Page:Oration on the virtues of the old women, and the pride of the young (1).pdf/6

 backward, why ſhould not men be diſobedient? And this infection is come here alſo, ſurely the loſs of this Sabbath-day will he counted a black Saturday to ſome when I walk in the fields, I know it not but by the ſtopping of the plow, when in the city only by the cloſſneſs of a few ſhop-doors and the ſound of the bells degenerate ideas of religion indeed ! when the high praiſe is founded only by bell metal. A ſounding braſſ and a tinkling cymbal, is it not come to paſs, the tavern roar like AEtna's mouth; children follow their gaming, and old ſinners their ſtrolling about, nothing ſtop but coal-carts and common carriers, tee Sabbath laſts no longer than the ſermon, and the ſermon is meaſured by a little ſand in a glaſs! many, too many frequent the church, ſeemingly only to ſhow their anticdreſs, with heads of a monſtrous form, more ſurpriſing than thoſe deſcribed by Ariſtotle, as for length exceeding that of an aſſes head, ears and all, and ah how humbling would it be to ſee their heads ſtruck into ſuch forms, &c.

They diſdain now to ride on pads as of old, or to be hobled on a horſe's hurdies, but muſt be hurled behind the tail, ſafely ſeated in a leather conveniency; and there they fly ſwiftly as in the chariot of Aminadab.

They will not ſpeak the mother language of their native country, but muſt have ſouthren oaths, refined like raw ſugar thro' the mills of curſing, finely poliſhed and fairly ſtruck in the profane mint of London, into a perfect form of flunkey-language; even the very wild Arabs from the mountain tops, who have not yet got Engliſh to profane his Maker's name, will cry Cot, Cot; hateful it is to hear them ſwear, who cannot ſpeak, O! ſtrange alteration ſince the days of old, the downfal of Popery and the Prelates decay, when reformation was alive, and religion in taſte and faſhion; the people during the Sabbath, were all packed up in cloſets, and their children kept within doors, when every city appeared as a ſanctuary, nothing to be heard in the ſtreets but the ſound of prayer on the right hand, and the melodious ſound of pſalms on the left.