Alas The Church Of England!

I Learned To Look More Upon The Bright Side Of My Condition, And Less Upon The Dark Side, And To Consider What I Enjoyed, Rather Than What I Wanted : And This Gave Me Sometimes Such Secret Comforts, That I Cannot Express Them ; And Which I Take Notice Of Here, To Put Those Discontented People In Mind Of It, Who Cannot Enjoy Comfortably What God Has Given Them, Because They See And Covet Something That He Has Not Given Them. All Our Discontents About What We Want Appeared To Me To Spring From The Want Of Thankfulness For What We Have.

We Are Very Fond Of Some Families Because They Can Be Traced Beyond The Conquest, Whereas Indeed The Farther Back, The Worse, As Being The Nearer Allied To A Race Of Robbers And Thieves.

In The Course Of Our Lives, The Evil Which In Itself We Seek Most To Shun, And Which, When We Are Fallen Into, Is The Most Dreadful To Us, Is Oftentimes The Very Means Or Door Of Our Deliverance, By Which Alone We Can Be Raised Again From The Affliction We Are Fallen Into.

For I Cannot Think That God Almighty Ever Made Them [women] So Delicate, So Glorious Creatures; And Furnished Them With Such Charms, So Agreeable And So Delightful To Mankind; With Souls Capable Of The Same Accomplishments With Men: And All, To Be Only Stewards Of Our Houses, Cooks, And Slaves.

The Soul Is Placed In The Body Like A Rough Diamond, And Must Be Polished, Or The Luster Of It Will Never Appear.