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fhalt be recompenfed at the refurrection of the just.” There are few that ftrive to obey this counsel; there is fo little of fashion, or of intereft in it. What! fons of quality feaft the poor, carve for the maimed, and feed the blind? It is too mean, too ignominious! If they have the bones, the fcraps, the crumbs, it is well. No, no, this doctrine is too like him that taught it, to be practifed by them that are fo unlike him. They that follow him in these things, muft "take up the cross, “ defpife the fhame, and fow in "hope" but because there is an everlasting recompence for thofe that do, I fervently defire of God, that it would please him to put it into the minds of both magiftrates and people to "love mercy, do "juftice, walk humbly with the Lord," and meekly "and charitably towards all men. I beseech you, in the tender bowels of a Chriftian man, to confider of the prefent conjuncture: is this a time for feafts and revels, plays and paftimes, when the very wrath of God feems to hang by a flender thread over our heads? O! let your moderation be known unto all men, now the Lord is fo near at hand, fo very near indeed.

And I do humbly pray the fupreme authority of this land, to put a fpeedy check to thefe exorbitances, to discountenance thefe exceffes, by the revival of the good old laws of the land, and in making of fuch new ones, as may be thought convenient to prevent fuch pride and prodigality. For I think I may, 1 both with modefty and truth, affirm, if the very unneceffary expences of most ranks or degrees in this kingdom could be brought into one publick purse, they would arife to three times more money, than either is given, or is requifite, to the maintenance of the poor that are in it: and whether this be a thing practicable or no, it matters not, though I believe it is; the very preventing of that excefs which

Mic. vi. 5, 6, 7, 8. Col. iii. 14.

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is amongst us, would be pleafing to Almighty God, and one way or other beneficial to the whole.

SECT. V.

Of the evil of gaming.

T may not be improper for me here to follow this head of excess with the fin of gaming; an invention of much mischief in the world, and therefore inconfiftent both with Chriftianity and civil government. The evils that attend it are neither fmall nor few. It is, firft, a great enemy to bufinefs, and that just care that people ought to have for the discharge of their refpective capacities in their civil affairs. Next, it is one of the greatest thieves to mens eftates: many brave families have been ruined by a gamefter. That which hath been got by the care and prudence of a father, it may be, hath been loft in one night by the extravagant humour of a fon: but that the reward of virtue fhould be the ftake of folly, and the painful acqueft of worthy ancestors expofed to the chance and hazard of the die, is fuch impiety to God's providence, ingratitude to parents, injury to their own families, and difgrace to the government, that I conceive it may very well deferve the care of our fuperiors to prevent that extravagancy for the future, by the execution of the laws in being against it. Thirdly, It is a great confumer of time. They who are addicted to gaming, are generally the most idle and uselefs people in any government: and give me leave to fay, that men are accountable to the government for their time: there ought to be no idleness in the land; for that end Bridewells are provided. Of many other fins people are weary; but of this never, unless to fleep or eat, or for want of money to play. We are commanded to "redeem the time, because the days " are evil;" but thefe people chufe rather to lofe

Ephef. v. 16.

their time, and fall into the evil they fhould avoid. A gamefter and a Chriftian, are as oppofite as a faint and a finner; for the Chriftian looks to God in the increase of his eftate, but the gamefter to kill and chance; and there is no more of God in his mind, than there is in his game and it cannot be otherwife. Fourthly, Therefore gaming deferves to be fuppreffed, because it has been the occafion of breach of friendship, quarrels, bloodshed and murder: if we ought to fhun the occafions of evil, to be fure we ought not to indulge them.

The last mifchief that belongs to gaming (which I fhall mention at this time) is the horrid oaths and paffionate imprecations used by the generality of gamefters; but because they are not confined to gaming, but run through the whole converfation of men, they may very well challenge a place among thofe "crying "fins," that I found myself obliged in confcience to complain of, to fuch as have power in their hands to punish and fupprefs them.

SECT. VI.

Of the horrid fin of oaths, curfing, and blafphemies.

HAVE therefore referved to speak of oaths, curfes and blafphemies till laft, because I take them to be the most provoking fin. The other enormities of drunkennefs, whoredom, excefs, &c. do more immediately relate to ourselves; and are therefore fins against God, because they are a tranfgreffion of that order, which he placed in the nature of things: but oaths and blafphemies must be referred to God himfelf; they are fins committed more immediately against his being, his name, and the majefty and dignity of his nature. It is horrible to hear how he is called upon about every thing, be it never fo trivial; yea, about nothing, and worse than nothing. He is fummoned at their games, their sports, their obfcenities, VOL. IV.

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in their drunkennefs, whoredoms, murders, rapines, and treachery. There is a generation that cannot Speak without him, though they can live without him. They would make him a voucher of all their falfhood, and a witness for their lies, as often as they would be believed. But I tremble to remember, with what prefumption fome men, when transported into rage, invoke him to damn thofe they are angry with, yea, themselves too; and how impiously they fend him at their pleasure upon the errands of their vengeance. Can there be greater blafphemy, than to dare fo much as to think, that the holy, wife, and just God should be the executioner of their paffion and fury, and the avenger of their malice and corrupt interefts? And it is obfervable, that if in any thing they are croffed or difappointed, they fall a fwearing, curfing, damning, blafpheming; as if the name of God fhould make them fatisfaction; or that it were a fort of eafe to them, to deliver themselves of a burden of oaths.

But that which aggravates this evil, is the impudence of the people that commit it: they are not contented to use it at home, and at ale-houses and taverns abroad; but in the open streets, markets, and fairs; in the moft notorious places of commerce and traffick; to the dishonour of God, the grief and offence of sober men, and the bad example of those that are not fo. But this fhameful impiety ends not here; it has not only prevailed with the populace, the kennel, the vulgar; but the men of quality, the gentry, and the nobles of the realm, to whom God in his providence hath been more propitious, placing them at the diftance of example and imitation to the multitude; even thofe that ought to be the heads of our tribes, the leaders of the people; whofe virtue fhould at least keep pace with their quality, are guilty of this impious and base custom, and too many of them more concerned in it, than the meaneft of the people. And to carry this practice to the utmost height of that mifchief it seems capable of doing, too many, God knows, of those in authority ufe it; even the men, that by

law

law fhould fupprefs it! and if men of office and power, that ought, in their feveral trufts, to be a terror to evil-doers, were fo, methinks they fhould not fuffer the name of the God of the nation (whom they pretend to worship). to be fo profanely ufed and blafphemed; and, least of all, that they fhould be the men themselves, who commit the enormities that they fhould punish. To fay truth, and with grief of foul I speak it, fo univerfal is this contagion in the kingdom, that not only the elder fort and youth, but the children. are infected the boys of feven years old, that in my time did not think upon an oath, are now full of their God-damn-you's and God-damn-me's at their fports and plays! and the women of our nation, efpecially those of any rank, who by a referved education, and the modesty of the fex, were fcarcely ever heard to curse, even what they did not like, (much lefs to fwear upon ordinary occasions) are, fome of them, grown hardy enough to do both. At whofe door muft all these mifchiefs lie? I befeech God to put it into the hearts of our fuperiors, to use their utmoft diligence to rebuke and fupprefs this and the like impieties!

We profefs ourselves to be Chriftians, followers of that Jefus, in whofe mouth no guile was "found:" what precept did he ever give us, what example hath he left us, to countenance this practice? It is true, he charged his difciples "not to fwear at "all;" but we cannot think ourfelves to obey him, when we fwear at every thing: pray confider the great difference there is betwixt Chrift and fuch Chriftians. Chrift is Lord of a more perfect law than that which came by Mofes, which admits of oaths in fome cases; but they were few, and must be kept upon great penalties: this new law of Jefus takes away oaths, by taking away the cause and need of them, namely, falfhood and diftruft; and by planting plainnefs, truth, and integrity in the natures of men, which make them fuch faithful difciples to him, and fo entirely brethren to one another, that there feems no farther ufe for oaths among men under that qualification.

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