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
damnation af Hell you may see in Mat. 23. Paul thought it his duty to tell Elymas Acts 13.10 that he was full of all subtilty and mischief the child of the devil and the enemy of all righteousness a perverter of the right wayes of the Lord. And Peter thought meet to tell Simon Magus that he had neither part nor lot in that matter that his heart was not right in the sight of God that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Acts 8.21.23 The charge of Paul to Timothy is plain and urgent 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort And to Titus chap. 1.13 Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith Judge now whether Minsters must deal plainly or deceitfully with you and whether it be the searching healing truth that they must bring you or a smooth tale that hath no salt or savour in it And would you have us break these Laws of God for nothing but to deceive you and tell you a â—ie and make the ungodly believe that he is godly or to hide the truth that is necessary to your salvation Is the Knowledge of your selves so intolerable a thing to you Beloved Hearers either it is true that you are yet unsanctified or it is not If it be not it is none of our desire you should think so We do all that we can to cure the mistakes of troubled Christians that think themselves worse then indeed they are But if it be true tell me Why would you not know it I hope it is not because you would not be remembred of your wo and so tormented before the time I hope you think not that we delight to vex mens consciences with fear or to see men live in grief and trouble rather then in well grounded peace and joy And if indeed you are yet unregenerate that is not long of us that tell you of it but of your selves that wilfully continue it Do we make you ungodly by telling you of your ungodliness Is it we that hinder the forgiveness of your sins by letting you know that they are not forgiven O no! We strive for youâ— conversion to this end that your sins may 〈◊〉 forgiven you and you hinder the forgiâ—â—â—ness of them by refusing to be be convetteâ— When God forsaketh stubborn souls 〈◊〉 resisting his grace note how he expreâ—â—seth his severity against them Mark 4 1â— That seeing they may see and not perceiâ—â— and hearing they may hear and not underâ—stand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them You see here that till they are converted mens sins are not forgiven them And thaâ— whoever procureth the forgiveness of theâ—â— sins must do it by procuring their Conversion And that the hindring of their Conversion is the hindering of their forgiveness And that blindness of mind is the great hinderance of conversion when men do noâ— perceive the very things which they see not knowing the reason and the sense and end of them but the out-side only Noâ— understand the things which they hear And therefore undoubtedly the Teacher that brings you a Light into your minds and first sheweth you your selves and your unconverted and your unpardoned state iâ— he that takes the way to your Conversion and forgiveness As the fore-cited Text sheweth you Acts 18.26 I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light that they may first know themselves and then know God in Jesus Christ and from the power of Satan who ruled them as their Prince and captivated them as their Jaylor unto God whom they had forsaken as a Guide and Governour and were deprived of as their Protector Portion and felicity that they may receive forgiveness of sins which none receive but the converted and an inheritance among them that are sanctified for Glory is the inheritance of the Saints alone Col. 1.12 and all this through faith that is in me by believing in me and giving up themselves unto me that by my Satisfaction Merits Teaching Spirit Intercession and Judgement it may be accomplished Truly Sirs if we knew how to procure your conversion and forgiveness without making you know that you are uncoverted unpardoned we would do it not trouble you needlesly with so sad a discovery Let that man be accounted a butcher of souls not a Physicion for them that delighteth to torment them Let him be accounted unworthy to be a Preacher of the Gospel that envieth you your peace and comfort We would not have you think one jot worse of your condition then it is Know but the very truth what case you are in and we desire no more And so far are we by this from drivinâ— you to Desperation that it is your Desperation that we would prevent by it which can no other way be prevented When you are past Remedy Desperation cannot be avoided And this is necessary to your Remedy There is a conditional Despair and an Absolute Despair The former is necessary to prevent the latter and to bring you to a state of Hope A man that hath the toothache may perhaps despair of being eased without drawing the tooth or a man that hath a gangrened foot may despair of life unless it be cut off that so by the cure he may not be left to an Absolute despair of life So you must despair of being pardoned or saved without conversion that you may be converted and so have hope of your salvation and be saved from final absolute despair I hope you will not be offended with him that would perswade you to Despair of living unless you will eat and drink You have no more reason to be offended with him that would have you despair of being pardoned or saved without Christ or without his sanctifying Spirit HAving said so much of the Necessity of Ministers endeavouring to make â—nregenerate sinners know themselves I shall next try what I can do towards it with â—hose that hear me by proposing these few Questions to your consideration Quest 1. Do you think that you were â—ver unsanctified and in a state of wrath and condemnation or not If not then you are not the off-spring of Adam you are not then of humane race For the Scripture telleth you that We are conceived in sin Psal 51.5 And That by one man sin entred into the world and Death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned and that by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Rom 5.12.18 And that All have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3.23 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.8.10 And the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23
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