versal kingdom; till, by having rendered to all according to all their works, he shall have completely executed that just scheme of government, which he has already begun to execute in this world, by their hands whom he has appointed for the present "punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well," 1 Pet. ii. 14.
And though that perfection of justice cannot in any sort take place in this world, even under the very best governments; yet, under the worst, men have been enabled to lead much more quiet and peaceable lives, as well as to attend to and keep up a sense of religion, much more than they could possibly have done without any government at all. But a free Christian government is adapted to answer these purposes in a higher degree, in proportion to its just liberty, and the purity of its religious establishment. And as we enjoy these advantages, civil and religious, in a very eminent degree, under a good prince, and those he has placed in authority over us, we are eminently obliged to offer up supplications and thanksgivings in their behalf: to pay them all that duty which these prayers imply; and "to lead," as those advantages enable, and have a tendency to dispose us to do, "quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty."
Of the former of these advantages, our free constitution of civil government, we seem to have a very high value. And if we would keep clear from abuses of it, it could not be overvalued, otherwise than as everything may, when considered as respecting this world only. We seem, I say, sufficiently sensible of the value of our civil liberty. It is our daily boast, and we are in the highest degree jealous of it. Would to God we were somewhat more judicious in our jealousy of it, so as to guard against its chief enemy, one might say, the only enemy of it we have at present to fear, I mean licentiousness: which has undermined so many free governments, and without whose treacherous help no free government, perhaps, ever was undermined. This
