This is to Reprehend the False and Covetous Humour of Those that for
Mony and Profit, will not Stick at putting Shams even upon God Himself;
Prophaning his Altars, and Ridiculing his very Omniscience and Power.
Here’s the Wickedness of a Libertine Naturally enough set forth, only the
Punishment is Wanting that should have Compleated the Moral. What Opinion
have These Religious Banterers, of the Divine Power, and Justice? Or what
have they to say for themselves in this Audacious Habit of Mockery and
Contempt; but that _they Believe in their Hearts that there is No God_?
Not but that more or less, we are all Jugglers in Secret betwixt Heaven,
and our Own Souls; Only to Cover and Meditate Abuses under the Masque and
Pretence of Conscience, and Religion; and make God Almighty Privy to a
Thousand False and Cozening Contrivances, that we keep as the Greatest
Privacies in the World, from the Knowledge of our Neighbours. Nay,
when we are Most in Earnest, our Vows and Promises are more then Half
Broken in the very making of them; and if we can but secure our Selves a
Retreat, by some Cleanly Evasion, Distinction or Mental Reservation, it
serves our Purpose e’en as Well as if it were a Casuistical Resolution.
In One Word we find the Moral of _Mercury_ and the _Traveller_ in the
very Secrets of our Hearts, betwixt Heaven, and our own Souls.