PREFACE. IX 



it was intended purely for his own private 

 use, without the least view or thought, that 

 any part of it should hereafter be made pub- 

 lic. And had it not been for the two great 

 advantages of his short-hand, viz. the secrecy 

 and the swiftness of it, it can hardly be con- 

 ceived he should have noted down such minute 

 particulars, and so many of them as he has 

 done. 



The pjincipal end that he seems to have 

 proposed to himself in it was a religious one, 

 and had respect only to the improvement of 

 himself and the peace of his own conscience. 

 For he is upon no one article so constantly 

 exact and particular, as in setting down his 

 public and private exercises of devotion ; where 

 and in what manner he performed them ; and 

 in what frame and temper of mind he was in 

 towards God and another world. And the use 

 that he made of his diary in this respect will 

 appear in the fourth and last part, wherein his 

 private religious life is considered. 



Another end to which he made it serve was 

 ecclesiastical. It was in this respect a kind of 



