Exhortations to the Godly, to Know Their Sins and Wants

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 yourselves: and that, both in respect of, I. Your sins and wants; and, II. Your graces and your duties.

I. Be acquainted with the root and remnant of your sins: with your particular inclinations and corrupt affections; their quality, their degree, and strength: with the weaknesses of every grace; with your disability to duty; and with the omissions or sinful practices of your lives. Search diligently and deeply; frequently and accurately peruse your hearts and ways, till you certainly and thoroughly know yourselves.

And I beseech you, let it not suffice you that you know your states, and have found yourselves 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 yourselves that you have to know. If yet you say that you have no sin, you deceive yourselves. 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; as often as you have confessed it, lamented it, 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 relics 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 yourselves, 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 careful observation of these following evils, that may befal even the regenerate by the remnants of self-ignorance.

1. The work of mortification is very much hindered, because you know yourselves 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 yourselves no better. Did you see your heart, with a fuller view, how heavily would you charge yourselves! 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 God’s delight. It would fill you more with godly shame and self-abhorrence, if you better knew yourselves. It would make you more sensibly say, with Paul, “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, “I will declare my iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin. They are more than the hairs of my head. 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.” i Repentance is the death of sin; and the knowledge of ourselves, 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 yourselves no better. O that God would but open these too close hearts, and show 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 may not be proud of your holiness, let me tell you. Christians, that a full display of the corruptions of the best of you, would not only take down self-exalting thoughts, that you be not lifted up above measure, but would teach you to pray with fervour and importunity, and make you cry, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me!” If the sight of a cripple, or naked person, move you to compassion, though they use no words, surely the sight of your own deformities, wants, and dangers, would affect you if you saw them as they are. How many a sin do you forget in your confessions, that should have a particular repentance! And how many wants do you overlook in prayers, that should have particular petitions for a merciful supply! And how many are run over with words of course, that would he earnestly insisted on,- if you did but better know yourselves! O that God would persuade you better to study your hearts, and pray out of that book whenever you draw nigh to him, that you might not be so like the hypocrites, that draw near to him with the lips, when their hearts are far from him. To my shame I must confess, that my soul is too dry and barren in holy supplications to God, and too little affected with my confessed sins and wants; but I am forced to lay all, in a very great measure, upon the imperfect acquaintance that I have at home. I cannot think I should want matter to pour out before the Lord in confession and petition, nor so much want fervour and earnestness with God, if my heart and life lay open to my view, while I am upon my knees.

(3.) It is for want of a fuller knowledge of yourselves, that you are so negligent in your Christian watch — that you do not better guard your senses — that you make no stricter a covenant with your eyes, your appetites, your tongues — that you no more examine what you think, affect, and say — that you call not yourselves more frequently to account: but days run on, and duties are carelessly performed, as of course, and no daily reckoning made to conscience of all. The knowledge of your weaknesses, and readiness to yield, and of your treacherous corruptions that comply with the enemy, would make you more suspicious of yourselves, and to walk more “circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,” and to consider your ways, before you were too bold and venturous. It was the consciousness of their own infirmity, that should have moved the disciples to w.itch and pray. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is wiHing, but the flesh is weak.” And all have the same charge, because all have the same infirmity and danger. “What I say to you, I say unto all, Watch.” Did we better know how many advantages our own corruptions give the tempter, that charge of the Holy Ghost would awake us all to stand to our arms, and look about us: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith; quit you like men, be strong.” “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The knowledge of ourselves doth show us all the advantages of the tempter; what he hath to work upon, and what in us to take his part, and consequently where he is most likely to assault us: and so puts us into so prepared a posture for defence, as very much hinderelh his success. But so far as we do not know ourselves, we are like blind men in fencing, the adversary may hit in what part he please. What sin may not Satan tempt a man into, that is not acquainted with the corruptions and frailties of his own heart!

(i.) It is for want of self-acquaintance that we seek not for help against our sin, to ministers or other friends that could assist us: and that we use the confirming ordinances with no more care and dih’gence. All the abilities and willingness of others, and all the helps of God’s appointment, will be neglected, when we should employ them against our sins, so far as self-ignorance doth keep us from discerning the necessity of them.

(3.) It is for want of a fuller knowledge of ourselves, that many lie long in sins unobserved by themselves; and many are on the declining hand, and take no notice of it. And how little resistance or mortifying endeavours we are likely to bestow upon unknown or unobserved sins, is easy to conceive. How many may we observe to have notable blemishes of pride, ostentation, desire of pre-eminence and esteem, envy, malice, self-conceitedness, self-seeking, censoriousness, uncharitableness, and such like, that see no more of it in themselves, than is in more mortified men! How ordinarily do we hear the pastors that watch over them, and their friends that are best acquainted with them, lamenting the miscarriages, and the careless walking and declining of many that seem religious, when they lament it not themselves, nor will be convinced that they are sick of any such disease, any more than all other Christians are! Hence it is, that we have all need to lament, in general, our unknown sins, and say, with David, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

There are few of us that observe our hearts at all, but find, both upon any special illumhiation, and in the hour of discovering trials, that there were many distempers in our hearts, and many miscarriages in our lives, that we never took notice of before. The heart hath such secret corners of uncleannessj such mysteries of iniquity, and depths of deceitfulness, that many fearing God, are strangely unacquainted with themselves, as to the particular motions and degrees of sin, till some notable providence, or gracious light, assist them in the discovery. I think it not unprofitable here to give you some instances of sin, undiscerned by the servants of the Lord themselves that have it, till the light come in that makes them wonder at their former darkness.

In general, first observe these two. 1. The secret habits of sin, being discernible only by some acts, are many times unknown to us, because we are under no strong temptation to commit those sins. And it is a wonderfully hard thing for a man that hath little or no temptation to 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 crawl about when they feel the summer’s heat! What horrid corruptions, which we never observed in ourselves before, do show themselves in the hour of temptation! Who would have thought that righteous Noah had, in the ark, such a heart as would, by carelessness, fall into the sin of drunkenness! Or that righteous Lot had carried from Sodom the seed of drunkenness and incest in him! Or that David, a man so eminent in holiness, and a man after God’s own heart, had a heart that had in it the seeds of adultery and murder! Little thought Peter, when he professed Christ, that there had been in him such carnality and unbelief, as would so soon have provoked Christ to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” And little did he think, when he so vehemently professed his resolution rather to die with Christ than deny him, that there had been then in his heart, the seed that would bring forth this bitter fruit, i Who knows what is virtually in a seed, that never saw the tree, or tasted of the fruit?

Especially, when we have not only a freedom from temptations, but also the most powerful means to keep under vicious habits, it is hard to know how far they are mortified at the root. When men are among those that countenance the contrary virtue, and where the vice is in disgrace, and where examples of piety and temperance are still before their eyes; if they dwell in such places and company, where authority, and friendship, and reason, do all take part with good, and cry down the evil, no wonder if the evil that is unmortified in men’s hearts, do not much break out to their own or others observations, through all this opposition. The instance of King Joash is famous for this, who “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days of Jehoiada the priest that instructed him,” but “after his death, when the princes of Judah flattered him with their obeisance, he left the house of God and served idols, till wrath came upon the land:” and was so hardened in sin, as to murder Zechariah, the prophet of God, and son of that Jehoiada that had brought him out of obscurity, and set him upon the throne, even because he spake, in the name of the Lord, against his sin. 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 public professions and works, to have committed the abominations mentioned, 1 Kings xi. 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 be now corrupted, and that this corruption is virtually or seminally all sin, disposing us to all; and that this disposition is strong enough to be called a general habit. When grace in the sanctified is called a nature, there is the same reason to call the sinful inclination a nature too; which can signify nothinjr else than a 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 easy and frequent yielding to the temptation, shows there was a friend to sin within. 3. But if it were not so, yet that our hearts should be so frail, 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,” and that the “evil things of evil men come out of the evil treasure of their hearts.” And when God permitted the fall of good King Hczekiah, the text saith, “God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart;” that is, that he might show all that was in his heart, so that the weakness, and the remaining corruption of Hezekiah’s heart, were shown in the sin which he committed.

2. And as the sinful inclinations are hardly discerned, and long lie hid till some temptation draw them out; so the act itself is hardly discerned in any of its malignity, till it be done and past, and the soul is brought to a deliberate review. For while a man is in the act of sin, either his understanding is so far deluded, as to think it no sin in its kind, or none to him that then committeth it; or that it is better to venture on it than 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 discerneth not practically the pernicious evil of the sin, and forbiddeth not the committing of it, or forbids it so remissly 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-discerninj;? When a storm of passion hath blown out the light, and error hath extinguished it, we are unlikely then to know ourselves.; When the sensual part is pleasing itself with its forbidden objects, pleasure so corrupts the judgment, that men will easily believe that it is lawful, or that it is not very bad: so that sin is usually least known and felt, when it is greatest in exercise, and one would think should then be most perceptible. Like a frenzy or madness, or other delirium, that is least known when it is greatest and most in act, because its nature is destructive to the reason that should know it.

And thus you see that, through self-ignorance, it comes to pass, that both secret habits, and the most open acts of sin, are ofttimes little known. A man that is drunk, is in an unfit state to know what drunkcnsiess is; and so is a man that is in his passion: you will hardly bring him to repentance till it be allayed. And so is a man in the brutifying heat of lust: and therefore abundance of unknown sin may remain in a soul, that labourcth not to be well acquainted with itself.

And as I have showed 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 ourselves.

1. Little do we think what odious and dangerous errors may befal a person that now is orthodox!

What a slippery mutability the mind of man is liable to! 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 God’s word hath nothing in it thus fitted to deceive: but our weakness hath that which disposeth us to mistakes. 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 falsehood, how many may be carried down the stream I How zealous have many been for a faithful 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 possessed by the malicious spirit!

And O that we could stop here, and could not remember 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 God’s public ordinances of worship, and excommunicate themselves from the society of the saints, and vilify 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 was in their hearts, they would have walked more warily, and, it is likely, have escaped 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 ceusureth. 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 must say that this age hath given us such lamentable instances. Would the persons that once walked with us in the ways of peace, and concord, and obedience, have believed that man that should have foretold 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 authorized thera 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 rightful governors, never once vouchsafing to ask themselves the question that Christ asked, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?” 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 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. 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 sloud to all that fear God, ‘The depths and deceits of the heart are wonderful, and you little think what an hour of temptation may discover in you, or bring you to: O therefore know yourselves, and fear, and watch.’

3. A man that in adversity is touched with penitent and mortifying considerations, and strongly rcsolveth how holily and diligently he will live hereafter, if he be recovered or delivered from his suffering, doth ofttiraes 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 than 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 at 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 waste their time in idleness and scandalous recreations, and be silent witnesses of the most odious sins from day to day; and pray God be merciful to them when they go to the house of Rimmon; and dare scarcely own a servant, or hated and reproached cause of God! O what a preservative would it be to us in prosperity, to know the corruption of our hearts, and foresee in adversity what we are in danger of! We should then be less ambitious to place our dwellings on the highest ground, and more fearful 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 hold 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 than 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, than most are acquainted with, that are never put to such a trial. The height of prosperity shows what the man is indeed, as much as the depth of adversity.

Would one have thought, that had read of Hezekiah’s earnest prayer in his sickness, and the miracle wrought to signify his deliverance, and of his written song of praise, that yet Hezekiah’s 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: “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 our 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 wrapt up in God’s praise, should yet miscarry, and be charged with ingratitude? And yet it is said of him, “But Hezekiah rendered not ajjain accordinirto 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 show: “Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart.” O sirs, what Christian 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, faithful 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 tried me many a time. Alas! we are too like the deceitful Israelites: “When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and inquired after God: and they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues: for their heart was not rifht with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.” Prosperity oft shows more of the hypocrisy of the unsound, and the infirmity of the upright, than appeared in adversity. When we feel the strong resolutions of our hearts to cast off our sin, to walk more thankfully and fruitfully with God than we have done, we can hardly believe that ever those hearts should lose so much of those affections and resolutions, as in a little time we find they do. Alas! how quickly and insensibly do we slide into our former insensibility, and into our dull and fruitless course, when once the pain and fear is gone! And then, when the next affliction comes, we are confounded and covered with shame, and have not the confidence with God in our prayers and cries as we had before, because we are conscious of our covenant-bi caking and backsliding; and at last we grow so distrustful of our hearts, that we know not how to believe any promises which they make, or how to be confident of any evidence of grace that is in them; and so vve lose the comfort of our sincerity, and are cast into a state of too much heaviness, and unthankful denial of our dearest mercies. And all this comes from the foul, unexpected relapses, and declinings of the heart, that comes not up to the promises we made to God in our distress.

But if exaltation be added to deliverance, how often doth it make the reason drunk, so that the man seems not the same! If you see them drowned in ambition, or worldly cares or pleasures; if you see how boldly they can play with the sin that once they would have trembled at; how powerful fleshly arguments are with them; how strangely they now look at plain-hearted, zealous, heavenly Christians, whose case they once desired to be in: and how much they are ashamed or afraid, to appear openly for an opposed cause of Christ, or openly to justify the persons that he justifieth, as if they had forgot that a day is coming, when they will be loath that Christ should be ashamed of them, and refuse to justify 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, ‘Are these the men that lately, in distress, did seem so humble, penitent, and sincere: that seemed so much above these vanities: that could speak with so much contempt of all the glory and pleasures of the world: and with so much pity of those giddy men that they now admire?’

O what pillars have been shaken by prosperity!

What promises broken! What sad eruptions of pride and worldliness! What openings and sad discoveries of heart, doth this alluring, charming trial make! And why is it that men know not themselves when they are exalted, but because they did not sufficiently know themselves when they were brought low, nor suspected enough the purposes and promises of their hearts, in the day of their distress!

4. We would little think, when the heart is warmed, and raised even to heaven, in holy ordinances, how cold it will grow again, and how low it will fall down! And when we have attained the clearest sight of our sincerity, we little think how quickly all such apprehensions may be lost; and the misjudging soul, that reckons upon nothing but what it sees, or feels at present, may be at as great a loss, as if it had never perceived any fruits of the Spirit, or lineaments of the image of God upon itself. How confident, upon good grounds, is many an honest heart of its sincerity! How certain that it desireth to be perfectly holy! 1. That it would be rid of the nearest, dearest si;i. 2. That it loves the saints. 3. That it loves the light of the most searching ministry. 4. And loveth the most practical, sanctifying truths. 5. And loves the ministry and means that have the greatest and most powerful tendency to make themselves more holy (all of which are certain evidences of sincerity). How clearly may the heart perceive all these, and write them down; and yet, ere long, have lost the sight and sense of them all, and find itself in darkness and confusion, and perhaps be persuaded that all is contrary with them! And when they read in their diary, or book of heart-accounts, that at such a day in examination, they found such or such an evidence; and such a one at another; and many at a third; yet now they may be questioning, whether all this were not deceit, because it seems contrary to their present sight and feeling; for it is present light that the mind discerneth by, and not by that which is past and gone, and of which we cannot so easily judge by looking back. They find in their accounts, At such a time I had my soul enlarged in prayer; and at such a time I was full of joy; and at another time I had strong assurance, and boldness with God, and confidence of his love in Christ, and doubted not of the pardon of all my sins, or the justification or acceptance of my person. But now, no joy, no assurance, no boldness, or confidence, or sense of love and pardon doth appear; but the soul secmeth dead, and carnal, and unrenewed: as the same trees that in summer are beautified with pleasant fruits and flowers, .in winter are deprived of their natural ornaments, and seem as dead, when the life is retired to the root. The soul that once would have defied the accuser, if he had told him that he did not love the brethren, nor love the sanctifying word and means, nor desire to be holy, and to be free from sin, is now as ready to believe the accusation, and will sooner believe the tempter than the minister that watcheth for them, as one that must give account. Yea, now it will turn the accuser of itself, and say as Satan, and falsely charge itself with that which Christ will acquit it of. The same work that a well composed believer hath in confuting the calumnies of Satan, the same hath a minister to do, in confuting the false accusations of disturbed souls against themselves. And how subtle, how obstinate and tenacious are they! As if they had learned some of the accuser’s art: such as the uncharitable and malicious are against their neighbours, in picking quarrels with all that they say or do; just such are poor disquieted souls against themselves.

And there is not a soul so high in joy and sweet assurance, but is liable to fall as low as this. And it makes our case to be much more grievous than otherwise it would be, because we know not ourselves in the hour of our consolations, and think not how apt we are to lose all our joy, and what seeds of doubts, and fears, and grief, are still within us, and what cause we have to expect a change. And therefore, when so sad a change befalleth us, it surpriseth us with terror, and casteth the poor soul almost into despair. Then crieth the distressed sinner, ‘Did I ever think to see this day! are my hopes and comforts come to this! Did I think so long that I was a child of God, and must I now perceive that he disowneth me 1 Did I draw near him as my Father, and place my hope in his relief; and now must my mouth be stopped with unbelief, and must I look at him afar oft”, and pass by the doors of mercy with despair! Is all my sweet familiarity with the godly, and all my comfortable hours under the precious means of grace, now come to this!’ O how the poor soul here calls itself ‘O vile apostate, miserable sinner! O that 1 had never lived to see this gloomy day! It had been belter for me never to have known the way of righteousness, than thus to have relapsed; and have all the prayers that 1 have put up, and all the sermons I have heard, and the books that I have read, to aggravate my sin and misery.’ O how many a poor Christian in this dark misjudging case, is ready, with Job, to curse the day that he was born, and to say of it, “Let it be darkness, let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it: let it not be joined to the days of the year: let it not come into the number of the months: — Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul: which long for death, and it Cometh not — which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?” Such are the lamentations of distressed souls, that lately were as in the arms of Christ. Their lives are a burden to them; their food is bitter to them; their health is a sickness to them; their dearest relations are become as strangers; and all their comforts are turned into sorrows, and the world seems to them as a howling wilderness, and themselves as desolate, forsaken souls. They are still as upon the cross, and will own no titles, but vile, unworthy, lost, undone, forlorn and desolate; as if they had learned no words from Christ, but “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!”

And much of this comes from the ifrnorance of ourselves in the time of peace and consolation. We are as David, that saith, “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” One frown of God, or withdrawing the light of his countenance from us, would quickly turn our day into night, and cover us with sackcloth, and lay us in the dust.

Take warning, therefore, dear Christians, you that are yet in the sunshine of mercy, and were never at so sad a loss, nor put to grope in the darkness of mistake and terror. No man is so well in health, but must reckon on it that he may be sick. When you feel nothing but peace and quietness of mind, expect a stormy night of fears, that may disquiet you. When you are feasting upon the sweet entertainments of your Father’s love, consider that feasting is not likely to be your ordinary diet, but harder fare must be expected. Look on poor Christians, in spiritual distress, with compassion, and join in hearty prayer for them, and remember that this may prove your case. If you say, To what purpose should you know beforehand, how subject you are to this falling sickness: I answer, not to anticipate, or bring on your sorrows; but if it may be, to prevent them; or if that may not be, at least to prevent the extremity and terror, and to be provided for such a storm. When you are now in health of body, and not disabled by melancholy, nor overwhelmed with the troubles of your mind, you have leisure calmly to understand the case of such misjudging and distressed souls; and accordingly you may avoid the things that cause it: and you may be furnished with right principles, and with promises, and experiences, and recorded evidences of grace; and when comfort is withdrawn, you may by such provision understand, that God changeth not, nor breaks his covenant, nor abates his love, when your apprehensions change: and that this is no sign of a forsaken soul: and that the ceasing of our feast, and withdrawing of the table, is not a turning us out of the family.

And what I have said of the loss of comfort may be said also of the diminished and interrupted operations of all grace. We little think, in the vigour of our holy progress, what falls, and languishings we may find. When you have access with boldness in prayer unto God, and lively affections and words at will, and comfortable returns, remember that you may come to a sadder case; and that many a true Christian hath such withdrawings of the spirit of prayer, as makes them think they are possessed with a dumb devil, and question whether ever they prayed acceptably at all, and cannot so much as observe the groanings of the Spirit in them.

When you are warm and vigorous in the work of God, and find delight in all the ordinances, remember that you are subject to such sicknesses as may take away your appetite, and make you say, I have no mind to hear, or read, or pray: methinks I feel no sweetness in them! I was wont to go up with comfort to the house of God; I was glad when the Lord’s-day was come, or nigh: it did me good to see the faces of the saints: O the meltings, the strivings, the lively workings of soul that I have had in their sweet communion! when they have preached and prayed as full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith: but now I do but force myself to duty: I go to prayer as against my will: I feel small relish in the word of life. O how many Christians, that little thought of such a day, cry out that spiritual death is upon them; that they are dead to prayer, and dead to meditation, and dead to holy conference; and that once they thought they were dead to the world, and now they find they are dead to God. Understand before that you are liable to this, and you may do much to prevent it: and if you should fall into a sickness and loss of appetite, you may be able to distinguish it from death.

When you are sweetly refreshed at the table of the Lord, and have there received a sealed pardon, as from heaven into your bosoms, and have found delightful entertainment with the Lord, remember that the day may come, when dulness, and unbelief, and fears, may so prevail, as to make that an ordinance of greatest terror to you, and you may sit there in trembling, lest you should eat and drink your own damnation: and you may go home in fears, lest Satan have there taken possession of you, or lest it have sealed you up to wrath: or you may fly from that feast which is your due, and Christ invites you to, through fears, lest it belong not to you, and should but harden you more in sin: for, alas! this sad and sinful case is too often the case of true believers, that little feared it in their spiritual prosperity. So that the very high expectations of such workings of soul, which they cannot often or ordinarily reach, and the frustrating of those expectations, doth so often turn the table of the Lord into the bitterness of wormwood, into distracting fears and troubles, that I cannot tell whether any other part of worship occasion so much distress to many that are upright at the heart as this doth, which is appointed for their special consolation.

So, when you are clear and vigorous in the life of faith, and can abhor all temptations to unbelief, and the beams of sacred verity in the Scriptures have showed you that it is the undoubted word of God, and you have quietly established your soul on Christ, and built your hopes upon his promises, and can with a cheerful 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 it is more than 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 wicked suggestions of the enemy, and may think of them all with troublesome, distracted doubts, and be forced to cry, with the disciples, “Lord increase our faith.” And, “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.” Vea, worse than 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 show, that they believe the threatenings, and therefore indeed believe the word. Now, if we did but thoroughly know ourselves, when faith is in its exercise and strength, and consider whither the secret seeds of remaining unbelief may bring us, being forewarned, we should be fore-armed, and should mortify 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 overwhelmed 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 sinful disposition to entertain it.

0 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.

1 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 beforehand acquainted with it, may do much more, I have timely showed 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 shameful moan and stir that we make for what we want, we show more sinful overvaluing of it, and love to it, than 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 stripped 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 suflPer! But when our turn is come, alas! we seem to be other men. Suffering is now another thing; and patience harder than we imagined. And how inclinable are we to hearken to temptations, to use sinful means to come out of our sufferings! Who would have thought that faithful Abraham should have been so unbelieving, as to equivocate in such a danger, and expose the chastity of his wife to hazard, as we read in Gen. xii. and that he should fall into the same sin again, on the same occasion, (Gen. xx.) to Abimelech, as before he had done with Pharaoh! and that Isaac should, after him, fall into the same sin, in the same place! The life of faith doth set us so much above the fear of man, and show us the weakness and nothingness of mortal worms, and the faithfulness and all-sufficiency of God, that one would think the frowns and threatenings of a man should signify nothing to us, when God stands by, and givcth us such ample promises and security for our confirmation and encouragement: and yet what base dejectedness, and sinful compliances are many brought to, through the fear of man, that before the hour of this temptation, could talk as courageously as any! This was the case of Peter, and of many a one that hath a wounded conscience, and wronged their profession by too cowardly a disposition; which if it were foreknown, we might do more for our confirmation, and should betake ourselves in time to Christ, in the use of means, for strength. Few turn their backs on Christ, or a good cause, in the time of trial, that are jealous of themselves beforehand, 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, is, in the unexpected appearances of pride in those that yet are truly humble. Humility speaks in their confessions, aggravating their sin, and searching heart and life for matter of self-accusation: they call themselves “Less than the least of all God’s mercies.” They are ready, with the woman of Canaan, even to own the name of dogs, and to confess themselves unworthy of the children’s crumbs, and unworthy to live upon the patience and provisions of God: they will spend whole hours, and days of humiliation, in confessing their sin, and bewailing their weaknesses and want of grace, and lamenting their desert of misery. They are often cast down so much too low, that they dare not own the title of God’s children, nor any of his special grace, but take themselves for mere 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 dissembhngly. And yet, would you think, that, with all this humility, there should be any pride? and that the same persons should lift up themselves, and resist their helps to further humiliation? Do they think, in their dejections, that it is in their hearts so much to exalt themselves? I confess many of them are sensible of their pride, even to the increase of their humility; and, as it is said of Hezekiah, “do humble themselves for the pride of their hearts, so that God’s wrath doth not come upon them.” But yet, too few are so well acquainted with the power and rootedness of this sin at the heart, and the workings of it in the hour of temptation, as they should be. Observe it but at such times as these, and you will see fa break forth, that before appeared not. 1. When we are undervalued and slighted, and meaner persons preferred before us; and when our words and judgments are made light of, and our parts thought to be poor and low; when any blot or dishonour is cast upon us, deserved or undeserved; when we are slandered or reproached, and used with despite: 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 pour out words of blame against himself, cannot bear half as much from othecs, without displeasure and disquietncss of mind. It would help us much to know this by ourselves, in the time of our humility, that we may be engaged to more watchfulness and resistance of our pride.

2. When we are reproved of any disgraceful 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 humiliations and large confessions unto God, that we were so proud! To know this by ourselves, 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 ourselves as fit for it as any, and to be displeased, if the honour or employment do pass by us!

4. When we are admired, applauded, or excessively esteemed and loved, how apt are we to be too much pleased with it! which showeth a proud desire to be somebody in the world; and that there is much of this venom at the bottom in our hearts, even when we lay ourselves in the dust, and walk in sackcloth, and pass the heaviest judgment on ourselves.

7. Another instance of our unacquaintedness with our hearts, and the latent, undiscerned corruption of them, is our little 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 thg miscarriages of our lives. As, ]. Unbelief 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 woe! O happy men, were we free from this! What prayers should we put up! What lives should we lead! How watchfully should we walk! With what contempt should we look on the allurements of the world! With what disdain should we think on fleshly lusts! With what indignation should we meet the tempter, and scorn his base, unreasonable motions, if we did but perfectly believe the very truth of the Gospel, and world to come! How careful and earnest should we be, to make our calling and election sure! How great a matter should we make of sin, and of helps and hinderances in the way to heaven! How much should we prefer that state of life that furthereth our salvatien, before that which strengtheneth our snares, by furthering our prosperity and pleasure in the world, if we were not weak or wnntinc in our belief of the certain verity of these things! Did we better know the badness of our hearts herein, it would engage us more in fortifying the vitals, and looking better to our foundation, and winding 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 the 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 cold and customary, as shows us they little observe the greatness of this sinful want! This is the very heart, and sum, and poison, of all the sins of our soul and life. So much as a man loves God, so much he is holy: and so much he hath of the Spirit 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 will love the commands of God. As love is the sum of the law and prophets, so should it be the sum of our care and study, through all our lives, to exercise and strencthen 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 often 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 than we do, and set ourselves 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 than we observe. And indeed it appearcth so when it comes to trial:

to that trial which Christ will judge it by at last, Matt. XXV. When love must be showed by any self-denial, or costly demonstration, by parting with our food and raiment to supply the wants of others, and by hazarding ourselves 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, (James ii.) “Depart in peace, be warmed, and 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, than to those duties that are of less importance; and we should learn what this meaneth, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice,” which Christ sets the Pharisees twice to learn.

8. Another instance of unobserved corruption of the heart, is, the frequent and secret insinuations of selfishness in all that we do towards 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 mar 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 subtlely selfishness insinuates, and makes a party, and biasseth us from the, holy ends, and the simplicity and sincerity, which we thought we had carefully maintained: so that we M 43 are studying, and preaching, and writing for ourselves, 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 Httic think how much of selfishness is in our desires. When we are doinsr justice, or showing 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 unify of the church against division; or, on the other hand, that we arc sincerely opposing pharisaical corruptions, and hypocrisy, and tyranny, 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 pvork.

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, or otherwise doing as they would not be done by, proportionably in their own case. He tells his two disciples, in such a case, “Yc know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”

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 a proud, carnal, selBsh spirit is in these desires! You would fain have me, and yourselves with me, to be openly vindicated by fire from heaven, and be so owned by God that all men may admire you, and you may exercise a dominion in the world; and you stick njt at the sufferings and ruin of these sinners, so you may attain your end: but I tell you, this selfish, cruel spirit, is unlike my Spirit, which inclineth to patience, forbearance, and compassion.’

“Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye.” “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?” “Why dost thou judge thy brother? and why dost thou set at nought thy brother? We shall all stand before the judgment-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 ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

So, also, men arc frequently mistaken, when they are zealously contending against their faithful pastors and their brethren, and vilifying others, and quenching love, and troubling the church, upon pre-M 2 teuce of greater knowledge or integrity in themselves, which is notably discovered, and vehemently pressed, by the apostle, James iii. 1. &c. where you may see how greatly the judgment of the Spirit of God, concerning our hearts, doth differ from men’s judgment 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 wasarthly, sensual, and devilish; 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 easy to be entreated,”

You see, then, how often and dangerously we are deceived by unacquaintedness with ourselves; and how selfish, carnal principles, ends, and motives, are often mixed in the actions which we think are the most excellent for wisdom, zeal, and piety. O therefore, what cause have we to study, and search, and watch such hearts, and not too boldly or carelessly to trust them!

And it is not only hypocrites that are subject to these deceitful 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, dolh show that there is more evil lurking in the heart than 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 fierce nature; and we can perceive that in the flame, which we perceive not in the spark. When a provocation can bring forth censorious, reviling, scornful words, it shows what before was latent in the heart.

10. We are very apt to think those affections to be purely spiritual, which, in the issue, appear to be mixed with carnality. Our very love to the assemblies and ordinances of worship, and to ministers, and other servants of the Lord; to books, and knowledge, are ordinarily mixed; and good and bad are strangely complicated, and twisted together in the same affections and works. And the love that beginneth in the Spirit, is apt to degenerate into carnal love, and to have too much respect to riches, or honour, or personage, or birth, or particular concerns of our own, and so it is corrupted, as wine that turneth into vinegar, before we are aware. And though still there be uprightness of heart, yet too much hypocrisy is joined with it, when it is little perceived or suspected.

And thus, in ten instances, I have showed you ’ how much the servants of Christ themselves, may be mistaken, or unacquainted with their hearts; and how the work of mortification is hindered by this covering of so many secret, unobserved sins. But I must here desire you to take heed of running into their extreme, who hereupon conclude, that their hearts, being so dark and so deceitful, are not at all to be understood; and, therefore, they are still so suspicious of the worst, as that they will not be persuaded of the grace that plainly worketh in them, and will condemn themselves for that which they are not guilty of, upon suspicion that they may be guilty, and not know it, and think that all the sin that they forbear, is but for want of a temptation; and that, if they had the same temptations, they should be as bad as any others.

I would entreat these persons to consider of these truths, for their better information:

1. Temptations do not only show the evil that is in the heart, but breed much more, and turn a spark into a flame. Adam was made a sinner by temptation.

2. There is no Christian so mortified, but hath such remnants of corruption and concupiscence, as would quickly bring forth heinous sins, if temptations beyond strength were let loose upon him. What need you more proof than the sad instances of Noah, Lot, David, Solomon, and Peter? It did not prove that any of these were graceless hypocrites before, because they fell so foully by temptations. And yet these objectors think they are graceless, because some strong temptations might make them fall.

3. Is it not God’s way of saving men, to give them so much inward grace as no temptation can overcome, but to preserve and bring them safe to heaven, by moral conduct, together with internal changes of their hearts. And, therefore, he keepeth men from sin, by keeping them from temptations that are too strong for them. All human strength is limited: and there are none on earth have such a measure of grace, but a temptation may be imagined so strong, as to overcome them. And if God should let Satan do his worst, there must be extraordinary assistances to preserve us, or we should fall. Bless God if he “lead you not into temptation, but deliver you from the evil,” by keeping you far enough from the snare. This is the way of preservation that we are taught to pray and hope for.

4. And, therefore, it is our own duty to keep as f;>r from temptations as we can; and if we have grace to avoid the sin by avoiding the temptation, we have such grace as God useth for the saving of his own; not that he hath saving grace that would live wickedly, if he were but tempted to it by those ordinary trials that human nature may expect; but the soul that preferreth God and glory before the pleasures of sin for a season, if it so continue, shall be saved, though possibly there might have been a temptation so strong as would have conquered the measure of grace that he had, if it had not been fortified with new supplies. Avoid temptation, that you may avoid the sin and punishment. Make not yourselves worse, on pretence of discovering how bad you are. All men are defectible, and capable of every sin, and must be saved from it by that grace which worketh on nature according to that nature, and prevaileth with reason by means agreeable to reason. If we think we are wicked, because we find that we have hearts that could be wicked, were they let alone, we may as well say, Adam was wicked in his innoccncy, much more David, Solomon, and Peter, before their falls. It is not he that can sin that shall be punished; but he that doth sin, or would sin if he could, and had rather have the sin for its pleasure, than be free from it, and be holy, in order to salvation, and the favour, and pleasing, and enjoying of God in endless glory.

5. Lastly, Let such persons try themselves by their conquest over the temptations which they have, and not by imaginary conflicts with all that they think may possibly at any time assault them. You have still the same flesh to deal with, and the same world and devil, that will not let you go to heaven without temptation. If the temptations which you have already, keep you not from preferring the love and fruition of God before the pleasure of the flesh; and a life of faith and holiness, before a life of infidelity, and impiety, and sensuality, so that you had rather live the former than the latter, I am sure, then, your temptations have not kept you from a state of grace. And you may be assured, that, for the time to come, if you watch and pray, you may escape the danger of temptation; and that God will increase your strength, if he increase your trials: be not secure, be you ever so holy. Think not that you have a nature that cannot sin, or cannot be tempted to T love of sin: but “let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

And thus I have showed you how self-ignorance hinderetb the conquest and mortifying of sin, even in the godly, and now shall add some further motives.

2. Not knowing ourselves, and the secret corruptions of our hearts, doth make sin surprise us the more dangerously, and break forth the more shamefully, and wound our consciences the more terribly. The unsuspected sin hath least opposition, and, when it breaks out, doth, like an unobserved fire, go far before we are awakened to quench it. And it confoundeth us witFi shame, to find ourselves so much worse than we imagined. It overwhelmeth the soul with despairing thoughts, to find itself so bad, when it thought it had been better. We are still ready to think whatever we discern that is good within us, that we may as well be mfstaken now as we were before. And thus, our present self-ignorance, when discovered, may hinder all the comforts of our lives.

3. Lastly, not knowing ourselves, and our particular sins, and wants, and weaknesses, doth keep us from a particular application of the promises, and from seeking those particular remedies from Christ which our case requireth; and so our mercies lie by neglected, while we need them, and do not understand our need.