Justification then now thou standest as afar off and darest scare look up to heaven but smitest on thy breast and saist Lord be mercifull to me a sinner Luke 18.11 12 13 14. Not that extortioners unjust adulterers or any that are ungodly are justified or can be saved while they are such Nor that a smiting on the breast with a Lord be mercifull to me a sinner will serve their turn while they continue in their wicked lives But when thou art brought to accuse and condemn thy self thou art prepared for his grace that must renew and justifie thee None sped better with Christ then the woman that confest her self a dog and begged but for the childrens crums And the Centurion that sent friends to Christ to mediate for him and as being unworthy to come himself and unworthy that Christ should enter under his roof For of the first Christ said O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Mat. 15.27 28. And of the second he saith with admiration I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Luke 7.6 7 8.9 Though thou art ready to deny the title of a child and to number thy self with the dogs yet go to him and beg his crums of mercy Though thou think that Christ will not come to such a one as thou and though thou beg prayers of others as thinking he will not hear thy own thou little thinkest how this self-abasement and self-denyal prepareth thee for his tenderest mercies and his esteem When thou art contrite as the dust that 's trodden underfeet and poor and tremblest at the Word then will he look at thee with compassion and respect Isa 66.2 For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made Isa 57.15 When thou art using the self-condemning words of Paul Rom. 7.14 to 25. I am carnal sold under sin what I would that do I not and what I hate that do I. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing I find a law that when I would do good evil is present with me A Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin when thou criest out with him O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death thou art then fitter to look to thy Redeemer and use the following words I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When thou didst exalt thy self thou wast obnoxious to the stormes of Justice which was engaged to bring thee low But now thou humblest thy self thou liest in the way of Mercy that is engaged to exalt thee Luke 14.11 18.14 Mercy looketh downard and can quickly â—pie a sinner in the dust but cannot leave him there nor deny him compassion and relief Art thou cast out as helpless wounded by thy sin and neglected by all others that pass by Thou art the fittest object for the skill and mercy of him that washeth sinners in his blood and tenderly bindeth up their wounds and undertakes the perfecting of the cure though yet thou must bear the Surgeons hand till his time of perfect cure be come Luke 10.33 34 35. Now thou perceivest the greatness of thy sin and misery thou art fit to study the greatness of his mercy with all Saints to strive to comprehend what is the breadth length depth height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Ephes 3.18 19. Now thou hast smitten upon the thigh and said What have I done Jerem. 31.19 8.6 thou art fitter to look unto him that was wounded and smitten for thy transgressions and to consider what he hath done and suffered how he hath born thy grief and carried thy sorrows and was bruised for thy iniquities the chastisment of our peace was laid upon him and we are healed by his stripes All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 〈◊〉 all Isa 53.4 5 6 c. Art thou in doubt whether there be any forgiveness for thy sins and whether there be any place for Repentance Remember that Christ is exalted by Gods right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentnace unto Israel and forgivness of sins Act. 5.31 And that he himself hath spoken it that All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men except the Blasphemy against the Spirit Math. 12.32 And this Forgiveness of sins thou art bound to believe as an Article of thy Creed that it is purchased by Christ and freely offered in the Gospell Mercy did but wait all this while till thou wast brought to understand the want and worth of it that it might be thine When a Peter that denyeth Christ with oaths and cursing goeth out and weepeth he speedily finds mercy from him without that he but now denyed within When so bloody a persecuter as Paul findeth mercy upon his prostration and confession and when so great an offender as Manasseh is forgiven upon his penitence in bonds when all his witchcraft Idolatry and crueltyes are pardoned upon a repentance that might seeme to have been forced by a grievous scourge what sinner that perceives his sin and misery can question his entertainment if he come to Christ Come to him sinner with thy load and burden Come to him with all thy acknowledged unworthyness and try whether he will refuse thee He hath professed that 〈◊〉 that cometh to him he will in no wise 〈◊〉 out Joh. 6.37 He refused not his very murderers when they were pricked at the heart and enquired after a remedie Act. 2.37 And will he refuse thee Hath our Physicion poured out his blood to make a medicine for distracted sinners and now is he unwilling to work the cure Fusus est saâ—guis medici factum est medicamentâ—â— frenetici saith Augustine O siner 〈◊〉 thou art brought to know thy self know Christ also and the cure is done Let thy thoughts of the Remedie be deeper and larger and longer then all thy thoughts of thy Misery It is thy sin and shame if it be not 〈◊〉 Why wilt thou have twenty thoughts of sin and misery for one that thou hast of Christ and mercy when mercy is so large and great and wonderfull as to triumph over misery and Grace aboundeth much more where sin hath abounded Rom 5.20 Inspice vulnera pendentis sanguinem mâ—rientis pretium redimentes cicatrices reâ—â—â—gentis Caput habet inclinatum ad oscular dum cor apertum ad diligendum bracâ—id extensa ad
brought to the market and the Foxes to the Furrier They shall find that God is not afraid to lay the hand of Justice on the stoutest of them and will be as bold with silkâ—n shining gallants as with the poorest worms and will spit in the face of that mans glory who durst spit in the face of the Glory of his Redeemer and will trample upon the interest which is set up against the interest of Christ The jovial world do now think that self-study is too Melancholy a thing and they choose to be distracted for fear of being melancholy and will be Mad in Solomons sense that they may be wise and happy in their own Eccles 2.2 The heart of fools is in the house of mirth and the heart of the wise in the house of mourning Eccles 7.4 and yet there is most Joy in the Hearts of the wise and least solid peace in the hearts of fools They know that conscience hath so much against them that they dare not hear its accusations and its sentence They dare not look into â—he hideous dungeon of their hearts nor perâ—se the accounts of their bankrupt souls nor â—ead the history of their impious unprofitable â—ives lest they should be tormented before â—â—e time They dare not live like seriâ—us men lâ—st they should lose thereby the â—lights of bruits O sinful men against â—hat light both natural and supernatural 〈◊〉 they offend They see how all things haste â—way The names of their predecessors are â—â—ft as a warning to them every corps â—â—at is carried to the grave being dead yet â—eaketh and every bone that is thence â—â—st up doth rise as a witness against their â—â—xury and lust and yet they will have â—â—eir wills and pleasure while they may â—â—atever it cost them and they will set â—â—eir houses on fire that they might have one merry blaze and warm them once before they die O Madam how happy are you if one on earth may be called happy that have looked home so often and so seriously that now you can dwell at home in peace and need not as the ungodly be a terror to your self nor run away from your self nor seek a place to hide you from your self when impious vagrants have so abused their Consciences that they dare not converse with them nor meet them alone or in the dark what a mercy is it that in the great Reconciler you are reconciled to your Conscience and that it doth not find you out as an enemy but is a messenger of peace and of good tidings to you That you need not the smiles of great ones to refresh you nor pompous entertainments complements plays or sports to recreate you and drive away your sorrows but that you can find more blessed and delectable company and employment at home That you can daily retire into your self and there peruse a richer treasure than bodily eyes on earth can see and there be taken up with a far more contenting satisfactory employment and a more fruitful and pleasant converse and recreation than any creature in Court or Countrey can afford That your Joy is laid up where the hand â—f violence cannot touch it and that they â—hat can deprive you of estate and liberty and â—â—fe yet cannot take your comfort from you That when fleshly unthrifts love not home â—ecause all is spent and they can expect no â—etter entertainment there than want conâ—â—sion chiding and distress you can withâ—â—aw from a coufused troublesome world inâ—â— a well-furnished and adorned soul repleâ—shed with the precious fruits of the Spirit â—â—d beautified with the image of your Lord Madam what sweet and noble employâ—ent have you there in comparison of that â—hich worldlings are troubled with abroad â—here you may read the sentence of your â—â—stification as foregoing and foreshewing 〈◊〉 publike final sentence of your Judge â—â—ere you can converse with God himself 〈◊〉 in his vindictive Justice but as he is â—â—ve For the love that dwelleth so plenâ—â—fully in you doth prove that God dwelâ—â—â—h in you and you in him 1 Joh. 4.7 〈◊〉 16. There you may converse with Christ â—ur head that dwelleth in you by faith â—hes 3.17 and with the Holy Ghost who â—â—elleth in you and hath communion with 〈◊〉 by the beams of his illuminating sanâ—â—â—fying Confirming and comforting grace There as in his Temple you are speaking oâ— his Glory 1 Cor. 3.16 17. 6.19 with Psal 29.9 and rejoycing in his holy praise and remembring what he hath donâ— for your soul There you can peruse thâ— Records of his Mercy and think with graâ—titude and delight how he did first illumiâ—nate you and draw and engage your hearâ— unto himself what advantage he got upoâ— you and what iniquity he prevented by thâ— mercies of your education and how he secretly took acquaintance with you in your youth How he delivered you from worldly fleshly snares how he caused you to savour thâ— things of the Spirit how he planted you iâ— a sound well ordered Church where hâ— quickened and conducted you by a lively faithful Ministery and watered his gifts by their constant powerful preaching of his word where Discipline was for a defence anâ— where your heart was warmed with thâ— communion of the Saints and where you learned to worship God in spirit and in truth and where you were taught so effectually by God to discern between the precious and thâ— vile and to love those that are born of God whom the world knoweth not that no subtilâ—ties or calumnies of the Serpent can unteach it you or ever be able to separate you from â—â—at love You may read in these sacred â—â—cords of your Heart how the Angel of 〈◊〉 Covenant hath hitherto conducted you â—â—rough this wilderness towards the land of â—â—omise how he hath been a cloud to you in 〈◊〉 day and a pillar of fire by night how 〈◊〉 Lord did number you with the people that 〈◊〉 his flock his portion and the lot of his inâ—â—â—itance and led you about in a desert land â—â—â—tructed you and kept you as the apple of 〈◊〉 eye Deut. 32.9.10 His Manna â—â—th compassed your tent his doctrine hath â—â—â—pped as the rain and his words distilled as 〈◊〉 dew as the small rain upon the tender 〈◊〉 and as the showres upon the grass v. 2. 〈◊〉 his beloved you have dwelt in safety by 〈◊〉 and the Lord hath covered you all 〈◊〉 day long c. 33.12 when storms have 〈◊〉 he hath been your refuge and when 〈◊〉 compassed you on every side he hath 〈◊〉 you as in his pavilion and his Angels â—â—ve pitcht their tents about you and born 〈◊〉 up you have been fortified in troubles 〈◊〉 enabled comfortably to undergoe them 〈◊〉 war and in peace in your native country 〈◊〉 in forreign lands among your friends 〈◊〉 among your enemies in Court and Counâ—â—â— in prosperity and adversity you have â—â—â—nd that there is none like the God of Israel who rideth upon the heaven iâ— your help and his
excellency on the skie The Eternal God hath been your refuge and underneath are the everlasting armâ— Deut. 34.26 27. You may remembeâ— the mercies of your younger years of youâ— maried state and of your widdow-hood your comforts in your truly Noble Lord though troubled and interrupted by his death yet increased by the consideration of his feâ—licity with Christ your comfort in youâ— hopeful issue though abated by the injurâ— of Romish theft which stole one of the Roseâ— of your Garden that they might boast of thâ— sweetness when they called it their own 〈◊〉 may well say stole it when all the cheaâ— was performed by unknown persons in thâ— dark and no importunity by you or 〈◊〉 could procure me one dispute or conference iâ— her hearing with any of the seducers beâ—fore her person was stoln away Though comforts conveyed by creatures must havâ— their pricks yet your experience hath partly taught you and more will do that by all thâ— mixtures of sower and bitter ingredients your Father doth temper you the most wholeâ—some composition He chasteneth you foâ— your profit that you may be partaker oâ— his Holiness Heb. 12.10 and the leasâ— degree of Holiness cannot be purchased at too dear a rate His rod and staffe have comforted you and whatever are the beginnings the End will be the quiet fruit of Righteousness when you have been exercised therein And though man be mutable and friends and flesh and heart have failed you yet God is still the strength of â—our heart and your portion for ever Psal â—3 26 O the variety of learning that is â—ontained in the secret writings of a sanctified heart The variety of subjects for the most â—ruitful and delightful thoughts which you â—ay find recorded in the inwards of your â—oul How pleasant is it there to find the â—haracters of the special Love of God the â—â—eaments of his Image the transcript of 〈◊〉 Law the harmony of his gifts and graces â—â—e witness the seal and the earnest of his â—pirit and the foretasts and beginnings of â—ternal Life As Thankfulness abhors â—â—livion and is a Recording grace and keepâ—â—h Histories and Catalogues of Mercies so 〈◊〉 it a Reward unto it self and by these Reâ—â—rds it furnisheth the soul with matter for â—he sweetest employments and delights Is it 〈◊〉 pleasant to you there to Read how God â—â—th confuted the objections of distrust how 〈◊〉 he hath condescended to your weakness and pardoned you when you could not easily forgive your self how oft he hath entertained you in secret with his Love and visited you with his consolations How neer him sometimes you have got in fervent prayer and serious meditation And when for a season he hath hid his face how soon and seasonably he returned How oft he hath found you weeping and hath wiped away your tears and calmed and quieted your troubled soul How he hath resolved your doubts and expelled your fears and heard your prayers How comfortably he hath called you His Child and given you leave and commanded you to call him Father when Christ hath brought you with boldness into his presence How sweet should it be to your remembrance to think how the Love of Christ hath sometime exalted you above these sublunary things How the Spirit hath taken you up to Heaven and shewed to your faith the Glory of the New Hierusalem the blessed company of those Holy spirits that attend the Throne of the Majesty of God and the shining face of your glorified Head By what seasonable and happy Messengers he hath sent you the Cluster of Grapes as the first fruits of the land of promise and commanded you oft to Take and Eate the Bread of Life How oft he hath reached to your thirsty soul the fruit of the Vine and turned it sacramentally into his blood and bid you drink it in remembrance of him till he come and feast you with his fullest Love and satisfie you with the pleasure and presence of his Glory But the volumes of mercy written in your heart are too great to be by me transcribed I can easily appeal to you that are acquainted with it whether such Heart-employment be not more pleasant and more profitable than any of the entertainments that flashy wit or gaudy gallantry or merriments luxurit or preferments can afford Is it not better converse with Christ at home than with such as are described Psa 12. abroad To dwell with all that blessed retinue Gal. 5.22 23. than with Pride Vainglory Envy Dissimulation Hypocrisie Falshood time-wasting soul-destroying pleasures to say nothing of the filthiness which Christian years abhor the mention of and which God himself in time will judge Eph. 5.3 4 5 6. Heb. 13.4 and the rest recited Gal. 5.19 20 21. If ungodly persons do find it more unpleasant to converse at home no wonder when there is nothing but darkness and defilement and when they have put God from them and entertained Satan so that their hearts are like to haunted houses where terrible cries and apparitions do make it a place of fear to the inhabitants But if their souls had such blessed inhabitants as yours could they meet there with a reconciled God a Father a Saviour and a sanctifier had they souls that kept a correspondency with Heaven it would not seem so sad and terrible a life to dwell at home and withdraw from that noise of vanity abroad which are but the drums and trumpets of the devil to encourage his deluded followers and drown the cries of miserable souls Your dearest friends and chiefest treasure are not abroad in Court or Country but above you and within you where then should your delightful converse be but where your friends and treasure are Matth. 6.21 Phil. 3.20 Col. 3.1 2 3 4. When then is almost nothing to be found in the conversation of the world but discord and distraction and confusion and clamours and malice and treachery is it not better to retire into such a heart where notwithstanding infirmities and some doubts and fears there is order and concord and harmony and such Peace as the world can neither give nor take away O blessed be the hand of Love that blotted out the names of Honour and Riches and Pleasures and carnal interest and accommodations from your heart and inscribed his own in Characters never to be obliterate That turned out Vsurpers and so prepared and furnished your heart as to make and judge it such as no one is worthy of it but himself O what a Court have you chosen for your abode How high and Glorious how pure and holy unchangeable and safe How ambitiously do you avoid ambition How great are you in the lowliness of your mind How high in your Humility Will no lower a place than Heaven content you to converse in For Heart-converse and Heaven-converse are as much one as beholding both the Glass and Face Will no lower correspondents satisfie you than the Host of Heaven Cannot the company of imperfect mortals serve your
mind be exercised in loving him â—he tongue in singing him the hand in wriâ—ing him let these holy studies be the beâ—â—evers work 2. He that knoweth himself may certainâ—â— know that there is another life of Happiâ—ess or Misery for man to live when this 〈◊〉 ended For he must needs know that his â—oul is capable of a spiritual and glorious â—elicity with God and of immaterial objects and that time is as nothing to it and transitory creatures afford it no satisfaction or Rest and that the Hopes and Fears of the Life to come are the Divine engines by which the Moral Government of the world is carryed on and that the very nature of man is such as that without such Apprehensions Hopes and Fears he could not in a connaturall way be Governed and brought unto the End to which his Nature is enclined and adapted But the world would be as a Wilderness and men as bruits And he may well know that God made not such faculties in vain nor suited them to an end which cannot be attained nor to a work which would prove but their trouble and deceit He may be sure that a meer probability or possibility of an everlasting Life should engage a reasonable creature in all possible diligence in Piety Righteousness Charity to attaine it And so Religion and holy endeavours are become the duty of man as man there being few such Infidels or Atheists to be found on earth as dare say They are sure there 's no other life for man And doubtless whatsoever is by Nature and Reason made mans Duty is not delusory and vain Nor is it Reasonable to think that Falshood frustration and deceit are the ordinary way by which mankind is Governed by the most wise and Holy God So that the end of man may be clearly gathered from his Nature forasmuch as God doth Certainly suit his workes unto their proper use and ends It is therefore the ignorance of our selves that makes men question the Immortality of soules And I may adde it is the Ignorance of the nature of Conscience and of all Morality and of the reason of Iustice among men that makes men doubt of the discriminating Iustice of the Lord which is hereafter to be manifested 3. Did men know themselves they would better know the evill and odiousness of sin As poverty and sickness are better known by feeling then by hearesay so also is sin To hear a discourse or read â— Booke of the Nature Prognosticks and Cure of the plague consumpâ—ion or droâ—sie doth little affect us while we seem â—o be sound and safe our selves But when we find the maladie in our flesh â—nd perceive the danger we have then â—nother manner of knowledge of it Did â—ou but see and feele sin as it is in your â—earts and lives as oft as you read and â—eare of it in the Law of God I dare say sin would not seeme a jesting matter not would those be censured as too precise that are carefull to avoid it any more then they that are carefull to avoid infectious diseases or crimes against the Lawes of man that hazzard their temporall felicity or lives 4. It s want of self-aquaintance that keepes the soule from kindly Humiliation That men are insensible of their Spirituall calamityes and lie under a load of unpardoned sin and Gods displeasure and never feele it nor loath themselves for all the abominations of their hearts and lives nor make complaint to God or man with any seriousness and sense How many hearts would be filled with wholsome griefe and care that now are careless and almost past feeling and how many eyes would stream forth teares that now are dry if men were but truly acquainted with themselves It is self-knowledge that causeth the solid peace and joy of a Believer as conscious of that Grace that warranteth his peace and joy But it is self-deceit and ignorance that quieteth the presumptuous that walke as carelesly and sleep as quietly and blesse themselves from Hell as confidently when it is ready to devoure them as if the bitterness of death were past and hypocrisy would never be discoverred 5. It is unacquaintednes with themselves that makes Christ so undervalued by the unhumbled world that his Name is reverenced but his office and Saving grace are disregarded Men could not set so light by the Physicion that felt their sicknes and understood their danger Were you sensible that you are under the wrath of God and shall shortly and certainly be in Hell if a Christ received by a hearty working purifying faith do not deliver you I dare say you would have more serious savory thoughts of Christ more yearnings after him more fervent prayers for his healing grace and sweet remembrance of his love and merits example doctrine and inestimable benefits then lifeless hypocrites ever were acquainted with Imagine with what desires and expectations the diseased blind and lame cryed after him for healing to their bodies when he was on earth And would you not more highly value him more importunately solicite him for your soules if you knew your selves 6. It is unacquaintednes with themselves that makes men think so unworthily of a Holy Heavenly Conversation and that possesseth them with foolish prejudice against the holy Care and diligence of believers did men but value their immortall souls as Reason itself requireth them to do is it possible they should venture them so easily upon everlasting misery and account it unnecessary strictnes in them that dare not be as desperately venturous as they but fly from sin and fear the threatnings of the Lord Did men but consideratly understand the worth and concernment of their souls is it possible they should hazard them for a thing of nought and set them at saile for the favor of superiors or the transitory pleasures and honours of the world Could they thinke the greatest care and labour of so short a life to be too much for the securing of their salvation Could they think so many studious carefull dayes and so much toil to be but meet and necessary for their bodyes and yet think all too much that 's done for their immortall souls Did men but practically know that they are the Subjects of the God of Heaven they durst not think the diligent obeying him to be a needless thing when they like that Child or servant best that is most willing and diligent in their Service Alas were men but acquainted with their weakness and sinfull failings when they have done their best and how much short the hoylest Persons do come of what they are obliged to by the Lawes and mercies of the Lord they durst not make a scorn of diligence nor hate or blame men for endeavouring to be better that are sure at best they shall be too bad When the worst of men that are themselves the greatest neglecters of God and their salvation shall cry out against a Holy life and making so much a do for Heaven as
Peace Content or Rest they lay the blame on this place or that this or that person or estate They think if they had their mind in this or that they should be well And therefore they are still contriving for somewhat whch they want and studying changes or longing after this or that which they imagine would work the Cure When alas poor souls the 〈◊〉 the sickness the want is in themselves It is a wiser mind a better more holy heavenly Will that 's wanting to them without which nothing in the world will solidly content and comfort them Seneca can teach them this much by the light of Nature Non longa peregrinatione nec locorum varietatibus tristitiam mentis gravitatémque discuties animum debes mutare non coelum licèt vastum trajeceris mare sequuntur te quocunque perveneris vitia Quid miraris tibi peregrinationes non prodesse cum te circumferas Premit te eadem causa quae expulit Quid terrarum juvare novitas potest Quid cognitio urbium aut locorum In irritum cedit ista jactantia Onus animi deponendum est non antè tibi ullus placebit locus Vadis huc illuc ut excutias incidens pondus quod ipsa jactatione incommodius fit sicut in navi onera immota minùs urgent inaequaliter convoluta citiùs eam partem in quam incumbunt demergunt Quicquid facis contra te facis motu ipso noces tibi aegrum enim concutis At cum istud exemeris malum omnis mutatio loci jucundus fiet In ultimas expellaris terras licèt in quolibet Barbariae angulo colloceris hospitalis tibi illa qualiscunque sedes erit Magis Quis veneris quam Quò interest that is It is not by long travels or by change of places that you can discuss the sadness and heaviness of the mind It s the Mind and not the Climate that you should change though you pass the vastest sea your vices will follow you whithersoever you go Why marvellest thou that travels avail thee not when thou carriest about thy self The same cause that drove thee away doth follow thee What can the novelty of countreys avail Or the knowledge of Cities and places This tossing up and down is vain It s the load of thy mind that must be laid down Till that be done no place will please thee Thou goest up and down to shake off a burden that 's fastened on thee which even by thy motion doth become more troublesome As in a ship the setled weight is least troublesome when things unequally thrown together do sink the part in which they lye What thou dost thou dost it against thy self and hurtest thy self by the very motion For thou shakest a sick person But when once thou hast taken out of thy self the evil every change of place will be pleasant Though thou be expelled into the remotest lands or placed in any corner of Barbary it will be however to thee a seat of hospitality It more concerneth thee to know Who or What thou art thy self that comest thither then Whither it is that thou comest Did you know your selves in all your griefs it s there that you would suspect and find your malady and there that you would most solicitously seek the cure BY this time if you are willing you may see where lyeth the disease and misery of the world and also what must be the cure Man hath lost himself by seeking himself He hath lost himself in the losse of God He departed from God that he might enjoy himself and so is estranged from God and himself He left the Sun and retired into darkness that he might behold himself and not the Light and now beholdeth neither himself nor the light For he can not behold himself but by the Light As if the Body should forsake the Soul and say I will no longer serve another but will be my own what would such a selfish separation procure but the converting of a Body into a loathsome Carkass and a senseless clod Thus hath the Soul dejected it selfe by turning to it self and seperating from God without whom it hath neither Life nor Light nor Joy By desiring a selfish kind of Knowledge of Good and evill withdrawing from its just dependance upon God it hath involved it self in Care and misery and lost the quieting delighting Knowledge which it had in God And now poor man is lost in error He is stragled so farre from home that he knoweth not where he is nor which way to returne till Christ in mercy seeke and save him Math. 18.11 Luk. 19.10 Yet could we but get men to know that they do not know themselves there were the greater hope of their recovery But this is contrary to the nature of their distemper An eye that is blinded by a suffusion or Cataract seeth not the thing that blindeth it It is the same Light that must shew them themselves and their ignorance of themselves Their self-ignorance is part of the self-evill which they have to know Those troubled souls that complain that they know not themselves doe shew that they begin at least to know themselves But a Pharisee will say Are we blind also Joh. 9.40 They are too blind to know that they are blind The Gospell shall be rejected the Apostles persecuted Christ himself abused and put to death the Nation ruined themselves and their posterity undone by the Blindness of these Hypocrites before they will perceive that they are Blind and that they know not God or themselves Alas the long calamityes of the Church the distempers and confusions in the state the lamentable divisions and dissensions among believers have told the world how little most men know themselves and yet they themselves will not perceive it They tell it aloud to all about them by their self-conceitedness and cruelty uncharitable censures reproaches and impositions that they know not themselves and yet you cannot make them know it Their afflicted brethren feel it to their smart the suffering grieved Churches feel it thousands groan under it that never wronged them and yet you cannot make them feel it Did they well know themselves to be Men so many would not use themselves like beasts and care so little for their most noble part Did they know themselves aright to be but Men so many would not set up themselves as Gods They would not arrogate a Divine authority in the matters of God and the Consciences of others as the Roman Prelats do Nor would they desire so much that the observation reverence admiration love and applause of all should be turned upon them nor be so impatient when they seem to be neglected nor make so great a matter of their wrongs as if it were some Deity that were injured O what a change it would make in the world if men were brought to the knowledge of themselves How many would weep that now laugh and live in mirth and pleasure How many would lament
that thou studyest without thee is neer thee even within thee thy self being the epitome of the world If either necessiry or duty nature or grace reason or faith internall inducements external repulses or eternall attractives and motives might determine of the subject of your studies and contemplations you would call home your lost distracted thoughts and employ them more on yourselves and God But before I urge this duty further I must prevent the misapplication of some troubled soules I must confess it is a grievous thing for a guilty soul to judge it self and see its own deformity and danger And I observe many troubled humbled soules especially where melancholy much prevailes are exceeding prone to abuse this duty by excess and by misdoing it Though wandering minds must be called home we must not run into the other extreame and shut up our selves and wholly dwell on the motions of our owne distempered hearts Though stragling thoughts must be turned inward and our hearts must be watched and not neglected yet must we not be alwayes poreing on our selves and neglect the rest of our intellectual converse To look too long on the running of a stream will make our eyes misjudge of what we after look on as if all things had the same kind of motion To look too long on the turning of a wheele will make us vertiginous as if all turnd round And to pore too long on the disordered motions the confused thoughts the wants the passions of our diseased minds will but molest us and cast us into greater disquiet and confusion The words of Anselme notably express the streights that Christians are here put to O nimis gravis angustia si me inspicio non tolero meipsum si non inspicio nescio meipsum si me considero terret me facies mea si me non considero fallit me damnaetio mea si me video horror est intolerabilis si non video mors est iâ—eâ—tabilis O grievous streight If I look 〈◊〉 my self I cannot endure my self if I look not into my self I cannot know my self If I consider my self my own face affrighteth me if I consider not my self my damnation deceiveth me If I see my self the horror is intolerable if I see not my self death is unavoidable In this streight we must be carefull to avoid both extreames and nether neglect the study of our selves nor yet exceed in puting on our selves To be carelesly ignorant of our selves is to undoe our selves for ever To be too much about our selves is to disquiet rather then to edyfie our selves and to turne a great and necessary duty into a great unnecessary trouble Consider 1. that we have many other matters of great importance to study and know when we know our selves We must chiefly study God himself and all the Books of Scripture Nature and Governing providence which make him known What abundance of great and excellent Truths have we in all these to study What time what industrie is necessary to understand them And should we lay out all this time about our own hearts and actions which is but one part of our study What sinful omisâ—â—ons should we be guilty of in the neâ—â—ecting of all these It is indeed but the â—â—rying of our talent of understanding 〈◊〉 confine it to so narrow a compass as our â—â—lves and to omit the study of God and â—is word and workes which are all with â—elight and diligence to be studyed We have also Christ and his Gospell mysteâ—ies and benefits to study We have the â—hurches case its dangers sufferings and â—eliverances to study We have the state of â—ur neghbours and brethren to consider of The mercyes and dangers and sufferings both of â—heir soules and bodyes we have our enemies to thinke of with due compassion and our duty to all these 2. And as it is negligence and omission to be all at home and pass by so great a part of duty so is it a double frustration of our labour and will make even this study of ourselves to be in vaine 1. We cannot come by all our study to the true knowledge of our selves unless we also study other things besides our selves For we are Related to God as his creatures as his Own as his subjects and as his dependant children as his Redeemed and his sanctifyed ones or such as should be such And if we know not God as Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifyer as our Owner Ruler and â—â—â—nefactor and know not what his creation Redemption sanctification his Title Goverâ—â—ment and Benefits meane it is not possiâ—â—â— that we should know our selves Mutual â—â—â—lations must be known together or neither 〈◊〉 be known 2. And if we could know our selves anâ— know no more it were but to know Nothing and lose that knowledge For this 〈◊〉 but the enterance into wisdome and thâ— meanes and way to higher knowledge Thâ—â— learning of our Alphabet or Primer is lost if we learn no further you are therefore 〈◊〉 study and know your selves that you may advance to the knowledge of Christ and his grace and be acquainted wich the Remedie of all that you find amiss at home and that by Christ you may be brought unto the Father and know God as your happiness and rest you are not your own ultimate ends and therefore must goe further in your studyes then yourselves 3. We shall never attaine to Rectitude or solid comfort and content unless our studyes goe further then ourselves For we are not the Rule to our selves but crooked lines and cannot know what is right and wrong if we study not the Rule as well as â—ur selves And alas we are diseased miserable sinners And to be alwayes looking on so sad a spectacle can bring no peace or comfort to the mind To be still looking on the sore and hearing only the cry of conscience will be but a foretaste of Hell When we would be humbled and have matter of lamentation we must look homeward where the troubling thorns and nettles of corruption grow But if we would be comforted and lift up we must look higher to Christ and to his promises and to everlasting life our garden beareth no flowers or fruits that are so cordial This much I have spoke by way of Caution 1. That you may not think I am driving you into the extream of solitude and confining or imprisoning you at home 2. Because some scarce know how to avoid a fault without running into another on the other side the way nor how to understand the right use of a doctrine but are turning it into an abuse and building sin upon the foundation of righteousness Two sorts of persons have great need of this caution that they dwell not too much on themselves One is poor Melancholy people that can think of almost nothing else Their distemper disposeth them to be alwayes poring on themselves and firâ—â— their thoughts on their sin and misery and searching into all their own miserâ— ages and making them worse
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
filled is an insufficient evidence of the life of grace and will do as little for the soul of the giver as for the Body of the receiver And how little hazardous or costly Love is found among us either to enemies neighbours or to Saints Did we better know our hearts there would be more care and diligence used to bring them to effectual fervent Love then to those duties that are of less importance and we should learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 12.7 which Christ sets the Pharisees twice to learn More instances of greatest duties extenuated I might add but I proceed 8. Another instance of unobserved corruption of the heart is The frequent and secret insinuations of selfishness in all that we do toward God or man When we think we are serving God alone and have cleansed our hearts from mixtures and deceit before we are aware self-interest or self-esteem or self conceit or self-love or self-will or self-seeking do secretly creep in and marr the work We think we are studying and preaching and writing purely for God and the common good or the benefit of souls and perhaps little observe how subtilly selfishness insinuates and makes a party and byasseth us from the holy ends and the simplicity and sincerity which we thought we had carefully maintained so that we are studying and preaching and writing for our selves when we take no notice of it When we enter upon any office or desire preferment or riches or honour in the world we think we do it purely for God to furnish us for his service and little think how much of selfishness is in our desires When we are doing Justice or shewing mercy in giving alms or exhorting the ungodly to repent or doing any other work of Piety or Charity we little think how much of selfishness is secretly latent in the bent and intention of the heart When we think we are defending the truth and cause of God by disputing writing or by the sword or when we think we are faithfully maintaining on one side order and obedience against confusion and turbulent disquiet spirits or the Vnity of the Church against division or on the other hand that we are sincerely opposing Pharisaicall corruptions and hypocrisie and tyrannie and persecution and are defending the purity of Divine worship and the power and spirituality of religion in all these cases we little know how much of carnal self may be secretly unobserved in the work But above all others Christ himself and the Holy Ghost that searcheth the hidden things of the heart hath warned one sort to be suspicious of their hearts and that is those that cannot bear the dissent and infirmities of their brethren in tolerable things and those that are calling for fire from heaven and are all for force and cruelty in religion for vexing imprisoning banishing burning hanging or otherwise doing as they would not be done by proportionably in their own case He tells his two Disciples in such a case Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9.55 As if he should say You think you purely seek my honour in the revenge of this contempt and opposition of unbelievers and you think it would much redound to the propagation of the faith and therefore you think that all this zeal is purely from my spirit But you little know how much of â— proud a carnal selfish spirit is in these desires You would fain have me and your selves with me to be openly vindicated by fire from heaven and be so owned by Goâ— that all men may admire you and you may exercise a dominion in the world and you stick not at the sufferings and ruine of these sinners so you may attain your end but 〈◊〉 tell you this selfish cruel spirit is unlike my spirit which inclineth to patience forâ—bearance and compassion So Rom. 14.1 2 c. 15.1 2. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye who art thou that judgest another mans servant Why dost thou judge thy brother and why dost thou set at nought thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ Every one of us shall give account of himself to God We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification So Gal. 6.1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burden and so fulfill the Law of Christ So also men are fouly and frequently mistaken when they are zealously contending against their faithfull Pastors and their brethren and vilifying others and quenching love and troubling the Church upon pretence of greater knowledge or integrity in themselves which is notably discovered and vehemently prest by the Apostle James 3.1 c. where you may see how greatly the judgement of the spirit of God concerning our hearts doth differ from mens judgement of themselves They that had a masterly contentious envious zeal did think they were of the wiser sort of Christians and of the highest form in the School of Christ when yet the Holy Ghost telleth them that their wisdom descended not from above but was earthly sensual and divelish and that their envy and strife doth bring confusion and every evil work and that the wisdom from above is neither unholy nor contentious but first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated Jam. 3.17 You see then how oft and dangerously we are deceived by unacquaintedness with our selves and how selfish carnal principles ends and motives are oft mixed in the actions which we think are the most excellent for wisdom zeal and piety that ever we did perform O therefore what cause have we to study and search and watch such hearts and not too boldly or carelesly to trust them And it is not only Hypocrites that are subject to these deceitfull sins who have them in dominion but true Believers that have a remnant of this carnal selfish principle continually offering to insinuate and corrupt their most excellent works and even all that they do 9. The strong eruption of those passions that seemed to be quite mortified doth shew that there is more evil lurking in the heart then ordinarily doth appear How calmly do we converse together how mildly do we speak till some provoking word or wrong do blow the coals and then the dove appeareth to partake of a fiercer nature and we can perceive that in the flame which we perceived not in the spark When a provocation can bring forth censorious reviling scornfull words it shews what before was latent in the heart 10. We are very apt to think those affections to be purely spiritual which in the issue appear to be mixed with carnality Our very love to the Assemblies and ordinances of
charge them and intreat them as they love your souls and as they will answer it before God that they suffer you not to sin for fear of displeasing you by plain reproofs and resolve to submit and take it well A stander by hath the great advantage of impartiality and therefore may see that in you which you observe not in your selves an object too neer the eye or too far off is not well discerned self-love doth not hinder us so much in judging of other mens cases as our own Friendly and faithful dealing in the matters of eternal consequence is the principal use and benefit of friend-ship This differenceth the communion of Saints from Beelzebubs swarme of flies and caterpillars Thus two are better then one For if they fall theâ— one will lift up his fellow But woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up Eccles 4.9 10. Much more woe to him that hath a multitude to cast him and to keep him down Hind 3. THE third extrinsecal Impediment to self-knowledge is Conversing only with such as are as bad as our selves and not with such whose lives display the spiritual endowment and excellencies which we want Among the Ethiopians it seemeth no deformity to be Black Seneca saith that no man is to be upbraided with that which is vitium humani generis the common fault of all the world or of the country where he lives for this were but to upbraid him that he is a man or that he was born in such a time or place Though Christians that know better the common disease do know that there must be common humiliation and remedie yet these indeed are the thoughts of most They know not that it is a matter of dishonour and lamentation to be no better then the most and to lie in the common corruptions of the world and to have no better hearts then they had by Nature To hear preachers talk of Holiness and a Divine Nature and a new birth and of being made new Creatures and of living in the Love of God and in the joyful Hopes of endless Glory doth seem to them but as the talk of a world in the sun or the description of an Angel which humbleth not them at all for not being such nor exciteth in them any great desires to be such As long as they see not the persons that are such they think these are but devout imaginations or the pious dreams of melancholy men and that indeed there are no such persons in the world or if there be that they are but as the Papists Saints here and there one to be admired and canonized and not upon pain of damnation to be imitated They judge of all the world or almost all by those about them And they think that God should be unmerciful if he should condemn so great a number as they see are like themselves and should save none but those few transcendent souls that they are described but hear unacquainted with It sometimes melteth my heart in pitty of many Great ones of the world to think how hard a mater it is for them to know indeed what Holiness is when they seldome hear so much as one Heavenly prayer or Discourse or any serious talke of the matters of Sanctification and communion with Christ When prophaness and inhumane wickedness dwell about them and make such as are but civil and temperate and good-natur'd persons to seem Saints When they see but few that fear the Lord and Love him unfeignedly and live by faith and those few are perhaps of the more cold and timerous and temporizing Strain that shew forth but little of the Heavenly nature and the vertues of their holy faith that dare scarce open their mouths to speak against the wickedness which they see or hear that dare not discourse like the Saints of the most High and the heirs of Heaven for fear of being made the scorn and by-word of the rest or of falling under the frowns and dislike of their superiors so that they live among others almost like common men save only that they run not with them to their excess of ryot and think it enough that by such forbearance of gross sin they are in some measure evil spoken of When they that should let their light so shine before men that they might see their good works and glorifie their heavenly Father Matth. 5.15.16 do hide their Religion and put their Light as under a bushel and not in a Candlestick that it might give light to all that are in the house and so when Religion never appeareth in its proper splendor and power and heavenly tendencie to those Great ones that have no better company what wonder if they never know themselves nor truly understand the nature necessity or excellency of Religion When they know it for the most part but by heresay yea and when they hear it more reproached then applauded it must be a miracle of mercy that must make such men to be sincerely and heartily Religious When they see so many about them worse then themselves and so sew better and those few that are better do hide it and live almost as if they were no better and when the godly whom they see not are described to them by the Serpents seed as if they were but a company of whining melancholy brainsick hypocrites who can expect that ever such men should savingly know themselves or Christ unless a wonder of mercy rescue them and bring them from this darkness and delusion into the light O how oft have I wished in compassion to many of the Great ones of the world that they had but the company which we that are their inferiors have that they did but hear the humble holy heavenly language that we have heard and hear the faithful fervent prayers that many poor Christians pour out before the Lord and saw but the humble harmless exemplary and heavenly lives of many poor Christians that are represented to them as the filth and the off-scouring of the world and perhaps no more regarded then Lazarus was at the Rich mans gate Luk. 16. Did they but see and hear and know such holy and heavenly Believers and were as well acquainted with them as we are how many of them would better know themselves and see what they want and what they must be and better discern between the righteous and the wicked between those that fear God and that fear him not Mal. 3.18 Dir. 3. IT will therefore be a great help to the Knowledge of your selves if you will converse with those that bear the Holy Image of their Creator Col. 3.10 and whose lives will tell you what it is to live by faith and what it is to walke in the spirit to mortifie the flesh and to live above all the alluring vanities of the world We can more sensibly perceive the nature of holiness when we see it in action before our eyes than when
doth shake so moveable and weak a thing and muddy and trouble a mind so easily disturbed and how hard it is again to quiet and compose a mind so troubled and bring a grieved soul to reason and make passion understand the truth and to cause a weake afflicted soul to judge clean contrary to what they feel all this considered no wonder if the peace and comfort of many Christians be yet but little and interrupted and uneven and if there be much crying in a family that hath so many little ones and much complaining where there are so many weak and poor and many a groane where there is so much pain To shew us the Sun at midnight and convince us of Love while we feel the rod and to give us the comfortable sense of grace while we have the uncomfortable sense of the greatness of our sin to give us the joyful hopes of glory in a troubled melancholy dejected State all this is a work that requireth the special helpe of the Almighty and exceeds the strength of feeble worms Let God give us never so full discoveries of his tenderest Love and our own sincerity as if a voice from Heaven had witnessed it unto us we are questioning all if once we seem to feel the contrary and are perplexed in the tumult of our thougths and passions and bewildred and lost in the errors of our own disturbed minds Though we have walkt with God we are questioning whether indeed we ever knew him as soon as he seemeth to hide his face Though we have felt another life and spirit possess and actuate us than heretofore and found that we love the things and persons which once we loved not and that we were quite falln out with that which was our former pleasure and that our souls broke off from their old delights and hopes and ways and resolvedly did engage themselves to God and unfeignedly delivered up themselves unto him yet all is forgotten or the convincing evidence of all forgotten if the lively influences of heaven be but once so far withdrawn as that our present state is clouded and afflicted and our former vigour and assurance is abated And thus unthankfully we deny God the praise and acknowledgement of his mercies longer than we are tasting them or they are still before us All that he hath done for us is as nothing and all the Love which he hath manifested to us is called hatred and all the witnesses that have put their hands to his Acts of Grace are questioned and his very seals denyed and his earnest misinterpreted as long as our darkened distempered souls are in a condition unfit for the apprehension of Mercy and usually when a diseased or afflicted body doth draw the mind into too great a participation of the affliction And thus as we are disposed our selves so we judge of our selves and of all our receivings and al Gods dealings with us A soul in a cheerful lively frame thinks well of all that God doth to him and hath thoughts of Hope and Peace and Joy as Health disposeth the body to alacrity and can make a man merry that hath little else Whereas a soul overwhelmed with cares and fears and griefs and muddyed with sinfull excessive thoughtfulness and habituated in a diseased sickly frame is afraid of every thing and turneth matter of comfort into sorrow and is in daily pain by its own imaginations like a man that hath a sore and is hurt with the thought that some body toucht it When we feel our selves well all goes well with us and we put a good interpretation upon all things And when we are out of order we complain of every thing and take pleasure in nothing and no one can content us and all is taken in the worser part As the Poet said Laeta fere laetus cecini cano tristia tristis You shall have a merry song from a merry heart and a sad ditty from a troubled grieved mind And thus while the discoveries both of sin and grace are at present overlookt or afterwards forgotten and almost all men judge of themselves by present feeling no wonder if few are well acquainted with themselves But as the Word and the works of God must be taken together if they be understood and not a sentence part or parcel taken separated from the rest which must make up the sense so also the workings of God upon your souls must be taken altogether and you must read them over from the first till now and set all together and not forget the letters the part that went before or else you will make no sense of that which followeth And I beseech all weak and troubled Christians to remember also that they are but children and Schollars in the school of Christ and therefore when they cannot set the several parts together let them not overvalue their unexperienced understandings but by the help of their skilful faithful Teachers do that which of themselves they cannot do Enquire what your former mercies signifie Open them to your guides and tell them how God hath dealt with you from the beginning and tell them how it is with you now and desire them to help you to perceive how one conduceth to the right understanding of the other And be not of froward but of tractable submissive minds and thus your self-acquaintance may be maintained at least to safety and to some degree of peace if not to the Joys which you desire which God reserveth for their proper season I Should have added more on this necessary subject but that I have said so much of it in other writings especially in the Saints Rest Part. 3. chap. 7. and in my Treatise of Self-denial and in the Right Method for Peace of Conscience I must confess I have written on thiâ— subject as I did of Self-denyal viz with expectation that all men shoulâ— confess the truth of what I say and yet so few be cured by it of theiâ— Self-ignorance as that still we must stand by and see the world distracted by it the Church divided the Love of Breâ—thren interrupted and the work of Saâ—tan carryed on by error violence and pride and the hearts of men so strangely stupified as to go on incorâ—rigibly in all this mischief while thâ— cause and cure are opened before them and all in vain while they confess the truth so that they wilâ— leave us nothing to do but exercise our compassion by lamenting the deliration of phrenetick men while we are unable to save the Church their brethren or their own souls from the dilaceratious and calamitous effects of their furious self-ignorance But Christ that hath sent us with the light which may be resisted and abused and in part blown out will speedily come with Light unresistible and will teach the proud the scornful the unmerciful the self-conceited the malicious and the violent so effectually to know themselves as that no more exhortations shall be necessary for the reception of his convictions nor will he or his servants any more beseech men to consider and know their sin and misery nor be beholden to them to believe and confess it See Jude v. 14.15 And is there no Remedy for a stupified inconsiderate soul Is there no prevention of so terrible a self-knowledge as the Light of Judgement and the fire of Hell will else procure Yes the remedy is certain easie and at hand even to know themselves till they are driven to study and seek and know the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 And yet is the Salvation of most as hopeless almost as if there were no remedie because no perswasion can prevail with them to use it Lord what hath thus lockt up the minds and hearts of sinners against thy truth and thee what hath made Reasonable man so unreasonable and a self-loving nature so mortally to hate it self O thou that openest and no man shutteth use the Key that openeth Hearts Come 〈◊〉 with thy Wisdome and thy Love anâ— all this blindness and obstinacy will be gone At least commit not the safety of thy flock to such as will not Know themselves But gather thy remnant and bring them to their folds and let them be fruitful and increase and set up shepheards over them which shall feed them and let them fear no more nor be dismayed nor be lacking Jer. 23.3 4. Ordain a place for them plant them and and let them dwell therein unmoved and let not the children of wickedness waste them any more 1 Chron. 17.9 As a shepheard seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among 〈◊〉 sheep that are scattered so seek out thy sheep and deliver them 〈◊〉 of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day Ezek. â—4 12 Save thy people and bless thine inheritance feed them also and lift them up for ever Psal 28.9 FINIS