Bum. Oh, now I think on't; dist thou ever reade the Story of Moses and the Ten Tables?
Citt. The Two Tables in the Mount thou mean'st.
Bum. Gad I think 'tis the Two Tables. I read it in Print t'other day, in a very good Book, that as sure as thou art alive now, the Bishops in Henry the 8th. made the Ten Commandments.
Citt. Why that was the reason, Bumpkin, when the Lords and Commons put down Bishops, they put down the Ten Commandments too; and made New ones of their Own. And dost not thou take notice that they put down the Lords Prayer too, because 'twas akinn to the Popish Pater-Noster? and then for the Creed, they cast it quite out of the Directory.
Bum. Now as thou lay'st it down to me, the Case is as clear as Christal. And yet when I'm by my self sometime, I'm so affraid methinks of being Damn'd.
Citt. What for, ye Fop you?
Bum. Why for Swearing, Lying, Dissembling, Cheating, Betraying, Defaming, and the like.
The Brethren are only for Profitable Sins.
Citt. Put it at worst, do not you know that every man must have his Dos of Iniquity? And that what you take out in One way you abate for in another, as in Profaning, Whoring, Drinking, and so forth. Suppose you should see P O Y S O N set in Capital Letters, upon seaven Vials in a Laboratory; 'twere a madness I know, for any man to venture his Life upon 'um, without a Taster. But having before your Eyes so many instances, of men that by drinking of these Poysonous Liquors, out of a Consumptive, half-starv'd, and Heart-broken Condition, grow Merry, Fat, and Lusty, would not you venture too? Imagine These Seven Waters to be the Seven Deadly Sins, and then make your Application.
Bum. Nay, the Case is plain enough, and I cannot see why that should be a Poyson to me, that's a Preservative to Another: Only our Adversaries twit us with Objections of Law forsooth, and Religion.