other is very hazardous. When the Flatterers have often palliated and excus'd, and fometimes extoll'd,his Vices, or fome Qualities that accompany them, his fond Self-love makes him at length ready to think them innocent and harmless Practices, if not real Virtues; and their commending him beyond his Merits for excellent Things, which he never had, but really wants, gives him fuch an Opinion of himself as makes him wholly neglect to acquire thofe good Qualities to which their undue Praifes do falfly entitle him.

To prevent this, whenever he hears Men extol his high Birth, his Wit and Parts, his Fame and Magnificence, his rare Endowments and brave Accomplishments, fuitable to the Largenefs of his Revenues, let him confult the true Sentiments of his own Mind, and hearken to the more impartial Reports of his own Confcience, let him reflect feverely upon himfelf, and his apparent Defects, confidering feriously what Pains he muft yet take before he can truly deferve the Com mendations Flatterers give; when they feed him with the fine Notions of his Honour and Merit, his Quality and Fortune, his ancient Family and noble Relations, his numerous Dependents and Tenants, let this large Inventory remind him of the Vaftnefs of his Duty, and what a Figure he is oblig'd to make to be equal to these Advantages; let him remember what he owes to Almighty God for fuch diftinguishing Favours, and what he must do, not for the gratifying his Flatterers, but the answering the juft Expectations of his Country and his true Friends.

And fince a true and faithful Friend will furnish him with proper Antidotes against the Poyfon of the Flatterer, by kind Admonitions and feafonable Reproofs, let him feek, chufe, and value the Friendship of thofe who are most confpicuous for their Wifdom and Integrity, fuch prudent and fincere Friends will give needful Precautions and Reprehenfions, as well as Praises, weighing our Difcourses and Actions in a just Ballance,

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109 expreffing their Approbation and Complacency with us in chofe of them that are good, and fhewing their Trouble and Concern when we speak or act otherwife; but their Reproofs are greater Expreffions of Love and Charity to our Souls than their Commendations, and it well taken do more certainly tend to the promoting our Piety and Virtue, and the preventing and removing our Sin and Guilt. If therefore our Young Gentry defire to make any confiderable Proficiency in Wisdom and Goodness, let them keep themselves from all intimate Society with fawning and diffembling Flatterers, and let them highly value and reverence fuch a Friend as has the Prudence, Courage and Fidelity to give,them true and feasonable Intimations of their Errors and Faults. Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend, faith the wife King, but the Kiffes of an Enemy are deceitful, Prov. 27.6. The sharp and cutting Reproofs that proceed from a fincere Heart, when difcreetly given and well accepted, will be really beneficial to the Perfon reproved; but the fairest Speeches and outward Profeffions of Friendship, when they come from a flattering Enemy, are perfidious and mischievous.

Varenius tells us in his Defcription of Japan, that the Grandees there do each of them maintain in their feveral Houses one or two Perfons, whofe Office and Bufinefs it is to obferve the Actions of their Masters, and freely to admonish them when they do any thing impru dently or wickedly; this is a Practice worthy to be imitated by the Great and the Rich, whether Young or Old, in all Nations, who have very few honeft and faithful Friends that will adventure to tell them of their Faults, but are often follow'd, and in no fmall Danger of being corrupted, by many Flatterers, whofe Expectations of Preferment, or fome worldly Advantage, make them cringe and comply upon all Occafions, and treacherously applaud what ought to be reprov'd. $17

11. Having

II. Having given thefe Premonitions against the Flatteries of Men, I proceed next to fome Confiderations that may be of ufe for the overcoming the Difficulties and Temptations that arise from the plentiful Enjoyment of the Things themselves, thofe Riches, Pleafures and Honours, which not only expofe the Poffeffors of them to the Flatteries of others, but are apt to give a strong Biafs to their own Appetites and Paffions. And here, most noble young Gentlemen and Ladies, let me humbly crave Leave to make my Addrefs to you most affectionately, with a more immediate Application to thofe of you that fhall be pleas'd to read this Effay.

I. In the first place let me befeech you to take a little Pains to know rightly both your felves and the World, to remember what fort of Beings you are, and what fort of Things the Things of the World are, even the best and greatest of them; let me here offer to your serious Contemplation the high Dignity of that rational and immortal Nature which God has given you, together with the more vile, fading and perishing Nature of all the Things of this lower World, and how infufficient they all are to perfect and make happy fo excellent a Nature as yours is, which can never be compleatly blefs'd unless you enjoy fomething greater and better than this whole Terreftrial Globe can afford. I fhall not here insist on the Chriftian Prerogatives of your Baptifm, thofe facred and fpiritual Privileges, which (if they be not forfeited) do so vastly tranfcend all Temporal Glory and Grandeur, but abstracting from these I fhall at prefent only defire you to confider that you have a much more fubftantial, divine, and durable Nobility of Birth, as you are born rational Creatures, ċapable of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven, than as you are any of you born Lords or Ladies, Gentlemen or Gentlewomen, and Heirs to high Dignities or great Estates

Estates here upon Earth. Value not your felves for fome external accidental Diftinctions between you and others, which are of no certain Continuance, but rather for the fubftantial Excellencies of Human Nature, thole noble, capacious, immortal Souls, which bear the Image of the Deity, and will, where they are duly regarded and religiously cultivated, raife even the poorest Man upon Earth to unfpeakable Glory and Happiness in the Celestial Manfions, infinitely beyond all that can be enjoy'd here below; let me befeech you therefore most ardently to feek and purfue the true Improvement and Felicity of your Spiritual Nature, that better part of your felves, which can never be happy but in the eternal Fruition of the Father of Spirits, from whom it was deriv'd, for all other things fall fhort of its Height and Excellency, and can never give it any durable Satisfaation; you offer an unnatural Violence to your Hea- · ven-born Souts when with too low Condefcenfion and too great Affection you bend and bow them down to Earthly Enjoyments, their Capacities difpofe them for the Life of Angels, and in vain do you feek their Reft and Happiness in any of the choiceft or most plentiful Gratifications of the Animal Life; all the Treasures of both the Indies, and all the pompous and moft delectable Things they can purchase,are infufficient to feed the ftrong Defires and fill the boundless Appetites of an immortal Soul without fome better Riches this whole World, with all its Furniture, were it in your Power to acquire the Poleflion thereof, would not be able to afford you any real, folid and lafting Content. How vain and empty, how fading and tranfient, are all its feeming Felicities, Delights and Splendors? How contemptible is its gilded Pageantry when the Varnifh drops off, and it appears naked, either to the Eye of Faith or Reafon? How pernicious indeed is the greateft Affluence of Earthly Profperity if it be not moderately enjoy'd, with Sobriety and Temperance, and difcreetly manag'd, with Wifdom, Piety and Charity?

The

The Pfalmift fpeaking of profperous Sinners that increase in Riches, tells us in what flippery Places they are fet, from whence they are tumbled down into DeftruEtion as in a Moment, Pfalm 73. 12, 18, 19. And Verse 20. he compares their State to a Dream, the moft thin, empty, perifhing thing that can be imagin'd. As a Dream when one awakes, fo, O Lord, when thon awakest thou shalt defpife their Image. The Images and Reprefentations a Dream makes may feem very grateful, brisk and lively, but when we reflect upon them with our waking Thoughts we find them all to be falfe and deluding, confus'd and impertinent; fnch is all the Profperity of this World to thofe that promise themselves any great Happiness from it, it is but as the Image and Fiction of a Dream How joyful and pleasant for a while is the Sleep of the hungry Man that dreams he is at a furnifh'd Table, where he has all Variety of delicate Provifions? How fully fatisfy'd is he while the Dream lafts? But when fome one jogs or calls him he wakes as hungry as he was before, having nothing fed but his Fancy. Thus it is in this World with profperous Sinners, who lye in a deep Sleep of Carnal Security, dreaming of great Felicities to be here enjoy'd; one thinks himself happy in his Riches, another fancies himfeif fo becaufe of his noble Defcent, a third becaufe of his Power and Dignity, a fourth because he has all the Delights that can gratify his Senfes; but all thefe their fo pleafing Imaginations are only Dreams; when fome Afliction, Sickness, or other Calamity, fhall difturb their foft Repose, or expel their ftupid Lethargy, and especially when the loud Calls of approaching Death shall throughly awaken them, they will find themselves miferably empty, ftarv'd with Hunger, and far from being fatisfy'd with all that rich Store with which they thought they were replenish'd.

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