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A SHORT

ADDRESS

TO

Persons of all Denominations,

OCCASIONED BY THE

Alarm of an Intended Invasion, in the Year 1756.

I also will shew my Opinion.

Job xxxii. 10.

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A SHORT

ADDRESS,  &c.

Men, Brethren, and Fathers,

THOUGH so many alarming warnings, pathetic exhortations, and suitable directions, have already been given both from the press and pulpit, by way of preparatives to our late public day of humiliation; yet should one, who is less than the least of all his brethren, now that solemnity is over, presume to trouble his dear countrymen with a short address, by way of supplement to what hath already been offered; it is to be hoped, none will be so unkind as to look upon it as altogether superfluous and needless, much less, be so ungenerous as to censure it as proceeding from the pride and naughtiness of his heart. But should this be the case, I shall make no other apology (as I think there needs no other) than that which David the youngest of the sons of Jesse made long ago upon a like occasion, “Is there not a cause?”

An insulting, enraged, and perfidious enemy is now advancing nearer and nearer to the British borders. Not content with invading and ravaging our rightful Sovereign King George’s dominions in America, our popish adversaries have now the ambition to attempt, at least to threaten, an invasion of England itself; hoping, no doubt, thereby, not only to throw us into confusion at home, but also to divert us from more effectually defeating their malicious designs abroad. That such a design (however chimerical it may seem) is now actually on foot, the royal proclamation lately issued forth, renders indisputable. Which proclamation, as it plainly bespeaks his Majesty’s paternal care, doth at the same time loudly call upon all his faithful and loving subjects, not only to stand upon their guard, but also to exert their utmost efforts, in dependance on divine protection, to prevent and render abortive such an unjust and daring enterprize.

Blessed be God! as a professing, though sinful people, we have lately taken one effectual step towards bringing about such a salutary end.

In obedience to a call from the throne, we have been humbling ourselves in the most public and solemn manner before the most high God. And it is to be hoped, that the many tears which were that day shed, and the thousands and thousands of prayers that were then offered up, have long since been regarded by, and entered into the ears of the Lord of ♦Sabaoth. Infidels may perhaps laugh, and make themselves merry with such an insinuation; but serious people (and to such in a more peculiar manner is this address directed) will account it no ways enthusiastic to affirm, that solemn humiliations, whether performed by public communities in general, or individuals in particular, have always met with such 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 Esther, Mordecai, and the other distressed Jews sought so earnestly by public fasting and prayer: And what is yet more, the total and entire suspension of the destruction of Nineveh, that exceeding great city, (though so peremptorily denounced) upon the fasting, praying, and repenting of the king, nobles and commons, at the preaching of Jonah. These, not to mention many more that might be adduced from sacred story, are most pregnant, and, at the same time, very encouraging proofs, that they that humble themselves, shall in God’s due time be exalted; and therefore, as a nation, we may boldly infer, that the righteous Lord, who delights to shew himself strong in behalf of those who are of an upright heart, will favour, plead, and vindicate our righteous cause.

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.”

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.

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.

“Being informed, that there have sprung up, and still are springing up, daily in our realm, a great number of preachers, whose sole business is to stir up the people to rebellion, and to dissuade them from the practice of the Roman catholic and apostolic religion; we do command that all preachers, who shall call assemblies, preach in them, or discharge any other function, be put to death; the punishment appointed by the declaration in July 1686, for the minister of the pretended reformed religion, which we would not, for the future, have any one esteem a mere threatening, which will not be put in execution. We do likewise forbid our subjects to receive the said ministers or preachers, to conceal, aid, or assist them, or have, directly or indirectly, any intercourse or correspondence with them. We farther enjoin all those, who shall know any of the said preachers, to inform against them to the officers of the respective places; the whole under pain, in case of trespass, of being condemned to the gallies for life, if men; and, if women, of being shorn, and shut up the remainder of their days in such places as our judges shall think expedient; and whether they be men or women, under pain of confiscation.”

After perusing this, read, read also, I beseech you, the shocking accounts of the horrid butcheries, and cruel murders committed on the bodies of many of our fellow-subjects in America, by the hands of savage Indians, instigated thereto by more than savage popish priests.¹ And if this be the beginning, what may we suppose the end will be, should a French power, or popish Pretender, be permitted to subdue either us or them? Speak, Smithfield, speak, and by thy dumb, but very persuasive oratory, declare to all that pass by and over thee, how many English protestant martyrs thou hast seen burnt to death in the reign of a cruel popish Queen, to whom the present Pretender to the British throne at least claims a kind of a distant kindred? Speak Ireland, speak, and tell if thou canst, how many thousands, and tens of thousands of innocent unprovoking protestants were massacred in cold blood by the hands of cruel papists within thy borders, about a century ago? Nay, speak Paris, speak, (for though popish, on this occasion we will admit thy evidence) and say, how many thousands of protestants were once slaughtered, on purpose, as it were, to serve up as a bloody dessert, to grace the solemnity of a marriage-feast. But why go we back to such distant æras? Speak, Languedoc, speak, and tell if thou canst, how many protestant ministers have been lately executed; how many more of their hearers have been dragooned and sent to the gallies; and how many hundreds are now, in consequence of the above-mentioned edict, lying in prisons, and fast bound in misery and iron, for no other crime than that unpardonable one in the Romish church, “hearing and preaching the pure gospel of the meek and lowly Jesus.”

And think you, my dear countrymen, that Rome, glutted as it were with protestant blood, will now rest satisfied, and say, “I have enough!” No, on the contrary, having, through the good hand of God upon us, been kept so long fasting, we may reasonably suppose, that the popish priests are only grown more voracious, and (like so many hungry and ravenous wolves pursuing the harmless and innocent flocks of sheep) will with double eagerness pursue after, seize upon, and devour their wished-for protestant prey; and, attended with their bloody red-coats, those gallic instruments of reformation, who know they must either fight or die, will necessarily breathe out nothing but threatening and slaughter, and carry along with them desolation and destruction in all its various shapes and tortures, go where they will.

But I humbly hope, vile as we are, a gracious, long-suffering and merciful God, will not suffer us to fall into their blood-thirsty and cruel hands. He hath formerly most remarkably interposed in England’s favour; and why should we in the least doubt, but that he will again reveal his omnipotent arm, and make our extremity to be his opportunity, to help and defend us, against such threatening and unjust invaders? Invincible as the Spanish armada was supposed to be, and all-powerful as the Pope, under whose broad seal they acted, might boast he was in heaven or hell, it is plain he had no power over the water. “For thou didst blow, O Lord, with thy wind, and the enemy was scattered.” And is not this God the same now as he was yesterday? And will he not continue the same for ever? Of whom then should the inhabitants of Great Britain be afraid? Blessed be God, if we look to second causes, we have a glorious fleet, brave admirals, a well-disciplined army, experienced officers, and, if occasion should require, thousands and thousands of hearty voluntiers, with a Royal Hero, who hath once been made happily instrumental to save his country from impending ruin, if not Majesty itself prepared to head them. And if by fasting from as well as for sin, and by flying, through a living faith, to the merits of a dying, risen, ascended and interceding Mediator, we can but make God our friend, we need not fear what France and Rome, and Hell, with all their united force, can do unto, or plot against us. The way of duty is the way of safety, And if we are but found in the due use of proper means, we may confidently leave the issue and event of things with God. Be that event what it will (and I trust it will be a prosperous one) we have a divine authority to say unto the righteous, it shall be well with them. God’s own people, amidst all the wars and rumours of wars, may rest secure; for they not only dwell under the shadow of the most High, but have his own royal word for it, that all things shall work together for their good. And not only so, but they may be fully assured, that all the malicious efforts and designs of men and devils shall be so far from obstructing, that, on the contrary, through the sure, though secret hand of an ever-watchful, over-ruling, and omnipotent providence, they shall at present, (howbeit they think not so) be made not only to subserve the present further enlargement of his interests, who, in spight of all the strivings of the potsherds of the earth, will hold the balance of UNIVERSAL MONARCHY in his own hands; but at last shall terminate in the full and compleat establishment and perfection of that blessed kingdom, whose law is truth, whose king is love, and whose duration is eternity. Fiat! Fiat! Amen and Amen.