From that time to this, he has constantly used himself to this method of intercession; and his heart is so [♦]entirely changed by it, that he can now no more privately whisper any thing to the prejudice of another, than he can openly pray to God to do people hurt.
[♦] ‘intirely’ replaced with ‘entirely’
Whisperings and evil-speakings now hurt his ears, like oaths and curses; and he has appointed one day in the week, to be a day of penance as long as he lives, to humble himself before God, in the sorrowful confession of his former guilt.
It may be well wondered, how a man of so much piety as Susurrus, could be so deceived in himself, as to live in such a state of scandal and evil-speaking, without suspecting himself to be guilty of it. But it was the tenderness and seeming compassion with which he heard and related every thing, that deceived both himself and others.
This was a falseness of heart, which was fully discovered, by the true charity of intercession.
And if people of virtue, who think as little harm of themselves, as Susurrus did, were often to try their spirit by such an intercession, they would often find themselves to be such, as they least of all suspected.
The End of the Fifth Volume.