trouble And it is not for us to say This or that is a small Business for I tell ye let it seem never so small It is a great advance the very first Step that leads to Vertue and Perfection V. If we may compare to a Tree the old man in us that derives his Original from the infected Seed of Adam we may resemble Self-Love to the Root a Perverse Inclination to the Trunk Perturbations to the Branches Vitious Habits to the Leaves Evil Works Words and Thoughts to the Fruit. Now the way to hinder all subsequent Corruptions and Wickedness is to lay the Ax to the Root and to begin with Self-Love Take away that and the whole Off-spring of Carnal Appetite is destroy'd at one Blow And this is done by Humility and Contempt of our selves We must be lowly in our own Eyes and not fear either the Scorn or the Displeasure of Men We must chearfully submit to what condition soever God hath appointed for us He that hates himself as he ought shall be sav'd He that loves himself as he ought not is in danger to perish CHAP. XIII Of Love the Nature of it Causes and Effects Its Remedies and somewhat added of Hatred I. LOve is a certain Delight or Satisfaction we take in that which is Good The first Impression that affects the Appetite proceeding from the Pleasure we take in a known Good It is the Cement of the World the most powerful of all our Passions subdue this once and the rest are easily overcome The Love which is divine aspires naturally toward its Original All Good comes from the Soveraign Good and thither it tends Let every man call his own Soul to a Shrift and see what it is that his Heart is most set upon For it is either the God which he should worship or the Idol which he should not It is the Command of God that we love him with the whole heart and without a Rival He that loves any thing else with his whole heart makes that his God II. Beside the ordinary Motives to Love which are Vertue and Beauty there is also a certain Agreement and Congruity of Minds and Manners together with several Graces and Advantages both of Body and Mind As Modesty of Behaviour Industry Nobility Learning Sharpness of Wit c. But the great Attractive of Love is Love it self which if accompany'd with Benefits is sufficient to turn even the strongest Aversion into a Kindness Men of clear Spirits warm and sanguine Constitutions mild and gentle Natures are much given to Love III. So great is the Power of Love that it does in a manner transform the Lover into the thing belov'd It is a kind of a willing Death a voluntary Separation of the Soul and Body He that is in Love is out of himself he thinks not of himself he provides nothing for himself and effectually he is as good as no where at all if he be not with the thing he loves His Mind is in one place and his Body in another How miserable is that man that loves and loves not God! What Proportion is there betwixt a corruptible Object and the Immortal Soul The end of such Love is Vanity and Vexation and Disappointment Whereas he that loves God lives always where he loves in him in whom all things live and in a secure possession of an unchangeable Good In Carnal Love there is a mixture of Bitterness and Violence but the Love of God is altogether humble and calm The one is full of Jealousies the other has none Here we are afraid of Rivals and there we pray for them We are to love God if we love our selves for we are only the better for it not He. Man is changeable and mortal but there 's no losing of God unless we forsake him IV. If we would have the love we bear to our Neighbour sincere it must be wholly sounded upon Piety and Religion abstracted from all the common Considerations of Wit Likeness Good Humour c. The Platonic Love which pretends from the sight of a Corporal Beauty to raise the Soul to the Contemplation of the Divine proves in the end to be the very Bane of Vertue It is very rarely that a man stops at the view of a lovely Woman without a desire to come nearer and whether it be a Ray only or some kind of Fascination with it that passes from the Eye to the Object somewhat there is that dissolves a man and ruines him There 's more danger in a slip of the Eyes than of the Feet The Cure of Love is the more difficult because the more we oppose it the stronger Resistance it makes And if it be not checkt at the very beginning it comes so insensibly upon us that we are in before we are aware but if we begin with it betimes the Remedy is not difficult One way of Cure may be by Diversion and plunging a mans self into business to put the thought of it out of his head But then we must avoid all occasions and Circumstances that may mind us of the Person we love For if we relapse there will be no Remedy but Time and Absence and we must expect to be perpetually seized with it till in the end it 's weary'd out and falls asleep Many have been cur'd out of mere shame to see themselves pointed at and made Town-talk and then perhaps they may have been brought to a better understanding of the Dishonour and Hazzard of their Proceeding Others have relieved themselves by finding out of Faults and Inconveniencies and by enquiring into the Errors and Imperfections of the thing they love But the last and surest Remedy is to drive out a Carnal Love with a Spiritual and to turn our Affections to God to Vertue to Heaven and to Eternity which are truly amiable A generous Mind cannot but be asham'd to set his heart upon a Dunghil Evil Love corrupts good Manners V. What is it but a kind of Natural Love-Chain that ties the whole World together and the several parts of it The Stars of the Firmament in their Motions the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field Now this Sacred Bond is only dissolv'd by Hatred which leads to Division and Dissension as Love does to Union The most subject to this Vice are the Slothful the Fearful and the Suspicious for they fancy themselves to be threatned with Mischief which way soever they look There are some people of so unsociable a Nature that like Birds of ill Omen they both hate and fear all things together These men are a Burthen to themselves and to Mankind and to be avoided by all means but with Pity not Hatred And in truth there will be no place for Hatred if we turn every thing to the best for there is no man so ill but he has some mixture of Good in him There is nothing truly detestable but Sin and Damnation If we turn our Hatred any other way the harm is to
effected by Revenge but rather by Patience and Obligations It may perchance work a thorow Reformation upon him but very probably it will quiet and sweeten him at the least Or however we our selves shall most certainly be the better for it if he be not Well! There 's such a one is my mortal Enemy he has spoken the basest and the most dishonourable things of me How am I now to behave my self in this case Why truly according to the Rules of Charity and of good Discretion I have this but at second hand I can hardly believe it Or if he did say it some body has abus'd him I am confident he had no ill meaning in it Nay it may be he said it on purpose that I should hear on 't again and be the better for 't The truth on 't is he hath right on his side for I cannot much deny the thing and I 'm e'en well enough serv'd for beginning with him But after all this what if it shall be found to be mere Malice and a Design upon an Innocent Person Was not my Saviour more innocent and incomparably a greater Sufferer I am to say with the Prophet I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it was thy doing Let us all look to our own ways and have a care that what other People say or do amiss prove not unto us an occasion of falling IX But what is it that troubles us Opinion If so It is but removing that Opinion and we are secure and this methinks might be done by a very ordinary way of Reason Nothing can hurt us unless we joyn with it to hurt our selves The mind is safe and inaccessible out of the reach of Injuries and Accidents It moves it self and in judging of Externals it makes every thing only to be as it is taken My Adversary says one is certainly the vilest Creature upon the Face of the Earth Let him alone then say I and leave him to be punish'd by some other hand Or however he has his Torment already in his Transgression He 's a man of Reason and I wonder he can allow himself in these Liberties I prethee wonder at thy self too and begin the Reformation at home upon thy own Impatience and learn to overcome Evil with Good But we have other mens faults in sight and our own behind us Oh the Pleasure of Revenge says the Vindictive man Let him take it then say I upon condition that he fall upon his greatest Enemy first Let him begin with his extravagant fury and rage Is not he a mad man that runs into the Streets to beat Boys for breaking his Windows when he has Thieves in his House that are ready to rifle hâ—m and cut his Throat When Plato's hand was up in Choler to strike an untoward Servant he consider'd better of it and checked himself Sirrah says he I would box ye if I were not angry with you Judging it more for his credit to chastise his Passion before he meddled with his Man and giving to understand that a Cholerick Master deserves the Lash better than a Negligent Servant You shall very rarely find any man Brave that is Furious X. Judges and Publick Magistrates may be allowed to put on a Countenance of Severity and Displeasure but if at any time it comes up to Anger let it be so ordered as only to wait upon Reason but not to preclude it Offenders are to be reprehended and corrected too but without Passion So long as there are bad men in the World there will be Villany in it and he that is resolved to fret himself for whatsoever he sees amiss shall never have one quiet hour while he breaths We are not angry at the Heats and Colds in their proper course and season No less natural are the Indignities we suffer from wicked men and no otherwise ought we to concern our selves for them A wise and a good man should deal with Malefactors as a Physician does with mad Men do them all the good he can and let their Extravagancies go for nothing The only Revenge for a Slanderer is to let him alone as if he were not worth a Revenge The less his Calumny works upon another the more it works upon himself by disappointing him of the end and pleasure of his Contumely But 't is a shame you 'l say for a man to be contemn'd and not to vindicate his Honour How great a shame is it then to fear to be contemned for no man fears Contempt but he that deserves it A wise man reckons nothing disgraceful but sin for he governs himself not according to the judgment of men but of God If any man despise me if any man hate me let him look to it it shall be my care not to deserve either Patience is invincible and triumphs in the end over Nature it self It is a kind of Imitation of God himself who forgives all suffers all and with his Mercies transcends our Iniquities It is more glorious to take no notice at all of an Injury than to pardon it CHAP. VIII Of Envy and Sloth with their Description and Cure I. THE Envious man is not only the first but the greatest Plague to himself He preys upon his own Bowels before he meddles with his Neighbours Goods and it is not in this as in other Vices where the Punishment follows the Sin for here it goes before it and yet keeps it company too for they go hand in hand together A Diabolical Affection That another mans Happiness must be my Torment and that which makes him fat must make me lean In other sins we find only an opposition to this or that particular Vertue But Envy perverts the very nature of things and professes open Enmity to all Goodness First to God himself whose Nature it is humanely speaking to communicate all his Mercies and Blessings Next to the Saints and Angels who rejoyce in the Comforts of their Companions as if they were their own Thirdly to Christian Charity which bids us do good even to our Enemies And lastly to the Law of Nature which commands us to wish other people as happy as our selves Envy is a kind of blear-ey'd Affection it cannot endure to look against the Light II. Satan indeed is envious but it is against Men not his Fellow-Devils Whereas in our Envy worse than the Devils themselves we fall foul one upon another A sign of a mean and abject mind for we envy nothing but what we think above us He that would deliver himself from this Distemper must take his heart off from this transitory World and fix it upon a better The love of Eternity is the death of Envy He that has set his heart upon Heaven can never envy any mans Enjoyments upon Earth It were as if a Prince should envy a Cobler He reckons the World and all the Glories of it not worth a serious thought We have enough to do a man would think to struggle with our own Afflictions
that knows every thing but himself knows in effect as much as comes to nothing V. It is a sordid and infamous humour to be prying into and medling with other Peoples matters to be observing and descanting upon Lives and Manners and to make the worst of every thing What have I to do with the Servant of another who is to stand and fall to his own Master The great Iudge of the world has reserv'd Iudgment to himself and he that presumes to judge his Neighbour invades the Throne of the Almighty Let every man enter into the Privacies of his own Conscience and see what Good is wanting in him what Ill abounds and he 'll find work enough at home to imploy his Pragmatical Spleen upon without hunting after the faults of others And there 's no Protection neither against the Sting of a Malevolent Wit and a Licentious Tongue Was not our Saviour himself taunted and traduced by the Jews And is not the Holy Gospel daily perverted by Hereticks It is with distemper'd minds as with Melancholick Bodies whatsoever they take turns to Corruption The Action is most commonly qualified by the Intention and Good or Bad accordingly But this is only known to him that searcheth the heart and the reins But let the Action we Censure be never so Foul and the Person never so Guilty what is it yet to us How Unchristian an Indecency is it to expose the Nakedness of our Brother for a publick Spectacle Why do we not rather observe our selves Judge and condemn our selves and turn the point of our Malice upon our own Hearts He that 's a severe Iudge to himself shall escape the Iudgment of the most High God VI. They that are so quick-sighted to discover other Peoples failings out of a desire to be thought shrewd men are commonly as jealous of being paid in their own Coyn and of being Hated Contemned ill thought of and ill spoken of by others Toward the subduing of this Vice we are first to Moderate the Pleasure we take in the Acclamations and Applauses of the Multitude and then utterly to cast away all curiosity of knowing what the World thinks or says of us for we are many times possest with a suspicion that such or such a man talks slightly and has a mean opinion of us who is so far from speaking amiss that he says nothing at all of us nor has us so much as in his thought Let a man say with the Apostle If I pleased men I were not the Servant of Christ. 'T is little to me that I am judged by you c. Such as we are with God such we truly are and neither the better nor the worse for the Opinion or Discourse of Men. 'T is much better to be good than to be so esteemed VII If we would have nothing fall out contrary to our Will we must absolutely lay it down and Will nothing at all but in submission to the Will of God This is the way that leads to a true Tranquillity of mind and to a lasting peace He that wishes for nothing but what he should may live as he would It is the only Felicity of this Life to square our Wills to the Will of God He who from all Eternity has appointed the end has likewise appointed the means and whether the way be smooth or craggy through Prosperity or Adversity it is still what God has allotted us in order to our Eternal Bliss He that obeys Divine Providence and follows it chearfully does well and wisely For let him lag and hang off never so much he 'll be forced to follow in spight of his Teeth Beside the Impiety of his Disobedience God Almighty leads the willing and draws the unwilling CHAP. XIX Of the State of Proficients Divers Helps to Improvement The value and the use of time God is always present I. IT is a good step toward Vertue for a man to be Conscious of his own Iniquities and to desire to mend Without which we go backward every day from bad to worse When we are once in the way we must go on as we began and the more haste we make the sooner shall we enjoy the Serenity of Mind which we aim at It is a good sign when a man comes to see his failings better than he did As it is in a Patient when he comes to be sensible that he is sick Every man is apt to flatter himself and therefore let us have a care of being over-credulous If upon the sifting and examining of our Hearts and Thoughts we find an Abatement of our Lusts a greater firmness of mind than ordinary and a more absolute command of our selves we are in a fair way of Proficiency and Emprovement It is an inestimable Blessing for a man to be Master of himself and to be at Unity with himself A good man is unchangeably the same A wicked man is perpetually at variance with himself II. It is but one days work to arrive at the highest pitch of Holiness if we would but turn with our whole hearts from the Creature to the Creator Now whether our Conversion be sincere or no we shall know by these marks If we be out of love with Vanities and transitory things If we delight in Solitude and Contemplation If that please us best that is perfectest If we prefer a good Conscience to God-ward before an empty Reputation among men If we do all this it goes well with us But the most powerful inducement to Vertue of all the rest is the daily Meditation of the Life and Passion of Christ. That Story is the Book of life and sufficient to bring us to Heaven if all the Libraries in the World Authors and all were utterly destroyed But it is not yet enough barely to know Christ and meditate of him unless we likewise imitate him and lead our lives in a Conformity to his word and example The way to rectifie that which is crooked is to bring it to the Rule III. It was well said of some-body That good order is as necessary to the Mind for the gaining of Vertue as it is to the Body for the recovery of Health for there are a thousand things in the way else to divert and retard us As the inordinate love either of our selves or of any thing else Impatience in Losses the over-much indulging of our selves in our Appetites and Pleasures whether in Meat or Drink Conversation or the like the plunging of our selves over head and ears in the affairs of this World and being too much wedded to our own Opinions rejecting the motions and inspirations of the good Spirit within us These obstacles must be removed and we are to encounter them with Resolution and Vigour we are to proceed with Readiness Alacrity and a good Intention and with an industry answerable to the excellency of the work in hand It is not the number of our Exercises but the thorow doing of them not so much the thing it self as the manner
falling into some excess or other and returning worse than he went out This is the Fruit of Publick Conversation but we are not sensible of the damage we receive in Company till we come afterward to reflect upon it in Solitude Let us make what hast we can then into our selves before we are overcome with the Contagion of the Vicious Multitude The Mind that is most contracted is most chearful III. Let a man but imagine himself upon the top of an high Mountain and there taking a prospect of the miserable World he shall quickly see enough to put him out of love with it and all that 's in it Nothing but Robberies at Land Pyracies at Sea the Tumults and Horrors of War Humane blood spilt like water Sin and Iniquity broken loose and beating down all before it Look into the Cabinets of great men and you shall there see such spectacles of Brutal Lust as cannot but disgust and nauseate the very Actors themselves and every where else so boundless a License and Disorder that we would almost swear the whole world were a Bedlam but the mad-men are too many for the sober and their Number is their Justification The Laws themselves are turn'd into snares and Innocency is there invaded where it ought to be protected The Not-guilty is in more danger than the Guilty and the Judge more criminal than the Prisoner For where there is money there can be no transgression A pack of Calumniating Knaves in one place a troop of Fawning Parasites in another here Feuds there Flatteries one man wallowing in his Wine another stretching himself upon his Bed Insatiable Avarice on the one side Slavish Ambition on the other In all Publick Assemblies more Vices than Men Sins of irreverence toward God Injustice toward our Neighbour and Abuse of the Creature So that being guilty of all sins they are to expect that all sins will rise in judgment against them One would think that this view of the World might be sufficient of it self to take off any mans heart from the love of it But when a man considers the difficulty of mastering so many Temptations and bearing up against so many ill and powerful Examples certainly he cannot chuse but bethink himself of a Retreat It is a hard matter for a man to love Innocence where Wickedness is in Authority and Credit If it does not absolutely corrupt us it will yet puzzle and hinder us The only way to be safe and quiet is to retire into our selves were we may look upon the World without being endanger'd by it He that has renounced external things and withdrawn into himself is Invincible the World is to him as a Prison and Solitude a Paradise IV. But we are never the better for quitting the World if we do not vigorously apply our selves to the study and practice of Vertue without which we can have no Comfort no Repose and having that we can want nothing There are three things that seem to have a fair Analogy one with the other in all things and above all things is God himself Among Sensibles is Light and among the perfections of the Mind is Vertue God is the Light and Vertue of all things Light is the Vertue of the World and the Image of God Vertue is the Light of the Mind by which we are called and become the Children of God Without a pure mind there is no attaining of this Perfection for Vertue is the Perfection of a man that repairs all our failings and fills us with delight she raises up our fleshly Nature in things spiritual She is the Rule of Life a light to the Blind She beats down sin and brings us to Eternal Life In the study of Vertue we are to learn what it is in the first place both in general and in particular For no man seeks he knows not what We are then to keep our selves in the continual practice of it Like Souldiers that will be still exercising and skirmishing even in time of Peace and without an Enemy Very well understanding that these Encounters though but represented and in jest keep them in breath and readiness for Assaults in earnest Let a man suppose himself under all the Oppression and Indignity imaginable stript to his Shirt and thrown upon a Dunghill and let him then make tryal of his Patience as if this were his very case indeed He that exercises himself before the Battel will be more resolute in it He that has often lost Blood goes chearfully to the Combat V. The Habits of Vertues are the work of Time And we shall know when we are possest of any of them by these Tokens We have made a good Progress toward any Vertue when we have extinguish'd or at least in a large measure supprest the contrary Vice when we have brought all our Passions to a submission and obedience unto Reason when the practice of Vertue is become not only easie but delightful to us when in contempt of Temporizers we stand up with a generous Freedom in the Vindication of Vertue against all opposers when we come once naturally to abominate those things which formerly we doted upon with a depraved Inclination when the love of Vertue is grown so habitual to us that we allow our selves in nothing that is ill no not so much as in a dream when we come to imitate what we approve in others and to abstain from what we reprehend when nothing that is amiss seems little to us but worthy of our greatest care and diligence to avoid when we can see our Equals preferred without Envy when we have the honesty to confess our faults and submit them to correction and reproof when we can content our selves in the Testimony of a good Conscience without making publication of our good Works Which in the very doing are their own reward when the whole business of our life is Vertue which is always in Act and never tir'd CHAP. XXI Of Theological Vertues Faith is to be manifested in our Works In God alone we are to put our trust Motives to the Love of God The Love of our Neighbours shews it self in good Offices An Exhortation to Charity I. FAith is the Basis of all other Vertues and the Foundation of Christian Life without which no man can please God This is the Wisdom that has subdued the World to which we are firmly to adhere without any unnecessary Curiosity or Disquisition But we are to do as well as to believe for Faith without Works is dead Now while we are Christians in Profession and Discourse let us have a care not to be Infidels in our Lives and Manners If we believe the Gospel why do we not obey it If we do believe an Eternity why do we prefer a momentary Life and Pleasure before it What are we the better for believing that which is True and Good if in our Actions we be false and wicked A good Faith and an ill Life will hardly stand together For he that
are to do it He that commits himself to general experiences and does not venture out of his depth is safe To do wisely a man should first take a measure of himself and next of the matter he takes in hand for fear of over-valuing his own strength One man is undone by presuming too much upon his Eloquence Another runs himself out of his Fortune for want of proportioning his Expence to his Estate A third kills himself with laying more upon an infirm Body than it is able to bear Wherefore we are to compare our Force with our Undertaking and to have a care of Burthens that are too heavy for our shoulders We should not meddle with any thing neither but what we may hope to go thorow withal The next thing is the choice of our Companions for we had need have a very good opinion of those people with whom we propound to divide our Lives And to look narrowly into their Conversation that we be not ruin'd for our good will We are in Conclusion to examine our selves how we stand inclin'd to the thing in Question for 'T is lost labour to go about to force Nature III. It is a hard matter for a man in Passion to distinguish Truth and Honesty from Errour and Delusion so that it is a point of Prudence not to enter upon any considerable Action in a Distemper of mind For there is no greater Enemy to Wisdom than Precipitation which brings many a man to destruction beyond recovery Wherefore nothing is to be done Headily or without good advice Men are naturally unstable and irresolute Providences uncertain Events dubious and Experience it self proves many times deceitful In the multitude of Counsellors there is safety There are many easie people that judge of things by the Gloss and Out-side only and so fall into great mistakes But the wise man passes a strict enquiry into the things themselves abstracted from all Artifice and Imposture into the Qualities and not only into the Names of things For what is Money Reputation Title but a superficial Vernish to dazle Children and Fools We are to place our selves as upon a Watch-Tower where we may discover all Accidents afar off without danger of being surpriz'd and and crying out with the senseless Multitude Who would have thought it We are likewise to proceed with deliberation maturity of judgment and diligent examination of things for fear of ill Circumstances For there is so near a resemblance betwixt Vice and Vertue that we may very well mistake the one for the other and entertain that for Wisdom which is nothing in the world but Craft and Cunning. When we have once made our Election we are without delay to put our purpose in execution For good Counsel without Execution is of no effect CHAP. XXIII Of Iustice and Religion The Acts of both Repentance and wherein it consists I. JUstice is a Glorious and a Communicative Vertue ordained for the Common good of Man-kind without any regard to it self This is it that keeps men from worrying one another and preserves the World in peace It is the Bond of Humane Society a kind of Tacit Agreement and Impression of Nature without which there is not any thing we do that can deserve commendation The just man wrongs no body but contents himself with his own Does good to all Thinks and speaks well of all Gives every man his due and is not any mans hindrance Where he is in Authority he commands righteous things lies open to all prefers a publick good before a private punishes the Wicked rewards the Good and keeps every man in his duty Where he is in subjection he preserves Concord lives in Obedience to Laws and Magistrates contents himself in his station without hankering after Offices and Preferment and is no medler in other peoples matters He is just for Justice-sake and asks no other reward than what he receives in the comfort of being just II. Religion is the most excellent of Moral Vertues and is exercised immediately upon the Honour and Worship of God Of which this is the first point to know and believe him and then to adore him for his Majesty and Goodness Barely to know God is not sufficient for the Devils themselves do as much that hate him There must be Love and Adoration as well as Knowledg I wish we did but discharge our duty as well as we understand it There 's none of us but acknowledges Gods Providence in the ordering and governing of the world his Omnipotency Glory and Goodness and from his Mercy it is that we hope for Eternal Happiness Why do we not pay him that Veneration then which belongs to him but prefer a little pitiful dirt before him Religion lies not so much in the Understanding as in the Practice He that is truly Religious walks as in the presence of God and studies perfection The most acceptable Worship of God is the imitation of him which does in a manner unite us to God and God to us but it must be free then from wandrings negligence and sin It is to no purpose to talk like Christians and live like Infidels This was it that made a famous Heathen Philosopher to say that There was nothing more Glorious than a Christian in his Discourse nothing more miserable in his Actions III. Repentance is that which brings us â—o a Detestation of sin with a full resolution of Amendment which reconciles us to God To a Detestation I say of our past sins wherefore the pleasure likewise is past but the Guilt the Torment and the Condemnation sticks by us To conceal our Iniquities is to no purpose for A Guilty Conscience passes Sentence upon it self Conscience is a kind of Tribunal which God Almighty hath set up in all reasonable Souls where every man is his own Accuser and both Witness and Judge against himself Let us therefore enter into a strict and daily Examination of our selves and without hiding mincing or slipping of any thing call all our thoughts words and deeds to a strict account He that says Lord be merciful to me a Sinner finds mercy What am I the better for concealing my faults from other people so long as I am conscious of them to my self Unless I had rather be damned in private than absolv'd in publick Whatever we do with our Bodies there 's no avoiding of our Consciences when we come once to cast off that regard we are most miserable IV. Our Life is divided into what 's past present and to come The present is but a moment and in the same instant beginning and ending The future has no Being but only in prospect but whatsoever is past we can summon and call before us at pleasure Many people are afraid of their own memories because if they look back their sins flie in their faces But this should not be Frequent Reflexion is the readiest way to Reformation The more we consider our Transgressions the more shall we abhor them and the less