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cute the defigns he had formed against our civil and religious liberties. It was high time therefore to appeal once more to the decifion of the fword, which as it was juftly, drawn by us, fo can it scarce fafely be fheathed, till the thumbs and great toes of Adonibezek be cut off; Judg. i. 6 I mean, till the power of the great troubler of our peace. be fo far pared and reduced, as that we may be under no apprehenfions of it for the future.

Nor have the means, which we have made ufe of to attain this great and good end, been any ways unfuitable to it. A juft and righteous war may be profecuted after a very unjust and unrighteous manner; by perfidious breaches of our word, by fuch treacherous practices as the law of arms itself (loose as it is) condemns; by inhuman - crueltics, by affaffinations; by tyrannical methods of forcing money into our coffers, and men into our fervice. These are the difhonourable ways, which the, who formerly profefled to fight for his glory, hath not of late difdained to make use of. Thanks be to God, that, as we have had no need, fo neither doth it appear that we had any inclination to try them! In every step of this long and bloody difpute, we have thewed ourfelves fair, nay, good-natured and geneous adverfaries ; and have carried on even our hoftilities with all the humanity and mercy of which they are capable. We have fpilt no blood but in the heat of the battle, or the chace; and have made captivity itself as eafy to the unfortunate as was poffible. We have been firm and faithful to our allies, without declining any difficulties or dangers,

any

any expence of blood or treafure, to which we had engaged ourselves; and we have even exceeded our engagements. We have not made use of rapine and oppreffion at hone, to fupport the burden of the war abroad, but have carried it on by the free gifts of a willing people; nor can it be faid, that the public fervice hath been robbed of any part of thofe fupplies which were intended for it. We have not pillaged thofe rich neighbouring provinces which we refcued: Victory itfelf hath not made us infolent masters or friends; nor have we taken advantage from thence to enlarge either our territories or our pretenfions, or to gain any thing to ourselves beyond the honour of restoring quiet to the world, and every one's rights to their juft owners. And thus far therefore we have reafon to look upon our fucceffes, as the bleffings of God upon the good methods we have taken to fupport a good caufe, and as declarations of Heaven in our favour. However, they cannot be entirely depended on as fuch, till we have further confidered, whether our piety and virtue have borne a due proportion to our fucceffes, and laid the foundation for them: for, unless this be the cafe, tho' God hath bleffed a righteous caufe, yet he hath not bleffed it for the fake of thofe who are concerned in it; and the bleffings which are not imparted to us for our own fake, can be no evidences of the divine fayour towards us.

Let us then lay our hands upon our hearts and impartially enquire, What good qualities we had to recommend ourselves to the favour of God,

at our entrance on this long war, how we have behaved ourselves throughout the course of it.

No fooner was our deliverance from the illegal attempts of a late reign completed, but we forgat our danger and our duty; for jook the God that had preserved us, and lightly esteemed the rock of our falvation, Deut. xxxii 15. That fpirit of religion and seriousness, by which we had juft before diftinguifhed ourselves, vanifhed all at once; and a fpirit of levity and libertinism, of infidelity and profaneness started up in the room of it: Our churches, that a little while before had been crouded, were now in great measure deserted; our facraments, which had been frequented with fo much zeal, were approached more fparingly; the difpenfers of holy things, who, for their work's fake, had been fo highly regarded and reverenced, were made a by-word and a reproach as the filth of the world, and the off-fcouring of aith ngs, 1 Cor. iv. 13. Nor could their immortal labours against popery, by which they had contributed to the common fecurity, as much at least as any other order of men in the kingdom, fcreen them from that contempt, whichwas then fo liberally poured upon them. In proportion as our zeal for religion decayed, our corruptions and vices increafed; an univerfal diffolution of manners began to prevail, a profeffed difregard to all fixed principles, whether in matters divine, or human.

At the fame time we were crumbled into various factions and parties; all aiming at by-interefts, without any fincere regard for the public good; odious names of diftinction, which had flept, while the dread of popery hung over us, were revived;

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and our private quarrels were carried on against cach other with as great bitterness and malice, as if we had now no common enemy to unite and employ us.

With this temper of mind we entered into the war; were we altered any way for the better, during the course of it? Did the viciffitudes of good and bad fortune, which we then experinced, affect us with due degrees of humility or thankfulness? Could God prevail with us, by all the forts of experiments which he tryed, to forfake our fins and our follies? Could he awe us by his rod, or melt us by his goodness into repentance? Alas! inftead of that, we waxed worse and worfe every day, both as to religion and morals; till we left off even to ftudy the outward appearances of piety and virtue; and were not contented mére❤ ly to be, but affected even to be thought loofe and lawlefs. Edicts against immorality and profanenefs iffued, laws against oaths and execrations were framed; and we trampled both upon the one and the other, with contempt and impunity. Whilft a foreign war devoured our ftrength, and drained our treasures ftill luxury and the expences of life increased at home; nor were they checked even by our difgraces and misfortunes. Our national humiliations were ridiculed by impious mock feasts; wherein the execrable murther of our martyred fovereign was annually commemorated with circumftances of fo much indignity and .fcorn, as cannot be spoken of with decency, or reflected on without horror. When we wept, on this occafion, and chaftened our fouls with fafting, that was to our reproach: They fat in the gate

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(fome even of the men of greatnefs, and bufinefs, and gravity) fake agai ft us, and we were the fong of the drunkards, Pfal. Ixix. 10, 12. of vain, idle, diffolute companions. The house of God itfelf hath been profaned by riots; abominable impurities, not to be mentioned, have been openly and daringly practifed: We have declared our fin, as Sodom, and have not bid it, Ifaiah iii. 9. We have talked much of reforming men's manners pray God, we meant it! If any step of that kind hath been taken, it is only what the zeal of fome private perfons fuggefted; the execution of that glorious defign hath not been put into the hands of thofe, who fhould be beft inclined, as they are moft concerned, to promote it.

The fundamental articles of our faith have been oppugned from the prefs; myfteries have been derided; the immortality of the foul hath been denied; Chriftian priesthood fet at naught and vilified; and even the High priest of our profession, the bleffed Jefus himself, treated by a blafphemous pen* with as much fcorn and malice, as when he appeared before the bar of Pilate. Hath a na tion jo ufed their Gods, which are yet no Gods? Jer. ii. 11. or fo vilified the perfons that belonged to their worship and fervice?

Since these are some of the methods, by which we qualified ourselves for our fucceffes, thefe fome of the returns which we made to God, after obtaining them; can we reasonably prefume,

that we are in the favour of God on the account

See a Paffage in theAx laid to the Root of Christianity cited from a book, entitled, The Hiftory of the Growth of Deifen.

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