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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40374	Scotland's present duty, or, A call to the nobility, gentry, ministry and commonalty of this land to be duely affected with, and vigorously to act for, our common concern in Caledonia, as a mean to enlarge Christ's kingdom, to benefit our selves, and do good to all Protestant churches.	Philo-Caledon.; Foyer, Archibald.; Ridpath, George, d. 1726.; Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing F2048; ESTC R13808	23,400	30

forget the Promises of Increa●e and Prosperity that are made to Zion in the Old and New Testament and which shall doubtless be accomplished in the Latter-days We cannot mistake in expecting the down fall of Antichrist the ruine of the Turkish Empire the National Conversion of the Jewes and the fulness of the Nations and what a Glorious time will it be when all these things shall be fulfilled then Holiness shall abound and be the Motto engraven on our smallest Enjoyments War shall Cease throw all the Earth Kings shall no more contend about Clods of Clay but shall be employed in bringing their Glory to the New Jerusalem and they shall be indeed nursing Fathers to a Church I hope these days are not far off tho' some have too boldly pretended to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power and keept up from us that we may pray the more Ardently yet he who hath promised to come will come and will not tarry Christians therefore are not only called to keep up Communion with God as to their own Souls but they ought with great Vigour to mind the case of Zion And it is certain That one Reason why many have ground to complain of their Souls Leanness is because the Churches Condition is not more minded by them and their present Case at home makes them forget the Afflictions of Joseph in the persecuted and oppressed Chu●ches abro●d Nor are they duely melted to think of the Blindness of the Jews the Mahometan Delusions and the Heathenish Idolatry It is not said that we pray no more to have the Mountains removed which stand in the Gospels way Is not God the hearer of Prayer And how many precious returns might we have at the Throne of Grace if we were Jacob-like wrestling the break of the Day How did Daniel Fast and Pray when the time drew near of the long looked for Liberty The Promise put Life into his Prayers and the assurance of being heard made him the more Fervent O that God would pour out a Spirit of Prayer on the Reformed Churches that they may set a part Days of Humiliation and crying unto God both for themselves and for the Jews who were once a peculiar Treasure but are now called Lo-ammi that they may be Conve●ted to the Messiah and for the poor Pagans that the ends of the Earth may see the Salvation of God There is a Restlesness amongst us about wordly Concerns to compass Sea and Land to get some wordly Pelf but we are not Earnest and Keen to Trade for Religion and to acquaint poor perishing Souls with their need of Christ. How will the Memory of worthy Mr. Eliot the Apostle of the Western-Indians be fragrant to all the Godly who was so Instrumental in bringing the poor Idolaters in America to Know and to Adore the Supreme Majesty and what a Stain will the Slackness of others when fair Opportunities have been ossered them be upon their Names Yea shall Papists signalize their Zeal in Training and sending out Men for this Service or rather for drawing deluded Creatures blind-fold from one Error to another and Protestant Churches do nothing for bringing them into the light of Truth and way of Salvation I verily think if there were many pleading with God we should yet see the Waters of the Sanctuary begin to swell and overcome all Opposition Neither High nor Low should confine their Prayers to themselves and their own Families The greatest in degree and the meanest Believer should cry unto the Lord to pity the dark Places of the Earth but especially Ministers should be the Lord's Remembrancers and plead fervently That the Kingdoms of this World may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and that Heraulds of Peace may be sent into Satan's Camp to bring over poor Souls led Captive at his Will 2dly If it please the Lord to grant us a Settlement in Caledonia it would be an excellent Mean to spread Christ's Kingdom Which may be evinvinced from these Considerations 1. A new Colony of professing Christians might be planted there who would own God to be the God of that Land and so become a Covenanted People and would proclaim the News of Christ and set up his Worship 2. It 's hopeful that Colony should be among the best in all the World were once a Pious praying People sent thither For 1st Our Doctrine is most agreeable to the Scriptures 2. Our Worship most Pure 3. Our Government most Adapted to advance the True ends of Government in Christ's House beyond what Prelacy or Independency can pretend to 4. Our Disciplin if Rightly Managed the most effectual to bear down Sin and encourage Piety Now all these Meeting together in the hands of Zealous Ministers in a New Colony must render Zion in that place Beautiful as the Morning clear as the Sun fair as the Moon and Terrible as an Army with Banners 3. It might be expected that there the many faults which have spoiled our Civil Policy here should be avoided which would exceedingly tend to the keeping out of many Evils that ●ine Justice and destroy Love amo●gst us 4. It would be a Place to which many Nations would resort for Trade and so have occasion to behold the comely order of Gods House It was frequent Converse with the Jews that gave occasion to the Nations to know Israels God and so proved a Mean to gain many Proselites How much more may we expect this from Caledonia since Christians will not keepup such distance from the Heathen as the Jews did 5. We may justly expect that this Colony shall not be confined to Darien but shall spread to more Places and so the Lords In erest daily gain Ground when a People please God their Co●ds 〈◊〉 be lengthned as well as their Stakes strengthned 6. This might p●ove a 〈◊〉 Mean to Convert even Papists But 7. Especially ●o g●in ●ouls ●o Christ among the poor He●thens I know Conversion is God's Work but he works ordinarily by Means and there is great appearance that this People would become Docile and p●iable to the Gospel of Christ. For 1. They are naturally a Kind well conditioned and tractable People and have many good Moral Virtues among them 2. The great Aversion they have to the bloody Spaniards would induce them to love our ●eople and our Religion the more 3. Our People would ●e favourable ●o them and instead of Enslaving or otherwise wronging ●hem would seek their Good and endeavour to Civilize them and acquaint them with many useful Trades to render their Lives more Comfortab●e 4 They will instruct and train their Children in God's way and when they see our Care of their Young they will trust us the more and love us the better 5. Some of themselves may in time be in case to ins●ruct their own Friends in the way of God and teach them to Read and let them see in their own Language how it hath been

SCOTLAND's Present Duty OR A CALL TO The Nobility Gentry Ministry and Commonality of this Land to be duely affected with and vigorously to act for our Common Concern in CALEDONIA as a Mean to Enlarge Christ's Kingdom to Benefit our Selves and do Good to all Protestant Churches Printed in the Year 1700. Right Honourable much Honouored very Reverend and dearly Beloved LET it not divett any from a serious Perusal of what is here offered to your Grave Consideration that you know not the Author For here if ever you are called to mind what is said not who says it Yet I shall tell you That I own none for my Master but Christ none for King of Great Brittain but King VVilliam I have no Share in the Stock of Caledonia nor probably will ever have so that it is no worldly Interest prompts me up to make this Address nor any Disaffection to the King or Court but pure Conscience if I know my own Heart There is none who love Our Lord Jesus Christ but must with pleasure Remark how the outmost ends of the Earth are become the Possession of Zion's King and poor Scotland among the rest This is Ground of Rejoycing unto Us who sat in Heathenish Darkness that Light hath sprung up and the day Star from on High hath visited Us So that we may well say few Nations have been so signally owned of God as we with respect to a Pure and Glorious Dispensation of the Gospel Yea of all the Churches reformed from Popery we had attained to the greatest Hight of Conformity to the Scriptures of God not only in Doctrin but in Worship Disciplin and Government Yea notwithstanding the various Essays of our Enemies and false pretended Friends to enslave us and the Faintness and Dispondencies of our weak but real Well-wishers in a dark and evil Day yet we are alive and have our God to Magnifie who hath never suffered our Haters to gain the day but gave us occasion to set up our Ebenezer hitherto hath the Lord helped us and to remark some places as 1 Sam. 23. Chap. 28 Vers. Sela hamma-lekoth our Enemies being diverted from bringing upon us utter Ruine when they were about to have swallowed us up But among the wonderful Providences of God for our Good the late Revolution is indeed surprizing and calls for our constant Acknowledgments Instead of Impendent Slavery and Popery we by it enjoy Calmness and Freedom in Church and State our banished Ministers restored the Imprisoned delivered the whole followers of Christ made to lif● up their Heads and our very Enemies astonished with Gods Love to his People while they had no great Reason to complain of any Severity for their former Cruelties Thus we have had Halcron Days at Ho●e when Armies were encountering one another Abroad And whatever we felt of burdensome Taxations yet it was not much while we our selves were not af●ighted with the Sound of the Trumpets nor the Alarms of War Now it was that our Wise Patriots of all sorts whatever speculative Differences they might have about the Eclesiastical Government were practically c●nvinced of this That we had now that Government which might give Ease to the Nation and none could complain of Force put upon their Consciences and all the former Reflections against a Parity in Christ's House were hush'd and no more discoursed of except in drunken Cabals of Men who had no Religion at all In this time of Quietness wherein Truth and Peace met together did several of our most Knowing Nobility and Gent●y encouraged by diverse Acts of Parliament and Royal Grants sorm a Design to plant a Colony in America considering that of all Nations in Europe bordering upon the Sea Scotland alone had no share of Foreign Plantations and were more than any other People excluded from the Advantages of Trade and this would be a Mean for Enriching the Nation and Curing ●hese two evil Diseases amongst us of Beggary and Idleness And all who had a Love to the propogating of the Gospel looked upon this as a most probable and hopeful Mean of Enlarging the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly the Project goes on and maugre all the Opposition it met with at London Holland and Hamburg Five Ships were sent out and Two worthy Ministers with them who at length land in Darien a Place inhabited by a Free People the Circumstances and Advantages of which are well known as being set out by others Here our Countrey Men meet with good Reception and seemed for a time to Prosper till want of Correspondence from Scotland and it may be some hired Traitors among themselves and Proclamations of a strange Nature put forth in the West Indies against them do quite Dishearten them and force them except a ver● few to Relinquish the place And as the first Ship sent after them miscarried on our Western Islands so we have no pleasant News of the Company which went forth in the following May with Provisions to Relieve them nor have we any Account as yet of the Four Ships that went thither in 〈◊〉 l●st and others since But in all this Business both abroad and at h●me God seems to frown upon us And whatever Sentiments some may have concerning this sad providential Stroke yet certainly the Land is afflicted but few are afflicted with it as becomes It is for this cause that I would endeavour to Excite all in the Land to joyn in an Address to the King of Heaven for his Help when we a●e so much at under And this is our Comfort that no Courtiers there will hinder our Address but rejoice in it if we approach that Throne with humble and penetent Hearts and the Majesty of Heaven commands us to call upon him in the day of Trouble and hath promised to hear us That I may the better manage this my Errand unto you I. I shall shew you that we are all called to seek the spreading of the Gospel and the enlargement of Christs Kingdom II. That our Settlement at Caledonia would be a likely mean for that end III. That this design seems to be almost crushed and born down IV. How discouraging this will be to the Church a●d State if the Lord help us not V. What are the procuring Sins of this so●e and lame● table Stroke VI. What is now our Duty and Work with respect to this great Concern VII Lastly I would earnestly plead with all to cry mightily unto God and to use suitable Endeavours for retrieving our loss and so shall this my well meant Address under which no bad design is hid be committed to Gods Blessing I. That we should all pray earnestly for the Enlargement of Christs Kingdom can be doubted by none who own the Lords Prayer to be part of the Holy Scriptures Thy Kingdom come is a Petition repeated by many but understood by few To think that the Gospel shall be still confined to a little corner of the World as it is now is to

we not fervently plead that the Ruine may not fall under our Hands 11. How can we expect but that we ●hall be Contemned and I●sulted by the Nations about us in our privat Negotiating and Tra●ique yea almost made ashamed to own our selves for Scots Men and our great Attempt that hath made so much Noise in the World shall become every where the publick Jest Is their any Man of Sense but mu● be af●ected at these fore Evils which we have just cause to fear as the Consequents of our giving up Caledonia 5. Let us then consider a little theseSins which we ought to look upon as the procuring Causes of the said Stroke we have already metwith and which may prove yet more Afflicting if Mercy prevent not We ought to deal Impartially and not spare our Sins when God's hand is upon us we are called to search them out narrowly and to hide none from the Lord. 1. This Nation hath never yet been duely humbled and exercised with Sorrow and Mourning for the Sins of the Land which have been of a deep Dye we have been still mincing our Iniquity for fear of offending of some late Actors without minding how God is offended with us We have not to this day made a full and free Confession of our National Sins amongst which our Covenant-breaking seems to me to cry loudest and stare us in the Face for whatever may be said of the Politick and sinister Ends of some in contriving and carrying on the Covenant of their mingling and thrusting some things into it to serve a Turn of its being Calculated for these Times and Circumstances and so in its Complex form not so proper for the present State of things of its being a League with other two Nations who have thrown it off as such and the like Yet it cannot be denyed that in the Main it was as well as the National Covenant that went before it throw the Land a most serious and awful Engagement of the Nation to Christianity and Godliness with uplifted hands to the most High God and the highest and most solemn piece of Reformation that ever this Church and Kingdom attained unto and performed by the bulk of the People with the greatest Moral Seriousness And how can our resiling from and shameful Breach of these awful Vows but draw upon us dreadful Guilt and Iniquity not to be forgotten till it be bitterly Mourned for How much Innocent Blood hath been shed what horrid Aversion to Purity and Holiness and fearful Blackslidings have been found amongst us in which our Kings our Priests and People have been deeply involved and yet to mention these things renders a Man suspected of Schism But how can we Thrive till we be more explicite and full in Confessing and bitterly bewailing these and all our National Sins before the Lord. 2. We are guilty of black Ingratitude to God for the late happy Revolution for the Singularity as well as the Greatness of that Deliverance when we were upon the Brink of being swallowed up nor did we improve it as we ought to have done 3. Gospel Ordinances and publick Worship are more dispised amongst us than any where All People in the World do attend more reverently upon their several ways of Worship than we do upon ours Heathans and Jews Mahometans and Papists Hereticks and Schismaticks are at much more pains in their erronious Courses than the professing People in Scotland are generaly upon the Service of the living and true God Any Triffle meer Laziness Prejudice Contempt Hatred keep many of our great Ones from Gospel Ordinances How then can God prosper us in our Undertakings 4. Gross Injustice and Oppression Envy Malice Back-biting Self-seeking narrowness of Spirit Worldly-mindedness Lying and Treachery Uncharitableness and want of Brotherly Love are our Epedemick Distempers How then shall we think to be Blessed in our Designs especially since all these Sins are aggravated in us by their being against Light daily Warnings 5. We did not seek the Lord and plead for his Favour in a due manner in the beginning of this great Enterprise with serious Resolutions to reform our Hearts and Lives Time was when the People of God upon such a weighty occasion and when the Nation was setting about so important a Work would have been fervent in putting up their Suites to Heaven and had remarkable Returns of Prayer It was very comfortable to see what impression and frame some Reverend Ministers of the Commission were under in Summer last when Mr. Sheild was engaged in this Service with what Affection Warmness and Weight they observed how our Forefathers would have embraced and improven so signal an Opportunity of Spreading the Gospel of bringing Honour to God and to the Church of Scotland and doing Good to Souls if it had been in their offer And what an edge was upon the Spirits of all in their Meeting at Glasgow and the solemn Day of Prayer held there upon the account of our dear Brethren and that Interest And it is no less discouraging to observe how far that Zeal and Fervour that then appeared is now abated that we have not hitherto set apart a Day of Humiliation upon account of this sad Distress and of Prayer for these who were sent out with so publick and solemn a Blessing from this Church that we are now turn'd so slack and remiss and that we began no sooner is more formidable and threatning than all the Opposition of the Devil the Pope the Spaniard or any other Enemy and ought to be heartily bewailed by us with admiration of the Goodness and Patience of God that we are not yet worse smitten for our ill-deservings 6. Our vain pride and Confidence at the beginning of this Affair our Carnal Expectations from it our trusting not in God but in an Arm of Flesh If we had succeeded without Rubs in our way we had burnt Incense to our own Drag we had waxed fat and kicked against the Lord and forgotten that the Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness and Riches thereof and forgotten what weak silly Creatures we are without him 7. There may be many Sins both of Omission and Commission to be confessed and mourned for in the management of our Expeditions both with respect to persons imploied and Methods followed which I cannot undertake to condescend upon but these ought to be searched out acknowledged and amended Tho ill Men may have outward success for a time vet the Favour of God cannot be towards them Th● Six Hundred Danites sent to take in L●ish did succeed yet their Posterity went first into Captivity of all Israel In a business of this nature Men should be more considered according to their worth and real usefulness than the Moyen of their Friends and such as they depend upon recommending them 8. Great care should have been taken to set up a strict discipline over those who were sent to punish Vice and set up Morality and good Order amongst them And