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REMARKS.

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OOD and Evil make up the of Man which, in Truth, ther Names for Virtue and Vice. Academicks were pleas'd to place the fovereign Good of humane Life in a profound Tranquillity of the Soul. Riches, as Pythagoras faid, are no fure Pillars of Felicity; Beauty is no true Supporter of it; and Glory is but a weak, fandy or uncertain Foundation for fo fair a Structure, fo folid a Fabrick, fo noble a Building. But we must fearch the Holy Scriptures to give us a clearer Light into that Distinction, and grant us a more perfect Knowledge of Good and Evil in our true Idea's of Things. Since our firft Parents did unadvisedly eat of the forbidden Fruit of that Tree in the Garden, their Children's Teeth were fet on-edge; and we all became original Sinners by their Fall, ftanding in need ftill of a future Redemption, or a farther Regeneration. God himself is the fupreme Good of the World; the moft fovereign, permanent and eternal Felicity which neither the Eye hath yet feen, nor the Ear heard, nor the Heart of Man ever rightly conceiv'd. The only Way to attain to this Happiness, is by accomplish'd Virtue and Holiness of this Life, in Hopes of a better or a more bleffed State of Immortality. Religion is the Life and Soul of all moral Virtues, and raifes them to a higher Pitch of Glory, far above Humanity. Democritus calls Virtue, the Joy of a Man's Heart. Thales fays, it is the most profitable Thing in the World. Cicero proves it to be

a felf-fufficient Happiness, both as to the Art of Living and Dying well. In a Word, it ought to be reckon'd the Summum bonum of this Life among Chriftians, as well as Heathen Philofophers. Common Reafon tells us, we ought to follow after Good, and fly from Evil. It is the very Voice of Nature, to embrace the one, and avoid the other. It is a Light in our own Breafts, that difcovers all the furprizing Snares and Ambufcades of the Latter, as well as it difplays all the glorious Retreats, Safeties and Securities of the Former. But as he that is ignorant of Goodness, cannot love what he does not know; fo he that does not know Evil in all its artful, Habits, ugly Shapes, and odious Colours, can never heartily hate it fufficiently. Evil always wears a Mask, and feldom or never appears Barefac'd. Pull off the Vizard, and you'll find underneath the deformed Hag. Not but that Evil, in its own Nature, is Male too as well Female; and involves all Mankind. It does not diftinguish between Sexes. For as Virtue is the only true Good of the Soul in all Perfons; fo Vice is the greatest Evil by the Truth of Contrarieties, to fhew its Falfhood. The Deformity of the one is as loathfom, as the other is lovely and charming. Set the Black and the White together, they fhew themselves a great deal better in a true Light; and fee which is hand fomer. This is an Angel; That, a Fiend and a Fury. As the one is the Health and Vigour of the Soul, according to divine Plato; fo the other is the Sickness and Imbecillity of the Mind. The Former is freeborn and ingenuous, at Liberty as much as the Air: the Latter is a Slave by Inheri

tance;

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tance; and led Captive by Senfuality, as it were in Triumph, under the Yoke of Sin and Satan. This is the Fountain of all Miferies; and That, the Source of all Bleffings. Evil is a pernicious Hydra with many Heads; and requires a valiant Hercules, a Christian Champion, to destroy the Monster. It produces the fame Effect in the Soul, as the Dropfy does in the Body: fwells it into nothing, or Perdition, which is worfe than nothing. Il Habits plant in Man a continual Thirft, or Defire of that which breeds his greateft Bane, and fooneft difpatches his Deftruction. Vice raises a Kind of a civil War of ill Manners in the Mind; which proceeds from a Man's natural Inclination, to private Paffions and fecret Defires of Luft: and it breaks out at laft into open Rebellion against Reason. lifts all Vagrants or Volunteers into its Service against Virtue: And the Confpiracy ftops at nothing of Ambition or Covetoufnefs; of Pleasure, Lechery or Voluptuoufness; of Hatred, Rancour, Enmity, Revenge, Ruin, Murder, or Malicioufnefs. Infomuch that Chryfippus, the Stoick, calls this Evil the proper Effence of Unhappiness and Plato makes it (as it were) the grand Parent, either Father or Mother, of an infinite and endless Race of Revolutioners in Sin, or Multipliers of Mifchiefs, Miferics and Misfortunes in the World. It begets a Generation of Vipers and Villains. It often destroys Monarchies, fubverts Ariftocracies, and overthrows Common-Wealths. Indeed Vice goes a great Way fometimes, to the Chopping and Changing of the whole Univerfe. How many great Princes have frequently loft their Kingdoms by it; and have forfeited

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their Honour and Eftates both at once: Rehoboam, through Want of Prudence, Conduct and good Counfel; Sardanapalus, through Luxurioufnefs or Effeminacy; Perfes of Macedonia, through Rafhnefs or Temerity; to reckon-up no more Examples, of the many of this Kind': All undone by their own Viciousness. 'Tis, in fhort, the greate ft King's Evil in the World. For Vice in Authority is the worst of all Evils. It uncrowns the Head of a King, and unmans his Miniftry. It is most pernicious, and of dangerous Confequence, either on the Throne or in the Chair. It often turns Love into Adultery, Affection into Execution, Equity into Oppreffion, Juftice into Maffacre of Perfons, and Covetoufnefs into Confifcation of Eftates. The mightier Sort of these State-Sin ners may efcape Anacharfis's Reproach of great Flies breaking through the Spider's Web; but not avoid God's Punishment and Vengeance. It is true, they may think them felves fecure by their fecular Mightinefs and fupreme Power. But the deferring of Punishment may prove only an Aggravation of the Weight on't. A Reprieve is no Pardon; and the longest Delay does not always fave Life. They can plead neither Law nor Cuftom; Precedent nor Fashion, at a higher Tribunal. Confcience has a Thoufand Gibbets as well as Witneffes. They cannot but remember Efai's Worm, Belfhazzar's Hand-Writing, Ptolemy's Torments, Caligulas Terrors, and Nero's Furies with their flaming Torches. But the little Sinners and petit Criminals alfo, will fare no better neither; as the Scripture affures us in Levit. Chap. xxvi. to the End, that the Wicked fhall faint and tremble at the Fall of a Leaf of a Tree; the

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Sound of a fhaken Leaf fhall chase them away; and they fhall flee from the Sword, as if their Life was at Stake, or hung by a Thread, without any Purfuit of their Enemies. However, fuch harden'd Wretches and habitual Evil-Doers, will always be labouring to make others as bad as themselves, or worse, if poffible. It is the very Nature and Property of Wickedness to fpread the Plague. They diffufe their Infection to catch the Country. They fcatter Mischief, delight in War, and ftudy Blood-fhed. Lord! Lead not the Good into their Temptation; but deliver them from

that Evil!

BUT to return to our Text: A virtuous King and Queen are the happiest Couple in the World. Nothing can part fuch a loving Husband and fo indearing a Wife, but Death; and then the dearest Friends muft feparate. They know nothing of any Temporal or Spiritual Divorcement, but only by Mortality, the common Law of Nature. There is a Debt due, and they are always contending who fhall pay it firft; though to the others great Grief and Diffatisfaction for the Lofs of the Deceas'd. But what must be must bes by inevitable Neceffity; with an abfolute Refignation, and without repining at divine Providence for over-ruling our imprudent Wills, or indiscreet Wishes. However, their happy Strife is not fo much to outlive one another, or to die before each other, as to do one another all the mutual good Offices of Kindnefs they can, during their natural Lives. Arria, the chaft Arria, was a famous Example of the Force of conjugal Affection in the Roman History, excellently exprefs'd and epigrammatiz'd

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