The Christians converse with God, or, The insufficiency and uncertainty of human friendship and…

O the delight that there is in doing good to many! None knoweth it that hath not tried it: Not upon any account of Merit; but as it Pleaseth God, and as Goodness it self is amiable and sweet; and as we receive by communicating; and as we are under promise; and as Charity makes all the good that's done to another to be to us as our own!

O the delight that there is in doing good to many! None knoweth it that hath not tryed it: Not upon any account of Merit; but as it Pleaseth God, and as Goodness it self is amiable and sweet; and as we receive by communicating; and as we are under promise; and as Charity makes all the good that's done to another to be to us as our own!

5. We are dark and partial, and heedless of our selves, and hardly brought or kept in acquaintance with our hearts; and therefore have the more need of the eye of others: And even an enemies eye may be useful, though malicious; and may do us good while he intends us evil, saith Bernard [Malum quod nemo videt nemo arguit: Ubi autem non timetur reprehensor, securus accedit tenat•r; licentius perpetratur iniquitas] [The evil that none seeth, none reproveth: and where the reprover is not feared, the temper cometh more boldly, and the sin is committed the more licentiously.] It's hard to know the spots in our own faces, when we have no glass or beholder to acquaint us with them. Saith Chrysostom' [Solitude is velamen omnium vitiorum] the cover of all vices] In company this cover is laid aside, and vice being more naked, is more ashamed. It is beholders that cause shame; which Solitude is not acquainted with: And it's a piece of impenitency not to be shamed of sin.

5. We are dark and partial, and heedless of our selves, and hardly brought or kept in acquaintance with our hearts; and therefore have the more need of the eye of others: And even an enemies eye may be useful, though malicious; and may do us good while he intends us evil, saith Bernard [Malum quod nemo videt nemo arguit: Vbi autem non timetur reprehensor, securus accedit tenat•r; licentius perpetratur iniquitas] [The evil that none seeth, none reproveth: and where the reprover is not feared, the temper cometh more boldly, and the sin is committed the more licentiously.] It's hard to know the spots in our own faces, when we have no glass or beholder to accquaint us with them. Saith Chrysostom' [Solitude is velamen omnium vitiorum] the cover of all vices] In company this cover is laid aside, and vice being more naked, is more ashamed. It is beholders that cause shame; which Solitude is not acquainted with: And it's a piece of impenitency not to be shamed of sin.