And it was no wonder that she should turn her time, her mind, her health and strength to the same uses that she turned her fortune. It is owing to her being wrong in so great an article of life, that you can see nothing wise, or pious, in any other part of it.
12. And as Flavia is undone by the unreasonable use of her fortune; so the lowness of most peoples virtue, the imperfections of their piety, and the disorders of their passions, are generally owing to their imprudent use of lawful things.
More people are kept from a true sense of religion, by a regular kind of sensuality than by gross drunkenness. More men live regardless of the great duties of piety, through too great a concern for worldly goods, than through direct injustice.
13. This man would perhaps be devout, if he was not a virtuoso. Another is deaf to all the motives to piety, by indulging an idle, slothful temper.
Could you cure this man of his curiosity and inquisitive temper, or that of his false satisfaction and thirst after learning, you need do no more to make them both become men of great piety.
If this woman would make fewer visits, or that not be always talking, they would neither of them find it hard to be affected with religion.
Would we therefore make a real progress in religion, we must not only abhor gross and notorious sins; but regulate the innocent and lawful parts of our behaviour, and put the common actions of life under the rules of discretion and piety.
CHAP. VII.
How the wise and pious use of an estate carrieth us to all the virtues of the Christian life; represented in the character of Miranda.