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as much less, as their reward and recompense will be greater. If they will not do this, they must not take it ill if it be believed, that they are without knowledge that their souls are to outlive their bodies; and that they do not so much wish to go to Heaven, as to get the next bet at play, or to win the next horse-race they are to run.

To conclude: If books and industry will not contribute to their being wise, and to their salvation, they will receive from it (which they value more) pleasure and refreshment in this world; they will have less melancholy in the distress of their fortune, less anxiety in the mortification of sickness; they will not so much complain for want of company, when all their companions forsake them; their age will be less grievous unto them; and God may so bless it, without any intention of their own, that such thoughts may insensibly insinuate themselves into them, that they may go out of the world with less dismal apprehensions, and conclude their neglected lives with more tranquillity of spirit, at least not be so much terrified with the approach of death, as men who have never entertained any sober thoughts of life have used to be, and naturally must be.

IV. OF IMPUDENT DELIGHT IN WICKEDNESS.

If it be too great a mastery to pretend to, over our own passions and affections, to restrain them from carrying us into any unlawful desire, and from suffering that desire to hurry us into some unlawful action, which is less perfection than every good Christian is obliged to endeavour to arrive at; if some sin knock so loud and so impetuously at our breast, or our blood, that it even forces its entrance, in spite of any resistance we can make for the present, let it at least find such a reception as we would give to an enemy, who doth in truth enter into our habitation by force, though he doth subdue us; let it not have the entertainment of a friend, of a companion, for whose presence we were solicitous: if we want power and strength to reject it, let us dismiss it with such a rudeness, that it may not promise it a better welcome and reception. It was some degree of modesty in Job's adulterer, (xxiv. 25.) when his "eye waited for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and disguised his face," that he was so far ashamed of the sin he acted, that he desired to conceal the suspicion of it from other men; though he

had the guilt within himself, he abhorred the being made an example to corrupt others. Whilst there is any shame remaining upon the spirit of a transgressor, any blush discovers itself after the guilt, there is hope of the subduing and conquering that temptation; and that at last it may grow to such a detestation of the transgression itself, and of himself for transgressing, that it may even recover his lost innocence, that is, repair the state and integrity of it. The most severe philosopher, who thought human nature strong enough to suppress and extinguish all temptation, had yet great compassion for him, "qui adhuc peccare erubescit;" he thought it worth the care of philosophy itself, "ut nutriendus esset hic pudor," that this disinclination and bashfulness towards vice should be so cherished and nourished, that it should not discover itself to be discerned under any other notion than of pure virtue, till it recovered strength enough to be so; and without doubt, whilst this bashfulness possesses any place in us, till the custom and malice of sin hath totally subdued the shame for sinning, there is a war kept up that may drive sin from every corner and angle of our hearts: and it may be, there have not been more men recovered

and reformed by the counsels and animadversions of others, than by their own severe recollections, and reflections upon their own transgressions, and their own observations of the nature and insinuation of sin, and of the unquietness and uneasiness of it, even when it is complied with, and of the restlessness and importunity of it after it is satisfied; "Ipsæ voluptates eorum tepidæ et variis terroribus inquieta sunt, subitque, cum maxime exsultant, solicita expectatio; Hæc quam diu ?" They who hearken to the voice of their own consciences, and take notice of the reluctance of their own spirit in the very moment they enjoy the pleasures they most delight in, need no other remembrancers, and easily disentangle themselves from all its allurements. But, alas! we live in an age wherein vice is not taught so perfunctorily, as to be in danger to be dislodged after it is ouce entered and received; the devil is too good a husband, to venture a beloved sin upon a constitution capable of being ashamed of his guests; he secures himself in that point, by choosing such proselytes as will first brag of having committed some notorious sins, before he admits them to the pleasure and guilt of them, that so the shame of being discovered to be liars may

harden their faces against all other shame; the fame of being eminently wicked hath mastered and suppressed the infamy of it; and many would rather be without the pleasure of the sins they most delight in, than without the pleasure of publishing and bragging of them after the commitment; as if there would be too much innocence left, if there should not be an equal proportion of impudence planted in its place. This is it which makes us excel in all lewdness, and our youth doctors in those faculties of wickedness, which were understood in former times by some few discarded ruffians, who were banished the conversation of mankind, and of the sun itself. We travel into foreign countries, not to improve our own manners, but to learn the worst of theirs, and to transplant them carefully into our own climate; where we cultivate and polish them, that we may excel all nations in their own peculiar vices: and we have so much modesty, as to suspect that our own fancy and invention is not fertile enough to contribute improvement enough to them; and so bring them into conference and conversation with more experienced gamesters, that we may be sure to make the most of them, and imp them out with texts of Scripture with all

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