SECTION IX. 565 To this I answer, that I am very sorry to find that the children Of religions parents choose and delight in company where these things are the chief subject of conversatiom. 1 fear, lest God and virtue, and the important things 'of another world, are utterly banished out of such a visiting -room, where these discourses are the chief entertainment, and there is little place found for any profitable conversation, even about the most useful and valuable affairs of this life. But, light as these pert questions are, I will consider them one after another. You say first, Must we look like old puritans -? Must we live like nobody? No, my friends, I am not persuading you to return to the habit and guise of your ancestors, nor to transact your visits, nor to model your diversions by the pattern of fourscore years ago. There is a certain fashion and appear- ance of things, that belongs to every age : modes of conversa- tion, and forms of behaviour, are ever changing in this life : and it is no improper thing for persons, according to their rank and figure in life, to conform themselves to the present customs, as far as they are innocent, and have no evil influence upon morality or religion. But where any unhappy customs prevail in the world that make an inroad upon your piety, that endanger your virtue, that break the good order of religious families, and are usually or always attended with sotne mischievous consequences, surely in these instances it is better to look like a Puritan, And stand almost alone, than to follow the multitude in the road that leads to iniquity and mischief. A Puritan, or a Separatist from the vain or dangerous courses of a vicious world, is to this day a name of lasting glory ; though the enemies of God and of your ancestors, may cast it upon them in a way of reproach. There are some things in which you must dare to be singular, if you would be Christians, and especially in a corrupt and degenerate age. A sense of the love of God secured to your hearts, and an inward peace of conscience, will infinitely countervail the enmity of the world, and overbalance the reproaches of an ungodly generation. Besides, if the families that profess religion, and desire to preserve piety amongst them, and to transmit it down to their children's children, would but heartily join together, in a resolv- ed abstinence from these hazardous diversions, there would be no need of any one of you to stand alone, and your appearance on the side of virtue would not be singular. You might animate and support one another with public courage, and, having God and virtue on your side, you might, in some measure, bear down the effrontery and ridicule of an age of vice and sensuality ; an age wherein comedies and masquerades, gaming tables and midnight - assemblies are become the modish diversions. But still it may be said, What sin is there in any of them ? N n 3
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