18 THE SABBATH. 



the views afterwards embodied in the Westminster Con- 

 fession, 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 maj- 

 esty 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 with- 

 in this realm of England, were collected. Innumerable 

 cases of drowning while bathing on Sunday were ad- 

 duced, without the slightest attention to the logical 

 requirements of the question. Week-day drownings 

 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 punish- 

 ment for Sunday desecration. The fire of London, 

 and a subsequent great fire in Edinburgh, were as- 

 cribed 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 vol- 

 ume is described by Cox as " the most tedious of all the 

 Puritan productions about the Sabbath," is especially 

 copious in illustration. A drunken pedlar, " fraught 



