fcripture to purge themfelves from the fin of reverencing it, there is here an unhappiness in being confcientious; and, on the fide of this world, the temptation to be profane is stronger than the encouragement to be virtuous. For this is my foul grieved, that men fhould use their wit to abufe him that gave it them i and that, though there is more to be faid for religion, than there can be faid against it, both with respect to its reasonablenefs and usefulness, and that the hazard of being irreligious is incomparably greater on the part of these Atheistical fcoffers, than of men profesfing to fear God, and believe another world, they shall yet be fo conftant and obftinate in their loofe and lewd converfation? But if the profaning of the leaft thing that was dedicated to the worship of God in the times of the law, was fo henious a fin, what should we fay, when men ftick not to profane the name of God himself, and fcoff at his revealed will, so much greater than either temple or altar, or thofe rites belonging unto them! God Almighty give his strong rebuke to this extravagant fpirit! And to you all, that live in the practice of these open and crying fins I have at this time infifted upon, this I fay unto you, in the fear of God; Repent of the evil of your doings!' bring not down the farther judgments of God upon this land; they may be the affliction of many, but in the end they will be your punishment: ye fhall pay the reckoning of their fufferings in the other world, and God will charge you with the calamity that they fhall endure! remember, before it is too late. Dreadful things are denounced against the wicked; therefore go not on to gratify your hearts lufts, and to forget the living God; for this fhall be the end of fuch works, that God will certainly bring you to judgment: ""And who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears pa No flesh can ftand in his presence. Confider that awakening faying of the apoftle, "That the righteous * Ecclef. xi. 9. • Mal. iii. 2. 1 Pet. iv. 18. fcarcely "fcarcely are faved;" and if fo, "Where fhall the "ungodly, where fhall the wretched finner appear ?” How fhall fuch be able to hold up their heads in the day of his wrath, in the hour of his judgment, at that great time of inquifition, when a final reckoning fhall be past, and all must render an account of the deeds they have done, and receive the reward due unto them? Therefore," while it is to-day, harden not your "hearts against God and his law :" flatter not yourfelves to be Christians, ye must be like Christ: and if ye will be faved from wrath, ye must be redeemed from fin; for the wages of fin is death :" what we fow, we must reap. Increase not therefore guilt upon your confciences, by rebelling against the light, that fhines in them, &c. But lay your impieties to heart, mourn with true contrition of foul, and yet love righteousness and hate iniquity, and ye will prevent the civil magiftrate, and probably avert the indignation of God that hangs over the nation. You cannot fay you do not know your duty, but you do not do it: the light is come, and fhines in you; and the grace appears daily to you, and in you, againft the very imaginations and motions to evil; and you are felf-condemned in your exceffes of all forts; and if your hearts condemn you, God will not juftify you: therefore bring your deeds to the true light with which Chrift has enlightened you, and examine if they are wrought in God or no; and begin a cordial reformation, which ftands in the "Spirit of reformation." SE C T. VIII. An address to the civil magiftrate for redress. Having thus ended my reflections upon the five great crying fins of the kingdom, and my reproof of the actors and promoters of them; give me • Rom. viii. 11. 14. Gal. vi. 7. John i. 9. iii. 21. C 4 leave leave to make my humble and Chriftian address to you that are in authority. And, in the first place, I befeech you to remember, that though ye are as Gods on earth, yet ye fhall die like men: that ye are encompaffed with like paffions, and are subject to fin. Such therefore of you, as may be concerned in any of these enormities (to whatever degree of guilt it be) I beg you, in the name of God, to "fearch yourselves," and to be just to your own fouls. O! let the mercies. and providences of God conftrain you to unfeigned repentance! turn to the Lord, love righteoufnefs, hate oppreffion, and he will turn to you, and love you and bless you. In the next place, be pleased to confider your commiffion, and examine the extent of your authority; you will find that God and the government have impowered you to punish these impieties: and it is fo far from being a crime, that it is your duty. This is not troubling men for faith, nor perplexing people for tenderness of confcience; for there can be no pretence of confcience to be drunk, to whore, to be voluptuous, to game, fwear, curse, blafpheme and profane; no fuch matter. These are fins against nature, and against government, as well as against the written laws of God. They lay the axe to the root of human fociety, and are the common enemies of mankind. It was to prevent thefe enormities, that government was instituted; and fhall government indulge that which it is inftituted to correct? This were to render magiftracy useless, and the bearing of the fword vain: there would be then no fuch thing in government as "a "terror to evil-doers :" but every one would do that which he thought right in his own eyes. God Almighty defend us from this fort of anarchy! There are three great reafons, which enforce my fupplication. The firft is, The prefervation of the government;' which, by fuch improvidence and debauchery, is like to be greatly weakened, if not destroyed. The industry, wealth, health, and authority of the nation, are deeply concerned in the speedy and exem plary plary punishment of thefe extravagancies. This is the voice of intereft, for the common good of the whole fociety; rulers and ruled. But there is an higher voice, unto which Chriftian men ought to have regard, and that is, the "Voice " of God," who requires us to fear him, and obey his righteous commandments, at the peril of making him our enemy, whom we fhould make our common friend and protector: for upon his goodnefs depends our very natural and civil comforts. So that it is our intereft to be good; and it is none of the leaft arguments for religion, that the piety and practice of it is the peace and profperity of government; and, confequently, that vice, the enemy of religion, is, at the fame time, the enemy of human fociety. What then fhould be more concerned for the prefervation of virtue, than government; that, in its abftract and true fenfe, is not only founded upon virtue, but, without the prefervation of virtue, it is impoffible to maintain the best conftitution that can be made? And however some particular men may profper that are wicked, and several private good men mifcarry in the things of this world, in which fenfe things may be faid "to happen "alike to all, to the righteous as to the wicked;" yet I dare boldly affirm, and challenge any man to the truth thereof, that in the many volumes of the history of all the ages and kingdoms of the world, there is not one inftance to be found, where the hand of God was against a righteous nation, or where the hand of God was not against an unrighteous nation, firft or laft? Nor where a juft government perished, or an unjust government long profpered? Kingdoms are rarely as fhort-lived as men, yet they also have a time to die but as temperance giveth health to men, fo virtue gives time to kingdoms; and as vice brings men betimes to their grave, fo nations to their ruin. It is the reafon given by God himself for the destruction of the old world. We have that example before our eyes, that a whole world has perifhed for its fin, "its forgetfulness of God, and their duty to him; << one "one family only excepted." Gen. vi. That is the reafon which God renders for cafting out the people of thofe countries, that he gave into the hands of the children of Ifrael; "they were full of uncleannefs, "adulteries, fornication, and other impieties." And though he is fovereign Lord of the world, and may difpofe of the kingdoms therein as pleafeth him (for he that gives, can take away; and he that builds, can caft down; and mankind is but a tenant at will, to receive or furrender at his Lord's good pleasure) yet he ufeth not that prerogative to juftify his gift of those countries to the Jews; but, at the end of his prohibition of unlawful marriages and lufts, he charges them in these words; "Defile not yourselves in any of "these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, "which I caft out before you: and the land is de"filed; therefore do I vifit the iniquities thereof upon "it; and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. "Ye shall therefore keep my ftatutes and judgments, "and fhall not commit any of these abominations, "neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger "that fojourneth among you; that the land fpue not "you out also, when ye defile it, as it fpued out the "nations that were before you.' I So Saul's disobedience was his deftruction, and his fin made way for David's title, "Saul died," faith the facred story, "for his tranfgreffion:" this made the Philiftines conquerors; his own fin beat him, and killed him. Saul died for his tranfgreffion: then if he had not finned he had lived; he had beaten his enemies, and kept the kingdom? Yes, the place implies it. This, then, fhould deter men, but kings efpecially, who have so much to lose here, and fo much to anfwer for hereafter. But what was Saul's fin? It was, firft, "Not keeping, but difobeying, the word of the "Lord," both as it came by the mouth of Samuel, God's prophet, and as it spoke the mind of God to him in his own confcience: for Mofes had faid beforç Levit. xviii. 24, 25, 26, 28. "that |