A Man should no more commit such a Freak as this is, to the Publick,
without somewhat of a Caution or Controul upon’t, then he would throw
Rats-bane up and down a House where Children and Fools might come at it:
For there are Liquorish and Inconsiderate Readers, as well as Children,
and the one is in as much danger of Mistaking Evil for Good, as the other
is of taking a Dose of _Mercury_, for a Sweetmeat. As for Example, here’s
a Lewd, Atheistical Fancy expos’d at Random, which some People will be
forward enough to take, as it stands Uncorrected, for a very fine thing
said, and by that means give some sort of Reputation to a Liberty that
is not upon any terms to be endured. Now we are in Charity to presume,
that the Author never intended this Extravagant Instance for a President,
and therefore the Imperfection of the Fable, must be help’d out by some
Pertinent Application of it in an Instructive Moral.
The Doctrin that arises from this Text, will fall under the Topick of
_the Government of the Tongue_, and reach, in the Latitude, to all the
Transports and Excesses of that Unruly Member: as Blasphemy, Calumny,
Scurrility, Prophaneness, False, Vain, and Evil-Speaking, and the like;
which are all naturally enough reducible to the same Head, as they do
effectually proceed from the same Root. He that has gotten a Habit of
letting his Tongue run before his Wit, will rather lose his Honour or
his Friend, then his Jest; nay, and venture his Salvation over and above
too, into the Bargain. As in the Case here before us, where we have a
Libertine Fooling even in his Last Agonies, with a Witticism betwixt
his Teeth, without any regard to the Circumstances of Sobriety and
Conscience. But this is a Wickedness only for Profligates and Madmen,
to make Sport with, and Men of better Sense to Tremble at; for there
must be no Quibling and Trifling with the Majesty and Judgments of the
Almighty.