without discoursing whether he hath or hath not forgiven thee, returning to thy Exercises and Retirements, as if thou had'st not Sinned.
130. Would not he be a meer Fool, which running at Turneament with others, and falling in the best of the Carrier, should lie weeping on the Ground, and afflicting himself with discour∣ses upon his Fall? Man (they would tell him) loose no time, get up and take the Course again; for he that rises again quickly, and continues his Race, is as if he had never fallen.
131. If thou hast a desire to get to a high degree of Perfection and inward Peace, thou must use the Weapon of Confidence in the Di∣vine Goodness, night and day, and always when thou fallest. This humble and loving Conver∣sation, and total Confidence in the Mercy Di∣vine, thou must exercise in all faults, imperfecti∣ons, and failings that thou shalt commit, either by advertence or inadvertency.
132. And although thou often fallest, and seest thy Pusillanimity, and endeavour to get courage, and afflict not thy self; because what God doth not do in forty Years, he sometimes doth in an instant, with a particular Mystery, that we may live low and humble, and know that 'tis the Work of His powerful Hand, to free us from Sins.
133. God also is willing, of ineffable Wis∣dom, that, not onely by Vertues, but also by Vices and the Passions wherewith the Devil seeks, and pretends to strike us down to the bottom∣less Pit, we make a Ladder to scale Heaven