ple on their own heads: concerning which we may justly say, in the words of the prophet Daniel, that' under the whole heaven hath not been done, as hath been done upon Jerusalem*. To go through the detail of so lasting and complicated a misery, is no more possible, than it would be proper, in a discourse of this kind: the business of which is, neither to dispute upon the doubtful parts of the history, nor to amuse the hearer with the particulars of what is most undoubted: but to build religious and moral conclusions on those general facts, which every one must admit, and will easily recollect, on this mournful subject. We all know, the tragedy began with the too just occasion, unhappily given on each side, for complaints and fears. It proceeded, on the side of the disaffected, to the unjustifiable remedies, first of sedition, then of open rebellion; doubly unjustifiable, as the grievances alleged were already redressed: and it concluded, after the many distresses of a civil war undergone for several years, in the murder of the king, and the total ruin of the constitution: to which, after trying in vain every way to save it, and making such concessions for that end, as the better and greater part even of his adversaries voted to be sufficient, he died at last a willing and a patient martyr.

These are the principal points, from which we are now to draw proper uses. Passion and prejudice may easily suggest very improper ones: and this day become by such applications of things as contending parties are too apt to make, an instrument of perpetuating those animosities, against which it ought to caution us for ever. To censure with bitterness the persons or the proceedings on either side now,

* Dan. ix. 12.

when all that were concerned on both, are gone long since to answer for their sins before God, is neither useful nor decent. And to ascribe at random the same dispositions to any of the present generation, is both uncharitable towards them, and prejudicial to the public. What lies before us on the occasion, is only, from the errors of our ancestors, to instruct and direct ourselves. And we shall never see clearly, either what those errors were, or how we are to guard against them, unless we consider things with a mild, as well as serious, temper of mind. This will teach us, even where we differ, as men must be allowed to differ, in judging what the conduct of others was formerly, and how far it was right or wrong, to agree however in our determination of the essential question, what our own conduct ought to be now. Thus we shall be sure to avoid all hurtful conclusions, and take the right way to make a variety of useful ones. For doubtless every rank of men amongst us, both in church and state, from the highest to the lowest, may learn most important lessons of righteousness, from those failures of their predecessors, and those ensuing miseries, which we lament this day. There was no one party, or order of men, but did wrong: nor almost any one thing, in which they sinned, but they suffered a like return for it. And it should be our business at present, whatever our station is, ecclesiastical or civil, not only to recollect the faults in others, of which those, who went before us, complained; but chiefly those, into which they fell themselves. For thus each part of the society, instead of such mutual imputations, as tend to make the whole uneasy, would be led to such a home amendment, as tends to make it happy. But leaving, and recommending, to every sort of persons, the care of draw

ing inferences, rightly suited to their own cases in particular; I shall only enlarge on the general directions, which so dreadful a time of sin and suffering, may give to us all in common.

Now the great comprehensive lesson, which God intends to teach by every judgment, is an awful regard to himself, as the moral governor of the world; and a faithful practice of true religion. But here some will instantly object: were not the mischiefs of those days chiefly owing to religion: many of the disputes merely of a religious nature; and all of them embittered beyond measure by a mixture of religious animosities? How then is it recommended to us from hence? A little patient attention will shew you. Real religion, the love of God our common Father, the love of him whose peculiar precept is to love one another*, can never produce hatred and contention upon earth. It is the strongest bond, that can be, of union and peace; the strictest restraint of every injurious passion; the most powerful incitement to every benevolent and merciful deed. It is the only foundation of trust and security, amidst all that can happen around us; and of tranquillity and joy within us. But hypocrisy, superstition, and enthusiasm, though extremely different from religion, are often mistaken for it and these may work very fatal effects under its name: especially when pretences of extraordinary piety and purity, on one side, are made peculiarly plausible and popular, by the prevalence of immorality and profaneness on the other; which enormities, though far from universal, were too common, amongst the friends of the royal cause, notwithstanding the excellent example of the king; whom even his enemies owned to be sincerely pious, John xiii. 34. xv. 12. 17.

and strictly virtuous. But then, if religion may be counterfeited or perverted to bad purposes; so may every good thing in the world: honour, friendship, loyalty, public spirit, liberty itself. And things of an indifferent nature, and little use, if often misapplied, it is just and prudent to abolish. But attempts against the principles, that keep society from dissolution, as far as they can be effectual, must be pernicious. And amongst these principles, God hath taken especial care, that the first and great law of our being, the reverence due to himself, shall never be extirpated out of the world: and that every effort to weaken it, shall be close followed by consequences of private and public misery; which will severely prove, as indeed they have begun to do amongst us, that whatever men, wise in their own conceit *, may think, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding †.

The thing then to be endeavoured is, not to lessen, but increase the regard to true religion; only distinguishing it carefully from whatever else puts on its name. Want of this care produced great errors and evils, in the days of which I am speaking. There was, it must be owned, in the friends and governors of the church, an over-warm zeal, and very blameable stiffness and severity. But there was also, in the enemies of the church, a most provoking bitterness and perverseness: with a wild eagerness for innovations, founded on ignorant prejudices, which their heated fancies raised into necessary truths: and then, looking on them as the cause of Christ, they thought themselves bound and commissioned to overturn whatever was contrary to them. The enthusiasm of that belief give them a spirit and a vehet Job xxviii. 28.

*Rom. xi. 25. xii. 16.

mence in all they undertook; which common men, acting on common motives, could hardly be expected to withstand. Their success, in its turn, inflamed their imaginations of being directed and assisted from above: and they thought themselves authorized by this higher dispensation, to tread under foot, without scruple, the ordinary rules of right and justice.

Let us always then beware of all such mistakes, as then prevailed on either side. Let us never be vehement either for or against matters of indifference : about matters of importance, let us be earnest with mildness and neither desire to see authority exercised in religion, to the oppression of any one's conscience; nor yet to see liberty introduce confusion. Let us coolly consider, of which extreme we are most in danger, and oppose that; whatever shape or name it assumes. The name is but a circumstance: the thing to be dreaded is, the principle, or the practice,of advancing favourite notions and schemes, by force of fraud. The puritan zealots were shockingly guilty of that crime. The church of Rome is, if possible, still more so: probably not a little concerned in bringing on us the evils of this day: certainly a determined enemy, ever to be had in view, feared and guarded against. But then the effectual method of guarding against falsehood is not, by opposing to it a contrary falsehood, as bad or worse; and setting up licentiousness to encounter bigotry. This, instead of curing, is multiplying evils; which, opposite as they seem, will thrive together, and each assist the other's growth. Nothing can secure us from false religion, but true: nothing give happiness, private or public, but that serious regard to God, which will place us under his fatherly protection; and such rational notions of the doctrines and pre