who had such Thoughts of it that which we call Self-murther was properly a good an honest and a vertuous Action And persons of the highest and most acknowledged Probity and Vertue amongst them such as Marcus Cato and Pomponius Atticus actually did it and stand celebrated both by their Orators and Historians for so doing And I could also instance in other Actions of a souler and more unnatural Hue which yet from the Approbation and Credit they have found in some Countries and Places have passed for good Morality in those places But out of respect to Common Humanity as well as Divinity I shall pass them over And thus much for the first Assertion or Opinion Secondly The second Opinion or Position is That Good and Evil Honest and Dishonest are Originally founded in the Laws and Constitutions of the Soveraign Civil Power enjoyning some Things or Actions and prohibiting others So that when any thing is found conducing to the Welfare of the Publick and thereupon comes to be enacted by Governours into a Law it is forthwith thereby rendred Morally Good and Honest and on the contrary Evil and Dishonest when upon its Contrariety to the publick Welfare it stands prohibited and condemned by the same publick Authority This was the Opinion heretofore of Epicurus as it is represented by Gassendus who understood his Notions too well to misrepresent them And lately of one amongst our selves a less Philosopher though the greater Heathen of the two the Infamous Author of the Leviathan And the like lewd scandalous and immoral Doctrine or worse if possible may be found in some Writers of another kind of Note and Character whom one would have thought not only Religion but Shame of the World might have taught better things Such as for instance Bellarmine himself who in his 4th Book and 5th Chapter De Pontifice Romano has this monstrous Passage That if the Pope should through Error or Mistake command Vices and prohibit Vertues the Church would be bound in Conscience to believe Vice to be Good and Vertue Evil. I shall give you the whole Passage in his own Words to a Tittle Fides Catholica docet omnem virtutem esse Bonam omne vitium esse Malum Si autem erraret Papa praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse Bona virtutes Malas nisi vellet contra Conscientiam peccare Good God! that any thing that wears the Name of a Christian or but of a Man should venture to own such a villainous impudent and blasphemous Assertion in the face of the World as this What must Murther Adultery Theft Fraud Extortion perjury Drunkenness Rebellion and the like pass for good and commendable Actions and fit to be practised And Mercy Chastity Iustice Truth Temperance Loyalty and Sincere Dealing be accounted things utterly evil immoral and not to be followed by Men in case the Pope who is generally a weak and almost always a wicked Man should by his mistake and infallible ignorance command the former and forbid the latter Did Christ himself ever assume such a Power as to alter the Morality of Actions and to transform Vice into Vertue and Vertue into Vice by his bare Word Certainly never did a grosser Paradox or a wickeder Sentence drop from the Mouth or Pen of any mortal Man since Reason or Religion had any Being in the World And I must confess I have often with great Amazement wondred how it could possibly come from a Person of so great a Reputation both for Learning and Vertue too as the World allows Bellarmine to have been But when Men give themselves over to the Defence of wicked Interests and false Propositions it is just with God to smite the greatest Abilities with the greatest Infatuations But as for these Two Positions or Assertions That the Moral Good or Evil the Honesty or Dishonesty of humane Actions should depend either upon the Opinions or upon the Laws of Men They are certainly false in themselves because they are infinitely absurd in their Consequences Some of which are such as these As First If the Moral Goodness or Evil of men's Actions were Originally founded in and so proceeded wholly from the Opinions or Laws of Men then it would follow that they must change and vary according to the Change and difference of the Opinions and Laws of Men And consequently that the same Action under exactly the same Circumstances may be morally Good one day and morally Evil another and morally Good in one place and morally Evil in another For as much as the same Soveraign Authority may enact or make a Law commanding such or such an Action to day and a quite contrary Law forbidding the same Action to morrow and the very same Action under the same Circumstances may be commanded by Law in one Country and prohibited by Law in another Which being so the Consequence is manifest and the Absurdity of the Consequent intolerable Secondly If the Moral Goodness or Evil of men's Actions depended Originally upon humane Laws then those Laws themselves could neither be morally Good nor Evil The Consequence is evident Because those Laws are not commanded or prohibited by any antecedent humane Laws And consequently if the Moral Goodness or Evil of any Act were to be derived only from a precedent humane Law Laws themselves not supposing a dependance upon other precedent humane Laws could have no Moral Goodness or Evil in them Which to assert of any humane Act such as all humane Laws essentially are and must be is certainly a very gross Absurdity Thirdly If the Moral Goodness or Evil of men's Actions were sufficiently derived from humane Laws or Constitutions then upon supposal that a Divine Law should as it often does command what is prohibited by humane Laws and prohibit what is commanded by them it would follow that either such Commands and Prohibitions of the Divine Law doe not at all affect the Actions of Men in point of their Morality so as to render them either Good or Evil or that the same Action at the same time may in respect of the Divine Law Commanding it be Morally Good and in respect of an humane Law forbidding it be Morally Evil. Than which consequence nothing can be more clear nor withall more absurd And many more of the like nature I could easily draw forth and lay before you Every false Principle or Proposition being sure to be attended with a numerous train of Absurdities But as to the Subject-matter now in hand so far is the Morality of humane Actions as to the Goodness or Evil of them from being founded in any humane Law that in very many and those the principal Instances of humane Action it is not Originally founded in or derived from so much as any Positive Divine Law There being a Ius naturale certainly antecedent to all Ius positivum either Humane or Divine and that such as results from the very Nature and Being of Things as they stand in
much out of Date with some as Christ's Divinity and Satisfaction I say let a Man consider these and the like Vertues together with the contrary Sins and Vices that do oppose them and then as out of a full Armory or Magazine let him furnish his Conscience with Texts of Scripture particularly enjoyning the one and forbidding or threatning the other And yet I do not say that he should stuff his Mind like the Margent of some Authors with Chapter and Verse heaped together at all Adventures but only that he should sortifie it with some few Texts which are home and apposite to his Case And a Conscience thus supplied will be like a Man armed at all Points and always ready either to receive or to attack his Enemy Otherwise it is not a Man's having Arms in his house no nor yet his having Courage and Skill to use them but it is his having them still about him which must both secure him from being set upon and defend him when he is Accordingly Men must know that without taking the forementioned Course all that they do in this Matter is but lost Labour and that they read the Scriptures to as little purpose as some use to quote them Much Reading being like much Eating wholly useless without Digestion and it is impossible for a Man to digest his Meat without also retaining it Till Men get what they read into their Minds and fix it in their Memories they keep their Religion as they use to doe their Bibles only in their Closet or carry it in their Pocket and that you may imagine must improve and affect the Soul just as much as a Man's having plenty of Provision only in his Stores will nourish and support his Body When Men forget the Word heard or read by them the Devil is said to steal it out of their Hearts Luke 8. 12. And for this Cause we do with as much Reason as Propriety of Speech call the Committing of a Thing to memory the getting it by heart For it is the Memory that must transmit it to the Heart and it is in vain to expect that the Heart should keep its hold of any Truth when the Memory has let it go 4. The Fourth and Last way that I shall mention for the getting of the Conscience rightly informed and afterwards keeping it so is frequently and impartially to account with it It is with a Man and his Conscience as with one Man and another amongst whom we use to say that Even Reckoning makes lasting Friends and the way to make Reckonings even I am sure is to make them often Delays in Accompts are always suspicious and bad enough in themselves but commonly much worse in their Cause For to deferr an Accompt is the ready way to perplex it and when it comes to be perplexed and intricate no Man either as to his Temporal or Spiritual Estate can know of himself what he is or what he has or upon what bottom he stands But the amazing Difficulty and greatness of his Account will rather terrifie than inform him and keep him from setting heartily about such a Task as he despairs ever to go through with For no Man willingly begins what he has no hope to finish But let a Man apply to this Work by frequent Returns and short Intervals while the Heap is small and the Particulars few and he will find it easie and conquerable And his Conscience like a faithfull Steward shall give him in a plain open and entire Account of himself and hide nothing from him Whereas we know if a Steward or Cashier be suffered to run on from year to year without bringing him to a Reckoning it is odds but such a sottish forbearance will in time teach him to shuffle and strongly tempt him to be a Cheat if not also make him so For as the Accompt runs on generally the Accomptant goes backward And for this Cause some judge it adviseable for a Man to account with his Heart every day and this no doubt is the best and surest Course for still the oftener the better And some prescribe Accompting once a Week longer than which it is by no means safe to delay it For a Man shall find his Heart deceitfull and his Memory weak and Nature extremely averse from seeking narrowly after That which it is unwilling to find and being found will assuredly disturb it So that upon the whole matter it is infinitely absurd to think that Conscience can be kept in order without frequent Examination If a man would have his Conscience deal clearly with him he must deal severely with That Often scouring and cleansing it will make it bright and when it is so he may see himself in it And if he sees any Thing amiss let this satisfie him That no man is or can be the worse for knowing the very worst of himself On the contrary if Conscience by a long neglect of and dis-acquaintance with it self comes to contract an inveterate Rust or Soil a man may as well expect to see his Face in a Mud-wall as that such a Conscience should give him a true Report of his Condition no it leaves him wholly in the Dark as to the greatest Concern he has in both Worlds He can neither tell whether God be his Friend or his Enemy or rather he has shrewd Cause to suspect him his Enemy and cannot possibly know him to be his Friend And this being his Case he must live in Ignorance and die in Ignorance and it will be hard for a man to die in it without dying for it too And now what a wretched Condition must that man needs be in whose Heart is in such Confusion such Darkness and such a settled Blindness that it shall not be able to tell him so much as one true Word of himself Flatter him it may I confess as those are generally good at flattering who are good for nothing else but in the mean time the poor Man is left under the fatal Necessity of a remediless Delusion For in judging of a man's Self if Conscience either cannot or will not inform him there is a certain Thing called Self-love that will be sure to deceive him And thus I have shewn in four several Particulars what is to be done both for the getting and keeping of the Conscience so informed as that it may be able to give us a Rational Confidence towards God As 1. That the Voice of Reason in all the Dictates of Natural Morality ought carefully to be attended to by a strict Observance of what it commands but especially of what it forbids 2. That every Pious Motion from the Spirit of God ought tenderly to be cherished and by no means checked or quenched either by Resistance or Neglect 3. That Conscience is to be kept close to the Rule of the written Word 4 ly and Lastly That it is frequently to be examined and severely accounted with And I doubt not but a Conscience thus disciplined shall give
safer side Especially if the Case be not onely Doubtfull but also highly Concerning and the Venture be of a Soul and an Eternity He who sat at a Table richly and deliciously furnished but with a Sword hanging over his Head by one single Thread or Hair surely had enough to check his Appetite even against all the Ragings of Hunger and Temptations of Sensuality The onely Argument that could any way encourage his Appetite was That possibly the Sword might not fall but when his Reason should encounter it with another Question What if it should fall And moreover that pitifull Stay by which it hung should oppose the likelihood that it would to a meer possibility that it might not what could the man enjoy or tast of his rich Banquet with all this doubt and horror working in his Mind Though a Man's condition should be really in it self never so safe yet an apprehension and surmise that it is not safe is enough to make a quick and a tender Reason sufficiently miserable Let the most Acute and Learned Unbeliever demonstrate that there is no Hell And if he can he Sins so much the more rationally otherwise if he cannot the Case remains doubtfull at least But he who Sins obstinately does not act as if it were so much as doubtfull for if it were Certain and Evident to Sense he could do no more but for a man to found a confident Practice upon a disputable Principle is brutishly to out-run his Reason and to build ten times wider than his Foundation In a word I look upon this one short Consideration were there no more as a sufficient Ground for any Rational Man to take up his Religion upon and which I defy the subtlest Atheist in the World solidly to answer or confute Namely That it is good to be sure And so I proceed to the Third and Last Supposition Under which the Principles of Religion may for Argument sake be considered and that is as False which surely must reach the utmost Thoughts of any Atheist whatsoever Nevertheless even upon this account also I doubt not but to Evince That he who walks uprightly walks much more surely than the wicked and profane Liver and that with reference to the most Valued Temporal Enjoyments such as are Reputation Quietness Health and the like which are the greatest which this Life affords or is desireable for And 1 st For Reputation or Credit Is any one had in greater Esteem than the Just Person who has given the World an Assurance by the constant tenour of his Practice That he makes a Conscience of his ways That he scorns to doe an unworthy or a base Thing to lye to defraud to undermine another's Interest by any sinister and inferiour Arts And is there any thing which reflects a greater Lustre upon a Man's Person than a severe Temperance and a Restraint of Himself from vitious and unlawfull Pleasures Does any thing shine so bright as Vertue and that even in the Eyes of those who are void of it For hardly shall you find any one so bad but he desires the Credit of being Thought what his Vice will not let him be so great a Pleasure and Convenience is it to live with Honour and a fair Acceptance amongst those whom we converse with And a Being without it is not Life but rather the Skeleton or Caput mortuum of Life like Time without Day or Day it self without the shining of the Sun to enliven it On the other side Is there any thing that more embitters all the Enjoyments of this Life than Shame and Reproach Yet this is generally the Lot and Portion of the Impious and Irreligious and of some of them more especially For how Infamous in the first place is the false fraudulent and unconscionable Person and how quickly is his Character known For hardly ever did any man of no Conscience continue a man of any Credit long Likewise how Odious as well as Infamous is such an One Especially if he be arrived at that Consummate and Robust degree of Falshood as to play in and out and shew Tricks with Oaths the sacredest Bonds which the Conscience of Man can be bound with how is such an One shunn'd and dreaded like a walking Pest What Volleys of Scoffs Curses and Satyrs are discharged at Him So that let never so much Honour be placed upon Him it cleaves not to Him but forthwith ceases to be Honour by being so placed No Preferment can sweeten Him but the higher he stands the farther and wider he stinks In like manner for the Drinker and debauched Person Is any thing more the object of Scorn and Contempt than such an One His Company is justly look'd upon as a disgrace and no Body can own a Friendship for him without being an Enemy to himself A Drunkard is as it were Out-law'd from all worthy and creditable Converse Men abhorr loath and despise him and would even spit at him as they meet him were it not for fear that a stomach so charged should something more than spit at them But not to go over all the several Kinds of Vice and Wickedness should we set aside the Consideration of the Glories of a better World and allow this Life for the Onely Place and Scene of Man's happiness yet surely Cato will be always more Honourable than Clodius and Cicero than Catiline Fidelity Justice and Temperance will always draw their own Reward after them or rather carry it with them in those marks of Honour which they fix upon the Persons who practise and pursue them It is said of David in 1 Chron. 29. 28. That he died full of Days Riches and Honour and there was no need of an Heaven to render him in all respects a much happier man than Saul But in the 2 d. Place The Vertuous and Religious Person walks upon surer Grounds than the Vicious and Irreligious in respect of the Ease Peace and Quietness which he enjoys in this World and which certainly make no small part of Human felicity For Anxiety and Labour are great Ingredients of that Curse which Sin has intail'd upon Fal'n man Care and Toil came into the World with Sin and remain ever since inseparable from it both as to its Punishment and Effect The service of Sin is perfect slavery and he who will pay Obedience to the Commands of it shall find it an Unreasonable Task-master and an Unmeasurable Exactor And to represent the Case in some Particulars The Ambitious Person must rise early and sit up late and pursue his Design with a constant indefatigable Attendance he must be infinitely patient and servile and obnoxious to all the cross Humours of those whom he expects to rise by he must endure and digest all sorts of Affronts Adore the Foot that Kicks him and Kiss the Hand that strikes him While in the mean time the Humble and Contented Man is vertuous at a much easier rate His Vertue bids him sleep and take his rest while the
others restless Sin bids him sit up and watch He pleases himself innocently and easily while the Ambitious man attempts to please others sinfully and difficultly and perhaps in the Issue unsuccessfully to The Robber and Man of Rapine must run and ride and use all the dangerous and even desperate Ways of escape and probably after all his Sin betrays him to a Gaol and from thence advances him to the Gibbet But let him carry off his Booty with as much safety and success as he can wish yet the Innocent Person with never so little of his own envies him not and if he has nothing fears him not Likewise the cheat and fradulent Person is put to a Thousand shifts to palliate his Fraud and to be thought an honest Man But surely there can be no greater Labour than to be always dissembling and forced to maintain a constant disguise there being so many ways by which a smothered Truth is apt to blaze and break out the very Nature of Things making it not more Natural for them to be than to appear as they be But he who will be really honest just and sincere in his Dealings needs take no pains to be thought so no more than the Sun needs take any pains to shine or when he is up to convince the World that it is Day And here again to bring in the Man of Luxury and Intemperance for his share in the Pain and Trouble as well as in the fore-mentioned Shame and Infamy of his Vice Can any Toil or Day-labour equal the Fatigue or Drudgery which such an one undergoes while he is continually pouring in Draught after Draught and cramming in Morsel after Morsel and that in spight of Appetite and Nature till he becomes a Burthen to the very Earth that bears him though not so great an One to That but that if possible he is yet a greater to Himself And now in the last place to mention one Sinner more and him a notable leading Sinner indeed to wit the Rebel Can any thing have more of Trouble Hazard and Anxiety in it than the Course which he takes For in the first place all the Evils of War must unavoidably be endured as the necessary Means and Instruments to compass and give success to his Traiterous designs In which if it is his Lot to be Conquered he must expect that Vengeance that justly attends a conquered disarmed Villain for when such an one is vanquished his Sins are always upon him But if on the contrary he proves Victorious he will yet find Misery enough in the distracting Cares of settling an ungrounded odious detestable Interest so heartily and so justly maligned abhorred and oftentimes plotted against So that in effect he is still in War though he has quitted the Field The Torment of his suspicion is great and the Courses he must take to quiet his jealous suspicious Mind infinitely troublesome and vexatious But in the mean time the Labour of Obedience Loyalty and Subjection is no more but for a man honestly and discreetly to sit still and to enjoy what he has under the Protection of the Laws And when such an one is in his lowest condition he is yet high and happy enough to despise and pity the most prosperous Rebel in the World Even those famous Ones of Forty-one with all due Respect to their flourishing Relations be it spoke not excepted In the Third and Last place The Religious Person walks upon surer grounds than the Irreligious in respect of the very Health of his Body Vertue is a Friend and an Help to Nature but it is Vice and Luxury that destroys it and the Diseases of Intemperance are the natural product of the Sins of Intemperance Whereas on the other side a temperate innocent use of the Creature never casts any one into a Fever or a Surfeit Chastity makes no work for a Chirurgeon nor ever ends in rottenness of Bones Sin is the fruitfull Parent of Distempers and Ill Lives occasion Good Physicians Seldom shall one see in Cities Courts and Rich Families where Men live plentifully and eat and drink freely that perfect Health that Athletick soundness and vigour of Constitution which is commonly seen in the Countrey in poor Houses and Cottages where Nature is their cook and Necessity their Caterer and where they have no other Doctor but the Sun and the fresh Air and that such an One as never sends them to the Apothecary It has been observed in the earlier Ages of the Church that none lived such healthfull and long Lives as Monks and Hermits who had sequestred themselves from the Pleasures and Plenties of the World to a constant Ascetick Course of the severest Abstinence and Devotion Nor is Excess the onely Thing by which Sin mauls and breaks Men in their Health and the comfortable Enjoyment of themselves thereby but many are also brought to a very ill and languishing Habit of Body by meer Idleness and Idleness is both it self a great Sin and the Cause of many more The Husbandman returns from the Field and from Manuring his Ground strong and healthy because innocent and laborious You will find no Diet-drinks no Boxes of Pills nor Galley-pots amongst his Provisions no he neither speaks nor lives French he is not so much a Gentleman forsooth His Meals are course and short his Employment warrantable his Sleep certain and refreshing neither interrupted with the Lashes of a guilty Mind nor the Aches of a crazy Body And when Old Age comes upon him it comes alone bringing no other Evil with it but it self But when it comes to wait upon a great and worshipfull Sinner who for many years together has had the Reputation of Eating well and Doing ill it comes as it ought to doe to a Person of such Quality attended with a long Train and Retinue of Rheums Coughs Catarrhs and Dropsies together with many painfull Girds and Achings which are at least called the Gout How does such an one go about or is carried rather with his Body bending inward his Head shaking and his Eyes always watering instead of weeping for the Sins of his Ill-spent Youth In a word Old Age Seizes upon such a Person like Fire upon a rotten House it was rotten before and must have fal'n of it self so that it is no more but one Ruin preventing another And thus I have shewn the Fruits and Effects of Sin upon Men in this World But peradventure it will be replied That there are many Sinners who escape all these Calamities and neither labour under any shame or disrepute any unquietness of Condition or more than ordinary distemper of Body but pass their Days with as great a Portion of Honour Ease and Health as any other Men whatsoever But to this I Answer First That those Sinners who are in such a temporally happy Condition owe it not to their Sins but wholly to their Luck and a benign Chance that they are so Providence often disposes of Things by a Method beside
as to take pleasure in other men's Sins For we know what a foul Sin David committed and what a Crime St. Peter himself fell into both of them no doubt fully and clearly against the Dictates of their Conscience yet we do not find that either of them was thereby brought to such an impious frame of Heart as to delight in their own Sins and much less in other men's And therefore it is not every sinfull Violation of Conscience that can quench the Spirit to such a degree as we have been speaking of but it must be a long inveterate Course and Custom of Sinning after this manner that at length produces and ends in such a cursed Effect For this is so great a Master-piece in Sin that no Man begins with it He must have pass'd his Tyrocinium or Novitiate in Sinning before he can come to this be he never so quick a Proficient No man can mount so fast as to set his Foot upon the highest step of the Ladder at first Before a man can come to be pleased with a Sin because he sees his Neighbour commit it he must have had such a long Acquaintance with it himself as to create a kind of Intimacy or Friendship between him and That and then we know a Man is Naturally glad to see his Old friend not only at his own House but wheresoever he meets him It is generally the Property of an Old Sinner to find a delight in re-viewing his own Villainies in the Practice of other Men to see his Sin and himself as it were in Reversion and to find a greater satisfaction in beholding him who succeeds him in his Vice than him who is to succeed him in his Estate In the matter of Sin Age makes a greater Change upon the Soul than it does or can upon the Body And as in this if we compare the Picture of a Man drawn at the Years of Seventeen or Eighteen with the Picture of the same person at Threescore and Ten hardly the least Trace or Similitude of one Face can be found in the other So for the Soul the Difference of the Dispositions and Qualities of the Inner Man will be found much greater Compare the Harmlesness the Credulity the Tenderness the Modesty and the Ingenuous pliableness to vertuous Counsels which is in Youth as it comes fresh and untainted out of the hands of Nature with the Mischievousness the Slyness the Craft the Impudence the Falshood and the confirmed Obstinacy in most sorts of Sin that is to be found in an aged long-practised Sinner and you will confess the Complexion and Hue of his Soul to be altered more than that of his Face Age has given him another Body and Custom another Mind All those Seeds of Vertue and good Morality that were the Natural Endowments of our first Years are lost and dead for ever And in respect of the Native Innocence of Childhood no man through Old Age becomes twice a Child The Vices of Old Age have in them the stiffness of it too And as it is the unfittest Time to learn in so the unfitness of it to unlearn will be found much greater Which Considerations joyned with that of its Imbecillity make it the proper Season for a super-annuated Sinner to enjoy the Delights of Sin in the Rebound and to supply the Impotence of Practice by the airy phantastick Pleasure of Memory and Reflection For all that can be allowed him now is to refresh his decrepit effete Sensuality with the Transcript and History of his former Life recognized and read over by him in the vitious Rants of the vigorous youthfull Debauchees of the present time whom with an odd kind of Passion mixed of Pleasure and Envy too he sees flourishing in all the bravery and prime of their Age and Vice An old Wrestler loves to look on and to be near the Lists though Feebleness will not let him offer at the Prize An old Huntsman finds a Musick in the Noise of Hounds though he cannot follow the Chace An old Drunkard loves a Tavern though he cannot go to it but as he is supported and led by another just as some are observed to come from thence And an old Wanton will be doating upon Women when he can scarce see them without Spectacles And to shew the true Love and faithfull Allegiance that the Old Servants and Subjects of Vice ever after bear to it nothing is more usual and frequent than to hear that such as have been Strumpets in their Youth turn Procurers in their Age. Their great Concern is that the Vice may still go on 4 ly A fourth Cause of men's taking pleasure in the Sins of others is from that meanness and poor-spiritedness that naturally and inseparably accompanies all Guilt Whosoever is conscious to himself of Sin feels in himself whether he will own it or no a proportionable Shame and a secret Depression of Spirit thereupon And this is so irksome and uneasie to Man's mind that he is restless to relieve and rid himself from it For which he finds no way so effectual as to get Company in the same Sin For Company in any Action gives both Credit to that and Countenance to the Agent and so much as the Sinner gets of this so much he casts off of Shame Singularity in Sin puts it out of fashion since to be alone in any Practice seems to make the Judgment of the World against it but the Concurrence of others is a Tacit Approbation of that in which they concurr Solitude is a kind of Nakedness and the Result of that we know is Shame 'T is Company only that can bear a Man out in an ill Thing and he who is to encounter and fight the Law will be sure to need a Second No wonder therefore if some take delight in the Immoralities and Baseness of others for nothing can support their Minds drooping and sneaking and inwardly reproaching them from a sense of their own guilt but to see others as bad as themselves To be Vitious amongst the Vertuous is a double disgrace and misery but where the whole Company is vitious and debauched they presently like or at least easily pardon one another And as it is observed by some that there is none so homely but loves a Looking-glass so it is certain that there is no man so vicious but delights to see the Image of his Vice reflected upon him from one who exceeds or at least equals him in the same Sin in it self is not only shamefull but also weak and it seeks a Remedy for both in Society For it is this that must give it both Colour and Support But on the contrary how great and as I may so speak how Self-sufficient a thing is Vertue It needs no Credit from Abroad no Countenance from the Multitude Were there but one vertuous man in the World he would hold up his Head with Confidence and Honour He would shame the World and not the World him For according to
those Protestants whom they most hate and whom alone they fear It being no unheard of Trick for a Thief when he is closely pursued to cry out Stop the Thief and thereby diverting the suspicion from himself to get clear away It is also worth our while to consider with what Terms of Respect and Commendation Knaves and Sots will speak of their own Fraternity As What an honest what a worthy Man is such an one And What a Good-natur'd Person is another According to which Terms such as are Factious by worthy Men mean only such as are of the same Faction and united in the same Designs against the Government with themselves And such as are Brothers of the Pot by a Good-natur'd Person mean only a true trusty Debauchee who never stands out at a Merry-meeting so long as he is able to stand at all nor ever refuses an Health while he has enough of his own to pledge it with and in a word is as honest as Drunkenness and Debauchery want of Sence and Reason Vertue and Sobriety can possibly make Him 2 ly The other way by which some Men encourage others in their Sins is by Preferment As when Men shall be advanced to Places of Trust and Honour for those Qualities that render them unworthy of so much as sober and civil Company When a Lord or Master shall cast his Favours and Rewards upon such Beasts and Blemishes of Society as live only to the Dishonour of him who made them and the Reproach of him who maintains them None certainly can love to see Vice in Power but such as love to see it also in Practice Place and Honour do of all things most mis-become it and a Goat or a Swine in a Chair of State cannot be more odious than ridiculous It is reported of Caesar that passing through a certain Town and seeing all the Women of it standing at their Doors with Monkeys in their Arms he asked whether the Women of that Country used to have any Children or no thereby wittily and sarcastically reproaching them for misplacing that Affection upon Brutes which could only become a Mother to her Child So when we come into a great Family or Government and see this Place of Honour allotted to a Murtherer another filled with an Atheist or Blasphemer and a third with a filthy Parasite may we not as appositely and properly ask the Question Whether there be any such thing as Vertue Sobriety or Religion amongst such a People with whom Vice wears those Rewards Honours and Privileges which in other Nations the Common Judgment of Reason awards only to the Vertuous the Sober and Religious And certainly it is too flagrant a Demonstration how much Vice is the Darling of any People when many amongst them are preferred for those Practices for which in other places they can scarce be pardoned And thus I have finished the Third and Last General thing proposed for the handling of the Words which was To shew the several Sorts or Kinds of Men which fall under the Charge and Character of taking pleasure in other Men's Sins Now the Inferences from the foregoing Particulars shall be Twofold 1. Such as concern particular Persons And 2. Such as concern Communities or Bodies of Men. And first for the Malignity of such a disposition of Mind as induces a Man to delight in other men's Sins with reference to the Effects of it upon particular Persons As 1. It quite alters and depraves the Natural Frame of a man's Heart For there is that Naturally in the Heart of Man which abhorrs Sin as Sin and consequently would make him detest it both in himself and in others too The first and most genuine Principles of Reason are certainly averse to it and find a secret Grief and Remorse from every invasion that Sin makes upon a man's Innocence and that must needs render the first Entrance and Admission of Sin uneasie because disagreeable Yet Time we see and Custom of Sinning can bring a man to such a pass that it shall be more difficult and grievous to him to part with his Sin than ever it was to him to admit it It shall get so far into and lodge it self so deep within his Heart that it shall be his Business and his Recreation his Companion and his other Self and the very dividing between his Flesh and his Bones or rather between his Body and his Soul shall be less terrible and afflictive to him than to be took off from his Vice Nevertheless as Unnatural as this Effect of Sin is there is one yet more so For that innate Principle of Self-love that very easily and often blinds a Man as to any impartial Reflection upon himself yet for the most part leaves his Eyes open enough to judge truly of the same thing in his Neighbour and to hate that in others which he allows and cherishes in himself And therefore when it shall come to this that he also approves embraces and delights in Sin as he observes it even in the Person and Practice of other Men this shews that the Man is wholly transformed from the Creature that God first made him nay that he has consumed those poor Remainders of Good that the Sin of Adam left him that he has worn off the very remote Dispositions and Possibilities to Vertue and in a word turned Grace first and afterwards Nature it self out of Doors No man knows at his first Entrance upon any Sin how far it may carry him and where it will stop the Commission of Sin being generally like the pouring out of Water which when once poured out knows no other Bounds but to run as far as it can 2 ly A second Effect of this Disposition of Mind is that it peculiarly indisposes a man to repent and recover himself from it For the first step to Repentance is a man's dislike of his Sin And how can we expect that a man should conceive any through dislike of that which has took such an absolute possession of his Heart and Affections that he likes and loves it not only in his own Practice but also in other men's Nay that he is pleased with it though he is past the Practice of it Such a Temper of Mind is a down-right Contradiction to Repentance as being founded in the Destruction of those Qualities which are the only Dispositions and Preparatives to it For that Natural Tenderness of Conscience which must first create in the Soul a Sence of Sin and from thence produce a Sorrow for it and at length cause a Relinquishment of it That I say we have already shewn is took away by a customary repeated Course of Sinning against Conscience So that the very first Foundation of Vertue which is the Natural Power of distinguishing between the Moral Good and Evil of any Action is in effect pluckt up and destroyed And the Spirit of God finds nothing in the Heart of such an one to apply the Means of Grace to All Tast Relish and
Discernment of the Sutableness of Vertue and the Unsutableness of Vice being utterly gone from it And as this is a direct Barr to that part of Repentance which looks back with Sorrow and Indignation upon what is past so is it equally such to that greater part of Repentance which is to look forward and to prevent Sin for the future For this properly delivers a man up to Sin for as much as it leaves his Heart destitute of all those Principles which should resist it So that such an one must be as bad as the Devil will have him and can be no better than the Devil will let him In both he must submit to his Measures And what is this but a kind of Entrance into or rather an Anticipation of Hell What is it but Judgment and Damnation already begun For a man in such a case is as sure of it as if he were actually in the Flames 3 ly A third Effect of this Disposition of Mind which also naturally follows from the former is that the longer a man lives the wickeder he grows and his last days are certainly his worst It has been observed that to delight in other men's Sins was most properly the Vice of Old Age and we shall also find that it may be as truly and properly called the Old Age of Vice For as first Old Age necessarily implies a man's having lived so many years before it comes upon him and withall this sort of Viciousness supposes the precedent Commission of many Sins by which a man arrives to it so it has this further property of Old Age That as when a man comes once to be Old he never retreats but still goes on and grows every day older and older So when a man comes once to such a degree of Wickedness as to delight in the Wickedness of other men it is more than ten thousand to one odds if he ever returns to a better mind but grows every day worse and worse For he has nothing else to take up his Thoughts and nothing to entertain his Desires with which by a long Estrangement from better things come at length perfectly to loath and fly off from them A notable instance of which we have in Tiberius Caesar who was bad enough in his Youth but superlatively and monstrously so in his Old Age And the Reason of this was Because he took a particular pleasure in seeing other Men doe vile and odious things So that all his Diversion at his Beloved Capreae was to be a Spectator of the Devil's Actors representing the worst of Vices upon that Infamous Stage And therefore let not Men flatter themselves as no doubt some doe that though they find it difficult at present to combat and stand out against an ill Practice and upon that account give way to a Continuance in it yet that Old Age shall doe that for them which they in their Youth could never find in their heart to doe for themselves I say let not such persons mock and abuse themselves with such false and absurd Presumptions For they must know that an Habit may continue when it is no longer able to Act or rather the Elicit Internal Acts of it may be quick and vigorous when the External Imperate Acts of the same Habit utterly cease And let Men but reflect upon their own Observation and consider impartially with themselves how few in the World they have known made better by Age. Generally they will see that such leave not their Vice but their Vice leaves them or rather retreats from their Practices and retires into their Fancy and that we know is boundless and infinire And when Vice has once setled it self there it finds a vaster and a wider Compass to Act in than ever it had before I scarce know any thing that calls for a more serious Consideration from us than this For still Men are apt to perswade themselves that they shall find it an easie matter to grow Vertuous as they grow Old But it is a way of Arguing highly irrational and fallacious For this is a Maxim of Eternal Truth That nothing grows weak with Age but that which will at length die with Age which Sin never does The longer a Blot continues the deeper it sinks And it will be found a Work of no small difficulty to dispossess and throw out a Vice from that Heart where long Possession begins to plead Prescription It is Naturally impossible for an Old Man to grow Young again and it is next to Impossible for a decrepit aged Sinner to become a new Creature and be born again 4 ly and Lastly We need no other Argument of the Malign Effects of this Disposition of Mind than this one Consideration That many perish Eternally who never arrived to such a pitch of Wickedness as to take any pleasure in or indeed to be at all concerned about the Sins of other Men. But they perish in the pursuit of their own Lusts and the Obedience they personally yield to their own sinfull Appetites And that questionless very often not without a considerable mixture of inward dislike of themselves for what they doe Yet for all that their Sin we see proving too hard for them the over-powering Stream carries them away and down they sink into the Bottomless Pit though under the Weight of a guilt by vast degrees inferiour to that which we have been discoursing of For doubtless many Men are finally lost who yet have no men's Sins to answer for but their own Who never enticed nor perverted others to Sin and much less applauded or encouraged them in their Sin but only being Slaves to their own corrupt Affections have lived and died under the killing Power of them and so passed to a sad Eternity But that other devilish way of Sinning hitherto spoken of is so far beyond this that this is a kind of Innocence or rather a kind of Charity compared to it For this is a solitary single that a complicated multiplied Guilt And indeed if we consider at what a rate some Men sin now-a-days that Man sins charitably who Damns no body but himself But the other sort of Sinners who may properly enough be said to people Hell and in a very ill sence to bear the Sins of many as they have a Guilt made up of many Guilts so what can they reasonably expect but a Damnation equivalent to many Damnations And thus much for the first General Inference from the foregoing Discourse shewing the Malignity of such a Disposition of Mind as induces a Man to delight in other men's Sins with reference to particular Persons 2 ly The Other Inference shall be with ference to Communities or Bodies of Men and so such a Disposition has a most direct and efficacious Influence to propagate multiply and spread the Practice of any Sin till it becomes General and National For this is most certain that some men's taking pleasure in other men's Sins will cause many Men to sin to doe them
a pleasure and this will appear upon these three Accounts 1. That it is seldom or never that any Man comes to such a Degree of Impiety as to take pleasure in other men's Sins but he also shews the World by his Actions and Behaviour that he does so 2. That there are few Men in the World so inconsiderable but there are some or other who have an Interest to serve by them And 3 ly That the Natural Course that one Man takes to serve his Interest by another is by applying himself to him in such a way as may most gratifie and delight him Now from these Three things put together it is not only easie but necessary to inferr That since the Generality of Men are wholly acted by their present Interest if they find those who can best serve them in this their Interest most likely also to be gained over so to doe by the sinfull and vile Practices of those who address to them no doubt such Practices shall be pursued by such Persons in order to the Compassing their desired Ends. Where Greatness takes no delight in Goodness we may be sure there shall be but little Goodness seen in the Lives of those who have an Interest to serve by such an one's Greatness For take any Illustrious potent Sinner whose Power is wholly employ'd to serve his Pleasure and whose chief Pleasure is to see others as bad and wicked as himself and there is no question but in a little time he will also make them so and his Dependants shall quickly become his Proselytes They shall Sacrifice their Vertue to his Humour spend their Credit and Good name nay and their very Souls too to serve him and that by the worst and basest of Services which is by making themselves like Him It is but too notorious how long Vice has reigned or rather raged amongst us and with what a bare face and a brazen forehead it walks about the Nation as it were Elato Capite and looking down with Scorn upon Vertue as a contemptible and a mean thing Vice could not come to this pitch by chance But we have sinned a pace and at an higher strain of Villainy than the Fopps our Ancestors as some are pleas'd to call them could ever arrive to So that we daily see Maturity and Age in Vice joyned with Youth and Greenness of Years A manifest Argument no doubt of the great Docility and Pregnancy of Parts that is in the present Age above all the former For in respect of Vice nothing is more usual now-a-days than for Boys illico nasci Senes They see their Betters delight in ill things they observe Reputation and Countenance to attend the Practice of them and this carries them on furiously to that which of themselves they are but too much inclin'd to and which Laws were purposely made by Wise men to keep them from They are glad you may be sure to please and preferr themselves at once and to serve their Interest and their Sensuality together And as they are come to this Height and Rampancy of Vice in a great measure from the Countenance of their Betters and Superiors so they have took some steps higher in the same from this That the Follies and Extravagances of the Young too frequently carry with them the Suffrage and Approbation of the Old For Age which naturally and unavoidably is but one Remove from Death and consequently should have nothing about it but what looks like a decent Preparation for it scarce ever appears of late days but in the high Mode the flaunting Garb and utmost Gaudery of Youth with Cloaths as ridiculously and as much in the fashion as the person that wears them is usually grown out of it The Eldest equal the Youngest in the Vanity of their Dress and no other Reason can be given of it but that they equal if not surpass them in the Vanity of their Desires So that those who by the Majesty and as I may so say the Prerogative of their Age should even frown Youth into Sobriety and better Manners are now striving all they can to imitate and strike in with them and to be really vicious that they may be thought to be young The sad and apparent Truth of which makes it very superfluous to enquire after any further Cause of that monstrous Encrease of Vice that like a Torrent or rather a breaking in of the Sea upon us has of late years over-flowed and victoriously carried all before it Both the Honourable and the Aged have contributed all they could to the promotion of it and so far as they are able to give the best Colour to the worst of things This they have endeavoured and thus much they have effected That Men now see that Vice makes them acceptable to those who are able to make them considerable It is the Key that lets them into their very Heart and enables them to command all that is there And if this be the Price of Favour and the Market of Honour no doubt where the Trade is so quick and withall so certain Multitudes will be sure to follow it This is too manifestly our present Case All Men see it and wise and good Men lament it And where Vice push'd on with such mighty Advantages will stop its progress it is hard to judge It is certainly above all humane Remedies to controll the prevailing Course of it unless the great Governour of the World who quells the Rage and Swelling of the Sea and sets Barrs and Doors to it beyond which the proudest of its Waves cannot pass shall in his infinite Compassion to us doe the same to that Ocean of Vice which now swells and roars and lifts up it self above all Banks and Bounds of humane Laws and so by his Omnipotent Word reducing its Power and abasing its Pride shall at length say to it Hitherto shalt thou come and no further Which God in his good time effect To whom be rendred and ascribed as is most due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen Natural Religion WITHOUT REVELATION SHEWN Only sufficient to render a Sinner inexcusable IN A SERMON PREACHED On ROMANS I. 20. Before the UNIVERSITY AT Christ-Church Oxon On Novemb. 2. 1690. ROM I. 20. latter Part. So that they are without excuse THis excellent Epistle though in the Front of it it bears a Particular Inscription yet in the Drift and Purpose of it is Universal as designing to convince all Mankind whom it supposes in pursuit of True Happiness of the Necessity of seeking for it in the Gospel and the Impossibility of finding it elsewhere All without the Church at that time were comprehended under the Division of Iews and Gentiles called here by the Apostle Greeks the Nobler and more Noted part being used for the whole Accordingly from the 2d Chapter down along he Addresses himself to the Iews shewing the Insufficiency of their Law to justifie or make them happy how much soever they
say that it made punishment necessary but that it made the Person so transgressing worthy of it So that it might justly be inflicted on him and consequently ought rationally to be feared and expected by him And upon this Notion universally fixed in the Minds of Men were grounded all their Sacrifices and Rites of Expiation and Lustration The use of which has been so General both as to Times and Places that there is no Age or Nation of the World in which they have not been used as Principal Parts of Religious Worship Now these six Grand Truths were the Talent entrusted and deposited by God in the hands of the Gentiles for them to Traffick with to his Honour and their own Happiness But what little Improvement they made of this Noble Talent shall now be shewn in the next Particular namely Their holding of it in Unrighteousness Which they did several ways As 1. By not Acting up to what they knew As in many Things their Knowledge was short of the Truth so almost in all Things their Practice fell short of their Knowledge The Principles by which they walked were as much below those by which they judged as their Feet were below their Head By the one they looked upwards while they placed the other in the Dirt. Their Writings sufficiently shew what raised and sublime Notions they had of the Divine Nature while they imployed their Reason about that Glorious Object and what Excellent Discourses of Vertue and Morality the same Reason enabled them to furnish the World with But when they came to transcribe these Theories into Practice One seemed to be of no other use to them at all but only to reproach them for the Other For they neither depended upon this God as if he were Almighty nor worshipped him as if they believed him Holy but in both prevaricated with their own Principles to that degree that their Practice was a direct Contradiction to their Speculations For the proof of which go over all the Heathen Temples and take a survey of the Absurdities and Impieties of their Worship their monstrous Sacrifices their ridiculous Rites and Ceremonies In all which Common Sence and Reason could not but tell them that the Good and Gracious God could not be pleased nor consequently worshipped with any thing Barbarous or Cruel nor the most Holy God with any thing Filthy and Unclean nor a God infinitely Wise with any thing Sottish or Ridiculous and yet these were the worthy Qualifications of the Heathen Worship even amongst not by this assert Contradictions making a Deity only to such a measure perfect whereas a Deity as such implies Perfection beyond all Measure or Limitation Nor could they in the next place have slid into those brutish Immoralities of Life had they duly manured those first Practical Notions and Dictates of Right Reason which the Nature of Man is Originally furnish'd with there being not any one of them but what is naturally productive of many more But they quickly stifled and over-laid those Infant-principles those Seeds of Piety and Vertue sown by God and Nature in their Hearts so that they brought a voluntary Darkness and Stupidity upon their Minds and by not Exercising their Senses to discern between Good and Evil came at length to lose all Sense and Discernment of either Whereupon as the Apostle says of them in the 21st Verse of this Chapter to the Romans Their foolish Heart was darkned And that not only by the Just Judgment of God but also by the very Course of Nature Nothing being more evident from Experience than that the not using or imploying any Faculty or Power either of Body or Soul does insensibly weaken and impair that Faculty As a Sword by long lying still will contract a Rust which shall not only deface its Brightness but by degrees also consume its very Substance Doing Nothing naturally ends in being Nothing It holds in all Operative Principles whatsoever but especially in such as relate to Morality in which not to proceed is certainly to go backward there being no third Estate between not advancing and retreating in a vertuous Course Growth is of the very Essence and Nature of some Things To be and to Thrive is all one with them and they know no middle Season between their Spring and their Fall And therefore as it is said in Matth. 13. 12. That from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath So he who neglects the Practice shall in the end also lose the very Power and Faculty of Doing well That which stops a man's Actual Breathing very long will in the Issue take away his very Power of Breathing too To hide one's Talent in the ground is to bury it and the Burial of a Thing either finds it dead or will quickly make it so 3 ly These Men held the Truth in Unrighteousness by concealing what they knew For how rightly soever they might conceive of God and of Vertue yet the illiterate Multitude who in such things must see with better Eyes than their own or not see at all were never the wiser for it Whatsoever the inward Sentiments of those Sophisters were they kept them wholly to themselves hiding all those important Truths all those usefull Notions from the People and teaching the World much otherwise from what they judged themselves Though I think a greater Truth than this cannot well be uttered That never any Thing or Person was really good which was good only to it self But from hence it was That even in a Literal sense Sin came to be Established by a Law For amongst the Gentiles the Laws themselves were the greatest Offenders They made little or no provision for Vertue but very much for Vice For the Early and Universal Practice of Sin had turned it into a Custom and Custom especially in Sin quickly passed into Common Law Socrates was the only Martyr for the Testimony of any Truth that we read of amongst the Heathens who chose rather to be Condemned and to die than either to renounce or conceal his Judgment touching the Unity of the Godhead But as for the rest of them even Zeno and Chrysippus Plato and Aristotle and generally all those Heroes in Philosophy they swam with the Stream as foul as it ran leaving the poor Vulgar as Ignorant and Sottish as Vicious and Idolatrous as they first found them But it has been always the Practice of the Governing Cheats of all Religions to keep the People in as gross Ignorance as possibly they could For we see the Heathen Impostors used it before the Christian Impostors took it up and improved it Si populus decipi vult decipiatur was ever a Gold and Silver Rule amongst them all though the Pope's Legate first turned it into a Benediction And a very strange one it was and enough one would think to have made all that heard it look about them and begin to bless themselves For as Demetrius a great Master in such Arts told his
other Men's Understandings Nature having manifestly contrived things so that the Vulgar and the Many are fit only to be led or driven but by no means fit to guide or direct themselves To which their want of judging or discerning Abilities we may add also their Want of Leisure and Opportunity to apply their Minds to such a serious and attent Consideration as may let them into a full Discovery of the true Goodness and Evil of Things which are Qualities which seldom display themselves to the first View For in most things Good and Evil lie shuffled and thrust up together in a confused Heap and it is Study and Intention of Thought which must draw them forth and range them under their distinct Heads But there can be no Study without Time and the Mind must abide and dwell upon Things or be always a Stranger to the Inside of them Through desire says Solomon a Man having separated himself seeketh and intermedleth with all Wisdom Prov. 18. 12. There must be Leisure and a Retirement Solitude and a Sequestration of a Man's self from the Noise and Toil of the World For Truth scorns to be seen by Eyes too much fixt upon inferiour Objects It lies too deep to be fetcht up with the Plough and too close to be beaten out with the Hammer It dwells not in Shops or Work houses nor till the late Age was it ever known that any one served Seven Years to a Smith or a Taylor that he might at the End thereof proceed Master of any other Arts but such as those Trades taught him and much less that he should commence Doctor or Divine from the Shop-board or the Anvil or from whistling to a Team come to preach to a Congregation These were the peculiar extraordinary Privileges of the late blessed Times of Light and Inspiration Otherwise Nature will still hold on its old Course never doing any thing which is considerable without the Assistance of its two great Helps Art and Industry But above all the Knowledge of what is Good and what is Evil what ought and what ought not to be done in the several Offices and Relations of Life is a thing too large to be compassed and too hard to be mastered without Brains and Study Parts and Contemplation which Providence never thought fit to make much the greatest Part of Mankind Possessors of And consequently those who are not so must for the Knowledge of most things depend upon those who are and receive their Information concerning Good and Evil from such Verbal or Nominal Representations of Each as shall be imparted to them by those whose Ability and Integrity they have Cause to rely upon for a faithfull Account of these Matters And thus from these two great Considerations premised 1 st That the Generality of the World are wholly governed verned by Words and Names And 2 dly That the Chief Instance in which they are so is in such Words and Names as import the Good or Evil of things Which both the Difficulty of Things themselves and the very Condition of humane Nature constrains much the greatest Part of Mankind to take wholly upon Trust I say from these two Considerations must needs be inferr'd What a fatal devilish and destructive Effect the Misapplication and Confusion of those great Governing Names of Good and Evil must inevitably have upon the Societies of Men. The comprehensive Mischief of which will appear from this that it takes in both those ways by which the greatest Evils and Calamities which are incident to Man do directly break in upon him The First of which is by his being deceived and the Second by his being misrepresented And First for the First of these I do not in the least doubt but if a true and just Computation could be made of all the Miseries and Misfortunes that befall Men in this World Two Thirds of them at least would be found resolveable into their being deceived by false Appearances of Good First deluding their Apprehensions and then by Natural Consequence perverting their Actions from which are the great Issues of Life and Death since according to the Eternal Sanction of God and Nature such as a Man's Actions are for Good or Evil such ought also his Condition to be for Happiness or Misery Now all Deception in the Course of Life is indeed nothing else but a Lye reduced to Practice and Falshood passing from Words into Things For is a Man impoverished and undone by the Purchase of an Estate why it is because he bought an Imposture pay'd down his Money for a Lye and by the help of the best and ablest Counsel forsooth that could be had took a Bad Title for a Good Is a Man unfortunate in Marriage still it is because he was deceived and put his Neck into the Snare before he put it into the Yoke and so took that for Vertue and Affection which was nothing but Vice in a Disguise and a Devilish Humour under a Demure Look Is he again unhappy and calamitous in his Friendships Why in this also it is because he built upon the Air and trod upon a Quick-sand and took that for Kindness and Sincerity which was onely Malice and Design seeking an Opportunity to ruine him effectually and to overturn him in all his Interests by the Sure but fatal Handle of his own good Nature and Credulity And lastly is a Man betrayed lost and blown by such Agents and Instruments as he imploys in his greatest and nearest Concerns Why still the Cause of it is from this that he misplaced his Confidence took Hypocrisie for Fidelity and so relied upon the Services of a Pack of Villains who designed nothing but their own Game and to stake him while they played for themselves But not to mention any more Particulars there is no Estate Office or Condition of Life whatsoever but groans and labours under the Killing Truth of what we have asserted For it is this which supplants not onely private Persons but Kingdoms and Governments by keeping them ignorant of their own Strengths and Weaknesses and it is evident that Governments may be equally destroyed by an Ignorance of either For the Weak by thinking themselves strong are induced to venture and proclaim War against that which ruins them And the Strong by conceiting themselves weak are thereby rendred as unactive and consequently as useless as if they really were so In Luke 14. 31. When a King with Ten Thousand is to meet a King coming against him with Twenty Thousand our Saviour advises him before he ventures the Issue of a Battel to sit down and consider But now a false glozing Parasite would give him quite another Kind of Counsel and bid him onely reckon his Ten Thousand Fourty call his Fool-hardiness Valour and then he may go on boldly because blindly and by mistaking himself for a Lyon come to perish like an Ass. In short it is this great Plague of the World Deception which takes wrong Measures and makes false