The travels of true godliness, from the beginning of the world to this present…

Riches Having thanked them for their good Counsel, with a great deal of joy, retires himself, being very well satisfied with the advice Dr. Self-love and Sir Worldly Wiseman had given him. and indeed this is the misery of most rich men, (viz.) if they lie under any convictions of sin, from that little light Conscience hath at any time got, then presently (being stirred up thereto by Covetousness) they consult with flesh and blood, and then Dr. Self-love and Sir Worldly Wiseman are their great Counsellors. But to proceed, Riches got now a Reader, and instead of opening to True Godliness, he opens to counterfeit Godliness, ^*which was occasioned through Ignorance, and those other foolish Counsellors he hearkened to. Now, this Reader, as it appears, proved a sad Fellow, for though he was a Scholar, being brought up in some Foreign University, yet he never cared to read the Bible, but (as some say, would now and then curse it) loved to read Romances and Song Books. But poor Conscience being stifled, in a little time he gave content to the whole Family, in that he could mumble over a few Prayers out of a Book. And that in rhe second place, he could Bowl, drink Healths, be Drunk, and cry God damn him with any of them; and there was indeed never a one in all the Family, that hated True Godliness more than he, for he made songs of him and scoffed, jeered and derided him continually, and made himself and others merry with his mean, low and distressed condition, ⟨p. 28⟩and also stirred up all the Neighbourhood, to find fault, and quarrel with all those who were friends and true lovers of him.

Riches Having thanked them for their good Counsel, with a great deal of joy, retires himself, being very well satisfied with the advice Dr. Self-love and Sir Worldly Wiseman had given him. and indeed this is the misery of most rich men, (viz.) if they lie under any convictions of sin, from that little light Conscience hath at any time got, then presently (being stirr'd up thereto by Covetousness) they consult with flesh and blood, and then Dr. Self-love and Sir Worldly Wiseman are their great Counsellers. But to proceed, Riches got now a Reader, and instead of opening to True Godliness, he opens to counterfeit Godliness, ^*which was occasioned through Ignorance, and those other foolish Counsellers he hearkened to. Now, this Reader, as it appears, proved a sad Fellow, for though he was a Scholar, being brought up in some Foreign University, yet he never car'd to read the Bible, but (as some say, would now and then curse it) lov'd to read Romances and Song Books. But poor Conscience being stifled, in a little time he gave content to the whole Family, in that he could mumble over a few Prayers out of a Book. And that in rhe second place, he could Bowl, drink Healths, be Drunk, and cry God damn him with any of them; and there was indeed never a one in all the Family, that hated True Godliness more than he, for he made songs of him and scoffed, jeered and derided him continually, and made himself and others merry with his mean, low and distressed condition,