SERM. ing themselves to the different Humours, and

xxi. Paffions, and Inclinations, of Men; and spend m the Force of their Minds, to improve the Pride

of Some, the evil Temper of Others, the Worldly-mindedness of Others, to their own Purposes. They encrease the Evil, and add Fuel to the Fire, which they hope will at laft consume us; and, while good and sincere Men are not aware of it, the Enemy comes, and sows the Tares of Discord and Diffenfion, in such Ground as is supposed to be proper for them.

I come now, in the Third Place, to

urge

the great and weighty Motives we have to pursue this universal Love and Concord. And,

First, We are of the same Nation, and live under the same Government; and, consequently, have the same Civil Rights and Privileges : a Consideration, which has always been accounted a very strict Bond of Union amongst Men. And there Civil Rights, and Privileges, are such as few Nations enjoy; a Happiness, which proceeds from a Government so excellently tempered between Arbitrary Power, and Confusion, and Disorder. And then, We are of the same Religion, as to the main and fundamental Parts of it ; and the Profession of This, in Peace and Quietness, is deeply concerned in the Ar

gument.

22

gument. And this Religion, such as few, even s ERM.
of the Christian Nations in the World, enjoy; xxi,
Reformed from the grossest Abuses and Mifre-m
presentations of fuperftitious Men; and render-
ed plain and useful, subservient to the Purposes
of a good Life, and spiritual Worship; for
which it was at first designed by its great Found-
er. It is the Enjoyment of those Civil Rights,
and the free Exercise of this holy and pure Re-
ligion, that so happily distinguish us from ma-
ny other Parts of the Christian World. So that
from hence it appears, that we have the same
common Advantages and Interest to enjoy, if
we be fo happy as to preserve ourselves in our
present State; and, on the contrary, the same
irreparable Loss to sustain in these two invalu-
able Goods, if we go on to carry forward the
Work of our Enemies, by our Discord and Di-
vifions at Home. And what can link us toge-
ther in the Bands of Love, and in the amica-
ble Prosecution of the fame Designs, if a Sense
of our Happiness, both as we are of this Na-
tion, and of this Religion, will not? If such
Civil Rights and Privileges, such a free Enjoy-
ment of what is our own, such a Liberty in
the Worship of God, and the Exercise of our
Religion, be not valuable and dear to us, what
is it that we can value ? To be governed by
Laws, and not by a single Will, and an arbitrary

Power;

GS

SERM.Power; to be secure in the Poffeffion of our

XXI. Properties; to be happy in the Freedom of our mBodies and Estates; and, above all, to be

happy in the Freedom of our Services, and to be secure in the Performance of our Duties to God, and to one another : These are Advantages above any Price; such as we should envy in any other Nation; "the greatest Blessings this World can know; and such as we should never enough admire, were it not that they are grown old, and that we have been too much used to them: So ungrateful are we, that what should recommend them to us, really helps to fink their Price in our Opinions, and to make us loath and undervalue them. But if the Enjoyment of these common Bleffings cannot move us to that Love and Concord which are neceffary to preserve them, let us, in the

Second Place, be allarmed a little, by confidering, that we have the fame deplorable Calamities to expect, unless we jointly endeavour to prevent them, by an universal and fincere Unity. For as, on the one hand, the common Happinefles we now enjoy are very great : fo, on the other hand, the Loss, we shall in conmon sustain, of our Civil Liberties, and the Exercise of our Religion, must be very great, and irreparable; if our Animofities and Hatreds

still go on to make a way for those Adversaries, s ERM. who watch for nothing so much as the Oppor- XXI. tunity of entering through our Breaches, And not only this have we to fear ; but, what is still worse, the positive Evils of That miserable State of things, directly opposite to the Present, which must succeed.

The Enemy that threatens us, cannot be supposed to prevail over us, but that his Maxims of Government must prevail also. And as this is a most deplorable, and almost insupportable, Civil Calamity ; , so what we are to expect, as we are Protestants, is more so: for the other might be supportable, were it qualified and leffened by the free Liberty of our holy Religion. But what Miferies are we not to expect when this Liberty is denied us, and we are called upon to profess a Religion which we cannot in Conscience approve of? And yet there is no Hope of its being otherwise, if the common Enemy prevails. For it has appeared, beyond all Contradiction, that no Oaths or Obligations have ever kept Those of that Religion, whenever they have Power, from extirpating and putting an end to the Protestant Name. And indeed, I see not how any of Them could answer it to their Religion, and to their Church, if they did not. For, whatever some of that Religion would fain persuade the Poor and

Gg 2 Ignorant

SER M. Ignorant amongst us to believe, in order to xxi. feduce them from it, or make them more

favorable to it; it is notorious, from all
their public Declarations, their greatest Wri-
ters, and their constant Practice, that they are
obliged, (by their Principles,) to put an End
to the Proiijlont Name, and destroy it from
under Heaven, if they can. How great then
are the common Calamities we are to expect,
if we join our own Quarrels with our Adveč-
faries Designs against us, when it is impossible
to suppose that they are at all deviated from
their former Practices or Principles; impossi-
ble to think that the Reformation is not still
as much hated as ever amongst them; and that
still they account it lawful and commendable
to exercise the utmost Barbarities towards All,
who will not publickly profess and exercise
their superstitious and unchristian Religion,
Certainly, such Motives as these are of Weight
enough to move even the hardest Heart, that
has
any

Sense in it of our present Happiness; or any Belief of the Religion professed amongst

us.

Last of all, as for our own Sakes, fo for God's Sake, and for the Sake of that Name by which we are called, let us lay to Heart our Divisions and mutual Animofities; and let us all do our Endeavour to put some flop to them, and to