SECT. V.

Of Piety.

1. LASTLY, To compleat and crown all other
Excellencies, nothing is so proper, so
necessary as Piety and Devotion. This is the
salt which seasons all Sacrifices; yea, the Altar
which sanctifies the Gift, no good (how splendid
soever in the sight of man) being acceptable to
God, till it be thus concentrated; & have this seal
of the Sanctuary upon it. This is a Vertu truly
Divine, as well in its original as its end; for as
it comes from Heaven, (is an afflation of the
blessed Spirit) so it tends thither also, and thither
raises its Votaries. This is it which sublimates
and spiritualizes Humanity, defecates and
refines it from all the dregs of mortality, and so
wings our earthly lumpish nature, that we can
soar aloft to the region of Spirits, and by its raptures
make som essay of that state of separation,
even while we are linked to the body. This is it
which combines us so with God, that we have the
same interests, the same choices; nay it does in a
fort communicate and enterchange properties
with him; the all Powerful God seems impotent
and unable to resist its influence, whilst it invests
us feeble wretches in a kind of Omnipotence, by
engaging him for us who can do all things.

1. NOW this Piety may be considered either
in a larger, or more limited sense: in the former
'tis as wide as the whole scheme of Duty, not confined
to any one act, but extended to all the commands
of God. For as the animal Spirit diffuses
its self into all the most distant members of the
body; so this more vital Principle has as universal
an influence on the mind, stamps that with
such an admiration and reverence of God, such a
love and complacency in him, that every act is (at
least habitually) design'd to obey and glorifie
him.
3. IN the more limited sense, Piety is taken
for our more immediate entercourse with God, in
things purely divine, as Adorations, Praiers,
Aspirations, and all pantings and breathings of
the soul after him; and in this notion 'tis more
particularly called Devotion. And this is comprehended
in the other, as a part in the whole;
nay indeed, as and effect in its cause; for where
Piety has not first formed and modelled the soul,
ther can be no true Devotion. External forms
of it there may be, but that is but ceremony and
pageantry, the most submissive protestations are
there but like that of Dagon before the Ark, the
fall of the liveless trunk; the most elevated eyes
but a kind convulsive motion; and the most
rigid mortifications, but like the cuttings and
launcings of Baal's Priest. Of this the very
Heathen had som notion, and therefore in their
worships had many preparatory ceremonies of

lustration, and purifying, as being conscious of
the incongruity, that holy Persons should be admitted
to Sacred things. And accordingly Socrates
has excellently (I had almost said Evangelically)
defined, the best way of worshipping God, to
be the doing what he commands. Indeed without
this, our devotion is meer stratagem and design:
we invoke God as we use to cajole men, only to
serve a present turn; and of such disingenious
addresses, 'tis easy to read the event, or it we cannot,
Solomon will instruct us, Prov. 15. 8. The
Praiers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.
4. To treat of the several branches of Piety
in the first notion, is not agreable to the intended
brevity of this Treatise; nor necessary,
because there are so many distinct Tracts extant
on that Subject; yet I shall the more closely to
adapt it to my female Readers, observe the
propriety of it to women, not only as it is their
greatest ornament and advantage, but especially
as they have somwhat more of predisposition towards
it in their native temper. God's Laws,
which are the rule of Piety, have this common
with mens, that they are inforced upon us by the
proposals both of punishments and rewards, by
that means engaging two of our most sensible
passions, Fear and Love; and the female Sex being
eminent for the pungency of both these, they
are consequently the better prepared for the impressions
of Religion.

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5. THIS is so much acknowledged, that our
masculine Atheists make an ill use of it, and are
willing to think that Religion owes its force only
to the impotence of the subject on which it
works, that 'tis only an imposition upon the easy
credulity of women, and are content to allow
them the inclosure of it; wherein, tho they sufficiently
shew their contempt of Piety, yet they
unawares give a greater honor to that Sex then
they intend, whilst they confess it more capable
of an assimilation to the supreme Goodness, and
of the renewal of God's Image (for to that all
Piety is design'd) then their own. And therefore
women have so little reason to be ashamed, that
they ought to glory in the concession, and gratefully
to celebrate the goodness of God to them,
who, as he brings light out of darkness, so converts
their natural infirmities into a means of spiritual
strength, makes the impotencies and defects
of their nature subservient to the operation
of Grace; and by consecrating their very Passions,
makes even those Gibeonites serviceable
to the Tabernacle. But then 'tis to be remembred,
that the greater is their obligation to
comply with this design of Gods, to let their passions
run in the channel he has cut for them; so to
confine, their Fear and Love to spiritual Objects,
that they make no inordinate eruptions to any
thing else, but in all their estimations of things
dreadful or desireable, to give still the just deference
to that which is eternal.

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6. AND, as a Woman in General have this advantage
towards Piety, and obligation to it; so
particularly those of Quality, who we may suppose
to have generally a more early institution and
instruction in it then those of a meaner rank: and
besides, have afterwards more opportunities of
being built up in the knowledg of their duty,
and (by the help of an ingenious education)
clearer apprehensions to discern it; and when
they do so, have greater obligations to perform
it, both in respect of God, of others, and themselves.
7. IN respect of God they have the greatest
tie of gratiture, not only for the common mercies
which they partake with the rest of mankind,
but for those peculiar, by which they are
differenced from others; of which, if they want
a just valu, let them ask themselves how willing
they would be to part with them, how she that
has fed delicately, would like to be desolate in the
street, or she that has bin brought up in Scarlet, to
embrace the Dunghill, Lam. 4. 5. and according
to the aversion they find to such a change, let
them estimate their present enjoiment, and the
thankfulness it exacts.
8 Secondly, in regard of others, their Piety
backt with their secular advantages, may be of a
more extensive benefit; they have many opportunities
of doing good by their influence on others;
or if no way else, yet the splendor of their
example, will by the eminency of their conditions

shine (as a light on som high Tower) more perspicuously,
and guide many into the same path of
Vertu. And certainly 'tis no small obligation
that lies on them in this respect; for God, who
does nothing without an end worthy of his wisdom,
can never be thought to have selected som
persons as the objects of his bounty, meerly that
they may swill and glut themselves with sensual
plesures. No doubtless, he who is the great Master
of the Universe, disposes all things for common
benfit and therefore, if He have placed
some in an higher Orb then others, it is that they
may have an auspicious influence on those below
them; and if they fail in this, they are no longer
Stars but Comets, things of ominous and unlucky
abode to all about them. I might enlarge on this
Subject, but having don it already in the Gentelmans
Calling, I suppose it unnecessary, since that part is
equally adapted to both Sexes.
9. IN the last place, they have all obligation to
Piety, in respect of themselves, and that in two
considerations; the first, of their present danger;
the second, of their final account. For
their danger, 'tis evident they do not more outnumber
their inferiors in any thing then in the
opportunites, nay sollicitations to sin. Wealth
and Honor have many snares, and which is worse,
do often dispose then mind to such an heedless security,
that it takes no dare to avoid them: and
as in the body, the diseases of repletion are far
more numerous then those of emtiness, so the

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mind is oftner vitiated by affluence and prosperity,
then by indigence and adversity. It becomes
therefore those who are so surrounded with enemies
to fortifie themselves: and that they can no
way do, but by a sincere Piety, that whole Armor
of God which the Apostle describes, Eph. 6. 13.
by which alone they may repel all the darts of temtations;
nay not only ward the blow, but wrest the
weapon out of Satans hand, so that when he urges
to them the opportunities, the impunity which their wealth and greatness gives them to be bad,
thy may retort his Argument, & by a wholsomer
inference collect thence their great obligation to
be good, and that no only upon the score of gratitude
(tho that were enough to an ingenious
soul) but in the second place of interest also, in
respect of that account they must finally give.
For tho God be not an unjust exactor to reap
where he has not sowed, yet he is not so negligently
profuse, as to do that which no prudent
man will do, scatter his goods promiscuously,
without taking notice where they fall; but as he
dispences all things by a particular providence, so
he does it to a particular end, and will exact as
particular an account how that end has bin complied
with.
10. IT is a smart exprobration of Gods to
Israel, Ezek. 16, 17, 18, 19. that she had sacrilegiously
emploied his silver and gold, his oil, his
flower and honey which he had given her in the service
of her Idols, by which as we may see he takes

notice how we dispose of out temporal possessions,
so it shews us how the enditement will proceed
against all those who so pervert their use. With
what confusion must they appear at the great Audit
who can give no other account of their receits,
but that they consumed them upon their
lusts, waged war against God with his own tresure,
and bin as well thieves as rebels? What a Luciferian
fall will they have from their honors, who
have endevored to undermine Gods? thought
themselves too great to pay him homage, and by
their prophane and vicious example, induced a
contemt of him? In short what a retaliation of
inversions will there then be? those that have turned
Gods grace into wantonness, converted his
bounty into the fuel of their pride and luxury,
shall then have their glory turn'd into shame, their
riots and excesses into the want of a drop of water,
and shall retain nothing of their greatness, but
the guilt. the grating remembrance of having abused
those temporal blessings, which if well managed
might have received them into everlasting
habitations. How necessary then is it for all who
have receiv'd so much upon account, to be often
reflecting on it, examining what changes the great
owner has imposed upon so ample an income?
what God requires of them for whom he hath don
so much? And this is particularly the business of
Piety, which in all the forementioned respects, is
as the usefullest, so the noblest accomplishment of
greatness.

11 AND such it hath bin accounted till this prophane
Age of ours, which has removed all the
boundaries of the former, reverst even the instincts
of nature, and will not leave us so much of
Religion as had the very worst of Heathens. For
how erroneous soever theywere in the choice of
their Deities, they alwaies honored and reverenc'd
those they chose, committed most of their
enormities in obedience not in affront to them:
did not assign them votaries of Jeroboam did his
Priests of the meanest of the people, but thought
themselves dignified by their service, and esteemed
it an infamy not to be pious. But alas now we
adaies make other estimates, Religion is so abject
so contemtible a thing, as is thought fit to influence
none that are great either in parts of quality:
and therefore tho too many are willing to
appropriate to women, upon the first account,
as the Gospel is the foolishness of preaching, 1 Cor.
1. 21. yet they make exceptions upon the latter,
and are not willing to afford it any of the nobler
Proselites even of that Sex.
12. I doubt not there are many Lectures read
to such, to fortifie them against all impressions of
piety, to raise out the common notion of a God, &
in order to that to despose his Vicegerent within
them, discard their conscience, that unmannerly
inmate, which is still speaking what they
have no mind to hear, and will be apt somtimes to
question their grand principle, and tell them they
have souls. And truly 'tis no wonder if the abetters
of Atheism take this course; for since they
have no solid foundation of truth or reason, 'tis
but necessary they support their Party by Autority,
the countenance and applause of Great Persons,
and God knows they have too much succeeded
in the design. But, in the mean time, what security
do they give for the truth of their pretensions?
We know 'tis still required of those
that will practice upon other peoples concerns,
that they put in caution to secure the owner from
damage. But alas, what gage can they give for
a soul? Who can contrive a form of Indemnity
where that is the thing hazarded.
13. 'Tis easy indeed for one of these Apostles
of Sathan, to tell a Lady that she has nothing to
do but to indulge to her plesure; that 'tis the
extremest folly to be frighted from a present enjoiment,
by a fear I know not what future
smart; that God, and Sin, and Hell, are but names,
certain Mormos and Bug-bears conjur'd up by
Divines, to work upon her fear, and abuse her
credulity. This and much more of this kind
may be said, and I doubt often is; but all this
while the question is begg'd, and a strong
affirmation must pass for proof: for I defie
all the Doctors of Atheism to make any demonstration
of their Tenet; and yet, though
they pretend to no Demonstration themselves,
Religion must be condemned meerly for

the want of it: that is for not making spiritual
things liable to sense, for distinguishing between
belief and science; which is indeed for doing the
most reasonable thing in the world, viz. The remitting
every object to the trial of its proper faculty:
and they who suspect it on that account,
may by the same kind of Logic wrangle us out of
all our senses, may perswade us we hear nothing
because the eye discerns not sounds, that we tast
not, because the ear understands no gusts and sapors,
and so on to the rest.
14. AND yet this is the bottom of those Arguments
which the great pretenders to Reason
make against Religion, and in the mean time have
so little ingenuity as to exclaim on the light credulity
of fools and women, that embrace the dictates
of faith, whilst the same instant they exact
a more implicit assent to their negative Articles,
their no Religion. A strange magisterial confidence
so to impose on this Age, what is so universally
contradictory to all former, and to the common
verdict of man-kind. For 'tis observable
through all the successions of men, that there were
never any society, any collective body of Atheists;
a single one perhaps might here and there be
found (as we sometimes see monsters or mishapen
births) but for the generality they had alwaies
such instincts of a Deity, that they never thought
they ran far enough from Atheism; but rather
chose to multiply their Gods, to have too many

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then none at all: nay were apt to descend to the
adoration of things below themselves, rather then
to renounce the power above them. By which we
may see that the notion of a God is the most indelible
character of natural reason, and therefore
what ever pretence our Atheists make to ratiocination
and deep discourse, it is none of that primitive
fundamental reason coetaneous with our humanity;
but is indeed a reason fit only for those
who own themselves like the beasts that perish.
15. BUT admit we could be more bountiful
to them, and allow their opinion an equal probability
with our Faith, yet even this could never
justifie any body in point of prudence, that should
adhere to them. Common discretion teaches us
that where two propositions have an equal appearance
of truth, there is no rational inducement
to prefer one before the other, till we have
examined the consequences, and find something in the
one which may over-poise and outweigh the contrary.
Now in all things that concern practice,
there are no motives so considerable, either to invite
or avert, as advanatage or danger.
16. LET us apply this to the present case, and
examine the pretensions of the Atheist and the
Christian in both respects. But first we are to remember,
that both advantage and danger are to be
viewed under a double notion, either as present
or as future. The former is the Atheists most proper
subject; and indeed all that he can pertinently

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speak to, who professes himself only a man of this
world. Here he will tell us that the disbelief of God
and another life, is the great enfranchiser of mankind,
sets us at liberty from that thraldom, those
Bonds wherewith our superstitious fears had fetter'd
us, that is supersedes all those nice and perplexing
inquiries of lawful and unlawful, and
reduces all our inquisitions only to this one, how
we shall most please our selves. The glutton need
not put a knife to his throat, but is only to put an
edg upon his palate. The drunkard need not refrain
his cups, but only take care that they be filled
with the most delicious liquor. The wanton
need not pull out his eye, but only contrive to
possess what that tempts him to desire; and in a
word none of our appetites need be restrain'd,
but satisfied. And this uncontrol'd licentiousness,
this brutish liberty, is that summum bonum, that
supreme happiness which they propose to themselves,
and to which they invite others.
17. ON the other side the Christian is not
without his claim to a present advantage, tho of a
far differing nature: he is not so preposterous as
to think it a preferment to sink below his kind;
to aspire to an assimulation with meer animals,
which is the utmost the former amounts to, but he
proposes to himself the satisfaction of a man;
those delights which may entertain his reason, not
his sense, which consist in the rectitude of a well
inform'd mind. His Religion is the perfectest
Scheme of Morality, and makes him a Philosopher

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without the help of the Schools, it teaches
him the art of subduing his appetites, calming his
passions, and in a word makes him Lord of himself;
and by that gives him all the plesures which
result from such a soveraignty. Nor is he totally
void even of the pleasures of sense, which in many
instances are greater to him then to those that
most court them. Temperance cooks his coursest
diet to a great gust, then all their studied mixtures;
chastity makes one lawful embrace more
grateful to him, then all the nauseating variety of
their unbounded lusts; and contentment swells
his mite into a talent, makes him richer then the
Indies would do if he desired beyond them. Nor
is it a contemtible benefit that his moderation
gives him an immunity from those sensitive pains
which oft bring up the rear of inordinate sensual
plesures. So that his Condition even set in the worst
light in that very particular wherein the Atheist
most triumphs over him, is not so deplorable as
'tis represented.
18. BUT if it were, he has plesures that would
infinitly overwhelm that smart, and that not only
in his reason (as hath bin said before), but in his
more sublime diviner part, such irradiations from
above, such antepasts of his future bliss, such acquiescence
in a calm & serene conscience, as is very
cheaply bought with all he can suffer here. I know
the profane laugh at these things as Chimera's and
the illusions of a prepossessed fancy (& truly if they
were so, they might yet come in balance with many

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of their plesures which are as much owing to opinion
and imagination:) but if we consider what
supports they have given under the heaviest pressures,
how they enabled the primitive Martyrs,
not only to suffer, but even to court all that is formidable
to humane nature, we cannot think that
a meer phantastic imaginary joy could deceive
the sense of such real, such acute torments. And
tho in this great declination of zeal, there be
perhaps few that can pretend to those higher degrees
of spiritual raptures, yet certainly were the
votes of all devout persons collected, they would
all concur in this testimony, that even in the common
Offices of Piety, the ordinary discharge of a
good conscience, there is an infinitely greater complacence,
a higher gust and relish then in all the
plesures of sense. But of this the most irrefragable
witnesses are those who from great voluptuaries
have turned devotes, and I dare appeal to
their experience, whether of the two states is the
most plesant. I wish those who will not believe
this on other words, would themselves make the
trial, and till they do so they are notoriously unjust
to pronounce that a fiction, of whose reality
they refuse to make proof.
19. BY what hath bin said, some estimate may
be made which bids fairest (the Atheist or Christian)
as to present temporal felicity: but alas
what an allay, what a damp is it to felicity to say
'tis temporal, yet we may give it a term below
that, and say 'tis momentary. For since our life is

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so, nothing that depends on that can be otherwise;
and yet in this shallow bottom the irreligious
embark their all. For, as to all future advantage,
'tis their Principle to disclaim it, they
discern no reward for blameless souls, Wisd. 2. 22.
So that in this particular the Chrisitan does not
compare with, but triumph over them. He knows
that if his earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved,
he hath a building of God; an House not
made with hands, eternal in the Heavens, 2 Cor. 5. 1.
That when he parts with his life, he does not resign
his happiness, but shall receive it infinitely improved
both in degree and duration. And now
certainly 'tis visible enough which opinion proposes
the fairer hopes, and consequently which
(supposing but an equal probability of truth) is
the most inviting.
20. BUT some spirits there are so ignoble,
that the most glorious Prize cannot animate
them; that like a swine, the muscles of whose
eies, they say, permit him not to look upwards,
is not concerned in all the felicities above; but
would at a venture resign his share in those, so he
may securely enjoy his husk and draff. But yet
even these who are uncapable of the more generous
resentments, may be apt enough to the more
servile; and danger may fright, tho glory cannot
allure them. It concerns such therefore to compare
the mischiefs which each opinion threatens
to their opposits, and from thence make an etstimate
which is safest to be chosen. And here let

the Atheist himself cast up the account of the dangers
consequent to Christianity, and it can all amount
but to this, the deprivation (or rather moderation)
of som present sensual plesures, or the
incurring of som present sensitive pains; the
former in the daily exercise of Temperance, and
mortification; the latter, (more rarely and oftner
in purpose then act) the suffering for Righteousness
sake. And both these the Christian balances,
nay out-weighs by two more important
present hazards on the other side. To the former,
he opposes the danger of being enslaved to
the brutish part of a mans self, a thing so deplorable
even in the judgment of humanity, that
all Writers of Ethics have uniformly declared no
servility to be so sordid and intolerable, as that
of the vicious man to his Passions and Lusts. To
the latter, he confronts the mischief of being a
slave to every man else; for such he certainly is,
whom the fear of suffering can baffle out of any
thing he thinks just and honest. For if all the
men in the World could successively have the power
to afflict him, they would also have to command
and rule him; and what can be more abject, more
below the dignity of humane nature, then to have
a spirit alwayes prepared for such a servitude?
Besides, even the utmost sufferings which Chrisitanity
can at any time require, is outvied daily
by the effects of luxury and rage; and for one
that has opportunity to be a Martyr for his God,
thousands become so to their Vices.

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21. IF from the present we look forward to
future dangers, the Atheist must here be perfectly
silent; he cannot say that the Christian after this
life shall be in any worse estate then himself, since
he concludes they shall both be the same nothing.
But the Christian threatens him with a more dismal
state, he allows him indeed a being, yea an
eternal one; but it is only such as qualifies him
for a misery as eternal; the worm that never dies,
the fire unquenchable, where all the excesses of
his short plesures shall be revenged with more excessive,
endless torments: his senses which were
here the only organs of his felicity, shall then be
(tho not the only) the very sensible mediums of
his wretchedness; and that conscience which he
here suspended from its office, shall then take out
its arrears, and return all its stifled admonitions
in perpetual horrors, and desperate upraidings.
I need not now sure ask on which side the greater
danger lies.
22. To conclude, the resulst of all is, that the
transitory plesures of the Atheist are over-poised
even by the present satisfactions of the Pious.
And the eternity of unbounded, unconceivable
joies he expects hereafter, comes in ex abundanti,
having nothing on the other side that offers at a
competition with it. And at the very same rate
of Proportion we have seen the dangers also are
so, that we can easily compute the utmost mischief
our Christianity can do us, if it should be false;
but the damage of the other is inestimable, both

for the penalty of loss and sense. I may now
appeal to common prudence to judg of the vast
inequality, and to pronounce, that sure there had
need, be som great evidence, of truth of the Atheists
side, to preponderate all these disadvantages.
Indeed, nothing much below a demonstration
can justify the choice of so dangerous
Principles; I am sure an equal probability can
never do it, where the danger is so unequal; and
were the veriest Atheist consulted in a secular
case of the like circumstances, he would certainly
pronounce him a mad man that should make such
an election. How desperate a phrensy then is it
to do it, without so much as that equal probability;
nay indeed, without any probability at
all. And yet this madness sets up for the monopoly
not of Wit only, but Reason too; and by
confidence and clamor, seeks to run down those
Arguments it can never confute.
23. I may be thought here to have made too
long a digression from my proper Subject, but I
cannot confess it so; for since my present business
is to recomment Piety, I can no way do that
so effectually as by shewing its consonancy to
right reason, especially considering the busie industry
is now used, to represent it under another
form, and to alienate it from it those persons
whose Greatness may give it any lustre of repute
in the World; of which sort I suppose there are
few more frequently attaqued then Women of
Quality, that converse among those who call

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themselves the Wits of the Age; who living in so
infectious an air, had need of some antidotes about
them; and if what I have now offered, appear
not forcible enough, (for it pretends not to
the tith of what may be said on the Subject) yet
it may at least do them this service, to put them
in mind of what they need, and send them to the
fuller dispensatories of others.
24. AND that is the thing I should earnestly
beg of them, that they would be so just to their
own interest, as not to combine with seducers against
themselves; but if they have been so unhappy
as to lend one ear to them, yet at least not
to give up both to be forced in a slavish submission
to their dictates, but hear what may be said on
the other side. And sure 'tis but a low composition
for God thus to divide with Sathan, yet 'tis
that of which his Emissaries are so lealous that
'tis one of their grand Maxims, that none who
professes Divinity is to be advised with; and
therefore by all Arts they are to be rendered either
ridiculous, or suspected; to which methinks may
be applied that Fable (which Demosthenes once
recited to the Athenians, when Alexander demanded
of them to deliver up their Orators) of the Wolves
and the Sheep, who coming to a Treaty, the first
Article of the Wolves was, that the Sheep should
give up their Mastives which guarded them: the
resemblance is too obvious to need a minute application.

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25. BUT this is manifestly to reverse all former
Rules, and to trust a man rather in any Faculty
then his own, and would never have prevailed
in any thing but where the soul is concern'd, that
poor despicable thing whereon alone we think
fit to make experiments. 'Tis sure, that if any
should dispute their title to an earthly Possession,
they would not so tamely resign it, nor would
trust their own selves in its defence, but would
consult their ablest Lawyers, and, by them, sift out
every circumstance that might establish their
claim. Why should they then suffer themselves
to be talk'd out of an Heavenly Inheritance,
without so much as once proposing their doubts
to those whose study and profession it is to resolve
them? But as in all other ills, so in this, prevention
is better then cure: and therefore to those
that are yet untainted, the securest course will be
to stop both ears against all profane insinuations,
and to use those who temt them to be disloial to
their God, that spiritual adultery, as they should
do those who solicit them to the carnal, not so
much as to enter parly, but with the greatest indignation
detest and reject the. 'Tis the saying
of the Wise man, Prov. 25. 23. that an angry
countenance driveth away a back biting tongue. And
certainly, would Great Persons look severely on
such defamers of Religion, they would give som
check to that impudence of profaneness which has
given it such a vogue in the World.

26. AND sure this is much their Duty to do,
if they own any relation to that God who is so
dishonored. They would think it a very disingenious
thing to sit by to hear a Friend or Benefaction
reviled, and express no displesure; and is
God so friendless among them, that only his traducers
and blasphemers can be patiently heard?
Among the Jews, at the hearing of any Blasphemy,
they rent their clothes; but I fear we have
som of our nice Dames that would be much more
concern'd at a rip in their garment, then at the
rending and violating God's Sacred Name; and
could more patiently behold the total subversion
of Religion, then the disorder or misplacing of
a lock of riband. But 'tis to be hoped there are
not many so imious, and those that are not, will
surely think themselves obliged with all their
power to discountenance all the Fautors of irreligion,
whether they be the solemn sedator sort
that would argue, or the jollier ther would rally
them out of their Faith.
27. BUT when they have thus provided against
the assaults of others, and secured the speculative
part of Religion, they have only established
a Judicatory against themselves, stored up
master of Conviction and Accusation, if they
answer it not in the Practice. I must therefore
after this ling excursion, return to my first Point,
and beseech them seriously to weight the obligations
they have to Piety in the general notion of
it, as it comprehends all the duties of a Christian

life, of which I intend not to speak particularly;
so I know not where to find a better summary,
then that which St. James has drawn up, Chap.
I. vers. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled before God
even the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
form the world.
28. BUT besides this general, there is (as I
said before) another more restrained notion of
Piety, as it relates to our more immediate entercourse
with God in divine Ordinances and Worship,
in which respect it commonly passes under
the name of Devotion, and thus consider'd it has
a great propriety to the female sex. For Devotion
is a tender Plant that will scarce root in stiff
or rocky ground, but requires a supple gentle soil,
and therefore the feminine softness and pliableness
is very apt and proper for it. And accordingly
there have bin very eminent growths of it in
that Sex. I need not heap up examples of former
Ages, but rather perswade this to leave some at
least to the following; and the more considerable
the persons are, the more conspicuous will be the
example, which seems the more to adapt it to those
I now speak to. Devotion in a Cloister is a recluse
on a candlestick: and in an obscure Cottage 'tis
either not observed, or else thought to be but the
effect of destitution and secular wants, a reserve
rather then a choice: but when those who are in
the eie of the world, the most eminent Actors on

the Theater of humane life, shall chuse the part of
a Saint, when those who want none of the divertisments
or blandishments of Earth, shall have
their conversation in Heaven, this recommends it
to the Spectators, as the true and greatest object
of humane choice; since 'tis chosen by those who
know the utmost pretence of all its competitors.
29. NOR is devotion only more excellent in
them in regard of its effects, but 'tis also more
necessary in respect of their obligation. Devotion
is an abstraction from the world, and therefore
cannot in any eminent degrees, be practised
by those whose necessity of business do much entangle
them in it. So that from such, a far less
proportion will be accepted, then from those,
whoese plenty and ease give them no other want
but that of emploitment. And certainly if there be
any of whom that can truly be said; women of
quality are the persons: for they in this respect
exceed even men of the like rank, for the men are
often engaged in public emploitments, and must
lend most of their time to the use of others; or
however all have the care of their own privat
affairs, the managery of their fortunes to employ
them. But of women the utmost that is ordinarily
required, is but a little easie inspection within
their own walls, the oversight of a few children,
and servants, and even from this how many are by
their condition of life exemted? and how many
more do by their niceness and delicacy exemt

102

themselves? and surely so perfect a vacancy is
neither happy nor safe. And therefore God who
projects we should be both, never design't it for
any of mankind: but where he gives so much liberty
from secular, he expects a greater diligence
in spiritual emploitments.