$26 A REFORMATION SERMON. strained : If the flood-gates of sin are opened, confusion will rush into the government like a deluge. Men that break the bonds of natural religion-and of morality with- out control,' will grow lawless and ungovernable : When the yoke of a God and of natural conscience is shaken off publicly, the gentlest yoke of man will not be long endured ; they will stand at defiance with the best of go- vernments, they are fit tinder to receive every spark of ambition ; they are ready for insurrection and public tumult : It is not religion, but wild enthusiasm or immo- rality, that sows the seeds of treason, and turns subjects into rebels. If I might address any of the inferior go-. vernors of the nation, I would say, are you willing that your authority should be mocked, and your forms of power, and justice be made a laughing-stock ? Are you willing that your seats of judgment should be insulted and thrown down ? If not, see that you maintain them, by pronouncing sentence upon the wicked, and take care that it be executed ; let it be done with speed, lest the contagion of vice spread amongst numbers, and grow too mighty to be subdued : Wickedness burns as the fire, and sometimes it flies suddenly through a community, as a flame through the trees of the forest, or through the buildings of a city, if timely care be not taken to extin- guish it ; it spreads like a young gangrene, if the limb affected be not cutoff, the vital powerswill quickly be too weak to resist the growing mischief. Let justice be ex- ercised toward bold transgressors, for justice sometimes " preserves the king as well as mercy and truth ; and though his throne is said to be upholden by mercy, yet a wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them;" Prov. xx. 26, 28. Private families and particular persons will very sensi- bly suffer in their health, in their estates, and in other comforts of life; if iniquity abound. Whoredom, wine and new-wine take away the heart ;" Hos. iv. 11. that is, waste the understanding of men, and turn them into fools and idolaters, as the next words explain it which in our language signifies, that lust and drunkenness weaken the minds of men, blind their consciences, and make atheists of them. I need not mention the " wound and the dis- honour that such sinners, shall get, and the reproach which shall not be wiped away ;" Prov, vi. 33. for the
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