BEing at length come to the River-side, we quickly began to fall to the sport, for which we came thither, and Eugenius finding the Fish forward enough to bite, thought fit to spare his Flies, till he might have more need of them, and therfore ty’d to his Line a Hook, furnish’d with one of those counterfeit Flies, which in some Neibouring Countries are much us’d, and which being made of the Feathers of Wildfowl, are not subject to be drench’d by the water, whereon those Birds are wont to swim. This Fly being for a pretty while scarce any oftner thrown in, than the Hook it hid was drawn up again with a Fish fastened to it, Eugenius looking on us with a smiling Countenance, seem’d to be very proud of his success; which Eusebius taking notice of, Whilst, (says he) we smile to see, how easily you beguile these silly Fishes, that you catch so fast with this false Bait, possibly we are not much less unwary our selves; And the Worlds treacherous pleasures do little less delude both me and you: For, Eugenius, (continues he) as the Apostles were Fishers of men in a good sense, so their and our grand adversary is a skilfull Fisher of men in a bad sense; And too often in his attempts, to cheat fond Mortalls, meets with a success as great and easie, as you now find yours. And certainly, that Tempter, as the Scripture calls him, does sadly delude us, even when we rise at his best Baits, and, as it were, his true Flies: For, alas! the best things he can give, are very worthless, most of them in their own nature, and all of them in comparison of what they must cost us to enjoy them. But however, Riches, Power, and the delights of the Senses are real goods in their Kind, though they be not of the best Kind: Yet alas, many of us are so fitted for deceits, that we do not put this subtle Angler, to make use of his true Baits to catch us! we suffer him to abuse us much more grossly, and to cheat us with empty titles of Honour, or the ensnaring Smiles of great ones, or disquieting Drugeries disguis’d with the specious names of great imployments. And though these, when they must be obtain’d by sin, or are propos’d as the recompences for it, be, as I was going to say, but the Devils counterfeit Flies; Yet, as if we were fond of being deceiv’d, we greedily swallow the Hook, for Flies, that do but look like such; so Dim-sighted are we, as well to what Vice shews, as to what it hides. Let us not then (concludes Eusebius) rise at Baits, whereby we may be sure to be either grossly, or at least exceedingly deceiv’d; For who ever ventures to commit a Sin, to taste the luscious sweets, that the fruition of it seems to promise, certainly is so far deceiv’d, as to swallow a true Hook for a Bait, which either proves but a counterfeit Fly, or hides that under its alluring shew, which makes it not need to be a counterfeit one to deceive him.
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