Impartially sincere.
18. Heathens, and Jews, and Turks, may I
And Heretics embrace,
Nor ev’n to Rome the love deny
I owe to all the race.
[♦] “sprit” replaced with “spirit”
A WORD to a
FREEHOLDER.
WHAT are you going to do? To vote for a parliament man? I hope then you have taken no money. For doubtless you know the strictness of the oath, That you have received no “Gift or reward, directly or indirectly, nor any promise of any, on account of your vote” in the ensuing election. Surely you start at perjury! At calm, fore-thought, deliberate, wilful perjury. If you are guilty already, stop. Go no farther. ’Tis at the peril of your soul. Will you sell your country? Will you sell your own soul? Will you sell your God, your Saviour? Nay God forbid! rather cast down just now the thirty pieces of silver or gold, and say, “Sir, I will not sell heaven. Neither you, nor all the world is able to pay the purchase.”
I hope you have received nothing else, neither will receive; no entertainment, no meat, or drink. If this is given you on account of your vote, you are perjured still. How can you make oath, you have received no gift? This was a gift, if you did not buy it. What will you sell your soul to the devil for a draught of drink, or for a morsel of bread? Oh consider what you do. Act, as if the whole election depended on your single vote: And as if the whole parliament depended (and therein the whole nation) on that single person whom you now chuse to be a member of it.