apprehensions, be it by the hurry of business or of pleasure, or by
superstition, or moral equivocations, this is in a manner one and
the same, and makes no alteration at all in the nature of our case.
Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them
will be what they will be: why, then, should we desire to be
deceived? As we are reasonable creatures, and have any regard to
ourselves, we ought to lay these things plainly and honestly before
our mind, and upon this, act as you please, as you think most fit:
make that choice, and prefer that course of life, which you can
justify to yourselves, and which sits most easy upon your own mind.
It will immediately appear that vice cannot be the happiness, but
must upon the whole be the misery, of such a creature as man; a
moral, an accountable agent. Superstitious observances, self-deceit
though of a more refined sort, will not in reality at all mend
matters with us. And the result of the whole can be nothing else,
but that with simplicity and fairness we keep innocency, and take
heed unto the thing that is right; for this alone shall bring a man
peace at the last.



SERMON XI {24a--see footnote}
UPON THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR.
PREACHED ON ADVENT SUNDAY.
ROMANS xiii. 9.



And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in
this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.