contrary way; and if we must let alone everything as absurd or
extravagant which by reason of the wicked lives of many may seem
uncouth, we must, even among Christians, give over pressing the greatest
part of those things that Christ hath taught us, though He has commanded
us not to conceal them, but to proclaim on the house-tops that which He
taught in secret. The greatest parts of His precepts are more opposite
to the lives of the men of this age than any part of my discourse has
been; but the preachers seemed to have learned that craft to which you
advise me, for they observing that the world would not willingly suit
their lives to the rules that Christ has given, have fitted His doctrine
as if it had been a leaden rule, to their lives, that so some way or
other they might agree with one another. But I see no other effect of
this compliance except it be that men become more secure in their
wickedness by it. And this is all the success that I can have in a
Court, for I must always differ from the rest, and then I shall signify
nothing; or if I agree with them, I shall then only help forward their
madness. I do not comprehend what you mean by your casting about, or by
the bending and handling things so dexterously, that if they go not well
they may go as little ill as may be; for in Courts they will not bear
with a man's holding his peace or conniving at what others do. A man
must barefacedly approve of the worst counsels, and consent to the
blackest designs: so that he would pass for a spy, or possibly for a
traitor, that did but coldly approve of such wicked practices: and
therefore when a man is engaged in such a society, he will be so far
from being able to mend matters by his casting about, as you call it,
that he will find no occasions of doing any good: the ill company will
sooner corrupt him, than be the better for him: or if notwithstanding
all their ill company, he still remains steady and innocent, yet their
follies and knavery will be imputed to him; and by mixing counsels with
them, he must bear his share of all the blame that belongs wholly to