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England has not wanted inftruments of the fame bloody fhape. We have had a Bonner, a Gardiner, a Laud, a Sacheveral, who have extended their fanguine influence as far as it would go in the fame red line; and if we may judge by the caft of many, they are as ready now as thofe were in times paft to rack, tear and deftroy all fuch as fincerely call upon the name of God in fpirit and truth.

We fee it is not by the sword that our Lord maintains his caufe; no, the weapons of our warfare muft not be carnal but fpiritual, mighty through grace in pulling down the ftrong holds of fin and Satan. For though it must be confeffed that oppreffion makes a wife man mad, and rulers ought to govern with equity and juftice; yet ftill the work of God is not carried on by human might or power; for we fee in the preceeding History that feveral Princes took up arms in defence of thofe oppreffed and worried fheep of Chrift, and for a time made a ftand against their oppreffors; and multitudes of thofe poor deluded pilgrims, who came to earn Paradife by deftroying, loft their lives; yet in the end they were vanquished, fo that they found the truth of our Saviour's words, They that take the fword, hall perish by the fword. The fword may prove a kind of a pioneer to smooth the way for the gofpel of Christ, but it never was, and never will be the inftrument of faving finners. We find the Princes of Germany withstood the Emperor, the champion of the Pope; but although they ftruggled for a time yet

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in the end they were fubdued. The fame happened to the perfecuted people in Scotland in the infamous reign of Charles the fecond; and it was pretty much the cafe with the Huguenots in France; fo that however inftru. mental the fword may be, in a remote fenfe; yet it is not the direct inftrument of propagating the Kingdom of our God. No, it is the fword which proceeds out of his mouth; it is the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his appearing which fhall prevail; and his fervants must overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their teftimony. The fword will undoubtedly make way for the Gospel by cutting off multitudes who will not be reformed themselves, and if not taken out of the way would hinder the converfion of others. I have, fome time fince ventured to declare my thoughts upon that fubject, and I am more and more convinced daily of the reality of the fame. But obferve, wars are like the refiner's fire, which only confumes the drofs, that the pure bullion may come forth. As the Pfalmift fays, Thou putteft away all the wicked of the earth like drofs. (a) Juft like the clearing away ruins and rubbish, that a good foundation may be laid, and a fair ftructure erected, a Palace for the King of Glory. The Church has been like the burning bufh, (b) though in flames, yet, not confumed, because Jehovah was in it. So many times when men have thought all would come to nought God has interpofed; and often by means and inftruments the most unlikely he has revived his own caufe. Difcourfes on the Mellinnium,. vide Sermon xi.

(a) Pfalm cxix. 119. (b) Exodus iii,

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Such was the cafe with thofe fufferers whofe History I have been tracing out of oblivion. For although they were deftroyed by all kinds of torments, yet their blood was like the fowing of feed, it fprung up again; fo that light was communicated from them throughout. all Europe, and by other inftruments in fucceffion; as John Hufs, Ferom of Prague, in Bohemia; Luther in Germany; Zuinglius in Switzerland; Calvin in France, and Wickliffe in England; Wifbart and Knox in Scotland, and many others in order till our Gofpel-day. O may we improve our feafons, and while we have light may walk in the light, fo that dark nefs may never overtake ur

I have in the preceding Hiftory, been sparing is defcribing the various and horrid engines of torture and torment made use of by the inquifitors and others to wear out and deftroy thofe Saints of the moft High. as fuch infernal inventions often fhock the feelings of those whofe fenfibility is very acute; and such as wish to fee or find any fort of entertainment in things of that nature, may fee enough in the different Martyrologies, the various Hiftories of the Inquifition, the Maffacres of Paris and Ireland, or Wodrow's fufferings of the Church of Scotland, or in his Abridger Crookbank.

To clofe. May we follow thofe primitive reformers as they followed their Saviour, in purity, in meeknefs, in patience, in long-fuffering, in faith unfeigned, in ncerity and truth; fo that in the end, we may th them, receive the end of our faith, the Salvation of our Souls!.

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