True; but (may you answer) there are others that swear as much as I, and oftner; why then are not they more reprehended for more frequent Faults?
Answ. To this I may reply in the terms of the Apostle, Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you (Gal. 4. 16) the truth? And add out of Solomon, That reproofs of instruction are the way1 of life. That poverty and shame shall be to the man that refuseth instruction, but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured. And lastly, That he that being often reproved, hardneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy, I know there are many Sauls, whose Choler flames against those Davids that endeavour their dispossession, tho they attempt the Cure even with Musick, I mean, the mildest and the gentlest way. But I must beg my Swearer to consider, That ‘tis an Inspired Writer that assures me, There is a generation that are pure in (Prov. 30. 12) their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. Your Excuse is just as if in an Hospital a desperate Patient should say to his Physician, Why I can need no Physick, for there are others here as sick, and many more diseased than I.
To complain of being reprehended for Vice, is to complain that one is car’d for; like the favourite Child, that cries for having the Knife taken away from him, when it is not from others, for whom we care not whether they cut themselves or no: Which is as if our Eyes had right to quarrel with us, for not enduring that dust there, we suffer in our Shoes. Certainly as we deserve not Praise for other mens Vertues, so can we not decline Censure by the allegation of their faults. Take heed there be not places hot enough in Hell, tho others fry in more tormenting Flames; and remember, that as it is not Health to be not altogether as sick as gasping people, so it is but a very sorry goodness not to be as bad as the worst. How strangely are our Affections misplac’d! In transitory Goods, which he rates justliest that prizes least, we think we never have enough, if any body else has more; but in the Goods of the Mind, which cannot be overvalued, we think our selves sufficiently stor’d, if others enjoy less. We are discontented at another’s Wealth, and proud of his Vices; and whereas his greater Poverty should exalt our Gratitude, and his greater Piety create our Emulation, his Riches make us envious, and his Sinfulness secure.
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Footnotes
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Prov. 6. 23. Prov. 13. 18. ↩