[♦] “Sabbaoth” replaced with “Sabaoth”
I am very sensible, that artful insinuations have been industriously published, in order to lay all the blame of this war upon us. But bold assertions and solid proofs are two different things; for it is plain, beyond all contradiction, that the French, fond of rivalling us both at home and abroad, have most unjustly invaded his Majesty’s dominions in America; and have also, by the most vile artifices and lies, been endeavouring to draw the six nations of Indians from our interest; in short, almost all their proceedings ever since the late treaty of Aix la Chapelle, have been little else than preparations for, or a tacit declaration of war. But he that sitteth in heaven, as we may humbly hope, laughs them to scorn; 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; so we trust (whatever dark providences may intervene) that he will in the end frustrate the devices of our adversary’s most subtle politicians, and speak confusion to all their projects; who, by aiming at universal monarchy, are more than attempting to erect a second Babel.
I have heard, or read somewhere of a Turkish General, who, being called to engage with a christian army that had broken through the most solemn ties, stood 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 addressed the throne of heaven: “O almighty Being, if thou art, as they say, thou art, these christians God, thou lovest what is right, and hateth perfidy; look down therefore and behold this treaty which they have broken; and, as thou canst not favour what is wrong, render their arms, O God, successless, and make mine victorious.” He ended; immediately the sword was drawn. The two parties vigorously engaged, and the perfidious christians were beaten off the field. Thus may our protestant Generals, or at least their Chaplains, deal with our enemy’s forces, in respect to the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. They, not we, have broken it. They, not we, have been the aggressors: and therefore, notwithstanding we are looked upon as heretics, and they fight under the banner of one who stiles himself His most Christian Majesty; a righteous God, we trust, in answer to prayer, will humble France, and make the British arms both by sea 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 military men in particular; but wherein the piety, and consequently the true policy, of such a [♦]procedure consists, 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, Persian, or Roman Generals, ever undertook any hazardous enterprize, without making some public acknowledgment of a deity. And if we consult that history of histories, that too much neglected book (as Sir Richard Steel expresses himself) emphatically called the Scriptures, we may always remark, that those heroic worthies, who by faith subdued kingdoms, and put to flight the armies of the aliens, were men of prayer as well as men of valour. And if our researches descend down to our own annals, we shall soon be satisfied, that the British arms were never more formidable, than when our soldiers went forth in the strength of the Lord; and with a bible in one hand, and a sword in the other, chearfully fought under his banner who hath condescended to stile himself “a man of war.”
[♦] “proceedure” replaced with “procedure”
Such an appellation as this, methinks, may sufficiently justify the lawfulness of bearing arms, and drawing the sword in defence of our civil and religious liberties. For if God himself is pleased to stile himself a man of war, surely in a just and righteous cause (such as the British war at present is) we may as lawfully draw our swords, in order to defend ourselves against our common and public enemy, as a civil magistrate may sit on a bench, and condemn a public robber to death. Our excellent reformers, sensible of this, in the thirty-second article of our church, after having declared “that the laws of the realm may punish christian men with death for heinous offences;” immediately subjoins, “that it is lawful for christian men, at the commandment of the magistrate, to wear weapons and serve in the wars.” And therefore, what Bishop [♦]Sanderson says of study, may be likewise said of fighting: “fighting without prayer is atheism, and prayer without fighting is presumption.” And I would be the more particular on this point, because through a fatal scrupulosity against bearing arms, even in a defensive war, his Majesty hath been, and is not yet out of danger of losing that large, extensive, and but lately most flourishing province of Pensylvania, the very centre and garden of all North America. But whilst I see such very scrupulous persons 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 honestly affirm, that they certainly act a most inconsistent, and if not prevented here at home, to thousands of their neighbours, I fear a very fatal part. For, say what we will to the contrary, if we search to the bottom of things, we may soon be convinced, that civil magistracy and defensive war must stand or fall together. Both are built upon the same basis; and there cannot be so much as one single argument urged to establish the one, which doth not at the same time corroborate and confirm the other.
[♦] “Saunderson” replaced with “Sanderson”
Far be it from me, who profess myself a disciple and minister of the Prince of peace, to sound a trumpet for war: but when the trumpet is already sounded 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, should we not justly incur that curse which an inspired Deborah, when under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, once uttered, “Curse ye Meroz, curse 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 greatest doers. How therefore any of us may behave when put to the trial, the trial itself 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 myself) yet, upon the maturest deliberation, I am at present so fully convinced of the justice of the British cause, that supposing it should be said of me, as it is of Zwinglius, “Cecidit in prœlio, He fell in battle;” I hope, if whilst the silver cords of life were loosing, 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 so, but with my expiring breath add, as he did, “O faustum infortunium! O happy misfortune!” For, surely, it is far more preferable to die, though by a popish sword, and be carried from the din and noise of war by angels into Abraham’s bosom, than to be suffered to survive, only to drag on a wearisome 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 stands, unable, as it were, any longer to sustain the weight of its inhabitants sins, been made to tremble and totter under us. Since that, how amazingly hath the shock been extended! Africa, (nor hath America itself been exempted) hath in a most destructive manner felt its dire effects. And what a dreadful consumption it hath made in various parts of Spain, and, in a more especial 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 since the deluge. Surely nothing was wanting to figure out, and realize to that distressed people the horror of the last day, but the sound of the trump, and the actual appearance of the great Judge of quick and dead. But awful and tremendous as such phænomenas of nature may be; yet, if we consider the consequences of things, was even the like judgment to befal us, (which may God avert!) it would be but a small one, in comparison of our hearing that a French army, accompanied with a popish Pretender, and thousands of Romish priests, was suffered to invade, subdue, and destroy the bodies and substance, and, as the necessary consequences of both these, to blind, deceive, and tyrannize over the souls and consciences of the people belonging to this happy isle.
God forbid, that I should give flattering titles to any; for in so doing, I should provoke him to take away my soul. But surely we must have eyes that see not, and ears that hear not, as well as hearts that do not understand, if we do not know, and see, and feel, that in respect to our civil and religious liberties, we are undoubtedly the freest people under heaven. And I dare appeal to the most ungrateful and malicious malecontent, to produce any æra in the British annals, wherein we have enjoyed such a continued series of civil and religious liberty, as we have been favoured with for these twenty-eight years last past, under the mild and gentle administration of our dread and rightful Sovereign King George. Surely he hath been a nursing father to people of all denominations; and however he may be denied it, yet he may, without a compliment, justly claim from the present, as well as future ages, the deserved title of George the Great. But notwithstanding this, such is the degeneracy of human nature, it must necessarily be expected, that, in a nation grown wanton with liberty like ours, there are a great multitude of unhappy persons, who being men of lax principles, loose lives, and broken fortunes, will be so abandoned, as to break through all restraints of gratitude, loyalty and religion; and, like Cataline and his wicked confederates, be fond of joining in any change of government, whereby they may entertain the most distant prospect of bettering their fortunes, and gratifying their ambition, though it be at the expence of their country’s blood. This hath been, and no doubt still continues to be, the fate of all civil governments in the world, and consequently is no more than what we may expect, in times of tumult and danger, will be acted over again in our own land by men of such corrupt minds. But how any serious and judicious, much less religious and devout person, can be so stupid to all principles of self-interest, and so dead even to all maxims of common sense, as to prefer a French to an English government; or a popish Pretender, born, nursed, and bred up in all the arbitrary and destructive principles of the court and church of Rome, to the present protestant succession settled in the illustrious line of Hanover, must be imputed to nothing else but an awful infatuation.
Hear ye, (if there be any into whose hands this address may fall, that are desirous of such a change) not to dwell entirely upon the many innumerable civil or temporal losses we should sustain: hear ye, I say, the mild and gentle language of one or his Most Christian Majesty’s late declarations concerning religion.