Good abominate their Sin, and the Ill triumph over their Folly; and yet, after all, that it is fo far from gaining Credit to their present Affirmations, that it destroys it for the future: For he that fees a Man make no Difference in the Confidence of his afferting Realities and Fictions can never take his Measures by any Thing he avers, but, according to the common Proverb, will be in Danger of difbelieving him, even when he speaks Truth.

In the mean Time, what is there, that he proposes to himself by his Positiveness, that may not be obtained more effectually by a modest and unconcerned Relation? He that barely relates what he has heard, or proposes modeftly what his Opinion is, leaving the Hearer to judge of its Probability, does, doubtless, as civilly entertain the Company, as he that throws down his Gauntlet in Attestation of what he affirms. He as much, nay, much more, perfuades his Hearers, because violent Afseverations serve only to give Men an untoward Umbrage, that the Speaker is confcious of his own Falseness; and all the While he has his Retreat fecure, and stands not responsible for the Truth and Certainty of what he affirms or relates. So that, upon the whole, though the Things which Men advance be never fo certain and infallible, yet it feems much more decent and advifeable not to press them with too much Importunity; because Boldness, as we hinted before, is fo known a Pander to Lying, that Truth cannot but come in Danger of being defamed by its Attendance and Proximity.

To conclude, Modesty is so amiable, so infinuating, that all the Rules of Oratory cannot help Men to a more agreeable Ornament in Difcourse : And, if they would but try it in the two foregoing Instances, they will undoubtedly find it to be Fact

-that

-that a modest Proposal will sooner captivate -Mens Reason, and a modest Relation their Belief.

These are fome of the Duties and Enormities of Speech, in the Pursuit or Avoidance of which the good or ill Government of our Tongue will confift: And therefore, to heighten our Care in this Respect, let it be remembered, that the Ufe of Speech is a peculiar Prerogative of Man above other Creatures, and bestowed upon us for most excellent Purposes; which we fadly pervert when we make it an Instrument, either of reviling God, or injuring our Brother, or expofing ourselves : That our Breath, as well as other Faculties, is the pure Gift of God, which he may withdraw when he pleases; and, in fo doing, surprise us, perhaps, with an Oath, a Blafphemy, or a Detraction in our Mouths: That, if this he should not do, our Tranfgreffions, however, of this Kind, do not fly off into empty Air, but are recorded in the Volume of his all-containing Mind, to be produced against us at the great Day of Judgment: And that, in the great and terrible Day of the Lord, every idle Word (as we are told) and much more then every wicked and prophane, every hurtful and abusive Word, that Men shall speak, they shall give an Account thereof. Since Death and Life, then, are in the Tongue; fince by our Words we shall be justified, and by our Words we shall be condemned; fince fo great a Stress is laid upon this, that, if any Man seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his Tongue, that Man's Religion is vain ; how earnest should the Confideration of these Things make us in our daily Supplications to God, that, in Conjunction with our own Endeavours, he would be pleased to fet a Watch before our Mouths, and keep the Door of our Lips, that no corrupt Communication, of any Kind, may proceed from thence, but that which is good to the Use of edifying, that it may minister Glory

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to God, Grace to the Hearers, and Salvation to our own Souls.

SECT. III.

Of the Government of the whole Man.

TH

HE two great Virtues relating to the Government of the rest of the Body, are Chaftity and Temperance : But of these we shall have less Reason to treat with any great Prolixity, because they are Things obvious to every one's Conception.

I. Now Chastity, as it relates to a single State, consists in a total Abstinence from all Manner of Uncleanness, not only that of Adultery and Fornication, but from all other more unnatural Sorts, whether committed upon ourselves, or in Commerce with any other: And, even in a conjugal Estate, it requires such Temper and Moderation, as may preserve the Ends of Matrimony, and continue it (what it was intended to be) a Remedy, and not an Incentive to Lasciviousness. Nor does this Virtue reftrain us from the grosser Acts only, but fets a Guard likewife upon our Eyes, upon our Hands, upon our Tongues, and upon our very Thoughts and Imaginations; for it accounts all Jafcivious Looks, obscene Language, impure Thoughts, and immodeft Behaviour; all pampering and luxurious Diet to inflame ourselves; all industrious Endeavours to kindle those Flames, and attract, first the Eyes, and then the Desires of others. But of these Things we have to say, that as of all Vices, to which Mankind are subject, there is none of greater Danger and worse Confequence to us, than those, which the Lufts of our Flesh tempt us to; none, to which Nature is more prone;

prone; none, by which it is more vilely debased, more shamefully exposed, and more mortally wounded; that Person we cannot but pronounce very happy, who, in Strength of this Virtue, keeps under his Body, and brings it into Subjection, since by it he is Conqueror of the strongest and fubtlest Enemy, and has learnt to be deaf to the busiest and most importunate Sollicitations of a Syren, that labours perpetually to ruin him by her treacherous Incantations; fince by it he secures his native Freedom and Greatness of Spirit, preserves his Faculties from those thick Mists, by which Sense and Appetites ungoverned darken their Sight; fecures Order and Peace within, by subduing all rebellious Paffions, and keeping Reafon and Religion conftantly supreme; fixing the Affections upon fuch Objects, as deserve their Care and Affiduity, and exercising the Mind in the sweet Raptures of Meditations and Prayers, the Thirst of spiritual Comforts, and the unspeakable Delights, which refult from an holy Conversation, and fervent Love of God. And so we proceed to

II. The other Virtue, which concerns our Bodies, and that is Temperance, which seems to be of different Sorts, according to the Objects about which it is exercised. For there is, 1. Temperance in Eating and Drinking, which is not only a necessary Duty in Christianity, but a very ornamental Virtue likewise. It renders lovely and beautiful the Person that is endued with it: It makes him respected and reverenced by all, that know him. For a Man, that eats and drinks only for Neceffity, to repair the daily Decays of his Body, and not to please his Palate, or fatisfy the Cravings of a luxurious and extravagant Appetite, lives as becomes a Man; upholds the Dignity of his Nature, and maintains that Dominion, which the rational Part of him, his Soul, ought to have over the brutish

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brutish Part of him, his Body: Whereas he, whơ is a Slave to his Palate, or drinks away his Reafon, turns a wife Man into a Fool, and a Man into a Beast; and is therefore more vile and despicable than other Fools, or other Beasts; because his Folly, or his Want of Reafon, is the Effect of his own vicious Choice, whereas theirs was the Lot of their Creation: Take heed therefore to yourselves, says our Saviour, left, at any Time, your Hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness; for Wine is a Mocker; strong Drink is raging, and whofoever is deceived thereby is not wife.

2. There is Temperance in Apparel, which confifts in our using such Habits and Dresses, as fuit with the Custom of the Country, where we live, and that Station and Quality of Life, whereunto we are appointed. Gorgeous Apparel, as our Saviour obferves, is fit for the Courts of Kings: Nor is it any Oftentation of Pride, but rather a Matter of good Order and Decency, that Persons, invested with high Power and Authority, should, in their very Garb and Appearance, diftinguish themselves from others: But then there are these Restrictions, which this Virtue of Temperance lays upon Men of all Conditions. 1. That the Coftliness of Apparel exceed not the Quality and Ability of the Wearer. For besides the Debts, and other consequential Mischiefs, unavoidably incurred by such Extravagance; this certainly is an Offence against the Decency we just now mentioned, against that natural and becoming Order, which the Wisdom of all Ages has agreed upon, as most convenient to difcriminate People one from another, and, in the Matter of Quality, to prevent Disrespect and Confufion. 2. That the Coftliness of our Apparel obstruct not our doing the Good, we might otherwise do, in several Acts of Charity: For, since Charity and doing Good