The Virginia Gazette

An Extract from Doctor Gordon's Sermon upon the Causes and Consequences of evil Speaking against Government, preached before the University of Cambridge.

"By Means of certain ingenious Refinements, indeed our Laws have lost their Weight. They have been trained, and pulled so much towards the Side of Freedom that there is not Force enough left in them to correct Offences. Our Patriots, through their Zeal in Favour of good Men (in which, to do them Justice, they appear perfectly disinterested) lest possibly hereafter some of that Character might be affected by it, have rendered all Authority nerveless against the bad; whilst even our Juries, those great Bulwarks of English Liberty, have been carefully instructed to attend rather to the Consequences of their Verdict upon the Liberty of the Subject than its Relation to either Equity or Justice, and the greatest Security to every peaceable Man at present for the quiet Possession of his Life and Property may seem to lie in that Power which looks least favourable to civil Liberty. May Faction never occasion the Use of it to be applied to other Purposes."