VISCOUNT AUCHTERHOUSE, LORD CARDROSS AND GLENDOVACHIE, ONE OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF POLICE, AND LORD LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNTIES OF STIRLING AND CLACKMANNAN IN NORTH-BRITTAIN. MY LORD, The Honour you have done our Family Obligeth us to make all just Acknowledgments of it: and there is no Form of Acknowledgment in our power, more worthy of Your Lordship's Acceptance, than this Dedication of the last Work of our Honoured and Learned Father. Encouraged hereunto by the Knowledge we have of Your Lordship's Judicious Relish of universal Learning, and sublime Virtue, we beg the Favour of Your Acceptance of it, which will very much Oblige our Family in general, and Her in particular, who is, MY LORD, _Your Lordship's_ _most humble Servant_, ELIZABETH LITTELTON. THE PREFACE _If any One, after he has read_ Religio Medici, _and the ensuing Discourse, can make Doubt, whether the same Person was the Author of them both, he may be Assured by the Testimony of Mrs._ LITTELTON, _Sr._ THOMAS BROWN'S _Daughter, who Lived with her Father when it was composed by Him; and who, at the time, read it written by his own Hand: and also by the Testimony of Others (of whom I am One), who read the MS. of the Author, immediately after his Death, and who have since Read the Same; from which it hath been faithfully and exactly Transcribed for the Press. The Reason why it was not Printed sooner is, because it was unhappily Lost, by being Mislay'd among Other MSS. for which Search was lately made in the Presence of the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury, of which his Grace, by Letter, Informed M^{rs.}_ LITTELTON, _when he sent the MS to Her. There is nothing printed in the Discourse, or in the short notes, but what is found in the original MS of the Author, except only where an Oversight had made the Addition or transposition of some words necessary._ JOHN JEFFERY Arch-Deacon of Norwich. CHRISTIAN MORALS PART I [Sidenote: SECT. 1] Tread softly and circumspectly in this funambulatory Track and narrow Path of Goodness: Pursue Virtue virtuously: Leven not good Actions, nor render Virtues disputable. Stain not fair Acts with foul Intentions: Maim not Uprightness by halting Concomitances, nor circumstantially deprave substantial Goodness.