This Fable would go a Great way if it were wrought up to the Heighth. As
for the Purpose; to all Manner of Graceless and Hopeless Characters. Some
People are lost for want of Good Advice; Others for want of giving Good
Heed to’t; And some again take up Resolutions beforehand never to Mend.
Nay there are those that value themselves upon the very Contempt of All
that is Sacred and Honest, and make it a Point of Bravery to Bid Defiance
to the Oracles of Divine Revelation, the Motions of Reasonable Nature,
and the Laws of Government. This Contradiction of the Duty of a Sober Man
is yet farther Heightned, by the Disobedience of a Son to a Parent: and
farther yet, by a Spiteful Opposition to All the Precepts of Morality and
Religion. There’s somewhat of a _Droll-Mixture_ in This _Bantering_ way
of _Liberty_, to make a body Laugh where he should Cry: But ’tis past a
Sporting Matter, when the most Necessary Duties of Christianity come to
be the Question. There’s no Room for Trifling in Those Cases.