Crime; and No body would give Money for Indulgences, if he thought,
that what he desires to be indulged in, was lawful without them. All
Multitudes will sooner believe a Man to come from God, who leads an
Austere Life himself, and preaches Abstinence and Self-denial to
others tho' they themselves, I mean the Hearers, don't practice it, or
take any Pains to comply with his Precepts, than they will another,
who takes greater Liberties himself, and whose Doctrine is less
severe. This the wise Architects of the Church of _Rome_, who were
thoroughly skill'd in Human Nature, were well aware of; and
accordingly they have improved upon the Scriptures, and added Lustre
to all those Precepts, which is most difficult to comply with; and in
commenting on the severest Duties of Christianity, they have been so
far from extenuating and explaining away our Obligations to perform
them, that they have heighten'd and magnify'd them, not only by Words
and in Theory, but the Practice and Example; as is so manifest from
the hard and almost incredible Tasks, which many of them have actually
impos'd upon themselves, and gone through. They have flinch'd at
Nothing on this Head.

Hor. A Man must be very stupid to believe, that his close Attachment
to the World, and the Loosness of his own Morals can be atton'd for by
the recluse and strict Lives that are led in some Religious Houses.

Cleo. Not so stupid as you imagine: There is Nothing in it that
clashes with the common Notions of Mankind. Ceremonies are perform'd
by Proxy; Men are Security for one another; and a Debt is not more
effectually discharg'd, when we receive the Money from him who
borrow'd it, than when it is paid by his Bail, tho' the Principal
himself runs away. If there is but real Self-denial to be met with any
where in a Religion, it is no difficult Matter to make Multitudes