for his grace, that you may be ever on your guard against the pleasing sophistry of your self-love, and the delusive opinion, to which we are all so much inclined, that we are more righteous than our neighbours. If you look only on the errors of others, you will soon learn to think yourself superior to them, merely because you are unacquainted with yourself: whereas, in order to please God, you should, by a close acquaintance with your own faults, and by a continual struggle against them, render yourself gentle and indulgent to the faults of others. You may turn your errors to your good, if you thus learn from them humility and candour. Have patience with yourself and with others; repent of your sins; deplore your own weakness, and acknowledge how unworthy you are in the sight of God. If you do this with sincerity before him, he will grant you his grace, and deliver you from your sins, by turning your heart entirely unto him. Seek N not to excuse your faults; confess them to God; (and to your neighbour also, if you have offended him ;) and bear with patience whatever blame you may receive from him. Endure the painful sense of your own infirmities, as the admonition of your heavenly Father; and assure yourself that a firm resolution to avoid the future commission of those faults, is the only way to atone for them, both to God and man. 8. Make use of all opportunities of leisure from worldly occupations, to recollect yourself, and to look into your account with God, without, however, relaxing in your fixed and daily intercourse with him. Let God (who is the merciful giver of all that you enjoy) be your first object; and shudder at the ingratitude of lavishing on any of his creatures, those affections which he has required for himself. Retire often, therefore, from your vain amusements, and examine your heart; remember that your God is a jea lous God, and do not delay your return to him. Every moment that you willingly postpone this self-enquiry, is a criminal indulgence, and an offence to God. 9. Be not cast down, however, at a full and intimate knowledge of your own imperfections; nor at the repeated commission of errors, if they are but venial. We must be frail and imperfect as long as we are mortal: take care only that such errors are never wilful. Turn to God, and implore his assistance, and fear not that he will reject you, because you are not perfect. If you defer coming to God till you are free from sin, you will never approach him: Go, therefore, to his holy table, and by a worthy participation of the means of salvation, you will obtain his pardon for your past failures, and the grace of his Spirit, to strive against temptation in future; and as in this world trials will come, and sin will abound, it is our part patiently to receive the one, and stedfastly to resist the other, to the end of our lives. ON CHARITY, AND PEACE WITH 1. ONE of the greatest and most necessary virtues of this life is Charity; it is also one of the most acceptable in the sight of God, on account of its relation to our fellow-creatures. Charity, saith the Apostle, shall cover a multitude of sins; if we desire to live at peace (even with the best people) we must bear a great deal, and ask little; the most perfect of human beings is still full of imperfections. Let us set our own faults against those of our neighbours, and we shall soon find the necessity of mutual forgiveness. Happy are they, who, in bearing each other's burthens, fulfil (as the Apostle says) the law of Christ. |