’Tis a Freak mightily in Fashion among some People to Affect a
Singularity in their Lives and Manners, and to Live in a Direct
Opposition to the Ordinary Rules of Prudence and Good Nature, As in
returning Evil for Good for the Purpose; Nay, and in some Cases, Good for
Evil too; where ’tis done more to be seen of Men then for God’s sake, and
where the Vanity of Doing it Destroys the Merit of the Virtue. The Fable
will also bear This Moral, That Eager Appetites have not a Right Tast of
Things; for the _Coat_ goes down as well as the _Acorns_; but the main
Stress of it falls upon Those that _Rob Peter_, as we say to _Pay Paul_,
and take the Bread out of their Masters Mouths to give it to Strangers.
And the Kindness of the Master is yet a further Aggravation of the Crime.
We have abundance of Cases in Practice, as well as in Story, that strike
upon This Topique. Have we never read of a Sacrilegious Convocation of
_Divines_, that at the same Time that they liv’d upon the Altar, Betray’d
it; and while they robb’d God himself of his Due, Divided the Spoils of
the Church among the Rabble. Have we never heard of Men that Gobbled the
Priviledges and Revenues of the Crown, and then Squander’d them away in
Donatives upon the Common People? Or, What shall we say of the Scoffing
Atheist, that turns all the Powers and Faculties of his Soul, as much
as in him lies, to the Reproche of his Maker, and yet at the same time
too, as Pleasant Company to the World, as the Wit of a Libertine can make
him. What is all this now but a Sheep Stripping his Master, and Cloathing
Strangers.