THE Great Duty OF Love and Faithfulness TO OUR Native Country: OCCASIONED By the Coolness of Some in its Necessary DEFENCE, and the Forwardness of Others, in pushing on its Ruin. Delivered in A SERMON AT THE CHAPEL of POPLAR, December 3. 1693. Published at the Request of the Hearers. By JOSIAH WOODWARD Minister of Poplar. Nescio qua Natale Solum Dulcedine cunctos Ducit, & in memores non sinit esse sui. LONDON, Printed for R. Simpson at the Harp in St. Pauls-Church-Yard, 1694. To my Countrymen, the Courageous Soldiers and Seamen of England, in the Service of Their Most Excellent Majesties, King WILLIAM and Queen MARY. TO whom may I so fitly Dedicate this short Discourse, concerning Love and Faithfulness to our Native Country, as to You, Gentlemen, who are (under the Divine Providence) the Bulwarks and Ramparts of it. We have but few strong Garrisons, save what are lodged in our Wooden Castles floating on the Sea: And we hope that these, together with our Land-Forces Headed by so brave a General, will (with God's Blessing) keep the Land of our Nativity from being the dismal Seat of War and Misery; and make it at last a Scene of Triumph and Peace. Our English Arms by Sea and Land, have been famed and feared all over the World within a few years past; and many of you give us the happy demonstration, that all our English Valour is not withered. But there is one thing too sadly, and alas! too generally forgotten, though it be very necessary both to True Valour and Good Success; and that is, True Piety. We cannot but own, That there is a Holy and Almighty God, the Disposer of all Events: How much does it concern us then, to secure an Alliance with him, that he appear not against us! For he is the Lord of Hosts, and will appear on one side or the other, where Armies engage; and what Part soever he takes, it will be sure to be Victorious: It is God that girdeth me with strength, said Valiant David, Psal. 18. 32. He is the God of the Spirits of all Men, and can either advance them to an unsurmountable Height of Valour, or sink them to a base and contemptible feebleness and fear. No Soldier therefore marches in so good Array, as he that is girt with the whole Armour of God, mentioned Eph. 6. 11. and hath the Praises of God in his Mouth, as well as a Two-edged Sword in his hand, Psal. 149. 6. Goliath, the Champion of the Philistines, wanted no Weapon nor Strength of Arm; but he came forth defying God, and so he blasphemed himself to death, and fell by the sling of a despised Stripling. Wherefore, as you would approve yourselves great and brave Men, labour to gain the Victory over base and shameful Vices. Your Victory here will be a most happy Presage of the Fall of all your other Enemies that rise up against you: For even Death itself will become your Conquest through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me therefore entreat you, My Brethren, with the most Affectionate Bowels of a Friend and Brother, That you keep the fear of God before your eyes, and call devoutly on his Glorious and Fearful Name. And since you have not often fit places of retired Prayer, be the more frequent and earnest in short Ejaculations at all times. Let not the Fury of any Lust or Passion make you forget God, in whose hands your breath is, and whose Blessing alone can make you prosperous. Consider therefore what a Madness it is, to be accustomed to that common, but dreadful sin, of Swearing and Damning. 'Tis a sin of no Temptation, but of infinite Gild, so that it seems to need no Argument to induce a Soldier to leave it, but to consider, that it is Fight under the Devil without Pay, and that against an Omnipotent GOD, who will destroy his Enemies eternally. Be entreated also to keep strict sobriety, or you cannot be Men, much less Heroes: And be just, civil and modest, in your Deportment, or you will want the hravest Method of Conquering, and bringing all People over to your side. And when you come to face your Enemies, let Love, Honour and Concern for your GOD, and King, your Religion and Country, make you Resolute and Courageous: And let not Despair itself incline you to turn your Backs, for than you give opportunity to the veriest Coward to kill you without danger; the greatest Slaughter is ever made in the Pursuit. In a word, I beseech the Invincible God to lead you on inspirited with true Gallantry, and to bring you back laden with the spoils of your Enemy's; that so our latest Posterity may Crown you with Immortal Honour, as the Preservers (under God) of our Lives, Liberties, and Religion; and the Conquerors of our most Desperate and Dangerous Enemies. So Prays Your Servant and Countryman J. W. Psal. 122. 8, 9 For my Brethren and Companions sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the House of the Lord our God, I will seek thy Good. IT was to Jerusalem that these kind Wishes are Voted in the Text. And indeed, to what Place should a Jew wish so well as to his own Land? for which the scattered Remnant of them do yet retain an inextinguishable Love. Jerusalem was at that time both the Metropolitan Church and City of Judea: and in this double Respect the Psalmist here (inspired by the Spirit of God) demonstrates his Zeal for its Peace and Prosperity; as the words distinctly express. For my Brethren and Companions sake I will now say, Peace be within thee. That is, I wish Thee all desirable Blessings, O my Native Country, for the sake of my Relations and Friends who live in thee. And that which further engages my Concern for thy Welfare is, that God hath Chosen Jerusalem to be the Seat of his Holy Temple. There the true God was then Worshipped, and there was his Church and peculiar People: therefore I will do all that in me lies to Advance thy Happiness: Because of the House of the Lord our God, I will seek thy Good. So then, in these words we find two very constraining Reasons for the Love of our Country, which must needs be binding to such as have either Sense or Conscience. For First, If we have any bowels of Humanity towards our Relations which are our own Flesh, or to our Dear Friends, which are as our own Soul: we must seek the Peace and Prosperity of the place of their Habitation: and say with the Psalmist, For my Brethren, etc. Or Secondly, If we have any pious Concern for the Sacred Interests of the reformed Religion, and the Church of God: we must seek the Good of this our Land; as in the latter part of the Text — Because of the House of the Lord our God, I will seek thy Good. These words than tend to impress a Zealous and Indefatigable Concern for the common Good upon our Consciences: assuring us of this point of Doctrine: Doct. That it is a necessary part of our Duty, both as Men and Christians, to promote the just interests of our Country in Church and State. Both these Sorts of Interests, were ever esteemed by the Heathen as their most precious and even vital Enjoyments; and they thought the Defence of them, the most just and necessary Causes of War: which ever awakened all their Courage and Zeal to assert and defend. When they fought Pro aris & Focis, (as they termed it) that is, For their Altars and Fire places, they still fought with a pertinacious Resolution to Conquer or Die. And these are the very Things expressed in the Text before us: and indeed they are the Things which we contend for in the present War with France: which is endeavouring not only to get our Houses, but the Houses of our God into their possession. And how they will then treat them, we may see by the Ruins of the Protestant Churches in France. There were there within these few years, more than a Thousand places of God's Public Worship, where above Fifteen Hundred Thousand Protestants served God according to his own Institution. * According to the computation of Mounsieur Carlot, the Deputy of Levennes, in their last National Synod, at Loudun. But alas! the Popish Fury has either laid those Churches in Ruinous Heaps, or so Fundamentally destroyed them, that there's no Token that they ever were in Being. And alas! they have treated the poor Protestants as barbarously, as they have done their Churches, as the Deaths of many Martyrs and Confessors there, by unexampled Cruelties do abundantly testify. They have disjointed all the Bones of some by Skrews fastened to every Finger and Toe. They have broiled Others before slow Fires. They have rolled the naked Bodies of Others upon broken pieces of Glass, till there was no room for any more to pierce the miserable Sufferers. They have kept some from Sleep many Days and Nights together to distract them, and kept othersome from Food as long to Starve them; As those Authors of undoubted Fidelity, Monsieur Claud and Monsieur Jurieu, have publicly testified: together with many other Relations too sad to be read without Tears, or considered without extremity of Pain in all tender Bowels. And if any yet doubt of this, let them look on those excellent Men, who for the sake of the Protestant Religion, are at this Day Chained in the French-Gallies, with a chain of more than Fifty pounds' weight. And to this Day we ever and anon hear of an Assembly of Protestants there, taken and hanged, for no other reason, but because they are found at their Prayers together. Now, when all these Miseries are advancing towards our Borders; When the same infernal Dragoons (blooded by the Executions, and hardened by the Groans of their own Countrymen) are longing to try our Constancy by the same Methods. What reason have we to stand up as one man in the just Defence of our Lives and Liberties, and the necessary Vindication of our Religion and Country? What Spirit are they of, that will not Act in their own Defence against Cutthroats and Robbers of Churches? When Joab, the General of the Armies of Israel fought against the Syrians and Ammonites: He excited the Valour of his Soldiers to a wonder, with that short speech of his (2 Sam. 10. 12.) Be of good Courage, and let us play the Men for our People and the Cities of our God. And the bare mentioning of these dear enjoyments, inspired them with Valour to such a Degree, that they got an entire Victory over their Enemies that had enclosed them round. And this suggestion was ever a part of the speeches of the Heathen Officers before they engaged their Enemies: Namely, To mind their Soldiers, that they were to Fight for their Temples and Fire-sides. And it usually excited them to put themselves out to the utmost; and to count their Lives as nothing in comparison with that for which they adventured them. And is it possible that Christians can sink below the Honour and Honesty of Jews and Heathens in this point? Would a Heathen adventure his life in the most threatening dangers to defend his Country? And can any Christian be so base, as to hazard his life to Betray his Country? Alas! any but Englishmen may well make a doubt of this. And surely all the World may well stand amazed at our Coldness in our necessary Vindication of all that can be accounted Dear to us. But above all, they that have felt the French Barbarityes, must needs wonder at the principles and Practices of those people who can find in their hearts to befriend the Designs of such an Enemy. It is indeed, the most unnatural betraying of the Essential Interests of our Country, that makes a Discourse of this Nature seasonable: which one would hardly believe, (were it only for the Honour of our Nation, and humane Nature) did we not know it by too sad and costly experience. In truth, this degenerate age abounds with monsters of Sin of all kinds: men are monstrous in their sins against God, by bold and pleading Atheism: against their own Souls by dreadful imprecations of Damnation: and against their own Country, not only by Treachery and Correspondence with its fatal Enemies, but even by offering earnest Prayers and Vows for their Successes; and discovering a Grinning Cursed Laughter at the losses of their own Nation. An Affront which no Government in the world has less deserved by any Severities to them, than this, and none upon earth but this, would bear at their Hands. I shall therefore in opposition to the common perfidiousness to the Interests of our Country, and their own in the end (notwithstanding all their chimerical fancies to the contrary) endeavour to assert these two Positions. First, That we are bound by the Laws of God and Nature to advance the Interests of our Church and Nation: or, as the Text expresses it, to pray for the public Peace, and seek the common Good. Secondly, That no personal or particular Respects can take off this double obligation. 1. Pos. That we are bound by the Laws of God and Nature to pray for the public Peace and seek the common Good. Indeed, the genuine Laws of Nature are the most universal and indelible Laws of our Creator. And amongst these, there are none more deeply impressed than those of Self-love, and a Desire of Self-preservation: which ever make the feeblest and fearfullest Creatures put themselves out (Ad extremum Virium) even beyond their usual strength. Now, if I would preserve my being, I must have a place to subsist in, and means of Subsistence. And this will put us on the defence of our Native Land, to whose common Comforts we have a natural Right, and it a Right to our continual assistance. And the grater Ease, Liberty, and Safety, I enjoy in my own Country; my Love and Concern for the Defence of it against its Enemies, must in reason proportionably increase. If I am born a Freeman, I may justly withstand such as come to load me with Chains. Reason will soon agree with that advice of the Holy Scripture, 1 Cor. 7. 21. If thou mayest be free, choose it rather, than to live a Bondslave. So then, the Love of my Country is as natural as Self-love, and this as natural as our Breath, or Pulse. And all sober Heathens have ever been true to this Principle of Nature: insomuch, that we hardly find any Maxim so Celebrated amongst them as that Epidemical one, Dulce est pro Patriâ mori. That is, It is a sweet thing to Die for ones Country. Nothing is more Common than such expressions in Cicero, Seneca, and all their Philosophers: And nothing more frequent than instances of it in Livy, Tacitus, and all their Historians. When it was told the Romans by their Augurs, that their State would never flourish, till some Roman of Noble Blood leapt into the great Chasm at Rome: with what Cheerfulness and Bravery did the Noble Curtius mount his Steed and leap down the precipice! When Attilius Regulus was taken Prisoner by the public Enemy, and by them permitted to return to Rome upon his parole of Honour: and there perceived that the State could not condescend to their demands for His Ransom without their prejudice; He not only dissuaded the Senate from procuring his Liberty at such a Rate, but secretly went and offered himself to his Enemies, and there underwent a most painful and linger Death, rather than be an occasion of any detriment to his Country by his Life. And these Illustrious Instances of Zeal for the common Good were not so much gazed at in those days (as we do now, in the History of them) because they were then common, and every Body thought it their bounden Duty. For their usual discourse was, Nemo sibi nascitur, Partem Patria, partem Parents, partem Amici postulant. That is, None of us is born for himself; Our Country and our Parents, and Friends, may so duly challenge a part of us, that we cannot look on ourselves as at our own disposal, but as consecrated to the common Good. So that these honest Heathens following the Light of Nature, and the Psalmist in the text guided by revelation, followed the same Leader, that is God; and in Obedience to the King of Nations, they prayed for, fought for, and died for their Country. — For my Brethren and Companions sake, I will say (that is, I will pray) that Peace (that is, all manner of Blessings) may be within thee, O my desirable Country. Peace be within thy Walls, and Prosperity within thy Palaces, ver. 7. may they Prosper that love thee, ver. 6. But let them all be Confounded (in their Designs) and turned back that hate Zion: Let them be as Grass upon the House tops, which withereth before it groweth up, Psal. 129. 5, 6. Nothing can be more exasperating to human Bowels than to see our Parents, or Brethren, or Wives, or Children slain before our Eyes. To see them welter in their precious blood, which by sympathy of Nature we look on as our own. To see our Houses plundered, and afterwards burnt. To behold licentious Soldiers treating Age with Scorn, and Youth with shame. O dreadful! What sensible Soul can lend a hand, to draw on such a heavy Chain of Miseries, which we nor our Posterity are able to bear? Yet further, there is in men a sort of natural tenderness for the Rest of the bones and dust of their deceased Ancestors. How can I choose but be sad, said Nehemia, when the Place of my Father's Sepulchers lieth waste? Neh. 2. 3. There is also a natural Love to our Posterity, which is very forcible. And nothing can touch a Parent's Heart with more horror and Regret, than to behold the symptoms of the Miseries of their Posterity. And Christianity Cherishes and Enforces all these honest Instincts of Nature. For our blessed Saviour came not to destroy these Laws, but to perfect and sublimate them. And his Gospel declares, those worse than Infidels, that provide not for those of their own House, 1 Tim. 5. 8. So that we have Super-abundant obligations to be fathful to our Country's Interests. Now, without all controversy, we have manifest reason to expect the greatest Violences in all these respects from our Enemies of France, if they prevail over us, which God of his infinite goodness avert. They waste with Fire and Sword the most Famous and Ancient Cities, and their Inhabitants: As in the Palatinate and other Countries. They pull the very bones of Princes out of their Sepulchers, and will not suffer their Dust to rest: As in the Case of the Electoral Princes buried at Hydelberg. They take little Children from their natural Parents to breed them up in their own Superstitions: as they have dealt by many Protestant Families in France. So that there can hardly be imagined any Plague so universally calamitous to the present and succeeding Ages, as a French Conquest would be: nor can people act more inhumanly and unchristianly than in helping on such a Calamity. And this barbarity of deserting and betraying our Country will be further aggravated, if we consider: That as the undutifulness of a child to a Parent, is mightily blackened by the Consideration of the extraordinary goodness and indulgence of the Parent; so is the un-natural Treachery of Englishmen to their Mother Country, in that they Betray a good Land, abounding with all useful accommodations, and with peculiar Liberty and Light of God's Word, which are the sweetest enjoyments of humane Life: in which the happiness of no people upon Earth is parallel to ours. O sad! Do the Miseries of such a Land, and the Loss of such enjoyments deserve the Grinning Laughter of any amongst us? Can there be found in a Christian Land such a seed of Nero, as can rake in the Bowels of such a Mother with delight? Surely Nature and humane Bowels are perished in such Breasts. We must take Leave to speak plain to these things, since for aught we know, we speak our last: For these Treacheries have helped to cast us on the very brink of Ruin. Use. Now, the Inference that is naturally drawn from this first Position, is That such as any way Contribute to weaken the Defence of their Country, must needs be condemned by themselves and all the World, Jews, Turks, and Pagans, have ever looked upon such as the worst of men, bereft of all notion of Good, and sense of Honour. Yea, what ever the Government or Governors be, the case is nothing altered. Treason against the State and a Man's own Land, is ever horrid and abominable; and the very horror of it has made many a man run mad. * As in the Case of one Mr. C. a skilful Shipwright sent into France in the Reign of King Charles II. to instruct them in the building of Ships; who as he was returning home, had such Terrors on his Conscience that he pistoled himself, and never set foot on his Native Land again, to whose interests he had been so false. As an Eye-witness now living testifies. Such as betray their own Nation are Murderers of their own Parents, and Brethren, and Children; and do in effect set Fire to their own Houses and Churches; and where the madness is so extreme, 'tis no wonder if at last they murder themselves. And such as any way contribute towards this, take a proportionable share in this horrid Gild: Such as Embezzle the public Stores do really rob every particular Person in the Nation, who is interested therein, and whose safety depends thereupon. And these Public Cheats, are worse than Robbers on the Highway. Again, to be false in any public Office or Authority, in such a season as this, is at once to betray, not only the Interests of these Three Nations, but of a Fourth Part of the World: and whatever kindness any one shows to the Common Enemy and Invader, is (as such) a real Injury to all Christendom, tending to the universal Empire of France, and the universal Ruin of other Nations; an extreme Gild, enough to cast any sensible Person into an Agony with the horror of it. But perhaps some People are by private Respects and Opinions drawn into this Snare: and so may think to ward off that imputation of Baseness and Treachery which is laid to their Charge by the Grand Senate of our Land, and by the generality of men. Their Pleas will properly fall under the consideration of my second Position; and I think will appear to all considerate and equal Judges to fall before it, which was; 2. Pos. That no personal and particular Respects can take off our natural and supernatural obligation of seeking the Good of our Church and Nation. Now, this is a Truth as evident, as, That the Whole is greater than its Part: Or, that a Million more than a single Unite. For even so, must an universal Good of necessity be more regardable than a particular. This our Reason cannot so much as question. And if it were possible, the duty of it would be more clear to a well informed Conscience, than the truth of it to sound Reason. For, what Christian ever yet disputed, whether the mad Humour of running * Known to our men in the East-Indies; sometimes to their Cost. Muck amongst the Indians, be an execrable Barbarity or not? Where a resolute Fellow whom they call a Muck (madded by discontent) does all he can to be the death of all mankind, and usually gins the Tragedy in the Butchery of his own Family. Now as to our Case; tho' we do not act thus with our own hands, yet if we deliberately assist those that will, it comes all to the same End, and we contract the same Gild: For in the Case of Murder, all are principals. But yet against this, some Object. 1. Obj. That they have sustained great Losses by some Alterations in the State, which palls their friendship towards it, and makes them have little Concern for it. Ans. To which I Answer, that if that Alteration was necessary to preserve the whole Community, every particular Person is so far from being a Loser by it, that he hereby gains whatever he enjoys. Perhaps he loses some part of his Estate, or some place of profit: But he enjoys his Life and Liberty, and Spiritual Advantages; and all these are given to him for a Prey. And he has reason not only to be Content, but thankful: Yea, tho' he had lost his All in order to the public Good, and the Happiness of his Posterity. 2. Obj. But others Clamour, That the present Impositions and Taxes fall heavy, tend to a general poverty, and make a great Cause of discontent, Ans. I Answer, They cannot move any good or prudent person to any impatience: A good man will part with All rather than the Gospel, as many Thousands have done in all the times of Persecution. And a prudent man will think a part very profitably laid out to save the whole. The present Taxes which are designed to prosecute the War against the Common Enemy, will appear to every considerate Person as necessary as a Levy to keep up the Sea-Banks. To be sparing in a Case of such necessity, is to be wanting and cruel to ourselves and Posterity; like the fatal parsimony of the wealthy Citizens of Constantinople, who refused to lend their own Emperor a Thirtyeth part of that money which the Turkish Emperor took from them for a spoil, bereaving the wealthyest of them of their Lives too, to consummate the Tragedy. 3. Obj. But we reap little advantage by all our Expenses: so that our Contributions seem to be exported for the support of Foreigners, or misemployed by private hands to their own advantage. Ans. We reap the manifest advantage of maintaining a brave Fleet at Sea, and a Valiant Army on the Continent; without which we should in one month be Ruined beyond possibility of reparation: And all that's done to Support our Allies, tends to find the Enemy work on that side, and keeps the War off from us. But if in this Juncture, there appear any amongst ourselves so vile and proffligate as to embezzle or mis-imploy the public Treasure, they well deserve, That every Person in the three Nations should throw a Stone at them: for every one in this Case is an injured person. But there remains yet a Plea, which would make the betraying of our Country a matter of Conscience; tho' sometimes pleaded by those who make Conscience of nothing. However, they argue thus. 4. Obj. Tho' no man's private Interests can be ponderous enough to weigh down the Interests of three Kingdoms lying in the opposite Scale; Yet may not our Allegiance sworn to a dispossessed Prince bind us to do all we can for him, let what will follow upon it: tho' it be withal granted, that the said Abdicated Prince did industriously and openly endeavour the Fiat Justitia etsi ruat Coelum. subversion of the Government, and destruction of the Community. Ans. This is the Goliath-Argument, and like him brings a Sword to cut off its own Head. For, fidelity to God and our Country was our duty before we Swore Allegiance to that Prince, and could not be nulled by the Oath of Allegiance required in the English Government. Yea, the very design of binding Subjects by Oath to the Supreme Power, is to make it more able to Defend (not Destroy) the common Good. The fundamental End of all civil Government, being to render the whole Political Body safe and happy. And this is plainly affirmed by the Apostle, Rom. 13. 4. The King is God's Minister to thee for Good; that is, in order to the Public Advantage. So then, since the Laws of Nature are before and above all political Laws, and we must be considered as men, before we can fall under the notion of Subjects; and since Preservation is the End of all Government, and since the Laws and Government of England have ever conserved, with the gratest Tenderness, the Rights and Liberties of English Subjects, What Reason or Religion can their be in the present Case? Namely, in making a Sacrifice of our Bibles Fiat Justitia in vastatorem Europae, ne ruat Orbis Terrarum. and Mother-Country to the great Golden Image of the French Arbitary Power, which the Babylonians have set up; and would have all People, Nations, and Languages, to fall down and Worship it; and they require us, above others, to bow to it, because they make their pretended Kindness to the aforesaid Prince a stolen to their Ambition and Usurpation. But, can that be indeed an act of Righteousness, which (by humouring the Vice or Error of one man) destroys many Millions? Or, is it not rather a perfect Dementation, than a Principle of Conscience? For my part, were I dissatisfied about the Legality of the present Government, (as I thank God, I am not in the least) yet I should think myself obliged to keep my Scruples private within my own Breast. Because if this political notion of mine should in the end prove a gross mistake (as our Lawyers, the best Casuists in this Case, assure us it is) what should I have to answer for before God and men? When I should be proved to be a fighter against the most merciful providences of God, and a Vile Traitor to my own Country, which is the worst sort of Parricide. What Restitution can a private man make to many injured Nations? It had need be a manifest part of Duty, so clear and demonstrative, that there is no room for doubt, that engages us against all the Interests of this Life: Otherwise we shall want Comfort in our sufferings here, and may not only miss the Crown of Martyrdom in the other world, but fall under the Curse denounced against such as are without natural affection, Rom. 1. 31. Yea, such as deny the faith by the want of Christian care for those of their own Blood, 1 Tim. 5. 8. I would therefore ask such Persons as lie under this unhappy mistake a few Questions; which, since Conscience is pleaded, I would desire them with due Application of Conscience to consider: 1. Quest. Is not our Love to our Country, and our Endeavour after the welfare of our Relations and Posterity, a natural binding duty, and in order of Nature before our engagements to any Political Institution? 2. Quest. Is not the Preservation of the Community, or whole Political Body, the very End of all political Institutions? 3. Quest. Is it not a contradictions and phrenetick Notion, to destroy any Country in Love to the Prince of it, tho' he were never so Rightfully entitled to it? 4. Quest. Can a Person of the Reformed Religion, with a safe Conscience, dip himself directly or consequentially, in the Luciferian Design of the French Politics, to blot out Protestancy, and enslave Christendom? 5. Quest. Can a good man continue five years together in such execrable ingratitude to God, as never to render hearty Praises to his Great Name, for our Marvellous Deliverance from the Ruin designed to our Church and State in the late Reign? 6. Quest. Can a Papist that is Zealous for Popery, even to Bigotry, sincerely now take, and faithfully keep the Oaths which English Princes are obliged to take at their Coronation? 7. Quest. Can any good Christian desire that a Popish Prince, continuing Zealous for the Principles and Propagation of Popery, should again come to the Imperial Throne of England, and put himself afresh to this hateful and dreadful Dilemma? Namely, either to mock God and men by solemn Oaths, and repeated Promises made to Protestants in abominable Hypocrisy, which was done in the first part of a certain Reign: Or to fall down right upon illegal and open Violations of the Rights of the Protestants of England, as it was done in the last part of it. If this be allowed, I think we may as well conclude, that a firm Protestant may enter upon the Possession of the Throne and Chair of the Pope, and Swear and Vow to preserve all the abominations of the Papacy. But we may easily foresee that Papists would clamour against this as a thing impracticable and self-contradictions: As the Associates of the Holy League in France did against their Henry the Fourth, who often protested that a Protestant was incapable of the French Crown; and surely we have as much Reason to say, That a Papist is as incapable of the Crown of England. And now having considered the two Positions proposed to be spoken to, I come to Apply them; and the manifest Duties which the things do enforce upon all serious Minds, are briefly these: App. 1. Inf. That we manifest ourselves sincere Lovers of our Country, by our earnest Supplications to the Sovereign Disposer of all things, in the behalf of these divided Churches and Kingdoms Let us say, as the Psalmist in the Text, Peace be within them. May all Divisions and Emnities in Church and State be healed by pacific Methods, and the Edge of all Passion be turned against that overgrown Debauchery, which needs the help of all hands to pull it up. Let us try the powerful Means of Prayer and Fasting, to cast out that unclean Spirit of Profaneness, which has kept so long and raving a Possession amongst us. Had our Public Fasts been kept with better Conscience, we might have expected to have seen our Public Affairs in better Condition. To redress this, as much as possible, let our private Fasts be very frequent, and very faithful. We have need, alas! to set up Daniel's Fasts within our Chambers for three Dan. 10. 2, 3. Weeks together, without eating any pleasant Bread, and pray as he does, Dan. 9 16. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let all thine Anger and thy Fury be turned away from thy City Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our Sins and ihe iniquities of our Fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a Reproach to all that are about us. O, may all the Watchmen of our Jerusalem never hold their Peace, day nor night, and give the Lord no Rest, till he establish it, and make it a Praise in the Earth. (Isa. 62. 6, 7.) Yea, let every Soul endeavour, by his Prayers, to become a Patriot, by pulling down Blessings on his Country. And if we would make way for our Prayers to come before God in an acceptable manner, in the next place, 2 Inf. We must, in love to our Country, do all we can towards the removing the general and open Profaneness from its Borders; this is the accursed thing which troubles our Israel, and blasts our Undertake. Wickedness is a thing which God will never bless, and will not long bear. Let us not then be discouraged by the Scoffs or Frowns of wicked Men, from endeavouring to prosecute and discountenance Vice. We cannot well think it a less-glorious Martyrdom, to die for the propagation of the Practice of the Gospel, than for the Profession of its Faith. Let us all then, in our stations, endeavour an universal Reformation; for, indeed we must be looked on as a Nation under God's Rod, who tries whether lesser Scourges will bring us to our Duty; and if not, we have reason to fear utter Destruction. O, that God would give us all a just and timely sense of His impending Wrath, which seems to be so near, that only the present apprehensions of it can be timely enough to prevent it. 3 Inf. Let us be steady and vigorous in the performance of our Duty to Their Majesty's King WILLIAM and Queen MARY, to whom, besides the Ties of Duty and Gratitude, we are bound by a sort of Necessity, and must say as in the Text; For my Brethren and Companions sakes, I will wish your Peace. and because of the Houses of the Lord our God, we will seek your Good. 4 Inf. Let me exhort Soldiers and Seamen to whet and enliven their Courage from these Principles, namely, The love of the Reformed Religion, and the Liberties of your Country. The justness of your Cause may make you bold and undaunted, when you engage the Enemies of all that aught to be dear to you; especially if the love of the sacred Gospel has its due place in your Hearts. And, O that it had more deep and firm root there! for, a Good Conscience is as a Wall of Brass about a Man. The Righteous is bold as a Lion, (Prov. 28. 1.) God has promised to put the Fear and Dread of such into the Hearts of their Enemies; so that they shall have a very easy Victory, and a very glorious one, because wrought by the special Favour of God. (Deut. 11. 25.) There shall no man be able to stand before you; for the Lord your God shall lay the fear and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon. So that you and we have great reason to regard the Counsel of God, given, Deut. 23. 9 When the Host goeth forth against thine Enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing. Wherefore cast away all Iniquity from you, that so the Spirit of the Lord may come mightily upon you, as it did upon the famous Worthies of old, who being thus supported, always did Wonders. 5 Inf. Let us all (however divided about the lesser matters of Religion) stand up with one Soul against the Common Enemies of Protestancy: And, however unhappily divided we are about some Political Notions, let us nevertheless, with one consent, oppose the Designs of the Common Enemy of our Country. Whilst the execrable French Faction here is zealous, earnest, and impudent; daring us publicly with their Wagers, and defying us with their Threats. If in such a Juncture we on the contrary remain cool and indifferent, as if it were a light thing how the matter succeeded; we can at this rate make no Countermine to their desperate Designs, but they are too like to carry all before them. We have a sort of spiritless and enervate Creatures amongst us, who in a very poor and passive manner say, We will have no hand one way nor the other; We will not concern ourselves, nor intermeddle. No, Sirs? what! not when your Enemies come with Idols to your Churches, and Firebrands to your Houses! Not, when a Universal Ruin threatens yourselves and Posterity? Surely, as you will be the easiest, so will you be the most despised Prey of your Enemies, who (if they have any Manhood in them) will show more Favour to the brave Defenders of their Country, than to the sneaking Deserters and Betrayers of it. Methinks it might sufficiently awaken every reasonable Soul, to push on the present War with the utmost vigour, if he will but exercise so much Forethought, as to consider what will be the dreadful consequences of miscarrying in it. 'Tis to me past doubt, that we had better be subdued by any People in the World than by the French. No other Nation has Naval Forces sufficient to secure such a Conquest. If the Turk subdued us, he would miserably tyrannize; but he would permit us the enjoyment of our Religion for a small yearly Tribute. If other Nations subdued us, either their distance would slacken our Bonds, or their weakness would press us more lightly * As in the Roman and Danish Conquests. . But France is our next Neighbour, very powerful by Sea and Land, able to load us with heavy Chains, and to rivet them upon us. And besides, it looks upon us as a Nation capable of being a Rival to her Glory; and has often felt the power of our Arms in her own Bowels: Yea, she has been made a Conquest by us, and longs to wipe off that stain, and to pull her Lilies out of the Paw of our Lyon. And further, She has often found us a Goad in her Side, when she flew at the Quarry of other Conquests. And 'twas only whilst we slept, that She got up such a Fleet upon the Sea, and enlarged her Boundaries so widely upon the Land. And upon these accounts we must expect no Mercy at her hands; but to be stripped of all our Strength and Glory, and to be made a Dunghill of Desolation. Her Statesmen would allow our Liberties no more Quarter, than the Jesuits would our Religion. Ah! how dreadful an infatuation is it, not to be sensible of the Approaches of such Miseries! the mere possibility of which, were enough to startle any Man of Sense, the likelihood of it enough to transport the meekest Spirit into an extreme Rage. Should such a Thing come to pass (which God in mercy for ever avert) what would Posterity say of the Politics and Prowess of our present Age? What a burning shame would the Slavery of England be to the present Inhabitants of so Strong, so Rich, and Populous a Land? A Nation so much famed and dreaded in times past all over the World: and such a peculiar Terror to the French Nation, where the very Name of an Englishman has been known to get a Victory * Witness the Tremendous Name of Talbot, in Sir Ric. Baker's Chron. Surely we had, every Soul of us, better die in the Defence, than live in the Bondage and Reproach of our Nation. I am not over-prone to put men upon the hazard of their Lives, nor am I rash in what I have spoken; for I again affirm, That our Lives ought to be less dear to us than the enjoyment of the Gospel and the Liberties of our Country. And in this, I am sure, The Hands and Hearts of all good Protestants and true Englishmen will concur with me. For my part, I speak nothing here in Envy or Enmity, to so great a Monarch as the French King, I wish he really were as great a Hero as his Flatterers on both sides the Sea boast him to be. I wish he had manifested that Truth and Honour in all his promises to his own Nation, and Compacts with others, which might render his name Honourable and his Memory blessed. O that he never had drawn forth his Sword against the Truths of Jesus Christ; nor shed the blood of Martyrs in his own Land, and Rivers of blood of poor Innocents' in his usurpations upon the Territories of others. And in short, I sincerely wish, that he were as good a Prince, and Reigned within his just dominions with as much Honour and universal prosperity as humane Life admits. And if these were his only Aims, no Good Man would stir his Tongue or Hand against him. But when he flies at All, without sense of Right, or Bowels of Pity; and would crumble all the Nations of the Earth to Dust, to erect a Mountainous Babel to his own exorbitant Ambition; here 'tis every one's Duty and Interest, to do all they can to oppose the grand Robber, and stop the Chase of the mighty Nimrod. And to excite every Soul to this, I shall only add, I. That the manifest Duty of so doing will bind every Motives. sensible Conscience; namely, The plain natural Duty of Love to our Country and Religion. To be wanting in this, is to deny the Faith, and act more barbarously than Infidels, (1 Tim. 5. 8.) It is indeed Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos ducit, etc. to fight against Nature itself, and the God of Nature, who seems to inspire all men with a sort of fondness to their Native Place; so that most People like their own Home above other places, much finer and better. And this natural Kindness seems mutual; for the place in which we were bred and born is thought by Physicians to abound with such a friendly Air to us, as to be our last Relief in time of pineing Sickness, when all their other Arts and Drugs are insufficient to secure us: And shall we forsake the Land of our Nativity in her Extremities, which is so cherishing and faithful to us, even to the Death? In this, even inanimate Nature itself will reproach us. II. The Honour of so doing will constrain all Persons of Character and Reputation. Naaman is recorded in Scripture to have been an Honourable Person, because by him God had given Deliverance to Syria; (2 Kin. 5. 1.) And 'tis said, That Mordecai was great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his Brethren, because he sought the Wealth of his People. (Esth. 10. 3.) And we behold Queen Esther with Tears protesting, That she could not endure to see the Evil that was coming upon her People, and therefore she put her Life in her Hand to prevent it. (Esth. 8. 6.) And our Excellent Queen, of fragrant and blessed Memory, Queen Elizabeth, often assured her People, That she was ready to sacrifice her Life for their Safety; and acted always as she said, and is therefore to this day had in the greatest admiration. These were Worthies indeed, to be had in everlasting remembrance! when the lying Statues of such Princes as are only great in doing Evil, will be buried in the Dust, or rather in the Dunghill. O, that all perfidious Betrayers of their Country were treated as their Brother the late Governor of Heydelburgh, and had their Swords broken over their Heads, and the pieces of them thrown in their Faces; which surely is more fit, than that they should sheathe them in their Mother's Bowels: And this would be but a very mild, though a very symbolical Punishment of such an unnatural Transgression. But if they escape Punishment from those they betray, they will certainly find it at the Hands of those they oblige; their Wooden Shoes will reproach their Blockish Heads, and their extreme Folly will not fail to be its own Penance. III. Lastly, The absolute necessity of seeking the Good of our Nation in order to our own safety and subsistence, will compel all People of Sense to their Duty of this kind. We must be true to the Interests of our Country, or perish in the neglect of the necessary Care for our own Safety. So that, as we have any natural Love for our Relations, or any supernatural Affection for our Religion, or any natural instinct of Self-preservation, or any sense of Honour in acting suitably to all these Obligations, we must seek the Good of our Jerusalem, in its Ecclesiastical and Civil Rights and Immunities. In sum, As we would not see our Native Country a base tributary Province, stripped of all its Glory, and made servile to a Foreign Power: As we would not deliver up our Children to be bred up in the Delusions of Popery, and be the means of their Slavery to the most Arbitrary and Cruel Masters: As we would not behold our Enemies reaping what we have sown, and inhabiting the Houses that we have built: And lastly, as we would not behold the Altars of Superstition set up in our Churches, nor suffer the Light of the Gospel (for which our Martyrs died) to be extinguished by the Abomination that maketh desolate: I say, as we would shun these intolerable Plagues, and longer enjoy those inestimable Blessings (spiritual and temporal) which we now are blest withal, we must all do our utmost to cast away all Iniquity from us, and to sue out our Peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: And withal, we must unanimously apply our utmost Industry, to withstand the vigorous Efforts of our powerful Enemies: as we have any tenderness for our Brethren and Companions, or any Zeal for the Houses of the Lord our God. Consider what has been said, and the Lord give you Understanding in all things. Amen. FINIS.