could live more by Faith in this trying affliction I indeavour to impress upon my Soul those arguments which the Scripture affords for Patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness But this will not do the work unless the Spirit of Faith and Patience be given from him from whom comes down every good and perfect gift I pray I cry to my Father that he would give me the Holy Spirit according to his Gracious promise that I might shew forth the Power of his grace and that I might not dishonour him nor discourage his Children nor reproach Religion by my weakness And in my bearing of it well my Reputation is nothing regarded by me in comparison of the honour of Christ. Him I desire to Gloryfy both in my obedience and patience I do not love God the less because of his correcting hand upon me As my necessities drive me so His Love draws me and my Love brings me to him I look to him as my Father And shall I not honour my Father and give him reverence when I am chastned of him The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him I will wait for the Lord who hideth his face I will look after him He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Therefore he will turn again and have compassion upon me If he kill me I will put my trust in him for he will not cast me off for ever if I cleave to him with Faith unseigned but even through Death it self will he save me He will bring me forth to the Light and I shall behold his Righteousness When I say what shall I do in case of such or such troublesome or dangerous consequents my heart answers be not careful God will provide I will leave it to him Besides a Natural desire of ease and rest the sense of the temptation which I am liable in this condition makes me importunate to be delivered from it I feellingly know the weakness of my own heart and I am not ignorant of the Devil's malice and subtilty and how he will make the fiercest assaults where I am weakest Whereupon I tremble in my self for fear of being tempted and shaken and greatly amazed And upon this ground respecting my Souls safety I judg an humble and patient importunity with God for the removing or moderating of my distemper to be my Duty Yet to keep me from being over solicitous and anxious in this thing I consider that God doth govern and limit all our temptations and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but will with the temptation open a way for us to escape Nevertheless I find that I do much offend by too great a vehemence of desire to be delivered from this grievous burden without due submission also by too much disquietness and dejection when after some expectation of a benefit by that means I perceive that my hope thereof is like to be frustrated The Lord help me to carry it better and as I ought to do and keep my mind in its right frame My business under this Affliction is to be careful about my own part and to leave God's part to his care My part is to do my duty and to get the benefit of the Affliction but to remove it is God's part Let me perform what belongs to me and what belongs to God he will certainly perform in his own time and way The Sum of my duty is Graciously to comply with the dispensation and to behave my self suitably to it and to please and honour God under it Accordingly in this I Labour and in this way I seek for comfort And first I justify God and judg my self God exercises his own holiness and justice in this Castigation His justice and holiness I approve and accept the punishment of mine Iniquity and exercise an hatred of the Sin for which I now smart I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him and I repent with a self-abhorrence And I lye in the dust at his feet and wait on him untill that he have Mercy upon me and I am glad to receive Mercy upon his terms I have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before me I do most heartily take God for my portion and I had rather Live the divine Life in Conformity to him and Fellowship with him here in the first-fruits of the Spirit and hereafter in the fulness of Glory than live in the fulness of the delights and Contentments that belong to the Natural Life upon earth in a way of Sin and allienation from the Life of God I do most heartily take Christ according to the offer of the Gospel not only to be justified from my Sins and delivered from the wrath to come by his merits but also to be Sanctified by his Word and Spirit and to be governed by his Laws and to be brought by him unto the aforesaid fellowship with God And my Life and practice in the main Bent and ordinary course thereof is according to this choice in a daily walking not by sight and sense but by faith not after the flesh but after the Spirit in setting my heart not on earthly but on heavenly things I cast off vain desires and hopes and my expectations of good are from God according to the tenor of his promises When I walk in darkness and see no light of outward comfort humane helps and visible means I will trust in the Name of the Lord and stay my self upon my God I strive with my own spirit to subdue it to the will of God And in whatsoever I am tempted to be most impatient therein I labour most for patience My great care is that I may not sin against my God in any kind and more especially that I may not sin by a rebellious impatience under his correcting hand In this present distress I look upon my self as being upon my Tryal and therefore I look more diligently to my behaviour in it Now a price is put into my hand for the proof of my sincerity and I labour accordingly to make good proof of it I am willing to serve God in pain and patience else I were unworthy of so good a Master I am willing to be conformable to Christ in suffering else I were unworthy of him But here I must say again the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Lord help my unwillingness I am called to deny all the pleasures of sence and to mind them no more and I am heartily willing of it I am called to declare to others by the exercise of Faith and Patience the Righteonsness of the Lord and his tender Mercies and great Faithfulness and that he alone is Alsufficent O that the power of his grace may be thus magnified in me This is the fruit of the Afflictions that I look after And in this will I labour more and more And through the help of Divine
Salvation Iohn Howe Mr. CORBET's ENQUIRY INTO THE State of his Soul His Introduction IN order to peace of conscience and assurance of my good estate towards God it must in reason be supposed that I may rightly understand the marks of sincerity set down in Gods Word as also the predominant inclination and motions of my own soul and that I may be so far assured of my right understanding of the things aforesaid as to have no reasonable ground of doubting thereof For I have no other ordinary way to know my sincerity in order to the said peace and assurance but to examine it according to my best understanding by the marks thereof set down in Gods Word In this Self-Examination it is requisite that I use all Diligence and Impartiality with Constancy and that I earnestly pray for Gods assistance in it and heartily offer my self to his search as David did Psal. 139. 23. Wherefore if upon the most impartial and diligent search that I can make according to the best of my understanding together with earnest and constant Prayer to God to assist me therein as in my greatest concern it doth most rationally appear to me that the predominant inclination and motions of my soul are agreeable to the marks of sincerity set down in Gods Word then my conscience doing its office aright is to judge for me accordingly viz. that I am sincere And in this judgment I am to acquiesce because it is the Judgment of Gods Agent and Minister which he hath set up within me to judge under him of my internal state according to his Law by which he himself doth and will judge me God hath the same aspect upon the Soul which Conscience his Vicegerent hath as it from time to time or ordinarily judgeth not against him or without him but under him and according to his judgment either acquitting or condemning To this purpose the Apostle speaketh 1 John 3. 20 21. If our heart condemn us God is greater than our Heart and knoweth all things If our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God The State of my Own SOUL According to the strictest Search that I can make Psal. 139. 23 24. Search me O Lord and know my Heart try me and know my Thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting Amen The following particulars were set down in Decemb. Jan. Feb. An. 1663. AS far as I am able to discern my heart and wayes I have chosen the Lord for my portion I take up my rest in him and not in the Creature To love and fear and admire and bless him and to have communion with him is my chief joy And the eternal Vision and Fruition of God is my great hope I would not only have God herafter but here in this World for my chief good He is even now better than all the World I come to God by Jesus Christ. And as I believe in God I believe also in Christ and rejoyce and glory in him and acknowledging my own sinfulness and unworthyness I rest intirely on him as the ground of my justification to Life and of all favour and acceptance with God I receive Christ as my Lord and give up my self to him I let him into my heart by Faith I esteem him precious and am willing to suffer the loss of all that I may win him I desire to know him in the Power of his Death and Resurrection and am much grieved that I do so weakly experience that power and feel it no more operative in me in my dying to sin and 〈◊〉 World and in living and walking in the Spirit I do not cease to lament the more heinous sins of my Life and cannot forbear the continual imploring of the pardon of them I do not return again to them and I resolve never so to do I watch and pray and strive against all sin but especially against those sins to which I am more especially inclined my conflicts are daily and am put hard to it But I do not yield up my self to any sin nor lie down in it yea I do not suffer sinful Cogitations to lodge in me Howbeit I am many times much discomposed damped in Spirit deadned in Duty distracted in my Studies and molested and hindered every way by the sin that dwelleth in me But I resolve that sin shall have no rest in my soul and that I will never injoy it Though I cannot keep sin out of my heart yet it doth not reign in my mortal body nor do I yield my members to the service of it I would fulfil all Righteousness and owe nothing to any man but love I had a hundred sold rather suffer wrong than do wrong It was said of Christ that no guile was found in his mouth and of the faithful Company that followed the Lamb that no guile was found in their mouth And that it may be so with me I indeavour with my whole heart I trust God with my chiefest outward Concernment even with that about which I am most Solicitous and wherein to be satisfied is of great moment to me for that it hath as great an influence upon my Spirit as any outward thing hath And I do believe that God will provide for me herein or otherwise supply the want of it My earnest desire of God is that my outward condition may be so stated by his Wife and Gracious providence as I may be least exposed to temptation and best disposed and furthered unto Duty I have an Inclination to seek Self particularly in vain applause and that in Religious services and herein I have been highly guilty but I shame my self for it before God and I am willing to be satisfied in the Praise that comes from him alone and I trust through his Grace that I can deny my self in matter of Reputation to do his Will I love the Lord Jesus Christ and all his Saints The broken estate of the Church especialy by intestine Evils is a great trouble to my Spirit The scandals of professors I am truly grieved at and I would not by their weaknesses seek to excuse my own faults or an advancing of my own Virtues I have no setled Bitterness and Revenge against my Enemies but I love pitty and pray for them As concerning God's Enemies I am more provoked but I would not be inhumane or cruel against them For the wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God I contemn none I would not imbitter the Spirit of any I would answer all obligations of courtesy as accounting it a Righteousness I would not insult over the weakness of any and this is partly out of Natural tenderness and Moral Considerations and I find that the goodness and kindness of God the meekness gentleness of Christ hath here unto made Impression upon me I find upon the review of my Life past according to the clearest judgment that I can make that I have not gone
backward but proceeded forward in the wayes of Godliness And this increase I reckon not by sudden fits now and then hapening but by the main progress of the work in the total Sum. I have been grieved that I am no more elevated in the hope of Heaven and that I cannot attain to a longing desire to be gone hence and to be there with Christ. I have laboured to raise up my heart and have had enlargement even when deadness and flatness had been upon me I think with my self sometimes were my Evidences clear for Heaven I would exalt to be gone hence this very hour but I find not this readiness at all times When I have had a good enterprize in hand for God's Glory and some publick benefit I watched against Vanity of mind and vain Glory in carrying it on and I desire purely to aym at God ' s Glory and to be satisfied with my reward in him And I take heed that I forget not my Mortality when I am pursuing that design but I would fain bring up my self to this frame to be contented to be taken hence in the midst of it as judging that I shall be no looser by my removal and God cannot stand in need of that Service Lord forgive my inordinate self-love which hath disturbed the Actings of pure Charity in divers passages of Moment For self-love in my sensitive appetite hath had motions contrary to the Love of God and my Neighbour Nevertheless my Judgment hath disallowed it and I have for the most part acted against it and for that which the Love of God and my Neighbour did command O Lord forgive my ten thousand Talents I come to Jesus Christ who hath made satisfaction and lay this heavy reckoning to his account Lord forgive my Iniquity for it is exceeding great These following passages were set down March 4. An. 1675. UPon the Review of the foregoing Evidences after Twelve Years I find through Grace the same abiding in me and more and more Rooted And some particulars which did make me more to doubt of my good Estate I find to be since that time in a greater degree vanquished I have done what in me lies to call to remembrance all my remarkable Sins from my Childhood and Youth till now And as far as I can Judg I have Repented of them both generally and particularly And I now Repent of them all from the bottom of my Heart with a self Abhorrence if I can know my own Heart by the strictest and most impartial search that I can make Upon the best Judgment that I can make of the Nature of Sin and the Frame of my own Heart and Course of Life I know no Sin lying upon me which doth not consist with habitual Repentance and with the hatred of Sin and with an unseigned consent that God be my Saviour and Sanctifier and with the Loving of God above all The Mercy of God towards me in the prolonging of the day of Grace in the strivings of his Spirit in his Chastisements in the checks of Conscience in the Recovery of my Soul out of Distempers and Backslidings doth greatly affect my Heart and strongly engage me to Him and doth often call upon my Soul and all that is within me to Bless his holy Name Though my Spiritual growth be very low and slow yet to this present time I have not grown Worse but Better speaking of growth in the whole space or greater spaces of my time past and not every particular Day By Prayer and Endeavours long continued I have in some measure overcome a special very Sinful Distemster of Mind and gained the contrary Temper against a natural Propensity Though my Faith in Christ be weak yet to have part in his Promises I am ready to part with all that is dear in this World and I have no hope of Happiness but in Christ. Though I have had doubtings touching the promised Salvation yet I know that as to my own Felicity I prize nothing more than that Salvation being the glorifying and injoying God for Ever and I Embrace it as my best Good I Love Christ whom I have not seen and I am affected towards him as towards a person who taught and did the most excellent Things and promised a most excellent State to his Followers and purchased their Redemption at the dearest rate I am heartily grieved for loving God so little yet I am sure This I Wrote according to a full perswasion at that time I Love nothing more than God and in my esteem and choice I prefer the Spiritual Divine and Heavenly Life imcomparably before the Carnal Animal Earthly Life And this esteem and choice is made good by performance in Ordinary I Love to Love God And I desire this Love not only as an evidence of my Salvation but for it self I had much rather have a heart to love him perfectly than to have all the Riches Honours and Pleasures of this World My Conscience beares me witness that in the present exercise of my ministry I have no self-end of Worldly Advantage or Reputation among Men or any Interest of the Carnal Mind but if the Command of Christ and the necessities of Souls did not oblige me to this Service I should gladly retire to Privacy and Solitude My Temporal Estate is mean and low yet I am Contented with it and humbly bless God for what I have I Live in as narrow a compass for Expences as I can that I might have something to give to the Poor and to be helpful to those that are in Need according to my Ability And as God hath required of us to Love Mercy and our Saviour hath said It is a more Blessed thing to give than to receive so I have more pleasure in giving a Portion to the Needy as far as my mean Estate will bear than in laying out for the Delight of my own Sense or Worldly Conveniences And this proceeds not from a conceit of Merit in any thing that I can do but from a Love to please God and do Good Though I have a good Knowledge about the premises yet I am apt to waver about the Conclusion And though I apprehend the Evidences of my Sincerity to be clear yet a Timorousness remains in me Though I have not as yet overcome the Fear of Death yet I am sure that the unwillingness that is in me to Dye is not that I might enjoy the pleasures of Sense or any Gratification of the Animal Life I feel in my self a burden of Sin and Corruption much Sensuality Earthliness Selfishness nevertheless I judg there is that Predominancy of Love to God and Holiness which I hope is unmoveably seated in my Soul whereupon I hope that it cannot be that I should be cast out of his blissful Presence into that Perdition which is a State of immutable hatred of him And I apprehend that the most horrid and hellish state of Hell it self lyes in its Everlasting and utmost Enmity against
God Thus I am searching and trying my heart and wayes and what I find by my self I write down that I may have it by me for my relief in an Evil day and an hour of temptation For I must expect the time when by weakness or anguish of Body or mind I may be disabled to recollect my self and duly to state the case of my own Soul And the Powers of Nature may so fail that I may have but a very weak Apprehension of what I have to do in this great Concernment I am warned by the parable of the ten Virgins to look to it that together with my Lamp I may have Oyl in my Vessel and be ready to enter in with the Bridegroom at his coming Lord be Merciful to me a sinner to me one of the chiefest of Sinners O my exceeding sinfulness O the Riches of thy goodness towards me Should not I loath my Carnal self should not I grieve for grieving thy Spirit I desire to do so I hope to do so Do what thou wilt with me so thou pardon and Sanctify and save me I am afraid of thy judgments I can endure but little O how weak is my heart Nevertheless I will endeavour and I trust through Grace that that I shall be enabled to bear thy correcting hand Thou art Wise and Holy Thou art Merciful and Gracious Thou retainest not thine Anger for ever because thou delightest in mercy O spare me and consider me and deal with me not after my Sins and reward me not after mine Iniquities but as far as the East is from the West so far remove my transgressions from me comfort me and satisfy me for I wait for relief from thee Whatsoever befalls me I will put my trust in thee I believe O Lord help my unbelief Lord increase my Faith O my God I lie at thy feet and Mercy I put my sinful distressed Soul into the hands of Jesus Christ and I rest on the Covenant of grace made in him as all my Salvation and all my desire Amen More Observations touching the State of my Soul March the 27th 1676. O The wonderful mercy of God towards me a most vile and â—â—etched sinner in convincing rebuking and awakening me unto a self-abhorrence and an utter detestation of my sins my special sins so that I cannot be reconciled to them Since the more powerful awakening of my Conscience I never have and am perswaded never shall return to those former sins which made a breach between God and my Soul I hate every sin impartially A sinful state is in my internal sense an horrid and an hellish state I finde my self firmly resolved to give up any part of my worldly Estate that I shall be found to hold to anothers Wrong If it be doubtful where the Right lies I am resolved first to indeavour a Reference to Conscientious knowing Men and if that cannot be fitly had to submit it to a Legal Tryal with a desire that Right may take place I know not that I hold any 〈◊〉 Estate or that there is any doubt of my Legal Right to any thing that I possess but I have made supposition for the Tryal of my own Spirit When I had a Father or Mother I would have trusted them to defend or deliver me from any Evil from which it was in their power to defend or deliver me In the same manner I now trust to my loving Wife Why then should I be suspicious of God in whose Hands I am Why should I doubt of his Dear Love and Tender Mercy towards me or call in question his good Will to preserve or deliver me from any Affliction that would be too hard for me to bear or to sustain and comfort me under any Suffering which he sees fit to inflict upon me If when I was more careless and forgetful of God and when I ventured upon breaches with him he was pleased to convince me of my Sin and to rouze me up to a greater Care and to make me more earnest for Pardon and for Healing and for all needful Grace and more throughly Resolved to follow him throughout surely he will not refuse me in my Addresses for more Grace and a more confirmed State of Holiness If I follow on to know the Lord I shall know him and see his Salvation Though Death and Judgment be of dreadful Consideration though God be Holy and Just and I be vile and guilty and worthy of eternal Perdition yet why should I doubt of Mercy and Forgiveness and of Support and Comfort in the Darkness of Death and of Justification in the Day of Judgment from a Merciful and Faithful God through a Powerful Redeemer and Advocate seeing as a humble Penitent Believer I lye at his Feet and cast my self into his Arms and wait on his Grace and am resolved to keep his Wayes and never to return to Folly I more desire to be Sincere than to know that I am so The comfort and delight of being and doing Good I fet not so much by as the very being and doing Good To Love God and to be Conformable to him is that which I most of all desire should be in me I will trust God in his Wayes I will strive against an over-timorous sollicitude about my own Salvation and will commit my self to God who is the infinite Goodness and Love and I will lye down and take my Repose therein I am grieved when I observe or hear of the Scandals of some Professors and the disorders of those that are in Charity to bejudged Sincere and the follies and frailties of the more Sincere and Upright And it humbles me by causing me to reflect upon my self and my own Faultiness and Weakness and Proness to Offend and it makes me more to desire the Heavenly Society and to be among the Spirits of Just Men made perfect My Sins of Sensuality in every kind and degree I search out and Repent of I am kept by Grace from gross Sins of this sort In the Gratifications of Sense which are Lawful in general I Scrupulously dread Excess and unduness of Circumstances How earnestly do I desire an absolute Purity All Envy Unrighteousness Uncharitableness Uncompassionateness Undutifulness and base Selfishness which is the Root of all I have Seen Lamented and Abhorred The motions and stirrings of Mind that way are suppressed and dislodged I will never give way thereunto Self-applauding Self-seeking in matter of Praise and Honour before Men I strive against I desire to be as Sincere to anothers Reputation as to my own I would not value others by their regard to me but by their true Worth I would be contented to be little in the Eyes of others This I unfeignedly desire and endeavour and I hope that I have it in some good Degree All my Omissions and Negligences in the Work of the Ministry in Preaching in Personal private Application I bewail and heartily resolve upon more diligence and faithfulness Enter not into Judgment with thy
Grace I will not doubt of a good Issue while I am found in the Way of Duty To them who by Patient Continuance in Well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God who cannot lye hath promised to give Eternal Life I am desirous to be delivered from this Affliction if it be the Will of the Lord upon this account that I might have a more notable proof of my freer choosing of God for my Portion when I am not thus driven to Him as now because I can go no where else for Comfort also of my freer turning from the World even then when I am capable of injoying it To have such a proof of these things in my self I should take for a great Advantage and be greatly Thankful Nevertheless for the quieting of my Mind I consider that my present Afflicted State doth better secure me from Temptations which might draw my Heart from God to the Love of the World in which respect Prosperity is far more Dangerous than Adversity Moreover my present State gives me Advantage for a higher proof of the Grace that is in me and of the Power of Divine Aid upholding me in a Life of Faith and Patience by which I Live upon God alone when Worldly Comfort fails me and by which I am enabled to overcome things Grievous to Nature and to get above not only the Pleasures but the sharp Pains of Sense and to Live and endure with little natural or bodily Rest. Also it gives me the advantage of exercising a resolved willing Self-Resignation to God in this Dispensation which is harsh to Flesh and Blood and a resting in Hope when there is no present appearance of help and a waiting and looking for the Lord who hides his Face and a cleaving to him by constant Love though he doth fore Bruise me If I continue in the exercise of these Graces they will give me a Good Proof that the Heavenly Nature is in me and will make way for great Assurance towards God and full Consolation in Christ Jesus And yet further I trust that I have long before this distress chosen God for my Portion and drawn off my Heart from the flattering Vanities of this World And I know that in this Distress I do not come to Him constrainedly or meerly as driven For I delight to draw nigh to Him to pour out my Heart before Him in Prayer and Meditation My Meditation of Him is Sweet to my Soul and I do not Love to be Diverted from it And when my Distemper is any whit more easy it Works unto a Rejoycing in Him And it is for enlargement of Heart towards Him that I chiefly desire bodily Ease and Rest. Hear my Cry O God Attend unto my Prayer I will Cry unto Thee when my Heart is overwhelmed Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. God the infinite Goodness and Love will not cast off a poor Soul that lies at his Feet and cryes for the Help of his Grace when it is ready to sink under the Burden and is willing to have Mercy upon his Terms Therefore I will still cry to Him and look for Him and lean upon Him will not depart from Him by an Evil Heart of Unbelief This I resolve in his Strength Lord Strengthen me unto the perfect Work of Patience Lord I heartily consent that Thou shouldest use me as Thou pleasest so Thou use me as one of those that Love thy Name Disposal is an effect of Propriety but it is alwayes a regular and a loving Disposal of the Subjects of his Government O! Deal favourably with thy Servant Thou Knowest my Frame Remenber that I am but Dust. The Lord will Perfect that which concerneth me Thy Mercy O Lord Endureth for Ever Forsake not the Works of thine own Hands O Lord without Thee I can do nothing Therefore I must Beg and Thou wilt give Grace sufficient without which I cannot Subsist For therein is the Life of my Spirit For Ever O Lord Thy Word is settled in Heaven Pitty me O Lord as a Father Pittyeth his Children Comfort me O Lord as one whom his Mother Comforteth The Lord will wait that He may be Gracious unto you For the Lord is a God of Judgment Blessed are all they that wait for Him Can I be in a better Hand As my professed Judgment is concerning Gods Proceeding so let me stand Affected towards it NOTES FOR My Self KEep thy Heart with all Diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue Entertain not a sensual Imagination for a Moment and give not way to the least Glance of the Eye towards Vanity Be alwayes expecting some Trouble or other to interrupt thy outward Peace and Rest. Never expect any thing from the World and when it offers thee any thing that is good for thee receive it but catch not at it greedily Be alwayes mindful what thou may'st do for thine own and others Salvation in every Instant upon every Occasion Dye daily In arguing with another watch against every inordinate Heat of Passion loud Speaking and every rash Word If any neglect or slight thee care not for it yet observe it Any Matter of Tryal to thee reckon among thy gains Take no delight of Sense but in a manifest and direct Subserviency to Spiritual Ends and use not that delight to irritate but to allay Sensuality When a sensual Imagination or Passion breaks in then excite a Tast of the Powers of the World to come and delay not to recover the Divine Frame What thou doubtest do not In thy Actions consider not only what is lawful but what is best in the present Circumstances and do that In every Delight of Sense watch against all Brutishness When thou art in Company where the Talk is but vain watch to put in a Word that may be to Edification If any despise thee do not bear a grudge against him for it And be not offended with any meerly because they do not honour thee When thou art framing Excuses take heed of speaking an Untruth or approaching near to it lest in avoiding the Offence of Man thou make too bold with God Take heed of this also when thou wouldst speak pleasingly and avoid Offence in speaking Use no Recreation or Delight of Sense but what thou canst at that very time desire of God that it may be sanctified to spiritual Ends. When thou hearest that another hath spoken any thing to thy Injury or Disparagement beware of a Transport of Anger that thou speak not harshly or unadvisedly against Him or too passionately for Self or as too much concerned for Self Uphold the Reputation of thy Colleague or any that is joyned with thee in Service as thou wouldst thine own Watch against all secret Pleasure in the lessening of another for advancing thy self Pray heartily for the Success of thy Colleague and others who perform the same Service that thou art ingaged in And rejoyce in