good order, or whatever else he hath appointed in his word, then there is a sharpening of invention, a power of execution, and a rapidity of improvement, which cannot otherwise be obtained but by the congregation of many minds, and of many hands into one near and immediate neighbourhood; forasmuch as man is unto man God's main conduit for good, and Satan's main conduit for evil. And no sooner is the congregation assembled into one place for good, than Satan appears amongst them for evil. The wealth which they accumulate is, to him who hath it, a temptation to avarice, vanity, and ostentation; and to him who hath it not, of envy, sordidness, and theft. The offices of trust and power, to those who have them, are temptations to pride, wilfulness, and misrule; and to those who have them not, of ambition, discontent, disobedience, and rebellion. Their neighbourhood is a temptation to rivalry, display, evil-speaking, and malice of every kind. And it generally happeneth, that according as more and more of visible things are accumulated within their walls, a spirit of sensuality, discordance, and insubordination take the room of the spirit of union and order, and self-defence, from which these communities arose. And the same place which heretofore was a high-place of God, and a great instrument of his blessed kingdom, becometh a high-place of Satan, and an instrument of his wicked kingdom.

This change, it is my opinion, hath been already accomplished upon almost all the towns and cities of this ancient realm, and that by a process which it is exceedingly easy to open up and to comprehend, and which is as follows. At the Reformation, our

be meet unto God, made instrumental to the propagation of the Gospel of Christ upon the earth. And for towns and cities, of which we presently treat, if Babylon, a city, be the emblem of confederated wickedness, the metropolis of Satan, and emporium of his wicked traffic in adulteries and abominations; then is Jerusalem, also a city, the emblem of united holiness and harmonious blessedness, the dwelling place of the Lord, the head of righteousness, and the centre from which life and light shall circulate over the earth.

Our belief in respect to the effect which the congregating of men in large numbers hath upon their moral and spiritual condition, is, that it will either be for good or evil, according to the spirit that prevaileth amongst them. It is not a necessary evil, and it is not a necessary good; but is, and hath been, and may be either the one or the other, not according to circumstances, as they are fond of saying, but according to the spirit which is amongst them. A spirit of self-defence drove the Italian cities into confederacy; and the confederacy brought about the revival of letters. A spirit of honest and unviolated industry drove the German cities into confederacy; and it revived useful arts, and in a good degree was instrumental to the revival of religion. A spirit of the same honest and honourable kind congregated most of our towns and cities, not without an object of piety, as may be seen from their mottos and bearings armorial; and they have been mainly instrumental, as hath been said, in securing both our civil and religious privileges. When the spirit which draws them together, derives itself from the fear of God, or the love of justice, industry,

good order, or whatever else he hath appointed in his word, then there is a sharpening of invention, a power of execution, and a rapidity of improvement, which cannot otherwise be obtained but by the congregation of many minds, and of many hands into one near and immediate neighbourhood; forasmuch as man is unto man God's main conduit for good, and Satan's main conduit for evil. And no sooner is the congregation assembled into one place for good, than Satan appears amongst them for evil. The wealth which they accumulate is, to him who hath it, a temptation to avarice, vanity, and ostentation; and to him who hath it not, of envy, sordidness, and theft. The offices of trust and power, to those who have them, are temptations to pride, wilfulness, and misrule; and to those who have them not, of ambition, discontent, disobedience, and rebellion. Their neighbourhood is a temptation to rivalry, display, evil-speaking, and malice of every kind. And it generally happeneth, that according as more and more of visible things are accumulated within their walls, a spirit of sensuality, discordance, and insubordination take the room of the spirit of union and order, and self-defence, from which these communities arose. And the same place which heretofore was a high-place of God, and a great instrument of his blessed kingdom, becometh a high-place of Satan, and an instrument of his wicked kingdom.

This change, it is my opinion, hath been already accomplished upon almost all the towns and cities of this ancient realm, and that by a process which it is exceedingly easy to open up and to comprehend, and which is as follows. At the Reformation, our

towns were the chief seats of religion, and they continued so till the beginning of the last century. This is written to the eye-sight in the numerous churches which are so thickly planted, as to betoken at once the ancient from the modern parts of our towns. They were the seats of godly schools and universities of learning, from which was diffused among the rulers, and merchants, and tradesmen, the knowledge of those duties and offices which belong to a free man, placed in trust over an estate by the Lord. To those who are acquainted with the state of things a century and two centuries ago, it is known that the country people on the market days were wont to assemble as well to the hearing of the exercises of the godly divines in the church, as to their traffic in the market-place; and that the sons of the country gentlemen, and even nobility, were wont to take apartments in the town, in order to be instructed in the schools. From these two great fountains of good, the pulpit and the school, the one being the help-meet for the other, and both being necessary to complete the institutes of religion for a people, there came all manner of churches and charitable endowments for the poor, and the needy, and the orphan; and a wise household order, in which husband and wife, and child, and servant, had their respective places, and did not trample, as now they do, upon the heels of one another. And a master looked after his apprentices, not as means of gain, but somewhat as a cure of souls; regarding them not as craftsmen merely, but as children whom he had adopted for a season into his family, as well as into his shop. And in those times, apprentices were the

hopes of the city, and would save the realm in a perilous time. And every thing was solid and substantial, as may yet be seen in their houses, dresses, and entertainments. There was a plentiful hospitality, a real comfort, a rooted principle about their whole life, which come out of faith in the invisible, and belong not to the sight of the visible. I do not say that there were the inventions for outward appearance, which there now are, because it was not appearance they were set on; nor were there the inventions for bodily luxury, nor even the provisions for health, their chief desire being after honesty, truth, and manliness, the health of the Spirit. There were not such inventions for the accommodation of the prisoner, and what they call prison discipline, because they sought to keep people out of prison; and, when there, to give them a severe experience of its trials. Because none but the very dishonest then brought themselves into debt, the very wicked into confinement; but now that bankruptcy and imprisonment are a part of the system of society, like the church and the school, being truly Satan's church and school, it is certainly most reasonable that their comfort should be attended to, because under the present system, not solitary individuals of the worst character, but whole tribes of men, and these respectable, are liable to be brought thither. Such was the character, in a general way, of our former towns and cities: private and personal honesty and uprightness, and a wellregulated liberty, and a purely preached Gospel, gave them a solid, substantial character, which would not bear the invasion of every incomer; but, as I can testify of my native town, they