hegifippus and Dio observe to have been done on the Sabbath-day, in September, about forty years after Chrift's death. And doth not that prophetical commination concern us, as well as the Jews? And have we not cause to fear the accomplishment of it for the breach of the Christian Sabbath? Yes, we have found it to be true. Some impartial obfervers of God's judgments in the world have remarked, that this fin, viz. the breach of the fourth command, by the profane neglect of God's worship upon the Lord's day, and the fpending of this time in open works of impiety, hath been frequently vifited upon cities and private perfons, by confuming fires that have happened upon this day: Of which many inftances might be given in this fame ifland, as well as other parts of the world. That fiery predic tion against Jerufalem hath been oftener than once fulfilled and executed upon the two capital cities thereof, many of whofe inhabitants have been as guilty of profaning the day fet apart for God's fervice as ever the Jews were. In London this vice reigned, and there it was dreadfully punished with a furious and aftonishing fire in the year 1665, which laid the most part of that great city, with its faireft churches and buildings, in rubbish, in three days fpace: And it is re narkable, that that dreadful fire broke forth on the Lord's day very early in the morning, being the fecond day of September. Likewife in Edinburgh, where Sabbath breaking very much abounded, (as appears by ths acts of affembly made against that fin) the fairest and ftatelieft of its buildings, in the Parliament clofs, and about it, (to which fcarce any in Britain were comparable) were on the fourth of February 1730 (being the Lord's day) burnt down and laid in afhes and runs, in the space of a few hours, to the astonishment and terror of the forrowful inhabitants; whereof I myself was an eyewitnefs: And the effects of that fire are visible to this day. Yea, fo great was the terror and confusion of that Lord's day, that the people of the city were in no cafe to attend any fernon or public worthip upon it, though though there was a great number of worthy ministers convened in the place, (befide the reverend minifters of the city) ready to have prayed with or preached to the people on that fad occafion; for the General Affembly was fitting there at the time: But the difmal case of the city made this impracticable. However the Lord himself, by that filent Sabbath, did loudly preach to all the inhabitants of the city, fetting forth to them, in a moft awakening manner, the great fin and danger of irreligious neglecting of God's worthip upon the Lord's day, and profaning it, " by doing their own works, and finding their own pleafures. I have read of the town of Stratford upon Avon, that it was twice, upon the Lord's days, almost confumed with fire, chiefly for prophaning the Lord's day, and contemning his word in the mouth of his faithful minifter. The like alfo might be told of several towns in Scotland. Dr Beard, in his theatre of God's judgements, tells us of the town of Feverton in Devonshire, that was often admonished by her godly paftor, that God would bring fome heavy judgement upon the inhabitants of that place, for their profanation of the Lord's day, occafioned chiefly by preparing for their weekly market, which they then held on the Monday. Accordingly, very foon after the faid minifter's death, on the 3d of April, 1598, God fent a terrible fire, which in less than half an hour confumed the whole town, except the church, the court-houfe, alms-houses, and a few poor people's dwellings; where a man might have feen four hundred dwelling. houfes all at once on fire, and above fifty perfons confumed in the flames. But the remaining inhabitants not taking warning by the former judgement, but continuing in the fame fin, the town was again fired on the 5th of Auguft 1612, (fourteen years after the former fire) and all confumed, except a few poor houfes. The hiftorian adds, that they are blind who fee not in this the finger of God: and he prays for grace to the people of that city, when it is next built, to change their market day, and to remove all occafions of profaning the Lord's day. Dr Dr Twifs on the Sabbath, relates a paffage that happened in Bedford-fhire, not long before his writing that book. A match at foot-ball being appointed on the Sabbath afternoon, whilft two of the moft forward were in the belfrey, tolling of a bell; to call the company together, there was fuddenly heard a clap of thunder, and a flash of lightning was feen by fome that fatin the church porch, coming through a dark lane, which flashed in their faces, and much terrified them: And, paffing through the porch into the belfrey, it tripped up his heels that was tolling the bell, and struck him ftark dead; and the other that was with him was fo forely blafted therewith, that shortly after he died alfo. Mr Clark, in his father's life, p: 128, hath a very ftrange paffage, to this purpofe. Mr Hugh Clark preaching at Oundle in Northampton fhire, where the people were generally very ignorant, and much addicted to the profanation of the Lord's day, by Whitfon ales, Morice dances, and fuch paftimes, which he much set himself against, endeavouring to convince them of the evil, and denouncing God's judgments against them in cafe of perfeverance: But they being trained up in those courfes, and hardened by cuftom, perfifted still in their wickednefs. At laft, on a Lord's day, the leader of the dance, being a lufty young man, in the midst of their profane paftimes, fell down fuddenly, and died, but they, foon fhaking off their fear, returned to their vomit again. The Lord's day following, Mr Clark took occafion, rom this fad difpenfation, to quote the forecited text, Jer. xvii. 27. "If thou wilt not hearken unto me, to hallow the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire," &c. But the people kicked against these admonitions, and that fame evening went to their sports again; among whom was a smith that was a chief ringleader : But it pleafed God, the very next day, two hufband coming to his fhop to fharpen their plough thares, a fpark from the red-hot iron, as he was beating it upon the anvil, flew into the thatch, which both the lith and his neighbours faw, but had no power to move towards it; which prefently burnt down the fmith's fhop, VOL. IV. men K houfe, |