to caufe any fmart. The greatest hurt they do is to themselves, who tho they much need, yet are generally little capable of a refcue, and therefore I fhall not clog the prefent difcourfe with any advise to them: I fhall chufe rather to conclude with enforcing my Suit to the former, that they would foberly and fadly weigh the account they must one Day give of the Emploiment of their Parts, and the more they have hitherto, embeazled them, the more to endeavor to expiate that unthriftiness, by a more careful Managery for the future; that fo instead of that vain, emty, vanishing Mirth they have courted here, they may find a real, full, and eternal Satisfaction in the Joy of their Lord.

SECT.

I.

TH

SECT. VIII.

Of Flattery.

HE laft of Verbal injuries to our Neighbor which I fhall mention, is Flattery. This is indeed the fatalleft wound of the Tongue, carries least Smart but infinitly more of Danger, and is as much fuperior to the former, as a Gangrene is to a Gall or Scratch; this may be fore and vexing, but that stupifying and deadly. Flattery is such a Mystery, fuch a Riddle of iniquity, that its very foftneffes are its cruelleft rigor, its Balm corrodes, and (to comprize all in the Pfalmifts excellent Defcription) its words are fmoother then oil, and yet be they very fwords. Pfalm, 56. 21.

2. But befides the mischiefs of it to the Patient, 'tis the most difhonoring, the most vilifying thing to the Agent. I fhall not need to empannel a Jueither of Moralifts or Divines, eve

ry

ry

1

ry mans own breast sufficiently instructing him in the unworthiness of it. 'Tis indeed a Collective accumulative Basenefs, it being in its Elements a compound and a complex of the moft fordid, hateful qualities incident to Mankind. I shall inftance in three, viz. Lying, Servility, and Trechery, which being deteftably deform'd fingle, muft in Conjunction make up a loathfom Monftrous guilt. Now tho Flattery has two Branches, yet thefe lie fo at the Root as equall to influence both: for whether you take it as it is the giving of praife where it is not duc, or the profeffing of kindness which is not real, these Properties are ftill its Conftitutive

parts. 3. AND first we may take Lying tọ be the very corner Stone of the Fa bric; for take it away, and the Whole falls to the ground. A Parafite would make but a lean trade of it, that fhould confine himfelf to truth. For tho 'tis poffible fo to order the manner and circumstances, as to flatter even in the reprefenting a mans real vertues to him, yet commonly if they do not fal fify as to the kind, they are forc'd to do it as to the degree. Befides as there are

but

but fow fuch fubjects of Flattery, foneither are men of that Worth fo receptive of it. Such fort of addreffes are lefs dangerous to those who have the perfpicacity to fee thro them: fo that these Merchangs are under a neceffity of dealing with the more ignorant Chapmen, and with them their counterfeit wares will go off beft. It is indeed ftrange to confider, with what grofs impudent falshoods men of this trade will court their Patrons. How many in former ages have not only amafs'd together all fublunary excellences, but have even ranfacked heaven to fupply their Flattery, Deified their Princes, and perfwaded them they were Gods, who at laft found they were to die like men? And tho this ftrein be now out-dated, yet perhaps is not that the vice is grown more modeft, but that Atheism has rob'd it of that Topic. Thofe, that believe no God, would rather feem to annihilate then magnify the perfon to whom they fhould apply the title. But I do not find that the practice has any other bounds. A great mans vices fhall ftill be called vertues; his deformities, beauties; and his moft abfurd follies, the height of ingenuity, Such a fubtil

fubtil Alchymift is his Parafite, that he turns all he touches into gold, imagina-, ry indeed as to the deluded Perfon, but oft-times real to himself. Nor is Lying lefs naturall to the other part of Flattery, the Profeffion of service and kindnefs. This needs no evidencing, and to attemt it would be a felf-Confutation: for if thofe Profeffions be true, they are not Flattery, therefore if they be Flattery, they must needs be Lies. It will be almost as needlefs to expatiate on the Baseness and meanefs of that fin; for tho there is no Subject that affords more matter for Declamation, yet Lying is a thing that is afhamed of it felf, and therefore may well be remitted to its own convictions. 'Tis Ariftotles obfervation, that all Elements but the Earth, had fome Philofopher or other, that gave it his vote to be the first productive Principle of all things: and I think we may now fay, that all Crimes have had their Abettors and fautors, fome body that would stand up in their defence; only Lying is fo much the dregs and refufe of wickedness, that none has yet had Chymistry enough to fublimate it, to bring it into fuch a reputation, that any man