the Armour of Great and Eminent Warriors in the Places set apart for Religion as if they did devote them to God We may most effectually do this by dedicating our Arms to God's Honour and not to sinister and unworthy Ends. Hereby we may turn all our Warlike Expeditions into Crusades and whenever we Fight ingage in a Holy War We are told that the Antient Romans in a great distress made use of the Weapons which were deposited in their Temples and fought with them and attributed the Success to the Holiness of their Arms. But this we are sure of that if Kindoms did hallow their Weapons by Religion and Vertuous Designs they would thrive and prosper in their martial Attempts and meet the Foe with good Success 5thly It is not enough to have a Good Cause and Right Ends unless our Lives be Good and Holy We must always remember that our Sins are our greatest Enemies and therefore it is our Interest to vanquish these first which must be done by putting on the Spiritual Armour A Good Soldier must be a Religious Man To which purpose I will offer a Criticism to you You may observe that to prepare or make War is express'd in the Stile of Scripture by Consecrating of War Ier. vi 4. and again in Mic. iii. 5. Which Hebraism may remind us now of Consecrating or Sanctifying our Wars namely by unfeigned Holiness and Righteousness Let us not prophane our Warlike Weapons by an Irreligious and Wicked Life But let us remember that the Contrary will bring down a Blessing from Heaven upon us besides that in its own Nature and genuine Efficacy it will prove Advantageous to us for a Good Conscience together with a firm Trust in the Almighty will inspire us with the greatest Courage and Resolution and give the most undaunted Boldness and Valour to our Spirits Or if we meet not with Success this Comfortable Principle within us will not suffer us to be dejected but will rather Chear us as the Roman Senate did their General when he was flying Home after he was defeated by Hannibal they met him and heartned him and gave him this Commendation That he did not despair of the Safety of the Commonwealth after so great a Defeat Lastly If you be Victorious know how to demean your selves Ascribe your Success to him who is the Grand Arbiter and Disposer of War and to whom belong the Issues of it Herein you may take that Holy and Warlike Prince for your Pattern who not only acknowledges that it was the Supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth that had girded him with strength unto the Battel but that it was he who had subdued under him those that rose up against him It was he that gave him the necks of his Enemies that he might destroy those that hated him Psal. xviii 39 40. Or let us use such humble and thankful Language as is suggested to us in Psal. xliv 3. We got not the Victory by our own Sword neither did our own Arm save us but Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance because Thou hadst a favour unto us To this Almighty Sovereign and Lord of Hosts be all Glory and Honour now and unto Eternal Ages Amen The True Causes of the Ill Success of War A Sermon Preach'd on a Fastâ—â— Day appointed by Their Majesties for the imploring God's Blessing on their Forces by Sea and Land JOSHUA VII 12. Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies but turned their backs before their Enemies because they were accursed neither will I be with you any more except ye destroy the accursed from amongst you GOD had chosen out a People from the rest of the World whom he intended to discover his Will to in a more singular Manner and on whom he purposed to confer Mercies of an extraordinary nature These he preserved in Egypt conducted through the Wilderness and brought at last into the promised Land But behold they were unmindful of this marvellous Goodness of God toward them and took not care to observe those strict Commands which he had given them particularly That of utterly destroying every accursed thing in the Cities which they took They were more signally guilty of this when Iericho was taken by them and therefore God punish'd this gross Violation of his Command by suffering them to be Defeated in their next Enterprize When they went against the Men of Ai some of them were smitten and fell before them others not being able to endure the Shock shamefully fled away This with the Reason of it is represented to us by God himself in the Text Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies but turned their backs before them because they sinned about the Accursed thing The hiding and detaining of the Golden Wedge and the Babylonish Garment became their General Crime and were the Cause of their unexpected Defeat And withal here is added what they may expect for the future namely nothing but Defeats and Overthrows Neither will I be with you any more except ye destroy the Accursed from amongst you i.e. unless you destroy your Sins which make you Accursed and for the future strictly keep the Command which I gave concerning the Utter Destroying of whatever belongs to those Cursed Nations Unless you do this I will never assist you to overcome your Enemies but they shall continually vanquish you and prevail against you From the whole take this Observation that the Sins of a People are like to hinder their Success in War and to cause them to turn their Backs and slie before their Enemies Besides the Instance in this Chapter there are sundry others which we meet with in other places of the sacred History I will begin with that in Iudg. ii 11. c. The Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers and follow'd other Gods and provoked the Lord to anger And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth These were their heinous Sins Now observe the Effect of them which follows in the next Verse The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hand of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hand of their enemies so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies This refers unto the Time between 〈◊〉 's Death and God's raising up of the Iudges Then it was that their Enemies prevailed against them in Battel and miserably Overthrew and Destroy'd them which is here ascribed to their Idolatry and other Crying Sins which provoked God to deliver them as a Prey to their Enemies And even in the Days of the Iudges the same Cause had the same Effect the Children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and the Lord strengthned Eglon the King of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the
Lord And he gather'd unto him the Children of Ammon and Amalek and went and smote Israel Judg. iii. 12 13. Markit the Sin of Israel was the Strength of Eglon Moab and Ammon prevail'd against God's People because they walked not as such because they acted Sinfully and Wickedly And at several other times it is particularly recorded in this Book that when the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord then he gave them into the Hands of their Enemies who prevail'd over them and grievously oppressed them To this refer the Psalmist's Words in Psal. lxxviii 56. c. They tempted and provoked the most high God and kept not his Testimonies They provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven Images When God heard this he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel he deliver'd his strength into Captivity and his Glory into the Enemies hand He gave his People over also unto the Sword So God by his Prophet acquaints us that they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit Therefore he was turned to be their Enemy and he fought against them Isa. lxiii 10. I will only add that notable Instance in 2 Chron. xxiv 23 24. It came to pass that the Host of Syria came up against him viz. King Ioash and they came to Iudah and Ierusalem and destroy'd all the Princes of the People from among the People and sent all the spoil of them to the King of Damascus For the Army of the Syrians came with a small company of Men and the Lord deliver'd a very great host into their Hand The Syrians were but few and the Israelites were many yet These were defeated by Them and if you would know the Reason of it the next Words will inform you because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers For this it was that God forsook them and gave them up to their Enemies to be destroy'd by them All this which I have produced is an undeniable proof of what I asserted that Sin hinders Success in War this is the cause of Armies being discomfited All warlike Provisions prove Successless all Force and Artillery become useless and unable to repulse the Enemy when a Nation by their Sins fight against God This must needs be so if you consider either the Nature of the Thing it self or the just Judgment of God First it is so in the Thing it self Immorality and Vice do naturally impede the Success of War and give a check to the Military proceedings of any People Especially there are some Vices which more visibly hinder the Thriving of Warlike Undertakings and Exploits Debauchery takes away the steady use of Men's Reasons and renders them uncapable of minding and attending to their Safety The Amalekites after their Success at Ziklag lay spread all over the Ground eating and drinking 1 Sam. 30. 16. And this was it which exposed them to the Enemy who as we read in the next Verses took the advantage of their Debauchery and slew them all except a few who it is likely were those that retain'd some measure of Sobriety Belshazar was set upon in the Night of his Pleasure as it is call'd Isa. xxi 4. i.e. in the time of his Feasting and Revelling which was in the Night Then it was that Cyrus and Darius took Babylon viz. when the Chaldean Nobles were in the heighth of their disorder'd Mirth Dan. v. 1 30. which we may find confirmed by Xenophon in the Life of Cyrus Our Chronicles tell us that the English Army upon occasion of King Harold's birth Day had been Drinking and Revelling all Night before they came to Fight with the Normans which was one great Reason of their losing the Day and being Conquered Intemperance and Sottishness have been pernicious and fatal to Men of Arms These darken and cloud their Minds so that they are not able to see into the Projects and Designs of their Enemies nor to apprehend what is most proper to be done on emergent occasions These are the cause of their neglecting the fit Seasons and Opportunities of action which being lost they are so too Again Incontinence and Luxury and Love of Pleasure weaken and enervate Mens Bodies and cramp those Hands that should War and those Fingers that should Fight Hence it was that Xerxes's Prodigious great Army of above a Million of Men proved ineffectual to the purposes he had formed Their Delicacy and Luxurious way of living spoilt all their military Conduct They were more eager to Fight with their Teeth than with their Hands and Weapons They were not so much for devouring the Enemy as their Viands They wish'd work for their Knives rather than their Swords they thirsted after Wine more than Blood Who could expect but that their Softness and Dalliances should unfit them for harsh Encounters In a word Being sunk into Sensuality they hated to venture their Lives and being fill'd with Guilt they dared not And when we remember that in the Princes of Asia's Armies there were Troops of Women and Eunuchs and useless Persons design'd only for Pleasure and Diversion we need not wonder that they were so often Defeated and that their vast Numbers fled away in disorder Especially it is requisite in Military Officers that they be Masters of great Continence and Moderation For as Tully well observes He that in this point is not able to govern himself cannot rule an Army Wherefore for this excellent Virtue we find some of the greatest Commanders Agesilaus Fabritius Scipio the African c. commended by Plutarch Valerius Maximus and others Tho' Cesar made his Vaunt that he won Battels with Perfumed Soldiers yet you shall rarely hear that Commanders do so For Effeminacy exhausts their Spirits dries up their Marrow and shrinks their Nerves An Armed Venus among the Romans was but an Image a Fiction but in reality 't is known that Lewdness is destructive to the Camp In short no Debauched or Effeminate Man can be a Good Soldier For he can never do the things that are required of a Man of Arms and he can never undergo the Hardships which that Life is subject to and consequently he is wholly unfit for Warlike Service There are other Vices also which hinder the Prospering of Military Undertakings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a fit Epithet bestow'd on Mars by the Antient Poet as much as if he had stiled him a Changling a Fickle and Slippery Deity And it seems some of his Votaries do too much imitate him else there would not have been that Complaint of old That there is no Faith nor Honesty to be found in them Deceit and Treachery have made many Armies Unsuccessful The Faithless and Persidious whilst they have seem'd to take up Arms for their Country have really betray'd it holding secret Correspondence with the Enemy and promoting that Cause which they pretend to fight against It is not incredible that We have had some ground to complain on this account If we had
not to addict your selves to the Sins of those Persons whom you Fight against How absurd and unaccountable is it think you that when we have Proclaimed War against a Neighbouring Nation and even whilst we are Fighting them and hope to get the better of them yet we are in the mean time Conquer'd by their Vices We treat them as Loathed Enemies and yet are in love with their Follies and doat upon their Vanities and Excesses Let me tell you we must take another course before we can look for Success and Victory If we would have This declare it self on our side and even fling it self into our Arms we must make sure of the Conquest over the Disorders and Vices of those we take up Arms against Briefly we must examin our Lives and Manners and whatever we discern to be amiss in us must be forsaken We must first vanquish all our Lusts and then we may with some confidence engage the Adversary We may hope for Success against our Bodily Enemies when we have subdued our Spiritual ones What you read of Ionas may be a good Emblem to us in this present Affair He was in Rebellion against God and was become a Great Sinner in his sight and for his sake as himself saith a Great Tempest arose at Sea and exceedingly endangered the Ship wherein he was There was no way to allay this Tempest and save the Ship but by taking up Ionas and casting him forth into the Sea then the Sea ceased from her raging It is Sin that raises the Tempests of War among us They are Sinners especially such as lie fast asleep as Ionas did that endanger the Common Vessel wherein we are Embark'd We shall all sink and be cast away unless the Troublesom Ionas be thrown over-board unless Sin be cast out But 3. It is not enough to cast away your Sins to abstain from those Vices which you formerly committed but you must betake your selves to the serious Practice of all Holiness The first thing you are to do is to give your selves unto Prayer This is a proper Duty at this time and is commended to us by the Examples of Moses Samuel King Asa Iehosaphat and Hezekiah whose Prayers on this occasion are recorded Let God arise and let his Enemies be scattered was the usual Form of Prayer or Collect which the Israelites used in their Marches against their Enemies And we read that there were Priests among them that waited on the War Persons set apart on purpose to go forth with their Armies and Pray with them upon any Expedition Yea that you may see that this is a part even of Natural Religion the Pagans invoked their Gods in a special manner when they went forth to Battel Thus it is particularly recorded of Cyrus that he very earnestly implored their help in his Wars But the Greeks and Romans were the most noted for this and therefore both Tertullian and Lactantius make mention of the special Addresses made to the Gods by those People in time of War Scipio that Great Thunderbolt of War was an Example of this among the Romans as Livy testifies He endeavoured to render the Gods favourable and propitious to him in Battel by his importunate Supplications to them and there are other Notable Instances not only in this Historian but in Others They generally acknowledg'd that their Help was in the Divine Power and that it was necessary to have the Gods on their side if they hoped for Success in Battel The very Proclaiming of War among the Old Romans was in a Religious and Devout manner It was accompanied with a solemn invoking of their Gods and with Ceremonies of Divine Worship The Herauld was a kind of Priest It might be observ'd that the Prince of Poets throughout his whole Iliads makes his Commanders invoke Iupiter before they undertook any Warlike Enterprize yea there is not any single Person but craves his Aid immediately before he ingages his particular Adversary Hereby this Antient Sage would give the World to understand that Praying and Fighting were not to be separated Shall the Christian World then fall short of Pagans in this Religious Practice Shall we not with most ardent zeal beseech the Almighty to bless our Arms with Success Do the Turks begin their March and make their Onset in Battel with a loud Cry of Allah Allah Allah i.e. they thrice repeat the Name of God And shall not Christians devoutly Supplicate their Iehovah Sabaoth their Lord of Hosts their Sacred and Undivided Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost Yes this we find to have been the constant Course and Practice of the Servants of God in all Ages Nobiscum was the Word used among the Christians of old in their Military Clamour When they were to engage the Enemy they all out of a sense of the Necessity of God's Presence with them according to that of the Apostle If God be for us who can be against us unanimously cried out God with us and for us for that is the meaning of Nobiscum as you will find it Interpreted There were solemn Prayers on the occasion of War in all the Antient Churches of the Christians and so it should be now The Gates of our Temples like those of Ianus's must stand open in these times of War Whilst so many among us are belching out Oaths and Curses do you strive to call down a Blessing by your devout Petitions and Addresses at the Throne of Grace Drown the Noise of their Prophane Swearing and Blasphemy by your Louder and Sacred Cries in the Ears of God Let your Supplications be as prevalent and successful as those of the Christians of old who were stiled the Thundering Legion who procured Relief to themselves and a Defeat to their Enemies by their Urgent and Incessant Cries to Heaven See then that you be very warm in your Addresses urge and solicite the Divine Goodness by your continued Applications God may be pleas'd to give that to our Prayers which he denies to our Courage we may prevail more by our Humble Petitions than by our Valorous Enterprizes And with Prayer join all other Acts of Religious Worship devote your selves wholly to the Service of God and never think your selves Safe whilst you abandon that Plutarch tells us in the Life of Numa that when Word was brought him that the Enemy was near at hand his answer was I fear them not Let them come at their perill for I am Sacrificing unto the God's He thought himself Safe in that Religious Employment and reckon'd it his best Protection against his Enemies Shall not we who are to offer Spiritual Sacrifices by Iesus Christ esteem those as our greatest Safety and Security in time of War and Slaughter And let us be daily employed not only in all Holy Exercises of Devotion but let us live in the constant Practice of those Religious Duties which respect our Selves and our Brethren as well as God We must think it to
Invasion of which you read in Isai. xx 4. which proved very Fatal and Mischievous to them The Sacred Records acquaint us that the unhappy Dividing of Israel into two Kingdoms which before was One and Entire so enfeebled that People that at length it ended in their Ruin For from the Ten Tribes being Separated and Rent from the other Two proceeded all their Civil Wars and Distractions at Home And this also made way for the Conquests by the Chaldean Kings and was at last the occasion of their Foreign Captivity This is confess'd by their own Learned Antiquary and Historian who particularly Remarks that this Defection from Rehoboam and dividing the Kingdom were the beginning and first cause of all the Evils that beâ—el them and of their final Overthrow Afterwards among the same People the Factions and Contentions of the Priests Fighting and Scuâ—fling for the High-Priests place brought in the Kings of Syria upon them And long after this what was it but the Intestine Divisions Sects and Parties in the same Nation which occasion'd the demolishing of their City by Titus Vespasian Their own Civil Broils and Discords made way for his Forces The Tumults of the Zealots those Iewish Banditi's and other Seditous Persons amongst them in the time of the Siege who as a Learned Writer thinks are meant by the Locusts in the Ninth of the Revelation in which Chapter he conceives their Outrages and Villanies are set forth did those People more harm and mischief than all the Roman Army This likewise is taken notice of by their Own Historian who tells us that the Romans beheld with Joy these Domestick Broils in Ierusalem reckoning the Dissention of their Enemies to be the most advantageous and profitable thing that could have happen'd and crying out That it was from a Divine Hand that their Enemies were turn'd against themselves Therefore the Emperor's Son as the same Author informs us observing these deadly Feuds among them told his Soldiers when he perceived them to be very eager of falling upon the Iews That he delay'd a while to do this that thereby their Dissentions might be increas'd and grow more raging and by that means they might fall by their own hands and be consumed by their implacable Quarrels among one another Whereas if he should break in upon them presently this would be a cause of their Agreement and move them to join together against the Common Foe Therefore to pacify his Soldiers he reminded them that God knew what was better for them than themselves did and had so ordered the present Affair that the Jews should be delivered up to them without labour and that Victory should be given them without undergoing any great Fatigue and Danger Whilst their Enemies Perish'd by their own hands and were Ruined by the greatest of Evils viz. Their Home-bred Sedition they should only be Spectators of their Mischiefs but not be forced to fight with those Men who greedily sought after Death and were grown mad with intestine Slaughter and Bloodshed Thus Iosephus represents Titus speaking to his Soldiers It is true at last as the same Historian goes on to observe when it was too late all their Discords ceas'd all the Seditious Parties began to unite in one When the War grew hotter and the Romans approach'd nearer to them then they began to bewail their former Madness and to say to one another we have hitherto shew'd our fortitude and vaâ—our against our selves only By our own groundless Quarrels we have weakn'd our selves and strengthned our Enemies We have been all this while by our Animosities within encouraging those that are without To this the Roman Army may ascribe its Success That this or the like Language may never be hear'd in England is the design and aim of this present Discourse To pass from Iudea to Greece it is manifest that the Inhabitants of this Country after they had expell'd their Foreign Foes and put Xerxes to Flight at last overthrew themselves by Domestick Iarrs This is the Remark which Iustin the Historian makes of them Whilst every free City strived for the Mastery they all lost it For by their Quarrels among themselves and contending which should be Uppermost they gave occasion to Philip King of Macedon to subdue them all And afterwards when the Grecian Empire came once to be Divided into parts which was signified by the Leopards various Spots and the Four-headed Beast spoken of in Daniel it drew toward its Decay and in the End dwindled into nothing When not only the Empire it self but the Persons who presided over it were divided it could not long stand It cannot be denied that particularly the Kingdom of Syria which was part of the Greek Conquests was lost to the Romans by their Civil Discords and Quarrels many Persons contending at one time for the Supreme Rule Nothing is more evident than that the Vast Government of the Grecians fell by the mutual Animosities of Alexanders Successors They made not an end of falling out and Fighting one another till the Roman Empire swallow'd them all up To pass from Iews and Pagans even to Christians it may be observed in Ecclesiastical History that when the Primitive Christians began to be Quarrelsom and Contentious and to Persecute one another God sent amongst them the Hottest Persecution under Dioclesian which lasted Ten Years When there were mutual Envyings and Revilings amongst us saith Eusebius when the Rulers of the Church fell out with one another when the Pastors of the Flock foster'd Strife and Contention among themselves studying nothing but Emulation Enmity and Hatred then according to Ieremy the Lord cover'd the Daughter of Sion with a cloud in his Anger So that Good Father And in other Places he tells us that their Uncharita charitable Accusing of one another and Dissenting among themselves invited the Pagans to fall upon them the Divisions of Believers were justly rewarded with Bloodshed and Slaughter from Inâ—idels And after the Roman Empire became Christian one cause of its declining was the Division of it by Constantine the Great viz. when he Translated the Imperial Seat into Greece whereby in a short time the Eagles Head was divided and its Body by degrees Impair'd and Shatter'd Whilst the Government was One and Entire it was Stable and Firm but as soon as it came to be Parted it lost its pristine Vigour and grew Weak and Feeble It was upon this Division of the Empire that those Northern Nations the Gothes distinguish'd into Vise Gothes and Ostro Gothes the Hunns Vandals Longobards and Others whose very Names are as Barbarous as Themselves were left their Cold and Barren Countries and cross'd the Rhine and Danube to settle themselves in warmer Habitations But which is yet more to our purpose when these Barbarous Nations like a General Deluge over-ran the fairest Realms of Europe the Frayes and Dissentions of Christians made way for them That which chiefly Encouraged and Promoted the incursion of these
Barbarians was the Disagreeings and Animosities in the Church Socrates Particularly observes this that at the same time that the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy persecuted other Dissenting Christians the Gothes and Longobards invaded Italy The fourth Century had abounded with Schism and Faction as well as Heresies And behold as the Effect as well as Recompence of these the fifth Century labour'd under an other sort of Plagues viz. the Irruption of those Savages partly Pagans and partly Arians who miserably Persecuted the Orthodox Christians in Italy Spain France and other Countries The Church might justly ascribe this to their own Home-Divisions Those Dreadful things it is probable had never come to pass if the Christians had not been Shatter'd and Distracted among themselves if they had not swarm'd with Various Opinions and fill'd every place with Disputes and Controversies if they had not mangled and corrupted many Heads of the Christian Faith if their Bishops had not been Haughty and Proud and not only despised and vilified their Inferior Brethren but likewise had Jarr'd with one another in short if both Governors and People had not been given to Tearing and Rending amongst themselves and if a Spirit of Division had not possess'd them beyond all Exorcism Thus it happen'd to the Church in the fifth Century Again to touch upon an other Coast of History when in Arabia Felix and Syria and the adjoyning Countries several Sects and Parties of Christians had sprung up as Melchites Maronites Eutychians Nestorians Monothelites c. then in that very Arabia but no longer to be call'd the Happy appeared the Grand Impostor Mahomet He and his Successors got up and gain'd Ground not only there but in other Places by the many Disputes and Parties which were among the Christians And whilst the Churches of Ierusalem Antioch and Constantinople unchristianly contended about Priority and such like Points the Turks came and decided the Controversy This is now known to be a Great Truth and not to be doubted of that the Mahometan Empire arose from the Contentions in the East when the Churches were torn asunder with the Arian and Manichean Doctrines For this Dissention bred in many Men an hatred of the Christian Religion and of the very Name of it and then any Opinion or Doctrine especially if grateful to the Flesh could not but be easily entertain'd and embraced Is it not fad to consider that the Vilest Cheat in the World That of Mahometism was foster'd and set forward by the Differences of those who were of the Christian Religion And afterwards it was no wonder that when the Greek Church was divided within it self into Armeniâ—ns Georgians Iacobites c. it was oppressed by the Turks and Saracens and quite over-run by them Their own Divisions armed these People against them their Quarrels among themselves put Weapons into the Hands of their Enemies and helpt them to Vanquish them To make this Reflection the more Authentick I will give it you as it is represented in one of the Homilies of our Church Where after it was observ'd that the Dissention of the Eastern and Western Christians was very much promoted by the Quarrel about Images the Conclusion is this So that when the Saracens first and afterwards the Turks invaded the Christians the one part of Christendom would not help the other By reason whereof at last the Noble Empire of Greece and the City Imperial Constantinople was lost and came into the Hands of the Infidels And immediately after Thus a Sea of Mischiefs was brought in a horrible Schism between the East and the West Church an hatred between one Christian and another Councels against Councels Church against Church Christians against Christians Princes against Princes at last the tearing in sunder of Christendom and the Empire in two Pieces till the Infidels Saracens and Turks common Enemies to both parts have most cruelly Vanquish'd Destroy'd and Subdued the one part and have won a great Piece of the other Empire and put the whole in dreadful Fear and most horrible Danger Still in pursuance of the Argument I am upon I might remind you that the Discord of Christians was it which lost Ierusalem after it had been held by them Successively a long time after it had cost them so much Blood in their several Expeditions and Crusades The Saracens strength in the Holy Land accrued by the Misunderstandings of the Princes of Europe when the Holy War was turn'd into Civil Dissentions And as Turcism arose and increased by the Dissentions of Christians so it is easy to prove that Popery had the same Rise and Advance for there is abundant History to make it clear that by Divisions in Doctrine and Practice in the Church in the first Ages those Corruptions first crept in Especially by reaso of the Dissention among Christian Emperours Kings and Princes the Papal Religion arrived to what it is For whenever These fell out with one another the Popes stood ready to make advantage of it and they always thereby increas'd and advanc'd their own Power and Authority and consequently the Papal Cause I might leave Christendom and travel as far as China and shew you that vast and spacious Kingdom which above 4000 Years together enjoy'd an uninterrupted Peace and knew not so much as the Use of Arms to defend their Country which no People in the World can say besides them At last the occasion of putting a Period to this long Tranquility was the Discords of this Kingdom among themselves the Divisions and Inflammations within their own Bowels and the Civil Wars occasion'd by Usurpers of the Throne Which were follow'd with the irruption of the Scythians and Asiatick Tartars upon them who in those unhappy Circumstances got the better of them and after a long and bloody War possess'd that Kingdom the wealthiest and most populous in the whole World that we know of and to this Day are Masters of it And now when we are travelling we may visit the Famous Country of the Abyssines or Ethiopia a large Kingdom in Africk but lately shrunk into a lesser Compass and almost lay'd wast by the Natives of the Place some of them having turn'd State-Rebels and others set on by the Iesuites fighting on a Religious Account But I will not wander so far but come home to our selves and prosecute the Argument with relation to this Land of our Nativity They were the Civil Wars of the Antient Britains which tempted Iulius Caesar to invade this Island at first This was the Rise of the Romans coming hither and this was the occasion of the Britains being conquered It is evident from the most Credible Historians that our Ancestours a very warlike and valiant People were vanquished rather by the Perfidiousness of their own Androgeus and the Quarrels of others among themselves than by the valour and force of the Invaders For they tell us that Iulius Caesar was invited over by that Androgeus who at that time quarrell'd with