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themfelves free from this fort of infection, were in as much danger of fwerving to a contrary extreme, and of making inferences to the prejudice of religion itfelf, which they faw perverted and proftituted to the worst defigns. Even good men, at the fight of these profperous hypocrites, were ready to cry out in the words of complaining Jeremiah"Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked profper? Why are all they happy that deal very treacheroufly? Thou haft planted them; yea, they have taken root; they grow, they bring forth fruit: Thou art near in their mouth, and far (very far) from their reins!" Then, when thefe hypocritical pretenders to godlinefs abounded, did an oppofite spirit of open levity and profanenefs begin to gain ground upon a ferious and religious people: Then were those feeds of infidelity firft fown among us, which have fince fprung up, and increafed into a mighty harveft. Our endless divifions were a fcandal to the truly pious, the boaft of Rome, and the fport of thefts: We were made a reproach to our neighbours, afcorn and a derifion to them that were round about us; a bye word among the heathen, a fhaking of the head among the people: We lay down in our fhame, and our confusion covered ús," Pfal. xliv. 13, 14. No words can exprefs the various forts of mifery, under which this nation then groaned, " by reafon of the multitude of oppreffions" and oppreffors, Job xxxv. 9. "New lords had dominion over us," the very "refufe and outcaft of the people;" the head

became

became the tail, and the tail the head; "the child behaved himself proud against the ancient, and the base against the honourable," Ifa. i 5. From violence and bloodthed this new model of government had arifen; and the fame methods were requifite to cement and uphold it. Plunder and rapine completed the devaftations which war had begun: Armed force decided right, or executed the fentence of thofe, who had no manner of right to decide it: They were altogether "like wolves, ravening the prey to thed blood, and ." to destroy fouls to get difhoneft gain," Ezek. xxii. 27. "As the voice of a woman in travail, 66 as the anguish of her that bringeth forth her "firft child; fuch was then the voice of the "daughter of Sion, that bewailed herself, that "spread forth her hands, faying; Woe us me now! for my foul is weary, because of mur"derers !" Jer. iv. 31.

At last this ftorm ceafed, the clouds difperfed, and the fun fhone out again in his ftrength; the royal family returned, and with it our old conftitution in church and ftate; the regicides fuffered, and the land feemed to be cleanfed of the royal blood that was fhed therein, by the blood of thofe that thed it. Thus, for a while, we vainly imagined; but fad experience foon undeceived us. Not many years paffed, before God did again empty, as it were, at once, all the vials of his wrath upon us: The fword raged abroad; fire and peftilence at home: And when this goodly city was laid in afhes, and defolation and emptinefs reigned in her streets, doubtless pious perfons did often reflect, how much her mif-employed

wealth

wealth and mifguided zeal had formerly contributed to the miseries and confufions under which we laboured and even they, whom a few years plenty and profperity had lulled into a forgetfulnefs of their guilt, began then to lay their hands upon their hearts, and with Jofeph's brethren tô fay: "Verily we are guilty concerning our prince; "therefore is this deftruction come upon us!" Gen xliii. 21.

There was still a more terrible judgment be hind, which we were threatened with, and in fome measure felt, though the Providence of God did not fuffer it thoroughly to lay hold of us: I mean, the advances made by Popery in a late reigh toward establishing itself among us. And this alfo was the fruit of our former iniquities; for (to fpeak a plain truth, which, plain as it is, has been lately treated with fcorn and derifion by fhameleofs writers) the attempt of introducing a foreign religion was but too natural a confequence of our forcing the royal family to take shelter in foreign countries; where they might be allured by the tempting appearances of a fplendid worship, and a regular hierarchy, and by glorious but empty pretences to univerfality and infallibility; efpecially at a time, when the good frame of our eccle fiaftical polity here at home was fhattered and diffolved, and the "honour of our Sion was laid low in the duft." Still therefore our punishment was from ourselves; nor was God a hard Master in inflicting it; for we reaped only what we had fowed, and gathered what we had ftrawed, and the firft fubverfion of our constitution involved us in all the confufions and miferies, in which we long

long afterwards laboured. But that form also blew over, and times of liberty fucceeded, where in we promised ourfelves the fettled enjoyment of all manner of advantages and bleffings. Can we Tay that thofe hopes were not in great measure defeated by the fpirit of irreligion and libertinifin, which then, and ever fince that tinie, notoriously prevailed; by thofe inteftine factions and difcords, by which we have been torn; and that foreign war, under the weight of which we for more than twenty years groaned? Till the vaft expence of blood and treafure, which it occafioned, made us ready to cry out in the pathetic words of the prophet, "O thou word of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put thyfelf up in thy fcabbard; reft, and be still!" Jer. xlvii. 6.

And when that fword refted in its scabbard, was not the manner of fheathing it as unwelcome to us, as even the havock it had occasioned, when naked and drawn! Was not the good queen (now with God) the fubject of malicious, but groundlefs reproaches on that very account? Did we not murmur at the bleffing, and bring ourselves, at laft, with great difficulty to relish and approve it?

But may we not now at length hope, that all is well with us, and that the ill confequences of fpilling the royal blood of this day are ceafed, the th ger of God appeafed, and our national guilt utterly pardoned? How can that be, until the na tion itself hath manifeftly repented? And the repentance of a nation for any fin is best testified by its general abhorrence of the principles and practices that caufed it. And are we able in this VOL. IV. C

manfier

manner to purge ourfelves of this day's tranfgref fion? Do we, indeed give evident proofs, that we heartily and univerfally deteft it? If that be really our cafe, "what meaneth then this bleating of the fheep in our ears, and this lowing of the Oxen which we hear?" 1 Sam. xv. 14. How comes it to pafs; that thefe anniversary humiliations are fo openly fpoken againft, ill treated and derided? Why has the horrid guilt of the day been leffened in public difcourfes, and represented with all manner of alleviations and foftnings? As if it were unpopular and imprudent, to paint fuch a villainy to the life, or to freak of it in fuitable terms of ignominy and reproach! Why have the doctrines, which paved the way to this bloody deed, been freely revived, embraced, and cherished; and thofe, for which the sufferers in the royal caufe underwent all manner of perfecutions, been dif countenanced and exploded? Why has the fpirit of liberty been indulged to an outrageous degree of licentioufnefs; the reverence due to thrones fhaken by mean and infolent pens; and contempt poured on the facred character of princes, "as though they had not been anointed with oyl ?” z Sam. i. 21. Why have lectures, in fuch facred places as thefe, been more than once read to the people, not only with permiffion, but applaufe, inftructing them how near they might approach towards the fin of rebellion, without actually incurring the guilt of it? And why have impious wretches by their mock feasts ridiculed our folemn fafts, without being punished, or (which is yet a worfe fign) even without being detected in order to punishment? Certainly, thefe are no good

proofs

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