3. What is more innocent than _rest_? And yet what more dangerous than sloth and idleness? What is more lawful than _eating_ and _drinking_? And yet what more destructive of all virtue, and fruitful of all vice, than _sensuality_. Now, it is for want of exactness in the use of these _innocent_ and _lawful things_, that religion cannot get possession of our hearts: and it is in the right management of ourselves, as to these things, that the _art_ of holy living chiefly consists. 4. _Gross sins_ are plainly seen, and easily avoided by persons that profess religion: but the _indiscreet_ use of innocent and lawful things, as it does not _shock_ our consciences, so it is difficult to make people at all sensible of the danger of it. A _gentleman_ that expends all his estate in _sports_, and a _woman_ that lays out all her fortune upon herself, can hardly be persuaded that the spirit of religion cannot subsist in such a way of life. These persons may live free from debaucheries; they may be friends of religion, so far as to _praise_ and _speak_ well of it: but it cannot govern their hearts, and be the spirit of their actions, till they change their way of life. For a _woman_ that loves _dress_, that thinks no expence too great to bestow upon the _adorning_ of her person, cannot stop there; for that temper draws a _thousand_ other follies along with it, and will render the whole course of her life, her _business_, her _conversation_, her _hopes_, her _fears_, her _taste_, her _pleasures_ and _diversions_, all suitable to it. 5. *_Flavia_ and _Miranda_ are two maiden sisters, that have each of them _two hundred pounds_ a year: they buried their parents twenty years ago, and have since that time spent their estate as they pleased.