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cities, frov being the bulwark of religion and liberty, to be- come the bulwark of infidelity and div^fToctioB. Into this change of the coEKlilion and character of ovr towns and cities, I would inquire a little, la order to shew you what a judgment of God batk been silently coming over them unto this day- And 1 desire, in the first place, to say, tbatl have none of that instinctive abhorrence of 111*1 (JDU'» CUKTROVKItSV WITH TKK LAjeP. 909 towns or cities whicb many of our po&tjcal tcntU, mcutalists afFcct» as if the country were nccca- sanly an Arcadia, and the coimtry (>eo[i!e all Ar-; cadiaDftwai [IK living in artic^s innoGcncy,aLid every town were a niany-lougued Babel uf coufuaion aikd a itiystcTy of inicitnty. 1 believe that man in town and country is by nature the same fallen creature, an enemy of God, an heir of wratb. and a cbiUl of Satan ; and, being left to birnAeJf, WQuld ))iit furtli every form of »clfi?di uiid isolitary. and savagf^ disposition, as we find Iiim in all places where religion and law^ and civil lociety are little known. History also teacheth me, that towns were {generally as^^ciation^i of tbc wisest and beat ordered part ol' men, iu order to enjoy th(; blessings of religion^ and law, and civil society,; and to protect tliemselves, their wives, and their little ones from the inroads and invasions, the Tioiences aiid plundeiings, of indolent and savage men. And 1 cannot forget, that in the towu^ the Christian religion first planted its churches of faithful believers, ulkI fnjm l!ie Ix^wns the truth radiated as a centre into the country round ; and that the Apostles went from town to town, and from eity to city, and have addressed the greater number of tlieir Epistle^ to the churches there plauted,shewiDginwhatpre-i:mincntconMdcrati(jn they were regarded; and tl)atiiith«chiefesf.tlowus, uarady. Jerup^idein, Aiitiocb. Akxandria^ Lyons, and Kome, were the great har\'e$i of niartyrs reaped from the field of tbe world into the garner of the Lord. Nor am 1 ignorant that the Ilcfor- mation made its way upon the continent chiefly through the free townft of Augsbargh, Ma^de- burghp Sinalcald, Geneva, and others, who form- ^ 910 coD'» CfVHTnovtnsr «vttii thf lakd. [. e^ their first Ifiague for the protection of com* merce, but knc^ not that tb« Lord wa& thcretqH preparing the seed-bed of religion. And m th^^ couotn', old London, and Smithfield, are deai in my eight, a$ the place where the vKtory of the Cross was fought and woo; as is also Cambnd^. from whence the light streamed forth, sn