Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/250

188 culty of the Times. It is a Certain Rule, 'tis true (but a General One) That No Ill is tobe done that Good may come of it: Now the Point will be at lat, what's Simply Good or Evi]; What in the Contemplation; and how far the Intention, or the Probable Conequences of uch, or uch an Action, may Qualifie the Cae: Taking This Conideration along with us too, that we are under a Great Temptation to be Partial in favour of our elves, in the Matter of Eae, Profit, or Safety.

The Firl Point to be Preerv'd Sacred, and from whence a Man is never to Depart, though for the Saving of his Life, Liberty, Popular Credit, or Etate; That Firt Point, I ay, is Concience. Now All Duties are Matter of Concience, repectively to the Subject that they are Exercis'd upon; Only with This Retriction, that a Superior Obligation Dicharges, or at leat Supends the Force of an Inferior: As to uch a Circumlance for the Purpoe, uch a Degree, or uch a Seaon. Now there are other Niceties alo, as of Honour, Decency, and Dicretion, Humanity, Modety, Repect, &c. that Border even upon the Indipentable Tyes of Religion it elf; and though they are Not Matter of Concience, Simply, and Apart, they are yet to Reductively, with a Regard to Other Coniderations: That is to ay, though they are Not o in the Abract, they Become o by Affinity and Connexion: And uch Civil Matters they are, as fall within the Purlews of Religion. There are Tryals of Men, as well as Tryals of Trees. Storms or Inundations are the ame Thing to the One, that the Iniquity of uch or uch an Age, or Conjuncture, is to the Other. Now 'tis not Courage but Stomach, that makes many People Break, rather then they will Bend; even though a Yielding upon That Pantillo (and with a Good Concience too) might perhaps have av'd a State. Fractures Undoubtedly are Dangerous, where the Publick is to be Cruh’d under the Ruine: But yet after All This Decanting, and Modifying upon the Matter, there's no les Hazzard on the Yielding-ide too, then there is on the other. Men may be Stiff and Obtinate, upon a Wrong Ground, and Men may Ply, and Truckle too, upon as Fale a Foundation. Our Bodies may be forc'd, but our Minds Cannot: So that Humane Frailty is No Excue for a Criminal Immorality. Where the Law of God and Nature Obliges me, the Plea of Humane Frailty can Never Dicharge me. There's as much Difference betwixt Bending and Sinking,as there is betwixt Breaking and Bending. There mut be no Contending with Inuperable Powers on the One Hand, and no Departing from Indipenable Duties on the Other: Nor is it the Part, either of a Chritian, or of a Man, to Abandon his Pot. Now the Jut Medium of This Cae lies betwixt the Pride, and the Abjection of the Two Extreams. As the Willow, for the Purpoe, Bows, and Recovers, and the Reignation is Crown'd and Rewarded in the Succes. The Oak is Stubborn, and Inflexible, and the Punihment of That Stiffnes, is One Branch of the Allegory of This Fable.