This Beauty in the Fable, Extends in the Moral to all the Advantages
in Human Nature that One Man can pretend to have over Another: Let it
be Matter of Honour, Title, Justice, Good Faith, Conscience, _&c._ for
_the Longer Sword can do no Wrong_; and rather then fail, the Laws of
God and Man shall take up Arms against themselves in defence of the most
Extravagant of Conquests. Religion is a kind of Two Edged-Sword in the
Hands of a Man of Might, that Cuts both ways alike; and it is either
Right or Wrong, or Wrong or Right, as Occasion serves. Take it by One
Light, ’tis an Angel; by Another, ’tis a Devil: And so ’tis _Pro & Con_
at the same time. The whole World and the Business of it, is manag’d by
Flattery and Paradox; the one sets up False Gods, and the other maintains
them. Power in short, is Beauty, Wit, Courage, and all Good Things in
One, where Slaves and Parasites are Judges.