should move you to seek to be acquainteâ— with it where it is 1. The knowledge of God is the most exceâ—â—lent knowledge and therefore the best sorâ— of creature knowledge is that which hath the most of God in it And undoubtedly theâ—â— is more of God in Holiness which is his Image then in common things Sins and 〈◊〉 have nothing of God in them They must be fathered on the Devil and your selves Anâ— therefore the knowledge of them is gooâ— but by Accident because the knowledgâ— even of evil hath a tendency to good Anâ— therefore it is commanded and made ouâ— duty for the good which it tendeth to It is the Divine nature and Image within you which hath the most of God and therefore â—o know this is the high and noble knowâ—edge To know Christ within us is our â—appiness on earth in order to the knowâ—edge of him in Glory face to face which is â—he happiness of heaven To know God â—hough darkly through a glass and but in â—art 1 Cor. 13.12 is far above all creaâ—ure knowledge The knowledge of him â—aiseth quickneth sanctifieth enlargeth â—nd advanceth all our faculties It is life â—ternal to know God in Christ John 17.3 Therefore where God appeareth most there â—hould our understandings be most diâ—igently exercised in study and observaâ—ion 2. It is a most delightfull felicitating knowledge to know that Christ is in you â—f it be delightfull to the Rich to see their wealth their houses and lands and goods â—nd money and if it be delightfull to the Honourable to see their attendance and hear their own commendations and applause how delightfull must it be to a true Believer to find Christ within him and to know his title to eternal life If the knowledge of full barns and much goods laid up for many years can make a sensual worlding say Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry Luke 12.19 20. Me thinkâ— the knowledge of our interest in Christ anâ— heaven should make us say Thou hast 〈◊〉 gladness in my heart more then in the tiâ—â— that their corn and wine increased that 〈◊〉 more then corn and wine could put inâ—â— theirs Psal 4.7 Return unto thy Rest 〈◊〉 soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully wiâ—â— thee Psal 116.7 If we say with Daviâ— Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praysing thee Psal 84 â— much more may we say Blessed anâ— they in whom Christ dwelleth and the Holâ— Ghost hath made his Temple they should 〈◊〉 still praising thee Blessed is the 〈◊〉 whom thou choosest and causest to approâ—â—â— unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts 〈◊〉 shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple Psal 65.4 But this 〈◊〉 upon supposition that he be first Blessed by Christs approach to him and dwelling in hiâ— If you ask How it is that Christ dwelleâ—â— in us I answer 1. Objectively as he is apâ—prehended by our Faith and Love As thâ— things or persons that we think of and Lovâ— and delight in are said to dwell in our 〈◊〉 or hearts 2. By the Holy Ghost who 〈◊〉 a principle of new and heavenly Life 〈◊〉 given by Christ the Head unto his members and as the Agent of Christ doth illuminate sanctifie and guide the soul He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3.24 That of Eph. 3.17 may be taken in either or both senses comprehensively That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith 3. Did you know that Christ is in you by his spirit it might make every place and condition comfortable to you If you are alone it may rejoyce you to think what company dwelleth continually with you in your hearts If you are wearied with evil company without it may comfort you to think that you have better within when your have communion with the Saints it is your joy to think that you have nearer communion with the Lords of Saints You may well say with David Psal 139.18 when I awake I am still with thee Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at may right hand I shall not be moved 4. Did you know Christ within you it would much help you in believing what is written of him in the Gospel Though to the ungodly the mysteries of the Kingdom of God do seem incredible yet when you have experience of the power of it on your souls and find the Image of it on your hearts and the same Christ within you conforming you to what he commandeth in his word this will work such a sutableness to the Gospel in your hearts as will make the work of faith more easie Saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.14 16. We have seen do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world there 's their outward experience And we have known and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him There is their Faith confirmed by their inward evidence Nâ— wonder if they that have God dwelling 〈◊〉 them by holy love do believe the love 〈◊〉 God hath to them This is the great advantage that the sanctified have in the work 〈◊〉 faith above those that much excell them 〈◊〉 disputing and are furnished with more Arguments for the Christian verity Christ hath his witness abiding in them The fruits of the spirit bear witness to the incorruptible 〈◊〉 the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 The impress on the 〈◊〉 heard witness to the seal that caused i◠〈◊〉 it is not a weak uneffectual Argument for the Truth of the Gospel that Believer 〈◊〉 to fetch from within when they plead the effects of it on their souls Labour to know the Truth of your sanctification that you may be confirmed by it in the Truth of the word that sanctifieth you Joh. 17.17 and may rejoice in him that hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes 2.13 5. If you can come to the knowledge of Christ within you it will be much the easier to you to trust upon him and fly to him in all your particular necessities and to make use of his Mediatorship with holy confidence When others flie from Christ with trembling and know not whether he will speak for them or help them or have any regard to them but look at him with strange and doubtful thoughts it will be otherwise with you that have assurance of his continual Love and presence Nearness breedeth familiarity and overcometh strangness Familiarity breedeth confidence and boldness when you find Christ so â—â—er you as to dwell within you and so particular and abundant in his Love to you as to have given you his spirit and all his Graces iâ— will breed
home As you love your peace and happiness instead of conversing with vain lascivious or ungodly persons O spend that time in converse with your Consciences You may there have a thousand times more profitable discourse Be not offended to give Conscience a sober faithfull answer if it ask you What you have done with all your Time and how you have lived in the world and how you have obeyed the calls of grace and how you have entertained Christ into your hearts and whether you have obeyed him or his enemy and whether you have been led by the spirit or the flesh and what forwardness the work of your salvation is in for which you came into the world and what assurance you have of your Justification and Salvation and what readiness to die Think it not presumption in Conscience thus to examine you Though you have perhaps unthankfully disdained to be thus examined by your Pastors your external Guides whose office it is to help you and watch for your souls yet do not disdain to be accountable to your selves Accountable you must be ere long to God And that friend that would help you to make ready such accounts on which so great a weight dependeth me thinks should be welcomed with a thousand thanks Ministers and Conscience should be acceptable to you that come on so necessary a work The chidings of Conscience are more friendly language then the flattery of your ignorant or proud associates and should be more gratefull to you then the laughter of fools which is like the crackling of thorns in the fire Eccles 7.6 Thy own home though it be a house of mourning is better for thee then such a sinfull house of mirth Hear but what Conscience hath to say to you No one will speak with you that hath words to speak which nearlyer concern you I beseech you Sirs be more frequent and familiar with Conscience then most men are Think not the time lost when you walk and talk with it alone Confer with it about your endless state and where you are like to be for ever and what way you are in and what thoughts you will have of your sins and duties of the world and God of yielding or overcoming at the last Is there no sense in this discourse Thou art dead and senseless if thou think so Is idle talk and prating better I hope you are not so distracted as to say so If you have not blinded deceived or bribed it I tell you Conscience hath other kind of discourse for you more excellent and necessary things to talk of then wantons or worldlings or pot-companions have It s better be giving Conscience an account what business thou hast had so often in such company and how thou wouldst have lookt if death had found thee there then without leave from from God or Conscience to go thither again The thriving way is neither to be still at home nor still abroad but to be at home when homework is to be done and to be abroad only for doing and for getting good in a way of diligent Christian trading and to bring that home that is got abroad but never to go abroad upon loytering vain expensive occasions When you have done with Conscience converse with others that your business lieth with and go abroad when it s for your Masters work but go not upon idle errands converse not with prodigal Wasters of your time and enemies to your souls One time or other Conscience will speak and have a hearing the sooner the better Put it not off to a time so unseasonable as Death I say not unseasonable for Conscience to speak in but unseasonable for it to begin to speak in and unseasonable for those terrible words that need a calmer time for answer and unseasonable for so many things and so great as self-betrayers use to put off untill then which need a longer time for due consideration and dispatch 3. And I beseech you consider with what amazing horror it must needs surprise you to find ox a sudden and unexpeâ—â—edly when you die that all is worse with â—ou then you imagined or would believe After a whole life of confident presumptiâ—n to be suddenly convinced by so dreadâ—ull an experience of your so long and wilfull a mistake To find in a moment that you have flattered your souls into so desperate a state of woe To see and feel all the selfish cavils and reasonings confuted in one hour which the wisest and holiest men on earth could never beat you from before O Sirs you know not now what a day what a conviction that will be You know not what it is for a guilty soul to to pass out of the Body and find it self in the plague of an unsanctified state and hated of the Holy God that never would know it till it was too late You know not what it is to be turned by Death into that world of spirits where all self-deceit is detected by experience and all must undergo a righteous judgement where blindness and self-love can no more perswade the miserable that they are happy the unholy that they are sanctified the fleshly minded men that they are spiritual the lovers of the world that they are the Lovers of God Men cannot there believe what they list nor take that for a truth which makes for their security be it never so false Men cannot there believe that they are accepted of God while they are in the bonds of their iniquity or that their hearts are as good as the best while their tongues and lives are opposite to goodness or that they shall be saved as soon as the godly though they be ungodly It s easie for a man to hear of waves and gulfs and shipwrack that never saw the Sea and without any fear to hear of battels that never saw the face of an enemy and without any trouble to hear of sickness and tormenting pains and burning and cutting off of limbs that never felt or saw such things It s easie for you here in these seats in the midst of health and peace and quietness to hear of a departing soul and where it shall appear and what it shall there see and how great a discovery Death will make But O Sirs when this must be your case as you know it must be alas how speedily these matters then will seem considerable They will be new and strange to those that have heard of them an hundred times because they never heard of them sensibly till now One of those souls that have been here before you and have past that way into eternity have other thoughts of these things than you have O how do â—â—ey think now of the fearless slumber â—nd stupidity of those that they have â—eft behind What think they now of those â—hat wilfully fly the light and flatter themâ—elves in guilt and misery and make light of all the Joyes and torments of the other world Even as the damned Rich man in
state and that a state of Holiness is better He is a monster of stupidity that finds himself in such a state and doth not feel it but mâ—â—â—th light of it And he is monster 〈…〉 fulness that will not stir when he 〈◊〉 himself in such a case and seek for 〈…〉 and value the remedy and use the 〈…〉 and forsake his sinfull course and 〈…〉 till further mercy take him up and 〈◊〉 him home and make him welcome 〈◊〉 one that was lost but now is found was 〈◊〉 but is alive I do not doubt for all these expostulations but some men may be such monsters as thus to see that they are in a state of wrath and misery and yet continue in it As 1. Such as have but a glimmering insufficient sight of it and a half-belief while a greater belief and hope of the contrary that is Presumption is predominant at the heart But these are rather to be called men ignorant of their misery then men that know it and men that believe it not then men that do believe it as long as the Ignorance and Presumption is the prevailing part 2. Such as by the rage of appetite and passion are hurried into deadly sin and so continue when ever the tempter offereth them the 〈◊〉 against their Conscience and some apâ—â—ehension of their misery But 〈…〉 commonly a prevalent self 〈…〉 within encouraging and 〈…〉 them in their sin and telling 〈…〉 the reluctancies of their consciâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 the spirits strivings against the 〈…〉 their fits of remorse are true 〈…〉 and though they are sinners they 〈◊〉 they are pardoned and shall be 〈◊〉 so that these do not know themselves 〈◊〉 3. Such as by their deep engagements to the world and love of its prosperity and a custom in sinning are so hardened and cast into a slumber that though they have a secret knowledge or suspicion that their case is miserable yet they are not wakened to the due consideration and feeling of it and therefore they go on as if they knew it not But these have not their knowledge in exercise It is but a candle in a dark lanthorn that now and then giveâ— them a convincing flash when the right side happens to be towards them or like lightning that rather frightens and amazeth them then directeth them And as I said of the former as to the act their self-ignorance is the predominant part and therefore they cannot be said indeâ—â— to know themselves Now and then a â—â—â—vinced apprehension or a fear is not 〈…〉 of their minds 4. Such as being in youth or 〈…〉 do promise themselves long life 〈…〉 others that foolishly put away 〈◊〉 day 〈◊〉 death and think they have yet 〈…〉 before them and therefore though◠〈…〉 convinced of their misery and knâ—â—â—hey must be Converted or Condemned 〈◊〉 yet delay and quiet themselves with purposes to Repent hereafter when Death â—raâ—es neer and there is no other remedie but they must leave their sins or give up all their hopes of Heaven Though these know somewhat of their present misery it is but by such a flashy uneffectuall knowledge as is afore described and they know little of the wickedness of their hearts while they confess them wicked Otherwise they could not imagine that Repentance is so easie a work to such as they as that they can performe it when their hearts are further hardened and that so easily and certainly as that their salvation may be ventured on it by delayes Did they know themselves they would know the backwardness of their hearts and manifold difficulties should make them see the madness of delayes and of longer resisting and abusing the grace of the spirit that must convert them if ever they be saved 5. Such as have light to shew them their misery but live where they heare not the discovery of the Remedie and are left without any knowledge of a Saviour I deny not but such may go on in a state of misery though they know it when they know no way out of it 6. Such as Believe not the Remedie though they heare of it but think that Christ is not to be believed in as the Saviour of the world 7. Such as Believe that Christ is the Redeemer but believe not that he will have mercy upon them as supposing their hearts are not qualifyed for his salvation noâ— ever will be because the day of grace iâ— past and he hath concluded them under a sentence of reprobation and therefore thinking that there is no hope and that their endeavours would be all in vaine they cast off all endeavours and give up themselves to the pleasurs of the flesh and say It is as good be damned for some thing or for a greater mattter as for a lesse So that there are three sorts of Despaire that are not equally dangerous 1. A Despaire of pardon and salvation arising from Infidelity as if the Gospell were not true nor Christ a Saviour to be trusted with our soules if predominant is damnable 2. A Despaire of pardon and salvation arising from a mis-understanding of the Promise as if it pardoned not such sins as ours and denyed mercy to those that have sinned so long as we this is not damnable necessarily of it selfe because it implyeth faith in Christ and not Infidelity but misunderstanding hindereth the applyâ—â—â—g comforting act And therefore this â—ctuall personal despaire is accompanyed â—ith a General actual Hope and with a partiâ—ular personal vertual Hope 3. A Despaire 〈◊〉 pardon and salvation upon the misunâ—erstanding of ourselves as thinking both â—â—at we are gracless and alwaies shall be so â—ecause of the blindness and hardness of our â—earts of this Despaire I say as of the forâ—er it is joyned with faith and with General â—nd Virtual Hope and therefore is not the Despaire that of its self condemneth Many may 〈◊〉 saved that are too much guitly of it But if either of these two later sorts â—hall so far prevaile as to turne men off â—â—om a Holy to a fleshly worldly interest and â—â—fe and make them say Wee will take â—ur pleasure while we may and will have â—â—â—thing for our soules before we lose them â—nd do accordingly this kind of Desperatiâ—â— is damnable by the effects because it â—akes men off the meanes of life and giâ—eth them up to damning sinnes Thus I have shewed you of seven sorts of persons that may know themselves â—heir sin and danger with such an uneffectuall partiall knowledge a I have described and yet continue in that sin and misery And in two cases even sound Believer many possibly go on to sin when they 〈◊〉 the sin and not only see the danger of 〈◊〉 but despairingly thinke it greater then it iâ— As 1. in case of common unavoidable faâ—â—ings infirmites and low degrees of grace we are all imperfect and yet we all knoâ— that it is our duty to be perfect as perfectâ—â—on is opposed to sinfull and not to innâ—â—cent imperfection And yet this knowledâ—â— maketh us
fall their sin and misery of the Redeemer and the sure and free salvation which they may have if they will but come to him But alas we cannot make them believe that they are so sick as to have so much need of the Physicion and that they are dead and have need of a new creation as to the inclinations of their hearts and the end and bent and business of their lives We are sent to tender them the mercy of Christ but we cannot make them believe that they are miserable We are sent to offer them the riches and eye selve and white rayment of the Gospel but we cannot make them know that they are poor and blind and naked We are sent to call them to Repent and Turn that they may be saved and we cannot make them know that they are so far out of the way as to need a change of heart and life Here they sit before us and we look on them with pitty and know not how to help them We look on them and think alas poor souls you little see what death will quickly make you see You will then see that there is no salvation by all the blood and merits of Christ for any but the sanctified but O that we could now but make you understand it We look on them with compassion and think Alas poor souls as easily and quietly as you sit here a change is neer It will be thus with you but a little while and where will you be next We know as sure as the word of God is true that they must be converted and sanctified or be lost for ever and we cannot make them believe but that the work is done already The Lord knoweth and our consciences witness to our shame that we be not half so sensible of their misery nor so compassionate towards them as we ought to be but yet sometimes our hearts melt over them and fain we would save them from the wrath to come and we should have great hopes of the success if we could but make them know their danger It melts our hearts to look on them and think that they are so near damnation and never like to scape it till they know it till they know that their corruption is so great that nothing but the quickning spirit can recover them and nothing less then to become new creatures will serve the turn But if we would never so fain we cannot make them know it O that we knew how to acquaint them with their case O that we knew how to get within them and to open the windows that the light of Christ might shew them their condition But when we have done all we find it past our power We know they will be past help in Hell if they die before they are regenerate And could we but get themselves to know it we could not but hope that they would better look about them and be saved but we are not able it s more then we can do We cannot get the grossest worldling the basest sensualist the filthiest letcher the proudest child of the Spirit of pride to know that he is in a state of condemnation and must be sanctified or be damned much less can we procure the formal Pharisee thus to know himself We can easily get them to confess that they are sinners and deserve damnation and cannot be saved without Christ But this will not serve The best Saint on earth must say as much as this comes to There are converted and uncoverted sinners sanctifyed and unsanctified sinners Pardoned and unpardoned sinners Sinners that are members of Christ and the children of God and heirs of Heaven and sinners that are not so but contrary They must know not only that they are sinners but that they are yet unconverted unsanctified unpardoned sinners not only that they cannot be saved without Christ but that yet they have no special interest in Christ They will not Turn while they think they are turned already They will not so value and seek for Conversion and Remission and Adoption as to obtain them while they think they have them all already They will not come to Christ that they may have life while they think they have part in Christ already Paul after his Conversion was a sinner and had need of Christ but Paul before his Conversion was an unsanctified unjustified sinner and had no part in Christ This is the state of sin and misery that you must come out of or you are lost And how can you be brought out of it till you know that you are in it O therefore that we knew how to make you know it How should we make poor sinners see that they are within a few steps of everlasting fire that we might procure them to run away from it and be saved we cry so oft and lose our labour and leave so many in their security and self-deceits that we are too discouraged and remit our desires and lose our compassion and our selves alas grow dull and too insensible of their case and preach too oft as coldly as if we could be content to let them perish We are too apt to grow weary of holding the light to men asleep or that shut their eyes and will not see by it When alâ— that we have said is not regarded and we know not what more to say then hath been said so long in vain this flats our spirits this makes so many of us preach almost as carelesly as we are heard Regardless sleepy hearers make regardless sleepy Preachers Frequent frustration abateth hope And the fervour and diligence of prosecution ceaseth as hope abateth This is our fault Your insensibility is no good excuse for ours But it s a fault not easily avoided And when we are stopt at the first door and cannot conquer Satans out works what hopes have we of going further If all that we can say will not convince you that you are yet unsanctified and unjustified how shall we get you to the duties that belong to such in order to the attainment of this desireable state ANd here I think it not unseasonable to inform you of the reason why the most able faithfull Ministers of Christ do search so deep and speak so hardly of the case of unrenewed souls as much displeaseth many of their hearers and makes them say they are too severe and terrible preachers The zealous Antinomian saith they are Legalists and the prophane Antimonian saith they rail and preach not mercy but judgement only and would drive men to despair and make them mad But will they tell God he is a Legalist for making the Law even the Gospel Law as well as the Law of Nature and commanding us to preach it to the world Shall they escape the Sentence by reproaching the Law-maker Will not God judge the world and judge them by a Law and will he not be just and beyond the reach of their reproach O sinner this is not the smallest part of
that fear God The depths and deceits of the heart are wonderfull and you little think what an hour of temptation may discover in you or bring you to oh therefore know your selves and fear and watch 3. A man that in adversity is touched with penitent and mortifying considerations and strongly resolveth how holily and diligently he will live hereafter if he be recovered or delivered from his suffering doth ofttimes little think what a treacherous heart he hath and how little he may retain of all this sense of sin or duty when he is delivered and that he will be so much worse then he seemed or promised as that he may have cause to wish he had been afflicted still O how many sick-bed promises are as pious as we can desire that wither away and come to almost nothing when health hath scattered the fears that caused them How many with that great imprisoned Lord do as it were write the story of Christ upon their prison walls that forget him when they are set liberty How many are tender-conscienced in a low estate that when they are exalted and converse with great ones do think that they may wast their time in idleness and needless scandalous recreations and be silent witnesses of the most odious sins from day to day and pray God be mercifull to them when they go to the house of Rimmon and dare scarcely own a down-right servant or hated and reproached cause of God! O what a preservate would it be to us in prosperity to know the corruption of our hearts and forsee in adversity what we are in danger of We should then be less ambitious to place our dwellings on the highest ground and more fearfull of the storms that there must be expected How few are there to a wonder that grow better by worldly greatness and prosperity Yea how few that held their own and grow not worse And yet how few are there to a greater wonder that refuse or that desire not this perilous station rather then to stand safer on the lower ground Verily the lamentable fruits of prosperity and the mutability of men that make great professions and promises in adversity should make the best of us jealous of our hearts and convince us that there is greater corruption in them then most are acquainted with that are never put to such a trial The height of prosperity shews what the man is indeed as much as the depth of adversity Would one have thought that had read of Hezekiahs earnest prayer in his sickness and the Miracle wrought to signifie his deliverance 2 Kings 20.2 3 9. and of his written song of praise Isa 38. that yet Hezekiahs heart should so deceive him as to prove unthankful You may see by his expressions his high resolutions to spend his life in the praise of God Isa 38.19 20. The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day The Fathers to the children shall make known thy truth The Lord was ready to save me therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Would you think that a Holy man thus rapt up in Gods praise should yet miscarry and be charged with ingratitude And yet in 2 Chron. 32.25 it is said of him But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem And God was fain to bring him to a review and humble him for being thus lifted up as the next words shew ver 26. Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart O Sirs what Christan that ever was in a deep affliction and hath been recovered by the tender hand of mercy hath not found how false a thing the heart is and how little to be trusted in its best resolutions and most confident promises Hezekiah still remained a holy faithfull man but yet thus failed in particulars and degrees Which of us can say who have had the most affecting and engaging deliverances that ever our hearts did fully answer the purposes and promises of our afflicted state and that we had as constant sensible thanksgivings after as our complaints and prayers were before Not I with grief I must say Not I though God hath tryed me many a time Alas we are too like the deâ—â—itfull Israelites Psal 78.34 When he slew â—â—em then they sought him and they returnâ—â— and enquired early after God and they â—â—membred that God was their rock and the 〈◊〉 God their Redeemer Nevertheless they did â—â—tter him with their mouth and they lyed â—â—to him with their tongues For their â—â—art was not right with him neither were â—â—ey stedfast in his Covenant Prosperity oft â—â—ews more of the hypocrisie of the unsound 〈◊〉 the infirmity of the upright then apâ—â—ared in adversity When we feel the 〈◊〉 resolutions of our hearts to cast off 〈◊〉 sin to walk more thankfully and â—â—uitfully and accurately with God then 〈◊〉 have done we can hardly believe that â—â—er those hearts shoul lose so much of those â—â—fections and resolutions as in a little time 〈◊〉 find they do Alas how quickly and 〈◊〉 sensibly do we slide into our former inâ—â—nsibility and into our dull and heavy â—â—uitless course when once the pain and â—â—ar is gone And then when the next â—â—fliction comes we are confounded and coâ—â—ered with shame and have not the confiâ—ence with God in our prayers and cryes â—s we had before because we are conscious of our covenant-breaking and backâ—liding and at last we grow so distrustfull of our hearts that we know not 〈◊〉 to believe any promises which 〈◊〉 make nor how to be confident 〈◊〉 any Evidence of grace that is in theâ— and so we lose the comfort of our sincerâ—â—â— and are cast into a state of too much hâ—â—â—viness and unthankfull denyal of our deâ—â—â—est mercies And all this comes from 〈◊〉 foul unexpected relapses and coolings 〈◊〉 declinings of the heart that comes not 〈◊〉 to the promises we made to God in 〈◊〉 distress But if Exaltation be added to Deliveraâ—â—â— how often doth it make the Reason druâ—â— so that the man seems not the same If 〈◊〉 see them drowned in Ambition or worlâ— cares or pleasures if you see how bolâ— they can play with the sin that once thâ—â— would have trembled at how powerfâ—â—â— fleshly arguments are with them 〈◊〉 strangely they now look at plainheaâ—â—â—â— zealous heavenly Christians whose 〈◊〉 they once desired to be in and how 〈◊〉 they are ashamed or afraid to appear 〈◊〉 for an opposed cause of Christ or opeâ—â—ly to justifie the persons that he justifieth As if they had forgot that a day is comiâ—â— when they will be loth that Christ shouâ—â— be ashamed of them and refuse to Justifâ—â— them when the grand Accuser is pleading for their condemnation I say if you see these men in their prosperity would you not ask with wonder
THE MISCHIEFS OF Self-Ignorance AND THE BENEFITS OF Self-Acquaintance Opened in Divers Sermons at Dunstan's-West And Published in answer to the Accusations of some and the Desires of others By Richard Baxter For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another For every man shall bear his own burden 〈◊〉 Printed by R. White for F. Tyton at the three daggers in Fleet-street 1662. 〈…〉 To the right Honourable Anne Countess of Balcarres c. Madam THough it be usual in Dedications to proclaim the honour of inscribed names and though the proclaiming of yours be a work that none are like to be offended at that know you they esteeming you the honour of your â—â—x and nation yet that you may see I intend â—ot to displease you by any unsafe or unsaâ—oury applause I shall presume here to lay 〈◊〉 double dishonour upon you The one by â—refixing your name to these lean and hasty â—ermons The other by laying part of the â—ame upon your self and telling the world â—â—at the fault is partly yours that they are â—â—â—blished Not only yours I confess For had it not been for some such auditors as Christ had Luk. 20.20 and Mark 12.13 and for the frequent reports of such as are mentioned Psal 35.11 I had not written down all that I delivered and so had been uncapable of so easily answering your desires But it was you that was not content to hear them but have invited them to recite their message more publikely as if that were like to be valued and effectual upon common hearts which through your strength of charity and holy appetite is so with yours My own thoughts went in the middle way neither thinking as those that accused these Sermons of injurious tendencie against I know not whom or what that have been so long in contention that they dream they are still contending and fancie every word they hear from those that their uncharitableness calleth adversaries to signifie some hostile terrible thing as the scalded head doth fear cold water nor yet did I thinke them worthy to be tendered by such a publication to the world But valuing your judgement and knowing that the subject is of great necessity though the manner of handling be dull and dry I hope it may be profitable to some and I find nothing in it to be hurtful unto any anâ— therefore submit and leave you both to bear the blame and take the thanks if any be returned I perceive you value the subjects which you have found in the practice of your soul to be most useful As they that know God would fain have all others to know him so those that know themselves do love the Glass and would have others to make use of it I wonder not if your experience of the benefits of self-acquaintance provoke you to desire to have more partakers in so profitable and so sweet aâ—knowledge Had you not known your self you had never known your Saiviour your God your way and â—our end as you have done you had never â—een so well acquainted with the symptomes â—nd cure of the diseases of the Soul the â—ature and exercise of grace the way â—f mortification and the comfortable â—upports refreshments and fore-tasts of â—eavenly believers you had never so clearly â—â—en the vanity of all the pomp and fulness â—f the world nor so easily and resolutely deâ—ised its flatteries and baits nor so quietly â—â—rn variety of afflictions nor imitated â—oses Heb. 11.25 26. nor received the 〈◊〉 Character Psal 15. He that is a stranger 〈◊〉 himself his sin his misery his necessity c. is a stranger to God and to all that might denominate him wise or happy To have taken the true measure of our capacities abilities infirmities and necessities and thereupon to perceive what is really BEST FOR VS and most agreeable to our case is the first part of true practical saving knnowledge Did the distracted mindless world consider what work they have at home for their most serious thoughts and care and diligence and of what unspeakable concernment and necessity it is and that men carry within them the matter of their final doom and the beginning of endless Joy or sorrows they would be called home from their busie-idleness their laborious-loss of precious time and unprofitable vagaries and would be studying their hearts while they are doting about a multitude of impertinencies and would be pleasing God while they are purveying for the flesh and they would see that it more concerneth them to know the day of their salvation and now to lay up a-treasure in Heaven that they may die in faith and live in everlasting Joy and Glory than iâ— the crowd and noise of the ambitious covetous voluptuous Sensualists to run after a feather till time is past and mercy gone and endless woe hath unexpectedly surprized them Yet do these dead men think they live because they laugh and talke and ride and goe and dwell among gnats and flies in the sun shine and not with worms and dust in darkness They think they are awake because they dream that they are busie and that they are doing the works of men because they make a pudder and a noise for finer cloaths and larger room and sweeter morsels and lower congees and submissions than their poorer undeceived neighbours have They think they are sailing to felicity because they are tossed up and down And if they can play the Jacks among the fishes or the wolves or foxes in the flocks of Christ or if they can attain to the honour of a Pestilence to be able to do a great deal of â—urt they are proud of it and look as high â—s if they saw neither the Grave nor Hell â—or knew how quickly they must be taken down and laid so low that the Righteous shall see it and fear and laugh at â—hem saying Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in â—he abundance of his riches and strengthâ—ed himself in his wickedness Psal 52. â— 7. Behold these are the ungodly that â—rosper in the world and increase in richâ—s surely they are set in slippery places and cast down to destruction and brought to desolation as in a moment and utterly consumed with terrors As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image Psal 73. Though while they lived they blessed themselves and were praised by mâ—n yet when they die they carry nothing away their glory shall not descend after them like sheep they are laid in the grave death shall feed on them and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning Man in honour abideth not he is like the beasts that perish This their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings Psal 49. As the proverb is At last the wolfs skin is
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
if a man that lyeth in bed should cry out against working too much or going too fast this shewes mens strangeness to themselves Did the careless world but know themselves and see where they stand and what 's before them and how much lyeth on this inch of time did they but know the nature and employment of a soul and why their Creator did place them for a little while in flesh and whither they must goe when time is ended you should then see them in that serious frame themselves which formerly they dislikt in others and they would then confess that if any thing in the world deserved seriousness and diligence it is the pleasing of God and the saving of our souls 7. It is for want of acquaintance with themselves that men are so deceived by the vanityes of the world that they are drowned in the love of pleasures and sensuall delights that they are so greedy for Riches and so desirous to be higher then those about them and to wast their dayes in the pursuit of that which will not help them in the houre of their extremity Did the voluptuous sensualist know aright that he is a Man he would not take up with the pleasures and felicity of a bruit nor enslave his Reason to the violence of his Appetite He would know that there are higher pleasures which beseem a Man even those that consist in the well being and integrity of the soule in peace of Conscience in the favour of God and Communion with him in the Spirit and in a holy life and in the fore-thoughts and Hopes of endless Glory Did the Covetous worldling know himself he would know that it must be another kind of Riches that must satisfie his soul and that he hath wants of another nature to be supplied and that it more concernneth him to lay up a treasure in Heaven and think where he must dwell for ever then to accommodate his perishing flesh and make provision with so much a doe for a life that posteth away while he is providing for it he would rather make him friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness and lay up a foundation for the time to come and labour for the food that never perisheth then to make such a stir for that which will serve him so little a while that so he might hear Well done thou Good and faithfull servant c. rather then Thou foole this night thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Self-knowledge would teach Ambitious men to prefer the calmest safest station before the highest and to seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and to please him most carefully that hath the Keyes of Heaven and Hell and to be content with food and rayment in the way while they are Ambitious of a higher Glory It would tell them that so dark and fraile a creature should be more solicitous to Obey then to have Dominion and that large Possessions are not the most congruous or desireable Passage to a narrow grave and that it is the highest dignity to be an heire of Heaven Would men but spend some houres time in the study of themselves and seriously consider what it is to be a Man a sinner a Passenger to an endless life an expectant of so great a change and withall to be a profest Believer what a turne would it make in the cares and the desires and conversations of the most O amatores mundi inquit Angust cujus rei gratia militatis Ibi quid nisi fragile plenum periculis et per quâ—t pericula pervenitur ad majus periculum percant haec omnia et dimittamus haec vana et inania conferamus nos ad solam inquisitionem eorum quae finem non habeant i. e. What strive you for O worldings What 's here but a brittle glass full of dangers and by how many dangers must you come to greater dangers Away with these vanities and toyes and let us set our selves to seek the things that have no end 8. It is for want of self-acquaintance that any man is Proud Did men considerately know what they are how quickly would it bring them low Would corruptible flesh that must shortly turne to loathsome rottenness be stout and Lordly and look so high and set forth it self in gawdy ornaments if men did not forget themselves Alas the way forgets the end the outward bravery forgets the dirt and filth within the stage forgetteth the undressing roome Did Rulers behave themselves as those that are subjects to the Lord of all and have the greatest need to feare his judgment and prepare for their account did Great ones live as men that know that Rich and poore are equall with the Lord who respects not persons and that they must Speedily be levelled with the lowest and their dust be mixed with the Common earth what an alteration would it make in their deportment and affaires and what a mercy would it prove to their inferiours and themselves If men that swell with pride of parts and overvalue their knowledge wit or elocution did know how little indeed they know and how much they are ignorant of it would much abate their pride and confidence The more men know indeed the more they know to humble them It is the Novices that being lifted up with Pride do fall into the Condemnation of the Devill 1 Tim. 3.6 They would loath themselves if they knew themselves 9. It is self-ignorance that makes men rush upon Temptations and choose them when they customarily pray against them Did you Know what tinder or gunpowder lodgeth in your natures you would guard your eyes and eares and appetites and be afraid of the least spark you would not be indifferent as to your company nor chuse a life of danger to your souls for the pleasing of your flesh to live among the snares of honour or beauty and bravery or sensuall delights you would not willfully draw so neare the brinke of Hell nor be nibbling at the bait nor looking on the forbidden fruit nor dallying with allurements nor hearkening to the Deceiver or to his messengers It is ignorance of the weakness and badness of your hearts that maketh you so confident of your selves as to think that you can heare any thing and see any thing and approach the snare and treat with the Deceiver without any danger self-acquaintance would cause more feare and self-suspicions If you should scape well a while in your self-chosen dangers you may catch that at last that may prove your wo. Nemo sese tuto periculis offerre tam crebro potest Quem saepe transit casus aliquando invenit Seneca Temptation puts you on a combate with the powers of earth and flesh and Hell And is toyl and danger your delight Nunquam periculum sine periculo vincitur saith Seneca Danger is never overcome without danger It s necessary valour to charge through all which you are in But its
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
their sin and misery that now are Pharisaically confident of their integrity How many would seek to faithfull Ministers for advice and enquire what they should do to be saved that now deride them and scorn their counsell and cannot bear their plain reproof or come not near them How many would ask directions for the cure of their unbelief and pride and sensuality that now take little notice of any such sins within them How many would cry day and night for mercy and beg importunatly for the life of their immortall souls that now take up with a few words of course instead of serious fervent prayer Doe but once know your selves aright know what you are and what you have done and what you want and what 's your danger and then be prayerless and careless if you can Then sit still and trifle out your time and make a jeast of holy diligence and put God off with lifeless words and complements if you can Men could not thinke so lightly â—nd contemptuously of Christ so unworâ—hily and falsly of a holy life so delightfully of sin so carelesly of Duty so fearlesly of Hell so senslesly and atheistically of God and so disregardfully of Heaven â—s now they do if they did but throughly know themselves ANd now Sirs me thinks your consciences should begin to stir and your thoughts should be turned inwards upon your selves and you should seriously consider what measure of acquaintance you have at home and what you have done to procure and maintain such acquaintance Hath Conscience no Vse to make of this Doctrine and of all that hath been said upon it Doth it not reprove you for your self neglect and your wanderings of mind and your aliene unnecessary fruitless Cogitations Had you been but as strange to your familiar friend and as regardless of his acquaintance correspondencie and affaires as too many of you have been of your Own you may imagine how he would have taken it and what Use he would have made of it some such Use it beseemeth you to make of estrangedness to your selves Would not he ask What is the matter that my friend so seldom looketh at me and no more mindeth me or my affaires What have I done to him How have I deserved this What more beloved company or employment hath he got You have this and much more to plead against your great Neglect and Ignorance of your selves In order to your conviction and reformation I shall first shew you some of those Reasons that should move you to Know your selves and consequently should humble you for neglecting it and then I shall shew you what are the Hinderances that keep men from self-acquaintance and give you some Directions necessary to attaine it In generall consider it is by the Light of knowledge that all the affairs of your souls must be directed And therefore while you know not your selves you are in the dark and unfit to manage your own affairs your Principall error about your selves will have influence into all the transactions of your lives you will neglect the greatest duties and abuse and corrupt those which you think you do performe While you know not yourselves you know not what you do nor what you have to do and therefore can do nothing well For instance 1. When you should Repent of sin you know it not as in yourselves and therefore cannot savingly Repent of it If you know in generall that you are sinners or know your gross and crying sins which Conscience cannot overlook yet the sins which you know not because you will not know them may condemne you How can you Repent of your Pride Hypocrisie Self-love Self-seeking your Want of love and feare and trust in God or any such sins which you never did observe Or if you perceive some sins yet if you perceive not that they reign and are predominant and that you are in a state of sin how can you Repent of that estate which you perceive not Or if you have but a sleight and superficiall sight of your sinfull state and your particular sins you can have but a superficiall false Repentance 2. If you know not yourselves you cannot be duely sensible of your misery Could it be expected that the Pharisees should lament that they were of their Father the Devill as long as they boasted that they were the Children of God Joh. 8.41 44. Will they lament that they are under the wrath of God the curse of the Law and the bondage of the Devill that know not of any such misery that they are in but hope they are the heirs of heaven What think you is the reason that when Scripture telleth us that few shall be saved and none at all but those that are new creatures and have the Spirit of Christ that yet there is not one of many that is sensible that the case is theirs Though Scripture peremptorily concludeth that They that are in the flesh cannot please God and that To be carnally minded is death Rom 8.6 7 8. and that Without holyness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 and that all They shall be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2.12 and that Christ will come in flaming fire takeing vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorifyed in his saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. And would not a man think that such words as these should waken the guilty soul that doth believe them and make us all to look about us I confess it is no wonder if a flat Atheist or Infidel should sleight them and deride them But is it not a wonder if they stir not those that profess to believe the word of God and are the men of whom these Scriptures speak And yet among a thousand that are thus condemned already I say by the word that is the Rule of Judgement even condemned already For so God saith Joh. 3.18 how few shall you see that with penitent tears lament their misery How few shall you hear with true remorse complain of their spiritual distress and cry out as those that were pricked at the heart Act. 2.37 Men and Brethren what shall we do In all this Congregation how few hearts are affected with so miserable a case Do you see by the tears or hear by the complaints of those about you that they know what it is to be unpardoned sinners under the wrath of the most holy God! And what is the matter that there is no more such lamentation Is it because there are few or none so miserable Alas no. The Scripture and their worldly fleshly and ungodly lives assure us of the contrary But it is because men are strangers to themselves They little think that its themselves that
if you â—ere ofter in your hearts Prayer would not â—eem needless if you knew your needs Know your selves and be prayerless if you can When the Prodigal was convinced he presently purposeth to Confess and Pray When Paul was converted Ananias hath this evidence of it from God Behold he prayeth Act. 9.11 Indeed the inward part of prayer is the motion of a returning soul to God saith Hugo Oratio est piae mentis humilis ad Deum conversio fide spe charitate subnixa Prayer is the turning of a pious humble soul to God leaning upon faith hope and love It is Oranti subsidium Deo sacrificium daemonibus flagellum The relief of the Petitioner the sacrifice of God the scourge of Devils And self-knowledge would teach men how to pray Your own hearts would be the best Prayer-books to you if you were skilfull in reading them Did you see what sin is and in what Relation you stand to God to Heaven and Hell it would drive you above your beads and lifeless words of course and make you know that 〈◊〉 pray to God for pardon and salvation 〈◊〉 not a work for a sleepy soul saith 〈◊〉 Ille Deo veram Orationem exhibet 〈◊〉 metipsum cognoscit quia pulvis sit 〈◊〉 videt qui nihil sibi virtutis tribuit 〈◊〉 He offereth the truest prayer to God 〈◊〉 knoweth himself that humbly seeth he is but dust and ascribeth not vertue to himself c. Nothing quencheth prayer more then to be mistaken or mindless about our selves When we go from home this fire goes out But when we return and search our hearts and see the sins the wants the weaknesses that are there and perceive the danger that is before us and withall the glorious hopes that are offered us here 's fuell and bellows to enflame the soul and cure it of its drowsiness and dumbness Help any sinner to a clearer light to see into his heart and life and to a livelyer sense of his own condition and I warrant you he will be more disposed to fervent prayer and will better understand the meaning of those words Luke 18.1 That men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint and 1 Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing You may hear some impious persons now disputing against frequent and fervent prayer and saying What need all this ado But if you were able to open these mens eyes and shew them what is within them and before them you would quickly answer all their arguments and convince them better then words can do and put an end to the dispute You would set all the prayerless families in Town and Country Gentlemens and poor mens on fervent calling upon God if you could but help them to such a sight of their sin and danger as shortly the stoutest of them must have Why do they pray and call for prayers when they come to die but that they begin a little better to know themselves They see then that youth and health and honour are not the things nor make them not so happy as befooling prosperity once perswaded them Did they believe and consider what God saith of them and not what flattery and self-love say it would open the mouths of them that are most speechless But those that are born deaf are alwayes dumb How can they speak that language with desire to God which they never learn't by faith from God or by knowledge of themselves And self-knowledge would teach men what to ask They would feel most need of spiritual mercies and beg hardest for them and for outward things they would ask but for their daily bread and not be foolishly importunate with God for that which they know not to be suitable or good for them Fideliter supplicans Deo pro necessitatibus hujus vitae miserecorditer auditur miserecorditer non auditur Quid enim infirmo sit utilius magis novit medicus quam agrotus saith Prosper It s mercy to be denyed sometimes when we pray for outward things Our Physition and not we must choose our Physick and prescribe our diet And if men knew themselves it would teach them on what terms to expect the hearing of their prayers Neither to be accepted for their merits nor yet to be accepted without that faith and Repentance and desire that seriousness humility and sincerity of heart which the very nature of Prayer to God doth contain or presuppose He that nameth the name of Christ must depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 and must wash himself and make him clean and put away the evil of his doings from before the eyes of God and cease to do evil and learn to do well Isa 1.16 17. As knowing that though a Simon Magus must Repent and Pray Acts 8.22 and the wicked in forsaking his way and thoughts and returning to the Lord must seek him while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Isa 55.6 7. and the prayers of a humbled Publican are heard when he sets his prayer against his sins Yet if he would cherish his sin by prayer and flatter himself into a presumption and security in a wicked life because he useth to ask God forgiveness iâ— he thus regard iniquity in his heart God will not hear his prayers Psal 66.18 and we know that such impenitent sinners God heareth not John 9.31 And thus the prayers of the wicked as wicked which are not a withdrawing from his wickedness but a bolster of his security and as a craving of protection and leave to sin are but an abomination to the Lord Prov. 17.8 28 9. Ferrum prius extrahendum The bullet the thorn must be first got out before any medicine can heal their wounds Saith Augustine Plus Deo placet latratus canum mugitus boum grunnitus porcorum quan cantus clericorum luxuriantium The barking of dogs the lowing of beasts the grunting of swine doth please God better then the singing of luxuriant Clergy men Did men know themselves and who they have to do with in their prayers they would not go from Cards and Dice and gluttony and fornication and railing lying or reviling at the servants of the Lord to a few hypocritical words of prayer to salve all till the next time and wipe their mouthâ— as if one sin had procured the forgiveness of another Nor would they shut up a day â—f worldliness ambition sensuality or â—rofaneness with a few heartless words of confession and supplication or with the words of penitence while their hearts are impenitent as if when they have abused God by sin they would make him amends or reconcile him by their mockery Nor would they think to be accepted by Praying for that which they would not have for holiness when they hate it and for deliverance from the sins which they would not be delivered from and would not have their prayers granted 7. If you know not your selves it will unfit you for Thanksgiving Your greatest Mercies will be least
with a Medice cura teipsum Physitian heal thy self with a Loripidem rectus derideat Aethiopem abbus c. and a Primus jussa subi c. and a Qui alterum incusat probri ipsum se intueri oportet First sweep before your own door It s ridiculous for the blind to reproach the pur-blind Qua in aliis reprehendis in teipso maximè reprehende Reprehend that more in thy self which thou reprehendest in another The eye of the soul is not like the eye of the body that can see other things but not it self There are two evils that Christ noteth in the reproofs of such as are unacquainted with theselves in Math. 7.3 4. Hypocrisie and Vnfitness to reprove Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thy own eye Or how wilt thou say to thy brother Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye and behold a beam is in thy own eye Thou Hypocrite first cast the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brothers eye Thy own vices do corrupt thy judgement and cause thee to excuse the like in others and to accuse the virtue that in others is the condemner of thy vice and to represent all as odious that is done by those that by their piety and reproofs are become odious to thy guilty and malicious soul Dost thou hate a holy heavenly life and art void of the love of God and of his servants Hast thou a carnal dead unconverted heart art thou a presumptuous careless worldly wretch Hast thou these beams in thy own eye and art thou fit to quarrel with others that are better then thy self about a Ceremony or a Holy day or a circumstance of Church-Government or Worship or a doubtfull controverted opinion and to be pulling these motes out of thy Brothers eye Yea rather wouldst pull out his eyes to get out the mote First get an illuminated mind and a renewed sanctified heart be acquainted with the Love of God and of his Image and cast out the beam of infidelity ungodliness worldliness sensuality malice and hypocrisie from thine own eye and then come and play the Oculist with thy brother and help to cure him of his lesser involuntary errors and infirmities Till then the beam of thy sensuality and impiety will make thee a very incompetent Judge of the mote of a different opinion in thy brother Every word that thou speakest in condemnation of thy brother for his opinion or infirmity is a double condemnation of thy self for thy ungodly fleshly life And if thou wilt needs have judgement to begin at the house of God for the failings of his sincere and faithfull servants it may remember thee to thy terror what the end of them shall be that obey not the Gospel of God And if you will condemn the righteous for their lamented weaknesses where think you the ungodly and the sinner shall appear 1 Pet. 4.17 18. 11. If you begin not at your selves you can make no progress to a just and edifying knowledge of extrinsick things Mans self is the Alphabet or Primer of his learning Non pervenitur ad summa nisi per inferiora You cannot come to the top of the stairs â—f you begin not at the bottom Frustra corâ—dis oculum erigit ad videndum Deum qui â—â—ondum idoneus est ad videndum scipsum Prius enim est ut cognoscas invisibilia spiritus tui quà m possis esse idoneus 〈◊〉 cognoscendum invisibilia Dei si non potes te cognoscere non praesumas appreâ—endere ea quae sunt supra te inquit Hug. de Anim. i. e. In vain doth he lift up his heart to see God that is yet unfit to see himself For thou must first know the invisible things of thy own spirit before thou canst be fit to know the invisible things of God And if thou canst not know thy self presume not to know the things that are above thy self You cannot see the face which it representeth if you will not look upon the glass which representeth it God is not visible but appeareth to us in his creatures and especially in 〈◊〉 selves And if we know not our selves wâ— cannot know God in our selves Praecipuâ— principale est speculum ad videndum Deum animus rationalis intuens scipsum inâ—â— Hug. The principal glass for the beholdinâ— of God is the Resonable soul beholding it self And you will make but an unhappy progress in your study of the Works of God if you begin not with your selves Yoâ— can know but little of the Works of Nature till you know your own nature And you can know as little of the Works of Grace till self-acquaintance help you to know thâ— nature and danger of those diseases that Grace must cure The unhappy error 〈◊〉 presumptuous students about their owâ— hearts misleadeth and perverteth them in the whole course of their studies that by all they do but profit in misapplied notions and self-deceit It s a lamentable fight to see a man turning over Fathers and Councils and diligently studying words and notions that is himself in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and never knew it nor studieth the cure And it s a pittifull thing to see such in a Pulpit teaching the people to know the mysteries of salvation that know not nor ever laboured to know what sins are predominant in their own hearts and lives or Whether they stand before God in a justified or a condemned state To hear a poor unsanctified man as boldly treating of the mysteries of sanctification as if he had felt them in himself and a man that is condemned already and stayeth but a while till the stroke of death for final execution to treat as calmly of judgement and damnation as if he were out of danger and exhorting others to escape the misery which he is in himself and never dreameth of it This sheweth how sad a thing it is for men to he ignorant of themselves To see men run out into damnable and dangerous errors on each hand some into the proud self-conceitedness of the Phanaticks Enthusiasts and Libertines and some into contempt and scorn of holiness and every one confident even to rage in his own distractions this doth but shew us whither men will go that are unacquainted with themselves This also maketh us so troubled with our auditors that when they would learn the truth that should convert and save them are carping and quarrelling with us and hear us as the Pharisees and Herodians heard Christ to catch him in his words Mark 12.13 As if a dying man in a consumption imagining that he is well should go to the Physicion to make a jeast of him or seek to ruine him for telling him that he is sick And how frowardly do they reject the wisest counsel and cast the medicine with unthankfull indignation into the face of the
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
thy terror that it is the Gospel that speaks this terror to thee and excludes thee from salvation unless thou be made new It is mercy it self that thus condemneth thee and judgeth thee to endless misery You are mistaken Sirs when you say we preach not Mercy and say we preach not the Gospel but the Law It is the Gospel that saith Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his John 3.3 5. Rom. 8.9 The same Gospel that saith He that believeth shall be saved saith also that He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 Will you tell Christ the Saviour of the world that he is not mercifull because he talks to you of Damnation Mercy it self when it tells you that There is no condemnation doth limit this pardon to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 It is sanctifying Mercy that must save you if ever you be saved as well as Justifying Mercy And will you refuse this Mercy and by no entreaty yield to have it and yet think to be saved by it What saved by that Mercy which you will not have And will you say We preach not Mercy because we tell you that Mercy will not save you if you continue to reject it To be saved by Mercy without Sanctification is to be saved and not saved to be saved by Mercy without Mercy Your words have no better sense then this And are those afraid lest Preachers should make them mad by shewing them their need of mercy that are no Wiser then to cast away their souls upon such senseless self-contradicting conceits as these I beseech you tell us whose words are they think you that say Without holiness none shall see God! Heb. 12.14 and that He that is in Christ is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and such like passages which offend you Are they ours or are they Gods Did we indite the Holy Scriptures or did the Holy Ghost Is it long of us if there be any words there that cross your flesh and that you call bitter Can we help it if God will save none but sanctified believers If you have any thing to say against it you must say it to him We are sure that this is in his word and we are sure he cannot lye and therefore we are sure its true We are sure that he may do with his own as he list and that he oweth you nothing and that he may give his pardon and salvation to whom and upon what terms he please And therefore we are sure he doth you no wrong But if you think otherwise reproach not us that are but messengers but prepare your charge and make it good against your maker if you dare and can you shall shortly come before him and be put to it to justifie your selves If If you can do it by recrimination and can prevent your condemnation by condemning the Law and the Judge try your strength and do your worst Ah poor worms dare you lift up the head and move a tongue against the Lord Did Infinite Wisdom it self want Wisdom to make a Law to rule the world And did Infinite Goodness want Goodness to deal mercifully and as was best with man And shall Justice it self be judged to be unjust And that by you By such silly ignorant naughty and unrighteous ones as you As if you had the Wisdom and Goodness which you think God wanted when he made his Laws And whereas you tell us of preaching terribly to you we cannot help it if the true and righteous Threatnings of God be terrible to the guilty It is because we know the Terrors of the Lord that we preach them to warn you to prevent them And so did the Apostles before us 2 Cor. 5.11 Either its true that the unquenchable fire will be the portion of impenitent unbelieving fleshly worldly unsanctified men or it is not true If it were not true the word of God were not true and then what should you do with any preaching at all or any religion But if you confess it to be true do you think in reason it should be silenced or can we tell men of so terrible a thing as Hell and tell them that it will certainly be their lot unless they be new creatures and not speak terribly to them O Sirs it is the wonder of my soul that it seemeth no more terrible to all the ungodly that think they do believe it Yea and I would it did seem more terrible to the most that it might affright you from your sin to God and you might be saved If you were running ignorantly into a Cole-pit would you revile him that told you of it and bid you stop if you love your life Would you tell him that he speaks bitterly or terribly to you It is not the Preacher that is the cause of your danger he doth but tell you of it that you may scape If you are saved you may thank him but if you are lost you may thank your selves It s you that deal bitterly and terribly with your selves Telling you of Hell doth not make Hell Warning you of it is not causing it Nor is it God that is unmercifull but you are foolishly cruel and unmercifull to your selves Do not think to despise the patience and mercy of the Lord and then think to escape by accusing him of being unmercifull and by saying It s terrible doctrine that we preach to you impenitent sinners I confess to thee it is terrible and more terrible then thy sensless heart imagineth or is yet aware of One day if grace prevent it not thou shalt find it ten thousand times more terrible then thou canst apprehend it now When thou seest thy Judge with millions of his Angels coming to condemn thee thou wilt then say his Laws are terrible indeed Thou hast to do with a holy jealous God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 and can such a God be despised and not be terrible to thee He is called The Great the Mighty and the Terrible God Neh. 9.32 Deut. 7.21 With God is terrible Majesty Job 37.22 He is terrible out of his holy place Psal 68.35 He is terrible to the greatest even to the Kings of the earth Psal 76.12 It s time for you therefore to tremble and submit and think how unable you are to contend with him and not revile his word or works because they are terrible but fear him for them and study them on purpose that you may fear and glorifie him And as David Psal 66.3.5 Say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works Through the greatness of thy power shall thy enemies submit themselves unto thee Come and see the works of the Lord He is terrible in his doings toward the children of men Psal 99.3 Let them praise thy Great and terrible name for it
is Holy And will you reproach God or his word or works or Ministers with that which is the matter of his Praise If it be terrible to hear of the wrath of God how terrible will it be to feel it Choose not a state of terror to your selves and preaching will be less terrible to you Yield to the sanctifying work of Christ and receive his spirit and then that which is terrible to others will be comfortable to you What terror is it to the Regenerate that knoweth himself to be such to hear that none but the Regenerate shall be saved What terror is it to them that mind the things of the spirit to hear of the misery of a fleshly mind and that they that live after the flesh shall die Rom. 8.8.13 The word of God is full of terror to the ungodly But return with all your hearts to God and then what word of God speaks terror to you Truly Sirs it is more in your power then ours to make our preaching easie and less terrible to you We cannot change our doctrine but you may change your state and lives We cannot preach another Gospel but you may obey the Gospel which we preach Obey it and it will be the most comfortable word to you in the world We cannot make void the word of God but you may avoid the stroke by penitent submission Do you think it is fitter for us to change our Masters word and falsifie the Laws of God Almighty or for you to change your crooked courses which are condemned by this word and to let go the sin which the Law forbiddeth It s you that must change and not the Law It s you that must be conformed to it and not the Rule that must be crookened to conform to you Say not as Ahab of Michaiah of the Minister I hate him for he prophesieth not Good of me but Evil 1 Kings 22.8 For a Balaam could profess that if the King would give him his housefull of silver and gold he could not go beyond the word of the Lord his God to do less or more Numb 22.19 or to do either good or bad of his own mind as he after speaks Chap. 24.13 What good would it do you for a Preacher to tell you a lye and say that you may be pardoned and saved in an impenitent unsanctified state Do you think our saying so would make it so Will God falsifie his word to make good ours Or would he not deal with us as perfidious messengers that had betrayed our trust and belyed him and deceived yout souls And would it save or ease an unregenerate man to have Christ condemn the Minister for deceiving him and telling him that he may be saved in such a state Do but let go the odious sin that the word of God doth speak so ill of and then it will speak no ill of you Alas Sirs what would you have a poor Minister do when Gods command doth cross your pleasure and when he is sure to offend either God or you Which should he venture to offend If he help not the ungodly to know their misery he offendeth God If he do it he offendeth them If he tell you that All they shall be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness Your hearts rise against him for talking of Damnation to you And yet it is but the words of the Holy Ghost 2 Thes 2.12 which we are bound to preach If he tell you that If ye live after the flesh ye shall die you will be angry especially if he closely apply it to your selves And if he do not tell you so God will be angry For it is his express determination Rom. 8.13 And whose anger think you should a wise man choose or whose should he most resolutely avoid The anger of the dreadfull God of Heaven or yours Your anger we can bear if there be no remedy but his anger is intolerable When you have fretted and fumed and railed and slandered us and ouâ— doctrine we can Live yet or if you kiâ—â— the Body you can do no more You do but send us before to be witnesses against you when you come to judgement But who can Live when God will pour out wrath upon him Numb 24.23 We may keep your slanders and indignation from our Hearts but it is the Heart that the Heart-searching God contendeth with And who can heal the Heart which he will break You may reach the flesh but he that is a Spirit can afflict and wound the Spirit And a wounded spirit and wounded by him who can bear Prov. 18.14 Would you not your selves say he were worse then mad that would rather abuse the Eternal God then cross the misguided desires of such worms as you that would displease God to please you and sell his Love to purchase yours Will you be instead of God to us when we have lost his favour Will you save us from him when he sendeth for our souls by death or sentenceth us to Hell by judgement Silly souls how happy were you could you save your selves Will you be our Gods if we forsake our God What you that are but skinfuls of corruption that will shortly be choaked with your own filth and flegme and by your friends be laid to rot in silent undiscerned darkness lest the loathsome sight or smell of you should annoy them Blame not God to use them as Enemies and Rebels that will change him for such earthen Gods as you We have One God and but One and he must be obeyed whether you like or dislike it There is one Law giver that is able to save and to destroy Jam. 4.12 and he must be pleased whether it please your carnal minds or not If your wisdom now will take the chair and judge the preaching of the Gospel to be foolishness or the searching application of it to be too much harshness and severity I am sure you shall come down ere long and hear his sentence that will convince you that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God and the foolishness of God as Blasphemy dare call it is wiser then men 1 Cor. 3.19 1.25 And God will be the final Judge and his word shall stand when you have done your worst The worst that the Serpent can do is but to hiss a while and put forth the sting and bruise our heel but Gods day will be the brusing of his head and Satan shall be bruised under feet Rom. 16.20 The Sun will shine and the light thereof discover your deformities whether you will or not And if adulterers or thieves that love the works of darkness will do theit worst by force or flattery they cannot make it cease its shining though they may shut their eyes or hide themselves in darkness from it light Faithfull â—eachers are the Lights of the world Mat. 5.14 They are not lighted by the Holy Ghost to be put under a bushell but on a candlestick that
as he goeth further for the world and setteth it nearest to his heart and holds it fastest and will do most for it and consequently loveth it better then Christ he is no true Christian nor in a state of grace The Scriptures put this also out of doubt as you may see Mat. 10.37 38. Luke â—4 26 27 33. He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me c. Whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple Whoâ—ver he be of you that forsaketh not all that â—e hath he cannot be my Disciple Know â—e not that the friendship of the world is â—nmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God â—am 4.4 No wonder then if the world must be renounced in our Baptism Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 You see by this time what it is to be Regenerate and to be a Christian indeed by what is contained even in our Baptism and consequently how you may Know your selves whether you are sanctified and the heirs of heaven or not Again therefore I summon you to appear before your consciences and if indeed these Evidences of regeneration are not in you stop not the sentence but confess your sinfull miserable state and condemn your selves and say no longer I hope yet that my present condition may serve turn and that God will forgive me though I should die without any further change Thosâ— Hopes that you may be saved without reâ—generation or that you are regenerate wheâ— you are not are the pillars of Satans forâ—tress in your hearts and keep you froâ— the saving Hopes of the Regenerate thaâ— that will never make you ashamed Upâ—hold not that which Christ is engageâ— against Down it must either by Graâ—â— or Judgement and therefore abuse noâ— your souls by underpropping such an ill-grounded false deceitfull hope You have now time to take it down so orderly and safely as that it fall not on your heads and overwhelm you not for ever But if you stay till death shall undermine it the falâ— will be great and your ruine irreparable If you are wise therefore Know your selves in time II. I have done with that part of my special Exhortation which concerned the unregenerate I am next to speak to those of you that by Grace are brought into a better state and to tell you that it very much concerneth you also even the best of you to labour to be well acquainted with your selves and that both in respect of 1. Your sins and wants and 2. Your Graces and your duties I. Be acquainted with the root and remnant of your sins with your particular inclinations and corrupt affections with their quality their degree and strength with the weaknesses of every grace with your disability to duty and with the omissions or sinfull practises of your lives Search diligently and deeply frequently and accurately peruse your hearts and wayes till you certainly and throughly know your selves And I beseech you let it not suffice you that you know your states and have found your selves in the Love of God in the faith of Christ and possessed by his Spirit Though this be a mercy worth many worlds yet this is not all concerning your selves that you have to know If yet you say that you have no sin you deceive your selves If yet you think you are past all danger your danger is the greater for this mistake As much as you have been humbled for sin as much as you have loathed it and your selves for it as oft as you have confessed it lamented it and complained and prayed against it yet it is alive Though it be mortified it is alive It is said to be mortified as to the prevalency and reign but the relicts of it yet survive were it perfectly dead you were perfectly delivered from it and might say you have no sin but it is not yet so happy with you It will find work for the blood and spirit of Christ and for your selves as long as you are in the flesh And alas too many that know themselves to be upright in the main are yet so much unacquainted with their hearts and lives as to the degrees of grace and sin as that it much disadvantageth them in their Christian progress Go along with me in the carefull observation of these following Evils that may befall even the regenerate by the remnants of self-ignorance 1. The work of Mortification is very much hindered because you know your selves no better as may appear in all these following discoveries 1. You confess not sin to God or man so penitently and sensibly as you ought because you know your selves no better Did you see your inside with a fuller view how deeply would you aggravate your sin How heavily would you charge your selves Repentance would be more intense and more effectual and when you were more contrite you would be more meet for the sense of pardon and for Gods delight Isa 51.15 66.2 It would fill you more with godly shame and self-abhorrence if you better knew your selves It would make you more sensibly say with Paul Rom. 7.23 24. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death And with David Psal 38.18 I will declare my iniquity I will be sorry for my sin 40.12 They are more then the hairs of my head 32.5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Repentance is the Death of sin and the knowledge of our selves and the sight of our sins is the life of Repentance 2. You pray not against sin for grace and pardon so earnestly as you should because you know your selves no better O that God would but open these too-close hearts unto us and anatomize the relicts of the old man and shew us all the recesses of our self-deceit and the filth of worldliness and carnal inclinations that lurk within us and read us a Lecture upon every part what prayers would it teach us to indite That you be not proud of your holiness let me tell you Christians that a full display of the corruptions that the best of you carry about you would not only take down self-exalting thoughts that you be not lift up above measure but would teach you to pray with fervour and importunity and waken you out of your sleepy indifferency and make you cry O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me If the sight of a Lazar or cripple or naked person move you to compassion though they use no words if the sight
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-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
knoweth that he is a sleep Somnium narrare vigilantis est saith Seneca Its men awake that tell their dreams And thus you see that through self-ignorance it comes to pass that both secret Habits and the most open acts of sin are oft-times little known A man that is drunk is in an unfit state to know what drunkenness is and so is a man that is in his passion You will hardly bring him to repentance till it be allaid And so is a man in the brutifying heat of lust or in the childish use of such recreations as he doteth on 〈◊〉 or in the ambitious pursuit of his deluding honours And therefore abundance o◠unknown sin may remain in a soul that laboureth not to be well acquainted with i◠self And as I have shewed you this in General both of Habits and Acts of sin let us consider of some Instances in particular which will yet more discover the necessity of studying our selves 1. Little do we think what odious and dangerous errors may befall a person that now is orthodox What a slippery mutability the mind of man is lyable unto How variety of representations causeth variety of apprehensions Like some pictures that seem one thing when you look on them on one side and another thing when on another side If you change your place or change your light they seem to change Indeed Gods word hath nothing in it thus fitted to deceive but our weakness hath that which disposeth us to mistakes We are like an unlearned Judge that thinks the cause is good which he first hears pleaded for till he hear the confutation by the other party and then he thinks the other hath the best cause till perhaps he hear both so long till he know not whose cause is the best The person that now is a zealous lover of the Truth when it hath procured entertainment by the happy advantage of friends acquaintance Ministers Magistrates or common consent being on its side may possibly turn a zealous adversary to it when it loseth those advantages when a Minister shall change his mind how many of the flock may he mislead When you marry or contract any intimate friendship with a person of unsound and dangerous principles how easily are they received When the stream of the times and authority shall change and put the name of Truth on falshood how many may be carried down the stream How zealous have many been for a faithfull Ministry that have turned their persecutors or made it a great part of their Religion to revile them when once they have turned to some Sect that is possest by the malicious spirit especially the Papists and Quakers are famous for such language of reproach though the former excell the later much in the slandering part and the later excell in the open bawling and incivility of speech And O that we could stop here and could not remember you how faithfully and honestly some have seemed to love and obey the word of God and to delight in the Communion of Saints that by seducers have been brought to deny the divine authority of the Scriptures and to turn their backs on all Gods publick Ordinances of Worship and excommunicate themselves from the Society of the Saints and vilifie or deny the works of the spirit in them Little did these men once think themselves whither they should fall under the conceit of rising higher And little would they have believed him that had told them what a change they would make Had these men known themselves in time and known what Tinder and Gunpowder was in their hearts they would have walkt more warily and its like have scap't the snare but they fell into it because they feared it not And they feared it not because they knew not or observed not how prone they were to be infected 2. Little do many think in their adversity or low estate what seeds are in their hearts which Prosperity would turn into very odious scandalous sins unless their vigilancy and a special preservation do prevent it Many a man that in his shop or at his plough is censuring the great miscarriages of his Superiors doth little think how bad he might prove if he were in the place of those he censureth Many a poor man that freely talks against the Luxury Pride and Cruelty of the Rich doth little think how like them he should be if he had their temptations and estates How many persons that lived in good repute for humility temperance and piety have we seen turn proud and sensual and ungodly when they have been exalted I would mention no mans case by way of insulting or reproach but by way of compassion and in order to their repentance that survive I must say that this age hath given us such lamentable instances as should make all our hearts to ake and fear when we consider the crimes and their effects Would the persons that once walk't with us in the wayes of Peace and Concord and Obedience have believed that man that should have fore-told them twenty years ago how many should be puffed up and deluded by successes and make themselves believe by the ebullition of pride that Victories authorised them to deny subjection to the higher powers and by right or wrong to take down all that stood in their way and to take the Government into their own hands and to depose their rightfull Governours never once vouchsafing to ask themselves the question that Christ asked Luke 12.14 Man who made me a Judge or a divider over you as if authority had been nothing but strength and he had the best right to Govern that could make the greatest force to compell obedience Little were the seeds of all this evil discerned in the heart before prosperity and success did cherish them and bring them to that which with grief we have long observed They would have said as Hazael Am I a dog that I should do this if one had told them before that when God hath charged every soul to be subject on pain of condemnation and they had vowed fidelity they should break all these bonds of commands and vows and all because they were able to do it When they would not justifie him that should do any mischief to themselves and think it warrantable because he was able when the Ministers of the Gospel and their dearest friends bore witness against the sin the heart could not by all this be brought to perceive its guilt or that it was any sin to overturn overturn overturn till they had overturned all and left not themselves a bough to stand upon And how hardly to this day do the notable discoverings of God and the plainness of his word and the continued witness of his servants prevail for kindly true Repentance The unrighteous usage of Magistracy and Ministry and the licentious indulgence of the open enemies and revilers of both and of all the Ordinances and Churches of the Lord do proclaim aloud to all that
and built your hopes upon his promises and can with a cheerfull contempt let go the world for the accomplishment of your hopes remember yet that there is a secret root of unbelief remaining in you and that this odious sin is but imperfectly mortified in the best and that its more then possible that you may see the day when the tempter will assault you with questionings of the word of God and trouble you with the injections of blasphemous thoughts and doubts whether it be true or not and that you that have thought of God of Christ of Heaven of the Immortal state of souls with joy and satisfied confidence may be in the dark about them affrighted with ugly suggestions of the enemy and may think of them all with troublesome distracting doubts and be forced to cry with the Disciples Luke 17.5 Lord increase our faith And as he Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Yea worse then so some upright souls have been so amazed and distracted by the Tempter and their distempered hearts as to think they do not believe at all nor yet are able sincerely to say Lord help thou my unbelief When yet at that time their Fears and their abstaining from iniquity shew that they Believe the Threatnings and therefore indeed believe the word Now if we did but throughly know our selves when faith is in its exercise and strength and consider whither the secret seeds of remaining unbelief may bring us being fore-warned we should be fore-armed and should fortifie our faith the better and be provided against these sad assaults And if the malignant spirit be suffered to storm this fortress of the soul we should more manfully resist and we should not be overwelmed with horror as soon as any hideous and blasphemous temptations do assault us when Christ himself was not exempted from the most blasphemous temptation even the worshipping of the Devil instead of God though in him there was no sinfull disposition to entertain it Mat. 4.9.10 John 14.30 O watch and pray Christians in your most prosperous and comfortable state Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation For you little think what is yet within you and what advantage the deceiver hath and how much of your own to take his part and how low he may bring you both in point of Grace and Peace though he cannot damn you I am troubled that I must tell you of so sad a case that even the children of God may fall into lest by troubling you with the opening of your danger I should do any thing to bring you into it But because self-ignorance and not being before hand acquainted with it may do much more I have timely shewed you the danger with the remedy 5. Another instance of the darkness even of a Heart that in part is sanctified is in the successes of the temptations of Adversity When we want nothing we think we value not the world and we could bear the loss of all But when poverty or danger comes what trouble and unseemly whining is there as if it were by a worldling that is deprived of his Idol and all the portion that ever he must have And by the shamefull moan and stir that we make for what we want we shew more sinfull overvaluing of it and love to it then before we observed or would believe O how confidently and piously have I heard some inveigh against the Love of the world as if there had been no such thing in them who yet have been so basely dejected when they have been unexpectedly stript of their estates as if they had been quite undone How patiently do we think we could bear affliction till we feel it And how easily and piously can we exhort others unto patience when we have no sense of what they suffer But when our turn is come alas we seem to be other men Suffering is now another thing and Patience harder then we imagined And how inclinable are we to hearken to temptations to use sinfull means to come out of our sufferings Who would have thought that faithfull Abraham should have been so unbelieving as to equivocate in such a danger and expose the chastity of his wife to hazzard as we read in Gen. 12.12 13 19. And that he should fall into the same sin again on the same occasion Gen. 20. to Abimelech as before he had done with Pharaoh And that Isaac should after him fall into the same sin in the same place Gen. 26.7 The Life oâ— Faith doth set us so much above the fear of man and shew us the weakness and noâ—thingness of mortal worms and the faithâ—fulness and al-sufficiency of God that oâ— would think the frowns and threatnings 〈◊〉 a man should signifie nothing to us whâ—â— God stands by and giveth us such ampâ—â— promises and security for our confirmâ—â—tion and encouragement And yet whâ—â— base dejectedness and sinfull complianceâ— are many brought to through the fear 〈◊〉 man that before the hour of this tempâ—tation could talk as couragiously as any This was the case of Peter before mentioned and of many a one that hath woundeâ— conscience and wronged their profession by too cowardly a disposition which if it were fore-known we might do more for our confirmation and should betake our selves in time to Christ in the use of means for strength Few turn their backs on Christ or a good cause in time of tryal that are jealous of themselves before hand and afraid lest they should forsake him Few fall that are afraid of falling But the self-ignorant and self-confident are careless of their way and it is they that fall 6. Another instance that I may give you 〈◊〉 in the unexpected appearances of Pride 〈◊〉 those that yet are truly humble Huâ—ility speaks in their confessions aggravaâ—â—ng their sin and searching heart and life â—r matter of self-accusation They call â—hemselves Less then the least of all Gods â—â—ercies They are ready with the woman of Canaan Mat. 15.27 even to own the name â—f dogs and to confess themselves unworthy â—f the childrens crums and unworthy to â—read upon the common earth or to â—reath in the air or to live upon the patiâ—nce and provisions of God They will â—pend whole hours and dayes of humiliaâ—ion in confessing their sin and bewailâ—ng their weaknesses and want of grace â—nd lamenting their desert of misery They â—re oft cast down so much too low that they dare not own the title of Gods children nor any of his special grace but take themselves for meer unsanctified hardened sinners and all that can be said will not convince them that they have any saving interest in Christ nor hinder them from pouring out unjust accusations against themselves And all this is done by them in the uprightness of their hearts and not dissemblingly And yet would you think that with all this Humility there should be any pride and that the same person should lift up themselves and resist theâ— helps to further
Humiliation Do theâ— think in their dejections that it is in theâ— hearts so much to exalt themselves I coâ—â—fess many of them are sensible of the Pride even to the increase of their humiliâ—ty and as it is said of Hezekiah do humbâ—â— themselves for the pride of their hearts 〈◊〉 that Gods wrath doth not come upon them 2 Chr. 32.26 But yet too few are so weâ— acquainted with the power and rootedness oâ— this sin at the heart and the workings oâ— it in the hour of temptation as they should be Observe it but at such timeâ— as these and you will see that break forth that before appeared not 1. When 〈◊〉 are undervalued and slighted and meaneâ— persons preferred before us and when our words and judgements are made light of and our parts thought to be poor and low when any blot of dishonour is cast upoâ— us deserved or undeserved when we are slandered or reproached and used with despight what a matter do we make of it and how much then doth our Pride appear in our distaste and offence and impatience so that the same person that can â—our out words of blame and shame against himself cannot bear half as much from â—thers without displeasure and disquietness of mind It would help us much to know â—his by our selves in the time of our humility that we may be engaged to more watchfuless and resistance of our pride 2. When we are reproved of any disgracefull sin how hardly goes it down and how many excuses have we how seldom are we brought to downright penitent confessions What secret distaste is apt to be rising in our hearts against the reprover And how seldom hath he that hearty thanks which so great a benefit deserves And would any think in our humilations and large confessions unto God that we were so proud To know this by our selves would make us more suspicious and ashamed to be guilty of it 3. When any preferment or honour is to be given or any work to be done that is a mark of dignity how apt are we to think our selves as fit for it as any and to be displeased if the honour or employment do pass by us 4. When we are admired appladed or excessively esteemed and loved how apt are we to be too much pleased with it which sheweth a proud desire to be some body in the world and that there is much of this venom at the bottom in our hearts even when we lay our selves in the dust and walk in sackcloth and pass the heaviâ—est judgement on our selves 7. Another instance of our unacquaintedness with our hearts and the latent undiscerned corruption of them is our littlâ— discerning or bewailing those secret master sins which lie at the root of all the rest and are the life of the old man and the cause of all the miscarriages of our lives As 1. Vnbelief of the truth of the holy Scriptures of the immortality of the soul and the life of joy or misery hereafter and the other Articles of the Christian faith What abundance of Christians are sensible of their unbelief as to the applying acts of faith that tend to their assurance of their own salvation that are little sensible of any defect in the Assenting act or of any secret root of unbelief about the truth of the Gospel revelations And yet alas it is this that weakeneth all our graces It is this that feedeth all our wo O happy men were we free from this What prayers should we put up What lives should we lead how â—atchfully should we walk with what â—â—ntempt should we look on the allureâ—ents of the world with what disâ—â—in should we think on fleshly lusts â—â—th what indignation should we meet the â—â—mpter and scorn his base unreasonable â—otions if we did but perfectly believe the â—â—ry truth of the Gospel and world to come â—ow carefull and earnest should we be to â—ake our calling and election sure How â—reat a matter should we make of sin and â—f helps and hinderances in the way to â—eaven How much should we prefer that â—â—ate of life that furthereth our salvation â—efore that which strengtheneth our snares â—y furthering our prosperity and pleaâ—ure in the world if we were not weak or â—â—anting in our belief of the the certain â—erity of these things Did we better know â—he badness of our hearts herein it would engage us more in fortifying the vitals and â—ooking better to our foundation and windâ—ng up this spring of faith which must give life to all right motions of the soul 2. How insensible are too many of the great imperfection of their love to God! What passionate complaints have we of their want of sorrow for their sin and want of memory and of ability to pray c. when their complaints for want of Love to God and more affecting knowledge of him are so colâ— and customary as shews us they little observe the greatness of this sinfull want This is the very heart and summ and poyâ—son of all the sins of our soul and life Sâ— much as a man Loves God so much he iâ— Holy and so much he hath of the spiriâ— and image of Jesus Christ and so much he hath of all saving graces and so much he will abhor iniquity and so much he wilâ— love the commands of God As Love is the summ of the Law and Prophets so should it be the summ of our care and study through all our lives to excercise and strengthen it 3. How little are most Christians troubled for want of Love to men to Brethren neighbours and enemies how cold are their complaints for their defects in this in comparison of other of their complaints But is there not cause of as deep humiliation for this sin as almost any other It seems to me that want of Love is one of the most prevalent diseases among us when I hear it so little seriously lamented I oft hear people say O that we could hear more attentively and affectionately and pray more fervently and weep for sin more plenteously But how seldom do I hear them say O that we did love our Brethren more ardently and our Neighbours and Enemies more heartily then we do and set our selves to do them good There is so little pains taken to bring the heart to the Love of others and so few and cold requests put up for it when yet the heart is backward to it that makes me conclude that Charity is weaker in most of us then we observe And indeed it appeareth so when it comes to tryal to that tryal which Christ will judge it by at last Mat. 25. When Love must be shewed by any self-denyal or costly demonstration by parting with our food and rayment to supply the wants of others and by hazarding our selves for them in their distress then see how much we Love indeed Good words cost little so cheap an exercise of charity as is mentioned Jam. 2.15 16. Depart in peace be warmed and
What fears should disquiet him that is sure to escape the wrath of God What wants should trouble him that knoweth he is an heir of Heaven Why should the indignation or threatnings of man be any temptation to turn him out of the way of duty or dismay his mind who knoweth that they can but kill the body and dismiss the soul into his blessed presence whom it loveth and laboureth and longs to see what should inordinately grieve that man that is certain of eternal Joy What else should he thirst for that hath in him the well of living waters springing up to everlasting life Joh. 4.14 And what should deprive that man of comfort that knoweth he hath the Comforter within him and shall be for ever comforted with his masters joy And what should break the Peace and Patience of him that is assured of Everlasting Rest If the assurance of a happy death cannot make it welcome and cannot make affliction easie and fill our lives with the Joyes of Hope I know not what can do it But alas for those poor souls that know not whither death will send them or at least have not good grounds of hope what wonder if through the fear of death they be all their life time subject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 Methinks in the midst of their wealth and pleasure they should not be so stupid as to forget the millions that are gone before them that lately were as jovial and secure as they and how short their dreaming feast will be Methinks all the beauty of their fleshly Idols should be blasted with those nipping frosts and storms that in their serious forethoughts come in upon them from the black and dreadful regions of death Methinks at any time it should damp their mirth and allay the ebullition of their phrenetick blood to remember For all this I must die and it may be this night that the fool must deliver up his soul and then whose shall those things be which he hath provided Luk. 12.19 20. Then who shall be the Lord and who the Knight or Gentleman and who shall wear the gay attire and who shall domineer and say Our will shall be done anâ— thus we will have it Then where is thâ— pleasure of lust and merry company anâ— meat drink and sports Methinks Soloâ—mons memento Eccles 11.9 should brinâ— them to themselves Rejoyce O young maâ— in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee iâ— the days of thy youth and walk in the wayâ— of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes 〈◊〉 but know thou that for all these things Goâ— will bring thee into judgement And as thâ— sound of these words I must shortly die methinks should be always in your ears so in reason the Question Whether must I then go should be always aâ— it were before your eyes till your soulâ— have received a satisfactory answer to it O what an amazing dreadful thing it is when an unsanctified unprepared soul must say I must depart from earth but I know not whither I know not whether unto Heaven or Hell Here I am now but where must I be for ever When men believe that their next habitation must be everlasting methinks the Question Whether must I goe should be day and night upon their minds till they can say upon good grounds I shall go to the blessed presence of the Lord O had you but the hearts of men within you methinks the sense of this one Question Whither must I go when I leave â—he flesh should so possess you that it should give your souls no rest till you were â—ble to say We shall be with Christ because he dwelleth in us here and hath sealed us and given us the earnest of his spirit or at least till you have good hopes of this and have done your best to make it sure And thus I have told you of how great importance it is to believers to attain assurance of the love of God and to know that Christ abideth in them And now I think you will confess I have proved the necessity of Self-knowledge both to the unregenerate and the regenerate though in several degrees and having opened the disease and shewed you the need of a remedy I am next to direct you in the application for the cure I Doubt not but there are many of the Hearers that by this time are desirous to be instructed how this self knowledge may be attained For whose satsfaction and for the reducing of all that hath been spoken into practise I shall next acquaint you with the Hinderances of Self-knowledge the removing of them being not the least point in the cure and with the Positive Directions to be practised for the attainment of it And because the Hinderances and Helps are contrary I shall open both together as we go on The Hinderances of self knowledge are some of them without us and some within us and so must be the Helps I. The external Hinderances are these 1. The failing of Ministers in their part of the work through unskilfulness or unfaithfulness is a great cause that so many are ignorant of themselves They are the Lights of the world and if they are ecâ—lipsed or put under a bushell if they are darkened by the snuff of their own corruptions or if they feed not their light by the oile of diligent studies and other endeavours or if they will not go â—long with men into the dark and unknown corners of the heart what wonder if mens hearts remain in darkness when those â—hat by office are appointed to afford them Light do fail them It is not a general dull discourse or critical observations upon words or the subtile decision of some nice and curious questions of the schools though these may be useful to their proper ends nor is it a neat and well composed speech about some other distant matters that is like to acquaint a sinner with himself How many sermons may we hear that to others ends are not unprofitable that are levelled at some mark or other that is very far from the Hearers hearts and therefore are never like to convince them or prick them or open and convert them And if our congregations were in such a case as that they needed no closer quickening work such preaching might be born with and commended But when so many usually sit before us that must shortly dye and are unprepared and that are condemned by the Law of God and must be pardoned or finally condemned that must be saved from their sins that they may be saved from everlasting misery I think it is time for us to talk to them of such things as most concern them and that in such a matter as may most effectually convince awake and change them When we come to them on their sick-beds we talk not then to them of distant or impertinent things oâ— words or forms or parties or by-opinions but of the state of their souls anâ— their appearing before the Lord and hoâ—
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