ance on divine protection, to prevent and render abortive such an unjust and daring enterprize.

Bleffed be GOD! as a profeffing, though finful people, we have lately taken one effectual ftep towards bringing about fuch a falutary end.

In obedience to a call from the throne, we have been humbling ourselves in the moft public and folemn manner before the most high GOD. And it is to be hoped, that the many tears which were that day fhed, and the thousands and thousands of prayers that were then offered up, have long fince been regarded by, and entered into the ears of the LORD of Sabbaoth. Infidels may perhaps laugh, and make themselves merry with such an infinuation; but serious people (and to fuch in a more peculiar manner is this address directed) will account it no ways enthufiaftic to affirm, that folemn humiliations, whether performed by public communities in general, or individuals in particular, have always met with fuch a divine acceptance, as to obtain at least a reprieve from, if not a total removal of, the threatened evil. The deferring of an impending judgment, only upon the hypocritical, but public humiliation of a wicked Ahab; The mature and providential deliverance of the Jewish people from the cruel plot of an ambitious Haman, for which queen Efther, Mordecai, and the other diftreffed Jews fought so earnestly by public fafting and prayer: And what is yet more, the total and entire fufpenfion of the deftruction of Nineveh, that exceeding great city, (though fo peremptorily denounced) upon the fasting, praying, and repenting of the king, nobles and commons, at the preaching of Jonah. Thefe, not to mention many more that might be adduced from facred ftory, are moft pregnant, and, at the fame time, very encouraging proofs, that they that humble themselves, fhall in GOD's due time be exalted; and therefore, as a nation, we may boldly infer, that the righteous LORD, who delights to fhew himself strong in behalf of those who are of an upright heart, will favour, plead, and vindicate cur righteous cause.

I am very fenfible, that artful infinuations have been induftriously published, in order to lay all the blame of this war upon us. But bold affertions and folid proofs are two different things; for it is plain, beyond all contradiction, that the French,

French, fond of rivalling us both at home and abroad, have moft unjustly invaded his Majefty's dominions in America; and have also, by the moft vile artifices and lies, been endeavouring to draw the fix nations of Indians from our intereft; in short, almost all their proceedings ever fince the late treaty of Aix la Chapelle, have been little else than preparations for, or a tacit declaration of war. But he that fitteth in heaven, as we may humbly hope, laughs them to fcorn; and, as he once defeated the counsel of Achitophel, and came down to confound the language of those aspiring projectors who would fain have built a tower, the top of which should reach even to heaven; fo we truft (whatever dark providences may intervene) that he will in the end fruftrate the devices of our adverfary's most fubtle politicians, and fpeak confusion to all their projects; who, by aiming at univerfal monarchy, are more than attempting to erect a fecond Babel.

I have heard, or read fomewhere of a Turkish General, who, being called to engage with a chriftian army that had broken through the moft folemn ties, ftood up at the head of his troops, and then drawing the treaty which they had broken, out of his bosom, and holding it up in the air, thus addreffed the throne of heaven; "O almighty Being, if thou

art, as they fay, thou art, these chriftians GOD, thou loveft "what is right, and hateft perfidy; look down therefore and "behold this treaty which they have broken; and, as thou "canft not favour what is wrong, render their arms, O GOD, "fuccefsless, and make mine victorious." He ended; immediately the sword was drawn. The two parties vigorously engaged, and the perfidious chriftians were beaten off the field. Thus may our proteftant Generals, or at least their Chaplains, deal with our enemy's forces, in refpect to the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. They, not we, have broken it. They, not we, have been the aggreffors: and therefore, notwithstanding we are looked upon as heretics, and they fight under the banner of one who ftiles himself His most Christian Majefty; a righteous GOD, we truft, in answer to prayer, will humble France, and make the British arms both by fea and land, more than conquerors through his love. It is true (and God knows with grief of heart I speak it) praying is become too unfashionable amongst our people in general, and among

our

our military men in particular; but wherein the piety, and confequently the true policy, of fuch a proceedure confifts, I believe will be very difficult to determine. If we have recourse to Rollin's ancient history, I believe we shall find, that neither Darius, Cyrus, Alexander, nor indeed scarce any of the Egyptian, Grecian, Perfian, or Roman Generals, ever undertook any hazardous enterprize, without making some public acknowledgment of a deity. And if we confult that history of hiftories, that too much neglected book (as Sir Richard Steel expreffes himfelf) emphatically called the SCRIPTURES, we may always remark, that those heroic worthies, who by faith fubdued kingdoms, and put to flight the armies of the aliens, were men of prayer as well as men of valour. And if our refearches descend down to our own annals, we fhall foon be satisfied, that the British arms were never more formidable, than when our foldiers went forth in the ftrength of the LORD; and with a bible in one hand, and a fword in the other, chearfully fought under his banner who hath condefcended to ftile himself "a man of war."

Such an appellation as this, methinks, may fufficiently justify the lawfulness of bearing arms, and drawing the sword in defence of our civil and religious liberties. For if God himfelf is pleafed to ftile himself a man of war, furely in a just and righteous caufe (such as the British war at present is) we may as lawfully draw our fwords, in order to defend ourselves against our common and public enemy, as a civil magistrate may fit on a bench, and condemn a public robber to death. Our excellent reformers, fenfible of this, in the thirty-second article of our church, after having declared " that the laws "of the realm may punish chriftian men with death for "heinous offences; immediately fubjoins, "that it is lawful "for chriftian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, "to wear weapons and ferve in the wars." And therefore, what Bishop Saunderson says of study, may be likewise said of fighting: "fighting without prayer is atheism, and prayer "without fighting is prefumption." And I would be the more particular on this point, because through a fatal fcrupu lofty against bearing arms, even in a defenfive war, his Majefty hath been, and is not yet out of danger of losing that large, cxtenfive, and but lately most flourishing province of Penfylvania,

Pensylvania, the very centre and garden of all North America. But whilft I fee fuch very fcrupulous perfons grasping at every degree of worldly power, and by all the arts of worldly policy labouring to monopolize, and retain in their own hands all parts both of the legislative and executive branches of civil government; to speak in the mildest terms, we may honeftly affirm, that they certainly act a moft inconfiftent, and if not prevented here at home, to thousands of their neighbours, I fatal part. For, fay what we will to the contrary, if we search to the bottom of things, we may foon be convinced, that civil magiftracy and defensive war must stand or fall together. Both are built upon the fame bafis; and there cannot be fo much as one fingle argument urged to establish the one, which doth not at the fame time corroborate and confirm the other.

fear a very

Far be it from me, who profess myself a difciple and minister of the Prince of peace, to found a trumpet for war: but when the trumpet is already founded by a perfidious enemy, and our king, our country, our civil and religious liberties, are all, as it were, lying at stake, did we not at such a season lend our purses, our tongues, our arms, as well as our prayers, in defence of them, fhould we not justly incur that curfe which an infpired Deborah, when under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, once uttered, "Curfe ye Meroz, curfe ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty?" Known unto GOD, and GoD alone, are all our hearts. Daily and repeated experience convinceth us, that the greatest talkers are not always the greateft doers. How therefore any of us may behave when put to the trial, the trial itfelf can only prove. But, for my own part, whatever my future conduct may be, (and I know it will be downright cowardly, if left to myfelf) yet, upon the matureft deliberation, I am at present so fully convinced of the juftice of the British caufe, that fuppofing it fhould be faid of me, as it is of Zwinglius," Cecidit in prælio, He fell in battle;" I hope, if whilft the filver cords of life were loofing, and I should be attended by any who may be bewailing mine, as the friends of Zwinglius did his misfortune, I should like him cry out, Ecquid hoc infortunii? Is this a misfortune?" And not only

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fo,

fo, but with my expiring breath add, as he did, "O fauftum infortunium! O happy misfortune!" For, furely, it is får more preferable to die, though by a popish fword, and be carried from the din and noise of war by angels into Abraham's bofom, than to be fuffered to furvive, only to drag on a wearifome life, and to be a mournful spectator, and daily bewailer of one's country's ruin.

Awful and tremendous are the judgments that have lately been abroad. Twice hath the earth on which this great metropolis ftands, unable, as it were, any longer to sustain the weight of its inhabitants fins, been made to tremble and totter under ús. Since that, how amazingly hath the fhock been extended! Africa, (nor hath America itself been exempted) hath in a moft deftructive manner felt its dire effects. And what a dreadful consumption it hath made in various parts of Spain, and, in a more efpecial manner, at Lisbon, the metropolis of Portugal, is beyond conception, and beyond the power of the most masterly pen to describe. It is to be questioned, whether the like hath ever been heard of fince the deluge. Surely nothing was wanting to figure out, and realize to that diftreffed people the horror of the last day, but the found of the trump, and the actual appearance of the great Judge of quick and dead. But awful and tremendous as fuch phænomenas of nature may be; yet, if we confider the confequences of things, was even the like judgment to befal us, (which may GOD avert!) it would be but a fmall one, in comparison of our hearing that a French army, accompanied with a popish Pretender, and thousands of Remish priests, was suffered to invade, fubdue, and destroy the bodies and substance, and, as the neceffary confequences of both thefe, to blind, deceive, and tỷrannize over the fouls and confciences of the people belonging to this happy ifle.

God forbid, that I fhould give flattering titles to any; for in fo doing, I fhould provoke him to take away my foul. But furely we must have eyes that fee not, and ears that hear not, as well as hearts that do not underftand, if we do not know, and fee, and feel, that in refpect to our civil and religious liberties, we are undoubtedly the freeft people under heaven. And I dare appeal to the most ungrateful and malicious malecontent, to produce any era in the British annals, wherein

we