Lufts? But thefe are but one Sect of the Men of Pleasure, that have found out an odd Way of enjoying it peculiar to themselves.

Others there are, that pretend to be more reasonable in their Vices, that have fome care to escape downright Infamy and have fome regard to their Fortunes, their Bodies, and their Health; that are cautious enough in the Enjoyment of their Senfual Delights, to Sin fo to Day, as they may Sin to Morrow; and fo carefully manage their Vices, that the excess of One may not make 'em Unfit for Another. Mirth and gay Company and Wit and Wine and all the fresh Varieties of Luxury and Luft, make their Days fly delightfully away, and teach 'em to laugh at, and defpife thofe Phlegmatick and heavy Slaves, as they are pleas'd to term them, that live by any Rule but Pleasure. These fure, if any, have some Fruit in Sin; These sure are the Men, who, whatever the End of their Journey be, yet travel it on very joyfully, and are in a most pleasant Road. But how wretchedly may we be deceiv'd in the outward Shew of things? If the Guilt, that infeparably sticks to these fenfual Riotings, could poffibly be abstracted from them, yet how little of true Satisfaction there is to be found in all this Noife and Appearance of Delight and Happiness, let the Wife Man convince

convince us, who had made Trial of all the different Ways of Pleafure, to fee what wasGood for the Sons of Men; who, as he himself tells us, had given himself to Wine, and Mirth, and Laughter, and whatfoever his Eyes defir'd, kept it not from them, nor withheld his Heart from any Joy; who wanted neither Riches to buy, nor Power to command, nor Wit to invent, nor Vigour to pursue, nor Appetite to relifh new Enjoyments, nor Wifdom at laft to give a true Judgment of the Real Value of them all. And he has given in One Word his final Determination, that they are all Vanity. And,as he himself asks the question, what can the Man do that comes after the King? after This King, certainly not fo much as immediately follows in the answer, Even that which was done before. But alas! all the Pleasures of Sin are not only Vanity, but Vexation of Spirit too; and this those very gay Humour'd Men, even in the height of all their Jollity, if they durft confefs it, muft needs often feel and experience. In the very Heat and Extravagance of Mirth, as Lucretius obferves, furgit amari aliquid, some bitter intruding Thought of Death, or Eternity, will be preffing for Admittance; and it is very difficult fo quite to have ftifled and overcome Confcience, as not to be forc'd to hear of her Importunities, even at times when Men may think her a little unseasonable.

feasonable: This,tho' difguis'd well enough and carry'd offin Company, yet ftill ftings within, and even in the midst of Laughter the Heart is Sorrowful. For we should be very grofsly mistaken, if we should conclude, that all thofe that feem to us fo Sprightly and Free, fo full of Mirth and unacquainted with Care, are the moft Happy Men, and Easy within themselves. Nay, it often happens, which is the greateft Misfortune can befall a Man, that all this extraordinary Jollity, and reputed good Humour, is but only the laft Refuge from the Unquietness of thofe Thoughts, that they are fo afraid to meet and converfe with at Home in their own Bofom. And if one of these Men would but venture to grow once cool and confider, if he would but dare to come to himself, he would then own, how weary he has often been of that which he was forc'd to call Pleasure, because forc'd to repeat it in his own defence; what wretched Shifts he has been put to, to invent new Devices for fpending the Time, when all the Old ones have been worn out, and loft their relish; how foon the new Pleasure cloy'd, and the old was taken up again; and in what a giddy Circle he has been driven round, and hurry'd blindfold by thofe Tyrannous Vices, that us'd him as III, as the Philistines did Samfon, when they put out his Eyes and

made

made him Grind. Then he would afcribe all, that in his long fit of Debauchery he mistook in earnest for Pleasure, to his Heat and Phrenzy, not his Judgment; and be convinc'd, that a mad Man may be as much pleas'd with his Difeafe, as the most Voluptuous Epicure with his Senfual Delights; which are as really Diseases, tho' of another Name, but more destructive Nature.

If therefore these Sins, that gratify the Senfe, that pretend & promise fo much Satisfaction, and are embrac'd by the generality of Mankind with so much Eagerness and Affection, prove lo void of all true Joy; nay more, fo full of Trouble and Difquiet; if the choicest and most sweet of them fatiate and clog in the very enjoyment, and convince us that the chiefeft pleasure of 'em was more in the Expectation and Defire than in the Poffeffion; if thefe acquit themfelves fo ill of their promis'd Delight, what is to be expected from those Sins of a more malicious and unquiet Nature? from Envy and Revenge, from Hatred and Anger and all thofe violent Distracters of the Mind, that are fo far from having any fhew of Pleasure or Satisfaction in them, that as they come nearest to the Nature of the Devil and Wicked Spirits, fo,like them, they are their own Tormenters too? How troublefom to itself, as well as to all others, is

Pride? How restless Ambition? how im patient to obtain that Honour, which obtain'd makes it ftill more uneafy than before? and how painful and laborious is Covetoufnefs, to heap together wherewithal to Starve? To commit any of thefe, one would think there fhould not be so much as a pretence to any Charm or Enticement; and in truth how ftrong and prevalent foever their Temptations may be, whatever unaccountable Pleasure, whatever fecret Fruit, they, who are miserably engag'd in the guilt of them,may at that prefent enjoy; yet whenever they come ferioufly to con Gider, and caft up their Accounts, they will be amaz'd with wonder, how they could have been fo deluded; and will have reafon to expoftulate with themselves, What fruit had We, even then, in those things, whereof we are now afham'd?

Which brings me to my 2d Propofition,

II. That Sin, let it afford what Fruit or Delight foever, is in its own Nature Shameful and Bafe.

1, In that it defaces in us the Image of God, in which we were created, and for the fake of which alone we were invested with Power and Dominion over the rest of the Creation; which alone ennobled us K

and