Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.

John Tillotson

There is a pleasure in admiration; and this is that which properly causeth admiration: when we discover a great deal in an object which we understand to be excellent, and yet we see (we know not how much) more beyond that, which our understandings cannot fully reach and comprehend.

Religion directs us rather to secure inward peace than outward ease, to be more careful to avoid everlasting torment than light afflictions.

Others have sought to ease themselves of all the evil of affliction by disputing subtilely against it, and pertinaciously maintaining that afflictions are no real evils, but only in imagination.

Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure.

God will make these evils the occasion of greater good, by turning them to advantage in this world, or increase of our happiness in the next.

None of us fall into those circumstances of danger, want, or pain, that can have hopes of relief but from God alone; none in all the world to flee to but him.

All men naturally fly to God in extremity, and the most atheistical person in the world, when forsaken of all hopes of any other relief, is forced to acknowledge him.

Be careful to discountenance in children anything that looks like rage and furious anger.

When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them that there should be none; and then they endeavour to persuade themselves so.

The atheist can pretend no obligation of conscience why he should dispute against religion.

The true reason why any man is an atheist is because he is a wicked man: religion would curb him in his lusts; and therefore he casts it off, and puts all the scorn upon it he can.

The atheist, in case things should fall out contrary to his belief or expectation, hath made no provision for this case; if contrary to his confidence it should prove in the issue that there is a God, the man is lost and undone forever.

If the atheist, when he dies, should find that his soul remains, how will this man be amazed and blanked!

It is the common interest of mankind to punish all those who would seduce men to atheism.

With the history of Moses no book in the world, in point of antiquity, can contend.

Of some calamity we can have no relief but from God alone; and what would men do in such a case, if it were not for God?

Much more should the consideration of this pattern arm us with patience against ordinary calamities; especially if we consider His example with this advantage, that though His sufferings were wholly undeserved, and not for Himself but for us, yet He bore them patiently.

Our religion sets before us, not the example of a stupid stoic who had by obstinate principles hardened himself against all sense of pain beyond the common measures of humanity, but an example of a man like ourselves, that had a tender sense of the least suffering, and yet patiently endured the greatest.

Are we proud and passionate, malicious and revengeful? Is this to be like-minded with Christ, who was meek and lowly?

In the first ages of Christianity not only the learned and the wise, but the ignorant and illiterate, embraced torments and death.

I have represented to you the excellency of the Christian religion in respect of its clear discoveries of the nature of God, and in respect of the perfection of its laws.

What laws can be advised more proper and effectual to advance the nature of man to its highest perfection than these precepts of Christianity?

Christianity hath hardly imposed any other laws upon us but what are enacted in our natures or are agreeable to the prime and fundamental laws of it.

By this law of loving even our enemies the Christian religion discovers itself to be the most generous and best-natured institution that ever was in the world.

No religion that ever was so fully represents the goodness of God and his tender love to mankind, which is the more powerful argument to the love of God.

The Christian religion gives us a more lovely character of God than any religion ever did.

Christianity secures both the private interests of men and the public peace, enforcing all justice and equity.

Do we not all profess to be of this excellent religion? but who will believe that we do so, that shall look upon the actions and consider the lives of the greatest part of Christians?

Christianity is lost among them in the trappings and accoutrements of it, with which, instead of adorning religion, they have strangely disguised it, and quite stifled it in the crowd of external rites and ceremonies.

But surely modesty never hurt any cause, and the confidence of man seems to me to be much like the wrath of man.

Methinks though a man had all science and all principles yet it might not be amiss to have some conscience.

What comfort does overflow the devout soul from a consciousness of its own innocence and integrity!

The most sensual man that ever was in the world never felt so delicious a pleasure as a good conscience.

The dialect of conversation is nowadays so swelled with vanity and compliment, and so surfeited (as I may say) of expressions of kindness and respect, that it a man that lived an age or two ago should return into the world again, he would really want a dictionary to help him to understand his own language, and to know the true intrinsic value of the phrase in fashion; and would hardly at first believe at what a low rate the highest strains and expressions of kindness imaginable do commonly pass in current payment; and when he should come to understand it, it would be a great while before he could bring himself with a good countenance, and a good conscience, to converse with men upon equal terms and in their own way.

The covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy them, but to have them; and starves himself in the midst of plenty, and most unnaturally cheats and robs himself of that which is his own; and makes a hard shift to be as poor and miserable with a great estate as any man can be without it.

There is nothing so bad but a man may lay hold of something about it that will afford matter of excuse; nor nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something belonging to it whereby to reduce it.

Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the most easy.

The firm belief of a future judgment is the most forcible motive to a good life, because taken from this consideration of the most lasting happiness and misery.

God suffers the most grievous sins of particular persons to go unpunished in this world, because his justice will have another opportunity to meet and reckon with them.

All the precepts, promises, and threatenings of the gospel will rise up in judgment against us; and the articles of our faith will be so many articles of accusation: and the great weight of our charge will be this, that we did not obey the gospel, which we professed to believe; that we made confession of the Christian faith, but lived like heathens.

How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them?

Indirect dealing will be discovered one time or other, and then he loses his reputation.

The gospel chargeth us with piety towards God, and justice and charity to men, and temperance and chastity in reference to ourselves.

These two must make our duty very easy: a considerable reward in hand, and the assurance of a far greater recompense hereafter.

A man cannot doubt but that there is a God; and that according as be demeans himself towards him he will make him happy or miserable forever.

If they would but provide for eternity with the same solicitude and real care as they do for this life, they could not fail of heaven.

To those who are thoroughly convinced of the inconsiderableness of this short dying life in comparison of that eternal state which remains for us in another life, the consideration of a future happiness is the most powerful motive.

If they be principles evident of themselves, they need nothing to evidence them.

Aristotle has long since observed how unreasonable it is to expect the same kind of proof for everything which we have for some things.

Mathematical things are only capable of clear demonstration; conclusions in natural philosophy are proved by induction of experiments, things moral by moral arguments, and matters of fact by credible testimony.

When anything is proved by as good arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of, we ought not, in reason, to doubt of its existence.

Our chief end is to be freed from all, if it may be, however, from the greatest, evils.

These are, beyond comparison, the two greatest evils in this world; a diseased body and a discontented mind.

Whosoever is so assured of the authority and sense of Scripture as to believe the doctrine of it, and to live accordingly, shall be saved.

Others delude their trouble by a graver way of reasoning,—that these things are fatal and necessary,—it being in vain to be troubled at that which we cannot help.

It was a smart reply that Augustus made to one that ministered this comfort of the fatality of things: this was so far from giving any ease to his mind, that it was the very thing that troubled him.

Fear relies upon a natural love of ourselves, and is complicated with a necessary desire of our own preservation.

Thus does he foolishly who, for fear of anything in this world, ventures to displease God; for in so doing he runs away from men and falls into the hands of the living God.

Fear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us, and by which God and his laws take the surest hold of us.

He that provides for this life, but takes no care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a fool forever; and acts as untowardly and crossly to the reason, of things as can be imagined.

It would puzzle the greatest philosopher that ever was, to give any tolerable account how any knowledge whatsoever can certainly and infallibly foresee an event through uncertain and contingent causes.

The doctrine of the gospel proposes to men such glorious rewards and such terrible punishments as no religion ever did, and gives us far greater assurance of their reality and certainty than ever the world had.

God hath in the Scripture suspended the promise of eternal life upon this condition, that without obedience and holiness of life no man shall ever see the Lord.

The great encouragement is the assurance of a future reward, the firm persuasion thereof is enough to raise us above anything in this world.

It concerns every man that would not trifle away his soul, and fool himself into irrecoverable misery, with the greatest seriousness to inquire into these matters.

What poor man would not carry a great burthen of gold to be made a rich man forever?

If he have no comfortable expectations of another life to sustain him under the evils in this world, he is of all creatures the most miserable.

It is not much that the good man ventures: after this life, if there be no God, he is as well as the bad; but if there be a God, is infinitely better; even as much as unspeakable and eternal happiness is better than extreme and endless misery.

This is the natural fruit of sin, and the present revenge which it takes upon sinners, besides that fearful punishment which shall be inflicted on them in another life.

If it so fall out that thou art miserable forever, thou hast no reason to be surprised as if some unexpected thing had happened.

In the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this, that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better; and chose to make ourselves miserable, when we understood the way to have been happy.

No constant reason of this can be given, but from the nature of man’s mind, which hath this notion of a Deity born with it and stamped upon it; or is of such a frame that in the free use of itself it will find out God.

We have as great assurance that there is a God as we could expect to have, supposing that he were.

Which way soever we turn ourselves, we are encountered with clear evidences and sensible demonstrations of a Deity.

We come to be assured that there is such a being, either by an internal impression of the notion of a God upon our minds, or else by such external and visible effects as our reason tells us must be attributed to some cause, and which we cannot attribute to any other but such as we conceive God to be.

If a wise man were left to himself, and his own choice, to wish the greatest good to himself he could devise, the sum of all his wishes would be this, That there were just such a being as God is.

Man, without the protection of a superior being, is secure of nothing that he enjoys, and uncertain of everything he hopes for.

Men sunk into the greatest darkness imaginable retain some sense and awe of a Deity.

As the nature of God is excellent, so likewise is it to know him in those glorious manifestations of himself in the works of creation and providence.

If we deal falsely in covenant with God, and break loose from all our engagements to him, we release God from all the promises he has made to us.

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this, that, when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.

Religion hath a good influence upon the people to make them obedient to government and peaceable one towards another.

To be happy, is not only to be freed from the pains and diseases of the body, but from anxiety and vexation of spirit; not only to enjoy the pleasures of sense, but peace of conscience and tranquillity of mind.

A certain kind of temper is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds, consequently to our happiness; and that is, holiness and goodness.

Religion directs us rather to secure inward peace than outward ease.

Every moment we feel our dependence upon God, and find that we can neither be happy without him, nor think ourselves so.

Thus hath God not only riveted the notion of himself into our natures, but likewise made the belief of his being necessary to the peace of our minds and happiness of society.

What inexpressible comfort does overflow the pious soul from a conscience of its own innocency!

Till this be cured by religion, it is as impossible for a man to be happy, that is, pleased and contented within himself, as it is for a sick man to be at ease.

Every one hath a natural dread of everything that can endanger his happiness.

Those who are persuaded that they shall continue forever, cannot choose but aspire after a happiness commensurate to their duration.

Malice and hatred are very fretting, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy.

Religion obliges men to the practice of those virtues which conduce to the preservation of our health.

We have no reason to think much to sacrifice to God our dearest interests in this world, if we consider how disproportionably great the reward of our sufferings shall be in another.

Such an assurance as will quicken men’s endeavours for the obtaining a lesser good ought to animate men more powerfully in the pursuit of that which is infinitely greater.

What encouragement can be given to goodness beyond the hopes of heaven and the assurance of an endless felicity?

Those who have never tried the experiment of a holy life measure the laws of God not by their intrinsical goodness, but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts.

It is hard to personate and act a part long; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will pass out and betray herself one time or other.

The idle, who are neither wise for this world nor the next, are emphatically fools at large.

Idleness and luxury bring forth poverty and want; and this tempts men to injustice, and that causeth enmity and animosity.

The contemplation of things that are impertinent to us, and do not concern us, are but a more specious idleness.

Anything that is apt to disturb the world, and to alienate the affections of men from one another, such as cross and distasteful humours, is either expressly, or by clear consequence and deduction, forbidden in the New Testament.

Men of dissolute lives cry down religion because they would not be under the restraints of it.

Those are raised above sense, and aspire after immortality, who believe the perpetual duration of their souls.

If on one side there are fair proofs, and no pretence of proof on the other, and that the difficulties are more pressing on that side which is destitute of proof, I desire to know whether this be not upon the matter as satisfactory to a wise man as a demonstration.

No man’s reason did ever dictate to him that it is reasonable for him to debauch himself by intemperance and brutish sensuality.

In matters of great concern, and which must be done, there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution: to be undetermined, where the case is so plain, and the necessity so urgent; to be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it: this is as if a man should put off eating, and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.

We must take heed how we accustom ourselves to a slight and irreverent use of the name of God, and of the phrases and expressions of the Holy Bible, which ought not to be applied upon every slight occasion.

No man ought to have the less reverence for the principles of religion, or for the Holy Scriptures, because idle and profane wits can break jests upon them.

God may defer his judgments for a time, and give a people a longer space of repentance; he may stay till the iniquities of a nation be full; but sooner or later they have reason to expect his vengeance.

No man can conclude God’s love or hatred to any person by anything that befalls him.

A man by a vast and imperious mind, and a heart large as the sand upon the sea-shore, could command all the knowledge of nature and art.

There is a knowledge which is very proper to man, and lies level to human understanding,—the knowledge of our Creator and of the duty we owe to him.

Whatsoever other knowledge a man may be endued withal, he is but an ignorant person who doth not know God, the author of his being.

He that doth not know those things which are of use for him to know is but an ignorant man, whatever he may know besides.

What laws more proper to advance the nature of man than these precepts of Christianity?

The laws of this religion would make men, if they would truly observe them, substantially religious toward God, chaste, and temperate.

The laws of our religion tend to the universal happiness of mankind.

It is a reasonable account for any man to give, why he does not live as the greatest part of the world do, that he has no mind to die as they do, and perish with them.

Take away God and religion, and men live to no purpose, without proposing any worthy and considerable end of life to themselves.

Let us not deceive ourselves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, if we do not frame our lives according to it.

No prudent man lays his designs only for a day, without any prospect to the remaining part of his life.

Refer all the actions of this short life to that state which will never end; and this will approve itself to be wisdom at the last, whatever the world judge of it now.

All the arguments to a good life will be very insignificant to a man that hath a mind to be wicked, when remission of sins may be had upon cheap terms.

No man can certainly conclude God’s love or hatred to any person from what befalls him in this world.

Anything that is apt to disturb the world, and to alienate the affections of men from one another,… is either expressly, or by clear consequence and deduction, forbidden in the New Testament.

Nothing is difficult to love: it will make a man cross his own inclinations to pleasure them whom he loves.

No man can think it grievous who considers the pleasures and sweetness of love, and the glorious victory of overcoming evil with good, and then compares these with the restless torment and perpetual tumults of a malicious and revengeful spirit.

Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy; but he that can moderate these affections will find ease in his mind.

Sourness of disposition, and rudeness of behaviour, censoriousness, and sinister interpretation of things, all cross and distasteful humours, render the conversation of men grievous and uneasy to one another.

The chief part of the misery of wicked men and those accursed spirits the devils is this: that they are of a disposition contrary to God.

Suppose the reverse of virtue were solemnly enacted, and the practice of fraud and rapine, and perjury and falseness to a man’s word, and all vice, were established by law, would that which we now call vice gain the reputation of virtue, and that which we now call virtue grow odious to human nature?

Our belief or disbelief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing.

If we give way to our passions we do but gratify ourselves for the present in order to our future disquiet.

How many by the wild fury and extravagancy of their own passions have put their bodies into a combustion, and by stirring up their rage against others have armed that fierce humour against themselves.

The best moral argument to patience, in my opinion, is the advantage of patience itself.

Lipsius was a great studier of the Stoical philosophy: upon his death-bed his friend told him that he needed not use arguments to persuade him to patience; the philosophy which he had studied would furnish him: he answers him, Lord Jesus, give me Christian patience!

As the practice of all piety and virtue is agreeable to our reason, so it is likewise the interest, both of private persons and of public societies.

Piety and virtue are not only delightful for the present, but they leave peace and contentment behind them.

The pleasure of commanding our passions is to be preferred before any sensual pleasure; because it is the pleasure of wisdom and discretion.

If we do but put virtue and vice in equal circumstances, the advantages of ease and pleasure will be found to be on the side of religion.

True pleasure and perfect freedom are nowhere to be found but in the practice of virtue.

To worship God, to study his will, to meditate upon him, and to love him; all these bring pleasure and peace.

For men to judge of their condition by the decrees of God which are hid from us, and not by His word which is near us and in our hearts, is as if a man wandering in the wide sea, in a dark night when the heaven is all clouded about, should yet resolve to steer his course by the stars which he cannot see, but only guess at, and neglect the compass, which is at hand, and would afford him a much better and more certain direction.

If they be principles evident of themselves, they need nothing to evidence them.

Though moral certainty be sometimes taken for a high degree of probability, which can only produce a doubtful assent, yet it is also frequently used for a firm assent to a thing upon such grounds as fully satisfy a prudent man.

Is not he imprudent who, seeing the tide making haste towards him apace, will sleep till the sea overwhelms him?

None so nearly disposed to scoffing at religion as those who have accustomed themselves to swear on trifling occasions.

We are to vindicate the just providence of God in the government of the world, and to endeavour, as well as we can upon an imperfect view of things, to make out the beauty and harmony of all the seeming discords and irregularities of the divine administration.

No man that considers the promiscuous dispensation of God’s providence in this world, can think it unreasonable to conclude that after this life good men shall be rewarded and sinners punished.

There is no such imprudent person as he that neglects God and his soul.

Is he a prudent man as to his temporal estate, who lays designs only for a day, without any prospect to, or provision for, the remaining part of life?

If any man turns religion into raillery by bold jests, he renders himself ridiculous, because he sports with his own life.

There is no way to deal with this man of reason, this rigid exacter of strict demonstration for things which are not capable of it.

Whether religion be true or false, it must be necessarily granted to be the only wise principle and safe hypothesis for a man to live and die by.

Religion comprehends the knowledge of its principles, and a suitable life and practice: the first, being speculative, may be called knowledge; and the latter, because ’tis practical, wisdom.

Religion gives part of its reward in hand … the present comfort of having done our duty, and for the rest, it offers us the best security that heaven can give.

Religion tends to the ease and pleasure, the peace and tranquillity, of our minds; which all the wisdom of the world did always aim at, as the utmost felicity of this life.

There is no man that is knowingly wicked but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him, but he receives a sting into his soul.

Our repentance is not real because we have not done what we can to undo our fault, or at least to hinder the injurious consequences of it from proceeding.

That peculiar law of Christianity which forbids revenge,—no man can think it grievous who considers the restless torment of a malicious and revengeful spirit.

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.

Self-conceit, peevishness, and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent.

If the god of this world did not blind their eyes, it would be impossible so long as men love themselves to keep them from being religious.

Every one desires his own preservation and happiness, and therefore hath a natural dread of everything that can destroy his being or endanger his happiness.

There are two restraints which God hath put upon human nature, shame and fear: shame is the weaker, and hath place only in those in whom there are some remainders of virtue.

There is no fool to the sinner, who every moment ventures his soul.

Every sinner does more extravagant things than any man can do that is crazed and out of his wits, only with this sad difference, that he knows better what he does.

Sincerity is the most compendious wisdom, and an excellent instrument for the speedy dispatch of business; it creates confidence in those we have to deal with, saves the labour of many inquiries, and brings things to an issue in few words. It is like travelling in a plain beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey’s end than by-ways, in which men often lose themselves. In a word, whatsoever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under an everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly. When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast; and nothing then will serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.

It is very commendable to be singular in any excellency, and religion is the greatest excellency: to be singular in anything that is wise and worthy is not a disparagement, but a praise.

Whether we speak evil of a man to his face or behind his back: the former way, indeed, seems to be the most generous, but yet is a great fault, and that which we call “reviling;” the latter is more mean and base, and that which we properly call “slander” or “backbiting.”

Religion requires the extirpation of all those passions and vices which render men unsociable and troublesome to one another.

Were it not for some small remainders of piety and virtue which are yet left scattered among mankind, human society would in a short space disband and run into confusion, and the earth would grow wild and become a forest.

If our souls be immortal, this makes abundant amends for the frailties of life and the sufferings of this state.

No man that owns the existence of an infinite spirit can doubt of the possibility of a finite spirit; that is, such a thing as is immaterial, and does not contain any principle of corruption.

The arguments which Christianity propounds to us are reasonable encouragements to bear sufferings patiently.

Every Christian is endued with a power whereby he is enabled to resist and conquer temptations.

He must be very wise that can forbear being troubled at things very troublesome.

Men stand very much upon the reputation of their understandings, and of all things hate to be accounted fools: the best way to avoid this imputation is to be religious.

Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for that goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness.

Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy, and a chosen distraction; and every sinner does wilder and more extravagant things than any man can do that is crazed and out of his wits only with this sad difference, that he knows better what he does.

A man that cuts himself, and tears his own flesh, and dashes his head against the stones, doth not act so unreasonably as the wicked man.

Was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience, from the secret dread of divine displeasure, and of the vengeance of another world?

Refer all the actions of this short and dying life to that state which will shortly begin, but never have an end; and this will approve itself to be wisdom at last, whatever the world judge of it now.

The proper use of wit is to season conversation, to represent what is praiseworthy to the greatest advantage, and to expose the vices and follies of men.

When wit transgresseth decency it degenerates into insolence and impiety.

All wit which borders upon profaneness, and makes bold with those things to which the greatest reverence is due, deserves to be branded with folly.

If men would live as religion requires, the world would be a most lovely and desirable place in comparison of what now it is.

The several parts of which the world consists being in their nature corruptible, it is more than probable that in an infinite duration this frame of things would long since have been dissolved.

Good men often blemish the reputation of their piety by over-acting some things in religion; by an indiscreet zeal about things wherein religion is not concerned.

Amongst too many other instances of the great corruption and degeneracy of the age wherein we live, the great and general want of sincerity in conversation is none of the least. The world is grown so full of dissimulation and compliment, that men’s words are hardly any signification of their thoughts; and if any man measure his words by his heart, and speaks as he thinks, and do not express more kindness to every man than men usually have for any man, he can hardly escape the censure of want of breeding.

Whatsoever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under an everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly. When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.

If the show of anything be good for anything, I am sure sincerity is better: for why doth any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to? For to counterfeit and dissemble, is to put on the appearance of real excellency. Now, the best way in the world to seem to be anything, is really to be what he would seem to be. Besides that, it is many times as troublesome to make good the pretence of a good quality, as to have it; and if a man have it not, it is ten to one but he is discovered to want it; and then all his pains and labour to seem to have it, are lost.

How often might a man after he had jumbled a set of letters in a bag fling them out upon the ground before they would fall into an exact poem, yea, or so much as make a good discourse in prose! And may not a little book be as easily made by chance as this great volume of the world? How long might a man be in sprinkling colours upon a canvas with a careless hand before they could happen to make the exact picture of a man? And is a man easier made by chance than his picture? How long might twenty thousand blind men, which should be sent out from the several remote parts of England, wander up and down before they would all meet in Salisbury Plains, and fall into rank and file in the exact order of an army? And yet this is much more easy to be imagined than how the innumerable blind parts of matter should rendezvous themselves into a world.

The arts of deceit and cunning do continually grow weaker and less effectual and serviceable to them that use them; whereas integrity gains strength by use; and the more and longer any man practiseth it, the greater service it does him, by confirming his reputation, and encouraging those with whom he hath to do to repose the greatest trust and confidence in him, which is an unspeakable advantage in the business and affairs of life.

He that is deeply engaged in vice is like a man laid fast in a bog, who by a faint and lazy struggling to get out does but spend his strength to no purpose, and sinks himself the deeper into it: the only way is, by a resolute and vigorous effort to spring out, if possible, at once. When men are sorely urged and pressed, they find a power in themselves which they thought they had not.

Great severities do often work an effect quite contrary to that which was intended; and many times those who were bred up in a very severe school hate learning ever after for the sake of the cruelty that was used to force it upon them. So likewise an endeavour to bring children to piety and goodness by unreasonable strictness and rigour does often beget in them a lasting disgust and prejudice against religion, and teacheth them to hate virtue at the same time that they teach them to know it.

Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out; it is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man’s invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good. It is like building upon a false foundation, which constantly stands in need of props to shore it up, and proves at last more chargeable than to have raised a substantial building at first upon a true and solid foundation; for sincerity is firm and substantial, and there is nothing hollow and unsound in it, and, because it is plain and open, fears no discovery; of which the crafty man is always in danger; and when he thinks he walks in the dark, all his pretences are so transparent, that he that runs may read them; he is the last man that finds himself to be found out; and whilst he takes it for granted that he makes fools of others, he renders himself ridiculous.