Imatges de pàgina
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Governor, Mr. Poyntz, (who, as I once told Queen Caroline his Mother, was, in my Opinion, the fittest to be his Governor of all fhe could have chosen for that Purpose) hoping that the Duke might fee and confider them. The former Claufe was this: Keep Innocency, and take Heed to the Thing that is right; for that shall bring a Man Peace at the last. [Pfalm xxxvii. 37.] The other was after the Victory at Culloden: I heartily congratulate you upon

the Victory which our old Pupil the Duke of • Cumberland has gained: I wish he were as good a Christian as he is a great Commander; without which, in a little Time, all will be Vapour and Vanity!' But alas! alas! This Freedom of mine is no more than the Duty of every Clergyman or Watchman, as well as mine. See Ezekiel ii. 16, 17, 18. The Word of the Lord came unto me, faying, Son of Man, I have made thee a Watchman unto the House of Ifrael: Therefore bear the Word at my Mouth, and give them Warning from me. When I fay unto the Wicked, Thou shalt furely die, and thou giveft bim not Warning, nor Speakest to warn the Wicked from his wicked Way, to fave his Life, the fame wicked Man fhall die in his Iniquity; but bis Blood will I require at thine Hand.

Fifth Command. [Exod. xx. 12. Deut. v. 16.] Honour thy Father and thy Mother, that thy Days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Though this Duty of honouring our Parents be a Branch of natural, as well as of the Jewish and Chriftian Religions, yet the Reward promised to it being here peculiar to the Jews,

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and their peculiar long Continuance in the Country of Judea, it seems not directly to concern us upon the prefent Occafion.

Sixth and Eighth Commands. [Exod. xx. 13, 15. Deut. v. 17, 19.] Thou shalt not kill: Thou shalt not steal. These are two of the principal Injunctions given by God Almighty, the original Donor and Proprietor of our Lives and Eftates; while yet it is the Business, the main Bufinefs of most of our Wars to break them, by killing as many of our Enemies as we can; and by plundering thofe Enemies as much as we can; without any Regard to the Juftice or Injustice of those Wars. I doubt the Guilt of fuch Murders and Plunderings in our late Wars has been very great, and lies very heavy upon all Sides at this Day. It is true, that God himself made the Ifraelites the Executioners of his Vengeance against the Amorites or Canaanites; but this not till their Iniquities were full; [Gen. xv. 16.] and when it appears their Idolatry had induced them to offer their own Children to be burnt to Moloch, &c. [Wifd. xii. 5, 6.] So that these Wars were certainly lawful, as defigned by God to be for the Excifion of Nations not fit to live upon God's Earth any longer. King Saul was also enjoined by God utterly to deftroy the Amalekites; but it was only the Sinners the Amalekites; [1 Sam. xv. 18.] and because he had God's Warrant for their Deftruction. King David also, and the other religious Kings of Judah, conftantly fought with, and endeavoured to deftroy the Philiftines, and other their Enemies; but it was as

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directed by the Prophets of God, or by his Oracle the Urim; and only to conquer those who would not fuffer God's People to enjoy what God had reserved in a peculiar Manner for them; and what he had folemnly bequeathed to them, while they were obedient to his Laws, for all Generations; whom no other People had any Right to dispos fefs; while yet he did not give thofe his own People Leave to hurt either the Moabites, or Ammonites, or Edomites, while they lived peaceably at Home; and whofe Countries he had affigned to thofe Nations, as he had referved Palestine for the Children of Ifrael. Neither do I know whether the Christians were at firft allowed to take the Sacramental Oath to any Parthian, or other Potentate, to fight against the Roman Empire, which God had chofen for his peculiar People, upon his Rejection of the Jews; and within whofe Dominions. his own Church was almoft wholly confined for feveral Ages. But that our late terrible Wars, which have shed fuch a Quantity of Blood, and plundered fo many People in almost all Quarters of the World, have had any Permiffion from God for all the Blood fhed, and Goods plundered, I. do not know; I rather think fuch publick Murders and Plunders, together with those many private Murders and Robberies, of late fo very common among us, are fatal Additions to our other manifold and heinous Sins; for which the Hand of God is now stretched out against us; and whofe Punishments, fore Punishments, I am perfuaded, nothing but our moft fincere Repentance and Amendment can pre

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Seventh

Seventh Command. [Ex. xx. 14. Deut. v. 18.] Thou shalt not commit Adultery. To say nothing here of Rapes, of Buggery, or Bestiality; which are the horrideft of Crimes under this Head, and are too well known to have been practifed among us. I fhall chiefly confine myself to another of the groffeft of the Crimes, intended under this Prohi bition, of which Bishop Sherlock speaks in a moft affecting Manner, as already fet down, Pag. 96, 97, priùs, Sodomy. And, fince we have lately had three eminent and publick Inftances of this horrible Crime, the Reader muft give me Leave by them to confirm what the Bishop fays relating thereto. 'Tis not very many Years ago, that an Head of Wadham College in Oxford was forced to leave his College and Nation, for this moft infamous Vice. Nor is it very many Years ago, that our then firft Minifter, the Lord Sunderland, was, in Effect, tried at Kingston Affizes for the fame Crime. And tho' our Courts of Juftice are not able of late to convict first Minifters, in fuch Cafes; yet do I well remember, that every Body that heard the Trial were privately fatisfied he was guilty. And when a Saying of the fame first Minister at Court, which I had from an Ear-witnefs, comes hereafter to be related; the religious Reader will not great. ly wonder that fuch a Scorner of Religion was alfo a Sodomite. However, a third a third Example shall be of one of the principal Surgeons in London, whom I once knew, and efteemed among the best Chriftians of that Profeffion, Mr. Shipton. Yet did the Sufpicions of his Practice of Sodomy, and ac

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companying with a Club of Sodomites, grew at laft so very strong, that he could not stand it in the City; but was forced to retire to an obfcure Place in the Country. All which Inftances do but too fully corroborate the ftrong Sufpicion mentioned by Bishop Sherlock, of great Nefts of Sodomites now in the City of London.

Tenth Command. [Ex. xx. 17. Deut. v. 21.] Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Houfe, thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife, nor his Man Servant, nor bis Maid Servant, nor his Ox, nor his Afs, nor any Thing that is thy Neighbour's. Although the Crime here forbidden, Covetousness, be of a very different Nature from the foregoing, and not easily chargeable on particular Perfons, at least not eafily proved against them; yet fince St. Paul to the Corinthians enumerates this Vice, among the other heinous Crimes, whofe Authors fhall not inberit the Kingdom of God: [1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.] Fornicators, Idolaters, Adulterers, Effeminate, Abufers of themselves with Mankind, (or Sodomites) Thieves, Covetous, Drunkards, Revilers, and Extortioners: Nay, fince the fame Apostle affures us, in the fame Epiftle, that he had, in a former Epiftle, now loft, written to the fame Corinthians, [v. 9, 10, 11.) Not to company with Fornicators of this World, nor with the Covetous, nor Extortioners, nor with Idolaters; which they mistaking, as if he would oblige Chriftians almoft to leave off all Intercourse with their heathen Neighbours, to their greatest Inconvenience in common Life; he ftill affures them, they were obliged, not to keep Com

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