believe will need no evidence, it is too evidently feen in the open liberties taken every day, in defiance (not to fay of religion, but) of decency and common good manners;-fo that it is no uncommon thing to behold vices which heretofore were committed only in dark corners, now openly fhew their face in broad day, and oft-times with fuch an air of triumph, as if the party thought he was doing himfelf honour, -or that he thought the deluding an unhappy creature, and the keeping her in a ftate of guilt, was as neceffary a piece of grandeur as the keeping an equipage, and did him as much credit as any other appendage of his fortune.

If we pafs on from the vices to the indecorums of the age (which is a fofter name for vices), you will fcarce fee any thing, in what is called higher life, but what befpeaks a general relaxation of all order and difcipline, in which our opinions as well as manners seem to be fet loofe from all reftraints;-and in truth, from all ferious reflections too:-and one may venture to fay, that gaming

and extravagance, to the utter ruin of the greatest eftates,-minds diffipated with diverfions, and heads giddy with a perpetual rotation of them, are the moft general characters to be met with; and though one would expect, that at leaft the more folemn feasons of the year, fet apart for the contemplation of Chrift's fufferings, fhould give fome check and interruption to them, yet what appearance is there ever amongst us, that it is fo;-what one alteration does it make in the course of things? Is not the doctrine of mortification infulted by the fame luxury of entertainments at our tables ?-is not the fame order of diverfions perpetually returning, and scarce any thing elfe thought of? does not the fame levity in drefs, as well as difcourfe, fhew itself in perfons of all ages? I fay of all ages, for it is no fmall aggravation of the corrup tion of our morals, that age, which by its authority was once able to frown youth into fobriety and better manners, and keep them within bounds, feems but too often to lead the way,-and by

their unfeasonable example give a countenance to follies and weakness, which youth is but too apt to run into without fuch a recommendation.-Surely age, which is but one remove from death, fhould have nothing about it, but what looks like a decent preparation for it. In purer times it was the cafe,

--

but now,-grey hairs themfelves fcarce ever appear, but in the high mode and flanting garb of youth,-with heads as full of pleasure, and clothes as ridiculously, and as much in the fashion, as the person who wears them is ufually grown out of it:-upon which article give me leave to make a fhort reflection; which is this, that whenever the eldest equal the youngeft in the vanity of their drefs, there is no reafon to be given for it, but that they equal them, if not furpafs them, in the va nity of their defires.

But this by the by.

Though in truth the obfervation falls in with the main intention of this difcourfe,-which is not framed to flatter our follies, or touch them with a light