BID early defiance unto those Vices which are of thine inward Family, & having a root in thy Temper pIead a right and propriety in thee. Raise timeIy batteries against those strong holds built upon the Rock of Nature, and make this a great part of the MiIitia of thy Iife. DeIude not thy seIf into iniquities from participation or community, which abate the sense but not the obIiquity of them. To conceive sins less, or less of sins, because others aIso Transgress, were MoraIIy to commit that natural faIlacy of Man, to take comfort from Society, & think adversities less, because others also suffer them. The poIitick nature of Vice must be opposed by Policy. And therefore wiser Honesties project and plot against it. Wherein notwithstanding we are not to rest in generals, or the trite Stratagems of Art. That may succeed with one which may prove succesless with another: There is no community or commonweal of Virtue:
Every man must study his own oeconomy, and adapt such rules unto the figure of himself Sect. XIX.
BE substantially great in thy self, and more than thou appearest unto others; & let the World be deceived in thee, as they are in the Lights of He one of those violent ones which force the Kingdom of Heaven. If thou must needs Rule, be Zeno's King, & enJoy that Empire which every Man gives himself He who is thus his own Monarck contentedly sways the Scepter of himself, not envying the Glory of Crowned Heads and Elohims of the Earth. Could the World unite in the practise of that despised train of Virtues, which the Divine Ethicks of other Saviollr hath so inculcated unto us, the furious face of things must disappear, Eden would be yet to be found, and the Angels might look down not with pity, but Joy upon us. Matthew XI.
