18 THE SABBATH. 



the views afterwards embodied in the Westminster 

 Confession, adduces many such judgments. One was 

 the case of a nobleman, ' who for hunting on the holy 

 day was punished by having a child with a head like a 

 dog's.' Though he cites this instance, Bownd, in the 

 matter of Sabbath observance, was very lenient towards 

 noblemen. 'Concerning the feasts of noblemen and 

 great personages or their ordinary diet upon this day 

 (which in comparison may be called feasts), because 

 they represent,' says the doctor, * in some measure the 

 majesty of God on the earth, in carrying the image as 

 it were of the magnificence and puissance of the Lord, 

 much is to be granted to them.' 



Imagination once directed towards this question 

 was sure to be prolific. Instances accordingly grew 

 apace in number and magnitude. Memorable examples 

 of God's judgments upon Sabbath-breakers, and other 

 like libertines, in their unlawful sports happening 

 within this realm of England, were collected. In- 

 numerable cases of drowning while bathing on Sunday 

 were adduced, without the slightest attention to the 

 logical requirements of the question. Week-day drown- 

 ings were not dwelt upon, and nobody knew or cared 

 how the question of proportion stood between the two 

 classes of bathers. The Civil War was regarded as a 

 punishment for Sunday desecration. The fire of Lon- 

 don, and a subsequent great fire in Edinburgh, were 

 ascribed to this cause ; while the fishermen of Berwick 

 lost their trade through catching salmon on Sunday. 

 Their profanation was thus nipped by a miracle in the 

 bud, and they were brought to repentance. A Non- 

 conformist minister named John Wells, whose huge 

 volume is described by Cox as ' the most tedious of all 

 the Puritan productions about the Sabbath,' is specially 

 copious in illustration. A drunken pedlar, 'fraught 



