who play only for amusement, as they call it, that this is an innocent practice so long as they hazard no great fum, nor play for any thing that can affect their circumstances. But, not to infift on the argument which hath been fo forcibly and frequently urged, concerning the impropriety of chriftians engaging in games of chance, who hold the doctrine of a particular providence, which certainly can never interfere, and therefore the evil fpirit muft, in fuch entertainments; for chance, and luck, and the like, are names only. Not, I fay, to infift upon this, Mahomed's reasons for prohibiting the game of arrows, may, with fufficient force, be urged in reply to thefe: few fit down to play, for how small a fum foever, without the defire to win; this is the very thing which conftitutes the diverfion: without it the whole. becomes a matter of fuch infipid indifference, that it loses its name, and is no diverfion at all. Now this defire naturally produces anxiety. Anxiety is always attended with pain: The defire gratified fills the mind with infulting pleasure; the defire difappointed fills it with chagrin, moroseness, peevishness, difcontent and wrath. And what but quarrels and diffenfions can arife from fuch jarring elements: what but thunder and lightning from. fuch black, fulphureous clouds? This we find to be the cafe in fact: no unconcerned ob ferver need long stand, and tent them to the quick, in Shakespear's phrase, and want conviction of it; let him attend only thofe tables, where the most innocent gaming (as it is called) is practifed There the bickerings and tempers of the perfons engaged will too fully prove the truth of Mahomed's declaration, that lots and gaming are the great means which the • devil ufes to fow diffenfion amongst men: "Therefore abftain from them.' But if this be the cafe, where intereft doth not deeply engage the mind, nor the ftrong paffion for gain take up the whole foul, defire and thoughts; how much more is it fo when gamefters with thefe intentions, eagerly fhuffle the cards, and fhake the money-loaden dice! The cards on which perhaps the half of a man's poffeffions depends; the dice, whofe fortunate or unfortunate caft may perhaps make the noble a beggar, and fend him fneaking to foot it filent home to his fuperb manfion, while the lucky gamefter drives his dice-gain'd gilt chariot to his petty lodging and exulting ftrumpet! Have you not noted the tempestuous paffions and ftormy fury which tofs fuch fouls amidst their gaming? Have you not heard the dire oaths and horrid blafphemies which pour forth red hot from their lips, oaths of diabolic joy when fuccefs attends them: blafphemies of curfed indignation, when their devil (as they are pleafed pleased to exprefs themselves) forfakes them, and for which the great God of holiness must be infulted, reviled, and abused. Should a lofer of this fort happen to be a man entrusted with power; what horrid confequences threaten his king and country? Every businessbut I forbear enlarging on this nice point. Should he be a man of fortune; justice, honour, generofity, and benevolence, are foon fupplanted by meannefs, rapine, falfhood, and Catiline's coveteoufnefs, alieni appetens, fui profufus. Duns, ruined tradesmen, starv'd fervants, lofs of reputation, contempt, and an arrant gamefter conclude the scene. Should this dreadful disease seize on a tradefman, adulteration of commodities, exorbitant prices, falfe bills, artificial credit, bankruptcy, total lofs of peace of mind, feparation from his family and friends, and laftly a profeffed gambler is the confequence. When artificers, journeymen, apprentices, fervants, or labourers fink into this vice (as their want of education generally difqualifies them from making much progrefs by fraud) acts of violence feem to be their only refource. The wife and children foon become a prey to poverty and diftrefs, and the workhoufe their afylum; while the abandoned husband habituated to extravagance, debauched by drunken nefs, 1 nefs, difufed to labour, fleeps all day in the infectious arms of fome direful street-walker, and rambles throughout the ftreets all night, like a hungry lion feeking whom he can devour; robs, plunders, and deftroys to furnish himself and ftrumpet with gin. Who can behold these scenes and not tremble at the fight of a pack of cards, or a box and dice? And fhall I add once more, fhould the gamefter be a female, who can tell, nay, who cannot tell the fhameful fruits of fuch a profesfion? Farewell beauty, farewell modefty, farewell honour! Of all the curfes that can befal a man, the very worst that malice can wifh to its greatest enemy, is a wife addicted to gaming. I could eafily enlarge on these topics, but they are so self-evident, that they do not require it. It would be eafy alfo to fhew, that perjury, drinking, whoring, murder, follow in natural order; and are the direct and direful fruits of this one fingle vice of gaming: A vice big with every evil, and which teems forth from its fruitful womb every enormity; a crew of Hell-hounds, more fierce and fatal then those defcrib'd by Milton, and which were begot by the devil upon fin, About whofe middle round A cry of hell-hounds, never-ceafing, bark'd, With wide cerberian mouths, full loud, and rung A lively emblem of that deteftable, pernicious, fatal vice of gaming. 3d. How can we wonder then that the Mahomedans, yea and many other wife people held this vice in fuch abhorrence, that they would not even admit the teftimony of those who were guilty of it, in a court of justice, of those who play'd at any game which was fubject to hazard, or chance, as dice, cards, tables, &c. How much rather may we wonder, that this is not the cafe, in every chriftian country, but more especially in a Proteftant realm, purged and enlighten'd as ours; where furely the teftimony of a gamefter ought to be deem'd invalid much fooner than among the difciples of a Mahomed! Gaming, at leaft to excefs, obferves Mr. Sale very well, has been forbidden in all well ' ordered states. Gaming houfes were reckon'ed fcandalous places among the Greeks; and a gamefter is declared by Ariftotle (in his Nicomahics) to be no better than a thief; at 'least one may fay, that gamefters are the ma ⚫terials |