REFLEXION.
This is to Reprchend the Falſe and Covetous Humour of Thoſe that for Mony and Profit, will not Stick at putting Shams even upon God Himſelf; Prophaning his Altars, and Ridiculing his very Omnifcicnce and Power, Here’s the Wickedneſs of a Libertine Naturally enough ſet forth, only the Puniſhment is Wanting that ſhould have Completed the Moral. What Opinion have Theſe Religious Banterers, of the Divine Power and Juſtice; Or what have they to ſay for themſelves in This Audacious Habit of Mockery and Contempt; but that they Believe in their Hearts that there is No God? Not but that more or leſs, we are all Jugglers in Secret betwixt Heaven, and our Own Souls: Only they Cover and Meditate Abuſes under the Maſque and Pretence of Conſcience, and Religion and make God Almighty Privy to a Thouſand Falſe and Cozcning Contrivances, that we keep as the Greateſt Privacies in the World, from the Knowledge of our Neighbours. Nay, when we are Moſt in Earneſt, our Vows and Promiſes are more then Half Broken in the very making of them; and if we can but ſecure our Selves a Retreat, by ſome Cleanly Evaſion, Diſtinction, or Mental Reſervation, it ſerves our Purpoſe e'en as Well as if it were a Caſuiſtical Reſolution. In One Word, we find the Moral of Mercury and the Traveller in the very Secrcts of our Hearts, betwixt Heaven, and our own Souls.
Fab. XCVIII.
A Boy and his Mother.
A School-Boy brought his Mother a Book that he had Stoll'n from One of his Fellows. She was ſo far from Correcting him for’r, that ſhe rather Encourag'e him. As he grew Bigger, he would be ſtill keeping his hand in Ure with ſomewhat of Greater Value, till he came at laſt to be Taken in the Matter, and brought to Juſtice for't. His Mother went along with him to the Place of Execution, Where he got leave of the Officers, to have a Word or Two in Private with her. He put his Mouth to her Ear, and under Pretext of a Whiſper, Bit it Clear off. This Impious Unnatural Villany turn’d Every Bodies Heart againſt him More and More. [Well Good People (ſays the Boy) Here You ſee Me an Example, both upon the Matter of Shame and of Puniſhment; And it is This Mother of mine that has brought me to't; for if ſhe had but Whipt me ſoundly for the Book I ſtole when I was a Boy, I ſhould never have come to the Gallows here now Im a Man.]
The
