a HOLY LIFE, 83 



the confidence to demand thofe : Florales 

 joci nudandarum meretricum^ as Seneca calls 

 them. The wicked indeed hate the righ- 

 teous, becaufe his life is a reproof to them, 

 and gives them fome check in their vici- 

 ous courfeSj taking from them their great 

 excufe of the impoffibility of God's Com- 

 tnandments; and demonflrating, that through 

 the afliftance of Divine Grace, which is al- 

 ways granted to them who do what in them 

 lies, and pray for it ; it is poffible to obey 

 them to fuch a degree as will be accepted 

 by God : Wicked Men though they hate 

 Virtue in the Subjeft, yet limply and ab- 

 ftraftedly they acknowledge it to 'be good ; 

 though in their practice they prefer Vice 

 before Virtue ; yet never any arrived to 

 to that degree of fottifhnefs, as to fay, it 

 was better than Virtue : For example ; bet- 

 ter to be a glutton, and a drunkard than a 

 temperate Per (on ; to cheat and 'defraud* 

 than to be juft and righteous in our deal- 

 ings : And therefore, though they hate and 

 perfecute Men for being religious, yet they 

 difguife the Subje<51 of their hatred, pre- 

 tending it to be Hypocrifie, Herefie, Su- 

 perftition, or the like, that they hate them 

 for. Whence it appears, that they arelelf- 

 condemned Perfons. . Seneca in his Fourth 



G 'L Book, 



