A spark toward the kindling of sorrow for Zion A meditation on Amos 6.…A sparke tovvard the kindling of sorrow for Sion A meditation on Amos 6.…

What shall we say of those, that in a rebellious and preposterous manner, bend themselves to a clean contrary course, then most of all giving themselves to mirth and jollity, when most cause ⟨p. 17⟩is given of mourning and grief? How near God taketh to heart such profane and irreligious carriage, by the Prophet Isaiah himself showeth, when he saith: ^*Woe be to those that rise early in the morning to follow strong drink, and sit by it till night, until the wine have inflamed them: That have the Harp and the Viol, the Tabor and the Pipe, with wine (that is, all manner of music and mirth) in their feasts: but they regard not the act of God, nor consider his handy-work. Therefore is my people led captive, because they have no knowledge of these things: and their honourable men are famished, and their common people destroyed with thirst: Yea therefore hath hell enlarged her self, and widened her mouth beyond all measure; and their glory, and their multitude, even all those that make merry so, (of what state or degree soever they are) shall go down together thither. And yet more pregnantly and more peremptorily: ^gIn that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and mourning, and to cutting of hair and girding with sackcloth: But there was nothing but mirth and jollity, slaying of oxen and killing of sheep, eating of flesh and drinking of wine: ^hLet us eat and drink (say they) to day, for to morrow, the Prophets say, we shall die. And ⁱit was spoken by the Lord of hosts himself in mine hearing; ^kLet me not live, if this impiety of yours be done away till you die for it. It is an usual thing with the Lord, when he will express his implacable wrath against some kind of evil demeanour, to say, yea sometime to swear it, that no sacrifice shall serve ⟨p. 14⟩[…] ⟨p. 15⟩