o Religion and Virtue, SE R M. they fatisfy themfelves with their fenfual I. gratifications as the belt enjoyments, having endeavoured to drown all fenfe of fuperior excellence ; they decry wifdom, and treat it with contempt, as too rigid and folemn for that gaiety in which they chufe to fpend their days. But if we will take our notions of things from this writer, voluptuoufnefs and exceffes in eating and drinking are di- redly contrary to wifdom, which guardeth her votaries againft them as molt pernicious, Prov. xxiii. 19. Hear thou, my fon, and be wife, and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among/I wine- bibbers, among/l riotous eaters of flefh ; for the drunkard and the glutton flail come to poverty ; and .drowfinefs fhall cloath a man with rags. Slothfulnefs, a lazy ftupid inaEtivity and indolence, is a vice very incident to human Nature ; and they who give themfelves up to it vainly fanc, they take the wifeft courfe, avoiding many dangers, and a great deal of painful toil and labour ; the ,jluggard is wifer in his own conceit than feven men that can ren- der a reafon : But in this book he is charged with brutifh folly, and even fent to the beafts, as wifer than he, to be inftruded by them, Prov. vi. 6. Go to the ant, thou Jug - gard,,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=