Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/153

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rantably Perform; for a Subſequent Promiſe to Connceale the Fox could not Diſcharge him of a Prior Obligation to Deſtroy him. 'Tis true, it would have been more Generous to have don’t at firſt, and while he had as yet No Colour of any Tye of Honour upon him to Preſerve him. The Fox begg’d for Protection, which he had No Reaſon to Expect. Firſt it was upon Force, and Neceſſity, not Choice. Secondly, It was at his own Peril, without any Conditions for his own Security. Thirdly, He Committed himſelf to the Mercy of a Man that was bound ro Kill him. Fourthly, The very Addreſs was ſcandalous; for he muſt needs have an Ill Opinion of the Countryman, ſo much as to Imagine that He could be Wrought upon to Betray his Country for the fake of a Beaſt. But let the Reſt be as it will, there’s no Excuſe for the Woodman's Double Dealing.

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Fab. CV.

A Man and a Wooden God.

A Man that had a Great Veneration for an Image he had in his Houſe, found, that the more he Pray'd to't to Proſper him in the World, the More he went down the Wind ſtill. This put him into ſuch a Rage, to lye Dogging at his Prayers ſo much, and ſo Long, to ſo Little Purpoſe, that at laſt he Daſht the Head on’t to pieces againſt the Wall; and Out comes a Conſiderable Quantity of Gold. Why This 'us, ſays he, to Adore a Perverſe and Inſenſible Deity, that will do More for Blowes than for Worſhip.

The Moral.

Moſt People, Clergy as well as Laity, Accommodate their Religion to their Profit, and reckon that to be the beſt Church that there's moſt to be got by.

REFLEXION.

This Fable runs better in the Humour, then it does in the Moral. It lays before us the Unprofitable Vanity of a Falſe Worſhip, and gives us to Underſland, that the more zealous we are in a Wrong Way, the Worſe. An Idol is an Abomination in the fight both of God, and of Good Men; and yet we are ſo to Govern our Selves, even in the Tranſports of That Abhorrence, as ſtill to Preſerve a Reverence for Religion it ſelf, in the very Indignation we Expreſs for the Corruptions of it. So that the Licenſe of this Buffoon went a little too far perhaps, for there muſt be No Playing with Things Sacred, nor Jeſting, as we ſay, with Edge Tools. We have the Moral of this Abandon’d Libertine up and down the World in a Thouſand Several Shapes. All People that Worſhip for Fear, Profit, or ſome other By End, fall More or Leſs within the Intendment of this Emblem. It is a kind of a Conditional Devotion for Men to be Religious no longer then they can Save, or Get by't. Put forſibly Hand now (ſays the Devil to the Almighty in the Caſeof