: and
consider, that though repentance secures us from the punishment of
any sin, yet how much more comfortable it is to be innocent than need
pardon: and consider, that errors against men, though pardoned both by
God and them, do yet leave such anxious and upbraiding impressions in
the memory, as abates of the offender's content:--when I consider all
this, and that God hath of his goodness given me a temper that hath
prevented me from running into such enormities, I remember my temper
with joy and thankfulness. And though I cannot say with David--I wish
I could,--that therefore 'his praise shall always be in my mouth;'
Psal. xxxiv. 1; yet I hope, that by his grace, and that grace seconded
by my endeavours, it shall never be blotted out of my memory; and I
now beseech Almighty God that it never may."

[Sidenote: Gilbert Sheldon]

And here I must look back, and mention one passage more in his
Proctorship, which is, that Gilbert Sheldon, the late Lord Archbishop
of Canterbury, was this year sent to Trinity College in that
University; and not long after his entrance there, a letter was sent
after him from his godfather--the father of our Proctor--to let his
son know it, and commend his godson to his acquaintance, and to
more than a common care of his behaviour; which proved a pleasing
injunction to our Proctor, who was so gladly obedient to his father's
desire, that he some few days after sent his servitor to intreat
Mr. Sheldon to his chamber next morning. But it seems Mr. Sheldon
having--like a young man as he was--run into some such irregularity
as made him conscious he had transgressed his statutes, did therefore
apprehend the Proctor's invitation as an introduction to punishment;
the fear of which made his bed restless that night: but, at their
meeting the next morning, that fear vanished immediately by the
Proctor's cheerful countenance, and the freedom of their discourse of
friends. And let me tell my Reader, that this first meeting proved the
beginning of as spiritual a friendship as human nature is capable of;
of a friendship free from all self ends: and it continued to be so,
till death forced a separation of it on earth; but it is now reunited
in Heaven.

[Sidenote: Ordination]

And now, having given this account of his behaviour, and the
considerable accidents in his Proctorship, I proceed to tell my
Reader, that, this busy employment being ended, he preached his sermon
for his Degree of Bachelor in Divin