worse, nay poffibly we are much better than our Enemies. We have not the Blood of murdered Martyrs to anfwer for: We have not corrupted the Faith of Chrift, and given in it's ftead a Syftem of monftrous Doctrines fupported by the Fury of Perfecution: We are not surely so bad as they.---But had we as much Patience to hear the Comparison, as there is Reason to make it, it were easy to afk, which in your own Opinion is most criminal, he that oppofes a Religion which he believes to be falfe, or one that is unconcerned for the Honour of a Religion which he is convinced to be true;-one that is ready to make any Sacrifice to his Re ligion, or another that facrifices his Reli gion to his Lufts? Which is the worft; a Papift that is over-zealous for his own corrupt Syftem, or a Proteftant that gives himfelf no Thought about the pureft and best Religion in the World; that knows God, and yet glorifies him not as 'God, but holds the Truth in Unrighteousness, is careful only about what be may eat, and what he may drink, and where

f

withal he may be cloathed, the Pleasures and Splendours of Life, but for the Support of Piety, the Propagation of virtuous Principles, to promote a Seriousness in religious Concerns, is here quite unfolicitous and infenfible, and far from engaging others to a Fear of God, and a Faith in Jefus Chrift by his own good Example, fhews by his Manner of Life that he has no Fear of God before his Eyes?

4In the midst of this Forgetfulness of God our merciful and bleffed Saviour ftill admonishes us as he formerly did the Jews, vifits us with Judgments, fets Life and Death before us, the Bleffing and the Curfe, and affectionately calls upon us to be inftructed, left his Soul depart from us. So far then our Cafe and that of the Jews hold but too much Refemblance. What remains therefore but to apply to ourselves, what our bleffed Lord applied to the Jews?---Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Alas! What Heart can forbear to ache, ---what Eye can reftrain it's Tears at fuch a Profpect as this? Have you never read, have you never thought of fuch a Day of Vifitation? You have read of the strange Cruelties of favage Indians. For a Moment pass in your Reflections to America, and recal to your Thoughts what our Brethren have fuffered there.----Honeft, industrious Families roufed from their Sleep at Midnight only to be robbed and butchered, the dying Groans of Brothers, Fathers, Husbands, weltering in their Blood, the Cries of innocent, helpless Children weeping over their murdered Parents, deprived in a Moment of all that was dear to them, of all that could yield them Confolation and Support, and fuffering whatever unrelenting Villainy can fancy or commit; alas! what a Scene is this only to think of, but what a Scene to fuffer in! What if this Kingdom in the Wrath of Heaven should become a Theatre for acting the fame Tragedies? What if God fhould

pour

pour in a Flood of Enemies ;---if on a Day' of public Worship like this, met as we are together, à Band of merciless Ruffians armed with Barbarity and Rage fhould enter, and mingle our Blood with our Devotions? What if the Foundations of this Houfe fhould begin to tremble, and the Walls to tumble on our Heads, as thofe eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell? What if God fhould multiply his Judgments upon us, and make our Plagues wonderful? The Lord shall make the Peftilence cleave unto thee until he have confumed thee from off the Land: (Deut. xxviii. 21.) And because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with Joyfulness and with Gladness of Heart for the Abundance of all Things, therefore fhalt thou ferve thine Enemies, which the Lord fhall fend against thee, in Hunger and in Thirst, and in Nakednefs, and in Want of all Things, and be fhall put a Yoke of Iron upon thy Neck, until he have destroyed thee. (v. 47, 48.)

Undoubtedly God can, if he pleafes, reverfe the Liberties and Independency of

this

this Nation, and change our Succeffes into Mourning; for his Power is without Bounds or Shore. God has often punished wicked Nations by a Series of Providences as visible almoft as the Vices which occafioned them. Witness the Jews, and the various Revolutions in the Fate of that People from their firft Erection into a Nation down to their final Destruction. And the Word of Jefus denounces, that, like Cafes will have like Confequences; and that, except a wicked Nation repent, it shall likewife perish. What our prefent Character as a Nation is; how much Indifference to Religion, and Contempt of Principle prevails among the higher Ranks of Life, and how much Debauchery and Riot in the inferior and com mon Sort; how cold a Regard to God and Virtue obtains univerfally---all this our Enemies will tell with Pleafure. And will not God vifit for thefe Things,---vifit as cert tainly as he loves the Thing that is right,--as certainly as he will by no Means acquit the guilty? There is one Way to prevent

the