AN ADMONITION FOR THE Fifth of NOVEMBER.  
Let us search, and try our Ways, and turn again unto the Lord.  
DID one know how to retrieve that open Simplicity, and downright Honesty, which was once the Character and Glory of the English Nation, one would think nothing too much to do or suffer, in order to it.  
We have lost our Innocence, and with it our Honour, and what have we got in Exchange? Conscience violated for the sake of the Church, and the Church still in Danger! Millions expended to secure our Property; and Property still precarious, at the Mercy of Men in Red, both those within, and those without St. Stephen's Chapel! The Lives of Englishmen prodigally thrown away, to Enslave us under the Name of Liberty! And all that is dear to us Temporal and Eternal, sacrificed to Foreigners in the Service of our Enemies, to bind us down for ever, with the Chains of our own making! What worse could have befallen us, had the Gunpowder-Treason took Effect, than has followed from the pretended Deliverance we tack to it?— Our King and Royal Family had perished by the Hands of Miscreants, not by our own: Our Laws had been violated by professed Adversaries, not tamely given up by ourselves into the Hands of treacherous Friends! Our Nobility had perished gloriously with their Prince in a common Ruin; not meanly lived upon the Surrender of their Privileges and Honour, not degraded themselves by submitting to the Scum of Foreign Countries.  
The English Commoners had died Freemen; not basely betrayed their Liberties and their Country for a Share in the Booty. Providence was pleased to protect us, and deliver us from the former Attempt by the Wisdom of its Vicegerent, our Lawful King: But when we took the Matter into our own Hand, and impiously blasphemed the Righteous God, by ascribing our Wickedness to his Providence, we were left to the Fruits of our own Folly: We feel the sad Effects, and have worse to fear, till we be no more a Nation, but become an exhausted Province to a petty Dukedom, and the Scorn of the whole Earth.  
A melancholy Subject! But if we have any sense of Religion left; if under a Cry of Moderation, and Liberty of Conscience, the Hardships put upon the Reverend Clergy, obliged to Swear or Starve, and the inconsistent Oaths, which Men of no Conscience forced upon them that once had some; if these Measures have not deprived us of the Sense of Good and Evil, Religion and Moral Honesty, the Danger of our immortal Souls is a Consideration of much greater Consequence, than any temporal Calamity, be it what it may; nor is there indeed so sure a Way of averting, or removing temporal Evils, or at least making them turn to our Advantage, as by a speedy and real Repentance. If we are sensible of our Sins, and forsake them, who can tell but God will yet be gracious to us, as a Nation? To be sure he will pardon every particular Person who thus reputes.  
But to wipe our Mouths, and say we have done no Wickedness, is very distant from Repentance: To profess with our Lips what our Heart cannot but condemn; to do it in the House of God, and in our very Addresses to him; to ascribe to the God of Holiness and essential Justice, what is abhorrent to his Nature; and solemnly to thank him for prosperous Wickedness, is a most outrageous Profanation. I will not, I cannot aggravate it; may it never be remembered but in a penitent Way; and therefore may it never be again repeated.  
To which Purpose, let me entreat the Reverend Clergy [who are Examples to their Flocks] seriously to read over the Service for the Fifth of November in private, before they come to read it in the House of God; and in his Name, and for his sake and their own, I beg them to consider, how opposite it is to his essential Attributes; how inconsistent with the Principles and Professions os many of them; and how fatal such profane and hypocritical Addresses must be to the Souls of those who make them.—— One would be glad to know, what Season we refer to by the Time that afflicted us. It cannot be the Reigns of King Charles and King James the Second, in which Trade flourished; we enjoyed Peace and Plenty; our Churches were better frequented than they have been since; our Clergy in higher Reputation; Religion more reverenced and more at Heart; the few that had some Cause to complain, were treated in a more humane and generous Manner, than the many who have suffered since. OATS, whose Character every body knows, was whipped severely, 'tis true; but not to Death. Seven Bishops were confined for a while in the Tower, and were allowed a speedy and fair Trial; but they were not Deprived, as five of those very Bishops were, by their pretended Deliverer, and not so much as allowed a small Subsistence. The Magdalen College Business was much outdone by the many Nonjurors left to starve with their Wives and Children. There is nothing in King James' Reign parallel to the GLENCOE MASSACRE; nor to the Desolation of the Church of Scotland; a Prelude to that of England. For what is it then that we are to offer up our unfeigned Thanks? What is it, what can it be, that fills our Hearts with Joy and Gladness, when we remember the Revolution? Is it, that our Hereditary Monarchy was changed into an Elective? That we drove away our native and lawful Princes, endued with an inborn Hereditary Clemency, to set up a FOREIGN RACE, who neither understand our Laws nor Constitution, nor so much as our Language? Is it, that our once groundless and unreasonable Fears, are really brought upon us by the unrighteous Methods we took to be rid of them? For Popery can never obtain in this Island, but Atheism and Irreligion not only may, but do. Do we rejoice, that our Plenty and Peace are exchanged for War and Misery? That the Nation is involved in a Debt, which, in the Way we are, must inevitably sink it? That Multitudes of Families are reduced to extreme Necessity, that the Betrayers of their Country may enrich themselves with its Spoils? Do we who were so afraid of suffering any thing for Conscience sake, (that we chose Iniquity rather than Affliction) rejoice that instead of a few Martyrs for the Truth (a Trial we may safely say we should never have been put to by King James) so many Thousand Lives and Souls have perished in an unjust and ambitious War? Do we presume to thank God for a Deliverance from those Grievances we complained of in our Petition of Right, at a Time when we labour under the same, or greater, in Consequence of that pretended Deliverance: Grievances which are not lessened, but increased, by being bound upon us by those who call themselves our Representatives; the Corruption of a Parliament being the greatest of all Grievances, as depriving us of all peaceable Means of Redress, changing and suspending our Laws, and even destroying our Constitution, as their Managers are pleased to direct. Tyranny is hateful from whatever Hand it proceeds; it is not the better, but the worse for being Protestant; the Insult is greater, and the Indignation ought to be so, when we see ourselves oppressed by those who declare the loudest against Oppressions, and deprived of our Rights and Liberties, by those who pretended to defend them. Providence is always just and wise, even when the Success does not answer our Expectation; but we are neither, if we judge by Events. Time has convinced us of our Want of Wisdom, it were happy for us, had we as lively a Sense of our Injustice. With what Face can we speak to an All-knowing God of our extreme Dangers; since they who raised the Alarm, and made the loudest Noise with their Fears, allow, now their Turn is served, that the Stories which gave us those Apprehensions, were most of them Forgeries; and the real Dangers were brought upon us by the treacherous Counsels of the Men, whom OUR PRETENDED DELIVERER afterwards employed and rewarded for betraying their too honest and credulous Master?  
Had we then a Foreigner for our L— d and King? one who kept up, not a chimerical, but a real separate Interest from ours; who had other Subjects and Dominions more beloved, amongst whom our Treasure was exhausted? No; K. James made his Subjects rich as well as himself, and lost his Crown because he would not enter into Alliances to the Detriment of his own People. If we had a Standing Army, it did not consist of FOREIGN MERCENARY TROOPS, but of natural born Subjects. Foreign Soldiers were not maintained at home, whilst our Countrymen were sent abroad to perish in our Neighbour's Quarrels. A French League, was then only pretended; we are bound in it now with a Vengeance, to the utter Ruin of our Trade; and tamely contribute to the exorbitant Power both of France and Germany! The design of our Enemies did indeed succeed; SUNDERLAND and others had the Reward of betraying their Country as well as their Prince and Benefactor: The Confederates also had theirs, in drawing us in to bear the Expense and Burden of their Quarrels. Whatever Attempts were made, or pretended to be made formerly by our Enemies, to bereave us of our Religion and Laws, sure I am the Nation feels by sad Experience, that we are not at present delivered from such sort of Attempts, which are but too likely to succeed in the Hands of our PRETENDED FRIENDS.  
But to wave Facts and come to Principles. The Doctrine of the Cross, or Patiented Submission to our Lawful Sovereign, when unlawfully oppressed, without daring to resist (tho' it should be in our Power to do it successfully,) lest we incur Damnation; as it is a Christian Doctrine, in fpite of all the Sophistry and Scurrility of profane Wits, the Gates of Hell can never prevail against it. The Reformed Church of England is peculiarly distinguished from other MODERN, CHURCHES, (as yet under Corruption, or more imperfectly reformed) by teaching and inculcating this Doctrine, as ancient as Christianity itself. And tho' some of her Members, like St. Peter, may have fallen through Weakness, and violent Temptations, it is to be hoped they will, like him, recover themselves, and rather part with their Transgressions than their Principles. For alas! who can say, I am free from Sin? The Weakness of human Nature renders us Objects of the divine Compassion and mutual Forbearance. But it is the Property of Devils, and those whom they have hardened, to persist in their Iniquity, and add Sin to Sin.  
Now that Resistance was used at the REVOLUTION, cannot well be denied; it was contended for by the famous Managers, and is gloried in by the greatest Advocates of the Revolution. And whatever Schemes they may proceed upon, whatever Arguments they may urge in their own Defence, who would not be thought to relinquish their Passive Principles, by complying, or if they please, submitting to what was transacted by other Hands; tho' the learned may think themselves able, 'tis certain the common People, even the more intelligent Part of the Congregation, know not how to reconcile that Doctrine with the Prayers for the 5th of November. Can we think it unlawful to resist King James in private among our Friends, and thank God that we had no Hand in dethroning him; and yet in public bless God for the safe Arrival of the Man who did it, and for making (as we say) all Opposition fall before him, till he by the Assistance of rebellious Subjects had possessed himself of our lawful Sovereign's Throne, and so became our King and Governor. Is not this as solemn an Approbation of the Revolution, and all the Methods that were taken to accomplish it, as can be made; and such as is utterly inconsistent with the Doctrine of Passive Obedience? Let us lay our Hands upon our Hearts, and seriously consider, what Service our Excuses and Evasions will do us at the dreadful Tribunal of the righteous God. Can we excuse ourselves from being Partakers at least in other men's Sins, and from giving Countenance and Encouragement to a Wickedness, which we profess to abhor? But if Principles of Religion will not persuade us to juster Measures; if the Honour of our Church and Nation has no Effect upon us; let us at least regard our mere temporal Interest, which drew us at first into the Snare; and consider, how the just Judgement of God has pursued us in our own Way, and punished us by our very iniquity. Do but allow Atheism, Arianism, etc. as bad as Popery, and we must needs own 'tis too notorious to be denied, that the very Evils we were at a Distance afraid of, are by our Methods of Prevention brought upon us. Our Impatience would not bear any thing from our Lawful Prince, to whom we owed Subjection; and we tamely bear every thing from an Us— r, whom in Duty, Honour, and Interest, we are obliged to oppose. The Necessity we formerly pretended in Breach of the Laws, our Oaths and Duty, is now real and urgent, and the Measures it puts us upon, tho' ever so extraordinary, are even Lawful too, inasmuch as they are entered on, in our own Just and necessary Defence, against Thiefs and Robbers, against unlawful Usurpation. We have all the Reason in the World to throw off our Stupidity and Cowardice, and Manfully to exert ourselves; to deliver our Church and Nation from impending Ruin, ourselves and our Posterity from those Evils, which are so much the more shameful and intolerable, in that we brought them by our Transgressions, upon our own Heads: Now is there any Way to escape, but by returning to our Duty to God and the King.  
FINIS.