know himself and know what he should do if he had the temptations of other men And O what sad discoveries are made in the hour of temptation What swarms of vice break out in some like vermin that lay hid in the cold of Winter and crawle about when they feel thâ— Summers heat What horrid corruption which we never observed in our selves before do shew themselves in the hour oâ— temptation Who would have thoughâ— that Righteous Noah had in the Ark 〈◊〉 such a heart as would by carelesness 〈◊〉 into the sin of drunkenness or that rightâ—â—ous Lot had carried from Sodom the seed 〈◊〉 drunkenness and incest in him or thâ—â— David a man so eminent in holiness and a man after Gods own heart had 〈◊〉 heart that had in it the seeds of Adultery and Murder Little thought Peter when he professed Christ Mat. 16.16 that theâ—â— had been in him such carnality and unbelief as would have so soon provoked Christ to say Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offense unto me for thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the things that be of God but those that 〈◊〉 of men ver 22.23 And little did he think â—hen he so vehemently professed his resoluâ—â—on rather to die with Christ then deny him â—â—at there had been then in his heart the 〈◊〉 that would bring forth this bitter â—â—it Mat. 26.74 75. Who knows what 's â—â—rtually in a seed that never saw the tree 〈◊〉 tasted of the fruit Especially when we have not only a â—â—eedom from temptations but also the most â—â—werful means to keep under vitious habits 〈◊〉 hard to know how far they are mortified 〈◊〉 the root When men are among those â—â—at countenance the contrary vertue and â—here the vice is in disgrace and where â—xamples of piety and temperance are still â—efore their eyes If they dwell in such â—aces and company where Authority and â—riendship and Reason do all take part with 〈◊〉 and cry down the evil no wonder 〈◊〉 the evil that is unmortified in mens hearts â—o not much break out to their own or â—thers observations through all this opâ—osition The instance of King Joash is faâ—oâ—s for this who did that which was â—ight in the sight of the Lord all the dayes â—f â—ehojada the Priest that instructed him 2 Kings 12.2 but after his death when the Princes of Juda flattered him with their obeysance he left the house of God and served Idols till wrath came upon the land and was so hardened in sin as to murdeâ— Zechariah the Prophet of God and 〈◊〉 of that Jehojada that had brought him out of obscurity and set him upon the Throneâ— even because he spake in the name of the Lord against his sin 2 Chron. 24.20 21 22. Who would have thought that it had been in the heart of Solomon a man so Wise so Holy and so Solemnly engaged to God by his publick professions and works to have committed the abominations mentioned 1 Kings 11.4 If you say that all this proveth not that there was any seed or root of such a sin in the Heart before but only that the temptation did prevail to cause the acts first and then such habits as those acts did tend to I answer 1. I grant that temptations do not only discover what is in the heart but also make it worse when they prevail and that is no full proof that a man had a proper habit of sin before because by temptation he commits the act For Adam sinned by temptation without an antecedent habit 2. But we know the nature of man to â—e now corrupted and that this corruption 〈◊〉 virtually or seminally all sin disposing â—s to all and that this disposition is strong â—nough to be called a General Habit. When Grace in the sanctified is called A Naâ—ure 2 Pet. 1.4 there is the same reason â—o call the sinfull inclination a Nature â—oo which can signifie nothing else then â— strong and rooted inclination Knowing therefore that the Heart is so corrupted we may well say when the evil fruit appears that there was the seed of it before And the easie and frequent yielding to the temptation shews there was a friend to sin within 3. But if it were not so yet that our hearts should be so frail so defectible mutable and easily drawn to sin is a part of self-Self-knowledge necessary to our preservation and not to be disregarded 4. I am sure Christ himself tells us that out of the heart proceed the sins of the life Mat. 15.19 and that the evil things of evil men come out of the evil treasure of their hearts Mat. 12.36 And when God permitted the fall of good King Hezekiah the text saith God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart 2 Chron. 32.31 that is that he might shew all that was in his heart so that the weakness and the remaining corruption of Hezekiahs hearâ— were shewn in the sin which he committed 2. And as the sinful Inclinations are harâ—ly discerned and long lie hid till soâ—â— Temptation draw them out so the Act iâ—self is hardly discerned in any of its maliâ—nity till it be done and past and the soâ—â— is brought to a deliberate review Foâ— while a man is in the act of sin either hiâ— understanding is so far deluded as to think it no sin in its kind or none to him that then committeth it or that its better venture on it then not for the attaining of some seeming good or the avoiding of some evil or else the restraining act of the understanding is suspended and withdrawn and it descerneth not practically the pernicious evil of the sin and forbiddeth not the committing of it or forbids it so remisly and with so low a voice as is drowned by the clamour of contradicting passion so that the prohibition is not heard And how can it be then expected that when a man hath not wit enough in use to see his sin so far as to forbear it he should even then see it so far as rightly to judge of himself and it and that when Reason is low and sensuality prevaileth we should then have the right use of Reason for self-discerning When a storm of passion hath blown out the Light and error hath extinguished it we are unlikely then to know our selves When the sensual part is pleasing it self with its fobidden objects that pleasure so corrupts the judgement that men will easily believe that it is lawfull or that it is not very bad So that sin is usually least known and felt when it is greatest and in exercise and one would think should then be most perceptible Like a phrensie or madness or other deliration that is least known when it is greatest and most in act because its nature is destructive to the Reason that should know it Like a spot in the eye that is it self unseen and hindereth the sight of all things else Or as the deeper a mans sleep is the less he
mens and of those that are suitable to their dispositions interests or examples and those that are against them They seem to judge of the actions by the persons and not of the persons by the actions Though he be himself a sensualist a worldling drowned in Ambition and Pride whose heart is turned away from God and utterly strange to the mysterie of Regeneration and a heavenly life yet all this is scarce discerned by him and is little troublesome and less odious then the failings of another whose heart and life is devoted unto God The different opinions or modes and circumstances of worship in another that truly feareth God is matter of their severer censures and reproach then their own omissions and aversness and enmity to holiness and the dominion of their deadly sins It seems to them more intolerable for another to pray without a Book then for themselves to pray without any serious belief or love or holy desire without any feeling of their sins or misery or wants that is to pray with the lips without a heart to pray to God without God even without the knowledge or love of God and to pray without prayers It seemed to the Hypocritical Pharisees a greater crime in Christ and his Disciples to violate their Traditions in not washing before they eat to break the Ceremonious rest of their Sabbath by healing the diseased or plucking ears of corn then in themselves to hate and persecute the true believers and worshippers of God and to kill the Lord of life himself They censured the Samaritans for not worshipping at Jerusalem but censured not themselves for not worshipping God that is a Spirit in Spirit and in Truth Which makes me remember the course of their successors the Ceremonious Papists that condemn others for Hereticks and fry them in the flames for not believing that Bread is no Bread and Wine is no Wine and that Bread is to be adored as God and that the souls of dead men know the hearts of all that pray to them in the world at once and that the Pope is the Vice-Christ and Soveraign of all the Christians in the world and for reading the Scriptures and praying in a known tongue when they forbid it and for not observing a world of Ceremonies when all this enmity to Reason Piety Charity Humanity all their Religious Tyranny Hypocrisie and Cruelty do seem but holy zeal and laudable in themselves To lie dissemble forswear depose and murder Princes is a smaller matter to them when the Pope dispenseth with it and when it tends to the advantage of their faction which they call the Church then to eat flesh on Friday or in Lent to neglect the Mass or Images or Crossing c. And it makes me remember Bishop Halls Description of An Hypocrite He turneth all gnats into Camells and cares not to undo the world for a circumstance Flesh on Friday is more abominable to him then his neighbours bed He abhors more not to uncover at the name of Jesus then to swear by name of God c. It seems that Prelats were guilty of this in Bernards dayes who saith Praelati nostri calicem linquunt Camelum deglutiunt dum majora permittentes minora discutiunt Optimi rerum aestimatores qui magnum in minimis parvam aut nullam in maximis adhibent diligentiam i. e. Our Prelats strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel while permitting greater matters they discuss or sift the less Excellent estimators of things indeed that in the smallest matters imploy great diligence but in the greatest little or none at all And the cause of all this partiality is that Men are unacquainted with themselves They love and cherish the same corruptions in themselves which they should hate and reprehend in others And saith Hierom Quomodo potest praeses Ecclesiae auferre malum de medio ejus qui in delictum simile corruerit aut qua libertate corripere peccantem potest cum tacitus ipse sibi respondeat eadem se admisisse quae corripit i. e. How can a Prelat of the Church reform the evil that is in it that rusheth into the like offence Or with what freedom can he rebuke a sinner when his conscience secretly tells him that he hath himself committed the same faults which he reproveth Would men but first be acquainted with themselves and pass an impartial judgement on the affections and actions that are nearest them and that most concern them they would be more competent and more compassionate Judges of their brethren that are now so hardly used by them It s excellent advice that Austin gives us Quum aliquem reprehendere nos necessitas coegerit cogitemus utrum tale sit vitium quod nunquam habuimus tunc cogitemus nos homines esse habere potuisse vel quod tale habuimus jam non habemus tunc memoria tangat communis fragilitatis ut illam correctionem non odium sed misericordia praecedat Sin autem invenerimus nos in eodem vitio esse non objurgemus sed ingemiscamus ad aequaliter deponendum invitemus i. e. When necessity constraineth us to reprove any one let us think whether it be such a vice as we never had our selves and then let us think that we are men and might have had it Or if we once had such but have not now then let the remembrance of common frailty touch us that compassion and not hatred may lead the way to our reproof But if we find that we have the same vice our selves let us not chide but groan and move or desire that we may both equally lay it by 5. It shews how little men know themselves when they must needs be the Rule to all other men as far as they are able to command it and that in the matters that mens salvation dependeth on and in the smallest tender disputable points and even in those things where themselves are most unfit to judge In every controverted point of doctrine though such as others have much better studied then themselves he that hath strength to suppress all those that differ from him must ordinarily be the umpire so is it even in the modes and circumstances of Worship Perhaps Christ may have the honour to be called the King of the Church and the Scripture have the honour to be called his Laws but indeed it is they â—hat would be the Lords themselves and 〈◊〉 is their Wills and Words that must be the â—aws and this under pretence of subâ—erving Christ and interpreting his Laws â—hen they have talkt the utmost for Counâ—ils Fathers Church Tradition it is â—hemselves that indeed must be all these â—or nothing but their own conceits and Wills must go for the sense of Decrees or Canons Fathers or Tradition Even they â—hat hate the power and serious practice of Religion would fain be the Rule of Reliâ—ion to all others And they that never â—new what it was to worship God in Spiâ—it and
Hearken then whether â—e think that God or the world Heaven or â—arth Soul or body be more worthy of â—ans chiefest care and diligence and then â—udge whether such men did know themselves â—n their health and pride when all this talk would have been derided by them as too preâ—ise and such a life accounted over-strict and â—eedless as then they are approving and wishâ—ng they had lived When that Minister or â—riend should have once been taken for â—ensorious abusive self-conceited and unsufferable that would have talkt of them â—n that language as when Death approacheth they talk of themselves or would have spoke as plainly and hardly of them as they will then do of themselves Doth â—ot this mutability shew how few men now have a true knowledge of themselves What is the Repentance of the living and the Desperation of the damned but a declaration that the persons Repenting and Despairing were unacquainted with themselves before Indeed the erroneous Despair of men while Grace is offered them comes from Ignorance of the Mercy of God and willingness of Christ to receive all that arâ— willing to return But yet the sense of sin and misery that occasioneth this erroneous Despair doth shew that men were before erroneous in their presumption and self-esteem Saith Bernard in Cant. Vtraqâ—â— Cognitio Dei scilicet tui tibi necessariâ— est ad salutem quia sicut ex notitia tui venit in te timor Dei atque ex Dei notitia itidem amor sic è contra de ignorantia 〈◊〉 superbia ac de Dei ignorantia venit desperatio that is Both the knowledge of God and of thy self is necessary to salvation because as from the Knowledge of thy self the Fear of God cometh into thee and Love from the knowledge of God so on the contrary from the Ignorance of thy self cometh pride and from the Ignorance of God comes Desperation Quid est sapientia inquit Seneca Semper idem Velle idem Nolleâ—â— At non potest idem semper placere nisi rectum Wisdom appeareth in alwayes Willing and alwayes Nilling the same thing but its only Right and Good that can alwayes please Poor men that must confess their sin and misery at last would shew a more seasonable acquaintance with themselves if they would do it now and say with the Prodigal I will go to my Father and say to him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son In time this Knowledge confession may be saving Even a Seneca could say without the Scripture Initium est salutis notitia peccati Nam qui peccare se nescit corrigi non vult Ideo quantum potes teipsum argue Inquire in te accusatoris primuÌ„ partibus fungere deinde judicis novissime deprecatoris i. e. The knowledge of sin is the beginning of recovery or health For he that knows not that he sinneth will not be corrected Reprehend thy self therefore as much as thou canst Inquire into thy self First play the part of an Accuser then of a Judge and lastly of one that asketh pardon It is not because men are Innocent or Safe that we now hear so little confession or complaint but because they are sinfull and miserable in so great a measure as not to Know or Feel it Quare vitia â—ua nemo confitetur inquit Seneca Quia â—tiam nunc in illis est Somnium narraâ—e vigilantis est vitia sua confiteri â—anitatis judicium est i. e. Why doth no â—an confess his vices Because he is yet in â—hem To tell his dreams is the part of a â—an that is awake and to confess his faults is a sign of health If you call a Poor man Rich or a deformed person beautifull or a vile ungodly person vertuous or an ignorant Barbarian learned will not the hearers think you do not know them And how should they think better of your knowledge of your selves if any of you that are yet in the flesh will say you are spiritual and those that hate the Holiness and Justice and Government of God will say they love him or those that are in a state of Enmity to God and are as near to Hell as the Execution is to the Sentence of the Law will perswade themselves and others that they are the Members of Christ the children of God and the heirs of Heaven and take it ill of any that would question it though only to perswade them to make it sure and to take heed what they trust to when endless Joy or Misery must be the issue 7. Doth it not manifest how little men know themselves when in every suffering that befals them they overlook the Cause of all within them and fall upon others or quarrel with every thing that standeth in their way Their contempt of God doth cast them into some affliction and they quarrel with the Instruments and medle not with the mortall cause at home Their sin finds them out and testifieth against them and they are angry with the â—od and repine at Providence as if God himself were more to be suspected of the Cause then they Yea it is become with many a serious doubt Whether God doth not Necessitate them to sin and Whether they omit not duty meerly because he will not give them power to perform it and Whether their sin be any other then a Relation unavoidably resulting from a Foundation laid by the hand of God himself Do men know themselves that will sooner suspect and blame the most Righteous Holy God then their own unrighteous carnal hearts Man drinketh up iniquity like water but there is no unrighteousnes with God Saith Innocent Conceptus est homo in foetore luxuria quódque deterius est in labe peccati natus ad laborem timorem dolorem c. Agit prava quibus offendit Deum offendit proximum offendit seipsum agit turpia quibus polluit famam polluit personam polluit conscientiam Agit vana quibus negligit sana negligit utilia negligit necessaria Man is conceived in the filth or stink of luxury or lust and which is worse in the stain of sin born to labour fear and pain c. He doth that which is evil to the offence of God his neighbour and himself He doth that which is filthy to the polluting of his fame his person and his Conscience He doth that which is vain neglecting what is sound and profitable and necessary And is not such a frail and sinfull wight more likely to be the cause of sin then God and to be culpable in all the ill that doth befall us And it shews that men little know themselves when all their complaints are poured out more fluently on others then themselves Like sick stomacks that find fault with every dish when the fault is within them Or like pained weak or froward children that quarrel with every thing that toucheth them when the cause is in themselves If they want
of a man that is gasping for want of your relief will affect you surely the sight of your own deformities wants and dangers would affect you if you saw them as they are How many a sin do you forget in your Confessions that should have a particular Repentance and how many wants do you overlook in prayers that should have particular petitions for a mercifull supply And how many are lightly touched and run over with words of course that would be earnestly insisted on if you did but better know your selves O that God would persuade you better to study your hearts and pray out of that Book when ever you draw nigh him that you not might be so like the Hypocrites that draw near to him with the lips when their hearts are far from him To my shame I must confess that my soul is too dry and barren in holy supplications to God and too little affected with my confessed sins and wants but I am forced to lay all in a very great measure upon the imperfect acquaintance that I have at home I cannot think I should want matter to pour out before the Lord in confession and petition nor so much want fervour and earnestness with God if my Heart and life lay open to my view while I am upon my knees 3. It is for want of a fuller knowledge of your selves that you are so negligent in your Christian watch that you do no better guard your senses that you make no stricter a Covenant with your eyes your appetites your tongues that you no more examine what you think affect and say what passeth into your heart or out of it that you call not your selves more frequently to account but dayes run on and duties are carelesly performed as of course and no daily or weekly reckoning made to conscience of all The knowledge of your weaknesses and readiness to yield and of your treacherous corruptions that comply with the enemy would make you more suspicious of your selves and to walk more circumspectly not as fools but as wise Eph. 5.15 and to look under your feet and consider your wayes before you were too bold and venturous It was the consciousness of their own infirmity that should have moved the disciples to watch and pray Mat. 26.41 Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak And all have the same charge because all have the same infirmity and danger What I say to you I say unto all Watch Mar. 13.37 Did we better know how many advantages our own corruptions give the Tempter that charge of the Holy Ghost would awake us all to stand to our arms and look about us 1 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong And Ephes 6.11 12 13 14. Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil For we wrastle not againts flesh and blood but against principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places c. When men know not whose legs they stand upon they grow heedless of their way and quickly slide The knowledge of our selves doth shew us all the advantages of the tempter what he hath to work upon and what in us to take his part and consequently where he is likest to assault us and so puts us into so prepared a posture for defence as very much hindereth his success But so far as we do not know our selves we are like blind men in sensing that the adversary may hit in what part he please we have so many hidden enemies in our houses as will quickly open the door to more What sin may not Satan tempt a man into that is not acquainted with the corruptions and frailties of his own heart 4. It is for want of Self-acquaintance that we make not out for help against our sin to Ministers or other friends that could assist us And that we use the confirming Ordinances with no more care and diligence All the abilities and willingness of others and all the helps of Gods appoinâ—ment will be neglected when we should imploy them against our sins so far as self-ignorance doth keep us from discerning the necessity of them 5. It is for want of a fuller knowledge of our selves that many lie long in sins unobserved by themselves and many are on the declining hand and take no notice of it And how little resistance or mortifying endeavours we are like to bestow upon unknown or unobserved sins is easie to conceive How many may we observe to have notable blemishes of Pride ostentation desire of preheminence and esteem envy malice self-conceitedness self-seeking censoriousness uncharitableness and such like that see no more of it in themselves then is in more mortified men How ordinarily do we hear the Pastors that watch over them and their friends that are best acquainted with them lamenting the miscarriages and the careless walking and declining of many that seem Religious when they lament it not themselves nor will not be convinced that they are sick of any such disease any more then all other Christians are Hence comes the stifness of too many 〈…〉 all that can be said to 〈…〉 them and that they are 〈…〉 reproof and think reprovers 〈◊〉 wrong and it s well if it abate not Christian love and procure not some degree of hatred or displeasure Like a man that is entring into a consumption and takes it for an injury to be told so till his languishing and decay convince him Hence it is that we have all need to lament in general our unknown sins and say with David Who can understand his errors cleanse thou me from secret faults Psalm 19.12 Hence it is that we can seldom tell men of the most discernable faults but they meet us with excuses and justifie themselves There are few of us I think that observe our hearts at all but find both upon any special illumination and in the hour of discovering tryals that there were many distempers in our hearts and many miscarriages in our lives that we never took notice of before The Heart hath such secret corners of uncleanness such mysteries of iniquity and depths of deceitfulness that many fearing God are strangely unacquainted with themselves as to the particular motions and degrees of sin till some notable providence or gracious light assist them in the discovery I think it not unprofitable here to give you some instances of sin undiscerned by the servants of the Lord themselves that have it till the light come in that makes them wonder at their former darkness In General first observe these two 1. The secret Habits of sin being discernable only by some acts are many times unknown to us because we are under no strong temptaâ—tion to commit those sins And it s a wonderfull hard thing for a man that hath little or no temptation to
it And it confoundeth us with shame to find our selves so much worse then we imagined It overwhelmeth the soul with despairing thoughts to find it self so bad when it thought it had been better It breedeth endless suspicions and fears when we find our former opinions of our selves confuted and that contrary to our expectations we are surprized where we thought we had been safe we are still ready to think what ever we discern that is good within us that we may as well be mistaken now as we were before And thus our present self-ignorance when discovered may hinder all the comforts of our lives 3. Lastly not knowing our selves and our particular sins and wants and weaknesses doth keep us from a particular application of the promises and from seeking those particular Remedies from Christ which our case requireth and so our mercies lie by neglected while we need them anâ— do not understand our need And thus I have shewed you why yoâ— should labour to know your sinfulness II. I am next to perswade Believers tâ— know their Graces and their hapâ—piness Good is the object of voluntarâ— knowledge but Evil of forced involuntarâ— knowledge unless as the knowledge of evâ—â— tendeth to some Good Therefore methink you should be readyest to this part of thâ— study of your selves And yet alas thâ— presumptuous are not more unwilling tâ— know their sin and misery then some perâ—plexed Christians are backward to acknowledge their Grace and Happiness How harâ— is it to convince them of the tender love of God towards them and of the sincerity oâ— their Love to him and to make them believe that they are dear to God when they loaâ—â— themselves how hard is it to perswade theâ— that the Riches of Christ the promises of the Gospel and the Inheritance of the Saints belong to them And the Reasons among otherâ— are principally these 1. The remnants of sin are so great and so active and troublesome as that the feeling of these contrary dispositions doth hinder â—hem from observing the operations of â—race It is not easie to discern the sinâ—erity of Faith among so much unbelief â—r the sincerity of Love where there is so â—uch aversness or of Humility where â—here is so much pride or of Repentance â—nd Mortification where there is so much â—oncupiscence and inclination to sin Espeâ—â—ally when grace by its enmity to sin doth â—ake the soul so suspicious and sensible of 〈◊〉 as that the observation of it turns their â—ind from the observation of the contrary â—â—od that is in them Health is not obserâ—ed in other parts when the feeling of the â—one or but a tooth-ache takes us up The â—â—oughts are called all to the part affected â—nd sickness and wounds are felt more senâ—â—bly then Health The fears of misery by 〈◊〉 are easilyer excited and are more pasâ—â—onate then Love and Hope and all the afâ—â—ctions that are imployed in the proseâ—ution of good And in the midst of Fears 〈◊〉 is hard to feel the matter of our Joyes â—ear is a tyrant if it exceed and will not â—ermit us to believe or observe the cause â—f Hope Quod nimis metuunt miseri hoc â—â—cile credunt nunquam amoveri putant â—ith Seneca What we too much fear we too â—â—sily believe and hardly believe that it is gone and the danger past These fears are usefull to our preservation but they too often pervert our judgements and hindeâ— our due consolation Qui insidias timet iâ— nullas incidet nec cito perit ruina qâ—â— ruinam timet Semper metuendo sapiens viâ—tat malum saith Seneca He that feareâ—â— snares doth not fall into them Nor doth 〈◊〉 quickly perish by ruine that feareth ruine 〈◊〉 wise man escapeth evil by alwayes fearing it And the Holy Ghost saith Prov. 28.14 Happy is the man that feareth alwayes but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief Moderate Fears then are given to Believers for their necessary preservation that walking among enemies and snares they may take heed and scape them But when this passion doth exceed it abuseth us and drowns the voice of Reason It maketh us believe that every temptation is a sin and every sin is such as cannot stand with grace and will hardly ever be pardoned by Christ Every sin against knowledge and conscience doth seem almost unpardonable and if were deliberate after profession of religion it seems to be the sin against the Holy Ghost As children and other frightfull persons that fear the Devil by way of Apparitions do think in the dark he is ready to lay hold on them and they look when they see him so the fearful Christian as still thinking that thing he feareth is upon him or coming upon him The fear of an unrgenerate unpardoned state doth make him think he is in it and that the fear of the wrath of God doth make him think that he is under it and the fear of damnation makes him imagine he shall be damned It is wonderfull hard in a frightfull state or indeed in any passion that is strong to have the free use of Judgement for the knowing of our selves and to discern any grace or evidence or mercy which is contrary to our fears Especially when the Feeling of much corruption doth turn our eyes from the observation of the good and we are still taken up with the matter of our disease 2. Another cause that we hardly know our Graces is because they are weak and small and therefore in the midst of so much corruption are oft-times hardly discerned from none A little faith even as a grain of mustard seed may save us A little Love to God that is sincere will be accepted and weak Desires may be fulfilled But they are frequently undiscerned or their sincerity questioned by those that have them and therefore bring but little comfort Peters Little faith did keep him from drowning but not from doubting and fearing he should be drowned nor from beginning to sink Mat. 14.29 30 31. He walked on the water to go to Jesus but when he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cryed saying Lord save me And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt So the Little faith of the Disciples kept them from perishing but not from their fear of perishing Mat. 8.24 25 26. When a great tempest arose so that the ship was covered with waves they cry Lord save us we perish and he saith to them Why are ye afraid O ye of little faith The little faith of the same Disciples entitled them to the Fatherly protection and provision of God but it kept them not from sinfull cares and fears about what they should eat or drink or wherewith they should be cloathed as is intimated in Mat. 6.25 28 30. Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or drink or for your body what you shall put on Why
â—urn Nay can you be satisfied with none below the Lord himself Well Madam if you will needs have it so it shall be so What you judge BEST FOR YOV shall be yours what you had rather be â—ou are and where you had rather dwell â—ou shall and seeing you have understood â—hat One thing is necessary and have â—hosen the Good part it shall not be taken from you Luke 10.41 42. Having first sought the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness you shall have such Addionalls as will do you good Matth. 6.33 Rom. 8.28 Psal 84.11 You have learned to know while God is yours how little of the Creature you need and how little addition it maketh to your happiness You are Wise enough if you live to God and honourable enough if you are a member of Christ and rich enough if you are an heir of heaven and beautiful enough if you have the image of God and yet having made your choice of these how liberally hath God cast in as overplus the inferior kind which you find in losing them As if he had said tâ— you as to Solomon 2 Chron. 1.11 Because this was in thine heart and thou haâ—â— not asked riches wealth or honour noâ— the life of thine enemies neither yet haâ—â— asked long life but hast asked Wisdoâ— and knowledge for thy self Wisdoâ— and Kowledge is granted to thee and will give thee Riches and wealth and hoâ—nour as if God would convinâ—â— even flesh itself that none are like the serâ—vants of the Lord And when the envioâ— one hath said that You serve not God so nought though he hath been permitted 〈◊〉 put forth his hand and touch you in your dearest friends and relations your peace your habitation and estate yet hath he so restrained him and supported you as may easily convince you that the Worst of Christ is better than the Best of the World or Sin I have purposely been long in opening the felicity of Heart-converse as a matter of your own experience both for the exciting of you to a life of Thankfulness to God and that this undigested Treatise which you have drawn out into the light may come to your hands with some supply in that part of the Application which doth most concern you And because your Name may draw the eyes of many others to read this Preface I shall add here a few Directions to those that would be well acquainted with themselves and would comfortably converse at home Direct 1. Let him not overvalue or mind the deceitful world that would have fruitful converse with God with himself Trust not such a cheater as hath robbed so many thousands before us especially when God and common experience do call out to us to take heed The study of Riches and rising and reputation and pleasures agreeth not with this study of God and of our hearts And though the world will not take acquaintance with us if we come not in their fashion nor see us if we stand not on the higher ground yet it is much better to be unknown to others than to our selves Though they that live upon the trade do thinke there is no fishing like the Sea yet those that take it but on the by will rather choose the smaller waters where though the fish be less yet few are drowned and made a prey to the fish that they would have catched A retirement therefore must be made from the inordinate pursuit of worldly things and the charms of honours riches and delights And if some present loss do seem to follow it is indeed no loss which tendeth unto gain He will catch no fish that will not lose his flie Me thinks they that sincerely pray Load us not into temptation should not desire to have bolts and barrs between God and them and to dwell where salvation is hardliest attained Desire not to be planted in any such place though it seem a Paradise where God is most unknown and used as a stranger and where Saints are wonders and examples of serious piety are most rare and where a Heavenly Conversation is known but by reports and reported of according to the malice of the Serpent and represented but as fancie hypocrisie or faction where sin most prospereth and is in least disgrace and where it is a greater shame to be a Saint than to be a swine a serious Christian than a seared stupified sensualist Bless you from that place where the weeds of vice are so rank as that no good plant can prosper neer them where gain is Godliness and impiety is necessary to acceptable observance and a tender Conscience and the fear of God are characters of one too surly and unplyable to be countenanced by men where the tongue that nature formed to be the Index of the mind is made the chiefest instrument to hide it and men are so conscious of their own incredibility that no one doth believe or trust another where no words are Heart-deep but those that are spoken Against Christs cause and interest or for their own where a vile person is honoured and those contemned that fear the Lord Bless you from the place where truth is intollerable and untruth cloaked with its name where holiness is lookt at as an Owle or enemie and yet hypocrisie must steal its honour from it where he is a Saint that is less wicked than infamous transgressors and where Dives life is blameless temperance and where Pride Idleness Fulness of bread and filthy fornication and lasciviousness are the infirmities of Pious and excellent persons where great sins are small ones and small ones are none and where the greatest must have no reproof and the Physicion is taken for the greatest enemy where chaffe is valued at the price of wheat and yet the famine is of choice where persons and things are measured by Interest and duty to God derided as fully when ever it crosseth the wisdom of the world and hated as some hurtful thing when it crosseth fleshly men in their desires And where Dives Brethren are unwarned and none are more secure and frolick than those that to morrow may be in Hell and as at the Gladiators sports none complain less than those that speed worst quia caesi silent spectatores vociferantur Old Travellers are usually most addicted to end their days in solitude Learn to contemn the world at cheaper rates than they Neither hope nor wish to live an Alexander and die a Socrates A Crowd or concourse though of the greatest where is the greatest tumult of affairs and confluence of temptations is not the safest place to die in and I have most mind to live where I would die Where men are Barbari moribus etsi non natione Christians in Name and infidels in Conversation the sweetness of their Christian names will not preserve them or you from the danger of their unchristian lives It was not the whole of Lots deliverance to be saved from the flames of Sodom but it was much of
home when self-neglect will disâ—ble you to help another And if sometimes â—â—ur falls or frailty do find you matter for purging griping troublesome thoughts and interrupt your sweeter comfortable meditations refuse not the trouble when you have made it necessary It s many a sad and serious thought that the Ministers of Christ have for the cure and safety of their flocks and should not the people have as serious thoughts for themselves None foul their hands saith the Proverb about their own work They that bring in the filth should not refuse to sweep it out We must not cast all the foul and troublesome work upon our Nurses as long as we can help our selves Your Reason your Wisdom care and diligence are more your Own than any one 's else anâ— therefore should be more used for your self then for any And if after much thoughtfulness and labour you find your heart to bâ— no whit better yet Labour and Believe 〈◊〉 is not the last blow of the axe alone that cutâ— down the Tree though it fall not till thâ— last The growth of Grace as of plantâ— and fruits and flowers is not perceived 〈◊〉 immediate inspection There is much goâ—â— obtained when we discern it not And noâ—thing is more certain than that honest dilâ—â—gence is never lost in the things of God anâ— our salvation It is worth all our labour 〈◊〉 we grow no better to keep our spark froâ— going out and to see that we grow no worse And the preventing of Evil is here an excellent Good Many a thousand eat and drink that never hope to grow any fatter or stronger than they are It is not nothing to be sustained for our daily work and to have our oyl renewed daily as it wasteth The mill gets by going saith the Proverb though it stir not from the place O keep the Heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 4.23 Actions receive their specification and quality from the Heart Death and Life are in the power of the tongue Prov. 18.21 but the tongue is in the power of the Heart Direct 8. Let not your self-self-knowledge be meerly speculative or affective but also Practical Be not contented that you know what you are and what you have â—one nor that your Heart is much Affected with it but let all tend to Action to mend what is amiss and to maintain improve â—nd increase what is good and let the next â—uestion be What am I now to do or What must I be for time to come It is a lamentable â—istake of many that tire themselves with â—â—riving to make deep affecting impressions on â—heir hearts and when they have got much â—â—rrow or much joy they think they have done the greatest matter and there they stop But Affections are the spring that must move to Action and if you proceed not to your Duty Affection is much lost And if with smaller Affection or passion you can stedfastly and resolutely cleave to God and do your Duty you have the principal thing and are accepted Not that outward Actions are accepted without the Heart but that there is most of the Heart where there is most of the Estimation and Will though less of Passion and there is most of Will where there is most Endeavour and inward Action is the first part of Obedience And without these no speculations will avail However you find your Heart be up and doing in the use of means to make it better and wait on God for further grace Direct 9. Manage your self-acquaintance prudently cautelously and with the help of your skilfull friend or Pastor Think not that it is a work that you need no Helper in If you mistake in your Accounts and put down a wrong summ and call your self confidently what you are not or deny Gods graces when ever through Melancholy or distemper you cannot find them and pass false conclusions against Gods mercies and your self this were to turn a duty into a sin and snare And you must do it seasonably Melancholy persons are most uncapable of it who do nothing but pore upon themselves to little purpose such must do more of other Duty but lay by much of this till they are more capable and make much use of the Judgement of their Guides And weaker Heads must take but a due proportion of time for self searching Meditations lest they contract that troublesome disease Duties must be used with profitable variety and all done under good advice But young persons and those that are yet unconverted have need to fall upon it without delay and to follow it till they have made sure their calling and election 2 Pet. 1.10 O what a dreadfull thing it is for a man to come rawly and newly to the study of his soul as a thing that he is unacquainted with when sickness is upon him and death at hand and he is ready to pass into another world To be then newly to ask What am I and What have I done and Whither am I going and What will become of me for ever is a most fearfull state of folly Direct 10 Terminate not your knowledge ultimately in your self but pass up unto God in Christ and to the blessed priviledges of the Saints and the joyfull state of Endless Glory and there let your meditations be most frequent and most sweet But of this elsewhere Madam I have added these Directions not principally for you that have learnt the Art but for your hopefull Sons and Daughters who must be taught these things betimes and for your friends who will be invited hither for your sake They that know you not will think I have taken too much liberty and spoken too much both of you and to you But I appeal from such They that know not how easily you can pardon any one except your self will aggravate the weaknesses which your charity will cover I was purposely the longer because the Treatise is defective And if one Kingdom do not hold us and I should see your face no more on earth yet till we meet in the Glorious Everlasting Kingdom we shall have frequent converse by such means as these notwithstanding our corporal distance And as I am assured of a room in your frequent prayers so I hope I shall remain Madam Your faithfull Servant and Remembrancer at the Throne of Grace Richard Baxter August 25. 1661. Postscript Madam SInce the writing of this Epistle finding you under the afflicting hand of God thought meet to remember you of what â—ou know that God thus traineth up his â—hildren for their Rest whom he Loveth â—e chasteneth and scourgeth every son â—hom he receiveth If we endure chastenâ—â—g God dealeth with us as with children â—nd if we be without chastisement whereof 〈◊〉 are partakers then we are bastards and â—ot sons Heb. 12.6 7 8. The same flesh â—â—at would be pleased will grudge when it 〈◊〉 displeased and that which is our enticeâ—â—g enemy in prosperity will be our
mind be exercised in loving him â—he tongue in singing him the hand in wriâ—ing him let these holy studies be the beâ—â—evers work 2. He that knoweth himself may certainâ—â— know that there is another life of Happiâ—ess or Misery for man to live when this 〈◊〉 ended For he must needs know that his â—oul is capable of a spiritual and glorious â—elicity with God and of immaterial objects and that time is as nothing to it and transitory creatures afford it no satisfaction or Rest and that the Hopes and Fears of the Life to come are the Divine engines by which the Moral Government of the world is carryed on and that the very nature of man is such as that without such Apprehensions Hopes and Fears he could not in a connaturall way be Governed and brought unto the End to which his Nature is enclined and adapted But the world would be as a Wilderness and men as bruits And he may well know that God made not such faculties in vain nor suited them to an end which cannot be attained nor to a work which would prove but their trouble and deceit He may be sure that a meer probability or possibility of an everlasting Life should engage a reasonable creature in all possible diligence in Piety Righteousness Charity to attaine it And so Religion and holy endeavours are become the duty of man as man there being few such Infidels or Atheists to be found on earth as dare say They are sure there 's no other life for man And doubtless whatsoever is by Nature and Reason made mans Duty is not delusory and vain Nor is it Reasonable to think that Falshood frustration and deceit are the ordinary way by which mankind is Governed by the most wise and Holy God So that the end of man may be clearly gathered from his Nature forasmuch as God doth Certainly suit his workes unto their proper use and ends It is therefore the ignorance of our selves that makes men question the Immortality of soules And I may adde it is the Ignorance of the nature of Conscience and of all Morality and of the reason of Iustice among men that makes men doubt of the discriminating Iustice of the Lord which is hereafter to be manifested 3. Did men know themselves they would better know the evill and odiousness of sin As poverty and sickness are better known by feeling then by hearesay so also is sin To hear a discourse or read â— Booke of the Nature Prognosticks and Cure of the plague consumpâ—ion or droâ—sie doth little affect us while we seem â—o be sound and safe our selves But when we find the maladie in our flesh â—nd perceive the danger we have then â—nother manner of knowledge of it Did â—ou but see and feele sin as it is in your â—earts and lives as oft as you read and â—eare of it in the Law of God I dare say sin would not seeme a jesting matter not would those be censured as too precise that are carefull to avoid it any more then they that are carefull to avoid infectious diseases or crimes against the Lawes of man that hazzard their temporall felicity or lives 4. It s want of self-aquaintance that keepes the soule from kindly Humiliation That men are insensible of their Spirituall calamityes and lie under a load of unpardoned sin and Gods displeasure and never feele it nor loath themselves for all the abominations of their hearts and lives nor make complaint to God or man with any seriousness and sense How many hearts would be filled with wholsome griefe and care that now are careless and almost past feeling and how many eyes would stream forth teares that now are dry if men were but truly acquainted with themselves It is self-self-knowledge that causeth the solid peace and joy of a Believer as conscious of that Grace that warranteth his peace and joy But it is self-deceit and ignorance that quieteth the presumptuous that walke as carelesly and sleep as quietly and blesse themselves from Hell as confidently when it is ready to devoure them as if the bitterness of death were past and hypocrisy would never be discoverred 5. It is unacquaintednes with themselves that makes Christ so undervalued by the unhumbled world that his Name is reverenced but his office and Saving grace are disregarded Men could not set so light by the Physicion that felt their sicknes and understood their danger Were you sensible that you are under the wrath of God and shall shortly and certainly be in Hell if a Christ received by a hearty working purifying faith do not deliver you I dare say you would have more serious savory thoughts of Christ more yearnings after him more fervent prayers for his healing grace and sweet remembrance of his love and merits example doctrine and inestimable benefits then lifeless hypocrites ever were acquainted with Imagine with what desires and expectations the diseased blind and lame cryed after him for healing to their bodies when he was on earth And would you not more highly value him more importunately solicite him for your soules if you knew your selves 6. It is unacquaintednes with themselves that makes men think so unworthily of a Holy Heavenly Conversation and that possesseth them with foolish prejudice against the holy Care and diligence of believers did men but value their immortall souls as Reason itself requireth them to do is it possible they should venture them so easily upon everlasting misery and account it unnecessary strictnes in them that dare not be as desperately venturous as they but fly from sin and fear the threatnings of the Lord Did men but consideratly understand the worth and concernment of their souls is it possible they should hazard them for a thing of nought and set them at saile for the favor of superiors or the transitory pleasures and honours of the world Could they thinke the greatest care and labour of so short a life to be too much for the securing of their salvation Could they think so many studious carefull dayes and so much toil to be but meet and necessary for their bodyes and yet think all too much that 's done for their immortall souls Did men but practically know that they are the Subjects of the God of Heaven they durst not think the diligent obeying him to be a needless thing when they like that Child or servant best that is most willing and diligent in their Service Alas were men but acquainted with their weakness and sinfull failings when they have done their best and how much short the hoylest Persons do come of what they are obliged to by the Lawes and mercies of the Lord they durst not make a scorn of diligence nor hate or blame men for endeavouring to be better that are sure at best they shall be too bad When the worst of men that are themselves the greatest neglecters of God and their salvation shall cry out against a Holy life and making so much a do for Heaven as
Heart to Prayer or Holy conference but loathes them and is weary of them and had rather talk of fleshly pleasures to pretend that yet his Heart is Good and that God will excuse him for not expressing it and that it is his Prudence and his freedome from Hypocrisie that maketh his tongue to be so much unacquainted with the goodness of his Heart this is but to play the Hypocrite to prove that he is no Hypocrite and to cover his Ignorance in the matters of his Salvation with the expression of his Ignorance of the very nature and use of Heart and Tongue and to cast by the Lawes of God and his owne duty and cover this impiety with the name of Prudence If Heart and Tongue be not used for God what do you either with a Heart or Tongue The case is plaine to men that can see that it is your strangness to your selves that is the cause that you have little to say against yourselves when you should confess your sins to God and so little to say for your selves when you should beg his grace and so little to say of your selves when you should open your hearts to those that can advise you But that you see not that this is the Cause of your Dumbness who see so little of your owne corruptions is no wonder while you are so strange at home Had you but so much knowledge of yourselves as to see that it is the strangeness to your selves that maketh you so prayerless and mute and so much sense as to complaine of your darkness and be willing to come into the light it were a signe that light is coming in to you and that you are in a hopefull way of cure But when you neither know yourselves nor know that you do not know yourselves your Ignorance and Pride are like to cherish your Presumption and impiety till the Light of grace or the fire of Hell have taught you better to know your selves 2. And here you may understand the reason why people fearing God are so apt to accuse and condemn themselves to be too much cast downe and why they that have cause of greatest joy do somtimes walk more heavily then others It is because they know more of their sinfulness and take more notice of their inward corruptions and outward failings then presumptuous sinners do of theirs Because they know their faults and wants they are cast down But when they come farther to see their interest in Christ and grace they will be raised up againe Before they are converted they usually presume as being ignorant of their sin and misery In the infancy of grace they know these but yet languish for want of more knoledge of Christ and mercy But he that knoweth fully both himself and Christ both misery and mercy is humbled and comforted Cast downe and exalted As a man that never saw the sea is not afraid of it and he that seeth it but a farre off and thinks he shall never come neere it is not much afraid of it he that is drowned in it is worse then afraid and he that is tossed by the waves and doubteth of ever coming safe to harbour is the fearfull person he that is tossed but hath good hopes of a safe arrivall hath feares that are abated or overcome with hope but he that is safe-landed is past his feares The first is like him that never saw the misery of the ungodly the Second is like him that seeth it in generall but thinks it doth not belong to him the third is like the damned that are past remedie the fourth is like the humbled doubting Christian that seeth the danger but doth too much question or forget the helpes the fifth is like the Christian of a stronger faith that sees the danger but withall seeth his help and safety the sixth is like the glorifyed saints that are past the danger Though the doubting Christian know rot his sincerity and therefore knoweth not himself so well as the strong believer doth yet in that he knoweth his sinfullness and unworthyness he knoweth himself better then the presumptuous world These two Remarkes with the foregoing Caution having interposed some what out of place I now returne to prosecute my Exhortation that no matters may seem so sweet so honourable so great or necessary as to pass with you for excuses for the neglecting of the most diligent and impartiall study of yourselves All persons to whom I can address this Exhortation are either Godly or ungodly in the state of sin or in the state of Grace And both of them have need to study themselves I. And to begin with the unrenewed carnall sort it is they that have the greatest need to be better acquainted with themselves O that I knew how to make them sensible of it If any thing will doe it me thinkes it should be done by acquainting them how much their endless state is concerned in it In order hereunto let me yet adde to all that is said already these few considerations 1. If you know not yourselves you know not whether you are the children of God or not nor whether you must be for ever in Heaven or Hell no nor whether you may not within this houre behold the angry face of God which will frowne you into damnation And is this a matter for a man of Reason to be quietly and contentedly ignorant of It is a business of such unspeakable concernment to know whether you must be everlastingly in Heaven or Hell that no man can spare his cost or paines about it without betraying and disgracing his understanding you are sure you shall be here but a little while Those Bodies you all know will hold your souls but a little longer As you know that you that are now together here attending must presently quit this roome and be gone so you know that when you have staid a little longer you must quit this world and be gone into another And I think there is not the proudest of you but would be taken downe nor the most sluggish or dead-hearted but would be awakened if you knew that you must goe to endless misery and that your dying houre would be your enterance into Hell And if you know not your selves you know not but it may be so And to know nothing to the contray would be terrible to you if you well considered it especialy when you have so much cause to feare it O Sirs for a man to sit here sencelesly in these seats that knows not but he may burne in Hell for ever and knowes not because he is blind and careless how unsuitable is it to the principle of self love and self preservation and how much unbeseemiâ—â— the Rational Nature to have no 〈◊〉 or care when you looke before you unto the unquenchable fire and the utter darkness where as the Heathen Poet speakes Nec mortis poenas mors altera finiet hujuâ— Horaque erit tantis ultima nulla malis If any
they may give light to all that are in the house ver 15. What would you do with Teachers but to Teach you And what should they make known to you if not your selves Shall not the Physicion have leave to tell you of your diseases Verily Sirs a sinner under the curse of the Law unsanctified and unpardoned is not in a state to be jeasted and dallied with unless you can play in the flames of Hell It s plain dealing that he needs A quibbling â—oyish flashy Sermon is not the proper medicine for a lethargick miserable soul nor fit to Break a stony Heart nor to bind up a Heart that 's kindly broken Heaven and Hell should not be talkt of in a canting juggling or pedanick strain A Seneca can tell you that its a Physicion that is skilfull and not one that 's eloquent that we need If he have also fine and neat expressions we will not despise them nor overmuch value them urendum secandum It s a cure that we need and the means are best be they never so sharp that will accomplish it Serious reverent Gravity best suiteth with matters of such incomprehensible concernment You set not a School-bâ—y to make an Oration to give an assaulted City an allarm or to call men out to quench a common fire You may play with words when the case will bear it But as dropping of beads is too ludicrous for one that is praying to be saved from the flames of Hell so a sleepy or a histrionical starched speech is too light and unlikely a means to call back a sinner that is posting to perdition and must be humbled and renewed by the spirit or be for ever damned This is your case Sirs And do you think the playing of a part upon a stage doth fit your case O no! so great a business requireth all the serious earnestness in the speaker that he can use I am sure you will think so ere long your selves And you will then think well of the Preachers that faithfully acquainted you with your case and if they succeed to your perdition you will curse those that smoothed you up in your presumption and hid your danger by false doctrine or misapplication or seeming to discover it indeed did hide it by an hypocritical light not serious mention of it God can make use of clay and spittle to open the eyes of men born blind and of Rams-horns to bring down the walls of Jericho But usually he fitteth the means unto the end and works on man agreeably to his Nature And therefore if a blind understanding must be enlightned you cannot expect that it should be done by Squibs and Glowworms but by bringing into your souls the powerfull celestial truth which shall shew you the hidden corners of your hearts and the hidden mysteries of the Gospel and the unseen things of the other world If a hardened heart be to be broken it is not stroaking but striking that must do it It is not the sounding Brass the tinkling Cymbal the carnal mind puft up with superficial knowledge that is the instrument fitted to the renewing of mens souls But it is he that can acquaint you with what he himself hath been savingly acquainted The heart is not melted into Godly sorrow nor raised to the life of Faith and Love by the bubbles of a frothy wit or by a game at words or useless notions but by the illuminating beams of Sacred Truth and the attraction of Divine displayed Goodness communicated from a mind that by faith hath seen the Glory of God and by experience found that he is Good and that liveth in the Love of God such a one is fitted to assist you first in the knowledge of your selves and then in the knowledge of God in Christ Did you consider what is the office of the Ministry you would soon know what Ministers do most faithfully perform their office and what kind of Teaching and oversight you should desire And then you would be reconciled to the Light and would choose the Teacher could you have your choice that would do most to help you to know your selves and know the Lord. I beseech you judge of our work by our Commission and judge of it by your own Necessities Have you more need to be acquainted with your sin and danger or to be pleased wich a set of hansome words which when they are said do leave you as they found you and leave no Light and Life and heavenly Love upon your hearts that have no substance that you can feed upon in the review And what our Commission is you may find in many places of the Scripture Ezek. 3.18 19 20 21. When I say unto the Wicked Thou shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thy hand Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul And If thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not and he doth not sin he shall surely live because he is warned also thou hast delivered thy soul And what if they distaste our doctrine must we forbear Verse 11. Tell them thus saith the Lord God whether they will hear or whether they will forbear So Ezek. 33.1 to 10. You know what came of Jonah for refusing to deliver Gods threatenings against Nineve Christs stewards must give to each his portion He himself threatneth damnation to the impenitent the Hypocrites and unbelievers Luke 13.3.5 Mark 16.16 Mat. 24.51 Paul saith of himself If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1.10 Patience and meekness is commanded to the Ministers of Christ even in the instructing of opposers But to what end but that they may escape out of the snare of Devil who are taken captive by him at his will So that with all our meekness we must be so plain with you as to make you know that you are Satans captives taken alive by him in his snares till God by giving you Repentance shall recover you 2 Tim. 2.25 26. The very effice of the Preachers sent by Christ was to open mens eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance with the sanctified by faith in Christ Acts 26.18 which telleth you that we must let men understand that till they are converted and sanctified they are blind and in the dark and in the power of Satan far from God unpardoned and having no part in the inheritance of Saints Christ tells the Pharisees that they were of their Father the Devil when they boasted that God was their Father John 8.44 And how plainly he tels them of their hypocrisie and asketh them how they can escape the
〈◊〉 with the heart and whether you have â—â—y special interest in him O what a damp 〈◊〉 casteth on the soul how it stifleth its â—â—pes and joys and turneth the Sacrament â—hich is appointed for their comfort into â—â—eir greater trouble It hath many a time â—â—ieved me to observe that no ordinance â—â—th cast many upright souls into greater â—erplexities and discouragements and â—â—stresses then the Lords Supper because â—â—ey come to it with double reverence and 〈◊〉 the doubtings of their title and questiâ—ning their preparedness and by their fears of eating and drinking unworthily their â—â—uls are utterly discomposed with perplexâ—â—g passions and turned from the pleasant â—â—â—rcise of faith and the delighful enterâ—ourse that they should have with God and â—â—ey are distempered and put out of relish 〈◊〉 all the sweetness of the Gospel And 〈◊〉 they are frightened from the Sacrament by such sad experiences and dare 〈◊〉 thither no more for fear of eating â—udgement to themselves And should â—oâ— Christians labour to remove the cause of such miserable distracting fears that so much wrong both Christ and them and 〈◊〉 recover their well-grounded peace and comfort 11. Your Love to God which is 〈◊〉 Heart and Life of the new creature 〈◊〉 so much depend upon your knowledge of 〈◊〉 love to you as should make you much 〈◊〉 desirous of such a knowledge Love is 〈◊〉 end of faith and faith the way to 〈◊〉 So much of Love as is in every duty 〈◊〉 much holiness is in it and no more Iâ— is the sum of the commandments 〈◊〉 the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13 â— Mat. 22.37 Mark 12.33 Though God 〈◊〉 us first as purposing our good 〈◊〉 we loved him 1 Joh. 4.9.10 And 〈◊〉 therefore Love him because he first 〈◊〉 us v. 19. Yet doth he Love us by compâ—â—â—cency and acceptance because we love 〈◊〉 Father and the son Joh. 16.27 〈◊〉 the Father himself loveth you because 〈…〉 loved me and have believed that I came 〈◊〉 from God And what will more effectâ—â—â— kindle in you the fervent Love of Chrâ—â—â— then to know that he loveth you and 〈◊〉 in you All this is exprest by 〈◊〉 himself in Joh 14.20.21 22 23. At 〈◊〉 day ye shall know that I am in my Faith and you in me and I in you He that 〈◊〉 my commandments and keepeth them he 〈◊〉 that loveth me and he that loveth me 〈◊〉 be loved of my Father and I will love 〈◊〉 and will manifest my self unto him If a man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with a knowledge of special Love and approbation This is no disparagement to faith whose nature and use is to work by Love Gal. 5.6 What a man Loveth such he is The Love is the man Our Love is judged by our Life as the cause by the effect but the Life is judged by the Love as the fruits by the tree the effects by the cause Mores auâ—em nostri non ex eo quod quisque novit sed ex eo quod diligit dijudicari solentinâ—â— faciâ—â—t bonos vel malos mores nisi boni vel mali amores saith Augustine that is Our manners are not used to be judged of according to that which every man knoweth but according to that which he loveth It is only good or evil love that maketh good or evil manners If Plato could say as Augustine citeth him lib. 8. de Civit. Dei Hoc est Philosophari scilicet Deum amare To be a Philosopher is to Love God Much more should we say Hoc est Christianum agere this is the doctrine and the work of a Christian even the Love of God Indeed it is the work of the Redeemer to recover the heart of man to God and to bring us to Love him by representing him to us as the most amiable suitable object of our Love And the perfection of Love is Heaven it self O jugum sancti amoris inq Bernard quam dulciter capis gloriose laqueas suaviter premis delectanter oneras fortiter stringis prudenter erudis that is The yoak of holy Love O how sweetly dost thou surprize how gloriously dost thou inthrall how plesantly dost thou press how delightfully dost thou load how strongly dost thou bind how prudently dost thou instruct O faelix amor ex quo oritur strenuitas morum puritas affectionum subtilitas intellectuum desideriorum sanctitas operum claritas virtutum faecunditas meritorum dignitas praemiorum sublimitas O happy Love from which ariseth the strength of manners the purity of affections the subtilty of intellects the sanctity of desires the excellency of works the fruitfulness of vertues the dignity of deserts the sublimity of the reward I appeal to your own consciences Christians would you not think it a foretaste of Heaven upon earth if you could but Love God as much as you desire would any kind of life that you can imagine be so desirable and delightful to you Would any thing be more acceptable unto God! And on the contrary a soul without the Love of God is worse then a Corpse without a soul If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathama maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 And do I need to tell you what a powerful incentive it is to Love to know that you are beloved It will make Christ much more dear to you to know how dear you are to him What is said of affective Love in us may partly be said of attractive Love in Christ Eccles 8.7 Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the floods drown it no riches can purchase what it can attract when you find that he hath you as a seal upon his arm and heart v. 6. and that you are dear to him as the apple of his eye what holy flames will this kindle in your breast If it be almost impossible with your equals upon earth not to Love them that Love you which Christ telleth you that even Publicans will do Matth. 5.46 how much more should the Love of Christ constrain us abundantly to Love him when being infinitely above us his Love descendeth that ours may ascend His Love puts forth the hand from heaven to fetch us up O Christians you little know how Satan wrongeth you by drawing you to deny or doubt of the special Love of God How can you Love him that you apprehend to be your enemie and to intend your ruine Doubtless not so easily as if you know him to be your friend In reason is there any likelier way to draw you to hate God then to draw you to believe that he hateth you Can your thoughts be pleasant of him or your speeches of him sweet or can you attend him or draw near him with delight while you think he hateth you and hath decreed your damnation you may fear him as he is a
when the Church was in a narrower room yet God complained Jer. 12.10 Many Pastors have destroyed my vineyard they have trodden my Portion under foot they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness They have made it desolate and being desolate it mourneth unto me And Jer. 23.1 2. Wo be to the Pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my Pasture saith the Lord therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the Pastors that feed my people Ye have scatted my flock and driven them away and have not visited them behold I will visit on you the evil of your doings saith the Lord. And I will set up shepherds over them that shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed Then was the Church fain to take up this lamentation Jer. 10.19 20.21 Woe is me my hurt for my wound is grievous But I said Truly this is a grief and I must bear it my tabernacle is spoiled and all my cords are broken my children are gone forth of me and they are not there is none to stretch forth my tent any more and to set up my curtains For the Pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their flocks shall be scattered But the voice of healing mercy saith Only acknowledge thine iniquity c. Turn O back sliding children c. and I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding Jer. 3.13 14 15. You see in all other professions that require not supernatural illumination there are but few that attain to excellency It is but in few that Nature layeth the foundation in or giveth that capacity to be excellent which Grace doth elevate and improve Take therefore the advice of the ablest you can get If most Physicions are weak and ignorant do not therefore cast off all nor yet cast your selves upon one that is like to kill you because he is your neighbour I will not perswade you to go always to the Minister of your Parish to open the case of your souls be he fit or unfit but to the fittest that you can have access to The Papists themselves will give men leave to choose others for their Confessors Where there is most of the heavenly illumination and holy skill in the matters of the soul where there is the soundest and exactest judgement joyned with experience and tender compassion and faithful plainess and cautelous secresie there open your hearts if you have opportunity and take the help of such faithful counsellors to acquaint you with your selves Object But such Ministers being few and having more of greater work then they can turn them to are not to be spoken with 〈◊〉 oft as my necessity requireth help Answ Use then the best that are at leisure And it is not only Ministers that you must use but any other Christian friend that hath such abilities and qualifications as fit them to assist you Whosoever hath the Light refuse not to come to it Gods gifts and graces may be helpful to you in a Parent a husband a neighbour and not only in a Minister Quest But how far may a dark and doubting person take up and rest in the judgement of a Minister or of others about the state of his soul when he is not satisfied himself Answ This Question is of very great use and therefore the more carefully to be resolved I shall answer it therefore 1. Negatively and 2. Affirmatively 1. No mans judgement of your state is to be taken as absolutely infallible or divine nor is man to be believed as God is with a divine belief when they tell you that If you are regenerate you are justified then they do but tell you what God hath told you and therefore this is to be taken as of infallible certainty not as it is their word but as it is Gods so also when they tell you that if you are unconverted you are not forgiven But when they tell you that you are converted or unconverted pardoned or unpardoned this judgement is not to be taken as infallible or Divine 2. For the bare matter of fact whether you Repent or not whether you had rather be Holy or unholy c. there is no Minister that can know your Heart so well as you your selves may know it except in case when Melancholy or passion or a weakness of understanding on one side or a wilfulness of presumption on the other side doth make men judge of their own condition quite contrary to the evidence that appeareth in their lives to others 3. It is not safe to rest on the judgement of one that is either an enemy or stranger to the workings of a careful troubled soul or of one that is drunk with any heresie or fond of any private opinion of his own and layeth out his zeal to form people into his opinion as if the life of Religion lay in that Nor yet of a weak unskilful man 4. It is not safe for you to rest much in the â—udgement of one that knows you not and not acquainted by himself or by the â—port of others or some good evidence of â—he bent and manner of your lives but must â—â—dge only by the present expressions of your â—wn mouths 5. It is not safe for you to rest on the â—â—dgement of any one singular person when â—â—e judgement of most of your judicious â—cquaintance is contrary to it So much â—or the Negative 2. Affirmatively I answer 1. By a â—â—vine faith you are bound to believe all â—â—e promises of Scripture that your Pastor â—or any other shall acquaint you with 2. As a Disciple of Christ you are â—ound to Learn the meaning of those Proâ—ises and other passages of the Scripture â—rom your Teachers daily authorized to â—â—struct you And with such a Humane â—â—lief as a schollar oweth to his Teacher 〈◊〉 Arts or Sciences you are bound to Beâ—lieve your Teachers concerning the meanâ—ng of the promises in cases wherein you 〈◊〉 unable your selves to understand the word by its proper light and evidence as â—ell as they and in case you see no evidence of falshood in their exposition nor have any special reason to distrust them 〈◊〉 that will believe nothing that his Teachâ—â— telleth him in order to his own understanâ—â—ing shall never understand by Teaching If you know as much as he already yoâ— need no Teacher If you do not you muâ—â— believe him or else you can never learn 〈◊〉 him But this is not to take him for omâ—niscient or infallible in himself but 〈◊〉 credit him as a man 3. You are bound when he judgeth 〈◊〉 your particular case upon your opening tâ— him the matter of fact to allow him so mucâ— credit as is due to the proportion of his unâ—derstanding You tell him how you feâ—â— your hearts affected and what the actions 〈◊〉 your lives have been when you have tolâ— it him he judgeth by Gods
filled is an insufficient evidence of the life of grace and will do as little for the soul of the giver as for the Body of the receiver And how little hazardous or costly Love is found among us either to enemies neighbours or to Saints Did we better know our hearts there would be more care and diligence used to bring them to effectual fervent Love then to those duties that are of less importance and we should learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 12.7 which Christ sets the Pharisees twice to learn More instances of greatest duties extenuated I might add but I proceed 8. Another instance of unobserved corruption of the heart is The frequent and secret insinuations of selfishness in all that we do toward God or man When we think we are serving God alone and have cleansed our hearts from mixtures and deceit before we are aware self-interest or self-esteem or self conceit or self-love or self-will or self-seeking do secretly creep in and marr the work We think we are studying and preaching and writing purely for God and the common good or the benefit of souls and perhaps little observe how subtilly selfishness insinuates and makes a party and byasseth us from the holy ends and the simplicity and sincerity which we thought we had carefully maintained so that we are studying and preaching and writing for our selves when we take no notice of it When we enter upon any office or desire preferment or riches or honour in the world we think we do it purely for God to furnish us for his service and little think how much of selfishness is in our desires When we are doing Justice or shewing mercy in giving alms or exhorting the ungodly to repent or doing any other work of Piety or Charity we little think how much of selfishness is secretly latent in the bent and intention of the heart When we think we are defending the truth and cause of God by disputing writing or by the sword or when we think we are faithfully maintaining on one side order and obedience against confusion and turbulent disquiet spirits or the Vnity of the Church against division or on the other hand that we are sincerely opposing Pharisaicall corruptions and hypocrisie and tyrannie and persecution and are defending the purity of Divine worship and the power and spirituality of religion in all these cases we little know how much of carnal self may be secretly unobserved in the work But above all others Christ himself and the Holy Ghost that searcheth the hidden things of the heart hath warned one sort to be suspicious of their hearts and that is those that cannot bear the dissent and infirmities of their brethren in tolerable things and those that are calling for fire from heaven and are all for force and cruelty in religion for vexing imprisoning banishing burning hanging or otherwise doing as they would not be done by proportionably in their own case He tells his two Disciples in such a case Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9.55 As if he should say You think you purely seek my honour in the revenge of this contempt and opposition of unbelievers and you think it would much redound to the propagation of the faith and therefore you think that all this zeal is purely from my spirit But you little know how much of â— proud a carnal selfish spirit is in these desires You would fain have me and your selves with me to be openly vindicated by fire from heaven and be so owned by Goâ— that all men may admire you and you may exercise a dominion in the world and you stick not at the sufferings and ruine of these sinners so you may attain your end but 〈◊〉 tell you this selfish cruel spirit is unlike my spirit which inclineth to patience forâ—bearance and compassion So Rom. 14.1 2 c. 15.1 2. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye who art thou that judgest another mans servant Why dost thou judge thy brother and why dost thou set at nought thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ Every one of us shall give account of himself to God We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification So Gal. 6.1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burden and so fulfill the Law of Christ So also men are fouly and frequently mistaken when they are zealously contending against their faithfull Pastors and their brethren and vilifying others and quenching love and troubling the Church upon pretence of greater knowledge or integrity in themselves which is notably discovered and vehemently prest by the Apostle James 3.1 c. where you may see how greatly the judgement of the spirit of God concerning our hearts doth differ from mens judgement of themselves They that had a masterly contentious envious zeal did think they were of the wiser sort of Christians and of the highest form in the School of Christ when yet the Holy Ghost telleth them that their wisdom descended not from above but was earthly sensual and divelish and that their envy and strife doth bring confusion and every evil work and that the wisdom from above is neither unholy nor contentious but first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated Jam. 3.17 You see then how oft and dangerously we are deceived by unacquaintedness with our selves and how selfish carnal principles ends and motives are oft mixed in the actions which we think are the most excellent for wisdom zeal and piety that ever we did perform O therefore what cause have we to study and search and watch such hearts and not too boldly or carelesly to trust them And it is not only Hypocrites that are subject to these deceitfull sins who have them in dominion but true Believers that have a remnant of this carnal selfish principle continually offering to insinuate and corrupt their most excellent works and even all that they do 9. The strong eruption of those passions that seemed to be quite mortified doth shew that there is more evil lurking in the heart then ordinarily doth appear How calmly do we converse together how mildly do we speak till some provoking word or wrong do blow the coals and then the dove appeareth to partake of a fiercer nature and we can perceive that in the flame which we perceived not in the spark When a provocation can bring forth censorious reviling scornfull words it shews what before was latent in the heart 10. We are very apt to think those affections to be purely spiritual which in the issue appear to be mixed with carnality Our very love to the Assemblies and ordinances of
worship and to Ministers and other servants of the Lord to Books and Knowledge are ordinarily mixt and good and bad are strangely complicate and twisted together in the same affections and works And the Love that beginneth in the spirit is apt to degenerate into carnal Love and to have too much respect to Riches or Honour or personage or birth or particular concernments of our own and so it is corrupted as Wine that turneth into Vinegar before we are aware And though still there be uprightness of heart yet too much Hypocrisie is joyned with it when it is little perceived or suspected And thus in ten Instances I have shewed you how much the servants of Christ themselves may be mistaken or unacquainted with their hearts and how the work of mortification is hindered by this covering of so many secret unobserved sins But I must here desire you to take heed of running into their extream who hereupon conclude that their hearts being so dark and so deceitfull are not at all to be understood and therefore they are still so suspicious of the worst as that they will not be perswaded of the grace that plainly worketh in them and will condemn themselves for that which they are not guilty of upon suspicion that they may be guilty and not know it and think that all the sin that they forbear is but for want of a Temptation and that if they had the same Temptations they should be as bad as any others I would intreat these persons to consider of these truths for their better information 1. Temptations do not only shew the evil that is in the heart but breed much more and turn a spark into a flame as the â—â—â—iking of the steel upon the flint doth by â—â—e collision and tinder make fire where was â—ne Adam was made a sinner by temption 2. There is no Christian so mortified but â—â—th such remnants of corruption and conâ—piscence as would quickly bring forth â—â—ynous sins if Temptations beyond strength â—ere let loose upon him What need you â—â—re proof then the sad instances of â—oah Lot David Solomon and Peter It â—â—d not prove that any of these were â—aceless hypocrites before because they fell fouly by Temptations And yet these â—bjectors think they are graceless because â—â—me strong Temptation might make them â—ll 3. It is not Gods way of saving men to â—â—ve them so much inward Grace as no Tempâ—â—tion can overcome but to preserve and â—â—ing them safe to heaven by moral sapiâ—â—tial conduct together with internal â—hanges of their hearts And therefore he â—â—epeth men from sin by keeping them from Temptations that are too strong for them â—ll humane strength is limited And there â—â—e none on earth have such a measure of â—race but a Temptation may be imagined 〈◊〉 strong as to overcome them And if God should let Satan do his worst theâ— must be extraordinary assistances to prâ—â—serve us or we should fall Bless God he lead you not into Temptation but deliâ—â—â— you from the Evil by keeping you 〈◊〉 enough from the snare This is the 〈◊〉 of preservation that we are taught to 〈◊〉 and hope for 4. And therefore it is our own duty 〈◊〉 keep as far from Temptations as we caâ— and if we have Grace to avoid the sin 〈◊〉 avoiding the Temptation we have such Grâ—â— as God useth for the saving of his owâ— Not that he hath saving grace that woâ—â—â— live wickedly if he were but tempted to 〈◊〉 by those ordinary tryals that humane â—â—â—ture may expect But the soul that pâ—â—â—ferreth God and Glory before the pleasures 〈◊〉 sin for a season if it so continue shall 〈◊〉 saved though possibly there migh have 〈◊〉 a Temptation so strong as would have coâ—â—quered the measure of grace that he haâ— if it had not been fortified with new supplieâ— It is therefore more dotage in those thâ—â— could find in their hearts to put themselvâ—â— upon some Temptation to try whether theâ— are sincere by the success Avoid temptatâ—â—on that you may avoid the sin and punisâ—â—ment Make not your selves worse on prâ—â—â—ence of discovering how bad you are Put â—ot Gunpowder or fuell to the sparks of â—orruption that still remain in you on â—retence of trying whether they will burn â—ll men are defectible and capable of every 〈◊〉 and must be saved from it by that Grace â—hich worketh on nature according to that â—ature and prevaileth with Reason by â—eans agreeable to Reason If we think â—e are wicked because we find that we â—ave hearts that could be wicked were they 〈◊〉 alone and because we are not removed 〈◊〉 far from sin as to be uncapable of it we â—ay as well say Adam was wicked in his â—â—nocency much more David Solomon and â—eter before their falls It is not he that â—an sin that shall be punished but he that â—â—th sin or would sin if he could and had â—â—ther have the sin for its Pleasure or Comâ—odity to the flesh then be free from it and 〈◊〉 Holy in order to salvation and the faâ—our and pleasing and enjoying of God in â—ndless Glory 5. Lastly Let such persons try themselves by â—heir conquest over the Temptations which â—hey have and not by imaginary conflicts with all that they think may possibly at any â—ime assault them You have still the same â—â—esh to deal with and the same world and devil that will not let you go to heaven without Temptation If the Temptations which you have already keep you not from preâ—ferring the Love and fruition of God beforâ— the Pleasure of the Flesh and a life of faitâ— and Holiness before a life of infidelity anâ— impiety and sensuality so that you haâ—â— rather live the former then the latter I aâ— sure then your Temptations have not kepâ— you from a state of grace And you maâ— be assured that for the time to come 〈◊〉 you watch and pray you may escape thâ— danger of temptation and that God wilâ— increase your strength if he increase youâ— tryals Be not secure be you never so Holy Think not that you have nature that cannot sin or cannot be tempted to a love 〈◊〉 sin But let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall There hath no temptation taken you but such as is moderate or common to man but God is faithfull who wilâ— not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation alsâ— make a way to escape that ye may be able tâ— bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 And thus I have shewed you how self-ignorance hindereth the conquest and mortifying of sin even in the Godly and now shall add some further motives 2. Not knowing our selves and the seâ—ret corruptions of our hearts doth make sin surprize us the more dangerously and break forth the more shamefully and wound our consciences the more terribly The unsuspected sin hath lest opposition and when it breaks out doth like an unobserved fire go far before we are awakened to quench