01-20# The Rule of our Holy Father Benedict. Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works. Continued.
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To have wholesome fear of the day of judgment.
With fear to shrink from hell.
To long for eternal life with all spiritual desire.
To have the expectation of death daily before one’s eyes.
Hour by hour to keep guard over one’s every act.
To know for certain that God sees one everywhere.
Forthwith to dash down upon the Rock, even Christ, any evil thoughts approaching the heart: and to lay them open before one’s superior.
To keep one’s mouth from evil or depraved speech.
Not to love to speak much.
Not to speak useless or mirth-provoking words.
Not to love much or excessive laughter.
To listen with goodwill to holy reading.
To be frequently occupied in prayer.
With tears and groaning daily to confess in prayer to God one’s past sins and concerning those same sins to amend for the future.
Not to fulfil the desires of the flesh: to hate one’s own will.
To yield obedience in all things to the abbot’s precepts, even if he himself act contrary to their spirit, the which be far from him: being mindful of that precept of the Lord: “What they say, do ye; but what they do, do ye not.”
Not to wish to be called holy before one is, but to be so first, whereby one would be so called the more truly.