quir'd; but all particular Applications of private Men, except to their own Hearts, is to be forborn. Every Man must bewail his own Transgressions, which have increas'd the Publick Ministry. But he must not be too hasty in assigning the Causes of Plagues, or Fires, or Inundations, to the Sins of other Men. Whoever thinks that way to repent, by condemning the Miscarriages of those Parties that differ from his own, and by reproving them as the Authors of such Mischiefs, he is grosly mistaken: For that is not to repent, but to make a Satire: That is not an Act of Humiliation, but the greatest Spiritual Pride.
It is indeed a Disgrace to the Reason and Honour of Mankind, that every fantastical Humourist should presume to interpret all secret Ordinances of Heaven; and to expound the Times, and Seasons, and Fates of Empires, though he be never so ignorant of the very common Works of Nature that lie under his Feet. There can be nothing more injurious than this, to Mens publick or private Peace. This withdraws our Obedience from the true Image of God, the rightful Sovereign, and makes us depend on the vain Images of his Power, which are fram'd by our own Imaginations: This weakens the Constancy of human Actions: This affects Men with Fears, Doubts, Irresolutions, and Terrors. It is usually observ'd, that such Presaging, and Prophetical Times, do commonly fore-run great Destructions and Revolutions of human Affairs. And that it should be so is natural enough, though the Presages and Prodigies themselves did signify no such Events. For this melancholy, this frightful, this Astrological humour disarms Mens Hearts, it breaks their Courage, it confounds their Councils, it makes them help to bring
