our purses, our tongues, our arms, as well as our prayers, in defense of them, should we not justly incur that curse which an inspired Deborah, when under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, once uttered, "Curse ye, Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty!" Known unto God, and God alone, are all our hearts. Daily repeated experience convinceth us, that the greatest talkers are not always the greatest doers. How therefore any of us may behave when put to the trial, the trial itself can only prove. But, for my own part, whatever my future conduct may be, (and I know it will be downright cowardly, if left to myself) yet, upon the maturest deliberation, I am at present so fully convinced of the justice of the British cause, that supposing it should be said of me, as it is of Zuinglius, cecidit in præleo; he fell in battle. I hope, if whilst the silver cords of life are loosing, I shall be attended by any who may be bewailing mine, Ias the friends of Zuinglius did his misfortune, I should like him to cry out, Ecquid hoc infortunii? Is this a misfortune? And not only so, but also with my expiring breath add, as he did, faustum infortunium! O happy misfortune! For, surely, it is far more preferable to die, though by a popish sword, and be carried from the din and noise of war by angels into Abraham's bosom, than to be suffered to survive only to drag on a wearisome life, and to be a mournful spectator, and daily bewailer of one's country's ruin.

Awful and tremendous are the judgments that have lately been abroad. Twice hath the earth, on which this great metropolis stands, unable, as it were, any longer to sustain the weight of its inhabitant's sins, been made to tremble and totter under us. Since that, how amazingly hath the shock been extended! Africa, (nor hath America itself been exempted,) hath in a most destructive manner felt its dire effects. And what dreadful consumption it hath made in various parts of Spain, and, in a more especial manner, at Lisbon, the metropolis of Portugal, is beyond conception, and beyond the power of the most masterly pen to describe. It is to be questioned, whether the like hath ever been heard of since the deluge. Surely nothing was wanting to figure out and realize to that distressed people the horror of the last day, but the sound of the trump, and the actual appearance of the great Judge of quick and dead. But awful and tremendous as such phenomena of nature may be, yet, if we consider the consequences of things, were even the like judgment (which may God avert) to befall us, it would be but a small one, in comparison of our hearing that a French army, accompanied with a popish pretender, and

thousands of Romish priests, was suffered to invade, subdue, and destroy the bodies and substance, and, as the necessary consequences of both these, to blind, deceive, and tyrannize over the souls and consciences of the people belonging to this happy isle.

God forbid, that I should give flattering titles to any; for in so doing, I should provoke him to take away my soul. But surely we must have eyes that see not, and ears that hear not, as well as hearts that do not understand, if we do not know, and see, and feel, that in respect to our civil and religious liberties, we are undoubtedly the freest people under heaven. And I dare appeal to the most ungrateful and malicious malcontent, to produce any era in the British annals, wherein we have enjoyed such a continued series of civil and religious liberty, as we have been favored with for these twenty-eight years last past, under the mild and gentle administration of our dread and rightful sovereign king George. Surely he hath been a nursing father to people of all denominations; and however he may be denied it, yet he may, without a compliment, justly claim from the present, as well as future ages, the deserved title of George the Great. But notwithstanding this, such is the degeneracy of human nature, it must necessarily be expected, that in a nation grown wanton with liberty like ours, there is a great multitude of unhappy persons, who being men of lax principles, loose lives, and broken fortunes, may, and will be so abandoned, as to break through all restraints of gratitude, loyalty, and religion, and, like Cataline and his wicked confederates, be fond of joining in any change of government, whereby they may entertain the most distant prospect of bettering their fortunes, and gratifying their ambition, though it be at the expense of their country's blood. This hath been, and no doubt still continues to be, the fate of all civil governments in the world, and consequently is no more than what we may expect, in times of tumult and danger, will be acted over again in our own land by men of such corrupt minds. But, that any serious and judicious, much less religious and devout person, should be so stupid to all principles of self-interest, and so dead even to all maxims of common sense, as to prefer a French to an English government; or a popish pretender, born, nursed, and bred up in all the arbitrary and destructive principles of the court and church of Rome, to the present Protestant succession settled in the illustrious line of Hanover, must be imputed to nothing else but an awful infatuation.

Hear ye, (if there be any into whose hands this address may fall, that are desirous of such a change,) not to dwell entirely upon the many innumerable, civil, or temporal losses we should

sustain. Hear ye, I say, the mild and gentle language of one of his most christian majesty's late declarations concerning religion.

"Being informed, that there have sprung up, and still are springing up daily, in our realm, a great number of preachers, whose sole business is to stir up the people to rebellion, and to dissuade them from the practice of the Roman Catholic and apostolic religion; we do command that all preachers who shall call assemblies, preach in them, or discharge any other function, be put to death; the punishment appointed by the declaration in July, 1686, for the minister of the pretended reformed religion, which we would not, for the future have any one esteem a mere threatening, which will not be put in execution. We do likewise forbid our subjects to receive the said ministers or preachers, to conceal, aid, or assist them, or have, directly or indirectly, any intercourse or correspondence with them. We farther enjoin, on all those who shall know any of the said preachers, to inform against them to the officers of the respective places; the whole under pain, in case of trespass, of being condemned to the galleys for life, if men; and if women, of being shorn, and shut up the remainder of their days in such places as our judges shall think expedient; and whether they be men or women, under pain of confiscation."

After perusing this, read, read, I beseech you, the shocking accounts of the horrid butcheries and cruel murders, committed on the bodies of many of our fellow subjects in America, by the hands of savage Indians, instigated thereto by more than savage popish priests. And if this be the beginning, what may we suppose the end will be, should a French power, or popish pretender, be permitted to subdue either us or them. Speak, Smithfield, speak, and by thy dumb, but very persuasive oratory, declare to all that pass by and over thee, how many English Protestant martyrs thou hast seen burnt to death in the reign of a cruel popish queen, to whom the present pretender to the British throne, at least claims a kind of a distant kindred!

Speak, Ireland, speak, and tell if thou canst, how thousands, and tens of thousands of innocent unprovoking Protestants were massacred in cold blood, by the hands of cruel Papists, within thy borders, about a century ago. Nay, speak, Paris, speak, (for though popish, on this occasion we will admit thy evidence,) and say, how many thousands of Protestants were once slaughtered, on purpose, as it were, to be served up as a bloody dessert, to grace the solemnity of a marriage feast. But

* See a pamphlet entitled, "A brief view of the conduct of Pennsylvania for the year 1755.”

why go we back to such distant eras? Speak, Languedoc, speak and tell, if thou canst, how many Protestant ministers have been lately executed; how many more of their hearers have been dragooned and sent to the gallies; and how many hundreds are now, in consequence of the above mentioned edict, lying in prisons, and fast bound in misery and iron, for no other crime than that unpardonable one in the Romish church; I mean, hearing and preaching the pure gospel of the meek and lowly Jesus.

And think you, my dear countrymen, that Rome, glutted as it were with Protestant blood, will now rest satisfied, and say, "I have enough?" No, on the contrary, having, through the good hand of God upon us, been kept so long fasting, we may reasonably suppose, that the popish priests have only grown more voracious, and, (like so many hungry and ravenous wolves pursuing the harmless and innocent flocks of sheep) with double eagerness will pursue after, seize upon, and devour their wished for Protestant prey; and, attended with their bloody red-coats, those Gallic instruments of reformation, who know they must either fight or die, will necessarily breathe out nothing but threatening and slaughter, and carry along with them desolation and destruction in all its various shapes and tortures, go where they will.

But I humbly hope, vile as we are, a gracious, long-suffering and merciful God will not suffer us to fall into their bloodthirsty and cruel hands. He hath formerly most remarkably interposed in England's favor; and why should we in the least doubt but that he will again reveal his Omnipotent arm, and make our extremity to be his opportunity, to help and defend us against such threatening and unjust invaders? Invincible as the Spanish armada was supposed to be, and all powerful as the pope, under whose broad seal they acted, might boast he was in heaven or hell, it is plain he had no power over the water. For thou didst blow, O Lord, with thy wind, and the enemy were scattered. And is not this God the same now as he was yesterday? And will he not continue the same for ever? Of whom then should the inhabitants of Great Britain be afraid? Blessed be God, if we look to second causes, we have a glorious fleet, brave admirals, a well disciplined army, experienced officers, and, if occasion should require, thousands and thousands of hearty volunteers, with a royal hero, who hath once been made happily instrumental to save his country from impending ruin, if not majesty itself prepared to head them. And if by fasting from as well as for sin, and by flying, through a living faith, to the merits of a dying, rising, ascending, and interceding Mediator we can but make God our friend, we

need not fear what France, and Rome, and hell, with all i united force, can do unto, or plot against us. The way of duty is the way of safety. And if we are but found in the due use of proper means, we may confidently leave the issue and event of things with God. Be that event what it will, (and I trust it will be a prosperous one,) we have a divine authority to say unto the righteous, it shall be well with them. God's own people, amidst all the wars and rumors of wars, may rest secure; for they not only dwell under the shadow of the Most High, but have his own royal word for it, that all things shall work together for their good. And not only so, but they may also be fully assured that all the malicious efforts and designs of men and devils shall be so far from obstructing, that, on the contrary, through the sure, though secret hand of an ever watchful, overruling, and omnipotent Providence, they shall at present, (howbeit they think not so) be made not only to subserve the present further enlargement of his interests, who, in spite of all the strivings of the potsherds of the earth, will hold the balance of universal monarchy in his own hands; but at last shall terminate in the full and complete establishment and perfection of "that blessed kingdom, whose law is truth, whose king is love, and whose duration is eternity." Fiat! Fiat!

A LETTER FROM THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD TO THE REV. JOHN WESLEY.

BETHESDA, GEORGIA, Dec. 24, 1740.

Reverend, and very Dear Brother.

GOD only knows what unspeakable sorrow of heart I have felt on your account, since I left England last. Whether it be my infirmity or not, I frankly confess, that Jonah could not go with more reluctance against Nineveh, than I now take pen in hand to write against you. Were nature to speak, I had rather die than do it; and yet, if I am faithful to God and to my own and others' souls, I must not stand neuter any longer. I am very apprehensive that our common adversaries will rejoice to see us differing among ourselves. But what can I say? The children of God are in danger of falling into error. Nay, numbers have been misled, whom God has been pleased to work upon by my ministry, and a greater number are still calling aloud upon me to show my opinion. I must then show,