Here is a public inftance of one who lived of their fide, but could not die of it: and, though none of all our libertines understood better than he the fecret mysteries of fin, had more ftudied every thing that could fupport a man in it, and had more refifted all external means of conviction than he had done; yet, when the hand of God inwardly touched him, he could no longer kick against thofe pricks, but humbled himself under that mighty hand, and, as he used often to fay in his prayers, he, who had fo often denied him, found then no other shelter but his mercies and compaffions.

I have written this account with all the tendernefs and caution I could ufe, and, in whatfoever I may have failed, I have been ftrict in the truth of what I have related, remembering that of Job, "will ye lie for God?" Religion has ftrength and evidence enough in itself, and needs no fupport from lies and made ftories. I do not pretend to have given the formal words that he said, though I have done that where I could remember them. But I have written this with the fame fincerity that I would have done had I known I had been to die immediately after I had finished it. I did not take notes of our difcourfes laft winter after we parted; fo I may perhaps, in the setting out of my answers to him, have enlarged on feveral things both more fully, and more regularly, than I could say them in

fuch

fuch free difcourfes as we had. I am not so sure of all I fet down, as faid by me, as I am cf all said by him to me; but yet the substance of the greatest part, even of that, is the fame.

It remains, that I humbly and earnestly befeech all that fhall take this book in their hands, that they will confider it entirely, and not wreft fome parts to an ill intention. God, the fearcher of hearts, knows with what fidelity I have writ it: but, if any will drink up only the poifon that may be in it, without taking also the antidote here given to those ill principles; or confidering the sense that this great perfon had of them, when he reflected seriously on them; and will rather confirm themfelves in their ill ways, by the scruples and objections which I fet down, than be edified by the other parts of it; as I will look on it as a great infelicity, that I fhould have faid any that may ftrengthen them in their impieties, fo the fincerity of my intentions will, I doubt not, excufe me at his hands, to whom I offer up this fmail fervice.

I have now performed, in the best manner I could, what was left on me by this noble lord, and have done with the part of an hiftorian. I fhall in the next place fay fomewhat as a divine. So extraordinary a text does almoft force a fermon, though it is plain enough itself, and speaks with fo loud a voice, that those who are not awakened by it will perhaps confider

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confider nothing that I can fay. If our libertines. will become so far fober as to examine their former course of life with that difengagement and impartiality which they must acknowledge a wife man ought to use in things of greatest consequence, and balance the account of what they have got by their debaucheries with the mifchiefs they have brought.. on themselves and others by them, they will foon fee what a bad bargain they have made.. Some diverfion, mirth, and pleasure, is all they can promise themselves; but, to obtain this, how many evils are they to fuffer? How have many wafted their strength, brought many diseases on their bodies, and precipitated their age in the pursuit of those things? And as they bring old age early on themselves, fo it becomes a miserable state of life to the greatest part of them; gouts, ftranguaries, and other infirmities, being fevere reckonings for their paft follies; not to mention the more lothefome difeafes, with their no lefs lothefome and troublefome cures, which they muft often go through, who deliver themfelves up to forbidden pleasures. Many are disfigured befide with the marks of their intemperance and lewdness; and, which is yet fadder, an infection is derived oftentimes on their innocent but unhappy iffue, who, being defcended from fo vitiated an original, fuffer for their exceffes. Their fortunes are profufely wafted, both by their neglect of their affairs, they

being

being fo buried in vice, that they cannot employ either their time or fpirits, so much exhausted by intemperance, to confider them; and by that prodigal expence which their lufts put them upon. They fuffer no less in their credit, the chief mean to recover an entangled eftate; for that irregular expence forces them to so many mean shifts, makes them fo often falfe to all their promifes and refolutions, that they must needs feel how much they have loft that, which a gentleman, and men of ingenuous tempers, do fometimes prefer even to life itself, their honour and reputation. Nor do they fuffer lefs in the nobler powers of their minds, which, by a long course of fuch diffolute practices, come to fink and degenerate fo far, that not a few, whofe first bloffoms gave the most promifing hopes, have fo withered, as to become incapable of great and generous undertakings, and to be difabled to every thing, but to wallow like fwine in the filth of fenfuality, their fpirits being diffipated, and their minds fo benumbed, as to be wholly unfit for business, and even indifpofed to think.

That this dear price fhould be paid for a little wild mirth, or grofs and corporal pleasure, is a thing of fuch unparallelled folly, that, if there were not too many fuch inftances before us, it might feem incredible. To all this we must add, the horrors that their ill actions raise in them, and the hard fhifts

they are put to to ftave off these, either by being perpetually drunk or mad, or by an habitual difufe of thinking and reflecting on their actions, and (if thefe arts will not perfectly quiet them) by taking fanctuary in fuch atheistical principles as may at leaft mitigate the fourness of their thoughts, though they cannot abfolutely fettle their minds.

If the state of mankind and human focieties is confidered, what mischiefs can be equal to those which follow these courses? Such perfons are a plague where-ever they come; they can neither be trusted nor beloved, having caft off both truth and goodness, which procure confidence and attract love; they corrupt fome by their ill practices, and do irreparable injuries to the reft; they run great hazards, and put themfelves to much trouble, and all this to do what is in their power to make damnation as fure to themfelves as poffibly they can. What influence this has on the whole nation is but too vifible; how the bonds of nature, wedlock, and all other relations, are quite broken: virtue is thought an antique piece of formality, and religion the effect of cowardice or knavery. These are the men that would reform the world, by bringing it under a new system of intellectual and moral principles; but, bate them a few bold and lewd jefts, what have they ever done, or defigned to do, to make them to be remembered, except it be with detefta

tion?