MR. brown's second reply. 53 



Experience of Sir Matthew Hale. Montalembert's Report. 



count for such a high testimony, for example, as that of Sir 

 Matthew Hale.* 



And that nations prosper most, where the Sabbath is most 

 observed in a Christian spirit is, I think, a matter of observa- 

 tion and history. Hear what Montalembert (himself a 

 Freneh Komanist, and therefore a witness against the credit 

 of his country and his church), says on this subject, in his 

 reeent Report on the Sabbath to the Freneh Assembly : ^^"We 

 still see" (I quote his words) '^ the two most powerful and 

 flourishing nations in the world, England and Xorth America, 



* As all may not be able to refer to Judge Hale's testimony, I 

 shall here quote a part of it, only regretting that I cannot give it en- 

 tire. He says: "I will acquaint you with a truth, that above forty 

 years' experience, and strict observation of myself, hath assnredly 

 taught me. I have been, near fifty years, a man as much conversant 

 in business, and that of moment and importance, as most men ; and I 

 wiU assiu'e you, I was never under any inclination to fanaticism, en- 

 thusiasm, or superstition. In all this time, I have most industriously 

 observed, in myself and my concerns, these three things. First : That 

 •whensoever I have undertaken any secular business upon the Lord's 

 Day (which was not absolutely and indispensably necessary), that 

 business never prospered or succeeded well Tvith me. Nay, if I had set 

 myself that day but to forecast or design any temporal business to be 

 done or performed afterwards — though such forecast were just and 

 honest, and had as fair a prospect as could possibly be expected — yet I 

 have always been disappointed in the effecting of it, or in the success 

 of it ; so that it grew almost proverbial Tvith me, vrhen any importuned 

 me to any secular business that day, to answer them, that if they ex- 

 pected it to succeed amiss, then they might desire my undertaking it 

 upon that day. And this vrås so certain an observation to me, that I 

 feared to think of any secular business that day, because the resolu- 

 tions then tåken vrould be unsuccessful or disappointed. Secondly : 

 That always the more closely I applied myself to the duties of the 

 Lord's Day, the more happy and successful were my employments of 

 the week following ; so that I could, from the strict or loose observation 

 of this day, take a just prospect, and true calculation of my temporal suc- 

 cess in the ensuing week." See Hale's Meditations. 



5* 



