Imatges de pàgina
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the Name of God in vain; Curfing and Swearing; the little Care there is in Parents, and Mafters of Families, to train up their Children and Servants in Religion; the numerous Whoredoms and Adulteries; the frequent Murders and Robberies, &c. because my good Friend, Mr. Overal, has prevented me, in his excellent Paper, already fet down by me in thefe Memoirs, Pag. 410-422. And as to Adultery and Fornication, Dr. Cobden, has prevented me alfo, in his excellent Sermon at Court, Dec. 11, 1748; an Extract out of which has been already inferted also, Pag. 629, 630, 631. Only because none of these Writers, no, not the Bishop himself, has complained of the Excefs and Nicety in the Apparel of Women of Quality; and because I had myself done no more formerly than give a gentle Reproof to it, Pag. 460, priùs, I fhall here add the long and terrible Complaint of this Vice, and the Threatenings of God against it, by Ifaiab the Prophet; where, though the particular Shape of many of the Ornaments be liable to great Difficulties, yet is not the general Meaning and Purport of the Text liable to any Difficulty at all. Which Text I fhall therefore fet down at large, and recommend the Confideration of it, and Amendment acccording to it, to the Ladies of this Generation, as highly neceffary upon the prefent Judgments of God, and divine Warnings derived from him; of which good Men and Women ought to be greatly fenfible.

Ifa. iii, 16-26. 16. Moreover, the Lord faith, Because the Daughters of Zion are haughty, M 2

and

and walk with ftretched forth Necks, and wanton Eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their Feet.

17. Therefore the Lord will fmite with a Scab the Crown of the Head of the Daughters of Zion; and the Lord will discover their Secret Parts: [They fhall hardly have Rags to cover their Nakedness.]

18. In that Day the Lord will take away the Bravery of their tinkling Ornaments about their Feet and their Cauls, and their round Tyres like the Moon:

19. The Chains, and the Bracelets, and the Mufflers:

20. The Bonnets, and Ornaments of the Legs, and the Head-bands, and the Tablets, and the Earrings:

21. The Rings, and Nofe-jewels:

22. The changeable Suits of Apparel, and the Mantles, and the Wimples, and the Crisping-pins : 23. The Glaffes, and the fine Linnen, and the Hoods, and the Veils :

24. And it fhall come to pafs, that instead of fweet Smell there shall be Stink, and instead of a Girdle a Rent, and inftead of well-fet Hair Baldnefs, and instead of a Stomacher a Girding of Sackcloth, and Burning inftead of Beauty.

25. Thy Men [Hufbands] fhall fall by the Sword, and thy Mighty in the War.

26. And her Gates fhall lament and mourn; and the being defolate fhall fit upon the Ground. VII. The Proteftants, as well as the Papifts, are become Scepticks and Infidels, and this to a prodi

gious Degree.

This has been already carefully noted as the Completion of the Predictions hereto relating, Pag. 89, 90, 91, priùs,and fo need not be here largely infifted on again; though it be, prob dolor! become fo general at Court, and among the Great, as to lay a fad Foundation for all the reft of our Im moralities. Other Crimes may be traced from fome Pretences or Occafions, which are here entirely wanting in our Age. The Evidence for Revealed Religion, I mean chiefly the literal fulfilling the most numerous Prophecies, and the Certainty of the most amazing Miracles, both of the Old and New Testament, which are known to be the grand Supports of Revelation, having never been fo throughly cleared as they have been of late, fince the Oppofition of our modern Scepticks and Infidels has made learned Men more carefully to examine them. In which Examination I have long had no fmall Share myfelf; as those who have perused my Boyle's Lectures, Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, my Aftronomical Principles of Religion Natural and Revealed, with my Replies to Mr. Collins, Mr. Chubb, and Dr. Middleton, &c. do very well know: To none of which Treatifes have any Replies been made. And I muft openly profefs, that as I very early in Life entered into those most important Enquiries, and that with uncommon Impartiality, and Defire of discovering the Truth; and indeed with a Dread upon me, on Account of feveral great Difficulties as to the Bible, Chronology and Hiftory, which were not then cleared by any Commentators that I had met with. M 3

God

God has been pleased fo greatly to bless thofe my Studies and Enquiries, that I can honestly profess, as I have already hinted, that more than 39 Parts in 40 of those Difficulties have been by me now throughly cleared, and the facred Books entirely vindicated from thofe Objections that had been urg'd against them; and all this, not upon precarious Hypothefes, but from real original Evidence, and genuine Testimonies of Antiquity; and commonly demonftrated from Mathematical and Aftronomical Principles alfo, to my greatest Satisfaction. So that the prefent prodigious Run of Scepticism and Infidelity comes at a Time when there are leffer Pretences for it, than there ever were fince the Jewish and Chriftian Religions came into the World. It looks like what Dr. Bentley acutely faid of Aftrological Atheism, in one of his Sermons at Mr. Boyle's Lectures: It is not Reafon and Evidence, • but Saturn, in the ninth House, that makes thefe • Men Infidels.' It indeed looks like the groffeft judicial Infatuation.

VIII. The Proteftants, as well as the Papists, go on in the open Breach not only of the other Laws and Ordinances of Almighty God, which yet, excepting the Ceremonial, do ftill equally oblige the Chriftians now, as they did always oblige the Jews, as I have already noted, Pag. 143, 144, priùs, and elsewhere fully proved [Horeb Covenant Revived, per tot.] but of the everlafting Covenant itself, or the Ten Commandments of God themfelves; which, under the Christian Explication, most certainly oblige all the Chriftian World. Now

in order to understand my Meaning under this Head, the Reader is to remember what I have elsewhere observed, [Prim. Chrift. Reviv'd, Vol. III. Pag. 56.] that the Ten Commandments, as diftinct from the other Laws of Mofes, were peculiarly called the Covenant that God made with the Ifraelites by Mofes; the Tables wherein they were written, and that by the Finger of God himself, were peculiarly called the Tables of the Covenant : the Ark, or Cheft, wherein thofe Tables of the Cavenant, and they only were contained, the Ark of the Covenant: So that when Ifaiah, or rather God by Ifaiah, gives the Reasons for the Severity of the divine Judgment at this Time upon the Inhabitants of the Earth, it is because they had broken not only the other Laws and Ordinances, but the everlasting Covenant itself also, or the Ten Commandments themselves, [Ifaiah xxiv. 5.] as the higheft Aggravation of that Defilement they had contracted, and which required the feverest Punishment. Now let us fee how far the Papists and Proteftants have broken thefe Ten Commandments, by going diftinctly over most of them in Order; and obferve what terrible Judgments these Papists and Proteftants may justly expect for their notorious Breaches of them.

First Command. [Exod. xx. 3. Deut. v. 7.] Thou fbalt have no other Gods before me. Now as to this Command, we of Cambridge have had a flagrant Example, beyond that of the vileft Heathen in the Days of Mofes, or even till after the Days of Hobbes and Spinoza, a Century ago; for though the Heathens

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