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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40374	Scotland's present duty, or, A call to the nobility, gentry, ministry and commonalty of this land to be duely affected with, and vigorously to act for, our common concern in Caledonia, as a mean to enlarge Christ's kingdom, to benefit our selves, and do good to all Protestant churches.	Philo-Caledon.; Foyer, Archibald.; Ridpath, George, d. 1726.; Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing F2048; ESTC R13808	23,400	30

SCOTLAND's Present Duty OR A CALL TO The Nobility Gentry Ministry and Commonality of this Land to be duely affected with and vigorously to act for our Common Concern in CALEDONIA as a Mean to Enlarge Christ's Kingdom to Benefit our Selves and do Good to all Protestant Churches Printed in the Year 1700. Right Honourable much Honouored very Reverend and dearly Beloved LET it not divett any from a serious Perusal of what is here offered to your Grave Consideration that you know not the Author For here if ever you are called to mind what is said not who says it Yet I shall tell you That I own none for my Master but Christ none for King of Great Brittain but King VVilliam I have no Share in the Stock of Caledonia nor probably will ever have so that it is no worldly Interest prompts me up to make this Address nor any Disaffection to the King or Court but pure Conscience if I know my own Heart There is none who love Our Lord Jesus Christ but must with pleasure Remark how the outmost ends of the Earth are become the Possession of Zion's King and poor Scotland among the rest This is Ground of Rejoycing unto Us who sat in Heathenish Darkness that Light hath sprung up and the day Star from on High hath visited Us So that we may well say few Nations have been so signally owned of God as we with respect to a Pure and Glorious Dispensation of the Gospel Yea of all the Churches reformed from Popery we had attained to the greatest Hight of Conformity to the Scriptures of God not only in Doctrin but in Worship Disciplin and Government Yea notwithstanding the various Essays of our Enemies and false pretended Friends to enslave us and the Faintness and Dispondencies of our weak but real Well-wishers in a dark and evil Day yet we are alive and have our God to Magnifie who hath never suffered our Haters to gain the day but gave us occasion to set up our Ebenezer hitherto hath the Lord helped us and to remark some places as 1 Sam. 23. Chap. 28 Vers. Sela hamma-lekoth our Enemies being diverted from bringing upon us utter Ruine when they were about to have swallowed us up But among the wonderful Providences of God for our Good the late Revolution is indeed surprizing and calls for our constant Acknowledgments Instead of Impendent Slavery and Popery we by it enjoy Calmness and Freedom in Church and State our banished Ministers restored the Imprisoned delivered the whole followers of Christ made to lif● up their Heads and our very Enemies astonished with Gods Love to his People while they had no great Reason to complain of any Severity for their former Cruelties Thus we have had Halcron Days at Ho●e when Armies were encountering one another Abroad And whatever we felt of burdensome Taxations yet it was not much while we our selves were not af●ighted with the Sound of the Trumpets nor the Alarms of War Now it was that our Wise Patriots of all sorts whatever speculative Differences they might have about the Eclesiastical Government were practically c●nvinced of this That we had now that Government which might give Ease to the Nation and none could complain of Force put upon their Consciences and all the former Reflections against a Parity in Christ's House were hush'd and no more discoursed of except in drunken Cabals of Men who had no Religion at all In this time of Quietness wherein Truth and Peace met together did several of our most Knowing Nobility and Gent●y encouraged by diverse Acts of Parliament and Royal Grants sorm a Design to plant a Colony in America considering that of all Nations in Europe bordering upon the Sea Scotland alone had no share of Foreign Plantations and were more than any other People excluded from the Advantages of Trade and this would be a Mean for Enriching the Nation and Curing ●hese two evil Diseases amongst us of Beggary and Idleness And all who had a Love to the propogating of the Gospel looked upon this as a most probable and hopeful Mean of Enlarging the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly the Project goes on and maugre all the Opposition it met with at London Holland and Hamburg Five Ships were sent out and Two worthy Ministers with them who at length land in Darien a Place inhabited by a Free People the Circumstances and Advantages of which are well known as being set out by others Here our Countrey Men meet with good Reception and seemed for a time to Prosper till want of Correspondence from Scotland and it may be some hired Traitors among themselves and Proclamations of a strange Nature put forth in the West Indies against them do quite Dishearten them and force them except a ver● few to Relinquish the place And as the first Ship sent after them miscarried on our Western Islands so we have no pleasant News of the Company which went forth in the following May with Provisions to Relieve them nor have we any Account as yet of the Four Ships that went thither in 〈◊〉 l●st and others since But in all this Business both abroad and at h●me God seems to frown upon us And whatever Sentiments some may have concerning this sad providential Stroke yet certainly the Land is afflicted but few are afflicted with it as becomes It is for this cause that I would endeavour to Excite all in the Land to joyn in an Address to the King of Heaven for his Help when we a●e so much at under And this is our Comfort that no Courtiers there will hinder our Address but rejoice in it if we approach that Throne with humble and penetent Hearts and the Majesty of Heaven commands us to call upon him in the day of Trouble and hath promised to hear us That I may the better manage this my Errand unto you I. I shall shew you that we are all called to seek the spreading of the Gospel and the enlargement of Christs Kingdom II. That our Settlement at Caledonia would be a likely mean for that end III. That this design seems to be almost crushed and born down IV. How discouraging this will be to the Church a●d State if the Lord help us not V. What are the procuring Sins of this so●e and lame● table Stroke VI. What is now our Duty and Work with respect to this great Concern VII Lastly I would earnestly plead with all to cry mightily unto God and to use suitable Endeavours for retrieving our loss and so shall this my well meant Address under which no bad design is hid be committed to Gods Blessing I. That we should all pray earnestly for the Enlargement of Christs Kingdom can be doubted by none who own the Lords Prayer to be part of the Holy Scriptures Thy Kingdom come is a Petition repeated by many but understood by few To think that the Gospel shall be still confined to a little corner of the World as it is now is to

foretold That the whole Earth shall be filled with the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea 6. The many Prayers put up for them will not want their Effect And 7. It will encourage them when they find that none are treated the wor●e but the more freindly for becoming Ch●istian All these put together give ground to think that we might look for much good to be done to these poor People who are at present without God and without Hope in the World 8. This would excite greater Flames of Devotion in our Brethrens Spirits there when they should behold the Gentiles turning unto the Lord and renuncing their Idols their Vanities and Lies 9. This will draw over many good People to that Place from this Land which is not able to sustain its Inhabitants for want of Industry and good Policy in providing Sustenance and work for the Poor and where many are crushed by racked Rents and other Oppressions that keep many Godly People very low and marrs the Exercises of their Grace and Christian Duties They would go to their Brethren abroad to enjoy the Gospel with better outward Accommodations 10. This Co●ony would prove a Bulwa●k against Antichrist ●nd a secure retreat to many distressed Protestan●s of other Churches a Mea● to Check the Spanish Barbarity and curb the Popish Interest But 3ly This great Enterprise is now alas sadly born down and seems for the present to be almost crushed For 1. Our People who went thither first are scattered some are in Bondage among c●uel Enemies many of them dead throw Want and Distress with vast Loss and Expenses and Labour which cannot but be greatly afflicting to us 2. We have another sad Calamity in the loss of a Ship with Provisions in Darien and the scattering of the Second Company except a very few which may put the Third Company sent out to very great Ha●dship and Uncertainty in their Resolutions 3. The West India Proclamations against us have disheartned our Friends and strengthned the hands of our Ill-wishers both upon a Religious and Civil account especially those of Jamaica who have shewed much Unfriendliness and Hatred I think it is a needless Debate whether our own Mis-managements at Home and Abroad have been the Cause of our Disaster and Distress or those Proclamations I think it is very evident that Both have concurred toward it and that neither of the two morally speaking could have done it alone tho' where the Effects of such strange and unexpected Proclamations might have terminated were the Management never so exact is what I confess few can tell But it is evident that both these are of the Lord and that we ought to consider them as Reproofs for and Punishments our Sins and that by these Proclamations which in some Places have been renewed again in September last we are brought under a most heavy and discouraging Blow since none must relieve our People more than if they were abominable Pirates tho they acted under the Protection and according to the Terms of an Act of Parliament and have not Forfeited it And so long as these continue in Force what can we expect but the total over-throw of our Colony since Scotland can never be able to furnish them Supplies till they get Sustentation of there own especially in such years of Scarcity as we have felt of late wherein many at home wanted Bread 4. As the Pope and his followers were mightily alarmed with this intended Colony so they now no less rejoice at its present Distress and how much Power our deadly Enemies have is evident and that they will employ it as far as they get Permission and and vent their Rage and Hatred against the Reformation as much as they can I doubt not but if Ame●ica were out of the Papists Possession their Pomp and Tyrrany would cease and therefore they are greatly afraid lest Protestant Colonies get footing there It may be that before the ruin of A●tichrist their Golden Mines shall no more uphold their accursed Dig●ity and persecuting P●ide I● the mean time how greatly do our Adversaries prevail especially when 5. We are but little Encouraged by our resormed Brethren at home and it would seem the States of H●lland do all they can to crush us and some of our Brethren in England envy us the freedom of Trade which could not but prove many ways to the Advantage of that Nation tho it may be some privat Men might g●in less than they do now But truely it is strange and sad that any ●eformed Pro●estant should for Selfish and By-ends prove our Enemies 6. Our King the happy Instrument of our Glorious Deliverance seems to be Mis-informed concerning us whether by Dutch or English or both I cannot say But it appears very plain that His Majesty does not throwly know our Circumstances and is not so ready for our Relief as our C●se requires This is the most sad of all that hath yet b●fallen us Lord turn our hearts to Thee and our Kings heart toward Us save Lord and let the King hear Us when we call 7. We are not ONE amongst our selves ●n this Affair some have nothing of a publick Spirit where their own private gain is not immediatly concerned others basely give it out that the King is against us and bears ill will to our Colony for which they deserve to be signally punished Others to serve a Foreign interest and to divide and betray the Nation have invented false Stories and fomented Jealo●sies as if all this zeal for Caledonia had some ill design under it against the Government which no sensible Man can give a Name unto And which is plainly contrary to the very nature of the thing Those wicked but weak and silly surmises had discouraged many and I was I confess my self somewhat in●luenced by them I hope well meaning Peoples Eyes begin to be opened and to see the falseness of many wicked insinuations and lying Stories that have been spre●d which have discouraged and Dis●racted some at home and cannot but prove a disheartning damp to those who are gone abroad when they hear how little their Case is suitably minded by u● And do not such mischievous practises give occ●sion to our Neighbours t● say that we are false Scots Betrayers of our Countrey and Ruiners one of another What can be done to repair our ●osses if those who are honestly Zealous ●or Caledonia both Ministers and People be traduced as Enemies to the Gove●nment tho we have all pos●ble assurance of the Governments Protection and Act in an u●questionable legal way Who could have thought that any would have been so aspersed for owning the just Rights of a free People Tell it not in Gath publish it not in Askelon that any who call themselves Members of a reformed Church and Nation should so stand in the way of their own Mercy both Religious and Civil or that a National and Christian design should have met with such Opposition amongst us The

we not fervently plead that the Ruine may not fall under our Hands 11. How can we expect but that we ●hall be Contemned and I●sulted by the Nations about us in our privat Negotiating and Tra●ique yea almost made ashamed to own our selves for Scots Men and our great Attempt that hath made so much Noise in the World shall become every where the publick Jest Is their any Man of Sense but mu● be af●ected at these fore Evils which we have just cause to fear as the Consequents of our giving up Caledonia 5. Let us then consider a little theseSins which we ought to look upon as the procuring Causes of the said Stroke we have already metwith and which may prove yet more Afflicting if Mercy prevent not We ought to deal Impartially and not spare our Sins when God's hand is upon us we are called to search them out narrowly and to hide none from the Lord. 1. This Nation hath never yet been duely humbled and exercised with Sorrow and Mourning for the Sins of the Land which have been of a deep Dye we have been still mincing our Iniquity for fear of offending of some late Actors without minding how God is offended with us We have not to this day made a full and free Confession of our National Sins amongst which our Covenant-breaking seems to me to cry loudest and stare us in the Face for whatever may be said of the Politick and sinister Ends of some in contriving and carrying on the Covenant of their mingling and thrusting some things into it to serve a Turn of its being Calculated for these Times and Circumstances and so in its Complex form not so proper for the present State of things of its being a League with other two Nations who have thrown it off as such and the like Yet it cannot be denyed that in the Main it was as well as the National Covenant that went before it throw the Land a most serious and awful Engagement of the Nation to Christianity and Godliness with uplifted hands to the most High God and the highest and most solemn piece of Reformation that ever this Church and Kingdom attained unto and performed by the bulk of the People with the greatest Moral Seriousness And how can our resiling from and shameful Breach of these awful Vows but draw upon us dreadful Guilt and Iniquity not to be forgotten till it be bitterly Mourned for How much Innocent Blood hath been shed what horrid Aversion to Purity and Holiness and fearful Blackslidings have been found amongst us in which our Kings our Priests and People have been deeply involved and yet to mention these things renders a Man suspected of Schism But how can we Thrive till we be more explicite and full in Confessing and bitterly bewailing these and all our National Sins before the Lord. 2. We are guilty of black Ingratitude to God for the late happy Revolution for the Singularity as well as the Greatness of that Deliverance when we were upon the Brink of being swallowed up nor did we improve it as we ought to have done 3. Gospel Ordinances and publick Worship are more dispised amongst us than any where All People in the World do attend more reverently upon their several ways of Worship than we do upon ours Heathans and Jews Mahometans and Papists Hereticks and Schismaticks are at much more pains in their erronious Courses than the professing People in Scotland are generaly upon the Service of the living and true God Any Triffle meer Laziness Prejudice Contempt Hatred keep many of our great Ones from Gospel Ordinances How then can God prosper us in our Undertakings 4. Gross Injustice and Oppression Envy Malice Back-biting Self-seeking narrowness of Spirit Worldly-mindedness Lying and Treachery Uncharitableness and want of Brotherly Love are our Epedemick Distempers How then shall we think to be Blessed in our Designs especially since all these Sins are aggravated in us by their being against Light daily Warnings 5. We did not seek the Lord and plead for his Favour in a due manner in the beginning of this great Enterprise with serious Resolutions to reform our Hearts and Lives Time was when the People of God upon such a weighty occasion and when the Nation was setting about so important a Work would have been fervent in putting up their Suites to Heaven and had remarkable Returns of Prayer It was very comfortable to see what impression and frame some Reverend Ministers of the Commission were under in Summer last when Mr. Sheild was engaged in this Service with what Affection Warmness and Weight they observed how our Forefathers would have embraced and improven so signal an Opportunity of Spreading the Gospel of bringing Honour to God and to the Church of Scotland and doing Good to Souls if it had been in their offer And what an edge was upon the Spirits of all in their Meeting at Glasgow and the solemn Day of Prayer held there upon the account of our dear Brethren and that Interest And it is no less discouraging to observe how far that Zeal and Fervour that then appeared is now abated that we have not hitherto set apart a Day of Humiliation upon account of this sad Distress and of Prayer for these who were sent out with so publick and solemn a Blessing from this Church that we are now turn'd so slack and remiss and that we began no sooner is more formidable and threatning than all the Opposition of the Devil the Pope the Spaniard or any other Enemy and ought to be heartily bewailed by us with admiration of the Goodness and Patience of God that we are not yet worse smitten for our ill-deservings 6. Our vain pride and Confidence at the beginning of this Affair our Carnal Expectations from it our trusting not in God but in an Arm of Flesh If we had succeeded without Rubs in our way we had burnt Incense to our own Drag we had waxed fat and kicked against the Lord and forgotten that the Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness and Riches thereof and forgotten what weak silly Creatures we are without him 7. There may be many Sins both of Omission and Commission to be confessed and mourned for in the management of our Expeditions both with respect to persons imploied and Methods followed which I cannot undertake to condescend upon but these ought to be searched out acknowledged and amended Tho ill Men may have outward success for a time vet the Favour of God cannot be towards them Th● Six Hundred Danites sent to take in L●ish did succeed yet their Posterity went first into Captivity of all Israel In a business of this nature Men should be more considered according to their worth and real usefulness than the Moyen of their Friends and such as they depend upon recommending them 8. Great care should have been taken to set up a strict discipline over those who were sent to punish Vice and set up Morality and good Order amongst them And

tho the Directors are not free of this Neglect yet it cannot be denyed that much of it lyes upon the Ministers score who were too slack in providing Able Zealous and faithful Men to send with every Ship to Excite Directors to their Duty yea to furnish sit Men for the Service in proportion to the encouragement agreed unto by the Directors which might have been a mean to have prevented both much Si● and much wrath 9. It is also to be considered by these immediatly concerned in this Company whether much of the Money imploied in this Undertaking was not sinfully acquired many got their Riches by Deceit and Oppression and is it any wonder that the Lo●d should let them know that his Eyes are upon all their Paths that he ponders their Goings and their Doings and that he will not bless the Revenues of the Wicked 10. and lastly Our bad Lives at Home is a great Cause of the B●sling and Disapponting of our Undertakings Abroad Some even of our Great Men eng●ged in this Affair given over to all Lasciviousness and Uncleanness to work Wickedness with Greediness yet neither State nor Church check their Impieties And can we expect that God will bless their Designs who so Dishonour him or the Nations that bear not Testimony against them or that so long as we in this Nation continue in so defiled and unreformed a State there can ever proceed from us any pure Stream any happy Colony or any Undertaking acceptable to God 6. What is now to be done to retrieve our Loss What is the Duty that both Ministers and People are called unto with reference to this great Concern I shall not here speak of Addresses to the King or Parliament that belongs to others no effectual Legal Course ought to be omitted But my work is the Religious part and our Addressing to the King of Heaven in a due manner I think we should cry both to our King and our God If some Men got their Will we should be allowed to cry unto neither But that which I would humbly propose is what no Christian can oppose unless he be under a dreadful Infatuation 1. Let Church and State solemnly Renew their Covenant with God to be his and to Serve him in opposition to the Devil the World and the Flesh Whatever may be Mens various Sentiments about speculative or disputed Points yet none can deny but it is our Duty to embrace from our Souls and consent unto God's Covenant of free Grace not only as it offers to us Salvation throw Christ but as it contains our Duty to God regulated in his Word Now if we are by our Baptism entred into this Covenant and must renew it after Backsliding or else turn Apostates and perish Why should not the Nation do that which Israel did of old when the Lord convinced them of their Folly and Sin● I know the mixing of things Civil and Religious in Covenants and pressing them on people and treating the Refusers as Enemies hath been much disliked by the Godly who were free of Faction but to renew our Baptismal Covenant Nationally is what no Christian can disclaim And I think all should be content to joyn in this till we be more unite in our Sentiments as to Government I am apt to think that a blessed change would follow upon the right and solemn managing of this most necessary and singularly useful Duty The General Assembly may with due deliberation draw a plain Formula which being Printed that People may gravely ponder it a day of Fasting and Humiliation may be appointed throw the Kingdom for confessing our iniquities and lying low before the Lord in the sense of our Provocations And the Lords day thereafter People having been instructed by their Pastors in the nature of this Duty of yeilding themselves in a pe●petual Covenant never to be forgotten then at the close might Minister and People avouch the Lord to be their God with uplifted hands If this were conscientiously gone about I am hopeful there should be a loosing of Bonds and somewhat of Heavenly influences Communicated to this poor withered Church and Nation and that our Covenanted God would not refuse us a Token of Good It were also desireable that each Presbitry would keep a Day by themselves and each Family apart and no doubt each serious Person would follow the Example for confessing Sin and wrestling for a blessing upon this Noble but long slighted Duty in the performance of it by the whole Nation 2. There is great need of a particular day of pleading with God for his favour to the great National undertaking of settling our American Colony I wonder how any that wish the Enlargement of Christs Kingdom or have any Knowledge or Impression of the importance of this Design can oppose it Some have look't with a Squint Eye upon this Duty And I shall touch their Objections against it 1. They say it is a Monopoly a few only concerned and why should the Nation be called to Fast and Pray upon its account I Answer 1. The Parliament in their Address to the King declared it their own and the whole Nation 's Concern as indeed it is and the General Assembly had no narrow thought of it when by their Act they appointed all the Ministers of this Church to pray for its Success And we cannot imagine that ever they would have refused a Solemn Fast for its distress 2. Neither had the Commission so mean thoughts of it the last Summer when they came to Glasgow upon its service as doth appear from what they did there and by the Letter they wrote to the Colony And I heartily wish that the leading Members of that Commission and all others influenced by them may think of timely and suitable Measures to prevent or rather wipe off the unbecoming Imputation of being Time servers by having shewed so Universal a Zeal for the Caledonian Interest during its seeming Prosperity and changing their Note so meanly when they see it in Distress and frown'd upon by the Favourers of a Foreign Interest for selfish Ends. 3. The Commission in December last tho they refused a Fast for which they have their account to make to the Assembly yet acknowledged the importance of Caledonia by their Letter to all the Presbyteries of this Church And tho' they should happen to escape Censure here for a time yet how can Ministers of the Gospel of Christ which is all Truth answer before His Tribunal for Trimming and Juggling thus in a Case of so great Importance as the Caledonian Interest is to both the Religious and Civil Concerns of this Nation To refuse a Fast to gratify the Unaccountable Backwardness of one Party and to tell the other Party who Addressed for a Fast that tho' they did not appoint a Nominal Fast yet they appointed a Real One by Recommending Prayers c. Is this that plain Simplicity and Singleness of Heart which we pretend to and preach to others If the

resolutely in this Affair for the Lord hath much encouraged you in the way of his Providence to proceed You have lawful Authority on your side King and Parliament have given you Commission and are bound to Protect you as we hope they will against all Opposers You have the Generality of the Nation and all true hearted Scots Men to stand by you none can oppose you wi●hout being Enemies to the Good of their native Countrey Whatever they may pretend they serve a foreign Interest You have been born up under many Difficulties and Discouragements already The Lord wonderfully directed and preserved the first Adventurers and brought them safe to their desired Port few of them all things considered dying by the way They came into a Commodious place abounding in many Advantages and were asfectionatly welcomed by a Kind Harmless and Obliging People In all which we see how favourably the Lord treated us and made plain paths before us And it deserves a grave Remark That whatever Distress hath since come upon our Country-men yet the Lord hath hitherto kept possession for us the Place hath never been totally abandoned tho others would gladly have seised it for themselves And as our just Right cannot be taken away and the place is so impregnable that if we were but willing we may keep it against all the World so the Lord now invites us back and hath kept it for us by hindering any of our Enemies to settle there It may likewise be encouraging that however distant we are in some things from one another yet this Interest seems to be the Center wherein we will all agree and if followed closely may prove a blessed Mean to remove different Sentiments and unite us to God and to one another in the way of Unity and Love 3. All our Chastisements in this Matter are such that we are the more to be excited by them and not to ●e cast down or turn faint in our Duty It is the Lord who is trying us to cause us trust in himself the Living God more than in all Human Wisdom Power or Wealth and drive us near to himself by Humiliation and Reformation by searching and trying our ways that we may turn again unto the Lord. The Removal of the two worthy Ministers was grievous but their Names shall be precious to posterity when others who withstand this design shall leave no good savour their Death 〈◊〉 the Company more then many days Preachings could have done God was kind to them in taking them away before they saw the sad Disaster that befel which would have crushed them The Proclamations seem'd to awaken us to cry to God the less encouragement we had from Men but alas this fervour ●oon relented turned aside unto a wrong course The news of the Colonys Dissipation did grieve but not overwhelm those most nearly concerned Activity hath appeared in speedy supply and application to proper means Greater for remedy Now when all our Troubles and Difficulties have not hitherto totally defeated us Let us not despond but come with penitent sorrow for our Povocations and cry unto God for his Help and Assistance who can make crooked things straight and the Mountains a plain before his People who knows but that yet he may cause us to sing that Song Psal 66. from Ver. 8 to the close 4. Let us be quickened to 〈◊〉 duty from this consideration that the Lord frequently makes way for his extraordinary Kindnesses by some Humbling Dispensations Israel must encamp between Migdol and Baalzephon while the Sea is before them and a bitter Enemy behind them yet this Difpensation must precede the final Overthrow of the Adversary and furnish Matter to the first triumphant Song we have upon Record in Scripture And indeed none should despair of Events who are found in the Lords way when we see Israel meeting with such Obstacles many Years before their Deliverance was compleated and their Divinely Authorized Colonies fixed What have our Troubles been in comparison of what some have met with and overcome in doing great things for their Religion and Countrey were not our first Reformers surrounded with other sort of Dissiculties which they Mastered by Ardent Prayers and Restless Endeavours Did we pray more and Believe more we might yet expect Success notwithstanding standing all that hath befallen us For 5. If we would reflect what Promises God hath made to his People under their Troubles we would not st●d onl● looking to Human Prob●bilities and forget the Encouraging Com●nds and Promises of God 'T is from these Faith gets Strength and puts Vigor into the Soul as the Trumpet excites a Martial Spirit For God not only Displays his Goodness in making the Promises and his Fait●fulness in bringing them about but also his Power Shines in the Way of his A●ting Apply then by Faith the Promises made to the Church and to a Distre●ed People and God will not cast you off 6. The Necessity of the Nation requires you should go on with Vigor The Poor are many and their Straits increase Now if ever we be relieved Trade and Labour must be one great Mean of it and nothing can be done to purpose in this without a Colony Abroad and Manufactures at Home otherwise we shall be still Exporting Money for what we want and Earning none 7. The Deplorable Case of the poor-Pagans Souls cry aloud to us to come over and help them I wish this Motive had prevailed more with us at first and that we had sent them more Effectual Spiritual Relief But let us now mind their Conversion by our Prayers and Endeavours that they may be our Brethren in Christ this would tend to the Honour of our Church and our Peace in the Day of the Lord and the Blessing of these who are ready to perish should come upon us Neither ought it to be forgotten that these poor People by their Kindness to us have exposed themselves to ●e outmost Resentments of the Cruel Spaniards who if they be left Naked and destitute of our Defence will with the greatest Keenness essay to Butche● and exti●pate them 8. It is seldom that ever a Nation and Church hath had such an Opportunity for doing Good put in their hands or been called to so great a Wo●k To God we must be accountable how we imp●ove it And if we do not actively now bestir our selves and fervently apply to him withou● whose Help we can do nothing with what Confidence can we ever go unto him in National Straits again 9. Let us remember the Condition of these who were last sent from us and what need we have to pray that they be not discouraged and quite sunk under perplexing doubts when they find a deserted place in stead of their Friends and prepared accommodations The thoughts of what am●zement must possess them and difficulties they will be under ought to m●ke our Hearts bleed with Sympathy for them Are not our Friends and Countrey-men Gentlemen of Note and Ministers