piety, which the corruption of our manners hath now rendered so common even to both sexes.
First, of licentiousness. They reach the avowal of impiety only when the heart is profoundly corrupted; when they actually live in private in the most shameful debauchery; and, were they known for what they are, they would for ever be dishonoured even in the eyes of men.
Secondly, of meanness. They act the philosopher and the wit; while, in secret, they are the most sneaking, the most dissolute, the most abandoned, and weakest of sinners, the veriest slaves of every passion, unworthy of modesty, and even of reason.
Thirdly, of deceit and imposition. They act a borrowed character; they give themselves out for what they are not; and, while so loudly exclaiming against the godly, and treating them as impostors and hypocrites, they are themselves the very cheat they decry, and the hypocrite of impiety and freethinking.
Fourthly, of ostentation and wretched vanity. They act the hero, while inwardly trembling; for, on the first signal of death, they betray more cowardice than even the commonest of the people; they make a show of openly insulting that God whom they still inwardly dread and even hope to render favourable one day to themselves; a character of childishness and buffoonery, which the world itself hath always considered as the lowest, the vilest, and the most risible of all characters.
Fifthly, of temerity. Without erudition or knowledge, they dare to set up as deciders upon what they are totally ignorant of; to condemn the greatest characters of every age; and to decide upon important points to which they have never given, and, indeed, to which they are incapable of giving, a single moment of serious attention; an indecency of character which can accord only with men who have nothing more to lose on the side of honour.
Sixthly, of folly. They pride themselves in appearing without religion: that is to say, without character, morals, probity, fear of God and of man, and capable of every thing excepting virtue and innocence.
Seventhly, of superstition. We have seen these pretended freethinkers, who refuse to consult the oracles of the holy prophets, consulting conjurors; admitting in men that knowledge of futurity which they refuse to God; giving in to every childish credulity, while rising up against the majesty of faith; expecting their aggrandizement and fortune from a deceitful oracle, and unwilling to hope their salvation from the oracles of our holy books; and, in a word, ridiculously believing in demons, while they make a boast of disbelieving a God.
Lastly, what, in my opinion, is most deplorable in these characters, is, that they are in a situation which precludes almost every hope of salvation. For an actual unbeliever, if such there be, may in a moment be stricken of God, and overwhelmed, as it were, under the weight of that glory and majesty which he unknowingly had blasphemed: the eyes of this unfortunate wretch may still be
