SERM. impatience and revenge, are not only a difturbance. CLXII. to ourselves, but they naturally draw upon us hatred and contempt from others. Any one of these paffions is enough to render a man uneafy to himself, and to make his converfation difguftful and troublesom to all that are about him; for all men naturally hate all thofe, who are of an envious, or malicious or revengeful temper, and are apt to rife up and ftand upon their guard against them. Anger and impatience are great deformities of the mind, and make a man look as ugly, as if he had a wry and diftorted countenance; and thefe paffions are apt to breed in others a fecret contempt of us, and to bring our prudence into queftion, because they are figns of a weak and impotent mind, that either hath loft, or never had the government of itself.

There are other vices, which are plainly pernicious to our health, and do naturally bring pains and difeafes upon men; fuch are intemperance and luft: and though fome may pretend to govern themselves, in the practice of thefe, with fo much moderation and difcretion, as to prevent the notorious bad confequences of them, yet there are very few or none that do fo; this is feldom more than a fpeculation, and men that allow themfelves in any lewd or intemperate courfe, will find it very hard to govern themfelves in it; for after men have forfeited their innocence, and broke in upon their natural modefty, they are apt by degrees to grow profligate and defperate. If a man gives way but little to his own vicious inclinations, they will foon get head of him, and no man knows how far they will hurry him at laft.

Befides, that the vices I am fpeaking of, intemperance and luft, have other great inconveniencies attending them, they expofe men more frequently,

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than most other vices, to occafions of quarrel, in SERM. which men often lofe their own lives, or take away other mens, by which they fall under the danger of the law, and the ftroke of publick juftice; or if they escape that, (as too often they do) they cannot fly from their own confciences, which do commonly fill them with the horror and torment of fuch an action all their days; fo pernicious are the ufual confequences of thefe vices, of which we fee fad instances every day.

Nor are thefe vices lefs hurtful to mens eftates; for they are extremely expensive and wasteful, and ufually make men careless of all their business and concernments liable to be cheated by thofe, whom they are forced to trust with their affairs, because they will not mind them themselves, and to be abused by crafty men, who watch the opportunities of their folly and weakness, to draw them into foolish bargains. It is an old obfervation, that more men perifh by intemperance, than by the fword; and I believe it is as true, that more eftates are diffipated and wafted by these two riotous vices, than by all other accidents whatsoever.

And there is fcarce any notorious vice, by which men do not greatly fuffer in their reputation and good name, even when the times are worst and most degenerate; any wicked courfe, whether of debauchery or injuftice, is a blemish to a man's credit, not only in the esteem of the fober and virtuous, but even of those who are loofe and extravagant; for men are fooner brought to practife what is bad, than to approve of it, and do generally think all fin and wickedness to be a stain upon them, whatever in a swaggering humour they may say to the contrary. A clear evidence of this is, that men do fo ftudioufly enG 3

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SER M. deavour to conceal their vices, and are so careful that CLXII. as few as may be fhould be confcious to them, and are

fo confounded if they be discovered, and so out of all patience when they are upbraided with them; a plain acknowledgment, that these things are fhameful in themselves, and whatever face men may put upon things, that they do inwardly and at the bottom of their hearts believe, that these practices are defervedly of bad reputation, and do, in the general opinion of mankind, leave a blot upon them.

Secondly, There are other fins, which though they are not ufually attended with confequences fo palpably mischievous, yet are plainly unprofitable, and bring no manner of advantage to men.

Of this fort is all kind of profaneness, and cuftomary fwearing in common converfation, there is neither profit nor pleasure in them. What doth the profane man get by his contempt of religion? He is neither more refpected nor better trufted for this quality; but on the contrary, it is many times really to his prejudice, and brings a great odium upon him, not only from those who fincerely love religion, but from others alfo; though they are conscious to themfelves, that they do not love religion as they ought, yet they have a veneration for it, and cannot endure that any one should fpeak flightly of it.

And it is as hard to imagine, where the pleafure of profanenefs lies. Men cannot but at first have a great reluctancy in their minds against it, and must offer confiderable violence to themfelves, to bring themselves to it; and when it is grown more familiar, and their confciences are become more feared and infenfible, yet whenever they are alone and ferious, or when any affliction or calamity is upon them, they are full of fears and anguish, their guilt

ftares

ftares them in the face, and their confciences are ra- SER M. ging and furious.

And as all kind of profanenefs is unprofitable, fo more especially cuftomary fwearing in ordinary converfation, upon every occafion of paffion, or any other trivial cause, nay it may be without caufe, out of mere habit and cuftom. Now what can poffibly be imagined to be the profit or pleasure of this vice? fenfual pleasure in it there can be none, because it is not founded in the temper of the body: a man may be naturally prone to anger or luft; but no man I think is born with a fwearing conftitution.

And there is as little profit as pleasure in it; for the common and trivial ufe of oaths makes them perfectly infignificant to their end, and is fo far from giving credit to a man's word, that it rather weakens the reputation of it.

Thirdly, Thofe vices which pretend to be of advantage to us, when all accounts are caft up, and all circumstances duly confidered, will be found to be quite otherwife. Some vices pretend to bring in profit, others to yield pleasure; but upon a thorough examination of the matter, thefe pretences will vanish and come to nothing.

The vices which pretend to be most profitable are covetousness and oppreffion, fraud and falfhood, and perfidiousness: but if we look well into them, we fhall find that either they do not bring the advantages they pretend to bring; or that the inconveniences which attend them are as great or greater, than the advantages they bring; or else that the practice of the oppofite virtues would be of much greater advantage to us.

1. Some of these vices do not bring the advantages they pretend to do. Covetoufness may increase a man's

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SERM. man's estate, but it adds nothing to his happiness CLXII. and contentment; for though his eftate grow never

fo much, his want is ftill as great as it was before, and his care and trouble continually greater; fo that fo long as he continues covetous, the more rich, the lefs happy.

And then for fraud and falfhood; they are not of that real and lafting advantage, that cunning but fhort-fighted men are apt to imagine. Nothing is truer than that of Solomon, "the lying tongue is but "for a moment." A man can practise the arts of falfhood and deceit but for a little while, before they will be difcovered; and when they are difcovered, they are fo far from being any advantage to him, that they turn to his prejudice, and the cunning man begins to be in a bad cafe, and he that was wont to over-reach others, is at laft caught himself.

2. Several of thefe vices are attended with inconveniencies, as great or greater than the advantages they bring. If a man increase his eftate by injustice and oppreffion, yet he lofeth his reputation. Befides that all fraudulent and unjuft courfes are apt to entangle a man in a great many inconveniencies, and to expofe him to troublefom fuits, for the keeping of what he hath unjustly gotten; it is very often feen, that what is gotten by injuftice is fpent in law; and though it may be thofe whom he hath wronged never recover their right, yet firft or laft the unjust man is put to more trouble and vexation about it, than the thing is worth. This Solomon obferves, Prov, XV. 16. In the revenue of the wicked there is "trouble."

The perfidious man by betraying a friend or a truft, may perhaps make fome present advantage: but then by fuch a villainy he makes himself odious

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