| OCR Text |
Show ( 24 ) ' Swearing I lhall fay the lefs upon, as I hope 110 Youth educated by me will ever go from me uninflrueled in the W ickednefs and H~moufnefs of it fufficiently to guard him agamft It. Only Jet ,;1e put you in mind of a few of the. Obferv• tions you have heard me make upon rt! fuch a<, That, of all the Vices th~t ever the Wrckednefs of Mankind mvented, rt IS the moft utterly inexcufable, having no Pretence of Profit or Honour in the Praelice, nor Apology_ from Conflitution, or Temptation of any kind,. to plead for itfelf. ·That it is a moft rmmed~ate and direCt Infult upon the Majefty of Heaven, <~nd tends to·breed in Men an abfolute Contempt and Difregard for the fupreme Governor and Judge of the World, and confequently to lead them into all forts of Wickednefs andimpl':ty. Gaming, if there were nothing to be fard ~gamft it btfrdes its being a moft cruel DeflruCl:ron of p;ecious Time, would fufficiendy appear. to be a Vice unworthy of reafonable or thmkmg B<.:ings: For can any thing be more monflrous than for mortal Crea1ures, who know not but every Hour may be th~ir bft, who have themfelvcs and their Fam1l!es to provtde for, who have Duties to do to one another, who have Paffions and Appetites to fubdue, who have their Minds to inform with ufeful and ornamental Knowledge, who have their ow!' Conduel: to enquire into, and innumerable I~ aults to repent of and reform, and in fbart, who have an Eternity to prepare for; to fpend Hours to-ether in fhuffiing a Pack of Cards, lrke a parcel ~f Children or Monkeys. But if, to the unpardonable Folly of lofing T_ime to fo little purpofe, you add the other Effccb of Gam,ng, VIZ. ( zs ) viz. inflaming the Paffions and railing Qyar~ rc!s, and the fatal Lofs of Money, which often ends in total Ruin; this Practice mull: appear in a light fo odious and (hocking, as mufl, I think>, prevent you, or any confiderate Perfon, from falling into any liking to it: As for Lewdnefs, or the promifcuous ·Commerce of the Sexes, without rerrard to the Ilfue, it has been in all Age> of the World allowed to be a Crime, and is never fpoke of by the very loofcl~ of the heathon PoetG, but as an unlawful l'raClice. Therefore, for a Chriflian to indulg~ himfelf in it, is degrading himfelf below the Virtue of the Heathens themftlves. If you ever give yourfelf to the Practice of this Vice, it muft b! either with married VVomen, with common Proftitutes, or wirh fuch as you yourfclf dc:bauch. 'l'o have any thing to do wirh a common Proflitute w;ii be debafing yourfeJf to a Level with the very Filth and Ordure of the Species, wii:h the Dregs of the Human kind the very OflScouring ~f the Creation ; for ~ more-loathfome ObjeCt than a common Whore is not in Nature. The Odioufnefs of this Practice in the Sight of Heaven, cannot better appear, than by the abominable and h'mible Difeafc, which is ma3c the Confequence of it, which renders the Hvdies of Off"enders in that Kind a-, naufcous anJ impure as their Minds. A Proi1itute is to be conildercd as no better. than a common Sewer, or Receptacle of aJI the Filch and Nall:inefs of a ·rown; and to take into one's Arms what the \'cry lde.1. of is enou~h to turn the Stom<>C\ is what, rnethinks, no rt'Ian, who would he thought cleanly or o-enteel, can bring himfclf to. Again, to be th";, Caufe of D 2 the |
