and crying sins, and never consider concerning particulars, or forget very many: or if we could consider all that we ought, we must needs be confounded with the multitude and variety. But if we observe all the little passages of our life, and reduce them into the order of accounts and accusations, we shall find them multiply so fast, that it will not only appear to be an ease to the accounts of our death-bed, but by the instrument of shame will restrain the inundation of evils'; it being a thing intolerable to human modesty, to see sins increase so fast, and virtues grow up so slow; to see every day stained with the spots of leprosy, or sprinkled with the marks of a lesser evil.

3. It is not intended we should take accounts of our lives only to be thought religious, but that we may see our evil, and amend it, that we dash our sins against the stones, that we may go to God, and to a spiritual guide, and search for remedies, and apply them. And, indeed, no man can well observe his own growth in grace, but by accounting seldomer returns of sin, and a more frequent victory over temptations; concerning which, every man makes his observations according as he makes his enquiries and search after himself. In order to this it was that St. Paul wrote, before the receiving the holy sacrament, Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat. This precept was given in those days when they communicated every day, and therefore a daily examination also was intended.

4. And it will appear highly fitting, if we remember, that at the day of judgment, not only the greatest lines

of life, but every branch and circumstance of every action, every word and thought shall be called to scrutiny and severe judgment: insomuch that it was a great truth which one said, Woe be to the most innocent life, if God should search into it without mixtures of mercy. And therefore we are here to follow St. Paul's advice, Judge yourselves, and ye shall not be judged of the Lord. The way to prevent God's anger, is to be angry with ourselves; and by examining our actions, and condemning the criminal, by being assessors in God's tribunal, at least we shall obtain the favour of the court. As therefore every night we must make our bed the memorial of our grave, so let our evening thoughts be an image of the day of judgment.

5. This advice was so reasonable and proper an instrument of virtue, that it was taught even to the scholars af Pythagoras, by their master; "Let not sleep seize upon the regions of your senses, before you have three times recalled the conversation and accidents of the day." Examine what you have committed against the divine law, what you have omitted of your duty, and in what you have made use of the divine grace to the purposes of virtue and religion; joining the judges reason to the legislative mind or conscience, that God may reign there as a lawgiver and a judge. Then Christ's kingdom is set up in our hearts; then we always live in the eye of our judge, and live by the measures of reason, religion, and sober counsels.

The benefits we shall receive by practising this advice, in order to a blessed death, will also add to the account of reason, and fair inducements.

The Benefits of this Exercise.

1. By a daily examination of our actions, we shall the easier cure a great sin, and prevent its arrival to become habitual: for [to examine] we suppose to be a relative duty, and instrumental to something else. We examine ourselves, that we may find out our failings and cure them; and therefore if we use our remedy when the wound is fresh and bleeding, we shall find the cure more certain, and less painful. For so a taper, when its crown of flame is newly blown off, retains a nature so symbolical to light, that it will with greediness re-inkindle and snatch a ray from the neighbour fire. So is the soul of man, when it is newly fallen into sin; although God be angry with it, and the state of God's favour and its own graciousness is interrupted, yet the habit is not naturally changed; and still God leaves some roots of virtue standing, and the man is modest, or apt to be made ashamed, and he is not grown a bold sinner: but if he sleeps on it, and returns again to the same sin, and by degrees grows in love with it, and gets the custom, and the strangeness of it taken away, then it is his master, and is swelled into an heap, and is abetted by use, and corroborated by newly entertained principles, and is insinuated into his nature, and hath possessed his affections, and tainted the will and understanding:

and by this time a man is in the state of a decaying merchant, his accounts are so great, and so intricate, and so much in arrear, that to examine it will be but to represent the particulars of his calamity; therefore they think it better to pull the napkin before their eyes, than to stare upon the circumstances of their death.

2. A daily or frequent examination of the parts of our life will interrupt the proceeding, and hinder the journey of little sins into an heap. For many days do not pass the best persons, in which they have not many idle words or vainer thoughts to sully the fair whiteness of their souls, some indiscreet passions or trifling purposes, some impertinent discontents or unhandsome usages to their own person, or their dearest relatives. And though God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss, and therefore puts these upon the account of his mercy, and the title of the cross; yet in two cases, these little sins combine and cluster; but we know, that grapes were once in so great a bunch, that one cluster was the load of two men: that is, 1. When either we are in love with small sins; or, 2. When they proceed from a careless and incurious spirit into frequency and continuance. For so the smallest atoms that dance in all the little cells of the world, are so trifling and immaterial, that they cannot trouble an eye, nor vex the tenderest part of a wound, where a barbed arrow dwelt: yet when by their infinite numbers (as Melissa and Parmerides affirm) they danced first into order, then into little

bodies, at last they made the matter of the world. So are the little indiscretions of our life; they are always inconsiderable, if they be considered; and contemptible if they be not despised; and God does not regard them, if we do. We may easily keep them asunder, by our daily or nightly thoughts and prayers and severe sentences: But even the least sand can check the tumultuous pride, and become a limit to the sea, when it is in an heap, and in united multitudes; but if the wind scatter and divide them, the little drops and the vainer froth of the water begins to invade the strand. Our sighs can scatter such little offences: But then be sure to breathe such accents frequently, lest they knot and combine, and grow big as the shore, and we perish in sand, in trifling instances. (Ecclus. xix. 1.) He that despiseth little things shall perish by little and little; so said the son of Sirach.

3. A frequent examination of our actions will intenerate and soften our consciences, so that they shall be impatient of any rudeness or heavier load; and he that is used to shrink when he is pressed with a branch of twining * osier, will not willingly stand in the ruins of an house, when the beam dashes upon the pavement. And provided that our nice and tender spirit be not vexed in scruple, nor the scruple turned into unreasonable fears, nor the fears into superstition; he that by any arts can make his spirit

* Qui levi comminatione pellitur, non opus est ut fortitudine et armis invadatur. Seneca.