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A67014 The great duty of love and faithfulness to our native country occasion'd by the coolness of some in its necessary defence, and the forwardness of others, in pushing on its ruine / deliver'd in a sermon at the Chappel of Popler, December 3, 1693, by Josiah Woodward ... Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712. 1694 (1694) Wing W3518; ESTC R38760 16,712 33

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Namely in making a Sacrifice of our Bibles Fiat Justitia in vastatorem Europae ne ruat Orbis Terrarum and Mother-Country to the great Golden Image of the French Arbitary Power which the Babylonians have set up and would have all People Nations and Languages to fall down and Worship it and they require us above others to bow to it because they make their pretended Kindness to the aforesaid Prince a stale to their Ambition and Usurpation But can that be indeed an act of Righteousness which by humouring the Vice or Error of one man destroys many Millions Or is it not rather a perfect Dementation than a Principle of Conscience For my part were I dissatisfy'd about the Legality of the present Government as I thank God I am not in the least yet I should think my self obliged to keep my Scruples private within my own Breast Because if this political notion of mine should in the end prove a gross mistake as our Lawyers the best Casuists in this Case assure us it is what should I have to answer for before God and men When I should be proved to be a fighter against the most merciful providences of God and a Vile Traytor to my own Country which is the worst sort of Parricide What Restitution can a private man make to many injured Nations It had need be a manifest part of Duty so clear and demonstrative that there is no room for doubt that engages us against all the Interests of this Life Otherwise we shall want Comfort in our sufferings here and may not only miss the Crown of Martyrdom in the other world but fall under the Curse denounced against such as are without natural affection Rom. 1. 31. Yea such as deny the faith by the want of Christian care for those of their own Blood 1 Tim. 5. 8. I would therefore ask such Persons as lye under this unhappy mistake a few Questions which since Conscience is pleaded I would desire them with due Application of Conscience to consider 1. Quest Is not our Love to our Country and our Endeavour after the welfare of our Relations and Posterity a natural binding duty and in order of Nature before our engagements to any Political Institution 2. Quest Is not the Preservation of the Community or whole Political Body the very End of all political Institutions 3. Quest Is it not a contradictions and phrenetick Notion to destroy any Country in Love to the Prince of it tho' he were never so Rightfully entituled to it 4. Quest Can a Person of the Reformed Religion with a safe Conscience dip himself directly or consequentially in the Luciferian Design of the French Politicks to blot out Protestancy and enslave Christendom 5. Quest Can a good man continue five years together in such execrable ingratitude to God as never to render hearty Praises to his Great Name for our Marvelous Deliverance from the Ruine designed to our Church and State in the late Reign 6. Quest Can a Papist that is Zealous for Popery even to Bigotry sincerely now take and faithfully keep the Oaths which English Princes are obliged to take at their Coronation 7. Quest Can any good Christian desire that a Popish Prince continuing Zealous for the Principles and Propagation of Popery should again come to the Imperial Throne of England and put himself afresh to this hateful and dreadful Dilemma Namely either to mock God and men by solemn Oaths and repeated Promises made to Protestants in abominable Hypocrisie which was done in the first part of a certain Reign Or to fall down right upon illegal and open Violations of the Rights of the Protestants of England as it was done in the last part of it If this be allowed I think we may as well conclude that a firm Protestant may enter upon the Possession of the Throne and Chair of the Pope and Swear and Vow to preserve all the abominations of the Papacy But we may easily fore-see that Papists would clamour against this as a thing impracticable and self-contradictions As the Associates of the Holy League in France did against their Henry the Fourth who often protested that a Protestant was incapable of the French Crown and surely we have as much Reason to say That a Papist is as incapable of the Crown of England And now having consider'd the two Positions proposed to be spoken to I come to Apply them and the manifest Duties which the fore-mentioned things do enforce upon all serious Minds are briefly these App. 1. Inf. That we manifest our selves sincere Lovers of our Country by our earnest Supplications to the Sovereign Disposer of all things in the behalf of these divided Churches and Kingdoms Let us say as the Psalmist in the Text Peace be within them May all Divisions and Emnities in Church and State be healed by pacifick Methods and the Edge of all Passion be turn'd against that over-grown Debauchery which needs the help of all hands to pull it up Let us try the powerful Means of Prayer and Fasting to cast out that unclean Spirit of Prophaness which has kept so long and raving a Possession amongst us Had our Publick Fasts been kept with better Conscience we might have expected to have seen our Publick Affairs in better Condition To redress this as much as possible let our private Fasts be very frequent and very faithful We have need alas to set up Daniel's Fasts within our Chambers for three Dan. 10. 2 3. Weeks together without eating any pleasant Bread and pray as he does Dan. 9. 16. O Lord according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee let all thine Anger and thy Fury be turn'd away from thy City Jerusalem thy holy mountain because for our Sins and ihe iniquities of our Fathers Jerusalem and thy people are become a Reproach to all that are about us O may all the Watchmen of our Jerusalem never hold their Peace day nor night and give the Lord no Rest till he establish it and make it a Praise in the Earth Isa 62. 6 7. Yea let every Soul endeavour by his Prayers to become a Patriot by pulling down Blessings on his Country And if we would make way for our Prayers to come before God in an acceptable manner in the next place 2 Inf. We must in love to our Country do all we can towards the removing the general and open Prophaness from its Borders this is the accursed thing which troubles our Israel and blasts our Undertakings Wickedness is a thing which God will never bless and will not long bear Let us not then be discouraged by the Scoffs or Frowns of wicked Men from endeavouring to prosecute and discountenance Vice We cannot well think it a less-glorious Martyrdom to dye for the propagation of the Practise of the Gospel than for the Profession of its Faith Let us all then in our stations endeavour an universal Reformation for indeed we must be look'd on as a Nation under God's Rod who trys
THE Great Duty OF Love and Faithfulness TO OUR Native Country OCCASION'D By the Coolness of Some in its Necessary DEFENCE and the Forwardness of Others in pushing on its Ruine Deliver'd in A SERMON AT THE CHAPPEL of POPLER December 3. 1693. Publish'd at the Request of the Hearers By JOSIAH WOODWARD Minister of Popler Nescio qua Natale Solum Dulcedine cunctos Ducit im memores non sinit esse sui LONDON Printed for R. Simpson at the Harp in St. Pauls-Church-Yard 1694. To my Country-Men the Couragious Souldiers and Sea-Men of England in the Service of Their Most Excellent Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY TO whom may I so fitly Dedicate this short Discourse concerning Love and Faithfulness to our Native Country as to You Gentlemen who are under the Divine Providence the Bullwarks and Ramparts of it We have but few strong Garrisons save what are lodged in our Wooden Castles floating on the Sea And we hope that these together with our Land-Forces Headed by so brave a General will with Gods Blessing keep the Land of our Nativity from being the dismal Seat of War and Misery and make it at last a Scene of Triumph and Peace Our English Arms by Sea and Land have been famed and feared all over the World within a few years past and many of you give us the happy demonstration that all our English Valour is not withered But there is one thing too sadly and alas too generally forgotten though it be very necessary both to True Valour and Good Success and that is True Piety We cannot but own That there is a Holy and Almighty God the Disposer of all Events How much does it concern us then to secure an Allyance with him that he appear not against us For he is the Lord of Hosts and will appear on one side or the other where Armies engage and what Part soever he takes it will be sure to be Victorious It is God that girdeth me with strength said Valiant David Psal 18. 32. He is the God of the Spirits of all Men and can either advance them to an unsurmountable Height of Valour or sink them to a base and contemptible feebleness and fear No Souldier therefore marches in so good Array as he that is girt with the whole Armour of God mentioned Eph. 6. 11. and hath the Praises of God in his Mouth as well as a Two-edg'd Sword in his hand Psal 149. 6. Goliath the Champion of the Philistines wanted no Weapon nor Strength of Arm but he came forth defying God and so he blasphemed himself to death and fell by the sling of a despised Stripling Wherefore as you would approve your selves great and brave Men labour to gain the Victory over base and shameful Vices Your Victory here will be a most happy Presage of the Fall of all your other Enemies that rise up against you For even Death it self will become your Conquest through our Lord Jesus Christ Let me therefore entreat you My Brethren with the most Affectionate Bowels of a Friend and Brother That you keep the fear of God before your eyes and call devoutly on his Glorious and Fearful Name And since you have not often fit places of retired Prayer be the more frequent and earnest in short Ejaculations at all times Let not the Fury of any Lust or Passion make you forget God in whose hands your breath is and whose Blessing alone can make you prosperous Consider therefore what a Madness it is to be accustomed to that common but dreadful sin of Swearing and Damning 'T is a sin of no Temptation but of infinite Guilt so that it seems to need no Argument to induce a Souldier to leave it but to consider that it is Fighting under the Devil without Pay and that against an Omnipotent GOD who will destroy his Enemies eternally Be entreated also to keep strict sobriety or you cannot be Men much less Heroes And be just civil and modest in your Deportment or you will want the hravest Method of Conquering and bringing all People over to your side And when you come to face your Enemies let Love Honour and Concern for your GOD and King your Religion and Countrey make you Resolute and Couragious And let not Despair it self encline you to turn your Backs for then you give opportunity to the veriest Coward to kill you without danger the greatest Slaughter is ever made in the Pursuit In a word I beseech the Invincible God to lead you on inspirited with true Gallantry and to bring you back laden with the spoils of your Enemys that so our latest Posterity may Crown you with Immortal Honour as the Preservers under God of our Lives Liberties and Religion and the Conquerors of our most Desperate and Dangerous Enemies So Prays Your Servant and Country-Man J. W. Psal 122. 8 9. For my Brethren and Companions sake I will now say Peace be within thee Because of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy Good IT was to Jerusalem that these kind Wishes are Voted in the Text. And indeed to what Place should a Jew wish so well as to his own Land for which the scatter'd Remnant of them do yet retain an inextinguishable Love Jerusalem was at that time both the Metropolitan Church and City of Judea and in this double Respect the Psalmist here inspired by the Spirit of God demonstrates his Zeal for its Peace and Prosperity as the words distinctly express For my Brethren and Companions sake I will now say Peace be within thee That is I wish Thee all desirable Blessings O my Native Country for the sake of my Relations and Friends who live in thee And that which further engages my Concern for thy Welfare is that God hath Chosen Jerusalem to be the Seat of his Holy Temple There the true God was then Worshipt and there was his Church and peculiar People therefore I will do all that in me lyes to Advance thy Happiness Because of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy Good So then in these words we find two very constraining Reasons for the Love of our Country which must needs be binding to such as have either Sense or Conscience For First If we have any bowels of Humanity towards our Relations which are our own Flesh or to our Dear Friends which are as our own Soul we must seek the Peace and Prosperity of the place of their Habitation and say with the Psalmist For my Brethren c. Or Secondly If we have any pious Concern for the Sacred Interests of the reformed Religion and the Church of God we must seek the Good of this our Land as in the latter part of the Text Because of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy Good These words then tend to impress a Zealous and Indefatigable Concern for the common Good upon our Consciences assuring us of this point of Doctrine Doct. That it is a necessary part of our Duty
whether lesser Scourges will bring us to our Duty and if not we have reason to fear utter Destruction O that God would give us all a just and timely sense of His impending Wrath which seems to be so near that only the present apprehensions of it can be timely enough to prevent it 3 Inf. Let us be steddy and vigorous in the performance of our Duty to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY to whom besides the Tyes of Duty and Gratitude we are bound by a sort of Necessity and must say as in the Text For my Brethren and Companions sakes I will wish your Peace and because of the Houses of the Lord our God we will seek your Good 4 Inf. Let me exhort Souldiers and Seamen to whet and enliven their Courage from these Principles namely The love of the Reformed Religion and the Liberties of your Country The justness of your Cause may make you bold and undaunted when you engage the Enemies of all that ought to be dear to you especially if the love of the sacred Gospel has its due place in your Hearts And O that it had more deep and firm root there for a Good Conscience is as a Wall of Brass about a Man The Righteous is bold as a Lyon Prov. 28. 1. God has promised to put the Fear and Dread of such into the Hearts of their Enemies so that they shall have a very easie Victory and a very glorious one because wrought by the special Favour of God Deut. 11. 25. There shall no man be able to stand before you for the Lord your God shall lay the fear and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon So that you and we have great reason to regard the Counsel of God given Deut. 23. 9. When the Host goeth forth against thine Enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing Wherefore cast away all Iniquity from you that so the Spirit of the Lord may come mightily upon you as it did upon the famous Worthies of old who being thus supported always did Wonders 5 Inf. Let us all however divided about the lesser matters of Religion stand up with one Soul against the Common Enemies of Protestancy And however unhappily divided we are about some Political Notions let us nevertheless with one consent oppose the Designs of the Common Enemy of our Country Whilst the execrable French Faction here is zealous earnest and impudent daring us publickly with their Wagers and defying us with their Threats If in such a Juncture we on the contrary remain cool and indifferent as if it were a light thing how the matter succeeded we can at this rate make no Countermine to their desperate Designs but they are too like to carry all before them We have a sort of spiritless and enervate Creatures amongst us who in a very poor and passive manner say We will have no hand one way nor the other We will not concern our selves nor intermeddle No Sirs what not when your Enemies come with Idols to your Churches and Firebrands to your Houses Not when a Universal Ruine threatens your Selves and Posterity Surely as you will be the easiest so will you be the most despised Prey of your Enemies who if they have any Manhood in them will shew more Favour to the brave Defenders of their Country than to the sneaking Deserters and Betrayers of it Methinks it might sufficiently awaken every reasonable Soul to push on the present War with the utmost vigour if he will but exercise so much Fore-thought as to consider what will be the dreadful consequences of miscarrying in it 'T is to me past doubt that we had better be subdued by any People in the World than by the French No other Nation has Naval Forces sufficient to secure such a Conquest If the Turk subdued us he would miserably tyrannize but he would permit us the enjoyment of our Religion for a small yearly Tribute If other Nations subdued us either their distance would slacken our Bonds or their weakness would press us more lightly * As in the Roman and Danish Conquests But France is our next Neighbour very powerful by Sea and Land able to load us with heavy Chains and to rivet them upon us And besides it looks upon us as a Nation capable of being a Rival to her Glory and has often felt the power of our Arms in her own Bowels Yea she has been made a Conquest by us and longs to wipe off that stain and to pull her Lillies out of the Paw of our Lyon And further She has often found us a Goad in her Side when she flew at the Quarry of other Conquests And 't was only whilst we slept that She got up such a Fleet upon the Sea and enlarged her Boundaries so widely upon the Land And upon these accounts we must expect no Mercy at her hands but to be stript of all our Strength and Glory and to be made a Dunghil of Desolation Her Statesmen would allow our Liberties no more Quarter than the Jesuits would our Religion Ah! how dreadful an infatuation is it not to be sensible of the Approaches of such Miseries the meer possibility of which were enough to startle any Man of Sense the likelihood of it enough to transport the meekest Spirit into an extreme Rage Should such a Thing come to pass which God in mercy for ever avert what would Posterity say of the Politicks and Prowess of our present Age What a burning shame would the Slavery of England be to the present Inhabitants of so Strong so Rich and Populous a Land A Nation so much fam'd and dreaded in times past all over the World and such a peculiar Terror to the French Nation where the very Name of an English-man has been known to get a Victory * Witness the Tremendous Name of Talbot in Sir Ric. Baker's Chron. Surely we had every Soul of us better dye in the Defence than live in the Bondage and Reproach of our Nation I am not over-prone to put men upon the hazzard of their Lives nor am I rash in what I have spoken for I again affirm That our Lives ought to be less dear to us than the enjoyment of the Gospel and the Liberties of our Country And in this I am sure The Hands and Hearts of all good Protestants and true English-men will concur with me For my part I speak nothing here in Envy or Enmity to so great a Monarch as the French King I wish he really were as great a Heroe as his Flatterers on both sides the Sea boast him to be I wish he had manifested that Truth and Honour in all his promises to his own Nation and Compacts with others which might render his name Honourable and his Memory blessed O that he never had drawn forth his Sword against the Truths of Jesus Christ nor shed the blood of Martyrs in his own Land and Rivers of blood of poor Innocents in his