And as we disregard the Censures of ill People, so are we patiently to bear with our own backwardness and indocility. There goes a good deal of Time and Pains, of Thought and Watchfulness to the rooting out of Ill-habits, to the fortifying our Minds against foolish Customs, and to the making that easie and pleasant which us’d to be irksom to us. But we ought not to be disheartn’d, since ’tis necessary to be done, and we cannot reasonably say ’tis Impossible, till we’ve attempted and fail’d in’t. But then let’s attempt it in the most prudent Method, use the properest Means, allow sufficient Time for their Operation and to make the essay: Let’s not set about it by fits, or in one or two good Moods, nor expect it will be done on a sudden, but by degrees and in a proper season, making it our main Design and Business, and then I dare confidently affirm the success will answer the Pains we have spent about it. §. IV. But one thing more, and then I shall go on as well as I can, to lay down what seems to me the best Method for Improvement. Whoever wou’d Act to purpose must propose some End to themselves, and keep it still in their Eye thro’out their whole progress. Life without this is a disproportionate unseemly thing, a confused huddle of broken, contradictory Actions, such as afford us nothing but the being asham’d of ’em. But do we need to be taught our End? One wou’d rather think there were no occasion to mention it, did not Experience daily convince us how many there are who neglect it. What End can Creatures have but their Creators Glory? And did they truly understand their own Happiness ’tis certain they wou’d have no other, since this is the only way of procuring their own Felicity. But it is not enough to have barely an implicit and languid desire of it, ’twere much better to hold it ever in view, and that all our Actions had in their proportion a warm and immediate tendency thither. This wou’d stamp the impression of Holiness upon the most indifferent Action, and without this what is Materially and to all outward appearance very good, is really and truly no better than a specious folly. We are not made for our selves, nor was it ever design’d we shou’d be ador’d and idoliz’d by one another. Our Faculties were given us for Use not Ostentation, not to make a noise in the World, but to be serviceable in it, to declare the Wisdom, Power and Goodness, of that All-Perfect Being from whom we derive _All_ our Excellencies, and in whose Service they ought _Wholly_ to be employ’d. Did our Knowlege serve no other purpose than the exalting us in our own Opinion, or in that of our Fellow Creatures, the furnishing us with Materials for a quaint Discourse, an agreeable Conversation, ’twere scarce worth while to be at the trouble of attaining it. But when it enlarges the Capacity of our Minds, gives us nobler Ideas of the Majesty, the Grandeur and Glorious Attributes of our adorable Creator,